Pitchfork

All right people, it's showtime! This weekend, the 2008 Pitchfork Music Festival and all the good times that come with it will descend on the Windy City. Will Spoon send us home with an oh-so-fitting spin through "Chicago at Night"? Will Hold Steady fans single-handedly consume the fest's entire beer allotment? Will Dizzee Rascal's gravity-defying pants prevail yet again? This weekend we find out.

The essentials: the Pitchfork Music Festival goes down at Chicago's Union Park from Friday, July 18, through Sunday, July 20. Not sure how to get there? The festival website has you covered.

Tickets for both Saturday's and Sunday's festivities have sold out, but a few passes for Friday night remain. Score those while you can at the festival box office, located next to the Ashland Ave. entrance at Union Park.

Just to recap, El Guincho has cancelled, and Ghostface & Raekwon did a little set time/stage switcheroo with the Dodos, bringing the 2008 Pitchfork Music Festival schedule to this:

A = Aluminum Stage; B = Balance Stage; C = Connector Stage

Friday, July 18 (in conjunction with All Tomorrow's Parties/Don't Look Back):

6:00 p.m. Mission of Burma performing Vs. (C)
7:15 p.m. Sebadoh performing Bubble and Scrape (C)
8:30 p.m. Public Enemy performing It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (A)

Saturday, July 19:

12:30 p.m. Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar (B)
1:00 p.m. Titus Andronicus (C)
1:25 p.m. A Hawk and a Hacksaw (B)
1:30 p.m. Jay Reatard (A)
2:00 p.m. Caribou (C)
2:20 p.m. Icy Demons (B)
3:00 p.m. Fleet Foxes (A)
3:15 p.m. Fuck Buttons (B)
4:00 p.m. Dizzee Rascal (C)
4:15 p.m. The Ruby Suns (B)
5:00 p.m. Vampire Weekend (A)
5:20 p.m. Elf Power (B)
6:00 p.m. !!! (C)
6:25 p.m. Extra Golden (B)
7:00 p.m. The Hold Steady (A)
7:30 p.m. Atlas Sound (B)
8:00 p.m. Jarvis Cocker (C)
8:25 p.m. No Age (B)
9:00 p.m. Animal Collective (A)

Sunday, July 20:

12:30 p.m. Mahjongg (B)
1:00 p.m. Times New Viking (C)
1:25 p.m. High Places (B)
1:30 p.m. Dirty Projectors (A)
2:00 p.m. Boris (C)
2:20 p.m. HEALTH (B)
3:00 p.m. The Apples in Stereo (A)
3:15 p.m. King Khan & the Shrines (B)
4:00 p.m. Les Savy Fav (C)
5:00 p.m. The Dodos (A)
5:20 p.m. Occidental Brothers Dance Band International (B)
6:00 p.m. M. Ward (C)
6:00 p.m. Ghostface Killah & Raekwon (B)
7:00 p.m. Spiritualized (A)
7:30 p.m. Bon Iver (B)
8:00 p.m. Dinosaur Jr. (C)
8:25 p.m. Cut Copy (B)
9:00 p.m. Spoon (A)

Other things you probably want to know about: the festival grounds map! View it below, then print it out via the .JPG link here.



Pitchfork fest vets should note the new location of the expanded Balance Stage.

Also worth noting: The treasure trove of extra-musical fun, including all manner of vendors, the CHIRP Record Fair, the DEPART-ment marketplace of handcrafted goodies, and the Flatstock 17 Poster Convention.

Questions about what you can and can't bring to Union Park this weekend? Go here.

Last but not least, a reminder for the folks back home: Video of a bunch of Pitchfork Music Festival sets will be webcast live on the festival's website, and Seattle's venerable KEXP will be broadcasting audio live from Union Park as well.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but OMG WOOOOOO EXCITEMENT!!!

At a March concert in Shanghai, China, Björk took time out from Volta's "Declare Independence" to shout out "Tibet!" Tibet has been under Chinese rule for nearly 60 years now, and the arrangement has never been without its share of controversy. Shortly after the incident with Björk, the Chinese Ministry of Culture issued a statement claiming her outburst "broke Chinese law and hurt Chinese people's feelings," with an additional suggestion that the nation would increase restrictions on foreign performers.

This week, the Chinese government made good on that suggestion with a declaration of its own: as noted in a Reuters report, all overseas entertainers (including those from Hong Kong and Taiwan) posing a threat to China's sovereignty will be banned from peforming in China.

A statement on the Ministry of Culture's website and quoted by Reuters reads: "Any artistic group or individual who [has] ever engaged in activities that threaten national sovereignty will not be allowed in." What's more, any entertainers who "threaten national unity," "whip up ethnic hatred," "violate religious policy or cultural norms," or "advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition" during live events will also be banned from performance.

Beijing has also banned pop festivals and tightened the rules for approval of outdoor events in advance of this summer's Olympics in and around the city. "Nothing that has not been approved will be allowed to be performed," the Ministry of Culture said-- even encores.

So if you've ever learned the Mandarin word for "Freebird", you can probably forget it now.

Originally released by Sub Pop in 1997, the second solo LP from Eric's Trip bassist and songwriter of note Julie Doiron (and first to bear her given name), Loneliest in the Morning, will be reissued by Doiron's current label Jagjaguwar on July 22.

For the new Morning, the original disc's 14-tune run is bolstered by a trio of bonus cuts: "Second Time", from a split single with Snailhouse, and "Who Will Be the One" and "Too Much", each from a 7" Doiron recorded with her occasional collaborators Wooden Stars.

Speaking of collaborators, Doiron recently worked up the Lost Wisdom LP with Mount Eerie and Fred Squire. That disc drops October 7 on Mount Eerie's own P.W. Elverum & Sun imprint, and Doiron has a couple gigs with the Eerie man this September.

After months of build-up-- controversial name followed by controversial lack of name and cover art followed by controversy-courting video-- Nas' new untitled studio album is now in stores via Def Jam/Jones Experience.

The New York rapper's imprint isn't the only Jones Experience he has planned, though. This weekend, Nas will launch "The Jones Experience" tour in support of the album. The tour consists of smaller club shows in between Nas' appearances on the traveling Rock the Bells festival. Opening for Nas on the tour will be Talib Kweli, Jay Electronica, and DJ Green Lantern.

Before kicking off "The Jones Experience", Nas has a free show sponsored by MySpace tonight, July 18, in West Hollywood, California.

Photo by Shannon McClean

Whenever Nottingham, England's Tindersticks make their way to North America, they've got a brand new place to stay. It's called Constellation, and it's the band's brand new label home in these parts.

Constellation will issue Tindersticks' recent The Hungry Saw LP-- out now in Europe on Beggars Banquet-- over here on CD and LP September 16. The CD will come packaged with some revised artwork printed on a cardstock gatefold sleeve, with a lyric booklet printed on "fine artstock recycled paper." The LP, meanwhile, arrives on 180 gram virgin vinyl and sports "multiple inserts." Ooh, fancy.

Tindersticks have a truckload of European tour dates to close out 2008.

Santogold and Diplo, together on a mixtape? It's enough to make your Day Glo all on its own. She, still rising the release of her self-titled LP, and he, making the beats that make the bodies rock, have teamed up for Top Ranking, a 35-track mixtape out now from Diplo's label Mad Decent.

It's a monster of a thing, sporting a ton of exclusive material from Santi White alongside tracks and remixes alike from Three 6 Mafia, Switch, Desmond Dekker, the Clash, and so so many others. (It's kind of like the Piracy Funds Terrorism mix Diplo made with M.I.A. back in 2004.) Perhaps you heard the slightly cheeky (but nevertheless banging) "Guns of Brooklyn" over in Forkcast the other day? The CD is available now from Turntable Lab, with an arrival scheduled at the Mad Decent webstore (and "everywhere else") soon.

Both Santogold and Diplo have a mess of tour dates coming up, including one they'll share over the weekend in New York.

Ready for this one? Okie doke: World, meet Native Korean Rock & The Fishnets. Native Korean Whatsit and the Whosits? Yes, Native Korean Rock & The Fishnets, a little extracurricular venture a certain Karen O has been cooking up and will soon present to the people.

"Native Korean Rock is a side project of mine," writes Karen O on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs website [via Idolator], "comprised of a body of love songs written over the last two years, to be performed with a motley crew of NYC natives. Expect high drama, high stakes in two intimate performances."

Those two intimate performances both go down July 21 at Union Pool in Brooklyn. No word just yet who will make up the aforementioned "motley crew", but Karen does have some preemptive answers to a couple other burning questions:

"Does Native Korean Rock have anything to do with Yeah Yeah Yeahs? NO

"Are these the leaked demos of years ago? NO"

Karen isn't so clear on the difference (if there is one) between just Native Korean Rock, and Native Korean Rock & The Fishnets; astute noticers of things will notice both names employed in various places. But anyway, there you have it. Sample some musical offerings from Karen's new thing via the MySpace link below.

As for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, last we heard they were dangling LP3 carrots in front of us. Meanwhile, some of Nick Zinner's photography is presently on display in Brussels, Belgium as part of a previously mentioned exhibit at the city's Palais des Beaux Arts entitled "It's Not Only Rock'n'Roll, Baby!" The show, which also features pieces from Brian Eno, Patti Smith, Antony, Suicide's Alan Vega, and Devendra Banhart, runs through September 14. Oh, and Zinner also guests on The Time of the Assassins, the debut offering from Nickel Eye, aka Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture.

With Julian Casablancas palling around with Pharrell and Santogold and Albert Hammond Jr. on the other side of a second solo album, the Strokes seem pretty content being a coalition of loosely affiliated artists instead of a functioning band, despite a claim on their website that "the guys are set to get together and get back at it [in] early 2009." (Maybe with Pharrell behind the boards?)

The most recent additions to the family of Strokes side projects come from drummer Fabrizio Moretti and bassist Nikolai Fraiture, which leaves guitarist Nick Valensi as the one seemingly content to do nothing more than live the life of an international playboy. Smart man.

According to a report on Rolling Stone's Rock & Roll Daily blog, Moretti's side project is called Little Joy and features the talents of Rodrigo Amarante (Los Hermanos) and Binki Shapiro, who Rock & Roll Daily reports is Moretti's girlfriend. The blog calls the group's sound a combination of "Antonio Carlos Jobim, Vince Guaraldi, and Sixties wall-of-sound girl groups," and the trio will release their debut album this fall via Rough Trade.
 
Fraiture has gone a simpler route with the name of his side project, Nickel Eye. His debut under the name is titled The Time of the Assassins. Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Regina Spektor guest on the project.

Despite all this studio activity, Hammond is the only Stroke with tour dates coming up. He'll kick off a brief tour of Australia, Japan, and Brooklyn (one of these things is not like the other) on July 30.

To us Yanks unwilling to plunk down the extra dough for HD cable, Nigel Godrich's basement sounds like a realm of great mystery, like Kraftwerk's studio, or wherever Kevin Shields has been holed up for the last decade. But, every so often, the superproducer/gracious host lets folks slip down the stairs for a little program he calls "From the Basement", featuring sets from the likes of Thom Yorke, Sonic Youth, Jarvis Cocker, the White Stripes, PJ Harvey, the Shins, and more.

The show has aired on the net (our DSL at home sucks, too), in the UK on Sky Arts, and in the States on a channel I don't get called Rave HD. This fall, however, "From the Basement" will go quite wide, as it graces the Independent Film Channel's new Tuesday night lineup [from The Hollywood Reporter, via Idolator].

"From the Basement" will debut on IFC September 30 as part of the network's "Automat" block of shows aimed at the young male demographic. "The Henry Rollins Show", which features the hardcore icon chatting with/mildly intimidating your favorite stars, and sketch comedy show "The Whitest Kids U' Know" are also due to hit "Automat".

It's a bit unclear as to whether Godrich and company will tape new episodes of the show for IFC, but as a member of their target demographic, let me just say: get Animal Collective.

Chicago's Hideout is a favorite destination for the city's live music fans roughly 51 weekends out of the year (and darn near every other day in between). But for one fateful weekend each of the last 11 years, the relatively tiny spot (and nearby parking lot) has become a favorite destination for what can sometimes seem like half the city.

That would be due to their fabulous Hideout Block Party, which crams a whole lotta rock and such into one truly epic weekend. The lineup for the 12th Hideout Block Party is coming together nicely at this point, and, well, if you didn't have plans the weekend of September 20-21, now you do.

So who will be helping the Hideout ring in a dozen years of Block Parties? Why, the New Pornographers, Neko Case (who, it's probably safe to assume, will be performing with said Pornographers), Black Mountain, Ratatat, Czech revolutionaries Plastic People of the Universe,  Vieux Farka Touré, Monotonix, Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip, Dark Meat, Tim Fite, kid-friendly Mekons offshoot Wee Hairy Beasties, the Uglysuit, and Devil in a Woodpile, amongst others.