Glastonbury 2022

Just listening to some of the BBC Glastonbury coverage, and thought I write a few lines on it.

Friday: I have to look around a bit to find something good. Much music there is quite cliched, caters to a safe segment of the audience, and doesn't interest me much. Oh, much "indie rock" is annoyingly predictable. I thought the same thing already 10 years ago and it hasn't changed. I've kind of lost my understanding why anyone could like it, say the more lazy version of it. The majority version, but I won't mention names. As Indie rock isn't really a very descriptive genre label, all kinds of stuff gets this stamp, and some of it is actually cool. Rarely, and accidentally. If I were one of these bands, I would HATE if somebody would call my music indie rock. That's even worse than prog.  Why some think that this label sells is totally beyond me.

Anyway, there is good stuff. Very charming and fun set by new band Wet Leg, probably also called indie rock by some, but anyway, they are fresh and original. That the two front ladies apparently can't believe this is really happening to them and the way it makes them beam surely helps.

St. Vincent, well, much of her stuff doesn't really get me, but I have to pay my respect to the lady. There are just so many different elements brought together in her music, delivered with competence and confidence. Maybe not my personal favourite but worthwhile stuff for sure.

Foals headline the Other Stage, and I knew that I'd think again what I always think... they are just head and shoulders above pretty much all the others. Very tight and sharp, glorious sound, they know how to play a crowd, and they know how to let the music flow. They also know how to unleash an impressive post rock crescendo that swallows everything around it. Some math rock elements survived from their beginnings as well. Even though their new album is kind of poppish these days. I'm not yet particularly keen on the studio versions of their new tracks, but on stage they are still the force.

On Saturday I heard Fela's son Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, although they had probably already been on on Friday. Great free flowing afrobeat this. Rhythm, rhythm, rhythm. His father would be proud.

The maybe only band on progarchive to play Glastonbury this year are Black Midi. Not sure how many in the audience get their stuff shortly after lunchtime, for me for sure this is a highlight, overall rather an outlier. Intellectual difficult music is hard to find here.  

In between I checked out some more African, dance electronic, and indie psych stuff but not much luck. I can see why Billie Eilish is a star, some good songwriting and attitude there, but live I can't make much sense about somebody jumping around pretty much alone on a huge stage. She even had two musicians there, but they were embarassingly tucked into corners so that Billie had 95% of the stage. Not my cup of tea as a way to present music. Then the dance/electronica duos jumping up and down behind their keyboard walls... dunno... those I heard were too sugary for my taste anyway.  (Kendrick Lamar at least comes with a sizeable group of dancers. Musicians nowhere to be seen though. I want to see musicians making music in a live show!!)

We're on Sunday already with headliner Paul McCartney, just turned 80. Hard to believe but the guy still has it. I mean his voice has suffered, and those who want impeccable vocal performances will not enjoy this, but he's better than Ian Anderson for sure and it is just so endearing to see him Helter Skelter with full energy at his age. He just has so much fun with his music. Seems some criticised that he insisted to put quite a number of songs in  his setlist that are not Beatles hits, but I like that he's keen on avoiding 100% nostalgia. Not sure by the way how famous the Band On The Run album is... probably pretty famous... anyway, all he plays from it is marvellous. And there's enough of that anyway, Hey Jude, Blackbird, Let It Be, he even plays Harrison's Something on a Ukulele that he says George has given him. And some Glastonbury specials like Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen turning up to play with him. Oh, and the duet with the isolated voice of John Lennon from the Get Back film, which leaves good old Macca very moved. At the end, even though quite a bit of his stuff is not my taste, a great set to watch.

And then one proper discovery that might interest some here. Squid did their first album in 2021 and they are what I have been waiting for: The seriously good stuff that I hadn't known before. Think post punk aesthetic with fun percussion and electronics thrown in, fast and sharp and cheeky. They cite Neu! and This Heat as influences, now this should make you curious, and rightly so! Despite the influences, they do their own thing, and I love it. 

Suzanne Vega was also in the Lineup, but I can't find her set on BBC, shame! Instead, I just discovered that Lianne La Havas is there, she's great (even though I have only seen 5 minutes of her set yet), no surprise there.

Gotta listen to their album then. I wonder where you see the black midi connection though. Wet Leg are edgy for sure, but the music they're playing is very straight and direct. black midi are young and edgy, too, but are complex and demanding pretty much all the time.

By the way, I thought it's remarkable what kind of performance Paul McCartney can come up with at 80, but in the meantime I've also found the set that Herbie Hancock plays at 82, which is every bit as fresh and enjoyable. Of course he doesn't sing, which means he can hide his age a bit better. (Oh actually he does some singing, but it's through a vocoder.)

Actually one idea of watching Glastonbury is to find out a bit about what's cool now, but it seems I am prone to getting stuck with the dinosaurs... getting old myself...

Please do tell. I guess I could use Google Translate, but I’m sure you will give me a better answer. I’m kind of late to the scene with them. A friend has been a fan of them for a long while, but never recommended them to me because he didn’t realise I was into all the new wave of post punk until recently.

As Ian agreed with, the Fontaines DC set was rather good, for anyone wanting to check them out.

I also mentioned Idles, who are probably the most well-known/popular/successful of the new wave of post punk within the UK. They definitely put on a great performance, which the crowd really reacted to, and which showed how much more well-known they are compared to other bands like black midi and Squid. (But I have to say, I absolutely LOVED Squid’s set, and the enthusiasm with which they performed.)