The Dodos at Pitchfork
[Housekeeping: If you're in Chicago on Saturday, Canasta plays Schuba's for free as in zero dollars.]
I spent a relatively infinitesimal amount of time at the Pitchfork Festival over the weekend, but I scored a free ticket to Sunday and can't say no to free live music. In retrospect, I feel silly for not spending the $35 on an entire day of music, considering how much money a single day at Lollapalooza is costing me next month (over twice as much), in addition to the normal street prices most of the food, merch, and beer vendors were charging. If it seems odd to fixate on the cost of the festival and its wares, it's not -- Pitchfork is, after all, the current flagship of the indie/hipster armada. (In the words of my favorite T-shirt from yesterday, "I listen to bands that don't even exist yet.") And if there's one thing that indie/hipster culture gets lampooned for, it's championing a non-corporate, do-it-yourself ethos that is, in reality, bourgeois and unaffordable (to put it lightly). Compared to a more mainstream street festival like the Taste of Chicago, it's admirable for the festival to resist the temptation to price gouge.
The folks I really went to see were the Dodos, a guitar and drum duo that had added another percussionist to their lineup for their Pitchfork set. As someone who plays either by himself or with five other people, I'm always curious to see how to achieve that full band, six-person sound with only two or three people. It's a challenge to the musicians to use every part of their body and brain, and in a weird way it appeals to the cheapskate in me who wants to fit an entire band into a Subaru hatchback. The Dodos' full-time drummer achieves a lot of this by being a polyrhythmic machine; the second percussionist was relegated to instruments that added timbre and texture (like a garbage can) but not a core beat. The guitarist had a tambourine strapped to his foot and a loop pedal at his disposal for layered vocals and, at one point, a full three-note chord built from looping a trombone on itself.
While you won't get the visual acrobatics from just listening to their album, it's still different enough from most other drum-plus-one offerings to warrant a listen: www.myspace.com/thedodos.
I spent a relatively infinitesimal amount of time at the Pitchfork Festival over the weekend, but I scored a free ticket to Sunday and can't say no to free live music. In retrospect, I feel silly for not spending the $35 on an entire day of music, considering how much money a single day at Lollapalooza is costing me next month (over twice as much), in addition to the normal street prices most of the food, merch, and beer vendors were charging. If it seems odd to fixate on the cost of the festival and its wares, it's not -- Pitchfork is, after all, the current flagship of the indie/hipster armada. (In the words of my favorite T-shirt from yesterday, "I listen to bands that don't even exist yet.") And if there's one thing that indie/hipster culture gets lampooned for, it's championing a non-corporate, do-it-yourself ethos that is, in reality, bourgeois and unaffordable (to put it lightly). Compared to a more mainstream street festival like the Taste of Chicago, it's admirable for the festival to resist the temptation to price gouge.
The folks I really went to see were the Dodos, a guitar and drum duo that had added another percussionist to their lineup for their Pitchfork set. As someone who plays either by himself or with five other people, I'm always curious to see how to achieve that full band, six-person sound with only two or three people. It's a challenge to the musicians to use every part of their body and brain, and in a weird way it appeals to the cheapskate in me who wants to fit an entire band into a Subaru hatchback. The Dodos' full-time drummer achieves a lot of this by being a polyrhythmic machine; the second percussionist was relegated to instruments that added timbre and texture (like a garbage can) but not a core beat. The guitarist had a tambourine strapped to his foot and a loop pedal at his disposal for layered vocals and, at one point, a full three-note chord built from looping a trombone on itself.
While you won't get the visual acrobatics from just listening to their album, it's still different enough from most other drum-plus-one offerings to warrant a listen: www.myspace.com/thedodos.
posted by Ian at 7/21/2008 04:17:00 PM
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