Posts Tagged ‘indie’
Hove Festival – Day Two
Hove Backstage by boat
Day two at Hove Festivalen and we kick off the morning with a little exploration of the festival Island and surrounding coast by jumping aboard a gorgeous motor boat and pootering along the coast. Our captain is more than happy to extol the virtues of the surrounding countryside, which is by now revealing itself to be so breathtaking it will undoubtedly be slapped with a government health warning sooner or later. Revelation of the trip though is perhaps that last year the captain played host to those lovely Kooks boys who were such models of British politeness that they left a lasting impression. Good to hear!
Musically the second day of the Hove Festival in Norway opened with exemplary exponents of the new Bergen Wave, The New Wine, who those of you in the know may have seen rammed into the top floor of the Lock Tavern last december or possibly whipping up a frenzy at Komedia stepping into Golden Silvers shoes at The Great Escape. Tonight in their home country they seem like a band where everything has been taken to the next level, commanding the stage with a mature confidence that belies their youth.
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Isle Of Wight Festival 2009 – Final Thoughts
They say that Sunday is funday and there was certainly a celebratory air present as sunshine greeted the final day of this years Isle Of White installment, not least due to the heady double bill headlining the main stage that would see Neil Young following the mythic Pixies.
Before that though there was a world of entertainment to be absorbed. Not least the exciting prospect of the Bog Top Stage being curated by Tim Burgess of The Charlatans. The wily old fox has managed to snare an incredible line up of buzz bands including the likes of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, S.C.U.M., The Horrors and topped it all off with a turn from the Charlatans themselves.
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Isle Of Wight Festival – Day Two
The second day of the isle of White festival saw temperatures soar on and off stage. Following friday nights storming headline set from the Prodigy the weather decided it needed to follow suit raising temperatures to skin blistering heights.
Enjoying the vibe were the likes of Paolo Nutini and The View who treated the assembled crowd to high octane versions of ‘5 Rebeccas’ and ‘Temptation Dice’ in a set showcasing the highlights of their Which Bitch album. Over on the Big Top stage The Maccabees followed up a successful jaunt in Europe with a celebratory set that saw the crowd spilling out of the massive tent. Lead singer Orlando capped off a performance of ‘Precious Time’ by declaring “I am so pleased for you with the weather, you couldn’t of had it better could you?!” The band capped their performance with a version of ‘Love You Better’ off of their sophomore LP Wall Of Arms with guitarist Felix noting, “it’s been great to be a part of the Isle Of Wight Festival, we didn’t expect so many people, it means a lot”. The band will be heading out on a headline UK tour in October where alt-folk legend Adam Green is expected to support after the band talked with him at this years Great Escape Festival.
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Dinosuar Jr – J Mascis Interview
The notion of interviewing Dinosaur Jr founder and mainstay J Mascis is always adaunting one. Famously reticent in interview Mascis comes across as an otherworldly and aloof professor, reluctant to communicate verbally what he could so easily impart with a simple solo or feedback squall. However, in person, hunched over a west London hotel couch, though never bordering on chatty Mascis is engaging, witty and warm. As well he should be, for life is good for Mascis at the moment, the original line up of Dinosaur Jr are about to drop ‘Farm’ their second album since reforming for ‘Beyond’, they have signed to new home Jagjaguwar and Mascis is also a new father. Though for now he seems far more interested in iPhone apps.
Festival Preview: Hove Festival
Hove Festivalen 2009
22-25 June 2009
Hove, Norway
Headliners: The Killers, Slipknot, Faith No More, Franz Ferdinand
There can be little doubt that Norway is one of the most beautiful countries on earth. Sharing the kind of breathtaking geography of other global extremities such as New Zealand, it’s glacial fjords and 24/7 summers lend it an otherworldly vibe.
Into this already stunning setting the Hove Festival thrusts the very best of world musical talent onto an intoxicating Norweigan coastline for 4 days of music, nature, beaches and camping every June. Like many european festivals it boasts an incredible line up of bands that it’s increasingly hard and costly to see in the UK, with this years line up offering the perfect excuse to take the week off work and get yourselves up to the good north.
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Stag & Dagger: Round Up
My lord, festival season is coming thick and fast already this year, and with Camden Crawl, Great Escape, turning Point and various other flashes of pre summer brilliance setting the standard high it is with a sense of delirious expectation that a night roaming Shoreditch courtesy of Stag & Dagger ganders into view. Fortunately those sensational chaps in their booking machines at Vice, and Adventures In the Beetroot Field know their music and have assembled a staggering line up that is bound to cause numerous heart attacks and spontaneous indie boy combustions as people try and master the simply impossible task of seeing every hot band on offer over the course of one manic evening.
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Idlewild: Roddy Womble interview.
It’s 14 years since Idlewild first raged into earshot in a maelstrom of feedback and lost shoes that caused the NME to observe their early shows were, ‘like the sound of a flight of stairs falling down a flight of stairs.’ Yet what began as a violent, swirling study in angular art punk on the Captain EP has developed into a body of work that has been likened to the folk tinged latter day rock of REM or Pearl Jam, and set up Idlewild as one of the most important bands of the last 20 years. The music they create has grown up with them, from the sheer heart attack of ‘Everyone Says You’re So Fragile’, to the alt-folk of ‘El Capitan’, bringing with them a generation of music fans from puberty to adulthood, without ever sounding as if they have undergone a crass ‘reinvention’. In their second album, 2000’s ‘100 Broken Windows’, they achieved that rarest of feats by recording a contender for the ‘flawless albums’ category, creating one of the most rewarding indie-rock albums in existence.
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Planet Brain updates
Here’s a copy of the latest newsletter from one of my favourite bands on the planet… Planet Brain. Whom I thought I should share with you. Review of their new EP up soon.
You can read a previous Planet Brain interview here: http://sexasaforeignlanguage.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/planet-brain-full-interview/
Enjoy, discover, love.
jx
Hi all! Thanks to everyone of you for joining us on Facebook! You (we) are already 300! This is a short newsletter, to give you some links:
- “Function Records” will release next month a SPLIT ALBUM with Planet Brain / Lebatol. Stay tuned, more news coming soon! We also planned some “split gigs” in the North-East Italy for the album release, and we will do some shows in UK (and maybe France?) soon.
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The Fratellis – Jon
‘We really haven’t achieved anything yet, we’re just getting started, so it’s flattering to be compared to bands that have really meant something, but we haven’t earned it yet.’ So muses John Lawler (Jon Fratelli) of Glaswegian tunesmiths The Fratellis when asked if he feels part of a new wave of Scottish bands that have come to the fore over the last 2 years including Biffy Clyro, Glasvegas, The View and more. He is reflecting as the band pause before launching into a December headlining tour that will see the band sign off 2008 to a packed SECC crowd in Glasgow a few days before Christmas, and though his initial statement may seem dismissive of a Brit award winning band who this year released their second album and who’s doo doo de doo refrain from breakthrough single ‘Chelsea Dagger’ still reverberates along terraces the length and breadth of the nation, it is not that surprising of a man who takes most of his notes on how to be a band from that small beat combo from Liverpool, The Beatles.
Nelson – Le Nouvelle Vague
This article originally appeared on Subba Cultcha.
Nelson stumble out of the east London Café with the air of chic Parisian cool you might expect, a collection of sharp fashions, sharper cheekbones and unkempt hair. A collection of 20 something music producers, Nelson came together in order to combat the dearth of intelligent French indie in the wake of the US/UK invasion circa the Strokes et al by fusing the deathly hallow cool of Joy Division to the electro pulses and dance beats more often associated by French dance giants Daft Punk or Cassius. Not content with simply operating as a band they launched a club night to offer young Paris somewhere to get down to a cross of alternative godheads Sonic Youth and the cowbell toting antics of The Rapture…naturally, just as everybody who saw the first Sex Pistols gig (yes including that ginger wanker Hucknal) is rumoured to have done, those who attended went away to form their own bands who were produced by and shared bills with Nelson, setting them up as the fathers of an entire new ‘Nouvelle Vague’ movement in French music.
