YouTunes

You’re probably thinking I’m a bit late with this one. I won’t argue as it’s true. In my defence, I will say that I did rather exert myself over the holiday season and it’s taken me this long to properly come round. Also, music is now going to be cheaper to download, as Apple have been forced to match their iTunes prices in the UK to those in Europe. The web editor says I have to write that in order to make this r-e-l-e-v-a-n-t. I hope it worked.

Anyway, these are my hot tips for 2008. And by that I don’t mean I’m going to rattle on about Duffy, and Adele and The Courteeners. Yes, they are almost certainly all set for big things this year, but what’s the point in liking someone just because they’re a designated break-through act? These are the new bands to have totally stolen my heart…

Vampire Weekend
My own personal favourites (pictured below) were described by the New York Times as one of 2007’s “most impressive debuts, even without an album”. Well I’ve heard the album (which comes out this month) and I thoroughly concur. It’s so rare these days to find a band unlike anyone else, but the Brooklyn-based four piece stand alone in terms of aesthetic (preppy Ivy Leaguers) and sound (endearing pop melodies absolutely drenched in inspiration from Congolese soukas music and afro-beats). The record’s obscure African allusions also let you feel suitably highbrow, which is nice. My only wish is that they weren’t American, and thus insanely difficult to see live.

Lightspeed Champion
Aka Mr Dev Hynes, formerly of the brief-but-brilliant Test Icicles. In a radical departure from his previous band’s material, Lightspeed Champion’s first album, Falling Off The Lavender Bridge, is a semi-accoustic epic that features folk luvvie Emmy the Great, and doesn’t sound a million miles away from Bright Eyes. The lyrics are disturbingly dark to the point of gasp in shock, while still being perversely moving. I listened to the album in raptures over Christmas, and thus, when I ran into him on New Year’s Eve I was reduced to a piece of drunken, infatuated mush (which has never happened before), and not only did he take this in good grace, but he gave me a Kinder Egg. Ergo, he is talented, and lovely, and deserves success.

Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong
Between causing a zealous music industry scrum earlier this year to sign them, and playing Wembley Arena with barely a single to their name, I think we can all assume the charismatically louche Lean and his band of artful scruffs are going to have a pretty prosperous year. I’ve actually been banging on about this lot for a while now, and vow to stand by my word even now poor Joe is being subjected to all those Johnny Borrell comparisons. Because they’re good, they really are. Melodic early-’60s soul, captured at the exact time it began turning into pop, and reinterpreted as garage rock that’s obscenely catchy, and they’re well dressed to boot. I don’t even notice how stupid their name is anymore.

Dead Kids
The lead singer of this band recently leapt off the stage mid-set, ran up to me and proceeded to down my drink. Now, I love Jack Daniels, and hate waiting to be served at the bar, so it’s testament to how impressive this five-piece are that I’m still singing their praises. The reason for this being that, as a live act, they really have the potential to set 2008 alight. The hyper-activity with which they thrash out their filthy electro punk will ensure you’re riveted, even if you don’t know a single word to their songs.

The Metros
It’s been said that this lot are James Endeacott’s most badly behaved ever signing, and given the 1965 boss was the man who unleashed Pete Doherty on the world, that is saying something. Their music is decent, solid stuff; they sound like a rockabilly Squeeze, but not why I’ve included them. No, the music industry needs it’s hellraisers to thrive, and no one has the potential for bad behaviour as much as these young Sarf Londoners. Put it this way, their violence ridden drinking sessions had them booted off the Coral tour, and I’m mildly scared to go to one of their gigs. That can only be a good thing.

FrYars
The prodigious one-man band attempting to raise the music industry’s intellectual bar by eschewing the everyman song-writing of his contemporaries in favour of penning tunes steeped in existentialism. I guess if you’re kind of stuffy you could dismiss his soulful crooning of murderous plans and miscarriage as the hormonal poetry of an adolescent, but it’s far more exciting to believe that the Nietzsche-obsessed teenager is channelling the philosopher’s concept of interpreting tragedy as an affirmation of life. I, for one, applaud his bouncing electro-goth layered with shades of circus music.

Ipso Facto
If The Horrors had little sisters and they were all super-pretty, they would look like this all female quartet. Please don’t be put off by the fact that a) they are girls and b) the fact that they have too-cool-for-school disdain written all over their pudding bowl haircuts. Their keyboard heavy, ethereal rock has a refreshing bleakness, whilst remaining enjoyable. Should you need further persuasion, I saw them play a tiny Shoreditch bar very recently, where the squashed but adoring crowd included an Arctic Monkey, a Klaxon and Alexa Chung.