Not quite as reputation-threatening as that Glasgow band Sexy Kids, nor as frustratingly difficult as Girls, but I still had something of a raised eyebrow when I typed this one into Google – unwarranted as it may have proved to be.

Girls Names describe themselves simply and accurately as making ‘disposable noise pop songs’.  More literally this means they make songs which are incredibly infectious, loud, messy and hugely enjoyable.  No fluff to be found here whatsoever.

This is a bit of an introductory post, because the release I have been listening to is the one pictured, which has long since sold out, having only been released in May on Tough Love Records.  Tough Love are one of the sharpest sniffers of new music around and having their seal of approval is quite an accolade – I’d probably compare it to Moshi Moshi in that respect.

Their next release is on Brooklyn’s Captured Tracks who are sufficiently fashionable to be releasing Beets and Wild Nothing.  Most of what they release is heavily, heavily retro-influenced but while it may not be musically all that innovative, there is an unmistakeable verve to most of it – a sort of offhand, reckless energy that it is impossible to meet with much cynicism.

Girls Names play a scuzzy mixture of sunshine pop and a heavily punk-infused indie music (particularly the vocals).  It all sounds very much like it was played in a tumble drier in someone’s basement and recorded from the house next door, and this, as you all know, is a style I very much like.

If I were to compare it to anything, I might be tempted to suggest a little of Phil and the Osophers in places, but in general this is more of a piece with the rasping interpretations of sunshine pop we’ve seen around recently from the likes of The Love Language and Harlem and bands like that.  I remember after Britpop faded there was a brief stutter before a rejuvenated version of punky garage blues exploded out of Detroit, and after the somewhat over-elaborate excesses of the likes of the Decemberists (who I love at times, don’t get me wrong) this direct, simple racket is fucking great to hear.

Girls Names – Running Scared

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Girls Names – Blood River

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I tend to think of Tough Love Records as being at the cutting edge of cool indie pop – think The Sequins & Favours For Sailors – so this kind of release sits really strangely in their general portfolio as far as I am concerned.  This is twee, gentle, lighthearted loveliness – not and angluar guitar chord or rapid-fire drum salvo in sight.

The band includes the superlative violin-playing talents of Little Dan from Honeytrap, coupled with a gentleman by the name of Tom about whom I know… er, nothing at all, actually.  The music they make tends to revolve around a gentle strum on guitar from the latter, what sounds like vocals from Dan for the most part [apparently not - see comments], and embellished by the same gentleman’s politely curious violin wandering.  Just occasionally a little feedbacky guitar or electronics will introduce themselves, along with brief  hints of ukulele and piano, all of which gives this record a lovely, lazy texture to its overall sound.

The album might take a little time to sink in.  The pace varies subtley, from the jaunty pleasures of Alice & Bob, to the more moody, and rather surprising, version of Some Candy Talking.  These ups and downs are quite gentle though, so it would be easy to allow the noise of life around you to overwhelm this album when you play it.  I would be careful not to let that happen though, because it really is worth the attention if you sit down and really listen to it.  It’s a total curve ball from Tough Love, and an absolute corker.

The Empty Set – Portia, I Dreamt You Were Real

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The Empty Set – Some Candy Talking

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MySpace | More mp3s | Buy From Tough Love Records

I’ve been waiting for a while for this one, and it doesn’t disappoint. I have one quibble, and I’ll get it out of the way nice and early so I can concentrate on the good stuff: the new version of Death Before the Silver Screen is not a patch on the original. So there.

As for the rest of the album, bloody marvellous. Big Dan has honed his tortured wail to a fine point, and Little Dan’s violin is a ray of sunshine. It all sounds subtly different from what I was expecting, as did their labelmates the Sequins on their debut release last year.

Expectations aside, there are just a stack of great songs on this record. Get the Male Back, the Healer, Song for Nona, Broken Viol… ah fuck it, never mind, they’re all great. Really, they are. All except that reworking of Death Before the Silver Screen.

I’ve thrown a few comparisons at Honeytrap over the last year, trying to find one that would stick, and funnily enough the latest one that springs to mind is early 90s indie. Violin aside, there’s something about this sound that really reminds me of my first couple of years at Uni back in 1993/4, don’t ask me why. Ballard Down in particular really reminds me of this era, so perhaps it’s time to start making ironic Best of the 90s compilations – after all, the 80s furore seems to have finally died a death.

For all the groups using violin at the moment, I think Honeytrap count as one of the most innovative.  They are essentially a guitar-based indie band, with the violin bringing new and occasionally bizarre inflections to what is basically a guitar indie record, rather than attempting to define the music all by itself.  But enough review – it’s fucking great, this.  Nothing like what I was expecting and everything I was hoping for.  Buy one.

Honeytrap – Eleven
Honeytrap – The Healer

MySpace | More mp3s | Buy from Tough Love

[I really should delete this post, but I think I deserve it to be left up as a salutory lesson about the perils of drunken posting. What a shambles. Feel free to read the utter nonsense below and then point and laugh. I hang my drunken head in shame. WordPress really should come with a fucking breathalyzer.]

Fuck me people, pull yourselves together. This is not a Radiohead, nor a Snow Patrol, nor a Travis fanboy site (Oxford comma there – everyone get that? Cunts). This is a place for people to bring new things and to get really fucking excited about folk having a go, showing some spunk and trying to make the most of a merciless, shitty industry.

As such, when I post about four groups in a single day who are good, young, up-and-coming and showing some enterprise and spirit I am fucking dismayed to come home and find not a single comment and no love at all for these lads. Why are we here, folks, eh? Why, really? Any of us can log onto the nearest bloody Pitchfork, Q Magazine, whatever sort of site and download trendy stuff, even ‘alternative’ trendy stuff. That is not what Song, by Toad is for.

In an industry full of commercial cunts, I make no money at all. I am here to give the small bands, who no-one has heard of and no-one cares about, some praise and some recognition and I should fucking well hope that is what you are here for too. Money and support are parcelled out awfully stingily in this industry and places like this, where small numbers of enthusiasts gather, are oases of love and generosity.

So the next time I write about four small, unheralded but nonetheless superb bands like I have done today I fucking well expect some response. It’s easy to remark on the merits or otherwise of the Arcade Fire. But you can read about them on Drowned in Sound, surely? Here is where you come for something a little different, and I love the fact that I get a ton of hits, but when bands come here and see that I have written about them and no-one gives a shit, then I am fucking well ashamed. If I’m writing about The Mountain Goats then by all means stay silent, but when I’m writing about young bands just on the verge of gaining a little bit of recognition it’s really important that you show them a bit of love.

I know there’s enough of you out there, and I don’t mean to resort to blackmail, but really, when you are needed around here is when the bands are yet to hit the NME.

I write about big bands, like Feist and British Sea Power because they interest me and I guess they probably interest you as well. But I write about small bands, like every band I have written about today, because these little enterprises are what I love: people with a bit of belief and a bit of conviction pitting their passion against the markets (ie: fighting a terminally losing battle) in the hope that some folk will latch onto their stuff. This is supposed to be one of those places – or, at least, it will always be one for me – where the little people get the praise that the quality of their output merits.

So even if you don’t like what I’ve posted it is way, way more important to me that you have your say when I write about bedroom bands than when I write about Vampire Weekend. Honestly, the point of blogs is side-stepping the massive, tedious, PR-fuelled music industry. We are here for the little people so, if you do nothing else ever again, go and find an unsigned band on this site and let everyone know what you think of them. Even criticism is good, as long as it is largely constructive. Just let these lads know you appreciate their efforts. The New Pornographers don’t need it, but wee Edinburgh folk-tronica groups do.

I can’t for the life of me think of a group that will want to be associated with this sort of infantile temper tantrum, so I apologise in advance to Honeytrap.

These fellas are currently assembling one of my most anticipated albums of 2008. Label-mates of the superlative Coventry group The Sequins, Honeytrap are also signed to Tough Love Records and have produced some of the best songs I have ever heard. Death Before the Silver Screen has never been bettered by anyone. Anywhere. Ever. So there you go. Sorry to Honeytrap for roping them into this little rant, but really folks, turn off Black Mountain’s prog-revival shit-fest and clamp your ears around one of the most promising groups the British Isles has produced for fucking years. They have an album approaching this year and if I’m the only one here who splashes out for it then I’ll have a right fucking tantrum. Yes, even crapper than this one.

And if you wish I was posting about someone more famous then fuck you. Fuck you hard and unlubricated with a fucking sea urchin. (And, erm, cheers to Simon for making himself known. Ta mate, much appreciated, honestly).

Honeytrap – Death Before the Silver Screen
Honeytrap – I Don’t Know How it Begins
Honeytrap – Spotlight
Go and buy Honeytrap and Sequins stuff from Tough Love Records. And forsake your subscription to Q forever.

Back in the days of CDs, vinyl and cassettes music collections were nice and neat: you had a collection of albums and singles and a small stack of accompanying compilations. On the occasion you found stray songs from compilations, poor albums, samplers and the like then they ended up on the compilations which became records in their own right, with an identity, an atmosphere and a rhythm.

Now, especially since I have started reading mp3 blogs regularly, I have hundreds of isolated songs which don’t belong with other songs. This is a bit odd. I don’t think it’s a good thing, but I’m not sure about that yet – maybe I’m just taking time to adjust.

So this post is about a few things I can’t honestly fit into a proper, coherent post, don’t really know what to do with, but would like you to hear because you might well like them. Musical pick ‘n’ mix, so to speak – the legacy of the digital age.

The Chaos Emeralds have a song on the Tough Love Records sampler.  I have listened to some of their other stuff and not been as impressed, but I like this one.  They’ve split up now anyway, so this song is rather orphaned.  Give it a home, Toadlings.
The  Chaos Emeralds- Furious Trims, Unhappy Haircuts

Parts & Labour (sunglasses recommended if you follow that link) are a group I read about recently on mp3hugger.com and, having really very nearly stopped the song after thirty seconds, was subsequently so impressed I bought the album.  So far the album has yet to grab me, so this song may also be left a little stranded.  It starts out like a dance nightmare, but the minute that guitar kicks in, I’m converted.
Parts & Labour – Fractured Skies

There is a new Blanche album, Little Amber Bottles, approaching on the 18th of June.  I first came across their brand of ramshackle gothic Americana when they supported the White Stripes at the Alexandra Palace down in London, and was entranced.  Their last album was no better than very good, but their recent EP was excellent and I am looking forward to the new record.  I don’t think I convinced the Loose Records chappie that I was important enough to merit an advance demo copy, so you may have to wait until my finances can afford a legitimate copy to hear more.  In the meantime, this is from the What This Town Needs EP.  Enjoy.
Blanche – Child of the Moon

Another one from mp3hugger, this.   I am not an enormous fan of their EP, but I like Alanalda for the following reason: they write current political protest songs.  Not generic ‘the war is bad’ ones, nor ‘the government are all liars’ ones.  But songs like this one, angry about the surveillance culture and the fact that we can all be tracked twenty-four hours a day, from CCTV to credit card transaction records, to mobile phone bills.  It is surprisingly rare to hear people write these sorts of songs and I think they’re important.  Is there anyone else you can suggest – people who read the news, get angry and write songs about it?
Alanalda – Always Someone Watching