Leeds: the centre of the universe for the UK music scene

It was a week and weekend of contrasts. On Thursday, I was in Reading, at the Oakford Social Club, a fairly sizeable bar with a small stage and standing area that splits the place in two, to see the mighty Desperate Journalist. Fresh from the album launch of their eponymous debut, they rocked up to the first night of a new weekly slot showcasing new bands. They were devastating in their delivery. Tight rhythm section holding together the jangly 12-string guitar, that also mixes the angular hooks of new wave, and the powerful, biting vocals. As it always is with Reading crowds, they stood there watching, waiting to be blown away. The thing was, they were, but they didn't seem to know it. People will be, people who want to be. Desperate Journalist have what it takes to turn heads and people will take notice. Most strikingly is that the live experience captures perfectly the wall of noise on the record. Or is it visa versa?

Come Friday, I was jumping motorways up north to Manchester, where Elbow were taking up residence at the Apollo, before they dashed south and did the same in Hammersmith. A packed theatre of souls, half of us drinking in the lest often played Mexican Standoff and Any Day Now and the other half there to sing along to One Day Like This, and then get back to drinking the overpriced beer and talking about their week.

In either instances, I was struggling to concentrate on the band I was there to see whilst people who were there for a night out, shrieked in each others ears to be heard. They were fortunate the beer was expensive.

We went to Manchester rather than getting the train into London, as this was home for Elbow. Guy didn't keep that to himself on the night, as much as he doesn't in his lyrics, Station Approach being a perfect example. This great city that has spawned some of the greatest music for 50 years. The ghosts of those bands haunt the streets, because as the musical centre of the universe, those days are dead. The Smiths, The Stone Roses, The Happy Mondays, The Fall, The Inspiral Carpets, Oasis, they live on in the t-shirts, the pictures, the music, the haircuts and anoraks of 40 year old men, but the heart has gone. Manchester has lost it's identity. Elbow are the last great band to come out of Manchester, but they are a product of its death more than it's past spirit. The sad, thought provoking songs and lyrics are as much a lament to a time spent than a rousing war cry.

Maybe that's because there is a new upstart. Go east out of Manchester and cross the Pennines and you find a city coming alive. Leeds. A hotbed of raw talent and a DIY ethic that is the sound of the 21st century. Most of the bands you are listening to at the moment either hail from Leeds or gravitate to it and have some connection. Wild Beasts, Alt-J, Pulled Apart by Horses, Sky Larkin are being followed and even stolen from by the likes of new darlings Menace Beach. There are iconic record shops like Jumbo and Crash Records and mail order purveyors like Norman Records, and a new home to rival the Hacienda in Brudenell Social Club where The Cribs recently announced their comeback and aforementioned Menace Beach held their album launch.

The best thing about the new Leeds scene is the absolute lack of pretention. These are bands doing it for no another reason than they want to make music and make albums, and no one encapsulates that better than the Suburban Home Studio, run by MJ from Hookworms and part time in Menace Beach. He is the hottest new producer in England and when he isn't recording Hookworms and Menace Beach the queue is round the block for his services. Not that he'd tell you that though but he's worked with names such as Eagulls, Pulled Apart by Horses, Drenge, Mazes and Joanna Gruesome.
Hookworms are a self-confessed hobby of the protagonists, who run studios and work in schools for a living. Following the release of their second record, The Hum, in November they are doing a bad job of wanting to keep it purely a folly of their spare time as it slowly overtakes the rest of their lives. It is this un-fussed, laissez faire attitude that makes it what it is. Nothing is forced, but it is slaved over to perfection.

There is an incredible new artist called Eaves who is releasing his debut album in April, What Green Feels Like. Above is an acoustic version of As Old as the Grave recorded in Berlin. A beautifully bleak but honest song.

There is no image. There isn't a concern about cool, which may fly in the face of the archetypal rock'n'roll band or rock star, but instead there is an underground ethic, that is bubbling to the surface.