When bands get hyped beyond normality they can become pretty annoying, particularly if like New Young Pony Club you don't really have anything to back it up. The Ting Tings are the latest example of mega hypedom. From Salford, they formed previously hyped but failed band Dear Eskiimo before deciding to start afresh and sign with Columbia Records. Catch us on a Friday night and there's no doubt we'll be jumping about to 'Great......

As we walked across Lambeth Bridge towards the Museum of Garden History on Thurdsay evening, we were immediately reminded us of how much we enjoyed the first Atmospheres festival. It was on that bridge in October where we started it with a field recording workshop led by Chris Watson. With the old St Mary-at-Lambeth church in close sight, it was tempting to stop for a quick recording session, but we were too afraid of......

This week we previewed the brilliant Atmospheres 2 festival happening over at the Museum of Garden history until Monday. We also introduced you all to rising star Tawiah, announced that Mandela is going to be going to his own concert, and gave you all the details about Coldplay's upcoming free gig at Brixton Academy. If you like the idea of sweating it out in some subterranean venue on Monday night, then Mogwai and Yeasayer both......

Recommended to us by London girl gone global Estelle, today's Listen! Up Tawiah made her mark on our pod with her smooth soulful grooves, and her excited performances during Mark Ronson's live shows. Born in Battersea, she's a former Brit School classmate of Kate, Amy and has fans such as Gilles Peterson and Rob Da Bank loving her every move. Tawiah! Hello, fill us all in on who you are I am Tawiah! I......

When we first learned that Touch was planning a follow-up to last autumn's brilliant Atmospheres festival, the question wasn't whether or not we would attend but what line-up they had in store for us this time around. Once again occupying Lambeth's beautiful Museum of Garden History for a long weekend, Atmospheres 2 returns with a focus on hauntology, particularly with respect to music. If your Derrida is as rusty as ours and you fancy......

As everyone recovers from their extended break, this Bank Holiday Monday's music selection is a bit lacking really - a bit like our weather at the moment, really. If you want to shake away that hangover with some doom metal, then pop along to the Underworld in Camden, for Witch. Tickets are £12 each. Meanwhile, if you like things with a bit more of a bluesy tone, something a bit country from the US, then......

We've had champagne bars, reports of amazing bacon sandwiches and an all round thumbs up from the regneration project at Kings Cross so far, and now there's news on a musical twist. While the area lost The Cross, Canvas and The Key at the turn of the year, music will be brought back in October with the opening of the first concert hall in London in recent times. Located at Battlebridge Basin up York......

On Saturday 19 April, three of Londonist's bravest aural explorers arrived at ULU to undergo some serious sonic punishment in the form of Satori, Sutcliffe Jugend and the unmistakeable king of Japanese noise, Merzbow. For fun, naturally; people are strange, as Jim Morrison once said. Whilst Time Out placed the event in their "Rock, pop & dance" section, we assume that's only because the "My Cock's On Fire" section was full. Strange is probably......

A slightly later Music Choice, due to an unorganised Londonista. Three big events have dominated Londonist's musical week: The Camden Crawl last weekend (review of day 1 here, and day two here), we reviewed Radio Soulwax at this week's Ether 2008 festival, and previewed Meltdown festival, both at the Southbank Centre. Looking ahead to this week however, if you still have nothing to do this Monday night, then M83 and Sébastien Tellier both play sold......

The first time we heard David Thomas' take on punk vocals, we were sure the pitch control on our turntable was broken. We had similar concerns the first time we listened to My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, but that's a digression best saved for June. Thomas screamed from our speakers like a more frenetic Bryan Ferry, always ready to sacrifice fully pronouncing his lyrics in the interest of rhythm. He has the sort of voice......

On Thursday night, Four tet headlined The Eat Your Own Ears series at the Indigo2 in Greenwich, an incredible space with a really terrific sound and lighting system. Before we get to fawning over Four tet, however, the opening acts deserve a mention here. First up was Kode9, whose pulsing rhythm set the mood nicely, but to be fair, we were concentrating more on the beer. Next up was the happy surprise of the......

Ether 2008 is well under way, and last night Radio Soulwax Presents… made sure to kick it up a notch. For the UK premiere of the tour film Part of the Weekend Never Dies, Belgian electro band Soulwax had taken over the Royal Festival Hall, and as well as showing the film in the auditorium (twice), guest DJs such as UK DJ Riton played sets throughout the night. The film paints a picture of......

With their Ether 08 festival still in full swing, Southbank Centre didn't take even a moment to rest this past weekend when they announced the line-up details for this year's Meltdown. Curated by Massive Attack, the 15th instalment of Meltdown will pack an incredible amount of talks, films and gigs into the eight short days from 14 - 22 June. Fans of the bassbin Bristolians will have an excellent opportunity to explore the band's......

After five hours of sleep (thank you Mr. Postman for waking us up) and an Eggs Benedict at the Camden Kitchen, we had mostly recovered from the first day of Camden Crawl 2008 and were once again hungry for more gigs. With several artists playing both days of the festival, there were a few acts we missed on Friday that we wanted to catch on Saturday, as well as many Saturday-only artists that we......

With the Camden Crawl spanning two days and as loaded as ever with amazing acts, it's impossible to do it any justice in only one post. Whilst we easily could write at length about everything we saw, you just want the highlights: who rocked us, who we're dying to see again and how we came to love doing the Rolex Sweep. Without further ado, let's try to remember how we spent Friday 18 April......

We've gone a bit music mad this week at Londonist towers. Last Sunday we reviewed Muse's amazing show at the Royal Albert Hall, before previewing this summer's Field Day and yesterday's Record Store Day and noise terrorists Merzbow at ULU. We also looked at this week's Ether '08 festival which goes through to 28th April. Finally, we mourned the loss of two thirds of the Pipettes and proof that music can come out of any......

This weekend column is brought to you by the founders of Niceties Tokens, Liz and Pete of Team Nice. 43. Kids, music, and mobile phones Last week I was told to turn my music down on a train, as unbeknown to me, my earphones were rubbish and other commuters could hear my embarrassingly loud music. But now let’s talk about those people who actually play their mobile phones like little mini stereos for us......

Londonist has been big fans of The Pipettes ever since their first polka dotted dress rolled off the production line back in 2004. We've banged on about them a hell of a lot so it's with some sadness today that we have to report the leaving of the two original members of the band. In a press release issued by Polydor Records (so they've obviously moved up in the world!) The Pipettes declared that......

The Camden Crawl isn't the only festival in town this weekend. If the thought of braving the Stables Market even on an average Sunday sets your agoraphobia aflame, you don't have to miss out on great live music, as today marks the start of Ether 08, Southbank Centre's annual celebration of art and technology. With Ether running through 28 April, you could even attend both festivals, though Southbank Centre's stunning line-up this weekend means some......

Still a newcomer to the city festival circuit, Field Day returns for a second year to Hackney's Victoria Park on 9 August 2008. The recently announced line-up looks like it should provide a diverse sampling of some of our favourite acts. How could we miss a party that Richie Hawtin, Dan Deacon, The Field and Jeffrey Lewis are rockin'? Unfortunately that question seems to have loads of answers that all involve the word "queue".......

This week, Londonist have been catching up with a tonne of new bands we think you need to know about. On Monday we introduced Leon Jean Marie whose debut, Mark Ronson produced, album also came out on Monday. On Wednesday we reported on Pete Doherty's latest exploits that see him inside for the next two months. We also introduced the gorgeous Cherry Suico, and interviewed Malcolm Middleton Looking ahead to this week, Bjork plays the......

This weekend column is brought to you by the founders of Niceties Tokens, Liz and Pete of Team Nice. 42. Listening Got on my train last night, listening to my iPod and reading a book. From out of nowhere a man comes up to me and starts saying something to me. I take an earphone out and to my utter horror he says: “Can you turn that music down?” Oooh, he had a bit......

Before his gig at Islington's Union Chapel, we talked to cult indie hero Malcolm Middleton, formerly of the greatly missed Arab Strap, about his new solo album, Madonna and a failed bid for the Christmas number 1. Can you tell us about your new album, "Sleight of Heart"?   It was originally supposed to be a mini EP, like a four track acoustic album with two songs, "Blue Plastic Bags" and "Love Comes in Waves" and......

We're playing dot to dot with Listen Up! this week. After Toy! Toy! recommended 24 year old Cherry Suicowe thought we'd get in touch to find out what she's all about. Who are you what do you do? My name is Cherry Suico and i'm a singer/songwriter currently working with my band called The Crazy 88s. How did you get here? I started singing as a child. Wasn't really the performing arts school kid......

If you're not planning on spending tonight in one end of Camden then there's a pretty good argument to spend it in the other. Hangout of the cool, The Proud Galleries, reopened this week and they'll be partying their first Saturday night in new premises tonight. The new location is the old Horse Hospital, and is twice the size of the original club with 3 gallery spaces including 8 private booths and a 450......

We've got to be honest with you, we're not particularly keen on The Guillemots; they make us kind of itchy and we want to reach into the television and give them a good shake. But if you are (and we recognise people do seem to like them quite a lot), then you're probably be very excited to find that they're playing a live club date this Saturday night at the relatively small 93 ft......

It’s getting warmer! Ok, not really. Lazy evenings lolling about in one of the city’s grand parks are still a ways off, so keep heading inside to galleries and theatres for your (heated) culture fix. This week’s cerebral theme? Attention-grabbing names. You’ll see. Onwards! The film You, the Living opens this week. The film has received rave reviews and filmmaker Roy Andersson is being touted as the next Bergman. You know, nothing special. First......

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......

Every so often we spend hours getting lost in social networking sites and when it's new bands we're after we turn to myspace. This is how we came across the gentle twinkles of Synth Girl. Mainly a musician for other artists, we loved 'Hurricane Butterfly' (which you can hear online) so got in touch to say hi. It turned out she was actually in a band of her own Toy Toy which with it's......

Dressing up and going out is quite the thing at the moment, but if it seems to be just a fad for the folks who fancy themselves, we must correct you and point out that bling has been big for Londoners for a long time. Take, for example, the icon of cockney London, the shiny Pearly King. Strutting around draped in sparkly stuff is not new. An evening to celebrate all that is fabulous......