You guys are bombarding me with new music lately, and I’m feeling obliged to give a shout out to the best of the bands I’m hearing lately.

Here’s the latest: glasslights or glass.lights as they sometimes spell it. They’re a London-based four-piece making some seriously ambitious tunes.

Check out their song, The King And The Queen, which starts out understated and innocently enough, until the massive chorus bursts forth from your speakers and everything goes mental. I can hear the influence of a stack of classic bands in their sound: a touch of U2 (in the guitar sound on July and Someone Like Me), piano-influenced groups, possibly in the Coldplay/Keane vein.

The thing is, while Coldplay and Keane often leave me cold, Glasslights actually have a pop rock sensibility that’s nowhere near the often-dull sounds of those bands.

Two of the newer songs on the MySpace page, Big Dreams and Brave New Day are an interesting contrast. Big Dreams sees Andy singing in an almost-falsetto and some lush strings. Brave New Day has a strong guitar sound and pounding drums alternating with a whispered verse. Actually, the more I listen to it, Brave New Day is my favourite track so far.

Anyway, I had a brief chat to singer/guitarist Andy to find out more about the band. Firstly, how and when they formed:

The band was formed last summer, June to be precise, when Brian (guitarist) answered my ad in a guildford newspaper. We started rehearsing bits and bobs together, then Brian quickly roped in two of his pals, Harvey (bass) and Dan Kav (drums) to complete the line up. We’ve been writing and rehearsing non stop ever since, and played our first gig at Guildford Boilerroom at the beginning of December last year, which was really fun. We’ve been gigging loads since, and as you will see from the myspace, we’ve got a nice string of gigs planned for the coming months across the country – so it’s all quite exciting.

So, they’ve been writing their own songs? What sort of music influences their songwriting? Andy says:

I know everyone says this, but they truly are very varied with this band. Personally, I’d say I’ve been most affected by classic songwriters – Lennon, Brian Wilson, The Carpenters – all that properly crafted stuff that no-one seems to own up to liking these days! By contrast, drummer Dan is a massive Metallica fan, so there’s a decent mixture of styles going on there.

What’re you waiting for? Bounce over to MySpace and have a listen to Glasslights, and tell me what you think…

Vince is my kind of singer – he’s got a raw, throaty vocal style, but as you’ll hear, there’s a real warmth in his tone as well.

He also gigs extensively, and at the moment he’s in the middle of doing an ‘In Your Lounge’ tour, where he turns up at intimate venues like people’s houses and performs for them.

He’s also shared stages with some names you might recognize: Paolo Nutini, James Morrison, and Nizlopi. He tells me that at one gig Jamie Cullum came up to him and complimented him on his songs and was surprised to hear Vince is currently unsigned.

Vince has just released his third album, Songs Without Shoes which only available for sale at his live performances. He says his musical style is influenced by country artists like Johnny Cash, Ryan Adams and more recently Kings Of Leon.

The next year or so look pretty good for Vince, as his management are currently shopping around for record and publishing deals and have already had some interest from Island Records and EMI.

If you want to sample some of Vince’s music, check out his MySpace page. I’d recommend Beauty Queen (one of the first songs I heard by Vince) and Whispers. I’ll leave you to contemplate this picture of Vince’s feet:

I’ve also been drinking inadvisable quantities of red wine this evening….

Anyway, while browsing Virb I came across Silversun Pickups, an indie four-piece from L.A. These guys are just amazing – I would kill for their guitar sound! They have an album called Carnavas which I am dying to hear. I’ve asked for a review copy so that I can cover them here. Hopefully they’ll oblige me…

Anyway, for a taster of their stuff click the Silvergun link above and listen to Lazy Eye. You will not regret it!