Anguish Sandwich

You know how Flying Nun used to release their really out-there records – the ones you suspect they really didn’t know what to do with but had a hunch were great - in black and white sleeves? Remember when Scottish bands first responded to Pavement – I’m thinking of the Delgados especially – and came up with something all their own? That’s where Anguish Sandwich are at right now.

Bermuda Triangle is their debut ep and it rattles waywardly with the mad delight of stumbling home from the pub after a great night. The only thing you can be sure of is that the vocals weren’t auto-tuned. What was that Delgados song? Yeah, “Tempered; Not Tamed” just about sums up Anguish Sandwich.

Sun Sister

How the fuck did this happen? Sun Sister sound like they’re driving backwards into the sun. Remember when Ultra Vivid Scene let the pop urge run over the art rock? Like that. Or think what might happen if Best Coast got the fx pedals out and jammed with Woods.

They’ve got four songs and called the ep Rich American White Kidz. Maybe if Pretty In Pink got remade, this is the music that the cool kidz would be listening to. What else? They’re from Massachusetts. And? Sound the new favourite band alarm.

“Everyone everywhere thinks you're so cute but you're just another girl I know”

KEEL HER

The year is 2030. Bethany Best Coast and Nathan Wavves’ daughter has grown up with guitars and good music. She writes songs every day. Some of them are really good. At least as good as her parents made before over-exposure to designer drugs led them to live in a customised skateboard.

Back in 2012, KEEL HER – or Rose Keeler-Schäffeler as she’s known to her real parents – makes music that captures Best Coast’s stoned summer pop and Wavves’ fried feedback. Mostly, it’s coming from similar sussed pop territory as Mazes.

There are new songs every day. Some of them are as good as their fantastic titles:

you would be so grossed out if i did that

i suck (but you suck more)

Then there’s Gillespie, which sounds like Melody Dog if they’d covered Guided By Voices instead of Primal Scream

There are dozens more on bandcamp. Then there’s a song on a 4-track 7” next month on Art Is Hard. Exciting times, no?

Dexys live

Everything you've heard about the revitalised Dexys and the attendant stage show is true (if what you've heard is "dramatic", "soulful", "soaring", "searing", "astonishing", "the best gig in years").

While we wait for our next shot, here's a dose of Dexy's on The Tube stretching out There, There My Dear to nine minutes, a trick they used on The Bridge tour in 82/3, while maintaining the original's lean urgency.

"Let me tell you this, this well it used to go like that then one day something happened as it so often does and now it goes like this."