Does winning jazz awards make you a jazz band? Not if you're BBC 2005 Jazz Awards winners Acoustic Ladyland. Sure, Road Of Bones, the first track on their new Skinny Grin album, tiptoes in with a delicate piano tinkle.

It's polite - reserved, even. But the unsuspecting listener is then mowed down with a Panzer attack of distorted bass and manic drumming.

It's the most electrifying quiet/loud segue in years, marking Acoustic Ladyland out as a brilliantly refreshing rock band - of sorts. All this despite the presence of two former Young Jazz Musician Of The Year winners.

It's no surprise, then, when saxophonist/ singer/songwriter Pete Wareham sounds delighted by a joking comparison with Battery, the opening salvo on Metallica's Master Of Puppets album.

'It's funny you should say that because, when I was writing those tunes, I was getting back into the albums I was into as a teenager,' he says. 'Bands like Metallica, Suicidal Tendencies, Fugazi and The Misfits. There always seemed to be a kind of wry grin going on with those bands.'

Not that Acoustic Ladyland are ever going to get too cosy with the heavy metal crowd - they don't even have a guitarist, despite their name being an obvious nod to Jimi Hendrix. But they can still kick up an impressive racket with a combination of sax, drums (Seb Rochford), bass (Tom Herbert) and keyboards (Tom Cawley).

Having been influenced by The Stooges' Fun House while creating last year's Last Chance Disco LP, Wareham and co take more of a post-punk twist on jazz for Skinny Grin, full of skittering time signatures, hand-brake rhythmic turns and Estuary-inflected vocals.

Wareham has spent ten years as a jobbing musician in London, but his teenage years skate-boarding around Southampton had a profound effect.

'It was an informative time for me. I had some quite different scenes in my head, with Charlie Parker on one hand and Anthrax and Run DMC on the other. Punk had a big effect because that DIY attitude seemed alien from jazz. The idea of bringing some of that roughness to jazz has always appealed to me.'

Punk's love of brevity also runs in Acoustic Ladyland's veins, with only a few of the songs on Skinny Grin reaching the four-minute mark. 'I don't like overplaying a point,' explains Wareham. 'On our first album [2004's Camouflage], a lot of the songs were long. The lesson I took was the importance of not being long-winded.'

This switch to a rock-style approach saw Last Chance Disco slowly develop into an underground success, with V2 signing the band.

Wareham has no qualms about hooking up with a major label: 'I'm a great believer in doing things that are popular but credible at the same time. Hendrix was one of the biggest icons of that, with his music working spiritually, creatively and commercially. That's my only challenge: to be true to that feeling.'

The first fruits of their link-up with V2 come in the form of this week's Salt Water single. Not that it's going to get much airplay, with squalling saxophone contributions from New York no-wave legend James Chance and a juddering remix treatment from Scott Walker.

The charts may not be beckoning but Wareham feels the experience more than justified the decision to sign with V2. 'The label asked if I had any collaboration ideas so those were the names I came up with. I didn't get a chance to meet them in person but it's exciting finding those doors opening up.'

Next year promises to be even more hectic, with touring to promote Skinny Grin only one of several major projects.

Next week, Wareham plays a sideman role as part of the Rochford-led Polar Bear, whose electronica-influenced Held On The Tips Of Fingers album was nominated for the Mercury Prize last year. A female-vocal-led project featuring Wareham and Rochford, Fulborn Teversham, are also due to release their long-delayed debut album in February.

With those involved pulling jazz in so many directions, it's a wonder they can agree on anything. But Wareham claims their musical differences add fuel to the creative fire, rather than cause tension.

'If anyone started to get egotistical, then no one would put up with it,' he insists. 'If you think you've really mastered your technique, it just means you've become blind to what else is out there. Besides, why does there need to be tension when we're enjoying making music together?'

The single Salt Water (V2) is out now. The album Skinny Grin follows on December 4.