A friend introduced me to The Answering Machine a couple of days ago. His way of selling it to me wasn’t great, but when I checked them out I realised he actually was telling the truth – they’re pretty good. Then I found the picture at the top of this post, and decided that any guitar band that can get out glitter and sport the nerd-chic glasses that bassist Gemma is wearing is ace in my books. The Manchester-based four-piece have spent much of 2008 holed-up in North Yorkshire working on their debut album with the legendary Manic Street Preacher’s producer Dave Eringa. If you get a chance, check them out. They release new single, Cliffer, on 9th March, and it sounds amazing on the myspace page.

MP3: The Answering Machine – Another City, Another Sorry

We haven’t written much about The Parlotones (pictured right) since we caught them back in 2007. The South African band have just signed up to support Starsailor on their UK tour, and in return Starsailor will support the Parlotones in South Africa. To celebrate their UK return, they’ll be releasing the rather cool single “Overexposed” on 23rd March – cool animated video below.

Whilst checking out our friends over at The Line of Best Fit, we came across an artist they were raving about, Thee Single Spy. Think vulnerable, yet arty, acoustic yet fun. Their piece and interview introduces Thee Single Spy far better than we ever could, so check that out, and expect more coverage over here at TGTF over coming months. If you want to catch Thee Single Spy live, they play the Slaughtered Lamb on 28th Feb.

Been listening to Tellison for a few days now, loving their fast paced indie electro pop. They’ve just announced that they’ll be playing a very special night at the wonderful Kings College in London along with Canterbury, Loverman and Super Tennis. NME commented that “with their jerky dance- punk rhythms smoothed out into melodic choruses the trio pose the best kind of dilemma – should we try and dance or concentrate on learning the words?” – exactly what we think! Tickets are on sale now, priced at £8 each.

Expect more music news as we continue to stumble across new music today, when we should be working on our uni project.

Remember those heady days back in the late 90’s when Feeder were good? Just a Day, Buck Rogers, stuff like that? Well, if you miss those brilliant pop-rock crossover tracks then look no further than Mute Math, a New Orleans fourpiece who manage to combine the pop-rock of Feeder with the strength and musicianship of Biffy Clyro into their live shows.

Playing last night at Monto Water Rats, Mute Math were the last to go on for what was meant to be a three band evening. Opening were South Africans The Parlotones, who sound like Fall Out Boy but without quite as many crowd pleasers. Ticking just about every box for clichés, they provided some fun pop/emo/indie mixture, and should please legions of teenage girls around the UK with their eye-linered lead singer, elaborate stage costumes, and crazy shapes being thrown from lead singer Kahn Morbee.

Next were meant to be Envy Corps, however after setting up all of their equipment it became clear quickly that Luke Pettipoole, their guitarist and backing vocalist, was not well. After much pointing to his cheek and grimaces through the set-up, it became clear that he had a numb cheek, was completely unable to drink or talk, and thus it was left to lead singer Brandon Darner to apologise for their inability to play, mentioning that an ambulance was on its way.

Finally were the stars of the evening Mute Math, who we must admit were a bit sceptical about. A crowd of mostly boozed-up 20-something men (a few sporting baseball caps), and the stage crew duct-taping EVERYTHING down (yes, even the headphones to the drummer’s head) we couldn’t help but feel things were about to kick off, however were pleasantly surprised.

Whisking their way through a string of songs that sound like the lovechild of early Feeder and Biffy Clyro, they also showed that they have it in them to do an Arcade Fire with the main set culminating in drummer Darren King, lead vocalist Paul Meany and bassist Roy Mitchell-Cárdenas all demolishing the drum kit and creating one hell of a noise by placing drums all over the stage and on things and then plain and simply whacking with rhythm… yet somehow it worked. Encore was “Reset”, the one song that has a completely different sound – far more electro, like Moby and 65daysofstatic on a drunken night out together…

All held together by the marvellous Paul Meany, one of the best front-men in a band this small we’ve seen in a while. With him at the helm, Mute Math will be on the way to the top – and not quietly.

After the jump find more pictures.

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