best of britain: the winter club + the parallelograms

Ah, having returned from my brief work-related jaunt in Melbourne (which included a second-place stint at music trivia at the Empress on Monday night), I've returned to the internet to find myself two shiny new pop bands to listen to. Yay! Let's get started.

First up, there's The Winter Club, who come from Brighton (and not Bristol, as I've mixed up previously). They come highly recommended by one of the finest purveyors of indie pop around, Matt from Skatterbrain, so you know they're going to be great! Three pretty girls in bright colours singing simple little pop songs in harmony, with titles all about mix tapes and toothaches and dancing. Really fun stuff!

Up north, we're heading back to Sheffield. I should mention that The Long Blondes have changed their new single from "Couples" to "Century", and it's being released at the end of March. If you are in the northern hemisphere, please go and see them on tour!! I am making an extra special trip to see them in Berlin, and I'm so awfully, awfully, excited about seeing them play again. Anyway, I'm adding The Parallelograms to my list of Sheffield Bands To Love. Go to their myspace and listen to "123 Go" RIGHT NOW because it has that perfect lo-fi C86 buzz about it, and the lyrics are about C86 itself! Yeah! It's so noisy and fuzzy and shambolic - it's almost as though the songs are about to fall apart, like the Shop Assistants doing "Ace of Spades", and it ends up working so well.

Now, having since returned from Melbourne and seeing posters plastered around the city for The Lucksmiths and Still Flyin' show later this month, I have Melbourne envy. Oh, the temptation to move is growing and growing...