Neko Case, k.d. lang and Laura Veirs have announced details of a new album and tour.
case/lang/veirs is released on June 17, 2016 via ANTI-. The album has been produced by Tucker Martine.
You can hear a track, "Atomic Number", and watch a trailer for the album below.
Several years ago k.d. lang s...
Neko Case, k.d. lang and Laura Veirs have announced details of a new album and tour.
case/lang/veirs is released on June 17, 2016 via ANTI-. The album has been produced by Tucker Martine.
You can hear a track, “Atomic Number“, and watch a trailer for the album below.
Several years ago k.d. lang sent an email to Neko Case and Laura Veirs on a whim. It read simply: “I think we should make a record together.” Though the three musicians were barely more than acquaintances, “Laura and I both responded immediately,” recalls Case. “There was no question.”
Tour dates will be announced shortly.
The tracklisting for case/lang/veirs is:
Atomic Number
Honey and Smoke
Song for Judee
Blue Fires
Delirium
Greens Of June
Behind The Armory
Best Kept Secret
1,000 Miles Away
Supermoon
I Want to Be Here
Down I-5
Why Do We Fight
Georgia Stars
What is it with folkies and birds? Songs hymning birds and flight are legion in pop, but most merely use our winged friends as a symbol of longing and liberty. Folk singers, meanwhile, like to get particular, to single out species and project an inner life on the gull of their dreams. Alasdair Rober...
What is it with folkies and birds? Songs hymning birds and flight are legion in pop, but most merely use our winged friends as a symbol of longing and liberty. Folk singers, meanwhile, like to get particular, to single out species and project an inner life on the gull of their dreams. Alasdair Roberts’ “Waxwing” for example, or songs by David Rotheray, Jim Causley or The Imagined Village’s Simon Emmerson. Twitchers all.
So was Bert Jansch, whose “Blackbirds Of Brittany” (a fundraiser single for the RSPB) and “Bird Song” are stand-outs in the oeuvre. Folk’s connection to birds is obvious enough, the wellspring of tradition being rural and infused with nature. The 18-minute title track of Avocet, for example, has its genesis in the centuries-old “Cuckoo”, a commonplace song but one that obsessed the much-missed British folk pioneer, whose heavily elaborated version took months of development.
Jansch had finally taken to playing the piece live with bassist Danny Thompson and fiddler/flautist Martin Jenkins when the trio took to the road in 1977. It was an opportune gap in their careers, with Jansch’s Conundrum project a busted flush, Thompson off-duty from John Martyn and Jenkins a perfect available accomplice. With punk and new wave raging overhead, the only game in town for folk was the live circuit, where Scandinavia had long been a second home.
When Jansch’s Danish manager, Peter Abrahamsen, heard “Avocet” live he financed an album, with the title track occupying one vinyl side. Four other instrumentals that Jansch had accumulated were added, plus one from Jenkins, each named after a sea or wading bird, and the record was released in 1978 on Abrahamsen’s Ex-Libris label, arriving, tardily, a year later on UK Charisma.
The album is thus something of a curio in Jansch’s career, yet one that was especially close to his heart. You can see why. Jansch himself is on peak form, his rapport with his bassist effortless after their years together in Pentangle, while Jenkins does all that was asked of him in what Colin Harper’s insightful liner notes make clear was a meticulously prepared session. Jansch knew what he wanted. “He had it clear in his head how each piece could flow together in continuity, in terms of key rather than tempo,” recalls Jenkins.
There was real care, too, in the production at Copenhagen’s Sweet Silence Studios, whose clarity and warmth have been winningly remastered for this new edition. A photograph from the sessions shows a shaggy, beaming Jansch at the console surrounded by a smiling team.
“Avocet” is the album’s wonder, with the antique air reprised in assorted guises, at times elegant and almost mediaeval, at others driving and jazzy, while Jenkins’ violin has an almost futurist quality. This is Jansch leading us a merry dance, and his guitar is at the heart of everything; restless and intricate, string-snappingly fierce and gently otherworldy. Thompson, likewise, oscillates between thrumming overdrive and sparse statement. It’s 10 minutes before anything like a conventional folk approach arrives, with Jenkins adding flute, before a final, joyous section that reminds us that while the song is named after “a long-legged wader, charismatic and graceful”, something of the greenwood clings obstinately to it.
“Lapwing” couldn’t be more different. For starters it’s Jansch at the piano, it’s short, it’s in waltz time and its tune is etched among cryptic flurries that hover midway between jazz and modern classical. A two-minute delight. “Bittern” sounds the changes again, a skipping blues played on acoustic, though its serpentine melody is infused with skirls of electric guitar and driven by busy bass parts that owe more to Charlie Mingus than to the “elusive, secretive heron” after which the piece is named. Meandering and lovely.
“Kingfisher” is more contemplative, its melody played on fiddle while Jansch and Thompson compete on string-snapping techniques. Jenkins’ “Osprey” slows down further, led by a violin melody that carries something of the power and menace of its subject. Jansch contrasts with impatient picking, shifting into unexpected jazz chords. “Kittiwake” is the simplest piece here, another seemingly effortless little melody intricately explored.
It is, as Colin Irwin puts it, “gloriously timeless music”, so out of time that Avocet re-arrives 30 years on sounding fresher and more adventurous than most of what’s presently rolling off the music mills of any persuasion; folk, jazz, classical. Like its creator, Avocet answers to all yet none of those names. Grounded in tradition, deeply schooled in the art of folk-picking that lay behind so much of pop’s glory years (‘The White Album’, The Byrds and Zeppelin wouldn’t have existed without it), a songsmith and a composer who expressed admiration for classical guitarist Julian Bream, Jansch transcended genres. On Avocet, his vision found a point of perfection.
CD comes in slim, stylish book with bird prints. Vinyl edition has all six prints in large format.
Hopefully, in the wake of the new Uncut, you managed to bag some tickets for Springsteen's UK tour this spring when they went on sale last week. Now, we have word on more Bruce live activity: a show at Max’s Kansas City, New York, on July 23. Support comes from a promising Jamaican act, The Wailer...
Hopefully, in the wake of the new Uncut, you managed to bag some tickets for Springsteen’s UK tour this spring when they went on sale last week. Now, we have word on more Bruce live activity: a show at Max’s Kansas City, New York, on July 23. Support comes from a promising Jamaican act, The Wailers.
“It depends how seriously you take yourself,” says Bruce, upfront of the show. “It’s really hard for me to talk about the words ‘cause I have no particular things to say. I mean, I never read poetry ‘cause I don’t like to read too much; I never read anything to the degree of remembering. Y’know, as soon as someone says ‘this guy is the next Bob Dylan’ you’re dead, and I can’t believe they don’t know that.
“Of course there are similarities! First thing I heard was on AM, ‘Like A Rolling Stone’, and I grew up with that. But the public always has this huge mouth, open wide and going ‘more, more!’ Even if someone was dropping dead they’d still shout ‘more!’ They’re brought up to do that, but it’s a fight to keep your identity against people who want to cloud it over…
“Despite all the hype,” he muses, “I’m remaining pretty obscure…”
That, of course, was Bruce Springsteen in 1973, talking to the Melody Maker’s Michael Watts around the release of his debut album. You can find the whole piece in the latest edition of our encyclopaedic History Of Rock series, which is due to go on sale in the UK this Thursday (though you should be able to order it, along with the volumes dedicated to 1965 through 1972, from our Uncut online shop).
As you can see, Pink Floyd are on the cover, and inside you’ll find David Gilmour discussing the significant release that turns out to be “The Dark Side Of The Moon”. “We thought it was obvious what the album was about,” he says, “but still a lot of people didn’t know what the LP was about. They just couldn’t say – and I was really surprised. They didn’t see it was about the pressures that can drive a young chap mad. I really don’t know if our things get through, but you have to carry on hoping. Our music is about neuroses, but that doesn’t mean that we are neurotic. We are able to see it, and discuss it.”
“We’re bound to argue because we are all very different,” he continues. “I’m sure our public image is of 100 per cent spaced out drug addicts, out of our minds on acid. People do get strange ideas about us…”
For the truth, from 1973, The History Of Rock is the essential document. Here’s John Robinson to introduce the issue…
“Welcome to 1973. This is a year in which everyone seems to be saying goodbye. At the start of the year, Leonard Cohen comes to London to say that he is deeply troubled by the music business, and that he’s planning a dignified exit. Later in the year Neil Young says much the same. Eno leaves Roxy, as Ronnie Lane does the Faces. David Bowie, meanwhile, apparently quits music altogether.
“Those that remain, however, reap some rich rewards. Bands like Led Zeppelin, The Who, or our cover stars Pink Floyd have now all escaped their niches in the previous decade, to flourish in a new context. Zeppelin play to more people than ever before, duly making an enormous amount of money. Floyd do likewise, but are more troubled by their conscience and by their past.
“For Floyd, the absence of Syd Barrett (and the mental unrest that led to his absence) is articulated in one of the most successful records of all time. Perhaps in homage to a man who was not there, the band themselves fail to appear at the launch for ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’.
“1973 also brings dramatic new arrivals. The Wailers, and their frontman Bob Marley have suffered hardships in the Jamaican music business, but now finally found a patron who will treat them fairly. In New York, the singer Bruce Springsteen is signed by John Hammond – the man who took a chance on Bob Dylan. At a bizarre engagement in New York, Springsteen and Marley play a show together.
“This is the world of The History Of Rock, a monthly magazine which follows
each strange turn of the rock revolution. Diligent, passionate and increasingly stylish contemporary reporters were there to chronicle them then. This publication reaps the benefits of their understanding for the reader decades later, one year at a time.
“In the pages of this ninth issue, dedicated to 1973, you will find verbatim articles from frontline staffers, compiled into long and illuminating reads. Missed an issue? You can find out how to rectify that by checking our generously-stocked online shop.
“What will still surprise the modern reader is the access to, and the sheer volume of material supplied by the artists who are now the giants of popular culture. Now, a combination of wealth, fear and lifestyle would conspire to keep reporters at a rather greater length from the lives of musicians.
“At this stage though, representatives from New Musical Express and Melody Maker are where it matters. Several miles above Mexico with Bob Dylan. In hospital with Robert Wyatt. Watching as Captain Beefheart meets George Best at dinner.
These days, if you threw a stick, you’d hit a dozen new music documentaries on figures great, cult and all-but unknown, and at least ten would be worth watching. Even so, the appearance of a film telling the story of pre-punk post-punkers The Residents remains particularly tantalising. Not simply ...
These days, if you threw a stick, you’d hit a dozen new music documentaries on figures great, cult and all-but unknown, and at least ten would be worth watching. Even so, the appearance of a film telling the story of pre-punk post-punkers The Residents remains particularly tantalising. Not simply because, for over four decades of strange, subterranean, determinedly dissonant, stubbornly DIY activity, these enigmatic avant-garde anti-rock pioneers operating out of California have been responsible for some of the most distinctive, challenging, gleefully stupid and downright disturbing records ever released.
Nor because, stressing the visual as much as the aural, it’s debatable whether they count as a “band” at all. Blurring artrock lines until they vanish, The Residents (proudly described here as “failed filmmakers”) seem closer to a rotating multimedia art collective, one whose entire project could be categorised as a sustained, by turns prankish and sinister attack on rock sacred cows including the very idea of the band.
The reason a Residents documentary is especially intriguing is more basic, and more complicated: namely, how do you make a film about a group most famous for secrecy? Outside their devoted army of fans, The Residents are best known for their anonymity, for being faceless, never speaking, appearing only behind masks. Many self-respecting music nerds would be pushed to name more than one or two of their 50 or so studio albums, yet most could identify them as the guys who wear the massive eyeball-heads and top hats, like aliens from a paranoid 1950s sci-fi trying to blend in by dressing like Fred Astaire.
In the 1970s, when The Residents name first began to spread, fans swapped rumours that those masks hid famous faces: everyone from ex-Beatles (whose vandalised images adorned 1974’s debut LP, Meet The Residents) to members of Talking Heads. By then, The Residents had acquired a management/ PR company, The Cryptic Corporation, whose members acted as their representatives on Earth. That their true identities have never been revealed is arguably The Residents’ greatest hit – although most people who care enough to want to know long ago came to the conclusion that, despite denials, the men behind Cryptic Corp and the men behind the eyeballs were one and the same.
Members of Cryptic past and present – remaining duo Hardy Fox and Homer Flynn, departed colleagues Jay Clem and John Kennedy – all sit for interviews in director Don Hardy’s film, and the strength of the documentary is its insider nature, although, as it goes on, this becomes its greatest weakness.
On the plus side, Hardy has free access to The Residents’ archive, meaning plentiful clips from brain-scrambling projects like the legendary, aborted Vileness Fats, a projected 14-hour musical shot on rudimentary monochrome video in the early 1970s that sits roughly midway between 1920s Dada and David Lynch’s early work.
Material from myriad video projects and live extravaganzas is the most stimulating stuff here, but the earliest, crummiest archive is perhaps the most striking of all: footage of their first live performance, when they stormed San Francisco folk hang-out The Boarding House in 1971, to bewilder singer-songwriter sensitivities with a performance that suggests an unrehearsed collision between their beloved Beefheart, The Fugs, and The Bonzos. What’s most startling today is that they are unmasked – although the primitive video quality provides grainy cover.
As a narrative, however, only this earliest section holds together, charting how, far from being Paul and George getting back together for a lark, The Residents originated as school pals in the suffocatingly conservative southern climes of 1950-60s Shreveport, Louisiana, then gravitated to California dreaming of psychedelia and getting laid. From here, the story slips frustratingly away.
With Hardy and his interviewees are intent on maintaining “The Residents” are not participating – Fox, Flynn, Clem and Kennedy refer to the band in the third person, and can only guess their motives and feelings – the insider nature results in them losing focus on the story. Events only fans will be aware of, such as the early-1980s “bust-up” between The Residents and Cryptic, are referred to without explanation or context. More damagingly, there is no overview of their output: what albums like Eskimo are like, why they might matter, is never discussed.
Still, as the roster of contributors suggests – everyone from Simpsons creator Matt Groening and comics guru Gary Panter, to Penn Jillette, Talking Heads’ Jerry Harrison and Devo’s Jerry Casale – it’s never less than interesting. But maybe an outside eyeball would have been of benefit.
EXTRAS: A great plethora of remastered clips of from the Residents’ video archive, extended interviews. 8/10
Following the sad news of his passing at the age of 91, here's an interview I conducted with Enno Morricone, at his home in Rome, for our An Audience With... feature.
The piece ran in Uncut issue 214 (March 2015) and includes Il Maestro's thoughts on Sergio Leone, Tarantino and scoring the 1978 W...
Following the sad news of his passing at the age of 91, here’s an interview I conducted with Enno Morricone, at his home in Rome, for our An Audience With… feature.
The piece ran in Uncut issue 214 (March 2015) and includes Il Maestro’s thoughts on Sergio Leone, Tarantino and scoring the 1978 World Cup theme.
When visiting Ennio Morricone at home in Rome, it is necessary to observe a number of protocols. The composer, for instance, should be addressed as “Il Maestro”. During a career spanning more than 50 years, he is worthier of the honorific than most. One other thing, Uncut is told: it is considered impolite to linger too long on the subject of spaghetti Westerns. There are, after all, over 500 other film scores in the composer’s estimable repertoire. “It could have been extremely boring to write musical scores for only westerns of horror films,” he explains. “It was really exciting for me to work in all these various genres.”
The Morricone residence is a spacious apartment located in the city’s stately Monteverde Vecchio district. The living room windows look out over some of Rome’s grandest architectural achievements, including Michelangelo’s Piazza del Campidoglio and the remains of the Roman Forum, while the Trevi Fountain is only a short walk away. Inside the apartment itself – where Morricone and his wife have lived since the early 1980s – chandeliers hang from the high, coffered ceilings. Paintings mounted in handsome gilt frames decorate the walls, while a giant tapestry adorns one entire side of the living room. At 86, one year on from suffering a spinal injury, Morricone is on sprightly form. Dressed in a red polo neck, beige slacks and slippers, he peers owlishly from behind a pair of large glasses. At one point, he leaps to his feet to berate a BBC Radio crew setting up in a corner of the living room who, Morricone believes, are tampering with an electrical socket next to his hi-fi.
Through a translator, Morricone is happy to discuss his extraordinary life and career – from his earliest forays into music during the 1950s up to his present commissions. Many of his best known scores – and, he confides, some of his lesser known ones – will receive a rare public outing this month as part of his My Life In Music tour. However, with so many credits to his name, it is sadly inevitable that he is no longer able to recall one or two high-profile collaborations. Asked, for instance, about his memories of working with a certain Mancunian singer, he looks puzzled. “Morrissey?” He says, shaking his head. “No, I can’t remember him…”
Do you have any tips for a young guy like me, how do I get into the movie business? Giorgio Moroder
He already has a career in film and doesn’t have to do anything! Do I consider him to be a contemporary? It is hard to define him as a composer. When you write for films, you know, you can use baroque music or something very contemporary. So it’s very hard to say.
Your score to John Carpenter’s The Thing is sympathetic to Carpenter’s own soundtrack work, but retains your own sensibility. How did you arrive at this? Clint Mansell
I knew that he was also a composer. He came to Rome to show me the film, and then as soon as I saw the film he went away. He never discussed anything with me at all, so I went to Los Angeles to record. He selected a piece that was unlike all the other pieces of music I recorded; it was an electronic piece of music. That was quite strange.
What was it like growing up in Italy during the 1940s? Sheena Roberts, Oxford
It was very hard. I was born in 1928, so in 1943, 1944 we had the war in Rome. There were a lot of hardships, a lack of food, many shortages. So when I worked with the Americans, the English and the Canadians soon after the war, when I played with them, they paid me with food. That will give you an idea how widespread poverty was at that time. It was food for my family.
What are your earliest memories of going to the cinema? Javier Vázquez, Madrid
My first memories were linked to cinema. I love cinema anyway, aside from the music. In my youth, cinemas showed two films in one day. I used to watch both of them. It may sound strange, but West Side Story was the only musical I liked. I didn’t like musicals, or films with songs, at all. I always thought they were not real, that the songs sounded a little bit false. But in the case of West Side Story things were different. The songs started from reality and there was a real plot. I didn’t like love stories much, either. I liked adventure films and detective stories. Hitchcock was the master.
In the late 1950s, you played the trumpet in a jazz band. What do you remember about that time? Nikki Vogler, Vienna
Let me make a distinction. In the 1950s, I played the trumpet with some jazz groups. And then I did something else again with the trumpet, improvising with the Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, who were really avant garde. My more risky or avant garde music is not that well known to a wider audience; but I wish it was. Was there a moment when I knew I wanted to be a composer? Initially, as early as my composition classes in the conservatory, at Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, in 1940.Are there any regrets about not working with Stanley Kubrick on A Clockwork Orange? Andrea Morandi, Milan
It was a real regret! We had already agreed to work together, but at that time I was working on a score for Sergio Leone. There was a problem of timing, different jobs and everything. I never met him; Kubrick didn’t like flying, so we only spoke on the telephone. We had already agreed that I was going to record in Rome and then send the music to him. Are there other occasions where circumstances have prevented me from working with a director? To tell the truth, no-one apart from Kubrick. You know, I have written one hundred pieces of music for concerts when I was not writing for musical scores. I have had so many other engagements!
Who is the most difficult director he worked with, or the one who has been hardest to please? Steph, Twickenham
There was a lot of agreement, and a convergence of ideas, with Giuseppe Tornatore, because he improved his musical knowledge a lot from when we first met. But there were no directors with whom I had problems, particularly. I remember on The Legend Of 1900, the big issue we had was that the lead actor [Tim Roth] had to train beforehand to learn the piano before we shot, in order to be able to perform the music in the film. That was the only movie where I had to go many times on the set to see how everything was going.
Is it true that Sergio Leone let you compose the music before the shoot, to enable the actors to get in the mood on set? Jessica Mackney, Tufnell Park
I liked to write the music before shooting the film begins, not only for the actors but also for the director. I think that when you have the music beforehand you can listen and get accustomed to it, you can assimilate it. Leone was not the only director for whom he did this. It may happen that you write a signature theme or a tune for a specific character, but usually I never lose sight of the whole film when I write scores. I prefer to have the whole film in mind rather than just a single character. My working relationship with Leone over the years was intriguing. It was an excellent collaboration, because he really trusted me; there was a lot of convergence of ideas!
How did you come to score the ’78 World Cup theme? Jason Smith, Tadworth
Simply, I was commissioned. But it was terrible… because rather than having it recorded and played before matches as I wanted, they had these four people in a band going from one stadium to the other playing the music. It was terrible. I support Roma. They’ve got good results this season. Do I go to matches? No, not any more. I prefer to watch it here on TV. It’s quiet here, I’ve got a nice big screen, and when obviously Roma wins I can also fall asleep.
On Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino used music of yours that had already appeared in other films. What were your views on that? Dionne Newsome, via email
At first, he asked me to write a full musical score. The problem was he asked me in January and I had to go to Cannes in May, so these three months were really too short a time to write a complete score. That’s the reason why he decided to use some pieces of music I had already composed. Was it strange to see the music used in a different context? I thought that the balance between the music and the scene was really very good. So while I knew the music was written for another film, I couldn’t care less really. This is why I said there should always be a convergence. Directors should know the music and realise that it is the music that is good for the film. Tarantino probably knew the music because he had it on another occasions and therefore thought that it was the right music for that scene, that film.Do you ever think about how your soundtrack will sound outside of the context of the film? Nenad, via email
I always say that in order to work well in a film, the music should have the strength of its own specific technical characteristics. It should have a life irrespective of the film it’s associated with. That is why at times you have unusual music in a film and it works really well. If it had been written before for other occasions but it still worked well in the film, obviously it was a formal and correct piece of work. It has its own strength and autonomy. I have written musical scores for films, but I thought that they should have a life of their own. That’s the reason why I can organise concerts with music produced for films, because that music has its own structures.
What are your current working practices? Alison Goodman, Bristol
It’s a very regular routine. I wake up early, I shave and dress then I do some physical exercises. Let’s say I march around my home, buy the papers, read the papers. Then after all that I start composing and if I have some urgent commissions that I have to complete I can work for a long, long period of time. Apart from lunch obviously. Or if there are no urgent commissions, I rest a little bit in the afternoon. I usually feel more tired in the afternoon. At the moment, I’m working on the music for a French film.
Are there any films you regret writing the soundtrack for? Paul Speller, Chalfont St Peter
No, and I can explain why. I have worked on the musical scores of films that were not so important, and those films especially had no real chance of success. But on those, I really experimented a lot in terms of music. Experiments were important for me and that was also a good contribution for the film. But there is one movie that I think I could have improved upon. Tranquillo Posto di Campagnia by Elio Petri. A marvellous film, with ultra modern music. It was a great success with the critics but was not a success at the box office. I had the idea that I should rewrite the music because it was very difficult for the public to understand. The producer and director both said there were no problems. For them, the music was perfect.
Ginger Baker has cancelled all of his upcoming tour dates.
Rolling Stone reports that Baker broke the news on his blog writing, "Just seen doctor... big shock… no more gigs for this old drummer... everything is off... of all things I never thought it would be my heart..."
Additionally, Baker's F...
Ginger Baker has cancelled all of his upcoming tour dates.
Rolling Stone reports that Baker broke the news on his blog writing, “Just seen doctor… big shock… no more gigs for this old drummer… everything is off… of all things I never thought it would be my heart…”
“To all fans; it is with great sadness that we announce the cancellation of all shows. Ginger’s doctor’s have insisted that he have complete rest due to diagnosis of serious heart problems. We hope you will all join with his family in wishing him well. God bless Ginger Baker.” Team Baker
Ginger Baker’s Air Force had four UK dates scheduled for April before a brief American tour in May.
Spent yesterday writing a bunch of album reviews, and discovered as a consequence the interesting connection between Florida sponge-divers and Aegean bagpipe music. Try and guess which album below the story is connected with (it's not PJ Harvey or Brian Eno).
Anyhow, strong new additions: Mary Latt...
Spent yesterday writing a bunch of album reviews, and discovered as a consequence the interesting connection between Florida sponge-divers and Aegean bagpipe music. Try and guess which album below the story is connected with (it’s not PJ Harvey or Brian Eno).
Anyhow, strong new additions: Mary Lattimore, The Limiñanas, Marissa Nadler and, just this minute, Ryley Walker. Let me know, as ever, what you think…
Follow me on Twitter @JohnRMulvey
1 Pantha Du Prince – The Triad (Rough Trade)
2 Mary Lattimore – At The Dam (Ghostly International)
3 The Limiñanas – Malamore (Because)
4 Tim Hecker – Love Streams (4AD)
5 Clear Light – Clear Light (Big Beat)
6 Bitchin Bajas & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Epic Jammers And Fortunate Little Ditties (Drag City)
7 Jan St Werner – Felder (Thrill Jockey)
8 Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – Ears (Western Vinyl)
9 Let’s Eat Grandma – Deep Six Textbook (Transgressive)
10 PJ Harvey – The Hope Six Demolition Project (Island)
11 Gimmer Nicolson – Christopher Idylls (Light In The Attic)
12 Prins Thomas – Principe Del Norte (Smalltown Supersound)
David Bowie's ★ album has been turned into a 16 part Instagram mini-series called Unbound, with the first episode now airing online.
InstaMiniSeries is an Instagram channel that produces episodic programmes via short videos uploaded to the social media platform.
Before his death, Bowie provided ...
David Bowie‘s ★ album has been turned into a 16 part Instagram mini-series called Unbound, with the first episode now airing online.
InstaMiniSeries is an Instagram channel that produces episodic programmes via short videos uploaded to the social media platform.
Before his death, Bowie provided film-makers with unmediated access to the music and images from the album, with “no limits or preconditions”.
Unbound stars Rookie Magazine founder Tavi Gevinson and Patricia Clarkson.
The 16-part series was written by Carolynn Cecilia and directed by Nikki Borges.
According to Bowie’s official website, the series features “evocative images inspired by the moods suggested in the album’s music, lyrics and artwork” rather than a “literal, linear narrative”.
Borges said Bowie had always been about “reinvention over repetition” and that “his innovations have influenced our own work as we transform a social media platform into a creative outlet”.
Jack White is to guest star in the season finale of The Muppets.
The hour-long episode - entitled "Because...Love" - airs on March 1.
According to a precis of the episode, "After her stint in the hospital, Miss Piggy and Kermit reevaluate their relationship, and Kermit turns to Jack for help and a...
Jack White is to guest star in the season finale of The Muppets.
The hour-long episode – entitled “Because…Love” – airs on March 1.
According to a precis of the episode, “After her stint in the hospital, Miss Piggy and Kermit reevaluate their relationship, and Kermit turns to Jack for help and advice.”
This is not the first time the Muppets have displayed their hip cultural credentials. The music supervisor for their 2011 comeback movie was Flight Of The Conchords member Bret McKenzie, while the cast included Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper and Rashida Jones.
White follows in a long line of guest stars to appear in the show. In the original series, which ran for 120 episodes from 1976 – 1981, the Muppets shared airtime with Elton John, Peter Sellers, Diana Ross, Roger Moore, Bob Hope, Vincent Price, Steve Martin, Alice Cooper and Kris Kristofferson.
Brian Eno has revealed details of his new album, The Ship.
The album will be released on Friday April 29, 2016 via Warp Records.
It features a cover of The Velvet Underground's "I'm Set Free", from their self-titled third album, and a poem read by Peter Serafinowicz.
Speaking about the inspiratio...
Brian Eno has revealed details of his new album, The Ship.
The album will be released on Friday April 29, 2016 via Warp Records.
It features a cover of The Velvet Underground‘s “I’m Set Free”, from their self-titled third album, and a poem read by Peter Serafinowicz.
Speaking about the inspiration for this new album, Eno said, “On a musical level, I wanted to make a record of songs that didn’t rely on the normal underpinnings of rhythmic structure and chord progressions but which allowed voices to exist in their own space and time, like events in a landscape. I wanted to place sonic events in a free, open space.
“One of the starting points was my fascination with the First World War, that extraordinary trans-cultural madness that arose out of a clash of hubris between empires. It followed immediately after the sinking of the Titanic, which to me is its analogue. The Titanic was the Unsinkable Ship, the apex of human technical power, set to be Man’s greatest triumph over nature. The First World War was the war of materiel, ‘over by Christmas’, set to be the triumph of Will and Steel over humanity. The catastrophic failure of each set the stage for a century of dramatic experiments with the relationships between humans and the worlds they make for themselves.
“I was thinking of those vast dun Belgian fields where the First World War was agonisingly ground out; and the vast deep ocean where the Titanic sank; and how little difference all that human hope and disappointment made to it. They persist and we pass in a cloud of chatter.”
Tracklisting:
01. The Ship
02. Fickle Sun
(i) Fickle Sun
(ii) The Hour Is Thin
(iii) I’m Set Free
The album will be available as a CD, a Collector’s CD, double vinyl and coloured double vinyl.
The producer Bob Ezrin has found himself the subject of a Twitter rant by Kanye West.
Ezrin - whose credits include Pink Floyd, Lou Reed and Genesis - wrote to the Lefsetz Letter – a music industry email written by music industry analyst and critic Bob Lefsetz – offering his thoughts on West’...
The producer Bob Ezrin has found himself the subject of a Twitter rant by Kanye West.
Ezrin – whose credits include Pink Floyd, Lou Reed and Genesis – wrote to the Lefsetz Letter – a music industry email written by music industry analyst and critic Bob Lefsetz – offering his thoughts on West’s career.
In the piece, published yesterday (February 22), Ezrin wrote, “Unlike other creators in his genre like Jay-Z, Tupac, Biggie or even M.C. Hammer for that matter, it’s unlikely that we’ll be quoting too many of Kanye’s songs 20 years from now.
“He didn’t open up new avenues of public discourse like NWA, or introduce the world to a new art form like Grandmaster Flash, or even meaningfully and memorably address social issues through his music like Marshall, Macklemore and Kendrick.”
Ezrin, who admits to having not listened to West’s new album The Life Of Pablo, went on to accuse the rapper of indulging in “excessive behavior, egomaniacal tantrums and tasteless grandstanding,” adding: “He’s like that flasher who interrupts a critical game by running naked across the field.”
Ahead of the release of her new album of Sixties' British Invasion hits, English Heart, Ronnie Spector 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 singer?
Who was her favourite Beatle?
What does she ...
Ahead of the release of her new album of Sixties’ British Invasion hits, English Heart, Ronnie Spector 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 singer?
Who was her favourite Beatle?
What does she remember about coming to England for the first time in 1964?
What’s her favourite Christmas song?
Send up your questions by noon, Friday, February 26 to uncutaudiencewith@timeinc.com.
The best questions, and Ronnie’s answers, will be published in a future edition of Uncut magazine.
The Specials will tour in October and November this year.
Their run of shows includes two shows at the Troxy in London, and sees them play Scunthorpe, Llandudno, York, Exeter, Reading and Cambridge for the very first time.
These will be the first shows since the loss of drummer John (Brad) Bradbur...
The Specials will tour in October and November this year.
Their run of shows includes two shows at the Troxy in London, and sees them play Scunthorpe, Llandudno, York, Exeter, Reading and Cambridge for the very first time.
These will be the first shows since the loss of drummer John (Brad) Bradbury in December.
“We started working on these dates last October,” says Terry Hall. “Everyone was really looking forward to them and then just after Christmas Brad passed away. It was devastating but in our heart of hearts we know he would want us to continue with the plan he helped to put together”
19 October NOTTINGHAM, Rock City
22 October SHEFFIELD, O2 Academy
23 October SCUNTHORPE, The Baths Hall
25 October GLASGOW, O2 Academy
27 October BLACKPOOL, Empress Ballroom
29 October LIVERPOOL, Olympia
31 October LLANDUDNO, Venue Cymru
1 November YORK, Barbican
3 November LEICESTER, De Montfort Hall
4 November WOLVERHAMPTON, Civic Hall
5 November EXETER, University Great Hall
7 November SOUTHAMPTON, O2 Guildhall
8 November READING, Rivermead Centre
11 November CAMBRIDGE, Corn Exchange
12 November SOUTHEND, Cliffs Pavilion
13 November EASTBOURNE, Winter Gardens
15 November ONDON, Troxy
16 November LONDON, Troxy
A rare vinyl release by Jack White which he concealed inside a sofa over 10 years ago has been discovered.
In 2000, White formed The Upholsterers with Brian Muldoon. Both former upholsterers, they released a single, "Apple Of My Eye", in 2000. A few years later, the pair hid 100 copies of their son...
A rare vinyl release by Jack White which he concealed inside a sofa over 10 years ago has been discovered.
In 2000, White formed The Upholsterers with Brian Muldoon. Both former upholsterers, they released a single, “Apple Of My Eye”, in 2000. A few years later, the pair hid 100 copies of their song “Your Furniture Was Always Dead … I Was Just Afraid To Tell You” in reupholstered furniture around Detroit.
Recently, two separate people have recently contacted White’s Third Man Records label after discovering copies of the record. A message from the label confirmed the discovery:
“Recently Third Man Records has been made aware of the discovery of two different copies found by two separate individuals of the 2nd single by the Upholsterers. This duo, comprising of actual upholsterers Jack White and Brian Muldoon, pressed 100 copies of this single and proceeded to hide them in furniture being reupholstered by Muldoon in 2004, in celebration of his 25th year in the business. In celebration of these discoveries, Third Man would like to share with everyone the cover art for this single, done by noted Detroit artist Gordon Newton.”
Meanwhile, American Epic – the ambitious documentary series overseen by White, T Bone Burnett and Robert Redford – is due to be screened later this spring on British television.
Spread across three documentaries, the series charts the development of blues, country, gospel, Hawaiian, Cajun and folk music through the lives of musicians including Charley Patton, The Carter Family and Joe Falcon, using previously unseen film footage, unpublished photographs, and interviews with some of the last living witnesses to that era.
A fourth film, The American Epic Sessions, features Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Elton John, Beck, Steve Martin, Rhiannon Giddins, Taj Mahal, Los Lobos, Alabama Shakes and Stephen Stills, who all have a go at recording on a perfectly reassembled Western Electric recording machine in an old studio in Melrose, Hollywood.
Iggy Pop was among the artists appearing at a Tibet House Benefit concert that took place at New York's Carnegie Hall last night [February 22, 2016].
During his set, Pop covered two songs by his late friend and collaborator, David Bowie.
Performing with members of The Patti Smith Group, Pop sang "...
Iggy Pop was among the artists appearing at a Tibet House Benefit concert that took place at New York’s Carnegie Hall last night [February 22, 2016].
During his set, Pop covered two songs by his late friend and collaborator, David Bowie.
Performing with members of The Patti Smith Group, Pop sang “The Jean Genie“; he was also joined by Sharon Jones for a version of “Tonight“.
You can watch clips of both songs below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5SMk2TzJhk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcBDsle4Tmk
The benefit was curated by Philip Glass. Glass, FKA twigs and Basia Bulat were among the other artists who peformed.
Meanwhile, Pop releases his new album, Post Pop Depression, on March 18.
The album has been co-created with Josh Homme, and features his Queens Of The Stone Age bandmate and Dead Weather-man Dean Fertitia and Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders.
Kim Gordon has revealed details of her new band Glitterbust.
The project is a collaboration with Alex Knost of Tomorrows Tulips.
They will released their self-titled, five-track album on March 4 on Burger Records.
They've also shared Glitterbust's first single, "The Highline".
https://soundcloud...
Kim Gordon has revealed details of her new band Glitterbust.
The project is a collaboration with Alex Knost of Tomorrows Tulips.
They will released their self-titled, five-track album on March 4 on Burger Records.
They’ve also shared Glitterbust’s first single, “The Highline“.
The full tracklisting for the album is:
Soft Landing
Repetitive Differ
Erotic Resume
The Highline
Nude Economics
Gordon’s last music project was a collaboration with Bill Nace called Body/Head, who released an album, Coming Apart, in 2013.
She released her memoir, Girl In A Band, in 2015. Click here to read Uncut’s review of the book.
Bruce Springsteen, Jeff Buckley, Underworld and White Denim feature in the new issue of Uncut, dated April 2016 and out now.
The Boss is on the cover, and inside, the E Street Band discuss the making of The River, their upcoming celebratory tour and sticking together.
“You kinda give up and enjo...
Bruce Springsteen, Jeff Buckley, Underworld and White Denim feature in the new issue of Uncut, dated April 2016 and out now.
The Boss is on the cover, and inside, the E Street Band discuss the making of The River, their upcoming celebratory tour and sticking together.
“You kinda give up and enjoy the ride,” says Steve Van Zandt. “We could’ve been recording that thing forever.”
As his early sessions are released for the first time, we hear how Jeff Buckley learned his craft via an eclectic songbook. “The goal,” says his A&R man, “was to allow him the time and space to find out which Jeff Buckley he was going to be…”
Ahead of the release of their new album, Barbara Barbara, We Face A Shining Future, Underworld’s Karl Hyde and Rick Smith recall their first 36 years. How have they lasted so long? “Karl,” says Smith, “was the most annoying person I’d ever met.”
Elsewhere, we reconnect with White Denim’s James Petralli to discuss jams, splits, Leon Bridges and their strong new album, while the life of Free’s talented guitarist Paul Kossoff is told by his bandmates Simon Kirke, Paul Rodgers, his brother Simon Kossoff and others who knew him best – “Free was his whole life. What does a rock guitarist do if there’s no rock guitar?”
Meanwhile, Chris Isaak recalls the making of “Wicked Game”, Eddie Kramer remembers engineering and producing classic albums by Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Traffic and David Bowie, and Jeff Lynne answers your questions. We pay tribute to Glenn Frey and Paul Kantner, and speak to Kiran Leonard and Charles Bradley in our front section.
Our reviews section features new albums from Margo Price, Iggy Pop, Violent Femmes and The Coral, and archive releases from Alex Harvey, David Bowie and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, while live we catch Tame Impala in Brussels and Scritti Politti in London.
In our Film and DVD sections, we look at new releases from Ben Wheatley and the Coen Brothers, and film tributes to George Harrison and The Melvins.
Uncut’s free CD, On The Highway, features new tracks from The Coral, Richmond Fontaine, Grant-Lee Phillips, White Denim, M Ward, Kiran Leonard, Meilyr Jones and Bob Mould.
It'd probably be a sound professional move on my part to claim that the new Uncut, out today, was carefully timed to coincide with the announcement of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band's UK tour dates in May and June (tickets go on sale Thursday, I think).
In truth, though, our exclusive co...
It’d probably be a sound professional move on my part to claim that the new Uncut, out today, was carefully timed to coincide with the announcement of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band’s UK tour dates in May and June (tickets go on sale Thursday, I think).
In truth, though, our exclusive cover story is more of a serendipitous accident. Jason Anderson took in a couple of shows in New Jersey and Washington, and interviewed the band about the US the current tour (“You get your aches and pains and everything else,” says Max Weinberg. “The next morning, I might look like Nick Nolte in North Dallas Forty when he gets out of bed, but during the show I’m like a 15-year-old kid – I’m just going for it.”), about “The Ties That Bind”, and about “The River” itself. There is, “Fun, dancing, laughter, jokes, politics, sex, good comradeship, love, faith, lonely nights, and, of course, tears…”
There are also memories of what Roy Bittan remembers ruefully as an “arduous process”: “It’s not like he wrote 12 songs and we recorded 12 songs and we put out a record.”
“You kinda give up and enjoy the ride,” Steve Van Zandt agrees. “You say, ‘Fuck it – this thing is not gonna stop. Can it be a triple disc? A quadruple disc? What are we allowed to do here?’ I mean, it’s a legitimate four-disc album. We would’ve beat George Harrison’s three. Everything sounded great every day. We could’ve been recording that thing forever and just enjoyed it – at least until the money ran out.”
Elsewhere in the issue we have strong stuff on Tame Impala, Paul Kossoff, Underworld, Jeff Lynne, Charles Bradley, Scritti Politti, Chris Isaak, Eddie Kramer, David Litvinoff and Don Cheadle’s Miles Davis biopic, plus extensive coverage of two of my current favourites, Margo Price and White Denim.
Oh, and a big piece about Jeff Buckley. Given the controversy that our recent Top 200 Albums Of All Time list seems to have caused, I guess I should be wary of using the words “Greatest” and “Ever” in too close proximity to one another. Still, working on this issue of Uncut, I was reminded that whenever I’m asked about the greatest gigs I’ve ever seen, I always mention a night spent with Jeff Buckley in 1994.
In the 1960s, Bunjie’s coffee bar, just off London’s Charing Cross Road, was a hang-out for Dylan and Paul Simon. By the mid ’90s, the subterranean nook was an anachronism, but on March 18, 1994, it hosted one last legendary show. Enthralled by an advance copy of Jeff Buckley’s debut EP, “Live At Sin-E”, I’d travelled to New York the previous month to catch one of his solo shows, and been stunned by what I saw. When he fetched up on this side of the Atlantic in mid-March, I suppose I stalked the poor guy.
On March 15, Buckley played a short support set to a few amazed insiders at the Borderline. Two days later, aesthetes were virtually scrapping to get into a claustrophobic show Upstairs At The Garage where, legend has it, John McEnroe carried Buckley’s amp. The next night found Buckley in Bunjie’s cellar, distributing white roses to the lucky few of us who’d managed to scam our way in. Bunjie’s was too hardcore to bother with mics, and the somersaulting range of Buckley’s voice was more apparent than ever.
He played for an hour or so, and wanted to play longer, but the venue was closing. Then someone came in and said he could carry on at the 12-Bar, another muso club just down the road. Buckley marched out of the club carrying his guitar, and we all followed him with our roses. Even at the time, it felt like we were living out a romantic fantasy. At the 12-Bar, Buckley tried to play every song he’d ever heard: The Smiths, Led Zeppelin, some heartfelt Liz Frazer and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan impressions, until he pretty much had to be carried off the stage.
There have been times when I’ve questioned my memories of the whole evening, which is one of the reasons I’m thankful for the arrival of a new Buckley collection, “You And I”, and Graeme Thomson’s feature about it. Many of the songs that Buckley played at the 12-Bar turn up on “You And I”, dating from a February 1993 recording session in New York.
“I was sucked in by his voice and guitar playing,” his A&R man, Steve Berkowitz, tells Graeme. “The way he was singing and playing these songs, which were mostly covers, seemed fully orchestrated. Yet it was casually done, it seemed spontaneous and unrehearsed.”
Bruce Springsteen, Jeff Buckley, Underworld and White Denim feature in the new issue of Uncut, dated April 2016 and out now.
The Boss is on the cover, and inside, the E Street Band discuss the making of The River, their upcoming celebratory tour and sticking together.
“You kinda give up and enjo...
Bruce Springsteen, Jeff Buckley, Underworld and White Denim feature in the new issue of Uncut, dated April 2016 and out now.
The Boss is on the cover, and inside, the E Street Band discuss the making of The River, their upcoming celebratory tour and sticking together.
“You kinda give up and enjoy the ride,” says Steve Van Zandt. “We could’ve been recording that thing forever.”
As his early sessions are released for the first time, we hear how Jeff Buckley learned his craft via an eclectic songbook. “The goal,” says his A&R man, “was to allow him the time and space to find out which Jeff Buckley he was going to be…”
Ahead of the release of their new album, Barbara Barbara, We Face A Shining Future, Underworld’s Karl Hyde and Rick Smith recall their first 36 years. How have they lasted so long? “Karl,” says Smith, “was the most annoying person I’d ever met.”
Elsewhere, we reconnect with White Denim’s James Petralli to discuss jams, splits, Leon Bridges and their strong new album, while the life of Free’s talented guitarist Paul Kossoff is told by his bandmates Simon Kirke, Paul Rodgers, his brother Simon Kossoff and others who knew him best – “Free was his whole life. What does a rock guitarist do if there’s no rock guitar?”
Meanwhile, Chris Isaak recalls the making of “Wicked Game”, Eddie Kramer remembers engineering and producing classic albums by Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Traffic and David Bowie, and Jeff Lynne answers your questions. We pay tribute to Glenn Frey and Paul Kantner, and speak to Kiran Leonard and Charles Bradley in our front section.
Our reviews section features new albums from Margo Price, Iggy Pop, Violent Femmes and The Coral, and archive releases from Alex Harvey, David Bowie and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, while live we catch Tame Impala in Brussels and Scritti Politti in London.
In our Film and DVD sections, we look at new releases from Ben Wheatley and the Coen Brothers, and film tributes to George Harrison and The Melvins.
Uncut’s free CD, On The Highway, features new tracks from The Coral, Richmond Fontaine, Grant-Lee Phillips, White Denim, M Ward, Kiran Leonard, Meilyr Jones and Bob Mould.
Richard Ashcroft has released details of a new solo album, These People.
The album will be released on May 20. Scroll down to hear the first single, "This Is How It Feels".
These People features orchestration from Wil Malone, who worked on The Verve’s Northern Soul and Urban Hymns.
The tracklis...
Richard Ashcroft has released details of a new solo album, These People.
The album will be released on May 20. Scroll down to hear the first single, “This Is How It Feels“.
These People features orchestration from Wil Malone, who worked on The Verve’s Northern Soul and Urban Hymns.
The tracklisting for These People is:
‘Out Of My Body’
‘This Is How It Feels’
‘They Don’t Own Me’
‘Hold On’
‘These People’
‘Everybody Needs Somebody To Hurt’
‘Pictures Of You’
‘Black Lines’
‘Ain’t The Future So Bright’
‘Songs Of Experience’
