Cougar Microbes

Nine times out of ten when I ask my friends what video they would like to see on Weekend Videos they answer The Prodigy‘s ‘Smack My Bitch Up‘.

Over ten years from it’s was release the song and original video still has some controversy attached to it. When it was originally in the charts many UK radios refused to play the offensive sampled lyrcics Jonas Åkerlund epic brawl of a video still feels raw as fuck.

TRACKS:

For this year’s Bestival we decided to take a different approach by sending in our very own young festival rookie to soak up the atmosphere. Here is her account:

As a festival virgin and an indie music newbie, Bestival was a much needed and appreciated experience. Dotted over the net are paragraphs of negativity directed to the weekend of new age fun with a vintage feel; sure it was a reunion of East London trend setters and what with the fantasy theme it soon unravelled into a gathering of narco-unicorns, high flying fairies and dehydrated Avatars, but there was so much more going on that critics seem to forget.

To start I could mention the line up,; all I can say is that The XX with their melodramatic faces and basic guitar strums were loved passionately and practically had their own venue; a music composition which was in fact a dark room with three screens, each focusing on one of the three artists and their particular instrument in the foreground.

Dizzee Rascal, whose music I never quite appreciated, turned the tables with an hour-long energy wave and a Nirvana tribute. Hurts who cracked us up with their synthpop break-up recovery lyrics – “I don’t want your happiness. I don’t need your happiness. So never show me happiness. I don’t want your happiness”. The Prodigy whose crowd instigation and angry lyrics were a natural firestarter, created walls of death that gave me bruises, plastic bottles hit my head and there was no need to jump around for the turbulence was doing it for me. Honestly, I’m more for unicorns than devils so I much preferred Eliza Doolittle’s ‘Skinny Genes’. Apparently she camped for the weekend with us plebs without bodyguards (somehow this created a buzz).

Not to mention the major array of DJs and MCs (who I’m more acquainted with) such as the likes of Mylo (m*therf***ers gonna drop da preshaah), Rob da Bank (erstwhile curator of Bestival) and Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip (…just a band…just a band…)

On another note, the venue was huge and set in a pretty country park with cows grazing in adjacent fields and all sorts of arenas; from the Bollywood Tent (basically Fabric’s drum ‘n’ bass night), a solar powered bandstand and bicycle powered phone charging hut, Arcadia – an outdoor spider robot club with special effects and pyrotechtechnic treats, a suspended castle in the sky that blew up in flames with a background of fireworks on Sunday night and a Cabaret Tent which housed some hilarious comedy acts (my favourite being Frisky and Mannish’s musical comedy (they’ll be in London’s Bloomsbury Theatre in December!)

On the costume front: no one does it better (or takes it more seriously) than the Brits; the best being the big groups coming as different characters such as the huge body parts. Naturally Alice in Wonderlands and associates were plentiful, as were Dorothies and Where’s Wallies, Avatar Smurfs and Oompa loompa fairies but there were some odd ones too; I spotted a Jesus and some Roman legionaries holding his cross, a handful of Bucket O Soldiers, a toilet, the Incredibles family (kids included)… and 46,000 other bizarre creations.

I thought it was fun, except the porter loos, and even waking up to a shrieking: “There’s a mouse nest in my tent… eww mouse babies” added to the hoopla of the camping experience. All in all Bestival’s boutique success was fun and I might have learnt a little something about the festival culture and music madness!

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Post by the rickrolling Marianovella

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TRACKS:

The XX – Crystalised (Popular Damage Assimilation Remix)

The Hood Internet – Girls Just Wanna Fix Up (Cyndi Lauper vs. Dizzee Rascal)

The Prodigy – Out Of Space

Several bottles of hospitality champagne and a confiscated all-access pass… and it is already our final day at Rock En Seine. I can’t quite believe how quickly the previous days have gone by nor can I believe that Metric are on so early on the bill. I would have thought that their sound would be ideally suited for this à la mode French audience.

Kicking off  with ‘Help I’m Alive‘, the opening track from their excellent ‘Fantasies‘ album, the band are in emphatic form putting on an assured performance seemingly unconcerned with the early time slot. Frontwoman  Emily Haines’ looks gorgeous dancing and jumping away while her exquisite voice floats over the dreamy backdrop of guitars, keyboards and drum loops laid down by her bandmates.

With the sun shining bright and the band pulling out all the stops these tracks demand to be shouted back. ‘Stadium Love‘ is particularly well received by the dedicated audience and there is even room for “older” tracks ‘Monster Hospital‘ and ‘Grow Up And Blow Away‘. The Toronto 4 piece leave the stage knowing a few more fans have been won.

Next up I catch the Eagles Of Death Metal put in a raunchy set that seems partially designed to distract from the special guest rumours circulating around the festival site. You see Mr Josh Homme has been spotted on site and if he is not here to be on stage at the moment then maybe he is bringing one of his other many projects into town (who am I kidding, I know exactly what he is here for).

Still EODM don’t need the help of their most illustrious member when they have Jesse Hughes upping the ante to put on a great rock ‘n’ roll show at every chance. I am never quite sure if this is a big joke or if he is deadly serious but as he marches up and down the stage gesturing to the audience it I simply resolve to enjoy it.

Beyond the the sex, drugs and rock n roll parody this music designed to be heard and played live and the audience loves it.

I was already suspicious of the unusually crammed press pit when the weekends worst kept secret was revealed with an illustrious drummer doing an extensive stretching routine near the stage.  The band billed as Les Petits Pois is actually the latest supergroup Them Crooked Vultures featuring Josh Homme, John Paul Jones and Dave Grohl and I was about to recieve a front row seat for their performance.

Back in the day I had tickets but didn’t got what turned out to be Nirvana’s penultimate live show in Milan and I was beginning to think I would never witness Dave Grohl drumming. Foo Fighters are a fun live band but I have wanted to see a whole set of him pounding on the drums and here I was witnessing 2 other legends at the same time.

Though watching these masters do their thing on stage is great I’m actually quite disappointed to report the music isn’t particularly exciting. It could be that it is just not my thing but most of the tracks sound like Queens Of The Stone Age b-sides. This is monster stoner riffs played loud and proud, just don’t give your day jobs lads.

MGMT seem to be the band every Parisien kid has been waiting to see judging by the size of the massive audience that is flowing under the main stage. Bohemian clothes and fluorescent face paint are very much a must for the next performance.

In the build up to this festival I was thinking their album has such a distinctive studio sound to it that it could potentially sound hollow played live. I shouldn’t have worried, the band let loose on extended jams and instrumental jams and show they can pull all the moves for what is very much a rock n roll show.  With the familiar choruses of ‘Kids‘, ‘Time To Pretend‘ and ‘Electric Feel‘ played loud and proud everything goes a little mental and there isnt a single person in the crowd not singing and clapping.

To be honest I’m a little supirsed by the level of adulation reserved for MGMT. It is not that I dislike them, indeed the album ‘Oracular Spectacular‘ earned a spot on my best of 2008 list, it is just that with very little material under their belts they still have a lot to prove in my eyes.

With their sound is so closely associated with the summer of 2008 that it will be interesting to see where the band go next. This crowd doesn’t seem too concerned with my dilemma opting simply to enjoy the bands psychedelic set.

Which leaves just one band to finish the festival off, or should I say MURDER the night! The Prodigy can be considered veterans having been around since the early 90s but their stage performance is still as fresh as it was when they first exploded on the scene.

With my photo pass permitting me to stand as close to the action as possible explode is an appropriate word to use as I can literally feel my inner organs shake with the opening bass boom that is used in every song.  What follows is close to organised anarchy with Liam Howlett hidden behind his monitors laying down the foundations for their barbaric sonic onslaught whilst Maxim Reality and Keith Flint stalk the stage like 2 rabid tigers.

A fellow blogger turns around incredulous and whispers “they just don’t give a fuck” and almost on cue Keith jumps to his knees and yells “I JUST DONT GIVE A FUCK!!” You could watch a million videos of the band live but nothing recreates the brutal force experienced in the trenches with them. Someone sets off a flair in the middle of the audience and people start dancing around it like some demonic initiation ceremony. There is a fierce quality to this performance that proves to be an excellent and haunting conclusion to Rock En Seine.

TRACKS:

Metric – Help I’m Alive

Eagles Of Death Metal – Wannabe In L.A.

A big thank you to Sarah, Camille and Sandrine from We Are Social for picking the bloggers and making sure we were well fed, suitably intoxicated, out of trouble and still alive by the end of it all.

Thanks to all the other bloggers that came along and made it a memorable weekend, make sure you check out their stuff:

Mark and Paul from Fried My Little Brain

Nikki and Terry from Buzzinmedia

Marcus from Stereokill.net

Joe and Sam from Hush House

Stuart from My Chemical Toilet

Niall from Nialler9

Gareth and Paul from Vice