darwin deez – and so she thinks

Live At Leeds 2013

admin — Sun, 05 May 2013 19:06:12 +0000

Leeds is a city brimming with musical talent and enthusiasm, every northern street oozing some kind of inspiration and output, and the annual Live At Leeds festival sees a whole host of bands join the homegrown musicians to celebrate and showcase the best in new music. This year, the city slicking festival’s seventh year, saw over 120 artists performing across the city, from native and highly successful Yorkshire lads The Pigeon Detectives to new and emerging Witch Hunt, local legends Sky Larkin to New York newbies MS MR, and straight up swilling rock’n’roll band The Struts to soulful synths courtesy of Lulu James. Determined to see as many bands as possible, without running around the city like a relentless parking attendant on speed, we spent Saturday 4th May discovering some new favourites.
Kicking off at uber cool Nation Of Shopkeepers was young Georgia Thursting. Soulful and skittish, Georgia and her band played a funk and bluesy melange, all short songs about love and heartbreak. For those keen to find out more, the helpful lass has made it easier to hunt her down amongst the devilishly densely populated world wide web, stressing to the titters of captivated gentlemen the doe eyed songstress stressed that her name is not Thrusting but Thursting. Told.
Menace Beach have been something of a buzz band of late, and their short (15 mins max) set revealed why. Pivoting around the boy girl dynamic duo of Ryan and Liza and supplemented with members of Sky Larkin and Hookworms, their scuzzy grunge riffs and furiously grooving melodies have been turning heads.
Live music in a church is always a winner, especially when accompanied by a pint, and today was no different. Leeds’ Holy Trinity Church is one of the county’s most eminent art spaces, and we arrived in time to catch the end of George Ezra‘s set. The shifting strains of this young songsmith resonated through the rafters of the church, his vocals and notes blossoming into inspired and invigorating tunes. After his final notes died away and we were left with chills, we ran to Mill’s, the least practical venue ever imagined, to cTxh the bluesy swing of Liverpool born David Broad, all toe tapping eccentricity.
DH Lawrence’s Sons And Lovers is one of my favourite books of all time, its detailed and delicate dissection of the complexities of relationships and resolutions so striking and powerful, subtle in their sophistication. The band of the same name are more immediately brash and accessible, like a version of White Lies meets Vampire Weekend, or something similar. Soaring choruses and simple melodies, they make good, yet somewhat entry level indie.
Next up was a sprint up to the Uni to see what Post War Glamour Girls had to offer. Straddling pendulum style between glorious soaring strings and harmonies and angst driven roars and rumbles, this home grown band sent shivering and colossal shifts through the crowd as they captivated via their intimidating and heavy ambience. Australian indie rockers Deep Sea Aracde were up me their raucous and furious rock crackling with punishing thrills on the stage.
I can’t remember a time in my life when my aural excitement hasn’t been fuelled by guitar wielding bands, but apparently guitar music has been dead for a while, and Savages are the band to bring it back. The following statement may have me vilified and marginalised by small music press, but, really? Not nearly as tantalising and the reviews and hyperbole would have you believe, the set was frustrating and limited, failing to set me alight. I seemed to be alone however, as the crowd rocked and swayed with adulation. Wolf Alice have been making waves on the airwaves with their stupefyingly youthful melodies and crackling hooks, and today’s gig reassured early fans that their faith was not misplaced. Poppy 90s influenced grunge flecked with thrillingly steadfast riffs, they could well be one of the new waves of bands to last longer than a few months.
By this point the Cockpit was already operating a one in one out system as the queue snaked multiple streets from the venue. The crowd lined up in anticipation of something of a buzz line up, with Peace and their fellow B town buzz band Swim Deep on the bill, punctuated by the gritty and soaring Unknown Mortal Orchestra. The latter are seductively sincere, their grubby tumbling songs instinctive and invigorating. Particularly potent and thrilling onstage, their vivid and resonant melodies were delivered in a somewhat seismic fashion. With both Swim Deep and Peace you know what you are getting, and they rarely disappoint. Sunny grunge, soaring choruses, languid and defiant lyrics and entrancing guitars, both bands banged out tune after tune. Even in the dark and wintry tunnel of the Cockpit Swim Deep’s summer tune King City warmed and welcomed with spirit. Despite Peace lead singer Harry’s best attempt to distract from the musical output of his band, by rocking a sartorial ensemble put together by cutting up his grandmother’s curtains, tablecloth, and carpet, all in one outfit, he was unable to detract from what are some absolute belters of songs, Lovesick and Float Forever being particularly riotous.
As the final notes of played and the crowd descended into indie disco, the overwhelming feeling was one of success. Sore feet, followed by an even sorer head the next morning, hut a whole host of newly discovered bands to further investigate, and even more that I could not fit into the day but have added to the list to find. Another year and yet further proof that this northern city has a lot to offer.

Live At Leeds 2013

admin — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 17:19:26 +0000

It’s important to know (and I say this as someone who lives in London and grew up dreaming of doing so) that the capital is not always where it is at. Cities across the UK are bubbling with creativity and musical delight, and in fact the more succinct style of many cities means that as a genuine hub and collective for musical creativity they function better than the expansive and competitive London. Leeds is one such example, and Live At Leeds, an annual festival since 2007, celebrates the local whilst not being so narrow minded as to presume that the rest of the UK is devoid of talent, uniting the best upcoming local bands alongside more established national acts.
Taking place over May Bank Holiday, this year the weekend kicks off with The Unconference , a schedule of seminars and talks on the music business. Curated by whiskas (¡Forward, Russia!, Dance To The Radio, IMGNTN) and supported by Leeds Metropolitan University, the focus this year will be around networking and the landscape of music consumption in the digital landscape, a pertinent issue for creators, consumers, and everyone in between.
It’s this that I like about Live At Leeds ; it’s not just about stumbling from bar to bar lagered up (although I love that too), but about a genuine love for music and how to make it sustainable and exciting for everyone involved. Oh yeah, and the fact that it is only £22.50 for over a hundred bands, including Little Comets, Tribes, Maybe She Will, Sons & Lovers, Theme Park, Wolf Alice, Darwin Deez, The 1975 and Yorkshire favourites Pigeon Detectives.

Trucking Awesome

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 20:54:36 +0000

Truck Festival

July 23rd – 25th 2010
Steventon, Oxfordshire

Francesca Baker

It‘s easy to see why The Guardian awarded Truck festival the accolade of ‘Best Example‘. This year‘s Truck Lucky (there‘s a Macbeth style reluctance to reference the fact that 2010 is the festival’s 13th birthday) was testament to the success and devotion that founder and fueller Robin Bennet has devoted for this baker‘s dozen years, taking the festival from a few bands literally falling off the back of a truck, to an essential part of Oxfordshire‘s music calendar, and jewel in the boutique festival crown.
TRUCK STAGE
Giddy enthusiasm with self deprecation and an old soul perspective on the young soul‘s emotions is what we expect from Los Campesinos, and they did not disappoint. Songs such as ‘I Just Sighed. I Just Sighed, Just So You Know‘, ‘We’ve Got Your Back (Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #2)‘ and ‘We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed‘ are as turbulent and somewhat essential as their titles suggest. Thomas Truax came out early Sunday morning to serenade us all with his self built The Hornicator, opening with a curiously oddball ballad entitled ‘Cannibals Have Kidnapped Our Nicole Kidman.‘ More a visual delight, like Tim Burton had done a supermarket sweep in the Early Learning Centre, than an aural one. We left at ‘Ode To The Elderberry Tree.‘ The impossibly cool Blood Red Shoes rocked through their sizzlingly sexy sounds, angsty and driven throughout, with newer album ‘Fire Like This‘ sustaining the firecracking mania that favourites such as ‘I Wish I Was Someone Better‘ and ‘Try Harder‘ evoked in the crowd. Quality of the banter was a little disappointing though – less of the shark facts, eh, Laura-Mary?
BARN STAGE
With one hit song, and one miss song, The Gullivers opened the Barn stage on Saturday morning, and if their punk-cum-broody style didn‘t provoke love in everyone of the crowd, the bed hair come hither looks of singer and keyboardist Sophie certainly did. Darwin Deez were the surprise highlight of the day, the lanky hippy and his band performing hilarious dance routines in between, and during, their captivating and buzzing alt-disco hits. Brontide entertained with their mish mash of ska, wailing monkeys and tribal calls, all tied together with a big Indiebow.
VILLAGE PUB
Mixed verdicts from our group for alphabetbackwards, although bizarrely we all cited the same bits of evidence – 1. Clearly influenced by Frank Turner 2. Songs about Polar Pears & Primark 3. Attempting to be astute 4. Gangly dancing. You be the judge.Good Shoes, were, er good, but not as good as other times, the crowd of 15 year olds determined to only be happy when Morden was played and they could thrash in the mosh pit and beat each other until their little hearts were content. Not calypso in sound, but more reminiscent of the frenetic buzz and sugar rush that comes from too many pina coladas in the sunshine, Is Tropicaldevilishly mingle genres, twisting bleeps with quivering cadences, and throwing heart and soul into the proceedings, until the music produced can only be described as how Skittles would sound if they were songs.Wandering into the Village Pub I was informed that La Shark were ‘good, but whacky.‘ ‘Well’, I responded ‘all the best things in life are.‘ Half an hour of flute, flips and French from La Shark confirmed this. Ramshackle psychedelica of the best kind.
BEATHIVE
Chad Valley’s wonderfully airy and serene dance, like Ibiza on a Sunday morning is like the b-side of the cluttered electro pop of Hugo Manuel‘s other project, the much loved in Oxford Jonquil. ‘If you see no other band this weekend, make sure you seeKeyboard Choir’ we were told. If ‘d seen no other band I probably would have run as fast as my little legs would carry me, never to set foot in Oxfordshire again for fear of being tarnished by the evil musical spirit of crapness that seems to pervade. No, that‘s not fair – the local teenagers dressed in boxes of tin foil seemed to love this guitarless and lyricless bunch of blokes pressing the demo buttons on their keyboards.
MARKET STAGE
The Monty Python-esque Luke Smith raised a few smiles and knowing eyebrows, with his sidekick on the guitar reading scripted jokes about tours and t-shirts, and a judicious melody called ‘Facist Fun‘, al about the kind of fun you should be having. A twist on trad folk, provincial darlings Ute never fail to demonstrate why BBC Oxford are backing their chaotic and jittery whimsical pop.