Ida Maria has announced a sizeable UK tour for November around the UK.

Tickets are on sale now priced at £8 for every date except for London which is £2 more expensive.

Friday 7th November - Glasgow Oran Mor
Saturday 8th November - Edinburgh Cabaret Voltaire
Sunday 9th November - Newcastle Academy 2
Wednesday 12th November - Cardiff The Point
Thursday 13th November - Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms
Friday 14th November - Sheffield Academy 2
Saturday 15th November - Birmingham Barfly
Tuesday 18th November - Brighton, Komedia
Wenesday 19th November - Leeds Cockpit
Thursday 20th November - Manchester Club Academy
Saturday 22nd November - Nottingham Rescue Rooms
Sunday 23rd November - Oxford Zodiac At The Academy
Wednesday 26th November - Bristol Thekla
Thursday 27th November - London Scala

Former Suede frontman Brett Anderson has announced a string of tour dates for late September around the UK.

Tickets are on sale now, at £15 for all dates except London which has tickets on sale at £18.50 each.

Thursday 25th September - Leeds City Varieties
Friday 26th September - Manchester Royal Northern College Of Music
Saturday 27th September - Glasgow Oran Mor
Monday 29th September - Brighton St Georges Church
Tuesday 30th September - London Shepherds Bush Empire

Supposedly Travis have just recorded their “loudest, edgiest and most arresting record since their debut”, and to celebrate they’ve just announced a sizeable UK tour for September and October around the UK.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow (Friday 1st August) at 9am.

Monday 22nd September - Inverness Ironworks
Tuesday 23rd September - Aberdeen Music Hall
Thursday 25th September - Edinburgh Picture House
Sunday 28th September - Manchester The Ritz
Monday 29th September - Liverpool Academy
Tuesday 30th September - Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall
Thursday 2nd October - Newcastle University
Friday 3rd October - Norwich UEA
Saturday 4th October - Portsmouth Pyramids Centre
Monday 6th October - Bath Pavillion
Tuesday 7th October - Sheffield Leadmill
Wednesday 8th October - London Astoria

Primal Scream have been announced as the headliners of this year’s NME Rock ‘N’ Roll Riot Tour. The supporting bill will be announced shortly, but expect some great bands, as the NME normally pull out all of the stops.

Tickets are on sale now, priced at £22.50 for all dates except London, which is priced at £25 a ticket. Tickets are available from here.

Thursday 20th November - Oxford Academy
Friday 21st November - Cardiff University
Sunday 23rd November - Bristol Academy
Monday 24th November - Southampton Guildhall
Tuesday 25th November - Reading Hexagon
Thursday 27th November - Nottingham, Rock City
Friday 28th November - London Hammersmith Apollo
Sunday 30th November - Norwich UEA
Monday 1st December Sheffield Academy
Tuesday 2nd December Brighton Dome
Thursday 4th December Birmingham Academy
Friday 5th December Cambridge Corn Exchange
Monday 8th December Leeds Academy
Tuesday 9th December Newcastle Academy
Thursday 11th December Manchester Apollo
Saturday 13th December Glasgow SECC

If I’m honest, I don’t know much about them, but I do know that The Levellers are a pretty big deal. And they’re going on tour shortly, all around the UK.

Tickets are on sale now, priced at £19.50 plus the usual (extortionate) booking fees.

Wednesday 3rd December - Truro Hall for Cornwall
Thursday 4th December - Exeter University
Friday 5th December - Lincoln Engine Shed
Saturday 6th December - Manchester University
Sunday 7th December - Norwich UEA
Tuesday 9th December - Bristol Academy
Thursday 11th December - Sheffield Octagon
Friday 12th December - Leeds Academy
Saturday 13th December - Birmingham Academy
Sunday 14th December - Southampton Guildhall

Quickly rising stars Glasvegas have announced a full tour for the end of August and throughout September. They’ll also be playing a number of festivals throughout the period, including the wonderful Hydro Connect Festival.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow, Wednesday July 30th, at 9am. Prices are £8 except London which will cost you a bit more. Catch them at:

Wednesday 27th August - Birmingham Barfly
Thursday 28th August - Stoke Sugarmill
Wednesday 3rd September - Dundee Fat Sam’s
Friday 5th September - Glasgow QMU
Sunday 7th September - Edinburgh Liquid Room
Tuesday 9th September - Liverpool Barfly
Saturday 13th September - Bristol Trinity
Sunday 14th September - Sheffield Plug
Monday 15th September - Leeds Cockpit
Tuesday 16th September - York Junction
Wednesday 17th September - Manchester Academy
Saturday 20th September - Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms
Sunday 21st September - Gloucester Guildhall
Monday 22nd September - Cardiff Barfly
Tuesday 23rd September - London Scala
Thursday 25th September - Nottingham Rescue Rooms

With their quiffs, red lipstick and vintage shirts, you’d be forgiven for thinking this rockabilly trio had just stepped out of the 1950’s. Meet Kitty, Daisy and Lewis, the North London siblings who count Ray Charles and Little Richard as the muse for their latest boogie woogie offerings.

They have already supported Razorlight and Mika and are set to release their second album. The twist to this Von Trapp hillbilly affair? These kids are just 15, 17 and 20.

“Since we were little we’ve always been playing music together at home as a family,” Kitty says.

“Our dad used to sing to us at bed time, songs like ‘Honolulu Rock a Roll a’ and Louis Prima’s ‘Buona Sera.’”

“It’s just the music we love because it makes you feel good. It has a good energy and a live raw sound.

“Most of all it makes you want to dance because it rocks!”

They have built a huge word-of-mouth audience through a string of gigs and festival appearances. And that’s not all. The brother and two sisters play guitar, piano, banjo, harmonica, double bass, ukulele, trombone and accordion between them.

“We are definitely a musical family,” Kitty says.

“We had a double bass which my dad used to sit me on top of while he played, and we had the odd harmonica lying around that we could fiddle with.”

“Dad showed us a couple of chords on the guitar and we just picked it up from there. “

They came together almost by accident at a country and rockabilly jam seven years ago. When asked onstage, they played an impromptu version of ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ with Lewis on the banjo, Kitty on drums and Daisy on accordion.

Their passion for vintage music led to their compilation ‘A to Z - Kitty, Daisy & Lewis - The Roots Of Rock n Roll’ being named one of the Guardian’s 2007 ‘Albums Of The Year – 5/5′.

Now they are set to release their second album- a mixture of the covers their Dad used to sing to them, along with new material like ‘Buggin’ Blues.’ The album leads with the new single ‘Going up the Country’ - a summertime jam with harmonica solos and handclaps galore.

Ooo Wee, make way for the coolest kids in town.

‘Kitty, Daisy & Lewis’, the album, is out now on Sunday Best Recordings.

Alphabeat: Boyfriend
Cheesy, classic pop from the Danish geniuses. Nothing too complicated, nothing too mould breaking.

We Are Scientists - Impatient
Who doesn’t love this New York duo? Another sterling video from them featuring lots of hair.

Hanson: MMMBop
Now, who doesn’t love this? Simply, pure pop magic.

You may not know that much about him at the moment, but mark my words, Johnny Flynn could be about to do a Laura Marling on us and get all massive with his brand of folk-pop. For a good introduction to the guy, pop on over to the Times online, who have a great introductory piece on him.

He’s just announced his biggest tour to date, playing the below dates. Tickets are on sale now, priced around £8 for each date I think.

Friday 17th October - Glasgow Nice n Sleazy’s
Saturday 18th October - Leeds Holy Trinity
Sunday 19th October - Manchester Matt & Phreds
Tuesday 21st October - Birmingham Bar Academy
Wednesday 22nd October - Nottingham Bodega Social
Thursday 23rd October - Bristol Cooler
Saturday 25th October - Reading Oakford Social
Sunday 26th October - Norwich Arts Centre
Tuesday 28th October - Southampton Joiners
Wednesday 29th October - Brighton Hanbury Club
Thursday 30th October - London Scala

We’ve recently teamed up with those lovely people over at the 405 and today bring you the first of a (hopefully) regular series of guest posts from their team of amazing authors. Below is a review of Conor Oberst’s new album, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, which is sounding pretty good.

This is undoubtedly hands down the most exciting release of the year for me, and so when tonight presented the opportunity to get my grubby mits on the leak I did absolutely not have the self-restraint to turn the chance down. For somebody who has shamelessly adored everything Conor has produced for a good 5 years now, I wasn’t really expecting it to let me down, although Cassadaga didn’t do it for me quite as much as some of Bright Eyes’ previous releases, so I was cautious in getting my hopes up too high. Good news though - this album is sensational.

My impression of the Mystic Valley Band’s efforts thus far is pretty much without fault. Cape Canaveral begins the album quietly and understatedly, and fairly reminiscent of “Wide Awake” era Bright Eyes - a mellow and steady track which is sleepy yet still optimistic. After track one the album speeds up with several upbeat, more folky songs (”I Don’t Want To Die” is surprising to say the least, knowing Conor’s penchant for suicide songs).

While the slightly skeptical and often not-quite-making-sense lyrics are out once again in force, it’s easy to tell this is Conor straight away, but there are still a lot of surprising elements that set it apart, which has reassured me somewhat since I was more or less expecting this to sound like any other Bright Eyes release despite the new band name. In several songs Conor’s voice sounds a lot less polished like it did several albums back, there’s a splash of piano thrown into “Eagle On A Pole”, and “NYC - Gone, Gone” is something else altogether.

Bright Eyes has always felt like ‘travelling music’ to me - the albums you scroll straight to on your iPod as soon as you get into the car for a long trip, or on a boat, train or plane - and The Mystic Valley Band promises to be the same. Only “Moab” actually refers to travelling, but the whole album is a journey in itself.

It seems to me Conor has always saved the best till last as far as track listings go, and this album is no exception. “Milk Thistle” stands out probably above every other song. Easily the best lyrics of all, the nicest tone and the most comforting chord progression - very “Lime Tree” which is never and will never be a bad thing.

If anyone out there was waiting for Conor Oberst to let them down they’ll have to wait a while longer. Everyone get scouring the internet or looking forward to August 5th - we just found the best album of 2008.