Guardian Music — Last month, Laura Barton wrote about her favourite and much-missed record store. When Alan's reopened, they asked her along to man the tillMesnes Street in Wigan runs from the heart of town down towards the park. It begins busily, with bakeries and c... more info

Kings of A&R — Buzz Track: Strangers Kings favorite Vikunja, a young Swedish rock/pop band signed to BMG Chrysalis in Sweden are generating some good buzz and attention. They just completed recordings with producer Mats Valentin (Kelly Clarkson, Carpark North) and ... more info

DrownedInSound — The makers of one of DiS' favourite albums of 2011, re-invent a classic... Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com more info

Guardian Music — A Vancounver-based blogger writes about 'a life in love with music'Who are you and what's your blog called?I'm Mikala Taylor and my site's called BackstageRider.Where are you based?Vancouver, Canada but I have a lot of readers in the US and the UK.De... more info

NME - Radar — By The Sea are getting a fair bit of heat at the moment, and rightly so. The Wirral band have a handful of tracks online, and as I alluded to in the magazine this week, they make me think of Mick Head if he was fronting Voyager 1 era Verve. Possibly.... more info

Guardian Music — The readers' panel takes on Spiritualized's best-loved albumFollowing an exhaustive and entirely non-scientific poll via Twitter and on our Facebook page, this week's readers' panel will be on just one album – Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating I... more info

Guardian Music — Ron Gibbs is a nostalgic futurist who makes ambient dub in the style of the Orb or Aphex TwinHometown: Michigan.The lineup: Ron Gibbs (music, production).The background: There are probably better genres of music to enjoy right now than ambient dub as... more info

Pop Justice — In America, One Direction’s 'What Makes You Beautiful' has entered the Hot 100 at Number 28, the highest placed British debut since The Verve’s 'Bittersweet Symphony' in 1998. (Billboard) (http://www.billboard.com/news/one-direction-has-highest-h... more info

Guardian Music — Composer and arranger of 60s French pop hits, horror film scores and 'audio homages' to the Stones and the Beach BoysWhen the Verve's Bittersweet Symphony became one of pop's more famous copyright cases in the late 1990s, it was widely known that 100... more info

Guardian Music — This Bristol band are baggy meets shoegaze: shaggy, perhapsHometown: Weston-Super-Mare.The lineup: James MacLucas (vocals), John Paul Beaumont (guitar), Adam Hastings (bass), Miles Hastings (drums).The background: Twenty years or so ago there was a w... more info