The Week That Was rocks, questions the media

Here's another new brainy British pop band with catchy songs - this one's called The Week That Was, and this song's called "Learn to Learn."

Is it just me, or does this owe something to XTC? These guitar licks and rolling toms are right out of "Making Plans for Nigel," which I've included below for comparison and to point out that the best videos ever made are from the 80s.

It's never bothered me when a band "pays tribute" to another band. Where it gets dodgy is with the Rancids of the world - a band that I really like, but that gets a little bit too close to aping the Clash sometimes.

The cool thing about The Week That Was' debut album is that all of the songs are at least loosely about "the media."

As one description of the album accurately describes it:

"How do we deal with the fragments of information we receive through the television, radio, the Internet? How do we balance the distrust we feel for mass media with our dependence on it? How does this relationship influence our hopes and actions in our real lives? And finally, what would happen if we decided not to deal with it anymore and switched off the information flow by throwing away our TVs, radios and newspapers?"

And what more could a student enrolled in communications want than a band rocking out to the death of the media?

Now, here's that XTC I promised: