Festival Preview: Off Festival 2009 (Poland)

Festival season has once again walked into our thoughts, dreams and desires; scantily dressed, heavily perfumed, and looking pretty damn good; walked by our desk wearing nothing but a backstage pass and an inflatable hat, smiled provocatively (Hmpf, Dour!), shaken its ass in our faces (damn you Primavera!), tempted us to part with large sums of cash (leave me alone Reading!), sleep (For the last time, NO! Benicassim!) and sanity (Grrr, Glastonbury!). 

 

And, like sandwiches (sandwiches? is that really the best metaphor you can come up with!? ed.), festivals come in all shapes and sizes. Some tiny, some huge, some just plain weird (but you know we love you anyway, right, Standon Calling?). Line-ups too, vary hugely. Actually choosing from one of these however can prove rather tricky, a bit like standing in front of the counter at Subway (Ah, now I see where that was going. But still, sandwiches? ed.). This year LHNA simply decided to follow the best line-ups...

   

Pitchfork, the website everyone loves to hate and hates to love, recently published its annual Guide to Summer Festivals 2009 article to assist in this choice. LHNA, already planning a journey up, though, and across Europe this summer, and therefore already armed with a vague itinerary and before mentioned line-up criteria, chanced upon the festival we're featuring today: 

  

OFF Festival 2009

 

Held in what for many people may well be considered the middle of nowhere, this little brother of indie festivals has only been around for a few years, yet has already hosted the likes of Architecture in Helsinki, Of Montreal, Electrelane, Clinic, British Sea Power, Menomena and Iron & Wine on its stages. This year's lineup looks even more impressive:

 

The National, Final Fantasy, Spiritualized, El Perro del Mar, The Thermals, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Frightened Rabbit,These New Puritans, Maria Peszek, Marissa Nadler, The Field, Ólafur Arnalds, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, High Places,Handsome Furs, HEALTH, Fucked Up, Mark Kozelek, Crystal Stilts, Wavves, Karl Blau, Wooden Shjips, and many more  !

To be honest, we don't really know much else about it. The website is somewhat 'enigmatic', while everyone writing on its LastFM page is Polish. From what I've seen, it appears to be held in something of a park, and camping is available. For us, the not really knowing what to expect (at all!) is part of the fun. Anyway, here's a map:

 

 Follow the rabbit to Off!

 

Four-day tickets are already sold out, but 2-day tickets are still available and cost only 85 Polish Zloty, which is €19.50 (or $27), i.e. insanely cheap.

  

For flights, I suggest having a look at Ryanair or Easyjet. If you book now you'll probably be able to find something decent.

Off Festival 2009 on Last FM

Official website

Off Festival 2009 playlist on Spotify


-> and for those of you from Hype Machine or Elbo.ws, yes, we have a few songs for your listening pleasure:
  
The National - Mistaken for Strangers
The Thermals - No Culture Icons
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Killers
Final Fantasy - This Lamb Sells Condos

Spring? Summer? Gethen?

Noah and the Whale - The First Days of Spring

To Noah and the Whale: what were you thinking releasing this now, boys? It's already summer! Our minds are too busy thinking of huge heart-shaped sunglasses, big tasty cocktails with yellow umbrellas in them, kids with Cloudberry Records T-shirts at festivals, polka-dot bathing suits! We're too distracted by all the annoying racquetball-playing men in Speedos - we can't go back to butterflies and swallows and blossoms! And what's with all the bleakness? It's June! You better plan your recording sessions accordingly so songs about seasons are actually released in the respective season. Ahem. All that said, pretty good song.

The Rural Alberta Advantage - In the Summertime

Now here's a band that has got its seasons right. The song is still not the hand-clapping, belly-shaking, happy-whistling pop that you would want to hear on a beach, but it's just so good it will have to do. I never could whistle anyway.

"And when we're middle aged,
You tell me I loved you like a renegade
And how I say the things that make you sway.
And mostly I tell you you did the same.

And once in a while,
I know our hearts beat out of time.
And once in a while,
I know they'll fall back in line."

Coconut Records - Summer Day

No matter how many times I hear this, the fact that a song with backing vocals by Kirsten Dunst - aka Interview With a Vampire, Spiderman, Mary Antoinette girl and protagonist of a Savage Garden video back in the day - can be so good never ceases to amaze me.


☀ Illustrations by Francisca Pageo and Lisa Kettel ☀
P.S. Noah and the Whale also have a pretty cool cover of Girlfriend in a Coma & Laura Marling a cover of Mary and Rocks & Daggers mashed together in a Noah and the Whale medley - if you're a NATW fan, make sure to look them up on Hype Machine/Elbo.ws!

The week Steven was forced to begin drawing cows

 

 Why the cows, you ask?

 

Well, they certainly have little (or nothing) to do with the music in today's post. And before you write me to say how much you hate them/love them, let me just tell you a little about the how and the why of said cows.

 

As a blogger, a music blogger that is, there are essentially three ingredients needed to bake a tasty post. 

 

 1. Music. So this is pretty much how it works: when a band is unknown and can't get even a gig in a retirement home, they love music bloggers. They want to be our best friend. Buy us beers. Help get us laid. laugh at our jokes. They all want to know 'what's up?' As soon as they sell a few records however, this relationship changes. The same bands who kept harassing enthusiastically writing us about their first single now have a record company lawyer/representative/publicist writing us demanding the removal of said band's new single (or else face legal action).

2. Some vaguely witty banter (or simply a cleverly paraphrased press release) about said music.

 

3. Something in the way of a picture to go with the above. Music bloggers often make this easy on themselves by 'doing a Google' for a photograph of the band in question. Which is nice, you know. You get to see the band. Look, it's the band in front of a white wall! Nice shoes!

We of Letters have no Arms however don't particularly care about how the band looks (unless of course that band is Los Campesinos! And I can't even begin to describe how wonderfully cute they look, what with their raincoats, their keyboards, jumpers and cute hairc.. oh never mind that, but you really MUST read their wonderful blog!)

 

But yeah, so while we do stick respectfully to points 1 and 2, we tend to enjoy doing 3 a little differently. Ideally, we enjoy including something we made ourself, a photograph perhaps, a collage maybe. In doing so we obviously attempt at least some degree of relevance to the post. On occasion, however, we simply don't have anything of our own to go with a post (I just don't have any pictures of babies. I've also never been able to photograph a squirrel!). 

 

Which is when we too 'do a Google'. The problem with this, you ask?

The invisible hand of Blogger, swooping in and deleting posts in which we've used something that is not ours. See, apparently, ownership is required for the enjoyment of others. This sucks. Usually, we simply found something we liked, and wanted to share it with others (i.e. you). We do try and include a link to where we found it, though sometimes we just have nice images lying around on our computer for which we simply have no further information. 

So, to cut a long story short, I decided to attempt making my own drawings (well at least this week), in order to avoid the problem mentioned in point 3. So far I can unfortunately only draw cows however, so bear with me.

 

When not (badly) drawing cows, here's what I've been listening to this week:

 

Dan Deacon - Slow With Horns / Run For Your Life 

(oh look, a cow connection after all!)

  

Wavves - So Bored 

If I ever stop talking about it and actually form some sort of a band, this will be one of the first bands whose idea I'll plunder.

 

Camera Obscura - Forest and Sands

Words can't really express how much I love Camera Obscura. So I won't even attempt it.

If you live in the US, France, the UK or Mexico you can see them in May and June, which I suggest you do! They also have an album coming out soon, which you can preorder here (or here if you're in the U.S.)

  

Flight of the Conchords - Hurt Feelings (rap)

Is there any style these guys haven't perfected? This season alone has seen them do 80s synth-goth, rap, French chansons and Asian nightmare karaoke. Long may the remain "formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo accapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo".

  

Matthew Dear - Vine to Vine

From his rather brilliant 2007 album, Asa Breed.
 

I've also done a little 'donking' this week. I was going to upload one of my 'creations' , but decided to spare you. Perhaps the funnest part of 'donking' is making up new song titles. Total Eclipse of the Donk, anyone?

Songs and parks and stories about them

As you probably know if you've been following this blog, the reason we haven't posted much lately is because we're away on holiday in Galicia, Spain. This past weekend we spent two days in Santiago de Compostela and, as you would expect we did much exploring of the city so I did not have a chance to listen to a lot of new music, nor get very far with the book I'm reading (my first Jane Austen - Emma). We did, however, find this lovely park where we could sit and read and listen to some relaxing music for an hour or so:

As it turns out, the story of the park is quite interesting. The plot originally belonged to the old convent of Santo Domingo de Bonaval (founded circa 1200s!). In 1837 however, a law was passed that caused many properties that belonged to the Catholic Church to be transferred to the state. The land was afterwards used as a cemetery - "the original structure was partly modified by the addition of powerful mortuary pieces - niches - constructed at the turn of the nineteenth century." After the cemetery was closed the property suffered progressive deterioration from 1960 onward. "The abundance of springs ruined the outbuildings, the fountains, the paths, the walls, and the cemetery. The property became a garbage dump, sheds were built for workshops, and overgrown vegetation covered the splendid niche structures." All that until the municipality finally decided to convert it into a public park. It's really a wonderful place, the convent is still there and in one part of the park you can see the niches where the graves used to be, inside the walls surrounding it. We had wonderful spring weather and the whole thing was full of beautiful flowers and trees and lovely shady paths and places where you can sit and relax and read. Here are some more pics:

We also saw a bunch of real pilgrims who, unlike us, did not fly there but actually walked the whole Camino de Santiago (the Way of Saint James). Pretty neat :) Oh, and, I've been listening to Rio En Medio. It seemed to fit the mood here.

Tiger's Ear (The Bride of Dynamite, 2007)
*
Fall Up (Frontier, 2009)
The Light House (Frontier, 2009)
*
Pictures of You (Perfect As Cats: A Tribute to The Cure, 2008)

Loving the new Slow Club. Discussing how a sweater can symbolize everything that's great about winter. Covering carols and making them sound indie.

Slow Club - Christmas TV
Seabear - We Like Winterclothes
The Layaways - O Christmas Tree

By the time you hear this tape I will be gone...

...and I won't be back
so don't even ask
cause we all know
and we follow
with our eyes on the sky
and our hands in the snow.

 

 Saturday looks good to me - Hands in the Snow

art by my brilliantly talented friend Iro Tsavala

Counting from today it's only 29 days 'til New Year's Eve!

Lacrosse - This New Year Will Be for You and Me
[this sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet album kept me company during last year's frosty London Christmas and as the cold sets in i find myself putting it on repeat once again]

Counting from today it's only 29 days 'til New Year's Eve
And it's easier to still believe this new year will be for you and me
But look at all the faces 'round here, look at all the people 'round here
The dark is getting darker and I'm only empty, still as empty
Some things always stay the same...

You know that counting from today it's only 19 days of darkness left
And starting from that day things can only get brighter
And look at all the faces 'round here, look at all the people 'round here
The dark will soon be lighter and all the empty will be filled
Some things never stay the same...

This December might be the first not to be worst month of the year.
This new year, it will be for you and me.

And, of course, she's Swedish.

Oh No Miriam is a girl with a voice like Tracyanne Campbell; she loves romantic-teenage movies; she writes sweet and honest music which she then proceeds to sing with a very cute accent; she is, for some reason, unsigned and, of course, she's Swedish.

Download:
"Girls at School"
"Teenage Love"
"Little Treasure"

What I've been listening to the past week and the reason I haven't posted any of it

hooraffes by PETS

Ever since last Tuesday I've been listening to...

> The Happy Hollows! Ever since I first listened to 'Tambourine' I fell in love. Then I found out they're giving their EP for free and fell faster. Then I listened to it and was ready to sell my soul to them. (* We like to exaggerate. It's our thing.) Download Colors or just get the 'Imaginary EP' for free here!

> Love Is All! I need to listen to the whole CD, I know, but I just can't stop playing this song. Download: Wishing Well + buy 'A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night' on cd or vinyl here!

> James Yorkston! In expectation of the quiet, sweet, ordinary, warm and peaceful weekends that I'm hoping the winter will bring. Download: Temptation and buy the album here.

> Miracles of Modern Science! Sometimes it feels like our inbox is full of crap. Other times it doesn't. Download: 524 or get the whole EP for free here.

> The Smittens! How sweet is the new album? No really! On a scale of not-at-all to it-doesn't-get-any-sweeter-than-this how sweet is it? I'd say around sweeter-than-candy. Yeah, that sounds about right. Download: Half My Heart Beats and then buy the album!

> Between the Pine! Their second album will be released on December 16 and you'll be able to get it here. Here's a little taste of what awaits us. Download: Coca-Cola

> My Darling YOU!! I don't know why but for some reason their 2007 EP 'I Will Exclude You With My Body Language' never reached my ears until today. And I really can't tell you how much I love love love love love love love it. I'm sure you will too as soon as you follow the next three steps:
Step 1: Download: Salary to see what I'm talking about
Step 2: Buy the EP here! It's 5 euros/6 dollars (plus if you're lucky enough to live in Sweden shipping is free)
Step 3: Start melting!

And the reason I hadn't posted anything for a week...

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Before the winter comes take me away to the place where our dreams meet

The Deer Tracks - Slow Collision
Boat Club - Warmer Climes
I can't stay here forever 'cause you can't fake the sunshine
Firekites - Autumn Story

Trembling Blue Stars - November Starlings
The world is beautiful and waiting
We're hungry for what's on the table
Under clouds that keep on changing
Hope returns and keeps returning
Sam Phillips - How to Dream
Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up, I'm Dreaming of Places Where Lovers Have Wings
I'm tired of waiting
Oceans never listen to us anyway
The Loom - Song for the Winter Sun
The Sound of Arrows - Winding Roads
If you go down winding roads I would follow you...
Sea Wolf - Leaves in the River
...and as we walked the rain started
The leaves softened with every step
and all around around us people slept alone with their dreams.
The wind came down from out the planes
and blew the leaves out through the streets
I wondered how far leaves could really fly.
Would they rest in several yards?
Or make it to the city?
Or would they end up in the river just to float away?

All my friends are having babies, and so is M.I.A.

 

M.I.A. - Paper Planes (Remix For The Children by Adrock)

M.I.A. - Paper Planes

Buy M.I.A. stuff and lots of other goodies (an early Christmas present perhaps?) at insound.

Go here for M.I.A.'s brand new interview with Pitchforktv

The Youth are Plastic

art: Boys' Room by Anthony Goicolea

*

Young Sensation - Kitty Magic

Love as Laughter - The Youth are Plastic

MGMT - The Youth

The Shaky Hands - We are Young

This city of ours

*** Cara Del Gato - This Town Ain't What It Used to Be ***

*** Emmy the Great - City Song ***

*** Antsy Pants - Big City ***

Blame Sheffield and Britney

Candy

(from Slow Down Tallahassee, 2007)

+

Electric Sun

Limbs

(from The Beautiful Light, 2008)

 

Contrary to what their name might suggest, Slow Down Tallahassee is a band from Sheffield, UK - influenced by uhm... "Britney Spears, Carrie, The Shangri-Las, The Breeders, Leonard Cohen, The Go-Gos, The Runaways, Madonna".

You better start thanking Britney.

1 2 3 Dance!

Letters Have No Arms says:

• Dance to Car Stereo (Wars) - Who Likes Nick McKeena? !!!

[mash-up ft. Lil' Mama, Modest Mouse, Slim Thug, Beastie Boys, the other Boys (*sigh* the Backstreet ones dude!) etc]

1 2 3 GO!

Summer Here Kids! (part 1)

"It can't be just me
That's working it out
These songs that we've chosen
And what they're about
 

Are we after the same thing?
Am I crossing a line?
I'm checking the lyrics
I'm pressing rewind

All through the night
They begin to take shape
From the crack of the vinyl
To the hiss of the tape!

Play and record
Held down together
Tabs pushed off
So you can't tape over it ever

A couple of friends
Hanging out with each other
Just swapping songs
To soundtrack our summer"  

Art Brut - Sound of Summer

 

Grandaddy - Summer Here Kids

   

    "Ice baby,
I saw your girlfriend and she was
Eating her fingers like they’re just another meal
But she waits there
In the levee washes
Mixin’ cocktails with a plastic-tipped cigar"

Pavement - Summer Babe (Winter version)

   

    "That summer feeling is gonna haunt you the rest of your life"

Jonathan Richman - That Summer Feeling

    

 "On an island in the sun
We'll be playing and having fun
And it makes me feel so fine
I can't control my brain"

Weezer - Island in the Sun

It Is Finally Time to Tell the Story

'It Is Finally Time to Tell the Story' was written by Dave Eggers I would guess sometime in 2004 (and is kind of relevant what with all this elections-talk in the U.S.). Find it in 'Short Short Stories'.

 

'Yes, it is finally time to tell the story about the sheep from that one island whose name is forgotten but which rhymes with Godiva. There were too many sheep on this particular island, so some of them got on a boat and left for Spain. In Spain, however, they were not welcomed. Everyone in Spain, waiting by the shore for the boat to come in, had expected something more unusual than sheep. When the gangway was lowered and the sheep descended, the Spaniards said many things to them, the overall gist of which was 'Go back to your island, sheep, and send some gila Monsters or Komodo dragons.' It is well known that the Spanish have always longed for gila monsters and Komodo dragons and perhaps some of those child-sized ancestors of Homo Erectus everyone's talking about. So the sheep set sail again, this time looking for Franz Josef Land, which they'd heard had a balmy climate and universal health insurance. But when they arrived, six months later, they found neither. Franz Josef Land was desolate, treeless, and obsessed only with wireless internet access. So the sheep set sail again, this time landing in Montana, which no one - no one but these seafaring sheep - realized had a deep-sea port. They walked around Montana for a while, but found the people to be unfriendly and with very poor taste in music. Everywhere they went, they heard Thin Lizzy and Bachman Turner Overdrive, and though the sheep enjoyed much of the music by these bands, they actually preferred early King Crimson and later XTC. So they set sail again, this time looking for - you know what? Hold on a second. Wait one damned second here. The author of this irrelevant narrative just woke up, momentarily, from a self-induced mental coma, and now something is worming into his consciousness. It couldn't be. Did that really happen? Did we really elect Bush again? Holy fucking shit. Screw the sheep and pity us Americans. Have we ever wanted pity before? We have not, but now we do. Shower us with pity as we cloak ourselves in shame.'

 

And now music.

Shotgun Jimmie - Bedhead

Belly Boat - Little ('Dear Robert Hanoy', dld full album here)

Belly Boat - City ('Dear Robert Hanoy', dld full album here)

Perhapst - Quote ('Perhapst', order it here)

Don't let the name fool you. We rock.

Love is All - Nothing to be Done (The Pastels Cover)

Love is All - Felt Tip
+
Love is All - New Beginnings (Demo 2008)

A little folkier than the original:

*******************************

The Brooke, A Tiny Ocean:

"Jamie" (Weezer)

from the 'Roaring Nineties' compilation -

download it for free from cllct!

Bonnie Prince Billy:

"World`s Greatest" (R Kelly)
from his 2007 album "Ask Forgiveness"

Emmy the Great:

"Where Is My Mind?" (Pixies)

Existential Hero:

"If Winter Ends" (Bright Eyes)

from his cover album "Barely Covered" -

download it at cllct

Mallu Magalhaes:

"Folsom Prison Blues" (Johnny Cash)

The Magic Numbers:

"There Is a Light That Never Goes Out"

(The Smiths)

*******************************

So many lights, so many stars, so few Watercolor Paintings songs

^ Watercolor Paintings - Tender Loving Care ^
^ Watercolor Paintings - So Many ^
^ Watercolor Paintings - Snail ^

If anyone knows where we can find more songs by this great band (except for the ones on their myspace) PLEASE let us know!