Lydia Loveless – Columbus – 30 September 2011
A couple of songs into Lydia Loveless’s evening set, and it’s difficult to tell where Lydia the singer ends and Lydia the person begins. It’s simply hard to imagine a woman like this, barely in her twenties, and standing a little over five foot tall in her boots, could be so worldly and explosive. And yet, there she is, muttering a string of f-bombs during a song break because she can’t get her guitar tuned quite right. The attitude, the weathered, sarcastic smile. The edge. That’s pretty damn tough to fake.
Truck Festival – Steventon – 22-24 July 2011
Quietly, unassumingly, Truck Festival has become an annual celebration of all that is so very right about music. When the Bennett brothers witnessed the exploitative attitude of industrial sized events they didn’t just get mad they got even. Truck Festival was their baby and now in its fourteenth year it has blossomed into a rather lovely adolescent. Webcuts birthday boy Don Blandford was at Truck all weekend to report on the action, featuring appearances by: Graham Coxon, Lanterns On The Lake, Cashier No.9, Sarah Cracknell, Johnny Flynn, Edwyn Collins, Caitlin Rose, Mechanical Bride and Sea Of Bees.
Webcuts Top 11 Of 2011
It hasn’t been an amazing year for music, but surely an entertaining one. Lots of new acts jockeying for position amongst the wily veterans, and plenty of debate even as early as June over love ‘em-or hate ‘em titles such as King of Limbs and James Blake’s eponymous debut and where they belong in the year’s final canonization of greats. Honestly, I can’t remember a year in recent memory when I’ve found so many hyped records I’ve disliked or been entirely disinterested in. Cults? Pass. Tyler, The Creator? Garbage. The saviors from musical banality have consistently been experienced groups who know what they’re doing and get praised for their music and not being arrested in LA and starting riots.
Grand Atlantic – How We Survive
Brisbane's Grand Atlantic avoid the sophomore slump with a successful swim in the genres of alternative rock and power-pop.
Lightspeed Champion – Life is Sweet! Nice to Meet You
Dev Hynes brings us more songs of bittersweet romance on his sophomore release as Lightspeed Champion.
Steven Heath – The Airport Fire
Peak Plasma Conc., 2008 [6/10] "A soundtrack for driving around the city at night" is how Australia's Steven Heath depicts his latest release and it's not a far fetched description; the overall feeling that it
The Primitives – Back and In Full Bloom (2010)
When you get down to the nuts and bolts of rock and roll, it's not about how tight your jeans are or how good your stylist is, it's about the music. It's about the song. For some bands in particular, it's about the pop song. Two and half minutes of spun gold that held your attention long after the needle left the record. Few bands embodied the spirit of the sublime '60s pop song than The Primitives. Sitting backstage at The Scala in London, Webcuts catches up with Tracy and Paul to rewind the clock and to talk about the events that brought The Primitives into the 21st Century and what lies ahead for the band.
Andrew Bird – Noble Beast
Andrew Bird takes flight with his latest album Noble Beast. Thankfully it's nothing at all like a Flock of Seagulls.
William Fitzsimmons – The Sparrow and the Crow
William Fitzsimmons goes through the gamut of emotions on his new album - forgiveness, loss, optimism - but it still cannot save the effort from a terminal dullness.
Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks – Mirror Traffic
Pavement reunion done and dusted, Stephen Malkmus and Co. get back to making adult indie rock on album number five.
Idlewild – Post Electric Blues
Idlewild return with their fan-funded sixth album, offering much talk of Warnings (and Promises). But do they deliver?
Luke Haines – London – 19 January 2011
This was to be the debut and sole performance of Outsider Music, Luke Haines' most successful solo album to date. An album of some notoriety in that it was individually recorded 50 times and released last September for £75 a throw. An artistic experiment and a gamble of sorts, it was an undeniable success for Haines, the old adage about fools and their money standing true -- all 50 volumes of Outsider Music disappearing quicker than anticipated. With each volume a unique item on its own, buyers have been reticent on sharing and as of yet, no copies have surfaced. So Haines - 1, Rich Fans - 1, Poor Fans - go eat a shit sandwich.
Beach House – Bloom
Bella Union, 2012 [rating:5/10] Since their self-titled debut in 2006, Portland duo Beach House have become a band synonymous with the 'dream-pop' side of contemporary music, a tag that suitably sums up Beach House's immaculate
The Boxer Rebellion – Union
When the dark forces are everywhere who are you gonna call? England's staunchly independent epic rock band The Boxer Rebellion? Maybe not after this disappointing second effort.
Wilco – The Whole Love
Wilco -- "They’ve solidified themselves as the greatest American band playing today, possibly of all time".
The Besnard Lakes – London – 19 August 2010
Touring off the back of their third studio release The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night, the Quebec-based The Besnard Lakes returned to London to treat us with some more of their epic Beach Boys meets Spiritualized jams. Given the massive sound present on ...The Roaring Night, there was some anticipation in how the band were going to pull this off as a four piece. With the newer tracks being a lot denser and harder to recreate live without either a 10 piece line up or a maze of effects and loop pedals, assistance came via laptop, which helped embellish the sound and keep true to their recorded material.