Top five: things distracting me

1. The Bluetones have announced they're splitting up and the tour this Autumn will be their last. I'm incredibly sad to see them go and so I'll be doing two things - grabbing tickets to see them live one last time and getting my hands on a limited edition poster designed, and signed, by bassist Scott Morriss.
   Scott has designed the rather lovely poster and is selling 100 of them at £40 each with all the profits going to the Red Cross in Japan. You get the full low down and see the design on his blog.
   Get in there quick for both gig tickets and poster.
2. And as one thing ends another begins, again. It's almost time for a new Graham Coxon album and it's rather lovely that Toby Macfarlaine from Burnt to Bitz is blogging about their preparation for upcoming live dates. It's a nice little insight into a jobbing band and is getting me excited to see them live later in the year.
3. I've been feeling pretty proud of two of my friends from back in the day for their recent musical adventures. Super Fast Girlie show (a garage / punk duo) are out on tour now and you can check them out on their fast and filthy tracks on MySpace. And The Summertides (an indie band known as The Parade until recently) launched their album this week. You can check out a couple of their tracks on Soundcloud.
4. There has been some scheming going on in the background and plans are afoot for EpicMixtape. I'm sure I'll say more on this as ideas start to manifest themselves but I might get some of these cassette cards from Moo when the time comes (thanks to Janet Davis for the reminder about them).
   In the meantime please feel free to create a mixtape to share on the blog or stick some photos of mixtapes in the Flickr group.
5. The number of things I still want to write a bit about - I've a few reviews that are half way through and some bits and bobs but they're all on the back burner while I try very hard to do the things I'm meant to be doing (like my disertation, getting ready to go back to work, pitching for freelance work etc etc etc).