Barkerhound - Friend/Enemy (Delete As Appropriate)

Another local unsigned band, this time from Coventry, and although I've gigged with them once or twice, I don't really know much about them. I believe at least one member of the band is a music teacher at one of the local universities and this comes across in the excellent musicianship and well crafted songwriting on the album. It's brilliantly recorded and the album is better than most albums by more established bands. The songs feature excellent drums, good bass playing, intricate guitarwork and some really nice melodic synth parts and the lyrical themes cover most aspects of modern life. Unfortunately on searching online it seems that they may have split up.

They're a very difficult band to pigeonhole but remind me a little of intelligent pop rock like XTC and Mansun. Unfortunately there are no studio recordings up on youtube, so the best I can find is this live video of them playing album highlight "The Things That Scare You" at Birmingham rock pub "Scruffy Murphys"...