Over the years I’ve hosted reviews from various music festivals around the work on this blog because I think they’re a great excuse to visit a new city and each one has a unique vibe, from Vive Latino in Mexico and the M for Montreal festival to Bumbershoot and Lightning in the Bottle, right in our backyard (the lineup for that one, newly located in Bradley, CA, was just announced).
This year, I’m going to be sharing reports and photos from the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona.
Friends have been telling me it’s one of the best music festivals in the world, not only because of the stellar lineup, but because the multi-stage venue is right on the water (One told me “I’ve been twice! Coachella doesn’t hold a candle to Primavera,”)
Here are some of the bands I’m excited to see.
Spoon, Jenny Lewis, Sharon Van Etten and SBTRKT all have new material in the works and this might be my first chance to see it performed live.
Spoon is one of my all-time favorite bands and even though I loved Britt Daniel’s side project Divine Fits, I’m always ready to see what Spoon does next as no two albums of theirs sound the same.
Jenny Lewis is always doing something. We caught up with her at Sundance, as she wrote songs for the film “Song One”, and she also contributed a song to the TV show “Girls”, written with Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij. Looking forward to some new solo work!
Sharon Van Etten recently released an excellent new track called “Taking Chances” and her new album is out the week of the festival.
SBTRKT has been pretty quiet since his 2011 full length debut. He released an EP this year (trippy stuff, stream it here). but I want more from the masked musical master.
Somehow I’ve missed every Angel Olsen show in my vicinity. Something I want to rectify as soon as possible since her album is one of my favorites of the year.
I missed Brazilian band Boogarins at SXSW and have been loving the psychedelic flourishes of their album, which I hear translates very well in a live setting.
Jagwar Ma and Courtney Barnett – two of my favorite Aussie exports of late. When I saw Jagwar Ma at the Echo last year, I commented to my friend that they would surely be on this year’s outdoor festival circuit. Sure enough they were at Coachella. Their music sounds like it was made for that kind of setting and I can’t wait to see it for myself!
Here they remix Temples, another band playing at Primavera!
I saw Courtney Barnett earlier this year but she’s so charming, confident and all around entertaining that I’m just as excited to see her a 2nd time. Another fave from Oz, Cut Copy, is also on the bill.
Darkside, Disclosure, Digitalism – these three Ds all have a unique take on electronic music. I normally gravitate more towards the guitars than the beatmakers at festival shows but I’m going to try to catch these sets.
Last but not least, Television will be performing all of “Marquee Moon”. It was released the year I was born and I only discovered it a few years ago (thanks to KCRW, of course). They were a CBGB band and a big part of NY’s art-punk scene. I’m thrilled I’ll get to see it live.
There are tons of bands from around the world on the lineup that I haven’t even heard of and, most of all, I’m excited about stumbling upon something great. Considering the high quality of the bands I DO recognize, I can only imagine there will be some great surprises in store. I’ll report back on what I find!
RR