Quite possibly my favourite band in, like, forever, Delays, have announced a week long UK tour for October.

Catch me (hopefully) at Southampton and London, enjoying their new tunes. You should come too.

Tickets go on sale on Monday morning at 9am.

Saturday 17th October 2009 – Southampton The Joiners
Monday 19th October 2009 – Glasgow King Tuts
Tuesday 20th October 2009 – Birmingham Academy 3
Wednesday 21st October 2009 – London Borderline
Thursday 22nd October 2009 – Leeds Brudenell Social Club
Friday 23rd October 2009 – Manchester Night & Day

10. Idlewild at London’s ULU (3rd July)
First time catching the indie rockers, blown away. So much so that I caught them again in Bristol just a month later, they were that good. They showed just how they’ve managed to be so successful for the past decade, with energy and great songs.

9. I’m From Barcelona at London Scala (25th November)
I know I said I’d write a review and then didn’t, but things were kinda hectic with university stuff at the time. Still, I’m From Barcelona provided one of the best nights of entertainment I’ve had in a while – chaotic, crazy, they had so much energy I was finding bits of ticker tape for days after.

8. Bloc Party at London’s Apple Store (10th October)
My second Bloc Party experience of the year, hot and sweaty in the Apple Store. I was expecting a bland, boring performance but we got anything but – chaotic, Kele was on top form, crawling over the crowd, standing all over the place. I’d hate to have had the job of cleaning up the next morning!

7. Friendly Fires at Oxford Zodiac (5th October)
My second time seeing Friendly Fires, they were even more intense than the first time. Loud, energetic, and slightly chaotic – we forgot it was Sunday night and danced like it was 3am. Just immense. Watch them become huge in 209.

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It’s been a pretty amazing year for music around the UK, and following on from my top 10 of 2007, here is my top 10 of 2008.

10 – Viva Stereo – Roar Lion Roar
You’ve probably not heard much about this Scottish collective. However, their third album was a surprise favourite for me – anthemic, accessible, slightly My Bloody Valentine and yet still so gorgeous.

Read more about Viva Stereo here.

Favourite: Knee High Boots.

9 – Sigur Rós – Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
As ever, an amazing collection from the Icelandic group. More pop than previous albums, their songs sound all the more amazing. I caught them live at Hydro Connect Festival in Scotland, where they preceded Franz Ferdinand and blew them out of the water. As the sun went down, they soundtracked the festival for us, showing their sense of humour and making beautiful music that had more than a few grown men in tears.

Favourite: Inní mér syngur vitleysingur

8 – Ra Ra Riot – The Rhumb Line
Dark in places, Ra Ra Riot come from the same school of musical geekiness as Vampire Weekend, but with a bit more serious and a bit less money. Dark in places, the group are still recovering from the death of their drummer in summer 2007, which shows on tracks like “Winter ‘05″.

Favourite: Dying is Fine

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Months with no daily roundup, then two in the same week – whatever next? It seems with this economic crisis and general gloom and doom people are turning to bloggers more and more to get free publicity – great for us, however it does mean my inbox fills up more and more quickly. Here’s the best of my inbox (and some other bits I love) so far this week…

Luke Hess is coming to London next year, and I quite like what I’m hearing at the moment – kind of chilled out, kind of funky, very chilled out, great for me to have on whilst starting my Final Year Project. Find out a bit more about the fascinating man over at Don’t Panic Magazine.

Lots of press this week around the Blur reunion – great news, but I won’t be going along. They were great in the 90’s, but I think I’ll keep the memories on CD rather than in the flesh.

My new favourite electro fun girl-band? Dead Pixels (pictured at top of post). I’ve had “So You Say” (below for free download) on repeat for a while – frantic, pulsing, height-of-the-party feel just calls out to be featured on Skins or such like in a drug fuelled montage. If you like this, bear in mind that it’s only the B side to their current single, “Words Are Poison”. Download, listen, love below:

MP3: Dead Pixels – So You Say

I’ve mentioned my love for La Roux (pictured right) before, and now that she’s on the BBC Sound of 2009 Longlist, she’s released a brand new video Quicksand to co-incide with the single which came out last Monday. Watch and feel all summery below:

Apologies if things are a bit slow for the next few days – I’m off to catch Delays on their World Tour of Southampton on Friday and Saturday evenings when they play the Orange Rooms and then the Joiners.

I love Koko in London – some of my favourite gigs of the year have taken place there (Stars, Air Traffic and Death Cab to list three – I also caught Tegan and Sara and Delays there, but didn’t write a review). They’re upping their game a bit, and have released some quick “highlights” programmes if you will – below is the Gossip @ Koko, or if guitar rock is more your sorta thing then catch The Enemy here.

Black Cab Sessions have garnered quite a cult following recently, with some massive artists playing the back of a cab… these include Brian Wilson,  Badly Drawn Boy, Lykke Li and Death Cab For Cutie. However, I honestly think that the latest one with Kurt from Lambchop was the best… catch it below:

Stumbled across this music video that recycles clips from 41 TV adverts – it’s by a Los Angeles band called From, and sounds pretty good, but the video is what takes a good song to an amazing combination.

Swedish duo First Aid Kit are Wichita’s latest signings, and are playing the label’s Christmas bash at Hoxton Bar and Grill (tickets £5). To get in the seasonal spirit of things they’ve done a special video… sounds like Tegan and Sara gone all Fleet Foxes on us. And that’s a good thing.

MUZU.tv has a great video from a band calling themselves the British Port Authority. Their new single, Seattle, is taken from their forthcoming album “I Think We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat” which features the likes of Dizzee Rascal, Jack Penate, David Byrne, Iggy Pop and Martha Wainwright. I can’t find an official website, but watch the video and enjoy anyway!

So yesterday I went to see Batman: The Dark Knight at London’s IMAX cinema, and we were blown away at the quality and sound of it on such a big screen. I’d already seen it before on a normal cinema screen, but yesterday was definitely worth the three hour journey each way. Of course, with so much time on a bus and tube, I got through some serious listening on my iPod.

Having received Bloc Party’s Talons on Tuesday night, it’s been pretty much on repeat the whole time. Simply amazing, and is so far right up there with Ion Square as my favourite track of Intimacy. The video fits the song perfectly, and is suitably dark and brooding as Kele’s lyrics.

The press release comments:

Talking about Talons singer Kele said, “we wanted to keep things fresh and we thought the fans would be more excited to get a new song rather than something off the album. Talons is one of the last songs we recorded during the Intimacy sessions and I always had it in mind to be one of the extra tracks we promised for the CD if it turned out well. It turned out great so we decided to make it the next single. I’m enjoying this way of working, not over-thinking things, just make a decision and get on with it! It’s quite liberating in a way, I’m sure it’s going to be the way things happen more and more in the future”

Could this mean that they announce whole tours this way? I’d kinda like it if they just announced “oh, we’re playing London’s Astoria next Wednesday… and then Bristol’s Academy… and maybe some more venues too, we haven’t really decided yet!”. However I doubt they’d do that, for the logistical problems. But it’d be cool.

In my inbox this morning I found a link to a company that film live concerts in Europe, Fabchannel. I haven’t come across them before, but WOW. They have a great range of full gigs filmed on the continent, in amazing quality. I sound like I’ve been paid to gush this much, but I think it’ll be providing me with several evenings of entertainment. They sent me a link to Jack McManus who I haven’t come across before, and sounds pretty good at first listen, but I also came across full sets from Bloc Party, Delays, Los Campesinos (including the “most polite stage invasion ever”), The Courteeners, Pipettes… well, I could go on and on. You get the picture!

Finally, I found in my inbox an MP3 that I’d forgotten about. Sent to me about 4 weeks ago, Melbourne based Ancient Free Gardeners have a great sound – dreamy, a bit Shins-esque, with hints of The National and Radiohead shining through. Download the free MP3, and stop by their myspace to show some love – I’m sure they’d appreciate it.

MP3: Ancient Free Gardeners – Innards Out

So, we’ve been back from Hydro Connect for almost a week, and have just finished our coverage of this year’s event. Wander on over to have a look if you want to have a look at the pictures and read what we thought, why not wander on over to our review and have a look through our pictures and stuff. Unfortunately though since getting back down south we’ve had a pretty hectic week, working close to 40 hours, which has meant TGTF has been pushed to the side as we focus on work.

I was sent some PR for a new boy-band, going by the name of Avenue earlier this week. Amazingly catchy, they’re like a McFly / Blue / Take That crossover act, bit more dancy but a pretty darned good new guilty-pleasure band. I wouldn’t be suprised if they end up doing arena tours this time next year, knowing that they have the same people behind them as The Feeling, Sugababes and Mika all do. Their debut single, Last Goodbye is out now, so when you’ve had enough of reading about Bloc Party, The National, Idlewild and Ben Folds over here why not check them out?

Stumbled across a great small blog earlier this week, Music To Die For, which features some interesting “best of” lists, including the 50 top tunes from Scotland, many of the tunes of which coincidentally made up our soundtrack to last weekend in Scotland.

For those of you wanting some visual stuff, then why not check out Delays doing Friends are False (their new single) as a session for Yahoo, or Friendly Fires’ video for Jump in the Pool, complete with syncronised swimmers. Finally, if you’re American (or just have a tiny interest in US politics), then why not check out this advert Barack Obama put out, soundtracked by The National’s Fake Empire.

Yes, I know it’s a tad late, but below are my five favourite videos of this week…

Below: Bloc Party: Mercury
I’m undecided about this one at the moment – it seems a bit too much of a divergence from the stuff I love from them. However, I did grow to love Flux, so here’s hoping this one grows on me.

Below: Feist does 1,2,3,4 for Sesame Street.
I’m a bit late to the whole Feist loving – but I do love this track she did for the new season of Sesame Street.

Below: Radiohead: House of Cards
Apparently this was filmed without cameras, all lasers and stuff. But it still looks and sounds great.

Below: Delays: Keep it Simple
Personally, one of my least favourite tracks off of one of my albums of the year so far, but the video is mildly amusing, not as good as it should be.

Below: Ben Folds: Rockin’ The Suburbs
Since seeing Ben on Sunday night I’ve been rediscovering his greatness… this was one of my favourite tracks (well, apart from Not The Same, but there’s not a video of that!).

If anybody has any issues with me posting the tracks or videos, please email me at phil@tgtf.net and I will take them down ASAP. Many thanks.

It’s always nice when a band play a venue a lot smaller to those they’ve grown accustomed too, which was exactly what happened this afternoon when Southampton foursome Delays graced the miniscule stage of Camden’s Lock Tavern for Clash magazine.

Spending the best part of an hour wowing the assembled fans, media and curious regulars they ripped through a selection of B-sides, covers and old favourites. Everything was stripped back to the core, and whilst the electric bass and guitars were kept, Aaron’s synths were kept well away, leaving him to look a bit lost with a tambourine.

Thrown in halfway through the set was a brilliant cover of James’ ‘Laid’, however as lead-singer Greg commented “hopefully you all know it well enough to cover up the bits we don’t know”. Quickly followed by some birthday wishes for some lucky fans, “…and the lucky bingo numbers!” joked Greg, clearly enjoying doing a more stripped down, laid back set.

A quick jog down memory lane with ‘Nearer than Heaven’ and time is rapidly running out, so Panic Attacks from their recent ‘Love Made Visible’ EP is given a complete makeover, becoming a sensational crowd sing-along, raising the roof of the tiny pub, even getting a few of the smokers outside on the patio looking in. Closing out was a cover of Neil Diamond’s ‘Cherry Cherry’, which they recently played on Dermot O’Leary’s Radio 2 show.

All too soon their set was over, leaving the Long Blondes to DJ out the night at the Lock Tavern. However, for those of us lucky enough to be there will testify: if they can bring down the Lock Tavern in such style we’d hate to think what they can do to Koko in May.

After the jump: More photos

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Fresh off their spring tour, my favourite band ever, Delays have announced a new jaunt around the UK for May. The Southampton foursome are finalising the tour dates, but expect them to be added here as we hear of them.

Tickets go on sale next Wednesday, 21st March. Catch the guys at:

Wednesday 7th May – Manchester, Academy
Thursday 8th May – Bristol, Anson Rooms
Friday 9th May – Norwich Waterfront
Saturday 10th May – Sheffield, Leadmill
Monday 12th May – Dundee Fat Sams
Tuesday 13th May – Glasgow QMU
Thursday 15th May – Liverpool, Stanley Theatre
Friday 16th May – London Koko
Saturday 17th May – Southampton, Guildhall
Monday 19th May – Newcastle Academy
Tuesday 20th May – Birmingham Academy 2
Wednesday 21st May – Brighton Concorde