This Friday - September 23 - sees the release of David Bowie's new box set, Who Can I Be Now? (1974 – 1976).
A twelve CD box, thirteen-piece vinyl set and digital download that features all of the material officially released by Bowie during the ‘American’ phase of his career from 1974 to 197...
A twelve CD box, thirteen-piece vinyl set and digital download that features all of the material officially released by Bowie during the ‘American’ phase of his career from 1974 to 1976.
The box set includes Diamond Dogs, David Live (in original and 2005 mixes), The Gouster, Young Americans, Station To Station (in original and 2010 mixes), Live Nassau Coliseum 76 and a new compilation, RE:CALL 2, which collects single versions and non-album B-sides. You can pre-order the CD or vinyl set by clicking here.
To mark this momentous release, we’ve got six goody bags to give away.
Each goody bag includes: one slip mat, one tote bag and one t-shirt (please specify in your entry whether you’d like XL, L or M).
An army brat who claimed to sell Nazi paraphernalia for morphine. A delinquent who dropped TV sets off roofs. A gangling freak with OCD. And even a quietly organised music obsessive... On their 40th anniversary, Uncut pieces together the complete story of the Ramones. Or: how the four weirdest kids ...
Marc Bell was thrown in at the deep end. “I had to learn 40 songs in two weeks,” he remembers. “We did Road To Ruin, then we made Rock’n’Roll High School, then we did the Phil Spector album, all in 18 months. What Tommy was doing is what Ringo did in The Beatles but faster. I had to bring what I knew into the songs that Tommy couldn’t because he wasn’t a drummer. There were players like Van Halen coming out and they needed a stronger backbone.”
1978’s Road To Ruin was the first album credited as an Erdelyi-Stasium co-production and it showed the band beginning to explore new areas in search of that elusive hit. “We were trying for something a little more commercial,” agrees Erdelyi. “We added some country elements and acoustic guitar. We did what we thought were radio-friendly songs – ‘Questioningly’ and ‘Don’t Come Close’ – which the radio completely ignored.” Again, the songs were superb – “I Wanna Be Sedated” is among their very finest – but after another flop Johnny Ramone put on a brave face: “I don’t feel desperate. Although I don’t feel like waiting another two years to get big.”
Sire – now owned by Warner Bros – were also getting anxious. Ed Stasium first sensed something was afoot when he went to Los Angeles to mix the title song for their B-movie Rock’n’Roll High School. “I went to the studio and Tommy wasn’t around,” he says. “Johnny just said, ‘Tommy’s not coming.’”
It was a sign of things to come. When the Ramones recorded End Of The Century, their fifth album, there was a new face in the studio. “Phil Spector wanted to produce the Ramones ever since he saw them at the Whisky in 1977,” explains Stasium. “He was always calling Seymour and it got to a point where the band couldn’t say no. Joey wanted to do it, Johnny was more wary, but they’d had no success selling records or getting on the radio.”
While Stasium, on Johnny’s insistence, was in LA working with Spector as “musical director”, Erdelyi didn’t get the call. The band’s chief architect had been ditched. He remains phlegmatic: “The record company decided that to get a hit, they needed a hit producer. I didn’t have a problem with that. I felt lucky we still had a label. I didn’t do anything with the band again until the mid-1980s. It was rough, but that’s the way it was.”
At the same time, Fields and Linda Stein’s management contract was not renewed. The band, perhaps blindly, were looking for anything that could break their bad luck. In some ways, Fields and Erdelyi had a lucky escape. The End Of The Century sessions were legendary for Spector’s bizarre behaviour, which was too much even for the Ramones. “Phil would make us do take after take and then listen back for an hour at excruciating volume while he stamped his feet and swore,” recalls Stasium. “It was so loud he couldn’t talk so had this sign language worked out with his engineer – like if he wanted reverb he’d slap his tongue. He’d listen to tapes on playback 300 times. He’d pick up the phone and yell at imaginary people. There was a Nice Phil and Evil Phil. Nice Phil would be casually dressed with glasses and a paperboy hat, like Lennon in A Hard Day’s Night. Then he’d disappear for 45 minutes and Evil Phil would come back, with sunglasses and a wig, Beatle boots, a purple jacket… and a cape.” One evening, Spector refused to let the band leave his mansion, making them repeatedly watch an Anthony Hopkins film, Magic. “He didn’t want people to leave, he was lonely,” says Stasium, who, along with Marc Bell, refutes the claim that Spector pulled a gun on the band. “I saw no gunplay,” confirms Stasium. “Nobody pointed a gun at anybody,” agrees Bell.
Johnny took things particularly badly, infuriated with the way Spector fawned over Joey while making Johnny play the same chord hour after hour. “John thought Phil was busting his balls,” admits Bell. “He wasn’t, he wanted a certain feedback sound. Phil was meticulous; the Ramones were quick but this was Phil Spector and this was how he worked. Johnny tried to be in control and when he was belittled he couldn’t take it. But Phil wasn’t his girlfriend, Johnny couldn’t push him around, and Seymour was paying the bill. Me and Joey understood that, Dee Dee and Johnny didn’t.”
After a week, Johnny threatened to return to New York and Stasium called Seymour Stein to arrange a summit. “We met in Joey’s room at the Tropicana,” reveals Stasium. “Phil took his bodyguard in case Johnny jumped him. I told Phil that Johnny couldn’t work like that and Phil gave in. After that, things went a lot quicker.”
Despite the hours in the studio, Stasium says, “Phil didn’t do anything. The arrangements were the same as on the demos. Phil’s presence is really felt on the mixing, with tons of reverb and handclaps.” Spector was convinced it would be the biggest record of his career, but when Stasium heard the finished album he “was shocked. It didn’t sound like any Ramones I’d heard before. In retrospect, what Phil did in the mix had a certain charm but I don’t think it represents them as they should be represented. Johnny wanted to remix it, de-Spectorise it. That was his final wish, get Phil’s stuff off and make it a Ramones record.”
________________________
End Of The Century was the band’s best-selling album but still didn’t give them an American hit and remains an oddity. “Do You Remember Rock’n’Roll Radio?” points to a more mature take on the signature Ramones sound, “Chinese Rock” has real bite, while the stunning cover of “Baby, I Love You” could come from a Joey Ramone solo album, itself a bone of contention for Johnny, who feared being sidelined. There is, though, too much forgettable material on the record; a sign, perhaps, that the Ramones were reaching some kind of plateau. Starved of chart success but with an increasingly fanatical fanbase, the band had painted themselves into a corner. “Their concept was so firm they had to become that concept,” is how Lenny Kaye sees it. Things got worse when Joey’s girlfriend, Linda, started seeing Johnny. They eventually married. Joey and Johnny didn’t speak for the rest of their lives. There is, on End Of The Century, a particular poignant song, “Danny Says”, which begins with Joey referencing their former manager. “That song isn’t really about me,” admits Fields. “It’s a love story Joey wrote to Linda. It’s a poisoned song and I get introduced as the person it is about. Well, it’s not about me, I had nothing to do with the fucking album and it’s about a love affair that turned into a tragedy.”
When the Ramones came out of Spector’s studio, relationships were damaged and loyal companions cast aside. The ’80s and ’90s would be a long, hard slog for a band that continued to release albums but had more or less given up on chart success. They instead focused on playing to adoring fans in Europe, South America and Japan, never deviating from the purity, the audacious simplicity, of that original vision. Of that, Erdelyi remains proud. “Through my life, I came up with a lot of ideas,” he says, “but this one not only happened, it worked out better than I could ever have imagined.”
The Ramones split in 1996 and affirmation would arrive when they were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2002. In 2003, they featured in a documentary, End Of The Century. By then, Joey was gone, dying of lymphoma in 2001. Dee Dee and Johnny followed within three years.
“They wanted to be on Top 10 radio, and maybe they should have done, but in the long term they are revered in the iconography of rock’n’roll,” says Lenny Kaye. “With their very short songs they brought everything back down to ground zero, in the same way The Stooges had performed that alchemical reduction in form. Because it was so easy to play and understand, it was incredibly infectious. They made a load of great albums and their sound went around the world.”
A bit late due to lightning strikes and logistical difficulties, as well as the usual litany of excuses, but have a go at this lot. Featured new arrivals would be: the amazing Kim Gordon, with a focus and immediacy that reminds me of the "Dirty" era, maybe; Brigid Mae Power, making spectral currency...
A bit late due to lightning strikes and logistical difficulties, as well as the usual litany of excuses, but have a go at this lot. Featured new arrivals would be: the amazing Kim Gordon, with a focus and immediacy that reminds me of the “Dirty” era, maybe; Brigid Mae Power, making spectral currency out of an old Irish folk song; the new Loscil, occupying as it does a space between Pole and Tim Hecker; Daniel Bachman and Wooden Wand conducting an impromptu drone jam on the theme of “War Pigs”; and an incantatory live set from my current favourite band, 75 Dollar Bill.
There’s a track by 75 Dollar Bill on the free CD that comes with the next issue of Uncut, out next Tuesday in the UK but heading the way of subscribers this weekend, with a prevailing wind. Look out in there, too, for a terrific review by Jason Anderson of Leonard Cohen’s “You Want It Darker”. After living with this one for a couple of weeks I feel, at the very least, it’s my favourite of his 21st Century records. I’d be interested to know what you think, when you’ve heard it yourselves…
Follow me on Twitter @JohnRMulvey
1 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree (Bad Seed)
2 Kim Gordon – Murdered Out (Matador)
3 Brigid Mae Power – My Lagan Love (Tompkins Square)
The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1 and The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 3 will be reissued on 180 gram vinyl on October 4 as part of Record Store Day’s Vinyl Tuesday.
The release will be supported by a giveaway at recordstoreday.com with a rare and uniquely numbered Traveling Wilbury portfolio prints.
T...
The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1 and The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 3 will be reissued on 180 gram vinyl on October 4 as part of Record Store Day’s Vinyl Tuesday.
The release will be supported by a giveaway at recordstoreday.com with a rare and uniquely numbered Traveling Wilbury portfolio prints.
The limited-edition portfolio includes seven prints of the band on 100# Strathmore Pastelle.
CDs will arrive on October 14.
The track Listing for both albums is:
The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1 Handle With Care
Dirty World
Rattled
Last Night
Not Alone Any More
Congratulations
Heading For The Light
Margarita
Tweeter And The Monkey Man
End Of The Line Maxine (CD Bonus Track) Like A Ship (CD Bonus Track)
The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 3 She’s My Baby
Inside Out
If You Belonged To Me
The Devil’s Been Busy
7 Deadly Sins
Poor House
Where Were You Last Night?
Cool Dry Place
New Blue Moon
You Took By Breath Away
Wilbury Twist Nobody’s Child (CD Bonus Track) Runaway (CD Bonus Track)
Dead Can Dance have announced details of their next wave of reissues.
Garden Of The Arcane Delights (both a double LP and CD so to now include both the band’s John Peel Sessions), Within The Realm Of A Dying Sun and Toward The Within will all be reissued by 4AD on November 11.
This latest batch ...
Dead Can Dance have announced details of their next wave of reissues.
Garden Of The Arcane Delights (both a double LP and CD so to now include both the band’s John Peel Sessions), Within The Realm Of A Dying Sun and Toward The Within will all be reissued by 4AD on November 11.
This latest batch follow on from Dead Can Dance, Spleen And Ideal and Into The Labyrinth, which were reissued earlier this year.
Garden Of The Arcane Delights, an EP, is expanded to include a second disc compiling both of the band’s sessions for John Peel, recorded in the same time period. A CD edition is also being manufactured.
Garden Of The Arcane Delights
A1. Carnival Of Light
A2. In Power We Entrust The Love Advocated
B1. The Arcane
B2. Flowers Of The Sea
The John Peel Sessions
C1. Instrumental (1983 Peel Session)
C2. Labour Of Love (1983 Peel Session)
C3. Ocean (1983 Peel Session)
C4. Threshold (1983 Peel Session)
D1. Flowers Of The Sea (1984 Peel Session)
D2. Penumbra (1984 Peel Session)
D3. Panacea (1984 Peel Session)
D4. Carnival Of Light (1984 Peel Session)
Within The Realm Of A Dying Sun
A1. Anywhere Out Of The World
A2. Windfall
A3. In The Wake Of Adversity
A4. Xavier
B1. Dawn Of The Iconoclast
B2. Cantara
B3. Summoning Of The Muse
B4. Persephone (The Gathering Of Flowers)
Toward The Within
A1. Rakim
A2. Persian Love Song
A3. Desert Song
A4. Yulunga (Spirit Dance)
B1. Piece For Solo Flute
B2. The Wind That Shakes The Barley
B3. I Am Stretched On Your Grave
C1. I Can See Now
C2. American Dreaming
C3. Cantara
C4. Oman
D1. Song Of The Sibyl
D2. Tristan
D3. Sanvean
D4. Don’t Fade Away
Lambchop and filmmaker Bill Morrison have shared The Dockworker’s Dream, a film collaboration soundtracked by "The Hustle" from the band’s forthcoming album, FLOTUS.
The Dockworker’s Dream is constructed entirely from archival footage—specifically, material collected at Cinemateca Portugues...
Lambchop and filmmaker Bill Morrison have shared The Dockworker’s Dream, a film collaboration soundtracked by “The Hustle” from the band’s forthcoming album, FLOTUS.
The Dockworker’s Dream is constructed entirely from archival footage—specifically, material collected at Cinemateca Portuguesa.
Kurt Wagner says: “I think both Bill and I understand the power of things being less than black-and-white when it comes to narrative in black-and-white films. He is most poetic in his ability to edit such specific archival images into something moving and lasting. In some ways, my method is the same in that the things I write about are rarely fictitious. Just notes taken from life woven into song.”
Morrison says: “I’d been following Lambchop since the mid-1990s and was thrilled to meet Kurt, and to hang out with him. Mario Micaelo, director of the Portuguese film festival Curtas Vila do Conde, approached us one night with the idea of our doing a collaboration for Curtas 2015, and we both agreed. During the summer of 2014, Mario and I visited the Cinemateca Portuguesa, where I selected the source material for The Dockworker’s Dream. Once we had the material in hand, Kurt and I exchanged edits to create the film.
“The Dockworker’s Dream developed from the idea that the archive is a port of call, a place where goods are loaded and unloaded and held until a dockworker carries them off. In some ways, the imagery is a metaphor for our process. As a film researcher and editor, I find myself seeking out hidden or elusive film material. In the film, there is the voyage, the expedition—and the hunt: we hunt these rare films in order to bring them back alive so that they can live, for awhile longer, on the screen.”
A special collectible 6LP 12" vinyl edition, Lou Reed - The RCA & Arista Vinyl Collection, Vol 1 will be available on Friday, November 18.
Each of the six album titles will be pressed on high fidelity 150 gram vinyl and housed in a meticulous facsimile reproduction of the album's original packa...
A special collectible 6LP 12″ vinyl edition, Lou Reed – The RCA & Arista Vinyl Collection, Vol 1 will be available on Friday, November 18.
Each of the six album titles will be pressed on high fidelity 150 gram vinyl and housed in a meticulous facsimile reproduction of the album’s original packaging including a 30 page book.
The albums are: Transformer (1972), Berlin (1973), Rock n Roll Animal (1974), Coney Island Baby (1975), Street Hassle (1978) and The Blue Mask (1982). The set is available now for pre-order by clicking here.
Also available, the 17-disc deluxe box set anthology compiles 16 albums from 1972 to 1986, remastered under Reed’s personal supervision, Lou Reed – The RCA & Arista Album Collection is released on October 7.
Have you ever been experienced? Well, we have. For our latest Ultimate Music Guide, we've turned our attention to the life and work of Jimi Hendrix. It is, I think, one of the most handsome and useful editions we've ever done: you'll find it on sale in the UK on Thursday, but you can order the Jimi ...
Have you ever been experienced? Well, we have. For our latest Ultimate Music Guide, we’ve turned our attention to the life and work of Jimi Hendrix. It is, I think, one of the most handsome and useful editions we’ve ever done: you’ll find it on sale in the UK on Thursday, but you can order the Jimi Hendrix Ultimate Music Guide from our online store now.
As usual, we’ve combed the NME and Melody Maker archives for those rare, cherishable Hendrix interviews; interviews in which he betrayed a gentle modesty and open-heartedness and inadvertently provided terrible intimations of his own mortality.
There’s an especially poignant one from a February, 1969 issue of Melody Maker. Bob Dawbarn is paying a house call to Jimi Hendrix at 23 Brooke Street, next door to GF Handel’s old place. On gaining entrance to the sanctuary, the assiduous Dawbarn notes a rubber rat, a stuffed panda and “a teddy bear in the last stages of malnutrition hung from a nail in the wall”. There is a gong near the bed, a vase full of feathers, multitudes of guitars and Hendrix himself, drinking tea and philosophising about how art evolves after the artist dies.
“It’s funny the way most people love the dead,” he tells the reporter. “Once you are dead you are made for life. You have to die before they think you are worth anything. I tell you, when I die I’m not going to have a funeral, I’m going to have a jam session. And knowing me, I’ll probably get busted at my own funeral.”
In just over 18 months, of course, Hendrix was dead, and rock’s longest and most complicated posthumous campaign rolled into action. For this Ultimate Music Guide, we’ve hopefully proved ourselves equal to the challenges of Hendrix’s labyrinthine catalogue. Over the 124 pages, you’ll find new reviews of the landmark albums made by Hendrix during his lifetime, and forensic guides to the often confusing albums released after his death.
“Nobody cages me,” Hendrix tells NME in 1969. Here, then, is the whole story of a genius and his legacy: from Club Wha? and The Scotch Of St James to Monterey and the Isle Of Wight, via riots in Zurich, go-kart tracks in Majorca, Electric Ladyland and a remote corner of Woodstock.
Kim Gordon has released a new song, "Murdered Out", which you can hear below.
"When I moved back to LA I noticed more and more cars painted with black matte spray, tinted windows, blackened logos, and black wheels," says Gordon in a statement accompanying the release. "This was something I had occa...
Kim Gordon has released a new song, “Murdered Out“, which you can hear below.
“When I moved back to LA I noticed more and more cars painted with black matte spray, tinted windows, blackened logos, and black wheels,” says Gordon in a statement accompanying the release. “This was something I had occasionally seen in the past, part of low-rider car culture. A reclaiming of a corporate symbol of American success, The Car, from an outsider’s point of view. A statement-making rejection of the shiny brand new look, the idea of a new start, the promise of power, and the freedom on the open road. Like an option on a voting ballot, ‘none of the above.'”
“’Murdered Out’, as a look, is now creeping into mainstream culture as a design trend. A coffee brand. A clothing line. A nail polish color.
“Black-on-black matte is the ultimate expression in digging out, getting rid of, purging the soul. Like a black hole, the supreme inward look, a culture collapsing in on itself, the outsider as an unwilling participant as the ‘It’ look.”
“I met the uber talented Justin Raisen, the producer, offhandedly. He was working on a project with another artist and kept sending me tracks to listen to with the possibility of getting me to sing on one of them. When I learned I could make up my own lyrics, I was in. With the remaining bits of unused vocals, he started what would be ‘Murdered Out’. Stella Mozgawa (Warpaint) plays drums, based on the trashy drums that Justin first laid down. I went back and did more vocals and guitar and we mixed it… ‘Murdered Out’ was such a great surprise! Looking forward to our next collaboration.”
Ty Segall covered Neil Young's "Down By The River" during his set at Los Angeles' Teragram Ballroom show over the weekend.
He was joined by Mikal Cronin; you can watch the footage below.
Pitchfork reports that the concert was a benefit fundraiser for LA venue the Smell, which received a demolition...
Ty Segall covered Neil Young‘s “Down By The River” during his set at Los Angeles’ Teragram Ballroom show over the weekend.
He was joined by Mikal Cronin; you can watch the footage below.
Pitchfork reports that the concert was a benefit fundraiser for LA venue the Smell, which received a demolition notice earlier this year.
Roy Orbison's first career-spanning anthology is due for release on October 28.
The 26-track Ultimate Collection runs from his early recordings for Sun Records and Monument Records through his time at MGM and his membership of the Traveling Wilburys.
The set has been compiled by Orbison's sons, Al...
Roy Orbison‘s first career-spanning anthology is due for release on October 28.
The 26-track Ultimate Collection runs from his early recordings for Sun Records and Monument Records through his time at MGM and his membership of the Traveling Wilburys.
The set has been compiled by Orbison’s sons, Alex, Wesley and Roy Jr. In a statement quoted by Rolling Stone, Alex Orbison said, “It is a great honour for me and my brothers, Wesley and Roy Jr., to finally and definitively distill our father’s entire career onto a single disc as best one can possibly do and, certainly, as never done before. It is the result of years of research, archiving and listening, and it is with supreme and heartfelt pleasure that we will be able to share it with the world.”
The Ultimate Collection is released as a single CD or double vinyl.
Bruce Springsteen has announced a a tour to promote his autobiography, Born To Run.
Springsteen will make a series of appearances at bookstores around the US this autumn, following the release of the memoir on September 27.
The tour begins in his hometown of New Jersey and includes dates in New Yo...
Bruce Springsteen has announced a a tour to promote his autobiography, Born To Run.
Springsteen will make a series of appearances at bookstores around the US this autumn, following the release of the memoir on September 27.
The tour begins in his hometown of New Jersey and includes dates in New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Springsteen discussed his reasons for writing the biography in a recent interview with Vanity Fair. “I had to find the roots of my own troubles and issues,” he explained, “and the joyful things that have allowed me to put on the kind of shows that we put on.”
Born To Run will be accompanied by a compilation album Chapter and Verse, which includes five new tracks.
Born To Run book tour dates:
Freehold, NJ, Barnes & Noble (September 27)
New York, NY, Barnes & Noble Union Square (28)
Philadelphia, PA, Free Library of Philadelphia (29)
Seattle, WA, Elliott Bay Book Company (October 1)
Los Angeles, CA, Barnes & Noble at The Grove (3)
Portland, OR, Powell’s City of Books (4)
San Francisco, CA, City Arts & Lectures (5)
New York, NY, The New Yorker Festival (7)
Cambridge, MA, The Harvard Coop (10)
Bon Iver have announced a European tour - their first since 2012 - taking place across January and February 2017.
A full list of dates - which includes shows at London's Roundhouse and Eventim Apollo Hammersmith - can be found below.
Before these dates, Justin Vernon, The National's Aaron and Bryc...
Bon Iver have announced a European tour – their first since 2012 – taking place across January and February 2017.
A full list of dates – which includes shows at London’s Roundhouse and Eventim Apollo Hammersmith – can be found below.
Before these dates, Justin Vernon, The National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner and others will be curating a two-day music event at Funkhaus in Berlin on October 1 and 2. Over 80 artists will feature, including all members of Bon Iver, POLIÇA, Alt-J, Nils Frahm and The Staves.
Bon Iver’s new album – 22, A Million – is released on September 30 on Jagjaguwar. Check www.www.uncut.co.uk for more Bon Iver news soon.
Bon Iver will play:
January 22 – Paris, FR @ Le Zenith
January 23 – Utrecht, NL @ TivoliVredenburg
January 24 – Frankfurt, DE @ Jahrhunderthalle
January 25 – Zurich, CH @ Samsung Hall
January 27 – Luxembourg, LU @ Rockhal
January 29 – Oslo, NO @ Spektrum
January 30 – Stockholm, SE @ Cirkus
January 31 – Stockholm, SE @ Cirkus
February 2 – Copenhagen, DK @ The Grey Hall
February 03 – Copenhagen, DK @ The Grey Hall
February 05 – Hamburg, DE @ Mehr! Theatre
February 06 – Berlin, DE @ Tempodrom
February 08 – Brussels, BE @ Forest National
February 10 – Blackpool, UK @ Empress Ballroom
February 12 – Edinburgh, UK @ Playhouse Theatre
February 13 – Edinburgh, UK @ Playhouse Theatre
February 15 – London, UK @ Roundhouse
February 16 – London, UK @ Roundhouse
February 19 – London, UK @ Eventim Apollo Hammersmith
It’s a small moment, but a telling one: nearly two minutes into “More Than Ever”, a fraught song about love gone horrifically and perhaps therefore hilariously wrong, Lydia Loveless lets out a chuckle, a short, sharp exhalation of breath, before delivering the next line, “But if self-control...
It’s a small moment, but a telling one: nearly two minutes into “More Than Ever”, a fraught song about love gone horrifically and perhaps therefore hilariously wrong, Lydia Loveless lets out a chuckle, a short, sharp exhalation of breath, before delivering the next line, “But if self-control is what you want, I’d have to break all of my fingers off.” It’s a wonderfully unscripted moment, nothing likely to appear in the lyrics sheet for her third album, Real, but that sly “huh” carries as much meaning as the actual words: that Loveless has seen love go bad before, that she is no stranger to a sexual desire that ignores reason and self-preservation, that she can find some humour in her failings, that she’d remove every last digit if that’s what it takes. Most crucially, that chuckle reveals that Loveless has become as ingenious a singer as she is a songwriter.
Few songwriters in any genre are chronicling the vagaries and vulgarities of commitment with as much wit as this Ohio native, and few singers are bending notes and breaking syllables with as much soulful self-abnegation. After recording her debut LP at 15, Loveless signed with venerable alt.country label Bloodshot for 2012’s Indestructible Machine and 2014’s Somewhere Else, and with each record has sharpened her language as well as her observations. Real is even smarter, even more precise in its insights and even more merciless in its hard truths. In other words, it’s her best yet.
Similarly, with each record, Loveless (now in her mid-twenties) and her road-tested backing band have been gradually and self-assuredly moving away from the slick production of her first album and the hard-knuckle alt.country of her second towards a kind of Midwestern rock sound: all rough edges, slurred delivery, industrial guitars, torn hose, smeared lipstick. This is an album where it’s always 2am on a bad night, where every song is set in an empty bedroom or a crowded club. The guitars chime and churn rather than twang, kicking up a kind of flyover-state jangle that’s sympathetic one minute, jeering the next, and producer Joe Viers underlines everything with a bed of austere synths.
This country-not-country palette allows Loveless to be just as adventurous musically as she is lyrically. “Heaven” builds off an earworm bassline that jabs at the listener, as though shadowboxing, while Loveless adds a compact and sharply barbed hook that’s as catchy as it is fatalistic: “Paradise is for the weak, man/No-one goes to heaven!” Later, she strips everything down to guitars and some industrial machinery on “Out On Love”, one of her best and most devastating performances.
At this point it’s almost redundant to say that Loveless’ songwriting on Real is sharp, economical and wickedly funny. She’s always had a gift for precision, unspooling complex scenes in just a few lines. On first single “Longer”, she admits, “Burned the breakfast again/Don’t know what I’m doing, something I saw on TV.” You get the impression of a woman with enough time on her hands to watch food porn but not enough to get the recipe right. And she sneaks in that “again” to let you know this isn’t the first time she’s set off the smoke detector.
That’s the remarkable irony of Loveless as a singer-songwriter: she never sounds quite as strong or quite as confident as she does when she’s at her weakest. She provokes fights with friends, takes back cheating lovers, falls for the wrong guy over and over again, and generally does all the things she knows she shouldn’t do. Real is a catalogue of bad decisions and questionable actions, yet she sounds most comfortable when she’s at loose ends, whether she’s peeping through an ex’s window on “European” or contemplating calling up a married man on “Desire”. Oddly enough, Loveless has explained that the album and its title were inspired by a newfound confidence in herself, an acceptance of her own and others’ faults. Happiness has softened a lot of songwriters, but she is wisely suspicious of contentment, as much for emotional as for creative reasons. So even a song like “Bilbao”, with its devotional chorus – “Marry me, there’s nowhere in the world I would rather be” – is shot through with melancholy and loss, a dread not of the end of happiness but the surrendering of self. Loveless knows you lose a little something of yourself to any lover, but she’s fighting to have it both ways and answering the world with a resounding chuckle.
Q+A
Lydia Loveless
As a vocalist, how do you get in the right headspace to convey the complex emotions in these songs?
I wish I could say I was capable of routines. In the past, I was too eager to get as much shit done in one day as possible, but now I realise if I want to sound my best, I need to sleep more and actually focus on my voice. Maybe this isn’t news to a lot of artists. Also, Throat Coat tea. And good-luck American flag bandanas.
You’ve been gradually moving away from alt.country…
I’d say it’s a natural progression. I go back and forth so constantly with what I like to play. It’s a mood thing. I was just in a very poppy headspace. Right now I’m a little sadder, so I’m writing more folk stuff lately. I want to be known as a songwriter, not a “honkytonk whiskey-guzzlin’ princess” or whatever.
What’s it like to live with such personal and dark songs and play them night after night? Is it exhausting or cathartic?
These songs are the only things that get me through, so I would say cathartic. Without them all I would have to look back on is the horrible emotions and behaviours from the time period in which I was writing them. I was in a dark, dark place, and I’m ready to come out of that phase and hold these songs up like, “Yeah! I lived! And I’m better now.”
INTERVIEW: STEPHEN DEUSNER
David Bowie's final studio recordings will be released on the Lazarus Cast Album on October 21 on ISO / RCA Records.
The three songs, “No Plan”, “Killing A Little Time” and “When I Met You”, also appear in Lazarus. They have been co-produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti and recorded with ...
David Bowie‘s final studio recordings will be released on the Lazarus Cast Album on October 21 on ISO / RCA Records.
The three songs, “No Plan”, “Killing A Little Time” and “When I Met You”, also appear in Lazarus. They have been co-produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti and recorded with Donny McCaslin and his quartet, the same band that played on Bowie’s ★ album.
The artwork for the Lazarus cast recording has been designed by Jonathan Barnbrook who also worked with Bowie on the ★, The Next Day, Heathen and Nothing Has Changed albums.
The album will be released as a 2CD / 3LP set. Pre-order from September 16 will include instand downloads of the cast recordings, “Life On Mars?” and “Lazarus”.
The tracklisting for Lazarus is:
CD 1: Hello Mary Lou (Goodbye Heart) – Ricky Nelson Lazarus – Michael C. Hall & Original New York Cast of Lazarus It’s No Game – Michael C. Hall, Lynn Craig & Original New York Cast of Lazarus This Is Not America – Sophia Anne Caruso & Original New York Cast of Lazarus The Man Who Sold The World – Charlie Pollack No Plan – Sophia Anne Caruso Love Is Lost – Michael Esper & Original New York Cast of Lazarus Changes – Cristin Milioti & Original New York Cast of Lazarus Where Are We Now – Michael C. Hall & Original New York Cast of Lazarus Absolute Beginners – Michael C. Hall, Cristin Milioti, Michael Esper, Sophia Anne Caruso, Krystina Alabado & Original New York Cast of Lazarus Dirty Boys – Michael Esper Killing A Little Time – Michael C. Hall Life On Mars – Sophia Anne Caruso All The Young Dudes – Nicholas Christopher, Lynn Craig, Michael Esper, Sophia Anne Caruso & Original New York Cast of Lazarus Sound And Vision – David Bowie Always Crashing in the Same Car – Cristin Militia Valentine’s Day – Michael Esper & Original New York Cast of Lazarus When I Met You – Michael C. Hall & Krystina Alabama Heroes – 4:43 – Michael C. Hall, Sophia Anne Caruso & Original New York Cast of Lazarus
CD 2: Lazarus – David Bowie No Plan – David Bowie Killing A Little Time – David Bowie When I Met You – David Bowie
VINYL: LP 1 side A: Hello Mary Lou (Goodbye Heart) – Ricky Nelson Lazarus – Michael C. Hall & Original New York Cast of Lazarus It’s No Game – Michael C. Hall, Lynn Craig & Original New York Cast of Lazarus This Is Not America – Sophia Anne Caruso & Original New York Cast of Lazarus The Man Who Sold the World – Charlie Pollack
LP 1 side B: No Plan – Sophia Anne Caruso Love Is Lost – Michael Esper & Original New York Cast of Lazarus Changes – Cristin Milioti & Original New York Cast of Lazarus Where Are We Now? – Michael C. Hall & Original New York Cast of Lazarus
LP 2 side C: Absolute Beginners – Michael C. Hall, Cristin Milioti, Michael Esper, Sophia Anne Caruso, Krystina Alabado & Original New York Cast of Lazarus Dirty Boys – Michael Esper Killing a Little Time – Michael C. Hall Life On Mars? – Sophia Anne Caruso All the Young Dudes – Nicholas Christopher, Lynn Craig, Michael Esper, Sophia Anne Caruso & Original New York Cast of Lazarus
LP 2 side D: Sound and Vision – David Bowie Always Crashing in the Same Car – Cristin Militia Valentine’s Day – Michael Esper & Original New York Cast of Lazarus When I Met You – Michael C. Hall & Krystina Alabama Heroes – Michael C. Hall, Sophia Anne Caruso & Original New York Cast of Lazarus
LP 3 side E (one-sided): Lazarus – David Bowie No Plan – David Bowie Killing a Little Time – David Bowie When I Met You – David Bowie
Yusuf / Cat Stevens, has announced four November dates.
A Cat’s Attic will feature a limited run of stripped-down, introspective performances which coincides with the 50th anniversary of his first hit single release, "I Love My Dog". Starting in Manchester, the Tour will also travel to Glasgow, N...
Yusuf / Cat Stevens, has announced four November dates.
A Cat’s Attic will feature a limited run of stripped-down, introspective performances which coincides with the 50th anniversary of his first hit single release, “I Love My Dog”. Starting in Manchester, the Tour will also travel to Glasgow, Newcastle and end in London at the Shaftesbury Theatre.
Tickets go on sale Friday, September 16th at 9am from www.livenation.co.uk
“It’s hard to believe that I will be playing in the theatre that I used to illegally climb the roof of as a teenager, right across the road from where I lived in London,” says Yusuf. “I’m really looking forward to these shows and visiting some of the cities I played 50 years ago.”
A Cat’s Attic: Yusuf/Cat Stevens play:
November: Mon 14th MANCHESTER, Apollo
Wed 16th GLASGOW, Clyde Auditorium
Fri 18th NEWCASTLE, City Hall
Sun 20th LONDON, Shaftesbury Theatre
Pre-sale will run from 9am Wednesday, September 14 until 10pm Thursday, September 15 at www.catstevens.com.
Jack White was the musical guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on September 9.
During the show, he performed two songs live: “Love Is the Truth", from his Coca Cola commercial, and the White Stripes’ “You've Got Her in Your Pocket”.
You can watch both performances below.
https...
Jack White was the musical guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on September 9.
During the show, he performed two songs live: “Love Is the Truth“, from his Coca Cola commercial, and the White Stripes’ “You’ve Got Her in Your Pocket”.
You can watch both performances below.
White recently launched a career-spanning interactive timeline of his career with photos, music footage, handwritten lyrics, and other materials.
Marianne Faithfull has announced details of a new live album and DVD.
No Exit was recorded during her 50th anniversary tour around Europe in 2014.
It will be released on October 7 by EarMusic as a CD/DVD, CD/Blu-ray and vinyl album.
Tracklisting:
CD/Blue-ray
Intro (live)
Falling Back
The Price O...
Marianne Faithfull has announced details of a new live album and DVD.
No Exit was recorded during her 50th anniversary tour around Europe in 2014.
It will be released on October 7 by EarMusic as a CD/DVD, CD/Blu-ray and vinyl album.
Tracklisting:
CD/Blue-ray Intro (live)
Falling Back
The Price Of Love
Love, More Or Less
As Tears Go By
Mother Wolf
Sister Morphine
Late Victorian Holocaust
Sparrows Will Sing
The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan
Blu-ray and DVD
Budapest Concert (Müpa 15.12.2014) Give My Love To London
Falling Back
Broken English
The Witches Song
Price of Love
Marathon Kiss
Love More Or Less
As Tears Go By
Come And Stay With Me
Mother Wolf
Sister Morphine
Late Victorian Holocaust
Sparrows Will Sing
The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan
Who Will Take My Dreams Away
Last Song
Bonus 2 – Extract from Live in London (Roundhouse 02.02.2016) Give My Love To London
It’s All Over Now Baby Blue
Late Victorian Holocaust
Sister Morphine
LP Side A Intro
Falling Back
The Price Of Love
Love More Or Less
As Tears Go By
Mother Wolf
LP Side B Sister Morphine
Late Victorian Holocaust
Sparrows Will Sing
The Ballad of Lucy Jordan
The quest for world dominations enters a new phase, as Queen lay waste to South America. RAY COLEMAN follows them to Buenos Aires and Rio, into stadiums that have only previously hosted the Pope and Sinatra, and joins in the after-hours revelry. Nothing evidently succeeds like excess, though there a...
As the four players ran to their cars en route to a soundcheck on the first afternoon, young fans chased them through the Sheraton Hotel lobby, blocking their exit, roaring after their cars on motorcycles in scenes more reminiscent of the top teeny bands than appropriate for senior rock citizens. But Queen loved every minute. Fresh from a Japanese tour in which they had been similarly welcomed, followed by a short holiday break, Queen were in splendid shape, their performance not in the least jaded from years of road work.
The gladiatorial atmosphere of an important concert was fuelled by the nationalistic opening announcement of the promoter: “Argentin-A. Argentin-A!” the crowd screamed back, 35,000 voices at once, and the playing of the World Cup anthem gave the show a great start. Helicopters circled the stage, the crowd went bananas and thousands lit candles or lighters to make a glittering sight before, during and after a dramatic few moments of darkness, we were off, with explosives and dry ice enveloping the stage in a cascade of brilliant colours to herald the arrival of Queen.
Mercury was resplendent in red trousers, and the roar would have shaken Wembley on Cup Final Day. The floodlit green turf and massed thousands cheering every note added to the infectious, carnival feeling on both nights.
Their programme varied for the Buenos Aires concerts, as did their dress: Mercury was in pristine white slacks for the second night. He made a noble stab at speaking Spanish, but considering the language barrier in the music, the locals recognised nearly everything and had no problem in chanting along to “Save Me”, as well as engaging in that trad rock-star-to-audience banter as Freddie went into his “All——righhhhhhht” routine and demanded they repeated the words back. They enjoyed, too, his moments of madness when he showered the first few rows, then himself, with beer from his can.
The music: Mercury has a unique grip on his audience, plus a voice of considerable power. His acrobatics inspired the crowd to a frenzy. The instrumental lynchpin for Queen is Brian May, who, along with Jethro Tull’s Martin Barre, is one of the great unsung heroes of British rock guitar. Both melodic and macho, May gives Queen a distinctive touch and individuality which stamps their sound. He is no innovator, but a solid technician who knows his instruments and forms the backbone of Queen’s songs.
“Rock,” May said to me, “is now going precisely like jazz did – jazz began as a body of music then became intellectual. I think that’s a danger for rock. It needs to remain body music first, and I’m very conscious of the fact that Queen must not get too cerebral.” They have perfected a brand of rock and showmanship that’s lyrically and melodically accessible.
Because of the surge of interest in Queen over the last year, audiences recognised nearly every song after the first few bars. “The Game” drew first blood as a direct hit, with Mercury’s piano solo particularly eloquent, and May’s guitar solo limpid and dreamy.
The shows were paced so that the crowd was not deprived of hits in the early segment: “Killer Queen” came early, as did “Save Me”, which evoked waves of emotions as thousands of voices joined in the hymnal chant along with the band. At this point, the game was up and the night won, Queen cruising into the hearts of deliriously happy crowds as “Love Of My Life” brought the same singalong brotherhood, Brian May telling the crowd: “This is for you, Argentina.”
On and on, through “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, and Freddie at the piano for “Bohemian Rhapsody” – their best song, sounding perfectly fresh although they’d played it hundreds of times. During “Rhapsody”, they left the stage and let the tapes make a good job of the orchestral portion.
“Fred—ddie,” “Fred—ddie!” the crowd chanted. The tribal cry continued ’til Queen returned for an encore, Mercury stripped to the waist and wearing shorts on one night, the next wearing a crown before lunging into “Another One Bites The Dust” and the second encore, “We Are The Champions”.
Exit, finally, to “God Save The Queen”. Yes, the national anthem. Margaret Thatcher would have been proud of them. It was, of course, all well and truly over the top, exaggeration for the sake of emphasis, a combination of Gucci and Harrods rock. But the most hardened of cynics would have to hand it to Queen: what they set out to do, they achieve with verve, and it succeeds through the sheer weight and spectacle, and strong music.
One of their party had said, in typical Queenspeak before the first show in Buenos Aires: “They are attempting to scale Everest here and they have everything to lose and nothing to gain. If it’s a successful tour, rock people around the world will say South America was about to open up anyway. If they fail, people will say: we told you so.”
Pioneers of a significant revolution or diehard opportunists – what matters more is that Queen did it. Clinical and machine-like they may be in their approach, but that’s inevitable for a band at their level. It’s pure rock theatre, with none of the arrogance or negativity of Pink Floyd, who might have been expected to outstrip the rest of the world in South America.
Peter Gabriel has released a new song, "The Veil".
The track is taken from Oliver Stone's forthcoming film, Snowden - a biopic of whistle-blower Edward Snowden.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4QutRhblpc&feature=youtu.be
Said Gabriel: “As we become so visible in the digital world and leave...
Peter Gabriel has released a new song, “The Veil“.
The track is taken from Oliver Stone’s forthcoming film, Snowden – a biopic of whistle-blower Edward Snowden.
Said Gabriel: “As we become so visible in the digital world and leave an endless trail of data behind us, exactly who has our data and what they do with it becomes increasingly important.
Snowden’s revelations shocked the world and made it very clear why we need to have some way to look over those who look over us. With increasing terrorist attacks, security is critical, but not without any accountability or oversight.
I was very happy to learn Oliver Stone had decided to make a film about Edward Snowden and believe this is a powerful and inspiring film.
Oliver takes his music very seriously and I have always enjoyed collaborating with him and [music supervisor] Budd Carr.”
Earlier this year, Gabriel released another new song, “I’m Amazing“, partly inspired by Muhammad Ali.
