That said, they couldn’t be more different. Local heroes Performance have adopted a glamorous, arrogantly ‘dressed up’ look, their cooler-than-thou atmospherics shot through with great tunes and the mad passion of singer Joe Stretch, whose dress sense paled considerably in comparison with the rest of the (mostly female) band. Not necessarily revolutionary listening but Performance are definitely ones to watch.  | | Performance |
However, Vancouver’s You Say Party! We Say Die! are the sort of revolting music-making colonialists cool Britannia have been trying to ignore/silence for years. Not for them the high street ‘bought off the rack’ sound that seems to float UK indie’s boat at the moment, rather a musical snarl, based not only in the aforementioned keyboards but with additional ingredients including guitars, bass, drums all of which are turned up to maximum amplitude. Can you imagine what that might sound like? How about the B52’s, covered with a topping of Yeah Yeah Yeahs with just a smidgeon of Huggy Bear? These seemingly disparate elements wrapped together by the shape-throwing dynamo Becky, a singer of the more shouty variety, and, girl next door Krista, who provided keys and a great line in vocal punctuations. Who’d have thought it? Bands from Vancouver and Manchester dominated by keyboards and women! What a refreshing change from all those spotty male musicians with an Arctic Monkeys fixation. If this is a new scene, I want more of it. | 
