After a year’s break in NW1, which saw the festival take place in Dublin, veteral urband festival Camden Crawl comes home with a new summer slot. Taken over the London districts pubs, clubs and venues for the weekend on 20 and 21 June, organiser Lisa Paulon has created us a Playlist of her personal picks from this year’s line-up. “Camden Crawl will once again take over a wide range of venues both big and small across Camden Town, ranging from KOKO, the iconic Electric Ballroom, bars like Purple Turtle, pubs including Barfly, Lock Tavern and many more, with specialist fringe events running alongside,” she explains. :The resulting CC14, in our eyes at least, is a stunner boasting an extremely eclectic line-up representing heritage artists such as headliners ABC and Atari Teenage Riot, alongside some of the finest upcoming acts like Halls and Tall Ships. We’ve pulled together a fresh young gang of spirited independents to co-curate the event and give the festival a facelift. Here’s just a small selection of highlights from the Summer Solstice CC14 to come…”
Au Revoir Simone – Crazy
“Lovely dreamy electronic pop all girl three-piece from Brooklyn. Been trying to book them for years and finally the timing worked out for us this year.”
PINS – Get With Me
“They were the super hyped band of late 2012, but with taking a year off, we got to wait for things to calm down a bit. Very C86, very cool and, actually, not very Mancunian.”
Jeffrey Lewis – Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror
“God I love this guy! A comic book artist and singer-songwriter who writes loveable slacker alt-rock in a sort of Sebadoh style and with a deft sense of humour.”
Thumpers – Galore (pictured)
“Really summery slice of indie pop from up and coming London duo on the Transgressive label.”
Yuck – Suicide Policeman
“Some of these guys first appeared at Camden Crawl as teenagers as previous incarnation Cajun Dance Party. Musually producing tracks that are more on the spiky feedback strewn side of alt pop, this is one of their more down tempo songs which I really like.”
Ghetts – Born & Raised
“The new Ghetts album went straight in at Number Three in the iTunes album chart for a reason. This track is just one example of the fresh and intelligent approach he takes in articulating the challenges facing east London’s youth.”
of Montreal – Fugitive Air
“Fugitive Air is the opening track on the last studio album Lousy With Sylvianbriar, and Kevin Barns songwriting seems almost Dylan and Donovan-esqe on this one.”
Steve Mason – Oh My Lord
“Another artist which we have been pursuing to play at CC for a number of years. This is my favourite Steve Mason track off what is widely considered his best album, Monkey Minds In The Devil’s Time.”
ABC – When Smokey Sings
“I know it’s not on Lexicon Of Love, but this is my personal favourite ABC track. I can’t wait for these absolute legends to close at KOKO on the Friday night of the festival. Everyone is going to be buzzing and singing every song on the setlist.”
Mausi – Move (Original Mix)
“Influenced by Phoenix and collaborating with Hot Chip & Jagwar Ma, this was the feel-good electronic pop hit of last summer.”
Laurel Halo – Embassy
“She couldn’t be hotter at the moment. It’s difficult to choose a track to pull off of her albums and separate it from its context. She almost has an other worldly, even spooky, quality which make her productions different than everything else around.”
The Field – They Won’t See Me
“From Swedish producer Axel Willner’s fourth album, the looping layers of sound on this track build and into a lush epic conclusion.”
For more, including the full line-up and ticket details, head to Thecamdencrawl.com.
