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BELLE & SEBASTIAN

by Jake McKenzie
photo by Gaelle Beri

Belle and Sebastian emerged in the early nineties during the height of the chamber-pop movement and immediately developed a cult following. The cult grew so surely yet so slowly that it’s hard to pin down exactly when and how they made the jump from indie darlings to global superstars, but seeing as they sold out the Hollywood Bowl for an iconic concert in 2006, it must have been at some point before that. No doubt Belle and Sebastian have earned their place as one of the most quintessential indie acts of all time. At a live show, Belle and Sebastian are as charming and droll as anyone who has heard them on record would expect them to be. The fine art of between-song banter has never been better than at a Belle and Sebastian show, and the infectious whimsy of their delicate folk arrangements always promises to put a smile on listeners’ faces and provide a little extra bounce to their steps.

7:25-8:25 PM
Red Stage

STEREOLAB

by Jamie Robash
photo by Steve Double

Now is the time for Stereolab, a band for whom the phrase “ahead of their time” fits like a prophecy. In the 1990s and 2000s when Stereolab were self-releasing experimental albums steeped in krautrock and electronic pop then shot through with volts of French disco such as Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements and Emperor Tomato Ketchup (which were increasingly becoming building blocks for future generations of musicians to cull from), most of the American music scene was focused on straightforward guitar-driven rock instead. Stereolab co-founders and only constant members Tim Gane and Laetitia Sadier were romantically linked until 2002, but continued to make music together. This year marks the end of a decade-long hiatus and has seen a well-deserved deluxe re-issuing of their early material, which sounds just as good today as it did back then. And in true “better late than never” fashion, their sound seems ready for an encore debut at Pitchfork Fest 2019.

6:15-7:15 PM
Green Stage

PARQUET COURTS

by Jake McKenzie
photo by Ebru Yildiz

One of Parquet Courts’ chief assets is how their sound continues to evolve from each album to the next. This natural evolution of sound should be a standard feature of any great rock act but in the modern era, music is often designed to please Spotify’s algorithm instead of to satisfy an artist’s creativity. And so we end up with piles of records that are as predictable as they are easy to ignore. Parquet Courts are anything but. Their 2018 release Wide Awake! has been described as their “woke funk-punk phase.” Their sound clearly will never be everyone’s cup of tea but for fans, Parquet Courts represent a breath of fresh air in a stagnating music scene. Frontman A. Savage summed it up at 2018’s Lollapalooza when he said: “This song goes out to all the Post Malone fans in the front row. I’ve never wanted anything more than to play to a crowd this confused and disgruntled.”

4:15-5:10 PM
Green Stage 

CATE LE BON

by Jamie Robash
photo by Ivana Klickovic

Welsh indie folk songstress Cate Le Bon has, in her now decade-long career, made some of the most interesting music of this century. Calling her range of albums, from her debut Me Oh My to this year’s Reward, “eclectic” doesn’t really do Le Bon’s art justice. Yes her music is strange and chaotic, oftentimes jumping from bizarre piecemeal talk pieces and field recordings before delving into something that actually sounds like the bare bones of a song. She works in the same vein of peculiar chaos as ‘70s Brit rockers Beckett, oftentimes refusing to conform to a simple narrative in order to tell a story. Unlike Beckett, however, Le Bon has worked backwards in that Reward, which she recorded while living alone in the English mountains, is less of an oddity-riddled performance piece and more of a linear record full of lush, orchestrated compositions that open the door and let the listener in.

3:20-4:10 PM
Red Stage

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