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Ok, so first off I must iterate the fact that this particular run down is in no particular order, nor is it a definitive list of the best British record labels of all time (as if such a breakdown could ever be truly quantified). It is simply a list of some personal favourites within the British...MORE>>

So on Googling this band for the first time (oh sweet Internet… you rung in the death of hard-hitting investigative journalism), the troubling decision that needed to be made was whether The Rumble Strips were an English band from Tavistock, Devon (thanks Wikipedia, don’t let me down) or ‘rows of raised pavement markers placed perpendicular to the direction of travel to alert inattentive drivers’. For the sake of this review and to make life a lot easier, let’s go with the former.

Their first album, Girls and Weather, released through Island Records, has been out since the beginning of last year, and they’ve spent a large chunk of 2008 touring the US and recording their new album. And this time it’s with none other than serial 60’s music-basher, Mark Ronson on his new label Allido.

If you’re looking for some amusing anecdotes of the Rumble’s America travels – and let’s face it, you’ve been yearning like a rabid dog to pass your eyes across some humorous yarns ever since I mentioned this tour – then get yourself to their website’s blog quick. The highlight of their stop off in Virginia is a launderette and believe it or not, they re-enacted

Forrest Gump at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. - these boys are a RIOT.

You can see how they would’ve attracted Ronson’s doo-woping, horn-blasting attention. Just give Girls and Boys In Love a spin. It’s so catchy and joyous and at the same time it’s a bittersweet lament to the loss of a beautiful girl’s love. But more than that, it has handclaps and finger snaps. They’re basically halfway into Ronson territory already. There’s even a brilliant snap, crackle, pop, land on one knee and then jazz hands ending to it.

It was inevitable really. Lead singer Charlie Waller appears to have been his chum for a moment now. He’s popped up at a Ronson Roundhouse performance as part of the Electric Proms in 2007 and there’s a cover of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black on one of The Rumble Strip’s early releases, Motorcycle. Their version shows off how unbelievably English they are – you can only imagine the response they’ve had in America, lots of mock accents talking about tea and marmite most likely. Has anyone else noticed how quite a large majority of our friends across the pond think we all sound like the Queen?