Tuesday, June 03, 2014

Spanish bands to watch from Primavera Sound 2014

Every year Primavera Sound in Barcelona has an onslaught of indie darlings from English speaking countries, but did you also know that Spanish bands play the festival? And no, not just John Talabot. Spanish groups usually play during the 5PM time slot when everyone is either just waking up from their 7AM bedtime or going back to sleep for that sweet, sweet siesta so you’re sure to see Arcade Fire or Kendrick Lamar. So, it’s easy to miss them. Here’s a list of some of the Spanish acts that played the festival that are worth keeping an eye on.

Univers, from Barcelona univvers.bandcamp.com

The epitome of Spanish shoegaze, Univers have been our friends since we interviewed Mujeres a while back, as both groups share a member. We also wrote about their last EP La Pedregada, and this year they came out with their first full length L’Estat Natural. It’s lovely dimension bending guitar riffs and voices drenched in reverb.

Pional, from Madrid soundcloud.com/pional

A good buddy of John Talabot and featured on 2012's Fin, Pional makes house and electro music. Constantly releasing remixes on his soundcloud page, his DJ set is one of the best at Primavera Sound. And his original electronic compositions aren't too shabby either.

Oso Leone, from Mallorca
osoleone.bandcamp.com

Oso Leone make some minimalist electronic music that is as entrancing as it is poppy at times. With reverb drenched vocals as the songs wind deep into their meditations, you might not even realize what language the band is singing in, but it doesn’t even matter.

PRIMAVERA SOUND 2013 REVIEW

Originally published on thebomberjacketcom

A lot had changed for the 13th edition of Primavera Sound, most notably that the festival was no longer “San Miguel Primavera Sound,” but “Heineken Primavera Sound.” The difference is relevant, because a lot of the local Spanish elements of the festival haven’t been as emphasized in more recent years (and the Primavera organization has been called out on it once or twice). Don’t get me wrong, Primavera Sound is an amazing music festival, but as this was my third year in attendance, it was hard not to notice (or realize) some things. Spanish groups rarely got set times later than 6 p.m., and the attendance of those sets reflected the low amount of exposure they were actually getting. Although it’s cool that additional concerts were organized for the entire month beforehand and most intensively during the festival week, it’s debatable whether or not that meant that groups were pushed out of the festival to play at a bar the week before. Primavera has become a veritable booking force in Spain–particularly in Barcelona. It organizes concerts for nationally touring bands and also for local groups, but during the time in Barcelona I had more than one band mention to me how hard it was to book a show without the Primavera stamp of approval.

A Night on the Town in Barcelona: The Best Places to See Live Music

Barcelona’s Famèlic Family

Read the whole post on thebomberjacket.com

Exploring live music in Barcelona led to overhearing every once in a while about a group of crazy dudes from a place called Vic. I first heard about a collective called Famèlic when speaking with the Barcelona band Mujeres. The name Els Famèlics is Catalan Spanish that actually means “the hungry” rather than the false friend, “the family.” It seemed like an elusive group of kids playing music and doing things their own way, similar to a lot of D.I.Y. collectives in the U.S., which is something rare to find in Spain. The members live in Barcelona, but have shows in a suburb called Vic, because it’s much harder to book venues in the city. They also operate an independent record label and have releases from the bands L’Hereu Escampa, Mates Mates,Ohios, Regalim, and they work with Vic Goddard & the Subway Set. In addition to these groups, they’re also working with some of the best bands in the country. Eduard Vila and Aleix Vila are two members of Furguson, a band that THE BOMBER JACKET recently interviewed, and are also co-founders of the collective. TBJ spoke with Sergi Egea, the third co-founder who manages a lot of Famèlic’s ventures, about the group and music in the Barcelona area in general.

Primavera Sound 2012 Wrap Up

San Miguel stage, photo by Dani Cantó

Published on thebomberjacket.com

The Parc del Forúm is an excellent location for Primavera Sound, because the Spanish heat gets intense, particularly in the front row crowds, but there’s always a cool sea breeze that hits you just at the right moment. The three main festival days were full of a lot of excellent performances and I even had the chance to catch some of the shows at other sites. For example, Yann Tiersen played on Sunday at the Arc de Triomf with the crowd in the rain and lightning behind them.

I also had the opportunity to hang out with a lot of the Spanish bands and labels that I’ve been interviewing as there were some booths set up for labels from all over Europe. I spent some time with Beach Beach and a really nice guy from their label La Castanya. The band’s live set was excellent as well, and I was bummed that I didn’t get to see another buddy of THE BOMBER JACKET, Picore. Overall, the festival went down well, filled with a lot of really nice people and memorable moments. A bunch of them are listed below.

Primavera Sound 2012 Wishlist

Published on thebomberjacket.com

Barcelona’s Primavera Sound is one of the best indie music festivals that Europe has to offer (if not the best). They’re able to gather some of the most interesting and talented international acts out there, as well as showcase lesser-known bands, particularly Spanish ones. It takes place in the Parc del Forum, a breathtaking stone park that is right on the Mediterranean Sea and is studded with trees (that you can even pick berries from) and modernist architecture. Bands play with the backdrop of sailboats and Barcelona’s signature cinderblock cubes (or cindercubes) that jut out of the water in every direction.

I went to Primavera Sound last year and crossed a bunch of names off my list of bands to see before I die. Among them were Sufjan Stevens, Animal Collective, Deerhunter, The National, M. Ward and Belle & Sebastian. The festival unofficially started yesterday, and officially starts tomorrow (May 30). This year has just as many heavy hitters, including Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum, but I’ll get to that.

Watch a teaser below.

VIDEO: Primavera Sound 2011

Below are some good videos from Primavera Sound 2011 courtesy of Pitchfork.

tUnE-yArDs ::

James Blake ::

Kurt Vile ::

Yuck ::

Male Bonding ::

PHOTOS: Primavera Sound 2011

Here are some photos of Primavera Sound that I ruthlessly stole from Pitchfork (Thurs, Fri, Sat). Two of the most amazing things I'm glad I experienced before I died were Sufjan Steven's outsider art, neon infested, strangely costumed nonsenseatorium and Animal Collective's unbelievable mesmerizing jams.

Thursday, May 26th

Glasser (21:45)