Category Archives: Music

Primavera Sound 2010 Festival Line Up

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It’s that time of year again! As Barcelona’s winter continues to fling a surprising array of nastiness at us, we’re already getting the occasional day that lets us dream of spring. And spring in Barcelona means one thing: the Primavera Sound festival. This year’s festival takes place from the 27th to the 29th of May, at the Parc del Fòrum.

This is the line up so far. It’s pretty much final, though a few more acts will likely be named. The big names so far appear to be The Charlatans, The Fall, Gary Numan, Orbital, Pet Shop Boys, Pixies, Wilco and Wire.

A Sunny Day In Glasgow
Apse
Atlas Sound
Beach House
Beak>
Ben Frost
Best Coast
Bigott
Bis
Biscuit
Black Lips
Black Math Horseman
Boy 8-Bit
Broken Social Scene
Built To Spill
Camaron, La Leyenda Del Tiempo
Circulatory System
CocoRosie
Cohete
Cold Cave
Condo Fucks
Crocodiles
Delorean
Diplo
Dr. Dog
Dum Dum Girls
Emilio José
Endless Boogie
Fake Blood
Florence + The Machine
Fuck Buttons
Ganglians
Gary Numan
Grizzly Bear
Half Foot Outside
HEALTH
Here We Go Magic
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions
Japandroids
Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard
Joker featuring Nomad
Junip
Lee “Scratch” Perry
Les Savy Fav
Lidia Damunt
Liquid Liquid
Low performing “The Great Destroyer”
Major Lazer
Marc Almond
Matt & Kim
Mission Of Burma
Moderat
Monotonix
Mujeres
Nana Grizol
No Age
Nueva Vulcano
ODDSAC
Orbital
Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy)
Panda Bear
Pavement
Pet Shop Boys
Pixies
Polvo
Real Estate
Roddy Frame
Scout Niblett
Seefeel
Shellac
Sian Alice Group
Sic Alps
Sleigh Bells
Spoon
Standstill
Sunny Day Real Estate
Superchunk
Surfer Blood
The Almighty Defenders
The Antlers
The Big Pink
The Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77
The Books
The Bundles
The Charlatans performing “Some Friendly”
The Clean
The Drums
The Fall
The Field
The King Khan & BBQ Show
The New Pornographers
The Psychic Paramount
The Slits
The Smith Westerns
The Wave Pictures
The XX
Thee Oh Sees
Titus Andronicus
Tortoise
Ui
Wilco
Wild Beasts
Wild Honey
Wire
Yeasayer

Guardia Civil is the new arbitrator of jazz

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It’s not clear whether the Guardia’s elite Jazz Investigation Unit was sent out to Sigüenza or if they simply consulted its Contemporary Arts Bureau.

For what it’s worth, I don’t like genre labels as they always end up being exclusive rather than inclusive. Here’s hoping that the Anti-Folk Brigade don’t get called out to tonight’s Jeffrey Lewis gig in Barcelona.

Have a nice weekend

Music

While Gemma watches the atrociously bad Audrey Tatou in Coco: The Story Of Her Boring Life (it’s something like that), I’m stuck here listening to the Velvet Underground. And now I’m forcing it on everyone else. So enjoy.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgUs7yWnDJ8[/youtube]

thebadPoll: Song for a desert island

Music

Now before I get started with this re-inauguration of thebadPoll, let me clarify something: this is a different type of thebadPoll that’s entirely comment-driven. The old fashioned voting one will be back next week. This actually started out as a ‘what song would you like played at your funeral?’ post… but I felt that I risked sounding way too morbid for a cheerful late-summer Saturday evening.

My question to you is simple: which song would you pick if you had to pick just one song? Imagine yourself on a desert island, with only one song to accompany you… what would it be? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below… if you comment with a YouTube/similar link, I’ll add the video to this post.

My choice: it was a difficult decision, but currently I lean in favour of I’ll Be Your Mirror, by Lou Reed, performed by Nico and the Velvet Underground. It’s a near-perfect love song with great guitar that still manages to pack some poetic punch. Here’s a video, in case you didn’t already know this fantastic piece of music.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHmAUODVaLY[/youtube]

Continue reading thebadPoll: Song for a desert island →

France Gall & Maurice Biraud – La Petite

Music

In case you’ve never tasted this slice of delicious yé-yé cake, here’s France Gall duetting with Maurice Biraud on ‘La Petite’. The lyrics, for those who didn’t take French, talk of the feelings of a young girl just grown up and her father’s friend who should have grown up a long time ago. There is, it has to be said, something very risqué and at the same time out-of-touch about Serge Gainsbourg’s song: it both sexualises youth (and the way Gall sings is clearly intended to make her sound almost childish) and it ‘lays claim’ to youth as an older gentleman’s… right. He waxes lyrical while he notes how she’s grown up recently; she knows that he will teach her ‘a thousand things’.

At the same time, it really is a great song, wonderfully produced. Together with ‘Teenie Weenie Boppie’, ‘Les Yeux Bleues’ and ‘Made In France’ it cements Gall’s ‘1968’ album’s status as both a pop classic and the rearguard action taken by writers like Gainsbourg against the threat of rebellious American rock’n’roll. This is a subject I intend to write more on soon, so I’ll leave you with France et Maurice…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lup34EmsLSI[/youtube]

Primavera Sound 2009 review

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This year’s Primavera Sound was one of my favourites yet. Although our friends from impoverished Hackney couldn’t make it, I know they were there in spirit. I also behaved myself and resolutely refused to kick any chaps in the balls, a major improvement on last year.

Partly as a result of better behaviour, and partly because Gemma and I found it easier to strike out on our own, we saw more bands this year and certainly enjoyed more of what we saw. The new system for drinks tickets, which involved buying them drink by drink at vending machines was disatrous at the beginning of the festival, but ended up being simpler and more efficient. In contrast with Summercase (which won’t happen this year), the Rock Delux stage faced the stepped amphitheatre it occupies, so while sat we didn’t have to crane our necks to see the bands.

Anyway, here’s my breakdown of the bands we saw – graded according to my patented binary review system.

Thursday

Spectrum – 1

The Vaselines – 1

Joe Crepusculo y los Destructores – 1 (a surprisingly good Spanish band)

My Bloody Valentine – 1

Yo La Tengo – 1

The Bug – 1 (an early highlight)

Aphex Twin – 1

Friday

Tokyo Sex Destruction feat. Gregg Foreman – 1

Spiritualized – 1

Carsick Cars – 1

Art Brut – 1

Sun O))) – 1

Throwing Muses – 1

The Mae Shi – 0

Jarvis Cocker – 1

Saint Etienne – 0

Saturday

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis – 1

Plants & Animals – 0

Herman Dune – 1

Neil Young – 0

Oneida – 0

Deerhunter – 0

Ghostface Killah – 1

Sonic Youth – 1

Black Lips – 1

You’ll notice very few 0s in this review. I can’t say why that is, but my hunch is that I had fewer must-sees on my list than in previous years, meaning I was free to enjoy plenty of bands I’d never heard much from. My main disagreement with how the festival was organised was the way Neil Young was billed. When he started, there was a block of over an hour when no one else played on any stage, meaning that we were effectively forced to watch his show. By all that’s sane, I should probably be a bigger fan of Neil Young than I am. But the truth is that he leaves me just a little cold, and this episode of dedicating the entire early part of Saturday night to him (I suspect it was a contractual obligation), pissed me off. Plus, there was a terrible artist on stage all through his set, ‘creating’ a two-dimensional representation of the concert as Young and his band played. Half the time, it looked like nothing more than a turd.

Despite that, Primavera Sound 2009 was, for me, a great festival. We caught up with loads of old friends, made some new ones, and enjoyed some excellent concerts. Roll on Primavera 2010!

FC Barcelona, the penya and Primavera

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So here we are. Unless things go on for much more than 90 minutes tomorrow evening, in 24 hours we’ll know the outcome of the Champions League final. F.C. Barcelona face Manchester United in what should be a mega-clasico of a match. We’re going to watch the game at the Penya Barcelonista de Cerdanyola del Vallès, the same bar where we saw Barça win three years ago, and where we saw them knock Chelsea out just three weeks ago.

If you’ve never been to an official penya (they exist for most football clubs but around here they’re predominantly F.C. Barcelona-affiliated), these official supporters’ clubs are often the finest places to watch a good football match, provided you back the penya‘s team. You need to make sure you get there early, though. For the second semi-final, I got there over an hour before kick-off and barely managed to snag a couple of stools in the non-smoking area (shock, horror!). For tomorrow’s game, I’ve booked a table in the smoking area – three years ago, I did the same thing, and when I offered my name, the owner simply shook her head and said ‘Els estrangers‘, ‘the foreigners’. This time, she at least admitted she knew me and allowed ‘Tom’ to go on her bit of paper. We’ll see how well this works out around 8 tomorrow evening.

I’ll avoid predicting the outcome of the game because my hope that Barça will win is far greater than any knowledge I’d ever profess to having of the game. Suffice to say: I reckon it’ll be hard for both clubs, and while Man U may be favourites, I do think that Barça can win it.

And if they do, it’ll set off a great long weekend of celebrations. Because while I’ll be in the office the next day, whatever happens, Thursday night sees the start of Primavera Sound – Barcelona’s pop festival and officially the first party of the summer (well, that’s what I always say). The lineup is pretty good, and this year I’ll probably be aiming to take in a few newer bands I don’t know so much about (any recommendations are welcomed). The festival runs until Saturday, but even better news is that Monday is ‘second Easter’, meaning we get another day off! Skill!

So it could be a brilliant few days or just a very good few days. And you can’t say fairer than that.

Força Barça!

UPDATED: Primavera Sound 2009 lineup

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Here’s the (probably pretty much final) lineup for Primavera Sound 2009…

Dijous 28 de maig, Jueves 28 de mayo, Thursday 28th of may
My Bloody Valentine, Aphex Twin, Yo La Tengo, The Jesus Lizard, Phoenix, Squarepusher, The Vaselines, Spectrum, Andrew Bird, Jay Reatard, Lightning Bolt, The Bats, Marnie Stern, Dead Meadow, Ponytail, Ebony Bones, Wooden Shjips, The Bug, Bowerbirds, Joe Crepúsculo y Los Destructores, Wavves, The Tallest Man On Earth, Women, Magik Markers, Veracruz, Girls, Cuzo, Meneo

Divendres 29 de maig, Viernes 29 de mayo, Friday 30th of may
My Bloody Valentine (Auditori), Bloc Party, Jarvis Cocker, Spiritualized, Throwing Muses, Saint Etienne, Shellac, Joe Henry, Art Brut, A Certain Ratio, Sunn O))), Magnolia Electric Co., Jason Lytle, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Michael Mayer, Dan Deacon Ensemble, Rhythm & Sound (Mark Ernestus), The Mae Shi, The Drones, Bat For Lashes, Damien Jurado, Fucked Up, Tokyo Sex Destruction, Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls, Crystal Antlers, Uffie, Extra Life, Mahjongg, Carsick Cars, Sleepy Sun, Los Punsetes, Skatebård, Extraperlo, Rosvita

Dissabte 30 de maig, Sábado 30 de mayo, Saturday 30th of may
Neil Young, Sonic Youth, The Jayhawks, Michael Nyman, Ghostface Killah, The New Year, Liars, Herman Dune, Deerhunter, Black Lips, The Bad Plus, Gang Gang Dance, Oneida, Th’ Faith Healers, DJ /rupture, Ariel Pink, El-P, Simian Mobile Disco, Jeremy Jay, A-Trak, Jesu, Alela Diane, Shearwater, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, The Soft Pack, Chad VanGaalen, Plants & Animals, The Secret Society, Maika Makovski, Zombie Zombie, The Lions Constellation, Lemonade, Dj Mehdi

Bold denotes acts I’m looking forward to.

UPDATE: Recently announced additions include Neil Young and Jarvis Cocker. I do believe this could be the best festival ever.

Summercase 2008: final review

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Yes, as Grey said in his comment on my brief binary review, I was warned. I seriously doubt that I’ll go back to Summercase. Here’s my Last.fm review (links point to last.fm pages).

==

In over 11 years of regularly attending pop festivals, Summercase 2008 was by far and away the worst organised and most blatantly commercial event I’ve ever attended.

The lineup was poor and got worse with the loss of mia and Santogold, among others. A group of low-quality English pop groups (Maximo Park, Kaiser Chiefs, Sex Pistols, The Verve…) dominated the lineup and left little room for decent local or international break-through acts.

Also, the organisers’ addiction to Disneyfied 1970s acts (Sex Pistols, Blondie, The Stranglers…) made for further dull concerts as large groups of 20-somethings mumbled through the lyrics to PlayAtomic, a song which was fist performed before any of them were conceived. Incidentally, Blondie’s guitarist also managed to mess-up the guitar-part for Atomic, despite it being one of the most celebrated riffs in pop history. Give you a clue: it’s not good enough to just play the notes in the right order… you need to get the rhythm right too.

The thing is that, of what I saw, the only truly great concert was by Cornelius (easily the most experimental artist playing at this MOR event). Pretty much everything else was just rubbish.

As to the general organisation of the event, we were shocked and dismayed at the rudeness and generally low level of service offered by the Summercase team. Part of this was to do with the alleged policy of festival organisers to employ staff not from Barcelona, in order to prevent the normal issue of ‘free drinks for friends’ happening. What this resulted in was a service team of rude and aggressive non-locals who spoke neither Catalan nor English, and who were quite clearly unhappy with their work. Added to this, the females were forced to wear very tight pink t-shirts (men were in brown), and the festival succeeded in making itself not only a gross display of consumerism but also perfectly happy with breaking Barcelona’s modern conventions on language, culture and gender equality.

This year, I decided not to attend FIB because I thought the lineup didn’t justify a trip down to Castelló… especially when I had a festival on my doorstep. I won’t make that mistake again. And it looks like, with a huge drop in attendance, Summercase needs to sort out its act or clear off altogether.

Summercase 2008: 0