In a month which saw Joaquin Phoenix rapping about packing heat and Ronnie O’Sullivan ranting about getting Simon Cowell into snooker, it made me wish there were a few more troubled geniuses in indie. And then this Tom Vek album promo fell through the letterbox.

I hope one of the following bands turn out to be as seemingly unhinged and incredible as Tom Vek.

LOVERMAN
Just like how Trent Reznor was ahead of his time, Loverman are ahead of theirs. Managing to get the legendary Atticus Ross, producer to Nine Inch Nails, to lovingly father their decaying vengeance against the world and then not bothering with the formalities of MySpace is a good start. Well, they caved in to Murdoch eventually but that’s about the only compromise they’re going to make. The vocals growl like a pissed off Nick Cave, the gut wrenching guitars blare and the drums pound. If Beelzebub had a theme tune, this would be it.

MP3: Loverman – “Dinosaur Drop”

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CRYSTAL ANTLERS
If you’re about to name your sixth form grunge band make sure you take this into account: Crystal is the new Wolf, Wolf is the old Black and Girls is the next Crystal. Or just go for something shit like… Black Kids. The reason we like Crystal Antlers isn’t because of their achingly hip name or the fact we’re putting them on at our amazing night this Wednesday, it’s because they take their Long Beach psych, punk and noise to create the most original soundtrack to come from the West Coast for a long time.

MP3: Crystal Antlers - “Arcturus”

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GIANTESS
I don’t know if I like Giantess. I don’t know if I’m allowed to like them. It treads the fine line between Chromeo gone even more kitsch pop and a one-upmanship contest with *NSYNC. On the face of it, that begins to sound more like the line between the Gaza Strip and Israel. But I can’t help find myself actually enjoying the Passion Pit-produced guilty nostalgia of it all. Everyone’s going to hate this…. and then secretly download the tracks.

MP3: Giantess – “Tuff n’ Stuff”

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SAHIL VARMA