Festival Memories #2

Part 2 of our Festival Memories comes in a week where there’s been so many announcements regarding festival line-ups. The Sea Sessions line-up was announced which includes Ziggy Marley, Bell X1, Fred, The Delays and more. Temple House Festival added a whole bunch of Irish artists to it’s line-up. The best news of the day is that Yo La Tengo was added to Forbidden Fruit.

Here are some Festival Memories from musicians and music lovers:

Colin Devlin – Musician and lead singer with The Devlins

The great thing about festivals is that not unlike failed relationships, with time you tend to remember only the good things and forget about the bad. Freezing in the pissing rain, queuing for over priced pints in crap plastic cups, medieval toilets, the staggering drunk
lurching around you as you try to watch your favourite band.

For me, as a musician, apart from all the amazing acts you get to see at the top of their game playing songs you know and love, the best part of playing at festivals has been the amazing conversations I’ve had backstage in portacabins with other musicians. Spending the afternoon with Jeff Tweedy from Wilco when The Devlins played Oxygen, doing the same with Ben Harper, or shooting the breeze with David Byrne or REM over a drink.

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Odd Future and Homophobia

So, Odd Future. The story of 2k11, or disgusting homophobes?

Argument A in favour of Odd Future: Odd Future are musically brilliant –

I am aware of Odd Future’s musical brilliance. In fact, it seduces me. I think Earl Sweatshirt’s Earl is one of the most heavily exciting things I’ve heard. Like ever. But musical brilliance is one thing, casual homophobia is another. Every second putdown in an Odd Future song is the word ‘faggot’. In fact the word ‘faggot’ occurs twice in ‘Earl’.

How many gay guys do you think Odd Future hang about with? What do you think they really think about gay men? No, seriously. Stop and think. What does Tyler the Creator think about gay men in his mind when he is writing raps that condemn every single person he hates as a ‘faggot’?. Do you think he actually has any respect for gay men when his quickest, easiest, insult lashed out over most of his raps is the word ‘faggot’? Do you think swan-diving into a crowd of hipsters at SXSW is enough cultural hype to distract rational minded people from the fact that you are multiply on record for hating gay people in the most vocally abhorrent way? Do you think people who saw these hype gigs should ignore the raw tsunami of homophobia in your mixtapes and albums thus far? “faggot”, “fuckin faggot”, “motherfucker sucks cock”, “you don’t like it? you’re a faggot”.

*edit – comments have drawn attention to the fact that a member of Odd Future is gay. I did not know this, so some of my initial thoughts on this are now altered.

Argument B in favour of Odd Future: Odd future are playing around with ‘labels’-

Okay, every other word in an odd future rap is ‘nigger’ (if we *ahem* exclude bitch, but that’s another story) because, as black LA teens they are messing with a label they were labelled with. And that is a proper exercise in the culture wars. But the label ‘faggot’…? How many guys in Odd Future have been tarred with this brush by society? How many of them are gay? Can they play around with the word ‘faggot’ the same way they can play around with the word ‘nigger’? Is Tyler gay? Does Tyler even like gay people?

Argument C in favour of Odd Future: Odd future’s raps are expressionism – take them seriously and you are a dork –

Charlie Sheen bet the shit out of a couple of women. He stands to make his fortune out of a one-man show around The States. Chris Brown’s publicists are advising him to not act too soft because his fan base seem to prefer a man who slaps his bird around a few times. Odd Future would like to see you “drown your bitch in a tub of cum and throw a shark in it”.

True expressionism?

Or nasty cultural phenomenon?

You decide.

Sound lads. Sound.

Nothing But The Girl(s): Hold Your Breath

For all you Nothing But The Girl(s) readers out there (all two of you…), here’s some details of releases by female singer-songwriters that I am most looking forward to this year.

Gemma Hayes

For The Turnstiles: Andrew Handrick Interview

In May of 2009 I discovered the music of Andrew Handrick at an independent music festival in Conary, Co. Wicklow. I seen some really good artists but the act which stood out for me was Dubliner Andrew Handrick. His performance and deliverance was outstanding and conjured up Elliott Smith or Willy Mason comparisons. Andrew released his debut album ‘The True Riches of Life’ way back in 2006 and has re-located to Italy. In this interview Andrew talks about his career to date, his motivations and the plan for the future.

Coming to the 4fortyfour

Coming to the 4fortyfour (These ‘puns’ have to stop – Ed.) is a new monthly feature that will showcase the best in emerging Irish and international music.

For The Turnstiles: My 3 Glastonbury Picks

As a judge for the Emerging Talent Competition I had to whittle my 159 artists down to just these three artists:

Laurie Cameron

Hailing from Scotland Laurie Cameron released a wonderful collection of songs called The Melancholy Tapes EP in 2010. Her songs are a thing of beauty, full of depth, intricate and delicate. The best track on the EP is this song which grabbed my attention so much that I had to listen to it over and over again:

Laurie Cameron: And I, Upon The Oceans Lay

Festival Memories #1

With festival season well and truly upon us – not sure how many more launches we can take – we at 4fortyfour thought it time to ask journalists, bloggers, musicians and fans for their favourite (or earliest) festival memories. We’ll post the results over the next few weeks but, for now, here’s your first instalment.

The Songwriter’s Corner: Zach Condon (Beirut)

The second installment of the Songwriter’s Corner takes a look at the work of Zach Condon, the brains behind New Mexico band Beirut. Since the project originated in 2006, they have been responsible for two incredible albums and a host of EPs, with the third album from the band due for release at some point of 2011. Beirut are among the first acts confirmed to be playing this year’s Electric Picnic festival in Stradbally in September.

For The Turnstiles: Jukebox Gypsy Interview

Jukebox Gypsy are a five piece acoustic folk band formed out of Liverpool. Their imminent Irish tour in support of the bands’ second album entitled ‘The Month’ will see Jukebox Gypsy play venues in every part of the country. Here Isaac answers a few questions about the band, the songwriting process, their inspirations and previous Irish tours.

Hi Isaac, how did the five members of Jukebox Gypsy come together.

2 x 4fortyfour #2: Baum- Music for my Landlord

People keep telling us that music journalism is dead. Readers can instantly download and listen to music so why would they care what other people think? Here at 4fortyfour we think they do care but that, sometimes, music journalism and criticism isn’t interesting enough. That’s why we’ve launched 2 x 4fortyfour – DID YOU SEE WHAT WE DID THERE? – a new type of music review.

In this series, two of our contributors will listen to a record individually, then listen together while chatting over GChat or some other means of instant communication. The (almost) unedited version of that conversation will form the review. It may wander off on tangents but hopefully you, the reader, will get a better sense of the record by the end of it as there will be more than just one person’s opinion.

Baum is a Swiss artist who recently recorded an album in New York’s The Cutting Room called ‘Music for my Landlord’. The studio band consists of some very well known and respected musicians. Here is the transcript of a conversation between Elaine and Peter where they simultaneously listen to the album and share their thoughts through Google chat.