Some new bands I've been checking out

Not really reviews, because I'm still really blown away by the new Killing Joke, and everything else is just "what else I'm listening to", but-

The Scaramanga Six. They're not really a new band, but I've only recently gotten around to them. They play a gothic, glammy kind of hard Alt rock. It sounds very influenced by the Damned and Rocket from the Crypt. Yes, that is an odd combination, but even Odder, the choruses tend to have a melodrama worthy of Muse. So, if you like really over-the-top glam rock, with a droning undercurrent, and plenty of cheesy B movie evil, they might be your cup of velvet.
The Eastern Wave Jake Brown is a former hardcore bass player. So, this strange combination of post-hardcore, shoegaze, and experimental electronic shouldn't sound so familiar. But it does, and it feels comfortable to me. Seems like a sludge metal band with a lot of the aggression tuned out, mixed with a particularly lo-fi dreampop band. Like, bits of The Rum Diary and Isis mixed with a heavy A R Kane.
Capsula I still love Spain, and I still dig trashy garage Rock, and Capsula are the latest iteration on that particular pattern. They've got a lot of punky drive, with some psychedelic aspirations, so I'm hearing a lot of 13th floor Elevators, which is often a good thing. When they get their drone going, they get sexy, though, which I haven't heard since Sonic Youth decided to get poppy mid-career.
The Medics But, I'm still a Dutchman. They're goofy, and derivative (Franz Ferdinand, Hot Hot Heat and The Strokes) but some of the remixes are fun in a lo fi, glitchy kind of way....

Good Bye Ari

So, I just read that Ari Up died. Strangely mixed feelings on that. On the one hand, I sad that someone around my age died so young, and I feel bad for her family, and for any suffering she may have endured. On the other hand, I never really cared for her music, and I think some of her persona and Art was a tad bit wrong-headed. Oh, it's a fine line between appreciation and appropriation, so I wouldn't exactly level charges at her- but there's something about her use of Caribbean music that seemed a bit...colonial. Yes, I completely understand how it might be that I've got a problem with white girls, but I don't think that's it, because I'm not similarly skeeved by loads of others- from Debbie Harry to Lady Sovereign. That would also be my defense if people bring up my love for the Clash- however an additional, and better defense is that the Clash never played rap, never played rockabilly, and never played dub, straight. Everything they did, they did fully aware that they were white, skinny little liberals- that's the whole point of several of their songs. Comparing White Man in Hammersmith Palais to Ari Up's last single- Lazy Slam speaks volumes, I think. Compare and decide for yourself. I might be full of it, I don't know, but I do prefer The Clash, any minute of any day.