Crossing The Pond: New Manhattan

Holy Royal Wedding, y'all, I haven't done one of these since months before the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge hitched their wagons together in holy matrimony. Time to rectify this situation with a little something I do believe you'll like quite a bit.

New Manhattan is a bunch of rather young Londoners making some mighty fine rock'n'roll. They've managed to marry the electric Englishness of that first Libertines EP to the taut, exciting simplicty of the first Strokes record, adding a sort of charming bashfulness to the noise for a disarming overall appeal. Not to sound too trite, but New Manhattan really does sound wise beyond their collective years.

They're giving away their three-song demo EP, which I've already downloaded and you should probably do so this very minute. Of the three, the jerky jangle of the perfectly lo-fi "Try Harder" is probably my favorite, and the song I can imagine helping them make some serious noise with. This is a band to be watched, and I plan on doing just that.

mp3: Try Harder (New Manhattan from the free demo EP)