Drenge - Face Like a Skull

Of the many ways that an upcoming band can gain their first piece of  mainstream attention, being personally recommended by a resigning politician is probably not the most obvious, nor coolest.

Earlier this month, Labour MP Tom Watson resigned from his party's campaign team. In his parting letter, he advised Ed Miliband to listen to Drenge, a Derbyshire duo made up of brothers Eoin and Rory Loveless. Hopefully this isn't the beginning of a trend where music PRs start lobbying politicians in order to get the artists they mention name checked in Prime Minister's questions, get Acts of Parliament named after groups, and ensure that certain politicians don't mention their band altogether (and given how vociferous Morrissey and Marr have been about David Cameron mentioning The Smiths in parliament, there might be some good money in it).

But anyway, Drenge are lining up to release their self-titled debut album next month, with "Face Like a Skull" the latest single to be taken from it. It's a rather enjoyable slice of primal, garage rock built around a simple yet effective guitar riff.

"Face Like a Skull" is released on August 26th, and is taken from their self-titled debut album, out on August 19th.

Dumb - Retina

With The Pixies releasing new material for the first time in nearly 10 years, it's interesting to hear that their influence still steeps into music's collective talent pool, even among those who weren't even born when the group were releasing their iconic material.

This blog has covered Birmingham teens Dumb earlier this year following the release of their debut single "Dive", and to help cement their status as member's of the Birmingham 'scene' (alongside rising stars Superfood, whom they are supporting at a sold-out gig this evening in the city), the group have announced the release of their latest single. "Retina". The song is more or less a 2 minute 54 second love letter to the quiet/loud dymanic that Black Francis & co pioneered over 25 years ago, so much in fact that if you were to play the song to the uninitiated, they would undoubtedly have no idea that it was in fact recorded in 2013.

It's a good song, but I still hope that Dumb will be able to produce a sound that is very much theirs and theirs alone by the end of the year.

"Retina" will be released on August 12th.

Vanilla Gloom - Lemons and Wine

If there's two things that music in Northern Ireland has been severely lacking in recent years, it's all female rock groups and proper old school grunge revivalists. Whether or not a dearth of these is a good or bad thing really depends on your musical preferences.

But if that sort of music does float your metaphorical boat, then you'll enjoy the debut single from Belfast trio Vanilla Gloom. Formed from the ashes of the similarly monikered Puerile Honey, who supported Wonder Villains a few times in the past, the group have a sound that marries distorted guitars and shouty vocals with an unabashedly pop structure. Their first track, the bass-driven "Lemons and Wine" continues the group's love of taking something sweet and giving it a bitter undercurrent, calling to mind tunes by The Breeders, L7, and some of the less electronic moments of Garbage.

"Lemons and Wine" is available to download now.

Kagoule - Mudhole

Nottingham based trio Kagoule appear to have a pioneered a new genre on their latest single "Mudhole", one which I didn't think could possibly exist - intimate grunge. The song sees distortion turned up to the maximum, yet doesn't cause the listener to drown in feedback. Think of it as strange cross between The xx and Pearl Jam.

"Mudhole" will be released as a single on February 25th.