by Stewart MasonHailing from Manchester and featuring a frontman, Liam Fray, with a penchant for both talking up his own positive attributes and getting into verbal scraps with other bands, the Courteneers have gotten regular comparisons in the UK music press to the leading lights of three previous waves of Manc Britpop, the Smiths, the Stone Roses and Oasis. And to be fair, the band's alternately jangly and bombastic brand of indie guitar rock bears the influence of all three acts, as well as comparisons to contemporaries like the Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian. The Courteeners formed in Manchester in 2006, when the 22-year-old Fray -- already becoming well known around town for his solo acoustic singer-songwriter gigs -- brought three of his childhood friends to form a proper band: lead guitarist Daniel Conan Moores, bassist Mark Cuppelo and drummer Michael Campbell. The newly-formed Courteeners apparently took their name from an alteration of a make of car Ford produced in the UK in the '60s and '70s, the Cortina. (There already was a group called the Cortinas, a first-wave British punk band best known for their 1978 single "Defiant Pose" whose guitarist Nick Sheppard and drummer Daniel Swan later joined the final lineup of the Clash and American power-poppers the Sneetches, respectively.) Signing to Loog Records, a pseudo-indie owned by Polydor, the Courteeners released their limited edition debut single, "Cavorting," in August 2007. Three more singles, "Acrylic," "What Took You So Long?" and "Not Nineteen Forever," made the charts between October 2007 and March 2008, prior to the release of their debut album. Produced by Stephen Street (the Smiths, solo Morrissey, Blur, etc.) and featuring a painting of Audrey Hepburn by Fray on the cover, St. Jude was released in April 2008, reaching number 4 in the UK album chart.