Paperjam

After what seems like an awfully long time, comedy misanthrope Luke Haines is back with a single and album with the two-for-one title Off My Rocker At The Art School Bop. The track itself is a catchy affair involving eighties synth noises and a noisy guitar refrain. Sounds like he is saying "Can you feel the beat of my arse?" at one point.

As Steve will no doubt point out once he's heard it - it would be better with the scary/sexy Sarah Nixey singing instead. Memories of going to see Black Box Recorder and feeling all weird when they did "The School Song" come flooding back. Shudder/sigh.

You can check out the single on the inevitable MySpace page and there is more info at the getting-creepier-by-the-minute official Luke Haines web site. Check that fucking 'tache.

In support of the album there is a tour which stops off at the Coventry Collosseum on 2/11 and the Birmingham Academy bar on 8/11. My already hectic November just got a bit more musical.

While I get my arse in gear writing up the fun that was had in Weston park last weekend here is a list of some of some of the musical highlights to get on your ipod forthwith:

Loughborough Suicide by The Young Knives: Accountant band who won't go down fighting. Ace in every way.

Local Boy by The Rifles: Paul Weller was on the phone to his lawyer during this one.

Go Faster Stripes by The Milk Teeth: Big 50's guitar and slowed down chorus - spot on.

Come With A Friend by Director: Well, we'd all like to be hung like a superstar wouldn't we?

Ghostfaced Killer by The Dead 60's: Went well with sunshine and having a rest.

Panic by The Smiths: What a fantastic start this was, no I didn't send a bloody text.

Peaches by The Dub Pistols: Heard this while queueing to get in.

Emily Kane by Art Brut: Eddie's got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one. He says.

Sheila by Jamie T: Probably the lairiest crowd in the union tent for this one.

E-pro by Beck: Sounded absolutely huge, the puppets trembled.

Just by Radiohead: Probably the best thing they did all night, drowned out the dodgy girls in the cowboy hats.

The Key of C by Jim Noir: Absolutely everyone liked this.

Fashion Queen by The Dodgems: Only about a thousand times better than we were expecting.

Friday night in an unbelievably sweaty and euphemistic sounding Bush Hall, and we're here to see Birmingham space-drone-pop types Broadcast, along with a thousand other blokes with man-bags. Look, it's useful - alright?

But first we've got to watch new Warp signings Gravenhurst, while the sweat runs down our backs.And they're not much cop, to be honest. There's a quiet bit, there's a loud bit - there's another quiet bit - and so on. The one track that we like was an instrumental that sounded like a theme to a TV programme.

Another song (cover of a Kinks track?) sounds completely different, and has lead singer Nick Talbot doing what sounded like a Morrissey impression, which is actually much better than his usual voice. All in all, rather thrashier than we were lead to believe.

Broadcast look hot and bothered. They start off with three new songs, which were dronier and more folky than ever before, including one with Trish using a small stringed instrument, played like a guitar. Check out the photos linked from the Broadcast forum post. Mostly it sounds as if they're not quite on it, tonight: seems like they've cut back on the live setup, and some of the instrumental cues are missing - although "I found the F", played as the set closer, is an absolute belter.

The opening fairground noises for "Hammer without a master" ring out in the encore - it's my favourite, so I'm all excited - and what follows is a bit of a mess, missing the ebb and flow of previous versions. In the end, I'm slightly disappointed, but they're back in Autumn for some more dates.

From the bravecaptain mainling list comes news of the latest female MC to be talked up as being the ladies' answer to The Streets. This is MissOddKid and she has done a track called Weed, Wine and Wankers about how she loves, well, you get the idea. Presumably bc did the music and twiddled a few knobs etc.

The title is quite funnny and at least she isn't bloody Lily Allen so you might well want to pop over to the Spoilt Victorian Child web site and cop the free download. In keeping with everyone else she's got a myspace page too with some more tracks on there. Am I alone in thinking that if you change the "..ers" to "..ing", you've got a description of a perfect night in? Oh I am? Oh, erm, never mind...

Normally I leave that stony, funereal indie business to Tindersticks fan Jim, but for some unearthly reason, this (via the ever reliable headphonesex) has tickled my fancy.

iLiKETRAiNS should be taken out and shot for the daft capitalisation of their name, but only after they've finished singing this song, which is a cheery little number about how Dr Beeching really shouldn't have recommended that all those little train stations be shut in the 1960s. Seems rather late to be getting all uppity about it now, but the incredible seriousness with which it's delivered, including the choir which chimes in halfway through, at a pace which makes the most stoned dub sound like Rotterdam Termination Source, is pretty convincing.

You can watch their mildly disturbing stop-motion video for the track too... watch out Thomas the Tank Engine... If you're into that kind of thing, then the discussion here provides some interesting historical context for the song.

Seemingly having come out of his Parisian retirement and dumped the whole Spooner business, Jarvis has now popped up on MySpace touting this protest song. You can check it out at http://www.myspace.com/jarvspace, your enjoyment of the track is likely to depend on several factors:

- The alignment of your politics with those of the nihilistic Jarv. Quite likely to be honest.

- How you feel about the music itself, Steve described it as MOR which isn't far off the mark.

- Whether the big chorus "Cunts are still ruling the world" offends you or not.

There was an interview in the NME recently where I think he said he had more stuff to put out, hopefully the music will be a touch more lively but the sentiment will remain the same.

If you haven't seen this yet get yourself straight over to the BBC 2 web site sharpish, it will be there for a week or so. The marvellous Lips tear through The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song, followed by a bit of fairly boring stuff (including The Strokes).

After this they do The W.A.N.D. with Wayne Coyne wearing a huge pair of rubber hands, kind of like a mystic Kenny Everrett back from the beyond. Touchingly they ditch the bad language, a bit ironic as they are followed by the ultra sweary acoustic troubador Plan B.

They finish off, as they did at the Birmingham Academy, with War Pigs. Wayne goes barking and throws confetti everywhere while trying to get the scared looking audience going.

Good tips on making splatter paintings too, for those of us who have done such things so poorly in the past.

Yes, the band that launched a thousand t-shirts (including the severely faded one that I wore to play tennis the other night) are back with new single Hibernation. Judging by the amount of e-mails I am getting from them, there is something of a push to try and get this into the charts. You can try a preview over at their MySpace page or go crazy like me and splash out the four quid they are asking for the (limited edition) single at the Neds Atomic Dustbin web site. Remember, these are the people who gave the world Kill Your Television.