The line up for All Tomorrow’s Parties’ stage at this year’s Primavera Sound Festival has finally been revealed. Curated by ATP since 2007, the bands set to grace the stage this year are as follows:

The Album Leaf
Autolux
Broadcast
Caribou
Dean Wareham plays Galaxie 500
Factory Floor
Half Japanese
Islet
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Lichens
Low
Money Mark
Oneohtrix Point Never
Phosphorescent
Pissed Jeans
Salem
Seefeel
Shellac
Tennis
Wolf People
Yuck

This Saturday is the last day you can buy a full festival ticket for 150€ (+ booking fee) before the price rises. Primavera Sound runs May 26-28 in Barcelona, Spain.

All Tomorrow’s Parties have revealed that Scottish post-rockers Mogwai are set to play an extremely intimate date at London’s Hoxton Square Bar & Kicthen on February 9, just ahead of the release of their new album Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will. With support coming from Remember Remember and a DJ set from the team over at The Quietus, tickets will no doubt sell-out fast when they go on sale from ATP’s website at 1pm today.

Remember, you can catch a super rare solo appearance from Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite at TLOBF’s upcoming Shhh Festival. More info on that here.

With the strength of the weekend’s line up weighted heavily on Friday and Saturday, today starts off somewhat slower than it’s forerunners. Wandering over to the pavilion well after mid-day Peter Parker is the first thing we happen to catch. Not the most inspiring start to the days line up, the Glaswegian four-piece play little more than paint-by-numbers punk inspired indie, with feigned angry riot grrrl vocals and formulaic guitar led melodies. Needless to say we don’t stick around for long before heading off to see a different Glaswegian quartet, Sons and Daughters.

Wearing glittery black hot pants and knee high socks, Adele Bethel’s brooding voice swirls around tense rhythms tinged with folk sensibilities whilst Scott Paterson’s dual falsetto vocals echo in amidst the instrumentals. Their often-adopted conventional glossy pop mannerism is underscored by a slightly sardonic edge in numbers like ‘Gift Complex’, whose stops start guitar strums ring out over thudding percussion and an infectiously rolling, momentous bass line. There is something quite dated about their brand of bombastic indie pop but their performance this afternoon is much more captivating than I expected. Abrasive and flirtatious, numbers like the snare drum heavy ‘The Nest’ are delivered with conviction and the subtle undercurrent of contempt that seems to linger on Bethel’s saccharine tongue. As on record, Sons and Daughters are at their best on stage when they leave their rough edges un-smoothed, and shake up their shiny pop package.

Then, all of a sudden the year seems to be 1990 as Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee, the brains behind The Vaselines, take to the stage. Formed in 1986, the duo are best known for Dying For It numbers ‘Molly’s Lips’ and ‘Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam’, famously loved and covered by Nirvana. Having broken up and reformed more times than I can count, it is pretty exciting to see the two of them standing side by side, guitars in hand. Riddled with riotously rude innuendo, filthy banter and a persistently sexual sense of humour, their set is undeniably special. The Vaselines are classic, the original Scottish ‘twee’ duo whose musical influence stretched further than they could ever have imagined when they penned 1987’s Son of a Gun EP.

In a sweet, rill tone McKee’s voice cuts through the gently swaying guitar twangs of ‘Molly’s Lips’ whilst the entire crowd sing along fervently and in absolute awe. Aforementioned ‘Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam’ garners much the same response as Kelly’s affected vocals growl below the joyous guitar strokes and subtle melodies just before the pair launch into an epic rendition of ‘Son of A Gun.’ Heavier numbers like ‘No Hope’ prove the pair can be a fantastic guitar band whilst eighties electro-pop infused ‘You Think You’re A Man’ shows another side of the band entirely.

Staying put under the sparkling Pavilion lights the air seems heavy with nostalgia and filled with excitement. Having signed to independent heavyweights 4AD last year ahead of the release of their fourth studio record My Maudlin Career, tonight’s headliners have long been associated with Belle and Sebastian, so much so in fact that the Scottish folksters featured in the original Bowlie cast.

Thanking the crowd for “coming to see us and not staying in to watch that tv show” Camera Obscura’s famously forlorn front woman Tracyanne Campbell seems to be in good spirits this evening. Tambourine zils shimmer and the guitar riffs cheery disposition grates against Campbell’s achingly hoarse, melancholic vocals on opening number ‘Swans.’ Delving a bit deeper into their back catalogue ‘Keep It Clean’ and ‘Let’s Get Out Of This Country’ are nothing short of beautiful with soft swaying guitars, sweeping emotional vocals, swelling strings and timid percussion. Closing with the epic encore of ‘Razzle Dazzle Rose’ Campbell’s voice is sweet, brimming with hope as many of the crowd’s eyes brim with tears.

Looking around it is easy to tell that the vast majority of people are just simply Bowlied-out, the romantic, earnest yearnings on stage unable to compete with the calls of the dance halls and DJ’s, but for the rest of us Camera Obscura were a truly stunning, if not understated, way to end the weekends line-up. Well, that and the truly entertaining cover band, Them Beatles.

Finally as the indie-pop twangs of Zoey Van Goey reverberate around the upstairs room, it is easy to see this weekend is destined to end as it began: bleary eyed and craving coffee, watching electricity pylons zip past my window as the car cruises down the motorway.

Sons and Daughters

Vaselines

Camera Obscura

Them Beatles

Having shifted wearily home from The Crazy Horse at some ungodly hour in the morning, today’s early start is only made bearable by an opening performance from Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan.

The stale smell of beer and hotdogs populates the air in the dimly lit hall as the duo take to the stage. Best known for her time as cellist and vocalist with Belle & Sebastian, Campbell’s crisp and sweet vocals soar above Lanegan’s grunge soaked low, croaking timbre. An unlikely pairing, the partnership between the two was forged early in 2004 and has lasted for three atmospheric, retro-tinged Americana-folk albums.

The perfect antidote to the morning’s hangover, Lanegan’s gruff voice wraps around the gentle, sultry coos of Campbell in the gently rumbling melody of early track ‘Ballad of the Broken Seas.’ Taken from their most recent collaborative effort Hawk, ‘You Won’t Let Me Down Again’ shakes the performance from its lull as the electric guitar’s classic twang rolls out and directs the spotlight on Lanegan’s rough, dusty baritone. Classic romantic indie pop melodies jostle against low bass tremors, the sharp rills of the guitar and the vibrating cello strings. Tambourine zils jingle against the terribly off-kilter mini-clap-along in the crowd. Campbell looks irritated whilst the keyboardist encourages the young man leading the clap-along, who is currently dancing like he’s at an illegal rave. As 2008’s ‘Something to Believe’ rings out, the brooding beauty of their soundscape really does re-call the late 1960s sombre, orchestral pop of the iconic Lee Hazelwood/Nancy Sinatra variety.

As beautiful as the pair’s back catalogue is, Campbell’s performance becomes slightly dry and tedious towards the end, so it is with giddy excitement that I trundle downstairs for Frightened Rabbit. Having released the stunning The Winter of Mixed Drinks this year it is easy to forget that the Selkirk five-piece have been existed in various forms since 2006’s Sing The Greys album on local Glasgow label Hits The Fan. The Midnight Organ Fight is, for me, one of the most consistently epic and emotionally fraught releases of the past few years so needless to say my trundling is actually somewhat urgent.

Stepping out 15 minutes early, Billy Kennedy’s crisp guitar and Grant Hutchinson’s crackling snare drum reverberate around a surreal, empty room. The cold air of the pavilion wakes me up as the opening chords of ‘The Modern Leper’ expose the vulnerability of frontman Scott Hutchinson and the raw honesty of his song writing. As insistent guitar strokes and drums build from a soft shimmer to a thunderous crash the acoustics swell beneath lyrics riddled with a real bitter self-loathing. The percussion thuds with an incredible ferocity, as Scott’s stentorian, husky howls draw out the veins on his forehead as the band play a set that includes ‘Old Old Fashioned’ ‘Keep Yourself Warm’ and ‘Head Rolls Off.’

‘Backwards Walk’ sees Scott’s aching, quivering voice ring out over a muted ambience that genuinely sends a chill down my spine. Investing his emotions so entirely in each song, it is almost harrowing to watch a man seem to fall so completely apart on stage. Left to perform ‘Good Arms vs. Bad Arms’ alone, the Scottish frontman, drenched in sweat underneath he blazing purple lights, gently strums his acoustic guitar, brimming with an aching honesty. Sipping on beer and whisky he struggles with the upper registers but manages to find enough of a voice left to say “This is kind of Frightened Rabbit’s Christmas Party, it is the last leg of our tour so thanks a lot for being here. Also this is our first ATP ever, even as punters so it’s pretty fucking exciting. It’s just an honour to be asked by Belle & Sebastian.” At once inspiring and heart breaking, Frightened Rabbit’s performance this afternoon is quite simply breath taking.

Up next is another Scottish artist, although one of a more legendary ilk, Edwyn Collins. With the “amateur” Teenage Fanclub posing as backing band du-jour, the section of Collins’ set that I catch focuses largely on Orange Juice era songs such as ‘Consolation Prize.’ Having recently re-learned to think, walk and talk before penning this years’ Losing Sleep the fey, jangly pop of Collins’ performance is as shimmering as it could be. His post-punk sensibilities still bubble below the surface with an endearing optimism and when Alex Kapranos joins him for 1994’s ‘A Girl Like You’ it’s a pretty magical moment; one only topped by a Teenage Fanclub announced encore of ‘Blueboy.’

Catching up with Dean Wareham’s tour of Galaxie 500 songs, the singer admits that having played the original Bowlie, he found himself driving to Camber Sands on his way here. Flooded in a blue haze his warped psychedelic guitar and sweeping instrumentals are punctuated by an incredibly moving, ethereal voice before we head downstairs for Wild Beasts.

The Mercury Prize nominated four-piece take to the stage amidst the pounding bass lines, crackling percussion, soaring keys and low murmuring choral vocals of ‘All The King’s Men’ before the high pitched refrain of “Watch me/Watch me” grates against minimal instrumentation. Having “escaped the trauma of Butlins as kids” the band admit that now they’re here they “love it.” Hayden’s falsetto voice rings out against chiming synths as the band playfully make their way through an incredible set that includes ‘Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants’, ‘Hooting & Howling’, ‘The Devil’s Crayon’ and ‘We Still Got The Taste Dancin’ On Our Tongues.’ For all their intellectual posturing and strikingly serious ethereal harmonies Wild Beasts’ output is often flirtatious and genuinely amusing, especially when it comes to the opening “This is a booty call!” cry of ‘The Fun Powder Plot.’

Catching up with Field Music’s David Brewis ahead of his performance this afternoon he admits that he’s never been to an ATP before “partly due to the fact that both of the venues, both Camber Sands and here, are an incredible trek from the North East.” Having been asked to perform this weekend by Richard Colburn, David does say that it is absolutely “lovely to be here, and to have that personal element to the festival.” Responding to questions of what ATP means to him, David explains that “the way ATP do things and the consistent quality of events they put on is really admirable, especially at a time when its easy to make a lot of money out of gigs that aren’t very good. They have resisted the urge to do so and have created something that real music fans really want to go to. The more stuff they do, the better.”

Having released their semi-eponymous third album Field Music (Measure) in February, David and his brother Peter’s intellectual post-punk revivalism is punctuated with a wry humour and subtle sense of despair. Creative and witty, their performance this afternoon is haunting and understated. It doesn’t make for the most accessible, infectious set of pop harmonies but the gentle blues motifs and subtle poetry of songs like ‘In The Kitchen’ and ‘Tones of Towns’ draw a discerning, older crowd with their eccentric, quintessentially British sensibility.

With a confident air Dirty Projector’s David Longstreth soon swaggers on stage. With torn jeans and limp hair hanging down over his face he looks as though he could be part of the recent grunge revival. However, as the intricate guitar lines, and complex vocal harmonies from Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian soar above the sinuous instrumental textures it is quite clear that Dirty Projectors soundscape steers well clear of grunge in it’s art-rock experimentations.  When they play ‘I Will Truck’ from 2005’s The Getty Address, the call and response bass and guitar rumble below gliding saccharine vocals.

Listening to last year’s Bitte Orca on repeat in the car on the journey down here provides some insight into the enchanting, jarring musical juxtapositions and ever-changing time signatures of their performance. Fusing dream-pop synth keys and howling guitars, the band effortless offer up the most interesting and experimental soundscape of the weekend. Marrying the romanticism of Nico-esque vocals with the obscure, affected, haunting layered vocals, muscular drumming and shimmering symbols on tracks such as ‘Stillness Is The Move’, ‘Two Doves’, ‘Knotty Pine’ and ‘Temecula Sunrise’ the Brooklyn based six piece are truly incredible.

The crowd thins out as a large section head to see The New Pornographers before Belle & Sebastian take up their headline slot. I stay put and weave my way to the front amidst an increasingly excited crowd. “I love you Bowlies” Stuart Murdoch cries over the opening percussion crashes of Write About Love’s ‘I Didn’t See It Coming.’ The Glasgow chamber pop group “troll through the ages of Belle & Sebastian” to bring us ‘A Century of Fakers’ from their third EP. My jaw hurts so much from smiling as the guitars jangle underneath Murdoch’s smooth, fey vocals.

The euphoric violin strings of ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’ punctuate the rustic acoustic guitars whilst an orange glow populates the choral crescendo and famous, subtly infectious riff. With uniquely warm voices their performance of ‘The Stars of Track and Field’ is tear jerking: the entire crowd singing along. As Murdoch drags a handful of men and women on stage to dance with the band during what is undoubtedly their most famous number ‘The Boy With The Arab Strap.’ As the flashing lights die down to ‘Judy And The Dream of Horses’ the sense of jubilation in the air is really infectious and just completely spell binding.

It is pretty clear that nothing today has left to offer can top that most mesmerising of performances, a point that could not be more clearly proven by Jenny and Johnny’s tiresome, disappointing selections of songs. The kitsch vocals of Jenny Lewis are as beautiful as ever but the duelling crooning refrains of Johnathan Rice are uninspiring, as is the faux sincerity behind them.

Sticking around for the abrasive, harsh, synthetic and dark brooding electronica of Crystal Castles the night’s line-up picks back up again. Shrouded in a white cloud of smoke, their somewhat obnoxious melodies are embellished with flourishing synthesisers, infectious dance driven rhythms and Le Tigre esque howls from enigmatic front woman Alice Glass, who shortly dives into the crowd. More dynamic than on record, the Toronto duo provide a perfectly contagious, riotous ending to Saturday’s traditional indie line up.


Isobel Campbell

Frightened Rabbit

Edwyn Collins

Field Music

Dirty Projectors

Crystal Castles

Bleary eyed and craving coffee, electricity pylons zip past my window as the car cruises down the motorway towards Belle & Sebastian’s second stint as All Tomorrow’s Parties curators. Eleven years ago the original Camber Sands based Bowlie Weekender that “started it all” saw performances from The Flaming Lips and Mogwai, not to mention those who have made it back this year such as Teenage Fanclub and Camera Obscura. Since that weekend in 1999, ATP has played host to just about every important, experimental and alternative musician around from classic staples like Shellac, Sonic Youth and The Fall to Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Avi Buffalo and Wild Beasts. And so it is with great excitement and a slight air of shame that I have to admit this will be my first chalet staying, real ale drinking, failed junk food avoiding ATP.

Scanning the line-up times as my co-revellers and I wander around in an effort to find our chalet it looks likely that Best Coast are going to be the first order of the day, if you discount the arcade games and the extensive sound check we caught Foals doing as we explored the site. Everything is still pretty quiet as we head upstairs to see the LA based chill-wave infused, surf rock inspired trio. Bethany Cosentino and co pretty much follow the same formula as their Scala show a few weeks back, only this time it’s almost entirely lacklustre. Ripping through hazy, distorted romantic pop numbers such as ‘Boyfriend’ and ‘Summerville’, Bobb Bruno’s pounding bass lines and fuzzy riffs do inject some much-needed electricity into the performance but on the whole they all just seem exhausted.

Technically on form, Cosentino looks bored as she listlessly hums into the microphone, quietly sipping water without so much as a word to the crowd that has gathered to catch songs from their much loved, beautifully infectious debut. Jostling from side to side the audience seem happy enough and who knows perhaps things picked up in the second half of the set, but with Teenage Fanclub due to take to the stage any minute I decided not to stick around to find out: give me champagne swigging, slightly clumsy, overly excited and nervous Best Coast anytime over today’s Best Coast.

Under pink lights and the vast expanse of the Pavilion’s white ceiling, the instantly recognisable and intrinsically indie twangs of Teenage Fanclub’s Songs from Northern Britain era ‘Start Again’ ring out. Famed for falling just short of outstanding but managing to remain a constantly good output, the Scottish quartet’s humble and soft vocal harmonies crack with the maturity of their years. Something in the simplicity and honesty of their C86 associated melodies instils a sense of sighing nostalgia in the gently swaying crowd. Disappointingly though the set list seems to work against the ebb and flow of this evening’s misty-eyed audience, focusing largely on more recent material. They do thankfully touch upon 1990s A Catholic Education with a blistering rendition of ‘Everything Flows’ whilst finishing off their set with the howling guitar and harsh, smoky vocals of Bandwagonesque classic ‘The Concept.’

Classic sixties psychedelic five-piece The Zombies were up next. Rapidly approaching their fiftieth birthday, the band are, as ever, led by Rod Argent’s epic keyboard solo’s and Colin Blunstone’s smooth, charming vocal refrains. Effortlessly sweeping through pop hits from ‘She’s Not There’ to ‘Time of the Season’, their set sticks to familiar, sing-a-long numbers from Odessey and Oracle.

Now for a change of pace, it’s Foals’ real turn to step up to the plate. Since carving themselves an incredibly ferocious and challenging math-rock niche back in 2007 with their early declamatory tracks and sensibility, the Oxonian five-piece have released not one but two critically acclaimed albums. There is something about Yannis Philippakis and co that either attracts over active hyperbole or hostility from those who tend to ignore their musical offerings and hate them for their hipster associated image. Having not seen the oblique instrumentation and intelligently plotted melodies of the band’s swirling and steadily maturing oeuvre live in at least two years I don’t really know what to expect.

Trilling high pitched guitar strings underpin Yannis’ cold, echoing vocals against Walter Gerver’s pale muted bass lines before the melody of ‘Blue Blood’ begins to sparkle with flourishes of percussion and synths. The gentle undercurrents of melancholy and pensive tones that populate Total Life Forever really emphasise how far Foals have come from seeing themselves as “just a pop band, a really retarded, stupid, weird pop band.” Keeping the tempo ramped up the strained angular shrills of Antidotes epic ‘Balloons’ are interspersed with more relaxed numbers like ‘After Glow’ and ‘Olympic Airwaves’ to allow a stronger pop element to infect the band’s frenetic performance. Surrounded by twinkling lights and silhouetted by a misty green light ‘Spanish Sahara’ is nothing short of breath taking, it’s tension building with soft vocals and incredibly infectious rolling synths. With an incredible frenzy the climactic cacophony of instruments and reverb jolts forth from the speakers before I regrettably drag myself away to catch Saint Etienne.

Turning up, at what I expect to be about the halfway point of their set, the stage is empty: Sarah Cracknell is stuck in traffic. Adorned in a shimmering white sequin dress she finally steps up to the microphone, shortly followed by Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs. Born of the so-called ‘Second Summer of Love’ the dance pop trio exude the pure, euphoric atmosphere of the early acid-house inspired nineties. Hazy, creeping synths and hushed whispered lyrics soar over soft drum beats and smooth rhythms from Foxbase Alpha era ‘Spring’ and ‘Girl VII.’ The snare drum rattles as the low synth dub warps in time with the keys on ‘Nothing Can Stop Us Now’: “the first song [Cracknell] ever sung with Saint Etienne.” Slightly hampered by poor sound issues I left things at the classic key driven, Balearic infused ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart.’

Entirely too saturated with nineties synths I had to take a break before catching the Swedish five-piece Those Dancing Days round off the evenings live music. Fronted by Linnea Jönsson, gently infectious vocal harmonies simmer below unadulterated pop synths and sixties influenced, indie riffs. Taken from 2008’s In Our Space Hero Suits much blogged about tracks like ‘Run Run’ and ‘Hitten’ are incredibly contagious: the girls flirtatious, layered vocals are aching and brimming with smooth soul harmonies. With saccharine sweet pop and dizzying, kaleidoscopic Nordic synths it is impossible not to get caught up dancing until my feet hurt and until I realise I’ve been awake for around 24 hours.

The Zombies

Best Coast

Foals

St Etienne

Those Dancing Days

Rounding off a busy 2010, The New Pornographers are heading back to the UK this week for a special show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, as well as an appearance at Bowlie 2 at the weekend. The shows will mark the first time Neko Case has toured the UK with the band. TLOBF caught up with Carl Newman last week to discuss bringing more bombast to The New Pornographers, latest album Together, how Annie Clark is the female Hendrix and how he’d never let Sarah Palin use his music.

Hi Carl, hows it going? How was your trip to Australia?

Australia was very great, yeah. They treat you nice there- it feels very relaxing touring there- which is great because we’ve been touring for almost 6 months, so when you’re getting towards the end it’s nice for it to get comfortable. We were on the beach in Perth in the sun just a couple of days ago.

You’ve been touring with Neko Case again recently. This tour will be the first time you’ve come across to the UK with her. Does having her with you change the live dynamic? In the past you have said you don’t want the band to have a frontperson-although when you’ve toured in the UK you’ve been forced to be the frontman.

Yeah, it’s kind of true. I don’t know, it’s hard for me to say – I have no objective opinion on the matter. I’ve got to say I’ve never felt the need to have the spotlight on me – sometimes it’s nice to have somebody to do more of the singing, you know. Maybe it’s just the lazy part of me….”Alright! I have to do less work…Nice…”

When I saw you in Halifax back in October, you played selections from all your records – is that we can expect from these shows?

We’ve never been that band that only plays the new album. I’ve always felt it’s good to play something from all of your records. Because, you know, when I go to see a band I appreciate that. If you go to see REM you’d be annoyed if they didn’t play anything off Murmur. I think the fact that the audience likes the songs gives them a new life. Some of our songs I can’t remember writing them or what headspace I was in. But I love playing them because I know the audience wants to hear them and it makes a difference.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So you feed off the audience?

Well, you can’t follow them completely. You try and keep a balance. I feel like if we just play the rock songs then we’re pandering, like court jesters. “You want a fast one, well, alright…” It makes you feel like a wedding band. I try and keep the louder and the quiet stuff mixed up.

Being as it is close to Christmas, will you be playing any of your Christmas songs?

[Laughs] I don’t think we will ever play those… We just did those for what the hell. Sometimes we do covers, but we have too many songs now. We used to do them because we didn’t have enough songs- ‘Send Me A Postcard’ by Shocking Blue, ‘Cruel To Be Kind’ by Nick Lowe and a few years a go we did ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’ by ELO. But there are to many other songs. But I’m a massive ELO fan.

Roy Wood or Jeff Lynne?

I love both of them equally. I’m a massive fan of The Move. I think it’s shocking there were two people of such amazing talent in the same band.

Moving on to the new album… The band seems to exist between everyones other projects, which has led to a scattering of the band all across the continent. Does the fact that you don’t get spend much time with each other anymore have an impact on the record, and did it influence the name?

Well, I think the title has a number of levels. There was the honest part….”Holy shit we’re still together!”- so many people over the years have written about how we’re about to split apart because we all do different things. But we’re not. We still like each other as much as we ever did. And then there’s the irony that we don’t live in the same town – I live in Woodstock, Neko lives in Vermont, the others in Vancouver – we don’t see each other so much now.

And there’s also the fact that it’s not just you on this record – there are a lot of guests…

That was more like cameo appearances. They were friends so we called them up and they were around. The only people we didn’t know were the Dap Kings. But then it was like, for ‘My Shepherd’, we needed a guitar solo, and our producer Phil had just finished working with Annie (St. Vincent) and suggested we get her in. And it worked nicely. I like using her as a guitar player because not many people realise how amazing a guitar player she is because she’s known more as a singer. But if you watch her play live she’s like a female Hendrix.

Is there anyone else you would like to work with in the future?

I’ve always talked about working with the Fiery Furnaces – they are one of my favourite bands of the last 10 years. I don’t know if it will happen, but if I was going to collaborate or bring in an outside producer, I think I’d want to bring in Matthew Friedberger.

When you are writing your records, do you write for a voice, or write and see who it works best with, like they used to do for the old Motown records?

I wrote the song ‘My Shepherd’ for Neko. But most of the time we just see what works. After a while you begin to know what key someone sings in. Sometimes I’ll write a song that’s out of my register – and think, “OK thats a Neko song…this is two steps above what I can sing.” And I’m always happy when someone else sings. It’s like a snow day.

Over the years you seem to have said this, that you’re not terribly confident in your own voice. Isn’t that a drawback for someone in your position?
I have no problem with it, it’s just I think everyone else is a better singer than me. Neko and Kathryn have great voices – there’s no way I’m going to start thinking I’m an amazing singer, even within my own band.

Are you a harsh critic of other acts, making you doubly hard on yourself?
I don’t think I am…I’m pretty much on board- name a popular band and I probably think they’re great. I’m like “Yeah… The National are awesome. Animal collective…Yeah, awesome.” I am my harshest critic. But I’m sure there are some critics out there who would be quite happy to challenge that.

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This record feels “Big” especially the big rock cello intro on ‘Moves’ and the big riff of ‘Your Hands (Together)’ and backwards guitars and spiraling solos on ‘Daughters of Sorrow’. Was that a conscious effort or was it just how things worked out?

It really was a conscious effort – on Challengers we were getting mellow, and I wanted to have something like ‘Moves’ built around a big cello. I’ve always loved bombast, and I wanted to add a little more – if I had my own way it would be even more bombastic.

How do Dan Bejar’s contributions fit in? Does he bring a collection of songs for the band to pick or does he just deliver them as is?
Have I ever said that’s a Destroyer song we can’t do it? There is a song called ‘Painter In Your Pocket’. He presented that as a potential song for us. But I didn’t know what to do with it as a New Pornographers song. But I think that is one of the only times.

And ‘Hey Snow White’ – he did that as a Destroyer song originally but now you’re doing it?
Yeah – we’ve just started playing that live. We never played it before, even though it is on this big record (Dark Was The Night). A lot of people only know that song by us. But it’s fun to play live. It’s nice to be included as one of the ‘cool kids’ to be put on a record like that.

And at your festival (Stanley Park Singing Exhibition) you got to play with them too…
Yeah! If you want to be one of the cool kids you have to have your own festival…

New Pornographers songs have been used in Rock Band, and in TV programmes – with radio play much harder to come by and album sales down in general, do you see this as a new way of getting music heard? People seem to be very down on people letting there songs be used…but surely as long as you don’t have issues with the product it should be fine? I’d rather my favourite band sold a song to an advert and got enough money to carry on making records than not being able to afford to record new music at all.
I’m not at all precious – no one will ever be able to take your art away from you- no matter what I do with that song, no one can change it. If somebody puts meaning in to it, and decides it is important to them, then thinks it’s been tainted by use, I don’t know what to say. If I have no problem with it, that’s the best I can do. I’m concerned not to let just anybody use my music. Like I wouldn’t let Sarah Palin use one of my songs because I’m so offended by her. And I wouldn’t let Walmart use one. But most of the time it’s like sure, whatever. A Jennifer Aniston movie wants to use it? Sure, why not. If people are going to take music for free, can you really blame a band for trying to get paid eventually? It doesn’t work both ways.

What about the reunion tour? Would you ever consider reforming Zumpano for a couple of shows?
I don’t think that would ever happen – not enough people are asking us to do it, and the effort involved is too much. I think about it every now and then. I’m too busy with future things…I’ve got a few projects coming up that I’m really excited about- but I can’t tell you about them just yet…

Click here to view the embedded video.

As the year, and this interview, draws to a close, what has been the highlight of 2010 for you?

It’s all been a blur. I guess this is a lame answer but at the heart of it I’m just happy that I get to play music, that that’s my job. It’s what I like to do so the act of recording and going on tour, it’s the stuff I look back on most fondly.

That’s the most you can ask for really isn’t it? If you love it and you can do it, you’ve won.

That’s how I feel for the most part, even if it’s not a carriage ride the whole time.

It seems to me that you guys are always having fun on stage too – it’s refreshing and I think it comes out in the crowd.
I think that’s what we wanted to be. We never wanted to be an image based band- we wanted that DIY aesthetic- that anyone could do it. We want people to look and see regular people, not some “Rock Star”. Really, at the heart of it, isn’t that what Punk Rock was supposed to be about? Getting rid of the whole “Rock Star” idea. Even though the Pistols were rock stars they were saying “go out and start your own band”. I’ve always liked the underground- the regular joes getting onstage and making music. Before I started playing I thought the audience to person on stage was a frightening line to cross- but I’ve got used to it now. I remember being a teenager and realising a lot of the bands I liked weren’t popular, like ‘pop music’- if they came to Vancouver there wouldn’t be 2000 people there and that actually that was ok.

The New Pornographers play Shepherd Bush Empire on December 9th and Bowlie 2 Weekender on December 11th. The new album ‘Together’ is out now via Matador.

ATP have announced their first New Year’s Eve party at London’s Hammersmith Apollo called Strange Days.

Legends Sonic Youth will headline the bill, which will also featuring Chicago’s mighty Shellac and the much talked about Factory Floor.

They will be joined by guest DJs, and the venue will be holding a drinks promotion on the night with bottles of Carlsberg £2.80, House Vodka and Mixer £2.80 and Bottles of VS £2.80. The show will run from 7pm – 3am and tickets cost £40.

STRANGE DAYS Tickets go on general sale this Wednesday 29th September at 9am.

As if today couldn’t get any better, ATP have announced more acts to join the ever more amazing line-up for the Godspeed! curated Nightmare Before Christmas. Emeralds. Emeralds. Emeralds. Ace:

“WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC
NOMEANSNO
JOSEPHINE FOSTER (solo)
WHITE MAGIC
EMERALDS
BOBAN I MARKO MARKOVIC ORCHESTRA
DANIEL HIGGS (Lungfish)

Which means that the current line-up looks like this:

GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR / “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC / NEUROSIS / BARDO POND / THE EX / DEERHOOF / THE DEAD C / BLACK DICE / FRANCISCO LOPEZ / TIM HECKER / MIKE WATT / SCOUT NIBLETT / WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM / MARISSA NADLER / GROWING / RANGDA / NOMEANSNO / JOSEPHINE FOSTER (SOLO) / WHITE MAGIC / EMERALDS / DANIEL HIGGS (LUNGFISH) / BOBAN I MARKO MARKOVIC ORCHESTRA

I cannae wait…

Oh ATP, you kill me. I thought it would be fun, I thought it would be fine, but by the time I hit the bends of the A39 I could already feel last weekend’s hangover rising in my stomach.

At least this time I had a bed, although I arrived in Minehead long before my ticket. I’d given a couple of Cardiff friends a lift so we went and sat in a pub while I waited for my chalet mates to arrive. The first band I wanted to see were on at 5pm. Thankfully by half four I was checked into the chalet, and drunk.

My roommate Matt and I went to watch Avi Buffalo at Centre Stage.  They’re signed to Sub Pop, ridiculously young and ridiculously good. Live they were fantastic. The singer looks like he’s fifteen and has ADD, and it’s always nice to start a festival with a bit of a sing-along. Their album is out now. Get it.

Next up it was a trip to the Pavilion for Surfer Blood. Tight, confident and fun, they were sing-along two of the day. I’d put them on in Cardiff earlier this month so it was great to see them play again. Already the festival was getting busier too. Surfer Blood’s crowd was of a similar size to Iggy Pop’s the weekend before.

Surfer Blood

While Matt Groening’s ATP only sold around half the tickets Pavement sold out way, way in advance which made for a strange crowd. I met a lot of people over the weekend that’d taken their friend’s tickets at the last minute after year old plans had been forced to change. A lot of people weren’t bothered about watching the bands but just wanted to hang out in their respective chalets and drink, which I guess is half the fun of ATP.

By the time Surfer Blood had finished my friends from London had arrived so I stumbled round their chalet for, erm, more booze. The next band I wanted to see were The Walkmen, and I’ll be honest, mostly for ‘The Rat’. We were late getting to Centre Stage to see them but as I stepped onto the murky carpet a familiar chord rang out from the front and the crowd cheered. Apparently they’d already started playing the song before I arrived but an amp had blown and the band had had to wait for ten minutes before they could resume playing.

We got some food while Broken Social Scene were playing which was a dumb decision on my behalf because I had to keep running out the restaurant for a little dance each time they played a song I love (also, I say restaurant, I really mean chip shop). My friends later told me the veggie curry I kept describing as ‘really great’ was actually disgusting, I was just drunk every time I’d eaten it the past fortnight.

Mission of Burma were next on and were great, a large plastic shield separating Roger Miller from the kit and amps. Quasi were a little dull and then suddenly it was 1am and TIMES NEW VIKING time.

The pit for TNV was awesome; I stood further back and watched legs fly in the air and security guards crush stage divers. Later on I met up with Adam at the Crazy Horse and we went back to their chalet to shoot whisky. I don’t remember much apart from cutting Beth’s hair, wearing the hair as a moustache, and the moment where the sign language lady on the TV was mouthing the exact same words as the cassette that was playing.

I woke up the next morning on Surfer Blood’s sofa.

They were leaving that day and said they would leave their apartment open so we could hang out there as my chalet didn’t have a kitchen or living room. I dragged myself up and headed over to Reds to see Wax Fang do the whole of Prince’s Purple Rain.

No, really.

They were amazing. Dressed in full Prince gear they did the whole record from start to finish. I put them on in Cardiff a few days later and Scott told me the story of how it almost didn’t happen…

We were doing the whole Purple Rain thing and it was all last minute, we’d just been going back and forth, back and forth for two weeks with the festival ‘Yes you can do it but we don’t have any money to fly your keyboardist over’. And we’re like ‘OK, we can’t do it’. And then a friend of ours is like, ‘I’ll put up the money to fly him over’. It was a huge ordeal but we figured it out and then we got the final green light that we could do the show on the Wednesday before the weekend.

So then they were gonna fly him out on Thursday and get in on Friday. Thursday morning they go to get the keyboard weighed and it’s too heavy or doesn’t fit the dimensional requirements for the plane flight over, so he couldn’t take his keyboard and it had all the saved presets and everything on it.

So we got this news on Thursday when we were playing Great Escape in Brighton and coincidentally Brian Eno has a guest installation at one of the houses up there, like an audio installation, it’s pretty cool and we’re all, of course, huge Eno fans. So I was in the van sleeping but everyone else was at this exhibit and they’re all talking like ‘Oh my God, we have to find this keyboard in twelve hours’. And we were trying to find the exact same keyboard so he could export his settings, his midi settings, or just re-programme the keyboard.

So they were talking about it at the exhibit and one of the guys working the exhibit had overheard them so he comes up ‘I hear you guys are looking for a keyboard?’  or whatever. So he calls Brian Eno like, ‘Brian, there’s a rock band from America here and they need a keyboard, this is probably right up your alley’. So Brian Eno actually makes a few phone calls on our behalf and he arranges for us to be able to buy one from a shop there in Brighton, use it, and return it for a rental fee. Like, they ordinarily do not rent out gear. So we had Brian Eno working for us for five minutes.

Amazing. After Purple Rain I was sick and took a nap. Not so amazing. I got up in time for Fiery Furnaces who were just the right mix of mangled guitar and broken up beats to remind me of just how awful I felt. Still, I’d forgotten how much I love their records. Later I bumped into my friend Iain from Stricken City and we spent a good while singing ‘When I was single, my pockets did jingle’. I love that EP (EP? Album? Who cares, it’s ace).

Boris

I managed to start drinking again at Boris who were THE LOUDEST BAND OF THE WEEKEND, easily.  And suddenly it was time for Pavement. I went with my friend David who’s a bit older than me. He spent most of the set reminiscing about how ‘Never did the 14 year old me imagine I would be here right now’. It was so annoying I threatened to pour beer on his trousers so he looked like he’d wet himself if he didn’t shut up.

Pavement played the kind of set you always wish your favourite bands would play at a festival, but they never do because they have a new album to promote. Pavement don’t have a new album to promote, just a long line of very excellent, greatly loved ones. There was not a bad song in the set, which made trips to the bar/toilet difficult to time.

They opened with ‘Box Elder’, and if memory serves, ended on ‘Starlings of the Slipstream’ (last week’s plan to bring a notebook with me never really transpired).

I think the best thing about watching Pavement is it’s not very often now that there’s band who’s records you’ve owned and listened to for such a long time without seeing them play. I’d never seen Pavement live, and realising that everyone else punches their hands in the air and screams ‘No big hair!’ exactly like you do was a pretty great feeling.

After taking a moment to calm down, David and I went to Reds to watch Venom P Stinger. I guess everyone else had gone for food/post-Pavement drinks as there were only about thirty people in the room. And then the guy stood to my left turned round. FUCK. It was Mark Ibold. I looked up at the tallish man directly in front of me. I noticed the tuck of flannel shirt sticking out from under his jacket. Stephen Malkmus.

I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to disturb him during the band, and what do you say to a guy like that? I’d already embarrassed myself trying to talk to Thurston Moore at SXSW, and then I noticed, Stephen’s label was sticking out.

I considered tucking it back in, like to try and be cute or something. I stood behind him for half an hour trying to work up the courage to tuck his label in. I failed and went to watch Faust.

Faust had a fucking chainsaw. It was awesome. A FUCKING CHAINSAW! With sparks and shit. Atlas Sound was really dull in comparison. I stayed to watch him as I love Deerhunter and have seen Monotonix a million times before. All my friends went to the Monotonix show and said it got shut down after two songs.

I got a massage while Still Flyin were playing which was beyond awesome. It was so good. If you’re at either of the Xmas ATPs just get one. They’re only £5/£10 and totally amazing.

Omar Souleyman

Although not as amazing as Omar Souleyman. The problem with Pavement ATP was the line up. There were so many guitar bands it got a bit much after a while. Omar is from Syria. Apparently he’s made something ridiculous like 500 albums in his career. I’m not even sure how to describe his music; it’s like mash up electro bhangra. His show was the highlight of the weekend (apart from Pavement, obvs). Everyone went insane; crowd surfers, manic dancing, stage divers. Amazing. I don’t think I could listen to him at home though.

Later that night I went to the Crazy Horse and me and Neil from Los Camp! started the most awesome dance-off ever. There were like, 50 people in a circle passing a hat and showing off some stellar moves. Then I went to some lame chalet party where they were blasting really annoying funk and soul. We left and found an abandoned chalet and passed out in the beds until my friend Helen got scared that the cleaning lady was going to cut our wristbands off and forced us to leave.

Sunday was kind of boring. Wax Fang were great but then I just went and got pizza with the boys from my chalet. The Clean were good and The Fall were alright. I’d never seen them live before but my friends who had said they’d seen them play better. Apparently Mark E. Smith came back on for a second encore after everyone had gone, leaving fans running back across the Pavilion. I missed that. I was already watching The Raincoats.

The Raincoats played pretty much the same set as the weekend before. They even told the exact same joke. Something about a pessimist and an optimist. Whatever. It wasn’t funny last week either. The funniest thing about this ATP was the male to female ratio. It was a total sausage fest. Guys had to queue to use the toilet. It was brilliant.

After The Raincoats, Endless Boogie got a bit boring and I nearly fell asleep during Grails, which isn’t so much a criticism of the band, more a reflection upon my own lameness.

I went to bed at 2am. I just couldn’t face the next morning’s vomit inducing gear changes that result from staying up boozing. ATP had broken me. I need until Christmas to recover.

Live photographs by Valerio Berdini.

Photography credits: ^ = Leah Pritchard * = Ama Chana

Friday

Having left Glasgow at a ridiculously early hour to ensure prompt arrival at ‘My First ATP’ (Early Learning Centre™), it is more than slightly disappointing to encounter traffic issues on the M5 and miss Broadcast entirely and only just catch the closing chords of Built to Spill.

Cold Cave’s is the first full set we see, in the dark, mid-sized Centre Stage. With sweaty synthesised beats and layered, slow building sounds, it’s a quietly intense experience. Heavy bass connects with the chest, vocals going from a deep Ian Curtis style to cat calls and howls, careening through a climactic set to a tight and abrupt end.

Iggy and the Stooges- or ‘the dregs’, as their idiosyncratic front man refers to them- are a high-voltage juggernaut from the off. Even with grey hair and perhaps inappropriately backwards caps for men of their stature, this level of showmanship is undeniably rare in contemporary bands- and even when it is, the stench of cliché is sometimes overwhelming. Refreshingly humble, they invite fans to the stage, ensuring each hand is shaken and each autograph signed before they are thrown back into the wilderness. ‘Search and Destroy’ comes early in the set, Iggy’s distinctive voice instantly recognisable, with handfuls of favourites packed in throughout (including ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’, never fear). Classic.

Shonen Knife^

After this, it’s off to Shonen Knife who are as pleasantly full of Raw Power as the aforementioned punks. With group harmonies, chuntering Ramones-style riffs and unrelenting hooks, the Japanese three-piece fire out brash bubblegum punk, brimming with positivity but a ferocity which belies their cutesy matching pastel-coloured frocks. Yelping vocals and break neck speeds, their sound is not-so-quietly confident and decidedly massive for such a small bunch of ladies.

Liars, the highly anticipated closing band of day one, don’t fail to deliver. Singer Angus Andrew uses the full length of the stage, waving to the crowd like a crazed nomad and leading the troupe from song to song in an instant, very business-like with little between song chit-chat. With great dynamic range, the live version of Liars is faithful to the record but adds a little extra flare here and there. ‘Plaster Casts of Everything’ features lower vocals than on recording, but is still engaging, the effect-laden vocals at point very effective, but other times lost in the mix. The guitar tone is beefy and assertive- not unlike the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at times- and the drummer impresses with his ability to spin from understated to full-on wailing in the blink of an eye.

Danielson*

Saturday

This morning’s journey to Butlins is decidedly shorter than yesterday (ie: a ten minute walk), so I have no excuse to be late and arrive well in time to get a cup of tea and watch Danielson, the first arrival of the day on the Pavilion stage. Being relatively unfamiliar with them, it was a surprise to see the six-piece dressed like scouts or postal workers, all in matching sky blue outfits with name tags and box hats, which made the guy behind me worry if they were “some weird American family cult”. That aside, it was a refreshingly individual set of story-telling country folk, with a similar ethos to a more upbeat Sufjan Stevens, with a variety of percussion and cooing backing vocals plumping up the sound. The main vocal is distinctive, almost spoken, spitting out interesting lyrics and suited to the songs, but could be a potential ear grater for those not instantly won over. The between song banter is almost indecipherable, sounding like a Disney character on speed, ending the whole set on the phrase “Did I step on your trumpet? I hope not.” Fitting.

Lightning Dust, both members of Black Mountain, are a beauty to behold, with Amber Webber in possession of one of the most beautiful voice boxes of the weekend. Slow, slithering harmonies go over a tempo which is generally low, every understated sound weaving, complimenting and finding its place. More frantic moments are accompanied by bubbling synths and thick laptop beats, wonderfully juxtaposed to the Beach House/Portishead-esque vocals, dreamy and delicious.

Deerhunter^

Deerhunter are a comparatively loud slap in the face. Drums and bass driving from the off, and present throughout the set, it’s difficult to tell how well their sound worked in the high ceilinged pavilion, certain intricate details in their playing finding it difficult to permeate the bottom end layer at points, leaving the sound slightly muddy and lost- a shame for those unfamiliar with the songs. Other times, however, the music is rich and atmospheric, layering sound upon sound and eerie reverberation, epic Appleseed Cast-like guitar climaxes not unfamiliar to this well-toured bunch. Despite illness, Bradford Cox maintains an impressive vocal range and seems as excited about some of the other bands as the regular laymen like myself.

After a quick trip to the impressively relentless rhythm bonanza that is Konono No 1, we head to She and Him, alongside every other person dying to see their living doll, Zooey Deschanel, in the flesh. Her voice is clear and pure, sitting as well over M Ward’s sliding and picking just as snugly as it does on record. They fire through a set of cutesy retro pop, from ‘Change Is Hard’ to ‘This Is Not A Test’ and latest single, ‘In The Sun’, few feet unable to resist a good tap. With a handful of whimsy and a fistful of delicious harmonies, it would be hard to dislike this talented bunch. Yet, it’s equally hard to feel blown away, given the other, more boundary-pushing bands on display this weekend.

She and Him*

Residents are creepy as hell. With their front man bedecked in what looks like a creepy Krusty costume (a fitting homage to the organiser of this weekend, Matt Groening), they are undeniably weird but wonderfully showy, telling tales of graveyards, murder and suicide. It’s incredibly difficult to pinpoint a style but easy to see how, once they found this niche, they were able to survive 40-odd years. A deep, rumbling vocal (almost Tom Waits-like, if you don’t look at the clown shoes) slides over eerie and alarming soundscapes, dynamics coaxed and cajoled to great effect. ‘The Mirror People’ and ‘Unseen Sister’ are particular highlights, seeming more like dirge story-telling sessions than a set of songs.

Undeniably exuberant and high in energy, Ponytail change the mood of centre stage entirely. Sunshiny riffs and punchy fills revel under the female vocalist’s squeaks and yelps, no lyrics discernable, but having a bloody lovely time and handing us a coherent, confident package of fun.

As evening draws in, the dreamy soundscapes of The xx are rolled out for their first of two sets this weekend. Although influences can be plainly heard in their chilled-out electro-buzz, it would be unfair not to notice that they don’t actually sound like many bands happening right at this very moment. Their androgynous aesthetic, post-rocky elements and sensual layering make for a stiff, controlled sound that knows exactly what it’s going for.

Panda Bear’s shimmeringly sweet but discordant sound understands only too well the three R’s: repetition, repetition, repetition. Atmospheric and lush, but perhaps difficult for those unfamiliar with his tricks, it’s an atmospheric, sleepy end to day two.

Ponytail^

Sunday

Sunday starts with Boredoms and their second set of the weekend. In a word: incredible. Guitars mounted at the back of the stage, each tuned to different notes and bowed with drumsticks, whilst shimmering cymbals weave a tense backdrop. Then, it’s into a rumbling mass of rhythm that will continue with an insane about of stamina for over an hour. One drummer is brought in over the crowd on a plinth carried by eight men, playing at full pelt whilst being delivered to the rest of his crew. Clearly painstakingly rehearsed but with an instinctive feel, Boredoms are a crazy carnival of sounds and an eye-opening experience for anyone who’s ever lusted over a vintage Ludwig.

A brief time window allows us to see Juana Molinas - using subtle electronic sounds and loops to showcase her descriptive- before setting up camp in the pavilion for Daniel Johnston. For the first time this weekend, Groening introduces an act, proving he is just as excited about this set as the other festival-goers. Poignant lyrics about love and loss illustrate the sad poetry which draws Johnston fans out in force, including many songs from Continued Story and Hi How Are You. His idiosyncratic, intimate style is exactly what you would expect, and terribly affecting at points, but also potentially lost on such a large stage. Humble when faced with rapturous applause, Johnston gives a tiny, minute-long encore to round off his heartfelt set, doing exactly what he knows best.

Boredoms*

Spiritualized, performing Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, are unlike anything else on the bill. With an orchestra and choir lining the stage- thirty people completing the band at one point-, they exemplify incredible musicianship and mixing of genres which allows the album to sound exactly how you imagine it would, but perhaps even richer. Thick, harmonised sounds and memorable lines (“Though I have a broken heart, I am too busy to be heartbroken”) move from a gentle lilt to a profound cacophony, key hooks are repeated until that final, gripping hold.

Leaving the pavilion early to enact ‘stealth like a ninja’ plans to get an in demand spot for Joanna Newsom, our plans are scuppered by sound check issues. Doors to the centre stage don’t open five minutes after the elfin princess was due to begin, but when she does, all the grumbles subside. A vision with creamy visage and Rapunsel-style hair, her story-telling voice is clear as glass and her range something to behold.  Subtle yet theatrical instrumentation, flitting from trademark harp to more Amos-friendly piano moments, Newsom’s nimble fingers are familiar with a trill and arpeggio by this point, playing a healthy mix of material. Her drummer too is incredibly controlled and inventive, making such understated percussion interesting with a variety of approaches, including even playing the snare with palms and fists. Due to the late start, the band are unable to play the full set, but were still even more involving and captivating live than on record.

Having delayed their set, presumably so as not to upset the intricate folk of Newsom upstairs, The Raincoats display quite another kind of girl power. Pulsating and roaring through a ripping set, it’s easy to see why these women influenced every second Riot Grrrl and Cobain in between, discordant, grungy and succinct. A mixed set, including songs from their self-titled record and Kitchen Tapes, their rare set finished with the famous cover of ‘Lola’.

Joanna Newsom*

Although there was some humming and hawing about whether to see Trash Kit or CocoRosie, our choice to opt for the French-American sisters was not to be regretted. Opening with ‘Blame it on Me’, from their latest record, Grey Oceans, they are a sight to behold. The siblings are dressed in white pyjamas, enacting animated, swaying dance moves, whilst a beat boxer performs in a white hooded onesie. Their complimentary vocal styles, one classical and operatic whilst the other sounds almost like a choked Edith Piaf, add to the beautifully arranged and orchestrated backdrop. Ethereal and bizarre, they play a mix of material and demonstrate fully their ability to meld genres that shouldn’t really go together, from classical sounds, to electric blips and honky tonk piano. Just the right mix of poignant beauty and surprisingly upbeat, CocoRosie make for an unexpectedly perfect closing band for a really broad weekend. As is always the way with curated festivals, once you begin to trust the taste of the person in charge and dabble in acts unfamiliar to your ears, you will rarely be disappointed- and I suspect that myself and Matt Groening could share a mix tape or two before disagreements started to arise.

Tigerlillies^

The Residents^

Lightning Dust^

Konono N°1^

The xx*

Panda Bear*

Daniel Johnston*

When The Line Of Best Fit asked me to write a blog from ATP I agreed instantly. All Tomorrow’s Parties is one of the highlights of my year. It’s basically just a chance to get really drunk, go on some waterslides and watch loads of amazing bands with your friends, maybe not in that order. So when my editor told me this blog didn’t need to be done until after the festival I was even happier. Who wants to be running around looking for wifi when bands like Boredoms, Iggy, and Ponytail are playing? Exactly.

The only problem is, by midday Saturday I couldn’t really remember what had happened the night before. Now it’s Wednesday morning and every conversation, concert and trip to the Crazy Horse has kind of blurred into one, so please forgive me if this is a little rambling. I’ll try and keep it coherent.

I drove to Minehead from Cardiff on Friday afternoon, arriving a bit late after an hour sat on the M5 in deadlock traffic next to a Ford Fiesta full of lads who never seemed to tire of incomprehensively yelling at every single other driver. I stopped in Tesco to buy some supplies, well, beer and vodka.

I had a press pass for ATP. You get to see all the bands and all the other stuff that comes with attending the festival; you just don’t get a chalet to sleep in or a kitchen to cook in. But I was prepared. I had pita bread and hummus in the glove compartment and a duvet on the backseat. Besides, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve slept in my car.

Shonen Knife

At Butlins Minehead there’s three different stages; Centre Stage is a gloomy, carpeted bar upstairs. Reds is a gloomy carpeted bar downstairs, and the Pavilion stage is a giant cavernous hole in between the two. Walking into the Pavilion for the first time I spotted a familiar face sat in Burger King; Samuel Bing of LA pop band Fol Chen.

I’d completely forgotten that Samuel plays live guitars in Liars so I went over to say hi. We had a chat about his new album (which is awesome) and watched Built to Spill. He said I could sleep on his sofa. Twenty minutes into the festival and I had somewhere to sleep. This is why I love ATP.

We left Burger King and headed up to Centre Stage to watch Cold Cave. I love Cold Cave. Love Comes Close was my favourite album last year so I was pretty, pretty excited. They played as a 3 piece with a live drummer. Last time I saw them it was just Wesley, Prurient and Caralee (ex-Xiu Xiu) so I’m not sure how long they’ve been playing with their line up. Also, I don’t think the girl on stage was Caralee but I couldn’t tell, it was really dark up there*. At times it sounded a little like they were still getting used to playing together; ‘Love Comes Close’ didn’t have the power of the recorded version, but tracks like ‘Theme from Tomorrowland’ felt huge and encompassing and showed just what an amazing band Cold Cave are.

*Wikipedia just told me it was in fact Jennifer Clavin, formerly of Mika Miko.

Iggy Pop

Next up it was Iggy and The Stooges in the Pavilion, or as we *hilariously* called them, Mike Watt and the guy from the insurance adverts. I met up with my friend Jason from Glasgow and we made that joke for about half an hour. We really are funny people. Iggy was great, writing and fleshing about the stage. It got a tiny bit panto with all the stage invaders, especially at 9pm when it’s still awkwardly light outside and you’re playing in a loosely decorated Butlins, but no one really cared as soon as the riff for ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ dropped.

I’m not really sure what happened next. I think I went back to Jason’s chalet and his Glaswegian friends gave me Amaretto. We definitely ate curry at some point, and then went to watch Shonen Knife. I probably danced about and told everyone how much I wish BO-PEEP would come and play in the UK. Then it was time for Liars who were, to put it bluntly, fucking epic.

After the show I took my slightly sweaty body backstage to see Samuel and help carry guitars. Then we went back to their chalet where everyone sat around chatting. Moses and Josh from Deerhunter were there and a guy from The Fresh and Onlys. We talked about the election and stuff and I’m pretty sure I made some very ill informed and ridiculous statements.

I felt like a bit of an intruder so at 3am I decided to head to the Crazy Horse for a dance. It was empty. To tell the truth, this ATP was pretty quiet. I think they only sold about half the tickets. The car park was half full and lots of the arcade games had been switched off and stowed into corners. Added to this was the fact most people had stayed up stupidly late the night before watching the election unfold. Everyone was in bed. And so by half three I was wrapped in a duvet, falling asleep on Liars’ sofa amidst Summer Heights High impressions.

All the sofas at ATP were made of that gross faux leather so I woke up in the morning kinda hot and sticky. Angus made me a cup of tea (you’ll be pleased to know he left the teabag in a good amount of time) and then I threw my duvet back in the car and left on a mission to find a shower.

The first band of the day was Hello Saferide who sing really great indie pop songs but with smart, self-deprecating lyricism. And then it was time for Boredoms. Just watch this…

Click here to view the embedded video.

They were performing ‘Boadrum’ and had 6 or 7 drummers on stage including Kid Millions and Zach Hill. It was a sensory overload like nothing I’d seen or heard before. I was at that point in my hungover state where you start to feel all floaty and emotional. I may have cried a bit.

Watching Danielson straight after was a mistake. They failed to impress, but I’m guessing that was in contrast to the previous hour. I was awestruck and could barely speak. We went and got chips instead.

Both Lightning Dust and Deerhunter were excellent. Josh from Deerhunter is a dude. He just stands in the middle of the stage playing his bass looking like the most satisfied guy in the world. He’s brilliant. And then it was time for She & Him.

Boredums

Now let’s be honest, She & Him aren’t great. Their records are cute and stuff, but the main reason for going to watch them is simply to stare at Zooey and wish that you could own/kiss her face. I met up with Lauren to watch the show. Lauren was reviewing the festival for this very website. She had a notepad and took actual notes, reminding me how real journalists should work.

I managed about 20 minutes of She & Him. Zooey Deschannel is really fucking annoying. It was exactly like watching 500 days of summer: some awful pastiche of ‘indie’ but with a vaguely good soundtrack. I mean the things she said; “Wow… are we in a mall? Are those butterflies, or giant floating bows?” Is she really like that in real life? I suppose Keanu was always as wooden when playing in Dogstar but this just felt a little thin.

The Residents, now a 3 piece, were creepy as fuck but completely entertaining. I couldn’t be bothered with the massive queue for the Konono No. 1 secret show thing so my friend Louise and I went and drank in my car instead. Thee Oh Sees were rad, and Ponytail caused me to use the classic line “Hold my bag, I’m going to a have a mosh.” Amazing.

She and Him

I have to admit, I was a little skeptical about The xx. They’re so overhyped and every time I’ve seen them I’ve been a little underwhelmed. Although those times were all at outdoor festivals and I think that’s the difference. Watching them on Centre Stage through a decent soundsystem in a dark room with proper lights, it was a little bit special. That was until someone knocked a pint into Louise’s lap and we had to go find dry clothes because it looked like she’d wet herself.

After pintgate we caught the end of James Chance who was brilliant and kind of as oddly eccentric as I’d hoped, and the middle of Panda Bear who was a bit dull. Or I was a bit drunk. Probably the latter.

All my friends had fallen asleep by 3am so I went to the Crazy Horse to find new ones. It was White Heat DJs. It was like 2006 again. All of a sudden sleeping in my car seemed like a great idea, but then LCD Soundsystem ‘All My Friends’ dropped, closely followed by The Walkman’s ‘The Rat’. Seriously, why spend all night playing dull, bland, blank electro-shit when you have records like those in your collection.

Deerhunter

Then I remembered that I had the address for a Diesel chalet party so my new friends and I headed there. Apparently there was a free bar. Sadly the chalet was full of art students, the bad kind who’ll wear a piñata on their head and read Super Super Magazine.

No matter how much you dress up a chalet at ATP, no matter how many lights or DJ decks you have, nothing can change the fact you’re at Butlins. Especially when some drunk tit in the corridor keeps switching on the light in your rave room every 30 seconds to be annoying. Hiiiiiiiiiiiiya.

Sunday was quiet. I hung out with my Glaswegian friends and ate at Pizza Hut. I didn’t watch Boredoms again for fear it wouldn’t be as good and I might be sick on myself.

Spiritualized

The first music I saw was Daniel Johnston. Louise and I had met him the night before en route to drink in the car and he was in a good mood then. He seemed all right on stage, maybe a bit shaky. It was good though.

Spiritualized was pretty empty which is a shame. Last time I saw them it was quite dull, but with a huge array of musicians and backing singers, Ladies and Gentlemen… sounded epic. The reason it was so quiet? Everyone was in a giant, snaking queue for Joanna Newsom whose soundcheck ran late. I wasn’t blown away by her performance either, it was pretty dull; a lot of new material and not much else. People seem to keep comparing her to Kate Bush but I just don’t think she has the same impacting character.

Also, her slow soundcheck meant The Raincoats had to wait around for half an hour before they could play. They spent the last 15 mins on stage with awkward banter like this…

Click here to view the embedded video.

They were fantastic once they started playing, as were Trash Kit who filled the stage with fluid basslines and half of East London. I finished the evening watching the half of the The xx’s set I’d missed the night before. They are so good. So delicate and captivating and totally romantic; they’re the kind of band you want to watch with a pair of arms wrapped round your waist. Being single was the only thing that sucked about their set.

And that was it. I had to pull over on the drive home on Monday because I thought I might be sick. I had a nap in a service station. I got sent home from work. Bring on ATPavement. I’ll try and keep notes.

Live photographs by Leah Pritchard

Joanna Newsom

Burning is the new Mogwai live film directed by Vincent Moon and Nataniel La Souanec. The film comprises footage shot over three nights at sold-out shows in Brooklyn on April 27th, 28th and 29th 2009 at the Music Hall Of Williamsburg.

From the early trailers, this is set to be some piece of film… It features tracks including, ‘The Precipice’, ‘Hunted By A Freak’, ‘Like Herod’, ‘New Paths to Helicon pt1′, ‘Mogwai Fear Sata’n and ‘Batcat’.

Trailer

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mogwai, in association with ATP, have announced a special screening of the film at Burning Party at London’s Scala on June 3rd 2010. The special event will also feature a live performance by Remember Remember (Rock Action records) and DJ sets by Mogwai, Fuck Buttons and Errors.

You can get tickets here.

ATP have confirmed Godspeed You ! Black Emperor will be the guest curators of The Nightmare Before Christmas. A statement on the festivals site reads:

after a decade’s retreat, god’s pee has decided to roll again.

we are, as always, stoked, stubborn and petrified.

between now and the live-dates, there’ll be rivers of noise and distraction. and the internet is a petty tyrannical monster. please remember that really all that matters is the keep on keeping on. and all that really matters is the shows. and physical engagement in the world. and folks like us and folks like you. thanks for understanding, and thank you for still listening.

see you next winter.

xoxoxox godspeed you! black emperor

You can read the bands full statement, including the promise of further British and European shows at www.1119732.net

Already Confirmed for the show are:

GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR (3 NIGHTS)
BARDO POND
THE EX
DEERHOOF
TIM HECKER
MIKE WATT (Minutemen, fIREHOSE, Stooges)
SCOUT NIBLETT

Tickets are available now.

To finish their yearlong celebrations of 10 Years of ATP, the organisers are going back to where it all started. In 1999 Belle & Sebastian curated The Bowlie Weekender, the event that became All Tomorrow’s Parties, and this December they will return to headline and curate Bowlie 2.

The festival weekend will run from the 10th – 12th December at Butlins Holiday Centre, Minehead featuring around 40 bands picked by Belle & Sebastian. The first set of line-up additions will be confirmed on Monday at the general on-sale.

This will be the second of two festival weekends from ATP this December. The curators for the first weekend (3rd – 5th Dec) will be announced on the 9th April. They will also be repeating last year’s In Between Days event, which runs at Butlins between the two weekend festivals and features intimate performances from a range of bands. Details of In Between Days will also be announced on the 9th.

All ticket info can be found here.

Rumours of this announcement have been rife over the past couple of days, but now it’s confirmed…

Joanna Newsom has been confirmed as an addition to the Matt Groening curated ATP – joining the recently announced She & Him, Liars and Spiritualized.

This will be her first UK show following next week’s release of her highly anticipated third album. The festival takes place at Butlins, Minehead on May 7th – 9th 2010. Two and Three Berth Apartments are now completely SOLD OUT with other options selling fast.

The line-up so far looks like this with more to be confirmed:

IGGY & THE STOOGES / JOANNA NEWSOM / SPIRITUALIZED performing Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (with strings, horns, choir) / SHE & HIM / THE XX / COCO ROSIE / BUILT TO SPILL / HOPE SANDOVAL & THE WARM INVENTIONS / JAMES CHANCE AND LES CONTORTIONS / PANDA BEAR / DEERHUNTER / DANIEL JOHNSTON / LIARS / THE RESIDENTS / BOREDOMS performing Boadrum / THE RAINCOATS / BROADCAST / THEE OH SEES / JUANA MOLINA / LIGHTNING DUST / KONONO N°1 / TOUMANI DIABATE / DANIELSON / JAMES BLACKSHAW / AMADOU AND MARIAM / PONYTAIL / SHONEN KNIFE / RUINS (SOLO) / VIV ALBERTINE’S LIMERENCE / ANNI ROSSI / COLD CAVE / THE TIGER LILLIES / THE FRESH AND ONLYS / HELLO SAFERIDE / TRASH KIT

Tickets for this event are on sale now from www.atpfestival.com

All text by Jude Clarke, except where italicized: by Adam Elmahdi.
Photography by Leah Pritchard (LP) and Ama Chana (AC).

Pretty much any ATP Festival is cause for celebration. How much more so, then, was this, the last one of 2009, what with it being an actual proper birthday celebration shindig, in honour of the ten years of existence of these mighty and wondrous events.  That’s ten years of chalets, twee, noise, doom, drone, and every other kind of alternative and leftfield music you could hope to encounter, or at least a significantly larger proportion of consistently interesting stuff than that on offer by any other UK-based franchise.

Rather than being overseen, as is more usual, by a guest curator, this weekend was essentially a revisiting of some of the finest acts to have played, or indeed curated, previous festivals. There was maybe a danger that this could have lead to a stale, samey or predictable line up but hey:  this is ATP remember, no need to worry on that score. What emerged was, instead, perhaps the finest distillation of “essence of ATP” to date, that magical alchemy that manages to draw together a wide and varied mix of bands, musicians and artists and create something wonderfully special.

The tricky festival opening slot, taking place while many attendees are still haring down motorways (this year driving through every thickening fog and gloom) was this time filled by Alexander Tucker, accompanied by the Deconstructed Orchestra.  After a low key “hello” they were off, with opening track ‘Omni Baroness’.  As Tucker plucked his cello, looped this sound then bowed the cello on top, the other musicians gradually added more and more layers (between them, contributing violin, guitar, saxophone and a notably accomplished clarinet), padding out the original sound and adding richness. More based around rhythms and patterns than “tunes”, this was an engrossing start.  The vocals ranged from a deep almost bluesy croon to a relatively high register tunefulness, and squally dissonant segments, as contributed by the wind instruments in ‘Golden Dome’ for example, stopped it sounding too polite.  A mid-set “unnamed” track (which was originally going to be called ‘Reich and Roll’, until the realisation that The Residents had got there first) was more laconic and felt like a lament, with the plaintive repetition of the line “Don’t you ever, never, never”, followed by another un-named (or at least, unintroduced) track that had something of the progressive rock about it (one of the two vocals deployed here was a little reminiscent of Peter Gabriel), until it went all Alvin The Chipmunk on the loop towards the end.  The set ended with ‘Atomised’, all ambling plucked riff, soporific pace and heavy bass.

Next were Bardo Pond, whose space- post-rock started out intriguingly, with Isobel Sollenberger’s flute and voice sounding haunting and atmospheric over atonal guitars.  Heavy, doomy riffs abounded, and reverb echoed as the siren-like vocal keened. Something in the contrast between the ephemeral sounding contributions from Sollenberger and the heaviness of everything else added beauty and profundity.  Disappointingly, though, the momentum was somewhat dispersed on the following tracks, with the set never quite somehow living up to its initial promise.

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks (LP)

Growing’s intricate electronica was an enjoyable revelation, next.  The music was trippy and energetic, with the po-faced band members allowing it to do their speaking for them. Comparisons with Fuck Buttons were hard to avoid, especially when a near-identical sample cropped up in one of their tracks.  Featuring squelchy synths, four-to-the-floor beats, vocoder vocals and dubstep-py basslines, this was an early highlight, and we left half way through the set regretting the clash with Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks, who were about to start over on the main Pavilion Stage. Virtuoso guitar aside this failed, somehow, to elevate much above pedestrian levels, despite the whoops with which the fanboy elements of the crowd greeted favourites like ‘Gardenia’ (one of the set’s highlights, with the energetic “hey”s perking things up no end), and the freebie t-shirts thrown to the crowd.  Watching the band, I was reminded of how – despite the sometimes playful (and always clever) lyrics – Malkmus is actually a very serious individual. This is what came through, making the set fail to really take off into the realms of festive festival fun.  As an interesting aside, it was quite odd to spot Ryan Jarman of The Cribs on sound duties.  The set-closer ‘Baby C’mon’ was the best, most exciting moment, but didn’t really pull things back enough. For me.

“YOU SONS OF BITCHES, WE JUST GOT HERE MOTHERFUCKERS!” Such is Karen O’s defiant introduction upon arriving on stage 40 minutes late to a chorus of boos from the audience. Many bands would be thrown by such a cold reception, but not the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Pulling out a bottle of champagne and spraying it heedlessly over the front row (probably causing several grands worth of camera damage in the process), she then launched into one of the most energetic, flamboyant and downright sexy performances this reviewer has ever seen. Playing “Fever To Tell” in its entirety was an enticing if risky strategy, given not all its songs fit the festival mould, but despite a slightly ropey sound mix it worked marvellously well, despite the occasional dip in energy levels. The audience responded to her vampish, irrepressible energy in kind, resulting in mass pogoing, crowd-surfing and caterwauling of various quality (especially during “Maps”), and the band’s curfew-breaking encore including a superb “Heads Will Roll,” was simply the icing on this most delectable of cakes.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs (AC)

If the Yeah Yeah Yeahs hadn’t left me on enough of a high, the always entertaining múm decided to raise their own game several notches, resulting in the best set I’ve ever seen them do. Striking the perfect balance between their more experimental, glitchy earlier stuff and the playfully effervescent chamber pop of new, they skilfully weave pristine harmonising with charming, rich instrumentation (including the most well-judged use of melodica ever committed to stage.) Tracks like ‘Marmalade Fires’ and ‘Sing Along’ sounded incredible and the rare airing of ‘Green Grass of Tunnel’ complete with Sigur Rós style wall-of-noise ending was perhaps my single favourite musical moment of the festival.

Six Organs of Admittance carried on the “serious” vibe, their flamboyant flurries of riffage often teetering over the line into grandiosity. Ben Chasny’s vocal delivery, too, was considered, portentous, often sombre. It was pleasing when the occasional synth surprised, amongst all the guitar work, with flutters and chirps. An elegiac slow keyboard track was beautifully soulful and sincere, and the other elements, sometimes pastoral, sometimes blues psych and wigging out, all – more or less – cohered.

After all this guitar-led earnestness then, how wonderful it was to kick back on endorphins and electronics, for the amazing adrenaline fix that is a Fuck Buttons set.  The material sounded, well, pretty much like the (quite brilliant) recorded versions, particularly on the tracks from Tarot Sport. The main, and significant, difference was that all of those wonderful moments on record that just ramp up the euphoria an extra notch did so, live, TO THE POWER OF TEN.  Imagine, if you will, all the best bits of those great tracks where your stomach flips and your heartbeat speeds up, but now with splitting ears and in the company of a rammed room full of fellow adherents grinning like fools, and you’re nearly there. There’s also the small matter of the most excellent where’s-the-join? mixing and merging of one track into another, so when a favourite starts it takes a few beats, a few bars before that rush of recognition hits.  With extra theatrics lent by means of a) a giant glitterball on stage between them and b) some showy stagey drum bashing at key moments, this was perhaps the set of the day.

Fuck Buttons (AC)

Tortoise may have been a little too cerebral to take the 1am Friday night slot by storm, but that’s not to demean quality of their performance. Their sound is hard to pin down exactly, a fusion of post-rock (a genre they were heavily influential in), math-rock and jazz elements, but it’s delivered with rare flair and technical proficiency. A couple of songs were too noodly for their own good, but the likes of “Gigantes” with its rattling dual-percussion and electronica influences compensated for the rare moments of self-indulgence.

Saturday started in quite the most wonderful manner imaginable. After the traditionally party-hard Friday night, Papa M took to the stage with David Pajo promising to “softly massage your hangovers”. Boy did he ever.  Dedicating the opening number to the recently departed drummer Tony Bailey, we were immediately, and blissfully, immersed in a warm bath of acoustic noise that was at once soporific and quite quite beautiful.  Soothing, tuneful and melodious, the gentle ebb and flow of sound cascaded, detuning and retuning as it went.  The segment where the other musicians left the stage and Pajo continued solo were every bit as special, his guitar practically singing out its tunes in a warm, emotional and emotive manner, skillful to the nth degree, yet still full of softness and wonder. This was an Ahhhh of a set, whose only disappointment was in its shorter than billed running time. It is a testament to their popularity that the cheers and cries for an encore went on for a fair while after the set’s end, all those ATP hangovers pleading, pitifully, for a little more of that massaging.

AFRIAMPO (LP)

A potted summary of Afrirampo‘s set: two Japanese ladies dressed like the dancing girls from Gogol Bordello make the audience scream weird, incoherent noises whilst contorting their body into letters of the alphabet; conduct a sing-along of “Happy Birthday” to ATP, talk utter nonsense in broken English, and still find time to perform some of the wildest, tightest off-kilter rock ‘n roll ever seen in Minehead. Like Lightning Bolt-meets-Deerhoof-meets-an otaku wet dream, they may look and act shambolic, but there’s real skill and complexity at the heart of Oni and Pikachu’s rhythmic cacophonising- even Jim White, standing by the sound-desk looked suitably impressed. The standout moment of a set full of them was Pikachu’s appropriation of Oni’s guitar as part of her drum kit whilst Oni continued to play atop a bass drum- not only did it look cool, it sure as hell sounded it too. Baffling, bizarre and utterly brilliant.

The dark and mesmeric Om proved quite a contrast. Playing in near total darkness, the music had a kind of Old Testament hellfire and damnation feel to it with bass riffs reverberating through you (this was a set pretty much all about the bass line), and they even managed to draw a menacing edge from the tambourine sound.  The most satisfying material was from new album ‘God Is Good’, with ‘Cremation Ghat I’ (or it could have been ‘II’) and its exotic wails and sitar/oud drones pepping things up in an already atmospheric set, the mood of which was only broken by the gaps left between tracks, leaving the listener temporarily disorientated.  Sombre and profound incantations.

Shellac (LP)

Shellac. Set number 1.
Crowd Member: “Do you ever masturbate over how brilliant you are?”
Steve Albini:- “No, I masturbate over the brassieres in the Sears Roebuck catalogue.”

Dirty Three’s Warren Ellis – a consummate, relaxed and genuinely witty front person – is someone who could entertain a crowd all day, never mind just for an hour long festival set.  Like a (much) cooler Ian Anderson, his energetic and expressive violin playing is delightfully complemented by the oblique, funny introductions that he gives to each track, explaining before they start a little about their inspiration or meaning (eg: ‘Some Summers They Drop Like Flies’ is about “going home and finding out everyone is fucking dead”; ‘And The Sky’ is about “getting all the emo bands in the world and making them work in a fish and chip shop” and so on).  ‘Authentic Celestial Music’ got, deservedly, the greatest crowd response, all woozy and drowsy at the start, then upping the drama an intensity as it progressed, with a celtic fiddle sound. The nicely paced set then followed this with a song written by “a couple of depressed Greek guys in the 50s” (‘I Remember When You Used To Love Me’).  The uptempo, Hellenic, clapalong change of mood worked well, with Ellis setting aside his violin to dance, strut and pose away in the middle.  The set ended with Afrirampo joining the Dirty Three on stage (Ellis: “If I ever get married again, they’re playing my wedding) to let off balloons (in a low-tech but nevertheless very pretty spectacle that is “the closest we’ve come to pyrotechnics”) as the band play ‘Sue’s Last Ride’ which is a song about “waking up dead in your car cos you had too much fun”.  Fitting.

Dirty Three (AC)

Showcasing mostly new material, there’s little doubting that Battles‘ next record is going to split opinion in a big way- those expecting Mirrored Part II are sure to be disappointed. Much more reliant on Tyondai Braxton’s distorted vocals than before, there’s a strong Animal Collective-ish vibe to some of the tracks; what’s even more pronounced is a new-found sense of vaudeville lighthearted-ness. But if the jauntiness of the likes of Ice Cream confound initial expectations, the bedazzlement they evoke with their technical brilliance remains undiminished. The irregular math-rock time signatures, the sense of experimentalism and John Stanier’s ground-sundering percussion are still there, but they’ve been packaged in a (comparatively) more immediate form, and on the strength of the material here that’s no bad thing. That said, it’s pleasing they still found room for slightly reworked versions of ‘Tonto’ and ‘Atlas’, both rapturously received by the Pavillion crowd- whilst it’s good to keep moving forward, it’s unwise to entirely eschew one’s past.

The Melvins were much less fun.  Their sludge grunge had double drumming (make that quadruple drumming by the end), big meaty riffing, power and intensity but – for me – held scant appeal. Perhaps part of my problem was that the vocals never quite lived up to the standards set by the rest of the music, thus failing to really pull me in. Muscular, but uninvolving.

Modest Mouse are a very hit-and-miss live act, and personal experience has tended towards the latter but to their credit they were on sparkling form here, despite Somerset’s Arctic conditions causing Isaac Brock to lose his voice. To be fair, he was never the most tuneful or accomplished of vocalists in the first place, and his vocals were actually lent a rough-hewn edge that worked rather well in the circumstances. Ditching Johnny Marr was the best thing they’ve ever done- they appear to be a functioning, multi-faceted entity again rather than a mere extension of the former Smiths’ guitarists’ ego- and the vastly expanded range of instruments gave a fuller and more varied sound than before. A balanced and commendably unobvious setlist (no ‘Float On!’) was another nice touch in a set that consistently impressed and entertained, even if it never threatened to truly astonish.

Battles (AC)

Apse played two sets, the first on Saturday night and the second later on the Sunday. Apparently this was to showcase material from each half of their current double album Climb Up.  Having caught both, it would be difficult to tell if there is any specific or distinct stylistic difference intended between them, as both sets were fairly similar in style. And what an intriguing, near-uncategorisable style it is…  For about half of the first song I was under the impression that the front person was a woman, due to a combination of factors including their sporting of a hood, my shortness and the extraordinary siren-like vocal. Describable as anything and everything from (and including) beat-driven post-rock to propulsive, Eastern-flecked rock, from nu-rave, to punk-funk via the occasionally shoegazey guitar sound, this was music with a terrific sense of urgency, spirituality and a dance sensibility, all rolled into one somewhat confusing package.  These were both sets of the classic kind that compel you to go back and explore a band’s recorded output, intrigued to find out more.

The Drones delivered what could only be described as a workmanlike performance, as you might expect from this workmanlike band, but never one that quite transcended expectations. Live, they display all the same good, solid, stoically Aussie working class qualities as on record, Gareth Liddiard often contorting and grimacing with angst like an antipodean Springsteen.

Saturday’s final act (for those too wussy to stay up for Sunn O)))) were The For Carnation, whose sombre, downtempo material would have been better placed in an earlier slot. But despite the unhurried, drone-like grooves producing a soporific quality that ultimately defeated the less hardy of us, there was no denying the beauty of it all, especially with Brian McMahan’s deep, characterful half-spoken, half-sung vocal delivery.

Three ATP’s have taught me that there’s no better wake-up call than festival stalwarts Shellac, so I was glad to begin my Sunday with the fourth performance of “The End Of Radio” that’s graced the Centre Stage this year. For the first few minutes Todd Trainer appeared to be AWOL, which seemed slightly odd until the sudden report of a snare drum alerted me to the gaunt but oh-so-cool drummer standing a few feet away from me at the back of the room. I was also confused to see least two infant children present, although I have no doubt those babies are going to grow up to be AWESOME.

Shellac (AC)

If I’m ever reincarnated as a diminutive Japanese woman, I’d quite like to be Satomi Matsuzuki. Small in stature, massive in charm and energy, the star-jumping, nonsense-yelping Deerhoof guitarist is one of the most endearing performers of the festival, although her flailing, remarkably talented drummer husband Greg Saunier gives her a run for her money. Endlessly inventive, technically dazzling and always slightly tongue in cheek, they’re one of the best live bands around, and they don’t disappoint here, rounding off their cover-heavy set with the Velvet Underground song that lent the festival its name.

After the excitement of a Music Quiz Victory we caught Mudhoney doing their Mudhoney grungy grunty snarly barky luddite thing for a while, but really, everything was just a warm-up for one of our most-anticipated bands of the weekend, Sunn O))).  This was their second set (they had already performed Shoshin/GrimmRobes, late on the Saturday night), and the one devoted to their 2009 album Monoliths and Dimensions.

Mudhoney (LP)

As much an act of endurance, a rite of passage, and a mystical initiation ceremony as a gig, at once a ludicrous pantomime and an intense, sometimes horrifying and shockingly visceral, physical experience; the performance was totally absorbing from the moment the ominous rumbles of organ music and great gusts of dry ice filled the room and the shadowy, sinister robed figures appeared on stage (as the lights were abruptly extinguished).  Scree, crackle and a monochord riff seemed to be emanating from the farthest reaches of hell, genuinely scary in a way that music seldom manages to be, literally vibrating your innards and eardrums.  This was drone taken right up to, and almost beyond, its (il)logical limits. At times reminiscent of nothing more than Douglas Adams’ fictional band ‘Disaster Area’ (“not only the loudest rock band in the galaxy, but in fact the loudest noise of any kind”) they in fact often had a sense of the knowingly absurd about them that Adams would have appreciated.  The absurdities, though, were greatly outweighed by the sense of total absorption in the horrorsphere that the band and their music create.  The screams and shrieks that punctuated the set are among the most seriously terrifying noises that I’ve heard a human make, and the theatrics – dry ice, robes, LASER FINGERS, METALLIC CROWN OF THORNS – contribute to the overall effect.  This is performance art, but dark, satanic performance art, akin to a Black Mass or summoning of all kinds of unspeakable daemons.  When it ends, suddenly, the silence feels abrupt, shocking.

It’s a shame that Explosions In The Sky were selected to perform the Pavillion. Despite the “veil of stars” that turned the soulless food-court into something much more magical, the sound simply wasn’t loud nor sharp enough to do their soaring crescendos justice. That’s not to fault the band themselves, who played their little, post-rocky hearts out but they never sounded as all-encompassing as one would have hoped.

Explosions In The Sky (LP)

Reds was rocked to its foundations with Fuck Buttons’ unscheduled early-evening performance, the fuzzy, eardrum-obliterating peaks of ‘Surf Solar’ and ‘Olympians’ as euphoric as anything as any grandoise post-rock climax you’d care to name. They might not be the most interesting act to watch visually, but any band that can spark a rave atmosphere at 8pm in the evening is totally alright by me. To appropriate a quote overheard earlier in the day, “it was like a full-on sonic massage, mate.”

To end our whole ATP experience (until next May, at least) Lightning Bolt alone were incredible enough. Playing to a rammed Red Stage on what they told us was their 15th birthday (thus trumping ATP by a good 5 years), the distorted vocals, fuzziness and hard loudness were unremitting, remorseless and utterly exhilarating. Even more incredible, then, when just before the end of their set, after drummer/vocalist Brian Chippendale’s unmasking, they are joined by festival heroines Afrirampo.  Kamikaze crowdsurfing, water-bottle-bombarding, shrieking, dancing, frenetic lunacy ensued – a happy, incredible chaos. No better ending – unexpected, collaborative, aurally assaulting and ultimately the distillation of all that is fun in live music – could I have imagined or invented for this quite marvellous festival. Once again: thank you ATP, happy birthday, and here’s to the next 10 and more.

Lightning Bolt (AC)

Shellac (AC)

Afriampo (AC)

Battles (AC)

Battles (LP)

Devendra Banhart (AC)

Explosions In The Sky (AC)

The Mars Volta (LP)

Shellac (AC)

The Breeders (LP)

Tortoise (LP)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs (LP)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs (LP)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs (LP)

As anyone who’s been to ATP over the past ten years knows, returning home to eagerly (that might be a bit of a strong adjective with regard to a post-Butlins state) investigate the albums of the bands who floored you unexpectedly over the weekend is up there with falling spectacularly on your ass in front of Marnie Stern in the Crazy Horse and secretly savouring every greasy gobful of your fifth Burger King of the weekend whilst whingeing profusely about how you’re never eating another Whopper as long as you live. Apart from maybe at the service station on the way home. And a few during the week following, just to wean yourself back onto vegetables. A pleasure as My Bloody Valentine’s reign over proceedings was, there was a general consensus that this wasn’t a vintage ATP – few real surprises, a dearth of bands sounding pretty samey, and Kevin Shields being a whiney killjoy each night – but still, ATP or camping thigh-deep in mud surrounded by twat hat-sporting wacky idiots who “like a bit of everything”? There isn’t, and nor will there ever be, the slightest hint of competition. Happy Birthday ATP.

Josh T Pearson
It’s safe to say that Josh T Pearson’s decision to come onstage to ‘Killing In The Name Of’ has thankfully fuck all to do with the embarrassing chart pantomime playing out at the moment, but it’s a pretty apt introduction for the grizzly one whose lack of willing to conform has seen him eschew recording a much hankered-after album (and spurn the kind offers of those who offer to frogmarch him to the hi-tech Butlins recording studio to finally lay one down) and patent a prickly live demeanour. But late this afternoon, he’s all gratitude and awe at being “in the house of the lord,” covering a few bars from ‘Only Shallow’ at the end of a set that rails with the feel of a wretched man pleading for futile absolution, mumbling, “oh god, oh god what have I done” in front of a thorny wall of sound that increasingly builds only to destroy itself again with hammers stolen from Thor.

My Bloody Valentine
“One two, one two.” “Can I get some more monitor please?” Hi Kevin Shields, nice to see you too. It’s great to hear that you’re clearly so happy to be here playing for us, in the company of oodles of bands that you’ve picked to play your own festival. Although the sound problems never really let up – during the first few songs there are no vocals – he comes across as a humourless pedant, never giving in to the technical hitches to enjoy bathing in his own craggy ravines of noise. It’s interesting to wonder what must be going through the band’s mind when they play ‘The Holocaust’ section of ‘You Made Me Realise’, the sound of every pane of glass on earth shattering simultaneously, especially as they play it at the end of each of their three performances this weekend. My bet’s on whether they’re going to have Finnigans or Burger King for dinner.

Buzzcocks
It’s tough to see former cultural vanguards regressing and growing doughy minded with age. Peter Hook’s Freebass project have written a song with Howard Marx doing a “state of the world” rap on it which will probably trump Jon McClure in the political ineloquence stakes (there’s a feat), my dad’s sold all his Clash records in favour of listening to Norah Jones and Michael Buble, and Buzzcocks have become a cod version of their former selves, milking dry the teat of their very much of the times youthful snottiness with wrinkled, callousy old hands. Saying they’re too old to still be raising their guitars above their heads seems mean on one hand, but when you see a band like May’s Pavilion Stage doyens Devo or tomorrow’s rollicking set from Sonic Youth, it’s clear that age is no excuse for this embarrassing display.

Sun Ra Arkestra
There’s little chance of the Sun Ra Arkestra becoming the next embarrassingly middle class world music predilection to accompany the rhythmic wobble of Jools’ jowls of a Monday evening – their humbling respective triumphs against adversity duly acknowledged, the congregational community feel of Tinariwen/Staff Benda Bilili/Amadou & Mariam (delete as applicable) this certainly ain’t. Continuing the legacy of the great Sun Ra, the 85 year old (suck on that Shelley) and appropriately wizened Marshall Allen with his EWI trombone leads the other nine musicians on stage through a chaotic reprogramming of sense and order, bungeeing through perverted parodies of Hollywood crescendos and pyrotechnic “phre jazz” (“jazz of the sun,” a term coined by Sun Ra as a play on free music) made all the more kinetic by the solar system sparkle of their sequined robes. Vocal parts are tossed around the stage like an invisible beach ball, as they turn by turn preach afrofuturistic missives with ominous promise on the wonders of space being the place. There’s an innumerable amount of jaws agog.

The Pastels / J Mascis & The Fog
The contrast between the next two bands couldn’t be much more stark. Earnest frontman Stephen McRobbie makes like a friendly professor giving us an introduction to The Pastels, making sure everyone’s up to speed on which song comes next. Despite not knowing much of their stuff, they feel like a band of great comfort, leaving us kicking ourselves for not having familiarised ourselves with their slowcore, National-ish dark homeliness prior to their set. It’s not too much of an issue with J Mascis, one of the noisier elements of the weekend who deals in abject riffs rather than muddy forests of sound.

The Horrors
Despite being one of, if not the youngest band on the line-up this weekend, there’s an old fashioned feeling surrounding The Horrors’ performance, and it’s not one rooted in the dusty garage record raiding sound of their debut (none of which is aired this evening). In part, is has to do with their aesthetic, a point which may seem axiomatic – that surely being what they’re known for, ersatz substance over style and a peccadillo for spidery silhouettes. But there’s something about the way they look, the ordered way each member duly takes his place on stage that gives the feel of a band that’s arrived fully formed in their second coming; it’s as if they’ve experienced a whole history and we’re looking at it with the same retrospect as we applied to seeing Buzzcocks the night before, though with greater reward. There are obviously rehearsed elements to their show, such as Tomethy Furse on scientific Kraftwerk duties up in the corner and the simultaneous whirlwind spin of the guitarist and bassist, but it feels like a ritual dug from rock’s happily revisited annals. At the start, Faris is a bucolic marionette draped over the mic stand, but as the surprising orange warmth of the guitar grows, he’s liberated, stalking in circles with temerity and growing to fill the cavernous Pavilion Stage before commanding with a trembling fist. The way they mix their sound live proves that it wasn’t just Geoff Barrow’s impetus that saved them from their former pastiche ways; ‘Who Can Stay’ has sweet, starry sounding synths that collide with bleak, A Certain Ratio-style vocals whilst the guitar sounds like stained glass shattering. A sight to behold, and one from which many of their older peers could learn.

Sonic Youth
It almost seems like age and how its owners deal with its accordingly sized back catalogue is coming through as a theme of sorts for this weekend. Kim, Thurston, Mark, Lee and Steve predominantly play songs from The Eternal, dipping into Daydream Nation for a screaming version of ‘The Sprawl’ – in one respect it’s slightly disappointing for anyone angling to hear ‘Kool Thing’ and the like, but in the context of the weekend, it’s worthy of respect that Sonic Youth display no tendencies for wanting to stagnate or wallow in easy glory; they never come across as a diluted version of their former selves. They play in front of a backdrop that looks like burning Yves Klein bodies have burst through strips of flypaper, which pre-empts their diabolical take on sexuality concisely; Kim’s grisly scream on ‘Calming The Snake’ and ‘Anti Orgasm’ is the perfect sexually terrorising foil to Thurston’s apathetic androgyny. It’s everything you could want from a Sonic Youth show – that feeling of indestructible and hellbent youth – aside from the volume, which is so mild that when they crash out with a riff undigging itself from a static shuffle of chimes and feedback, it feels uncharacteristically polite.

Dirty Three
Considering that according to silver-tongued fox Warren Ellis’ anecdotes approximately 90% of Dirty Three’s songs are seemingly about being “out of fucking order”, “turning your brain into porridge” and being beyond spangled on LSD, it’s testament to Ellis, Turner and White’s combined prowess that they avoid ever bordering on sounding torturously druggy or self-indulgent. If this is the right word, theirs is the most astounding translation of trauma into music – every pragmatically sad moment is one of sustained high drama; they’re not a band who build with intensity over the length of a set, it’s present from the off. Everything’s a crescendo, but never overblown. Warren Ellis plays like a sculptor, kicking and flailing like the lead ballerino in a dance set in the most arid of godless boltholes and whispering a soft lament into the strings of his violin muse at the start of ‘Sea Above, Sky Below’ which in turn sings like with the reverent tone of an old lady lamenting a life passed. They’re undoubtedly one of the greatest live acts playing today.

Lightning Bolt

EPMD

Th’ Faith Healers

Fucked Up

No Age

De La Soul

Photography by Leah Pritchard

All Tomorrow’s Parties announced Mr. Matt Groening, that guy behind the Simpsons and Futurama, as a curator for ATP UK Weekend 1 at Butlins, Minehead on May 7th – 9th 2010, some time back, but had yet to confirm which acts he’d chosen to play. Well, the wait is over as he’s picked the first acts for his weekend:

BOREDOMS performing Boadrum – 9 Drummer Show
The Raincoats
Toumani Diabate
Danielson (formerly Danielson Family)
James Blackshaw
Anni Rossi
Viv Albertine’s Limerence (formerly of The Slits)

That Boredoms event should be pretty special!

Tickets available now, pop along to their website for all the different options.

For those of you still itching to catch the new ATP documentary before its DVD release on 2nd November then wait no longer as there will be a host of special screenings throughout October, the majority with a special live performance from Les Savy Fav!

The ‘one night only’ theatrical tour, will visit Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds and London from Oct 23 – 28, with special events also taking place in Brighton, Bristol and Hull.

Dates are as follows:

October
15 – Hull, Adelphi (with Gravenhurst)
23 – Manchester Deaf Institute (with Les Savy Fav)
24 – Glasgow ABC 2 (with Les Savy Fav)
24 – Brighton Duke of York (midnight show as part of ‘White Nights’, with live bands tbc)
26 – London Forum (with Les Savy Fav)
27 – Leeds TJ’s Woodhouse Club (with Les Savy Fav)
28 – Bristol Watershed (with Team Brick)

The eagerly anticipated film, simply titled “All Tomorrow’s Parties” will be released on DVD and download from November 2nd, with pre-orders available online from www.ourtrueintent.com

Photograph by Rich Thane, taken at ATP 2009

There aren’t many bands that can whip a tired Sunday afternoon festival crowd into a throbbing mass of pheromones and adrenaline, but NYC by way of Sacramento gents !!! did exactly that at ATP The Fans Strike Back this May, and will undoubtedly wreak the same sexual wrath next Tuesday (7th) when they play Camden’s Electric Ballroom. Over email, exuberant frontman Nic Offer discussed a refreshing devil may care attitude to money, being grabbed in the biscuits, and whether the Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act has taken any ostensible hit on the scene…

We have a pair of tickets to giveaway for the Electric Ballroom show on 7th July courtesy of the lovely people at ATP. To be in with a chance of winning them AND a load of !!! goodies (t-shirt, album) email contact@thelineofbestfit.com with the subject line CHK CHK CHK. Please include your name, phone number, address and T-Shirt size please. Closing date is Friday 3rd July @ 2pm GMT

This is probably a fairly common response, but your set at ATP was one of the most ecstatic gigs I’ve ever seen. How was the festival for you, did you get to hang around and catch many other bands?
Paul bought me a massage during Spiritualized and it was worth every pound he paid for it. The Jesus Lizard was for dickheads with clean rooms, but I bet David Yow’s room is dirty. The only time I ever heard Sleep was years ago on an acid trip and they were not quite as slow as they seemed then, but just as amazing. Killing Joke was kinda funny.

Considering that you formed to play an all-night party in Sacramento, it wouldn’t appear that you’ve changed your live approach that much – do you miss the debauchery of those more intimate settings in comparison to sanitized venues?
We bring the debauchery. I never noticed it was gone.

Do your parents ever come to watch you play? What do they make of your shows?
The first time my mom watched us, I thought she left early but finally at the end of the show I spotted her, she had made her way to the front and was dancing. I just tracked my dad for a vocal part on the new record yesterday. It was a part only he could sing, you’ll have to wait for the record to find out why that is.

Is !!! a full time job for you all? What were your last jobs?
I was a babysitter, or as they’re called in NY, a “manny”. Most of us still have real jobs, but I don’t ‘cuz I think spending money is tiresome and I need to save my energy for the stage.

It’s been two years since ‘Myth Takes’ – how far are you into the next record? Do you know where you’ll be recording it?
1/3 in Berlin, 1/3 in Sacramento, 1/3 in NY. I have no idea how finished it is. Pretty finished, but not totally. More finished than it was yesterday, how’s that?

Have you managed to perfect a method of cross-country collaboration yet, or does putting the record together still take its time?
We don’t perfect.

I heard you use audience response to determine the future of new songs – have you had to change anything based on their reactions so far?
Response has been good, and yes, there was one part that wasn’t slammin’ enough and you could feel the audience want more, so we slammed it up.

From the fairly cheap crude recording origins of ‘Myth Takes’, has its success given you more money to spend on recording, or is that primitive recording process something you’re keen to retain?
Success has not given us anything that we can count.

You said previously that after ‘Louden Up Now’, the criticisms spurred you onto your next record, but ‘Myth Takes’ was acclaimed pretty much across the board. Have you felt any pressure in writing its follow-up?
Myth Takes was slammed pretty much across the board in England, what board do you read? (Metacritic, which puts it at a pretty solid 8.1)

You have such a vast frame of reference, from James Brown to Sonic Youth. Before you start making a record, do you actively spend time with the kind of records that influence you?
Kinda. I always consider that what I’m listening to may end up an influence and I try to have a broad palette subsequently. Did you ever hear about the record Peter Murphy [of Bauhaus] made after a year of listening to no music but his own? It still sounded like David Bowie, bless his heart.

What are you all listening to at the moment?
Tones on Tail [Bauhaus side project].

You once said in an interview that you hoped African music would become the new hip thing. What did you make of the supposed Afrobeat phenomenon last year, with everyone from Vampire Weekend to Franz Ferdinand appropriating it? And which records would you recommend as starting points for people unfamiliar with the real genre, as opposed to Urban Outfitters’ appropriation?
I think it was as refreshing as I had hoped, though not quite a musical revolution. I mean, Vampire Weekend caught a lot of hype, then flack, but I thought they were kind of fresh. They sound a bit like a Shins record or something, but without the African influence it would have been rather bland, now wouldn’t it have? I’m hoping they got just enough flack to scare them into making an even better record. They’ve got a great pop sense and I’d like to see them go even deeper. I think the Golden Afrique compilations are pretty great, especially Vol. 1. My summer jam is “Sweet Music” by Dizzy K. “Excuse Me Baby” might be easier to find. He kinda sounds like a Nigerian Ariel Pink, not just ‘cuz of the reverb on his vocals, but the freeform cheesy ‘80s sense of melody as well.

Pitchfork remarked that the abandon of Nic’s behaviour makes people forget themselves in the crowd, and totally let loose. Have there ever been situations jumping into the crowd where someone’s tried to get a little too fruity, or does anything fly?
There’s always that one girl who grabs me in the biscuits and is surprised to find out the yeast hasn’t risen. But that’s fine, if you feel can do that, do it. If you feel like doing something else, do it.

Considering the craziness of your gigs, much like people thinking actors are their characters, do you find that people expect you to be wired all the time?
Yeah, sometimes I feel like I’m disappointing people when I’m mellow. Like Iggy doesn’t read a book sometimes?

Do you ever consider changing your name? Does it ever get to the point where you want to make up a new story about its origin?
Yes. Yes. Yes. Actually, no to the first question, but the record company does. Wait a minute, they did.

The ‘Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act’ has seen a number of New York clubs shut down in the past couple of years, for seemingly tenuous links with drugs – selling water at large prices, or even glow sticks. Particularly given that as a bill it was sponsored by Biden, who’s now VP, has there been much of a noticeable influence on the scene?
I don’t look as often as I used to, but last time I needed it, I found it. But drugs like that have always been more underground in the States compared to the UK and Europe.

Finally – were there any legal repercussions of throwing the piano into the river?
Shhhh.

You can catch !!! live at the following dates:
July
05 Ruisrock, Finland
07 Electric Ballroom, LONDON
08 Whelans, DUBLIN
09 Coalition, Brighton
10 Les Ardentes, Liège
11 Paradiso, Amsterdam
12 Cactus Festival, Bruges
14 Torino Spazzio, Torino
15 Vrahan Theater, Athens
16 Neapolis Festival, Napoli
18 Melt Festival, Feropolis, Berlin
19 Latitude Festival

(Very exciting) news just in…

We will be celebrating 10 years of ATP from December 2009 to December 2010. As the fastest selling ATP ever, Nightmare Before Christmas curated by My Bloody Valentine is almost sold out, to get things going for our milestone, ATP is incredibly excited to reveal that we will commence our 10th birthday festivities with a second weekend in December and we want you to come and party with us!!!

The Ten Years Of ATP festival will take place at Butlins Resort in Minehead from Friday 11th December to Sunday 13th December, 2009.

As this is our birthday party – it is going to be very special weekend. For the line up we are inviting our nearest and dearest to play – which means past ATP curators, ATP recordings artists and some ATP favourites thrown into the mix too…

So far confirmed to play are:

Explosions in the Sky
Dirty Three
Shellac
Tortoise
Melvins
Mudhoney
The For Carnation
Papa M
Deerhoof
F**k Buttons
The Drones
Sleepy Sun
Bardo Pond

…with more curators, recording artists and ATP favourites to be announced! Tickets for this special event will be priced at £160 per person for room only accommodation and £170 per person for self-catering.

More info on this and indeed all other ATP events can be found here.

Future Cinema and Warp X, in association with ATP, have released tickets to ‘The Night of Musical Delights’, a spectacular concert that will follow the UK Premiere screening of All Tomorrow’s Parties at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on June 24^th.

The concert is part of a unique live cinema event presented by Future Cinema – the creative force behind Secret Cinema – which will see the Edinburgh Picturehouse transformed into a 1950s Holiday Camp for the screening. Audiences will see and hear the film brought to life through a fusion of music and performance, complete with midnight bingo, Northern Soul dancers and lovely legs competitions. Win!

The concert will feature live music and DJ’s including Belle and Sebastian‘s Chris Geddes, and culminate in a very special headline set from a top-secret Scottish act.

Tickets to ‘The Night of Musical Delights’ are on sale now. More information is available at www.futurecinema.co.uk

Combined tickets to the screening & concert are also on sale and can be purchased through the Edinburgh International Film Festival Box Office: www.edfilmfest.org.uk

Following its Edinburgh premiere, there will be a series of special events across the UK in September to tie-in with the September 21^st DVD release of All Tomorrow’s Parties.

If you missed our indepth review of the ATP vs The Breeders weekend, you can find it (along with some more photos) here.

Photo credits:
Lucy Johnston = (LJ)
Ama Chana = (AC)

Bon Iver (LJ)

(LJ)

(AC)

Blood Red Shoes (AC)

(LJ)

CSS (AC)

(AC)

(LJ)

Deerhunter (LJ)

Tricky (LJ)

The Soft Pack (LJ)

Shellac (LJ)

Yann Tiersen (AC)

(AC)

Kimya Dawson (AC)

(LJ)

(AC)

Pit er Pat (AC)

The Breeders (LJ)

(LJ)

If you missed our indepth review of the ATP vs The Fans weekend, you can find it (along with some more photos) here.

Look out for photographs from The Breeders weekend coming tomorrow!

Photo credits:
Lucy Johnston = (LJ)
Richard Thane = (RT)

The Acorn (RT)

(RT)

Beirut (RT)

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone (RT)

The Cave Singers (RT)

(RT)

(LJ)

(RT)

!!! (RT)

(RT)

Devo (RT)

(LJ)

(RT)

(RT)

Errors (RT)

(RT)

(LJ)

Fuck Buttons (RT)

(RT)

(RT)

(RT)

Future Of The Left (LJ)

(LJ)

Retribution Gospel Choir (RT)

(RT)

Grizzly Bear (RT)

(RT)

(RT)

The Jesus Lizard (LJ)

Marnie Stern (LJ)

M83 (RT)

(RT)

(RT)

(RT)

Parts and Labor (LJ)

(LJ)

(LJ)

School Of Seven Bells (RT)

(RT)

(RT)

Shearwater (RT)

(RT)

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Spiritualized (RT)

(LJ)

(RT)

Shellac :: All photographs by Lucy Johnston

From the moment I embarked the 10am train to Taunton, it was obvious this ATP would be a very different kettle of fish to my previous excursion Minehead way. Whilst the journey to The Fans was like being trapped in a feature-length episode of Skins, all flannel-shirted youths sporting Converse and polka dots, the clientele this time was, let’s say, a little richer in years…and volume. But with ATP: Breeders focusing on more established acts than last week’s indie-schmindie extravaganza- over half the bands have been around at least a decade- that’s no real surprise. Neither is it a criticism; in many ways having a line-up I was far less familiar with (being but a twinkle in the milkman’s eye when Gang of Four and X were first around) made this a more interesting experience to review, and indeed, it also proved that these old-timers could show their more youthful counterparts a lesson or two…

Etiquette informs me that if you’ve got nothing nice to say, say nothing at all and in that spirit I shall swiftly pass over The Holloys and expound upon the unexpected charms of Giant Sand. A stalwart of the Americana genre, I was subconsciously expecting a dreary Iron & Wine-esque jam-fest, perhaps with the odd sprinkle of contrived emotion but Howe Gelb’s wry, weathered vocals, compelling stage presence and penchant for discordant piano and ultra-distorted guitar swiftly dispelled my cynicism. Another unexpected pleasure was LA hardcore punk band The Bronx; not normally something I’d go out of my way to see, but their electrifying energy and positive, non-aggressive attitude struck me as a welcome (and very entertaining) antidote to the tiresome faux-anarchical posturing that too often pollutes the genre. Plus, their bassist looks like Andrew WK with a porn-star ‘tache, and that really amused me.

Throwing Muses were a tad disappointing, though Kristin Hersh remains a forbidding presence- steely-eyed, impeccably focused, as if struggling to contain barely contained rage. Their performance was commendably tight  although perfunctionary in terms of emotion, but there was just something a little bland about them- in a weekend full of similar acts, they never threatened to truly shine. It almost looked like Yann Tiersen was to suffer a similar fate- his accordion long-ditched, he’s reinvented himself as some guitar-heavy post-rock type and the first quarter of the set came across as a pale imitation of much better acts. But he eventually hit his stride and by the time he unleashed his jaw-dropping violin skills he was mesmerising to behold,  not so much rearranging songs as deconstructing and rebuilding them entirely. Indeed, La valse d’Amelie, reinvented as a cacophonous symphony of glitchy electronica and frenzied virtuoso strings was so spellbinding I clean forgot Bon Iver had already started downstairs.

Blood Red Shoes

Rivalled only by Fleet Foxes as the alt-folk breakthrough act of last year, Justin Vernon had exceedingly high expectations to live up to and verily, he didn’t let us down- well, for the most part. True, the Blood Bank material seems tepid compared to the glorious peaks of For Emma and once again the vastness of  the Pavillion fought tooth and nail against the intimate, intense emotion at the heart of Vernon’s appeal but when he hit the mark, there’s absolutely no denying his remarkable talent. The swirling keyboards of New Buffalo cover “Emotional Champ” was an interesting hint at a new compositional direction, and  not even the atmosphere-sapping environs could rob ‘Wolves’ and its plaintive, ever-crescendoing refrain of its devastating power- a breathtaking end to a top-quality performance.  Winding up this fine day of music was Pit Er Pat; sounding like the result of a sexy liaison between Gang Gang Dance and Fever Ray, their heady mix of ice-cold vocals and electronic drums got the audience dancing well enough, although it was seriously screaming out for a light-show of some variety.

Saturday was promisingly inaugurated by the Jenny Lewis-endorsed Whispertown 2000- if I’d venture that the rapturous (mostly male) audience reaction was down to their exceptionally short shorts as much as their country-tinged indie pop, their energetic, charming performance and quality songwriting was certainly commendable on its own merits. Unfortunately, it was a high the rest of the day struggled to live up to. Angular boy-girl duo Blood Red Shoes initially piqued my interest with their visceral drumming and suitably moody vocals (one part Howling Bells, one part Kills) but they soon proved themselves one-trick ponies. Ditto Th’ Faith Healers, whose 90′s Krautrock-influenced indie may have admittedly left a more favourable impression if I’d been in a less lethargic state of mind. Scottish indie veterans Teenage Fanclub (a horrific misnomer- they, and their fanbase are all about a hundred years old) were a little better, though their unostentatious performance was far from electrifying- whilst established fans were having a whale of a time, I’d imagine the uninitiated were wondering what all the fuss was all about.

Thank God for Shellac. Steve Albini’s minimalist rock trio may have jokingly grumbled at being superseded in the ranks of Indie-Rock royalty by The Jesus Lizard, but their performance was just as gripping as David Yow and co. Exceptionally talented musicans all, veering between subtle, amelodic instrumentals and ferocious, angular rock-outs, they’re the kind of act that could so easily succumb to pretentiousness, but to their credit remain resolutely tongue in cheek throughout. This sense of fun also applies to The Breeders- having not expected much of them given their reputation for scrappiness live, they ultimately produced the day’s most accomplished set. Much tighter and disciplined than expected, the interplay between Kim and Kelley Deal’s voice works particularly well on their more reserved moments and despite a duff encore, there’s no denying that ‘Cannonball’ is a choon. Pitiful excuse of masculinity that I am, I then went back to my quarters for a “quick nap”, only to wake up nine hours later, having obliviously slept through the double-whammy of Mariachi El Bronx and Holy Fuck. I’m reliably informed they were brilliant. Sad times.

The Breeders

Thankfully, my lengthy repose left me refreshed and raring to go for what was undoubtedly the strongest day of the three. I’m naturally inclined to give the benefit of a doubt to any band with the gall to include a font-based pun in their name, and Times New Viking repaid my faith by being one of the revelations of the weekend. Whilst Rip It Off can be a trial to listen to, with its mercilessly abrasive mix regularly overwhelming its melodic qualities, their live show strikes a far more successful balance of succinct punky lo-fi synth pop and ear-splitting distortion. Plus, at 30 minutes their set was short enough to avoid running their formula into the ground- Heartless Bastards played for an hour but had exhausted theirs in ten. They’ve got a decent front lady in the form of Erika Wennerstrom, her powerhouse vocals and striking vivacity recalling Rhydian from the Joy Formidable, but despite a respectable line in melodies they’ve not got the slightest iota of originality. Perfectly competent, but disappointingly obvious with little to distinguish them from the mire, I soon departed for the much more intriguing Dianogah. Claiming only to have been invited because they’d jump-started The Breeders’ van at the Shellac ATP seven years back, the Chicago three-piece’s atmospheric mathrock-y instrumentals were given extra impetus by their unusual bass-bass-drum set-up, and their sardonic, self-depreciating attitude was never less than entertaining.

Cult Japanese grind-core/noise-pop mentalists Melt-Banana went straight for the jugular with 15 minutes of ear-piercing noise overlaid with a smorgasbord of sound effects, sirens and general insanity conducted in total darkness (but for the torches they wielded). Masters of the disorientating aural assault, they eventually began to coalesce their chaos into songs with identifiable structures and were even better for it- the blistering bass-line of ‘Shield For Your Eyes’, the fractured bounciness of Specials’ cover ‘Monkey Man’ all underpinned by astonishing, if unconventional musicianship. After that exercise in hyperactive brilliance, the normally reliable Deerhunter felt a little sophorific, despite a wonderful spot of guest vocals from the Sisters Deal (Bradford Cox’s obvious joy at performing with them was oddly touching). Another band ill-suited to the sterility of the Pavillion stage, their melodic fuzz was voluminous without being particularly immersive and being still on a post-Melt-Banana adrenalin rush I desired a little punchier. As a result, I went to see…Kimya Dawson? Good logic there, Elmahdi. In fairness, as long as you don’t suffer from a chronic allergy to twee (in which case, you’d be stone-cold dead in 3 seconds) , there’s far worse ways of spending half-an-hour than watching the engaging and likeable Moldy Peaches frontwoman. She invited some fans on stage to contribute backing vocals and impromptu interpretive dance-moves to a set heavily drawn from kids album Alphabutt- which, as the title would suggest, is steadfastly fixated with bodily functions- and used her undeniable charm and emotional sincerity to cover up the pedestrian nature of her songwriting. Must admit her schtick got a little tiresome after a while though- she’s just not varied enough to sustain interest for an extended period.

Deerhunter

One glance at the apocalyptic rainstorm that beset the Somerset coast persuaded me venturing back to town would be ill-advised, so I ended up sticking around for Gang of Four, who, as happy chance would have it turned out to be the most downright enjoyable act of the weekend. Vintage post-punk shot through the heart with a massive dose of funk, it’s the only Pavillion set I witnessed at either ATP which got everyone around me dancing. Jon King is a shameless entertainer, his crazy moves and OTT demeanour only topped by his admirable ability to rhythmically whack a microwave to smithereens with a steel baseball bat, and their hour-long set rushed by in what seemed to be a matter of minutes.

From a review perspective it made sense to now check out Foals‘ headline set at the Pavillion, on account of them being a big popular band people care about, but then I realised enduring 75 minutes of self-important, third-rate Battles wannabes appealed to me less than, say, applying my scrotum to a cheesegrater. So I went and saw Shellac instead. Truth be told, the set was pretty similar to Saturday’s but if anything the band seemed even more focused, Todd Trainer stalking round the stage like a sinister revenant beating his snare drum like a man possessed, whilst Bob Weston flew around pretending to be an aeroplane. There’s certainly worse ways to end a festival.

So, with all thing’s said and done, was this better than The Fans? Well, it’s a close run thing- the first weekend did have an formidable roster and a couple of spectacular performances (not to mention better weather) but the wealth of unexpected gems and a more genial atmosphere- something I’m willing to attribute to the lower proportion of Hoxtonites in attendance- are strongly in Breeders favour. Ultimately, I reckon the old folks just clinch it by virtue of the deeply philosophical conundrum posed to Shellac’s Bob Weston by a particularly astute member of the audience- “If you had to be spit-roasted by Steve and Todd, who’d you have at which end and why?”  A worthy question to ruminate upon whilst we wait the long wait ’til December…

Read our review of the ATP vs The Fans Strike Back weekend here.
Also! Look out for a bumper ATP Photo Special coming later this week!

Aaaaaah our favourite time of the year has loomed yet again. All Tomorrow’s Parties. The one event in the calendar year where geeks mingle with beardies and hipsters hold hands with hippies. There really is no other festival like it, and for those of you who couldn’t make it or even for those out there who want to re-live the shenanigans we like to give you the best coverage that’s humanly possible.

We’ve already published John Brainlove’s diary and even ‘twittered’ our way through last weekends events.. But as ATP round 2 kicks off this afternoon we’re pleased to unveil our bumper review!

Two perspectives. Boy and girl. Adam Elmahdi and Kate Price give a detailed look at last weekends The Fans Strike Back event accompanied with the photographs of Lucy Johnston and Rich Thane.

Enjoy! And if we’ve missed anything out – don’t forget to tell us about it in the comments thread below…

Look out for a full review of The Breeders weekend, plus a massive photo feature of both events. All that’s to come next week…

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Grouper (RT)

Perhaps Grouper wasn’t the best choice to start proceedings. True, Liz Harris had to be on a plane that very evening, but her uncompromisingly sombre ambient noise was too mellow and esoteric for a Friday afternoon slot, as evidenced by the rapid audience shrinkage throughout her set. Casiotone For The Painfully Alone‘s Owen Ashworth fared a little better, although his melancholy lo-fi indietronica was little augmented by a backing band that too often came across as an afterthought. Very heavy on new material, the lack of old favourites like “Jeane, If You’re Ever In Portland” was disappointing although when he hits the spot, he’s as quietly charming as ever.

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone (RT)

Thank the Lord for Jeffrey Lewis to get things back on track. His monotonal drawl may bear little relation to the melody at hand, but that’s all part of his ramshackle charm- more important are his sharp, self-depreciating wit and his hilarious, deftly surreal cartoons. More polished but less engaging were M83, whose hazy synth-pop seemed a little lost in the Butlins food-court. The new raved-up coda to ‘We Own The Sky’ was a nice touch, but their reduced line-up made them more reliant on backing tracks, detaching them further from their audience and leaving even their most euphoric tracks uncharacteristically hollow.

M83 (RT)

But then- BAM! From the darkness of the Centre stage, a hero- nay, messiah- for our times emerges. Long of hair, earnest of speech, he preached a message of deep philosophical import; an ethos for all men to live by- to be happy, to have fun and most of all, to PARTY HARD! Yes, I witnessed the oddly charismatic legend that is Andrew WK, the musical equivalent of a Jason Statham film- objectively awful and yet at the same time, totally awesome. “Bad Brilliance,” a man with a balloon for a head came on stage and repeatedly rapped his own name, some guy from Current 93 made a cameo appearance and despite the set consisting primarily of AWK karaoke-singing over various permutations of ‘Party Hard’, I couldn’t help but be carried away by his sheer enthusiasm. Let’s just hope he never decides to start a cult…

Devo (LJ)

Fittingly, he was followed by fellow madmen Devo who, despite looking like a bunch of crazy bachelor uncles clad in their boilersuits and trademark flowerpot hats were perhaps the tightest band of the whole weekend, their jagged grooves much heavier than the uninitiated would expect. They’ve had 36 years to hone their showmanship and it shows- they know how to work an audience, and what’s more, they still genuinely come across as a band that love what they do. All in all, a fantastic set- a sentiment that, alas, cannot be levied at Pink Mountaintops. As great as their grandiose new album is, the dodgy mix at Reds rendered any subtlety imperceptible and within fifteen minutes the sledgehammer sound had me retreating back to the bar. Ah well- you win some, you lose some.

Retribution Gospel Choir (RT)

Now Saturday, *that* was a textbook example of how to curate a festival. Low side-project Retribution Gospel Choir provided the scintillating rock ‘n roll start Friday so sorely lacked, despite some tedious scrote heckling “throw us your guitar” at Alan Spearhawk. Perennial underachievers live, The Acorn seemed to have finally found their feet- with a new line-up and tighter sound, they do well to counter general hipster indifference (“could I have a little more audience in the monitor?”) with their luscious balladry and Rolf Klausener’s soaring vocals. But even they couldn’t hold a candle to the sublime Grizzly Bear. Fleet Foxes comparisons are to avoid, as both bands furrow similar harmonic veins, but whilst Robin Pecknold’s harmonies are clean, well-scrubbed and immediate, Ed Droste’s have a more wistful, delicate quality that’s ultimately much more gratifying. Balancing the new (and rather superb) Veckatimest material well with old favourites like ‘Knife’ and ‘Lullaby’, their mesmerising hour-long set seems to be over in a blink of an eye, a testament to their understated genius.

The Acorn (LJ)

They even overshadowed Pavillion headliners Beirut, whose strong set nonetheless seemed to be lacking a little something (not least the violinist I used to have a bit of a crush on). Without a doubt, it’s amazing to see how far Zach Condon’s evolved as a live performer over the last couple of years- no longer does he stand there like a deer in the headlights, and his Morrissey-esque croon, whilst still a tad wavery at times has gone from strength to strength. Alas, the same can’t really be said for his song-writing, which peaked at Gulag Orkestar and has rarely achieved the same brilliance since. Whilst the Balkan swing of ‘Elephant Gun’ and the like still have the old magic, the newer tracks blend into one and it’s hard not to crack a smile when someone responds to Zach’s call for requests with, “something that sounds a little different!”

Beirut (RT)

And on the subject of “something a little different”, cult noise-rockers The Jesus Lizard‘s first show in a decade certainly lived up to the fevered expectations surrounding them. As a statement of intent, ripping off your shirt during the intro to the first song and taking a running jump into the audience is pretty hard to beat and David Yow, a balding, slightly sinister middle-aged guy resembling The Yellow Bastard from Sin City had no intention of letting the pace slacken from there on in. On stage, he paced around menacingly, barking ferociously down his mike, but more often than not he could be seen swimming aloft on a sea of hands whilst his ever-proficient band nonchalantly watched on. What a comeback.

Shearwater (RT)

Alas, Sunday ultimately seemed a little anti-climatic in comparison. Shearwater seemed unsuited to Pavillion stage, Jon Meiburg’s hauntingly powerful falsetto and their intricate orchestration dissipating in the sterile surroundings. !!! delivered an energetic, funk-fulled set, but were wasted in their early-evening time slot- they’re a band best experienced in a state of mild-to-excessive inebriation, and even the feckless alcoholics of ATP hadn’t reached that stage so early in the day. The ubiquitous Parts & Labor, spotted anywhere and everywhere throughout the weekend seemed knackered by the time it came to their own performance, which suffered from a chronic lack of volume and almost inaudible synths. When they’re on form, they’re a breathtaking live experience (they nearly eclipsed the mighty Battles when they supported them in ’07) but they seemed to squander this vital opportunity to win over a larger audience with a competent, but rarely genuinely impressive set.

Spiritualized (RT)

Spiritualized‘s performance really seemed to divide people- some found it deathly dull and meandering but their mix of the ear-obliterating fuzz of My Bloody Valentine combined with the gospel-tinged euphoria of Screamadelica-era Primal Scream ticked all my boxes. Static to a fault, they’re not the most visually arresting band and their interaction with the audience is non-existent, but in this case there was no harm in letting the music do all the talking, with an extended “Come Together” being my musical highlight of the whole festival. School of Seven Bells were rockier than expected, tweaking their arrangements for a punchier vibe whilst retaining the dreamy shoegazey production of Alpinisms, but after a while I felt the need for something a little more…energetic, a desire well-served by LA electro-punks The Mae Shi. Previously shambolic to a fault, the mentalist four-piece have finally tightened up enough to deliver a proficient set, but without losing the sense of scrappiness that lies at the heart of their appeal. ‘Run To Your Grave’ may have been the single best singalong of the weekend, and although the new noisecore-orientated material lacks the spark of old, they still know how to rouse a mosh-pit. Indeed, the Mae Shi could be a metaphor for ATP as a whole- schizophrenic, surreal, a little poncey but nevertheless a hell of a lot of fun.
Adam Elmahdi

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Parts & Labor (LJ)

As stragglers flow through the sun-scattered gates of Butlins for this year’s first All Tomorrow’s Parties muso geek-off, the first real drops of sweat hit the Centre Stage floor. HEALTH are a eardrum shattering, frenzied and seductively brash statement of intent, smashing the weekend from a pleasant seaside outing into full pelt beatfest.  Meanwhile, downstairs M83 are one of many bands this weekend to fall victim to the vacuous expanse of the Pavilion Stage, their shimmery effervescent pop floating up towards the rafters and failing to truly engage.

For Devo however, no room is too big and no face too glum. As the sun sets and the Pavilion darkens, their awkward and infectious anthems have even the most severe minds in agreement that jumpsuits, ridiculous masks and funny over-priced red hats will never go out of style. Wheeling out the hits, from ‘Gates of Steel’ to the classic ‘Whip It’, it’s alarming how many songs even the most passive of Devo fans will unwittingly know the words to.

Fuck Buttons (RT)

Jesu calm things down a bit but before long it’s time for Fuck Buttons‘ much anticipated premiere road test of their new material. Despite fear that 2008′s Street Horrsing would be too tough an act to match, all anxiety is soon relinquished by a deliriously absorbing and fever-pitched set. Embodying the spirit of ATP, Fuck Buttons’ magic isn’t brashly flaunted but quietly creeps up and enraptures, making it impossible not to dance – and dance we do.

Errors (LJ)

Saturday’s hangovers are eased mid-afternoon by Nico Muhly, if only because his illustrative soundscapes seem to lull the majority of the audience into a much needed extra half hour snooze. Later on the same stage Young Marble Giants win the award for biggest disappointment of the weekend, delivering the most turgid renditions of Colossal Youth classics, serving only to prove why some bands should never be allowed to reform. Thank the lord (or indeed ATP), then, for the appearance of Grizzly Bear whose intertwining vocals, bracing swathes of sound and journeying melodies set a precedent for the rest of the day. The 1-part stoner-metal 1-part-balls-out-rock’n'roll of Harvey Milk, explosive Balkan wanderings of Beirut and invigorating post-rock disco of Errors make for an unlikely but scrumptious trio, leaving things only to be pissed upon by Marnie Stern‘s tiresome yelping. Still, that’s nothing that a bottle of whisky and a good chalet party can’t remedy, right? Right!

School Of Seven Bells (RT)

Tearing oneself away from the free fairground on Sunday afternoon, Shearwater enchant with their ambient acoustic beauty before the usual witty banter and caustic riff-pounding of Future of the Left makes a stand-out on an otherwise quite soothing stage line-up. However, it’s the Centre Stage that plays hosts the weekend’s true gems. School of Seven Bells serve both musical and physical beauty in matching plentiful bouts with their beat-laden eerie prog-pop, wowing the crowd before gracefully leaving the stage to this weekend’s true heroes.

Marnie Stern (LJ)

It’s been 11 years and David Yow is still… well, David Yow (The Jesus Lizard) and the fact that simply shouting his name out loud feels so great is surely something telling. Clambering around, intrusively rooting out every bit of space onstage and off he physically might, age has not diminished a man who simply represents everything a front man should and could possibly be. Stage diving, crowd surfing, not to mention song upon song ofgob-smacking, eye watering punk rock meat – this is live performance at it’s very best.

Closing what, whilst perhaps not the strongest ever ATP line-up, is certainly one of the most varied and eclectic, Sleep rise to The Jesus Lizard’s bait and hold their own. Earplugs prove pointless as the room trembles and lungs rattle in chests with the sheer velocity and poweremanating from the stage. Sleep are (arguably) THE defining stoner rock band of all time and, holding a drunk and exhausted crowd in their hypnotic grip for over an hour and a half, prove how escapist and cathartic sound can be. The perfect wind-down from yet another successful Minehead adventure. ATP, we salute you.
Kate Price

Click here to view the embedded video.

For all up to date information check out the official website for the film Our True Intent. Or follow ATP Film on Twitter here.

Before we run our extensive review of last weekends ATP shenanigans, we asked  John Brainlove’s to jot down some thoughts about the weekends happenings.

Look out for a full review plus a bumper photo feature coming very soon!!

All band photographs by Rich Thane.

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So, we’re in Simon’s rickety car, screaming down the motorway, chasing the patch of blue sky that somehow seems to be constantly moving away from us. The moustachioed Major Matty Hall is our car’s co-pilot, having shotgunned the front seat, like a bastard. He is conducting a short seminar on the difference between nuclear and thermonuclear bombs. We are hurtling towards Minehead. The tape player is apparently frozen, so I am piping The Horrors’ new album through my tinny battery powered speakers.

It’s ATP. yayTP. The lineup this weekend was ostensibly selected by ‘The Fans’, or at the least the excitable ones who buy tickets in time to effect the voting.

Christopher Alcxxk of Internet Forever texts me. He has picked up ten of my favourite Portuguese custard tarts for me from the bakery near his house. We have a boot full of booze and breakfasts. I’ll be sleeping on a sofa in someone else’s chalet this weekend – ATP press tickets come sans-accommodation – and I’m gonna be doing some cooking to say thanks.

By the time we get onsite, we’ve already missed Grouper. Apparently she had an early slot because of travel arrangements (before people were even allowed into their chalets) and played a pretty grumpy set to a half empty room.

After some epic trundling around the chalet village with my luggage on a trolley, I make it into Casiotone For The Painfully Alone in time to catch a few highlights from his great new record, Vs. Children. I get a text – our chalet window has been smashed in while the others were at Tesco getting booze, and there’s glass everywhere, including on the sofa I’m sleeping on.

Andy Hung, Fuck Buttons

But before I want to deal with that, Jeffrey Lewis is downstairs plying his ever-engaging anti-folk, then HEALTH, who turn in one of the performances of the weekend: a battering, powerful, committed set. I’m a convert.

I pop back to the chalet to survey the damage. Butlins have cleaned up our chalet and boarded up the window. I sit down for a minute, and end up boozily sleeping through Devo.

Fail.

Back in the festival, everyone is talking about how good they were.

Double Fail.

It’s around this time that I bump into Andy from Fuck Buttons, who says their set is going to be 80% new, with a new beginning. The crowd is heaving. “The Fans” are, tonight, increasingly ‘messy’, dressed up kids staggering around with wide pupils. I’m still pretty straight at this point and feel a little bit old. Unusual for the famously ‘beardy’ ATP festival. Fuck Buttons launch straight into a new song, and don’t let up for an hour – their new set is more about beats and building momentum than their previous layered noise stuff. There’s a rhythmic, wriggling section with Andy squeezing sounds out of a Gameboy, an extended, dancey, layered up new song with softer drum and synth sounds than usual, and a new ending with some searing bassy bursts and powerful drumming from Ben. If there’s any criticism to be made, it’s that some of the transitions are a bit long, and let the build/release energy drop rather than peak, but it’s a good solid performance, and a great introduction to the new songs.

Rolf Klausener, The Acorn

Saturday morning, and I still haven’t got those damn tarts off Chris. We keep missing each other. It’s turning into an ongoing custard tart saga. Me and my chalet-mates play crazy golf. The Cave Singers are audible coming from the main stage. The golf isn’t at all crazy. It’s just small.

The Acorn is my favourite show of the weekend. They’re perfect on the pavillion stage. Their warm sound fills the space, resonant and embracing. The two-drummer rhythm section fill every space with sensitively played taps and beats, carrying along the wonderfully emotional and engaging songs. The hairs on the back of my neck go up, and my body feels suddenly ablaze with adrenalin, and I breathe in the sound. Connection: made.

We bowl. I win. Win!

Beirut play the electronic songs from the new album as traditional arrangements, and they stand up well. “Would you prefer it if I put on a donk on there?” asks Zac. I’m half surprised that my answer is no.

Sarah Pickles of team ATP is having a big wedding party on the Saturday night, so we head over. Marnie Stern is there! I croak out a feeble fanboy “hello Marnie Stern!”, much to the amusement of my so-called friends. The Pontin’s 5-0 descend at 5am and disperse us. Chalet parties till dawn, then the seaside for a blue light sunrise. A man with a musical backpack goes spinning past us, to the strains of “North American Scum”, wheeling down the beach and into the surf, followed by a flock of dancing hippy kids. I fall into bed satisfied that as much fun as humanly possible has been squeezed out of Saturday night at ATP.

By the time I’m capable of functioning again, the Sunday lineup is sparse. The headliners are repeated with both Sleep and The Jesus Lizard playing again, even though neither of them were full to capacity on Saturday. Doubling up the headliners was understandable when there was a queue around the block at the Camber Sands site for someone like Sonic Youth, but here it seems excessive, especially considering the ever-escalating ticket price.

Jason Pierce, Spiritualized

I don’t know if my mood is something to do with it, but Parts & Labour seem really weak. I can’t get into Killing Joke, but then I’ve never liked them much really. Spiritualized play a bludgeoning, unsubtle steamroller set of gospel-tinged stadium rock that sounds more Oasis than Spaceman 3. It’s a big, satisfyingly large and solid sound – but size isn’t everything.

It takes the sheer happiness explosion of The Mae Shi to get the blood pumping again – their odd mixture of jerky guitar lines and screamo, and their chubby-faced emo-tinged manboy 90′s pop-punk sound is accompanied by all kinds of ace theatrical stage antics, including their trademark move – covering the crowd with a giant rainbow-coloured cloth canopy. Fun times.

Custard Tart Saga

Chris finally catches up with me – the box of tarts has congealed into a solid mass of soggy pastry and warm custard. The rest of Sunday night is spent playing poker and making a dent in the last tray of beers. I’m too exhausted for the party/melee/dance-off/bro-down down at the Crazy Horse bar this time around.

The next day, I hang around a bit longer than usual as Simon steels himself for the drive after 72 hours of sleep deprivation. Within hours, the hall is full of extended families, and the shutters have gone up on confectionary stalls, and the bouncy castles have been blown up. The main hall is full of Lego-coloured plastic furniture, and the only soundcheck that’s happening is for bingo. I finally fall into the car, and fall asleep, and wake up back in London a few hours later.

Brainlove Records

Announced literally minutes ago to TLOBF plus a handful of choice online publications, ATP have revealed that My Bloody Valentine will be curating this years Nightmare Before Christmas Festival. Here is all the info you need…

Start getting excited…………………………..NOW!

After the enormous success of last year’s sold out and mind-blowing UK tour and a brilliant turn as the inaugural curators for ATP New York, we are very pleased to announce that the curators for ATP: Nightmare Before Christmas, 2009 will be:

MY BLOODY VALENTINE!

The event will take place at Butlins Holiday Resort in Minehead, England from December 4th – 6th, 2009.

So far confirmed to join the legendary sonic sculptors are:
Sonic Youth
De La Soul
EPMD
Sun Ra Arkestra
The Horrors
And of course, My Bloody Valentine themselves.

Tickets are £150 for room only accommodation and £160 for self-catering accommodation, BUT for 2 weeks we are slashing the prices so YOU can save money.

2-WEEK EARLY BIRD SPECIAL!
We know it’s hard out there right now, so in recognition of everyone tightening their belts we are offering a couple of early bird specials to help out your hip pocket.

Tickets for ATP Nightmare Before Christmas curated by My Bloody Valentine go on-sale this Friday April 17th at 9:00am. For one week only we have drastically reduced the price on a limited allocation of tickets. Everyone purchasing tickets for 7 days, until 9:00am on April 24th, or until the allocation runs out will receive a massive £20 off their ticket. So, if you are purchasing a 5 berth apartment, you will pay £100 less for 5 tickets! If you are buying a 2 berth that is £260 + bf instead of £300 + bf.

If you miss out on this first discount, don’t despair. When the first allocation runs out or for 7 days from April 24th – May 1st we will be offering tickets at £10 off. So instead of paying £150 for a room only ticket you will pay £140 + bf and instead of paying £160 for a self catering ticket you will pay £150 + bf.

To recap;
April 17th – April 24th * Room only ticket – £130 Self-Catering ticket – £140
April 24th – May 1st * Room only ticket – £140 Self-Catering ticket – £150

From May 1st* Room only ticket – £150 Self-Catering ticket – £160
*(or until allocation runs out)

Remember, a ticket gets you three nights accommodation with an actual roof over your head, a bathroom and shower just for you and your friends as well as a pass into the festival – you can’t get better value than that!

Please note the discount tickets are only available through www.atpfestival.com via Seetickets.

INSTALLMENT TICKETS
We’ve also spared a thought for those of you who can’t come up with the money in the next two weeks. ATP will again be running a deposit scheme for the festival to make it easier for some people to pay. We are offering a limited number of 4 berth apartments, both room-only and self-catering to be paid for with a small deposit upfront, and the remaining amount to be paid by the end of July. Both come with a booking fee of £7.50 per person (£30 per apartment). These chalets will be sold at £150 per person room only or £160 per person self catered.

People who would like to hold a 4 berth room only, must pay a deposit of £50 per person, (£200 for the apartment). The remaining £430 must be paid by July 31st.

People who would like to hold a 4 berth self catering, must pay a deposit of £60 per person, (£240 for the apartment). The remaining £430 must be paid by July 31st.

As we will be holding the apartments for you, all deposits will be non-refundable, so please only apply if you are sure you can pay the remaining amount when it is due in July.

If you are able to pay through a normal ticket agency upfront for your whole apartment, then please do so and don’t use this scheme and leave the deposit scheme for those people who find it harder to get the full amount together in one go. Also, remember those using this scheme will not receive the two week discount tickets!

You will be required to pay both installments by either cheque or paypal. Please note, that all cheques must be received and cleared within 5 days of you being accepted into the deposit scheme. If your cheque does not clear, or is not received, your application will go to the bottom of the queue which may mean you do not get to participate in the scheme this year.

Please email deposit (at) atpfestival.com if you would like to take part in the deposit scheme including: your name, address, which type of room you want (room only or self catering) and which payment method you would like to use (paypal or cheque). You will then be notified if your application was successful and details of how to pay by your chosen method, or if you are in a waiting line. Applicants in the waiting line may be accepted if earlier applicants fail to make the first deposit in time.

All emails will be answered within 48 hours. Deposit applications will be granted on a first come first serve basis.

(Last update: 28th May)

Ah, the great British festival. Pay over the odds for a ticket, camp on a damp incline in a field that turns brown at the first sign of drizzle, clump what seems like miles between stages past people who still think loon pants and glowsticks are fashionable, get fleeced for drinks and listen to a clodhopping post-landfill indie band through a murky sound system. Can’t beat it.

This is TLOBF’s list of every festival this summer in the UK worth bothering with. All prices given are for full weekend camping tickets and all details are correct at time of going to press.

We will update this as and when new acts get confirmed making it (hopefully) your one stop shop for all Festival shenanigans.

Camden Crawl
Hoxtonites rejoice, fire safety limits get tested
When: 24th-25th April
Where: across Camden
How much: £54.81
Confirmed: 808 State, Alessi’s Ark, Art Brut, Billy Bragg, Brakes, Dan Black, Dananananaykroyd, Dinosaur Pile-Up, Echo & The Bunnymen, Eugene McGuinness, The Fall, Fight Like Apes, Future Of The Left, Golden Silvers, Hockey, Howling Bells, Idlewild, Ipso Facto, It Hugs Back, James Yuill, Kasabian, King Creosote, Little Boots, The Maccabees, Madness, Mumford & Sons, Patrick Wolf, Pulled Apart By Horses, Thecocknbullkid, The View, The Virgins, The Von Bondies, VV Brown, The Whip, Wire, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
www.thecamdencrawl.com

Bang Face Weekender
Cross-genre extension of club night of “neo rave apocalypse” of legendary hedonism
When: 24th-26th April
Where: Camber Sands Holiday Centre
How much: Sold out
Confirmed: 808 State, Alec Empire, Altern8, Dillinja, Flying Lotus, Kevin Saunderson, Luke Vibert, Rebel MC, Renegade Soundwave, Shitmat, Skream, Toddla T, Venetian Snares, Zomby
www.bangfaceweekender.com
Buy tickets

Hinterland
Music and art festival across around twenty venues
When: 30th April-1st May
Where: across Glasgow
How much: £42
Confirmed: Broken Records, Copy Haho, Dan Black, Dananananaykroyd, Dinosaur Pile Up, The Fall, Findo Gask, Good Shoes, iLiKETRAiNS, Jeffrey Lewis, Little Man Tate, Manda Rin, Metronomy, Micachu and the Shapes, Pulled Apart By Horses, Simian Mobile Disco, Sky Larkin, Sons and Daughters, Thecocknbullkid, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Wild Beasts
www.hinterlandfestival.com
Buy tickets

All Tomorrow’s Parties – The Fans Strike Back
ATP Vs The Fans II – The Bloodening. Also features Lydia Lunch curating a spoken word stage
When: 9th-11th May
Where: Butlins Minehead
How much: £150
Confirmed: !!!, The Acorn, Beirut, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, The Cave Singers, Devo, Edan, Future Of The Left, Fuck Buttons, Grizzly Bear, Harvey Milk, Health, Jeffrey Lewis, The Jesus Lizard, Killing Joke, Lords, M83, The Mae Shi, Marnie Stern, School Of Seven Bells, Shearwater, Spiritualized, Young Marble Giants
www.atpfestival.com

All Tomorrow’s Parties – The Breeders
Kim and Kelley curate. Shellac are ‘House Band’, something we’d like to see on our next cruise
When: 15th-17th May
Where: Butlins Minehead
How much: £150
Confirmed: Blood Red Shoes, Bon Iver, The Breeders, The Bronx, CSS, Deerhunter, Foals, Gang of Four, Giant Sand, Holy Fuck, Kimya Dawson, Madlib, Melt-Banana, Shellac, Supersuckers, Teenage Fanclub, Th’ Faith Healers, Throwing Muses, Times New Viking, Tricky, Wire
www.atpfestival.com

The Great Escape
Like SXSW, but in Brighton. Right across Brighton rather than in one street, actually. Thus, not like SXSW at all
When: 14th-16th May
Where: around Brighton
How much: £39.50 early bird
Confirmed: Black Lips, British Sea Power, The Charlatans, Cursive, Dananananaykroyd, Emmy The Great, Future Of The Left, Gang Of Four, Holy Fuck, Johnny Flynn, Johnny Foreigner, Kasabian, Lightspeed Champion, Little Boots, The Maccabees, Marnie Stern, Metric, Metronomy, Mumford & Sons, Mystery Jets, Noah & The Whale, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Patrick Wolf, The Phantom Band, School Of Seven Bells, Times New Viking, Titus Andronicus, The Twilight Sad, The Week That Was, Vivian Girls, White Denim
www.escapegreat.com
Buy tickets

Wood
Truck’s eco-friendlier little brother
When: 15th-17th May
Where: Braziers Park, Oxfordshire
How much: £55
Confirmed: Brakes, Danny and The Champions of The World, Dodgy, Go-Kart Mozart, Jonquil, Meic Stevens, Spiers & Boden
www.thisistruck.com
Buy tickets

Liverpool Sound City
Industry shindig with conferences by day and gigs across thirty venues by night, a la In The City
When: 20th-23rd May
Where: across Liverpool
How much: early bird £35, £60 after
Confirmed: Animal Collective, Billy Bragg, Black Lips, Cage The Elephant, Calvin Harris, Clinic, Crystal Antlers, Deerhunter, Johnny Foreigner, Little Boots, Mika Miko, Mumford & Sons, The Phantom Band, Red Light Company, Sky Larkin, Telepathe, Tinchy Stryder, White Denim, White Lies
www.liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk
Buy tickets

Stag And Dagger
Three days, three cities, three interconnected bills
When: 21st, 22nd & 23rd May
Where: across East London, Leeds and Glasgow respectively
How much: early bird £10
Confirmed: London: Abe Vigoda, Andrew Weatherall, Casiokids, Cold War Kids, Cursive, Dan Black, Dananananaykroyd, Filthy Dukes, James Yuill, Let’s Wrestle, The Mae Shi, Maps, The Phantom Band, Tubelord, The Twilight Sad, Wild Beasts
Leeds: Abe Vigoda, Casiokids, Cold War Kids, Crystal Antlers, Cursive, Dananananaykroyd, Delphic, Everything Everything, King Creosote, The Mae Shi, Micachu & The Shapes, The Phantom Band, Pictish Trail, Telepathe, Tubelord, The Twilight Sad, Vivian Girls, Wavves, White Denim
Glasgow: The Aliens, Black Lips, BMX Bandits, Cold War Kids, Cursive, Dananananaykroyd, The Mae Shi, Meursault, Mika Miko, The Phantom Band, The Twilight Sad, White Denim
www.staganddagger.com
Buy tickets

Evolution
Three days of gigs followed by a weekend quayside blowout
When: 21st-25th May
Where: across Newcastle but chiefly Gateshead Quays
How much: Sold out
Confirmed: Chase & Status, The Count & Sinden, Dizzee Rascal, Esser, Friendly Fires, The Human League, Imelda May, Kissy Sell Out, Ladyhawke, Little Boots, The Maccabees, Mystery Jets, Nouvelle Vague, Twisted Wheel, The View, VV Brown, White Lies, The Wombats
www.evolutionfestival.co.uk
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Dot To Dot
See under The Great Escape, only over two cities’ matrixes
When: 23rd May (Bristol)/24th May (Nottingham)
Where: across Bristol and Nottingham
How much: £25
Confirmed: 65daysofstatic (Nottingham only), Abe Vigoda, Cage The Elephant, Crystal Stilts, Friendly Fires, Ladyhawke, Little Boots, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Patrick Wolf, Vivian Girls
www.dottodotfestival.co.uk
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Wychwood
Much respected family aimed event
When: 29th-31st May
Where: Cheltenham Racecourse
How much: £110
Confirmed: The Beat, Danny And The Champions of The World, Red Light Company, Super Furry Animals, Supergrass, The Wonder Stuff
www.wychwoodfestival.com
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Brainlove Festival
Did someone say free BBQ?
When: 30th May
Where: Brixton Windmill
How much: £8
Confirmed: A Scholar & A Physician, Ace Bushy Striptease, Braindead Improv, Christopher Alcxxck, The Duloks, Gaggle, gwEm, Heartbeeps, Internet Forever, Jam On Bread, Keyboard Choir, Kid Carpet, Laura Wolf, Mat Riviere, Napoleon IIIrd, Pagan Wanderer Lu, Stairs To Korea, The Middle Ones, Thee Oracle, We Aeronauts
www.brainlove.co.uk
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Sellinge
New for this year. “Sellindge doesn’t intend to copy. It doesn’t intend to follow. We expect to lead!” We’ll judge that.
When: 5th-7th June
Where: Hope Farm, near Ashford
How much: £55
Confirmed: Brandon Block, Cut La Roc, The Holloways, Supergrass, Young Knives
www.sellindgemusicfestival.co.uk
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Middlesbrough Music Live
Tenth anniversary of the council backed all dayer
When: 7th June
Where: Middlesbrough town centre
How much: Free
Confirmed: The Chapman Family, Dan Black, Das Wanderlust, Detroit Social Club, Dinosaur Pile-Up, Frank Turner, Future Of The Left, Golden Silvers, Master Shortie, Noah And The Whale, Pulled Apart By Horses, The Qemists, The Rumble Strips, Skint & Demoralised, The Sunshine Underground, Tommy Sparks, The Zutons
www.middlesbroughmusiclive.co.uk

Isle Of Wight
The anti-Neil Young at IoW Facebook group has over 2700 members at time of writing. They deserve each other
When: 12th-14th June
Where: Seaclose Park, Newport
How much: £120
Confirmed: Alesha Dixon, Bananarama, Basement Jaxx, Black Lips, Calvin Harris, The Charlatans, Eddi Reader, Goldie Lookin’ Chain, The Horrors, Killing Joke, Ladyhawke, The Maccabees, Maximo Park, McFly, Mercury Rev, Neil Young, Noisettes, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Pendulum, Pixies, The Pigeon Detectives, The Prodigy, The Rakes, Razorlight, The Script, Simple Minds, Stereophonics, The Ting Tings, The View, White Lies, Will Young, The Zombies
www.isleofwightfestival.com
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Download
Traditional gathering of the rock masses takes a trad hair metal turn this year
When: 12th-14th June
Where: Donington Park
How much: £135
Confirmed: Anvil, Billy Talent, Bring Me The Horizon, Chris Cornell, Def Leppard, Faith No More, Fightstar, Journey, Korn, Lacuna Coil, Limp Bizkit, Marilyn Manson, Middle Class Rut, Motley Crue, Pendulum, The Prodigy, Pulled Apart By Horses, Slipknot, Therapy?, Trivium, Whitesnake, ZZ Top
www.downloadfestival.co.uk
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Rock Ness
Party times on the banks of the near-titular water feature. Skins held a casting call here last year
When: 12th-14th June
Where: Loch Ness
How much: £139
Confirmed: Alabama 3, The Aliens, Basement Jaxx, Biffy Clyro, Chase & Status, Dizzee Rascal, DJ Yoda, Erol Alkan, The Flaming Lips, Frightened Rabbit, Jazzie B, Just Jack, Micachu and the Shapes, Orbital, Pendulum (DJ set), Pete Tong, Placebo, The Prodigy, Super Furry Animals, The Whip, The Wombats
www.rockness.co.uk
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Glastonbury
If you can remember it you weren’t there. You were watching Jo Whiley
When: 26th-28th June
Where: Worthy Farm
How much: Sold out
Confirmed: Amadou et Mariam, Badly Drawn Boy, Bat For Lashes, Black Eyed Peas, Bloc Party, Blur, Bon Iver, British Sea Power, Bruce Springsteen, Calvin Harris, Crosby Stills & Nash, Dizzee Rascal, Doves, Echo and the Bunnymen, Eliza Carthy, Fairport Convention, Fleet Foxes, Franz Ferdinand, Gabrielle Cilmi, Glasvegas, The Horrors, Jack Penate, Jamie T, Jarvis Cocker, Just Jack, Kasabian, La Roux, Lady Gaga, Lily Allen, Madness, Maximo Park, Neil Young, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Peaches, Pendulum, Peter Doherty, Prodigy, Rolf Harris, The Specials, Spinal Tap, Status Quo, The Streets, Ting Tings, Tom Jones, Tony Christie, White Lies, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk

Hard Rock Calling
In London and don’t fancy a long trip? Don’t particularly like Blur? Like to try a misleadingly named event? You’re in luck
When: 26th-28th June
Where: Hyde Park
How much: £45 per day
Confirmed: Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews Band, Fleet Foxes, The Gaslight Anthem, The Killers, The Kooks, Neil Young, The Pretenders, Seasick Steve
www.hardrockcalling.co.uk
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Hop Farm
Last year’s Neil Young/Mighty Boosh double header develops into a proper festival
When: 4th-5th July
Where: Hop Farm, Tonbridge
How much: £125
Confirmed: 2manydjs, 65daysofstatic, Ash, British Sea Power, Dananananaykroyd, Datarock, Doves, Echo and the Bunnymen, Editors, Etienne De Crecy, Florence & The Machine, The Fratellis, Howling Bells, Johnny Foreigner, Kissy Sell Out, Ladyhawke, Metronomy, Mystery Jets, Noah And The Whale, Paul Weller, The Pigeon Detectives, The Rifles, Scratch Perverts, Super Furry Animals, The Twang, The Twilight Sad, The View
www.hopfarmfestival.com
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Blissfields
Won a Best Small Festival prize in 2007, cancelled in 2008, back with a vengeance
When: 3rd-5th July
Where: Bradley Farm, Alresford, Hampshire
How much: £41
Confirmed: Laura Marling, Mumford & Sons, Soweto Kinch, Super Furry Animals, Thomas Tantrum
http://www.blissfields.co.uk
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Wireless
Last year four days long, in 2009 two. At least the Bella Union stage is back for both days
When: 4th-5th July
Where: Hyde Park
How much: £40 for each day
Confirmed: Afrika Bambaataa, Alesha Dixon, Banjo Or Freakout, Basement Jaxx, Beth Jeans Houghton, Chipmunk, Daniel Merriweather, Delphic, Digitalism, Dizzee Rascal, Does It Offend You Yeah?, Fanfarlo, Filthy Dukes, Fischerspooner, Flo Rida, Frankmusik, Jack Penate, Jesca Hoop, Here We Go Magic, Ironik, Kanye West, Kelly Rowland, Kid Cudi, Lady Sovereign, The Low Anthem, Metric, My Latest Novel, N.A.S.A., N-Dubz, Peter Broderick, Q-Tip, St Vincent, Saint Etienne, The Streets, Tinchy Stryder, Young Jeezy
www.wirelessfestival.co.uk
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T In The Park
Second year as a three day event, and some activities on Thursday for the first time. The funfair will be kept busy
When: 10th-12th July
Where: Balado
How much: £170
Confirmed: Bloc Party, Blur, Calvin Harris, Doves, Elbow, Foals, Franz Ferdinand, Friendly Fires, Glasvegas, Idlewild, Jane’s Addiction, Katy Perry, Keane, The Killers, Kings of Leon, Lady GaGa, Lily Allen, Manic Street Preachers, The Mars Volta, Maximo Park, Mogwai, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Nine Inch Nails, Of Montreal, Patrick Wolf, Pendulum, Pet Shop Boys, Peter Doherty, Razorlight, Snow Patrol, Squeeze, The Streets, The Ting Tings, TV on the Radio, The View, White Lies, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
www.tinthepark.com
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Guilfest
Families enjoy the superannuated, unsigned bands are asked to buy fifty tickets each before bill consideration
When: 10th-12th July
Where: Stoke Park, Guildford
How much: £110
Confirmed: Athlete, The Beat, Brian Wilson, The Charlatans, DJ Yoda, Eddi Reader, Happy Mondays, The King Blues, Lightning Seeds, Lisa Hannigan, Little Boots, Motorhead, Nouvelle Vague, The Stranglers, Toploader, The Wailers, Will Young
www.guilfest.co.uk
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Loop
Largely electronically minded coming together with a digital arts sideline
When: 10th-12th July
Where: Victoria Gardens, Brighton
How much: £65
Confirmed: Casiokids, Datarock, Emiliana Torrini, Esser, Fanfarlo, Fever Ray, The Field, Fujiya & Miyagi, Hatcham Social, The Invisible, James Yuill, Joakim, The Juan Maclean, The Matthew Herbert Big Band, Mum, The Qemists, Squarepusher, Telepathe, Tunng, Zomby
www.loopbrighton.com
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Lounge On The Farm
On the actual farm, with all the layout curiosities that suggests
When: 10th-12th July
Where: Merton Farm, Canterbury
How much: £65 early bird
Confirmed: The Aliens, Bent, Cage The Elephant, Chris T-T, Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, DJ Food, DJ Format, Edwyn Collins, The Horrors, It Hugs Back, Ipso Facto, Jay Jay Pistolet, Joe Gideon & The Shark, The King Blues, Midfield General, S.C.U.M., Mr Scruff, The Temper Trap, The Wave Pictures, Wild Beasts, The XX, Zomby
www.loungeonthefarm.co.uk
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Wakestock
Free competitive wakeboarding just next door
When: 10th-12th July
Where: Pwllheli Inner Marina and Abersoch Beach
How much: £115
Confirmed: Calvin Harris, Chase & Status, Dizzee Rascal, DJ Format, Elliott Minor, Goldie, Just Jack, Moby, N*E*R*D, Noisettes, Norman Jay, The Pigeon Detectives, Red Light Company, Super Furry Animals, Tinchy Stryder, The Zutons
www.wakestock.co.uk
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Cornbury
David Cameron was spotted here last year
When: 11th-12th July
Where: Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire
How much: £90
Confirmed: The Boy Least Likely To, The Damned, Dodgy, Eddi Reader, I Am Kloot, Imelda May, The Magic Numbers, The Pretenders, Scouting For Girls, Sharleen Spiteri, Sugababes, Teddy Thompson
www.cornburyfestival.com
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Glade
Techno, house and breakbeats from the people behind the Glastonbury tent of the same name
When: 16th-19th July
Where: Winchester
How much: £125
Confirmed: The Bays, Dave Clarke, The Egg, Femi Kuti, Finley Quaye, Freeland, Juan Atkins, Kid606, Nitin Sawhney, Squarepusher, Underworld, Venetian Snares
www.gladefestival.com
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2000 Trees
They won’t appreciate “two of Kelly Jones’ matches” jokes
When: 17th-18th July
Where: Upcote Farm, Cheltenham
How much: £47
Confirmed: Blood Red Shoes, British Sea Power, Dananananaykroyd, Fightstar, Frank Turner, Jay Jay Pistolet, Napoleon IIIrd, Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man, Red Light Company, Rolo Tomassi, Wild Beasts
www.twothousandtreesfestival.co.uk
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Latitude
Art, literature, poetry, Radio 4 recordings… oh, and some music too
When: 17th-19th July
Where: Henham Park Estate, Beccles
How much: £150
Confirmed: !!!, 1990s, 65daysofstatic, The Airborne Toxic Event, Bat For Lashes, Chas & Dave, Chairlift, Datarock, Doves, Editors, Fight Like Apes, Golden Silvers, Gossip, Grace Jones, The Invisible, Ladyhawke, Lisa Hannigan, Little Boots, Magazine, Marnie Stern, Mew, Newton Faulkner, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Patrick Wolf, Pet Shop Boys, The Pretenders, Regina Spektor, Slow Club, Spiritualized, Squeeze, White Lies, Wild Beasts
www.latitudefestival.co.uk
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Lovebox
Basement Jaxx’s baby, an eclectic selection usually comes up fun times trumps. Promises “hosedowns”
When: 18th-19th July
Where: Victoria Park, London
How much: £75
Confirmed: Au Revoir Simone, Chairlift, Dananananaykroyd, Datarock, Doves, Duran Duran, Florence & The Machine, Frankmusik, Friendly Fires, Gang Of Four, Gary Numan, Groove Armada, Ladyhawke, Magistrates, N*E*R*D, The New York Dolls, Noah And The Whale, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Simian Mobile Disco, VV Brown
www.lovebox.net
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The Secret Garden Party
Like an acid trip without having to take the acid first. Last year culminated in blowing up a pirate ship
When: 23rd-26th July
Where: East Anglia – it’s officially a secret until just before the event
How much: early bird £137
Confirmed: Au Revoir Simone, Bombay Bicycle Club, Caribou, Chairlift, Daedelus, Dan Black, Detroit Social Club, The Do, EMF, Emiliana Torrini, Emmy The Great, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Fight Like Apes, The Holloways, Jarvis Cocker, Peggy Sue, Phoenix, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Slow Club, Sonny J, Those Dancing Days, Toots And The Maytals, VV Brown
www.secretgardenparty.com
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Global Gathering
Godskitchen brings the spirit of the all-nighters
When: 24th-25th July
Where: Long Marston Airfield, Stratford-upon-Avon
How much: early bird £115
Confirmed: Altern8, Anne Savage, ATB, Benny Benassi, Carl Cox, Chase & Status, The Count & Sinden, Digitalism, DJ Yoda, Does It Offend You Yeah?, Eric Prydz, John Digweed, Erol Alkan, Fabio & Grooverider, Fedde Le Grand, Frankmusik, High Contrast, Josh Wink, Judge Jules, Kissy Sell Out, Lisa Lashes, Mary Anne Hobbs, Nic Fanciulli, Orbital, Paul Van Dyk, Pendulum, The Prodigy, Richie Hawtin, Sasha, Scratch Perverts, Shapeshifters, Skream & Benga, Slipmatt, Stanton Warriors, Tiga, Utah Saints
www.globalgathering.co.uk
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Wickerman
Hedonistic spectacles and a booking policy that’s all over the place
When: 24th-25th July
Where: Kirkcarswell Farm, Galloway
How much: £80
Confirmed: Billy Bragg, Candi Staton, Danny Rampling, The Dickies, Dreadzone, Hot Chip (DJ set), The Human League, Idlewild, Kid British, The Magic Numbers, UK Subs, Utah Saints, The Zutons
www.thewickermanfestival.co.uk
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Camp Bestival
Rob da Bank’s downsized kid sister event
When: 24th-26th July
Where: Lulworth Castle, Dorset
How much: £130
Confirmed: Alela Diane, Alessi’s Ark, Benga, Bon Iver, Candi Staton, Chase & Status, Chic, Dan Black, Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, DJ Yoda, Erol Alkan, Florence & The Machine, Frank Turner, Goldie Lookin’ Chain, Horace Andy, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Laura Marling, Mercury Rev, Micachu and the Shapes, Mumford & Sons, Phoenix, PJ Harvey, Peggy Sue, Roots Manuva, Skream, VV Brown, Will Young
www.campbestival.co.uk
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Indietracks
The indiepop (no, not twee) hordes gather. One stage is on an actual moving steam train
When: 24th-26th July
Where: Midland Railway, Butterley Station, Derbyshire
How much: £55
Confirmed: Au Revoir Simone, BMX Bandits, Butcher Boy, Camera Obscura, Cats On Fire, Emmy The Great, The Frank And Walters, Gordon McIntyre (Ballboy), Lucky Soul, Pocketbooks, Rose Elinor Dougall, The School, Tender Trap, Wake The President
www.indietracks.co.uk
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Supersonic
The least commercial here by some distance, Capsule’s avant-garde/experimental collectivisation adds a third day
When: 24th-26th July
Where: The Custard Factory, Birmingham
How much: £65
Confirmed: 65daysofstatic, Caribou, Flower/Corsano Duo, Growing, Pram, Venetian Snares
www.capsule.org.uk/supersonic
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WOMAD
This feels so unnatural, Peter Gabriel too
When: 24th-26th July
Where: Charlton Park, Malmesbury
How much: £122.34
Confirmed: Ethiopiques, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Orishas, Oumou Sangare, Rokia Traoré, Roy Ayers, Solomon Burke
www.womad.org
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Truck
Rotary Club, vicar selling ice cream, cross dressing bar men, members of Goldrush everywhere etc
When: 25th-26th July
Where: Steventon, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire
How much: £70
Confirmed: A Place To Bury Strangers, And So I Watch You From Afar, Ash, Broken Records, Calories, The Candyskins, Chew Lips, Damo Suzuki, Detroit Social Club, DJ Food, Errors, Euros Childs, Fanfarlo, Gary Louris & Mark Olson (The Jayhawks), Grammatics, The Joy Formidable, Neil Halstead, Pulled Apart By Horses, Red Light Company, Sad Day For Puppets, Sky Larkin, Supergrass, This Town Needs Guns, Thomas Truax, Vieux Farka Touré, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Wild Beasts, The XX, Yacht
www.thisistruck.com
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Cambridge Folk Festival
45 years in, the country’s highest profile of such keeps its cards close to its chest for longer than most festivals
When: 30th July-2nd August
Where: Cherry Hinton Hall Grounds, Cambridge
How much: £104, on sale from May 17th
Confirmed: Adrian Edmondson & The Bad Shepherds, Alela Diane, Bellowhead, Booker T. Jones, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Cara Dillon, Eddi Reader, Hot Club Of Cowtown, Imelda May, Jim Moray, Los Lobos, Lucinda Williams, Mumford & Sons, The Saw Doctors, The Waterson Family, The Zutons
www.cambridgefolkfestival.co.uk
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Kendal Calling
As far as we can tell unrelated to the one below, oddly
When: 31th July-2nd August
Where: Lowther Castle, Kendal
How much: £70
Confirmed: Andrew Weatherall, Ash, Beardyman, Chase & Status, Cornershop, Fight Like Apes, Frank Turner, Goldie Lookin’ Chain, Idlewild, The Kabeedies, The King Blues, Nine Black Alps, Noah And The Whale, Red Light Company, The Rumble Strips, Shy FX, Skream, Stanton Warriors, The Streets, The Sunshine Underground, Twisted Wheel, The Zutons
www.kendalcalling.com
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Standon Calling
Dressing up, genteel touches, DIY decorations and a listed sixteenth century manor house
When: 31th July-2nd August
Where: Standon, Ware
How much: early bird £70
Confirmed: The Aliens, Casiokids, Dent May, Easy Star All Stars, Ed Harcourt, Femi Kuti, First Aid Kid, Freeland, Friendly Fires, Golden Silvers, Hawkwind, The Invisible, Ladytron, Micachu & The Shapes, Mumford & Sons, N.A.S.A., Paloma Faith, Pulled Apart By Horses, Son Of Dave, Sun Ra Arkestra, Tony Christie, The Whip
www.standon-calling.com
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Field Day
Eat Your Own Ears try and get the bar/toilet/sound right for the third time
When: 1st August
Where: Victoria Park, London
How much: £29.50
Confirmed: Erol Alkan, Errors, Final Fantasy, Four Tet, The Horrors, James Yorkston, Juana Molina, Little Boots, Malcolm Middleton, Mogwai, Mystery Jets, Santigold, Skream
www.fielddayfestivals.com
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Sonisphere
Knebworth’s new attempt at a Download rival
When: 1st-2nd August
Where: Knebworth House
How much: £157.50
Confirmed: Alice in Chains, Anthrax, Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet For My Valentine, Coheed & Cambria, Corey Taylor (Slipknot), Dinosaur Pile-Up, Feeder, Fighting With Wire, Frank Turner, Fucked Up, Heaven & Hell, Hundred Reasons, Killing Joke, Lamb of God, Linkin Park, Machine Head, Mastodon, Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Rolo Tomassi, Taking Back Sunday, The Used
uk.sonispherefestivals.com
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Underage Festival
14 to 18 year olds only
When: 2nd August
Where: Victoria Park, London
How much: £26.50
Confirmed: Esser, Golden Silvers, Hadouken!, The Horrors, Ladyhawke, Marina and the Diamonds, Metronomy, Mystery Jets, Patrick Wolf, The Pigeon Detectives, Rolo Tomassi, Rosie & The Goldbug, Santigold, Tinchy Stryder, The Whip
www.underagefestivals.com
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Belladrum Tartan Heart
Is it fair the Scottish festivals blag most of the best views?
When: 7th-8th August
Where: Belladrum Estate, Inverness-shire
How much: early bird £80
Confirmed: Blue Roses, British Sea Power, Broken Records, Dananananaykroyd, Editors, Glenn Tilbrook, Magistrates, Noah And The Whale, Ocean Colour Scene, The Phantom Band, The Saw Doctors, Shed Seven, Seth Lakeman, Sons & Daughters, Toploader
www.tartanheartfestival.co.uk
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Big Chill
“Thursday arrivals have also been invited to come dressed up as zombies”. Chris Cunningham is premiering a new audiovisual experience
When: 7th-9th August
Where: Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire
How much: £145
Confirmed: Amadou & Mariam, Andrew Bird, Annie Nightingale, Basement Jaxx, British Sea Power, Calexico, Dan Black, David Byrne, Emmy The Great, Friendly Fires, Hexstatic, James Yuill, The Juan Maclean, Kathryn Williams, Lamb, Lindstrom, Marina & The Diamonds, Max Romeo, Mr Scruff, Music From The Penguin Cafe, The Nextmen, Noah and the Whale, Norman Jay, Orbital, Spiritualized, To Rococo Rot, Tom Middleton, Zombie-Zombie
www.bigchill.net
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Summer Sundae
Amiably eclectic city centre shindig. Features actual indoor stage
When: 14th-16th August
Where: De Montfort Hall and Gardens, Leicester
How much: £109
Confirmed: 65daysofstatic, Bon Iver, Broken Records, Chairlift, The Charlatans, Dan Black, Dananananaykroyd, Easy Star All-Stars, Emmy the Great, Fanfarlo, Frank Turner, Future Of The Left, Horace Andy & Ashley Beedle, Idlewild, Jenny Lewis, Maybeshewill, Micachu & The Shapes, My Latest Novel, Mum, Mystery Jets, New Beautiful South, The Noisettes, Port O’Brien, Saint Etienne, The Streets, Woodpigeon, The Zutons
www.summersundae.com
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Woolfire
New music on a smaller scale, including a showcase by our friends at Brainlove Records
When: 14th-16th August
Where: Woodmancott, Hants
How much: £35, on sale soon
Confirmed: Bearsuit, Cats In Paris, Dark Captain Light Captain, David Thomas Broughton, Fireworks Night, Jam on Bread, Keyboard Choir, Napoleon IIIrd, Pagan Wanderer Lu, Pure Reason Revolution, Sky Larkin
www.woolfirefestival.co.uk
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Beautiful Days
The Levellers attempt a back to green basics approach
When: 21st-23rd August
Where: Escot Park, Devon
How much: £100
Confirmed: The Blockheads, Broken Family Band, Dreadzone, Drever McCusker Woomble, Eliza Carthy, Frank Turner, Hawkwind, The Imagined Village, Imelda May, Jay Jay Pistolet, Lamb, The Levellers, Pendulum (DJ set), The Pogues, Richard Thompson, The Saw Doctors, The Wonder Stuff
www.beautifuldays.org
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Green Man
This used to be a strictly folk festival; this year Future Sound Of London are playing a seven hour set
When: 21st-23rd August
Where: Glanusk Park, Powys
How much: £115
Confirmed: Andrew Bird, Animal Collective, Beach House, Bon Iver, British Sea Power, Broken Records, Dirty Three, Emmy The Great, Errors, The Fence Collective, Four Tet, Future Sound of London, Grizzly Bear, Jarvis Cocker, Martin Carr, Noah And The Whale, The Phantom Band, Roky Erickson, Vetiver, Wilco, Wooden Shjips
www.thegreenmanfestival.co.uk
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V Festival
Has now outlived most of the Virgin Group it was named after
When: 21st-23rd August
Where: Hylands Park, Chelmsford/Weston Park, Staffordshire
How much: Sold out
Confirmed: Alesha Dixon, Biffy Clyro, British Sea Power, Dizzee Rascal, Elbow, The Enemy, Fatboy Slim, Happy Mondays, The Human League, James, Katy Perry, Keane, The Killers, Lady GaGa, Lily Allen, MGMT, Oasis, Paolo Nutini, Pendulum, Peter Doherty, Razorlight, The Saturdays, Seasick Steve, Snow Patrol, The Specials, The Streets, Taylor Swift, The Ting Tings, The Wombats
www.vfestival.com
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Solfest
Crafts, families and an musical mix that sees folk and techno as equals
When: 28th-30th August
Where: Tarnside Farm, nr Aspatria, Cumbria
How much: £85
Confirmed: Adrian Edmondson & The Bad Shepherds, The Beat, The Blockheads, Buzzcocks, The Charlatans, The Kabeedies, Kula Shaker, Miles Hunt, Nerina Pallot, Seth Lakeman, The Travelling Band
www.solwayfestival.co.uk
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Reading & Leeds
Portaloo bonfires, bottles of piss, yadda yadda yadda
When: 28th-31st August
Where: Little Johns Farm/Branham Park
How much: Sold out
Confirmed: Arctic Monkeys, Billy Talent, Bloc Party, The Bronx, Crystal Castles, Deftones, Faith No More, Fall Out Boy, Fightstar, Florence & The Machine, Friendly Fires, Funeral For A Friend, Gallows, Glasvegas, Gossip, The Horrors, Ian Brown, Jamie T, Kaiser Chiefs, Kings Of Leon, Lethal Bizzle, Little Boots, Lostprophets, The Maccabees, Maximo Park, Metronomy, New Found Glory, Passion Pit, Patrick Wolf, Placebo, The Prodigy, Radiohead, Rival Schools, Vampire Weekend, White Lies, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
www.leedsfestival.com
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Beachdown
“The driest underfoot site of anywhere in the UK”
When: 28th-31st August
Where: near Devils Dyke, South Downs
How much: £97.50
Confirmed: The Blockheads, The Fall, Gilles Peterson, Grace Jones, Grandmaster Flash, Ida Maria, Laurent Garnier, Prince Buster, The Rakes, Saint Etienne, Super Furry Animals, The Zutons
www.beachdownfestival.com
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Creamfields
The people who made big outdoor dance festival culture happen
When: 29th-30th August
Where: Daresbury Estate, Cheshire
How much: £105
Confirmed: 2manydjs, Aeroplane, Andy C, Basemnet Jaxx, Beardyman, Calvin Harris, Casiokids, Chase & Status, Delphic, Dirty Vegas, Diplo, Dizzee Rascal, Erick Morillo, Erol Alkan, Ferry Corsten, Filthy Dukes, Friendly Fires, High Contrast, John Digweed, Judge Jules, Kissy Sell Out, Laurent Garnier, Mylo, Nick Warren, Paul Van Dyk, Pete Tong, Sander van Doorn, Sasha, Skream & Benga, Sven Vath, Tiesto, Timo Maas, Toddla T
www.creamfields.com
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Get Loaded In The Park
Is there a park in London not commandeered for a day of music yet?
When: 30th August
Where: Clapham Common
How much: £35
Confirmed: Chase & Status, Carl Craig, The Count & Sinden, Esser, Felix Da Housecat, Freeland, Laurent Garnier, Miss Kittin & The Hacker, Orbital, Peaches, Pendulum (DJ set), Rob da Bank, Roni Size Reprazent, Royksopp, Sneaky Sound System
www.getloadedinthepark.com
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Offset
If they can get the organisation right this time, plenty of new band-based potential
When: 5th-6th September
Where: Hainault Forest Country Park, Redbridge
How much: £35 early bird
Confirmed: A Certain Ratio, Future Of The Left, The Futureheads, Good Shoes, The Horrors, Rolo Tomassi, The Slits
www.offsetfestival.co.uk
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Bestival
This year’s fancy dress theme: space. This year’s bill: stratospheric
When: 11th-13th September
Where: Robin Hill Country Park, Isle Of Wight
How much: £140
Confirmed: 2manydjs/Soulwax, 65daysofstatic, Alessi’s Ark, Bat For Lashes, The Big Pink, Carl Cox, Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, Diplo, Dirty Projectors, Doves, Elbow, Fabio & Grooverider, The Field, Fleet Foxes, Florence & The Machine, Frankmusik, Friendly Fires, Frightened Rabbit, Fujiya & Miyagi, Future Sound of London, The Horrors, Jack Penate, Just Jack, Klaxons, Kraftwerk, La Roux, Little Boots, Lily Allen, Massive Attack, Metronomy, MGMT, Seasick Steve, Squarepusher, Underworld, Vetiver
www.bestival.net
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End Of The Road
TLOBF don’t make festivals, but if they did…
When: 11th-13th September
Where: Larmer Tree Gardens, nr Salisbury
How much: £115
Confirmed: The Acorn, The Boy Least Likely To, The Broken Family Band, David Thomas Broughton, Darren Hayman, Dirty Projectors, The Dodos, Efterklang, Explosions In The Sky, Fleet Foxes, First Aid Kit, Herman Dune, Howlin Rain, The Leisure Society, The Low Anthem, Magnolia Electric Co, Malcolm Middleton, Mumford & Sons, Neko Case, Okkervil River, Steve Earle, Wildbirds & Peacedrums
www.endoftheroadfestival.com
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Spiritualized will perform their classic album Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space live in its entirety at the Royal Festival Hall, London on Monday 12th October 2009.

Tickets cost £27.50 / £32.50 + booking fee and go on sale this Thursday 19th March from 10am.

They will be available via phone on 0871 663 2500 or online at www.southbankcentre.co.uk, www.seetickets.com and www.ticketmaster.co.uk.

This very special show will feature a choir, string and horn sections and special guests. It is 12 years since the release of this album set the summer of 1997 on fire. Receiving massive critical acclaim, it was hailed as an instant classic, winning NME’s album of the year in 1997 (beating Radiohead’s OK Computer), and reaching No.4 in the UK charts.

To tie in with the live performance, Sony Music will be releasing an expanded Legacy Edition of “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space” in October with added content and new packaging.

This show is part of the Don’t Look Back season from British festival and concert promoters All Tomorrow’s Parties. ATP has been running Don’t Look Back since 2005, curating yearly seasons of artists performing famous and/or acclaimed albums in a live setting in original album order. Past years have included stunning performances from The Stooges (Funhouse), Belle & Sebastian (If You’re Feeling Sinister), Gang Of Four (Entertainment), Ennio Morricone (classic film soundtracks), Slint (Spiderland) and Sonic Youth; their series of performances of their classic Daydream Nation earning the title of Time Out magazine’s Gig Of The Year 2007. Don’t Look Back has expanded in recent years to include concerts in mainland Europe, Australia and the USA. This year’s UK season also includes shows from Devo, Young Marble Giants and Sleep.

As previous ATP go-ers will know, ATP usually have an introduction to the festival written by the curators which goes in the front of the programme fans are given when they arrive at the event. However as the co-curators for this event are The Fans, ATP thought that this time one of them should write it on behalf of fellow ticketholders.

So today the organisers of ATP launching a rather special competition. They want fans to write an introduction of 200-500 words and send it to accommodation@atpfestival.com along with the list of 10 bands that they voted for and the booking confirmation number of their chalet.

The best one as chosen by ATP will not only be printed in the programme but the writer will also receive two VERY special prizes:

1. They will win a 2. berth chalet to the ATP Nightmare Before Christmas festival this December!
2. One of the acts from the winners chosen 10 will be added to the festival lineup!

Get writing! The deadline for this competition is the 15th March.

For more information check out the brand new look ATP website.

Good Luck!

Ok, so, I won’t bore you with the reasons why I can’t make it to this festival this year (first time in 5 years I’ve not made it to an ATP), but the ever swelling line-up for the Fans Strike Back makes me want to weep…

Yesterday, ATP announced the following new additions:

Latest additions to ATP: Fans Strike Back are:

Killing Joke
The Mae Shi
School of Seven Bells
Liam Finn
This Will Destroy You
Hush Arbors
+ Pete Fowler art exhibition

Excuse me whilst I find a small corner to hide in…

Oh, and as a side note, ATP have just refreshed their website. It’s red. Very red. Pop along here.

Walking around last years ATP’s Nightmare Before Christmas festival there were an abundance of ghoulish people donning Zu hoodies, their emblem being a blood dripping axe. I’d foolishly already missed these guys in action. Luckily I’ve got a hold of their latest record. Carboniferous is a deluge of sound; murderous violence reaping out its revenge. Huge Godflesh like bass lines throb over psycho terrifying sax solos, whilst incorporating almost rave beats, like on opener ‘Ostia’; the heavy trembling bass is almost as if Lightning Bolt and Holy Fuck have gone to hell and back with a sax. So there is some definite heavy groove in there fleshed out amongst the strange, morgue lingering world. It is brilliantly experimental, in a John Zorn head fuck kind of way. There are no side orders of salad with this record, it is pure meat, dripping slabs of malevolence, and, what appear to still be living bits of gristle and sinew, bones and fingers, writhing in madness in front of you, and creeping behind.

Formed in Rome in 1997, Zu have released 14 albums, and are very much collaboration enthusiasts. Sir Mike Patton himself guests on this record, check out ‘Soulympics’, he digs out all his best squeals for this one. Zu are an obvious inspiration of his and musicianship is the key, and this three person horror film is grounded in composing and theatre. Each track has muscle beyond belief, ‘Chthonian’ moving seamlessly between head crushing bass to eerie shadow worship in a second. If you sleep with the light on this isn’t for you. Carbiniferous is the onset of a nightmare, building in dramatic blows to the head, through the slap bass craziness of ‘Beata Viscera’, the industrial monster ‘Axion’, where the sax sounds like it is being bludgeoned, then strangled. To play a sax so imperfectly takes more precision than doing it right. It’s noise rock, brutal metal, experimental jazz, all in one pot. Take a dip, you’ll feel the bloodlust soon I’m sure.
72%

Zu on MySpace

Before the imminent release of their corking new album The Century of Self, we made some time for a chat with art-noise supremo Conrad Keely from the band, and got to hear his views on art, science, religion, musical inspiration, the joys of relocating to Brooklyn and much more.

Hi there Conrad. How are you?
Hello.  Yes, I’m good.

What time of day is it over there?
It’s 1.30pm here in Brooklyn.

So, I saw your band at All Tomorrow’s Parties last May.  How was the festival for you?
I’ve always enjoyed those festivals. We’ve done four.  Three in the UK, and then this year was the first time that we did it in America.  Although the audiences here in America were a little bit older than the average age of the British audiences, it’s one of those festivals that I think is very unique in its ability to have the audiences and the performers really kinda come together, just hang out together.  You don’t really get that from a Reading or Leeds!  That’s why we wrote a song about it: ‘Festival Thyme’, the song that’s on the E.P.

Am I right in thinking that you have some family over here in the UK?
My mother’s family: three aunts and an uncle, and cousins.

So do you spend quite a bit of time over here?  Are you a regular visitor?
Only in so much as because of the touring that we do. I get to see my family: my cousins and my aunts and uncle come out to see the shows. I was born in the UK, in Nuneaton and we moved back there when I was 8 years old for three years, so I definitely have that connection there.

So, the new album then. People are saying that it is right up there with the best stuff the band has ever done.  How do you rate it?  Are you one of these artists that is bored with an album once they’ve finished making it?
There’s definitely a part of me that’s thinking about the next record already.  But I’m definitely by no means tired of this record.  We haven’t even gotten to play some of these songs live yet, so we’re excited with interpreting them for live performance.  Our songs always have continued to grow on me.  That’s one of the reasons that we still play songs from the first record: for us they still embody statements that we want to make as performers.

Do you have favourite tracks, or parts of the album?
I have favourite parts, I don’t necessarily have favourite songs.  The middle part of ‘Halcyon Days’ is something I was really fond of, that I’d written back in my first band, in college.  I had always liked it, so I finally used it for something in a recording.  Also ‘Insatiable’: I’m really into how the lyrics came out on that.  And all the instrumental parts of the record: that was something that I really enjoyed doing.

I read that ‘Insatiable’ was originally written as the score for a film, but wasn’t then used.  What film was that?
Oh, it never came out.  The film was never produced.  It was called ‘Insatiable’ and I never saw it, but I heard that it was really bad [laughs].  When I first was told about it, all I was told was that it was a vampire movie, and so the song that I wrote was supposed to be deliberately vampire-esque.  The irony was that the music that I think they wanted for that movie was something that sounded more like nu-metal.

Can you tell me a bit about the collaborations on the album: I think you worked with Yeasayer?
Yeah.  We did the final tracking for the record in New York, which has a very collaborative atmosphere.  Our producer had known the Yeasayer people for a long time, and called them in.  But also there was an artist called Brenda Ratney, who sings the female vocals in the middle section of ‘Halcyon Days’.  She just happened to be recording next door.  The studios were in a basement, and there were two studios side-by-side, so there would always be people walking past us.  She would go in to the next studio, and Jason [Reece] is probably ten times more social than I am, and loves to talk with strangers, so we formed these friendships.  People would check out what we were doing, and we would play each other our tracks and stuff.  There was definitely a great collaborative feel going into this record.

That’s interesting, because I thought there would have been more of a “community” of musicians back in Austin (Texas) – where you used to be based – but it sounds like you’ve found something like that where you are now, as well.
Well, the thing about Austin is that although there are a lot of musicians, it’s not necessarily as collaborative.  Also in New York the quality and calibre of musicians that you run into up here is usually pretty high.  Like, Brenda Radney – the girl that was recording next door – had been signed to Justin Timberlake’s label, and she had come second in some international singing competition.  She was spot on, flawless. So that’s one major advantage with New York.  Any session musician that you would hire out here is going to be top of their game.

‘Fields of Coal’ appears to be a song about a reluctance to perform, or go on stage.  Do you suffer from actual stage fright, or is it more about a lack of enthusiasm for performing?
The funny thing about that song is that it’s the only song that I’ve ever written on tour.  I actually wrote it before I was about to get on stage at a festival.  On the bus.  It’s not stage fright, I don’t think I’ve ever had that, but it is that fear of… when you’re about to do something that’s really strenuous, not just physically but emotionally strenuous.  After weeks of doing this it can be very draining: emotionally draining and mentally draining.  You almost feel like you’re disembodied.

So in an ideal world would you prefer to do shorter tours?
I think in an ideal world I would never to play the same place twice.  There are so many places that I would love to play in the world, and just continue to travel.  But I don’t mind touring, I love touring.  For me, one of the greatest things about it is travel.  I’ve travelled since I was a young child, and travelling to new places has always been on the top of my career considerations.  If anything, I just hope that I improve on my tour stamina, and how much I’m capable of doing it.

A lot of what you write about and sing about seems to cover if not religious then certainly “spiritual” and quasi-religious themes – like ‘Isis Unveiled’ on the new album for example.  What are your personal beliefs?
I have spiritual beliefs, but I am against the idea of organised religion, and I see it for its flaws.  I love it for its beauty and tradition, I’ve always loved religious art and even music, but I was raised by parents that studied all religions.  In fact the book ‘Isis Unveiled’ was a book that my parents owned and had on the bookshelf.  I grew up with that book, and it was an indictment of both religion and science, saying that they fall short of spirituality, but that freed of them we can achieve this higher spirituality.  I have strong convictions, but not necessarily about some kind of personified godlike being, that people seem to feel they have to understand.  Anything that created the thinking behind the science and the physics that I’ve studied and know about would be way beyond our meagre comprehension.  So it’s not so much a desire to understand this thing as it is just a kind of letting go, and allowing it to work through you.  I think this is the creative compositional process that I hear many writers talk about: feeling as if they are a conduit for something.  Just the sense that they’re channelling in a creative power from somewhere else.  Stravinsky said that he didn’t write The Rites of Spring, that it flowed from him.

Like the way that musicians often say that they woke up having dreamed a song or a lyric.
Yeah.  Even beyond that, just the geometry behind the music, and the amazing mathematics of music which makes me think about things such as what music would be to alien races, based on the universal mathematical laws.  Music that is outside of our terrestrial experience, but it may be strangely similar.  That’s a theme that I played with in the song ‘Bells of Creation’.

Art is also clearly something that is significant and important to you.  You did the cover of this album in biro, is that right?
Yeah, all the artwork on this record was done with a blue ballpoint.  Blue “biro” [laughs].

One of the things that I miss, now that more and more music is in ‘download’ form rather than a physical item is the cover art and the whole feel for an album that you get from the artwork.  How do you, as an artist and musician, feel about that?
Oh I definitely embrace the new technology.  I didn’t even bring my vinyl collection with me to New York because it was just too big.  But that hasn’t stopped me from appreciating the artwork that goes along with records, or even my desire to create artwork.  When I was a young child the artwork was part of a record.  I would sit there looking at Led Zeppelin 4 and looking at the inner sleeve.  When I create my artwork I’m thinking about that young kid who has found this record among his parents’ collection, and while listening to the music is exploring the drawings that I make for the CD sleeve or the album sleeve.  So although it does seem as if it’s something that has gone away, there are still bands out there that take it very seriously and consider that part of the album.  One of the bands right now whose artwork I really enjoy is Mastodon, who put a lot into their covers.  For me it’s something that definitely will always be intertwined with the music itself.  To that end what we’re planning to do is tour the artwork with the album, we’re going to be setting up some exhibits on this next European tour, for as many of the gigs as we can.  Eventually it would be nice to have a touring installation, but that’s probably going to be for the future – there’ll be some logistic challenges [laughs].

Didn’t you do an exhibition with Melissa Auf Der Mar recently?
Yes.  She showed her photography and I showed my pen drawings.

What, at the moment, is inspiring you musically and artistically: what are you listening to, or reading, or…?
There are a lot of local Brooklyn bands that I was listening to when I was writing these songs  - like we already mentioned, Yeasayer, and Dirty Projectors and a couple of other bands: Black Mountain, Fleet Foxes.  Also, I’ve been listening to a lot of soundtracks.  I always enjoy listening to soundtracks to movies, and I also find a lot of inspiration with movies themselves, because we try to have a cinematic quality to our records.  We want the listener to be able to close their eyes and imagine scenes, or feel like they are being taken on a journey.  So movies are something that we always fall back on for inspiration.

So do you mentally write your own soundtrack, while you’re watching a movie?
Oh no, I mean, usually I’ll listen to the soundtrack that’s there [laughs].  But recently, No  Country For Old Men came out, and that didn’t have any incidental music.  There was no soundtrack music for it, but what an amazing soundtrack, it was so interesting.  You really just heard the ambient noise of each scene.  That was really special.

Do you read much?  What kind of books and authors do you like?
I did go through the Cormac McCarthy books after watching that film [McCarthy wrote the book 'No Country For Old Men', on which the film was based].  I do like a lot of non-fiction work, like Bill Bryson.  I’ve always liked his writing.  I read a book called ‘The Far Pavilions’ by M M Kaye before I wrote the song.  That’s probably one of the best novels that I’ve read in a while.

That’s about Afghanistan?
Well, it takes place in Pakistan, I guess it was still India at the time, during the great game between Great Britain and Russia, but definitely set in the same contentious part of the world.  It’s 150 years ago, but it did draw a lot of parallels in my mind.  Interesting.

Do you read music magazines, and look at your own reviews?  What music websites do you use?
To be honest I don’t read music magazines.  I definitely don’t read them to find out what people have to say about other bands, unless they just happen to be there.  For the most part I like to get my news from word of mouth and what I see when I go to a show.  Occasionally I’ll read reviews that have been passed along to me, but for the most part I just have to try to remind myself that that is not really what’s important, that a review of the record, or even the press covering the record is not necessarily going to change anybody’s opinion.  I think the listener is really foremost in my mind as the person whose opinion I’m worried about.

The only thing that I check out online – because I’ve been a member of it for a while – is eMusic.  You get a membership and then you can download a certain amount of songs every month.  I definitely steer far from their rock or alternative sections, and usually go for the folk or early jazz stuff.  I can’t help that: I’ve been in a rock band for thirteen years so I’m kinda inundated with the alternative music scene, so I look elsewhere for a release.

Well, thank you very much for speaking with us.
Thank you, we’ll see you in the UK!

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead on Myspace

Announced today; Australia’s finest rock n roll exports The Drones release their eagerly awaited new album Havilah via ATP Recordings on February 16th. The bands second full length has been out for a couple of months in their native Australia creating huge amounts of crtical praise, with Plan B’s Everett True citing the band as “(the) saviours of Australian rock…melancholy, incendiary…brutal, brilliant.” We are a tad excited to say the least. Expect both a European tour and US dates to be announced shortly. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeah. Here is what the label have to say about Havilah.

The splendid isolation in which Havilah was created lies in the foothills of Mt Buffalo, once goldfield territory, outside the town of Myrtleford in country Victoria. In February Gareth Liddiard began writing new songs for the album there. Two months later guitarist Dan Luscombe, the Drones’ most recent addition, and drummer Michael Noga joined Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin to rehearse the new material. Then producer and engineer Burke Reid (The Mess Hall, Gerling) lugged his recording gear through the door and off they went – two weeks flat out – until it was done.

Havilah, like everything The Drones have done, is an album of contradictions, where bombast meets beauty, melancholy wrestles with violent guitars and singer Liddiard’s incendiary voice lights up his angular poetry, this time on the nature of, in no particular order, the moon (Penumbra), divorce (The Drifting Housewife) and the acquisition of godlike power and the cult of John Frum (I Am the Supercargo).

It’s an album that’s brimful of the innovation and artistic integrity that has made The Drones one of Australian rock’s most critically acclaimed acts here and overseas during the past four years. There are vaguely familiar nods to Neil Young’s paint-stripping guitar spasms on Supercargo and Oh My, while the deliciously meandering pop dirges of Suicide and the Velvet Underground echo in Careful As You Go and Luck in Odd Numbers. It’s melancholic, certainly, but Havilah, in its tone and its delivery, is also a celebration. It’s a more positive statement than its predecessor. Once you’ve been around these 10 songs for a few hours, it’s not hard to make up your mind about them. They are bold. They are romantic. And they are dangerous.

Since the announcement a few weeks ago about the early lineups for this years ATP Festivals I’ve been totally undecided on which one to go to. “BREEDERS OR FANS BREEDERS OR FANS BREEDERS OR FANS etc” – both are offering some seriously good music. Though my mind has firmly been made up now as The Acorn and Shearwater have been added to The Fans weekend. FUCK YEA. How exciting??!! But still – the thought of missing Bon Iver and Teenage Fanclub at the Breeders weekend still fills me with absolute dread… Anyhoo – further news from ATP HQ follows:

From the 8th – 10th May, The Fans Strike Back weekend will see half of the festival line-up chosen by ATP and the other half voted for by everyone that buys a ticket. The latest additions to the ATP side of the line-up as of today are:

HEALTH
Shearwater
The Acorn
The Pink Mountaintops

That means that the full list of ATP curated bands so far is:

The Jesus Lizard / Devo / Sleep / Spiritualized  / Young Marble Giants /
Antipop Consortium / Grails / Sleepy Sun / The Cave Singers / Retribution Gospel Choir / HEALTH / Shearwater / The Acorn / The Pink Mountaintops

So far the Fans have only picked Beirut, but offers have been sent to My Bloody Valentine, Flight Of The Conchords and Electric Wizard.

Tickets to the event are on sale NOW from  here.

—————————-

From the 15th – 17th May, ATP will be curated by the legendary BREEDERS. The latest additions to their line-up as of today are:

CSS
Supersuckers

The full list of bands chosen by them so far:

The Breeders / Throwing Muses / Bon Iver / Foals / Teenage Fanclub / Holy Fuck / Kimya Dawson / Pit Er Pat / Deerhunter / Gang Of Four / Shellac / Zach Hill / The Soft Pack / The Holloys / Styrofoam / CSS / Supersuckers

Tickets to the event are on sale today from here.

Words: Marc Higgins | Photographs: Lucy Johnston

Sometimes Christmas comes early when you’re a child, but very rarely when you get older. This year, however, is going to be one of those Santas visited early moments. Obviously by Santa I mean Mike “I’ve got more side projects than you’ve had hot dinners” Patton. Riding a sleigh from the depths of ungodly hell, along with his good friends The Melvins to curate ATP’s Nightmare Before Christmas shebang at Butlins holiday resort in Minehead. Never before has ATP’s nightmare vision been more fully realized than on the days between 5th & 7th December 2008.It is undeniable the amount of fantastic musicians ATP have given the curator card too over the years; Mogwai, Thurston Moore (who invariably shows up in one guise or another at most ATP’s); Shellac; Portishead; Dinosaur Jr; Explosions in The Sky etc. The list gets more and more ridiculous.

On announcement of this years Nightmare Before Christmas annual party, the list just got downright insane! The Lord is smiling down and so are all the people with tickets for this one. I now know what Charlie felt like when he found that golden ticket! Like one lucky, Melvins lovin’, Fantomas shouting mother trucker. Sorry, I must musically critique and stop salivering like a dog chomping down on the postman’s last fingertip!

Friday December 6th was a cold, cold day, and with a 5 hour drive under my belt (courtesy of my friend Steve – props to him for holding the wheel till we got there), we entered what seems like the most surreal place for ATP to stage its festivities; Butlins, of fair Minehead. A strange mix of retirees and career professionals live in Minehead, a slightly lost in silence seaside town, which makes it all the more strange that we’re here to watch Mike and The Melvins raise unholy sledgehammer hell! Bring it on.

The Melvins 1983

Who would take to the stage first but The Melvins 1983; either cos Buzz and co couldn’t find anyone to play or the just wanted to plain hog the stage. Yes they’re famous for their lineage and influence on the grunge movement, but tonight they sound tired and a little out of place. ‘Honey Bucket’ still sounds awesome, but I find that I’d rather listen to the records as they will forever have venom and punch. Tonight, Melvins 1983 lack both. Too bad really as most of the bands playing here this weekend seem to be picked, or influenced by The Melvins.

Undeniably Big Business are huge fans. But before they can show where they’ve taken that influence, Jared Waren blows up his bass amp. He hasn’t even played one note of any BigBizz song! For a second a wave of distress and mild laughter sweeps over the crowd but a generous man awaits backstage. Undeniably anxious, the unknown backstage minion lends his amp over for the greater metal good. Rather you than me. The slaying begins. Jared plays the bass like he was taking over the world with it, like a force of nature. Towards the end Dale Crover, of The Melvins, makes his second stage appearance to hammer out ‘Just as the Day was Dawning’ and the monstrous ‘Grounds for Divorce’ from their mighty album Here Come The Waterworks. Genius! Dale Crover will no doubt win the award for most time  on stage this weekend.

Trevor Dunn’s new project isn’t quite what you’d expect from the ex-bungle bass man. Well, it is, and it isn’t. Strangely blending hooky, romantic alt rock, with Peeping Tom style sexiness (hmmm are they sexy?), Madlove make disturbing alt-pop. It doesn’t register like it should’ve done. I expected far more experimentalism, more strangeness. It’s far more of a straight forward venture for Dunn, who is known far and wide amongst these circles, especially in this circle, for Mr Bungle, and his lesser known Trio Convulsant outfit. It was their second gig ever, so maybe I can forgive it lacking something inspiring. To see Trevor Dunn play live was pretty special for me so I’m happy as a pig.

It wasn’t easy to get lost or miss bands this time round as only Reds and Centre Stage were open. Luckily I was able to catch every last energy fuelled moment of Torche! Their album Meanderthal is an absolute classic of sludge-pop-metal, and live they set the bar so high that they would never be beaten for the entire festival. Louder than God and far more supreme, they nailed it through stompers like ‘Piranha’. I almost couldn’t take it when they played ‘Healer’ and ‘Across the Shields’. Outstanding! Take QOTSA, throw in some Pelican, and some more Pelican, and you have the best heavy band on the planet right now. I haven’t loved a gig as much since I saw QOTSA at Leeds 2005! Completely jaw dropping. Plus the singer looked like he should be in a country and western quartet, but sounds like Burton C Bell with groove! Just managed to see the last sixty seconds of bile inducing noise nuts The Locust, which means, we saw three songs, and they rip your throat out!

ISIS

If there’s a band on the planet doing more for progressive metal it’s ISIS. Aaron Turner and Co make it look easy. The music is so dynamic that I thought it may not translate as well live. But they never failed to mesmerize, playing a selection of tracks from their latest record, including my favorite ‘Dulcinea’, an absolute master class in how to break the mold. We’ve waited for a band to take Tool’s mantle; these guys have well and truly taken it on. From a relatively new band in terms of influence, to perhaps one of the best known grunge bands of all time: The Meat Puppets. Like The Melvins their influence spans generations. I have a feeling people are only here to see them play ‘Plateau’ and ‘Lake Of Fire’ though. I miss the latter through the need for sleep. They hit hard with there brand of psychedelic punk and noise. It was unexpected as Curt Kirkwood plays guitar more like J Mascis than the bluegrass style I thought I was going to hear. A gift no doubt, he handled his effects guiding the phasers and rampant delays like a true guitar god. Unfortunately I’m off to bed and miss Porn (and Dale Crovers next appearance surely – he invariably bashes it out with these guys live too), but, having seen them before, I’m not overly upset. The double blow will come tomorrow.

When starting the day, why not start it with Mastodon! Hell that’s exactly what I needed; pure skilled, old-school metal for the new crowd. Missing a guitarist (you’d never tell) they give one of the most crowd pleasing performances of the weekend. Viking metal full of demons and shrouded in gothic imagery. Definitely what I wanted. However, what I didn’t want was a fifteen minute set from Fennesz. What was the point in trekking downstairs to get a small slice of nothing? One of the more experimental acts of the weekend I really wanted to see what he was about. Fuck it lets go for some King Buzzo!

And so we did, where they made up for their earlier disappointing set by ripping into the new stuff. Not that I know it, but they have far too many albums for me to know them all. But with two drummers, and a new bass player, namely Coady Willis, of Big Business, joining Dale Crover on drums, and Coadys bandmate Jared on bass The Melvins have found a whole new energy. They play through mostly new stuff, and what I think is Hooch, but don’t really touch their two best albums, Houdini and Stoner Witch, other than that. Cleverly orchestrated dismantled sludge from the godfathers! Good times! Whether Butthole Surfers could match that was soon to answered, and answered with a firm No! Not what I would call a live show fit for ATP; funny, but not musically entertaining. Plus I was itching to see Mike spasm on stage like someone on day release. I wasn’t disappointed!

Fantomas enter stage right 15 minutes late – obviously because The Directors Cut is only about 37 minutes long and they weren’t prepared to throw some others in. He’s Mike Patton, we’ll let him off. He squeals like a man possessed and with abated glee ‘The Godfather’ is first up (Go! Go! Gagaga! Go! Go! Yayayayayaya!) All the way through the set it is evident how incomparable Pattons talent is with any other musician here tonight. He composes the rest of the band, guiding them through songs like ‘Henry: portrait of a Serial Killer’ and psycho trauma that is ‘The Omen’. Simultaneously graceful and horrific Fantomas deliver and deliver, ‘Cape Fear’ has heads firmly bouncing before ‘Rosemary’s Baby’. I spy that Dale Crover has also made another appearance on stage – taking place of Dave Lombardo, of Slayer. To play his drum parts! Dale you’re a magician. With a very gentlemanly thank you to the crowd and a slating of the hellhole that is Minehead they finish ‘Der Golem’ and ‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me’.

Santa has come early and looking like the cutest snowflake is Martina Topley Bird. Adorning a red ball dress she warms the crowd with alternate versions from her fantastic debut album that was released some time ago now. She alleges she has a new record, and plays some songs from that but she has a number of technical hitches that stunt her performance. She shines best when she sings unaccompanied, and even gets the crowd in on the act for one Christmassy number. She is a charming jewel of the British music scene and even has time to cover ‘Baker Street’, but in her own street lullaby style. Dreamy. Unfortunate incidents preceeding this gig mean that I sleep through Teenage Jesus and The Soulsavers gigs, missing Thurston Moore, Lydia Lunch and Mark Lanegan. You can imagine the biting agony of realizing that when I awoke at 3am!

Fantomas

On Sunday I was astounded by this Norweigian band called Farmers Market who completely blew me away. Gypsy folk, with hints of lounge, rock and country, but in the way that Bungle do it. Musically they were simply audacious. I don’t think the saxophonist took one breath the entire show. I advise anyone who likes Mr Bungles mix to get hold of Surfin USSR, its brilliant; Inventive musicality with a satirical political edge. With titles like ‘The Dismantling of The Soviet Onion Made Us Cry’ why wouldn’t you go for it!? Israeli punk outfit Monotonix , obviously on a mission ruffle up the system, played the gig in with the crowd. Whether it was a backing track, or not, is to be debated as there was no band on stage and they couldn’t physically play in the crowd. Lead singer Levi Elvis was surfing a kickdrum across the crowd whilst belting out their brand of rock n roll infused punk anthems. Just what the festival needed really, everything tends to be slightly reserved at ATP. Fuck that!

Fantomas were brilliant again only they played a cover of Al Greens’ ‘If I gave you My Love’. Exactly what I was hoping for; Soul Death Metal! Lip smackingly good!

The most intense gig of this “nightmare” had to be Dalek. Ipecacs kings of noise truly shook the foundation of Reds bar. Never has Hip Hop been so monstrously dark and industrial. The malevolent stage presence of Mc Dalek, on vocals, and his co conspirator Okt0pus, on production, packs even more fire. Okt0pus struts at the back of the stage like a caged beast, eyeballing the audience! There’s no way you can’t be moved and almost broken by the consuming darkness they breed when their music plays. On record it’s intense, but live they’ll blow your mind! Word! After that The Black Heart Procession kinda just fall by. It takes time to digest Dalek and I’m not really affected at all by TBHP. A band I love, their nourishing romantic pop touches Bad Seeds territory at times and they can really hit you in the heart. But not tonight, besides the singer looks like Kevin Smith, and he knows it.

It’s all a waiting game, preparation for the pusher of squares. He’s well up for the gig and, despite being the quintessential English eccentric, Tom Jenkinson is loving the audience and breathing energy from every fret. As he powers through tracks from his latest, more dynamic melodic effort, Just a Souvenir it is clear that the best has been saved until last. In terms of musical progression no one is taking things further than Mr Jenkinson. ‘Delta V’, ‘A Real Woman’ and ‘The Glass Road’ all go down a storm as well as his classic move into the realms of greatness ‘Come On My Selector’. Genius knows no bounds and this guy is touching the sky. Whilst it’s hard not to dance, you have to take a few minutes out to look on in awe at his bass playing; phenomenal magic. End of!

Same time again next year anyone?

P.S Probably should mention the in-chalet gig by The Melvins, but I missed that too! Next time I’m gonna check every chalet! Apparently the people staying in that chalet got kicked out for destroying their accommodation – hmmm, a little unfair I feel. But that’s Rock n Roll Kids!

The Damned

Bosshog

Squarepusher

Mastadon

Leila

Butthole Surfers

Monotonix

The Melvins 1983

ATP Festival
Lucy Johnston Photography

The latest additions to the May 2009 All Tomorrow’s Parties festival line-up curated by The Breeders were announced today:

FOALS
Ex-Hella member and drumming genius ZACH HILL
The much hyped THE SOFT PACK (formerly The Muslims) and
LA based post-rockers THE HOLLOYS

FANS STRIKE BACK VOTE: THE FIRST TOP TWENTY!
Each week ATP approach the top 2 bands and ask them to play the festival. If they can’t do it, they approach the next two. Keep checking back here for news on how it’s going.

FANS STRIKE BACK WEEK ONE CHART:
1 Sufjan Stevens
2 My Bloody Valentine
3 Beirut
4 Kraftwerk
5 The Knife
6 Eels
7 MF Doom
8 Jesus and Mary Chain
9 The Magnetic Fields
10 Flight of the Conchords
11 The Flaming Lips
12 Dan Deacon
13 Death Cab For Cutie
14 M83
15 MGMT
16 Electric Wizard
17 Jeffrey Lewis
18 Jesu
19 Robert Wyatt
20 Wolf Parade

If all those bands in the Top 20 played any festival, it’d be the best ever… apart from perhaps MGMT who are rubbish.

Anyways – more news when we get it folks!

Oh, and tickets are on sale now… try www.wegottickets.com as they don’t charge stupid amounts for booking fees.

Yup – you read it right! News literally just in – The Jesus Lizard have agreed to reform and play at next years ATP vs The Fans Festival. The orginal lineup of David Yow, Duane Denison, David Wm. Sims and Mac McNeilly will be playing a series of shows throughout 2009, but the ATP hosted event will be the first live appearence from the Lizard since they disbanded in 1999.

In conjunction with the reformation, Touch and Go Records will reissue four full-length releases from the Jesus Lizard in May 2009. Remastered recordings of Head, Goat, Liar, and Down will be available on both LP and CD, all with expanded packaging and liner notes. Bob Weston is heading up the remastering process with Steve Albini, the original session engineer, sitting in.

In other ATP news; The Cave Singers have also confirmed for the vs The Fans event which (if you didn’t already know) takes place at Butlins Minehead on between 8th and 10th of May. For The Breeders curated weekend (15-17th May) - Shellac have been announced as the house band(!) and Gang Of Four are also set to make an appearence.

If you can’t wait until next year (and who can blame you) – ATP have a whole bevvy of London based events lined up before Chrimble. Those being:

December
2nd: DEERHOOF + UNDERGROUND RAILROAD – ULU
2nd: BEACH HOUSE + JANA HUNTER – Cargo
4th: MEAT PUPPETS perform MEAT PUPPETS II + ZU + MONOTONIX – ULU
4th: ISIS + TORCHE – Scala
8th: FANTOMAS perform THE DIRECTOR’S CUT + THE LOCUST – Astoria
9th: MELVINS + BIG BUSINESS + MELVINS 1983 – Scala
16th: TINDERSTICKS – Union Chapel
18th: THE BLACK ANGELS – ULU

Behold! All the stage times for this years Nightmare Before Christmas festival, taking place at Butlins Minehead between December 5th-7th. Interestingly (yet, totally unsuprisingly) ATP have decided to not to use the Pavilion stage. Apparently, many of the acts booked for the weekend would be too loud for that stage… Whatever the reason, it’s a good move all round. I wonder if they’ll continue the trend for next year…? 

Friday 5th December

Stage 1 – Centre Stage
4.45pm-5.30pm – MELVINS 1983
6.00pm-6.45pm – BIG BUSINESS
7.15pm-8.15pm – THE DIRTBOMBS
8.45pm-9.45pm – THE LOCUST
10.15pm-11.15pm – ISIS
11.45pm-12.45am – MEAT PUPPETS
1.15am-2.45am – OS MUTANTES

Stage 2 – Reds
4.30pm-5.15pm – KILL ME TOMORROW
6.00pm-6.45pm – TWEAK BIRD
7.00pm-7.45pm – MADLOVE
8.30pm-9.30pm – TORCHE
10.00pm-11.00pm – ZU
11.30pm-12.30am – WHITE NOISE
1.00am-2.00am – PORN

Saturday 6th December

Stage 1 – Centre Stage
3.15pm-4.00pm – JUNIOR BROWN
4.30pm-5.30pm – MASTODON
6.15pm-7.15pm – MELVINS
- ROOM CLEARED -
8.15pm-9.15pm – BUTTHOLE SURFERS
10.00pm-11.00pm – FANTOMAS
11.30pm-12.15am – NEIL HAMBURGER
12.30am-1.15am – RAHZEL
1.45am-2.45am – SQUAREPUSHER

Stage 2 – Reds
3.00pm-3.45pm – VOCAL SAMPLING
4.15pm-5.15pm – MUGISON
6.00pm-6.45pm – FENNESZ
7.30pm-8.30pm – J.G. THIRLWELL’s MANOREXIA
9.00pm-9.30pm – TEENAGE JESUS & THE JERKS
10.00pm-11.00pm – TARAF DE HAIDOUKS
11.30pm-12.30am – MARTINA TOPLEY BIRD
1.00am-1.30am – TEENAGE JESUS & THE JERKS
2.00am-3.00am – SOULSAVERS FEAT. MARK LANEGAN

Stage 3 – Crazy Horse
5.30pm-6.15pm – KONTAKTE
11.00pm-12.00am – LABEQUE SISTERS

Sunday 7th December

Stage 1 – Centre Stage
1.45pm-2.30pm – JAMES BLOOD ULMER
3.00pm-3.45pm – LEILA
- ROOM CLEARED -
4.30pm-5.30pm – BUTTHOLE SURFERS
6.15pm-7.15pm – FANTOMAS
- ROOM CLEARED -
8.15pm-9.15pm – MASTODON
10.00pm-11.00pm – MELVINS
11.30pm-12.30am – THE DAMNED
12.45am-1.30am – KOOL KEITH + KUTMASTA KURT
2.00am-3.30am – SQUAREPUSHER

Stage 2 – Reds
1.30pm-2.15pm – BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE
2.45pm-3.30pm – JOE LALLY
4.15pm-5.15pm – FARMERS MARKET
6.00pm-6.45pm – MONOTONIX
8.00pm-9.00pm – DALEK
9.45pm-10.45pm – BLACK HEART PROCESSION
11.15pm-12.00am – GHOSTIGITAL
12.30am-1.15am – BOSS HOG
1.45am-2.30am – DOUBLE NEGATIVE

Stage 3 – Crazy Horse
2.00pm-3.00pm – BERNARD PARMEGIANI

ATP has announced its return to Kutsher’s Country Club in Monticello, New York for the 2nd annual ATP New York festival. The event will be held Sept 11-13, 2009 (moved from labor day weekend as previously announced).

Existing tickets will work for the new dates. All ticketholders have been contacted with news on the date change. If you are holding a ticket and the new dates do not work for we are happy to offer a full refund.

Friday: Don’t Look Back/Comedy

Dirty Three Performing Ocean Songs
Suicide Performing First LP

David Cross – Hosting Comedy Stage

Saturday: curated by ATP

Animal Collective
Anti-Pop Consortium
Atlas Sound
Panda Bear

Sunday: Curator TBA in the coming weeks

Tickets are $235 + $12 booking fee

Accommodations are available at Kutsher’s and at the nearby Raleigh Resort (on sale from later today!).

Tickets and full information available from this www.atpfestival.com

Lightning Bolt

Jeepers. As gigs are coming up thick and fast this time of season and after talking a good talk about having a super-cool themed costume all at the ready, I wasn’t even prepared for ‘Release The Bats’. My memory has been mush since I got taken down by the killer-man-flu fever doing the rounds though it has to be said. Better act fast. I make a phone call to my friend James the evening before, pleading with him if I can borrow his gruesome Saw-esque Pig-mask to which he duly obliges. Result. Just need to pick it up now… Cutting it a little fine though…

So I get to the venue excitedly and giddily oinking and snorting around quarter past 6, just a little after Rhode Island’s very own, hard-noise-spaz-core Lightning Bolt take to the er… floor for their guerrilla-style performance for the first 500 entrants (the rest viewing from the balcony). I’m on the venue floor but as expected and previous Lightning Bolt experience, I can’t see a darned thing. People directly within the band’s sight seem fully enthused and totally into it, moshing and pushing and elbowing away to the rhythmic bass, frantic drums, and distorted vocals sound. (Yes, At The Drive-In would be rollin’ in their grave!) but it seems frustrating for the outer layer on tippy toes, craning their necks to get a look in. As the set progressed I slowly get more and more into the volatile noise assault they bombarded the crowd with, and thought “screw it, I’m getting in there while it’s hot”… It was worth it but my ribs are feeling the effects now. On reflection, I always wonder if it would be best to have them play, still the floor area, but on an elevated platform just for every one’s enjoyment and plus, it would look and be darn cool. Whatever. One things for certain though, they “PWN’D” as they say on the internets. And it definitely kicks the night off to a high octane start.

Pissed Jeans

So roll on the next 2 bands, Pissed Jeans and Wooden Shjips. Both bands I’ve heard mostly positive feedback about but never had the pleasure of hearing their music before. Well, I am never trusting positive feedback ever again… To be honest, Pissed Jeans were the better of the two. Playing a heavy brand of 80s garage punk rock, there was definitely enough there to make me want to source out their recent Sub pop release, Hope for Men. ‘People Person’ sounded passionate and raw and ‘Fantasy World’ grabs you with it’s loud, off-quilter instrumentals but I felt they were let down at times by their juvenile lead singer Matt Korvette, who seemed like a obsessive compulsive with the mental age of 8 who’s had too much Sunny D. One compulsion disorder seemed to be he needed to dip his microphone into every single half filled glass of beer on stage during a song while trying his best to stick his head up his arse. I swear I am not making this up.

As for Wooden Shjips, sorry but I honestly lost interest after a couple of songs. Sure they had some elements of kraut which usually is a repetitive win-win joy for me, but singer/guitarist Ripley Johnson’s meandering self-indulgent and yes, pretentious solos left me feeling cold as they aimlessly wandered into the night. The San Francisco quartet’s 60s psychedelic lacked groove and enough dynamism to hold my attention unfortunately but it did give me a chance to admire some of the Halloween costumes people had the made the effort for (not as many as I had expected but I’m thinking people are saving it for tomorrow night – it being the 31st ‘n all). I sensed the overriding feelings were shared by the crowd, at least the ones surrounding me. Every one else seemed to be waiting patiently for Les Savy Fav. And can I just say, it was totally worth the wait for the Brooklynites. They were the much needed second wind the night was crying, no, screeching out for! They were colossal and brought the night back on track.

Wooden Shjips

Now I’ve been waiting a long while to witness their highly-regarded live show experience first hand and when the crowd caught a glimpse of the band, all dappered out in skeleton attire, they went bananas. Tim Harrington’s first act was to take the skeleton dude next to me by the hand and bring him on stage, bumping and grinding him like there was no tomorrow. His other acts of gratuity included simulating sex with dead corpses and stretching a mutant baby over his head. As fun as it was to behold, much like the Pissed Jeans syndrome, it did feel like the antics took away from the musicianship of the group who all seemed highly proficient and skilled in what they were doing. Odd, but very cool to see the rest of the group all in dead pan motion as this large overweight troll sleazes it up like some kind of Har Mar nightmare.

They oozed their way through crowd favorites such as ‘The Sweat Descends’ and ‘What Would Wolves Do’. A set highlight was during the funk-fuelled ‘Patty Lee’, where Tim takes to the crowd, walks up one end of the balcony, still holding the microphone still stringed back to the stage, tempting death as he dangles head first down off the railings aided by some firm gripped onlookers and returns form the other end. It gets the biggest roaring applause of the evening. Absolutely exhilarating and expertly broke down the barrier between act and audience. The moment of the evening though (apart from Shellac’s legacy set of course – more on that later) was where Tim’s look-alike takes to the stage, complete with papier-mâché head and dude-love hippy t-shirt. They begin to jive some synchronized dance moves and cap it off with a spot of crowd surfing. Brilliant. I swear if that guy doesn’t win the ATP chalet prize then there is no justice in this world. With me and my pig-mask coming in a close second obviously.

Les Savy Fav

So then, what better way to cap off a fright night evening with some impeccable tightly woven noise rock from Shellac of North America. And it seems the band are fully into the spirit of things. Steve Albini dressed out as a Mummy, Bob Weston making a mean Frankenstein (“Ughhh! Ques….Tion?!” Answer ..? “Ughhh!”) and Todd Trainer looking totally the bloodied part as The Prince of Darkness himself. Yes. Dracula. They crash through ‘Squirrel Song’, where Albini’s sneering voice spits out “This is a sad fucking song!”. Weston provides accompanying busy bass lines that are low, melodic and down right dirty and Trainer plays like a human drum machine set with those long lasting Duracell batteries. The songs are intricate and tense and contain a certain amount of irony and humour that Shellac can play them like only they can. The crowd are going mental but It’s a mosh too far for me and I decide to make a swift exit out of the madness and to more civil retreat by the sound-desk (Yes I am a wuss! Sue me).

‘The End of Radio’ was worth the price of admission fee just to hear it. With its three chords on the bass, while Trainer intermittently pounds his snare with primitive force, not so much hitting his drums, but more to punish them (and always in sync I may add). In the meantime, Albini almost improvises the lyrics, evoking the last radio announcer on Earth (“We’d like to thank our sponsor, but there is no sponsor…”) and you don’t know if you want to feel frightened or bust out laughing.

When they played the haunting, harsh and now anti-anthem ‘Prayer To God’ for all music geeks worldwide, “Kill her! Just fucking kill her!” never sounded so normal and apt on an evening like this.

Shellac

Photographs by Lucy Johnston

ATP Official Site

Aaaaaah my favourite day of the year. Halloween? Nope. Far, far more special than that. Yes, today is the day ATP announce the curators of their annual weekend festivals which will both take place at Butlins in Minehead. Looks like Camber Sands has finally being given the cheerio.

So who is curating? I bet you’ve all been guessing – my money was on Broken Social Scene (how good would that be??). It gives me great pleasure to announce that the lineups for ATP 2009 will be chosen by…….

[WEEKEND 1] ATP vs THE FANS STRIKE BACK!!!!! 

[WEEKEND 2] THE BREEDERS

Heeeeeeeell yes!

Ok, so this is what we know so far.

Weekend 1 will take place between 8th-10th May. Weekend 2 will be on 15th-17th May.

Acts already confirmed for The Breeders weekend are…. Bon Iver, The Breeders, Throwing Muses, Teenage Fanclub and Holy Fuck. (oh my god, I think I just wet myself).

Acts confirmed for ATP vs THE FANS are… (chosen by ATP) Devo, Sleep, Spiritualized and Grails. Now get this… there are some new rules that have been put in place this year.. ATP have decided to make things more interesting, NO BANDS that have ever played an ATP festival before will be allowed to be voted for. Wowzers. That is going to be one HELL of a great lineup. 

Can I go to both please?

More news as we get it.. But for now, read all the info you need on purchasing tickets etc from the ATP website. I’m off now to dance around the room like a crazy loon.

I <3 ATP.

Shellac’s Todd Trainer. The face of Halloween 2008.

You got your SCARY costumes ready yet then? No? Well you better act fast and get your thinking caps on because there is only a couple of days left until the mega ATP Release The Bats shows at Kentish Town Forum and Birmingham Custard Factory.. Yes, as well as a stellar lineup (Shellac / Les Savy Fav (London Dates Only) / Wooden Shjips / Pissed Jeans / Lightning Bolt + DJ Andy Weatherall) ATP also invite all Release The Bats ticketholders to dress up for Halloween, either as something traditionally spooky or as something to do with one of the bands. Like last year there will be Best Costume and Best Photo competitions, with prices including ATP Chalets, Polaroid PoGo Cameras and ATP goodies.

People wearing costumes should take a picture with either one of the roving photographers that will be at the venues or at the Release The Bats Photo Booth. The three best costumes on each night will win prizes including a PoGo. Images of the costumes will then go onto www.atpfestival.com/releasethebats where people will be able to vote on costumes from all three nights to find the overall chalet winner!

The best photo competition will be judged after the events through photos uploaded to Flickr at www.flickr.com/groups/releasethebats2008 and the best photo over all three nights as picked by a professional photographer will win the chalet!

There are STILL tickets available for both shows and are priced at £22.50 for London (30th October), and £18.50 for Birmingham (31st October).

Doors for all nights open at 6pm. For more information, full stage times and news updates on these shows see www.atpfestival.com.

TLOBF will be at the Kentish Town show…look out for a full review and loads of SPOOOOOKY pictures next week.

Our friends at ATP have given us an exclusive on the latest list of acts announced for this December’s Nightmare Before Christmas festival; Teenage Jesus and The Jerks, Boss Hog, Rahzel, Double Negative and Tweak Bird.

TEENAGE JESUS AND THE JERKS - first European show in 30 years, a ‘Re-Animation’ of the band featuring Lydia Lunch, original bass player Jim Sclavunos (Bad Seeds) on drum and Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) on bass.
BOSS HOG - the return of this garage rock band fronted by Jon Spencer (Blues Explosion) and Cristina Martinez (Pussy Galore). Their first activity under this name for seven years.
RAHZEL - Legendary king of beatboxing, ex-member of The Roots and collaborator with Bjork, Mike Patton.

Tickets are selling fast with some chalet options totally SOLD OUT.
Chalets for 4, 5, 6 or 7 people ON SALE NOW!!

With around 40 bands set to play over the weekend, the line up so far looks like this, with many more acts yet to be announced:

Melvins / Isis / Mastodon / Butthole Surfers / The Damned / Fantômas perform The Director’s Cut / Squarepusher / Soulsavers feat. Mark Lanegan / Teenage Jesus & The Jerks / Boss Hog / Neil Hamburger / Dälek / Big Business / Black Heart Procession / Rahzel / Torche / Kill Me Tomorrow / J.G. Thirlwell’s Manorexia / The Dirtbombs / The Locust / Zu / Bohren & Der Club of Gore / Farmers Market / White Noise / Stockhausen’s KONTAKTE w/ Steinberg & Winant / MadLove / Tweak Bird / Double Negative

The event will take place December 5, 6 and 7 at Butlins Holiday Camp in Minehead, England

Tickets are on sale now at www.seetickets.com, www.stargreen.com and www.wegottickets.com and www.gigantic.com.

Due to the specifications of the accommodation, there are two prices for the tickets, £150 for Room Only accommodation, and £160 for Self Catering accommodation.

Room Only accommodation is available in 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 berths and offers either double, single or bunk beds with private bathroom and TV, but no kitchen facilities or lounge, more like a hotel room. (£150 + booking fee per ticket)

Self Catering accommodation is available in 4, 6 or 7 berths and offers private bathroom, full kitchen facilities and separate lounge area with TV. (£160 + booking fee per ticket)

All tickets include a 3-day festival pass and 3 nights accommodation. Ticket includes performances starting from mid-afternoon, with around 40 acts set to play live across the weekend. There are four pubs and DJ sets through till late, plus three nights in a self-catering chalet or room only accommodation all with private bathroom suites and TV’s.

Butlins Holiday Camp Minehead, Somerset , TA24 5SH is located near Glastonbury.

As we reported last week, The Drones have a new EP/Retrospective coming out on 22nd September followed by a new studio album Havilah which due to arrive around January 2009. Both discs will feature ‘The Minotaur’; a sludgy brute of a song. Check out the video below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Drones will be touring the US throughout August and September including All Tomorrow’s Parties New York with My Bloody Valentine, Shellac and Built to Spill.

August 13 – 3 of Clubs – Los Angeles, CA
August 18 – Spaceland – Los Angeles, CA
August 24 – Tractor Tavern – Seattle, WA
August 28 – Hemlock Tavern – San Francisco, CA
August 31 – Echoplex – Los Angeles, CA (w/ Polvo & Trans Am)
September 13 – Piano’s – New York, NY
September 20 – Kutshers Country Resort – Monticello, NY (All Tomorrow’s Parties)
September 21 – Trocadero – Philadelphia, PA *
September 22 – The National – Richmond, VA *
September 23 – 9:30 Club – Washington, DC *
September 24 – Ram’s Head Live – Annapolis, MD *

* w/ Built To Spill, Meat Puppets

mp3:> The Drones: ‘Baby Squared′

On September 2nd, Australia’s The Drones will release the digital version of their limited edition picture disc, The Minotaur + A Brief Retrospective via ATP Recordings. The EP includes a selection of tracks from their Australian Music Prize Award nominated Gala Mill (2006) and AMP Award winning LP Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By (2005). Also featured is ‘The Minotaur’, a song that will find itself on the band’s highly anticipated fourth studio album, Havilah (releasing early 2009).

Recorded in a mud brick house somewhere in the mountains outside of Myrtleford, Victoria, ‘The Minotaur’ is a lusty and brutal blitz, that over three and a half minutes, manages to draw the historical line between ancient Greek mythology and current-day time-wasting.

Download ‘Baby2′ originally released on Wait Long By the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By at the bottom of the post.

The Drones will be touring the US throughout August and September including All Tomorrow’s Parties New York with My Bloody Valentine, Shellac and Built to Spill.

August 13 – 3 of Clubs – Los Angeles, CA
August 18 – Spaceland – Los Angeles, CA
August 24 – Tractor Tavern – Seattle, WA
August 28 – Hemlock Tavern – San Francisco, CA
August 31 – Echoplex – Los Angeles, CA (w/ Polvo & Trans Am)
September 13 – Piano’s – New York, NY
September 20 – Kutshers Country Resort – Monticello, NY (All Tomorrow’s Parties)
September 21 – Trocadero – Philadelphia, PA *
September 22 – The National – Richmond, VA *
September 23 – 9:30 Club – Washington, DC *
September 24 – Ram’s Head Live – Annapolis, MD *

* w/ Built To Spill, Meat Puppets

mp3:> The Drones: ‘Baby2′

Ho-ho-motherfucking-ho. It may be baking hot outside, but the folks at ATP have one thing on their minds at the moment – and that’s Christmas. Yes, their annual ATP Nightmare Before Christmas shindig is shaping up very nicely indeed, with the fabulous Squarepusher and Butthole Surfers being the latest additions to the already fabulous bill. The event (curated by Mike Patton and The Melvins), will takes place at Butlins, Minehead between 5th-7th December and currently boasts the likes of The Dirtbombs (!), Isis and Torche.

Tickets include self catering accomodation and can be purchased here. For further info on the festival, how to get there and up to date additions to the lineup, visit the ATP site here.

The full lineup so far consists of:

CURATED BY MELVINS
KILL ME TOMORROW
BUTTHOLE SURFERS
MASTODON
MELVINS
ISIS
NEIL HAMBURGER
DALEK
BIG BUSINESS
THE DIRTBOMBS
THE BLACK HEART PROCESSION
TORCHE
J.G. THIRLWELL’S MANOREXIA

CURATED BY MIKE PATTON
FARMERS MARKET
BOHREN UND DER CLUB OF GORE
FANTOMAS PERFORMING THE DIRECTOR’S CUT
THE LOCUST
ZU
SQUAREPUSHER

Click below for some of our past ATP festival coverage.

Sunday. The final day of perhaps the greatest festival I’ve ever been to, and what a day to round things off. Without doubt the strongest line-up of the weekend (for me anyway). Kicking things off with a beautiful set was Jens Lekman, followed by a more muscular Beach House with added drums and bass on a few numbers. Victoria Legrands vocals really are something special, she’s turning into such a powerhouse. Silver Jews were staggeringly good, and I’d hazzard a guess that the entire audience at the Pavillion stage would agree. De La Soul injected a sense of fun into the day. A great set that featured a ton of audience interaction. You never really know what line-up Broken Social Scene are going to bring over with them. We were treated to Amy Milan and Evan Cranley from Stars. Plus the regular offenders Charles Spearin and Justin Peroff. Sam Goldberg too, who is proving to be a great asset to the live BSS line-up. Battles were, in a word, phenomenal. Even after the ridicuous queuing debarcle before their set, they didn’t fail to dissapoint.

Until next year then…

Remember you can check out the previous days photos – Friday / Saturday and our full review of the event here.

Jens Lekman

Beach House

Silver Jews

De La Soul

Broken Social Scene

Battles

THE END