Webcuts Music

When there’s really only one of you, you can’t be everywhere and know everything. So excuse the tardiness in discovering avant-pop exponents and fellow London-ers, Still Corners. Almost stealing the show while supporting visiting Americans Twin Sister in London, we had these words to say about them — “select instrumental moments brought forth memories of Broadcast and Electrelane, while others a warm Slowdive-ing descent into a lush dreampop parade. Despite the plea of recent single “Don’t Fall In Love”, we couldn’t fake it, even just to spite you”. Released on a limited 7″ pressing on the Great Pop Supplement label in August, “Don’t Fall In Love” ascribes to the psychedelic 60′s cinerama of Broadcast, while the flipside hides a short but sweet surprise in the Mazzy Star-esque lullaby of “Wish”, which we’ve grown particularly fond of. Head over to http://stillcorners.bandcamp.com/ to hear more.

Latching hold of our ears earlier in the year with their double EP release Colour Your Life/Vampires With Dreaming Kids, Long Island’s Twin Sister had secured a place on our date card long before their they announced their first UK tour. Sneaking across the pond in October, we’d caught the band supporting rising stars, The Morning Benders at the Music Box in Los Angeles (apologies boys, I owe you one live review) and were suitably impressed. Jaded beyond jaded as the years drag on and the revolving floorshow of new bands yawn in our faces with old ideas, it was refreshing to witness a band breathe colour and life into their music.

It’s hard to believe that he’s been gone 7 years now. This collection attempts to define one of last great songwriters of the 20th Century.

The Bangles chart-conquering Different Light and their slighty less impressive debut album get the reissue treatment.

For those of us without jobs, or even money for that matter, Christmas this year is all about the free things. Webcuts guitar-pop favourites Ramona have taken this on board giving away their own advent calender of sorts. The first treat is a free download of a brand new track, the 2 minutes and change buzz n’ stomp of “Secrets”. Fronted by the bleach blonde Edie-in-waiting, Karen-Anne, Ramona complement that blonde-pop niche in your record collection where you’d put your prized Blondie/The Primitives/Transvision Vamp records. As mentioned on their twitter “From tomorrow and each day until Christmas day we will be giving away loads of freebies, it could be anything, so check back each day for instructions on how to get your swag”. A band to look out for in 2011, I’d do what they say. Visit their website for more news and download “Secrets” (for the next half a day or so) here.

Even with the worldwide chart-smash of “Bang Bang Bang” under her belt as part of Mark Ronson’s Business International, Amanda Warner aka MNDR is still something of an underground unknown to the general populace. Having spent the last 10 years making music with psychedelic oddities Triangle, or more recently as MNDR, it’s been a non-stop battle that’s about to pay off for this Fargo, North Dakota farm girl. With the media baggage ascribed Ronson in the UK from to his work with Amy Winehouse and his own Versions album, MNDR’s French-slinging co-write on “Bang Bang Bang” arrived at the right time for everybody to sit up and take notice.

One of Webcuts favourite tracks of 2010 is the luminous disco swoon of Twin Sister‘s “All Around And Away We Go”. Reminiscent of a time where indie bands (from Primal Scream to Paris Angels) took ecstasy, traded their guitars for samplers and stocked up on Eno records, Long Island’s Twin Sister have released one of the great lost indie/dance crossovers of 1991, albeit 19 years later. Pulled in by the part-breathy, part-kooky vocals of Andrea Estella, “All Around And Away We Go” glides in on a hypnotic rush that would sound incredible, coming up or coming down, AND they’ve paired it with a suitably kaleidoscopic and sensory overloading video clip. Shazam!! Currently on tour in the UK right now (playing tonight at the Lexingon in London), Twin Sister are set to release the track as the first single from their Color Your Life/Vampires With Dreaming Kids double EP on November 22 through Double Six.

Well known for using his blog as a means to give away his music (even to his own chagrin, accidentally leaking an unfinished version of Atlas Sound’s Logos album months in advance), Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox seems to have trumped all previous attempts of goodwill and creative insight by releasing not one, but three separate collections of demos/works-in-progress and other miscellania. Released under his own Atlas Sound moniker, Cox has partaken in some early thanksgiving by giving fans something he’s called Bedroom Databank Vol’s 1-3.

Released on an ridiculously limited edition 12” single earlier in the year was “Caligula”, the vinyl debut by bespectacled synth-stress Amanda Warner aka MNDR. “Caligula” was an mantra-esque synth-stabbing spelling bee full of wonderful non-sequiturs that pitched coffee against Roman emperors and Egyptian Goddesses. Having already hit the UK top 5 this year trading lines with rapper Q-Tip on Mark Ronson and The Business International’s smash “Bang Bang Bang”, MNDR has given up an unreleased “Cold Mix” of “Caligula” for those of you happy to surrender your email address to become part of her gang. She’ll be appearing next week in London at XOYO on November 24, and in her own words “be there or be triangle”.

Jonneine Zapata’s Cast the Demons Out came out of nowhere and managed to do what it said on the tin. And all indications were that live was where she excelled. Comparisons were bandied around from PJ Harvey and Patti Smith for there strong vocal ranges to Jim Morrison and Mick Jagger for their bold sexual stage presence. Apart from the smoldering mic stand gripping, her onstage persona also alternates between standing still with an ice cold stare, holding her arms aloft swaying like an eagle, and my favourite, lurching around the stage like a drunken marionette. Unsettling? Maybe but never boring.