The Exciting Scent of Summer and Old Railways

Pop Miwsig's indiepop staff on the upcoming Indietracks festival on the Derbyshire steam railway

Summer has arrived with its usual mixed party bag, dishing out promises of sunshine and happiness, its soft sadness lurking with intent all the while in the shadows of your friends. I think there’s something in that sadness that can define us; some people choose to ignore it, watching 13 hours of trash TV so they have no real emotion left in them. But there’s an energy in it, a poetic beauty that in the right hands can make tears flow but fill your heart with hope and joy at the same time.

No one comes close to Gordon McIntyre when it comes to capturing small subtle sadness within everyday life. Last year at Indietracks he brought lumps to throats (including probably the hardest man in the festival, the huge Scottish guy at the front who shouted “Fuck God and Fuck the old firm!”) with a solo set in the old church. His songs have a simplicity that captures feelings and emotions in their real light, and this year he returns with his full band Ballboy. For this alone Indietracks is worth the ticket price.

Eddie Argos’s (Art Brut) ‘Everybody Was in the French Resistance...Now’ kick things off on the Friday this year. Their album ‘Fixing the Charts, Volume One’ is a response to Pop songs past, answers some of the questions posed, and sticks a finger up to Martha Reeves to fight Jimmy Mack’s corner. Their ‘He’s a Rebel’; with its 60s girl group backing vocals behind Argos’s laid-back singing voice, is fantastic, sharply-defined outsider-Pop to die for.

Various tracks from Love is All’s ‘Two Thousand and Ten Injuries’ have been filling my mix CDs since I realized it was out, stomping bass beats, sharp keyboard lines, crazy saxophone and guitar riffs bouncing off the walls, Love is All are like a deranged circus on fire with all kinds of emotions being spat out through the hole in the roof.

Other highlights include The Wave Pictures’ Dave Tattersall, who is stepping into the solo shoes that McIntyre filled last year with a set in the church, playing songs surreal and raw, and no doubt some of the best guitar you’ll see.

The Orchids and Sarandon are bands that Alistair Fitchett over at Tangents has given a nod and a wink towards at one time or another. The former are deserved indie-pop legends, while Sarandon (in the more contrary spirit of the festival that runs alongside the prevalent twee) have an album called Kill Twee Pop, a title which matches a slogan I have on a badge that I’ve been sporting since the emergence of twee. Shrag are another band I’ve been directed towards but haven’t pursued yet, the stunning ‘Forty Five 45s’ with its fuzzy guitar has probably been on more of my mix CDs than any other song.

Another highlight will be The Just Joans. Jimmy McGee once told me “Go and see Just Joans, they’re like fucking Belle and Sebastian with balls”. They return to the stage this year after some top notch dancing at the station discos last year and a great set in the church the year before, with clever, great Pop songs varying from tear-stained stories of growing up and loosing touch with friends to one night stands where you can’t remember the girl’s name. The Loves also return this year with their beatific sixties influenced sound.

All this, with the glorious history of Pop music blaring from disco marquees all night through and joining the ghosts of railway past to dance into the night, fuelled by real ales on trains and maybe an Ivor Cutler disco at the campsite for those that know. See you there.

© 2010 Scott Jones

Picture by Darren Hayman

© Miwsig