Tinderbox

"It starts off sounding like James Taylor then breaks into an almost Tori Amos-esque kinda quality with a bit of a Jewel thing going on. Maybe it was just the recording, but every song sounded similar and that’s not a good thing really, especially if you’re doing a demo for labels. You want things to stand out. Maybe they’re saving that for the second album. This is just the ‘Finger Picking Express’ and ‘Strum Till Morning’ will be the next album."

The Bourgeois Four

"I wasn’t sure about the name. I wasn’t sure about the music either. It’s just the drums; I couldn’t get past the drums. It sounded like the whole fucking ‘St. Anger’ Metallica snare drum [makes snare drum noise] again, which always gives me nightmares, cos that’s the worse kind of drum sound you could ever possibly want to have. And it’s just the whole, snotty, we’re gonna fuck shit up in a town near you, kinda thing. We’ve already got one Towers Of London and believe me we don’t need another."

Mariachi

"I like these. They reminded me a little bit of the whole Slint thing. Definitely not as good as Slint - that for me was poetry with music - this was just having a dude speak to music. But the possibilities of where they could go if they just branched out and became a bit more crazy with it might be cool, cos I think there’s elements of Fugazi in there. But y'know, once in a while, pick up the tempo, go a bit crazy, go faster. Go a bit noisier. The singer’s called Tobias Hussey. Is that a porn name? Has he just picked the street that he used to live on and his first pet and put them together? I think more people should do that. That’d be Barney Road for me, by the way."

Olympus Mons

"Oh boy. That weedy, indie fucking thing. I know I’m gonna get a lot of fans from this! There’s a lot of bands that do that kind of thing and do it better. It had that element of the Strokes-ish kinda thing, but not as dynamic. They had that whole fucking snotty, not giving a shit, thing. They say they listen to Neil Young, I didn’t hear the Neil Young. The Birds too. I dunno if that’s spelt wrong... I was thinking it might have been the British Birds, the rubbish ones. Not as good as the other Byrds. I didn’t like the singer’s voice, whatever his name is. He’s either Aaron, Norbert or Moran, but I don’t know which. It might be Norbert. If they wanna play in pubs for the rest of their career then that’s fine by me. But if they wanna have a serious career then they’ve got to start thinking outside the box."

The Broken Records

"I didn’t know if he was singing Spanish at first, then I realised that he had this weird singing voice, that sounded almost like he was trying to be Conor Oberst from Bright Eyes. That made me feel a little bit uncomfortable, but the music was very promising. My only criticism would be the singer guy - if it’s not your own voice, don’t try singing like somebody else. It looks from the photo that they’ve got a cellist, which is not a bad thing. Apart from having to get it in the back of a Ford Fiesta to your next gig. But I think there was promise there."

Thanks, Matt. Before you go, would you say that sites like 4unsigned are important for new bands?
"I think the internet is becoming a lot more important for music. People just don’t like to take risks with bands any more, they wanna hear what they’re gonna get beforehand, which is why downloading and places like My Music have become popular. Bands that are unsigned get a global fanbase which is good but it’s also very important to go out and have a presence in the community; on the street, in the venues, playing and touring. But I think they’re working quite well hand-in-hand.

Also I think the internet allows the fans to feel like they’re closer to the band. They can communicate and keep up to date. That’s what we do with both The Secret Show and Funeral For A Friend, we like to keep people updated on what we do. We wouldn’t be able to do that under normal circumstances."

We quite agree.