News on a new festival: Out To Graze is a collaboration between Simple and Slide, Bassmentality and Skylarkin’ Soundsystem run over Friday 13 and Saturday 14 June at Rookery Farm, Shabbington Bucks, and features a mixture of live bands and DJs. On the bill are established Oxford acts including punk-popsters Baby Gravy, indie big-hitters International Jetsetters and Tunisian reggae outfit Raggasaurus. Tickets are £30 and available from Ryouki, St Ebbes and Baby Simple on the Cowley Road. Alternatively, tickets can be purchased from wegottickets.com. Proceeds go to the Oxford Wheels project, which aims to bring a new skate park to Oxford.

The next OxfordBands.com live show is a special one, as we’re raising money for Oxfam’s Oxjam music festival. Headlining are The Half Rabbits, who appeared on MTV as a result of the video from their last OxfordBands Oxjam gig in October, and are back to support the cause again. In support, we’re pleased to bring Norwich’s finest shoegaze pop outfit Sennen back to town to promote their excellent second album. We’ve also got Sunnyvale Noise Sub-element and Cogwheel Dogs to complete a fine lineup. Tickets are on sale now here. The show is on Friday 25 April at The Wheatsheaf.

You can now see The Half Rabbits’ recent MTV short film by clicking here. The band recently made it through to the semi-finals of MTV’s Get Seen Get Heard competition, which is run alongside Oxfam’s Oxjam - we’ll be following the band’s progress further in the competition here on the site.

The Audioscope charity festival last November raised a total of £1,200 for national homelessness and bad housing charity Shelter, taking the total raised to well over £16,000. Last year’s show was headlined by Kraftwerk and Neu! legend Michael Rother (pictured), and previous Audioscope shows have brought performances from Four Tet, Explosions in the Sky, Damo Suzuki, Clinic, Luke Vibert, Deerhoof, Electrelane, Oxes and many more. The organisers will be announcing plans for Audioscope08 shortly.

In 2002, Audioscope released a compilation CD featuring tracks from Cat On Form, Nøught, Pram, eeebleee, Souvaris, Fighting Red Adair, Sunnyvale Noise Sub-element, Dustball, Appliance, and Meanwhile, Back In Communist Russia… A few copies of this have been unearthed in a recent clearout, and they’re free to good homes on a first-come, first-served basis. Just email them if you’d like one - donations to Audioscope or Shelter in return are welcomed.

Worthless musical revisionist Mark Ronson is amongst the big names confirmed for this year’s Wakestock festival on 27-29 June at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock. Other stars confirmed for the summer bash are former Truck headliners The Futureheads, Pendulum, Lightspeed Champion, Ty, Groove Armada, The Streets, Hadouken and local heroes Supergrass and The Young Knives. Tickets for Wakestock, which celebrates the cult watersport of wakeboarding, cost £110 for weekend with camping, £85 for weekend without camping and £40 for a day ticket. For more information, have a look here.

Tuesday (1 April) sees the launch of new local music magazine Oxfordshire Music Scene - the magazine will be distributed throughout shops and venues across the county and will be available free. The team behind the magazine celebrate with a launch gig at the Jericho on 1 April, featuring first issue cover stars Little Fish, plus Not My Day, The Moneyshots and Baby Gravy.

Tickets for the eleventh Truck Festival go on sale this Wednesday (2 April). The tickets, priced at £60, will go on sale to local residents before they go on sale to the general public, and you can but them from any of the following outlets:

• OXFORD: The Scribbler, SS20, Music Box, Videosyncratic (Cowley & Summertown)
• ABINGDON: Mostly Books 
• DIDCOT: Baby John’s/Windjammer
• WALLINGFORD: Toby English Books
• WITNEY: Rapture
• READING: Guitar Works 
• HIGH WYCOMBE: Counter Culture
  

This year’s festival boasts a range of new stages and collaborations - the Barn Stage will be hosted by Vacuous Pop on the Saturday, with Lovvers and These New Puritans already booked, while Maps headline the Sonic Cathedral-curated Sunday Barn. Fresh Out The Box bring the dance tunes to the Barn on Saturday night, while local electro promoters Abort, Retry, Fail? host the Market Stage, with live music including Robots In Disguise. The Truck Stage has already confirmed acts including Noah and the Whale, Camera Obscura, The Television Personalities, Emmy The Great and Small Faces legend Ian Maclagan. Local acts to have been confirmed so far include Borderville, This Town Needs Guns, The Winchell Riots, Alphabet Backwards, Tristan and the Troubadours, Little Fish, Richard Walters, Morrison Steam Fayre and The Family Machine. For all the latest, stay tuned here and on the Truck website.

A new compilation featuring several Oxford artists has just been released by French label Rabeat’s Cage, run by former Alesiachair member Jeremy Moors. The album, Premiere Evasion, includes Jonquil, Sunnyvale Noise Sub-element, Hreda and Cogwheel Dogs alongside several French artists, and is available for 12 euros here. The full tracklisting looks like this:

1. Jody Prewett - ‘An Ode to the Morning’
2. Eberg - ‘Antidote’
3. Jonquil - ‘Pattens’
4. Tam Rush - ‘Something to Wish’
5. Azad - ‘Je Ne Sais Pas Pour Qui Je Pleure’
6. Sarah W. Papsun - ‘Mouvement 2′
7. Cogwheel Dogs - ‘Cress’
8. Sunnyvale Noise Sub-element - ‘This Far and No Further’
9. Hreda - ‘Knowing How to Carry’
10. Neor - ‘Oneiros’

An Oxford group of the national Love Music Hate Racism campaign has just been set up to promote music events in the city with an anti-racism message and to mobilise support for the national LMHR carnival in London on 27 April. The group are looking for local musicians to get involved with their work, and are holding two fundraising shows at The Ex on 11 and 25 April to run subsidised coaches to the national event. To find out more and get involved, visit the Oxford LMHR website.

The famous Oxford Punt lineup has been announced. The event runs on Wednesday 14th May, showcasing the most promising new groups in Oxfordshire. The finalised lineup is as follows.

Borders:
6.15 Faceometer
7pm Desmond Chancer and the Long Memories

Purple Turtle
7.45International Jetsetters
8.30 Cat Matador
9.15 Elapse-O
10pm Raggasaurus

The Wheatsheaf
8.15 Tristan & The Troubadours
9pm Non-stop Tango

9.45 Alphabet Backwards
10.30 Rubberduck

Thirst Lodge

8.30 Black Skies Burn
9.30 Little Fish
10.30 Sikorski
11.30 King Furnace

The Cellar
9pm Eduard Sounding Block
10pm David K Frampton
11pm 50ft Panda
12 midnight Clanky Robo Gobjobs

Punt passes are available for £7 from Videosyncratic on the Cowley Road or online at http://www.oxfordmusic.net/product.php?link=new&id=1777