Dear _______,

Considering Friday is just a ‘warm-up’, can you even imagine how excited I am about the rest of the weekend? It’s almost too much to handle sometimes. I wait all year for this weekend and then before I realize, it is over. I just try to stand there and experience every moment for as long as possible, trying to grab the moment inside those moments in a never ending fractal of amazing moments.

I didn’t even mention that I am seeing Liars twice on Friday. They are playing at a place called the Bottom Lounge after they play the festival. It’s non-stop once I get to Chicago and that’s probably the best thing. Remember how I told you about going to see The Twilight Sad at Schuba’s after an entire day of Pitchfork Festival-ing (where they opened up the day) and I fell asleep at a table despite the band being louder than an airplane taking off next to my head. Good times.

Back to what I was saying, Saturday is going to be a great day at the festival. The first band that I am going to catch is Real Estate. I bought their album several months ago and really love it. They are from New York, but when I first heard them I would have put money on that they are from the West Coast. They have this chilled out, surfer vibe to their tunes. Recorded kind of low-fi, kinda jamm-y, subdued and awash in reverb (as is the trend these days it seems). I think my favorite track off of their self-titled (only) release is “Beach Comber“. That’s the opening track from their album. I don’t think there is a bad song on it. The track that opens the 2nd side is another fave of mine too.

Let’s see, after Real Estate the next band that I am going to make a point to see is Titus Andronicus. They opened the festival 2 years ago, which means that they got to play a shorter set while people begin to trickle into the park. I remember it was starting to rain, and I remember that they played as if there was no tomorrow. I’m actually going to see them in Buffalo today, in a rather tiny room. That should prove interesting. To be honest though I don’t have any of their albums. I only am going by the fact that they were worth remembering from a few years ago and apparently are doing pretty well with their latest full length release. If a band can make that much noise and uses 3 guitarists, bassist and drummer to do it, then I am pretty much going to be interested (unless they are The Eagles or Collective Soul or something, then I’d only be interested in them stopping.). Let’s see, I guess I’ll have to just pick a track from random that I find online somewhere. How about this, it’s a video from Pitchfork’s A>D>D series.

It’s best to see/hear/experience them live. I’ll figure out a way to burn a song of theirs to CD for you though.

I’ve heard people saying that they like the Smith Westerns, so I’m sure that my brother and I will make our way over to their set. I have nothing to go on for them. I think they are from Chicago. I found this song,  “Tonight“, online. Sounds good to me. Noisy and jangly, just the way I like my guitars to sound. So much noise and guitars that you can barely make out the fact that there is even a singer in the room with them. Lo-fi. Maybe this is representative of them, maybe it isn’t, but it’s going to be fun finding out.

I’m not necessarily excited about The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. I remember that they had a song on the radio when I was in high school but I definitely have not been keeping up with everything that Jon Spencer has been up to. I’m pretty sure he has more than a few projects going on at once. At some point my brain decided to store his memory in the same place as The White Stripes. So maybe there is some logic to that. You know that I can’t figure out what my brain is doing half the time, and I know how entertaining that is for you so let’s just leave it at that. Maybe I’ll catch their set, or maybe I’ll head down to where the food is and eat. I’m sure, just like the past 4 years, I’ll make some comment about the Cevapcici booth. I’ll stay away though, because I’m a vegetarian, but you knew that already. Back to the music, because I don’t want this to devolve, like so many of our conversations, into the topic of my eating habits (or lack thereof). Yes, I’ll eat while I’m there. There might not be a lot of time to eat, but I will eat.

Wolf Parade is playing Saturday too. One of the few bands remaining with “Wolf” as part of their name. I can’t keep them straight anymore. I know they aren’t like Wolfmother, or AIDS Wolf. Is there a band called Wolf Eyes, or am I getting them confused with Frog Eyes? Well if there isn’t, then there should be. Oh, I’m remembering now, yeah, Spencer Krug of Sunset Rubdown is the lead dude in Wolf Parade (who was also at one time in Frog Eyes). This is made so much more confusing with the animal+something(usually eyes) formula. Anyway, Wolf Parade sounds like Frog Eyes and they are “ok”. Maybe a little too jittery with super cryptic lyrics and long song titles that probably only make sense to Spencer, but you know, to each his own. This track is “I’ll Believe in Anything.” I can picture you cringing right now. I know, it’s alright.

Panda Bear, from Animal Collective is playing too. He’s got a solo project that is going to be released very soon. Two tracks have been leaked and the blogs are all over it. Everyone is super excited. I guess the tracks are ok. It doesn’t really grab me though. Not too fond of seeing this kind of music played at a large festival though. It’s hard to make a connection with a guy that is a mile away, standing at a table, unless he’s doing something like what Girl Talk does. His new album is called Tomboy. The title track was one of the ones that was leaked.

Finishing up the night is LCD Soundsystem. This dude hasn’t put out an album in just about forever. He had a relatively huge, ‘memeable’ hit with “Daft Punk is Playing at My House“, which is the one I am putting on your mix CD, because I feel like most of the rest of his stuff is pretty forgettable. His new album didn’t really impress many people I don’t think. I haven’t made it a point to hear it, but nobody close to me is very into it so my excitement level is pretty low. I’m sure that his set is going to be exciting and dancy. Maybe as dancy as !!!’s set from a few years back and I know that you like them because I burned that CD for you (it only took me just over a year to remember to do so, but I DID….) and you love them. The lead dude from LCD soundsystem is one of the main guys up at DFA records, which, prior to September 11, 2001, was known as Death From Above Records. They specialize in that sort of indie dance punk funk thing that’s going on.

So Saturday will be quite a packed day, but wait until I tell you about Sunday. You may not hear from me again because I may die after Sunday. If I did, I feel like that would be perfectly acceptable. Remember the text that I sent you when Pavement announced that they were reuniting? Well, that excitement is going to come to a head on Sunday night. No matter how exhausted I am I’m sure I will have the energy to jump around and yell along to their entire set.

Talk to you soon,

Adam