The Aliens have landed!

"Bloody junk mail" I thought as I looked at the email called 'Introducing the Aliens'. But look again - the sender is 'Beta Band'. Hold on - The Beta Band split up well over a year ago. Hey - maybe this is some new Beta Band-related project. And it is! This is the best kind of junk mail.

Straight outta Fife, The Aliens collectively are John Maclean and Robin Jones (both ex Beta Band) and Gordon Anderson (aka Lone Pigeon, member of the Fence Collective, and 'founder member' of the BB). And they make a glorious noise! They pretty much pick up from where the Beta Band left off, and you can hear it in the brilliant new song 'Robot Man', which also has massive shades of Primal Scream's 'Loaded' (which in turn had massive shades of the Stones, etc, etc). There's not much to the lyrics (mainly 'Robot Man' repeated over and over) but a catchier tune you'll struggle to find at the moment. If it's not a hit (and in some ad) by the end of the year, I'll be a Sassenach!

Download 'Robot Man' here, and don't forget to check out their myspace site, which has another tune 'Only Waiting' for you to stream. Not as good as Robot Man but it's baggy throwback is still worth a listen. Looking forward to the debut EP “ALIENOID STARMONICA” which is meant to be out in April on Pet Rock records (their own label).

They're playing some gigs in Scotland later this month. Wish I could head back up there to check them out live. But I'm sure they'll be in London soon...

Now I'm off to see what that other ex-Beta man Steve Mason is up to. Judging by his recent patchy King Biscuit Time output, he could be eclipsed by his former bandmates. Let's hope I'm proved wrong.