The summer concert season is upon us and the Hidden Track staff knows that it’s virtually impossible for us to afford every show we want to hit, and still be able to pay our insanely expensive New York City rents. Luckily for us, there are a plethora of fantastic free concerts throughout the summer that don’t cost a dime. We decided to weed through all the listings and present to you our 5th Annual NYC Free Summer Concert Picks. Let’s take a look… HT Recommends: Laura Marling / Michael Kiwanuka / Willy Mason Where: Celebrate Brooklyn! – Prospect Park Bandshell ...

Via Jens Lekman ho appena scoperto questo Swedish Music Landscape , interessantissimo volume (e anche app per iPad) che raccoglie ritratti di musicisti svedesi. Lo ha curato il fotografo francese Julien Bourgeois, che ha raccontato per immagini e parole il suo amore per la Svezia, "a country I didn't know, my only guide being the answers offered by the musicians to this request: show me a place inspiring your music". Tra le band coinvolte, anche svariati nomi cari a questo blogghetto: Frida Hyvönen (nell'immagine qui sopra), Dag för Dag, El Perro Del Mar, Loney Dear, Peter, Björn & John, Svensson ...

The 405 team was out in force for The Great Escape this year, so rather than bringing you a band-by-band account of our time in Brighton, our editors/writers have chosen their five favourite bands from the event. Who came out on top? Read on to find out... Photos by Tim Boddy James Canham Swords">Forest Swords - Tim and myself arrived partway through Swords">Forest Swords set (they started at the same time AlunaGeorge finished) to a stunned and mostly silent crowd. The two of them on stage (one at the mic, laptop and electronics and another on the bass ...

The Great Escape can be a strange beast of a festival. Year after year hundreds of bands flock to the seaside in order to grab the attention not just of the punters who've paid good money to spend a whole weekend walking from venue to venue until their feet hurt but also a whole host of industry professionals. What is undeniable though is that Thursday got off to a rotten start thanks largely in part to the weather. When you arrive at Brighton station the last thing you expect to see is mist across the countryside and drizzle but ...

Tell us which bands were best at the Brighton festival As Brighton sets about getting on with its daily business following the seventh annual Great Escape festival, here's some of our coverage from the weekend. Music Weekly podcast: Great Escape festival special We take a trip to the coast and talk to festival acts Django Django and AlunaGeorge The Great Escape festival – in pictures Including Niki & the Dove, Violet and Savages The Great Escape: highlights of the Guardian's New Band of the Day gigs Paul Lester, curator of the guardian's New Band of the Day stage, talks ...

The South Coast's equivalent to SXSW, queues aside, last weekend's The Great Escape  down beside the seaside was as jubilant as any Jubilee hyperbole. What of those snaking lines? Well, that for Claire Boucher may most probably have been spotted somewhere off the coast of Normandy whilst that for Friends  was washed a little more literally out to sea as they played the decadently delightful Horatio's Bar atop Brighton Pier. Here's who we saw and what we thunk in fortunately concise format... Thursday I Ching Lovably gawky, the Finsbury Park pairing fall a little heftily on ...

In its seventh year, I finally made it to multi-venue one day festival Sounds From The Other City but nearly ended up spending all of it in just one one venue. The day started – and ended - at St Philip’s Church one of the twelve stages for the one-day festival, today programmed by Hey Manchester . I’m not sure what factors led opening act Dancing Years to change their name from Joseph and David but factual accuracy may have been one of them. Performing as a six-piece - grand piano, violin, melodica, guitar, bass and drums - this felt like an ensemble ...

Festival season is now so close you can nearly touch it, and The Great Escape is not only one of the first, but is also guaranteed to be one of the best. This year's event is taking place from Thursday 10th May and culminates on the Saturday 12th of May. Across the three days three hundred plus bands will be providing Brighton rock, indie, electronica and more in 30 venues on the south coast. Listing all the great acts playing may break the internet but some names we’re excited about include: Perfume Genius, Niki & The Dove, Alt-J, Shabazz Palaces, Grimes, Friends, Zulu Winter and Django Django. There will be shows in the Brighton Dome, in churches and pubs around the city. Add to that an array of fringe events, club nights and a daytime conference - plus a bar on the famous Brighton pier - and you have all the ingredients for a very special time indeed. Amazingly tickets are still available and you can get them here . For a full of who’s playing and for more info visit escapegreat.com . See you there, yeah? Listen to our Great Escape playlist by clicking here . ***** Editors Picks: James Canham (Live Editor): Retro Stefson Possibly the most interesting and entertaining live act I've ever personally witnessed, Retro Stefson would need no introduction in their homeland of Iceland. Renowned on the Reykjavík circuit for their unique mix of pop ethics and peculiar, yet stunning, execution they're definitely one to catch. [ Listen ] Performances: 10th May - Latest Music Bar - 23:15 11th May - Above Audio - 14:30 11th May - Green Door Store - 19:30 Fever Fever Art punk isn't dead, and with bands like Fever Fever it never will die. On top of their fantastically literate lyrics their layers of dissonant yet raw guitar and pounding drums give the festival one of the best and most interesting performances. [ Listen ] Performance: 10th May - The Hope - 20:30 AlunaGeorge With an EP coming soon on the illustrious Tri-Angle records, and with an arsenal of future pop hits to hand, now is the time to see AlunaGeorge before they make it huge. Every song they've released so far is dredged in a fantastic drape of smooth and sexy vocals with rich synthy backing, and their near-midnight show at Coalition on the Friday is shaping up to be one of the best of the festival. [ Listen ] Performance: 11th May - Coalition - 23:30 Seams While Seams will be playing the sounds at his Corn exchange, the real reason anyone will be going is to see his fringe jumping excitedly on stage. We've loved him from the word go (especially his remarkable Tourist EP, a piece of work focused and composed from sounds heard in Berlin, the city he's now based in) and by all reports his live show is just as great as his recordings (mainly because of his fringe...). [ Listen ] Performance: 12th May - Corn Exchange - 21:30 Micachu & The Shapes Along with many others we've eagerly awaited the next move from Micachu and The Shapes . After a few interesting diversions (most notably their chopped and screwed mixtape performance piece with the London Sinfonietta Orchestra) they've finally got a sequel to 2009's Jewellery in the pipeline and, with any luck, we'll hear something new from the makers of one of the last decade's most fascinating albums. [ Listen ] Performance: 12th May - The Haunt - 21:45 ***** Alt-J Editors Picks: Wil Cook (Music Editor): As they prepare to drop one of the albums of the year, Alt-J are the band to be excited about. Engaging, melodic songs full of depth, songs that linger on longer than you expect. Remnants appear in your head for days after and they are welcome. I cannot wait to see this band play live. [ Listen ] Blind Tiger Friday 21:15 Jonquil I have been screaming from the rooftops about Jonquil since 2006 when I caught them playing in a horrible little bar in Ipswich. It's been fascinating to watch them evolve from a folk band who evidently had a bit of a crush on Boards of Canada into this massive summery behemoth of a band. I love this band more than I could ever put into words for you, which says a lot, because I love to talk. [ Listen ] Prince Albert Thursday 22:15 Green Door Store Friday 14:00 Cloud Nothings Since releasing the wonderfully nihilistic Attack on Memory earlier in the year Cloud Nothings have been on my "must see" list. It's a crunching punk rock pop fix that simultaneously restores my faith in my ability to feel alive and reverts me back to a mindset where I wanted to die. Basically, they are the hipster Nirvana. I just hope they are as ramshackle and urgent in the flesh as they are on this record. [ Listen ] Above Audio Thursday 21:45 Perfume Genius I'm not who St. Mary is, but she doesn't half know how to book a gig, last year she hosted Dustin O Halloran and Richter">Max Richter for one of the shows of the festival. This year it's the turn of Perfume Genius who plays after Loney, Dear making one of the sexiest double bills of the three days. The chance to see songs like Hood and Dirge performed in the beautifully intimate surroundings of the church is not something that you should pass up. [ Listen ] St. Mary's Church 21:15 Tall Ships One of my favourite memories from last year was the mass sing-along during Vessels, mid afternoon in the Pav Tav, it placed in my mind an idea that has been reaffirmed several times since, Tall Ships have it. They have whatever it is that every band is trying to achieve when they write songs, that feeling. Y'know that feeling when your hairs prickle up with your skin bumps as you realise that you are lucky to be alive and in a world full of potential. Yes, that is quite a bold statement, but have you seen Tall Ships play? If you haven't, then you really need to catch them soon, this years Great escape is the place. [ Listen ] Pav Tav Friday 1am The Hope Saturday 22:15 ***** Editors Picks: Tim Boddy (Photography Editor): Gang Colours The 405 have been following Will Ozanne's Gang Colours closely since the release of the violently monikered EP, In Your Gut Like A Knife , last summer. Recently the chap from Southampton released full-length debut album The Keychain Collection on Brownswood Recordings, to positive appraise. It's the kind of album that rewards enormously on repeated listens, the reflective soundscapes burying deep into the skin, and cut-up homages to garage swirl smoothy through the bloodstream. The result is rather Beautiful stuff, like if Mount Kimbie went into ballad territory - but with a very definite Gang Colours personal grace to proceedings. [ Listen ] Swords">Forest Swords Oh Swords">Forest Swords , where have you been? The solo project from Liverpool-based Matthew Barnes has been quiet of recent, following the release of 2010's gorgeous and beguiling LP Dagger Paths . Beguiling in that a myriad of differing styles are sewn into each other; Barnes' passion and knowledge ...

Photos from the first day of London's Camden Crawl, including Echo Lake, Odonis Odonis and Loney Dear. Jason Williamson shoots.

WHAT: Up to 15,000 people, 300 bands, 30 venues WHY: It's become a one-stop shop for big names with something to prove to themselves, up and coming acts getting set for big summers and the little men fighting their corner WHEN: 10th-12th May WHERE: Across Brighton WHO: THURSDAY: Maximo Park, Friends, Niki & The Dove, Jonquil, Toy, Mystery Jets, Eugene McGuinness, Zulu Winter, Django Django, Willy Mason, Cloud Nothings, Fever Fever, Deaf Club, Jamie N Commons, Bastille, Ben Kweller, Francois & The Atlas Mountains, White Arrows, Weird Dreams, Gross Magic, Cut Ribbons, Shabazz Palaces, Sunless 97, Gemma Hayes, Tribes, Gaz ...

Ramona Falls Prophet Barsuk Records [2012]   Fire Note Says: Sophomore album from Ramona Falls has a more personal touch that still has art rock moments. Album Review: After the critical success of Ramona Falls debut Intuit, it was really no surprise that creator Brent Knopf officially left Menomena to focus on his sophomore effort. This puts an entire new look on Ramona Falls and Prophet as now there are no distractions and no outside influences and this is the complete Knopf vision. The good news is that Prophet still follows how Knopf liked to push songwriting limits with Menomena, as ...

As if there weren’t enough gigs to miss in a month, May also brings over 100 bands playing three multi-venue city festivals in Manchester and Salford. Starting with Sounds From The Other City this weekend and finishing with the Chorlton Arts Festival Weekender at the end with Future Everything in between. If all goes well I may even get to more than one of these. This month’s mixtape leans more to many of the other gigs across the month including tomorrow night’s highly recommended Richard James gig at The Castle (see yesterday’s post on his latest ...

WHAT : Memphis in May Beale Street Music Festival WHEN : May 4-6 WHERE : Memphis, TN WHO : Girl Talk, My Morning Jacket, Big K.R.I.T., Jane's Addiction, Florence + the Machine, Black Lips, Wiz Khalifa, Al Green, the Cult, Lupe Fiasco, War Kids">Cold War Kids, Little Richard, more WHAT : Camden Crawl WHEN : May 4-6 WHERE : London, England  WHO : Actress, Charli XCX, Rustie, Kwes, Niki & the Dove, the Raincoats, the Cribs, the Big Pink, Veronica Falls, Loney Dear, the Futureheads, Shelly in Athens">Keep Shelly in Athens, Glasvegas, Young Man, more WHAT : Asymmetry Festival WHEN : May 3-5 WHERE : Wroclaw, Poland ...

Summer Sundae Weekender have pulled the curtains on the latest list of acts to join the mid-August event. This fourth wave washes up the likes of Clock Opera, Loney Dear, Speech Debelle and Deer Tick on the shores of the event at Leicester's Victoria Park. The festival takes place from 17th - 19th August, and sees Agnes Obel, Bowerbirds and THePETEBOX also among those joining an already all-star cast consisting of Jonathan Richman, Francois and the Atlas Mountains, Django Django, Katy B, Death In Vegas, Friends, Hey Sholay and more. Check out the full fourth wave announcement below, and grab ...