Scene and Heard – CCCXXXX : Two Sides – Bitter Grounds (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

I didn’t realise that bands were still making music like this but I’m rather glad that they are. In an age where punk seems largely about rose-tinted nostalgia trips, alt-rock is all about getting just the right brand of skinny jeans and the this week’s complicated hair style and metal has long become a parody of itself, it seems as if the heavier end of music has been subsumed by imposters and chancers, retro-gazers and pastiche plunderers. Thankfully bands like Bitter Grounds pop up with just enough frequency to give us heart and stay true to the ragged, rock and roll cause.

Two Sides, from an up coming new album, reminds me of those punk bands who formed in the wake of that first three-chord explosion. As the initial shock and awe of the original scene was fading out and the next wave of bands realised that they had to offer something more meaningful, more melodic, more musical and then realised that if they did they could actually sell records…post-punk was born. Bitter Grounds would have fitted right in back then, the same balance of angst and artistry, of attitude and addictiveness, of accessibility and….other alliterative words that would neatly finish that sentence.