My Leeds Festival 2009

This year I've felt a little too self absorbed to induldge myself in Leeds Festival properly. I spent the Friday & Sunday bed down in House Of Mook perfecting the mix for You Animals forthcoming opus, and setting up for recording some Honour Before Glory tracks on Monday

I did have a great day in attendance on the Saturday, though as usual it was the social aspect as much as the bands that made it the occasion it was.

I started the day watching The XX, who's album has quickly become a bit of a favourite of mine. It was an odd entity live, I wasn't expecting it to be that much more than it was, but I still thought it was a shame there wasn't more to it. Still, it's made me listen to the album today and I've enjoyed it all the more.

After The XX, I wandered around the site a little bit and checked out the BBC Introducing Stage, caught a little bit of ex-Loiner Anna Prior in Metronomy, before watching the Grammatics in the Festval Republic tent. And very good they were too

Later on, we camped out on the main stage to catch Vampire Weekend (who reminded me more than ever of Gracelands), bits of Bloc Party (very festival) and then Radiohead.

Radiohead was a bit of an odd one as not the set per se, but the whole set-up seemed very hard for a casual observer to 'break through' - and what I find odd, is why a band that was doing a sponsor-less tour in their own tents, was headlining such a 'corporate' festival?? With the 'arty' set up of video screens and lighting it was hard to connect from a distance, so I lost interest. I'm sure if I'd have been in the mood for an intense Radiohead set it would've been outstanding. I guess it was the festival equivalent of The Wire - not one for the casual observer. But that's what I go to the festival to be.

Two brief links / mentions:

1) To the festival volunteers who are actively getting involved. Great work if you can get it:

http://festvolunteers.blogspot.com/

2) Check out highlights of loads of bands on 'death of independent journalism' website the BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/videos/

Keep an eye out for Faith No More covering the Eastenders theme

Many thanks to the kind people at Festival Republic though for letting me attend again. Hopefully next year I can do something worthwhile to attend

Soundtrack to this post: Wilco, Fever Ray

Rough Trade

Having embraced Twitter, the desire to write blog posts is obviously dwindling, but that is because it exposes the difference in the two. And quite frankly, I'm a lot happier firing brief missives into the world than concentrating on some sentient thought. And when I do, I'm not usually near my computer, the resultant scribble as a 'note' on my Blackberry very rarely making sense at a later date

Alas, there is a greater reason to post than just wittiering, and that is the brilliant Rough Trade night on BBC4 last Friday. I was out filming Ellen & The Escapades at the time, but watched back on Sunday night with glee. 

Rough Trade, and all the DIY innovators of the late 70s / early 80s were obviously a great inspiration to me with Forward Russia and Dance To The Radio, and hearing interviews with Geoff Travis at the time of Rough Trade's inception was really intriguing. I thought the way the program delved in the merky moral v commercialist dilemma's was very good - until it discarded this indepth approach with the label reboot of the 00's (ie no mention that the label has been sold a couple of times, and is currently a subsidiary of Beggars so I believe). 

The way the label and staff 'chased' the dream with The Smiths was had familar ring to it as well, in lots of different respects, along with the general rise from entusiast to business with all it's accompanying trials

But I'm not sure what exactly to make of Geoff Travis. I did a panel at In The City with him in October and was slightly put off by a comment he made about not being able to make an album for less than £30k/£40k. And within the program there was something odd about the rhetoric of the 70's Travis on taking back the power / options / ability to release records, no matter what the quality or commerciality, to the Travis of now, managing Duffy

It's a great old independent music industry paradigm, if you can make something succesful in the mainstream true to your morals, could you / should you? But surely you can't keep them there and stick to said morals? And I think that you can't, or at least it's incredibly it's very very hard to, is true to the case. So what do you do? Personally, if I'd have gone through what Rough Trade had, I would steer clear from the mainstream music industry even if I did see a Duffy, but then that might explain why/how Geoff Travis has a purpose in life and I don't.

I've just re-read this entry and wanted to add "and why he's probably a lot richer than me" but that's not that point, or is it?

Anyway, enjoy some truly entertaining television until the end of Friday night at least:

Do It Yourself - The Story Of Rough Trade

Rough Trade at the BBC (feat. Young Marble Giants / Robert Wyatt / The Smiths and more)

And a note on Twitter, I do like it, I really do. I think it actually has genuine uses like a group text, or friend notification services. Discovering friends are out and about and so on is very useful. But, I see it dying very quickly as there's very little way to engage yourself on Twitter like Myspace or Facebook. But that would be a shame. Ahh well

Soundtrack to this post: Simon Mayo

Welcome 2009

Happy New Year everybody, I'm only a bit late

I currently have a list as long as my arm of things I wanted to write blogs about, but I've really struggled to find time the last few weeks - the new years is treating busy and there's so much more I wanted to do. I'm not working entirely as hard as I should be though, and have managed to spend most of the last 2 nights watching telly. Including the last few episodes of Gilmore Girls which managed to chalk up mentions for Midlake, Tokyo Police Club, My Morning Jacket and many more

2008 and was a funny year for me, and this time last year I was completely lost... Infact, a few months ago I was a bit lost. Right now, I have a bit of work to continue doing, and finishing producing these new songs by The ABC Club (pretty much done) and Die Video Die (sounding good). Then I might do something for me

Anyway, as is customary, I've had a list of 'hot new bands' growing for a while, and now everyone else has tipped them, please allow me to join the bandwagon

TIPS FOR 2009

This year, it's clear nobody knows who's gonna be big from the tips, bar the bleedin' obvious - that might still bomb completely through complete over hype and over exposure (hello White Lies). BBC Sound Of... poll is always a good barometer of the industry perception of what's going to be big. Last year, yes Adele, Duffy and others piled to the top of the pile, but there were other interesting features, like Santogold who never quite crossed into the mainstream.

BBC SOUND OF 2009  

There seem a few top tips, specifically on the BBC year's list, that seem very much of this Santogold ilk - I'm thinking mainly Little Boots and Empire Of The Sun. Two bands who I think are great, but I'm not sure I see them reaching Duffy style levels of mainstream success. Will talk a bit about that in a minute, but my great showbiz mate Steve Lamacq has written a great blog on the current state of tipping for the new year (and I agree on the shoegaze revival)

STEVE LAMACQ - Flaming Tips

Here's some new bands I like that will release records this year:

LITTLE BOOTS

Yes, she's everywhere - but in her former incarnation as lead singer of Dead Disco, Dance To The Radio released her first efforts, and they were infact the last band to release a single on Fierce Panda unless I'm much mistaken. She's the nu-rave Madonna, or something, and her collaboration with Joe Hot Chip, 'Stuck On Repeat' is a bonafide Disco Anthem. Will she become huge? I don't know, she has an immense pressure behind her from her label (679) who are rumoured to be dropping bands left, right and centre, and the build up to her push has been going on for absolutely ages. And of course I'm sure the songs I prefer least will be the ones to break her... You can't deny her star quality on Jools Holland though:

http://www.myspace.com/littlebootsmusic

EMPIRE OF THE SUN

Let's get the big guns out of the way. This is the Aussie collaboration between the singer of The Sleepy Jackson (remember their New Rock Revolution anthem - 'Miniskirt'? No?) and modular nu-rave heroes PNAU - responsible for the awesome track 'Embrace' with Ladyhawke. Anyway, they've created this odd world, but the songs sound great, though quite cheesy. I'm suprised they're getting hyped as much as they are, but hey it's pretty cool

http://www.myspace.com/empireofthesunsound

SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS

Actually, this is more retrospective, as they're album came out last year, but they're coming over for a proper tour at the end of February. These guys are ex-Secret Machines guitarist Ben Curtis, and indentical twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza. This is the one band I am most excited about it has to be said - their track 'Connjur' is one of my favourites at the minute

School Of Seven Bells - Cunnjur @RCRDLBL.com

http://www.myspace.com/schoolofsevenbells

Right, I have other things to do now, but put those in your pipe and smoke them. Not very interesting or new really I know, but things I wanted to write. Maybe see you tomorrow

Soundtrack to this post: lots