We give this Agenda a 7.3: Pitchfork, porn stars and more
The three Xs let you know it's dirty!
Pitchfork has earned its share of scorn over the years for a variety of perceived offenses: its maddeningly specific decimal-pointed review scores, its assistance in spreading fabricated genre tags like “chillwave,” and its lame habit of secretly deleting potentially embarrassing reviews (like its raving 9.5 for ska-punk band Save Ferris’ It Means Everything—remember “Come On Eileen”?) or retroactively boosting old scores (like cranking Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea’s to a perfect 10.0 when its reissue came out in 2005). But considering how earnestly excited we are to see Pavement, El-P, Michael Showalter, and loads of other bands and comedians at Pitchfork Music Festival this weekend at Union Park, and how annoying it is to gripe about Pitchfork, who really cares about that other stuff at this point?
To put it into perspective, consider some of Pitchfork’s competition this weekend, like sex-industry convention Exxxtacy Show 2010 at the Rosemont on the very same days. As The A.V. Club has mysteriously been put on scads of porn mailing lists—probably as a joke by someone we know—we can say we honestly don’t have a problem with the stuff, but what is sleazy and deserving of scorn is the super-disgusting Q&A session with the girls of the “Hottest Scandals Of 2010 Tour.” Basically, it’s a bunch of high-profile home-wreckers who’ve been involved with or the direct cause of famous people’s marital problems. Three of Tiger Woods’ mistresses will be there, among others, “creating mischief.” (Then there's the even skeevier "Fuck A Fan" contest.) Even if you don’t like music festivals, three days sweating like an idiot under the sun and listening to bands you’ve maybe only sorta heard of will still allow you to go home and sleep soundly at night. (If you really want to support the ladies, consider forgoing your Friday plans and heading down to the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre to support the Lilith Fair—with acts like La Roux and Mary J. Blige—which has been canceled elsewhere in the country.)
If, like us, you’re positively pumped for Pitchfork, check out our historical perspective on how the younger bands performing pay tribute to the more established ones and then over to our massive, interactive preview. Keep your web-enabled computers here for our Pitchfork coverage as well. To throw you non-Pitchforkers a bone, we also have a lively baseball debate between two A.V. Club writers on how the All-Star Break is our big chance to not lose so embarrassingly all the time.
