Bido Lito!

Final Sound City line-ups revealed

The clock is ticking now for the start of this year's Liverpool Sound City festival, and the mouth watering has got to a level that we've taken to wearing a bib round the office. If you've got your wristband already, you'll probably be as excited as we are; if you haven't got one, you'll be scrabbling to get hold of one once you've read through this latest swathe of announcements.

POND are probably not a band you're overly familiar with, unless of course you're a psych head who lives in the fug-filled haze of 60s blues. This Aussie three-piece, comprising occasional members of Tame Impala (including producer Kevin Parker), have just released one of the albums of the year in Beard Wives Denim, and its sleazy turbulence of rock riffery is sure to bring a scintillating live finale to Friday night's antics at The Kazimier. Do not miss this, and also make sure you catch D/R/U/G/S (pictured) on the Saturday (18th May). The electro outfit is the moniker of Callum Wright, who has wowed recent Chibuku crowds with his Orbital-indebted sonic wizadry. If that's not your bag then maybe you might fancy puckering up with indie-pop-crossover Mancunians SWISS LIPS, very much in the mould of MGMT.

With a sliver of a tropical-sounding Talking Heads about them, THEME PARK will most certainly get some heads talking at this year's festival when they take to the stage on Saturday night. A blog buzz band with a penchant for some hooksome lyrics Theme Park are a band to discover now before the mainstream swallows them. Moshi Moshi signees CLOCK OPERA are another band whose online goodwill has seen them move beyond pail of up-and-coming youngsters to establish themselves as bona fide electro-indie gems. Those who saw producer Guy Connelly's band in support to Tom Vek at The Masque in November will attest to this, as will those who've heard the delicately balanced beeps and synths on debut album Ways To Forget. That's on a packed Saturday of gigging, and Thursday night sees London dance-pop duo CHEW LIPS (main image) take to the stage, which will be dominated by the band's whirlwind frontwoman Tigs. It's been two years since mesmerising debut album Unicorn won the hearts of the dancefloor indie kids, so the time is ripe for Chew Lips' new album (expected later this year). Our breath is baited.

A four-piece from Royal Leamington Spa, POST WAR YEARS are going to be treating your ears on Friday night, but we're yet to know when American songstress ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER will take to the stage. One half of The Fiery Furnaces (with brother Matthew) and a former squeeze of Franz's Alex Kapranos, Ms Friedberger released her debut solo album Last Summer, err, last summer, and a fine summer's day will be the best setting to catch this lady in. FOSSIL COLLECTIVE (comprising former members of Leeds' Vib Gyor) will be holding court on the Thursday night with their quitissentially English folk sensibilities, while NME darlings PEACE follow up their recent Mystery Jets tour with an appearance here. WET NUNS rocked the Shipping Forecast on their appearance in March and we expect nothing less from them at this year's festival.

Wet Nuns - Heavens Below from Darren Topliss on Vimeo.

The local contingent is always just as important a part of any festival line-up, and this latest batch of line-up announcements has confirmed that our homegrown luminaries TEA STREET BAND, DAN CROLL, DEATH AT SEA, SUN DRUMS, MISS STYLIE, OXYGEN THIEVES, THE LOUD, BIRD and THE KAZIMIER KRUNK BAND will all be present this year, among a slew of other great local acts. 

All these latest acts will join WHITE DENIM, DEATH IN VEGAS, THE WEDDING PRESENT, PROFESSOR GREEN, THE TEMPER TRAP, TOY, SLOW CLUB, DJANGO DJANGO, MYSTERY JETS, FOREST SWORDS, Δ (ALT-J) and STEALING SHEEP among many, many more acts to make Liverpool Sound City's fifth birthday celebrations go with a bang. More details for the full and complete line-ups can be found over at liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk.

**BUY YOUR SOUND CITY WRISTBANDS HERE AT bidolito.co.uk AND GET A FREE THREE-MONTH SUBSCRIPTION TO THE MAGAZINE!**

Special Events

The SCREENADELICA Exhibition, formulated by the city's foremost graphic designer Horse, returns this year for its third outing at Sound City, after taking it out on the road to Bestival and Orlando Calling in recent years. Celebrating the intricate art of screen-printed gig posters Screenadelica plays host to both UK and international artists, and showcases a wide variety of styles and interpretations from artists ranging from the well-known to the newcomer. Sean Mort, Toby Whitebread, Petting Zoo, Army Of Cats, Handcooked Posters, Justin Santora (USA), Adam Pobiak (USA/UK) and Mara Piccione (NL) are all slated to be showcasing some work, and the exhibition space will play host to a series of fantastic live shows from some very special performers.

Kicking + Screening Film Festival is the world's premier cultural festival devoted to football: founded in 2009, K+S brings together football fans and film enthusiasts to celebrate the beautiful game and provides a forum for filmmakers, artists, and writers to showcase their work. This year Kicking + Screening comes to Liverpool's Static Gallery as part of the Sound City celebrations, with past K+S festivals having attracted thousands of visitors from across the globe and has introduced audiences to some of the most ground-breaking films in this genre, including The Damned United, Les Yeux dans les Bleus, Once in a Lifetime, and In the Hands of the Gods. Festival organisers have snared some great exclusives for K+S' Liverpool leg, more news of which will follow on bidolito.co.uk in the next few weeks.

This year's conferencing programme is also well underway to being finalised and will be announced fully in the forthcoming issue of Bido Lito!, along with news of the UK Student Music Awards and the inaugural Sound City EXPO.

Liverpool Sound City 2012 runs for three days from 17th-19th May. Tickets for this year's festival are available now through bidolito.co.uk. Three-day wristbands (£45) can be purchased HERE, with day wristbands for Thursday, Friday and Saturday also on sale, priced at £25.

Delegate passes (granting access to all the conferencing programme) and 14+ wristbands can be purchased from liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk.