More Indietracks - now for some good music

Indietracks has three stages – an outdoor main stage, an indoor main stage (in a locomotive shed), and a second indoor stage in a small corrugated iron church. The Church was always full, and if you wanted to see anyone in particular playing in it you really needed to start queuing before the person on before them had finished (or even started), a lesson I consistently failed to learn over the weekend.

I did manage to see one band inside, the delightful Hong Kong In The 60s. This lot (two boys, one girl) play electronic tinged music that sounded largely like it would be more at home at another festival entirely, perhaps one aimed at people who like experimental music. They still worked here because they were not so forward thinking that they would frighten the horses. The music is still tunes-based, and perhaps a bit wistful and melancholic, and I suppose people might lump them in with Stereolab or Broadcast, but they are a good bit less in-your-face.

I did just about manage to get into the Church in time to see the last few songs of The Pete Green Corporate Juggernaut (after queuing outside for some time with these Scottish fellows who were extolling the virtues of the Wicker Man Festival. Pete Green is kind of like a cross between neo-folkie singer-writer music and fey indiepop. This means that he ought to be rubbish, but no – he is awesome. As are his Corporate Juggernaut, basically his backing band.

Pete Green's songs are all nicely observational, sung in a regional accent, and the playing creates a pleasing musical environment. The big hit would have to be 'Best British Band Supported By Shockwaves', a caustic commentary on the depths to which the NME has fallen. That it makes the false assumption that the NME was ever about the music does not detract from the enjoyment it offers. Pete Green also played an unlikely yet storming cover of Shocking Blue's 'Send Me A Postcard'.

The third great church act were The Specific Heats. We only heard them from outside, occasionally pressing our faces against the window to see them (and, we realised later, making ourselves look like total spas to the people inside). They served up a garagey surf rock sound. If from outside their singer lacked a certain testifyin' "YEOOOOWWW!"-ness, I would have to still accept that they totally went for it musically and I wish I had been inside to see them. Looking in through the window, I was particularly impressed by their lady bassplayer, who seemed to be really going for it.

image source