Let’s take a trip into the music kitchen, shall we?

Here’s the deal:

1. Add a touch of Kasabian and Embrace

2. Sprinkle in an Oasis/Radiohead influence

3. Subtract ten years off the band members in step 2

4. Turn the oven to 425

5. Bake for 20 minutes

6. Hard-Fi pops out

Simple…tight lyrics…and in most cases, a fairly hypnotic hook/beat that’s got most of the UK mad fer’it. And that’s who I hear when I hit play on Hard-Fi.

These guys have been on the scene since 2005 and with their latest, Once Upon a Time in the West, which reached #1 on the UK charts in only one week, I think there’s a lot more that these guys will be doing in the future. Watch out for tracks: Cash Machine, Tied Up Too Tight, Suburban Knights (Kasabian-ish? I think so), and Little Angel.

I also admire the fact that this band, although fairly new, thinks big. We’re talking really big. And, in the crazy world of rockstardom, that’s what it takes, right Liam?

Richard Archer, hard-fi’s lead dude, put it really nicely, I think:

I’m not in competition with Razorlight and The Killers – I like those bands. I’m in competition with f#$%^’n Eminem. What’s the point of being parochial and small-time? You’ve got to think big.

Well played, sir.

darren