Some RAWK for you...ft. Reuben, Million Dead, Duke Spirit

British music may have a long history of soppy indie bands, electro pioneers and weird weird prog rock. But I ask you this: when did Britain produce a half decent, pure and simple, ROCK band?

Well I guess you'd say Biffy Clyro? Fair shout, if you don't count that last album. Before that, most people would probably say Led Zep or the Stones...certainly nothing recent right?

Well, you're wrong, scroll down and there are a couple of stellar examples of good, honest, British rock bands...

Duke Spirit:



Blues tinged (on occasion), female vocals, fuzzy guitars, what more could you want? The criminal underplayed London band have never been short of critical acclaim and die hard fan support, but you can't help but think they deserve maybe a little more exposure? Even Henry Rollins approves! (see the video)


Reuben:



I mentioned them a few weeks ago, so take heed because I won’t tell you again! If The Duke Spirit are the criminally underplayed band of this list, Reuben are (or were, they split) the criminally underrated. Have you heard of them? Bet you not. Will you like them? Probably. Think of a sort of British Foo Fighters, but before the Foos started to get a bit too middle of the road, and not as instantly cool. Still, the music is good old fashioned, straight up rock. Simples.


Lower Than Atlantis:





Slightly more likely you will have heard of these boys. Still about and have slowly gathered a growing bit slice of fame/fan base after the last few years. More at the 'hardcore' end of the spectrum, so if that's your thing, listen up.


Million Dead:



Another more 'hardcore' type band, who sadly no longer exist. Frank Turner, as in the earnest singer-songwriter was their singer and I sometimes wish he stuff with this sort of stuff. Raw-edged exciting stuff that owes more to Black Flag and 80s punk than any other band here, again, another one for hardcore lovers *raises own hand*.

Nine Black Alps:



Once upon a time they were billed as the next Arctic Monkeys... Oh where are they now?




So there it is. Yes ok- Million Dead are more of a hardcore band than 'rock', and yeah yeah, you can probably argue the same for Lower than Atlantis. But do I care? No, just listen to them!