Mychemicaltoilet talks music blogs & festivals
June 11th, 2009
It’s time to get your wellies on and dust off your two man tent – it’s festival season!
Over the coming weeks we are featuring some of the best bloggers on the planet to tune you in to the Summer festival season vibe.
So ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mychemicaltoilet aka Stuart, one of the UK’s top music bloggers, who is here share with us his Top 5 music blogs, Top 5 European festivals worth checking out and the Best/Worst festival moments he has endured in the name of blogging.
Mychemicaltoilet Top 5 Music Blogs
A music blog before music blogs really existed, PJ is the site for pop fans who either remember the halcyon days of Smash Hits, or wish they could. It is also the funniest patch of the internet, and living proof that you can be passionate about music without taking it too seriously.
Tape Recorder is quite literally all about the music – there aren’t many words to get in the way of the fresh new tracks, remixes and videos it posts. Sometimes you can’t be bothered with reading words, you know?
Hipster Runoff is written by a character called “Carles” who/may not be a front for an American writer called Tao Lin. With liberal use of ‘inverted apostrophes’ and txt-speak, plus an ironic, lazer-guided recognition of the dynamics behind indie hipsterism, HRO is a gaudy yet addictive pleasure for those weary of the bewildering number of would-be cutting-edge MP3 blogs out there.
Like Popjustice, No Rock is now a veteran of the online landscape, and it is as entertaining as ever. It casts a sardonic eye over the music/celebrity world, with particular emphasis on ill-informed press coverage. Think of it as the music blog version of Have I Got News For You?
Discodust is a terrific blog to visit if you’re after up-and-coming house, nu-disco and electro stuff. You might not have heard of many of the acts it covers, but if you listen to the accompanying MP3s you’ll soon find yourself bookmarking it for regular visits.
Mychemicaltoilet 5 European Festivals To Check Out
Festivals on the continent might be tougher to get to, but you have a better chance of decent weather, an equally plentiful number of acts, and – most importantly – they’re often better value for money than UK events.
Plus, if you make them part of your summer holiday you can have longer to recover from your excesses…
Sziget Festival, Budapest, Hungary
The bill for 2009 includes Bloc Party, Faith No More, Klaxons, Lily Allen, Manic Street Preachers Primal Scream and The Prodigy, and if you’re worried about catching them all the good news is the festival lasts for SEVEN days! The lastminute.com price includes return flight, coach transfers, camping and festival ticket.
Melt Festival, Ferropolis, Germany
If a well-organised event is what you’re after, enduring stereotypes suggest you’d be best off checking out a German festival. Melt has a great line-up this year, with Deadmau5, Simian Mobile Disco, La Roux, The Virgins, Animal Collective, Fever Ray and Oasis all in attendance. Ticket prices on lastminute.com start from £61.08.
Exit Festival, Novi Sad, Serbia
Exit is set within the grounds of a 17th century fortress and is noted for its great weather and cheap booze – and 2009’s line-up isn’t too shabby either: Arctic Monkeys, Korn, Moby, Kraftwerk and Manic Street Preachers all feature.
Festival Internacional de Benicassim, Spain
Sponsored by Heineken, FIB is a veteran of the European festival scene and shows no sign of slowing down with age. This year you’ll be able to catch Oasis, Mystery Jets, Kings Of Leon, Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, The Horrors and Elbow, among many others.
B’estfest, Bucharest, Romania
It’s only a couple of years old, but B’estfest is putting on an eclectic bill in 2009 which should see it competing healthily with more established events. Acts playing this year include Orbital, Moby, Motorhead, The Ting Tings, Franz Ferdinand, The Charlatans and The Killers.
Thanks Stu, I can feel the mud under my feet right now and the rain sun on my face.
Tell us about your ‘Best Festival Moment’
“Last year I went to V Festival for the first time, which gave me my long-awaited first opportunity to experience The Prodigy live. Despite closing the day at a relatively early hour, it was a spectacular show with a crowd which was without exception “bang up for it”. I came away bruised, bewildered and very happy.”
- Yep, I’ve seen the Prodigy at V, brilliant!
Tell us about your ‘Worst Festival Moment’
“Having an inebriated stranger crash into your tent in the wee hours – when you’re in a pretty “fragile” state – is one of life’s most unpleasant wake-up calls, especially if they happen to pour flat cider over you in the process.”
- Hmmm, are you sure it was flat cider Stu – it sounds like something else to me?
Now, where did I put my wellies….
June 12th, 2009
My Chemical Toilet elsewhere | My Chemical Toilet says...[...] “one of the UK’s top music bloggers” *splutter*, asked me some questions about music blogs and festivals for their newly launched blog. I answered [...]