Crawling out of neon lit, dingy Glasgow back alleys with their slicked back quiffs and upturned leather jackets, Jim Valentine are a Marlon Brando biker gang from another age ready to unleash rock and roll thunder. When they do, it rumbles and brews from noir bass lines into giant slabs of growling riffage that bursts the speaker stacks and blows the windows. Whereas the Arctics discovered a stomping new groove when they were led through the desert with their hands held by Josh Homme, JV’s similar bombast is laced with dive bar grit and grime and skulking tales of doomed romance.

Already making a name for themselves whilst out on tour with Amazing Snakeheads, Baby Strange and Dexters, their track ‘Make You Mine’ first set tongues a wagging with its mighty grizzled boogie a couple of months back; and now comes double A-side single ‘Hello/Tripetta’. Creeping from the black hearted soul of The Bad Seeds into Royal Blood’s booming venom and rampant roar, it’s a storming introduction to the band that detonates raw garage rock into a stadium crumbling anthem. If it doesn’t come accompanied by video of the lads atop of a mountain with wind machines gusting, fire exploding and bikini-clad models slugging from cans of Irn Bru, I will be most disappointed.

Jim Valentine’s double A-side single ‘Hello/Trippetta’ will be released on limited 7” vinyl on November 28^th, with the single available in all good digital stores from the following Monday, December 1^st.

And you can catch the band LIVE over the next few weeks:

28 November – Glasgow – Broadcast (Single Launch)

05 December – London – Macbeth

13 December – Edinburgh – Sneaky Pete’s

Stay tuned at @Gigslutz_ for an interview with the band in the near future!

Kevin Irwin