ATP (UK version) 2009 - who's in?

(I guess I must be pretty poor if a bit of rope = half of my money.)

put it on your credit card

That does look awesome. But it's a Primavera year this year. Unless anyone wants to fund a 'take the entirety of ilx to ATP' trip? No? ;_ ;

So the pavement line-up is complete now, last additions were Avi Buffalo, Surfer Blood, Times New Viking aaaand Terry Reid featuring Matt Sweeney.

does that mean there's more to be added to the Groening line-up?

I'm all booked up to go [smugbastard]

Yep maybe 5 more to come for Groening.

Ever since MoMA got the Tim Burton exhibit, everyone keeps asking me how I liked it when I wear my ATP Nightmare Before Christmas 08 hoodie.

Its because you're wearing it at the same time as your Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas official baseball cap.

hey Jamie or someone else with the inside knowledge - a last minute cash surge means the Groening fest is possibly possible for me, but since there are only three of us we're looking towards ebay or some such for a 3-berth - I know that you say tickets are non-transferable and I think the info pack says you're supposed to show your ID / credit card, but as I recall this doesn't actually happen - am I right here? Will I run in to problems beyond the inevitable person not sending me the tickets I've paid for?

email us at feedb✧✧✧@atpfesti✧✧✧.c✧✧ and we'll give you the full details

weird. feedback @ atpfestival.com is the one!

I'm in! Waheeeeeeeeey. Interesting to see that there are very few overlaps in the schedule - need I be concerned that this'll mean overflowing venues?

(I would also like to now offer my public farewells to my beloved Telecaster, which I'm selling in order to go to this. So long, darling.)

I was kind of worried about that, but I get the feeling it hasn't sold very well at all so I don't think there'll be that much pressure. Biggest queue based on past ATP history will undoubtedly be for Joanna Newsom (second set at D3ATP was queued most of the way through Nick Cave) but for those of us not that bothered about SPZ that's quite a good bot of scheduling.

ya, I am pleased to not really care about Spiritualized. Less pleased to have to choose between James Chance and Panda Bear, but since ATP is usually Sophie's Choice after Sophie's Choice I'll count my blessings.

I, incidentally, am a sad fuck who spreadsheeted it out, if anyone's interested (more useful when there are clashes, but I was bored): http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AuPGUjKw2qDNdEI0d090MGE0aEpJTV9Oc0VFcGYzOGc&hl=en

That's easy, James Chance then what's left of Panda Bear.

Right, that was kind of a mixed bag. Very, very poorly attended which I guess meant you could get in to everything (MASSIVE CAVEAT TO THAT STATEMENT COMING THOUGH) but it also meant that when there was nothing you wanted to watch the place felt empty. Butlins obviously felt so too, because they appeared to support it less than any other time - most of the fast food stalls were shut, as were the bars some of the time. The bands:

Iggy and the Stooges - less fun than the Ron version, but a blast nonetheless. Iggy jokes about being the last dregs of the Stooges and you can almost see him working out whether he's still got Carlos Alomar's phone number for the Idiot/Lust For Life tour in 3 years. A very restrained version of the stage invasion from the first Minehead nightmare ensues during Shake Appeal, but it's all very civilised and (dare I say it) respectable.

Built To Spill - Meh is too complimentary a description for ATP RECORDINGS ARTISTS Built To Spill. Bland 90s indie bleh. This performance by ATP RECORDINGS ARTISTS Built To Spill is also the only thing I do not personally see Matt Groening at, which might tell a story if he wasn't at ATP RECORDINGS ARTISTS SPZ as well...

She & Him - vaguely pleasant, would have been ideal in the 3pm Pavillion stage slots we used to have in previous years but it all feels a bit like they have to be made a big deal of because of who She is. And you never know, they might be exactly where the budget disappeared to.

The xx - I watch part of the first set, but just don't get it. The vocal style screams ironic detachment to me and there isn't much interesting in the music to grab me otherwise. Sometime ILXor YMOF tries to convince me otherwise before he leaves The Raincoats for their second set, but I am not having it.

Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions - is this the weekend for trading under your name alone? Inconsequential, but pleasant enough with maybe one moment of real greatness in there (the Twin Peaks-y woozy thing near the end) this would be middle of the afternoon fodder if it was anyone else.

Daniel Johnston - I like Daniel's work but sometimes it feels overpowering because of the scale of it or that some elements of his audience listen to it in a very patronising way. This, then, is as stripped down as you can imagine. Daniel batters tunelessly at a bit of wood that appears to be intended as a guitar most of the time, at others he plays a small piano. He seems to have lost some teeth recently, which gives him an endearing lisp, but it's a genuinely affecting performance and one that is met with waves of applause. So much so that Daniel comes back out for an improvised (?) encore about a boy that commits suicide. Earlier we saw him watching Danielson eating a blue slushie and he seemed to be the happiest kid at Butlins.

James Chance & Les Contortions - IT'S JAMES FUCKING CHANCE. No explanations necessary. He hangs about on Sunday at the merch tables signing autographs for Japanese hipsters and observing him up close you realise just how fried he is until, that is, he's called on for a second to be JAMES FUCKING CHANCE. A legend.

Liars - Liars are very angry young men. I do not enjoy them very much. I wish they sounded like they did when I first saw them touring "We Drowned..." but you can't go back in time.

The Residents - expected to enjoy them, ended up loving them. A set split between country covers and 'regular' Residents material, I could have watched a whole show of either. This year's "come home and spend lots of money" band.

Boredoms performing Boadrum - a joy to behold. EYE has added a second guitar totem pole and the set features a drumkit moving through the crowd on an elevated platform (Yojiro the first set, Kids Millions (?) the second). Better ears than mine may well identify it as a re-run of Boadrum 9.

Broadcast - Blimey, Trish is a grumpy bastard. Cheer up luv, it might never happen! Her telling people to fuck off and die aside, a thoroughly lovely time is had by the few people who can be arsed to attend.

Thee Oh Sees - garagey punky garage punk. Fall? Cramps? Whatever. A highlight.

Konono N°1 - krauty as fuck, my one criticism is that when they hit a lock groove they don't hold it for nearly long enough for my tastes. But I'm being picky. I need to go to the Bristol show tomorrow now, I think.

Danielson - used to love them, but they've turned into too much of a band since the last time I saw them and there's a joyful noise nowhere to be seen in their set until Did I Step On Your Trumpet at the end. Daniel announces they are doing one more song, but despite having nearly 5 minutes to go they are unceremoniously hauled off. Puzzling, but no more bizarre than some of the other stage management decisions over the weekend.

Amadou & Mariam - better than I thought they'd be, because I was kind of worried I'd hate it. Maybe the ideal accompaniment to the Angry Whopper, or at least that's the pitch I'm selling to Burger King.

Shonen Knife - nearly 20 years on, Shonen Knife are the same band they ever were. Which is no bad thing in their case since the band they have always been is Shonen Knife. We get songs about going to barbecues, a cover of 'Jet' by Wings and my favourite, a tribute to "British 70s heavy rock like Richie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio". Which appears to be called 'Bloody Bollocks Hell'. Awesome.

Ruins (Solo) - incredible stuff, but almost too much to take in. There's a sequence of classical music, and a sequence of prog classics. How do you describe Ruins to people who haven't heard them? I'm not sure I can.

Cold Cave - do I like this because I remember 1980? Probably. A cross between Travelogue era Human League and New Order, played slightly ineptly by teenagers, which is a good thing in my book. Their merch guy looks about 15 and stands really nervously like the band have been forced to play at the school assembly and he is sure the big boys are going to take the piss out of him at some point. Luckily they are over in time for their bed on a school night.

The Tiger Lillies - a perfect Sunday afternoon tonic with tales of death, freaks, death, wanking, death and crucifying Jesus. Which the drummer plays with mallets. I will not miss them in the future.

The Fresh & Onlys - competent. That's about it.

The utter clusterfuck that was Spiritualized/Joanna Newsom/The Raincoats deserves comments on its own. I COULD NOT GIVE A FUCK ABOUT ATP RECORDINGS ARTISTS SPIRITUALIZED. That is not enough, apparently, and nobody is allowed to go into Joanna Newsom until they have finished leading to a massive queue (apparently it runs outside and all the way through the fairground). The security guard tells us it is because Joanna cannot soundcheck in under two hours, then immediately flashes an "I know it's bullshit but it's what I've been told to tell you" look. We finally get inside about 15 minutes after JN was due to start and it's very nice, if a little quiet. We'd always planned to watch The Raincoats though, so leave after about half an hour for Reds. Just as they are due to start, the venue announces that the promoter has held them back for 25 minutes because of what is happening upstairs. 25 minutes later they take the stage but are not allowed to play until it is absolutely certain that JN has completely finished. We get some jokes for about another 10 minutes, with comedy shushing if we laugh too loud, then finally a great set of post-punk shapes. But the evening is lost.

If I didn't already have tickets for the godspeed event then I suspect Sunday would have done ATP for me for good. The lack of respect for the audience from Foundation is astonishing, and it's now clear there's an in crowd that get priviliges and there's everyone else. A couple of years ago Low got shoved on the Pavillion stage, and there aren't many quieter bands than that. So what was wrong with putting JN on there? It smacks of needing to give her headline status because of her popularity, but not wanting to take being the final band on the Pavillion away from ATP RECORDINGS ARTISTS Spiritualized. I realise I could be conflicted when the next May event gets announced, but I think I can live with it.

I had a great time, as usual, but please allow me to like what I want to like and see what I want to see.

Agree with a lot of what u said there with some caveats. Personally I'm a bit of a wire-reading chin stroker beardo who still thinks autechre 03 was about as good as it ever got and still thinks it's shame that it went from being a pretty excellent avant-garde/experimental festival to something very corporate-y, by-the-numbers, and sort of pitchfork approved. My gf picked up the film last year and I was very disappointed that the early years were basically reduced to a 10 second Russell haswell clip.

The branding thing has reached ridiculous proportions with stupid "secret" shows and organised vice-style chalet parties. A friend of mine said that on the Saturday she turned up at a "chalet party" that was organised by ATP - signs on the door announced that ATP were filming it presumably for the 15 year anniversary DVD.

As regards the spiritualised thing we felt the queuing etc totally ruined the end of the festival. However I don't think there was a grand conspiracy behind it to make sure there was a crowd for spiritualised - they are a very big deal for a lot of people beyond their status as "ATP RECORDING ARTISTS" (not particularly to me but I could care less about JN as well tbh) and it wasn't a surprise that they would headline the festival. It doesn't seem unlikely that JN would take a long time to soundcheck particularly if as I heard her flight had been delayed and she'd turned up late.

It doesn't seem unlikely that JN would take a long time to soundcheck

^^^^^^^^^^

If you'd had the misfortune of seeing one of her shows before, you wouldn't have been at all surprised.

autechre 03 was about as good as it ever got

I was reminiscing this weekend about just how blinding that was.

Yeah I was saying 03 was the best to this random American guy I met and realised the demographic might have changed a bit when I had to explain to him who autechre were , although I guess they're probably not so well known outside of the uk.

It seems it is a period the organisers would best like to forget, but any festival with the fall, aphex twin, sunn0))), the magic band, Venetian snares, carl craig, dj stingray, public enemy, kool Keith, el-p, coil, jim o'rourke, just to name a few, just about ticks every box for me. And to think they tried to book busta rhymes as well...

Sorry not carl craig, I was thinking of a guy called gerald. What a great bill!

Anyway enough with the past, despite the above I really, really enjoyed the following sets:

Panda Bear
Boredoms x 2
Toumani Diabate
Spiritualised
The Stooges
The XX
Deerhunter
The Residents

The rest of it I was fairly ambivalent towards, except for CocoRosie who I though were just horrible.

Mainly though I went to gawp at Matt Groening and get my Simpsons boxset signed.

It seems it is a period the organisers would best like to forget

Ehh I was at that Autechre weekend and it owned but it was one of the v few they've done that lost money (inc the one that just happened by the sounds) and since then other ppl have took up the mantle as regards most of that bill (Dedbeat, Bloc and Bang Face weekender mainly) so I think there are perfectly valid reasons why they haven't really f'ed with that sort of lineup since

i was also at the autechre one and yes it was the best

it's shame that it went from being a pretty excellent avant-garde/experimental festival to something very corporate-y, by-the-numbers, and sort of pitchfork approved.

otm

other ppl have took up the mantle as regards most of that bill (Dedbeat, Bloc and Bang Face weekender mainly)

yeah this is true but i don't necessarily want them to re-create that autechre lineup again and again. i guess the point is that a festival where a different person is chosen to curate every year should leave huge possibility for variation + different kinds of music. instead it seems to have converged to this steady-state lineup (probably due to the international festivals + the record label and the whole branding etc) which i'm not really interested in. i'll probably go again tho because it's always a fun weekend regardless.

Am going to the pavement one and the lineup is so one-note pavement-like forebears/copyists it's pretty depressing tbh. The groening line-up seems like a feast of eclecticism by comparison.

It was never an "avant-garde/experimental festival", stuff that actually fits that description has always been totally in the minority and when this hasn't been the case they've tended to sell like shit. I'm a looooong way from being a stan for this festival and probably won't attend any of them this year but folks are pretty unrealistic about what ppl's tastes are actually like

i just want some bands that sound a bit different from each other :/

Maybe calling it experimental is too strong, but it definitely had a more definite defined curatorial edge to it which is what attracted it to me in the first place. Now half the time they don't even have a "curator" as such, they book far less bands it seems, and when they do have a curator it is very suspicious how many ATP recordings artists they appear to like.

I know it is never going to go back to what it was, festivals like bangface and supersonic cater to the niche, and that is fine it is still a bloody good weekend. You can't deny though that it has lost some of its charm thanks to the very overt ways in which the organisers try to sell this mythic ATP experience and airbrush over the bits that don't quite sit right with the pitchfork / vice crowd.

In short I'm getting old...

Can't speak for the overseas lineups, but at ATP NY there were, of course, a number of ATP recording artists on the lineup -- but they were focused on the day curated by ATP -- whereas the chosen "curators" (MBV, Flaming Lips) would not really venture into ATP territory on their given days.

The Thurston Moore Nightmare Before Xmas had quite an 'out' line-up and that sold out, right?

Yeah that was the one exception - no dance stuff tho iirc, basically I think that people who are primarily into electronic music just do not give a flying one about ATP

You say that, but it also had:

Deerhoof (ATP artists)
Iggy and the Stooges
Melvins
Sonic Youth
Alexander Tucker (ATP artist)
Bardo Pond (ATP artists)
Dinosaur Jr.
Mats Gustaffson + Eye (left in for Boredoms content)
plus Flipper, Go4, Negative Approach, MC5 reformations shows

which makes it look more like every other ATP than you'd think it did.

Who cares if it looks "like every other ATP" when that list of artists is pretty much uniformly godhead?

Btw, Bardo Pond are more so a longtime Matador band than ATP, which they joined relatively recently for a couple releases, and their less "major release" shit comes out on other labels, including Three Lobed and others.

Not sure how long Deerhoof have been on ATP (is this UK only?), but they've mostly been on Kill Rock Stars here in the states.

Alexander Tucker I believe has mostly been on ATP.

Really, though -- who cares what label these guys are on when the music's great?

Cannot believe we're complaining about the *inclusion* of Melvins, Boredoms, Bardo Pond, Gang of Four, Stooges, Sonic Youth, Flipper, Mats Gustaffson... I would be thrilled to see any of those names on, say, Coachella (or any other washed-up, even-more-corporate ca$h cow festival).

Sorry -- rant over.

People who are into the intersection of electronic music and ATP music do not have enough friends to fill a chalet and go to festivals where they can buy tickets in 1s and 2s instead.

(I kid, except, I'm in this category. poss substitute "rich enough, music-digging enough" for "enough")

even if you're gonna complain about that list of artists at the Thurston Nightmare, it did have about sixty bands in total!

I stuck with Joanna Newsom till the end, when she was about to play something before apparently being told she had no time left after a 45 or 50 minute long set (my friends confirmed that there was no encore despite the demand), then I headed to The Raincoats where I too hung around for 20 minutes or so before they got the all clear. What's that all about then. They then ended up overlapping quite precisely with The xx, who were supposed to come on when The Raincoats finished, so take THAT, anyone who wanted to see both of them.

I could join in the complaints, but hey I saw about fifteen bands I thought were great and another ten or so I thought were between good and really really good, so I have little right. Actually ATP could have put on Boredoms and slowly flayed me over the rest of the weekend and I'd have been happy. I understand the complaints, though. I'm guessing it would've been seen as a bit embarrassing to have a couple of hundred people watching Spiritualized as there were during the encore when everyone noticed the mighty queue. Also, why the 2am shut-down on Sunday? We are responsible enough to dance the night through and get out of our chalets by 10, we promise.

I am also now old enough to understand why they have the on site masseuses. God is my body broken.

I dig plenty of electronic/dance stuff, too... but I don't expect a festival that's already serving up an incredible variety of acts in other genres to cover every single base of stuff that I'm into.

xp

the only case of this ATP-favouritism I have any complaints about is Alexander Tucker, whose music I like fine but I don't entirely buy that he's quite popular or celebrated enough to have been selected for multiple ATPs and supported at every ATP-promoted gig ever. God knows how many times I've happened to see that guy. But I would gladly watch, say, Deerhoof or Lightning Bolt five times daily for the rest of my life.

Yep, Alexander Tucker does tend to show his face at pretty much every ATP event -- a bit too often. His music's just fine, though, unlike fellow ATP recording artists Sleepy Sun... aptly named, as "sleepy" is precisely how I felt watching their live show. Here's hoping they don't get the Tucker treatment and start hauling their asses to every ATP henceforth.

i've seen Deerhoof and Lighting Bolt and a bunch of the ones Aldo listed - Flipper? NA? di they play that many? - probably a couple times each in the past and enjoyed them, but i'd much rather see something new. or maybe it just feels like certain bands have played more than they really have. i mean, how many times *have* Lightning Bolt played?

i just think they need to cast the net out with curators. how bout Byron Coley or something? i don't really give a fuck about what Explosions in the Sky. but then i don'think i fit the typical dude for most of the recent festivals.

anyway, gripes aside, i'm still going to the pavement one but only really because a bunch of friends are going. and the SPACEBOWL, duh.

I saw Lightning Bolt play four times at one a couple of years back, that has probably coloured my mind re their ever-presentness.

I would like if they split their two summer ones into a big one at Minehead and a smaller, weirder, more diverse one at Camber Sands. Probably not too likely.

i just think they need to cast the net out with curators. how bout Byron Coley or something? i don't really give a fuck about what Explosions in the Sky

^^^^^^^^^

i just think they need to cast the net out with curators. how bout Byron Coley or something? i don't really give a fuck about what Explosions in the Sky think

OK, I'll admit now my main source of grief with the whole SPZ/JN queuing fiasco is that I fucked my knee on Saturday and another of our party was in a wheelchair so with none of us caring about SPZ one iota getting upstairs to JN where there was a bar and we could sit down was a priority and might have coloured how pissed off I was with the rest of it.

Now I have calmed down a little, I see my issues are the same as tpp's with talking about a 'steady state lineup'. I too don't necessarily have a problem with the extract from the Thurston Moore weekend I posted earlier, however, Deerhoof have played 8 ATPs to date. Melvins have played 6. Sonic Youth have played 8. Bardo Pond have played 7. Dinosaur Jr have played 4 (I could have sworn it was more, although none of these include when these bands have played multiple sets.) It seems to me they define the same old crowd. (For reference, Lightning Bolt have played 8.)

I'd argue Explosions In The Sky is a bad choice for representing a bad weekend, as it was the most hip-hop once since Autechre (Raekwon, Ghostface, De La Soul) and also had Adem, Four Tet and Saul williams in addition to a handful of relatively obscure Japanese bands and maybe the strongest alt-country line up of any year.

I'm probably just too old for it all, to be honest. Piles of people walking round round in ironic 80s clothes (seriously, how into it do you have to be to get a haircut ironically?) just annoys me more than anything else. The pride the guy who had the Thriller leather jacket was wearing it with was just beyond a joke.

Yrs,

Grumpy.

so so many moustaches, too. Never seen so many in my life.

xpost
you're right about Wu Tang, actually. worth it for them alone for hearing Raekwon tell everyone that autograph time was over cause he 'had to take a shit'

Maybe calling it experimental is too strong, but it definitely had a more definite defined curatorial edge to it

yeah this is what i was trying to say really. the crowd has definitely changed a lot since the first one i went to (shellac) most notably at that atp vs. pitchfork one (rip camber) which was full of london scene douchebags.