Bob Mould – Silver Age
Merge, 2012 Alterna-rock statesman hot from bringing a little 90's Sugar to the 10's masses returns with shit-hot album. If that's all the convincing you need, you might as well stop reading now
Black Cab – Brisbane Interview (2010)
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.
The Lemonheads – Varshons
Evan Dando and a cast of several come together to make the ultimate Lemonheads record so far. With an album featuring songs by Wire and Christina Aguilera, it's both "Strange" and "Beautiful".
The Veils – Interview with Finn Andrews about Sun Gangs (Static, 2009)
Chris Berkley from Static talks to the rather talented Veiled one about the new album, the band's love for The Wire and possible antipodean tours.
Webcuts Top 20 Albums of 2007
We graze of the green pastures of 2007 and find the cream of the crop including Damn Arms, Grinderman, Spoon, The Concretes, Feist, Faker, John Doe, The Shins and more.
Dark Mean – Dark Mean
Canadian folk-sters Dark Mean deliver a "must-listen album with staying power, and one of the year’s best" on their self-released debut.
Magnolia Electric Co. – Josephine
Will Jason Molina blossom on Magnolia Electric Co.'s third album Josephine?
Adorable – Footnotes 92-94
Review of mid-90s band, Adorable, compilation album that combines singles, album tracks from their two LPs and b-sides.
The Grates – Brisbane – 1 May 2009
The Grates/Children Collide Hi-Fi Bar, Brisbane 1 May 2009 It's not often that you have moments like this -- where you have to take a step back from your surroundings and fathom what is the hell
The Fall – London – 7 May 2010
I’m a band purist at heart. You can cut off all your fingers, but you’ve still got a hand. If you cut off all your band members and keep cutting and cutting and cutting, you can't expect your audience to comply with your decision or to even recognise the music you make. What was it John Peel said about The Fall? "always different, always the same". Well, yes, but... no. Mark E. Smith is The Fall, but The Fall isn't just Mark E. Smith.
You Am I – Dilettantes
Australian alternative legend's [strong]You Am I[/strong] make a glorious return to form with Dilettantes -- "You Am I have turned around their most impressive release in recent years that succeeds without having to rehash the same old moves. "
Who The Hell Are… The Capitalist Youth?
Consider The Capitalist Youth, a trio of former high school classmates who play “acoustic indie rock combining a living room full of misfit instruments with lyrically driven songs about summer camp, existential crises and gubernatorial indiscretions”. They don’t write and play the kind of music that will leave listeners dumbstruck over their redefinition of a genre, but they’re able to adeptly inject something into their music that only a handful of others have done well: humanity, with a laid back sense of humor, and without any of the awkward pauses that come from other bands who get lucky on a song or two and can’t maintain things the rest of the way.
The Horrors – Primary Colours
The Horrors pull off the surprise reinvention act of the century and lift the curse of the sophomore slump forever.
Adem – Takes
Domino, 2008 [8/10] Home recorded, folk-tinged, somewhat sullen but with equal parts warmth and optimism, South London's Adem Illhan lives a Nick Drake-ian life in a Brian Eno world. Having paid his dues with the
Who The Hell Are… Civil Civic?
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?
Who The Hell Are… Silk Flowers?
Dial back to the summer of 2010 having spent the afternoon hanging out with electro-be-spectacle Amanda Warner aka MNDR, we get a tweet from her inviting us to come down to Camp Basement in Old Street to watch synth experimentalists Silk Flowers, a Brooklyn three-piece that she’d recently produced an album for. Standing facing each other in a semi-circle surrounded by banks of synths, the band were undoubtedly not of this planet, but one Krautrock based in nature, appearing wholly entranced in their own music which veered from instrumental collages to deadpan delivered pop.