St Vincent releases her self-titled fourth album on Monday (February 24) – here, from the Uncut archives (October 2012, Take 185), is a reminder of Annie Clark’s last project – Love This Giant, created with David Byrne. Gather round, then, as Byrne and Clark reveal the secrets of a successful art-rock team-up, swish parties at the French Ambassador’s residence, and being “allergic to cymbals”... Words: Peter Shapiro___________________
Avatar has much to answer for. Blue-skinned aliens aside, James Cameron’s film was famously heralded (at least by the PR team) as the future of cinema – a digital epic to change the shape of the modern blockbuster.
In celebration of Neil Young’s triple appearance in our review of 2012 (Americana and Psychedelic Pill in our top 50 albums and Waging Heavy Peace in our top 20 books of the year), here’s a look back at an unusually revealing interview with Neil Young (from our September 2007 issue, Take 127) – taking in car graveyards, his mother’s ashes and the truth about Archives and Chrome Dreams… “The Great Spirit has been good to me,” he says. Words: Jaan Uhelszki
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How many fans were aghast over the weekend to hear via the American broadcaster NBC that Neil Young had just died and unknown to many of them had also been the first man to set foot on the moon? Neil has been many things down the years, of course, but his secret history as an astronaut would have been news to everyone, including him.
Jack White has revealed he has an ambition to play the first ever vinyl record in outer space.
The former White Stripes man was speaking to astronaut Buzz Aldrin in a feature for Interview Magazine and told Aldrin, who was the second ever man to walk on the moon, that he is working on a "secret project" to get one of the songs on his Third Man Records label to be the "first vinyl record played in outer space".
Bob Dylan will be rewarded with a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor given by the United States, according to a report in the New York Times.
The White House said in a statement that President Obama had named 13 recipients of the medal, which is granted to “individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”
Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon has formed a brand new, hip hop inspired band.
Vernon has joined forces with rapper Astronautilis and the pair recorded an entire album last weekend, ahead of Bon Iver's sets at this weekend (April 13-15) and next's (April 20-22) Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California.
City Pages, via Stereogum, reports that the record also features Bon Iver drummer S. Carey and has been produced by Ryan Olson, with the new band working at Vernon's own April Base studio in Wisconsin.
