Weekender

IF YOU ONLY BUY ONE RECORD THIS WEEK...
Pulled Apart By Horses' self-titled debut, full of fire and reckless abandon, bludgeoning faux-dumb post-grunge riffola and full commitment, as essayed in their bloodletting live shows, taking it down a Jesus Lizard/Refused route. Backstory of track called I've Got Guestlist To Rory O'Hara's Suicide (he being Grammatics' bassist) unknown, and we doubt we want to know.

SOMEWHERE TO GO
Not a lot going on as festival season pulls out of neutral gear, but Elvis Costello is around for a solo tour, basically a chance to show off his impressive lung power, delve into the thickest of back catalogues and finally determine that he's not as good with the words as he used to be. It starts tonight at Royal Festival Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall on Monday, Oxford New Theatre Wednesday, Cardiff St Davids Hall Thursday, then next week his current Nashville bluegrass veterans band the Sugarcanes join him in Liverpool, Gateshead, Dublin and Glasgow.

BANDS START UP EACH AND EVERY DAY
Cop On The Edge are from New Cross, as if it were 2004, not that they have much in comparison with that awkward scene. Would it make sense to say they resemble XTC without actually being XTC revivalists? They know their staccato post-punk but can shape it into infectious pop with a cracked edge, nodding to Devo and The Chap in their reconstructions of new wave pop from the ground up.

THERE'S ALWAYS A FESTIVAL SOMEWHERE
Glastonbury, obviously. The only serious, non-parochial competition is Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park, for those who mourn the original Virgin 1215. It's not entirely possessing, with Pearl Jam headlining the Friday and Stevie Wonder popping over for Saturday. Paul McCartney goes through the now-the-girls-now-the-boys-oh-yeah-I-like-it routine headlining the Sunday over CS&N, Crowded House and Elvis Costello, who said four years ago that he never wanted to play a UK festival again. The place to be, however, is always going to be the Bella Union sponsored Bandstand, which on Saturday hosts Summer Camp, Lone Wolf, Mountain Man, My Sad Captains and, remarkably given alternate entertainment centres on Jamiroquai and Melissa Etheridge, Zun Zun Egui. Sunday has Beach House de facto headlining.