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Ungdomskulen @ Various Venues, London, UK

Norwegian three piece Ungdomskulen were back in the UK last week to promote their new album Bisexual and we were all over them like white on rice. I mean, how often do you get the chance to see your new favourite band three times in one week?! We couldn't believe our luck.

First stop, White Heat at Madame Jojo's. Support came in the shape of Hypertext (a band that live just down the road from Ungdomskulen in Bergen) & Dutch Uncles whose singer had excellently bendy legged dance moves to match their quirky charms. Ungdomskulen played a confident set to a modest crowd. Lead singer Kristian Stockhaus was wearing skimpy shorts, there were a few technical problems with Frode's distortion pedal, the sound was terrible, but their song still sounded great. The best bit of this set was the slow and skilfully improvised intro into 'Ordinary Son', which was how Kristian and Oyvind filled in time while Frode sorted out his pedal. It turned it into the most epic version when the bass finally kicked back in, it was totally worth the wait.

Next stop, The Old Blue Last with support from Three Trap... oh wait it's been cancelled due to a power failure. A quick wander around Shoreditch and a few phone calls later we find out the gig has been moved to Last Days of Decadence. Kristian is sitting pretty on the merch stand greeting people as they come and go. The band play a rocking set to a tipsy and packed out room who are loving it. They ended their last song 'Spartacus' by jumping down off the tiny stage, crashing into each other and dancing furiously to the end. A great finish. They set the bar way too high for Three Trapped Tigers to reach. Technical problems, feedback and long delays spoiled what was an otherwise amazing set, pretty much dominated by the technical skills of the drummer who completely blitzed his way through every time signature they could fit in. It was the release party for their new song '7' and they had to start it twice after it fell apart the first time. It's a shame, as the recordings on their myspace always sounds brilliant, but live they're too fussy and seem to have too much equipment to pull off a smooth gig. The people next to me seemed to love it anyway, I presume that wasn't just due to their drunkeness, but in recognition of TTT's mindblowingly complex brilliance once they actually got down to business.

The following night is party night,with Ungdomskulen DJing at the Lock Tavern. We take the opportunity to interview them (coming very soon). And finally, they complete the week with a set at Club NME at Koko wearing fantastic sequined shirts. As the projector screen lifted and the kids swarmed to the front of the stage, their opener 'Sleep Over Beethoven' hammered home the presence of something special. Their set was a little bit more of a 'best of' rather than a plug for their new album, playing more tried and tested songs from their debut album 'Cry Baby'. Everyone was very impressed, got very drunk and had their bicycles stolen. The end.

Review by David Apple & Dedee W.

Latitude 2009 Preview

Since it first appeared in 2005, Latitude festival has earned a reputation for being a glorious weekend away, boasting the best bands, theatre, comedy, culture, food and everything you could ask for, all nestled in the lush countryside setting of Suffolk.

It takes place on 16-19 July, and is quite likely to sell out again so we hope you’ve got your tickets. The reason people love Latitude so much is that it’s the ideal place to unwind. The words ‘idyllic’ and ‘serene’ come to mind. Their slogan ‘It’s more than just a music festival’ is one they actually do live up to. You can wander through the literary, poetry and comedy tents for half the day before you even get to the bands! Latitude are also known for going the extra mile when it comes to taking care of its residents. Maybe that’s why its been labeled a quintessentially middle class festival [insert joke about posh campers here]. It’s definitely a festival for people who want to go camping without the yob factor. I mean it was all so civilised I managed to come away with nothing more than a satisfied post festival glow and almost no injuries.

My overall memory of being at Latitude is that of waking up in a field in the middle of an Alice in Wonderland story book. Starting the day with a nutritious breakfast of Bloody Marys and surprisingly tasty vege burgers with my neighbors. Wandering past a flock of multicoloured sheep. Being drawn up the hill to the Obelisk arena by Bat for Lashes’ ethereal voice floating down towards me. Squeezing my way into the comedy tent to witness one of Dylan Moran’s inspired rants. Being hit in the head by a plastic cup during Rob da Bank’s set, and two lovely girls coming to my rescue with tissues for my head injury. Sitting at a wooden table in the sun with some new friends, casually fishing some grass out of my pint of cider.

Past line-ups have been diverse enough to include CSS, Jarvis Cocker, Patrick Wolf, Seasick Steve, Tinariwen, Blondie, Mars Volta, Sigur Ros and Elbow. This year they’ve got a bewildering and delightful array of acts such as Doves, Grace Jones, Ladyhawke, Datarock, Phoenix, Regina Spektor, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Fight Like Apes, Marnie Stern, Bat for Lashes, Lykke Li and they’ve even snuck in a cheeky little bonus - a solo set from Thom Yorke at noon on Sunday. Very impressive.

Insider Tip

If you plan to see anything at the Sunrise Arena, give yourself a little extra time as it’s slightly out of the way.

Travel info:

To get there from London, grab a coach. Last year, the organisers hooked up with National Express and a few other coach services to provide easy, fast and efficient travel directly to the site. It’s also a really good opportunity to make friends with other Latitudites. You never know when you might need to borrow a cup of sugar or find yourself in need of some help setting up your tent. You could also consider liftsharing through sites like liftshare.com. if you want to share your car with fellow festival goers. Alternatively you could get a train. The nearest station is Halesworth (you can get there from Liverpool Street station) but be warned, these trains are quite infrequent and can get busy before and after the festival. The organisers advise you get a train to Ipswich and then grab a shuttle bus to the festival site.

Review by David Apple & Dedee W.

Rose Elinor Dougall @ The Luminaire, London

What better way to spend an evening than watching a lovely young songbird mesmerise a crowd of fans with her gorgeous voice. Rose Dougall, once everyone's favourite Pipette is back having kicked off her successful solo career with a sold out single 'Another Version Of Pop Song'. Tonight the room is fairly packed for the launch of her second single 'Start/Stop/Synchro'. Even though I didn't know the songs at all I went in fully expecting to enjoy every minute. I would describe her songs as classic slow burners, smooth and easy on the ear, but intriguing enough to invite you back for a second listen. Every song envelopes you in a floaty dreamy wall of sound. There's hints of Howling Bells' sultry loveliness, along with strong riffs and harmonies that are spread out to form a lush lazy atmosphere of pop paradise. It seems like this girl can do no wrong.

Review by Dedee W.

"Get on your bike to beat the strike!" and other propoganda

Get on your bike to beat the strike! and other propaganda Listen to that, the sound of another cheerful slogan designed to take your mind off the real issues and get you enjoying a bit of fresh air while cycling round London.

I think I first saw it on the Tfl site and I thought well isn't that nice! There's a two day tube strike on this week but they wanna help us look on the bright side! That's all well and good for the people who are used to cycling to work but what about all the newbies, forced out onto the extra congested roads with miles of backed up traffic. crowds spilling onto the street at the bus stops, people arguing fiercely over taxis, and the queues of extra buses everywhere?

'Get on your bike to beat the strike' is about as helpful as the delightfully patronising signs I see at tube stations in summer that suggest you 'Carry a bottle of water with you', with a big picture of a plastic bottle on it just in case you hadn't seen one before. You're probably better off on a bike then to be honest. Hell isn't other people, it's other people crammed up against you on the tube in rush hour in 25 degree heat. My tip is to freeze a plastic water bottle overnight, leaving a small gap at the top to add water and start it melting again. Take that with you. It's an absolute life saver.

So all of this ties in nicely to what I was going to mention next - it's National Bike Week from 13-21 June! If you're keen to find out more about all that outdoorsy fitness feelgood stuff, go to the Bike Week website. Go on, you know you want to. There's a great story on the Times Online website about cyclists getting together to beat the tube strike. It includes this quote from one man:

"My fiancee always says to me that she doesn’t want me to cycle because she doesn't want me to die."

Aww, bless him. And I thought that it was just me that was a bit nervous about being hit by a truck. You can read the full article on the Times Online website.

The story also mentioned that Mayor Boris Johnson had called for "Blitz spirit" during this strike. This reminded me of all the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' posters I keep seeing everywhere. I even have one in my room that I bought on holiday, on the other side of the world for crying out loud. When did that slogan become so fashionable again? Oh don't tell me it's that recession thing. I'm so sick of that. Let's take a leaf out of Charlie Brooker's book and start calling it Moneygeddon! We could make a new poster that says "Moneygeddon, Bring It On!". For a bit of history on the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' posters check out this Wikipedia Page.

Lastly I'll take this opportunity to bid a wistful goodbye to the Apprentice for this year. Thrilling television as usual. Not only did the quietly confident, and ruthlessy thrifty Yasmina win it (and Debra wasn't even in the final to spice things up!) but there was the shocking news that Margaret is leaving the series to do her Phd in Papyrology. Good on her I say, she's more than paid her dues. I was disappointed they didn't play the Margaret Mountford song from the Adam and Joe show, that would have been the perfect tribute for her. Anyway, no more talk of any reality shows til next year, I promise you. There are plenty of other places you can read about that.

Review by Ella A.

We laugh in the face of Reality Television!

Right guys, I'm going to start at the business end today. For those of you eligible to vote in tomorrow's European elections - You should vote! Vote Vote Vote! If at all humanly possible, get yourself down to your local polling station and make your vote count. Cos it's important and stuff. And well, I'm sure you don't need me to explain why. I'm not the most politically knowledgeable person, but I do know that it's important not to waste your vote. If you don't vote now, you absolutely can't whinge about it later. But if for some reason you forget to vote this time round, don't fret - I hear there may be a UK General Election around the corner just for kicks. Wahey! More voting funtimes ahead.

Onto more entertaining issues, here's this week's thoughts on the Apprentice. Yes that's right I'm still watching it, cos I'm far too involved now and want to see who wins. So last week they fired Howard (Frog Eyes), after Suralan kept us guessing in the boardroom, making you wonder if he'd dare to shock us by firing Kate, and then really shocking us by not firing Lorraine. He said Howard was too "risk averse", so he was out of the race.

Tonight it's all about those infamous hardcore interviews where they put the candidates on the spot with the really hard questions. Although asking Debra 'Have you ever told anybody to eff off at work?' isn't that difficult to answer really, she just says 'yes' but it'll be fun watching her justify it. I wanted her to go a few weeks back cos I thought she was too bitchy, but now she's proved herself to be such a strong contender I have to agree it could be between her and Yasmina to win it. She'd better not win. Although if shes become the much improved Ice Queen of the competition I suppose she'd deserve it. Dammit.

To lighten the mood of any tough day in the office and see a few of your old favourites from past series, watch this brilliant six minute clip: "Cassette Boy vs. The Bloody Apprentice." Laugh your arse off while wondering how long it must have taken Cassette Boy to put this epic masterpiece together. I think they should consider replacing the theme tune with his version.

Cassette Boy vs The Apprentice.
Another little gem that's found its way to my inbox is this recently penned ditty called 'Who Broke Susan Boyle???' This song allows us to reflect on the mess left behind by these fetid, stinking 'talent shows' plastered all over our tv screens year after year. (Don't even get me started on The bloody X Factor. That should definitely be scrapped along with Big Brother and all the other sad programs that refuse to go away and die.) Anyway, after I listened to this song, I was left thinking 'My sentiments exactly!' This is why I've never watched one single minute of Britain's Got Talent. Well, mainly cos I can't stand those judges, but you get the idea. They're willing to sacrifice these very ordinary human beings for their precious ratings, and then have the balls to call it entertainment. The only reason I even know what's going on in Reality TV-land is that I hear it mentioned daily on the radio! Good old bitchy gossipy talkback radio. Now that's where you get a dose of reality these days let me tell you. So, here's the song. Enjoy!


Words and music by Scrappy Hood from Milk Kan. Video By Medders AKA Cigarface AKA Beako AKA Super Cigarface.

Review by Ella A.

Stag and Dagger 2009, London

Welcome back to Stag and Dagger 2009! Or the ‘Shoreditch Stagger’ if you will. I traipsed all the way from Cargo to 93 Feet East and back to get the most out of this festival. But don’t let that put you off! It was worth it.

We began with a quick visit to the Feeling Gloomy djs, then headed for the bands at Cargo. A band called Me My Head were making a lot of noise in the main room. I would describe it as ‘crap boy band rock’. Luckily we discovered a free photo booth outside to keep us amused. We watched about eight kids pile into it at once while we stood waiting for our photos. Brilliant.

Next up were the band we’d come to see – Ungdomskulen, from Norway. No crap boy band stylings here! Just a three piece rock band that enjoy good strong guitar riffs in their modern take on the epic rock song. Starting off with ‘Sleep Over Beethoven’ from their new album ‘Bisexual’, they were milking it already. They tend to play longer songs that can sometimes be more challenging listens. I wondered if people were getting it. But it seemed the room was full of fans as after they played ‘Idunno’ and announced ‘Ordinary Son’, they were met with cheers of approval. Kristian and Frode kept dancing and pulling lots of crazy poses, keeping the photographer on his toes throughout the set. After they invited the crowd to step forward it felt a lot better too, we could all really get into it, not just the guy in the front row who’d been playing massive air guitar and singing along since the second song! By the end we were all shouting along to ‘Spartacus’ and really loving it. I for one can’t wait to see this band again.

Over at Vibe Bar on Brick Lane we headed upstairs and saw the second half of The Mae Shi’s set, which featured the first of two excellent stage invasions that night. It was as hot and crowded as you can imagine in that room but the songs were sounding great, hyperactive poppy guitar noise, sometimes peppered with shiny happy electronic bleeps. When the stage invasion happened I snuck over to the side where there was actually some space(!) to get a photo of someone crowd surfing on stage and sticking their foot in a hole in the ceiling. Then they started unfolding a massive sheet over the crowd that looked like a parachute! Do they do this at every gig? Who knows.

Tried to watch a bit of We Have Band downstairs at Vibe bar, couldn’t see them that well, but we did hear their last single ‘Oh’, probably the best bit of their set. Then it was time to quickly dash across the road to 93 Feet East to get a good spot for the infamous Dananananakroyd. It has been absolutely packed in there earlier for The Twilight Sad, but it was obviously clearing out well between bands. No queues in sight, hooray! I can’t believe I haven’t seen this band before, I’ve been hearing about them for about three years. It was a brilliant way to end the night, they are an amazing band who’ve earned a great reputation their crazy fun live shows. Their music is like a rush of adrenalin to the head with lots of great moments when the singers are bent double and screaming into the mic, like you might see in a Blood Brothers set. There’s also some very nice melodic guitar playing, which I could fully appreciate from the front row. It’s a satisfying mix of indie and hardcore, and it makes everyone go so mental it sends the drinks flying off the front of the stage. (and they did warn people to move them!) The two singers run wild throughout the set, taking turns to be at the front and do some crowdsurfing. The whole set is a flurry of movement, with one of them juggling drumming and singing duties at breakneck speed. If you’ve seen them before you’ll already know they love to dive into the audience and hug everyone. At one point some disco music comes on and almost all of the band apart from one of the drummers runs off stage into the middle of the crowd. I couldn’t quite see what was going on, but I’m guessing there were a few breakdancing moves. Their tour manager steps in to play drums for them when they come back on, so at that point there’s actually seven people in the band! At the end of their triumphant set there was another massive stage invasion, and this time me and my mate just had to join in. I jumped off stage just in time to get a glimpse of another onstage crowd surf, one of their singers with their feet in the air. To sum up, Dananananakroyd rule. I can’t wait to see them again.

So that’s another successful year for Stag and Dagger, a stronger line up than last year and enough time for everyone to see most of it. Not bad for a city festival eh?

Review by Dedee W.

Little Palm & Gemma Quarterman @ Coffee & Cake, Birmingham

After such an amazing time last month, House of Tracks went back to Cassie's House for another Coffee and Cake evening. Everything started earlier than last time due to the bank holiday, we spent a couple of hours drinking cider in the garden before the music started.

Gemma Quarterman played her set in the garden and with the weather being so lovely, sitting on the grass made us feel like we were at a small festival. Gemma played her guitar with two others playing the guitar and glockenspiel. Her voice was powerful and songs sang with the emotion that she'd written them with, the only interruption was an unfortunately loud plane flying overhead. The mixture of upbeat and slower folky songs worked together perfectly throughout the set. www.myspace.com/gemmaquarterman

We all moved into the living room for the next act. Little Palm is Anna Palmer, a pianist and singer from Birmingham. I think I fell slightly in love with this woman during this set, it was a privilege to sit so close to someone with such a raw talent. She has a beautiful voice and is an amazing piano player. Her medley of cover versions, which you can find on her MySpace, could put the original artists to shame. www.myspace.com/flyonalittlewing but I recommend seeing her soon, because I don't think it will be long before she starts playing at huge venues, and we all know they're not as fun.

Review by Lily Sparks.

Anybody Scared Yet?

So for anyone still watching The Apprentice, here's my thoughts for this week. Ben went last week which meant that Deborah stayed annoyingly. I wanted them to get rid of her. But I guess one too many mentions of Sandhurst from him meant that bossy old Debs made better telly in the end. Tonight's task actually looks quite interesting. This time the gang get to test their skills as presenters on a live TV shopping channel. The lovely Kate should do well on this one, as long as she avoids any potential blonde moments. But then most people have decided she's going to win, so that's a bit boring. Watching Bigface James come out with some corkers should be much more fun.

And what about the plans for a 'Junior Apprentice' next year? Sounds like a great idea. It means we get to watch 16 and 17 year olds bitch at each other, like a bunch of snotty little corporate bores in training. Joy.

Onto a more serious topic, I see North Korea's in the news again. In case you missed it North Korea tested a nuclear weapon on May 25, and are responding like a stubborn teenager when the UN tells them off. Their reaction seems to be like turning round and saying 'What? Leave us alone will you? Here's a quote from a news article on www.bloomberg.com: "North Korea threatened a military response to South Korean participation in a U.S.-led program to seize weapons of mass destruction, and said it will no longer abide by the 1953 Armistice that ended the Korean War." So now that I've fed you the guts of it from a proper news site, let's stop and reflect.

While some of us may not have given North Korea a second thought since the hilarious portrayal of Kim Jong Il in the Southpark movie 'Bigger, Longer & Uncut', the situation over there is a scary reality. A few years ago, on one of my more interesting days at work I found myself on a bus trip up to the DMZ, otherwise known as the De-Militarized Zone between North and South Korea. I remember the strikingly lit ruin of the Former Labour party Headquarters, standing next to the eerie fields of No Mans Land. I remember our driver telling us how his brother had gone to North Korea and he hadn't seen him for twenty-one years. But he still managed a smile and said he hoped that things would turn out and he might see him again, one day. We could only echo his optimism, but it seemed unbelievably sad to us. So hearing about the nuclear tests this week was all too real to me. We can only hope that this doesn't turn into something more serious than a short fat puppet doing a bad Korean accent in the style of Eric Cartman. But then again, it already has.

Review by Ella A.

David Cronenbergs Wife @ Cross Kings, London

Having successfully clawed our way out of the hole that is 'the recession' we make our triumphant return to the one and only London town! So, London, it's been a while, how is everyone? In good health and doing just fine by the looks of things.

Yes this month, we've made the big move from Birmingham to London! We've found a nice sun-facing shoebox to call our home (it's all we could afford!) and will be reporting back from our adventures in the musical minefield. And it is a minefield out there, you can't move for gigs. The best and worst bands can be found playing all over town, every night of the week. So I personally will be on a mission to pick out the best ones to attend. It's about quality folks, not quantity.

Saturday night we checked in with our friends David Cronenberg's Wife at their single launch for The Fight Song EP at Cross Kings. Tonight sees them headlining a night called Cirque de Creme Anglaise, who displayed stylish printed signs telling us the name of each band, adding an extra touch of class to the evening. Such is the confidence and vigour of DCW that one of their songs causes a fan to slip right off her feet causing a near fatal knee injury. Oh Lordy how she howled with the pain as concerned onlookers rushed to her aid! Singer Tom Mayne noticed and said they would have to calm it down, but a few songs later he was letting out snarls and growls with 'I'm on the Booze Mama'. There's a certain extra kick to Tom's performance tonight, maybe it's that added confidence of having one album under their belt and another on the way. And there's nothing like hearing DCW's familiar and comforting darkened tones that still make us wanna dance. But, you've been warned kids, dancing too hard can be dangerous.

Sunday see's me scampering off to Bethnal Green for Hungamunga's third birthday party. It's raining, I've got soggy feet, I had to get a bus from Liverpool St. (The joys of weekend engineering works on the tube, how I've missed you) Hungamunga have recently made it into a Time Out guide called '1000 things to do in London for under £10' and it comes as no surprise.

Tonight I'm reminded how much fun I can have mucking around with arty crafty stuff, surrounded by music, cakes and drinkies. I'm longing for another super-hot summer weekend where they do another two room extravaganza with some comedians. This one's more of a low key affair, a birthday party for friends old and new. There's a speedy drawathon where two people battle it out to fill a long strip of paper with creative scribbles all the way from the stage to the door, while our host Lloyd Moondog plays a dodgy one-handed keyboard solo onstage. The Outdoor Types treat us to off-kilter country rock tunes, and The Duloks are cute quirky and just plain filthy at times. They have a song about the computer game 'Gauntlet' and "when your boyfriend prefers playing playstation to having sex with you". Their singer still manages to come across as likeable even when she's harrassing people in the room, like a comedian doing some reverse heckling. She even choses to out her boyfriend, who's sitting near us, as "the best sex she's ever had". We just sit there giggling behind our knitting."What, did I share too much?" she asks. No, of course not! But when she moved onto to discuss the grossness of male testicles I had to wonder.

Next week: We crank it up even further to see if London can still flip our switches with the return of the Stag and Dagger festival, and the Antifolk festival. Can either of these be done on a strict budget and with very little alcohol to aid our appreciation of events? Stay tuned to find out..

Review by Dedee W.

Why am I still watching The Apprentice?

Because I'm sad. What, you actually think that show's still interesting? Hell no, but I think the live online Predictor has us all hooked. I mean, watching that exciting animated bar graph go crazy as people try and predict who the next big loser will be, my it almost makes it entertaining. I've never scored more than 300 points though, dammit. That and the brilliant 'The Apprentice You're Fired'. Anything presented by Adrian Chiles is hilarious. (Don't get me started on The One Show, I'm quite a fan) I wish I'd seen the first series of The Apprentice when it was fresh and new. Maybe they had serious contenders then? But now it's lowered itself to the same level as all the other reality tv drivel. Is it just me or are they repeating the same simplistic tasks as well as the tired format? There are times I find it so unchallenging it may as well be on ITV.

On the other hand, what a theme tune! It is of course Prokofiev's famous theme to Romeo and Juliet, but will now always be known to the masses as The Apprentice Theme tune. Extra points to you if you knew that already. I'll also admit to enjoying Suralan's familiar opening spiel. All together now: 'Second prize, don't exist!'

But one of the best reasons to tune in is so I can chat to my friends about the fascinating characters on the show. (I mean, er 'candidates').

Bitchface - the cold bossy bitchy one, with a 'face like a plate'. Spends ages applying creams and make-up to cover up her true bitchiness. It hasn't worked. She actually dared to talk down to Nick in the boardroom once. Suralan told her off and that soon shut her up.

Blondie - the pretty blonde who insists she's not just some 'dumb blonde'. She's made it this far into the game, so she might be right.

Frog Eyes - the gay one, who isn't really camp enough to be entertaining. He has big placid eyes and heavy eyelids that make him resemble a sleepy frog.

Mr Arrogant - (or Fuzzy face in reference to his copycat Suralan styled facial fuzz) - the token young buck on the show, who keeps going on about getting a scholarship Sandhurst even though he never went, maybe cos he was so vain he just had to go on The Apprentice first and show off his extreme arrogance and questionable good looks.

Uguly Schumuguly - or to be more sensitive we could call her the token 'homely' or plain woman. (No one apart from maybe Chris Moyles has dared to direct comment on her looks yet, it seems.) But this contest's not about looks is it, and she's here to really hammer that point home. She's looks a bit like the female Alan Carr. And that's been endorsed by Mr Carr himself, as a quick comment on the red carpet at the Baftas where he joked that she must have seen him and decided to rip off his look! Brilliant.

And we can't forget our favourite, Bigface - so called cos it's been said he has a face 'like a loaf of bread' (thank you Charlie Brooker for that one). You may have noticed that his face takes up most of your screen when they do a close up. He's also known as James, the big friendly guy who gives us all the best quotes, pulls some great faces, and once admitted to letting out a tiny bit of wee during a nervous moment in the boardroom.

Perhaps the best and most enduring characters on the show are the super sharp 'Bond villain' Nick, and the calm dignified prescence of Margaret. Margaret has even inspired a song on Adam and Joe's Song Wars on their show on BBC 6, where Joe sings that her hair is 'like a cloud'. How poetic.

To sum up, the person I think should go this week is 'Bitchface'. Mainly cos I don't like her and would hate to see her in the final three. I say 'should' go but I can't put money on this as a prediction of course. You can't call it until about halfway through the ridiculous charade when you find out which team's won the task. But I will give my predictions for the final three: James, Kate and Yasmina (I haven't got a nickname for, but let's call her the Quietly Confident one). I'll be back here next week to whinge about it if I'm wrong.

Review by Ella A.

Camden Crawl 2009

As many of you may know, Camden Crawl has often been dubbed the 'Camden Queue', and for good reason. As it's grown in size and popularity, more and more people are queuing up to get into all the venues. They've even thoughtfully devised a system where 'to avoid queuing' for the main headliners at the Roundhouse, you queue up early at 2.30 to get a special wristband for say, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at 7.15. That's probably the only queue worth being in then! Cos at least you know you're going to get in later. Unlike when we queued for Fight Like Apes at Dublin Castle. At that point one of those extra special 'queue jumper tickets' would have come in handy. Anyway if I mention the word queue one more time I think my head might explode, so on with the review!

Friday

We wandered into Cuban bar to check out VV Brown, there was plenty of room at the back but we couldn't see a thing. We weren't up for pushing past everyone there for a better view so we just listened. I can say she sounded great though, upbeat summery soulful songs to shimmy to. The next band we saw was Your Twenties in the tiny room upstairs at The Enterprise. We were really looking forward to seeing them as we've kinda fallen in love with their well-crafted optimistic pop songs and sunny disposition. Also I should mention that I've had their song 'Gold' stuck in my heads since I found them on myspace a month ago. When they finally played it, it couldn't have sounded sweeter. "Keep the gold I gave you, honeeeeey". Best chorus of 2009.

The rest of the night passed in a fun-filled blur, meeting up with some friends at Camden Rock for some more random bands, and seriously overpriced small drinks. £5.50 for a vodka red bull?! (I was drinking lemonade at this point).

We then headed to Jazz Cafe for Chess Club DJs, who impressed us by playing some a brilliant remix of the Beach Boys 'I Get Around', and also giving us all an emotional slowdance moment to 'God Only Knows'. This club seemed to be full of good looking people with good and/or wacky dance moves. Shame the grumpy security guy wouldn't let those girls keep dancing on stage, they were really into it. There was a strange speedy remix of Ace of Base thrown in, then they started a Backstreet Boys one so we had to leave.

After that we ventured into the Electric Ballroom, where the Rockfeedback DJs had just finished playing a Metronomy remix and dropped in a Foals track. They continued happily in this fashion, playing most of my favourite songs, so it was the perfect way to end the night. We checked out upstairs and ended up dancing in a circle with some friendly Irish girls. And we got to watch some drunk guy trying to help Toby from Transgressive roll up the Rockfeedback banner.

Saturday

A leisurely stroll down the canal to meet our friends at The Constitution for a bit of Rumble Strips, Frankmusik, and Bombay Bicycle Club. All of these bands were listened to from the back of a very crowded room, either upstairs or downstairs at this pub. So again we couldn't see that much, but it sounded all good.

Best Breakthrough set of the weekend, Tim Ten Yen at the Spreadeagle. Go Tim!! The Spreadeagle clearly isn't the best venue to squeeze a big Crawl sized crowd into. There were big wooden pillar things blocking the view around the tiny stage area, but we managed to work our way nearer to the front so we could get a glimpse of Tim's head or arm while he was dancing around on stage. It seemed everyone was here to see Graham Coxon play his secret set, but first they were about to witness the inimitable pop stylings of the dancing salaryman Tim. Ten. Yen. I put the pauses in there as that's how he tends to deliver it during his sets, to make sure all the new fans can catch his name properly. Very effective. I'm a big fan of this guy, so I was really stoked to see all these people instantly converted. As he raced through all the hits 'Girl Number One', 'Sea Anenome', 'The Bear and the Fox', 'Something Sinister' where he held out Sinister Cat for the front row to touch, he seemed to be on a roll. Everyone was really loving all the animated dance moves and infectious happy tunes. They were clapping along and laughing, and by the end they were chanting his name for an encore. Brilliant!

We went on to queue for Fight Like Apes at Dublin Castle, for about half an hour. And didn't even get in! We were close to the front of the queue when they announced it was full. A friend had told me that they clear the venue out at about 6 then let everyone back in. Didn't work for us though, we had to go elsewhere in the end!

Purple Turtle was our last port of call for the weekend, settling in for the last couple of bands on the Artrocker stage. First up was Die! Die! Die! After some more traveling and gigs back in their hometown of New Zealand, the boys are back in London and they seem mighty glad about it. They plough through in their usual style, Andrew wasting no time in getting off the stage, in amongst the crowd and climbing on the bar. They played a couple of new songs and included some great older ones like 'White Horses' (the calmer more reflective song where drummer Mikey finally gets a bit of a break), and 'Blue Skies'. I enjoyed the bit where their bassist Lachlan nonchalantly climbed up on the amp and jumped off it to land on stage again.

Most Technically Impressive Performance of the weekend, Three Trapped Tigers. I say most technically impressive cos they come across so obviously professional, really well practiced and well trained musicians. I don't love them as much as Dave yet, but no doubt they'll grow on me. It was a shame the sound wasn't that good in the venue, cos at first I was mainly hearing just the drums, which sounded amazing anyway, this guy was doing a lot of that ultra precise 'drum machine' drumming. The guys on synth and guitar add lush layers of sound to the songs and the overall effect is quite epic and impressive. They played all the songs they had (only five, all untitled) and definitely left the crowd wanting more.

So that's the Crawl for another year folks. Who knows we may even be up for the challenge again next year.

Review by Dedee W.

Top Tracks

Review by David Apple.

Bat For Lashes @ The Town Hall, Birmingham

Bat for Lashes is back with her difficult second album 'Two Suns'. But before we write her off completely, let's go and see her play it live.

The Town Hall in Birmingham is a relatively new live music venue. I think it mainly hosts classical music, they serve tea and everything is clean. The excessive sound treatment on the ceiling suffocated the hall's acoustics. Natasha commented on how quiet it was in between her songs. I could clearly make out people on the other side of the hall breathing heavily.

The venue aside, there's no denying that Natasha Khan has grown a lot since her 'Fur and Gold' days. She's quite content to majestically sweep across the stage while singing with nothing in her hands but a microphone. Her voice, as strong as a chainsaw, can go from mega loud to ultra soft while hitting every note perfectly.

Unfortunately, her new instrumentation and session musicians made everything sound thin and weedy. She may as well be collaborating with Keane, it's such a waste of her talent. The only performance in which the music matched the power of Natasha's vocals was the second encore and her latest single, 'Daniel'. 'Daniel' is a masterpiece, her best song ever. It's really catchy and funky. And I suppose, there were a couple of old songs that shone through. She played 'Prescilla' with just an autoharp and she brought on one of her old session musicians (Caroline Weeks) to play 'Tahiti'. The rest of her set sounded weak, forgettable and boring. Half way through the night I whipped out a sleeping bag, climbed in and drifted off next to the wall.

I'm sure Bat For Lashes is going to be around for a long time and I'm really glad but don't buy this album. Hold out for her next one.

Review by David Apple.

All Hail The Sony PSP

The Sony PSP is the greatest hand held gaming device ever. I think lots of people maintain that the Sega Game Gear is better but it's not and I will explain why shortly but first, some history. On Sunday December 12th 2004, Sony released the first batch of PSPs in Japan. The operating system that these original PSPs (officially called PSP1000s) were running was the notorious Firmware version 1.00. The massive flaw in this software became apparent to everyone almost immediately. Japanese people were able to upload and run applications on the device without any setup at all. This might not seem like such a big issue but it wasn't long before people started writing applications to copy official UMD games and movies, overwrite the firmware, play downloaded games and even play old PlayStation One games!

Sony immediately set to work on a firmware update (called 1.50) to get around this problem. This new firmware was installed on all the PSPs that were released to the rest of the world in 2005. It was a Spanish programmer called Dark Alex that eventually hacked this firmware update and to this day, Sony keep releasing firmware updates and Dark Alex keeps hacking them.

For the gaming industry, the hacked PSP is generally bad news. Game makers can't charge as much for their games because they know people just won't buy them if they can download them illegally instead. However, for the user, a hacked PSP is a very powerful tool. So far, the PSP has been know to run NES, Commodore 64, SNES, Genesis, Mega CD, N64, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advanced, Game Gear, ScummVM and PS1 games. It can also emulate the old Atari operating system as well as MS Dos, Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 operating systems. Also, with a few extra hardware additions, it can also work as a camera, telephone and even a satellite navigation device!

Since 2005, Sony upgraded hardware of the PSP in the form of the PSP2000 and the PSP3000 series. These models have the added features of being slightly thinner, having a better screen and a built in microphone. They're also a lot more secure than the original model, to the point that the PSP 3000 is currently considered unhackable.

Review by David Apple.

Coffee & Cake @ Cassie's House, Kings Heath, Birmingham

On Sunday night, the House of Tracks crew attended the Coffee and Cake club in Kings Heath. A simple but rare concept, Cassie - the host, gets artists to play in her living room, providing free cake and coffee. This results in a delightful, unique and intimate gig experience.

Musical entertainment was provided by Tom Peel. Combining cute, funny and personal songwriting with a full range of vocal noises (including screeching, shouting and growling) which greatly amused to 25 strong crowd. After his performance he sold some CD's which came in material pouches, handmade by is mother!

Following this was open mic. Among the performers was a guitar and violin duo who played a few brilliantly epic songs that gave me goosepimples! They haven't released anything official yet but watch this space for more.

A lot of the people knew each other and the atmosphere was like that of a house party rather than a gig because of the setting. A random but great night that I will definitely be attending again!

Review by Shelly Lace.

Bloc Weekender 2009 (13th - 15th March) @ Butlins, Minehead

It felt like I was sneaking into festival season a few months early, unaccustomed as I am to spending a sunny weekend at Butlins partaking in one of those 'rave' type festivals. Yet here I was, and it was only March! So it was a bit of a treat to already be indulging what could be described as the electronica version of an ATP. I mean, it was Dave the Warp records fan who'd really wanted to be here, but I felt this would be a learning experience for me.

It wasn't the most amazing line-up in the world, but with just a few strong headliners and lots of random unknown stuff, it meant there was less pressure to rush from stage to stage and more time to enjoy ourselves. I'd also been lured in by the added bonus of 'Splash Waterworld'. This is where we spent most of our days, floating round the current pool, bouncing round the wave pool, and going on all the waterslides, including the one where they sit you in an inflatable raft and they push you down a massive dip. Hours of fun. The spas could have been a bit warmer though.

Friday

So, down to the music! And the fun of exploring the weird, brightly coloured surroundings of Butlins. The first thing that got me in the mood was walking into Tec Bloc hear some guy mixing a great tune with the music from Pacman in it. Following the theme of computer games, we'd discovered they had our beloved Digital Funfair, enjoyed many a time at Secret Garden Party.

It's a neat little tent full of silly addictive stuff, including video games you control by pedaling on a bicycle in front of a big screen There's a certain catchy tune to be found in this funfair tent that's become almost a theme tune for festivals, so we felt right at home.

We went for a wander and found the 'Welfare Tent' that was only interested in your welfare if you’d done the required amount of party drugs. They came across as very sweet, well-meaning and demented when they explained that yes, they had laid out all these mugs ready to serve tea, but only if you’d taken too many drugs and were freaking out. We offered to pay for some tea, but were politely told to go elsewhere. Weird.

We spent most of our time in Jak Bloc a smaller more intimate room. They started off watching Greco Roman Sound System played some dubby reggae tunes. Then on came Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. We were instantly impressed with their flashy costumes. One guy was dressed as a big green dinosaur, the other, some sort of mystery character wearing a red cape with a glittery silver box for a head. They treated us to some massively cheesy dancefloor classics such as ‘These Sounds Fall into my mind’ by the Bomb.

Drums of Death (or Colin, to him Mum) has such a brilliant energetic stage presence. He really throws himself into his dance moves, and by the end of his set the white zombie facepaint was dripping down his neck onto his black shirt. He absolutely caned his mix of Franz Ferdinand’s ‘What She Came For’, coming out front and singing to the front row like it was fully packed room. Even though half the room rushed off at the end to see someone else! What were they thinking.

Rob da Bank’s set was somewhat marred by the presence of one of the Greco Roman guys, beer can in hand, mic in the other, acting as the Peter Kay style emcee for the whole of the set. Except it wasn’t that funny. Well, except for when the sound guys pretended the mic was broken for a whole song just to let us enjoy the music.

Saturday

I thought I might go see the a bit of Lee 'Scratch' Perry but quickly discovered a long pointless queue for him at Centre:Bloc while they were running one and half hours late. This was the stage with the biggest room at the festival though, so did people realise there was no need to queue? Instead of queuing I went and checked out the digital graffiti art battle at the Yr Wall thing, Watched a bit of Pathic, which was quite good before it got too repetitive for my ears. Then I ended up watching most of Ulrich Schnauss, cos it was just so beautiful and hypnotic.

I was really drawn in by the slow heart beat of the bass drum emanating out of the massive speakers. It was the biggest loveliest ambience I heard all weekend. I think with a sound system like that it was the perfect place to discover it. Everyone was just standing around smiling and nodding and for once I think I actually knew why.

Jamie Lidell. Brilliant. My first impression at another festival last year had left me a bit disappointed, but tonight was a totally different kind of set. He was definitely on. Got to hear some of those gorgeous warm soul vocals, and it all just gelled so well with all the stuff he was doing onstage. By ‘stuff’ I mean all that knob twiddling and mixing combined with coming out front and singing his great songs to the room.

Tim Exile, amazing, so I heard. He was on the same time as Jamie Lidell so I didn’t get to see him! Clark, really bloody good as well. Sounding crisp and sophisticated and always interesting, I was glad to finally get to see him live. Played one of our faves off Turning Dragon, and ended by doing Proper Lofi for an encore. Nice. Aphex Twin & Hecker. predictably disappointing. I was prepared for this, as he's apparently never been the type to play anything at all you would recognise. I don't mean Windowlicker or anything that obvious, but y'know, something that sounds good and twisted like you’d expect. I had a good dance, but it could have been anyone up there on that stage. We felt like it had been mostly Hecker who was doing the work.

Went back to the 'Welfare tent' and watched people before us, trying and failing to buy a cup of tea there. Disturbingly, the dear old lady serving tonight kept telling people to ‘go get fucked’ when they asked for a cup of tea. That’s right. She cheerfully told people to ‘Go and get really fucked out of ya head, then come back and have a cup of tea.’ I felt like asking her exactly how many Class A’s I would need to consume before I got a cup of this precious reserved for druggies only tea. I s’pose they were trying to make sure no-one was just at this rave for the free tea supplies. Geez!!

Sunday

I-F, with dancing girls in skimpy-ish costumes. We had a dance and enjoyed watching and trying to guess which ones were really girls. Then we decided they all were. Oops.

Ceephax Acid Karaoke. The most brilliant thing we’ve seen in a while, despite what the guy in charge was telling us. "You will never hear anything like this again. It will never be performed again. This will be the crappiest thing you hear in your life." We heard amazing acid karaoke versions of Total Eclipse of the Heart and Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights, it sounded so out of it, I can only describe it as mindbendingly fun to listen to. Also great to watch Dave’s face as he gaped at the amount of stuff this guy had to play with. "He's got two 303s!!" he raved. When the guy who sang Wuthering Heights won by a landslide clap-o-meter victory, Mr Ceephax felt a bit guilty cos it was his mate who’d bagged the cash prize. But he’d done it fair and square. The runner up didn’t think so, she snapped ‘Misogynist’ at our MC a few times before she left, taking only a complimentary record with her. Well, there’s just no pleasing some people. Oh yeah, and we didn’t get to see the one thing we’d stayed for, Mr Hopkinsons computer, cos he was on earlier for some reason! Typical.

Still, great festival, discovered some great twisted gems that weekend. More than I’d expected and that’s gotta be a good thing.

Review by Dedee W.

Drums of Death Interview

You've just played at Bloc Weekender.

I have just played at the Bloc Weekender, my first time here.

How did your set go down?

It was cool, it was fun. I had some really weird sound problems so it was less vocal tonight. There was a really weird delay in the microphone. I've never really done a festival before because people just watch you but when people come and see me it's a lot more intense and they get involved. Which is cool but it's kind of like they're evaluating it and thinking "Do I like this?", "I do, I will watch it some more" and they watch it like it's performance art. But I don't want to get bogged down in trying to get a message across. I'm just here to make people sweaty. Oh yeah!

You played the Moshi Moshi party at Matter in London. That was kind of a festival.

I suppose so. I had just come off this tour with Hot Chip about a week before that as well in the US so it was really good to see them again. I had a really good time there. I played at Matter again in January at the Wonky Pop night and that was really good fun too.

How did you get signed to Greco Roman?

They heard a little recording I made in my brain that fell outside of my ear and into my hands and through various means Joe and Alex of Greco got hold of this mixtape. Loved it. Wanted to put out almost everything on it and a week later I was playing a show with Hot Chip in Manchester.

So when did you start working with Peaches?

Last summer I suppose. I played in Berlin at Scala, a really dope club there, run by her boyfriend. And it's in a squat so it's a really cool place. There was a Greco Roman party there and I played that, and Peaches came along. She'd heard about me, liked my stuff and came down. It was really easy, straight away she said 'Look, do ya wanna do a mixtape for me? I really love your beats, I'll give you my acapellas'. I think she really wanted a different slant to what some younger producer would do. It just went on from there, I spent a week in Berlin and I got her acapellas and I was sampling her, her Junos, you know all her gear. And then came back to London and ditched all that recording and started from scratch. And that's the mixtape.

You're supporting Peaches around the USA in May and June, are you looking forward to that?

I am very much looking forward to that. I'm doing like, two months, well fuck, a lot of touring. I'm doing a week of European shows with her, and then we're doing Greco Roman parties in Moscow and Paris. And the following weekend I'm flying to Detroit to start the tour with Peaches the day after. I'm really excited, it's gonna be great. I'm just gonna have to take care of myself. Better care of myself than when I was on tour with Hot Chip. It's gonna be all rock'n'roll sweaty noise..it's gonna be brutal. A brutal brutal tour.

You mentioned you've been to America with Hot Chip before. Have you toured the USA a lot?

Not really, I've done a few little secret things here and there, and a few low key things. When Hot Chip asked me to support them, it was two weeks of crazy shows and they're lovely guys, they party but I think the Peaches thing is gonna be like, sweaty leather funk, acid rock..She's one of the nicest people that I've met in my entire life. But she gives it, and when she's on stage it's all about communicating what you want to give to the people. Not like it's some sort of message, but 'this is my music, this is what I do, this is what gets me up in the morning. And this is how I want to present it to you now, and make it special'. And I think we work well together, and I think the tour's just gonna be amazing. I say that now. I'll probably die on tour. This is one of the last interviews I'll ever do.

Are you working on an album?

Yes, it's gonna be called 'A Generation Hexed'. It's my first album. I've been recording string quartets, and there's lots of piano stuff on there.

Yeah on your myspace it sounds almost classical in parts.

Yeah I really want to surprise people. When the album drops I'm gonna be touring it with my live group. And it's gonna be insane. It's gonna be what I do times three. Bigger bolder louder. And we're gonna move it into larger venues, phase two of the plan.

Is it all recorded now, is it ready to go?

Not really, well half of it is, but I keep writing more stuff. I wrote a new single last night, I wrote it at four in the morning. And I was emailing it to the label really excited, going 'This is the single, this is it!' It's huge. So we were all happy but it wasn't ready to be played tonight. I was playing a few little newer things. I wanted to try different things cos it's an audience that have possibly never seen me before and are here because of the whole event. So I just wanted to play around a bit and have some fun.

So before you were doing this, were you mainly djing?

I djed, and I was in many bands. But that was the old me, this is the new me. This is the good me. This is the bad me! That was when I was confused, and it took me applying thick greasepaint to my face in public, and trying to make the bodies jerk in the most inappropriate fashion, to make me realise that everything I did before was just tuning up. This is what I do, and this is my thing so everything before was just practice.

Was it something of an overnight transformation?

There were a few things that really struck me. Coming to London. I was born in Scotland, but Drums of Death really is a creation of London because it's a creation of hearing two step, hearing jungle, hearing music that I knew of in Glasgow, but wasn't open to in such an everyday way.

You're playing Bestival this year.

Yeah, I played last year and it was amazing. It was my second ever festival, I played Glastonbury a month or two before. We played the Rizla stage on the Greco Roman night and it was like conducting a rave from the back of a Victorian ice cream truck. I'm quite a tall guy so I had to kind of duck down for them to see me while singing. It was cool but this year's going to be bigger and badder.

Anything else?

There's a 12" single of Got Yr Thing coming out in June with the Zombie Suite on the B-Side. Got Yr Thing is a love song. It's for all the undead guys and all the undead girls and undead guys to guys and undead girls to girls, whatever you're in to. And there's an amazing remix on it as well and on the flip there's the Zombie Suite which is two banging club tracks based around zombie flesh eaters and then one more after summer and then the album.

Review by David Apple.

Tim Exile @ Bloc Weekender, Butlins, Minehead

My highlight of Bloc 2009 has to be Tim Exile. He was on before Clark on the Saturday night on the 'Red Bloc' stage. He had a laptop, a sampler and a crazy, circuit bent joystick that produced all of these insane effects when Tim was playing with it. At one point he jumped over the barrier with it and used it to loop and layer his vocals. Everyone in the room rushed over to get a better look at him using it. He brought a cellist on stage to accompany one of his songs and his special guest towards the end was Beardyman! Tim was completely messing up Beardyman's vocals and making them sound crunchy as fuck. He ended with his latest single 'Family Galaxy'. A hypnotic, psychedelic, genre bending mindfuck. The tempo changes seamlessly from 87bpm to 116bpm and ends somewhere around 174. The audience, that were all drugged up to the eyelids by this point were freaking out.

I managed to get a quick chat with Tim during the disappointing Aphex Twin set later that night and he was still buzzing from the set he played at Berghain in his home town on Berlin the night before. His album 'Listening Tree' is out soon on Warp and his next UK gig is at The Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on 17th April.

Review by David Apple.

Noah and the Whale @ The Town Hall, Birmingham

The Club Silencio Tour was film and music tour featuring Noah and the Whale. The films were introduced on screen by Red Velvet, a slightly odd man wearing a red suit. There was a storyline to coincide with the introduction of the films, though I didn't quite get what was going on, since another one of the characters had his voice disguised so much that I didn't understand what he was saying. The first film 'Le Grand Sommeil' was a bit confusing. It had been made as a stop start film with toys moving around and playing ping pong. It was well made but I didn't quite understand what the point was. The second film 'The Bloody Olive' was a black and white French film with subtitles. There were three characters who kept seemingly killing each other and coming back to life. It wasn't gory but it was funny and entertaining/

Jay Jay Pistolet started his set with a couple of beautifully sung songs whilst playing quiet and simple tunes on his guitar. The music for the last few songs was played on a Grammophone with him singing along. During one song he ballroom danced with a masked hoody who'd come onto the stage. His songs are good chillout songs.

After the interval was more of that bizarre Red Velvet fellow, some of it slightly creepy. Then another film 'The Lounge Bar', a New Zealand film about playing music in bars - there was a little violence in this one, it too was slightly creepy.

During Noah and the Whale's set the screen still had films playing behind them, which was a little distracting. However, some of the films complemented the music quite nicely. There was a cute pencil drawn film, which was made specifically for the song played with it and I liked the old fashioned style that the films were made in. Noah and the Whale don't have many upbeat songs, 'Two Atoms in a Molecule' was short but got some people moving around in their seats and '5 Years Time' is another upbeat one, though sounded slightly strange without the female vocal part. The rest of the set was quite subdued, which, along with everything else meant that the evening was relaxing and laid back. I liked some of the funky things that the guitarist did, using his guitar to his full potential but the I was drawn mostly to the drummer's talent.

Review by Lily Sparks.

Post War Years @ Leamington, Assembly

Leamington Spa is a lovely little town to wander round, but this was our first time at a gig here so we didn't know what to expect. Well we did expect the Assembly to be a posh and cosy little venue but turns out it was not only posh (i.e. very VERY clean) but also huge, like a well kept concert hall without the seating. Wow, how the hell do you fill this place?!

James Yuill looked very smart. His songs are quite folky if you ignore the techno beats and acid house parts that he layers over the top. At one point he got way too carried away with the floor pounding house music and attempted to turn the Assembly in to a late 80s rave. Maybe it was a little too early into the night to attempt that, but hey, he apologised afterwards. He came across as charming and intellectual if a little geeky. His album will very likely be one of those love it or hate it affairs.

What?! Who are Wave Machines? I thought I was seeing The Wave Pictures tonight. Well that just shows I should pay more attention, and besides Wave Pictures aren't on Chess Club, they're on Moshi Moshi. Maybe that's why James Yuill got confused as well when he was announcing who was on next. Anyway, Wave Pictures' songs were probably quite good, I just couldn't get past the stupid masks they were wearing. It made them look like creepy little puppets with no eyes. I realise they've probably got a lot of comments about this already, but I don't care. We get it now guys, they're masks of your own faces, very clever, now take them off. Unless you've really got something to hide, but then look at all the ugly bands out there that don't wear masks.

Playing to a hometown crowd couldn't be easier when you're this confident and tight as a band. Their sound was powerful and punchy while the performance was cool and laid back. Post War Years' set comprised of mainly new material like 'Whole World On It's Head', 'White Lies' and 'False Start'. They didn't play very many of their old favourites like 'You And Me Both' (I love that song), and they didn't do an encore despite everyone in the room cheering for one. I think it was getting too late, the venue must have had a curfew. Post War Years have matured a lot in the last couple of years. Their next single 'Whole World On It's Head' is coming out on Chess Club records on March 9th with a launch party at Hoxton Bar and Kitchen.

Review by David Apple.

Animal Band Names Crossword

Complete the interactive crossword below and you can win an exclusive free music download from by Jack Robert Hardman! The theme of the crossword is band names or recording artists with animals in the names. For example 'Adam And The Ants'.

Click a word in the puzzle to get started.   Solve OK   Cancel Congratulations! You have completed this crossword puzzle. You can now download 'I Don't Dance' by Jack Robert Hardman. If you would like to be able to create interactive crosswords like this yourself, get EclipseCrossword from Green Eclipse. It's free!

Crossword by David Apple & Dedee W.

Antifolk Winter Festival 2009

Before I begin, let me just get one thing off my chest. The fluorescent lighting was shit. I’m still a fan of 12 Bar, and the festival, but I think a potentially great line up deserves proper stage lighting. This niggling problem was finally solved when the offending lights were switched off for Milk Kan's set, accompanied by a mosh pit of mostly teenagers, thank you Liam Joplin! It was mayhem. New single 'God with an Ipod' was sounding nice.

Tim Tomlinson opened with some deftly improvised sweet folk tunes. He showed off just some of his multi instrumentalist skills, playing a Portuguese twelve string guitar, violin and button accordion. Pure rustic, genuinely charming stuff. Alex Sheppard, who's thinking of changing her name to 'Alex the Girl', sang sweet songs with references to fairy tales (rhyming nutella with Cinderella) then ended with a cautionary tale "We're all gonna get an STI", with a chorus to the tune of 'YMCA'. Catchy. Siobhan Parr may've been a bit too mellow for some, but her voice had a strong enduring quality, sounded quite Americana.

Sergeant Buzfuz and his band were sounding particularly strong this evening, on the back of their recent album release. The violins were ringing out in 'Here Come the Popes' creating a really sunny carnival atmosphere. It was a very confident and civilised lead up to Milk Kan, who tore the place apart in the 10pm headlining slot.

I saw a little bit of Candythief's set, she looked and sounded lovely as usual. The Many Few drifted over my head a bit and didn’t quite hold my attention and Delicate Hammers weren't that delicate, but did hammer the point home by being extra shouty.

I was looking forward to seeing Popular Tyre again, and they got us all dancing with energetic tunes like 'Johnny Showbiz'. Another good one was 'The Old Walking Man', that had one of them doing their best impersonation of 'The Laughing Policeman'. They call their style of music 'digital country', a bit of vocoder singing, harmonicas and thigh slapping drum beats, it's just the thing you need around 1am to really re-energise the room.

In the coveted 'graveyard slot' we got one of those 2am gems, Deferred Sucess (spelt with one c). They had one guy on an impressive looking electric bass, and another guy on guitar. They pretty much dealt out a bunch of tight upbeat tunes interspersed with perfect little harmonies, that had us all tapping our toes and smiling. They scored the token drunk stragglers clambering up on stage to help them sing 'Razorlight are shite'. Add Jimmy Blade (guitarist from Milk Kan) joining in on drums and some reggae rapping, and the night was complete.

Nice one Antifolk. Another great night out, with all the familiar messiness and friendly faces we know and love. A simple formula, but it still works beautifully.

Review by Dedee W.

Tim Tomlinson @ Antifolk Winter Festival, 12 Bar, London

There were about twenty early birds gathered around watching Tim kick off the first night of Antifolk's Winter Festival this year. He only played about five short songs and one of them was improvised. He picked up a violin and said "This one is an improvised piece, I'm going to play in on the s..." Tim forgets what he was going to say. Someone shouts out "Spur of the moment?!", Tim responds with "Skin of my teeth!". Everyone laughs.

He's a very interesting character. When he wasn't playing one of his many interesting instruments (including a Portuguese guitar and accordion), he was nervously muttering things like: "Oh God, this one is even less familiar to me, it might be a complete cock up". But of course, as soon as he starts playing he's totally confident and charismatic. Maybe he's a genius. I give him until this time next year to get interviewed by Lauren Laverne on the Culture Show. Decide for yourself, here's Tim Tomlinson's myspace.

Review by David Apple.

Harmonic 313 @ Plastic People, London

I'm guessing that a lot of you don't know who Harmonic 313 is so let's start at the beginning. In 1998 Mark Pritchard started putting out records under the alias Harmonic 33 (that's thirty three, not three one three). He released a couple of albums of kitch, vintage easy listening music set to hip-hop influenced beats. It's really funky stuff and well worth checking out. In 2006 he totally changed his style and started putting records out under the alias Harmonic 313. His first release was an EP imaginatively titled 'EP1'. Mark scrapped his vintage easy listening influences in favour of chunky electro beats and quirky synth sounds.

The gig at Plastic People was a launch party for Mark's new album 'When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence'. It was the first time I've seen Harmonic 313 so I didn't quite know what to expect. He took to the DJ booth at about 10:30 armed with a laptop and a box of vinyl records. He started blasting out his unique brand of electro and the crowd took to it immediately. The sound at Plastic People was really good, you could feel the dirty, sustained saw waves sounds in your chest. Mark said nothing, but occasionally he would play a cheeky sound byte of 'three one three'.

His new album 'When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence' is a faultless collection of the most refreshing electo in the last decade. It will send shivers down your spine from start to finish.

Review by David Apple.

Mumford and Sons @ The Little Civic, Wolverhampton

Marcus Johnstone drums for Laura Marling, possibly a more famous name than Mumford and Sons, the band that Johnstone fronts. I've seen Mumford a few times this last year, at various gigs and festivals and every time am reminded of how wonderfully talented and entertaining they are.

At the Wolverhampton Little Civic they were delayed due to having a five hour breakfast in Bath. They've recently had a tour round the country, though perhaps the route they took could have been more economical, it seemed that whoever was booking the gigs didn't do any research into where these places are! It was a tour of places they hadn't played before, though most of the people at the Wolverhampton gig seemed to have come from Birmingham.

A guitar, a double bass, an electric bass, a keyboard, an accordian, a full drum kit, a tamborine, a banjo and four beautifully harmonic voices were the instruments that the four members used during the night, an indication of the wide range of musical talent the band has. Their performance is so tight that it hardly differs from the recorded versions, though watching how passionate they are about the music really increases the enjoyment of watching them play live. Look at their My Space www.myspace.com/mumfordandsons or become a fan on Facebook, but don't bother listening to their songs online, find out their tour dates and buy their EPs when you've seen them and decided that you love them.

Review by Lily Sparks.

Girl Talk @ Cassette, Auckland, New Zealand

Anyone who’s been to Girl Talk gig before will know what I’m about to say. General mayhem, disco stage invasion chaos, two laptops wrapped in cling film, and big grins on everyone’s faces. Y’know that kind of thing. And if that’s Greg Gillis (aka Girl Talk) has come to be known for then that can only be a good thing.

The man is a machine. From the get-go jumping up and down at full energy– a mighty mash up mega mix, a one man jukebox of non stop, upended, circuit-bended hits. A fuckin’ ace fruit machine of juicy hot tunes if you will, with every spin bringing a winning combination. Some winning moments, well, the ones I can recall as they all flew by so fast. The best and wrongest combination of the instrumental from‘Come On Eileen’ with the lyrics from ‘My Neck My Back’ over the top. Now, for me ‘Come On Eileen’ always makes me think of my childhood and dancing round the lounge to Dexy’s Midnight Runners with my siblings. Put those words over the top and geez, it’s just so wrong! But it works so well dammit, so I’m forced to just dance and those memories tarnished forever. Another good one was the ever popular Kelis ‘Milkshake’ with some Led Zeppelin behind it, and Beyonce’s ‘Put A Ring On It’ with some nice dark undertones mixed in the background. Add in some ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’, ‘Whoomp! There It Is’ and Jackson 5 hits, and, well he makes it look all too easy. And just to prove you will dance to anything this man plays, there was a huge explosive moment when the whole room jumped up unashamedly to ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ as if their lives depended on it! It was classic I tell you. Who knew we could all be so instantly united by a Kelly Clarkson song?

I’ve been listening to some of his albums while writing this, and I have to say that I really don’t think they reflect the impressiveness of a live show. Just a small point, but one to be noted.

Review by Dedee W.

Metronomy @ The Kings Arms, Auckland, New Zealand

I had been looking forward to this gig for months. I was already excited to be heading home to Auckland for the summer, so imagine my excitement when I got an email saying Metronomy would be playing at one of my favourite old haunts while I was there?! It was the icing on the cake. And seeing as it was their first time in New Zealand, it was an even more anticipated occasion. Quite frankly, more of my friends should have bought tickets. My faith in the NZ gig going public was re-ignited by the long queue outside. Lots of people were turned away, as it was to become a sold out, historical little hot bed of a gig, which is how it should be! They’d come a long way to get here.

Firstly we were well entertained by French band The Teenagers, who made me smile by singing their own name a lot and getting girls on stage. Then Metronomy arrived and delivered what I can only describe as a triumphant sweaty intense party set, while the crowd bounced around gleefully lapping it up. It was brilliant. The riffs, the meatiness, all subtly decorated with falsetto vocals and synchronised dance moves. With their trademark pushlights glowing on their chests, they stood out like a beacon of true originality. And, as noted by many, they can have fun while they’re doing it. The whole thing was one big happy blur really, but here’s what I remember –They opened with ‘Holiday’ cos that’s what they’re on, sort of, their instrumental ‘polka’ tune stomped through like a steam train, ‘Heart Rate Rapid’ buzzed out over us like a trippy electro symphony, and on it went, all the best tracks off the album sounding just amazing live. Before we knew it, it was time for ‘Radio Ladio’ for the big ending. What, already? It seemed too soon, but there they were, fists pumping the air, milking every last moment. Once we screamed for the encore, they came back with ‘You Could Easily Have Me’ with the mightiest of riffs and the craziest of tunes. By now, the air just above my head is so heavy with humidity that raising my hand is like putting it in the stickiest of saunas. Even though I was standing just inside the doorway to the beer garden, that’s how packed and boiling hot the venue was.

True to form, Metronomy have well and truly blown the roof off this place. It’s not a show we’ll soon forget, so let’s hope they come back this way soon.

Review by Dedee W.

Three Trapped Tigers Interview

How did you three meet?

Friends of friends of friends basically. I was playing in a band whose bassist played in a band with Betts who was living with Matt. Those two met at music college. So the three of us knew each other for quite a while before we 'formed' and for the record originally it was meant to be a five-piece band with two drummers!

I read that your third gig as Three Trapped Tigers was at Reading Festival. What was that like?

Ha, well Reading was awesome obviously. I don't think Matt and I could quite believe that we got to do that so early on. But it was pretty weird, and sketchy. It's the only gig we've ever done with a different drummer as Betts was unavailable so we trained up his flatmate Blease who learnt the parts (incredibly) in two sessions. And it was our first gig without a bassist - ie. as a 3-piece which is what we remain.

What's been your favourite gig so far?

I don't know but they do seem to keep getting better the more confident we get. Technology no longer seems to break, and we're taking more risks in the music now, which is great. So probably the last one.

How did you get signed to Blood and Biscuits records?

Ha, well Blood and Biscuits is a front organisation for our own self-promotion. Basically, a couple of friends of ours who work for another label came to our early shows and started to champion us and so when we made a record and no one came forward to put it out, they offered to set up their own label specially, using their knowledge/experience etc. So it was pretty simple really, and it's worked well. We'll take some persuading not to do the same thing again for the next EP.

Your songs get quite complicated at times with time signature shifts and unexpected breaks. How do you keep together when you play live?

Er, all the complex stuff is (obviously) written so there's no secret here, it's just a case of following the music/knowing the music. Betts played in a hardcore band for 5 years with the craziest time changes, and Matt is semi-autistic when it comes to memory and rhythmic feel - in his own music he specialises in music that grooves but that places the feel in the wrong place so you end up counting it but the numbers are in the wrong order.

Squarepusher is one of your top friends on myspace and I can definitely hear Squarepusher influences in your sound (particularly Matt's acid synth part in 'Untitled 3'). Do you know Squarepusher?

Not personally (I know someone who played in a wedding band with him when they were teenagers.) but obviously we all three of us know and love Squarepusher's music intimately, and he was absolutely one of the top influences we were hoping to explore when we started. All the Warp crowd remain to me some of the most progressive music there is, as well as music I have a real emotional connection with to do with the time of my life when I got into them, etc. Matt will be very pleased you picked out his synth part as that is clearly his model. It's all about that 101 sound.

You are regularly likened to Warp artists such as Battles, Pivot and Aphex Twin. Do you take these associations as compliments and would you sign to Warp if they were to offer?

Well, see above. One thing to clarify though is that I feel far more strongly about Aphex than I do about Battles and Pivot. We don't really liken ourselves to Battles and Pivot even though we're a live band, as we feel like we're doing something qualitatively different. It's difficult to explain, and no doubt we really respect Battles and like their music, but I don't think of us as being part of the same crowd. As for Warp offering, I guess we'll cross that bridge if it comes. I'm a big Grizzly Bear fan, I think Hudson Mohawke is excellent, Gang Gang Dance are interesting, but other labels have caught up with them when it comes to that kind of breadth and vision.

The guitar effect on 'Untitled 1' sounds amazing, what pedal are you using?

Not telling. (because I don't know)

Are you writing any new material and have you got any future releases planned?

Yes, we're working on the next EP already and have a rough schedule to get that out in the summer, and a third EP before the end of the year. I'm trying not to think about albums yet.

What festival would you most like to play?

Er for me personally it would probably be Neil Young's one on his ranch in Canada which raises money for charity, not least because the only way you can get on the bill is for Ol' Shakey to invite you personally.

Review by David Apple.