From the desk of the diskant Overlord – 13 May
Posted: May 13th, 2006, by Marceline SmithSo, festival season begins this weekend with All Tomorrow’s Parties and I have no plans to be at any festivals this summer. The mainstream festivals look as dull as ever (Girls Aloud at V aside of course) and even looking down the final schedule for the two ATPs I can barely find a handful of bands I’d be excited to see. It just seems like too much noize and all the usual ATP bands who played the last 4 events. Sure, ATP isn’t just about the bands but I do kind of resent it a little when I have to take 3 days off work and spend another £100 on travel etc. I really miss going to ATP though so I will be there in December. I must say, I’m looking forward to writing MAR-C AT BUTLINS on the work holiday calendar. If Thurston Moore books a lot of rubbish though I will be MAD.
Anyway, who needs ATP. This weekend I will be seeing (or hearing, at least) Lightning Bolt in the Grand Old Opry in Glasgow, a country and western themed venue complete with cacti, saloon bar and Man Selling Hot Pies. Should be just about as incongruous a setting as Pontins with its murals and pirate sword shops. The dullness of live shows has long been one of my primary moans and I’m glad there’s promoters like Synergy willing to make the effort to make gigs exciting again by using unexpected venues, putting together surprising line-ups or just getting amazing posters up.
Make sure you have a look at our own Chris Summerlin’s awesome gig posters while I’m on the subject. They really do look amazing all together and they’re all for sale. I’ve got my order in, even though my bedroom is already decorated with too many posters of gigs I’ve played at.
If you are going to ATP have fun. Hopefully the diskanteers in attendance will post their highlights when they return. In the meantime have a read of our new Talentspotter profile, of Pangaea Recordings which is full of advice for anyone thinking of starting a label. It’s reminding me of all the hard work I have ahead of me with my next release…
Current listening: Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan, Otterley, Mogwai, Findo Gask, Errors, West End Girls.
Marceline Smith
Marceline is the fierce, terrifying force behind diskant.net, laughing with disdain as she fires sharpened blades of sarcasm in all directions. Based in Scotland, her lexicon consists of words such as 'jings', 'aboot' and 'aye': our trained voice analysts are yet to decipher some of the relentless stream of genius uttered on a twenty-four hour basis. Marceline's hobbies include working too much and going out in bad weather.
http://www.marcelinesmith.com