Features

The live album of LCD Soundsystem's final gig at Madison Square Garden is finally being released tomorrow (April 19) for this year's Record Store Day, in full, as a 5LP set. Back in Uncut's November 2012 issue (Take 186), we met LCD's James Murphy to hear his thoughts on their farewell concert, his reasons for breaking up the band, and the plans he has for a post-LCD career: “I don’t,” he says. “And it’s terrifying!” Words: Stephen Troussé _____________________________

As Robert Gordon reminds us in Respect Yourself: Stax Records And The Soul Explosion, his terrific account of the rise and fall of the great Memphis soul imprint, the Stax story is more than a record-label history. “It is an American story,” Gordon writes,” where the shoe-shine boy becomes a star, the country hayseed an international magnate. It’s the story of individuals against society, of small business competing with large, of the disenfranchised seeking their own tile in the American mosaic.”

One of the books I’ve enjoyed most in the past couple of years is “Pulphead”, a collection of John Jeremiah Sullivan’s longform, creative and not always entirely reliable journalism.

First of all, there was the somewhat staggering recent news that Captain Sensible was about to turn 60. Then a few weeks ago, Nick Lowe was 65. And today, it turns out, Dave Edmunds, Nick’s former best mate and partner in Rockpile, is 70.

In the opening voiceover for their debut, Blood Simple, the Coen brothers established the methodology that has driven their films ever since: “I don’t care if you’re the pope of Rome, president of the United States, man of the year, something can always go wrong.”

As The Afghan Whigs release Do To The Beast, their first new album in 16 years, we delve into the Uncut archive to revisit the band’s dapper frontman recalling the albums and songs that changed his life (June 2012, Take 181). Includes Prince’s “laser jizz”… Interview: Sharon O’Connell

Bit of a rush in the face of deadlines this morning, but a strange list – not all of it recommended, really – with a notable discovery in Mike Cooper, whose early ‘70s albums work well as companion pieces to those of Michael Chapman. Anyone who knows his work, and knows more, drop me a line.

Four years on from the death of his creator Chris Sievey, Frank Sidebottom has finally found the international platform that eluded him during Sievey's lifetime.

There's a review I've written in the new Uncut of Colfax, the debut album by The Delines, the new band formed by Richmond Fontaine singer and song-writer, Willy Vlautin. I had a few questions for Willy that he answered by email, an extract for which runs alongside the review in the current issue. I thought it might be worth running the whole interview here.

Anyone who happened to catch Graham Norton's show on Friday night might have been surprised to see Richard Ayoade sharing the sofa with Kylie Minogue, Russell Crowe and Cameron Diaz: chat show royalty, and Ayoade's presence among them suggests things have turned out very well for the bloke from The IT Crowd.