This weekend, right this moment, thousands of sonic junkies are crawling (some perhaps literally on their hands and knees) around the clubs, pubs and disused sheds of Camden Town in the hope of catching the faintest of glimpses of "the future". It's a dangerous term and if the next one-second-wonder NME coverstars are your thing you'll be in luck.If however a trip off the beaten path of blog endorsement and into the wild and wooly outback of lo-fi blips and thrashes of jaggedy Fenders then the annual Dot to Dot extravaganza might be your niche. As with many great creations, it has two legs: one in knife-crime capital Nottingham and t'other in the land of Cider, Justin Lee Collins, and Skins, Bristol. Last year saw mad dashes half way across the rugged outskirts of the city centre from the ephemeral sounds of Jason Pierce's Spiritualized in a converted church to a working men's club to see a rough and ready Glasvegas blow the doors of the hinges with their Spector-esque wall of sound bombast. Working off around a third of all that junk you've drunk during the day can't be all that bad now, can it?
If the exercise bug doesn't get you dashing away to ticket-related sites then the sheer majesty of this year's colossal line up certainly will. New signed bands is the name of the game and the poster reads like Pitchfork's index (were it a magazine and could stomach a British band or two). From the pitch-perfect pint-sized pop of Little Boots over to the Jesus & Mary Chain inspired howls of Crystal Stilts, every base is covered. Ladyhawke returns for a highly anticipated headline slot, alongside Talking Heads-infused new wave St.Albans upstarts Friendly Fires, broken bottle bar brawls and Springsteen blues with The Hold Steady and the overtly camp vulture costumes of the magically magnificent Patrick Wolf. Elsewhere the boats, O2 academies and medieval brick bars shall be rattled by the Australian anthems of The Temper Trap, the distorted heart-warming of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and diva-in-the-making VV Brown. Looking back in a year's time this may well be Observer Music Monthly's index, only time will tell.
Dot to Dot takes place in Bristol on 23rd May with the Nottingham event taking place over 15 hours of the following day. It is a bank holiday, after all! Tickets are on sale now for £30 from Alt-tickets but snap one up sharpish- last year's weekend sold out like the drop of a hat. Forget crawling, get pens and papers at the ready, walking boots on and join those dots.
The Temper Trap- Science of Fear
Crystal Stilts- Crippled Croon
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart- Contender
The Joy Formidable- Whirring
