Intro | Saturday | Sunday
4:30 PM El-P Around the turn of the century, the man once known as Jaime Meline was part of a wave of indie MCs and producers that changed the focus of the hip-hop underground from Native Tongues-style backpacker rap to something much darker. His most recent full-length, 2007’s I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, is a claustrophobically dense, dystopian soundscape with even denser lyrics, touching on paranoia, phobias, and panic attacks. El-P picks apart old-school hip-hop tropes—soul samples, sirens, boom-bap drums—and reshapes them into a massive, tweaky sprawl, creating something that sounds like the Bomb Squad trying to remix a Philip K. Dick novel. He’s not without a sense of humor, though: in his remix of Justin Bieber’s “Baby,” recently debuted via his Twitter account, he splices in a noisy beat, chunks of Wings’ “Live and Let Die,” and a series of well-deployed Sam Kinison samples. El-P also spins a DJ set Thu 7/15 at Bottom Lounge with Neon Indian and Dam-Funk; it’s 18+ and free with RSVP to uptheantics.com/pitchfork. Aluminum —MR
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6:25 PM Robyn Something violent stirs inside the hectic powder-puff pop of this adorable platinum-blonde Swedish fashion pixie. As she busts moves that are basically Scandinavian capoeira, her voice breaks sweetly, betraying the anxiety she’s tapping into—her songs are perfectly framed windows into the savage emotions that dance-club drama can produce when you’re actually invested in it. Aluminum —LA
8 PM Eugene Mirman Balance
