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Glastonbury has unveiled its first line-up poster for the annual festival, which will take place this year from June 22nd to 26th at Worthy Farm. The newly confirmed acts will join already announced headliners Muse, Adele and Coldplay, with a further 800 acts to be announced on a second poster in the coming weeks. 

We’re pleased to reveal our first Glastonbury Festival 2016 line-up poster (by Stanley Donwood)… pic.twitter.com/k6t3d7b1PH

— Glastonbury Festival (@GlastoFest) March 29, 2016

Continue reading: Glastonbury Festival Reveals First Line-Up Poster

10. King Midas Sound ft. Fennesz- Edition #1
Kevin Martin (AKA The Bug), poet Roger Robinson and singer Kiki Hitomi joined forces with Viennese avant garde composer Christian Fennesz to chart almost certainly the most enveloping travelogue of the year. The journey itself proved deep and magical.

9. Gengahr - A Dream Outside
One of the features on 21st century music is how 2nd and 3rd generation disciples of truly great bands - in this case golden oldies like the Beach Boys and Teenage Fanclub - are managing to make their inspirations sound so cool. London quartet Gehgahr replaced the now departed retro-future outfit Avi Buffalo in our hearts, to great effect.

Continue reading: Andy Peterson's Top 10 Albums Of 2015

The Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize this week announce the shortlist for it's 12 favourite albums of the last 12 months, albums that it claims are "urgent" and are "reflective" of the evolving sound of contemporary music. Once a haven for alternative acts like Portishead and Gomez, this years awards once again have gone for the most obvious choices and rather than celebrate any "urgent" talent, artists that routinely play on the radio or television have been picked ahead of the Hookworms and Darkstars of the British and Irish music scene.

The Arctic Monkeys are hardly an "urgent" band

The Arctic Monkeys are now a bonafied rock staple, whilst Foals and Laura Marling have each been nominated in the past and are regularly given air time on 6 Music or Jools Holland, etc., not to mention the fact that Marling has been handed a BRIT Award too. As for newcomers Disclosure, Rudimental and Jake Bugg, neither are exactly challenging their respective fields of house, drum and bass and rockabilly, but simply making it more radio-friendly and pop accessible. This isn't a dig either, this is something that all three artists should openly agree with. As for David Bowie; he's David Bowie. Need we say more?

Continue reading: Mercury Prize Shortlist Announced, But Does It Even Matter Anymore?

David Bowie came back from his retirement/hiatus completely unannounced this January, when he released the video for the single 'Where Are We Now,' and managed to catch everyone off guard with his birthday announcement of a new release and the subsequent quality of his first album in a decade.

This is Bowie's first Mercury nomination

The Next Day made the critics swoon after Ziggy Stardust once again and now, five months after he released his twenty-fourth album, Bowie is still being fancied by critics as he emerges as the front-runner to win this years Barclaycard Mercury Prize.

Continue reading: David Bowie Leads The Pack In Mercury Prize Nominations

You, being a seasoned festival-goer, will know that it’s Lollapalooza 2013 in Chicago’s Grant Park this weekend (August 2 – 4, 2013), which promises to play host to some of the biggest acts in the world as well as showcasing the most exciting and innovate new bands on the planet. And that’s what we’re here to concentrate on: the young, fresh and ready to impress.

It seems a long, long time since Disclosure’s first single Offline Dexterity, though the British electronic duo have gone from strength to strength in recent years and finally released their debut album, Settle, on PMR Records on June 2, 2013.It was met with both commercial and critical success, including a score of 9.1 from the notoriously picky musos at Pitchfork – no mean feat.

Sure, we’d rather see Disclosure in a club - perhaps in the early hours of the morning – though Lollapalooza-goers will have to settle for 6pm at The Grove, on Friday (August 2, 2013). Saying that, both Guy and Howard will be DJ’ing at The Mid club in Chicago’s West Town from 10pm on Friday.

Continue reading: Lollapalooza 2013: The Best New Bands Worth Checking Out

Get ready for a magnificent time as Chicago brings you another rollicking year of Lollapalooza with a legendary line-up of mixed genre music from The Cure to Mumford & Sons.

Since it's revival in 2003, Lollapalooza has been bringing you the very best of rock, metal, punk, hip hop and dance from all the major music legends to the up-and-coming rookies of the business. Taking place at Chicago's Grant Park from August 2nd - 4th 2013, the festival this year features a bedazzling headline roster of Las Vegas indie rockers The Killers, West Sussex goths The Cure, Grammy winning folk four-piece Mumford & Sons and long-running industrial rock group Nine Inch Nails. There will also be a huge range of activities to occupy yourself with over the weekend from the Samsung Galaxy Experience where you can check out the latest gadgets, to art stations where you can become a comic strip or be transformed into a work of pop art.

Continue reading: Lollapalooza 2013 To Be Equipped For All Weathers For Another Memorable Weekend

Within it's scenic woodland surroundings, Henham Park in Southwold, Suffolk, was once again the place to be this past weekend (19 - 21 July) as the worlds of music, arts, comedy, cabaret and more all mixed seamlessly together for a weekend to remember.

Bloc Party rounded off the first day

Although it was Bloc Party who headlined the main-stage on the first night (Friday 19 July), revellers didn't have to wait around to get their first taste of the wonders of festival-life. With the Maccabees, Yo La Tengo and The Leisure Society coming before them, one of the most warmly received acts came from one of the smaller stages, the BBC Radio 6 stage. Texas were the headliners of the night and despite their more radio-friendly sound ging against the alternative grain most of the festival takes, their renditions of 'I Don’t Want a Lover,' 'Summer Son' and a host of new tracks had the audience eating out of singer Sharleen Spiteri's hands. Meanwhile Japandroids and DIIV were among the bigger names on the smaller stages, whilst Lee Nelson and Sean Lock were among those bringing the laughs to the Comedy Stage.

Continue reading: Latitude Festival 2013 In Pictures - Suffolk's Finest Gathering Of The Arts Ends In Triumph Again [Photos]

Henham Park in Southwold, Suffolk once again held the coming together of music, comedy, arts and more in it's scenic woodland surroundings to a rapturous reception from the many revellers who travelled to see the likes of Foals, Kraftwerk, Texas and Bobby Womack rub shoulders with the likes of Eddie Izzard, Dylan Moran and Daniel Kitson. And that's just scratching the surface of what was on show.

Kraftwerk have been touring their 3-D show across the globe

On the first day (Friday 19 July) Bloc Party lit up the main-stage, having seen the likes of the Maccabees, Yo La Tengo and The Leisure Society come before them. Elsewhere, on the smaller BBC Radio 6 stage, Texas were the headliners of the night, with Willy Mason, Villagers, Beth Orton and more coming before them, whilst Japandroids and DIIV were among the bigger names on the smaller stages. Meanwhile, bringing the laughs to the comedy stage was Lee Nelson and Sean Lock, to name but two.

Continue reading: Latitude Festival Closes It's Gates After Another Successful Year In Southwold [Pictures]

Just when we were all starting to get sick of 'Blurred Lines,' Robin Thicke's mega-hit featuring Pharrell Williams and T.I., New York rockers Vampire Weekend were on hand earlier this week to give us all another reason to care about the track once again as they gave their own take on the track. The performance was part of BBC Radio One's Live Lounge sessions and yes, it does feature an (attempted) rendition of T.I.'s rapped part as well.

The group made the track their own

The laughter-inducing version, that is filled with ad-libs and the occasional cry of "dat falsetto!" whenever someone forgets a line, was recorded with glee by the 'Diane Young' rockers at the London radio studio. Hearing Ezra sing “You the hottest bitch in this place!!!” and mumble “pimpin” and “shake your rump!” in his best T.I. impression is as funny as it founds too, as the white boy indie kids break down into hysterics by the end of the track.

Continue reading: Vampire Weekend Record Their Own Take On Robin Thicke's 'Blurred Lines' [Listen]

Albums of Note... Heaped with praise and riding high in the UK charts, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ 15th studio album, Push the Sky Away is not only an artistic triumph but a commercial one, too. Cave’s songwriting style has mutated significantly since his early days as frontman and resident wildcard of The Birthday Party; he now resembles a particularly well-dressed bar fly and his songs are peppered with his quintessentially erudite turn of phrase.

For our reviewer, Push the Sky Away demonstrates Cave and his cohorts at their finest:“Knowing when to stop and what to leave out, when adding more will lessen the quality and having the strength of character to just cut away the surplus is most definitely driven by the ever uncompromising Cave and here it has clearly paid dividends… Push The Sky Away' has a delicacy and tenderness woven through it like a fine silken tapestry of beguiling beauty but it can still be unflinching and brutal.”

Continue reading: A Week In Music - Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds' 'Push The Sky Away' Riding High, Foal Break New Ground With 'Holy Fire' And Haim Get Close To Nature With 'Falling'

Holy Fire is the third album from Foals and if the lead single ‘Inhaler’ is anything to go by, it will almost inevitably build the fanbase that they have cemented for themselves with their first two albums, Antidotes and Total Life Forever. The Oxford-born band have retained their experimental, post-rock tendencies, yet their songs now have a serious air of ambition about them.

Reviews thus far have been positive, with The Guardian’s Michael Hann describing it as “an album by a British guitar band who want to win a huge audience without writing chantalongs for the drinkers’ crowd, or lowest-emotional-common-denominator piano ballads.” High praise indeed and backed up by a solid 9/10 from NME’s reviewer, who gives Yannis’ new ‘feelings laid bare’ approach a thumbs up.

Watch the video for 'Inhaler' by Foals

Continue reading: Out Now - UK Albums Releases - Foals Get Ambitious With 'Holy Fire,' Richard Thompson Gets 'Electric' And Bullet For My Valentine Fail To Deliver On 'Temper Temper'