Sounds From The Other City, Salford’s celebration of new music, returns on Sunday 2 May – and this year it’s expanding. If you’re lucky enough to bag one of the £15 passes, you may well find yourself watching space rock in Islington Mill, a bike orchestra in The Salvation Army, ex-shoegazers in St Phil’s Church, and even poetry in the excellent ale pub The New Oxford. Here’s the one-day festival’s first daytime (3pm-11pm) announcements:

Lamb and Wolf at Islington Mill (club space)
Chrome Hoof
Bo Ningen
Divorce
Breaking Colts
Klaus Kinski

Mind On Fire vs. Wotgodforgot at The Salvation Army
Seaming
The Laze
The Legend Of The Seven Black Tentacles
Levenshulme Bicycle Orchestra

SWN vs. Hey! Manchester at St Phil’s Church
Damon & Naomi
Jesca Hoop (solo)
Y Niwl

Room Tones at Islington Mill (engine room)
The Boats
Danny Norbury
Dean McPhee

Ya Mamas Cooking at The Crescent
Liz Green
Serious Sam Barrett & David Broad
Elvis In Disguise
Zacc Rogers
‘Rockabilly Bingo’

Paradox at The New Oxford
Neil Bell
Mike Garry
Neil Campbell
Chris Killen

Bring On The Dancing Horses at The Old Pint Pot (upstairs)
Egyptian Hip Hop
Wu Lyf

Postcards From Manchester at The Old Pint Pot (downstairs)
The Rural Alberta Advantage
Islet
Help Stamp Out Loneliness

Comfortable On A Tightrope at The Angel Centre
Talk Normal
Pheremoans
Levert
Way Through
Sex Hands
Dinner Party
Waiters

And rather than just an over-crowded Islington Mill, SFTOC will be offering three different options by night:

The Old Pint Pot
Upstairs – Bring On The Dancing Horse vs. Now Wave
Downstairs – Under Achievers Please Try Harder vs. Pull Yourself Together

The Kings Arms
Upstairs – Mind On Fire, Herbal Sessions, This City Is Ours & Drum Music
Downstairs – Naive Melody vs. Stop Making Sense

The Black Lion
Upstairs – Contort Yourself residents party
Downstairs – Bollox vs. Bad Dancer

There’s also a Mount Pleasant Exhibition at the Gallery Space in Islington Mill, plus a ‘Box Office’ artist project to be announced. To stay up to date, join the Facebook group and follow SFTOC on Twitter. Tickets are available from Piccadilly Records, Islington Mill and Quaytickets.com.

The Kraak Gallery, the Northern Quarter’s short-lived but widely approved-of underground music venue, is hosting a photography exhibition next month, featuring photographs of people like Will Oldham:

Steve Gullick has photographed for NME and Melody Maker as well as his own publications Careless Talk Costs Lives and Loose Lips Sink Ships – and has impeccable taste, with Nirvana, Bjork, Beck, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Neil Young and Nick Cave among the familiar names that will feature.

The Photography of Steve Gullick runs from 12-27 March at the Kraak Gallery (11 Stevenson Square, behind Hula Bar). It’s open Tuesday to Sunday, 11am-6pm. What’s more, Steve’s band The Tenebrous Liar play the opening party at the Bay Horse on 11 March (£2, 8pm), and he’ll be giving a guided tour of the exhibition at 3pm on the final day – email him directly to book a place.

Everyone’s favourite baritone-voiced Yorkshire funnyman, Richard Hawley, is doing an in-store set at Piccadilly Records on Oldham Street tomorrow. To get a ticket – of which there are only a few remaining – you need to go in and buy a copy of his new album, Truelove’s Gutter. He’ll sign it after his performance, from 4pm tomorrow.

And Piccadilly Records’ weekly newsletter also flags up an appeal that may be of interest to Manchester music history fans:

Manchester District Music Archive is currently seeking information, photos and artifacts relating to gay clubs and bars in Greater Manchester from the 1940s to the present day. They are planning a large-scale event in February 2010, hosted by writer Jon Savage, which will celebrate the history of gay music culture in Greater Manchester. This will be followed by an in-depth virtual exhibition on their website MDMArchive, so they need photos, flyers, tickets, posters, fanzines, membership cards – that kind of thing.

They are also looking to interview any regular attendees of gay clubs and bars over the years (across the whole of Greater Manchester), or anyone who has been a member of a musical group, such as a choir or band that had an LGBT focus.

If you can contribute, get in touch by emailing info@mdmarchive.co.uk.

We like local folkies Tim and Sam’s Tim and the Sam Band with Tim and Sam, despite their silly name. In fact, they don’t know it yet but we’re going to ask them to support Múm for us on 16 August. But before then, they’ve pulled together a great-looking bill at the Deaf Institute tonight:

One of the most exciting line-ups of Manchester artists in a long while. Celebrating the launch of Tim and the Sam Band’s single launch on Static Caravan, a very cool band… and a very cool label.

Opening the night is the jaw-dropping talent of Denis Jones, then there’s Liz Green, Humble Soul veteran and writer for some of the loveliest folk songs to come out of Manchester.

Spokes are the main support and having been working on material for their debut long player on Counter Records they promise to show what an exciting prospect they are too.

Doors open at 7pm, with Denis on at 8pm. It’s £7 in and there’s promise of a raffle, cakes and a DJ set by Pull Yourself Together.

While we’re busy trying to win tickets for Kraftwerk/Steve Reich next month and booking shows of our own, we thought we’d publish a list of upcoming gigs for the months ahead:

June
11 – Jonquil, Ish Marquez @ Kro Bar
18 – Acoustic Ladyland @ Mint Lounge
19 – The Wave Pictures @ The Deaf Institute
21 – The Thermals @ Ruby Lounge
22 – A Hawk and a Hacksaw @ Ruby Lounge
29 – M Ward @ Club Academy
29 – Deerhoof @ The Deaf Institute

July
2 – Kraftwerk and Steve Reich @ Manchester Velodrome
2 – Svarte Greiner @ Sacred Trinity
3 – Anthony & The Johnsons @ The Opera House
10 – Prima Donna @ The Palace Theatre
13 – St Vincent @ Night & Day
14 – Fever Ray @ Academy 2
15 – Prefuse 73 @ Ruby Lounge
18 – Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson @ The Palace Theatre
20 – Mark Kozelek @ St Philip’s Church, Salford
30 – Arbouretum @ Night & Day

August
3 – Final Fantasy @ RNCM
18 – Gang Gang Dance @ The Deaf Institute
24 – Bill Callahan @ The Deaf Institute

September
4 – Okkervil River @ Club Academy
14 – Sunset Rubdown @ The Deaf Institute

We don’t want you to meet something amazing, after all! For more information, just google. And if there’s anything good we’ve missed off (we’re sure there will be), please leave a comment.