PICK OF THE WEEK
The Dead Weather
Die By The Drop (Third Man)
As Jack White's been waiting for Meg White to get off her arse and start practising the drums, he's done what any self-respecting V from V For Vendetta lookalike would do and formed two more bands. The Raconteurs were patchy, but the Dead Weather are something of a miracle. The Kills' Alison Mosshart has been transformed into a freaky gothic overlord and left her Jamie Hince to hang around with people who were cool 10 years ago. And Die By The Drop's eerie racket sounds like The Hardest Button To Button remixed by the king of Hell into a track as spooky as Jack and Meg still pretending to be related.
Hole
Skinny Little Bitch (Mercury)
No one does fury like Courtney Love. But considering she's rarely mentioned without that Kurt bloke coming up; that her reputation as a parent is as admired as David Cameron's attempts to chum up to the "black man" he just met; and that most people think she's crackers, she's got loads to be angry about. Still, lyrics like "you'd be oh so dumb to fuck with me/ Cos baby you're much too young to end up with me", over a riff so aggressive it makes Nevermind sound as threatening as Little Jack Horner suggest she's still dealing with it all rather well.
Mariachi El Bronx
Holy (Wichita)
So the story goes that after three rowdy self-titled hardcore punk albums, Los Angeles quintet the Bronx decided to pack up their anger and unleash the trumpets, silly outfits and acoustic guitars. I'll admit to a sparse knowledge of mariachi music, but their transformation is a revelation and Holy wouldn't be out of place playing over the end credits of a Mexican film about bad-asses having clumsy fistfights in the desert (Ay, Caramba! ¡My Fingers Are Broken!) There is no greater accolade.
Plank!
La Luna (Akoustik Anarkhy)
Call yourself Plank! and some idiot's bound to find it amusing. Cleverly ensure said idiot finds a video on your MySpace of your debut single being used to emphasise the intensity of David Cronenberg's 1969 film Stereo about a group of virile young things developing their telepathy skills by humping each other and, my God, your already taut instrumental math-rock will take on new levels of thrilling. Think Fugazi crossed with Slint crossed with Stereolab crossed with awesome.
The xx
Crystalised (Young Turks)
… is amazing. But you already knew that. But did you know it was used in the 13th episode of the third series of Gossip Girl? Or that this is the second time Crystalised has been released, 364 days after the first? Or that there's a Japanese xx tribute band called the oo? Or that David Dimbleby loves the xx so much he's put in a personal request to the BBC director general Mark Thompson that this song is played, very quietly, throughout his coverage of election night?
