Indietracks 2010 quiz!

(Sunset dancing at Indietracks 2009. Photo: rainonthelens)

Okay, so we're all sitting and waiting patiently for the festival to arrive. It’s only a couple of days away but it feels like forever! So to fill the gaping void, here’s a quick Indietracks 2010 quiz!

This year we have a series of prizes, as follows:

a) the fact that if you win you will be the Indietracks 2010 Quiz Winner. Forever. Impress your friends. Find love. Join the immortals.

b) A copy of the Indietracks 2010 compilation CD. A double CD in fact, with 44 sizzling indiepop tunes.

c) A couple of Indietracks-related promos which we have lying around. (And by a couple we mean literally two.)

d) Um… we’ll try and find something else good, we promise. Some chocolate, maybe. Look it’s not really about the prizes, it’s the taking part. Plus we’ve been busy the last few weeks - 26 band interviews!

Anyway, if you’d like to take part, please email your answers by 2pm on Thursday 22 July to indietrackspress@gmail.com with the word ‘Quiz!’ in the subject title. We’ll stick the answers up sometime next week. Okay, here goes...

1. Which band claims to have a copy of Falling and Laughing (the original Postcard version) on tape?

a) The Pooh Sticks
b) Lime Chalks
c) Veronica Falls

2. Name three Indietracks 2010 bands with animals in their name

3. Match these four bands – The Loves, Standard Fare, Allo Darlin, MJ Hibbett and the Validators - to their lyrics

a) “Global warming is getting me down”
b) “It’s not a star, it’s a satellite!”
c) “My friend the dentist tells me time after time, water’s better for me”
d) “I was heading down to Balham when someone said let’s go to Clapham”

4. What’s the name of the refreshment buffet on the site (you know, the one just opposite the railway shop near the outdoor stage)?

a) Corrigan’s buffet
b) Jeremy’s buffet
c) Johnson’s buffet

5. Which of these songs is a hit song for Slow Club?

a) Giving Up On Love
b) Baby, Don’t You know?
c) Virgin Lips

6. Which indiepop legend did Darren Hayman compare to a “heartfelt, streamlined and robust” Diesel Multiple Unit steam train on the Indietracks blog?

a) Amelia Fletcher (Tender Trap)
b) Gordon McIntyre (Ballboy)
c) Tracy Tracy (The Primitives)

7. The documentary for the legendary Sarah Records label will be filming YOU! at Indietracks this year. But in which year did the label announce it was coming to an end?

a) 1991
b) 1993
c) 1995

8. How many pairs of shorts does Kip from The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart own?

a) Two
b) Twelve
c) None

9. Name this Indietracks 2010 band


10. This year, Indietracks will welcome two artists with songs that have reached the top five in the UK singles chart – who are they?

11. Where’s the best place to park if you’re driving to Indietracks?

a) Butterley Station, where there is ample free parking
b) Alfreton town centre, a brisk hour walk away!
c) In front of the outdoor stage, for a true drive-in experience!

12. Which one of the following events will not take place at the Midland Railway Centre this year?

a) All Aboard With Ivor The Engine - visiting from the Merioneth and Llantisili Railway
b) Halloween Fright Night – haunted stations, ghostly train rides and a real ale bar
c) Whooverville 2 – a Doctor Who fan convention
d) Do The Locomotion! – an evening of dancing to 80s pop hits
d) Shunters – a celebration of diesel shunting locomotives

13. Which band won a UK Festival Award for their set at Indietracks last year, seeing off competition from The Prodigy, ZZ Top and The Specials?

a) Emmy The Great
b) La Casa Azul
c) Art Brut

14. Based on our minimal research and geography knowledge, which band are based the furthest distance away from Indietracks?

a) The Smittens
b) Red Shoe Diaries
c) Urbantramper

15. When's the last train from the festival site back to Butterley Station each night?

a) 8.30pm, meaning you’ll have to miss all the headliners
b) 12.15am, shortly after the last disco finishes at midnight
c) 3.00am, several hours after the site closes and we switch all the lights off.

16. Which Indietracks band wanted their recently-released album to sound “a bit like a tea party with a mad aunt who serves teacups of gin in her loveliest china set whilst surrounded by cats, books and cakes”

a) Betty and The Werewolves
b) Paisley and Charlie
c) Stars in Coma

17. What name were Antarctica Takes It! called before they decided to call themselves Antarctica Takes It!?

a) The Forestry Commission
b) Rhode Island
c) Penguin League

18. Caroline and Darren from The Blanche Hudson Weekend used to be in which band?

a) The Brooklyn Hate Massacre
b) The Manhattan Love Suicides
c) The Staten Island Apathy Wake

19. What’s the name of the tin church on the festival site where some of the bands play?

a) St Martin’s Church
b) St Saviours Church
c) St Peter’s Church

20. What’s the name of the pop quiz taking place on the Sunday afternoon in the workshop tent?

a) Who Wants Be A Millipede?
b) Never Mind the Pooh Sticks
c) A Question of Sportique
d) Kim Deal Or No Kim Deal
e) Don’t Try This Mexican Kids At Home
f) Wheel of Fortuna Pop!
g) Sean Price Is Right
h) They Think It’s Pullover
i) Fifteen-(nothing happened)-to-one

Tiebreaker: please come up with your own fun name for the pop quiz in question 20 – in the unlikely event that two or more people enter this quiz and score the same, we’ll pick the person with the best unique name as the winner!

Remember, entries to indietrackspress@gmail.com by 2pm on Thursday 22 July please.

Good luck!!

-------------------------------------------------------
Update - 2 August: This competition is now closed - thanks so much to everyone that entered! We received about a dozen entrants - okay, eight - all of whom scored an impressive 17/20 or above. Two people got 20/20 and the winning tiebreaker answer was 'Shooting Stars Of Track And Field'. Congratulations to the winner David Forbes - prizes are on their way!

The answers are available here: http://www.box.net/shared/a93k4d59m6

xxx

Tender Trap added, Love Is All cancel

We’re sad to say that Love Is All have withdrawn from the Indietracks festival this weekend for person reasons.

However, we’re pleased to announce that the fantastic Tender Trap (pictured above) have kindly agreed at the last minute to fill their slot on the indoor stage on the Saturday night.

Tender Trap are, of course, familiar faces at Indietracks having wowed our outdoor stage last year, and we’re really pleased to welcome them back. The band have just released their third album, ‘Dansette Dansette’, which includes the BBC 6music smash single ‘Do You Want A Boyfriend?’

Before Tender Trap, Rob, Amelia and John all played in Marine Research, and before that, Rob and Amelia played in Heavenly. And even before that, Amelia (and for a very short period also Rob) were in Talulah Gosh. So we’ll be in the company of some true indiepop legends!

Workshop interview #7: Indiepop Guess Who

One of this year’s most anticipated workshops is Baby Honey’s Indiepop Guess Who. So let’s meet the people responsible and find out how they’re going to get this to work!

Hi, please tell us a little bit about you?

Baby Honey is a monthly indiepop clubnight with a residency at Buffalo Bar in London. We put on gigs by the bands we adore and play records that make kids go silly on a crowded dance floor. We're putting on a warm-up gig on July 22nd – the Thursday before Indietracks with five bands! So pop by and prepare yourself for the weekend:

Please tell us about the workshop

One fine day an idea dawned on me to combine the two things I love: board games and indiepop. Indiepop Guess Who? will feature our favourite indiepop celebs from Amelia Fletcher to Jimmy McGee to Edwyn Collins to melodicas and ukuleles. Faces on the cards change but the rules stay the same. Although, my favourite way of playing is to base the guessing on knowledge of these characters (i.e. things they've done, personality, year of glory, etc.).

What are you looking forward to the most at Indietracks?

Colin Clary's laugh. It never gets old.

Do you have any camping tips?

Tents tend to look alike. Especially after a day of real ale. Proceed with caution.

Have you been to the festival before? Do you have any Indietracks stories/gossip you'd care to divulge?

Of course! It's the highlight of the year! So many great stories: singing Talulah Gosh songs with Amelia and her daughters, learning Spanish with La Casa Azul, chasing sheep on a drunken walk to the campsite, having a llama eat my hair, waking up in strangers' tents, and being dropped on my back whilst dancing by Jimmy McGee…..list goes on and on.

Bring on the sunshine!

Workshop interview #6: Something from nothing: making useful stuff from rubbish

Okay, we’ve just a couple more of the workshops to tell you about, including, very shortly, the answer to this year’s most asked question – “how is the Indiepop Guess Who workshop actually going to work?”

Today’s featured workshop is for those of you who have ever wanted to learn how to make a handy wallet from an old tetrapak carton, or whose kids are keen to get involved in some junk modelling!

Hi, please tell us a little bit about you?

I'm a community volunteer and activist in Glasgow, working with grassroots organisations to inspire change locally, and with a national environmental campaigning organisation to challenge convention on a larger scale. I fix bicycles, yarn bomb and recycle clothes into more clothes.

Please describe how the workshop will work?

I've got a mountain of tetrapaks that are crying out to be used at least one more time. Instructions will be supplied on how to transform a simple drinks carton into a handy wallet and I'll be on hand to answer any questions. There will be junk modeling for the child in you (or real-life children), and suggestions and examples of ways to transform more trash to treasure.

What are you looking forward to the most at Indietracks?

Oh, so much! If I had to pick just one band, though, it would be the fabulously talented Foxes! We lived in Oxford at the same time but I haven't seen them since they moved to Brighton.

Do you have any camping tips?

"Your hair looks great, you smell lovely, and bare-faced is the future." I try to remind myself that a dress and hiking boots is still heaps cuter than inappropriate footwear and soggy toes.

Have you been to the festival before? Do you have any Indietracks stories/gossip you'd care to divulge?

This will be my second Indietracks but I don't think I have anything tasty from 2009. Although, the sheer man-love Gordon McIntyre received from the back pews of the Tin Tabernacle will remain with me until my last days!

http://www.dudenotbird.co.uk/

Video exclusive from Red Shoe Diaries

It’s less than a week until the festival starts!

No doubt you’ve sorted out how you’re getting there, how you’re getting in, which bands and DJs you’re going to see, which workshops you’re going to take part in when you get there and where you’re going to sleep when the discos finish each evening.

In which case, congratulations, grab a cup of tea and settle down for another video made exclusively for the Indietracks blog!

Red Shoe Diaries formed in Nottingham in spring 2008. They write lyrical, catchy pop songs with occasional forays into dreamy grandeur and sounds that their five fragile hearts can’t contain. Influenced by The Magnetic Fields, Hefner, Belle and Sebastian, Tindersticks, Jens Lekman, The Smiths, The National and many more, don’t be surprised if they dance, and don’t be surprised if you do too!

They’ve made a teaser video especially for the blog, with extended clips from two unreleased songs. ‘Fossil Fuels’ and ‘Ice & Snow’. Enjoy!



Red Shoe Diaries - Indietracks 2010 Teaser from Red Shoe Diaries on Vimeo.

Indietracks interview #26: MJ Hibbett and the Validators

MJ Hibbett and The Validators are, of course, familiar faces at Indietracks. We think this might be the fifth time Mark has played at the festival in some form, and we’re delighted to welcome them back this year.

The band came to widespread online notice in 2000 with they releaesd the first ever internet single, Hey Hey 16K, an ode to the ZX Spectrum and other home microcomputers of the 1980s. Two million people downloaded the video in the first week. Since then they’ve performed live on Radio One, had a Record Of The Year in Rolling Stone, an Album Of The Day on 6Music, toured up and down the UK, featured in an Edinburgh Fringe Festival show, and are currently recording a Rock Opera!

Hi Mark, what music are you enjoying at the moment*?

I'm currently a little bit obsessed by the Allo Darlin' album, and have listened to not much else for the past fortnight. It's exciting and funny and packed with tunes and all round wonderful - every time I listen to it a new line pops out and makes me smile, or Look A Bit Sad, or think "Bloody hell, I wish I'd thought of that." When I've not got that on then it's mostly Standard Fare, so I'm very much looking forward to seeing both of them!

(*We should confess at this point that we did this interview back in March, and Mark may be listening to something else now.)

Tell us about an unusual place you've played a gig in the past?

Last year I played in a forest clearing at the back of an allotment in Brighton to an audience of troubled teenagers and their social workers. They threw sticks at me and I gave them a stern telling off! Other than that the past year has been the usual mix of train carriages, boats, bowling alleys, industrial museums and people's back gardens.

Do you have any exciting plans for the rest of the year?

Yes, - Dinosaur Planet! This is going to be our fifth album, a proper concept album about the return of the Dinosaurs from Space, the reason they disappeared, and what happens next. I cannot emphasis enough that this IS a PROPER concept album - it's not some namby pamby bunch of loosely connected songs about the same thing, and it's definitely not one of those bloody awful "music from a imaginary film" loads of nonsense, it's a proper story with a large cast of characters, talky bits between the songs, and a LOT of explosions. It's basically "War Of The Worlds" but with more Dinosaurs. We've just finished the basic tracks and are about to have a big session recording the dialogue, it's very very exciting indeed!

Do you have any surprises planned for the Indietracks festival?

We're planning on doing a song or two from "Dinosaur Planet", which will hopefully surprise the people who seem to think I'm making it up! This is going to be the only MJ Hibbett & The Validators gig for the whole of 2010, as half the band are working abroad until the end of the year, so we've been having a Heated Debate about the setlist since February, so whatever we end up doing will have been thoroughly vetted by all concerned!

Thanks Mark! You might remember that Mark also did an amazing ‘seeing double’ cover of Dreaming by fellow Indietracks stars Allo Darlin’ for the blog earlier this year. If you missed it, here it is again!

Workshop interview #5: Craft Guerrilla

On Sunday at 5pm at Indietracks you’re cordially invited to come along to ‘A Crafternoon with Craft Guerrilla’ in our workshop tent. It’s ‘a chance to sit and craft with fellow crafty people’, and Craft Guerrilla are designing a limited edition music related craft kit especially for Indietracks.

Hi, tell us a little bit about you?

The Craft Guerrilla is a group set up to work with independent Crafts People, Artists and Designers Makers of quality hand made goods. The aim of The Craft Guerrilla is to join forces with other creative individuals and set up craft events in vacant or unused venues, associate with "friendly" businesses, provide a community to link and cross promote independent designer makers, sister armies in other cities, share web traffic, and provide helpful information to other designer maker groups as well as individual designer makers. The Craft Guerrilla have been putting on various DIY Craft Events in London and beyond since 2008.

What’ll the workshop be like?

A chance to sit and craft with fellow crafty people. Craft Guerrilla will be selling a variety of ready-to-make craft kits for a small fee which will include everything you need to make one small craft project. We are also designing a limited edition music related craft kit especially for Indietracks 2010! Feel free to also bring your own projects to work on in a crafty environment. Our community craft kit (containing scissors, needles, glue and other crafty necessities) and our the expertise of our tutors will be at your disposal!

What are you looking forward to the most at Indietracks?

Topping the amount of fun that we had at last year's indietracks and taking more of an advantage of the late night indie discos!

Do you have any camping tips?

Put everything in plastic bags - it will rain. Super noodles can sustain your food needs for an entire weekend. Remember where you pitched your tent - or find a way of marking it out as yours in a field of identical ones.

Ah, it might not rain! Let's stay positive :-) Do you have any Indietracks stories/gossip you'd care to divulge?

At Indietracks 2009 two of the Craft Guerrilla's were very taken with Disaster Radio. After seeing him play at Indietracks they started chatting to him rather drunkenly about how much they'd enjoyed his set. He seemed pleased if a little wary of the drunk, enthusiastic people. On getting back to London we discovered that Disaster Radio was playing a show in Islington. So the same two new Disaster Radio enthusiasts went along to see the gig. Again, they drunkenly cornered him after the show, raving about how fantastic they thought he'd been and did he remember them from Indietracks etc etc? Poor Disaster Radio, he was polite but cautious, eyeing up the Craft Guerrilla's to see if they were potential stalkers. Seven months later while traveling in New Zealand, one of the stalker Craft Guerrilla's walked into a bookshop to see... yes, you've guessed it, Disaster Radio! She decided not to approach him though for fear of a restraining order.

Website links:
http://www.craftguerrilla.com/
http://eastlondoncraftguerrilla.blogspot.com/

Indietracks interview #25: Stars of Aviation

We’re very excited that Stars of Aviation will be playing at Indietracks this year. They're a pop group from Brighton and London. Numbering around seven, eight and sometimes nine, they play pop music with trumpet, guitars, drums, accordion, violin, keyboards and bassoon.

The band released their new single – their first release since 2006! - on 24th June. It's called By The Shore, and is available from the wonderful WeePOP! record label. It's the form of a limited run of 3" cdr complete with beautiful artwork, as well as on iTunes and other online shops.

Hi, tell us a little bit about yourselves

Jonny and Andy from the band met in a Russian class at Cambridge University and formed the band with Nathan and Tim. Other band members have joined over the years so now we have added trumpet, bassoon and accordion to our line-up.

We once had a keyboard/stylophone side project called Dungeness which only lasted for one gig. Fortunately we decided that was the wrong direction to go down. We've been playing for 10 years but only just recorded our first album, which we're hugely excited about (the first single's out this week).

Tell us about an unusual place you've played a gig in the past

We played on the back of a moving pickup truck once, in Cambridge. It was driving around on a circuit through the town. It was a very cold day and halfway through our set it started to snow! Our hands were freezing so we had to keep moving by playing our fastest songs, but at the time we only had about two fast songs so we just played them over and over again. Fortunately the pickup truck and noisy enough so nobody could hear what we were playing anyway. That was probably our best ever show.

What are you getting up to this year?

We're putting out a single this month on WeePOP! records. It's called "By the Shore" and it's our first record for 4 years. We're launching it on Thursday 24 June with a free gig at JAMM in Brixton hosted by How does it feel to be loved?

(Gah! Sorry, we did this interview a few weeks ago and are just posting it up now, which is obviously too late for the gig. It was a fantastic gig by all accounts, but it's okay, if you missed it you can see them at Indietracks! Sorry again...)

Who are you most looking forward to seeing at the Indietracks festival, and why?

Particularly the Just Joans, the Smittens, Allo Darling, Give It Ups, Ballboy and White Town. But Indietracks is really good for discovering new bands to love as well so we're looking forward to that! Then we'll have loads more to look forward to next time.

Thanks guys!

Arrange a car share to/from Indietracks!

For those of you who can't make it by bus or who are coming from further afield, there is a solution: www.gocarshare.com.

Car sharing will allow you to find people to share the journey with whilst sharing the cost of travel and hopefully making a difference to the environment.

Simply go onto the website and log on via facebook; if you are planning on driving, just post a car share request to Ripley, home of the Indietracks Festival. In the message box you can outline any specifics such as the contribution you need for petrol money, and then sit back and wait for someone to contact you about sharing a lift. If you are a passenger wanting a lift type in Ripley and see which drivers are going there. Simple!

Workshop interview #4: Sugar Paper's 20 Things To Make And Do

On Indietracks Saturday at 4pm, why not come along to Sugar Paper’s 20 Things to Make and Do workshop? The bi-annual craft zine peeps will show you 20 of their favourite things to make and do, including making a knitted headband, origami and much more! Kandy and Seleena have stopped by to tell us a bit more about it…

Please tell us a little bit about you?

We are a bi-annual craft zine, packed with things to make and do, from knitting to colouring in, baking to learning a dance move.

What can we expect from the workshop?

We are 20 things to make and do, so we bring you 20 of our favourite things to make and do, most can be done in short space of time, so you have something to take home (back to your tent!) with you, including knitted headbands, colouring in, quizzes, crochet, origami and more!

What are you looking forward to the most at Indietracks?

We like equations so:

steams trains + bands + crafts x hopefully sun=GOOD TIMES!!!

Do you have any camping tips?

Kandy: If you love cereal like me, freeze your milk before you go and keep it in your cool bag - it will defrost gradually over the weekend, without it turning into cheese!

Seleena : Having only camped in an RV, my only tip is to save water in your toilet by using the amenities in a nearby Walmart - may not be useful at Indietracks, but a tip nonetheless.

Have you been to the festival before? Do you have any Indietracks stories/gossip you'd care to divulge?

No, but we are hoping for some gossip to take home this year!

Website links:
http://sugarpapergang.blogspot.com/
http://sugarpaper.bigcartel.com/