Credit: Found On Internet

There’s been a distinct lack of rock come out of Reading, despite the many advantages the town has in musical terms. Not only does it have arguably Britain’s second biggest summer festival in its Carling Weekend namesake, until recently it had WOMAD as well.

On top of that, it’s a university town; there should be an abundance of nervy young men trying to impress all the lithe student girls by starting bands. It sits as a satellite of Greater London, able to soak up the capital’s cultural mish-mash, while still able to suckle the suburban teat that has nourished dozens of bands desperate to escape small town-drudgery.

But apart from the much-missed Cooper Temple Clause, it’s a bit bleak otherwise.

Now Pete And The Pirates have popped out of the armpit of Berkshire with this two-minute burst of angular indie clatter, with plenty of nods to the Futureheads as it goes. If someone turned Editors mood-dial round from ‘melancholic echo’ to ‘spiky post-punk pop punches’ then it’d be a passable impression of the Berkshire quintet. Despite vocalist Tommy Sander’s lyrics of the mundane (“Get out of bed and put your socks on…”) there’s something inherently chirpy about this track.

Backed by ‘The Wrong Man’, they then swoop through territory usually inhabited by the worst kind of Dirty Pretty Things-esque look-we’re-doing-rough-and-ready-gutter-indie. Thankfully it is saved by its lack of smarm, and its ska-ish airs and graces. It’s gleefully addictive singles like this that make buying 7” again such a pleasure.

‘Knots’ is released on October 8 on Stolen Recordings.