In line with the eXtremely comprehensive coverage you’ve come to expect from the NonAlignment Pact, I present to you yet another view of the Pitchfork Music Festival 2008 in Chicago, ILL.

Friday

After meeting a friend for dinner, I walked for several minutes from “the crotch” to get to Ashland street, where I could catch a bus down to the festival. Just as I got there, the bus was taking off. I ran down the street several blocks to catch it, but after another attempt was overwhelmed by its superior diesel technology. My method of converting common organic foodstuffs to energy once seemed so promising. Anyway, continued simultaneously walking and looking back for a bus. Finally another bus came. I let an old man on first, but the driver would not let me on, citing its packed condition and that another bus was “right behind”. Hmm, this illusory third bus was nowhere to be seen. Kept walking and it of course eventually passed me by. Later an express bus passed without stopping. Kept walking and finally was able to board a bus and pay my $2. Six short blocks later we were at the festival site. Shoulda just walked the two whole miles and saved my currencies.

Got there a bit late, but walked in as Mission of Burma was starting “Vs.”. Luckily they had played a couple non-album tracks first. This was my third time seeing the Burma and, as usual, they did not disappoint. This time, I positioned myself on the left, for better viewing of Roger Miller’s compelling fretwork. His style is really fascinating to me, though or perhaps because I don’t entirely understand what he’s doing.

Next up, on the same stage, was Sebadoh. I saw them once before, in London in 1995. I think I eventually walked out because I was tired and they were kinda boring. But this time, playing “Bubble and Scrape”, they were actually pretty awesome. Particularly when Lou Barlow was rocking out on his Gretsch Duo Jet, they sounded like a band on top of their game. Unfortunately, due to the sequencing of the album, after a few songs, they had to change instruments after practically every song, which eventually became tiresome. Also, it quickly became evident that I barely remembered any songs from the album. Still, an enjoyable set.

The Bomb Squad delivered some nice dubby heavy bass instrumental stuff for us before P-E hit the stage. This was unfortunately combined with the whole hip-hop you’re not ready for the main act, put your hands in the air, get excited thing. Sorry, I don’t do excitement, particularly after running/walking a couple miles in 70% humidity after a night of 3 hours sleep. Public Enemy were pretty great, although I was annoyed by the backing vocal tracks that seemed to run for most of the songs, particularly for Flavor Flav’s vocals, which came in handy when he didn’t show up for the first song. It was fairly grating during some of the songs, though, listening to him in real time combined with his canned track, giving a strange hollow flanger type effect. Sometimes you gotta love indie crowds, particularly when they’re booing Flav’s shameless promotion of his reality TV dreck. Flav amusingly retorted to the booing, “What are you, fake-ass ghosts?”. After finishing the album, they played a couple hits, then their first single, then I don’t remember what, because they kept going and going and going, past the park curfew. I was exhausted and had to sit down.

After the show, we tried to hit an after party at the Hideout, but luckily it was sold out (wasn’t fancying more hours of standing in crowds at that point), so we hit the Hotti Biscotti for a show by Wednesday-pals Grun-Tu-Molani. They were quite nice, playing some of that jazz stuff the kids are into these days. It occurred to me that it would be very strange for them to be from the SF Bay Area. Perhaps it’s due to the crowd I hang with, but everything here seems relentlessly experimental. Trying to build on any type of jazz earlier than free jazz just doesn’t seem to occur here; NYC & Chicago seem to have a corner on that market.

Saturday

Got there a little bit late, but in time to see part of A Hawk and a Hacksaw. Had never heard them before (a common theme for me for this day of Pitchfork), but they sounded interesting, featuring the drummer from Neutral Milk Hotel and a chick on violin, who moved from Albuquerque to Budapest inspired by Balkan and Gypsy music. Good stuff.

Over to the other stage to catch Caribou. Saw them before in SF, but they may have been even better here in the daylight with no visuals.

I was new to the Fleet Foxes, and quickly dubbed them “vest-core” for their wearing of vests and featuring of old timey vocal harmony. Stayed for a couple tunes before heading over to see…

The Fuck Buttons on the small stage. If you were standing behind and to the side of me, by my favorite tree, it might look a little something like this. (St. Ignatius happened across this on the interwebs.) They were pretty cool, jamming out like madmen on their electro toys.

Vampire Weekend were pretty cool, if a little limp-wristed. Haven’t listened to them too much, but I thought it was good stuff. Resist the urge to bash based on the hype.

Had seen !!! before in SF, and they had converted me from a doubting Conor. Listened to their first few tunes here, and it was pretty okay, nothing amazing, but got turned off when they brought out a diva to sing along. Wandered off, may have gotten my pad thai on at this point, not sure, then checked out…

Extra Golden (“from America & Kenya”) for a bit. Pretty good, although I think I simultaneously dig and am somewhat annoyed by high life music, kinda like my reaction to ska.

Atlas Sound, the solo project of Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox, was pretty cool. He played guitar and sang, manipulating and sampling the sound with various gizmos. He’s obviously into some of the same stuff I really dig, as at certain points it almost sounded like he was sampling my favorite records. One point of contention though is that some of the sounds did seem previously sampled and prepared, rather than done on the fly, which detracts from the live experience somewhat.

Stayed at Atlas Sound too long, cuz I only caught the last song from Jarvis Cocker. Have never really gotten into Pulp so wasn’t as super excited as many were about seeing him. Really should have made more of an effort to see more of the Pulp-man’s set, though, cuz I heard later that it was pretty great. The last song was inexplicably some sort of house number, apparently a tribute to Chicago’s role in the history of music.

No Age came highly recommended as a sort of garage rocking My Bloody Valentine. That sort of description is hard to live up to, however, so while I dug them I wasn’t exactly blown away.

Animal Collective is another of those groups I never quite get around to listening to very much, although luckily I did hear their latest, “Strawberry Jam”, prior to my attendance. It never ceases to amaze me that a band this experimental can become so popular. Anyway, although I was sitting on the lawn by this point, I enjoyed their set, which featured some mighty bass tones among other things.

Sunday

Was there in time to see Mahjongg on the small stage, but they did not appear. MC Tim Tuten came out to make an announcement, but was unamplified, so no idea what he said.

Wandered off to see Times New Viking, scuzz rockers from Columbus. Infectiously fun, if not particularly groundbreaking.

Wandered back, and Mahjongg were finally playing. Just saw a bit before decamping for…

Dirty Projectors. Hadn’t really heard them before, other than as the band that covered Black Flag, but was pretty blown away. Got up a bit closer to get a better look at the comely lasses on either side of the stage. Interesting spidery guitar work, front-man that reminded me a bit of David Byrne, and idiosyncratic/pretty vocal harmonizing.

Waited until Dirty Projectors finished to make my way to the other stage for Boris, so didn’t have great pole position. Boris played some fun high energy music, but it was a bit too much of aimless metal jamming for my taste. Didn’t really hear any songs there, and had been hoping for more of their drone/psych type sound. But the drummer in particular made it a fun show, continually standing up and circularly pointing at the crowd with his drum stick, to much applause. Eventually, he jumped into the crowd for a bit of crowd surfing. Returning to the stage, the power had cut out, and the drummer apologetically mumbled something like, “sorry, they don’t have enough power for us”.

On the small stage, saw High Places. I’d seen them before right here in Oakland, and had been impressed by their dancey take on table-core, along with their high comely quotient. Didn’t translate quite as well to a festival environment, but pleasant enough.

Stayed for Health (I’m sorry, but I refuse to capitalize their name), a Dougfave. Initially was annoyed by their utter lack of melody, but eventually came around to their intense rhythmic attack.

Kept myself parked at the small stage for King Khan & The Shrines, of which I had zero prior knowledge, but which turned out to be a personal festival highlight. Felt appropriate seeing them in Chicago, cuz they had a bit of a Blues Brothers vibe, if the brothers blue had been fronted by an overweight Indian dude in his underwear and Sun Ra gear who pledged to “bring back fingerbanging in 2008″.

By the time I walked over to see Les Savy Fav, frontdude was in his leotard and covered in a brown substance, which dd thankfully confirmed was mud. They’re always fun.

Saw the Dodos do some of their acoustic rocking. Had never heard of them before, but apparently they’re local (SF). Seemed to wow my compadres, and I guess I was somewhat impressed, but seemed a bit lacking in the memorable tuneage dept. Or perhaps it’s just not my thang. I should probably listen to some mp3s before passing judgment. Wandered off to get my pad thai on.

Sat on the ground with St. Ignatius and St. Wednesday, waiting for Spiritualized. They were quite good, although at one point Mr. Spaceman knocked over his mic stand with his guitar for no apparent reason. During their last song, after he had finished singing, he repeated the gesture, then played a bit longer before tossing his guitar at the drum set. At Pitchfork, this type of behavior seemed really out of place. Anyway, a majestic set nonetheless, and the light was perfect.

Was a treat to see Dinosaur Jr. in its original lineup. J. Mascis had three (!) full stacks behind him, along with a Fender combo to his side. He sounded huge, but drown out the bass and some of the vocals. Strangely, his Jazzmaster had black pickups. To the bemusement of the crowd, he pretty much only ever said words to the effect of “thanks a lot, guys” in response to our applause.

I have been remiss in getting around to listening to Spoon’s recent output, which may at least partially account for why I haven’t been particularly impressed the past couple times I’ve seen them. This time though they seemed fresher and more interesting, with odd delay effects on the ends of vocal lines.

And there ya go. BTW, if you hadn’t already noticed, click on the band names for fairly high quality video from Pitchfork.tv, or lower quality camera vids off YouTube.