Primavera Sound 2018 in brief, day 1

The Primavera Sound Festival (PS) 2018 is almost over! So, here we are, pretty exhausted (again, the not very recommendable combination of daily work and Festival), but ready to being with the first round of our traditional quick chronicles of our experiences there. What follows is our take of Thursday 31st, with a note on Wednesday's fail. Let's go!

The Good

The War on Drugs: Yeah, the millennial era might be all about synths, danceable (or kind of) grooves and that sort of shallow urban pop-indietronica that fits so-well with glasses & clothes advertisements, but dammit if the best gig of the day wasn't full of guitar riffs & solos, plus the urgency and the mystery offered by the most iconic and traditional instrument of rock history. Adam Granduciel and Co. just nailed it. Terrific band, terrific tunes.

The War on Drugs, lost in the dream of rock. Photo: Bloodbuzzed

The infinite, powerful worlds of Laetitia Tamko
Photo: Bloodbuzzed

Two more female artists to follow closely: On a pretty "empty" day (to a poignant level compared with previous years, something that has been the sad trademark of this PS' edition, with the exception of Saturday) the gigs of Vagabon and Amaya Laucirica were very welcomed. Keep an eye on them...

The Bad

(Missing) Spiritualized: Is it that hard to make some sort of announcement or use the Festival App properly to let the people know how are the tickets needed for the Auditori selling? The organization could easily avoid extremely long queues and the understandable anger from concertgoers. We were the unlucky ones that missed grabbing a couple for a matter of minutes, so pretty frustrating to wasteone hour and half waiting for nothing...
Not made for this times: We'll try to keep the rant short and try not to repeat ourselves that much. The millennial age is just killing music. It should be about the songs, the artists that make it and the feelings these tunes bring to you, not about your looks (by the way, Mango?), your selfies, your constant, irrelevant & discourteous chatting, or the amount of beers you can drink... Raise your head and look at the stage, not to your smartphone. It's MUCH MUCH more interesting...

The Queen
The Twilight Sad: In terms of sounding, the Scotts show couldn't compete with The War on Drugs's one. Unfortunately a recurring trend within the Festivals and gigs, bass (and/or rhtym section) are too heavy in the mix burying vocals for the sake of power, that happened with The Twilight Sad. But we were compensated, extraordinarily, with something even more important and meaningful: real, intense, touching, unadulterated emotion. Coming straight from the heart and the boundaries that not even the death can take away. Humans talented and passionated enough to be in front to of a stage, and with the humanity, the guts and kindness to open their hearts out in front of us to pay tribute to a lost beloved pal. Goosebumps and tears. James, we're sure you did your friend proud. Thank you.

The Twilight Sad, Keeping Ourselves Warm. Photo: Bloodbuzzed

Stay tuned, the second chronicle of the PS18, covering Friday 1st, is about to come!

The Bloodbuzzed Jukebox Week 192 (Primavera Sound Festival Special)

Today we have a special Jukebox for you, a miscellaneous playlist devoted to the Primavera Sound Festival that, beginning (for us) next Wednesday, will keep the whole week pretty busy enjoying awesome groups live! Many bands and artists to see, so we thought it might we worth to warm-up with some tunes from the acts that look more appealing for us, plus "some mandatory" gigs to attend like Slowdive, The Twilight Sad, The National or Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. We'll keep you posted and, as usual, all these songs are also available at our Soundcloud, so please join us! And see you at Forum!

Direct links to 2018 Jukebox playlists

Week 171  Week 172  Week 173  Week 174  Week 175 Week 176  Week 177  Week 178 
Week 179  Week 180  Week 181  Week 182  Week 183 Week 184  Week 185  Week 186
Week 187  Week 188  Week 189  Week 190  Week 191

Primavera Sound 2018: my draft schedule

Here comes one of our favourite Blog traditions! The timetables of the Primavera Sound Festival 2018 have been disclosed, so it's time to organize our, temptative, very early, work in progress, draft, personal schedule. Unfortunately, at first look (sure some additional bands will be added) it is clear this is the less exciting edition for us, with not too much we are really eager to see, plus some of the (usual) overlaps reducing the options even more. But anyway, while we do some 'research' to complete the routes (one of the most attractive things of Festivals) and keep an eye on the final surprises (that bigger and open hidden stage) here's what our PS 2018 looks like right now. Suggestions are kindly accepted!

Wednesday,  May 30th, Parc del Fòrum
19:00 Javiera Mena (Primavera with Apple Music)
20:00 Spiritualized with orchestra and choir (Auditori RockDelux)
20:55 Wolf Parade (Primavera with Apple Music)
22:15 Belle and Sebastian (Primavera with Apple Music)

Very temptative day, as the only mandatory gig would be Spiritualized. It still hurts that Belle and Sebastian has lost the aforementioned compulsory condition. But it's been a while now...

Thursday, May 31st, Parc del Fòrum
17:40 Vagabon (Primavera with Apple Music)
19:15 The Twilight Sad (Pitchfork)
19:40 Warpaint (Seat)
20:50 The War on Drugs (Mango)
23:00 Amaya Laucirica (Night Pro)
23:35 Fever Ray (Primavera with Apple Music)
23:40 Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (Mango)
Ok day with not a lot of must-see acts (The War on Drugs and Vagabon) but the additions of The Twilight Sad (although it clashes with Warpaint, first let down the Festival) and recently discovered Amaya Laucirica has made the day worthy. We end pretty early, which it seems is going to be some kind of a trademark of this PS' edition for us...

Friday, June 1st, Parc del Fòrum
16:50 Fontaines D.C. (Day Pro)
17:40 Waxahatchee (Primavera with Apple Music)
19:10 The Breeders (Mango)
20:20 Father John Misty (Seat)
21:30 The National (Mango)
23:30 Charlotte Gainsbourg (Primavera with Apple Music)
00:40 Cigarettes After Sex (Ray-Ban)
03:20 Omni (Adidas Originals)
The most promising day for us, with up to seven acts we are really willing to see, gets seriously jagged because Fontaines D.C. (soon to be featured at the Discoverer series) is only playing at Day Pro (meaning the city centre) and we don't have the superpower of ubiquity yet, and the gap until Omni's gig looks gigantic... Still, from Waxahatchee to Ms. Gainsbourg there's a pretty fine afternoon-evening awaiting us.

Saturday, June 2nd, Parc del Fòrum
17:00 Núria Graham (Ray- Ban)
18:55 Car Seat HeadRest (Mango)
20:10 Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever (Adidas Originals)
21:30 Slowdive (Primavera with Apple Music)
22:45 Jay Som (Pitchfork)
23:50 Arctic Monkeys (Mango)
And the last big day is kind of dubious. Excited to see Rolling Blackouts and Slowdive (although we saw them in March in a much smaller venue, so it's hard that a Festival show could beat that experience), and there are some nice options to warm-up and await until the Monkeys gig ends PS 2018 for us... but is that all?

Sunday, June 3rd, 
Tigercats, Waxahatchee and Jay Som could be enough reasons to consider a return to Sunday's, more so if that allows us to making some schedule switches. We'll see...

Stay tuned for further developments!!

Bloodbuzzed's Agenda of Concerts: Winter-Spring

As we did on Fall 2013, we have prepared a new Blog's agenda of concerts, listing the gigs and festivals that we are willing to attend until next May. You can imagine how anxious we are to see all these awesome bands and tell you all about it. Obviously, this isn't a closed agenda. On the contrary, it's an ongoing calendar, so the idea is that the marked dates will increase. Any proposal to expand it will be welcomed. Have a look (and hopefull, see you there)!

The Bloodbuzzed Jukebox 28

This isn't your average TOP TEN playlist, because some of the songs featured here are really special tunes. We insist on bringing you the new music of our beloved Arts & Leisure, but there's more than this. We're referring, of course, to the new, spectacular song of Sleater-Kinney (comeback of the decade?). And we have, literally, fallen in love with many of the songs listed below, in particular with Line & Circle. What a great discovery. Hope you enjoy the playlist as much as us. As always, it's all at our Blog's soundcloud, so please Join Us!

Direct links to the previous Jukebox weeks
Week 1      Week 8        Week 15     Week 22  
Week 2      Week 9        Week 16     Week 23 
Week 3      Week 10      Week 17     Week 24
Week 4      Week 11      Week 18     Week 25
Week 5      Week 12      Week 19     Week 26 
Week 6      Week 13      Week 20     Week 27 
Week 7      Week 14       Week 21

Welcome to the Jukebox!

The Bloodbuzzed Jukebox 23

In this long weekend, at least for some of us, we don't miss the chance to present you our weekly TOP TEN playlist with the songs we have been enjoying the most lately. Perhaps one of the most eclectic selections, including the 60' influenced songs of Go Metric USA, all the bliss rock of Night School, the crafted songs of TOPS, the sweet, fun & playful rock of The School, or the fuzzed guitars of The Twilight Sad. So, what are you waiting for? There are all at our  Blog's soundcloud, so please Join Us and enjoy it!


Direct links to the previous Jukebox weeks
Week 1      Week 8        Week 15     Week 22
Week 2      Week 9        Week 16
Week 3      Week 10      Week 17 
Week 4      Week 11      Week 18  
Week 5      Week 12      Week 19 
Week 6      Week 13      Week 20
Week 7      Week 14      Week 21

Welcome to the Jukebox!