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>>

A four-piece indie band with female lead vocals. What you thinking so far? Oh same old same old, just a copy of Camera Obscura, Rilo Kiley, Sons and Daughters etc? Well you’re pretty much bang on target there. This band does take obvious inspiration from some of the aforementioned bands, and the concoction they make is in some way a very overdone one. The phrase ‘re-inventing the wheel’ springs to mind.

But let us put on those rose tinted spectacles and see what’s underneath that glass wall of pessimism and prejudice. Lets start with the song “Lost Art”. It starts with an MGMT-esque drumbeat and solo singing, and is soon accompanied with the bass and guitar doing their usual medium-speed repeated tune. But

what’s this? My foot’s tapping? My head’s nodding? Oh dear, I’ve clicked repeat. I’m humming and singing along on the second run?

Yes, Stricken City are a good band. The path they take to get themselves into their genre may be a well-trodden one, but they make rather amusing and very intriguing footprints on the way. If you cast aside any preconceptions you hold about “originality is the best” and “clones are crap” etc, then you’ll most likely join me in my limb movement. The London-based band, led by Rebekah Raa as front-woman extraordinaire, have played their fair share of gigs all over the UK – some have even had the good nature of being for free. They’ve been top of the MTV2 myspace chart, ahead of Kings of Leon, Oasis and Paramore, and Lost Art is set to be their latest release. Their very informal and chatty blog shows them ‘bigging’ up fellow bands still in unknown territory, showing a feeling of unity with all these bands still below the surface of mass knowledge. They’ve been very positively reviewed by NME, The Times, Q, and even Channel4.com.

Definitely a band to have even the smallest of listens to on the lovely Myspace, I’d say. They make you remember being a kid and running along streets as fast as you could, completely unaware of how much of an idiot you may be making of yourself. I can imagine myself hearing Lost Art as I ride my bike along a thin muddy path in the woods, with a dog in the basket on my handlebars.

And what’s this? Touring with Maximo Park in May? They get my seal of approval.