Yes, we know we’re biased on this one. But if you can watch this video and not laugh, dance or cry, then you deserve a prize.

There are a lot of festivals happening this year. More, possibly, than at any time in the past (or future, if this week’s disintegration of the Isle of Skye event is the beginning of the end). Possibly too many.

And, rather than rant on and on about the amount of festivals, how they’re ultimately designed for people who don’t really like going to gigs, and think standing in a slightly muddy field watching past-it 90s indie bands crooning to a disinterested audience is ‘edgy’ and ‘alternative’, that it’s just as irritating to be told a festival is anti-advertising as it is to be bombarded with massive billboards at every given opportunity, and given that it’s cheaper to travel to mainland Europe for a festival with a similar line-up as it is to pay for - and travel to - Reading, we’re going to pose an altogether more imperative question:

Is anyone playing more festivals this summer than Lightspeed Champion?

Cajun Dance Party can’t promote the release of their debut album, ‘The Colourful Life’; they’ve got to sit their A-Levels. To proclaim them ‘the best sixth form band of all time’ would probably be a bit of a misnomer, after all, Pulp were also a band whilst still at school. So ‘the best band releasing albums while still at school’ might be nearer the mark. If there’s any more, let us know.

In any case, the band played at a ‘conference’ on Tuesday, as held by label XL, in a tiny church in Soho. So, in between pews and stained glass windows, people in suits and facts and figures, we heard three songs from the record, as accompanied by strings. Strings which, perhaps owing to the surroundings, perhaps owing to vocalist Daniel Blumberg’s genuine (rather than overly-earnest) humility, didn’t sound deliberately ‘epic’, but instead damn-near perfectly suited.

It’s probably as distinct as the ways in which people eat Creme Eggs, although neither as messy, nor as advertising executive-friendly. I’m talking about the way in which you organise your record (or, more often, CD) collection. I currently have a mass of piles of CDs here, and I’m torn between organising both alphabetically and chronologically (albums first, singles second), and just stuffing them all in the shelves because I’ll only end up messing it all up anyway. Plus the idea of them being so organised makes me feel just a bit sad.

Oh, and am I the only person who discovers they’ve lost a few dozen CDs each time this happens?

So, Giant Drag got dropped, and since we don’t regularly watch Interscope’s roster to find out who’s suddenly not there, we’re a bit shocked. Mostly ’cause ‘Hearts And Unicorns’ was rather good. And it’s surely cheaper to fund a one-woman-band than a duo, right? Hmm…

Anyway, Annie Hardy’s now on the lookout for funding for album #2, and has enlisted the help of PayPal.

So, if you’re the giving kind, or just really fucking love Giant Drag, here’s where you can help the cause. At least if she were singing Karaoke in a certain branch of Jamie Oliver’s favourite supermarket, it’d be listenable. Unlike the rendition of ‘Hotel California’ we were party to on Saturday in ‘aid of’ Sport Relief…

Weezer are to release a new album this year, apparently, and according to Rivers, the name begins with T, ends with R and has twelve letters.

Presuming the band haven’t invented a word, used creative spelling or found some obscure reference, it’s likely to be one of the following (i.e. we googled):

tabernacular
telecommuter
telemarketer
tellurometer
tenderometer
throughither
throughother
trailbreaker
tranquilizer
transgressor
transplanter
troublemaker
turbidimeter
turbocharger

any we’ve missed?

Last night we went to see The Lodger. They were very good. As you can see from the picture above, they had some friends come down to help them play. Not that they need help, of course. The girl in the picture is Sarah Williams of The Research. She sang, played the tambourine, and hit a teapot with a drumstick. We especially liked that bit.

The Lodger’s second album, ‘Life Is Sweet’, will be released on 19th May.

OK, so while Fridge Magnets down there didn’t have music, we aren’t able to listen to Kids Love Lies because someone’s stolen our headphones. What we can work out, however, is that they’ve got a vaguely goth-looking vocalist (Ellen - at least on the ‘band members’ image at least), and rather predictably a boy in a checked shirt (Leigh). The band’s demo was produced by Gisli, who we’re assuming to be the Beck-wannabe soloist who surfaced at some point in approximately 2004 (we’re guessing).

Credit must go, however, to whoever customised Kids Love Lies‘ MySpace page: they’ve cottoned on to the idea that simple is best, and we’re nearly ready to forgive them for playing tour dates almost exclusively in London (they’re venturing as far as Guildford on one date!).

Now, where are those headphones…

No longer are they suitable for short people to use to kiss tall people…

On trundling through the murky world of the internet, we discovered Buttonhead’s latest blog entry. No, it’s not about new singles, tour dates, appearances on Jools Holland or even complaining about the lack of backstage booze, oh no. It’s far more serious and world-altering than that.

As the band explain: ” As we were on a midnight mosy through Camberwell we discovered this Yellow Pages poster.”

“All seemed normal until we looked closly at the 2.”

“A new kind of Yellow Pages was discovered, to our delight. Boxy one alright.”

See the original post here.

We get a lot of people messaging us on MySpace asking us to listen to their music. Some of them are very good, some of them aren’t, and some of them have the kind of page which would cause various kinds of fits. We can’t write about them all (especially if they’re not very good) in regular features, but what we can do is blog about them (you).

First up, Fridge Magnets, from Glasgow.

Unfortunately, Fridge Magnets don’t have any music on MySpace, so while they’ve added us, we can’t tell if they are any good. We can, however, see that they’re friends with Mancunian dance types The Whip, Glasgow’s Barrowland 2 (which they’re due to play at on 6th June), and someone called Rofl Harris. Yes, Rofl.

Fridge Magnets are Campbell Nelson, Daniel Miller and Ciaran Pasi, and like dangling electric lights around themselves. They have also cancelled their April appearance at Glasgow’s Barfly. Which begs the question: do they ever plan on leaving Glasgow?

P.S. Don’t visit their MySpace page if you’re epileptic. It flashes. What we said up there wasn’t a joke, people think flashing websites are funny.

If you would like to feature on the DIY Blog, add us on MySpace, or message us with a link to your website. It would help if you have some songs.