The Ten: The Spook School's favourite things in music

As those who follow us on Twitter will know, we have our third annual indiepop soiree at Leicester Firebug coming up this Saturday, followed by a warm-down nearer the city centre on Sunday. Details/artwork:



£8 advance tickets are still available (and there'll be plenty enough on the door); full details on the Facebook event.

Even with that engagement getting in the way, this looks like being a big year for Edinburgh's Spook School, whose album of the tail-end of last year Dress Up matchmakes insistent jangly pop-punk with smart lyrics largely about identity and sexuality, with a side order of an acclaimed live show that's known to veer off in all sorts of banter-based directions. As part of the build-up to Saturday, they told us what they like most about what they do:



- When a song's chords spell a word. Like BEG. Or CAB. Or PHILANTHROPY (It's a toughie, you've got to use ALL your fingers. On both hands.)

- When you spend all night on a bus and you don't get any sleep so the next day you experience auditory hallucinations of exciting new backing vocals in all your favourite songs.

- When a guitar goes "ehehryrhheueheheue" which is a rough phonetic translation of a feedbacky guitar.

- When David Bowie does music. Highlights include when he makes music AND films. Like Labyrinth. And he sings that song in it. You know, that song.

- When gigs are indoors so the likelihood of birds attacking the stage is low. And if birds do attack we know our escape routes as the fire exits are helpfully illuminated in most music venues.

- When Niall is able to take his top off in the guise of musically-influenced joy when really his top is two sizes too small and chafing his nipples.

- When you invent a new dance move and everyone thinks you're a genius. In the future everybody will perform the 'Tofu Twist'!

- When your guitar string breaks and it cuts your finger and you bleed all over your guitar and everyone thinks you're really cool. But inside the pain is really bad and you're holding back the urge to call your Mum.

- When you hear a song that seems to perfectly mirror your current emotion. Like that one time when we felt the emotion 'anticipation' and then PJ and Duncan's Let's Get Ready To Rhumble came on and it seemed to capture our feelings perfectly!

- When you pretend a song is your theme tune and when you enter a room you punctuate it with a superhero pose. And even if you don't save the day at least you know you sounded good on entry. Ooooooh yeah!