XX Teens are the latest London band to succumb to our Listen Up! harassment. If you used to hang out at Art Rocker up in Islington you might have bumped into them when they were still known as Xerox Teens, but after narrowly avoiding a photocopying centric lawsuit the name had to change. Their single 'Only You' is out this week, and their debut album 'Welcome to Goon Island' follows on 28 July. We......

March already? How did that happen? The perils of having our head buried in a book so much of the time, no doubt. If we must emerge this week from our cosy little book-enclosed chrysalis, it’ll likely be to head to the following events. Monday: The RSL-sponsored TS Eliot Memorial meeting brings together award-winning poets Alice Oswald and Kathleen Jamie for an evening of readings from their work. Both have been lauded for the......

This week saw Londonist Get Scientific when we previewed We Are Scientists playing Soho Revue Bar this Tuesday, get excited about Eurovision and get cosy with Portico Quartet. A busy week all in all! Looking ahead to this week however, we have Eels playing Royal Festival Hall on Monday night. They've invited the Queen too, so it could be an amusing evening. Austin, Tx stars Spoon play a sold out show at Scala and rising......

This weekend column is brought to you by the founders of Niceties Tokens, Liz and Pete of Team Nice. 32. Office Boy Band So recently I have been looking at office culture and anti-social issues within the workplace. Purely because over the years I have found that some offices are really friendly and some are not. Whilst every workplace will have peculiar individuals, an office culture sits in the air of the building, and......

One of our favourite UK bands, Sons & Daughters are back with a new album and tonight they'll be showing it off for free. To celebrate the release of their new single 'Darling', the Scottish indie stars will be performing and signing cds at Fopp on Shaftesbury Avenue. The performance starts at 6pm but it could be pretty crowded so get there a little bit early. But if you miss them this time round......

Whilst the Sex Pistols and The Verve were hawking their wares for the proper reviewers, Londonist was hightailing it down to the Empire for an early start. Since The Broken Family Band cashed in the cool Cambridge climes for our dirty old town, we can now legitimately claim them as our favourite London band (no doubt to howls of protest from the other Londonist writers and possibly the guys themselves). TBFB (for all you......

Sampled the delights of Oxjam yet? If not, why not? The festival's reached the halfway point, and Oxfam's million-pound fundraising goal won't get any nearer with you sitting around on your hands watching Emmerdale when you could be bopping in your Birkenstocks and raising money while you're at it! Highlights for this week: - HatJam - Unsigned acts including The Colours and aDore will be joined by DJs at Shoreditch's Bar Music Hall, for......

Kick off the week tomorrow with Stephen Fretwell at Cadogen Hall (£15). The singer songwriter is touring his 3rd album "Man On The Roof" and by all accounts it's pretty good. Or if you like your things with a bit more soul (or rubbish pop depending on your point of view) then the 'legend' that is Craig David begins the first of four dates at Ronnie Scott's (£25). The Mercury nominated one man dream-machine......

Free music is where it's at. Fact. But free music combined with a campaign against racism gets a nice fat thumbs up from us. This weekend sees the annual Rise festival hit London and this time round it's going two days. If you're over on the outskirts of London, near Dagenham, then Saturday will be your bag. From 4pm, Dagenham's Central Park will be transformed into a concert venue as part of the long......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 9th July 1968: The Hayward art gallery on the South Bank is opened by the Queen. Tuesday – 10th July 1958: Britain’s first parking meters are installed in Mayfair. Soon there would be 625 of them in the district, charging 6 pence per hour. Wednesday – 11th July 1848: Waterloo Station is opened. The original station would survive just 52 years until 1900, when it would be......

We first came across Molloy last year an mp3 of"Tracy" bounced into our inboxes. A sleazy yet cute electro ditty, it managed to stay away from our recycle bin and we've been spinning it out and about in London clubs. Now "Tracy' is being released properly this week so we caught up with the band to find out a little more about them. If you like them and the song then vote for them......

What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week. Being the nation's capital, DCist felt especially proud to let freedom ring this week by exposing the really important issues, like how sad they......

“We’re proud to be able to play in one of Tony Blair’s legacies to the UK” David Kay of Tiny Dancers said of their chance to be one of the first bands to play the indigo2 at the former Millennium Dome. One of the most state of the art venues in the UK Indigo2 is the smaller of two venues at the new O2 complex which comprises shops, bars and cinema as well as the......

Remember when we told you how funky the Central Band of the Royal Legion is? Well, just in case you didn't believe us, Helen, the marching lady has sent us a little treat, just for you. It's good, it's really good, and it's perfect to chase away those Monday afternoon work blues. Put it on loudly in the office. And all together now... "come with me, come with me!" Central Band of The Royal......

There's no question in my mind that My Space is a wonderful thing but I find it alternately inspiring and overwhelming when you get a glimpse of the sheer number of bands and promoters are out there trying to do their thing. It doesn't help that at the majority of gigs I've played on the so-called "toilet circuit" I haven't been that keen on the other bands, I'm not someone who will randomly pop......

Every so often we meet up with people who are doing things a little bit out of the ordinary for a little chinwag. This time round meet Helen who's rapidly gaining status somewhere you'd probably not expect to find anyone born after the '50s anywhere near - she's a sexy, sassy 23 year old and a member of the Royal Legion band. Hello Miss marching lady, introduce yourself. My name is Helen, I'm in......

Last time we looked at the Olympic motto there was some stuff in there about Fastest and Strongest, but apparently we've given those attributes too much attention in the past. Yesterday in Trafalgar Square saw the launch of "Sporting Giants", a search fronted by five times gold medallist Sir Steve Redgrave (6' 5¼" / 1.96m) for, basically, tall young people who will be invited to join programs that will hopefully turn them into the......

Every year the Londonist team hits Camden for one mad night of dashing from venue to venue necking pints for Camden Crawl. This year, in all their money-spinning wisdom, the crawl has been expanded to two nights. We're not quite sure how much this is going to work (and with tickets at £26 a day, makes it a much more expensive proposition) but we'll no doubt give it ago. Today the first line-up has......

When Freud divvied up the psyche and revealed the ego, superego and id, he left out one important element. The nerd. The nerd is perhaps the strongest component of Londonist's psychological makeup. We're therefore drawn to anything that involves an interactive, reworked Tube map and tales about the underground's history. So thanks to Platform for Art for nourishing our nerd with Thin Cities - The project responds to the theme of past, present and......

It's the time of year that sends compulsive list makers in to a frenzy, and this girl is no exception. It's the Notes From The City Official 2006 End Of Year Things-That-Laura-Liked Summary - catchy! It's as much a list of things I really think everyone should check out as a list of my favourite things from the year, so follow the links at will... Top 10 Albums 1. The Eraser - Thom Yorke 2.......

We like ours with sauce here at the Londonist, and shakin' their maracas and booties like streetwalkers in a Miami Vice musical, South London homies Hot Chip served it up thick at their biggest headliner to date last week at the slowly crumbling Astoria. Surprisingly, for an electro-pop outfit that barricades itself, Kraftwerk-style, behind keyboards at gigs, and recorded two albums in vocalist and synth dude Joe Goddard's bedroom studio, Hot Chip sizzled onstage.......

Sincerest apologies, dear readers. The author of this column (Column? Post?) has had a particularly trying week, what with almost getting fired from his high-pressure media sales job and also being asked to vacate the sofa near Highbury Corner he had been staying on since July. Now, we know, this is no excuse. Two posts in a fortnight is almost unforgivable. How much more trouble can he get in, do you wonder? Well, two......

It's a bit of a mixed bag this week, to match the weather and the annual wardrobe meltdown that we are facing as we try to cover all potential weather situations. It's been a bit of a scramble to bring the Culture Crawl indoors after such a great summer of outdoor pursuits but inside we go... and there's plenty to see and do... Shunt, the people who brought us Tropicana and Amato Saltone in......

The super-stacked summer season of stuff to see and do is over... and the even more packed autumn schedule of stuff to see and do has launched without pause for breath. There's no time to stop and stare in London - and why would you want to? Friday 1 September Late at Tate Britain, 6.00pm - 10.00pm, FREE The monthly Late at Tate Britain, held on the first Friday of each month, is tonight......

Crowds of angry young people clad in black will descend like bats from the musty corners of a tumbledown gothic cathedral on The Brewery in the East End tomorrow night. No, it's not yet another Goth club night - make way for the Kerrang! Awards 2006. Touted by the magazine as being "the most debauched rock 'n' roll event of the year", expect sordid tales of excess the next morning as boys and girls......

From some not-so-humble beginnings as an eccentric DJ double-act, Kaiser Saucy and Lord Fader have turned The Loose Cannons into a relentlessly fun-loving electro-punk-funk-camp-clash live band. Certainly when we first saw them perform a hugely energetic set at a ridiculously sweaty 93 Feet East a couple of weeks ago, we were pretty darned impressed. If you want to check them out for yourself, they're playing at The Jazz Cafe in Camden this evening. We......

A week or so ago, we were trundling down Tottenham Court Road underground station dreading the face-sweating levels of heat that were about to hit us when we heard something we thought was rather wonderful. While buskers have got much better since the Underground introduced their licensing laws a few years ago, most of the time we don't pay attention to them unless they're drunk and they're the bongo man at Bank. This time......

We briefly mentioned yesterday that Ken is thinking of imposing significantly higher congestion charges on the drivers of the more environmentally-unfriendly cars that enter the congestion charge zone. Let’s make no bones about it. Coupled with the existing higher road tax for gas-guzzlers, this sort of measure would represent a real incentive for drivers to develop an environmental conscience when choosing which cars (if any) to drive. Bravo! Sort-of. But has Ken got this......

It's time for another Londonist Culture Crawl though in the current hot weather, the temptation to slump into a sticky puddle of distinctly uncultured gloop is rather overwhelming. Nonetheless, for those armed with enough Friday 7 July Being the first Friday of the month, go along to Tate Britain for the July Friday Late. This Friday is the return of the South West Fest Party - an annual celebration of the SW1 community. Music......

All the weeks highlights from our international sister sites. Sometimes you need to clean yourself up, get serious, and move in with daddie for a few months before you head to Latin America for a new gig. The District bid's Jenna Bush adios. D.C.-based television shows have an elderly audience and DCist has some suggestions to fix that. They're also throwing Butterstick the panda bear a birthday bash. Yeah, we may have a few issues......