At The Drive-In

This month, my music periodical of choice recognised ATD-I's third and final record Relationship of Command as the seminal post-hardcore masterpiece that it most certainly is. And I thought to myself, about bloody time.

And then I realised that I hadn't listened to that record for, like, years.

Which - by my own admission - is fucking shameful. I don't remember how, when or where I first heard it, but Relationship... is a definite entry on my list of all-time, must-have, listen-to-this-or-die-screaming-with-sharp-things-in-your-head totally fucking awesome records.

Now if I can only work out what the other records on that list are, I can start a big gay blog about that too.

Website: http://fearlessrecords.com/atdi/main.html

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/atdi

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_the_Drive-In

The White Stripes

The seed for this week's greatest band in the world was sown a month or so ago, when I went to see Death Of Her Money at the Croft. One of the support acts was a charming local band called Winston Egbert, a boy/girl duo where the girl plays the drums and the boy plays guitar and wails; just like The White Stripes. Except that Winston Egbert play 80's thrash.

The White Stripes do not play 80's thrash. In fact, much of the time they play the kind of fun jangly guitar pop that I find quite forgettable. The rest of the time though, they are some sort of distilled garage rock superpower with everything stripped away to leave only an audacious blues swagger and a whole lotta soul.

Which I find far less forgettable.

Website: http://www.whitestripes.com/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thewhitestripes

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Stripes

Manatees

Mostly I'm still moist with anticipation at the prospect of seeing the Melvins in November. But the all-Melvins-all-the-time playlist was interrupted the other day when I dug out the most recent effort by these Manatees fellows.

It comes with quite charming handmade packaging, was bundled in free with a Humanfly record I ordered, and is cumbersomely entitled We Are Going To Track Down And Kill Vintage Claytahh The Beard Burning Bastard.

It is of course very excellent indeed.

"The Pulp Cut" is a standout track. Which is odd, because it's not really representative of the rest of their output. The vocals are all by Eugene Robinson of Oxbow, for a start. It's one of those songs that manages to be heavy without being bowel-shatteringly loud.

Everything else by Manatees is, however, bowel-shatteringly loud.

It is of course very excellent indeed.

Website: http://sunclimber.tumblr.com/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/manateetheband

Wikipedia: nope

Melvins

I made a very conscious decision to leave my mp3 player behind when I went on holiday. Partly because it's just another thing to lose/break/drop into my fruity cocktail; but mainly because if I had taken it with me I would have spent the entire time time listening to the Melvins, to the complete exclusion of all other activities. Including sleeping, eating and washing. And it would be shame to go all the way to the Greek Islands without trying out their leading brand of shower gel at least once.

A few days before I left, my good friend Smith gave me a heads up that they would be playing in my favourite shipwreck in November; I immediately squealed with delight, bought a pair of tickets and ordered two more records for good measure. Nine days later, and I am still giddy with anticipation. The next two months are going to be hard to get through.

Plenty of other people have tried before me to explain how fucking great this band is; and as much as I'm in favour of plagiarising the best bits and standing on the shoulders of giants, I fear that this will merely provide me with a better view when I too run out of superlatives. You'll just have to take my word for it that the Melvins are way better than your favourite band, and probably have twice as many drummers too.

Website: http://www.melvins.com/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/themelvins

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvins

Roxy Music

I've been on holiday, so I missed a week. To make up for such a shocking lapse there are, improbable and unfeasible as it may seem, two greatest bands in the world this week.

Roxy Music feature almost as a direct result of said holiday. I just seem to hear an awful lot of their music played in bars when I'm on holiday. The same is probably true of, say, Bon Jovi - but Roxy Music aren't utter shite.

I'm (mostly) far too young to been into them from the start, but as a sensitive and artistically inclined young boy I always quite liked their album art. Nowadays I'm more into the shimmery and ethereal quality of the music, and the ridiculous music videos in which an exceptionally sleazy Brian Ferry successfully makes Morrissey look manlier than Oliver Reed.

Classics.

Website: http://www.roxymusic.co.uk/

Myspace: nope

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxy_Music