Introducing: Evans the Death

Name: Evans the Death
From: London, England
Story: Kids these days with their literary references
Sound: Brash, clever, melancholy indie-pop

Writing a jam about the infamously-depressing British nuclear-terror movie Threads seems a strange choice. But, perhaps, not so strange for a band whose awkward handle comes taken from Dylan Thomas's radio-play Under Milk Wood.

Evans the Death are the band in question. And their pop-cultural references are in keeping with the great English indie-pop tradition; the teeanged outfit owing a debt to artists like The Smiths, The Fall, Felt, Orange Juice; all of whom displayed a love of literature, cinema, and making winking, smart-alecky references there to.

Evans the Death have a self-titled debut album due out in April —on twee-friendly labels Fortuna Pop! in Europe and Slumberland in North America— but, thus far, their calling card is single "I'm So Unclean." The song is noisy and brash and belted-out, but there's a sense of melancholy amidst all the noisy guitars. This is matched by the lyrics, which are hilarious and sad at once.

"When I'm watching the shopping channel, I will think of you," Katherine Whitaker sings, mournfully, near "I'm So Unclean"'s end; in lyrics that, by placing sentiments in mundane domestic settings, make them seem ever-more profound. "When I'm making a sandwich, I will think of you/and when I try and get to sleep, I will think of you."

• Listen: Evans the Death, "I'm So Unclean"
• Listen: Evans the Death, "Threads"