So I went to ATP last weekend. And much like last time I was introduced to a slew of musicians I had never heard of before, personally hand picked by our curator, Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons. Some I liked, some I loved, some I… well. Let’s take a look at the ones I can remember.
James Blackshaw
Hunched over his guitar like it was a dying child, he played with the beauty of an angel and the charisma of a very uncharismatic thing. His songs were good and he played well, but the live performance didn’t really add anything you’d get from playing one of his CDs really loud.
Broadcast
When you say ‘Avant Garde’ you tend to think of something incomprehensible and borderline offensive to your ears. And that’s pretty much what you get with broadcast, except I listened to the whole set when I could have gone and done something else. It was almost hypnotic. The sounds in the speakers and the lightshow on the projector they had on stage reminded me of the music of the future they have in museums, or whenever they talked about atoms. If you like your music weird, give these guys a go.
Cold Cave
These guys combined a lilting, dreamlike feel with the energy of club music. I quite like clubby music, so I really liked these guys.
Iggy and the Stooges
This is what most people came here for. And I now see why. I didn’t really know much about Iggy Pop apart from those adverts with the puppet. But Iggy is a force of nature on stage, no wonder he’s still going at over sixty. He strikes me as one of those rock-stars that should have died of an overdose or a crowd-surfing accident when he was about thirty but instead decided he couldn’t be motherfucking bothered with dying.
Iggy not only played well, he played the crowd and when one of their drums broke he called a random person from the crowd out on to the stage and talked to them for a bit while they taped it back up. In between songs he’d start handing the microphone around to the audience and he played like he was just happy to be there on stage. There’s a reason he’s still going!
Jill Sobule
I knew nothing about Jill apart from the fact she did one of the songs on the clueless soundtrack. Don’t ask how I know about that. What I found was not just a great musician, but a performer on a par with Iggy himself despite working in a dinky little room compared to Iggy’s massive stage.
She had us singing along, asked us which songs we’d like next and acted like she was onstage rather than just playing her CD out to us. And you know what, if I wasn’t playing Scandinavian Metal at full volume on my computer while I type this, I’d probably still be humming one of her happy, upbeat tunes about things like the apocalypse, jetpacks or waiting for the rapture.
Shonen Knife
A Japanese Punk band you say? I am so there! And I was not disappointed. If you enjoy the energy of punk music but sometimes wish the bastards would just cheer the hell up sometimes then these girls are right up your alley! They played punk songs about things like Sushi, banana crisps and how awesome barbecues are and I loved every second of it.
Amadou and Mariam
These guys were bloody brilliant, mixing traditional Mali sound with Rock and the sheer force of their performance. Their set had an enormous amount of energy to it and I enjoyed it immensely!
Daniel Johnston
Daniel Johnston is a brilliant songwriter, but he’s really not a performer. It was almost painful to watch this mentally ill man stumble through his set.
Viv Albertine
Her opening song was about the fact her dad never loved her. I left ten minutes later having to stifle the urge to tell her to stop moping and cheer the hell up. Only look into her if you like your music depressing and dull.
Juana Molina
Her sound test managed to be better than her actual performance. Her music is bad and she should feel bad!
Panda Bear
You know when people try to parody pretentious music? It usually sounds like this. The ‘songs’ pretty much consisted of one note droning for about ten seconds before the guy played another note. He held a guitar in his hands, and didn’t use it. This was fucking abysmal and it was almost an insult to ATP itself that he had even been allowed on the premises!
Overall, it’s still a great weekend and a great way to find new music you like and everybody should try it at least once. Even if it’s so you can say you saw something as awful as Panda Bear or Juana Molina and lived to tell the tale!
