So Who's the Best Unsigned Band in the World?

It’s safe to say Alan McGee has a decent track record when it comes to naming the next big thing. As co-founder and long-time head of Creation Records, McGee was responsible for much of the early success of bands like the Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream, and most notably, Oasis. In short, McGee jumpstarted the drug-addled mix of rave culture and post-punk that defined the frantic creativity of British pop during the late 80s and early 90s.

Which is why our interest was piqued when Mr. McGee went and named “the best unsigned band in the world” on his Guardian blog today. They’re called the Grants, they’re from Liverpool, and according to McGee, they could become “one of the few bands in the history of Liverpool - after Echo and the Bunnymen - to step out of the shadows of the Beatles.” McGee goes on to compare the quartet (who’ve been predictably ensconced at one of McGee’s London clubs, the Queen is Dead) to Crazy Horse and the Gallagher brothers. “Chris Grant is an unstoppable force with his new songs,” McGee writes. “Nothing will stop the young man. He is even beyond the collapse of capitalism.”

Jeez... So what do these boys actually sound like? Well, from what we can tell from the spare demos on the band’s MySpace page, not a whole lot. With everything blanketed in thick layers of reverb, the Grants remind us most of early Verve. Chris Grant’s romanticism as well as his bluster (“Anybody dare to cross us? Is somebody willing to die?”) is clearly indebted to Richard Ashcroft. And all those chiming guitars floating through the mix owe much to the Verve’s brilliant guitarist Nick McCabe. But the songs themselves—all frustratingly alike—are largely limp-wrested and meandering. Then again, these are only demos, and there’s unmistakable ambition lodged at the center of these tunes. Who knows what the Grants could do with a bigger budget. Too bad Creation isn’t around these days…