Aussie electro weirdos the Avalancheswill be performing what I’m sure will be a fun set at the Pitchfork Music Festivalon July 16th. Known for their fun, quirky blend of house, big beat, and odd samples, they’re already electro powerhouses after releasing just two albums – Since I Left You and Wildflower. Those albums were sixteen years apart, by the way, and both are considered high watermarks in their genre. Since I Left You is widely thought of as one of the greatest Australian albums of all time and the best album of the year 2000.
It will be a fun, rare set from them. A friend of mine finalized his decision to attend Pitchfork after learning the Avalanches were playing there. Don’t miss them.
Chicago house music legend Derrick Carterwill be playing a set to a hometown crowd at the Pitchfork Music FestivalJuly 16th. Mr. Carter has moved the genre of house back into popularity again and built a big following in Europe. He uses samples well and always has the sickest beats. I’m sure he’ll put a bit of extra mustard and relish on his set in front of a lot of fellow Chicagoans.
Singer, songwriter, painter, visual artist, and textile designer Kilo Kishwill be playing an early set on July 16 at Chicago’s Pitchfork Music Festival. Ms. Kish has a neat vision of the world and witty lyrics that cut right to the heart of issues of gender, politics, art, race, and being a Millennial. She’s intriguing. That alone makes her set worth a look, as do her slick beats that blend trip hop with R&B.
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Electronic rock act S U R V I V E(who, for some unknown reason, tend to spell their name with a space between each letter) are best known for having some of the composers of the Stranger Things soundtrack as members. They create atmospheric and sometimes creepy instrumentals that instantly remind you of John Carpenter movie scores. I’m interested to see how a live performance sounds from them. They play Saturday afternoon at the Pitchfork Music Festival.
Keep your mind open.
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LCD Soundsystemshocked the world a bit when they announced they were done creating music a few years ago. They shocked the world again by announcing not only new shows, but also a new upcoming album this year. Among the new shows is a Friday night performance at the Pitchfork Music Festival.
I’ve wanted to see LCD Soundsystem for several years now. Their blend of electro, new wave, straight-up rock grooves, and biting, satirical lyrics are a great combination. I’ve been told by friends that they put on a great show, and even clips of them performing on late night talk shows are sharp. It should be a packed house (or rather, park) for them on July 14th.
Keep your mind open.
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Madame Gandhi is an electronic artist and feminist activist from Los Angeles. She’s played drums for M.I.A.and is an accomplished musician in her own right. She has a neat style that mixes electro with trip-hop that I really dig; and, go figure, her beats are sick. She opens the Pitchfork Music Festivalon July 14th with a 1:30pm set.
I had never attended an electronic-themed music festival before my wife and I went to Chicago’s Mamby on the Beach at Oakwood Beach this year. They’ve been running this festival for a few years now, and I’ve been meaning to get to it since it’s practically in my back yard. This was also the first time I’d been to a beach in a long while.
The weather was good, although the wind did whip across the beach and adjoining park now and then. This was especially cold on Sunday night, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
One of the first things we discovered upon entering the festival is that large bottles of sunscreen aren’t allowed inside it. “You can put some on before you come in,” said the man checking our bags. He let me keep a small keychain bottle of it, but they were apparently worried I might be smuggling drugs or booze in my new bottle of SPF 30 lotion. Heaven forbid I try to take sunscreen to a music festival on a beach.
We cheered up when we saw the “Silent Disco.” It’s a clever idea. Everyone gets a pair of wireless headphones and the DJ’s set is live streamed to them.
It looks weird at first, because it appears to be a bunch of people dancing to nothing.
It looks like a bunch of people suffering from dementia, but it’s actually a fun dance party.
I like the idea, as did a lot of others. I thought I might have to try this when I get my DJ skills up enough to do such a thing.
We arrived early enough on Saturday to catch most of Ravyn Lenae‘s set at the Beach Stage. It was an adjustment to go from our usual “dancing in clubs” to “dancing on sand,” but we managed well. Ms. Lenae had a fun time performing in front of a hometown crowd and put down a nice R&B set. Her cover of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” was delightful.
Rayvn Lenae
We headed to the MixMag Tent to see British DJ Will Clarkeafter that. He had a great set and seemed to be having a good time. It was inspiring for me, as my digital turntables have gone ignored for months while I’m finishing a book on disaster movies. I later Tweeted that his set inspired me to dust them off. He replied, “Do it.”
After a nice snack of Leghorn chicken sandwiches and free Vitamin Water, we went to see electro trio Marian Hillplay at the Beach Stage. They turned out to be the best band we saw all day on Saturday. They were funky, sexy, and even a bit trippy at times.
Marian Hill
Crowd favorites Miike Snowwere on after them, and they had a lot of us singing and jumping as the night got cooler and more people got higher. For the record, other people must have been allowed to bring in more than sunscreen because there was a lot of weed being blown at this festival, more than some of the Levitation festivals I’ve attended and those are psychedelic rock shows. We had to move to different places in the crowd multiple times to escape so much MJ smoke.
Miike Snow
We ended Saturday by checking out part of Tchami‘s “future house” set at the MixMag Tent. It was big, bright, and booming.
Tchami
It was also packed. The crowd couldn’t fit under the tent and extended well beyond it onto the beach.
So…much…house music!
We got back to our Air BNB place tired, sandy, and a bit sunburned, but ready for Sunday. We spent most of Sunday morning and early afternoon at Chicago’s Gay Pride Parade with friends, but then headed back to the beach in time to see STRFKRplay a fun set of dance rock that came complete with dancing and crowd-surfing astronauts.
STRFKR
We had time for some steamed chicken buns and turducken sausages before moving to the Park Stage for the first time all weekend to see Thundercat play a wild jazz fusion set that left some people confused and others (like me) wowed by the virtuosity of it.
Thundercat on the loose!
We zipped back to the Beach Stage to see Cut Copy, who delivered the best rock set of the whole weekend. They came to kick ass and apply sunscreen, but they were denied the sunscreen. The whole crowd was bumping, and beach balls and rolls of toilet paper (“I feel bad for anyone who ends up sad in one of the port-a-potties,” said my wife) flew in every direction.
Cut Copy
We ended the night, and the festival, with Flying Lotus. I’d been keen on seeing him for a while, and it was worth the wait. The sun had set and the temperature had dropped at least ten degrees from the start of the festival into the low 60’s by the time he started his set. Mandy was wrapped in a blanket and a lot of us were huddled in the crowd like penguins trying to stay warm off each other’s body heat.
It was a great set, full of stunning 3-D visuals and great mixes of both dance tracks and deep trip-hop stuff. One beautiful moment was when he mixed in Angelo Badalamenti’s theme to Twin Peaks.
Is this Laura Palmer’s eye?
The whole set was a mind trip. I wish I would’ve had 3-D glasses, but when I mentioned to a guy behind me how the visuals were 3-D he said something along the lines of, “I’m glad I’m not seeing it in 3-D. That would probably freak me out.”
It was a good time. Mandy summed up a lot of the crowd well. “It looks like a lot of people missing Greek culture over summer,” she said. Don’t get me wrong. We didn’t run into any douchebags. We did bump into a lot of trashed people, however. One woman was sobbing as we all left the venue. I stopped to make sure she was okay. She hugged me, told me I was “a good soul,” and then disappeared into the crowd.
Will we go back? We might, if the dates work out and the lineup is good. I sure wouldn’t turn down a press pass!
Steven Ellison, otherwise known as Flying Lotus, is probably the biggest name in psychedelic electronica right now. His sets combine jazz, trance, house, soul, and trip hop with psychedelic electro jams. I wanted to see him at Levitation Austin last year, but the festival was cancelled due to bad weather and I couldn’t get tickets to his rescheduled set. He recently announced that he’s performing a 3-D show, so that should be amazing. He’s also a close friend of Thundercat, so I think the two of them grooving together is a certainty.
Keep your mind open.
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Thanks to everyone who tuned in for my WSND show last night and the big Mamby on the Beach preview. That went longer than I’d planned, so I didn’t get to the Mondo Moment or Holiday Music segments. They’ll be back either next week or the week after that. We didn’t have a winner in First and Foremost either, so that means I get to keep another cover song in my back pocket for future use.
Australia’s Cut Copywill bring their electro-pop to Chicago’s Mamby on the Beachfestival June 25th. What started as a home recording project in 2001 has bloomed into a four-man band within the last sixteen years. I’m hoping they’ll play a lot of tracks off their upcoming (and as yet unnamed) album. It would be a delight to hear them before a good chunk of the world.
Keep your mind open.
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