For those of you that have never been to one of Sexbeat’s nights… where have you been?!! Lynchpins of Shoreditch nightlife for the last few years, they’ve now compiled some of the bands that have played or been played into one beautifully hand-crafted CD.

Their music policy has always been eclectic – their name sums it up well: a Gun Club track that was covered by Andrew Weatherall’s ‘Two Lone Swordsmen’ – and tends to take in anything (punk/rap/hardcore/psychobilly/metal/industrial) with a dark-edge and a bit of a kick to it.

More after the jump…

If your partner is as awesome as you, they’ll probably appreciate being taken out and treated to four great bands on Valentine’s Day, rather than Pizza Hut (again). Fanfarlo are holding a fundraiser for their SXSW trip and the treats in store for you include Graffiti Island, Male Bonding, Throwing Up + numerous Valentine’s-related jollies. It’s at The Lexington, Sat 14th Feb, and you don’t HAVE to be romantically involved to attend. But who knows? Try playing the current object of your affections these videos and float the idea – you can trust us…

I’ve just stumbled upon Art For Spastics, a blog that contains tons of music that seems right up our street.

I’m now trawling through their podcasts and my favourite so far is the AFS v .194 ~ Weirdpunk Smorgi. It features Little Claw, Graffiti Island, Vivian Girls, Black Pus, AIDS Wolf and loads of others. Full tracklisting and link below.

3 fantastic new bands put out 2 tracks each on cassette, with 3 different covers, 1 from each band.

Hear their stuff in digital form here:-

PENS
Male Bonding
Graffiti Island

Then pre-order the cassette from www.graffitiisland.bigcartel.com

Half-American, half-English, Graffiti Island make a lo-fi noise that obsesses over cannibalism, possessed cats and erm, waistcoats (to be fair, waistcoats made of human flash and wolf skin).

Here’s Wolf Skin:- Via NOTGL
And here’s Mountain Man:- Via Waves at Night

Head Hunters is the best though – you can hear it at Graffiti Island’s Myspace. Here.