As an enjoyer of indie music, I often find myself feeling guilty at my overindulgence in music from the latter half of the 20th century. In their track ‘I hate the 80s’, The Vaselines make a dig at the mysticism associated with the decade, having become a sort of mythos for being ‘music’s prime’: “What do you know, you weren’t ther e/ It wasn’t all Duran Duran…”. When you live somewhere like Plymouth, it is a pretty easy vortex to fall into. There isn’t (or at least wasn’t, when I was 16) much of a music scene or indication that anything new or exciting is happening. So, besides the usual youthful exploration into some banger (but sadly misogynistic) Midwest emo, and the token Horsegirl album, I found myself victim to this short-sightedness, listening to the same 20th century albums on repeat.

Despite having come to Cambridge – where, at least for students, the music scene is bleak unless you’re enthusiastic about jazz fusion covers – I have sought to overcome this nihilism by finding exciting new indie bands. This does require looking, and travelling, outwards. So, when I saw that The Cords, Bramwell, Josie, and Permapup were on a bill together in Bristol, I was determined to attend.

“I have sought to overcome this nihilism by finding exciting new indie bands”

The gig was at The Croft, a music venue near Bristol centre, a sort of strangely shaped bar with lots of red walls, the music venue itself hidden away through some doors at the back. I am, sadly, incapable of arriving on time for anything, and so didn’t hear much of the first act’s set. However, what I heard from Permapup sounded great – a pleasantly conversational and mellow indie pop that reminded me a lot of the Moldy Peaches.

Next on was Bramwell. I first encountered Bramwell when we were both supporting acts for a gig in Plymouth, and, honestly, they may have been the first non-famous band I ever genuinely enjoyed the set of. Three years later and they have evolved hugely. First of all, they looked bloody awesome on stage. Bassist and backing vocalist Avalon was wearing the coolest black and white dress I have ever seen, and the band had a very impressive array of guitars.

Their music is self-described as jangling power-pop – packed with extremely fun yet intense guitars, tactful sprinklings of dissonance, interesting pauses and tempo shifts, and, my favourite, their quirky syllabic backing vocals. A particular highlight was their performance of single ‘Problems’, which has such a fun feel to it, from its verbose lyrics and punchy pre-chorus to its straight-to-the-point guitars. They are really doing their own thing. In fact, I find it pretty hard to think of a solid band comparison – they combine the sentiments of the Kinks and Guided by Voices with a more contemporary vocal style, sometimes touching on softer and more atmospheric sounds. They’re certainly a band to check out if you like 60s pop songs, 80s indie, shoegaze, or anything in-between!

Josie, the next band, got instant points for me because one of their guitarists was wearing a Dolly Mixture t-shirt. A four piece from Copenhagen, Josie’s super fun high energy songs combined twee indie with sensibilities of punk. They had a Kleenex or Raincoats-y feel to them, with carefree sounding melodies and more powerful experimental guitar sounds, and despite having never heard any of their songs before, I found myself very engrossed in their set.

“Carefree sounding melodies and more powerful experimental guitar sounds”

Finally, it was time for The Cords, a Scottish sibling duo. Upon finding out about The Cords, I was intrigued to find out they have already booked an impressive range of gigs – supporting the likes of The Primitives, The Pastels, and Belle and Sebastian while they were both teens. Admittedly, I am sort of cheating on my contemporary music quest, since listening to them basically feels like listening to c86 era indie, but their songwriting is skilfully their own. They reimagine but maintain the spirit of classics like The Shop Assistants or Marine Girls. Their music is fun, bright, and punchy, having a certain youthful earnestness to it without being juvenile.

“A certain youthful earnestness to it without being juvenile”

When they first came on stage, I was sort of worried that Josie would have outplayed them; I knew they are only made up of one guitar, drums and vocals, and their songs are rather fey (in the best way).

But how wrong was I… they might have actually been the loudest act of the night; they certainly were the ones that spurred me to use the bar’s complimentary earplugs. Every song was super tight, high-energy, and followed by a sweet and softly spoken “Thank you” by the lead singer. Their slightly reserved demeanour just made it so incredibly cool when they come out with these huge sounding songs.

I particularly enjoyed the song ‘Fabulist’, a pleasantly personal pop song, and it was very nice to see the audience, primarily made up of middle-aged men, absolutely getting down to these two teenage girls. It is safe to say I left the gig feeling very optimistic that not all is lost, there is indeed hope for (real) indie pop.