"You CANNOT make friends with the rock stars. That's what's important. If you're a rock journalist - first, you will never get paid much. But you will get free records from the record company. And they'll buy you drinks, you'll meet girls, they'll try to fly you places for free, offer you drugs... I know. It sounds great. But they are not your friends. These are people who want you to write sanctimonious stories about the genius of the rock stars, and they will ruin rock and roll and strangle everything we love about it."

So said Lester Bangs (well, Phillip Seymour Hoffman pretending to be Lester Bangs) in Cameron Crowe's rose tinted tale of an underaged wannabe journalist 'Almost Famous'. He may have a point - though I hasten to add that I'm yet to have been offered girls, drugs or free flights to anywhere as yet. However, I have broken the golden rule. Whether they would ever be referred to as 'rock stars' is debatable, but I now count members of a number of bands amongst my closest friends, and therein lies a dilemma.

Every day when I return home from work I am greeted with a landslide of Jiffy bags containing the latest slew of releases that have been sent for Maps' delectation. For the most part they are accompanied by soulless, faceless press releases proclaiming the enclosed Libertines/Bloc Party/Franz clones to be the greatest, freshest thing since sliced bread. Reviewing these bands is easy - bang it in the cd player and give it a few spins - whether it's derivative rubbish or a work of genius, you can say so without fear of repercussions. However, every so often (and it's happening more and more frequently), a hand addressed envelope arrives with an informal note (usually, for some reason, written in purple ink). My heart skips a beat - this cd is from a band I know. A band that I have laughed and chatted and drank with, a band that I will almost certainly bump into at a gig some day soon. Suddenly, the repercussions of writing a review seem all too clear - what if it's shit? Can I say so and still look them in the eye when we next meet? Should I lie for the sake of saving social embarrassment?

Luckily, pretty much every friendship I've formed with a band has stemmed from an admiration for their music - I've got to know them through emails about reviews and chatting after gigs, and thanks to that, so far it's not often that I've had to face the dilemma. But what if it does? Maybe good ole' Lester can shed some light:

"My advice to you. I know you think those guys are your friends. You wanna be a true friend to them? Be honest, and unmerciful."

And so far I've tried to stick to that path - not that it's been an easy ride. I've still been accused of nepotism on a number of occasions, and on one memorable occasion when I published a negative review of a band I knew well, I received a couple of abusive emails - to this date they're still yet to speak to me. But for the most part it's been pretty good advice, and with this in mind, I approached this week's pile of reviews:

The Swear - Canis Minor EP
I've known The Swear for ages, ever since seeing them play with The Violets
several years back. I've been to innumerable gigs, put them on at several of my
own shows, and even had their guitarist Andrew write occasional articles for
both Maps and Joyzine.

Since our first encounter, the band have changed almost irrecognisably from a
spiky pop-punk outfit to the much more complex and interesting proposition that
currently sits in my cd player. The arrival of bassist Craig Gell a year or so back
has played a large part in this, not least through adding his unusually luxurious
vocals to the already potent boy/girl attack of Tycie & Andrew.

The four tracks here are less immediate than their earlier works, but the occasional pop hook sneaks through the layered guitars, overlapping vocals and fluctuating rhythms. This combination of complex and catchy works best on opening track '(are you ready for) another change' with it's spidery guitar line and vocal harmonies, making this perhaps The Swear's strongest offering to date.

www.the-swear.co.uk

So far, so good.

The International Karate Plus - Cold Times / Hot Metal
The IK+ are quite possibly the nicest band you could ever hope to meet. They
once drove all the way from Cardiff to East London to play a free charity gig I
was organising, then drove home, did a whole day's work, then drove back to
London for a second free gig.

Sadly they have been going through some difficult times of late, and this is their
last release with their original line-up, with singer Richard Arnold leaving the
band (Chris & Mike are currently looking for a replacement - get in touch via
their website if you're interested).

This two track single encompasses all of the things that made the band great -
dynamic songs that get the quiet/loud thing spot on, Arnold's off-kilter vocals
and huge great US indie style pop hooks. Here's hoping the new line-up, when it arrives, can keep the standard this high.

www.theikplus.com

Akira - Patriot
Akira's frontman Joel is as enthusiastic and passionate about music as anyone
I've met since I've been writing about music. Since first receiving a barrage of
emails from him about his band and club nights, Akira have played a club night
I was involved with as well as being featured numerous times on Maps &
Joyzine.

Akira's sense of wilful exploration is their greatest strength, leading to their
making some astoundingly original music, but they can also be very hit and miss
as a result, and this cd showcases brings that element of their music to the fore.
The lead track, 'Patriot', has some great moments, particularly a snake-like
guitar line that emerges from the deep halfway through, but sadly then gets
caught up in a sludgy extended jam. It sounds like the band were aiming for an epic, building sound, and at times they achieve it, but the overall effect is a little muddled, and doesn't improve on 'Atom' an atmospheric, slow burning number riddled with electrical squiggles and echoes.

Akira have got the potential to achieve great things, but on this occasion haven't hit the heights of which they are capable.

www.akiraband.com

Luxembourg - We Only Stayed Together for the Kids
Barely a week seems to pass without my seeing the Lux at the moment (in fact I would have been seeing them yet again last night had it not been for a dodgy prawn sandwich), and live they rarely disappoint. Their outings on record have mostly been pretty decent too, and this is no exception. Whilst lacking the anthemic immediacy of past favourites 'Closed Cropped' and 'What the Housewives Don't Tell You', 'We Only Stayed Together for the Kids' contains sufficient swirls of keyboard and vocal flourishes to satisfy even the most demanding of pop-pickers, and the chorus pushes so many of the right buttons at once that you feel there must have been an octopus at the controls. Glorious.

www.luxembourgweb.co.uk

So three resounding thumbs up and one could do better - Lester Bangs may be turning in his grave, but I'm dancing in my bedroom.

Reviews by Paul Madden

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