It was about a year ago that I first heard of Pulled Apart by Horses, a Leeds band that I described at the time as “utterly mental”. I questioned whether or not they had the makings of a great band, but there was certainly potential in their demo songs. A year later, and what has changed? Well, the band have seemingly exploded onto the indie scene, which is nice for them. Their live shows have now become the stuff of legend, with shows that seem to put the chaos of a Dananananaykroyd show to shame.
Indietracks isn’t the first festival I’ve gone to this year, nor will it be the last. It’s hard to see how it will be anything other than the most enjoyable event of the year though. Launched in 2007, Indietracks is the ultimate in niche festivals. A tiny capacity, a very precise view of the kind of bands it puts on, with all of this set in a small rail yard. It’s a wonderful feeling (and an unheard one at a festival) that you can walk between any of the stages within a couple of minutes. Most importantly of all, it’s by far the nicest festival that you’ll ever visit.
When I was first approached by BBC Music to put together a list of albums I think should be nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, I was initially hesitant. First of all because I don’t much care for awards, and if I’m honest, have never paid attention to the Mercury Prize. Secondly, because I hardly ever listen to complete albums these days. I want to be an elitist snob and pretend that I do, but most of my music is absorbed via an iPod on shuffle.
This past weekend brought the second festival of 2009 for Another Form of Relief. It was a local festival, but one that I never intended on going to given it’s ludicrous £125 ticket cost. Seemingly others thought the same, given ticket sales struggled to such a degree that they were giving £250 of tickets away with £10 items via a clothing store. So, one Kangaroo Poo beach towel later and I had guestlist access to two days of live music. Not too shabby.
Poor Scott Kannberg. He’ll forever be “the other one” when it comes to any discussions of Pavement, which is a little unfair given his vital contribution to that band. Malkmus may be the one everybody knows, but it was largely the combination of the two of them that made it work. He’s dabbled around a bit in the ten years since Pavement split, releasing a couple of Preston School of Industry albums. Both were decent, neither were spectacular. Like Malkmus, it seems to be a constant battle to differentiate oneself away from the Pavement connection that seems doomed to failure.
Favours for Sailors are a band that I’ve liked from afar from sometime. I’ve always heard their songs through other bands they know, or as support to another band live. Their song Erode My Empire is one that I’ve known on and off for three years now, and it’s still doing the rounds. In other bands this could be a sign of a worrying lack of creativity, but it seems Favours for Sailors are going to keep pushing it for as long as it sounds fresh. And if these radio session tracks are any indication, it still has breakout indie hit written all over it.
The first time I heard The Answering Machine was their blistering Silent Hotels single a couple of years ago. Then nothing. I don’t know if they have been particularly quiet in that period or whether I just haven’t kept up, but I’d almost forgotten about them when I stumbled upon Another City, Another Sorry. I won’t be forgetting them for quite some time now.
As part as our ongoing attempts to cover what little exists of a Kent music scene, it seemed only prudent to put together a brief guide to the major music festivals taking place in the county over the next couple of months. A few years ago such a thing would have been impossible due to a lack of said events, but now new festivals seem to be popping up each year. Obviously not all of them work (like Electric Gardens) and some will probably have their organisers lynched if they ever come back (Zoo8) but it’s good to see a varied selection appearing.
When June 4-6
Where Hope Farm, Ashford
How much £55 weekend / £35 daily
Lineup (AFOR endorsements in bold)
Supergrass, The Holloways, Emmy the Great, Ben’s Brother, Red Light Company, Alessi’s Ark, Cut La Roc, Hoxton Whores, Thomas Tantrum, The Answering Machine, Karima Francis, The Young Knives, Tubelord, Marina and the Diamonds, Alex Cornish, Oh, Atoms, Royal Treatment Plant, Bender, The Rosie Taylor Project, William, 4 or 5 Magicians, motion picture soundtrack, Video Nasties, Bobby Long, The Domino State, The Ryes, Micky Slim, Silvery, Hungry Ghosts, Los Salvadores, Minnaars, Lucy and the Caterpillar, Kids Love Lies, Barefoot Confessor, Right Turn Left, Tin Soldiers, Far From The Dance, Seven Story Down, Ten Bears, Tom Williams & The Boat, The Suggestions, Elephants, The Dirty Disco, Junkstar, Brandon Block, Mr Basista, Monday Street, Romanov, Polka Party, HANDSHAKE, Greg McDonald, The Quirk Burglars, The SheBeats, Alma Mahler, Floors & Walls, Eddy Temple-Morris, Rob Cockerton, Adam Bloom, Haunted Stereo, Small Fry, Joe Mac, The Streetlight Conspiracy, The Little Philistines, Illegitimate Sons of the King, AEF, Shadow Aspect, Vagner Love, Peter Andrews, Twisted DJs, Rhys morgan, Krissy and the Jackdaws, The Hidden Revolution, Bruised Beauties, Groove Monkey, Cocos Lovers, Everybody Be cool, Waterhorse, Lotte Mullan, Lucy Holliday, Circle of Rage, Kouncilhouse, Amoriste, Sean Mooney, Steve Day, Spooka, Jamie Abbott, Robbie Styles, Nic Bennett, Hal Cruttenden, Jamie Ley, Nathan Caton, Outa City Committee, Lester Clayton, Jeff Barker, Kev Harris, Lizzy Spit, Jarmean?, Pete Jonas, Delta Connection, danny reject, Matt Rudge, Adam Crow, Sally-Anne Hayward, Christian Reilly and 3 Parts DJ
Well this is certainly long. I feel slightly bad to open with this, but it’s by far the main thing that stands out to me about Fruit Tea by the Wild Moccasins. This Houston band have produced a song layered in so much indiepop goodness that it feels wrong to pick it up over something so trivial as the length. For the record, I should point out that “long” here is actually about five minutes.
I wasn’t planning on writing about Johnny Foreigner today. I was going to write about Sky Larkin’s Canterbury gig on Friday night, but that’ll have to wait for another day. This is what happens when a new Johnny Foreigner track drops in front of me.
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