Here's a curious orange. There's a band called Mummysmack based in the West Country. They're essentially a rock band. They like rock music of the other type, founded more on the essence of metal than the values of indie/punk. As such, they appeal to the far-right, meathead metal press, the kind of press that still doesn't realise that Alice Cooper was being ironic, and that Motorhead were as much punk band as a heavy metal band. Normally this would mean that, as the self-righteous art rock indie kid that I supposedly am, the likes of Mummysmack would pass me by purely because, due to the taste effect, our paths wouldn't ever cross.

However, this time I'm in the know, entirely because Mummysmack's lead singer, lyricist, art director, visionary, mystic, and spacegirl, who goes by the nom de plume of Mana, is in fact Amanda Moseley. I met Amanda some eleven years ago, at a May Day party in Exeter, during a day off from the April May June tour; we were then and have remained kindred spirits. For a long time we were inseparable, we were even roomies in London at one stage. I can count the people that know me better than I know myself on the fingers of one hand (thumb included, there are exactly five of 'em), and of those people, Amanda "Mana" Moseley is the longest serving; we have joyfully put up with each other's extremes for all these years, supported each other no matter what, and laughed long and hard together at pretty much everybody else. She is like Lisa to my Bart, the smarter, younger sister that I never had. Subterraneans even recorded the lion's share of Soul Mass Transit in her house, while she fed and watered us with the imagination and artistry that she brings to all her endeavours. So I'm writing here to redress the balance. You may well read about Mummysmack on the same pages as the knuckle brained nu-metal bands, but don't fall into the trap of thinking that this is what they are - they most certainly are not, and never will be with Mana at the helm. She's always been a star, and any fuss that is made about Mummysmack over the coming months is simply the world catching up with something I've known all along, so nothing new there (ahem...). Mummysmack have the soul, the mass, and the transit that makes artists out of mere musicians; they have it all to say, they say it bloody loud, and through Amanda Moseley they say it with a flair and integrity that no metal band could ever have done. And so it is that I am writing about them, to confuse you as much as possible, so that you'll throw out any indie prejudices and lend them your ears. Don't be put off by ice-cream cone shaped guitars or massive trousers; think music, think depth, keep it real, loosen up, and just listen. Cross over, tear down your genre ethics, and turn the volume back up to 11. You'll get it, because they are not the same, they are not what rock genre politics would have you expect, and they do it better than the rest. Trust me, I'm a punk.