Our Issue six Spotify playlist has laid down its welcome mat for your ears. You can find it here. The songs we listened to as we put this issue together included:

I Don't Want Love - The Antlers 
Death Cloud - Cloud Control 
River - Akron/Family 
Alibi - The Mountain Goats 
Rip It Up - Orange Juice 
A New England - Billy Bragg 
Colours - Group Love 
The Good Times Are Killing Me - Modest Mouse 
Afterburner - Panda Bear 
Me and My Friend - Julie Doiron 
Kind of Man - Alessi's Ark 
Hanging from a Hit - Okkervil River 
Charter Magic - Marques Toliver 
Riding for the Feeling - Bill Callahan 
Lorelai - Fleet Foxes 
Milkshare - Yuck 
One the Bus Mall - The Decemberists 
Pull The House Down - Stricken City 
Backyards - Broken Social Scene 
The Lonely Doll - Cass McCombs

Drop us suggested song inspirations for the next issue on facebook.

Checklist for things to do in November: (1) buy new winter coat, (2) fix broken boiler, (3) record seminal album. That's right, the folk from Hometaping have declared that you should spend the month of November making and recording your own music. It's the second year that they're running the project. It's free and anyone can join. What a perfect excuse for everyone who's ever wanted to make music but procrastinated on it (says the pot calling the kettle black). They've even included a few tips on the home recording process to help out first-timers.

The Hometaping project begins Monday 1st November 2010 and ends at midnight on Tuesday 30th November. In the words of the organizers: "there is no judging. There is no competition. There are no other rules. You don't have to make it better than anyone else's. You just have to make it." So go make it.

See their website for more information. (Photo by Felipe Neves)

Good news everybody - the new compilation from Young and Lost Club is out! To celebrate five years (and over 50 songs) of their record label, founders Sara and Nadia have put together this nifty two-disc set for the indie singles connoisseur. The 35-song retrospective includes treasured tracks from a host of the label's bands, including Vincent Vincent and the Villains, Good Shoes, Pull Tiger Tail, Noah and the Whale, Bombay Bicycle Club, Lord Auch, Planet Earth, Ou Est Le Swimming Pool, Othello Woolf and Johnny Flynn. You can buy the compilation from their website and other good music retailers.

Now, usually 5th birthday parties bring to mind Disney-themed ice cream cakes and the occasional game of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, but on this occasion it's a different kind of soiree entirely. The label is throwing an all-night party on the 9th of October at new Shoreditch venue XOYO, with live performances from Noah & The Whale, Ex Lovers, Planet Earth and Othello Wolf. There'll also be DJ sets from White Lies, Fnord, Egyptian Hip Hop, Chess Club, Gwilym Gold, Pull Tiger Tail, Joe Lean, Goodbye Mother, Lambrini Girls, Sunderbans, Adventure Playground, Abeano, Semifinalists, Hit Club. Yes folks, it's going to be a corker of a show.

Due to overwhelming popularity, pre-show tickets have now sold out but there will be a small amount of tickets available on the door for £12 (£5 after midnight).

Don't be too glum if you missed out. The lovely ladies from YALC have given us a pair of tickets for the show to give away to our readers! To be in the running, simply email [email protected] (with "YALC" in the subject line) and tell us something that you lost when you were young. The competition closes on the 1st of October.

You like The Mountain Goats, right? Of course you do. Remember when your older sister handed you a copy of We Shall All Be Healed and you thought “that John Darnielle sure can write a song”. Or maybe you heard them for the first time when “This Year” played on the radio, and you wondered how an autobiographical song about domestic abuse could be so darn cheery. Last year the band released their 17th studio album, The Life of the World to Come, continuing Darnielle’s lyrical journey with songs inspired by the theological.

The Mountain Goats are playing live tomorrow night at Koko in Camden ahead of their set at this weekend's End of the Road festival. Tickets are can be purchased here and here.

Because we love you so, we have 2 tickets to the show to give away. To be in the running, simply email [email protected] and tell us your favorite type of goat. Please include "Mountain Goats" in the subject line. The competition closes at midnight tonight, so get typing!

I'm a big fan of the End of the Road festival. The first year I went, I was immediately sold. It had everything I wanted from a festival: small crowds, a world-class musical lineup, picturesque surroundings, arts & crafts activities, and a cinema tent (curated by the ever-amazing Little White Lies). There was tasty fairtrade food and a variety of interesting alcoholic beverages. The atmosphere was laid back and not reliant on inebriation. A forest was strung with fairylights and bookshelves, and bands played in yurts. The campsite was grassy and clean. Peacocks wandered the grounds freely, screeching out mating calls intermittently.

What really sealed the deal (for a notorious Scandophile such as myself) was the festival's ties to the region, selling traditional Swedish food and even hosting an old Viking game called kubb. It was, to me, the perfect camping festival. With one hand on my heart (and a brandy-infused mulled cider in the other), I vowed to return the next year and every year after that.

This year marks the five-year anniversary of End of the Road. Organizers Simon Taffe and Sofia Hagberg have put together a fantastic line-up for this year's sold-out festival. Oh there are just so many great acts to get giddy about, so allow me rattle off a few suggestions:

Friday 10th September:
The Ruby Suns (3pm @ the Big Top)
Allo Darlin' (4pm @ the Tipi Tent)
The Mountain Goats (6:15pm @ the Garden Stage)
Wolf Parade (7:45pm @ the Garden Stage
Diane Cluck with Anders Griffen (8:45pm @ the Tipi Tent)
Modest Mouse (9:30pm @ the Garden Stage)
The New Pornographers (11pm @ the Big Top)

Saturday 11th September:
Snowman (1:45pm @ the Big Top)
Timber Timbre (2pm @ the Garden Stage)
Monotonix (6:45pm @ the Big Top)
Three Trapped Tigers (7:15pm @ the Local Stage)
Iron & Wine (7:45pm @ the Garden Stage)
Yo La Tengo (9:30pm @ the Garden Stage)
Richard Hawley & Jarvis Cocker DJ set (11pm @ the Local Stage)
Caribou (11:15pm @ the Big Top)

Sunday 12th September:
Django Django (5:30pm @ the Big Top)
Ra Ra Riot (6:45pm @ the Big Top)
Errors (8pm @ the Big Top)
Horse Feathers (9:30pm @ the Tipi Tent)
Wilco (9:30pm @ the Garden Stage)
The Low Anthem (7:30pm @ the Garden Stage)
Adam Green (9:30pm @ the Big Top)
Pulled Apart By Horses (9:45pm @ the Local Stage)

Aside from the official stage times, bands have been known to sneak in ‘secret sets' along the way, so you'd be wise to be vigilant. Aside from the music, there's also a comedy stage (hosted by the Storytellers Club), art installations and an array of workshops to check out.

End of the Road takes place September 10th - 12th at Larmer Tree Gardens, North Dorset. You can find more information on their website. I'm excited.

Standon Calling is celebrating its 10th anniversary this weekend and oh boy, it's going to be a good one. The annual festival takes place in the 16th century manor house and grounds of Standon, Hertfordshire. It began in 2001 as a birthday party weekender for founder Alex Trenchard and his friends. Its reputation for good times grew and now, 10 years on, it's a festival that attracts fans from all over the country and bands from all over the world.

The theme of this year's event is Murder on the Standon Express - think film noir, intrigue, trenchcoats and hidden treasures. As well as a host of "late night surprises, secret stages, unexpected performances and critically acclaimed market-style street food stalls", this year Standon Calling is launching its own local produce boxes, which will accompany the local beers and ales stocked in the bars.

Did I mention that there's a swimming pool? That's right, a swimming pool. And it houses an underwater disco.

The musical line-up is fabulous and can be perused at their website. Here are some of our favorites:

Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club (Feat Omara Portuondo)
Liars
Efterklang
Metronomy
British Sea Power
Jeffrey Lewis
These New Puritans
A Hawk and a Hacksaw
Fucked Up
The Phenomenal Handclap Band
Wildbirds & Peacedrums
Three Trapped Tigers
Sleepy Sun
Casiokids
Joe Gideon & The Shark
Summer Camp
Egyptian Hip Hop
Factory Floor

Standon Calling takes place this weekend, 6 - 8th August 2010. Weekend and day tickets are still available from their website. Profits from the festival go towards Phonenix Futures, a charity that supports victims of drug and alcohol abuse across the UK.

The Russian vegetable puppet show, Theatre Borscht, travelled to Camp Bestival over the weekend. We were working for the House of Fairy Tales, an enchanting organisation that brings art to life for children. Borscht took over a Mongolian yurt called The Giant’s Kitchen and held vegetable puppet workshops. We entertained a good selection of the 15,000 child visitors by the power of vegetables and improvisation alone.

Elsewhere at Camp Bestival, The Fall, Madness and Lemez were musical highlights. But one of our best discoveries was the Mind's Ear Project. Mind’s Ear is an orchestra that plays 'what you say'. Anyone can stand in the conductor's spot and ask for their musical whims to be brought to life.

Over the weekend we watched and listened as their audience asked for musical renditions of everything from 'a lazy elephant', 'Daniela the fairy who lives on Mars', zig-zags, polka dots, reggae and, of course, Borscht's own Anna Karrotenina.

Mind's Ear will be at the Thames Festival later this September. For now, find them over on their website.

Ah, Field Day. The only music festival, to my knowledge, where you can watch an array of fine international bands, eat some homemade cakes and partake in an egg-and-spoon race.

Field Day has been running for four years, the brainchild of Tom Baker of Eat Your Own Ears. What really makes the day special is the festival's Village Green arena and its Village Mentality activities. As they put it, the arena is "inspired by country pastimes and simpler pleasures, while not forgetting domestic drudgery and adolescent sports days". Meringue eating competitions, tug-of-wars, Blindfold Tea Drinking Relay Races, scone-throwing contests and much more - what's not to like?

You can peruse the musical line-up on their website. If you're at a loss about which act deserves your precious attention, we've taken the liberty of making some suggestions:

Holly Miranda (2pm @ Eat Your Own Ears Stage)

Memory Tapes (2:15pm @ Bugged Out Stage)

The Kissaway Trail (2:30pm @ Adventures in the Beetroot Field Stage)

Egyptian Hip Hop (3:30pm @ Adventures in the Beetroot Field / Last FM Stage)

Lightspeed Champion (4:15pm @ Eat Your Own Ears Stage)

These New Puritans (4:30pm @ Adventures in the Beetroot Field / Last FM Stage)

No Age (5:30pm @ Adventures in the Beetroot Field / Last FM Stage)

Archie Bronson Outfit (7:30pm @ Village Mentality / The Quietus Stage)

Atlas Sound (7:30pm @ Adventures in the Beetroot Field / Last FM Stage)

Caribou (8pm @ Eat Your Own Ears Stage)

Chapel Club (8:45pm @ Adventures in the Beetroot Field / Last FM Stage)

Silver Apples (8:45pm @ Village Mentality / The Quietus Stage)

Mouse On Mars (9:45pm @ Village Mentality / The Quietus Stage)

Phoenix (9:45pm @ Eat Your Own Ears Stage)

The Fall (Eat Your Own Ears Stage)

[approximate stage times, folks]

Field Day takes place this Saturday the 31st in Victoria Park, London. Tickets are £33.33 + bf and are still available to buy through their site.

Some of the Oh Comely team will outside the gates early in the day with a pile of magazines to give away, so come find us and say hello! We'll also have sweets. You can have some if you say the super-secret magic code word. The word is "jellybean."

Tonight sees the urban festival behemoth known as Stag & Dagger take over multiple venues across Shoreditch, London. Head honcho and globetrotting DJ Crispin Dior recently took some time out of his busy schedule to talk to us about the ups and downs of putting on the festival. He said that the motivation to first stage Stag & Dagger was to create a festival that showed off an electric range of music - "a chance to see all kinds of different bands playing all over London for a relatively low ticket price." The hardest part, said Dior, is finance. "You can never do everything you want to do and book all the bands you want because there's never enough money". And his favourite part? "It's great to see people picking up their wristbands at Shoreditch Church on the night and seeing how excited they are". (Note: wristbands are now collected at Corbet Place, Truman Brewery, EC1)

Set times and map are now available on the Stag & Dagger website.

There are at least ten gazillion excellent acts playing tonight and the best way to fully experience the festival is by traipsing all over the shop, seeing as many bands as humanly possible. If you don't know where to start, here are a few of our recommendations:

Timber Timbre - playing 6:30pm @ Rough Trade East (Rough Trade)

Wax Fang - playing 8:30pm @ Café 1001 (Sexbeat)

White Hinterland - playing 9:00pm @ The Macbeth (The Quietus)

Planet Earth - playing 9:45pm @ Catch (Young & Lost Club)

Still Flyin' - playing 9:45pm @ Jaguar Shoes (The Church of London)

The Phenomenal Handclap Band - playing 10:45pm @ Hoxton Bar and Kitchen (AITBF)

Archie Bronson Outfit - playing 11:00pm @ The Macbeth (The Quietus)

teenagersintokyo - playing 11:00pm @ Queen Of Hoxton (Kill Em All)

Teeth - playing 11:45pm @ Jaguar Shoes (The Church of London)

We have Band - playing 11:45pm @ Hoxton Bar and Kitchen (AITBF)

The Radio Dept. - playing 11:45pm @ The Legion (Sonic Cathedral)

Some £15 pre-sale tickets are still available from Seetickets or you can get them for £20 on the night from Hearn Street Car Park, EC2.

Never one to be quick on the uptake, I came across 'I Blame Coco' far too recently, even though her single 'Caesar' was released back in February. There's something about Coco Sumner; those deep throaty vocals, that menacing cat eyed stare and the fact she describes herself as 'feral' which I both applaud and equate to. She's hitting the stage on Friday 21rst at Koko in London and her album is coming out soon. For those of you not able to make the show, I advise you to check out the myspace. I predict we shall be hearing a lot more from Coco in the coming months.

It comes as a surprise that more people haven't discovered this. I expect they will, and quickly, so I can take a certain amount of pleasure in declaring that you've heard it here first.

I despair at trying to describe music without coming across as a completely pretencious jackass, as I feel that something which is so fundamentally, err, sonic, should be listened to and not discussed. But I shall attempt it.

Okay, so you're on a small boat which is made out of leaves and sticks, and it's being captained by a cat in a hat, and you're sailing down a river at night, and the river looks silver in the glow of the moon. There are definitely trees around this river. The moon is full, and on the moon a man is sitting and playing a guitar. The man on the moon is Jack Sebastian Northover.

Cutting edge music journalism, that is.

Listen to it here.