The return of Terrence Malick to active filmmaking has not been without its hiccups. In the 18 years since The Thin Red Line, his films have – superficially, at least – become increasingly abstract meditations on themes ranging from creation (Tree Of Life) to the nature of love (To The Wonder).
...
The return of Terrence Malick to active filmmaking has not been without its hiccups. In the 18 years since The Thin Red Line, his films have – superficially, at least – become increasingly abstract meditations on themes ranging from creation (Tree Of Life) to the nature of love (To The Wonder).
Knight Of Cups operates in several different genres: it is part confessional, part Hollywood insider, part midlife crisis, part family melodrama, and – wait – there’s more. It finds Christian Bale’s screenwriter drifting back through his memories to revisit former romances and address his fractious relationship with his brother and father.
The film opens with a recording of John Gielgud reciting The Pilgrim’s Progress, before a narrator (Brian Dennehy) recounts the tale of a knight who was sent on a quest by father, but instead drank from a cup that caused him to fall asleep. “All those years, living the life of someone I didn’t know,” intones Bale’s Rick in voiceover. There are real world conversations going on behind the film’s many interior monologues. Scenes take place in strip clubs, a film backlot, an empty aircraft hanger. At a photoshoot, one model is told, “You look like a 1975 housewife who take steroids and fucks women during the day.”
At times, Knight Of Cups resembles a mix between Californication and Grand Designs, as Bale makes his way through a lot of wafty curtains. There is also a lot of walking along the surf on deserted Malibu beaches, accompanied by a former paramour – perhaps his ex-wife (Cate Blanchett) or a married woman he had a fling with (Natalie Portman).
Admittedly, Malick’s elusive, metaphorical wanderings aren’t to everybody’s taste and Knight Of Cups certainly pushes the abstract qualities of Malick’s recent films to their extreme. But find the film’s pulse and it is possible to be seduced by its gorgeous, meandering beauty.
In 1983, Richard Linklater made Dazed And Confused, a warm, meandering tale about the last day of term in a Texas high school in 1976. His latest film, Everybody Wants Some!!, is a warm, meandering tale set just before the first day of term in a Texas university in 1980. The similarities are entirel...
In 1983, Richard Linklater made Dazed And Confused, a warm, meandering tale about the last day of term in a Texas high school in 1976. His latest film, Everybody Wants Some!!, is a warm, meandering tale set just before the first day of term in a Texas university in 1980. The similarities are entirely intentional: Linklater has described his new film as a ‘spiritual sequel’ to his earlier piece. Accordingly, this is an agreeably shaggy yarn about the thoughts and desires of an amiable bunch of characters, set on the cusp of adulthood. Maybe Linklater should have called his film Dudehood?
The film’s protagonists are a group of college baseball players who share a house off-campus together. Bongs are smoked, rock music is played at volume, mattresses are used to surf downstairs. 1980 is a propitious date: it falls roughly halfway between the releases of Animal House and Porky’s, both films you’d imagine the characters in Everybody Wants Some!! would have enjoyed immensely.
Jake (Blake Jenner), is a talented pitcher beginning his freshman year at a Texas university. He finds himself bunked in with fellow teammates, whose pursuit of beer, sex and Good Times is paramount. “This is the best day of my life – until tomorrow!” says one. Linklater is generous with his cast. Even in this busy ensemble, everyone gets their chance to shine. There is Finnegan (Glen Powell), the talkative king of campus; competitive star player Glen (Tyler Hoechlin); stoner Willoughby (Wyatt Russell). An early scene established the key characters via a car singalong to Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight“, a moment to rival the similar “Bohemian Rhapsody” scene in Wayne’s World.
Interestingly, there is no antagonist – no Dean Wormer, if you like – on their tails, threatening to disrupt their fun. Does the film need some kind of dramatic threat? Evidently, Linklater thinks not. As they hustle their way round discos, house parties, student dorms and sports halls – their exploits soundtracked by Van Halen, The Knack, Cheap Trick, Blondie and The Cars and more – Linklater seems content to simply let his dudes be. Why spoil the fun?
Everybody Wants Some!! is indisputably a male film – there is only one female character of note. But the jocks in Linklater’s film are miles apart from today’s frat movie characters; these are mostly clever, curious and likeable, their camaraderie given a tender spin by Linklater.
For both Sam Beam and Jesca Hoop, Love Letter For Fire could have gone horribly wrong. Like any untested working relationship, it risked ending up as either an underwhelming compromise or (worse) an awkward clash of two distinctive artistic expressions. There’s a world of difference between a nose...
For both Sam Beam and Jesca Hoop, Love Letter For Fire could have gone horribly wrong. Like any untested working relationship, it risked ending up as either an underwhelming compromise or (worse) an awkward clash of two distinctive artistic expressions. There’s a world of difference between a nose-to-tail collaboration and a guest spot – and there are no guarantees.
Beam as good as trademarked a genre in the early noughties with his fine-boned and melancholic, acoustic alt.country/folk recordings as Iron & Wine. Since then, he’s shifted toward a more expansive and poppy, instrumentally lush sound, which peaked with 2013’s sonic travelogue Ghost On Ghost. Jesca Hoop’s articulation is very different. The spry, eloquent songs of her four albums to date are country-folk in only the loosest sense, as much in line with the work of modernists like Susanna Wallumrød and Bill Frisell as say, Joanna Newsom. Beam released an album (of covers) with Ben Bridwell last year and in 2014, he duetted on a song from Hoop’s Undress (the pivotal connection point for this record, it turned out); she’d supported Beam on a leg of his Ghost On Ghost tour and has often welcomed guests to her records. But writing music and lyrics in a partnership was uncharted territory for them both.
That Love Letter For Fire is a triumph of rustic minimalism and unforced, chamber-pop poise, with charm by the skipload, is down to what Beam describes as “a conscious releasing of the reins on both our parts, a giving in to what the combination could and would become on its own, without too much manipulation.” He had in fact been looking for a female writing partner for some time and was already a Hoop admirer. “Jesca’s voice is incredible,” he told Uncut, “her sense of melody exquisite and her turn of phrase unique. I think we both just kind of dove forward [after the “Hunting My Dress” hook-up] with the faith that if we liked the sound of our voices together, then the rest would fall into place. So much of this kind of work is done alone; it was fun to have a trusted teammate that I could lean on for inspiration or helpful criticism.”
Recorded in ten days and produced by Tucker Martine, the largely acoustic Love Letter… employs understated, jazz-literate players including Robert Burger (on piano/keys), Eyvind Kang (violin, viola) and Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche. It was conceived as a set of odes to the ephemeral nature of love, in duet form, in line with the country convention, although only one song (the tender and lowering “Valley Clouds”) really satisfies that brief. According to Beam, what he and Hoop were after was “George and Tammy singing a modern-classical take on ‘Islands In The Stream’, produced in the vein of Big Star’s Third. I’m not sure we reached those lofty heights, but it was a fun place to launch off from.” For the lyric-writing process, the pair had practice sessions involving the free and unedited composing of poems, with lines traded back and forth via email. They got together for a couple of extended songwriting sessions, but much of the work was done down the wire, from Beam’s home in North Carolina and Hoop’s in Manchester.
The album opens with the minute-long “Welcome To Feeling”, which signals the emotional warmth within. Both Hoop and Beam have sensual voices and the interplay between them packs a sweet emotional punch throughout. They switch between singing solo, trading conversational lines and harmonising, with oversinging rationed to maximise its impact, as on the knockout “Soft Place To Land”, which addresses the idea of love as a safe haven. The finger-picked and Fred Neil-ish “Bright Lights And Goodbyes” is another vocal highlight, soughing strings and simulated wind noise conjuring a late-night-bonfire beneath the stars. Musically, the standouts are a hushed “We Two Are A Moon”, which pivots on a short, but highly effective outbreak of jazzy guitar twangling, the strikingly rhythmic “Midas Tongue” and “Every Songbird Says”, a sprightly mix of cello, fingerpicked guitar and percussive chattering, with echoes of Ralph Vaughan Williams.
A deceptive simple, calm record, Love Letter… sounds both intuitive and direct, and any wrangling along the collaborative way is undetectable. Hoop has a new album, Memories Are Now, due later this year and Beam, who previewed two new (unrecorded) songs on Pitchfork Radio in January is presumably now working on his next full-length. This seems to have been a transformative experience for them both; time will tell to what extent.
Q&A
Jesca Hoop
Was the idea of sharing artistic control daunting?
Yes, but in a positive, “what is going to happen here?” way. For me, this was a practice largely in surrender and shape-shifting. We were interested in the malleable potential and what could be created by letting the words and melodies of one be affected, influenced and changed by the other. It did not come without challenge – to the ego, in particular. This is where trust came in. I trust Sam as a writer, so I had to bend and stretch.
In what ways are your sensibilities aligned?
Coincidentally, the year before I met Sam, I’d started developing my own sort of country style. The song “Pegasi” on my upcoming solo record is a good example. I found this dabbling with old American stylings useful in blending sensibilities. Sam and I share a love of poetry and language. Like me, he’s a storyteller, but he has the ability to be more simply spoken, whereas I find it hard not to abstract. I think I also shift personality quite a bit more, whereas Sam is constant. He can be more like garden soil, whereas I am like smoke.
What is it about the classic country duet that appeals?
It seems to me that country duets are generally feel-good songs – even if they are about heartbreak. There is a sense of togetherness, teamwork and the aim to uplift. There is a light-heartedness, humour and sweetness that I really enjoy. Like Johnny Cash and June Carter – theirs is a simple charm and playfulness that endears you to characters in the songs. Also, perhaps, as an American living in England for seven years now, I am more than happy to draw upon my American roots.
Radiohead's regular visual collaborator Stanley Donwood has posted behind the scenes images from the band's "Burn The Witch" single on his Instagram account.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BE8zT1RsNln/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BE8zZpWsNl5/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BE8ze0vMNmG/
Pitchfork repor...
Radiohead‘s regular visual collaborator Stanley Donwood has posted behind the scenes images from the band’s “Burn The Witch” single on his Instagram account.
The Shins will play their first UK show in over four years and their only UK festival in 2016 at this year’s End Of The Road.
Other new acts announced for this year's festival are Faris Badwan and Rachel Zeffira’s Cat’s Eyes, Virginia based singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus as well as some-time An...
The Shins will play their first UK show in over four years and their only UK festival in 2016 at this year’s End Of The Road.
Other new acts announced for this year’s festival are Faris Badwan and Rachel Zeffira’s Cat’s Eyes, Virginia based singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus as well as some-time Angel Olsen backing band members LionLimb.
End Of The Road will also be teaming up with Rough Trade Shops in May for a string of events. Both Rise in Bristol and Rough Trade East in London will be hosting a pop up festival merchandise shop to help celebrate the release of the annual End Of The Road / Rough Trade compilation album, which is now in its fourth year this year. The tracks are from artists playing at this year’s event.
As Thom Yorke and his bandmates return to the studio to work on their ninth album, it seems an ideal time to dedicate the latest Uncut Ultimate Guide to the geniuses of Radiohead. How such an adventurous, uncompromising band also became such a successful one is among the best and strangest musical s...
As Thom Yorke and his bandmates return to the studio to work on their ninth album, it seems an ideal time to dedicate the latest Uncut Ultimate Guide to the geniuses of Radiohead. How such an adventurous, uncompromising band also became such a successful one is among the best and strangest musical stories of the past two decades, and we hope we’ve done it justice.
Once again, we’ve come up with deep new reviews of every Radiohead album (and every solo album by the bandmembers), as well as finding the very best interviews in the archives of NME, Melody Maker and Uncut and reprinting them in full. Some are tense and troubled. Many others, though, reveal a band whose reality is at odds with the stereotypes: an endlessly droll and charming group of men, whose wry contempt for rock’n’roll cliché has informed most every move they’ve made in the past 20 odd years. “I’m not trying to define rock’n’roll,” Thom Yorke told NME’s Stuart Bailie in February 1993. “To me, rock’n’roll just reminds me of people with personal hygiene problems who still like getting blow-jobs off complete strangers. That’s not what being in a band means to me.”
Uncut’s Ultimate Music Guide to Radiohead, then. As Thom Yorke once sang, “It’s the best thing that you ever had/The best thing that you ever, ever had…”
Radiohead have released a full length video for their new single, "Burn The Witch".
The band have teased two clips from the video already today on their Instagram account.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI2oS2hoL0k
The first post featured a bird tweeting and went live at 5am GMT to coincide with...
Radiohead have released a full length video for their new single, “Burn The Witch“.
The band have teased two clips from the video already today on their Instagram account.
The first post featured a bird tweeting and went live at 5am GMT to coincide with the dawn chorus.
Radiohead registered a new company called Dawn Chorus, LLP in January, hinting that a new album was about to drop.
“Burn The Witch” is the title of an unreleased song that first appeared in Stanley Donwood‘s art for 2003’s Hail To The Thief. In 2005, the song appeared on a chalkboard bearing the titles of potential tracks destined for the band’s 2007 album, In Rainbows.
“Burn The Witch” will be available on all digital services from 00:01 on May 4.
Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters and The Who will all perform at the Desert Trip festival in Indio, California on October 7, 8 and 9.
The festival has been the source of much speculation over the past few weeks, since The LA Times reported on April 15 that Gol...
Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters and The Who will all perform at the Desert Trip festival in Indio, California on October 7, 8 and 9.
The festival has been the source of much speculation over the past few weeks, since The LA Times reported on April 15 that Goldenvoice Entertainment, the promoters behind Coachella Festival, were looking to hold the event in Indio, California – the same site as Coachella.
“I hope a lot of normal fans can get tickets before they get snatched up,” he added.
Meanwhile, over the weekend, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan post teaser videos ending with the word “October” on their Facebook pages.
The event has now been officially launched under the Desert Trip banner.
Performances start after sunset and each artist will play a full set.
The line up for Desert Trip festival is:
October 7: THE ROLLING STONES · BOB DYLAN
October 8: PAUL McCARTNEY · NEIL YOUNG + PROMISE OF THE REAL
October 9: ROGER WATERS · THE WHO
Pre-sale begins on Monday, May 9 at 10AM Pacific Time.
Ticket prices are as follows:
3 day passes
General admission – $399
Reserved floor – $699, $999, $1,599
Reserved grandstand – $999, $1599
General admission pit – $1,599
A bit hard to concentrate on other music this morning, as the phoney war leading up to whenever Radiohead decide to release something continues apace. It occurred to me, though, that I should probably post a few reviews of recent favourites here, prompted in part by the fact that The Dead Tongues st...
A bit hard to concentrate on other music this morning, as the phoney war leading up to whenever Radiohead decide to release something continues apace. It occurred to me, though, that I should probably post a few reviews of recent favourites here, prompted in part by the fact that The Dead Tongues start their UK tour with Phil Cook in London tonight.
For a few of us, the fertile North Carolina scene centred on Hiss Golden Messenger’s MC Taylor and Cook has been a revelation this decade, and Asheville’s Ryan Gustafson is very much a part of that expanding fraternal network. Gustafson currently plays guitar in Cook’s soulful live band, but his second album as The Dead Tongues mostly takes a folksier path, with hearty fiddle tunes, and plenty of elevated fingerpicking on banjo and acoustic. “Montana” is more than a showcase for a virtuoso musician, though. It reveals Gustafson as a fine artisanal singer-songwriter, often Dylanish in tone, and with at least one song – the twanging, swaggering, Mellotron-dusted “Graveyard Fields” – strong enough to have sat on HGM’s classic, Lateness Of Dancers.
The very fine Kevin Morby is also in town this week, and while he makes rapid strides in his solo career, the progress of his former band, Woods, is gentler, more incremental. “City Sun Eater In The River Of Light” is the ninth album by Jeremy Earl’s shifting cabal, and one which compounds the advances of “Bend Beyond” (2012) and “With Light And With Love” (2014). Where once there was lo-fi whimsy, a certain crispness is now prevalent, along with expanded horizons and budgets that can accommodate the occasional horn section, or the tentative funk of “Can’t See At All”. Earl’s songcraft, meanwhile, continues to be refined: if only his voice were as strong as the guitar soloing which so gleefully knocks the likes of “Sun City Creeps” and “I See In The Dark” off their axes.
In all the clamour surrounding his hook-up with Josh Homme (Post Pop Depression), a second new Iggy Pop project has rather slipped under the radar. “Leaves Of Grass”, on Morr Music, finds him reading a clutch of Walt Whitman poems, while a coalition of German electronicists formed from Tarwater and Alva Noto provide discreetly glitchy soundscapes. Thanks in no small part to Iggy’s voice, a tool now of great visceral gravitas, it works brilliantly. In his notes, he compares Whitman to Elvis, and suggests the poet would’ve made “the perfect gangster rapper”. Pop himself, though, is a better embodiment of Whitman’s muscular sensualism: “Lusty, phallic, with the potent original loins… bathing my songs in sex”; “Singing the phallus, singing the song of procreation.”
A couple from the boutique UK label, MIE Music. Ben Chasny’s work as Six Organs Of Admittance has recently taken a forbidding theoretical turn, based on his new “Hexadic” compositional system. As yet, however, the radical practice doesn’t seem to have infected his collaborations; either in the mighty, jamming Rangda, or on this somewhat shadowy project. Coypu finds Chasny in the company of a mostly Italian crowd, with deep underground CVs (Larsen? Blind Cave Salamander?), and a faintly gothic arsenal of effects to back up Chasny’s ever-thoughtful guitar lines. At times, the monkish clank and drone of “Floating” recalls outliers like Nurse With Wound. Highlights, though, are transcendent more than transgressive, notably “March Of The River Rats”, a rippling invocation of Popol Vuh – and, indeed, the more accessible Six Organs of old.
Much like the Coypu album, Portland’s Dreamboat serenely pits a folkish singer/guitarist – in this case Ilyas Ahmed – against kosmische-inclined new collaborators; here, the Thrill Jockey duo, Golden Retriever. Ahmed cuts an appealingly desolate figure on “Dreamboat”‘s two long pieces, given plenty of space in Matt Carlson and Jonathan Sielaff’s humid synthscapes. The tools are slightly different, not least Sielaff’s processed clarinet looming out of the murk at intervals, but the prevailing atmosphere often resembles that found on late ‘90s records by Flying Saucer Attack: a gentle music in which melancholy is given apparently boundless time and space to try and work itself out.
Not be confused with the “Love And Pride” hitmakers, LA trio King instead conjure up a seductive alternative ‘80s on debut “We Are King”, as if an R&B production machine like Jam & Lewis had become infatuated with the downy textures of the Cocteau Twins. The aquarian soul of Erykah Badu is another antecedent for this meticulous debut, written, produced and performed by Paris Strother, along with twin sister Amber and Anita Bias. “We Are King” is too laidback and classy to be anywhere near as triumphalist as its name implies, and the 12 lovely songs have such a languid unity of purpose, it can be hard to tell where one stops and the next starts. Still, try “Red Eye”, with its melodic richness redolent of peak ‘70s Stevie Wonder.
Finally, a remarkable comp on Third Man: “Why The Mountains Are Black: Primeval Greek Village Music 1907-1960”. “No ancient Western culture valued music more highly than the ancient Greeks,” writes Christopher King in the sleevenotes to this 2CD set of revelations, taking a longer view of cultural history than most CD compilers. The music harvested by King from precious 78s provides a connection between this formative civilization and 20th Century America, as the Greek diaspora bring their traditions to the States. The duelling bagpipe music played here by Zembellas and Mailles on two tracks, for instance, originates on two small islands in the Aegean. By the time of the recordings in 1950, however, this Tsabouna music had migrated to Tarpon Springs, Florida, where many of its practitioners had relocated to ply their trades as free-diving sponge fishermen. King, also a noted collector of old blues records, makes big claims for the social necessity of this music: “It was an essential tool for survival,” he claims, “as natural and as necessary as any object crafted for hunting.” Critically, though, it’s also wildly entertaining in a way which transcends historical context: check “Enas Aetos-Tsamiko”, a nimble and uproarious 1926 jam, recorded in 1926, that King identifies as kin to the hot jazz of the time.
Status Quo have launched their own alcoholic beverages.
The ‘Dog Of Two Head’ ale and the ‘Down Down’ cider will be available bottled in the UK through the Spar chain from May 18.
‘Dog Of Two Head’ will be available to buy on draught at selected outlets from June.
‘Down Down’ has ...
Status Quo have launched their own alcoholic beverages.
The ‘Dog Of Two Head’ ale and the ‘Down Down’ cider will be available bottled in the UK through the Spar chain from May 18.
‘Dog Of Two Head’ will be available to buy on draught at selected outlets from June.
‘Down Down’ has been selected for Wetherspoon’s National Cider Festival which runs from Friday July 8.
‘Dog Of Two Head’ ale was created in conjunction with Hobsons Brewery in Shropshire, ‘Down Down’ cider is crafted by the Celtic Marches company in Herefordshire.
Francis Rossi said, “We know what we like. And we know what our fans like. And I think we can all agree that we like these!”
Rick Parfitt added, “It’s no secret that over the years the band has enjoyed a drink or three. Finally, we’re actually seeing a return on those wasted hours by creating something useful. We love it!”
Both ‘Dog Of Two Head’ and ‘Down Down’ will be available online. The beer can be purchased from www.hobsons-brewery.co.uk/statusquobeer. The cider can be ordered online from: www.celticmarches.com/detail/status-quo-down-down-4-6-herefordshire-cider.
The Quo’s drinks follow on from Iron Maiden‘s Trooper ale, Queen‘s Bohemian lager and the Pogues’ Irish whiskey.
The Who will perform five special shows in Glasgow, Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham and Liverpool later this Summer as part of ‘Back To The Who Tour’ 2016.
The dates - which will be the band's first series of UK shows since headlining Glastonbury in 2015.
The Who will play
August 29: The SS...
The Who will perform five special shows in Glasgow, Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham and Liverpool later this Summer as part of ‘Back To The Who Tour’ 2016.
The dates – which will be the band’s first series of UK shows since headlining Glastonbury in 2015.
The Who will play
August 29: The SSE Hydro, Glasgow
August 31: Manchester Arena
September 3: Sheffield Arena
September 5: Genting Arena, Birmingham
September 7: Echo Arena, Liverpool
Tickets for the shows go on sale at 9am GMT om Friday May 6 from AXS.COM.
Meanwhile, Roger Daltrey appears to have confirmed reports that a mega festival is being arranged featuring Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, The Who and Roger Waters.
The LA Times reported that Goldenvoice Entertainment, the promoters behind Coachella Festival, were looking to hold the event in Indio, California – the same site as Coachella – this year between October 7 and 9.
Daltrey has now appeared to confirm the reports, telling Canada’s Postmedia Network: “I think it’s us and Roger Waters on the same day. It’s a fantastic idea for a festival. It’s the greatest remains of our era.”
“I hope a lot of normal fans can get tickets before they get snatched up,” he added.
Bob Dylan has released a new song, "All The Way".
It is the second track taken from his forthcoming album, Fallen Angels following "Melancholy Mood" last month.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPuyT6EtRQ0
The music was written by Jimmy Van Heusen with lyrics by Sammy Cahn. It was originally recor...
Bob Dylan has released a new song, “All The Way“.
It is the second track taken from his forthcoming album, Fallen Angels following “Melancholy Mood” last month.
The music was written by Jimmy Van Heusen with lyrics by Sammy Cahn. It was originally recorded by Frank Sinatra and released in 1957.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmFaNuT-20g
The tracklisting for Fallen Angels is:
Young At Heart
Maybe You’ll Be There
Polka Dots And Moonbeams
All The Way
Skylark
Nevertheless
All Or Nothing At All
On A Little Street In Singapore
It Had To Be You
Melancholy Mood
That Old Black Magic
Come Rain Or Come Shine
The album will be released on May 20 by Columbia Records.
Radiohead have posted two stop-motion teaser videos on their Instagram account.
The posts arrive after the band deleted everything from their social media accounts and website over the weekend.
The first post featured a bird tweeting and went live at 5am GMT to coincide with the dawn chorus.
Radi...
Radiohead have posted two stop-motion teaser videos on their Instagram account.
The posts arrive after the band deleted everything from their social media accounts and website over the weekend.
The first post featured a bird tweeting and went live at 5am GMT to coincide with the dawn chorus.
Radiohead registered a new company called Dawn Chorus, LLP in January, hinting that a new album was about to drop.
“Burn The Witch” is the title of an unreleased song that first appeared in Stanley Donwood‘s art for 2003’s Hail To The Thief. In 2005, the song appeared on a chalkboard bearing the titles of potential tracks destined for the band’s 2007 album, In Rainbows.
To coincide with her latest album and film Heart Of A Dog, Laurie Anderson will be answering your questions as part of our regular An Audience With… feature.
So is there anything you’d like us to ask the legendary artist?
What's her favourite breed of dog?
What does she remember about collabor...
To coincide with her latest album and film Heart Of A Dog, Laurie Anderson will be answering your questions as part of our regular An Audience With… feature.
So is there anything you’d like us to ask the legendary artist?
What’s her favourite breed of dog?
What does she remember about collaborating with Brian Eno?
What does she think of ‘O Superman’ today?
Send up your questions by noon, Thursday, May 5 to uncutaudiencewith@timeinc.com.
The best questions, and Laurie’s answers, will be published in a future edition of Uncut magazine.
Onboard his battlebus, Uncut is granted a conference with the laidback potentate of country music, WILLIE NELSON. On the agenda: Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, a sanctified guitar, an army of Willie Nelson clones, and the simple business of being America’s best-loved outlaw. Originally published in Unc...
On the fridge tucked into the bus kitchenette, a sticker enthuses “Willie Nelson For President”. By now, I’m guessing it’s unlikely that this sentiment originated with the man himself, but does he know…
“No, I’ve no idea,” he beams. “Scooter Franks, the guy who does the merchandise, he figures out what he thinks he can sell.”
Nelson’s endorsement has, however, been coveted by many American politicians, and it’s easy to see why. While attempts at such co-option are an occupational hazard for American entertainers, few bestride America’s divisions like Nelson. He’s all at once a Texan good ol’ boy and perma-stoned hippie, as capable of singing ass-kicking vigilante anthems with Toby Keith (“Whiskey For My Men, Beer For My Horses”) as he is of crooning one of – very – few gay rights sentiments in the country pantheon (in 2006, shortly after Brokeback Mountain, Nelson released a version of Ned Sublette’s “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond Of Each Other”). It’s Nelson’s own recollection of US Presidents, though, which provides the best illustration of his stature as the establishment’s preferred maverick, and of the outsiders’ favourite family entertainer.
“I liked Bill Clinton,” he says. “And Jimmy Carter’s a good buddy. I even smoked dope on the White House roof one time…”
And if some – frankly unlikely – write-in campaign was ever to award Willie Nelson the White House?
“It wouldn’t,” he says, and smiles again, “take me long to screw things up.”
Paul Simon has released a new track from his forthcoming album, Stranger To Stranger.
"Cool Papa Bell" follows on from "Wristband", which Simon released in April.
https://soundcloud.com/paulsimon/cool-papa-bell
Stranger To Stranger is Simon's first solo album since 2011's So Beautiful Or So What....
Paul Simon has released a new track from his forthcoming album, Stranger To Stranger.
“Cool Papa Bell” follows on from “Wristband“, which Simon released in April.
Stranger To Stranger is Simon’s first solo album since 2011’s So Beautiful Or So What. The album, which is released by Virgin EMI on June 3, was produced by Simon himself along with Roy Halee.
The Stranger to Stranger tracklisting is:
The Werewolf
Wristband
The Clock
Street Angel
Stranger to Stranger
In a Parade
Proof of Love
In the Garden of Edie
The Riverbank
Cool Papa Bell
Insomniac’s Lullaby
I was reading a piece in The New Yorker the other day about Paul McCartney, which bugged for me for a bunch of reasons that are mostly too tedious to go into here, but involve crude and frequently absurd generalisations as well as, surprisingly for that magazine, factual glitches (who knew I could b...
I was reading a piece in The New Yorker the other day about Paul McCartney, which bugged for me for a bunch of reasons that are mostly too tedious to go into here, but involve crude and frequently absurd generalisations as well as, surprisingly for that magazine, factual glitches (who knew I could be so assiduous in my policing of Wings content?).
One specific line that particularly jumped out for the wrong reasons, though, was when the writer, Adam Gopnik, asserted:”It’s true that the sound of the band [Wings] was very un-Beatles-like—pop where they had been rock, slack where they had been tight.” Forgive me if I’m misreading this, but is Gopnik saying that The Beatles weren’t a pop band? It’s always seemed to me that the Beatles actually straddled pop and rock, that their story could be variously understood as one that embraced both loose definitions; that pop evolved into rock under their stewardship, even as they persisted in subverting any such prescriptive attempts at classification. This, I thought, was one of the things which made them culturally significant.
That blurring of pop and rock boundaries, and a concomitant ability to unite two tribes who, for at least a good chunk of modern musical history, were morbidly suspicious of one another’s iconography, is a rare skill. It occurs to me this morning that one of the reasons that the deaths of David Bowie and Prince have resonated so profoundly across such wide swathes of the population is for just this reason: both of them had the same gift of the Beatles to make music which felt simultaneously profound and ephemeral, equally at home on canonical albums and commercial radio. In their presence, all those anxious debates about rockism and popism become exploded and confused and, perhaps, irrelevant: this is transcendent music with what seems at times boundless appeal.
Not sure, though, how much more of that I’ve been playing this week, though as you can see the office playlist has been dominated by Van Morrison, as I dug into the catalogue to soundtrack the proorfreading of our next Ultimate Music Guide. That’ll be with you soon. In the meantime, I hope there’s something here of interest…
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1 My Morning Jacket – It Still Moves: Deluxe Reissue (ATO Records)
2 Brigid Mae Power – Brigid Mae Power (Tompkins Square)
3 William Tyler – Modern Country (Merge)
4 Kyle Craft – Dolls Of Highland (Sub Pop)
5 Peter Baumann – Machines Of Desire (Bureau B)
6 Dave Heumann – Cloud Hands (2020)
7 Beyond The Wizards Sleeve – The Soft Bounce (Phantasy)
8 Van Morrison – Tupelo Honey (Polydor)
9 Van Morrison – St Dominic’s Preview (Polydor)
10 Raime – Tooth (Blackest Ever Black)
11 D’Angelo Ft. Princess – Sometimes It Snows In April (The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uzBHhPEWpE
12 Adia Victoria – Beyond The Bloodhounds (Canvasback)
13 Psychic Ills – Inner Journey Out (Sacred Bones)
14 Van Morrison – Caledonia Soul Music (Bootleg)
15 Van Morrison – His Band And The Street Choir (Warner Bros)
16 Brian Case – Tense Nature (Hands In The Dark)
17 Terry Reid – The Other Side Of The River (Future Days/Light In The Attic)
18 Marisa Anderson – Into The Light (Chaos Kitchen)
19 Christian Fennesz & Jim O’Rourke – It’s Hard For Me To Say I’m Sorry (Editions Mego)
20 Drive Like Jehu – Bullet Train To Vegas/Hand Over Fist (Merge)
21Laraaji & Sun Araw – Professional Sunflow (W.25th/Superior Viaduct)
The Monkees have released the first track from their new album, Good Times!
"She Makes Me Laugh" is written by Weezer's Rivers Cuomo.
Good Times! is the band's first new studio album for 20 years and features Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork as well as Davy Jones in an archive vocal.
...
The Monkees have released the first track from their new album, Good Times!
“She Makes Me Laugh” is written by Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo.
Good Times! is the band’s first new studio album for 20 years and features Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork as well as Davy Jones in an archive vocal.
Good Times! also features songs written for the band by Harry Nilsson, Andy Partridge, Ben Gibbard, Neil Diamond and Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher.
You can read our exclusive interview with Dolenz, Nesmith and Tork in the new issue on Uncut, in UK shops now and available to buy digitally
Neil Young has revealed details of his new album, EARTH.
The album will be released on June 17 by Reprise Records and features performances of songs from a range of Young's albums, including last year's The Monsanto Years, 1990's Ragged Glory, and 1970's After The Gold Rush.
The audio was captured...
Neil Young has revealed details of his new album, EARTH.
The album will be released on June 17 by Reprise Records and features performances of songs from a range of Young’s albums, including last year’s The Monsanto Years, 1990’s Ragged Glory, and 1970’s After The Gold Rush.
The audio was captured during Young’s 2015 tour with The Promise Of The Real.
The album features the live recordings, along with added musical overdubs, as well as sounds of the earth, such as city sounds like car horns, sounds of insects, and animal sounds from bears, birds, crickets, bees, horses and cows.
“Ninety-eight uninterrupted minutes long, EARTH flows as a collection of 13 songs from throughout my life, songs I have written about living here on our planet together,” says Young. “Our animal kingdom is well represented in the audience as well, and the animals, insects, birds, and mammals actually take over the performances of the songs at times.”
The track-listing for EARTH is as follows:
“People Want To Hear About Love” (from The Monsanto Years)
“Big Box” (from The Monsanto Years)
“Mother Earth” (from Ragged Glory)
“The Monsanto Years” (from The Monsanto Years)
“I Won’t Quit” (previously unreleased)
“Western Hero” (from Sleeps With Angels)
“Vampire Blues” (from On The Beach)
“Hippie Dream” (from Landing On Water)
“After The Gold Rush” (from After The Gold Rush)
“Wolf Moon” (from The Monsanto Years)
“Love & Only Love” (from Ragged Glory)
Young will preview the album in public on May 6 in Los Angeles at The Natural History Museum as part of its First Fridays series.
During “An Evening With Neil Young”, he will present the first public playback of EARTH in its entirety in Pono high definition fidelity audio. Young will deliver the opening portion of the program with his insights and explanation of the making of EARTH, and its contents.
The Grateful Dead are gearing up to release their next batch of archival goodies.
This time, they're celebrating the official debut of the Dead’s first-ever performances at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado from July, 1978.
We're delighted to have a world exclusive of "Ramble On R...
The Grateful Dead are gearing up to release their next batch of archival goodies.
This time, they’re celebrating the official debut of the Dead’s first-ever performances at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado from July, 1978.
We’re delighted to have a world exclusive of “Ramble On Rose” from the band’s July 8 show.
The track is taken from a forthcoming three-CD set of the complete July 8 show which is available on May 13.
The band will also release a mammoth, limited edition 12-disc featuring five unreleased shows from July, 1978, called July 1978: The Complete Recordings.
The shows are: Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, MO (July 1, 78)
St. Paul Civic Center, St. Paul, MN (July 3, 78)
Omaha Civic Auditorium, Omaha, NE (July 5, 78)
Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison CO (July 7 and 8, 78)
“As an archivist and Dead Head, this boxed set is about as exciting as it gets,” says Grateful Dead archivist and boxed set producer David Lemieux. “Musically, it features five exhilarating, dynamic nights in the summer of 1978. The sound quality is impeccable, as would be expected from Betty Cantor-Jackson’s always-pristine recordings. The rarity of the first three nights, and the hall-of-fame pedigree of the last two, makes this one of the most astonishing Grateful Dead releases ever. Collaborating with the owners of these tapes, we are very pleased to see these important historical documents returned home and now shared with the world.”
