Highly Evolved - Vines

When The Strokes appeared out of nowhere last year, and were hailed as the saviours of rock n’ roll, I didn’t object one bit. Here was a band with great hair, great clothes, great tunes and a sound which hadn’t been in the charts since about 1970, but all of a sudden seemed so perfectly now. However, since then just about every single music publication has attempted to find the new Strokes, and hence we’ve had music journos salivating over the likes of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (pretty good), The Hives (who only sound even remotely good if you’re drunk), The White Stripes (overrated sub Royal Trux crap) and now amongst the slew of all the ...  Read the complete review

I don't know about you but since the untimely death of Kurt Cobain, I've been waiting for a decent Grunge rock album for anyone who has the ambition and even shows signs of the ability to be as good as the seattle grunge band fronted by Cobain. And from this album it can easily be seen that a few years from now The Vines could be that band. But with a debut that has been called one of the years best The Vines have already been touted as as good as Nirvana. Not Yet but give them a few albums. The former Nirvana cover band released their debut album back in July and imediatly took number 3 in the charts. This year has also seen them play two ...  Read the complete review

Australia’s latest export seems to be getting them more attention than the fact that they are host to some of the worst TV in the world. He’s cute (some website described his face as being “Perfect, even if just for sitting on”- flippin eck!), his fuzzy hair looks like he’s been dragged through a bush backwards and he makes Jarvis Cocker look like Mike Tyson. “He” is Craig Nicholls of the Vines, the latest skinny, greasy-haired indie boy to become NME’s rock God (no kidding, they did a massive article about them, including the very amusing “Anatomy of a rock god” page). Are they just the Australian Strokes? You ...  Read the complete review

While there are about 150 opinions on Nirvana, it is just warped that the band that can best claim their legacy and ethos has none. Hailing from Australia, the Vines have all the prerequisites for the current trendsetters. The garage rock swagger, the unkept appearance and more importantly the tunes (unlike say The Von Bondies, mind you, nice vintage MC5 tshirts guys..) In a time where the NME finds a 'best garage band ever' every two nanoseconds, it hurts to say that this time they might just be right. The range of this album is simply magnificient, from 60's pop to primal punk energy, resident nutjob Craig Nicholls has both the voice and emotion ...  Read the complete review