Barcelona – After all the shenanigans of the first two days of Primavera, day three was the designates come down day for me. A nice afternoon was spent on the beautiful Barcelona beach with beer in hand, followed by a leisurely paella by the sea dinner. Needless to say, the tone was set for a nice relaxing evening.
If you look up “nice and relaxing music” in the imaginary encyclopedia I’ve created for this post, you might see the band Fleet Foxes there. The Portland group have come of of hiding this year with their sophomore effort Helplessness Blues and are now riding the festival circuit to promote this record. Playing against the lovely Barcelona backdrop, the harmonious group gently welcomed the Primavera crowd into the night. Forgoing any sort of front man stage tactics the band seemed content sitting there and letting their musicianship shine through. While that in itself seemed rather grand, I couldn’t help but feel that the concert just felt like the album turned up really loud.
The next two shows I saw included ambient rock band The Album Leaf and Philadelphia hard rocker Kurt Vile. I enjoyed the Album Leafs piano driven atmospheric rock although I was disappointed with their decision to forgo vocals for the time that I saw them, which meant the wouldn’t be performing Always For You, a track that I enjoyed. Kurt Vile brought his rock game to the Jagermeister/Vice stage. While I can appreciate his rock, it wasnt the right setting for me so I went to do what everyone else seemed to be doing, which was watch the Champions League game.
The Champions League final finished just in time for PJ Harvey. The last time I saw the English songstress, it was in 2004 and it was an early show and I had also the Libertines on my bill that night, so I don’t remember it well. By the time I found a spot, Pj Harvey was already in full swing. Dressed in a white dress with some head feathers, Polly Jean stood by her lonely self away from her band clutching an autoharp. The band itself were situated in a tight semi circle, which made for an interesting setup. Playing tracks new and old, you can say that the woman pleased all in the crowd. Her voice sounded as strong as effort and her dedication to not moving throughout the night make you focus solely on the tracks, which mUgur have been the goal of the night. The twenty song setlist ended with classic Meet Ze Monsta as did my time at Primavera. A classic way to end off a classic festival
Barcelona – Primavera Sound is finally here, and luckily enough, the Panic Manual will be covering this annual festival in all it’s glory. I feel like there’s not the usual round of excitement you get with North American music festivals on the internet, so here are some reasons to get excited for Primavera.
Pulp is Reuniting
Need I say more? the legendary Britpop band will be playing their first show since announcing that they are reforming for 2011. It will be crazy, the singalongs will be epic and Jarvis will show us he’s still got the stuff. I’m already drinking more water so that I can release more tears of joy whenthey take the stage.
Barcelona!
What a great place to have a music festival, forget Palm Springs or Chicago, Primavera is taking place in Barcelona, and the venue is RIGHT BESIDE THE SEA. You know what that means – post festival swimming! Did I mention that Barcelona is considered one of the culinary capitals of the world? The food is great, the weather is tremendous and it’s a festival by the sea. What more can you ask for?
Girl Talk at 5 am
So unlike other festivals, Primavera does not start at noon and end at 11. These people know how we work. Stay up late and wake up late. The first show at Primavera doesn’t start until 5 pm and the headliners don’t play until well after midnight. The last show on Friday night? Girl Talk. DJing at 5 am. Sure everyone will be tired, but if there’s ever a time to dance the night away and see the sunrise, then this will be the night.
The National, Flaming Lips and Belle and Sebastian
Three acts that been around for awhile that always, ALWAYS put on a great live show. The National have been playing a lot of high profile festivals lately, so they have undoubtedly become masters of the festival show. Flaming Lips…are just always amazing live and I’m sure Wayne Coyne and the gang have something in store for the Barcelona crowd. Belle and Sebastian are recieving a nice revival in popularity with their excellent album Write about Love. Being ableto see all these bands without scheduling conflicts will undoubtedly enhance everyone’s viewing experience.
The return of Fleet Foxes
After blowing people away with the sweet harmonies two years ago with their debut album, the Portland group is back with a new record and Primavera Sound will be one of the first places that Fleet Foxes will be showing off Helplessness Blues. I am sure that all indie fans will bath in the bearded groups awesomeness.
Toronto – Today is opening day in baseball, a magical time in America when everyone and their mothers are excited about baseball. Spring is in the air, the grass is green and the promise of summer is just ahead. At 162 games, the MLB season is one a long one, and you will undoubtedly be hearing a lot of stories about random baseball news through out the year, even if you don’t want to. Being an indie kid/sport fanatic, I am here to provide you with some random information to help ease you into the world of baseball.
San Francisco Giants
For fans of: Mumford & Sons, Adele, Rebecca Black
The reigning champions came out of nowhere last year to win the World Series. A team struggling in obscurity for most of the past few seasons, the team’s rise from bottom dwellers to top of the world was meteoric. So if you are fans of Mumford & Sons, Adele and/or Rebecca Black – three acts who have exploded in the past year, you can definitely appreciate a team like the Giants. Bonus, Giant’s start Tim Linecum looks like he’s 13.
For fans of: Pulp, Suede, any other Britpop band recently reunited
Much like the Britpop bands, the last time the Atlanta Braves were relevant was in the 90s. The Braves dominated the 90s. Every year around October, you would hear those damn Atlanta fans with their tomahawk chops and war songs. You couldn’t escape Ted Turner or Jane Fonda on television. Then after their pitchers got old, the Braves slide into obscurity. This year, however, the Braves appear to be back and relevant, relying on young stars such as Tommy Hanson and Jayson Heyward to hopefully bring them back to prominence. This is similar to bands like Pulp, who will also attempt to once again reach for the stars when they play a series of festival shows this year, including Primavera Sound in Barcelona, one that I am personally attending.
The Texas Rangers made the World Series last year, but in the off season, they lost Cliff Lee, a key component to their team. Nobody knows how this will affect the teams success, the team still has a host of players that are rather good – Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Elvis Andrus, etc. Regardless, their success this year is a great unknown. A band that can identify with this would be Beady Eye, a band that spawned when Noel Gallagher, arguably the key component behind Oasis’s success, left Oasis. Beady Eye still has Liam Gallagher, Andy Bell, etc, but will they be equally successful? Nobody knows.
For fans of: British Sea Power, Raveonettes, Go Team, BRMC, Black Lips
Much like the bands I’ve listed, the Oakland Athletics have spent the better part of the past decade doing their own thing (moneyball) and having varying degrees of success. The A’s have had some hits and some misses with their brand of number crunching baseball strategy. If you enjoy the consistency in quality of music that bands like British Sea Power and company has delivered in the past ten years, you will definitely enjoy the consistency of OBP (On base percentage) focussed offense that the A’s have been using as well.
Raveonettes play the Phoenix April 2nd Go! Team play the Opera House April 10th Black Lips play the Phoenix April 16th
Sure, The Kills have a new record (Blood Pressure) out, and yes, they are touring around promoting that record. Let’s not kid ourselves though, Allison Mosshart probably has lights in her eyes, and it’ll be to no surprise if she leaves this band for good and join the bigger band (the one with Jack White) soon. Is this tour going to be the Kill’s last tour? They’ve had a good run, haven’t they? These questions are similar to the ones that Cardinals fans have been asking themselves as they enter what will probably be the last year of Albert Pujols. Albert Pujols is the best hitter in the league and without a contract for next season, meaning he is most likely going to bigger and better things – New York? Boston? Philadelphia? All good guesses.
For fans of: Fleet Foxes, Glasvegas, Friendly Fires
The team du jour two years ago, the Tampa Bay Rays hope to bring back that initial excitement that had everyone excited about the team. Armed with young talents such as David Price, Evan Longoria and errr Manny Ramirez, the Rays will spend most of 2011 trying to remind people how awesome they were in 2009. Similarly, bands like Fleet Foxes, Glasvegas and Friendly Fires will spend most of 2011 promoting their new records, a follow up to the ones that made these bands so popular a few years ago. Can they recapture the magic? Only time will tell.
That’s all I got for today! Stay tune for part 2, which may or may not happen.
Random baseball story time:
In 1998 or 1997, I joined an online baseball fantasy league/competition, where you had to select a bunch of players from a pool of players, and whoever’s team had the most home runs at the end of the year would win a prize. So I was lucky enough to pick both Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in their pools. As a result, I won that pool and was about to pocket five hundred bucks. However, I then got called by the company and said that since I was from Canada and the contest was eligible for United States only, I couldn’t win. Instead, they sent me a crappy t-shirt.
Toronto – This is going to be a fairly lazy review, I will probably pull a Jamie Foxx and name drop a bunch of things here, hoping somehow that in the process, a review will somehow percolate subconsciously in your head and you’ll come away from the article thinking this was a good review. Local Natives are a 5 piece band from Los Angeles, California. I thought Local Natives in California were known as Mexicans. HAHA. Maybe that’s a sensitive issue, I am not sure. Anyways, they have an album coming out on February 16th, it’s called Gorilla Manor.
The band relies on 3 part harmonies, layered with a chilled out Caribbean cruise ship rock vibe and thus, has drawn comparisons to bands such as Grizzly Bear, Vampire Weekend and Fleet Foxes. I also think you can draw comparisons to bands like My Morning Jacket, Passion Pit and a happier Band of Horses as well. They are signed to Frenchkiss records, who are on a absolute roll these days, having had the Antlers and Passion Pit break through into the blogosphere last year. I am 100% sure Local Natives will do the same this year.
Gorilla Manor is a solid chilled out affair. As with any Vampire Weekendish sounding record, it’s something you can always put on, because of it’s mellow weekend vibe. There’s a cover of a Talking Heads song (“Warning Sign”) on there and I can already sense that songs like Airplanes, Sun Hands and Wide Eyes are going to be popular, and will probably be in some movie soundtracks.
Overall, if you like any of the bands I have mentioned, and want to listen to say, a more upbeat, more Californian version of them, then definitely check out Gorilla Manors. It would probably be in your best interest to see a show when they tour the first time, because the next time they come around, it’ll be at a way big venue and packed.
