Sidearm might be from Peterborough (but don’t let that put you off), as they are actually rather good and a bit different from the run of the mill from around these ‘ere parts. Sidearm manage to pull off the art rock sound and manifesto despite being from the cultural black hole that is Peterborough *note* voted 18th crappiest town in Britain…..but good for coffee bars, presumably as some government initiative to keep us awake and warm on cold nights!

Anyway, esentially Graffited Litter’ is three tracks brimming with adolescent pent up anger and aggression. As a rule the band appear to have got the intro of their songs written to a tee, but fall a little short in main with the most substantial parts of their music. For instance their first track ‘Peach Garden’ has a beautiful intro but disappoints as the track progresses. It sounds very much like early Idlewild circa ‘Captain’, especially with regard to the screeching and screaming in Neil’s vocals.

The second track has a great sample of Gloria Steiner talking about Sex and Race which could have been a downfall of the song and make it sound overworked but it’s actually very well executed. Although to be fair I’m a bit of a fan of hers so I could be a teensy bit bias here. However, it’s the third track that is by far my favourite. ‘Victim Junkie’, displays a maturity in the music which I didn’t know they had. Initially as the first few bars of song plays out you start to think how much it sounds like the intro to ‘Roll up and Shine’, by the Stereophonics but it honestly couldn’t develop much more differently. Pianos flow effortlessly into the music which then builds to a crushing crescendo as the guitars fuzz and blur out.

http://sidearm.urscene.net

Rocking or Shocking?
Rocking. 3/5 Si De Arm wont be Si De Tracked