You read some rubbish in press releases. Some is very creative but with little meaning “a hotch-potch of borrowed sentiments and a patchwork of production sounds”; some is banal gibberish you’ve heard a million times before, “the sound of the summer,” “this band will change your life,” “this generation’s pop prospect”.

So imagine my delight at reading that Crystal Antlers were “once a band of chimney sweeps doing door-to-door hustle with brooms and top hats across California, who, after a long day on the roof, would return to write songs that went spiralling into space”. And there was me thinking chimney sweeps went out with coal.

“I actually still work as a chimney sweep when I’m not on tour,” says Jonny Bell, Crystal Antlers’ lead singer and bassist.

“I started my own company doing it when I was 19. I would go door- to-door with a top hat on and get work that way. Our drummer Kevin worked for me and we both worked for another guy who started another company, Chim Chimney. As well as employing us, he bought us our first organ. He loved the 1960s and wanted us to sound that way.”

Crystal Antlers, a six-piece from Los Angeles’ port Long Beach, an area most famous for punk exports Black Flag and gangsta rap mega-stars Snoop Dogg and NWA, are in Brighton to support self-declared “flower punks” Black Lips.

The Antlers’ self-titled debut EP was produced by Mars Volta’s keyboardist Ikey Owens and given a very admirable 8.5 out of 10 by indie trendsetters Pitchfork. Their full-length début, Tentacles, all noodling guitars, clever dynamics and melodic 1960s garage rock, prompted the band to embark on a interminable tour which began in March before the album’s May release.

“It’s been fun. We’ve been back and forth from the US to Europe for a while now, but this time we’ve been doing festivals as well as club shows with Black Lips.

“There are differences in the way you connect with the audience, but our music translates pretty well for both types of show. It can be great having giant festival speakers, but we prefer playing small, intimate shows.”

As Dick Van Dyke can testify, the trajectory from chimney to stage isn’t that far, but for Jonny Bell the story has been a little less magical.

“We’ve had to do so many odd things. We played on a speedboat in Long Beach harbour. We played in a cult video store in Los Angeles with hard-to-find movies and porn filmed there, and a satanic church. We’ve done biker fests in Las Vegas and metal fests in Reno.

“I worked on a ship previous to being in a band delivering coal to islands off the coast of California and it was really hard work. I suppose all these fun facts about my life previous are going to come out, but it’s all worth it.

“Making the record was very intense because we were under a lot of pressure and we had to do it in a week. All I wanted to do was make an honest record that felt like it was from the heart. That’s what we’ve done, and I’m proud of it.”

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