Pitchfork Music Festival: Day 1

We got to the park about a half an hour before the gates opened and found a pretty long line. The gates didn't end up opening until about 5:30pm, but as soon as they did, you could see kids going through the gate and then running as fast as they could to go get a close spot. The security checkpoint at the entrance was very slack and the entire line probably got through the gate in 1o minutes. We decided to setup close at the stage for GZA and Sonic Youth, and got a really good spot. I did a little exploring and was very impressed with the music shop area and the $1 beverages. We listened to Slint do Spiderland from far away and it was hard to hear most of it, but what I could hear sounded good (We also listened to them sound check a lot of it while waiting outside in line). Shortly afterwards, The GZA and his entourage took the stage we were at and did what i believe was most of Liquid Swords. Unfortunately, none of the real Wu-Tang members showed up as The Genius explained he was skipping a Wu-Tang Clan show in Amsterdam to be here, but Cappadonna and the other guys with him i didn't recognize did a good job backing him up.

After that it was time for Sonic Youth to do Daydream Nation. As soon as the show began, the crowd went nuts, and not necessarily in a good way. There were so many people pushing and trying to get up front and it was so tightly packed that the entire show would be a battle of endurance and will to survive. I don't know if it had to do with the amount of young kids, or the low priced tickets allowed too many scrubs in, or maybe just the ultra-hipster pitchfork crowd, but it was pretty annoying to me (I've decided to coin a new term for these douche bags with no concert etiquette; Hipsters going through puberty I will now refer to as "Pubesters"). On the flip side though, that was the best Sonic Youth show I have ever seen. They did Daydream Nation so well, and added to and improved almost every song, all I could keep thinking was, there is no other band in the world that could play an album they wrote almost 20 years before and make it so amazing to listen to and seem so relevant. They jammed out parts of each song and every single one blew my mind. After doing the album, they came out with Mark Ibold of Pavement and played three songs from Rather Ripped as the encore. Listening to "Incinerate", "Reena", and "Jams Run Free" in the context of just listening to Daydream Nation pretty much solidified in my mind that Sonic Youth is probably the greatest band to exist in the history of electric guitar music on every level with the exception of maybe The Beatles. I know that may seem a little too much to say, but there is no band ever that has been able to exist 25 years without breaking up, and been able to write some of the best albums and put on some of the best shows of the time that far into their career. These guys are just pure musicians that have never let anything keep them from making the best music of several generations and Pitchfork and most of the acts there would probably never even exist without them. We finished the night off drinking pitchers of Ohmpark's favourite beer, Fat Tire, and it would be a perfect end to an amazing day in the Windy City.

Friday Free-Style

There's a whole bunch of stuff going on in Atlanta this weekend. The Inman Park Festival is always a good time. I'll definitely be checking out the Space Rock Con 2007. Silent Kids, The Preakness, and Mary O. Harrison at Lenny's will be a great Friday night show. No matter what you do this weekend, make sure to record the Henry Rollins Show on IFC tonight because The Mars Volta will be performing some kick ass stuff you can check out here. In fact, you should watch this amazing performance in its 47 minute entirety, Live At the Lowlands (aka one of the best DVD Bootlegs I Own):



Seriously, if you didn't watch that TMV video, you are missing out.

Pitchfork Fest, aka the Best American Festival of the Year, just added Califone, The Sea And Cake, Yoko Ono, and some bands i don't recognize. Chicago gets some killer fests.

The awesome Coachella Festival kicks off today. I wish I could have gone because the two I went to before were amazing. The hotel in the desert that I paid to stay in before tickets sold out keeps calling me and it's annoying. I'll be checking out the webcast as you should. I've watched several fests on webcast and they are pretty cool. Remember when you're wasted late night, go to your computer and watch Sonic Youth and Bjork. You won't be disappointed.

If you want to know the latest in American festival news, Live Music Blog has you covered.

The Raconteurs are making another album.

Here's a teaser for the Marc Benevento (of the Benevento-Russo Duo) album of his month long run at New York City's Tonic featuring a plethora of other great artists. Check it:



May 8th is Grateful Dead Day.

Creative Loafing talks about "Art Mondays" at Apache Cafe.

You can stream the new Dntel album at here.

Here's a really cool top 25 all-time hip-hop records list. Outkast's ATLiens is number one on it. No surprise. Watch why:





Spinal Tap is getting in on the reunion craze.

Dave Grohl talks about the new Foo Fighters album.

Snoop Dogg has been banned from Australia.

Willie Nelson avoided jailtime from his marijuana charge.

Ween is finishing up a new album.

VBS has a some great videos documenting Norgwegian Black Metal.

Here's Amy Winehouse on the Tonight Show this week:



Here's Regina Spektor on the Late Show last Friday:



I'll leave you today with this portion of the movie Coffee & Cigarettes featuring RZA, GZA, and Bill Murray. I love this:



Beware Of That Serious Delirium

Albums I Love: Liquid Swords

Yesterday Pitchfork announced that in addition to Sonic Youth perfroming Daydream Nation at Pitchfork Fest, Slint will be doing their Spiderland and the GZA will be doing Liquid Swords. I'm a Big Wu-tang Clan fan and this is an amazing hip-hop album. The entire clan shows up for this, like most of the '90s solo Wu-Tang stuff, and I'm curious as to how many of the clan will be backing "The Genius" for this special show. If you're not familiar with this record, it is a must have so check it out:

• Living In The World Today
• 4th Chamber
  

Cold World:



I Gotcha Back:



You need to get to Chicago in July:

Friday, July 13:

Sonic Youth perform Daydream Nation
GZA/Genius performs Liquid Swords
Slint perform Spiderland

Saturday, July 14:

Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues (w/members of Dirty Three, the Delta 72 & JSBX)
Clipse
Iron and Wine
Girl Talk
Grizzly Bear
Battles
Fujiya & Miyagi
Oxford Collapse
Dan Deacon
Beach House
Professor Murder
Ken Vandermark's Powerhouse Sound

Sunday, July 15:

New Pornographers
Stephen Malkmus
De La Soul
Of Montreal
Jamie Lidell
Menomena
Klaxons
The Ponys
Deerhunter
Craig Taborn's Junk Magic

Tickets are on sale now at Ticketweb. Three-day passes cost $50, Friday night costs $15, Saturday and Sunday individual passes cost $25, and a Saturday/Sunday pass costs $35.