Sets You Need To Catch At Pitchfork 2022…

Pitchfork Music Festival is returning to Chicago’s Union Park this month, and bringing with it a roster of artists you won’t want to miss. 

This year’s Pitchfork Festival takes place July 15-17, and sees the return of big names like Noname, cupcakKe and Earl Sweatshirt  — and features others on Vocalo’s frequent rotation, like KAINA, Amber Mark and Tierra Whack. Here’s some background on a few artists you may want to know… before you finalize your festival schedule.

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Tierra Whack

Friday, June 15 at 5:15 p.m.

Red Stage

One of hip-hop’s most playful voices, Tierra Whack is returning to Pitchfork this year. Her first album, 2018’s Whack World, is a series of vignette-like tracks which earned her widespread acclaim. Tierra hasn’t stopped releasing compelling singles since, and dropped three short but sweet EPs last year, titled Rap?, Pop? and R&B?. More recently, she’s taken on a few non-musical projects — namely, becoming the creative director of Banter by Piercing Pagoda and playing a role in the Netflix film Hustle, starring Adam Sandler. Tierra is sure to bring every ounce of her colorful personality to Pitchfork on Friday, June 15.

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Amber Mark

Friday, June 15 at 8:45 p.m.

Blue Stage

Amber Mark has one of the most powerful voices on this year’s Pitchfork roster. Amber first started turning heads in 2017 with the release of her 3:33am EP which was rife with compelling vocal leads and left just enough room for some genre-bending flare. Her newest album Three Dimensions Deep takes her production and songwriting to the next level. The album outlines a sparkling, lamented journey from heartbreak to healing over its 17 tracks, with standouts like “Foreign Things” and “What It Is.” Amber is hot off the heels of a US tour with Sean Ross and Jean Deaux, and has an upcoming European tour starting in September.

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CupcakKe

Saturday, June 16 at 1:45 p.m.

Red Stage

There’s no way around it: cupcakKe is an icon. Her approach to rap is expressive, funny and boldly celebrated sexual liberation in the 2010s. CupcakKe succeeds at both delivering hilarious, over-the-top raunchiness and making astute social commentary on gender roles, LGBTQ identities and race. We haven’t seen a full album from her since the one-two punch of 2018’s Ephorize and Eden, but a steady stream of singles has kept fans satisfied over the past four years. She rocked Chicago’s Pride Fest last month with a jubilantly explicit performance, and we can’t wait to see what she brings to Pitchfork. 

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KAINA

Sunday, June 17 at 2:30 p.m.

Green Stage

Chicago’s KAINA erases musical boundaries with heartwarming combinations of psychedelia, R&B, traditional Latin music and so much more. Her 2022 album, It Was A Home, is a 12-track helping of dreamy alt-R&B goodness we have not been able to stop spinning. Before concluding her first headlining tour this year, she made a stop in Austin for a gorgeous performance at SXSW, presented by Vocalo. If you find your festival weekend getting too hectic, make sure to catch KAINA’s set and put your mind at ease.

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Noname

Sunday, June 17 at 5:15 p.m.

Red Stage

Though her music has been constantly in rotation on our airwaves since the release of Telefone in 2016, audiences have only heard once-a-year singles from acclaimed Chicago rapper Noname since 2018’s Room 25 — the most recent of which, “Rainforest,” was one of Vocalo’s top 50 spins for 2021. The year following her performance at Pitchfork Festival 2018, Noname decided to take a break from performing, but has hinted at a return to music more recently. Outside of her artistry, though, Noname’s community activism has only grown more impactful over the past several years; Noname Book Club, a Black-led cooperative connecting the community — incarcerated or otherwise — with free access to radical books written by BIPOC authors, has grown to include 12 chapters nationwide after its founding in 2019. Her set will be her first solo performance in Chicago since 2018, and we’re looking forward to hearing what it will entail…

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Earl Sweatshirt

Sunday, June 17 at 6:15 p.m.

Green Stage

Back on the Pitchfork lineup after canceling his performance in 2018, Chicago-born rapper Earl Sweatshirt is a must-see at Pitchfork this year. The artist has grown so much in production quality, lyricism, subject matter and flow since his days in Odd Future; needless to say, his trajectory has only gone up. His fourth studio album Sick! was released into the world in January 2022, and it does not disappoint. Inspired by the ongoing pandemic and becoming a father, the album is a look into Earl’s psyche: the grief, the struggles and the joy. It also features Zelooperz and Pitchfork veteran Armand Hammer. It’s going to be amazing to see these songs come to life on stage this weekend.

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Toro y Moi

Sunday, June 17 at 7:25 p.m.

Red Stage

After wowing listeners with his seventh studio album MAHAL at the end of April, multi-genre singer, songwriter and producer Toro y Moi is one of the headliners for this year’s festival and we’re pumped to hear him perform live. As a big name in the international music scene for more than a decade, if there’s one thing Toro y Moi (AKA Chaz Bear) knows it’s how to keep listeners interested and fans engaged. MAHAL explores elements of psychedelia and funk, each of its 14 tracks with its own distinct flavors; opener “The Medium” features Unknown Mortal Orchestra and leans more toward swelling psychedelic rock, while second track “Goes By So Fast” floats listeners into a surrealist jazzy-saxophone-funk atmosphere and “Magazine,” featuring Salami Rose Joe Louis, leans toward a more trendy lo-fi electronic indie (think Still Woozy meets Phoenix). Picturing the stage against a pink sky as the sun sets over the festival as Toro y Moi performs Sunday feels like a movie scene — just keep your fingers crossed for clear weather… 

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Written by George Chiligiris, Morgan Ciocca and Makenzie Creden

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