All Tomorrow’s Parties has announced the first bands to play this year's Nightmare Before Xmas festival, which is to take place at Pontins, Camber Sands, the weekend of November 30th to 2nd December. Alongside a second weekend in December curated by the National, it will see ATP return to its much-loved original home in East Sussex.

The event, already two thirds sold out, is being curated by reliably great minimalist rock trio Shellac Of North America (fronted by record engineering whizz Steve Albini), to celebrate their 20th anniversary as a band. Today’s announcement has revealed the first 13 bands to grace the 35 band bill.

10 years after taking to the stage at ATP Camber Sands, London art punks Wire will be making a return to the festival. Also appearing high up on the bill are Boston, MA’s Mission Of Burma who will no doubt be playing a mix of material from their new fifth studio album Unsound as well as older songs.

Another highlight is sure to be an appearance from The Ex, who will be playing with Brass Unbound, a mighty quadruple-header of brass and wind musicians including The Thing's Mats Gustafsson. Appropriately named after a documentary about musicians in former colonial countries who re-appropriated military brass instruments, we were fans of their collaborative force when they teamed up for a UK tour back in 2010 - you can read our interview with The Ex's Andy Moor where he discusses the collaboration here.

The full list of bands announced so far is as follows:

SHELLAC OF NORTH AMERICA
WIRE
MISSION OF BURMA
THE EX + BRASS UNBOUND (Mats Gustafsson/Ken Vandermark/Roy Paci/Wolter Wierbos)
SHANNON WRIGHT
ARCWELDER
SCRAWL
RED FANG
ALIX
BEAR CLAW
THE MEMBRANES
HELEN MONEY
DEAD RIDER

Tickets for ATP's Nightmare Before Xmas can be bought at ATP's website.