Features

Looks like I'm going to be resorting to a few playlists rather than full blogs this week. An exciting combination of deadlines and emergency dental work, and the distraction this afternoon of a man in a very good gorilla suit running around the office (blame NME) mean I haven't much time at the moment. But I'm still simultaneously working my way through the pile of new CDs that amassed while I was on vacation. Here, then, is what we've played thus far today:

Occasionally, in a quiet moment, I might find myself reflecting on the demise of the Western. At a recent preview screening for 3.10 To Yuma – starring marquee names Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, no less – the attendance was barely into double figures. I wonder, then, how the brilliant The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford will fare?

Nice to see on the responses to my comeback blog that a few of you are sharing the love for the Ethiopiques comps. The Yegelle Tezeta and Girma Beyene tracks mentioned by Citizensound and Tunetourist aren’t on the "Very Best Of Ethiopiques" set, but thanks for the recommendations for Volumes 8 and 9.

Exclusive to Uncut.co.uk - more gigs - Today: Blur

Exclusive to Uncut.co.uk - more gigs - Today: Manic Street Preachers

There's a lot of static in the ether, as you may have detected, about the likelihood of a Led Zeppelin reunion sometime this autumn. That'd be nice, of course. But as I was listening to the new Robert Plant album for the first time this morning, it struck me: why would he bother going back there, when he's making records as good as this right now?

Apologies for the deadly silence over here these past two weeks. We haven't run out out of good music worth writing about, of course: the good CDs kept turning up, it's just that I wasn't in the office to play them.

Exclusive to Uncut.co.uk - more gigs - Today: Pixies and Throwing Muses

Our correspondent at the Venice Film Festival saw Todd Haynes' Dylan film I'm Not There this morning. Here's our exclusive report.

I knew I was heading for trouble at last night’s Hold Steady show at Camden’s Electric Ballroom when I realised that I was so excited by what I was listening to that I was knocking back a pint per song – which meant by rough reckoning that I was soon going to be either behaving outrageously or completely unconscious, unless one of us slowed down.