This Is Not TV

The Plight (DS) are old school metal complete with shorts and growls – this is hardcore, West Yorkshire style but Brazilian in ferocity. Make me proud, as do Middleman (FR), comeback kids in sportswear, still making songs to bounce to and smarter than they look.

Little Boots (NME); loath to say it, but she’s a lot more fun than I thought she’d be. More accessible than Goldfrapp, futuristic rather than retro and she gets her brother on stage for his Birthday. Bless. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 15% [?]

I hadn’t come across Master Shortie (DT) before, but felt reckless so off I went. Imagine a band with a dub bass and drums, a hardcore DJ on synths and samples, a Credit to the Nation frontman and your dad on guitar. But the open with a song sampling ‘Prince Charming’ and close with grime epic ‘Dance Like a White Boy’ and get the almost exclusively white male crowd to sing non-ironically to the eponymous title so for that I am well pleased. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 8% [?]

Opening the proceedings and keeping it local, Dinosaur Pile Up (NME) load up the riffs and let loose, nineties style. Matt is not holding back on the rock clichés and even though their peculiar brand of grunge rock is nothing new it makes for a lively start to the festival proper.

Lively, until you see Pulled Apart By Horses (FR). Wearing day-glo capes and crippled by appalling sound (nothing sounds miked up), they lumber belligerently into a set that is shout along fun and includes crowd surfing guitarists, semi-nudity and punches in the face. A typical satisfying PABH performance then. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 14% [?]

I manage to miss Holy State (sorry) but arrive in time to see youngsters Airship working the stage. It’s noisy and… stuff. They’ve got a lot of guitars going on but little else. I guess I should have got there earlier.

Bear Hands start contentiously with their greebo front man Dylan Rau advocating widespread use of ecstasy (naughty) and follow it up with some fairly crunchy opening stanzas in an At The Drive In style, mixed up with a hint of Seattle sludge. Unfortunately after these strong initial impressions, songs get locked into an unstimulating riff loop. True, the sound is not great which doesn’t help, but they need a bit more trim and conviction to be convincing. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 15% [?]