Razorlight have released a new publicity photograph. Here it is.

This is one of the rare instances where mere words - stupid, lumpen words – cannot fully describe the astonishing nature of a photograph that will stand the test of time as one of rock music’s most hilarious.

The old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” has finally proven to be true – albeit that we have definitively learnt that each and every single one of those thousand words is “LOL”.

Alex James, Britpop’s Grand Fromage, shows his displeasure at Razorlight’s stern ludicrousness.

MIXTAPE:…

Now, I hate to start a review on, like, a downer, man, but here it comes anyway.

Most synth-driven pop can fall into one of two very distinct categories: deeply drab overblown dirge-pop sung by self-obsessed drama queens; or half-finished songs by obsessive gear junkies who get the timbre of the authentic 808 snares just right, but forget all about the tune.

With that in mind, Victories At Sea should take heart that they’ve appeared on ANBAD at all. Victories at Sea say that they are experimental, name-checking both New Order and Boards of Canada as influences.

They …

How hard can it be to write a song that is just a nudge away from pastiche, and yet still retains all the qualities of an enjoyable pop song?

I mean, pastiche isn’t necessarily a guaranteed indicator of a total clunker – it’s just that it usually is. So any band that manages to tippy-toe that 2H-pencil-thin line between pastiche and plain old enjoyability is clearly doing something right.

Little Racer, I presume your ears are burning, for it is you that I am referring to. Split For The Coast is a début single with all the ingredients that might result in Generic 2011 Song …

Every time I bemoan the decline in the art of sampling, someone always informs me that, actually, everything is sampled these days, and so I’m wrong.

Well, I don’t deny that I’m often misinformed. It’s the raison, if you will, of ANBAD’s être.

However. If you listen to the dazzling sample-driven achievements of early Public Enemy, Ill Communication-era Beastie Boys, early ‘joints’ from A Tribe Called Quest, and the like, it’s hard to ignore that the simple delights of finding good samples and chopping them to will may have been overlooked recently.

I don’t …

There’s a lot of reverb sloshing around in New Band World at the moment isn’t there?

It’s like the latest generation of music makers grew up locked in a room full of Jesus and Mary Chain LPs and a record player that would only operate at half-speed.

Not that such a sheltered upbringing has harmed Trailer Trash Tracys, of course: if anything, it has teased something altogether more fascinating out of their particular ether.

I don’t mind TTT‘s full-on Jesus and Mary Chain similarities, from the harrowing density of the noise, to the Candy-referencing of the title.…

Is there anything more ironic than the NME publishing a Cool List?

Yet here it comes again, the useless stepchild of annual self-serving lists; and this year, boy, have the NME shoved their tongues into their cheeks and burrowed hard.

Just look who makes the Top Ten Cool People: two blokes from Kasabian, some guy from 2010′s forgotten band Hurts, Oh-My-God-I-Never-Saw-This-Coming-At-All Lana del Rey, and, of course, Azealia Banks.

If you’re also shrugging and mouthing the word “Who?” after reading the latter, fear not, as conveniently, she’s appearing on the forthcoming NME Tour.

Does anyone…

Secret Diaries have one of those supremely satisfying band names that make you wonder why no-one has thought of it before. I love it when that happens.

And speaking of ‘supremely satisfying’, Secret Diaries’ undulating, stacatto songs are, naturellement, just that.

Each precisely-placed thump within Secret Diaries’ music delivers a tasty parcel of sound, and we, the listeners, are merely conduits for its musicality; consuming, relaying, waiting for the next.

With this in mind, Islands is the perfect title – this song is a series of discrete sounds, each unlike the other, but carefully assembled to sound like a whole.…

After taking a rare dip into the murky waters of  Music Debate And Controversy yesterday, it’s a soothing pleasure to return to the day-to-day grind of simply finding new bands.

I say grind, but of course it’s nothing of the sort – I find the same kind of pleasure in rooting out new bands as Bob Ross takes from washing his brush. Simple pleasures, simply done, friends.

And anyway, Sea Glasses are about as frenetic and disorientating as slipping into a hot bubble bath. Their music is beamed directly from childhood dreams: pink-hued, soporific and wildly happy.…

I love Spotify. If you like listening to music, I know that you love Spotify too.

Because what is there not to love? And I do mean love - I can vividly recall the dizzying, bewildering, heart-racing feelings when I first downloaded it a few years ago, and lots days discovering and rediscovering amazing music.

I became Spotify’s loudest, most rabid, most insistent acolyte, forcing family and friends to download it. (I still recommend you do, by the way)

Try it yourself – just say to your nearest and dearest, “Imagine your iTunes collection suddenly bloats and distends to include almost all …

Another day, another anonymous side-project. One day, all posts on ANBAD will simply be a number, followed by a question mark and a Bandcamp link.

I’m starting to get the sneaking suspicion that these side projects are actually a lot more interesting and satisfying than the artist’s main band.

This could all be monumentally unfair on Tech Coast (or should I say Anon Band #592?), but until he/she/they provide any proof otherwise – which they won’t – I’m sticking with this hypothesis.

Once, like me, you manage to struggle beyond the sleuthing stage, what Tech Coast do reveal is …