Field Day line-up – first bands announced

The first chunks of this year’s Field Day festival line-up have today been announced, and heck it looks good.  Phoenix have been revealed as headliners, with Caribou, Esben & The Witch, James Holden, Memory Tapes and Pantha du Prince.  Fill line up so far is here.  More updates here the moment I get them.

The date is Saturday 31 July and earlybird tickets cost a cute £33.33 + booking fee via See Tickets.  Expect all the extra staples – quirky food, tug’o'wars, egg and spoon races, hay bales, bandstands and extortionately-priced programmes – as per usual.  Here’s my review of last year’s Field Day.

Now, Field Day is an eternally unlucky festival: after a first year of too few toilets and bars, it’s been cursed in its last two incarnations by seriously heavy rain.  Not only does that make you wet, but it means the tents fill, and it’s then that much harder to move between stages and get anywhere close to a band.  This video of Phoenix a few years ago shows how busy the dance tent gets…

Other charges levelled at the occasion include a lack of atmosphere, ill-scheduling and – yes, still – a lack of bars.  But it’s undoubtedly zesty, and brims with talent – especially so in 2010, it seems.  It’s full of fun-seekers, and has an eternally friendly atmosphere.  At some point things simply must fall into place… and I have a real hunch 2010 will be that time. 

Best bring an umbrella just in case not, though…

Hot new music – 8 February 2010

Each week I stumble across lots of great music that I can’t post because there’s no London connection – and this is a London music blog, after all.  In frustration at that, and simply to share things that make me happy, I’m aiming to post five songs I newly love every Monday.  And here’s the first batch:

Yeasayer – O.N.E.
Another slice of banging disco quirk-pop from the Brooklynites.  It’s so damn infectious that medical students ought to begin case-studying Yeasayer immediately.  O.N.E. really isn’t enough, as they say – listen to other album tracks on the MySpace page.

Caribou – Odessa
Oh how I heart Caribou.  My suspicion is that the Toronto fourpiece can more or less do anything: here’s a kind of super-funky techno-jazz,  effortlessly ticked off with dripping cool.  Smooth, sexy and soft-centred: the musical equivalent of a Belgian truffle.

Stuart Newman – Oil
Unsigned 22yo, Brighton-based Stuart Newman sent me this and it’s bit of a corker: an elegant guitar above a distantly tremulous choir above a eulogising statesman talking about the black stuff, and other cameo voices.  Ghostly, gaunt and rather beautiful.

Oh No Ono – Internet Warrior
Who said all the cool Scandi electro-pop came from Sweden?  This candy-coated beauty comes courtesy of Denmark’s Oh No Ono; it’s a thrilling sweep through dainty jingles, swirly vocals and pindrop pianos, before a cartoon-voiced ending.

Hot Chip – Alleycats
Hot Chip‘s new sound is so totally distinct from their previous dance incarnation: now it’s saintly shoegaze, with pretty lyrics and a sombre tone, epitomised by this new effort.  Such a change is hugely brave.

Shunt – a brief update

Bit of an update on my update on Shunt: the new venue will be called The Shunt Vaults and apparently “for the opening two weekends there will be a programme of solo work.  This will be an entirely new, as-yet-unnamed project.  The only other bit of information?  “There will be more tables.”  Always good news.

More soon, hopefully…

Axel Loughrey

Funny, how it happens sometimes, isn’t it?  Not romance, silly – I mean discovering new music.  I spotted Axel Loughrey‘s name on an email shout-out from the Flowerpot, randomly* decided to listen to his stuff and now feel rather fond of his sullen, beefy folk-rock.  Loughrey offers ambling, agonised songs about difficult girlfriends and, well, difficult girlfriends, lined with growly hooks and winsome harmonicas.  I particularly like the sweeps of country sounds, the fact that Axel sounds about 40 years older than he actually is, and the utterly unexpected arrival of a female singer halfway into True Friend.

Raised in Paris but Britain-based (Norwich at the mo), and also championed by Jo Whiley and Orange Unsigned Act, Axel has so far self-released two EPs off his own steam.   The Flowerpot gig has now passed (earlier tonight – I get too many emails) but he is playing the Hawley Arms on Monday 5 April if you can hold on until then.

MySpace

* It wasn’t completely random – I saw the word ‘Paris’ and thought of my girlfriend.  But still pretty random.  Kind of.

Freelance Whales to perform London dates

One of my tips for 2010, NYC’s Freelance Whales are in London next week for a few dates ahead of debut album Weathervanes’ March release.  An endlessly inventive, experimental fivepiece, Freelance Whales can do dainty pop (Starring), swaggering alt-folk (Generator^2nd Floor) and enthralling rock (Hannah).  There’s a touch of Mumford & Sons via wholesomely plucked banjos and echoes of Duke Special in the assortment of quirky instruments, including harmoniums and glockenspiel.  I particularly like the childlike wonder of the lyrics, a glorious simplicity.

The London dates are: Monday 15 February at Borderline (tickets) and Tuesday 16 February at Madame JoJo’s’ White Heat night (tickets), with Gyratory System also playing.  Freelance Whales are also supporting the very decent Fanfarlo at ULU on Friday 12 February.

MySpace | Website | Buy
MP3: Freelance Whales – Generator^1st Floor

Oh yes – Oh No Ono returning to London in March

Copenhagen quintet Oh No Ono are returning to the UK on Wednesday 3 March (at The Relentless Garage, tickets here) to support their latest album, Eggs.  Purveyors of a dense, elegant pop that occasionally gets psychedelic – think wacky Beatles mixed with Yes, or Miike Snow’s older brother - Oh No Ono come armed with boy-girl falsettos, funky hooks, keys, woozy strings and suddenly grandiose peaks.  Theirs are the kind of songs that apparently pass you by un-noticed, only to be involuntarily hummed five hours later. 

MySpace | Website | Buy
MP3: Oh No Ono – Helplessly Young