This weekend (6 and 7 June) Victoria Park will be playing host, once again, to what is now a London institution. Field Day 2015 will see the festival’s best bookings yet with Caribou, Ride, FKA Twigs and Patti Smith among the headliners. The two day event will also showcase some of the best artists (both established and emerging) from the UK and across the world.
Here’s a few of the acts we think you should be watching at Field Day 2015 that may have slipped under your radar.
Baxter Dury
He could have left his surname at the door and people would still ask if he was the son of Ian.
His most recent album, ‘It’s A Pleasure’ and it’s predecessor ‘Happy Soup’ have both been critically acclaimed. Although, neither of those things are the soul reasons you should go and see Baxter Dury in Victoria Park this weekend. They’re up there though, of course.
Right in the heart of Hackney, Field Day is one of London’s most adored festivals. With that in mind, what better to go and see than a performance that’s going to make you feel, for want of a better phrase, really bloody British.
Drum machines pack a punch, or in some cases a plod, beneath buoyant melodies. Essex-come-cockney half spoken narratives are delivered through deadpan expression (which is often so well executed it’s difficult to tell whether or not it’s intentional), and it’s all so very charming.
Go and see him: not for the legacy but for Blighty; and for the right good music.
DIIV
You may recognise frontman Zachary Cole Smith from Ulster County mugshots or from Sky Ferreria’s Instagram; but Brooklyn quintet DIIV are a serious band. A serious band that have recently pledged to reenact people’s dreams for the tidy sum of $10,000.
Aside from the celeb girlfriends, categorical whoopsies with the law and ‘immersive-theatre‘, though, DIIV’s Krautrock leanings are rapidly becoming pretty highly regarded.
Expect woozy, unusually melodic dream-pop kicked with shoegaze and Cobain influence; punk energy that’s typical of Brooklyn’s DIY scene and if you’re lucky, a live rendition of Bob Dylan’s ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ that would have the crowds of 1965 Newport Folk Festival nailing them to Stratocaster shaped crosses. Perfect.
Ex Hex
They’re described as ‘The band your older brother’s friends listened to‘, and that’s actually quite accurate. The friend that had an earring and a car and smelt like Lynx Africa, that is, not the one in the Kappa jack-ups that smelt like rain and a weird childhood.
Hailing from Washington DC, Ex Hex is fronted by Mary Timothy (Helium, Wild Flag, Autoclave) and the musical experience they’ve already got under their studded belts is apparent.
The power pop three piece boast irresistible energy, thrashing guitars set with blistering solo’s, intricate arpeggios, cohesive and dynamic stage presence and enough raw female power to make you want to dump your boyfriend just to prove you can win him back again.
See you there.
For tickets, full line up and more information on Field Day 2015, click here.
