If I think back to my favourite memories of being a music journalist, most of them involve the Cribs. They were one of the few bands who let writers travel with them in their rickety van, for a start (these days, most bands banish the press to a car following the tourbus around the country!). And because of that, I got to watch them invite fans onto their tourbus for mass singalongs, cover girl-group songs whilst smashing glass around the stage, and basically make sure every gig was an unpredictable, wild-eyed event. I messed my back up crowd surfing at a Cribs gig (yeah, give it a rest grandad, etc) and even met my girlfriend (soon to be wife) whilst out DJ-ing in Leeds with the band.
For all these reasons and more, it's great to have the band guest-editing the music site this week. It was also fun to witness the shocked reaction in the Guardian office when new member Johnny Marr came in to discuss ideas in our editorial meeting.
For a band who used to be so disorganised they only took one T-shirt on tour with them, I was pretty surprised how much work they managed to do. Johnny interviewed Geoff Travis, his old label boss from back when he was a Smith, to discuss the meaning of independent labels. Ryan asked his girlfriend Kate Nash to write some poetry for us. And there's a moving extract from Grace Maxwell's book about nursing her husband, Edwyn Collins, back to health after his stroke (shortly before he was struck down, Edwyn produced my favourite Cribs album, the New Fellas). Elsewhere, there are brilliant pieces by fanzine writer Karren Ablaze! and riot grrrl enthusiast Everett True, not to mention video interviews, arty galleries and the chance to hear the band's new album.
You know, if Ross promised to open our post each morning and Johnny Marr made the tea, we might invite them back permanently.
Five things we learnt this week …
Why Jay Leno is "awkfectionate"
Our blogger Everett True lived with members of Huggy Bear
Why Johnny Marr has a future as a body-piercer
Drummer have solo projects too, you know
More people want to read about Kanye West's rants than, er, pretty much anything else on the music site, ever
Album previews
We've been working with We7 a lot recently to bring you exclusive album previews, and this week saw some crackers. A few days back we premiered Muse's The Resistance, the merits of which prompted much debate in the comments section. This week, Richard Hawley's gorgeous Truelove's Gutter was streamed exclusively for your delectation – do let us know what you think.
Music Weekly podcast
This week's musical podcast (we've won awards, have we ever told you that?) sees dance duo Basement Jaxx telling Alex Needham about working with Yoko Ono, whilst Rosie Swash chats to indie popsters Hockey. But let's face it, you're all really just waiting for Feature with No Name, aren't you? So allow Paul Lester to guide you around the fuzz-pop corridors of the Radio Dept.
And remember to follow Guardian Music on Twitter!
