Discovery - AVAST! & The Whitest Boy Alive

Two bands in one Discovery post is something I was trying to avoid, but I am bursting to describe these two new bands that are stunning their way into my lists of bands that I must see live, and where they are quite the same, they are also slightly different from each other. But, in a weird twist, are linked by one simple fact that makes them quite unique in my recent acquisitions - I have bought their records my self.

AVAST! are a Scottish indie band that are born of the same basket that Stapleton were, and have pilfered most of their members. Jingle jangle pop guitar with shouty vocals make them sound like Dartz!! but with a slight tweak to the formula in that the songs a dripping in rather luxurious melodies and stamped with the same Indie pulse-watching that Stapleton should be famous for. Avast! keep the rhythms, the guitar and the lo-fi production but have the charm to make it work. I seriously suggest you listen to them and love them. They have inflections of Post-hardcore that can't be ignored too.

http://www.myspace.com/avastuk

The Whitest Boy Alive are another similar offshoot from a band that I love. Kings of Convenience are one of the bands that no matter what mood I am I can return to either of their two main albums and smile at the acoustic guitars duelling with each other and the improbable sound of two men sounding so intune with their harmonies that it seems like they were born of the same tree. The Whitest Boy Alive then, is slightly different, being only Erland Oyes this time around pulling the guitar from various levels of distortion and the drumming that is steeped in disco inflected groves but recorded on a track that makes it sound so organic. It is no surprise when listening to the album Dreams that they started as an electronic artist as the music pulls at the high-low troughs and peaks of dance music and almost every track here has a groove do danceable it should be illegal. The simplicity of some of the melodies and arrangements shouldn't be off putting as the songs are little wonders of 21st century indie.

http://www.myspace.com/thewhitestboyalive
You may be surprised to see my jumping from Post-Rock to poppery Indie, but be warned: My tastes are much more varied than that.