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Secret Garden Party 2014.

THE GARDEN

When: 1st – 8th July. Where: Tisno, Croatia. What: “Dancing together since 2006”, The Garden is an electronic festival in Croatia. Go see Bonobo for the beats and Banoffee Pie just because of that name. If you get tired of dancing (shame on you) Tisno town is just ten minutes away and you can go recuperate in paradise. Onsite accommodation includes apartments, luxury Shikar tents and Podpads. Beats a broken tent anyway.

WIRELESS

When: 3rd – 5th July. Where: Finsbury Park, London. What: The party starts before the festival even begins with Wireless’ 10th anniversary party on 28th June. This extra date at Finsbury Park sees Drake, Chance the Rapper and Katy B (amongst others) come together celebrate a decade of Wireless. Headlining this year’s weekend, sponsored for 2015 by high street staple New Look, are Drake, AVICII, David Guetta, Nicki Minaj and finally Kendrick Lamar, who we’re most excited to see after that surprise album release. Go see Major Lazer for some of the best twerking of your life, Ms Dynamite for ultimate throwback and Charli XCX for some pure unabashed pop. Also, a performance by Jaden and Willow Smith? There’s got to be some kinda weird twist there, right?

EXIT 

When: 9th – 12th July. Where: Novi Sad, Serbia. What: As far as locations go, Exit wins. Held in the Petrovaradin Fortress on the Danube River, the biggest festival in South East Europe takes place in 18th century surroundings. Previous headliners have ranged from Lauryn Hill to Morrissey. This year, The Prodigy are our favourites on the bill but make sure to check out Wilkinson and Simian Mobile Disco back to back with Roman Flugel.

BENICÀSSIM

When: 16th – 19th July. Where: Benicàssim, Spain. What: Despite being on the sunny shores of Spain, Benicàssim’s line up often feels like a Best of British list. This year Blur are the major headliners and while the four boys aren’t as cute and baby-faced as they were in the 90s, they can still play “Song 2” and that’s all you need really.

LATITUDE

When: 16th – 19th July. Where: Henham Park, Suffolk. What: A family friendly festival (kids under 4 go free!), Latitude is 10 years old. A little more artsy and cultured than other festivals, where your primary concern might be getting absolutely off your face for four days straight, Latitude offers up poetry, theatre, comedy and cabaret for your viewing pleasure. This year you can see Noel Gallagher and Alt-J headlining and everyone’s favourite awkward adult, Jon Richardson, will be on hand to help you laugh that hangover away. After that it’s party time and you can stay up all night dancing to the bizarre beats of The 2 Bears and the master, DJ EZ.

LOVEBOX

When: 17th – 18th July. Where: Victoria Park, London. What: The fact that Lovebox was founded by Groove Armada is essentially a promise you’re going to have pretty good time. We can verify that the moment you hear Pharrell or Snoop, who’s Saturday’s headliner, break out into those swirling oo’s at the beginning of “Drop It Like It’s Hot” you will lose it, don’t worry, it happens to us all. The man lucky enough to hold the title, Coolest Person in The World, Mr. Mark Ronson will also be making an appearance at the East London Weekender. Hunt down Despacio in the gaps in your setlist timetable. It’s LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and 2ManyDJs circle of speakers, designed to make disco sound its best.

THE SECRET GARDEN PARTY

When: 23rd – 26th July. Where: Cambridgeshire. What: Feeling nostalgic? Been known to enjoy jelly, ice cream and sprinkles? Secret Garden Party is for you with this year’s theme being Childish Things. What could be better than going back to the good old days of endless energy and eternal summers? As boutique as festivals come, you won’t find any huge names on the stages, but the music is a wonderfully eclectic mix, from funk beatmakers Jungle to soulful serenaders Angus and Julia Stone and Marika Hackman. Not in it for the live music? You won’t be the only one, what with lake swimming, paint fights, dance-offs and a late night venue called Little Gay Brother, you could have a packed weekend without seeing a single band.

KENDAL CALLING

When: 30th July – 2nd August. Where: Lowther Deer Park, Lake District. What: Another 10th birthday celebration, at Kendal Calling you can take a Northern Soul dance class in the morning, catch Kodaline in the afternoon then sway to the dulcet tones of Elbow all night. The award winning festival has already sold out for this year but watch all the highlights and mark the date on your calendar for when 2016 tickets go on sale. Looking at some old performances, it looks like it’ll be well worth the advance planning.

STANDON CALLING 

When: 31st July – 2nd August. Where: Standon, Hertfordshire. What: Founder of the festival, Alex Trenchard still maintains that it’s just a party for his mates that got out of hand. Strange things have been known to happen at Standon, if you see a fairy beckoning you towards a field, you’re (probably) not tripping, it’s usually a secret surprise. With 5am DJ licenses, you can really let your hair down. The Dandy Warhols are playing Standon as their only UK Festival date so plait your hair, throw on something swishy and go get bohemian like them.

Y NOT

When: 31st July – 2nd August. Where: Pikehall, Derbyshire What: Wanna get loaded and have a good time? Go see Primal Scream at Y Not in the Peak District. While you’re at it, stay for Bo Ningen’s set too. Haven’t heard of the Japanese acid punk band yet? Where have you been? If the rather eclectic genre of acid punk isn’t really your bag, try grunge group Black Honey, led by the enviably cool Izzy Bee. If you like guitars and looks that could kill, they’ll be your new favourites, promise.

Words: Lily Walker

Photography: Samantha Milligan

The post Wonderland Festival Guide: July appeared first on Wonderland.

Californian twins, ‘The Garden’ are a Wonderland favourite, and we’re not the only ones. With a sound born from Punk, nurtured by garage-rock and delivered in raw and deafening lo-fi; their self-inflicted ‘Vada Vada’ genre is a force to be reckoned with.

With sold out shows and a European tour in the bag, the brothers are driving forward as hard as their sound. Fresh off releasing new single, ‘Surprise’, they’re set to play The Boston Arms in Tufnell Park tonight. The Garden live show is a visceral, experiential event, that’ll leave you dazed and biting your nails for their return in March, where they’ll be supporting Warpaint on a UK tour.

Check out the new single here –

Video by Greg Barnes @clingfilms
With thanks to Lion Coffee + Records. https://www.facebook.com/LionCoffeeRecords

The post Wonderland Sessions: The Garden appeared first on Wonderland.

Wyatt wears black leather fisherman’s cap and black woolblend turtleneck both by Gucci, black snakeskin trousers by Roberto Cavalli and black leather belt by Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane. Fletcher wears black wool fisherman’s cap and black leather jacket both by Gucci, black cotton string vest Stylist’s own, silver metallic trousers by Diesel Black Gold 

In their debut editorial since Hedi Slimane plucked them from LA obscurity two years ago, doe-eyed dead ringers The Garden talk us through their scorched, experimental guitar pop sound – one that’s bringing all the boys (and girls) to the yard.

 Rest assured that The Garden – LA-based identical twins Wyatt and Fletcher Shears – feel they have a lot to prove. It’s easy to assume that substance may not necessarily outweigh style when it comes to these cross-dressing Tumblr heartthrobs – Hedi Slimane’s latest obsession, whose gender-bending silhouettes and doe-eyed stares peppered Saint Laurent menswear’s AW13 campaign. So striking is their appearance (sexy and terrifying in equal measure), the twins seem almost ageless. “We’re twenty years old” Wyatt tells me in our interview, before a gig at Clapton, London’s brand new venue space, The Dentist. “But I’m eight minutes older than him,” Fletcher proudly interrupts.

In reality, though, their lo-fi garage sound is 2014’s most enthralling new sound. “Crystal Clear,” a track taken from June EP Aunt J’s Smile, is nihilistic Big Black drum machines over gain-drenched, foreboding bass twangs. The boys are at the tail-end of their European tour, where they’ve been leaping offstage at festivals, literally. “We’re just trying to make kids dance,” Fletcher says. “If you can compare this to anything you’ve ever seen before, then please enlighten me, because I know I sure as hell can’t,” The Garden’s tour manager leans in and whispers to me before the show starts.

Despite being so young, the Shears have already amassed a muscly back catalogue of music, playing in countless bands before The Garden. “We’ve been making music since we were in diapers,” says Fletcher. “But I guess we never formed a real band ‘til Elementary School. Our first band was called Alert. It was just kid punk – loud and really, really fast. We were only ten or eleven, but if we didn’t have all the other bands or do all the other music that we do, The Garden wouldn’t be what it is today,” Wyatt modestly muses.

The boys credit their father – who played in thrash metal bands throughout the 80s – for shaping the back-bone of their nuanced sound. “We listened to a lot of hardcore English punk as tiny kids, and I think that even though we don’t sound like that now, you can definitely see the effect it’s had on us,“ Wyatt explains. They credit a smörgåsbord of influences: everyone from punk bands Minutemen and Big Boys, to cross-dressing rapper/performance artist Mykki Blanco.

“VadaVada” is the The Garden’s self-coined genre, invented to describe a sound too tricky to file into a single category. “When we started playing music, we weren’t trying to rebel against the norm,” Fletcher explains. “We don’t go out saying: ‘We hate pretty kids! We hate the government!’, because we’re actually rebelling against a music scene populated by people who call themselves ‘punks’ just because they wear patches on their leather jackets. Walking around in a circle doing the same thing as everybody else isn’t what ‘punk’ is about, is it? It could be rap. It could be electronic music. It could be a piece of art.”

The pair have spent the past few years fighting hard to get their music out. “We have a stupid history when it comes to albums and releases,” Wyatt sighs, ruffling his peroxide French Crop. “Our first album [the raw and grunge-y Everything Is Perfect] was supposed to come out in 2011, but it actually didn’t end up coming out ‘til very, very late 2012. It was promoted really badly… In fact, it was barely promoted at all. Then when it did finally get released, all the records skipped.  Like, literally none of the first thousand pressings played properly. Then when they tried to repress the records, the new ones didn’t play at all.” “It was a total mess,” Fletcher adds. “There are always issues, there’s always bullshit. Even when I think about it now, I just think ‘bullshit, bullshit, bullshit!”

The bad luck didn’t end there. For their most recent output, the boys decided to split new material across three limited edition seven inches (one of which was Aunt J’s Smile), for release in Japan, California and New York. Their producer in New York flaked last minute, the label in Japan accidentally added two of the same song onto the record, and the Californian release came riddled with errors – much to the twins’ frustration. Though misfortune waits for them on every corner, the pair have an unyielding fanbase behind them. At their sell-out show at The Dentist – so called as it was, until recently, a functioning surgery – kids were trying to clamber over the fence from outside to catch a glimpse of the twins.

Tearing through twenty songs in thirty minutes, the set switched effortlessly from theatrical-punk to surreal rap, with Fletcher pulling faces so bizarrely expressive to a melting front row that he resembled a mime. It’s hard to believe these guys have created such a finessed, magnetic live show when they’re not even old enough to drink back home, I thought.

As the twins make their way through a hysterical crowd offstage, their tour manager catches my eye again. It’s 1-0 to him, it seems. You’ve never seen anything like The Garden before.

Wyatt wears black leather fisherman’s cap and black woolblend turtleneck both by Gucci, black snakeskin trousers by Roberto Cavalli and black leather belt by Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane

Fletcher wears green metallic cotton sweater, Stylist’s own, pink sparkle tweed jacket by Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane, black jeans, sneakers and gold hoop earrings Model’s own and black leather belt by Lanvin. Wyatt wears white cotton shirt by Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane, black jeans and tennis shoes Model’s own, pink feather boa stylist’s own and white round plastic sunglasses by Ralph Lauren

Wyatt wears green wool jumper, leopard jacket and black jeans all Model’s own

Fletcher wears red wool turtleneck by Diesel Black Gold, print splashed denim jacket and jeans by Versace and gold and silver earrings, bracelets and black shoes Model’s own

Fletcher wears black and white tiger print sweater and black and white leather biker jacket by Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane, black wool trousers and gold and silver earrings Model’s own, multistone pendant necklace and silver bracelet from Pebble. Wyatt wears monochrome cotton sweater by Lanvin, black leather pants from Maison Martin Margiela, black wool fedora hat by Lock and Co and multistone and leather necklace by Pebble

Fletcher wears navy wool waistcoat by Maison Martin Margiela and pink satin scarf by Prada and gold and silver earrings Model’s own

Photographer: Ash Kingston

Fashion Editor: Gary Armstrong

Words: Billie JD Porter

Grooming: Nicole Kahlani at The Book Agency

Fashion Assistance: Hannah Tindle Talent

Models: Wyatt and Fletcher Shears

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