There’s a lesson hidden within the short film used to first reveal the lineup for this year’s Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona, and it has something to do with… how unbelievably depressing the Detroit area looks during the winter? How men in top hats are using abandoned chapels as headquarters for plotting metaphysical body switches à la Freaky Friday? How there might be a theological justification for the shrine you’ve built around your home record player? I’m not inclined to do much cinematic interpretation at the moment, so regardless of the GAPING illogic of how a record store clerk somehow affords a massive loft, let’s at least appreciate the purposeful band-in-lieu-of-product placement. There are no curious zooms of the Apple logo on one’s phone or laptop, just a plethora of band t-shirts and Majical Cloudz et al. soundtracking scene transitions. How boring, the alternative of uploading a Word doc in Times New Roman.
The lineup itself maintains the excitement. No need to expound upon the noteworthy reunion of Slowdive. Elsewhere, and past the unsurprising headliners of Arcade Fire, Nine Inch Nails, Pixies, Kendrick Lamar, and Queens of the Stone Age, lies depth of broad appeal. You, with taste identical to TMT’s, might be interested in the following: Neutral Milk Hotel, Wolf Eyes, The Haxan Cloak, Julia Holter, A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Ty Segall, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Vatican Shadow, and Demdike Stare. In the realm of supremely influential bands casting a supplemental aura of legend over the entire Parc del Fòrum, Slint will be there (they were there in 2007 too) and Television will be performing the timeless Marquee Moon. Overall, it’s a pretty solid lineup, the whole of which you can view here.
It’s as if you’re in a room of hands, and no matter which way you turn you’re caressed or prodded with fingers. Just imagine those hands are the artists that you love.
• Primavera Sound: http://www.primaverasound.com