Callahan bill

Club Uncut is back at The Great Escape, and this year proceedings are taking place in the civilised surroundings of the Pavilion Theatre.

Some very satisfying words in album titles this week, if you’ll forgive the fairly tangential way of starting a blog: “Veckatimest”, “Bitte Orca”, and today, “Balf”. “Balf Quarry” is the new album from the Magik Markers – according to the sleevenotes, “A stone quarry in Hartford, CT which has mined traprock since the earliest days of the city.”

Lo-fi tinkerer completes his transfiguration into major artist

Reeling slightly from the bad news about John Martyn, here are the records played in the Uncut office over the last couple of days. Mildly weird mix this week: the glut of Smog is due to me trying to review the new Bill Callahan album, which I'll try and blog about in the next few days.

OK, so some weird technical business over the past few days has meant a very spotty service here of late. Hopefully it’s fixed now, and I can get back into the blogging swing. A big batch of new arrivals in this week’s mixed bag, including PJ Harvey, Pete Doherty, The Decemberists, Marianne Faithfull (covering Espers!) and The Rakes.

Three days into a new working year, and I've put together the first office playlist of 2009. Usual rules apply, in that what we play isn't necessarily what we like - though that said, I can't spot any total stinkers among this 16.

With the Uncut issue out at the start of January put, as we say, to bed, and the mildly Sisyphean Top 75 project limped to a resolution, I’ve had a look for some new stuff over the past couple of days.

We're changing venues tonight – instead of the Pressure Point Uncut have moved to the beautiful Spiegeltent, kind of a cross between a circus tent and a mirrored boudoir. Aside from the creaking wooden floors, it's perfect.

Green Man. It’s all sylvan meadows, scampering deer, Hobits dancing in secluded woodland glades. Oh, OK, like all festivals this summer it’s a big sheet of grey mud and a big sheet of grey sky. But Green Man is different.

All the times you need for the Robert Plant headlined event are listed here