Man Without Country – Last.FM Stage – Sunday - 15:40
Last-minute additions in place of Atlantic Pacific, Man Without Country’s name carries an instant intrigue. The band themselves, a South Wales based duo, say it derives from “a sense of not belonging.” This sense lies at the root of their atmospheric, sometimes uneasy sonic palette. Featuring Dreaming Spires member Brad P Nutzpitt on drums, their emotionally-intense electro-pop is just as prone to moments of pounding intensity as it is to periods of gauzy glissando exhalation.
Marcus Foster – Main Stage – Friday - 17:30
With barely a couple of EPs to his name, Marcus Foster already has fans in famous places, but don’t let that put you off the London-born songwriter. His rambling piano-led “Tumble Down” EP, released earlier this year, shows the ability of a well-written, well-performed song to transcend the whirlwind of hype that can surround the sorts. Compared to Ed Sheeran and Ben Howard, Foster has more in common with Tom Waits than any of his contemporaries.
Marques Toliver – Clash Stage - Friday 17:00
Marques Toliver is a truly unique proposition for a Saturday afternoon. A violinist, he moved to Brooklyn from Miami, and busked on the streets of New York to help cover his rent. There, he picked up his fair share of admirers, playing with Grizzly Bear, TV On The Radio, and Bat For Lashes, but his rare combination of classical musicianship twists songwriting into strange new shapes.
Mat Gibson – Truck Stage - Sunday 12:00
With that rare touch of talent, Mat Gibson’s been compared to a youthful Neil Young and is set to release his new album ‘Forest Fire’ later this year through Clubhouse Records, recorded at Truck’s own Studio. An artist who’s headed for big things, his haunting vocals are sure to send shivers down your spine.
Maybeshewill – Last.fm Stage – Sunday - 14:45
One of the winners of the Truck Demo competition a couple of years ago, Maybeshewill have been writing electronic pocket symphonies to a post-rock God for a fair few years now, and this year’s second LP “I Was Here For A Moment, Then I Was Gone” has received sparkling reviews, maintaining that rocket-fuelled intensity that was so exciting in the first place.
Mechanical Bride – Clash Stage – Friday - 18:00
It’s nice to know that, for every over-hyped band like Black Kids (who showed promise but rushed out an album when they’d barely written enough songs to fill thirty minutes) there’s Mechanical Bride, aka Lauren Doss. Three years since a Rihanna cover did the rounds, ‘Living With Ants’, a delicate, carefully-planned record was released to relatively little fanfare. The plaudits it has received should change all that.
Michele Stodart – Main Stage – Sunday - 12:50
Truck has a long history with the Magic Numbers - over the years their members have played at most of our festivals: Truck, Harvest, OX4, Wood. Michele’s solo set at this year’s Wood showed signs that her debut album ‘Wide-Eyed Crossing’, with hints of Patsy Cline and (at times) Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue, will be more than just a side-project.
Mitchell Museum – Last.fm Stage – Sunday - 13:45
Ever since debut single “Warning Bells” started grabbing people’s attention a year or two ago, Glasgow nutjobs Mitchell Museum have looked like a band destined for great things. With a sound that brings to mind all the best sides of Dave Fridmann’s production (The Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, Parts And Labor), it’s the way they manage to combine a rough-at-the-edges sound with straight-up catchy-as-hell songs that really makes them stand out.
Monument Valley – Wood Stage – Saturday - 19:30
With close vocal harmonies and beautifully arranged instrumentation, Momument Valley (aka Ned Younger) delicately manages to produce songs full of raw emotion. His debut EP ‘No Air’ featured a horn section scored by Jeremy Warmsley (Summer Camp) and Paul Frith (Sufjan Stevens, Broken Social Scene) was released through Communion, sometime home of Mumford Sons, Marcus Foster and many others.
Mr Shaodow – Last.fm – Friday - 18:00
R U STOOPID! We almost were, as we’d very nearly finished arranging the line-up for this year’s festival when realised that Shaodow hadn’t been added yet. A perennial favourite at Truck (with a lot more than that terribly-spelt song to his name), Shaodow is probably the best rapper in Oxford, and those of you following his twitter will know the man’s kept himself busy!
Nathaniel Rateliff – Main Stage – Saturday - 15:15
Rateliff and his band are back playing for Truck at this year’s festival after playing in the Truck Store last April. Once a truck driver, Rateliff now makes intimate, sincere soundscapes similar to that of Bon Iver and Leonard Cohen. His music is wry and clever and will make you want to laugh and cry at the same time.
No. 1 Ladies’ Accordion Orchestra – Wood Stage – Sunday - 21:00
Following in the illustrious path of the Zoltan Kodaly School For Girls (if memory serves, a recorder troupe playing classic pop hits to 100 frazzled Truckers) and The Nuns (an all-female tribute to the monks), comes another quirky all-female group with an outstandingly entertaining conceit. What sets The No.1 Ladies Accordion Orchestra apart from the other bands at Truck 14? Now that would be telling…
ODC Drumline versus Coloureds – Last.fm stage – Saturday - 00:30
In the red corner, ODC Drumline: the stand-out performance at Blessing Force’s Weekender at the (much missed) Old Bookbinders, this live outlet for Oxford Drum Clinic (a forum for local drummers assembled by former Youthmovies sticksman Graeme Murray) make for quite the live spectacle. In the blue corner, Coloureds: just as intense a live show on their own, the noisy duo (formed from the remains of a post-hardcore band) have made waves with their Ed Banger-influenced WOWtronica. It’ll be quite the face-off.
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Peggy Sue – Clash Stage – Friday - 19:10
Previously called ‘Peggy Sue & The Pirates’, with an early standout song called ‘The Sea, The Sea’, and the presence of an accordion, you could be forgiven for thinking that this group’s doo-wop sea-shanties were pretty shallow. That said song was also the title of an Iris Murdoch novel, with lyrics about building houses out of bones point to a rockier side beneath that still veneer.
Pet Moon – Last.fm Stage – Saturday - 20:45
If you know about Blessing Force, then you’ll know about Andrew Mears. Formerly the lead-singer of Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies, and musical foil to Yannis Philippakis (Foals), he performs solo at Truck for the second time (if you include his spoken-word set at 2008′s Crossword Records showcase, which we do). Like an anti S-A-W, he makes warped soul music with all the passion, but none of the predictability.
Pete and the Pirates – Last.fm Stage – Sunday - 20:00
Emerging from the post-Libertines landscape in 2007, Pete And/& The Pirates have thrived where many bands faltered (or went synth-pop). They’ve honed their chops to perfection on the road, playing sell-out tours, and this year released a sophomore album (One Thousand Pictures) crammed with perfectly-formed pop songs, balanced perfectly between the eccentric danciness of The Mystery Jets and the riff-heavy sharpness of latter-day Young Knives.
Pete Molinari – Truck Stage – Friday - 18:30
Pete Molinari comes from Kent, but his three albums have mined the great American songbook of Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and Hank Williams with more success than anybody from these shores has managed for decades. With his inspired albums ‘A Virtual Landslide’ and last year’s ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ released to critical acclaim, we welcome him for his second appearance at Truck, and his first on the Truck stage.
Pilgrim’s Way – Wood Stage – Sunday - 19:00
Named after a Rudyard Kipling poem famously to music by the great Peter Bellamy, Pilgrims’ Way are a 3-piece band with a big personality and big sound. Brought together by red hair and a shared love of traditional music, they share the same attitude to folk music as the 60s folk-rock revival, respectfully using traditional folk as a meeting-point for the members’ own diverse musical outlook.
