Fear not, dear readers: there are plenty of hirsute youngsters out there blasting out huge riffs, positively revelling in the tie-dyed and tattooed sounds of the 70s. Young White Album loving Aussies Tame Impala – check out my mini review here – and Canadian indie rockers The Besnard Lakes have had plenty of airplay at Riverboat Towers this year.

Also Canadian, and also on Jagjaguwar Records, are Black Mountain. Leader Stephen McBean is a bit of a workaholic, fronting the more experimental Pink Mountaintops, and I’d kinda lost touch with him and his fellow Mountaineers since their excellent eponymous debut album of 2005. It’s good to hear the latest release – Wilderness Heart tips a hat to the old school yet still sounds fresh – melodic when it needs to be, freaks out when it should. “It’s our most metal and most folk oriented record so far,” says McBean. Some nice touches too – hey, that guitar flourish on the opener sounds just like Jimmy Page! Is that Keith Emerson riffing away on the organ? Recorded in part at Sunset Sound in sunny LA, Wilderness Heart will put a smile on your face for sure.

And two tracks for free – download The Hair Song and Old Fangs (courtesy of Jagjaguwar Records).

Download the MP3 (and a bunch of other covers) at the Dr Martens 50th Anniversary site.

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It’s an effervescent pop-punk confection, a careering collection of eleven helter-skelter songs, played with just the right amount of commitment (total), produced with just the right amount of polish (barely). Frayed? A little, sure, but every handcrafted Persian rug has an imperfect knot. Means is the sound of an energetic young band poured straight into the grooves of the record, no fuss, no frills, no posing, just the way it should be. It’s got the spook. Turn it up, and throw away the knob.

It’ll be interesting to see what the future brings for Street Chant, but as an opening statement, Means hits the mark spot on. Don’t delay, buy today.

Listen to the entire album here. Grab a free MP3 of the above (and a bunch of other stuff too).

Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee have been busy in the intervening years, but now it’s time for a fully-fledged Vaselines release. Recorded in Manchester, England with no fuss or frill, a track a day, with Jamie Watson, the producer of Dum Dum.

And you can get your eager mitts (are they eager? I hope so) on not one, but two tracks from Sex With An X, courtesy of the good people at Sub Pop. Download the title track here and if you hated the 80s, this is for you. They’re more fun than a clown on fire.

The music still has a hazy shoegazy sway, but listen to those insistent rhythms and squiggly synthetic sounds bumping away underneath. There’s a little of Stereolab’s bounce added to the mix, Camarilla and Babelonia very reminiscent of Laetitia Sadier. It’s a big, warm, moving, atmospheric sound. Lush, you might say.

You lucky people have two tracks from the album to sample. Download Babelonia and Bye Bye Bye (from RCRDLBL.com)

In truth, Shit Browne don’t remind me so much of Manchester’s leading lights as the bands on the periphery, and those who came after. If you’ve listened to Northside’s Shall We Take A Trip too many times you’ll find lots here to like. Un soupçon de Pop Will Eat Itself, un peu de Carter USM.. “Learning from the Mondays, w*nking on the Roses, copying the Charlatans, smoking the Carpets..” – tonight these guys are gonna party like it’s 1989.

Hommage or parodie? You decide.

Download DMD (Anoraak Sunset Mix) from RCRDLBL.com. The new album Every Single Penny Will Be Reinvested In The Party is out now.

Magic, that is. Here’s a reminder of Kate’s original.

So what are The Futureheads up to these days? If they dropped off your radar, or you never really checked them in the first place, I can say they’re doing very nicely: the 2010 album is called The Chaos and it’s a stormer. Download Struck Dumb for free and give it a blast. Recommended.

The eponymous debut of Sierra Madre band Painted Hills (formerly Bolero, descended from Beachwood Sparks) sounds like a classic rock record collection in miniature. Chiming guitars and great melodies channeled straight from the Laurel Canyon folk-rockers of  the 70s and the bands of the Paisley Underground – The Dream Syndicate and Rain Parade prime among them. Guitarist Josh Schwarz surely must have borrowed Old Black for the crunching Crazy Horse-alike Everybody. Fans of Big Star and Teenage Fanclub will find a lot to like here. I can even imagine Liam Gallagher singing Kaleidoscope Eyes.. OK, OK, I might be slightly deluded but it’s a terrific song. If you’ve got the Cosmic Rough Riders or Velvet Crush in your collection, grab some Painted Hills today. I think it’s grrreat. It could be the soundtrack to the summer, except I’m in the southern hemisphere. Warming me up this winter, then.

Listen to the whole album, and download Kaleidoscope Eyes for free. I bet Alan McGee likes it.

Yes, I do. I have a new gig on the Download section of my mate Kevin Bronson’s Buzz Bands blog.. he sends me links, I review tracks, you get to read about them AND get a free and legal MP3 each and every time.. what’s not to like? Check it out. Be sure to read Kevin’s stuff while you’re there.

It’s been a pretty slow start to the musical year. . lots of records I had high hopes for but no real stand-outs. Lately, though, it’s perked up considerably. Paul Weller’s new one Wake Up The Nation is out this week, and I’ll let you know about the merits of that one shortly.

I hoped the collaboration between James Mercer (from indie-rockers The Shins) and artist-producer-agitator Brian Burton aka Danger Mouse, together as Broken Bells, would be an absolute knockout, and it definitely has its moments of catchy pleasing psych-pop, perhaps the best of which is the lead track, ‘High Road‘. It could well be your kinda magic.

Over at Buzz Bands, I came across a track called ‘Odessa’, from a guy called Dan Snaith, masquerading as Caribou. The album it comes from is Swim (because it’s “dance music that sounds like it’s made out of water”), and it’s a keeper. Here’s what I wrote.. wig out to that.

And here’s one album that will be up there in my top ten come Christmas.. the kind of widescreen blue-sky cinematic rock music that only a Scottish band can produce. The Winter Of Mixed Drinks by Frightened Rabbit is a classic set of songs, stories told, dark echoes of foreboding in the lyrics and a big dramatic sound. If you like anthemic indie-rock bands like Doves, or Elbow, you’ll absolutely love this. Festival goers this summer will be in for a treat when these fellas hit the stage. See ‘em soar.