Webcuts Music

Louisiana’s Generationals Actor-Caster is a “treasure trove of indie pop rock songs”. That’s exactly the kind of booty we like around here.

Cold Cave‘s debut album of 2009 Love Comes Close was a unique display of synth-oriented mood disorder, venturing out from the bedroom to the dancefloor, filled with idealistic tales of romance and disillusionment. Band leader Wes Eisold’s spin on the world appeared to share a voice (in both dour baritone and content) with Magnetic Fields Stephin Merritt, if he’d spent his adolescence listening to The Cure and Depeche Mode instead of showtunes. On their second album, Eisold moved beyond the testing of the waters that was Love Comes Close and turned its successor, Cherish The Light Years into his dark dream made manifold.

Is it me or do Warpaint have a thing about water/the ocean/drowning, or perhaps they’re just big fans of The Little Mermaid and just want to live under the sea? In this new video clip for their own self-titled theme song, they manage to do just that, albeit in a world where bassist/vocalist Jenny Lee Lindberg looks like a suicidal fisherman and drummer Stella Mozgawa is a parking inspector, about to shed their shackles. This is what the band had to say about the clip: “We’ve always had the idea to do a video underwater, and were excited when our friend Ted Newsome sent us a treatment, which involved just that. It was an opportunity to create a fantastical world where oxygen, time and style were simply not an issue. Turned out to be far more challenging than we had initially expected, but we pulled through”. “Warpaint” appears on their impressive Rough Trade debut album of 2010 The Fool, and the band are set to appear at the Field Day Festival in London on August 6.

One half of the hyper-productive quirk-pop outfit Fiery Furnaces takes her first solo steps on Last Summer.

Washed Out’s debut album couldn’t have arrived at a more perfect time. The water’s just right for a little chillwave.

With a brand new Throwing Muses album waiting in the wings, the 25th anniversary of their self-titled debut has arrived, with 4AD issuing the first ever compilation of the band’s work, simply entitled Anthology, on September 5. Compiled by the band, the first American act to sign to 4AD, the twenty-one track selection eschews most of the singles in favour of personal favourites, and enjoys a non-chronological sequence which makes for interesting juxtapositions and encourages a reassessment of the music. The initial release comes in a hardback book with a bonus CD of B-sides and rarities.

Album number six for these free-wheeling long-haired holdin’ on to black metal giants of Southern Rock.

Can Bon Iver live up to expectation with his self-titled follow-up to the celebrated For Emma, Forever Ago?

There are some records that forever remain at the bottom of the review pile, and boy do Smith Westerns make us regret it.

Subtle and beautifully and unexpectedly intriguing is “Calgary”, the first single to be lifted from Bon Iver‘s long-awaited (and due any day now) 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 12″. Exclusive to this release will be a cover of Bonnie Raitt’s ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’. Also confirmed is Bon Iver’s first UK tour dates since 2009. For the shows, Justin Vernon will perform with an 8-piece band that feature many musicians who contributed to the album, including regular Bon Iver contributors Sean Carey (piano), Mike Noyce (guitar) and Matt McCaughan (drums), as well as a well-travelled band of supporting players who’ve done time in Anthony & The Johnsons, Arcade Fire and Sufjan Stevens. The UK tour starts on October 19 at Manchester Apollo, with a show in London at the Hammersmith Apollo on October 24.