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.

On Tour: Wild Beasts

Mercury Music prize-winning band, Wild Beasts have confirmed a UK tour playing tracks from their new albumSmother released on Domino Recordslast month.DespiteSmotherbeing the follow up to 2010’s Mercury Music prize winning Two Dancerswhich critics claimed would be difficult to top, it has received positive reviews across the board including 8.2/10 from the influential blog Pitchfork.

With Hayden’s operatic vocals sounding as intensely wonderful as they have ever been on this record, their gig at our very own Oxford O2 academythis November will be a must see. They are set to play on Friday November 11and tickets have already gone on sale, so grab yours now to ensure you don’t miss out.

Other tour dates include:

Thur Nov 10^th – Birmingham HMV Library

Fri Nov 11^th – Oxford O2 academy

Sat Nov 12^th – Leeds Constellations

Mon Nov 14^th – Edinburgh Liquid Rooms

Tue Nov 15^th – Aberdeen Lemon Tree

Thur Nov 17^th – Manchester Cathedral

Sat Nov 19^th – Bristol Anson Rooms

Sun Nov 20^th – Nottingham Rescue Rooms

Mon Nov 21^st – Southampton University

Wed Nov 23^rd – London O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire

Fri Nov 25^th – Cambridge Junction

Sat Nov 26^th – Brighton Concorde II

Yo La Tengo - @ o2 academy

During my relatively short, gig going career, I have seen some great bands and have witnessed some special shows but none of these have deviated greatly from the usual format you would expect at a gig. Yo La Tengo’s performance on Friday night was refreshingly different. Their career has spanned 27 years with 12 albums having been released. Their general distaste for the homogenous has seen almost every single one of these very different from the next leading to a very diverse catalogue to choose from.

The gig began with the spinning of the wheel, this was the very unique and original way of deciding what delectation would serve as the warm-up. I was praying for it to land on Sitcom Theatre for pure unadulterated entertainment but instead it landed on Dump; James McNew’s solo project. I was originally skeptical, but as soon as McNew’s fuzz filled guitars kicked in heads were bobbing appreciatively throughout the venue. Having not heard any of Dump’s recordings before I was pleasantly surprised and I would liken them to a less electronic Flaming Lips as echoes of Wayne Coyne’s vocals were prevalent. Face melting guitar solos were also endemic, most notably on ‘Daily Affirmation’ which lead to much of the audience being completely enthralled and perplexed by McNew’s finger speeds. The band exited to an audience sufficiently warmed up. Objective met.

After a brief interlude, the band reemerged from backstage this time as Yo La Tengo. The set began with Last Days of Disco’, a beautiful track in which Ira Kaplan whispered sweet nothings into the ears of every spectator. ‘Everyday’also contained vocals that were barely audible due to its soothing nature but again came across as calming. Yet more aural relaxation came in the form of ‘Our Way to Fall’, this was juxtaposed with the punk rock shouting of foregrounding the bands incredible variety of genres. Poppy tracks like ‘Mr Tough’ and had everyone singing along and sounded great as did the more experimental, psychedelic tracks. Mental keyboard solos, Jimi Hendrix style shredding and Ian Curtis-esque dancing was seen at different points throughout the evening by Kaplan who’s voice was at times indistinguishable from The National’s Matt Berninger’s vocals showing him to be a large inspiration to bands of today. The set finished on a high to an ubiquitously ecstatic audience and to everyone’s amazement was followed by not one encore, but two!

The first encore consisted of and a Sandy Denny cover all of which were lead by drummer and vocalist Georgia Hubley. This was my highlight as her delicate voice has a very vulnerable feel making it seem immensely precious and at times truly stunning. The second encore consisted of on which Kaplan cooed “Brain’s impatient, my heart’s still willing to wait”.This was a great ending to a truly original and awes inspiring gig. I hope other bands take a leaf out of Yo La Tengo’s book and decide to spice things up a little. Who says change is bad?

Tyler, The Creator - Goblin

Tyler Okonma or Tyler, The Creator as you will know him, has offended numerous people with Goblin’s lyrics and his general ‘fuck everyone’ attitude. Tyler manages to cover just about every vulgarity, rapping about rape, murder, homophobia and sexism. He does this in a rather jokey manner meaning for very few of the lyrics to be taken seriously.

On opener ‘Goblin’ he categorically states “I’m not homophobic” and the inclusion of openly lesbian producer in OFWGKTA (Odd Future, Wolf Gang, Kill Them All), Syd The Kid, also foregrounds the point. I can’t help getting annoyed with celebrities like Sara Quin from Tegan and Sara for publicly outing their distaste of the derogatory language used here; if you don’t like it, don’t listen to it!

Tyler is only 20 and the rest of his crew are of similar ages, they are intentionally being vulgar and unpleasant for effect and to take the piss. Such lines as “rape a pregnant bitch and tell my friends I had a threesome” on ‘Tron Cat’ and “Goddam I love bitches/especially when they only suck dick and wash dishes” on ‘Transylvania’ are clearly said for comedic effect and maybe as I’m of a similar age to those creating this music I find lines like that funny, but I can wholly understand why others may not. The lyrics embody the youthful effervescence of Tyler’s crew OFWGKTA, full of comedy and anger, sticking it to whoever isn’t one of ‘them’.

XL releasing this album has been a massive leap for both Tyler and the rest of his crew, bringing their music to the mainstream. The devoted fan base is growing exponentially and Tyler’s number of followers on twitter has recently reached six figures but you can’t help getting the feeling that this mainstream success is resented; “the ladies wanna sign me/but before the co-signing the fuckers couldn’t find me?” 

Goblin is structured as an interview with Tyler’s therapist like his debut, Bastard and gives an unprecedented insight into the young man’s life, but only for those who embrace other cutting lyrics. You learn of how his father left when he was very young and how he went to twelve different schools in as many years, from this you can begin to understand where his anger has come from.

The Sex Pistols’ attack on British social conformity and defence to the crown through track ‘God Save The Queen’ caused outrage in 1977. Their gigs often ended in the police having to be called after the behaviour becoming too raucous, this is very similar to OFWGKTA as their set at last months Camden Crawl ended in security intervening. Despite there being many lyrics here that you could never relate to, there are some which very easy to like Tyler confessing his love for Taylor Swift and the Olsen twins on multiple occasions and how he wants to “stab Bruno Mars in his goddamn esophagus”.

Tyler may not have the best flow and the album could’ve been about twenty minutes shorter but all in all I really enjoyed it.  The cult crew OFWGKTA are officially the new marmite of music but I’m a fan and can’t wait to here more stuff from these refreshing new musicians.    

R.I.P Gil Scott-Heron

Gil Scott-Heron, American poet, and spoken word musician passed away yesterday evening in New York City. He is viewed by many as influential in the creation of both neo soul and hip-hop genres. You may know him as the writer of ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’ which was recently voted as one of the top 20 political songs of all time and has been sampled by many music producers in recent years. He released his first album in 16 years in 2010 entitled I’m New Here,  this has since been reworked by Jamie xx to give this year’s We’re New Here. If you don’t have either of these albums I strongly suggest you invest in them and I wouldn’t be surprised if We’re New Here pops up on a lot of end of year lists.

Gil Scott-Heron was a great talent, and will be sadly missed. R.I.P.

“The revolution will not go better with Coke. The revolution will not fight the germs that cause bad breath. The revolution will put you in the driver’s seat.”

Seapony - Go With Me

“35 minutes of power-pop brilliance”. If you’re grabbed by that tag line, this album is perfect for you. Seattle’ s Seapony sound like a less moody Warpaint or a female version of The Drums but with much smaller egos. The wind swept, seaside shot dominated by a very hipster looking female is the perfect artwork for the album foregrounding to them all the key aspects of the bands music; washed out female vocals over surf pop.

The techniques used are straight out of the indie-pop textbook and lead on from what the Dum Dum Girls and Vivian Girls have been successfully doing for a while now. Jenn Weidl’s vocals make your ears feel like they’re being gently caressed by the wings of an angel, a really chilled out angel wearing double denim (they’re angels, they can pull it off). Every single track scores highly on the earworm charts due to Ian Brewer’s jangling riffs and the understated drums don’t compromise this one bit. Upon repeated, careful listens such lyrical gems as “I don’t really feel like everybody else/ I don’t want to be stuck on the bottom shelf” can be found. Weidl’s vocals are always audible but this certainly adds to the lo-fi, bedroom pop vibe.

The common criticism of this record is the fact that the tracks merge into each other so seamlessly that all 12 can float by without you noticing. My opinion however, is that this adds to the album by the way of evoking images of the calm, rolling surf being both beautiful yet short lived. The fact that the chords and tone don’t deviate a great deal throughout could also be seen as a fault but again I disagree. Go With Me has been released for the start of summer and contains wall-to-wall summer. A winning formula? I think so.

If this album was to be used as background music these 12 tracks probably won’t command your attention but if you take the time to attentively and carefully listen, you may just fall in love.

New Songs: Arcade Fire

Two brand spanking new Arcade Fire tracks were aired on Zane Lowe’s radio show a couple of nights ago; ‘Culture War’ and ‘Speaking In Tongues’. The songs are to be on the deluxe edition of The Suburbs which will be available on August 2nd. The deluxe version will also contain a short film entitled Scenes From The Suburbs directed by camera guru, Spike Jonze.

Neon Bible left many Arcade Fire fans slightly disappointed and worried that the wind may have been taken from the magnificent sails of a band capable of producing a genre defying moment such as their debut Funeral. The Suburbs, however, not only won the band wild critical acclaim and a surprise Grammy win, but also won back the confidence of their fans and consolidated their position as indie-rock top-dogs; one of a few bands able to headline world renowned music festivals after just three LPs. Listen to the two new tracks underneath:

Arcade Fire - Speaking in Tongues (feat. David Byrne) by MergeRecords

Arcade Fire - Culture War by MergeRecords

Miles Kane @ Oxford o2 academy - 13/05/11

You might know Miles Kane as one half of The Last Of The Shadow Puppets or as The Rascals’ former front man, but he was at the o2 academy last night as part of his solo, headline tour, playing tracks from his recently released debut album, Colour Of The Trap. On his album he has worked with the likes of Noel Gallagher and Gruff Rhys and has opened for Beady Eye, this shows that his music is being liked by some very important and influential people.

The support slot was filled by “raaaght northern an’ that” four-piece, Mabel Love. They served up a riff heavy set full of incising guitars and assured percussion. Their highlight was new single ‘Socks’, which apparently is “on this little thing called the internet”. Unfortunately, I feel that there was a key downfall to these guys; this is floppy haired, Richard Rice’s vocals.  His voice sounded far too much like that of Alex Turner and for this reason made them sound like a glorified, Arctic Monkeys tribute act, nevertheless, they did do a good job of warming the crowd up.

As the majority of the crowd entered the venue I began feeling more and more like the bloke who had turned up to the party unaware of its theme. It seemed the dress code for this gig was a polo shirt, white trainers, a beer-belly (or the beginnings of one) and the less compulsory, bald-head, of which I was sporting none.

As Miles Kane bounced onto the stage he was met with a very rowdy and eager audience. Crowd-pleaser, ‘Rearrange’ featured early on in the set and served the purpose of livening up the room even more. An impromptu encore of ‘Quicksand’ was played as the crowd continued to chant the guitar riff acappella style. The crowd’s involvement was gladly received by Miles exclaiming “thanks Oxford…this is one of the best ever”; the smiles on the rest of the bands faces reinforced the sense of enjoyment. A change in tempo came in the form of title track ‘Colour Of The Trap’ and was followed by a return to high-energy, guitar filled loveliness of the closer, ‘Inhaler’. The gig ended with the chorus of “the night time is the right time” fresh in the air; a fitting end to a gig that encompassed the spirit of a raucous Friday night.

In my mind, this wasn’t a gig to remember but it certainly put a smile on my face. Contrary to my views, the expressions and dodgy dancing from the rest of the audience showed that their opinions were the polar opposite to mine.

Preview: Summer Sundae Weekender

The 11^th Summer Sundae Weekender is to take place at De Montfort Hall in Leicester from the 12^th to 14^th of August.

The festival began modestly in 2001 with only a handful of acts on two stages and has flourished to an award winning three-day festival. Past headliners include Belle & Sebastian, Elbow, Patti Smith, Bon Iver and Mumford & Sons. It has been praised for its ability to maintain an intimate feel despite the growing caliber of the bands on the bill.  Summer Sundae has been coined “the Grandson of Glastonbury” by BBC6 Music’s Steve Lamacq and Drowned in Sound have claimed it as one of their favourite festivals, a very high accolade indeed.

This year sees The Maccabees, Graham Coxon and I Am Kloot headline with a wealth of more great music coming from The Antlers, Young Knives and Bellowhead. Also playing are some much smaller, upcoming bands that I’m excited about at the minute, these include Yaaks, Benjamin Francis Leftwich and 2:54.

As well as the main stage there is an indoor stage in De Montfort Hall which gives a unique alternative to the outdoor festival vibe and more importantly, it has easy access, flushing toilets! In addition to these there’s also the Rising, Musician and Cabaret tents which will play host numerous acts over the three days. The Village contains food stalls for everyone’s tastes and is situated very near the campsite. A recurring theme in the festival is that of convenience as the venue itself is within a ten minute walk from the nearest train station.

Tickets cost £115 for an adult weekend and only £40 for under 15s. Tickets are still available, but with a lineup as good as it has, they won’t be around for much longer.

Young The Giant - 'My Body'

'My Body’ is the second UK single from this years SXSW’s most hyped band; Young The Giant. The band consists of Sameer Gadhia, Jacob Tilley, Eric Cannata, Payam Doostzadeh and François Comtois and as the names suggest a vast array of nationalities are covered including Indian, Persian, British and French-Canadian. They are based in Orange County and have been playing music together since High School.

The opening to ‘My Body’ demonstrates a well-honed song craft one would associate with very experienced musicians, but surprisingly their ages range from 20-22. The jolting percussion and penetrating bass guitar build to an anthemic chorus of "My body tells me no, but I won’t quit”. This insanely catchy and infectious chorus is chanted by Ghadia in his astoundingly pitch perfect, falsetto tone.

Young the Giant have already had a fair amount of success having supported Kings of Leon, The Futureheads and Marina The Diamonds.  They have also been confirmed to perform on this evening’s Jools Holland where they will be performing alongside Adele and R Kelly.

The single is to be released on Roadrunner Records on May 16^th and their self-titled debut album is out this month too. I can really see big things for this band and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if one of their tracks is the soundtrack to your summer.

See the official video underneath: