If you type the letters S M E and L into Google, the first thing that is returned as the most common search in the world is Smells Like Teen Spirit, a song that is just about 23 years old.

Why do I bring this up? Well, it is 20 years since Kurt Cobain took his own life but still he is all around us.

In many ways Nirvana, and the grunge scene it was part of, was the last musical style that seemed to really change the musical landscape. Like hip-hop, punk and rock’n’rock before it, the impact was immeasurable, but what have the last 20 years given us?

Whilst great music has continued to be made, why haven’t we seen the radical changes in music that previous revolutionary movements would suggest? If you are waiting for answers, I don’t really have them. Maybe it is the fact that music is so “on-demand” it’s like Christmas everyday and you can have whatever music you want, when you want it, largely for free.

Maybe it’s time to fight back and make a scene. Grunge, Hip-Hop, rave, baggy, punk all grew from small acorns, maybe it’s time to get behind live music again, storm the barricades of apathy and make something happen… maybe even in Swindon. Still, enough of the rhetoric.

Starting out at Riffs Bar, tonight is one for the rock fans and All Ears Avow lead the musical charge.

Having risen from the ashes of progressive metal maestros Mortdelamer but now with an eye on a snappier alt-rock delivery, the band elegantly blend the dexterity of their previous incarnation with the accessibility of the latter.

Support comes from pop-punkers Highly Personal and Cavalier, a band that with just a few shows under their belt are already sounding on a lot of the right peoples radars.

The Beehive will be hosting the dustbowl era Americana of The Open Secrets who will make you feel like you are sipping whisky in a bar in North Carolina with Ryan Adams jamming Carter Family tunes in the background.

Reginald Road will be playing roots rock reggae at The Queens Tap and The Beaujacks come all the way over from Eindhoven to treat The Victoria to everything from Led Zeppelin to The Rolling Stones to ZZ Top.

Fans of psychedelic blues and highly charged R’n’B will want to be at The Rolleston on Friday for Snatch It Back and if a further reference point were needed the band features original Groundhogs drummer Ken Pustelnik so you will have some idea what to expect. At the Royal Oak, The Cover Addicts will be playing hits from the 50’s to the present day.

Out at Riffs Bar Acoustic Sessions Jenny Bracey and Sadie Fleming feature, though as usual any details of the show are a closely guarded secret so I suggest you contact the venue for further information.

What I can be a bit more certain about is the event that they have at the venue on the Saturday.

In an effort to help fund a trip to Kenya for the Younite Outreach Project and continue its objective of helping improve the lives of those less fortunate, there is a fundraising show featuring British Harlem, a wonderful blend of punk infused, quintessentially English indie with soulful transatlantic vibes. Also on the bill are Theo Altieri, Bianca Polizzi, The Primaveras, The Debuts and The Illustrations. Great music and a worthy cause.

More great original music is to be had at The Castle with the return of The Racket. Back out as a five piece, the band known for their uncompromising, last gang in town attitude, punked up indie cool and cocky live swagger will come as a breath of…. sweaty, cigarette fumed, booze soaked air.

The Victoria has a tribute to Texas groove-metallers Pantera and at The Rolleston The Dark Eyes “bridge the gap between rock and pop with originals and covers”. Their words not mine. More covers are to be had at The Woodlands Edge with Switch.

Sunday sees Ezio return to The Victoria a band that specialize in emotive, deep and meaningful music and lyrics that are honest and which will strike a chord (pardon the pun) with the audience.

All about... Dead Royalties

It seems apt that in a week when every music publication worth its salt is reminiscing on the god-like legacy of Kurt Cobain, to feature a band who have picked up the grunge torch and refashioned it in their own image.

After cutting his teeth in math-rockers Sailors and later Russian Blue, Alex Share’s considerable abilities to create infectious hook lines and riffs shows no sign of waning. Far from it and the proof of that can be found on their EP, Hormones, which is released tomorrow via Secret Chord Records.

It is a collection of songs that are forged from the same head-on clash of pop sensibility and primordial rock and roll urges that was at the heart of the grunge scene but if you think that the band are mere copyists or heading down a rose-tinted nostalgia trip, then think again. Whilst the core sound may doff its cap to labels such as Sub-Pop, their earlier math-pop experimentations still linger around the periphery creating wonderful fine detail and throw away, one-time only musical tricks that most bands would feel the need to build a whole song around. So grunge it may be, but if so, it is grunge with a university education.

As a three-piece there is a wonderful economy to the band, no room for showboating and everyone required to earn their musical keep; no fuss, no frippery, just a band getting on with the job at hand. And considering that most of the songs on the record sound like possible singles, especially Bring out Your Dead, Sex Sells and the song that got them their record deal, Drug Cartel, it is looking like the band have already set their own benchmark very high indeed.