>WHAT HAPPENED NEXT? The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and The Unicorns!

What Happened Next?

In some ways it’d be just hunky-dory to have picked out, on A New Band A Day, the bands that go on too be become the Next Big Thing; it may also, of course, result in having the knowledge that we introduced you to, say, the ‘New Keane‘ on our conscience.

That kind of dubious distinction is best left to your local ‘alternative’ radio station, with their suspiciously close collaborations with PR companies, professional ‘tastemakers’ and the ‘Ones To Watch’ page of the NME.

We try and bring you the scraps, the mongrels – the bands who might never be cool enough to be huge, but make music you won’t want to miss. So, as such, most of the bands we feature don’t manage to get to the stage where they can record their difficult second album with Mark Ronson, but such is life.

Occasionally, though, we nearly get it right. Here are two bands that actually went on to bigger and better things after being featured on ANBAD. There is a strong possibility that these two events are not linked in any way.

‘Yum Yum’ was the cut and thrust of our slightly soporific review of TPOBPAH back in July last year. Namedropping Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and Kurt Cobain all in one review was always going to be an indicator of real quality, and so it proved. They’ve just released their eponymous debut, and even hoity-toity Pitchfork went a bit weak at the knees for them too. They’re now squeezing their woozy, warm and close songs into millions of lives, everywhere. Good for them.

THE UNICORNS/ISLANDS