Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band have announced details of a new film, The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts.
Edited from the original 16mm film by longtime Springsteen collaborator Thom Zimny, the film is composite of two performances shot during two nights at the 1979 MUSE benefit concerts,...
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band have announced details of a new film, The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts.
Edited from the original 16mm film by longtime Springsteen collaborator Thom Zimny, the film is composite of two performances shot during two nights at the 1979 MUSE benefit concerts, popularly known as the ‘No Nukes’ concerts, on September 21 and 22, 1979 at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
The film will be released later this year by Sony Music’s Premium Content Division.
A film and soundtrack album from the concert have been previously released. Springsteen and the E Street Band performed “Stay” (featuring Browne and Rosemary Butler) and “Detroit Medley” on the triple live album and “The River” (making its live debut at these shows), “Thunder Road” and “Quarter To Three” in the concert film.
Springsteen’s performances here have assumed great historical significant. Besides the live debut of “The River”, this was the first official recording of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band’s live act.
Springsteen also released both complete sets from the benefit concert as part of his online archival series in 2018.
Over the past decade, Bob Dylan has been working on an ongoing series of paintings he calls The Beaten Path, devoted to depictions of a particularly American landscape that’s probably on the edge of disappearing forever, but which he stubbornly insists still stubbornly exists, if you only looked: ...
Over the past decade, Bob Dylan has been working on an ongoing series of paintings he calls The Beaten Path, devoted to depictions of a particularly American landscape that’s probably on the edge of disappearing forever, but which he stubbornly insists still stubbornly exists, if you only looked: a handmade place of lost highways and forgotten barrooms and city lights in smeary rain; of lonely drive-in movie lots and funky diners and juke joints that all seem to float in some unfixed time that could be anywhere from the early-1930s to early tomorrow morning.
Shadow Kingdom – the title Dylan has given to his “Exclusive Broadcast Event” for the Veeps livestreaming service – looks and sounds like it could be taking place inside one of those paintings; except that where Dylan’s canvases vibrate with solid colour, this show takes place in a shimmering, liquid black and white world. Directed by Alma Har’el, the setting is a small roadside dive, with Dylan and his band crammed onto a tiny stage or shoved into the corner of the chequerboard floor, playing to a scattered audience of comically chainsmoking patrons who seem vaguely disinterested to begin with, stay that way for most of the time, then finally start dancing under the paperchains strung across the ceiling just as time begins to run out.
As well as Dylan’s paintings, the setting stirs up a kaleidoscope of associations: of the Depression-era staging for Girl From The North Country, the recent Broadway musical based on Dylan’s songbook by playwright Conor McPherson; of Dylan’s 1983 video for “Sweetheart Like You” set in an empty dive; of a half-hour black-and-white TV special that Dylan made back in 1964 for the Canadian series Quest, in which the 23-year-old singer played his songs in a workingman’s bunkhouse while weary woodsmen drank and smoked cigarettes and ignored him; and of an incredible performance one of Dylan’s acknowledged masters, Howlin’ Wolf, filmed for The American Folk Blues Festival that same year, set up in the corner of an abandoned afterhours barroom.
Increasingly, too, the whole scene – sometimes hilarious, sometimes disqueting, often both – evokes the kind of deeply-felt surrealist-noir-Americana David Lynch has made his own.
What’s going on outside this tiny flickering bar, you wonder, and why does it feel like it’s the end of the world?
Little was known about Shadow Kingdom before the show aired, and so some basic facts seem in order. Although billed as Dylan’s “first concert performance since December 2019”, when the pandemic forced him off the road along with everyone else, this was much less a recording of a live performance than a very carefully filmed special, practically a linked set of music videos.
Dylan’s stalwart road band are absent; instead he comes backed by a new ensemble of five relatively young, incredibly adept musicians – Janie Cowen, Joshua Crumbly, Alex Burke, Shahzad Ismaily and Buck Meek, all wearing black facemasks. (Due to COVID-19, of course. Or, perhaps, to protect them from the amount of second-hand smoke getting blown their way by the audience. Or maybe because Bob Dylan just likes masks.) Usually, they assemble around Dylan in a group of four, the instrumentation largely acoustic, old-timey: accordion, guitar, mandolin, double bass, with electric guitar on standby for flashes of Chicago blues or rockabilly.
An onscreen caption promises “The Early Songs Of Bob Dylan”, a category that turns out to include “What Was It You Wanted” from 1989’s Oh Mercy – which, when you stop to remember Dylan’s performing career now spans 60 years, seems fair enough. Mostly, though, the songs are drawn from the mid-1960s and early-1970s, with Dylan digging out some tunes he’s left alone for a while, including a couple he hasn’t played live in decades: that hypnotic “What Was It You Wanted”, rendered in a way simultaneously swampy and delicate; and 1966’s “Pledging My Time”, with Dylan casting softly after the shadow of Little Walter on harmonica.
The most pertinent fact of all: with Dylan in fantastic voice, singing with the sustained power and dexterity acquired during his American songbook albums and brought into new focus with 2020’s Rough And Rowdy Ways, these songs sounded incredible.
Many have been subtly rewritten, and almost all are presented in radically altered new arrangements: a “Tombstone Blues” that broods and stops and starts, Dylan declaiming like a preacher grown used to being plagued by visions; a gorgeous, goosebumpy “Queen Jane Approximately”; a hysterical “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”, transformed into a pounding Vegas rockabilly showstopper, Dylan singing deadpan straight down the camera lens, flanked by two glammed-up young women, one of whom brushes lint from his shoulder without batting an eye; a helter-skelter, herky-jerky “Wicked Messenger”; a hugely poignant “Forever Young”.
“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” brought the curtain down after 50 timeless, too-short, minutes, leaving you wondering whether there’s more in the can – “The Later Songs Of Bob Dylan”, maybe?
Certainly, at the age of 80, with this performance, Dylan demonstrated that he’s still way out there, still on the beaten path. It’s not dark yet – there are no shadows without light, after all. A film for the plague times, it felt like the end of the world, and the end of the world felt great. Smoke ’em if you’ve got ’em.
SETLIST When I Paint My Masterpiece
Most Likely You Go Your Way
Queen Jane Approximately
I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
Tombstone Blues
To Be Alone With You
What Was It You Wanted?
Forever Young
Pledging My Time
The Wicked Messenger
Watching The River Flow
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
(All Along The Watchtower – instrumental under end credits)
Available on Veeps.com until 11:59 PM PT on Tuesday July 20.
Leon Bridges walks into Cherry Coffee Shop – one of his favourite spots in Forth Worth’s Fairmount neighbourhood – and leaves the Texas humidity behind. Inside the cool, caffeinated hubbub of the shop, a wave of whispers and glances enlivens the room. This is a Leon sighting. Of course, Bridge...
Leon Bridges walks into Cherry Coffee Shop – one of his favourite spots in Forth Worth’s Fairmount neighbourhood – and leaves the Texas humidity behind. Inside the cool, caffeinated hubbub of the shop, a wave of whispers and glances enlivens the room. This is a Leon sighting. Of course, Bridges would stand out as the best-dressed man in any room, with an impeccable fashion sense to match his music. Today he’s sporting black-and-white cowboy boots, perfectly creased black trousers and a silk bowling shirt from a team that hasn’t rolled in his lifetime. All this despite the extreme heat: “I don’t really do shorts,” he says with a laugh.
Bridges has become a local celebrity, an artist who got his start here in Fort Worth, then stayed put. He might spend long stretches on the road or out in Los Angeles, but he still considers this city to be his home, however far off the industry map it might be. Such loyalty has endeared him to locals, such that Leon sightings have lost little of their excitement despite their frequency.
“Fort Worth is cool because it has its own identity,” he says as he places his order with the barista – large drip coffee, no cream, no sugar. “Dallas aspires to be like Los Angeles or New York, but Fort Worth is totally comfortable being its own little thing. It definitely has that smalltown energy. It’s grounding to be in the place where I grew up. It’s just easy here. Whenever I’m out in LA, I just don’t understand how people even have a car and drive everywhere.”
Before he can cause a scene, he bails on the coffeeshop and walks past a barbecue joint to the Magnolia Wine Bar, another favourite hangout. “I came here a lot during the pandemic and I could just have a sense of normalcy. My routine was work out during the day, pull up to the coffee shop, then come here, get some wine, then go home.” The place is closed, but Bridges hops over the low fence and takes a seat at one of the many picnic tables on the patio.
Fort Worth, he says, allows him to keep a little distance from the hustle of the music industry. It’s also a city with a rich musical history and he feels some responsibility to honour and build on that local legacy.
“You’ve got an interesting lineage of musicians who’ve come from the area,” he explains. “You’ve got people like Townes Van Zandt. You’ve got a bunch of jazz greats who grew up in the same neighbourhood as me – Ornette Coleman, King Curtis, Cornell Dupree. But there aren’t too many soul or R&B guys from here.”
Shelby Johnson – better known to Prince fans as Shelby J – remembers being puzzled when she got the lyric sheet for Son Of A Slave Master, a blazingly outraged tune from Prince’s unreleased 2010 album Welcome 2 America. “All the verses had my name on them,” she says.
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Shelby Johnson – better known to Prince fans as Shelby J – remembers being puzzled when she got the lyric sheet for Son Of A Slave Master, a blazingly outraged tune from Prince’s unreleased 2010 album Welcome 2 America. “All the verses had my name on them,” she says.
“Can this be right? He wanted me to sing all the verses then he would come in on the chorus. He just liked the way my voice sounded there. As a supporting vocalist, you always think you’re just going to be supporting, but Prince was very generous with his light.”
She compares Welcome 2 America – which is finally getting released, 11 years late – to a Broadway production, full of complex arrangements and theatrical vocal parts. Because Prince wanted to cut the songs live, she and the other singers rehearsed for hours in her hotel room before joining him in the studio. “If our parts weren’t tight, I was gonna hear about it.”
After recording the songs, Prince handed them off to the New Power Generation’s keyboard player Morris Hayes. “He called me over to Paisley Park one day, and we sat in his car and listened to the whole record together,” says Hayes, who received a co-producers credit for his work. “He cut it raw – just bass, drums, him, and the girls doing some background vocals. He told me, ‘Morris, just overproduce it and I’ll take away whatever I don’t like.’ He really liked to micromanage and stand over your shoulder.
“He could be very, very impatient. It was nice not having the added pressure of him hurrying me up while I was moving through kick-drum sounds.” Prince responded enthusiastically to Hayes’ treatments, especially on a slab of ’70s funk called Born 2 Die.
The idea came to Prince while he was watching a YouTube clip of Cornel West. “Dr West said something like, ‘Prince is a bad brother, but Prince is no Curtis Mayfield,’” recalls Hayes. “Prince was like, ‘Oh, really?’” When Hayes came back with the finished song, his boss was over the moon. “Prince didn’t really throw out accolades. But when I played that song for him, he grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me and screamed, ‘This is great! You’re Duke Ellington!’”
These songs are among the most socially and politically engaged of his career, as though Prince were updating Sign O’ The Times. “He was telling his truth,” says Shelby Johnson. He would always say, ‘Shel, we gotta take care of each other.’ He was prophetic. I think he knew this album needed to wait. He knew we’d need it later. That blows my mind, but that’s just what geniuses do.”
A lyric in the first line of Bruce Springsteen's track "Thunder Road" is to be edited 46 years after the song's release.
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The track, which is the first song on The Boss' legendary 1975 album Born To Run, has been th...
A lyric in the first line of Bruce Springsteen‘s track “Thunder Road” is to be edited 46 years after the song’s release.
The track, which is the first song on The Boss’ legendary 1975 album Born To Run, has been the subject of scrutiny over the years with regards to its first line.
In official versions of the song’s lyrics, including on the original 1975 vinyl pressing and a on a 2021 post on Springsteen’s official website, the song’s first line reads: “The screen door slams, Mary’s dress waves.”
Over the last few weeks, though, a debate has begun to rage online from those who believe that Mary’s dress in fact “sways” rather than “waves”.
As part of the investigation, The New Yorker reached out to Springsteen’s longtime manager and Born To Runco-producer Jon Landau to settle the matter.
“The word is ‘sways’,” Landau said, adding that “any typos in official Bruce material will be corrected.” As Variety points out, the official “Thunder Road” lyrics on Springsteen’s website have since been changed from “waves” to “sways”.
Discussing the matter further, Landau said: “That’s the way he wrote it in his original notebooks, that’s the way he sang it on Born To Run, in 1975, that’s the way he has always sung it at thousands of shows, and that’s the way he sings it right now on Broadway.”
“We’ll be touring next year if everything goes well,” he told BBC Radio 2 last week (July 14). “The E Street Band will be back on the road – you know, depending, of course, on the virus and what’s opening up.”
Elvis Costello has announced details of a Spanish reimagining of his classic 1978 album This Year's Model – get all of the details below.
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The new record, a collaboration with Costello's regular sidekick Sebastian...
Elvis Costello has announced details of a Spanish reimagining of his classic 1978 album This Year’s Model– get all of the details below.
The new record, a collaboration with Costello’s regular sidekick Sebastian Krys and titled Spanish Model, will come out in September.
It follows the recent release of La Face de Pendule à Coucou, a six-track EP featuring French adaptations of songs from Costello’s 2020 album Hey Clockface.
“Part of the fun of this project is its unexpected nature,” Costello said of the new album in a statement. “Although, I think people in my audience that have been paying attention are pretty much used to surprises by now.”
Krys added: “When Elvis told me the idea, it took me about 15 seconds to answer. I have been in so many situations where I was trying to turn Latin artists onto Elvis Costello’s music. The feedback I heard most often was ‘I love it. I wish I knew what he was saying.’
“Spanish Model is an opportunity to turn an entire side of the world onto this great record and through these voices, get these ideas out. Lyrically, This Year’s Model is still relevant today, what the songs have to say and how they say it.”
Listen to the first taster of the album – Juanes singing “Pump It Up” – below.
See the tracklist for Spanish Model below.
1. Nina Diaz – “No Action”
2. Raquel Sofía y Fuego – “(Yo No Quiero Ir A) Chelsea ((I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea)”
3. Draco Rosa – “Yo Te Vi (The Beat)”
4. Juanes – “Pump It Up”
5. La Marisoul – ‘Detonantes (Little Triggers)’
6. Luis Fonsi – “Tu Eres Para Mi (You Belong To Me)”
7. Francisca Valenzuela y Luis Humberto Navejas – “Hand In Hand”
8. Cami – “La Chica de Hoy (This Year’s Girl)”
9. Pablo López – “Mentira (Lip Service)”
10. Jesse & Joy – “Viviendo en el Paraiso (Living In Paradise)”
11. Morat – “Lipstick Vogue”
12. Jorge Drexler – “La Turba (Night Rally)”
13. Sebastián Yatra – “Llorar (Big Tears)”
14. Fito Páez – “Radio Radio”
15. Gian Marco y Nicole Zignago – “Crawling To The U.S.A.”
16. Vega – “Se Esta Perdiendo La Inocencia (Running Out Of Angels)”
The War On Drugs have shared a teaser for new music on their social media pages – scroll down to watch it now.
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The US band last released a new studio album with 2017’s A Deeper Understanding but have spent the...
The War On Drugs have shared a teaser for new music on their social media pages – scroll down to watch it now.
The US band last released a new studio album with 2017’s A Deeper Understanding but have spent the last year providing updates on its follow-up.
Now, it seems their return is imminent. A short video teaser was shared by the group yesterday (July 18) and features a piano-led snippet of music. In the accompanying visuals, frontman Adam Granduciel is seen driving a truck, pulling up by a field and then walking into the field and beginning to play his guitar.
Earlier this month, the band reportedly filmed a new music video in a barn in the US. “Fun film shoot in our barn today for an upcoming album release by Adam Granduciel, and his band, The War On Drugs,” the barn owner wrote in a Facebook post that was subsequently shared on Reddit.
Last November, Granduciel shared an update on the band’s next record. “In March I would’ve told you it was 80 per cent done, and now looking back it was actually 40 per cent done,” he said at the time. “Some songs have been reimagined since, which has been a blessing. Some songs have had just one more layer of mud removed from them.”
In Uncut’s 8/10 review of The War On Drugs’ A Deeper Understanding, we said: “Even though much of the album may guide us through more long, dark nights of the soul, there’s a new brightness at the edges here, and more warmth, too.”
English rockers the Faces are reportedly recording new music, having disbanded more than four decades ago.
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Speaking to The Times, and reported by Music News, guitarist Ronnie Wood said he met up with Rod Stewart an...
English rockers the Faces are reportedly recording new music, having disbanded more than four decades ago.
Speaking to The Times, and reported by Music News, guitarist Ronnie Wood said he met up with Rod Stewart and Kenney Jones recently, in addition to catching up with Mick Jagger for a separate project.
“I saw Mick [Jagger] here last week and Rod [Stewart] and Kenney [Jones] were here yesterday,” Wood told The Times.
“Me and Mick have done nine new tracks for the [40th anniversary] re-release of Tattoo You.
“And me, Rod and Kenney have been recording some new Faces music.
“I’ve had a front-row seat on some amazing rock’n’roll projects these past couple of weeks.”
The Faces, who formed in 1969 from the ashes of Small Faces, formally disbanded in 1975 after Stewart left the group. Around the same time, Wood began playing with the Rolling Stones. TheFaces recorded four studio albums in their time, most recently Ooh La La in 1973.
The band’s last reunion performance was at the 2020 BRIT Awards, where Stewart, Wood and Jones closed the ceremony with a live rendition of “Stay With Me”.
The Faces‘ founding keyboardist Ian McLagan died of a stroke in 2014, and bassist Ronnie Lane passed award more than a decade earlier in 1997.
“Ian McLagan embodied the true spirit of theFaces. Last night I was at a charity do, Mick Hucknall was singing “I’d Rather Go Blind”, and Ron Wood texted to say Ian had passed. It was as if his spirit was in the room. I’ll miss you mate,” Stewart said in a statement at the time.
Muse’s Matt Bellamy has released three new songs as NFTs, with one recorded on a guitar formerly owned by Jeff Buckley.
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The collection is part of his upcoming EP Cryosleep and went up for auction on Friday (July ...
Muse’sMatt Bellamy has released three new songs as NFTs, with one recorded on a guitar formerly owned by Jeff Buckley.
The three tracks being auctioned include the 38-second version of “Guiding Light”, “Tomorrow World” and “Unintended”. The non-fungible token releases will give fans early access to the songs ahead of Cryosleep’s streaming release next month. The 10-track solo record was also released on vinyl as part of Record Store Day.
“Guiding Light” was recorded on the guitar that Buckley used to record Grace. Speaking last year, Bellamy said of the instrument: “I had a whole team of people doing due diligence on it to make sure it was absolutely the right [guitar], interviewing his family and all sorts.
“I managed to get it verified, and I’ve got his Telecaster that he used to record the whole Grace album and the song ‘Hallelujah’. It’s interesting because he was a huge influence on me as a vocalist, but he was actually a great guitarist as well, and obviously ‘Hallelujah’ is a legendary recording.”
He added that he had bought the guitar with the intention of using it and keeping it a “part of music”. “I’d like to believe that’s what he would have wanted,” he said.
Proceeds from the NFT auction of the three tracks on Cryptograph will go to the UK charity The Passage House, which provides support for homeless people to help them transform their lives.
On the cover of Peace Or Love, the long-awaited fourth album by Eirik Glambek Bøe and Erlend Øye, the Norwegian duo are playing chess on a stylish piece of furniture. It’s not the first time the game has featured on their record sleeves – the art for 2004’s Riot On An Empty Street included a...
On the cover of Peace Or Love, the long-awaited fourth album by Eirik Glambek Bøe and Erlend Øye, the Norwegian duo are playing chess on a stylish piece of furniture. It’s not the first time the game has featured on their record sleeves – the art for 2004’s Riot On An Empty Street included a half-played board on the shaggy rug of a chic apartment, while 2009’s Declaration Of Dependence depicted the duo taking a break from a game on a Mexican beach.
Bøe and Øye do enjoy chess (the latter spent most of a recent quarantine playing it online), but their frequent references to it also capture something fundamental about the alliance that’s always powered Kings Of Convenience. Though their music is hushed, thoughtful, polite even, their relationship has always been fiery and competitive, the beauty and stillness of their songs fashioned from conflict.
The 12 years between Declaration Of Dependence and Peace Or Love weren’t the result of struggle and strife, however, but rather of a quest for perfection. Recording took place sporadically over five years and spanned five different cities, including Siracusa in Sicily, where Øye now lives, with the duo searching only for the right mood and feel, a kind of loose magic, rather than any technical prowess.
Their efforts seem to have paid off, for Peace Or Love is their most cohesive album yet. While it’s not a world away from their previous work, the mood is noticeably more stripped-down and melancholic – there’s nothing like Riot…’sI’d Rather Dance With You or Declaration…’sBoat Behind – perhaps informed by the last decade, which saw Øye lose his parents and Bøe suffer the breakup of his marriage to Ina Grung, the cover star of Riot… and their debut, 2000’s Quiet Is The New Loud.
In customary fashion, they begin with a slow, desolate song. Rumours, driven by three intertwining acoustic guitars, addresses someone facing “accusations we both know are wrong”; in close, breathy harmony, they offer support and advice, but it might be too late: “I want to tell you that I love you/But I know you can’t hear me now”.
Comb My Hair, with its fast, coiled fingerpicking, is darker still. Here, with the loss of a loved one, the protagonist is unable to get out of bed; even the stars and the warm evening air are “cold and senseless now”. Love Is A Lonely Thing, a tranquilised, echoing ballad with verses shared between Øye, Bøe and a returning Feist, and the minor-key Killers, both deal with the pain of love, of waiting interminably for someone or something to appear. Closer Washing Machine, one of the best tracks here, uses clashing guitar chords and plaintive viola to emphasise Øye’s romantic dejection and existential angst: “It’s true I’m more wise now than I was when I was 21/It’s true I’ve less time now than I had when I was 21…”
Not everything is quite as dark, though: Bøe’sRocky Trail is a skipping, bossa nova cousin to Misread, but it twists and turns so deliciously that its chorus appears only once. Fever places electronic beats under Øye’s wry contrasting of lovesickness and actual sickness, but the effect is reassuringly subtle. Catholic Country, meanwhile, is swaying and vaguely South American, the chorus written with The Staves and beautifully delivered by Feist.
Ultimately, it’s the sparse, live interplay between the two guitars and voices that carries Peace Or Love. The arrangements were largely worked out on tour, while recording mostly took place in homes – hence the Sicilian crickets that accompany Bøe on Killers. There are mistakes here too, especially on Washing Machine, which only enhance the air of intimacy.
After a quarter of a century playing together, Kings Of Convenience seem to have discovered the purest essence of the music they create. It’s become increasingly tricky to tell who originated these songs, especially when, as on Catholic Country, Bøe is singing Øye’s lyrics over his own riff; what’s more, any frills they might have dabbled with in the past have been stripped out, leaving only the bones of the songs and whispers of the rawest feelings. Stylish moves, perfectly played.
The post-reunion phase of a rock band’s lifespan can be a strange period to navigate. Provided the fans are on board, it is often a chance to make the sort of serious bucks that are out of reach during a band’s first flush. But a reunion often lays out an unwritten contract of expectations betwe...
The post-reunion phase of a rock band’s lifespan can be a strange period to navigate. Provided the fans are on board, it is often a chance to make the sort of serious bucks that are out of reach during a band’s first flush. But a reunion often lays out an unwritten contract of expectations between band and fans; we want the nostalgia, we want the hits, do it this way, not that way.
In this respect, Sleater-Kinney have not entirely followed the letter of the deal. Their second post-reunion album, 2019’s St Vincent-produced The Center Won’t Hold, felt like a makeover of sorts, the roughness and rage of the band’s early days subsumed in a glossy, radio-friendly production that divided critics and fans alike. But the real shock came when, a month before the album’s release, drummer Janet Weiss announced she was leaving the band, citing Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker’s increasingly exclusive musical partnership: “I said, ‘Can you tell me if I am still a creative equal in the band?’ And they said no. So, I left.”
For a band often used as a byword for feminist solidarity, this sudden intrusion of personal animus came as a shock. But then, Sleater-Kinney have always been about kicking out against the expectations loaded on women. As Carrie Brownstein has it on Complex Female Characters, one of the standout tracks from their 10th album Path Of Wellness: “You’re too much of a woman now/You’re not enough of a woman now”. It’s that old story, so familiar to female musicians: damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Path Of Wellness was written and recorded in the long, hot summer of 2020 in Portland, Oregon, with Brownstein and Tucker assisted by a host of local musicians. It is the first album that Sleater-Kinney have produced entirely by themselves, although that doesn’t mean a return to the raw riot-grrrl sound of old. On the contrary, there’s a full, rich quality to the record, which is thick with Wurlitzer and Rhodes, and often echoes various genres of a ’70s vintage – country and glam, funk and hard rock. The latter, in particular, powers some of the record’s best moments. High In The Grass is an exultant summertime anthem steeped in the histrionics of ’70s rock: “We lock when the pollen’s up/We love when the party’s on”. Wilder still is Tomorrow’s Grave, a knowing tribute to Black Sabbath that makes some entertaining rock theatre out of that band’s doom-laden clang.
As Path Of Wellness came together, the state of Oregon was in a strange flux, grappling with the pandemic, encroached on by wildfires, and gripped by protests against racial inequality that saw police suppressing crowds with batons and pepper spray. In places the album seems to address this explicitly. Favorite Neighbor is a righteous skewering of hypocrisy that accuses those “putting out fires/When your own house is burning”, while Bring Mercy finds Tucker singing, “How did we lose our city/Rifles running through our streets…”
Elsewhere, the turbulence outside seems to have brought out a reflective tone. The title track uses the language of self-help and self-care to interrogate personal insecurities, while the sleek, funky Worry With You addresses that feeling of anxiety when the shit
has hit the fan and the loved one you need is out of reach. Once upon a time, Sleater-Kinney records were righteous and declamatory. More often here, the tone is open and inquisitive, a band trying to find their bearings when the times are a-changin’.
In an interview about her departure from the band, Janet Weiss spoke of the tight relationship between Tucker and Brownstein: “I just think the two of them are so connected and they really agree on almost everything.” Listening to this new clutch of songs, you’re often reminded of this. Even as Path Of Wellness grapples with the world outside, its songs often speak the intimate language of a private conversation – the words of one friend, or lover, to another.
Fans who listened to The Center Won’t Hold and baulked at its lack of righteous rage might also find moments here wanting. But Path Of Wellness proves Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein haven’t forgotten the empowering, life-giving qualities of rock’n’roll fun. Sleater-Kinney are turning their reunion years into a reaffirmation of the importance of support and solidarity on a private, personal level. As they sing on album closer Bring Mercy: “If it’s coming for us, darlin’/Take my hand and dance me down the line”.
Rodrigo Amarante, it could be said, is a student of the world. A Rio de Janeiro native who now calls Los Angeles home, he’s lived in many places, and is also a dedicated reader, watcher and listener who speaks with a philosopher’s contemplation. He embraces life for all its beauty and absurdity,...
Rodrigo Amarante, it could be said, is a student of the world. A Rio de Janeiro native who now calls Los Angeles home, he’s lived in many places, and is also a dedicated reader, watcher and listener who speaks with a philosopher’s contemplation. He embraces life for all its beauty and absurdity, a binary that’s also key to his working method. “Rather than standing on top of what I believe I am, and speaking from there, I decided to discover it, to get inside it, to get dirty,” he explains. “It feels humorous, funny and ridiculous, to fiddle with the idea that I have of myself, to not embrace the mythical idea of the songwriter.”
It’s not the first time he’s shed a de facto persona. Amarante’s first band, the Rio-based rock quartet Los Hermanos, were massive in Brazil, selling out stadiums at recent reunion gigs. But rather than live a rock star’s life, by the mid-noughties Amarante pivoted his focus to the samba-focused big band Orquestra Imperial. Then, in 2008, he came to LA to begin anew as a member of the short-lived indie-rock trio Little Joy, and then as a solo artist, serenading tiny east side clubs with his ’30s-era Harmony parlour guitar. “A lot of people thought I was nuts, like, ‘What? You’re going to play bars in Echo Park now?’”
he recalls with a laugh.
Like much of Amarante’s work, his second solo album Drama continues these subtle reinventions. Dropping the needle is to glide into a sun-drenched Technicolor universe, one steeped in tradition but innovative in its unbridled spirit. Fusing a coterie of historical sounds – from African polyrhythms and Brazilian samba to cool jazz and ’60s film scores – with his in-built playfulness, the singer and songwriter has created a sophisticated yet easy-going work, one that perks up the ears with its experimentation but is also romantic, magnetic and soothing, like waves brushing over a white-sand beach. Guiding the listener through it all is Amarante’s gentle, silvery voice; oscillating between languages with a dancer’s fluidity, it recalls the slightly nasal style of bossa nova singers.
There are a few places where Amarante’s spiritual exploration rings clear: on Tao, he weaves a longtime fascination with the I Ching, Zen texts and Taoism into a meditation that lyrically rotates between spiritual meta and mesa as he switches from Portuguese to English at the soft blast of a woodwind. He sings of sweeping observations (“Source of a thousand things, the Tao is an empty cup poured and never filled…”) and specific details (“and now before my eyes the Tao must be a glance of the sweetness in her smile”) over a gentle crescendo of guitar, bass, drums, percussion and saxophones, the volume and intensity of each mirroring his words.
And then there are the less obvious references, such as the opening title track, an overture that acts as a de facto mission statement, as well as a nod to the songwriter’s love of classic film. Mellotron strings meet a wave of voices, a laugh track responding to an imaginary movie, one that may only be viewed through the mind’s eye during the album’s subsequent songs. “I couldn’t help but fantasise or play with the idea that this is a story, this is a film,” Amarante says. “There was some of that in Cavalo, too. There’s a song that’s pretty much the same orchestration for the theme of Inspector Clouseau from The Pink Panther.”
But Drama is a fuller, more textural work than his 2014 debut Cavalo, one that lives up to its title’s promise, pairing vaguely dramatic ideas with intensely personal touches. Its bookends, a stirring orchestral overture and a conclusive, contemplative piano ballad, punctuate a kind of narrative arc in which each song – or scene – depicts a character who emotes a world of feeling. But if some lines occasionally read like a masterclass in casual epiphany, Amarante, never one to take himself too seriously, often subverts the sung seriousness with off-kilter sonic accents – a banjo here, a harpsichord there, whistling, Mellotron sounds – that unite to form a maximalist symphony that is rich and intricately layered but never overwhelming.
Maré (Tide) is the album’s most energetic point, but its rhythmic party vibe belies its more serious lyrical observations about the cyclical nature of life and death, gains and losses. Its accompanying video is demonstrative of Amarante’s humorous nature, a depiction of the act of song-making done up in a palette of primary colours and throwback motifs. The mellifluous groove of Tanto (So Much) melts into a swirl of strings and saxophone as Amarante sings of the sweetness of lovers’ skin, while Tango recounts literal and figurative dances over soft percussive layers and breathy backing vocals provided by frequent collaborator Cornelia Murr. Sky Beneath takes that spirit higher, its percussion popping like firecrackers amid lush brush strokes of strings and voice. “Can’t fix my love, can’t fix myself, can’t fix the world,” he sings to open the song, less a statement of defeat than an acknowledgement of human limitations.
Taken together, Drama’s cable-knit arrangements, tender singing and inventive takes on familiar sonic touchstones amount to something new – born of a dreamer’s mind and translated to very real and transformative four-minute vibrations. Brazilians are often known for blending musical styles, from the evolution of the country’s native folk music and dances into maxixe (Brazilian tango), to samba’s transformations (most famously bossa nova) and Tropicália’s subversion of traditional forms. While it would be easy to attribute Amarante’s skill for it to a genetic phenomena reserved for those from the South American country, that discounts the very personal nature of Drama, one that is singularly introspective, playful and rooted in punk rock’s DIY spirit. After all, Amarante recorded most of the album himself, and plays no less than 10 of its instruments.
If his musical strengths are readily apparent, then, Amarante is not out to prove his power on Drama. Instead, this is a thoughtful, empathetic showcase of his interests, of intense feelings translated into a dreamy sonic atmosphere. It’s an album that meets the world in its moment, where global issues and far-flung international voices are more amplified and connected than ever. But with Drama, the world is less an oyster and more a mirror, reflecting the story and vision of this citizen of the world making sonic cinema out of personal exploration.
Beholden to no-one but themselves, The Flatlanders’ dogleg career is impossible to second guess. Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock first got together in 1972, but their proto-Americana – a porous blend of country, folk, rock’n’roll and western swing – fell largely on deaf ears...
Beholden to no-one but themselves, The Flatlanders’ dogleg career is impossible to second guess. Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock first got together in 1972, but their proto-Americana – a porous blend of country, folk, rock’n’roll and western swing – fell largely on deaf ears outside their home state of Texas. They were done in a little over a year, the band taking on semi-mythic status (their aborted debut eventually landed in 1990) as each member advanced into a successful solo career.
Treasure Of Love, their first studio effort in 12 years, might not have happened at all if it hadn’t been for the pandemic. The trio began recording these tracks some time ago, only finding time to revisit them when the touring circuit shut. Co-produced by longtime collaborator and fellow Lubbock legend Lloyd Maines, it’s a wondrous celebration of the music that’s sustained them over the decades, much of it part of their stage repertoire.
The Flatlanders exude joy here. Popularised in the late ’50s by The Everly Brothers, Long Time Gone is a faultless distillation of timeless honky-tonk; Johnny Cash’sGive My Love To Rose takes on the requisite Tennessee Two chug; country licks
and pedal steel spark the engine of Leon Russell’s exuberant She Smiles Like A River. Hancock’s own Moanin’ Of The Midnight Train, revived from his ’90s solo catalogue, feels of a piece too, with its raw swing and spacious Texan groove.
The trio’s ability to fully inhabit these songs is masterful. Their take on Snowin’ On Raton, Townes Van Zandt’s cursed road hymn, manages to sound both expansive and vulnerable, its conflicted sentiments measured out in aching peals of slide guitar. Similarly, Paul Siebel’sThe Ballad Of Honest Sam is reconfigured into something that Hank Williams might have deemed worthy of cutting for MGM. But the indomitable spirit of Treasure Of Love is best captured on the Mississippi Sheiks’Sittin’ On Top Of The World, a rollicking live favourite that feels like a paean to lasting friendship.
A new biography of Factory Records head Tony Wilson has been announced, written by author and journalist Paul Morley.
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From Manchester With Love: The Life and Opinions of Tony Wilson is due out later this year, and ...
A new biography of Factory Records head Tony Wilson has been announced, written by author and journalist Paul Morley.
From Manchester With Love: The Life and Opinions of Tony Wilson is due out later this year, and an announcement said it was Wilson’s wish for Morley to write a book about him.
The book, which will be released by Faber on October 21, is described in a synopsis as “the biography of a man who became eponymous with his city, of the music he championed and the myths he made, of love and hate, of life and death”.
“To write about Tony Wilson, aka Anthony H. Wilson, is to write about a number of public and private characters and personalities, a clique of unreliable narrators, constantly changing shape and form,” the announcement added.
“At the helm of Factory Records and the Haçienda, Wilson unleashed landmark acts such as Joy Division and New Order into the world as he pursued myriad other creative endeavours, appointing himself a custodian of Manchester’s legacy of innovation and change.”
We are so proud to present the long-awaited biography of Factory Records co-founder and Manchester icon Tony Wilson by bestselling author Paul Morley. From Manchester with Love is published on 21 October and you can pre-order it now: https://t.co/EadrHegwRVpic.twitter.com/UwlNAjDnM0
To celebrate the arrival of the book, Morley will appear at the Manchester Literature Festival on October 9 to discuss his friendship with Wilson and the process of writing the new book. Tickets will go on sale in mid-August here.
Morrissey has announced a special reissue of his 1990 compilation Bona Drag.
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The release comes as part of HMV's 100th anniversary celebrations, with the music and entertainment high street chain reissuing a number ...
Morrissey has announced a special reissue of his 1990 compilation Bona Drag.
The release comes as part of HMV’s 100th anniversary celebrations, with the music and entertainment high street chain reissuing a number of records on vinyl for their 1921 Centenary Edition series.
Bona Drag, which was originally released on the HMV label in October 1990, featured a number of solo singles that were released by Morrissey following his 1988 solo debut album Viva Hate.
Limited to just 750 copies, HMV’s reissue of Bona Dragwill be pressed on transparent green vinyl for their 1921 Centenary Edition series. Each record also comes with a poster, as well as photographs that were taken by Linder Sterling in London’s Hoxton Square.
HMV’s special reissue of Bona Drag will go on sale, along with a number of other records, exclusively in HMV stores on July 24, while an online sale will also commence on the same day at 4pm.
Records by the likes of Kate Bush, The National, Lou Reed, Pixies, The Libertines, The xx and The Prodigy are also set to be reissued by HMV as part of their 1921 Centenary Edition series. You can find the full range here.
Radiohead's Ed O’Brien is one of many musicians sharing their reactions to a new government report that has stated the current model for streaming needs a “complete reset”.
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The Department for Digital, Culture...
Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien is one of many musicians sharing their reactions to a new government report that has stated the current model for streaming needs a “complete reset”.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Commons Select Committee has been examining the business model since last year and whether or not the model is fair to songwriters and performers.
Findings released yesterday (July 15) saw MPs setting out a “complete reset of streaming” that “enshrines in law [artists’] rights to a fair share of the earnings”.
O’Brien, who was one of the artists who gave evidence during the ‘Economics of music streaming’ inquiry, took to Facebook this afternoon to share his reaction. “It has finally been officially recognised that Artists have not been remunerated fairly,” he said.
“This new digital era that we are in is based on an old and deeply unfair 20th century model. This report recognised that there needs to be a fundamental reset for Artists, their rights and the way they are paid.”
He added: “What we need are true partnerships between Artists and the labels .. and transparency in the murky world of streaming.”
The DCMS report into Streaming which I contributed to was released yesterday.. it has finally been officially recognised…
The Radiohead guitarist then thanked everyone involved in helping with the inquiry, including Tom Gray of Gomez, who is responsible for the #BrokenRecord campaign which is calling for better streaming revenues for artists, and “the MPs who took the time to understand this deeply dysfunctional business”.
“BUT it’s only a start,” he added. “Now this needs to be legislated… however it’s a great start .. it’s official .. we build on this so that all Artists, in particular those who are starting out and those on the margins simply have a fair and equitable deal… It is all about fairness and transparency.” You can see O’Brien’s post above.
Tom Gray shared his thoughts also, writing: “The @CommonsDCMS report is DAMNING. It brilliantly takes each issue in turn and arrives at a conclusion on the balance of evidence. In every single instance it reflects an industry that is pocketing a fortune while failing UK performers and songwriters.”
Singer-songwriter Nadine Shah, who is an advocate for The FAC (Featured Artists Coalition), a UK trade body representing the specific rights and interests of music artists, responded to the news by sharing Gray’s tweet.
“The @CommonsDCMS report on music streaming is in,” she tweeted. “It’s a great result for music creators and hopefully will ignite change to make this a fairer industry. Thank you to everyone who’s been supporting us.”
The @CommonsDCMS report on music streaming is in. It’s a great result for music creators and hopefully will ignite change to make this a fairer industry. Thank you to everyone who’s been supporting us ❤️ https://t.co/IudRJdF0tV
Back in April, over 150 artists – including Paul McCartney, Kate Bush, Damon Albarn, Chris Martin, Noel Gallagher and Wolf Alice – signed an open letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson asking to help reform the streaming economy.
Meanwhile, a YouGov poll of music fans last year found that 77 per cent of respondents believe that artists deserve a greater share of revenue from streaming services.
Iron Maiden have released their first new music in six years with the track "The Writing On The Wall" – listen below.
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The metal band, whose last studio album The Book Of Souls arrived in 2015, teased back in Apri...
Iron Maiden have released their first new music in six years with the track “The Writing On The Wall” – listen below.
The metal band, whose last studio album The Book Of Souls arrived in 2015, teased back in April that they had something “very, very exciting” in the works. “I think it’ll be worth the wait, put it like that,” said guitarist Adrian Smith.
It came after frontman Bruce Dickinson revealed last year that the group were back in the studio working on new material.
Yesterday (July 15), Iron Maiden made their long-awaited return with a spectacular, six-minute single after teasing their comeback online. “The Writing On The Wall” was written by Smith and Dickinson, with Kevin Shirley and bassist Steve Harris on production duties.
The song arrives with a suitably epic animated video, the creation of a collaborative team including former Pixar executives Mark Andrews and Andrew Gordon (The Incredibles, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo).
Dickinson explained: “I had a pretty clear idea of the concept to accompany the song and when I met Mark and Andrew, on Zoom, it quickly became clear we were all very much on the same wavelength, and this was reinforced with the addition of Nicos and his young BlinkInk team. Our weekly team Zoom meetings were then usually both highly creative and a lot of fun!
“I’m very proud of the way the video turned out, it’s more like a mini-film really. I knew it was going to work out as soon as Mark brought my treatment to life with his incredible storyboards – I thought we could make something very special together. I think we did and hope our fans will agree. In fact it’s pretty much created by Maiden fans!!”
Details of Iron Maiden’s upcoming new album are yet to be revealed.
Iggy Pop, Sharon Van Etten, Michael Stipe, St. Vincent, Matt Berninger and many more are all set to contribute to a new tribute album to The Velvet Underground & Nico.
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READ MORE: A Velvet Underground playlist
...
The 1967 album paired the Lou Reed-fronted New York rock legends with German singer Nico, and became one of the most lauded albums of all time.
On September 24, Verve Records – the original home of The Velvet Underground – will release I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute To The Velvet Underground & Nico, which will feature every song on the album covered by an array of stars. The album was produced by the late Hal Willner, Lou Reed’s dear friend who died last year, making it the final album he ever worked on.
“I literally covered ‘Run Run Run’ when I was a kid, in my late teens with my band at the time,” Vile, who recently signed to Verve Records himself, said in a statement.
“So it was pretty cosmic, let’s say. There is a direct connection to certain indie bands and beyond w/ the Velvets. That’s why the Velvets are a classic. You know it can have doo-wop in there and things like that, but it can also have this jagged noisy thing, and it immediately let me feel like I could do anything.
“The possibilities are endless. You’re completely free. Unapologetic and effortless.”
Listen to the cover and see the tracklisting for I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute To The Velvet Underground & Nico below. Pre-orders for the album are available here.
1. “Sunday Morning” – Michael Stipe
2. “I’m Waiting For The Man” – Matt Berninger
3. “Femme Fatale”– Sharon Van Etten (w/ Angel Olsen on backing vocals)
4. “Venus In Furs” – Andrew Bird & Lucius
5. “Run Run Run” – Kurt Vile & The Violators
6. “All Tomorrow’s Parties” – St. Vincent & Thomas Bartlett
7. “Heroin” – Thurston Moore feat. Bobby Gillespie
8. “There She Goes Again” – King Princess
9. “I’ll Be Your Mirror” – Courtney Barnett
10. “The Black Angel’s Death Song” – Fontaines D.C.
11. “European Son” – Iggy Pop & Matt Sweeney
Meanwhile, The Velvet Underground were recently subject to a new documentary from Todd Haynes.
In our first-look review of The Velvet Underground, which came out this month, we wrote: “Director Todd Haynes is looking at the band from the perspective of a fellow artist rather than an archivist. The director of I’m Not There is trying to understand what the Velvets achieved rather than laying out the facts of where and when they did it. Which is just as well, because the Velvets story is famously slippery.”
Billy Bragg has announced the release of a new album – get all the details on The Million Things That Never Happened below.
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The legendary songwriter’s 10th studio album will come out on October 8 via Cooking V...
Billy Bragghas announced the release of a new album – get all the details on The Million Things That Never Happened below.
The legendary songwriter’s 10th studio album will come out on October 8 via Cooking Vinyl, and was previewed yesterday (July 14) with first single “I Will Be Your Shield”.
“To m, ‘I Will Be Your Shield’ is the heart and soul of the album,” Bragg said in a statement. “I’ve come to the conclusion that empathy is the currency of music – that our job as songwriters is to help people come to terms with their feelings by offering them examples of how others may have dealt with a situation similar to that in which listeners find themselves.
“After what we’ve all been through, the idea of being a shield, physically, emotionally, psychologically, really resonates,” he added.
Watch the video for the new single and a trailer for the forthcoming album below:
The Million Things That Never Happened was produced by Romeo Stodart and Dave Izumi at Echo Zoo studios in Eastbourne, Sussex. The record features a song called “Ten Mysterious Photos That Can’t Be Explained”, a track that closes the album and was co-written with Bragg’s son, Jack Valero.
See the artwork and tracklisting for The Million Things That Never Happened below:
1. “Should Have Seen It Coming”
2. “Mid-Century Modern”
3. “Lonesome Ocean”
4. “Good Days And Bad Days”
5. “Freedom Doesn’t Come For Free”
6. “Reflections On The Mirth Of Creativity”
7. “The Million Things That Never Happened”
8. “The Buck Doesn’t Stop Here No More”
9. “I Believe In You”
10. “Pass It On”
11. “I Will Be Your Shield”
12. “Ten Mysterious Photos That Can’t Be Explained”
On September 9, ahead of the album’s release, Bragg is set to play a special livestreamed concert called Billy Bragg On…, which will see him perform songs from the new album as well as from across his back catalogue. Donations can be made to the Music Venue Trust during the show.
Bruce Springsteen has said that he hopes to resume touring next year.
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While he is currently continuing with his solo Broadway residency at the St. James Theatre in New York, Springsteen previously confirmed that he...
Bruce Springsteen has said that he hopes to resume touring next year.
Speaking to BBC Radio 2’s Zoe Ball yesterday (July 14), Springsteen said that he is now hoping to restart touring in 2022.
“We’ll be touring next year if everything goes well,” he told Ball. “The E Street Band will be back on the road – you know, depending, of course, on the virus and what’s opening up.”
Bruce Springsteen (Picture: Kevin Kane/Getty Images)
Springsteen also took time during the interview to praise his fans in the UK, saying: “I’d like to take one moment to thank my UK fans, particularly for the support they’ve continued to give to my new music.
“Letter To You was so well-received in the UK and it really touched by heart, and I deeply deeply appreciate it.”
Springsteen last performed with the E Street Band during his appearance on Saturday Night Live back in December, marking their first live performance together since 2017.
“This is going to be one of the greatest Central Park concerts in history,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said of the show, which is being organised by veteran music mogul Clive Davis. “This is something for the ages.”
