Another Form of Relief

On sunday, I, along with a couple of friends, attended my first music festival. This may seem pretty strange for someone who writes a music blog, but things like festivals are in short supply in this corner of the country. Earlier on the year, I read about the Electric Gardens Festival. It’s a new event, a two day specialist festival covering dance and electronica on the first day and more traditional indie rock fare on the second day. It shouldn’t take a genius to figure out exactly which day we attended. As such, early on sunday morning, we set off on the short drive to Canterbury in an attempt to find the festival site. A bunch of random country lanes and a ton of dirt tracks that aren’t great for a car of my size later and we’d arrived at the festival.

We got there about an hour before the first performances so we decided to explore the festival site, discovering that there wasn’t a great deal to it. A small area held the second stage and the tiny Myspace tent as well as the overpriced food and drink areas, and a short walk led us to the hill where the main stage was located. Not many people seemed to make it in time for the start of the event, meaning we were able to sit pretty much where we liked to view the main stage, awaiting the opening performance from The Boy Least Likely To.

The Boy Least Likely To played to an initially pretty dead crowd, but as the performance went on, people moved closer to the stage and began to warm to them. They actually seem genuinely happy to be there too (the band, not the crowd), joyfully babbling away between songs and talking about how they don’t really know Kent. This led to one of the band members (Peter) announcing he was actually from a town nearby leading to the band asking if anyone happened to know him, but sadly no one did. They played a few songs I wasn’t familiar with, but also the standards like ‘Be Gentle With Me’ and their now obligatory cover of George Michael’s ‘Faith’.

MP3 The Boy Least Likely To - Be Gentle With Me (expired)

During their performance I spotted Kate Nash in the crowd, so once they finished playing, we headed over and had a little chat with her. Annoyingly, she was playing the festival, but she played on the day before, meaning that once again any attempt to see her play had been thwarted. Anyway, she was very polite and apologetic about missing the Beacon Court show a couple of months ago, and even gave us free badges. Which was pretty awesome and the only thing that was free at this festival. Which leads us to the food situation. We were starting to want some food by this stage, so headed up to the food tent, and discovered that each “meal” was £5 (though reduced from £7!). When I say “meal”, in reality I mean a crudely put together burger or some slop in a tray. You could also wash this down with a £2 bottle of Sprite from the Ukraine, or some other foreign country that I couldn’t quite identify. Now this may all be standard for those who regularly attend festivals, but it was a bit of a shock to the system for me.

Following our food we wandered over to the second stage (in reality, a circus tent) to catch the peformance by Absentee. We were a little early so ended up catching the end of a set by Findlay Brown. I hadn’t heard of him or his music before, but I quite enjoyed what I heard, even if he was a little too Ryan Adams at times. It was perfect music to sit and relax to out of the sun though, and enough to make him look in to him a little more. Once he finished, Absentee arrived on stage, and spent an absolute age setting up. This wasn’t their fault, nothing seemed to go right for them, and they eventually ended up starting over halfway into their allotted time. Even when they did, the set was still plagued with technical problems. The vocals were too low, and the bass was so strong that it actually made the ground shake. They tried their best, but combined with a non-responsive crowd, it was hardly the perfect performance.

MP3 Absentee - Something To Bang (expired)

After this, it was time to head back to the main stage to see The Young Knives. Neither me or Joe were familiar with them, but Hiren kept talking about how good they were, so we made our way to the front of what was quite a large crowd to see them. I didn’t know what to think when three guys who looked even dorkier than me hit the stage, but they quickly won me over with a bunch of catchy songs and impromptu joking between the songs. They gave it their all and seemed heartened by the number of people that had turned out to see them. I don’t really keep up with what’s popular these days (I sound so old like this), but I can see these guys becoming another of the current crop of successful British bands very quickly.

MP3 The Young Knives - She’s Attracted To (expired)

Wandering around the site, we then spotted Melinda and (I think) Laurie from Absentee, so we proceeded to harass them as well. They also turned out to be very polite and down to earth, happily chatting about the festival in general, which bands to see and, somehow, university courses. It was after this that everything decided to go a little pearshaped. We headed back to the circus tent to see Adem, although I’m still not entirely sure why. Anyway, I started to feel a little ill a bit into their set and quickly progressed into full blown asthma attack mode, which I guess is the result of a day of sitting on grass, baking to death and being surrounded by smokers. Either way, it meant my festival day was over, meaning we left before we got to see the final run of the Electric Soft Parade, Battle and Brakes in the Myspace tent. Which was incredibly annoying as I particularly wanted to see the last two. I guess if I do though, it’s going to have to be indoors or something.

So what did I learn from this weekend? Mostly, that festivals don’t do me a great deal of good. While seeing a bunch of good bands in one place was awesome, the disorganisation of it, the overpriced and crappy food combined with the fun medical issues outweigh that by a hell of a lot. Which kind of sucks, but it’s something I’ll have to deal with. Looks like it’s back to my once a year indoor show or something now then, yay!

Edit: More Electric Gardens coverage can be found at Delete as Appropriate and Jukebox.

The Amateurs are the latest addition to the roster of Letterbox Records, home of The Arrogants. While I’ve never been able to get into The Arrogants, there is something here in the sound of The Amateurs that is far more appealing to me. The band is a six piece from Edinburgh who have apparently been playing together since 2003, and now that they have a label are busy preparing their debut album, due out next month.

Being a Scottish based twee pop band will inevitably draw comparisons with Belle & Sebastian, particularly with their gentle male-female vocal changes, but this is no bad thing. I’d rather have a bunch of new bands that sound like B&S than The Arctic Monkeys or anyone else that is the current flavour of the week. Still, to limit the comparison to just B&S is unfair to The Amateurs. While there are similarities, they do also bring their own sound to the proceedings, particularly on a well developed song like ‘Trouble Brewing’. ‘Things You Only Know If You Don’t Drive’ is what led me to them though, and it’s by far my favourite song here. It’s so wonderfully twee that even though it runs out of steam a little while before the end, it’s pretty much the musical definition of pure joy.

MP3 The Amateurs - Things You Only Know If You Don’t Drive (expired)
MP3 The Amateurs - Trouble Brewing (expired)
MP3 The Amateurs - Your Birthday (expired)

The Amateurs: Website || Myspace

A hat tip (if I had a hat) to Tim Young over at The Face of Today for putting me onto The Amateurs. Go over there and listen to his Voxtrot cover.

When I first emailed The Light Footwork about doing an email interview for Another Form of Relief, they accepted but warned me that it might take them a while to get answers to me. This was back in may, proving they really weren’t kidding. I tell you this not as a complaint or anything like that, but more because it was a pleasant surprise for me that they would still take the time to get this back to me all those months later when most would have just tossed it aside. I mean this isn’t exactly an important publication I have going here, just a blog with a few crazy readers. I guess my main point here is that The Light Footwork are very cool people.

For those of you not familiar with The Light Footwork, their album, ‘One State Two State’ is one of my favourites from this year, and with good reason. It’s a charming, witty record that’s generally a joy to the ears. Think something along the lines of the lyrical stylings of early Pavement crossed with the wonderful sounds of Beulah while still sounding entirely fresh and you’re on the right track. The band is the project of songwriting duo Jay Underwood and Becca Willhelm, both of whom were kind enough to answer my inane questions.

How are you today?

Becca: I’m pretty good. I don’t have a hernia. I thought I did, but I don’t.

Jay: Nothing a snort of paddy couldn’t fix.

How did The Light Footwork originally come about?

Becca: Sometime in early 2004, we’d both recently moved to Palo Alto and were looking for something musical to do. As luck would have it I heard some of Jay’s stuff and he heard some of mine and we thought we’d try out playing together. I was a little concerned that he might be a psycho killer, but he seemed pretty normal on the phone, so we arranged to meet at the Caltrain station in Palo Alto. I would be wearing a brown backpack, and he would be in a Subaru. That night we ate Taco Bell bean burritos and drank whatever beer he had, and then we wrote The Art of Communication Part 1. And we’ve been neglecting our families, significant others, and jobs ever since.

Jay: I am a psycho killer.

Where did the name The Light Footwork come from?

Jay: It came from the google translation of an email written to me in Japanese. I don’t know what the Japanese character meant, but google thought it meant “Light Footwork” so I added that to the mental list of possible band names, and then it grew on me, and I convinced Becca it didn’t suck. I’m not sure if she was ever really convinced, but i still like it. What do you think?

Is it true that the two of you are on entirely different continents much of the time? How does this impact your ability to make music?

Becca: It is true, Jay is in Ireland and I’m in California. It has been this way for the last year. This has put quite a damper on touring, but Jay is coming back in a week and I anticipate that it’ll make this all much easier. We’ve both continued writing new material, mainly just small pieces of songs which I suspect will all fuse together during the first month that we’re back together in person. I’m really excited for Jay to get back. YAY!

Jay: I’m now back, hence the delay in returning these answers to you. Sorry about that.

There are a lot of comparisons between your music and that of Beulah. Given Jay’s connection to the band this would be inevitable, but who else do you cite as the major influences on your music?

Becca: We’re big on Malkmus. Other than that, I’m probably most influenced by random classical music (most recently, I’ve been on a Scarlatti kick).

Jay: I like random music too, 70s prog is big.

How helpful do you think the internet has been in getting the word out about your music?

Becca: Since we’ve been in different countries, the internet has been the sole source of getting the word out. The blogs have been amazing - we’ve reached far more people through word-of-blog than through formal reviews and radio combined.

Jay: True dat.

What do you think you’d both be doing if you weren’t making music?

Becca: Since the time we’re making music is basically in our spare time, I suppose if I wasn’t making music then I’d spend more time outside, bikeriding and playing more team sports. Actually, I’ve always wanted to take up boxing. Every time I go on business travel I watch boxing in the hotel (I normally can’t watch boxing because I don’t have cable at home). Yes, I think I’d join a small boxing gym and start getting my nose all smashed flat and my ears all cauliflowered.

What does the future hold for The Light Footwork?

Becca: Well, if we get big then I’m going to do celebrity boxing. Other than that, I’ve got no idea. We’re definitely planning to put out some more albums and finally play some shows. We’ve got half of a music video filmed, so we’ll probably finish that up sometime soon. After that, I’ll probably die prematurely of a cancerous brain tumor and Jay will sit on the organ recipient list waiting for a new liver because he probably ruined his in Ireland, and that’ll be the end of us. So we’d better smoke it while we’ve got it.

Jay: The transplant went well and I’m back to writing songs, which will be easier to rehearse now that we share a house again and have a new practice space. Viva las light footwork

MP3 The Light Footwork - Coastlines Are Landmines (expired)
MP3 The Light Footwork - Exit Row (expired)

The Light Footwork: Website || Myspace

Whenever I discover a new band, I tend to start exploring around them. This means I investigate side projects, other bands members may have been in previously and the such. After my recent appreciation of The Pipettes, I looked into their history a little more and found that there was another Pipette originally, who left the band last year. Discovering that she’s now in another band piqued my interest a little, and thus I discovered The Indelicates.

Although there are five band members, the band is essentially the project of Julia and Simon Indelicate (what is it with bands doing this these days?), who bring us a sound that’s somewhere between The Pogues and Kate Bush. This is most notable on ‘New Art For The People’, which plays like a slightly more positive ‘Fairytale of New York’. Gruff male and sweet female vocals go back and forth until the song decides to rock hard in the final verse. ‘Waiting For Pete Doherty To Die’ does exactly what it says on the tin, playing more as an attack on the people focusing on him than the singer himself though. ‘Julia, We Don’t Live In The 60s’ is the simplest song here, yet it may also be the catchiest.

The band seem to be picking up a lot of good press of late, with mentions in The NME, Rolling Stone and somehow, even The New Statesman. Oh, and Eddie Argos considers himself a fan, and you can’t get a better endorsement than that. On a personal level, it seems that they have played not five miles from where I live on more than one occasion, and once again I’ve failed to discover a great little band until after they went away again. I really need to keep a closer eye on the local “scene” if this is the kind of thing that I’m missing.

MP3 The Indelicates - Waiting For Pete Doherty To Die (expired)
MP3 The Indelicates - New Art For The People (expired)
MP3 The Indelicates - Julia, We Don’t Live In The 60s

The Indelicates: Website || Myspace