Another Form of Relief

As part as our ongoing attempts to cover what little exists of a Kent music scene, it seemed only prudent to put together a brief guide to the major music festivals taking place in the county over the next couple of months. A few years ago such a thing would have been impossible due to a lack of said events, but now new festivals seem to be popping up each year. Obviously not all of them work (like Electric Gardens) and some will probably have their organisers lynched if they ever come back (Zoo8) but it’s good to see a varied selection appearing.

When June 4-6
Where Hope Farm, Ashford
How much £55 weekend / £35 daily

Lineup (AFOR endorsements in bold)
Supergrass, The Holloways, Emmy the Great, Ben’s Brother, Red Light Company, Alessi’s Ark, Cut La Roc, Hoxton Whores, Thomas Tantrum, The Answering Machine, Karima Francis, The Young Knives, Tubelord, Marina and the Diamonds, Alex Cornish, Oh, Atoms, Royal Treatment Plant, Bender, The Rosie Taylor Project, William, 4 or 5 Magicians, motion picture soundtrack, Video Nasties, Bobby Long, The Domino State, The Ryes, Micky Slim, Silvery, Hungry Ghosts, Los Salvadores, Minnaars, Lucy and the Caterpillar, Kids Love Lies, Barefoot Confessor, Right Turn Left, Tin Soldiers, Far From The Dance, Seven Story Down, Ten Bears, Tom Williams & The Boat, The Suggestions, Elephants, The Dirty Disco, Junkstar, Brandon Block, Mr Basista, Monday Street, Romanov, Polka Party, HANDSHAKE, Greg McDonald, The Quirk Burglars, The SheBeats, Alma Mahler, Floors & Walls, Eddy Temple-Morris, Rob Cockerton, Adam Bloom, Haunted Stereo, Small Fry, Joe Mac, The Streetlight Conspiracy, The Little Philistines, Illegitimate Sons of the King, AEF, Shadow Aspect, Vagner Love, Peter Andrews, Twisted DJs, Rhys morgan, Krissy and the Jackdaws, The Hidden Revolution, Bruised Beauties, Groove Monkey, Cocos Lovers, Everybody Be cool, Waterhorse, Lotte Mullan, Lucy Holliday, Circle of Rage, Kouncilhouse, Amoriste, Sean Mooney, Steve Day, Spooka, Jamie Abbott, Robbie Styles, Nic Bennett, Hal Cruttenden, Jamie Ley, Nathan Caton, Outa City Committee, Lester Clayton, Jeff Barker, Kev Harris, Lizzy Spit, Jarmean?, Pete Jonas, Delta Connection, danny reject, Matt Rudge, Adam Crow, Sally-Anne Hayward, Christian Reilly and 3 Parts DJ

In 2007, Sellindge was populated by bands you’ve never heard of. Last year, they managed to nab Idlewild to headline more bands you’ve never heard of. This year, there are a few solid bands at the top of the bill, a handful of decent ones underneath, and of course, a whole slew that you’ve never heard of. Still, for the money you can’t really go wrong.

When July 5-6
Where The Hop Farm, Paddock Wood
How much £125 weekend / £65 daily

Lineup (AFOR endorsements in bold)
The Fratellis, Editors, Doves, Echo & The Bunnymen, Ash, The Pigeon Detectives, The View, Mystery Jets, Super Furry Animals, Paul Weller, Ladyhawke, 65daysofstatic, British Sea Power, The Rifles, Alex Gopher, Noah and the Whale, Bell X1, Cage the Elephant, The Twang, The Twilight Sad, Howling Bells, Florence and The Machine, Johnny Foreigner, Eight Legs, Dananananaykroyd, Jape, Fight Like Apes, Etienne De Crecy, That Petrol Emotion, Let’s Wrestle, Dr. Lektroluv, D.I.M, The Chapman Family, Burn The Negative, The Good the Bad, R.S.A.G, and 2Manydj’s

The Hop Farm Festival has jumped from being a one-day event last year to a two day festival this year. It’s gimmick is that it has no sponsorship (yay!) and no VIP areas (boo!). Of course, such things come at a price, which results in the excessive £125 cost for the weekend. Which is a shame as I actually quite like the lineup. The main stage doesn’t do much for me, but the creatively named “third stage” with the likes of Johnny Foreigner, Let’s Wrestle and Dananananaykroyd looks like the place to be.

When July 10-12
Where Merton Farm, Canterbury
How much £85 weekend / £35 daily

Lineup (AFOR endorsements in bold)
Dub Pistols, Bent, DJ Food, The Horrors, Nostalgia 77, Cage the Elephant, Edwyn Collins, The James Taylor Quartet, Horse Feathers, DJ Format, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, The Aliens, Krafty Kuts, Jeremy Warmsley, Lights, DJ Food & DK, Zomby, Wild Beasts, The King Blues, Chris Murray, Kid Harpoon, Mr Scruff, Ipso Facto, Solid Steel, Golden Silvers, Portico Quartet, Jonquil, Son Of Dave, Chris Difford, It Hugs Back, The Temper Trap, Jay Jay Pistolet, Flamboyant Bella, The Invisible, Sargasso Trio, Trost, 6 Day Riot, DK, Mumford & Sons, James Taylor Quartet, Baddies, Chris T-T, Toddla T, Greg Wilson, Pete Molinari, Casiokids, The XX, Drums Of Death, Cha Cha, The Pan I Am, The Congregation, Peggy sue, Congregation, Greco Roman, Rae, S.C.U.M, Joe Gideon & The Shark, Josh Weller, Skeleton, cherbourg, Wave Pictures, Tom Allalone, Elephants, Black Market Karma, Psychotic Reaction, Onlookers, Ghost of a thousand, Tom Williams and The Boat, Monday Street, The Simonsound, Syd Arthur, Hobo Jones & the Junkyard Dogs, Wheeler Street, The Goodtimes, Moon Music Orchestra, Zombie Met Girl, The 18 Carat Love Affair, Amber Room, J*Star, Zoo for you, The Lovedays, Cocos Lovers, The Startover, The Wild Wolves, Trevor Moss, Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou, Samondi, Mr Lovebucket, Mc Serocee, MC Honeybrown, djbunjy, Ukulele Gangstas, The Chihuahuas, The Mind Without Maths, The Steve Hillage Band, calico street riots, Greco Roman Soundsystem w/ Ross Allen, Raf Daddy & Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, VJ LSDave, Comfy Porn DJs, Hannah Lou and Boxing Octopus

Lounge on the Farm is the almost the little festival that could. Growing from strength to strength over since the first in 2006, the event now boasts over 100 acts including a decent mix between minor recognisable bands and a ton of local talent. Operated by the same team that run the delightful Farmhouse in Canterbury, they really do seem to be doing everything they can to foster a local scene.

Great British Hopes collects the very best in unsigned acts from the UK.

This week saw the release of the first proper release from Royal Treatment Plant, the eight song Hope is Not Enough. Over the past two years, the band have really blossomed, moving up from a rough support act for Los Campesinos! into a solid band in their own right. Their excesses have been reigned in and everything is a little bit more polished. In a lot of bands I would be moaning about that, but in works in Royal Treatment Plant’s favour. The vocals of lead PP have undergone the most significant change. Now moving between sweet and bitter and aggressive at just the right moments, she dictates the tone of these songs perfectly. Crack Whore, one of the gentler songs on the record, demonstrates this growth perfectly.

Fuck. Not a good start.

As last year, there are no clear cut rules to this list. Some of the songs aren’t from 2007. Some may be older, but only reached my ears properly last year. So it’s really just a list of songs I’ve enjoyed over the past year. What will be number one? Last year it was the mighty You! Me! Dancing! by Los Campesinos!, so it has to be something pretty special to match up to that. Any bets? No? Great! On with the list:

May as well start with the most populist song on here. I can’t explain my liking of The Cribs, but I’ve actually liked the handful of songs that I’ve heard. They don’t seem to have the indie cool factor, and most of the elitists seem to enjoy pissing all over them. Who cares about that though? Don’t You Wanna Be Relevant? is certainly enjoyable enough, and if this is what passes as “mainstream indie” these days, I can live with that.

Amida are a band from Manchester who I first heard about via the awesome Skatterbrain. I’d never heard of them previously, so there’s something rather strange in the way that music travels. Amida don’t sound particularly British though, and on first listen I was pretty certain that they were American. None of which really matters though given how good this song is. A blistering attack on the mundanity of settling in the “dumb, happy and fat” life that seems to suit the majority.

The Welcome Committee is actually a two man vaguely folk project than a committee, but we can forgive that. The song itself is entirely non-sensical, somehow coming together as some epic globetrotting adventure with some very random interludes (“the liger led to certain death by stinging Charlie Sheen”). It’s all backed by a gently strummed guitar (sometimes at odds with the words), but it’s so catchy that none of this actually matters. And who can really argue with a song that features humming and actually gets away with it?

I’ve never really been able to get into Saturday Looks Good To Me. I liked The Girl’s Distracted and When The Party Ends from earlier album Every Night, but I never cared for the rest. With Make A Plan though, the band has finally settled into a sound that I like. Slightly electronic undertones are added into the mix, which seem to make all the difference. Tempo changes occur with alarmingly regularity, yet Fred Thomas’ melancoly vocal remains consistent, resulting in a sound that hovers somewhere around depressing beauty.

Jakobinarina is an Icelandic band that wants to rock pretty hard, and they do so, with most of the their songs being over and done with in two minutes. They are also very playful, which is what wins me over most. This Is An Advertisement cynically tackles the marketing culture in music, which is even more impressive when you take into account they look like they aren’t even old enough to have paper rounds.

Continuing their growth that started in 2006, RTP’s sound has only improved over the last twelve months. Each new song has sounded more assured than the last, the pinnacle of which is Undercurrent. A stunning assault on the eardrums that starts politely enough before building in both volume and aggression. With a bit of luck these guys will be able to break out and find the wider audience they deserve over the coming year.

Imagine if you can The Decemberists as a skiffle band. It’s an interesting thought, isn’t it? Well, that description is just halfway to covering what 586 sound like. Unusual instrumentation, theatrical vocal deliveries, frequent time changes, and lyrical shades of Fairytale of New York all form the three minutes of joy that is Rags & Tags.

Better than nearly everything off of the last album, even if it’s still kind of flat, and something that grows on you considerably. These mid-tempo, mildly rocking numbers seem to be their most common type of late, but they aren’t usually the most daring. It’s usually the more reflective songs that work best for me, or the ones that really want to rock. And Popular of course, but I can’t see them doing that again. That said, See These Bones sounds lovely, creating a richer sound than the band can usually achieve, and it’s certainly stronger than some of their past efforts lyrically.

If I can get away with placing Kate Nash at number four last year, you can let me have this one, yeah?

The next lot tomorrow. Hopefully.

So this blog turns a year old and I disappear entirely for more than a week. That was on the most part an accident as I’ve had a lot going on lately (some good, some not so good), but it seems like an appropriate time as any to have a little break. I’m back now though, and the list of bands to tell you about is even longer than ever, so normal service will be resuming immediately.

The first thing I should get to is the gig I was involved with last Thursday. It was a joint venture with the great folks at Life:Temper:Riot, and saw us putting on four bands in the heart of London. Now I’m a little wary about how to approach writing about this, largely because I’m involved in it and something seems a little wrong about telling you how great it was. So this will be a relatively brief run through of the night, with some mp3s included, so you can try out some of the bands yourself.

Our setting for the evening was the Horse & Groom pub in Shoreditch, a lovely little pub in a Shoreditch backstreet that seems to have not aged since it opened, even though it’s now surrounded by modern office developments. Due to a small organisational error, the night had to be run downstairs, which is the first time the pub has had live music in the main bar area. An impromptu stage is constructed toward the back of the bar, leading to fun things like the “backstage” area also doubling as the route to the toilets.

Captain Phoenix are our first band to take to the stage, and set a suitably rocking tone. I was a little wary about these guys before seeing them, fearing their set would be a little “rock-by-numbers”, but that thankfully turned out to be wrong. By the end of the first song, the not insubstantial crowd seemed to be into them, with upbeat numbers like ‘Living On The Guest List’ being the highly. Given how young the members of the band are, they already sound like they know exactly what they are doing, and they seem destined to break out of the small indie circuit in the near future.

The next band on the bill were rather more polarising. Thomas Tantrum put on a set that I enjoyed on the most part, but they seem to suffer the Ryan Adams syndrome of not knowing when to edit their own output. The good songs in their set are fantastic, but the weaker ones are pretty bad at times. Each song was interesting, and they certainly weren’t afraid to try something new, but they are in need of a producer that will reign in their eccentricities. That said, a lot of the audience did seem to be into them in quite a big way, so who am I to judge?

Talk Taxis were the last band to be added to our lineup, coming straight off the back of touring with the Maccabees. Their set seemed to go by very quickly, although I don’t know if this was due to it being short or me just really enjoying it. Every one of their songs sounded great, bringing a driven, garage rock kind of sound. ‘Publicity’ was the highlight of this, but other songs like ‘Mother’s Eyes’ and ‘Liverless’ also came over very well. These guys will be playing all over London in the coming weeks, so try and check them out if you can.

Our headliners for the evening are Royal Treatment Plant, and they turn in a storming set of songs, from the opening rock out of ‘You Don’t Need Me’, through to their single ‘Carry Me’ and the brutality of ‘Playing Dumb’. Lead singer PP throws herself into the set with such energy that it’s impossible not to be drawn into it. The whole band comes together wonderful, with their guitars, drums and keyboards all getting their chance to shine, without ever sounding too choreographed. By the time we reach our conclusion with the fantastic ‘Trained’, the entire crowd have been won over.

All in all it was a very enjoyable night, and everyone there did seem to have a good time. Now, in case you think I’m just hyping up something I had a vested interest in, here’s another review from Forty Shades Of Noise. They even have some tiny pictures, unlike me, because I didn’t think to take any.

MP3 Royal Treatment Plant – You Don’t Need Me (expired)
MP3 Royal Treatment Plant – Trained (expired)

MP3 Talk Taxis – Publicity (expired)
MP3 Talk Taxis – Mother’s Eyes (expired)

Bands: Royal Treatment Plant || Talk Taxis || Thomas Tantrum || Captain Phoenix

There are a number and probably quite boring reasons that have resulted in me telling you about this without a great deal of notice. Next week though, Another Form of Relief will be presenting another gig, in association with the good folks of the Life:Temper:Riot club night. Full details of the night are on the poster above, but if for some bizarre reason you can’t see it or something, here are the basics:

What? Another Form of Relief at Life:Temper:Riot.
Who? Royal Treatment Plant, Talk Taxis, Thomas Tantrum, Captain Phoenix.
When? Thursday 1 March (that’s next week!) at 8pm.
Where? The Horse & Groom, which can be located at 26 Curtain Road, Shoreditch. Which is in London.

So you get four excellent bands, in London, and it’ll only cost you a mere £3.99 to enter. You can’t really go wrong with that, can you? If you need further convincing, allow me to tell you about our bands:

Full of driving guitars and some fantastic passive-agressive vocals sung with an urgency that doesn’t often seem to crop up from female fronted British bands, Royal Treatment Plant are one of my surprise favourites from last year. It seems that the mainstream music outlets are catching on to them too with plays on Radio 1, 6Music and XFM in recent months. I didn’t expect to enjoy their CD when it dropped into my post box, but I found myself enjoying as much as some of my favourite albums. Which is a pretty impressive feat when it’s only a three track single. I enjoyed every song on there though, and exploring the songs that were available online turned out to be most fruitful. From the gentle builds to the full on riffs that seem to punctuate every song, Royal Treatment always seem to make for an often surprising, always satisfying listen.

MP3 Royal Treatment Plant – You Don’t Need Me (expired)
MP3 Royal Treatment Plant – Trained (expired)

Royal Treatment Plant: Website || Myspace

Talk Taxis are currently touring the UK in support of The Maccabees to sold out venues, attracting a lot of attention in the process. This is largely thanks to their daring sound, a wonderful combination of opposing influences. You’ll hear elements of funk, punk and dance mixed in with a more familiar indie rock sound, a move that should be destined to failure. Talk Taxis pull it off with such finesse that they sound like old pros, when in reality they only got together two years ago “with a shared enthusiasm for music and badgering inept tutors”. And if you don’t find a band that uses a stylophone “in Rolf Harris inspired moments” appealing, you obviously have no soul.

MP3 Talk Taxis – Publicity (expired)
MP3 Talk Taxis – Mother’s Eyes (expired)

Talk Taxis: Myspace

More female fronted rock goodness comes in the form of Southampton four-piece Thomas Tantrum. While you may not initially hear anything new in their music, as soon as the vocals kick in, you know you’re listening to something unique. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly what makes them so appealing, as lead singer Mega Thomas (seriously) has the kind of voice that sounds like it would be out of place in rock and/or roll. The able support of her band though means we’re left with songs that manage to get themselves stuck into your head without you even noticing.

Thomas Tantrum: Website || Myspace

Captain Phoenix are the kind of band that you know are going to be on the cover of NME sooner or later. Their sound seems to arrive already fully formed, expertly crafted songs that are already far better than the majority of things within that very magazine. After playing in excess of 100 gigs around their home town of Winchester, they are now doing much the same around London and the UK as a whole, bringing their sound to the unsuspecting masses.

Captain Phoenix: Website || Myspace

Convinced now? Excellent. We look forward to seeing you there.

Okay, so I realise that 49 songs is a pretty random number. I don’t entirely know why I chose it. It’s just that 50 seemed rather generic to me. I also know that the ordering on a lot of these songs is slightly absurd. Isn’t #36 really better than #37? I honestly couldn’t tell you as my opinion probably changes from day to day. So take the numbering with a pinch of salt. It’s a rough guide, nothing more. I should also point out that I limited any band to having no more than two songs each in the 49. So much as I would have loved to filled this with Voxtrot, Young Republic or Light Footwork songs, I had to use a little self restraint. So now you know some of my methodology, enjoy the next ten songs.

#39
The Mountain Goats
‘Woke Up New’

Website
Myspace

“This isn’t the John Darnielle that we heard on the last two records. The song tells the story of getting used to being alone after the big breakup and uses wonderfully real examples of getting used to being alone (”the first time I made coffee for just myself, I made too much of it”). It all essentially comes down to a refrain of “oh, what will I do without you?”. It isn’t an angry question though, just accepting that this is how things are now.” – originally posted June 17.

#38
Cansei De Ser Sexy
‘This Month, Day 10′

Website
Myspace

Probably the most cheerful sounding break-up song of the past year. CSS seem to be about an image just as much as the music, and when it sounds/looks this good, who really cares? There’s nothing overly complex in the arrangements here, just a lot of synth and some rather bored sounding vocals. All of which makes it a hell of a lot of funny, even when the lead singer is belting out lines like “if someday we get to meet again / In a car crash, plane wreck or terrorist attack / Or maybe next thursday night / Don’t bother saying hi”.

#37
National Heroes
‘Riot Vans / CS Cans’

Website
Myspace

A glorious assault on the “chav” culture that seems to have almost consumed the UK. I only discovered National Heroes toward the end of the year and don’t know a great deal about them, but they have obviously been listening to a lot of the great British bands. A storming snapshot of modern Britain, covering such lovely topics as teen pregnancy (“Teenage drugs and pregnant mums / Birth control is non-existant”) to the wonderful street racers you encounter on the roads each day (“Boy racers cruising in their financed 205s / Keep touching 90 down the A1205″) all leading to the simple refrain that it’s just “a sign of the times”. Assuming they get noticed, they could be the next big thing for British music in 2007.

#36
Belle & Sebastian
‘Sukie In The Graveyard’

Website
Myspace

Even though most seem to love it, ‘The Life Pursuit’ really doesn’t do very much for me. It’s a reasonable enough album with some solid singles, but on the whole it leaves me pretty cold. I guess I fall into the simplistic early Belle and Sebastian camp rather than the things they come up with now. Oh well, it still has those solid singles, and ‘Sukie In The Graveyard’ is one of them. One of the things I really don’t like about new Belle & Sebastian is how Murdoch constantly plays around with different styles of delivery. Ironically, ‘Sukie’ is one of the songs where he does this, pitching the song with a heavily accented, rapid delivery, and yet it works for it perfectly. The song sounds cheerful enough until you actually listen the words, where it becomes a rather dark tale of a girl kicked out of her house who ends up posing nude to make ends meet. Not that she seems to care of course. Oh Belle and Sebastian, and your wonderful shades of grey.

#35
Royal Treatment Plant
‘You Don’t Need Me’

Website
Myspace

Royal Treatment Plant are a band that I went from hating to really liking within the course of a month. I really disliked them when I saw them live in September, but I got their CD in the mail a few days later and I really liked it. I’m not sure what didn’t click the first time around, but it was this song that largely won me over. It’s full of driving guitars and some fantastic passive-agressive vocals sung with an urgency that doesn’t often seem to crop up from female fronted British bands.

#34
Play Radio Play
‘Juice Box, Paper Hat and a Line of Pixie Stix’

Website
Myspace

If there’s one thing this kid needs, it’s an editor. Which may sound like a harsh way to open, but it’s rather true. Play Radio Play is a 17 year old from Texas who makes simple electronic songs on his computer. A lot of them are pretty awful. But some of the good ones are really good. ‘Juice Box’ is one of them. It’s all pretty whimsical, about escaping from life to a fantasy world where you’re in control, but the delivery and arrangement prove that there is talent here to make Postal Service like electro-pop perfection. He’s just been signed to Island, so hopefully with a little guidance he’ll be able to reign in some of the eccentric elements of his music and come up with something stunning.

#33
Sparrow House
‘When I Am Gone’

Website
Myspace

Sparrow House is the solo project of Jared Van Fleet, who is a member of the fantastic Voxtrot. The sound of Sparrow House is nothing like that of Voxtrot though. ‘When I Am Gone’ is from his debut EP, ‘Falls’, and is a stunning folk effort that comes across as a latter day Iron & Wine. A gentle, twanging guitar eases up through the song, while Van Fleet sings his heartbreaking lament over the top. It’s almost enough to wonder exactly what we’d be hearing from this guy if he wasn’t a member of Voxtrot. Almost.

#32
Absentee
‘Something To Bang’

Website
Myspace

“This is a band that describes their sound as “Leonard Cohen singing from the trouser backed up with a mix of incompetence and occasional surprise”. So I started to listen to ‘Something To Bang’. It all started normally enough, all garage band guitars and bassline, and then, forty five seconds in, the vocal kicks in. That’s the point where I discovered they really weren’t kidding with the Leonard Cohen thing. Lead singer Dan does have a voice that evokes Cohen, and more importantly, a voice that isn’t usually found in indie rock. Indie rock is often made up of those who can’t really sing but really want to rock out, and the music will disguise that well. The people with the stronger voices seem to go on and do other things. This isn’t exactly a perfect rule, but it fits quite a lot of the time. I guess my point here is that there’s a voice here that you don’t commonly hear. The closest contemporary comparison I can think of is David Berman, and that’s certainly not a bad thing. As the song progresses, more musical flourishes enter. There are keyboards in here, sneaky little riffs and a bunch of other fun stuff. All of this results in an indie-country-rock type sound that you don’t often hear coming from bands on this side of the Atlantic.” – originally posted June 24.

#31
The Bright Lights
‘Closed on Monday’

Website
Myspace

I discovered The Bright Lights entirely by accident when they headlined a Beeches gig that I’d been invited too. Unfortunately I had to leave before their set was over, but a quick rummage around the internet later showed they had a hell of a lot of talent. The songs aren’t all that bold, but by god they are catchy, with the kind of urgent vocal delivery that makes them come to an end seemingly far too quickly. ‘Closed on Monday’ is by far their best effort, a fantastic piece of guitar pop. They are due to release a single (their first I think) in March, so hopefully 2007 will be the year that things start happen for them.

#30
Oh No! Oh My!
‘I Have No Sister’

Website
Myspace

Handclaps! Electronica! Non-sensical lyrics! What’s not to love about Oh No! Oh My!? Their whole album is full of delightful little gems but it’s ‘I Have No Sister’ that stands out the most to me. A gleeful song about feeling better by being with someone, even if it means suggesting that they both “ride bikes into the sea”. The whole thing is darker lyrically than it sounds musically, and things like “if I die then at least you’ll die too” really should be rather morbid, but somehow it manages to seem forever gleeful.

You should know how it works by now. Ten more tomorrow, ten more Friday and the final nine on Saturday.

I saw Royal Treatment Plant back in September when they were one of the supports for Los Campesinos! at their London show at Water Rats. If you had told me at the time that I would be writing about them a couple of months down the line, I probably would have laughed at you. To say my initial reaction to them wasn’t good would be something of an understatement. I pretty much decided that I hated them within the first song of their set. That may seem like a harsh thing to do, but for some reason they just didn’t click with me whatsoever. They gave an air of ‘trying way too hard’ when it came to their rocking, and their frontwoman came across as a poor man’s Madison Kellner. Feel free to Google that, I’ll still be here when you get back.

Anyway, this led to a walking out on their set after a couple of songs. Part of this was because we so desperately needed air. Believe me, Water Rats is not a fun venue to be in on a hot day when it’s absolutely packed out. All of this would have led to me not given RTP any further thought. Of course things never quite work out like that, and a few days later I received their new single, ‘Carry Me’ in the post with a nice little note. Without the note I probably wouldn’t have bothered playing it, but I’m a sucker for when bands try the personal touch so I actually gave it a couple of plays. An act which led to a somewhat shocked feeling when I found myself really enjoying it.

I’m not sure there’s a moral to this story or anything. If there is, it’s probably to not judge bands entirely based on two songs at one show. Below you’ll find two songs from their demo that was recorded earlier on during the year. Both songs are really good, and I wish I’d been able to catch them at the show. They are both full of driving guitars and some fantastic passive-agressive vocals sung with an urgency that doesn’t often seem to crop up from female fronted British bands.

MP3 Royal Treatment Plant – You Don’t Need Me
MP3 Royal Treatment Plant – Trained

I’d love to be able to post material from the aforementioned ‘Carry Me’ single here, but I know that bands need to make money somehow. As such, it comes highly recommended. I can’t say enough good things about b-side ‘Playing Dumb’, which is certainly amongst my favourite songs of the year. Man, I’ve been saying that a lot lately, haven’t I? Anyway, you can purchase it for the bargaintastic price of £3.99 from our brand new Store section. Wow, wasn’t that subtle?

Royal Treatment Plant: Website || Myspace

Well I’m certainly late with this one. The gig I’m about to talk about actually took place ten days ago, and a bunch of reasons have stopped me writing about it until now. First off I was just incredibly tired in the day or two afterwards (who’d have thought driving into London is tiring?), then I waited for some fantastic pictures of the event. This was followed by a busy weekend and finally, I got sidetracked on tuesday night by my team’s spectacular victory at the local pub quiz. Which may seem pathetic, but given we’ve been trying for two years to win the bloody thing, it was quite an achievement.

Anyway, it’s last monday’s gig that we’re here to talk about. Most people who know me know that I’ve always sworn I wouldn’t drive into London. It’s surprising what the oppurtunity to see a fantastic new band will do to you though. Armed with my trusty GPS navigation system (probably the only one in a Daewoo Matiz..), I set off for London and found myself outside the venue around an hour later. The only problem in this is that although I was right outside the venue (Water Rats, Kings Cross area), I couldn’t actually park there until 7pm. Knowing what London traffic wardens are supposed to be like, I quickly picked up Simon via parking in a taxi rank, which I somehow got away with, and then spent the next half hour circling the venue until I could actually park. Which isn’t the most thing to do in a busy part of London, but there doesn’t appear to be much else in the way of options.

Apparently for London gigs, no one actually bothers with the earliest band on the bill, particularly when there are four of them. There were around ten of us in the room for Julian Donkey Boy, the opening act, and yet they turned out to be one of the highlights of the night. I’m not sure whether they are a full band or a solo outlet with a backing group, but they put on a good little show, largely made up of fairly upbeat country-ish numbers, and a couple of slowed down acoustic songs. They were also very cool in that they gave both me and Simon free CDs later on during the night.

MP3 Julian Donkey Boy – From Here To There

Julian Donkey Boy: Website || Myspace

Next up were Royal Treatment Plant, a London band that I wasn’t familiar with before the show. I’m going to be perfectly honest and admit that I didn’t take to them very much at all. Between their first few songs not really grabbing us and the insane heat of the venue, we headed outside for some much needed fresh air, thinking we hadn’t missed very much. This feeling somewhat shifted to regret a couple of days later when I was sent their new single, and it (and their other songs) are pretty damn good. I’ll be featuring them in an individual post in a few days so I won’t talk too much about the single here, but it was certainly a missed oppurtunity, despite the need for air.

MP3 Royal Treatment Plant – You Don’t Need Me

Royal Treatment Plant: Website || Myspace

We wandered back in just in time to see The Hot Puppies starting, who are apparently quite popular these days (I have no idea what the kids are listening to), but once again they didn’t really do very much for us either. Which led to even more standing outside for fresh air, which turned out to be a very smart move given how insanely packed it was going to be for the Los Campesinos! part of the show.

Getting back in just as the band were finishing their set up and it was clear to see exactly what kind of show this was going to be. I don’t get to anywhere near as many gigs as I’d like, but it was obvious that this was no ordinary show. Surrounding us in the back section of the room was a ton of older men in suits, some armed with video cameras to record the event. Yes folks, this was an industry show. Apparently representitives from a ton of important labels were in the audience, kind of proving (without blowing our collective trumpets) the power that a combination of bloggers and the Drowned In Sound message board has over the industry these days.

Ironically enough, it was the opening to Los Campesinos! set that was the weakest part of their set. Opening with the ten minute instrumental prog rock piece ‘Hold On Now Youngster’ may prove that everyone can play their instruments well, but it doesn’t really get an excited crowd going. They were largely expecting upbeat, poppy numbers that could be danced to, instead the mood was kind of killed. Things picked up shortly afterwards though with a rendition of ‘Death To Los Campesinos!’, which although plagued with little technical problems (largely Aleksandra’s mic volume being way too low), was still a hell of a lot of fun. They followed this up with a bunch of ‘new’ songs (highlight being ‘We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives’), all of which proved they have more than the four known songs in them. All of this was slotted between a fair bit of nervous banter between the band and the crowd, amusingly leading to the band declaring that they aren’t really from Cardiff, with each band member rattling off where they were from (Surrey to Russia, and everywhere in between). They powered through their songs, bringing the show to a close with a triple bill of ‘favourites’: ‘You! Me! Dancing!’, ‘It Started With a Mixx’ and ‘Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks’, all of which seemed to make the crowd insanely happy.

Overall, the show was a lot of fun, but it wasn’t entirely perfect. The opener didn’t do the band any favours, there were minor technical problems throughout and on a few occasions, someone in the band messed something up. This isn’t meant to be taken as a criticism, this was something like their seventh time playing live (remember they have only existed as a band for a few months) and so this kind of thing is to be expected. I also doubt having half of the music industry breathing down their necks really helped things all that much either. So are Los Campesinos! ready for the big time? Probably not, but they will be soon enough. Let’s just hope this early expectation doesn’t hinder their chances in any way.

Setlist: Hold On Now Youngster // Death To Los Campesinos! // Don’t Tell Me To Do The Math(s) // Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats // We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives // No Tetris // You! Me! Dancing! // It Started With A Mixx // Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks

MP3 Los Campesinos! – Death To Los Campesinos! (expired)
MP3 Los Campesinos! – You! Me! Dancing! (expired)
MP3 Los Campesinos! – It Started With A Mixx (expired)
MP3 Los Campesinos! – Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks (expired)

Los Campesinos!: Myspace

All Photos: Nick Ross Photography