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Sunday Sun Stereo

THE BUREAU — . . . AND ANOTHER THING (Bureau productions): The Bureau are one of the great lost bands of the 1980s, they came into being following a split in the ranks of Dexy’s Midnight Runners and recruited Newcastle’s own Archie Brown as lead vocalist.Read

THIS week’s video comes courtesy of Tyneside’s longest running Blues outfit, the Junco Partners, originally formed in 1964. Here, band members talk about the first time they met Howlin’ Wolf — who they went on to tour with — and cover one his best-known numbers, Smokestack Lightnin’.

See the video at www.sundaysun.co.uk/ettvidRead

SCARS ON BROADWAY — SCARS ON BROADWAY (Interscope): Metal music is awash with dodgy lyrics, but Scars on Broadway take it to a new level on their song World Long Gone. “Sometimes, I go crazy, like I’m crazy”, we’re solemnly informed. Dude, I totally feel your pain. Scars on Broadway came about when the multi-platinum selling System of a Down took an indefinite hiatus, leaving guitarist/vocalist Daron Malakian and drummer John Dolmayan at a loose end. Every great metal album should have one song that winds up the parents, and SOB have several, most notably the hilariously catchy Chemicals, with its half-whispered refrain of “Come share some chemicals with me.”

THE BLAKES — THE BLAKES (Strange Addiction): The Blakes are brothers Garnet and Snow Keim, and drummer Bob Husack. The trio hail from Seattle, make a glorious garage racket and they’re called The Blakes because they always thought that The Smiths was a cool name for a band. There are echoes of bands such as The Strokes and Kings of Leon on this confident debut, and Primal Scream would have killed to have some of these tunes on their new, pop-rock album. Listening to tracks such as the deep bass-driven Vampire and the urgent, frantic new single, Don’t Want That Now, I’d hazard a guess that The Blakes are about to become the new cool kids on the block.Read

Brit fans and an 11ft T-Bone . . Brandi’s side of The Story

BRANDI CARLILE is a 27-year-old singer songwriter from Ravensdale, Washington, USA.Read

JOE LEAN & THE JING JANG JONG — JOE LEAN & THE JING JANG JONG (Vertigo): An hour before I sat down to review this album, I found out that it wasn’t going to be released after all . . . the band have changed their minds about the whole thing, apparently, so they’re going to re-record it and release it sometime in 2009. Hopefully, Joe Lean and his Jing Jang Jong will go on to become massive and I’ll have a real rarity on my hands, but, judging on this evidence, that seems unlikely to happen. It was produced by John Cornfield, who has worked with Supergrass and Razorlight, and it sounds like both of those bands at times — especially the latter — but without much in the way of memorable songs.

EVA CASSIDY — SOMEWHERE (Blix St): Eva Cassidy died in 1996, four years before her astonishing version of Over the Rainbow topped the UK charts . . . a feat repeated by her posthumous Songbird album. There have been one or two unofficial recordings released since then, but Somewhere has been compiled with the help of the Cassidy family and features newly discovered tracks, classic cover versions and, for the first time, two of Eva’s own songs. My pick of the bunch is Early One Morning . . . a wild, radical reworking of a traditional folk song that the bucolic-period Led Zeppelin would be proud of. There’s also the sad and gentle If I Gave My Heart, featuring Eva’s brother Dan on haunting fiddle duties.Read

THIS week’s video comes from Northumberland’s Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, a folk outfit who will be battling it out with the likes of Radiohead and Adele for this year's Mercury music prize.

Although it seems like a long shot to win, the band and their Mercury-nominated album, The Bairns, were nominated four times at the BBC folk awards this year, so they could be well worth a flutter at long odds.Read