A Look Back: Primavera Club 2009

It was a tiring week (we're staying 30 minutes outside Barcelona and the daily back and forth was something of a challenge) but well worth it. We ate Pakistani food, visited our beloved Wok to Walk, saw a lot of the city and uhm, obviously a bunch of great bands!

 

 -Best venue: Sala Apolo (located in a beautiful 1940s dance-hall)

-Best performance: Beach House (Steven), Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard (Eliza) - I'm sure the fact that they played Bugs & Flowers specially for her had something to do with that ;-)

-Cheapest beer: Monasterio (€3.50)

-Best (and funniest) inter-song talking: So Cow

-Most fun: Devendra Banhart and the Grogs (though Eliza thought: "So yesterday we saw Devendra Banhart. It was packed, he was cool, did some cute silly dancing, the crowd loved him. But, this being the first time I'd seen him, I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. I've always felt his biggest strength lies in his quieter, mellower songs, the ones that bring out his voice. Todo los dolores. At the hop. This beard is for Siobhan. The Beatles. Mama Wolf. He played none of these songs. Highlights: Baby, Angelika")

-Best standing-in-one-place-dancing-and-looking cute-as-hell: Neon Indian's keyboard player

-Longest queue: Woods at Jamboree 

-Best surprise: Furguson

 

Best covers* we heard at Primavera Club: 

Neil Young - Out on the Weekend (Deer Tick)
John Prine - Sam Stone (Deer Tick)
Television Personalities - This Angry Silence (So Cow)
Nirvana - Sifting (Jeffrey Lewis)

 

(*These are all the original versions)

The Pastels - Sala Apolo

Furguson - Sidecar

Jeffrey Lewis merch table - Sala Apolo

Jeffrey Lewis & the Junkyard - Sala Apolo

Post Woods - Jamboree

 

So Cow - La [2] De Apolo

Neon Indian - Sala Apolo

(waiting for) Neon Indian - Sala Apolo

 See you all in May!

Looking back: OFF Festival 2009

When: August 6 - 9
Where: Myslowice, Poland

 
OFF was a big unknown for us, we really had no idea what to expect. It wasn't only a new festival for us but a new COUNTRY. Anyway, we spent the week before the festival in Krakow and loved it. Loved it so much in fact we ended up returning to the city after the festival.
 

As for OFF:   

- The campsite. Yes, this surely is how all festival campsites should be. Trees, grass, quiet, SPACE. Perfect. The actual festival area was equally beautiful.

- Cheap beer

- Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

- The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. They went on in the late afternoon, playing to quite a small crowd (apparently this 'whole indie thing' is pretty new in Poland).

- The National (yep, there's a reason Eliza picked Matt Berninger as one of 'The top 5 people I would marry if they asked me today' on a recent Facebook quiz.)

- Karl Blau (Staged one of the best crowd sing-alongs of my summer)

- The Thermals

- crossing the train tracks on the way to the festival area
- Price of the festival tickets (approx €40.00 for two days)

- Just BEING in Poland!

- The campsite was located at a good 20-25 minute walk from the festival site. We (and a few hundred other people) quickly discovered a rather amazing short-cut over some train tracks though.

- The woman selling sandwiches. She was mean. Possibly. Our Polish wasn't good enough to be entirely sure.

- The fact that you couldn't take a beer (or any type of food for that matter) from the bar and food area to the stages. Apparently this is quite normal in Poland as nobody seemed to care/notice all that much. Surely one of the best things at a festival (or any gig for that matter) is to stand and watch your favourite bands with a beer in your hand?

- The ridiculous rule they had for cameras: cameras over 3.2 MP (do they still exist?) weren't allowed to be taken onto the festival grounds... I managed to devise a clever deceptive strategy to bypass this one, involving my belt and groin area, and the pictures you see here are proof of that.
 

 All in all I think the organizers have done an incredible job, setting up this truly special festival and bringing bands to OFF that had never even played in Poland before (notable exception: Handsome Furs, who told us it was something like their 14th time in the country this year), bands with barely (if any) a fan base in Poland. The entire project takes guts, and the festival is clearly a labour of love for the organizers. For this we salute them!

 

The Thermals

Handsome Furs

  

 The National

 

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
 

Spiritualized

 

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

 

 

Karl Blau

 

on the train to OFF

 

Myslowice town

  Myslowice town

 

  Myslowice train station

 

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - New Year's Kiss (Daytrotter session)

The Thermals - I can't let go (Daytrotter session)

HEALTH - We are Water (Daytrotter session)

And finally, a song from a band that didn't actually play at OFF, but whose song Karl Blau rather wonderfully covered.

Your Heart Breaks - Bad Company

 OFF preview 

More photos

Review: Benicassim 2008

 

Ok, I know I'm rather late with this, it being a month ago and all, but things have been hectic. To say the least. So let's just say it's a one month after the festival anniversary post. We've all had time to absorb, to digest and gain some perspective (and forget the lows, and remember the many highlights of those four amazing days)

Highlights:

The second half of Death Cab for Cutie's set, Sigur Ros, Sigur Ros' drummer, Yelle, Babyshambles, Black Lips, La Casa Azul, Hot Chip, the Oxfam tent (cheap coffee, free internet, friendly staff and of course, you know, a lot of worthy information!), the huge paella on the last night, CHEAP and cold beer (1 litre bottles of San Miguel) in town, the celebrity football (sans celebrities. I mean, c'mon, who was really expecting Pete to show up?) match, brushing our teeth in the 'showers' at night, cheap hot-dogs around the site, the 'piss here' sign, having coffee in a cafe in town every morning (and using their pleasant toilets to put in lenses/shave/brush teeth), 'Dick Man' (you know who you are), and all the other things I've forgotten (quite possibly because I took a whole month to post..!)

 

Two favourite overheard conversations:

"If anyone has a lighter, please make a bird sound"

"Uhm, excuse me, your hair is on fire."

Lows:

The walk from the camping to and from town and the beach, the toilets, being peed on during Sigur Ros (no, unfortunately I'm not joking), the cramped campsite (at least at CampFIB), the heat, the heat, the heat. And the walk. Did I mention the walk?

Next time we'll rent bikes.

My Bloody Valentine

   

  

  

Black Lips

  

  

  

  

  

 

 

Yelle - Ce Jeu

My Bloody Valentine - Soon
(sorry for the incomplete track. It's since been fixed!)

Go here for lots of other songs from Benicassim 2008 and here for more pics.

Review: Standon Calling 2008

Standon Calling, it's held in the (beautiful) countryside about an hour outside London, it evolved from a birthday party, it's organised by the son of a Lord, it's limited to 2,500 visitors. How can it not be great?

Musical highlights:

Florence & the Machine, Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, Johnny Foreigner, Glasvegas, Los Campesinos!, Super Furry Animals, Benin City, The Mae-Shi, Music Sounds Better With You in the Love Hotel...

Other highlights: 

The location and scenery, the camp-site, the toilets (after experiencing toilets at other festivals, these were a revelation!), coconut and lemon cake (with coffee: a 'breakfast of champions') in the morning, the karaoke booth, the lanterns on the final night, the smell of the countryside, the fact that you could walk from your tent to any of the stages in about 2 minutes, the Master of Ceremonies (aka the dude with the cool beard) in the Lordship tent handing out shots of what was apparently a very fine whiskey, the Japanese theme and dress up on Saturday, the Love Hotel, the sun (when it came out), going weedleweedleweedle with our fingers behind our head during the SFA (you really had to be there to understand), picking apples from the trees near the manor, the bus stopping on the way to the site for people to use the cash machine, the carnival shop in Ware, chilli!, Los Campesinos! playing the opening of Pavement's 'Home', the taxi dude, the ride to Luton on Monday morning...

Lows: 

the weather on Sunday, the airport like bag search upon entry, Mystery Jets cancelling

All in all a HUGE thanks to the organisers for putting on an incredible weekend. See you next year!

 

Johnny Foreigner

  

  Glasvegas

  

The Love Hotel

  

Entering 'the Lordship'

You're looking for some mp3s aren't you..?!

Eh voila!:

Johnny Foreigner - The end and everything after

Los Campesinos! - We throw parties, you throw knives

Stardust - Music sounds better with you 

Glasvegas - Flowers and Football Tops

More pics here