Caught in the Counteract...

Counteract Magazine (courtesy of Jessica Goodman) has popped up a great list of Birmingham based bands tipped to break big in 2014, including Hearing Aid favourites Youth Man, God Damn, The Grafham Water Sailing Club, Tempting Rosie (who seem to have been around for about 20 years even though they're all only about 18...these boys were born skanking away) and the mysterious Juice.

If I've said it once I've said it about 11 times, music in Birmingham is going through a bit of a purple patch at the moment. It would be great to see even more cultural diversity and variety coming through...for example the growing Eastern European community perhaps best represented at the moment through the Balkanic Eruption nights at The Hare...but I guess this will come in time. For now there's a distinctive grunge/shoegaze thang going on with the odd nod back to Brit Pop (step forward Superfood) which is gradually recovering its unfairly maligned rep. Anyway, check out the list here and get along to a gig or six in the coming months. Trust me, pretty much any bill with a few local bands on it will have something to tickle your fancy right now...and it'll be a lot more fun than watching that Secrets of the Living Dolls doc...