Webcuts Music

By now you should already be well acquainted with abrasive-pop instrumentalists Civil Civic, stars of a recent “Who The Hell Are…?” exposé. They appear as the final release for the 2010 Too Pure Singles Club with the free-ranging fan-titled “Lights On A Leash”, (not to be confused with Korn’s “Freak On A Leash”). Continuing their own ideal to make inexplicable music that has reviewers wheeling out the sturdy, “kinda like Sonic Youth” fallback (guilty…), “Lights On A Leash” is a song in two parts, or the musical output of a presumed conjoined twin, one clad in black, reaching for The Cure’s Seventeen Seconds, the other revealing its hidden prog-rock side and attempts to blow the other twin’s mind. Released on limited edition red vinyl, you oughta buy it now as I’m sure the whole Barcelona/London thing is getting expensive for these guys.

There aren’t that many great instrumental duos in the history of rock and roll. I’ve thought about this for about 20 seconds or so and bored already. To arrive at that musical decision, and to arrive at that musical decision when your bandmate doesn’t even live in the same country, is as perverse as it is stupid. Being as they are Australian, perverse stupidity is our calling, and it’s why Civil Civic succeed where others have just gone “Dude, we need another member”. With the title still up for grabs (or until some smart-ass avant-garde freak shoots me down), Civil Civic could turn out to be the greatest instrumental duo in the history of rock and roll. Wouldn’t that be just dandy?

Noticeably missing when Models claimed their much-deserved admittance into the ARIA Hall of Fame was bassist/vocalist James Freud. Having penned two of their biggest hits, “Out of Mind, Out of Sight” and “Barbados”, his absence from the stage was surprising. “Another bicycle accident”, was what band member Sean Kelly said, hinting perhaps at Freud’s well-known bouts with alcohol and drug addiction (featured to a great extent in his two autobiographies I Am The Voice Left From Drinking and I Am The Voice Left From Rehab). With Models reconvening next year to tour their Local And/Or General album in full, an album that precluded Freud’s involvement with the band, the decision to exclude Freud (one that may or may not have been health-related) was unexpected. What was not expected however, was for Freud to take his own life on November 4. Webcuts is deeply shocked and saddened at this news. A classic pop performer and talented artist, songwriter and author, Freud‘s contribution to Australian music will not be forgotten.

While on first glance Big Scary are neither that big or scary, listen to any of their EPs and the name starts to make sense. At the Mercy of the Elements released earlier this year gave us an idea of the versatility of this Australian band: The Led Zeppelin meets White Stripes heavy rock of “Hey Somebody” rubbed shoulders with epic piano driven pop “Falling Away” and the aptly named “Creature of the Night”. Those tracks signposted a more a more mellow direction which was continued on the second of their four season EPs Winter. Currently touring with the impressive folk influenced Spring with Summer just around around the corner and a bunch of live shows in regional Australia we attempted to crack open the hardworking twosome.

Sometimes the best music is just under your nose, as in literally right under your nose on your desk hiding in a spindle of CDs. That’s what happened with Melbourne’s Black Cab as after receiving a promo of their third album Call Signs mid last year it was put on said spindle and largely forgotten about until the video for the first single, the chugging rock epic “Church of Berlin” was seen, which quickly made me hunt out the promo disc and give it my full, rapt attention. With Calls Signs recently being given an European release we talked to Andrew and Steve about their visit to the sunshine state, the sexiness of “Sexy Polizei”, the allure of Germany as a source for lyrics, covering alternative classics and new recordings.

Originally known to us as one of the curators of the Hangar venue and lofly label in Brisbane we shouldn’t have been surprised that Joel Edmondson had a musical project — the collective have more fingers in pies than Georgie Porgie after all. What we weren’t expecting, seeing as his label mates lean more towards the electronic and experimental side of the musical spectrum, was the polished pop and rock awaiting us on his MySpace page. We fired off our standard 15 questions to Mr Edmondson and his swift response proved wry and illuminating, much like his songwriting.

It’s Summer festival time in Europe, but over in Australia it’s Winter and Webcuts was there to brave the chill and celebrate Splendour in the Grass‘ tenth birthday with 32,000 others at the new Woodford location in Queensland. Over the three day weekend our reviewers witnessed a phenomenal selection of old and new favourites including — Ash, Band of Horses, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Cloud Control, The Drums, Grizzly Bear, Jonsi, LCD Soundsystem, Paul Kelly, Pixies, School of Seven Bells, Scissor Sisters, The Strokes, Tame Impala, The Vines, Yeasayer, and believe it or not, a whole lot more!!

Is Grinderman now the guiding force in Nick Cave’s life? With the departure of Nick Harvey as both perennial Bad Seed and Cave’s right hand man, what are the Bad Seeds now but just Grinderman with a new name and a new lease on life, without all the trappings of three decades journeying to hell [...]

It took eleven years, three albums and a European tour for Melbourne space rockers Black Cab to broach Brisbane but they did and yes, it was worth the wait. Even the prospect of a half empty venue, an OCD stricken punter and the one colour Hi-Fi lights were not enough to dissuade Black Cab in performing anything less than a mesmerising set of original material and two stunning encores that paid homage to the whole space/drone/shoegaze rock genre. Able support was provided by Brisbane alt.rock kings Grand Atlantic.

Is there anything more cliched than the rock and roll break-up? Secret meetings in dark alleys. The guitarist that suddenly pops up on other people’s records. The singer who doesn’t return their calls. You either see it coming a mile away, or it creeps up on you like old age. It happens to the best and it happens to the worst, and eventually it will happen to them all. Piss and moan about it all you like, but what’s done is done. The latest induction to the rock and roll hall of “fuck this shit for a laugh” are Webcuts’ favourite punk sons, The Scare.