Worst Band Names Ever, Wanky Guitar Work, and…Beards in Singled Out!

Graham Coxon, you remember him, Mr Lo-Fi, well he’s back with a double A-Side taken from one of his more "accessible" albums, 'Happiness In Magazines'. And knock me down with a feather, ‘All Over Me’ has got strings on it too, a song which unlike most of his sometimes own abstract back catalogue, does on this occasion bear resemblance to his work with Blur. The melody almost floats along in Beatles-esque manner, by all means this is not a classic, but on the flipside there is! ‘Freakin’ Out’ is pure punk-rock, think along the lines of The Skids and you’re not far off. Coxon’s guitar frenetically moves this song into an indie disco near you.

Another group changing there sound (a tad!) are those little bearded men from redneck America, Kings of Leon. No, unfortunately they haven’t evolved into a freeform electronica jazz funk fusion collective, but ‘The Bucket’ does adopt a rather more joyous upbeat sound akin to en vogue New York darlings, rather than the countrified indie rock that has previously espoused itself from these youngsters. The guitar solo basically is The Strokes, it must be all this Kings of Leon-supermodel hobnobbing; their influences are rubbing off on the Kings no doubt. Nevertheless, it’s a heartening tune.

Quite distinct from everything so far, and perhaps anything ever, come Death From Above 1979 and ‘Romantic Rights’. Two men, two beards, one drum kit, one bass, synth here and there = a dirty, dirty, monstrous sound! You won’t believe it unless you see it; this sound comes from two men and two men only. The bass chugs away like the almightiest of electric guitars, whilst the drummer, tight to perfection, sings (that’s where The Eagles comparisons end), “I don’t need you...want you”, by the end of this beast you’ll certainly be wanting a bit more.

From raucous Canadians to mild mannered Englishman; Martin Grech returns. After the relative success, with thanks to a certain car advert, of the hauntingly beautiful single ‘Open Heart Zoo’ (from the album of the same name), comes some downloadable fun courtesy of the Martin-meister to fill the void till the release date of (to use PR terminology) his “eagerly anticipated” second album. Supposedly the four downloadable tracks neither reflect what is to come on the new album or what he has done in the past; middle of the road then? You betcha! This is acoustic fodder to the tee, ‘Mighty Hands’ shows off Grech’s dainty, fragile voice, but it’s nothing Jeff Buckley hadn’t done a million times better before his untimely death. Hopefully this is the filler before the storm of the second album because this is just tame, very simplistic and sombre.

“A pounding electric soup of big rock party music”, no, it’s ok, the self-mutilating monster Andrew WK isn’t back, it’s contenders for worst band name ever, SchwaB with their single ‘No Balls’. Now, for me the notion of “no balls” within the field of music implies the equivalent of masturbation on a guitar, you know, a wanky guitar solo that is actually, erm…wank- this is “no balls”. So thanks SchwaB, you’ve described your music perfectly in a song title, chugging eighties hair metal guitars complete with ‘out there’ electronic noises…I swear at one point the song was turning into ‘Crazy Horses’.

Now this is guitar fun, Do Me Bad Things, ‘Time For Deliverance’ is…AWESOME. It may take you a while to forgive them for singing about “wanting to be free”, but the sheer sound of six mixed gender vocalists singing tunefully and (this is where Do Me Bad Things gratefully differ from other bands) soulfully over crunchin’ guitar work is overawing. The evocative sound of Scandinavian rock like Turbonegro and The Hellacopters complete with powerful soothing voices is a delight. They’re on tour now, surely a sight not to be missed. Kick ass-soul-rock, it’s gotta be the new buzz genre!

Hello, SchwaB, are you still reading? Somebody else has just stolen your crown for worst band name ever, enter Kinky. Not only have they got the worst band name ever, but they’ve also gone and rehashed a Santana song, eugh! ‘Oye Como Va’ (available on download only) is inoffensive Latin funk fun. You’ll doubtlessly recognise the tune; it’s been used in enough bad films already, now it’s in another, Man On Fire. Instead of Santana’s guitar ‘friggery’ you get a bongo organ fusion that’ll be the perfect accompaniment to passive listening.  

Ignore the artwork, this is not those lovely Swedes The Concretes, it’s Manchester-Texas amalgamated foursome, The Earlies. Amazingly, they don’t sound anything like a ‘New Cross’ buzz band despite the ‘The’ prefix. ‘Morning Wonder’ is ‘boards and beats creating a landscape of electronic wonderment with the human touch; redolent of Lemon Jelly. The harmonies are euphoric, the music layered, effects phased – Polyphonic Spree minus a few thousand members plus a dash of electronic pleasantries.

Sorry, I’m sure this CD came from an Agent Blue case, you know, the supposed Stoke-On-Trent reincarnation of punk itself, turns out it’s The Music…oh it is Agent Blue you say! Following the promising ‘Sex, Drugs and Rocks Through Your Window’ is ‘Crossbreed’, rather disappointingly sounding like the afore-mentioned Music by numbers, it’s baggy (get this…) crossbred (…see what I did there) with eighties indie. A lot of attitude, like Kasabian, but like Kasabian, any originality!? Nope.

We’ve got a little gem to finish with, Faultline featuring The Flaming Lips with ‘The Colossal Grey Sunshine (Remix)’. Yep, everyone’s favourite (alleged, always alleged) ex-junkies team up with electronica man David Kosten. ‘The Colossal Grey Sunshine’ is beautiful. Slow spacey synths and drum machines gorgeously float on by, add to this Wayne Coyne’s tender voice and you’ve got a wistful work of electronica that could easily find its way on to a Lips album. Definitely worth investing in.