SINGLE OF THE WEEK 

KILL THE CAPTAINS – Rummy (Armellodie) – Sheffield’s Kill The Captains back with a new three track collection of slightly scratchy slices of that double jointed pop of theirs. Scratchy English new wave flavoured wrong pop with a more than healthy skip in that slightly off-line step of theirs. Think something near Les Savy Fav, a not so lush and far more scratchy XTC, that if Pavement were from and English town sound of bands like Herzoga... that smell of gin so you let him win.  B-side Reverse Psychiatry is the stand out song of three here with that shimmering two-note repetition that slowly builds up to some kind of frantic battle of ascending chord patterns and swooping vultures and.... Third track Supermarket Sweep is a “stripped-down yarn”, a “feel good ditty” about a security guard being trampled to death on the first morning of a Wallmart Black Friday shop sale...  Three rather different songs that both stand on their own and work so well together as a collective whole - maybe Supermarket Sweep is the standout track? Then again Rummy is rather good... www.myspace.com/killthecaptains or www.myspace.com/armellodie

Also worth your ears this week..

GET WELL SOON – Angry Young Man (City Slang) – Gorgeously simple, cleverly arranged, slightly orchestral, tingly bright – one of those put it on repeat and play it again singles. Poetic goodness, classical depth, you will know, you tried to hide... Single from the new Get Well Soon album Vexations, the project of classically trained singer and multi-instrumentalist Konstantin Gropper. When Gropper isn’t making gloriously good pop he’s busy composing film scores, the latest being for Wim Wenders. There’s a depth to this, a gorgeously uplifting depth, beautiful details, every note matters, every word has a purpose, just a beautiful piece of timelessly good pop, rich and alive... www.cityslang.com or www.myspace.com/youwillgetwellsoon 

THE BROTHERS MOVEMENT – Blind / Sister (Rocket Girl) - Another excellent moment from The Brothers Movement, they have an Echo And The Bunnymen feel, a voice almost as rich as Ian McCulloch (that is to be taken as high compliment). The creamy controlled side of The Jesus And Mary Chain, that full-bodied 80’s feel. Two rather accomplished songs from the rather impressively classy Dublin band. Most bands would have held these two songs as singles in their own right rather then being confident enough in the rest of their material to hand them both over as a very impressive double a-side. Significant band emerging here – www.myspace.com/thebrothersmovement

DANNY FONTAINE AND THE HORNS OF FURY – No More Girlfriends (El Bomb) – Catchy London ska pop and another one of those big ensembles with lots of horns, Madness moves and such. They keep on coming and they’re all throwaway fun (especially live), Imperial Leisure and such, The Horns here are as good as any of them... Catchy ska pop should you want it, bit of class to what they’re doing here, can’t say the idea of yet another horned up ska pop band excites us much but they do do their thing rather week  – www.hornsoffury.com 

DEVIL DRIVER – Another Night In London (Roadrunner) - More of their always good modern blister-metal... Blister-metal - I like that. It take people like you, to make people like me, no future for you and.... blister blister. You know, as slick modern glossy corporate toe-the-party-line hot topic throwaway kill switch metal goes, the engaging Devil Driver do have an edge on most... No great substance to what they do or anything, kind of satisfying in an instant fast food kind of way  www.devildriver.com

HOLE – Skinny Little Bitch (Mercury) – A free download thing ahead of the new ‘Hole’ album. Courtney railing on some skinny little bitch and liar liar lie alone and don’t flip with me... or f**k with me or something like that. You know she kind of lost the plot, the edge and everything else sometime ago and she does spout a lot of horsepoop but this is nowhere near as bad as it could have been. Just maybe angry Courtney hasn’t lost it all after all? Does it hurt? Maybe just go slower? A lot more scathing and raw and biting that we really expected it to be. Could it be that is may just be worth bothering with Courtney still after all? Has she found the plot again? The download was free for a day, you missed it now if you weren’t paying attention on the day it was free, we did tell you... 
 

1st March, that's Viv Albertine there with her guitar..

THE IRREPRESSIBLES – In This Shirt (CoOp) –  First single from the rather rich full bodied new album Mirror Mirror. Glorious strings, richly voiced, orchestral ‘performance orchestra’, powerfully big, theatrical, playful, soaring beauty, cathartic goodness, costumed drama, orchestrated pop...  www.theirrepressibles.com

SIR YES SIR – Not Excited (Hope Club) – Gloriously frantic scratchy mess and we don’t need the press release to tell us they’re from Manchester, and this is where we should say something and and and... Urgent set of songs, scratching and twitching and wired and Northern stoicism and The Fall messing with Dinosaur Jr and raw and like it might just really matter... www.myspace.com/siryessiryessir

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE – World Sick (Download) – New Broken Social Scene, taste off the forthcoming Forgiveness Rock thing and available as a free download from the website. More of that tingling jangling North American uplifting bright and breezy indieness that they all seem to be doing right now. That slightly hopeful, slightly euphoric, almost generic sound of North American indie rock right now. That ‘dream-pop’ thing they’re all doing like they’re all one big band. I know we said all this last week and it isn’t that we don’t like this great big lump of a North American indie-rock sound, just that, we’re kind of hearing a reasonably good  slight variation on the same theme from a different set of music makers almost every day now. one great big animal collective of mercury revs and... You can download thing legal freebie taste (in exchange for your e.mail address on a mailing list) from www.brokensocialscene.ca

MAHAVIRA – Half Light (self release) – London band with a four track EP (in the most boringly uninspiring of covers). All Fretless guitars and ‘clever’ playing and some kind of alternative 90’s sounding clean cut, slightly dark, slightly moody technical alt.rock. The image of pony-tailed seriously earnest musicians with guitar equipment logos on their t-shirts and more interested in the gauge of string and the right plectrum then any kind of notions of art or danger... Oh look, technically clever alternative rock three piece, touch of Soundgarden, hint of Kings X, modern Rush. They’re playing the Dutch Fretless Guitar festival soon, the notion of such a festival sounds like a muso nightmare to me, if the thought excites you, then I guess this rather new young band are going to be for you - they certainly can play.  They talk of a fusion of hard rock and classical Indian music, can’t find any kind of hint of the classical Indian music part of their fusion on this EP - that might have made them far more exciting... Fans of technical heavy rock and tight cleaver playing will appreciate this, good luck to them, hell is other people’s opinions, they do their things well enough, crying out for a bit of soul and a touch of dirt though and do something about that boring artwork! www.mahavira.net

SERGEANT BUZFUS – Popes 4 Cops 1(Blang) – In which Sergeant Buzfuz rework their Here Come The Popes single yet again. More tales of Papacy doings and devilish corruption, they seem to have been reworking this single for a good few years now... three more slight variations on a admittedly fine theme via an addictively good tune and www.sergeantbuzfuz.com

SINGLE OF THE WEEK 

VIV ALBERTINE – Flesh EP (Ecstatic Peace) - Sounding a little like a sugar sweet slightly mystically cosmic Genesis P. Orridge via a naughty Syd Barrett, sounding all bright and breezy and kind of psychedelic in that post-punk way of things... Back to recording music after a break of some twenty-five years and I guess this really is how the now middle-aged singer of those brilliant Slits songs should sound in 2010. Wood to believe in, concrete to believe in, time not to believe in, Marc Bolan and all his curls and songs of love and very personal and almost confessional “mind-worm melodies and kinky boots”. Slightly dark but extremely cute and don’t let anyone tell you it wasn’t love and... Four fine songs, four strong songs, personal songs, deliciously honest open very real songs and don’t let anyone tell you is isn’t.... Single of the week by a long long way and out right now as a limited edtion of just 500 on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic peace label -  www.vivalbertine.com

     Meanwhile outside there the first hint of Spring that is this sunny first day of March and someone is playing Jilted John very loud 
 

SINGLES SINGLES SINGLES... 22nd FEB... Single time.comes around once a week, just like line drawing, beans, cats, eels, easter eggs, daffodils and a million house wives everyday pick a tin of beans and say review the fuggin' singles and cut the crap.... best hat on, politeness is all...

Here we go...

SENNEN – Age of Denial (Hungry Audio) – Classy sounding melodic alternative indie pop single from the Norwich four piece. Their most melodically lightweight release yet, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Think breezy radio friendly Mercury Rev poppy brightness and shoe-gazing flavours. Sennen keep on coming up with these rather decent releases, never quite seem to impose any kind of identity of their own though, always vaguely sounding like lots of things and doing it all rather well without ever really imposing themselves... Another good release...but...but... will we remember it in an hour or so? www.myspace.com/sennenwidows

THE KISSAWAY TRAIL – SDP(Co-Op) - Is North American alternative indie rock morphing towards one big blob of pleasant enough sounding Mercury Rev flavoured Animal Collectiveness? Is it blanding a little as it all blends in to one big amorphous baked bean (in an admittedly rather tasty sauce) to be served up again and again by an endless stream of almost identical bands? The Kissaway Trail aren’t from North America, they’re from Odense, Denmark and they’re as good at doing this North American alternative indie dream-pop thing as anyone. SDP is an enjoyable enough single with all that dream-pop epicness and the uplifting church bells and the panoramic ambition of it all... But isn’t it all sounding a little safe, a little familiar, a little like all the other things that are a little like Mercury Rev and Animal Collective and baked beans (in an admittedly rather tasty sauce) that can be found North American space between the Mercury Collective? www.myspace.com/thekissawaytrail

PRIESTESS – Lady Killer (Tee Pee) - Does this sound like Rainbow’s Spotlight Kid, has everything already been done? Are The 17 going to put out a single? Do keep feeling the need to sing those Spotlight lyrics along to the Canadian band’s latest non-more-heavy-metal single. Nothing wrong with sounding like Rainbow, no one else does these days and this is a righteous slab of galloping old school pre-thrash proper NWOBHM flavoured heavy metal goodness and well... um... heavy metal baked beans are better than most baked beans – www.myspace.com/priestess or www.priestessband.com
In the UK this week touring with Big Elf but you knew that already right? 

Are you sensing that this week’s pile of singles isn't inspiring us much? Beanz meanz you really should be here to hear the things you really don’t want to hear, the one we hear here, the one’s not worth a bean of a mention. The pile of orange singles in thin tomato sauce that really aren’t worth a mention is much bigger than the measly few we’ve just about found enthusiasm for this week.... next... at least Airbourne are on their way, their baked beans are the very best, we know hat thwy taste like and we want more of the same.. next...

THE HEIGHTS – The Land, The Ocean, The Distance (We Are Heights) -  Well they pulled that opening track back from the brink with that epic finish... Mostly though, this is the same old razor ripping throatal screamo give that man a Locket and tell him to shut shit up with his infernal screaming! Oh, right on cue, here comes the slightly more melodic other one, same old two singer screamo beano metal one trick pony...  They’re from Welwyn Garden City, that figures, they sound like they’re from one of those places - Milton Keynes, Welwyn, Telford, all faded blandness and England gone to seed and the thing is, somewhere in this stew of vocal clichés and Killswitch Engage juvenile tantrum throwing there actually a rather decent forward looking epic metal flavoured post-hardcore outfit trying to break out.  This is not what we wanted, we’re still worlds apart...  All hope is not lost though and yes nurse, pass the pliers, there’s a damn good chance that, as flawed and clichéd as this debut EP is, there is hope for this patient and we suspect the next single The Heights release (or maybe the one after that) might just be rather good... Yes, there is a good band fighting to break out somewhere here, maybe next time around them...? www.myspace.com/weareheights

CRASHED OUT – The One And Only (self release) - Low budget cur-price Sainsbury’s own brand basic tin no thrills dent in the side punk-pop baked beans and some second hand Wildhearts North East grit. Didn’t do much for us, might interest you – www.crashed-out.co.uk

AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR – The Letters EP (Smalltown America) – From Northern Ireland with some feisty instrumental post-rock flavoured energy and an ear-catching twist or two here and there. Kind of need all this to push forward a little more now though, running on the spot a little ian’t it? They got some drive, they’re certainly not content to keep things nice and polite and they piss all over the look-at-us aren’t-we-importantness of those not-as-good-as-they’d-like-to-think-they-are bands like Mogwai or Pelican. Not satisfying enough though, sounds like a lot of bands we hear in soundchecks waiting for their singer who claims he got stuck on the tube to finally show up... Hang on, there goes a good bit, that bit sounds like heavy metal Battles, they do have flashes of real inspiration...  we’ll stay here on this fence and see what happens next... www.myspace.com/andsoiwatchyoufromafar

EASTSTRIKESWEST – Stumble (Thirty Days of Night) More extremely clean cut epicness of a highly polished rather heroic Radiohead, Mew, Muse, U2 nature... All too perfect and all in need of having some dirt rubbed in to that faR too perfectly polished face. For fans of clean-cut Muse type indie rock epicness, not for people who don’t always wash their hands after they take a piss. If ever there was a need for a bit of feedback or just a tiny bit of dirt, a hint that something might go wrong this is it, all too perfect and lacking in heart or soul and get it out of here now please, take it away before I stop being polite and tell you what I really think of this over-produced piece of... – www.myspace.com/eaststrikewestband

EELS – A Line In The Dirt (E Works)  – A delicate first single and a nice piece of gentle reflectiveness from the “critically acclaimed” new album End Times.... all very nice.... www.eelstheband.com
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AIRBOURNE – No Way But The Hard Way (Roadrunner) – Ah yes, new Airbourne, exactly the same as old Airbourne, which in turn is exactly like AC/DC were before they got old and tired and stadiumortis set in. No worries, we don’t need no old AC/DC, not when we got fresh new AC/DC! And no, we don’t want Airbourne getting all experimental or boundasry pushing or anything else, we just want them plugged in, turned up and rocking the flip out. We want to know what do they do for money honey, where do they get their kicks? Airbourne back again and once again its a long way to the top when you want to rock ‘n roll, Airbourne baked beans and the goodshit type of baked beans in the finest regulation no messing tomato sauce and there ain’t no substitute for a stack of Heinz baked Marshalls a never ending tour van ride with a can or two of beer shotgun'd right at yet ....  The Aussie rockers are right, you know they’re right! There is no way but the hard way! 2008 they were debuting at the Borderline in front of about two hundred of us beer spilling scumbags and this year they’re packing out the big fat Hammy O, climbing to the top rather quickly then, and rightly so, they do it properly – and don’t come here telling me the place is called the Apollo now either! The place is called the Odeon, the Hammy fuggin’ O! The place over which you don’t sleep ‘till you get there! The place Cliff Burton played the best gig his band metallica ever did and nearly managed to get blown off by openers Anthrax! The O is the home of Motorhead, the home of metal and the place that Airbourne are rightly headlining with their walls of Marshalls and their rivers of beer and their dirty hair and their whole lotta everything you could ever want this coming April... Single off the second album that’s out next week then - sounds just like everything off the first album and for once this is a very very good baked bean drenched thing. Airbourne are a good thing, proper rock played on ten with no messing about is a good thing - if you want blood you got more of it, dance and sing, rock ‘n roll is king and woof woof woof, bark bark bark I got a rose tattoo a fast right hand and a hard rocking band, take it to the top, never gonna stop, pass the beer, get out of the way, this is single of the week, we’re out of here, if you don’t like Airbourne this ain’t the place for you, a million house wives everyday pick up a tin of beans and say bark bark bark, get your fuggin’ jumbo jet out of my airport – www.airbournerock.com
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SINGLES SINGLES SINGLES... 15th FEB...

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

LONELADY – Intuition / Bloedel (Warp) - Sounds like one of those really good ear-catching left-field new wave flavoured pop singles you’d occasionally catch in amongst all the dross on Top Of The Pops back in the day. Sounds a bit like one of the better Comsat Angels singles (they were good, won’t have a thing said against them) or a far more stable Grace Jones messing with a healthy touch of Joy Division  (but not in that obvious way all those post-Franz boy bands think they touch on Joy Division and somehow never do). Lonelady sounds nothing like any of that really but you get the drift don’t you?  Sounds like a PiL single with Johnny handing over vocals to some kind of intriguing girl who knows as much as he does... And then there’s the b-side and I know I keep saying anything strange sounds like Liars brilliance but this really does... like she’s dragged you off in a bag to the forest or something - some kind of bizarre pagan ritual and one more time for the record, a strange disturbing lullaby that counteracts the 80’s crispness of the a-side so so well . She’s Julie Campbell, she’s rather good, and this single is excellent. Paul Morley said she was a love/hate child of those Bunnymen, he’s right (and he is one of the few music journalists that deserves real respect, always worth listening to) and this fine two track just sounds like one of those strange left field pop singles you’d find somewhere in the 80’s, one of those discoveries you’d love forevermore.. Those Liars via The Slits and strange instrumentation and a lament of quiet again and.... One of those classic singles you’ll talk about for years - like you talk about that Ex Post Facto single or the first time you really heard The Associates or got what The Fall really were or that single the Raincoats once put out, or A Certain Ratio and... She’s from Manchester, of course she is, thrilliant single...   www.myspace.com/hiholonelady
 

ALSO CHECK OUT

MARIA & THE MIRRORS – Omar (Parlour) – Now we would have reviewed this last week if Levi Stubbs hadn’t stepped in, it is rather good (but this is a thankless task and Omar coming, a hunting we will go...) and she does headpeck with those yelps and screams. Excellent single, came out last week, delicious drum patterns that sound like they’ve fallen out of the Foot Village school of hardcore tribalism, that or some Eastern island where rabid trance-like states of polyrhythmic forward movement drive on to a stage of glorious Din. Foot Village, Liars, Gang Gang Dance and as someone else pointed out a kind of deranged Yoko Ono yelping in a most magnificent way.   Well they didn’t point out she sounds deranged, that was an observation from over here where mentions of Polly Styrene and Throbbing Gristle also have to be made.  Dream crazy treats and Netto disco sounds and sorry we were late, blame the carpenter and the moon trip being cancelled and watching Omar and series one again and that wall of love stuff that was going down last week  - excellent single, glorious noise, fine band – www.myspace.com/mariamirrors or www.parlour-records.com

AVOSETTA – Of Our Lives (Burnished Salmon) - Oh gawd, go fetch that twelve gauge pump action big blue emo gun, we got yet another band who sound like they want to be that dreadful Enter Shikari lot! And they cite Finch, Thrice and Alexisonfire as influences (not the proper Finch I wager, the proper Finch made fine fine prog, the proper Finch  would not influence this poopheep of generic emo-flavoured post-hardcore conformity nonsense). Though to be reasonable and fair as we reach for the blue gun ammunition, Avosetta do do this highly polished generically-tedious post-hardcore melodic emo thing rather well. They got all that punchable screamo-emo quiet/loud double-vocal follow-the-rule-book stuff sorted and hey, if you do like this dreadful stuff then this Norwich band do it as well as anyone. All polished up and well produced and  technical playing and yes all very accomplished and get it out of here now, dreadful! 
         “Why did you review it then?” I hear your oily lawyer yell, well they do do this awfully dreadful stuff rather well and  they are a new young band trying to make their way in this big bad world and it isn't harming me and if it sounds like you’re thing then you got the link now and see, I can sometimes be nice... Enough with being nice already, gun please, throw the disc up... bang... sorted, that’ll learn him to get all screamo emo Enter Shikaty in here – www.myspace.com/avosetta

MISTERLEE – I didn’t Kill Anyone Today (Rubber Czech)  - You are what you are, you are what you are, what you are, try cutting you own hair.... Found this in a the camouflage of a reject bin and with a badge of an unfriendly white flag firmly fixed to it... Very much an unfriendly f**k shit up kind of badge... Sounding like the finest work of Misterlee so far... Take all your bastard souls and f**king egos and your badges of whatever and let the music be the thing that it really should be all about. Second single of the forthcoming album and it really needs you to cut to the chase and let the whole album flow rather than just this rather good single. Some kind of experimental wordy lo-fi anti-folk punk thing and try cutting your own hair pretty boy and a tightly tied white flag and scratchiness and tunes divine and yes indeed. Misterlee sounding better that ever, more alive than ever, a little more angry than before and take it all and howl and scratch and dance around that scratchy-thin guitar and all the fine energy... Don’t bother with the single, you need the album to get the full flow of the hardware and the slightly frantic wiredness of it all... More next week, more on air, more on line, more on land and sea and two eggs for breakfast along the pristine paths of those Dutch canals - no grudge in the here and now, wear no badge of anything, fly your giant Ajax flag. Great single, taken from his best work yet, the work of a real maverick, Misterlee comes to full bloom like he’s been threatening to for a few years now, album is what you really need though – the fine things we find in reject bins, it is about the music isn’t it? Take all your bastard souls and f**king egos and your badges of whatever and...  Recommended leap forward from Misterlee then, nice one sir, deserves better treatment, we shouldn't be finding things like this  in reject bins posted to people who don't exist should we? www.myspace.com/leeallatson

LAMB OF GOD – Grace (Roadrunner) – Lamb Of God getting all thoughtful and mellow and gentle - well for the first twenty seconds or so before it all explodes with the usual onslaught of Lamb of God kitchensink-throwing metal and cramming everything in with the riffs and the growls and all that modern metal slickness. It all whirls past in a growl of well produced noise, slick guitars and really not much grace all things considered - a whirl that whirls like some kind of extreme metal whirl that's strapped in to some kind of safety harness and all ready for the mass consumption of the parade of the Download festival-going corporate metal generation.... Decent enough but we really need our metal with a little more danger don't we? A  little more in terms of rough edges, dirty fingernails and just a hint that just maybe something might go wrong and the ride may come off the track before they take the money and we all get safely to the end and go home for tea... www.lamb-of-god.com

SWORN AMONGST – Severance (Rising) -  More metal, choppy technical metal that’s pushing cleverly towards those extreme areas of modern metal life.. A kind of Pantera-like set of metallic values that flirt with a touch of Meshuggah what with the pace-shifting foot-changing gallop of it all. Decent enough single off the young British metal band’s forthcoming third album, bodes well, have they taken a step up? We shall see... www.swornamongst.co.uk

THE LOW ANTHEM – To The Ghosts Who Write History Books (Bella Union) – Another almost perfect moment of beauty from the always beautiful Low Anthem. That Charlie Darwin single was probably single of last year and this is more of their refined wistful gliding peaceful alt.americana flavoured folk-touched beauty. Everything about The Low Anthem is just right – www.lowanthem.com or www.myspace.com/lowanthem

SINGLE OF THE WEEK 2

GALLEONS – Swans (Casket) - Stop the boat and all who sail with her, this is more like it (just ploughed through a whole stew of mostly metal things that didn’t make the grade and so don’t get to use up time and space being reviewed here), Galleons just stopped us calling a halt to this week’s single reviews. Three tracks, three slices of million-notes-per-second extreme math high-wire trapeze jumping escape plans and yes! We can indeed watch these cities burn. Galleons are from Nottingham, they’re an onslaught of tantrums and textures and light and shade, and this is about as far away from the effortless grace of swans as you could possible get (besides those couple of seconds almost two minutes in). No swans here, more like a thousand epileptic woodpeckers going off and things - jack-hammer tantrums, screaming vocals, screaming riffs, eclectic technical extreme prog-math-metal. Yappy extremes, choppy chaos and all harnessed and under some kind of gloriously positive control. This is good, twists, turns, twisted-blood inducing metal onslaughts and all kinds of earths unfolding, come grab my hand, come join with me – a bit like Dillinger once were before they sold out and compromised, yes, that good, all three tracks – www.myspace.com/galleonsuk
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UFFIE – MC’s Can Kiss (Because) – kiss my ass electro pop, something to with My Space numbers and not flipin’ with her (or some word that sounded like flipin’ that may have featured a u as second letter and a c as third), don’t ask us, electro pop? None of it as good as the rather impossible headpecker Gene Serene, wonder where she got to? Kind of like this chessy electro-crunch in a throw away kind of way, suspect we’d be really throwing it away after a couple more plays though... Next... www.myspace.com/uffie

          Last in the series of DANCE TO THE RADIO’s 4x12” series of compilation singles, played the last one on the radio last night, the mighty chunk of  Chickenhawk... The four contributors to this forth and final instalment of the D.T.T.R series features a track each from DRINK UP BUTTERCUP, MILK WHITE WHITE TEETH, SUPER EXTRA BONUS PARTY and PAUL THOMAS SAUNDERS, none of them are really doing anything much that stands out from the current alternative/indie/call-it-what-you-will crop of slight variations on a theme heard many times. Which leads us to consider The 17 and the possibility that their notion that all music has already been made could well be right... but them last night’s radio show shoots that one down don’t yer think? New EXTRA LIFE and such...  Paul Thomas Saunders is the best of the four on this Dance To The Radio collection, timeless singer/songwriter of a certain discernible quality, sounds like those people on the records your dad would buy in the 70’s and play on repeat on the eight track player in the car alongside his James Last and his Tony Christie down those Avenues And Alleyways and that Mantovani’s Music For The Motorway that everyone had... www.dancetotheradio.com

Next please
             Oh hell, one of those wet lettuce emo boy singers is what we have up next, you know the sort, whinny lyrics with a wimpy guitar sound and an annoyingly wet voice, is it any wonder she doesn’t want you? She’s probably off listening Motley Crue or something by now, you’ve driven her over the edge with your whinny songs that no one wants... 
          Next... 
    PLASTISCINES – Bitch (Because) -  “The New Wave of Teenage Rock ‘n Roll” is what the press release with this one is trying to sell us here... Clean cut, slick, over-produced sanitised radio friendly all-girl pop packaged as rebellion and what with Iggy selling insurance on yer telly and a Runaways film any moment now then why the hell not? All sounds rather safe and manufactured and at least that woman of the telly who covered Wild Horses seems to have a touch of soul. “Parisian riot grrrl rockers” and the next big thing say the press release hype, yeah sure, riot grrrl! Go tell Tribe 8 to get doing things again, the world needs them more than ever, go get Huggy Bear on the phone, where’s Pussy Face when you need ‘em. This?  Throwaway over-produced slick pop harmlessness for people who thought The Stokes were radical  – www.myspace.com/plastiscine

NAVEL – John Q Public (Louisville) – This is more like it, more from Navel, haven’t we heard this single before though? Didn’t we review this last year? Raw messy car crash of a feedback drenched single. Raw production, overheating amps, dirty grungy punky mess and maybe we heard it on a demo last year? Yeah we did, stuck in our head see, good things always do. They’re from the Swiss mountains, they’re the real deal, they sound like they give an f, they’re making music rather than selling product and yeah, so what if they sound like all those 90’s bands doing the grunge-punk thing, they’re doing it properly, it sounds like it matters to them, they sound like raw Mudhoney with a knife to your skinny throat... and thank flip for that, a single that matters at last – www.myspace.com/navelofswitzerland or www.louisville-records.de

 BACK TO THE FUTURE THE RIDE –  Back To The Future The Ride (Deathbomb Arc) - Some weird wired off in the distance microphones in a different room to the band instrumental synth driven Ace Of Spaces, or at least that’s what these ears detect through the fog and hiss of track one. Yer man Brian from Foot Village making some kind of solo electronic musical sound art or something like that, the mysterious Ace sounding track is just called ‘Intro’, second track is a resonant drone called Sitting Under The Pyramid, sounds more like sitting inside the pyramid chamber if you ask these ears (that’s a compliment) - and on we go with the rather organic drone-hum, something to do with “zero-gravity yoga jams, corporate mystercism, capitalist drones” and well, you can download it for free, keep it if you like it, throw it in your virtual bin if you don’t, I burnt mine on to a CD, made a cover, filled the rest of the space up with Crass tracks and Yes tracks and one Four Tops track I downloaded from somewhere or other, they all seem to flow well together and if I Were A Carpenter I’d be Going For The One, Punk is Dead.... here’s a download link, long live everything to do with Foot Village...  Of course there’s no point in reviewing singles once the Four Tops have kicked in and so this week’s single reviews have come to an end and everything else can wait until next week and this one is single of the week and Levi Stubbs has a voice to stop everything and just.... never mind this week’s singles, go find some Four Tops, go explore the elegant ranting beauty of Crass, remember that man is spelt big M.A.N and watch out for those headlights behind you.... More singles and sheep farming and whatever the else we might have for you right near here next week (maybe?) 
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SUPER ADVENTURE CLUB – Pick Up Sticks / SAC Attack (Armellodie) – An attention-demanding tuneful three piece get me out of this rat-race trio from Scotland. Twisting and tuning and there they go with a bit of Cardiacing in that big instrumental bit that comes in the middle of an almost twee attack of being hung up on things they need to give up and fighting like marsupials and eat your beans, brush your teeth, feed the cat, avoid zombies. We’re under attack like a dog named Sparky and lock the door, feed the cat, cancel plans, avoid zombies. They get all jazzy, ninja-jazz they say, and she has one of  those sweet no-it-wasn’t-me-I-would-never-do-that type of voices, a voice that compliments his reason so much, two fine voices bit like those Bobby McGees actually.  Ghoulish tune-wielding so they say and bad luck comes in threes, but not here, good luck comes your way here and stranger things have happened than this and attempting deconstructive thinking and this is a brilliant debut single and the more you dance around in it the more you tend to notice it. They don’t really sound like anyone, but they do sound like lots of things we like and there’s lots of sticks to pick up and every time I play it it makes me smile a little more, eat you teeth, wash your hands, avoid zombie, what a brilliant debut single, especially the second of two very fine clever songs and read the news, put on your shoes, prepare for a riot – www.myspace.com/superadventuremusic

ALSO CHECK OUT

HUMMUNE – Three Song EP (M.R.S) – Aggressive imagination and some colourfully abrasive hardcore, post-hardcore, crossover metalcore, call in what you will, who needs names and labels? (those were just vague signposts).  We’re talking Helmet, Converge, Unsane flavoured hardcore awkwardness, a touch of Killing Joke (the early days of Pulkas for those who’s minds are still able to reach back there), Hummune are an impressively raw aggressive band from the South of England, they’re already hinting at something a little extra here, something that says they’re a cut above your average English metal band. Three jagged tracks, and for once a relatively new band from the heavier side of musical life who are not content to just sound like their record collection, a band clearly ready to challenge themselves and their audience. Three strong grinding biting hardcore metal tracks with a mean do-not-mess abrasive churning nasty stomp to them. And lucky you, for it seems you can download them free of charge, with the band’s blessing, more details from www.myspace.com/hummune

TEETH OF THE SEA – Hypnoticon EP (Rocket) – Lead track of three here is a very space-rock fuelled cover of Queen’s In The Space Capsule, from the Flash Gordon sound track. Seems they covered the whole album live, in costume, playing in front of the film, seems this version went down so well it has stayed in the live set as opening track ever since. Laser-cut synth lines, space rock drumming, pn-point flights.... Elsewhere on this impressive EP the UK band are a very synth driven Hawkwind and space ships taking off in the mists of time, keyboard-driven psychedelic euphoric goodness and we took the right step years ago.... Deep space advnture, panoramic ambience and forward motion, white-light propulsion and far away in outer space a lighthouse shining star, there to guide you human race and... Until they get to the point of blast off and go all space rock heavy metal and galloping synthified Iron Maiden on us while they hyperthrust. Rather recommended – www.myspace.com/thewrongjaws or www.rocketrecordings.com

COLD WAR KIDS – Behave Your Self EP (V2) – Five songs recorded after the Loyalty to Loyalty album and now. ‘Now’ being the start of work on the Californian band’s third album. And you know what, these five songs might just be the best things they’ve ever done. No might be about it, there’s a new found easy flowing soul here and a band relaxing and being far less obvious about the way they do things, a band demanding you go back and take a fresh look... Wonder if this soulful approach is going to stretch in to that next album? Really hope so, almost gospel at times, classic sparse 60’s soul sound, that real feel that just wasn’t there before.... 
      Out in the UK on Feb 8th (Came out in the U.S last December so it seems) 

WHAT WOULD JESUS DRIVE? - Transylvania Time (Guerrilla) - Whoooo, they’ve changed their sound and style, unless, as I suspect, this is a completely different band to the What Would Jesus Drive who’ve been kicking around the South of England in recent years. This is all swizzing lo-fi atari punk rock synth energy and shouty sugary female vocals and cheap sounding slightly 60’s garage spiky punky bubblegum rock and things all gone wrong on Transylvania time and kooky horror movie Adams Family synth lines and trying to be good and always ending up bad and now the sun don’t shine... Nah, can’t be the same band...  Not bad really, sounds like a trip to Planet Alice, not the most original thing you’re going to hear. Not bad in a throwaway pop kind of way, kind of like it... www.myspace.com/whatwouldjesusdrive

ISOLATED ATOMS – Tell Me What I Want (PPS/Weekender) -  We’ve been hearing how this “hotly-tipped quartet” are “the next big thing” for the last year or so now. We get lots of press releases proclaiming the ‘hotly-tipped next big  thing”, claims like that always raise the bar of expectation, bands very rarely live up to that kind of unreasonable pressure. The bluster around this young West Midlands band really isn’t doing them any favours, they are not the new Joy Division, they are not the next coming, they are not the next New Order - even if someone has bankrolled Peter Hook on to the production team for the next single.  Hey, didn’t they say that last time? Is this the last single re-issued yet again? Out once more with new artwork, new PR team, second shot? Can’t really tell? Yes it is, got six or seven copies of it now! Had to double check they had two songs here and that the second track wasn’t a reworking of the first? The two songs sound so alike... And this hype is all so unfair, because what we actually have here is a half decent relative new band with a slick clean-cut well voiced sound and a not bad early single. Fine voice, decent tune, little bit of a one trick pony so far, not a bad trick though, they might have a chance is everyone gives them some space and stops with all this hype, stops with all this hotly-tipped next big thing nonsense and just lets them evolve in their own time and space.  Right now Isolated Atoms sound very much like The Bravery, they sound rather like Franz, they sound like quite a few Joy Division influenced indie rock things we’ve heard in recent years, they have that ‘heroic’, slightly epic, almost widescreen, synth flavoured sound that we’ve already heard a number of times since Franz broke big. Yes, a sound that does relate to New Order/Joy Division in some kind of safe sanitised way, no danger here, nothing anywhere near being on the edge like Joy Divsion were -  Isolated Atoms are not the new anything, the don’t need all this hype and these trumpet blowing next big thing press releases holding them back, What Isolated Atoms are is a half decent slick indie rock band with an enjoyably pleasant sound, a sound that, given some time and space, might just evolve and become something a little more than yet another slick Bravery Franz type band. Good luck to them, rather like it actually, not a bad little single from a half decent new band – www.myspace.com/isolatedatoms
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