I’ve just spotted that there’s a free Lardpony album to download from their website.

The old Lardpony album called ‘This is Lardcore’ has some really quite excellent songs on it (my favourite being ’You Vary With a Function of Time’), and they’re responsible for one of my favourite ever things that a band has said during a gig - “we’ve got three songs left, and they’re all about the undead”, which I suppose is very topical today. Wooh!

You can download the album, which is called ‘The Greatest Invention Ever’ on The Lardpony Website  - and there’s a paypal donate button if you like it and want to give the band money for their work.

Ah C86. I’d have probably loved you if I was around at the time. Full of jangly guitar bands like Primal Scream and The Wedding Present, unlike many bands of that era though, I still hold onto the Wedding Present as a band who still produce interesting music – now in their Cinerama-songs-arranged-for-The-Wedding-Present era, Take Fountain is an album with several stand out moments.

But tonight wasn’t about the new album, this was the George Best 20th Anniversary tour which revisited all of the towns and cities originally played by The Wedding Present 20 years ago after the release of George Best, so that the band could play the whole of the album in its entirety. This is very similar to the ATP Don’t Look Back concept, only – hurrah – it happens outside of London.

I’m still unsure about how I feel about going to see the performance of a historic album. On the one hand, I think that the £15 entry should be better spent on discovering new bands and randomly purchasing recommended releases on Amazon and feeling the thrill of discovering someone new and exciting, and adding more favourite songs ever to the list. On the other hand, it’s The Wedding Present – and they’re playing George Best!!

George Best has always sounded like an album for small spaces and sweaty gigs. It’s a rapid guitar assault with a speed of playing less commonly associated with simple pop tunes. It’s not an album of sustained notes and chords and for this reason; it’s not an album that lends itself to the open spaces and high roof of Birmingham Academy.

But The Wedding Present have always been weirdly watchable for me, whatever the venue, and David Gedge always makes the effort to share his humour with the audience. The songs are short and tuneful, and when C86 veered off into Twee, no-one really followed up on what The Wedding Present were doing apart from The Wedding Present.

In a lot of ways, I’d really like to hear a Wedding Present influence in more bands - the rapid guitar work coupled with simple yet catchy pop tunes - because I feel that this sound has been tarmacked over by successive rewritings of music history. Maybe someone could set up a scheme called ‘Gedgewise’ where George Best is given out to bands starting up -as a good catch up with music’s past is just as essential as discovering it’s future.

Earlier this year, I went to a Darren Hanlon gig in Stockholm. The gig was in a courtyard outside of Debaser and there were a large number of people who hung around afterwards to listen to the listen to the music and enjoy the evening.

The music was a mix of older schools of indie, but the same track was played at three points during the evening, it was ace in a 1960’s soul way and I had to find out what it was. I asked the DJ, who kindly told me that it was ‘Friday Night at the Drive In Bingo’ by Jens Lekman. I pointed out that it was really good and the reply came “yup, I think Jens is going to be alright after all”

I’m not sure what he meant by that, I took it as an appreciation that he may finally reach the wider level of acclaim he deserves. Now his latest album has arrived and the question is of course “is he going to be alright after all”.

The first thing that struck me about this album is that mostly the arrangements are different to previous work. Largely gone are the moments of melancholic guitar & vocals frailty mix or the spacious arrangements which marked his earlier work, they’ve been replaced with a fuller, more orchestrated sound which is a shame as I’ve always loved the quieter moments which works especially well when mixed with Jen’s distinctive sense of humour (see for example ‘A Man Walks Into A Bar’)

Having said that, this album is very 1960s influenced, and the arrangements and feel of the songs is very much like Sandie Shaw or The Foundations.

It all kicks in a minute into the opening track, Jens Lekman crying out “but I would never kiss anyone” with the full volume of his voice. He’s always had this glitzy side on occasional tracks, as seen in songs such as You Are The Light (By Which I Travel Into This And That) with it’s superb blasts of horns but glitz has always rubbed shoulders with frailty on the earlier albums, which works.

Sipping on the Sweet Nectar is the second track and reminds me how much I’ve missed new material from Jens, he does have an ear for a tune and unlike the first song, and the arrangement matches the flow of the song better, underpinning the vocals nicely.

I constantly feel when listening to this album, that the next track is going to be Build Me Up Buttercup (which I don’t should be passed of as solely from There’s Something About Mary. I’m looking at you Louis Walsh, it was from much earlier, as well you know) which of course means that it’s full of catchy pop tune pleases me terribly.

Last track is the single ‘Friday Night at the Drive In Bingo’ and I quite like the perverseness of putting the ‘hit’ single last rather than first or second. The lyrics are a classic example of Jen’s observational humour and best of all, features a repeated bit which gets faster and faster like in ‘Come on Eileen’.

So, is Jens going to be alright after all? Sadly, I think no, not without appearing on an advert like former flipside friend Jose Gonzalez. But, despite my ruing at the lack of quieter songs, this album works as a whole package rather than a collection of songs like what his former albums have sounded like (and have indeed been), and if you’re looking for a modern day artefact from the 1960’s – then this album is it.

Putting on gigs is genuinely easier than you think, and if I had known how easy it was to organise a gig then I’d have been doing it years ago. Sadly I spent many years wondering why bands I like never played in Birmingham. Was it because Birmingham was a genuinely desolate place for music? Was it because there wasn’t anyone with the same taste in music as me living here? Was it that Birmingham had so many talented bands and was large enough to have several hundred music/arts ‘scenes’ without needing a steady influx of bands from other cities? Was it because we didn’t have the same media base as London where thousands of A&R men attend every gig with money to throw around?

But no, it turned out that bands I liked weren’t playing in Birmingham because I hadn’t booked them yet.

I’m hoping to demystify the booking-and-promoting process a little bit, in the hope that more people will put bands that they like on in Birmingham too, because – as previously stated – it’s genuinely easier than you think.

One of the first things to do is to make sure that people get to gigs, and the best way to do that is to make sure that people who might like to come know about it. I’ve just submitted some listings to printed media so I thought it best to share some of the places where I usually do it. My theory is that if 5 minutes of e-mails tells one more person about the club night then it’s worth it.

The Press Association have listings, I have it on good authority that this generates loads of web references and Ian from Spiral Scratch mentioned that his night was once listed in The Guardian due to the PA submission – you just can’t argue with this sort of publicity. Submit here at least three weeks in advance.

The NME website contact form has a welcoming “I’ve got a gig and I’d like you to list it in NME”. I have never once had a gig listed in the NME. To be honest I’ve got into the habit of doing it now to mainly to prove to myself that it’ll never go in, although I think you have to be starry-eyed about such things. Probably best to get this in over four weeks in advance.

The Birmingham Metro. Good old Birmingham Metro, always includes gig listings or club nights no hassle and phones back if you’ve forgotten to leave out details. Best get this in a week in advance.

One of the things that I think we’re sorely missing is an online national gig database which is easy to use and is of the same quality as John D Traynor’s Birmingham Gig Guide.

Last fm is almost there but hasn’t really taken off as much as other ‘Web 2.0‘ networking sites, which is a shame as it tells you about local events based on your listening habits which seems an ideal way to get people who don’t usually attend many local gigs, to more local gigs.

If only it would dump gig suggestions into people’s Outlook calendars.

I have to at least mention one of the three CD-R’s that Rob Howard kindly gave me at a recent gig. The CD’s were by Parachute Game, Exeter Text, (I cannot find any reference to either band online) and Jesmond Villas and The Quids.

All three have some involvement from Rob himself as extra-curricular activities to his own Lime Chalks project. I genuinely don’t know how he keeps up this prolific spree of song writing, but it’s very reminiscent of Magnetic Fields writing 69 Love Songs in a month (I Think I Need a New Heart is expertly covered by Parachute Game with boy/girl vocals, and I think I prefer it to the original).

All three are very good, but the one still in my stereo is Bending Over Neville by Jesmond Villas and The Quids.

It was the first one out of the three that I listened to, and why, it had the best packaging that I’ve seen for any CD-R ever. The CD was in a pocket of brown card, attached to a fold out, hand drawn, treasure map of an island with boats and monsters and trees. The eight track names accompany the treasure X’s which cover the island. 

The hypothesis goes that attention to the packaging means that attention has also been paid to the music, and this is so true in this case. Every track has female lead vocals with accompaniment by acoustic guitar and cello (I love cello/acoustic guitar combos!).

The standout track is Tuatha Danaan, the chorus being propelled along by the lovely contributions of the cello and the backing vocal. Paul Busst song is one of those rare examples of a song which uses a harmonica without it sounding frustrating and out of place.

Hopefully, the ornate cover will mean that I revisit this CD everytime I scan past it when looking for something to listen to.

As it was You Say Party! We Say Die! put in a surprisingly good support performance. I say surprising as I’d lumped them in with much of the modern electro thing that’s going on, which is a scene that has yet to reach out and inspire me in a big way since the last Miss Kittin album - if that is even electro - I’m not sure when electro’s year zero was, I just remember being in the main room at Snobs about a year ago and having an unexpected electro half hour happen around me.

Los Campensinos! were bouncy down the front. There was dancing between rows 1 and 9, and obviously everything danced just that little bit harder for You! Me! Dancing! and if I hadn’t of been wearing my massive duffel coat then I may have got stuck in myself at some point. I really enjoyed this gig!

They played It Started with a Mixx last night too - this was the first Los Campesinos! song that I ever heard and of course, I love compilation tapes – making/swapping/planning/receiving – and the more songs about swapping compilation tapes the better. This song takes me one step closer to the dream of making a themed compilation tape about compilation tapes (if you know of any more then please let me know).

Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks was the final song of the night and it’s probably my favourite Los Campesinos! song too. The opening line is an absolutely stonking declaration of small scale indie intent and how buggered we all would be if it started acting just like it’s mainstream self. If you’re reading this then you probably already know that, but it’s a fair point to make if you have the pedestal - much how in a similar way I will always declare Edwyn Collins an absolute genius for taking the words “Too many protest singers, not enough protest songs” into the European Top 5. Amongst the other things that he’s done that has meant a lot to so many.

Sadly, when I flyered outside afterwards, I ran out of flyers for the next Autumn Store before the people who were talking about the Field Mice came out. Curses.

Another 7” landed on my doormat the other day – the debut single from Those Dancing Days, cunningly entitled Those Dancing Days. I’m a big fan of bands having theme songs or songs which are called the same thing as the band, as I think it’s good for bands to write about things that they enjoy (amongst other topics obviously) and you would hope that they enjoy being in the band. Otherwise why do it?

Anyway, I first heard of Those Dancing Days due to a well-placed glowing review – which I believe may have been something to do with Tack! Tack! Tack! who are big supporters of the current musical pop renaissance going on in Sweden at the moment. The review was so glowing, I was ready to text all of my friends to say that my life had changed due to Those Dancing Days and leave them with my new forwarding address in Sweden without even hearing a note. Sadly the hype outweighed what I heard and I was left slightly disappointed. Ooh, the geek in me feels an equation coming on too –

(Quality of music * Warranted hype) / Unwarranted hype = Listeners satisfaction
Equation 2 – the theory of the first listening

The song is very drum heavy, all the way through from the intro the end, which gets a bit in the way of the soft/loud dynamics that the song could have had. The instumentation is fairly spread out and sparse with exception of the drums too, and although the small sections of tune are pretty lovely though as you would expect from a Swedish band, they’re lost amongst the drums.

I can’t help but feel that with a softer arrangement then I’d be listening to this song for months. As it is, theres just too much of a contrast between what the song is and what the song is trying to be.

 Having said that, I’ll dance to it if you put it on!

Hurrah, we’ve finally confirmed a third band called Arctic Circle for the Autumn Store Christmas Party, after several “I’m sorry buts” from My Sad Captains, Elle S’Appelle and Betika (they all had good reasons though and we’ll hopefully get some of them up here at an Autumn Store soon).

Though that fact that we asked these bands first is not to take anything at all away from Arctic Circle who we’re absolutely delighted to be putting on in Birmingham. They should sound excellent on the same line up as Pocketbooks.

This time last week, I’d not even heard of them – but got talking about my Bristol trip last weekend with Ian from How Does it Feel to be Loved at the Butcher Boy gig last Friday, who mentioned that Arctic Circle were a good band from Bristol. As their CD was on sale at Here, well, it didn’t make sense to not buy it. After listening to the first few tracks, a myspace message was winging its way over to Bristol.

Part of me (all of me) thinks that this is how bands should be booked, in a flourish of being excited by the music and impulsively asking them if they want a gig, sod all this “please fill out a form/send a demo, thank you for taking an interest in our night” formalisation of the music process which goes on, thank you.

One of the things that no-one ever seems to tell you about being in a band is that you will miss loads of gigs that you want to go to, due to either rehearsing or playing a gig elsewhere. This is frequently gutting, even given that for me, equation 1 holds true.

making music > listening to music > no music at all

equation 1, the general theory of musical relativity

Last night, sadly Broken Social Scene were the victim of my latest diary clash which is highly annoying, as the chance to see Anthems for a 17 Year Old Girl live slips away again.For those who don’t know it, it is a touching and gentle song, and reminds me of the time I played it on the way back from one ATP, on repeat, literally all the way from passing Oxford to Kings Heath (much to the annoyance of the other passengers).Having said that, rehearsals are generally fun affairs and we seem to have ended up in a regular rehearsal slot at the same time as Shana Tova who are a band that I’m really looking forward to seeing – hopefully on Friday at Island Bar. They’re melodic post-hardcore you know, and listening through the walls of rehearsal rooms isn’t quite the same as that full on live melodic post-hardcore band experience.Oh, and playing Anthems for a 17 Year Old Girl as the last song has since established itself as one of our favourite ways to musically wish everyone goodnight at The Autumn Store.

Just got back from popping posters up in Selly Oak for The Loves gig in November and sadly another wall has been ‘lost’ in that Selly Sausage now only accept posters that have been approved by their ticket seller.

I know it’s their wall and all that, I completely accept the converse argument that I was lucky to be able to put posters up on their wall for so long (I am of course massively massively grateful for every little bit of help), but it is getting harder to find walls outside of record shops and the venue where independent promoters can advertise their gigs (and not have the poster taken down but that’s another grumble).

If any other small promoters in Brum read this then drop me a message and let’s share where we usually put posters up if you want - there may be one or two places that I’ve missed which you use and vice-versa.