WHERE Glasgow venues are reliably, regularly filled with local musical potential, Edinburgh is far less well-endowed in this sense. The capital city has to take its great bands where it can get them, which can lead to periods of boom and bust.
In which case, the crest of a wave is surely approaching. The agreeably Arcade Firesque Broken Records made it to the pages of the NME this week, while the irrepressible Come On Gang! continue to inspire gratitude that we're able to watch them in small venues alongside merely modest crowds. It wouldn't, and hopefully won't, take much spit and polish to turn the Edinburgh College of Art-formed trio into a band who could hold their own on a reasonably large festival stage in the future.
While Scots guitarist Mikey Morrison and Irish bassist Trev Courtney provide a sound that's as white and as spikily indie as the pair themselves appear, Brightonian Sarah Tanat Jones is the focal point. Or, dare it be said, possibly even the star – she's both the band's singer and the drummer, and attacks each job with impressive multitasking vigour. The music of Come On Gang! is superbly well drilled and skilfully catchy guitar-pop, while the strange visual aesthetic of their live line-up is endlessly watchable and Jones's distinctive folky vocal is a blend of Beth Orton and Sandy Denny.
It's easy to remark they're one of the two or three very best bands in Edinburgh at the moment – far harder to convince people they're one of the most compelling undiscovered sounds in the country.
The full article contains 275 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
