The Jacksons have announced they will perform at Blenheim Palace as part of their 50th anniversary world tour.
The show takes place on Sunday June 18 during the Nocturne concert series.
Special guests will be Kool & The Gang.
The Nocturne concert series runs from June 15 to 18 and The Jackso...
The Jacksons have announced they will perform at Blenheim Palace as part of their 50th anniversary world tour.
The show takes place on Sunday June 18 during the Nocturne concert series.
Special guests will be Kool & The Gang.
The Nocturne concert series runs from June 15 to 18 and The Jacksons and Kool & The Gang join composer Max Richter on this year’s bill, with more names to be announced in due course.
Tickets start at £45 and are on sale at 9am on Wednesday February.
Grandaddy will release another new album after 2017's upcoming Last Place, Jason Lytle tells Uncut in the new issue, dated March 2017 and out now.
The songwriter has revealed that he signed a two-album deal with Danger Mouse's 30th Century Records, meaning that a follow-up to the band's first album...
Grandaddy will release another new album after 2017’s upcoming Last Place, Jason Lytle tells Uncut in the new issue, dated March 2017 and out now.
The songwriter has revealed that he signed a two-album deal with Danger Mouse‘s 30th Century Records, meaning that a follow-up to the band’s first album in 11 years is almost guaranteed.
“I know for a fact there’ll be another Grandaddy LP,” he laughs, “’cos I signed a two-album deal! But the next one will be looser [than Last Place].”
Elsewhere in the feature – in which Lytle takes Uncut through nine of the finest albums he’s worked on as Grandaddy and solo – the singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist explains how he made the group’s new album, released on March 3.
“I hope Grandaddy fans like [Last Place],” he says, “as it really is a lot about them, even more so than it is about me… I just have a better ability of knowing what Grandaddy is, myself, now from a distance. It’s so part of me. I was so inspired by the fans and the people that have made it very clear over the years how dedicated they are to the music.
“A certain amount of time needed to go by [before I returned to Grandaddy]. I spent a lot of time and care in trying to make it resemble a Grandaddy record. Once I brought all those [Grandaddy] ingredients together, they ended up showing me the way. I was going that extra mile making sure that whatever weird sounds there were sat pretty well, and it not be like, ‘Oh, there’s another wacky Grandaddy sound!’”
How Canterbury’s jazz adventurer turned out a hit Monkees cover, tiring out Pink Floyd’s drummer and battling Top Of The Pops in the process… “The show side of pop? I can’t be bothered!†Originally published in Uncut's February 2014 issue (Take 201). Words: Tom Pinnock
_________________...
How Canterbury’s jazz adventurer turned out a hit Monkees cover, tiring out Pink Floyd’s drummer and battling Top Of The Pops in the process… “The show side of pop? I can’t be bothered!†Originally published in Uncut’s February 2014 issue (Take 201). Words: Tom Pinnock
_________________________________
From the psych pop of early Soft Machine to the cerebral jazz-fusion of Matching Mole, by 1974 Robert Wyatt was intent on following his own singular muse. You would imagine, though, that even Wyatt’s closest collaborators were shocked when he decided to release a cover of The Monkees’ Neil-Diamond-penned “I’m A Believer†as his debut solo single. “No, Robert has always been most peculiar,†laughs Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason, who produced and played drums on the recording, “so nothing very much surprises me with him.â€
Wyatt has been in a wheelchair since June 1, 1973, when he fell out of a window at a Maida Vale party. But rather than hindering him creatively, his paralysis allowed the drummer to put down his sticks and concentrate on singing, keyboards and songwriting, crafting the experimental, pastoral Rock Bottom, produced by Mason and featuring Fred Frith and Richard Sinclair.
Far from starting a more commercial era in his career, though, things didn’t run smoothly after the release of “I’m A Believerâ€. An appearance on Top Of The Pops led to arguments with the show’s producer and threats of a ban, then Virgin refused to release his follow-up single. The irrepressible Wyatt wouldn’t have had it any other way, though – the only reservation he has about the track is his own “jigging about†when miming on TV.
“If you’re going to do it, do it properly, like Wilko Johnson… I just thought, note to self, don’t do that anymore. But we all learn from our mistakes,†he says, mock-philosophically. “That well-known saying – well, not that well-known, because I made it up – ‘we live and learn, but in that order, unfortunately.’â€
____________________________
ROBERT WYATT: I’d said in NME or Melody Maker that I really liked pop music – to me, it’s the folk music of the industrial age, it’s what people sing and dance to on a Saturday night. Simon Draper at Virgin, he saw this and he called my bluff, saying “Would you do a pop song?†I’d intended to do “Last Train To Clarksvilleâ€, ’cause I like that, but I got muddled up.
NICK MASON: I met Robert at UFO, then we did some gigs together – we certainly spent time together in New York when Soft Machine were touring with Hendrix. We were all holed up in the same hotel there in 1968. Then I produced Rock Bottom.
DAVE MACRAE: Was I surprised Robert was doing a Monkees song? Working with Robert, surprises were the norm! He has great mental energy, always looking for new ways to express his ideas.
RICHARD SINCLAIR: In The Wilde Flowers with Robert, I remember doing things like Chuck Berry numbers, so “I’m A Believer†wasn’t anything unusual from Robert. He always wanted to be a popular singing artist. Blond-haired, quite good-looking, bouncing about – he liked that idea of entertainment, still does!
Throughout their 30-year career, but especially in the last decade, the Flaming Lips have made self-indulgence a virtue. They’ve recorded a 24-hour song, covered full albums by The Beatles and Pink Floyd, released music via giant gummy skulls, and – perhaps most notoriously – recorded an album...
Throughout their 30-year career, but especially in the last decade, the Flaming Lips have made self-indulgence a virtue. They’ve recorded a 24-hour song, covered full albums by The Beatles and Pink Floyd, released music via giant gummy skulls, and – perhaps most notoriously – recorded an album with Miley Cyrus, which they released for free but couldn’t give away. That playful unpredictability is compelling even when the music is not. And most of the time it’s not. These projects tend to work better as stunts and happenings, which means they’re probably more fun to create than they are to hear.
But that only makes their studio albums somehow miraculous. Embryonic in 2009 and The Terror in 2013 stand among the band’s finest releases, each expanding the Lips’ candy-coated psychedelia while balancing the extreme whimsy and extreme melancholy that have become the band’s signature. Long after several generations of contemporaries have folded or flopped, the Flaming Lips are still writing the story of their career, adding some essential and entertaining chapters.
Oczy Mlody is perhaps the inevitable outcome of the Lips’ endearing self-indulgence, combining the best and worst traits of their main and side projects into a concept album that is sure to be divisive even among their diehard fans. There are unicorns and demon frogs and wizards and rainbows, guest spots by Cyrus and the comedian Reggie Watts, and instrumental interludes that sound like Pink Floyd got chopped-and-screwed. At times it dares to reach for beauty; often it settles for a strained frivolity.
Musically, the Lips claim they were inspired by Syd Barrett and A$AP Rocky; lyrically, by a Polish translation of Close To Home, a novel by Erskine Caldwell (most famous for Tobacco Road). The details of that book have nothing to do with Oczy Mlody. Instead, the Polish language, with its logjams of consonants and curlicue ogoneks, provided the foundation for the lyrics and concepts. Wayne Coyne would scan the pages, his eyes catching on unusual clusters of letters and his brain translating the strange words into skewed fairy tales. Hence the title: Oczy Mlody translates into English as “eyes of the youngâ€, but it translates into Coynese as a futuristic drug that allows users to sleep for three months at a time. Or something like that.
“There Should Be Unicorns†offers the most concrete evocation of this world and its strange rules, with Coyne painting “day-glow strippers†and “edible butterflies†into the landscape like Bob Ross on ’shrooms. The music is never as animated as the lyrics, and the lyrics sound more juvenile than usual, especially when the fantastical intermingles with a real-world problem like police brutality. There’s nothing on Oczy Mlody that is any more or less silly than Yoshimi battling those pink robots or that Christmas skeleton pleading with a suicide bomber, but there’s no metaphorical underpinning to give emotional weight to so much whimsy. The unicorns are merely unicorns.
At least on the first half of the record, the instrumentals are more compelling than the lyric-based songs, mixing the Lips’ familiar psychedelia with beats and hip-hop production techniques. The opening title track in particular evokes the mood of a particularly bittersweet fairy tale, pitting bottom-heavy rhythms against delicate synth melodies. As the album progresses, however, it accrues gravity and import – a particularly puzzling magic trick. “Do Glowy†is a zero-gravity boudoir slow jam, “Listening To Frogs With Demon Eyes†a seven-minute mini-opera whose creepy-crawly sound effects and stargazing lyrics conjure an almost pagan ambience.
“The Castle†is all metaphor: a painfully detailed portrayal of how a fragile soul processes tragedy and pain, inspired by the suicide of a close friend. “Her brain was the castle,†Coyne sings, “and the castle can never be rebuilt again.†Here the imagery not only has poignancy and emotional heft, but makes that personal loss sound incalculable. That’s the underlying theme of this record, which is strange even for the Lips: the thin veil between existence and oblivion, a mortal dread so intense that it pervades every single bubbly note on these songs. Oczy Mlody continues the Lips’ longstanding mission to explore the joy and sadness of simple human consciousness, so that even when the album loses its footing – which it does, often – it never loses its way.
Q&A
Wayne Coyne
Which comes first: the songs or the concept?
These things never come as an idea. It’s almost as though something happens and it leads to another thing happening and before you know it, you’ve got something really magical. One song gives you another piece of an unknown story.
How did that process work for Oczy Mlody?
The very first track on the record, called “Oczy Mlodyâ€, had been around for a while. Steven [Drozd] and I kept going back to it. It had a mood to it, but we didn’t know what to do with it. Then we stumbled upon “The Castleâ€, which I wrote after a session one night, just singing into my phone. I liked that idea of singing about the castle as the structure of your beautiful life or whatever. I filled the song with lyrics that hint at the fairytale world – unicorns and stuff like that – which really hinted us toward a new flavour that the Flaming Lips hadn’t really explored before.
How did that change “Oczy Mlody”?
We started to tie the two songs together. Oh, Oczy Mlody is a drug you take in this futuristic fairytale world. It just kept going from there, the same [way] we would have hit upon concepts for all our records. It feels like we’re making the soundtrack to a movie. We have characters and locations and moods and things that are happening. It helps us feel like we’re in the same story, even though we’re not sure what happens.
INTERVIEW: STEPHEN DEUSNER
Paul Weller has announced details of his first ever full film score.
Jawbone: Music From The Film will be released by Parlophone Records on March 10. The 36-minute album is available on Vinyl LP, CD, Download and to stream.
The film, a boxing drama, is the brainchild of actor Johnny Harris, who sa...
Paul Weller has announced details of his first ever full film score.
Jawbone: Music From The Film will be released by Parlophone Records on March 10. The 36-minute album is available on Vinyl LP, CD, Download and to stream.
The film, a boxing drama, is the brainchild of actor Johnny Harris, who says: “Paul would constantly send through any new ideas, demos, or recordings, and what was unique and beautiful about this approach was that Paul’s new compositions were now inspiring and influencing the story as I was re-writing it. I’d also send Paul through new drafts of the script, or any new ideas as they were forming along the way, and a beautifully collaborative process evolved.â€
The tracklisting for Jawbone: Music From The Film is:
Jimmy / Blackout
The Ballad of Jimmy McCabe
Jawbone
Bottle
Jawbone Training
Man on Fire
End Fight Sequence
Jawbone stars Johnny Harris, Michael Smiley and Ian McShane and is in cinemas from March 17.
As you can see, our week started with a load of Can albums, and a pretty concerted celebration of Jaki Liebezeit. Here, though, are this week’s key arrivals: three strong new songs by Ryley Walker, performed live for Aquarium Drunkard; an excellent preview of Jaxe Xerxes Fussell’s forthcoming al...
As you can see, our week started with a load of Can albums, and a pretty concerted celebration of Jaki Liebezeit. Here, though, are this week’s key arrivals: three strong new songs by Ryley Walker, performed live for Aquarium Drunkard; an excellent preview of Jaxe Xerxes Fussell’s forthcoming album; Thundercat’s ravishing yacht rock jam featuring Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald; Lambchop covering Prince; a new single from Promised Land Sound; and these three wonderful Erasmo Carlos reissues from Light In The Attic, which made me feel a bit of a fraud thinking of myself as a Tropicalia expert when I’d never come across them before. Am very much looking forward to sharing Arbouretum, Joan Shelley, Wooden Wand and Feral Ohms music as soon as I can but, in the meantime, thanks as ever for listening.
Follow me on Twitter @JohnRMulvey
1 Can – Future Days (Spoon)
2 Can – Ege Bam Yasi (Spoon)
3 Can – Flow Motion (Spoon)
4 Can – Monster Movie (Spoon)
5 Can – Tago Mago (Spoon)
6 Various Artists – The Hired Hands (Scissor Tail)
7 Elliott Smith – Either/Or: Expanded Edition (Kill Rock Stars)
8 Arbouretum – Song Of The Rose (Thrill Jockey)
9 Michele Mercure – Eye Chant (Freedom To Spend)
10 Philippe Baden Powell – Notes Over Poetry (Far Out)
11 Jesus & Mary Chain – Damage And Joy (Warner Brothers)
Epic Soundtrax and Legacy Recordings celebrate the 25th anniversary of Cameron Crowe's film Singles, with the release of a newly expanded and remastered edition of the film's soundtrack on May 19.
This new edition of the album contains previously unreleased recordings by Chris Cornell, Mudhoney and...
Epic Soundtrax and Legacy Recordings celebrate the 25th anniversary of Cameron Crowe‘s film Singles, with the release of a newly expanded and remastered edition of the film’s soundtrack on May 19.
This new edition of the album contains previously unreleased recordings by Chris Cornell, Mudhoney and Paul Westerberg, in addition to rarities and tracks from the film not included on the original album.
The album will be released as 2CD and 2LP sets.
This expanded edition includes, for the first time on CD, “Touch Me I’m Dick” the signature track from Singles performed by Citizen Dick – a fictional band created for the film featuring frontman Matt Dillon backed by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament.
SINGLES: ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK DELUXE EDITION track listing Would? – Alice In Chains
Breath – Pearl Jam
Seasons – Chris Cornell
Dyslexic Heart – Paul Westerberg
Battle Of Evermore – The Lovemongers
Chloe Dancer/Crown Of Thorns – Mother Love Bone
Birth Ritual – Soundgarden
State of Love And Trust – Pearl Jam
Overblown – Mudhoney
Waiting For Somebody – Paul Westerberg
May This Be Love – The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Nearly Lost You – Screaming Trees
Drown – Smashing Pumpkins
Bonus Disc
(included in 2CD and 2LP editions) Touch Me I’m Dick – Citizen Dick (first time on CD)
Nowhere But You – Chris Cornell (Poncier)
Spoon Man – Chris Cornell (Poncier)
Flutter Girl – Chris Cornell (Poncier)
Missing – Chris Cornell (Poncier) (first time on CD)
Would? (live) – Alice In Chains (first time on CD)
It Ain’t Like That (live) – Alice In Chains (first time on CD)
Birth Ritual (live) – Soundgarden (first time on CD)
Dyslexic Heart (acoustic) – Paul Westerberg (first time on CD)
Waiting For Somebody (score acoustic) – Paul Westerberg (previously unreleased)
Overblown (demo) – Mudhoney (previously unreleased)
Heart and Lungs – Truly
Six Foot Under – Blood Circus
Singles Blues 1 – Mike McCready (previously unreleased)
Blue Heart – Paul Westerberg (previously unreleased)
Lost In Emily’s Words – Paul Westerberg (previously unreleased)
Ferry Boat #3 – Chris Cornell (previously unreleased)
Score Piece #4 – Chris Cornell (previously unreleased)
Gregg Allman has paid tribute to Butch Trucks, the Allman Brothers Band drummer who has died aged 69.
"I'm heartbroken," Allman said in a statement. "I've lost another brother and it hurts beyond words. Butch and I knew each other since we were teenagers and we were bandmates for over 45 years. He ...
Gregg Allman has paid tribute to Butch Trucks, the Allman Brothers Band drummer who has died aged 69.
“I’m heartbroken,” Allman said in a statement. “I’ve lost another brother and it hurts beyond words. Butch and I knew each other since we were teenagers and we were bandmates for over 45 years. He was a great man and a great drummer and I’m going to miss him forever. Rest In Peace Brother Butch.”
Former Allman Brothers Band guitarist Warren Haynes – who played guitar for the group from 1989-1997 and again from 2000-2014 – wrote on his website.
“After all the devastating losses of 2016 I can’t believe it. I’m still in shock. I am truly honored to have played music and shared life with Butch for over 25 years. He was one of a kind-as a drummer and as a human being,” Haynes wrote. “Butch was part of what is unfortunately now a dying breed of musicians who served with honor like soldiers. He put 110% of his self into every song he played. He was the Lou Gehrig of rock drummers. I’ve seen him play many times when he was injured or sick and most people would have bailed or phoned it in. Not Butch. He would play with the utmost intensity till he was about to fall over with no regrets. He was very proud of the fact that up until our last shows in 2014 he was the only member of the band who had never missed a show. His mission in life was to serve the music. And serve the music he did. Butch considered the Allman Brothers Band music to be reverent and each performance to be of the highest level of importance and he drove that “freight train†like no other could. We miss you Butchie.â€
Other tributes have been paid from Jason Isbell, Sheryl Crowe and Phish.
Awfully sad to hear of the passing of Butch Trucks. A deserving legend, with a family full of ridiculously talented and truly sweet people.
PJ Harvey, Ryan Adams and Future Islands have been announced as headliners of this year's Green Man Festival.
Other artists confirmed for the festival include Michael Kiwanuka, Lambchop, Conor Oberst, Angel Olsen and more.
Green Man 2017 takes place in Brecon Beacons from August 17 to August 20.
...
PJ Harvey, Ryan Adams and Future Islands have been announced as headliners of this year’s Green Man Festival.
Other artists confirmed for the festival include Michael Kiwanuka, Lambchop, Conor Oberst, Angel Olsen and more.
Green Man 2017 takes place in Brecon Beacons from August 17 to August 20.
Line-up in full:
PJ Harvey, Ryan Adams, Future Islands, Michael Kiwanuka, Lambchop, Conor Oberst, Angel Olsen, BadBadNotGood, Jon Hopkins (DJ), Field Music, This is the Kit, Julia Jacklin, Fionn Regan, The Big Moon, Richard Dawson, Melt Yourself Down, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Laura Gibson, Sunflower Bean, Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band, Jessica Pratt, Karl Blau, Grumbling Fur, LVL UP, Shame, Wolf People, Big Thief, Gill Landry, Michael Chapman, Doomsquad, Deep Throat Choir, Girl Ray, Gaelynn Lea, Warhaus, The Orielles.
The Royal Mail are to release a set of David Bowie postage stamps.
The set of 10 stamps will be on sale from March 14 from either local Post Offices or online by clicking here.
The stamps will feature the album artwork for Hunky Dory, Aladdin Sane, "Heroes", Let’s Dance, Earthling and ★ as wel...
The Royal Mail are to release a set of David Bowie postage stamps.
The set of 10 stamps will be on sale from March 14 from either local Post Offices or online by clicking here.
The stamps will feature the album artwork for Hunky Dory, Aladdin Sane, “Heroes”, Let’s Dance, Earthling and ★ as well as four additional stamps of Bowie live from the 1973 Ziggy Stardust Tour, the 1978 Stage Tour, the 1983 Serious Moonlight Tour and 2004’s A Reality Tour.
The stamps will also be available as a range of limited edition sets, including a presentation pack, a First Day Cover set with the six David Bowie Special stamps and a First Day Cover set with the David Bowie live stamp sheet.
There will also be individual framed stamp and print sets, a Berlin Years souvenir cover and an Album Art fan sheet.
Next month sees the release of Lost In France - a new documentary following the rise of the Glaswegian music scene during the 1990s.
In the late 1990s, a collection of musicians from Chemikal Underground Records - among them, Franz Ferdinand, Mogwai, The Delgados and Arab Strap - hired a bus and h...
Next month sees the release of Lost In France – a new documentary following the rise of the Glaswegian music scene during the 1990s.
In the late 1990s, a collection of musicians from Chemikal Underground Records – among them, Franz Ferdinand, Mogwai, The Delgados and Arab Strap – hired a bus and headed off on a road trip to a town in rural France to play a one-off gig. Now they are headed back to relive the experience.
Featuring a mix of live performances and interviews, the film reunites key personnel in an intimate exploration of friendship, memory and making music.
Lost in France screens as a nationwide cinema event on February 21 as part of Glasgow Film Festival followed by an exclusive performance broadcast live via satellite from the Glasgow O2 ABC, featuring a supergroup including Alex Kapranos (Franz Ferdinand), Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai), RM Hubbert plus The Delgados’ Emma Pollock, Stewart Henderson and Paul Savage. You can find more information about that by clicking here.
Lambchop have shared their cover of Prince's "When You Were Mine".
The track has been recorded by the band's new live line up featuring Wye Oak's Andy Stack.
The track comes ahead of the band's sold out and only UK show tomorrow night at The Roundhouse.
https://soundcloud.com/cityslang/lambchop-w...
Lambchop have shared their cover of Prince’s “When You Were Mine“.
The track has been recorded by the band’s new live line up featuring Wye Oak’s Andy Stack.
The track comes ahead of the band’s sold out and only UK show tomorrow night at The Roundhouse.
The band released their latest album, FLOTUS, last year. You can read Uncut’s review by clicking here.
A new “intelligent turntable†that allows users to play vinyl from their smartphone is in the works.
According to its page on the Coming Soon tech website, the LOVE turntable “reads vinyl with a stylus, connects to Bluetooth & Wi-Fi, and is controlled by your smartphoneâ€. It promises â€...
A new “intelligent turntable†that allows users to play vinyl from their smartphone is in the works.
According to its page on the Coming Soon tech website, the LOVE turntable “reads vinyl with a stylus, connects to Bluetooth & Wi-Fi, and is controlled by your smartphoneâ€. It promises “the intimacy of vinyl with modern-day convenienceâ€.
A ‘how it works’ section on the site explains: “Once LOVE is synced with your audio device, put any size vinyl on one of the two complimentary 7″ record bases. LOVE then scans the vinyl to determine its size and number of tracks. If you’d like to start your listening experience with track 3, simply Press LOVE’s top shell three times or select the track through the app. From there, sit back, relax, and enjoy your record.â€
The LOVE turntable isn’t available to buy yet, but intrigued parties can sign up here to be notified when it launches, and receive a 50% discount on the eventual purchase price.
U2 bassist Adam Clayton has offered an update on the band's upcoming Joshua Tree 30th anniversary tour.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Clayton said that the group are considering playing songs from their delayed next album, Songs Of Experience, during the shows.
“It would be very much my wish that w...
U2 bassist Adam Clayton has offered an update on the band’s upcoming Joshua Tree 30th anniversary tour.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Clayton said that the group are considering playing songs from their delayed next album, Songs Of Experience, during the shows.
“It would be very much my wish that we could play something from Experience as part of the show, maybe one or two songs,†he said.
“Again, I caution that by saying we really have to see the arc of this show and we have to figure out whether those Experience songs would work well in a stadium in this context, but I’d love to see some of that material out there and people being familiar with it before the album comes out.â€
Clayton also issued an update on when fans should expect their next album release, saying: “We all very much feel like it needs to be the end of this year. It’s not on any schedule anywhere, anything like that. We’re going to get back to that later this year and polish it off and finish it off a bit more. But we think we’re there with itâ€.
“It’s not like the switch to do these Joshua Tree shows was because we needed a lot of time. It was just because it’s pretty much in the bag. We can still work on it throughout this year, all the little nips and tucks that we want to do. It’ll be a pleasure to get out there and play these Joshua Tree songs. In some ways, the experience of playing those Joshua Tree shows and those songs this summer, inevitably, couldn’t help [but] have some impact on what that record ultimately becomes when we finish work on it.â€
Father John Misty has announced details of his new album, Pure Comedy.
The record is due for release on April 7 on Bella Union in the UK/Europe and Sub Pop in America.
You can hear the title track of the album below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKrSYgirAhc&feature=youtu.be
Pure Comedy wa...
Father John Misty has announced details of his new album, Pure Comedy.
The record is due for release on April 7 on Bella Union in the UK/Europe and Sub Pop in America.
You can hear the title track of the album below.
Pure Comedy was co-produced by Josh Tillman and long-time producer Jonathan Wilson; mixed by Tillman, Wilson and Trevor Spencer, and mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering Studios.
The album features string, horn and choral arrangements from Gavin Bryars with additional contributions from Nico Muhly and Thomas Bartlett.
The Pure Comedy tracklisting is:
Pure Comedy
Total Entertainment Forever
Things It Would Have Been Helpful to Know Before the Revolution
Ballad of the Dying Man
Birdie
Leaving LA
A Bigger Paper Bag
When the God of Love Returns There’ll Be Hell to Pay
Smoochie
Two Wildly Different Perspectives
The Memo
So I’m Growing Old on Magic Mountain
In Twenty Years or So
“This record is what it’s like to never know what the fuck happens next,†is Mark Eitzel’s parting shot in our recent interview about his new album. It’s a psychological state that Eitzel’s often used as a starting point for his songs: his forensic eye toward the workaday reality of livi...
“This record is what it’s like to never know what the fuck happens next,†is Mark Eitzel’s parting shot in our recent interview about his new album. It’s a psychological state that Eitzel’s often used as a starting point for his songs: his forensic eye toward the workaday reality of living with and through love, and his understanding of the unpredictability of the interpersonal, has Eitzel as one of our most curious writers, documenting the confusion of the human condition with rare candour.
Hey Mr Ferryman was written during a complicated time for Eitzel: as he notes in our Q&A, he was shuttling between cities for much of the past few years; the songs themselves were initially recorded with Eitzel’s two bands (one in California, one in the UK), but they “needed some care and attention and so nothing really gelled,†he recalls. After connecting with producer Bernard Butler, they initially considered a simple acoustic album – “mostly because it was all we could afford.†But Butler’s perfectionist streak won out, and he took it upon himself to arrange and re-build the album, the end result, Eitzel marvels, being “the record I wanted to make all along – but simply didn’t think I could.â€
Butler is an interesting choice of collaborator: a gifted producer, writer and musician, if there’s any risk in getting him on board, it’s an occasional tendency toward the mannered, the overly polite. But he can also dress songs in remarkably sympathetic settings, and so it is with Hey Mr Ferryman; he knows when to lay it on thick, as with the opening “The Last Ten Yearsâ€, a wonderfully droll performance from Eitzel gilded into a ’70s car radio classic by Butler, but he also knows when to pull back and let Eitzel’s voice and guitar do the bulk of the work.
Indeed, it’s those acoustic performances, gently flecked with female backing vocals, keyboard arrangements, and clacking drum machines, that are the core of Hey Mr Ferryman. “Nothing And Everything†is Eitzel at his observational, unflinching best, an evening’s tale of the chill of a fraught relationship, where “night falls like a chainâ€, where dependence becomes liability, the story eventually panning out to show us a tableau of narcissistic inter-relations. Eitzel’s performance here is chillingly gentle, while Tanya Mellotte’s backing vocals suspend the song in amber.
The following “An Angel’s Wing Brushed The Penny Slots†is similarly unsettling in its frankness, though much of the charm of Eitzel’s writing here is in his canny eye for minutiae, with the meeting of the song’s protagonists made all too human by the off-hand observation, “I tried to rise to her, but the carpet I caughtâ€. Elsewhere, Eitzel turns his gaze to that most puzzling of social gatherings, the band on tour, and “The Road†is as devastating in its bluntness as it is sympathetic in its capture of the group’s character.
Opening with a scenario that’ll be familiar to anyone who’s toured – “We’re on a drive that’s never over/To play for a barman and his hateful brother†– Eitzel teases out the strange, strained suspension of reality that occurs when a group hits the road. The song’s drawn from “watching a touring band play for four people at a bar in Denton TX a few years ago,†Eitzel recalls. “It wasn’t my kind of music but they played their guts out anyway. You really have to love a touring band. You spend 23 hours trying to make one hour where time doesn’t matter.â€
‘Time doesn’t matter’ – that’s a good summary of the state that Eitzel often seems to be aiming for in his songs. The gentle melancholy of the closing “Sleep From My Eyesâ€, a love song from someone in a coma, is another case in point, though here the script flips, and time matters all too much. Either way, the beautifully rendered character portraits of Hey Mr Ferryman, shaped into gorgeous studies of sympathy by Bernard Butler’s production, are compelling in their starkness, their raw, unchecked humour, and their kindness toward people who, as Eitzel says, are looking for “something that will lead them to light and safetyâ€.
Q&A
MARK EITZEL
I remember reading somewhere that the follow-up to Don’t Be A Stranger was going to be called I Am Not A Serious Person. Obviously that’s changed…
Well yeah – I am not what you would call a serious person. Every time I take myself too seriously it ends bad – though I know recent events in the world make such frivolity annoying… My history is a bit of a burden and a lot of the writing I do now is to set up the karma so there is only goodness happening and no sour grapes.
From what I’ve read, these songs were written during a time of personal upheaval – moving a lot, travelling, performing…
I can’t complain – I had to fix up my house to rent to make some money as I am fairly unhireable at this point. So then I’m driving back and forth between LA and SF trying to keep a relationship with my partner – and so now instead of doing the job most musicians do, which is selling beer, I’m scraping paint and washing walls.
What connects the characters that populate Hey Mr Ferryman?
Ha – I have absolutely no clue. Maybe they are people who spend their time hoping that they will find a way out of the endless dark of the cave. You know? Like in the movies: Suddenly there is the sound of ‘rescuers calling out’. Or the hopeful scent of ‘fresh air’. Something that will lead them to light and safety… I’m right there with them. I’m on their side.
INTERVIEW: JON DALE
Wire have shared a new song, "Short Elevated Period", from their forthcoming album, Silver/Lead.
You can hear the song below.
https://soundcloud.com/wirehq/02-short-elevated-period
Silver/Lead is the band's 15th studio album and will be released on March 31 via pinkflag.
The Silver/Lead track li...
Wire have shared a new song, “Short Elevated Period“, from their forthcoming album, Silver/Lead.
You can hear the song below.
Silver/Lead is the band’s 15th studio album and will be released on March 31 via pinkflag.
The Silver/Lead track listing is:
Playing Harp For The Fishes
Short Elevated Period
Diamonds in Cups
Forever & A Day
An Alibi
Sonic Lens
This Time
Brio
Sleep On The Wing
Silver/Lead
Ray Davies has announced his new solo album, Americana.
His first new album in over nine years, Americana will be released via Legacy Recordings (a division of Sony Music Entertainment) on April 21.
Davies enlisted The Jayhawks as backing band, and recorded the album in London at Konk, the studio ...
Ray Davies has announced his new solo album, Americana.
His first new album in over nine years, Americana will be released via Legacy Recordings (a division of Sony Music Entertainment) on April 21.
Davies enlisted The Jayhawks as backing band, and recorded the album in London at Konk, the studio founded by The Kinks in 1973.
“There’s 15 pieces of music on this one, and I’m very pleased with it,” Davies told Uncut. “It’s based on the book, Americana, which is about coming to terms with America after being banned for four years, working our way back, starting again from nothing. It starts with the ban, which was instigated by right wing elements in America. I thought that was a bit too out of date, but recent events have made it really spot on.”
A second ‘volume’ will be released later this year.
Meanwhile, you can hear “Poetry“, from the album, below.
The tracklisting for Americana is:
Americana
The Deal
Poetry
Message From The Road
A Place In Your Heart
The Mystery Room
Silent Movie
Rock ‘N’ Roll Cowboys
Change For Change
The Man Upstairs
I’ve Heard That Beat Before
A Long Drive Home To Tarzana
The Great Highway
The Invaders
Wings Of Fantasy
There’s a scene early on in T2 Trainspotting, where Spud (Ewan Bremner) literally walks through his own memories. Standing in a familiar street in Edinburgh, he watches mesmerized as younger versions of his friends Renton (Ewan McGregor) and Sick-Boy (Jonny Lee Miller) run passed him like flicking...
There’s a scene early on in T2 Trainspotting, where Spud (Ewan Bremner) literally walks through his own memories. Standing in a familiar street in Edinburgh, he watches mesmerized as younger versions of his friends Renton (Ewan McGregor) and Sick-Boy (Jonny Lee Miller) run passed him like flicking ghosts; history unspooling before his very eyes. It is an effective device director Danny Boyle deploys sparingly – splicing scenes and images from the first Trainspotting into this, his long-awaited sequel. T2 is, after all, a film about the past – how we are beholden to it, how we try to escape it and how it shapes us. “Nostalgia, that’s why you’re here,†Sick-Boy tells Renton in another scene, though he may as well be taking to all of us. “You’re a tourist in your own youth.â€
As a filmmaker, it isn’t immediately clear why Boyle would need to revisit Trainspotting – his career has always been resolutely forward-looking. But perhaps for Boyle, like the rest of us, the lure of the past is hard to dismiss. There is considerable dramatic pull, too, in the central idea of a group of middle-aged men attempting to recapture their former glories. Boyle’s film finds his four main protagonists – Renton, Sick-Boy, Spud and Begbie – largely unchanged since the first film. This is their tragedy, of sorts. Sick-Boy plans to open a brothel with the proceeds from blackmail scams; Spud is scarred by endemic drug abuse; Begbie is in the middle of a lengthy prison sentence. Meanwhile, Renton appears to have fallen on his feet, living in Amsterdam where he sells stock management software for the retail industry.
It sounds ghastly, which is surely the point. In the first film, Renton’s famous “Choose life†monologue took aim at the dark, tranquilizing forces of capitalism – “choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openersâ€. Has Renton – with his “smug little cunty grin†– now become a model citizen, integrated into normal society? “I’m cleaning up and I’m moving on,†he promised at the end of the first film, shortly after ripping off his friends to the tune of £16,000. As T2 Trainspotting opens, events have conspired to send Renton back to Edinburgh, where he plans to somehow make amends. “So what have you been up to for the last 20 years?â€
The success of Boyle’s film is the way in which it understands the passage of time and the value of nostalgia. The four men are brought together again – but the director is keen to show the downsides of middle-aged disappointment. There is a subplot that involves transforming a pub Sick-Boy inherited from his aunt into a high-class brothel; the setting is a run down part of Leith that has so far defied gentrification. Like the four men themselves, the pub a relic of another time. “I’m 47 and I’m fucked,†Sick-Boy admits.
All this makes for an occasionally moving film. It is not quite the big oompah of seeing your favourite band reunite, for the first time in 20 years, and bash out the hits; it is something more nuanced and fleetingly melancholic than that. It is certainly McGregor’s best performance for years. Interestingly, the story is very loosely based on Irvine Welsh’s novel Porno, which imagined the lives of Trainspotting’s protagonists 10 years on. If Boyle had made this film in 2006, one assumes we would have been waiting for a convenient gap in McGregor’s schedule, or perhaps Robert Carlyle’s. As it is, fortunes change and now Miller is the bigger star here, thanks to the success of Elementary. Miller reconnects with Sick-Boy’s quick, venomous wit and provides a useful balance to McGregor’s Renton. In one of the film’s best set-pieces, the pair descend upon a Unionist pub to steal credit cards and are forced to improvise a sectarian song – a follow-up gag at ATM, pivoting around a familiar PIN number, is gleefully funny.
Elsewhere, Bremner manages to keep the hapless Spud the right side of caricature. Carlyle’s Begbie is a tougher proposition, though. In the first film, we were shocked by the extent of his violent impulses – the pint glass tossed blindly over the balcony in a busy pub. Here – still crazy after all these years – Begbie breaks out of prison and embarks on a brutal revenge mission against Renton. At the film’s climax, you might be reminded of another film called T2 – in particular the sequences where Robert Patrick’s T-1000 cyborg relentlessly pursues Edward Furlong and Linda Hamilton through the ‘burbs of Los Angeles.
The need for a suitably ‘filmy’ climax is perhaps the only slight misstep Boyle makes. He is far happier, it seems, just enjoying being back in the company of his four protagonists and perhaps less concerned with matters of plot and narrative. The best scenes involve the characters sitting in bars or Sick-Boy’s apartment, talking. Theirs is a sealed-in, masculine world; even Kelly MacDonald and Shirley Henderson barely register in what amount to disappointing cameo appearances. Will we have to wait another 20 years for a third Trainspotting film? If so, I’d imagine it being like a swearier version of Last Orders – Fred Schepisi’s film about old friends reuniting for a funeral. In the meantime, T2 Trainspotting does a good job of honouring the original while finding something new to say, after all, about its roguish anti-heroes.
Hopefully Uncut’s 101 Weirdest Records list is giving you some musical stimulation in these strange days. In case you’ve missed it thus far, you can find all the info on our weird extravaganza and the latest issue of Uncut here. Also, please get in touch and let us know your nominations for off-...
Hopefully Uncut’s 101 Weirdest Records list is giving you some musical stimulation in these strange days. In case you’ve missed it thus far, you can find all the info on our weird extravaganza and the latest issue of Uncut here. Also, please get in touch and let us know your nominations for off-piste selections we may have missed: send your personal weird favourites to our letters page via uncut_feedback@timeinc.com.
Today has been mostly dominated by racking up old Can albums into one continuous stream to celebrate the relentless genius of Jaki Liebezeit. I know mantric and improvisatory sound like opposites, but that’s what I hear when I listen to how Liebezeit drove his band with the most inventively repetitive, funky backbeat.
Before that, though, here are some of the reissues and new records I’ve been playing a fair bit, starting with Ty Segall’s “Ty Segall†on Drag City. If anyone else found Segall’s 2016 album, “Emotional Muggerâ€, something of a Devo-infatuated misstep, the garage rock maven’s second self-titled album is a reassuring retrenchment, of sorts. As with 2012’s “Slaughterhouseâ€, the vibe often suggests The Beatles turning up on Sub Pop in the late ‘80s (cf “Break A Guitarâ€), though Segall’s Lennon/McCartney channelling appears to have moved on a few years, from beat boom ramalam to White Album baroque. In this, he’s helped by an expanded band, with faithful retainers Mikal Cronin and Charles Moothart augmented by Chicago multi-disciplinarians Emmett “Cairo Gang†Kelly and Ben Boye. Pleasingly, Segall’s root wildness is enhanced rather than diffused by their jamming virtuosity: witness “Warm Hands (Freedom Returned)â€, which mutates over ten minutes from slashing grunge to a jazz-tinged freakout, distant cousin to the sort of thing keyboardist Boye has indulged in with Ryley Walker.
On the CD with the latest Uncut, you’ll find an extract from the brand new album by the Necks, “Unfoldâ€, which is great. But fans of their involving, meditative jazz trio jams shouldn’t sleep on “Climbâ€, a recent solo set by their pianist Chris Abrahams. Abrahams’ early 2016 effort was a frictional, often atonal electronica album called “Fluid To The Influenceâ€. “Climbâ€, though (his tenth solo endeavour), is a more reassuring beast, focused entirely on the sort of ravishing piano flurries that figure most prominently in his work with The Necks. It’s often tempting to see Abrahams as a Reichian minimalist, operating in an improvised music world. But the likes of “Roller†privilege a lyricism and romantic spirit that recalls Debussy as much as it does Bill Evans.
Possibly just me, but it’s tempting to imagine a record called “The Feudal Spirit†as some kind of PG Wodehouse concept album (even if it does turn up on a label uncomfortably called Poon Village). In fact, Rob Noyes’ “Feudal Spirit†is the latest dispatch from the American Primitive school of guitar-playing. As usual, “Primitive†seems a chronically inaccurate word: Noyes, from Massachusetts, is an acoustic guitarist whose take on folk traditions is delivered with a certain frenzied complexity. On the dextrously overdriven likes of “Paydirtâ€, The Feudal Spirit shapes up as one of those unvarnished solo 12-string records where you could occasionally be forgiven for thinking there are a couple of instruments duking it out in the mix. Prettiness abounds (cf “Further Offâ€), but Noyes is scrappy more often than meditative, closest perhaps to Peter Walker from the original Takoma generation. Neat Raymond Pettibon sleeve, too.
Few series have given me as much pleasure in recent years as Soul Jazz’s “New Orleans Funk†comps and, thanks to the Crescent City’s preposterous embarrassment of musical riches, there’s no drop in quality as this exceptional anthology series hits Volume 4. As is the way with Soul Jazz, the tracklisting is a nuanced mix of hits and obscurities, with a standby like Dave Bartholomew’s loping “The Monkey Speaks His Mind†(1957) (how hasn’t that one figured earlier?) sitting alongside rarer sides like Gus ‘The Groove’ Lewis’ kinetic take on JBs funk, “Let The Groove Move You†(1967).
The subtitle this time is “Voodoo Fire In New Orleansâ€, which seems pretty arbitrary: rather, Volume 4 strives to show the sheer range of what constitutes the city’s sound. Hence there’s room for James Waynes’ first, high-stepping 1951 version of the foundational “Junco Partner†(covered by James Booker, The Clash, and all points in between), as well as squelching 1975 electro-funk from Chocolate Milk, the octet who replaced The Meters as Allen Toussaint’s house band. Pushed for a highlight, though, it might just be Clifton Chenier & His Red Hot Louisiana Band’s “Party Down†(1977), as the accordionist takes his zydeco sound uptown; the sax break is a thing of wonder, all by itself. It is Gus Lewis who provides a suitable mission statement for the whole magnificent compilation: “Can you dig my band, baby?â€
My knowledge of Jerry Garcia’s extra-Dead activities is a bit sketchy, to be honest, but I have been digging the 6LP set from Garcia and Merl Saunders, “Keystone Companions: The Complete 1973 Fantasy Recordingsâ€. Of the many myths of Garcia, the most compelling might just be the one about his overwhelming compunction to play guitar more or less all the time. “The Complete 1973 Fantasy Recordings†is fluent testimony to a man in love with making music, catching Garcia filling in the nights between Grateful Dead obligations at the Keystone club in Berkeley. His chief foil is Saunders, a Hammond player who gives as good as he gets in these spectacularly amiable sessions, the bulk of which surfaced on a couple of live albums in 1973 and 1988.
Noodle sceptics may take a wide berth, but the 24 tracks here often sound as close to the MGs or the Meters, kicking back, as they do the Dead: check two stabs at “Keepersâ€, written by Saunders and bassist John Kahn. Garcia doesn’t bring any of his own songs to the party, but his gifts as an interpreter have rarely been better showcased, riffing effortlessly through “I Second That Emotionâ€, “My Funny Valentineâ€, “Mystery Train†and a couple of Dylan covers (“It Takes A Lot To Laugh…†and “Positively 4th Street”). A great showcase, too, for Garcia’s perpetually underrated vocals: his take on “The Harder They Come†is a tender triumph.
