Married couple bands are cool, and so are podcasts.

So I spent a lot of today listening to The Weepies, having recently got their latest album, Be My Thrill. I was on the train home and was struck by how much their music is bursting with love, as sentimental as it sounds. I then remembered that they are a two-piece band and are married, and realised that two of my other favourite bands are two-piece married couples, and that this works in their favour infinitely. In all three bands the love, passion and intimacy of their marriage comes across but does not smother their music; rather, it gives it structure, narrative and weight. So I thought I'd do a little on each of them.

1: Mates of State

Mates of State are an incredible band who have only ever been a two-piece, with Kori Gardner on keyboards and Jason Hammel on drums, and, of course, both picking up the vocal duties. Their earlier albums are mostly distorted organs and schizophrenic bursts of pop bombast, but as they have progressed they have evolved, gracefully, into a mature, piano-driven indie-pop outfit with some of the most beautiful melodies this side of Mozart. The piano has crept into their sound cheekily, in songs such as 'Parachutes (Funeral Song' on their earlier albums, until it opens their most recent self-penned album, 'Get Better', a relentlessly cheerful but still reflective record. Their most recent effort is an intriguing, eclectic covers album entitled 'Crushes', which sees them branch out to include a little more guitar, and also to get their young children to sing backing vocals.

Incidentally, they take their kids on tour, and Kori writes a truly heartwarming blog about it.

Essential album: 'Bring It Back' (2006)

MP3: 'Like U Crazy'

2: Low

I was introduced to Low at the beginning of this year by Sittingbourne's first poet, Alex Hawkins, who recommended them partly on account of my borderline psychotic Death Cab obsession. I'd also read about them in Jeffrey Brown's graphic novel equivalent of a b-sides album, Undeleted Scenes. Low are slow and subtle, beautiful and brittle; the full impact of their beauty takes a few listens to flourish, but when it does it really hits home. Again, they're reflective, but in a more postmodern way than Mates of State. Not that their styles are really similar. 'The Plan' is one of my all-time favourite songs, and essentially just repeats the same phrase over and over, with a bit of added harmony and climax towards the end. It gets me every time. Their voices complement each other perfectly.

Essential album: 'The Curtain Hits The Cast' (1996)

MP3: 'The Plan'

3: The Weepies

I was introduced to The Weepies by my girlfriend earlier this year and was instantly captivated. They're incredibly twee and so will probably sicken you, but they both have beautiful voices and sing elegantly and sweetly about love and relationships. I'm personally pretty sentimental and uncynical when it comes to this kind of thing (although some twee is too much for me), so I realise they might seem like one of those self-consciously beautiful girl-with-voice type acts, but I can assure you they aren't, and are genuinely lovely. Maybe I just like the fact that they were both solo artists but made more beautiful music once they'd found each other. Either way, they make me smile. Search them on youtube as well as they have a lot of great videos.

Essential album: 'Be My Thrill' (2010)

MP3: 'I Was Made For Sunny Days'

The mp3s are included in the hope that, if you like what you hear, you'll by their albums. Musicians need your money, kids. Spend it on the records then stay home and listen to them instead of going out to nightclubs. Bad people go to nightclubs.

In other news I've decided that myself, Rob Sherman and Rob Gordon are going to start recording podcasts when we see each other, following on from the podcast which was made from my show on 87.7 Xpression FM earlier this year. This has been in circulation already but has now moved to its new home at my website, so click here to check out the page, or the link below to download the original podcast. We'll be doing more very soon, so watch this space.

Big Men's Book Club Volume 1 - Moleston or Falseton?