Cougar Microbes

I do feel that a festival wouldn’t be a festival without these three things; A truly great live act, some nominal nudity and someone gravely (and most of the time deservedly) injuring themselves due to a moment of awe inspiring stupidity . We shall return to this nugget of festival wisdom in a bit.

Beach Break Live festival is nestled in a mass expanse of Welsh sand dune and pinewood forest, where thousands of students and idiotically fashionable, sexually charged young things pitch tents on the rolling hills, sleep the day through and get up underneath the stars to go crazy to reasonably priced booze and all night tuneage.

For those bothered enough to get up during the day, the beach was heaving with water sports and the fields busy with games, early chilled live acts and burlesque / pole dancing lessons. I was there for the music, however as a journalist I deemed it my duty to casually but insistently peek in the burlesque tent.

I’d been looking forward to seeing We Are Scientists for a couple of years and wasn’t disappointed to watch them blow away a strong afternoon crowd with hit after hit, with young Andy Burrows mullering the skins behind two of the stongest song writing teams around.

I hadn’t heard of Beardyman before, and naturally pictured an old man slithering to the stage in a cardie and massive beard, shitting us tales of woe. He was actually awesome. A sort of live producer and sampler, he beat boxes to synths, drum machines and other electronic paraphanalia, but not only this, he can sing; and well, morphing us in and out of his own tightly packed anthems and reworked covers such as MGMT‘s ‘Kids‘ and ATB‘s ‘Til I Come‘ (Even cooler than the XX‘s live version.)

The two musical highlights for me were from very different corners of the festival. The first was an eight piece folk band named Robbie Boyd Band, a truly charming and enthralling live act playing three times over the course of the five days in different forms. Front man Robbie Boyd is as talented as he is self-deprecating, hollering timeless The Birds and Everly Brothers-like tunes and pulling even the early hung over audience to their feet to participate his irresistible chorus’s.

Of course, the truly great live act I was banging on about at the start was a band I hadn’t even sniffed before this weekend. White Lies blew me and the already riled up crowd of mentals away. The punishing bass lines were as harsh as the beautifully haunting melodies. I’ll admit, I was probably slightly dazed at the time as some berk elbowed me in the back of the head and probably sent me into a slight state of euphoria but never the less this is one of the strongest headliners one could ask for even a slight concussion.

So I guess the injury sustained was my own, but the truly great live act was of course White Lies and I won’t bore you with the details, but the burlesque tent really was fantastic.

Cougar Microbes attended Beach Break Live 2011 as part of Lucozade‘s Play Festivals campaign. Make sure to check back as we join Lucozade in bringing you more events through the summer.

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Post by T.R. Wicks

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TRACKS:

Cougar Microbes has teamed up with Lucozade to bring you exciting coverage of some of the UK’s most interesting summer festivals.

We kick off proceedings this week with Beach Break Live which will feature performances by the likes of Professor Green, Tinnie Tempah, White Lies, We Are Scientists and Magnetic Man.

Keep your eyes peeled for the Lucozade Energy Exchange tent where the official energy drink provider to the festival will be drawing out festival goodies and handing out free bottles of Lucozade Energy to keep everyone looking and feeling fresh and…. energised.

Expect a full report and some crowd photos from our guys at the festival. For more information about our summer line up, as well as competitions and tickets check out the Lucozade Play Festivals website and FB page.

TRACKS:

At this years Camden Crawl I was asked by Vitamin Water to capture the vibe of the festival and given a festival goodie bag. ‘I was tickled by the contents of the pack which included a tent light, a poncho, an inflatable guitar, some frisbees and plenty of drink bottles amongst the many goodies. Considering I was only heading a few minutes down the road from my house I was impressed with how many bases had been covered.

With this in mind I decided to take a drastically different approach to enjoying The Crawl. In the past I had been too preoccupied with catching as many bands as possible whilst getting stressed out by the disorganised schedule thus missing out on any notion of experiencing the atmosphere. This year I would take it easy dropping in on a few bands and generally checking out my favourite local boozers and their impromptu gigs.

This sounded like a great plan until I set out on Saturday afternoon to collect my passes. Following a week of warm weather a familiar drizzle and cold chill descended on Camden and I bloody wished I had remembered that Poncho. Despite it only being a short walk by the time I had arrived to Koko I was already soaked to the bone. Tickets in hand I resolved to head back home to dry up and grab a bite whilst waiting for the rain to die down. After a quick stop at The Camden Arms I finally set out again to catch a part of Shy Child‘s and New Young Pony Club‘s performances.

Having seen Shy Child a few years back as main support at Shepherds Bush Empire I recalled that, despite playing to an empty room, the duo were entirely likeable. A few years on and they are touring in support of their second release ‘Liquid Love‘. I definitely liked the progression they’ve demonstrated with songs taking on a hard to place dreaminess that is far more “pop“, in the best possible sense of the word, than their previous output. It’s hard to believe there are just two members making this grand sound and tonight tracks from their two albums blend to great effect.

New Young Pony Club are a band that have benefitted from  an incredible wave of hype upon their debut. The followup up ‘The Optimist‘ is probably a more consistent effort brimming with confidence, just look at the album title. Singer Tahita Bumer is bursting with personality and constantly appears to have a bee in her bonnet which makes for interesting viewing; it doesn’t matter because the new material is captivating. Predictably the crowd goes mental for ‘Ice Cream‘ but the band set the bar high by playing so many songs from the new release.

On Sunday I fared considerably better seeing a few artists and generally enjoying the vibe with some good friends. Firstly I caught Dan Le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip in the large outdoor stage on Hawley Crescent. Despite the adverse weather conditions Pip had the crowd eating from his hands before he even said a word. Like some sort of political rally from a parallel universe everybody leaves pleased. Not too far away Norway‘s brilliant Casiokids gave another top performance at the Jazz Cafe later on. leading the crowd with their infectious sound there is an abundance of spontaneous dancing and crazy grins in the room. The band had energy to sell and on the live stage this translates brilliantly.

I also catch a part of Dev Hynes, AKA Lightspeed Champion‘s set at the Electric Ballroom and am positively thrilled. Despite having played ‘Falling Off Lavender Bridge‘ hundreds of times when it was released, I had almost forgotten how good these tracks sound. I still need to take in the new songs but generally enjoyed his energy and delivery. If there is any justice Lightspeed Champion should go supernova soon.

In between visits to the Lock Tavern and The Pembroke Castle I still managed to catch We Are Scientists close the night. Though I have enjoyed the band over the years if I am to be honest I have not really delved much into their material since the release of 2005′s ‘With Love And Squalor‘.

To the outsider their performance can sometimes feel like an in joke for them and their fans. The band speak a crazy slang when talking between themselves and the fans literally go ballistic for each and ever track. However, looking at the ensemble of odd balls in the room, both in the audience and on stage, it is impossible not to crack a smile.

This year’s Camden Crawl proved to be more enjoyable than past editions for me largely because I decided to take it easy only catching a few selected artists and a handful of street performances whilst soaking the atmosphere. Despite the weather doing its best to sabotage the weekend Camden and its multiple venues embraced the music. Thanks to Vitamin Water for sending me along.

TRACKS:

Shy Child – Disconnected (Ocelot Remix)

New Young Pony Club – Chaos

Casiokids – Toggens Hule

We Are Scientists – Nobody Moves, Nobody Gets Hurt