You know I spent the last week thinking how Hard-Fi were unfairly maligned. I was listened to some of their singles on my iPod and enjoying them quite a bit for the first time in a few years.
East London's Cross Wires sound a tiny bit like Hard-Fi but here's the crucial difference: Cross Wires rock a lot harder.
Cross Wires -- Jonathan Chapman, vocals, Peter Muller, guitar, Pete Letch, bass, and Ian Clarke, drums -- create angular, punk-y music that earns well-deserved comparisons to The Buzzcocks and Glen Matlock's post-Sex Pistols band, Rich Kids.
The band is actively promoting their most recent release, the excellently named Your History Defaced EP. "Modern Art" is the charging cousin of Art Brut without the arched eyebrows and sheen of irony. "Tab Clear" mingles the barest hint of a ska skank with rhythms like those found on early XTC releases. The aces "Vultures" combines guitar hooks like ones out of a Wire record with pounding drums from Clarke that give the cut more of a punk feel.
Get on board with Cross Wires by following them on their official Facebook page here.