I find this news really exciting:

"All Tomorrow’s Parties would like to announce that for ATP weekend 1 in May 2009 The Fans get a chance to prove themselves once more by curating half the line-up in, “The Fans Strike Back”. The event, which will take place from the 8th – 10th May at Butlins Holiday Resort will see half of the festival line-up chosen by ATP and the other half voted for by everyone that buys a ticket. To make things more interesting, we’ve also decided that at least for the first round of voting, which opens on Monday November 17th, no bands can be picked that have ever played a UK ATP event before!"

10 bands that have never played ATP eh?

At first thought, I vote:

Neurosis

Fugazi

Rolo Tomassi

Marnie Stern

Bjork

Songs: Ohia

Night Marchers/reform any Reis-related band

Old Man Gloom

Dillinger Escape Plan

Some Girls

Other options = Dananananaykroyd, Baroness, Cursed, The Knife, Sigur Ros.... I could go on but this is going to take more thought. And soz if any of these bands have played before.

Playlist:

I've been aware of The Never Ending Internet Mixtape for a while now, and there's been a link on this blog's roll pretty much forever. Its quasi-regular downloadable mixtapes provide a refreshing stream of new music which tends to be a good mix of stuff you know, stuff you don't, and the odd bit of stuff you really don't like. My current favourite is the ambienty 'Suntitled', which includes tracks from Eluvium, Yo La Tengo, M83, Stars of the Lid and loads more.

With the death of Muxtape not so long ago, blogs like this one are great. Yeah, there's still the blogs which are just boring links to download albums, but TNEIM at least keeps the creativity and genuine interest levels up.

Playlist: Suntitled Mixtape!

I really like the way this is the kind of picture which poses more questions than it does answers. Thanks to All Die Trying:

Tonight I'm going to see Pulled Apart By Horses at the Buffalo Bar, YES!

Playlist: Feist

The Shred Yr Face tour is over now and had probably one of the best line-ups to be   seen this year. To commemorate the gigs and also get some insight from what it's been like for them on the road I asked Los Campesinos! AND No Age AND Times New Viking some questions about touring, and here are their answers:

1. Do you tend to spend a lot of time hanging out with the other band you're on tour with? Do you remain good friends with any? Are the bands on this tour just one big happy family?

Ollie - Los Campesinos!: On the Shred Yr Face tour we've been sharing a bus with the other bands so we've been spending a lot of time with the other bands.  But we've become good friends and yes we are one big happy family!  Generally we tour with bands that we are already friends with, or that we know and then become better friends with them.

Dean - No Age: We are having a great time hanging out with everyone. We knew TNV already and just meeting Los Camp has been awesome. They are so sweet, like little English school children, we want to adopt them all as pets.

Someone from Times New Viking with no name: Contrary to popular thought, we are not horrible acne ridden teens, and manage to get on quite well with other bands. Are all of the questions going to be three-in-one?

2. Do you ever find there's a contrast between the gigs you've enjoyed loads and had loads of fun at, and the gigs where you think you played/performed really well, or are they one and the same?

Ollie - Los Campesinos!: Yeah, definitely.  We've had gigs where we've had a lot of fun but it doesn't necessarily played well.  Sometimes the most fun ones have been our worst ones!  The gigs where we have played well, we will have enjoyed but it is down to the technical side.  We will have enjoyed them but perhaps have had not as much fun as others.  But then it always varies between the members of the band as well.

Dean - No Age: The ones we enjoy are the ones where we have the most fun and get the most sweaty, and those are usually very sloppy, but the best. Being technically good is  not a priority.

Times New Viking: One in the same, if I understand the question correctly.

3. What are your opinions on live antics such as crowd surfing, stage diving, etc? Are you a fan of such activities? What do you think of bands who are staunchly against that kind of stuff?

Ollie - Los Campesinos!: Being the drummer I can't really do things like crowd surfing or stage diving, but I think it is pretty fun.  I think it is down to the type of music, some bands such as say The Mars Volta or Sigur Ros it just doesn't suit them.  It may sound cheesy but sometimes its cool to break down the barrier between the band and the crowd.  Its fun to watch the band from the crowd's perspective!

Dean - No Age: We are fans of stage diving and crowd surfing. As long as nobody gets hurt, it is a way for kids to get out aggression. I would never tell someone to not do something, unless they were hurting another person. I guess those bands think people are going to get hurt, which they do sometimes, but it is pretty rare in the case of DIY where the crowds are small.

Times New Viking: I for one am against such wankering within the group. I don't know anything about those other groups, but whatever they want to enforce is fine.

4. Where/when was the best gig you ever played?

Ollie - Los Campesinos!: Probably one of the best for me was when we played at Summersonic Festival in Tokyo this summer.  We opened the main stage and we were playing in a Baseball Stadium!  We were on at 11.10 am and there was about 4 thousand people there to watch us.  It was amazing!  It was so hot but we had a really good show and we were all buzzing after it.

Dean - No Age: Baltimore Floristree earlier this year with Abe Vigoda and High Places. And also after the gig in London at Electric Ballroom we played a secret free party at Bar Vinyl, it was incredible, the floor almost collapsed.

Times New Viking: Last night. Somewhere in England.

5. Where/when was the best gig you ever attended?

Ollie - Los Campesinos!: Recently I went and watched Johnny Foreigner and Dananananaykroyd at Cardiff Barfly.  I've seen Jo Fo many a time but it was the first time I had seen Dananananaykroyd and they literally blew me away.  Their live show is amazing.  I loved the EP and can't wait for the album.  They are just an amazing live band.

Dean - No Age: 2000, at the Smell, I saw Lightning Bolt for the first time, they changed the underground music.

Times New Viking - See (my answer to the previous question) above

6. Do you ever wake up in the morning and think 'I really can't be bothered to play tonight'

Ollie - Los Campesinos!: Yeah, if your going through a bad patch and having some bad shows then the last thing you want to do is play a show.  But sometimes you'll go out and play and you'll have an amazing show and it will boost your confidence so much and then you can't wait to play another show.

Dean - No Age: No.

Times New Viking: I only think that way about interviews.

7. How important is it that you actually like the music of the other bands you're playing with?

Ollie - Los Campesinos!: We always pick our support.  We like touring with bands that we like and we want to watch them as much as the crowd.  I hate booking agents that pick bands to support other bands just to sell tickets.  You get some really odd line ups then.  We're just selfish and pick bands that we want to see!

Dean - No Age: very, I can't hang if the music is crap, but more importantly the people need to be nice.

Times New Viking: It's not about the music, it's about the party, baby.

8. Do you find any towns/cities in the UK are much better/worse than any others? Is there any city where you think 'yep, we always have a good time playing there'.

Ollie - Los Campesinos!: We've had some bad shows in places that we haven't actually been back to just because a tour hasn't been routed that way.  But there are some cities that we generally have good gigs in.  Generally we have good gigs in Manchester, Dublin and Bristol.

Dean - No Age: London is always awesome, smaller towns that don't get shows a lot are always the best, everyone is in need of music and culture, it is awesome to deliver.

Times New Viking: I like Scotland.

9. Has there been much post-gig partying on this tour or are you all resting yourselves between shows?

Ollie - Los Campesinos!: Yeah we like to have a bit of fun after the shows.  Some people party more and harder than others but we still have been enjoying ourselves, though sometimes we've had to cut short the partying as we've run out of drink!

Dean - No Age: So much shredding I can't even handle it! I usually fall asleep standing up

Times New Viking: We squeeze as much in as we can.

10. What are you most looking forward to doing when you get back from tour?

Ollie - Los Campesinos!: I get easily bored when I'm not on tour so I just end up waiting for the next tour.  I look forward to seeing my girlfriend and my friends and finding out what they've been up to.

Dean - No Age: Sleeping in my bed, and eating all the vegan food I can handle

Times New Viking: Going back on tour.

Playlist: The Murder Of

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And I come across two things:

An Albatross supporting Enter Shikari, WHAT?! I'm not sure what the new An Albatross is going to sound like at all, but I am still a fan of this band and the fact they're doing this tour has made me laugh. Out loud. I think I'll just be going to their OBL gig instead. I just like the fact they've gone all proggy and psychedelic with their crazy organs.

Horse The Band, Funeral For a Friend, Finch.. jeez, 2002 called and wants its music back.

My flirtations with hardcore come and go and it's easy to get fed-up of any 'scene' regardless of the fact you're supposed to grow out of heavy music when you get to 24 or something.

Anyhow, there are a few bands which are  keeping me tied into hardcore and Throats are definitely one of them. Thank the lord for Alex persevering with them and getting me to listen to a band who have evolved in one of the most impressive and astounding ways. I admit, I was in it for the hearts/clubs/diamonds/spades shirt at first (please make some more) but now, with their split with Maths and The_Network both blowing my mind every time I listen to them, they're seriously another band we've worked with who I am pretty much in love with.

I implore anyone who's into any music that's vaguely 'heavy' to get all over Throats, and this is not coming from my own interests in the band. They are seriously turning out to be one of the best new bands the UK has to offer.  And they're playing a free gig at the Old Blue Last tomorrow, oh wow.

Throats - Comedown MP3

Playlist: A lot of Throats

We're putting on a free gig:

Playlist: TV On The Radio

I know it isn't that excessive, but both ended up as quite lat nights, and I might as well just move to Camden.

Los Campesinos!/No Age/Times New Viking @ The Electric Ballroom - Monday 20th Oct

At least, I'm told Times New Viking played, since a shambles of a queue system in the pouring rain and some slightly shoddy organisation meant I missed them.

No Age never seemed to get going, partly doing to too much inter-song banter. For me they're at their best when they bash through songs quickly, as it's those fast and punkier tracks which are their best. Their pace was too slow and their sound is never as big as I want it to be with just the two of them.

Los Campesinos! seemed distracted at first. Having seen them at ATP it struck me maybe a festival audience is the best for them; shorter set, slightly lairy crowd, everyone's out to have more fun. There was almost something slightly more professional about them, and formal, while still playing their trademark joyous tweeness. New album tracks like 'Ways to make it through the wall' and title track 'We are beautiful, we are doomed' sounded utterly spot on and perfected, but it's still the old tracks like 'My year in lists' and, duh, 'You! Me! Dancing!' which got the crowd, er, dancing. I could probably describe them as 'solid' from this performance, which doesn't seem like a very LC! thing to say.

Night Marchers @ Camden Dingwalls, Tuesday 21st Oct

I love John Reis. It's no secret, even though he does seem slightly wasted tonight. And brazen, kicking pints out of people's hangs and rambling on and on about nonsense with slightly less eloquence than usual. But despite this, they still sound incredible. It's big and thundering and rocking and typically Reis. Songs from 'See you in magic' still sound as fresh as they did when they played them live four months ago, with rock 'n' roll riffs and singalongs aplenty but never ever overdoing things or sounding tired. Night Marchers have proved again they're able to stand up there with Reis's previous bands, something not everyone seems to agree with, but I'm certain of now. And I still fancy him, despite his ramblings about peanut heads and stick bodies.

Playlist: Neurosis, more Gang Gang Dance

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(Keep up, #1 = Portishead, #2 = Bon Iver)

I don't know when it was exactly I even judged Gang Gang Dance, they were just one of those bands I didn't go out of my way to pay attention to or ignore. They just completely passed me by. Laziness? Maybe.

My main issue is they seem to fall inline with Animal Collective and anyone who knows me will know my feelings on Animal Collective (they mainly involve the fact they're overrated and not much cop). But also they're down with all the namechecked Brooklyn/Baltimore hipster bands which I spend a lot of time wading through to sort the wheat from the chaff. So for all the Marnie Sterns, Foot Villages and No Ages, there's a lot of turd. Turd I am not naming now.

Now I've actually sat and listened to new album 'Saint Dymphna', I might have to eat my hat, again. On first listen, it feels strangely organic, as if it's the whole free-form folk noise thing being sculpted right in front of you. Tracks like 'First Communion' have a great mix between synthy dance beats and a futuristic pop edge. It almost verges into Crystal Castles territory, but staying well in the psychedelic realms you'd expect from the likes of Marnie Stern and co. The Tinchy Stryder track doesn't work for me as it feels just plain contrived, but overall, I'd have to concede this is yet another case of me completely misjudging bands on completely unfounded facts once again.

Playlist: Gang Gang Dance, TV On The Radio

Roughly once a month I take a trip to the sorting office in West Norwood where I pick up everything sent to the Holy Roar PO Box. 99% of this is demos. I enjoy this trip for a few reasons. One is it keeps me in constant supply of jiffy bags. Another is the old boy in the sorting office thinks I'm really popular.

We get sent a lot of demos. And as a small and somewhat obscure/noisy/specialist independent record label, that's saying something. Imagine how many Domino/Wichita/Sub Pop etc get sent. If we can get 50 odd a month, they must literally be swimming in plastic CD wallets and bio print outs.

Generally, out of the 50 we might get sent, only a few will be worth us listening to more than once. I'm literally talking 2 or 3 here. We've only ever followed up with a band about a demo we've received in the post ONCE. Yes, after two and a half years, it's come down to ONE. There are lots of reasons for that, which I'll come onto, but jesus christ bands, have a clue before you send out a demo. Think about what you're doing and don't make some stupid mistakes which every other CD we receive seems to do.

Because this grates me so much, and I am running out of room to store all these jiffy bags, here are some pointers which might be worth following when you want to send a record label a demo:

1. SEND IT TO THE RIGHT GODDAMN LABEL. If, as your bio says, you are a pop rock boyband who could appeal to McFly's fans, maybe sending it to a label which has a lot to do with noisy new music and is staunchly independent just might be a complete waste of time. Spamming people and sending your demo to everyone possible always crops up in some really naive bands' strategies to get signed. The whole 'it can't hurt, one must like us'  mentality is a waste of everyone's time. Do some research into who you're sending it to, think of labels you actually like, and show you actually have a clue.

2. ONLY SEND A DEMO WHEN IT'S RUDDY WORTH IT. You recorded 3 songs in your mum's garage and haven't played a gig yet. Maybe wait a few months, heck even a year, before thinking someone will want to release anything by you. I blame Myspace for this whole mentality of bands who think they should be signed way before they're actually ready. Send a demo when it's good and you're good, why bother with something crappy?

3. DO NOT SEND A LENGTHY 2 PAGE 'BIO' WHICH IS ACTUALLY JUST A LIST OF WHO MET WHO WHEN AND THEN A LIST OF ALL THE GIGS YOU'VE PLAYED. I barely acknowledge bios unless it's clear from the offset it's a band I'm potentially interested in. Shallow, but this usually comes down to picking out your influences and what you might sound like. That's why it's worth attempting some kind of description. I really can't be fuc*ed to read 600 words which tell me nothing about you because 'you're so impossible to describe because you're so unique, man'. Get over yourself. List a couple of influences if you want, a couple of genre reference-points, and that's usually enough.

4. DO NOT USE ANY OF THESE PHRASES IN YOUR BIO/LETTER:

i) 'The band was formed with the sole intention of playing great music and having a good time'

ii) 'We've spent the last year gigging constantly and building up a devoted fanbase'

iii) 'We don't fit into any genre/we're truly unique'

iv) 'Now we want to take things with the band to the next level and release an album'

v) 'Sign us'

5. DO NOT PAY FOR GLOSSY BAND PHOTOS TO SEND WITH YOUR DEMO.  Sending these is so unnecessary and something very few people will be interested in. In fact, sending any kind of photos is, in our case, completely pointless, however I am building up quite a nice photo album of pictures of young men.

6. DO NOT RECORD AND SEND COVERS. Don't even mention covers at all, let alone actually send a CD of you playing a few Nirvana songs. What's the point in that? Why would a label be interested in the fact you only started writing your own songs a month ago? It's ridiculous. DON'T DO IT, EVER.

7. DO NOT DECORATE YOUR JIFFY BAG TO MAKE IT LOOK 'EYE-CATCHING'. Actually it just looks 'annoying'. The whole 'we're going to stand out with a funky purple print-out and a pink jiffy bag' idea is worrying, shouldn't your music stand out?

8. DO NOT SEND A SCREEN GRAB OF YOUR MYSPACE PROFILE. This got my biggest 'wtf' of the day.

9. DO NOT MAKE AN AWFUL CLIP-ART/MICROSOFT PAINT COVER FOR YOUR CD. No cover is better than that awful font you used for your logo and the hurriedly copied + pasted 'arty' photos. I've seen a couple of covers I've liked, which can work in your favour if it's genuinely good, but if you haven't got one, don't sweat.

10. DO NOT KISS AR*E

You want these people to take a risk and invest money in your band and release something, so yes, you want them to like you, but do not go overboard. Keep things simple, they are not mystical fairy creatures from the far away land of A&R. They are human beings, so it's usually the simple CDs in plain plastic wallets with a short decent bio which wins over any extravagant attempts to grab our attention and win us over.

But most of all, as I said right at the beginning, next to no bands get signed from a demo submission anyway. So what's the point in all of this then? Well, send it if you want, but much more importantly, than any jazzy clip art cover and the bio your English grad mate wrote for you, is to get out there and play gigs. Record decent material, when you're ready, put it online, and get people interested in you first, rather than the other way around. Pro-activity in the real world, rather than the fact you can be bothered to post us a CD, is much MUCH more important.

Playlist: DEMOS DEMOS DEMOS

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I made this mix on the weekend when I got back from my holiday when I just wanted a comp of some of my favourite songs right now. The majority are new but there's a couple of classics in, notably from Sleater Kinney and Pere Ubu. I didn't upload this to download or anything like that because that's bare illegal, but if anyone wants to swap mixetapes (or CDs, that's way easier for me) then get in touch, my email is in my profile or send me a message.

1. To Encounter A Deer - Calories

2. R.Taylor - The_Network

3. A Winter Quest For Fantasy - Envy

4. Preparing For Guests - Blakfish

5. You Will Find Me - Micah P. Hinson

6. Jumpers - Sleater Kinney

7. Never See Me Again - Vivian Girls

8. Phonelines VIP - Ikonika

9. Meat Balloon - Pulled Apart By Horses

10. We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed - Los Campesinos!

11. On Probation - Mirror! Mirror!

12. Heaven - Pere Ubu

13. Debaser - Les Savy Fav

14. Teen Angst - M83

15. The World Won't Listen - Throats

16. Author's Name - Life At These Speeds

17. Hard To Reach - Jesu

Playlist: My autumn mixtape!

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Versoma are way way up there in my list of 'amazing bands which should've been much much bigger than they actually were'. They disappeared after just one EP without much fuss or bother in February 2007 and since members have formed Tombs, who actually made it to the UK last month, unlike Versoma who didn't make it over.

Despite being formed of various members of the screamo hiperati, Versoma had nothing to with derivative horse-flogging or hyperbole, they were simply a stunning band. Everything about them pinpointed a sound really perfectly for me; they took the noisy punk rock of their experiences and pushed it through a shoe-gazey wall of sound which reached out to everything from Sonic Youth to post-hardcore to indie rock. The six tracks of their EP 'Life During Wartime' became quite overplayed and always hinted at an album which could have been utterly incredible, but sadly never was. Literally, crucially incredible for what brief existence they had.

You can still buy the EP from Robotic Empire and listen to them on their Myspace here.

Playlist: On The Might Of Princes

Having just spent ten days getting burnt and eating excessively, coming home consisted of 200+ items in my Google Reader and my Last.fm looking depressing. Not exactly everyone's priority, but over a week without much in the way of music (other than my MP3 player which ran out of battery after a few days) is quite odd after a while. Other than the delights of Tunisian music, I found myself getting LITERALLY THE WORST SONGS EVER VOL 3 stuck in my head, which was mostly a lot of The Beatles.

Now back I have a lot to catch up on which is daunting, but gig season ahoy! Live, there's a lot to look forward to over the next couple of months:

Git Some

Foals/Holy Fu*K/Dananananaykroyd

Trencher

Los Campesinos!/No Age/TNV

Blood Red Shoes/Rolo Tomassi

Oxes

Doomriders

An Albatross

The_Network/Throats

Low

Murcof

These Arms Are Snakes/Russian Circles

Genghis Tron/Behold....The Arctopus/The_Network

Trap Them

Vivian Girls

Monotonix

I can't bare to try and think of any more as it's just going to make me renounce my social life.

Playlist: Calories