ATP 2005 - Slint

The bad thing about this year's ATP curated by Slint was there wasn't really any band I never heard of before whose albums I wanted to get (or will want to rush out and see again - though there are some exceptions to this). The good thing was it was a pretty fun weekend consisting of 110, staying up late, a lot of sitting around, talking to random people, a couple of trips to the beach, John Smith's smooth bitter and more 110 all soundtracked by music that occassionally was really good.

The first thing we saw on Friday was Love as Laughter (having missed Born Heller to go to the beach). I have no recollection of them at all other than that they weren't terrible. Downstairs for Early Man. The times of the 28 acts were staggered so that there was never a clash across the 2 stages. This was made possible since there were 28 acts playing rather than the usual 40. Slint and Foundation have come in for a bit of criticism for not having more acts and more that were of a proven quality as well perhaps. Anyway Early Man were great, before they came on there was a video of a concert of some 70s country rock band (they had a song called Cops 'n Robbers - I've checked allmusic but can't figure out who it was). This antagonised the audience to the point of throwing stuff at the screen which made for a sort of more exciting atmosphere. Then Early Man came on and played their Black Sabbath influenced metal. It was pretty exciting and Anne tells me they were singing about Satan in at least one of their songs. Important to note that it's straightforward metal, they're not going in a different direction like Lightning Bolt say.

I missed Bad Wizard but got back in time for most of Sean Garrison & The Five Finger Discount, he rocked a good bit, he had a great Stetson wearing guitarist who looked like Kris Kristofferson. Then it was Deerhoof, they are a good sort of San Francisco Riot Grrl sounding band with a bit of theatricals from their short singer. Got tired at this stage so we sat at the back for the Melvins who from that distance seemed boring, a sort of metal Cure - they've been around for a long while and have done good things but it's hard to get excited about them. Nothing would do us then but to stay up ultra late, playing 25 in the pub, dancing to Aidan Moffat and someone from Mogwai at the disco (I couldn't believe he was from Mogwai - he seemed to have too many swish dj moves) and being utterly useless when we tried to help John (random lost bloke wandering around) find his way home (he didn't even know the number of the chalet he was in - a text the next night revealed it had all worked out).

We went with crippling hangovers to see Mogwai the next afternoon who made the whole world seem a little better. Definitely my favourite band of the weekend, why can't more bands make brilliant emotional music that makes you gently sway? They played at least one new song which sounded great and Aidan Moffat came on to guest for a song. It was slim enough pickings for the rest of the day, Spoon described themselves as the future of American rock or somesuch thing, in 110 terms they were bidding 20 and only getting 10 points. Faun Fables have a nice quirky, pagan folk thing going but with the heat of downstairs it was hard to pay a lot of attention. I didn't notice the end of Matmos and the beginning of the inbetween bands dj which says something. Mind you we missed a good few bands on Sat since running around the beach in the dark seemed like a good thing to do (which it was). Slint finished up that night and it was all right but not great to be honest, the songs from Spiderland were played perfectly but I've never really gone for Brian McMahon's voice (they should have let Will Oldham be their singer when they were all in school together - in fact one thing I was hoping was that if Oldham played at ATP then the 3/4s of Slint who backed him on There Is Noone What Will Take Care Of You could get behind him again to play that album live track by track - as he did with Arise Therefore 2 years ago). Sure it was good hearing For Dinner and Good Morning but a lot of the time it was just boring. The long delays between songs didn't help much. One other thing that I saw on Sat was Staremaster, it's a knock out staring competition with big screens and loud music. It's gimmicky but it's good fun to watch for a bit.

On Sun the first thing I saw was Mike Fellows aka Mighty Flashlight, his stuff was ok the whole thing was improved when this guy came on and read from a book of poetry over the music. Good to see the Sweeny bros - Spencer and Matt - who played guitar and drums for the band. On to King Kong who have a simple formula, bar room boogie bass and drums, songs that repeat a couple of lines about goldfish, cats, or monkeys. That was a fine formula for Sun afternoon. There were 2 bands The Red Nails and Pearls and Brass that I can't really distinguish from memory (didn't pay much attention from the back). Pearls and Brass were a blues band I think, downstairs for piano folk by White Magic (not quite the Nina Nastasia/Tori Amos level of stuff).

Sons and Daughters filled in for an absent Mark Kozelek (of Red House Painters), thank god for that since his downbeat angst would not be the sort of thing to hear at the end of a festival. S & D were great, quiffed up country rock and a bassist who looks fantastic (fringe!). Mum finished off and turned inital sound problems around to do ok. I was a bit annoyed with the guy who had pressed his knee into my back when we were sitting down and waiting for them to start. But my mood improved a whole lot when he fucked off. Mum are pretty good but they need to stop that breathy vocals stuff by the singer, that's not singing and it gets annoying after a bit. I'm not stopping anyone using their voice creatively (Sigur Ros, Bjork etc. all good) but have to draw the limit when the noise simply becomes heavy breathing. Mum are a lot like a guitarless driven Jimmy Cake I noticed also.

So

• Some of the best bands were the only non American ones (Mogwai, Sons and Daughters, Mum). They should have mixed it up a bit more in terms of where the bands were from.
• Who stole the funk? Hardly anyone that made you want to dance ('cept Sons and Daughters, the sway of Mogwai and the mosh of Early Man)
• I'ld go see Early Man, Faun Fables, Sean Garrison again (as well as the 3 listed above)
• No more reunions please! Thansk god MBV didn't do it. Arghgh I see Dinosuar Jr are next.
• More phone photos here
• 3 games of 110 in one weekend is too much, you start dreaming about it after a while (2 won by Anne, 1 by Andy)

Posted by eamonn at March 1, 2005 6:40 PM | TrackBack