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My Morning Jacket – The Waterfall

Graeme Thomson
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My Morning Jacket – The Waterfall
In the four years since My Morning Jacket’s last record, 2011’s excellent Circuital, the Louisville band’s singer, songwriter and spirit-guide Jim James has assumed a more visible, perhaps even vaguely statesmanlike status in the landscape of American music. In 2013 James released his first s...

In the four years since My Morning Jacket’s last record, 2011’s excellent Circuital, the Louisville band’s singer, songwriter and spirit-guide Jim James has assumed a more visible, perhaps even vaguely statesmanlike status in the landscape of American music.

In 2013 James released his first solo album, Regions Of Light And Sound Of God, to widespread acclaim. Late last year he was one of the select group of musicians – among them Elvis Costello and Rhiannon Giddens – handpicked by T-Bone Burnett to bring the ‘new’ Basement Tapes project, Lost On The River, to fruition. James has, in effect, undergone a promotion up the ranks, from Championship contender to mid-table Premiership mainstay.

Such shifts in the internal dynamic of a band can often prove troublesome, but My Morning Jacket’s seventh studio album betrays no tell-tale signs of disharmony. The exact opposite, in fact. Recorded at Stinson Beach, a remote idyll an hour north of San Francisco, The Waterfall turns easily like the seasons: from light to dark, soft to heavy, from heady psych and heavy prog to 80s MTV-rock, fluting country, steamy R&B and soul. Through it all runs an ingrained psychedelic streak which is organic rather than synthetic, James and Co tripping out on the glory of a sunset, a beach at dawn, a mile-high mountain view.

The sense of California seeping through the pores and into the bones of this music is at its strongest on “Like A River”. With its skipping acoustic guitar figure, skittish rhythm and cascading harmonies redolent of The Byrds’ “Renaissance Fair”, it mainlines its vibe direct from Monterey. On “Spring (Among The Living)”, James emerges, as though reborn, from a hard winter – “Didn’t think I’d make it” – with a driving slab of pastoral psych rock. Harnessing a weighty but soulful groove, after six minutes it climaxes in the kind of high-stakes vocal sparring which wouldn’t sound out of place on Let It Bleed.

The Waterfall is, then, perfectly attuned to its immediate surroundings, but it also seeks to channel a more all-encompassing spirit. Long beholden to TM and the mysteries of the Universe with a capital U, James tells Uncut that the album was propelled by the feeling that, cosmically, “one chapter has ended, the page has been turned to start the next one, but nothing has been written down yet”. This is the message of surging opener “Believe (Nobody Knows)”, the words revelling in the promise of the coming flux, the music falling somewhere between the rush of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” and the cheap but potent thrill of Journey’s “Any Way You Want It”.

Several other songs draw unironically on classic rock motifs of the 70s and 80s. “Big Decisions” is an almost perfect retro-rock confection, with its crunching power-pop riff and huge, radio-friendly chorus. Perhaps honouring the fact that Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours was recorded down the road in Sausalito, “In Its Infancy” bounces between sleek, sunshine-y pop and more rhythmically complex blues-rock, as though it were a cut-and-shut experiment in welding together “Dreams” and “The Chain”. “Compound Fracture” and “Thin Line” are embedded in plush R&B, nodding to Hall & Oates, the Isley Brothers and Bowie’s Young Americans. Lounging on a warm sound bed of analogue synths and fuzzy guitars, James’s ever-adaptable voice slinks around appealingly in falsetto.

It’s not all cosmic, slightly woolly theorizing. The album’s two most straightforward, unabashed musical moments are also the most lyrically direct, and reserved for affairs of the heart. “Get The Point” is a beautifully unaffected back-porch twinkle. Over supple finger picking, slide guitar and pattering drums, James’s intimate vocal bids a warm but firm farewell to a lover. The sentiment finds a bookend in the closing “Only Memories Remain”, another goodbye song in which “the names and places have all been changed, but the identity remains the same.” A sparse, soulful slow-burn, James channels Lennon’s “Jealous Guy” over the lush, unhurried groove, clipped guitar lines and bittersweet strings.

Like the nine tracks which precede it, the song’s component parts are both reassuringly familiar yet never less than distinctive. It may be entirely fanciful to suggest that The Waterfall soundtracks the shift from one great cultural age to the next, but it does possess a beguiling Janus-like quality, at once looking to the past and gazing into the future with open-hearted warmth and curiosity.

Q&A
JIM JAMES
You could easily have called the album From Stinson Beach…
We try to switch it up every time we make a record. Do it somewhere different, and get the vibe of the place into the record. Stinson Beach was like living on another planet. I felt like it was on the moon. Everything is so grand, you feel like you’re jutting out into space. There are giant redwood trees, you’re right next to the ocean, you can climb up to the top of a mountain and watch the sunset on the beach. Every day we were really impacted by the power of the air, it felt special to us. We spent two months there – living, playing and recording. There was no rush, no pressure to complete it. It was real free and fun.

Style-wise, this record is more eclectic than ever.
Music is freedom. It’s there for every occasion, and the idea of limiting your musical experience is, to me, absurd. You’re always growing and learning, and hopefully you don’t repeat the same mistakes – at least make different mistakes, and make them with good intentions. At the end of day for us, we’re having so much fun doing it, I really don’t care what other people’s opinions are. Who fucking cares?

Your personal profile is higher than ever. Does that impact on the band?
We have a pretty free and open environment where we’re encouraged to do whatever we want to do while the band isn’t working. It enables everyone to explore stuff and get their ya-yas out, and when we come back together it’s always a warm feeling of comfort and togetherness and home. We really value the freedom that we have. It creates more of a bond.

INTERVIEW: GRAEME THOMSON

The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – goes on sale in the UK on July 9. Click here for more details.

Meanwhile, the July 2015 issue of Uncut is in shops now – featuring the Rolling Stones, 13th Floor Elevators, Jim O’Rourke, Ringo Starr and more!

Pete Townshend’s Quadrophenia upset

Michael Bonner
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Pete Townshend’s Quadrophenia upset
Pete Townshend's Classic Quadrophenia album has been excluded from the Official UK Classical Chart. According to a statement, Townshend’s ‘symphonised’ version of The Who’s album has sold enough copies needed to secure the No.1 position in the Classical Charts. However, the orchestral rec...

Pete Townshend‘s Classic Quadrophenia album has been excluded from the Official UK Classical Chart.

According to a statement, Townshend’s ‘symphonised’ version of The Who’s album has sold enough copies needed to secure the No.1 position in the Classical Charts.

However, the orchestral record has not been accepted into the Classical Chart, due to the fact that the original material is rock music.

The album, which was released on Monday, has reached No. 32 in the UK Official Album Chart.

On discovering his exclusion from the Classical Chart last week, Townshend expressed his disappointment:

“So musical snobbery in the “classical” elite is still alive & kicking then? F**k ’em. There’s a huge team behind this album, entirely rooted in the practical world of recorded classical music, who deserve better than this petty slap-down. I know I’m a rock dinosaur and I’m happy to be one, but the team on Classic Quadrophenia are all young, creative and brilliant.”

Despite the work being disallowed from the UK Classical Chart, Townshend hopes Classic Quadrophenia will go on to become a regular part of the orchestral repertoire and boost attendance at classical concerts:

“A lot of major symphony orchestras are in trouble because their audience is getting old and the younger audiences prefer softer stuff, such as film soundtrack music,” he explains. “I think that Quadrophenia would reinvigorate their audiences and bring in people who might not otherwise go to see a symphony orchestra perform without lights and fireworks and a movie screen.”

The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – goes on sale in the UK on July 9. Click here for more details.

Meanwhile, the July 2015 issue of Uncut is in shops now – featuring the Rolling Stones, 13th Floor Elevators, Jim O’Rourke, Ringo Starr and more!

Van Morrison: knighthood “a huge honour”

Michael Bonner
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Van Morrison: knighthood “a huge honour”
Van Morrison has released a statement following the news that he has been awarded an knighthood in the Queen's birthday honors. His knighthood has been granted for "services to the music industry and to tourism in Northern Ireland". In a statement on his website, Morrison wrote, "Throughout my car...

Van Morrison has released a statement following the news that he has been awarded an knighthood in the Queen’s birthday honors.

His knighthood has been granted for “services to the music industry and to tourism in Northern Ireland”.

In a statement on his website, Morrison wrote, “Throughout my career I have always preferred to let my music speak for me and it is a huge honour to now have that body of work recognised in this way. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the fans who have supported me on my musical journey.”

The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – goes on sale in the UK on July 9. Click here for more details.

Meanwhile, the July 2015 issue of Uncut is in shops now – featuring the Rolling Stones, 13th Floor Elevators, Jim O’Rourke, Ringo Starr and more!

Hear Sufjan Stevens perform previously-unreleased track “Harsh Noise”

Michael Bonner
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Hear Sufjan Stevens perform previously-unreleased track “Harsh Noise”
Sufjan Stevens has premiered a previously unreleased track, "Harsh Noise". The track was composed for a collaborative music project, One Night Stand, arranged by cellist Gasper Claus. The event took place in Brooklin in 2012, and featured artists including Stevens and The National’s Bryce Dessner...

Sufjan Stevens has premiered a previously unreleased track, “Harsh Noise“.

The track was composed for a collaborative music project, One Night Stand, arranged by cellist Gasper Claus. The event took place in Brooklin in 2012, and featured artists including Stevens and The National’s Bryce Dessner and members of The Men.

“Harsh Noise” will appear on a new double-LP document of the night which will be available June 30 as a limited edition double-LP, called One Night Stand, through Microcultures.

The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – goes on sale in the UK on July 9. Click here for more details.

Meanwhile, the July 2015 issue of Uncut is in shops now – featuring the Rolling Stones, 13th Floor Elevators, Jim O’Rourke, Ringo Starr and more!

Ginger Baker: “I don’t think Led Zeppelin filled the void that Cream left”

Michael Bonner
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Ginger Baker: “I don’t think Led Zeppelin filled the void that Cream left”
Ginger Baker has criticised Led Zeppelin - in particular drummer John Bonham - in a new interview with Forbes. Asked whether he considered Zeppelin to be a good band who came up in Cream's wake, Baker explained, "Jimmy's [Page] a good player. I don’t think Led Zeppelin filled the void that Cream ...

Ginger Baker has criticised Led Zeppelin – in particular drummer John Bonham – in a new interview with Forbes.

Asked whether he considered Zeppelin to be a good band who came up in Cream’s wake, Baker explained, “Jimmy’s [Page] a good player. I don’t think Led Zeppelin filled the void that Cream left, but they made a lot of money. I probably like about five percent of what they did – a couple of things were really cool. What I don’t like is the heavy bish-bash, jing-bap, jing-bash bullshit.”

Asked for his thoughts on John Bonham, Baker said “Years ago, John said, ‘There are two drummers in rock and roll, Ginger Baker and me’. There’s no way John was anywhere near what I am. He wasn’t a musician. A lot of people don’t realize I studied. I can write music. I used to write big band parts in 1960, ’61. I felt that if I was a drummer, I needed to learn to read drum music. I was so good at side reading, a guy in one of the big bands told me to get two books. I studied them at the same time. One was about the rules of basic harmony, the other how to break them all [laughs].”

Baker also voiced strong criticisms of heavy metal, calling it “incredibly repulsive”.

““I’ve seen where Cream is sort of held responsible for the birth of heavy metal. These people that dress up in spandex trousers with all the extraordinary makeup – I find it incredibly repulsive, always have. I’ve seen where Cream is sort of held responsible for the birth of heavy metal. Well, I would definitely go for aborting [laughs].

“I loathe and detest heavy metal. I think it is an abortion. A lot of these guys come up and say, ‘Man, you were my influence, the way you thrashed the drums’. They don’t seem to understand I was thrashing in order to hear what I was playing. It was anger, not enjoyment – and painful. I suffered on stage because of that [high amplifier] volume crap. I didn’t like it then, and like it even less now.”

The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – goes on sale in the UK on July 9. Click here for more details.

Meanwhile, the July 2015 issue of Uncut is in shops now – featuring the Rolling Stones, 13th Floor Elevators, Jim O’Rourke, Ringo Starr and more!

Hear Beck’s new single, “Dreams”

Michael Bonner
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Hear Beck’s new single, “Dreams”
Beck has released a new single, "Dreams", his first new material since 2014's Grammy-winning Morning Phase. In an interview on Los Angeles radio station Alt.98.7, Beck confirmed the song would appear on his forthcoming album. Speaking about the album, Beck said, “It started out as a heavy garag...

Beck has released a new single, “Dreams“, his first new material since 2014’s Grammy-winning Morning Phase.

In an interview on Los Angeles radio station Alt.98.7, Beck confirmed the song would appear on his forthcoming album.

Speaking about the album, Beck said, “It started out as a heavy garage rock thing and became much more of a dance — some kind of hybrid.”

The single is available on iTunes.

The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – goes on sale in the UK on July 9. Click here for more details.

Meanwhile, the July 2015 issue of Uncut is in shops now – featuring the Rolling Stones, 13th Floor Elevators, Jim O’Rourke, Ringo Starr and more!

Uncut’s 50 best singer-songwriter albums

Tom Pinnock
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Uncut’s 50 best singer-songwriter albums
Back in our December 2013 issue (Take 199), the Uncut team took on the emotional task of compiling a Top 50 of the most powerful, confessional singer-songwriter albums. From Tim Hardin 1 to Once I Was An Eagle (in chronological order, that is)... are you ready to be heartbroken? ____________________...

46 Josh T Pearson
Last Of the Country Gentlemen
(Mute, 2011)

The Texan son of a preacher was living illegally in Berlin, his career stalled, when the failure of his marriage prompted an emotional and artistic spasm. Before fleeing to Paris, he spent two days in the studio, documenting his torment. The songs are as tough to listen to as they are emotionally honest; the hurt is only partly soothed by the grandiosity of Pearson’s language. He’s vicious to his ex on “Sweetheart, I Ain’t Your Christ”, though he’s just as hard on himself. The process was cathartic: “It really burned something out of me,” Pearson reflected.

____________________________
47 Sharon Van Etten
Tramp
(Jagjaguwar, 2012)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnOe6QFyvts

As a student in Tennessee, New Jersey songwriter Van Etten was trapped in a psychologically abusive relationship, an experience that has permeated her three albums to date. But she only ever reveals awful details to fuel her self-growth, and on Tramp, steeled by raucous production, Van Etten sounds like she’s finally standing upright. “I want my scars to help and heal,” she sings on “All I Can”. “I’m biting my lip as confidence is speaking to me/I loosen my grip from my palm, put it on your knee,” on “Give Out”. It’s a small gesture, but a meaningful one.

____________________________
48 John Murry
The Graceless Age
(Rubyworks, 2013)

Murry told Uncut earlier this year that his debut solo album was “certainly autobiographical – perhaps insanely so given our modern aversion to reality and truth.” Central to the story arc is his struggle with heroin, documented on the 10-minute centrepiece, “Little Coloured Balloons”, which details Murry’s near fatal overdose in San Francisco’s Mission District. On this song, and several others (“Things We Lost In The Fire”, “Southern Sky”), The Graceless Age is also an appeal for forgiveness directed at Murry’s estranged wife Lori and their young daughter: “You say this ain’t what I am,” he sings to them both, “but this is what I do.”

____________________________
49 Alela Diane
About Farewell
(Rusted Blue, 2013)

The fifth album by the Portland-based singer was written in a fortnight, following the realisation that her marriage to guitarist Tom Bevitori was over. Diane refuses to take refuge in metaphor – the language is as clear and stark as the accompaniment, tracing the arc of a relationship from its unromantic beginnings in “Hazel Street”, taking in the snowbound revelation of “Colorado Blue”, the singer with “one foot out the door” on the title track, and the two road musicians marking time in “Before The Leaving”. By the end “Rose & Thorn”, with its cry of “Oh! The mess I’ve made…”, it feels not unlike leafing through a discarded diary.

____________________________
50 Laura Marling
Once I Was An Eagle
(Rough Trade, 2013)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxP_crjAg-s

An artist whose sensibilities cleave remarkably close to Joni Mitchell’s, Marling recorded her fourth album on the cusp of leaving for LA, with a failed love affair trailing in her wake. The result is a dramatic reckoning with past and future, and a character study of Marling and her ex: the “I”, the “eagle”, in the breathless opening suite feels clearly autobiographical, while the “you”, the “dove”, the “freewheeling troubadour”, she is singing to is similarly hewed from real life. Not quite as straightforward as a break-up record, Once I Was An Eagle begins as a full-blooded reliving of a broken-down relationship before coolly addressing the long-term ramifications.

Written by Rob Hughes, John Lewis, Damien Love, Alastair McKay, Andrew Mueller, Bud Scoppa, Laura Snapes, Neil Spencer, Terry Staunton, Graeme Thomson, Luke Torn

Richard Thompson: “I do some good stuff, but I know I’m capable of being mediocre”

Tom Pinnock
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Richard Thompson: “I do some good stuff, but I know I’m capable of being mediocre”
Richard Thompson discusses his latest album, recorded with Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, in the new issue of Uncut, dated July 2015 and out now. The singer-songwriter and guitarist reveals what it was like being produced by Tweedy on Still, and discusses his sometimes critical attitude towards his back cata...

Richard Thompson discusses his latest album, recorded with Wilco‘s Jeff Tweedy, in the new issue of Uncut, dated July 2015 and out now.

The singer-songwriter and guitarist reveals what it was like being produced by Tweedy on Still, and discusses his sometimes critical attitude towards his back catalogue.

“I don’t think you have to be a perfectionist to be unsatisfied with what you do,” he replies when asked about his previous work.

“I really do think I do some good stuff – I have a certain amount of self-belief, but I know I am capable of being mediocre, too.

“It’s something you have to ask yourself all the time: how am I doing? I am not good at being commercial; I am not good at being Brian Wilson or The Traveling Wilburys.”

The new issue of Uncut is out now.

The 20th Uncut Playlist Of 2015

John Mulvey
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The 20th Uncut Playlist Of 2015
OK so I'm going to refrain from adding those annoying [REDACTED] entries into the playlist from now on, after some justifiable ridicule last week. I can, though, unveil one album that I've been evasive about for a while: The Arcs' "Yours, Dreamily," which is by some distance my favourite Dan Auerbac...

OK so I’m going to refrain from adding those annoying [REDACTED] entries into the playlist from now on, after some justifiable ridicule last week. I can, though, unveil one album that I’ve been evasive about for a while: The Arcs’ “Yours, Dreamily,” which is by some distance my favourite Dan Auerbach project since the Dr John album.

Elsewhere I can massively recommend this Phil Cook album, which I would glibly suggest fills a slot as this year’s “Lateness Of Dancers”; glibly because Cook has been a critical part of the Hiss Golden Messenger family these past few years (you can hear him on the new live set, below), besides being one-third of Megafaun and working on a bunch more of my favourite recent albums by Frazey Ford, Matthew E White and the Justin Vernon-fronted Shouting Matches. “Southland Mission” has a lot of Ry Cooder and The Staples Singers about it, and I suspect I’ll be banging on about it all summer.

Also Angel Deradoorian, once of Dirty Projectors, has finally followed up her amazing “Mind Raft” EP from God knows how long ago; and some heroic Twitter activity yesterday, following my request for info about Phish, brought “Down With Disease” to my attention. Fellow Phish neophytes should at least try to tough out the first five minutes or so: after that, it gets surprisingly rewarding.

Yesterday I hit 5,000 followers on Twitter, and the whole Phish escalation was a great example of what a rewarding community it can be. Someone suggested I celebrate by posting a Best Of 2015: Halftime Report, which struck me as an excellent idea. I’ll try and do that early next week. Until then, thanks, as ever, for reading.

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey

1 Phil Cook – Southland Mission (Thirty Tigers)

2 Chris Connolly – Alameda (Caldo Verde)

3 The Cairo Gang – Goes Missing (God?)

4 Ultimate Painting – Green Lanes (Trouble In Mind)

5 Arthur’s Landing – Second Thoughts (Buddhist Army)

6 Jarvis Cocker – 20 Golden Greats (Red Bull Music Academy)

7 Adrian Younge/Ghostface Killah – Twelve Reasons To Die II (Linear Labs)

8 Beirut – No No No (4AD)

9 Yo La Tengo – Stuff Like That There (Matador)

10 Various Artists – Musique Non Stop: A Tribute To Kraftwerk (EMI)

11 Todd Rundgren/Emil Nikolaisen/Hans-Peter Lindstrøm – Put Your Arms Around Me (Stereolab/The High Llamas Remix) (Smalltown Supersound)

12 The Arcs – Yours, Dreamily, (Nonesuch)

13 Ezra Furman – Perpetual Motion People (Bella Union)

14 Seven Davis Jr – Universes (Ninja Tune)

15 Deradoorian – The Exploding Flower Planet (Anticon)

https://soundcloud.com/anticon/deradoorian-a-beautiful-woman-1

16 The Deslondes – The Deslondes (New West)

Read my Deslondes interview and hear their music here

17 Black Dirt Oak/Jantar – Presage (MIE)

18 Pigeons – The Bower (MIE)

19 Various Artists – Gnaoua: Festival D’Essaouira (No Label)

20 Hiss Golden Messenger – 2015-06-02 Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY (www.nyctaper.com)

21 Laura Cannell – Beneath Swooping Talons (Front And Follow)

22 Phish – Down With Disease (Star Lake 98) (Jemp)

Tom Russell – The Rose Of Roscrae

Peter Watts
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Tom Russell – The Rose Of Roscrae
A songwriter, painter, essayist and thriller writer, Tom Russell could never be described as unambitious. Among his exceptional back catalogue of driving country, folk and sand-speckled Tex-Mex ballads, Russell has released a couple of albums – The Man From God Knows Where (1999) and Hotwalker (20...

A songwriter, painter, essayist and thriller writer, Tom Russell could never be described as unambitious. Among his exceptional back catalogue of driving country, folk and sand-speckled Tex-Mex ballads, Russell has released a couple of albums – The Man From God Knows Where (1999) and Hotwalker (2005) – which used a combination of original compositions, spoken word, guest voices, refrains and folk recordings to explore aspects of America’s past. Rose Of Roscrea completes this cinematic trio, telling the story of an Irish vagabond on the loose in the America West, chased by sheriffs and dreams of home, as he flits from Mexico to Canada through prairie, prison and fairground. This is Russell’s take on how the West was won by “Irish drunks, ex-slaves and Mexicans”.

It is an epic tale, a blend of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Bertolt Brecht, Cormac McCarthy and Louis L’Amour, thick with references to American history, music and myth as well as a John Ford-style appreciation of the Old Country. The roll call of guest stars is immense – contributors include Johnny Cash, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Guy Clark, Gretchen Peters, Augie Meyers, Walt Whitman, Joe Ely, Tex Ritter, Leadbelly – some dredged from old recordings, others singing or speaking to fill out the story. Snippets of traditional songs (“St James Hospital”, “Sam Hall”, “Ain’t No More Cane On The Brazos”, “The Unfortunate Rake”) add atmosphere and provide context for 25 or so original compositions.

Russell is a hell of a songwriter, and here are several fantastic examples of his craft: “Johnny Behind The Deuce”, a rollicking country anthem; “Rose Of Roscrae”, a gloriously sentimental Irish ballad; “He Wasn’t A Bad Kid, When He Was Sober”, a brilliant rocker; the southern boogie of “Doin’ Hard Time In Texas”; and the gospel love song “Resurrection Mountain”. All told, it’s an awful lot to listen to, sprawling over two albums and featuring so many locations and characters it can be hard to keep track of what’s happening. But the scope is majestic, the ambition outrageous and the music magnificent. A unique accomplishment.

Beck teases new music…

Michael Bonner
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Beck teases new music…
Beck might be about to release new music. The artist has reportedly been working on a new album, the follow-up to his Grammy-winning Morning Phase. Now, he has taken to Twitter to post what appears to be the artwork for an upcoming release, "Dreams". It is unclear whether this is simply a new trac...

Beck might be about to release new music.

The artist has reportedly been working on a new album, the follow-up to his Grammy-winning Morning Phase. Now, he has taken to Twitter to post what appears to be the artwork for an upcoming release, “Dreams“.

It is unclear whether this is simply a new track or something more substantial, such as a full-length album.

However, Kyle Smith – the musical director of the Pittsburgh radio station WYEP – has Tweeted to announce that the station will air a new Beck song on Monday (June 15, 2015).

Hear new Motörhead song, “Thunder & Lightning”

Michael Bonner
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Hear new Motörhead song, “Thunder & Lightning”
Motörhead have released a new song, "Thunder & Lightning". The track is taken from their forthcoming new album, Bad Magic. The album is due for release on August 28, 2015 through UDR Music/Motörhead Records, with a 40th anniversary tour to follow. Bad Magic is the band’s 22nd studio albu...

Motörhead have released a new song, “Thunder & Lightning“.

The track is taken from their forthcoming new album, Bad Magic.

The album is due for release on August 28, 2015 through UDR Music/Motörhead Records, with a 40th anniversary tour to follow.

Bad Magic is the band’s 22nd studio album, recorded with producer Cameron Webb.

The albums contains a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy For The Devil” while Queen’s Brian May guests on “The Devil”.

Mick Head’s Strands revisited

John Mulvey
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Mick Head’s Strands revisited
Sitting on a Los Angeles hillside in 1967, trying to make sense of the world as it spun out of control before his eyes, Arthur Lee eventually came to a dazed conclusion, of sorts. “Life goes on here day after day,” he sang in “The Red Telephone”. “I don't know if I'm living or if I'm suppo...

IT’S HARVEST TIME!

Four more Mick Head songs in the spirit of The Magical World…

SHACK

Al’s Vacation

GHETTO 1991

A wonderful one-off single that could be described, just about credibly, as insouciant skiffle. Acoustic guitars and bongos figure prominently, while the unadorned production properly showcases Head’s craftsmanship for the first time. Track it down on the 2007 compilation, Time Machine.

SHACK

Mood Of The Morning

MARINA 1995

The jazzy snap of this Waterpistol highlight is a precursor of what was to come on The Magical World. What begins as an acoustic stroll, however, gradually becomes psychedelically intense, with John Head’s lead guitar line taking a wayward and inspired path through his brother’s song.

SHACK

The Captain’s Table

LONDON 1999

A logical enough attempt to manoeuvre Shack into the Britrock elite of the late ‘90s, HMS Fable is the most rumbustious Head album. Delicate moments remain, though, none greater than this baroque fever dream, very much in the vein of “Queen Matilda”.

MICHAEL HEAD & THE RED ELASTIC BAND

Lucinda Byre

VIOLETTE 2013

The gorgeous highlight of the “Artorius Revisited” EP. “The song starts in a café having some acid,” Head told Uncut in 2013. “It’s about getting to the end of Bold Street – if you can. Even if you’re not tripping, there’s no way you can, without bumping into people you’ve not seen for 10 years.”

Ornette Coleman dies aged 85

Michael Bonner
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Ornette Coleman dies aged 85
Ornette Coleman has died aged 85. He suffered a cardiac arrest at home in Manhattan, according to The New York Times. One of the major innovators of the free jazz movement, Coleman's debut album,  Something Else!!!!, was recorded with trumpeter Don Cherry, drummer Billy Higgins, bassist Don Payne...

Ornette Coleman has died aged 85.

He suffered a cardiac arrest at home in Manhattan, according to The New York Times.

One of the major innovators of the free jazz movement, Coleman’s debut album,  Something Else!!!!, was recorded with trumpeter Don Cherry, drummer Billy Higgins, bassist Don Payne and pianist Walter Norris.

A year later, he recorded his breakthrough album, The Shape Of Jazz To Come.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxUXu8GmUC8

Coleman’s work outside jazz led to several interesting collaborations. He played twice with the Grateful Dead while Jerry Garcia played guitar on Coleman’s 1988 album, Virgin Beauty. Coleman additionally collaborated with Pat Metheny.

Coleman also appeared on Lou Reed‘s 2003 album, The Raven. Reed said, “I had Ornette Coleman play on my song ‘Guilty‘. He did seven versions – all different and all amazing and wondrous.” Four of those versions are available to stream on Reed’s website.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KehkiTw_BI0

Coleman won the Pulitzer Prize for music for his 2007 album Sound Grammar; that same year he received a Grammy lifetime achievement award.

In 1983, Coleman’s hometown of Fort Worth, Texas declared September 29th  as “Ornette Coleman Day”.

His last album, 2014’s New Vocabulary, was another collaboration, this time with young NYC musicians, Jordan McLean (trumpet), Amir Ziv (drums), and Adam Holzman (piano).

King Crimson add extra tour dates

Michael Bonner
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King Crimson add extra tour dates
King Crimson have added new dates to their UK tour in September. The band have second nights in Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh to their itinerary. In 2013, Uncut broke the news of the band's return to active service. The current line-up is: Gavin Harrison (drums), Bill Rieflin (drums), Pat ...

King Crimson have added new dates to their UK tour in September.

The band have second nights in Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh to their itinerary.

In 2013, Uncut broke the news of the band’s return to active service.

The current line-up is: Gavin Harrison (drums), Bill Rieflin (drums), Pat Mastelotto (drums), Tony Levin (bass and vocals), Mel Collins (Sax, flute), Jakko Jakszyk (guitar, vocals) and Robert Fripp (guitar).

The revised UK tour dates are below; you can buy tickets by clicking here.

August 31: Friars, Aylesbury Waterside Theatre
September 1: Friars, Aylesbury Waterside Theatre
September 3: St.David’s Hall, Cardiff
September 5: Dome Concert Hall, Brighton
September 7: Hackney Empire, London
September 8: Hackney Empire, London
September 11: Lowry, Manchester
September 14: Symphony Hall, Birmingham
September 17: Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Morrissey: “I officially died for nine minutes…”

Michael Bonner
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Morrissey: “I officially died for nine minutes…”
Morrissey has claimed that "I officially died for nine minutes." In an interview with Alternative Nation, he cites a 2013 incident on tour in South America, where he was hospitalised and forced to cancel a series of dates. Asked what places he's looking forward to visiting on his upcoming American...

Morrissey has claimed that “I officially died for nine minutes.”

In an interview with Alternative Nation, he cites a 2013 incident on tour in South America, where he was hospitalised and forced to cancel a series of dates.

Asked what places he’s looking forward to visiting on his upcoming American tour, the singer replied: “I’m also always excited to be in South America, even though the last visit to Peru gave me food poisoning and I officially died for nine minutes. That was fun?”

Elsewhere in the interview, Morrissey voices his criticisms of Barack Obama, saying: “Obama has mystified me because he doesn’t appear to support black people when they need it most. Ferguson being an obvious example. If Michael Brown had instead been one of Obama’s daughters, I don’t think Obama would be insisting that the nation support the so-called security forces! How can they be called security forces if they make the people feel insecure? Obama seems to be white inside.”

Neil Young debuts new song and video, “Wolf Moon”

Michael Bonner
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Neil Young debuts new song and video, “Wolf Moon”
Neil Young has debuted another new track from his forthcoming album, The Monsanto Years. "Wolf Moon" features Young and Promise Of The Real; the accompanying video was shot at the Teatro Theater in Oxnard, California, where the album was recorded. Last month, the band released a video for "A Rock ...

Neil Young has debuted another new track from his forthcoming album, The Monsanto Years.

“Wolf Moon” features Young and Promise Of The Real; the accompanying video was shot at the Teatro Theater in Oxnard, California, where the album was recorded.

Last month, the band released a video for “A Rock Star Bucks A Coffee Shop“, which you can watch by clicking here.

The Monsanto Years is released through Reprise on June 29, 2015.

An interview with The Deslondes

John Mulvey
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An interview with The Deslondes
One of my favourite records of the year so far has been the self-titled debut album by The Deslondes, a New Orleans band who mix a certain rowdy take on country with the R&B heritage of their hometown. I recently sent over a bunch of questions for them, and received these very thorough and fasci...

How easy is it to run a band as a democracy, with so many singers and songwriters in the ranks?

SAM: Every band has its challenges… operating as a co-operative of five equal members has its own set of kinks that have to be ironed out. It feels rewarding and worth it for everyone involved, though, when we’re all creatively invested in the project and each individual voice or idea is respected. It also keeps us integrating new ideas… Everyone has something important to bring to the table, and that’s exciting.

RILEY: Democracy just seemed natural for this band because we all have our own priorities so to come to a majority rules decision is sometimes the only way to come to agreement. We also did not become a band to be a business, at least not at first, so there was never any worry of how anybody else was doing it, we just did what seemed equal and fair to us.

Notwithstanding the way the album sounds, there aren’t that many references to New Orleans in the lyrics, “Still Someone” and “Out On The Rise” excepted. Was that a conscious decision?

SAM: I don’t believe that was a conscious decision. In many ways, this album feels like a homage to New Orleans and specifically our community of friends and musicians who live there. I didn’t feel the need to name drop New Orleans or have it be the lyrical focus. It’s in there though, just naturally, ya know?

RILEY: No it wasn’t really a conscience decision. Some of these songs were written on the road or at different times, years and places but mostly came together as songs in New Orleans.

A lot of the lyrics, written by all of you, betray a real love of classic simplicity, a sort of historically resonant and direct language that could maybe be seen, at times, as cliché. Would you agree?

SAM: I certainly agree that we have a lot of respect for simplicity, and timeless direct language. Whether or not that is seen as cliche is up to the listener. Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie are two of my favourite song writers and they wrote things as simple and straight forward as they come… Boiled big ideas down into their essence so that people from all walks of life could relate to their music. I have a tremendous respect for writers who are able to do this. As a side note, I just recently stumbled on my old High School poetry notebook, and if you were to make an attempt to read/decipher a page from it – you’d soon realize it hasn’t always been so simple. Hah, I had good reason for changing my style up a bit.

RILEY: No, I never thought of that as cliche. Not every song needs to be a ballad that tells every tiny detail, though I do enjoy those, and also enjoy saying more with less.

CAMERON: Our lyrics express our feelings and experiences. It’s often said that cliches are cliched because they speak to something true about the human condition, and classic lyrics can not only express emotions but also point listeners towards our influences and reference shared cultural experiences.

How do you feel about contemporary country music? Do you ever worry that your love for ’50s and ’60s music and culture might make you seem anachronistic?


SAM: I’ve thought about this quite a bit and really we just make the music we hear and feel and there’s no use in worrying about what people think. Our songs are modern songs about the times we live in and our own experiences. If we were a cover band I’d be more concerned with being written off as anachronistic I just can’t get into most contemporary country music lyrically or sonically. Of course, there are some exceptions and some exceptional up and coming artists in that field, but fitting into that seen has never been a priority.

RILEY: Had to look that word up. Haha no, I heard once that influence and repetition can be defined as style. I think we will always have a love for old music and new from all corners of the world and walks of life. In the US there is definitely an appreciation for rural culture that is on the rise so there is your country music/old time but I think it’s up to the individual to project what they have soaked up and feel closest to at the time. There’s also a lot of people who are just into the history of American music from the chart toppers to the guy who only made one 45 that you never heard of till you stumbled upon it in a junk shop. I guess let ’em talk if they think it’s cliché, makes no difference to me, I think musicians will do what they will.

DAN: I’d say we like all kinds of music, contemporary or not. We don’t worry about being anachronistic because we consider ourselves and our music to be contemporary. Whether or not others agree with that is up to them, and we’re not losing any sleep over that.

That being said, we do admittedly cherry-pick certain musical ideas and concepts from the past, including the ’50s and ’60s. There were some good ideas that came about then, and we’re gonna run with them. You being a journalist are also probably influenced by journalistic styles from the ’50s and ’60s, but I wouldn’t consider you to be a “throwback” if I noticed them in your writing.

PICTURE: SARRAH DANZIGER

 

 

Holly Herndon – Platform

Stephen Dalton
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Holly Herndon – Platform
Both fascinated and troubled by humankind’s increasingly intimate relationship with technology, Holly Herndon makes electronic music whose dense conceptual, theoretical and political elements are often eclipsed by their sheer ravishing beauty. Mixing the hard-cut collage methods of musique concre...

Both fascinated and troubled by humankind’s increasingly intimate relationship with technology, Holly Herndon makes electronic music whose dense conceptual, theoretical and political elements are often eclipsed by their sheer ravishing beauty. Mixing the hard-cut collage methods of musique concrete with sound-warping software and customised digital instruments, Herndon’s second album is not ashamed to embrace blissful melody and trance-like euphoria, yet remains constantly alive to the liberating power of dissonance and disruption. There is a great disturbance in the Force.

Born and raised in Tennessee but now based in San Francisco, Herndon’s track record to date includes performing in Berlin techno clubs, studying under legendary avant-rock guitarist Fred Frith, and composing ambient audioscapes tailored to the acoustics of car interiors. Currently working on her doctoral thesis at the Centre for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics at California’s Stanford University, her work has always balanced academic and populist, cerebral and sensual, Apollonian and Dionysian. But Platform is her most successful fusion of these elements so far, an ambitious album that propels Herndon into the avant-pop premier league alongside the likes of Bjork, Aphex Twin, Matthew Herbert and Flying Lotus.

Academic theory is one of the forces shaping Platform, an album Herndon describes as a “paradisic gesture”, a bold appeal for electronic music to play a bigger role in forging optimistic, politically progressive new narratives to counter those of hegemonic right-wing elites. She quotes economics professor Guy Standing, who is credited with coining the modish term “precariat”, and cultural theorist Suhail Malik as influences on the album. But none of this is essential to enjoying Platform. No background reading is necessary, no apprenticeship on the arid avant-garde fringes. Just dive in and savour the lush sonic foliage.

Platform is awash with squelches clonks and loops, but the most immediately arresting feature is its variety of human voices. Herndon treats her own vocals and those of her multiple collaborators with equal irreverence: processed, stretched and desiccated, liberated from linguistic duty but never from emotional force. Drag performer Colin Self is spliced into gleaming shards on “Unequal”, while soprano singer Amanda DeBoer Bartlett provides staccato trilling and heavy breathing over the deconstructed whoosh and shudder of “DAO”.

There are some simply gorgeous vocalese collages here, including “Home”, a “breakup song” about communication devices revealed as unfaithful lovers by post-Snowden surveillance anxiety, or “New Ways To Love”, with its synthetic swirls of Liz Fraser-ish voluptuousness. An exploded cubist choir ripples over a sleek electro pulse on “Chorus”, which samples the sounds of Herndon’s online browsing habits, while sublimely intertwined sighs and sobs yoke together the skeletal rhythmic framework of “Home”. Occasionally, Herndon even allows herself a conventional vocal performance, notably on “Morning Sun”, which sounds like a big-haired 1980s power ballad refracted through a cracked mirror of post-glitch sonics and post-dubstep percussion.

Striking a darkly satirical note, the spoken-word monologue “Lonely At The Top” is the most incongruous digression here. It is voiced in menacingly soft tones by Claire Tolan, a Berlin-based artist and radio host who works in the niche field of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR), a quasi-fetishist subculture in which people experience a heightened tingling response to various sensory stimuli. Over a drifting bed of clammy sound effects, Tolan plays the role of a hostess administering some kind of non-specific pampering treatment to an important client, probably male, certainly wealthy and entitled. Reminiscent of Chris Morris’s cult “ambient radio” show Blue Jam, this boldly bizarre vignette is fifty shades of creepy.

Laptop electronica has now been around long enough to establish its own pantheon, its own hierarchies and its own lazy orthodoxies. In person and on record, Herndon has plenty to say about how too much digital music has become complacent and retrograde. latform is not a manifesto, but it feels like a galvanising challenge to Herndon’s peers to embolden their ideas, broaden their horizons and push on into an undiscovered continent of sound.

Q&A
Holly Herndon
You make left-field pop albums while studying for a doctoral thesis in experimental music, do you see these activities as separate or connected?
I was trying to separate them at the beginning, but not anymore. On the first record they definitely separated more track by track, but on this record I definitely tried to combine the things that I love. Platform is more pop and more experimental. I think it’s both.”

You have called Platform a “paradisic gesture”, can you explain that?
There’s a professor of economics based in London named Guy Standing, he talks about Paradise Politics and creating new fantasies. When the shit hits the fan with the economy, the right is very good at creating Paradise Politics for people to easily fall into, and the left sometimes fails at creating an alternative. That was the thought behind it: how can we come together collectively to create new realities?

So you think electronic musicians should have more political responsibility?
I don’t like being absolute and saying this is what everyone needs to be doing, I just really like the idea of music mattering. Recently experimental music has been invited to more mainstream stages, especially through dance music, but what comes with that? Do we just have the experimental hour and then we have the dance party, and that’s all that changed? Or are we also able to port over some of the values and ideas form that community? That would be the ideal.
INTERVIEW: STEPHEN DALTON

Watch Hot Chip cover Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing In The Dark”

Michael Bonner
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Watch Hot Chip cover Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing In The Dark”
Hot Chip have been covering Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing In The Dark" while on tour. The band introduced the cover into their UK set lists in early May and now Stereogum has footage of the band performing the song at the Turner Hall Ballroom, Milwaukee, Wisconsin on the current American leg of thei...

Hot Chip have been covering Bruce Springsteen‘s “Dancing In The Dark” while on tour.

The band introduced the cover into their UK set lists in early May and now Stereogum has footage of the band performing the song at the Turner Hall Ballroom, Milwaukee, Wisconsin on the current American leg of their tour to promote their latest album, Why Make Sense?.

Hot Chip tour the UK later this year:

Bristol O2 Academy (October 13)
Portsmouth Pyramid Centre (14)
Glasgow Barrowland (16)
Manchester Albert Hall (17)
Leeds Beckett University (18)
Nottingham Rock City (20)
Cambridge Corn Exchange (21)
London O2 Brixton Academy (22)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em74pwtr1wE

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