Sadly I won't be making it to the Pitchfork Music Festival this weekend (or any of the week-long festivities, for that matter) due to out-of-town plans, so I won't be joining in the usual bevy of festival coverage (not that you won't have enough as it is). To be honest, though, I'm not all that into the lineup this year anyway. I mean, it is a good line-up and all, but there aren't any bands that I haven't either seen very recently (the National, Tapes 'N Tapes, Band of Horses), seen at least 5 times already (Spoon), don't care to see at all (Destroyer and Yo La Tengo, both very boring live IMHO), will get to see in the next couple months (Mountain Goats at the Empty Bottle in September, Ted Leo at the Touch and Go festival), or admittedly never heard of before now (Os Mutantes). Plenty of great bands, yes, some that I really love in fact, but at the same time they're all bands that are touring the city pretty heavily these days. Other than Os Mutantes and maybe Jens Lekman, there's no one that's making a rare appearance that usually makes a festival really exciting.

Or maybe I'm just getting old and I weigh the decision of using up an entire weekend of potential free time more heavily this year than I did last because last summer I was unemployed and could take a day or two to recover from the heat and the standing and the partying, and this year I have a day job and have to get up at 6:45 every morning! Sigh, the rock and roll lifestyle sure is hard when you wear a suit.