Just when we didn't think Indietracks excitement could get any more exciting, we wake up not only to discover that that our Sunday headliners Los Campesinos! are on the cover of this month's Plan B magazine (hurray!), but also to find out that the festival even got a mention in the Easyjet inflight magazine. The word is now spreading around Europe at some pretty high speeds and altitudes. Look up to the skies, and there's someone on a flight reading about the festival right now! And they're just in time to find out about Lardpony, who are possibly the most local Indietracks band. Well, them or the Deirdres, we're not sure. The band are made up of Tom, Mandy, Kristian and Nathan, and they've been playing pop music together since 2003, influenced by the likes of Hefner, Pulp and Grandaddy.
Jaunty keyboard tunes drive the sound, complimented by light-hearted and thoroughly entertaining lyrics. Their first album ‘This Is Lardcore’ on their own Cowboy Democracy label has been followed up by the second, ‘The Greatest Invention Ever’ which is available for free download from http://www.lardpony.co.uk/mp3/invention/ (Radiohead style donations are gratefully received!)
Having taken time off in recent months through the production of a Lardpony baby (aw…), many will be hungrily anticipating Lardpony’s Indietracks debut. We caught up with the band for a few questions...
Hiya, please tell us a bit about yourselves?
We're Lardpony, from Derby - just down the road from the Indietracks site. We got together in 2003 after Tom booked a gig despite not having any other band members. After a frenzied recruiting spell and a mere two practices, we debuted with an incredibly shambolic gig that went down surprisingly well. We slowly evolved into a real band, writing songs together, practicing every week and EVERYTHING, and managed two albums and a tour before we were forced onto hiatus by the impending family-hood of two of the band. Now that they've adjusted to being parents a bit, we are BACK! Whenever we can get a babysitter, anyway!
I guess that doesn't say anything about what we sound like - one review said "like a more-straightforward Bearsuit or a more-manic Pulp, depending on how you look at them." We were pleased.
Have you played any gigs to rival Indietracks for uniqueness?
We accepted a request to play a birthday party for a man who would later become Nathan's boss. It was his 50th, with full family in attendance, and he asked for a 45 minute set... I think we only had about 30 minutes of material at the time so we were forced to flesh it out with dodgy covers and songs we had dropped from our set (with good reason)... It was a bit of a nightmare, the highlight was looking out over the audience during 'Zombie Bride' to see one of his elderly relatives stuffing her fingers into her ears. The other band were an incredibly professional cover band, needless to say they went down a bit better.
Do you have any exciting plans for the rest of the year?
Apart from trying to fit in gigs and practices around childcare, we were asked AGES ago to submit some songs for a Cloudberry Records single - unfortunately we didn't manage to get them finished before we took a break, but hopefully if Roque is still interested then we'll manage to get that sorted this year! Also there's this indie pop festival in July that we're all quite excited about :)
And who are you looking forward to seeing at Indietracks?
Darren Hayman for me - Hefner were one of my favourite bands of all time, and Darren's solo gigs are a brilliant mix of new and old songs that always make me smile. I'll be setting up camp in front of the Church stage to make sure I get a good spot!
Thanks Lardpony! And here's a free MP3 from the band:
Free MP3 Download: Lardpony - Teenwolf
Next up: The Good Natured talk Alan Titchmarsh and more...
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