Plus Stephen Malkmus and Gutter Twins in our new albums round-up

Pavement man jams into something very good

Northern soul: more epic genius from Guy Garvey and co

Long-moot set from the dark lords of post-Grunge rock

Play that funky music, white boy

Bands first decade to made free to download...

As a general rule, music doesn’t have that much of a nostalgic function for me. Without sounding too bloodless, I’m only interested in a record if it sounds good to me right now; the fact that it might have soundtracked various epiphanies/crises/whatevers in my life is, by and large, irrelevant. If I were ever to end up, God forbid, on some “Desert Island Discs” thing, I’d maybe choose something from “On The Beach” (a review of Neil's first Manchester show is over at the Reviews Blog, incidentally), even though I might have actually spent 1974 listening to Mud. I’m not ashamed of my musical past, I just don’t like those records any more.

Canadian rocker-turned-photographer coming over to support '11'

Plus -- still chance to be one of 150 to attend London free gig

And now he's added Stringman to the setlist! Read the review here!