Dumb

Hometown: Birmingham
Lineup: Dylan Williams (vocals), Tom Minchin (guitar), Adam Pyzer (bass) and Jacob McQue (drums)
For fans of: The Pixies, Superfood, Built To Spill
Key track: ‘Retina’
See them live: 13 August, Shacklewell Arms, London
Connect: Facebook | SoundCloud | Twitter | Website

No other city’s musical output in 2013 has divided critical opinion quite like Birmingham’s. Whether you loved Peace’s In Love as much as NME (‘Peace are songwriting naturals‘), or loathed it like Neil Kulkarni (‘one of the shittiest most shameful things I’ve ever heard‘), no-one could deny that the second city is indeed producing a solid, if samey crop of guitar-centric pop-rock bands.

New boys Dumb are out to prove that The Black Country’s heavily mined seam of talent runs deeper and richer than ever before.

Taking their cues more from American college-rock bands and The Pixies than their Charlatans and Manics betrothed hometown contemporaries, Dumb’s new single, ‘Retina’, sears through Superfood and Swim Deep’s sweet summery aura with prowling guitars and drums which jar and thud like a repeated knees to the gut.

Formed of childhood mates Dylan, Tom, Adam and Jacob, Dumb say they were inspired to write more and make a real go of this band lark after wave upon wave of journalists and A+R descended upon Birmingham, ’It’s made it seem a lot more possible,’ remarks guitarist Tom. ‘When we were younger we were like ‘it would be great but realistically…”

A dream soon to become reality, with ‘Retina’ lined up for a 12 August release via Jon Brookes’ (Charlatans sticksman) One Beat Records, we’re considering the fresh-faced gang more fashionably late to the party than unwelcome gatecrashers.

Watch the genre’s idiosyncratic ‘performance-on-the-rooftops’ promo clip for ‘Retina’ below.