Musik 4U: 2009

Jul.25.09

The local festival season is most of the way through now, next stop Station Square for another round of Musik 4U with the Make a Difference crew. Usually I like to chill around a bit, but today’s start was different with me meeting a hazy Craig Hudson in Bletchely as the band gathered to get our “convoy” of cars, music gear and amicable musicians on the road to the festival. Pulling up, I see some familiar faces with our Alice and also Nick, a friend I haven’t seen in a good long while. A clear sky, friendly crew and a café around the corner? This might sound too good to be true…

Well, here’s where I usually write about the first band, and I guess I still am in a way. My band, Benny And The Razorblades went up first and when we go into Blitzkrieg Bop. Through talking to bands I’ve learned that most have one track they don’t like practicing or playing, I never really knew what they meant until recently and our usual intro of a four note Ramones cover. But for some reason I was feeling a little stressed out and didn’t end up giving my all to the set, add a few technical hitches and so on, it was far from our strongest set. But when we kicked into the doubled up My Right Hand and Ode To You, things seemed to slot into place a lot better. I don’t dwell too much on mistakes and whatnot, after all, it’s just bearing in mind what you can do to make the next gig better and our manager and wonderful friend Alice is as supportive as ever. But we don’t have long until we have to move our gear out and then I had to transform into “Journo Mode”, such is the high flying life that us musos lead…

The next artist our two compères introduce is one of the MaD herself. Rosie T, who is one of the MaD crew aswell. Up front with an acoustic guitar, the young lady takes us through some laid back tunes, although without the overdone cliché mockney vocals that a I’ve been noticing from a few acoustic acts. I have to hand it to her, I was worried when I was on the stage with a band, to be up on that stage alone for about half an hour takes a fair amount of guts, especially with the crowd looking fairly healthy, it’s not incredibly busy but it’s looking better than last year. There’s a few covers sneaked in there too, a bit of Kings Of Leon (Be Somebody) and Ladyhawke (My Delirium) swinging around along her own material. A lot better than our set in any case…
With that, it’s the first coffee break with Steffi as we head out for some skinny lattes as we chat about music, Mr Cruizee and bands that are making an impact and that are playing at Musik 4U.

Though Leighton Buzzard-based Little Villeins haven’t been blitzing Milton Keynes, they have become a very familiar face when it comes to the summer here, I guess they’re one of those bands you’re bound to see play at least one of the local festivals. Besides, sharp, cheeky, swaggering indie is pretty much as summery as music can get. But this time there’s something different, the sound is a little fiercer, there may even be a little bit of punk in there too, “Time Is Mine” is still a bit of a jovial collection of laid back offbeat riffs, but the racier tracks like “We’re Alright” seem a little more charged up, but if it’s going to help them stand out of the crowd then all the better. Whatever the weight behind the sound, the songs are still catchy and there’s a good few subtle influences in there with some ska and rockabilly nudging a little bit into the songs on their set. Little Villeins have evolved, even if only a little bit, and they’re sounding fresh.

Buick McKane leap into the fray as energetic as ever, a solid intro leading into some heavy, jagged, minimalist grooves, reminiscent of Biffy Clyro and the like, who look a tiny bit out of place on the large stage, still, that only gives Sean more room to run around. Like the performance I seen a couple of weeks before, it’s another cracking one, faults are hard to come by when you just have two people in the band, simply put, it leads to tight sets. In other words the gig is just like any other one, the guys have set a bar with a bundle of old and new songs along with a tight sound. The only way they would sound bigger right now is with a larger line-up, but then there would be nothing Buick McKane about that. Instead it’s best to see how things go with new material and the like along the line, they have the sound, the fans and the support, they just need to keep things fresh and pounding away, something they’ve managed to catch on so far.

I happened to chance upon our next band earlier in the week at the Sno! Bar, and managed to get a t-shirt too. Judging by that particular set, today should be a good one for them. To put it into a phrase, Lecarla sound familiar, but a little different. Cliché I know, but a few more gigs under their collective belts since I first seen them, they’ve given more of a brash swagger to their melodies, but there’s still a bit of a “sensible” side to their tunes, partially in the music but also down to their vocalist, the vocals have a fragile disposition that sounds good in practice, but gets drowned out when you include the rest of the Lecarla heavy sounds. If the band can find a way to get the volume up on the singing and stage prescence fronts while keeping that little bit of the softness in it to balance it out, these girls and guys could be looking really solid, they certainly have the drive with some Germany gigs also behind them.

Looking at my calculator watch, I see that another dose of caffeine is in order and tag along with Steffi to get a drink and some lunch. It’s good to catch up, Musatronic may not be functional anymore, but Steff is that one face who I can always have a good chin-wag with and let’s face it, there’s not many better places to chat than a café with a skinny latté and a panini while tunes are blaring out of the festival’s PA. Then we hear another band start up…

That band being a new face to me, which is one of the reasons I love festivals, and related to one of my local aggravations. I personally love to hear new music, it’s a shame that some local bands only want to see their own favourite bands. From Cheltenham, Century Man have a decent enough rock and roll sound about them, pulsing and a little racy along with an atmospheric disposition, I guess you could call it “Experimental Indie” if you’re looking for any particular label, it’s a sound that’s cropping up with some other bands I’ve seen this year, but these guys don’t look like the usual poseurs. Instead they come across more like an early brit-rock outfit, a bit of a nostalgia trip if you will. It’s a shame that being a bit out-of-town, there weren’t many people right up front, but it looks like MaD made a good choice with these guys, even if MK is a bit of a “trend-town”.

There’s a bit of a gap now though, next up are a group of MCs are on the main stage, I’m not by any means a hater of rap music, but I figured it would be a good chance to wind down and mooch around to get some shots. First stop is the half pipe, if I wasn’t photographing bands most of the time then I’d probably be taking shots of skateboarders and the like, after all, catching a kickflip or a grind at the right moment is as good as getting “that” shot of a musician. Fortunately the netting was taken down for a short while while a couple of boarders prepared for another stunt, so I manage to get a few clear shots before making some headway to get some shots of the huge banner with a low sun. The trek back includes getting a good old fashioned Mr. Whippy, plus snapping the Firetone crew playing a bit of footie before chilling out with Steffi and Alice backstage.

More familiar faces are cropping up with the new Thomas Said. After the Terrapin days, Dave and Ben are back with a somewhat new lineup and some new tunes. But with the two supplying the rhythms and vocals you can notice a very familiar style, it’s as the old band were still here and that’s not exactly anything bad, it’s not like the band have reinvented themselves suddenly and we might see some more natural progressions through time, but for now it’s a rather comfortable slot. “Grow Old” is looking to be my own favourite at the moment, a slow pace and a lot of licks that seems to drift away from the old sounds a little. Obviously, the guys are still a new band, so it should be interesting to see how the sound develops along the way with the “old-school” influences and the input from the new additions both coming in, although it would be wrong to expect a totally new sound it would also be a shame to see these guys as just a “Mk.2 band”. Something the next and final band had to contend with for a while…

Last year a certain young three-piece came quite a way, playing at last years festival after an obscure period. Firetone now headline the Musik 4U stage, ready to kick off the last leg of the day, Jammers is smiling like a geek, Chris and Andé also seem to be looking forward to their gig while their van is smeared with toothpaste for some reason. But joking aside, there’s not much I can write about this set that I haven’t written before, they’ve set their bar high and have a lot more confidence since their first gig in the County Arms about a year ago. Now being a pretty tight unit and having the moves aswell as the riffs, it looks like things are going quite well for the band, though the set is admittedly at least a little predictable, not much in the way of very new material, there’s the usual tracks beating around like Angel Inside, Gravity and Well. It’s a shame because it’s the first time I’ve thought of their set as a show and not just a gig, but maybe I’ve just seen a little too much of a good band…

But what a day it’s been, bearing in mind I was a little stressy at the start, everything went really well and without many hitches as far as I could see. The weather was fantastic, the bill was comfortable and huge injections of caffiene kept me going to the end. And was I glad to see the day through? You bet I was.

Craig \m/

Firetone on Myspace
Century Man on Myspace
Lecarla on Myspace
Buick McKane on Myspace
Little Villeins on Myspace
Benny & The Razorblades on Myspace

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