What with this year's Camden Crawl now a mere month away and daydreams progressively recurring to all things festivals, another summer of lists awaits. In anticipation of this year's NW1-based bank holiday slog, we've gone and compiled our first checklist of many, featuring a handful of acts that you really ought to be sweating it out to come Saturday April 30th and Sunday May 1st. Gracing anywhere and everywhere from the infernal Underworld to the substantially more divine Roundhouse Dots & Dashes' Camden Crawl 2011 recommendations are thus.
Big Deal
Who: Big Deal are Kacey Underwood and Alice Costelloe, a part-American/part-British entirely brilliant fuzzball of bare boned emotion, and are all set to release the slacker anthemia of Talk on the perpetually effervescent Moshi Moshi April 4th. When: Saturday Big Deal - Talk by moshi moshi music
CREEP
Who: Remember a time when Brooklyn was Brooklyn and Williamsburg was barely known outside of the borough parameters? And remember this time around twelve months ago when The xx were entirely ubiquitous, enamouring precisely everyone whilst enigmatic identities governed the blogosphere? Lauren Flax and Lauren Dillard aka CREEP pretty much tick all the aforementioned boxes, whilst not sounding a day older than yesterday. Days, featuring the androgynous soothe of Romy Madley Croft disorientatingly conjoins rambunctious synth howls with twinkling glints of UK garage, and may well prove the highlight of this particular weekend in question. When: Saturday Days by CREEP
Eagulls
Who: Whoever it was that pronounced the Leeds scene dead, deceased, disintegrated ought to go cold calling round Eagulls' Council Flat Blues, a record so vitriolic you practically feel as though you need a flannel after exposure to wipe all the saliva off the look of enlightened desperation plastered all over your face. When: Saturday Council Flat Blues - Eagulls by Radar Maker
Sarabeth Tucek
Who: Like a somewhat more stable Cat Power, Sarabeth Tucek has previously provided crackled, spine-tingling backing vox for Bill Callahan besides recording a majestic eponymous debut LP, released way back in 2007. Threatening to waltz out from the shadows with her deadpan sophomore record Get Well Soon her Camden Crawl appearance ought to peg the tempo back an inch or two, providing acoustic respite for the weary. When: Saturday Sarabeth Tucek - Get Well Soon by VonPip
Those Dancing Days
Who: Once all too girlish, now rather more churlish Swedish quintet fresh from superlative sophomore LP Daydreams & Nightmares, Those Dancing Days ought to bring the raucous in a manner as controlled and often restrained as fathomable, mediated through mild distortion. When: Saturday Those Dancing Days - Fuckarias by UniversalMusicSweden
The Lemonheads
Who: Evan Dando! The Lemonheads! He gets NME via Airmail, he drinks Diet Coke, he gets his records free and he's got six different flannel shirts. Any boy that's ever ridden atop a surf/skateboard at sunset with the wind ruffling shoulder-length locks would do nigh on anything to be him, some women presumably would do anything to be with him. Ben Lee seemingly would too. He'll be here, he'll quite probably be under the influence, and if the cards are played/fumbled right, he may draw heavily from the seminal It's A Shame About Ray, one of the greatest records ever spewed from the stars and stripes. When: Sunday The Lemonheads - It's a Shame About Ray (live in Austin) by rslblog.com
Team Ghost
Who: Having heavily contributed to the first, and questionably greatest LPs by celestial French outfit M83, Nicolas Fromageau returns under the guise of Team Ghost with multi-instrumentalist Christophe Guérin in tow. Conjuring disdainful soundscapes awash with melancholia there's to be two opportunities to wallow away with High Hopes, as the duo play both dates of this year's Camden Crawl. When: Saturday & Sunday. Team Ghost - High Hopes by Music Week
Star Slinger
Who: Were Gold Panda reared on funk, soul and serotonin synths in place of Orientalia, he may sound a little more akin to Darren Williams aka Star Slinger. Aiming high, his Bedroom Joints catapult all within earshot to the upper echelons of elation. Catch him bring some deep pizazz to the Jazz Café or equivalent venue. When: Sunday Star Slinger - Casanova's Jump Off by Star Slinger
For more info on this year's Camden Crawl, you'll want to click here for the official site, and here for tickets.
