When I was in school, one day, we had a special assembly. Well, we had a few special assemblies in all honesty, like the one when someone had been going around pooing on the floors of all the toilets. The secret shitter we called her/him. But that's beside the point. So we had this special assembly with this awful motivational speaker guy who looked like something out of the Fast Show, and was about as motivating as something off Jeremy Kyle.

And the point of this over-indulgent introduction? I haven't written a real blog in flippin' ages and am in dire need of some motivation. And so, I hark back to yonder days down Collingwood College, and remember one thing the man in black (and quite possibly foundation) taught me. Do everything in fives. Except I always sort of preferred the numbers 3 and 7. So here's 3, 5 and 7 things on different topics. Or something to that effect.

SEVEN THINGS I HAVE DONE SINCE I LAST BLOGGED.

ONE.

Last weekend I went to Leeds to watch Finally Punk (more about that later). The gig was in this little pub called The Packhorse. It was a pretty cool venue. Unfortunately I drank too much cider very quickly and then was mega tired from driving and got in a grump.

Luckily, after the gig I went to warm the house of James Brown from Pulled Apart By Horses.

Look at his little face.

TWO.

The next morning I was 100% entirely sure I had contracted Swine Flu. It felt like knives were piercing my brain. KNIVES. I was then sick twice in Tom from PABH's toilet (sorry Tom) and realised I was just hungover. Meh.

Now I know this is supposed to be a music blog and that, but bear with me... On Saturday afternoon I visited the home of the Bronte sisters.

This is just me... with Heathcliff's grave! Wuthering Heights is definitely in my top ten songs of all time. This was a dream come true. And then I found this beyond amazing vinyl. The single is called Seperate Lives. It is PURE GENIUS.

THREE.

I was a Zombie. In a music video. For this band.

Just wait for September - I will be embedding. BELIEVE.

FOUR.

On Monday, about seven hours after returning to Cardiff I got on a train to London for a training course (on storytelling that was actually totally rad, although clearly not being put to use here). I missed Why? in London that night through my own ignorance, a fact I am still weeping over. However, I did get to hang out with Mar from the Duloks and watch The Victorian English Gentlemens Club play in a real venue, not my kitchen.

AND on the Tuesday after work I got to watch Slow Club do an instore at Puregroove to promote their new album which was something pretty special, mainly because I have fallen in love with said album, more on that later.

FIVE.

That last one was kind of two things really, but whatever, so is this one I guess.

On Thursday I drove to Bristol to watch Telepathe as I was gonna miss their Cardiff show because I had to DJ. Telepathe were pretty good. Last time I saw them they rolled around on the floor with mics while a laptop played out their backing track. This time, they had the full chaos pads, synth, sampler type set up. I kind of preferred the rolling on the floor.

However, in support was the rather excellent Katie Stelmanis. She's from Canada, is an opera singer or something, and is pretty captivating live. Incredible voice, great songs, and just enough personality to keep it feeling live, but not stray into the inane.

Her and her band crashed in my living room the following evening but I had to kick them out on Saturday morning pretty early coz...

SIX.

I went to visit my nan. Nothing to do with bands and stuff, but I got some Welsh Cakes and a Bara Brithe so I figured she should get a shout.

SEVEN.

On Sunday I speeded back to Cardiff to meet up with the lovely Rod Thomas, now known as Bright Light Bright Light. We decided to start a band called HUNKS and wrote and recorded the pop hit of the summer in my living room. Then we went and watched A Hawk and a Hacksaw.

FIVE ALBUMS I AM REALLY ENJOYING A LOT.

ONE.

Slow Club - Yeah, So.

Oh God. I really didn't think it was going to be this good. It's just the perfect balance of soft sentiment, crisp production and ridiculously heartwarming, snagging pop songs. You have to get it.

TWO.

Wild Beasts - Two Dancers.

Their debut, Limbo, Panto was my favourite record last year. And I'm happy to say, this one is getting under my skin in exactly the same thrillingly rewarding way.

THREE.

Pomegranates - Everybody Come Outside.

I got sent this by a lovely chap in the States after I emailed him saying how much I was liking one of their tracks that I found on a blog. I don't know much about them, but it sounds like Papercuts, but more ensemble pop. It's just a really great album to drift off with.

FOUR.

Girls - Album.

I know everyone in the world is raving about them... but the hype is definitely deserved, and completely justified across this record. Soundtrack to the Summer? Tick.

FIVE.

Miike Snow - Miike Snow.

I first heard these ages ago when Crookers remixed Animal. Then there was the Miike Snow remix of Vampire Weekend. Then DJ Medhi did the honours on track Burial and I couldn't resist but to get the album the second it popped onto iTunes.

Anyway, they're three guys from Sweden who produce tons of big pop tunes, and this is a beautiful example of their work.

Just realised I totally wanted to put Wave Machines in here too.

That's 6 I know. Crap. But this album is totally ace.

THREE BANDS FROM AUSTIN THAT I LIKE.

FINALLY PUNK

Yeh, so I went up to Leeds last Friday to watch Finally Punk, four girls from Austin.

This is what they look like...

And this is what they look like when I take the photo...

Anyway, I had a chat with them before their show.

(In my classic useless manner, when I went to transcribe this I realised I had no idea who said what, so a different paragraph = a different speaker. Tit.)

I asked them how they started and stuff...

FP: Well, Stephanie wanted to start a side project from our other band, and practices were getting really dull and routine and she was like, ‘Let’s start a fun band!’ And so she asked me and Veronica but none of us could really do anything or like sing and play instruments at the same time so we were like, ‘We need a singer!’ And then Stephanie suggested Elizabeth and we all met up at a show together…

And then we played a skate park.

And we were officially a band after that skate park gig!

And that’s how it all happened.

We skated down the ramp with our instruments.

Stephanie was doing backflips.

After telling some ridiculous and entirely dull story about trousers, I asked what it's like to live in Austin.

FP: Austin’s really laid back, it’s a good place to live

It feels really detached from Texas, actually.

I grew up in Victoria, Texas which is two hours South, and then I moved to Austin when I was eighteen.

There’s a lot of people who are like, alternative or whatever, move to Austin after high school so it’s pretty common.

Yeh, Victoria’s like a boring town and Austin had exciting stuff going on and I felt like, I could relate to the people there better.

I bought their EP last year, released on Germs of Youth, James from Your Twenties imprint. I asked the band how they came to put the record out.

FP: James contacted us, like, two years ago and we’ve been corresponding and he wanted to release a record, like, a long time ago, but it just never worked out. So we were like, ‘We have these live recordings and we can give them to you.’ And he was like, ‘Yeh, I’ll do a live tour CD for you.'

We met him for the first time last week!

He actually was super helpful coz he made those CDs and he made us all these shirts and stuff.

We were running low on merch at the time so it was like, really helpful.

I then asked some entirely confusing question about whether there was a 'scene' in Austin which sort of got a good response.

FP: I feel like there’s some decent bands right now that we’re friends with, like Yellow Fever – they’re really good but they sound nothing like us.

It’s like we’re all just friends, but its very different music.

Austin has been considered that way for a very long time. There used to be a magazine called Third Coast in the 80s that was this thing, like, Austin is the third coast. And in rap music, actually, it’s like a third coast. So it’s been considered that for actually a long time, it’s just continuing in that vein.

I feel like there is like a quote unquote scene the way that LA has that scene there, but none of the bands in Austin are like super popular yet. There’s like the Strangeboys who are getting big now, but there’s not a network of bands.

In the 90s there was Trail of Dead and Spoon and stuff like that coming from there, and in the 80s there was Big Boys and Butthole Surfers and stuff like that, it just depends. LA right now’s really big and New York was big in early 2000. It’s just a scene.

It’s hard to say something’s an actual scene. Everyone’s just friends and everyone plays with each other. No one really sees it as an actual scene as such.

A lot of our friends in Austin are in bands.

Everybody! Everybody! There’s nobody who’s not in a band.

The thing that’s unique in Austin is that I really feel all the bands sound different.

I didn’t really think that Austin had anything special but if you then look at other scenes, like Providence. A lot of those bands are just noise bands cos that’s what comes out of Providence. That’s when I realised that Austin has something different.

And then they wanted me to ask them some random questions which I don't normally do, but whatever. I discovered that they love Brie, one of them has beige lace curtains, and if they were a German novel then the cover would be tigers ripping through a woman's body.

HARLEM

I saw this band at SXSW and thought they were ace.

Anyway, their songs have been cropping up on a couple of blogs recently and I just love their scuzzed up punk choruses and gravelly guitars. Plus, look at that kick drum! They've just signed to Matador so looking forward to lots more in the future.

THE STRANGE BOYS

I also saw these at SXSW and thought I'd just write a little bit about them here if only to make the whole 'Three Bands from Austin' thing actually work. They had quite a country swagger to them and the singer looked like he could either be 12 or 28. I remember liking that a lot. Anyway, they're touring here in August and supporting The Cribs over here in October so go check them out.

DONE.