The Pipettes Credit: Photo By Roxanne Jo Mitchell

Pitchfork Day Party

Emo’s, Friday, March 16

Welcome to the battle of hype vs. hope. As the reigning queen of band-breaking, Pitchfork blasts into SXSW with a lineup strung with lights. Instrumental Montreal post-rock outfit Do Make Say Think opened up the ring with a set of metal riffs conjoined with trumpet blasts and waves of calming inertia. The Pipettes: all hype. Like the Spice Girls doing a Fifties revue, Brighton, UK’s manufactured girl group is a cutesy cocktail of sugary, loosely choreographed polka dots. Marnie Stern equals guitar karaoke via iPod, bless her heart. Like a Sunday morning daydream, Baltimore duo Beach House shone with heartbreaking songs that rolled in with the tide. Toting a full band, RJD2 opted for funk over electronics, and Portland, Ore.’s Menomena was hypnotizing but better on album. Girl Talk might be king of the mash-up, but Gregg Gillis put on the best show of the day, and Swedish bad boys with good hearts, Peter, Bjorn & John, set the sun on power pop with punk overtones, like Oasis without the drugs.

This article appears in March 16 • 2007.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US