On 5th and 6th May, Liverpool Sound City returns to its roots after a three-year stint at Liverpool’s Docklands. The move appeared to be something that was done out of necessity rather than design after the closure of a number of city centre music venues due in no small part to the City’s “powers-that-be” having something of a penchant for transforming Liverpool into a student flat playground and a soulless temple to consumerism. The ‘night time economy’ (once known simply as ‘a night out’) is apparently booming whilst many DIY musicians, music fans and the creative community as a whole have been forced out of the city centre which seems focused on ensuring that stag and hen nights are well catered for.
Staging this year’s Sound City festival around Liverpool’s new creative heartland in the Baltic Triangle area seems like a smart move, and perhaps was the only way to create a festival style ‘hub.’ This year it appears the festival has decided to eschew spunking part of its budget on really big-name headliners (which was probably essential to get punters out to Liverpool’s docklands in previous years) and bringing the primary focus of the festival back to what it’s always done best, give emerging talent a platform. And rest assured this year has plenty of stellar new artists who certainly have huge potential.
We were also asked to help “curate” this year’s line up. We’re not sure if we approve of the word ‘curate’ to be honest, I mean every f*cker and his dog is a curator these days, from curating playlists to curating a fucking shopping list. Essentially this meant suggesting artists for this year’s line up and we were happy to throw a few names in the ring. Black Honey were one artist we suggested who made the lineup and they are a band we’ve supported since the days they were known as Kill Moon (a good name we thought.) Since changing their name they have gone from strength to strength. It’s been wonderful to see them grow from playing the likes of The Castle in Manchester to a handful of people to wowing huge festival crowds and selling out venues up and down the country. If you haven’t seen them live yet, make sure you catch em at Liverpool Sound City on Saturday at 8.30 -9.00 at Furnace – According to Clash Finder – HERE
Here’s a playlist of Black Honey’s greatest hits, new music will be arriving this week as well as a debut album later in the year. The band have done things their own way, remained fiercely independent and aren’t ready to be dictated to by any label. They’ve achieved their success the old-fashioned way, working hard and sticking to their own vision and refusing to compromise and of course by being fucking brilliant and it’s served them pretty well thus far.
We’ve also created a handy playlist of artists we’d recommend you try and catch at this year’s festival, artists such as Hatchie from Australia who has just been signed to Heavenly Recordings, or Fontaines DC from Dublin who have released one of the tunes of the year in Chequeless Reckless, False Heads who alongside side the likes of Idles are playing the sort of politically charged angry visceral music that has been somewhat lacking under a near decade of Tory austerity, The Blinders who are one of the best live bands in the country at the moment and Table Scraps who latest album ‘Autonomy’ is a scuzzy Stooge-esqe classic. There’s Dish Pit who have recently arrived from Canada to make their home in Liverpool who sound like a band not to be missed with their visceral punky garage fizz. And of course local emergent talent such as Queen Zee and The Sasstones, Psycho Comedy, ZuZu and Pale Rider to name but four Merseyside based artists who have something special about them.
Tickets – https://liverpoolsoundcity.seetickets.com/tour/liverpool-sound-city
