Who are they?
A four-piece rock band from Brooklyn.
From Brooklyn? It's all outre influences and no tunes then, is it?
No! The Beasts of Eden - the name is a frankly unforgivable pun on Steinbeck's East of Eden - must be the pariahs of the New York borough. This is grand, hook-laden poppy rock. There's not a hint of high-concept artistic conceit at work; no attempt to meld the dynamics of hardcore punk with the textures of Azerbaijani underground folk.
Do you mean they are unoriginal and derivative?
Look, they're not going to win any prizes for reinventing the musical wheel. But sometimes it's a relief after a hard day at the avant-garde coalface to hear a band who think there might be some mileage in having some, you know, melodies.
So who's going to like them?
People who want tunes, but still want something a little edgier than Coldplay, Keane and Snow Patrol. Rent rock, rather than mortgage rock, then.
Where can I hear them?
There are six tracks at myspace.com/thebeastsofeden. And their debut mini-album, End Times, will be released over here in April on Gift Music.
