Reykjavik’s Airwaves Festival is one of the biggest events on Iceland’s cultural calendar. A celebration of the country’s thriving scene and prolific musical output, Airwaves introduces local bands to an international audience whilst bringing a tantalising selection of cross-genre bands to Reykjavik from around the world.

Our guide Halli was a brave leader, stewarding us through Opal, Viking, Thule and Tópas; the local brews of choice. After mooching around a few warmup shows in downtown Reykjavik (including a memorable early blowout from noiseniks Dr Spock and a couple of folky numbers from Iceland’s current number one-selling artist Lay Lo), the Kimi Records party was the place to catch some of the best Icelandic bands on offer. Continue Reading

Before we start, let it be known that Applicants is the worst name for a band ever - try typing it into Google and you’ll get my drift. Eventually I managed to track the little blighters down on mySpazz. I imagine their PR company adore them…

So, the elusive Applicants. Two guys, one girl, from Wolverhampton via Singapore, who churn out a mixture of sounds, ideas, samples, and occasionally a bit of coherent music. Life in the Bus Lane is a melting pot of Ash’s 1977, Incubus’ S.C.I.E.N.C.E. and a wee bit of northern swagger for good measure. (That’ll be the Wolverhampton bit, then.) Continue Reading

Gay Against You

This Saturday I travelled down to distant London to attend the second annual Brainlove all-dayer at the Brixton Windmill, a sort of almost-birthday party for John Brainlove, head of the very good Brainlove Records (Keyboard Choir, Friends Of The Bride, Napoleon IIIrd, Pagan Wanderer Lu) and a former member of experimental types Junkplanet (and Tracy Is Hot & The Clap!) as well as a writer for (amongst other publications) THIS VERY SAME WEBSITE- The Line Of Best Fit (conflict of interest duly awaits). At six a.m. I wake up. By just past 7:30 I am sitting, accidentally a bit too early, in Manchester Piccadilly train station, waiting for my friend Steve Jam On Bread (set to play the acoustic stage) so that we can catch the 8:17 train to Sheffield (and then onwards to London from there, West Coast mainline having been maddeningly closed). Steve’s bus gets delayed, so 8:17 becomes 8:33. Steve has left his debit card back at his flat- 8:33 becomes “catch the 8:44 train to Chesterfield, change to Derby, from Derby go to London, get the underground to meet my girlfriend in Waterloo, I’ll see you there.” A short call from his equally confused girlfriend later and a text arrives on my phone giving me the option of waiting for the 9:20 train to Sheffield which he can get on at Stockport and meet me there. Largely ignorant of London and its ways, I decide to exercise this option.

So that’s the first part of my Brainlove all-dayer experience, sat in Manchester Piccadilly train station reading The Economist and listening to Distophia on my mp3 player, blinkingly shaking off the organisational hassle around me. This, I suppose, is what you get for choosing to attend an all-dayer in London when you live in Manchester. That said the bands are good. Cats In Paris, Keyboard Choir, Gay Against You, Jam On Bread, Pagan Wanderer Lu, Team Brick, Napoleon IIIrd… all acts I would pay to go and see individually if they were in the same geographic vicinity as me, and so I guess if they’re all clustered together then despite the distance… well. By this point I’m writing from the perspective of a man who has spent a truly ridiculous amount on train fares over the past two days so in a fiduciary sense it was not worth it at all but in theory, this line-up is gold, particularly the main stage but also round the back near the barbecue where they have the acoustic one (also where dear old Steve Jam On Bread is scheduled to be playing). Continue Reading