Pitchfork Music Festival Paris 2012

Much like the French indie cultural magazine Les Inrockuptibles ('Les Inrocks'), the Chicago website Pitchfork started to write about the world of rock in 1995. The webzine quickly became a cult site, followed by hundreds of thousands of fans that used it to follow the next big things in indie pop and electro-rock. But, also much like Les Inrocks, Pitchfork's reputation gradually started to erode. Accused of underground snobbery and parochial mentality, the site struggled to maintain its freshness, often lauding virtually interchangeable bands. Despite this, Pitchfork has always had a talent for finding promising acts before everyone else - Arcade Fire or Broken Social Scene - and it was in this spirit of discovering new talents that prevailed that the festival was created in Chicago in 2006. This is the festival's second year in Paris, and it already rivals Les Inrocks for exciting new names. The lineup this year includes Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Sébastien Tellier and Fuck Buttons. See the whole programme here.

1-3 November at Grande Halle de la Villette.