Afternoon Naps interview

If you didn't already know by now, then The Afternoon Naps album 'Parade' is probably the finest record released this year. You can buy it now at the Happy Happy Birthday to Me records website.

Here's a little interview I did with Tom. Is that an appearance at next year's Indietracks he's hinting at?

How happy are you with Parade? I think it's probably the best album made this year.

I am very pleased with how it turned out. It took a while to finish and was a lot of work in some parts, but the end result i feel is a good representation of us.

What's the difference between your first record and 'Parade'?

The biggest difference is the sound quality. Sunbeamed was recorded in a basement with semi-decent equipment compared to what 'Parade' was done on. It was produced by the same guy, and he has a great ear for getting good sounds no matter what he's using. Stylistically weve grown a lot since then. We were only a band for 3-4 months when we made the first record. With Parade, we constructed an LP over a years time, plus the arranging had gotter better. This time around, we wrote and arranged in the studio and really took our time.

What's the scene like in Cleveland? Who are you favourite local bands?

Its a pretty fun scene here. Kinda random. Lots of good bands doing their own thing. Not a lot of indiepop bands like us. As Clevelanders I think alot of us have an Us vs The rest of the World mentality... ha!

Do you think you'd be more famous if you were from Brooklyn?

Hmmm... maybe that's a "the grass is always greener" sorta thing. I think living seperate from such a massive scene of music, like that one, was good for us in a way 'cos it allows us to develop on our own. Brooklyn/NYC is such a big crazy place that I'm sure lots of great bands probably get lost in the shuffle there. But on the other hand the opportunities there are big, too.

Will you come and play in the UK, please?

I would love to come play the UK. That is in the works actually. Hopefully we can make it happen next summer. I'm pretty sure it will so look out!

Tell me a secret about the band that no-one knows.

Here's a few: Two of us are massive sports fans... two of us work in hair salons... one of us collects pez dispensers... Leia puts on puppet shows for her solo project... and Orange Paw is named for my cat, who has one orange leg.

Killing the bland

I was in Fopp earlier today, killing some time. Is there anywhere on earth less soulless to buy music from? Casting your eyes across the £3 Kasabian, Black Crowes and (gulp) Morrissey albums is like looking at the frozen chicken section in the supermarket. Here are all these records that were probably cherished by someone on their release, now piled high and available for less than a city centre pint. It makes me feel a bit dirty looking at them.

Was it always this way? I don’t remember it being so, I don’t think. Even the cover art on most of the pile ‘em high albums in Fopp is a slightly different shade than the original release. It’s like those Smiths t-shirts they sell these days with the day-glo green on the Meat is Murder cover.

Where I’m going with this is fairly well-trodden territory, of course. The albums in Fopp are generally considered by the twatterati as “classic”. And as anyone who reads the Guardian music pages will know, you simply have to have these albums in your collection, whether you like them (or even play them) or not. You have to. It’s the law.

This makes me a little sad for a number of reasons. Mainly because Fopp – one of the few remaining high street record shops – takes up square foot after square foot of shovelling out shit for next to nothing. They could be using that space to push new music. Whatever you think about the Pains of Being Pure at Heart (and the jury is very much not that fussed around these parts), I’d rather see rows and rows of their album ready to be bought than frigging ‘Harvest’ by Neil Young. Fucking Neil Young…

Time was, of course, when you could wander into any record shop and have a good look through the vinyl to find what you were after, and bugger me, tucked away in the back corner of Fopp in Nottingham was the new Pains of Being Pure at Heart single. Well done, Fortuna Pop, I suppose. Never mind that it was right next to the posters of Jesus smoking a spliff. Well, the students are back in town.

Fopp, of course, has nothing on HMV, which gave up pretending to be interested in music and has turned its biggest Nottingham store upside down. Now you walk into a fucking HUGE wall of ‘buy three DVDs for £15’ banality. If you’ve never seen Napoleon Dynamite, you will this Christmas. Tucked away downstairs are some cds, if you remember them? You don’t? Oh, well.

Oh, yeah, and you can buy lots of games for something called an ‘X Box’ in HMV. It’s like some kind of tarted up cash and carry, really.

There were rumours a while back that someone had bought the name and premises of Selectadisc in Nottingham, and were planning to reopen it. A sign went up in the window to that effect. That sign’s gone now, and it’s been replaced by some agent’s boards which scream ‘TO LET’ at every passer-by of this once great haven for the music lover.

When Selectadisc went a little bit of my history went with it. When I first moved to Nottingham from Grimsby, I’d hardly ever seen a double decker bus, never mind a chop so chock full of records that you only ever read about every Thursday. It was thrilling and terrifying at the same time. I can ‘t say I ever feel thrilled about going into Fopp or HMV. Terrified, maybe…

For the record I bought ‘George Best’ by The Wedding Present from Fopp today. My vinyl copy has worn out. A bargain at £3.

Go get organised

At the risk of sounding organised, we now have a running order and stage times for the 2nd annual Nottingham indiepop all-dayer.

Naturally this will all go horribly awry and the panic will set in at around 4.35pm when I run to the front of the stage and make the throat-slitting sign at whoever is unfortunate to be playing at the time, but here goes:

10.00pm - The School
9.00pm - Just Joans
8.00pm - Mascot Fight
7.15pm - Red Shoe Diaries
6.15pm - Tender Trap
5.20pm - Standard Fare
4.30pm - The Rocky Nest
4.00pm - Elizabeth Allo Darlin'
3.30pm - Of Mice and Mental Arithmetic

Doors aare at 3pm, and all we ask of you is to get there early so not to avoid disappointment. And before we run out of change on the door. That lying, cheating Facebook is saying that over 100 people are turning up, and in hindsight selling tickets might have been the order of the day. But we like flying by the seat of pants and pushing the envelope with our shirts off. Going forward.

Only three weeks to go!

Youngfuck

Thanks to Kris at Heaven is Above Your Head for bringing Youngfuck to my attention. Despite the, erm, strange name this band from Gothenburg make the sweetest, most melancholy sounds you'll hear this year. They have songs that you feel like you've known them for years; songs that can express more emotion in one verse than most bands struggle to do in their entire existence.

If they ever come to the UK, I might just smother them in love.

Hope not hate

It's kind of ironic that Grimsby sacked Mike Newell after a defeat to Rochdale, because although supporting Rochdale must be like stuck in some kind of footballing Groundhog Day year on year, supporting Town is never, ever dull.

Sure, you might be infuriated or depressed with the Club most of the time, but when stories like this appear, a small smile crosses your lips, and you realise that you really shouldn't be suprised if this actually happens. If your manager can throw some tea cups at you best player during a half time team talk, then simple things like employing the first female manager in the Football League are bound to happen.

Well, sadly, it won't of course. But it's brightened the afternoon up.

In the meantime, have a listen to The Blanche Hudson Weekend, which is an offshoot of Manhattan Love Suicides. I never really understood MLS, but this is ace.

Pocketbooks step into the sunshine

There are some bands that you follow who you couldn't really care less about on a personal level. And then there are bands like Pocketbooks, made up of people so life-enhacingly charming, gracious, witty, self-effacing and just downright perfect who you care deeply about for one reason or another. Or all of the reasons above. And it's nice when other people see what you see in them. Which is why it's such wonderful news that Pocketbooks have managed to snag a support slot with God Help The Girl at the 100 Club in London on Saturday 21 November.

Now, whilst this blog may think that GHTG is a load of self-indulgent toss by a few people well past the peak of their powers, the fact that Pocketbooks will get the chance to play in front of so many people really brightens up a damp Tuesday afternoon. Especially after they've spent the last couple of years tramping around the provinces playing to people who wouldn't know a great pop song if it came up and French kissed their cat.

So, you see, sometimes good things happen to good people.

You can buy tickets to see Pocketbooks at the 100 Club here. They'll be on sale in, ooh, about four minutes.

Here endeth the lesson.

Lardpony beached

Downstairs at Cabaret, Nottingham, on a screaming hot summer day in June 2005 and Lardpony take to the stage, supporting Milky Wimpshake and Mirah. Later, Vanessa would get so drunk that she'd fall off her stool during an extra-quiet Mirah moment, and about 100 people would turn around and gawp at her, as she struggled not to show everyone her pants. But now it was time for Lardpony.

I can't remember where I first came across Lardpony, but I think it was some time during 2004, when I heard the majestic 'I'm in Love With a Noxious Gas'. I'd seen them live a few times, and they'd never really managed to recreate the effervescent sound they got in the studio. Until that gig supporting Mirah, when - for me - it all started to make sense.

That day Lardpony very nearly managed to blow Milky Wimpshake away, which is something not many bands can do. Tom, beardless for once, managed to fight the shyness and sing his heart out; Pod and Nathan were tighter than a gnat's nether regions, and at last - at last! - you could hear Mandy's keys.

Thus began a run of putting Lardpony on whenever I could, simply because they made me smile, and they had fantastic songs. It was a run that ended earlier this year, when they decided to call it a day because of people growing up and having kids, and the general pressures of life when you have to worry about more than where your next pair of jeans is coming from.

Perversely, Lardpony exited stage left in peculiar circumstances at the horrendous Bodega Social in Nottingham. Mandy's keyboard wouldn't work, and they played their final gig as a three piece. Of course they were still brilliant But after seeing the band over a dozen times over the last seven years, it was a weird way to end, and singer Tom seemed genuinely upset by everything. Well, of course he was.

Things carry on, of course, and Nathan is slapping his bass in a macho fashion in The Making Of, who feature members of Mascot Fight amongst them, and Kristian releases stuff as Waar. Tom continues to make music on his own as Vom Vorton, and as part of the Deirdres/Lardpony supergroup, Of Mice and Mental Arithmetic, who, not surprisingly, sound like The Deirdres covering Lardpony songs. Such a precious thought.

Anyway, the reason for this belated obituary is to tell you that Lardpony have made their final load of songs available for free, under the title of Seaside in Painless. You can download it here.

They've obviously never been to Mablethorpe.

Listen to 'I'm in Love With a Noxious Gas' and weep with pleasure.

Something to look forward to

It's Friday afternoon and I'm pooped. This week has been murder; all late work events and early morning train rides to the arse end of nowhere. And Manchester. And I don't have a bath soon, I reckon someone will call environmental health. It sort of makes you long for somethig to look forward to.

Something like this...

Spiral Scratch presents

The Just Joans (Glasgow)

Bitter and twisted lovesongs about exes and Coia that will change your life.

http://www.myspace.com/thejustjoans

Stars of Aviation (London/Brighton)

Playfulness and trumpets and all manner of things that are good about the world http://www.starsofaviation.co.uk/

The Rocky Nest (Hull)

Are they minimal? Are they orchestral? Are they bonkers? Oh, they are beautiful.

http://therockynest.co.uk/

Friday 13 November

Downstairs at the Betsey Trotwood, 56 Farringdon Road, EC1 (here's map)

Doors at 8pm - first band on stage at half eight

Tickets are £5 in advance from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/58989

For some reason half the tickets have already gone, so please don't wait too long to buy one if you haven't already - the Betsey is only tiny.

last.fm event

Isn't that a beautiful flyer? Nobody does it better than Spiral Scratch. This is the same weekend as our all-dayer, and what better way than start the weekend off, eh? Right, I'm off to hose myself down in the back yard.

Besties RIP

You've probably read the obituaries already, and I won't add much more, but The Besties have decided to go their separate ways. They leave behind them a bunch of amazing records, and some truly memorable shows.

As I rattle on about incessantly to anyone - alive or dead - who happens to be in front of me, the most exciting gig I've ever organised was their show with A Smile and a Ribbon and a nascent (where they ever anything else?) Deirdres right after Indietracks 2007. This sounds schmaltzy and saccharine, but that night will live with me for the rest of my life, and I don't think I'm along in thinking that.

Those of you fortunate enough to be in New York in December can catch all the fun of a Besties show two last times, culminating in a mighty bill on 6 December. Details, along with a the band's good bye message below. Godspeed, you Besties.

Hi.

So, bad news first: The Besties are officially done. As happens with many awesome relationships, stuff happens and things get hard, and so you end it and remain friends and all that junk. It’s like that. We guess? Well, Kelly moved to Asheville, and Frank renewed his vows with the city of Boston. And other stuff. So there’s that.

Here’s the good news! We are playing two last shows around NYC in December, and we plan on going out with a serious bang. So sell some CDs (keep the Lemonheads ones), bodily fluids or organs for plane ticket money, start hitchhiking, do whatever you need to do – let’s party! The shows are:

***Friday December 4th at Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park , NJ with The Measure, Black Wine, Psyched to Die and Night Birds. This is Jay Insult's annual b-day extravaganza and you were probably going to go anyway. Can you even believe that lineup? Makes our heads spin. ***

Sunday December 6th Final Show at Braur Falls in Brooklyn, NY with our dearest buds The Specific Heats and Bunnygrunt, who are coming ALL THE WAY FROM ST. LOUIS TO PLAY THIS SHOW!!! Holy crap! Now that's love. Plus, for any outta towners who are on the fence about coming... Psssst! Our good friends the mighty Pants Yell are playing Bruar Falls the night before (the 5th) in celebration of their new record on Slumberland. So come hang out, and make a weekend of it! We would love to see every single one of your beautiful faces there.
More good news! We have one last 7” coming out as part of the Art of The Underground single series - http://www.artoftheunderground.com/single-series.php More details on that soon!

We also recorded a cover of "Our Days In Kansas" for the Tullycraft tribute record. Stay tuned for details!

And we have a new video up here - http://estherbell.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=35 – so even if you miss the shows, you can watch us play ‘Helgafell’ for all eternity. This was written and directed by the lovely and talented Esther Bell. Check her out, she rules!

We are very likely more heartbroken about this than anyone – this band has shaped our lives in so many ways, and is responsible for us meeting so many incredible people and bands. Thank you so much to everyone who bought our records, came to see us play (or played with us!), set up a show for us, let us sleep on your floor, or pointed us towards the best burritos in town. You are all awesome and we love you! No sad goodbyes!
xoxo

Kelly, Marisa, Frank and Rikky

The Lovely Eggs are scary

As a rule, your blogger here doesn't go in for Hallowe'en shenanigans, prefering to leave that back when he was eight years old and had to hollow a swede out because his Dad was too skint/useless/working 76 hours a day down t'pint to buy a pumpkin. But he'll make an exception for the mighty Lovely Eggs' new, scary single 'Haunt Me Out', which is, er, out on 26 October.

It's truly the SCARIEST THING EVER COMMITTED TO VINYL. Or CD, or however they're releasing it. Holly sounds like a northern Cruella de Vil, whilst David wants to eat your babies. And then throw them up on your settee.

Be afraid pop fans. Then pull yourself together and go and buy The Lovely Eggs new single. You can get it from Cherryade Records, it's backed with the equally pant-shittingly terrifying 'It's Spooky', and 'Rappin' in Plastic', which reminds me - wonderfully - of The Calvin Party.

Oh, and it's limited to 100 copies, so get your finger out.

Tender Trap interview

Here's that Tender Trap interview I promised ages ago. It's with Amelia and Rob. As you can see.

Hello. How are you?

Rob: We are fine thanks. We played a gig (in Cambridge) this week, with three new songs in the setlist. No-one laughed. We felt proud.

Amelia: Even better than that, I remembered all the words of the new songs. A first!

Is it good to have the band playing again after such a long break? What gets in the way of playing regularly? Work?

Amelia: It’s really good fun to making music again. I’m not sure we realised quite how much we’d missed it until we got going again.

Rob: Work is the main enemy of Tender Trap. Children are an enemy too. But it is great to be playing again and expecially exciting to have THREE vocalists, because now we can finally do proper harmonies live.

How did you enjoy Indietracks?

Rob: Indietracks was really brilliant for us. As an audience member, it was inspiring to have so many people with a shared ethos and aesthetic in one place. It was amazing to be part of a very gentle crowd - busy, but completely unthreatening. But what was also great (as a member of a band) was that the sound was really good. It managed to be 'proper' without being 'professional' in the wrong way. We all like to think of ourselves as low-fi, but two days of a shit PA would have had those gentle indies turning surly and dangerous.

Amelia: I really enjoyed it too. It was exciting, and mildly scary, playing to so big a crowd and getting a good reaction. I also liked having the kids there, handing out Tender Trap stickers. It was funny to then see them get much more excited watching Lucky Soul than they had been watching us. They love Ali. Oh, the joys of having long blonde hair and looking like a princess! My personal favourite band, though, was The School. I thought they were a revelation.

And what about those Talulah Gosh songs you played in the tent? Whose idea was that?

Rob: It was Amy's idea.

Amelia: No, no, it was – erm – it was Eithne’s idea. Honest! Okay, well maybe it was my idea really. But it only came up because Elefant wanted us to play some old songs as part of the Tender Trap set. We all agreed that that would be a bit sad, but I didn’t want to let Elefant down. So I came up with this compromise. To be honest I expected Eithne to nix the idea the minute I mentioned it to her. So I blame her enthusiasm for it happening! I did really enjoy it though. It was good to play a guitar again too (badly, as ever). And the clip of 'Beatnik Boy' on YouTube, with our kid Dora playing shaky egg, makes me really laugh. Not least because Dora now thinks she is a world-famous shaky egg player!

How did Elizabeth come to join the band?

Rob: to find Elizabeth we used a subtle form of shuttle diplomacy. Certain indie moguls whose names should remain secret - oh alright, John Jervis and Sean Price - were asked if they could 'chat' to possible lady recruits. Only when it seemed like there might be a happy match (ie she liked our band and we liked hers) did we talk directly to Elizabeth. We were scared of rejection, basically, so didn't ask anyone outright.

As landed gentry of indiepop, what do you make of the upsurge in interest in indiepop bands?

Rob: The upsurge of interest in indie bands is an odd thing. You feel nostalgic, proud and slightly sad at the same time. It feels like being a soldier who survived World War One, only to witness a new generation of people joining the army to fight World War Two.

Amelia: Hmm. Not sure about that analogy, with its overtones of sending young men off to their certain deaths. We’re only sending them off to grow sideburns and wear cardies! Not entirely sure about being landed gentry either….but I think the increased interest in indiepop bands is great. I’m not the least bit precious about indiepop needing to stay small to mean something. I’d be totally happy if The Pains of Being Pure At Heart were Number 1 in the charts and Camera Obscura were Number 2. Although obviously I’d expect part of the deal to be Tender Trap swapping places with Temper Trap in the Top 10!

Are you wrongly tagged as twee?

Rob: I think 'twee' can be different things: an ongoing riposte to a misogynistic music business; or it's a watered down form of punk; or it's an attempt by marginalised people to 'reclaim' a word once used to oppress them. In any case it's probably right for Talulah Gosh, but not for Tender Trap. We're a girl group with guitars.

Amelia: I find the whole ‘twee’ debate hard. On the one hand I hate the term, and don’t think we – or the bands like us – are particular twee. On the other, it is at least a term which does seem to have come to mean something which people understand. And it is good to have a descriptor. Given the other bands that are included under the heading ‘twee’, I find it hard to argue that we are really so very different. I guess I’d just prefer a better descriptor. We were originally termed ‘cute’, which was slightly better, since ‘cute’ has elements of artfulness about it. I was also happy for the brief period we were classed as ‘riot grrrl’. Overall, though, I think I’d be just happier with ‘lo-fi’. Or ‘anti pop’ (in the same vein as ‘anti folk’). Or even ‘bespangled fuzz pop’. Is it too late, do you think?

You're coming to play our all-dayer in November - what can we expect?

Rob: You can expect a girl group with guitars! More like Heavenly than the earlier version of Tender Trap, and with lots of new songs.

Amelia: And good dresses.

Afternoon Naps - Parade (Happy Happy Birthday to Me)

There are few albums you can put on, listen to once, and fall completely in love with. This, though, is one of them. From the Cats on Fire-y 'Plum City Fight Song' (and isn't that a great name for a song?), to the dreamy bedtime lullaby of 'Digitally Altered Sunset' every song here is so playful, inventive and begging to be loved.

'The Fall Companion', for example, builds and builds and then twists around a dozen different corners before smacking you square on the lips. Afternoon Naps are great at snogging.
'Catholic School' sounds like the Shangri-Las playing a Blondie song. It reminds me a little of The Icicles or A Smile a Ribbon, and I think it's my favourite song here.

You want lounge-pop? You've got it with tracks like 'Mitten Fingers', and it's ridiculously cute descending bassline part, and general air of summery melancholy. Although it's clearly about snow and stuff. I blame global warming.

'Parade' has even got a disco song on it. It's called 'Discoverse', and it features those 'boom-boom's you got in that Kelly Marie song years ago. It's all pretty wonderful, really.
Just when you thought this year couldn't throw up any more precious albums, Afternoon Naps have sneaked in the back door of October. 'Parade' is thrilling, joyous and pop at its very best.

Download 'Catholic School' here.

New MJ Hibbett & the Validators video

Ace new video from MJ Hibbett & the Valditors, for the new single, 'My Boss was in an Indie Band Once'. See how many Prolapse videos you can spot. There's a prize*.



*There isn't.

Neither Brighton nor Manchester...

There's perhaps only one thing more depressing than this piece of ridiculously ill-thought out, potentially dangerous nonsense from the Tories, and that's Jack Straw (hitherto perhaps the most authoritarian Home Secretary the UK has ever had) bleating: "But we got there first and the police can already do that, Mummy!" Add in a splash more of the old criminalisation of teenagers and children at the bottom of that BBC news piece, and you realise you really are choosing between a kick in the bollocks and a smash in the face at the General Election.

It's at times like this that you need Redskins more than ever before. Here's an amazing live version of 'It Can Be Done'.

New Boy Genius lp

Here's a new song from Jason Korenkiewicz' Boy Genius lp. If you didn't know by now, then they're the REM you can still love.

This song is called Old New England.

Talking backwards all the time

You might think (and you'd definitely be right) that the Labour Party conference is one of the most noxious occasions in the political calendar, but no-one quite attacks the poor and ill quite the same every year as the Tories.

As the evil no-chinned shitehawks gather in Manchester and plot to wreak economic havoc over everyone not lucky enough to be able to dip into a trust fund every time they're down to their last Bupa payment, it got me thinking about the last time I felt this depressed about the future of UK politics.

Whilst listening to Tender Trap this afternoon, it occured to me that it was probably late 2002. My private life was in a mess, I'd resigned from the Communist Party over something really daft and paranoid, and the Socialist Alliance, the organisation I'd thrown myself into for the preceding three years was disintegrating under the weight of its two biggest competing sects. To put a top on it,those in charge of the Stop the War Coalition had failed to muster any widespread support for socialist politics. Not that it had any intention to...

But listening to Tender Trap all afternoon has also made feel soft. Seasoned Fletcherites might well remember the 'Trap’s excellent ‘Film Molecules’ album that was released around the turn of the century on ye olde dependable, Fortuna Pop! It’s an album woefully out of its time; stuck in a no-man’s land between the horror of Britpop at one end, and the renaissance of indiepop at the much more sunshine-filled end of the spectrum.

'Film Molecules' saved my life for about two months back in 2002. Long journeys on buses to provincial towns with ‘The Son of Dorian Gray’ pouring into my head through tinny, tiny speakers. The desperate last years of youth frugged out on beer-filled dancefloors to ‘Face of 73’. Wanton belligerance brought on by the metallic ‘Dyspraxic’, and my word – my word – real tears cried in lonely flats to ‘You and Me’. Long after I thought I’d ever need something as pretentious as a “soundtrack”, 'Film Molecules' came and wrenched me back from the brink.

One stupid December night in Nottingham in 2002 I put Tender Trap on with The Liberty Ship and a band from Leeds called Farming Incident (who were great, but didn’t fit in at all), and I called it a Christmas party. I felt about as far from a party as I could do at that point, and yet when Tender Trap came on and played ‘Ampersand’ it all seemed to make sense. That’s why we were there, stood in a desolate metal pub with a couple of dozen other people in search of some kind of pop thrill before the relentless grind of forced fun that Christmas always brought, and always will bring with it.

Drifting out of the venue that night, after handing over most of the £600 a month I was earning back then to the owner of the place, it was difficult not to want to have that half an hour with Tender Trap back forever. As it was, all that was left was to get a taxi halfway across the city, taking in every traffic calming measure on the way, to a damp, cold flat full of cat shit. But still, we had the memories of the night.

You know those friends you have from school or wherever – the ones you probably don’t see very often, but that doesn’t matter because whenever you catch up with them again it’s like you haven’t been away? You must do. Well, that’s what Tender Trap are like for me. I might not be living in a cold flat in Carlton any more; I might not behaving like an intolerable prick (well, not all the time), but Tender Trap are right there waiting to make me laugh and smile again, just like those friends I can count on one hand do every four or five months.

Terribly self-indulgent? Moi? I stand accused, but if Tender Trap don’t make me feel like that night in 2002 when they play our all-dayer in a few week’s time, they’ll have some BIG explaining to do. I'm off to listen to the Redskins.

The Rocky Nest - En El Autobus demo

To Hull and back with The Rocky Nest on their bus of pop. I'm probably being lazy here, but when I'm listening to songs like 'Lenny and Jenny' I can' help think of those other frazzled pop gems Fonda 500, who mixed psychedelia and perfect pop a few years ago.

If I didn't know better (actually, I don't) I'd say some of the songs here are influenced by smoking some Bransholme brown - especially stuff like the Beatles-esque 'My Perfumed Garden' and the cute nursery rhyme of 'Needle and Thread', which could quite easily be sold to a CBBC production team and used as a theme tune for a kids' telly programme.

Other times, it's like The Rocky Nest are watching and playing as a spaghetti western is filmed on the streets of Hull. See 'Blomflugan' and (again) 'Lenny and Jenny' for this.

Those who were lucky enough to get along to see The Rocky Nest in the church early on the Saturdaty at Indietracks this summer will know they're pretty thrilling live. This demo has its high points, but if you want to see the band hitting full stride and being heckled by children in the audience, then you really need to see them in the flesh. You can start by doing that here...

Download 'Lenny and Jenny' here.