Hello you, you devilishly handsome DNA-riddled organism you! I come to you with a bottle of fruity Brie and a creamy Shiraz on toast, sod the diet cholesterol is my friend! I’m armed with these tools as I’m currently researching the kind of aural snuggles I can expect from Dot-To Dot festival. Let’s chat about it…
Dot-To-Dot. Not just a form of activity during wet weather play, but a rather fantastic sounding multicity, multi venue festival, showcasing some rather music from around the world. Oh yes! Kicking off in Manchester on May 23rd, the carnival moves on to fellow sexy cities, Bristol and Nottingham over the course of the weekend. And yours truly gets the privilege of attending the Manchester date, joy! And who knows, I may even bump into Macaulay Culkin (he’s in town with obscure band buddies The Pizza Underground) and ask him his thoughts on Brie too!
There is definitely a something for everyone thing going on here; from the headbangers, to the thinkers, to the drinkers, to the dancers. So now you’re settled in… I’ll share with you my personal favourite festival picks…I’m eye-bulgingly excited about this…
Courtney Barnett
Every now and then an artist does along that makes you essentially want to lock everyone you know in a room and so you can play their album and explain to them why they’re the voice of a generation. I’m having this moment with Courtney Barnett. Her story-telling ability is incomparable, her music is a kind of uplifting blues and she comes across as just the coolest person. I’ll be down the front if you need me…
Darlia
I’ve loved Darlia for time. But at Liverpool Sound City…I mean I don’t know, but I blame the sound guy. They’re still rock’s Great Bleached Hope for me. I’ll be back whipping my hair back and forth to tracks off their awesome ‘Candyman’ EP. But they’ve got a lot of making up to do; I had to listen to Radio 1 to catch a live set, my soul won’t be talking to me for a while.
Ezra Furman
I had the most fun at this guy’s show back in February. He is a captivating performer, essentially taking us to our own psychedelic rockabilly prom with a tonne of dirty indie sensibility. One of the most original and (dare I say) coolest acts around right now – I can’t wait to see what he does this time!
The Bohicas
I don’t know who these guys are, where they’re from, or what they want – I just clicked play on their website and got jawed with my 2 new favourite songs – ‘Swarm’ and ‘Crush Me’. I had no choice. They’re brilliant. Loud, dirty, bluesy, angry, joy. I’m gonna jump so much at this gig I’ll need a spare t-shirt.
Link to the aforementioned page, I’d put a helmet on before you click this.
Norma Jean Martine
A delicious smokey vocal. A modern, late-night take on the Motown Doo-Wops with a country twist. Tracks are delicious tales of love and loss, with a tonne of attitude. I will be raising a glass to this lady.
Love Zombies
Well, I love the name. And the track ‘Bummer’ is top. The Brixton via USA 5-piece tap into that 90’s Clueless soundtrack vibe – a genre I’ve invented to describe sun-soaked punk beats with sugary surf harmonies, which is rather lovely! They just sound so fun, yet well hard, ya know? For the drinkers and dancers, I hope they play in a Tiki Hut…
Honeyblood
Glasgow based melodically noisy female two-piece. Got that retro vibe heard in the 2 previous artists but with a much more indie rock n roll edge. The sound is a little more grainy, the vocal has that ‘singing into phone’sound ala-The Strokes. We’ll have a bit of that.
Track Killer Bangs is class, push play.
The Heartbreaks
Our own Mari Lane listed them for Tracks of the Week before, and that’s enough for me. Steve Lamacq threatened to resign if their track ‘Hey, Hey Lover’ wasn’t play-listed – making waves these boys. They sound fantastic and seemed like top guys from the interview they did for us earlier this year.. The video for ‘Absolved’ features a lovely bit of suit clad dancing, musically channelling a bit of The Jam on ‘The Bitterest Pill…’ which is one of my favourite songs, so can’t go wrong.
Jamie Isaac
And now for something completely different. London’s Jamie Isaac can only be described as hauntingly beautiful. Stripped back piano, vocal vulnerability, it’s less of a song more of an aura of emotion and sound. This will be beautiful I’m sure.
Kate Tittley
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