Slumgullion

Photo from the Pitchfork Music Festival Facebook page.

Welcome to everyone who’s in town for Pitchfork. The annual celebration of indie rock, hip hop and other out-of-the-mainstream genres started today, and runs through Sunday in Union Park. The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, along with the city’s weekly free papers, The Reader (with its traditional collectable cover) and Redeye, all have extensive Pitchfork coverage in their latest issues.

Power pop fans who show up at FitzGerald’s in Berwyn tomorrow night are in for a fascinating double bill as Cliff Johnson and The Raine open the evening, and Johnson and the original members of Off Broadway close it. The Raine (John D. Kolonel, Dave Sebastian, Bill Bickel, and Bill Kowalski) have done a great job of backing Johnson as he performs Off Broadway tunes, but it’s also a safe bet that longtime fans will love to see the original Off Broadway back on stage again.

Alt rock band whitewolfsonicprincess will be at The Store tomorrow night with The Darkroom Men and Flapunco.

ArtFest Michigan Avenue opened today in the shadow of the Tribune Tower and will run through Sunday.

Tickets went on sale today for Michael Nesmith and The First National Bank Band at The Old Town School of Folk Music on September 13; KT Tunstall at Park West on November 1; and Violent Femmes at The Vic on November 4.

Shows coming up next Friday, July 27 include My Bloody Valentine at The Riviera Theatre; Mavis Staples at the at Canal Shore Golf Club in Evanston; and Peter Himmelman at SPACE in Evanston. On Sunday. July 29, Jeff Beck, Paul Rogers, and Ann Wilson will perform at the Huntington Pavilion on Chicago’s lakefront.

A special tour edition of Ann Wilson’s upcoming solo album Immortal—a collection of cover material by some of her favorite artists—is now available for a digital download. Two of the tracks were recorded live at The Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, IL. The full album comes out in September.

In other album news, Paul Collins, a member of the highly influential trio The Nerves, and the founder of the dynamic power pop outfit The Paul Collins Beat, has been notching positive reviews for his latest, Out Of My Head.