Vukovi
Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, Glasgow
30/09/2011

Tonight Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, one of Glasgow’s hippest of the hip nightspots, is sold out. Sold out to the point where checked shirts and Converse climb the walls to get a better view not by some cult Canadians or a posse of dour fiddle-toting folk-rockers, but by four alt-rock upstarts from Ayrshire who have only been in existence for barely a year.

But on this showing – their debut EP launch – they deserve just about every skin-numbing backslap they’ll receive tonight. Vocalist Janine Shilstone is, by all accounts, Vukovi’s shining light, and where as many up and coming bands falter as the result of dodgy vocals – and ultimately lose their shot at the big time – each auto-tune annihilating gust of melody shooting out of Shilstone’s lips is defiantly spot on.

Good thing then that they’ve got the tunes to back it up. There’s ‘Schwagger’, a hip-grinding rock cavort dripping in what most normal people would call ‘swagger’ – kids these days – and one of the EP’s lead tracks, ‘Try Before You Buy (Use Your Sex)’, a slithering, sensual salvo impressing with Biffy Clyro-esque juddering guitar.

But it’s with ‘Snakes and Ladders’ – which didn’t even make it onto the EP – that Vukovi begin to eschew notions of being just a ‘local band’ and hint at national and international promise, cap doffing in sound to fellow Scots Jocasta Sleeps and US cohorts Paramore too. Indeed, with soaring female vocals to blame, comparisons to the flame haired, transatlantic superstars will be levelled against Vukovi - but that’s no bad thing – and whilst it’s baby steps at the moment, for any record label scouts peering in, it is surely time to start rubbing your hands.

Chris Cope