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Rough Trade Records’ Warpaint have just announced a return to UK/Irish shores in the form of a May 2011 tour. If you haven’t heard the sound of this stunning quartet yet, jump on the bandwagon and download an MP3 below.

The LA four-piece, consisiting of Emily Kokal (vocals/guitar), Theresa Wayman (guitar/vocals), Jenny Lee Lindberg (bass/vocals) and Stella Mozgawa (drums), have recently toured the US coast to coast alongside Mercury Prize winners The XX. The announcement of these 2011 UK and Ireland dates come hot on the heels of their recent sold-out headline shows in the UK, US and Europe which closed with a performance to a full house at London’s Scala.

The dates are as follows:

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Goo Goo Dolls are timeless creatures. I arrived for the show fifteen minutes before the band’s stage time, and the venue was absolutely rammed full of a diversity of people – young, old, student, retired, couples wrapped around each other.  The band exploded onto the stage and stormed through renditions of fan-favourites ‘Slide’ and ‘Big Machine’ before stopping for some well-received American banter. The set was full of old gems, as well as a couple of Radio 2 A-list tracks from the new album. Indeed, Goo Goo Dolls are still kings of the modern alternative-rock ballad.

As the night drew towards its close, frontman John Rzeznik, modelling an electro-acoustic guitar, played a couple of chords and, with a grin, paused and said into the microphone: “Well, we’ve gotta play this one”. I’m sure you can guess which tune followed, and the crowd lapped it up. The show finished with a two-song encore, the final track being the beautiful ‘Broadway’. An amazing set from a band who really do deserve their ongoing success.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlT7t7C24pI

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Meursault are an interesting band. I realise that ‘interesting’ can often by synonymous with ‘shit but cool’, but in this case, I’m very much assured that ‘interesting’ – meant minus the ‘shit’ tag – is the right word to describe these Scottish rocker types.

Creative, chaotic but somehow still melodic, Edinburgh’s Meursault already have a solid fan base in Norwich; the tiny Playouse Bar was packed to the brim with art fags, hippies and musos – all of them singing and dancing like lunatics (sweat galore). Meursault frontman Neil Pennycook’s banter showcased the band as humble, down to earth creatures, with music to match. These guys don’t take themselves too seriously, and they’re talented, so it would clearly be easy to.

Musically, there are elements of Fleet Foxes (catchy beautiful guitar hooks) and Temper Trap (wonderfully atmospheric use of their instruments) and the package comes together to suggest that this is a band on the brink of something great – I can’t wait to see how it develops.

Masters of what they do – though I find it fairly difficult to pin a specific label on what is is that they do – Meursault, I have no doubt, are a couple of steps away from breaking to a much larger audience. I honestly cannot wait to see it happen.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paoe64qnj5c

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