For our thoroughly enjoyable recent gig at The Outer Church in Brighton, we were lucky enough to have visuals done specially for us by video artist, Jade Boyd. Given that Jade had recently provided visuals for none other than the legendary Alan Howarth (when he performed at the Unsound Festival), this was really quite an honour for us. We very much hope to work with Jade again in the future. Here are some stills from the video she made for our performance:
We will be performing tomorrow (at time of writing) at the wonderful Roshi‘s “The Sky And The Caspian Sea” album launch night.
Roshi’s set will feature visuals from James English, and also playing are Signals and Damp Matchbox. DJ fun will be provided from Wire scribe Joe Muggs.
It’s happening at The Flea Pit, 49 Columbia Rd, London, E2 7RG. Doors open at 7:30pm, and I think entry is just £4. I’m really excited about our set!
Better late than never, here are a few photos I took at Indietracks. I had such a great time, and I doubt I will ever again be able to see so many Elefant bands in a single place.
Musically, my highlights were probably Fitness Forever, La Casa Azul (who divided the crowd into those who are scared of real pop, and those who aren’t…), The Marshmallow Kisses (even though I played in them), Au Revoir Simone, Modular, and The Specific Heats’ literally smoke-producing levels of guitar reverb in the church.
It was a real comedown returning to real life after such a brilliant weekend. We saw so many good bands and met so many nice people that it was a shame it all had to end! Unfortunately it did, but we’ll always have the memories (and photos and videos and CDs), so here are some of my highlights to help recapture the joyous time had by all:
Saturday was a gloriously sunny day bookended by two great performances on the outdoor Elefant stage. After a lengthy bus and train journey from our hotel in Nottingham, we arrived just in time to see Sucrette from Kyoto, Japan, kick things off with a lovely set that took us back to the glory days of Shibuya-Kei and classic Japanese pop. Those arriving nice and early on site (including our new friends Fitness Forever, whose set later on Saturday provided another unquestionable highlight) were given a real sunshine treat with this performance:
After a nigh-on perfect day of beautiful weather and fantastic music, Guille Milkyway (aka La Casa Azul, from Barcelona) rounded off Saturday with an absolutely incredible non-stop performance of what should have been global smash hits. The combination of Guille’s ultra-enthusiastic showmanship, mind-blowing visuals, and our vantage point down the front (surrounded by manic Spanish people loudly singing along to every song) all added up to a truly unforgettable set (and probably my supreme highlight of the weekend). Here is the video of his wonderfully uplifting version of John Paul Young’s “Love Is In The Air”:
Unfortunately the weather (not to mention our taxi journey to the festival) took a drastic turn for the worse on Sunday, but such was the friendly atmosphere on site and the calibre of performers on show that our enjoyment was lessened barely a jot. My personal highlights of the day were a heartbreakingly beautiful performance by our good friends The Marshmallow Kisses in the church. The performance was augmented with beautiful trumpet and viola from, respectively, Brad of Boston’s One Happy Island and Barbara of Whiteoak, not to mention sterling guitar and keyboards by our very own Tim:
For me, Sunday’s other standout performance came from the returned and seemingly revitalised Nick Garrie. Having disappeared from the music scene almost 40 years ago, after producing an unsung classic of the era in the shape of “The Nightmare of JB Stanislas”, it was an unexpected and delightful treat to see him perform both songs from that album and his new record on Elefant, “49 Arlington Gardens”. Here’s a video of Nick playing the beautiful “Twilight” from his latest album, and let’s hope for much more wonderful new music from this extremely talented singer-songwiter:
Well, I think I’ve gone on long enough now, but I’d just like to say thanks to everyone who came along to watch our set, all the lovely people we met, and everyone who helped make Indietracks such an enjoyable experience. Here’s to next year!
We’re all sad to be home again after a fantastic Indietracks. It was our first time at the festival both as performers and visitors and we couldn’t have had a lovelier time, even despite the miserable rain on Sunday!
For those of you who couldn’t make it, here’s a video of us performing Footsteps filmed by our friend Andrew:
Okay, it wasn’t the most perfect performance ever but the crystal clear sound and beautiful, warm atmosphere in the church made the whole experience quite wonderful.
The last thing I’ll share with you today is this little book that I made with all of our important band notes inside. Along with the festival programme, it will make a nice souvenir of the event I think.
I have been drafted in as a temporary member of the Marshmallow Kisses for their performance at this year’s Indietracks festival. We had our first ever rehearsal last night and after a slightly slow start everything went really well.
The songs sound great, and I’m so glad that I can make a modest contribution. I’ll be playing my trusty Casiotone MT-68 for most songs in the set, swapping for guitar on two numbers. Also in the line-up is the very talented Barbara Elting on viola. She has impeccible taste in music – listen to her excellent work as whiteoakhere.
Tickets for Indietracks are available at the bargain price of £55 for a whole weekend of music. For more information visit the festival website.
We recently took part in a thoroughly enjoyable interview for the free music paper London Tourdates, and the issue containing said interview has now hit the streets. If you’re unable to source a physical copy, then you can click on the image below to obtain the article in a more readable size, and learn (mainly) about our love of food and also a bit about our music. NB, we think our interviewer Helen may have been confused between the name of our new EP and the lovely passion fruit ice pearl drink that she was enjoying when we met!
