Tuesday, 17 June 2014

Sniffing The Grass: Warming Up For Best Kept Secret 2014



Last year was the first edition of the Best Kept Secret festival. It got raving reviews and more importantly the people visiting the festival thought it was heaven. The combination of a very good line-up, good food and a bungalow instead of a camping was one hard to resist. So this year we will make our way to the wild animals of the safari park where the festival is taking place. I never danced with a giraffe before, so I am looking forward to it a lot. What can we see there? Read all about it.



One thing is clear, there's not much time to try out all the nice food, especially the first two days. The bookers did such a good job, that my schedule is very full with all the bands I plan on checking out. And of course I have to make tough choices.

Friday
Why not start off on a high right away with Telegram's punk. Then continue down this road with some Strokes kind of rock songs by Circa Waves. Or some psych rock by the Cosmonauts instead? I'm definitely not gonna miss that amazing Dutch indie band Daryll-Ann and their perfect songs. Remember The Walkmen? Peter Matthew Bauer was playing bass and keys for them and has now released his first solo album. Let's see how that sounds live. Midlake are going to treat us to some nice seventies psych softrock and then it's time to dance to Breton and their synth pop songs. Although not a fan of his music I want to see what James Blake is all about. Interpol are back! Hopefully their dark songs are still impressive. Otherwise I can always go and check out Tijuana Panthers instead and their catchy punk and surf songs. Pixies aren't the band of the old days anymore and I've seen them play a few disappointing shows. So I'll definitely will check out Bombay Showpig as well and their exciting music. So many people like the live shows of Caribou and I'm willing to give it a try although it's not exactly my cup of tea. I can always switch to Archie Bronson Outfit and their psych garage rock.
That's a full festival day. I'm gonna sleep so well in a real band in the jungalow. After a few more beers probably. Guess who: it's Joe Piler!

Three tips for today:
1. Daryll-Ann
2. Midlake
3. Bombay Showpig




Saturday
Woohoo! Waking up in a real bed in a bungalow means a proper toilet, a shower without queue and cooking our own breakfast with fresh coffee. And then we kick off with The Bots, those two youngsters that play garage rock like The Black Keys. Pins are a band that play dark 80s inspired songs like Savages, which sound real interesting. Moss are never disappointing with their melodic indie songs, so we may not have time for September Girls' garage rock and Radkey's punk rock. Belgian band School Is Cool made a totally different second album that sounds a lot darker and is definitely worth checking out. Miles Kane is guaranteed to rock us off our socks. Maybe after that we can grab a bit of Traams' garage rock. Many people are excited about Slowdive who are back together, but their shoegaze may be to dreamy for me. Afterpartees definitely is not too dreamy and I am willing to give up most of Babyshambles's show for it. Pink Mountaintops are playing grooving psych rock songs which I love, but The Wytches are throwing their crazy punk show at the same time. The War On Drugs are the talk of the town after the release of their fantastic new album, so that's a no-brainer. Chrvrches are probably too slow for me, but I'll give them a try since everyone is so crazy about them. Or I'll just check out some insane garage rock from Together Pangea. And we'll close the night with a guaranteed Franz Ferdinand party, which means I'll have to miss Night Beats' rock 'n roll soul porn.

Three tips for today:
1. Afterpartees
2. The War On Drugs
3. Franz Ferdinand




Sunday
The final day of the festival leaves more room for some breaks, which means we can also discover all the great food. The happy indie rock of Catfish and the Bottlemen should get us started. We'll wash it down with some heavy stoner rock from Truckfighters. If that's too heavy on the stomach the summery garage rock songs of Heavy Times should lighten us up. And otherwise Elephant Stone will definitely get us high with their psychedelic music. The Horrors new album sounds less dark, but their show probably won't. Germans The Notwist will bring back the light with their happy indie pop, the gorgeous pop songs of Belle & Sebastian definitely will. It means I will have to skip the hard rocking ladies of Deap Vally. Garage rockers Fat White Family have quite a live reputation and I want to check it out myself. I'm sure Elbow will close the festival in style.

Three tips for today:
1. Elephant Stone
2. Belle & Sebastian
3. Fat White Family




This promises to be a very nice weekend, full of great music, good food, good company and our close friend Joe Piler. See the full line-up over here and the time schedule over here.

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