City of Song 2008 takes place between Friday 26th and Sunday 28th September in our new home base of Derry, Northern Ireland. The festival is a celebration of Derry's status as the cultural capital of Northern Ireland and as a city full of music.

City of Song 2008 will showcase a wide range of musical talent from a vast array of genres, ranging from Choral concerts to the best in emerging talent in the more familiar genres(to us at least) of Alternative rock and Indie.

As part of the festival we will be presenting a series of Smalltown America showcase events.

As part of the Smalltown America showcase events, we are proud to announce the first Irish appearances for Alan MX and The Young Playthings. Alan and The Playthings will also be joined on the showcase by a selection of bands yet to be announced - stay tuned for details!

As well as the showcase events, we are also curating the City of Song "Tennent's Trail". The trail will see a number of acts within an acoustic/stripped back setting, performing in a series of different venues across the city over the course of the weekend. We can confirm the following acts for the trail;

Daveit Ferris (Ex-Mascara Story)

Jonny Black (LaFaro)

Skruff

Johanna Fegan (Firequeen)

Frau Sandy

The above is just a taster, we will be confirming the rest of the acts over the next week - stay tuned!

For further details on The City of Song Festival, Please check out the City of Song Myspace page!

City of Song Website | Daveit Ferris | Jonny Black | Skruff  | Johanna Fegan | Alan MX | The Young Playthings

As well as this, they're also now booked to both play the Festival Republic stage at this year's Reading / Leeds festivals and a Kerrang! awards show with glitch-prog-hardcore monsters Rolo Tomassi. Pretty cool, huh?

Catch the band at the following places:

06/08 - LISBURN, The Studio (Revolution '08 show)
11/08 - BRISTOL, The Louisiana (w/ Future of the Left)
12/08 - CARDIFF, Clwb Ifor Bach (w/ Future of the Left)
14/08 - BELFAST, Belsonic Festival
15/08 - GLASGOW, Captains' Rest (w/ Future of the Left)
16/08 - NEWCASTLE, Head of Steam (w/ Future of the Left)
18/08 - LONDON, Barfly (Kerrang! Awards show, w/ You Me At Six, Rolo Tomassi)
19/08 - TUNBRIDGE WELLS, The Forum (w/ Future of the Left)
20/08 - LONDON, Water Rats (w/ Future of the Left)
21/08 - KINGSTON, McCluskeys (New Slang clubnight, w/ Frank Turner, Chris T-T)
22/08 - READING FESTIVAL, Festival Republic Stage
23/08 - LEEDS FESTIVAL, Festival Republic Stage

13/09 - BIRMINGHAM, Bar Academy
14/09 - NEWCASTLE, Cluny
15/09 - GLASGOW, Barfly
16/09 - ABERDEEN, Tunnels
17/09 - MANCHESTER, Roadhouse
18/09 - LIVERPOOL, Barfly
19/09 - NOTTINGHAM, Basement
21/09 - YORK, Fibbers
22/09 - SHEFFIELD, Corporation
23/09 - OXFORD, Zodiac
24/09 - LONDON, Water Rats
25/09 - CARDIFF, Barfly
26/09 - BRISTOL, Academy 2
27/09 - SOUTHAMPTON, The Hamptons

All September shows are headline dates, with support from General Fiasco. Some Irish shows will also be announced soon, so keep an eye on the band's myspace.

As always, these dates are all up on Last FM, so add away!

Oh Yeah Music Mart 2008 in Association with Trans Festival

Friday 1^st August, Oh Yeah Music Centre, Belfast - 6pm – 10pm.

Music Mart 2008 is Northern Ireland's first dedicated music industry trade show, bringing the creative, production and retail areas of this thriving sector to a public and industry audience.

At the show you'll find everything from record labels to rehearsal and recording studios, event promoters and band managers to shops, live venues, photographers, artists, music media and more.

It's a snapshot of music in Northern Ireland under a single roof, a chance to network, to find partners, business solutions and local creativity.

Entrance for non-exhibitors is completely FREE. Tea, coffee and refreshments will be available onsite.

Exhibitors include;

Smalltown America Records
Prince’s Trust Sound Live
Easy Duplication
Graham Smith Photography
Bruised Fruit Promotions
Alternative Ulster magazine
Webrom TV
White Mountain Music
Back Beat Records
Phil O' Kane Photography
Start Together Recording Studio
SwarmTribes
Culture Northern Ireland
LiveWebstars

Sounds good, huh? - we're super-excited to be a part of the music mart and if you're in the area come on down and check it out, not only are we going to be there, but a lot of friends of Smalltown are also exhibiting their services and are well worth checking out - we hope to see you there!

H4H will be touring in September (including a slot at our festival This Ain't No Picnic which takes place on September 27-28th 2008 at King's College London. Like you didn't know and already have tickets). Full tour details plus album pre-ordering coming soon. In the meantime, check out thier fine audio wares.

Of course you are.

First off, we're incredibly excited to announce that POLYSICS will be headlining the Sunday night!

POLYSICS hail from Tokyo, Japan. Formed by Hayashi in 1997 and named after a brand of synthesizer, they've spent the past ten years fusing blasting guitars, computer noise, high energy beats and their love of American New Wave oddballs Devo to create a heady, energising sound that they dub "technicolour pogo punk". We're not going to argue with that.

Over the last ten years released six full length albums and a number of compilations, whilst consistently wowed audiences with their energetic live performances and wild stage shows on numerous tours around Japan, the United States and Europe.

Given all of this, we're incredibly proud to welcome POLYSICS as Sunday night headliners for This Ain't No Picnic 2008! It's going to be something special. Get your dancing shoes ready!

POLYSICS are:

HAYASHI Guitar, Voice, Programing
KAYO Synthesizer, Vocoder, Voice
FUMI Bass, Synthesizer, Voice
YANO Drums

http://www.polysics.com/
http://www.myspace.com/polysics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polysics

Secondly, we've got the following new acts to announce!

Bearsuit (UK, Fantastic Plastic >>> myspace)
Calories (UK, ex-Distophia! >>> myspace)
Gossamer Albatross (UK >>> myspace)
Hooray For Humans (IRE, Smalltown America >>> myspace)
Ice, Sea, Dead People (UK >>> myspace)
Let Our Enemies Beware (UK, Smalltown America >>> myspace)
The Light Sleepers (UK, Faux Discx >>> myspace)
Panther (USA, Kill Rock Stars >>> myspace)
Popular Workshop (UK, This Is Fake DIY >>> myspace)
This Town Needs Guns (UK, Big Scary Monsters >>> myspace)

Phew!

Both single day and weekend tickets for the event for the event are available now over at We Got Tickets. One day will set you back £15, and both £25. We think it's a bargain!

Remember, for more frequent updates keep an eye on the official festival site, and in the meantime why not add us to your event calendars over at Last FM or Facebook?

"Booo!", we hear you cry! "WHY?", we hear you cry? Well, despite the impending release of new album Wrecked Angles, the band have decided to have a rest after these shows and to focus on various other goals the band members have.

However, we should stress that there's no 'bad blood' or 'creative differences' at work here, and the band's attitude has always been and remains one of never say never, so they may be back at some point in the future. Maybe. Possibly.

An Emergency will play the following shows this weekend:

Thursday June 26th - Cavern Club, Exeter
Friday June 27th - Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
Saturday June 28th - Manor House Warehouse Party

The final show is a super party extravangaza, featuring a host of other bands including STA faves Super Tennis and Breakneck Static! Check out the An Emergency myspace page for more details as to the location.

Wrecked Angles is available now on ltd 12" from the Faux Discx website. A beautiful digipack CD is coming soon, as is a scuzzy cassette version for you all you hipsters out there. We'll have a release date for the CD and preorder details very soon. That's the front cover up there - pretty neat, huh?

STA, obviously, wishes the band well in all their future endeavours. Straight out of the blocks on this one is guitarist Dan, who is already playing in the hot riffin' Tropics who are... yes... playing at This Ain't No Picnic. Handy, eh? Remember, cheap tickets are only available until late this evening!

For those who haven't bought one yet - be warned, as they will only be onsale until this coming Thursday, the 26th June! After this, you'll have to buy a regular ticket, which will be priced at £25 for the weekend. For those of you who are also after day tickets, there will be a limited number of these onsale as well, priced at £15 a day.

Of course, as is customary with these things, we'll also have some exciting new lineup announcements to go with this changover!

For those who've managed to miss out on the details so far, let's have a quick catchup:

When is it taking place? This Ain't No Picnic 2008 takes place on September 27-28th 2008 at King's College London.

Who's curently booked to play? So far we have Alan MX, Cats In Paris, Chris T-T, Copy Haho, The Deirdres, Future Of The Left (who will headline Saturday), Jam On Bread, Tropics and The Young Playthings. There will be around 30 live sets in total, and if you sneak around the internet a bit you may find one or two more who've self-confirmed themselves to play...

What else will there be? We're planning other fun, interactive features, including label stalls and a film programme showing some of our favourite punk rock and DIY music-related DVDs. There will also be DJs after the bands finish on Saturday night until 4am.

How much will this cost? Earlybird weekend tickets are available now from We Got Tickets, for the bargain price of £20!

As with our past alldayers, all proceeds from this event will be donated to charity.

Facebook user? Click here to add us to your calendar there! Last FM user? Click here to add us your calendar there!

Keep an eye on the This Ain't No Picnic website for further updates.

Providing you with live entertainment this time around are....

EPIDEME (www.myspace.com/epidemeband)
>>> The Wire sez "Two guitars, one drum, much yelling, and a boil of fuzz and stutter that will not be denied", and we think this is pretty spot on. New 7" out now on Jonson Family.

CALORIES (www.myspace.com/caloriesband)
>>> First ever London show from this new stripped-back rock trio from ex-members of noise pop heroes and long-time friends of STA Distophia! We're obviously very excited about this one! Expect plenty of capital-r Rock, in the twisted style of Hot Snakes, Liars and Deerhoof.

THE LIGHT SLEEPERS (www.myspace.com/thelightsleepers)
>>> Brighton-via-Exeter purveyors of lo fi guitar pop. Debut album "We Are Gathering Dust", out through Faux Discx / Smalltown America in September, showcases their fuzzy Moore / Tengo / Malkmus-style ditties superbly.

As usual, it all kicks off at 4pm at the Notting Hill Arts Club in London. Entry is entirely free! If you're a Last FM user, you can add the show to your calendar by clicking here. We've also got an event listing on Facebook as well, if you're that way inclined!

Speaking of The Light Sleepers, their debut album went off to the pressing plant this week! We've seen the artwork, it's as sweet as the music contained within. It'll hopefully be out in September, which is shaping up to be a busy month for STA!

Do you remember the STA alldayers of 2004 - 2006?
Did you miss the lack of one last year?

 If you've answered yes to at least the first one, then you might me interested in this: 

 SMALLTOWN AMERICA PRESENT:

THIS AIN'T NO PICNIC 2008

(a two day celebration of live music and DIY culture)

featuring live music from: Alan MX, Cats In Paris, Chris T-T, Copy Haho, The Deirdres, Future Of The Left (Saturday headline), Jam On Bread, Tropics, The Young Playthings +  a lot more!

KING'S COLLEGE LONDON
SEPTEMBER 27th & 28th, 2008

two stages >>> film programme >>> label stalls >>> saturday clubnight until 4am

all proceeds to charity

limited cheap (£20) "earlybird" tickets onsale Friday 30th May 2008
full price weekend tickets (£25) onsale Friday 27th June 2008

Smalltown America is proud to announce the launch of THIS AIN'T NO PICNIC. Intended as both a replacement and an upgrade to the old Smalltown America alldayers, whilst we may have a new name and a new venue, the basic idea is the same: to put on a great day of live music featuring some bands you know and love, and some bands we think (and hope!) you'll love. We'll be taking over King's College London's beautiful central London venue for a whole weekend, bringing around 30 different live acts to the party in the process! As well as two stages of live music, the venue boasts a seperate bar with stunning views over the River Thames, where we'll be screening some of our favourite music films!

Please check out our websites for more details:

www.thisaintnopicnic.co.uk // www.smalltownamerica.co.uk

Sounds pretty good, right?

As mentioned above, we're doing a limited number of cheap earlybird tickets. These are onsale right now over via We Got Tickets - please CLICK HERE to buy! They'll save you a whole five pounds on entry to the weekend, which is pretty neat, right? There's also be a limited number of single day tickets onsale at some point in the future, if you can only make one day.

If you're a Last FM user, click here to add it to your events calendar!

We're all very excited about this event, and we hope to see you all there!

Thanks to all of you lovely people out there in internet land for helping to lift Fighting With Wire to Number 2 in the Myspace chart on MTV 2! Straddling the likes of Coldplay and Kids in Glass Houses like a three-headed rock behemoth, we need you to help out with a few more clicks on the MTV Two website to lift the guys up just one notch to the very top of the pile. Thanks for all of your votes so far, but please, please, keep them coming!