Singles Round Up - February 23rd

After last week’s Singles Round Up had us chortling after the week’s selection had left one fellow Clash scribe “making us do a little sick in our mouths”, it’s back to business at Clash HQ with this week’s spread.

While we’re not about to reach for the brown bag quite yet, our indecision over this week’s Single Of The Week slot can only mean one thing – we need more three-minute gems, music makers!

Deploying an arsenal of sonic slices this week are scatter-punk newcomers Kasms (who also happen to be featured as a Track Of The Day later this week), New York’s doom-pop faves The Walkmen and many more. We’ll get a bib, just in case.

(Additional words: Mike Diver)

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Single Of The Week

Eugene McGuinness – ‘Fonz’
Skipping out of the traps with a falsetto that sounds like Mozza jamming power-pop with a teen Supergrass, ‘Fonz’ sees McGuinness at his most playful and downright fun. The irreverent, hormone-filled refrains (“We said farewell and synchronised our watches / arranged for the meeting of our crotches”) unearth a collision of scuzzy guitar licks and jittering drums with a knowing humour so often missing in today’s musical landscape. It takes itself as seriously as naming your single after the quiffed mover from Happy Days suggests, but it’s also all the better for it.

Watch an exclusive acoustic performance from Eugene HERE

Also out today…

Howling Bells – ‘Cities Burning Down’
Returning to their darker edges, the second single release from Howling Bells’ new ‘Radio Wars’ album sees Juanita Stein and her monochrome goth-gang break out the sound of brooding nightcrawlers with washes of reverb-heavy guitar lines and rolling drums. If ‘Into The Chaos’ had you wrapped in its harmonious disco sheen, ‘Cities Burning Down’ is a reminder that the band won’t stray from the darker side of town for too long.
Listen to ‘Cities Burning Down’ in our Track of the Day section HERE.

Emmy The Great – ‘First Love’
Anit-folk favourite Emma Lee-Moss bounces back with yet another snug acoustic lament that’s the sonic equivalent of a cosy cardigan. Or so it seems, yet before time we find the icy, Mazzy Star-esque backing track overrun by Emmy’s ever-eccentric lyricism, and the unforeseen refrain of “Then I would forget / that I’d piss on a grave”. Honestly, we almost choked on our Horlicks.
Watch an Emmy The Great acoustic set exclusive to ClashMusic.com HERE.

Esser – ‘Work It Out’
The latest offering from his forthcoming LP ‘Braveface’, ‘Work It Out’ sees the former Ladyfuzz sticksman delve into a world of bleep-laced dub beats, a chorus of slick Parisian robo-pop and chunky snare bursts. What lies beneath the quiff? Clearly an adoration for making cocktails of eclectic, slick three-minute pop songs. Made better by the fact that The Very Best’s remix is a knockout.

Kasms – 'Bone You'
Ever wondered what The Slits would sound like soundtracking the end of the world? Enter Kasms, who do a fine line in unruly reverb riots and low-slung, femme-fronted scatter-punk with ‘Bone You’. Dream pop? Nuh uh, it’s night-terror-rawk round these parts...

Glasvegas – ‘Flowers And Football Tops’
Sometime last year a load of usually sensible critics went head-over-arse for a not-so-new band from north of the border with a clutch of archaic rock ‘n’ roll songs draped in layers of fist-pumping feedback. But as the months have passed it’s become harder and harder to recall what the fuss was all about. Certainly a powerful live act, as demonstrated by their headline slot on the latest NME tour, Glasvegas’ on-record material can’t match their affecting performances around the nation’s auditoriums, and ‘Flowers And Football Tops’ sounds every inch the kind of track that’d get a couple of John Peel airings back in the day before being rightly forgotten about as a standalone single release. Unremarkable. MD

The Walkmen – ‘In The New Year’
For all its lack of immediacy, ‘In The New Year’ is easily The Walkmen’s finest work since ‘Bows And Arrows’ highlight ‘The Rat’. Rolling garage organs, metallic guitar stabs and Hamilton Leithauser delivering a shot of hope for the coming year in his trademark frenzied delivery. It’s the kind of track that creeps into the consciousness after repeated listens, then wrestles you to the floor and demands you hit repeat.

Magic Arm – ‘Bootsy Bootsy’
Manchester’s Magic Arm clearly have their share of Super Furry Animals and Beta Band records – no bad thing. ‘Bootsy Bootsy’ is the sort of single that’d have Select magazine (ask your older brother/dad/uncle) creaming itself and placing it top of their monthly ‘mixtape’ feature. It’s all wobbly synths and repetitive, almost hypnotic vocals – not so they bore to death, more so they bore in deep and nestle, quite nicely indeed. An act to watch as 2009 progresses, for sure, and certain to win fans come the festival season. MD

Tommy Reilly – ‘Gimme A Call’
Wait. So, this kid, right, won a television talent contest, where part of the criteria is the ability to sing? Okaaay. On the plus side, somewhere in here there’s a great song desperately trying to make itself heard. But Reilly’s vocals drag any hope back down to the murky depths of endless obscurity. Perhaps a future as an arranger for other artists awaits. MD

Higamos Hogamos – ‘Major Blitzkrieg’
Should Holy Fuck ever branch out into proggy territories while retaining a distinctly Kraut edge in their breadth of riff repetition, they might come close to producing something as unhinged, but breathlessly brilliant, as this effort from London duo Higamos Hogamos. ‘Major Blitzkrieg’ is great fun that need not be taken so seriously, but it’s clearly constructed with plenty of care and concentration. MD

One EskimO – ‘Kandi’
The very definition of inoffensive, before prolonged exposure stokes fears that this lot are simply James Blunt(s) dressed in indie clobber. Still, their website is very pretty. MD

Polly Scattergood – ‘Other Too Endless’
Stylish and emotive pop from the emerging Londoner that suggests that, despite the look of an artist whose material will always fall on the side of twee, Polly Scattergood has the inspiration and ambition in her to mount an assault on the mainstream. With tracks like ‘Other Too Endless’ in her repertoire, the only way (for now) seems up. Whether she can ever dream to displace the hideous Duffy from her lofty roost as the nation's favourite female (and promoter of aspartame-sweetened soft drinks) remains to be seen, but there’s more imagination in these four minutes than the whole of the multi-million-selling ‘Rockferry’ LP. Someone, please, give her the break she clearly deserves. MD