This week, in our playlist, we preview the Vodafone Paredes de Coura 2015 festival with 24 songs by some of our favorite artists playing at this years’ festival: Father John Misty, The War On Drugs, Steve Gunn, Mark Lanegan, White Fence, Iceage, Slowdive, Waxahatchee, Lykke Li, Natalie Prass, Woods, and Charles Bradley.
Slowdive. Wednesday, Vodafone stage. 10:30pm
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.
Photo by Hugo Lima [Vodafone Paredes de Coura]
In 2014, whenever we think
about blurred lines – other than that
infamous song – we think about that ever diluting line that separates work and
leisure, especially when you get to work on something that’s just too much fun
and sounds more like a hobby than a real job. Covering a festival is usually
one of those situations, except when you have to endure really bad or
unbalanced lineups. Now imagine you’re not only covering a festival with a good
lineup, but you’re surrounded by people who are passionate about it and are having
the best week of their year, in a land immersed in green and drenched by the
sun, with good (and cheap) food and drink awaiting on every corner of a small
but welcoming village. That’s Paredes de Coura for you, folks. And we can hardly
wait until next years’ festival.
Janelle Monáe. Photo by Hugo Lima [Vodafone Paredes de Coura]
The first day of the
festival was dominated by the Q.U.E.E.N. Janelle
Monáe. Accompanied by a big band all dressed in white, the Kansas singer
pulled up a flawless show where hits like “Tightrope”, “Cold War”, “PrimeTime”
or even a version of “I Feel Good” were celebrated like no other moments in
that day. Earlier on, Porto-based female rapper Capicua had enchanted the still smallish crowd that forgot about
the Champions League game and went to the festival site early. Public Service Broadcasting and their thinking person’s music closed the first
day of the festival on a high note, although the Britons could have benefitted from
being scheduled before 1 am.
Seasick Steve. Photo by Hugo Lima [Vodafone Paredes de Coura]
Thursday, the first day of
the festival in full force, with concerts in both stages, began earlier, with one
of southern Portugal’s best rock musicians of the last couple of years, Fast Eddie Nelson warming up for what
would be one of the best concerts of the festival. Seasick Steve, a late bloomer who didn’t record an album until he
was in his late 50s, brought his rocking delta blues to the main stage in the
greatest of fashions, and doing what Portuguese audiences love the most: talking
a lot and bringing people to the stage. Lucky girl. You’ve shared a stage with
a soon-to-be-legend. Meanwhile, on the smaller stage, Thurston Moore played yet another lukewarm show (good to see Steve
Shelley on drums, though) that screams “please, let’s sort out our problems and
reform Sonic Youth, can we?” We know, wishful thinking. They’re never, ever,
ever getting back together.
Another artist whose music
doesn’t quite translate well to a big stage is Mac DeMarco’s, tailor of a handful of gems spread across three
records (‘Chamber of Reflection’, ‘Ode to Viceroy’, ‘Cooking Up Something Good’,
‘The Stars Keep On Calling My Name’) but who needs to resort to crazy stage
antics to grab people’s attention. It works. Mac’s a crowd-pleaser and there
was still time to roll one with a Bob Marley cover (‘Jamming’). That would probably
the best way to keep his music interesting after a few minutes.
But the best moment of the
whole festival (spoilers!) came in the form of a San Francisco trio. Presenting
their latest album, Drop, Thee Oh Sees brought memories of past
triumphant concerts in the smaller stage (right on the top of my head, No Age ’11,
Deer Tick ’12 and Iceage ’13). John Dwyer’s violent garage-y, vaguely
psychedelic riffs (thank God for ‘Toe Cutter/Thumb Buster’) brought the tent to
a boil, with yours truly’s nose fortunately saved one inch from the cold ground
by a kind stranger after a crowdsurf went bad. Thank you.
The rest of the night was
dominated by the hit machine that is Franz
Ferdinand; making people who don’t even like them tap their feet since
2002. Festivals around Europe, you already know it: if you’re short of
headliners, Franz Ferdinand are your guys. You know the drill: ‘Tell Her
Tonight’, ‘Take Me Out’, ‘Jacqueline’, ‘Walk Away’, ‘Do You Want To’ and ‘This
Fire’ as the closer and nobody is going to complain. Pretty effective, even in
autopilot.
Conor Oberst w/Dawes. Photo by Hugo Lima [Vodafone Paredes de Coura]
Day 3 began with one of
Bolachas’ favorites, Dawes. The Californian
roots-rockers, playing their last European show before coming back to the US,
played a heat-defeating laidback set which included fan-favorites ‘That Western
Skyline’ or ‘When My Time Comes’, coupled with songs off their latest two
records, Nothing is Wrong and Stories Don’t End, including the
beautiful set-closer ‘Fire Away’. There was still time for a brand new song to
be included in a forthcoming record, coming up in early 2015. We would meet
again later on the main stage though: Conor
Oberst, in his first ever appearance in Portugal, used the Goldsmiths’ act
as his backing band, playing some songs off his latest solo record, Upside Down Mountain, and revisiting
some of Bright Eyes’ material, which included three fan favorites ‘Old Soul
Song’, ‘Another Travelin’ Song’ (both off I’m
Wide Awake It’s Morning) and the oldie ‘Lover I Don’t Have To Love’. The
highlight of their set, however, was the beautiful rendition of ‘I Got the
Reason #2’. There’s a good reason that a song off a record that didn’t get much
attention is a constant on his live set, and you can (and should) check YouTube
to know why. Taylor Goldsmith really shines on this one, and Oberst can
consider himself lucky he got to pick such a talented band to support them on a
tour.
Between the two
Americana-infused sets we had plenty of reasons to be entertained though, from
the sludgy rock and roll of the young almost-locals Killimanjaro, tearing the main stage apart and Linda Martini’s more intricate and sonically expansive endeavors to
Buke and Gase’s experimentalism (and
by experimentalism we don’t mean ‘weirdness’, we mean invented instruments and
shit). Before Oberst took the stage, Yuck
were playing a surprisingly good show on the Vodafone FM stage, considering
they had just lost what arguably was their most creative band member (and
frontman) Daniel Blumberg. It helped that the band decided that playing some of
the most powerful songs off the first record, such as ‘Holing Out’, ‘Georgia’
or ‘Get Away’, during the first half of the set, was a good idea – and they
topped it off with the single off their sophomore album, ‘Middle Sea’. If
Oberst wasn’t calling from the other side of the festival side we would’ve happily
stayed there until the end.
The rest of the day was
less than memorable, though: Black Lips
are always fun and it’s a pleasure to see kids having the time of their lives,
singing along, moshing and crowdsurfing to ‘O Katrina!’ or ‘Bad Kids’, but the
main stage is too big for them; Cut Copy
are, generally, a waste of time.
After another memorable
hours-long DJ set by Gin Party
Soundsystem at the mystical Xapas Bar, memories of the sublime Sensible Soccers concert, opening the
last day of the festival, are still a bit blurry. The Portuguese band’s soft
and beautifully crafted kraut-something rhythms and melodies brought us back to
Earth just in time for two absolute disappointments: The Dodos are not what they used to be (really bland show at the
Vodafone FM stage, such lack of flame) and Kurt
Vile’s concert was a shadow of the one he gave back in 2011 on the smaller
stage, when a powerful and aptly named ‘Freak Train’ teared the stage apart
just before dinner. Fortunately, The
Growlers saved the night with the most cheerful and energized show of the
last day of concerts, featuring some fans dressed up as animals (seriously, how
do they endure hot afternoons on those suits?) and high doses of surf’n’roll. The
last concert of the Vodafone FM stage was also one of the best of the whole festival,
with Goat’s psychedelic freakiness
(nice dancers and visuals, guys) making everyone dance, although we felt the
small stage was, indeed, too small for them.
James Blake. Photo by Hugo Lima [Vodafone Paredes de Coura]
Back to ‘serious business’
concerts: Beirut, against all odds
(the cool kids don’t think Zach Condon is hip anymore), did an amazing job,
even if sometimes the sound of people talking prevailed over the band’s sound. ‘Nantes’,
‘Elephant Gun’ or ‘A Sunday Smile’ brought them some extra cheers, though. But,
in the end, what the average music fan brought home as their best memory from
Paredes de Coura was a sublime James
Blake show that would only be better if people who didn’t want to see him learnt
to shut the fuck up or go talk somewhere else. Blake
started by shaking things off with the brilliant ‘CMYK’ but quickly moved on to
more introspective areas (such as Feist and Joni Mitchell’s ‘Limit to Your Love’
and ‘A Case of You’), meddling between his latest album Overgrown (‘Life Round Here’, ‘Overgrown’, ‘Retrograde’) and his breakthrough
self-titled debut (both ‘Lindisfarnes’ or the show’s highlight ‘The Wilhelm
Scream’). Some might argue that his music wasn’t suited to wrap up the last
night of concerts at Paredes de Coura, but ultimately everyone else’s smiles seemed
to outshine their torches.
Deer Tick at the Paredes de Coura festival 2012. Amílcar Rodrigues
Vodafone Paredes de Coura 2013 starts in exactly one week – yes, unusually, it starts in a Tuesday. The festival has now consolidated its 5 days long format (even though the first two are nothing but “warm-up” days, with concerts taking place on the small stage from 8pm on) and this is us trying to point out which gigs you should pay the most attention to. If you still haven’t, head here to print the beautiful timetables we did with the great folks at P3.
Sensible Soccers. Fernando Rodrigues
Day 1, 13/Aug
Sensible Soccers (21:55) steal the spotlight on a day that looks like a “foreigners, please help yourself to some decent Portuguese bands” showcase. They’ve just released a fresh new single and they’ll probably play some new songs off their yet untitled debut LP to be released until the end of the year. Electro-powered danceteria follows with Discotexas alumnus Moullinex (23:20) and a DJ set by some dudes who call themselves The Filthy Pigs (00:50), but be sure to arrive there early: even though we don’t really think alternative rock bisons O Bisonte (20:50) fit this lineup, if you enjoy songs you’ll surely enjoy TAPE JUNk (19:50), an interesting – to say the least – homage to the country/folk classics we all know and love by Julie and the Carjackers’ João Correia.
Alabama Shakes. (AS Facebook page)
Day 2 – 14/Aug
We’ve talked about Discotexas before, and a band comprised of a shitload of artists from said label storms the Vodafone FM stage at the beginning of day 2 (19:50), the first with international artists. 00s indie psychedelia act Unknown Mortal Orchestra (21:00) are up next, blending a flicker of modernity with 60s infectiously mushroomy pop and Kevin Barnes before Alabama Shakes’ (22:15) traditionalism based on R&B and early rock and roll music brings us what will probably be the best moment of the festival so far. Can’t wait to check out Brittany Howard’s soulful voice live. From Agadez to Nashville, desert rocker Bombino (23:40) is the responsible for the “world music” moment of this years’ Paredes de Coura after being discovered by Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, thus making Omara Bombino Moctarin someone to look upon for people who listen the same 50 indie pop/rock records that every major indie music publication usually champion every year. The party goes on with a Headbirds DJ set (00:50). They’ve released something in the new Primavera record label, which is akin to stamping ‘quality’ all over an act’s name.
Hot Chip. (HC Facebook page)
Day 3, 15/Aug
First “proper” day of the festival that starts with the traditional concert at the “Jazz in the Grass” stage, outside the festival bounds, in the riverside right next to the camping site. NACO opens this stage (15:30) with his fingerpicked instrumental songs, paving the way for dream poppy Widowspeak (18:00) in the Vodafone FM (VFM) stage. The Brooklynites are one of the bands to watch in a day marked by most bands’ irrelevance, at least for people older than 21 who can grow a beard, thus we’ll proceed by just namedropping close-to-mainstream indie pop bands which audience will be composed of 99% kids and smily girls: Everything Everything (18:40, Vodafone stage), Veronica Falls (not again, Jesus Christ) (19:15, VFM) and Jagwar Ma (19:55, Vodafone). 90s-inspired, guitar-heavy dreamers Toy (20:25, VFM) will probably heat up things a little bit before The Vaccines (21:20, V) allow everyone who’s over 21 and has a decent taste enjoy themselves a nice, warm dinner away from the main stage. While Victoria Christina Hesketh’s Little Boots (21:40, VFM) kind of appeals to a similar demographic, at least she seems to know how to party, successfuly warming up people for the real festivity of day 3: Hot Chip (22:50, V), a powerful dance machine with a handful of records on its wing and another handful of absolute dance classics for the millenial generation in the other (“Over and Over”, “Ready for the Floor”, “And I Was A Boy From School”, “I Feel Better”, “Don’t Deny Your Heart”, the list goes on), to be followed by a exquisite performance by The Knife (00:20), which we can’t really consider as a concert, at least judging from accounts we read online. Read this one at Quietus or let yourself be surprised. Opinions vary a lot, ranging from the usual “OMG LIFECHANGING” to the also usual “What? This isn’t music, most of it was pre-recorded, wtf, I want my money back”. Spanish producer John Talabot (02:00, VFM) and Joe Goddard’s The 2 Bears (03:10, VFM) keep the party moving in the first afterhours of this years’ edition of the festival.
Echo & the Bunnymen. (E&tB Facebook page)
Day 4, 16/Aug
Oldie post-punkers Echo & the Bunnymen (23:05, V) are the highlight in yet another day of Vodafone Paredes de Coura fueled by innocuous adolescent brit indie pop/rock (The Horrors (21:35, V), Citizens! (19:15, VFM) and Peace (20:05, V)). Good national values are here to save the day, though: singer-songwriter Noiserv (18:00, VFM) will most likely showcase some new songs off his soon-to-be-released follow up to the excellent EP “A Day in the Day of the Days”, and Barcelos garage rockers The Glockenwise (18:50, V) will present their new album (which they already did in other festivals around the country like Optimus Primavera Sound, Marés Vivas or Fusing) in the big stage. The main focus of interest of day 4 will be divided by the two coolest bands (and yes, that’s a pun with the names of both acts) to take the Vodafone FM stage, though: Danish grim punkers Iceage (20:35) will surely provide the biggest amount of moshpit action in a kinda gutless festival and electro-goth-pop darlings Cold Cave (21:55) will try to prove if they’re worthy of sharing stages with sacred beasts like Gary Numan or Boyd Rice. Simian Mobile Disco (00:50) will, like Hot Chip, try to turn the festival site into a giant dancing arena, before Delorean (02:00) and Will Saul (03:10) narrow it all down to the small stage again. We’re quite curious to see what the new album by the Basque outfit sounds like. And we don’t really know who Will is. Better call Saul! (0/10).
Calexico. (Facebook page)
Day 5, 17/Aug
Hands down, the best day of this years’ edition of the festival. The “adventurous pop music” of Portuguese electronic musician :papercutz (18:00, VFM) opens the most interesting day in the secondary stage and is followed by lo-fi prince and cassette lover Matt Mondanile (Real Estate), and his side project Ducktails (19:10). Meanwhile, Barcelos’ stoners Black Bombaim (18:30, V) tear the main stage apart before Palma Violets (19:30, V), the next big thing when it comes to skinny-jeans adolescent brit rock (yes, more of this AGAIN) gather a ton of kiddos around the stage again. And then, well, fuck everything this world still has to offer: after having to endure a ton of boring concerts throughout the course of the past two days, destiny wanted two of the most interesting bands in the lineup to overlap: while singer-songwriter Matt Houck (Phosphorescent, 20:20, VFM) presents his latest album, Muchacho – undoubtly one of the best of the year, so far – Calexico (20:40, V) plays their first show in Portuguese soil after 2004’s concerts in Gaia and Lisbon. That’s nine years. Please, never again. Expect stellar desert-inspired songs, Mariachi music, some Spanish lyrics thrown here and there, a lot of horns and every single good thing the USA-Mexican border has to offer to poor Portuguese who never even crossed the Atlantic. And yes, I’m too excited for the Calexico show, which almost makes me forget about Belle and Sebastian (22:10, V). Perfect twee pop songs for us to sit down in the grass and start depressing while thinking about packing and leaving the morning after. Either that, or if you’re one of the cheerful ones, you could shake your head for a little bit in the Vodafone FM stage with sludgy garage rockers Bass Drum of Death (21:35), preparing to go out with a bang with a Justice DJ set (23:55, V). In case you survive, math-rockers And So I Watch You from Afar (02:00, VFM) are waiting for your necks at the afterhours stage, before you go clubbin’ again with XXXY (03:10, VFM) and indie-electro-pop-rock DJ Phizz (05:00, VFM). Then, you see someone singing/shouting either folk standard “Goodnight Irene” or Bobby Bare’s “Detroit City” (lol, bankruptcy) while heading home for the last time, come and join him if you know the lyrics.
DSS
Vodafone Paredes de Coura 2013 Printable Timetable
Once again and again and again we teamed up with P3 to provide you with the most functional and better looking printable festival timetables. Vodafone Paredes de Coura 2013 takes place exactly two weeks from today (13-17 August) in the idyllic banks of the Taboão river right next to the little town of Paredes de Coura, north of Portugal (near the Northern border with Spain) and this years’ lineup features the likes of Calexico, Belle and Sebastian, The Knife, Alabama Shakes, Echo & the Bunnymen, Justice, Hot Chip, Phosphorescent or Iceage, along with some of the finest Portuguese acts from the last couple of years: Black Bombaim, Noiserv, The Glockenwise, Tape Junk or Sensible Soccers. We’ll be around, come and say hi.
If you can read Portuguese, P3 has an entire section on their website devoted to the festival. You should go there.
-DSS