What The Hell is Going On? #20: Bands for 2010 Week
By: Thomas Hannan
Hello all, and happy new year.
If ever there was a time to answer the question ‘what the hell is going on?’, it’s now. I mean, for one thing, we live in a decade that doesn’t even have a name yet. And for another, it seems we can be part of enormous conspiracy theories and heated debate even when we’re not even actually in the office (for example, it seems in our absence we just might have ruined Andrew WK’s career, which was NEVER our intention – watch the video everyone’s bitching about here). I’m confused.
No change there then. We can’t settle the former chronological quandary, but in an attempt to answer a few of the questions raised in the sh*tstorm following the Andrew WK lecture, we’ll be meeting Andrew in New York towards the end of next month for an interview in which hopefully everything will be settled once and for all (but probably won’t be – it’s far more fun this way, wouldn’t you agree?).
Anyway, when you’re confused, one thing you can do to help is try and put things in some kind of order, develop some kind of plan. So that’s what I did. Which is why this week on Rockfeedback TV looks like this...
Just like everyone else in the field, Rockfeedback TV are looking ahead to music in 2010 – what’s going to happen and what’s it going to sound like? We’ve a few ideas up our sleeve, and as well as offering up some answers to those two aforementioned questions, we can also hazard a guess at what it’ll look like too. We start today with a characteristically cacophonous show from Leeds types Pulled Apart By Horses in the shape of their set at a Rockfeedback night at London’s Lexington (the band, pictured above, are due to release their hugely anticipated debut LP this year). Following that, on Tuesday we’ve words and music from one of the bands set to make what could be the return 2010, that being a headline set from the Mystery Jets at 2009’s Underage Festival – they’re back with their big-big-big-sounding third LP within a few months. Come Wednesday it’s new bands time again, with another name we’ve high hopes for in the coming 365 days, Male Bonding – recently signed to Sub Pop in the states, here the lo-fi punk three piece give us a piece of their mind at a Rockfeedback club night. With Thursday arrives an opportunity for another resurgent bunch of racket-makers to show us what they’re made of, Rolo Tomassi pummelling the last Underage Festival with tunes from a new album that, you guessed it, is out very very soon. We end on Friday back on a new bands tip, with a Club Rockfeedback set and unusually cricket-based chat with the boys and girl in the justifiably hotly-tipped Stricken City.
Elsewhere, we’re gearing up for the first show we’re promoting this year – So So Modern at The Lexington in London on January 29th – and have also announced a whole host of other shows to take us in to March. Our band of the week come to you in the form of Esben and the Witch, a truly intriuging new act who even if they aren’t among the biggest groups of 2010 will certainly be one of the best. Dan Monsell’s Sounds on the Ground column will, upon its imminent return, also feature them as part of its start-of-the-year summation of where new music finds itself.
Personally, the thought of a year of new albums from LCD Soundsystem, The Magnetic Fields, Liars, Jens Lekman, The Beastie Boys, Vampire Weekend, Grinderman, Bass Clef, Arcade Fire, Beach House, Melvins, James Mercer & Dangermouse and Hot Chip warms me so much it doesn’t even matter that our office is otherwise f**king unbearably freezing.
Tom.x
Artists in this article: Pulled Apart By Horses