STRICTLY GLOBAL

Hey, so what are your plans around July 15-18? You gonna be in the western part of Belgium, more specifically, the province of Hainaut?  Really? Then you must be going to the Dour Festival!  Even though "dour" means gloomy person, attendees of this fest are most certainly not, as it is in it's 22nd year and 200 bands from all genres will be there!  No wonder it won the prize for Best Medium-sized Festival at the European Festival Awards last January.

The festival came to this French-speaking village back in 1989 where it started off small with only 5 bands on the bill: Bernard Lavilliers, Gamine, Les Gangsters d'Amour, Les Innocents, and Les Tricheurs.  Since then, the line-ups have grown exponentially, and almost every genre known to man will be represented this year, including dubstep (UK's Skream <this kid is AMAZING!>), pop synth (France's General Elektriks), electro hip-hop (UK's Dub Pistols <love it!>), as well as thrash/punk (USA's GWAR <oh yeah!>)  Even fist-fulls of SG favorites will be performing, like Buraka Som Sistema, the Futureheads, Serena-Maneesh, Chromeo, and more.

And back together after an 11-year hiatus, Germany's digital hardcore band Atari Teenage Riot are making their comeback this summer on the festival circuit, including (obviously) the Dour Fest.  The group, most noted for their anti-fascist and anarchist lyrics mixed with intense techno, have recently added a new American member, CX KidTRONiK, who has previously worked with Saul Williams, Kanye West, and NIN.

Plenty of American bands will be hitting the stages of Dour as well, many of which are a lil' under the radar stateside, with huge fanbases abroad.  Like the hip-hop group from Oakland, CA- Crown City Rockers.  They are more than just hip-hop though, meshing funky grooves with soul samples, and overall old-school B-boy flavor.  And with a live performance that has made their local fanbase grow with every show, they were themselves crowned with the title "Best Hip Hop Group in the Bay" by the San Francisco Weekly and the San Francisco Guardian.

Dang, how does the Dour fest fit all this awesome music into just 4 days? Well, aside from the six-stage set up, the party starts at 12am and goes well into the wee hour of 5am!  Yeah that sounds about right for Europe.  (Well, at least 3 AM is the best time to hit up a club in Spain, fo sho.) And remember, Dour Fest is a camping festival, so if you happen to be flying in, and don't wanna pay the baggage claim fee for your portable tent, no worries.  Leave the tent at home, and take up residency at the Festivillage in a rented Festihut!  These cute little cottages can house up to 4 people, complete with 2 bunkbeds and access to showers, and VIP toilets (which is probably the best thing ever at a music festival besides music-right?)   

Finally, immerse yourself in the worldwide phenomenon that is air guitar, as the Dour Fest once again opens it's stage to the Belgian Air Guitar Championships.  The National Champion will become an heir to an actual guitar (Gibson Les Paul), and go on to represent Belgium and compete against 30 other global winners in Oulu, Finland.  Party!

Check out the Dour Festival's entire line-up here:
http://www.dourfestival.be/en/lineup/


by Dawn Reed

Holy crap!  Next week is already the season finale??? What? It seemed like only yesterday that we were buried in snow and churning out the music video hits of the decade.  Wow.  This of course means that you need to get your requests in ASAP to see if they make The Most Requested Videos Of The Season Countdown, or something along those lines... ;P.  Meanwhile, this week Danni hosts an hour that seems to be dominated by our neighbors to the North.  Some of the Canadian standouts include the goodies listed below.

From Vancouver, we've got the latest from Yukon Blonde, who've recently finished up a US tour in support of their self-titled debut album.  These guys produce strong harmonic rock that would cleverly fit amongst early 70's classic rock bands, and up it with a modern charm.  Not to mention the lyrics and melodies are super-duper catchy!  Like, seriously- I can't get "Wind Blows" out of my brain.  They'll resume another tour supporting Good Old War later this month, and I just noticed they will be playing at a venue in Chicago called Beat Kitchen.  Hmmm.... raise your hand if you're ready for another Beat Kitchen on SG!

Harry will also fill us in on a couple of Nextwave bands: Pacifika (Vancouver) and Malajube (Montreal.)  Pacifika is extremely diverse as the members incorporate Peruvian, Armenian, and Caribbean grooves into their unique global pop sound of latin electronica.  Not to be missed, as they are gonna be 'uge.  French-singing indie rockers Malajube are 'uge too.  And they have recently written the score to indie film The Trotsky coming out next week!  Radical.

And we'll also check out the latest from Toronto's electropop group Dragonette, who's second live performance was opening for New Order!  Wow.   The group formed originally as a duo named The Fuzz, and released their first EP back in 2005.  Eventually they moved to London to record their debut album Galore, which got them spots opening for Basement Jaxx on tour.  Good-times!  Danni got a chance to interview Dragonette when they came by DC recently- so be on the lookout for that interview this summer.  Word.