2000 trees festival review

If you were not aware that 2000 trees festival happened last weekend, shame on you, but this doesn’t mean you have been living under a rock.

2000 trees calls itself a festival for new and underground British music, this coupled with the lack of mainstream advertising lead to a congregation of around 3000 like minded, indie individuals. The small scale of the festival site was very similar to that of our very own Truck and events of this ilk always have a special feel. A certain camaraderie was built up by the festival goers, stewards and musicians unique to small festivals.

The first band I saw were Cats and Cats and Cats who unfortunately were distinctly underwhelming. Their set began slowly and the choruses were nowhere near as soaring as on record which should never be the case. With the music getting off to a bad start I proceeded to the Main Stage where I was met by the catchy pop-rock of Straight Lines. Their set may not have raised the bar musically but they did a great job of getting the crowd going, instigating a 50m conga line!

Tribes’ set on the Main Stage was very similar to that of early R.E.M and Pavement both of whom they class as strong influences. I can completely understand why they are gaining more and more hype but their songs are just too one dimensional and repetitive for my liking. If you’re a fan you can catch them at Truck on Sunday on the Truck Store’s stage.

Next to grace the Main Stage where Dinosaur Pile-Up who brought their cross between Nirvana and Foo Fighters to Upcote Farm. Their set went down a storm and not only did they manage to stir the audience into a frenzy but they also executed each and every song with masterful precision. After this incredible set, a large number of punters migrated to the Leaf Lounge where waves were being made for Tall Ships’ instrument swapping, indie folk-rock sounds. The band possessing more pedals than the Tour de France enabled them to loop jagged guitar riffs and electro bleeps to high heaven much like in ‘Beanie and Dodger’. The audience’s rousing response was met humbly by the band who thanked everyone for “the biggest sing along ever” before diving head-on into Robbie Williams’ ‘Angels’. This bold move paid off and made for a very memorable moment for all in the tent.

For the final two sets on the Main Stage things began getting political with The King Blues talking about burning tabloid newspapers and Scroobious Pip commenting on the vulgarity of the BNP. A mixture between the bands words and an entire day of heavy drinking lead to the thriving mass of bodies gradually becoming wilder as the moments ticked on. Dan Le Sac vs Scroobious Pip used inflatable balls for that extra touch (not quite Arcade Fire at Coachella) and The King Blues called the bassist’s infant daughter onstage eliciting “ahhhh”s from the audience. The night ended in a Ministry of Sound-esque frenzy before everyone stumbled back to their tents for a night of uncomfortable and interrupted sleep (yay festivals!).
Saturday’s weather forecast looked grim and early on in the day the heavens opened making the paths perilously muddy.

As Zun Zun Egui took to the stage, the sun began to come out, pouring scorn on all of the weather forecasters predictions. Their set was hypnotically joyful, the perfect soundtrack for the thawing of everyone’s aching, sleep deprived bodies. As the thawing process progressed into more of a tanning process Islet leapt on stage (literally). Their psychedelic and experimental music has been likened to such acts as Santana but at times was too psychedelic and too experimental, so much so that melodies were completely lost.

Next were local favourites Danny & the Champions of the World who brought in an unexpectedly large audience for a 4 o’clock slot, but well and truly deserved. I noticed a slight personnel change with a new guitarist who brought an extra dimension to the set with a few mental, self indulgent guitar solos which didn’t seem out of place and strangely integral.

Three Trapped Tigers set the crowd alight with their ridiculously mad instrumentals on the Main Stage as did Japanese Voyeurs in The Cave with their crescendos of beautiful noise and achingly attractive lead singer.

Los Campesinos! allowed us into their strange, new world with their unique blend of orchestral brilliance and teenage anger. Such favourites as ‘You! Me! Dancing!’ and ‘Death To Los Campesinos!’ went down a storm with Gareth entering the rapturous crowd during the latter song.

To top off the festival were Scotland’s Frightened Rabbit who are one of my favourite ever bands not just because I’m Scottish but because of Scott Hutchinson’s exquisite songwriting. They played a set full of emotional and touching tracks without every seeming overly soppy like ‘My Backwards Walk’ as well as the rousing barnburners like crowd favourite ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’. The festival closed with the bands accounts of joyless sex in ‘Keep Yourself Warm’ the chorus of which could be heard from all corners of the site. A great end to a great festival.

New Song: Mumford & Sons

Mumford & Sons brought folk music into the mainstream with 2009’s Sigh No More to critical acclaim and are looking to continue their world domination with ‘Home’.

During the bands career they have toured extensively and clearly love it, new track ‘Home’ is a homesick homage to those who they have left behind while on their travels. This track was recorded as a live session for Colorado radio station KBCO for the first time after being played numerous times off record, at gigs. If deemed good enough, the song will receive the full recording treatment before making its way onto the troupe’s sophomore album which is rumoured for release early next year.

‘Home’ is a step away from such barn rompers as ‘The Cave’ and ‘Little Lion Man’ but still contains Marcus Mumford’s soaring vocals, here chanting “I’ll be home in a little while, lover I’ll be home”. Marcus soothingly sings over gently finger picked guitars, the occasional piano interlude and the compulsory banjo.

If this track is anything to go by, their new album will be an emotional one and if they are able to produce ten more tracks of this ilk, album number two will be a hit.

Mumford & Sons - "Home/Untitled" (Live on KBCO) by TwentyFourBit.com

The Horrors - Skying

In 2005, The Horrors emerged from the shadows of some Tim Burton film wearing copious amounts of eye liner and jeans that were slightly too tight. The band bonded over their love for vinyl and early garage punk the latter being very clearly audible in the debut album Strange House.

For 2009’s Primary Colours, Geoff Barrow of Portisheadwas called in for producing duties and what ensued was the greatest shock of the year. With the help of XL Recordings and Geoff Barrow, The Horrors had been transformed from the music industries resident douche-bags to the band on everyone’s tongues when it came to album of the year. This album moved from 2 minute songs about murderers and into the blissed out tones of shoegaze; despite this change being a big one it was made seamlessly and seemed a natural progression.

Since the release of Primary Colours the band have been on a brief hiatus allowing them to follow whichever paths they wanted. Lead singer Faris Badwan was the busiest releasing an EP and LP with Rachel Zeffira under the moniker Cat’s Eyes scratching his 60s pop itch. He also released a few tracks with Cherish Faya under the name Lumina as well as having his own art exhibition of doodles in Shoreditch’s Book Club.

The band obviously love experimenting and the making of this record came when Geoff Barrow told them not to employ him and release the album themselves. They obediently obliged and set up shop in their homemade studio in a basement in East London, let the experimentation begin. With no one telling them what they can and cannot do, they began creating a wall of sound comprising vintage synths set beyond breaking point and anything else the quintet could get their black nail varnished fingers on.

Opener ‘Changing The Rain’ uses claps and bells to warn the listener of the change on the rest of the record, easing you in gently. ‘You Said’ sees the introduction of horns, yet more synth skullduggery and soaring vocals (as soaring as Faris gets). On ‘I Can See Through You’, Faris chants “I can see through you and there’s nowhere” and on ‘Endless Blue’ he coos “Everyone seems so far away” in his coldest tone both evoking images of a lost boy.

‘Still Life’ is the current single and is the closest thing to a pop song The Horrors have released to date. Progressing from the feeling of a lost direction, Faris optimistically sings “the moment that you want is coming if you give it time” over a dense mesh of horns and meandering synths all culminating in a great song. Despite the strength of ‘Still Life’ the show stealer is ‘Moving Further Away’ which is Skying’s ‘Sea Within A Sea’. Weighing in at over 8 minutes it is full of automated drum loops and wobbly, Krautrock synth loveliness with Faris repeating “Oh, I surrender, this is it” as the track floats off into the ether.

Skying is another step forward for the boys, you now also get more for money too as the songs are longer thus giving them ample time to develop and bloom. As an impatient fan I’m already yearning to see where they go from this but we need to appreciate Skying before they inevitably change their sound again.

The much asked question is whether Skying is better than Primary Colours but to that my only answer is “Who Can Say?”

On Tour: The Vaccines

Sound of 2011 forerunners The Vaccines are set to play their biggest headline tour yet this Autumn. This tour will top off a very busy year for the band with the release of their debut album What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? a festival filled summer and a support slot with the Arctic Monkeys on their UK arena tour. Their riff filled debut album peaked at 4th in the UK album charts which in these times is unusual for a guitar-based band.


The gig at Brixton’s O2 academy ends the tour on December 7th and will lead them in 2012 with some very big concerts under their belts. The Vaccines will be playing Oxford’s O2 Academy on Tuesday 29th November and tickets for the tour go on sale on July 11th at 9.00 am.


Other tour dates include:
Mon Nov 21st – Newcastle O2 Academy
Wed Nov 23rd – Sheffield O2 Academy
Thur Nov 24th – Lincoln Engine Shed
Fri Nov 25th – Manchester O2 Academy
Sat Nov 26th – Leeds O2 Academy
Mon Nov 28th – Southampton Guildhall
Tue Nov 29th – Oxford O2 Academy
Wed Nov 30th – Norwich UEA
Fri Dec 2nd – Bristol O2 Academy
Sat Dec 3rd – Cambridge Corn Exchange
Sun Dec 4th – Lemington Spa The Assembly
Wed Dec 7th – Brixton O2 Academy

New Video: Fleet Foxes

Helplessness Blues is definitely one of the best albums of this year and what better way to cement this in everyone's minds than releasing an astounding video.

The video has been shot by lead singer Robin Pecknold's brother, Sean Pecknold and contains footage of the band whilst on tour and while making the record. This grainy Super-8 shot video is the perfect accompaniment to the gracefully beautiful 'Grown Ocean' which closes Fleet Foxes' stunning LP Helplessness Blues. The immense camaraderie of the band is clearly evident from the band's expressions and adds to beauty of the video.

I feel that super-8 isn't used nearly enough in music videos and I hope this video will encourage many other artists to dust off their super-8 camera's and give it a go, the outcome is almost always beautiful; 'Grown Ocean' is no exception.

Preview: Hop Farm festival

The main problem everyone is faced with each year is which festival has the best line up and whether it is worth parting with your hard-earned cash. This year that accolade should most certainly go to Hop Farm which is to take place from Friday 1^st July to Sunday 3^rd July in Kent.

Headliners this year are Morrissey, The Eagles and Prince (*brain explodes*). Around 70 acts will be performing across the 3 days on 3 different stages. Among these acts are fellow Oxfordians Stornoway and Young Knives who are headlining the Bread & Roses Stage on the Friday and Sunday respectively. The line up is full to the brim of incredible acts and will play host to some very special shows, most notably Iggy & The Stooges, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Aloe Blacc, Hot Chip, Bryan Ferry and Death Cab For Cutie, the list goes on. Amidst all of the big name acts there are some smaller bands who deserve to be big and are destined for great things, these acts include The Treetop Flyers, Clock Opera, Cloud Control, Summer Camp and Dry The River. It would be very easy to overlook these bands due to the calibre of other acts on the bill but I can’t recommend them highly enough.

For The Eagles and Prince these are their only UK appearances this summer and will prove to be the talking point of the festival season. 2008 saw Neil Young Headline and last year saw Bob Dylan headline, but this year will be the best year to date with a third day being added as there is just too much magnificence to contain in two days.

Day tickets cost £70, 2 day festival cost £130 and the whole kit and caboodle is £170. Get your tickets now and you’ll be treated to more talented musicians in a field in Kent than you’ll ever see again, guaranteed.

The one problem I can foresee is that Hop Farm can’t take all that ego on one stage; if you’re there you’ll be the first to know.

WU LYF - Go Tell Fire To the Mountain

NME, kings of hyperbolic language, have recently lauded WU LYF as “the most exciting thing to happen to UK music in years”. After listening to this, their debut, I might just have to agree with this.I first heard of this band about a year ago when I stumbled across a demo version of the catchy ‘Concrete Gold’. Accompanying a small about of demos on this site was their original press shot; a group of nine people congregated in a rather dreary looking Manchester car park wearing masks over their faces with numerous smoke bombs going off in the foreground. No other information supported this and the mystery created was incredibly enticing and acted as the catalyst in my excitement for this release.

While listening to the demos, the most apparent thing other than the bands unmistakable musical talent was that I couldn’t understand a single word, singer Ellery Roberts seemed to be yelping. I originally put this down to it being a demo. Whilst listening to the finalized version, I still can’t understand a bloody word, Roberts could be singing in a different language for all I know. I even resorted to playing some of the tracks backwards in search of a satanic message to no avail.

Album opener ‘LYF’ (Lucifer Youth Foundation) begins with a church organ and slowly but surely progresses into a great track full of meandering guitars and purposeful percussion. ‘Summas Bliss’ sounds a little bit Foalsesque but not in a plagiarized manner like some bands are guilty of. ‘Dirt’ is my favourite track on the album exhibiting their willingness to use percussion as a lead instrument. The reverberant guitars and backing vocals are overlaid by Roberts howling such lines as “me and your friends/we killed a man/by telling him things/he couldn’t understand” (but only after much ear straining). ‘Concrete Gold’ has progressed a huge amount from the demo I heard last year, now with yet more Foals riffs but with their own personal touch added. Closer ‘Heavy Pop’ is the bands anthem; their local live shows being called Play Heavy Pop. Pianos build for the first 2 minutes to be replaced by the church organ gain and yet more jangling guitar riffs.

2011 has been a year of great music so far and WU LYF have kept up this high standard with Go Tell Fire To The Mountain. It was a shame to see one of my favourite demos ‘Lucifer Calling’ left off the album but this is the only flaw I can spot. Upon repeated listens your ears do become tuned to Roberts’ vocals so don’t be worried if at first he sounds a little like Chewbacca. All things considered I feel this album could be one of the debuts of the year.