John Lydon has hit out at a number of targets including Band Aid and Simon Cowell.
Speaking to an audience of around 300 at Oxford University's Sheldonian Theatre on Monday evening to promote his new autobiography Anger Is An Energy, Lydon spoke out about Cowell's treatment of X Factor contestants....
John Lydon has hit out at a number of targets including Band Aid and Simon Cowell.
Speaking to an audience of around 300 at Oxford University’s Sheldonian Theatre on Monday evening to promote his new autobiography Anger Is An Energy, Lydon spoke out about Cowell’s treatment of X Factor contestants.
“Simon Cowell, that’s our worst enemy… I don’t think [the contestants] on the show are that awful, it becomes awful when they become trained into that cruise ship show band mentality, and that’s the poison of it…” he began. “[Simon Cowell] has got us all on his big cruise ship lollipop, and I ain’t licking his lollipop.”
He continued: “It’s really bad, all of them shows. How seriously the judges take themselves, and the way they judge! People, just being innocent. The brutality and the cruelty of it; that ain’t the world I live in.”
Lydon then went on to criticise Band Aid, saying that the charity initiative was “full of corruption” and that the money was eaten up by administration costs. “I never found Band-Aids work, they think they’re waterproof, get full of water and then fall off – and it’s the same with Geldof’s lot,” Lydon said. “I don’t like them because they’re open to corruption. There’s this thing called administration and that’s where all the money is eaten up. Do you remember the one with Phil Collins and they were jetting around, doing New York, London? How much fucking money? How many cans of Campbell’s do you think that one cost? And who really needs Phil Collins in two continents in two hours? Even his missus would have a no on that.”
The appearance was Lydon’s last in promotion of the book. The message of the autobiography, he told the audience, is that “self pity is for arseholes.”
The singer has recently also spoken out about a number of other subjects including Russell Brand, The Clash and Ukip. Ukip was labeled a “black hole for the ignorant to fall into” while Brand was called “arsehole number one”.
Smashing Pumpkins frontman goes on the offensive during album promo...
Billy Corgan has dismissed fellow rockers Pearl Jam as "derivative" and Foo Fighters as undeveloped after claiming that he "can out write" all of his generation.
In an appearance on The Howard Stern Show promoting the Smashing Pumpkins' new record, Monuments To An Elegy, Corgan said Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins were in their own class among 90s alt-rockers. "I think the work speaks for itself," he said. "I know [Pearl Jam] have a tremendous fan base, and they should, they're a great band, but I'm a Beatles guy, I'm a Stones guy, I'm a Kinks guy. To me a lot of other bands don't have the work."
Corgan added that it was a "mystery" how Pearl Jam have maintained their arena status "because I just don't get it." "I think if you stack my songs up, Cobain's songs up, and that band's songs, they just don’t have the songs," he said.
The singer also divulged that he wasn't "particularly thrilled" by Foo Fighters' lack of evolution as a band because he holds Dave Grohl to Nirvana standards. "Dave is a great musician, a great songwriter and has done the work but to me, my criticism of the Foo Fighters, if I’m being a music critic, is that they just haven’t evolved and that’s sort of the recent wrap on them is, you know, making the same music," he said.
"Obviously, I’ve put my whole life on the line for making different types music as I’ve gone along. We’ve talked last time I was here about playing old songs, evolving and it’s just my mentality. I know it’s not for everybody. Listen, [Dave’s] getting it done so it’s like, if you want to be competitive, my philosophy against his, he’s the one winning.”
Corgan's remarks come after he told Time Out that most of his contemporaries "are living off fumes" or producing lesser work. "As for my generation, I feel I could take the same position I’ve always taken: I can out-write all of them and I’ll do so until the day I die."
Smashing Pumpkins' new album was released this month. Corgan recently told NME he was forced to change his approach to making music with the band ahead of the album, explaining that if they didn't update what they were doing the band would be "dead in the water".
Smashing Pumpkins frontman goes on the offensive during album promo…
Billy Corgan has dismissed fellow rockers Pearl Jam as “derivative” and Foo Fighters as undeveloped after claiming that he “can out write” all of his generation.
In an appearance on The Howard Stern Show promoting the Smashing Pumpkins‘ new record, Monuments To An Elegy, Corgan said Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins were in their own class among 90s alt-rockers. “I think the work speaks for itself,” he said. “I know [Pearl Jam] have a tremendous fan base, and they should, they’re a great band, but I’m a Beatles guy, I’m a Stones guy, I’m a Kinks guy. To me a lot of other bands don’t have the work.”
Corgan added that it was a “mystery” how Pearl Jam have maintained their arena status “because I just don’t get it.” “I think if you stack my songs up, Cobain’s songs up, and that band’s songs, they just don’t have the songs,” he said.
The singer also divulged that he wasn’t “particularly thrilled” by Foo Fighters‘ lack of evolution as a band because he holds Dave Grohl to Nirvana standards. “Dave is a great musician, a great songwriter and has done the work but to me, my criticism of the Foo Fighters, if I’m being a music critic, is that they just haven’t evolved and that’s sort of the recent wrap on them is, you know, making the same music,” he said.
“Obviously, I’ve put my whole life on the line for making different types music as I’ve gone along. We’ve talked last time I was here about playing old songs, evolving and it’s just my mentality. I know it’s not for everybody. Listen, [Dave’s] getting it done so it’s like, if you want to be competitive, my philosophy against his, he’s the one winning.”
Corgan’s remarks come after he told Time Out that most of his contemporaries “are living off fumes” or producing lesser work. “As for my generation, I feel I could take the same position I’ve always taken: I can out-write all of them and I’ll do so until the day I die.”
Smashing Pumpkins’ new album was released this month. Corgan recently told NME he was forced to change his approach to making music with the band ahead of the album, explaining that if they didn’t update what they were doing the band would be “dead in the water”.
'Spooks' now features Joanna Newsom and Supergrass's Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey...
Previously unreleased Radiohead track "Spooks", which will feature in director Paul Thomas Anderson's new film Inherent Vice, is now streaming online.
Visit Stereogum to listen to the new version of the song, which features spoken word from musician and one of the film's stars, Joanna Newsom, as well as instrumentation from former Supergrass members Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey.
The song was originally unveiled during a live performance by Radiohead eight years ago, in May 2006 in Copenhagen. The new version sees Jonny Greenwood, who has composed the Inherent Vice soundtrack, at the helm. Greenwood's soundtrack also features Neil Young song "Journey Through The Past", "Vitamin C" by Can, Minnie Ripperton's "Les Fleur" and a host of original compositions from Greenwood himself.
Greenwood also provided music for Anderson's last two films, There Will Be Blood and The Master. His Inherent Vice score features London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio Del Toro, Martin Short and Jena Malone. It's due for release in the UK on January 30.
This autumn Thom Yorke took to Twitter to confirm recording had been taking place at the Radiohead studio for the band's newest LP. In a series of posts, the frontman revealed that he and Stanley Donwood – creator of the band's artwork since 1994 – were going through 15 years' worth of unused images and words, and that overdubs were happening in the studio on the second day of recording.
You can read our first look review of Inherent Vice Uncut - in shops now!
‘Spooks’ now features Joanna Newsom and Supergrass’s Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey…
Previously unreleased Radiohead track “Spooks“, which will feature in director Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film Inherent Vice, is now streaming online.
Visit Stereogum to listen to the new version of the song, which features spoken word from musician and one of the film’s stars, Joanna Newsom, as well as instrumentation from former Supergrass members Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey.
The song was originally unveiled during a live performance by Radiohead eight years ago, in May 2006 in Copenhagen. The new version sees Jonny Greenwood, who has composed the Inherent Vice soundtrack, at the helm. Greenwood’s soundtrack also features Neil Young song “Journey Through The Past”, “Vitamin C” by Can, Minnie Ripperton’s “Les Fleur” and a host of original compositions from Greenwood himself.
Greenwood also provided music for Anderson’s last two films, There Will Be Blood and The Master. His Inherent Vice score features London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio Del Toro, Martin Short and Jena Malone. It’s due for release in the UK on January 30.
This autumn Thom Yorke took to Twitter to confirm recording had been taking place at the Radiohead studio for the band’s newest LP. In a series of posts, the frontman revealed that he and Stanley Donwood – creator of the band’s artwork since 1994 – were going through 15 years’ worth of unused images and words, and that overdubs were happening in the studio on the second day of recording.
You can read our first look review of Inherent Vice Uncut – in shops now!
Pono releases due on December 23...
Neil Young has revealed that his first 14 albums are due to be released on December 23, 2014 as digital downloads through the Pono Store.
As reported on Thrasher's Wheat, the Neil Young Original Releases Series 1 - 14 will see the albums remastered at resolutions of either 24/176.4 or 24/192.
Writing on the Pono community forum, Young said, "My first officialrelease series LPs 1-14 will all be available PONO on DEC 23, in 192 and some cases 176. Beginning with NEIL YOUNG, ending with REACTOR. Thanks, Enjoy!"
Many of these albums have not been digitally remastered since the original Warner Bros CD editions issued in the 1980s.
According to a further speculative post on the Steve Hoffman forum, this is the list of titles to be released and resolution:
Neil Young [PONO] {192/176.4kHz} {24bit}
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere [PONO] {192kHz} {24bit}
After The Gold Rush [PONO] {192/176.4kHz} {24bit}
Harvest [PONO] {192kHz} {24bit}
Time Fades Away [PONO] {192/176.4kHz} {24bit}
On The Beach [PONO] {176.4kHz} {24bit}
Tonight's The Night [PONO] {192/176.4kHz} {24bit}
Zuma [PONO] {192/176.4kHz} {24bit}
American Stars 'N Bars [PONO] {176.4kHz} {24bit}
Comes A Time [PONO] {192/176.4kHz} {24bit}
Rust Never Sleeps [PONO] {192/176.4kHz} {24bit}
Live Rust [PONO] {192/176.4kHz} {24bit}
Hawks & Doves [PONO] {176.4kHz} {24bit}
re-ac-tor [PONO] {176.4kHz} {24bit}You can read about Neil Young's 2014 in the new issue of Uncut - in shops now!
Pono releases due on December 23…
Neil Young has revealed that his first 14 albums are due to be released on December 23, 2014 as digital downloads through the Pono Store.
As reported on Thrasher’s Wheat, the Neil Young Original Releases Series 1 – 14 will see the albums remastered at resolutions of either 24/176.4 or 24/192.
Writing on the Pono community forum, Young said, “My first officialrelease series LPs 1-14 will all be available PONO on DEC 23, in 192 and some cases 176. Beginning with NEIL YOUNG, ending with REACTOR. Thanks, Enjoy!”
Many of these albums have not been digitally remastered since the original Warner Bros CD editions issued in the 1980s.
According to a further speculative post on the Steve Hoffman forum, this is the list of titles to be released and resolution:
Neil Young [PONO] {192/176.4kHz} {24bit}
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere [PONO] {192kHz} {24bit}
After The Gold Rush [PONO] {192/176.4kHz} {24bit}
Harvest [PONO] {192kHz} {24bit}
Time Fades Away [PONO] {192/176.4kHz} {24bit}
On The Beach [PONO] {176.4kHz} {24bit}
Tonight’s The Night [PONO] {192/176.4kHz} {24bit}
Zuma [PONO] {192/176.4kHz} {24bit}
American Stars ‘N Bars [PONO] {176.4kHz} {24bit}
Comes A Time [PONO] {192/176.4kHz} {24bit}
Rust Never Sleeps [PONO] {192/176.4kHz} {24bit}
Live Rust [PONO] {192/176.4kHz} {24bit}
Hawks & Doves [PONO] {176.4kHz} {24bit}
re-ac-tor [PONO] {176.4kHz} {24bit}
You can read about Neil Young’s 2014 in the new issue of Uncut – in shops now!
Lidl's Silvercrest USB Record Player is in shops now...
Offering further evidence for the resurgence of interest in vinyl, the discount supermarket chain Lidl have started selling a USB Record Player.
According to the operating manual, "This device is intended to be used for the playing of vinyl records, for the recep- tion of FM radio transmissions, for the playback of MP3/WMA files from USB memory devices and SD/MMC memory cards, and the playback of audio signals from external audio devices."
The Silvercrest® turntable currently retails in the UK for £49.99. According to the Lidl website, the deck's key features are:
Digitises and saves your LPs and 45s directly to a USB stick or as MP3s to an SD/MMC card
Additional recording option via AUX-IN
With pitch-level tuning and anti-skating function
Remote control with batteries, tone arm weight, spindle adaptor, needle cover and felt mat included/strong>
The item also comes with a 3 year manufacturer's warranty.
Silvercrest® is the supermarket chain's own brand of manufactured white goods. Lidl is a German global discount supermarket chain that operates over 10,000 stores across Europe.
Last month [November 2014], Uncut reported that Pink Floyd's album The Endless River, sold 6,000 copies in its first week of sales, the highest first-week sales of any vinyl LP released since 1997, and therefore the fastest-selling vinyl album this century.
Pink Floyd's success comes with the news that annual sales of vinyl albums have surpassed a million for the first time since the 1990s.
Lidl’s Silvercrest USB Record Player is in shops now…
Offering further evidence for the resurgence of interest in vinyl, the discount supermarket chain Lidl have started selling a USB Record Player.
According to the operating manual, “This device is intended to be used for the playing of vinyl records, for the recep- tion of FM radio transmissions, for the playback of MP3/WMA files from USB memory devices and SD/MMC memory cards, and the playback of audio signals from external audio devices.”
The Silvercrest® turntable currently retails in the UK for £49.99. According to the Lidl website, the deck’s key features are:
Digitises and saves your LPs and 45s directly to a USB stick or as MP3s to an SD/MMC card
Additional recording option via AUX-IN
With pitch-level tuning and anti-skating function
Remote control with batteries, tone arm weight, spindle adaptor, needle cover and felt mat included/strong>
The item also comes with a 3 year manufacturer’s warranty.
Silvercrest® is the supermarket chain’s own brand of manufactured white goods. Lidl is a German global discount supermarket chain that operates over 10,000 stores across Europe.
Last month [November 2014], Uncut reported that Pink Floyd‘s album The Endless River, sold 6,000 copies in its first week of sales, the highest first-week sales of any vinyl LP released since 1997, and therefore the fastest-selling vinyl album this century.
Pink Floyd’s success comes with the news that annual sales of vinyl albums have surpassed a million for the first time since the 1990s.
Singer calls for Sinn Féin leadership to step down...
Sinéad O'Connor has announced she has joined Sinn Féin and has called on Gerry Adams and other veteran republicans to step down from the party’s leadership.
The BBC reports that on December 7 O'Connor wrote on her blog: "I’m joining Sinn Fein now. If they’ll have me. Just as a regular punter who wants to learn and contribute with whatever strengths I might have or learn. I’d like to see a proper socialist Ireland. I’d like to be educated as to how ordinary people like me can help bring about the changes which would make every child equally cherished and make everyone have equal rights. I realised the best way to revolt is vote. And the only vote that’s gonna give anyone a chance of bringing to fruition paragraphs three and four of the Proclamation of 1916 is Sinn Fein, because no other party at the moment is going to honour that Proclamation. If they were inclined to honour it they’d just hand over and say lets have an election."
A day later, she wrote on Facebook, "I joined Sinn Fein today. I might not even be the kind of person they want, because I'm gonna write here that I feel the elders of Sinn Fein are going to have to make 'the supreme sacrifice' and step down shortly in the same way the last Pope did. It was the smart thing for him to do because his association in people's minds with frightful things meant the church were losing bums on seats, if I may use a showbiz term. And now they have barely a seat to spare. Pure cold business. There'd be a zillion per cent increase in membership of Sinn Fein if the leadership were handed over to those born from 1983/1985 onward and no one associated in people's minds with frightful things. Frightful things belong where they are now, in the past."
Singer calls for Sinn Féin leadership to step down…
Sinéad O’Connor has announced she has joined Sinn Féin and has called on Gerry Adams and other veteran republicans to step down from the party’s leadership.
The BBC reports that on December 7 O’Connor wrote on her blog: “I’m joining Sinn Fein now. If they’ll have me. Just as a regular punter who wants to learn and contribute with whatever strengths I might have or learn. I’d like to see a proper socialist Ireland. I’d like to be educated as to how ordinary people like me can help bring about the changes which would make every child equally cherished and make everyone have equal rights. I realised the best way to revolt is vote. And the only vote that’s gonna give anyone a chance of bringing to fruition paragraphs three and four of the Proclamation of 1916 is Sinn Fein, because no other party at the moment is going to honour that Proclamation. If they were inclined to honour it they’d just hand over and say lets have an election.”
A day later, she wrote on Facebook, “I joined Sinn Fein today. I might not even be the kind of person they want, because I’m gonna write here that I feel the elders of Sinn Fein are going to have to make ‘the supreme sacrifice’ and step down shortly in the same way the last Pope did. It was the smart thing for him to do because his association in people’s minds with frightful things meant the church were losing bums on seats, if I may use a showbiz term. And now they have barely a seat to spare. Pure cold business. There’d be a zillion per cent increase in membership of Sinn Fein if the leadership were handed over to those born from 1983/1985 onward and no one associated in people’s minds with frightful things. Frightful things belong where they are now, in the past.”
Former Rolling Stones manager also criticises Jools Holland in outspoken interview...
Andrew Loog Oldham has compared David Bowie's new material to "the worst of Scott Walker" and criticised Jools Holland in an outspoken new interview.
Loog Oldham, the former manager of The Rolling Stones, spoke to The Sabotage Times in a long interview which covers subjects including the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame to his love of BBC TV drama Peaky Blinders. However, it is when asked what he thinks of modern music that he is most harsh, specifically towards Later... presenter Jools Holland.
"I was watching that great music show hosted by that awful Jools Holland," he said. "They really should inject his hands with cocaine so that he cannot play piano any more. I’ve watched him walk all over Bill Medley, Amy Winehouse, Paul Weller. I'm sure he went to the Russ Conway piano school….. Anyway, Later With Jools Holland, that's the show and a very good show it is apart from Jools (who looks like Bernard Cribbins in pimp gear)."
Despite his opinions on the host, one band caught Loog Oldham's eye. "There was this band from Chicago – The Orwells – very, very good apart from the drummer. But great chops and a great figure. I was getting excited. Then they came on later in the show and showed they only had one song. Not enough, kiddies, not enough."
He was similarly critical of Bowie. "I just heard the new Bowie single; he seems to be cloning the worst of Scott Walker. As I’ve said old people make old music."
Photo credit: David Livingston/Getty Images Entertainment
Former Rolling Stones manager also criticises Jools Holland in outspoken interview…
Andrew Loog Oldham has compared David Bowie‘s new material to “the worst of Scott Walker” and criticised Jools Holland in an outspoken new interview.
Loog Oldham, the former manager of The Rolling Stones, spoke to The Sabotage Times in a long interview which covers subjects including the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame to his love of BBC TV drama Peaky Blinders. However, it is when asked what he thinks of modern music that he is most harsh, specifically towards Later… presenter Jools Holland.
“I was watching that great music show hosted by that awful Jools Holland,” he said. “They really should inject his hands with cocaine so that he cannot play piano any more. I’ve watched him walk all over Bill Medley, Amy Winehouse, Paul Weller. I’m sure he went to the Russ Conway piano school….. Anyway, Later With Jools Holland, that’s the show and a very good show it is apart from Jools (who looks like Bernard Cribbins in pimp gear).”
Despite his opinions on the host, one band caught Loog Oldham’s eye. “There was this band from Chicago – The Orwells – very, very good apart from the drummer. But great chops and a great figure. I was getting excited. Then they came on later in the show and showed they only had one song. Not enough, kiddies, not enough.”
He was similarly critical of Bowie. “I just heard the new Bowie single; he seems to be cloning the worst of Scott Walker. As I’ve said old people make old music.”
Photo credit: David Livingston/Getty Images Entertainment
Singer revealed news on Serbian website...
Morrissey has revealed that he has written his new album and will be recording it next year.
In an interview with Serbia's B92 (via Morrissey-solo), the singer said: "We wrote a new album and I hope that we will record it in February."
The news follows a year beset by label issues for Morrissey. World Peace Is None Of Your Business, the singer's first studio album in five years, was released in July of this year on Harvest Records. By August, however, Morrissey claimed the label had dropped him and complained about them botching the release. Soon after, Harvest pulled the record from all digital retailers and streaming services.
Earlier today, Morrissey also claimed that he turned down an invitation from Channel 4 to record this year's alternative to The Queen's annual Christmas Day message.
However, a spokesperson for Channel 4 has confirmed to NME that the station has extended no such offer. "We are not aware of any approach having been made to Morrissey to deliver Channel 4’s Alternative Christmas message," the spokesperson said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Morrissey's European tour has been met with further setbacks after the singer was forced to cancel dates in Greece and Turkey this week. Previously, his gig in Germany was ended shortly after a stage invasion and he walked off stage during his Poland show after being heckled by a fan.
Singer revealed news on Serbian website…
Morrissey has revealed that he has written his new album and will be recording it next year.
In an interview with Serbia’s B92 (via Morrissey-solo), the singer said: “We wrote a new album and I hope that we will record it in February.”
The news follows a year beset by label issues for Morrissey. World Peace Is None Of Your Business, the singer’s first studio album in five years, was released in July of this year on Harvest Records. By August, however, Morrissey claimed the label had dropped him and complained about them botching the release. Soon after, Harvest pulled the record from all digital retailers and streaming services.
Earlier today, Morrissey also claimed that he turned down an invitation from Channel 4 to record this year’s alternative to The Queen‘s annual Christmas Day message.
However, a spokesperson for Channel 4 has confirmed to NME that the station has extended no such offer. “We are not aware of any approach having been made to Morrissey to deliver Channel 4’s Alternative Christmas message,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Morrissey’s European tour has been met with further setbacks after the singer was forced to cancel dates in Greece and Turkey this week. Previously, his gig in Germany was ended shortly after a stage invasion and he walked off stage during his Poland show after being heckled by a fan.
Ten tracks due in February 2015...
Bob Dylan will release his new studio album, Shadows In The Night, on February 2, 2015. Featuring ten tracks of Frank Sinatra covers, the album is the 36th studio set from Bob Dylan and marks the first new music from the artist since 2012’s Tempest.
Dylan commented, “It was a real privilege to make this album. I've wanted to do something like this for a long time but was never brave enough to approach 30-piece complicated arrangements and refine them down for a 5-piece band. That's the key to all these performances. We knew these songs extremely well. It was all done live. Maybe one or two takes. No overdubbing. No vocal booths. No headphones. No separate tracking, and, for the most part, mixed as it was recorded. I don't see myself as covering these songs in any way. They've been covered enough. Buried, as a matter a fact. What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them. Lifting them out of the grave and bringing them into the light of day.”
As Columba Records Chairman Rob Stringer explains, “There are no strings, obvious horns, background vocals or other such devices often found on albums that feature standard ballads. Instead, Bob has managed to find a way to infuse these songs with new life and contemporary relevance. It is a brilliant record and we are extremely excited to be presenting it to the world very soon.”
When Dylan released his version of "Full Moon And Empty Arms" in May this year, Uncut speculated we might be in for an album of Sinatra covers.
The tracklisting for Shadows In The Night is:
1. I'm A Fool To Want You
2. The Night We Called It A Day
3. Stay With Me
4. Autumn Leaves
5. Why Try to Change Me Now
6. Some Enchanted Evening
7. Full Moon And Empty Arms
8. Where Are You?
9. What'll I Do
10. That Lucky Old Sun
Ten tracks due in February 2015…
Bob Dylan will release his new studio album, Shadows In The Night, on February 2, 2015. Featuring ten tracks of Frank Sinatra covers, the album is the 36th studio set from Bob Dylan and marks the first new music from the artist since 2012’s Tempest.
Dylan commented, “It was a real privilege to make this album. I’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time but was never brave enough to approach 30-piece complicated arrangements and refine them down for a 5-piece band. That’s the key to all these performances. We knew these songs extremely well. It was all done live. Maybe one or two takes. No overdubbing. No vocal booths. No headphones. No separate tracking, and, for the most part, mixed as it was recorded. I don’t see myself as covering these songs in any way. They’ve been covered enough. Buried, as a matter a fact. What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them. Lifting them out of the grave and bringing them into the light of day.”
As Columba Records Chairman Rob Stringer explains, “There are no strings, obvious horns, background vocals or other such devices often found on albums that feature standard ballads. Instead, Bob has managed to find a way to infuse these songs with new life and contemporary relevance. It is a brilliant record and we are extremely excited to be presenting it to the world very soon.”
When Dylan released his version of “Full Moon And Empty Arms” in May this year, Uncut speculated we might be in for an album of Sinatra covers.
Interesting news last week in the Los Angeles Times, which reported that the Los Angeles apartment occupied by Elliot Gould’s Philip Marlowe in Robert Altman's great 1973 film The Long Goodbye is now available for rent. One bedroom, one bathroom, private parking, hardwood floors and a terrace, with access via a private elevator, it can be yours for around £1,790 a month. Serendipitously, Altman’s The Long Goodbye has been rattling round my head for a few weeks now, since I saw Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film, Inherent Vice.
Adapted from a Raymond Chandler novel, Altman’s The Long Goodbye highlighted the difference between the hardboiled detective genre and California in the permissive Seventies. It’s the same location and decade that Anderson lovingly recreates for Inherent Vice: a crazy, out-of-whack principality where the funky hippie vibes of the previous decade have been replaced by Nixon, Manson, Vietnam, urban riots and assassinations. Anxiety and remorse are the principal emotions. There’s a sticky, faintly claustrophobic tone to the film, with its talk of “karmic thermals” and heroin addicts, midday naps and shapeless days. As one character says in voiceover, "American life was something to be escaped from.” Incidentally, Anderson’s film is based on a Thomas Pynchon novel, and the director battles (successfully, for the most part) to do justice to the author’s fizz of ideas and twisty, often exasperating subplots.
In the middle of all this is muttonchopped private eye Larry "Doc" Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix), sporting what look conspicuously like a succession of Neil Young’s cast offs from the Buffalo Springfield days. Sportello is a man of professional bravado but personal confusion: befuddled by weed, his love life is in freefall. After having sat through Phoenix shouting his way through Anderson’s previous film, The Master, it’s quite pleasant to watch him mumble his way through Inherent Vice. He reminds me a little of Robert De Niro in Jackie Brown, who did great stoned acting in the background of a scene, where he spent about five minutes trying unsuccessfully to recradle a telephone receiver. Here, Phoenix has the slow, disassociative reactions of the perpetually wasted.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZfs22E7JmI
Sportello is engaged by his ex girlfriend, Shasta (Katherine Waterston), who is having an affair with property developer Mickey Wolfmann (Eric Roberts); Shasta and Mickey promptly disappear; meanwhile, in a separate storyline, Sportello is engaged to find a missing husband, played by Owen Wilson who admirably out-acts Phoenix in the stoned stakes. What follows includes neo-Nazis, a shadowy cabal of dentists, anti-Communist subversives, teenage runaways and many more splendid examples of the counter culture at its strung-out and goofiest. Around Phoenix, Anderson has assembled an excellent supporting cast: Benicio Del Toro, Reece Witherspoon and Martin Short. The best work is done by Josh Brolin, modeling a spectacularly officious flattop, as Sportello’s nemesis on the LAPD - and also Joanna Newsom, who is terrific as Sortilège, a wise-owl astrologer friend of Sportello and Shasta who also deliver the film’s voiceover. It's gratifying to learn earlier today, by the way, that Newsom is at work on new material. Meanwhile, Jonny Greenwood, a regular Anderson collaborator, provides the film’s soundtrack: a beguiling mix of his own compositions (check out the loose, burbling rhythms of “Shasta Fey”) alongside Can and Neil Young.
Indeed, Young’s “Journey Through The Past” is critical to the film. Anderson uses it principally to soundtrack flashbacks of Sportello and Shasta in happier times. But it also serves to articulate a deeper subtext at work in Pynchon’s novel; the sadness of lost potential. Pynchon seems to suggest that “the ancient forces of greed and fear” at work in today’s world have their roots in California during the period the film is set in. It’s one of Pynchon’s many, wonderfully digressive thoughts; using the cultural detritus generated by the era to consider bigger things. “Eggs break, chocolate melts, glass shatters,” says Del Toro’s character, a marine lawyer, as he explains the legal term that gave both the book and film its title. Namely: everything falls apart, even the times in which we live.
Inherent Vice opens in the UK on January 30
Interesting news last week in the Los Angeles Times, which reported that the Los Angeles apartment occupied by Elliot Gould’s Philip Marlowe in Robert Altman’s great 1973 film The Long Goodbye is now available for rent. One bedroom, one bathroom, private parking, hardwood floors and a terrace, with access via a private elevator, it can be yours for around £1,790 a month. Serendipitously, Altman’s The Long Goodbye has been rattling round my head for a few weeks now, since I saw Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film, Inherent Vice.
Adapted from a Raymond Chandler novel, Altman’s The Long Goodbye highlighted the difference between the hardboiled detective genre and California in the permissive Seventies. It’s the same location and decade that Anderson lovingly recreates for Inherent Vice: a crazy, out-of-whack principality where the funky hippie vibes of the previous decade have been replaced by Nixon, Manson, Vietnam, urban riots and assassinations. Anxiety and remorse are the principal emotions. There’s a sticky, faintly claustrophobic tone to the film, with its talk of “karmic thermals” and heroin addicts, midday naps and shapeless days. As one character says in voiceover, “American life was something to be escaped from.” Incidentally, Anderson’s film is based on a Thomas Pynchon novel, and the director battles (successfully, for the most part) to do justice to the author’s fizz of ideas and twisty, often exasperating subplots.
In the middle of all this is muttonchopped private eye Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix), sporting what look conspicuously like a succession of Neil Young’s cast offs from the Buffalo Springfield days. Sportello is a man of professional bravado but personal confusion: befuddled by weed, his love life is in freefall. After having sat through Phoenix shouting his way through Anderson’s previous film, The Master, it’s quite pleasant to watch him mumble his way through Inherent Vice. He reminds me a little of Robert De Niro in Jackie Brown, who did great stoned acting in the background of a scene, where he spent about five minutes trying unsuccessfully to recradle a telephone receiver. Here, Phoenix has the slow, disassociative reactions of the perpetually wasted.
Sportello is engaged by his ex girlfriend, Shasta (Katherine Waterston), who is having an affair with property developer Mickey Wolfmann (Eric Roberts); Shasta and Mickey promptly disappear; meanwhile, in a separate storyline, Sportello is engaged to find a missing husband, played by Owen Wilson who admirably out-acts Phoenix in the stoned stakes. What follows includes neo-Nazis, a shadowy cabal of dentists, anti-Communist subversives, teenage runaways and many more splendid examples of the counter culture at its strung-out and goofiest. Around Phoenix, Anderson has assembled an excellent supporting cast: Benicio Del Toro, Reece Witherspoon and Martin Short. The best work is done by Josh Brolin, modeling a spectacularly officious flattop, as Sportello’s nemesis on the LAPD – and also Joanna Newsom, who is terrific as Sortilège, a wise-owl astrologer friend of Sportello and Shasta who also deliver the film’s voiceover. It’s gratifying to learn earlier today, by the way, that Newsom is at work on new material. Meanwhile, Jonny Greenwood, a regular Anderson collaborator, provides the film’s soundtrack: a beguiling mix of his own compositions (check out the loose, burbling rhythms of “Shasta Fey”) alongside Can and Neil Young.
Indeed, Young’s “Journey Through The Past” is critical to the film. Anderson uses it principally to soundtrack flashbacks of Sportello and Shasta in happier times. But it also serves to articulate a deeper subtext at work in Pynchon’s novel; the sadness of lost potential. Pynchon seems to suggest that “the ancient forces of greed and fear” at work in today’s world have their roots in California during the period the film is set in. It’s one of Pynchon’s many, wonderfully digressive thoughts; using the cultural detritus generated by the era to consider bigger things. “Eggs break, chocolate melts, glass shatters,” says Del Toro’s character, a marine lawyer, as he explains the legal term that gave both the book and film its title. Namely: everything falls apart, even the times in which we live.
Trio’s war against definition / explanation, compiled...
After forming in 1994, Sleater-Kinney spent most of the ‘90s trying to ensure their ascendant profile remained connected to their origins. “We are coming from somewhere, we’re not just an isolated entity without a context or a background,” said Carrie Brownstein, one of their two singers and guitarists. Her counterpart Corin Tucker could pinpoint where exactly: Valentine’s Day 1991, when, aged 18, she saw Bikini Kill at Olympia, WA’s North Shore Surf Club. “It was the first time I’d seen feminism translated into an emotional language,” she told Greil Marcus. “…You had the feeling they had started the week before and that you can do it too – stand up and speak in the town square, even if you have to create the town square yourself.”
But by the time Sleater-Kinney recorded what their final album, 2005’s The Woods, they were trying to smash their town square, bristling against complacency and the limiting descriptors that trailed them: ‘feminist’, ‘punk’, ‘riot grrrl’, ‘political’. Having made all but one of their previous records with John Goodmanson in Seattle, the Pacific Northwest trio (Quasi drummer Janet Weiss joined in 1997) ventured cross-country to Dave Fridmann’s New York State studio and said they wanted to halve their audience. “We’re sick of people feeling they know who we are and what we’re capable of,” Brownstein told Eddie Vedder. “I remember thinking … I’d really love to make some of our fans angry.”
It was an energy they had tapped into while supporting Pearl Jam at the beginning of the Iraq war. Sleater-Kinney’s own gigs were an echo chamber for anti-Bush rhetoric. Here they met 10,000 booing patriots whose indifference spurred them on to make an earth-razing record: a flood of stinging, Zep-indebted sludge populated by desperate characters clinging to hope in a crumbling world order. Their first for Sub Pop after leaving Kill Rock Stars, The Woods was acclaimed but divisive, letting them exit as a band apart when they declared a hiatus in 2006.
Eight years later, this box collects Sleater-Kinney’s seven LPs, remastered by Greg Calbi (amplifying the bottom end in the absence of a bassist) and accompanied by a photo book. No liner notes, b-sides, rarities, demos. Sleater-Kinney were constantly asked to defend the legitimacy of their voice by critics and scene forbears who thought they’d sold out. This reissue does not ask for permission, eschewing context to let their catalogue stand as its own defiant rock monolith. As it should: while they’ve no agreed-upon classic, rarely has a band released this many records without faltering.
Sleater-Kinney’s success (selling 100,000 copies per record by their conclusion) was often interpreted as transcending the limitations of being “women in rock”. In reality, their triumphant existence was a direct result of their lived experience: on 1995’s savage-but-hooky self-titled debut, Tucker and Brownstein turned society’s desire to marginalise women into a threat (“I’ll show you how it feels to be dead”). By Call The Doctor the following year, they were celebrating their own presence, singing “I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone” – pop-punk-meets-‘60s girlband-isms that maligned and celebrated rock cliché while laying bare their ambition.
Sleater-Kinney were chops-proud rockists, which is how they convinced traditionalists (from Jack White to Greil Marcus, who declared them America’s best rock band) that they were getting rock on their own terms. But, as Tucker explained, “You can love rock’n’roll and be enraged by it.” 1997’s Dig Me Out celebrated the genre’s transformative potential while the more downbeat The Hot Rock (produced by Roger Moutenot) castigated the major label industry that wanted to mould them. After Woodstock ’99, with its gang-rapes and resurgence of main stage meat-heads, Sleater-Kinney swore off rock’s chauvinist pantomime with 2000’s All Hands On The Bad One. Ashamed of the peers’ reluctance to criticize Bush after 9/11, 2002’s One Beat documented new mother Tucker’s terror at almost losing her premature baby while “the world [exploded] in flames”.
Sleater-Kinney’s story is of a band losing faith in humankind, god, country, even music, but making it their fight. By succeeding on their own terms – never ceding control or compromising, and going out on a high – they showed up rock’s self-serving rulebook as a sham, chiselling three new faces on its Mount Rushmore.
Laura Snapes
Trio’s war against definition / explanation, compiled…
After forming in 1994, Sleater-Kinney spent most of the ‘90s trying to ensure their ascendant profile remained connected to their origins. “We are coming from somewhere, we’re not just an isolated entity without a context or a background,” said Carrie Brownstein, one of their two singers and guitarists. Her counterpart Corin Tucker could pinpoint where exactly: Valentine’s Day 1991, when, aged 18, she saw Bikini Kill at Olympia, WA’s North Shore Surf Club. “It was the first time I’d seen feminism translated into an emotional language,” she told Greil Marcus. “…You had the feeling they had started the week before and that you can do it too – stand up and speak in the town square, even if you have to create the town square yourself.”
But by the time Sleater-Kinney recorded what their final album, 2005’s The Woods, they were trying to smash their town square, bristling against complacency and the limiting descriptors that trailed them: ‘feminist’, ‘punk’, ‘riot grrrl’, ‘political’. Having made all but one of their previous records with John Goodmanson in Seattle, the Pacific Northwest trio (Quasi drummer Janet Weiss joined in 1997) ventured cross-country to Dave Fridmann’s New York State studio and said they wanted to halve their audience. “We’re sick of people feeling they know who we are and what we’re capable of,” Brownstein told Eddie Vedder. “I remember thinking … I’d really love to make some of our fans angry.”
It was an energy they had tapped into while supporting Pearl Jam at the beginning of the Iraq war. Sleater-Kinney’s own gigs were an echo chamber for anti-Bush rhetoric. Here they met 10,000 booing patriots whose indifference spurred them on to make an earth-razing record: a flood of stinging, Zep-indebted sludge populated by desperate characters clinging to hope in a crumbling world order. Their first for Sub Pop after leaving Kill Rock Stars, The Woods was acclaimed but divisive, letting them exit as a band apart when they declared a hiatus in 2006.
Eight years later, this box collects Sleater-Kinney’s seven LPs, remastered by Greg Calbi (amplifying the bottom end in the absence of a bassist) and accompanied by a photo book. No liner notes, b-sides, rarities, demos. Sleater-Kinney were constantly asked to defend the legitimacy of their voice by critics and scene forbears who thought they’d sold out. This reissue does not ask for permission, eschewing context to let their catalogue stand as its own defiant rock monolith. As it should: while they’ve no agreed-upon classic, rarely has a band released this many records without faltering.
Sleater-Kinney’s success (selling 100,000 copies per record by their conclusion) was often interpreted as transcending the limitations of being “women in rock”. In reality, their triumphant existence was a direct result of their lived experience: on 1995’s savage-but-hooky self-titled debut, Tucker and Brownstein turned society’s desire to marginalise women into a threat (“I’ll show you how it feels to be dead”). By Call The Doctor the following year, they were celebrating their own presence, singing “I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone” – pop-punk-meets-‘60s girlband-isms that maligned and celebrated rock cliché while laying bare their ambition.
Sleater-Kinney were chops-proud rockists, which is how they convinced traditionalists (from Jack White to Greil Marcus, who declared them America’s best rock band) that they were getting rock on their own terms. But, as Tucker explained, “You can love rock’n’roll and be enraged by it.” 1997’s Dig Me Out celebrated the genre’s transformative potential while the more downbeat The Hot Rock (produced by Roger Moutenot) castigated the major label industry that wanted to mould them. After Woodstock ’99, with its gang-rapes and resurgence of main stage meat-heads, Sleater-Kinney swore off rock’s chauvinist pantomime with 2000’s All Hands On The Bad One. Ashamed of the peers’ reluctance to criticize Bush after 9/11, 2002’s One Beat documented new mother Tucker’s terror at almost losing her premature baby while “the world [exploded] in flames”.
Sleater-Kinney’s story is of a band losing faith in humankind, god, country, even music, but making it their fight. By succeeding on their own terms – never ceding control or compromising, and going out on a high – they showed up rock’s self-serving rulebook as a sham, chiselling three new faces on its Mount Rushmore.
Frontman says Christmas Day is "not quite the time to be trading slaps"...
Morrissey has claimed that he turned down an invitation from Channel 4 to record this year's alternative to The Queen's annual Christmas Day message.
The frontman has made his views about the monarchy clear for many years and states in a new message on official fan site True to You that he was asked by the broadcaster to record a message which would then be broadcast at the same time as the Queen's on Christmas Day. Other figures who have done the same in previous years include whistleblower Edward Snowden and Iran's then-president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in 2008.
However, the invitation was declined with Morrissey saying that December 25 is not "quite the time to be trading slaps." In fact, he believes that the annual BBC broadcast of the Queen's speech shows the nation that "she has nothing to offer and nothing to say, and she has no place in modern Britain except as a figure of repression; no independent thought required."
In a statement, he wrote: "My view that the monarchy should be quietly dismantled for the good of England is reasonably well-known, but I don’t think Christmas Day is quite the time to be trading slaps."
"The Queen very well might be the most powerful woman in England, but she lacks the power to make herself loved, and the phoney inflation of her family attacks all rational intellect. All over the world highly civilised peoples exist without the automatic condescension of a ‘royal’ family. England can do the same, and will find more respect for doing so."
Earlier this week Morrissey was forced to cancel dates in Greece and Turkey. The singer's current European tour has been met with numerous setbacks, including an incident in which a gig in Germany had to be ended shortly after a stage invasion and departed the stage mid-show after being heckled by a fan in Poland.
He also cancelled a number of European tour dates due to a "flu outbreak" amongst his crew earlier in the year. This came after a string of US dates were scrappedrevealing that he had been treated for cancer.
Frontman says Christmas Day is “not quite the time to be trading slaps”…
Morrissey has claimed that he turned down an invitation from Channel 4 to record this year’s alternative to The Queen’s annual Christmas Day message.
The frontman has made his views about the monarchy clear for many years and states in a new message on official fan site True to You that he was asked by the broadcaster to record a message which would then be broadcast at the same time as the Queen’s on Christmas Day. Other figures who have done the same in previous years include whistleblower Edward Snowden and Iran’s then-president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in 2008.
However, the invitation was declined with Morrissey saying that December 25 is not “quite the time to be trading slaps.” In fact, he believes that the annual BBC broadcast of the Queen’s speech shows the nation that “she has nothing to offer and nothing to say, and she has no place in modern Britain except as a figure of repression; no independent thought required.”
In a statement, he wrote: “My view that the monarchy should be quietly dismantled for the good of England is reasonably well-known, but I don’t think Christmas Day is quite the time to be trading slaps.”
“The Queen very well might be the most powerful woman in England, but she lacks the power to make herself loved, and the phoney inflation of her family attacks all rational intellect. All over the world highly civilised peoples exist without the automatic condescension of a ‘royal’ family. England can do the same, and will find more respect for doing so.”
Earlier this week Morrissey was forced to cancel dates in Greece and Turkey. The singer’s current European tour has been met with numerous setbacks, including an incident in which a gig in Germany had to be ended shortly after a stage invasion and departed the stage mid-show after being heckled by a fan in Poland.
He also cancelled a number of European tour dates due to a “flu outbreak” amongst his crew earlier in the year. This came after a string of US dates were scrappedrevealing that he had been treated for cancer.
The singer released her last album, Have One On Me, in 2010...
Joanna Newsom has confirmed she is working on new material, her first in five years.
Speaking to Dazed, the singer-songwriter commented: "I'm working on something new – I should hopefully have a little more news soon. I've been working hard for a lot of those five years on a new idea."
Joanna Newsom released her third album, Have One On Me, in 2010. It followed her acclaimed 2004 debut The Milk-Eyed Mender and 2006's Ys. In 2012 Newsom unveiled two new songs during live performances, "The Diver's Wife" and "Look And Despair".
Newsom will appear in new film Inherent Vice, which will hit UK cinemas in January 2015. Discussing her part in the production, she said: "This movie was so incredibly rewarding and fun for me, and it did maybe defer some of my music work for a while, but it was totally worth it."
The singer released her last album, Have One On Me, in 2010…
Joanna Newsom has confirmed she is working on new material, her first in five years.
Speaking to Dazed, the singer-songwriter commented: “I’m working on something new – I should hopefully have a little more news soon. I’ve been working hard for a lot of those five years on a new idea.”
Joanna Newsom released her third album, Have One On Me, in 2010. It followed her acclaimed 2004 debut The Milk-Eyed Mender and 2006’s Ys. In 2012 Newsom unveiled two new songs during live performances, “The Diver’s Wife” and “Look And Despair”.
Newsom will appear in new film Inherent Vice, which will hit UK cinemas in January 2015. Discussing her part in the production, she said: “This movie was so incredibly rewarding and fun for me, and it did maybe defer some of my music work for a while, but it was totally worth it.”
Beastie Boys Adam 'Ad-Rock' Horowitz also stars in new Noah Baumbach movie...
The first trailer for new film While We're Young, featuring an original score from James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, has been released.
The film is directed by Noah Baumbach (The Squid And The Whale, Frances Ha) and also sees Beastie Boys' Adam 'Ad-Rock' Horowitz play a supporting role. Murphy previously worked with Baumbach on his film Greenberg.
While We're Young tells the story of a middle-aged couple whose career and marriage breaks down when a younger couple come into their lives. It stars Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts in the lead roles, along with Amanda Seyfried, and Adam Driver. The trailer also features Wings song "Let 'Em In".
Among his many musical projects, Murphy brought his Despacio soundsystem – a collaboration with Soulwax duo David and Stephen Dewaele – to Glastonbury Festival in June.
Back in February, Murphy also revealed a brief preview of his plan to make every New York subway station have its own music, so that people will later associate each location with a specific sound.
Murphy also shared two remixes of music he made using data from this year's US Open tennis tournament.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRUcm9Qw9io
Beastie Boys Adam ‘Ad-Rock’ Horowitz also stars in new Noah Baumbach movie…
The first trailer for new film While We’re Young, featuring an original score from James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, has been released.
The film is directed by Noah Baumbach (The Squid And The Whale, Frances Ha) and also sees Beastie Boys’ Adam ‘Ad-Rock’ Horowitz play a supporting role. Murphy previously worked with Baumbach on his film Greenberg.
While We’re Young tells the story of a middle-aged couple whose career and marriage breaks down when a younger couple come into their lives. It stars Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts in the lead roles, along with Amanda Seyfried, and Adam Driver. The trailer also features Wings song “Let ‘Em In”.
Among his many musical projects, Murphy brought his Despacio soundsystem – a collaboration with Soulwax duo David and Stephen Dewaele – to Glastonbury Festival in June.
Back in February, Murphy also revealed a brief preview of his plan to make every New York subway station have its own music, so that people will later associate each location with a specific sound.
Murphy also shared two remixes of music he made using data from this year’s US Open tennis tournament.
Mark Chapman shot Lennon in New York in December 1980...
Paul McCartney has described Mark Chapman, the man who killed John Lennon in 1980, as "the jerk of jerks."
Speaking to Jonathan Ross in an interview broadcast by ITV on December 6, McCartney was asked about his relationship with his Beatles bandmate at the time of his murder. While acknowledging that things ended badly for the group, the singer said that their relationship had healed prior to his death.
"There was acrimony in The Beatles", McCartney said (via The Mirror). "But when he got killed we were friends. We used to call each other up and swap bread recipes."
"I was at home when he died. I got a phone call. It was so horrific. I could not take it in that he was gone. It was a very big shock. I was so sad that I was not going to see him again. And the guy who did it was the jerk of jerks. He was not politically motivated."
Meanwhile, McCartney recently announced details of a new single, "Hope For The Future" – his first song to be specifically written for a video game. The track, due to be released with a variety of different mixes on December 8, was recorded for the soundtrack of the hit video game Destiny.
Paul McCartney: The Ultimate Musis Guide is in shops now
Mark Chapman shot Lennon in New York in December 1980…
Paul McCartney has described Mark Chapman, the man who killed John Lennon in 1980, as “the jerk of jerks.”
Speaking to Jonathan Ross in an interview broadcast by ITV on December 6, McCartney was asked about his relationship with his Beatles bandmate at the time of his murder. While acknowledging that things ended badly for the group, the singer said that their relationship had healed prior to his death.
“There was acrimony in The Beatles“, McCartney said (via The Mirror). “But when he got killed we were friends. We used to call each other up and swap bread recipes.”
“I was at home when he died. I got a phone call. It was so horrific. I could not take it in that he was gone. It was a very big shock. I was so sad that I was not going to see him again. And the guy who did it was the jerk of jerks. He was not politically motivated.”
Meanwhile, McCartney recently announced details of a new single, “Hope For The Future” – his first song to be specifically written for a video game. The track, due to be released with a variety of different mixes on December 8, was recorded for the soundtrack of the hit video game Destiny.
2007 Tony Visconti's 2007 mix is coming soon...
David Bowie has announced the latest in his ongoing 7" anniversary picture disc series.
He will release a 40th anniversary edition of "Young Americans" on February 23, 2015.
Originally released in Spring 1975 and taken from the album of the same name, this 2007 Tony Visconti single mix is making its vinyl debut.
The AA-side, which runs at 33 1/3 r.p.m, "It's Gonna Be Me (with strings)" is an alternate version of an outtake from the 1974 Sigma Sound sessions in Philadelphia. It was first released on the Young Americans album special edition in 2007 and is also making it first appearance on vinyl.
The tracklisting is:
A-Side
Young Americans (2007 Tony Visconti mix single edit)
(David Bowie)
Produced & mixed by Tony Visconti
2007 Mix by Tony Visconti.
Pro-Tools engineer Mario McNulty
Mixed at Looking Glass Studio, Studio B. With thanks to Dave d'Arcy
AA-Side (33 1/3 r.p.m)
It's Gonna Be Me (with strings)
(David Bowie)
Produced & mixed by Tony Visconti
Pro-Tools engineer Mario McNulty
Mixed at Looking Glass Studio, Studio B.
String arrangements by Tony Visconti
Vocal arrangements by David Bowie & Luther Vandross
Recorded at Sigma Sound, Philadelphia, PA.
2007 Tony Visconti’s 2007 mix is coming soon…
David Bowie has announced the latest in his ongoing 7″ anniversary picture disc series.
He will release a 40th anniversary edition of “Young Americans” on February 23, 2015.
Originally released in Spring 1975 and taken from the album of the same name, this 2007 Tony Visconti single mix is making its vinyl debut.
The AA-side, which runs at 33 1/3 r.p.m, “It’s Gonna Be Me (with strings)” is an alternate version of an outtake from the 1974 Sigma Sound sessions in Philadelphia. It was first released on the Young Americans album special edition in 2007 and is also making it first appearance on vinyl.
The tracklisting is:
A-Side
Young Americans (2007 Tony Visconti mix single edit)
(David Bowie)
Produced & mixed by Tony Visconti
2007 Mix by Tony Visconti.
Pro-Tools engineer Mario McNulty
Mixed at Looking Glass Studio, Studio B. With thanks to Dave d’Arcy
AA-Side (33 1/3 r.p.m)
It’s Gonna Be Me (with strings)
(David Bowie)
Produced & mixed by Tony Visconti
Pro-Tools engineer Mario McNulty
Mixed at Looking Glass Studio, Studio B.
String arrangements by Tony Visconti
Vocal arrangements by David Bowie & Luther Vandross
Former Long Rider takes a short trip home...
Since the demise of The Long Ryders at the beginning of the ’90s, Kentucky native Griffin has made London his musical base, cutting records mostly with his band The Coal Porters, while carving out a dual career as a journalist and broadcaster. For his first solo album in a decade, however, he returned to his homeland, laying down these 12 tracks over an economical four-day period in Nashville.
Griffin says the brevity of the sessions was inspired by Dylan’s Nashville Skyline and Billy Bragg’s Joe Henry-produced Tooth & Nail, and it’s the latter’s laconic mood that most informs these songs. Assembling a crack squad of Nashville’s finest, including members of Ricky Skaggs’ band, Griffin immerses himself in the myths of Americana, often dabbling in intriguingly novel reportage.
“Ode To Bobbie Gentry” chronicles the country star’s rise to fame and subsequent retirement (“Christmas night in ’78 was my last gig/It was walk away softly, or stay until I flipped my wig”), and Griffin also adopts a first-person narrative for “Elvis Presley Calls His Mother After The Ed Sullivan Show” (“In pink, white and black/I’m like a heart attack”). Other songs are, understandably, less specific in their subject matter, but Sid’s scholarly approach to the hues and history of a nation’s patchwork of musical styles reaps rewards throughout. The bluegrass canter of “I’ll Forget You Very Well” waves a mandolin pick in the direction of Bill Monroe, “Between The General And The Grave” is a First World War saga that could have come from the pen of Kristofferson, while the sparse “Circle Bar” (written for a Long Ryders reunion but never recorded) addresses the death of a peer.
Beyond the spontaneity and freshness of the arrangements, it’s Griffin’s innate skill as a storyteller that marks the album out as a high-water mark in a career that has always celebrated traditional American music with eloquence and boundless enthusiasm.
Terry Staunton
Former Long Rider takes a short trip home…
Since the demise of The Long Ryders at the beginning of the ’90s, Kentucky native Griffin has made London his musical base, cutting records mostly with his band The Coal Porters, while carving out a dual career as a journalist and broadcaster. For his first solo album in a decade, however, he returned to his homeland, laying down these 12 tracks over an economical four-day period in Nashville.
Griffin says the brevity of the sessions was inspired by Dylan’s Nashville Skyline and Billy Bragg’s Joe Henry-produced Tooth & Nail, and it’s the latter’s laconic mood that most informs these songs. Assembling a crack squad of Nashville’s finest, including members of Ricky Skaggs’ band, Griffin immerses himself in the myths of Americana, often dabbling in intriguingly novel reportage.
“Ode To Bobbie Gentry” chronicles the country star’s rise to fame and subsequent retirement (“Christmas night in ’78 was my last gig/It was walk away softly, or stay until I flipped my wig”), and Griffin also adopts a first-person narrative for “Elvis Presley Calls His Mother After The Ed Sullivan Show” (“In pink, white and black/I’m like a heart attack”). Other songs are, understandably, less specific in their subject matter, but Sid’s scholarly approach to the hues and history of a nation’s patchwork of musical styles reaps rewards throughout. The bluegrass canter of “I’ll Forget You Very Well” waves a mandolin pick in the direction of Bill Monroe, “Between The General And The Grave” is a First World War saga that could have come from the pen of Kristofferson, while the sparse “Circle Bar” (written for a Long Ryders reunion but never recorded) addresses the death of a peer.
Beyond the spontaneity and freshness of the arrangements, it’s Griffin’s innate skill as a storyteller that marks the album out as a high-water mark in a career that has always celebrated traditional American music with eloquence and boundless enthusiasm.
In this piece from the Uncut archives (March 2014, Take 202), McLagan and Kenney Jones reveal the stories behind every one of the band’s historic 45s, and how Ronnie Lane “found beauty in a nettle patch in the East End of London.” Story: Garry Mulholland
________________________
https://www....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv41AgQTlrA
Lazy Sunday
Immediate, April 1968. UK: 2; US N/A
English pop-psych classic, “lumbago”, “khazi” and all. Although never intended as a single, Loog Oldham’s pop instincts prevail. A No 2 hit, and a hefty promotional gift for the parent LP, Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake.
McLagan: “When Steve came in with this it was slower. We started taking the piss out of it while he was out of the room. The ‘Root-ti-doo-ti-di-day’ thing. And he laughed when he came back in and heard us. So we cut it like that. It was a pisstake!”
Jones: “This is a record I’m still not sure about. Steve had been a child actor, he was the first Artful Dodger in Lionel Bart’s Oliver! in the West End. He brought that theatricality to this. Once again, we were on tour in Germany, picked up Melody Maker… and this was a hit! Andrew had released it without our knowledge, like ‘My Mind’s Eye’. So this dragged us back into poppy-land. We wanted to be known for being as good as the Claptons of this world. We wanted a tougher image. It wasn’t a fair representation of Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake.”
McLagan: “After we’d done Ogdens’…, things with Steve got kinda strange. And then he wrote ‘The Universal’.”
The Universal
Immediate, July 1968. UK: 16; US: N/A
Marriott records this dig at the hollowness of Swinging London in the back garden of Mick Jagger’s house. A sudden change of style that bewilders fan and Small Face alike.
Jones: “He brought it into the studio, we overdubbed drums and stuff onto it… and that was basically it. It’s certainly not ‘Tin Soldier’.”
McLagan: “I’m not even on this. The drums and bass are so clear on it that they’ve obviously just been stuck on top of Steve’s cassette recording.”
Jones: “People love it because it’s very relaxed and shows where our heads were at the time. Even the dog barks in time. Yes, of course the ‘Mick’ in the song was Jagger. And maybe the song was Steve’s sort of goodbye to the London scene because he was planning his departure.”
McLagan: “I quit around this time. Steve started telling me what to play. As soon as I left he phoned Nicky Hopkins and got him to play on some tracks. I came back but it hurt me. Steve was in his own world by this time. He wanted Peter Frampton to join the band. Fuck that.”
Afterglow (Of Your Love)
Immediate, March 1969. UK: 36; US: N/A
Marriott quits the Small Faces onstage at Alexandra Palace on New Year’s Eve 1968. Immediate rush out this stunning farewell. But the British rock audience, like Marriott, have moved on.
McLagan: “This, ‘Tin Soldier’ and ‘All Or Nothing’ are the best Small Faces recordings.”
Jones: “There were two reasons why Steve left. One was that, no matter what we did, we never lost this pop image. And this affected Steve more than anyone else. Another was Ogdens’…. We always knew, in the back of our minds: how are we gonna top this? The only thing I hated was him leaving us onstage standing there like twats – he should’ve realised we all felt the same way.”
McLagan: “Steve and I fell out over the B-side, ‘Wham Bam Thank You Man’, which was a hint to what Steve wanted to do in Humble Pie. It was all a bit obvious and a bit heavy, man. He was already on his way out.”
Jones: “There was never a discussion about carrying on the Small Faces without Steve. People still think we replaced Steve Marriott with Rod Stewart. We didn’t. The Faces were a completely new and different band.”
The artifacts were expected to fetch around £57,000...
Two sets of original early Bob Dylan lyrics have failed to sell at auction.
The typed lyric sheets with handwritten notes correspond to early, unrecorded Dylan tracks "Talkin' Folklore Centre" and "Go Away You Bomb", but failed to find a buyer at Christies, New York yesterday (December 4).
As Billboard reports, "Talkin Folklore Centre" - originally penned in 1962 - was written on request by Dylan's producer Izzy Young for a song about the Folklore Centre store. The lyric sheet for this track was expected to fetch between $40,000 and $60,000 (£25,000 – £38,000).
1963 track "Go Away You Bomb", meanwhile, was written for an unpublished book that Young was compiling about anti-nuclear songs. These lyrics were estimated at $30,000 - $50,000 (£19,000 - £30,000).
Neither, however, found a buyer, meaning that the consignor must now decide what will happen to the lyrics.
Other pieces of rock memorabilia have recent had more success at auction, however. In October a rare signed vinyl of The Beatles' Please Please Me fetched over £22,000, while Willie Nelson's hair plaits went for £23,000 the same month.
The artifacts were expected to fetch around £57,000…
Two sets of original early Bob Dylan lyrics have failed to sell at auction.
The typed lyric sheets with handwritten notes correspond to early, unrecorded Dylan tracks “Talkin’ Folklore Centre” and “Go Away You Bomb”, but failed to find a buyer at Christies, New York yesterday (December 4).
As Billboard reports, “Talkin Folklore Centre” – originally penned in 1962 – was written on request by Dylan’s producer Izzy Young for a song about the Folklore Centre store. The lyric sheet for this track was expected to fetch between $40,000 and $60,000 (£25,000 – £38,000).
1963 track “Go Away You Bomb“, meanwhile, was written for an unpublished book that Young was compiling about anti-nuclear songs. These lyrics were estimated at $30,000 – $50,000 (£19,000 – £30,000).
Neither, however, found a buyer, meaning that the consignor must now decide what will happen to the lyrics.
Other pieces of rock memorabilia have recent had more success at auction, however. In October a rare signed vinyl of The Beatles’ Please Please Me fetched over £22,000, while Willie Nelson’s hair plaits went for £23,000 the same month.
I reviewed The Velvet Underground: 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition for new issue of Uncut. It's a comprehensive, six-disc set compiling the band's third album in an assortment of mixes, plus 1969 demos and a live recording from The Matrix in San Francisco. Of course, it marks the first album the band recorded after John Cale had left, with Doug Yule assuming bass and (some) vocal duties. I was fortunate enough to speak to both Yule and Moe Tucker for a Q&A to accompany my review. As usual, I ended up with far too much material, so I thought I'd share the full transcripts of both interviews below...
___________________DOUG YULE
You were in the fortunate position of seeing The Velvet Underground play before you joined the band. What were they like live?
The first time I saw them was in Cambridge, Massachusetts at Harvard University. John was sick and all I saw was Lou, Sterling and Maureen and they were playing in a dark room. It was full of college age people. I remember Lou was wearing black leather. They were a presence right away. They had good volume, substantial volume. It set up a whole bunch of ideas about how to present music onstage to the point I went home from that night and I started writing notes and ideas down based on their theatrical presentation of music.
Do you remember what you wrote down?
Only as impressions, I just remember a sequence of events. The images I counted up after seeing them live kind of made me think of live theatre. There would be a black stage and suddenly there would be white ceramic vase in the middle of it and then the vase falls all over in place. That’s kind of the opening feature of the first songs. At the time I had just finished doing a year as theatre major, so theatre was kind of my thing.
After you joined the band, you went into the studio only a few weeks later to start work on The Velvet Underground. What do you remember of that period?
My memory works in a funny way. I have a picture of the band in a small studio room with a tiny control room attached to it. It was probably much roomier than that. I have little pictures with which some of them are connected and some of them are isolated and none of them are sequential. From the time I started playing with Lou, Maureen and Sterling until we end up in the studio it was kind of like walking down the street with people walking a lot faster than you. Your focus is to try and keep up, to try and stay with them and not fall behind. The first time we played together, the first weekend, was about trying to remember everything I need, like “What chords in this song? What do I play in this song? What key is this song in? What do I sing in this song?” constantly over and over again. By the time I got into the studio it had evaporated or was taken care of in the first few weeks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xMSMLWrcN8
You were the new boy, but those guys were in the process of redefining how they worked together after Cale had left…. Was it a case of you all learning together..?
In a lot of ways, yeah. John and Lou pushed against each other a lot. It was like a constant ongoing tug of war. Then when Lou found himself as the main guy, the main songwriter, everything was much more cooperative. He seemed to be having a good time and seriously enjoying himself. I can imagine with Sterling and Maureen it would be a totally different kind of thing.
What do you remember from the sessions for The Velvet Underground album?
You know, it’s my favourite album out of all the recordings we have done. We recorded the tracks with all four people and then overdubbed vocals and harmonies. It’s really the closest to the band sounding like playing live. We were staying at the same bungalow at Chateau Marmont. The band were like a little family during his period. We’d go to the studio together, we’d go to the Chateau together, we’d go out and eat together. It was kind of like we were a little band of gypsies. Normally we all lived in New York and went home over the weekends to live our own lives. I wouldn’t see them again until it’s time to go out on the road again. But for this period of time, we lived and worked as a group. We were very close and warm as a band.
How would it work to go from demo to finished song?
No song is ever finished whilst bands are stilling playing it. The contest for me is between this album and Loaded. Loaded was done in New York and we were all living separately. Like I said this one was done as a group. Loaded was focused and commercial and the manager [Steve Sesnick] wanted to have more FM play. He convinced me to think more commercially and so we started out softly, like you can hear on The Matrix tapes. We then wound up with Loaded being recorded with very FM oriented stuff like “Who Loves The Sun”, “Head Held High” and “Sweet Jane”.
They are brilliant songs though…
Yeah, but “Sweet Jane” started out as a soft ballad very much like the kind of song Lou liked to write, and then it became a power song. The manager wasn’t really pushing anything for us to write any hits. It’s pretty much the band who wanted to change a solo. We’d add a little touch. It wasn’t a major shift done in the production, it would be the way we’d play them live, and we were all playing them all except for “Murder Mysteries” on the Grey album, right? We only tried play that one time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBBlFfv4CAM
What are your thoughts on the different mixes for the third album? The Valatan mix and the Closet mix?
Mixes are like opinions, it’s just a viewpoint. It’s each person’s viewpoint on what is important to them. Certain people will bring up levels on certain things because they love the part, or it interests them or something like that. I was married to a woman who couldn’t play anything without cranking the bass up, it drove me crazy.
You talked earlier about The Matrix, what were your memories playing The Matrix?
The Matrix was kind of like the same situation as the third album. We were living in a motel, and played there for a week. We’d usually take a cab or sometimes we’d walk. We would travel together, live together, eat together and that’s the extent of our family that didn’t exist outside of tour.
It’s an astonishing document of the band. Would you say that it’s the peak of The Velvet Underground live?
It’s one of the peaks. It was memorable for various reasons. The period around the third album I think of as a long extended period of time because we did the west coast for six to eight weeks and we were like family during that whole time. It’s not the peak, but it was one of the high points in terms of the group’s mentality.
What would I expect to see at one of The Matrix shows?
It depends on what night you went. Some nights it was really crowded and some nights you’d get 15 – 20 people because it was an off night. It was laid back and very casual like a separate club where the act is unknown. Lou was talkative and it seems to be around the time where he started to pretend I was his brother.
Isn’t there a story of David Bowie mistaking you for Lou?
We played at the Electric Circus in New York, and somebody came up to us afterwards and said: “Someone here wants to meet you guys.” And I said: “Okay” So he came back and he was enthusiastic and we talked a little bit. He had an English accent, and since the invasion of The Beatles I have been enamoured of things out of England. I was thrilled to talk to someone with an English accent. We had a conversation and then he took off. About 15 – 20 years later he told that story to NPR that he thought it was Lou and he had no idea who he was talking to and I neither did I. You look back and think “Wow, did that really happen?” It’s just conversation.
What do you do these days, Doug?
I play music still, I play violin and guitar. I make violins and have a shop and I talk a bit more on the phone.
Can you tell us about your music?
I have two albums. I have a string band with 3 people, a guitar/banjo player and a mandolin player and I play fiddle. We’re called RedDog, the website is www.reddogseattle.com. We have two CDs and I keep threatening to put out this song that I wrote in 2000 and put out some a bit hear and there. My sister [Dorothy] is a book artist, she has a book in the Victoria and Albert Artist museum. She did this pop-up book called Memories Of Science. She won two or three prizes for it. She wrote this long poem out of the book and she wanted me to do music for it. Me and my son recorded it with the string band.
What does your brother Billy do these days?
He lives in Marysville, California, and he collects Mini Coopers. He has an estate wagon that he reconditioned. He’s got a bass drum at the back with a Beatles logo at the back.
I assume there is going to be an anniversary edition of Loaded to come after this. Is there anything else in the archive that hasn’t been made commercially available?
I don’t know, I really don’t know. My senses say there’s some stuff that I haven’t heard I know that was done, but I don’t know if anyone has it. There was stuff done at Record Plant.
Dating from when?
I don’t remember. I can remember the people involved. I remember it’s one of the times I ran into Jimi Hendrix as he was recording there too.
Really? How was that?
We first ran across him at the Whiskey in’69 on the tour of California. He was with Mitch Mitchell. During our set he was jumping up and down, banging his glass on the table, and really getting into it. He came up to us after, and we were talking a little bit. We were sitting there with our mouths open thinking “Did that really just happen?” with total disbelief. The next time we were in Record Plant, he came out from the studio, walking down the hall with a cup of coffee, and he goes, “I remember you guys from California.” And we had conversation. He went back into the studio, get high and jam, jam all night and he’ll record a track. He’ll go back and listen to the tape, take stuff out and then record the next stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3I71jqeKz8
MAUREEN TUCKER
The process of John leaving and Doug joining was very fast. Was there a sense of the band trying to redefine how they worked together?
Not that I am aware of. We knew Doug before he joined us. He was in Boston and we played there a lot, as you know, and we met him and I think we even stayed at his apartment one time. So we knew him a bit, and his abilities.
What do you think Doug brought to the band?
He brought sweetness, he could sew.
Sewing isn’t one of those things that I immediately associate with The Velvet Underground…
[Laughs] He’s one of those people who I admire, who can do all sorts of different things. He’s a good cook, he can sew, he’s a good singer, he’s a good musician. A great musician, actually. I guess he brought a little bit of calm after the storm.
What was it like living together at Chateau Marmont?
It was fun, it was like a little bungalow thing. I was up at four in the morning – still up, not up after sleeping – and I had the radio on, and it was announced that Lars Onsager, the father of our road guy, had just won the Nobel Prize. Isn’t that funny? That’s where we were, in that little cabin.
What do you remember about the sessions for that album?
Not a hell of a lot, to be honest. It was a long time ago. Heck, I don’t even remember what the hell’s on the album. Name a song and I’ll tell you if I remember something.
“Pale Blue Eyes”.
Yeah, I do remember recording that, actually. I love that song, I really love that song.
You sang “After Hours” on the album.
Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, okay. I was a nervous wreck. Took about eight takes, ‘cause I kept forgetting, or laughing, or whatever the hell I was doing, I don’t know! But it took seven or eight takes. Finally I had the sense to make everybody leave, leave the studio. I was really nervous, I’d never sung anything, obviously with the band, or anywhere else. I wanted to do a good job, so I was nervous.
Were they daytime sessions or night-time sessions? Do you have any recollection of that?
I would say day, and probably one into the night. It certainly wasn’t at 9 o’clock in the morning, but maybe it went into the night sometimes, or all the time, I don’t remember. But I do remember going into that other studio, that one in California, in the daytime… Yeah, probably afternoon, late afternoon, something like that.
With John out of the picture, what was Lou like during the period of this album?
I’m sure he was up; it’s always exciting to be in the studio.
The 1969 sessions you recorded for MGM are also included in this box set. What were relations like with MGM at the time?
Not great. We always wondered if maybe they just didn’t know what to do with us, ‘cause they barely distributed our records, and we were tired of that. So I think they honed in on The Mothers of Invention, and put all their efforts behind them, I don’t know, but they didn’t put much behind us.
Why didn’t the material come out at the time? Was it for contractual reactions, or…?
I would think it had to be something like that. When we were doing it, my recollection is that we were pretty much doing it to be done with the contract, that we owed them an album. But we didn’t go in and say, “Oh, screw it! Let’s just do this and be done, who cares.” We gave it our best, but we didn’t expect it to be coming out, as I recall. Not with MGM, anyway.
The other additional content in this set is the Matrix live recordings. What was it like playing live in The Velvet Underground?
Oh, it was fun! I always had fun. I really, really, really liked it. There’s very few songs where I can say, “Ah, I got sick of that one”, very few. I always enjoyed it, I was not particularly worried or anxious about the future. We were all, basically, having fun. And doing our best, and enjoying it, and being happy with our product – I hate that word! John maybe from when he was eight years old, and Lou by the time he was twelve, they knew that’s what they wanted to be: musicians. Sterling and I never had that in our mind, as a career, or even an attempt at a career. So to me, I was totally happy playing live, recording now and then; that was always very exciting to me, to be recording. So whatever I was feeling or thinking and Sterling too maybe, was a lot different than probably what Lou and John were worried about, or concerned or whatever. As I said, that was their career, they wanted music as a career. Sterling and I, we never though of that.
Out of all the studio albums, where do you rank this third album?
Hm. Good question. I mean I like it. But I love the first album, I love the sound of it, I like – a lot – White Light. Well, maybe they’re all fairly even.
What were your favourite songs to play live?
“Sister Ray”, “Heroin”, “I’m Waiting For The Man”, “Run Run”, “Pale Blue Eyes”.
The Velvet Underground: 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition is available now from UMe
I reviewed The Velvet Underground: 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition for new issue of Uncut. It’s a comprehensive, six-disc set compiling the band’s third album in an assortment of mixes, plus 1969 demos and a live recording from The Matrix in San Francisco. Of course, it marks the first album the band recorded after John Cale had left, with Doug Yule assuming bass and (some) vocal duties. I was fortunate enough to speak to both Yule and Moe Tucker for a Q&A to accompany my review. As usual, I ended up with far too much material, so I thought I’d share the full transcripts of both interviews below…
___________________
DOUG YULE
You were in the fortunate position of seeing The Velvet Underground play before you joined the band. What were they like live?
The first time I saw them was in Cambridge, Massachusetts at Harvard University. John was sick and all I saw was Lou, Sterling and Maureen and they were playing in a dark room. It was full of college age people. I remember Lou was wearing black leather. They were a presence right away. They had good volume, substantial volume. It set up a whole bunch of ideas about how to present music onstage to the point I went home from that night and I started writing notes and ideas down based on their theatrical presentation of music.
Do you remember what you wrote down?
Only as impressions, I just remember a sequence of events. The images I counted up after seeing them live kind of made me think of live theatre. There would be a black stage and suddenly there would be white ceramic vase in the middle of it and then the vase falls all over in place. That’s kind of the opening feature of the first songs. At the time I had just finished doing a year as theatre major, so theatre was kind of my thing.
After you joined the band, you went into the studio only a few weeks later to start work on The Velvet Underground. What do you remember of that period?
My memory works in a funny way. I have a picture of the band in a small studio room with a tiny control room attached to it. It was probably much roomier than that. I have little pictures with which some of them are connected and some of them are isolated and none of them are sequential. From the time I started playing with Lou, Maureen and Sterling until we end up in the studio it was kind of like walking down the street with people walking a lot faster than you. Your focus is to try and keep up, to try and stay with them and not fall behind. The first time we played together, the first weekend, was about trying to remember everything I need, like “What chords in this song? What do I play in this song? What key is this song in? What do I sing in this song?” constantly over and over again. By the time I got into the studio it had evaporated or was taken care of in the first few weeks.
You were the new boy, but those guys were in the process of redefining how they worked together after Cale had left…. Was it a case of you all learning together..?
In a lot of ways, yeah. John and Lou pushed against each other a lot. It was like a constant ongoing tug of war. Then when Lou found himself as the main guy, the main songwriter, everything was much more cooperative. He seemed to be having a good time and seriously enjoying himself. I can imagine with Sterling and Maureen it would be a totally different kind of thing.
What do you remember from the sessions for The Velvet Underground album?
You know, it’s my favourite album out of all the recordings we have done. We recorded the tracks with all four people and then overdubbed vocals and harmonies. It’s really the closest to the band sounding like playing live. We were staying at the same bungalow at Chateau Marmont. The band were like a little family during his period. We’d go to the studio together, we’d go to the Chateau together, we’d go out and eat together. It was kind of like we were a little band of gypsies. Normally we all lived in New York and went home over the weekends to live our own lives. I wouldn’t see them again until it’s time to go out on the road again. But for this period of time, we lived and worked as a group. We were very close and warm as a band.
How would it work to go from demo to finished song?
No song is ever finished whilst bands are stilling playing it. The contest for me is between this album and Loaded. Loaded was done in New York and we were all living separately. Like I said this one was done as a group. Loaded was focused and commercial and the manager [Steve Sesnick] wanted to have more FM play. He convinced me to think more commercially and so we started out softly, like you can hear on The Matrix tapes. We then wound up with Loaded being recorded with very FM oriented stuff like “Who Loves The Sun”, “Head Held High” and “Sweet Jane”.
They are brilliant songs though…
Yeah, but “Sweet Jane” started out as a soft ballad very much like the kind of song Lou liked to write, and then it became a power song. The manager wasn’t really pushing anything for us to write any hits. It’s pretty much the band who wanted to change a solo. We’d add a little touch. It wasn’t a major shift done in the production, it would be the way we’d play them live, and we were all playing them all except for “Murder Mysteries” on the Grey album, right? We only tried play that one time.
What are your thoughts on the different mixes for the third album? The Valatan mix and the Closet mix?
Mixes are like opinions, it’s just a viewpoint. It’s each person’s viewpoint on what is important to them. Certain people will bring up levels on certain things because they love the part, or it interests them or something like that. I was married to a woman who couldn’t play anything without cranking the bass up, it drove me crazy.
You talked earlier about The Matrix, what were your memories playing The Matrix?
The Matrix was kind of like the same situation as the third album. We were living in a motel, and played there for a week. We’d usually take a cab or sometimes we’d walk. We would travel together, live together, eat together and that’s the extent of our family that didn’t exist outside of tour.
It’s an astonishing document of the band. Would you say that it’s the peak of The Velvet Underground live?
It’s one of the peaks. It was memorable for various reasons. The period around the third album I think of as a long extended period of time because we did the west coast for six to eight weeks and we were like family during that whole time. It’s not the peak, but it was one of the high points in terms of the group’s mentality.
What would I expect to see at one of The Matrix shows?
It depends on what night you went. Some nights it was really crowded and some nights you’d get 15 – 20 people because it was an off night. It was laid back and very casual like a separate club where the act is unknown. Lou was talkative and it seems to be around the time where he started to pretend I was his brother.
Isn’t there a story of David Bowie mistaking you for Lou?
We played at the Electric Circus in New York, and somebody came up to us afterwards and said: “Someone here wants to meet you guys.” And I said: “Okay” So he came back and he was enthusiastic and we talked a little bit. He had an English accent, and since the invasion of The Beatles I have been enamoured of things out of England. I was thrilled to talk to someone with an English accent. We had a conversation and then he took off. About 15 – 20 years later he told that story to NPR that he thought it was Lou and he had no idea who he was talking to and I neither did I. You look back and think “Wow, did that really happen?” It’s just conversation.
What do you do these days, Doug?
I play music still, I play violin and guitar. I make violins and have a shop and I talk a bit more on the phone.
Can you tell us about your music?
I have two albums. I have a string band with 3 people, a guitar/banjo player and a mandolin player and I play fiddle. We’re called RedDog, the website is www.reddogseattle.com. We have two CDs and I keep threatening to put out this song that I wrote in 2000 and put out some a bit hear and there. My sister [Dorothy] is a book artist, she has a book in the Victoria and Albert Artist museum. She did this pop-up book called Memories Of Science. She won two or three prizes for it. She wrote this long poem out of the book and she wanted me to do music for it. Me and my son recorded it with the string band.
What does your brother Billy do these days?
He lives in Marysville, California, and he collects Mini Coopers. He has an estate wagon that he reconditioned. He’s got a bass drum at the back with a Beatles logo at the back.
I assume there is going to be an anniversary edition of Loaded to come after this. Is there anything else in the archive that hasn’t been made commercially available?
I don’t know, I really don’t know. My senses say there’s some stuff that I haven’t heard I know that was done, but I don’t know if anyone has it. There was stuff done at Record Plant.
Dating from when?
I don’t remember. I can remember the people involved. I remember it’s one of the times I ran into Jimi Hendrix as he was recording there too.
Really? How was that?
We first ran across him at the Whiskey in’69 on the tour of California. He was with Mitch Mitchell. During our set he was jumping up and down, banging his glass on the table, and really getting into it. He came up to us after, and we were talking a little bit. We were sitting there with our mouths open thinking “Did that really just happen?” with total disbelief. The next time we were in Record Plant, he came out from the studio, walking down the hall with a cup of coffee, and he goes, “I remember you guys from California.” And we had conversation. He went back into the studio, get high and jam, jam all night and he’ll record a track. He’ll go back and listen to the tape, take stuff out and then record the next stuff.
MAUREEN TUCKER
The process of John leaving and Doug joining was very fast. Was there a sense of the band trying to redefine how they worked together?
Not that I am aware of. We knew Doug before he joined us. He was in Boston and we played there a lot, as you know, and we met him and I think we even stayed at his apartment one time. So we knew him a bit, and his abilities.
What do you think Doug brought to the band?
He brought sweetness, he could sew.
Sewing isn’t one of those things that I immediately associate with The Velvet Underground…
[Laughs] He’s one of those people who I admire, who can do all sorts of different things. He’s a good cook, he can sew, he’s a good singer, he’s a good musician. A great musician, actually. I guess he brought a little bit of calm after the storm.
What was it like living together at Chateau Marmont?
It was fun, it was like a little bungalow thing. I was up at four in the morning – still up, not up after sleeping – and I had the radio on, and it was announced that Lars Onsager, the father of our road guy, had just won the Nobel Prize. Isn’t that funny? That’s where we were, in that little cabin.
What do you remember about the sessions for that album?
Not a hell of a lot, to be honest. It was a long time ago. Heck, I don’t even remember what the hell’s on the album. Name a song and I’ll tell you if I remember something.
“Pale Blue Eyes”.
Yeah, I do remember recording that, actually. I love that song, I really love that song.
You sang “After Hours” on the album.
Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, okay. I was a nervous wreck. Took about eight takes, ‘cause I kept forgetting, or laughing, or whatever the hell I was doing, I don’t know! But it took seven or eight takes. Finally I had the sense to make everybody leave, leave the studio. I was really nervous, I’d never sung anything, obviously with the band, or anywhere else. I wanted to do a good job, so I was nervous.
Were they daytime sessions or night-time sessions? Do you have any recollection of that?
I would say day, and probably one into the night. It certainly wasn’t at 9 o’clock in the morning, but maybe it went into the night sometimes, or all the time, I don’t remember. But I do remember going into that other studio, that one in California, in the daytime… Yeah, probably afternoon, late afternoon, something like that.
With John out of the picture, what was Lou like during the period of this album?
I’m sure he was up; it’s always exciting to be in the studio.
The 1969 sessions you recorded for MGM are also included in this box set. What were relations like with MGM at the time?
Not great. We always wondered if maybe they just didn’t know what to do with us, ‘cause they barely distributed our records, and we were tired of that. So I think they honed in on The Mothers of Invention, and put all their efforts behind them, I don’t know, but they didn’t put much behind us.
Why didn’t the material come out at the time? Was it for contractual reactions, or…?
I would think it had to be something like that. When we were doing it, my recollection is that we were pretty much doing it to be done with the contract, that we owed them an album. But we didn’t go in and say, “Oh, screw it! Let’s just do this and be done, who cares.” We gave it our best, but we didn’t expect it to be coming out, as I recall. Not with MGM, anyway.
The other additional content in this set is the Matrix live recordings. What was it like playing live in The Velvet Underground?
Oh, it was fun! I always had fun. I really, really, really liked it. There’s very few songs where I can say, “Ah, I got sick of that one”, very few. I always enjoyed it, I was not particularly worried or anxious about the future. We were all, basically, having fun. And doing our best, and enjoying it, and being happy with our product – I hate that word! John maybe from when he was eight years old, and Lou by the time he was twelve, they knew that’s what they wanted to be: musicians. Sterling and I never had that in our mind, as a career, or even an attempt at a career. So to me, I was totally happy playing live, recording now and then; that was always very exciting to me, to be recording. So whatever I was feeling or thinking and Sterling too maybe, was a lot different than probably what Lou and John were worried about, or concerned or whatever. As I said, that was their career, they wanted music as a career. Sterling and I, we never though of that.
Out of all the studio albums, where do you rank this third album?
Hm. Good question. I mean I like it. But I love the first album, I love the sound of it, I like – a lot – White Light. Well, maybe they’re all fairly even.
What were your favourite songs to play live?
“Sister Ray”, “Heroin”, “I’m Waiting For The Man”, “Run Run”, “Pale Blue Eyes”.
The Velvet Underground: 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition is available now from UMe
