Webcuts Music

Ex-Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy returns with his first new solo album in 7 years, proving that there’s still life in the old goth.

Minneapolis folk duo Peter Wolf Crier mix things up on their sophomore album with mixed results.

Reissue! Repackage! Warpaint‘s mesmerising debut gets a little dressing up as we wait for album #2.

Dum Dum Girls add an extra coat of polish and put on a brave garage-pop face for album number 2.

On the surface, it’s a normal, sold-out show on a Friday night just north of downtown Cleveland. The fans stretch around the corner from the front door; ticket holders excited for the They Might Be Giants concert they’re about to see, and those without tickets hoping to catch a break when they get to the box office. But this is not a normal show, and this is not a normal audience. These are the geeks. The nerds. Die hard rock fans of a different shade of crazy, waiting for their musical heroes to serenade them with catchy pop songs tinged with dark humor and insightful counter-culture references.

Energetic indie-rock from LA’s Grouplove but watch out for “the boring half of the record”. Whoops.

Obscurities he called it, but more like a forgotten treasure trove from all chapters of the Stephin Merritt songbook.

Having changed careers mid-stream from a piano-based singer-songwriter with a touch of the Regina Spectors to a Nico-esque bleach-blonde gothic siren, in Austra Katie Stelmanis has found the form to match the function. With a handful of impressive singles released either side of their Kate Bush meets Nine Inch Nails debut album Feel It Break, Stelmanis may have found her creative niche but she still has much to prove. On record, Austra cloak themselves in a throbbing monochrome blanket, but on stage their live show is more telling, more vibrant and commanding, as Stelmanis, flanked by a pair of interpretive dancers/backing vocalists, add any absent colour.

Cherry Red, 2011 While the other three members forged on with nary a breath to contemplate what lay behind them, it took the ex-Bauhaus frontman 3 long years to record his first solo album. Here Murphy’s path was a more cautious one, making tentative steps with ex-Japan bassist Mick Karn for their unspectacular avant garde [...]

With our review dispensing superlatives like “timeless” and “classic”, Beirut‘s The Rip Tide is one of the must-listen albums of 2011.