This City have been already been described in review as “like The Travelling Wilburys if it was made of members of Bloc Party and At The Drive In”. Maybe if you throw in the eyeball-popping nuances of Blood Brothers, the same turn-on-a-sixpence disco-jerk rhythms of the more danceable end of punk (think Les Savy Fav or !Forward Russia!), the impassioned cacophony of mid 80s Dischord Records-led emotional hardcore, the pop sensibility of tykes such as The Automatic and subtract the reference to Tom Petty and co, we might just be inclined to agree… This City formed and reside in Brighton in 2006 having met at a tattoo convention. Since stabilising their line-up (their two previous drummers departed to join The Pipettes and Architects) they’ve quickly established themselves as one of the surest bets in the UK’s thriving underground. Though they would surely cringe at the description, they’re one of those impossibly good-looking bands, five young men who look like they were born to share a stage with one another and who play with an almost telepathic ability. A blur of swinging fringes and speed-skinny legs, live This City are an engaging and explosive force. With their US counterparts having had a monopoly on the anthemic, life-affirming end of hardcore for some years now, This City are part of a renaissance of UK bands who can’t fully relate to Stateside accents and songs about shopping malls (cf Gallows, Ghost Of A Thousand, Kids In Glass Houses etc) and instead are making

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