David Crosby reveals that his new solo album is “like sex”, in the new issue of Uncut (dated November 2013), out now.
The Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young singer-songwriter explains that the forthcoming record, tentatively titled Dangerous Night, and produced by Dan Garcia and Crosby’s son ...
David Crosby reveals that his new solo album is “like sex”, in the new issue of Uncut (dated November 2013), out now.
The Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young singer-songwriter explains that the forthcoming record, tentatively titled Dangerous Night, and produced by Dan Garcia and Crosby’s son James Raymond, is hard to label.
“Putting labels on this music is very tough,” he says. “It’s like trying to describe sex – it’s warm and wet, you go in and out and it really feels good. Somehow words just don’t convey the experience. Let’s just say that most people will be surprised by this record.”
The album will be Crosby’s fourth solo release, following 1993’s Thousand Roads.
The singer-songwriter takes us through some of the tracks on his new album, and also talks about the release of a new CSNY live album recorded in 1974 in the piece.
A new box set, Bob Dylan Complete Album Collection Vol. One, collecting Dylan's entire official discography, is due for release on Monday 4 November 2013.
The CD boxed set contains 35 studio titles (including the first-ever North American release of 1973's Dylan album on CD) as well as 6 live albums and a hardcover book featuring extensive new album-by-album liner notes penned by Clinton Heylin and a new introduction written by Bill Flanagan.
It also contains two "Side Tracks" discs which round up previously released non-album singles, tracks from Biograph and other compilations, songs from films and more.
The Bob Dylan Complete Album Collection Vol. One will also be available as a limited-edition harmonica-shaped USB stick containing all the music, in both MP3 and FLAC lossless formats, with a digital version of the hardcover booklet, housed in a deluxe numbered box.
14 albums have been remastered especially for this set.
A new compilation, The Very Best Of Bob Dylan, is also released on the same date.
The Bob Dylan Complete Album Collection Vol. One includes:
Studio Albums
Bob Dylan (1962)
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)
The Times They Are a-Changin' (1964)
Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964)
Bringing It All Back Home (1965)
Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
Blonde on Blonde (1966)
John Wesley Harding (1967)
Nashville Skyline (1969)
*Self Portrait (1970) - newly remastered for this collection
New Morning (1970)
*Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) - newly remastered for this collection
*Dylan (1973) - newly remastered for this collection
Planet Waves (1974)
Blood on the Tracks (1975)
The Basement Tapes (1975)
Desire (1976)
*Street Legal (1978) - newly remastered for this collection
Slow Train Coming (1979)
*Saved (1980) - newly remastered for this collection
Shot of Love (1981)
Infidels (1983)
*Empire Burlesque (1985) - newly remastered for this collection
*Knocked Out Loaded (1986) - newly remastered for this collection
*Down in the Groove (1988) - newly remastered for this collection
Oh Mercy (1989)
*Under the Red Sky (1990) - newly remastered for this collection
*Good as I Been to You (1992) - newly remastered for this collection
*World Gone Wrong (1993) - newly remastered for this collection
Time Out of Mind (1997)
Love and Theft (2001)
Modern Times (2006)
Together Through Life (2009)
Christmas in the Heart (2009)
Tempest (2012)
Live Albums
Before the Flood (1972)
*Hard Rain (1976) - newly remastered for this collection
*Bob Dylan at Budokan (1979) - newly remastered for this collection
*Real Live (1984) - newly remastered for this collection
Dylan & the Dead (1989)
MTV Unplugged (1995)
"Side Tracks"
Baby, I'm in the Mood for You
Mixed-Up Confusion
Tomorrow Is a Long Time (live)
Lay Down Your Weary Tune
Percy's Song
I'll Keep It with Mine
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?
Positively 4th Street
Jet Pilot
I Wanna Be Your Lover
I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) (live)
Visions of Johanna (live)
Quinn the Eskimo
Watching the River Flow
When I Paint My Masterpiece
Down in the Flood
I Shall Be Released
You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
George Jackson (acoustic version)
Forever Young
You're a Big Girl Now
Up to Me
Abandoned Love
Isis (live)
Romance in Durango (live)
Caribbean Wind
Heart of Mine (live)
Series of Dreams
Dignity
Things Have Changed
The Very Best Of Bob Dylan tracklisting:
Formats:
1 CD Standard / Standard Digital
2 CD Deluxe / Deluxe Digital
Disc 1
Like a Rolling Stone
Blowin' in the Wind
Subterranean Homesick Blues
Lay, Lady, Lay
Knockin' on Heaven's Door
I Want You
All Along the Watchtower
Tangled up in Blue
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
Hurricane
Just Like a Woman
Mr. Tambourine Man
It Ain't Me Babe
The Times They Are A-Changin'
Duquesne Whistle
Baby, Stop Crying
Make You Feel My Love
Thunder on the Mountain
Disc 2 (2 CD Deluxe / Deluxe Digital version only)
Maggie's Farm
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Girl from the North Country
Positively 4th Street
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
Shelter from the Storm
Mississippi
(Quinn the Eskimo) The Mighty Quinn
I Shall Be Released
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Forever Young
Gotta Serve Somebody
Things Have Changed
Jokerman
Not Dark Yet
Ring Them Bells
Beyond Here Lies Nothin'
A new box set, Bob Dylan Complete Album Collection Vol. One, collecting Dylan’s entire official discography, is due for release on Monday 4 November 2013.
The CD boxed set contains 35 studio titles (including the first-ever North American release of 1973’s Dylan album on CD) as well as 6 live albums and a hardcover book featuring extensive new album-by-album liner notes penned by Clinton Heylin and a new introduction written by Bill Flanagan.
It also contains two “Side Tracks” discs which round up previously released non-album singles, tracks from Biograph and other compilations, songs from films and more.
The Bob Dylan Complete Album Collection Vol. One will also be available as a limited-edition harmonica-shaped USB stick containing all the music, in both MP3 and FLAC lossless formats, with a digital version of the hardcover booklet, housed in a deluxe numbered box.
14 albums have been remastered especially for this set.
A new compilation, The Very Best Of Bob Dylan, is also released on the same date.
The Bob Dylan Complete Album Collection Vol. One includes:
Studio Albums
Bob Dylan (1962)
The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963)
The Times They Are a-Changin’ (1964)
Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964)
Bringing It All Back Home (1965)
Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
Blonde on Blonde (1966)
John Wesley Harding (1967)
Nashville Skyline (1969)
*Self Portrait (1970) – newly remastered for this collection
New Morning (1970)
*Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) – newly remastered for this collection
*Dylan (1973) – newly remastered for this collection
Planet Waves (1974)
Blood on the Tracks (1975)
The Basement Tapes (1975)
Desire (1976)
*Street Legal (1978) – newly remastered for this collection
Slow Train Coming (1979)
*Saved (1980) – newly remastered for this collection
Shot of Love (1981)
Infidels (1983)
*Empire Burlesque (1985) – newly remastered for this collection
*Knocked Out Loaded (1986) – newly remastered for this collection
*Down in the Groove (1988) – newly remastered for this collection
Oh Mercy (1989)
*Under the Red Sky (1990) – newly remastered for this collection
*Good as I Been to You (1992) – newly remastered for this collection
*World Gone Wrong (1993) – newly remastered for this collection
Time Out of Mind (1997)
Love and Theft (2001)
Modern Times (2006)
Together Through Life (2009)
Christmas in the Heart (2009)
Tempest (2012)
Live Albums
Before the Flood (1972)
*Hard Rain (1976) – newly remastered for this collection
*Bob Dylan at Budokan (1979) – newly remastered for this collection
*Real Live (1984) – newly remastered for this collection
Dylan & the Dead (1989)
MTV Unplugged (1995)
“Side Tracks”
Baby, I’m in the Mood for You
Mixed-Up Confusion
Tomorrow Is a Long Time (live)
Lay Down Your Weary Tune
Percy’s Song
I’ll Keep It with Mine
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?
Positively 4th Street
Jet Pilot
I Wanna Be Your Lover
I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) (live)
Visions of Johanna (live)
Quinn the Eskimo
Watching the River Flow
When I Paint My Masterpiece
Down in the Flood
I Shall Be Released
You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
George Jackson (acoustic version)
Forever Young
You’re a Big Girl Now
Up to Me
Abandoned Love
Isis (live)
Romance in Durango (live)
Caribbean Wind
Heart of Mine (live)
Series of Dreams
Dignity
Things Have Changed
The Very Best Of Bob Dylan tracklisting:
Formats:
1 CD Standard / Standard Digital
2 CD Deluxe / Deluxe Digital
Disc 1
Like a Rolling Stone
Blowin’ in the Wind
Subterranean Homesick Blues
Lay, Lady, Lay
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
I Want You
All Along the Watchtower
Tangled up in Blue
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
Hurricane
Just Like a Woman
Mr. Tambourine Man
It Ain’t Me Babe
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Duquesne Whistle
Baby, Stop Crying
Make You Feel My Love
Thunder on the Mountain
Disc 2 (2 CD Deluxe / Deluxe Digital version only)
The Pogues are set to play their classic 1985 album Rum, Sodomy & The Lash at four separate shows in the UK this December.
The band will visit Manchester O2 Apollo on December 15, before gigs at Glasgow O2 Academy (December 17) and two shows at London's O2 Academy Brixton on December 19 and 20....
The Pogues are set to play their classic 1985 album Rum, Sodomy & The Lash at four separate shows in the UK this December.
The band will visit Manchester O2 Apollo on December 15, before gigs at Glasgow O2 Academy (December 17) and two shows at London’s O2 Academy Brixton on December 19 and 20. Tickets go on sale at 9.30am [BST] on September 27. As well as playing their second album in full, they will also perform other “favourite tracks”.
Earlier this year it was reported that The Pogues’ Shane MacGowan was searching for a dentist who could fix his infamously bad teeth so he might start a Hollywood film career. MacGowan’s hedonistic lifestyle caused his teeth to rot and fall out and, although he had dentures fitted in 2009, he no longer wears them. His girlfriend Victoria Mary Clarke launched an appeal on Twitter for a dentist to fix his gnashers and also promised that the frontman would front an advertising campaign in exchange for the work.
“Shane is keen to find a dentist, so he can start in Hollywood film,” she wrote. “Pogues/Shane fans who are great dentists please apply!” She later added: “Shane promises to do advertising campaign for the winning dentist!!!”
The Pogues released the live album and DVD Pogues In Paris: 30th Anniversary Concert At The Olympia, which features two shows in the French capital, in November 2012. Their last studio album, Pogue Mahone, was released in 1996.
A new exhibition of iron works and original paintings by Bob Dylan is set to open at London's Halcyon Gallery on November 16.
'Mood Swings' will feature seven iron gates welded out of vintage iron by the legendary singer-songwriter, who, states a press release for the event, has had a "lifelong fascination with welding and metalwork." Dylan comments: "I've been around iron all my life ever since I was a kid. I was born and raised in iron ore country - where you could breathe it and smell it every day. And I've always worked with it in one form or another. Gates appeal to me because of the negative space they allow. They can be closed but at the same time they allow the seasons and breezes to enter and flow. They can shut you out or shut you in. And in some ways there is no difference."
The exhibition, which will run until January 25, 2014, also features original silkscreen works on canvas by Dylan. President of the Halcyon Gallery, Paul Green, has said of the exhibition: "The forthcoming exhibition will be the most comprehensive and authoritative collection of Bob Dylan’s art to date. While Dylan has been a committed visual artist for more than four decades, this exhibition will cast new light on one of the world's most important and influential cultural figures of our time. His iron works demonstrate his boundless creativity and talent. As these artworks are made at home, not on the road, they give us a rare glimpse into another part of the artist's own personal universe."
A series of Bob Dylan's paintings are also currently on display at London's National Portrait Gallery. The 12 pastel works are a mix of real and fictitious characters. 'Bob Dylan: Face Value' will be in the Contemporary Collection displays until January 5, 2014.
Bob Dylan's welding skills have been reported previously in Uncut. In a 2011 interview in the magazine, David Stewart told us, "Jeff Rosen, who’s his publishing manager, was really laughing because Dylan very rarely responds to requests for this or that but… I bought this land with a friend in the woods in Jamaica and we were building this house and it had these broken down old stones and it had this bit where there could be a gate… and I sent a fax saying would Bob design these metal gates? And it came straight back – ‘I’m into it!’ He does metal welding, like sculptural, and he’s brilliant.”
A new exhibition of iron works and original paintings by Bob Dylan is set to open at London’s Halcyon Gallery on November 16.
‘Mood Swings’ will feature seven iron gates welded out of vintage iron by the legendary singer-songwriter, who, states a press release for the event, has had a “lifelong fascination with welding and metalwork.” Dylan comments: “I’ve been around iron all my life ever since I was a kid. I was born and raised in iron ore country – where you could breathe it and smell it every day. And I’ve always worked with it in one form or another. Gates appeal to me because of the negative space they allow. They can be closed but at the same time they allow the seasons and breezes to enter and flow. They can shut you out or shut you in. And in some ways there is no difference.”
The exhibition, which will run until January 25, 2014, also features original silkscreen works on canvas by Dylan. President of the Halcyon Gallery, Paul Green, has said of the exhibition: “The forthcoming exhibition will be the most comprehensive and authoritative collection of Bob Dylan’s art to date. While Dylan has been a committed visual artist for more than four decades, this exhibition will cast new light on one of the world’s most important and influential cultural figures of our time. His iron works demonstrate his boundless creativity and talent. As these artworks are made at home, not on the road, they give us a rare glimpse into another part of the artist’s own personal universe.”
A series of Bob Dylan’s paintings are also currently on display at London’s National Portrait Gallery. The 12 pastel works are a mix of real and fictitious characters. ‘Bob Dylan: Face Value’ will be in the Contemporary Collection displays until January 5, 2014.
Bob Dylan’s welding skills have been reported previously in Uncut. In a 2011 interview in the magazine, David Stewart told us, “Jeff Rosen, who’s his publishing manager, was really laughing because Dylan very rarely responds to requests for this or that but… I bought this land with a friend in the woods in Jamaica and we were building this house and it had these broken down old stones and it had this bit where there could be a gate… and I sent a fax saying would Bob design these metal gates? And it came straight back – ‘I’m into it!’ He does metal welding, like sculptural, and he’s brilliant.”
Robert Fripp has unveiled a new incarnation of King Crimson.
Speaking to Uncut, Fripp said: "King Crimson is returning to active service. We are on-call to be ready for a live performance on September 1, 2014. Seven members. Four English, three American. Three drummers. It’s a different configura...
Robert Fripp has unveiled a new incarnation of King Crimson.
Speaking to Uncut, Fripp said: “King Crimson is returning to active service. We are on-call to be ready for a live performance on September 1, 2014. Seven members. Four English, three American. Three drummers. It’s a different configuration of King Crimson than before. Some are familiar names, maybe more than others.”
This line-up – the 8th in the band’s history – will be Fripp, Gavin Harrison, Bill Rieflin, Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto, Mel Collins and Jakko Jakszyk.
They are all former Crimson members, except Rieflin and Jakszyk who have been involved on the fringes of Crimson for a few years. Rieflin collaborated with Chris Wong, Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox in a project called The Humans, while Jakszyk played in Jakszyk Fripp & Collins, alongside Robert Fripp and Mel Collins.
Fripp has been embroiled in a legal dispute with Universal Music Group for six years, which has only recently been resolved. This legal dispute caused him to retire from live performance. King Crimson last played together in 2008, while Fripp himself hasn’t performed live since 2010. There are no plans, he says, for the new King Crimson to enter a studio. They will play “reconfigured” versions of existing Crimson material.
“The first performance will take place in either North or South America,” Fripp told Uncut. “There will be rehearsals primarily in England, and the final batch of rehearsals will most likely be in America in August or September 2014. There is a plan to include the UK in the tour dates, but it depends on a number of circumstances. Right now the primary geographical focus is the United States.”
Conspicuously wealthy blues collectors probably know about this by now, but a copy of Tommy Johnson’s “Alcohol And Jake Blues” has surfaced – only the second that’s ever been found – and is on sale at Ebay. It’ll be interesting to see how bidding shapes up before the auction closes around 10 tonight (UK time): at time of writing, the highest offer is $16,800.00.
There’s a great exchange in the Ebay Q&A when someone tries to get the seller to digitise his copy and replace the scratchy transfer that currently circulates (as on the Youtube link below). That doesn’t work, as you might imagine.
Back in 2013, there’s a nice new Limiñanas record, the best Alasdair Roberts in a while, King Champion Sounds (a Dutch-based band featured one of The Ex and Ajay from one of my favourite lost ‘90s noise bands, Donkey, and the Daniel Bachman and Trans (interesting story there…) releases get better with each listen. Also, if you were drawn in by my Television/Forsyth/Nugent/Nico blog last week, there’s a trailer for the Chris Forsyth album gone live, that I’ve embedded below.
And a quick reminder that our new issue is on sale today (Read about the November 2013 Uncut here): cool, I think, to have The Waterboys, Clarence White, Throwing Muses, Archie Shepp and Laraaji in there, among all the other stuff. As ever, let us know what you think…
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey
1 Daniel Bachman – Jesus I’m A Sinner (Tompkins Square)
2 Kurt Vile & The Violators - it's a big world out there (and i am scared) EP (Matador)
3 The Limiñanas - Costa Blanca (Trouble In Mind)
4 Cliff Martinez – Solaris: Original Music (Invada)
5 Van Morrison – Into The Mystic (Unreleased Version) (Warner Bros)
6 Neil Young – Reason To Believe (Live At Farm Aid)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du98mhHRdGI
7 Date Palms – The Dusted Sessions (Thrill Jockey)
Read my live review of Date Palms here
8 Roy Harper – Man And Myth (Bella Union)
Read my live review of Roy Harper here
9 Alasdair Roberts & Robin Robertson – Hrta Songs (Stone Tape)
10 Tommy Johnson – Alcohol And Jake Blues (Paramount)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayltwUwpW04
11 Chris Forsyth – Solar Motel (Paradise Of Bachelors)
Conspicuously wealthy blues collectors probably know about this by now, but a copy of Tommy Johnson’s “Alcohol And Jake Blues” has surfaced – only the second that’s ever been found – and is on sale at Ebay. It’ll be interesting to see how bidding shapes up before the auction closes around 10 tonight (UK time): at time of writing, the highest offer is $16,800.00.
There’s a great exchange in the Ebay Q&A when someone tries to get the seller to digitise his copy and replace the scratchy transfer that currently circulates (as on the Youtube link below). That doesn’t work, as you might imagine.
Back in 2013, there’s a nice new Limiñanas record, the best Alasdair Roberts in a while, King Champion Sounds (a Dutch-based band featured one of The Ex and Ajay from one of my favourite lost ‘90s noise bands, Donkey, and the Daniel Bachman and Trans (interesting story there…) releases get better with each listen. Also, if you were drawn in by my Television/Forsyth/Nugent/Nico blog last week, there’s a trailer for the Chris Forsyth album gone live, that I’ve embedded below.
And a quick reminder that our new issue is on sale today (Read about the November 2013 Uncut here): cool, I think, to have The Waterboys, Clarence White, Throwing Muses, Archie Shepp and Laraaji in there, among all the other stuff. As ever, let us know what you think…
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey
1 Daniel Bachman – Jesus I’m A Sinner (Tompkins Square)
2 Kurt Vile & The Violators – it’s a big world out there (and i am scared) EP (Matador)
3 The Limiñanas – Costa Blanca (Trouble In Mind)
4 Cliff Martinez – Solaris: Original Music (Invada)
5 Van Morrison – Into The Mystic (Unreleased Version) (Warner Bros)
6 Neil Young – Reason To Believe (Live At Farm Aid)
7 Date Palms – The Dusted Sessions (Thrill Jockey)
12 Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Idea & Deed/On My Way Home Again/You Have Cum In Your Hair And Your Dick Is Hanging Out/Time To Be Clear (Ace Hotel & Jackpot! Recording MFNW Sessions)
Pink Floyd, John Lydon, The Waterboys and Vampire Weekend are in the new issue of Uncut (dated November 2013), out now.
In the cover feature, Nick Mason, Alan Parsons, Roy Harper and more finally reveal the secrets of The Dark Side Of The Moon, 40 years after its release.
“However much success...
Pink Floyd, John Lydon, The Waterboys and Vampire Weekend are in the new issue of Uncut (dated November 2013), out now.
In the cover feature, Nick Mason, Alan Parsons, Roy Harper and more finally reveal the secrets of The Dark Side Of The Moon, 40 years after its release.
“However much success you have,” Mason tells Uncut, “it’s never quite enough to ease the egos of everyone.”
John Lydon talks us through the rocky creation of his greatest albums, from the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind The Bollocks… and Public Image Limited’s Metal Box to his own Psycho’s Path and PiL’s This Is PiL from 2012.
Mike Scott also reveals how he got deep into folk, started competing with U2 and made The Waterboys’ 1988 folk masterpiece Fisherman’s Blues, while Vampire Weekend reflect on their impressive trilogy of albums, and why being into preppy things at 29 is “a bit stunted”.
Elsewhere, The Animals discuss the making of “We’ve Gotta Get Out Of This Place”, David Crosby talks about his new solo album and a CSNY ’74 live album, Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb answers your questions and the astounding, tragic tale of Clarence White, the Byrd who sparked two musical revolutions, is told.
Returning alternative heroes Throwing Muses look back over their history, champagne, painkillers and Jagger’s bed included, while Uncut meets teenage rabble-rousers The Strypes, and Graham Parker takes us back through the records that have defined his life.
In the huge reviews section, new albums by Paul McCartney, Arcade Fire, Jonathan Wilson, Prefab Sprout and Linda Thompson are reviewed, alongside archive material from John Martyn, Nirvana, The Beta Band and Bruce Springsteen.
The film and DVD section looks at Captain Phillips, The Wicker Man and Basically, Johnny Moped, while The Replacements, End Of The Road Festival and Björk are reviewed in our live section.
Uncut’s CD this month includes tracks from Okkervil River, Jonathan Wilson, Linda Thompson, Bill Callahan, Tony Joe White, Howe Gelb and The Sufis.
The new issue of Uncut (dated November 2013) is out now.
A new interactive album app called John Lennon: The Bermuda Tapes will be released on November 5.
The app, which is to be launched exclusively through the iTunes App Store, is directed by Michael Epstein, who previously wrote and directed by documentary, LENNONYC.
The app is based on Lennon's 1980 visit to Bermuda, and his collaborations with Ono, which informed the Double Fantasy album. According to a report in Billboard, users will be able to navigate stormy seas to Bermuda, visit a disco, and hear Lennon's demos of tracks like “Woman”, “Starting Over”, “I’m Losing You”, “(Just Like) Starting Over”, “Nobody Told Me” and “Dear Yoko".
"Writing Double Fantasy was a very exciting time creatively for both John and me," said Yoko Ono. "I think the album app captures the sense of discovery and the artistic dialogue that John and I shared at that time and provides a new way to help us imagine a world without hunger."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhV5dtzHY1w
A new interactive album app called John Lennon: The Bermuda Tapes will be released on November 5.
The app, which is to be launched exclusively through the iTunes App Store, is directed by Michael Epstein, who previously wrote and directed by documentary, LENNONYC.
The app is based on Lennon’s 1980 visit to Bermuda, and his collaborations with Ono, which informed the Double Fantasy album. According to a report in Billboard, users will be able to navigate stormy seas to Bermuda, visit a disco, and hear Lennon’s demos of tracks like “Woman”, “Starting Over”, “I’m Losing You”, “(Just Like) Starting Over”, “Nobody Told Me” and “Dear Yoko”.
“Writing Double Fantasy was a very exciting time creatively for both John and me,” said Yoko Ono. “I think the album app captures the sense of discovery and the artistic dialogue that John and I shared at that time and provides a new way to help us imagine a world without hunger.”
“I am guilty,” says Roy Harper, “of taking you on some strange journeys, I have to admit.” We are two songs into a solo Harper show to mark the release of his first new album in 13 years, taking place in a record shop (Rough Trade East) and being streamed live on the internet; a confluence of events that clearly amuses the singer on some essential and bemused level.
Thus far, he has reconstructed Dylan’s “Girl From The North Country” as brittle, almost ethereal English folk, stretching its climax into a series of forlorn wails that reveal his voice has weathered miraculously well these 72 years. Before acknowledging the release of “Man And Myth”, he has celebrated the “50th anniversary” of “Legend” (the anniversary of its writing, presumably; it surfaced on “Sophisticated Beggar” in 1966) and prefaced it with a lengthy digression on the influence of TS Eliot and Rousseau.
In his conversation, as much as in his music, Harper’s longeurs are critical to his charm; the further he meanders, the deeper he gets. Tonight, though, he is on relatively economical form: eight songs in an hour represents a pretty frantic pace by his normally leisurely standards. Four of them, understandably, come from “Man And Myth”, and in some cases flourish in this unadorned state: the gentle progressions of “Time Is Temporary”, with its prickly, fingerpicked punctuation; “The Enemy”, especially forceful and plaintive.
“The Stranger” has the tough job of following a gorgeous version of “Another Day”, but it’s a mark of the new songs’ strength that there’s no alarming drop in quality here. These are elegiac and labyrinthine constructions that show Harper has lost none of his brackish mystique or scholarly nimbleness. It’s a shame that he couldn’t find room for the 15-minute reverie of “Heaven Is Here”, but there’ll be other nights for that.
Instead, Harper finishes with the deathlessly lovely “When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease”, performed with the requisite former England test player (Derek Pringle, who once scandalised the cricket establishment by wearing an earring, and who I once spotted towering above the crowd at an American Music Club show at the Astoria) in attendance. “Well this way of life's recollection, the hallowed strip in the haze/The fabled men and the noonday sun are much more than just yarns of their days.”
An hour or so later, I make it up to Café Oto in Dalston to catch Oakland’s Date Palms, whose languorous instrumentals could have been baked in a heat haze. I wrote about one of Date Palms’ old albums, “Of Psalms”, a couple of years ago, and a lot of those observations still hold true for this year’s very fine “Dusted Sessions” set and the live show. Marielle Jakobsons and Gregg Kowalsky have now recruited a bassist and guitarist, though, so their live shows have a heft and intricacy that is a match for their records, and for one of their most obvious – at least to me – antecedents, Brightblack Morning Light.
Most songs begin with Kowalsky cueing up a loop or drone, often of the tanpura that figures so prominently on “The Dusted Sessions”. Slowly and methodically, the quartet map a pattern over the top, pinned down with a lugubrious, almost-funk bassline, from Ben Bracken, and Jakobsons providing further beatific cycles on either violin or flute. Kowalsky, meanwhile, adds intuitive flecks of electric piano, and Noah Phillips is equally spare on guitar: using a brush on his strings to create a fluttering ambience; once, briefly, wallowing into the space of Dave Gilmour.
It’s lovely stuff, at once heavy and featherlight; simple in conception, meticulous in detail, profound in impact. Sacred minimalist blues might work as a tag, though it might be better just to link to another track and let you take it from there. A good night out, anyway…
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey
“I am guilty,” says Roy Harper, “of taking you on some strange journeys, I have to admit.” We are two songs into a solo Harper show to mark the release of his first new album in 13 years, taking place in a record shop (Rough Trade East) and being streamed live on the internet; a confluence of events that clearly amuses the singer on some essential and bemused level.
Thus far, he has reconstructed Dylan’s “Girl From The North Country” as brittle, almost ethereal English folk, stretching its climax into a series of forlorn wails that reveal his voice has weathered miraculously well these 72 years. Before acknowledging the release of “Man And Myth”, he has celebrated the “50th anniversary” of “Legend” (the anniversary of its writing, presumably; it surfaced on “Sophisticated Beggar” in 1966) and prefaced it with a lengthy digression on the influence of TS Eliot and Rousseau.
In his conversation, as much as in his music, Harper’s longeurs are critical to his charm; the further he meanders, the deeper he gets. Tonight, though, he is on relatively economical form: eight songs in an hour represents a pretty frantic pace by his normally leisurely standards. Four of them, understandably, come from “Man And Myth”, and in some cases flourish in this unadorned state: the gentle progressions of “Time Is Temporary”, with its prickly, fingerpicked punctuation; “The Enemy”, especially forceful and plaintive.
“The Stranger” has the tough job of following a gorgeous version of “Another Day”, but it’s a mark of the new songs’ strength that there’s no alarming drop in quality here. These are elegiac and labyrinthine constructions that show Harper has lost none of his brackish mystique or scholarly nimbleness. It’s a shame that he couldn’t find room for the 15-minute reverie of “Heaven Is Here”, but there’ll be other nights for that.
Instead, Harper finishes with the deathlessly lovely “When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease”, performed with the requisite former England test player (Derek Pringle, who once scandalised the cricket establishment by wearing an earring, and who I once spotted towering above the crowd at an American Music Club show at the Astoria) in attendance. “Well this way of life’s recollection, the hallowed strip in the haze/The fabled men and the noonday sun are much more than just yarns of their days.”
An hour or so later, I make it up to Café Oto in Dalston to catch Oakland’s Date Palms, whose languorous instrumentals could have been baked in a heat haze. I wrote about one of Date Palms’ old albums, “Of Psalms”, a couple of years ago, and a lot of those observations still hold true for this year’s very fine “Dusted Sessions” set and the live show. Marielle Jakobsons and Gregg Kowalsky have now recruited a bassist and guitarist, though, so their live shows have a heft and intricacy that is a match for their records, and for one of their most obvious – at least to me – antecedents, Brightblack Morning Light.
Most songs begin with Kowalsky cueing up a loop or drone, often of the tanpura that figures so prominently on “The Dusted Sessions”. Slowly and methodically, the quartet map a pattern over the top, pinned down with a lugubrious, almost-funk bassline, from Ben Bracken, and Jakobsons providing further beatific cycles on either violin or flute. Kowalsky, meanwhile, adds intuitive flecks of electric piano, and Noah Phillips is equally spare on guitar: using a brush on his strings to create a fluttering ambience; once, briefly, wallowing into the space of Dave Gilmour.
It’s lovely stuff, at once heavy and featherlight; simple in conception, meticulous in detail, profound in impact. Sacred minimalist blues might work as a tag, though it might be better just to link to another track and let you take it from there. A good night out, anyway…
It’s a busy week here at Uncut. Last night, John and I went to see Roy Harper play a predictably excellent show at Rough Trade East – you can read all about it on his blog here. Tomorrow, I’m off to see Pixies at the Roundhouse and on Friday, it's Fleetwood Mac at the O2. Oh, and at some point there’s the final episode of Breaking Bad to watch...
But the most important news in our world this week is the arrival in the shops tomorrow of the new issue of Uncut, which as you can see above features Pink Floyd on the cover. In a brilliantly written piece by David Cavanagh, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Dark Side Of The Moon, along with the band, their closest friends, confidants and collaborators. Elsewhere in the issue, Alastair McKay travels to Dublin to hear Mike Scott tell the epic tale behind The Waterboys’ Fisherman’s Blues album; Alastair has also spoken to Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman and Gene Parsons for their memories of the late, great Byrd Clarence White. Meanwhile, with their first album in ten years looming, I caught up Throwing Muses past and present to look back at their extraordinary career, and Sharon O’Connell headed to New York to drink coffee and hang out in some nice warehouse apartments with Vampire Weekend. Elsewhere, Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb pontificates on your questions in An Audience With…, a typically uncompromising John Lydon talks us through his back catalogue in Album By Album and The Animals discuss the Making Of their classic single, “We’ve Gotta Get Out Of This Place”. This month’s CD includes new music by Bill Callahan, Jonathan Wilson, Mark Kozelek & Desertshore, Okkervil River, Linda Thompson and Deer Tick among others.
Our reviews pages are groaning under the weight of our autumn releases – including some heavy-duty new albums from Arcade Fire, Paul McCartney, Prefab Sprout, Peter Gabriel, Pearl Jam and Omar Souleyman. In our Archive section, there are reissues by John Martyn, Nirvana, Bruce Springsteen, Lemonheads and the Beta Band. On DVD, we discover the strange tale of Johnny Moped, while in Film, I review Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips, the Muscle Shoals documentary and – God help us – The Wicker Man turns 40.
In our Live section, we go a little bit loco about the return of The Replacements and round up the best artists from this year’s End Of The Road festival. In Instant Karma!, David Crosby fills us in on his first solo album in 20 years and the much-delayed CSNY 1974 live album, we preview the new Jimi Hendrix biopic, catch up with the Strypes, Archie Shepp and Eno favourite, Laraaji. And you’ll also find a little teaser for our next Ultimate Music Guide: the Small Faces and the Faces, which is in shops on September 27.
That, I think, is pretty much that. We hope you like the new Uncut – and, as ever, do drop Allan a line to let him know what you think: Allan_Jones@ipcmedia.com.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
Michael
Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner.
It’s a busy week here at Uncut. Last night, John and I went to see Roy Harper play a predictably excellent show at Rough Trade East – you can read all about it on his blog here. Tomorrow, I’m off to see Pixies at the Roundhouse and on Friday, it’s Fleetwood Mac at the O2. Oh, and at some point there’s the final episode of Breaking Bad to watch…
But the most important news in our world this week is the arrival in the shops tomorrow of the new issue of Uncut, which as you can see above features Pink Floyd on the cover. In a brilliantly written piece by David Cavanagh, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Dark Side Of The Moon, along with the band, their closest friends, confidants and collaborators. Elsewhere in the issue, Alastair McKay travels to Dublin to hear Mike Scott tell the epic tale behind The Waterboys’ Fisherman’s Blues album; Alastair has also spoken to Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman and Gene Parsons for their memories of the late, great Byrd Clarence White. Meanwhile, with their first album in ten years looming, I caught up Throwing Muses past and present to look back at their extraordinary career, and Sharon O’Connell headed to New York to drink coffee and hang out in some nice warehouse apartments with Vampire Weekend. Elsewhere, Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb pontificates on your questions in An Audience With…, a typically uncompromising John Lydon talks us through his back catalogue in Album By Album and The Animals discuss the Making Of their classic single, “We’ve Gotta Get Out Of This Place”. This month’s CD includes new music by Bill Callahan, Jonathan Wilson, Mark Kozelek & Desertshore, Okkervil River, Linda Thompson and Deer Tick among others.
Our reviews pages are groaning under the weight of our autumn releases – including some heavy-duty new albums from Arcade Fire, Paul McCartney, Prefab Sprout, Peter Gabriel, Pearl Jam and Omar Souleyman. In our Archive section, there are reissues by John Martyn, Nirvana, Bruce Springsteen, Lemonheads and the Beta Band. On DVD, we discover the strange tale of Johnny Moped, while in Film, I review Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips, the Muscle Shoals documentary and – God help us – The Wicker Man turns 40.
In our Live section, we go a little bit loco about the return of The Replacements and round up the best artists from this year’s End Of The Road festival. In Instant Karma!, David Crosby fills us in on his first solo album in 20 years and the much-delayed CSNY 1974 live album, we preview the new Jimi Hendrix biopic, catch up with the Strypes, Archie Shepp and Eno favourite, Laraaji. And you’ll also find a little teaser for our next Ultimate Music Guide: the Small Faces and the Faces, which is in shops on September 27.
That, I think, is pretty much that. We hope you like the new Uncut – and, as ever, do drop Allan a line to let him know what you think: Allan_Jones@ipcmedia.com.
A trailer for the last ever episode of Breaking Bad has been released. Scroll down to watch it.
"All bad things come to an end," the minute-long clip teases, giving very little away about the how the show might sign off. The final episode, titled "Felina", will air on US network AMC this Sunday (September 29) before being made available to UK Netflix subscribers shortly afterwards.
Star Bryan Cranston has recently promised that the show's finale is "very unapologetic and exciting". His co-star Aaron Paul previously told viewers: "You guys are gonna shit your pants!"
Breaking Bad collected the 'Outstanding Drama Series' prize at the Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday night [September 22] and Anna Gunn took home the trophy for 'Supporting Actress In A Drama Series'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B98x6Z-zgiE
A trailer for the last ever episode of Breaking Bad has been released. Scroll down to watch it.
“All bad things come to an end,” the minute-long clip teases, giving very little away about the how the show might sign off. The final episode, titled “Felina“, will air on US network AMC this Sunday (September 29) before being made available to UK Netflix subscribers shortly afterwards.
Star Bryan Cranston has recently promised that the show’s finale is “very unapologetic and exciting”. His co-star Aaron Paul previously told viewers: “You guys are gonna shit your pants!”
Breaking Bad collected the ‘Outstanding Drama Series’ prize at the Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday night [September 22] and Anna Gunn took home the trophy for ‘Supporting Actress In A Drama Series’.
Paul McCartney has revealed the artwork to his latest solo album, New.
The image, which you can see above, will accompany McCartney's album when it is released on October 14.
McCartney debuted three new songs during a concert in Las Vegas on Saturday [September 21]. You can watch footage here.
Th...
Paul McCartney has revealed the artwork to his latest solo album, New.
The image, which you can see above, will accompany McCartney’s album when it is released on October 14.
McCartney debuted three new songs during a concert in Las Vegas on Saturday [September 21]. You can watch footage here.
Happy Mondays have announced details of a UK tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their second album, Bummed.
The Mondays will play the 1988 LP in full at a number of gigs to take place this November and December, kicking off with a show at Canterbury Kings Hall on November 21 and wrapping up ...
Happy Mondays have announced details of a UK tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their second album, Bummed.
The Mondays will play the 1988 LP in full at a number of gigs to take place this November and December, kicking off with a show at Canterbury Kings Hall on November 21 and wrapping up with a gig at Bristol O2 Academy on December 14. The band reformed with their full original line-up for the first time in over 19 years in 2012, although Bez later announced that he wouldn’t be performing with the band on tour, but would instead act as compere and DJ at the shows.
They have reunited twice before, most recently in 2004, but without founding members Mark Day, Paul Davis and Paul Ryder. Paul had sworn he wanted nothing to do with the band again when they split for a second time in 2000. In 2012, meanwhile, the Mondays confirmed that they were working on a new album – which would be the first new material from the original line-up since 1992’s …Yes Please! – but the LP has yet been released.
Mick Jagger is set to become a great-grandfather for the first time, according to reports.
The Daily Mirror says that Jagger's granddaughter Assisi, aged 21, is expecting her first child with her boyfriend Alex. According to sources, the 70-year-old singer is pleased at the news, although his daug...
Mick Jagger is set to become a great-grandfather for the first time, according to reports.
The Daily Mirror says that Jagger’s granddaughter Assisi, aged 21, is expecting her first child with her boyfriend Alex. According to sources, the 70-year-old singer is pleased at the news, although his daughter Jade, 42, is ‘expecting some ribbing’ at becoming a grandmother.
“She and Alex are thrilled and broke the news to their immediate families last week,” they said. “Jade was a little taken aback at first, not least because it means she will be a grandmother by the age of 42. She’s expecting some ribbing from her showbiz pals.”
They added: “Mick is delighted and has no qualms about being a great-grandfather. He’s been joking about becoming a great, great, granddad and still performing!” Jagger has seven children from four relationships, with his daughters Karis and Jade coming from his relationships with Marsha Hunt and Bianca Jagger respectively. He and Jerry Hall have four children together – Elizabeth, James, Georgia and Gabriel – while his youngest child, 14-year-old son Lucas, is from his relationship with Brazilian TV presenter Luciana Gimenez.
Earlier this month, The Rolling Stones confirmed plans to release their Hyde Park gig on DVD and Blu-Ray in November.
Aussie psych-rockers make a splash with their tightest album yet. Tame, it ain't...
Pond for the last couple of years has been the noise Jay Watson and Nick Allbrook make with likeminded confederates when they aren’t touring with Tame Impala. This particular arrangement has made it sometimes seem like Pond are a Tame Impala spin-off, a side project, a kind of hobby, Jay and Nick and their mates going into the studio as the mood vaguely takes them, the equivalent of some blokes retreating to a garden shed to potter aimlessly about, smoke some weed, goof off.
There’s a possibility this perception will even survive Nick’s recent departure from Tame Impala, although it would continually rather wrong-headedly ignore the fact that Pond have a thriving history of their own that goes back to Nick’s early band, Mink Mussel Creek, who also featured a pre-Impala Kevin Parker and includes also four previous albums, Psychedelic Mango (2009), Corridors Of Blissterday (2009), Frond (2010) and last year’s Beards, Wives, Denim, alongside Japandroids’ Celebration Rock the most exultant rock album of 2012.
At one point it seemed there might be two more Pond albums this year, the other being the splendidly-titled Man, It Feels Like Space Again, whose songs were written first but won’t now be recorded until September, the band’s enthusiasm for the newer material evidently making Hobo Rocket a more immediate priority. Beards, Wives, Denim was a sometimes anarchic sprawl in which explosive elements of the MC5, Stooges, Hendrix, early Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin were flung into a highly combustible mix. It was sexy, loud, debauched, brash and mind-blowing. The terrific Hobo Rocket has many of the admirable assets that made BWD great, but there’s a sense in the album’s overall finesse that things as far as possible are being taken perhaps a little more seriously than hitherto. Which is not to say Pond have become suddenly as serious as monks, a glum-fest in brooding cloisters, but merely to acknowledge Hobo Rocket’s greater focus, concentration and concision. At seven tracks, it’s half the length of BWD, which was exhausting enough in parts to make you feel like you’d been subjected to a vigorous waterboarding.
Hobo Rocket is more like a series of tracks that go off like target-specific drone strikes than BWD’s wider field of fire, and its ballistic spray of passably random blasts, salvoes and window-shattering detonations. They are still capable of making a wonderfully infernal din, but there’s conspicuously less errant cacophony here, not so much mucking about. “Whatever Happened To The Million Heads Collide” starts the album spectacularly. There’s a lulling wash of synthesisers and what sounds like something scratching beneath the floorboards, before Joe Ryan’s bass walks into the room with a Bo Diddley swagger accompanied by war drums and sibilant vocal effects that recall the way Kevin Parker’s whispering on “Be Above It”, the opening cut on Tame Impala’s Lonerism, became part of the song’s rhythm track. You may also be reminded of something like Pink Floyd’s “Pow R. Toc H.”
This is heavy stuff, man, and things get heavier still on “Xanman” (featured on this month’s free CD), “Aloneaflameaflower” and “Giant Tortoise”, with their blistered layers of guitars, synthesisers, subatomic rhythm tracks and Nick sounding here and there like something brightly feathered making a racket in a rain forest. The dreamy “Oh Dharma” deviates from this pummelling template, introducing a mood of lysergic nostalgia, the kind of poignant wistfulness you might associate with Barrett-era Floyd or The Beach Boys of “In My Room” and “Caroline, No”, a gorgeous interlude about half way through recalling something serene and drifty by Groove Armada. “Hobo Rocket” itself is a magnificent thing, a funky psychedelic groove with Nick on lead guitar, Joe Ryan on sitar and far-out phlegmy vocals from Cowboy John, a colourful local character befriended by the band, probably over drinks. “Where do I find my horse with wings?” Cowboy John demands, in such full-on declamatory mode it makes you wonder if in some alternative Pond-designed universe Jim Morrison instead of dying in a Paris bathtub might have somehow made his way undetected to Perth where for the last 40 years has been propping up a bar in Western Australia waiting for Pond to find him. “What kind of drugs you on, man?” he finally enquires, before invoking the prophet Ezekial and hilariously berating Pond for being unprofessional. The closing “Midnight Mass (At The Market Street Payphone)”, meanwhile, is simply beautiful, its long instrumental coda making you feel like you’re falling through space in a suit of lights.
Allan Jones
Q&A
Nick Allbrook
Do people still think of Pond as a Tame Impala spin-off?
I have no idea what people think. Band names and album titles and songwriting credits and all this business...it gives everyone really concrete definitions to grasp onto, which are probably false. I guess the easiest thing for people to wind their heads around would probably be to invent a new name to tag onto the whole gamete of shart that comes from our mob. Everything we do is a spin-off of something bigger, something probably too fun and pure to put a silly ol' name to. It worked for Wu-Tang, ya?
Hobo Rocket is the second of two albums Pond have written since last year’s Beards Wives Denim. How did it end up being recorded first?
Well, the songs were written after Man, It Feels Like Space Again and we got scared that if we waited too long we would be inconsolably bored with them by the time it came to doing them. So we figured to put them in an e.p. Then we decided the same thing about some more Space Again songs and then it turned into an album.
Where does Hobo Rocket take Pond that they haven’t been before?
Well, it’s the only time we've wanted anything to be really heavy, then listened to it after and said "Wow, that is *really heavy*". So that’s pretty grand. It's also a whole lot more sonically interesting, lyrically interesting, cohesive, barbaric... Yeah I guess it’s just completely removed from everything so far from our rather biased perspective.
What are your own plans now that you’ve left Tame Impala?
Well, I just finished the book I was reading, so I'll need to go find another one. Showering is a must, too, although it’s sunny and I woke up at one o'clock so I should get a move on. Oh, and I'm gonna do some stuff with my spin off band, Pond.
Interview Allan Jones
Aussie psych-rockers make a splash with their tightest album yet. Tame, it ain’t…
Pond for the last couple of years has been the noise Jay Watson and Nick Allbrook make with likeminded confederates when they aren’t touring with Tame Impala. This particular arrangement has made it sometimes seem like Pond are a Tame Impala spin-off, a side project, a kind of hobby, Jay and Nick and their mates going into the studio as the mood vaguely takes them, the equivalent of some blokes retreating to a garden shed to potter aimlessly about, smoke some weed, goof off.
There’s a possibility this perception will even survive Nick’s recent departure from Tame Impala, although it would continually rather wrong-headedly ignore the fact that Pond have a thriving history of their own that goes back to Nick’s early band, Mink Mussel Creek, who also featured a pre-Impala Kevin Parker and includes also four previous albums, Psychedelic Mango (2009), Corridors Of Blissterday (2009), Frond (2010) and last year’s Beards, Wives, Denim, alongside Japandroids’ Celebration Rock the most exultant rock album of 2012.
At one point it seemed there might be two more Pond albums this year, the other being the splendidly-titled Man, It Feels Like Space Again, whose songs were written first but won’t now be recorded until September, the band’s enthusiasm for the newer material evidently making Hobo Rocket a more immediate priority. Beards, Wives, Denim was a sometimes anarchic sprawl in which explosive elements of the MC5, Stooges, Hendrix, early Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin were flung into a highly combustible mix. It was sexy, loud, debauched, brash and mind-blowing. The terrific Hobo Rocket has many of the admirable assets that made BWD great, but there’s a sense in the album’s overall finesse that things as far as possible are being taken perhaps a little more seriously than hitherto. Which is not to say Pond have become suddenly as serious as monks, a glum-fest in brooding cloisters, but merely to acknowledge Hobo Rocket’s greater focus, concentration and concision. At seven tracks, it’s half the length of BWD, which was exhausting enough in parts to make you feel like you’d been subjected to a vigorous waterboarding.
Hobo Rocket is more like a series of tracks that go off like target-specific drone strikes than BWD’s wider field of fire, and its ballistic spray of passably random blasts, salvoes and window-shattering detonations. They are still capable of making a wonderfully infernal din, but there’s conspicuously less errant cacophony here, not so much mucking about. “Whatever Happened To The Million Heads Collide” starts the album spectacularly. There’s a lulling wash of synthesisers and what sounds like something scratching beneath the floorboards, before Joe Ryan’s bass walks into the room with a Bo Diddley swagger accompanied by war drums and sibilant vocal effects that recall the way Kevin Parker’s whispering on “Be Above It”, the opening cut on Tame Impala’s Lonerism, became part of the song’s rhythm track. You may also be reminded of something like Pink Floyd’s “Pow R. Toc H.”
This is heavy stuff, man, and things get heavier still on “Xanman” (featured on this month’s free CD), “Aloneaflameaflower” and “Giant Tortoise”, with their blistered layers of guitars, synthesisers, subatomic rhythm tracks and Nick sounding here and there like something brightly feathered making a racket in a rain forest. The dreamy “Oh Dharma” deviates from this pummelling template, introducing a mood of lysergic nostalgia, the kind of poignant wistfulness you might associate with Barrett-era Floyd or The Beach Boys of “In My Room” and “Caroline, No”, a gorgeous interlude about half way through recalling something serene and drifty by Groove Armada. “Hobo Rocket” itself is a magnificent thing, a funky psychedelic groove with Nick on lead guitar, Joe Ryan on sitar and far-out phlegmy vocals from Cowboy John, a colourful local character befriended by the band, probably over drinks. “Where do I find my horse with wings?” Cowboy John demands, in such full-on declamatory mode it makes you wonder if in some alternative Pond-designed universe Jim Morrison instead of dying in a Paris bathtub might have somehow made his way undetected to Perth where for the last 40 years has been propping up a bar in Western Australia waiting for Pond to find him. “What kind of drugs you on, man?” he finally enquires, before invoking the prophet Ezekial and hilariously berating Pond for being unprofessional. The closing “Midnight Mass (At The Market Street Payphone)”, meanwhile, is simply beautiful, its long instrumental coda making you feel like you’re falling through space in a suit of lights.
Allan Jones
Q&A
Nick Allbrook
Do people still think of Pond as a Tame Impala spin-off?
I have no idea what people think. Band names and album titles and songwriting credits and all this business…it gives everyone really concrete definitions to grasp onto, which are probably false. I guess the easiest thing for people to wind their heads around would probably be to invent a new name to tag onto the whole gamete of shart that comes from our mob. Everything we do is a spin-off of something bigger, something probably too fun and pure to put a silly ol’ name to. It worked for Wu-Tang, ya?
Hobo Rocket is the second of two albums Pond have written since last year’s Beards Wives Denim. How did it end up being recorded first?
Well, the songs were written after Man, It Feels Like Space Again and we got scared that if we waited too long we would be inconsolably bored with them by the time it came to doing them. So we figured to put them in an e.p. Then we decided the same thing about some more Space Again songs and then it turned into an album.
Where does Hobo Rocket take Pond that they haven’t been before?
Well, it’s the only time we’ve wanted anything to be really heavy, then listened to it after and said “Wow, that is *really heavy*”. So that’s pretty grand. It’s also a whole lot more sonically interesting, lyrically interesting, cohesive, barbaric… Yeah I guess it’s just completely removed from everything so far from our rather biased perspective.
What are your own plans now that you’ve left Tame Impala?
Well, I just finished the book I was reading, so I’ll need to go find another one. Showering is a must, too, although it’s sunny and I woke up at one o’clock so I should get a move on. Oh, and I’m gonna do some stuff with my spin off band, Pond.
Nick Mason jokes that Pink Floyd were “obviously very depressed people” while making The Dark Side Of The Moon, in the new issue of Uncut (dated November 2013), and out now.
The band’s drummer makes the wry remark while explaining the creation of the group’s landmark 1973 release.
“We ...
Nick Mason jokes that Pink Floyd were “obviously very depressed people” while making The Dark Side Of The Moon, in the new issue of Uncut (dated November 2013), and out now.
The band’s drummer makes the wry remark while explaining the creation of the group’s landmark 1973 release.
“We were obviously very depressed people,” Mason says. “I don’t think Pink Floyd ever found an ideal way of working together, but The Dark Side Of The Moon was probably the closest we came to it.
“The problem is trying to work out exactly who did what. Not only is it a mystery, but it tends to get everyone incredibly worked up. ‘I did that.’ ‘No, I did that.’”
The key players talk mental disintegration, cricket matches, echo chambers and dawn rushes to Heathrow in the piece, which also touches on the fate of the Harvest label and the group’s subsequent rocky journey.
The new issue of Uncut is out on September 25, 2013.
In 1983, I picked up a copy of a book called Stick, on a whim. It was written by someone I hadn't heard of previously: Elmore Leonard, who died in August. The book was brilliant and turned me into an addict.
I bought everything he'd written and was very soon mainlining pure Elmore. He's a habit I'v...
In 1983, I picked up a copy of a book called Stick, on a whim. It was written by someone I hadn’t heard of previously: Elmore Leonard, who died in August. The book was brilliant and turned me into an addict.
I bought everything he’d written and was very soon mainlining pure Elmore. He’s a habit I’ve had for over 30 years, Leonard delivering one great book after another, one a year until age began to slow him down a little. His last full-length novel was 2010’s Djibouti, Leonard at 85 as spritely and dazzling as ever.
Leonard was mostly described as a crime writer, but he was much more than that, in his way the equal in the hierarchy of American literature of anyone who’s ever put words on a page. He was more than a masterful genre technician, a supremely gifted craftsman. He was a literary genius who created a space in American letters that was uniquely his, with a style that was entirely his own, much imitated but never bettered, vernacular poetry based on breathtaking narrative economy, vivid characterisation and a gift for dialogue that is unsurpassed.
When I met him in London in October, 1988, he was here to promote his new book, Freaky Deaky, but we were soon talking about Hollywood’s botched attempts to make good movies of his novels. This was a decade before Steven Soderbergh and Tarantino did his writing justice with, respectively, Out Of Sight and Jackie Brown, the latter a version of Elmore’s novel Rum Punch. He offered as an example the turbulent history of trying to bring LaBrava, one of his most popular books, to the screen. United Artists had bought the rights, but when a farcical Burt Reynolds version of Stick went belly-up at the box office they passed on the option to the producer Walter Mirisch at Cannon, to see what he could do with it. David Mamet had by this time read the book and greatly admired it. He passed it on to Dustin Hoffman, who loved it, wanted to film it, but had some suggestions he asked Leonard to take on board.
“Dustin had a lot of ideas,” Leonard said sarcastically. “First, he wants to see the character when he was a secret agent, which immediately involves a lot of flashbacks, things that aren’t in the book. Then he, Dustin, doesn’t think that he, Dustin, could fall in love with a 50-year old woman as LaBrava does in the book. He thinks he should have an affair with a young girl in the motel LaBrava runs. So I write a treatment that way.
We meet a couple of times more. Dustin’s just filming Death Of A Salesman with Volker Schlöndorff and he comes along to some meetings. But he doesn’t last long. Then Martin Scorsese comes in. Scorsese lasts a little longer, then he gets a deal on The Color Of Money.
So he’s out and Hal Ashby comes in. Then I get another call from Hoffman, who tells me he’s decided he can after all fall in love with an older woman. Turns out he’s just met Anouk Aimée. So I change it again. Then Hoffman doesn’t want to do it anymore and Al Pacino gets involved for a while. Then Hal Ashby, who’s got involved because of Dustin, he leaves. Then Ted Kotcheff gets involved and Walter Mirisch tells me that Richard Dreyfuss is interested. The only thing now, Ted Kotcheff is suing Cannon for 10 million dollars for something I don’t even know about. I don’t know if it will ever be made.”
At the time we met, Leonard’s hopes for a successful resolution to his problems with Hollywood resided with Cat Chaser, due to go into production shortly, directed by Abel Ferrara.”Abel talks like a thug,” Leonard said, almost approvingly. “Talking to Abel’s like talking to a convict. They’re having trouble with the script. It’s very difficult, but we’ll see.” About this time, the PR from his UK publishers appears – a cluster of worries and timetables. Leonard has more people to talk to. As he puts on his raincoat, I ask him, half jokingly, if he has any advice for aspiring young novelists. “Sure,” he said, smiling. “Keep at it and keep it simple.”
A deluxe edition of Van Morrison's Moondance album is due for release through Warner Bros. Records on October 21.
The Moondance reissue features a newly remastered and expanded version of the album, as well as 50 unreleased tracks including studio outtakes and multiple takes and a final mix of an unheard track, “I Shall Sing”.
We're delighted to preview below a previously unreleased outtake of "Into The Mystic".
The Moondance reissue will be released in a number of different formats. A 4 CD/1 Blu-ray Deluxe Edition will feature a newly remastered version of the original album, three discs of previously unreleased music from the sessions, and a Blu-ray Audio disc with high-resolution 48K 24 bit PCM stereo and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound audio of original album. It will be presented in a linen-wrapped folio and includes a booklet with liner notes from Alan Light and original engineer Elliot Scheiner.
A 2CD Expanded Edition set that features the newly remastered version of the original album and 11 previously unreleased tracks drawn from highlights from the Deluxe Edition.
A Standard Edition of the newly remastered version of the original album.
The reissues can be pre-ordered here.
The full track listing for Moondance Deluxe Edition is:
Disc One – Original Album Remastered
1 “And It Stoned Me”
2 “Moondance”
3 “Crazy Love”
4 “Caravan”
5 “Into The Mystic”
6 “Come Running”
7 “These Dreams Of You”
8 “Brand New Day”
9 “Everyone”
10 “Glad Tidings”
Disc Two – All Previously Unreleased
1. “What do we call this Van?”
2. “Caravan” (Take 1)
3. “Caravan” (Takes 2-3)
4. “Caravan” (Take 4)
5. “Caravan” (Takes 5-6)
6. “Caravan” (Take 7)
7. “Caravan” (Take 8)
8. “I’ve Been Working” (Early Version Take 1)
9. “I’ve Been Working” (Early Version Take 2)
10. “I’ve Been Working” (Early Version Take 5)
11. “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out” (Outtake)
12. “I Shall Sing” (Take 1)
13. “I Shall Sing” (Takes 2-3)
14. “I Shall Sing” (Takes 4-6)
15. “I Shall Sing” (Take 7)
16. “I Shall Sing” (Takes 8-12)
17. “I Shall Sing” (Take 13)
Disc Three – All Previously Unreleased
1. “Into The Mystic” (Take 10)
2. “Into The Mystic” (Take 11)
3. “Into The Mystic” (Takes 12-13)
4. “Into The Mystic” (Takes 14-16)
5. “Into The Mystic” (Take 17)
6. “Brand New Day” (Take 1)
7. “Brand New Day” (Take 2)
8. “Brand New Day” (Take 3)
9. “Brand New Day” (Take 4)
10. “Brand New Day” (Takes 5-6)
11. “Brand New Day” (Take 7)
12. “Glad Tidings (Take 1)
13. “Glad Tidings (Takes 2-4)
14. “Glad Tidings (Takes 7-8)
15. “Glad Tidings (Take 9)
16. “Caravan Redo” (Takes 1-2)
17. “Caravan Redo” (Take 3)
Disc Four – All Previously Unreleased
1. “Come Running” (Take 1)
2. “Come Running” (Take 2)
3. “Come Running” (Takes 3-4)
4. “Come Running” (Take 5)
5. “Come Running” (“Rolling On 4”)
6. “Moondance” (Take 21)
7. “Moondance” (Take 22)
8. “Glad Tidings” (Alt. Version)
9. “These Dreams Of You” (Alt Version)
10. “Crazy Love” (Remix)
11. “Glad Tidings” (Remix 1)
12. “Glad Tidings” (Remix 2)
13. “Glad Tidings” (Remix 3)
14. “Caravan” (Remix)
15. “These Dreams Of You” (Remix)
16. “I Shall Sing” (Mix)
Disc Five
Blu-Ray Audio disc with high-resolution 48K 24 bit PCM stereo and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound audio of original album (no video)
The track listing for Moodance Expanded Edition is:
Disc One
Original Album Remastered
Disc Two – All Previously Unreleased
1. “Caravan” (Take 4)
2. “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out” (Outtake)
3. “Into The Mystic” (Take 11)
4. “Brand New Day” (Take 3)
5. “Glad Tidings” (Alt. Version)
6. “Come Running”(Take 2)
7. “Crazy Love” (Mono Mix)
8. “These Dreams Of You” (Alt. Version)
9. “Moondance” (Take 22)
10. “I Shall Sing” (Take 7)
11. “I’ve Been Working” (Early Version, Take 5)
A deluxe edition of Van Morrison‘s Moondance album is due for release through Warner Bros. Records on October 21.
The Moondance reissue features a newly remastered and expanded version of the album, as well as 50 unreleased tracks including studio outtakes and multiple takes and a final mix of an unheard track, “I Shall Sing”.
We’re delighted to preview below a previously unreleased outtake of “Into The Mystic“.
The Moondance reissue will be released in a number of different formats. A 4 CD/1 Blu-ray Deluxe Edition will feature a newly remastered version of the original album, three discs of previously unreleased music from the sessions, and a Blu-ray Audio disc with high-resolution 48K 24 bit PCM stereo and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound audio of original album. It will be presented in a linen-wrapped folio and includes a booklet with liner notes from Alan Light and original engineer Elliot Scheiner.
A 2CD Expanded Edition set that features the newly remastered version of the original album and 11 previously unreleased tracks drawn from highlights from the Deluxe Edition.
A Standard Edition of the newly remastered version of the original album.
The Cavern Club is to be sold at an auction next month.
The Liverpool nightclub, which played host to The Beatles at least 300 times, will be sold alongside the surrounding Cavern Walks Shopping Centre and is expected to fetch £1 million, The Times reports. It is being sold after its owner, Warne...
The Cavern Club is to be sold at an auction next month.
The Liverpool nightclub, which played host to The Beatles at least 300 times, will be sold alongside the surrounding Cavern Walks Shopping Centre and is expected to fetch £1 million, The Times reports. It is being sold after its owner, Warner Estate, filed for administration last month.
The club was at the heart of the rock n’ roll scene in the city during the 1960s and also saw performances from the Rolling Stones, The Who and Elton John. Its design, with brick arches and underground tunnels, was based on Le Caveau de la Huchette jazz club in Paris.
British Rail ordered the demolition of the original Cavern Club in 1973 to make way for building work on a new underground railway system. The work was never completed and the site became a car park until its excavation in 1982. A replica of the club, complete with bricks from the original, was built on the site and opened in 1984.
Neil Young played an acoustic set at Farm Aid 2013 on Saturday night (September 21).
The event, which took place in Saratoga Springs, New York, also included Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp as well as Pegi Young and The Survivors, who included her husband Neil in their line-up.
Young played a se...
Neil Young played an acoustic set at Farm Aid 2013 on Saturday night (September 21).
The event, which took place in Saratoga Springs, New York, also included Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp as well as Pegi Young and The Survivors, who included her husband Neil in their line-up.
Young played a seven-song acoustic set, as well as three other songs in collaboration with other artists. Alongside his own songs “Old Man” and “Heart Of Gold”, he also covered songs by Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Sam Cooke, Tim Hardin and Phil Ochs. Scroll down to watch Young’s seven-song acoustic set.
Neil Young played:
This Land Is Your Land (guests with Pete Seeger; backing vocals)
Blowin’ In The Wind (Bob Dylan)
Early Morning Rain (Gordon Lightfoot)
Old Man
Heart Of Gold
Since I Met You Baby (Sam Cooke)
Reason To Believe (Tim Hardin)
Changes (Phil Ochs)
Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die (guests with Willie Nelson)
I Saw The Light (guests with Willie Nelson; harmonica)
