Indietracks Festival - first details!

Hello everyone! We're very, very excited to announce that Scottish pop legends Camera Obscura will be headlining this year's Indietracks, held on 24-26 July, 2009, and tickets are now on sale! The band, who have recently signed to 4AD, are playing the Outdoor Stage, which is this year being curated by seminal indiepop record label Elefant Records as part of their 20th anniversary celebrations.

The band will be joined by fellow Glaswegians BMX Bandits, shimmering six-piece Lucky Soul, indie heroes The Frank and Walters, and hotly-tipped Welsh popsters The School. Other bands playing on the Elefant stage over the weekend include La Casa Azul, Cola Jet Set, Cooper, Nick Garrie, Single, Speedmarket Avenue, Tender Trap and Fitness Forever.

Elefant is a Madrid-based record label launched by Luis Calvo in 1989. The staunchly independent label has become internationally renowned for both its championing of cult music heroes such as Trembling Blue Stars and Helen Love, and its Singles Club releases from more established bands such as Cinerama and The Clientele.

Over 50 bands will play Indietracks this year, and a second headliner and more bands will be announced shortly - we can't wait!

This is the third ever Indietracks festival, which is held at the Midland Railway in Ripley, in the heart of the Derbyshire countryside. The site houses a whole range of lovingly restored steam and diesel locomotives. Festival goers are allowed to have unlimited rides on the steam railway over the weekend and full access to other railway attractions including a farm and museum.

Weekend tickets cost £55 and are available from Friday 27 February from Ticketweb or by calling the railway direct on 01773 747 674.

Fancy running an activity at Indietracks 2009?

Here at Indietracks Towers we’re busily preparing for this summer’s festival. Bands are being invited, and websites and flyers designed as we speak. And, as always in the run-up to July, we’ve our ear to the streets to find out what you want at this year’s festival. Do feel free to post a comment with your ideas!

One suggestion we’d like to introduce is to have some fun extra-curricular activities at the festival this year. It would be great to get everyone involved in some fanzine-making, music-playing or craft-crafting. So, we’re asking whether any of you fancy running these activities? This could involve anything really. Maybe...

- art and craft / drawing / knitting / badge making
- music / songwriting / ukelele playing / drumming
- poster designing / fanzine making
- how to promote gigs / start a record label - quizzes / board games

We’ll find you a suitable area – maybe even a section of steam train! – and of course, you can have a free ticket to the festival.

If you're interested, please write to indietrackspress@gmail.com in the next week or so.

Indietracks will take place on 24-26 July 2009. We’ll have some news about this year’s festival very shortly!!

Reviews of Christmas Twee!

Hello everyone! Well.....have you recovered yet? Wasn't it GREAT! Who can forget the Christmassy marquee, the storming sets from all three bands, that Snowman outfit and the disco in the dark? There's already a few reviews online - check out the blog of Kris from A Smile and a Ribbon, who entertained everyone with his wonderfully chosen records - and you can see his uber-impressive playlist there too! Also, we just want to say a big thanks to reviewer Julie Weston and her young daughter Mabel who came along from Egigs- visit the site to see her fun review and pictures.

Some of our fave photos from the night are in this post - including one of organiser Stuart looking slightly crazed - but you can also see more on Emma Pocketbooks' Flickr page!

Thanks again to everyone who came and made it such a wonderful evening. From everyone at Team Indietracks, hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! xxx

Interview with Horowitz!

Only one more day to go til Christmas Twee now, and we can barely contain our excitement any more - don't forget to make your Secret Santa CDs! There's also a really useful running order up now on the website too. Good luck choosing your dancing shoes and glitzy festive outfts! In the meantime, the ever lovely Horowitz talk to us about attracting indiepop bands to Stoke, their year in music and what makes their perfect Christmas...

Hello Horowitz! You're managing to attract lots of top-notch bands to play in little old Stoke-on-Trent at the moment through your Sunny Inside nights - how's that going and what will happen in the future?

Ian: It's not going! At least, not for the forseeable future. The Glebe is closing, as far as we know, so the legendary Marillion painting may be lost forever.
Pete: Stoke's dead in the water for indiepop, so that was reason enough to have a go and do it. We got inspired by Spiral Scratch and the bands and shows around the SPC label in Sheffield and once we discovered how easy it was to make a manageable financial loss on each night, there was no stopping us! Really, it's been great and that's been largely thanks to the bands we've asked who haven't thought that playing in Stoke is a waste of their time and effort. We're very grateful! They've all been memorable popshows for one reason or another. I mean, who can forget Fairy's (Deirdres) rugby tackle on Mark Hibbett as he was about to take to the stage? Or how about all of A Smile And a Ribbon plus cases squashed into my car and me looking in the mirror, seeing a jumble of happy but tired faces crammed together. Then there was the Cloudberry records night (one of our proudest moments), where we put together a zine and Roque provided the 3"cdr. There have been the small but magical moments too, like people bursting into spontaneous applause after a Pocketbooks soundcheck; Pete Green filling in on the spot, playing a great set on electric guitar; tattooed barstaff sequence dancing to the Parallelograms. I could go on and on. The nights have been as friendly and informal as we can make them, and there's always a few tables booked at the local curryhouse for the food and get together afterwards. That seems to be a recurrent theme - the post-popshow curry and most bands seem keen on the idea! We've been very lucky in that there've been people like Marianthi, Dunc and Debbie, Trev, Popkid and Pete G who've made numerous visits. Rocker, our Sunny Inside resident DJ, travels up from Bristol for the nights - and drives back the same night! It's enthusiasm like this that sustains us - that and the "wasn't that a great night" feeling.

What are Horowitz's plans for the next year or so?

Pete: We have a raft of recording to do - a single on This Almighty Pop, a 7" single on Lost Music and a Jonathan Richman cover on a Fortuna Pop compliation album. Before any of those should be the release of a 7" single on the superdooper Cloudberry Records and a track called Drop The Hat on a WeePOP! compliation. We'd like to play around the UK in places we haven't yet played and we'd love to get over to Sweden too. Fingers crossed, we can make it to the 09 New York popfest - if we can get work permits, of course! ;)
Ian: The plan is to get those records done and dusted.

What attracted you to playing at Christmas Twee, when you were asked to step in for Cars Can Be Blue?

Ian: We would have come along anyway! I really enjoyed DJing on the train last year with my friend Jamie C, so I have lots of fond memories of Christmas Twee.
Pete: We were looking forward to coming along as spectators/drunken dancers, when Stuart invited us on to the bill to replace Cars Can Be Blue after their awful experience with customs. Naturally, we were delighted to be asked.

What can fans expect from your Christmas Twee appearance?

Ian: Beards. And a couple of new songs! We had stopped playing our cover of Jonathan Richman's Government Center, but Pocketbooks are insistent, so we're not going to argue.
Pete: It'll be fuzzy and noisy! We'll be playing both tracks from the Cloudberry 7", if we can stand up by that point (the real ale bars are a big attraction!) but if anyone's expecting us to be wearing Santa hats they'll be disappointed!

Oh no! I'm sure you would've looked great in them! What have been your fave indiepop moments from the last year?

Ian: Everytime we've played with the Manhattan Love Suicides has been pretty special. Having Zipper come over from Spain was something else.
Pete: Yes, it was an amazing time when Zipper were over. It was the first time we'd organised anything like that and to get to play shows with them was great! The Manhattans playing Heat And Panic as the last song at the Glebe was a perfect ending. I love that song! There have been so many memorable moments:- personally, helping Pete Green out with recording his Platform Zero ep was a great thrill and a lot of fun to do; joyful shows with Liechtenstein and A Smile And A Ribbon; reading Trev's (Lost Music) Pains Of Being Pure At Heart tour diary, where you can feel him getting more and more tired as the week goes on; being ecstatic at the Pains/Manhattans show in London and Pocketbooks at Indietracks; the New York popfest; Indietracks.......

What are you listening to at the moment? Are there are any new bands you're excited about?

Ian: I have been revisiting the sounds of my teenage years, so lots of Pavement, Sparklehorse and Yo La Tengo. The Give It Ups are exceptional and well worth checking out
Pete: Right now - "The Give It Ups sing" cd. I love it! The Pete Green Corporate Juggernaut are a great pop group.

Tell us what makes a perfect Christmas for Horowitz..

Ian: Stilton, walnuts and real ale! I like spending time with the family.
Pete: I try to forget all about it! I like a few beers but that's normally the case!

Good luck Horowitz - we'll look forward to seeing you on the Santa train! Lovely chappies that they are, they've also give us a free mp3 for you. Called 'How to Look Imploring", it's the A side from their forthcoming Cloudberry Records 7'' due to be released early next year, and it's FANTASTIC! Enjoy!

Free MP3 download: How to Look Imploring

Horowitz join the Christmas Twee bill

Horowitz are Ian and Pete from Stoke-On-Trent. They are into all things DIY, noisy and FUN! Their infectiously catchy fuzz-guitar pop tunes have already delighted pop kids at the Indietracks 2007 festival, and now we're pleased to announce that they're back to play at Christmas Twee!

They released their debut album, Frosty Cat Songs in 2006, a must-have for any indiepop record collection, and have since released the excellent Traceyanne single.

We're really excited that they're joining us!

Secret Santa CD swap and raffle!

Cor, not long to go untl Christmas Twee now! We don’t know about you but we’re already thinking about which dancing shoes to wear. So before you become preoccupied with such things too, we thought this was a good time to remind you about a few other things happening besides the bands and DJ.

Secret Santa CD Swap
Make a mix CD of whatever you like and put it on a CD. If you're feeling particularly festive, you could even decorate it, design a cover, or wrap it up in cute Christmas paper! Be as creative as you want, or not at all – after all, it’s the thought that counts! Drop it into the Secret Santa CD box when you arrive at Butterley Station, and during the evening a draw will be made and everyone who brought a CD will take someone else’s home!

Raffle
We've got some exciting prizes in the raffle, so be sure to enter and collect your ticket on the way in! Prizes have been donated by the bands playing on the night, and there might just be a few more surprises in there too!

Train rides
Chances are if you've never been to Indietracks before then you've never been to a disco on a moving steam train! Our words can't describe how exciting it is, so instead, here's some video taken of some very over-excited indie kids taken at the very first event in April 2007:

Cars Can Be Blue no longer to play Christmas Twee

Unfortunately we've had some sad news today that headliners Cars Can Be Blue will no longer be able to play their planned UK dates, including Christmas Twee on 6th December. This is due to the band unexpectedly having to return to the United States at short notice. We're really sorry to get this news, as we're sure they are too, and we'd like to wish them all the best.

A donation page has been set up if you'd like to help them get back some of the money they lost on their flights to the UK - every little bit helps!

We'll be making a further announcement shortly about plans for the night, so watch this space!

Some sad news....

Hello everyone, we're sorry to announce today that Mighty Mighty have had to pull out of headlining Christmas Twee due to last-minute, unforseen circumstances.

We're really sad about this - we were so looking forward to seeing them reunited once again - but hopefully they may put in a performance at next year's summer festival. However, we CAN now announce that the wonderful Cars Can Be Blue will now headlining the entire show. Yay! We're super-super excited about this one - CCBB are one of the wittiest, poppiest indiepop bands around at the moment, and we're sure they're going to get everyone's Christmas off to a wonderful start! They will now be playing in the marquee rather than in the train, so there will be lots more room to try out your best shimmying dance moves!

We'll be posting again tomorrow with detailsof our very special Christmas Twee raffle and also the Secret Santa CD swap - you'd better start hunting through your Christmas records now!

Cars Can Be Blue added to the bill!

Phew! It’s been a busy week over at old Indietracks Towers. A few of us popped over to the wonderful indiepop all-dayer at Lee Rosy’s on Sunday, held in aid of the Midland Railway where all our Indietracks events take place. It was so heart-warming to see so many familiar faces, and you can read what everyone got up to over on the Anorak forum. It’s not all dancing and cake though, we’ve also been busy finalising all the last-minute preparations for Christmas Twee, including organising the Secret Santa CD swap and raffle, sorting out band and disco arrangements and – most importantly – adding a new band to our already sparkly line-up! That’s right, we can now finally announce that the fantastic Cars Can Be Blue have now been added to the bill – hurray!

The Athens-based duo, made up of Nate and Becky, formed in 2002 after Nate’s cover band and Becky’s comedy improv group broke up, leaving them free to work together on their unique fusion of comedy and music. Their 2005 debut record, All The Stuff We Do, received rave reviews for its witty combination of humorous lyrics and pop-punk sounds, and brilliant new album Doubly Unbeatable is out now on Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records. We just can’t wait to hear all the new songs performed live – shimmying along to some cheeky lyrics in the Santa carriage surely awaits!

Don’t forget that tickets are now available to buy online at We Got Tickets – they’re very limited so you’ll need to snap one up quickly if you want a bit o-steam action this Christmas!

Interview with Mascot Fight!

Howdy there kiddas, how are you feeling today? Isn't the weather bonkers at the moment? One minute it's a gorgeous Autumn morning, the next you're sheltering under a wind-knackered umbrella with bird-nest hair and a soaked-through raincoat. I know lots of you will be popping along to this Sunday's Midland Railway benefit gig at the wonderful Lee Rosy's in Nottingham, so make sure you're armed with your brollies! Lots of Indietracks bands will be playing, such as Pete Green, the Bobby McGees and Pocketbooks, and we'll be posting up a review and piccies here as soon as we can!

Of course, also appearing at this Sunday's gig are Mascot Fight, who are playing at Christmas Twee on December 6. (Ooh, quick reminder to get your tickets now from We Got Tickets, they're selling really fast and you don't want be without a bit o' steam action this Christmas!)

The Derby-based guitar popsters, who have been all over the airwaves since they formed in 2004, join us this week to tell us about their Christmas Twee plans....

Hello there Mascot Fight - nice to meet you! The summer Indietracks festival has been going for a couple of years now, but Christmas Twee is a little bit different. What attracted you to playing there?

Well, you don't often get the chance to play a gig that combines Santa, trains and pop music! And there's a raffle- amazing! Tom also used to LOVE going to Butterley as a kid, so it's a nice nostalgia trip too.

Wow- youngster steam train-based action! And what can fans expect from your Christmas Twee appearance?

We'll do our level (crossing!) best to provide some catchy songs to rival Jingle Bells, Let it Snow et al in terms of popping into people's heads over the festive season! If you turn up expecting Pavement-lite, you possibly won't be disappointed.

Hmm, sounds interesting! What do you think of the current indiepop scene at the moment?

Scandinavia appears to have a production line of excellent pop bands right now- it's like a modern day Viking invasion. The heavy influence of old British and American bands is apparent, but it sounds fresh and exciting - perhaps more so than anywhere else right now. Much closer to home, Derby always seems to have a few good indiepop bands. We've recently sadly lost Plans & Apologies and The Deirdres, but we still have Lardpony and My Psychoanalyst (who are less poppy but still excellent).

What records are you listening to at the moment? Are there are any new bands you're excited about?

Ooh, name-dropping time........

Rich - Darren Hanlon, Hello Saferide, Billie the Vision, Future of the Left.
Sean - Frightened Rabbit, Narrator, Oh No! Oh My!
Matt - Deerhoof, Youthmovies, Of Montreal, Pete & the Pirates.
Tom - Faded Paper Figures, The Dodos, Bricolage. All these bands seem to be doing good stuff lately!

We're big fans of lots of those bands over here at Indietracks Towers, but what about your band? What are Mascot Fight's plans for the next year?

We have an album (Pantomime Hearse) out at the beginning of the year, which we intend to tour a bit before heading back to the studio to record an EP. We're constantly writing new stuff, a lot of which we demo but never play live, leading to a gazillion obscure tracks and a handful that are listenable enough to record properly! We don't like to stand still for long! That said, it took us about a million years to do the album...

We'll look forward to hearing it - sounds exciting! Just one last thing before you go - tell us what makes a perfect Christmas for Mascot Fight..

A perfect Christmas would involve a top-notch roast dinner, crackers that contain genuinely useful items, enough snowfall for snowballs..... erm.... world peace (to sneak the altruistic one in) and perhaps a glimpse of the REAL Santa Claus, defying gravity on a rare night at work.

Sounds perfect! Thanks Mascot Fight - we'll look forward to getting all Christmassy with you next month! The band have given us an exlusive mp3 of their song Haha, That's Not Anarchy - just click on the link below!

Mp3 download: Haha, That's Not Anarchy