Blue Roses – Blue Roses
Blue Roses may not exist in nature but there's nothing artificial about Yorkshire songsmith Laura Groves.
We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls
We were promised great things from Scottish act We Were Promised Jetpacks including epic, emotional rock songs and whad'ya know? We got 'em.
Grand Atlantic / The Lovers of Modern Art / We All Want To – Brisbane – 26 June 2009
Not ones to throw angular shapes the boys here strive to find the right notes and the majority of the time they hit them.
Bauhaus – Go Away White
Cooking Vinyl, 2008 [rating:1/10] Bauhaus' original swansong, released almost 25 years ago now, was a recording halted and hindered by singer Peter Murphy catching pneumonia and being hospitalised, meaning the finished product, entitled Burning From
Way Out West Festival – Gothenburg – 2008
Gothenburg's 2008 Way Out West Festival - Buzzcocks, The Sonics, Okkervil River, Sonic Youth, The National, Grinderman, Broder Daniel, Silverbullit, Caesars, Neil Young,.
Shearwater – Rook
Matador, 2008[rating:9/10] There are musicians who would flinch when accused of doing it "for the birds", reducing the act of making music to a mating call, but Jonathan Meiburg and his band ornithologists in Austin,
Way Out West Festival – Gothenburg – 2010
As regular as clockwork, and now for the third year running, Webcuts returned to Slottsskogen in Gothenburg, Sweden for the annual Way Out West Festival. With so much eclectic talent spread across the three days it was impossible to walk away empty-handed. No matter what your taste in music were, all bases were covered. This year, Electro-wizards Chemical Brothers, alterna-rock heroes Pavement, living legends Iggy Pop & The Stooges, hometown boy Håkan Hellström, rap overlords the Wu-Tang Clan, and the mesmerizing M.I.A. were just a few of the acts to thrilled the sell-out audience, and to keep the photographers on their toes...
Factory Records – Communications 1978-1992
Long-overdue retrospective from the label that brought you the Happy Mondays, but don't hold that against them...
MNDR – Electro Pop Freakout (2010)
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.
Kaki King – Dreaming of Revenge
Cooking Vinyl, 2008 [rating:6.5/10] Having scored a Golden Globe nominated film soundtrack with Eddie Vedder, appeared on recent albums for Tegan and Sara and the Foo Fighters, and being named by Rolling Stone magazine as
Grand Duchy – Petit Fours
Grand who? Just call them Mr. and Mrs. Frank Black and everything will be peachy, or desserty...
Noah and the Whale – London – 16 May 2011
It’s a little known piece of Webcuts folklore that Noah And The Whale once played in my living room. Gladly, it was before my time, otherwise a compulsion to head downstairs and have words would‘ve been hard to resist. A sell-out show at the Camden Roundhouse is not to be sneered at, but if commercial success or the ability to fill a room is the barometer in which all great music is measured, we’re on (and have been for decades) very shaky ground, and when superlative-inducing American folk-rock act Okkervil River are playing across town, clearly in the wrong place.
Laneway Festival – Brisbane – 4 February 2011
In complete contrast to a month ago when it was "precipitation nation" Brisbane’s fourth St. Jerome’s Laneway festival could've been subtitled "Boiling Brisvegas". Unlike many festivals Laneway 2011 had a remarkably consistent quality throughout the entire day, so regardless of the weather it was always destined to be a scorcher. We braved the extreme ultra violet index to report on Australia's Rat Vs Possum, Cloud Control and Cut Copy. While sampling UK's Foals and America's best of the best with Beach House, The Antlers, Warpaint, Blonde Redhead, Ariel Pink, Holy Fuck. Oh and LES SAVY FAV!.
Wild Nothing – Nocturne
Bella Union, 2012 [rating:6.5/10] Jack Tatum thought he must've hit a goldmine when his 2010 debut album as Wild Nothing was so rapturously received with little to no preceding fanfare. This North Virginian native, and
Titus Andronicus – The Monitor
Ragged fist-pumping fury from outta New Jersey. Named after one of Shakespeare's earliest tragedies. Fact.
The Mountain Goats – The Life of the World to Come
Well versed in the Bible John Darnielle's Mountain Goats new album doesn't actually require a religious bone in your body to enjoy.