Now in year 17, the Pitchfork Music Fest brings back the music and undeniable indie spirit to Union Park July 21-23, packing in a healthy dose of Chicago talent, international standouts and tomorrow’s surefire headliners.
This year’s headliners include anticipated performances from two-fifths of the members of Radiohead, one-half of Run The Jewels and all of Bon Iver.
Here are 10 more acts you won’t want to miss:
Ric Wilson
Once a part of the Young Chicago Authors — the creative incubus that helped fellow wordsmiths (and Pitchfork Fest vets) Chance The Rapper, Noname and Vic Mensa blossom — Ric Wilson is laddering up as another famous alum and likeminded activist. Calling himself an “electrified motivational funka hop pop poet,” the Southsider’s performances are as hyper as that sounds, merging rap with electro and new-gen disco. His latest is the “Clusterfunk” EP, a collaboration with Chromeo and A-Trak, released earlier this year, suggesting special guests may be on deck. (6:30 p.m. Friday, Blue Stage)
Leikeli47
The Brooklyn rapper’s masked visage is just one part of the mystery adding to the “who is she?” chorus since she came on the scene in 2015 with a prominent placement on Jay-Z’s first-ever Tidal playlist. Though no one knows her real name, Leikeli47 is making a name for herself with songs like the uber catchy “LL Cool J” (that’s “ladies love cool jewelry”), part of her just-wrapped-up album trilogy for RCA centered around themes of Black beauty and unapologetic feminism. Her wide-ranging sonic palette dips into house, jazz fusion, neo soul and R&B, further shaping her identity as a rule-breaker. (7:45 p.m. Friday, Blue Stage)
The Smile
With Radiohead very firmly established in the art rock milieu, Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood let their experimentalism go beautifully amuck in side project The Smile. Joined by jazz-influenced percussionist Tom Skinner, the trio officially debuted in 2022 with near unanimous placements on year-end “best of” lists for “A Light For Attracting Attention.” Combining post-punk, electronica, Afrobeats and Greenwood’s haunting soundscapes heard in recent film soundtracks (“There Will Be Blood,” “Spencer”), The Smile is reinvention at its finest. Their latest track, “Bending Hectic” is a majestic, eight-minute opus featuring the London Contemporary Orchestra that we can only hope they bring to this anticipated headlining set. (8:30 p.m. Friday, Green Stage)
Black Belt Eagle Scout
On her latest album, the sweeping “The Land, The Water, The Sky,” released in February, Katherine Paul returned to her ancestral roots in Washington’s Puget Sound, tapping into the traditions of her lineage in the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and the music she first played as part of the family drum ensemble. Paired with an attraction to the guitar histrionics and unpolished emotion of the grunge, indie rock and riot grrl nebulous rooted in nearby Seattle and Olympia, the result is one of the most gripping albums this year that will find its pulse live. (2:45 p.m. Saturday, Blue Stage)
Panda Bear & Sonic Boom
Retro futurism comes alive on “Reset,” the debut collaborative album from Panda Bear (aka Noah Benjamin Lennox, who helped co-found freak folk troupe Animal Collective) and composer/producer Peter Kember, who goes by the alias Sonic Boom. Much of the duo’s material recycles 1950s and ‘60s pop hits with looped samples of Eddie Cochran, The Everly Brothers, The Troggs and other strongholds, layered with fresh vocals for a swirling psychedelic romp that, at times, feels like a super modern “Pet Sounds.” (4:15 p.m. Saturday, Green Stage)
Weyes Blood
Natalie Mering, who performs under the nom de plume Weyes Blood (inspired by Flannery O’Connor’s groundbreaking debut novel), has been hailed the “millennial Joni Mitchell.” One listen to the rich tapestry of her voice and ebulliently depressing orchestral pop and you know it’s no hyperbole. Taking on mass topics from climate change (“Titanic Rising”) to the collapse of human connection (“And In the Darkness, Hearts Aglow), the music Mering now makes is another way the former underground noise musician expresses herself — and still draws us into the flames. (7:25 p.m. Saturday, Red Stage)
Ariel Zetina
If you’re a regular at Smartbar, you might be familiar with resident DJ Ariel Zetina who levels up with a deserved spot at Pitchfork. Zetina sets a real mood for the final day of the festival, one she’s been “going to for a decade,” as she shared in a recent Instagram post. Nominated for a “Breakthrough DJ” title by DJ Mag last year, Zetina’s unique techno blend of Chicago house, Belizean dance music and steady percussive beats is set to turn Union Park into an al fresco club. (1 p.m. Sunday, Green Stage)
Killer Mike
Prolific rapper, and one-half of super duo Run The Jewels, Killer Mike breaks out into a solo set for one of the biggest festival highlights on Sunday. It’s in support of his first solo album in 11 years, “Michael,” which sees the oft socio-political soapboxer going internal, delivering an autobiographical tone of early life in the church and Atlanta’s southern Black culture. He’ll be supported on stage by a small choir, the Midnight Revival, to amplify the sound even more. (5:15 p.m. Sunday, Red Stage)
Mdou Moctar
The West African guitar hero is dominating in 2023, having logged appearances at Austin Psych Fest and New Orleans Jazz Fest before heading to Pitchfork. Moctar’s powerful desert blues that combine Tuareg folk and field recordings with unmistakable licks from the Zeppelin and Van Halen playbooks, as heard on the Matador Records-released LP “Afrique Victime,” have earned him the moniker the “Jimi Hendrix of the Sahara.” Though his songs are so much more than axe gesticulating, further serving as rally calls for peace, justice and basic human needs in his homeland of Niger. (7:45 p.m. Sunday, Blue Stage)
Bon Iver
In the four years since his last critically acclaimed release, “I, I,” Eau Claire, Wisconsin, native Justin Vernon has collaborated with Aaron Dessner on new Big Red Machine music, Ilsey (on the just-released Neil Young cover of “Heart of Gold”) and even Taylor Swift, appearing on her 2020 album “folklore.” In the anticipated closeout to Pitchfork Fest 2023, Bon Iver gets back to basics — wildly inventive folk songs using a hodgepodge of instrumentation and creative bandwidth that explores music’s full potential. (8:30 p.m. Sunday, Green Stage)
