Apologies for lame-o blogging and all that but real life gets in the way and also I've just been feeling really lethargic/apathetic/lazy.

One thing which snapped me out of this moroseness was hearing about The Beat Happening Sessions which are taking place in London over the next couple of months. The premise being they put on a series of gigs, at which the Beat Happening writers interview the band on stage. Interesting concept no?

Among them, here are a few I'm definitely going to go to:

APRIL 8^TH: DRUM EYES (FEAT. SCOTCH EGG) + ARTEFACTS FOR SPACE TRAVEL + CCSB @ THE GOOD SHIP (£5ADV)

APRIL 13^TH: BILLY CHILDISH & THE MBE + THE RUBBISHMEN + THE SHE SET DJS @ PROUD CAMDEN (£8ADV)

MAY 6^TH: ZOMBIE ZOMBIE + LIME HEADED DOG + PROVOKIEF @ THE GOOD SHIP (£7ADV)

MAY 7^TH: PARTS & LABOR + THROATS @ THE MACBETH (£7.50ADV)

However, their site describes P&L as 'experimental screamo' which I think is a little off.

Playlist: Marnie Stern, Dick Dale

There will be a Holy Roar stage at this year's Great Escape Festival in Brighton, which takes place on the 14th-16th May. Playing our stage will be Battletorn, Ghost of a Thousand, Throats and Youves on the Saturday night. I'm WELL WELL excited as visiting Brighton is always nice but trying to book a hotel for one night on the Saturday is proving impossible. Everywhere is two night minimum. Like really, sort it out.

I've never been to the Great Escape before and perusing the line-up, there's a lot of acts I really do want to see, including Passion Pit, Mika Miko, Banjo or Freakout and Three Trapped Tigers. But overall it's such an odd line-up, like WTF Kasabian? The Pipettes? Really? Then I see Cage The Elephant and I realise that this will be a festival where I'll have to be very careful about what I actually catch and what I avoid.

Playlist: Aloha, Yeah Yeah Yeahs

On Friday I saw The Acorn play at what probably is my local live music venue, the Windmill. While I couldn't actually see a lot of them during their set thanks to the pokey layout, I have a lot of love for the slightly ramshackle venue with the dog on the roof and summer barbecues.

Then I go and have a look at the gigs they've got coming up and I start getting really excited. I probably won't have to leave south London for the next few months:

STINKING LIZAVETA Wed 18 March

THE MEKONS Thur 2 April

WILLIAM ELLIOTT WHITMORE  Apr 13th

BRIDGE & TUNNEL Sat 18 April

SAVIOURS Fri 8 May

THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART Sat 16 May

VIVIAN GIRLS Sun 17 May

Basically, all amazing. You can buy tickets for their gigs here. I'm going to go crazy and buy one for everything. Only problem is Vivian Girls clashes with my nephew's 1st Birthday. Bad luck Tristan.

Playlist: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cursive 

I couldn't actually believe my ears when not so long ago I heard one of the DJs on 6Music having the whole 'who would be in your dream band' hypothetical conversation. I mean, really?! It's like he might as well have just done the 'what products of yester-year would you like to see brought back' stint. BORING. Surely those two things are on the DJ hitlist 'never do these as a phone-in they've been done a MILLION TIMES BEFORE'.

Regardless of all the bile I can summon on this subject, I do occasionally have thoughts similar to 'he is like my favourite guitarist EVER' and the return of Black Eyes' vocalist Daniel Martin-McCormick with Mi Ami has made me realise he would probably do singing duties in my dream band (I haven't figured out the rest of line-up, though).

'Watersports', Mi Ami's debut album on Quarterstick, brings back the messy, earnest fury which Black Eyes just did effortlessly, although now they often get referred to as 'tropical' and while I'm not too keen on that word's associations, with Daniel M-M o vox, who really cares.

I could harp on about Mi Ami pretty much all day but it's important to note they're playing the Lexington on Good Friday (10th April) and I will be getting 'tropical' with them.

Playlist: Hymie's Basement, Mi Ami

No, I don't think so either. Which is why we are giving away 11 tracks of hot new beats for free. Because we're that nice.

Download the free Holy Roar spring '09 sampler here!

Tracklisting
1. Brontide - Crunk Anansie
2. Youves - Big Arexic
3. Holy State - Repeat and Fade
4. The Ergon Carousel - Ironclad
5. the_Network - 500 pounds of idiot
6. Throats - Reign of Low (tape version)
7. Maths - Untitled Album Demo
8. Cutting Pink With Knives - Aylburton
9. Rolo Tomassi - Cirque Du Funk (4Music Session version)
10. November Coming Fire - Return of the Black Dog
11. Jealous - Ruins

Playlist: Rocky Votolato