OFF Festival Katowice 2013: Let’s get this started!

Just like you did last year and the years before that, mark your calendars for the first weekend of August. We’ll kick things off on Thursday, August 1, with a Before Party (more details to come), with three days of madness at Three Ponds Valley starting the next day, August 2.

Tickets go on sale at the OFF Shop on our official website starting tomorrow, January 15. The first 300 people to order their tickets will get a free designer OFF Notes notepad (the final batch of last year’s limited edition of 1,000, designed by Marta Ignerska).
Passes will be available at the OFF Shop at these promotional prices:
•    Three Day Pass: 140 zł (180 zł with campsite access)
•    Four Day Pass: 150 zł (190 zł with campsite access)

Prices are valid until March 5, after which passes will be available at other outlets at slightly higher prices.
And now let’s introduce the first artists of the OFF Festival Katowice 2013 lineup — though some of them need no introduction at all…

Deerhunter
We know how long you’ve been waiting for this one, so we’re glad to announce that Deerhunter will be performing at this year’s OFF Festival! New psychedelic rock, ambient punk, garage pop… it’s hard to find a label that’ll stick to this Atlanta quartet, but there’s one thing everyone can agree on: they’re one of this century’s best American guitar bands. It’s been a while since the release of Halcyon Digest (2010), so it’s safe to assume that Deerhunter will be bringing some new material along to Katowice. Bradford Cox recently revealed that the songs he’s been writing are very weird… well, why don’t we let that be a secret.

Laurel Halo
This American artist is said to have taken up the piano at the age of six, and soon moved on the violin and the guitar, so it’s no wonder she’s grown sick of them after all those years. Lauren Halo translates her classical music education into broken, futuristic electronic sounds and bold, intriguing vocal melodies. It comes as no surprise that her full-length debut, Quarantine, came out on Hyperdub, one of the most respected labels in the industry. Laurel Halo’s music is dense and multi-layered, but at once subtle and elusive. Unlike many of her fellow Hyperdub artists, who like to crush, terrify, and deafen their audiences with heavy basslines, her output is much more positive, yet no less demanding. One Guardian critic likened these sounds to “‘Oxygene’ for Brooklyn hipsters.” No offense to hipsters – it really is that good!

Metz
Polish audiences might expect this to be a stand-up comedy performance by the popular local music journalist Piotr Metz, but we’re going to have to burst their bubbles: the Metz we’re talking about here is a Canadian trio whose eponymous 2012 debut album proved that Sub Pop still has a knack for no-nonsense guitar noise, continuing in the American rock vein of the Pixies and Shellac. They say that before Metz went in to lay down the tracks for this record, a few sharp minds got together to figure out how to capture the trio’s live energy in the studio. Whatever they did, it was a success: the album ended up on most year-end lists of guitar music. But none of that matters to us now: we’re going to see them live at the OFF Festival. Hold on tight!

Merchandise
Next up in the category of three-man noise machines: Merchandise. This Florida band’s post-punk wall of noise has slammed down on reviewers at Pitchfork and the New Musical Express, both of whom gave them rave reviews for their mid-2012 album Children of Desire. This year the band is planning a new mini-album as well as more live performances, including a first-time appearance in Poland.

Jens Lekman
You know what I Know What Love Isn’t is? It’s a heart-rending and unbelievably beautiful work of consolation. Here’s what Jens Lekman had to say about his third album, released last fall: “I just want people to get some kind of comfort from it. Especially the people who have gone through some kind of break-up. When I went through the break-up, I really looked for some kind of music, or art or literature that could say, ‘I’ve been in the same situation.’ I couldn’t find anything the moment, and that made me really sad.”
Naturally, we hope that none of us will be going through a breakup at the OFF Festival, but don’t we all like to shed a tear while reminiscing about past relationships – both failed and happy – to the sounds of charmingly delicate melodies?