Sian Alice Group
August 6th 2009
In the last couple of years, New York label The Social Registry have done a great job of introducing me to some truly compelling new music, most notably the fractured sound-collages and noisy pop of Gang Gang Dance’s quite astonishing God’s Money.
The Twilight Sad
August 5, 2009
The Twilight Sad’s 2007 album, Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters, was, and remains, a record that required something of the listener – the lyrics were bleak, James Graham’s vocals veered from a plaintive Scottish mumble to an all-teeth-bared bark, and guitarist Andy MacFarlane carved into the songs with great crescendos of noise. If these waves of sound and emotion washed over a few, they pulled a great many under, and The Twilight Sad have gained, and continue to gain, a devoted following in the UK, and also over in the U.S. Their Lexington gig was the last opportunity to see the band before they head off on an extensive American tour before inevitably returning to play far bigger venues on this side of the Atlantic.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
August 4, 2009
The Highbury Garage is now ‘relentless’ and all shiny and new. I wasn’t around to visit the venue in its old incarnation but it’s a nice size and the sound was excellent throughout the evening. They’ve got a pretty decent line up of bands in the next few months too, so those in and around north London might want to keep an eye on its listings.
Field Day
August 1, 2009
There’s this thing about the date Field Day‘s on, every time I go (ok, twice): IT RAINS. Get over it.
Except… when you’re at a one-dayer whose capacity’s expanded beyond the realms of its own 2007 plans (in spite of them, ahem, selling x tickets – or, double ahem, NOT selling x tickets), and whose organisers have decided that using a PA miles away from being powerful enough for the likes of Mogwai and The Horrors let alone Final Fantasy is the best idea.
Phew.
That’s just the main stage, let’s talk tents. Through no fault of her own, Micachu‘s set clashes with a torrential downpour. Resilient, she decices to play acoustically for one song. I have absolutely no idea what song she’s playing. I couldn’t tell you even if you gave me £1,000 to find out. She might as well not bother; all that can be heard is that crashing of the rain, the muttering of a load of nimwits who really ought to’ve stayed at home and the occasional beat. It’s such a shame. The echo is such that it feels like a tannoy announcement at Waitrose. Yes, Waitrose; it’s THAT kind of festival. … Continue Reading
The Mae Shi
After spending a few days in Chicago lugging myself around in blistering ninety degree heat, Mother Nature was kind to us Pitchfork Festival attendees and let the weather cool down for the weekend.
Supersonic 2009
Birmingham seems to fare less and less well for live music with each passing year and so Capsule’s Lisa Meyer and Jenny Moore (founders of Supersonic) are to be cherished, venerated and quite possibly added to the Queen’s honours list. Future Dames Meyer and Moore continue to forge a unique musical spectacle, filled with genre bending and boundary stretching music, diverse art installations and of course, cake.
Teenage Fanclub
What more could a girl want than a tiny little festival on the Midland Railway, a little tram/train hybrid to and from the campsite, talks by Fortuna Pop and a little marquee with an ever-changing timetable of Tatty Devine rarities, band merch, brooches… ? Essentially, it’s heaven.
The site is so small that it becomes an existence. You see Boy With Christmas-Wrapping Cardigan again and again – there’s only about 1,000 gathered here, after all. There’s a level crossing between the Elefant-sponsored stage and the indoor stage, and the third and fourth stages are a Church and a moving steam engine respectively. Soulless corporate junkies, rip your brains out; this is how to do a festival from scratch.
The Marshmallow Kisses are the first stop of the day, and it’s tweepop in the form of wannabe themes for children’s TV. In some rough order, other wondrous musics caught over the course of the day initiate with Portland’s Eux Autres, who recall Sleater-Kinney and The Vaselines without even a second to think. It’s gutsy and it’s fuzzy and it’s great. … Continue Reading
Camera Obscura necklace, by Tatty Devine
Oh, Indietracks; if I was in my own indiepop band I’d write a song about how lovely you are. It’d be written in the form of a love letter, sealed with a red lipstick kiss and attached to a packet of lovehearts wrapped up in ’50s wallpaper. I don’t want to be in the modern world anymore, it’s not lovely enough.
Little My, the first band on our schedule, are a chaotically twee delight. There’s as many of them on the stage as’ll fit, and they’re playing wooden spoons against barriers and all sorts. They’re all dressed in at least animal-ears, be in the form of a bear suit, rabbit ears or some sort of furry mask. Never in fact have a band more accurately described themselves than Little My: “like walking in on a primary school music lesson”.
The next find in the series of endless loveliness is Sucrette, all the way from Japan. The so-cute-you-want-to-put-her-in-your-pocket (in a non-creepy way) singer is brilliant, her vocals softer than um, MJ Hibbett’s heart. It’s like the soundtrack to Eurotrash if it was presented by Lawrence circa Go-Kart Mozart rather than Antoine de Caunes. Absolutely lovely.
Corkian joy is found in The Frank and Walters‘ set. Last.fm says they were supported by Radiohead in Glasgow in 1991 – blimey. In 1992, it was Suede. Some history, and it’s a good job that their songs are made of the most beautiful, erudite, emotional pop heard all weekend. Given this writer was only five-years-old back then, it’s now time catch up.
Camera Obscura over on the main stage are delightful; Tracyanne Campbell even cracks a smile – and gosh, it seems like she’s been through it lately. My Maudlin Career isn’t exactly the cheeriest album, but it’s made of a warm heart here in the open air. ‘Hey Lloyd…’ is storming, Carey Lander’s opening organ line a fanfare to the eyes. The peak is the expected set-closer ‘Razzle Dazzle Rose’, the tremolos at the end showing just how beautiful (seriously, how many synonymns for ‘beautiful’ can be found before the end of this review?) an arrangement the song is. Nearly tear-jerking, actually – or maybe that’s the cider talking.
Now, Emmy The Great – Emma Lee-Moss plays a superb set, the unhinged cracks andbetween-song banter disarmingly honest. It’s something new in this era of re-hash and rehearsal, for sure. All the same, she does herself no favours by coming across as such a dismissive character. The set itself is brilliant, ‘First Love’ sounding even easier and sharper than on the record. ‘Abstentee’ and ‘We Almost Had A Baby’ are yet more effortless (yes, more!), the parts dashed and thrown together for fun into something so… well could it be called anti-precise? Is this turn of phrase as irksome as the previous criticism? Only if you consider that she’s anything other than the female stage persona of a younger Adam Green. … Continue Reading
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