28 May 2013

Primavera Sound 2013 - And there was music!

Primavera Sound 2013

Another May, another hedonistic two weeks in Barcelona for Primavera Sound festival.  This is my third year visiting the festival, my boyfriend loves his music with the fire of a thousand suns and Parc Del Forum in the last week of May is his spiritual happy place. I lack the encyclopaedic musical knowledge and good sonic judgement but I do like to dance and judge bands.

Goat, Dead Can Dance, The Knife, My Bloody Valentine and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds were my stand-outs, my disappointments were Solange and Animal Collective. It was such a packed line-up that we didn’t see most of the headliners  such as Blur and Jesus and Mary Chain etc.

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Below the cut are all the bands I saw and a line on what I thought of them. I have plenty more to write about Barcelona and Primavera, but we can do that another time.

WARNING: All opinions are arbitrary and snarky and may be revised at a later date! Snarky but informed views can be found here.


Wild NothingTame indie.  Struggled to make an impression but they were playing early and in the daylight.

Tame ImpalaAussie John Lennon soundalike with one good song.  I’m afraid I would describe this as ‘meh’ but all my friends seemed to enjoy this so I must just be a joyless so-and-so.

Bob MouldFormer Husker Du frontman rocking out. Enjoyable.

Hot SnakesFormer Rocket from the Crypt frontman rocking out. Enjoyable and bonus points because he asked for the feris wheel to be turned off before he played.

Death GripsMissing their drummer so basically two guys shouting at each other. We left early.

Killer MikeCharming, fat guy with a mixed up political message (lower tax AND better education- how?). He rather unfairly blames everything on one of my personal political heroes, Ronald Reagan.

Fuck ButtonsCompelling.

Animal CollectiveConfusing as ever.  Their stage set was a giant mouth.

Kurt Vile Muted.

Merchandise (twice!) – Catchy and charming both times.  Their bassist and lead guitarist are an amusing contrast in physique and temperament. They talk about being from Tampa Bay a lot.

Django DjangoFun and lightweight.  They had matching DIY shirts.

SolangeSeems Losing You is her only good song.  She did a cover of a Dirty Projectors song but had to have her backing vocalists sing the high notes.

DaughterDidn’t hear much of this but it sounded nice. They seemed very excited to be playing for such a bug crowd.

TinariwenWorld music phobia aside, interesting north Africans who play in Bedouin robes and Nike trainers.  Django Django all watched this together from the crowd, standing in a line while off-duty like the Monkees.

SwansVery long songs. I feel bad that I fell asleep standing up during.

GoatSwedes with a battery of great songs who dress like Sultans and dance like dervishes.  Recommended.

The KnifeSounded great and I like the Rites of Spring-style dancers. But did they even turn up?

DisclosureMemories are hazy…

Pantha du Prince and the Bell LaboratoryGermans in butchers’ aprons with bells stamping on the line between genius and insansity.

Guadalupe PlataLikable Mexican rockabilly.

Mount EerieVery passive and very drowned out by Adam Green and Binki Shapiro on the next stage. Meh.

Melody’s Echo ChamberHot French girl. Said she was ‘pleased with’ her musicians.  I can’t help thinking the name of her act is a euphemism/heavy handed subliminal marketing to the male demographic.

Dead Can DanceMagical Game of Thrones soundtrack style music.  Includes an opera singer who wears a cape. Compelling.

Thee Oh SeesGood fun, but then we watched them from the feris wheel.



Hot ChipGood dancing. However I wish they had done the single version of Playback.

DJ Coco – V. good dancing. I love that this is one of the admin guys who gets the closing slot on the best stage.

Allah-LasMemories fuzzy. But I had fun.

DeerhunterFantastic. Included a 16 min wall of sound outro that sounded like the My Bloody Valentine private jet taking off.

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