23.11.2018 >>>
The next morning I woke up at 9 am having three hours of sleep only. Surprisingly, I felt myself alive enough to come out immediately as I had an urge to visit the record shops of Sevilla. As I travelled without any luggage except for a backpack it could be a major problem for me if I had purchased some vinyls but it appeared that the record shops I visited were specializing on second hand records having little of the most recent releases. The only records I'd like to purchase were
La Estrella De David's "
Consagracion" and
Basanta's "
Colorama" but finally I decided to avoid the possible transportation issues.
Despite my nondirectional territorial fluctuations I was just in time at Ron Contrabando stage (Alameda de Hercules square) to catch the very beginning of the Radio3 La Batalla de las Bandas hosted by one of the most famous Radio3 anchors
Angel Carmona. The time limits were the same as for yesterday's mini showcases (also MC'ed by
Angel): 6 minutes for the whole round of 'come out - plug in - play a single song - walk away'. The event started with the performance of the new local heroes
Derby Motoreta's Burrito Cachimba that obviously represented the [arguably] the main contemporary trend of rock music: the 70's revival. The band that exploited the completely different direction - my new friends
San Jeronimo - replaced the Sevillian six-piece onstage. Then I managed to see two more bands: the
Foehn Records' residents
Alien Tango, and the cock-rock combo
Los Jaguares De La Bahia. Then I escaped the event to come to the opposite side of the Alameda de Hercules for
Yawners. This was one of my best decisions because this metropolitan girl/boy quasi-punk duo was enormously great. I can't explain what was that decisive element of their show that made me surrender and convert myself into a devoted fan. But this was such the pleasure to see this band in action.
According to the schedule, the
OffMonkey session was the next event I should attend right after
Yawners. This one was organized by my friends from
WeAreWolves Records to showcase the bands of the roster: the dj sessions by
Pumuky and
I Am Dive and two full-fledged performances by
Kindata and
San Jeronimo. This event should be started at 2 pm inside the
Hops & Dreams gastro bar but when I came to the place only three persons were there. I was quite embarassed as I tried to consult a barman but he didn't understand me. So a guy who revealed to be
Berni from
Kindata came to me trying to resolve the problem. We quickly got in contact, and then I introduced myself to
Tero, the second half of
Kindata. This band was my biggest discovery of the year so I was completely happy to see them live and to talk to them within a month from the moment I had learned of their mere existence.
Little by little the venue got full of people. I got in touch with a man named
Fran who revealed to be a photographer and a friend of
Jose A. Perez. We sat together and discussed our further plans and past experiences of
Monkey Week 2018. Moreover,
Berni introduced me to the guys of
Palo Alto who were nice and welcoming as well. In the meantime the bands started playing.
San Jeronimo were the first to play, and then
Kindata stepped in. These bands were the pure delight - both musically and personally.
The actuation of Da Souza at the nearby Mangaroca stage drove me away from Hops & Dreams. This Mallorcan band released the new album "Futbol D'Avantguarda" (p)Famelic that appeared to be kind of indie sensation, and I liked it as many others did so it was no way to avoid visiting their performance. It was a bit spoiled by the rain. The band played inside the tent but I beheld it getting soaked with the raindrops. Anyway it was quite low price for making it possible. Good music always defeats the rain.
By the way, at the entrance of Santa Clara I met Joan and Natalia of Saim. I approached them and expressed my respect, we talked a bit and they gave me a t-shirt as a gift. Moltes gracies!
Then I made a short run to Jagermeister.
Puma Pumku already started playing there. Like
Yawners before the Galician neo-psych combo demonstrated the ability to win over the unprepared observer from the very first glance. I wasn’t totally unprepared as I used to listen to their first album for quite a while – but I never caught them before and had no idea how could they sound live. They quickly made me realize that coming up there I did just fine. This band is great, don’t miss the opportunity to see them.
Uniforms are only going to be great. The nugaze starlets just released their debut ("
Polara" (p)
Oso Polita) and managed to gather a considerable crowd inside Fun Club. Thus I was forced to stand behind the pillar and could see a little. Anyway, their performance wasn't perfect but their potential was obvious.
The populous and stylistically omnivore rock collective Los Jaguares De La Bahia spearheaded by the one of the most renowned indie rock producers of Spain performed at Ron Contrabando. I saw Paco Loco onstage once when he performed with Australian Blonde, but as a frontman he was even more... ummm, impressive. Shamelessly unleashed, he was like an uncontrolled beast there upon the stage. Despite his anti-star appearance, I think, he made every photographer there loaded with the whole lot of ‘rock star pose and gestures’ photos.
The Donostarrian indie rockers Pet Fennec sounded good performing in the open air (I witnessed it at Sonorama) but now within the limited space of Fun Club they sounded really massive. I placed myself in front of the bass monitor and every beat and every low note made my insides tremble. As I spent most of their time limit at Los Jaguares I caught only three songs. It was not enough - but what could I do.
Regarding the all-female garage band Melenas from Pamplona I'd like to say the following: I can’t call myself a fan of garage rock, but the girls do their thing with palpable honesty. It shouldn’t be omitted despite the fact is the listener a fan of the genre or not.
I liked the second album of the Galician art punks
Travesti Afgano so they were in my own schedule from that very first moment I saw the
#mokeyweek10 line up. They performed at gay bar Itaca - the southernmost location of the festival. Live the band positioned themselves as stylistically and behaviorally unpredictable act that could easily interact with public whilst changing the genres three times within a song. One of the irrefutable wins of the festival that, unfortunately, was sparsely attended.
Then I headed to La Calle rock club for the
Canarias Crea/
Keroxen showcase. When I passed along Teatro Alameda I witnessed a queue that splashed out from the entrance and flew around the corner.
I walked along the queue guessing who the hell might gather such the crowd. In the middle of the queue I met
Fran who explained me that all these people were there for
Pony Bravo. This band had created a considerable cult following during the years of activity so the audience welcomed their first performance in years with huge enthusiasm.
Nevertheless, I came further to the club. It could be nice to see
Pony Bravo but the prospect of losing some amount of time in passing through this queue was up to kill the possible perks of seeing one of the scene-defining bands in action.
Saletile, the experimental rock duo from Tenerife, opened the Canary Islands night at La Calle. The schedule was cruel for them as their slot coincided with
Pony Bravo’s. On the other hand,
Saletile’s music is not for everybody and the focus groups of the bands were hardly coincident. For me, I enjoyed their set of long instrumental passages and digital noise drones a lot.
I’m not going to spread much words about those two bands that followed
Saletile onstage. What could I say…
Pumuky and
GAF Y La Estrella De La Muerte, my favorite band and the best live act of the scene respectively, that’s exactly how I'd like to label them. I feel some kind of personal connections to both of the bands. I can’t judge them with due objectivity so I should pull them off the scale. For me it’s like, you know, there are Messi and Ronaldo – and there are the real people.
Unfortunately, the actuation of
GAF was my final concert of the festival. The bell rang for me. I wasn’t happy to say goodbyes to all the people that accompanied me through the
Monkey Week 2018 but the
Ryanair’s flight schedule forced me to do so.
Then I walked outside and then lost the next 23 hours of my life in taxi cabs, aircrafts, stopovers and trains.
The mostly (namely 4/5) female band from 'the other side of the pond' (namely Buenos Aires, ARG) created the ideal C86 album without - as far as I can see - ever intending it. The songs cover the vast spectre of influences from The Cure's "Three Imaginary Boys" to the Courtney Barnett's finest "Sometimes I Sit And Drink, And Sometimes I Just Sit" through all these possible Brit-related shoe-, post- and nu-gazes, echoes, bunnymen and teenage funclubs. The main thing is that you're not gonna split these songs onto the components so solid they are. The album as a whole sounds natural, and it - as far as I can see - is natural (with particular emphasis on 'is'). 
