Since we've had such a great time last year, we've decided to do it all over again this year. The dedicated
Cool Music Central r'n'r team (all two of us) is gearing up for a new
Barcelona expedition and we will be bringing you all the action from
Primavera Sound 2010 like we did last spring (read all about it
here). Let's take a closer look at some of the most exciting names appearing at this year's
Primavera Sound festival that is taking place between
Thursday, May 27th and
Saturday, May 29th in Spain:
May 27th
The big names of the first day, in order of appearance, are
The Fall,
Superchunk and
Pavement at the
San Miguel stage (the biggest one) and
Broken Social Scene at the
Ray-Ban stage. Indie rock royalty with tremendous history behind them and just as exciting present. We've
already talked about
The Fall's latest opus, while we've
recently learned that
Superchunk are finishing their ninth LP, their first in almost ten years.
Broken Social Scene, Canada's all-star rock team, have recently dropped the tremendous "
Forgiveness Rock Record", while
Pavement may not have or planning on recording any new material but their reunion for a limited run of shows is undoubtedly one of the major events of the year, giving a new generation of fans the chance to catch them live for the first time. I'm also very curious how a backstage meeting between
Mark Smith and
Stephen Malkmus would go - friendly chat or something along the lines of "Hey, student! Stop plagiarizing my band"!
Other exciting acts appearing on Thursday include rising stars
The XX and
The Big Pink (two of the greatest
new bands of 2009),
Sleigh Bells (they just released their awesome debut "
Treats"),
Chrome Hoof,
Titus Andronicus,
Surfer Blood and
Sic Alps.
May 28th
Plenty of excellent acts on offer on the second day of the festival but the overlapping schedule means that we're faced with some tough choices. I'm definitely planning on seeing Spoon and Les Savy Fav, two of my favorite bands of the '00s, while Beach House and Wire are also a must (one of the hottest acts of the year versus founding fathers of post-punk and a source of inspiration for countless musicians over the last three decades), but the proximity of their on-stage time calls for a very tricky balancing act on my part (which involves a lot of running around with a stopwatch on hand).
The tightly packed schedule means that I'll probably miss Wilco and Japandroids, but hopefully I can catch at least part of the performances of Yeasayer, Panda Bear, CocoRosie, Cold Cave, Shellac, The King Khan & BBQ Show and earlier in the day The New Pornographers, Best Coast, Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions and Low performing "The Great Destroyer". The last two groups play at the limited capacity but with great acoustics Auditorium stage, which adds the challenge of actually managing to get in these shows.
May 29th
The two most anticipated performances of the third day of the festival for me are from veteran guitar-heroes
Built To Spill at the
ATP stage and from fresh-faced indie darlings
Dum Dum Girls (also the stars of one of our
recent Killer Tracks posts) who are to play two sets: an acoustic one at the
Ray-Ban Unplugged stage and a full-on electric one at the
Pitchfork stage. Other hot new acts appearing on the third day include
HEALTH,
No Age (unfortunately playing at the same time as
Built To Spill),
The Drums,
Florence + The Machine,
Atlas Sound,
Grizzly Bear,
The Antlers and
Real Estate. Among the names with an impressive history behind them we find
The Slits,
The Clean,
Polvo,
Liquid Liquid and the mad professor of dub
Lee "Scratch" Perry.
These are approximately 40 bands out of the more than 100 that will be appearing across nine stages in the three days of
Primavera Sound 2010 (without taking into consideration the many related events that take place in the city around these dates). At the start of June we'll be bringing you, both here and in
mixgrill.gr, our complete report of what went down in Barcelona accompanied, as usual, with exclusive photos and video-clips. Keep watching this space in the meantime for some mini reports with the sights and sounds of the festival.
Broken Social Scene - 7/4 Shoreline
