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AMERICAN FOOTBALL

by Samantha Lopez

Illinois-based emo legends American Football returned last year with their self-titled sophomore album, and although it’s been a 15-year hiatus since their 1999 debut, the band is proving that it remains one of the most formative groups in the history of Midwestern emo. The band is consistent after all these years, creating music that is dripping with reverb-drenched guitar work, sharp vocal harmonies and cross-beat styled drumming. The latest record, also titled American Football, is a more mature, wiser and self-reflective older sibling of its predecessor. While the debut is equally as brilliant, it was more of a record musing on youth and a young broken heart. The sophomore album rallies around the same themes, yet in a way that shows how they’ve grown up. Songs about chasing girls have evolved into tracks about the fragility of adult love and caring too much, with their music forging together to ask the existential question of “why does anything matter?” amidst sharp, polished instrumentation.

7:45-8:30 PM
Blue Stage

NICOLAS JAAR

by Dylan Peterson
photo by Callie Barlow

Nicolas Jaar creates strangely listenable ambient/experimental music that is very much worthy of a Sunday headlining spot on the Red Stage. The moody synths, slow tempos, and indistinguishable found sounds are lightened by inconspicuous melodies and self-assured crescendos of noise. Equal parts James Blake-ian smoothness and Philip Glass-ian lucidity, the most thrilling aspect of Jaar’s music is how surprising it can be. It’s almost like anti-house music in its unpredictability. Sometimes it’s Latin percussion followed by backwards thunderclaps then a pulsating techno groove and nothing ever feels out of place. His brilliant collaboration with guitarist Dave Harrington in Darkside proved that Jaar is interested in more than being just another club DJ (even though he can hold his own at Smart Bar). His triumphant set will be a worthwhile wait for even peripheral fans of electronic music, providing a perfect soundtrack to the sunset of the final night of Pitchfork Fest.

7:25-8:25 PM
Red Stage
 

SOLANGE

by Amanda Sanchez

It’s hard to tell if Solange Knowles is more famous for being the younger sister of Beyoncé or for attacking Jay-Z in an elevator. Either way, she seems an odd choice to close out a festival dedicated to eschewing the mainstream. That’s not to say, however, that the 30-year-old singer/model/actress/dancer is lacking in talent. With several stints in Destiny’s Child and co-writing credits for Beyonce, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams, Solange released her first studio album in 2002 when she was just 14. Fast-forward to 2016 and Solange has dropped her third studio album and first number one record in the United States, A Seat at the Table. Aside from her Grammy-winning music career, Solange enjoys painting and also has been recognized for her fashion featuring her glamorous style and bright fun colors. And while she has behaved herself in elevators lately, you never know when this bombastic personality might erupt.

8:30-9:50 PM
Green Stage

ANGEL OLSEN

by William LENNON

Like many of us in the creative field, Angel Olsen moved to Chicago to make it. After arriving from her native St. Louis, she endeared herself to the local music scene performing in a number of bands and went to Harold Washington Library to play the pianos. Her first album, Half Way Home, sounded like a lonely message from another world. It was well received, but apparently Olsen was eager enough to avoid being pigeonholed as a neo-folk nymphet that she has since instituted a policy of never having her picture taken under or near trees. If Olsen was reading Kierkegaard before, she seems to have since taken to Jack Kerouac since. Her new album, My Woman, features straight-up rock and roll songs that could have played on early ‘60s AM radio. There’s an interesting reading of the album’s centerpiece, “Shut Up Kiss Me”, that interprets the song’s bridge as a glimpse into a mind flirting with manic co-dependence.

6:15-7:15 PM
Green Stage

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