New Music - Nightmare Boyzzz 'Nuclear Summer' (Happenin Records, 2011)

Slightly ramshackle but fizzing with noise and melody. 

Stumbled across this via Facebook and took a listen. To be honest, the band don't look promising and the name is terrible but 'Nuclear Summer' is an unexpected delight.

The song opens with sweet falsetto vocals a la Glasvegas and storms into rough-and-ready punky indie rock with a Power Pop edge. There are echoes of Big Star sweetness in the melody department, waves of trashy indie rock guitar a la The Strokes or The Libertines. All wrapped up in a breathless headrush of momentum.

There's a lot of energy in its three minutes duration but it hangs together - just - and is a real earworm. Can't wait for my 7" copy to arrive.

Enjoy.

Availabe as a 7" from Happenin Records or a download via their Bandcamp page.

Pixies 'Gouge Away' (Live, NYC, December 2004)

Brooding, controlled malevolence from the first round of comeback shows.

Building, building, building from understated threat to hollering rage. Kim Deal adding the sweet trills and rolling bass that made the Breeders rock.

Quite a good band.

Download Pixies 'Gouge Away' (Live, NYC, December 2004) (alternative rock mp3 download) (Mediafire)

The Sundays 'Skin & Bones (Peel Session 1989)' (Parlophone, 1997)

Muddier but still magical session version of the 'Reading, Writing and Arithmetic' cut.

Thrumming bass and solid drums provide an earthy counterpoint to the pealing guitar and vocals on this Peel Session track dating back to before their debut album came out.

Will we ever hear anything new from The Sundays to add to their immaculate catalogue?

Download The Sundays 'Skin & Bones (Peel Session 1989)' (indie pop mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Guillemots 'Trains To Brazil (Live at The Astoria)' (2007)

Giddy, swirling, joyful and insistent.Frantic, end-of-the-night live version of their ramshackle pop.

Recorded live in 2007 at The Astoria. Don't look for it - it's not there any more.

I'm pretty sure I've blogged this song in another version already. It's a doozy though so worth checking out this breathless live version.

Download Guillemots 'Trains To Brazil (Live at The Astoria)' (indie, alternative, mp3) (Mediafire)

Download the whole 'The Big Ask' CD including more Thom Yorke & Jonny Greenwood plus Guillemots, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Razorlight, Polar Bear and more - over on Archive:Live+Rare

Low 'Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me' (Chairkickers, 2001)

Almost impossibly fragile and desolate Smiths cover. 

It comes in gentle and broken - sounding like Roy Orbison just lost £200 on a horse and had to sell his dog - before building into a fit of cello-enhanced rage and dissipating again.

Low do a nice line in covers - check out their version of Joy Division's 'Transmission' and Toto's 'Africa' - and could make 'Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep' sound like a wake. Consequently, their take on this Smiths classic takes bleak to a whole new level, the one where Codeine hang out.

It's a beautiful bleakness though.

Download Low 'Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me' (slowcore, postrock mp3s) (Mediafire)