Live At Leeds 2012 Preview

Why I am so excited about Live At Leeds:

So I’ve just been emailed the final band announcements for this year’s Live At Leeds, which takes place May 4^th to 7th. That the top line of billing includes Example and Alkaline Trio suggests just how diverse it has become and how much they are trying to push it as a broad, but quality festival.

In all honesty, I’m not really a headliners kind of guy but the mix of bands towards the top of the poster is quite impressive. Marina & The Diamonds, The Enemy and Ladyhawke aren’t names that strike an ounce of emotion in me, but equally, they are quality, big names and ones I’ve not seen on EVERY SINGLE FESTIVAL POSTER over the last few months, so good picks. Obviously I can vouch for Los Campesinos! after last year’s Long Division as being essential and The Subways; I thought they were washed up a long time ago, but they may well do what The Futureheads did last year and pull out a set that reminds us why we loved them so much in the first place.

Of the bands slightly lower down the bill, Ghostpoet is the name everyone is talking about. It seems crazy now but I saw them supporting Metronomy at The Hop in Wakefield just last year and they were excellent. It will be interesting to see them in a bigger venue. I Like Trains is a big one for me. Again, we had them at Long Division last year but I missed them and am very excited to hear material from their forthcoming third album. Bands like Howler and the more local Spector are also tipped as ones to watch. So all in all, a pretty decent mix.

BUT! It is the bands further down the billing that excite me and the reason I love my day in Leeds so much. There are bands that have only existed on the periphery of my knowledge and understanding and Live At Leeds is a great way to ‘top up’ your enthusiasm for new and live music. Alt-J, Blacklisters, Black Moth, Fanzine, Moody Gowns, Post War Glamour Girls, The History Of Apple Pie, This Many Boyfriends; all bands I know of but want to know more about. The journey round the city on a scorching hot summer’s day searching them out can’t be beaten for me.

As a fellow festival organiser I really appreciate the efforts that go into making my day effortless. I’ve always been impressed with the setup over the last few years; it couldn’t be less stressful. That and the pleasant traipsing around the city combine to help make this one of the most sociable festivals on the calendar.

This aspect has been built on with additional events over the rest of the weekend. Sunday and Monday Hangover events take place at Brudenell Social Club (the public acknowledgement of a two day hangover is pleasing) whilst The Unconference takes place on May 4^th (Friday) before the rest of the celebrations. It features a panel of speakers talking about the current state of the music biz, especially in relation to digital media / distribution etc. Tom Robinson of BBC 6 Music and Sean Adam, founder of Drowned in Sound, will be there aswell as many other industry people. This is the kind of thing some unscrupulous people will try sell tickets for, whilst these ‘experts’ pass on their wisdom. But here it is free. A great example of Live At Leeds’ commitment to quality music and community.

And finally, there will be the Live At Leeds annual 5-aside Football Tournament on the Monday. I can’t bloody stand football, but this sounds like a great idea; a real communal thing and a proper good laugh.

At £20 for the Saturday all-dayer, this is bloody good value. As I have mentioned in previous reviews, I love the city based festivals and the fact that, alongside kick ass music, I can also have a really nice dinner, or sneak off for a quality pint in The Adelphi and make a full day of it. Live At Leeds is a fantastic advert for The City of Leeds, music both local and live and for the importance of a strong, social community. Here’s to another great year.

www.liveatleeds.com

Dean Freeman

"Torino 74" by Torino 74 Review

This has been available for a while from: http://torino74.bandcamp.com/album/torino-74 but it’s well worth writing about, so here goes.

At first, I worried that the band may have pooled their clichés in writing this album; there is a sense of Americana at work here from the power punk guitars, to the vocals, artwork and even the name… Car buffs will tell you that Starsky & Hutch drove a 1975 Ford Gran Torino, film buffs will probably argue that the final track’s name is pointless because nobody can fight quite like Philo Beddoe, Clint Eastwood’s character in the Any Which Way films, and the cover artwork evokes route 66 with its endless miles of pylons. However, let’s look past that because it just doesn’t matter when you are as infectiously, bouncily, catchily attention grabbing as these guys, and the pylons were probably photographed somewhere on the A61 anyway!

Emergency and Shovels and Precipitation are neck and neck for the honour of best track in my opinion, other highlights include Norwegian Blue, Driver and Winterburn. It’s probably safe to say that my only question when listening to this is, how are they not more widely known? I know guitar bands are a little out of fashion with the mainstream and, to be frank, I’m glad because it means bands like this get some space to mature rather than being catapulted into the limelight only to implode on album 2 when ‘the Man’ wants his advance and more back. Get excited about them, try to see them live, buy their record, they’re worth it.

Matthew Rhodie

Long Division Saturday Lineup

Here is the latest set of bands for Long Division 2012 on the Saturday. FIFTEEN pounds for over 70 bands across 9 venues. You can get a ticket from The Hop Wakefield, Leeds & Sheffield for a straight £15 or from Crash Records, Jumbo Records and Ticketweb with booking fees. We have a couple more bigger names to announce but the lineup at the moment is:

The Vaselines, Art Brut, Aidan Moffat & Bill Wells, Herman Dune, Francois & The Atlas Mountains, Zoey Van Goey, My Sad Captains,GentlemansPistols, Let’s Wrestle, Dan Michaelson, The Hounds Below, The Longcut, Wet Nuns, Withered Hand, Kid Canaveral, Standard Fare, The Spills, This ManyBoyfriends, Runaround Kids, Hookworms, Skint & Demoralised, Sam Airey, Heart-ships, Middleman,Treecreeper, Post War Glamour Girls, Young British Artists, Mammal Club, Advances In Mathematics, Mi Mye, Sam Forrest, Fever Dream, Louise Distras, St Gregory Orange, Crushed Beaks, Piskie Sits, KeelHer, Sam Airey, Imp, Tiny Planets, Will Straton, Protectors, O'Messy Life, The Grand, Soulmates Never Die, Pip Mountjoy, The Passing Fancy, The Do’s, Red Riding Quartet, The Fur Blend, Mike Ainsley, Vinyl Party, Wires, Secret Society, Dirty Twister, Fourth Time Believers, The Tracks.

The City Consumes Us Tracklisting

The tracklisting for our 5th birthday compilation is now complete. It is:

1. Say Al (Acoustic) - Pylon

2. Things Aren't Gonna Change (Demo) - The Cribs

3. Loud Noises - The Old House

4. Make No Plans For Me - The Research

5. Waiting For The Dance Of Death - Piskie Sits

6. Cylinder Windows - The Spills

7. Incredible - Tiny Planets

8. How I Killed The Magnethead (Demo) - Lapels

9. This Town - The Whippets

10. Escobarred - The Passing Fancy

11. Lucifer's Cardigan (Demo) - Skint & Demoralised

12. Cauliflower - Protectors

13. Hate Yourself - Middleman

14. Undress - Runaround Kids

15. Nights In The Drunk Tank - St Gregory Orange

16. Nova Scotia - One Day, After School...

17. At 21 - Little Japanese Toy

18. Jamie Says He Wishes You Well - IMP & Mi Mye

All the tracks are exclusive to this album for which we heartily thank the bands involved. It's a lovely mix of lost tracks by bands no longer around, re-recorded / re-imagined versions of old songs and some absolutely up to date brand new gems.

The record is available through our Pledge campaign. The benefits of buying it through Pledge are that you will recieve a bonus record with all kinds of oddities and extras, an electronic additional chapter to The City Consumes Us book containing lost articles that didn't make the book and you will also recieve the record before anyone else. It costs £8. For an additional £2 you can get the highly limited edition version of the book which is 200 pages of top quality journalism and also contains a CD version of the album as well as ALL of the above. Wow!

Go look HERE for more information

'Escape Velocity' by O'Messy Life Review

Escape Velocity

O'Messy Life

From the twanging opening chords of Escape Velocity I was expecting something very different to what they delivered. Thankfully avoiding the country hints of the opening bars, they cheerfully ‘ooh-ooh’ their way through a story about being misunderstood outsiders, this is a summer singalong just waiting for the weather! There is a hint of The Thermals in the guitar tones and the vocals and the way that the song hangs from the riff.

The three songs on offer here feel fresh and confident and they showcase the bands range well; Saturday Morning Cemetery moves into a more blues-tinged style and the third track, Abraham De Moivre’s Blues harnesses the quiet/loud, shout/sing US college rock dynamic to great effect. The Newcastle based band released this single in October through Tiny Light recordings, but it is still available at: http://tinylights.bandcamp.com/album/escape-velocity-single along with some older material.

Matt Rhodie

'Spectemur Agendo' Review - Philophobia Music Compilation

Spectemur Agendo

Various Artists

Philophobia Music

Philophobia's latest E.P collaboration which features The Do's, Fur Blend and Clandestines is fucking awesome, pure and simple. I don't know the policy on swearing, sorry kids if you're reading, sorry if you're offended, sorry random-er who thought this might be pleasant, but bloody frigging hellers I have'nt stopped bashing my head around for a second.

The Do's open this E.P with“Without a Reason” and “Clickey Bits” amongst their artillery. How the hell do they make so much mouth watering noise between two of them? Imagine someone on a stage throwing hunks of steak at a crowd full of obese people. The Do's deliver in both richness of sound and texture, you can almost see the sweat and effort put into each serving. It's thrashy, gritty and a great start.

Fur Blend which I must admit are a new edition to my ear memoirs, really surprised me. It usually takes me at least a few listens to get into many new bands. They present us with “Deer Stalker” which is fresh in melody and a really accomplished song, a happy pop song and a great one at that.“Bones”, their second song is slower in pace and I genuinely think it could be listened to on repeat and I would not get bored. All in all, it won't be the last time I listen to them by no means.

Clandestines are given the job to round this E.P. up, they tell us why we are going to remember it, listen to it again and again. Their songs “You'd Have Never Even Asked My Name As Long As You Got The Satisfaction You Need” and “Heavy Now” are grunge thrash pop punk bliss. They do not disappoint, both songs are a joy to listen to and make it 6/6 tracks that have wowed me.

This E.P makes you realise how important Philophobia is, to not only the bands but to the audience. It is one big family and no-one can criticise this label without going through hoards of loyal, hard working, grateful band members; this label reinforces most people's faith in Wakefield music, so to you Philophobia, I salute and thank you for letting me listen to this.

It is the shit!

Jack Falcon

The City Consumes Us

So, in April, Rhubarb Bomb reaches the ripe old age of five. That kinda works; I’d say we have the attention span and grammatical skills of a five year old. And we are going to have a party too.

This is the three part plan to our celebrations, centred around a Pledge campaign. Pay attention!

Compilation Album

We have collected tracks from a range of Wakefield bands past and present. Bands that we have supported over our five years. Looking back over the old issues, it wasn’t hard to pick out certain recurring names and in many cases the bands have developed alongside us, growing as we have into something approaching respectability.

All the tracks on the album are exclusive to this compilation, for which we heartily thank all the bands. It will feature tracks by The Cribs, The Research, Pylon, Lapels, The Old House, Piskies Sits, The Spills, St Gregory Orange, Skint & Demoralised, Mi Mye, Middleman, Runaround Kids, The Whippets, Tiny Planets, Protectors, Imp, One Day After School… & The Passing Fancy.

The album will be available as a download or as part of a deluxe package, which leads us to part two…

Limited Edition Book

How could we package this record? Do people want CDs anymore? How about inside a book?

The second part of our celebration is a 200 page paperback, which comes with a CD version of the album. It’s the most ambitious thing we have ever done.

In part, it is the story of Rhubarb Bomb; how it began, how it grew and what it learnt. Naturally, it is also the story of the bands it has worked with, told through re-edited, reordered old articles. It isn’t the story of ‘Wakefield Music’ but of a group of people making things happen in their city and also follows the story of certain institutions close to us, including Philophobia Records, Louder Than Bombs Records, Greenmount Studios and former venue Escobar.

But it also expands further than that. New interviews and articles touch upon Rhubarb Bomb’s place within a wider Indie community, what a zine has to offer in the 21^st century and the importance of DIY ideals. These ideas are explored further through interviews with legendary Indie figures such as Mark E Smith, Malcolm Middleton, Luke Haines, Emma Pollock, Eddie Argos, David Gedge, Emmy The Great, Russell Senior and of course, The Cribs.

The book features brand new designs throughout. It’s not just pages of text; there are over 100 pictures, many previously unseen, to help us tell our story.

Launch Night

The book is being funded through a Pledge Campaign which is active NOW. The album download, which will feature further exclusive content, is available there, as is the book. There are also some other special and exclusive items to hopefully tempt you.

The launch event for The City Consumes Us will take place on April 21^st at The Orangery, Wakefield. It is a beautiful 18^th Century Grade II listed building in the very centre of Wakefield; a literal stones throw from Westgate Train Station.

There will be numerous bands from the compilation performing, including The Spills, Piskie Sits, Runaround Kids, Mi Mye, Imp, One Day After School…, St Gregory Orange and The Passing Fancy with more TBA. Some will perform inside the grand building itself, others in its gardens, viaducts and secret corners.

We’ve got other ideas up our sleeves too. Compilation Exchanges. One off merchandise. Art Displays. We’ve also asked each band playing to perform a cover of a track by any other Wakefield band. It’s going to be a memorable night.

It kicks of at 3pm. Entry to this event is £5 on the door. However, it is free as part of one of the Pledges if you download the album.

And that is where we are at. If you can spread the word in any way, please do. This is a tiny bit of history right here and we want to preserve it for future generations of zine writers, bands and music lovers. Thanks for your support.