p4k famous?

yeah, i can't say it with a straight face. it's hard enough to say "pitchfork" with a straight face, unless it's in the context of bailing hay. oh, arbiter of slightly alternative taste in music, let me genuflect at your tattered plaid altar.

anyway, i went. another year of not having to pay for it. it's where most of my [privileged/white] friends were going to be, and i was familiar with more of the bands. i suppose i could have gone to bitchpork, but that's just a different set of [even more privileged/white] friends. furthermore, i dressed appropriately -- PRAXIS!

tee by Motel Rocks, skirt by f21, boots by Jeffrey Campbell, shades by Walter van Bierendock

this first shot is by Amy Creyer, who has her own fashion blog Chicago Street Style, but was shooting me for W Magazine. or their website, in any case. Amy is real awesome and smart and funny and had a great outfit going on, which you can sort of see in this next [Inception!] pic:

Kevin Kloecker was covering p4k with a Fuji Instamax, for his tumblr, westegg. he says he plans to take it in a street style direction. i respect anyone quixotic enough to be documenting with polaroids.

Lauren Baker caught me next for fashionmagazine.com

staying hydrated with Molly Soda

Isa Giallorenzo of Chicago Looks intercepted me en route to Beach House. she was working for chicagoreader.com and she was excited to get an excellent twofer out of it, because i grabbed Miss Soda, and she always looks stunning. 

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those previous shots are from day 3. on friday and saturday, i had dressed a little more like myself and less like a harlequin. after having my picture taken a few times by roaming shutterbugs, i was like, alright, let's play the game. oddly, the t-shirt and mini skirt combo was the most seasonally practical... as opposed to the white blouse, embroidered vest, beater boots, and leather shorts i wore on Friday. however, sentimental/exotic/tough is just more me.

grandma lois got this for me when i was 3, visiting her in La Penita, Mexico

as seen on urban outfitters instagram

the other thing that is more "me" is wearing high-end designer under completely unnecessary circumstances. it's storming, muddy, hot, drunk idiots and sloshing beer around and that dress cost several thousand dollars? PERFECT.

strange thing is, no photogs cared. which is fine. glitterguts did the honors.

dress by Proenza Schouler with Sarah, who said her outfit was me-inspired

with ultrademon (seapunk) zombelle (seapunk) and miles raymer (not a seapunk)

should i say something about the music? no?

i'm not a music critic and it's been a long time since i wrote at length about a song. i suppose i could just link to what someone else said about the fest, but .... here are a few musings.

two of the acts i enjoyed most, Clams Casino and Flying Lotus, had very little going on visually. no instruments, really. dj sets on laptops. what's the point of going to a music festival to watch nothing happen onstage? no virtuosity, no display of prowess. i'm sad i snoozed on tickets for the Flying Lotus afterparty, because that's the scenario that makes more sense.

watching Godspeed You Black Emperor was a treat. even though it can't possibly be true, (or is it?) i felt it was the only time over the weekend when i heard real musical instruments.

most of the rap acts that billed at p4k kinda sucked. (Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Big K.R.I.T.) i suppose you could always say i don't know what i'm talking about. schoolboy q gets points for being extra-charismatic.

Grimes; i don't get the hype. style yeah, substance lacking.

Beach House sounded wonderful and have come a long way, in terms of confidence and stage presence. this was my third time seeing them since their first single started making the mixtape rounds.

Hot Chip were crowd pleasers but there were no surprises.

Sleigh Bells had a dozen stacked Marshall amps and Alexis Krauss is worth a stadium of pyrotechnics, plus she comes off as real sweet...which pointendly isn't saying anything about the music.

Purity Ring spent too much time on artsy glowing cocoons.

Japandroids meh and Cults meh and Chromatics meh.

Lower Dens is a young group making really pretty music with a wide emotional range. the singer is a girl (i guess?) but maybe we are entering an era where that isn't something that has to matter. I extra-appreciate that gender isn't an exploited angle in that band. beautiful music over glamour marketing!

my most valued discovery of the weekend was Liturgy. who knew i'd be down for metal? everyone else who knew better got to bitch about how Liturgy was something better before drummer Greg Fox quit, but without any preconceived notions, their grinding sounded ferocious and exciting. i got to see them play twice, and the sets were markedly different.

i really wish Frank Ocean and The Weeknd had been part of pitchfork this year, because those are two projects that have recently put out work that is extremely relevant to me. it would have been very nice to have Diplo on hand. i also wish that the Ice Cream Man had parked his truck back in VIP like he usually does, because it's hard to feel like a badass without free ice cream.