Dang it, these really are turning out to be cracking nights. Kamikaze! once more plucked out some of the best local (and further afield) bands starting with Shocked Elevator Family. They've been around since 2001, but somehow they've avoided me. Wise chaps. I have to say that I rather warmed to them. They're messy, but in a really good way. Lead Elevator Bryn (I think) comes off like a cross between Captain Beefheart, Lloyd Cole and Edwyn Collins and the music has all kinds of weird time signatures, stop/start, slow/fast that kind of stuff. Listen to Wet Ender (Live) for a good slice of the SEF pie.Next up Sheffield's Dead World Leaders. Full on power rock and a lead singer who got me clapping along (and I hardly ever clap along). As some other reviewers have detected ,there's a hint of Matt Muse in their somewhere, albeit with a harder edge.
By the looks of it Liner (pictured) have been attracting a fair bit of attention lately (check out this bit from Billboard Magazine...yes THE Billboard Magazine...it mentions Birmingham's 'boiling music scene'...yes OUR Birmingham! It's official. Birmingham rocks...but then we knew that already right?). They've been signed to a worldwide publishing deal by a US crew called Second Spring in a deal brokered by Solar Creations and, I believe, they've got a song in a forthcoming film (but I have no idea what it is...what am I now, Mark chuffing Kermode? I'd like to be...then I could get close to Lauren Laverne of The Culture Show...). Are they worthy of all this? Yep. They just look right. Which is, although it shouldn't be, obviously a big deal in the worldwide music biz. Like a number of bands I've seen recently they're better live than on their My Space tracks. Diamonds in particular is one song that really stood out. A belter of a tune that blends Joe Jackson at his prime with a slab of Kasabian glam swagger. Keep an eye on this lot.
Last, but most certainly not least, the lovely And What Will Be Left Of Them? Despite their name sounding like a And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead tribute band they're actually a sparkling power pop treat from Worcester. Yes. Worcester. Part B-52's, part Bis, part Worcester sauce (see what I did there?) they're a prime example of a truly class Artrock group...all new wavey, Rock Lobstery, girls in polka dot dresses doing the shimmy loveliness. The lady of the band, Red White, bopped around the stage like Clare Grogan on speed (ask your dads), the other vocalist, Blue Peter (yes, stop sniggering at the back) chopped away at the guitar whilst the two of them traded lines like a pair of angry teens in a disco. Really, really liked this lot. Can we have them again please? And again. Oh go on then...and again.
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