Pitchfork

Wow. It's a long way down from this past weekend's euphoric highs, but to help ease everyone back into the day-to-day we present to you, faithful readers, a photo-happy, interview-accented set of features, our capstone to the three-day weekend bonanza that was the 2007 Pitchfork Music Festival.

From Slint to Sonic Youth, the Twilight Sad to Yoko Ono, Deerhunter to De La Soul-- and despite a few more sound problems then we'd have liked-- the event once again proved momentous, and we couldn't have done it without all of you. Thanks to everyone who came to the 2007 Pitchfork Music Festival. We hope you had a weekend to remember, and we look forward to seeing you again next year.

Thanks also once again to our Friday night partners in crime, Barry Hogan and All Tomorrow's Parties (and their Don't Look Back series), as well as all the sponsors, vendors, and volunteers whose tireless efforts and contributions help keep this festival pretty ridiculously cheap. Thanks to our photographers as well-- Jason Bergman, Jana Green, Leigh Ann Hines, Karra McDonald, Joseph Mohan, Akmal Naim, Jen Reel, Nolan Wells, and Kathryn Yu-- whose shots you'll see below.

And for even more multimedia festival coverage, check out the official Pitchfork Music Festival podcast, featuring interviews with Sonic Youth, Stephen Malkmus, Slint, Clipse, Dan Deacon, Klaxons, the Cool Kids, ATP's Barry Hogan, and Pitchfork's Ryan Schreiber. Thanks to Anders Lindall for his work on this and the all the previous Backline podcasts.

Finally, our hats go off to Mike Reed and the fine people at At Pluto and Pitchfork's associate publisher Chris Kaskie for orchestrating another landmark Pitchfork Music Festival.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Photos by Nolan Wells (L) and Leigh Ann Hines

Slint [Connector Stage; 6:30 p.m.]









Photos 1-3 by Kathryn Yu; photos 4-5 by Jen Reel

Interview: Brian McMahan of Slint | [Interview by Paul Thompson]

Pitchfork: You guys are performing Spiderland in its entirety, which you've done a few times now in Europe. How's it working? I assume you never played it all the way through live back in the day.

Brian McMahan: That's true. It's pretty cool. It moves a little slower than it does on the record, but it's all there.

Pitchfork: What is it like to be asked to play one specific album? Does it feel like a coronation of sorts?

BM: It's pretty cool. I'm into it. It does feel like [a coronation]. It took some getting used to, some revisiting the material and rehearsing. I personally felt comfortable with the idea, but I didn't know how it was going to go.

Pitchfork: You guys are doing quite a bit of touring, playing both Spiderland and other material. Does it feel like Slint is a real band again, or more like a reunion?

BM: I think it's definitely more like a reunion to me. It seemed like we had a period roughly when we were in the last year or two of high school and a couple years thereafter where we were working on music. But then there were a couple years there where we weren't a band.

Pitchfork: Are there other artists at the festival that you're looking forward to checking out?

BM: There's definitely a lot of stuff. Really looking forward to seeing Stephen Malkmus. Battles. I'd love to see Yoko Ono.

Pitchfork: Are you a fan of Liquid Swords and Daydream Nation?

BM: I don't really know Liquid Swords. Daydream Nation I definitely rocked in the car when I was a kid.

Pitchfork: I've gotta ask: Do you guys plan to do any more recording?

BM: I guess we don't really have any definite plans. We've talked about it, but we're just sort of leaving it at that.

 

<!--pagebreak-->

GZA/Genius (with Cappadonna, Killah Priest, and Dreddy Krueger) [Aluminum Stage; 7:45 p.m.]

















Photos 1-3 and 9 by Kathryn Yu; photo 4 by Jason Bergman; photos 5-8 by Karra McDonald

Interview: GZA | [Interview by Dave Maher]

Pitchfork: As a big chess fan, what is your favorite move other than checkmate and why?

GZA: I don't think I have a favorite move, other than checkmate, because each move is part of a combination of other moves. Just like I don't have a favorite piece, because they all work together. I mean, I love myself; I am the king on the board, but other pieces do different things and they all work together, so it's not one particular move unless it's checkmate because usually there's an answer. You know, chess is about questions and answers.

Pitchfork: How so?

GZA: Because if I'm playing a game and I move first and I'm white, then black must answer that. So it's basically like I'm asking him a question, and you have to have the answer to it. So there's not any one favorite move. There can never be a favorite move. I can probably pinpoint in a specific game, there might be a move that was like, "Oh, that was a good move." And maybe certain moves turned the whole game around, but there's not one special move that does that, unless it's checkmate because that's when the game is over.

Pitchfork: Who's the best chess opponent in the Wu-Tang Clan?

GZA: RZA and Masta Killa, those are my toughest opponents. We play all the time. As far as the rest of the Clan, no competition. Meth knows how to play, but he doesn't play. He doesn't like it. He's into video games. But he knows how to play. Inspectah Deck plays. He could have a strong game if he played more, but he doesn't. Raekwon, I don't even think he knows the names of the pieces. Ghostface, same. U-God, he may know how to play. The rest aren't interested. RZA and myself, we buy books. We love chess like that.

Pitchfork: What's the Wu-Tang tour bus like? Does it get rowdy, or is it pretty quiet?

GZA: It's never really quiet unless it's a certain time of day. Sometimes it's quiet, but you're not going to have eight, nine members on a bus in total silence and everyone is up, unless there are some issues going on, unless there's a death or something really serious that just has us all thinking. Other than that, we're gonna be kicking it.

Every day we're on the bus talking about old days, songs. You know, Mathematics and Masta Killa are about to have a battle when they get back to the States about who can pull out some of the best oldies, as far as songs, and I think they bet five thousand dollars.

There's discussion; it's never quiet. We were on the bus the other day, and I threw a question in the air: silverback gorilla or grizzly? And that was like a two-hour discussion.

Pitchfork: Which did you pick to win in a fight?

GZA: I said silverback.

Pitchfork: Why?

GZA: He's faster, he's stronger. I think he would put it on the bear. I think the bear's kind of slow. But then you had other members like, "A bear's claws are like this. All he'd have to do is slap him one time." So there's never really a quiet moment.

Pitchfork: Was there a general consensus as to silverback or grizzly?

GZA: No, it was just different opinions on what we thought, who would come out victorious in that battle. What do you say?

Pitchfork: You make a good point about the silverback. Grizzlies' arms always look really flimsy.

GZA: It's slow. The silverback is strong, and he's a vegetarian: all muscle. Seven hundred pounds of muscle. A bear may be a little heavier and much slower. I would love to see that though. We were saying they need to have that on pay-per-view.

Pitchfork: Like Ultimate Fighting style.

GZA: Yeah.

Pitchfork: Do you think of Liquid Swords as your best album, or do you even think in those terms?

GZA: I think that and Grandmasters [2005 collaboration with DJ Muggs] are neck and neck. As far as a theme, Liquid Swords is in a class by itself. But lyrically, Grandmasters has the edge on it.

Pitchfork: So the new Wu-Tang album is called 8 Diagrams, correct?

GZA: Yeah.

Pitchfork: And on YouTube there's a trailer for a documentary directed by you. It looks like a documentary of the making of 8 Diagrams. Is that what it is?

GZA: No. Well, some of it. It's just footage that I've had for years. Some of it I'm still shooting now. The stuff that I'm putting together, I don't really know what it's going to turn into until I finish editing. I don't know what it's going to become, but it's gonna be great.

Pitchfork: Do you know when 8 Diagrams is going to come out?

GZA: Maybe October.

 

 

<!--pagebreak-->

Sonic Youth [Aluminum Stage; 9 p.m.]

Photos 1-4 and 8 by Jason Bergman; photos 5.1, 5.2, and 6 by Kathryn Yu; photos 7.1 and 9.1 by Nolan Wells; photo 7.2 by Jana Green; photo 9.2 by Leigh Ann Hines

Fans







Photo 1 by Karra McDonald; photos 2-4 by Joseph Mohan

Aftermath

Photo by Joseph Mohan