Webcuts Music

All killer, no filler, Joe Pernice and Co. turn up the volume and turn in one of their most enjoyable records to date.

You couldn’t pair a better band with a better song with New York’s The Walkmen taking on the R.E.M. classic “Driver 8″ as part of the AV Club’s Undercover series. With the list of 25 songs narrowed down to just one, The Walkmen were left with the track nobody else wanted. Regardless, they take “Driver 8″ and transform into their own inimitable style, albeit a little rough and ready, with vocalist Hamilton Leithauser sounding as if he’s never heard the song in his life. It’s worth remembering that the new Walkmen album Lisbon is due for release on September 13 through Bella Union, and coincidently, the deluxe edition of R.E.M.’s Fables Of The Reconstruction in which “Driver 8″ sits proudly on, was released a month or so ago. Webcuts favourite R.E.M. album of all time, you say? Well, yes, indeed it is.

Way back in January this year, Baltimore’s Beach House released one of 2010′s great albums with their third release, Teen Dream. On September 13, the band will release a 6-track iTunes session which includes re-imaginings of 5 previous album tracks and an entirely new, unreleased track. The EP contains new versions of four tracks from Teen Dream, with “Walk in the Park,” “Norway,” “Silver Soul,” and “Real Love” as well as “Gila” from Devotion, their 2008 release, and a new track entitled “White Moon”. Read on to hear the new song.

It’s not so much lurking in the 3 minute bluster of their debut single “How Long”, but a part of its DNA, that you quickly catch onto Ramona’s game. In the first 10 seconds alone they manage to answer the eternal question of “What if Debbie Harry joined The Ramones?”. You see it in singer Karen Anne’s bleached blonde locks and her breathy purr, and you hear it all over “How Long”, the harmonies n’ hooks, and the buzzsaw guitars that graduate with honours from The Ramones “Rock n’ Roll High School”. It’s just one song/one question answered, we thought best to rattle off 15 more. Thus becoming the first in our “Who The Hell Are…?” Q&A’s where we send out, Smash Hits-style, a random bunch of questions to a new act that has caught our eyes and ears, and then let them answer in their own words.

“You’re one of us, or you’re one of them“. Hamilton Leithauser, fist wrapped tight around the microphone as if he’s trying to strangle it, is howling those words. The rest of The Walkmen, heads bowed (as they remain throughout most of the set) play complicit and provide the carnival-esque roar to ram Leithauser’s words home. It’s not so much a question or a suggestion but a statement. For better or for worse, for way back when the band were selling their own white label records at the Middle East in Boston in 2001, I’ve been one of “us”.

Edwyn Collins and his Scot-pop accomplices are to tear it up once again via a comprehensive seven-disc Orange Juice anthology entitled Coals To Newcastle. Comprised of six CDs and one DVD, Coals.. contains the band’s complete discography and studio recordings, as well 39 previously unreleased and digitally unavailable tracks and BBC sessions. The DVD contains the band’s two promotional clips for “Rip It Up” and “What Presence?!”, four performances on The Old Grey Whistle Test and a posthumous concert video.

As regular as clockwork, and now for the third year running, Webcuts returned to Slottsskogen in Gothenburg, Sweden for the annual Way Out West Festival. With so much eclectic talent spread across the three days it was impossible to walk away empty-handed. No matter what your taste in music were, all bases were covered. This year, Electro-wizards Chemical Brothers, alterna-rock heroes Pavement, living legends Iggy Pop & The Stooges, hometown boy Håkan Hellström, rap overlords the Wu-Tang Clan, and the mesmerizing M.I.A. were just a few of the acts to thrilled the sell-out audience, and to keep the photographers on their toes…

We didn’t review Ted Leo & The Pharmacists recent album The Brutalist Bricks, because frankly, the music speaks for itself. Trying to find 450-odd words to adequately sell Mr. Leo’s blood, sweat, and tears would be doing the man and his music an enormous injustice. You won’t see his music used on commercials, you won’t see him selling his soul on a magazine cover for a few more units sold. A punk rocker with a pure heart, Leo and The Pharmacists have always done it (for better or worse) their way, and you have to respect that… and buy their records. Man’s gotta eat, y’dig (read more about that here — http://www.tedleo.com/2010/07/07/regarding-the-rumors-of-retirement/). “Bottled In Cork”, one of the finer moments on The Brutalist Bricks, shows Leo throwing out enough hooks to make Cheap Trick envious and indulging in a little old fashioned fun, theatre style. I swear if he brought that show to London, I’d go see it.

Releasing their soundtrack to 13 of Andy Warhol’s screen tests was an opportune moment for ex-Galaxie 500/Luna star Dean Wareham to fully express his love for Velvet Underground and the stars of Andy Warhol’s Factory. The screen tests alone, wavering between the visually arresting and the arrestingly mundane, were elevated into a new realm with the musical accompaniment provided by Wareham and partner Britta Phillips. Bringing the 13 Most Beautiful show to London (having frustratingly been given its UK premiere in Dunfermline last year) was a long-anticipated occasion.

Having been blessed with seeing Elliott Smith perform several times over his all-too-short career, Webcuts has nothing but admiration, appreciation, and love for an artist who was one of the greater, if not greatest, songwriters of our generation. Should it be that some of you are unfamiliar with his work, Domino Records in the UK are to release on November 1, An Introduction To… Elliott Smith. A album featuring 14 tracks compiled from all seven of Smith’s albums: Roman Candle, Elliott Smith, Either/Or, XO, Figure 8, From A Basement on the Hill, and New Moon.