Wrapping The Singles Up!

This three track demo from The Vatican Cellars has more promise about it than many of the run of the mill single releases I have been sent these past few months.

The band have been put together by Simon Hughes who was the guitarist for Piney Gir as well as The Birthday Girl (aka the Schla La Las). As well as taking influences from those two the Vatican Cellars also play a emotional and dark blend of pop music. All three songs are semi-acoustic ballads hinting at folk, country as well as contemporary pop music. Pick of the bunch is Silence and Shadow which is one beautiful melancholic song. In parts it reminded me of Johnny Cash and Lloyd Cole alongside contemporaries such as The Left Outsides or Kelman.

Stream the demo via My Space.

The fact that Urbnri have got rave reviews from rags such as the Sun and the Daily Record suggests that Young Free & Simple should be thrown straight into the bin. And after listening? Well it sounds like XFM cannon fodder with it's fusion of rap and rock (that hasn't been done before has it?) but I wouldn't turn the radio off because, whilst the music is devoid of all originality, singer Kev Tait has a pretty decent voice which surely could be put to better use elsewhere. It's backed with two remixes which suggest the EMF revival is well under way and in full swing.

Young Free & Simple is out on 28th January 2008. You can stream the single here.

Oooohhh! I haven't listened to a decent bit of ska for a while and it's a music form that takes me back to my childhood of two tone and all things nutty boys! Imperial Leisure are a London based ten piece and In A Letter is their début single. It's everything you expect. Quick fire vocals, a brass section, a couple of MC's and if you damn well didn't know it a pretty decent tune to the boot. This is the sort of music that gets you up and dancing around your own living and it's music that not only excites but puts a smile on your face. I bet they are blinding live too! One band who would be absolutely delighted if you sent them to Coventry!

In A Letter is out now on Org Records. Check them out here.

Asobi Seksu become the latest band to cover The Ramones Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight). It sounds like a 1960's girl group who have turned shoegazers albiet with a chainsaw guitar edge. It's backed by New Years which seems to be the b-side of every single they put out these days! Luckily it's a great track summing up what a great band Asobi Seksu are in a late eighties/early nineteen nineties retro kind of way.