Another killer brooding angular guitar-ed dour-ish hook filled modern new wave record from Scotland! Fans of outfits like Maximo Park, Frightened Rabbit, Franz Ferdinand, Interpol and the like should be familiar with them. While WWPJ don't necessarily revolutionize -that- sound, they do know their way around a pop song, managing to wind taut chiming guitars, muscle-y drumming, buzzy synths, and yowled emotional vocals into slow burning epics, rife with crunchy guitars, epic post rock swells, some bursts of almost metallic heft, and plenty of low slung bass heavy grooves. Crunchy guitars, anthemic choruses, a gloomy Joy Divisiony rhythm section, hooks like crazy, some songs hushed and intimate, but others wrapped in huge gauzy streaks of Godspeed / Mogwai / Sigur Ros epic post rock haze (and one of the songs even has a Conet Project sample!). Heavy and hooky, dark and jangly and a new favorite for sure. Fat Cat!

The band's secret is Davis’ knack for writing yearning, fuzzed out pop songs that straddle the murky divide between glum rockers the National and the nervous energy of the Strokes. Cincinnati

Royal Bangs are a band of professional geeks - day jobs include scientist and engineer - who are living out their rock fantasies. The fact they know their way around a sequencer saves this Knoxville five-piece from drowning in Jack Daniel's and Walkmen comparisons. Augmenting their garage-rock template with fractious GameBoy bleeps and flashes of 'Kid A' glitchcore. Fat Possum.