Arctic Monkeys: "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor" (Demo, Domino Recording Co)

The slightest whiff of British buzz sends the New York music scenesters into a mild frenzy. There will be much downloading, much blogging and a hurried purchase of concert tickets. That's the sequence of events. The bands who have got it together -- not necessarily the good bands, though in this case the buzz is legit -- are able to build the hype, ride the hype wave into town, show up at The Mercury Lounge (no, not CBGB, which explains why it's closing) and find a line around the corner. There will be a lot of students and expats to give the essing line a few different accents -- they pay attention to what's going on at home. By the way, Arctic Monkeys are all the rage in Britain and are playing the Mercury next month. (They're currently atop the British singles chart.) The demo hints at the pogoing and beer-spilling that will unfold.

We Are Scientists: "Inaction"

I'd estimate 92% of listeners would guess this band is from England. Of the remaining 8%, roughly half saw the band's CMJ performance and doesn't remember an English accent and the other half actually knows the band is from New York (though some of that group, like Coolfer, thought for a long time they were from LA, which is were the group formed before they moved to New York and started gigging). Coolfer estimates that 42% of all live concert reviews will mention the bass players' mustache, and 86% (give or take a few points) of all album reviews will name check, in order, Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party and Kaiser Chiefs. But the Kaiser Chiefs have fallen off a lot of radars, so I'm not too confident they'll get mentioned in all 86%.

The Delays: "Swallowing The Silence"

So nice to hear The Delays have finished their second album, You See Colours. As you can tell from the spelling of the title, the band is from England, and makes some of the sweetest Brit pop heard this decade. In an email to fans the band said of the album, "It's a beautifully succinct cut of the propulsive pop, man-eating bass lines and skyscraping harmonies." And to "tide you over before the tour swings into action," the email included a link to the above song (originally from the Long Time Coming DVD).