You’ve all heard me go on about my friend Strath, I believe. Well he was the one who introduced me to such luminaries as Yo La Tengo and The Wedding Present (yes, Liz, he was that important!) back at university. He still sends me quite a few emails about groups these days as well, and it was Strath who introduced me to Camera Obscura. Last year he also tipped me off about the new Walkmen and Veils albums.

Last week sometime he emailed me about a Manchester band called Cherry Ghost, who sit somewhere between the latter day crooning of Richard Hawley and Cousteau and the more slowed down, acoustic affairs you’d find in early Doves.

They have just released a new single which can be downloaded by following the links on their website, and previewed on their myspace page. For the money I bloody well expect you all to go out and buy it – there’s a lovely roll to the music and I really like stuff with this kind of pace to it – laid back, but also with a sort of undulating, forward moving undercurrent that just bowls you along with it. Good stuff, but let’s face it, any group named after a Wilco lyric were always likely to be half decent, weren’t they.

[Edit: WARNING - If you're thinking of buying this, then buy a physical object like CD or vinyl, DO NOT buy the digital single. It is so riddled with DRM I can't even burn it to CD so I can listen to it at home or in the fucking car. So now I have digital fucking files trapped on the computer at work that I can't even fucking listen to in the house. I love how imbecilic record labels do their best to alienate the fans of emerging groups. Really well fucking done boys, give yourselves a pat on the back.]

Cherry Ghost – Thirst For Romance

website | myspace

[Second update:  Fuck me, I can't even play these fucking songs in MediaMonkey, my music software of choice.  Christ almighty, lads, get a fucking grip.  This sort of stupid behaviour leads directly to illegal downloading and if you want to protect your band and get them the recognition their skills deserve you desperately need to get your heads out of your arses.  Jesus wept you people are idiots.]