Her Cup of Tea She Would Admit to No One

It is only four weeks to Latitude (not freaking out or anything about where our tickets are at all - *twitches*)! I just found out China Melville will be in the lit tent, which means ‘The City and The City’ got bumped way up my reading list. I was already looking forward to seeing Jon McGregor, whose book ‘If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things’ was literary perfection if you ask me. And what an unexpected treat to possibly be able to catch Anthony Cartwright, who is a West Midlands author, published by Birmingham’s Tindal Press. Other than that the lit program looks a little devoid of interest for me (Sebastian Faulks has pushed his luck with me too often and I’m not initiated into the Bret Easton Ellis cult).

It would be fab to see Wendy Cope in the poetry arena. I have a feeling this might be the poetry equivalent of seeing Alanis Morrisette – a bunch of women totally getting it and smiling at each other, while the men bimble around saying they’ve never heard of ‘Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis’/ 'Jagged Little Pill’. Oh please Wendy read ‘He Tells Her’, it would make my year.

But I am most excited about bands! Live bands! And because this festival is a bit of a folksy affair, bands with women in them! Even women singing on their own (and not being Lilly Allen, that part is important)! Alright, that is enough exclamation marks (for now).

Friday I will be in girl crush heaven, when we see Florence and the Machine headline (valentina prepare yourself for me coming back and sending incoherent tweets about how cool they are, because you’ve also seen them). Saturday brings a rare performance in Britain from Belle and Sebastian which I could not be more excited about (they are going to play ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’, I feel it in my bones). And Sunday is headlined by Vampire Weekend, who I have been turned onto by about a million people saying they are way jealous we will be seeing them.

What I am most excited about when it comes to ‘Latitude’ is that unlike ‘V-Festival’ it is full of bands that I have either never heard of, or have heard about but haven’t listened to much. New music! I’ve been kind of cut off from music for a while now. I love guitar bands, country, pop punk and a bit of metal, with a few hairbands mixed in, but eh , these kinds of music are not always so good for the mental state of people trying to work their way through life, the universe and romantic realism. Folk is not always trying to explain the merits of love to me which is awesome, but you have to be prepared to slap down the cash for bands you know nothing about because good folk bands (The Feeling need not apply, I have seen them play and they have four original songs at best before they get to cover material) don’t fill out the mainstream. That means they don’t get a lot of radio play and a lot of them lock down their music on Last FM and such. It’s really been old favourites and new albums from old reliables for the past twelve months. Occasionally I branched out, but mostly with established bands who I’d heard enough of to know their words weren’t going to make me enter the never ending cycle of ‘why am I romantically unpaired/wouldn’t it be good if I met someone tonight/let me make a bad decision right now’ thought processes (‘Elbow’, ‘Biffy Clyro’ and of course ‘Florence and the Machine’). I have a very emotional relationship with music, which I'm sure is how lots of people relate to music (if you've ever had to kick a favourite cd off your 'listen everyday pile' because you need distance from the time it reminds you of then we should be friends) and sometimes it means I need silence, but now I am ready for new music to fill my life again.

Now, I sort of have an excuse to buy folkish type cds so that I can sample which other artists I might like to see at ‘Latitude’. Cds are ridiculously cheap now, who knew? After a bit of Last FM listening I picked up this shiny little haul and am listening my way through it (usually I'd link all these up but I am lazy and you can find them all at the Latitude website):

‘Alas I Cannot Swim’ – Laura Marling: It really only took one song for me to know this was my type of music. Any woman who sings ‘I’ve sold my soul to Jesus/ And since then I’ve had no fun’ can take all my money. Heard the whole album last night and different parts of it fit in with the sounds of Florence, Amy Macdonald, Katie Tunstal and Sharleen Spitera, all of whom I lurve. Ordered the new album ‘I Speak Because I Can’ yesterday.

‘Sigh No More’ – Mumford and Sons: Heard them on the radio a lot and decided I need their whole album before we see them play. Deliberately seeking out the beauty of decay goes a long way with me, all the way to the internet cash register it seems.

‘Tigermilk’ – Belle and Sebastian: For some reason I’ve never picked up their first album, but I never really need a great excuse to get more albums by this band (and then maybe after ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’ they could play ‘Seeing Other People’ and ‘The Boy With the Arab Strap’ and...).

‘Mind Chaos’ – Hockey: This album really surprised me, because the majority of it is less obviously jump around music than the singles they’ve released. A nice mix of guitar band, indie pop and something a little bit quieter.

‘A Book Like This’ - Angus and Julia Stone: Carl really likes them and I can see why after listening to a few songs. Sometimes quite conventional lyrics, but sometimes very much not and the whole combination of music, effects and lyrics works out beautiful over this album. Their videos can be incredible too.

‘The Pains of Being Pure at Heart’ - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: Total random decision, which invokes my college days when I worked a part time shop job and blew my little wage on trying out new artists.

‘Give Me Fiction’ – Spoon: Second impulse buy based on a few snatches of song because all their songs are locked down, but they have the best track names ever and I trust in track names.

‘Peaceful The World Lays Me Down’ - Noah and the Whale: I understand this band is a big deal in the US, but I don’t think they ever quite broke through here (just one single on the radio that I can remember). But there’s something about them that appeals very strongly to me.

‘Contra’ - Vampire Weekend: You can listen to almost their entire back catalogue for free at Last FM (although there are some poor quality live tracks in there) and I did. I really liked the variety of their sound and realised how many songs I’d heard on the radio, so I bought their second album. And that’s how free content stimulates sales non-believers.

Also very excited to see ‘Temper Trap’, ‘The Coral’, ‘The Cads’ and possibly ‘The Horrors’ (I don’t know will they be too hip to be listened to, or will they be rocking?). How much will we physically be able to squeeze in, as we have to get comedy in too (be kind to us schedule) and all the different things my friend will want to see should make this an big barrel of festival fun.

In between then and now there is really no break in the weekend activities (gah and when will I have time to see the wonderful awfulness of Eclipse?).

Then after the festival things only get marginally less fun and busy until after my holiday in Croatia with friends. The busy fun kicks off with my annual weekend away with my mum, starting this afternoon, so I won’t have internet until Tuesday. If anyone has any NerdsHeartYA questions I’ll point you at the other awesome organisers. I’ll see you all when I get back and I'll have reviews of 'The Windup Girl' (like with qualifications), 'The Devil's Music' (very strong debut) and 'Reservation Blues' (really good, different and made me smile and gasp alternately). Have a lovely weekend and please feel free to slap down some more music recommendations for me while I’m gone.