mystery jets – and so she thinks

Truck Festival 15 is coming…

admin — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 20:55:02 +0000

Anyone who has listened to the IAH radio show (don’t worry, nobody else does either – check out the listen again here http://rechargedradio.com/), will know that we have a massive soft-spot for Oxford. The scene, the bands – the architecture – it’s got everything we love about medium sized cities. In fact, we love it so much we dedicated a whole show to it! Of all its virtues though it is Truck Festival we love the most.
Our favourite child from the festival family, it has always had a special place in our drunken heart – whether it be breaking into the now defunct barn to interview Alphabet Backwards, keeping a tent going with pedal power, rocking out to ChewLips in a ‘stage’ no bigger than a wendy house, purchasing ice cream from the local priest, Dead Jerichos and Spring Offensive in the Last FM tent in 2011; Los Campesinos and Blood Red Shoes on the main stage in 2010, or Joy Formidable tearing up The Barn and Chew Lips busting out awesome dance moves in 2009

But, it was whilst at last year’s Field Day that we heard that Truck was apparently no more. An actual gasp left our mouths, before a tear formed in the eye. A victim of it’s own ambition and the economic crisis, it had been consigned to the festival waste bin along with Phoenix, Electric Gardens and many others. Or so we thought! With new partners in the shape of the Y-Not festival promoters, Truck is back, marking it’s 15^th Anniversary and coming with the prospect of being better than ever! Smiles of glee all round!
With headline sets lined-up from The Temper Trap (riding a crest of a wave after their second album release and playing their biggest shows to date) and Mystery Jets (festival stalwarts who know how to bring the party), it’s also the depth of this year’s line-up that impresses and excites. Friday’s main stage sees the likes of local heroes Fixers, Irish balladeer Villagers and one-man music machine Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly hitting the stage, with the added touch of variety (in every sense of the word), coming in the shape of Australian big-hitter Tim Minchin. Saturday also keeps the quality levels turned up to 11 with the likes of Emmy the Great, British Sea Power, Dog is Dead and the The Low Anthem in attendance.

Further down the bill on the second stage sees some of the newer darlings of the new music world – King Charles, Lucy Rose, Theme Park to name a few – rubbing shoulders with the more established names of Guillemots and Scottish rockers Frightened Rabbit. Not to be out done, respected labels Big Scary Monsters and Alcopop have taken over the Barn stage lining up a stellar collection of acts including Johnny Foreigner, Spring Offensive, Gunning for Tamar, Dead Jerichos, Three Trapped Tigers and Future of the Left.
With only a couple of weeks to go we are too excited for Truck – even with monsoon weather outside the window. With one of it’s strongest line-ups for years, mixing the best local talent with more established acts, we cannot wait to get back to those rolling Oxfordshire hills, grab a pint of ale and dance ourselves stupid till the small hours.
A limited number of tickets are still available at just £69 from www.truckfestival.com
Here’s four of the best local bands, to whet your appetite.

Leefest – this weekend!

admin — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 19:44:47 +0000

Reasons to love Leefest
1. It is this weekend, meaning only a few more days of waiting.
2. As well as Ghostpoet, Friction, FOE, Let’s Buy Happiness and Bwani Junction, Slow Club are playing. Rebecca and Charles are the kind of pop stars you actively want to be friends with.
3. The weather doesn’t look nearly as shocking as it did for last week’s Isle of Wight.
4. England are out of Euro 2012, so you can watch all the bands you want to, without feeling like you should be doing some kind of patriotic duty.
5. Bingo becomes cool, as Jess Indeedy brings her unique brand of musical bingo to a tent near you.
6. Mystery Jets headline set should now see a crowd knowing lyrics to the tunes from Radlands, making the whole set a celebration of happy chaos.
7. The great Tom Williams & The Boat will be strumming their latest single, Too Young. The video is amazing and we shall be engraving the band’s initials into our desk.
8. You can reach the festival entirely on your Oyster card, or join the active car sharing team, or the lovely folk have even sorted out a scenic cycle route for you.
9. The winner of the ‘Can I party with @IAH_music @Leefest?’ competition will be there – well done Ohad!
10. Armed with this map you can make your way around the site like Christopher Robin embarking on an epic discovery.

Bushstock!

admin — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 10:54:07 +0000

A festival in Shepherd’s Bush you say. Only 10 minutes down the road. Curated by the guys at Communion. I’m there. Except, thanks to a particularly riotous IAH Friday gig to see in the Queen’s Jubilee weekend at The King’s Head (thanks Mishal Moore, Abi Murray and ScenicLife) I found myself with an inability to sit upright for more than 2 mins and so very nearly wasn’t. Eventually, loaded on carbs, we braved the 207 and made our way down the long and winding Uxbridge Road to Bushstock 2012. I would imagine that most people reading this will be familiar with Communion, but in case not (or if my Dad has decided to read this) the Communion label is home to Lucy Rose, Daughter, Mumford & Sons, Marcus Foster and Rachel Sermanni – in other words perfect music to sooth a storming head.

One of those wrist band affairs, Bushstock spans four venues, of which the Sunday Best (yes, it took place on a Saturday) at the Defector’s Weld hosted the strongest line up, but an unfortunate layout and poor sound made for a frustrating experience. When Rae Morris took to the stage early in the afternoon the room was already packed it, her strong voice astounding many, its power even more startling in contrast to her huskily quiet stage banter and the commonplace surroundings of a local pub. Whilst it is the lungs of Rae Morris that captured the room, Alessi’s Ark thrives on understated simplicity, the clipped diction and careful fretwork beautifully accentuated her wistful and smooth folk songs, and the cries of ‘I love Alessi’ and whispers of ‘wow’ suggest the crowd were just as enamoured by her short but sweet set.

We may have delusions that folk music all orginates from frolicking in fields musing on life, but today ‘where is my life going and what does it mean’ thoughts are for more likely to take place at 3am with a thumping head slumped in the club toilets, and so the converted public conveniences of Ginglik were not as odd a venue as you may think, particular highlights being Oh Burgundy and Gabriel and The Hounds.
As venues go, St Stephen’s Chutch ticks many a box. Ornate windows, tall white columns and acoustics to rival heaven, this was the perfect setting for the moody melodies of Daughter and frenetic fiddling of Bear’s Den, as well as a place of sanctuary when the summer skies opened upon us. It was Lanterns On The Lake who were the highlight – lush strings, powerful drumming, vibrant vocals and passionate delivery, combining to create something akin to an experience. Given that each of their soundscapes stretches in at least half a dozen minutes, the set was not big on quantity, but did not leave wanting on that other q. Their recent hit (in my small circles where Amazing Radio is the equivalent of the Top 40) A Kingdom was spellbinding but it was Not Going Back To The Harbour that left me with a tear in my eye, and allowed me to momentarily forget the hellish hangover. Epically beautiful and hauntingly intense, this is a song that quietens the voice and rouses the heart even on record, taken to its emotional peak in such a setting.
Other bands of note include Let’s Buy Happiness, whose were a shot of adrenalin to an until now sedately soundtracked day, and the husky vocals of Sarah Hall ensured that the boyfriend and I both left with a crush. In recent months Leicester based Silent Devices have muddied up their once slightly well trodden sound into a fast and frentic dense collection of melodies, intensely ambient atmosphere punctuated with driving rhythms. See them, and Alessi’s Ark, at a festival near you too. headlining the day were the consistently brilliant Mystery Jets, showcasing songs from latest EP Radlands as well as inducing whoops and wails for the hits.

Depending on your frame of reference, at £30 a ticket Bushstock is either expensive (the 3 day Great Escape festival in Brighton for £35) or stupidly cheap (£198 for a Reading Festival ticket anyone?), but for bringing 35 bands to a West London and carving out a space of its own in the musical landscape, and for curating a more compelling line up for the bank holiday weekend that the longstanding Field Day can’t be knocked. Chuck in the laidback feeling, impeccable timing and easy stumbling distance, and I’ll definitely be back next year.

Win tickets to Leefest!

admin — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 12:51:25 +0000

When parents go away for the weekend and fail to leave explicit instructions dictating that their loved children ‘must not throw a festival in the back garden’, events such as Leefest are inevitable. Having evolved from its 2006 roots as a party in the garden with seven bands, the not for profit festival in Bromley returns on June 29^th-30th with one of the best line ups of the summer.
Slow Club, Mystery Jets and Summer Camp all incite squeals of delight whenever I see/hear/think about them, and are reason enough to make the epic half an hour journey from London, even were it not for the whole raft of other acts, including Tom Williams & The Boat, Scotland’s sunniest export Bwani Junction (check out the videos from The Great Escape Rooftop Sessions), the Long Blondes esque Lets Buy Happiness, synth pop via CasioKids and Distiller signings Sound of Guns.
The music line up is amazing, but if you want to go beyond that, there’s visual art from Screen Social, a live curation of Inc magazine and a showcase of musical scores from The Sound Of Film and a glittery whirlwind of magical fun courtesy of Wonderland. A whole batch of stuff proving why the festival has been praised by The Guardian and won accolades in the UK Festival Awards, for being small but perfectly formed.
If you want a taster of what’s in store, check out the playlists that Leefest have kindly pulled together for you.
Tickets are like, mega good value, at only £57 for the weekend, and profits support Kids Company, making it a more than worthy way to spend the weekend. Or you can try and win a pair with It’s All Happening – simply tweet ‘Can I party with you @IAH_music at this year’s @Leefest?’ by midnight on June 15^th, and we will pick a winner at random! Good luck!

The Great Escape 2012 – Festival Special!

admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:40:40 +0000

It’s that time of year again, when It’s All Happening, along with thousands of music fans, hundreds of bands and a good percentage of the music industry head down to sunny Brighton, for The Great Escape. I could wax lyrical about it, but I will just let our special edition zine do the talking…
In it you’ll find our opinion on the following 57 bands, as well as where and when they are playing, to help you plan your weekend around maximum musical pleasure …Cut Ribbons, Deaf Club, Among Brothers, Alabama Shakes, Dry The River, Common Tongues, Mujeres, Me And The Bees, Ninette & The Goldfish, Seward, Amics del Bos, Oso Leone, The Suicide of Western C ulture, Furguson, The Robbie Boyd Band, Wet Nuns, Sonic Boom Six, Swim Deep, Yukon Blonde, Bos Angeles, Toy, Alt J, Maximo Park, Mystery Jets, Chew Lips, Dakota Beats, The Front Bottoms, Shabazz Palaces, Pikachunes, Tripple Nipples, BOY, Emily & The Woods, Rae Morris, Slow Down Molasses, Tall Ships, Fanzine, The Switch, Worship, Concrete Knives, Mammal Club, Saint Saviour, Spring Offensive, Gunning For Tamar, Clock Opera, Hymns, Dems, Munich, Escaoists, Team Me, The Joy Formidable, Warpaint, Katzenjammer, Rachel Sermanni, The Manic Shine, Hatcham Social, The Temper Trap & Jack Savoretti.
As well as the IAH team (Dan, John, Greta, Caroline, Michael, Katie and Francesca) the lovely Jen Long (BBC Radio 1), Chris Foster (Pop Noodle), Jordan Thomas (Recharged Radio), Ellie Coden – (Fierce Panda), and Steven Boniface (Labelled Independent) have all written guest articles – thanks guys!

Open publication – Free publishing – More bands