Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
How much can a grizzly bear? We're not sure but this Brooklyn four piece's third album gets a perfect 10/10.
Who The Hell Are… The Rifle Volunteer?
It's an audacious pronouncement to commit to releasing 12 singles in 12 months. The Wedding Present set the benchmark in the 90's. Ash tried the same thing recently, in a mixture of desperation and overkill in numbers too large to comprehend and tarnishing the very idea of a single. It's not just two songs on a slab of vinyl (or cd, or one of those less satisfying digital w/artwork jobs). It's a living, breathing statement. A trojan horse in disguise. A rallying cry to fall behind. A rallying cry... See, The Rifle Volunteer comprehend this. "I'll Sleep When That Damned Sun Is Dead", the first single in their year long campaign, is what we're talking about. Here is a band that means business.
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.
The Bangles – All Over The Place / Different Light
The Bangles chart-conquering Different Light and their slighty less impressive debut album get the reissue treatment.
TV on the Radio – Dear Science
4AD, 2008 [9/10] Brooklyn art/beat innovators TV on the Radio return with their third album, a soulful slice of inspiration and invention, moving away from the doom and desperation of 2006's Return to Cookie Mountain
Spoon – Atlanta – 14 April 2008
Spoon Centre Stage, Atlanta, GA 14th April 2008 It's Britt Daniel's birthday but you wouldn't know it. There's no cake and candles, no rambunctious behaviour or jokes. You'd be expecting the band to be soused
Broken Records – Until the Earth Begins to Part
If the news makes you sad, don't watch it, rather listen to Broken Records' dazzling debut.
Hatcham Social – Sidewalk EP
One of Webcuts favourite albums of last year, Hatcham Social hit the new year with this 6 track EP of new and familiar.
Heaven 17 – Live at Last
Cooking Vinyl, 2008 [1/10] For those unaware, Heaven 17 existed on the periphery of the pioneering electronic new wave scene. They didn't have the pop flair of the Human League or the sequined glitz of
Castanets – Texas Rose Thaw & The Beasts
Every rose has a thorn and so too does the fifth album by Raymond Raposa's folk-beat one man band Castanets.
Alela Diane – To Be Still
Nevada City's beguiling folk heroine Alela Diane returns with a white diamond of a second album. Be still, our beating heart.
HTRK – London – 9 March 2009
HTRK Lexington, London 9th March 2009 I first witnessed Melbourne/Berlin noise-makers HTRK in action at a time where any favourable impression would not come forthwith. This was in a dingy low ceilinged East London venue
Okkervil River – I Am Very Far
Very unsure about this album, the sixth from past Webcuts pet faves, Okkervil River. I Am Very Far from their best.
Primavera Festival – Barcelona – 27-29 May 2010
Ah, Barcelona, your beaches are beautiful, your women are smoking jewels (literally), and this festival by the beach (really an explosion of concrete by the seaside) is clearly the diamond in the rough for the travelling roadshow of bands that litter the skies with one thing in mind - a paid holiday. With a selection of acts that suited this weary hack like a good pair of tight jeans and a band tee, Primavera was a stage to stage delight. The current crop of new band like The Drums, Surfer Blood and Dum Dum Girls rose up to meet the challenge of the '90s alternative old guard of Pixies, Pavement and Superchunk.
Malcolm Middleton – Sleight of Heart
Inertia, 2008 [7.5/10] Malcolm Middleton, previously one half of gritty Scottish miserabilists Arap Strap, establishes the modus operandi for his fourth album Sleight of Heart right from the get go. When he sings "We're having
The Long Blondes – Couples
Rough Trade, 2008 [8/10] "Couples" by name and couples by nature, Sheffield's indie darlings, The Long Blondes, were once discreetly paired up (drummer with bassist, obviously, and guitarist with keyboardist) leaving them looking like the