Baby Strange - Friend

Video released July 11th 2013

Scotland seems to be awash with three piece rock and punk bands lately with their most successful export currently being Biffy Clyro. Following in their footsteps, albeit only in the Scottish and three piece aspect is Baby Strange; combining punk riffs with heavy drumming with moody vocals these boys are out for blood with their latest track, Friend.

In the spirit of punk forefathers The Clash the bands catchy hooks and heavy guitar will be a crowd pleaser with very little effort. With a relatively short run time of just over two minutes the song gets straight into it, no openers or faffing about. Lead singer and guitarist Johnny Madden’s vocal styling are comparable to the late garage rock artist Jay Reatard and the influence of this genre is apparent throughout the entire song.

To summarise, if you’re looking for something along the lines of The Vaccines with a bit more edge and attitude Baby strange are your guys, the whole song plays like a brick wall of music start to finish. With a truly unique mixture of lo-fi, punk rock and grunge the band are on to a winner, pair that up with the recent explosion in the call for bands like this their career is going to go far. 

Brassick - Pelt

Video released August 31st 2013

I've never been one for metal/hard-core, sure I appreciate bands like Alexisonfire but the whole genre to me always seems like such a puzzle. I've given Brassick a look tonight on a pure whim, while browsing the BlankTV YouTube channel I came across their track and gave it a go, while I still don’t understand the appeal a lot of people have I'm slightly more clued up now in that I've found a band that could be considered to loosely fit this descriptive genre that I could actually see myself listening to more in the future.

Let’s start by stating the obvious, I had no clue who they were and was fairly surprised when I heard lead singer Nicola Hardy vocals, aggressive confrontational being the two adjectives diving to the forefront of my mind when describing the overall sound. That being said the song is a lot more than shouting at someone to grab their attention, it’s melodic and has meaning, and these were the qualities which grabbed my interest. The lyricism of the band seems to rest on their firmly held beliefs in the pro peace message as well as anti-bullying, sexism and racism.

While I may have said at the beginning of this article that they’re a metal/hardcore band I now see the band’s firmly held punk beliefs, think of them as a female lead Sick Of It All, you can tell by the style that a pit at one of their gigs would destroy those less schooled giggers in the crowd.

To say they’re a hardcore punk band would be unfairly dismissive, while I see them as that before much else they’re musicality is spread far wider and includes a diverse set of influences, these are people with a message and they really don’t care if they have to scream that message directly into your face in order for you to hear it, passion and dedication will be the qualities that will propel this band in the future.

Max Raptor - Breakers

Video released 26th June 2013

Unique vocals, fantastic instrumentals and copious amounts of creativity, Max Raptor are making a mark on the British punk scene and from this video you can see why. The video is filmed in black and white and breaking into colour throughout the video's run time, it features clip after clip of politicians and political journalists from BBC, Sky and other news sites as well as footage of Wil Ray and the rest of the band performing. Fantastic track from one of my favourite bands around at the moment.

Rat Attack - A Bird in The Hand

Video released May 8th 2013

Rat Attack seem to have come from nowhere fairly fast, their debut EP 'Rat Attack' received a lot of extremely positive reviews from various music magazines including a four K rating from Kerrang! And by listening to this track you can see why. The band show a lot of passion for the music they're polaying, there's powerful vocals, a lot of energy and stage presence and heavy guitars and drums. With a sound a lot like older Kids In Glass Houses material the band will find a fan base extremely easily, and it's well deserved. If they keep churning out tracks like this they've got a very bright future ahead of them add that with appearances in festivals such as Reading and Leeds and Y Not they're on to a winner.

The Computers - Mr. Saturday Night

Video released May 31st 2013

Today I've gone for a band I have never really listened to yet have heard a lot of good things about, in particular from Jamie Jazz's Twitter where he referred to them as the best band in the UK at the moment, and from this track I'm impressed. The track in question, Mr. Saturday Night is a great example of what is making this band so exciting at the moment with their catchy tunes, unique vocals and a totally different style to a lot of other artists around, making them destined for big things in the future.

The Skints - Out My Mind

Video released May 15th 2013

East London reggae punk outfit, The Skints are back with their follow up to 2012's Part and Parcel with new track Out My Mind, a Joshua Waters Rudge lead track about the recent break down of a relationship and trying to deal with the best you can. The video, created by London film maker Chris Hugall seems to have been made on a shoestring budget, featuring extras using props to show TVs, words on the white set and broken hearts. The rest of the band pop up towards the end with Marcia Richards, Jamie Kyriakides and Jonathan Doyle playing with a giant NES controller and each playing instruments as a way of therapy for their heartbroken friend. The song, set to feature on the upcoming deluxe edition of Part and Parcel has a very different feel compared to older stuff yet keeping in the same spirit and showing no decline in quality. If nothing else the video shows Rudge doing his best superman impression and fighting a man sized pig. 

You Me At Six - Reckless

Released October 22nd 2012

Britain's favourite pop punkers You Me At Six are back with another infectious, heart broken yet still jolly sounding track from their 2011 album Sinners Never Sleep. Not much is done different to other songs in their back catalogue, teen friendly lyrics and cheesy American accents are here in droves as well as the 'we're lads with a heart of gold' video, it even includes them being tattooed and throwing up the horns! Madness I know.

I'll be honest, I've never been a fan of this band, I've never even really listened to them, I hate British pop punk with a passion, I think it was done to the best possible standards during the 90's by bands like Sum 41 and Blink 182, however there's something quite endearing about this song. They know who their market is and they are going to play it to their very best, while I find the lyrics very generic and completely mind numbing I can see that they're not making music to share a message, they're doing it for their young fans to dance around to. This is shown at around 2.30 in where there's a breakdown allowing their fans to sing along, which they do.

While they're not changing the world or giving people a message they are bringing happiness to millions of teenage girls and boys out there trying to prove how different they are to the other people in their class, and this is good, it'll never be my cup of tea but it's not as bad as other pop punk bands I've heard.