Adding further proof to the phrase that “less is more”, two-piece rock bands often have as much and often more raw power and energy than groups three times their size. It’s a long and varied lineage which takes in Blood Red Shoes, Death From Above 1979, The White Stripes, Eagles Of Death Metal, The Black Keys, Lightning Bolt, Japandroids, Satyricon, Best Coast, DZ Deathrays, No Age, The Bots, Flat Duo Jets The Kills, Girlpool, Deap Vally, Drenge, Nai Harvest, Sumac and Sunn O))) (yes, we’re ignore the softer likes of She & Him, Hall & Oates and Simon & Garfunkel to make this point, shush).
The latest branch of this family tree are Liverpool duo Rival Bones. Packing more of a punch than their contemporaries (looking your way, Royal Blood) but retaining a radio-ready dynamism that most bands have to work years to gain, never mind produce on their very first single, “You Know Who You Are” is instantly endearing its incessant riffs, a smooth bass groove, Chris Thomason’s haymaker drums and James Whitehouse’s impressive growl of a lead vocal. It’s the kind of thing to have Dave Grohl both nodding in approval and shaking in his Chuck Taylors at a younger, hungrier band cranking out better stuff than he’s achieved in a decade, with potential to do even more.