We're waving goodbye to spring and welcoming the summer period with a selection of some of the finest new tracks we've had the pleasure of listening to in the last few months. As we're reaching the mid-point of 2017, this playlist is also indicative of where we currently stand on the issue of the best releases of the year so far. Let's leave it to the music to do the talking:
Part 2 of our highlight reel from Barcelona's Primavera Sound 2015 festival - check out photos and videos from the performances we've enjoyed the most on the second full day of the festival which took place at Parc del Fòrum on May 29th, plus a couple of new bands from Australia we saw at MACBA, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona.
Sleater-Kinney
It's been nearly 16 years since the last time I saw Sleater-Kinney live, firstly on the main stage of Reading Festival in 1999, playing a great set early in the afternoon, and then again a few days later at London ULU as part of the celebrations for Matador Records 10th birthday.
In the time that passed since these two unforgettable performances, the band released three more excellent records after that year's "The Hot Rock" (my Album of the Year for 1999), went on a ten-year hiatus during which we've had many exciting projects, musical or otherwise, from all three of them, and reemerged triumphantly this year with "No Cities To Love", an album that proves the magic is still here and their special chemistry still works wonders.
Without a doubt, Sleater-Kinney's hour-long set at Primavera's Heineken stage was amongst the festival's top performances, combining highlights from their new album with some of the finest tracks they've given us over the past two decades. Their set went as far back as 1997 for "Dig Me Out"'s dynamite title track and "Words and Guitar", while all their '00s work was well represented with 2006's "The Woods" taking the lion's share. The only minus point for me of an otherwise faultless set was the complete omission of the numerous gems to be found on "The Hot Rock" (I think "Get Up" would have been perfect for the finale). I guess you can't have it all in just one hour, but we did have all of the following:
Sleater-Kinney's complete set list: Price Tag, Jumpers, Bury Our Friends, Oh!, Surface Envy, Ironclad, What's Mine Is Yours, No Cities to Love, Fangless, Rollercoaster, A New Wave, One Beat, All Hands on the Bad One, The Fox, Words and Guitar, Sympathy, Dig Me Out, Entertain, Modern Girl.
Sleater‐Kinney - No Cities to Love (live @ Primavera Sound, May 29th, 2015)
Sleater‐Kinney - Dig Me Out / Entertain (live @ Primavera Sound, May 29th, 2015)
The Julie Ruin
You can say that the second day of Primavera Sound was dominated by ex-riot grrrls who are now riot women and prove in action that 40 is the new 20. Kathleen Hanna was in excellent form throughout the 45-minute set of her new band The Julie Ruin, hopefully an indication that her health problems are now behind her, and along with her band mates, including former Bikini Kill partner in crime Kathi Wilcox, delivered a scorcher of a set, full of positive energy.
Check out below "Oh Come On", one of the best songs in a set list that included the following: V.G.I., Lookout, Party City, South Coast Plaza, Kids in NY, Radical or Pro-parental, Ha Ha Ha, Goodnight Goodbye, Oh Come On, Run Fast.
The Julie Ruin - Oh Come On (live @ Primavera Sound, May 29th, 2015)
Disappears
It's certainly one of the marks of a good festival: you walk in with certain expectations, but sometimes the great moments come when you least expect them. Like at five o'clock in the afternoon, in the sparsely attended Ray-Ban stage, when Chicago's Disappears deliver an intense set under the hot sun. I imagine if they were on later at night, this could easily have been one of the festival's most talked about performances. Even so, they rightfully earn a place in our highlight reel of the day and convince me that I need to do some digging in their discography which so far includes five albums, with their latest release being this year's "Irreal" LP.
Disappears, live @ Primavera Sound, May 29th, 2015
Ride
The recently reunited shoegaze heroes have been steadily upping their game since their return to the live stage and it's easy to see they are now firing on all cylinders. The start of their set with "Leave Them All Behind" and early single "Like a Daydream" was truly impressive and they continued well with "Nowhere" tracks "Polar Bear" and "Seagull", but given the difficulty in approaching the overcrowded main stage to get a closer look and the fact that almost simultaneously both Run The Jewels and Death From Above 1979 were also playing, after a while I had to make my excuses and move on to other pursuits. Here's "Like a Daydream", undoubtedly one of the highlights of the day:
Ride - Like a Daydream (live @ Primavera Sound, May 29th, 2015)
The New Pornographers
If you're at a festival and The New Pornographers are playing, you should definitely find some time for them. Even with some of their key players missing (both Neko Case and Dan Bejar were not present), Carl Newman's team is a sure bet for some memorable, upbeat rock with strong melodies that's good for any time of the day or night. One of the best performances we caught at the ATP stage where also Run The Jewels, Belle and Sebastian and The KVB played.
The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic (live @ Primavera Sound, May 29th, 2015)
Death From Above 1979
The second day of the festival finished for us around 2 in the morning, after a blistering performance by Canadian noise makers Death From Above 1979 at the crowded Ray-Ban stage. We walked back to the hotel under the sounds of Jon Hopkins whose set was just beginning at the ATP stage, but after 9 hours of running up and down Parc del Fòrum there just wasn't any more fuel left in the tank for us.
Check out below some more photos from Primavera's second day featuring Belle & Sebastian, Julian Casablancas + The Voidz and The KVB.
Belle & Sebastian
Julian Casablancas + The Voidz
The KVB
Earlier in the day, as part of the events of PrimaveraPro (the meeting for professionals from the music sector), we enjoyed a showcase of new bands from Australia outside of MACBA. Here's a couple of them, Klo, an electronic pop duo from Melbourne, following in the footsteps of acts like Purity Ring, and Holy Holy who play electric folk-rock that brought to my mind Band Of Horses.
Klo, live @ MACBA
Holy Holy, live @ MACBA
Check out here our impressions from the first day of the festival. Part 3 is coming soon...
The plans to start the second day of the festival with Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions at the Auditorium were scuppered by the delayed start of the performance. After listening to just a couple of tracks, I left the darkness of the indoor venue to return to Barcelona’s sunshine and made my way to the San Miguel Stage where The New Pornographers were just starting their set with just the right track: “Sing Me Spanish Techno”.
The New Pornographers
Although both Neko Case and Dan Bejar didn’t make the trip to Barcelona, Carl Newman and the rest of the Canadian collective did a fine job on the festival’s main stage, presenting us with an hour-long upbeat collection of sunshine pop, that combined brand new tracks (“The Crash Years”, “Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk”, “Your Hands (Together)” - the latter dedicated to Dio) with old favorites (“Mass Romantic”, “The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism”, “Use It”, “The Laws Have Changed”, “All The Old Showstoppers”, “Testament To Youth In Verse”) - an ideal soundtrack for a sunny afternoon by the Mediterranean beach.
Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast
More sunny guitar pop with a twist of '60s girl-group sound was on offer at the nearby Pitchfork Stage, where Bethany Cosentino and her group, the hotly tipped Best Coast from California, were presenting their soon to come debut LP “Crazy For You” (out in July). Recent singles “When I'm With You» (see also this) and “Something In The Way” were the tracks that I enjoyed the most, while they cheekily closed their set with a cover of Wavves’ “So Bored”, the band who suffered an infamous meltdown at the same stage a year ago.
Spoon
Back at the main stage, it was time for me to finally see Spoon live, one of my favorite bands of the last decade. Britt Daniel and his band have had considerable success in the States with “Transference” but their profile in Europe remains relatively low. Maybe this is starting to change as Spoon managed to pull quite a crowd at the San Miguel Stage, although not as large as Wilco did a bit later on (one of the performances I missed, as well as that of Japandroids due to the congested schedule of the day). Spoon have built up a remarkable repertoire over the years, so it was certain that for the next hour we were going to get an interesting mix of new (“Nobody Gets Me But You”, “Got Nuffin”, “Trouble Comes Running”, “Written in Reverse”) and older tracks (“Jonathon Fisk”, “Small Stakes”, “The Way We Get By”, “I Turn My Camera On”, “I Summon You”, “Don't Make Me a Target”, “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb”, “Don't You Evah”, “The Underdog”) while, inevitably, some favorites would be left out (“Everything Hits At Once”, “Sister Jack”, “Rhythm & Soul” for example). In any case, this was definitely one of my favorite performances of the festival and the start of a four hour period (from 8 pm till midnight) that had plenty of excitement in store for us.
Beach House
A little after half past 9, and after catching just the first song of CocoRosie’s set, I made my way to the packed ATP Stage where Beach House were about to begin. Climbing on the bleachers and finding a spot to watch the band proved to be a tough challenge, but I was rewarded with an enchanting 40-minute performance, dominated by Victoria Legrand’s imposing voice and brief fits of headbanging over her keyboards. Alex Scally, to her right, was more restrained, concentrating on his guitar and effects pedals, while the drummer had a relatively quiet evening. I usually prefer more tension and volume in live shows but on this occasion I must admit that the ethereal, magical sounds of Beach House won the day, captivating the audience for the duration of their show. Not surprisingly, the highlights of their set came from “Teen Dream”: “Norway”, “Zebra”, “Used To Be” and “10 Mile Stereo”.
Wire
The tension and volume I am usually after were on offer in generous doses at the nearby Vice Stage, my next destination, where I was able to catch the second half of Wire’s electrifying performance. The veteran post-punkers are preparing a new record for January 2011, and I’m guessing that they played some of the new material as I didn’t recognize several tracks of their set, a fact that didn’t lessen in any way my enjoyment of it. In stark contrast to bands like the Pixies, the headliners of the day, who seem to be stuck to their glorious past and, unable to move forward, have become nothing more than a touring nostalgia act, Wire are looking to the future and continue to create vital art.
Les Savy Fav
The absolute highlight of the day (and perhaps of the whole festival) for me, came at around 11 o’clock when Les Savy Fav started their deranged show at the ATP Stage. Tim Harrington made an impressive entrance dressed in a strange animal suit (I’m guessing an oversized wolf in honor of “What Would Wolves Do?”) and seconds later he was diving in the crowd and heading for the bleachers, as the guitars were catching fire. As soon as he was back on stage for the start of their second number (the magnificent “Patty Lee” - check it out here), he began his customary striptease, thankfully keeping his shorts on, and pretty soon he was back in the heaving mosh pit where madness reigned supreme. Impressively, among all this chaos, the band didn’t miss a beat, performing a note perfect set even when the guitarist was riding on the shoulders of some big fellow. For a blissful hour, Les Savy Fav was a well-oiled, firing on all pistons, punk rock machine on its way to music Valhalla!
Cold Cave
For the finale of the festival’s second day I checked out Cold Cave at the Pitchfork Stage, who were playing industrial-sized New Order melodies armed with no less than three synthesizers, and ended up at the Vice Stage for a taste of the mad garage rock of The King Khan & BBQ Show and for the dance party of Yeasayer. They kicked off their set at 2:30 am and somehow managed to keep us on our feet for another hour, until they signed off with the fine “Ampling Alp”, “Odd Blood”’s best track. The highlights of their performance, however, were “2080” and “Sunrise”, the two top tracks from their superior debut effort.
Yeasayer
Live action from Primavera Sound '10 - Day Two (May 28): The New Ponographers ("Your Hands (Together)"), Spoon ("Written In Reverse"), Beach House ("Norway"), Les Savy Fav ("The Sweat Descends"), Yeasayer ("2080") and Best Coast ("So Bored")
The Day One report is here. Our report from the third day of the festival is coming soon..
Mobile phone-quality photos and videos from some of the best performances of the second and third day of the Primavera Sound 10 festival in Barcelona featuring Les Savy Fav, Spoon, The New Pornographers, Best Coast, Built To Spill, Dum Dum Girls and The Drums. We're keeping the good stuff for the detailed reports that we're going to bring you both here and in mixgrill.gras soon as we're back home and make a full recovery from this three day music-marathon!
Day 2 - May 28, 2010
Les Savy Fav, live @ Primavera Sound 10
Les Savy Fav - Patty Lee, live @ Primavera Sound 10
Spoon, live @ Primavera Sound 10
Spoon - Trouble Comes Running, live @ Primavera Sound 10
