Catch Chicago's A Lull, Outer Minds at Pitchfork Fest 2012

By Frank Krolicki

A Lull

Although they take place in our city, both Pitchfork Music Festival and Lollapalooza have always included a pretty sparse selection of Chicago bands. And while you'll probably still need to hit up the various street festivals around town to get your fix of home-brewed sounds during summer 2012, Pitchfork's latest lineup announcement has revealed two locally-based acts that you can plan to catch in Union Park this July--A Lull and Outer Minds.

The two bands were announced today along with a list of others, including Wild Flag, Beach House, Cults, Real Estate, Atlas Sound, and more. These join previously-announced acts such as Vampire Weekend, Feist, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Dirty Projectors, Hot Chip, Sleigh Bells and Flying Lotus. You can see the full lineup here.

Experimental, percussion-driven indie rockers A Lull have been busy over the past year, releasing their debut LP Confetti as well as a follow-up EP, Confetti Reprise. They also released videos for two songs--"Some Love" and "Weapons for War." And oh yeah, a Springsteen cover. For the next week, you can stream Confetti in its entirety via Mush Records, and you might also want to grab a free download of the track "Some Love" while you're at it. Check out the Brothertiger remix of the song below. A Lull play the fest on Sunday, July 15th.

A Lull - Some Love (Brothertiger Remix) by MushRecords

Outer Minds, a name that has been coming up regularly over the past few months, make '60s-styled garage/psych pop--the kind that sends you to another time but still manages to sound exciting. Last year they released a couple 7-inches on HoZac Records, following them up with their debut self-titled record on Southpaw Records in March. Having played SXSW last month and now set for Pitchfork, I expect we'll be hearing a lot more about them. Take a listen to one of the album's tracks, "Gimme a Reason," below, and be sure to catch 'em at the fest on Friday, July 13th.

Outer Minds - Gimmie A Reason by southpawrecs

Pitchfork fest runs from July 13-15 in Union Park. While three-day passes are already sold out, you can still pick up single day passes here. Stay tuned for a more detailed schedule with set times.