Whilst gallivanting around London recently with my partner in musical crime ‘Scene Damage’, she mentioned a band that have been rocking her socks recently. Remembering hazily the next day her excitement about them, I dropped her an e-mail to refresh my memory.

The culprits…Portugal. The Man. To get straight to the point, I have had this Alaskan indie 3 piece firmly on repeat for the last two days. ‘My Mind‘ being my favorite of their tracks up on MySpace, which you can hear by clicking above.

Musically, they aren’t like anything else I am aware of. Using a fusion of drum machines, synth loops and the more conventional, guitar, these boys have managed to create a soul, indie, rock mish mash that works perfectly. Usually, the words ‘indie’ and ‘high pitched vocals’ would send me running to the hills, but they have got it spot on.

PTM have played with the likes of The Fall of Troy, The Matches, HORSE the Band and Gatsby’s American Dream. In early 2007 PTM released an E.P entitled ‘It’s complicated being a wizard‘ which contained one 23 minute long song. PTM are now officially no longer part of the Fearless Record family and plan on independently releasing a studio album and returning to Europe in February. I can’t wait!

Kelly Renda

What I like most about The Loved Ones‘ second album, is that it’s really fucking good. Yeah, yeah, very profound and insightful of me, I know. But the fact is that on ‘Build & Burn‘, the Philadelphia quartet have taken the traditional folk-punk ingredients – gruff vocals, rough-edged melodies and some good stories to tell – and blended them into something pretty darn special.

Laden with tunes that will stick in your head for ages, but retaining the band’s trademark sense of conviction and honesty, fans of The Replacements, Chuck Ragan, Against Me! and Hot Water Music really should wrap their ears around this one as soon as possible. It encompasses straight-up punk rock (‘Pretty Good Year’, ‘Sarah’s Game‘), a semi-acoustic lament (‘Brittle Heart‘) and even – gasp! – a love song (the closing ‘I Swear‘), and at just over half an hour in length, it doesn’t outstay its welcome.

Did I mention that ‘Build & Burn‘ was produced by Pete Steinkopf and Bryan Kienlen from the Bouncing Souls, and also features guest spots from various members of The Hold Steady? Not that you really need any more reasons to check it out. Have a listen to ‘Sarah’s Game‘ on the link above.

Alex Gosman