Young journalists are often told that one of the best ways to begin an article is with an anecdote pertaining to that article's subject. Anecdotes, we are told, add "colour" to a piece of writing and allow the reader to "enter into the subject's world," so to speak. They also tend to take up quite a nice amount of space on the page. Thus, it is incumbent upon me to relay a few lines that first appeared in the British magazine Time Out:

"Brakes formed when Tom and Alex White (The Electric Soft Parade) and Eamon Hamilton (British Sea Power) were drinking after Eamon had supported The Lonesome Organist at a show in Brighton. 'We'll play drums and guitar on your tunes,' they said. 'Rad,' said Eamon. They went to Mokinbird studios, a rehearsal/recording space in Kemptown, Brighton run by Marc Beatty (The Tenderfoot) and convinced him to play bass. After half an hour, they looked at each other and said 'this sounds freshmode.'"

The result of this convergence of working-class talent is a full-length album titled Give Blood, which is every bit as rough-and-tumble as one would expect from a band that was the product of someone saying "we'll play drums and guitar on your tunes."

It takes less than half an hour to listen to all 16 tracks on Give Blood, and it's hardly difficult to imagine that the whole thing took about the same amount of time to actually record. This is quick and dirty music: simple arrangements, no extraneous instrumentation, scant evidence of any studio massaging. Any number of people could likely achieve similar results by recording on a four-track in their garage or basement.

And yet, Give Blood works. Although the short length of the songs means that most of them seem more like ideas for songs (as opposed to the more traditional, we actually thought about this for more than 15 seconds kind of music), the band's sustained and ebullient energy is their salvation. The guitars jangle against enthusiastic bass-and-drum shuffles and Hamilton's faux cowboy drawl is strangely effective on tracks such as "Ring a Ding Ding" and "What's In It For Me," even if he can't hit a clean pitch to save his life.

There's wit to be found here as well. "Heard About Your Band" is a sarcastic portrayal of the insular indie scene while name-checking Karen O (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and Electrelane, while the 10-second "Cheney" offers an amusing, if somewhat obvious, play on the American Vice-President's given name. It might just be the best short song since Pearl Jam's "Lukin."

Or maybe that's not what you had expected at all? Maybe you thought that a group lead by a member of British Sea Power would generally replicate that estimable quintet's soaring, wall-of-guitar-fuzz sound and fondness for inserting arcane literary references into their lyrics. If this was indeed the case, Give Blood may not entirely disappoint. Tunes such as "You're So Pretty" and "I Can't Stand to Stand Beside You" (briefly) offer post-punk hooks similar to those found on BSP's The Decline of British Sea Power.

These songs, however, are the exception to the twangy, oddball norm, best represented by the surprisingly faithful interpretation of the Johnny Cash standard "Jackson," featuring a lead vocal from the Duke Spirit's Leila Moss. This ramshackle cover embodies the spirit of Give Blood -- straight-forward, unpretentious and just plain fun.