It’s a new music double bill at the Old Blue Last tonight and you could be forgiven for thinking we’re in fact heading into the plaid shirt wearing, college rock, grunge filled ’90s instead of the post-dubstep wilderness of 2012.

Headlining and easing our collective post-NYE blues with promises of slacker pop and lo-fi scuzz are Fanzine, but first up are London/Brighton based four-piece Fear Of Men. Straddling the schism between jangly indie pop and early grunge, they peddle their own brand of ‘90s nostalgia with Breeders inspired basslines and irresistibly dreamy vocal harmonies. Kicking off proceedings with their unabashedly C86 sounding debut single ‘Ritual Confession’ it is easy to see why comparisons to contemporary acts like Veronica Falls abound, but with Sartre-quoting hooks and the immersive intensity of tracks like ‘Doldrums’, Fear Of Men prove there are still distinct nuances to be explored.

Not long after their reverb-heavy haze has faded we find Fanzine on stage, picking up on the grittier grunge references and running with them until they hit a wall of college rock. Embodying the spirit of Dinosaur Jr. in the fuzzy throes of Low EP number ‘I Wanna Touch Your Hand’ and ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish’-era Blur in the slower, plodding melody of ‘Running Around’ the beanie-wearing quartet have no qualms about wearing their influences on their sleeve.

Critical cries of “derivative” will no doubt befall them before long as they did Yuck but tonight’s set, scattered with more definitively Fanzine numbers like ‘Roman Holiday’ and frayed slacker pop closer ‘My Stupid Brain’, is delivered with such boisterous assurance and varied execution that no one seems to mind, from the head-nodding enthusiasts at the front to the guys at the back who won’t stop singing the lyrics to Weezer’s ‘Jonas’.

Lauren Down