Most Electric Picnicers will be penciling in the Massive Attacks, Mumford & Sons’, and LCD Sound Systems of this world. Here are five other acts JOE reckons could well steal the show.
By Robert Carry
The National
Brooklyn-based indie rockers The National have been doing their thing across the pond for over a decade now. The band is five albums in at this stage and are as polished performers as you are likely to find in the ‘up-and-coming’ bracket.
Matt Berninger’s baritone-on-ice vocals is one of the band’s unique selling points, but it’s not all they have to offer, especially when it comes to their classy latest album, High Violet. Recent single Bloodbuzz Ohio, for example, combines masterful lyrics, a catchy beat and has to be one of their most instantly likeable tunes to date. DJs with sense have taken note, so you will even have something to sing along to if you make it to their set. Not a jump-around-like-a-lunatic-type band, but one for blissing out too while the beer flows and the rain dumps.
The National, Bloodbuzz Ohio, Live at Pukkelpop
The Horrors
Slow and steady has been the order of the day for English indie rockers The Horrors. Although formed back in 2005, their first album wasn’t released until two years later. Strange House peaked at number 37 in the UK album charts and their second effort, (Primary Colours) released last year, did a tad better making it into the top 25.
The album-buying public has been shown time and again to have severe taste issues, and The Horrors more so than many have fallen victim. Nonetheless, they will be on stage this Electric Picnic fighting the good fight for bands with solid tunes, a sound very much their own and an ability to get a crowd going. With drums and guitar that are all furious intent and heartfelt lyrics meshed beautifully with a strangely menacing base and synth backing, this is not a band to overlook.
The Horrors, Who Can Say, live at Glastonbury
Seasick Steve
Seasick Steve is musical Marmite – you’ll either love him or hate him. What you can’t dispute, however, is that there is very little on the festival circuit quite like him. The elderly Blues musician found himself living on the streets after running away from home to escape his abusive step-father and he lived quite the colourful life in the years that followed. Decades of hoping freight cars, getting arrested, doing the odd day as a farm labourer and generally living the way of the hobo, has given him some top notch writing material.
Steve has also developed a stage presence and has an unrivalled knack for dragging the crowd into his incongruous sets. Stick your nose in and see if you like his stuff. If you hate try-hard 80s revivals, high-top Jedward runners, hipsters, electro/synth and fluorescent clothing, we’re betting you will.
Seasick Steve, Doghouse Boogie, Live on Later with Jools Holland
The Big Pink
The made-for-stadia belt off their debut album makes it hard to believe that electro-rockers The Big Pink are in fact a duo. Until you see them play live – and discover that they recruit other musicians to play instruments they covered themselves during recording. Anyway, multi-instrumentalists Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell have put together something really special since forming just two years ago, and their debut album, A Brief History of Love, was hailed far and wide as one of the best debut releases of recent times.
In yet another case of David Gray-itis, they have proved more popular here in Ireland than they have in their homeland across the water. A Brief History of Love, a wonderfully conceived concept album which covers “The good, the bad, the boring, the exciting, the dreams and the nightmare†of a love affair, only made it to 26 in the UK album charts while we Irish, with our infinitely better taste, saw fit to chart them in the top 10.
Anyway, the Brits since cottoned on to their brilliance and have given them the nod for the NME Philip Hall Radar Award for best new act. Single Dominos, meanwhile, won Best Track at the NME Awards. Greatness beckons, but they owe us one. Expect a great show.
The Big Pink, Dominos, Live on Later with Jools Holland
Afro-Celt Sound System
Let’s face it – Electric Picnic draws more hippies than a happy cookie bake sale. If you’re going, we suggest you resist the urge to round the bead-wearing unfortunates up before piling them into a heap and setting them alight. Instead, why not try to enjoy seeing them in their natural habitat – by going along to Afro-Celt Sound System.
Okay, so they’re the type of band your mother would consider ‘edgy’ but stay with us – the *ahem* collective, has put together some decent pieces of music, most notably on film soundtracks. At the very least, their blend of trip-hop, techno, Irish trad and West African influences is essential music to have a hangover by. Also, it seems to have interesting affects on American YouTube commentators. One wrote on the track below, ‘This song makes me want to bring a homeless piece of sh*t into the woods, get jacked up on this tune and hunt him for sport.’ Expect to see a terrified Seasick Steve fleeing into a Stradbally forrest pursued by a jacked up Afro-Celt Sound System fan.
Afro-Celt Sound System, Dark Moon, High Tide:
Click here for info on when and where the above acts are taking to the stage.
