The Rumour Said Fire- And indeed, the rumours did fire. Imagine This Is Ivy League met Simon and Garfunkel  and Fleet Foxes on a blissful, sunshine filled afternoon filled with laughter and beer, then you’re almost there.  With harmonies to fill your day with sunshine and your heart with joy, surely they’re goping to make it big this year?

The Floor Is Made of Lava-  All Juice, No Fruit? Perhaps, but this lovable dance-rock group really are hard to pin down. Attempt to do it for yourselves later today…

Turboweekend- Late edition tothe programme, and can only be described as a Danish LCD Soundsystem or Klaxons, bu much, much better….

So go!

If you’re wondering what we got up to last night, you’ll have to wait and see. That said, our non-Danish speaker now knows all of the words to Nephew’s biglingual “En Wannabe Darth Vader”, so we’ve got a lot of things to tell you…

Teddybears- Can’t decide what kind of music to listen to? See Teddybears, as they can’t decide which style to play. Fantastic for those indecisive moments.

Casiokids- If only for the catchy, sugar sweet song about the lost dog that everyone seems to be playing this year at the festival. Can’t understand Norwegian? Don’t worry. Just replace the words with random ones of your choice.

Nisnnenmondai- Playing post-punk noisy fun music that has been cited as an influence by many recent breakthrough band, Nissenmondai are the choice for you if you’re a muso who can’t resist the tempatation that Melt Banana or Shonen Knife placed in your way in the 90s…

Electrojuice – blissful blissful hypnotic electronic. Perfect for that festival vibe when guitars just aren’t what you’re feeling. Need we say more?

Serena Maneesh- Mmmmm.

RebekkaMaria- The queen of our hearts, as well as being Queen of, according to her album, France.

Valient Thorr- you might not think this was our bag, but it was. For ten minutes we were blissfully in awe of some guys with no shirt, banging their long hair in time to good old fashioned rock. How they managed to keep this up for 250 gigs a year, we have no clue. Proof, really, that good ol’ fashioned hair rock doesn;t always have to induce fear…

Wild Beasts- Hotly tipped. Check. Falsetto overstretched to scary proportions. Check. Funky bassline. Check. But otherwise… No. No. No. Popgeist didn’t like at all, and had to leave after a song.

Unfortunately, Monday’s trip to see Susanne Sundfør was ruined by the heatstroke, but, from what we saw, we can say that the hype that’s been surrounding her since her by:Larm performance in  2007 is justified. She’s the kind of singer that can really only be described in terms of cliches that were world-weary by the time they were used to describe Bjork twenty-something years ago. Magical, dark, cinematic…you get the idea.  She’s been described as creating music of the type that ” Tori Amos, Bjork and Nick Cave would certainly approve of”

Tuesday night (which was a bit cooler) led to a visit to see the very -hotly tipped My Evil Twin who’ve just released their danish debut. Led by the beautiful Cecilie Enevold Nielsen, and also featuring members of Danish favourites Diefenbach and EPO-555, live My Evil Twin are like mid-90s Scottish tuneful-girl, shouty man band Prolapse, but without the shouty bloke, after she (the girl from Prolapse, I can’t remember her name right now) had been eating Parma Violets and Refreshers in a Synth shop. In short, it was the most fabulously delicious show for someone who’d  spent two days on their back being violently sick to see.

Between seeing bands and getting severe heatstroke we’ll be attempting to tell you about the hottest new stuff we have seen  at the festival, and would like to know what you think we should see. Any suggestions?

P.S. Any suggestion that we will be going to see Motorhead and Alice in Chains is greatly exaggerated. We only ended up watching Judas Priest’s festival of the bizarre in 2008 because we got lost…honest.

The Good Natured’s closest comparison is probably Bat For Lashes, although with a dancier edge which is brought out fully on forthcoming single ‘Your Body Is A Machine’ by a cast of remixers including Aspirins For My Children, Radioproof and Zebra & Snake. Still only 18 and a student at Westminster Uni, cool credentials are firmly in place: her next release is through Kitsune, and she’s already been Track of the Day on Popjustice, The Guardian and Q.

Here’s a pretty brilliant Portmanteau mix of Your Body Is A Machine:

The Good Natured – Your Body Is A Machine (Portmanteau remix)

Considering their reputation as the unnatural link between glam rock (something that is perhaps a little more evident in their image than their music) and punk, the primal rock’n'roll in The Dolls’ ‘Looking For a Kiss’ is perhaps surprising. Even more surprising is the glimpse in to the teenage mind of Morrissey we get through the knowledge that the floppy-haired godfather of gloom was president of the UK-faction of the Dolls fanclub. However, the immediacy of the appeal of this rag-tag bunch of rebels is irrefutable. There is something strangely charming about the shlock-rock of this track, with rowdy, raspy vox and sleazy guitars that perfectly suit the raunchy, if somewhat innocent, premise of the adolescent lyrics. Parents would probably prefer their daughters bringing home a member of the Dolls than one of the Twisted Sister clan but then again, the New York Dolls had more to them than just than long hair and excessive eyeliner.

I recently read that Andrew Bird is best described as Jeff Buckley if he were a music geek. This is perhaps not too far off the mark – indeed part of the outset of ‘Armchairs’ is reminiscent of Buckley’s (definitive) version of ‘Hallelujah’. However, Bird is wholly distinctive, and perhaps almost unique, especially with his multi-instrumentalism and amazing whistling ability(!!) As it is with so many of his tracks, it is easy for the listener to imagine Mr. Bird dashing around the recording studio trying to play all of the (often copious) instruments on each track, in this case, the whiny, atmospheric strings, deeply emotive piano, accordion and delicate guitar. His voice, uttering oft obscure lyrics, floats beautifully above, reaching new heights at the thumpingly theatrical chorus. As the title track of Bird’s last album ‘Armchair Apocrypha’, ‘Armchairs’ is a powerful signal of intent from this very rare talent.

The Notes are riding the zeitgeist, in terms of them making proper old school indie. Lump them in with Frankie And The Heartstrings and The Drums if you have to.

Pick of the bunch of the tracks up on their MySpace is Dancing Shoes.

Low Jesus And Mary Chain-esque bass ? Check.

Vocals recorded so far back in the mix you can’t make out the words? Check.

Jangly guitars evoking Johnny Marr in the Smiths ? Check.

Amateur in every sense of the word ? Love it.

The band’s first London date is on 31 May at the Old Blue Last. Be there.

Dancing Shoes by The Notes

Cult Of The Hopeless by The Notes

Bourgeois by The Notes

In fact, there must be something in the water within the vicinity of Bushey and outer London. The debut single from Kinema is being put out on the new label by Slutty Fringe, based out of Harrow. I swear these cats are onto something. There’s something going on out there on the outskirts of London, I’m telling you. Throw in the Trinity Bar in Harrow, and The Wireless in Watford and all of a sudden you’ve got the makings of a scene.

Kinema are a three piece slick pop outfit from Brighton. There have been a fair few comparisons to Phoenix but there’s also a lot of Zoot Woman circa Living In A Magazine elment in there too. The sound is very studied towards shiny eighties pop but when it sounds this fresh no one is complaining. Chuck in Brighton neighbours, and avid DFA fans, The Woo!worths and all of a sudden you’ve got the makings of another scene. Fresh mode.

Kinema’s debut EP is available to preorder here.

Circles by Kinema

You get something very brilliant obviously, which in this case is Florrie’s ‘Call 911′:

Florrie – Call 911 (Fred Falke remix)

Florrie is on course to be the poshest pop star since our beloved Sophie Ellis-Bextor, as her YouTube videos show her to have been born with an entire 44-piece silver cutlery set in her mouth, but that just makes us love her all the more. The videos also show her roaming around the grounds of the Xenomania house, which sparks feelings of intense jealousy around Popgeist parts.

Fred Falke, as we may have mentioned before, is a genius. Why he’s not yet produced a full album for anyone is beyond us, but it will be a special day when he does. Until then, here’s probably his finest work to date – a reworking of The Gossip’s ‘Heavy Cross’:

The Gossip – Heavy Cross (Fred Falke remix)

gossip – heavy cross