I played this single to my hipster Dad, who looked like the proverbial dog having been shown a card trick. Go, go Rock 'n’ roll- creating the generation gap once again.

Through listening to 'The Kermit Song', you really begin to root for Smokers Die Younger. Singing, playing with all their idiosyncrasies firmly exposed, they admit their failings, their amateur status. In the end though, you want them to come through and they do. From the honest hubris and they’re rambling beginnings, it all forms into a clarity of a joyous chorus you eventually join in with.

If you have liked anything Pavement have ever done or Modest Mouse or that busker with no teeth in the centre of town, you will take this to heart.

In its declarations and more importantly, in its geeky zeal, 'The Kermit Song' seems to be about being in a band and trying to get it together, about it falling apart, about ‘trying real hard’ as they sing. It is a million miles away from the ethereal and groundless successes of a Maroon 5 for example. There is failure, humour and some reality here, all bundled up in sterling noise.
Bunch of fucking amateurs.

Review by Alun McKeever
www.smokersdieyounger.com
www.theespc.com
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Whilst the name hints at some kind of mutant cross-breed between James Brown and The Smashing Pumpkins, in reality Sexmachina are a charmingly-offbeat lo-fi ensemble from Bristol (via Leeds, Edinburgh and Wales). Listening to this ramshackle compilation of their demos is like witnessing a demented posse of folkniks and noiseniks wrestling for the control of the stereo at a party you’re not entirely sure you should be at. The songs veer between delightfully-sweet folk lullabies like ‘Moth Day’, ‘No Appeal’ and ‘Dartmoor Prison’; and stranger, more unhinged fare like ‘Coastal Disease’ and ‘Methodists’. ‘Spanish Eyes’ straddles their two preoccupations with a great (frenzied) acoustic romp. Anti-folk? Maybe. A quirkily-captivating genre-colliding mixtape? Definitely. Ones to watch.

Their name may well be laced with retrospective irony as they step up their bid to be noticed, but there is nothing tongue-in-cheek about their music. It is good honest Indie Rock and although their first demo CD may not yet be causing a storm of Smashing Pumpkin proportions (a well chosen inspiration of the band) it is certainly a breath of fresh air.

So who are InHiding and where do you find them? InHiding are most accurately described as a brooding four-piece Indie-Rock outfit from Essex/East London and according to their website (www.inhiding.co.uk) you can find them busily working their way ever closer to the centre of London (and our hearts they hope) during their next round of gigs.

Their self-funded demo CD features two typically gutsy tracks, typical of their live performances and much like a water-filed hole, hints at a hidden depth within the band. Both songs are real crowd-pleasers with strong performances on guitar and drums, only slightly let down by the vocals. Don’t get me wrong, the singer has a good voice and an individual style, but can be out muscled by the music at times. That said both tracks on the demo ‘Chemical’ and ‘Sucker Punch’ do draw you in and leave you wanting more.

To paraphrase everyone’s preferred perma-tanned personality ‘Now I quite like this’. Of course David ‘The Duke’ Dickinson prefers to get his kicks from gramophones found in car parks full of antiques. Me? I’ll stick to my i-pod and the band du jour for today is InHiding.

Lemon Jelly have always existed on the right side of the divide between "decent electronic lounge pop" and "horrible dinner party muzak", but with 'Make Things Right' they unfortunately tip the balance towards the latter. The music is pretty much Lemon Jelly by numbers, pleasant and inoffensive, but it's the vocals, sung by someone called Terri Walker in a disturbingly wine-bar friendly voice, that do the most damage. Encouragingly the b-side finds LJ back on familiar form- a mysterious found-sound voice sample and a faint air of subversive cheeky-ness (it's called 'A Personal Message To You >From Our Chairman') suggest that it's not quite time for Lemon Jelly to be featured on any anodyne Ibiza chill-out compilation just yet.

Review by Ian Viggars
www.lemonjelly.ky
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We Are Scientists play Angular disco guitar pop that seems to be ten a penny these days. This single has received massive airplay on MTV and Radio One, so I’m sure it will be a big hit, but I’m not really buying it.

In the wake of the success of Bloc Party and Franz Ferdinand record labels seem to be snapping up anybody who wears tight jeans and mixes four-to-the floor dance beats with linear guitar motifs. While Kele and Co are a truly exciting band who I am sure will dump any notion hat they are a one trick pony with their next record my overwhelming feeling is that the likes of We Are Scientists, Editors and LadyFuzz will be forgotten in the annals of post punk time.

The verse starts well enough with a jumpy ass shaking bass line, however the chorus is underhelming, lacking that euphoric lift great rocks songs have. The lyrics are smug and overly self-conscious and the production is in my opinion a little to radio friendly and calculated. Confirming my original fears, it’s more of the same on the B-Side.

Review by Andrew Moran
www.wearescientists.com
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Commenting on their increasingly mature sound in a recent interview, Idlewild's Roddy Woomble stated that he was fed up with his band being an excuse for students to get drunk and jump around to. Fair play, I thought, for wanting to tone down the live show for the sake of some added musicianship, but it's a shame that their recorded output has had to suffer as a result. So 'El Capitan' is sadly another in the line of Idlewild singles that are simply 'alright'. Roddy still drops oblique lyrical couplets like few others ("by the harbour I harbour the strangest memories" is my particular favourite here), but ultimately 'El Capitan' throws up nothing more than some vaguely heartfelt piano-led indie fodder. And it doesn't help that the b-side is a shockingly polite version of the already tepid a-side. They're clearly happier making this kind of music, but I for one miss their junior Sonic Youth noise assault days (and I'm not even a drunk student).

Review by Ian Viggars
www.idlewild.co.uk
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Review by Jamie Boyer
deliberate.philtreble.net
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The band will go down a treat on the Warped tour, and I have no doubt that there will be a queue of over-gothic baggy jeaned fourteen year olds outside the mean fiddler to watch this band when they come to London. However, the EP does suffer from the fact that it is so formulaic. Pop punk as a genre has shown a lack of ambition over the past few years, and while linchpin are all well and good within their little box my advice to someone looking at the this type of music for the first time would be to save your readies and then go and purchase ‘Stay what you are’ by Saves The Day instead.

Review by Andrew Moran
www.linchpinrock.com
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