Palma Violets

‘The best things since The Libertines, the saviours of British guitar music, successor to The Vaccines and Arctic Monkeys!’ The young lads from Palma Violets had superlatives thrown left, right and centre at them when single ‘Best Of Friends’ got picked up last year by the British media. They were promptly nominated for the prestigious BBC’s Sound Of 2013 (aside the likes of HAIM, CHVRCHES, AlunaGeorge and Savages) and NME bombarded ‘Best Of Friends’ as the song of 2012 in front of tracks by Jessie Ware, Jack White and Jake Bugg.

The hype-meter went right into the red and that was without a debut album to their name! For that first album they called upon Steve Mackey (bassist of the recently resurrected Pulp and producer to M.I.A., Florence + the Machine and Willy Moon) to polish the jingly rock ‘n’ roll, Libertines-like vocal harmonies, smashing drums and reverb- and fuzz-drenched guitars into album-worthy material. ‘180’ via label Roughtrade (The Strokes, Babyshambles) was applauded by pretty much all the influential criticasters like Mojo, Q Magazine, BBC Music and Pitchfork. With comparisons in the direction of The Clash, The Velvet Underground, The Doors (the organ pieces by secret weapon Pete Mayhew!), Echo & The Bunnymen and The Who to top it off!

“Nice name-dropping”, I hear you think, but what's it like live? Well, the crowd went wild after their first concert on Belgian soil (at the Charlatan in Ghent)! “Oil on a blazing fire, this was one of those exceptional concerts that will stay with us for a very long time” was to be read afterwards, Damusic and Musiczine even spoke of “the eve of the breakthrough on Belgian soil by an impassioned and carefree Palma Violets”. Young, wild and full of desire to trash the place, that's the way we like it. Can Palma Violets bring you to your knees too?

The Growlers

This fivesome will be warming you up prior to Palma Violets, and warm weather, that's something they're used to in California. They're also familiar with surf too, and so the guys decided to combine Californian rock and country whilst, at the same time, cheerfully riding along on the tsunami of psychedelica that is washing over us. Third album ‘Hung At Heart’ was received with loud applause by the global press. To celebrate, The Growlers will launch a limited edition “12 via Fat Cat Records in October, entitled ‘Not.Psych!’! Aside from that, the guys also let us know that they love unruly concerts. Just like Palma Violets, by the way, and we can surely cheer that on!

Robbing Millions

Indie heroes from Brussels, who stole our hearts earlier this year with their fantastic debut EP ‘Ages And Sun’. Completely high from all that beautiful music, we promptly dropped down on one knee to propose an AB ‘Artist In Residence’-y for the coming year. That should be celebrated. Indeed, as pacesetter for the great Palma Violets party that awaits us in early November.