While discovering new bands is all well and good (today I've been listening to Suffocate For Fuck Sake, who are surprisingly not a joke death metal band), going back and discovering old bands you'd never heard of is perhaps even more amazing. And yep, it's true, sadly I didn't always have this impeccable taste in music so I'm constantly half-filling the gaps with stuff I simply should be liking already.

Blogs, Last.fm, mixtapes and friends' record collections are currently how I discover new old bands, but there's one blog in particular, sadly currently out of action, which is simply unmatchable when it comes to discovering old stuff which was way before my time: Something I Learned Today.

It seems it has been on hiatus since August last year, and despite occasionally glancing at it to see if it had any MP3s I wanted before, I've only really begun trawling through it recently for some of the gems it still has in its goldmine for old punk rock, hardcore, post-punk and more; it covers a lot of genres, spans a few decades worth of music, and still has A LOT of MP3s on it. This week it's given me a couple of old Drive Like Jehu tracks off their first 7", as well as introducing me properly to noise-rockers Cows and 70's post-punk group Pere Ubu (pictured above).

I'm no doubt going to spend too much time reading it and downloading stuff, but I really really hope it's not on a Fugazi-esque 'permanent hiatus'. The writer has another day-to-day blog, but without the Karp MP3s and overload of bands I've never heard of, it's just not the same...

Playlist: Converge

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Ten bands I'm looking forward to:

1. Les Savy Fav

2. No Age

3. Girls Against Boys

4. Shit and Shine

5. Los Campesinos!

6. Meat Puppets

7. Sebadoh

8. Fuck Buttons

9. Hot Chip

10. Pissed Jeans

Nine things I'm sure I will consume at the festival:

1. Gin and tonics

2. Tea

3. Pasta and pesto

4. Too many cigarettes (this will be my 2nd ATP with the smoking ban)

5. Toast

6. Crap instant coffee

7. Water

8. Bananas

9. Sea air

Eight things likely to be heard during Fuck Buttons' set:

1. 'I can't believe they're playing ATP now, I remember seeing them play to 2 people a year ago'

2. 'I love the twinkly twinkly bit at the beginning of this song'

3. 'ANDY HUNNNNNNG'

4. 'Wait, they don't sound anything like Holy Fuck'

5. 'It's just a noise'

6. 'Black Dice who?'

7. 'They totally sold out maaan'

8. 'They are both totally sexy'

Seven suitcase essentials:

1. FOOD - the places to eat at Camber are so-so.

2. Mini speakers for iPod/MP3 player/walkman

3. Camera

4. Swimmers

5. Shorts

6. Heavy-metal t-shirts with cut-off sleeves

7. Sunglasses

Six bands I should really check out but will no doubt be overcome with the ATP apathy and won't bother:

1. Times New Viking

2. Jay Reatard

3. Man Man

4. Black Mountain

5. Wooden Shjips

6. Harmonia

Five things to do on the train ride down:

1. Go through suitcase trying to figure out what you've forgotten

2. Sing Shellac songs

3. Drink cheap wine

4. Fall asleep

5. Reminisce about previous ATPs

Four reasons the Pitchfork ATP is better than the Explosions one:

1. Les Savy Fav

2. More party bands

3. It's at Camber

4. Les Savy Fav

Three favourite previous ATPs:

1. Vs the fans

2. Mars Volta

3. Portishead

Two bands I will be avoiding:

1. Of Montreal

2. Deerhunter

One person who will be spending the weekend being lairy and over-excitable:

1. Ummmm.....

Playlist: The Postal Service, Off Minor, Cat Power

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There's been quite a slow reaction to the Camden Crawl this year, but it has really got some people's goat. The Guardian has been lamenting the lack of 'seminal greats' that played, the NME has just reeled out a few boring photos for now, and messageboards seem to just list the few bands they saw and loved without any real comment on the event itself, as if the Camden Crawl is just about watching four bands each night then going home.

And for me it does kinda feel like that, as when it comes to 'festival vibe', the Camden Crawl's is the worst. Part under-age Skins-snog fest, part wanky hang-out for industry types, I didn't enjoy it. I enjoyed the few bands I managed to catch (Youthmovies, Rolo Tomassi and Crystal Castles), I stayed for a bit in the Electric Ballroom at the end of the night, but there was no excitement or magic or atmosphere, and it didn't even have the feel of a festival, or anything similar. Just a couple of evenings missioning around Camden and watching a few bands, with a hefty price-tag to do it all.

It's not even the line-up I have issues with, as I quite like a lot of the bands playing and there were a few I'm certain I wouldn't really buy tickets for any other time, so the Crawl would've been a great time to see them. But with the nature of the line-up and timetable, and the fact all the venues had the same stage-times for bands, it meant if a band clashed with another they clashed for the entire set, without any overlap. Plus everyone was on the move at the same time, which caused the mammoth (and now synonymous with the Crawl) queues. The result? If you saw more than 4 bands either night you were lucky, most people only got round to seeing 3.

So, I saw a few good bands, I drank some beer, I danced for a bit in the Electric Ballroom. But I have little love for the Camden Crawl as an event; it chose some good (but on the whole no-brainer) bands to play who on the whole tour the UK a lot anyway. And then it executed it quite badly. It's not a springboard for new bands, it's not a showcase for the hottest new acts, and it's certainly not the best 'underground music' event in the UK. I'm not really sure what it is, but it's not much.

Playlist: The Pyramids, Jucifer

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I was never a big trip-hop fan. In fact, describing a band as trip-hop is guaranteed to put me off them. The whole Bristol 90's scene hasn't dated very well and the return of Portishead wasn't something I was particularly excited about. Until I saw them at ATP last year.

Despite the fact they manage to attract completely obsessive fans (who give you menthol snuff during their performance, it's a long story) who seem to just want to sing along to the hits, it wasn't just a nostalgic performance cashing in on their past successes. They were truly great.

Even then, before hearing new album 'Third', I was struck at how varied they sound. They had the typical trip-hop sound, and samples and heavy beats, but thank god they've evolved and are so influenced by new, experimental bands. Their curated line-up at ATP in December is evidence enough that this band haven't (thankfully) stuck to the formula which made them almost legendary ten-odd years ago.

'Third' is stunning, and I can't get over how much I like it. There's maybe one or two songs which sound like 'typical Portishead', the others cover so much ground, from folky laments to almost verging on industrial, from powerfully bleak post-doom soundscapes to Beth Gibbons at her most fragile (and that's saying something).

Jesus christ, what next. I start listening to Tricky?

Portishead - Machine Gun

Playlist: Little Death, Drive Like Jehu, Cut Copy

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One week today I'll be seeing Blonde Redhead, who I first saw a while ago supporting Interpol. I am very excited to be seeing them again especially now Holy Fuck are playing also. However, gig clashes are the bane of my life (Tibet and Zimbabwe really have nothing on me) and I've since found out Lesbian are playing the same night, with Holy Roar's very own Throats in support.

I hate it when this sort of thing happens. Other upcoming clashes include Boris with Rolo Tomassi, Cursed with Health and Ladytron/Kling Klang with Genghis Tron. My life is basically over.

Playlist: PMFS, Isis, Russian Circles, Sweep The Leg Johnny

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Everyone likes a good party band. My favourite have been Les Savy Fav at ATP (every time I've seen them), Dan Deacon at Durr and Phoenix Bodies at the Purple Turtle last year. Party bands are great when you're in the mood to only use a third of your brain listening to the music and the other two-thirds to dance and rock the fuck out.

Last night I was not in party mood, yet went to see The Death Set who are seemingly London's party band in residence right now. They've played every day in London since the beginning of the year (almost) and up until last night our paths hadn't crossed. The Macbeth in Hoxton is a really likeable venue, and I've seen some GREAT gigs there, but last night the Shoreditch hiperati were out in force and while I can live with this 99% of the time, last night my party mood was at an all-week low and memories of bad nights out in Hoxton came flooding back.

Personal gripes and snobbery aside, a lot of people were in next level party mood. It was Thursday night, it's been a bit sunny all week, and the Death Set seem like the happiest band on the planet. Any band who come on to the Jackson Five's I Want You Back (do they do this all the time?) is a winner, and the used some pretty nice samples throughout their set. Party people were 100% loving them, the band themselves were climbing things, and the sound in the Macbeth was quite LOUD. I am way more a fan of their faster, almost thrashy songs, but the singalongs and pop bits were a lot of fun. It's just a shame I didn't have my party hat on.

Playlist: Guapo, Johnny Foreigner

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Jenny and Lisa are Capsule. Capsule put on gigs in Birmingham and run the festival Supersonic, which was named 'Festival of the Year' by Plan B magazine.

Supersonic 2008 will be my fourth, and has perhaps the best line-up I've been to.  While there are a lot of festivals this summer to choose from, and many recycled line-ups all blurring into one big mass of mediocrity, Supersonic stands quite apart (although half holds hands with ATP and even Venn).

I've known the Capsule ladies for a few years, having worked at their gigs and Supersonic, and Lisa's family adopted my daschund. I decided to ask them a few questions about the festival for no real reason other than I wanted to chat with them about it.

This year's Supersonic has a RAGING line-up. Firstly, how many more acts are there to come, and secondly who are you most excited about seeing?

There are still a couple of surprises we've yet to announce but we're sure will please many people. We're excited about everyone that's playing Supersonic this year, but I guess of particular note is that Harvey Milk will be playing their first European tour off the back of Supersonic. Equally I think the fact that Battles have agreed to come back and perform this year will be a highlight of the festival as we're pretty sure this will be one of the last times you'll see the band play in such a relatively intimate surroundings.

Whenever I've put gigs on I've never really enjoyed them because of the stress it puts me through, so I have no idea how you guys cope with a festival. Do you actually have fun or is it 99% stress fest?

We don't really get to enjoy the festival from a 'fan's perspective, as we don't get to see anything which can be very frustrating, however I guess there is a sense of enjoyment through achievement and knowing that we've made this happen, we also spend our year going to events and other festivals to pull our line up together so we still get to see the bands play live, just not at our event!. But our job is to make sure everyone else is having fun and being looked after from artists to audience. This year hopefully will be a bit better for us as we're putting together a reasonably big volunteers team to help with the smooth running of things. In the past we tried to do everything from catering to managing backline requirements, we've learnt our lesson and now have embraced the art of delegation, but it's hard when you're a control freak!

Perhaps the one small criticism I'd have of the festival (and it's a small one, you know I have bare love for you) is that, probably due to its nature, the line-up occasionally feels predictable, as in a lot of the bands you've put on before or have strong associations with Capsule. It's not a problem, as I love the bands etc etc, but perhaps I'd just like to see a few wildcards in there, or completely new bands which would fit so well but you might not be so familiar with. What do you reckon about that, how would you respond?!!!!

Definitely there is a link to our year round program and the festival program, that was why we set up the festival in order to expose some of the smaller less known acts to a larger collective audience. I think it's relative to what you know, as I think there are quite a few acts playing that you won't know, but people tend to focus on the genre their particularly interested in. For instance we have Anglo-American duo Cath & Phil Tyler performing the rare feat of uniting the traditional and more avant folk scenes, we have a entire room on Friday dedicated to unknown Japanese acts, under the collective name of the Osaka Invasion. Unfortunately there are only so many slots available over the weekend and we have to balance relatively unknown acts with some recognisable names to attract an audience. It would be interesting to hear who you would suggest as additions?

Where can Supersonic go next? Is it just going to get bigger and better?

The way we'd like to develop the festival would be in terms of being more ambitious with the program, this year we've increased to include a 3rd day and we're working with a number of galleries to include them within the festival to extend the exhibitions side of the programme.

Similarly, where can Capsule go next? Obviously you've now branched out into the world of running a record label as well as promotions/the festival. How do you find that?

It's very exciting that we were invited to develop a label with the help of Southern Records, as they were responsible for introducing us to the whole independent music scene when we were teenagers, so it's a massive honour to now be part of that community. The label offers us another way to promote the artists that we love. We're also developing a project which aims to celebrate the West midlands as home of Metal, this is a very ambitious project which will happen over the next 4 years.

How is the music scene in Birmingham in 2008? Do you think it's lacking new blood?

There are certainly more gigs than ever before, with more venues, but there is still a relatively small appetite for non mainstream more experimental music, and it's harder than ever to get people to take a risk on bands that haven't received loads of press. As for the bands from Birmingham, there are some really great ones about, no definitive scene as it were rather some really unique acts e.g. Beestung Lips, Einstellung, Calvados Beam Trio, Transitional, Nic Bullen, Modified Toy Orchestra and many more.

What are your plans for the rest of the year? Will I see you guys rocking out at ATP or Primavera or anything?

We'll be dj-ing at the Camber ATP, we've got a Capsule showcase at Sonar festival in Barcelona with ZX Spectrum Orchestra and Pram, we're curating an event for Fierce Festival, with Julian Cope presenting one of his infamous lectures as well as a screening of a 1920's film about witchcraft through the ages, accomopanied by a live sound track by Bronnt Industries, we're also curating an event for Integra festival, so we're pretty busy, not to mention numerous great gigs planned including Melt Banana, Sun Burnt Hand Of The Man and Acid Mothers Temple.

If you could put on one band, past or present (and it doesn't matter if any of the members are dead or anything) who would it be?

Very predictable but it would have to be Black Sabbath at Town Hall in Birmingham, that would be amazing!

Are there any bands you'd refuse to put on again? Most bands you deal with seem safe and nice but have any been proper knobs?

We've been putting on gigs now for near 9 years, and 99% of all those bands have been wonderful and have become great friends over the years, but there'll always be the odd one that just knocks you for six, of course it would be very unprofessional of us to reveal who those might be:)

Modified Toy Orchestra covering Pocket Calculator at Supersonic 2006:

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1. Wishing I was Swedish and watching Lykke Li. She has lines like 'for you I keep my legs closed' and gets away with it HOW?

2. Going on a journey through space and time with indie-progsters Youthmovies. Yes, I just coined the phrase indie-progsters. Whatever, they still have riffs which sounds like Iron Maiden.

3. Going on a journey to the medieval future with Circulus.

4 Pretending I know more about dubstep than I actually do, despite being from Croydon. I will enjoy Kode 9 no doubt, but I am a bit behind on the old 'step.

5. Seeing the return of Nirvana. I mean Lovvers. It's truly a miracle.

6. Ignoring all the hype bands. Apart from the Damn Shames.

7. Getting weepy and proud watching Rolo Tomassi.

8. Seeing Los Campesinos! as a preview for their gig on Sunday. With Lovvers. It's the Camden Crawl part 2, just in Hoxton.

9. Wondering whether Cutting Pink With Knives will just go down as that 'wacky' band who went a bit mental and scared everyone, or whether people will actually listen to them.

10. Running in the opposite direction of Does It Offend You, Yeah?

Playlist: Sufjan Stevens, Les Savy Fav, Blame Game

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