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Deviating slightly from the trend I've started myself of sticking to largely audio links (the Yoni Wolf vid being the exception - any excuse), I really want to share this ace BBC Four show Songwriters' Circle, with this episode featuring the marvellous John Grant. Interestingly, I think this is a format that would work with only slight tweaking for radio too, but it is pretty impressive to see these three great (and completely different artists) on stage together at Bush Hall. I'm enjoying this show so much that I barely even mind iPlayer stuttering and buffering approximately every 30 seconds on my parents' countryside special internet connection...

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I've really got into spoken word recently, and Spark London has rapidly become one of my favourite podcasts.

It's a spoken word night where people are invited to get up and tell their stories on a theme, and they're recorded, with each story being released as a separate podcast. I believe (though I could be wrong) that it was inspired by the legendary New York-based Moth podcast, and there's something really compelling about it and it makes great audio. This episode, a girl's traumatic tale of her first trip to Creamfields festival had me in stitches; it's not scripted, so it relies on the pressure on each person wanting to tell their story well. But it's the spontaneity, and the informal and highly personal nature of each anecdote that makes it so fun to listen to. I haven't yet made it down to the night itself but hope to do so in future, and maybe recount one of my (myriad) bad date stories...

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My favourite Anticon boyo Yoni Wolf, of Why? fame, has bust his hands and the band have had to pull out of loads of US tour dates. They're due to play three super special intimate acoustic shows here in the UK in October...fingers crossed (groan) and get well soon, Yoni.

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I'm a big fan of Jon Hillcock's New Noise podcast, and a pretty big fan of Peggy Sue too, so I was pretty delighted with the news that the latest NN is a PS special. One of the reasons I like Jon's interviewing style so much is that he comes across as a genuinely devoted fan of the bands he features; either he's very good at swotting up the night before or he only includes bands he really loves.

I first heard of Peggy Sue (and the Pirates, at the time) when I was in Berlin, and a girl who I was interning at Vice with spent the six hours we were manning a photo exhibition together singing Superman. I saw them support First Aid Kit at Wichita's 10th Birthday shows last year and was just completely blown away by both Katy and Rosa's voices. 

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This won't be the last time I mention the Hackney Podcast on here. I don't want to get all superlative, but I'm a fan of imaginative and innovative radio, and the HP is informative, enlightening and entertaining. With each episode, I'm enthralled by producer Francesca Panetta's ideas and methods to create and capture specific atmospheres. But I'll only mention it briefly, and segue seamlessly into something I heard on Edition 7 of the podcast, which covers furniture design in the borough. The marvellous Michael Rosen reads his poem Regeneration Blues; again, I can't locate a separate recording of the piece (someone needs to address this lack of an online audio/video library for performance poetry) but you should listen to the podcast as a a whole anyway. It pops up at 14:58. To think I only I knew this man for 'We're Going On A Bear Hunt.'

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On iPlayer for the next week or so. So the stats go, the number of school kids taking languages at GCSE has fallen from 78% to 43% in the last ten years. This is undoubtedly partly due to the insane decision to stop compulsory language teaching post Key Stage 3 a few years ago; a move which is now, thankfully, up for discussion to be reversed. With the ridiculous new university fees, students are also likely to be put off a four year course (27 grand grand of debt seems vastly preferable to 36), especially where a full year's fees must be paid to the home institution during the Year Abroad, when you're not actually receiving any teaching. A great and profoundly saddening programme about the decline in language skills in this country, at both school and university level.

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I have recently discovered the joys of performance poetry and spoken word, and with it the delight of innumerable podcasts. I also went to my first Book Slam last week, which led me to discover this gem on their podcast. I have tried in vain to find a separate recording of this poem, but alas, I cannot even find out its name. Such is the elusive nature of the performance poet. I can tell you that it is by Shane Solanki, it is about phones, and it is brilliant. Skip to 33:00 minutes if you don't want to hear the rest, but I do warn you that that would be foolish.