Jim Carroll's guide to future sounds

DOLLY ROCKERS Revenge of the chavs

Likely to be joining Pixie Lott at the top of the charts come September are a bolshie new girl band called Dolly Rockers. “Three girls who are as likely to snog you as happy-slap you, Dolly Rockers belong to the generation who want pop back on their own terms. A generation who make no distinction between Spice Girls Wannabe and Blur’s Girls and Boys,” says their promotional material.

From various parts of the UK and in their early 20s, Dolly Rockers have already been labelled “a bunch of chavs”. And to be fair, they do come across like a group who would turn up on children’s television, light up a fag and start cursing at the presenter.

Lyrically, they give out about “orange girls” and Wags, and elsewhere muse on the joys of chips and energy drinks. They’ve already managed to annoy Jodie Marsh with a song that includes the lines: “She thinks she’s fit with her new fake tits and her liposuction/She hires limousines making massive scenes just to go the pub in”.

There’s been no grooming or media training here; dressed in their Primark best they’re waging a war on glamour and celebrity and will use their white stilettos to hammer their point home.

Their first single, Gold Diggergoes on release this week. Resistance is futile.

- www.thedollyrockers.com

Django Django: Eclectic, Reinhardt- free art rock from Scotland

Time for some art – and Django Django sure are packing a lot of that. The four Django-ers first met at art school in Edinburgh in the early part of this decade.

Post-college, a few of them set up the Embassy gallery in the city, where they could showcase their wares and the work of associates.

And now comes a limited-edition, highly collectable debut single, released on buzzy Scottish artist and film-maker Luke Fowler’s “art music” Shadazz label.

The music, too, is as art-school as indie-pop gets in this day and age. You’ll hear traces of dub, rockabilly, prog-rock and acid house in the imaginative Django Django tunes which have slipped into the wild to date. At times, they sound like Hot Chip with an Orange Juice fascination – and at other times, it’s like Arthur Russell and Bo Diddley jamming with A Certain Ratio. All angles are covered with great aplomb.

Now based in Dalston in London, the four have dabbled in various musical pursuits since their college days. Dave Maclean found himself drawn to acid house and reggae, while Vincent Neff was the one who got his kicks from making weird music.

By the time the four came together and started writing tunes, a dastardly soundclash was very much on the cards. You can also hear this breadth of sounds in the various remixes and mix-tapes bearing their name which are doing the rounds online.

It will be interesting to see where Django Django go from here now that people are beginning to realise that they're not a mutant Django Reinhardt tribute. Regardless of what happens, the DIY skills which have already produced Stormand Zummzummare sure to keep them in clover.

- www.myspace.com/ djangotime

Harlem Shakes: Prep-pop

It’s preppy pop time again. While we wait for Vampire Weekend to finish college... sorry, their second album, there are a new bunch of super-smart pop tarts waiting to meet you round the back of the bike shed.

In fact, there are so many lines to be drawn between the two acts that the more cynical New Music tipsters have renamed this lot Vampire Bank Holiday Weekend.

Wilting sarcasm aside, we’re really digging the Shakes this weather. Straight out of Brooklyn, they trade in swinging harmonies, sexy hooks, hyperactive jangles and dastardly upbeat indie-pop grooves.

Tracks such as Strictly Game, with a lovely brassy veneer to boost the oomph factor, make their debut album Technicolor Healthan album with a hugely likeable pep to its step.

It’s also an album in which the band display similar patience to a small child in a sweetshop with regard to mixing and matching different musical styles.

The band have ironed out any kinks in their live show via gigs with Vampire Weekend (of course), Arctic Monkeys, Wire, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and others, as well as some excellent shows at this year’s South By Southwest band-athon. Next stop: Europe.

- www.harlemshakes.com

FOUR MORE

Tyondai Braxton

Battles keyboardist and guitarist goes solo with Central Market album due in September. First track Uffe’s Woodshop is a blast.

www.myspace.com/tyondai

Pocket Promise

Yet another new band from Northern Ireland with an album (I’ve Been Here For Ages) chockablock with sky-scraping melodies and radio-friendly indie tunes

www.myspace.com/pocketpromise

Free Energy

Philadelphia five-piece who are digging Seventies rock, dancing in the downtown moonlight and tipping the hat to Thin Lizzy.

www.myspace.com/freeenergymusic

Your Twenties

Feel-good summery pop from ex-Metronomy man Gabriel Stebbing, with production on Billionaires single from Stephen Street.

www.myspace.com/yourtwenties