pitchforkPitchfork Music Festival celebrates it’s fifth anniversary at Chicago’s Union Park this year beginning on Friday, July 16, through Sunday, July 18.

UPDATE: Additional acts for Pitchfork Festival 2010 were announced this morning. The updated lineup includes Broken Social Scene and El-P who will both join Modest Mouse on Friday. Animal Collective member Panda Bear, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Bear in Heaven, Titus Andronicus, Freddie Gibbs, Dâm-Funk, and local favorites The Smith Westerns will appear alongside LCD Soundsystem on Saturday night. Finally, Girls, and local psych-rockers Cave and Allá will play on Sunday before the highly anticipated Pavement performance. I have to say, pretty cool of Pitchfork to add some local fair to the mix – something that Lollapalooza severely lacks. Also, just a reminder, three-day passes are sold out, leaving only single day passes available. More on that and the entire current festival lineup after the jump.

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By Richard Giraldi  \  6 comments

pfmf452jpgAs promised, Pitchfork Music Festival have announced the first round or artists confirmed for this years’ festival, which will be held from July 16 – 18 at Chicago’s Union Park.

Modest Mouse has been confirmed for Friday, July 16. LCD Soundsystem and Raekwon will perform on Saturday, July 17. Finally, Sunday, July 18, offers the most confirmed acts with St. Vincent, Lightning Bolt, Sleigh Bells, Here We Go Magic, Cass McCombs and the highly rumored and anticipated Pavement reunion.

Tickets go on sale at 12 noon CST today at $40 for a single day pass and $90 for a three day pass. Purchase tickets at Ticketweb.com.

By Richard Giraldi  \  4 comments

desktop7Rumors — it’s not just a Fleetwood Mac album. For all those Chicagoans who have been desperate for news stating when the newly reunited Pavement will grace the Windy City, you’ll have to keep waiting.

Although unofficially, it looks as though there’s a good chance Pavement will headline the 2010 installment of the Pitchfork Music Festival, according to an interview Pavement drummer Bob Nastanovich gave to his hometown paper, the Louisville Courier-Journal.

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By Audrey Leon  \  comments

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I know what you’re thinking. “Uh, wasn’t PItchfork like a week ago?” Why, yes. Yes, it was. Better late than never, I suppose.

We went ahead and posted a review of the main event, The Flaming Lips, which you can read here. But now we’ve compiled a number of contributor reviews for a better overall look at last weekend’s highlight performances, which you can read after the jump…

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By Richard Giraldi  \  comments
Photo credit: Oscar Lopez/For the Sun-Times

Photo credit: Oscar Lopez/For the Sun-Times

Sunday night in Union Park never looked quite like this. Large red and yellow balloons floated across a crowd of almost 20,000, while a man in a giant rubber ball rolled across the sea of humanity as confetti rained down from the sky.

The Flaming Lips brought their brand of psychedelic rock to Chicago’s Union Park Sunday evening to close out the 2009 edition of the Pitchfork Music Festival, and spared no expense in creating a spectacle. But as entertaining a live act The Flaming Lips are, many in attendance hoped to hear a Lips set list unlike any other.

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By Richard Giraldi  \  3 comments

pitchfork-festAlright, a quick observation and then onto the twitter feed.

This year’s P4K Music Festival is crowded. Really, really crowded. There is at least a twenty minute wait for pretty much everything except food at very early times in the afternoon.

Bathrooms? Plan to get in line at least 30 minutes before the band you really want to see comes on. Union Park is a pretty confined space compared to Lollapalooza’s Grant Park site, and this year’s P4K seems to have attracted an extremely large and varied audience.

I’m not saying a move is in order. Though when discussing this topic with a close colleague, we both agreed with the suggestion that the festival will probably be moved to Brooklyn or somewhere in New York in the next three to five years. Still, for as long the festival is in Chicago, it would be beneficial to have a more open area to ease the human congestion.

Also, my phone gave me some trouble yesterday. And from reading some tweets on #pitchfork, I think many of us with AT&T service saw an outage a time or two.

Anyway, now on the Day 2 Tweets…

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By Richard Giraldi  \  comments

Weekend DiversionsYeah, we know Pitchfork is this weekend.

If you can’t make it to Union Park and love your information in short 140 character-bursts, then make your way over to @loudlooppress and @bengrieve (Contributor Ross Meyerson’s twitter) and read some unintentionally hilarious tweets live from the Pitchfork Music Festival.

We’ll probably write about how it’s too cold or the beer lines are too long or that some dude next to me won’t stop swaying and it’s annoying. Yeah, pretty in-depth journalistic coverage right here, no doubt.

Anyway, if you aren’t making it to P4K…don’t worry. There will still be music around town all this weekend. So here’s a few choice locales…

Fucked Up

Subterranean’s PITCHFORK AFTER PARTY! or so says their website. Quasi-hardcore, Pitchfork-darlings and Profanity-named Fucked Up brings their crazy youthful antics the small stage before playing a P4K Festival tomorrow in the sunlight. Total Abuse, Brain Killer & Manipulation open.

9:00 PM. Friday, 7/17. Subterranean. $12.

Unicycle Loves You

If you are attending this year’s Pitchfork Festival, specifically on Saturday, but have no interest in sticking around for Matt and Kim, The Black Lips, or The National perhaps you’ll want to hop on your bike and take the short ride to the Bottom Lounge to catch local excitable and cuddly favorites Unicycle Loves You. They’ll be opening for Sybris and Cymbals Eat Guitars, who play their Pitchfork set at 1pm that day. I’m just saying if the heat and crowd have worn you down a bit but you aren’t ready to call it a day go out and support some great local bands.- Ross Meyerson

8:00 PM. Saturday 7/18.Bottom Lounge. $10.

Elton John & Billy Joel

Yeah, that’s right. Tired of lightening fast distortion-drenched guitars or emotionally charged acoustic soul tunes? How about some classic piano rock anthems? Tickets are probably sold out, but it’s at Wrigley, so anywhere in that general area should be a nice spot.

8:00 PM. Tuesday 7/21. Wrigley Field. $23878907530982380238049204.

See you guys on Twitter in a few!

By Richard Giraldi  \  comments

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Tomorrow begins another Pitchfork Music Festival at Chicago’s Union Park. From the Jesus Lizard’s first Chicago show in 11 years and The Flaming Lips playing an all-request set as part of the “Write The Night” series, this one should be pretty freakin’ amazing. This is your Loud Loop all-encompassing guide to this year’s P4K.

First and foremost: We’ll be twittering live from Pitchfork Music Festival all weekend. Simply follow us at @loudlooppress. It’s a good way to keep up this weekend if you won’t be at Union Park or if you’ll be at the fest and wondering if the crowd at The Black Lips is more lively than the crowd at The National or just want to find out where we are and want to stop by and say “Hello!” Check us out on Twitter all weekend at @loudlooppress!

More vital P4K information including ticket availability update, contributor picks & complete schedule after the jump.

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By Richard Giraldi  \  comments

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