Critiques

5. Future Rock @ Abbey Pub (10/6)
4. Battles @ Metro (11/8)
3. The Disco Biscuits @ Canopy Club [Urbana, IL] (10/19)
2. Daft Punk @ Lollapalooza (8/3)
1. Muse @ Lollapalooza (8/4)

Honorable mention:

The Presets @ Metro (3/24)
Cornelius @ Park West (5/7)
Arcade Fire @ Chicago Theatre (5/18)
Black Moth Super Rainbow @ Schubas (6/23)
of Montreal @ Pitchfork (7/15)
Silversun Pickups @ Lollapalooza (8/3)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs @ Lollapalooza (8/4)
Girl Talk @ Camp Bisco [Mariaville, NY] (8/17)
Future Rock @ Kinetic Playground (12/31)

(all shows in Chicago unless otherwise noted)

After a year plus of being annoyed by classical radio with brief interludes of XRT, I have a day job where there's something resembling consensus on office music, and it's acceptable to wear headphones. Even while I was (briefly) freelancing, I was listening to my music out loud, so I could hear what Lux was up to. I forgot how much headphones change the space that you work in. I've always had "work music", stuff that I work better too. I'm remembering what it's like to just put on headphones, and lose all sense of time and just focus.

I bought Circa Survive's On Letting Go when they released it DRM-Free and launched a wordpress-powered blog, but nothing about it immediately grabbed me. It's too delicate to be really appreciated in the car or on the El. As work music, it's brilliant. Progressive, dense, urgent: all the things that keep me focused and undisctracted. Travel Hymn is so perfect: "...in this particular place, time seems to disappear"

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Fri 13 Jul – Pitchfork Music Festival

My most recent adventure included a healthy seven and one-half hour drive to Dekalb, Illinois to visit a friend and ultimately frequent Chicago for a weekend music festival they were throwing. By my calculations, the tolls alone ran me $17.70 one-way. So where was this money spent? Well, I felt comfortable accelerating at a breakneck speed of 80mph most of the way (apart from work zones and heavy traffic). One last note before I begin the musical assessments: Chicago is the antithesis of ultra-clean Denver, Colorado. I guess I'd live there if I had to since it is a booming center of the States, but I prefer Colorado.

Why You Should or Should Have Went to Pitchfork Music Festival:

1) Cheap water and Fuze (one dollar each). Average priced food vendors. Good beer and several shows would hand out water bottles before an act went on.

2) Friendly fellows everywhere you go. I even engaged in what turned out to be one of the nerdiest conversations prior to Junior Boys hitting the stage. …

Fri 13 Jul – Pitchfork Music Festival

Little late, but dig my impressions at my blog.

Fri 13 Jul – Pitchfork Music Festival

Not much of a post, but it's the only one i've got
exclusively about Mastodon, Voxtrot, and Menomena.

Fri 13 Jul – Pitchfork Music Festival

Sunday Review can be found here:
http://fightingtheyouth.blogspot.com/2007/07/pitchfork-music-festival-2007-sunday.html

Fri 13 Jul – Pitchfork Music Festival
As a sidenote, I'm loving all of the reviews where people are angsting about people they saw/heard/smelled at the festival. I actually thought everyone was way cool, but that's compared to Bonnaroo, 311 and Dave Matthews shows I've been to. Anyway, I had a great time at this fest. I came with pretty low expectations and they were pretty much trounced.

Friday actually 00:15 Saturday
The Blue Line trains didn't run at all between Western and some other stop the whole weekend save for my trip in Friday night. So there was much transferring to be done and I got pretty comfortable with the CTA.

Nothing really happened for me at Union Park tonight, I think I heard SY playing Silver Rocket . The beer tickets were gone so I checked vendors, bought some stuff from Absolutely Kosher guys, and walked off. Mr. Oizo was supposed to be playing Smartbar but had flight troubles so that was also a no-go for me.

Saturday
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There isn't a whole lot to be said about The Twilight Sad this past Friday on the Terrace, but it wasn't a bad time, albeit less than an hour of music. I've never really gotten in to the whole shoegaze thing, but these guys are warming me up to it, especially with the live show. The guitar was noisy and droning, the bass just kicked back, and the vocals were often lost under the huge drums.

Maybe I got caught up in the gaze and missed it, but did they not play Cold Days from the Birdhouse? I guess they were saving the special treat for all you Pitchfork Fest-goers. I'm pretty sure this show on the Terrace was just a “hey, since we're in the area” warm-up for the festival anyway.

James Graham, the singer, spent most of the show with his back to the crowd or hanging his head. He'd occasionally work up the energy to properly belt out the loud lines. When the young woman with a camera showed up at the stage, however, he promptly turned 90 degrees towards her and assumed his best shoegaze-rock-pose.
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