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Macmillan Cancer Support will be taking over Brick Lane in East London on Thursday 13th August where its first ever large scale music event – Macmillan’s Brick Lane Takeover – will welcome 2000 music lovers from 12 noon with Frank Turner and The Chapman Family already confirmed to perform at the event.
The all-dayer kicks off at 12 noon and offers 12 hours of exceptional music entertainment from an eclectic mix of some of the best indie, electro, folk and punk rock bands around. One wristband will give fans access to live music from a host of established acts, in 7 of East London’s finest venues - 93 Feet East, Vibe Bar, Café 1001, Hoxton Bar + Kitchen, Old Blue Last, Cargo and Macbeth.
Macmillan Event Organiser Alex Blair says: `Macmillan’s Brick Lane Takeover is certainly one of the most ambitious and exciting events that Macmillan has put on! Thanks to the generosity of so many bands and venues, we hope to raise £30,000 to help Macmillan continue to provide vital support to people affected by cancer.`
After the sell out success of 2008, Festibelly have developed their boutique festival for another wonderful weekend this summer. Set in the peaceful surroundings of the New Forest, Festibelly provides a chilled day, party night time, camping and intimacy, with a capacity of only 1000 people.
2009 features musical performances from some of the most exciting talent to emerge from the indie, rock, pop, acoustic, and reggae scenes. After his astonishing 2008 performance, Festibelly welcome back `folktronica` wizard James Yuill as headliner.
The strong line up continues with Rough Trade signings Micachu & The Shapes, grime pop upstarts Man Like Me, critically acclaimed ensemble Laurel Collective and future-romantic pop group ColouringIN. They are joined by London`s favourite reggae party, Reggae Roast who will be `dubbing` it alongside live performances by Brother Culture and the heavyweight 9-piece brass band, Brass Roots.
For those of you who may not know, Melt! is a unique music festival on the Ferropolis peninsula set against a breathtaking backdrop of five huge hulking coal mining diggers that tower into the sky. Melt! effortlessly mixes guitars, beatboxes and vinyl grooves so perfectly; indie boys dance with raver girls while hip hop heads wave their glowsticks. And with such a great location and massive line up, Melt! is one of the `must do` festivals of the summer.
COMPLETE FESTIVAL LINE UP:
!!! | Animal Collective | Amazing Baby | Aphex Twin + Hecker | A Critical Mass feat. Henrik Schwarz, Âme, Dixon (live) | Matias Aguayo | Baddies | Kasper Bjørke | Bloc Party | Bodi Bill | Bonaparte | Boy8Bit | Boys Noize + Erol Alkan | Brodinski | Buraka Som Sistema | Cajuan | Caribou | Channel X | The Cheapers | Philipp Cerfontaine | Cold War Kids | Crystal Castles | Deadmau5 | Delphic | Digitalism (live) | Dinky | Diplo | Jochen Distelmeyer | DJ Koze | DJ Phono | DJ Supermarkt | The Dodos | David Dorad | Drop the Lime | Andreas Eckhardt | Ellen Allien | Empro | Tim Exile | Fabiano | Fever Ray | Fieber Tanz | Filthy Dukes | Foals | Sascha Funke | Glasvegas | Goldie | Gossip | Daniel Haaksman feat. Deize Tigrona | Hell | Matthew Herbert (DJ-Set) | James Holden | Jazzanova Live! | Sven Jozwiak | Paul Kalkbrenner | Karrera Klub | Kassette Boys | Kasabian | King Kong Klub | Klute | Markus Kavka | Kiki | Klaxons | Kode 9 & Spaceape | LA Roux | Les Yper Sound | Luna City Express | Michael Mac (Club NME) | Magnetic Man feat. Skream & Benga (live) | MC Justyce | Mediengruppe Telekommander | Marcus Meinhardt | Metronomy | Mikroboy | Moderat (= Modeselektor + Apparat + Pfadfinderei live) | Hudson Mohawke | MSTRKRFT | Muff Potter | Mujava | Lars Christian Müller | ND Baumecker | The New Wine | Oasis | Passion Pit | Phoenix | Pilooski | Polarkreis 18 | Revolver Club | Radio Slave | Jesse Rose | Röyksopp | Scharrenbroich trifft Gunjah | Shir Khan | Simian Mobile Disco (live) | Skinnerbox | Luke Slater (live) | The Soundtrack Of Our Lives | Daniel Stefanik | Gunnar Stiller | Super 700 | Sweat Club DJs | Team Recorder | Anna Ternheim | This Will Destroy You | Thunderheist | Tiga | Tobias Thomas | Travis | Trentemøller (DJ-Set) | TRG | The Virgins | The Wedding Present | Markus Welby | The Whitest Boy Alive | WhoMadeWho | Patrick Wolf | James Yuill | Yuksek | Zander VT | Gisbert zu Knyphausen
Standon Calling 2009 are delighted to announce that Hawkwind will be celebrating their 40th anniversary with a special performance.
They join the likes of Friendly Fires, Femi Kuti, Ladytron, Tony Christie, The Whip, Sun Ra Arkestra, Golden Silvers to name a few. What better place to see the pioneers of space rock than this space themed wonderland in the rolling Herefordshire countryside.
Nick Foster (View Original Article)
The Green Man Festival has announced Animal Collective, Roky Erickson and DJ History have been added to its already impressive line up. Animal Collective have been confirmed as headliners on the Friday Night, where they will be performing their folk-pysch-techno-whatever from many critics’ album of the year so far, `Merriweather Post Pavilion`. Roky Erickson, of psychedelic pioneers 13th Floor Elevators, will also be performing on Friday and DJ History will be dishing out slices of funk, rap and soul well into the night to make sure the party doesn’t stop when the bands do. There is also the small matter of Green Man being the only UK festival to have a 24-hour license to serve alcohol!
The new announcements join the embarrassment of riches already confirmed to play Green Man, including Wilco, Andrew Bird, Dirty Three, Four Tet, Phantom Band and some guy called Bon Iver. The Festival takes place from the 21st -23rd August and weekend tickets are available online from www.thegreenmanfestival.co.uk for £115. For an extra £30 you can camp in the festival site for three days before the festival opens, although apparently this will not allow you to hang out with Animal Collective for a week. I checked. With the rest of the UK festivals looking decidedly ropey this year it might well be time get your ass down to Wales!
Bob Ferguson (View Original Article)
Ooh help, I`ve just spent the last five minutes looking at the cover art for Animal Collective`s `Merriweather Post Pavilion` due for release in January 2009. I`m now sat at my desk feeling punch drunk, rather giddy and with a strange, almost pre-programmed desire to listen to the Collective`s 2007 LP `Strawberry Jam`.
See what effect it has on you...
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
2007`s `Strawberry Jam` was a hugely sweet, esoteric mix of the wild fruits of the imagination of a band at their most potent. Scratch that fine talk...it was good, real good. Now, the good news is that Animal Collective have wasted little time in writing a follow up and `Merriweather Post Pavilion` will be with us in January 2009.
Domino expect to release the album which was produced by Ben Allen at the Sweet Tea recording studio in Oxford, Mississippi on January 12th and here`s how that tracklisting`s looking:
Animal Collective - `Merriweather Post Pavilion`
1. `In the Flowers`
2. `My Girls`
3. `Also Frightened`
4. `Summertime Clothes`
5. `Daily Routine`
6. `Bluish`
7. `Guys Eyes`
8. `Taste`
9. `Lion in a Coma`
10. `No More Runnin`
11. `Brother Sport`
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
The first three tracks are the eponymous 'Water Curses', 'Street Flash' and 'Cobwebs' and were recorded during the 'Strawberry Jam' sessions and should therefore be familiar to fans of the album (although Animal Collective aren't exactly known for their transparency) . Fourth track 'Seal Eyeing' was recorded separately and is described as both 'celestial' and 'blissful'.
Shortly after the band go on tour and call in at the following venues:
May 2008
18 - All Tomorrows Parties Festival, Minehead
19 - Dublin Tripod
20 - Glasgow Oran Mor
21 - Leeds Brudenell Room
22 - London Koko
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
Those lucky people live in Dublin, Glasgow, Leeds and London but there's every chance of more being added we believe.
May 2008
18 - Minehead, All Tomorrow's Parties : Explosions in the Sky
19 - Dublin Tripod
20 - Glasgow Oran Mor
21 - Leeds Brudenell
22 - London Koko
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
SINGLE OF THE WEEK
Remi Nicole - 'Go Mr Sunshine'
This is a cheeky record indeed which takes the first minute to lull you into the belief that this is yet another record from
the Lily WinehouseTM conveyor belt of brash pop queens with little or no substance. But then it fires a chorus so
strong and so vibrant at you, you'd swear you'd just been hit by a Roy Wood 'n' Wizzard shaped torpedo. On the remix front, both
CSS and Reverend and the Makers deliver an electrofied yet faithful mix while Punks Jump Up deviate somewhat from the song's
original structure to somewhat mixed results.
Island Records
Kingsomniac - 'Language of a Lady'
Now here's a band who could make it rather big with the right direction and the right opportunities, purveying, as they do, a
sharp ear for a tune, a sound as steeped in early 80s pop-ska as today's Franz-ertines blueprint and a look somewhere between The
Style council and The Beatles. This debut single for the Brighton four-piece scores high with both sides displaying adeptness in
both sauntering folk-pop and riff-driven thrills. Definitely an act to keep your eyes and ears on.
Faculty Music
Animal Collective - 'Peacebone'
Never one to let a tune get in the way of their message, Animal Collective begin 'Peacebone' with what sounds like an
epileptic Rolf Harris playing 'The William Tell Overture' on his stylophone. Fortunately we're only a matter of seconds away from
the band making their entrance bringing at least a modicum of sense to this quite glorious cacophony. The lyrics are the
warblings of a lunatic and there are huge sonic snarls and what sounds like a Gremlins solo present, so leave your brain outside
for this one and join the collective and smile.
Domino Records
The Pigeon Detectives - 'Take Her Back'
Pure undiluted chart fodder this, of course that doesn't make it any more acceptable that the Pigeon Detectives exist,
offering very little to the music scene and having pretty much just picked and mixed from those who immediately preceded them.
That said, I defy anyone to not tap a frantic foot to the chorus which means they can be excused their lack of originality...this
time at least!
Dance to the Radio Records
David Guetta ft Chris Willis - 'Love is Gone'
In this pumping radio edit from household names Fred Rister & Joachim Garraud, Guetta is clearly out to replicate the success
of his recent 'vs' record which soundtracked a car advert last year. Letting the vocal dicatate the song rather than the hook
however is a big mistake. Of the tracks three minute length only sixty seconds or so is beat driven leaving the listener wanting
and the dancer waving his hands in the air like a twat waiting for the groove to get going. It's not a help that the vocal is
distinctly average either.
Gum Records
Jack Butler - 'Boy vs Beast'
As confusingly monikered as ever, Jack Butler(they're a band not a chap)'s second single builds on the promise shown by last
year's 'Velvet Prose' and owes as much to the trademark baggy fretwork as the jangle we've come to expect from our friends at
Whimsical Records. Employing a rhythm section that almost sounds like a compressed house record is another nifty stroke
that gives this record an unexpected dance sensibility.
Whimsical Records
Nothing Rhymes With Orange - 'Billy the Kid'
It's true you know, I once thought porridge was close enough but my English teacher didn't care for my poetic licence.
Anyway, NRWO are surprisingly American despite having what you'd describe as a 'very British sound' and it comes as no surprise
that they list such Brit indie names as The Smiths, Blur, James and the mighty Trashcan Sinatras. 'Billy the Kid' could have been
recorded by pretty much any band during the first wave of Britpop and boasts a retro sound that many will find comforting.
B-side 'Magnolia' sounds like a track rejected from the latest Kaiser Chiefs album for sounding too close to Hard Fi. Not too
much mind, but you have to be careful with these things and take no chances.
Released Digitally only on 27th August through Leftfield Recordings
Video: : Youtube | MySpace
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
The ramshackle weirdniks single is described as a 'whirligig of Animal Collective's DNA. Clusters of synths, loping rhyhms and lyrical bursts of high pitched wonder rushing to fall over each other.
The group also play a headline show at Elephant and Castle's The Coronet on 11th July backed up by Late of the Pier and Marnie Stern. The rest of the country can sample their delights when they hit the road for a full tour in the autumn.
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
Patience and tolerance. Sometimes realising the true worth of an album should be something of a toil - why should we be happy listening to the close-harmony, major-chords-only fluff the likes of Take That crap out once a year for the Christmas market? This is, after all, the kind of music that will be found in the `easy listening` section of record shops when our children go shopping...that is if record shops were to exist then, which they probably won`t.
`A toil` is an apt description of working your way through a proper listen (actually listening, not pushing it to your subconsciousness like faint telephone calls and light birdsong) to Animal Collective`s back catalogue and `Merriweather Post Pavilion` is no different. `Guy`s Eyes`, for example, is like listening to The Beach Boys stumbling around a sandy shore, drunk, the T-Bird having been well and truly taken away.
However, `Summertime Clothes` might be the most conventional track Animal Collective have ever recorded and, unsurprisingly, it`s one of their best. Sometimes it can pay to follow the clear parallels between the band and Brian Wilson`s most commercial moments instead of the abstract path they find themselves inexorably torn towards. That said, without the, at first, stubborn, clenched sounds of `Daily Routine` separating `Summertime Clothes` from the equally lush `Bluish`, neither would have such impact to the listener. Yes, both are pop songs, but neither is to the extent that Girls Aloud, Rihanna or even Kaiser Chiefs are. Such subtlety can only lead to longevity and the realisation, to one`s amazement, that Animal Collective are basically an even less commercial version of The Flaming Lips.
The album is summed up best by `Lion in a Coma`, another pop song that touches all the right spots despite, or because of, a ridiculously fantastic lack of basic structure. It`s possibly the best way to sum up Animal Collective, that or "uneasy listening" - now wouldn`t it be great, in a continually compartmentalised music industry to see this album in that section some twenty years from now. Wouldn`t it be great to see it at all?
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
Nick Foster (View Original Article)
Friday
6 Day Riot
6 Day Riot opened the main stage of Green Man with no shortage of gusto, singer Tamara Schlesinger optimistically petitioned the crowd to get dancing, and for their part, her band did their best to soundtrack the feat that this would require when much of their audience were still lubricating themselves for the day with beer and sunscreen. They played an enthusiastic and entertaining blend of calypso, mariachi and pastoral folk. There was no outbreak of mass movement, but they did manage to get a creditable number of feet to shuffle, considering their humble position on the bill.
Broken Records
Edinburgh’s Broken Records brought their much admired baroque folk-cum-alternative rock to the main stage of Green Man. The songs bristled with emotion, with violins that don’t lilt so much as snake insistently, lusting for drama. The way Broken Records channelled the mysticism and bittersweet longing of eastern European folk music made them sound similar to Arcade Fire circa `Funeral`, without the new wave references.
Beth Jeans Houghton
Beth Jeans Houghton drew a large crowd considering they were playing the secondary arena (Far Out Tent) in mid afternoon. They bring smatterings of soul and horns to meet twee folk, and an intense Englishness that brings to mind warm beer and morris dancing. Beth’s sparkly bubble dress and huge blond perm wig emphasised the none-too-serious attitude of the band. Whether the band was too lightweight, or I am just too bloody miserable, this did nothing for me.
Gang Gang Dance
Gang Gang Dance played material mainly from latest album `Saint Dymphna`, which is apparently named after the patron saint of outsiders, taboos and disorder. Thankfully they had the stuff to back up this more than slightly pretentious conceit. They cut a serious dash on stage, singer Liz Bougatos preened and charmed as if the muse to the esoteric sounds enveloping her. Gang Gang Dance mixed African poly-rhythms, techno beats and synths with layers of live and sampled percussion stacked up to form a tempo almost impossible not to dance to. Bougatos is vocally limited but, in the context of the bands guile, this was never a factor, the vocal treatments were reminiscent of Radiohead at their malevolent outré best.
British Sea Power
BSP were greeted by their usual devoted bunch of foliage-carrying nut jobs, but for some reason outside of this select group the crowd reaction was strangely muted. Yan and co deserved better, frankly, they were wiry, animated and pleasantly baffling as ever, especially when Yan augmented one of the numbers with a strange twitchy and high-pitched chant of “green man”. Gradually it seemed like the stilted crowd got to the band, and a slight needle crept in to the later part of their set - although this may be just my imagination as British Sea Power have never been the most effusive of performers. Whatever the reason for BSP getting lost in translation, a rousing finale of ‘Carrion’ finally animated the inanimates.
Animal Collective
The weight of expectation on Animal Collective was massive, and they were easily the biggest disappointment of the festival. For a band that has delivered arguably the most thrillingly adventurous album of the year, they were badly subdued when it came to reproducing it on stage. The set focused very heavily on `Merriweather Post Pavilion`, but lost much of that record’s panache. The formula seemed to be to extend all the songs by at least half their length, but instead of creating the space for interesting new directions to emerge, this tactic just seemed languid and pale. MPP’s genius vocal arrangements and harmonies were ill-presented too, Avey Tare and Panda Bear sounded lost without the studio flourishes of electronic treatment and withered badly under the stage lights red glare. The extended intro to ‘Fireworks’ cranked the interest well, drawing the focus on the techno roots of the piece, but it was an isolated high in a strangulated performance.
Saturday
Stornoway
Stornoway were second on the main stage with a pleasant, if slightly forgettable, pastoral folk with violin and cello adding depth. They tapped into the lush fecundity of Green Man’s setting, with songs like ‘Battery Human’ espousing the restorative powers of actually going outside for a change. A welcome aural hug for hangovers earned the previous night.
The Phantom Band
How did The Phantom Band not receive a Mercury Prize nomination? Oh yeah, I remember now, because they’re not female electro artists or Kasabian. Right? Well, despite those crushing handicaps, they played a tight set incorporating the myriad influences that went into creating debut album `Checkmate Savage`. Motorik drums were a near constant in holding down the revolving paradigms of The Specials, Morriconne, Beefheart and black-as-the-night folk. This ferocity of invention was sugar coated by a flippant swagger; the use of found sounds and home-made instruments seemed to rail against the fourth wall by hinting at the inherent ridiculousness of such a tall concoction. Or maybe they just have potty mouths. Either way, fans of the boys who made it to Green Man were surely gratified by the revelation that keyboardist Andy Wake is: “A wonderful man and a tender lover. Yet firm.”
Andrew Bird
So, seeing how I am one of the few people in the western world who didn’t feel Bon Iver’s release ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ was so good it had saved music itself, I opted to bodyswerve him for the magnificent whistling of Andrew Bird. He seemed quite taken with the surroundings of the festival, saying that this kind of landscape was a big influence on the songs of most recent album ‘Noble Beast’. During his set an argument broke out between me and my friends about whether the spinning double gramophone thing he always seems to have on stage with him was a cool distraction, or an irritation which looked like a pair of fallopian tubes. This seemed like a reasonable analogy to judge the man himself; if you are taken with the idea of a polymath with excellent taste in waistcoats playing several instruments and singing cryptic poetry, then his Green Man set was up there with his usual excellent standards. If however, you saw the fallopian tubes, he probably came across like an insufferable prig.
Jarvis Cocker
And JC may be far more to your taste. For all the talk about his last album ‘Further Complications’ being a difficult record addressing his fears of middle age and relationship breakdown, Jarvis managed to find his usual mumbled charisma for his headlining performance on Saturday. The fact he didn’t play any Pulp songs may have rankled with a few in the audience, but the tight versions of tracks from his most recent album showed a growing confidence in his abilities as a lone showman compared to the performances around the time of his debut album. The mix of ballads and more rocky numbers was well-pitched, and the chutzpah invested in the faintly self-deprecating title track of ‘Further Complications’ was among the best moments the main stage had seen.
Sunday
Rozi Plain
Rozi Plain opened a trio of acts from the Fence Collective in the Far Out Tent with the kind of excellence the label has now become (semi) famous for. Her voice floated dreamily over shimmering, languid guitars and downtempo percussion.
The Three Craws
The gruff humour of Pictish Trail is always worth a listen, and when he appeared as one third of The Three Craws with King Creosote and James Yorkston to riff off, the result was like Fife’s answer to the Rat Pack. When they began the set with a harmonised vocal of “Let’s hear it for the boys from the East Neuk of Fife”, the complex intelligence of the Craws was palpable. KC and co peppered the set with asides and sly winks at each other, which played up to and simultaneously satirised the stereotype of a Scottish folk trio as wiry old coots, with decades of biting sarcasm as a shared bond. The gallows humour continued to the last when Pictish Trail apologised for the band ending their set, saying “Some prick called Pictish Trail is moving things along. Although I hear he’s a lot more handsome than this lot.”
Pictish Trail
When Johnny Lynch took to the stage to perform his own material, he was backed by a kind of Fence Collective supergroup consisting of Rozi Plain on backing vocals, King Creosote on keys and accordion and James Yorkston on guitar and backing vocals. He revelled in this illustrious company and the arrangements for his songs were rich and expansive, sometimes on his own with his drum machine and keys his gigs can seem like something is missing, but this was definitely not the case today.
Dirty Three
Warren Ellis’s non- Nick Cave music project was the best act of the weekend, so I have decided they deserve their own separate review. Click here to read it.
Wilco
Wilco were disadvantaged by following the excellent Dirty Three, as almost any act would have been, but they managed to put on a set which unequivocally showed why they were closing the main stage of the festival. Most of the setlist was taken from ‘Sky Blue Sky’ and ‘A Ghost Is Born’, although they also played a few tracks from their eponymous new album. I saw it written somewhere that on every Wilco album since ‘A Ghost Is Born’ there is one track which is a big, dumb, rock song, with all the vainglorious dimensions that brings. While songs like ‘Late Greats’, ‘Walken’ and the title track of their latest album would appear to support this, their performance at Green Man stacked against this idea somewhat. When a band appear live and juxtapose the Sonic Youth-gone-Krautrock of ‘Spiders’, the Californian FM rock of ‘You Are My Face’ and the bar-room soul baring of ‘Handshake Drugs’ it shows they are confident drawing on disparate influences to follow where their feelings and creativity lead them. This trawl may sometimes takes in elements of rock’s canon that are not fashionable in the eyes of some, but no move Wilco make is anything less than poised and reflective of the great rock bands in history. At Green Man, Wilco played with a skill and stature few bands ever achieve. The kind of stature where bands inhabit the stage rather than merely standing upon it, where the use of stage lights seems like theatre commanded by the industry of the men below them. After a magical 90 minutes in the Welsh countryside, Wilco showed themselves to be one of the best bands around today.
Bob Ferguson (View Original Article)
| 1. | My Girls |
| 2. | Summertime Clothes |
| 3. | In the Flowers |
| 4. | Also Frightened |
| 5. | Daily Routine |
| 6. | Bluish |
| 7. | Taste |
| 8. | Lion in a Coma |
| 9. | Guys Eyes |
| 10. | Grass |