I immediately warmed to Sharks because our passport's bare the same place of birth. A small town in between Warwick and Coventry called Royal Leamington Spa. It's been famous for few things in music. My most residing memory of its link with planet pop being in the mid to late Nineties, when people still bought records, you used to get a CD-shaped mail-order form in nearly every CD single. The address of all of them was one depot in Leamington Spa. It always triggered a little pang of pride in my deepest cockles whenever I saw that address. Subsequently the biggest, and in fact, only band to have emerged from there was Nizlopi. Who oddly I actually once saw support Christina Aguilera. Sorry, I'm just thinking aloud now...

Anyways, Sharks are here to instill a new bite -arf, arf- to the sleepy midland's outpost. They're one of these punk bands with heady everyman rock'n'roll ambition that outstrips their 'rawk' canon, in a similar vein to Exter's Computers, but with less need for glycerin and honey drinking post-shows. They're on tour with Gallows soon, and that's a fitting pairing. Cept Sharks are rather more fond of slick Brylcream quiffs, and Nick Cave-dewlling croons. They also just covered a Wedding Present song. Which they gave us to give you.

Sharks - 'Breakneck'

I immediately warmed to Sharks because our passport's bare the same place of birth. A small town in between Warwick and Coventry called Royal Leamington Spa. It's been famous for few things in music. My most residing memory of its link with planet pop being in the mid to late Nineties, when people still bought records, you used to get a CD-shaped mail-order form in nearly every CD single. The address of all of them was one depot in Leamington Spa. It always triggered a little pang of pride in my deepest cockles whenever I saw that address. Subsequently the biggest, and in fact, only band to have emerged from there was Nizlopi. Who oddly I actually once saw support Christina Aguilera. Sorry, I'm just thinking aloud now...

Anyways, Sharks are here to instill a new bite -arf, arf- to the sleepy midland's outpost. They're one of these punk bands with heady everyman rock'n'roll ambition that outstrips their 'rawk' canon, in a similar vein to Exter's Computers, but with less need for glycerin and honey drinking post-shows. They're on tour with Gallows soon, and that's a fitting pairing. Cept Sharks are rather more fond of slick Brylcream quiffs, and Nick Cave-dewlling croons. They also just covered a Wedding Present song. Which they gave us to give you.

Sharks - 'Breakneck'

I saw Small Black a few weeks back at a weird warehouse/squat party thing during the CMJ music conference in their native Brooklyn.

See? Bar the bare-chested waistcoat catastrophe, all smiles.

I instantly warmed to them as they were the only local band that I'd seen in twenty four hours (baring in mind that was one of approximately 37) that didn't look like utter bell-ends. I loved the fact the lead-singer looked like he should be the DJ in a back-pack hip hop clique from Minnesota.

When they proceeded to churn out a wiry fabric of inertia-crunk grooves and husky, belly-tingling refrains, we realised there actually was nothing irritating about them in any way whatsoever.

There's a few tracks floating around online, but here are two that you shouldn't be able to track down elsewhere.

Small Black - 'Pleasant Experience'

Small Black - 'Lady In The Wires'

Hello Pyramiddd!

We've always quite enjoyed your pastel-toned rainbow ditties and the way they crackle in-between waify synthetics and Weezery power-chords.

Thing is, you used to have the worst name ever. Not like, 'ouch, that name sucks.' More like, 'There's no way I can even bring myself to write that in an article with my name on it'. It's so bad that we're not even gonna sully your potentially rebirthed legacy by mentioning it here... Let's just say: two syllables, first syllable rhymes with 'spa', second syllable rhymes with 'clucker'. It's all over the Myspace if anyone's really that interested.

But you changed it! Yey! So as a form of virtual sneaky thumbs-up and a wink, here's us posting up a video and a download...

Pyramid - 'Medicine'

In the mid-1980s gay hardcore-punk fans started a cultural movement which revolted against the small-minded views of many in the hardcore constituency, it was/is called 'queercore'. The general vibe was head-butting home as blatant a blast of their homosexual desires/lifestyle as possible, whilst keeping within the bludgeoning 3-chord template.

Twenty-odd years on, San Fran's Hunx And His Punx are doing the same thing for lo-fi Sixties-bubblegum style garage rock. I'm not sure exactly how much poisonous discrimination there is that that particular scene, but any excuse to gay things up when it's this fun and catchy should be cherished. In fact, I'm tearing up my heterosexual membership card as I type.

You may well recognise Hunx from the naughty version of Girls' new 'Lust For Life' vid, as reported on NME.COM here.

Here are two exclusives off the band's 'Gay Singles' LP which is available from their Myspace (The first one is my fav). Below that are a couple more of the superb DIY videos that they've put together. They kinda remind me of a cross-between early John Waters shorts and low-rent ITV after-school kids dramas...

Hunx And His Punx - 'You Don't Like Rock'n'Roll (And I Don't Like You)

Hunx And His Punx - 'Don't Cha Want Me Back

This week's Radar stars in the mag are Surfer Blood an excellent Florida band that are putting a sun-bleached dystopian spin on the classic surf-pop sound. We like em a lot. They're signed to Kanine Records in the US, who're the folks that brought you Chairlift and their ilk.

That Florida sand really heats up in the midday sun

So as a download double-header, we've got some right treats in store. First up is a total exclusive rarity that you'll literally never get anywhere else for all eternity. It's a song called 'You're A Friend' that the band recorded as a birthday present for their mutual pal (tsk, cheapskates...) the second is their splash-hit (sorry...) Swim (To Reach The End). Enjoy.

Surfer Blood - You're A Friend

Surfer Blood - Swim (To Reach The End)