Pitchfork Music Festival 2012 - Saturday

Decided  to head to Pitchfork music festival this year for a day as I'm not made of money and hotels cost too much. Out of the three days I decided to go on Saturday which included some very  good artists including Flying Lotus, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Wild Flag, etc.

I arrived into rainy Chicago at around 2pm which meant I missed out on Cloud Nothings who I was really looking forward to seeing. Their new album is amazing and I really wanted to see them live.

Alas, I got there just as Atlas Sound was starting his set. Rain pored down as he played and it seemed that from where I was standing the crowd was more interested in staying dry than the music. However, I really enjoyed his set, and his stories that he would tell between songs.

Next I headed over to Youth Lagoon. I feel his set is intended for small venues, not festivals. That being said I still like his music, and the crowd took his relaxing set as a time to pull out some of their weed and start smoking. Gave the field a very relaxed feel.

As soon as Youth Lagoon ended I ran over to catch as much of Flying Lotus as I could. When I got there it seemed like a war zone with the biggest crowd so far that day while everyone was jumping up and down to the music. Getting close to the stage was impossible so I watched from afar. As soon as he started playing the Beastie Boy's Intergalactic the crowd went nuts.

Wild Flag were everything I had hoped. Entertaining to watch, your eyes don't leave the stage. You want to see what they're doing while they're playing.

After that I headed over to see Sleigh Bells. I had heard a lot of confusing things about their live show. Some people hate it, some like it. I actually liked it considering all the negative stuff I had heard about their live shows in the beginning. Very energetic set. However, time was an issue for me as I really wanted to head over to see Chromatics, so I stuck around for most of their set and left about 10 minutes after Chromatics was supposed to have started.

As soon as I arrived to Chromatics (late) Schoolboy Q was just getting off the stage. After that we waited for about 30 minutes due to technical difficulties that Chromatics were having. By the time they started a lot of people had left and they only had a few minutes to get in  a few songs. They sounded great, and I can only imagine how great a full set would have been like.

After they were done, I went over to catch Hot Chip. At that point I was so tired that I truthfully did not really enjoy the set as much.

Due to the fact that I took a bus into Chicago, I had to leave before either Grimes and Godspeed could play in order to catch my bus. But from what I've heard, Godspeed killed it.

Crystal Castles - Plague

New Crystal Castles song out today. I imagine it will be included in their upcoming album which comes out sometime this year.
Crystal Castles - Plague

DIIV "Doused" Great Track

DIIV "Doused" by capturedtracks

St. Vincent at the Deluxe at Old National Centre

First post in quite a while. Sorry if you've been on here and have only been seeing old stuff, but Physics can take up your entire life. Went to the St. Vincent show last night. It was a brand new experience for me for the most part. When I first heard about the St. Vincent show a few months ago, I was interested but I did not expect to go as the venue usually charges up the ass on ticket fees through Ticketmaster. I also believed that she would play Lollapalooza anyway so I wasn't too worried. Well the line-up for both Pitchfork and Lollapalooza came out and no St. Vincent anywhere on them. I really liked Strange Mercy last year and I increasingly loved the album the more I hear it, now I really wanted to see her, so I looked around and found out that my local record stores sell tickets for certain concerts (St. Vincent among them) for no fee. What would have been an expensive show came out at a mere $18.

Prior to the show last night, openers Shearwater played an in-store at Luna Music in Indianapolis which I also went to see, and while only two of their guys were playing, it sounded great and got me ready for their full set later that night.

So when I saw them again later that night, I was very impressed. I had not really heard this band that often before and didn't know what to expect with a full band, but I was very impressed.

Then St. Vincent's turn came. I got a good look at the setlist prior to the show as well as her setup.

As soon as Annie began, her skill with the guitar became apparent, the way she adjusted herself and the sound.    She began looking a little uncomfortable but she adjusted quickly and put up a great show. As in her previous shows, she told a small synopsis of her music video for 'Cruel', and the story of how she got the idea for 'Northern Lights.' She then played a cover of Pop Group's 'She Is Beyond Good and Evil' which sounded great and got us ready for the mayhem that ensued when she came down on to the crowd and started a mosh pit for Krokodil. Now I had been in a sort of mosh pit before for The Strokes but when that happened I was mostly just trying not to fall and get killed, however last night I was full on participating and not giving a care in the world whether I fell or not. Having been in the front row during the show, I was in perfect position to mosh right next to Annie. After the mayhem, they left and came back to play the encore which ended perfectly with 'Your Lips are Red.' After the show I realized that my sunglasses which had been in my pocket were not there anymore and instead found half of them about 20 feet away.

So the Super Bowl Was At Indy a Couple of Weeks Ago...

And I took some photos of some of the stuff that went down that week. There were free concerts of all sorts going on, tons of people pushing around. Yep.

Big roman numeral letters for the Super Bowl 

Ice sculptures with the two teams that were playing 

 Tons of bros, former players, and TV people for ESPN

 Shaq during the taping of a TV show

Moron getting stuck in the zip-line attraction. You're supposed to go fast, not granny style. 

Blurry night picture the weekend before the Super Bowl. Not too many people and relaxed. 

BOOM Super Bowl weekend and the whole street is super packed and nobody can move.

Fleet Foxes Feeling the Changes

Fleet Foxes drummer J. Tillman has decided to quit Fleet Foxes and their show in Tokyo will be their final one with Tillman. We wish him luck. Only wish Fleet Foxes would have visited my city before he left. Now I'll never get to hear the "original lineup." I hate it when that shit happens.

 Fleet Foxes - Montezuma by gypsysphere 

Coachella 2012

So I'm a bit late to this party but it's worth mentioning how awesome it is this year. I immediately noticed Radiohead which confirmed the rumors and I hope that they do some more festivals in America this year, specifically Lolla. The Black Keys headlining makes sense. And Snoop Dogg with Dr. Dre should be good. But usually it is the mid-tier bands that makes Coachella the best of the big festivals in America in my opinion and this year did not disappoint. Mazzy Star, M83, Cat Power, Jeff Mangum, etc. All around a good way to start 2012! Yay too bad California is too far away so I can't go. Here's the rest of the line up (click to make it bigger):

And here's some streams of some of the artists playing:

  Mazzy Star - Roseblood by tucce


  Intro (ft Zola Jesus) by M83

  The Weeknd - Initiation by The_Weeknd

  New Noise - Refused by jumaali

  Araab Muzik Streetz Tonight by araabMUZIK

Bat For Lashes - A Forest (For Invisible Children)

 BAT FOR LASHES- A Forest by manimal vinyl

Happy In the New Year

Good luck in 2012 and let's hope it doesn't suck as much ass as 2011