Kurt Cobain's black-and-white Fender Stratocaster from Nirvana's final tour is projected to sell for upwards of $140,000 (£97,681) at auction.
The guitar was used during the band's February 16, 1994 gig in Rennes, France.
According to CooperOwen Auctions, the guitar was given to the seller follow...
Kurt Cobain’s black-and-white Fender Stratocaster from Nirvana’s final tour is projected to sell for upwards of $140,000 (£97,681) at auction.
The guitar was used during the band’s February 16, 1994 gig in Rennes, France.
According to CooperOwen Auctions, the guitar was given to the seller following the band’s February 16, 1994 gig in Rennes, France.
“I’ve been doing a lot of research about this guitar,” the seller writes. “According to James ‘Jim’ Vincent, Kurt’s guitar tech from Dec. 93 onwards, Kurt had five of these lefty black and white Strats, shipped by Fender specifically for the end-of-set jamming and destruction, as they were cheap and they were scared he would otherwise smash his new Mustangs.
The selling continues, saying that the guitar wasn’t used during the band’s European tour but dates back to Nirvana‘s final American tour the previous year.
Two of the five Strats were destroyed, although the pieces were later sold by Vincent. One of the five guitars remained unused, while two were smashed, repaired and still playable; of those two guitars, Vincent still has custody of one, and the other is in the Cooper Owen auction.
The online auction runs at CooperOwen‘s until May 20.
Jack White has become a partner in Warstic – an independent sporting goods company that makes wood and metal baseball and softball bats.
He joins founder and former minor league baseball player Ben Jenkins, as well as Detroit Tigers second baseman Ian Kinsler.
"I discovered the Warstic company t...
Jack White has become a partner in Warstic – an independent sporting goods company that makes wood and metal baseball and softball bats.
He joins founder and former minor league baseball player Ben Jenkins, as well as Detroit Tigers second baseman Ian Kinsler.
“I discovered the Warstic company through my love of design,” he said in a statement. “I was drawn to what Ben Jenkins was doing at Warstic by the simplicity and harshness of the designs. Most baseball bats and equipment in the sports world do not impress me much, but I think that there is a lot of room to explore aesthetic ideas in just baseball alone that can bring beauty and purpose to the weapons that athletes use to accomplish their goals. This can be accomplished not only through form following function, but also to bring in outsider ideas into the zone of athletics steeped in history and sometimes bogged down by its own weight.
“Warstic is incredibly inspiring to me in this fashion, and I think we can make beautiful objects for not only professionals, but also young children just beginning to understand how important the tools of the trade are to their passion for competition.”
Last year, White got his own baseball card commemorating his 2014 first pitch at a Tigers game.
It's a week 'til the next issue of Uncut officially hits the shops in the UK (if you subscribe, your copy will hopefully turn up a day or two earlier than that). I should keep quiet about the substantive contents of the issue for a little while yet - maybe I'll post something on Twitter when the adv...
It’s a week ’til the next issue of Uncut officially hits the shops in the UK (if you subscribe, your copy will hopefully turn up a day or two earlier than that). I should keep quiet about the substantive contents of the issue for a little while yet – maybe I’ll post something on Twitter when the advance copies arrive in the office – but it occurred to me that, as a preview of sorts, I could belatedly post my review of the Chris Robinson Brotherhood’s debut London show from a few weeks back…
In 2012, around the time that the first Chris Robinson Brotherhood album was released, their frontman was asked when the band would visit the UK. Robinson might have spent 20 years headlining some of the planet’s bigger venues with The Black Crowes but, at that point, his new project showed little inclination to leave their home state. “It’s hard,” Robinson told Uncut’s Graeme Thomson. “People asked us, ‘Why did you play so many dates in California?’ Well, because you can drive around with a pound of weed and not get in trouble. Let’s face it, we have priorities as a band.”
Four years, three albums and, one might confidently assume, a few more pounds of weed down the line, the Chris Robinson Brotherhood have finally made it to London. Behind them, a flag of California hangs resplendent, a marijuana leaf embroidered on one corner. Beneath their feet, there are Persian rugs. On the amps, a ceramic owl, named Possible Dust Clouds, holds a clutch of joss sticks. The hair is all long, while the beards have a certain unmediated quality that make them unlikely to be mistaken as hipster affectation. The vibes – and there are emphatically vibes – suggest five men fantastically unafraid of clichés in their wholehearted embrace of a vintage counterculture. As Robinson expressed it in another Uncut interview, “Whatever name you wanna put on me, hippie, beatnik, bohemian, demure anarchist – I don’t know what to call it, but I know there’s lots of us out there.”
An evening with the Chris Robinson Brotherhood, then, works out as a celebration of how American musical traditions can be at once honoured and psychedelically expanded. It would be no disservice to this exceptional group, as they rattle through covers of Dylan, Slim Harpo, JJ Cale and more, to think of them as a kind of cosmic bar band: here to jam on some favourite tunes, make their people dance, and keep going for as much of the night as The Man will allow.
The most obvious antecedent to all this is The Grateful Dead (The CRB have just been recording their fourth album in the Dead’s old neighbourhood of Marin County), and it’s striking to note how the Brotherhood engage with that heritage in comparison with the more uptight reinventions of the new Day Of The Dead compilation (I reviewed that for the new issue of Uncut as well, actually). There are no anxieties here about whether choogling and extensive guitar solos are suitable fare for a 2016 indie-rock constituency. Instead, the show takes the shape of a classic Dead gig: two long sets, of eight long songs apiece, where old chestnuts are interspersed with bold, freeform manoeuvres. A masterclass in good-time virtuosity, in which the transcendent, communitarian possibilities of rock’n’roll are dusted down for one more unself-conscious boogie round the block. “Time to hear the music emitted from the spheres,” as Robinson sings in “Vibration And Light Suite”, “Time to dance like children on our diamond tears.”
For all his historically well-documented love of these esoteric rituals, Robinson is still an unlikely ringleader of such an easy-going band. While The Black Crowes always seemed to be a mess of tension and volatility, the Brotherhood appear more of a freewheeling coalition. No longer a preening lord of misrule, Robinson has mostly traded in his old strutting for a rhythm guitar and an air of the benign paterfamilias; as if Mick Jagger, in middle age, had decided to recreate himself as Jerry Garcia.
Confusingly, though, it is the guy to Robinson’s right, looking a little like Bob Weir, whose rococo lead lines bring Garcia to mind. This is Neal Casal, formerly a solo practitioner of artisanal Americana, now a spectacular guitarist who can sometimes be found in the company of Phil Lesh and Cass McCombs as well as the Brotherhood. It is Casal who sends burnished country-soul ballads like “Reflections On A Broken Mirror” and “Star Or Stone” into the ionosphere. Even at their most ornate, Casal’s extrapolations never seem self-indulgent. Rather, like a member of the very best improvising collectives, he seems merely one of a group of players who can fall in and out of each other’s orbits with an intuitive grace.
That skill is in no small part bolstered by the CRB’s rhythm section of Mark Dutton on bass and newish drummer Tony Leone, whose limber momentum means they could efficiently sub for either The Band’s Danko/Helm axis or The Meters’ George Porter Jr and Zigaboo Modeliste. Black Crowe alumnus Adam MacDougall, meanwhile, is a more divisive figure. While he appears capable of turning his hand to anything on the keyboards, the gloopy Moog settings that he favours force one impassioned audience member to compare them to the Grange Hill theme. MacDougall is at his best when he swivels round to attack a clavinet, driving “After Midnight” – frantic where JJ Cale’s original moseyed – into an exuberantly funky Stevie Wonder zone.
It’s easy, as you can probably tell, to reduce a Brotherhood show to an ecstatic grid of reference points: how it begins with a version of Mac Davis and Delaney Bramlett’s “Hello LA, Bye Bye Birmingham” that could pass for a resurrected Burrito Brothers; how my notebook, where legible, also contains allusions to Clarence White-era Byrds, Funkadelic, Ned Lagin and The Allman Brothers, a virtual index of Uncut touchstones. Nevertheless, some of the gig’s highlights draw attention to another continuum between the past and the present – between The Black Crowes and the Chris Robinson Brotherhood.
“I Aint’t Hiding”, for instance, is one of a clutch of songs in the CRB repertoire that date from the dog days of the Crowes, specifically from their final album, 2009’s Before the Frost…Until the Freeze, recorded live at Levon Helm’s Woodstock Barn. Perhaps there’s a little more innate menace to “I Ain’t Hiding” than might be detected in more recent Robinson songs, but the swing, the effortlessly-deployed classicism, reveals a throughline between his superstar years and this humbler, unencumbered new age.
Likewise “Rosalee”, the first set’s rapturous closer. “Rosalee” comes from the CRB’s first and best album, 2012’s Big Moon Ritual, evolving from choppy funk, through rich a capella harmonies, into passages of deep space skronk and back again. At its core, though, is a song bold enough, with a few subtle adjustments, to pass as an anthem from the Black Crowes’ commercial heyday. Robinson’s unreconstructed lyrics could possibly benefit from a 2016 refresh, in a way that his music would not, but the refrain still acts as a sort of mission statement, from a band instinctually too amorphous to admit anything so formal.
“Is the air getting thinner,” emotes Robinson, joyfully, “or are we getting high?” The freak flag’s been planted in foreign soil and, finally, the supply lines are open once again.
Until the 1930s, for nearly half a century there was a parliamentary constituency in Liverpool that chose to ignore the prevailing British political trends and returned an Irish Nationalist MP to Westminster. This regional bloodymindedness has long been a fixture of the city’s music scene. When pu...
Until the 1930s, for nearly half a century there was a parliamentary constituency in Liverpool that chose to ignore the prevailing British political trends and returned an Irish Nationalist MP to Westminster. This regional bloodymindedness has long been a fixture of the city’s music scene. When punk hit, Liverpool’s hipsters were listening to baritone crooners such as Jim Morrison and Scott Walker; at the height of synth pop and New Romanticism, Scousers dug deep into the jangly guitars of 1960s psychedelia. As the 1980s wore on, Merseyside’s young football fans were wearing flares and listening to Pink Floyd and Frank Zappa.
The Coral are reluctant to see themselves as a Liverpool band – they’re from Hoylake, across the Mersey at the tip of the Wirral – but they seem to embody the sonic otherness of this weird maritime city state. Even when they released their first album in 2002 – as teenagers who still trundled around on BMX bikes and lived with their parents – they were gleefully citing contrary influences such as Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis and The Four Freshmen to bewildered journalists.
Now, on their first album in six years, their interests in freak folk, doo-wop and skiffle have been replaced by other influences – the sludge rock of Black Sabbath, the trance metal of Hawkwind, the metrical beats of Krautrock. Assisting them in this change is the slightly wayward guitar playing of Paul Molloy, formerly of kindred spirits The Zutons, who joined the band halfway through the LP to replace guitarist Lee Southall, currently on hiatus.
The band have still been active throughout this apparent furlough. In 2014 they quietly released The Curse Of Love, a “lost” album originally recorded in 2006, while most of the band have been active in each other’s recent solo projects – James Skelly’s backing band The Intenders featured most of The Coral at some point, as has The Serpent Power (a project led by drummer Ian Skelly and Molloy).
Distance Inbetween is very much the hardest and heaviest thing that The Coral have ever put down on tape. The opening tracks set out their stall. “Connector” is a wonderfully hypnotic three-chord groove, based around a machine-like beat and some pitch-shifted Bollywood strings. “White Bird” is tremendous – an insistent, pulsating Motown-meets-Krautrock beat topped by spooky Mellotrons and wobbly guitars.
The band have always been good on imaginative vocal harmonies, orchestrated by bassist Paul Duffy, and this album is no exception. On “White Bird”, or the spooky, drumless folk-style song “She Runs The River”, or the one-chord boogie of “Million Eyes”, the close vocal harmonies initially sound like Crosby Stills & Nash or America, but start to become slightly sinister, using the kind of intervals you associate with Gregorian chants. And even the more meat-and-potatoes heavy boogie numbers – the bubblegum freakbeat of “Holy Revelation”, the 12-bar stomp of “Fear Machine – the drums sound fantastic – wild and thunderous yet also tight and hypnotic.
As you’d imagine, the band still hit some of those Liverpudlian touchstones. “Chasing The Tail Of A Dream” is a sped-up ringer for Pink Floyd’s “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun”, based around the same pounding tom-tom gallop, played with beaters rather than drumsticks. That Scouse love of baritone crooners is never far – the dreamy, piano-led title track is a ballad where James Skelly’s croon strays into Scott Walker territory; among the woozy organs and grungy guitars of “It’s You”, he’s a ringer for Jim Morrison. “Miss Fortune”, meanwhile, sounds like a potted history of Merseybeat – a Teardrop Explodes-ish motorik beat, a Bunnymen-like melody and a terrific backwards “Taxman” guitar solo from Molloy.
On paper, stripped back to its constituent elements, it sounds somewhat derivative, an exercise in retro box-ticking. But the garbled way in which The Coral piece these disparate elements together creates an odd, timeless and cosmic music, buzzing with energy, and very much their own.
Q&A
James Skelly
How much do you see yourself as part of any Liverpool sound?
Well, when we started we were definitely influenced by stuff like the Bunnymen and Shack. But we’re kinda halfway between Liverpool and Wales – you can pretty much see the Welsh coast from Hoylake. And a big part of us was just as influenced by Welsh bands like Gorky’s and Super Furry Animals.
Is analogue recording important to you?
We’re not fetishistic about it at all. When it’s a really busy recording with loads of layers of instruments, digital recording is way better. But, for this album, we really wanted that soggy drum sound you get on tape. Digital can be a bit dry, but we wanted the drums to really bleed and soak into everything else.
The harmonies are weirder than usual here…
Yeah, they sound quite complicated but often they’re much simpler than our usual harmonies – often we’re just singing the root note and maybe a fifth. It’s a bit medieval, innit? Like those medieval beards some of us have been trying out lately, ha ha. Actually, I had an album of Gregorian plainsong as a teenager. Maybe that’s rubbed off.
What influenced the change in direction?
Well, we were listening to stuff like Can and Hawkwind and Black Sabbath. But our influences are less about music, more about other stuff. Richard Yates’ books, particularly Revolutionary Road, Alan Moore comics, and this amazing American photographer called Gregory Crewdson, who does these really beautifully lit pictures of mundane streets. A lot of the lyrics are influenced by Mad Men – the way you’ve got something very straight on the surface that’s actually very dark. I love how someone like Ian Curtis is able to be both domestic and apocalyptic, all at once.
INTERVIEW: JOHN LEWIS
AC/DC have confirmed that Axl Rose will replace Brian Johnson for the remaining dates of their Rock Or Bust tour.
"AC/DC will resume their Rock Or Bust World Tour with Axl Rose joining on vocals," the band announced in a statement Saturday.
The band's tour was halted in March after doctors had adv...
AC/DC have confirmed that Axl Rose will replace Brian Johnson for the remaining dates of their Rock Or Bust tour.
“AC/DC will resume their Rock Or Bust World Tour with Axl Rose joining on vocals,” the band announced in a statement Saturday.
The band’s tour was halted in March after doctors had advised Brian Johnson to stop touring immediately or “risk total hearing loss”.
“AC/DC band members would like to thank Brian Johnson for his contributions and dedication to the band throughout the years. We wish him all the best with his hearing issues and future ventures,” the statement continued.
“As much as we want this tour to end as it started, we understand, respect and support Brian’s decision to stop touring and save his hearing. We are dedicated to fulfilling the remainder of our touring commitments to everyone that has supported us over the years, and are fortunate that Axl Rose has kindly offered his support to help us fulfill this commitment.”
The band continued, “The European stadium tour dates begin on May 7 in Lisbon, Portugal and run through June 12 in Aarhus, Denmark as previously announced. Following this European run of dates with AC/DC, Axl Rose will head out on his Guns N’ Roses, ‘Not In This Lifetime’ Summer Stadium Tour.”
Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones are in negotiations to appear at a mega concert to be held later this year.
The Who and Roger Waters are also reportedly in the frame for the event which is being organized by Goldenvoice, the Los Angeles-based promoter that stages the Co...
Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones are in negotiations to appear at a mega concert to be held later this year.
The Who and Roger Waters are also reportedly in the frame for the event which is being organized by Goldenvoice, the Los Angeles-based promoter that stages the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the concert will be held between October 7 to 0 at the Empire Polo Field in Indio.
The LA Times claims that Dylan and the Stones would play back to back on October 7. They would be followed on Octover 8 by Young and McCartney.
The Who and Waters would play on October 9.
“It’s so special in so many ways,” the paper quotes Neil Young’s longtime manager, Elliot Roberts. “You won’t get a chance to see a bill like this, perhaps ever again. It’s a show I look forward to more than any show in a long time.”
The LA Times story says an official announcement is expected in coming weeks.
Bob Seger has just moved house. “We needed a new house, and I went on tour for 51 days and we never moved in,” the Detroit-born singer explains. “I’m so far behind, I got boxes on boxes.” We’re pleased, then, he’s taken time out from the unpacking to talk us through his career as one o...
Bob Seger has just moved house. “We needed a new house, and I went on tour for 51 days and we never moved in,” the Detroit-born singer explains. “I’m so far behind, I got boxes on boxes.” We’re pleased, then, he’s taken time out from the unpacking to talk us through his career as one of America’s most enduring blue-collar rockers. “I wanted to be as rhythmic as James Brown, as deep as Bob Dylan and as fiery as Little Richard,” Seger tells us. It’s a strategy that’s found him considerable success while also attracting plenty of famous admirers, including Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and another Detroit rocker: “Jack White keeps calling my office…” Interview: Jaan Uhelszki. Originally published in Uncut’s June 2012 issue (Take 181).
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Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man CAPITOL, 1969 The veteran of local Detroit groups including The Last Heard – whose 1967 single “Heavy Metal” featured Jim Osterberg, later known as Iggy Pop, on drums – Seger and his band turned down an offer from Motown to join the Capitol roster as The Bob Seger System. Future Eagle Glenn Frey guested on their debut’s title track.
SEGER: We changed our name from The Last Heard because if you said it too fast, it came out bad. I’d been sitting on the song “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” for a long time, but the rest of it, I wrote in five days and recorded in about five days. My manager’s done this to me down through the years, where he says, “We’ve got to have an album now.” Meanwhile I’m playing five or six nights a week. Worse, I did not know how to write songs. We recorded it in the basement of a bowling alley over Pampa Lanes over in East Detroit. We used that place a lot. I ended up buying the piano out of there. It’s a 1968 Bosendorfer. It’s still sitting in my house. Glenn Frey sang back-ups on “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man”. I met him when I was 19 and he was 16. The Eagles are all over my shit. As for the song “2+2=?”, I was talking about the Vietnam War. It didn’t make sense to me. During the 1960s, I saw the protests on the University of Michigan campus. I got tear-gassed a couple of times. Most of these songs, I threw together really quick. You know who loved that stuff, is Jack White. He keeps calling my office, saying, “Tell Bob I want to remix it. I want to redo it.” He wants to play on it, too.
Ryan Adams has announced details of a deluxe edition reissue of his solo debut album, Heartbreaker.
The record will be released on 180gm 4LP/DVD and 2CD/DVD and digitally by Caroline Records and Universal Music on May 6.
Remastered from the original tapes, the album will come in a deluxe box set t...
Ryan Adams has announced details of a deluxe edition reissue of his solo debut album, Heartbreaker.
The record will be released on 180gm 4LP/DVD and 2CD/DVD and digitally by Caroline Records and Universal Music on May 6.
Remastered from the original tapes, the album will come in a deluxe box set that features the 15 song album plus demos and unreleased outtakes.
The package will also include a DVD featuring never before released footage of a complete solo acoustic show at the Mercury Lounge in New York City in October 2000, and a booklet of rare and unseen photos with liner notes written by collaborator Ethan Johns.
The band featured Ryan Adams on guitars, vocals, piano and harmonica, Ethan Johns on bass and drums, Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch on guitars and backing vocals and Pat Sansone on keyboards.
The album also included guest vocals by Emmylou Harris, Kim Richey and Alison Pierce.
The full tracklisting Heartbreaker Deluxe Box Set is:
LP 1 Side A
(Argument with David Rawlings concerning Morrissey)
To Be Young (is to be sad, is to be high)
My Winding Wheel
AMY
Side B
Oh My Sweet Carolina
Bartering Lines
Call Me On Your Way Back Home
Damn, Sam (I love a woman that rains)
LP 2 Side A
Come Pick Me Up
To Be The One
Why Do They Leave?
Shakedown On 9th Street
Side B
Don’t Ask For The Water
In My Time Of Need
Sweet Lil Gal (23rd/1st)
LP 3 Side A
Hairdresser On Fire (previously unreleased outtake from original album session)
To Be Young (is to be sad, is to be high) (previously unreleased outtake from original album session)
Petal In A Rainstorm (previously unreleased outtake from original album session)
War Horse (previously unreleased outtake from original album session)
Oh My Sweet Carolina (previously unreleased outtake from original album session)
Side B
Come Pick Me Up (outtake from original album session)
Punk Jam (previously unreleased outtake from original album session)
When The Rope Gets Tight (alt) (previously unreleased outtake from original album session)
When The Rope Gets Tight (outtake from original album session)
Goodbye Honey (bonus track from original release)
In My Time Of Need (previously unreleased outtake from original album session)
LP 4 Side A
Bartering Lines (demo)
Come Pick Me Up (demo)
To Be The One (demo)
Don’t Ask For The Water (demo)
In My Time Of Need (demo)
Side B
Goodbye Honey (demo)
Petal In A Rainstorm (demo)
War Horse (demo)
Locked Away (previously unreleased outtake from original album session)
DVD Filmed live at The Mercury Lounge (New York, NY) on October 20, 2000.
Oh My Sweet Carolina
Gimme Sunshine
To Be Young (is to be sad, is to be high)
AMY
Call Me On Your Way Back Home
Just Like A Whore
Wonderwall
Damn, Sam (I love a woman that rains)
Sweet Lil’ Gal (23rd/1st)
Come Pick Me Up
My Winding Wheel
Radiohead have released a statement today, (April 15) regarding comments made by Brian Message about a new album.
During an interview at the ‘In Conversation’ event at London’s Wanstead Tap last night (April 14), Message said the album is “nothing like you’ve ever heard.” This was confi...
Radiohead have released a statement today, (April 15) regarding comments made by Brian Message about a new album.
During an interview at the ‘In Conversation’ event at London’s Wanstead Tap last night (April 14), Message said the album is “nothing like you’ve ever heard.” This was confirmed by the Wanstead Tap’s Twitter page, which has since been deleted.
The band have clarified their relationship with Message, stating that he is “not Radiohead’s manager – he is a partner in Courtyard Management but plays no operational role, and therefore quote’s from last night’s event, or any supposition arising from them, should not be attributed to Radiohead’s management or be seen as official quotes on behalf of the group.”
The full statement can be read here:
“At an industry event in London last night Brian Message was asked about new Radiohead music. Quotes attributed to him and taken from his talk have subsequently appeared, describing him as Radiohead’s manager. Brian Message is not Radiohead’s manager – he is a partner in Courtyard Management but plays no operational role, and therefore any quotes from last night’s event, or any supposition arising from them, should not be attributed to Radiohead’s management or be seen as official quotes on behalf of the group. Radiohead are managed by Chris Hufford and Bryce Edge at Courtyard Management.”
Radiohead are due to play a number of festival and tour dates this year:
May 20-21 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Heineken Music Hall
May 23-24 – Paris, France – Le Zénith
May 26-28 – London, England – Roundhouse
June 1 – Lyon, France – Les Nuits Des Fourvieres
June 3 – Barcelona, Spain – Primavera Sound Festival
June 17 – Reyjkavik, Iceland – Secret Solstice
July 2 – St. Gallen, Switzerland – Openair St. Gallen
July 8 – Lisbon, Portugal – Nos Alive Festival
July 26-27 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
July 28-31 – Chicago, IL – Lollapalooza
July 29-31 – Montreal, Québec – Osheaga Music and Arts Festival
August 4 – Los Angeles, LA – Shrine Auditorium
August 5-7 – Golden Gate Park, CA – Outside Lands
August 8 – Los Angeles, LA – Shrine Auditorium
August 20 – Osaka, Japan – Summersonic Festival
August 21 – Tokyo, Japan – Summersonic Festival
September 11 – Berlin, Germany – Lollapalooza
October 3-4 – Mexico City, Mexico – Palacio de los Deportes
Father John Misty covered Nine Inch Nail’s Closer last night at a show at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago, IL.
He jokingly told the crowd, “it’s a little sappy but I would like to play my favourite love song for you” ahead of the performance.
Watch his cover of Closer here:
Father John M...
Father John Misty covered Nine Inch Nail’s Closer last night at a show at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago, IL.
He jokingly told the crowd, “it’s a little sappy but I would like to play my favourite love song for you” ahead of the performance.
Watch his cover of Closer here:
Father John Misty is currently on tour. He is due to play the following UK dates:
Back from holiday (hence no playlist last week; apologies) and up to my neck in deadlines, but look: yet another new Bitchin Bajas record; William Tyler's blissful new country motorik trip (and a great mixtape from him aka Sebastian Speaks); plus a bunch of nagging reminders to check out Brigid Mae ...
Back from holiday (hence no playlist last week; apologies) and up to my neck in deadlines, but look: yet another new Bitchin Bajas record; William Tyler’s blissful new country motorik trip (and a great mixtape from him aka Sebastian Speaks); plus a bunch of nagging reminders to check out Brigid Mae Power, Steve Gunn and the Skiffle Players…
Follow me on Twitter @JohnRMulvey
1 Brigid Mae Power – Brigid Mae Power (Tompkins Square)
As The Rolling Stones' Exhibitionism show opens in London, it seems a good time for us to publish our deluxe, upgraded and updated Ultimate Music Guide to The Rolling Stones. In it, you'll find a definitive survey of the band's storied career, told with the aid of in-depth reviews of every single St...
As The Rolling Stones’ Exhibitionism show opens in London, it seems a good time for us to publish our deluxe, upgraded and updated Ultimate Music Guide to The Rolling Stones. In it, you’ll find a definitive survey of the band’s storied career, told with the aid of in-depth reviews of every single Stones album and a wealth of interviews from the archives of NME, Melody Maker and Uncut.
“At the moment and for the next 10 years I’m happy,” Keith Richards announces in 1964. “Whether it will last, I don’t know.”
Our 148 pages act as testament to the fact that the Stones did what no-one, 50 years ago, thought was possible: make an engrossing lifelong career out of the uncertain business of being in a rock’n’roll band.
“It’s ‘orrible to be the Grand Old Men,” Jagger told Melody Maker in, yes, 1972. “If all this talk gets any worse I’ll be getting another band…”
It’s possible to tell a lot about an artist not only by the songs they cover, but also the manner in which they choose to perform them. Here, Philadelphia-based guitarist Chris Forsyth closes The Rarity Of Experience with a version of Richard Thompson’s “The Calvary Cross”. While discretely ...
It’s possible to tell a lot about an artist not only by the songs they cover, but also the manner in which they choose to perform them. Here, Philadelphia-based guitarist Chris Forsyth closes The Rarity Of Experience with a version of Richard Thompson’s “The Calvary Cross”. While discretely respectful to the original, Forsyth maps his own path through the song – a long, winding journey showcasing the formidable clarity of Forsyth’s playing. The rest of The Rarity Of Experience bristles with similar moments of high drama – expansive jams interwoven with razor-sharp dynamics. This album pushes and pulls in so many directions, it should fall apart; remarkably, it doesn’t.
The Rarity Of Experience is the second album recorded with Forsyth’s Solar Motel Band, whose line-up features Peter Kerlin (bass) and Steven Urgo (drums). The band’s previous record, 2014’s Intensity Ghost, foregrounded the formidable interplay between Forsyth and Paul Sukeena, whose twin guitars evoke great tag-teams passim like Neil Young and Danny Whitten, Lou Reed and Robert Quine or – most pertinently – Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd. There are changes afoot on The Rarity Of Experience. Not only has Paul Sukeena been replaced by Nick Millevoi, but the album’s opener “Anthem I” begins with an oscillating synth line (courtesy of Jamie Fennelly, from Forsyth’s previous band, Peeesseye); elsewhere, Forsyth sings.
But the alterations are not just cosmetic. The album’s wide-ranging scope is critical. The Rarity Of Experience is a double album: most of the material on Disc One has been honed on the road for the last year, while the second disc is more experimental in nature. Forsyth has also re-recorded some tracks from elsewhere in his catalogue that fit in with his current set. Both discs reflect the different aspects of Forsyth: the formidable guitarist with a killer live band and the improvisatory musician operating on the fringes of space rock and free jazz.
The first three minutes of “Anthem II” are an explosive showcase for the band’s strengths. Driven by Urgo’s pounding drums and Kerlin’s vigorous basslines, the guitars weave and rut, alternately squalling and keening. “The Rarity Of Experience Pt 1” – a compact 2:23, the shortest track here – finds Forsyth singing in a dryly disaffected voice not unlike Thurston Moore (Moore and Ranaldo are perhaps another comparable pairing to Forsyth and Millevoi). Meanwhile, the descending guitar motif of “… Pt 2”, threatens to burst into “Marquee Moon” at a moment’s notice. Buttressed by echoey organ stabs from regular collaborator Shawn Hansen, it reveals taut, New Wave rhythms, echoed by Forsyth’s minimalistic lyrics: “Think once/Think twice/Can’t think/Soul on ice”.
The 10-minute “High Castle Rock” never breaks its energy; each part of the song is a conduit to another delirious Forsyth solo or else it simply ploughs on forward, powered by the band’s formidable rhythm section. The mic setup on Urgo’s drums captures a deep, resonant boom that provides a solid foundation for the febrile playing of the two guitarists. “High Castle Rock” also makes clear the distinctions between Forsyth and Millevoi’s playing. Forsyth seems to chisel out each chiming note – he studied guitar with Richard Lloyd in the late 1990s – whereas Millevoi favours tight, spidery scrabblings that occasionally recall Nels Cline. Disc One finishes with “Harmonious Dance”, a looser, more cosmic number that loops round a mellifluous guitar refrain.
Disc Two opens with the outstanding “The First Ten Minutes Of Cocksucker Blues”: an imagined alternative score to the beginning of Robert Frank’s 1972 Stones doc that pulses with a period-authentic sense of menace. Forsyth originally recorded this on 2012’s solo set, Kenzo Deluxe; for this version, the band is joined by free jazz player Daniel Carter, whose woozy saxophone and trumpet lines add sinister undercurrents to the song. Elsewhere, Forsyth’s guitar on the down-tempo “Boston Street Lullabye” recalls the sepulchral twang of Low’s Alan Sparhawk. Initially favouring some graceful acoustic strumming, “Old Phase” slowly builds itself to full strength as Forsyth and Sukeena’s guitar lines spiral and rise with fine fluidity. The album closes with “The Calvary Cross”: Thompson’s mysterious invocation to his poetic muse. The song’s blank verse suits Forsyth’s semi-spoken delivery here. But presumably taking his cue from the extended live version included on Thompson’s (guitar/vocal) album, Forsyth’s version is marvelously digressive; a fitting coda to an album rich in such extemporisations.
As for Forsyth himself, “The Calvary Cross” can perhaps been seen as a neat metaphor for his career to date. “My claw’s in you and my light’s in you,” the song goes, highlighting the creative urges that are currently driving Forsyth onwards, never quite taking the same route twice.
Paul McCartney launched his new One On One world tour last night (April 13, 2016] in Fresno, California by playing two Beatles songs live for the first time since becoming a solo artist.
McCartney opened his set with his first solo live performance of "A Hard Day’s Night", which was last performe...
Paul McCartney launched his new One On One world tour last night (April 13, 2016] in Fresno, California by playing two Beatles songs live for the first time since becoming a solo artist.
McCartney opened his set with his first solo live performance of “A Hard Day’s Night“, which was last performed by The Beatles in 1965.
He also played “Love Me Do” for the first time since 1964.
The show also included pre Beatles material with the inclusion of The Quarrymen’s “In Spite Of All The Danger“.
The setlist also saw McCartney play “You Won’t See Me” live the first time live in America.
The Set List: “A Hard Day’s Night”
“Save Us”
“Can’t Buy Me Love”
“Letting Go”
“Temporary Secretary”
“Let me Roll It”
“I’ve Got a Feeling”
“My Valentine”
“Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five”
“Here, There and Everywhere”
“Maybe I’m Amazed”
“We Can Work It Out”
“In Spite of All the Danger”
“You Won’t See Me”
“Love Me Do”
“And I Love Her”
“Blackbird”
“Here Today”
“Queenie Eye”
“New”
“The Fool on the Hill”
“Lady Madonna”
“FourFiveSeconds”
“Eleanor Rigby”
“Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!”
“Something”
“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”
“Band on the Run”
“Back in the U.S.S.R.”
“Let It Be”
“Live and Let Die”
“Hey Jude”
Encore: “Yesterday”
“Hi, Hi, Hi”
“Birthday”
“Golden Slumbers”
“Carry That Weight”
“The End”
M Ward’s CV is almost as heavy on the high-profile hook-ups as it is the solo recordings. He’s released seven of those since 1999, alongside one Monsters Of Folk album and five with Zooey Deschanel as She & Him. In addition, there are countless guest appearances for the likes of Bright Eyes,...
M Ward’s CV is almost as heavy on the high-profile hook-ups as it is the solo recordings. He’s released seven of those since 1999, alongside one Monsters Of Folk album and five with Zooey Deschanel as She & Him. In addition, there are countless guest appearances for the likes of Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket, Jenny Lewis and Howe Gelb, plus production credits for Lewis, Carlos Forster and, most recently, Mavis Staples’ Livin’ On A High Note.
Small wonder, then, that the Portland-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist is viewed as much in the light of his collaborations as his independent albums. But his MO is hardly that of a driven spotlight seeker; you get the impression that if he’s noticed at all, Ward doesn’t give a damn.
The man certainly gets around, but there’s been a commonality in his choices since the rickety and down-home, dust-covered alt.country of his solo debut, Duet For Guitars # 2. It’s hard to avoid the word “nostalgic” in regard to the warmly intimate and over-easy, Americana/folk pop that has become his trademark, but he’s no dogmatic revivalist. Ward’s skill is to make what might otherwise seem slight – as She & Him’s sugary retroism sometimes does – play as effortless, unselfconscious charm.
Despite the title, More Rain is framed as a shelter from the troubled world, a place where uplift and contentment reign, and naïvety is embraced. It’s telling that Ward plays his yesteryear references – jive, doo-wop, gospel, rock’n’roll, honky tonk – pretty straight. And lyrically, there isn’t a single knowing wink, not even on the swinging, barroom gospel of “I’m Going Higher”, where he croons, “Lift me high, so that I can see the dark shine beyond my darkest day.” The lack of ironic twist is both slightly unsettling and hugely refreshing.
Vocals figure more strongly on More Rain than usual, in that Ward’s familiar laidback tone gets a more expressive workout (the winding “Slow Driving Man” and Cali-Mex reminiscence “Girl From Conejo Valley” are standouts on that score) and backing singers help shape the songs, rather than just fill out spaces. As Ward told Uncut: “The idea was to rely on voice and vocal harmonies the way street singers used their voices – vocals as horns and strings, etc. The record grew from there and I replaced some vocal parts with actual instruments, but that’s the backbone of the record. I normally rely on guitars to make all the drama.”
Without abandoning his favourite decade, on More Rain Ward winds back from 2012’s ’60s-focused A Wasteland Companion to the ’50s, and lets rip a little, with guests including Peter Buck, KD Lang, Neko Case and The Secret Sisters. It’s a brief (12 tracks in under 40 minutes) encapsulation of a particular world view, all unabashed romanticism and guileless honesty, impeccably produced and pitched so up-close and personal that on “Phenomenon”, you can hear Ward’s wet mouth on the mic. It opens with the rumble of a (simulated) storm and the sound of rain, out of which emerges “Pirate Dial”, a sweetly spangled mix of acoustic guitar and pedal steel ostensibly about trawling the frequencies, although something in Ward’s “I can hear ya” suggests communication of a deeper kind is on his mind. Next is “Time Won’t Wait Up”; it cuts some rug via a mix of soda shop jive, doo-wop and glam, into which Ward slyly drops the hook from “Get It On”. It seems he shelved his original plan for an exclusively doo-wop set, but there are more than residual traces. “I’m Listening (Child’s Theme)” splices it with country-soul languor and adds strings and flugelhorn, while “Little Baby”, featuring KD Lang, is almost a homage to The Drifters. Elsewhere, there are nods to Elvis and Bobby Darin, notes of mariachi, Moog, mandolin and of Buck’s Rickenbacker, while the extended list of band members reads like a who’s who of Americana and alt.country/folk veterans.
Ward likes his cover versions. He’s previously recorded songs by Buddy Holly, Tony Martin, Bowie (his reworking of “Let’s Dance” is a revelatory gem) and Daniel Johnston, but here, it’s his beloved Beach Boys. “You’re So Good To Me” opens with the words “you’re kinda small” and features a cheesily attenuated “lalalalala”, but Ward’s in no way laughing at the song – he’s a little in love with it. It’s that affection that makes More Rain hard to resist.
Q&A
How is More Rain your refuge from a troubled America?
Music has always been a refuge or escape for me – listening to it or making it. American culture is sick and getting sicker, but I think art can help.
The title isn’t just an environmental reference.
It comes from reading the New York Times front-page stories every day. “More rain” is another way of saying more bad news, but it’s meant to only be a backdrop for the record. I’m more interested in the ways people transcend it. I think that’s what every good story ever written has been about, from Hamlet to Bilbo Baggins to Louis CK.
What did Peter Buck et al bring?
I’m lucky to have very talented musician friends; they are the rain and sun that make songs and records grow. I love recording their first instincts in the studio, because you normally get something unexpected that ends up becoming my favorite part of the song.
What do you like about ’50s rock’n’roll?
A lot of it is a waste of time signifying nothing, but a very small amount of digging uncovers an obscure James Brown or Chuck Berry song that quickly becomes essential to living.
“Phenomenon” seems to be about self-belief.
Part of the reason this is an especially hard song to talk about, is it’s a song about things that are hard to talk about.
How do you keep cynicism at bay?
I guess I’m pretty bored with cynicism. Besides a few Pavement records, has it ever achieved anything good?
INTERVIEW: SHARON O’CONNELL
Julia Holter has announced new tour dates.
She is due to play in Manchester, Bristol, Glasgow, Bristol, Newcastle and Brighton. This is alongside her biggest headline show to date at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire on November 14. Circuits Des Yeux will be the supporting act from November 11–...
Julia Holter has announced new tour dates.
She is due to play in Manchester, Bristol, Glasgow, Bristol, Newcastle and Brighton. This is alongside her biggest headline show to date at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire on November 14. Circuits Des Yeux will be the supporting act from November 11–21.
Holter has also confirmed a number of festival dates including Green Man Festival, Primavera Sound, Pitchfork Music Festival, La Route Du Rock and Iceland Airwaves.
Have You In My Wilderness was Uncut’s #1 Album of the Year last year.
Bob Dylan’s childhood best friend is reportedly writing a memoir, The Boys From The North Country: My Life With Robert Zimmerman And Bob Dylan.
The book will be published by Random House, according to The Rogovoy Report.
Louie Kemp met Dylan in 1954 at Jewish summer camp Camp Herzl in Webster, W...
Bob Dylan’s childhood best friend is reportedly writing a memoir, The Boys From The North Country: My Life With Robert Zimmerman And Bob Dylan.
The book will be published by Random House, according to The Rogovoy Report.
Louie Kemp met Dylan in 1954 at Jewish summer camp Camp Herzl in Webster, Wisconsin. He subsequently went on to manage the 1975-76 Rolling Thunder Revue tours, provided the smoked salmon for The Last Waltz and lived with Dylan in California for three years in the 1980s.
Meawhile, Dylan has confirmed details of his new album, Fallen Angels.
The album is released on May 20 by Columbia Records.
The complete track listing 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
Allen Toussaint's final studio recordings are being released on a new album, American Tunes.
The album will be released by Nonesuch on June 10, 2016.
The album features solo and band performances, with works by Toussaint, Professor Longhair, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller and Paul Simon.
American Tu...
Allen Toussaint‘s final studio recordings are being released on a new album, American Tunes.
The album will be released by Nonesuch on June 10, 2016.
The album features solo and band performances, with works by Toussaint, Professor Longhair, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller and Paul Simon.
American Tunes has been produced by Joe Henry.
The album sessions began with solo piano recordings at Toussaint’s New Orleans home studio in 2013, and later with the rhythm section of Jay Bellerose and David Piltch – joined by guests Bill Frisell, Charles Lloyd, Greg Leisz, Rhiannon Giddens and Van Dyke Parks – in Los Angeles in October 2015.
Joe Henry first worked with Toussaint when he invited the pianist to join the sessions for I Believe To My Soul. Henry subsequently acted as producer on Toussaint’s post-Katrina collaboration with Elvis Costello, The River In Reverse.
Henry describes the most recent sessions: “I have been working with Allen Toussaint – under his spell and subject to his influence – for a full decade now. He was a quiet radical, musically-speaking, and a prince of great humility.”
American Tunes is available to pre-order now at iTunes and nonesuch.com, with the track “Big Chief” as an instant download; nonesuch.com pre-orders come with a limited-edition print.
A two-LP vinyl version, also available June 10, includes three bonus tracks.
The tracklising for American Tunes is:
1. Delores’ Boyfriend By Allen Toussaint
2. Viper’s Drag Thomas “Fats” Waller
3. Confessin’ (That I Love You) Doc Daugherty, Ellis Reynolds & Al Neiburg
4. Mardi Gras In New Orleans Henry Roeland “Roy” Byrd (Professor Longhair)
Bruce Springsteen has added more dates to his River Tour.
He will now play Trondheim on July 26, Oslo on July 28 and Zurich on July 31.
https://twitter.com/springsteen/status/720270468066844672
https://twitter.com/springsteen/status/720270808485130240
https://twitter.com/springsteen/status/72027...
Bruce Springsteen has added more dates to his River Tour.
He will now play Trondheim on July 26, Oslo on July 28 and Zurich on July 31.
Last week, Springsteen canceled a show scheduled for Sunday in North Carolina as a protest against the state’s controversial House Bill 2. Known officially as the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, the Bill requires individuals to use gender-specific bathrooms, as defined by their birth certificates, and is seen by many as discriminatory against transgender people.
Springsteen pulled the band’s April 10 gig in Greensboro writing on his website, “Some things are more important than a rock show and this fight against prejudice and bigotry – which is happening as I write – is one of them.”
The River Tour will reach the UK on May 25 with a show at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium.
Wednesday May 25: Etihad Stadium, Manchester
Wednesday June 1: Hampden Park, Glasgow
Friday, June 3: Ricoh Arena, Coventry
Sunday, June 5: Wembley Stadium, London
Best Fest has announced a festival to honour Bob Dylan’s 75th birthday.
Dylan Fest: A Celebration of Bob Dylan’s 75th Birthday will take place at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on May 23 and 24. The event will see a wide array of artists take to the stage to perform.
"We are thrilled and grate...
Best Fest has announced a festival to honour Bob Dylan’s 75th birthday.
Dylan Fest: A Celebration of Bob Dylan’s 75th Birthday will take place at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on May 23 and 24. The event will see a wide array of artists take to the stage to perform.
“We are thrilled and grateful to celebrate the life and legacy of Bob Dylan at the legendary Ryman Auditorium,” says founder Austin Scaggs. “To honor Bob and raise money for a wonderful charity is a win-win.” Best Fest have previously held festivals in honour of Neil Young, Tom Petty and the Rolling Stones.
The list of artists so far confirmed to participate in Dylan Fest are: Emmylou Harris, Jason Isbell, Kacey Musgraves, Ann Wilson, Kurt Vile, Wynonna & The Big Noise, Boz Scaggs, Kesha, City & Colour, Moon Taxi, Brothers Osborne, Dhani Harrison, John Paul White, Nikki Lane, Brendan Benson, Rayland Baxter, Holly Williams, Langhorne Slim, Eric Pulido of Midlake, Ruby Amanfu, Karen Elson, Amanda Shires, Danny Masterson, Bijou Phillips, The Whigs, Cory Chisel, Adriel Denae, Jonathan Tyler, Robert Ellis, Shelly Colvin and Tommy Emmanuel.
Money raised from ticket sales is benefiting Nashville-based charity Thistle Farms. The charity is committed to helping survivors of abuse, addiction, trafficking and prostitution.
Tickets go on sale April 15 at 10am CT.
Tickets for May 23 show can be purchased here Tickets for May 24 show can be purchased here
