Minks

I came across Minks a good few months ago, either on Pitchfork or NME, I'm not quite sure, but I downloaded their March single "Funeral Song" and loved it. Shimmering guitar chords, bass line that carried you along on a stunning rush of a journey, synth lines that soared over the whole mix. There were obvious comparisons to Joy Division and The Cure, but informed by happy bouncy indie pop rather than death. But for one reason or another I never got round to investigating them further.

So much was my delight when I logged onto Pitchfork and discovered a new track available! "Cemetery Rain" is in very much the same style as "Funeral Song". It's a sweet, chilled, bittersweet dream-pop gem with a subtly catchy chorus that has warmly wormed its way into my brain and heart over the last few icy November days. It shimmers and bounces in all the right places, and slides into a nifty guitar solo and outro, which maybe suggests some psychedelic potential from these guys. It's a little similar to some of the new stuff from California's Girls. They've got a little bit of a goth-pop thing going on- cemeteries, funerals, a song named after Hamlet's crazy sister ("Ophelia"), a slightly gothy exterior in the few pictures available. I can't find a great deal about the band though other than that they're from New York. Aisde from that no lineup, no history, nothing! Last FM, Wikipedia and other profile have left me uninformed. But hey ho. People managed without extensive band biographies 50 years ago!

Their album By The Hedge is due out January 12th and I'm now getting a wee bit excited about it! Minks are one of those difficult bands to Google though- life the aforementioned Girls or Women or Mickey Mickey Rourke. I keep ending up with stuff like this.

Click here for their MySpace , or here for their slightly bizarre photographic blog and also click here for a Pitchfork page where you can grab downloads of the three tracks I've mentioned. Enjoy!

Minks - "Funeral Song" from LANCE DRAKE on Vimeo.