Features

There were so many people packed last night into the Scala to see Okkervil River that if I’d arrived any later, I probably would have had to watch the show from across the street, on the concourse of King’s Cross Station.

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Just working my way through a batch of seven-inches from Jack White’s Third Man label, as I write; really liking the Dex Romweber Duo one so far. Plenty more good stuff this week, including long-awaited new ones from Lightning Bolt, Broadcast and Rickie Lee Jones.

From Abbey Road to Zappa, 1969 was an astonishing 12 months for music - but which LP was the best?

I mentioned yesterday’s that I was just off to see The Hold Steady at the Islington Academy and I duly went and they were, as ever, duly brilliant – urgent, incendiary, delirious, a symphonic juggernaut, a hurtling thing, a wholly rousing noise.

As our recent Uncut playlists probably make clear, we’ve been happily overwhelmed by a glut of Big Star-related material over the past few weeks, beginning of course with the hefty “Keep An Eye On The Sky” boxset.

In the email newsletter I send out every Monday (you can subscribe to it on www.uncut.co.uk), I wrote about the number of great gigs looming over the next few weeks, starting tonight, in fact, with The Hold Steady at the Islington Academy. I'm going to that, but wasn't sure how many of the others shows I'd be able to make it to. I therefore invited any readers of the newsletter who had either recently seen or were going to see any of the bands I mentioned to write in with their thoughts on the gig.

Over the past few weeks, there have been a bunch of albums, much anticipated, that I’ve found hard to get into, at best, or slightly disappointing, at worst. In the midst of these frustrations, the second Fuck Buttons album, “Tarot Sport”, has acted like a kind of big, cleansing blast.

Apologies for the radio silence these past couple of weeks – I’ve been on holiday a long way from the CD mountain, catching up on some well-earned silence. Thanks for all your correspondence in the meantime, not least the kind words about my “Seeing For Miles” comp, and the Brazilian contributions to the Os Mutantes piece.

Some interesting responses to the free psych CD blog that I posted yesterday; thanks for those, and keep your thoughts coming.