Avenue61 is a leading indie music site that specialises in album and gig reviews, breaking new bands, publicising events, and exclusive interviews with the leading cutting edge acts in the alternative music scene. Avenue61 covers a wide range of artists – some you would have heard of, some you won’t. Artists the site has reviewed recently include the Fleet Foxes, MGMT, Noisettes and Ladyhawke. The site is updated regularly so come back to catch up the latest news and reviews from the bleeding edge of the alternative music scene.

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>>

“Wow that’s a funky name, it must be some street slang for, hmmm…possibly something sordid. Wait, let’s google it. A whole Wikipedia entry?  ‘The period of adolescence for some members of the Amish when a youth chooses baptism within the church or instead leaves the community?’ Oh.  Ok then.”

But thought-transcript of first encounters aside, Rumspringa have won (according to internet research) the ‘Smug Journalist’s Best Kept Secret’ title of LA’s music scene with their self-titled EP, released this year on Cantora Records (of MGMT fame).  Oh we always know something that you don’t.

The duo, comprising of singer and guitarist Joey Stevens and drummer Itaru de la Vega, have brought Americana to the discotheque and

given it some LSD to play with. Together with honorary band member, the memory pedal, their EP has managed to carve out a distinct sound in, let’s face it, musically quite saturated times.

Shake’em Loose Tonight opens the EP with psychedelic guitar that wouldn’t be out of place on Hendrix’s Axis: Bold as Love record and then eases into a hauntingly blues-y party invitation.  Ok it might not be a party invitation but ‘Brothers and sisters won’t you gather around, no need for tickets we’re all from the same town’ is otherwise quite misleading.

The steady beat of de la Vega’s drums set the backdrop for Stevens’ lulling vocals continues on Minds Awake. It’s an interesting melting pot when their trippy riffs channel the Mississippi ghosts of Johnny Lee Hooker and simultaneously awaken the Canterbury sounds of Caravan. But the music isn’t the only thing making a grab for the nearest hallucinogenic, with lyrics like ‘Pick a flower but don’t let it down’, it appears the side effects of growing up in a city so rich in hippy-culture history hasn’t bypassed Rumspringa. Let’s just hope that at the end of this period of adolescence they don’t choose to leave the community.