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PREVIEW INDIE POP FESTIVAL / MULTI-ARTS HAPPENING EDINBURGH POPFEST VS HIDDEN DOOR FESTIVAL Various venues, Edinburgh, Fri 22 Oct–Sun 24 Oct; Roxy Art House, Edinburgh, Fri 22–Sun 24 Oct
Two DIY capital music festivals on the same weekend – sod’s law, eh? While Edinburgh Popfest shuffles to the literate, wistful sounds of an international indie-pop line-up at the Wee Red Bar, The GRV and The Lot in its debut year, the Hidden Door Festival will simultaneously stage its second annual celebration of cross-genre, multi-arts creativity at the Roxy Art House.
In a healthy spirit of diplomacy, we’re previewing both, and leaving you to decide on which side of the homespun music weekender divide your allegiance will land.
Curated by capital indie-pop stalwarts ballboy, Edinburgh Popfest enters a loose international fraternity of similarly-spirited events globally – from New York to London, Copenhagen and Berlin – organised by a ‘network of interested fans, bands, DJs and promoters,’ explains ballboy singer Gordon McIntyre, whose band tops Friday’s bill. Swedish twee-
poppers Suburban Kids With Biblical Names headline on Saturday, at an all-dayer also featuring local faves Kid Canaveral and The Just Joans. ‘I personally guarantee that everyone who comes will fall in love with at least one band they have never heard before,’ states McIntyre boldly. Hidden Door boasts 40 acts – American Men,
Washington Irving and Endor included – plus 60 artists, 20 poets and 20 filmmakers, all crammed into the labyrinth Roxy for a spontaneous, collaborative multi- arts mash-up similarly cosmopolitan in outlook. ‘I was inspired by travelling to places like Budapest and seeing their energetic DIY culture,’ comments the festival’s director, Edinburgh artist David Martin. ‘I wanted to create a way for the musicians to let rip with their creativity and I thought getting them together with a bunch of artists and poets and filmmakers might just flick the switch and turn the whole thing on.’ Big specs and bad dancing, or art school hipness and
contemplative chin-stroking? Weekend tickets are available for each festival, and the venues are in close proximity, so you can always do both. See, we’re diplomatic like that. (Malcolm Jack) ■ www.edinburghpopfest.co.uk / www.hiddendoor.org
Music PREVIEW TROPICAL POP EL GUINCHO Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Sat 30 Oct
‘The naked girls weren’t my idea – honestly!’ So claims El Guincho, or Pablo Díaz-Reixa, the Spanish musician and tropicalia-lord behind ‘Bombay’. It’s a slice of steel drum laced, Spanish language, calypso- pop off his latest album Pop Negro. For those who haven’t had the pleasure of seeing the video (go to bombay-themovie.com), it’s a sun- kissed, surreal hallucination, dreamt up by director, Nicolas Mendez. ‘I can’t take credit for the video –
that was all Nico’s idea, but I do think he’s made something really fun, and fresh and colourful,’ explains Díaz-Reixa on a rare day-off in Barcelona, shoe-horned in between US and European tour dates. ‘The video’s definitely a little bit weird; which I think is a great match for the music.
El Guincho’s music has drawn comparisons with Animal Collective, Yeasayer and his XL label-mate, M.I.A.; all artists who pull freely from a wide range of musical styles. But while his last LP Alegranza! mashed up afrobeat, Latin American folk chants and techno, he describes Pop Negro (Catalan for black octopus) as ‘more focused’. ‘There are more hooks, choruses and verses this time, but the way I make music hasn’t changed. I always start with the beat. That’s the foundation, and I always want that to be really strong.’ As for the live show, Díaz- Reixa says to expect dancing. ‘That’s one thing I notice at my shows; people are really quick to get into it. I guess rhythm is a bit part of what people get from my music. So it normally only takes one song and people are dancing.’ (Claire Sawers)
PREVIEW AGIT-POP MEN Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Thu 28 Oct; Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Fri 29 Oct
Originally formed in 2007 as a DJing side project by JD Samson and Johanna Fateman, two thirds of fiercely energetic femme-pop-punk trio Le Tigre, MEN has mutated into a proper full-time project. However, Fateman has semi-retired from the group to start a family, and is now billed as a non-touring ‘consultant’ member alongside artist Emily Roysdon. Michael O’Neill and Ginger Takahashi of Samson’s other group Hirsute have been drafted in to complete the live trio.
‘We’re an art band,’ says Samson. ‘We put on a live show, but we like to bring multimedia work and other artists into our shows wherever possible. There’ll definitely be a conceptual costume element going on.’ MEN also continues Le Tigre’s overtly lesbian-feminist lyricism. ‘Our new album’s called Talk About Body,’ says Samson. ‘It’s a lyric from our song ‘Credit Card Babie$’, which is about how much it costs gay and lesbian couples to have babies. I get frustrated by the way my friends can just decide to have children, but that for me (as a lesbian) it has to be that much more of a planned thing.’
As for Le Tigre; ‘We’re putting together a live DVD documentary for next year, and there could be an album from that, I don’t know. We worked with Christina Aguilera on her last album [Bionic], which was really interesting. But I don’t see us recording any of our own material in the immediate future.’ Why not? Because, she points out, ‘my head is in MEN world right now.’ (David Pollock)
21 Oct–4 Nov 2010 THE LIST 61