Stuff To Avoid Missing At Great Escape

Let's pretend that this here is anything other than a personal note to remember which bands to see. Obviously that is what it is really, but let's just pretend this has some kind of selfless motivation behind it. Which it doesn't. These are some bands that are playing Great Escape that attendees of said three-day, multi-venue Brighton-based festival that is occurring next week would probably be pleased to have seen live come the end of the festival. Yeah.

BRAIDS
Exciting new group from Canada quickly gaining wide critical acclaim from the likes of Pitchfork , Drowned In Sound, and The Line Of Best Fit. It's understandable, too, taking influence from early(ish) Animal Collective, sometimes sticking an electro beat on it, and singing with all their brilliant female might.

Playing: Saturday - upstairs of Komedia, 15:15 / Horatios, 19:45.


BRAIDS - Same Mum
Mazes
Bit of a tricky one, given that Mazes play at the same time as bands like Art Brut, White Denim, and Yuck but if you don't see any of them, definitely come see these. A Manchester/London/bit of everywhere band who released their debut album A Thousand Heys not too long back. I rated it five stars out of five for a magazine - top blend of lo-fi indie rock and 60s pop vibes.

Playing: Saturday - Green Door Store, 21:50.

Mazes - Most Days

Gallops
Possibly my favourite live band, Wrexham four-piece Gallops make math-y post-rock with an almighty thud. Expect to see me stomping my feet at the front like a twat, but expect to follow suit pretty quickly.

Playing: Friday - Prince Albert, 15:00. Saturday - Green Door Store, 15:00



Fear Of Men
My prediction is that Fear Of Men will be the band everyone leaves Great Escape talking about. A new band from Brighton, they've already put a cassette out on the brilliant label Sex Is Disgusting and are being increasingly hyped in the blog world. It's female fronted, it's lo-fi, it's fashionable, it's excellent.

Playing: Saturday - Shipwrights Yard, 12:15 / Green Door Store, 19:10.


Fear Of Men - Phantom Limb
Milk Maid
The dude behind Milk Maid both has a very big beard and used to be in Nine Blacks Alps, but neither of these things are very important. What's more important is that this music is good, backed up by having released on the brilliant Suffering Jukebox. For fans of Lovvers, Mazes, Spectrals, Kurt Vile etc - expect lo-fi 'indie rock' kinda stuff.

Playing: Saturday - Green Door Store, 20:30

Milk Maid - Can't You See

Us Baby Bear Bones
Brighton female-led band making stripped back folk-y ish sounds. Hairs on the back of your neck kind of stuff.

Playing: Saturday - Life, 20:00



The Joy Formidable
Expect big sounds (and lots of bass drum) from Wales' noisy, shoegazy, female-fronted indie rock threesome. Certainly worth trying to squeeze into a small room to see, as anyone who's listened to their Atlantic Records released debut The Big Roar will agree.

Playing: Thursday - Hectors House, 22:30

The Joy Formidable - Austere

Cults
Certainly one of the most hyped bands of 2011 so far and understandaly so, California two-piece Cults make cutesy indie pop. If you want to see these, get there early. This will be busy.

Playing: Thursday - Horatios, 22:15


Mammal Club
As boring as this type of comparison is, anyone who likes fast-paced, psych-y experimentla pop along Everything Everything or Man Man lines will like this Newcastle four-piece.

Playing: Saturday - Queens Hotel, 13:45

Mammal Club - Otter

Still Corners
Certainly one of the bands I am most looking forward to seeing, London's Still Corners make intelligent, haunting pop music. Every time I've tried to see them live in the past they have managed to evade me. Hopefully Great Escape is my time!

Playing: Friday - Audio, 20:45.



D/R/U/G/S
Manchester might be ebst know for Oasis twatty lad rock, but acts like D/R/U/G/S/ are helping to change that perception. Expect exciting, intelligent electronica. And maybe some e.

Playing: Saturday - Audio, 20:45 / Concorde 2, 23:40

D/R/U/G/S - Love / Lust

The Victorian English Gentlemans Club
Cardiff arty rock two/three/four-piece. They've got a new record out on This Is Fake DIY Records soon, so expect lots of new material as well as the older, dark-pop classics.

Playing: Friday - Pav Tav (downstairs), 22:00

The Victorian English Gentlemens Club - Parrot

Obviously there are tonnes of other bands playing. Stuff like Art Brut, Yuck, PS I Love You, Idiot Glee, Frankie & the Heartstrings, Seams, Echo Lake, Christian AIDS, and Suuns. Some of them probably go without saying. Still, to see the festival's full line-up (and to check that I have written all the times and venues correctly), head here.

Swn Festival 2010 - First Announcements

Cardiff's multi-venue three-day musical holiday, Swn Festival, returns to the Welsh capital for its fourth outing, from Thursday 21st to Saturday 23rd October 2010 - and the first set of confirmed bands has been announced; including the likes of Spectrals, Perfume Genius, Y Niwl (recently featured on this very blog), Standard Fare and Happy Birthday.

The festival has been increasingly popular year after year, exciting the locals and attracting those from further away to make the journey to Cardiff city centre to catch some of the UK's and the world's brightest emerging talents, as well as plenty of music seminars, Q&A's and talks.

Swn is organised by local promoter John Rostron with Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens, and is helped along the way by other independent promoters and labels from Cardiff and around the UK. 2010 will see the usual emphasis on smaller bands (previous years have seen the likes of Girls, The Big Pink, and The Drums in their early days playing tiny venues), but will also be more accommodating for those with a heavier musical persuasion, teaming up this year with Cardiff-based GRAB Promotions.

The full list of confirmed bands so far is:

AL LEWIS
ARABROT
BELLINI
BRYN FON A’R BAND
COLORAMA
CRASH. DISCO!
EVENING CHORUS
FICTION
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
HUW M
JOE WORRICKER
JOHN MOUSE
KUTOSIS
PAUL HEATON
PERFUME GENIUS
RIGHT HAND LEFT HAND
SPECTRALS
STANDARD FARE
SUN DRUMS
SWANS
T3ETH
THE EX
THE LAST REPUBLIC
VIOLAS
WE//ARE//ANIMAL
WICKES
Y NIWL

Available to purchase now (from places such as Spiller's Records or WeGotTickets) are a range of different wristbands. Weekend wristbands are priced at £45, Thursday only wristbands at £10, Friday only wristbands at £15, and Saturday only wristbands at £25.

Keep up to date with Swn happenings, including the announcement of another 80 (ish) bands to play, on Facebook or Twitter.

Latitude 2010

I spent last weekend in a tent at Latitude festival, and it was an experience I highly enjoyed. I've written a pretty darn lengthy diary of my whole experience, which is soon to feature on Neu Magazine (complete with poorly taken photos from a Boots disposable camera), but for now here is a short summary of some of my favourite bands this year.


Spectrals put on a really great show, completely doing justice to their deliciously fuzzy surfy pop songs. They're just about to put out a release on Moshi Moshi, which will undoubtedly be great and will probably/hopefully make them huge. Go to see these live.


Dirty Projectors, although disgustingly under-watched by the main stage crowd, played a strong set of songs from a range of albums. The three girls' harmonies were a truely incredible spectacle, and "Stillness In The Move" sounded great - though some of the guitar parts were slightly off.

I was impressed by Yuck, especially the strength of the male vocal parts. I wasn't expecting him to sound so 'big'. Can certainly imagine these playing a big stage pretty soon.

Grizzly Bear finished off the festival nicely. They played stuff from a few of their different albums, and the songs came across 'bigger' (I apologise for this shit word) than they sound on the albums. I feel like I'll appreciate their recorded stuff even more now.


Connan Mockasin played on this weird small stage where everyone was sat down (apart from me). It wasn't the best I'd ever seen him live (he seemed more interested in making friends with some of the females in the crowd rather than playing to everyone), but it was still enjoyable to hear his weird psychedelic pop live for a third time.

My biggest surprise and favourite set of the weekend came from Y Niwl, a band I only saw because they followed after another that I had planned to see. Their instrumental surf rock was incredibly catchy (especially the guitar and Booker T styled keys) and it was just brilliant to listen to. Apparently they have just released an EP ,which I am definitely going to try my hands on and would urge you to also.