Jimmy Page has revealed more details of his plans to return to live work with a new band.
The guitarist was hosting a listening playback for his remastered ‘companion disc’ to Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti at Olympic Studios in London yesterday (February 3) when he fielded questions on u...
Jimmy Page has revealed more details of his plans to return to live work with a new band.
The guitarist was hosting a listening playback for his remastered ‘companion disc’ to Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti at Olympic Studios in London yesterday (February 3) when he fielded questions on upcoming tour plans.
“I’m in the process of getting match fit,” Page explained, when asked how his preparations were going. “[Live shows] would more or less be closer to the end of the year rather than next month. But you know, I’m definitely warming up on the touchlines, let’s put it that way.”
However, he denied suggestions that he could go out with a guest singer doing Led Zeppelin stuff, in the manner of the reformed Queen and Adam Lambert, saying: “I’m going to do a project on my own. Something quite different – hopefully that you wouldn’t expect from me.”
The Physical Graffiti re-release, out February 23, follows similar reissues last year of the band’s first three albums, as well as Led Zeppelin IV and Houses Of The Holy.
The bonus disc features the following tracklisting:
‘Brandy & Coke’ (Trampled Under Foot – Initial Rough Mix)
‘Sick Again’ (Early Version)
‘In My Time Of Dying’ (Initial Rough Mix)
‘Houses Of The Holy’ (Rough Mix With Overdubs)
‘Everybody Makes It Through’ (In The Light Early Version/In Transit)
‘Boogie With Stu’ (Sunset Sound Mix)
‘Driving Through Kashmir’ (Kashmir Rough Orchestra Mix)
The installation will run from March until June of this year...
New York's Museum Of Modern Art has announced further details of its upcoming Bjork exhibition.
Simply titled Björk, the retrospective dedicated to her career will include Black Lake, "an immersive 10-minute music and film experience" by director Andrew Thomas Huang which runs alongside the song of the same name on her new album Vulnicura. A statement from the museum says the exhibition will use "sound, film, visuals, instruments, objects, costumes, and performance" to detail Bjork's career.
"The installation will present a narrative, both biographical and imaginatively fictitious, cowritten by Björk and the acclaimed Icelandic writer Sjón," continues the press release. The exhibition will run from March 8 to June 7 and begin at the same time as the artist's series of live dates in New York. Vulnicura was released in January, two months early, as it had been unofficially leaked.
The singer will perform two shows at New York's Carnegie Hall and a further four at the City Center venue between March 7 and April 4 this year.
In addition to the new album and exhibition, the singer will also release a career retrospective book in March titled Björk: Archives. The book, which features contributions from directors Chris Cunningham and Spike Jonze, will chart the singer's career through a mixture of poetry, academic analysis, philosophical texts and photographs.
Björk will play:
New York, Carnegie Hall (March 3, 14)
New York, City Center (March 25, 28, April 1, 4)
The installation will run from March until June of this year…
New York’s Museum Of Modern Art has announced further details of its upcoming Bjork exhibition.
Simply titled Björk, the retrospective dedicated to her career will include Black Lake, “an immersive 10-minute music and film experience” by director Andrew Thomas Huang which runs alongside the song of the same name on her new album Vulnicura. A statement from the museum says the exhibition will use “sound, film, visuals, instruments, objects, costumes, and performance” to detail Bjork’s career.
“The installation will present a narrative, both biographical and imaginatively fictitious, cowritten by Björk and the acclaimed Icelandic writer Sjón,” continues the press release. The exhibition will run from March 8 to June 7 and begin at the same time as the artist’s series of live dates in New York. Vulnicura was released in January, two months early, as it had been unofficially leaked.
The singer will perform two shows at New York’s Carnegie Hall and a further four at the City Center venue between March 7 and April 4 this year.
In addition to the new album and exhibition, the singer will also release a career retrospective book in March titled Björk: Archives. The book, which features contributions from directors Chris Cunningham and Spike Jonze, will chart the singer’s career through a mixture of poetry, academic analysis, philosophical texts and photographs.
Musician said all new products on vinyl "are actually CD masters"...
Neil Young has spoken about the revival of vinyl in recent years, calling it "nothing but a fashion statement."
Young, who recently launched his own Pono digital music player, said there was no legitimate reason for music lovers to buy vinyl.
"A lot of people that buy vinyl today don’t realise that they’re listening to CD masters on vinyl and that’s because the record companies have figured out that people want vinyl," Young said in an interview with Californian radio show Frame. "And they're only making CD masters in digital, so all the new products that come out on vinyl are actually CDs on vinyl, which is really nothing but a fashion statement."
Vinyl sales in the UK passed the one million mark last year for the first time since 1997. In the US, the format saw a 49 per cent year-on-year rise, with almost eight million sales. Young added that he did have an appreciation for the resurgence, stating that "it's a great niche and it's a wonderful thing and I hope people continue to enjoy vinyl and it continues to grow because it's a good thing," but maintained that "this is a convenience-oriented society and vinyl is not a convenient thing."
Young’s interview was to promote Pono, which offers high-quality audio and is capable of storing up to 2,000 high resolution songs. "I'm saying that it’s a high-resolution digital player,” Young said. “It doesn’t create an analog sound; it creates the best digital sound. It’s capable of creating the best sounds that people can create in the digital realm in the recording studios."
Musician said all new products on vinyl “are actually CD masters”…
Neil Young has spoken about the revival of vinyl in recent years, calling it “nothing but a fashion statement.”
Young, who recently launched his own Pono digital music player, said there was no legitimate reason for music lovers to buy vinyl.
“A lot of people that buy vinyl today don’t realise that they’re listening to CD masters on vinyl and that’s because the record companies have figured out that people want vinyl,” Young said in an interview with Californian radio show Frame. “And they’re only making CD masters in digital, so all the new products that come out on vinyl are actually CDs on vinyl, which is really nothing but a fashion statement.”
Vinyl sales in the UK passed the one million mark last year for the first time since 1997. In the US, the format saw a 49 per cent year-on-year rise, with almost eight million sales. Young added that he did have an appreciation for the resurgence, stating that “it’s a great niche and it’s a wonderful thing and I hope people continue to enjoy vinyl and it continues to grow because it’s a good thing,” but maintained that “this is a convenience-oriented society and vinyl is not a convenient thing.”
Young’s interview was to promote Pono, which offers high-quality audio and is capable of storing up to 2,000 high resolution songs. “I’m saying that it’s a high-resolution digital player,” Young said. “It doesn’t create an analog sound; it creates the best digital sound. It’s capable of creating the best sounds that people can create in the digital realm in the recording studios.”
The Replacements have announced their first UK show in 24 years.
The band will play London's Roundhouse on June 2.
Tickets cost £33.50 and £39.50 and go on sale at 9:00am on Friday, February 6.
You can find more details at the Roundhouse's website.
The band, led by Paul Westerberg and Tommy St...
The Replacements have announced their first UK show in 24 years.
The band will play London’s Roundhouse on June 2.
Tickets cost £33.50 and £39.50 and go on sale at 9:00am on Friday, February 6.
You can find more details at the Roundhouse’s website.
The band, led by Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson. reunited in 2012 and played their first live shows in over two decades the following year. The band’s line-up has been augmented by guitarist Dave Minehan and drummer Josh Freese.
The Replacements last played the UK on April 16, 1991 at London’s Marquee Club. Scroll down to watch footage partly recorded at the show.
Aside from the Roundhouse show, the band have announced two other European shows.
Stuart Murdoch returns in mature style on eclectic ninth...
The opening song of Belle And Sebastian’s ninth album proper is about the darkest time in Stuart Murdoch’s life. Towards the end of the 1980s, as his teens turned to student twenties, the singer, songwriter, guitarist and, more recently, screenwriter and director, was diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis, or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. For seven years, Murdoch was isolated and suicidal, consoling himself with ‘60s pop and heavy metal, dreaming of being able to go out with girls, pondering the existence of God. It’s a pit of youthful despair he writes about, for the first time, in “Nobody’s Empire”, crediting '”my father” and an unnamed female best friend for saving his life and allowing him to “leave that vision of Hell to the dying.”
Murdoch has spoken in public about the CFS years many times. But its significant that only now, 18 years after he formed Belle And Sebastian over cups of tea in a Glasgow café, has he chosen to write a song so nakedly autobiographical. In the four years since the mediocre Belle and Sebastian Write About Love, the band have parted company from Rough Trade and signed for their third label, the perennially hip American imprint Matador, while Murdoch published a collection of his online diaries, The Celestial Café, and, wrote, produced and directed his first film, God Help The Girl. The band’s leader is now a 46-year-old husband and father with a portfolio career and a band who, with the crucial part they played in Murdoch’s recovery to rude health, perfectly dramatise the healing power of making music. Girls In Peacetime Wants To Dance feels like a creative rebirth for a band who were beginning to feel like nothing more than the day job.
A plaintive couplet from “Nobody’s Empire” stands out and sets the tone for an album that feels horrified by the modern world yet simultaneously convinced that creativity is solace, solution and hiding place: “If we live by books/And we live by hope/Does that make us targets for gunfire?”
The themes that Murdoch himself suggests define the album are “the power of music and how much we need it. But also how the individual is affected by politics and media and the pressure that comes from the 24-hour news cycle.” In that context, the “bombs in the middle east” and “knives in the city streets” of the soft-rocking “Allie” and the “grubby little red MP/Yellow flapping hopelessly” while the Tory remains “The Cat With The Cream” over an ominous, unlikely fusion of Abba and The Velvets, are juxtaposed with the sheer wonder of making art celebrated in “The Everlasting Muse”, whereby hints of Getz/Gilberto are employed to sum up Murdoch’s career-long insistence that everything good about the world is inevitably feminine. “Enter Sylvia Plath” and “Play For Today” are bookish, smart and elegantly British over a disco beat, and you wonder why you never saw the B&S/Pet Shop Boys comparison before.
Meanwhile, fellow B&S members compliment Murdoch’s strong material with some of their finest contributions to date. Stevie Jackson’s “Perfect Couples” is resonant observation over kitsch lounge-funk, as our hero watches role model couples collapse and loses faith in everlasting love. But the album’s major earworm is Sarah Martin’s “The Power Of Three”, which has a synth and strings hook that breaks your heart while fine-tuning B&S’s uncanny knack for conjuring fantasies of swinging ‘60s girl-beat while sounding entirely like state-of-the-art pop.
New producer Ben H. Allen III does a sterling job of making Belle And Sebastian most stylistically eclectic record into something coherent and crunchily satisfying. Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance is one of those records which sees the artists going back to the past – even if it means revisiting bad memories – in order to remind themselves why they bother, and move forward. It’s the collective’s best since Dear Catastrophe Waitress, and sees off the potential chronic fatigue syndrome of being Belle & Sebastian for just a little too long.
Garry Mulholland
Q&A
Stuart Murdoch
Where does the album title come from?
“It’s a line from a poem… kind of a spare song title we had lying around. It felt like the right title to put with the images for the album cover, which came to me in a dream. The weird robot girl.”
“The Everlasting Muse” sounds like an attempt to sum up all your many songs about wanting to understand and worship women…
“Well, if it does, it wasn’t intentional. It was the first song that came along. I was in Switzerland at the end of a tour with the band, on a bicycle thinking, ‘God… I have to write! I have no idea where these songs are gonna come from.’ And I felt like appealing to ‘the muse’. Its not far away from the sentiment of an Abba song: you know, “Thank You For The Music”. I’m doing my best to flirt with the spirit of music.”
You took time off from B&S to make your debut as a screenwriter and director. Now God Help The Girl is out in the world, how did you find the process?
“In some regards, I found that I fit much more into the film world than the music world. With movie people you can talk about the whole gamut of life and emotion. But I do feel quite battered and bruised by launching something that I thought was so precious and guiding it through a commercial release without having the support of a record or film company. That could be quite dispiriting. So I’m happy to be back in the fold.”
INTERVIEW: GARRY MULHOLLAND
Stuart Murdoch returns in mature style on eclectic ninth…
The opening song of Belle And Sebastian’s ninth album proper is about the darkest time in Stuart Murdoch’s life. Towards the end of the 1980s, as his teens turned to student twenties, the singer, songwriter, guitarist and, more recently, screenwriter and director, was diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis, or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. For seven years, Murdoch was isolated and suicidal, consoling himself with ‘60s pop and heavy metal, dreaming of being able to go out with girls, pondering the existence of God. It’s a pit of youthful despair he writes about, for the first time, in “Nobody’s Empire”, crediting ‘”my father” and an unnamed female best friend for saving his life and allowing him to “leave that vision of Hell to the dying.”
Murdoch has spoken in public about the CFS years many times. But its significant that only now, 18 years after he formed Belle And Sebastian over cups of tea in a Glasgow café, has he chosen to write a song so nakedly autobiographical. In the four years since the mediocre Belle and Sebastian Write About Love, the band have parted company from Rough Trade and signed for their third label, the perennially hip American imprint Matador, while Murdoch published a collection of his online diaries, The Celestial Café, and, wrote, produced and directed his first film, God Help The Girl. The band’s leader is now a 46-year-old husband and father with a portfolio career and a band who, with the crucial part they played in Murdoch’s recovery to rude health, perfectly dramatise the healing power of making music. Girls In Peacetime Wants To Dance feels like a creative rebirth for a band who were beginning to feel like nothing more than the day job.
A plaintive couplet from “Nobody’s Empire” stands out and sets the tone for an album that feels horrified by the modern world yet simultaneously convinced that creativity is solace, solution and hiding place: “If we live by books/And we live by hope/Does that make us targets for gunfire?”
The themes that Murdoch himself suggests define the album are “the power of music and how much we need it. But also how the individual is affected by politics and media and the pressure that comes from the 24-hour news cycle.” In that context, the “bombs in the middle east” and “knives in the city streets” of the soft-rocking “Allie” and the “grubby little red MP/Yellow flapping hopelessly” while the Tory remains “The Cat With The Cream” over an ominous, unlikely fusion of Abba and The Velvets, are juxtaposed with the sheer wonder of making art celebrated in “The Everlasting Muse”, whereby hints of Getz/Gilberto are employed to sum up Murdoch’s career-long insistence that everything good about the world is inevitably feminine. “Enter Sylvia Plath” and “Play For Today” are bookish, smart and elegantly British over a disco beat, and you wonder why you never saw the B&S/Pet Shop Boys comparison before.
Meanwhile, fellow B&S members compliment Murdoch’s strong material with some of their finest contributions to date. Stevie Jackson’s “Perfect Couples” is resonant observation over kitsch lounge-funk, as our hero watches role model couples collapse and loses faith in everlasting love. But the album’s major earworm is Sarah Martin’s “The Power Of Three”, which has a synth and strings hook that breaks your heart while fine-tuning B&S’s uncanny knack for conjuring fantasies of swinging ‘60s girl-beat while sounding entirely like state-of-the-art pop.
New producer Ben H. Allen III does a sterling job of making Belle And Sebastian most stylistically eclectic record into something coherent and crunchily satisfying. Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance is one of those records which sees the artists going back to the past – even if it means revisiting bad memories – in order to remind themselves why they bother, and move forward. It’s the collective’s best since Dear Catastrophe Waitress, and sees off the potential chronic fatigue syndrome of being Belle & Sebastian for just a little too long.
Garry Mulholland
Q&A
Stuart Murdoch
Where does the album title come from?
“It’s a line from a poem… kind of a spare song title we had lying around. It felt like the right title to put with the images for the album cover, which came to me in a dream. The weird robot girl.”
“The Everlasting Muse” sounds like an attempt to sum up all your many songs about wanting to understand and worship women…
“Well, if it does, it wasn’t intentional. It was the first song that came along. I was in Switzerland at the end of a tour with the band, on a bicycle thinking, ‘God… I have to write! I have no idea where these songs are gonna come from.’ And I felt like appealing to ‘the muse’. Its not far away from the sentiment of an Abba song: you know, “Thank You For The Music”. I’m doing my best to flirt with the spirit of music.”
You took time off from B&S to make your debut as a screenwriter and director. Now God Help The Girl is out in the world, how did you find the process?
“In some regards, I found that I fit much more into the film world than the music world. With movie people you can talk about the whole gamut of life and emotion. But I do feel quite battered and bruised by launching something that I thought was so precious and guiding it through a commercial release without having the support of a record or film company. That could be quite dispiriting. So I’m happy to be back in the fold.”
Album due out this June...
Chic are to release their first new album since 1992's Chic-Ism.
Spin reports that the group have signed to Warner Bros Records and plan to put out a new single on March 20, with an album coming in June.
Chic were founded in the mid-seventies by guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards, who passed away in 1996. Recently, Rodgers co-wrote and performed on three songs off Daft Punk's 2013 album Random Access Memories, including the single "Get Lucky".
"Nile has never stopped moving forward, so I am thrilled to welcome him into the WBR family as he begins a dynamic new chapter of his extraordinary career," said Warner Bros Records Chairman and CEO Cameron Strang upon the announcement.
Album due out this June…
Chic are to release their first new album since 1992’s Chic-Ism.
Spin reports that the group have signed to Warner Bros Records and plan to put out a new single on March 20, with an album coming in June.
Chic were founded in the mid-seventies by guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards, who passed away in 1996. Recently, Rodgers co-wrote and performed on three songs off Daft Punk’s 2013 album Random Access Memories, including the single “Get Lucky“.
“Nile has never stopped moving forward, so I am thrilled to welcome him into the WBR family as he begins a dynamic new chapter of his extraordinary career,” said Warner Bros Records Chairman and CEO Cameron Strang upon the announcement.
A recently uncovered collection of rare and intimate images of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones has been made available to purchase via eBay.
The photographs were taken by Bob Bonis, who served as US tour manager for both bands from 1964 to 1966. Included in the archive are shots from a never-before-seen Rolling Stones recording session at Chess Records Studio in Chicago, plus what are said to be the only close up photos of The Beatles taken during their 1965 stadium performance in Minnesota.
The photographs will be made available to purchase over the next two years in limited edition prints beginning at $175 (£116). Once an edition sells out, it will never be reprinted.
"eBay connects shoppers to the things they love, and The Beatles and The Rolling Stones are unequivocally two of the most revered rock bands of all time," said Gene Cook, General Manager of Emerging Verticals for eBay Marketplaces. "Bringing the Bob Bonis Archives to eBay makes this incredible inventory available to our global community of 155 million buyers. These images offer a remarkable backstage pass to truly amazing, very human moments."
Just last November, unused photos from The Beatles' Abbey Road photo shoot were sold for £180,000 at Bloomsbury Auctions in London. The shots were taken on August 8, 1969 by photographer Iain Macmillan, who had only 10 minutes to complete the entire shoot. Six photos were taken in all, including the photo that eventually made the final cut, as well as a scenery shot of the Abbey Road sign.
A recently uncovered collection of rare and intimate images of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones has been made available to purchase via eBay.
The photographs were taken by Bob Bonis, who served as US tour manager for both bands from 1964 to 1966. Included in the archive are shots from a never-before-seen Rolling Stones recording session at Chess Records Studio in Chicago, plus what are said to be the only close up photos of The Beatles taken during their 1965 stadium performance in Minnesota.
The photographs will be made available to purchase over the next two years in limited edition prints beginning at $175 (£116). Once an edition sells out, it will never be reprinted.
“eBay connects shoppers to the things they love, and The Beatles and The Rolling Stones are unequivocally two of the most revered rock bands of all time,” said Gene Cook, General Manager of Emerging Verticals for eBay Marketplaces. “Bringing the Bob Bonis Archives to eBay makes this incredible inventory available to our global community of 155 million buyers. These images offer a remarkable backstage pass to truly amazing, very human moments.”
Just last November, unused photos from The Beatles’ Abbey Road photo shoot were sold for £180,000 at Bloomsbury Auctions in London. The shots were taken on August 8, 1969 by photographer Iain Macmillan, who had only 10 minutes to complete the entire shoot. Six photos were taken in all, including the photo that eventually made the final cut, as well as a scenery shot of the Abbey Road sign.
It’s an auspicious week in the Uncut offices. As I'm sure many of you already know, Bob Dylan’s new album Shadows In The Night is now on sale.
I’ve written about the album at length here, a collection of standards from the Great American Songbook popularised by Frank Sinatra. Among its many p...
It’s an auspicious week in the Uncut offices. As I’m sure many of you already know, Bob Dylan’s new album Shadows In The Night is now on sale.
I’ve written about the album at length here, a collection of standards from the Great American Songbook popularised by Frank Sinatra. Among its many positive attributes, Shadows In The Night reveals the scale of Dylan’s affection for Sinatra.
It’s tempting to speculate how Sinatra himself would have responded to the album. Although by all accounts, the two men had a cordial relationship, Sinatra wasn’t especially well disposed towards rock’n’roll; at least in its earliest days. Indeed, writing in October, 1957 for French magazine Western World, Frank Sinatra made his views abundantly clear. “My only deep sorrow,” he said, “is the unrelenting insistence of recording and motion picture companies upon purveying the most brutal, ugly, degenerate, vicious form of expression it has been my displeasure to hear – naturally I refer to the bulk of rock ‘n’ roll.” He continued in this vein before concluding, “It manages to be the martial music of every sideburned delinquent on the face of the earth.”
As a representative of a more conservative generation, Sinatra’s reaction to rock’n’roll was perhaps understandable. In a busy period of shifting musical tastes, Tin Pan Alley and the old-style Broadway traditional that had supplied Sinatra with his repertoire were being swept away. All the same, by 1960, Sinatra appeared to have reviewed his position. In May that year, he hosted a TV special to welcome home Elvis Presley after serving out his military service in Germany; the two singers even duetted together on “Love Me Tender” and “Witchcraft”.
Sinatra further engaged with other members of the rock’n’roll fraternity – “cretinous goons”, as he’d described them in the Western World article – including The Beatles. He covered both “Yesterday” and “Something” (the latter he described as “one of the best love songs to be written in the past 50 or 100 years”). But while Sinatra rejected a Paul McCartney composition called “Suicide”, Ringo appeared to enjoy better luck: he approached Sinatra to record a special birthday message for his wife, who responded with “Maureen Is A Champ”, a reworking of “The Lady Is A Tramp” with the lines, “She married Ringo and she could have had Paul / That’s why the lady is a champ”. George Harrison even visited the studio while Sinatra was working on his 1968 album, Cycles (which included a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “From Both Sides, Now”).
John Lennon and McCartney, meanwhile, attended Sinatra’s February, 1977 show at the Royal Albert Hall, where in among the usual standards, Sinatra covered Elton John’s “Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word”. Lennon admitted he wished Sinatra would record the Walls And Bridges song, “Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down At Out)”, telling Playboy in 1980, “He would do a perfect job with it.” Later, commenting after Lennon’s assassination, Sinatra was moved to admit, “Lennon was a most talented man and above all, a gentle soul. John and his colleagues set a high standard by which contemporary music continues to be measured.”
In 1960, Sinatra left Capitol to found his own record label, Reprise, ostensibly to allow himself greater artistic freedom. In 1963, he sold Reprise to Warner Bros, and soon found himself sharing a label with Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa and Neil Young among others; in 1976, Warners deactivated Reprise, bringing across all of its artists except Sinatra and Young, who remained as the label’s only two signings. Young remained loyal to Sinatra, who he described as “one of the greatest legends ever in the history of music”.
As he grew older, Sinatra’s trenchant views on rock music appeared to mellow. He returned to the studio after a ten-year hiatus to record 1993’s Duets album, which featured Sinatra in company of a number of younger artists, who were all invited to record their parts remotely. Among the artists participating were Bono, Aretha Franklin and Carly Simon. Sinatra repeated the procedure the following year for Duets II, this time featuring Chrissie Hynde, Willie Nelson, Stevie Wonder and Linda Ronstadt. He would also cover songs by Paul Simon, John Denver and Billy Joel.
Interviewed by New Jersey Monthly in 2011, Sinatra’s widow, Barbara, recalled hosting a dinner party for her husband attended by Bob Dylan and Sinatra’s fellow New Jerseyite, Bruce Springsteen. “They had long conversations at that party,” she disclosed. “There was a kinship there.” Certainly, by the time it came to Sinatra’s 80th birthday celebrations in 1995, Springsteen and Dylan were both very much in the tent. Springsteen opened the show with “Angel Eyes”, while Dylan closed the show with “Restless Farewell”, reportedly performed at Sinatra’s request. Interviewed by Newsweek in 1997, Dylan revealed he had even contemplated working with Sinatra. “The tone of his voice,” he explained, “it’s like a cello. Me and Don Was wanted to record him doing Hank Williams songs.”
Meanwhile, Dylan and Springsteen were among the mourners at Sinatra’s funeral, there to pay their respects alongside old school A listers including Gregory Peck, Sophia Loren, Tony Curtis and Kirk Douglas.
And with that, I should probably mention a few other things that have been exciting us in the Uncut office. With the gloomy realisation that we’re drawing ever closer to the end of Parks And Recreation, the hunt is on to find a suitable replacement. John’s opted for 30 Rock – a fine choice, admittedly, but I’m working my way through the first series of Community, which is terrific so far. I’d also like to recommend a couple of books. There’s Mick Houghton’s excellent Sandy Denny biography, I’ve Always Kept A Unicorn, which is due out on March 5, and also Kim Gordon‘s excellent autobiography, Girl In A Band, which is published in the UK on February 24. I’ll try and blog about Kim’s book later this week.
Anyway, all it leaves me to do is gently remind you that the current issue of Uncut is in shops now – and you can also pick up a digital edition by clicking here. In the issue itself, you’ll find pieces on The Smiths, Kraftwerk, The War On Drugs, Tim Buckley, Steve Cropper, Ennio Morricone, The Charlatans, Devo as well as our extensive reviews section. Meanwhile, our free CD, Fresh Meat, includes tracks from Phosphorescent, Father John Misty, Duke Garwood, Rhiannon Giddens, Dutch Uncles, The Unthanks and more.
We’d love know what you think about the current issue and also Shadows In The Night. So please drop us a line at uncut_feedback@timeinc.com.
Scottish band said support act Eagulls had to pull out 'due to other commitments'...
The Jesus And Mary Chain are offering local bands the chance to support them on their February UK tour after support act Eagulls had to pull out "due to other commitments".
In a post on Facebook, the band announced that they were looking for acts to support them on each day of their nine-date tour and provided an email address for anyone interested to contact them on. "If you feel that you'd fit the Jesus and Mary Chain support and would like to apply, please email to feb2015tour.jamc@gmx.com," the post read.
The band's management also asked any applicants to provide "a link (website/ soundcloud/ bandcamp/ youtube) to your music" as well as "any visuals that you might have (music videos / photos etc.)." They added: "Please do not bombard us just with MP3s!"
The Jesus and Mary Chain's 2015 tour is in celebration of the 30th anniversary of their album Psychocandy and will see the band play the album in full each night. Speaking about the impending anniversary, Jim Reid of the band previously said: "Psychocandy was meant to be a kick in the teeth to all of those who stood in our way at the time, which was practically the whole music industry."
The Jesus and Mary Chain will play:
Liverpool, Liverpool Guild of Students (February 16)
Leeds, O2 Academy (17)
Newcastle, O2 Academy (18)
Edinburgh, Corn Exchange (19)
Norwich, U.E.A. (21)
Nottingham, Rock City (22)
Brighton, Brighton Dome (23)
Birmingham, The Institute (25)
Bristol, O2 Academy (26)
Cardiff, Cardiff University (The Great Hall) (27)
Scottish band said support act Eagulls had to pull out ‘due to other commitments’…
The Jesus And Mary Chain are offering local bands the chance to support them on their February UK tour after support act Eagulls had to pull out “due to other commitments”.
In a post on Facebook, the band announced that they were looking for acts to support them on each day of their nine-date tour and provided an email address for anyone interested to contact them on. “If you feel that you’d fit the Jesus and Mary Chain support and would like to apply, please email to feb2015tour.jamc@gmx.com,” the post read.
The band’s management also asked any applicants to provide “a link (website/ soundcloud/ bandcamp/ youtube) to your music” as well as “any visuals that you might have (music videos / photos etc.).” They added: “Please do not bombard us just with MP3s!”
The Jesus and Mary Chain’s 2015 tour is in celebration of the 30th anniversary of their album Psychocandy and will see the band play the album in full each night. Speaking about the impending anniversary, Jim Reid of the band previously said: “Psychocandy was meant to be a kick in the teeth to all of those who stood in our way at the time, which was practically the whole music industry.”
The Jesus and Mary Chain will play:
Liverpool, Liverpool Guild of Students (February 16)
Songwriter played majority of forthcoming Short Movie album...
Laura Marling performed most of her forthcoming album Short Movie at a tiny London show on Saturday night.
Taking to the stage at the Silver Bullet in London's Finsbury Park, to a packed room of around 200 people, the Berkshire-born singer songwriter began with "False Hope" from her yet-to-be-released fifth album, available on March 23.
Aside from the new material, which included "Warrior", "Strange" and "Walk Alone", she also played "Devil's Spoke", "Rambling Man", "What He Wrote" and the title track from her 2010 second album I Speak Because I Can, a fired-up electric version of "Salinas" from her third album A Creature I Don't Know and "Master Hunter" from 2013's Once I Was An Eagle. She also performed 'David', which doesn't feature on any of her albums, but has been an occasional part of her live set since 2013.
Her guitar tech was kept busy throughout the night, Marling swapping guitars for virtually every song, while two of the other three musicians on stage with her swapped between bass, double bass, guitar and other instruments.
Marling spoke only occasionally between songs, but was treated to a rendition of "Happy Birthday" by the crowd when she revealed it was her birthday the day after the show, although she seemed a little uncomfortable with the gesture, crouching down to take a huge swig of her drink.
She also stopped one song a second or two in because she thought she heard an audience member in the front row call her name. "Did someone call me then?" she said. "Sorry, I just get a bit paranoid because I'm wearing a skirt on stage and I bend over a lot. I always think if someone calls my name it's a girl shouting me to tell me my skirt is up round my chest. I'm not a prude, but I don't want to show you all my knickers."
The subject of her clothes came up again when she took off her jumper and started to laugh. "Excuse me, I just realised my housemate is here and I'm wearing her top," she said, to which someone in the crowd, likely her housemate, shouted "It looks great on you."
Introducing penultimate song "Gurdjieff's Daughter", she said "This one needs a bit of explanation," and went on to reveal it had been inspired by a story involving Chilean avant garde film-maker Alejandro Jodorowsky, and a four-page letter of advice on morality he received after an encounter with the daughter of influential Russian spiritual teacher George Gurdjieff.
She finished with the title track from her forthcoming album, adding "This is the last song, there's not much else to say really. I really enjoyed myself, thank you."
Laura Marling played:
'False Hope'
'I Feel Your Love'
'Devil's Spoke'
'Warrior'
'Strange'
'Master Hunter'
'Walk Alone'
'David'
'Howl'
'What He Wrote'
'Love Be Brave'
'Rambling Man'
'I Speak Because I Can'
'How Can I'
'Salinas'
'Gurdjieff's Daughter'
'Short Movie'
Songwriter played majority of forthcoming Short Movie album…
Laura Marling performed most of her forthcoming album Short Movie at a tiny London show on Saturday night.
Taking to the stage at the Silver Bullet in London’s Finsbury Park, to a packed room of around 200 people, the Berkshire-born singer songwriter began with “False Hope” from her yet-to-be-released fifth album, available on March 23.
Aside from the new material, which included “Warrior”, “Strange” and “Walk Alone”, she also played “Devil’s Spoke”, “Rambling Man”, “What He Wrote” and the title track from her 2010 second album I Speak Because I Can, a fired-up electric version of “Salinas” from her third album A Creature I Don’t Know and “Master Hunter” from 2013’s Once I Was An Eagle. She also performed ‘David’, which doesn’t feature on any of her albums, but has been an occasional part of her live set since 2013.
Her guitar tech was kept busy throughout the night, Marling swapping guitars for virtually every song, while two of the other three musicians on stage with her swapped between bass, double bass, guitar and other instruments.
Marling spoke only occasionally between songs, but was treated to a rendition of “Happy Birthday” by the crowd when she revealed it was her birthday the day after the show, although she seemed a little uncomfortable with the gesture, crouching down to take a huge swig of her drink.
She also stopped one song a second or two in because she thought she heard an audience member in the front row call her name. “Did someone call me then?” she said. “Sorry, I just get a bit paranoid because I’m wearing a skirt on stage and I bend over a lot. I always think if someone calls my name it’s a girl shouting me to tell me my skirt is up round my chest. I’m not a prude, but I don’t want to show you all my knickers.”
The subject of her clothes came up again when she took off her jumper and started to laugh. “Excuse me, I just realised my housemate is here and I’m wearing her top,” she said, to which someone in the crowd, likely her housemate, shouted “It looks great on you.”
Introducing penultimate song “Gurdjieff’s Daughter”, she said “This one needs a bit of explanation,” and went on to reveal it had been inspired by a story involving Chilean avant garde film-maker Alejandro Jodorowsky, and a four-page letter of advice on morality he received after an encounter with the daughter of influential Russian spiritual teacher George Gurdjieff.
She finished with the title track from her forthcoming album, adding “This is the last song, there’s not much else to say really. I really enjoyed myself, thank you.”
New artwork of the band is posted to Instagram...
Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett has announced that the virtual band are to return.
As reported by Pitchfork, the comic book artist and designer revealed the news in an Instagram post that featured new drawings of fictional band members Murdoc and Noodle. Hewlett also responded to a fan's query by stating, "Yes Gorillaz Returns".
A potential new LP would be Gorillaz' first since 2011's The Fall. Compilation The Singles Collection 2001–2011 was also released that year to mark ten years of the project.
Hewlett's fellow co-creator, Damon Albarn, has kept busy since then, most recently writing the music for a new musical that will be shown at Manchester's Palace Theatre in July as part of Manchester International Festival. The show, titled wonder.land, is inspired by Lewis Carroll's classic novel Alice In Wonderland and is directed by Rufus Norris.
New artwork of the band is posted to Instagram…
Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett has announced that the virtual band are to return.
As reported by Pitchfork, the comic book artist and designer revealed the news in an Instagram post that featured new drawings of fictional band members Murdoc and Noodle. Hewlett also responded to a fan’s query by stating, “Yes Gorillaz Returns”.
A potential new LP would be Gorillaz’ first since 2011’s The Fall. Compilation The Singles Collection 2001–2011 was also released that year to mark ten years of the project.
Hewlett’s fellow co-creator, Damon Albarn, has kept busy since then, most recently writing the music for a new musical that will be shown at Manchester’s Palace Theatre in July as part of Manchester International Festival. The show, titled wonder.land, is inspired by Lewis Carroll’s classic novel Alice In Wonderland and is directed by Rufus Norris.
Soon to headline London’s Forum, the prog/folk/rock solo artist and star of The IT Crowd, Toast Of London and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace reveals the ’70s reverb classics that rock Reynholm Industries... Originally published in Uncut’s June 2014 issue (Take 205). Interview: Tom Pinnock
_____...
Soon to headline London’s Forum, the prog/folk/rock solo artist and star of The IT Crowd, Toast Of London and Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace reveals the ’70s reverb classics that rock Reynholm Industries… Originally published in Uncut’s June 2014 issue (Take 205). Interview: Tom Pinnock
____________________
My favourite mix of orchestra and rock
Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice
Jesus Christ Superstar (1970)
When I heard this, at 14 or 15, I didn’t know anything about musicals, so I listened to it for what it was. I was impressed with his use of orchestra along with very credible rock. It was Joe Cocker’s Grease Band on this, and they were incredible. You’ve got to forget all the badness that comes with Lloyd Webber and just listen. I still think it’s extraordinary.
An album that moves me to tears
Beach House
Teen Dream (2010)
I love the fact that it’s done on cheap Yamaha home keyboards. All the songs get to me, they’re all that perfect bittersweet sort of melancholy, a balance of euphoria and a tear in your eye. My favourite is “Lover Of Mine” – Victoria Legrand has got two incredible melodies going on at once in that song. But the whole album is completely faultless and beautiful from start to finish.
My favourite Brian Eno work
Roxy Music
Roxy Music (1972)
A lot of my favourite songs have Eno involved, but I love the work he does on the first two Roxy Music albums. He’s creating atmospheres as opposed to composition and it’s a beautiful mixture with everything else in that band. “Ladytron” is my favourite – to hear oboe and synth together is not the norm, I guess. I wasn’t so interested when he left, but the first two albums are exceptional.
An incredibly atmospheric album
Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes (2008)
It’s very atmospheric and that’s always important for a group. There’s not a duff moment on the whole record – you wouldn’t be buying individual tracks off this album, you know? I love the plate reverb that’s on absolutely everything – all the mid frequencies are up and it’s sort of infinite-sounding, like it’s been recorded in a cathedral or something. I tend to be drawn to ’60s and ’70s reverb!
An unashamedly electronic album
Jean Michel Jarre
Oxygène (1976)
It’s a fantastic album, showcasing early naked synths without shame. It’s not trying to make them sound like anything else. It’s uplifting but also has a kind of sadness, and that’s what attracts me. It was done in his bedroom on an eight-track. I’ve been collecting synths since the late ’80s. They weren’t very fashionable then, so you could pick up pretty cool stuff for a few hundred quid.
A beautifully recorded album
Pink Floyd
The Dark Side Of The Moon (1973)
I listened to this in my teens not knowing who the band were, whether it was one man and his band or 50 people. The sequencing of it is so important, the songs cannot be taken out of context – it’s a 43-minute experience. It also still sounds fucking brilliant. Because it’s not hurried, you can hear every instrument, there’s a beautiful appreciation for everything.
My favourite album
Mike Oldfield
Tubular Bells (1973)
Again, I listened without prejudice at the age of 14. It wasn’t like anything I’d heard, it sounded like there was no point to it, like no record company had asked for it. When you’re 14 and you don’t know your arse from your elbow, something like this really sticks on you because it just sounds like there is someone else who is very much at odds with everything. This was all of his guns being fired at once. I never get bored of listening to it.
An album by a ‘terrifying’ artist
Kate Bush
Lionheart (1978)
The songs are all great, I love the production, the sound, the playing. Watching Kate Bush staring down the lens on Top Of The Pops playing “Wuthering Heights”, it fucking terrified me as a kid. I fancied her as little kids do, but at the same time I thought she was a witch, so you mix those and you’ve got fascination – I just thought she was extraordinary. You know, I still do.
Songs for swingin’ Bobcats! Dylan salutes the magic of Sinatra...
When he attended Frank Sinatra’s funeral at the Beverly Hills’ Good Shepherd Catholic Church on May 20, 1998, Bob Dylan was enjoying a renewed sense of purpose. The previous year’s Time Out Of Mind – a spare, wintry lamentation of mortality and passing time – triggered a fresh burst of creativity that has now sustained Dylan well into the new millennium. But perhaps pausing for breath after the exertions of 2012’s Tempest – an album with plenty to say about violence and death – Dylan has circled back to Sinatra. In truth, the two men already have lengthy history together. Dylan has even had a crack at ol’ Blue Eyes before; both live and in the studio, recording an unreleased version of Sinatra’s “This Is My Love” during the Infidels sessions. For Shadows In The Night, however, Dylan has gone ‘full Frank’. The album features 10 songs popularised by Sinatra, mostly recorded in the 1940s for Columbia, Dylan’s current label. Presumably best placed to soak up the appropriate vibes, Dylan and his band – along with engineer Al Schmitt – decamped to Capitol Studio B, site of some of Sinatra’s biggest successes during the 1950s. “I don't see myself as covering these songs in any way,” Dylan explained. “They've been covered enough. Buried, as a matter a fact. What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them.”
The sessions for Shadows In The Night took place between February and March last year – T Bone Burnett told Uncut that while he was recording the ‘found’ Basement Tapes project, Lost On The River, Dylan was mixing in the studio next door. According to Schmitt – who also recently worked at Capitol on Neil Young’s Storytone album – Dylan and his band recorded 23 songs in total. Two months later, Dylan chose to stream “Full Moon And Empty Arms” on his website to coincide with the 16th anniversary of Sinatra’s death on May 14. It seems likely that Lost On The River hastened the release of The Complete Basement Tapes, effectively putting Shadows In The Night on hold until now: conveniently, the centenary of Sinatra’s birth.
His last album of covers, 2009’s Christmas In The Heart, exposed an unexpectedly nostalgic side to Dylan, and there is something roughly similar at work here on Shadows In The Night. Essentially, these songs reconnect Dylan with the music he grew up with. Looking at the span of the material featured here, Dylan was 1 when Sinatra recorded the album’s earliest song, 1942’s “The Night We Called It A Day”, and 22 by the time Sinatra came to sing the most recent, “Stay With Me” in 1963: the same year Dylan released his breakthrough Freewheelin’… album.
Evidently, Sinatra and Dylan are accomplished interpreters of other people’s material. But of course, both men are also very different singers. Sinatra was a master of the easy, self-assured baritone, and it’s to Dylan’s credit that he delivers his strongest vocal performance in recent memory on Shadows In The Night. For the opening track, he offers an intimate, dramatic reading of “I’m A Fool To Want You” (a rare writing credit for Sinatra), holding notes, annunciating clearly, while his voice is forefront in the mix. His phrasing, too, is careful and precise. “Time and time again I said I’d leave you” he sings, his voice rising through the line; then dropping to softly deliver the more contrite acknowledgment, “But there would come a time when I need you”. Around him, three horns, two trombones and a French horn parp mournfully like a sympathetic Greek chorus.
Indeed, Dylan’s song selection foregrounds Sinatra’s qualities as a romantic, melancholic singer; the first two songs open with haunting steel guitar from Donnie Herron to accentuate the material’s sombre nature. It’s possible that Shadows… is an attempt to reclaim Sinatra from the legions of singers who have diminished his legacy to cheesy Vegas barnstormers. Dylan mercifully avoids “Theme From New York, New York” or “My Way”; for the most part, these are pensive reflections on unrequited love, love gone wrong, love lost. The arrangements are modest and sensitive. On “The Night We Called It A Day”, for instance, the brass rises consolingly to meet Dylan as he calls time on another roman d’amour, “There wasn’t a thing left to say / The night we called it a day”. Musically, the album doesn’t deviate much from the template established with “Full Moon And Empty Arms”: the band are at their gentlest and most discretely responsive, their music nestling in Dylan’s own warm, pristine production. On “What’ll I Do”, for instance, it is possible to hear Dylan breathing close to the microphone during Charlie Sexton’s guitar interlude. You can catch every instrument, however low in the mix; keen listeners will note Tony Garnier’s bowed bass on the hymn-like “Stay With Me” (Dylan unveiled a live version at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on October 26, a few days before Shadows In The Night was formally announced.)
That same bowed bass gracefully glides through “Autumn Leaves”, complimented by Charlie Sexton’s beautiful, keening guitar intro and some mannerly finger picking from Stu Kimball. It’s a full 50 seconds before Dylan begins to sing – almost a third of the song’s 3:02 run time – but when he does, it turns out to be one of the album’s most effective deliveries. It’s tempting to speculate what personal experiences he is bringing to the song as he sighs ruminatively, “But I missed you most of all my darling”.
Meanwhile, “Why Try To Change Me Now” offers a change of pace. It’s a lighter number, which allows Dylan the opportunity to ask the deathless question, “Why can’t I be more conventional?”, before moving on to tackle “Some Enchanted Evening”. As with Sinatra, Dylan is a deft narrative storyteller, and here he presents the song as if he’s passing on hard-learned wisdom to the listener: “Once you have found her / Never let her go”, he counsels. Elsewhere, “Where Are You” further emphasises the rueful qualities of Sinatra’s ‘saloon songs’, beginning with another lingering pedal steel intro from Herron. “Where is the dream we started?,” asks Dylan. “Where is my happy ending?” A final “where are you?” is ragged, almost resentful. It’s another skilful interpretation, positioning Dylan’s narrator as an old man looking back through memories, good and bad. The album closes with “That Lucky Old Sun”, which Dylan previously covered live in 1986 and 2000. Augmented by two trumpets and a trombone it’s as close to a rousing, Hollywood-style ending as Dylan choses to get. “Lift me to paradise,” he sings defiantly, as the brass swells around him.
Essentially, Shadows In The Night posits Dylan as the latest interpreter of the Great American Songbook – a hit-or-miss legacy that tacitly connects Dylan to Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson and Willie Nelson, as well as Michael Bublé and Harry Connick Jr. But while Shadows In The Night is nostalgic, it is not sentimental. As a celebration of classic songcraft, it is as sincere as any of Dylan’s many forays into traditional American roots idioms. But how does Sinatra measure up to Dylan’s other early heroes? “Right from the beginning he was there with the truth of things in his voice,” Dylan wrote in the days after Sinatra’s death. “His music had a profound influence on me, whether I knew it or not. He was one of the very few singers who sang without a mask.” Shadows In The Night, then, is Dylan’s way of saying thank you.
Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner.
Songs for swingin’ Bobcats! Dylan salutes the magic of Sinatra…
When he attended Frank Sinatra’s funeral at the Beverly Hills’ Good Shepherd Catholic Church on May 20, 1998, Bob Dylan was enjoying a renewed sense of purpose. The previous year’s Time Out Of Mind – a spare, wintry lamentation of mortality and passing time – triggered a fresh burst of creativity that has now sustained Dylan well into the new millennium. But perhaps pausing for breath after the exertions of 2012’s Tempest – an album with plenty to say about violence and death – Dylan has circled back to Sinatra. In truth, the two men already have lengthy history together. Dylan has even had a crack at ol’ Blue Eyes before; both live and in the studio, recording an unreleased version of Sinatra’s “This Is My Love” during the Infidels sessions. For Shadows In The Night, however, Dylan has gone ‘full Frank’. The album features 10 songs popularised by Sinatra, mostly recorded in the 1940s for Columbia, Dylan’s current label. Presumably best placed to soak up the appropriate vibes, Dylan and his band – along with engineer Al Schmitt – decamped to Capitol Studio B, site of some of Sinatra’s biggest successes during the 1950s. “I don’t see myself as covering these songs in any way,” Dylan explained. “They’ve been covered enough. Buried, as a matter a fact. What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them.”
The sessions for Shadows In The Night took place between February and March last year – T Bone Burnett told Uncut that while he was recording the ‘found’ Basement Tapes project, Lost On The River, Dylan was mixing in the studio next door. According to Schmitt – who also recently worked at Capitol on Neil Young’s Storytone album – Dylan and his band recorded 23 songs in total. Two months later, Dylan chose to stream “Full Moon And Empty Arms” on his website to coincide with the 16th anniversary of Sinatra’s death on May 14. It seems likely that Lost On The River hastened the release of The Complete Basement Tapes, effectively putting Shadows In The Night on hold until now: conveniently, the centenary of Sinatra’s birth.
His last album of covers, 2009’s Christmas In The Heart, exposed an unexpectedly nostalgic side to Dylan, and there is something roughly similar at work here on Shadows In The Night. Essentially, these songs reconnect Dylan with the music he grew up with. Looking at the span of the material featured here, Dylan was 1 when Sinatra recorded the album’s earliest song, 1942’s “The Night We Called It A Day”, and 22 by the time Sinatra came to sing the most recent, “Stay With Me” in 1963: the same year Dylan released his breakthrough Freewheelin’… album.
Evidently, Sinatra and Dylan are accomplished interpreters of other people’s material. But of course, both men are also very different singers. Sinatra was a master of the easy, self-assured baritone, and it’s to Dylan’s credit that he delivers his strongest vocal performance in recent memory on Shadows In The Night. For the opening track, he offers an intimate, dramatic reading of “I’m A Fool To Want You” (a rare writing credit for Sinatra), holding notes, annunciating clearly, while his voice is forefront in the mix. His phrasing, too, is careful and precise. “Time and time again I said I’d leave you” he sings, his voice rising through the line; then dropping to softly deliver the more contrite acknowledgment, “But there would come a time when I need you”. Around him, three horns, two trombones and a French horn parp mournfully like a sympathetic Greek chorus.
Indeed, Dylan’s song selection foregrounds Sinatra’s qualities as a romantic, melancholic singer; the first two songs open with haunting steel guitar from Donnie Herron to accentuate the material’s sombre nature. It’s possible that Shadows… is an attempt to reclaim Sinatra from the legions of singers who have diminished his legacy to cheesy Vegas barnstormers. Dylan mercifully avoids “Theme From New York, New York” or “My Way”; for the most part, these are pensive reflections on unrequited love, love gone wrong, love lost. The arrangements are modest and sensitive. On “The Night We Called It A Day”, for instance, the brass rises consolingly to meet Dylan as he calls time on another roman d’amour, “There wasn’t a thing left to say / The night we called it a day”. Musically, the album doesn’t deviate much from the template established with “Full Moon And Empty Arms”: the band are at their gentlest and most discretely responsive, their music nestling in Dylan’s own warm, pristine production. On “What’ll I Do”, for instance, it is possible to hear Dylan breathing close to the microphone during Charlie Sexton’s guitar interlude. You can catch every instrument, however low in the mix; keen listeners will note Tony Garnier’s bowed bass on the hymn-like “Stay With Me” (Dylan unveiled a live version at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on October 26, a few days before Shadows In The Night was formally announced.)
That same bowed bass gracefully glides through “Autumn Leaves”, complimented by Charlie Sexton’s beautiful, keening guitar intro and some mannerly finger picking from Stu Kimball. It’s a full 50 seconds before Dylan begins to sing – almost a third of the song’s 3:02 run time – but when he does, it turns out to be one of the album’s most effective deliveries. It’s tempting to speculate what personal experiences he is bringing to the song as he sighs ruminatively, “But I missed you most of all my darling”.
Meanwhile, “Why Try To Change Me Now” offers a change of pace. It’s a lighter number, which allows Dylan the opportunity to ask the deathless question, “Why can’t I be more conventional?”, before moving on to tackle “Some Enchanted Evening”. As with Sinatra, Dylan is a deft narrative storyteller, and here he presents the song as if he’s passing on hard-learned wisdom to the listener: “Once you have found her / Never let her go”, he counsels. Elsewhere, “Where Are You” further emphasises the rueful qualities of Sinatra’s ‘saloon songs’, beginning with another lingering pedal steel intro from Herron. “Where is the dream we started?,” asks Dylan. “Where is my happy ending?” A final “where are you?” is ragged, almost resentful. It’s another skilful interpretation, positioning Dylan’s narrator as an old man looking back through memories, good and bad. The album closes with “That Lucky Old Sun”, which Dylan previously covered live in 1986 and 2000. Augmented by two trumpets and a trombone it’s as close to a rousing, Hollywood-style ending as Dylan choses to get. “Lift me to paradise,” he sings defiantly, as the brass swells around him.
Essentially, Shadows In The Night posits Dylan as the latest interpreter of the Great American Songbook – a hit-or-miss legacy that tacitly connects Dylan to Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson and Willie Nelson, as well as Michael Bublé and Harry Connick Jr. But while Shadows In The Night is nostalgic, it is not sentimental. As a celebration of classic songcraft, it is as sincere as any of Dylan’s many forays into traditional American roots idioms. But how does Sinatra measure up to Dylan’s other early heroes? “Right from the beginning he was there with the truth of things in his voice,” Dylan wrote in the days after Sinatra’s death. “His music had a profound influence on me, whether I knew it or not. He was one of the very few singers who sang without a mask.” Shadows In The Night, then, is Dylan’s way of saying thank you.
"These things can happen," says Petty...
Tom Petty has released a statement saying that the similarity between one of his songs as "Stay With Me" by Sam Smith is nothing more than "a musical accident".
Earlier this week it was revealed that Petty now makes 12.5 per cent royalties on Smith's 2014 single due to it's similarity to his 1989 hit "I Won't Back Down". Though details have just come to light, the respective publishers settled out of court in October.
In a new statement on his official website, Petty has dismissed the controversy surrounding the allegations of plagiarism that some have levelled and praised Smith and his team for their handling of his claim, telling fans that "these things can happen."
The statement reads: "About the Sam Smith thing. Let me say I have never had any hard feelings toward Sam. All my years of songwriting have shown me these things can happen. Most times you catch it before it gets out the studio door but in this case it got by. Sam’s people were very understanding of our predicament and we easily came to an agreement. The word lawsuit was never even said and was never my intention. And no more was to be said about it. How it got out to the press is beyond Sam or myself. Sam did the right thing and I have thought no more about this. A musical accident no more no less. In these times we live in this is hardly news. I wish Sam all the best for his ongoing career. Peace and love to all."
Prior to Petty's statement, a representative for Sam Smith said that the likeness between Smith's 'Stay With Me' and 'I Won't Back Down' is a "complete coincidence".
Additionally, a statement from Smith's representatives issued to NME reads: "Recently the publishers for the song 'I Won't Back Down,' written by Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, contacted the publishers for 'Stay With Me,' written by Sam Smith, James Napier and William Phillips, about similarities heard in the melodies of the choruses of the two compositions."
"Not previously familiar with the 1989 Petty/Lynne song, the writers of 'Stay With Me' listened to 'I Won’t Back Down' and acknowledged the similarity. Although the likeness was a complete coincidence, all involved came to an immediate and amicable agreement in which Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne are now credited as co-writers of 'Stay With Me' along with Sam Smith, James Napier and William Phillips."
Stream both songs below, now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUTXb-ga1fo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB-5XG-DbAA
“These things can happen,” says Petty…
Tom Petty has released a statement saying that the similarity between one of his songs as “Stay With Me” by Sam Smith is nothing more than “a musical accident”.
Earlier this week it was revealed that Petty now makes 12.5 per cent royalties on Smith’s 2014 single due to it’s similarity to his 1989 hit “I Won’t Back Down“. Though details have just come to light, the respective publishers settled out of court in October.
In a new statement on his official website, Petty has dismissed the controversy surrounding the allegations of plagiarism that some have levelled and praised Smith and his team for their handling of his claim, telling fans that “these things can happen.”
The statement reads: “About the Sam Smith thing. Let me say I have never had any hard feelings toward Sam. All my years of songwriting have shown me these things can happen. Most times you catch it before it gets out the studio door but in this case it got by. Sam’s people were very understanding of our predicament and we easily came to an agreement. The word lawsuit was never even said and was never my intention. And no more was to be said about it. How it got out to the press is beyond Sam or myself. Sam did the right thing and I have thought no more about this. A musical accident no more no less. In these times we live in this is hardly news. I wish Sam all the best for his ongoing career. Peace and love to all.”
Prior to Petty’s statement, a representative for Sam Smith said that the likeness between Smith’s ‘Stay With Me’ and ‘I Won’t Back Down’ is a “complete coincidence”.
Additionally, a statement from Smith’s representatives issued to NME reads: “Recently the publishers for the song ‘I Won’t Back Down,’ written by Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, contacted the publishers for ‘Stay With Me,’ written by Sam Smith, James Napier and William Phillips, about similarities heard in the melodies of the choruses of the two compositions.”
“Not previously familiar with the 1989 Petty/Lynne song, the writers of ‘Stay With Me’ listened to ‘I Won’t Back Down’ and acknowledged the similarity. Although the likeness was a complete coincidence, all involved came to an immediate and amicable agreement in which Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne are now credited as co-writers of ‘Stay With Me’ along with Sam Smith, James Napier and William Phillips.”
18th solo album will feature appearances by Joe Walsh and Peter Frampton...
Ringo Starr has confirmed details of his new album, Postcards From Paradise.
The album will be released on March 31, shortly before his weeks before he is inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame on April 18.
Postcards From Paradise features contributions from Joe Walsh, Dave Stewart, Peter Frampton and Richard Marx, as well as his All-Starr Band - Steve Lukather, Todd Rundgren, Gregg Rolie, Richard Page, Warren Ham and Gregg Bissonette.
The tracklisting for Postcards In Paradise is:
"Rory And The Hurricanes"
"You Bring the Party Down"
"Bridges"
"Postcards From Paradise"
"Right Side Of The Road"
"Not Looking Back"
"Bamboula"
"Island In The Sun"
"Touch And Go"
"Confirmation"
"Let Love Lead"
18th solo album will feature appearances by Joe Walsh and Peter Frampton…
Ringo Starr has confirmed details of his new album, Postcards From Paradise.
The album will be released on March 31, shortly before his weeks before he is inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame on April 18.
Postcards From Paradise features contributions from Joe Walsh, Dave Stewart, Peter Frampton and Richard Marx, as well as his All-Starr Band – Steve Lukather, Todd Rundgren, Gregg Rolie, Richard Page, Warren Ham and Gregg Bissonette.
Actor says Sleeping Tapes will "help you get a good night's rest."...
Actor Jeff Bridgesis releasing an album designed to make listeners fall asleep.
Sleeping Tapes sees Bridges team up with composer Keefus Ciancia, who has worked on TV series such as True Detective, and sound engineer Doug Sax. The album is available now at DreamingWithJeff.com as a free stream or pay-what-you-want download. All proceeds go to the No Kid Hungry charity.
One track on the album, "Goodmorning, Sweetheart", features a recording of Bridges talking to his wife first thing in the morning, complete with the sounds of breakfast being prepared, over a faint ambient drone. Another song, "IKEA", features Bridges talking about how he wants his body cremated and put in a satellite orbiting the planet when he dies.
Writing about his reasons for making the album, Bridges writes: "The world is filled with too many restless people in need of rest – that's why I filled my sleeping tapes with intriguing sounds, noises and other things to help you get a good night's rest."
Limited edition cassette tapes and gold-coloured vinyl versions are also available while Bridges will auction off five signed copies of the album in aid of charity.
Bridges has recorded music in the past and released his debut album Be Here Soon in 2000. In 2011 he worked with country musician T Bone Burnett on his second studio record.
Actor says Sleeping Tapes will “help you get a good night’s rest.”…
Actor Jeff Bridgesis releasing an album designed to make listeners fall asleep.
Sleeping Tapes sees Bridges team up with composer Keefus Ciancia, who has worked on TV series such as True Detective, and sound engineer Doug Sax. The album is available now at DreamingWithJeff.com as a free stream or pay-what-you-want download. All proceeds go to the No Kid Hungry charity.
One track on the album, “Goodmorning, Sweetheart“, features a recording of Bridges talking to his wife first thing in the morning, complete with the sounds of breakfast being prepared, over a faint ambient drone. Another song, “IKEA”, features Bridges talking about how he wants his body cremated and put in a satellite orbiting the planet when he dies.
Writing about his reasons for making the album, Bridges writes: “The world is filled with too many restless people in need of rest – that’s why I filled my sleeping tapes with intriguing sounds, noises and other things to help you get a good night’s rest.”
Limited edition cassette tapes and gold-coloured vinyl versions are also available while Bridges will auction off five signed copies of the album in aid of charity.
Bridges has recorded music in the past and released his debut album Be Here Soon in 2000. In 2011 he worked with country musician T Bone Burnett on his second studio record.
This week's big distraction has been what appears to be a crazy number of early Aphex Twin tracks accumulating on Soundcloud (I've added the link below). Among the new stuff, though, please try Bop English; the new solo project of James Petralli from White Denim.
A couple of reminders, swiftly. There's a new issue of Uncut in UK shops now; follow the link to read all about it, or at least me whingeing about a royal wedding 30 years ago. Also, yesterday, I reposted the transcript of my Robert Wyatt interview from 2007, to mark the great man's 70th birthday. Lots of good stuff in there; not least, as someone pointed out on Twitter to me, the beautiful image of Robert Graves hugging Cecil Taylor…
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey
1 Julian Cope - Trip Advizer (Lord Yatesbury)
2 Dean McPhee - Fatima's Hand (Hood Faire)
3 The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Freedom Tower - No Wave Dance Party 2015 (Bronzerat)
4 Calexico - Edge Of The Sun (City Slang)
5 Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit (House Anxiety/Marathon)
6 Purity Ring - Another Eternity (4AD)
7 Swervedriver - I Wasn't Born To Lose You (Cobraside)
8 High Aura'd & Mike Shiflet : Awake (Type)
9 Matthew E White - Fresh Blood (Spacebomb/Domino)
10 Phil Manzanera - The Sound Of Blue (Expression)
11 Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe & Ariel Kalma - FRKWYS Vol. 12: We Know Each Other Somehow (RVNG Intl)
12 Michael Angelo - Michael Angelo (Anthology)
13 Bjork - Vulnicura (One Little Indian)
14 Houndmouth - Little Neon Limelight (Rough Trade)
15 [REDACTED]
16 Goran Kajfeš Subtropic Arkestra - The Reason Why Vol 2 (Headspin)
17 Sam Lee & Friends - The Fade In Time (Nest Collective)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss24LSJqcqY
18 Joca Maksimović - Ugasnule oči čarne (Columbia)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xif3ocNundw
19 Florian Fricke/Popol Vuh - Kailash (Soul Jazz)
20 Ryley Walker - Primrose Green (Dead Oceans)
21 Daniel Avery - New Energy: Collected Remixes (Phantasy)
22 Bop English - Dani's Blues (It Was Beyond Our Control) (Blood And Biscuits)
23 Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst - Recruit (RVNG Intl)
24 Phosphorescent - Live At The Music Hall (Dead Oceans)
25 The Aphex Twin? - Early Demos? (Soundcloud)
This week’s big distraction has been what appears to be a crazy number of early Aphex Twin tracks accumulating on Soundcloud (I’ve added the link below). Among the new stuff, though, please try Bop English; the new solo project of James Petralli from White Denim.
A couple of reminders, swiftly. There’s a new issue of Uncut in UK shops now; follow the link to read all about it, or at least me whingeing about a royal wedding 30 years ago. Also, yesterday, I reposted the transcript of my Robert Wyatt interview from 2007, to mark the great man’s 70th birthday. Lots of good stuff in there; not least, as someone pointed out on Twitter to me, the beautiful image of Robert Graves hugging Cecil Taylor…
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey
1 Julian Cope – Trip Advizer (Lord Yatesbury)
2 Dean McPhee – Fatima’s Hand (Hood Faire)
3 The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Freedom Tower – No Wave Dance Party 2015 (Bronzerat)
4 Calexico – Edge Of The Sun (City Slang)
5 Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit (House Anxiety/Marathon)
6 Purity Ring – Another Eternity (4AD)
7 Swervedriver – I Wasn’t Born To Lose You (Cobraside)
8 High Aura’d & Mike Shiflet : Awake (Type)
9 Matthew E White – Fresh Blood (Spacebomb/Domino)
10 Phil Manzanera – The Sound Of Blue (Expression)
11 Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe & Ariel Kalma – FRKWYS Vol. 12: We Know Each Other Somehow (RVNG Intl)
12 Michael Angelo – Michael Angelo (Anthology)
13 Bjork – Vulnicura (One Little Indian)
14 Houndmouth – Little Neon Limelight (Rough Trade)
No Pier Pressure to be released in April...
Brian Wilson has confirmed details of his new studio album.
No Pier Pressure will be released on April 6 by Virgin EMI.
The album features collaborations with Al Jardine, David Marks and Jim Keltner as well as M Ward and Zooey Deschanel.
The album will be released April 6 in standard 13-track and deluxe 18-track editions, each available on CD and digitally, as well as a 16-track 2LP edition on 180-gram vinyl.
No Pier Pressure standard CD tracklisting:
1. This Beautiful Day
2. Runaway Dancer [featuring Sebu Simonian]
3. What Ever Happened [featuring Al Jardine and David Marks]
4. On The Island [featuring She & Him]
5. Our Special Love [featuring Peter Hollens]
6. The Right Time [featuring Al Jardine and David Marks]
7. Guess You Had To Be There [featuring Kacey Musgraves]
8. Tell Me Why [featuring Al Jardine]
9. Sail Away [featuring Blondie Chaplin and Al Jardine]
10. One Kind Of Love
11. Saturday Night [featuring Nate Ruess]
12. The Last Song
13. Half Moon Bay
No Pier Pressure to be released in April…
Brian Wilson has confirmed details of his new studio album.
No Pier Pressure will be released on April 6 by Virgin EMI.
The album features collaborations with Al Jardine, David Marks and Jim Keltner as well as M Ward and Zooey Deschanel.
The album will be released April 6 in standard 13-track and deluxe 18-track editions, each available on CD and digitally, as well as a 16-track 2LP edition on 180-gram vinyl.
No Pier Pressure standard CD tracklisting:
1. This Beautiful Day
2. Runaway Dancer [featuring Sebu Simonian]
3. What Ever Happened [featuring Al Jardine and David Marks]
4. On The Island [featuring She & Him]
5. Our Special Love [featuring Peter Hollens]
6. The Right Time [featuring Al Jardine and David Marks]
7. Guess You Had To Be There [featuring Kacey Musgraves]
8. Tell Me Why [featuring Al Jardine]
9. Sail Away [featuring Blondie Chaplin and Al Jardine]
Eight studio albums reissued on vinyl...
“What's happened to Donny Osmond and David Cassidy now?” sneered boogie knight Marc Bolan in 1976, in the certain hope of his own imminent commercial resurrection. “I'd be insulted if I was written off with them. I never was a puppet. There is a difference between being a teenage idol and teenybopper idol.”
The eight T. Rex albums recirculated in The Vinyl Collection may confirm that Bolan was the dippy Donovan to the shape-shifting Bob Dylan of David Bowie – the man who ended up paying his son’s school fees after Bolan’s oft-mocked last hit in 1977 – but gold abounds among the glitter.
Bolan’s electrically-enhanced surge into the mainstream was a ‘Judas’ moment for those enamoured of the leaky teapot acoustic psychedelia of Tyrannosaurus Rex, but John Peel understood how readily his elfin protégé embraced glam celebrity, noting: “He was certainly always an ambitious lad.”
I-ching sugar sweetens the Tolkien blues intro/outro “Children of Rarn” on 1970’s T. Rex [7/10] – the first post-abbreviation album – but the squelchy “Beltane Walk” and “Seagull Woman” presage imminent “Ride A White Swan” success. Hippy gumbo is then expunged for 1971’s Electric Warrior [7/10] (closing with stomp supreme “Rip-Off”) and glam apotheosis The Slider [8/10] the following year.
Waistline and ego expanding, Bolan lost focus for 1973’s Tanx [6/10], but with the teens moving on, simultaneously peaked and troughed on the opulent but spooky Zinc Alloy And The Riders Of Tomorrow [8/10] the following year. Clock the dead-eyed front-cover resemblance to Syd Barrett – ex-boyfriend of Bolan’s wife June Child, and the man Stamford Hill’s ace face once cited as his “main influence” – and you can fathom something of its opium den darkness. “Her nose is smashed her frame is bent,” he madcap laughs on Venus Loon. “She's covered in flies.” His awful, awful crawl through his back catalogue on the manic “Sound Pit” (“Metal Guru's in the loo with my glue”) and street gang fantasia “The Leopards” (“King Kong built a car inside his brain”) are no less unhinged.
Things calmed down thereafter; Zip Gun [6/10] is OK, 1976’s Futuristic Dragon [7/10] is enlivened by the “frog in her hand” whimsy of New York City, while the cheekbones are sharp again on 1977 swansong, Dandy In The Underworld [7/10]. Captain Sensible recalls a tracksuited Bolan jogging around service stations while support act the Damned ate their fry-ups on tour that year; delusional maybe, but a teenage idol in training once more.
JIM WIRTH
Eight studio albums reissued on vinyl…
“What’s happened to Donny Osmond and David Cassidy now?” sneered boogie knight Marc Bolan in 1976, in the certain hope of his own imminent commercial resurrection. “I’d be insulted if I was written off with them. I never was a puppet. There is a difference between being a teenage idol and teenybopper idol.”
The eight T. Rex albums recirculated in The Vinyl Collection may confirm that Bolan was the dippy Donovan to the shape-shifting Bob Dylan of David Bowie – the man who ended up paying his son’s school fees after Bolan’s oft-mocked last hit in 1977 – but gold abounds among the glitter.
Bolan’s electrically-enhanced surge into the mainstream was a ‘Judas’ moment for those enamoured of the leaky teapot acoustic psychedelia of Tyrannosaurus Rex, but John Peel understood how readily his elfin protégé embraced glam celebrity, noting: “He was certainly always an ambitious lad.”
I-ching sugar sweetens the Tolkien blues intro/outro “Children of Rarn” on 1970’s T. Rex [7/10] – the first post-abbreviation album – but the squelchy “Beltane Walk” and “Seagull Woman” presage imminent “Ride A White Swan” success. Hippy gumbo is then expunged for 1971’s Electric Warrior [7/10] (closing with stomp supreme “Rip-Off”) and glam apotheosis The Slider [8/10] the following year.
Waistline and ego expanding, Bolan lost focus for 1973’s Tanx [6/10], but with the teens moving on, simultaneously peaked and troughed on the opulent but spooky Zinc Alloy And The Riders Of Tomorrow [8/10] the following year. Clock the dead-eyed front-cover resemblance to Syd Barrett – ex-boyfriend of Bolan’s wife June Child, and the man Stamford Hill’s ace face once cited as his “main influence” – and you can fathom something of its opium den darkness. “Her nose is smashed her frame is bent,” he madcap laughs on Venus Loon. “She’s covered in flies.” His awful, awful crawl through his back catalogue on the manic “Sound Pit” (“Metal Guru’s in the loo with my glue”) and street gang fantasia “The Leopards” (“King Kong built a car inside his brain”) are no less unhinged.
Things calmed down thereafter; Zip Gun [6/10] is OK, 1976’s Futuristic Dragon [7/10] is enlivened by the “frog in her hand” whimsy of New York City, while the cheekbones are sharp again on 1977 swansong, Dandy In The Underworld [7/10]. Captain Sensible recalls a tracksuited Bolan jogging around service stations while support act the Damned ate their fry-ups on tour that year; delusional maybe, but a teenage idol in training once more.
Bass player was taken in by police after incident in Death Valley, California...
Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler has reportedly been arrested following a bar brawl in Death Valley, California.
TMZ reports that Butler was in the Corkscrew Saloon bar when a fight broke out on Tuesday night (January 27). He was arrested on charges of misdemeanor assault, public intoxication and vandalism.
According to a sheriff’s report, an argument "escalated into a physical confrontation" before an "individual being struck". The full press release from the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office can be seen below:
"Shortly after midnight on January 27th Sheriff’s Dispatch received a call regarding a verbal and physical altercation that took place at the Corkscrew Saloon located at the Furnace Creek Ranch property in Death Valley National Park. After the Inyo County Sheriff’s Deputy arrived on scene and interviewed witnesses it was determined that there had been an argument that escalated into a physical confrontation – resulting in an individual being struck, and a broken window. Terence Michael Butler a 65-year old man from Beverly Hills, CA was arrested for misdemeanor assault, public intoxication and vandalism. Butler was booked into the Inyo County Jail and released after detox and citation."
Black Sabbath have released 13 studio albums since forming in 1968.
Bass player was taken in by police after incident in Death Valley, California…
Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler has reportedly been arrested following a bar brawl in Death Valley, California.
TMZ reports that Butler was in the Corkscrew Saloon bar when a fight broke out on Tuesday night (January 27). He was arrested on charges of misdemeanor assault, public intoxication and vandalism.
According to a sheriff’s report, an argument “escalated into a physical confrontation” before an “individual being struck”. The full press release from the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office can be seen below:
“Shortly after midnight on January 27th Sheriff’s Dispatch received a call regarding a verbal and physical altercation that took place at the Corkscrew Saloon located at the Furnace Creek Ranch property in Death Valley National Park. After the Inyo County Sheriff’s Deputy arrived on scene and interviewed witnesses it was determined that there had been an argument that escalated into a physical confrontation – resulting in an individual being struck, and a broken window. Terence Michael Butler a 65-year old man from Beverly Hills, CA was arrested for misdemeanor assault, public intoxication and vandalism. Butler was booked into the Inyo County Jail and released after detox and citation.”
Black Sabbath have released 13 studio albums since forming in 1968.
