Playlist: Waves festival

Saturday is Waves Festival, a monster music day across eight venues in Sunderland. Tickets, a bargain at £35, are running low, but you can still grab the last few here. And here are three rising northeast bands that you should be sure to catch on a bill led by Red Rum Club, Miles Kane, Tom A. Smith and more.

Dead Wet Things – Covered in Soot

The latest release from Wearside’s Dead Wet Things has one of the more arresting intros I’ve heard this year. It also has a slightly alarming Mary Poppins fetish. Oh, and it rocks like bastard. All of which makes it an excellent thing in my book.

As the band’s name might suggest, there’s an irreverent feel to this trio of musical pranksters. An earlier release, Big Bag a’ Cans, subtly evoked the spirit of Parklife, only for Damon Albarn’s chirpy cockney to be elbowed aside by a troupe of Mackems on a mission to swill their way through an extravagant carry out from the offie. Covered in Soot, meanwhile, tells a lurid tale of extra-marital dalliance played out against a backdrop of Sunderland’s back alleys. Even if you’re not still childishly excited to see your home town on film (or this isn’t your home town anyway), there’s still plenty to enjoy here.

Dead Wet Things opens the Waves Festival evening show at the Fire Station. Stage time 1830.

Benefits (ft. Pete Doherty) – Relentless

They haven’t, have they? I mean, not really? The boys from Benefits haven’t snuck off and recorded us a love song while nobody was looking, have they?

Well, not quite, but there are moments in Relentless where you might suspect otherwise. Harking back to the good old days, as interjected by a feline vocal from the Libertines frontman, there’s a lyrical flourish that could describe a first crush, a first adrenaline rush, a first brush with a world that might open your eyes: “So you take it back to the start / When your heart beat faster / and your eyes glowed wide / No worries, no fear, just pride.”

The sound is fresh, too. In place of the trademark noise, this is built around synths hinting at the Moonlight Sonata and swoony backing vocals. The ambience, suddenly, is ambient; the ‘sweary Pet Shops Boys’ vibe is very real. But fear not, this is still Benefits and the boys are not going soft on anyone. Like a cold of cold air, the inherent social injustice of 21st-century Britain stomp on that early anticipation, burying it beneath middle management clowns. So still angry, just a different anger, differently expressed.

Benefits headlines at Pop Recs, showtime scheduled for 2045. If you miss it, there’s a UK tour coming up in April and May in support of upcoming album ‘Constant Noise’

Palma Louca – Better Late Than Never

Towards the end of that Benefits clip, there’s a brief cameo from Teesside rapper Shakk. He’s also involved in the BBC Introducing programme, which has picked out Playlist favourite Hannah Robinson, Tyneside guitar rockers The Ilfords and Palma Louca for this year’s festival.

Of those diverse but worthwhile choices, I’d favour Palma Louca. Partly, in fairness, because I know less of them than the others and days like this are always a good time to experience something new. But also because the vibe – hazy indie, with a slight 90s feel – resonates with me. There’s a soaring quality to the chorus of this tale of self-doubt that has it lingering in the mind’s ear long after the track fades out. The band’s live sets this year have garnered good reviews, so get along and check them out at Waves.

Palma Louca are on at the Ship Isis at 1615.

Thanks for reading another playlist. If you liked it, give a like and subscribe. If you really liked it, consider buying me a coffee. But, most of all, please consider supporting the artists by buying their music or attending their gigs.

Previous playlists: Folksy flavours / Politics / Stockton Calling / Russia / Aelius / #6 / Border Crossings / #8 / Safe hands throwing stones / More Than a Stone’s Throw / Fusion / Pigs, parties and Portuguese / From Bronte to Black Metal / Punk Princesses / Mackem magic and a mystical remix / Narc.Fest / Fringe Benefits / Peterlee Psalms / Winds of Change / Punk nostalgia, twisted psychedelia / Remembrance of Times Past / Ghosts, labyrinths and brutalism / If the Pixies came from Peterlee