>Have you ever watched a group of Spanish men cook? It’s a carefully plotted exercise, which can be broken down as follows: 50% lounging, chatting and keeping generally relaxed to the point of muscle deterioration, 22% talking lecherously about women, 2% fussing with a knife and 1% cooking. I partook in this culinary ritual recently, and thoroughly enjoyed it – though it did alter any preconceptions I had of a ‘quick snack’, which is how it was advertised to me.

I don’t know what frame of mind one would be in when writing a song titled Vaginal Tendancies, but I imagine a similar laissez-faire spirit endures. Which makes Today’s New Band, The Counterpoint, are, at the very least, a curiosity.

Imagine a grunge cod-funk lounge band and you’re only part of the way there. Guitars bandsaw and grunt in small doses, but leave plenty of room for finger snappin’ and foot tappin’.

I may be wrong – I hope I’m not – but I’m sure that one of their lyrics runs, “You know you’re looking so nice/ Let me make up your latte – you know I do it just right,” sentiments which make the mind boggle and the heart weep. Song The Bandit utilises the deepest, gruntiest basso voice, and is all the better for its ridiculousness.

The Counterpoint make music that’ll make you scrawl “Pearl Jam 4 Eva” on your cashmere cardigan. Smoooooth – and rough. I’m not sure if they’re for real or not, and don’t care either. Listen here!