Winners announced:

The Olympus Mons
Morton Valence
Conrad Vingoe
The Dials

Discuss. Best new music in the country?

apologies for linking to another muic website but after reporting the Sleater-Kinney split I feel the need to even things up with some good news

Link

They’re doing a few more final U.S. dates and then calling it a day it seems.

End of era.

I’ve just been made aware that the deadline for Fopp’s ‘Award for new music 2006’ has been extended – it is in fact very soon (9 June). Now, I’m not normally a fan of these kind of schemes as they tend to involve hidden payments from, and bad deals for, bands involved. But this one seems pretty good. It’s free to enter, aimed at bands that are out there gigging and recording without a deal, and the winner gets to record for free, to get a free single release that’s distributed to Fopps around the country, and (maybe most importantly) to hang on to the rights of their stuff that’s released. Could be worth a go, it seems…

More info and form here.

I just read this:

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The UK’s biggest Festival organiser, Mean Fiddler (Reading/Leeds, Glastonbury) announces the arrival of something a little bit different on 14th – 16th July 2006.

This brand new festival is situated in the beautiful grounds of the historic Henham Park Estate in Suffolk. Positioned near the most easterly English coastline between Southwold and Aldeburgh, Henham has been in the Rous family line since 1544. The vision of Mean Fiddler boss, Melvin Benn, Latitude is inspired more by European festivals such as Lowlands, than anything currently on offer in the UK. Expect Music, Art, Comedy, Film, Literature, Theatre, Performance Art, Dance, Sculpture, Workshops, Restaurants and Waiter Service Bars. In short – the best bits of all festivals rolled into one.

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Not exactly sure what it means. A music festival? Some kind of art happening? Reading festival without the camping and marauding beerboys? We shall see…

Triptych, Scotland’s multi-city alternative music festival, have just announced the line-up for this year’s event and, boy, do they know how to throw a launch party. diskant was there in full ligging capacity to take advantage of the free bars and enjoy the impressive interior of the Fruitmarket while having the line-up lasered into our brains via the David Shrigley designed artwork on the video screens.

Even better, The 1990s were on hand to provide some musical entertainment. Their set got off to a false start with eventually seven people all standing round one malfunctioning guitar amp but they soon got things back on track. I have been meaning to check out The 1990s for a while now, not least because singer John McKeown was the man behind the Yummy Fur, one of my favourite bands ever. The 1990s are in no way the Yummy Fur part 2 although John’s ultra Glaswegian vocals and the catchy postpunk pop tunes have carried over. But things are a little more serious now, a little more grown up I guess, with less of the knowing references and spangly keyboards and more of a straight up accessible sound. I hope they do well but I need to spend a bit more time with these songs before I’m fully convinced. As the free bar started to run dry, I left and bumped into John who remembered me from all those years ago in Aberdeen (related in preposterous detail here – oh to be young again). So, diskant vs The 1990s – coming soon!

I do heartily recommend you make it along to some of the Triptych shows if you can (they take place over 28-30 April throughout Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen). It may lack some of the innovation and experimentation of Instal and Subcurrent but where else will you get to see Aphex Twin and Wolf Eyes on the same bill rubbing up against the best in indie, classical, hiphop, dance and everything in between?

Yes yes, none of us getting upset about Smash Hits folding have read it for years but that shouldn’t stop us mourning the greatest magazine that ever existed. My sister and I read Smash Hits obsessively from the mid-eighties to the late nineties and loved it for their enthusiasm and ridiculing and the secret language of hilarious catchphrases. Thankfully all this continues in the safe hands of Popjustice, Simon Amstell (I had a momentary regression into teen pop sulkiness the other week when my dad made me stop watching Popworld to go visit my granny) and the Pet Shop Boys. You’ll also find a large number of questions on diskant that are nicked directly from my Smash Hits yearbooks. I will now go dig out my ‘Smash Hits: more tune for your “bob”‘ badge and remember the good old days.

Smash Hits Forever
Down The Dumper! – Alexis Petridis at the Guardian

Also good on the Guardian today – the London Underground map of music.

Blimey. Just spotted the announcement for two more All Tomorrow’s Parties weekends for next May curated by Mudhoney, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Special Guests one weekend and The Shins, Sleater Kinney and Ween the next. I’m still noticing a lack of electronic stuff here which disappoints me. I think I am officially bored of indie rock.

If you haven’t yet done so, get yourself over to The Wire and download Richard Youngs’ previously super-limited CD-R Garden Of Stones. Wow wow wow. It’s knickers-wettingly wonderful. If this isn’t top of the diskant Audioscrobbler chart next week, there’ll be some difficult and searching questions to answer. Go now!

Just read this, about recently-reviewed Cadillac’s recent gig:

“If ever there was a baptism of fire for any band, it would have to be Cadillac on Wednesday evening. Playing their first ever paid gig in the UK, the Norwegian rockers and crew, all smiles after a storming gig at the Brixton Windmill in London, left the venue armed with their evenings earnings of just £26 only to be held up at gunpoint!

Although they survived the ordeal without lasting injury, they lost all the money they received for doing the show. In an effort to cheer themselves up, they’ve spent the afternoon eating pizza, presumably on their cash cards. Bless.”

Blimey!
Looking forward to my band playing at Brixton Windmill next month…