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Showing posts with label Pitchfork Music Festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pitchfork Music Festival. Show all posts

Monday, July 18, 2011

Weekly Top 5: Sets at Pitchfork Music Festival 2011

We apologize for the lack of posts recently but the majority of the staff here at A Brief Intermission were in Chicago enjoying the 2011 Pitchfork Music Festival. As such, this weeks first top 5 (there will be another on Friday) will be highlighting the best sets of an incredible weekend of music.

Before I get to the list, I feel compelled to give a big time shout out to a few people. The first is the management and organizers of Pitchfork. The festival was very well run and minus a few time clogs and shortened sets on the Blue Stage, the overall experience was excellent. In addition to excellent organization, the security and safety were absolutely top class. In a year, where music festivals have brought about a slew of injuries and even deaths, its a testament to the staff that there were no serious injuries this past weekend. Finally, big ups to Shabazz Palaces, who played an absolutely incredible show at Lincoln Hall on Saturday night. Because it wasn't a part of the actual festival, it won't be on the top 5, but had it been it would probably be number 1. Their set at the actual festival was great as well but in the outdoor setting the beats didn't hit nearly as hard.

All photos are courtesy of Pitchfork. Click for all of the photos.

Honorable Mention:

Curren$y - Great set but one verse per song just isn't enough. I want more!
Animal Collective - Trippy visuals and stage set-up. Performance was better than the music.
No Age - Rocked it so incredibly hard; even without their sampler.
Twin Shadow - Set got cut short unfortunately. I wanted more of this!
Kurt Vile and the Violators - The drummer was so incredible. Extended jams were killer.
TV on the Radio - Never been a huge fan but the second half of their set made me a believer.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Weekly Artist Profile: Shabazz Palaces

Shabazz Palaces is the new project from former Digable Planets MC Ishmael “Butterfly” Butler and after releasing two EPs in 2010, he’s back with his debut full length, Black Up. While it’s a hip-hop album at its core, this album blows right through boundaries, experimenting with different genres, sounds and flows, often all within the same song. This is dangerous as the artists sacrifice the coherency of the song and run the risk of sounding like a mumbling drunk on pain pills. But despite all the experimentation, Black Up flows perfectly and retains a sense of mystery; you never know what’s going to happen next.


Joey D said to me the other day “this is the future hip-hop.” While I really can’t imagine hip-hop ever going in this direction, this is the first time in my life that I really hope I’m wrong.


I also have to give a big shout out to KEXP radio in Seattle. They are undeniably the best radio station in the United States and I've been completely obsessed with their live studio performances. After the jump check out Shabazz Palaces' in studio performance for KEXP as well as the allegorical short film for their Self Titled EP.