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Here’s a question: if you were given the chance to do anything, what would you do? Up sticks and travel the Dreaded Student Trail of Thailand – Vietnam – Australia, which is surely so well-worn that there must be a metre-deep groove trodden all the way from Bangkok – Sydney? Maybe you’d copy Paris Hilton and buy every terrible handbag, dress and tiny dog available and then thrust your way onto MTV, ensuring that your bank balance and feelings of self-worth are forever at opposite ends of the scale.

Both of those things pale into comparison to announcing …

Having returned from Bestival yesterday, the most surprising aspect in retrospect was that the weekend of mud, more mud and a dislikeable mixture of mud and (hopefully cattle) faeces, did not actually dampen (GEDDIT? LOLZ!1!11!!) the intrepid A.N.B.A.D team/posse/masochists one bit. In fact, it was almost a triumph, and the Saturday night, after the powers that be had finally decided that we were requisitely muddy, was one of the best ever experienced at a festival.

So here’s the very briefest list of Bestival high points:

1. My Bloody Valentine – still mind-warpingly loud, even when outside
2. Hot Chip – defying

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***GLIB COMPARISON WEEK CONTINUES BELOW, FACILE-FANS**

So again, after reeling from the glut of greatness in today’s previous post, which rounds up the best bands this month on ANBAD, we again take a delve back into our pockets to see what new great bands lurk within. (And to make that mangled mixed-metaphor-analogy work, try imagining we’re wearing big clown trousers, filled with every band in the world. I think I’m digging myself further in a hole here.) And today’s New Band is yet another nail in the Johnny Halliday-shaped coffin for people who think that French music …

That’s right folks, this week’s borderline-awful ROADTRIP! gimmick is drawing to a close. And yet, for all its conceptual craptitude, we’ve dug up a lot of ace bands so far on our virtually-drunken, imaginarily-debauched trundle around Northern Europe. Sweden’s Envelopes, Norway’s Hiawata! and Poland’s MR BEEP have provided us with a ADHD-fat-kid-in-an-ice-cream-parlour sample of Upper-Euro music, and brilliant it all has been too.

Thus, before we head back to Cyber-Calais (Yes, this is getting tedious now), for the ferry, we’ve stopped in France for one final hurrah, and look who’s Today’s New Band – it’s Facteur! Now, as …

Soft is bad right?

• Soft rock – Poodle haired, tight-spandex-trousered nonsense
• Soft drinks – Pale in comparison to alcoholic ones: there’s a Roman God for wine, but not for Sunny Delight
• ‘Soft Skills’ – Management Bullshit for ‘being able to talk to people and be nice’
• Soft Mints – Specifically designed to remove fillings

Well, Jackson and His Computer Band, today’s new band, make music that sounds… soft. But in a great way.

Electronic music, almost by definition , sounds metronomic, precise and clear. The music of Jackson and his Computer Band does share some of these traits, it’s true. …

What is it about French dance music that makes it so distinctive? No-one does ‘funky’ in dance music like the French – perhaps it’s all the fine food, fine wine and fine weather they have there. It’s hard to imagine a band as sullen as Joy Division emerging from a country where you can visit the Loire Valley for a smashing sunshine top-up. On the other hand, when you hear the songs that today’s new band Teenage Bad Girl make, it’s easy to understand that they haven’t felt the crushing despair of living in Macclesfield like Ian Curtis. They just …