Roger Waters, The Beatles, Evan Dando and Jason Isbell all feature in the new issue of Uncut, dated July 2017 and out on May 18.
Waters is on the cover, and inside he discusses his first rock album for 25 years, Is This The Life We Really Want?, as well as Pink Floyd, Trump, Brexit and Palestine.
“It’s not much of a leap from ‘Is This The Life We Really Want?’ to ‘Money’ or ‘Us And Them’ or ‘Welcome To The Machine’,” he admits with a wolfish smile. “They’re all interconnected in ways that are… unsubtle.”
We also delve deep into the new Super Deluxe edition of The Beatles‘ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and hear from Giles Martin how he remixed the record, and what’s left in the vaults. “You realise why we’re so attracted to them,” he explains. “There’s so much energy on the tapes.”
As Evan Dando turns 50, we track down the errant Lemonhead in Martha’s Vineyard to talk reissues, Ryan Adams, a band called The Sandwich Police and, at last, a new album. “I’m ready,” says Dando, “to make a really cool record now.”
Jason Isbell answers your questions in our An Audience With… feature, revealing his thoughts on Willie Nelson, a cat called Richard Thompson, and Donald Trump. “Trump’s a bad guy,” he says. “You can’t root for the bad guy.”
Elsewhere, Uncut meets Kevin Morby, one of the decade’s most significant new singer-songwriters, and traces his journey from Midwestern traumas to New York’s streetlife to the mountainous wilds of Los Angeles. “My whole goal is just to be like my heroes,” Morby says.
As Ride and Slowdive release new albums, Uncut tracks down those bands and more, to tell the full story of the quietly revolutionary (and sometimes very noisily revolutionary) shoegaze scene. Meanwhile, we discover how a psychedelic folk underground was created in Scotland in the mid-’60s featuring Bert Jansch, The Incredible String Band, Anne Briggs, Davy Graham and John Martyn. “It was a magic time,” says The Incredible String Band’s Robin Williamson. “It felt like an enchantment; it was a town with a certain magic to it. It seemed like a wonderful melting pot.”
Also in the new issue, The Skids reveal how they created their hit “Into The Valley”, Steven Van Zandt takes us through the finest albums he’s made – from Springsteen to his new Soulfire – and Britt Daniel from Spoon recalls the songs that have shaped his life.
In our Instant Karma front section, we remember Jonathan Demme, speak to The Bootleg Beatles, Endless Boogie and Buffalo Tom, and meet Julia Jacklin.
In our mammoth reviews section, we take a look at new albums from Fleet Foxes, Dan Auerbach, Richard Dawson, Lindsey Buckingham & Christine McVie, Saint Etienne, Big Thief and Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner and more. Archival releases reviewed include The Beatles, U2, Van Morrison, The Durutti Column, Helium and Billy Mackenzie.
This month’s free CD, Run Like Hell, features 15 tracks of the best new music, including Jason Isbell, Kevin Morby, Saint Etienne, Songhoy Blues, The Unthanks, Melody’s Echo Chamber, Can, Richard Dawson, Ride and more.
The new Uncut is out on May 18.