The lineup: Faith Holgate (vocals, guitar), Lois McDonald (guitar), Anna Donigan (bass), and Lara Williams (drums).

The background: There has been a lot of web blather about Pins already, and a lot of drama about which blog was going to be given the exclusive with regard to the Manchester bands debut MP3. Basically, where 20 years ago Melody Maker, Sounds and NME would have duked it out to get the first Swervedriver or Ride front cover, now its DiS v Abeano v This Is Fake DIY or whoever. Plus ?a change, and all that. The battle might be being fought on different soil, but the war remains the same, as does the soundtrack: Pins are exactly the sort of group the music papers would have been fighting over more than 20 years ago.

Make that more than 25 years ago: theyre very C86, are Pins. Theyre atypically Mancunian, thats for sure. There are no forays into avant-funk or pop trance. If anything, if you heard them without knowing where they were from, youd swear they were a Brooklyn band. They remind us of acts we featured a lot at New Band of the Day in 2008/9. All Velvets drones with a sprinkle of Spectoresque shimmer, they recall Crystal Stilts and Vivian Girls et al, with some of the dour exuberance – if youll pardon the paradox – of Best Coast, whom we believe Pins have opened for.