Pitchfork Music Festival finalizes lineup

So there have officially been no last-minute secret headliners to replace Vampire Weekend, but the final round of Pitchfork Fest additions is pretty great nonetheless.

Beach House predictably receive top billing this time around. They played a late-afternoon set on one of the main stages in 2010, so it makes sense that they’ll be moving up in the world this year. Teen Dream became a breakout record for the band that year, and they’ve got a new one on the way which is poised to be just as well received. This will surely be one of the more anticipated sets of the weekend.

All-around awesome indie rock supergroup Wild Flag (featuring two thirds of the legendary Sleater-Kinney) will make their first Pitchfork appearance. I saw the band at the Paradise last October and can confirm that they put on a hell of a show. Perhaps they’ll break out a few more extremely cool covers to make up for me missing them play a Fugazi song at a second Paradise show last weekend.

My thoughts on Bradford Cox’s live show as Atlas Sound are well-documented at this blog. I don’t see thirty to forty minute cover songs/performance art pieces happening in a festival slot, but Cox performing regular old Atlas Sound songs is impressive in and of itself.

Reunited math-rock/post-hardcore band Chavez are a left-field choice, but certainly not an unwelcome one. I wasn’t even aware the band was playing shows at the moment, but their inclusion is a pretty fantastic surprise.

Experimental electronic sample-wizard Oneohtrix Point Never is playing Boston’s Middle East downstairs this Friday, but my prior Magnetic Fields commitment will prevent me from attending. Similarly, I skipped Youth Lagoon in favor of Swervedriver last week. I’ve also blown opportunities to see Real Estate and The Psychic Paramount over the past year. I suppose the addition of all four to the lineup demonstrates that somebody at Pitchfork must be watching my back

Overall, I’m pretty satisfied by the lineup at this point. Feist and Vampire Weekend still don’t gel with me as headliners, but there’s a wealth of other really excellent bands that pretty well cancel that out. It should be an excellent weekend of music, and I look forward to experiencing as much of it as I can, as well as sharing plenty of pictures and stories with you all. July can’t come soon enough.