“Real music by real peopleâ€: that’s the quote on the cover of the new edition of The History Of Rock, positioned artfully next to a picture of The Smiths. Our encyclopaedic monthly mag has reached its 20th issue, and the year under the microscope is 1984. It should be arriving in the shops on ...
“Real music by real peopleâ€: that’s the quote on the cover of the new edition of The History Of Rock, positioned artfully next to a picture of The Smiths. Our encyclopaedic monthly mag has reached its 20th issue, and the year under the microscope is 1984. It should be arriving in the shops on Thursday, but you can order a copy of History Of Rock 1984 from our online shop now. Please remember, too, that if you’ve missed any previous issues the full History Of Rock range is now in stock there.
Lots to enjoy this issue: Nina Simone and Hüsker Dü; James Brown and ZZ Top; Wham! Making mincemeat of a Melody Maker journalist. Here, anyway, is John Robinson to roll out the big welcome to The History Of Rock 1984…
“The 20 years so far covered by History Of Rock have seen action and reaction, financial successes and grassroots revolution. This year, rock remains as engaged as it needs to be during the administration of Margaret Thatcher – with its cold war, nuclear threat and high unemployment – the movement which takes place this year is actually not aggressive in character.
“More than ever, artists put their money where their mouth is to change the world for the better. In September, Paul Weller – continuing a recent philanthropic streak – and Wham! play a benefit concert for striking miners, while at the end of the year the pair join Band Aid. A collective put together by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure after viewing a news report on the Ethiopian famine, their ad hoc group of pop stars ends the year at the top of the charts, raising millions for charity.
“Musically, meanwhile, the aggressive commerciality signalled by the rise of Duran Duran now meets its characterful reaction. The likes of REM, Lloyd Cole, Prefab Sprout and our cover stars The Smiths celebrate a renewal of guitar music. Under the radar, meanwhile, a kinship develops between Black Flag, Nick Cave and The Fall – whose work is seen as much as transgressive writing as it is music. In the US, Prince and Michael Jackson engage with huge audiences in different, but no less dramatic ways.
“This is the world of The History Of Rock, a monthly magazine which follows each turn of the rock revolution. Whether in sleazy dive or huge arena, passionate and increasingly stylish contemporary reporters were there to chronicle events. This publication reaps the benefits of their understanding for the reader decades later, one year at a time. Missed one? You can find out how to rectify that here.
“In the pages of this twentieth edition, dedicated to 1984, you will find verbatim articles from frontline staffers, filed from the thick of the action, wherever it may be. In a hotel room with Morrissey. Hearing Dave Lee Roth explain why Van Halen is like a tampon. And finding out that the way to George Michael’s heart is through an aggressive interview.
“’We didn’t want to talk to Melody Maker because your hypocrisy makes us sick,’ says George. ‘You use our name on the cover and then slag us off inside. We’re only talking to you because we fancied doing a juicy interview for a change…’â€
Honest Life may be her first European release, but Courtney Marie Andrews is hardly the neophyte. The 26-year-old Arizona native has been gigging for the past decade, either alone or with others, as well as negotiating a fair amount of session activity. Perhaps the most high-profile collaboration to...
Honest Life may be her first European release, but Courtney Marie Andrews is hardly the neophyte. The 26-year-old Arizona native has been gigging for the past decade, either alone or with others, as well as negotiating a fair amount of session activity. Perhaps the most high-profile collaboration to date has been with US brat-rockers Jimmy Eat World, for whom she sang back-ups on 2010’s Invented (plus the world tour that followed) and this year’s Integrity Blues. Until recently, too, Andrews was Damien Jurado’s live guitarist.
Then there are her five prior solo albums, beginning with 2008’s Urban Myths, issued on tiny indie label, River Jones. Nevertheless, and mindful that she’s already withdrawn the first three of those, Honest Life is likely to serve as an introduction to most of us. In fact, and by her own admission, this is the record to which all roads have been leading.
The journeying metaphor happens to be a pretty apt one. Conceived in Belgium while touring with local singer Milow, Honest Life is the product of both heartache and homesickness. These are essentially break-up songs, their vulnerability made all the more acute by Andrews’ physical dislocation. But while there’s plenty of wistful candour, she doesn’t overdo the sentimental bit. It is, instead, a remarkably assured piece of work, gracefully furnished and artfully wrought.
Andrews has been eliciting lofty comparisons to Joni Mitchell back in the States. Certainly, tunes like “Irene†or “Not The End†are marked by that same crystalline glide and swoop, especially the manner in which she caresses the higher notes. Though there’s more of a quiver in Andrews’ voice that aligns her just as equitably to the late Judee Sill or, on the more countrified songs, Emmylou Harris. Like Harris, she has a natural ability to traverse folk and country with apparent ease.
Nowhere is this better illustrated than on “How Quickly Your Heart Mends†(regular readers may recognise the song from its appearance on Uncut’s 2016 Sounds Of The New West covermount CD). Over piano and pedal steel, steadied by a ticking rhythm, Andrews details the empty consolations of life with an airy elegance that leavens the song’s disconsolate mood: “The jukebox is playin’ a sad country song/For all the ugly Americans/Now I feel like one of them.†Others display a kind of stony wisdom that belies her relatively tender years. The baroque-styled “Only In My Mindâ€, her anguish cushioned by a dreamy string arrangement, suggests that we knowingly live with our own illusions, both as a comforting strategy and as protection against aspects of ourselves that we refuse to deal with. “In my mind, life was a road without any turns,†she sings, as if caught in an absent reverie. “Every chance was given/No hard lessons to be learned.â€
The other musical strand at play here is Southern soul. Andrews has assembled a backing band capable of navigating the emotional and stylistic nuances of her songs. In particular, the subtle embellishments of pianist Charles Wicklander and pedal steel player, Steve Norman. Andrew Butler’s Hammond organ gives wings to “15 Highway Linesâ€, whose sedate acoustic strum eventually makes way for a Memphis beat and a gorgeous vocal line in which Andrews truly soars. “Put The Fire Outâ€, which examines the duality between letting go and reconnecting with your roots, is similarly endowed, with its shuffling piano and sudden urgency. One of several songs that were written after Andrews returned to Seattle to bartend at a tavern, it’s about as close as she gets to closure over her romantic woes, finding succour in the company of those with a shared experience: “There’s a place for everything/And I think I know mine now/Now that I’m off this plane I think I’m ready to stay.â€
Perhaps the most intriguing thing about Honest Life is the options it presents. On this evidence, such is Andrews’ intuitive feel for disparate musical idioms that she could take a number of directions from here. She could just as easily go classic Nashville country as austere American folk. And she clearly has a great Southern soul album in her. For the time being, though, it’s enough to wallow in the possibilities.
Q&A
COURTNEY MARIE ANDREWS
You call Honest Life your coming-of-age record…
It feels like I’m at my most mature as a songwriter and finally have enough experience to make a record like this. It’s been a very therapeutic process. It’s amazing how heartbreak will change your values, how much it will shake the core of who you are and make you reassess your life. That’s where a lot of these songs about wanting to be back home came from. It’s a kind of break-up travelogue record.
Did you need to leave home in Phoenix, Arizona, in order to blossom?
Oh yeah. I’m definitely one of those people who grows very well amid change. I like to throw myself over the edge a lot of the time, just to see what happens. I’ve always thrived in that way. I’m a restless spirit, I think that’s just part of who I am. In fact, I’m currently in the process of moving from Seattle to LA. I’ve met a lot of great artists and musicians here, but I think LA is a lot more conducive to songwriters.
What’s next for you?
I’ve already started writing the next album and hope to record it in the spring, if I can nail down the time after my European tour. It’s really moving towards a soul kind of feeling, but there are also a lot of songs involving the empowerment of women. That comes from my love of Aretha Franklin and Odetta, those kinds of people. I’m already so excited about these new songs.
INTERVIEW: ROB HUGHES
Bill Callahan has announced details of a series of shows in London.
He will play six shows in Hoxton Hall where he will be joined by guitarist Matt Kinsey.
This series of shows will be the first time Callahan has played in London since his 2014 tour in support of the stunning album Dream River.
...
Bill Callahan has announced details of a series of shows in London.
He will play six shows in Hoxton Hall where he will be joined by guitarist Matt Kinsey.
This series of shows will be the first time Callahan has played in London since his 2014 tour in support of the stunning album Dream River.
Callahan will play:
Thursday 4 May
Friday 5 May Saturday 6 May – Matinee & Evening shows Sunday 7 May – Matinee & Evening shows
Tickets are available from Friday, February 3 and limited to 2 per person. You can find more info by clicking here.
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
_________________...
WYATT: It hit No 29, did it? I’m too posh to think about charts… It’s not the chart side of pop music that interests me, it’s the music itself and what it means to people. There’s a competitive edge to charts which I find very tiresome. Most of the records I liked, jazz records, probably sold about 5,000 tops, ever. I remember somebody advising me, “DJs would rather have the chorus first, if they’re going to play it on the radio.†I thought, “Hang on, wait a minute, music should be about expanding your freedoms and possibilities, not about contracting them.â€
FRITH: My brother [sociomusicologist and journalist] Simon was impressed when we appeared on Top Of The Pops! But my memory of it is mostly around the sadness and futility. Seeing The Tremeloes buttoned into awkward-looking satin suits and looking sulky and resentful as their manager told them what to do, just observing the pop game from close up. We had to be in the studio at 11am on call for rehearsal. We were hustled onstage at about 5.40pm and when we were supposed to run it through, everyone disappeared – union-mandated break – so we never actually rehearsed or had any idea what was going on.
SINCLAIR: I’d been on with Caravan in 1970, playing “If I Could Do It All Over Again…â€. It was funny doing it for Robert and his pop tune!
MASON: Pink Floyd had been on TOTP in ’67. It hardly changed from its first to last show as far as I remember. The same slightly uncomfortable dancing and some DJ shouting. We appeared with Robert two weeks running, and the second week they didn’t want us to show the wheelchair.
WYATT: The producer said, “I’m embarrassed by that wheelchair, it’s not entertaining, can you go and sit in this wicker-work thing?†I told him to fuck off, and he said, “You will never work on this programme again†– but as I just told you, I am too posh to care, frankly. I mean, I can’t wheel a wicker chair, and I need to be able to get out quick in case the cops are coming, for fuck’s sake!
FRITH: Richard Branson went out and bought an antique wheelchair, and insisted that if the BBC was going to object to Robert’s wheelchair, they surely couldn’t object to this beautiful antique version. The whole thing was irrational to the point of absurdity, but Richard insisted and won the day, making the BBC look extremely foolish in the process. And, of course, Ian MacDonald made sure there was a picture in the NME afterwards.
WYATT: We were on the cover of the NME, all in wheelchairs, it looked great – most of us who played at my Drury Lane concert are on there, Mongezi Feza’s just behind Julie Tippetts, and Mike Oldfield is there. Nick Mason’s face is stuck on. It was a real laugh doing it, although there were, I believe, people who wrote to the NME saying it was a bit tasteless… I can’t think why. I thought it was a very good idea. Especially on steps – wheelchairs on steps are dangerous, they’re rubbish! There are people in wheelchairs and with other disabilities, who I know from letters and so on, who were very encouraged that far from my career as a musician being over, it actually got much stronger in terms of my contribution to it. But there were others who thought that I should have been more militant and proactive in terms of disability rights and so on. And I accept that, but the fact is I’m not a professional cripple, I’m still just a musician.
FRITH: I remember almost nothing about Drury Lane [Sept 8, 1974], except being told which movie stars were in the audience. But listening to it now, I almost prefer the live version of “I’m A Believerâ€!
WYATT: It made a good encore, it was a good laugh. We had Julie Tippetts singing, Mike Oldfield and Fred fiddling away at guitars, two drummers, Laurie Allan and Nick Mason, and Hugh Hopper on bass. And Gary Windo and Mongezi Feza doing little horn parts. Dave Stewart was on the organ, and he came up with that live fairground coda, and it’s funny, because it was Drury Lane which, of course, 150 years beforehand, had music exactly like that.
MASON: That was the only time the song was performed – unless you count The Monkees. I remember it being fun, there were a lot of people who were fond of Robert there. It was very much a one-off show, and they’re difficult as they’re always under-rehearsed, but it was fun.
WYATT: My follow-up single was “Yesterday Manâ€, a song by Chris Andrews. We never pretended to be reggae but it was obviously influenced by that feel, which was very much the heartbeat of London around that time.
MASON: Did I produce that? Right. I can’t remember what happened to that.
WYATT: The boss of Virgin said it was a bit “lugubriousâ€. I thought, ‘Oh, that sounds good,’ and I looked in the dictionary, and it isn’t. He wouldn’t put it out. I wouldn’t have minded, but I had to pay for the recording. If you sold millions like dear Mike Oldfield did, then you still got a lot of money, but if you only sold, what did I sell in the end? 50,000? I’d never get any of that back because of the cost of the second LP and so on… So I just said I can’t do this stuff with Virgin anymore. So they said, “Well, you’re not doing anything with anyone else.†So I didn’t for a while, I just went into politics. But there’s no money in that, of course – it’s mostly charity donations at the Morning Star bazaar, so that’s not making a living, is it? I like pop music, but that show side of it, I can’t be bothered. When you get to a certain profile in pop, you’re told what to do and you have to fit into a format, and that was completely alien to me. So I couldn’t have been a pop musician, really. I started out playing pop songs, but we made our own rules and did what we liked. No-one was gonna be pushed around by any of these people.
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
