You know that Pitchfork Fest is Friday, July 19th - Sunday, July 22nd. I know you know that. There are a ton bands playing. There are also tons of good bands playing after parties those same nights at places like Lincoln Hall and Schubas and Bottom Lounge. So, yes. There is a ton of goodness to see out there this week. And you can view everything right here. But we're going to highlight only one of these good bands and let you explore the rest. And that band is Waxahatchee.

Philly's (by way of Alabama) Waxahatchee is Katie Crutchfield - who sings and strums country-folk (tinged with punk) songs that come at you with a certain sense of sadness. Heartache seems to be most at work here. You and I both know about that. We've been there.

These are good drinking songs -- if you sometimes need to go that way in order to recognize and make sense of things. Been there.

Waxahatchee have an album coming out on Don Giovanni (home to Screaming Females + Hilly Eye + more fine bands). I bet it's going to be really good. Even though it's about...whew, yeah...heartache.

But I guess there's something to be said for heartache. After all, without heartache we wouldn't have any sad songs. And if we didn't have any sad songs we'd have nothing to play when we are all alone and feeling unsettled.

Those quiet moments of unsettled aloneness are often sad. Yes, they are. But those moments can also kind of be sublime too. Proof of that claim lies somewhere within the melody of this song.



Waxahatchee plays Pitchfork Fest, at Union Park, on Sunday, July 21st.