http://www.suntimes.com:80/entertain...dero15.article
Fest revives album concept
(http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/derogatis/468697,CST-NWS-dero15.article)
July 15, 2007
BY
JIM DeROGATIS Pop Music Critic
Conventional wisdom holds that the twentysomething rock fans of the download generation cherry-pick their favorite songs and set the soundtracks of their lives by random shuffle. But the opening of the third Pitchfork Music Festival, which drew 13,000 fans to the West Side's Union Park on Friday night, was devoted to that most old-fashioned of rock 'n' roll relics: the album.
Presented in conjunction with All Tomorrow's Parties, a London-based traveling rock festival, Pitchfork's first evening was devoted to ATP's "Don't Look Back" concept, which is actually a misnomer since it involves bands looking into their back catalogs to play one of their cult-favorite albums in order in its entirety.
"In the age of the iPod shuffle, the true art form of a whole album tends to get left behind, so this is why 'Don't Look Back' celebrates the seminal/influential records that should never be forgotten," ATP's Barry Hogan wrote in the program notes. But he also confessed that "this music probably wasn't intended to be played at festivals."
Indeed, while it's a promising idea -- and I'd love to hear Mudhoney play "Superfuzz Bigmuff" and the Melvins do "Houdini" at the Los Angeles ATP in September -- two out of the three acts on Friday were disappointing duds.
Kicking things off was the often-imitated and seriously overrated Louisville quartet Slint, one of the pioneering bands of emo, a sound defined by its loud/quiet dynamic shifts and oh-so-sensitive introspective lyrics. The group played its second and last album, "Spiderland," released in 1991 by Chicago's Touch and Go Records, and the fans greeted it as manna from heaven.
Cliched chants
For a nonbeliever, however, the musicians' fragile, intertwining guitar lines, mumbled attempts at poetry and uninspiring shoe-gazer personas were poor matches for the setting and the occasion, especially during the static, percussion-deprived "Don, Aman" and the bloated anthem "Good Morning Captain."
The second act was just as lame, for different reasons. "Liquid Swords," the 1995 release by New York rapper GZA or Genius, is the best of any of the solo offerings from the uniquely atmospheric gangsta rappers the Wu-Tang Clan. Every member of that crew appeared on the original, yet while they've reunited for several shows this summer, they are currently touring Europe, which left GZA recruiting a group of nameless friends to help re-create his masterwork.
That wasn't the biggest reason the performance fell flat, though. Some of the album tracks were truncated; others were padded out with cliched chants of "Hey Chicago" and shout-outs to the missing Wu-Tang members, and most of the moody sound clips from kung-fu films interspersed throughout the album were missing. In the end, GZA turned a recording best known for its creepy, ominous vibe into just another attempt at a good-time house-party soundtrack.
Closing out the first of Pitchfork's three nights was another legendary New York act, avant-garde guitar-rockers Sonic Youth.
Although it isn't my favorite entry in their lengthy discography, "Daydream Nation" (1988) turned out to be an inspired choice, representing the bridge between the often free-form noise of their earliest efforts ("Confusion is Sex," "Bad Moon Rising") and the more song-oriented material of the alternative-rock era (including "Goo").
Tracks such as "Teenage Riot," "Silver Rocket" and "Kissability" retained all of their tuneful but potent intensity onstage, and the set built to a frenzied climax, just as the album does, with the disorienting swirl of the three-part suite "Trilogy: The Wonder/Hyperstation/Eliminator Jr."
In the end, despite the uneven lineup, Pitchfork's sound, sight lines and reasonably priced amenities were once again second to none Friday.
And with two full days of music yet to come, the community-oriented underground fest was on track to being the best deal and the most rewarding experience of Chicago's summer concert season.