Pitchfork Festival '07

I have no choice but to deem this year's festival a success. It's hard to not consider it a success when you have the chance to see so many great bands over the span of two days for just $35. I'm going to keep this short, because there has already been a ton of coverage of this festival on other blogs. I'll just tell you my brief opinions/thoughts, and you can ask me questions if there's something else you want to know.

My favorite acts...

1. Battles (they reproduced the sound from Mirrored incredibly well in a live setting. great energy. crowd loved them.)

2. Dan Deacon (his set was all about dancing and having a good time, all while trying to avoid crowd surfers falling on your head from behind and/or falling down and being trampled to death. his set was cut short because the crowd was getting too out of control.)

3. Menomena (musically, these guys were better than Dan Deacon. they played a really solid set, and the reminded me of how awesome Friend and Foe is. i've been listening to it a lot again since the festival ended.)

4. Stephen Malkmus (i was really excited for his set. he was first or second for my most anticipated acts to see going into the festival, next to Battles. i did enjoy his set, but it wasn't really what i was expecting. he played a solo set, and he played a fair amount of Pavement songs. unfortunately for me, i'm not that familiar with Pavement. it's really a shame, so i'm working on changing that in the coming weeks.


I don't feel the need to rank any more of the bands from the festival, as they were all pretty much on par with each other, from the shows that I actually caught. I felt like I missed a lot of potentially great acts, however.

I wanted to see, but didn't see: Of Montreal, The New Pornographers, Cat Power, Clipse Mastodon

Of those four bands, I'm actually most upset that I missed Of Montreal, and I've seen them live more than any other band. I watched their set from a distance, and it was spectacular. I know what it's like to be up front for an Of Montreal show, and it's one of the greatest things in the world. Fortunately for me, I might be catching them in October in Minneapolis (they announced a fall tour).

Overall, Pitchfork was a great time. The festival is so laid back that it's hard to not enjoy it, even if you're not there to watch bands play.

p.s. I didn't mention the sound problems (there were plenty of them), and I hope Pitchfork gets their crap together before next year. The problems didn't stop me from having fun, but minor annoyances like these can certainly hurt the festival in the long run.

I <3 Animal Collective

Animal Collective's new album, Strawberry Jam, is due out this September, but as you know, album release dates mean nothing on the internet. This quickly became one of my most highly anticipated albums this year, once I found out that they were releasing an album this year.

Somehow, this album managed to surpass my expectations. There are a handful of 5-star songs here, and I just can't drag myself away from listening to this for very long. I've been listening to it as often as five times a day. It's crazy! This will definitely give Of Montreal a run for my favorite album this year. If I ultimately decide that it's not my favorite album this year, then I would be shocked and amazed if it drops any further than third place on my list. I just can't see it happening.

download "For Reverend Green"

video of "Fireworks" on youtube

those are just a couple of the 5-star songs.

Bears - "You Can Tell"

Bears released an extremely solid album last year, entitled, simply, 'Bears'. They seemingly came out of nowhere and won over a lot of new fans. On album, you're hearing the work of two guys, crafting a collection of pop music that's oh-so-pleasing to the ears.

"You Can Tell" is a song from their fairly new EP 'Shortest Day of the Year'(released in early April of this year). It's actually my favorite song that I've heard from the band thus far.
The lyrics are pretty straightforward:

"Adjusting to having to think about more than myself is not so simple for me and I know you can tell"

That's the chorus, and it really is the base for the whole song, lyrically. It's about someone's hardships with his or her girlfriend or boyfriend. What made me fall in love with it is the sincerity in the vocals, and that's hard to describe in words.

download "You Can Tell"

visit Bears' website