Webcuts Music

We told you about the bounty of international acts coming Australia’s way in the next few months a couple of weeks back, now after an announcement they would play the Meredith music festival in Victoria got those in other states chomping at the bit it’s now official — Mark E Smith and his current cohorts known as The Fall are playing headline shows in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne on the back of this year’s Your Future, Our Clutter album. Also tour announcements for San Fran’s Girls and Canadian indie supergroup The New Pornographers.

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.

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.

The end of winter and the onset of spring then summer in the Southern Hemisphere means one thing. Well it means warmer temperatures obviously but it also means more international tours for us antipodeans starved of name acts over the winter months (excepting Splendour and its sideshows of course). A number of big names have been announced in the past week including The Manic Street Preachers, The Charlatans, Concrete Blonde, The National, Interpol, The Morning Benders and Joan Jett!

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.

With their long-awaited third album The Suburbs released this week, it’s celebration time all round for the Arcade Fire collective, but as Webcuts assembles its verdict on just how good (or bad) The Suburbs is, they soldier on regardless, knowing at least the two new songs released so far (“The Suburbs” and “Month Of May”) exist well outside of the black hole Neon Bible was sucked into. To coincide with the release, the band has partnered with American Express, VEVO, and YouTube to live-stream their August 5 performance at Madison Square Garden, featuring surprise musical guests.

Has there ever been a band that promised so much, but delivered so little? I know with an opening statement like that I may as well tell them that their girlfriends/wives are ugly too and be done with it, but once upon a time The Walkmen had their eyes on the prize, but instead decided to move to Tijuana and play like drunk, heartbroken Americanos. To give them credit, they do this really well. But after 5 albums, the soft introspective “why you done gone and left me?” feel that carried through A Hundred Miles Off and You & Me gets a little too familiar. Lisbon, what have you for The Walkmen? What have you for us?

For our third year in a row, Webcuts will be out in force at the 2010 Way Out West festival (August 12-14) in Gothenburg, Sweden, casting a watchful eye on proceedings and generally just having a damn good time. After the impressive line-up of last year, which had My Bloody Valentine, Glasvegas, Antony & The Johnsons, Grizzly Bear and Vampire Weekend all vying for our attention, Way Out West 2010 has once more secured an impressive array of acts from all corners of the globe.

To celebrate/commiserate the Pixies last week selling out a 500 capacity club venue in Brisbane in around a minute we give you a movie poster and theme song pastiche about the whole affair. “A Racer” (sung to the tune of “Debaser”) — “Got me a concert/I don’t want you to go/Clicking on refresh/It’s so damn slow!/Oztix is so moody/I want it to flow”

Melbourne’s Black Cab are a bit of an enigma. They’ve been together for ten years, released three critically lauded albums of shoegaze, psychedelic and electronic infused rock music, and done European tours but are almost unknown to many in their own country. Possibly their sporadic live shows, which usually don’t stray far from their native city — indeed they’ve never ventured up to Brisbane in their history.