Saturday 14 July 2012

Indietracks video round-up!

If you're anything like us, you will have been trawling through videos and photos of Indietracks for the past week, trying to recreate last weekend and stave off the withdrawal symptoms!

Here is a selection of some of our favourite videos that we've found so far.....enjoy!

John Kell's Indietracks mini-montage of Indietracks:






The Just Joans covering Kenickie's Come Out 2 Nite:






Go Sailor bringing out the sunshine on the Outdoor Stage:





And, finally, Elizabeth from Allo Darlin' singing Tallulah to a hushed audience:


Tuesday 10 July 2012

Thanks for coming!


Wow - what a weekend! It seemed to fly past even quicker this year. Okay, there were a couple of showers and a bit of mud, but there was also a surprising amount of sunshine and blue skies! 

Thanks so much to all the fantastic bands, DJs, workshop organisers, caterers and merchandise tent volunteers who took part over the weekend. Thanks also to Audio Xcite and Magnet Hire for doing the stages and sound, including setting up in some difficult conditions! And of course, we want to say a massive thank you to the Midland Railway staff and volunteers who worked so hard over the weekend to make the festival so brilliant!  

Finally, we want to say a huge thanks to YOU for coming and supporting Indietracks and the railway - we couldn't do it without you! 

We're sorting through stacks of photos, videos and reviews, and we'll share our favourites over the next week or so. Do keep popping back here over the next week or so, and feel free to send your contributions to indietrackspress@gmail.com - we want to hear from you! Don't forget - you can also share your photos with the Indietracks Flickr pool and your personal highlights and memories on the Anorak forum

During the course of the weekend you will have hopefully noticed the new windows in the church, which were funded by your generous donations last year, following vandalism at the site. If you would like to continue to support the Midland Railway, the best way is to make a donation when you download the Indietracks 2012 compilation, which features 52 fantastic songs by artists who played this year's festival. All proceeds from the compilation go to the railway charity.

We've received a long list of weird and wonderful lost property. If you've lost something over the weekend and would like to see if we've found it, please e-mail indietracksfestival@gmail.com

And finally, if you'd like to stay up-to-date with future Indietracks news, please follow us on Twitter or Facebook, or subscribe to our e-newsletter by emailing indietracksmailinglist2@gmail.com  

Hopefully see you next year!!

Thursday 5 July 2012

Last minute reminders!



We hope you’re looking forward to the festival this weekend! Here's some last-minute information.

Getting In!

When to arrive: The gates will open at 5pm on the Friday and at midday on Saturday and Sunday.

Online tickets: weekend tickets and day tickets (Saturday or Sunday) will be on sale online until at least Friday lunchtime from the Indietracks ticket page. Tickets are not sent out by post. You’ll receive a confirmation email which will contain a link to print your tickets at home.

Tickets on the gate: weekend tickets and day tickets will be available on the gates, including £15 tickets for the Friday only. 

Getting to the site: You’ve hopefully sussed out how to get there by now, but just in case, there’s some advice on bus, rail, taxi and car-sharing options on our travel page. If you’re coming by car, please park at Butterley station and catch the train to the festival site (unless you’re in a band or crew, in which case you can park at Swanwick station). Equally, please ask any taxis to pick you up and drop you at Butterley.

Advance preparation!

Schedule: the timeslots for the bands, DJs and workshops will be printed in the festival programme and are also listed on the Indietracks schedule page.

iPhone and Android apps: For iPhone and Android mobile phone users, there are exciting, free-to-download Indietracks apps with a guide to the festival. Download them here iPhone / Android.

Indietracks 2012 compilation: If you’re planning your music for the journey to Indietracks, don’t forget to download this year’s compilation. There’s 52 fantastic tracks featuring bands playing at this year's festival. All proceeds go to the Midland Railway charity: Indietracks 2012 compilation

Weather: It’s sunny on the site at the moment! However, it has been raining this week and sadly it’s forecast to rain during the weekend. Please come prepared for sunshine on a rainy day or vice versa.

Cash: There isn’t a cash machine on site, so please stock up on money beforehand. There will be real ale, fine foods and inevitably tons of band merchandise and we wouldn’t want you to miss out!

Follow us on Twitter: we'll be tweeting during the festival @indietracksfest, so please come and follow us and please use the hashtag #Indietracks.

See you at the weekend!

Wednesday 4 July 2012

Download the Android and iPhone apps!


We're very happy to tell you that our Android and iPhone apps are now ready, just in the nick of time! These nifty little things will tell you in real time which bands are coming up on which stages, so you'll never miss a band. They also contain valuable information about the bands and DJs themselves, the workshops, and even local taxi numbers and directions.

Download them now, completely free!

Android app
iPhone app

Huge thanks to Andrew and Matloob for all their hard work putting these together!

Due to the apps being created prior to certain changes to the schedule, some info is currently being updated. You'll be notified of updates automatically once completed.

Indietracks interview #19: The Smittens



Here’s our final band interview of 2012, and what better way to round things off than with familiar Indietracks faces, The Smittens! The Smittens are a hard-working globe-trotting independent American twee pop band from Burlington, Vermont who like to think of themselves as friends first and open-hearted indiepop revolutionaries after that. Max Andrucki, Colin Clary, Dana Kaplan, Holly Chagnon, and David Zacharis switch up instruments, song-writing, and singing to create brilliantly lyrical and hyper-catchy pop songs of all shapes and sizes.

Hi, we hear you've got a new album coming out on Fika in July - can you tell us a little bit more about that?

We've been recording songs for a few years. We actually record as we write and arrange, so it has been a long time coming. For a while we weren't settled on its home. We are really proud of it and wanted to make sure it had a proper release. We were overjoyed to begin a relationship with Tom at Fika and he has been a phenomenal person to work with. Since a lot of our following is UK-based it just makes sense. It's fitting that we're debuting the album at Indietracks given the artwork. We have just heard that the LPs will in fact be available for sale at Indietracks! We think it's our best album yet, but we always think that...

You're an Indietracks stalwarts now - what's your favourite thing about the festival, and what's your top Indietracks tip for anyone who hasn't been before?

Bring hardboiled eggs. A cheap protein boost for pop kids on the go. Also some kind of fruit and/or vegetable to keep things movin'. We also like to play I spy the queers. There's usually at least two others. It's a great chance to be a part of the largest indiepop gathering on earth. It's like Burning Man or Gathering of the Juggalos but more polyester and with cuter boys. Make sure to get there early to catch a show in the church. Bring a *lot* of cash so you can buy all the merch and junk food you want. Keep an eye out for the pop-up acoustic shows in the tents. That's where Tallulah Gosh had a brief reunion; you never know what you can catch. The worst part is when the beer all sells out and then the bathrooms close. We have no advice about how to deal with this situation. For non-British readers: the beer is sold by percentage of alcohol, so start high and work your way down.

You've been on a pretty big American tour in May and June in places ranging from Los Angeles to Seattle. Do you have any funny tour stories to share?

That was what we did last year instead of Indietracks. It was fun and odd to tour the US again. Such long distances between shows... We travelled with Mark Monnone from the Lucksmiths and that was a trip. Colin and Mark had an adventure of their own in Portland. We got a lot of hot tub time with our pals Sean and Cori from Tullycraft on what was apparently the only sunny day in Seattle in 2011. For the last leg of the tour we had our own personal yoga trainer. Our chi was off the hook. As they say, namaste.

You recently celebrated your tenth birthday as a band - what have you got planned for the next ten years? :)

God, ten years. Longer than any of our longest relationships. But we're on the brink of a new Smittens era. Dana has shed the "she" pronoun and is now "The Smitten Formerly Known as 'Lady'". We've added a new vocalist called Missy Bly. In the coming years we'd like to hit more new countries with pop scenes - Spain, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong. And maybe actually get to the middle of our own country. Texas?? We're in it for the long haul. Or, who knows. Maybe babies and more cats will come along too. We're constantly re-arranging. I mean, isn't anything? The bigger question is, will Indietracks still be happening?

What's going to be on your compilation tapes as you travel down to Indietracks?

We await to see the set up in our rental van. Thank you for asking this question. It's giving us the opportunity to bicker about who actually listens to what. We are currently way into Cats On Fire, The European, Burning Hearts, Architecture in Helsinki, Standard Fare, Magnetic Fields, The Beets, The Indigo Girls, and "The Risk" podcasts

Do you have any surprises in store for Indietracks?

Colin bought a new pair of jeans!! And, see above.

Tuesday 3 July 2012

Who's behind the Indietracks Festival Guide?


"Indiepop Ain't Noise Pollution" available at Etsy
Ever wondered who writes the Indietracks Festival Guide each year? 

Claire Goldthorp has been responsible for assembling the guide for the last four years. Last year's guide also started to show some of her illustration work, and this year the whole guide was illustrated and created by her!

Claire tells us:

I started out by making a zine to go with my clubnight Atta Girl (all female vocalist genre hopping night in Birmingham). The illustrations in the zines then flowed over into the posters for each clubnight which you can see on the Atta Girl website. These posters started catching peoples' eyes so I started making other peoples' posters and artwork!

Last year I broke my ankle in a freak roller derby accident and suddenly had so much time on my hands. So I set up officially and got my website going with an influx of commissions! I now design album covers, t-shirt designs, posters, website headers and logos. These seem to be predominantly for the indiepop community! My fees are seriously low as I only do work that I love and for bands that I enjoy. Having promoted band nights in my past I know that most bands aren't exactly rolling in cash so helping out a band I love makes it all worthwhile.

Claire has designed for Ace Bushy Striptease, Evans The Death, Fever Fever to name a few. She also created the end of tour party poster for Shrag (below), and her "Indiepop Ain't Noise Pollution" poster, inspired by Indietracks 2010 (above), is for sale on Etsy

You can find Claire on Twitter and like her on Facebook, and of course visit her website.

We've seen this year's Indietracks Programme, and it's superb. You can pick one up on the ticket gates for a small fee. Huge thanks to Claire for her hard work!


Shrag end of tour poster


Monday 2 July 2012

Warm-up gigs!




In case you really can’t wait for Indietracks, or if you just want to continue the party afterwards, we’ve done a little round-up of gigs featuring Indietracks bands during the weeks either side of the festival. It’s a good opportunity to see some bands who won’t be in the UK for long, and also get a taste for what’s in store!

Tuesday 3 July

Brighton: The Green Door Store
Orca Team + Joanna Gruesome + Edible Arrangements
https://www.facebook.com/events/202556573197497/


Wednesday 4 July

London: The Windmill
Orca Team + The Rosie Taylor Project + Young Romance + The Tuts
http://www.anorakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=5705

London: The George Tavern
Tender Trap + September Girls + Cosines
https://www.facebook.com/events/226178824166701/

Manchester: The Castle
Standard Fare + Tigercats + The Birthday Kiss
https://www.facebook.com/events/313432042078239/


Thursday 5 July

Nottingham: The Chameleon
Orca Team + Joanna Gruesome + Sea Lions + September Girls
http://www.anorakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=5608


Friday 6 July

Cardiff: Buffalo Bar
Sea Lions + Golden Grrrls
http://www.buffalocardiff.com/


Monday 9 July

Sheffield: The Redhouse
Go Sailor + Rose Melberg + Markie Plays Girlpop!
https://www.facebook.com/events/305432549534277/

Manchester: The Castle Hotel
Sea Lions + Golden Grrrls + Sex Hands + Former Bullies
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/173927


Tuesday 10 July

London: The Lexington
Go Sailor + Gold-Bears + The Pines
https://www.facebook.com/events/399014186815815/

Nottingham: The Chameleon
Standard Fare + The Smittens + August Actually
https://www.facebook.com/events/452588524754686/

Newcastle: Head of Steam
Sea Lions + Golden Grrrls + Girl Afraid
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/173943


Wednesday 11 July


Brighton: Green Door Store
Go Sailor, The Smittens, A Fine Day For Sailing, Fulhäst
http://www.songkick.com/concerts/12657243

Glasgow: Mono
Sea Lions + Golden Grrrls + Aggi Doom
http://www.facebook.com/pages/monorail-music/103373653035306


Thursday 12 July

Bristol: The Croft
Orca Team + Joanna Gruesome + Mouse Deer
http://www.last.fm/event/3299211

London: The Old Queens Head
Tigercats + The Smittens + Fulhäst
https://www.facebook.com/events/452588524754686/

Leeds: Wharf Chambers
Sea Lions + Golden Grrrls
http://www.wharfchambers.org/?p=238

Saturday 14 July 

London: The Shacklewell Arms
Shrag + Orca Team + Joanna Gruesome + Playlounge
https://www.facebook.com/events/415042101849146/

London: Power Lunches Arts Cafe
Sea Lions + Golden Grrrrls
http://www.songkick.com/concerts/13264184


If you are promoting or playing a gig that is not listed here, just drop us a line at indietracksfestival@gmail.com and we’ll add it to the list!



Sunday 1 July 2012

Workshop interview #10: Indie Record Label Roundtable




Want to learn what it takes to run a record label? Or already run a label and want to get the chance to probe these seasoned veterans on how they do things? Discussions about marketing, distribution and pressing and everything else about running a label that you need to know.

This year’s Indie Record Label Roundtable will feature Mike Slumberland, Trev Odd Box, Tom Fika, John WIAIWYA and potentially a very special guest. Trev, Tom and John dropped by for a chatette.

Tell us a little bit about yourselves!

John Jervis – Where it’s at is Where You Are – I started the label in August '95 (although the first release was a year later), named after a lyric in a Huggy Bear song and I also run Hangover Lounge records: / named after the club.

Tom Fika - Fika Recordings is a diy indiepop label. I started the label 18 months ago, handmaking cassette tapes. Since then, there have been a few records from Tigercats and Moustache Of Insanity, and an epic 60 track advent calendar curated by Darren Hayman. You're supposed to listen to our releases drinking tea and eating cake - that's the "fika" bit.

Trev Oddbox - I'm Trev. I work for a living and I use my credit card to run Odd Box Records in my spare time. I started Odd Box in 2009 as a solo thing after my previous label Lostmusic (run by 2 then 3 then 2 pals) came to an end. Lord knows. I have no interesting facts. So here are a couple of dull ones instead; I've been a vegetarian for 25 years. I wrote a fanzine in the early 90s called WireMesh and I reckon none are still in existence. I can't clap in time.

Have you been to the festival before? Do you have any stories you’d like to divulge with us?

John WIAIWYA - yup... stories?... hmm... get down boner sticks in my mind, but I won't tell you any more than that...

Tom Fika - I've been to the festival as a punter for several years, but last year was my first as a record label. Fika threw a tea party and then got drunk in the merch tent. Interesting stories? Plenty. That I'm going to divulge? Not a chance... (come and ask me if you really want to know).

Trev Oddbox - I'm something of an Indietracks veteran and I've been every year since it started. I've graduated from camping to hotels the last few years (I'm getting old, y'know). Stories? Not that I can actually remember. Indietracks usually falls on (or near) my birthday (but not this year!) so it's impossible not to get drunk. Best memory; moshing with Ian from Horowitz to a Spanish band (I forget their name) doing a Buzzcocks cover in the pouring rain on the Elefant stage a few years ago. (I've got a picture of this somewhere).

What are you looking forward to most this Indietracks?

John WIAIWYA - Rose Melberg, naturally... and whoever we can get to do an acoustic turn in the merch tent... breakfast with Michael Zakes is always a pleasure, as is an early morning drink in the campsite bar listening to Queen and Elvis on the jukebox... and shifting UNITS... it's all about shifting units...

Tom Fika - The line up this year is cracking and there are plenty of bands I'm looking forward to seeing, but more than anything, I'll be looking forward to some nice ales, riding the train and catching up with folks I've not seen since the last Indietracks.

Trev Oddbox - Not doing anything on the merch stall for a change! Are The Give It Ups playing? I'm looking forward to them. Oh, they're not playing...... Ummmm, I'm looking forward to hanging out with friends, drinking good beer and seeing some cracking bands.

Do you have any festival going tips?

Trev Oddbox - My tip for everyone is to catch Young Romance. They're ace. Non music tips - buy your veggie burgers early just in case they run out. Same goes for real ale on the Sunday! And be nice to all the volunteers, they're ace and make the whole festival the smilefest that it is. I hope the cheery barman is there again this year. He always makes me smile.

John WIAIWYA - buy more units...

Workshop interview #9: Friends or Knot?


At 5pm on the Sunday, come along to Annette’s friendship bracelet knitting workshop!

Hi Annette, please tell us about the workshop?
It's your chance to learn the art of making friendship bracelets for you to share with your friends and family. They look tricky to make but you'll soon get the hang of tying the basic knot and progressing to more intricate patterns. I'll bring along a whole selection of coloured yarns to experiment with.

Tell us a little bit about yourself!
I have always been creative- my late Polish grandmother taught me yarn crafts when I was a little girl (knitting, crochet, sewing). I have no recollection of how or when I learnt to make friendship bracelets- it would have been the early 90's I guess. I am now a big girl with a sensible job but I still like to be creative.

Have you been to the festival before? Do you have any stories you’d like to divulge with us?
Last year was my first time at Indietracks and I loved the relaxed atmosphere. I took part in Emily's owl-knit-you workshop (http://www.owlknityou.com/) which re-kindled my childhood passion for knitting and inspired me to run a workshop of my own this year!

What are you looking forward to most this Indietracks?
For me, it’s all about the tambourines.

Do you have any festival going tips?
Don't clash. Download your clash finder (nearer the time): http://www.triv.org.uk/~mavit/clashfinder/

Oh and bring a blanket. Blankets are snuggly.