Baby

Before everyone gets too exercised – or do we mean exorcised? – by Brother, it's probably worth saving some of your ire for Camden's Tribes, who bear the same relation to Nirvana that Brother do to Oasis – that is, they are in hoc to them up to their necks (lucky the collars on their plaid shirts are loose). With their mumbling vocals and growly guitars, facial fuzz and general air of dishevelment, Tribes appear to worship at the altar of Cobain and Co. Their track Whenever couldn't be more Nevermind-ish if it tried, which presumably it won't do because exertion would be antithetical to the slacker ethos. From the title ("Whatever" was probably too obvious, even for them) to the opening quiet bit that is just the right side of soft, ie it makes you realise the loud bit is coming, we are basically in National Lampoon territory. Do they still have National Lampoon? It was a US satirical magazine of the 70s that, at its peak of parodic popularity, had movie spin-offs such as Animal House and Class Reunion. If it is still going, they could make a grunge-era comedy about a Seattle high school where Kurt (played by Owen Wilson) gets revenge on the lead jock (played by Seth Rogan) by sleeping with his sister (played by Courtney Love). And Tribes could provide the soundtrack. Their songs have choruses that sound like the bit in Smells Like Teen Spirit where Kurt went, "Hello, hello, hello", in that sardonic droney manner that suggested sardonicism was his way of dealing with anguish and pain. He would have droned for America had he heard Tribes