Glad you enjoyed us (EoE), l_a_d, and your bigging up (!) is much appreciated. We really, really, really enjoyed ourselves on Monday night: it was one of the best crowds we've played to, one of the best gigs we've played and it was with some of the best bands we've played with.

I'd second those mentioning YMSS: they're fantastic. To try and impose a genre on them is a truly futile exercise, they really do defy anything approaching a convention. But there are definitely post-rock bits in there.

It's interesting that you should say that we're keeping post-rock alive. It's something I've been thinking about for quite a while now. Personally, I think the first three Godspeed releases are as good as any music can get. Post-rock will never again achieve those heights. So, in a way, it would make sense to abandon post-rock and move on: it can't develop any further.

But seeing as I think GYBE are about as good as ANY music can get (and I can't imagine ever liking anything quite as much as I like their first three releases), the logical extension of that argument is to say that ALL music is futile. And that's just crap.

So we fumble around, trying to make the best music we can. We don't limit ourselves to being post-rock and generally try and avoid using the term. Our influences include a lot of 'post-rock' bands, but we've got a track that sounds like Spacemen 3 gone metal (to these ears, anyway) and an awful lot of our influences (direct and indirect) are not post-rock.

I'm rather pleased you thought we were punky. Largely through accident rather than design, most of our stuff is pretty confrontational, and I reckon we're more immediate and abrasive than most 'post-rock' bands.

What did you think of the other bands, btw? Because I'd argue that both Akira and Twentysixfeet take post-rock influences and do something new and vital with them.

Akira sounded awesome. They've got a very definite sound, and yet they mix just about every alternative genre of the last ten years. They're like a giant mix of Fugazi, My Bloody Valentine, Six.By Seven, Sofa, Godspeed, Nirvana, Lift To Experience & Joy Division. They were mightily angry (their singers were incredible examples of how to convey anger through vocals) and some of the guitar/bass playing (tremelo picking on a bass!) was awe-inspiring.

Twentysixfeet really blew me away too. In fact, having seen them, I've come to the conclusion that Radiohead can fuck right off. I can't quite decide whether to describe 26 as "The Cure gone glitch" or "65daysofstatic with vocals", although neither of those does them justice. They mix Warp-y electronics, abrasive guitars and incredible melodies. They're probably the best currently unsigned band I've ever seen live.

Redjetson are another band who I'd argue take post-rock influences, fuse them with non-post-rock influences and make very very relevant and very very good music. They're playing the next Don't Piss On The Fish night.

In fact, fuck all this talk of post-rock being dead. The following bands are all active at the moment, post-rocky and very very good...

Red Sparrowes
Silver Mt.Zion
Explosions In The Sky
Fly Pan Am

and loads more.