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BLK JKS – Abantu/Before Humans

Louis Pattison
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BLK JKS – Abantu/Before Humans
Bands like BLK JKS don’t come along often, especially in places like Johannesburg. There was no South African indie rock scene to speak of when the group emerged from the city’s Spruitview district in the mid-2000s, and their distinctive sound – a blend of kwaito, dub and township soul fired t...

Bands like BLK JKS don’t come along often, especially in places like Johannesburg. There was no South African indie rock scene to speak of when the group emerged from the city’s Spruitview district in the mid-2000s, and their distinctive sound – a blend of kwaito, dub and township soul fired through a prism of dissonant alternative rock – made them a hot ticket. Diplo invited them out to New York to play their first American shows. Dave Grohl called their 2009 album After Robots his favourite album of the year. They kicked off the 2010 World Cup at Soweto’s Orlando Stadium with a live collaboration with Alicia Keys. Superstardom beckoned.

But things didn’t quite go to plan. Reluctant vocalist Lindani Buthelezi departed and then they split with their label Secretly Canadian. While the band remained an active concern – invited on tour with Foo Fighters and collaborating with artists such as Thandiswa Mazwai and Vieux Farka Touré – it was starting to look like that second record would never come.

But 12 years on from After Robots, Abantu/Before Humans is finally here. It comes complete with a lurid storyline. The master tapes for the original album, recorded over a few months in a makeshift studio at the Soweto Theatre orchestra pit, were stolen in a studio break-in. The group couldn’t let it go, so a year later they went back into the studio and re-recorded it in three days. While we can’t say for sure, it’s certainly possible that the version of Abantu we have here is the definitive one; it feels powered by a sense of urgency, a need to summon itself into existence.

On their debut, BLK JKS sounded excited by the prospect of exploring their influences, and that excitement was infectious. But time has brought focus and Abantu feels more comfortable in its skin as a result. Its sound is rooted in windswept desert rock, albeit one often punctuated with feats of carefully controlled rhythmic pyrotechnics and bursts of brass courtesy of new recruit Tebogo Seitei. The loss of a lead singer is a tough one to bounce back from but the group have reacted to Buthelezi’s departure by all stepping up to the mic, singing in chorus or contributing parts. It’s a potent combination too. Consider Running – Asibaleki/Sheroes Theme, which collides snaking dub basslines, fiery afrobeat horns and wild percussion breakdowns before closing on a group chorus that hangs heavy with pathos.

A lengthy subtitle on the album’s sleeve positions Abantu/Before Humans as “a complete fully translated and transcribed Obsidian Rock Audio Anthology chronicling the ancient spiritual technologies and exploits of prehistoric, post-revolutionary afro bionics and sacred texts from The Great Book on Arcanum”. It’s some ambitious framing. Luckily the songs largely meet that bar, powered by a philosophy that straddles the political and the spiritual. “Harare” is a wistful musing on migration, memory and mortality, delivered by one of the record’s few guests, famo singer Morena Leraba. A track titled Yoyo! – The Mandela Effect/Black Aurora Cusp Druids Ascending, meanwhile, is more or less as remarkable as its title. It starts with a bold chant: “They’ll never give you power/You have to take the power”. But the agitprop gradually softens into something more nuanced, a reflection on human nature and the importance of self-actualisation as a way to scale barriers.

BLK JKS come from what Desmond Tutu called the “rainbow generation”, the first South Africans to grow up out of the shadow of apartheid. Few miss those days of discrimination and division but modern South Africa is no utopia and this music reflects that. Abantu’s best moments grapple with the pain of the past in an effort to transform it. Sometimes this results in something beautiful – see the rousing Maiga Mali Mansa Musa, which features guitar from Vieux Farka Touré. Other times, it feels more pointed. Mme Kelapile (“The Hunger”) is the closest the album gets to vengeful. Set to a beat based on a children’s playground song that mimics the rhythm of the train tracks that would ferry men to South Africa’s notoriously treacherous mines, you can hear a thirst for retribution rippling through its grooves.

The group have explained that Abantu should be thought of as a sort of prequel to their debut, which might be temporally confusing but, given the album’s recourse to mysticism and ancestral tradition, it makes some sense. Still, on their second album, BLK JKS are unquestionably facing forwards. Abantu/Before Humans is true 21st-century roots rock, drawing on new tools and new techniques to illuminate the way forwards.

David John Morris – Monastic Love Songs

Tom Pinnock
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David John Morris – Monastic Love Songs
Take a map and find Gampo Abbey, a Buddhist monastery situated on a rugged finger of Nova Scotia, Canada, and you might notice that it sits at the end of a long track called Red River Road. David Morris, singer and songwriter in England’s Red River Dialect, wasn’t aware of the name when he appli...

Take a map and find Gampo Abbey, a Buddhist monastery situated on a rugged finger of Nova Scotia, Canada, and you might notice that it sits at the end of a long track called Red River Road. David Morris, singer and songwriter in England’s Red River Dialect, wasn’t aware of the name when he applied for a nine-month stay at the monastery, but he couldn’t help draw meaning from it.

“Part of me likes the idea that everything’s coming together in some kind of cosmic fashion,” he tells Uncut, “like a David Lynch-like mystical thing going on, so I was quite happy to see that. If it’s at the end of Red River Road, though, does that mean it’s the end of my musical career?”

One would hope Monastic Love Songs instead marks the beginning of a fruitful solo journey – Morris himself is keen for it to flow alongside that of his band, who are still, in theory, a going concern. Following the recording of the group’s last album, 2019’s Abundance Welcoming Ghosts, the songwriter headed out to Gampo Abbey, one of the only establishments that allows its members to make temporary rather than lifetime vows. Musical instruments were not allowed (Morris believes a previous monk with a fondness for the ukulele put a stop to that), but in the final three months of his nine-month stay he was granted limited time with a nylon-string guitar and composed a series of songs.

When he left Gampo, he went straight to the Hotel2Tango studio in Montreal to track the record in one day with Swans’ Thor Harris on drums and percussion and Godspeed’s Thierry Amar on double bass. The result is sparse and subtle, the album’s 10 songs drifting at an unhurried and becalmed pace. Given due attention, these 36 minutes are seductive and deeply involving, hard-hitting in the manner of Nick Drake’s Pink Moon or Richard & Linda Thompson’s similarly spiritual Pour Down Like Silver.

The mood is established by the opening New Safe, at five-and-a-half minutes the longest track here. It’s a floating thing, hypnotic in its shifting chords and churning drones, while Morris sings of letting his “belly tension go” and of being at one with the world: “I feel the great expansive sky/Remember there’s no need to strive”. There’s a darker undercurrent here too, suggested by a discordant middle section and lines about a cracked safe leaking “a lake… thick like oil, scary stuff”.

The breezy Inner Smile began as a poem of thanks to his tai chi teacher, and it provides a positive, exultant end to the record, even as its lyrics dabble in aphorisms like the repeated, “it also tickles the paws of the jackals”. Skeleton Key evokes early Incredible String Band in its eastern-tinged verses, while its words catalogue Morris’s hopes as he entered the monastery: “Shaving my face and shaving my head/That person is dead… Please teach me how to always stay kind and open”.

“Rhododendron”, depicting Morris finding comfort in the shadow of a flower over a shrine, is another deeply spiritual song, yet it’s far from the hectoring associated with some religious music. Indeed, the enforced celibacy and hours of meditation at times led Morris to examine his own past relationships and the nature of love itself. Purple Gold,
for instance, looks back on first love, drawing a detailed picture of a 14-year-old Morris and friend listening to REM’s Up, “one headphone each”. The chord sequence is infused with tension, however, as if to show that this kind of “leaping the fence of memory” can’t be accomplished without some pain.

Circus Wagon is more of a parable, with the protagonist joining “a merry band” of acrobats, learning “how to catch a hand while falling through the sky, to dance beyond the you and I…” There’s also room for a charming miniature, Earth And Air, and a fine take on the traditional Rosemary Lane, its Jansch-inspired treatment lifted by invigorating, exploratory percussion and bass from Harris and Amar.

The latter’s louder final minute is as close as we get to Red River Dialect here, and it serves to demonstrate just how different this record is from Morris’ previous work: the songwriting may be similar, his voice just as idiosyncratic, if a little quieter, but the soul-searching intimacy and beautifully unembellished recording results in a completely different beast, fresher, stranger and painfully real. It exists in the moment, just like its creator has been trying to do.

Billy F Gibbons – Hardware

Andrew Mueller
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Billy F Gibbons – Hardware
If, at any point during the recent crisis, you found yourself thinking, ‘What would Billy Gibbons do?’ – and there are probably worse role models – you might have pictured the ZZ Top frontman lighting out for some cactus-pocked desert redoubt in one of his garageful of hot rods. A scarlet co...

If, at any point during the recent crisis, you found yourself thinking, ‘What would Billy Gibbons do?’ – and there are probably worse role models – you might have pictured the ZZ Top frontman lighting out for some cactus-pocked desert redoubt in one of his garageful of hot rods. A scarlet coupe, perhaps, flames painted along the bonnet, packed with some of Gibbons’ legendarily vast guitar collection, and sufficient provisions to ride out lockdown.

You wouldn’t have been too far wrong. Hardware was recorded in the rocky mesas of California’s Mojave, Gibbons teaming up with drummer Matt Sorum (Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver, The Cult) and guitarist Austin Hanks; Rebecca and Megan Lovell of Larkin Poe contribute backing vocals. The single West Coast Junkie (“I’m a West Coast junkie from a Texas town/And when I get to Cali it’s going down”) serves, in this context, as a Southern surf-rock mission statement, Gibbons channelling Dick Dale over a pulsing go-go beat, the drums quoting The Surfari’s Wipeout before the guitar solo.

Gibbons’ two previous solo albums have been obvious departures from ZZ Top. 2015’s Perfectamundo was a joyous excursion into Latin-rhythmed rock, and 2018’s Big Bad Blues was what its title said it was. But Hardware, whether part of some planned cycle or not, is Gibbons going back to where he came in: were it presented to a focus group of ardent ZZ Top fans as a new ZZ Top album, it would be surprising if anyone spotted the imposture.

Certainly, there is little chance of mistaking Billy Gibbons’ guitar: that smooth swagger along the frontier between the blues and Southern rock (the latter genre being one that Gibbons can claim to have helped invent). The first notes on Hardware are the opening riff of My Lucky Card, a characteristic Gibbons motif: an insistent guitar fusillade with which you can hear him placating some rumbustious early 1970s Texas honky-tonk as the empties start hitting the chicken wire.

There are, thereafter, few subtleties. Musically, Hardware is substantially comprised of barely reconstructed boogie. Lyrically, it is almost exclusively concerned with women, whiskey, cars, highways and so forth. Given, however, that this a palette Gibbons did more to define than most, and still draws from more deftly than many, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this, still less so given that Gibbons’ 72-year-old fingers have lost none of their way around a fretboard. So while Shuffle, Step & Slide, for example, sounds exactly how a song called Shuffle, Step & Slide by Billy Gibbons might be expected to sound, its glorious solos are another entry in Gibbons’ hefty catalogue of elegant illustrations of the overlap between blues and Southern rock.

The ZZ Top period that Hardware most recalls is the one spanning 1981’s El Loco, 1983’s umpty-selling Eliminator and 1985’s Afterburner, as the group added synthesisers and sequencers to their primal rock trio setup. While Hardware doesn’t venture nearly as far into full-fledged Southern rock disco as some of the aforementioned, there are many instinctive or deliberate tips of the ten-gallon to this period – Larkin Poe’s glossy backing vocals on Stackin’ Bones, the turbocharged production of S-G-L-M-B-B-R, the distorted lead vocal on More-More-More, also punctuated with a growled Yeaaaahhh, which sounds copy/pasted from Sharp Dressed Man.

There are one or two more obviously outré moments, of the kind Gibbons might not have felt able to indulge under the ZZ Top marque. Vagabond Man is a sweet electric piano-drenched ballad, like Steve Miller fronting Drive-By Truckers. Spanish Fly is a gruff rap over clattering percussion and sparse, squealing guitar. Closer Desert High is more minimalist still, a sombre spoken-word narration of the view across the Mojave and what it conjures, in this instance the spectres of Jim Morrison and Gram Parsons.

Overall, the songs on Hardware fly in direct proportion to the degree to which they can be imagined being played on a fur-trimmed guitar mounted on a spindle. I Was A Highway is one such, underpinning the unsubtle metaphor (“You’d think I was a highway/The way she hit the road”) with a climactic post-guitar solo gear change from effortless cruise control to foot-down roar towards the horizon. She’s On Fire is another, a glorious headlong tear-up which could have graced any ZZ Top album of this last half-century or so. For all Gibbons’ often intriguing meandering from his usual path, on Hardware and elsewhere in his solo career, there remains little doubt about what he does best.

Peter Jackson’s Beatles documentary Get Back will debut exclusively on Disney+ this November

Cillian Breathnach
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Peter Jackson’s Beatles documentary Get Back will debut exclusively on Disney+ this November
Peter Jackson’s documentary on The Beatles, Get Back, has received a premiere date and streaming platform. It will arrive this November, initially exclusive to Disney’s streaming service Disney+. ORDER NOW: Exclusive photos of Paul McCartney in the August 2021 issue of Uncut SHOP NOW: ...

Peter Jackson’s documentary on The Beatles, Get Back, has received a premiere date and streaming platform. It will arrive this November, initially exclusive to Disney’s streaming service Disney+.

Peter Jackson said in a statement: “In many respects, Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s remarkable footage captured multiple storylines. The story of friends and of individuals. It is the story of human frailties and of a divine partnership. It is a detailed account of the creative process, with the crafting of iconic songs under pressure, set amid the social climate of early 1969. But it’s not nostalgia – it’s raw, honest, and human. Over six hours, you’ll get to know The Beatles with an intimacy that you never thought possible.”

He added, “I’m very grateful to The Beatles, Apple Corps and Disney for allowing me to present this story in exactly the way it should be told. I’ve been immersed in this project for nearly three years, and I’m very excited that audiences around the world will finally be able to see it.”

Bob Iger, Disney’s executive chairman, added: “As a huge Beatles fan myself, I am absolutely thrilled that Disney+ will be the home for this extraordinary documentary series by the legendary filmmaker Peter Jackson. This phenomenal collection of never-before-seen footage offers an unprecedented look at the close camaraderie, genius songwriting, and indelible impact of one of the most iconic and culturally influential bands of all time, and we can’t wait to share The Beatles: Get Back with fans around the world.”

Disney+ is currently priced at $7.99 / £7.99 / €8.99 monthly, or $79.99 / £79.90 / €89.90 annually. Fans will also be able to purchase The Beatles: Get Back book on 12 October, a 240-page hardback that comes with transcriptions of The Beatles’ recorded conversations and hundreds of exclusive, never-before-published photos.

Laura Marling has narrated a new Joni Mitchell documentary for BBC Radio 4

Damian Jones
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Laura Marling has narrated a new Joni Mitchell documentary for BBC Radio 4
Laura Marling has narrated a new audio documentary about Joni Mitchell for BBC Radio 4. ORDER NOW: The August 2021 issue of Uncut BUY NOW: Joni Mitchell – The Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide The singer voiced Blue: Pain And Pleasure to mark the 50th anniversary of Mitchell’s seminal albu...

Laura Marling has narrated a new audio documentary about Joni Mitchell for BBC Radio 4.

The singer voiced Blue: Pain And Pleasure to mark the 50th anniversary of Mitchell’s seminal album Blue.

The documentary, which aired earlier today (June 17) and you can listen to here, sees Marling telling the story behind the writing and recording of the 1971 LP.

The record is also due to be reissued as part of a new box set – The Reprise Albums (1968-1971) – on June 25 to mark Blue’s 50th anniversary.

That release includes an essay from Brandi Carlile on Blue, which she calls “the greatest album ever made”.

“Blue didn’t make me a better songwriter. Blue made me a better woman,” she wrote. “No matter what we are dealing with in these times, we can rejoice and know that of all the ages we could have lived through, we lived in the time of Joni Mitchell.”

Marling recently reunited with Tunng’s Mike Lindsay to revive their LUMP project, with the duo set to release a new album, Animal, in July.

Thundercat announces UK and European tour for 2022

Sam Moore
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Thundercat announces UK and European tour for 2022
Thundercat has announced details of his UK and European tour that will take place next year. ORDER NOW: The August 2021 issue of Uncut READ MORE: Waxahatchee, Thundercat and more to play Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky festival The LA artist, real name Stephen Bruner, will resume touring in 2022 ...

Thundercat has announced details of his UK and European tour that will take place next year.

The LA artist, real name Stephen Bruner, will resume touring in 2022 in support of his 2020 album It Is What It Is after his previous live plans were cut short by the coronavirus pandemic.

Thundercat will head to the UK for a trio of dates in March and April 2022 before then moving on to the continent.

He’ll kick off the UK leg of his tour in Glasgow at the Barrowland Ballroom on March 29, 2022 before dates at the Manchester Academy on April 1 and the O2 Academy Brixton in London on April 3.

Thundercat Europe tour

You can see details of Thundercat’s upcoming UK and European live dates below.

March 2022

29 – Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow

April 2022

1 – Manchester Academy, Manchester
3 – O2 Academy Brixton, London
4 – Paradiso, Amsterdam, NL
5 – Melkweg, Amsterdam, NL
6 – Élysée Montmartre, Paris, FR
9 – De Roma, Antwerp, BE
10 – Astra, Berlin, DE

Tickets for Thundercat’s 2022 UK and European tour are on sale now.

It Is What It Is landed in fifth place in Uncut’s 50 best new albums of 2020 list. We said: “Bass virtuoso and Kendrick veteran Stephen Bruner continued his journey into the furthest reaches of exploded fusion.

“Seeming to chronicle the boom-bust cycle of a love affair, his fourth album was composed of short pieces (the better, perhaps, to accommodate busy electronica, hard ’70s grooves and sweet soft rock) but visionary and unified in scope, floating on Thundercat’s falsetto and the sweetly candid nature of his lyrics. Joining him on the mind-expanding mission were guest stars Steve Arrington and the idiosyncratic rapper Lil B.”

Warren Ellis on if he’s the ‘Yoko Ono’ who split Nick Cave from the Bad Seeds

Andrew Trendell
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Warren Ellis on if he’s the ‘Yoko Ono’ who split Nick Cave from the Bad Seeds
In an excerpt from a Q&A being broadcast later today, Nick Cave has shared his thoughts on the “divisive” nature of new album Carnage – with Warren Ellis also responding to whether he’s the ‘Yoko Ono’ who split Cave from the rest of The Bad Seeds. ORDER NOW: The August 2021 is...

In an excerpt from a Q&A being broadcast later today, Nick Cave has shared his thoughts on the “divisive” nature of new album Carnage – with Warren Ellis also responding to whether he’s the ‘Yoko Ono’ who split Cave from the rest of The Bad Seeds.

While many fans were expecting this year’s acclaimed lockdown album Carnage to be a release by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, it was instead released under the name of the frontman and Warren Ellis. While The Bad Seeds formed in 1983, Ellis only became a member of the band’s ever-changing line-up in 1997 – but has been Cave’s main collaborator and songwriting partner in most projects since, including Grinderman and many of his many TV, film and theatre scores.

Now, in a new audio Q&A being broadcast online tomorrow (June 18), Ellis has responded to a question posed by a fan as to his role as ‘Yoko’ in The Bad Seeds, in terms of alienating past members and pulling Cave away for their latest record.

Ellis replied: “I find it a bit insulting actually, that – because Yoko Ono is awesome and I’m clearly not.”

Cave then added: “Well, I’d also like to say here the best thing that Yoko Ono ever did was break up The Beatles. They’re a band in decline and Yoko Ono stepped in and allowed everyone the freedom to go on to make some really beautiful records. John Lennon and the other guy.”

After the pair discussed their love of All Things Shall Pass by George Harrison and Ringo Starr‘s Photograph, Cave then clarified that “The Bad Seeds haven’t split up”.

“The Bad Seeds have always been something that morphs into different forms,” he continued. “And the line-up changes all the time, it always has changed all the time. I think what [the fan asking the question] might be saying is that did you cause Blixa Bargeld and Mick Harvey to leave the band?”

To which Ellis replied: “I’ve actually asked Mick Harvey that question. And he said clearly, and Blixa too, you know, I mean, I still break bread with Blixa when he comes to Paris and stuff like that, so clearly, there’s not a problem.

“But I think the question is more, is that what made you break away from the rest of the band, per se? Maybe, like, why we tend to work together more these days?”

Nick Cave The Bad Seeds 2016
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds in 2016. Credit: Press

Later in the interview, Cave and Ellis discussed their thoughts on whether or not recent records like Carnage and Ghosteen “divided” fans in leaning away from the rockier sound of The Bad Seeds’ earlier work.

“It’s interesting because I think both Ghosteen and Carnage, on first listen, to a lot of people they didn’t like those records, you know? They really felt that they were a step too far away from… their expectations around what a Bad Seeds record should be,” said Cave. “But I think they really gained traction on repeated listens, and people just came to really love those records and I get that message. After Carnage came out, I was worried, you know, it’s difficult to make a record that is going to divide people.”

Cave went on: “I think it’s our duty to divide people. That’s part of what keeps our music alive and what keeps it interesting. But it’s also difficult to do, to lose fans, you know, to do something where you lose fans. And I was worried that that might be the response on some level. When I looked at The Red Hand Files the following morning – because there had been some bad stuff going on that night or something, I can’t really remember why – there was something that made me very nervous about how people would receive Carnage.”

Nick Cave All Points East 2018
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds live at All Points East 2018. Credit: Getty

The frontman then revealed how he felt to visit his fan Q&A website The Red Hand Files the following morning to discover “this incredible support for the record” overall – although not from everyone.

“It was really incredibly moving to read. But then occasionally there were, ‘I’m sorry, this is just too far, you’ve lost me on this one, I just don’t like this record’,” said Cave. “So there was a little bit of that. Essentially, there was a great love for Carnage when it came out.”

Ellis then added: “I find it more terrifying when people would just say, ‘Oh, it’s like the last record’. That to me is way more terrifying than someone saying ‘I fucking don’t get it’ or ‘I hate it’. I personally would rather push beyond what last came out and not procrastinate to just keep moving, and ’til we get in a room and find that there’s just nothing happening, and then I think we have – that’s when we’ll have to look at what’s going on between us, and that hasn’t happened yet. But when it does, then we’ll know what to do with that.

“I remember hearing Here Come The Warm Jets [by Brian Eno] when it came out. I took it back to the record store because I just couldn’t afford to spend that much money on a record that I didn’t like, and it’s now one of my favourite records ever.”

To celebrate this week’s release of Carnage on CD and vinyl, Cave and Ellis’ fan Q&A will be streamed online today at 7pm BST here.

Cave recently released the solo single “Letter To Cynthia” online, as well as announcing more details of a European festival tour with the Bad Seeds in 2022.

Liverpool set to host the first David Bowie World Fan Convention in 2022

Matthew Neale
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Liverpool set to host the first David Bowie World Fan Convention in 2022
The first-ever David Bowie World Fan Convention is due to take place across multiple venues in Liverpool next summer. ORDER NOW: The August 2021 issue of Uncut SHOP NOW: Ultimate Record Collection – David Bowie Scheduled for June 17-19, 2022, the inaugural event will see a host of Bowi...

The first-ever David Bowie World Fan Convention is due to take place across multiple venues in Liverpool next summer.

Scheduled for June 17-19, 2022, the inaugural event will see a host of Bowie collaborators and affiliates presenting panels, live performances, and a Bowie Ball to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.

Former band members and musical collaborators, including Carlos Alomar, Robin Clark, Gail Ann Dorsey, Donny McCaslin, and Spiders From Mars drummer Woody Woodmansey, have all been confirmed for events at the convention, which is being organised by the David Bowie Glamour fanzine and Liverpool music festival producers Sound City.

In a press statement, Dorsey said she was looking forward to sharing “some thoughts and memories of my incredible experience working with one of the greatest artists of our time, David Bowie”. McCaslin added that he was relishing being part of “an event that appreciates and celebrates the depth and scope of David’s artistic vision.”

David Bowie convention
CREDIT: Press

Fans will also be able to get their hands on limited-edition prints, memorabilia and rare releases via The Duffy Archive, headed up by music and fashion photographer Brian Duffy, who took the iconic photo of Bowie‘s lightning bolt-adorned face for the Aladdin Sane album cover.

You can find more information and purchase tickets for the David Bowie World Fan Convention 2022 here.

Watch: Foo Fighters play their first gig in over a year at intimate California show

Will Richards
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Watch: Foo Fighters play their first gig in over a year at intimate California show
Foo Fighters played their first proper gig in over a year on Tuesday night (June 15) – watch the footage and check out the band's setlist below. ORDER NOW: Read interviews with Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic on the 30th anniversary of Nevermind in our August 2021 issue The band's show at t...

Foo Fighters played their first proper gig in over a year on Tuesday night (June 15) – watch the footage and check out the band’s setlist below.

The band’s show at the 600-capacity Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, California, was attended by fully vaccinated fans and served as a precursor to the Foos’ upcoming headline show at Madison Square Garden in New York this weekend.

At the show, Dave Grohl and co. played a 23-song setlist, beginning with “Times Like These” and closing with “Everlong“. In between, they gave a live debut to the title track from their latest album Medicine At Midnight and covered Queen’s “Somebody To Love“.

Foo Fighters played:

  • “Times Like These”
  • “No Son of Mine”
  • “The Pretender”
  • “Learn to Fly”
  • “Run”
  • “The Sky Is a Neighborhood”
  • “Shame Shame”
  • “Rope”
  • “My Hero”
  • “These Days”
  • “Medicine at Midnight”
  • “Walk”
  • “Somebody to Love” (Queen cover)
  • “All My Life”
  • “Arlandria”
  • “Cloudspotter”
  • “Breakout”
  • “Skin and Bones”
  • “This Is a Call”
  • “Aurora”
  • “Best of You”
  • “Making a Fire”
  • “Everlong”

Outside the show, a handful of protesters gathered to show their anger at the gig’s door policy of all ticketholders needing to be fully vaccinated.

It came after anti-vaccine fans of the band recently renounced Foo Fighters over the entry policy to their Madison Square Garden gig. “Foo Fighters, a band I’ve long admired, just held a concert for the jabbed only,” tweeted one fan. “That’s every album & playlist with them on, consigned to the bin.”

See footage of the protest from Tuesday’s show below.

Watch Noel Gallagher’s track-by-track guide to Back The Way We Came: Vol 1 (2011-2021)

Andrew Trendell
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Watch Noel Gallagher’s track-by-track guide to Back The Way We Came: Vol 1 (2011-2021)
Noel Gallagher has shared a track-by-track video talking through each and every song from his new High Flying Birds greatest hits compilation, Back The Way We Came: Vol 1 (2011-2021). Watch it below. ORDER NOW: The August 2021 issue of Uncut The collection gathers songs from the former Oasi...

Noel Gallagher has shared a track-by-track video talking through each and every song from his new High Flying Birds greatest hits compilation, Back The Way We Came: Vol 1 (2011-2021). Watch it below.

The collection gathers songs from the former Oasis man’s three solo albums through to his latest trilogy of EPs – Black Star Dancing, This Is The Place and Blue Moon Rising – as well as new singles “We’re On Our Way Now” and “Flying On The Ground“. In the new video, Gallagher goes into a deep dive into the writing of each of the tracks, and why he chose to release a ‘best of’ compilation now.

“I’d done enough touring and didn’t want to go on tour, and after all of those EPs it seemed like the right time to go, ‘Right, that’s been 10 years’,” says Gallagher, introducing the video.

“For best ofs, the titles are always shit. This one just came to me one afternoon while sat at the kitchen table. It’s a saying, isn’t it – back the way we came. We’re looking back over a 10 year period. I actually thought it’s a great title. That’s why it’s called Volume 1 – if there’s a Volume 2 I’m not coming up with another fucking title because it’s fucking great!”

Back The Way We Came: Vol 1 (2011-2021) is out now via Sour Mash Records.

Check out the tracklist below:

Disc 1

1. Everybody’s On The Run
2. The Death Of You And Me
3. AKA … What A Life!
4. If I Had A Gun
5. In The Heat Of The Moment
6. Riverman
7. Lock All The Doors
8. The Dying Of The Light
9. Ballad Of The Mighty I
10. We’re On Our Way Now

Disc 2

1. Black Star Dancing
2. Holy Mountain (Remastered)
3. A Dream Is All I Need To Get By
4. This Is The Place
5. It’s A Beautiful World
6. Blue Moon Rising
7. Dead In The Water (Live At RTÉ 2FM Studios, Dublin)
8. Flying On The Ground

Bonus Disc

1. It’s A Beautiful World (Instrumental)
2. If I Had A Gun … (Acoustic Version)
3. Black Star Dancing (Skeleton Key Remix)
4. Black Star Dancing (12” Mix Instrumental)
5. The Man Who Built The Moon (Acoustic Version)
6. International Magic (Demo)
7. Blue Moon Rising (Sons Of The Desert Remix)
8. The Dying Of The Light (Acoustic Version)
9. This Is The Place (Skeleton Key Remix)
10. This Is The Place (Instrumental)
11. Black Star Dancing (The Reflex Revision)
12. Be Careful What You Wish For (Instrumental)

British neo-soul collective Sault announce new album Nine, only available for 99 days

Will Richards
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British neo-soul collective Sault announce new album Nine, only available for 99 days
Sault have announced details of a new album – Nine is set to come out next week and will only be available online for 99 days. ORDER NOW: The August 2021 issue of Uncut The new album, which follows the British neo-soul collective's pair of 2019 records, 5 and 7, was teased by the mysteri...

Sault have announced details of a new album – Nine is set to come out next week and will only be available online for 99 days.

The new album, which follows the British neo-soul collective’s pair of 2019 records, 5 and 7, was teased by the mysterious collective on Instagram earlier this week.

Taking to the same platform today (June 16), Sault have confirmed that Nine is indeed a new album, and gave details about its release.

“Nine will only exist for ninety-nine days,” they wrote. “You can download from sault.global. Available on vinyl and all streaming platforms.”

Upon visiting the band’s website, a message reads: “108 days left of nine,” hinting that the 99 days of its lifespan – and thus its release date – begin next Friday (June 25).

See the new post below.

Sault album cover nine

Since the release of 5 and 7 in 2019, Sault released two critically acclaimed albums in 2020, Untitled (Black Is) and Untitled (Rise).

Untitled (Black Is) took 17th place in Uncut’s 50 best new albums of 2020 list. We said: “Having released two intriguing albums in 2019, the anonymous neo-soul collective – believed to include Michael Kiwanuka collaborator Dean ‘Inflo’ Josiah, plus vocalists Cleo Sol and Melissa ‘Kid Sister’ Young – really seized the day with this urgent 20-track opus, written in response to the killing of George Floyd and released just three weeks later on the Juneteenth holiday.

“A multifaceted work of elegant defiance, they followed it up in September with the equally essential Untitled (Rise).”

Jeff Tweedy shares new song, “Cold Water”, written for Parks And Recreation

Will Richards
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Jeff Tweedy shares new song, “Cold Water”, written for Parks And Recreation
Wilco‘s Jeff Tweedy has shared a new song as Scott Tanner, the character he played in a Parks And Recreation cameo. ORDER NOW: The August 2021 issue of Uncut BUY NOW: Wilcovered 2LP – 17 Wilco covers by the band’s artists and friends In the sitcom, Tanner is the frontman of fictio...

Wilco‘s Jeff Tweedy has shared a new song as Scott Tanner, the character he played in a Parks And Recreation cameo.

In the sitcom, Tanner is the frontman of fictional band Land Ho! which Chris Pratt’s character Andy Dwyer successfully reunited for a benefit concert.

Tweedy (as Tanner) has now released “Cold Water”, a track written for The Awesome Album, the recently announced real-life debut album from Dwyer’s fictional band in the show, Mouse Rat.

Featuring on the song is Duke Silver, the saxophone-wielding alter-ego of the show’s character Ron Swanson (played by Nick Offerman) – watch its surreal video below.

The Awesome Album is a 15-track record and will arrive on August 27 through Dualtone Music Group and Entertainment 720 (the fictional company founded by Aziz Ansari’s character Tom Haverford in the show). The album will also be given a limited-edition vinyl run and merchandise range.

Back in his real life, Tweedy last week shared a cover of Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen’s new collaboration “Like I Used To” with his son Spencer.

Bob Dylan announces online show, streaming from July 18

Sam Richards
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Bob Dylan announces online show, streaming from July 18
Bob Dylan has announced details of a paid-for online performance entitled Shadow Kingdom. It launches on July 18 on the Veeps platform and will be available to watch for 48 hours after the initial airing, with tickets costing $25 – sign up here. A press releases states that Shadow Kingdom "w...

Bob Dylan has announced details of a paid-for online performance entitled Shadow Kingdom.

It launches on July 18 on the Veeps platform and will be available to watch for 48 hours after the initial airing, with tickets costing $25 – sign up here.

A press releases states that Shadow Kingdom “will showcase the artist in an intimate setting as he presents songs from his extensive renowned body of work created especially for this event.” There are no further details on the location, the musicians involved or whether the performance is a live broadcast or a pre-record.

It will be the first time Bob Dylan has played live since the release of Rough And Rowdy Ways, Uncut’s album of the year 2020.

Inside Sly Stone’s There’s A Riot Goin’ On: “Fame attracts wonderful people, but it also attracts guns and dogs”

Michaelangelo Matos
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Inside Sly Stone’s There’s A Riot Goin’ On: “Fame attracts wonderful people, but it also attracts guns and dogs”
It is 1969 and Sly Stone is on the brink of superstardom. Ensconced in his Bel Air mansion, he has begun work on a new album. But surrounded by dealers, groupies and gangsters, it takes over two years to finish the record – during with time the life-affirming utopianism of his music is replaced by...

It is 1969 and Sly Stone is on the brink of superstardom. Ensconced in his Bel Air mansion, he has begun work on a new album. But surrounded by dealers, groupies and gangsters, it takes over two years to finish the record – during with time the life-affirming utopianism of his music is replaced by darkness, drugs and isolation. Fifty years on, band members recall the turbulent making of a masterpiece: There’s A Riot Goin’ On.

For Sly Stone, Sunday, August 17, 1969 was an auspicious date. The weather was bad, but despite the deluge Sly & The Family Stone took control of the Woodstock festival – coming on stage at 3am, they lured the bedraggled audience out of their sleeping bags and on to their feet for an extended, transcendent version of I Want To Take You Higher.

“There was about a foot-and-a-half deep of mud, it was raining so hard,” remembers saxophonist Jerry Martini. “It was an incredible mess.”

“It put everybody into a higher level of performance,” says bassist Larry Graham. “We knew we’d tapped into a new zone. We wanted the next concert to feel musically like the Woodstock concert. That was our new measuring stick.”

Captured and amplified in Michael Wadleigh’s concert film, Stone’s irrepressible performance was one of Woodstock’s undoubted highlights – a riot of afro hair, white tassels, green satin, chunky jewellery and feather hats that captured both the Aquarian mood of guileless, free-spirited optimism and Stone’s immutable star power.

Both Wadleigh’s film and the three-disc soundtrack album were major successes, significantly bolstering the band’s profile in the States. Their label, Epic Records, re-serviced I Want To Take You Higher to radio, where it charted alongside Ike & Tina Turner’s version. But, the label stressed, this would not be treated as a new Sly & The Family Stone single. “New material from the star is expected in a matter of days”, reported trade magazine Cash Box that May.

It was an optimistic statement for an optimistic band. Certainly, after Woodstock, you could be forgiven for thinking that Stone had it all. And then, inexplicably, he began to throw it all away.

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW IN UNCUT AUGUST 2021

Introducing The Beatles Miscellany & Atlas

John Robinson
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Introducing The Beatles Miscellany & Atlas
BUY THE BEATLES MISCELLANY & ATLAS HERE It was (very nearly) 60 years ago today… The date: June 21st, 1961. The place: a civic building/sometime school hall in a suburb of Hamburg, in what was then West Germany. The occasion: a recording session for the fiery, notoriously wayward, and oc...

BUY THE BEATLES MISCELLANY & ATLAS HERE

It was (very nearly) 60 years ago today…

The date: June 21st, 1961. The place: a civic building/sometime school hall in a suburb of Hamburg, in what was then West Germany. The occasion: a recording session for the fiery, notoriously wayward, and occasionally brilliant British rock ‘n’ roller Tony Sheridan, presided over by the producer and Polydor A&R man Bert Kaempfert. Sheridan’s pick-up band on the two day session are the Beat Brothers. Or, as the wider world will soon come to know them, The Beatles.

For all the prominent flags planted by the Beatles in their career – the huge concerts; the recording and songwriting innovations; the landmark albums – there’s also a lot to be said for giving some respect to the events at the margins of the main event, which were still pivotal to the major achievements. Much like the events of this Hamburg session: the first time The Beatles record music professionally.

Today the results might sound fun, but a little quaint. But as you look a little closer (the charm and vibrancy of the band’s Lennon-fronted take on Ain’t She Sweet; the appearance of an early self-composed – Lennon/Harrison – number, Cry For A Shadow) you begin to perceive some inkling of what the band would grow to become.

It’s a policy that we’ve followed on the following 120 pages, in the course of which we’ve found new ways to tell the story of the Beatles, 1960-1970 – and of the music we already know and love. How many gigs? How did they do that in the studio? He said what? It’s here: in maps, illuminating lists, graphs, timelines, quotes and indexes. You’ll find all their UK releases pictured in chronological order in their original sleeves. Some other things you’ll discover along the way:

  • Which Beatles intimate was once brought up on charges for impersonating an army officer
  • Which Beatle is good at putting up shelves
  • How much George Harrison paid for his house in 1964
  • Who sat where in the van on the trip to Hamburg
  • What the other Beatles were doing while Paul was getting married to Linda

There are licensed Beatle wigs and the story of litigated hotel bedsheets. All round, it’s a celebration of the Beatles, their world-changing influence and their music – and also of the size and depth of their footprint as they went about making it. It’s a wonderful tale, and my hope here is that we’ve told it with some innovation and originality; a lot of love and hard work. In a way that honours the process of the Beatles themselves, in fact. We hope you enjoy the show!

Buy a copy of the magazine here. Missed one in the series? Bundles are available at the same location…

The Beatles – Miscellany & Atlas

Uncut
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The Beatles – Miscellany & Atlas
Celebrating 60 years – pretty much to the day – of The Beatles as professional recording artists, we present The Beatles Miscellany and Atlas. What is it? It's a left-field history of the Fab Four: in lists, graphs, maps, numbers, seating plans, houses, merchandise, valuable ephemera items, and ...

Celebrating 60 years – pretty much to the day – of The Beatles as professional recording artists, we present The Beatles Miscellany and Atlas. What is it? It’s a left-field history of the Fab Four: in lists, graphs, maps, numbers, seating plans, houses, merchandise, valuable ephemera items, and of course, their entire UK discography.

A perfect gift for Father’s Day too!

Buy a copy here!

Hear Bruce Springsteen and The Killers’ long-awaited collaboration, “Dustland”

David James Young
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Hear Bruce Springsteen and The Killers’ long-awaited collaboration, “Dustland”
The Killers have unveiled their collaboration with Bruce Springsteen, entitled “Dustland”. ORDER NOW: The August 2021 issue of Uncut The single, released today (June 16) after several teases and previews, is a re-recording of the Las Vegas band’s song “A Dustland Fairytale”, which...

The Killers have unveiled their collaboration with Bruce Springsteen, entitled “Dustland”.

The single, released today (June 16) after several teases and previews, is a re-recording of the Las Vegas band’s song “A Dustland Fairytale”, which first appeared on their 2008 album Day & Age and served as the record’s fourth and final single.

The new version sees lead vocalist Brandon Flowers trading verses with Springsteen, before the two of them sing in unison.

Listen to “Dustland” below:

According to a statement from Flowers, Springsteen originally reached out to him in February 2020 and suggested they record the song together.

“Watching Glastonbury,” the text from Springsteen reportedly read. “You guys have become one hellacious live band, my brother. Love the gold suit. We gotta do Dustland one day. – Bruce.”

Upon receiving the text, Flowers was suspicious that a prank was being played on him. “I google the area code,” he explains. “It’s from Freehold, New Jersey, and I’m still not convinced. I text Evan (Bruce and Patti’s son who has become a buddy of mine) and get verification that the number really is coming from his old man.”

Although COVID ultimately put plans for the two to work together on ice, it was later made possible towards the end of 2020. Both The Killers and Springsteen released new albums in the interim – Imploding the Mirage and Letter to You, respectively.

Flowers went on to reflect on the initial writing of “A Dustland Fairytale”, which was an ode to his parents Jeannie and Terry Flowers.

“’Dustland’ was written in the middle of [Jeannie’s] battle with cancer,” he said.

“It was an attempt to better understand my dad, who is sometimes a mystery to me. To grieve for my mother. To acknowledge their sacrifices, and maybe even catch a glimpse of just how strong love needs to be to make it in this world. It was my therapy. It was cathartic.”

Flowers praised Springsteen for writing “a lot about people like my parents,” as well as finding “a whole lot of beauty in otherwise invisible people’s hopes and dreams.”

“I’m grateful to him for opening this door for me,” said Flowers of Springsteen. “I’m grateful to my parents for their example to me.”

The Killers and Springsteen are scheduled to appear alongside one another for the first time on TODAY on NBC. They will be interviewed together and also perform the song live.

Roger Waters rejects Facebook’s request to use “Another Brick In The Wall” in new ad: “I will not be a party to this”

Jackson Langford
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Roger Waters rejects Facebook’s request to use “Another Brick In The Wall” in new ad: “I will not be a party to this”
Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters gave a firmly negative response to Facebook’s request to use “Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2” in an upcoming ad for Instagram. ORDER NOW: The August 2021 issue of Uncut Speaking at a forum in support of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, as reported ...

Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters gave a firmly negative response to Facebook’s request to use “Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2” in an upcoming ad for Instagram.

Speaking at a forum in support of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, as reported by Rolling Stone, Waters read out an email he claimed to have received from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg requesting the right to use the song.

“It’s a request for the rights to use my song, ‘Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2’ in the making of a film to promote Instagram,” Waters said.

The letter allegedly said that the team at Facebook “feel that the core sentiment of this song is still so prevalent and so necessary today, which speaks to how timeless the work is”.

“So it’s a missive from Mark Zuckerberg to me,” Waters continued, “[which] arrived this morning, with an offer of a huge, huge amount of money, and the answer is, ‘Fuck you! No fucking way!’

“And I only mention that because it’s [their] insidious movement to take over absolutely everything.”

“So those of us who do have any power,” he continued, “and I do have a little bit – in terms of control of the publishing of my songs I do anyway. So I will not be a party to this bullshit, Zuckerberg.”

Waters has recently found himself in dispute with ex-bandmate David Gilmour regarding Pink Floyd’s 1977 album Animals.

Waters claimed that Gilmour wanted the liner notes of the remastered album to be kept a secret so that Gilmour could allegedly “claim more credit […] than is his due”.

Unsurprisingly, Gilmour has also recently poured cold water on rumours of a reunion of the band, saying in March, “It has run its course, we are done.”

Lucy Dacus announces 2022 UK and European tour

Sam Moore
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Lucy Dacus announces 2022 UK and European tour
Lucy Dacus has announced details of her 2022 UK and European tour. ORDER NOW: The August 2021 issue of Uncut Next year's live dates will be in support of the artist's upcoming third studio album Home Video, which is set for release on June 25 via Matador. Dacus' 2022 UK and Ireland tour ...

Lucy Dacus has announced details of her 2022 UK and European tour.

Next year’s live dates will be in support of the artist’s upcoming third studio album Home Video, which is set for release on June 25 via Matador.

Dacus’ 2022 UK and Ireland tour will kick off at The Brudenell Social Club in Leeds on March 18 before stops in Glasgow, Dublin, Manchester and Bristol. The run concludes with a gig at the Kentish Town Forum in London on March 25, 2022.

Dacus will then head to Europe for gigs in Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Austria and more. You can check out her 2022 tour schedule below.

March 2022

18 – Leeds Brudenell Social Club
20 – Glasgow St Lukes
21 – Dublin The Button Factory
23 – Manchester Gorilla
24 – Bristol SWX
25 – London Kentish Town Forum
29 – Brussels Botanique, Belgium
30 – Amsterdam Paradiso Noord, Netherlands
31 – Cologne Artheater, Germany

April 2022

2 – Hamburg Molotow, Germany
3 – Copenhagen Loppen, Denmark
4 – Aarhus Atlas, Denmark
6 – Oslo Parkteatret, Norway
7 – Stockholm Nalen Klubb, Sweden
9 – Berlin Lido, Germany
10 – Jena Trafo, Germany
12 – Vienna Chelsea, Austria
13 – Munich Milla, Germany
14 – Zürich Bogen F, Switzerland
15 – Paris La Maroquinerie, France

Tickets for Dacus’ 2022 UK and Ireland shows will go on pre-sale tomorrow (June 16) at 10am BST for those who pre-order Home Video via the Matador webstore here. All of Dacus’ tour tickets will then go on general sale on Friday (June 18) at 10am BST.

Dacus previewed Home Video last week by sharing the single “Brando”.

British neo-soul collective Sault tease new album in cryptic Instagram post

Nick Reilly
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British neo-soul collective Sault tease new album in cryptic Instagram post
Sault have teased their next release, after dropping a series of acclaimed albums throughout last year. ORDER NOW: The August 2021 issue of Uncut The British music collective remain steeped in mystery, but won praise for Untitled (Black Is), which was followed by Untitled (Rise). Now, th...

Sault have teased their next release, after dropping a series of acclaimed albums throughout last year.

The British music collective remain steeped in mystery, but won praise for Untitled (Black Is), which was followed by Untitled (Rise).

Now, they’ve teased further material in a cryptic post shared on Instagram. The group wrote “Nine” against a plain black background, but shared no other information about what fans can expect from their latest offering.

See the post below:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by SAULT (@saultglobal)

Sault’s Untitled (Black Is) album took 17th place in Uncut’s 50 best new albums of 2020 list. We said: “Having released two intriguing albums in 2019, the anonymous neo-soul collective – believed to include Michael Kiwanuka collaborator Dean “Inflo” Josiah, plus vocalists Cleo Sol and Melissa “Kid Sister” Young – really seized the day with this urgent 20-track opus, written in response to the killing of George Floyd and released just three weeks later on the Juneteenth holiday.

“A multifaceted work of elegant defiance, they followed it up in September with the equally essential Untitled (Rise).”

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