The View, Cord & Jakobinarina @ the Barfly

So Levi's are doing their "ones to watch" thing at the Barfly this evening. But all I can see are "ones to talk over the top of and possibly ignore".

Headlining tonight are The View, bless em. They're another retro band reliving the heady rock and roll days of the mythical East London music scene of ... ummm.. 4 years ago. With their own personal (probably signed in blood) copies of Up The Bracket they can even lay claim to knowing a Libertine or two (this being incestuous london an' all). But headliners they are not - not just yet - and not even in the skanky Barfly. We left after two songs. (The fat chicks down the front were lovin' it though.)

No one loves C/O/R/D as much as they do. They attempt to combine Keane with Queens of the Stone Age (!!!), and cross lines that should never even be looked at sideways. Christ save us. But in trying to be all things to all people they come across like sub pub rock Coldplay - desperate for regional radio air play. OK, so the singer might be a bit fit, but look beyond the rock posturing (ridiculous on the tiny Barfly stage) you only see a deep pool of emptyness, in which he can check out his reflection.

The one glimmer of hope and saving grace from this evenings unrelenting crapness comes from a bunch of punky school kids from Iceland, (or somewhere bloody cold and mostly dark for a good portion of the year), Jakobinarina. First on the stage tonight, we very nearly miss them (due to our reluctance at leaving the cosy Lock Tavern). But from we did see, they were much fun and could possibly be brilliant in about 5 years time, thats if they all don't splinter off and from lots more excellent bands. Young, so very, very young, dumb and full of carling, this pubescent Clash were the ones we really should have been watching tonight!