Questions regarding the future of Stradbally’s big weekend out have been as rife as Wayne Rooney transfer rumours over the past year. Electric Picnic’s return for a tenth run out, hence, has been warmly heralded, particularly for addressing concerns over its high pricing and Killersification last year. This year’s line-up may lack the breadth of previous incarnations, but its depth of quality is undeniable, particularly in the undercard. Here’s who we’ll be blowing the birthday candles out with.
Parquet Courts
It’s improbable that Mark E. Smith is capable of love, but if there’s any band in 2013 he can get behind, it’s NYC’s Parquet Courts.They operate in that sphere of country-inflected punk that their west coast counterparts Thee Oh Sees have been operating in for some time, mixed with some east coast Modern Lovers sensibilities. Parquet Courts never get flung off the back of the bull that their excellent debut Light Up Gold depicts on it’s cover, but it’s still well worth a trip to their rodeo.
Merchandise
In some sort of law of diminishing returns, the more bands that till the fertile soil of the Smiths for influence the more emaciated the harvest is. After a fallow period where the Fall Out Boys of the world drew on Morrissey for inspiration, Merchandise have reaped rich reward from their re-imagining of ’80s alt-rock. The tuneful “Totale Nite” EP was an avid, distinguished diversification on their previous “Children of Desire” album indicating a band with more expansive plans in mind.
Factory Floor
There are Pitchfork bands, NME bands and Wire bands – Factory Floor could be (reductively) defined as a Quietus band. Melodically minimal, abrasively motorik and brutally analogue, this three piece’s aggressive rendering of cold wave electronics fits in that sphere of experimental acts that can be embraced as much by the uninitiated as the clued-in. With a full-length debut on the way following last year’s collection of member Nik Colk Vid’s live jams with Throbbing Gristle’s Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti (of which their current Girls Names remix is a tantalising sample), now’s the time to live test FF’s insidious dark throb.
The Knife
The Knife are a band in a curious position, having built up huge amounts of credibility both through their reconstituted hits (via José González) and side projects (Fever Ray) and there’s nothing like a long spell out of the spotlight to give one’s mystique a fresh lick of paint. This year’s return Shaking The Habitual was not triumphant; instead it was bleak, intense, confusing, jagged, weird, wired and warped. While it garnered widespread critical praise, it wasn’t exactly full of floor-fillers, but instead overpacked with spiky antagonistic jams full of images of political violence and identity politics.
Moreover, the Knife’s live-show is not just a sister and a brother mumbling behind a laptop – far, far from it. Their show that toured Europe earlier this spring could only be classified a spectacular, fuelled by costumed and painted dancers fancifully miming on day-glo futurist instruments. This kind of theatrical mayhem is a once-off, the only Irish date that the Knife will play and likely to be a climactic point of the festival for anyone with an appetite a blown mind and a long night spent dancing in the woods.
My Bloody Valentine
This is My Bloody Valentine’s first Irish show since m b v appeared out of the (deep scratchy) blue in February of this year. While the band had continued intermittently touring in recent years with their ear-threatening onslaught of guitars all shimmering bludgeoning, rippling, the new record unleashes a whole other dimension fuelled by the manic, jungle-influenced drumming.
When Totally Dublin did ratings, we handed out a 5 whole square blocks out of 5 to mbv illustrating just how much we thought of it. A beautiful, blitzing squall awaits attendees, as MBV engage their array of amplifications and distortions while Belinda Butcher vocals slink over the top, siren-like, luring listeners into Shields’ sonic abyss. My Bloody Valentine shows are loud as hell and unlike any one else’s.
One thing to note, one former TD stooge did actual incur fairly serious ear injury up-close and personal at a My Bloody Valentine gig in the past, so bring your earplugs.
Electric Picnic runs from the 30th August until the 1st September. We’re in the Wilde campsite halfway between the toilets and the other toilets.
