Various - The Matinee Grand Prix (Matinee)

I love that Matinee continue to put these albums out, as a sort of taster of what pop nuggets the casual observer can find on the label. It's how I first became aware of Matinee, and for that I'll always be grateful to Jimmy for having the time and love to bother.

Of all the Matinee compilations over the years, this is perhaps the most diverse. Yes, you know what you're going to get from the likes of Northern Portrait, The Lucksmiths (whose posthumous presence here reminds that a supreme band has fallen), and Tender Trap - and that's ace pop sketches.

But there's also the mysterious Clay Hips' marvellous, understated electropop masterpiece in 'Disappointed', which brings back the best moments of Baxendale or Fosca. And that's backed up by Simpatico's fragile 'Australian Idle', and most excitingly, Maths and Physics Club's 'I Keep to Myself', which builds on the soft synths on their last ep to exciting effect.

Three tracks out of eleven doesn't mean that Matinee is about to turn away from the meat and potatoes indiepop, of course, but it's a pleasant surprise to find an indiepop label that's not afraid to step off the beaten track now and again. A smashing little snapshot of an always loveable label.

Endless fun

There aren't many occasions when I wish I could go and dance in a disco these days, but after a day of stress at work, then you sort of need some release right?

So, you can listen to This Many Boyfriends, 'Allo Darlin', Pocketbooks, Northern Portrait, the bloody lovely Awesomelies - and you can revel in that, of course.

But blimey, crikey, just like I used to stick on a Ned's Atomic Dustbin record (what?) to bash the blues away when I was nowt but a nipper in Grimsby, then nowadays I'm lucky enough to know a song called 'Endless' by Kissamatic Lovebubbles which gives all the thrills I need.

I was lucky enough to see the outpouring of love that The Regulars gave Pete Green, but how I wish I'd seen 'Endless' played by Kissamatic Lovebubbles. The bands sound so similar, so alive and so fresh, even though they're both dead and gone.

But pop doesn't die, right?

I've might've had a drink.

New Socks

I feel like a whole new world has opened up in front of me, because after finding out about The Awesomelies earlier this week (and did that album get me through a dull Monday night in Lincoln, or what?), then Becky from the band went and pointed me in the direction of the New Socks album, which is available to buy and listen to here.

I like lots of things about this album: the fact that a little kid introduces each song; the strangely spooky cover art; the fact that it's totally different from The Awesomelies, yet is equally as precious. If 'People and Love and Plants' or 'I Trying to be Nice' don't cut you into little pieces then you're probably a Chelsea fan, or something.

I love it when his kind of thing happens. The fact that this music has been out there for a while only makes it more special, because it almost certainly means there's even more, equally ace pop secrets waiting for me - and you - to discover them.

Make way for The Awesomelies

I’m not sure if they waited for The Besties to break up before revealing their true magnificence, but the Awesomelies are… awesome, as they say in that there America.

They’re from Athens, Georgia, and are Becky Lovell and Ian Rickert, who, between them have been in Bands That I’ve Never Heard Of like Folklore, Fairmount Fair and New Socks (which is actually a really nice name for a band, isn’t it?)

The reason I’m telling you all this is that the Awesomelies have a free album to download called ‘Make Way’, and it’s full of bouncy, primitive, hypnotic synth-pop songs that you can download for no money at all. Well, what you should do, of course, is donate at their band camp website, but I bet you don’t.

“We'll definitely have more new music later this year after I move back to Athens,” Becky told me. Can’t wait.

Allo Darlin - Dreaming (Fortuna Pop!)

There seems to have come a point when as soon as Elizabeth Morris opens her mouth, this wonderful pop song emerges. I'm sure you remember 'Henry Rollins Don't Dance' and 'The Polaroid Song' from last year, well, if anything, this tops them. It's beautiful, swooping pop music that starts off like The Drums' 'Let's Go Surfin', before gliding into this kind of cuddly, sad song that you sort of brings back memories of lying on your back on some grass in the summer and staring at the sky. It's enhanced by the kind of baritone from Monster Bobby from The Pipettes that is so low that it'll probably burst your testicles (or testicles substitute for the vegetarians and ladies in the audience) if you play it loud enough. Recommended so hard.

Hexicon - Something Strange Beneath the Stars (Haircut Records)

Half of 'Allo Darlin''s band have got fed up with mad, dictatorial ways of that massive meanie Elizabeth and formed their own band. And this is their first single, I think.

It's pretty great, actually. 'Something Strange Beneath the Stars' reminds me of some of the Boo Radley's poppier moments from around 'Giant Steps', and features a lovely bit of brass after the first verse. And let's please not mention the Flaming bloody Lips...

B-side 'Still Here' is a gentle strum that mentions pin cushions quite a bit. I'll admit I don't understand what it's on about, but it's pleasant enough.

Elizabeth better watch out, then. Nothing less than a democratic pop revolution will do.

In other 'Allo Darlin' news, Elizabeth told the Anorak Forum that their album will be with us soon. If anything can come close the brilliance of the Standard Fare album this year, that's got to be a contender.

Hopeless is the venue

The gig that Ian from Horowitz put on last Saturday might have showcased some ace bands, but it showed just how far Nottingham venues have fallen over the last twenty years.

Maybe it's because I'm not 20 any more, but spending three hours in a pub that think selling Stella Artois is exotic and plays Megadeth at full tilt isn't my idea of fun. Beautiful young goth people roamed hither and thither, and I felt an immediate sense of doom, and general decay. Apt, really.

On the walk home I got to think about the venues that meant so much to me when I first moved to Nottingham. Again, maybe it's because I was young and that I'd just escaped from Grimsby - a place that spat on you if you didn't conform to the norm down the tiniest detail, but there seemed to be loads of places you could go back then.

Places like Sam Fay's, which used to put on gigs every Monday night where you could go and sit in a dark corner and lose yourself for a few hours. Or the Hearty Goodfellow, which had the daftest name ever, but seemed like a beacon of bohemian drinking. Ditto the Dragon, which had an ace jukebox and a million friendly crusties to cadge fags off.

But the finest of all was The Narrowboat, a now demolished venue in a building that somehow made it past the construction of the godawful Broadmarsh shopping centre. I used to go to the Narrowboat at least twice a week in the early- to mid-nineties to see bands whether I liked them or not. It was the sort of place where you grow up and learn to understand people a little bit more, I think. Or maybe I'm being dramatic.

Anyway, it's just been pointed out to me that Prolapse have been defunct now for a decade, and that's just disappeared. The best gig I think I've ever seen in Nottingham (or perhaps anywhere else, come to think of it) was Prolapse at the Narrowboat, and I think I've probably mentioned this before over the last 12 months. But so what, it gives me a chance to post a you tube clip of the mesmerising 'Chill Blown'.

It also leaves me wondering if other provincial cities and their small venues have suffered like this in the name of "progress" and "redevelopment" over the last two decades. Most probably...