Rip It Up | Feb/March 07 | Ones to watch. The new bands you need to know about: The Hot Grits

It's a big ol' 12-man soul, funk and Afrobeat party when the Championship Sounds of the Hot Grits are playing in some seedy bar you may have just rolled in to. You can't help but dance, and shake your thang. Get on up? Yes you will, because that's what they came here to do.

Sitting with vocal/guitarist Barnie Duncan at a bar in the afternoon I get the background on the Hot Grits. How they started four-and-a-half years ago playing covers of funk classics by James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, and Rufus Thomas, among others. How they formed for a party how, soon after, Barnie joined when he was drunk. He was having a dance and offered his services, lying to guitarist Martin Sutcliffe that he was a singer. And hoe the Hot Grits just wanted to play music that made you groove.

"Everyone always had jobs you know?" says Barnie " So we all did it just to play live. No one can help but dance, and it's great to play at parties where that's happening. It took us so long to get anything we wanted to release because we were quite conscious of the fact that we were trying to play homage to some of our influences and also to shape a sound that was indicative of the music we love. We were quite open about that fact.

With a longstanding love of African funk and Afrobeat music, and influences from places as far flung as 60s-era Ghana and Nigeria, the Hot Grits have recently released their Championship Sounds EP. LP-length and worth every penny, this is the soundtrack you need when your dancing shoes are on. And there are more avenues to explore.

"There's no rush with us. It would be great to be touring rockstars, but we want to do it in our own time, and a lot of the buzz for us is just the composition of the songs. Getting down to seven minutes of cohesive music. The music we have put our own slant on is a mixture between hard soul and Afrofunk but we're exploring a 60s blues rock kind of feel, and psychedelia as well. There are a lot of places we can explore."

After playing in all the crazy little pokey places throughout the city and making the most of the times when they are on show, seing the Hot Grits on a big stage where they can all fit and properly unleash their sound is an event to behold. Barnie has found memories of supporting the Black Seeds last year, where things got rowdy.

Don't wait for an album, and don't wait for the Hot Grits to come to you, get the Championship Sounds and stumble into a bar where they are throwin' it down. And get on up.