Webcuts Music

Having to write a live review on the fly, almost two weeks after it happened, from notes hastily scribbled, while packing to go to a festival will show us this is not the way to be. There’s no time to go into great detail, to labour the point, to draw comparisons between George Lewis Jr’s physical appearance (a little bit Prince, a little bit Morrissey), or the sound (a little bit Prince, a little bit Morrissey, albeit on a synth-sprung landscape). Twin Shadow, at least from this writer’s perspective, has adequately filled the gap that LCD Soundsystem left by their absence, in making music that moves and is moving, that is confident without being arrogant, and is just too perfect for words.

Subtle and beautifully and unexpectedly intriguing is “Calgary”, the first single to be lifted from Bon Iver‘s long-awaited follow-up to For Emma, Forever Ago out June 20 via 4AD. With a little surrendering of your digital details, you can download the track now from www.boniver.org. The physical format will be released on July 4 on [...]

With each successive show played in London growing in size from venue to venue, it’s a clear indication of the steady rise of this beloved Atlanta four-piece, and with Shepherd’s Bush Empire being sold out, it’s their largest capacity UK headline show to date. For the ardent, precious fan, Deerhunter aren’t your band anymore. The era of slipping into town for a small club tour is over, but from the staid, somewhat bemused crowd, Deerhunter’s roaming psychedelic-shoegaze and mutant folk-pop are still an acquired taste, one that’s seemingly unlikely to assail the upper reaches of the charts like label-mates, The National.

Atlanta four-piece Deerhunter make their long-awaited return to the UK this week, beginning this Saturday (March 26) in Belfast at The Stiff Kitten (oh, the Irish and their romantic pub names). Their first full European tour since 2009, the trip is also the first chance for British fans to hear tracks from the group’s acclaimed fourth album, Halcyon Digest, since its September release last year. To coincide with the tour, the track “Memory Boy” is to be released on 7″ single, backed by new track “Nosebleed” and can be purchased at the shows or in stores from April 11.

Bound to top many ‘best albums of 2010′ polls is The National‘s roof-tearing slash emotionally-draining 5th album, High Violet. Given an exceptionally praising 9 star review on Webcuts, we said “from start to finish… is a wrenchingly beautiful album. It combines the emotion of Alligator and lushness of Boxer and showcases newfound confidence and maturity”. Coinciding with the release of an expanded 2cd version of High Violet, the band have issued the tender drama of “Terrible Love”, with an accompanying video shot both onstage and backstage at various live shows over the summer, showing a lighter side to these normally stoic Brooklynites. Released as a violet-coloured 7″ and download single on November 22, both the alternate version of “Terrible Love” and B-side “You Were A Kindness” will feature on the expanded “you bought it once, you’ll buy it twice” edition of High Violet released the same day. Don’t complain, you know you want it.

The stakes are high on Deerhunter’s 4th album. Can they beat Webcuts album of the year 2008, their own magnificent Microcastle?

“Take my hand and pray with me”, and how we’ve prayed, patiently awaiting the arrival of Deerhunter’s 4th album Halcyon Digest. For the dimly remembering, the monumental Microcastle was Webcuts album of the year for 2008, and expections have already been set. “Helicopter” is the second track to be previewed from the album and it’s a loop-based, plink-plonk synth-led Deerhunter meets The Littlest Mermaid undersea adventure with Bradford Cox revisiting his usual themes of isolation and escapism, and well you know the rest, drugs and paranoia. Unlike those ‘slacker’ bands out there like Wavves and Best Coast who talk about getting stoned and making music, Deerhunter is the real fuck-with-your-head deal. The collage of visuals for the clip (Deerhunter’s first ever video) is unsurprising for them, but there’s something about “Helicopter” that feels like it will have its greatest effect while being paranoid, trapped, and on drugs.

A few nights before this Pixies warm up concert for Splendour in the Grass, I had a vivid dream. In it I was the tour manager or press officer for the band and they were being put up in a luxury hotel with a huge swimming pool which they were swanning around in and (in)famously not getting along and refusing to do the show. It ended with me giving them a “look all the great rock’n’roll bands are dysfunctional, but when you’re on stage for that hour and a half you come together, that’s when you work, that’s when you function!” speech. And then I drove them to the Zoo in a black hummer.

While a large portion of you out there are punching your computer screens and hating on Matador from being denied access to their Las Vegas 21st Birthday Party (i’ll be throwing a pity party somewhere in Los Angeles at the same time), our favourite Atlantan sons, Deerhunter have announced news of their fourth LP, Halcyon Digest to be released by 4AD on September 27 (28 in the US).

Ornate and dreamlike New York trio Blonde Redhead return with Penny Sparkle, the follow-up to 2007′s 23, due out September 14 on 4ad. Details on the album are still somewhat scarce, but frontwoman Kazu Mazion recently released this vague soporific statement (edited for space here). “I can’t say what Penny Sparkle is about just yet.

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