James Arden checks out the garage rockers latest album.
The Christian rock band from Brighton bring religion to the masses.
Recipe for modern R'n'B album: liberal helpings of guest rappers and an overdose of sexual euphemisms.
Seemingly a million miles from larger festivals, Green Man is a non-corporate, green festival set on the Glanusk Estate in the Brecon Beacons. For this, its seventh year, it espoused the mental health charity Mind, and from its strong line-up to the friendly and appreciative music lovers, the whole event was about as close to paradise as a festival can get. These were just a few of the weekend's musical highlights:
In the bright afternoon sun, Emmy the Great’s character pieces and Nancy Sinatra cover were warmly played and spot on for the setting. ‘Everything Reminds Me of You’ brought to an end the first day’s conventional content, making way for the leftfield dance music of New York’s Gang Gang Dance. Their set was remarkable, starting slowly, before the build-up of tribal rhythms, jangly effects and alien Liz Fraser vocals (especially in highlight ‘Vacuum’) got the crowd twitching along without even realising it.
With British Sea Power decorating the stage with branches for their set on the Main Stage, the Far Out Stage saw another hypnotic show, this time by Wooden Shjips. The San Francisco psych-garage quartet played a series of songs based entirely on repeated one-bar riffs, but the addition of vocals, psychedelic lead guitar and projections made for a compelling ride for the totally appreciative crowd.
Psych-rock legend Roky Erickson was the penultimate act on the Main Stage, delivering a roaring greatest hits set, before the first headliners made their way onto the stage shortly before midnight. A year ago, Animal Collective wouldn’t have been at the top of the list of likely singalong festival headliners for 2009, but a masterful album and heavily radio-played single (‘My Girls’) later, they made the transition at Green Man. In an set heavy on their trademark live ambience, new track ‘What Would I Want Sky’ was a beautiful opener, but in the freezing night ‘My Girls’ didn’t quite take off, and the crowd only really got going for ‘Summertime Clothes’ and ‘Brothersport’. It was an impressive set for the converted, but perhaps too bewildering for the Main Stage headline slot.
Saturday’s embarrassment of riches provided too many great performances to take in. A relaxed afternoon spell saw memorable sets by Blue Roses (Shipley-based Laura Groves), whose voice soared through the walled Green Man Pub area, and probably the day’s highlight from Portland-raised, Denmark-based Peter Broderick.
Broderick cut a solitary figure on arrival, but took little time wowing the crowd with his free looping of instruments including violin, piano, musical saw and bells. His set developed from sparse foundations to a cacophonic climax, with the whole audience bellowing the end of ‘Games’. With the dedication normally only a headliner would expect, the crowd stuck around to greet Broderick with a further ovation when he reappeared on stage to pack up.
The sunset slot on the Main Stage was taken by an uncompromising Noah and the Whale, who bravely cut guaranteed crowd-pleaser ‘5 Years Time’ (and almost all the debut album) from the set to build a more cohesive run of songs around their surprisingly impressive new material. Its hopeful but melancholic content was frustrating to some, but a canny move artistically, the intense closer ‘The First Days of Spring’ guaranteed to convert some of their doubters.
Grizzly Bear’s latest album, Veckatimest, seems to be full of songs too complex to be done justice by four men in a field, yet the quartet somehow pulled it out of the bag. Standing in a row, their 45 minutes flew by, the usual band setup complemented by guitar effects, shared vocals, Chris Taylor’s occasional adoption of flute and clarinet and a guest appearance from Beach House’s Victoria LeGrand. ‘Southern Point’ and ‘Cheerleader’ stood out, alongside favourite older tracks including ‘Knife’ and ‘On a Neck, On a Spit’.
Arguably the most exciting event of the weekend, and certainly the most popular, followed, as special guest Bon Iver drew a crowd big enough to fill the whole of the Main Stage bowl area. Whether the crowd was singing along and cheering, as they did during the thudding ‘Skinny Love’ and ‘Wolves’, or falling into silent reverence, as for ‘Re: Stacks’, the atmosphere was wonderful and the performance (Justin Vernon’s last in Europe “for a very long time”) impeccable.
In the gap which followed that set, Dent May and his band fired out a great collection of ukulele-led pop songs at the Green Man Pub, before Jarvis Cocker arrived on the Main Stage. Jarvis was on the stage saying his hellos and throwing lollipops to the crowd minutes before he led everyone in some of his trademark dance moves (more like an aerobics instructor than the geography teacher he tends to resemble nowadays) to opening song ‘Pilchard’. It was a perfect headline for energy and character (Jarvis' banter covering topics as diverse as snooker, bubble machines and the surveillance state), and nothing could have beaten festival-defining closer ‘Discosong’, a classic-Cocker spoken word track which married a Glass Candy sample with Jarvis’ vocals.
Early on Sunday afternoon, the tiny CD shop run by Rough Trade hosted a fine intimate performance by The Leisure Society. Their ‘in-tent’ set saw the seven-piece squeeze in four tracks from their debut album including acclaimed debut single ‘The Last of the Melting Snow’ and upcoming release ‘Save it for Someone Who Cares’. Despite their collective hangover and the thumping beats drifting in from outside the tent, the band’s softly played performance was a joy.
The Far Out Stage was curated for the evening by the Amorphous Androgynous (a pseudonym of electronic band Future Sound of London), incorporating the psych-folk-rock of festival founders the Yellow Moon Band, and a crazily mind-expanding live set by the Amorphous Androgynous themselves. A short walk away in the Green Man Pub, Joe Gideon & The Shark were giving one of their uniformly excellent shows, peaking with 'True Nature', their pounding blues rhythms drawing in a crowd from all over.
Soon after, Wilco closed the Main Stage with the best all-round performance of the weekend. From tense opener ‘Bull Black Nova’, they ran through a set including favourites ‘I am Trying to Break Your Heart’, ‘Via Chicago’ and ‘Impossible Germany’. Extremely talented performers, Jeff Tweedy’s vocals shifted between tender and tormented, whilst Nels Cline’s spasmodic guitar playing frequently took centre stage. His guitar duel with Pat Sansone during penultimate track ‘Hoodoo Voodoo’ was just about worth the entrance fee in itself.
With the Main Stage closed, everybody came together for the ceremonial midnight burning, by druids, of the wicker green man sculpture that had towered over the site all weekend. A firework display followed, before the Amorphous Androgynous DJs closed the festival with a set of remixes accompanied by live sitar playing.
Websites: Green Man Festival | Mind
You must log in to submit a comment.
