Recent Rough Trade signings Howler stake their claim as a band to watch in 2012 (while coming across like a Midwest Strokes) with a brand new track “Back of Your Neck” taken from their forthcoming debut album America Give Up due out January 16. Download the song for free above and catch the band touring [...]
From her isolated upbringing in rural Wisconsin, comined with a passion for opera, philosophy and industrial music, Nika Rosa Danilova aka Zola Jesus has created a name for herself as being a successor to the great Diamanda Galas and Lisa Gerrard with her haunting, otherworldly vocal style. Over the past three years Danilova has reached the point in her career where she is no longer an experimental, teenage noise-maker but an internationally celebrated electro-pop artist. Her third album Conatus is her most accomplished work to date, pushing beyond the dark melodrama of Stridulum II toward something that is emotionally breathtaking.
For those of you who resided in Sydney, Australia in the Summer of 1992/93, Evan Dando‘s presence was a ubiquitous one. On a night off in Sydney, Dando recorded a set of songs in his Bondi hotel room featuring tracks that would later appear on Come On Feel The Lemonheads, along with covers of Love Positions and Smudge songs. Having recently unearthed the cassette, Dando deemed it worthy of release and the album, Hotel Sessions, is due out on January 9, 2012.
As the year slowly winds down we get reminded, we being Webcuts, of the albums we just didn’t get around to reviewing. Either because our plate was too full or because well… yawn, where does the time go? So, look, we’d like to apologise to Scottish indie-pop quartet Zoey Van Goey who released their second album Propeller Versus Wings way back in February for not expressly recommending it’s quirky brilliance and tender moods (walking the same halls as Camera Obscura and early Belle & Sebastian). “You Told The Drunks I Knew Karate” is more of the former, an adorably perfect tale of a night out gone awry now made complete with its own karate-themed video. The track is being released as a single through Chemikal Underground on November 21. A digital single that is. Not something small, plastic, and awesome. Sigh.
Ass-kicking rock n’ roll from Spain’s Layabouts. Not sure why we reviewed this, but hey, why the hell not.
They released one of 2011′s finest albums with the 20th anniversary celebrating The Double Cross and now my own personal rock n’ roll heroes Sloan are to release their first live bootleg LP. Titled Is That All I Get? the album documents the band ‘rough and ready’ style after a year of touring their debut album Smeared and features nascent versions of tracks which would later appear on the Twice Removed. Released in a limited edition of 300 hand-numbered copies and pressed on green marble vinyl, the album will be available for purchase on Monday November 14.
London, Paris, Condale, Munich. Everybody’s talking about Summer Camp‘s pop music. Well, not everybody. But they should.
Sizzling psyche-pop debut from San Francisco three-piece Wet Illustrated. A little Feelies, a little Sonic Youth.
New Jersey outfit Real Estate’s shares their first music video from their album Days for the lead single “It’s Real”, filmed in Ridgewood, New Jersey and directed by Weird Days. Days was recorded over the course of five patient months in a remote New Paltz, NY barn-cum-studio, and is a coming of age moment for childhood friends Martin Courtney (Guitar and Vocals), Matt Mondanile (Guitar) and Alex Bleeker (Bass). A gorgeous suite of guitar-pop songs, Days is a testament to the sonic formula developed on their 2009 self-titled debut album, heralding the arrival of a new, genuine and enduring group of voices in American independent music. Days sees the band tighten and refine their brand of timeless, melodic and genuine music – consolidating the breezy sketches of their earlier work into considered, graceful pop songs.
Given the dream-like quality of the music and the wide scope of the title for visual artists to work with, Okkervil River have unsurprisingly released a second video for the song “Your Past Life As A Blast” taken from I Am Very Far. How do you capture a memory? This is the main question director [...]
Crystal Castles go disco (mutated to CC standards but still disco) on “Sad Eyes”, the third track taken from their third album (III). The clip for “Sad Eyes” features live footage of the band performing mixed with shots of Alice Glass lip-syncing along and other randomness. The melodic synth lines of the track screams ABBA (no, seriously), and is another departure from the screaming and soundsystem destroying sonic meltdowns that Crystal Castles are notable for. Having just caught the band on tour in Australia last week, they were on their usual deafening form, working the writhing masses into a frenzy. Life’s got to be a gas in that band, I tell you.
