Three weeks ago we announced that rather than have Mumford & Sons or Bloodhound Gang open proceedings on the Village Mentality Stage, which we are hosting at East London’s fine Field Day Festival, we were instead holding a competition to find a new band to play alongside the likes of Gruff Rhys and Tony Da Gattora, The Silver Apples and Mouse On Mars.
Thanks to all of our friends, relatives and employees who entered but we decided to concentrate solely on unsigned (or at least on tiny labels) bands that we had not met, got drunk with or been related to. Thanks also should go to the amazing bands who applied from America. We are sorry: we can’t afford a cab home that night, let alone your plane tickets.
All in all there were about 350 entries and although we didn’t receive a Necrotic Black Metal Tuvan Throat Singing Industrial Glo Fi entry we were pleased at the balance between landfill indie and more adventurous styles.
Special mention should go to Pus from Merthyr who while not strictly speaking very good are undoubtedly pretty awesome. They’ve applied the lackadaisical, anti-polish aesthetic of early Norwegian BM to something that already sounds like sailors on Ketamine covering Scratch Acid. They are, as they told us in a vaguely threatening manner “the epitome of an unsigned band". All hail Pus! Your mum will not like this: Pus’ MySpace.
But the winner had to be Runners, a Leeds-based cosmic, motorik, Balearic, disco platoon who have only recently had their first shows:
You can listen to a wicked mix tape and check out more Runners stuff on their blog. While other bands had Soundclouds, MySpaces, bespoke websites, and sundry multimedia nodes, all Runners had were a few YouTubes and a nice email. Get to Field Day early doors to catch Runners live, and check this site next week for an Escape Velocity interview.
The Runners Up
D/R/U/G/S
D/R/U/G/S by FINDKOPPARBERGJohn says: “Drugs Do Good Things" announces the MySpace of this bunch of spangled reprobates. And while this is the kind of nonsense that is only propagated and believed in by young people, they certainly produce a synthesized and warm form of trance that tickles my recessive narco-flange.
Shape Worship
demo tape spring 2010 by shapeworshipLuke says: Ed Gillet, for it is he who kneels before the ellipse, cube and hexadecagon, set up his Soundcloud account for the express purposes of entering our contest, and has not otherwise made any of his music publically available. Dwelling in South London, he admits to an affinity with the hauntalogical / glowave that currently gets blogs writing themselves, but hopes it is less 80s in inspiration. He’s not wrong – as titles like ‘Old Garlands’ suggest, his music is darker than mere whimsical nostalgia to a life imagined in faded Polaroids.
Dead Beach
Luke says: Lo-fi so decidedly smacky that we’re not even sure that the band got around to entering the competition of their own accord – they’re no doubt somewhere lost in the mess of "empty house + guitars + big bag of weed" that their mySpace lists as their inspirations. While we might have loved to have heard these on a big stage, chances are they’d have been too out of their gourds to turn up.
John says: Torrid, bedroom-manufactured, lo-fi rock that glistens like oil on water. The spirit of Bongwater and early Sonic Youth channelled through No Age.
The Research Lab Of Electronic Progress
Luke says: Although those artistes who couldn’t be bothered to do anything more than whack a myspace address into an email and press ‘send’ rather got on our goat, some of the more mysterious entries rather suited. Take The Research Laboratory Of Electronic Progress, for instance, about whom we know exactly nothing save for the collection of excellent tracks hosted via Soundcloud on their website. It feels somehow appropriate, imbibing these tracks of skittish electronica and snatches of speech with an air of mystery, as if transmissions from a secret outpost of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop had accidentally escaped when they took the recycling out.
Her Royal Highness
Luke says: Imagine if LoneLady woke up, realised it wasn’t all that bad, and celebrated by moving to Glasgow and setting up a electrobilly group with a bunch of sex-obsessed greasers and your ears will end up having a two penny trembler with Her Royal Highness.
Fiona Sally Miller
John says: Now normally when I read the words Acoustic / Folk / Melodramatic Popular Song on MySpace it’s the cue for me to click stop on the player quicker than I can say Cephalic Carnage but Ms Miller’s songs are actually more melancholy and deeply emotionally engaging than melodramatic, lightly bolstered with acoustic guitars, piano and saxophone. Although she will never replace Slayer in my heart.
Gif Mec Hild Nime 5000AD
John says: Brothers and sisters, I have a dream. I have a dream of a bloody promenade made up from the slain bodies of The Paddingtons, The Twang, The Others, The Courteeners, The Wombats et al. And standing naked and painted gold atop the bloody mess holding a huge banner in the wafting breeze are Gif Mec Hild Nime 5000AD, vanquishers of the badly named band.
Luke says: Hmm. To my mind it sounds like some forgettable sub-Terry Pratchett sci-fi short story, and that’s even without song titles like ‘The Doo-Wop Human Shampoo & Condition’ and ‘Last Train To Pluto’. Nevertheless, the wackiness in nomenclature is better manifested in sound, a dustbin-recorded, hi-treble guitars and occasional bark of vocals mess that sounds like a garage band being run through an automated herring gutting machine.
Hummune
John says: Wooooaaaaarrrrrrgggghhhhhh! Pure-era Godflesh, Converge, Extremities-era Killing Joke, Kylesa doing some grinding hardcore breakdown shit. Aiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Toot!
Gentle (first beer of the day) [shrt_vrsn] by toot!They describe themselves variously as "Step, Park Bench Core, No-fi, Rhythm Experiment, Contrapuntal Braindance, Electronic Beer Funk, Electronic Messy" but we simply say mint electronica.
Field Day takes place in Victoria Park, London, on 31 July 2010. Joining Runners on the Village Mentality stage will be Max Tundra, Beth Jeans Houghton, Amiina, Gruff Rhys & Tony Da Gattora, Archie Bronson Outfit, Esben & The Witch, Silver Apples and Mouse On Mars. For tickets and more information, visit the Field Day website
