Are you kidding me?!!

So, who's coming to Chicago with me in the summer?

There are three (Yes, three!) exciting, huge, indie, music festivals this summer that happen to be in Chicago. Hmm. I wonder why.

First and possibly best is Pitchfork's first offical festival. Last year, they curated the Intonation Festival and had staple bands like Broken Social Scene, among others. For this one, they have been releasing band names slowly. The first group was enough to make me buy plane tickets (if I could afford them): Ted Leo! Mountain Goats? The National?!! Are you kidding me?? They've got a lot more bands to announce, so they could be saving their big big names.

Next is this year's Intonation Festival. Curated by VICE Records and, oh, my favorite radio station, KEXP. The big name here, so far, is Bloc Party. With many, many, more bands to be announced, this fest may be the smallest of the three, but i'd still go.

Finally, the behemoth. If Indie Rock had a big massive Microsoft-metaphor, it'd be Lollapalooza. I went to Lollapalooza '96 and had an amazing time that I recall vividly to this day. This year is like some big bad Fuck You! year and it seeks to top every other festival of the year and possibly history. Chili Peppers, Flaming Lips, Death Cab, Broken Social Scene!, among others really make this year a standout. 130 bands on eight stages over two days = a fucking awesome time.

I wonder if I can take three vacations over the summer.