For editor Mary's coverage of SXSW 2013, go here.
For TGTF team coverage of Liverpool Sound City 2013, go here.
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Last week the music world lost a pioneer – Adam Yauch, better known by his Beastie Boys moniker MCA, died on the 4th of May battling cancer.
An outpouring of fan (famous or not) tributes quickly ensued, including this one from Coldplay covering a Beasties classic that was a little surprising. Watch it below.
Stealing Sheep‘s new charming DIY video below is for ‘Shut Eye’, a single taken from their forthcoming debut album ” to be released in August in Heavenly Recordings. The single will be released on the 28th of May in 7″ and digital formats and will be backed with exclusive track ‘We Like The Dark’.
The trio will be performing at the free Something Nothing and Republic of Music showcase at Marwood Coffee House this Saturday (12 May; read more about it here), as well as in their hometown of Liverpool at Sound City from 21.00-21.30 on Thursday the 17th of May at the Red Bull Studios Live at the Garage. For a taste of their live performance, read Martin’s write-up of their support slot for Field Music back in February here.
Damon Albarn appeared on Jools Holland a couple nights ago. What did he perform? Tracks off his new album out this week, ‘Dr. Dee’, specifically ‘The Marvelous Dream’ and ‘O Spirit, Animate Us’. Watch both clips below.
Festivals are great, aren’t they? Sitting in the sun, sipping on cider, catching a tan/burning your skin off or just watching all your favourite bands in one place in the sunshine.
But wait a minute, you live in Great Britain. A country known for the fact that its festivals can easily turn into a flood of epic proportions. Solution? Well, that’s easy, head abroad! With a cornucopia of festivals on the continent, offering more of a guarantee of more favourable weather, it seems the only logical place to go.
One such of these bountiful foreign beauties is the Heineken Open’er Festival (the 1st to 4th of July), which offers a huge selection of talent on its stages. The Gdynia-Kosakowo Airfield is a 75 hectare space that screams out to be explored and contains seven stages, and it’s the largest Polish open-air music and performing arts festival.
Festival specialists Mumford and Sons (pictured at top) will be bringing their eccentric take on bluegrass to Gdynia, Poland, and they’re joined by a host of international lauded talent, from cult indie heroes Franz Ferdinand to the newly re-formed titans Bloc Party. Further down the bill there are the talents of those lovely Dry the River boys, joined by the simply mad faux gypsy styling’s of Gogol Bordello, the chillwave of Toro Y Moi and Mercury Award-winning the xx.
So as you can see along with the chance of some lovely weather, the bands on show are not to be sniffed at. A 4-day camping ticket is priced at the simply ridiculous £84 (410 PLN) while a day ticket will set you back £33 (165). More information on tickets are here.
After the cut: the list of bands scheduled to perform as of 7 May 2012.
Continue reading Preview: Heineken Open’er 2012
Here’s a live video of Grimes performing what I imagine will be her signature song, ‘Genesis’, from her debut album ‘Visions’on Later Live with Jools Holland. The only distraction? An eyeball decal on her forehead. Not sure what that’s about, maybe protection? She didn’t need it, as she looks cool as a cucumber and completely in control, doing what she does best in this performance.
We usually post two videos from Jools Holland on artists we choose to write about, but sadly Claire Boucher was confined to performing one track while Norah Jones was allowed three (much to the dislike to the YouTube commenters, I might add). However, if you’re heading to Brighton for the Great Escape this weekend, you’re in luck. Grimes will be performing at the M is for Montreal/Brooklyn Vegan showcase at the Great Escape on Friday the 9th of May at Brighton Digital, with a set time of 20.45.
They grew up just down the road. They’ve had two, well, three popular records, and their meteoric rise doesn’t show any signs of stopping tonight as Bombay Bicycle Club top the bill at Alexandra Palace. The atmosphere’s as friendly as the music in Ally Pally as Lianne La Havas comes on stage. Her rising star flying over her homeland tonight as her reception is immense. Ever since her appearance on Jools Holland, the singer-songwriter’s endearingly personal EP ‘Lost and Found’ has been played to a wide array of fans. Starting on her own and being joined by a live band a few songs in, Havas’ sound is nowhere near as small as you might imagine and there’s scattered polite singalongs accompanying her.
Half an hour down the line, Steadman and company arrive on stage behind a curtain as Apache: Jump on it blends into the opening purr of ‘How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep’. As it kicks in, the curtain comes down and tonight really begins. There’s a slight timidity about the 10,000 strong crowd tonight but quickly the band’s simple light show and stage set up becomes their stomping ground as they get into the swing of things. At points this evening, front man Jack Steadman casts off his quaint demeanour and becomes a rocker in his own right as Bombay’s sound is deepened by Lucy Rose on vocals for much of the evening and an appearance from a brass band.
‘Flaws’ tracks ‘Rinse Me Down’ and ‘Ivy and Gold’ split the night’s feel up a bit, but rather than Mumford-ing up for live response, the band instead add an almost Friendly Fires-style jovial samba to it, extending the tracks with small percussive dance parties. It’s a nice touch, (especially the man in a Kigu with a spare snare) but you can’t help but feel it’s slightly unnecessary. ‘Evening/Morning’ comes as if you’ve turned over a side on the band’s life and arrived back at one of their finest tracks. Its bass line and singalong “I am ready to owe you anything” sounds as big as the band ever will and the crowd agree.
At times it feels like a festival. Thousands of people are crammed in, standing under one roof. There’s people dancing on shoulders (Lucy Rose on guitarist Jamie’s shoulders is just one of many) and their silhouettes cut as if by sunset. It’s even raining outside! The only thing reminding you that this isn’t the case is the regal surrounding. That, and the choices of ‘Beggars, Still’ and ‘A Different Kind of Fix’ bonus track ‘Beg’ filling time in the set. They don’t make a huge amount of sense in the live setting, but with only two proper albums, they have to find a way of filling such a demanding space, and each track in its own right is at least well written.
Of course, the set is back-loaded for added effect as ‘Always Like This’ gets an incredible response from front to back and ‘Emergency Contraception Blues’ sets up for the encore. It was always going to end one way and as ‘Shuffle’ kicks in, everyone does. The band’s biggest track to date inspires everyone to get moving as their last chance is approaching. It comes in the form of ‘What If’: it’s poignant and powerful and it shows that given a bit more material, Bombay can challenge the top. Humbled, they leave the stage. They’ve not been the best show you’ll see, but in time, they could be.
There Goes The Fear is where we tell you about the latest tours, gigs, and music we love and think you should too.
We love music that has its heart on its sleeve, tells a story, swims around our head all day or makes us dance like idiots.
The blog is edited by Mary Chang, who is based in Washington DC. She is joined by writers in the UK and America. It was started up by Phil Singer in Bristol, UK.
All MP3s are posted with the permission of the artists or their representatives and are for sampling only. Like the music? Buy it. If you want a track removed, email us and we'll sort it ASAP.
