Friday highlights at Glastonbury - after the rain, came the sun and then came the music. N*E*R*D’s Pharrell Williams, Little Boots, Hot Chip, Gabriella Cilmi and Lily Allen all paid their tribute to Michael Jackson. The Specials offered their take on the Glastonbury lineup and revealed no love loss for Lady GaGa - Terry Hall called her ‘gross’ and ‘obnoxious’. Lady GaGa herself seemed to prefer to chat her way through her set rather than sing, Jack White’s The Dead Weather played a surprise set and headliner Neil Young proved there’s life in the dog yet…
Tag Archives: 2009
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May 15th, 2009
Just before they took off for the south coast to play The Great Escape festival I was fortunate enough to catch up with Cole Alexander and Jared Swilley of Black Lips. They talk about 200 Million Thousand, plans for the summer, their bizarre and not all pleasant Glastonbury experience, a bunch of weird, far right, homophobic Christians from Singapore and the possibility of including firearms in their stage act…
Tom Sowerby: Hey guys, it’s been three months since 200 Million Thousand came out, how has the response been?
Cole Alexander: For a lot of our old fans it was a kind of return to form, to our roots, which a lot of our old fans really like.
TS: That’s cool, and what have you been up to since its release, a lot playing and promoting?
Jared Swilley: Yeah, well we’ve been on tour for ages. I suppose it all goes back to January 10th when we flew out from our home town, Atlanta, and we really haven’t been back much since.
TS: About the album, I read that you preferred the whole ‘60s approach to recording music, like all playing the songs together at the same time as opposed to each part individually; did you do that for this album?
Jared: All the basic tracks are just us guys in a room together, we go back and overdub vocals and we have extra instruments which we’ll do separately but the core of the album is all live.
TS: Excellent, and is it right you made this album straight on to vinyl instead of digitally or CD?
Cole: Yeah we did that with this record
Jared: Yeah, it went digital somewhere in the process, I’m sure, but it’s as close as you can get to having a pure medium.
TS: You have an impressive list of influences with bands like the 13th Floor Elevators and the Lollipop Shoppe, how did you first get in to those kind of bands?
Jared: I don’t know actually…
Cole: I first heard the Lollipop Shoppe on a Pebbles compilation. We used to be on Bomp records and they put out a lot of the Pebbles stuff.
Jared: I guess you like listen to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones because your parents listen to it and then we kind of wanted something a bit more far out and compilations like Pebbles and Nuggets and Back From The Grave.
TS: Yeah, and a lot of your music sounds very reminiscent of that US 60’s psychedelic/garage like the 13th Floor Elevators, The Seeds and The Monks, is that the sound you’re going for?
Cole: That’s kind of like our roots; that music. We’ll venture out, but that’s always going to be our thing.
Jared: It kick started us a little bit, it’s what we wanted to do.
TS: You guys seem like you’re going to be around here a while and I was wondering if you’ve got any plans for any UK festivals?
Cole: Yeah we’re playing The Isle of White festival
Jared: I know we’re doing Reading and Leeds later this year, we’ve got some more too.
Cole: We’ve got Primavera in Spain too.
Jared: That’s the one I’m most looking forward to. Spanish festivals are always fun and the weathers good.
TS: I heard that you guys don’t want to do Glastonbury again, is that right?
Jared: Well, it’s not that we don’t want to do it again, we’re not knocking it, it’s just we didn’t really understand what it was and that we were staying there. We got there and there was just loads of mud everywhere and we had to sleep in the dirt and didn’t bring sleeping bags or pillows or anything and it kind of felt semi-apocalyptic at one point, we took psychedelic drugs and it took us two hours to find where we were staying. We were sleeping in this Tepee-
Cole: -it was kind of cool!
Jared: Yeah, and I remember at one point we were all sitting around a fire in the Tepee and that was cool but then I woke up and it looked like what I’d imagine Verdun would have looked like; there were just bodies and mud everywhere and it was, it was a rough morning.
Cole: I woke up in the middle of the night and I went in to someone else’s Tepee to see what was going on and they were asleep and their fire was starting to get out of control I had to put it out and it was spreading and this girl wasn’t waking up, and it was getting on her sheet. I started stamping the fire out and she was just like “stop trying to fucking wake me up!” if I didn’t come they would have burned up fast.
Jared: The toilets… I didn’t go to the bathroom while we were there because the toilets were so gross they were just like a giant pit. It was supposed to be a VIP camp but it all looked the same to me, it was kinda medieval.
Cole: I reckon I’d do it again.
Jared: Oh yeah, I’d do it again, but next time we’d be prepared.
New single I’ll Be With You, out 18th May.
TS: You guys have a pretty busy summer and I was wondering; when you go to festivals do you get to hang out for the weekend or do you usually have to head straight off?
Jared: We usually have to head off, it’s nice when we don’t; Primavera we’re going a day early and we have a lot of friends going there so that one will be really fun. At Coachella we got to stay the whole weekend and that was fun; we were there for three days and we only had to play once and just went to pools and golf courses the whole time.
TS: Would you say it’s the best festival you’ve ever been too?
Jared: Yeah. Well either that or ATP Vs Pitchfork that one was fun. They were both very good, but I love the ones in Spain because they do touches like putting Swimming Pools back stage for the bands and that’s always a nice perk.
TS: Yeah, I can imagine! Though you don’t really need a pool here; you have the rain…
Jared: Yeah, the rain could probably fill a swimming pool
TS: I wont talk about the whole India tour too much, because it’s already been spoken about a lot, but would you say it’s put you off going to all these different countries?
Jared: No, not at all, if anything it encourages us; when someone tells me I can’t do something it makes me want to do it more.
Cole: We were just doing our job. Even though we got kicked out, we were just doing a service to the people.
TS: And you guys also did Israel?
Jared: Yeah, that one was a major success and really fun, definitely want to go back there. I think we’re going to China and Thailand. We got invited to Singapore as well but I think we’ll turn that one down, because they’re a bit too conservative for us over there; I don’t want to get caned or anything…
Cole: There was an American kid who spray painted on some cars there and he was in big trouble and got caned and arrested. You can get in trouble for spitting there.
Jared: The main women’s rights group there was like a pseudo progressive organisation and last week there was a coup by these far right conservative Christians who took it over because they didn’t want the next generation to be lesbians. That was actually in the woman’s speech, so if they feel that strongly I don’t think they’d like us very much.
TS: Have you ever been to these countries, heard some of their local music and had it play a part in your influences?
Jared: Well I think Indian music, just because it was so psychedelic and cool and I was disappointed this time because we just heard bad heavy metal bands and alternative rock bands. That was disappointing because in my mind I had this image of a psychedelic train ride with a bunch of sitars and stuff but it was quite the opposite. But there’s a bunch of traditional Brazilian music I like, like Tropicalia music. So yeah sometimes, it makes a difference, but I mainly like American music, and British music.
TS: Is there one band in particular who you really love and hope to emulate?
Cole: 13th Floor Elevators are pretty high up there.
Jared: Yeah, them and like The Beatles, The Ramones and The Germs are real influential to us, they’re like an LA punk band who inspired me to want to do bad things. Not really bad things, but mischievous things. Oh and The Rolling Stones.
TS: If you want to live up to the 13th Floor Elevators are you considering getting an Electric Jug player in the band?
Cole: Yeah, we talked about maybe doing that for a song or something. I’ve heard this song by a new band where they do it.
TS: Oh really, awesome. I take it you’re not going to play Heaven again?
Jared: Nope, they accosted our booking agent, a friend of hers, beat me up and, y’know, I survived and stood up for myself but they’re a lot bigger than me and roughed me up pretty well. But shit like that happens everywhere; I’ve had worse in America.
Cole: It’s cool they at least captured it on YouTube, it made a good video.
Jared: Yeah, and you know what; those guys are idiots. If they had just let a few guys get on stage it would have been nothing. But that’s why I hate grown-ups, because they could have avoided all that, and it kinda worked in our favour but they could have avoided any conflict that night if they’d just acted like human beings and not beat up kids.
TS: Yeah, you guys have a pretty unique and controversial stage act, was there much going on before the whole stage invasion incident?
Jared: Well I like when you get a general air of when things are slightly out of control; just before violence breaks and just beyond when things are civil. It’s a fine line and I like being in that area. I like a good time when people are uninhibited and having fun. The best shows I ever went to when I was a kid were the ones when I was scared something was going to happen or I had the freedom to throw something, it just felt like I was doing something loose and I’m always trying to recreate that feeling; like the first time you get high you always want that first high again.
Cole: It’s true.
TS: Yeah, I’m guessing you’re not going to go Arthur Lee on us and fire a gun into the crowd though, right?
Cole: Butthole Surfers did that too, it’s a good one… I’d be open to it, you know.
TS: Awesome! Finally, it’s obviously only been a couple of months since you released 200 Million Thousand and you’ve got a busy summer ahead of you, but are there any plans for a new album?
Jared: Well we got a bit of summer vacation coming up so we’re going to go back to our studio and try to get things ready and see what everyone has, hopefully have an album done by the end of the year. But we also want to go take a vacation somewhere a some point.
TS: I’m guessing not Singapore…
Jared: No way, they’re all way too uptight…
May 15th, 2009
The first of our Road to V semi-finalist nights at Brighton’s Great Escape has been a rip-roaring success.
Despite (or perhaps because of) the torrential rain, the Coalition was packed from the start and winners of the fan’s vote Underline the Sky got everyone jumping with a hi-energy performance and some impressive guitar twirling.
51 Breaks brought Brummie rock ‘n’ roll moves and synth rock sounds to the seafront venue, while the eclectic Jazica dazzled with glitter pop and some heroic poses and crowd interaction from guitarist Chris.
Barely fitting themselves and their equipment on the stage, Duologue combined big beats, otherworldly synths, a violin and a toy megaphone to deliver a powerful set, and Dimbleby & Capper (or Laura to her friends) gave us mesmerising and original electropop, and would win the best outfit award, if we were offering such a thing, with a terrifying mask and an ingenious use of parcel tape.
All the acts were watched by our mentor Just Jack who gave them some welcome feedback and praise before taking to the stage himself for a rapturously received set, featuring songs from his forthcoming album ‘All Night Cinema’ and, of course, his 2007 smash hit ‘Starz In Their Eyes’.
Tonight’s show features the remaining five finalists, Akayzia, Bleech, Paul Dixon, The Last Republic and The Quotes, plus headliners and mentors The Charlatans.
May 14th, 2009
So you’re stuck in a field, there’s a rock band playing – we all know how this goes. Oh for a festival that has all the best bits of the normal events, but something a little unusual too. Say, a load of gigantic ancient diggers, situated just outside of Berlin? Welcome to Melt! Festival.
Of course, the staple of any festival is the music, which Melt! certainly delivers on for many different tastes. There are the big-hitting headliners in the shape of Oasis, Bloc Party and Aphex Twin. For those after acts that always pop up in the upper echelons of summer lineups, there is also Kasabian, The Gossip and Travis.
Regardless of who is playing, the whole thing is set in a Ferropolis, a location with the wonderfully rugged moniker of the City of Iron. Having been going for more than a decade, this German festival is established, but hasn’t grown to the size that can cause annoyances – the attendance just nips past the 20,000 mark. In addition, its location means a trip before of after to the fascinating and lively capital of the country is a must.
If more dance-orientated music being sought, it excels here too. With open air and tented venues running through the night for those with the stamina to stand it, Simian Mobile Disco, Yuksek, Digitalism, Boys Noize and Erol Alkan will be sure to thrill. Revellers wanting to move to more cutting edge yet chart-friendly sounds will be excited by Klaxons, Foals, Crystal Castles and La Roux.
Editors, who see their fair share of festivals, summed it up aptly after playing the event: “You don’t get anything like this anywhere else. It’s nice to see something
so different and unique, not just a field or a hall with a stage,” the band stated. “When the sun goes down here and all the machines are lit up and the stage lights go on, then everybody gets really involved.”
Innovative smaller groups and those who will soon be breaking through are also filling the bill, such as Caribou, The Dodos, Metronomy, The New Wine and Passion Pit, plus the critically-acclaimed Patrick Wolf, Cold War Kids and Animal Collective.
With all of the highs of a UK festival, a chance to hop over to Deutschland, one hell of a lineup and a setting of incomparable intrigue, Melt! Festival could just steal the summer. It takes place from July 17th to July 19th, with camping available beforehand too. Here is the main stages lineup so far, in running order no less.
The full line-up so far:
Friday 17.07.2009
Mainstage: Aphex Twin + Hecker, Travis, Klaxons, Röyksopp, Foals & Cold War Kids.
Gemini Stage: Gossip, Simian Mobile Disco (live), Jazzanova Live!, Crystal Castles, MSTRKRFT, Metronomy, Deadmau5, Bodi Bill & James Yuill.
Melt! Klub @ Coca Cola Soundwave Discovery Tent: The Soundtrack Of Our Lives , The Dodos , LA Roux, The Virgins , This Will Destroy You & Gysbert zu Knyphause.
Saturday, 18.07.2009
Mainstage: Bloc Party, Digitalism (live), Phoenix, The Whitest Boy Alive, Animal Collective, Jochen Distelmeyer & Baddies.
Gemini Stage: Boys Noize + Erol Alkan, !!! (chk chk chk), WhoMadeWho, Mediengruppe Telekommander, Filthy Dukes & Super 700.
Melt! Klub @ Coca Cola Soundwave Discovery Tent: Muff Potter, Anna Ternheim, The Wedding Present, Caribou, Bonaparte, The New Wine, Berlin-Bergen-Surprise-Mash-up & Mikroboy.
Sunday, 19.07.2009
Mainstage: Oasis, Kasabian, Polarkreis 18, Glasvegas, Patrick Wolf & Passion Pit.
Gemini Stage: Tiga, Brodinski, Yuksek, Shir Khan & DJ Supermarkt.
May 14th, 2009
WARNING: Blasphemy afoot if the gospels according to Jarvis, Damon and Liam of the NME serve as your regular dose of secular input…
Hold onto your Kerrangs, pack a Metallica T-shirt (make that two) and don that trench; Sonisphere’s set to unleash its first attack on Britain. And the American invaders are all set. This August sees the salubrious, serene setting of Hertfordshire’s Knebworth House transformed into a bustling nucleus of desecration, destruction and debauchery with the Overlords of Purgatory brandishing axes (of the six-stringed variety), tearing through anything and everything in their path.
Headed up by Hetfield’s rehab addicts and Lords of Metal themselves Metallica alongside the melodrama of Nu-metal stalwarts, Linkin Park. Behind the front lines lie enough of a supporting cast to rival Lloyd-Webber’s casts, with a rare UK show from hibernation-bound Reznor as he drills his industrially-charged Nine Inch Nails into the hearts and minds of melody, virtuosity and thrilling thrash alike. Surrealist prog-metallers Mastodon bring their sterling beast ‘Crack the Skye’ all the way over from Atlanta. Oh and no stone is left unturned as the latest in doom and gloom is set to appear in the sheltered surroundings of the Bohemia Stage with math-trashers Rolo Tomassi, Geordie miserablists The Chapman Family and Corey Taylor comes out from behind the gruesome mask and into the blinding lights for a UK debut solo show. Phew.
If that’s not all, Sonisphere have followed in the footsteps of the greatest farmer the universe has ever known, Michael Eavis and ditched those dastardly booking fees. For those in finer tune with plastic buttons than guitar strings, there’s a whole hoard of ticket/ Guitar Hero bundles. And travel is free from Manchester, Birmingham and London Victoria. Whether these are the UK representatives of all things metal and rusted or just reasonable markers of the scale of the country is anyone’s guess. But with the single cost of a tube ride from the land of leather that is Camden Town, there are no excuses this year.
Also playing: Avenged Sevenfold, Machine Head, Taking Back Sunday, Alice In Chains, Bullet For My Valentine, Fear Factory, Thin Lizzy and more…
- For more on Sonisphere festival visit the official Website
- Sonisphere festival takes place on the 1st and 2nd of August.
May 8th, 2009
Following on from our feature/review of The Panics last week which you can see Here, I managed to catch up with lead singer Jae Laffer before the band start a month long tour of the UK.
Tom Sowerby: Now, over here you are still fairly unknown, but you’ve played with an amazing list of bands, a lot of your favourite bands are from here, how does it feel meeting, playing and chatting with them?
Jae Laffer: It’s been strange, getting to meet so many of my heroes already; we’ve got to rub shoulders with a lot of cool people when bands come over to Australia to play. I think the most notable time was getting to play with Noel Gallagher last year, he was a high school hero of ours, and it was magic. You already feel like you know them, because you listen to all their songs, see all their videos and stuff, it’s really interesting getting to make conversation, it’s nice starting to realise that everyone’s just human.
TS: So how long have you been in England this time around?
JL: Well, it’s been around two and a half months now, we’re based up in Manchester. We have been here four or five times, but only for brief periods, and basically our manager is a guy from Manchester, and a lot of our favourite bands are based in Manchester and now our English label is too. It’s just always been a place where we’ve come and gone from, taken a lot of influence from and played quite a few industry shows there. We love it.
TS: How does it feel for you as a band, because you’ve really established yourself already in Australia and now you’re coming over here, does it feel like you’ve got to do it again, or does it feel quite fresh and exciting?
JL: It’s pretty exciting; because you don’t feel like you’re doing it all again because when you started out, you were younger and hadn’t quite reached your peak. We used those years to work on our sound and do loads of tours in Australia so we come here with the knowledge that we can go to a club, play well and make a good impression, and with all these songs we’ve got, we’re free to mix it up during shows. It’s been a perfect start for us, with the debut single getting some plays on XFM, hopefully people will hear and see the name, maybe come out to see us, and we’ll take it from there, you know.
TS: It’s looking quite good so far, with the airtime you’ve been getting and everything.
JL: It’s going great, I think; I have nothing to measure it against here. It just starts with some radio play, get a good reputation, play live and stuff. I mean there’s almost three times as many people here than there are in Australia but that’s kind of exciting, and if you get to be a national name here, it’s a big deal.
TS: Did you know that Music Week magazine had your small private show last week as their Gig of the Week?
JL: The industry magazine? They showed me that, and I thought it was hilarious just because the place wasn’t even a venue! We just played where the secretary normally invites people in! We’re just stoked to get the attention, so it’s been a good start for us, who knows what’s in store for the future but you come a long way, and you just want people to notice you, and to me the best bit has been getting on the radio. Driving around and suddenly you hear your track on the radio, it’s great.
TS: Has having Gaz Wheelan of the Happy Monday’s as one of your managers helped you in getting your name out there to the right people do you reckon?
JL: Maybe, because I guess when you mention the Monday’s there’s a lot of respect for them, they’re a great band. It may be a talking point, it helps us more because we get to talk to people who have been there.
TS: Have you noticed any major differences between the English and Australian music scenes?
JL: Well, not really, because we’re only kind of at the bottom here at the moment, but I reckon if you asked me in a couple of months I’d be able to give you a better answer. All I can tell you is that there are loads of bands and it’s really competitive. A lot of kids out there are desperate to be famous, and they sound really focussed but also it can sound a bit similar, which is hopefully where we’ll stand out a bit, because we haven’t payed much attention to the sounds of the last couple of years, so hopefully it’ll make an impression.
TS: Now you’re latest album, Cruel Guards, I hear loads of different influences, like Beatles’ Rubber Soul/Revolver era, a bit of The Shins and a little bit of a Crosby, Stills and Nash influence throughout the album. To me, it sounds like you have all these great influences, and it shows on the record, how do you feel about it?
JL: Well, it’s great that you can hear a whole bunch of different stuff in there, you mention groups that have a lot of harmonies and we love that stuff, we love Bob Dylan, and we’ve always loved British bands since High School and that’s stayed with us, bands like The Beatles. We listen to everything, and it’s all influence. We got a nice western flavour to a lot of songs, we love this guy Ennio Marroconi who did a lot of western movies.
TS: You’ve also been working on a new album, and you first released Cruel Guards a year and a half ago, in Australia. Have you had much time to work on the new record or has it been too busy?
JL: Well, when it first came out, it was really busy but it’s good that most of us have always been living together and the others were always near by so it’s made it pretty easy. We’re pretty close now, I’m just getting the last of the lyrics together, then we can book some studio time. It’s nice to release this one here now, and if it does well and people like it, it’s good that the new record will be out pretty soon after.
TS: Can you reveal what we can expect off the new album?
JL: All I can say is that it’s really stomping, there’s a really good energy. It’s making us move a lot more and there’s a lot of good feeling about it. That’s all I can really say because we’re looking to get into the studio, and sometimes that’s where the record really takes shape.
TS: Due to you having all this stuff going on, and you’re getting to work on the album in your spare time, is it important for you that the label isn’t pushing you to get it out, is it having a good effect on the songs?
JL: Well there’s always pressure, more from yourself and the group, we’d like to get it done as soon as we can. There’s not much pressure in choosing the songs because we’ve got a lot to choose from. The only real pressure is choosing the direction you want to go in.
TS: You said you’re living in Manchester at the moment, are you thinking about staying around for long?
JL: Yeah, we’re in a pretty good situation here and we haven’t got return flights. We want to do all we can to get this record going, it’s out in a month now, so we’re just gunna keep working. We eventually want to see the whole world, but right now, this is what we want to do.
TS: Yeah, well if you’re going to be sticking around this summer, can we expect you to be playing at any festivals or even just visiting?
JL: Well we want to if we can, I think we find out this week about some possibilities, the only thing is that because we’re only brand new here, a lot of them will probably be full. We don’t expect to just turn up here and then be playing on stage at Glastonbury or anything, but things have been snowballing pretty well, so it would be great to play some stages at festivals. I’ve never been to one here, but they sound like massive fun. I think everyone all over the world dreams of playing festivals like Glastonbury. We’d definitely like to go see whatever we can, we’ve got a lot of shows in England and Scotland coming up so we’ll just do what we can between touring.
TS: Speaking of festivals, last year you played SXSW, that’s pretty incredible.
JL: Yeah, well it’s a different kind of festival; obviously it’s not one big stage or anything. We were kind of dreading it at the time, to tell you the truth, like twenty million bands trying to impress and get deals and all that, but we had a brilliant time. We just decided to play some shows, have a good time, not think about it too much, and it was excellent. We got to make some new friends, spoke to the Kings of Leon guy, Nathan Followill, who then talked us up to Rolling Stone and that was nice! Texas is a pretty cool place.
TS: Are you planning on heading back to the US any time soon?
Well the albums already out over there, but then we came here to do this, so maybe after here we’ll go there and back some shows up to support it, you can’t really go over their for a week, you’ve got to do a long slog or nothing. But there’s something about England, even English people back home always respond really well with it, and we’ve created this great affinity with England.
May 6th, 2009
Yes, you did read it correctly: Blazin’ Squad have returned. During their five year break, the former group spent a lot of time chasing individual ambitions, but they felt it was time to come back. The new line-up, which contains half of the original members (Kenzie, James, Mus, Lee and Marcel) have a new single Let’s Start Again being released next month.
The most important thing, it seems, is that the new revitalised group want to shake off their old image which blocked their chance of any major success first time round, “I think back in the day we alienated a whole audience, like the older market.” Kenzie stated, “Now we’re older ourselves we’re more mature as people, and in general I think that shows and I think that opens up a whole other door for us, where people can relate to us and maybe they’ll think yeah, we can like them, because they’re not just running around in tracksuits causing mayhem!” Despite this they are keen to stress that they would not change a thing about their past, “We have no regrets, because people should appreciate that you grow up, and people go through different phases, and obviously that was just a phase.”
This time, they are relying only on their own determination and word of mouth. Taking on promotional duties in addition to their normal live shows means that a busy few months await Blazin’ Squad. Mus said, “We’re doing a whole bunch [of shows] up and down the country, plus a bunch of interviews, and promotional things, like radio talks.” Despite this added weight Kenzie insisted it is just what they want “It’s the life we obviously know and missed. It is harder for us, because we’re doing it independently so we haven’t got a major machine behind us, this is just us employing people and stuff, which is a bit more stressful but we’re thinking that the advantages will go through if the single charts well.”
They may have only just got back into action, but it seems that their old faithful clearly never gave up, “We’re getting great feedback, our video’s getting mad hits and the response is like we’ve never left.” The stats speak for themselves; with over 120,000 YouTube hits on their new single already, it is the 27th most discussed music video this month and the 31st most viewed. Though with both feet firmly on the ground, the group seem to be taking a very sensible approach; taking it one step at a time, one country at a time, Kenzie revealed that they think “it’s more about cracking your own country first,” before suggesting that “maybe if we can keep [the positive feedback] we can take it to the Far East, Europe and the United States.”
As for the immediate future, the band seems to have a pretty solid idea of where they are, “We’re looking just to release three or four singles and see how it goes, then focus on getting the album out,”Mus said.”Yeah,” continued Marcel, “we’ve got nine or ten songs but we want to get another fifteen so that we have a big amount of tracks so we can pick out the best ones.” Kenzie assured me that everything was under control; “We’ve got our second and third singles picked, so unless we make something better there’s no pressure there.”
In regards to being independent now, they are all positive it is the best way to go, “The important thing is releasing what we want and not having people telling us what to do,” stated Mus, “you feel more proud of it as well.” James agreed, saying “Sometimes you see labels get a great track and then they just try and push an album through within a month and it just doesn’t work, you just gotta take your time and do it when you’re ready.”
With thoughts to the more distant future, the band know where they’d like to be “Hopefully still writing and creating, but it’s quite fun that we don’t know, you know, we don’t know where we’ll be; we take every day as it comes.”
May 5th, 2009
The fans have been voting in their thousands (over twelve thousand in fact!) and our
The Winners of the Fan’s Vote:
The Quotes (Stadium rock tunes from Reading, from a band who name The Who and Kings of Leon as their influences).
Underline the Sky (Ipswich-based punk pop quintet, featuring charismatic boy/girl vocals and air-punching choruses).
The Charlatans’ Chosen Artists:
The Last Republic (Epic, anthemic rock from South Wales who’ve been praised by Radio 1’s Huw Stephens).
Bleech (Raw rock & roll from the East End, with tough girl vocals and grungy guitars).
Paul Dixon (Bedroom beats and eclectic melodies. Manchester based Paul has been championed on XFM and has supported The Maccabees).
Akayzia (Female-fronted urban pop from London, with touches of blues and folk evident in the strong vocals).
Just Jack’s Chosen Artists:
Duologue (Emotional, electro four-piece with dubstep and techno influences. Steve Lamacq is already a fan).
Jazica (Sweetly strange pop with acoustic and electronic twists. Singer Frankie’s smoldering voice has seen the band tipped by BBC 6 Music).
Dimbleby & Capper (Actually just one girl called Laura with kooky tunes, biting lyrics and homemade beats).
51 breaks (Harmonic, ambitious indie from Birmingham quartet popular with the NME).
All these amazing acts will now perform with Just Jack and The Charlatans at The Great Escape in Brighton on the 14th and 15th of May.
Once our mentors have whittled down their final selection, the fans will decide who gets to open V Festival 2009.
April 30th, 2009
Latitude seems to have the Midas touch with Little Boots, Mew, Ladyhawke and others added for this years line-up…
Following the high-octane treble contained within Reading and Leeds’ Lock Up announcement, sister festival Latitude has released a similarly adrenaline-fuelled batch of experimental geniuses and bright beacons of the near future alike. Hidden away in the enchanting depths of the Henham Park Estate, Suffolk this year’s bash looks set to inscribe the festival into the marbled festival halls of fame on sheer exclusivity alone; Norwegian sound pioneers Mew return to these shores for an exclusive show in the Uncut Arena whilst elsewhere, the Sunrise Arena looks set to shed light on a new horizon of breaking and enlightening dawn of acts from the not-so ‘New in Town’ Little Boots to the London Town broken blues of Band of Skulls.
Adding a sparkling tinge to the future airwaves of the BBC Introducing stage are unabashed punk-funks Golden Silvers, disco bedroom recluses The XX, the visceral crunch of The Late Greats and twee-as-you-like duo Slow Club. Whilst heroes of the alternative underworld and mainstream purgatory thunder and storm the Obelisk Arena, if you go down to the mysterious East Anglian woods you’re sure of a big surprise.
For more information on Latitude festival visit:
April 28th, 2009
Last weekend thousands of sonic junkies crawled (some perhaps literally on their hands and knees) around the clubs, pubs and disused sheds of Camden Town in the hope of catching the faintest of glimpses of “the future”. It’s a dangerous term and if the next one-second-wonder NME covers are your thing you’ll be in luck.
If, however, a trip off the beaten path of blog endorsement and into the wild and woolly outback of lo-fi blips and thrashes of jaggedy Fenders sounds good then the annual Dot to Dot extravaganza might be your niche. As with many great creations, it has two legs: one in knife-crime capital Nottingham and t’other in the land of Cider, Justin Lee Collins, and Skins: Bristol. Last year saw mad dashes half way across the rugged outskirts of the city centre from the ephemeral sounds of Jason Pierce’s Spiritualized in a converted church to a working men’s club to see a rough and ready Glasvegas blow the doors of the hinges with their Spector-esque wall of sound bombast. Working off around a third of all that junk you’ve drunk during the day can’t be all that bad now, can it?
If the exercise bug doesn’t get you dashing away to ticket-related sites then the sheer majesty of this year’s colossal line up certainly will. New signed bands is the name of the game and the poster reads like Pitchfork’s index (were it a magazine and could stomach a British band or two). From the pitch-perfect pint-sized pop of Little Boots over to the Jesus & Mary Chain inspired howls of Crystal Stilts, every base is covered. Ladyhawke returns for a highly anticipated headline slot, alongside Talking Heads-infused new wave St. Albans upstarts Friendly Fires, broken bottle bar brawls and Springsteen blues with The Hold Steady and the overtly camp vulture costumes of the magically magnificent Patrick Wolf. Elsewhere the boats, O2 academies and medieval brick bars shall be rattled by the Australian anthems of The Temper Trap, the distorted heart-warming of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and diva-in-the-making VV Brown. Looking back in a year’s time this may well be Observer Music Monthly’s index, only time will tell.
Dot to Dot takes place in Bristol on 23rd May with the Nottingham event taking place over 15 hours of the following day. It is a bank holiday, after all! Tickets are on sale now for £30 from Alt-tickets but snap one up sharpish- last year’s weekend sold out like the drop of a hat. Forget crawling, get pens and papers at the ready, walking boots on and join those dots.
March 31st, 2009
Radiohead and Kings Of Leon join Arctic Monkeys as headliners of Reading and Leeds Festival 2009. Prodigy, Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party all get second billing across the three days from Friady 28 to Sunday 30 August. Other bands added to the lineup include Placebo, Maximo Park, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fall Out Boy, Vampire Weekend, Ian Brown, Funeral For A Friend, Gossip, Glasvegas, White Lies, Florence & The Machine, Friendly Fires and Gallows. Tickets are on sale at seetickets.com or by calling 0871 231 0821.
March 30th, 2009
Arctic Monkeys have confirmed themselves as one of the Reading & Leeds 2009 headline acts.
In a short statement on their website arcticmonkeys.com the Monkeys confirmed they would headline Leeds Festival on Friday 28th August and then Reading a day later on Saturday 29th August.
The main announcement for the first line up announcements is tonight (March 30th) at 7pm when the other two headliners will be confirmed and tickets will go on sale – don’t expect them to hang around long, the last few years have seen unprecedented demand and all tickets being sold within hours.
The announcement represents a coup for organisers Festival Republic with Arctic Monkeys yet to confirm themselves for any other UK Festival this year. Their previous highest appearance at Reading & Leeds was second on the bill behind Muse in 2006.
The Arctic Monkeys are scheduled to release their Josh Homme-produced new album this summer.
It is also rumoured that Radiohead may play a headline spot at the festival this year.
For tickets and info visit: readingfestival.com
March 27th, 2009
18 months seems a veritable age amongst the crests of hype and thundering crashes of the music industry but Latitude clings onto the brightest young things of the British anti-folk/ alternative/ avant-garde/ uplifting lo-fi (delete as appropriate) scene, somehow foreseeing who’ll line the innards of our iPods before they’re even blips on NME’s radar.
Yet around that period of time ago, at 18 I found myself writhing in a field inhabited by sheep dressed as hundreds and thousands, mysterious woodland orchestras and swarms of newborn mosquitoes from the pond around which the summer’s most ephemeral festival revolves. My ears were uncoiled to the ukulele and viola twangs of an infantile Patrick Wolf, hit-makers in-waiting Metronomy waged war on the main stage bringing the party to the secluded, picturesque Lake Stage and Howling Bells enchanted in the seclusion of the truly magical Sunrise Arena. Of course they’ve all since become familiar with international chart summits. Oh how times have changed.
Combining eccentricity with sterling headliners, this year’s initial release of acts splendour in the air in which they dangle, releasing gold dust that melds Latitude into the summer’s forever-expanding script of essential pit stops. Heading up 2009 are a band of universally accepted icons, from the howling rasp of Nick Cave and his fabulously Bad Seeds to the chameleonic camper-than-Christopher-Biggins musings of the outstanding contributors to music, Pet Shop Boys. And to top all that off, how many festivals can lay claim to a headline spot from an original Bond girl (Grace Jones) before gadgetry and Hollywood special effects left Fleming turning in the grave. Backing this year’s blockbusters are the chimerical wonder Natasha Khan (aka Bat for Lashes), Manc-turned-Blade Runner alternative geniuses Doves and melancholic mainstream song smiths Editors. If that weren’t enough to set the adrenaline pulsing through those veins, if you don’t fancy facing the music and dancing nigh on every reputable dance company shall be producing spectacle upon spectacle upon spectacle all from the comfort of deck chairs under tipis. If Southwold’s Latitude doesn’t throw up this year’s majestic indispensable extravaganza you’re away with the fairies.
March 9th, 2009
V Festival has once again almost completely sold out across both sites only hours after tickets went on sale. Tickets to Hylands Park, Chelmsford sold out in under two hours and only coach packages now remain. The last remaining tickets to Weston Park, Staffordshire are going fast from www.vfestival.com. Tickets went on sale at 10am last Friday.
Virgin Media’s V Festival 2009 has two of the biggest and best live acts on the planet headlining in Oasis and The Killers. They will be joined on the 22/23 August by artists such as Razorlight, Fatboy Slim, Keane, The Specials, Elbow, Lily Allen, Pendulum, The Tings Tings, MGMT, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga.
The line up so far:
OASIS • THE KILLERS • RAZORLIGHT • SNOW PATROL • FATBOY SLIM • KEANE • THE SPECIALS • ELBOW • JAMES • LILY ALLEN • THE ENEMY • PENDULUM • THE SCRIPT • BIFFY CLYRO • THE TING TINGS • PAOLO NUTINI • MGMT • KATY PERRY • THE WOMBATS • JAMES MORRISON • TAYLOR SWIFT • PETER DOHERTY • DIZZEE RASCAL • THE STREETS • LADY GAGA • HAPPY MONDAYS • SEASICK STEVE • OCEAN COLOUR SCENE • ALESHA DIXON • BRITISH SEA POWER • THE SATURDAYS
February 20th, 2009
The first lineup is in for this year’s Camden Crawl. New talent and tipped acts including Coco Sumner’s I Blame Coco, The King Blues, Fight Like Apes, The Temper Trap, Heartbreak, Die! Die! Die!, Patrick Wolf, Pulled Apart By Horses and VV Brown, as well as the returning (and relative oldies) Von Bondies, will play across more than forty venues (including Koko) over a mile and a half stretch of the eternally hip spot of North London. The three day party kicks off from midday on Friday 24th and carries on until the the following Sunday.
The full lineups and stage times remain secret until each night so surprise guests may appear at any time but the lineup so far looks like this:
THE AUTHOR / THE BADDIES / THE BARKER BAND / BLEECH/ BLK JKS / BRAKES / THE CHAPMAN FAMILY / CHEW LIPS / THE COMPUTERS / THE CORDELIER CLUB / DAN BLACK / DANNY & THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD / DATAROCK / THE DEAD FORMATS / DETROPIX / DIE! DIE! DIE! / DRUMS OF DEATH / EXPERIMENT ON A BIRD IN THE AIR PUMP / FIGHT LIKE APES / FLASHGUNS / FOY VANCE / GENERAL FIASCO / GOLDHEART ASSEMBLY / GOLDIELOCKS / HEARTBREAK / HEXES / I BLAME COCO / IT HUGS BACK / JAMES YUILL / THE JIM JONES REVIEW / JOSH WELLER / THE JOY FORMIDABLE / KASMS / THE KING BLUES / LION CLUB / LITTLE DEATH / MAN LIKE ME / MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS / NEWHAM GENERALS / PATRICK WOLF / PEGGY SUE / PULLED APART BY HORSES / S.C.U.M. / SKINT & DEMORALISED / SLEEPERCURVE / THE TEMPER TRAP / THE XX / THREATMANTICS / THREE TRAPPED TIGERS / TODDLA T / TOMMY SPARKS / THE VON BONDIES / VV BROWN / THE WHIP
Tickets for the Camden Crawl are on sale now
January 26th, 2009
Live, Birmingham’s Blakfish will rip youre face off and spit it out with the energy and raw power they create on the stage. It doesn’t matter if it’s playing to two people, or two hundred people. They will kick you right in the balls and make you listen.
Their intelligent, harmonious, stop-start take on post-hardcore has seen them play a varied amount of venues around the UK that major label bands have to admire, and got them their first major release on Oxford’s Big Scary Monsters. Home of bands such as This Town Needs Guns, Pulled Apart By Horses and new-found critics’ faves Tubelord, Blakfish fit perfectly with the history of the label that has had similar bands such as Meet Me in St Louis. With See You In Another City, the band has made a well-practiced cocktail of rock with pop sensibilities and hardcore punk that is not an easy thing to pull off so well. Capturing their live performance on the EP, hearing songs such as Jeremy Kyle Is A Marked Man finds yourself asking the question - why hasn’t this been picked up yet?!
But they are slowly getting their well-deserved praise - finding themselves on the NME’s ‘hottest new bands of 2009′. Dual vocals are in full effect in most Blakfish songs, Sam Manville and Tom Peckett share the duties of the reckless voices heard over odd time signatures not unheard of in songs by Fall Of Troy. On stage, you see a charming banter between each other and the crowd. They look like men possessed when the play live - climbing amps, asking people to spit on them and jumping into a (usually) shocked crowd.
The underground (but by the end of the year: popular) music scene here in the UK is churning up exciting new bands from all around the country. Finding themselves on the same bill as fellow brummy lad’s Shapes, surf-math rockers Colour and intelligent math-pop boys Dartz!, with the constant nonstop touring ethic the band have, seeing the them is an easy thing.
The band are currently holed up in Seattle at the present time with the recording of their first full-length release penciled for a summer. Recording with Chris Common of awesome Seattle based These Arms Are Snakes has already begun and a demo of a new song has appeared on the trusty MySpace page titled Economics.
Exciting times are ahead of Blakfish, more touring, promoting the album and I’m sure something interesting will happen to this sometimes unlucky band (equipment was stolen from their van near the end of 2008, having to spend money saved for the recording of the album on new instruments).
Image: My Left’s Your Right’s
January 22nd, 2009
Honestly, if you don’t like plastic looking girls with bleeps papering over the inadequacy of their songs, there is still hope this year. Whether it is quirky folky fun or scuzzy rock n roll that ticks your boxes, 2009 has something to offer for the discerning music lover. Here are a few more top tips from music.virgin.com.
Emmy The Great
Emmy has finally made a record. Having been around the London new folk crowd before it had such a name, First Love will be soundtracking many a heartache this year. A lot more bitterness and humour spills out of her hazy tales of burgeoning and breaking romance than the average singer-songwriter, so those who label anything darker than Gabriella Cilmi as depressing should be appeased. She’ll be touring relentlessly and is worth catching in the flesh, for the sardonic stories as well as much as the memorable melodies.
MySpace / iTunes / last.fm / Amazon / Spotify
The Soft Pack
This band could be anything yet. They sound an utterly brilliant mess, referencing the Velvet Underground seemingly by mistake. Singer Matt Lamkin delivers lines deadpan, presenting an alluring absence of emotion. Subversive hits in waiting include Nightlife and Parasites - oh, and they used to be called The Muslims. Yes, that’s right, this controversy courting clan went and brought religion into music, gasp, shock horror. Such silliness over a name discarded, they are writing raw, alive, crude indie rock that demand to be heard in a scuzzy hole near you very soon.
First Aid Kit
These two Swedish sisters are not strictly old enough to cause a stir, but in true Alex Ferguson football cliché style, if they’re good enough they’re old enough. They write songs that betray a bemusing world-weariness for a pair of teenagers, while their influences exquisitely seep from their sound, most obviously on their tender cover of Fleet Foxes. A soulful, melodious, above all infectious quality resides in the music of these Stockholm start ups; if they aren’t big in 2009, there’s always 2019.
Mumford and Sons
There are no excuses not to see these bluegrass boys in the next few months, they’re playing everywhere from Ullapool to Liverpool. Having spent much of 2008 supporting Laura Marling in more ways than one, the jumpy folk sensitivity of Mumford and Sons could break into the mainstream. They can write catchy choruses as well as heartfelt couplets, while dance moves this goofy are worth fame if nothing else. This group could help 2009 end up as the year when fiddles find themselves in fashion.
January 22nd, 2009
The Los Angeles downtown DIY scene is far from the glitz and glamour you see on TV shows based around the city. Bands such as HEALTH, Abe Vigoda and Mika Miko are the front-runners of the scene with a ‘fuck you’ attitude to the corporate record labels. Releases on No Age vocalist/drummer Dean Spunt’s label Post Present Medium has propelled Abe Vigoda to national band status in the US and with press in the NME and Plan B over here in the UK, the Low-Fi scene is going from strength to strength.
Over here in the streets on London, underground promotion companies such as Upset The Rhythm and No Pain In Pop are creating their own little scene resembling that of the cities in the US.
Having already booked bands such as El Guincho, HEALTH, Dirty Projectors and Cheveu both companies are at the top of their game respectively, pushing up and coming and established bands from around the world.
With their catalogue of releases still relatively small, both labels have already pressed some mouth watering, interesting and influential bands. No Age, HEALTH, BARR, Captin Ahab and Gentle Friendly have all had a release out on either UTR or NPIP.
The latest release from No Pain In Pop is from the afro-beat, dance sounds of Italian Alessio Natalizia, also known as Banjo Or Freakout. Upset The Rhythm have bought out the trance surf High Place’s eponymous LP.
Keep an eye on www.upsettherhythm.co.uk and www.nopaininpop.com for news on releases and upcoming events.
January 22nd, 2009
Fortune tellers around the indie rock scene have gazed upon their mystical crystal balls to foretell who they think are gonna really break through this year. Amongst the list was a three piece from Kingston upon Thames called Tubelord. 2008 was undoubtedly a great year for these guys whilst endlessly touring they have made an appearance in the Radar section in NME and signed to indie label Big Scary Monsters (BSM). Self described as making ‘pop songs for rock kids’ these guys are definitely doing something right as they stir up a storm in music forums whilst also having more and more people singing back the lyrics at their live shows.
When I first read ‘pop songs for rock kids’ my immediate reaction was that I was going to be bombarded with yet more over produced Kings of Leon-esque club infestation tatter. Oh how I was proved wrong when I listened to their second 7” EP I Am Azerrad (BSM), the harmonised vocal intro of the first track (I Am Azerrad) had me tentatively tuned in and despite not knowing the lyrics I felt the urge to learn them so I could sing along (badly). The EP is an upbeat initiation of foot tapping with the B side upholding the tempo and feel-good quality with Dun Dun Dun, Scissor, Rocks and Tonne. Their first release with BSM, Feed Me A Box Of Words, is also commendable as their influences of early Biffy Clyro shines through – and let’s be honest – early Biffy is the best Biffy (ie: before they farted themselves into the grating mainstream crap).
It then became an imperative to see these guys in action and so I caught them in their hometown supporting Johnny Foreigner (the result of which can be seen on the Beatcast TV podcast). I was left astounded, the vocals were spot on and the pure energy that seemed to pour from this band was hungrily lapped up by, not only myself, but everyone there, Tubelord fans or not. I caught them again at the fourth annual Artrocker Festival (Friday 16th January) as they opened for Pulled Apart by Horses and Kong (whom I also recommend profusely) as this was reportedly their last gig until the 31st March when they will be coming back with a tasty supply of eagerly awaited new material.
If you’re not one for hyped bands then I urge you to stand down and check the hell outta this band - that is all I ask… for now.
January 21st, 2009
While the industry dinosaurs struggle to adapt in a new age of music consumerism, it warms our cockles when a cheeky band seem to break through and enagage a global audience with complete disgregard for boring old traditions like ‘get signed by a major’ and ’spend big bucks on printing and distributing CDs’. The Boxer Rebellion have made headlines both sides of the Atlantic for climbing atop the download charts without major label backing and funding to produce physical CDs. And the fusty old UK chart system won’t recognise them simply because a CD doesn’t exist.
The ballsy Boxers have mobilized over 10,000 MySpace fans and 17,000 last.fm listeners and, having just released their second album Union exclusively via iTunes, they are now threatening the top 10 of the alternative album charts in both the UK and US. They may not have a label but they definitely have some great PR behind them.
So if you like a big, sweeping guitar landscape of throaty angst rock in the style of the Editors (and it seems to be working quite well for White Lies at the moment) then what have you got to lose in getting on the new Boxer Rebellion fan bandwagon and downloading a free MP3 of single Evacuate from iTunes UK this week? Go on - they’re actually quite good. But be sure to complete the karmic circle and actually spend a bit of dosh downloading their album, apparently they need the money… and wouldn’t it be great if they made it to number 1 on downloads alone and highlighted an outdated chart system?
MySpace / iTunes / last.fm / Amazon
photo: Tessa Angus
