thats a great shot...

Over the last couple of days I've been at the mercy of the television. Wimbledon is on once again and being a closet tennis geek I've been studying the action fairly closely and ranking the players on attractiveness....not Mauresmo though.....oh no.........not even if you paid me.

Kudos to Feliciano Lopez for silencing the flag-waving "Come on Tim!" brigade by banishing him for another year today. I don't know what kind of sordid holes these people emerge from each summer but I wish they'd take their Straw Boaters, Fray records and facepaint and fuck off home. If Tim Henman, a man so insipid and boring can inspire such unremitting devotion, what could a government convince us to do? Exploit the earth's resources, upgrade nuclear weapons, go to war perhaps. Oh wait....

Despite all this, watching his last ever PMQ's on Wednesday, I realised with a twinge of sadness that this was the end of an era for the pair of us. Tony Blair has been everpresent throughout my formative years and they have been pretty wonderful. Perhaps they will be followed by a Cameronian collapse. Who knows? I hope not.

Anyway, MUSIC! I can't stop listening to Kitty Daisy and Lewis, three stupidly young kids from London backed by their parents playing 50s rockabilly like there's no tomorrow. With so many people praising the likes of Justice and Simian Mobile Disco for taking music forward, there's great reward in taking it back too! They were in the Observer Music Monthly thing on young talent last week alongside people like Cajun Dance Party and Laura Marling who are alright, but in my opinion KDAL are really something special. I love the way they seem immersed in a completely different world to most of us, making them a bit of an enigma. And I like enigmas.

Kitty Daisy And Lewis - Mean Son Of A Gun

Having lived near Manchester for the whole of my life I've always been a bit disappointed at its lack of a yearly festival. Nottingham has Dot to Dot, Middlesbrough has Middlesbrough Music Live, Edinburgh has the fringe and so on. Someone must have been thinking the same as the stupendously-ace-brand-new-first-ever Manchester International Festival begins tomorrow! Even Newsnight Review are doing a special on it. So it must be all good and proper an that. There are apparently 25 world premieres over the next couple of weeks in theatre, music and film. There are lots of really exciting people playing gigs like Lou Reed, PJ Harvey, Damon Albarn and most excitingly, The Fall who I'm going to see on Sunday at The Ritz!

There is an amazing array of new music going on at Academy 3 over the next two weeks too. The Noisettes and Late of The Pier are playing together on July 4th, Squelchy, synchronised dance from Metronomy on the 6th, The amazing Bat For Lashes who will hopefully be sporting some fancy headwear is playing on July 12th while Final Fantasy rounds things off on the 14th. That all looks pretty cool doesn't it. There are a million and one other things going on too so get out there and explore!

Late Of The Pier - The Bears Are Coming

Final Fantasy - This Lamb Sells Condos

If I was a whale I'd be happy...

So its quite late and I probably should be tucked up in bed ready for a day of jobhunting tomorrow but we just watched 28 Days Later and I don't really fancy being in the dark for a bit as I'm terrified of of them zombie things, Phil Jupitus' drunk Glastonbury presenting is much more appealing. I don't know if its really worth it anyway. My hunt for employment is currently similar to Cilian Murphy's lonely and increasingly desparate search for survivors through London's deserted streets. He only finds looted shops and people who want to kill him, on second thoughts maybe it was filmed in Stockport.

This entry definitely did have a point. It was to say a few words about my favouritest band of 2007 bar none, the wonderful Slow Club. Hailing from Sheffield and barely out of their teens it would be easy for a jaded hack reading a press release to conjure up images of four lads in tracky tops singing about things like 'lasses in chip shops' and so on but thank god NO! Charles and Rebecca seem to be lost in a world of their own. They cite on their myspace their influences as not their fellow, more famous inhabitants of Steel City, nor any well known, Detroit-based two-pieces you could care to mention but instead simply, Leonard Cohen (the later years) and Rod Stewart (All the years) This wit and playfulness carries through to the duo's music which is a riot of intertwining vocals, jangling guitars and imaginitive percussion (Rebecca hits chair legs and empty bottles during performances) Slow Club's inventiveness and youthful optimism is what really makes them appeal to me. I stumbled across them in January when they supported Hot Club De Paris and they just had great big grins on their faces and just seemed really humbled by the occasion and the overwhelmigly positive reaction they received that night. Offering tea and cake to their fans as well as homemade Slow Club bags on the merch stall its great to see two people who are clearly having fun making music together, aren't bothered about looking 'cool' or jumping on any bandwagon and don't look like bloody Milburn. Long may it continue I say.

Their debut single 'Because We Are Dead' is out on Moshi Moshi TODAY (timing or what eh?) and I'm sure it would put a similar smile on your face if you bought a copy and played it at the right speed (or the wrong one, probably) on a turntable so go on, do your bit. Theyre also playing at a load of festivals over the summer, most notably Green Man in Wales (because I'll be there!) but also Latitude, Bestival and End of The Road and others, all the dates are on the myspace. Speaking of the end of the road I think its time for me to go to bed but I'll leave you with an mp3 off the first demo and the b-side to the single. It's called 'Sunday' and is absolutely lovely. Hopefully the zombies won't get me xxx

Slow Club - Sunday (Demo)

I'd rather cut my arms off than see you going out with him

It's been a fair while since I last posted but unusually I've good reasons to support my lackadaisical work ethic rather than a lack of enthusiasm as is usually the case, it seems like I've actually been keeping myself busy for a change. After exams were finished and pens fell to desks in celebratory clatters I dusted off my NX2 card (£1 fares!) in the hope of travelling to sunnier parts of these fair isles with the intent of drinking cider/seeing some music/trying to forget I've a summer job to find.



First port of call was a rain-soaked Nottingham for the sixth annual Dot to Dot Festival. Highlights of the day included an exhausted but typically exhilarating set from Foals currently in the studio recording their debut album but who will be emerging, blinking into the summer sun with polished bleeps and beats to play a bunch of festival dates, Fred Les Inc's howling with his new band Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man seeing probably the worst band I've ever seen in the form of We Smoke Fags, seriously like an even worse Towers of London, an amazing plate of curly fries and being uncharacteristically incandescent with rage with a 14 year old in a bono must die t-shirt (nuff said) throwing glowsticks at Gary's head during The Cribs' set. I felt bad because he looked like he might cry after I'd told him off but glowsticks+aggression toward a Jarman is in my book akin to pulling the tail of a very large, angry lion with respiratory problems. Only disappointment of the day was missing Annuals who were on at Nottingham Trent but we feared if we stepped outside we might literally have been engulfed by a whale or some other scary sea-being such was the ferocity of the rain.

After an incredibly uncomfortable nights "sleep" on a mates uni floor and a day of rest back in Leeds I had my head against the bus window again on my way to London to see The Cribs at the Astoria. It was at this gig, amongst lots of excitable children that me and my fellow attendees realised with a quiet sadness that we don't want to be the ones down at the front getting elbowed in the face and covered in sweat and other bodily fluids anymore. I'm content to stand at the back appreciating the onstage banter, any knitwear a musician might be sporting and grumbling about 'kids these days'. The new Cribs tracks sound amazing live, I think Ancient History is my favourite because of the speedy-up bit at the end that sounds like Sonic Youth, plus they have great flashing lights now that accompany it, its like theyre a proper band or something, like on Jools Holland when they were in the same room as Simply Red, I feel proud and a bit maternal.

I wanted to write a little bit about my favourite new band from Leeds, The Rosie Taylor Project a drummerless 5-piece I saw supporting Camera Obscura last weekend who have obviously realised that what you lose in a drummer, can be more than made up for by being actually able to hear the other instruments, which is nice. Shuffling onstage to a silent and initially sceptical audience, we were treated to 40-0dd minutes of beatifully layered folk-pop and by the end, whoops of glee could be heard throughout the venue, not bad amongst a crowd whose cardigan:person ratio is higher than your average gig. They've got a single called 'Black and White Films' out on Bad Sneakers records in a couple of months so yeah, get it!

This weekend will mostly be spent in front of the BBC coverage of Glastonbury trying to convince myself I don't want to be there but I know when I see the first shots of Mark Radcliffe flying around in a helicopter trying to spot Michael Eavis' beard I'll be jealous of everyone. Anyone with the post-Glasto blues should definitely come to Cafe Saki on Monday and see Dananananaykroyd pummell a smile into your lovely face. It's not to be missed! I promise to spend more time on here and less time learning Larry David quotes, maybe...