Underneath the fake oil-burnin' lamps: In search of history at Pitchfork Fest

The enduring hipness of Chicago's Pitchfork Music Festival headliners Pavement (who play Sunday at the fest) took root a few years before Ryan Schreiber posted the site's first reviews. The festival's past lineups have done a good job of upholding Pitchfork's painfully current rep, but also expanding past it, with help from bands like Mission Of Burma, The Jesus Lizard, and even Public Enemy. The A.V. Club examined some of the unexpectedly far-reaching threads that tie together Pitchfork Fest's most established and most freshly hyped acts.

Hip-hop
The old guard: Raekwon (Saturday, 4:15 p.m.) brings about yet another Wu-Tang encounter for the festival. He returned strongly enough with 2009's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II that the reception all but overshadowed other strong Wu solo careers (Ghostface Killah, etc.) for a while. Some fans at the Fest will have started with Definitive Jux label founder El-P (Friday, 4:30 p.m.) on 2007's I'll Sleep When You're Dead—and it's not a bad place to start. Follow the trail back to his late-'90s work with Company Flow and his production behind labelmates like Aesop Rock, Cannibal Ox, and Cage, and it's clear he helped to carve out the hip-hop ice-planet and welcome some of its most distinguished citizens.
The brat: Freddie Gibbs (Saturday, 7:40 p.m.) has admittedly been at it a little longer than some might realize, thanks to the classic hip-hop story of "rapper meets label, deal falls through." For now, independently released mixtapes seem to be serving him well enough, judging by last year's The Miseducation Of Freddie Gibbs. Gibbs' raps about Chicago's hell-next-door—Gary, Ind.—can match Raekwon's unapologetic street sense, but the smoothly zig-zagging flow of tracks like "From Tha G" actually helps to balance out Rae's icy Staten Island omens.
Backtrack with: The El-P touch was even more jarring and desolate on the 1997 Company Flow album Funcrusher Plus than it is on next month's upcoming mixtape Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3.

Noisy duos
The old guard: The best way to clear a room of Neon Indian fans might be to put on some Lightning Bolt (Sunday, 4:15). Brian Gibson's bass and Brian Chippendale's drums and distorted vocals should hit like still-hot shrapnel from a crazier time, when it only took two guys in a gloriously crude rock format to ignite a communal rampage.
The brats: Sleigh Bells (Sunday, 7:40 p.m.) are getting a much more fashionable introduction to the world: Their debut album, Treats, came out on M.I.A.'s label, not to mention that Alexis Krauss' vocals have a bit in common with M.I.A.'s loopier moments. If not as insanely abrasive as Lightning Bolt, Sleigh Bells' beats at least send some shudders of distortion into the mix, and Derek Miller's guitars ground the duo's spacy pop vibes.
Backtrack with: Still, the relentless flailing of Lightning Bolt's 2003 album Wonderful Rainbow makes Sleigh Bells' grooves sound restrained.

Screwball guitar-rock
The old guard: Pavement (Sunday, 8:30 p.m.) helped make screwball guitar-rock fashionable and will get plenty of thanks for it on its current reunion tour. While the songs of The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (Saturday, 5:15 p.m.) might not be as fun as Pavement's, the band has helped smart-assed indie rock maintain its air of sleazy fascination. After all, rock still needs bands that come off like deviants pulling a crank-fueled stunt. 
The brats: Annie Clark of St. Vincent (Sunday, 5:15 p.m.) advances indie-rock guitar-playing beyond mere good-natured sloppiness. A former member of Glenn Branca's Guitar Orchestra, Clark cunningly mixes the noisy resourcefulness of the avant-garde with catchy, gnarled leads and an imposing bank of effects pedals.

Backtrack with: Matador's recent reissues of the Pavement discography.

Sweet 'n' sour pop
The old guard: Modest Mouse (Friday, 8:30 p.m.), strange as it feels to say.
The brats: Philadelphia's Kurt Vile sings a few electrocutions below Isaac Brock's abrupt howl. But taken together, 2009's Childish Prodigy and 2008's Constant Hitmaker throw the listener around almost as roughly as a good Modest Mouse song. Unlike other artists who pile their tracks with analog gadgetry, Vile sounds like he's really getting his hands dirty: A little static offers a volatile contrast to Vile's lilting vocal melody on "Best Love," and "Amplifier" keeps just a hint of recklessness lurking behind the pretty guitar jangles.

Backtrack with: Hardly the deepest Modest Mouse cut, "Bury Me With It" awaits those who feel too old and ornery to take in the likes of Best Coast (Sunday, 1:55 p.m.) or Girls (Sunday, 2:30 p.m.).