Where the Messengers MeetDead Oceans ***

Despite an unusual line-up and lengthy monicker, Mt Saint Helen’s Vietnam Band haven’t gotten the same attention as some of their US indie contemporaries. Seattle singer Benjamin Verdoes recruited his wife on keyboards and his 15-year-old adopted brother on drums to form this idiosyncratic five-piece. Close your eyes during opener

At Night,

and you’d think Jack White had knocked out another side project. The comparison hinges mainly on Verdoes’s vocals, but an indie-swamp-rock vapour hangs over several songs. That’s not to say that MSHVB are content with lumbering rhythms (the tempo flits about constantly), and they’ve got literary lyricism (

Cadence, Gone Again

) in spades. There’s a sense of a band playing their heart out, and of untapped potential, but in an over- crowded landscape, they have to work a harder to stand out. See myspace.com/mtsthelens vietnamband

Download tracks:Hurrah, At Night