Our daily six-part series continues with a look at the acts scheduled to play the main stage of the Pikehall Y-Not Festival on Friday August 1st, starting from 13:00.
Today’s acts are, in order of appearance: Smiling Ivy, The Moutown Project, Esteban, The Rusticles, Ceasefire, Whiskycats, Edison, The Virginmarys, King Furnace and Hijak Oscar.
1. Smiling Ivy
Newly expanded to a five-piece with the addition of a sax player, Smiling Ivy play a cheery, upbeat mixture of rock, reggae and ska. Their debut album will be available later in the summer.
Songs include: MRSA, Capitalist Hippies, Where’s Staden Lane, Sushi, Filtho Nastro.
Sample lyric: “You either make things happen or you sell your soul accordingly.”
2. The Moutown Project
A seven-piece funk-rock band from Cergy in France, The Moutown Project’s line-up includes saxophone, trumpet and clarinet. Influences include The Doobie Brothers, Stevie Wonder, Jamiroquai and Funkadelic.
Songs include: Bridge Over The Sea, Over-rated, Killed My Woman, Mad, Music, No Way Out, I’m A Fool.
3. Esteban
Esteban are a Midlands-based four-piece guitar band, specialising in a style of music which they have dubbed Desert Funk:
“It’s what happens when you want to dance! To get up and get down to dirty funk beats, to be taken on a journey through lyrical landscapes that transport you to the hills of Santiago and the beaches of South East Asia.”
The band have been played on Tom Robinson’s 6Music radio show, and have been interviewed on BBC Radio Derby. Support slots have included Gomez, Chumbawamba and the Young Knives. Influences range from Cuban music (the guitarist has played with Buena Vista Social Club’s Eliades Ochoa) to the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jamiroquai, The Bee Gees, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Bob Marley and The Police.
Songs include: Santiago, Say It Loud, Mass Aura, Paperboy.
Sample lyric: “Hot matches never burn twice. I’m not a gambler, I don’t roll the dice. But if I did have a bet on a sport, I’d put a tenner on life being too short.”
4. The Rusticles
Hailing from the Bristol/Bath area, The Rusticles play tumbling, rollicking “electroacoustic/blues/swing” music, with a bottleneck slide guitar sound well to the forefront. The band’s lo-fi semi-acoustic sound is boosted by the jazzy virtuosity of the players.
Songs include: Tell The World, Friends, Get Your Bat On, Diamonds.
Listen to The Rusticles on MySpace.
5. Ceasefire
No information available.
6. Whiskycats
A five piece Manchester band featuring sax and trumpet, who have fused elements of latin, disco, funk, folk and jazz, Whiskycats’ debut album was released in May. On the radio, the band have been championed right across the board: by Huw Stephens on Radio One, Bob Harris on Radio Two (“excellent…so original”), Phill Jupitus on 6Music and Clint Boon on XFM. Last November, Whiskycats became the first unsigned band to headline their own show at the 2,300 capacity Manchester Academy 1.
Influences: a long list, including Art Blakey, Curtis Mayfield, Flaming Lips, James Brown, Nick Drake, Outkast, Stereolab, Super Furry Animals, Thelonious Monk and Tom Jones.
Songs include: Slipped Disco, Valerian Tea, Dirtbox the Filth Queen, Steady Freeloader.
Sample lyric: “I know you like to have a disco. Pave the way, rotating on a sixpence. Vodka and lambrusco: swill it down, enhance the medicore sounds about. Meanwhile, we’re growing weary of a thing that used to charm; knowing you’re gonna twist my arm.”
7. Edison
Edison are an unsigned Derby-based rock band, influenced by Metallica, Rage Against The Machine, Sigur Ros and The Futureheads. Others have compared their sound to the likes of Incubus, Muse, Foo Fighters, Feeder and Lostprophets.
On June 14th, Edison won the grand final of the IME Derby “Battle of the Bands” contest.
Songs include: Stars and Space, This Fallen Tree, Anaesthetic, Radio Nothing
Sample lyric: “Calling all the pieces, to get it together. And if you can’t beat us, then join us forever. And if you can’t think straight, forget it…”
8. The Virginmarys
“The Virginmarys mix blues and psychedelia with heavy rock ‘n’ roll, creating a dark and powerful sound that reasonates with influences from the late 60s and 70s. The three-piece have often been compared to the likes of Led Zeppelin, Hawkwind and Pink Floyd.”
Songs include: Thousand Times, Soul Vampire, Off To Another Land, Satellite, Portrait Of Red.
Sample lyric: “Pleased to meet you; I know what you have been through. Your needs will all be seen to. Be seated for a menu.”
9. King Furnace
These alt-rockers from Oxford count among their influences Queen, Queens Of The Stone Age and Queensryche – which suggests an unusual display of consistency. The band “have built up a reputation for their energetic and entertaining live shows, impressing with their spiky, melodic, twisted, proggy, alternative pop rock.”
Songs include: So-Low, Anatomy, Tan Lines, Molasses, Making Of Me, Blemish.
10. Hijak Oscar
“Hijak Oscar have played all over the country supporting bands such as Alabama 3, Son of Dave, Jack Penate, Mostly Autumn and many more, as well as playing an impressive amount of headliners in and out of the York music scene.”
“Hijak Oscar are the band you’ll meet at the cross roads and without a second thought sell your soul for.” (The Talk)
Influences: Otis Taylor, Son House, Sonny Boy Williamson, Sonny Terry, Canned Heat, early Bruce Springsteen, Jaco Pastorius, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Weather Report, Gomez, Miles Davis, Dot Cotton…
Songs include: Bitter Carnival, Disciple of Time, Creeping Fool, Dollar Bill.
Sample lyric: “Jealously I stumble down this broken path, hoping to find the one that would last.”
See also:
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