Features

Camera Obscura, The Joy Formidable, The Declining Winter, Ice Cream for Quo Fanzine - Christmas Questions!

Miss Fliss 28/12/2009

GIITTV's deputy editor sent out some questions to some of her favourite acts/and fanzines of 09, as special kind of overview of the year and a taster of what they are looking forward to in 2010. Here are the results for you to feast on with the leftovers of your turkey sandwhiches! Read Q+As with Camera Obscura, The Declining Winter, The Joy Formidable, and Ice Cream for Quo's editor Stephen Fall.

Camera Obscura's Carey Lander

What song will always remind you of 2009?

Loser by Marissa Nadler. Listened to A LOT on tour. And Two Weeks by Grizzly Bear was the first song I got excited about this year.


What were your albums of the year, including your ultimate favourite?

Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest, Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs, Richard Hawley - Truelove's Gutter, Taken By Trees - East of Eden; and my favourite was Marissa Nadler - Little Hells.

Who was your favourite band/act of the year?

Grizzly Bear, although I never got to see them live. We kept messing each other.

What were your gig highlights - to play and to go and watch by other bands, and why?

Enjoyed watching our support acts play; Papercuts, Magic Arm, Agent Ribbons. Don't think I've managed to attend many gigs with all the touring but loved seeing The Pastels and Taken by Trees. Enjoyed playing lots of places; a few highlights were Copenhagan, Mexico and Stockholm.


What are you looking forward to next year in terms of music and specific bands/acts?

I am looking forward to the new Beach House album, and to touring with Slow Club in Australia and New Zealand.

How are you spending Xmas?

On my own. Thank goodness.

What are your plans for the 2010?

Touring and complaining.



The Declining Winter/Hood's Richard Adams


What song will always remind you of 2009?

Empire of the Sun We are the people - it's followed me around all year and I still haven't quite got sick of it.

What were your albums of the year, including your ultimate favourite?

Wild Beasts - Two Dancers (ultimate favourite)

Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue

Gas - Nah und Fern

Washed Out - Life of leisure'

Lotus Plaza - The Floodlight Collective

Grizzly Bear - Veckatimist

What were Norman Records' [ace online record store that Richard works for] biggest sellers this year?

Burial/Four Tet 12"
The Cribs Ignore the Ignorant (west yorkshire limited edition) Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion
- and, ahem, Declining Winter was in the top 10!

Who was your favourite band/act of the year?

I didn't really follow anyone particularly. U2 did well again I hear.

What were your live music highlights if any, and why?

I enjoyed the band Women at the Brudenell Social Club.

What are you looking forward to next year in terms of music and specific bands/acts/genres/albums?

Umm.... hmmm - will Josephine Wiggs ever release another album?

What albums do you hope to get for Christmas and/or are you giving as presents?

I hope to get a Jake Thackray box set


How are you spending Xmas/new year?

Christmas with parents and brother at Spofforth Hill. The new year in a cottage in the Lake District.


What are your plans for the 2010?

I must finish the million bits of music I have lying around, and redecorate the house.

Ice Cream for Quo fanzine's Stephen Fall


What song will always remind you of 2009?

House With No Door by Van Der Graaf Generator.


What were your albums of the year, including your ultimate favourite?

The Knockouts - Honolulu Suncream, Dan Melchior Und Das Menace - Obscured By Fuzz, and the ultimate favourite was probably Bob Dylan's Christmas In The Heart.

Who was your favourite band/act of the year?

The Knockouts.

What were your gig highlights and why?

Two Fall shows in Camden, despite giving me tinnitus, and The Knockouts in Luton.


What are you looking forward to next year in terms of music and specific bands/acts/genres/albums?

New Fall LP. Seeing Peter Hammill live. The next Clod magazine. Revival of N.Finchley 'Radical Beardcore' scene.


What albums do you hope to get for Christmas and/or are you giving as presents?

Would quite like the recent-ish Jarvis Cocker album, despite 'mixed' reviews. I never give music as presents as taste is too personal a thing.


How are you spending Xmas?

Hiding under a hedge.

What are your plans for the 2010?

Creating more issues of Ice Cream For Quo magazine. Staying alive

Read more about how to get your hands on a copy of Ice Cream For Quo Magazine here www.myspace.com/icecreamforquo

The Joy Formidable's Ritzy


What song will always remind you of 2009?

A Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke

What were your albums of the year, including your ultimate favourite?


Wilco (the Album) by Wilco, Journal for Plague Lovers - MSP, Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear, Manners by Passion Pit, and my personal favourite Embryonic by The Flaming Lips.

Who was your favourite band/act of the year?

Passion Pit and the Manchester Orchestra.

What were your gig highlights - to play and to go and watch by other bands, and why?

Leeds and Reading Festival were good fun, great atmosphere at both. As for other gig highlights, Patti Smith at Pohoda was stunning.

What are you looking forward to next year in terms of music and specific bands/acts?

Looking forward to new albums from Eels, MGMT and Fleet Foxes, seeing Pavement in concert and fingers crossed for some live Bjork dates.

How are you spending Xmas?

We're taking the 25th off, I'm going to Manchester to spend it with my Grandparents, and then heading to South Wales to continue the album.

What are your plans for the 2010?

A debut album, a full length tour and a set of flying lessons.

Download The Joy Formidable's FREE Christmas download 'My Beerdrunk soul is sadder than a hundred dead Christmas tree' here

Part 2 of our Christmas Questions for 2009, follows shortly.