You Should Know By Now: Girls Names

It’s easy to tell what music someone likes just by looking at their clothes. If they’re wearing mainly Topman, it’s usually a pretty safe bet they’re Radio 1 listeners, for instance. If they look like they’ve been dragged through a charity shop, it’s probably something DIY, whereas if they’re wearing a The Clash t-shirt you can be pretty sure their favourite album is Hot Fuss and they only know Rock the Casbah and [maybe] London Calling.Band t-shirts restrict you to only being able to showcase one of your loves at a time – form a band and you can effectively let the world know by the bucket load.

Cathal (vocals/guitar), Claire (bass) and Neil (drums) are Girls Names. Formed as a two-piece in January 2009, they booked a gig before they’d played together and have promptly been sounding like a combination of Beat Happening and Black Tambourine with a hint of The Pastels ever since. If that sounds good, it’s because it is. Suitably, they’ve been batting around with some of the best bands about, touring with Sic Alps, Times New Viking, Lovvers and Wavves, as well as having a sold-out twelve inch on the perennially impressive label Captured Tracks. It’s down to Tough Love to do the honourable thing and put out their debut, ‘You Should Know By Now’. Slated for release on the 24th of May, it’s pretty much everything you’d expect - all downbeat vocals and jangly guitars, wrapped up in haze of C86 nostalgia. With a hipster frenzy imminent, you'd better make yourself a t-shirt now.

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