First of all, apologise to everyone I only put 12 songs instead of 24 songs because of my stupid laptop decided to crash in the wrong time. Stop the moaning, let’s share my choice of my muxtape, most of them are chosen from my experience of Primavera Sound this year, while some of them are my old collections which are now people have completely forgotten. I have written few recommendation if you like their songs and want to hear more.
Go to http://conic.muxtape.com to listen. Track by track guide as follow:
Cat Power – Where Is My Love
As a start, I want to surprise everyone and start with a ballad. I didn’t come across with Chan Marshall till she released “The Greatest” (worth listening but remind you, it could make you feel fragile!). Chan is just amazing artist as I concluded after I saw her in Primavera Sound. This is a beautiful song combined with simple lyrics. The title said it all whenever I am alone, “where is my love?” perhaps the ongoing question I will ask for myself till I find an answer…
If you like it: download The Greatest of course and You Are Free, Jukebox is also listenable.
Tindersticks – Travelling Light
Carried on weeping people (yes I am sad and miserable sometimes!)The most underrated musician in Britain bar none. I was spring in mind whether I should choose My Sister or this one. Although My Sister is my favourite one, it won’t link up previous song at all. This song is about the couple who used to love but now broke up, looked back the memory and it was all history and mean nothing, I think this song will mean something to everyone unless you are machine and never been in love!
If you like it: urge you to get first three albums (Tindersticks I, Tindersticks II and Curtains), they are masterpiece! Also try Hungry Saw and Waiting For The Moon.
Kylie Minogue – Confide In Me
My Guilty Pleasure? Say what you want people. People have criticism on her all the time, I think she is brilliant artist and her contribution of music deserved OBE. The first song I have heard from Kylie is not “I Should Be So Lucky”, is actually this one. The lyrics is not relevant to myself, it was about secret and confession in relationship, more relevant to my parent as they experienced it and almost broke up when I was a teenager. It is still the sexiest record she has ever made, and yet the best one from her.
If you like it: Erm you all should know her stuffs by now so I won’t go further. However, get Ultimate Kylie which contained 66 songs. Self Titled and Fever are also well recommended.
Okkervil River – Unless It’s Kick
I still don’t understand why it has taken me so long to discover this band, after I saw them at Primavera Sound, they have became my latest obsession. The riff of the song is awesome from the beginning till the end; also this song can make you suddenly nodding your head even though you have never heard of it, very catchy. Okkervil River are top bollocks live band. Go and see them if you have chances!
If you like it: Down the River of Golden Dreams, Black Sheep Boy, The Stage Names are all brilliant album
Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs – Everything You Touch
It’s about time to change the mood and get some blues and country song. On the muxtape it only said Holly Golightly but I can’t change it in some strange reason (perhaps muxtape has been anal!). They are my ideal band to play my wedding only if I become millionaire! Every time when I listen to that lyrics “Everything You Touch Become Stone” give me grin on my face, perhaps it is a happy song. Also the slide guitar solo in this song is awesome.
If you like it: Other than You Can't Buy a Gun When You're Crying, just get My First Holly Golightly Album because it will make you a fortune to collect all her old stuffs!
The Notwist – Pilot
I don’t call myself massive fan of The Notwist as I never touched their early materials, but latest two albums really hooked on me. Neon Golden in particular is amazing. I picked this song as I like the bassline, the fragile vocal that could melt your heart. Of course, it is a beautiful song, perfect for summer!
If you like it: Get Neon Golden and their latest beautiful LP Devil, You + Me would do, their old stuffs are different, but if you like rock music get them as well!
Saint Etienne – Conchita Martinez
Another odd choice like Kylie Minogue, back in the old day when I was still a sixth form student I was a fan of Saint Etienne, I haven’t listened their stuffs since disappointing LP Good Humor. All of sudden one day I listened to their album So Tough, which is one of the most complex album I have owned (took me years to understand the concept of the album!). I admired their creativity of their early materials and this song is the example. It combined the element of electronic and pop, also this is the song made me start listening to Rush as it contained the sample of Rush hit, The Spirit Of Radio.
If you like it: get Smash The System single collection or Too young To Die (later one is hard to find so get first one if you can) first, then move on to Tiger Bay and Foxbase Alpha
Ellen Allien and Apparat – Metric
Time for more electronic! Ellen Allien is established German electronic musician. On the deck she is awesome, on the record isn’t far off the standard either. This song is taken from Orchestra Of Bubbles, collaboration LP between Ellen Allien and Apparat. The strings sample combined with electronic beat worked perfectly and it really amazed me! Metric sounds like soundtrack from thriller movie. The rhythms and beat will easily get into your head. Note: Don’t turn the bass up too much, as the bass sound is very heavy!
If you like it: Orchestra OF Bubbles is a must! Then Berlinette, in fact own all Ellen Allien stuffs!
Kinski – Boy, Am I Mad!
It’s about time start something epic and heavy. I love this band ever since I saw them at Primavera Sound (okay this is the last time I mentioned those two words I promise!). This song is purely amazing, started off with melodic riffs until 2 minutes 9 seconds it all kicked in with progressive build-up then brought to heavy riff with faster speed and finished off with loud and noisy feedback effect. Fan for people into post rock and instrumental and progressive/noisy music.
If you like it: Get Alpine Static as well as Down Below It’s Chaos
Million Dead – Pornography For Cowards
I came across this band when I heard I Am The Party which is amazing and I had no hesitation to get the LP A Song To Ruin. As soon as I listened to this song I first thought was “wow! Fuck me! (Well not literally)” The riff of the start is a killer. The lyrics is intelligent and powerful, it about the problem of modern society we are living in and raging the concern of sexism. With the combination of violent vocal from Frank, this song is genius 2 minutes quickie
If you like it: They only have two albums. If still not enough try Frank Turner stuffs, very different from Million Dead but still good
Daft Punk – Rollin’ & Scratchin’
Somehow this song linked up fine with Million Dead. If 2 minutes quickie is not enough, I think this 7 minutes noise will bring you into climax. This song was not on my original choice but seeing few people putting Holy Fuck on their muxtape, I decided to put something different. Daft Punk is the band that made me into techno and house music. Homework is a masterpiece, shamed that now people forgot how ace was the album and more likely become coaster replacement for everyone. I choose this song because it is the loudest and my favourite DP song ever, also I love progressive dance just like this.
If you like it: Not much to choose from except Homework, everyone should own this album if you like Techno, simple!
Portishead – We Carry On
Thank you for listening first 11 songs of my muxtape. Finally I can bring my last song for my muxtape execution, I cannot leave Portishead out of it as they had produced my favourite album of 2008 so far. This song has brought me the memory of witness amazing moment at Auditori – Portishead stage invasion. As they have been using this track to close their live set, I want to use this song to close my muxtape.
If you like it: Just own all three albums, you will not be disappointed.
Thank you for listening and reading, my choice is abit more grow up for you so you may/may not like it, mine is more diverse because I am very open minded when it comes to music and I never concentrate on one particular genre (by the way genre is so overrated!). Enjoy :)
Sunday, 22 June 2008
Friday, 6 June 2008
Primavera Sound 2008 Part 2
Day 3
After the most adventure day of my life, I am very sobered and tired (mind you I didn’t went to bed till 8am!) and slept through my morning and lunch time. By the time I got up it was half past three so I missed Bon Iver completely! The weather on day three was miserable compared to Day 1 and Day 2, cloudy and rain. Because of the weather, I went to Auditori as soon as I arrived to Fòrum.
End up seeing the start of Emma Louise Niblett (also known as Scout Niblett), lots of media like Pitchfork and Dis like her. After that I saw I don’t think I would ever bothered, she was loud enough to wake me up, on the other hand, her songs were dired and bored me to hell. The best moment was she did TLC cover No Scrub and one of the song she performed it with drum-only. The rest were dull. I could not think of her set afterward, if it was not because I have no energy to move I would have walk out after few songs. Sorry Miss Niblett, you are heading up for “The Worst Artist I have seen on the weekend” award.
I still couldn’t make up my mind who else I want to see other than Tindersticks and Buffalo Tom, I tried not to see anymore act like Scout Niblett. Seeing Estrella stage was empty and only few people wait for Okkervil River, then I would give them a chance. After few songs from the band, I was thinking why the hell took me years to discover them? They are bloody amazing! Brought on the spirit of festival and smile for all the audience (except a guy who stood in front of me walked out after three songs, his loss!). Okkervil River were totally mean business this evening, they made the crowd clapping their hands and dancing around the concrete floor. Their songs were rocking, emotional and epic, simply awesome and mindblowing! For anyone going to Latitude or Truck, you are so in luck because they are playing! Go and seeing them and listen their records, highly recommended particularly for anyone like Arcade Fire, you will definitely like them!
10 minutes before Buffalo Tom come on, so I have plenty of time to walk over Rockdeluxe stage. Buffalo Tom are veteran alternative rock band, in Britain they don’t receive much meida attention and I don’t have a clue why. For me their records are catchy and powerful, their slow songs in particular are beautifully gorgeous. Their live performance delivered it and justified why they should be grant as legend status like other alternative band such as Sebadoh. Even the crowd was not as big as I expected, they still got the crowd going. Their singer Bill has his moment by stumble on the stage and fell on his arse, laughter all round and even the band itself. They were impressive and deserved more merit for deliver more wonderful records.
Time to catch more bands I have never heard off, walked across ATP stage as it sounds very loud. Kinski were playing and I think they will add up my record collection very very soon! Their songs are the top bollocks! It was all instrumental and dead noisy, post rock style like 65daysofstatic but a lot heavier than that, almost as good as watching death metal band! Very aggressive set with somewhat racket noise, heavy riff and hard drumming. The crowd is like split as half, few were headbanging, other few were more involved with a mini moshpit, and probably the only mosh pit I have seen all weekend! This band is so enjoyable to watch. My highlight was that the bassist used to bow to make more noise effect on her bass. While the guitarist stop his heavy amp and play the flute, kind of hell random but it worked somehow, it was so loud and noisy that made few people had their hands to cover up their ears. Fucking mental set from Kinski, I would definitely see them again!
After had some drink and food, also disappointingly knowing Primavera Sound cambi (it means tee-shirt in Spanish) was sold out, I head back to Rockdeluxe and waited for Tindersticks. Before I watched Tindersticks, I was surrounded by Spanish and watching their own country hero Morente Omega. First song sounded like Ladysmith Black Mambazo, First I thought it was a fucking joke. However, few songs later, it sounds nothing like this. It got more upbeat and heavy and my impression has changed, it wasn’t too bad I supposed. My highlight was hundred of Spanish in the crowd were singing Hallelujah, it was amazing and give the festival so much spirit. Not bad at all, very different from other act, so I will give them some credit for that.
After Morente Omega, still have an hour before Tindersticks start! I shift toward the front right on the barrier for a good spot. I was actually expected the same set they played at Royal Festival Hall earlier this month. The start of Introduction was utterly beautiful as usual except the sound of xylophone wasn’t clear and that ruined abit. Throughout the set they had experienced technical problem, mainly from guitar. Other than that it was a fine performance from them. I was very pleased that they played Sleeping In and The Travelling Light on the set as I admired their second album so much. Only disappointment was that they didn’t play my favourite Tindersticks song – My sister (they played it at Royal Festival Hall!). Because of that I think Primavera Sound set was nowhere as good as RFH one (which was totally spot on along with performance!).Boobar Come Back To Me was my highlight, although its not my favourite from The Hungry Saw album, the lyrics was still a killer, such a emotional song, Stuart Staples and the rest executed this song perfectly.
That was it, Tindersticks ended my evening and my experience of Primavera Sound. Although there was a post party but I didn’t go. I love this festival, I love the atmosphere, not too crowded or emptied, the crowd was friendly and as was the Spanish. Although Spanish were not so enthusiastic on music as few people spent more time talking and txting on the phone than paying attention on the stage (Maybe that was their culture so I can stand that). Food wise I would say they could have more stalls (probably next year then as the festival still growing) so people don’t have to queue for too long. Not much choice on beer but at least Estrella Damm taste better than Carling by some margain! People always debates about festival is not all about music, Primavera Sound is the ideal festival for proper music fans. Same time next year I think my holiday is certainly booked
After the most adventure day of my life, I am very sobered and tired (mind you I didn’t went to bed till 8am!) and slept through my morning and lunch time. By the time I got up it was half past three so I missed Bon Iver completely! The weather on day three was miserable compared to Day 1 and Day 2, cloudy and rain. Because of the weather, I went to Auditori as soon as I arrived to Fòrum.
End up seeing the start of Emma Louise Niblett (also known as Scout Niblett), lots of media like Pitchfork and Dis like her. After that I saw I don’t think I would ever bothered, she was loud enough to wake me up, on the other hand, her songs were dired and bored me to hell. The best moment was she did TLC cover No Scrub and one of the song she performed it with drum-only. The rest were dull. I could not think of her set afterward, if it was not because I have no energy to move I would have walk out after few songs. Sorry Miss Niblett, you are heading up for “The Worst Artist I have seen on the weekend” award.
I still couldn’t make up my mind who else I want to see other than Tindersticks and Buffalo Tom, I tried not to see anymore act like Scout Niblett. Seeing Estrella stage was empty and only few people wait for Okkervil River, then I would give them a chance. After few songs from the band, I was thinking why the hell took me years to discover them? They are bloody amazing! Brought on the spirit of festival and smile for all the audience (except a guy who stood in front of me walked out after three songs, his loss!). Okkervil River were totally mean business this evening, they made the crowd clapping their hands and dancing around the concrete floor. Their songs were rocking, emotional and epic, simply awesome and mindblowing! For anyone going to Latitude or Truck, you are so in luck because they are playing! Go and seeing them and listen their records, highly recommended particularly for anyone like Arcade Fire, you will definitely like them!
10 minutes before Buffalo Tom come on, so I have plenty of time to walk over Rockdeluxe stage. Buffalo Tom are veteran alternative rock band, in Britain they don’t receive much meida attention and I don’t have a clue why. For me their records are catchy and powerful, their slow songs in particular are beautifully gorgeous. Their live performance delivered it and justified why they should be grant as legend status like other alternative band such as Sebadoh. Even the crowd was not as big as I expected, they still got the crowd going. Their singer Bill has his moment by stumble on the stage and fell on his arse, laughter all round and even the band itself. They were impressive and deserved more merit for deliver more wonderful records.
Time to catch more bands I have never heard off, walked across ATP stage as it sounds very loud. Kinski were playing and I think they will add up my record collection very very soon! Their songs are the top bollocks! It was all instrumental and dead noisy, post rock style like 65daysofstatic but a lot heavier than that, almost as good as watching death metal band! Very aggressive set with somewhat racket noise, heavy riff and hard drumming. The crowd is like split as half, few were headbanging, other few were more involved with a mini moshpit, and probably the only mosh pit I have seen all weekend! This band is so enjoyable to watch. My highlight was that the bassist used to bow to make more noise effect on her bass. While the guitarist stop his heavy amp and play the flute, kind of hell random but it worked somehow, it was so loud and noisy that made few people had their hands to cover up their ears. Fucking mental set from Kinski, I would definitely see them again!
After had some drink and food, also disappointingly knowing Primavera Sound cambi (it means tee-shirt in Spanish) was sold out, I head back to Rockdeluxe and waited for Tindersticks. Before I watched Tindersticks, I was surrounded by Spanish and watching their own country hero Morente Omega. First song sounded like Ladysmith Black Mambazo, First I thought it was a fucking joke. However, few songs later, it sounds nothing like this. It got more upbeat and heavy and my impression has changed, it wasn’t too bad I supposed. My highlight was hundred of Spanish in the crowd were singing Hallelujah, it was amazing and give the festival so much spirit. Not bad at all, very different from other act, so I will give them some credit for that.
After Morente Omega, still have an hour before Tindersticks start! I shift toward the front right on the barrier for a good spot. I was actually expected the same set they played at Royal Festival Hall earlier this month. The start of Introduction was utterly beautiful as usual except the sound of xylophone wasn’t clear and that ruined abit. Throughout the set they had experienced technical problem, mainly from guitar. Other than that it was a fine performance from them. I was very pleased that they played Sleeping In and The Travelling Light on the set as I admired their second album so much. Only disappointment was that they didn’t play my favourite Tindersticks song – My sister (they played it at Royal Festival Hall!). Because of that I think Primavera Sound set was nowhere as good as RFH one (which was totally spot on along with performance!).Boobar Come Back To Me was my highlight, although its not my favourite from The Hungry Saw album, the lyrics was still a killer, such a emotional song, Stuart Staples and the rest executed this song perfectly.
That was it, Tindersticks ended my evening and my experience of Primavera Sound. Although there was a post party but I didn’t go. I love this festival, I love the atmosphere, not too crowded or emptied, the crowd was friendly and as was the Spanish. Although Spanish were not so enthusiastic on music as few people spent more time talking and txting on the phone than paying attention on the stage (Maybe that was their culture so I can stand that). Food wise I would say they could have more stalls (probably next year then as the festival still growing) so people don’t have to queue for too long. Not much choice on beer but at least Estrella Damm taste better than Carling by some margain! People always debates about festival is not all about music, Primavera Sound is the ideal festival for proper music fans. Same time next year I think my holiday is certainly booked
Wednesday, 4 June 2008
Primavera Sound 2008 Part 1
Well what you going to do if you are pretty much sick of festival in UK, same-old-shit line up, price has gone up in regular basis and did not match up with the excitement? Don’t want to suffer with bad weather and sleeping with mud (hello Glastonbury)? Go to festival abroad! Even though you may have to end up spending fortune for flight and probably hotel. If you never try, you never know how much you enjoy it even though it may cost you a lot!
Seeing lots of my friends have been to oversea festival and they all enjoyed the experience. So it is about time I am doing one! My music taste has changed a lot on past few months and I want to go to a festival without too many money-grabbing-commercial-overrated-multi-media hyped-crappy average bands, I want to go to the festival without pissing down or baking to hell, sunny mixed with breeze is perfect for me. I want to go to festival that I am not afraid to go alone even though knowing little second language. Only one applied to me, and that is Primavera Sound.
The festival itself is take place in Parc del Fòrum, which located in the seaside of Barcelona, Spain. It start from one day festival and with public demand and more sponsor the festival expended to three days event and moved to Parc del Fòrum in 2003 (I think). Now its 8th year running. With weekend ticket you can also attend pre-party festival and post-party festival and don’t have to pay anything extra!
I missed out first 2 days of pre-party as I arrived to Barcelona on Wednesday at 8pm. As soon as I left my luggage in the hostel I ran off to La Pau and search for Apollo Venue, I walked to the wrong direction (instead I randomly found a strip club) but eventually I discovered Apollo Venue. It is a very cool venue, similar decoration like Bush Hall. Choice of beer isn’t much there but Spanish more preferred wine and spirit. Saw Matt Elliot last couple of songs on his set, first one like mental electronic, second one is Spanish folk style, so diverse and random. I stayed on for last band of the night - The Clientelie. Less diverse this time, more mainstream and mellow, they really reminded me Belle & Sebastian mixed with Teenage Fanclub mixed with Absentee, it was a good thing though. Even though their first two songs sounded abit dodgy (techincal fault mainly), later on they overcome that problem and got the confidence on stage, as a result the performance was getting solid. I like their last song of the set, instrumental with beautiful melodic piano sound. They were very good and I like them a lot. Shame they are just warm up, they might be on proper lineup next year you never know.
Day 1
After spending late morning in the hostel and early afternoon walked around Grácia, I headed off to Fòrum. There was no queue for wristband but I will get one anyway, they gave out a wristband and a festival card, you need both of them to get in or you won’t be able to access the site. Also an envelope contained timetable and site map and yellow highlight pen, and the massive programme contained 270 pages about all the band participated this year festival and brief history of Primavera Sound. Forgot to say they were free with weekend ticket.
Maybe it was still too early, it was empty in the site. The site for different stage are spread out, Auditori is outside main entrance, CD Drome on the cover roof, Vice Arena is near the seaport but you have to walk along then stairs down. Good thing about that was even you are at the back you can still have clear view for the band on Vice, ATP and Rockdeluxe because there are stairs around those stages and it is down slope.
MGMT started at 7:30pm , despite the hype, I like the band as they have their own sound and original. That was the first time I have seen them, they were good. However, the crowd…probably still early to the majority of the crowd, dired till they played Time To Pretend . I really like the set though, the guitarist pulled few brilliant riffs that ideal for air guitar. The highlight was Andrew took the rug with writing “who deserve bad karma?”, flicked on the other side of the rug it said “Vampire Weekend”, that made me laugh so hard. They were much better than I expected and I wouldn’t mind to see them again in the future.
I stayed at Rockdeluxe arena and watched The Notwist, indie band with electronica influence. I have heard their latest album The Devil, You + Me and one of my top5 album this year and that along with their previous effort Neon Golden convinced me to see them. They had some techincal difficulty on few songs, but still pulled off an epic and beautiful an hour set. They maybe electronica influenced but they are stupidly loud on the whole set. They have a guy who did the programming by holding remote control like a console. Pilot was my highlight, wasn’t too long on record but live was like 10 minutes but it was an awesome enjoyable 10 minutes, its was unbelievably epic. I recommended people to see them live, The Notwist are wonderful to watch.
Public Enemy next, it was 10pm by then. They are celebrating 20 years anniversary of releasing “It Take A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back”. They attracted a massive crowd tonight and kicked start their set with Don’t Believe The Hype. I don’t into hip hop but Public Enemy are legend and much respect on them. It was an entertaining set by the old skool hip hop. The performance from Chunk D and MC Flavor Flav rapping were brilliant, the band itself got the crowd going. My surprise they were enjoyable to watch, really I respected them a lot more than I used to.
I always wanted to watch Portishead, by the time I am allowed to go to gigs without getting grounded they decided to take a long break after self-titled second album. 11 years of waiting, they are back with equally awesome third album. Silence was a perfect song to start their set, Mysteron was ace with Geoff made some utterly brilliant record scratching. I like their set more than anyone as they fully used of light effect and projector on the background, make it look like a proper show and worth of money. Beth vocal was purely beautiful with mixture of soulful and emotion, I really can’t think of any British based female vocalist have a brilliant voice like Beth. Machine Gun, oh how much I loved that song, I was worried that it sounded average like Coachella set, but not one bit tonight, completely flawless! Made it better, Chunk D came on and did some rapping make it so special, what a pleasant surprise! Machine Gun was definitely my highlight along with Wondering Star (tender but beautiful). In fact the whole set was brilliant, not disappointed one second. They definitely made a triumph return to Barcelona (12 years since the last time they played there!), anyone want to top Portishead performance tonight has to do something very spectacular. After what I have seen, I did not make my mind for a split second and decided go to Auditori tomorrow and see them again
Day 2
As soon as I got up I went straight back to Fòrum for day 2 of the festival. I thought Portishead reserved tickets on sale at 12pm. Actually didn’t start until 3pm! Of course, being stupid come in too early, I got myself a ticket.
Now head back to Auditori and queued up for Holly Golightly and The Brokeoffs. They were meant to start at 4pm but it has been delayed and they were half an hour later than the schedule. Holly admitted that they missed out the soundcheck but from where I seat (8th row), sounded perfect for me. The Brokeoffs, was awesome, performed like a one man band with his guitar while hitting percussion with his foot pedal. I like their songs involved domestic violence, children scared of escalator and train, very funny. The best one, was the Eurovision song joke, it made the crowd giggled. They were very good and their set made me happy. One day if I get married and becomes millionaire, I will hire them to play my wedding for sure!
There were myspace acoustic set near front entrance around market area, saw McEnroe was playing but it was very dull so I went elsewhere. To ATP, MV & EE with The Golden Road were playing, after two songs I got bored with them, they are not rubbish, just nothing special at all, on the book it said Sonic Youth influenced and I expected better. So I went to Rockdeluxe and caught up Grande-Marlaska. Pity there were only 100 people there, to be honest I think they deserved better than that. Yes they are Spanish and obviously I don’t understand a word of what they are singing. I really like the tune and the sound that made you danced on the concrete floor! I hold little expectation on them but they really surprised me.
Back to ATP, MV & EE with The Golden Road are still playing, well I rather stay to watch them till Pissed Jeans on. When Pissed Jeans came on stage, the singer introduced themselves then kicked start with very aggressive sound. By the third song on their set, the guitarist has broke his guitar and ended up heavy bass sound and the noise of drumbeat while getting new guitar to plug in. Forget about the tune, I think the performance alone was worth watching. The singer really cracked me up, he tried to do some dance move but all you can see was his wiggling belly! Loud, aggressive, comedy and of course awesome!
Off across the other side to see No Age, unfortunately I only can see them half a set as I have to queue up for Portishead at Auditori. I like their record, but the live performance, I have to give them another chance. Not overly great from where I stood, I can hear the instrument but vocal was like hit and miss, little bit disappointing but amazed me that how can one guitar made that much noise, that alone will give them little merit for that
Seeing Portishead again, this time was held at indoor. They played in front of packed crowd in Auditori. Same set as last night. Yet again projector screen on the background played the part of it and it was bloody awesome. Performance was as good as last night. Except no Chunk D rapping on Machine Gun this time, and after Cowboy they left the stage to tease the crowd. They came back and played Thread, Road and awesome We Carried On. Toward the end of the song, as soon as Beth came off the stage and walked toward the audience the crowd went mental. Then the unthinkable thing started with few people up on the stage, few seconds later it ended up a massive stage invasion! I don’t think I have ever expect to see Portishead stage invasion, well I witnessed that, it was a brilliant scene with around 100 (maybe more than that) people on stage. They better hurry up and tour again soon!
Nearly midnight, I am still not tired yet. Time for more acts! Back to Rockdeluxe to see Cat Power at 1am, I always admired of what Chan Marshall has done, Jukebox is an unbelievable wondeful cover album, herself and the backing band played fair few off that album as well as her own effort The Greatest. Chan was a great singer, also a great performer. Dancing and moving around the stage made the cameraman very busy indeed. Her voice was heartbreaking and yet brilliantly soulful. Her performance delivered what I expected of her, very unique compared to other female artist.
Head to something different, this time I went to CD Drome around 3am for Ellen Allien. She didn’t play any off her own record as it was DJ set not live set. She brought on few records and produced an hour non-stop mix. What I like about her was that her innovative and creative work, and tonight it didn’t disappoint me one bit. Her mix was full variety: Electronic, upbeat, progressive and chillout. I went fucking crazy when she played Portishead Machine Gun. How she pull that out I have no idea but it was unbelievable. After an hour of dacning in my own little world, look at the watch, 4:15am, time to go…
To Vice arena and see Holy Fuck, by that time everyone was drunk (included myself), so the crowd was more friendly which was surprising. Electronic music with synth and tape machine (WHAT!) and it was incredibly loud. That tape machine with the guy pulling film out was weird, how did that thing work I don’t know but I have never seen that before. Fully of creativity and noise was purely brilliant! It wasn’t enough to witness one stage invasion tonight. There goes another, this time for Holy Fuck. Very funny that seeing drunken people started climbing up the stage from concrete floor, I thought I am going to have a crack with that and actually it wasn’t that hard to climb up! Quickly it got full up with 50 audience on stage with the band, absolutely crazy stuff! Holy Fuck chants after the set from the audience was brilliant and that will live in my memory for a long time. Put Portishead aside, Holy Fuck is probably band of the weekend.
Seeing lots of my friends have been to oversea festival and they all enjoyed the experience. So it is about time I am doing one! My music taste has changed a lot on past few months and I want to go to a festival without too many money-grabbing-commercial-overrated-multi-media hyped-crappy average bands, I want to go to the festival without pissing down or baking to hell, sunny mixed with breeze is perfect for me. I want to go to festival that I am not afraid to go alone even though knowing little second language. Only one applied to me, and that is Primavera Sound.
The festival itself is take place in Parc del Fòrum, which located in the seaside of Barcelona, Spain. It start from one day festival and with public demand and more sponsor the festival expended to three days event and moved to Parc del Fòrum in 2003 (I think). Now its 8th year running. With weekend ticket you can also attend pre-party festival and post-party festival and don’t have to pay anything extra!
I missed out first 2 days of pre-party as I arrived to Barcelona on Wednesday at 8pm. As soon as I left my luggage in the hostel I ran off to La Pau and search for Apollo Venue, I walked to the wrong direction (instead I randomly found a strip club) but eventually I discovered Apollo Venue. It is a very cool venue, similar decoration like Bush Hall. Choice of beer isn’t much there but Spanish more preferred wine and spirit. Saw Matt Elliot last couple of songs on his set, first one like mental electronic, second one is Spanish folk style, so diverse and random. I stayed on for last band of the night - The Clientelie. Less diverse this time, more mainstream and mellow, they really reminded me Belle & Sebastian mixed with Teenage Fanclub mixed with Absentee, it was a good thing though. Even though their first two songs sounded abit dodgy (techincal fault mainly), later on they overcome that problem and got the confidence on stage, as a result the performance was getting solid. I like their last song of the set, instrumental with beautiful melodic piano sound. They were very good and I like them a lot. Shame they are just warm up, they might be on proper lineup next year you never know.
Day 1
After spending late morning in the hostel and early afternoon walked around Grácia, I headed off to Fòrum. There was no queue for wristband but I will get one anyway, they gave out a wristband and a festival card, you need both of them to get in or you won’t be able to access the site. Also an envelope contained timetable and site map and yellow highlight pen, and the massive programme contained 270 pages about all the band participated this year festival and brief history of Primavera Sound. Forgot to say they were free with weekend ticket.
Maybe it was still too early, it was empty in the site. The site for different stage are spread out, Auditori is outside main entrance, CD Drome on the cover roof, Vice Arena is near the seaport but you have to walk along then stairs down. Good thing about that was even you are at the back you can still have clear view for the band on Vice, ATP and Rockdeluxe because there are stairs around those stages and it is down slope.
MGMT started at 7:30pm , despite the hype, I like the band as they have their own sound and original. That was the first time I have seen them, they were good. However, the crowd…probably still early to the majority of the crowd, dired till they played Time To Pretend . I really like the set though, the guitarist pulled few brilliant riffs that ideal for air guitar. The highlight was Andrew took the rug with writing “who deserve bad karma?”, flicked on the other side of the rug it said “Vampire Weekend”, that made me laugh so hard. They were much better than I expected and I wouldn’t mind to see them again in the future.
I stayed at Rockdeluxe arena and watched The Notwist, indie band with electronica influence. I have heard their latest album The Devil, You + Me and one of my top5 album this year and that along with their previous effort Neon Golden convinced me to see them. They had some techincal difficulty on few songs, but still pulled off an epic and beautiful an hour set. They maybe electronica influenced but they are stupidly loud on the whole set. They have a guy who did the programming by holding remote control like a console. Pilot was my highlight, wasn’t too long on record but live was like 10 minutes but it was an awesome enjoyable 10 minutes, its was unbelievably epic. I recommended people to see them live, The Notwist are wonderful to watch.
Public Enemy next, it was 10pm by then. They are celebrating 20 years anniversary of releasing “It Take A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back”. They attracted a massive crowd tonight and kicked start their set with Don’t Believe The Hype. I don’t into hip hop but Public Enemy are legend and much respect on them. It was an entertaining set by the old skool hip hop. The performance from Chunk D and MC Flavor Flav rapping were brilliant, the band itself got the crowd going. My surprise they were enjoyable to watch, really I respected them a lot more than I used to.
I always wanted to watch Portishead, by the time I am allowed to go to gigs without getting grounded they decided to take a long break after self-titled second album. 11 years of waiting, they are back with equally awesome third album. Silence was a perfect song to start their set, Mysteron was ace with Geoff made some utterly brilliant record scratching. I like their set more than anyone as they fully used of light effect and projector on the background, make it look like a proper show and worth of money. Beth vocal was purely beautiful with mixture of soulful and emotion, I really can’t think of any British based female vocalist have a brilliant voice like Beth. Machine Gun, oh how much I loved that song, I was worried that it sounded average like Coachella set, but not one bit tonight, completely flawless! Made it better, Chunk D came on and did some rapping make it so special, what a pleasant surprise! Machine Gun was definitely my highlight along with Wondering Star (tender but beautiful). In fact the whole set was brilliant, not disappointed one second. They definitely made a triumph return to Barcelona (12 years since the last time they played there!), anyone want to top Portishead performance tonight has to do something very spectacular. After what I have seen, I did not make my mind for a split second and decided go to Auditori tomorrow and see them again
Day 2
As soon as I got up I went straight back to Fòrum for day 2 of the festival. I thought Portishead reserved tickets on sale at 12pm. Actually didn’t start until 3pm! Of course, being stupid come in too early, I got myself a ticket.
Now head back to Auditori and queued up for Holly Golightly and The Brokeoffs. They were meant to start at 4pm but it has been delayed and they were half an hour later than the schedule. Holly admitted that they missed out the soundcheck but from where I seat (8th row), sounded perfect for me. The Brokeoffs, was awesome, performed like a one man band with his guitar while hitting percussion with his foot pedal. I like their songs involved domestic violence, children scared of escalator and train, very funny. The best one, was the Eurovision song joke, it made the crowd giggled. They were very good and their set made me happy. One day if I get married and becomes millionaire, I will hire them to play my wedding for sure!
There were myspace acoustic set near front entrance around market area, saw McEnroe was playing but it was very dull so I went elsewhere. To ATP, MV & EE with The Golden Road were playing, after two songs I got bored with them, they are not rubbish, just nothing special at all, on the book it said Sonic Youth influenced and I expected better. So I went to Rockdeluxe and caught up Grande-Marlaska. Pity there were only 100 people there, to be honest I think they deserved better than that. Yes they are Spanish and obviously I don’t understand a word of what they are singing. I really like the tune and the sound that made you danced on the concrete floor! I hold little expectation on them but they really surprised me.
Back to ATP, MV & EE with The Golden Road are still playing, well I rather stay to watch them till Pissed Jeans on. When Pissed Jeans came on stage, the singer introduced themselves then kicked start with very aggressive sound. By the third song on their set, the guitarist has broke his guitar and ended up heavy bass sound and the noise of drumbeat while getting new guitar to plug in. Forget about the tune, I think the performance alone was worth watching. The singer really cracked me up, he tried to do some dance move but all you can see was his wiggling belly! Loud, aggressive, comedy and of course awesome!
Off across the other side to see No Age, unfortunately I only can see them half a set as I have to queue up for Portishead at Auditori. I like their record, but the live performance, I have to give them another chance. Not overly great from where I stood, I can hear the instrument but vocal was like hit and miss, little bit disappointing but amazed me that how can one guitar made that much noise, that alone will give them little merit for that
Seeing Portishead again, this time was held at indoor. They played in front of packed crowd in Auditori. Same set as last night. Yet again projector screen on the background played the part of it and it was bloody awesome. Performance was as good as last night. Except no Chunk D rapping on Machine Gun this time, and after Cowboy they left the stage to tease the crowd. They came back and played Thread, Road and awesome We Carried On. Toward the end of the song, as soon as Beth came off the stage and walked toward the audience the crowd went mental. Then the unthinkable thing started with few people up on the stage, few seconds later it ended up a massive stage invasion! I don’t think I have ever expect to see Portishead stage invasion, well I witnessed that, it was a brilliant scene with around 100 (maybe more than that) people on stage. They better hurry up and tour again soon!
Nearly midnight, I am still not tired yet. Time for more acts! Back to Rockdeluxe to see Cat Power at 1am, I always admired of what Chan Marshall has done, Jukebox is an unbelievable wondeful cover album, herself and the backing band played fair few off that album as well as her own effort The Greatest. Chan was a great singer, also a great performer. Dancing and moving around the stage made the cameraman very busy indeed. Her voice was heartbreaking and yet brilliantly soulful. Her performance delivered what I expected of her, very unique compared to other female artist.
Head to something different, this time I went to CD Drome around 3am for Ellen Allien. She didn’t play any off her own record as it was DJ set not live set. She brought on few records and produced an hour non-stop mix. What I like about her was that her innovative and creative work, and tonight it didn’t disappoint me one bit. Her mix was full variety: Electronic, upbeat, progressive and chillout. I went fucking crazy when she played Portishead Machine Gun. How she pull that out I have no idea but it was unbelievable. After an hour of dacning in my own little world, look at the watch, 4:15am, time to go…
To Vice arena and see Holy Fuck, by that time everyone was drunk (included myself), so the crowd was more friendly which was surprising. Electronic music with synth and tape machine (WHAT!) and it was incredibly loud. That tape machine with the guy pulling film out was weird, how did that thing work I don’t know but I have never seen that before. Fully of creativity and noise was purely brilliant! It wasn’t enough to witness one stage invasion tonight. There goes another, this time for Holy Fuck. Very funny that seeing drunken people started climbing up the stage from concrete floor, I thought I am going to have a crack with that and actually it wasn’t that hard to climb up! Quickly it got full up with 50 audience on stage with the band, absolutely crazy stuff! Holy Fuck chants after the set from the audience was brilliant and that will live in my memory for a long time. Put Portishead aside, Holy Fuck is probably band of the weekend.
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