American Autumn is the collection of concerts I would love to book in a small café I would love to own. Café & Pop Torgal in Ourense, Galicia, Spain, is truly an inspiration for any independent promoter who books shows at a small venue in a small town. If you’re ever around the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, be sure to check out the place! This fall they’ve got concerts by Vetiver, Juan Wauters, Lady Lamb, Steve Wynn and Denison Witmer – and the festival has already expanded to Madrid, where bigger acts like Low or Alela Diane will also play shows under the American Autumn umbrella. Sometimes I wish I lived in Spain!
This week in Bolachas Now Playing, while we write our Vodafone Paredes de Coura roundup, we present the new great Zachary Cale record, out now on No Quarter. There are also new songs by Destroyer, Panda Bear, Kevin Morby, Low, Carly Rae Jepsen, James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg, Lindi Ortega, Rayland Baxter, and Roosevelt, along with a Glen Hansard cover of an old Songs: Ohia song, off his tribute EP to Jason Molina. Playlist and tracklist below.
The major highlight of the first night of concerts will certainly be the British shoegazers’ second gig in two years, after reforming at last year’s Primavera Sound. Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead’s iconic outfit will take the stage before headliners TV on the Radio, a band who doesn’t play in Portugal since 2007 and did next to nothing relevant since that day – just one more reason to expect Slowdive’s set to be the most interesting of the night.
Steve Gunn. Thursday, Vodafone stage. 7:50pm
Besides being one of the guitar players on Kurt Vile’s Violators, Steve Gunn has been trying to forge a name for himself, releasing a handful of great records in the past six years, which include the acclaimed Paradise of Bachelors-released Time Off (2013) and Way Out Weather (2014). Those had guaranteed the American avant singer-songwriter a place on Matador’s roster, just before embarking on extensive weeks of touring with the likes of Wilco and Ryley Walker.
Father John Misty. Thursday, Vodafone stage. 9:20pm
Josh Tillman’s days as a regular singer-songwriter performing sub-par regular folk songs under his own name are long gone, and for good. After a stint with Fleet Foxes and a series of undernoticed solo albums, Tillman finally got it right with his persona Father John Misty.I Love You, Honeybear, his second record, is yet another collection of superb, witty pop songs that make you both chuckle and applaud as if you were nervously and enthusiastically watching a football game on your own.
Waxahatchee. Friday, Vodafone.FM stage. 8:30pm
Katie Crutchfield has been releasing consistently good records under the moniker Waxahatchee since 2010, and her move to Merge Records after two stellar albums under Don Giovanni didn’t surprise anyone familiar with her confessional, down to earth songwriting style. The Alabama native will be presenting 2015’s Ivy Tripp, her poppier collection of songs to date.
The War on Drugs. Friday, Vodafone stage. 12:45am
The War on Drugs constitute further proof that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel to be one of the most interesting outfits in rock music today. Drowning in Springsteenesque sprawling influence, Granduciel and his band reached indie stardom after 2014’s Lost in the Dream and will probably provoke some of the most celebrated moments of this year’s edition of the festival.
Natalie Prass. Saturday, Vodafone.FM stage. 7pm
Championed by Matthew E. White, who both produced and released her debut album on his own imprint, Spacebomb Records, earlier in the year, Natalie Prass’ career finally – and deservedly – takes off. Ryan Adams brought her on tour shortly after and here she is. One of the rare cases when a not-so-big but rising artist is picked by a Portuguese festival. Let us just cherish this for a moment.
Woods. Saturday, Vodafone stage. 7:50pm
Woods’ eight record, With Light and With Love, brought back to the spotlight this once promising band. Back to the country after a mostly unnoticed concert in a mostly psychedelic rock festival last year, the gorgeous scenery of Paredes de Coura looks like the ideal place for the Brooklyn folk rockers to finally leave its mark on the Portuguese scene.
