E.P.: "The Most Powerful E.P. in the Universe" by Dinosaur Pile-Up

Can be heard at... www.myspace.com/dinosaurpileup

 

Likely to appeal to...
Those who long for the halcyon days when ‘cool’ meant clothes could be baggy and hair unkempt

Review...
Long hair? Check. Plaid shirts? Check. Crunching guitars? Check. Odd looking drummer? Check. Thanks to these attributes, Dinosaur Pile-Up are likely to make (and indeed already have had) poorly informed music critics mention them in the same breath as a certain Nirvana. This is perhaps an understandable reaction given the recent resurgence, or at least re-emergence, of the Pixies, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam. Coupled with the refusal of Chris Cornell to go away this leaves only a Nirvana-shaped hole where grunge used to exist.

ALBUM: "Two Dancers" by Wild Beasts

Can be heard at... www.myspace.com/wildbeasts; spotify

Likely to appeal to...
Anyone and no-one. Aside from that, art-schoolers and open-minded students

Review...
It seems to be increasingly rare these days that you come across something wilfully different that doesn't smack of some conceited behind the scenes fabrication. Instead of the organically original coming to the fore, one gets the impression that instead overpaid men in suits work out some kind of random formula for passing off garbage as new and exciting, like Simon Cowell plotting a reggae-death metal mash up sung by a Romanian asylum seeker (Susan Boyle anyone?). Or bands trying to sound as wacky as possible in lieu of having any noteworthy talent, whilst music critics positively salivate over the brilliant ingenuity (see New Rave circa 2007). Thankfully, this is one of those satisfying occasions where a band makes you genuinely sit up and think: "oh...yeh... this really is kind of... INTERESTING".

ALBUM: 'Ignore the Ignorant' by The Cribs

Likely to appeal to... Lank-haired indie kids north of the Watford Gap, Smiths obsessives

Can be heard at... www.myspace.com/thecribs; spotify

Review...

The Cribs have always tried desperately hard to cultivate the image that they aren't trying desperately hard. On their previous effort Men's needs, Women's Needs, Whatever they preached "I've never been impressed by your friends from New York and London", whilst on breakthrough record The New Fellas they bemoaned “scenesters” within the musical community. Guitarist/vocalist Ryan Jarman promptly shacked up with Kate Nash. Ok, so they might not have been falling out of soho clubs at 3AM with powdered nostrils and supermodels in tow a la John Taylor, but brothers Gary and Ross might as well have simultaneously stepped out with Lily Allen and Peaches Geldof. As if to redress the credibility balance, which presumably they themselves had adjudicated on, the brothers Jarmans took the only action possible: recruit such a venerated 'indie' figure, oozing understated cool, that any relationship based faux pas would be forgotten. Enter ex-Smith and recent mercenary style hired guitar hand Johnny Marr. Presumably the fact that Marr was not from New York or London sealed his swift entrance into the Jarman fold.

LIVE: The Lemonheads at the HMV Forum, Kentish Town

Can be heard at... www.myspace.com/thelemonheads; spotify

Review...

Perhaps the best word to describe The Lemonheads’ career is overshadowed. Despite perfecting a distinctly alluring form of grunge-lite in the wake of Nirvana’s Nevermind explosion in the early 1990s, they retained only a fleeting moment of mainstream success, and even then largely due to an average cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Mrs Robinson’ which has long since been disavowed. Similarly, whilst more revered indie-alternative bands such as the Pixies and Pearl Jam have sparked widespread interest (not to mention overblown remasters and box-sets) with their naughties reunions, the return of the Lemonheads since 2006 has come with more of a whimper than a bang, with two moderately received studio albums and a series of smallish tours.