All the Bands

A Nashville institution, Dave Cloud has been described in press reviews as sounding "like a cross between the acid-addled Roky Erickson and boozed beat writer, the late Charles Bukowski". Seeing Dave Cloud live is an experience you won't quickly forget. Part of rock'n'roll's foundations stands on something a lot like the music of Dave Cloud – that is, a compulsion to make noise with an unabashed lustfulness. The Sunday Times calls him music's "last genuine lost genius". It is Cloud, by the way, who inspires and mentors the musicians in the current television advert for Budweiser.

If you like the Heartbreakers, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Mott the Hoople, Chuck Berry, Alice Cooper, the Sex Pistols, and all that is great about rock’n’roll, then you’ll love the Dave Kusworth Group.

This quartet comes fresh out of the Copenhagen underground. Their mission? To teach the youngsters of today about music with a soul - a very desperate teenage soul that is. David Peter and the boys are tired of pop charts, and tired of the misuse of words such as r&b, beat and ravers of today. With a love for danish beat and 'pigtråd', these four boys bring it down to a very raw and energetic act, that will make the teens dance and shout! With influences taking in the likes of The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, The Downliners Sect, The Shadows of Knight, The Outsiders, The Lions, The Namelosers, The Defenders, Les Rivals, Bo Diddley, The Gories, The Monks, this is REAL dance music!

Formed in the summer of ’07, De Shamonix have built up quite a reputation from their high energy live shows. This north London group gives you a blast of pure energy, walls of feedback, thudding drums and infectious melodies. Compared to Kings of Leon, The Stooges, and BRMC, The ’Sham have been tipped as a "next big thing". This is a group that comes alive on stage and smacks you right in the face! And they have the songs to back it up!

This Brighton band play psyched-out punk’n’roll which is often described as a more danceable Iggy mixed with the Fall. Reviews say stuff like: "high octane, high energy songs underpinned by punchy, staccato rhythms"..."they ooze class". It's the kind of sound that makes the indie girls go crazy, says another reviewer. They are fantastic to see live, if you have never caught them before, make sure you catch them tonight.

A high energy garage rock'n'roll band from Texas, but currently based in Taiwan, their album was described by the Taipai Times as "music for dancing to... the catchy refrains of this boot-kickin’, leg-shakin’, moonshine-drinkin’ throwdown would make even Grandma dance!" The band themselves claim to sound like "Willie Nelson with a Flying V, Howlin' Wolf in a rock and roll band, AC/DC in an old western movie".

Sounding like the missing link that locks Marc Bolan firmly to Keith Richards as a pair of slouching thieves padding reverently through the bedrooms of the blues, with material that stands up well, in its own right, against its honestly obvious influences (sixties garage-pop and country rock), these boys have tunes that will make a sinner out of any saint.

Started by two Danish brothers, they were torn between the creative influences of Syd Barrett and the Everly Brothers, and came to London totally penniless but with a purpose. After meeting up with bassist David and drummer Johan they began uniting their psychedelic sounds and vocals with a guitar-driven punk ethos. Coupled with heart-felt lyrics, charismatic and energetic live performances and a coquettish boyish charm they always leave the audience gagging for more.

Old school raw-edged punk-pop with a bit a Ramones/Damned/Sham 69 rock’n'roll vibe, this is no messing straight down the line no-budget in your face glam-tinged no-hope punk pop ‘n roll – and, importantly,they actually have some tunes. Plus, they sound like they’re having a blast.

Taking their cues from punk bands past and present The Despondents aim to bring us short sharp garage punk tunes that hit you like an atom bomb. If you like The Rip Offs, Teengenerate, and The Real Losers you will know where they are coming from. The ever-trusty Electric Roulette website says: “The Despondents are here and they’re ready to kick you in the balls with no chords and the fat well and truly trimmed. There’s nothing bad I can say about this record. It’s hard, fast, no frills, full to bursting with attitude and verve. In short, it’s fucking ace.“ Their debut album, on CD only, is out next week on Dirty Water Records.

Sleazy, stylish and, above all, fun this male/female duo injects rock into roll and garage into punk in a way that makes you think that Guns'n'Roses met up with Blondie and went nine rounds with Johnny Cash.

Southern-accented garage punk from Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Dirty Water DJs play sixties garage and beat, soul and rhythm'n'blues, rockabilly, rock'n'roll, and more.

If you imagine Wanda Jackson meeting Motorhead on crack you still wouldn’t come close to how frighteningly ahead Dragster are of the rest of this nation’s rock’n’roll bands. Dragster combine the raw energy of prime-time Stooges with the sassiness of early Blondie. They’ve produced a double-barrelled blast of greasy, dirty energy that bursts its way from the stack of speakers. Kinda like the Dead Kennedys bitching over who likes Motorhead  whilst having drunken sex on speed.

Despite one third of 1965’s latest discoveries, The Draytones, hailing from Argentina (singer Gabriel traded sunny Buenos Aires for Muswell Hill, due to his desire to “be near where The Kinks bought their suits”), this trio dabble in strictly British wiry pop. Think the Beatles meet the Zombies with a bit of the Libertines skiffle-pop, the aggression of the Sonics and the pop sensibilities of the Small Faces. Listening to their records you could easily believe you were listening to a long lost track that should have been on a Nuggets compilation. They don't make 'em like this anymore!

The Drellas is the new band of Tommy Scott, former frontman of Liverpool indie giants, Space. Tommy wanted an outlet for his darker and heavier side, where he could get rockin' and at the same time be quirky and experimental. They take their name from the nickname given to Andy Warhol by Lou Reed - because he was half Dracula and half Cinderella. "Just like this band!" says Tommy.

Hailing from Blackpool, this quartet have taken the garish lights of their hometown to heart, producing neon-fuellled punk rock'n'roll that will delight anybody who's ever jumped around to the likes of the Cramps or the Fuzztones. Raw as a bloody slab of meat this group are a living, breathing, walking, talking rock'n'roll nightmare, every track gloriously over the top and addictive, full of dirty riffs and trippy voodoo beats, like the Ramones playing Shangri Las songs whilst having a bad trip.

A four-piece band from the Midlands, they take on the Influences of all the best in sixties rock'n'roll, including The Beatles, The Sonics, The Small Faces, The Zombies, The Kinks, The Who, The Creation, The Byrds, The Booze, The Rolling Stones, The Love, Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, Del Shannon, The Action, Jefferson Airplane, Humble Pie, The Birds (with an "i"!).

The Dustaphonics offer a pure sound and a unique attitude, mixing the wild blast of the original soul and rhythm’n’blues of the 1950s and ’60s, the positive energy of ’50s rock’n’roll,  the freshness of early-’60s surf-beat, the intensity of garage-rock along with the softer vibe of jazz. And it is all done with a true authentic spirit. From a garage-rock background comes the music of Yvan, along with Bruce (from Thee Headcoats) and John (from the Wildebeests), who are joined by Aina on vocals, whose background is in hip hop and drum and bass, but who is now often compared with the great, raucous sounds of Ike & Tina Turner.

Based on the music of legendary French singer Jacques Durtronc, this group has plundered his catalogue to witty and charming effect. Cranking up the Kinks-esque sound of the original songs to the max with unsurprising vigour considering the band contains Bruce Brand (ex-Headcoats and currently also in The Masonics) and Bongo Debbie (ex-Headcoatees) on guitar and drums respectively, to which add the authentic French tone of Rudy on bass and the suave eccentricity of the leopard skin suited Parsley as frontman and accordianist for a sublime journey into the frontal lobe of French sixties garage-beat music.