10 Tracks You Have To Hear This Week – The Vaccines, Pulled Apart By Horses, Karen O

The Vaccines, Pulled Apart By Horses, Karen O

The sounds rattling round the skulls of the NME staff this week

1. The Vaccines – ‘Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra)’

Oh, thank the fucking Lord and all the bastard angels, the bright new hype for British guitar music actually look like being a sensation. The Vaccines’ debut is a short, sharp sugar-rush of a song, starting off like ‘Wolf Like Me’ by TV On The Radio but then turns into The Strokes with a Sherbet Dip Dab shoved up their jacksies. All reverb-y singalong hey-hey-heys and no-no-nos, ‘Wreckin’ Bar…’ bounces along with guitars on full-speed-ahead, and is as memorably energetic a debut as ‘Caught By the Fuzz’ or ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’. The only gripe: at just under a minute-and-a-half long it’s not enough. But then, you should always leave ’em wanting more.

Vaccines

And duly it arrives, for this is a double A-side release. ‘Blow It Up’ is more downtempo, but its chorus is such a high you may be sucked off into space. It sounds a little bit baggy with its chiming guitars, melodic bass and belting chorus, but in place of pill-head dopeyness, there’s real grit here, as frontman Justin sneers, “I’m bored of trying to deal with your ego”. A very exciting debut release indeed. You’ll be reading a hell of a lot about The Vaccines in these here pages over the coming months, if we can type through our grateful tears.

[Martin Robinson, Deputy Editor]

[Listen Here]

2. Chad Valley – ‘Portuguese Solid Summer’

Beating with the same Balearic heart as Washed Out is Oxford’s Chad Valley – aka Hugo Manuel, also of Jonquil. ‘Portuguese Solid Summer’ (from his forthcoming debut EP) stutters with coming-up paranoia before melting into a wave of icy chimes. Tinglingly good.

[Laura Snapes, Assistant Reviews Editor]

3. Gang Of Four – ‘Never Pay For The Farm’

Approximately five years after every band on Earth was getting rich by being into Gang Of Four “for ages, honest”, the real Gang Of Four are finally releasing some new stuff. And this first taster from ‘Content’ (how perfect a title is that for a 2010 GO4 album!?) is as sharp, abrasive and witty as ever.

[Hamish MacBain, Assistant Editor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVDch8YaiVQ&fs=1&hl=en_GB

4. Pulled Apart By Horses – ‘Somersault’ (Sky Larkin cover)

On which PABH do what they do best to this Sky Larkin ditty, grabbing the melody’s balls and dipping them in kerosene, before throwing the charred carcass to the wolves.

[Tim Chester, Assistant Editor, NME.COM]

Pulled Apart By Horses5. Rye Rye feat. MIA – ‘Sunshine’

The playground patta-cake clapping in this Rye Rye track could easily turn into a jealous slap in the face as MIA’s vocals echo out, telling the tale of two girls who like the same boy. A colourful nursery rhyme which could get as nasty as a fight in Wetherspoons.

[Abby Tayleure, writer]

6. Karen O – ‘If You’re Gonna Be Dumb, You Gotta Be Tough’

Of the divine Ms O’s many guises, Calamity Jane-style wisecrackin’ cowgirl isn’t one we’d come across before. But for this country cover (written by Jonny Knoxville’s cousin, Roger Alan Wade) for the new Jackass movie, she takes the playful side explored on her Where The Wild Things Are OST and sticks a sassy Stetson on it.

[Emily Mackay, Reviews Editor]

7. Munch Munch – ‘Wolfman’s Wife’

From the city that brought you trip-hop and dubstep, come Bristol’s Munch Munch, beating the drum for lo-fi indie rattlers the world over. Pitched between Klaxons and Islet, their stargazey sound is bloody marvellous.

[Mike Williams, Features Editor]

Munch Munch[Free Download]

8. Wolf Gang – ‘Lions In Cages’

Synth-pop dandy Max McElligott seems to have taken forever over his debut. Worth the wait? Just about. On this taster – a song about the pleasures and perils of hedonism – he teeters perilously between being the British MGMT or the new Iglu & Hartly.

[Luke Lewis, Deputy Editor, NME.COM]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWhnQhFAFhs&fs=1&hl=en_GB

[Free Download]

9. The Morning Benders – ‘Virgins’

I saw her eyes/Lit up like colours in the dark,” sings Morning Benders mainman Chris Chu on this paean to the big night. Don’t worry son, it’ll all happen naturally! ‘Virgins’ is a sullen but swoonsome affair, recalling Morrissey’s ‘Seasick, Yet Still Docked’, and even managing to trounce the Berkeley act’s recent single ‘Excuses’ for pure beauty.

[Matt Wilkinson, News Reporter]

10. Discodeine feat. Jarvis Cocker – ‘Synchronize’

Hosting our Awards this year, Jarvis told us he was having a year off from music, but this bouncy piece of DFA-approved French disco has proved too tempting. Welcome back, sir.

[Paul Stokes, Associate Editor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB9PtAGv2Zc&fs=1&hl=en_GB

This article originally appeared in the October 16 issue of NME

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