Franz Ferdinand – Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
Many a rock band have experimented with electronica but can Scotland's most successful export since kilts and haggis pull it off?
Art Brut – Art Brut vs. Satan
Eddie and the bruisers return with their third long player of songs about love and hate. And comic books and chocolate milkshakes.
Who The Hell Are… Bleeding Knees Club?
There's not much point in asking where Bleeding Knees Club got their name. It's the kind of degenerate tag that you'd expect from a couple of Australian garage surf-punks, but for the innocent and curious alike the band spell it out below. If they happen to ask if you want to join their particular club, ladies just say 'no'. Hailing from Brisbane, where every home has its own swimming pool thanks to last year's insane floods, Alex and Jordan of Bleeding Knees Club have "won hearts and minds through a reckless live reputation and with a swag of super-catchy tunes on their debut EP Virginity".
Drop Nineteens – Delaware
Welcome reissue of Boston shoegazers debut effort from 1992 complete with bonus tracks. It's wicked pissa!
Exlovers – London – 28 February 2011
There really is something enthralling about watching a band not just perform music but energetically project themselves into it. It's akin to standing against a gale who's presence is to overpower you and anything in its way. That would in part, sum up the appeal of Exlovers -- they cut a forceful, harmony-fuelled rug. The other part is they're the most attractive bunch of tattooed scruffs that you'll ever encounter. Put all this in the context of their latest single "Blowing Kisses", a song that transcends simple indie guitar music and that gale hits like a perfumed fist that still makes you want to stand up and take more.
Blitzen Trapper – American Goldwing
Blitzen Trapper brings to mind somebody hunting down reindeer. This has nothing to do with the music.