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Where It’s At

Stephen Deusner
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Where It’s At

In this month’s Uncut, we bring together The Black Keys‘ Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney and Beck for an exclusive interview to celebrate their work together on The Black Keys new studio album, Ohio Players… Let’s just call them The Beck Keys.

In this month’s Uncut, we bring together The Black Keys‘ Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney and Beck for an exclusive interview to celebrate their work together on The Black Keys new studio album, Ohio Players… Let’s just call them The Beck Keys.

Now read on for an extract from this one-off encounter…

DAVID BOWIE IS ON THE COVER OF THE LATEST UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

That’s a picnic lunch 20 years in the making. The two acts have been circling each other for decades, bound by their shared love of blues, funk and soul. After touring together in 2003, the three musicians often talked about jamming, recording or just hanging out together, but their plans only finally came to fruition in 2022, when Beck stopped by Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound Studio in Nashville and the trio raced through a handful of songs in an afternoon. “When you’re working on a record and the songs are coming together, whatever the energy and the vibe, it just goes into the music,” says Beck.

Such energies are evident on the lively Ohio Players, which combines the thickfreak attack of The Black Keys with Beck’s bottles-and-cans-and-just-clap-your-hands aesthetic. Of the album’s 14 tracks, Beck co-wrote seven and played on several others, injecting them with lively rhythms and flourishes of funk, r&b and even country. “That’s the whole draw of music,” says Carney. “It’s an art form that’s very collaborative. It’s one of the few forms where you create something from nothing.”

To celebrate their fruitful work together, The Black Keys and Beck – let’s just call them The Beck Keys – sat down with Uncut for an exclusive joint interview. In this excerpt, they discuss their first hook-ups…

PATRICK CARNEY: You might not remember this, but I met you on the Odelay tour. I was about 16 and my uncle Ralph arranged through Smokey Hormel [Beck’s guitarist] to get me a backstage pass. It was the first time I went backstage at a show. That was one of my first concerts and it totally blew my mind. I was a huge fan and still am. I think we talked about The Shaggs for a while.

BECK HANSEN: I remember hanging with you… it must have been ’96 or something? We were playing in Ohio. I don’t remember the place, but I remember we talked for a long time. Your uncle Ralph had auditioned for the band and was friend of Smokey’s. I knew about him because he had played with Tom Waits. I remember he showed up at rehearsal with a Chinese nose flute! He had all these weird flugelhorns, which didn’t really go with the songs we were playing at the time. I was like, “Damn, I wish I had the right album for this guy…”

CARNEY: I came to two shows: you played Akron and the following spring you were headlining with The Roots and Atari Teenage Riot. Then we met again at a Saturday Night Live afterparty in 2003. Our friends in Sleater-Kinney got us in. I gave you a promo of Thickfreakness on CD. A couple of weeks later we learned through our agent that you had offered us a spot on his summer tour. That was huge for us. We jumped at the opportunity.

BECK: I remember meeting you guys that night! It was a huge blizzard and we were stuck in New York. I thought you had snuck into the party.

DAN AUERBACH: We did! We weren’t supposed to be there. But here’s our CD, you’re going to love it!

BECK: People would give me CDs all the time, but I remember listening to your album and thinking, ‘Shit, this is really good.’ Then you played at this place down the street from my house called Spaceland. I think you were opening for a band called Jet. I walked down there just to see y’all. I brought this producer friend along with me. There were probably less than 10 people there. Both our jaws were on the floor. I felt like we were at the Forum watching this band play their greatest hits set when they’re 50.

CARNEY: We didn’t know you were in the audience that night. That’s when we were touring in a Buick Century, just the two of this in a car. There was so much gear that we couldn’t even recline the passenger seat. The night before, we had played Bottom Of The Hill in San Francisco then we had to drive all night to have a meeting at 10 in the morning in L.A. We were completely zoned…

BECK: But you played an amazing show. It was just so formed, the songs were all good. When you would play a song, it was like, ‘Oh man, they’re playing this one!’ Which is wild for a fairly new band. It was undeniable. That’s when I told my manager I wanted to have these guys out on my tour. It was a big tour. All of North America. I think it started in Boston. It was good to reconnect with you.

Read the full feature only in the latest edition of Uncut – in shops now and available to buy direct from us here

Ohio Players is available now from Nonesuch and can be ordered here

“I’ll Be Your King Volcano!”

Peter Watts
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“I’ll Be Your King Volcano!”

This month's Uncut cover story digs deep into David Bowie's groundbreaking Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars album, as an expansive new box set, Rock N Roll Star!, unearths outtakes, alternate versions, radio sessions and more to shed new light on his doomed extra-terrestrial rocker.

This month’s Uncut cover story digs deep into David Bowie‘s groundbreaking Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars album, as an expansive new box set, Rock N Roll Star!, unearths outtakes, alternate versions, radio sessions and more to shed new light on his doomed extra-terrestrial rocker.

In this excerpt from our cover story, we preview 10 tracks from the upcoming Rock N Roll Star! box…

DAVID BOWIE IS ON THE COVER OF THE LATEST UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

DISC 1

“Hang On To Yourself”

[Early demo]

Bowie had just met Gene Vincent when he recorded this demo at the home of an RCA executive in the US in February 1972, which might explain the retro feel of one of the Ziggy songs that took longest to get right.

“Sweet Head”

[Haddon Hall rehearsal]

An early version of the Ziggy outtake that was probably dropped from the running order due to the sexual references. Bowie also dropped “Velvet Goldmine” for similar reasons – and along with the use of American slang, it shows that he was actively courting the US market.

DISC 2

“I’m Waiting For The Man”

[BBC Radio session]

Bowie’s love of the Velvet Underground was profound and he regularly covered both “White Light/White Heat” and “I’m Waiting For The Man”. This outstanding version of the latter was recorded for John Peel’s Sounds Of The 70s on January 11, 1972 and boasts wild Ronson guitar.

“Five Years”

[BBC Radio session]

Recorded for Bob Harris on Sounds Of The 70s on January 18, this was one of the first times the band had played “Five Years” outside Trident. It was broadcast on February 7, introducing Ziggy Stardust’s scene-setting opener to the wider world.

DISC 3

“Moonage Daydream”

[BBC Radio session]

With the band halfway through their UK tour, Bowie was flying when he recorded this excellent Sounds Of The 70s session with John Peel in May 72. Augmented by Nicky Graham’s jabbing keyboard, it gives a sense of how powerful the band would have sounded in the small venues they were still playing.

“Rock N Roll Suicide”

[BBC Radio session]

This thrilling version of Ziggy Stardust’s dramatic finale was recorded at a Sounds Of The 70s session with Bob Harris on May 23. It was the last song Bowie recorded for the BBC until August 1991.

DISC 4

“Velvet Goldmine”

[Ziggy session out-take]

The cabaret-influenced “Velvet Goldmine” had been knocking about since the start of 1971 before it was finally dropped. The track eventually featured on the B-side of a reissue of “Space Oddity” in 1975.

“My Death”

[Live at Music Hall Boston]

A previously unreleased live favourite recorded at the Music Hall in Boston in October on the Ziggy tour, exquisitely performed and recorded for a proposed live album. Shortly after, Bowie would start to introduce songs for Aladdin Sane to the set list.

DISC 5

“Star”

[Ziggy session out-take]

This was one of the first songs recorded at Trident, and Bowie still hadn’t finalised the lyric, demonstrating that his editing and writing process continued until the moment he recorded the final vocal.

“I Can’t Explain”

[Trident Studio version]

Nobody is entirely sure why Bowie led the band through a rip-snorting cover of the Who classic during a recording session for “John, I’m Only Dancing”. Was he already thinking ahead to Pin Ups..?

Read the full feature only in the latest edition of Uncut – in shops now and available to buy direct from us here

Rock N Roll Star! is released by Parlophone Records on June 14 and can be pre-ordered here

Alice Cooper – Billion Dollar Babies (reissue, 1973)

Stephen Deusner
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Alice Cooper – Billion Dollar Babies (reissue, 1973)

Supporting the old trope that you must suffer for your art, Alice Cooper got an opus out of a toothache. On “Unfinished Sweet”, the deranged heart of the band’s sixth studio album, Billion Dollar Babies, frontman Vincent Furnier sings some lowdown dental blues, describing the pain like a “Saint Vitus dance on my molars tonight” and wincing at the paranoid hallucinations prompted by the laughing gas. The rest of the band are just as committed to the ludicrous concept, with Glen Buxton duetting with a dental drill before colliding head-on with a surf-rock/spy-theme breakdown. At no point does dentistry become a metaphor for anything else associated with rock’n’roll. It’s not about sex or VD. It’s not about drugs or ODs. It’s just candy and cavities.

Supporting the old trope that you must suffer for your art, Alice Cooper got an opus out of a toothache. On “Unfinished Sweet”, the deranged heart of the band’s sixth studio album, Billion Dollar Babies, frontman Vincent Furnier sings some lowdown dental blues, describing the pain like a “Saint Vitus dance on my molars tonight” and wincing at the paranoid hallucinations prompted by the laughing gas. The rest of the band are just as committed to the ludicrous concept, with Glen Buxton duetting with a dental drill before colliding head-on with a surf-rock/spy-theme breakdown. At no point does dentistry become a metaphor for anything else associated with rock’n’roll. It’s not about sex or VD. It’s not about drugs or ODs. It’s just candy and cavities.

DAVID BOWIE IS ON THE COVER OF THE LATEST UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

Therein lies the appeal of Alice Cooper. There was no concept so stupid that it couldn’t be parlayed into a catchy rock song, no idea so weird they couldn’t deliver it to radio with a black bow on top. Before the Ramones made dumb sound smart, Alice Cooper reveled in juvenile jokes, adolescent alienation and bludgeon-to-the-brain riffage. The band developed their love of theatre on the West Coast, where they worked briefly with Frank Zappa and gained a reputation for grotesque live shows. Around 1970, however, they moved back to Furnier’s hometown of Detroit, where The Stooges and the MC5 were bashing out a no-frills brand of heavy rock that would eventually morph into punk. That’s where Alice Cooper learned to marry their wildest notions with their heaviest riffs.

While it may not include the group’s best-known songs, it may be their best album. It’s certainly their most imaginative: a loose concept album about… well, who knows? But it does showcase their wild theatrics, their macabre imagery, their gory guitar licks and their fuck-everybody attitude that’s just about palatable thanks to the weirdo sense of humour that animates every note. With producer Bob Ezrin they recorded first at a mansion in Connecticut and later at Morgan Studios in London, where of all people Donovan added vocals to the title track.

Billion Dollar Babies is a bubbling cauldron crammed with old Mad magazines, purloined Playboys, grisly EC Comics, monster movies and vaudeville jokes. It’s a distinctly American stew – a yank interpretation of glam rock – but Alice Cooper had the songwriting skills and the instrumental chops to create and sustain such an outrageous spectacle. Furnier plays the master of ceremonies on opener “Hello Hooray”, beckoning American youth into a macabre circus tent: “Roll out with your circus freaks and hula hoops,” he commands. “I’ve been ready, ready as this audience that’s coming here to dream.” By album’s end that attention has given him almost God-like powers: “You things are heavenly when you come worship me,” he proclaims on “Sick Things”. But again, there’s no real subtext, which is impressive: rather than ponder the deleterious effects of celebrity, Furnier just likes being onstage.

That makes their sacred-cow-tipping all the more fun. On Billion Dollar Babies Alice Cooper mock everything. They attack the establishment and blow raspberries at the counterculture. “Mary Ann” sounds like they’re melting a Paul McCartney seven-inch, and “Generation Landslide” is a wry parody of Bob Dylan. On the latter Furnier mimics the folk singer’s delivery and wordplay as he describes “militant mothers hiding in the basement/Using pots and pans as their shields and their helmets/Molotov milk bottles heaved from pink highchairs.” Culminating in a cutting harmonica solo, it’s a generational anthem for a generation sick of generational anthems.

The biggest hit from Billion Dollar Babies suggests Alice Cooper’s greatest target for scorn was themselves. “No More Mr Nice Guy” has been so thoroughly absorbed into classic rock radio that you might even forget that it’s by Alice Cooper – or that it’s really savvy and really funny. It’s about rebellion, but not the romanticised counterculture of the 1960s. Furnier saw a grimmer, lonelier angst in this new decade, and he also saw the ravaging effect of adolescent hormones on America’s youth. “No More Mr Nice Guy” is a wicked coming-of-age tale, with Furnier playing the part of a kid suddenly at odds with the adult world. That title phrase may be commonly used as a threat, but any menace Furnier represents is hollow: the song ends with the former Mr Nice Guy getting clocked by Reverend Smith.

Just months after Billion Dollar Babies, Alice Cooper released the strained Muscle Of Love, a too-quick follow-up that is best known for its bulky cardboard packaging. Furnier left the group and took their identity with him, legally changing his name to Alice Cooper before releasing his solo debut. This album, then, while cementing their status as hitmakers, represents the end of an era for Alice Cooper the band and the man, neither of which would reach this peak of weirdness again. Fifty years later, it’s lost none of its morbid magnetism.

EXTRAS: The ’73 live show shows the band in their true elements, but it was already included on the 2001 reissue. The single versions are new, but largely redundant. 5/10

Perfect Circle

Stephen Deusner
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Perfect Circle

As Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy announce plans to tour R.E.M.'s Fables Of The Reconstruction next year, we revisit one of their shows from this year when they celebrated R.E.M.'s beloved debut Murmur in the band's hometown of Athena, Georgia...

As Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy announce plans to tour R.E.M.‘s Fables Of The Reconstruction next year, we revisit one of their shows from this year when they celebrated R.E.M.’s beloved debut Murmur in the band’s hometown of Athena, Georgia…

On a Thursday night in February at the famous 40 Watt club in Athens, Georgia, R.E.M. fans got to witness the closest thing we may ever see to a full-band reunion. As actor Michael Shannon and guitarist Jason Narducy brought their touring celebration of 1984’s Murmur to R.E.M.’s hometown, members of the original band began joining the the fray, until Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe were sharing a stage for the first time in 17 years.

DAVID BOWIE IS ON THE COVER OF THE LATEST UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

“Bill asked us if he could play piano on ‘Perfect Circle,’ which he does on the record,” says Narducy. “And when I saw ‘Pretty Persuasion’ coming up on the setlist, I asked our stage manager to see if he could find Mike Mills and invite him up, since that song has such heavy backing vocals. He jumped up and kept on jumping up.” Buck, meanwhile, had been at the club since soundcheck, giving Narducy a few pointers. “Even when he was on-stage with us, he’s showing me these little things as he was playing on the record. It was very touching for a massive fan like myself. I still don’t think I’ve even grasped it, honestly.”

Finally, at the end of the night, Stipe jumped on-stage to thank the band and the excited crowd, completing the quartet. “It’s an honour to hear the songs so fresh, live in a room again,” Stipe tells Uncut later. “Since I was always singing them, I never got to hear them.”

The reunion was the unexpected culmination of Shannon and Narducy’s tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of R.E.M.’s legendary debut, with the acclaimed actor and the veteran sideman covering Murmur in its entirety. “It’s not a tribute band,” says Narducy. “We’re not using the exact same equipment or dressing up like them. It’s a pretty weird thing that seems to be working.” The band is more like a theater troupe using the album as a script; rather than recreate it, they reinterpret it each night, with Shannon bringing a more punk-derived vocal and Narducy turning Buck’s guitar riffs inside out. “I was already in love with this band, but then I went deeper into their catalogue and learned the songs inside out,” says Narducy. “Now I’m an even bigger fan.”

The pair both latched on to R.E.M. as teenagers in the 1980s, discovering them via Document and then working backwards as they moved forward with their own creative careers. After playing in the influential bands Verboten and Verbow, Narducy has lately been touring with Bob Mould and Sunny Day Real Estate. And many of Shannon’s roles involve music and musicians, including his recent performance as George Jones in the Showtime series George & Tammy. Their partnership has roots in Chicago’s anything-goes music scene, when they met ten years ago to cover The Velvet Underground & Nico with local alt.country singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks. Since then, they’ve done similar sets devoted to The Cars, The Smiths, Neil Young and The Modern Lovers.

Of all the albums they’ve covered together, none has provoked such a strong reaction from fans – or from the original artists – as Murmur. Even before they coaxed their heroes back on-stage, they were playing to some of their biggest and most excited crowds yet. “There’s something about early R.E.M. that has really struck a chord,” says Narducy. “They were one of the biggest bands in the world, but they’ve maintained this grace and creativity that is so rare.”

REM are on the cover of Ultimate Record Collection: The 500 Greatest Albums of the 1990s, which is on sale now – order your copy here

Introducing the 500 Greatest Albums of the 1990s…Ranked!

John Robinson
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Introducing the 500 Greatest Albums of the 1990s…Ranked!

1991, according to the title of a documentary about Sonic Youth, was “The Year Punk Broke”. What they meant by this was that 1991 was finally when punk – the traditional music of abrasion, alienation and catharsis – finally became commercially successful. It was a strange turn of events, as if this wasn't in the first place an absurd expectation for such music.

1991, according to the title of a documentary about Sonic Youth, was “The Year Punk Broke”. What they meant by this was that 1991 was finally when punk – the traditional music of abrasion, alienation and catharsis – finally became commercially successful. It was a strange turn of events, as if this wasn’t in the first place an absurd expectation for such music.

In truth, while exciting music was certainly being made by Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Mudhoney and Babes In Toyland and others featured in Dave Markey’s documentary, the majority of the actual breaking was being done by Nirvana. As Stephen Deusner writes in his review of Nevermind in this new magazine, other artists launched careers, reinvigorated genres and sold more records in 1991, but no-one had quite the cultural influence of Nirvana. 

True enough, the bands of Britpop – by some reckonings the other dominant genre of the decade – made lesser incursions overseas, but for huge numbers of inland youth the successes of these bands marked a breaking of their own: a victory over the imagined gatekeepers of the pop charts, the ones keeping Take That at the top. If in the previous decade success might have meant the fleeting appearance of The Smiths or the Happy Mondays on Top Of The Pops now Blur and Oasis were almost literally slugging it out at the actual top of the charts. 

Clubbable scenes masking palpable tensions. Artistic/personal success as a source of existential crisis – there were clearly ironies at play in the decade’s music beyond those you might see in a Sleeper video. Maybe the paranoid sorrows of Portishead, Tricky and Massive Attack – “Trip-hop” as we called it then – wore the decade’s true colours most boldly. 

Bobby Gillespie saw it all happen. As leader of Primal Scream, in the 1990s he moved from dance into rhythm and blues and gospel, hard rock and into dub, all the while rising above genre: the better to pick out the best in all music. Splendidly isolated as Primal Scream might have been, Bobby can still take some pride in having broken down some barriers that helped others succeed. 

“We opened up a section of youth culture or indie music to go bigger and I think it kind of set the ground for Britpop,” he tells us. “There’s already an audience waiting there – people who had liked The Stone Roses, Primal Scream, the Mondays or The La’s. So when Blur, Suede, Oasis, Pulp and stuff came in there was an audience there. Those bands got really big, they became so much bigger than us. For a while it was a phenomenon.”

Bobby himself, however, confesses he may not have been paying much attention.  

“I’d have been listening to Tricky at the same time,” he says, “that’s where my tastes were.”

Enjoy the magazine. Get one here

Paul Weller – The Lighthouse, Poole, April 4, 24

Stephen Dalton
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Paul Weller – The Lighthouse, Poole, April 4, 24

Paul Weller is not going gently into that good night. On the cusp of turning 66 – the title of his upcoming album – the ever-changing mod-rock godfather remains an edgy, bristling, wired presence onstage; still fired by youthful belligerence despite that sleek silver swoop of hair. Kicking off a short British tour in Poole, Weller keeps his stage banter genial but spare, giving little away. A Palestinian flag hangs behind him, a reminder of his long legacy of political statements. With barely a lull across two frenetic hours, he plays even gentle folk-pop ballads like he is itching for a fight. 

Paul Weller is not going gently into that good night. On the cusp of turning 66 – the title of his upcoming album – the ever-changing mod-rock godfather remains an edgy, bristling, wired presence onstage; still fired by youthful belligerence despite that sleek silver swoop of hair. Kicking off a short British tour in Poole, Weller keeps his stage banter genial but spare, giving little away. A Palestinian flag hangs behind him, a reminder of his long legacy of political statements. With barely a lull across two frenetic hours, he plays even gentle folk-pop ballads like he is itching for a fight. 

DAVID BOWIE IS ON THE COVER OF THE LATEST UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

Powered by a muscular six-piece band, including two drummers, this Poole show mostly sticks within Weller’s boisterous, high-decibel comfort zone. There is doubtless an element of playing to his geezer-rock heartland here: the public gets what the public wants. But all this burly clobbering risks underselling the subtle beauty of songs like the soulful, intricate “Mayfly”or the wafting, perfumed “Above The Clouds”. Even so, there are softer sonic textures in the mix, notably when honking tenor sax player Jacko Peake switches to pastoral flute and plaintive melodica on more introspective tracks like “Glad Times”. Weller may be naturally pugnacious, but manages to rein himself in for a smouldering “You Do Something To Me” and a broody, anguished “Wild Wood”. 

This tour is also a tentative live teaser for Weller’s 66 album, due in May. Continuing his late-career purple patch, his 17th solo collection is a classy affair awash with grainy-voiced, sumptuously arranged, Albarn-meets-Bacharach balladry. We only get three new cuts tonight, including the revved-up bluesy stomper “Jumble Queen” and the wistful rumination “Nothing”. The sole familiar inclusion is recent single “Soul Wandering”, a hymn of spiritual hunger built around twin acoustic guitars and Peake’s pealing saxophone licks. It’s lovely, graceful, autumnal work.

Weller has always had more colours in his musical paintbox than most of his one-dimensional acolytes ever seem to realise, but his recent run of albums have been his most kaleidoscopic yet, leaning heavily into orchestral lushness, experimental soundscapes, wide-ranging collaborations and increasingly overt Bowie homages. He named one of his sons Bowie, after all, which is both sweet and hilarious. There are certainly Bowie-ish moments in this set, from the glam-adjacent bombast of “Hung Up” to the gorgeous lullaby “Rockets”, a dreamy cosmic voyage from South London suburbia to the stars, a regular live highlight since its 2020 release. 

As ever, Weller is stingy with the Jam and Style Council tunes, throwing in just two of each, three of which have been live fixtures for years. An evergreen classic of Britpop social realism, “That’s Entertainment” never fails to tug the collective heartstrings, and predictably becomes the biggest mass singalong of the evening. Likewise “Start!”, wearing its brazen Beatle-isms proudly, sends a surge of adrenaline through the crowd before the group switch almost seamlessly into Weller’s similarity terse “Peacock Suit”.

From the Style Council years, a Springsteen-sized big-band arrangement of “Shout To The Top!” is a pure dopamine rush, and “Headstart To Happiness” a giddy early taste of summer. Weller’s steadfast refusal to become a greatest-hits heritage act feels commendable on one hand, but obstinately self-limiting on the other. Imagine having a dozen killer anthems the calibre of “Going Underground”, “Man In The Corner Shop” or “Walls Come Tumbling Down!” in your back pocket and choosing not to deploy any of them during a two-hour, 29-song marathon.

All the same, this was an impressively rich and high-energy performance, a banquet of music from a spiky elder statesmen who remains rightly wary of embracing his national treasure status. Weller’s stylistic range may have broadened with age, but this roaring, ear-bashing show suggests he will not be mellowing any time soon.

Setlist – The Lighthouse, Poole, April 4, 2024

Rip The Pages Up
Nova
Cosmic Fringes
Soul Wandering
That Pleasure
All The Pictures On The Wall
Above The Clouds
Stanley Road
Glad Times
Village
Fat Pop
More
Hung Up
Shout To The Top!
Jumble Queen
Nothing
You Do Something To Me
That’s Entertainment
Wild Wood
Friday Street
Start!
Peacock Suit
————–
Headstart For Happiness
Amongst Butterflies
Old Father Tyme
Broken Stones
Mayfly
Rockets
————–
The Changingman

Hear Beechwood Sparks’ “Torn In Two”

Michael Bonner
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Hear Beechwood Sparks’ “Torn In Two”

Beechwood Sparks return with their first new music for 12 years. You can hear "Torn In Two" below.

Beechwood Sparks return with their first new music for 12 years. You can hear “Torn In Two” below.

DAVID BOWIE IS ON THE COVER OF THE LATEST UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

“Torn In Two” is taken from their upcoming studio album, Across The River Of Stars, which is released on July 19 by Curation Records.

Their first album since 2012’s The Tarnished Gold, Across The River Of Stars has been produced by Black Crowes‘ Chris Robinson.

Across The River Of Stars will be available on vinyl, CD and DD formats. You can pre-order a copy here. The tracklisting is:

My Love, My Love
Torn in Two
Falling Forever
Gentle Samurai
Gem
Faded Glory
Dolphin Dance
High Noon
Wild Swans

Nico – The Marble Index/Desertshore (reissues, 1968, ’70)

Richard Williams
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Nico – The Marble Index/Desertshore (reissues, 1968, ’70)

At once terminally forbidding and inexhaustibly alluring, Nico’s The Marble Index belongs among those ultra-modernist works that stand aside from their art without regard for the consequences. Like James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake or Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, it seems destined to offer an eternal challenge even to those who choose to fall under its obscure spell. This latest reissue, coupled with Desertshore, its successor/sibling, demonstrates that five and a half decades have failed to dent a vital component of its greatness: an obstinate refusal to explain itself or to succumb to the pattern whereby the avant-garde is absorbed and neutralised by the mainstream. There may never come a time when The Marble Index will not be avant-garde.

At once terminally forbidding and inexhaustibly alluring, Nico’s The Marble Index belongs among those ultra-modernist works that stand aside from their art without regard for the consequences. Like James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake or Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, it seems destined to offer an eternal challenge even to those who choose to fall under its obscure spell. This latest reissue, coupled with Desertshore, its successor/sibling, demonstrates that five and a half decades have failed to dent a vital component of its greatness: an obstinate refusal to explain itself or to succumb to the pattern whereby the avant-garde is absorbed and neutralised by the mainstream. There may never come a time when The Marble Index will not be avant-garde.

DAVID BOWIE IS ON THE COVER OF THE LATEST UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

After Nico’s departure from The Velvet Underground in 1967 and the baroque-folk mish-mash of her debut solo album, Chelsea Girl, it represented a complete self-reinvention, jettisoning not just the reliance on other (male) songwriters but the version of the look of a classic ’60s blonde – the Berlin to Catherine Deneuve’s Paris or Julie Christie’s London – that had brought her work as a model and the attention of lovers from Alain Delon to Brian Jones.

Time spent with Jim Morrison, whom she seems to have met while in Jones’s company at the Monterey Pop Festival, persuaded her to begin writing songs, their lyrics – mostly in her second language – influenced by the Romantic and Symbolist poets. With The Marble Index, its title borrowed from a line by Wordsworth, she emerged as, in the words of Leonard Cohen, one of the few “really original talents in the whole racket”.

Nico’s admirers have always heard the music they want to hear. For the majority of them, that’s the anti-glamour of a massively indifferent Gothic existentialism with its roots in the bombed-out despair of wartime Berlin, nurtured in a darkly glittering artistic milieu and fueled by dangerous drugs. Jac Holzman, who signed her to his label in 1968, remembered Frazier Mohawk (formerly Barry Friedman), the man he commissioned to produce her Elektra album, saying that her songs weren’t something you listened to but a hole you fell into.

Holzman hadn’t liked Chelsea Girl but he liked what he heard now: “Nico had a fine contralto voice and a vibrato that pulsed softly but rapidly. Most vibrato bothered me. Hers didn’t.” Curiously, he heard in her music an echo of Jean Ritchie, the dulcimer-playing folk singer from Kentucky’s Cumberland mountains whose own debut album had been the label’s second release, back in 1952.

Holzman and Mohawk hired John Cale, her former Velvets colleague and another ex-lover, to arrange and play on The Marble Index, giving him only four days in a Los Angeles studio but free rein to surround Nico’s songs and the drone of her portable harmonium with all the instruments and effects that took his fancy. From the melting music box of the 59-second instrumental opener, “Prelude”, and the silvery dissonances of the following “Lawns Of Dawn”, the sound-pictures proceed to “Frozen Warnings”, where Cale’s layered violas sound as though their strings are being vibrated by a chill wind from the steppes, and “Evening Of Light”, in which his clanging bells and jagged bowed bass accentuate the imperturbability of Nico’s delivery.

There are two extra tracks on a limited seven-inch, both first heard on a 1991 reissue. The first is the gorgeous “Roses In The Snow”, a folk song from a different world, ebbing and flowing in some strange half-light. The second is “Nibelungen”, its title referencing a German epic poem from the 12th century. Here Nico’s voice is heard by itself, providing evidence in her tone, phrasing and vibrato of the expressive control she had acquired. Given that the original release of The Marble Index contained a mere 31 minutes of music, it’s mildly astonishing that room wasn’t found for these two exquisite tracks. But then Nico generally knew what she wanted, and the original eight-song album certainly conveys a sense of distilled perfection. Mohawk later claimed the credit for that, suggesting that he and the engineer had edited it down in the final mix to what he thought was enough for any listener to take on.

Its startlingly plain black and white cover, using a bleached-out Guy Webster portrait photograph in which the singer’s helmet of dark hair and emphatic cheekbones frame an expression of enigmatic challenge, could hardly have demonstrated a clearer break from her previous publicity shots. In itself it suggests a lack of compromise and the absence of a desire to ingratiate.

While happy to have it on his label alongside such other cutting-edge artists as Love, The Doors and Tim Buckley, Holzman showed no interest in a follow-up to an album that had sold only a handful of copies. For the next couple of years Nico drifted between New York, London and Paris, beginning intense relationships with the film director Philippe Garrel and with heroin, the latter influencing much of the rest of her life. But in 1970 the producer Joe Boyd, now working for Warner Brothers in Los Angeles after starting the careers of Fairport Convention, Nick Drake and others in the UK, persuaded his boss, Mo Ostin, to let him put Nico and Cale back together for a reprise.

The result was Desertshore, recorded in London: a more lyrical, less shocking album, but one full of Cale’s imagination as well as songs inspired by Brian Jones (“Janitor Of Lunacy”), Andy Warhol (“The Falconer”), her recently deceased mother (“Mütterlein”) and Ari Delon, her eight-year-old son (“My Only Child”). Ari himself is heard singing “Le Petit Chevalier”, from one of Garrel’s films. In a sign of Nico’s increasing skill and ambition, some of the songs even have second sections.

This time, Cale’s classical training is more in evidence. The medieval trumpets that decorate “Mütterlein” and “All That Is My Own” are the most startlingly vivid instrumental touch, contrasted by an angelic choir and a piano that rumbles like a bombing raid on the former and by what sounds like music for a Felliniesque carnival on the latter, which also features Nico’s soft-spoken recitative, a contrast with her powerful singing. “My Only Child” is performed mostly a cappella by Nico with a small choir. There is a stark pathos in the piano ballad “Afraid”, which contains the line – “you are beautiful and you are alone” – that provided the title for a recent biography by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike.

Like its immediate predecessor, Desertshore enjoyed negligible commercial success – certainly not enough to persuade Warner Brothers to offer her another album. Neither did it achieve the same critical status, although some listeners found it easier to appreciate, touched by the feelings of loss and regret that come through much more clearly than the emotions so opaquely expressed in The Marble Index.

There would be a final part of what turned out to be the Nico/Cale trilogy: The End, recorded for Island in 1974 and containing the version of The Doors’ title track with which she paid homage to Morrison, under whose influence, during their affair in 1967, she had begun to write the songs that refashioned her image, deepened her mystery and secured her legend. With The Marble Index and Desertshore, it forms a sequence unlike anything else in popular music, unclassifiable and inimitable but the inspiration for much that followed.

Ride – Interplay

Stephen Troussé
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Ride – Interplay

Bliss it was to be alive in 1990, but to be young was very heaven. When Ride first stormed out of the gates in that shoegaze spring, they had an irresistible coltish energy to them. The presiding eminences of the time (My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, House Of Love and The Stone Roses) had all already been around the block a few times, and made their youthful missteps away from the public eye. But the Oxford four-piece emerged blinking into the immediate glare of public acclaim, knocking out immaculate EP after EP like a teenage Robbie Fowler racking up the hat-tricks. No second thoughts, no calculation, just the sheer thrill of a moment they seized quite brilliantly.

Bliss it was to be alive in 1990, but to be young was very heaven. When Ride first stormed out of the gates in that shoegaze spring, they had an irresistible coltish energy to them. The presiding eminences of the time (My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, House Of Love and The Stone Roses) had all already been around the block a few times, and made their youthful missteps away from the public eye. But the Oxford four-piece emerged blinking into the immediate glare of public acclaim, knocking out immaculate EP after EP like a teenage Robbie Fowler racking up the hat-tricks. No second thoughts, no calculation, just the sheer thrill of a moment they seized quite brilliantly.

DAVID BOWIE IS ON THE COVER OF THE LATEST UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

Did the immediacy of the rise overwhelm them? In retrospect they seem like a classic case of a band that stalled on The Difficult Third Album. They were keen to move on from the movement that threatened to define them (driving “Leave Them All Behind” into the Top 10 was a swaggering statement of intent), uncertain of exactly where to chart their course, and swept up in the gathering Oasis storm that briefly raised and then capsized their label.

Thirty years later, Ride are undoubtedly on a more even keel. Since the reunion in 2014 they’ve successfully launched two well-received albums, reconnected with a burgeoning audience and stylishly updated their signature sound without pandering to the whims of TikTok. But is a third album any easier the second time around? Is the point of the band – nostalgia fix for the festival circuit, or more urgent, ongoing artistic concern – still at stake?

What’s clear is that, in contrast to 1994’s Carnival Of Light, Ride are very much on the same page. From its title on, Interplay reminds us that they were always a terrific, a four-piece without any dead wood. Not only did they have fringes, tunes and chops of Mark Gardener and Andy Bell (Andy serving time as the bassist in Oasis, although presumably welcomed by his bank manager, still feels like something of a musical indignity, like a Grand National winner giving rides to kids on Skegness beach). But in Steve Queralt and Loz Colbert they had a genuinely useful rhythm section. You can count the number of distinctive British indie drummers on the fingers of one hand, but from the moment they released “Dreams Burn Down” it was clear that Loz was in that company.

It kicks off with “Peace Sign”, quite shamelessly aimed at the festival moshpits. Just as The Byrds were able to make Dylan palatable for Top 40 radio, Ride were somehow able to translate the sublime roar of My Bloody Valentine into toothsome pop songs (they can still pull it off as they show on the delicious “Portland Rocks”). Here it feels like they’ve perfected the same trick for The War On Drugs. It’s quite a trick, somehow distilling all the epic yearning of an Adam Granduciel album into a pealing, effervescent four-minute anthem.

For the rest of Interplay, Ride are very much searching for The Big Sound, a kind of widescreen ’80s ambition they were too indie cool to acknowledge back when they started out. They’ve talked about the example of Tears For Fears and the U2 of The Unforgettable Fire. But there’s a hefty amount of New Order (the touching, twangling “Last Frontier”) and Depeche Mode (on the hurtling “I Came To See The Wreck”) in there too, as though Ride are deliberately drawing upon bands who’ve shown how it’s possible to mature and thrive into their fourth and even fifth decades together.

The heart of the record, sequenced as though to open Side Two of a vinyl album, is “Last Night I Went Somewhere To Dream”. It’s a tune that began as an almost throwaway Loz riff, but grew into what feels like a manifesto for the reborn band, a twangling wide-eyed psychedelic reel. The lyrics – always, to be fair, the band’s Achilles’ heel – talk of “the wheel of suffering” turning “with diminishing returns”, but there’s such an unaffected earnest joy in the singing and playing, its reminiscent of The Byrds’ “Going Back”, a heartfelt invocation of uncontrived innocence.

The album closes with “Yesterday Is Only A Song”, a kind of soft and dreamy Pink Floyd coda, except with all the quiet desperation and bitterness replaced with a hard-won acceptance and even optimism. Here and on the best tunes of Interplay, Ride feel wonderfully, unexpectedly, younger than yesterday.

I’m New Here – Oisin Leech

Rob Hughes
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I’m New Here – Oisin Leech

“It was this mixture of total excitement and total fear,” says Oisin Leech of his decision to make a solo album. “I had no idea what was going to happen. But when we’d finished, Steve Gunn turned to me and said: ‘I think you’ve done something special here. There’s not many people making records like this.’”

“It was this mixture of total excitement and total fear,” says Oisin Leech of his decision to make a solo album. “I had no idea what was going to happen. But when we’d finished, Steve Gunn turned to me and said: ‘I think you’ve done something special here. There’s not many people making records like this.’”

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Produced by Gunn, Cold Sea is Leech’s first venture outside of The Lost Brothers, the folk duo he formed with Mark McCausland in 2008. It finds the singer-songwriter reaching into his ancestral roots for an exquisite set of lambent folk songs that reflect the harsh beauty of his ocean-facing surroundings. Recorded in an old schoolhouse in Malin, at Ireland’s northern tip, Cold Sea maps exile, love, loss and healing via erudite guitar and judicious use of synths and strings. Gunn is a discreet presence too, as are guests M. Ward, Dylan’s upright bassist Tony Garnier and bouzouki veteran Dónal Lunny, co-founder of Planxty and The Bothy Band.

“The album is inspired by that landscape,” says Leech. “My mum and her family come from Donegal, where we made the record. It’s almost like it’s full of longing for travelling from Dublin, where I live, to arrive up north. But even though it’s a majestic place to be, there’s this underlying sadness and darkness that’s part of Irish folk music. A lot of my favourite songwriters – Townes Van Zandt, Fred Neil, Nick Drake – have that sense of melancholy.”

The brooding drama of Cold Sea feels very natural. Leech studied English literature and theatre at Dublin’s Trinity College in the late ’90s, igniting a passion that flares into his art. His songwriting talent first came to the fore in The 747s, the Liverpool-based quartet fronted by Leech during the 2000s. They cut one album – 2006’s Zampano, released the same year as he guested on Arctic Monkeys’ “Baby I’m Yours” – before Leech moved on to The Lost Brothers.

At one point, Leech’s wanderlust took him to Naples, where he’d busk on the street. “If we made enough money, we’d jump the ferry to the island of Procida to go swimming and play football,” he recalls. “I was such a big Joe Strummer fan that the other lads nicknamed me Joey Procida.” Returning to Ireland, Leech kept the name and launched a folk night in Navan.

The Joey Procida Folk Club has since hosted the likes of Gunn, Lisa O’Neill, Andy Irvine and Willy Mason. It also provided the platform for what organically became Cold Sea. “I usually begin the night by playing a couple of songs,” Leech explains. “So I thought I‘d better start writing some, just to play on stage. I ended up spending months writing. I wasn’t on any big mission, but as the songs built up, a friend of mine told me they felt like a new soundworld.”

Gunn was his first choice as producer. Upon hearing a couple of tracks, the American singer-guitarist didn’t need a second invite. “The thing that makes Oisin’s music special is his poetic simplicity,” says Gunn. “Working with him was really inspiring.”

“Steve was a wonderful touchstone,” says Leech, “reassuring my instincts about not overcooking the cake and getting the spacious sound.” It also proved serendipitous. Gunn was also eager to explore familial links to the Donegal area, his great-grandmother having emigrated from there. While The Lost Brothers are still very much a going concern, Leech is revelling in his new creative space. “I’m finding it really fascinating to sit down at the canvas by myself. It’s challenging and rewarding at the same time. These songs are incredibly personal to me. They come from deep within, but I hope other people get something from them too.”

Cold Sea is available now from Outside Music / Tremone Records

Total Blam-Blam! Inside this month’s free Uncut CD

Tom Pinnock
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Total Blam-Blam! Inside this month’s free Uncut CD

Jessica Pratt, Michael Head, Khruangbin and more appear on our latest free CD

Jessica Pratt, Michael Head, Khruangbin and more appear on our latest free CD

All copies of the May 2024 issue of Uncut come with a free, 15-track CD – Total Blam-Blam – that showcases the wealth of great new music on offer this month, from Jessica Pratt, Michael Head and Khruangbin to Mint Mile, Gospelbrach and Arthur Melo. Now dive in…

DAVID BOWIE IS ON THE COVER OF THE LATEST UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

1 MINT MILE
Sunbreaking

Silkworm’s Tim Midyett returns with the second Mint Mile album, Roughrider, mixing up the sounds of his old band with the ragged swing of Pavement and Crazy Horse, and some gorgeous chamber accompaniment.

2 JESSICA PRATT
World On A String

Here In The Pitch, the long-awaited follow-up to 2019’s Quiet Signs, is our Album Of The Month on page XX. Here’s a highlight of this seductive, velveteen folk record, with Pratt’s strummed nylon-string acoustic and echoing voice gradually joined by a haze of Mellotron synths, keys and sparse drums. Truly magical.

3 MICHAEL HEAD & THE RED ELASTIC BAND
Ambrosia

Another masterclass in songwriting here from Michael Head, and a highlight of his new album Loophole, produced once again by Bill Ryder-Jones. Following 2017’s Adios Senor Pussycat and 2022’s Dear Scott, he’s on a roll, and has even found time to pen a memoir, Ciao Ciao Bambino.

4 KHRUANGBIN
Pon Pón

Laura Lee, Mark Speer and DJ Johnson have distilled their potent sound down to its essence on their new album A La Sala. It’s a retro-tinged exploration of the globe’s most funkily psychedelic sounds, with the result going down as smoothly as a sunset cocktail.

5 GOSPELBRACH
Nothin’ But A Fool

Brent Rademaker is well-known for his work with the brilliant Beachwood Sparks, but for the last decade he’s led this artful Californian troupe. New LP Wiggle Your Fingers is touted as the band’s final album, so best get onto their classic Paisley Underground sounds before it’s too late.

6 SCOTT H BIRHAM
Death Don’t Have No Mercy

‘The Dirty Old One Man Band’ from Texas has been making roots records a little under the radar for a while now – but with The One & Only Scott H Biram he deserves to be far better known. Here he is weaving a bluesy spell with just an old classical guitar.

7 PYE CORNER AUDIO
Counting The Hours

Martin Jenkins habitually releases a host of records on different labels, and his albums on Ghost Box always seem to be his strangest and most conceptual: The Endless Echo, then, examines the nature of time in claustrophobic, ominous style, drum machines, drone clusters and synth arpeggios painting a widescreen, dystopian picture.

8 ARAB STRAP
You’re Not There

Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton return, reassuringly, as bitter and scathing as ever on their new album I’m Totally Fine With It 👍 Don’t Give A Fuck Anymore 👍. Building on 2021’s As Days Get Dark, it’s a brilliant amalgam of dark electronica, raging post-rock and wickedly funny spoken-word.

9 BIG|BRAVE
Canon In Canon

It’s hard to believe this Quebec trio started as a folk group, such is the ferocious noise they create now. On their seventh album, A Chaos Of Flowers, their sound is closest to latter-day Low, crushing distortion mingling with minimalist, hushed melodies.

10 ARTHUR MELO
Saídas

Though still in his twenties, this singer, guitarist and songwriter from the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte looks back to his country’s pop music of the ’70s. This track, a highlight of his latest album Mirantes Emocionais, pays tribute to his hero Caetano Veloso with a swooning ballad that wouldn’t have been out of place on 1972’s Transa.

11 IRON & WINE
All In Good Time (feat. Fiona Apple)

Sam Beam is back, and this time he’s brought Fiona Apple along to help: this cut comes from his new album Light Verse, just the latest in his impressive catalogue. Beam talks Uncut through his records in our Album By Album feature this issue.

12 JAMES ELKINGTON & NATHAN SALSBURG
Death Wishes To Kill

The two guitarists are often found working together, but their new album All Gist marks their first duo record since 2015’s Ambsace. It’s an entrancing, varied record, their interlocking picking occasionally joined by additional textures, such as the strings and percussion that surface here.

13 POKEY LAFARGE
Sister André

The artist born Andrew Heissler has been spreading his old-time good news for almost 20 years now, and this fine track from his new LP Rhumba Country is another example of his way with updating the sounds of yesteryear: ragtime, gospel, blues, country and rock’n’roll.

14 AMEN DUNES
Boys

Now resident in Woodstock, New York, Damon McMahon has expanded his outsider folk sound with harsh electronics and some avant-rock grit on Death Jokes. Check out the end of “Boys” and you’ll hear manipulated samples taken from all manner of sources, a consistent feature of the album.

15 CAMERA OBSCURE
We’re Going To Make It In A Man’s World

It’s been over a decade since Tracyanne Campbell and co last released an album, but Look To the East, Look To The West is a fitting return. The Glaswegians don’t mess with the formula too much, and the result is an autumnal, bittersweet blast of melody, with heartbreak and disappointment not far behind.

An Audience With… John Sinclair

Sam Richards
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An Audience With… John Sinclair

It’s almost 60 years since John Sinclair co-founded The Detroit Artists Workshop, hoping to stir up some radical jazz action; a terrific new compilation on Strut is testament to his efforts in that field. But by 1968, Sinclair had achieved greater notoriety as manager of the incendiary rock group MC5, affiliating them with his White Panther Party and proposing a “total assault on the culture by any means necessary, including rock’n’roll, dope, and fucking in the streets”.

It’s almost 60 years since John Sinclair co-founded The Detroit Artists Workshop, hoping to stir up some radical jazz action; a terrific new compilation on Strut is testament to his efforts in that field. But by 1968, Sinclair had achieved greater notoriety as manager of the incendiary rock group MC5, affiliating them with his White Panther Party and proposing a “total assault on the culture by any means necessary, including rock’n’roll, dope, and fucking in the streets”.

DAVID BOWIE IS ON THE COVER OF THE LATEST UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

Sinclair spent two years in prison on trumped-up marijuana charges before a freedom rally headlined by John Lennon and Yoko Ono hastened his release. Since then, he’s recorded more than 20 albums of jazzy beat poetry, as well as almost 1,000 shows for Radio Free Amsterdam. But now he’s back in downtown Detroit, feeling glummer than ever about the prospects of cultural revolution.

“They’re bringing in new white people!” he complains. Gentrification? “Call it what you will. Ugliness is what I call it. They aren’t doing anything for the black people who went through years of awfulness. This used to be a dope area, now it’s all white people with big cars. I preferred it when the whores and the dope fiends were here, they had more character!”

What was the first record you heard that made you think that music might be the ideal vehicle for social change?

Phil Lister, via email

No idea. I listened to music to listen to music, I didn’t give a fuck about any of that. I was 14 years old, what did I know about social change? [I liked] Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson. When I was 15, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard came out, rock’n’roll started. I was a kid, I loved it. Everything was changing with the music, you know? It didn’t have any external purpose. Just by virtue of its existence it was changing the world.

As a jazz cat, what first attracted you to the MC5?

Brian Lawson, Dublin

They sounded so good. I saw them on Labor Day Weekend 1966, at the Michigan State Fair. Most shows in those days, the band came on in their matching outfits and their matching hairdos, and they lip-synced to their record. But there was a disc jockey called Jerry Goodwin who brought actual bands into the State Fairgrounds, and that’s when I heard the MC5. I had no intention [of managing them], I just wanted to hear them every time they played – I was a fan.

MC5’s outdoor concert ahead of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago was meant to “redirect youth culture and music toward political ends”. How successful do you think that was?

Joe Thomas, Penarth

​​That wasn’t really the idea; the idea was to play some music. I know it sounds radical, but that was what we were about: playing music and moving people with the music. It was several years later when we got involved in the political aspect, and that was because of the police attacking us for being marijuana addicts. Constantly busting in your house, taking your shit. They made life miserable – they put me in prison twice! Was there a political mission at the outset? No, we were a band. The fact that all other bands don’t do anything except get rich doesn’t make [MC5] less of a band. They wanted to do something, they wanted to make things better, simple as that. I liked what they were doing and I wanted to help them.

What did being a White Panther involve?

Julia McFadden, Cornwall

Putting on a button. It had a white panther on it and it was purple. If you wore one of those, you were a White Panther. If you didn’t, you weren’t. We had no organisation, it was an idea. It wasn’t a political party, it was a hippie commune. What was our mission? To get high, fuck, have a good time, write poetry, make some music, dance. We weren’t bothering anybody. What we did, we went and played and people got ecstatic and had a great time. So they came back the next time and told all their friends.

How did you survive in prison?

Mike Fawcus, via email

How did I survive? I went to bed, I got up in the morning, I had breakfast… Why didn’t I blow my brains out, you mean? I didn’t have a gun! Every moment, millions of people throughout the world are surviving their time in prison. You just get up and go through another day until they let you go, the criminals that have you there.

What did you think of Abbie Hoffman coming on-stage at Woodstock during The Who’s set [to protest your imprisonment]?

Paul, Worthing, via email

I appreciated it. He was trying to help me, he was a good friend of mine. But he was on acid – he didn’t have any idea of what was going on around him. Instead of going out in between the sets, he went out during their set and took the mic away and started talking during their song. I would have blown him off the stage too. I would have beat his ass! You don’t do that.

How did it feel to learn that John Lennon had written a song about you?

Raj Sinhara, via email

It felt good. Not his best song! But I have to thank him for getting me out of prison. I was there for two-and-a-half years and then John Lennon came to Ann Arbor and three days later I was released.

What broke your tight connection with MC5? Why didn’t they headline the Michigan rally for your freedom?

Jaime Guerra, Spain

They fired me! They fired me, Jesse [Brother JC] Crawford and Bob Rudnick [MC5 propagandist] at one meeting. Said they didn’t wanna be like this any more and they didn’t need us. A month later, I was in prison, mostly because of my association with them. So you can imagine how I felt. It was a mistake in my book, but it was obviously something they thought was important to do, ’cause they did it. I thought their second album sounded like The Monkees. That was all produced by Jon Landau, who had the new Monkees, Bruce Springsteen, after that. He tried to make them sound like Bruce Springsteen, when they’re the opposite of Bruce Springsteen. So it was a failure. I never reconciled with the MC5 per se. Wayne Kramer and I are very good friends. He went to prison also, then he understood how I felt. Rob Tyner I never became friends with again, or Fred Smith. I can’t stand Dennis Thompson. The MC5 were a great band, but they let people talk them out of their greatness and they became a mediocre band. Then they sold out without getting paid – you got to really be stupid to do that.

MC5 are often described as ‘proto-punk’. What did you make of the actual punk movement?

Mary O’Keefe, via email

I thought it ate shit like a dog. I hated it, still do. It’s not about music, it’s about getting rich without learning how to play. You listen to The Clash, they sound like The Monkees, they don’t sound like no MC5. “Should I Stay Or Should I Go”, what kind of song is that? The Sex Pistols is just a joke. But they got a million, so it wasn’t so funny. I resent the MC5 being identified as punk rock. We had nothing to do with punks. In our day, a punk was a snivelling, cowardly, lying, rat-fucking motherfucker that told the police on what you were doing. So I didn’t see how they glorified this. Never made sense to me.

In 2019, you became the first person to legally buy marijuana in Michigan. Why was that so important to you?

Adrian McMahon, Sefton, Lancs

Which planet is this person from? I did three years from smoking marijuana. What does it mean to me? What are you talking about? Get on the fucking planet. This is what I fought for for 60 years. When you’re high you do all kinds of interesting shit. High up in the air, you know? You look down on things; you see it better.

What is the next revolution that needs to happen, and have you seen any signs?

Lukas, via email

It’s the same one that still needs to happen, and no, it’s not happening. They need to take the shit away from the capitalists and give people everything they need, like education and healthcare, without any cost to them. Democratic socialism, that’s the revolution we need – the Bernie Sanders revolution. It’s not gonna happen. Can music play a role? Well, music and art can be about whatever you want it to be about. That’s up to the artist. The point of today is that the artists don’t give a fuck. They’re happy with the way things are, as long as they can get paid or get a lot of likes or whatever it is they’re after.

Your poetry albums have employed some interesting musical collaborators. Which current musical artist would you most like to work with?

Alex Dunstan, Norwich

Whoever calls me up! I’m open – my mind is wide open.

On your last album, Beatnik Youth, you reveal that your chosen path – “poet, provocateur” – means that you’re still “living from hand to mouth”. Any regrets?

Oliver Frankel, via email

How can you regret living your chosen path? There’s no room for regret, unless you chose the wrong path.

Drummer Gerry Conway has died aged 76

Tom Pinnock
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Drummer Gerry Conway has died aged 76

Gerry Conway, the drummer best known for his work with Fairport Convention and their wider folk-rock circle, has died at the age of 76.

Gerry Conway, the drummer best known for his work with Fairport Convention and their wider folk-rock circle, has died at the age of 76.

Conway passed away on Saturday (March 29) after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease two years ago.

Born in Norfolk and brought up in London, he formed Eclection with Trevor Lucas in 1968, and through him came to be a member of Fotheringay, Sandy Denny‘s post-Fairport group.

He was also an in-demand session drummer, and in the ’70s performed on albums by Iain Matthews, John Cale, Steeleye Span, Mike McGear, Shelagh McDonald, Al Stewart, Denny and Cat Stewart, his long association with the latter beginning with 1971’s Teaser And The Firecat and running until the singer-songwriter’s retirement at the end of the decade.

In the 1980s he played with Richard Thompson, Jethro Tull and Pentangle – the latter’s Jacqui McShee his long-term partner – before joining Fairport Convention as a permanent member in 1998, a trifling 25 years after he appeared on three songs on their album Rosie. He remained with the group until he became ill in 2022.

In a warm note to “our dear friend and former drummer” on their website, Fairport wrote: “He brought to the band an impeccable understanding of ‘feel’ and comradeship, a unique sense of subtlety and a complete understanding of what was required.”

Simon Nicol also saluted his “dearest drumming pal”: “Wonderfully patient and wise, infuriatingly tardy (!) but always ready and eager to play, and blessed with his own inner calm and solidity, I’m going to miss him more than I can say.”

Grateful Dead announce 50th anniversary reissue of From The Mars Hotel

Michael Bonner
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Grateful Dead announce 50th anniversary reissue of From The Mars Hotel

Grateful Dead have announced the latest instalment in their ongoing reissue programme - a 50th anniversary Deluxe Edition of 1974's From The Mars Hotel.

Grateful Dead have announced the latest instalment in their ongoing reissue programme – a 50th anniversary Deluxe Edition of 1974’s From The Mars Hotel.

DAVID BOWIE IS ON THE COVER OF THE LATEST UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

Released June 21 by Rhino, this Deluxe Edition is a 3CD and digital set, featuring a remastered edition of the original album enhanced with two demos from the era and a complete, previously unreleased concert from the 1974 tour in support of the album.

Below, you can hear a demo of “Wave That Flag” – the song that became “U.S. Blues“.

And you can pre-order From The Mars Hotel Deluxe Edition by clicking here.

The tracklisting is:
Disc 1
U.S. Blues
China Doll
Unbroken Chain
Loose Lucy
Scarlet Begonias
Pride Of Cucamonga
Money Money
Ship Of Fools
Bonus Tracks
China Doll (Demo)
Wave That Flag (Demo)

Disc 2
Live From the University of Nevada, Reno, May 12, 1974
Sugaree
Mexicali Blues
Tennessee Jed
Jack Straw
Brown-Eyed Women
Beat It On Down The Line
China Cat Sunflower>
I Know You Rider
El Paso
U.S. Blues
Greatest Story Ever Told
It Must Have Been The Roses
Me And Bobby McGee

Disc 3
Live From the University of Nevada, Reno, May 12, 1974
Deal
Around And Around
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
Truckin’>
The Other One>
Row Jimmy
Big River
Ship Of Fools
Sugar Magnolia

In addition to the 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, a remaster of the original album will be released on June 21 as a single 180-gram black vinyl LP, limited edition Neon Pink vinyl, limited edition “Ugly Rumors” custom vinyl exclusive to Dead.net, and a zoetrope picture disc. These variants can be pre-ordered here. 

Ever Fallen In Love?

Alastair McKay
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Ever Fallen In Love?

When he sat down to write a biography of Pete Shelley and Buzzcocks, Paul Hanley hit a problem. His enthusiasm for the subject was getting in the way of his objectivity. “I was a massive Buzzcocks fan at the age of 14. It was quite a process to keep stepping back. I thought, ‘A lot of people could write a biography. It's only me could write about my relationship with the band.’”

When he sat down to write a biography of Pete Shelley and Buzzcocks, Paul Hanley hit a problem. His enthusiasm for the subject was getting in the way of his objectivity. “I was a massive Buzzcocks fan at the age of 14. It was quite a process to keep stepping back. I thought, ‘A lot of people could write a biography. It’s only me could write about my relationship with the band.’”

DAVID BOWIE IS ON THE COVER OF THE LATEST UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

As a former drummer with The Fall, Hanley is well-placed to write about one of the most significant Manchester bands. The beauty of Sixteen Again: How Pete Shelley & Buzzcocks Changed Manchester Music (And Me), is the way it renders an adult view of Pete Shelley’s genius with teenage enthusiasm. The biographical details of Shelley’s life are present; so is the purity of Hanley’s passion.

Hanley remembers the day Buzzcocks’ first album Another Music In A Different Kitchen came out. Future Fall members Marc Riley, Craig Scanlon and Steve Hanley (Paul’s older brother) went to Virgin’s Manchester branch for a launch event. The shop released balloons. “The idea was that whoever got the one that flew furthest away would win the album. Of course, they all got caught in the trees.” When the trio returned, album in hand, Hanley was waiting by the record player. “I looked at this sleeve and listened to the record and I thought, ‘This is the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my life’. Everything about it. I loved the record. I loved the sleeve. And there was badges! It was the perfect thing for me at 14 years of age. This was gonna be my band.”

Buzzcocks are vital in punk history because they brought the Sex Pistols to Manchester, and demystified the process of releasing records with the Spiral Scratch EP. For the teenage Hanley, there was also the fact that John Maher went to his school, and left at 16 to join Buzzcocks. “I left the same school at 16 to join The Fall. I thought John Maher was the best drummer in the world. I had John Maher, Karl Burns out The Fall, and Steve Morris of Joy Division – three of the best drummers I’ve ever heard in my life and they were within reach.”

With hindsight, Hanley can appreciate that the appeal of Buzzcocks was rooted in Pete Shelley’s ability to channel the emotional intensity of adolescence. “He could sing authentically and put himself in the headspace of a 15, 16 year-old without a hint of condescension. It wasn’t Jilted John. If you look at the Sex Pistols, there’s so much artifice in Johnny Rotten’s persona. And The Clash bouncing around, with this rock’n’ roll sort of thing. [With Buzzcocks] It was just Pete Shelley stood on a stage. You would expect to get a similar kind of vibe if you stood next to him at a bus stop. Which you wouldn’t get with most other bands. I mean, you wouldn’t want to be stood next to Ian Curtis at a bus stop if he behaved like he did on stage, would you? Or Mark E Smith…”

Speaking of which, Hanley’s Fall offshoot band House of All, is about to return with a second album, Continuum, and a UK tour.  Hanley promises “more variety of sound” and admits to being amazed at the band’s ability to conjure songs from nothing. “I’m not sure I want to work out how we did it. But I can’t even if I wanted to.”

Sixteen Again is published by Route on April 17; House Of All’s Continuum is released by Tiny Global Productions on April 5

Uncut – May 2024

Michael Bonner
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Uncut – May 2024

HAVE A COPY SENT STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOME

HAVE A COPY SENT STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOME

David Bowie, The Black Keys and Beck, St Vincent, Richard Thompson, Kamasi Washington, Radiohead, Iron & Wine, Vini Reilly, Lou Reed, Brett Anderson, Wah!, Myriam Gendron, Neil Finn, Broadcast, Alice Coltrane and more all feature in Uncut‘s May 2024 issue, in UK shops from March 29 or available to buy online now.

All print copies come with a free CD – Total Blam-Blam!, featuring 15 of the month’s best new music including Khruangbin, Jessica Pratt, James Elkington and Nathan Salsburg, Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band, Arab Strap, Iron & Wine, Camera Obscura and more!

INSIDE THIS MONTH’S UNCUT

DAVID BOWIE: As a new boxset digs deep into Ziggy Stardust, we map the 1972 masterpiece’s secret history with the aid of key players

THE BLACK KEYS MEET BECK: Two decades after they first met, ‘the Beck Keys’ finally get it together in the studio – and tell us all about it!

ST VINCENT: Annie Clark squares up to her demons on her sublime seventh LP

RICHARD THOMPSON: The magic of Big Pink, adventures in the Sahara and imaginary conversations with Sandy Denny

KAMASI WASHINGTON: The reigning king of jazz saxophone: still on a mission to soothe the soul

MYRIAM GENDRON: The enigmatic French-Canadian on her powerful reckoning with loss and grief

AN AUDIENCE WITH… VINI REILLY: The Durutti Column’s reclusive guitar genius on Tony Wilson, Morrissey and kickabouts with Pat Nevin

THE MAKING OF “STORY OF THE BLUES” BY WAH!: How Pete Wylie’s “drinking song” developed into a huge anthem: “When I have an idea, I have it in Cinemascope!”

ALBUM BY ALBUM WITH IRON & WINE: The man behind the stage name, South Carolina songwriter Sam Beam, reviews his back catalogue

MY LIFE IN MUSIC WITH NEIL FINN: Everywhere he goes, the Crowded House chief takes these records with him: “A song doesn’t have to follow a narrative…”

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REVIEWED: Jessica Pratt, Michael Head, Ian Hunter, Vampire Weekend, Pearl Jam, Neil Young, Broadcast, AC/DC, Alice Coltrane, Sister Rosetta Tharp, Microdisney, Arthur Russell, Skip Spence, Echo & The Bunnymen, Air and more

PLUS: Radiohead; Rosanne Cash on Lou Reed; Brett Anderson’s death songbook; Caroline Coon’s punk photos; Alice Russell; introducing Mint Mile…

CLICK TO GET THE NEW UNCUT DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR

A David Bowie special, The Black Keys meet Beck, St Vincent, Richard Thompson and more

Michael Bonner
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A David Bowie special, The Black Keys meet Beck, St Vincent, Richard Thompson and more

HAVE A COPY SENT DIRECT TO YOUR DOOR

HAVE A COPY SENT DIRECT TO YOUR DOOR

ONE of my favourite moments of the new David Bowie boxset, covering the birth of Ziggy Stardust, is the demo of “Soul Love” recorded at Haddon Hall in November 1971. The tape has evidently been made for Mick Ronson and, after playing the song through, Bowie leaves a message for his co-conspirator. “I think we should work on that as a single, Mick,” he begins, going on to list ideas for arrangements he has in mind for the song, based around a “heavy, warm sax lineup”. Bowie’s ideas are clear, precise and detailed, revealing a lot about his ability to imagine how a finished song might sound. After this, there’s a pause, then Bowie signs off in the kind of cute parentese he might have used with his then-six-month-old son, Zowie. “Oo-kay? Right ’den.” In the space of just a few moments, we have heard from several different David Bowies: the performer, the composer, the friend. Three months after this charming, intimate recording, another David Bowie came into focus when Ziggy Stardust made his earthly debut on stage at the Toby Jug, a pub off the A3.

HAVE A COPY SENT DIRECT TO YOUR DOOR

A lot has already been written about Bowie’s stellar trajectory during 1971/1972. But for our cover story, Peter Watts has unearthed what feels like a genuinely fresh tale, full of alternate versions, discarded recordings, different tracklistings and paths not taken. You might wonder, then, what might have been had Bowie ended up playing slide guitar on “Starman” – and how that might have looked during that July 6, 1972 Top Of The Pops performance…

There’s plenty more besides, of course. We bring you a hook-up between The Black Keys and Beck, St Vincent, Kamasi Washington, Richard Thompson, a rare encounter with Vini Reilly and I’m honoured to bring you the first major UK music magazine interview with Myriam Gendron, whose beautiful and impeccable songs have a calm, wise grasp of folk traditions.

I’m sure you’ll find a ton of other interesting things squirrelled away inside this month’s issue. So dig in and enjoy. And, as Bowie once said, keep it cool and easy.

Watch a video for John Cale’s new single, “How We See The Light”

Sam Richards
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Watch a video for John Cale’s new single, “How We See The Light”

John Cale has announced that his new album POPtical Illusion – a swift follow-up to 2023's acclaimed Mercy – will be released by Double Six / Domino on June 14.

John Cale has announced that his new album POPtical Illusion – a swift follow-up to 2023’s acclaimed Mercy – will be released by Double Six / Domino on June 14.

PINK FLOYD ARE ON THE COVER OF THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

Watch a video for lead single “How We See The Light” below:

In contrast to Mercy’s big cast of collaborators, POPtical Illusion was played mostly by Cale in his Los Angeles studio. The album was co-produced by longtime artistic partner Nita Scott.

POPtical Illusion will be available on 2xLP, CD and digital formats. The Domino Mart pink & mint limited edition vinyl includes a 7″ featuring two exclusive tracks and a paper ‘objet’. Pre-order POPtical Illusion here and peruse the artwork and tracklisting below:

  1. God Made Me Do It (don’t ask me again)
  2. Davies and Wales
  3. Calling You Out
  4. Edge of Reason
  5. I’m Angry
  6. How We See The Light
  7. Company Commander
  8. Setting Fires
  9. Shark-Shark
  10. Funkball the Brewster
  11. All To The Good
  12. Laughing In My Sleep
  13. There Will Be No River

Samantha Morton announces debut album with XL’s Richard Russell

Sam Richards
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Samantha Morton announces debut album with XL’s Richard Russell

Actor/director Samantha Morton has formed a new musical duo with producer and XL Recordings boss Richard Russell. Named Sam Morton, their debut album Daffodils & Dirt will be released by XL on June 14.

Actor/director Samantha Morton has formed a new musical duo with producer and XL Recordings boss Richard Russell. Named Sam Morton, their debut album Daffodils & Dirt will be released by XL on June 14.

DAVID BOWIE IS ON THE COVER OF THE LATEST UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

Watch Morton’s self-directed video for the single “Let’s Walk In The Night”, featuring Alabaster DePlume, below:

Daffodils & Dirt also features guest appearances by Laura Groves, Jack Peñate and Ali Campbell. You can pre-order the album here.

Sam Morton will play their biggest headline show to date at London’s ICA on June 20, tickets here. They will also perform at this year’s End Of The Road, among other festival appearances.

Alan Hull – Singing A Song In The Morning Light – The Legendary Demo Tapes 1967-1970

Nigel Williamson
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Alan Hull – Singing A Song In The Morning Light – The Legendary Demo Tapes 1967-1970

The making of Alan Hull as a songwriter was not sitting hunched over his guitar in his bedroom with only his introspection for company, but the three years he spent working as a trainee nurse in a Tyneside psychiatric institution.

The making of Alan Hull as a songwriter was not sitting hunched over his guitar in his bedroom with only his introspection for company, but the three years he spent working as a trainee nurse in a Tyneside psychiatric institution.

 “That’s what changed me and the things I was writing about,” he said of his time working with patients at the St Nicholas hospital in Gosforth in the late 1960s.  “It made me think about a lot of things and made the songs go deeper.”

DAVID BOWIE IS ON THE COVER OF THE LATEST UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

For a while the experience threatened his own equilibrium, but the troubled souls in his care also gave him a “million ideas” and taught him that there are many different ways of looking at the world. Coupled with his own poetic sensibility, a deep compassion for his fellow human beings, a scabrous wit and a righteous pride in his Geordie working-class roots, the result was a flood of songs written between 1966 and early 1970, before he formed Lindisfarne. The band then took its pick of the best, but only scratched the surface of a prodigious songbook that is said to have numbered more than 200 compositions.

Some of Hull’s songs from the period were haunting and ethereal. Others were raucous singalongs. There were tender love sonnets and songs about the long, dark nights of the soul. Compelling story-telling and angry protest took their place alongside hymns to the hell-raising pleasures of boozing and anthems of faith in humanity such as “Clear White Light”, a line from which gives this anthology its title.

Taken in the round, the demo recordings on Singing A Song In The Morning Light represent the early pencil drawings of an artist whom Jerry Gilbert a few years later in an interview in Sounds would describe as a “deep philosopher acutely aware of other people’s reactions and motives”. At the same time, Gilbert noted that Hull was also “a round-the-clock looner who revels in his own madness”. His ability to drink almost anyone in Newcastle under the table was legendary among Tyneside’s musical fraternity and it was not without good reason that the credits on Hull’s 1973 solo debut Pipe Dream read “vocals, guitar, piano, harmonium, Guinness, wine, tequila, Pernod”.

Lindisfarne took his compositions “Lady Eleanor” and “Run For Home” into the Top 10 of the UK singles chart, while other Hull songs recorded by the band such as “Fog On The Tyne” and “We Can Swing Together” have become much-loved folk-rock standards.

While maintaining a parallel solo career, he was still with Lindisfarne when his death from a heart attack in 1995 at the age of 50 robbed us of a unique voice. In line with the wishes expressed in his will, his ashes were scattered in the Tyne and mourners were instructed to wait for a day when the fog was rolling in.

Yet once the fog had cleared, a feeling lingered among his admirers that when the lists of the all-time great songwriters are being compiled, too often Hull is unfairly forgotten. His legacy has not been overlooked by his fellow songwriters, though. Take a look at the BBC’s 2021 documentary Lindisfarne’s Geordie Genius: The Alan Hull Story; presented by fellow Tynesider Sam Fender, in it Hull’s peers queue up to pay fulsome tribute. “I think he’s up there with Richard Thompson and Ray Davies and the really English songwriters,” opines Elvis Costello, who admits to having stolen shamelessly from him. Others to acknowledge Hull’s influence in the film include Dave Stewart, Sting, Mark Knopfler and Peter Gabriel.

The existence of the demo tapes Hull made before forming Lindisfarne has long been known, but over the years only a handful of tracks have seen the light of day on various anthologies and compilations, leaving a total of 77 of the 90 recordings here that have never previously been released.

By the time Hull recorded these demos he had tasted modest success with a Newcastle band called the Chosen Few, with whom he’d recorded two singles for Pye. But when other members of the band went on to form Skip Bifferty, Hull already had a family to support and more reliable employment was required – which was how in 1966 he came to enrol as a trainee psychiatric nurse. At the same time he took to playing solo in local folk clubs, which led to him recording demos of his songs at a studio in Wallsend established by David Wood, whom he knew from his beat group days.

When Hull couldn’t pay for the studio time, Wood became his manager and the pair set up their own folk club in Whitley Bay. One of the bands who played the club were Brethren, who saw themselves as a kind of Geordie version of The Band. They started backing Hull both onstage and on some of his demos, and the band swiftly evolved into Lindisfarne.

Among the demos recorded with Brethren here are ragged takes of future Lindisfarne hits “Lady Eleanor” (inspired by Hull’s obsessive reading of Edgar Allan Poe while on late shifts at the hospital) and “We Can Swing Together”, a rollicking tale of a drug bust at a party on which Hull and his future bandmates manage to sound like a folk-rock version of the Pink Fairies.

There are also a brace of tracks on which he’s backed by Skip Bifferty, including the contrived psych-pop weirdness  of “Schizoid Revolution”, clearly inspired by Hull’s experiences as a psychiatric nurse, while various uncredited friends back him on the prog-tinged freak-out “Overstrung At 3am” and the period satire “Arthur McLean Morrison Jones”.

For the rest it’s mostly just Hull and his guitar or piano. There’s a gorgeous solo take on “Dingly Dell”, which became the title track of Lindisfarne’s third album, and a wondrous version of “Winter Song” which wouldn’t have sounded out of place if sung by Robin Williamson on The Incredible String Band’s first album.

Yet, among the previously unknown songs, what’s most striking is the wildly experimental breadth of his writing as he tries on different skins to see what fits. “This Land Is Cold” transplants Woody Guthrie from Oklahoma to Northumbria, while “Go Throw Your Life Away” worships at the shrine of Dylan, using almost the same chord sequence as “Like A Rolling Stone”, over which Hull sings about doing the football pools. Elsewhere there are adventures in giddy surrealism (“Conversation With A Chinese Cat”), memorable love songs (the Beatlesque “Love Lasts Forever”), aching piano ballads (“Spain 67”), political rants (“Better Town”) and gentle lullabies for his kids (“Go To Sleep”).

The performances are for the most part rough and sketchy – they were, after all, recorded merely as demos for publishing purposes and often committed to tape after several hours spent loosening his vocal cords in the pub. Yet at the same time it’s crystal clear that we’re listening to a songwriter learning how to harness his uniquely Geordie iteration of genius.

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