This weekend, it seems that a generous swath of the indiesphere is headed to Chicago for the Pitchfork Music Festival. Started in 2006, the festival—curated by the good folks over at Pitchfork Media— has quickly become the go-to music festival for those interested in indie rock, hip-hop, and electronic music. This weekend will find New York acts such as the topsy-turvy Dirty Projectors, uptown aesthete A$AP Rocky, the extreme metallurgy of Liturgy, and a little band who went to Columbia called Vampire Weekend all playing, as well as a slew of other great acts from around the country. For those of you who will be attending the fest, we are sincerely happy for you, if not a little bit jealous. However, this weekend there are plenty of shows that can allow you to get the Pitchfork Music Fest experience without leaving the wonderful city of New York. Here's your schedule this weekend, complete with the scores everybody's most recent albums got on Pitchfork.
Friday: El-P with Killer Mike, Mr. MFN eXquire and Despot at Irving Plaza
Cure for Cancer, the most recent release by Brooklyns own El-P, mashes post-industrial apocalyptic fury with rhymes so dense you nearly needed a schematic to understand them. He's found himself spearheading something of a new wave in hip-hop, again playing the uniter role that he once played as the head of the Definitive Jux label. Alongside C4C (8.5 from Pitchfork), he also produced Killer Mike's R.A.P. Music (8.6) album, a politically charged overground-meets-under classic in the vein of Ice Cube's Amerikkka's Most Wanted, and is leading one of the hottest hip-hop tours of the year, taking Mike, Mr. MFN eXquire (7.9), and Def Jux veteran Despot, who never managed to squeeze an album out before the label folded. Consider this your rap portion of your makeshift P4k Fest.
Saturday: Archers of Loaf with The Drums, Crocodiles, Hospitality, Bleached, Nick Waterhouse, Devin, Doldrums and Team Spirit at South Street Seaport
Fun fact: Did you know that the Village Voice is having a music festival of its very own this weekend? It's called the 4Knots Music Festival, held in downtown for absolutely free. In our opinion, the night to catch is Saturday, with the reunited scuzz-rock pioneers Archers of Loaf (9.0 and 8.4 for their most recent reissues), the vibemasters of The Drums (7.4), and the dreamy Hospitality (also 7.4!). Saturday should satisfy your indie rock imperative.
Sunday: Codeine at (le) poisson rouge
(le) poisson rouge continues to be low-key one of the best venues in the city, having hosted the likes of Can and DJ Rashad in the past few months. On Sunday, gather the family up for this slow-core time capsule as Codeine emerge from wherever they've been hiding for the past twentysomething years. Deriving their name from the fact that their music is slower than Christmas (as a drug, codeine's primary side-effect is that it makes everything feel slower), Codeine's three albums (8.8, 8.5, 8.4, respectively) feel, in the wake of the '90s revival happening throughout indie rock.
So, there you have it. No need to feel bad at all for not leaving New York. Sometimes, things are better at home anyway.
