“Primavera” (Used 8 times)

And we're back with more live music from this Summer's Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona. We've got six artists on deck for the second batch, including:

Sharon Van Etten :: Afrocubism :: Dirty Three :: The Field :: The Pop Group :: James Ferraro

Brooklyn's Sharon Van Etten is on quite the up and up with her soulful blend of folk and pop - we've got her full set from Primavera for your listening pleasure, and don't miss her performance at the WFMU studios this past February. Afrocubism packs an impressive amount of international talent onto one stage, featuring Eliades Ochoa of Buena Vista Social Club and master Kora player Toumani Diabate backed by the finest musicians Mali and Cuba have to offer. Australian instrumental rockers Dirty Three have graciously allowed us to post their full set, including the hillariously foul banter between songs that we couldn't play on the radio. The Field's Axel Willner has been a mainstay of the Kompakt roster since 2004 and we've got the last two numbers from his mind-expanding set this Summer. The Pop Group are still going strong after transforming post-punk in the late '70s, represented here by five selections from their genre-bending set. This batch finishes strong with a sunny performance from experimental man of mystery James Ferraro. 

If you missed the first batch of Primavera 2012 uploads you can find the write up here, and the whole collection here.

I've previously expressed my love for Sacramento, and have attempted to explain why so many great bands have risen from CA's capital, so I will restrain myself from repetition. I will say that it was amazing to stand in the midst of a crowd of a few thousand people at the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona last month to see a little Sacto fuzz pop band get some major love.

Ganglians are one of many bands who belong to the reverb-worship cult, but unlike many, they do not employ the effect to mask tonedeaf vocals. On the contrary, these fellahs actually harmonize.

Comparisons have already been made to the Beach Boys (for those vocal harmonies) and Animal Collective (layered euphoric pop with cheap keyboard effects). Ganglians manage to create honest, lo-fi psych-pop songs at an effortlessly loping and patient pace, a pace that can only be achieved by folks who are used to driving a lot over flat terrain on sunny days.

We'd like to apologize to drummer Alex's mom who missed WFMU's live broadcast of Ganglians' set due to some last minute schedule shuffling on our end (we found out that she missed it via WFMU's playlist comments and felt bad about it). Sorry Alex's mom! Listen to the whole set here.

I've previously expressed my love for Sacramento, and have attempted to explain why so many great bands have risen from CA's capital, so I will restrain myself from repetition. I will say that it was amazing to stand in the midst of a crowd of a few thousand people at the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona last month to see a little Sacto fuzz pop band get some major love.

Ganglians are one of many bands who belong to the reverb-worship cult, but unlike many, they do not employ the effect to mask tonedeaf vocals. On the contrary, these fellahs actually harmonize.

Comparisons have already been made to the Beach Boys (for those vocal harmonies) and Animal Collective (layered euphoric pop with cheap keyboard effects). Ganglians manage to create honest, lo-fi psych-pop songs at an effortlessly loping and patient pace, a pace that can only be achieved by folks who are used to driving a lot over flat terrain on sunny days.

We'd like to apologize to drummer Alex's mom who missed WFMU's live broadcast of Ganglians' set due to some last minute schedule shuffling on our end (we found out that she missed it via WFMU's playlist comments and felt bad about it). Sorry Alex's mom! Listen to the whole set here.

WFMU recently returned from Barcelona's annual Primavera Sound Festival with a briefcase full of blues, beats, rocks, and yes, punky reggae.  While it was a joy to share so much of this very 'FMU-friendly festival over the airwaves, we were sadly forbidden by federal language restrictions from airing much of the amazing set by the class of '76 all-stars, The Slits.  Happily, words like "poom poom" still manage to travel unmolested in blogolandia, so it is here that we thrill to share their entire set with you, full blessing of the band in tow.

The Slits were formed in 1976 by mainstay Ari Up and future Raincoat Palmolive.  Guitarist Viv Albertine and bassist Tessa Pollitt joined shortly after; soon enough, they were on the road with The Clash and gaining the attention of John Peel, but it wasn't until 1979 that their first record was released.  Cut, produced by Dennis Bovell, introduced the long-lasting prominence of reggae to the Slits mix.  The trio of Ari, Tessa and Viv remained more or less intact until 1982, when the band called it a day.

In 2006, Ari and Tessa reformed the band.  The current lineup includes German drummer Anna Schulte, American singer Michelle Hill, and guitarist Hollie Cook (daughter of Sex Pistol Paul, as a matter of fact).  By 2009, they'd released a new album, the far more dub-heavy Trapped Animal, on Narnack Records, who are also curating a label portal here on the FMA.

The Slits' set at Primavera Sound was a freewheeling and crowdpleasing mix of old faves like "Typical Girls" and "Shoplifting" and new tracks like "Babylon" and "Lazy Slam", plus some nuggets from Ari Up's solo career.  Ari's charisma, onstage costume changes, audience come-ons and dreadlocks-as-dance-partner defined the vibe of their enchanting Saturday evening set.

setlist: