If you missed Pitchfork because it cost money or because it was too long to be out in the heat, there’s always the free Downtown Sound series, which has been Pfork-worthy in its programming this year. Tonight is almost your last chance to catch it: the penultimate show features multinational dream-pop vets Blonde Redhead and increasingly buzz-worthy Chicago duo My Gold Mask, tonight in Millennium Park at 6:30.
They make a good pair for a very hot summer day: both are in the ballpark of atmospheric, sensual dream-pop that just sounds like a humid city night, but in entirely different ways. My Gold Mask is all edges and rhythm, the chiming guitars punctuated by big drums, sharp percussion, and Gretta Rochelle’s big voice.
Blonde Redhead, on the other hand, is the chillout tent: wispy electronic textures and just-too-slow-to-dance drums lifting Kazu Makino’s fragile voice. It’s music to sit under a heat dome to.
My Gold Mask – Violet Eyes – Official Video from Jim Newberry on Vimeo.