New York-based band Secret Machines have chances in both Cardiff and Bristol this month to prove that they really are one of the best new live bands on the planet.

The trio released its debut album Now Here Is Nowhere in April 2004 to a massive wave of praise which drew even more attention to their live shows.

Now Here Is Nowhere was a firm favourite in NME, Q, Mojo and Uncut's albums of the year and in December they had a Top 40 hit with single Sad And Lonely.

In 2005, among many highlights, Secret Machines played a storming set at Glastonbury and supported Oasis at Milton Keynes Bowl before heading back to America to tour with Kings of Leon.

Later this month the band will release its second album, Ten Silver Drops, which was produced by the band themselves with engineer Brandon Mason at Allaire Studios in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York, and mixed by Alan Moulder in London.

The album includes recent live favourites Lightening Blue Eyes, Faded Lines, Daddy's In The Doldrums and I Want To Know If It's Still Possible, which features a guest appearance from Garth Hudson of The Band on accordion.

"We experienced a deconstruction of our personal lives," says Brandon Curtis, who sings and plays and keyboards. "Coming home to a familiar setting and being alien to it created a sense of isolation from the people we're close to.

"There were all these invisible barriers that were tough to reach through.

"So we ended up with songs like Alone, Jealous And Stoned and Lighting Blue Eyes, about how our emotions propel us toward these conflicts and away from the people we love."

Secret Machines play Cardiff uni's solus club (029 2078 1458) on Tuesday, March 21 and Bristol's Bierkeller (0117 926 8514) on Friday, March 24. Tickets are £12.50. For more info surf to www.thesecretmachines.com.