Electric Picnic preview: Friday

The excitement is truly building now. Here's a quick rundown of the artists not to miss, starting with Friday's line-up.

MODEST MOUSE

Moody indie-rockers are known for their frequently raucous live sets, and packed their tent to bursting point last time they played the Picnic. Just don't be that guy who asks them to play 'Freebird'.





PUBLIC IMAGE LTD.


The Sex Pistols' appearance at EP08 was one of the most divisive in the history of the festival, but there'll be a whole lot more goodwill coming the way of John Lydon's newly-reformed Public Image Ltd. The pioneering post-punk outfit's influence has grown and grown down the years, and with an eclectic sound that draws on reggae, dub, punk and krautrock, they should go down a storm at the Picnic.





EELS

Mark 'E' Everett and co are touring on the back of a quick-fire trilogy of albums. A surprisingly fun live band considering the often solemn nature of E's songwriting, this set is more likely to focus on their rockier material than the folky stuff.





FOALS

New material from the subtle, layered Total Life Forever is likely to be mixed with reliable rave-ups such as 'Balloons'

Foals - Spanish Sahara / This Orient by subpop



JANELLE MONAE

I almost put this in begrudgingly, because so many people are banging on about this one that I've got a funny feeling it's going to turn out a damp squib. That's probably me just being contrary, though - Monae is the pop sensation of the moment.

janelle monae / the archandroid by weworemasks

JONSI

The Sigur Ros frontman's live shows have frequently being described as magical and awe-inspiring. He's touring behind this year's Go.

Go Do by Jónsi



STARS

The Canadians are touring behind new album The Five Ghosts, but expect them to dip into their 2004 masterwork Set Yourself on Fire as well.





HERE WE GO MAGIC

Seeing Luke Temple and co. playing the otherwordly 'Fangela' at Primavera Sound this year to a crowd of enchanted punters was one of the highlights of that weekend. Expect spiky psych-rock, hyperactive David-Byrne-isms and polyrhythmic Afro-pop-influenced tunes.





LAURA MARLING

The precocious young singer-songwriter from London has twice been nominated for a Mercury Prize, and the evocative quality of her compositions as well as her delicate but expressive vocals illustrate why.

Modest Mouse Ticket Updates

Apologies for the confusion, but our sources were premature on this one. It turns out that Modest Mouse will not be playing in Limerick at all in December, while their gig in Galway will not be in the Black Box on December 4th, as previously announced, but in the Live Lounge of The Radisson on December 5th. Also, their Belfast date will be in Mandela Hall, not Spring & Airbrake.

5 Dec 2009 Radisson Hotel Galway
7 Dec 2009 Academy Dublin (SOLD OUT)
8 Dec 2009 Academy Dublin
9 Dec 2009 Mandella Hall Belfast

Modest Mouse December dates

Finally some ticket details. Tickets for Modest Mouse's December gigs will go on sale tomorrow, September 30th at 9am. Full dates below..Incidentally, Johnny Marr is no longer a member of the band - he's now a full-time Crib. Although the Sugababes are rumoured to be tapping him up as we speak.

4 Dec Black Box, Galway
5 Dec Dolan’s Warehouse, Limerick
7 Dec Academy, Dublin
8 Dec Academy, Dublin
9 Dec Spring & Airbrake, Belfast

UPCOMING

The ever-prolific Bradford Cox will bring his Atlas Sound solo project to Whelans this November 21st. Much-anticipated second album Logos is released on October 19th, and if you haven't heard the sublime 'Walkabout', his collaboration with Avey Tare (Panda Bear) of Animal Collective, then rectify that state of affairs this instant. Get it here:

http://www.thefader.com/2009/07/17/premiere-atlas-soun-w-noah-lennox-walkabout/

Modest Mouse will play a number of dates around the country in December, including two dates in Dublin's Academy. They recently released No One's First, And You're Next, an EP collecting out-takes from the sessions for their last two studio albums. Much-lauded Scots Frightened Rabbit will provide support. Modest Mouse are also part of the mouth-watering line-up for the 10 Years Of ATP Festival in December (http://www.atpfestival.com/Events/TenYearsOfATP.php).

4 Dec Black Box, Galway
5 Dec Dolan’s Warehouse, Limerick
7 Dec Academy, Dublin
8 Dec Academy, Dublin
9 Dec Spring & Airbrake, Belfast

Ticket details have yet to be announced.

The xx will also play Irish shows in what's looking like a fantastic December for gigs (let's not forget Sonic Youth will play their first headline show in Ireland for over 10 years). The young foursome have been gathering rave reviews far and wide for their stark, darkly compelling debut album.

15 Dec Speakeasy, Belfast
16 Dec Roisin Dubh, Galway
17 Dec Pavilion, Cork
19 Dec Button Factory, Dublin

There's a mouth-watering double-bill in store on November 9th in Whelans: Japandroids and A Place to Bury Strangers. The former have released one of the finest albums of the year so far, the superb Post-Nothing. The latter have been described as the 'most ear-shatteringly loud garage/shoegaze band you'll ever hear' (The Washington Post), so bring your ear-plugs.

Coming up a lot sooner than all of the above is the visit of LA noiseniks HEALTH, whose new album Get Colour has been attracting much praise and living up to some pretty high expectations. They'll play The Village on Thursday October 1st. They're extremely loud. Earplugs might be an idea here as well.

Album Review: THE CRIBS - Ignore The Ignorant (Wichita)

(This article was originally written for the website Muso's Guide, http://musosguide.com/)


The Cribs’ 2007 album Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever was one of the best straight-up guitar records released that year: it saw the hitherto defiantly lo-fi Wakefield trio smoothing out their sound (with the help of producer Alex Kapranos) without losing any of their vital edge. Combined with their grass-roots attitude to live gigs and their entertaining media soundbites (around the time of the Live 8 concerts, frontman Ryan Jarman announced that ‘‘the mainstream attitude of most indie bands’’ was a bigger threat to the planet than global warming), it set The Cribs up as the anti-Razorlight or the anti-Killers; a beacon of indie integrity in the face of arena-rock pandering; the sort of guitar band you’d be tippexing onto your pencil case if you were still in school.

And then, things took a surprising turn. Fresh from a short dalliance with Modest Mouse, ex-Smiths guitarist and living legend Johnny Marr heard the furious ‘Hey Scenesters!’ on his radio, and after a meeting with bassist/singer Gary Jarman, asked to join the band for some dates. The initial novelty of seeing this grizzled veteran jamming with three irreverent upstarts was nothing compared to the news that he was to become a full-time member of the band, initiated into the gang as it were.

While Marr’s influence on Modest Mouse’s sound was arguably fairly negligible, at least in a noticeable sense, his stamp is all over the Jarman brothers’ fourth album. If the title indicates a politicising of the band’s anti-scenester invective (the British National Party won a seat in the band’s Yorkshire constituency), the reality is that the Cribs have mellowed somewhat. While opening track ‘We Were Aborted’ pulses with declamatory, righteous anger, it’s lead single ‘Cheat On Me’ that serves notice of the changes in their sound: the guitarwork is melodic and elegant rather than clanging or spiky, Ryan almost croons the words instead of bellowing them, while the general tone – musically and lyrically - seems wistful and conflicted, in contrast to the self-assured verve of yore.

‘City Of Bugs’ is another curveball for those who expected Men’s Needs: Part II. The band collaborated with Lee Ranaldo on their last album, and the influence of Sonic Youth is evident on this track, its atmospheric guitar and evocative lyrics (‘’A perfumed gust drifts to my core / I give you one last look / Through a cross-hatched door’’) interspersed with passages of squall. Elsewhere, ‘Last Year’s Snow’ and ‘Save Your Secrets’ are chiming, (whisper it) mature-sounding ballads, the former more successful than the rather limp latter.
Surprisingly, it’s the more uptempo numbers where Ignore The Ignorant really fails to make an impact. The much-vaunted title-track turns out to be something of a damp squib, its rinkety-dink rhythm recalling frivolous Britpop rather than furious agit-prop (although fair play to the band for addressing the BNP issue), while tracks like ‘We Share The Same Skies’ and ‘Victim of Mass Production’ sound as generic and personality-free as the bands The Cribs used to condemn. Which is worrying.

You can’t ignore Marr’s role in all this. While his playing is frequently impressive here, it’s just hard to see what either party is gaining from this union. While the Cribs’ sound has become fuller and more subtle, it’s at the expense of the dynamic energy and raw intensity that were the essence of the band. Nothing on this record matches the furious blitz of ‘Major’s Titling Victory’ or ‘Hey Scenesters!’ – instead, we have another of those dreaded 'mature' albums from acts who don’t need to mature. The result is that the Jarmans and their new pal are increasingly in danger of becoming exactly what they railed against, and what we want them to rail against.