Webcuts Music

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.

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.

In the space of the just two weeks one singer-songwriter who hails from Essex in England, Gemma Ray, has set up residence in the speakers and hearts of at least two of us here at Webcuts. The source of such an impact was the new album It’s a Shame About Gemma Ray, a 16 track covers album of timeless (Buddy Holly, Etta Fitzgerald) and alternative (Mudhoney, Sonic Youth, The Gun Club) classics. The first track is the sparse take on Gallon Drunk’s dark but delicious “Put a Bolt In the Door” from their album The Rotten Mile. Featured above is an acoustic session from Le Cargo! which successfully conveys the stripped down and dirty nature of the recorded version. Note the large kitchen knife tucked away at the back of the fretboard which Ray regularly uses in concert and studio in place of a slide. The Ray of light (or dark) will continue in the next week when we’ll feature a lengthy interview with the chanteuse about the album and future recordings.

For those who haven’t been paying attention (and you should) Darren Hayman the singer/guitarist from London indie sensations Hefner has recorded five albums and numerous EPs since that group went on permanent hiatus in 2001, either under his own moniker or with his new band The Secondary Modern (not to mention collobrations with The Wave Pictures and blue-grass indie supergroup Hayman, Watkins, Trout and Lee). His sixth is Essex Arms due on 4 October via Fortuna POP!, the first in a planned trilogy of albums focusing on the East Anglian rural underbelly. This taster (not single that will be “‘Nothing You Can Do About It” out Aug 16) is just where you’d imagine Darren Hayman to be at this stage of his career — wistful folk, full of warmth and a touch of nostalgia which is accompanied by a richly textured film clip shot in Super 8 featuring Darren and band members and most charming of all his dog Bella. Woof!

Last seen by Webcuts at the Primavera Festival in Barcelona tearing up the stage like street kids on a candy high, North Carolina’s Superchunk took great delight in reminding the assembled why they were of the last great alternative bands of the 90′s still standing. Having been somewhat quiet since 2001′s ironically titled Here’s To Shutting Up, Superchunk have a brand new album on the way, the epically titled Majesty Shredding released on September 14 (US) and October 4 (UK). The band’s website says the album is “neither a return nor a departure…” and that just tells you everything you need to know — exhuberant, melodic, intense and in your face (and that’s just the slow songs) Majesty Shredding could well be their greatest hour (or 41 minutes). While we wait for October to roll round, sit back and relax as the band peel out on a cover of The Cure’s “Inbetween Days” recorded especially for the AV Club.

For the first few seconds you’d swear this is Morrissey’s “The First Of The Gang To Die”, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to associate that solitary opening chord with the work of one Joe Pernice. As far as recordings go, Joe hasn’t quite done a Colin Meloy, but he has authored a 33 1/3 series book, of his quasi-fictional adolescent experiences with The Smith’s Meat Is Murder. This is not as sordid as it may sound. Rest assured, “Jacqueline Susann” has nothing to do with Morrissey or The Smiths. It’s just a quick 2 minute 30 second rev (screeching guitars as screeching tyres, no less) of the Pernice Brothers’ engine to reintroduce the band into our lives once again. Taken from their latest album, Goodbye, Killer the video clip for “Jacqueline Susann” is an obvious joy to behold. I say this sarcastically of course. You pay peanuts, you get 3 minutes of a guy riding a bicycle.

For a band who’ve been around (in this incarnation at least) since December 2008, it would be more apt to call this Leeds-based 8-piece collective Milk White White Baby Teeth but Milk White White Teeth it is. “Ingrid Won’t Smile” is their debut 7″ release, once again cherry-picked for greatness by the taste-makers at the Too Pure Singles Club. The allure of “Ingrid…” lies in that snug calypso swing. The swirl of brass and keys, the soaring vocals, the vibrant percussive rattle… the fact it has a girl’s name in the title — all perfect pop song ingredients. Similar in style to Arcade Fire’s “Haiti”, “Ingrid…” has more of a grounding in classic 80′s British pop like Orange Juice and Haircut 100, but maybe that’s just me… Unfortunately, there’s no official clip as such for the track as yet, this Radio 1 session version will have to do. For more information, head over to http://milkwhitewhiteteeth.tumblr.com/

Having devoted this spot to electro-brats and electro-babes in past weeks, it’s time we bring Webcut of the Week back to what it was made for — pimping psychedelic stoner rock. Heading across the border (in fact across the ocean), we pull into Canada’s Black Mountain to check out their “Old Fangs”. Granted there’s a pervading Queens Of The Stone Age stink about this track, but it’s the pulse of those keys and the entwined vocals of band leader Stephen McBean and Amber Webber that strap you in for this dark ride — “play those deathwish chords” indeed. Their third album Wilderness Heart is out September 13 on Jagjaguar and the band are currently on tour in Europe as we speak.

Anne Booty better known in music circles as Coco Electrik is back after a three year absence with a new single “Fire & Ice”. The delightfully oddball video directed by George Tsioutsias was inspired by Plato’s Allegory Of The Cave. As none of the Webcuts staff currently hold Ph.Ds we can’t ascertain its accuracy, but can still enjoy the sight of Coco donning a blond wig and shaking her booty with various metaphysical and interplanetary objects swirling around, all the while backed by an infectious blast of electro-rock. Ink in July 26 on your calender as that is when Electrik’s sophomore album White Ink will hit stores both physical and digital via Oscillation records.

What’s to say about Crystal Castles that hasn’t already been said before? A notorious Canadian electro-duo comprised of Ethan Kath and Alice Glass, Crystal Castles have been a contentious musical presence since the release of their first single “Alice Practice” in 2006. Their second self-titled album was released last month and the evolution of the band’s sound, whilst still maintaining an experimental, aggressive edge, has come under scrutiny by fans and critics alike for the mature, mainstream approach of some of the tracks. Webcuts has no qualms with quaffing from the mainstream, and the Ibiza rave groove of “Celestica” is close to being one of our favourite singles of the year. We also love the zombie-strolling Glass as she and Kath listlessly invade a local London cemetry too. An official video clip from Crystal Castles. How times change… Fan vid makers take that!