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Playing Bass With Elvis, Dylan, The Doors & More…

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Playing Bass With Elvis, Dylan, The Doors & More…

Jerry Scheff is surely not an unfamiliar name to readers of Uncut. I’d wager a horse most of you have more than one album in your collection that feature him on bass. Among the highlights of a lengthy and illustrious CV, he can count gigs with Elvis Presley, The Doors, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Todd Rundgren, Richard Thompson, Bette Midler, Crowded House, Johnny Cash, T-Bone Burnett, Roy Orbison, Suzanne Vegas and Jimmie Dale Gilmour. Scheff has stories galore about most of these people in his autobiography, Way Down: Playing Bass With Elvis, Dylan, The Doors & More (Backbeat Books), which I’ve been reading over the weekend just gone. A couple of his anecdotes about playing with Dylan especially stood out. He joined Dylan’s touring band in May 1978, as a replacement for Rob Stoner, who’d been with Dylan since the Rolling Thunder tours. For unexplained reasons Stoner had suddenly found himself out of favour and been duly fired by Dylan. On June 1, Dylan as due to start a week-long run at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, which didn’t leave him much time to learn the songs for the show. In fact, as he recalls, barely half the set had been rehearsed when Dylan turned up one day and somewhat nonchalantly announced he’d written a batch of new songs he wanted to record, immediately. At which point, work on the live set stopped entirely and work on Street-Legal started, a mobile studio turning up not long after Dylan at the rehearsal studios where the album was recorded. This was an unscheduled interruption that meant when the band played the opening night of the LA shows, fully a third of the set consisted of songs the band had never played live together before, which seemed not to bother Dylan a proverbial jot. A couple of weeks later, Scheff was with Dylan in London ahead of the month-long European tour that ended with Dylan headlining the Blackbushe festival. The band was staying at some plush place near Hyde Park. One night, Scheff got a call in his room. It was Dylan. He wanted to know if Scheff was a reggae fan, which he was. Meet me in the hotel garage and don’t mention it to anyone else, Dylan told him. When Scheff turned up in the garage, he found Dylan at the wheel of a Mercedes he had stashed there, with backing singer Helena Springs and the band’s female percussionist, Bobbye Hall, already on board. Security around Dylan was usually pretty tight, but tonight Dylan had given them the slip and wanted to go to a club he knew to hear some live reggae and now drove the Mercedes there, parking, as Scheff remembers it, about a block away in what seemed to the bassist a rather rough-looking neighbourhood. Dylan then led them through darkened streets to the club. “We could hear the music from outside,” Scheff writes. “It was almost as if the outer walls of the club were throbbing. We stepped into a room where a few people were sitting around in folding chairs against bare walls; the music, already loud, was coming from the other side of a closed door. In front of us was a ticket booth made out of raw plywood. “Bob stepped forward and asked for four tickets. A guy in dreadlocks told him that you needed to be a member to gain entry, and that membership was £100 apiece. The band sounded great, though, and we were all getting turned on to what was happening on the other side of the door. Bob handed over £400. We had our hands stamped and in we went.” What they found on the other side of the door: a room with no chairs or tables, the walls lined with speakers pumping out recorded music and a single couple swaying in the middle of a dance floor otherwise empty, apart from a wine bottle. Undaunted, but out of pocket by nearly a thousand dollars, Dylan, laughing, then headed to another club, possibly the old Venue in Victoria, where Link Wray was playing and Sid Vicious hove into view at one point brandishing a flick knife. Years later, when Scheff like Stoner before him had been unceremoniously replaced in Dylan’s band, he was in the studio with drummer Jim Keltner. Keltner had himself recently been playing with Dylan and recalled his own sudden departure from Bob’s band. One day at the end of rehearsals, Keltner remembered, Dylan had taken him to one side and asked: “Jim, what guitar players do you like? I’m not digging the guitar players.” Loyal to his fellow musicians, Keltner told Dylan that he loved the guitar players they already had. Dylan was silent for a moment then looked at Keltner. “By the way,” he said. “I’m not digging the drums either.” Anyway, I need to get back to work on the issue we’re just finishing and then I’m off to Brighton for the Great Escape Festival. We’ll be at the Pavilion Theatre from Thursday to Saturday, so call by if you have a chance. Allan Pic: Jerry Scheff with Dylan at Blackbushe

Jerry Scheff is surely not an unfamiliar name to readers of Uncut. I’d wager a horse most of you have more than one album in your collection that feature him on bass. Among the highlights of a lengthy and illustrious CV, he can count gigs with Elvis Presley, The Doors, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Todd Rundgren, Richard Thompson, Bette Midler, Crowded House, Johnny Cash, T-Bone Burnett, Roy Orbison, Suzanne Vegas and Jimmie Dale Gilmour.

Scheff has stories galore about most of these people in his autobiography, Way Down: Playing Bass With Elvis, Dylan, The Doors & More (Backbeat Books), which I’ve been reading over the weekend just gone. A couple of his anecdotes about playing with Dylan especially stood out.

He joined Dylan’s touring band in May 1978, as a replacement for Rob Stoner, who’d been with Dylan since the Rolling Thunder tours. For unexplained reasons Stoner had suddenly found himself out of favour and been duly fired by Dylan. On June 1, Dylan as due to start a week-long run at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, which didn’t leave him much time to learn the songs for the show.

In fact, as he recalls, barely half the set had been rehearsed when Dylan turned up one day and somewhat nonchalantly announced he’d written a batch of new songs he wanted to record, immediately. At which point, work on the live set stopped entirely and work on Street-Legal started, a mobile studio turning up not long after Dylan at the rehearsal studios where the album was recorded. This was an unscheduled interruption that meant when the band played the opening night of the LA shows, fully a third of the set consisted of songs the band had never played live together before, which seemed not to bother Dylan a proverbial jot.

A couple of weeks later, Scheff was with Dylan in London ahead of the month-long European tour that ended with Dylan headlining the Blackbushe festival. The band was staying at some plush place near Hyde Park. One night, Scheff got a call in his room. It was Dylan. He wanted to know if Scheff was a reggae fan, which he was. Meet me in the hotel garage and don’t mention it to anyone else, Dylan told him.

When Scheff turned up in the garage, he found Dylan at the wheel of a Mercedes he had stashed there, with backing singer Helena Springs and the band’s female percussionist, Bobbye Hall, already on board. Security around Dylan was usually pretty tight, but tonight Dylan had given them the slip and wanted to go to a club he knew to hear some live reggae and now drove the Mercedes there, parking, as Scheff remembers it, about a block away in what seemed to the bassist a rather rough-looking neighbourhood. Dylan then led them through darkened streets to the club.

“We could hear the music from outside,” Scheff writes. “It was almost as if the outer walls of the club were throbbing. We stepped into a room where a few people were sitting around in folding chairs against bare walls; the music, already loud, was coming from the other side of a closed door. In front of us was a ticket booth made out of raw plywood.

“Bob stepped forward and asked for four tickets. A guy in dreadlocks told him that you needed to be a member to gain entry, and that membership was £100 apiece. The band sounded great, though, and we were all getting turned on to what was happening on the other side of the door. Bob handed over £400. We had our hands stamped and in we went.”

What they found on the other side of the door: a room with no chairs or tables, the walls lined with speakers pumping out recorded music and a single couple swaying in the middle of a dance floor otherwise empty, apart from a wine bottle. Undaunted, but out of pocket by nearly a thousand dollars, Dylan, laughing, then headed to another club, possibly the old Venue in Victoria, where Link Wray was playing and Sid Vicious hove into view at one point brandishing a flick knife.

Years later, when Scheff like Stoner before him had been unceremoniously replaced in Dylan’s band, he was in the studio with drummer Jim Keltner. Keltner had himself recently been playing with Dylan and recalled his own sudden departure from Bob’s band.

One day at the end of rehearsals, Keltner remembered, Dylan had taken him to one side and asked: “Jim, what guitar players do you like? I’m not digging the guitar players.”

Loyal to his fellow musicians, Keltner told Dylan that he loved the guitar players they already had.

Dylan was silent for a moment then looked at Keltner.

“By the way,” he said. “I’m not digging the drums either.”

Anyway, I need to get back to work on the issue we’re just finishing and then I’m off to Brighton for the Great Escape Festival. We’ll be at the Pavilion Theatre from Thursday to Saturday, so call by if you have a chance.

Allan

Pic: Jerry Scheff with Dylan at Blackbushe

Hear: Animal Collective, “Honeycomb” and “Gotham”

John Mulvey
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Hear: Animal Collective, “Honeycomb” and “Gotham”

In case you missed them yesterday, I’ve embedded the two new Animal Collective tracks after the jump. Back into relative focus after the “Transverse Temporal Gyrus” thing, and with Avey Tare seemingly to the the fore; he almost seems to be rapping at the start of “Honeycomb”. Good stuff, anyhow - "amniotic", as ever, seems a salient word - but let me know what you think. I'm going to see the Dexys show tonight, so I'll try and post something tomorrow morning about that. Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey

In case you missed them yesterday, I’ve embedded the two new Animal Collective tracks after the jump. Back into relative focus after the “Transverse Temporal Gyrus” thing, and with Avey Tare seemingly to the the fore; he almost seems to be rapping at the start of “Honeycomb”.

Good stuff, anyhow – “amniotic”, as ever, seems a salient word – but let me know what you think. I’m going to see the Dexys show tonight, so I’ll try and post something tomorrow morning about that.

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

The Stone Roses rehearsing without drummer Reni?

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The Stone Roses rehearsing without drummer Reni?
The Stone Roses have apparently been rehearsing for their comeback gigs without drummer Reni aka Alan Wren, according to Matthew Priest of Dodgy. Priest, who drums with the Britpop band, who have also recently staged a comeback, was being interviewed on XFM – via The Sun - when he made the commen...

The Stone Roses have apparently been rehearsing for their comeback gigs without drummer Reni aka Alan Wren, according to Matthew Priest of Dodgy.

Priest, who drums with the Britpop band, who have also recently staged a comeback, was being interviewed on XFM – via The Sun – when he made the comments. Priest said: “I bought tickets because The Roses were one of my favourite bands and Reni was playing. But I’ve heard rumours that Reni might not be playing – he’s not well apparently and they’re rehearsing with another drummer. They’ve sold a lot of the 250,000 tickets because of Reni – I’d want to see them with Reni.”

The Stone Roses’ rep has refuted this, saying that the band are currently rehearsing with “all four members”.

Meanwhile, Brad Pitt has requested tickets to watch The Stone Roses’ UK reunion shows this summer, according to reports. The Hollywood A-lister is a big fan of the Madchester legends, says a source close to the actor, and has requested four tickets to see the band play at Heaton Park this summer while his wife, Angelina Jolie, is filming a new movie.

The gigs will take place from June 29 to July 1, with Primal Scream, Beady Eye and Plan B heading up the support bills on each of the three nights, while Bob Marley’s backing group The Wailers will play third on the bill for each of the shows.

Primal Scream will be joined by The Vaccines and Kid British on the opening night, while Saturday’s bill sees Professor Green and Hollie Cook slated to perform before Beady Eye. Plan B will play on the closing night after The Justice Tonight Band – which comprises The Clash‘s Mick Jones, Pete Wylie and The Farm – and Dirty North.

Meanwhile, a special collectors’ issue dedicated to The Stone Roses is currently available. Produced by the teams behind NME and Uncut, the magazine features the story behind Ian Brown and co’s rise to the top, the creation of their seminal debut album, the legal wrangles and lengthy delays behind their second LP Second Coming and their reunion late last year. The issue is available on newsstands and digitally.

Damon Albarn: “I’m making a new solo album”

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Damon Albarn: “I’m making a new solo album”
Blur frontman Damon Albarn has revealed that he is working on a new solo album. The singer, who recently denied that he is finished with both Blur and Gorillaz, told BBC Radio 4's Front Row that he is working on a new record "under his own name". Asked what he was currently working on, Albarn said...

Blur frontman Damon Albarn has revealed that he is working on a new solo album.

The singer, who recently denied that he is finished with both Blur and Gorillaz, told BBC Radio 4’s Front Row that he is working on a new record “under his own name”.

Asked what he was currently working on, Albarn said: “This week we’re mucking around with these Russian synthesizers in a very loose mind of doing some kind of record under my name. I suppose you could call it a solo record, but I don’t like that word. It sounds very lonely – solo. I don’t really want to be solo in my life. But yeah, I’m making another record.”

The singer has also labeled this year’s Olympics Games as “too corporate” and has said he and his bandmates are playing their Hyde Park show “for London” rather than as a celebration of the games.

The Essex band will headline London’s Hyde Park on August 12, topping a bill that also includes New Order and The Specials. The gig has been put on to coincide with the closing ceremony of the Olympic games, but Albarn has revealed that he was less than keen being seen to be too involved with the games.

Asked if he was “signed up to the Olympics”, Albarn said Blur would headline the gig “for London”. He said of this: “The corporate side I find a bit depressing. There’s too much of it [sponsorship]. A lot of people see it differently. We’re putting on another celebration for the official closure of the Olympic Games.”

He continued: “But we’re putting it on for London and people who hopefully want to sing their hearts out in a park. I’m signed up to the idea of regeneration in London and putting on a good account of ourselves; definitely.”

Albarn also spoke about Blur’s summer reunion and has said he is unsure that the band can ever “recreate the magic” of their previous Hyde Park show in 2009.

Asked what his plans with Blur were in the long-term, he said of the Hyde Park show: “I’m seeing it as a punctuation point. That can be whatever you choose to make it.” Then asked if he thought it could match their previous gig in the London park, he added: “I’m not foolish enough to think we can ever recreate that magic. That really was a career pinnacle.”

Along with playing at Hyde Park, Blur are also scheduled to headline Sweden’s Way Out West festival in August.

First Look – East End Babylon

Michael Bonner
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First Look – East End Babylon

Already, this year has provided plenty of good gear for fans of music documentaries. We've had Kevin McDonald's Bob Marley film and more recently, Lawrence Of Belgravia has capped a resurgence of interest in the idiosyncratic career of the Felt singer. You’d assume that the makers of East End Babylon are hoping that their film will prompt a similar rediscovery of its stars, the Cockney Rejects. The model here is Oil City Confidential, Julien Temple’s excellent documentary that did much to resurrect the reputation of Dr Feelgood. In fact, East End Babylon is directed by Richard England, Temple’s executive producer on Oil City Confidential. But unlike Dr Feelgood, history has not been so kind to the Cockney Rejects. As key players in the Oi! movement, they are tarred by association with far right groups and football hooliganism and, in a show at Birmingham’s Cedar Club in 1980, can claim the dubious honour of playing one of the most violent gigs ever documented. England does a very Temple thing by exploring the psychogeography of the Rejects’ native Canning Town, from the extensive bombing campaign during the Blitz to the slow running down of the docks during the Seventies. A hard life breeds hard people, he concludes. “In the 19th century, there was a saying: Never enter the East End without a loaded gun, and never, ever go there alone,” begins the opening voiceover from frontman Jeff Geggus. “Back in the 1970s, they may well have been saying that about our gigs.” As Jeff Geggus, his guitarist brother Mick and assorted band members, friends and family tell it, Canning Town was a “city of thieves”. Jeff Geggus claims that Parcelforce apparently won’t deliver there for fear of hijacking. “You could imagine Jack Regan and Carter down here every fucking day,” he continues. “They would have had a fucking field day chasing villains.” Today, the Geggus brothers – both of them big men – are clearly calmer than they were in their youth. There’s even something quite amiable about Jeff, in his sweary, slightly unsettling way, though critically, there is no one quite as funny, eloquent or charismatic as Wilko Johnson on hand to provide mercurial flair. Understandably, the Geggus brothers do a fair job of distancing themselves from their right wing following. I won’t make any claims for the Cockney Rejects’ music, but as a snapshot of a subculture it’s a fascinating film. East End Babylon opens in June

Already, this year has provided plenty of good gear for fans of music documentaries. We’ve had Kevin McDonald’s Bob Marley film and more recently, Lawrence Of Belgravia has capped a resurgence of interest in the idiosyncratic career of the Felt singer.

You’d assume that the makers of East End Babylon are hoping that their film will prompt a similar rediscovery of its stars, the Cockney Rejects. The model here is Oil City Confidential, Julien Temple’s excellent documentary that did much to resurrect the reputation of Dr Feelgood. In fact, East End Babylon is directed by Richard England, Temple’s executive producer on Oil City Confidential. But unlike Dr Feelgood, history has not been so kind to the Cockney Rejects. As key players in the Oi! movement, they are tarred by association with far right groups and football hooliganism and, in a show at Birmingham’s Cedar Club in 1980, can claim the dubious honour of playing one of the most violent gigs ever documented.

England does a very Temple thing by exploring the psychogeography of the Rejects’ native Canning Town, from the extensive bombing campaign during the Blitz to the slow running down of the docks during the Seventies. A hard life breeds hard people, he concludes. “In the 19th century, there was a saying: Never enter the East End without a loaded gun, and never, ever go there alone,” begins the opening voiceover from frontman Jeff Geggus. “Back in the 1970s, they may well have been saying that about our gigs.” As Jeff Geggus, his guitarist brother Mick and assorted band members, friends and family tell it, Canning Town was a “city of thieves”. Jeff Geggus claims that Parcelforce apparently won’t deliver there for fear of hijacking. “You could imagine Jack Regan and Carter down here every fucking day,” he continues. “They would have had a fucking field day chasing villains.”

Today, the Geggus brothers – both of them big men – are clearly calmer than they were in their youth. There’s even something quite amiable about Jeff, in his sweary, slightly unsettling way, though critically, there is no one quite as funny, eloquent or charismatic as Wilko Johnson on hand to provide mercurial flair. Understandably, the Geggus brothers do a fair job of distancing themselves from their right wing following. I won’t make any claims for the Cockney Rejects’ music, but as a snapshot of a subculture it’s a fascinating film.

East End Babylon opens in June

My Bloody Valentine – reissues

Uncut
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My Bloody Valentine – reissues

In their early years, it was easy to dismiss My Bloody Valentine as just another cutie band, anoraked, bobbed and locked into an indie obsession with a 60s ideal of perfect pop on singles like “Sunny Sundae Smile”. Then in 1987 founder member Dave Conway left and was replaced by Bilinda Butcher, who reportedly wowed the group’s Kevin Shields, Colm Ó Coisóig and Debbie Googe by singing Dolly Parton’s “Bargain Store” at her audition. By the time the four-piece erupted on stage at Creation Records’ sweaty Doing It For The Kids event at London’s Town & Country Club in summer 1988, they had arrived at a place much closer to freak-rockers like Dinosaur Jr and Mudhoney. Except that where those American groups seemed to be sliding down a slope towards sleepy oblivion or lumpen rockism, MBV were possessed of a nervy, wired energy. Even when they were singing of soporific/narcotized dreamstates, they seemed to be conscious of the moment: when you wake, they said, you’re still in a dream. And they were no longer singing about sunny sundae smiles and strawberry wine, but sex, self-harm and clinical depression. Like the Mary Chain, they buried gorgeous melodies in veils of hiss and distortion, but unlike the Reid Bros, they didn’t have that retro rock ’n’ roll/surfadelic thing going on. It must be one of the most remarkable reinventions in rock history. What good can come of remastering My Bloody Valentine’s albums? The sound of their Creation releases is the polar opposite of all that such reconstructions attempt to unpick. The music’s surface seethes like bees fighting for the queen: it’s a sonic miasma, a hemorrhage of peaking-light overdrive. Voices buzz deep in the mix; guitars shiver and swarm. The ‘holocaust’ at the heart of “You Made Me Realise” – title track of the first Creation EP – is the ultimate anti-guitar solo: a gaping wind-tunnel howl of mounting inertia in which the group seem to drop away completely (they famously extended this abstract void to 15 or 20 minutes on stage, to the detriment of a generation’s eardrums). Loveless was recorded in mono. By its very nature, you’re never going to get clarity on the hazed instrumental mix, but I certainly feel I can hear more of what they’re singing about on these new editions. Unexpectedly, it’s 1988’s Isn’t Anything that comes off worst from the swab-down. Its initial strangeness now just sounds like a ramshackle tryout for what was to follow. Sure, “Lose My Breath” and “No More Sorry” are smouldering beauties, highlighting Butcher’s extinguished-torch vocals, and “I Can See It (But I Can’t Feel It)” is a weirdly dignified take on dysfunctionality. But part of the deadly effect of “Sueisfine” was knowing that they were actually singing “suicide” even if the text was buried in the maelstrom. Now you can actually hear the words. It’s 1991's Loveless – presented here in two versions, mastered from ‘original tape’ and ‘original ½ inch analogue tape’, if you can appreciate the difference – that holds its own as one of the great rock albums, period. Recorded over three years, largely by Shields alone, its extensive ‘glide guitar’ and curious lack of low end add up to a soundworld no one could ever hope to replicate. “Only Shallow” opens with a grunge-grind, sampled guitars baying like horns, Colm Ó Ciosóig and Debbie Googe’s rhythm section scooping out deep furrows. “To Here Knows When” remains a masterly aural hallucination, its instrumental balance utterly unprecedented in rock. The guitars are ablaze, a constant alarm note sounds throughout the song, which otherwise trundles along over a programmed rhythm. Only Fennesz has since captured this sense of flaring embers, of a music glowing brightest even as it burns itself up. “Come In Alone” could have gone on forever, Shields spilling Television-style ropes of neon solo over its repetitive coda. “Soon” spot-welded the MBV tincture to an urgent hiphop beat, pointing to a future that never arrived. Loveless took a hefty bite out of Creation’s finances and a new deal with Island proved barren. Savour the music on these releases for what it is: a white dwarf that took three years to collapse. Rob Young

In their early years, it was easy to dismiss My Bloody Valentine as just another cutie band, anoraked, bobbed and locked into an indie obsession with a 60s ideal of perfect pop on singles like “Sunny Sundae Smile”. Then in 1987 founder member Dave Conway left and was replaced by Bilinda Butcher, who reportedly wowed the group’s Kevin Shields, Colm Ó Coisóig and Debbie Googe by singing Dolly Parton’s “Bargain Store” at her audition. By the time the four-piece erupted on stage at Creation Records’ sweaty Doing It For The Kids event at London’s Town & Country Club in summer 1988, they had arrived at a place much closer to freak-rockers like Dinosaur Jr and Mudhoney. Except that where those American groups seemed to be sliding down a slope towards sleepy oblivion or lumpen rockism, MBV were possessed of a nervy, wired energy.

Even when they were singing of soporific/narcotized dreamstates, they seemed to be conscious of the moment: when you wake, they said, you’re still in a dream. And they were no longer singing about sunny sundae smiles and strawberry wine, but sex, self-harm and clinical depression. Like the Mary Chain, they buried gorgeous melodies in veils of hiss and distortion, but unlike the Reid Bros, they didn’t have that retro rock ’n’ roll/surfadelic thing going on. It must be one of the most remarkable reinventions in rock history.

What good can come of remastering My Bloody Valentine’s albums? The sound of their Creation releases is the polar opposite of all that such reconstructions attempt to unpick. The music’s surface seethes like bees fighting for the queen: it’s a sonic miasma, a hemorrhage of peaking-light overdrive. Voices buzz deep in the mix; guitars shiver and swarm. The ‘holocaust’ at the heart of “You Made Me Realise” – title track of the first Creation EP – is the ultimate anti-guitar solo: a gaping wind-tunnel howl of mounting inertia in which the group seem to drop away completely (they famously extended this abstract void to 15 or 20 minutes on stage, to the detriment of a generation’s eardrums). Loveless was recorded in mono. By its very nature, you’re never going to get clarity on the hazed instrumental mix, but I certainly feel I can hear more of what they’re singing about on these new editions.

Unexpectedly, it’s 1988’s Isn’t Anything that comes off worst from the swab-down. Its initial strangeness now just sounds like a ramshackle tryout for what was to follow. Sure, “Lose My Breath” and “No More Sorry” are smouldering beauties, highlighting Butcher’s extinguished-torch vocals, and “I Can See It (But I Can’t Feel It)” is a weirdly dignified take on dysfunctionality. But part of the deadly effect of “Sueisfine” was knowing that they were actually singing “suicide” even if the text was buried in the maelstrom. Now you can actually hear the words.

It’s 1991’s Loveless – presented here in two versions, mastered from ‘original tape’ and ‘original ½ inch analogue tape’, if you can appreciate the difference – that holds its own as one of the great rock albums, period. Recorded over three years, largely by Shields alone, its extensive ‘glide guitar’ and curious lack of low end add up to a soundworld no one could ever hope to replicate. “Only Shallow” opens with a grunge-grind, sampled guitars baying like horns, Colm Ó Ciosóig and Debbie Googe’s rhythm section scooping out deep furrows. “To Here Knows When” remains a masterly aural hallucination, its instrumental balance utterly unprecedented in rock. The guitars are ablaze, a constant alarm note sounds throughout the song, which otherwise trundles along over a programmed rhythm. Only Fennesz has since captured this sense of flaring embers, of a music glowing brightest even as it burns itself up. “Come In Alone” could have gone on forever, Shields spilling Television-style ropes of neon solo over its repetitive coda. “Soon” spot-welded the MBV tincture to an urgent hiphop beat, pointing to a future that never arrived.

Loveless took a hefty bite out of Creation’s finances and a new deal with Island proved barren. Savour the music on these releases for what it is: a white dwarf that took three years to collapse.

Rob Young

Beastie Boys’ Mike D: “I miss Adam Yauch so much”

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Beastie Boys’ Mike D: “I miss Adam Yauch so much”
Mike D of the Beastie Boys has spoken about the death of his bandmate, Adam Yauch. Yauch, who was also known as MCA, was diagnosed with cancer in 2009 and succumbed to the disease on Friday [May 4], aged 47. Writing on the band's Facebook page, Mike Diamond said how much he missed his bandmate: "...

Mike D of the Beastie Boys has spoken about the death of his bandmate, Adam Yauch.

Yauch, who was also known as MCA, was diagnosed with cancer in 2009 and succumbed to the disease on Friday [May 4], aged 47.

Writing on the band’s Facebook page, Mike Diamond said how much he missed his bandmate:

“I know, we should have tweeted and instagrammed every sad, happy and inspired thought, smile or tear by now. But honestly the last few days have just been a blur of deep emotions for our closest friend, band mate and really brother. I miss Adam so much.

He continued: “He really served as a great example for myself and so many of what determination, faith, focus, and humility coupled with a sense of humor can accomplish. The world is in need of many more like him. We love you Adam.”

Meanwhile, Ad-Rock aka Adam Horovitz, thanked friends and family for their ‘love and support’ on the Beastie Boys’s blog, saying he was “glad to know that all the love that Yauch has put out into the world is coming right back at him.”

Jimi Hendrix film to start shooting next month

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Jimi Hendrix film to start shooting next month

A Jimi Hendrix biopic, All Is By My Side, is to start shooting in Ireland in three weeks time, according to The Irish Film And Television Network. Starring Outkast's Andre 3000 as Hendrix, the film is reported to cover Hendrix' period in England during 1966 / 1967 as he worked on his debut album, Are You Experienced. The film is written and directed by John Ridley, whose previous credits include the screenplays for David O Russell's Three Kings and Oliver Stone's U-Turn.

A Jimi Hendrix biopic, All Is By My Side, is to start shooting in Ireland in three weeks time, according to The Irish Film And Television Network.

Starring Outkast’s Andre 3000 as Hendrix, the film is reported to cover Hendrix’ period in England during 1966 / 1967 as he worked on his debut album, Are You Experienced.

The film is written and directed by John Ridley, whose previous credits include the screenplays for David O Russell’s Three Kings and Oliver Stone‘s U-Turn.

Carole King’s ‘Tapestry’ album cover photographer dies

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Carole King’s ‘Tapestry’ album cover photographer dies
Jim McCrary, a former staff photographer for A&M Records who shot hundreds of album covers during his career, has died at the age of 72. McCrary shot the iconic, cat-featuring image for Carole King's 1971 album Tapestry, as well as over 300 other album covers, including for the debut album from...

Jim McCrary, a former staff photographer for A&M Records who shot hundreds of album covers during his career, has died at the age of 72.

McCrary shot the iconic, cat-featuring image for Carole King’s 1971 album Tapestry, as well as over 300 other album covers, including for the debut album from the Flying Burrito Brothers, the Carpenters debut album, Offering/Ticket To Ride and Joe Cocker’s live album, Mad Dogs And Englishmen.

The LA Times reports that McCrary died on April 29 following complications from a chronic nervous system disorder at a hospital in Palo Alto, California.

Record producer Lou Adler said: “He was so important both to me and my artists. Conceptually, he always understood what the person was about and was able to photograph their personality. A perfect example of that is the Tapestry album…. The idea of having the cat, that brought a personal feeling to it.”

McCrary also shot Michael Jackson for his Off The Wall album, but the pictures ended up being scrapped as Jackson wasn’t happy with the way that he looked in the photos.

The Who’s Roger Daltrey confirms that Keith Moon was invited to Olympics 2012 opening ceremony

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The Who’s Roger Daltrey confirms that Keith Moon was invited to Olympics 2012 opening ceremony
The Who's Roger Daltrey has confirmed that organisers of the London 2012 Olympics asked whether drummer Keith Moon – who died in 1978 – would be able to take part in this summer's celebrations. In an interview on US TV show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the frontman joked that the band's management had r...

The Who‘s Roger Daltrey has confirmed that organisers of the London 2012 Olympics asked whether drummer Keith Moon – who died in 1978 – would be able to take part in this summer’s celebrations.

In an interview on US TV show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the frontman joked that the band’s management had responded to the invitation by suggesting they try contacting the deceased rocker themselves by holding a séance.

He joked: “It could only happen in Britain. We are so organised. We got a letter – well, an email – requesting could Keith Moon attend the opening ceremony.”

He then added: “Our manager sent an email back saying, ‘Well actually he currently resides at Golders Green Crematorium, where he’s been for the last 34 years. But maybe if you got a round table, some candles and some glasses, you might be able to get him back [through a séance].”

Last week, it was announced that Duran Duran, Snow Patrol, Paolo Nutini and Stereophonics will play a huge show in London’s Hyde Park this summer to mark the start of the Olympics on July 27.

While this show will act as an accompaniment to the opening ceremony, Blur will headline a show in Hyde Park to celebrate the end of the games. They will be joined by New Order and The Specials on August 12 for the gig.

New Soundgarden album “probably October”

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New Soundgarden album “probably October”
Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell has revealed that the band's new album will "be out in probably October". Speaking to Rolling Stone, Cornell claimed the album will be mastered imminently. "I would say September but I'm just guessing October. We're pretty much done with everything." The album wi...

Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell has revealed that the band’s new album will “be out in probably October”.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Cornell claimed the album will be mastered imminently. “I would say September but I’m just guessing October. We’re pretty much done with everything.”

The album will be the Seattle group’s first album since 1996’s Down On The Upside. They recently released their first new track in 15 years, “Live To Rise”, on the soundtrack for the film, Avengers Assemble.

Soundgarden reunited in 2010, 12 years after they originally split up.

The band will come to the UK this summer to headline Hard Rock Calling festival in London. Soundgarden, who will also perform at this summer’s Download Festival, join Bruce Springsteen and Paul Simon in headlining the event.

Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon: “Adam Yauch was a great lyricist”

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Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon: “Adam Yauch was a great lyricist”
Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon has paid tribute to Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch and said he was a "great rapper and lyricist". The bassist has shared her memories of Yauch, who passed away on Friday (May 4) after a three-year battle with cancer, with NME and hailed the rapper's lyrics. She said: "He told me...

Sonic Youth‘s Kim Gordon has paid tribute to Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch and said he was a “great rapper and lyricist”.

The bassist has shared her memories of Yauch, who passed away on Friday (May 4) after a three-year battle with cancer, with NME and hailed the rapper’s lyrics.

She said: “He told me once that he really liked the lyrics to ‘Bull In The Heather‘. It surprised me that he had even listened to it. It meant a lot to me that he went out of his way to tell me that, coming from such a great rapper and lyricist.”

Gordon also spoke about the time her and Yauch wandered the streets of Tokyo with her 6 month old baby daughter Coco, and said his death was a “hugely sad moment”.

She added: “Yauch seemed happy to hang out with me and Coco as we wandered around Tokyo, which was unusual because no one else had babies at that point. Everyone else was busy taking advantage of their precious time in Tokyo.”

Yauch was diagnosed with cancer of the preaortic gland and lymph node in July 2009 and had been fighting the disease ever since.

In 1979, Yauch co-founded the Beastie Boys with Mike “Mike D” Diamond, who he met at school, and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horowitz. After starting out as a punk group inspired by Black Flag, the trio soon began experimenting with hip-hop.

The release of their first full album Licensed To Ill in 1986 broke them into the mainstrean by becoming the the first hip-hop album to top the Billboard album chart. In total, the band released eight albums including Paul’s Boutique, Check Your Head and Ill Communication.

The group’s last album, Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, was released last year. It was originally planned for release in 2009 but was delayed after Yauch’s diagnosis. Adam Yauch is survived by his wife, Dechen Wengdu, and their daughter Tenzin Losel.

Richard Hawley – Standing At Sky’s Edge

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Richard Hawley – Standing At Sky’s Edge

As long as you’ve been briefed on Yorkshire local history, you know where you are with Richard Hawley. His 2009 album Truleove’s Gutter took its name from the site of an 18th century tavern whose effluent spilled into the River Don. His 2005 Coles Corner memorialized a junction outside a Sheffield Department store that was a rendez-vous for 1950s couples. Where his contemporary Jarvis Cocker has been a poet of the city’s sexual mores, Hawley’s best work has wistfully hymned Sheffield’s romantic ghosts, in a sequence of sumptuous Jim Reeves-style arrangements. Unless Sky’s Edge is revealed to be a forgotten Don Valley beauty spot, Standing At The Sky’s Edge marks a fairly major change of tack for the songwriter-guitarist-producer. If the title invokes a location, it’s a mystical one: some thundery, Zeppelinesque Valhalla, rather than Hawley’s usual stomping ground, the steep cobbled street. Likewise the music. The opener, “She Brings The Sunlight”, kicks the doors off with a wail of noisy, electric guitars, while the title track is a layered guitar landscape, with a vocal that recalls, of all people, The Doors. Musically speaking, at least. Hawley has washed out his pomade and grown his hair long. That’s not to say that this record is unrecognisable as the work of Richard Hawley. It is still after all a pretty sophisticated piece of retro music-making – only rather than painstakingly emulating the production values of the late 1950s and early 1960s, he’s embraced the echoes, middle eastern modality and wah-wah effects of someone hellbent on creating a heavy psychedelic guitar record. Still, psychedelic rock or not, there is a part of Richard Hawley that will always be a coal miner on a stone bridge, waiting for his girlfriend to arrive. Duly, fans of Hawley’s rueful view of love and relationships, his fine guitar playing, and magnificent singing voice will find them all present and correct here, if displayed in unexpected ways. “Time Will Bring You Winter” is a loping wah-wah rocker, it’s true, but underneath the din of the music you’ll discover the song is about the life cycle, as told in an English vocabulary of mossy lanes and shadowy churchyards. “Down To The Woods”, the best of the album’s heavy songs, is reminiscent of “1970” by the Stooges but suggests an unpredictable outcome to what appears at first to be an English pastoral idyll. And, although the record is bookended with heavy rock, Hawley unleashes his customary deep croonology in its excellent and very quiet middle section. Here, we find Hawley writing magnificently in a trio of songs which seem to be about how love is meant to be, and how it is really, for good and bad. “Seek It” juxtaposes a charming, slightly jaunty tune with a fabulously dry lyric – “I had a dream and you were in it/We got naked/Can’t remember what happened next/It was weird” – and features Hawley’s fabulously restrained playing. “Don’t Stare At The Sun” could be a Chemical Brothers title, but is ultimately all about how the everyday consolations of family are more important than waiting for cosmic revelations. “The Wood Collier’s Grave”, the only song you will hear this year to detail the thoughts from beyond the grave of a charcoal burner’s apprentice, is a tender folk ballad. So even when Standing... returns to its heavy mode in its last two numbers, the subject matter remains very much Hawley’s. Final track “Before” is the album’s mode in a nutshell, an attempt to reconcile his two sides, rocker and crooner; stargazer and earth-dweller. In a song part gentle U2 ballad, part Oasis guitar anthem, he suggests that for all the head-turning things the universe can offer, the realities of a familiar relationship and shared history are the things that really matter. The more Richard Hawley changes, evidently, the more he stays the same. Head from time to time in the clouds. Feet still very much on the ground. John Robinson Q&A This is a heavy, psychedelic-sounding kind of record. I don’t like the word psychedelic because it implies flowers and lollipops, and there’s none of that on this record at all. It’s quite dark, you know. In what way? I think I started writing when the Tories got in – it influenced a lot of the first song which was “Down In The Woods”. They were trying to sell off the forest land, and that had me really fucking outraged. ((i)Sheffield guitarist(i))Tim McCall’s passing was a catalyst for a lot of musical activity. He died walking upstairs carrying a baby blanket and a cup of tea - he tripped on his shoelace and broke his neck. It’s done all of our heads in. He was a fantastic guy, lovely bloke. There are some intimate, family moments like “Don’t Stare At The Sun”. I was left responsible for one of my children after quite a heavy night on hallucinogenic drugs. If anybody from the NSPCC is reading this I should say I was completely compos mentis – but things were still…whizzing and popping. How vividly you see everything on acid – the intense happiness of that was the beginning of the song. So are you going to grow your hair now? I can reliably assure you that when you called up before I couldn’t pick the phone up because I had grease in me hands, doing me quiff. INTERVIEW: JOHN ROBINSON

As long as you’ve been briefed on Yorkshire local history, you know where you are with Richard Hawley. His 2009 album Truleove’s Gutter took its name from the site of an 18th century tavern whose effluent spilled into the River Don. His 2005 Coles Corner memorialized a junction outside a Sheffield Department store that was a rendez-vous for 1950s couples. Where his contemporary Jarvis Cocker has been a poet of the city’s sexual mores, Hawley’s best work has wistfully hymned Sheffield’s romantic ghosts, in a sequence of sumptuous Jim Reeves-style arrangements.

Unless Sky’s Edge is revealed to be a forgotten Don Valley beauty spot, Standing At The Sky’s Edge marks a fairly major change of tack for the songwriter-guitarist-producer. If the title invokes a location, it’s a mystical one: some thundery, Zeppelinesque Valhalla, rather than Hawley’s usual stomping ground, the steep cobbled street. Likewise the music. The opener, “She Brings The Sunlight”, kicks the doors off with a wail of noisy, electric guitars, while the title track is a layered guitar landscape, with a vocal that recalls, of all people, The Doors. Musically speaking, at least. Hawley has washed out his pomade and grown his hair long.

That’s not to say that this record is unrecognisable as the work of Richard Hawley. It is still after all a pretty sophisticated piece of retro music-making – only rather than painstakingly emulating the production values of the late 1950s and early 1960s, he’s embraced the echoes, middle eastern modality and wah-wah effects of someone hellbent on creating a heavy psychedelic guitar record. Still, psychedelic rock or not, there is a part of Richard Hawley that will always be a coal miner on a stone bridge, waiting for his girlfriend to arrive.

Duly, fans of Hawley’s rueful view of love and relationships, his fine guitar playing, and magnificent singing voice will find them all present and correct here, if displayed in unexpected ways. “Time Will Bring You Winter” is a loping wah-wah rocker, it’s true, but underneath the din of the music you’ll discover the song is about the life cycle, as told in an English vocabulary of mossy lanes and shadowy churchyards. “Down To The Woods”, the best of the album’s heavy songs, is reminiscent of “1970” by the Stooges but suggests an unpredictable outcome to what appears at first to be an English pastoral idyll.

And, although the record is bookended with heavy rock, Hawley unleashes his customary deep croonology in its excellent and very quiet middle section. Here, we find Hawley writing magnificently in a trio of songs which seem to be about how love is meant to be, and how it is really, for good and bad. “Seek It” juxtaposes a charming, slightly jaunty tune with a fabulously dry lyric – “I had a dream and you were in it/We got naked/Can’t remember what happened next/It was weird” – and features Hawley’s fabulously restrained playing. “Don’t Stare At The Sun” could be a Chemical Brothers title, but is ultimately all about how the everyday consolations of family are more important than waiting for cosmic revelations. “The Wood Collier’s Grave”, the only song you will hear this year to detail the thoughts from beyond the grave of a charcoal burner’s apprentice, is a tender folk ballad.

So even when Standing… returns to its heavy mode in its last two numbers, the subject matter remains very much Hawley’s. Final track “Before” is the album’s mode in a nutshell, an attempt to reconcile his two sides, rocker and crooner; stargazer and earth-dweller. In a song part gentle U2 ballad, part Oasis guitar anthem, he suggests that for all the head-turning things the universe can offer, the realities of a familiar relationship and shared history are the things that really matter.

The more Richard Hawley changes, evidently, the more he stays the same. Head from time to time in the clouds. Feet still very much on the ground.

John Robinson

Q&A

This is a heavy, psychedelic-sounding kind of record.

I don’t like the word psychedelic because it implies flowers and lollipops, and there’s none of that on this record at all. It’s quite dark, you know.

In what way?

I think I started writing when the Tories got in – it influenced a lot of the first song which was “Down In The Woods”. They were trying to sell off the forest land, and that had me really fucking outraged. ((i)Sheffield guitarist(i))Tim McCall’s passing was a catalyst for a lot of musical activity. He died walking upstairs carrying a baby blanket and a cup of tea – he tripped on his shoelace and broke his neck. It’s done all of our heads in. He was a fantastic guy, lovely bloke.

There are some intimate, family moments like “Don’t Stare At The Sun”.

I was left responsible for one of my children after quite a heavy night on hallucinogenic drugs. If anybody from the NSPCC is reading this I should say I was completely compos mentis – but things were still…whizzing and popping. How vividly you see everything on acid – the intense happiness of that was the beginning of the song.

So are you going to grow your hair now?

I can reliably assure you that when you called up before I couldn’t pick the phone up because I had grease in me hands, doing me quiff.

INTERVIEW: JOHN ROBINSON

Adam Yauch 1964-2012

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Adam Yauch 1964-2012
Beastie Boys co-founder Adam Yauch died aged 47 yesterday (May 4). The rapper's death was confirmed in a lengthy statement posted on the band's official website, Beastieboys.com. It began: "It is with great sadness that we confirm that musician, rapper, activist and director Adam "MCA" Yauch, fou...

Beastie Boys co-founder Adam Yauch died aged 47 yesterday (May 4).

The rapper’s death was confirmed in a lengthy statement posted on the band’s official website, Beastieboys.com. It began: “It is with great sadness that we confirm that musician, rapper, activist and director Adam “MCA” Yauch, founding member of Beastie Boys and also of the Milarepa Foundation that produced the Tibetan Freedom Concert benefits, and film production and distribution company Oscilloscope Laboratories, passed away in his native New York City this morning after a near-three-year battle with cancer.”

Yauch, who was also known as MCA, was diagnosed with cancer of the preaortic gland and lymph node in July 2009, and had been fighting the disease ever since.

Although his bandmates had said that Yauch had responded well to his treatment, he hadn’t appeared publicly with the band for some time, and did not attend the band’s induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame last month as he was too unwell.

Yauch is survived by his wife Dechen and his daughter, Tenzin Losel Yauch. He co-founded the Beastie Boys in 1979 with Mike “Mike D” Diamond, who he met at school, and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horowitz. After starting out as a punk group inspired by Black Flag, the trio soon began experimenting with hip-hop.

The release of their first full album ‘Licensed To Ill’ in 1986 broke them into the mainstrean by becoming the the first hip-hop album to top the Billboard album chart and featured the massive worldwide hit ‘(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)’. In total, the band released eight albums including ‘Paul’s Boutique’, ‘Check Your Head’ and ‘Ill Communication’.

The group’s last album, ‘Hot Sauce Committee Part Two’, was released last year. It was originally planned for release in 2009 but was delayed after Yauch’s diagnosis.

Yauch had an enduring passion for film. Working under a pseudonym Nathaniel Hornblower, he directed many of the band’s music videos, including ‘So What’cha Want,’ ‘Intergalactic,’ and more recently ‘Make Some Noise.’ In 2002, he launched the film production company Oscilloscope Laboratories – a studio and distributor which he set up to put out his high-school basketball documentary Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot but later put out films including Kelly Reichardt’s drama Wendy and Lucy and street artist Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop.

Alongside the Beastie Boys, Yauch was heavily involved in the free Tibet movement, co-organising the Tibetan Freedom Concerts in the late ’90s.

When Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of fame two weeks ago, Ad-Rock and Mike D read a letter from the absent Yauch: “I’d like to dedicate this to my brothers Adam and Mike,” he wrote. “They walked the globe with me. It’s also for anyone who has ever been touched by our band. This induction is as much ours as it is yours.”

Jack Black: ‘Nirvana were the last big rock band’

Tom Goodwyn
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Jack Black: ‘Nirvana were the last big rock band’

Tenacious D's Jack Black says he's saddened by a lack of great rock bands today. The comedy singer says he wrote the song 'Rock is Dead' on Tenacious D's new album 'Rize of the Fenix' because of the lack of massive rock bands that "drive kids insane". He tells Rolling Stone: "When you think about rock at its origin, and you think of The Beatles and millions of kids screaming as loud as they can and running as fast as they can towards The Beatles, there's no one who is that kind of lightning rod, who commands that kind of power and has that kind of creative magma." He adds: "I contend that the last band to really have that kind of power, I'm gonna say, was Nirvana. Who since Nirvana has been as big as Nirvana, in that way?" However, Black is a fan of Jack White – "Whatever he does is worth checking out - and his archnemesis, The Black Keys, are also tremendous," he says. He also namechecked the Foo Fighters: "The Foo Fighters. I loves me some Foos. But [rock music] does get thin after that." Tenacious D are currently streaming their new album 'Rize Of The Fenix' online in full, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click to listen to the record. Dave Grohl, who has drummed on both of the band's previous records, has once again contributed to the album. The duo - Jack Black and comedian Kyle Gass - will release the album on May 14. It is the follow-up to 2006's 'The Pick of Destiny'. Tenacious D will play five UK shows this June in support of the album's release. They will play three shows at London's O2 Academy Brixton on June 5, 6 and 7, Manchester's O2 Apollo on June 10 and Glasgow SECC on June 12.

Tenacious D’s Jack Black says he’s saddened by a lack of great rock bands today.

The comedy singer says he wrote the song ‘Rock is Dead’ on Tenacious D’s new album ‘Rize of the Fenix’ because of the lack of massive rock bands that “drive kids insane”. He tells Rolling Stone: “When you think about rock at its origin, and you think of The Beatles and millions of kids screaming as loud as they can and running as fast as they can towards The Beatles, there’s no one who is that kind of lightning rod, who commands that kind of power and has that kind of creative magma.”

He adds: “I contend that the last band to really have that kind of power, I’m gonna say, was Nirvana. Who since Nirvana has been as big as Nirvana, in that way?”

However, Black is a fan of Jack White – “Whatever he does is worth checking out – and his archnemesis, The Black Keys, are also tremendous,” he says. He also namechecked the Foo Fighters: “The Foo Fighters. I loves me some Foos. But [rock music] does get thin after that.”

Tenacious D are currently streaming their new album ‘Rize Of The Fenix’ online in full, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click to listen to the record. Dave Grohl, who has drummed on both of the band’s previous records, has once again contributed to the album.

The duo – Jack Black and comedian Kyle Gass – will release the album on May 14. It is the follow-up to 2006’s ‘The Pick of Destiny’.

Tenacious D will play five UK shows this June in support of the album’s release. They will play three shows at London’s O2 Academy Brixton on June 5, 6 and 7, Manchester’s O2 Apollo on June 10 and Glasgow SECC on June 12.

Sigur Ros frontman: ‘I love David Guetta, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna’

Tom Goodwyn
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Sigur Ros frontman: ‘I love David Guetta, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna’

Ambient Icelandic rockers Sigur Ros have revealed their love for commercial pop music. Singer Jonsi Birgisson told Gigwise: "I really like the typical pop I hear on the radio. I don't buy it, but when I hear it on the radio when I'm driving I turn it up." He added: "I like Nicki Minaj and David Guetta - who everybody hates - but I think he has some good songs! 'Titanium' is really good, I especially like that one. I like Rihanna too…I like Nicki Minaj too…I really like 'Superbass', but I don't like the new one. I expected something more flamboyant and over the top." Sigur Ros are set to release their sixth studio album 'Valtari' on May 28. It will be the follow up to 2008's 'Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust' and puts an end to their short-live "indefinite hiatus". In November, Sigur Ros released was 'Inni', a concert film and live album documenting the group's final two shows of their last world tour at London's Alexandra Palace. The band will play their first UK show for four years at Bestival in September. They are also booked for festivals in Canada, France, Japan and Ireland. Bestival will take place from September 6–9 at Robin Hill Park on the Isle Of Wight.

Ambient Icelandic rockers Sigur Ros have revealed their love for commercial pop music.

Singer Jonsi Birgisson told Gigwise: “I really like the typical pop I hear on the radio. I don’t buy it, but when I hear it on the radio when I’m driving I turn it up.” He added: “I like Nicki Minaj and David Guetta – who everybody hates – but I think he has some good songs! ‘Titanium’ is really good, I especially like that one. I like Rihanna too…I like Nicki Minaj too…I really like ‘Superbass’, but I don’t like the new one. I expected something more flamboyant and over the top.”

Sigur Ros are set to release their sixth studio album ‘Valtari’ on May 28. It will be the follow up to 2008’s ‘Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust’ and puts an end to their short-live “indefinite hiatus”.

In November, Sigur Ros released was ‘Inni’, a concert film and live album documenting the group’s final two shows of their last world tour at London’s Alexandra Palace.

The band will play their first UK show for four years at Bestival in September. They are also booked for festivals in Canada, France, Japan and Ireland. Bestival will take place from September 6–9 at Robin Hill Park on the Isle Of Wight.

Bat For Lashes announces UK comeback show

Tom Goodwyn
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Bat For Lashes announces UK comeback show
Bat For Lashes has announced her first UK show for over a year. The singer, who has spent the last 18 months working on the follow-up to her second album 'Two Suns', will play Cambridge Junction on June 13. The show will act as a warm-up for the singer's lengthy run of festival appearances, whic...

Bat For Lashes has announced her first UK show for over a year.

The singer, who has spent the last 18 months working on the follow-up to her second album ‘Two Suns’, will play Cambridge Junction on June 13.

The show will act as a warm-up for the singer’s lengthy run of festival appearances, which stretches right across the summer.

Her booked slots include shows at Latitude and Bestival as well as gigs in Germany, Holland, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Portugal, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Spain and Ireland.

Bat For Lashes has not said how much of her new material she will be previewing during her summer shows as yet. She has also yet to reveal any song titles or the name of her third album.

The Prodigy’s Liam Howlett: ‘I’m bored of big collaborations’

Tom Goodwyn
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The Prodigy’s Liam Howlett: ‘I’m bored of big collaborations’
The Prodigy's mainman Liam Howlett has spoken about his plans for the band's new album. Howlett, who revealed earlier this week that the Essex stadium fillers' new record has been given the working title 'How To Steal A Jet Fighter', told NME that he plans to avoid big-name collaborations on the ...

The Prodigy‘s mainman Liam Howlett has spoken about his plans for the band’s new album.

Howlett, who revealed earlier this week that the Essex stadium fillers’ new record has been given the working title ‘How To Steal A Jet Fighter’, told NME that he plans to avoid big-name collaborations on the band’s new LP.

Howlett, who has collaborated with the likes of Liam Gallagher, Dave Grohl and Juliette Lewis on previous albums, has said that he wanted to work on collaborations with “people lower down the scale.”

Asked if there were any big name guests on the band’s new album, Howlett said: “Nothing well known at this stage. Maybe later down the line. I tend to try to work with people that are more lower down the scale, I’m bored of the big collaborations. Maybe on a production level there’s a few people I’m working with people lower down the scale.”

The multi-instrumentalist also spoke about the making of ‘How To Steal A Jet Fighter’ and said that his bandmates Keef Flint and Maxim had been much more involved in its creation. He also admitted that the band’s 2009 effort ‘Invaders Must Die’ might have benefited from their input.

Asked what the other members of The Prodigy were up to, Howlett said: “They’ve been in the studio with me. Even if they’re not working on lyrics every day, definitely a few days a week they’re come in, have a listen, talk about it. I made the mistake in the past, not the last record but before, where I delivered finished tracks. I think it would have been better with some input along the way.”

The Prodigy are expected to debut new songs during their headline slot at this summer’s Download Festival. They will top the bill at the event along with Metallica and Black Sabbath.

To read the full interview with Liam Howlett, in which he reveals more about the band’s plans for their Download set, pick up this week’s NME, which is on UK newsstands and available digitally now.

Mick Jagger to host Saturday Night Live

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Mick Jagger to host Saturday Night Live
Mick Jagger is to host and perform at the series finale of American comedy sketch show, Saturday Night Live. According to Deadline, Jagger will host the episode, which airs on May 19. This will be Jagger's first time hosting the long-running series, but his third appearance as a performer. Jagger...

Mick Jagger is to host and perform at the series finale of American comedy sketch show, Saturday Night Live.

According to Deadline, Jagger will host the episode, which airs on May 19.

This will be Jagger’s first time hosting the long-running series, but his third appearance as a performer.

Jagger and the rest of the Rolling Stones co-hosted and performed, as well as appearing in a handful of sketches, in 1978.

Jagger again appeared on the programme in 2001.

The Rolling Stones are currently celebrating their 50th anniversary.

A book, The Rolling Stones: 50 will be released on July 12, the date in 1962 when the band debuted at the Marquee Club in London’s Oxford Street.

In September, the Stones will release a career-spanning documentary.

Will Oldham – Album By Album

Tom Pinnock
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Will Oldham – Album By Album
To accompany this month’s Uncut (Take 181, June 2012), out now, which features the Bonnie “Prince” Billy/Palace icon fielding questions from fans and musicians, here’s an illuminating Album By Album piece with Will Oldham, talking to Andrew Mueller, from Uncut’s April 2009 issue. “I feel...

To accompany this month’s Uncut (Take 181, June 2012), out now, which features the Bonnie “Prince” Billy/Palace icon fielding questions from fans and musicians, here’s an illuminating Album By Album piece with Will Oldham, talking to Andrew Mueller, from Uncut’s April 2009 issue. “I feel more confident about things now,” he says. “Which frees up space for me to feel insecure about a whole new range of stuff…”

___________________

The Ramshackle Debut

THE PALACE BROTHERS

There Is No-One What Will Take Care Of You (Drag City, 1993)

Lo-fi country blues, coming apparently out of nowhere, There Is… features possibly the most diffident sleeve credits in history: Will Oldham’s collaborators – including Slint’s Todd Brashear, Brian McMahan and Britt Walford – are listed under “Impossible without…” Three more Palace albums – Days In The Wake, Viva Lost Blues and Arise Therefore – follow.

OLDHAM: “I’d been an actor. But when I came out of the cocoon of childhood idealism, I was confronted with the reality that acting was not a viable choice. Then there was a couple of years when I didn’t know what I could do on this earth. And music just started to happen. There came a point when I thought. ‘Aw, shit, I guess I have to go to university,’ and not have dreams. I stayed with some friends in Bloomington, Indiana, for three months, who were in an audio recording programme, who said, ‘Let’s record some songs and send them around, and see if someone wants to make a record,’ and someone did. These songs were written in Bloomington.

“I went back to school, and persuaded a teacher to sponsor the songwriting process as an independent study class. Then Drag City said, ‘When are we going to make this?’ and I told the school I wasn’t coming back. There were six musicians, and everyone played different things, but I didn’t want that to be part of the listening experience. I didn’t know how to credit people, hence the ‘Impossible without’. I wanted the songs to be of interest. It’s shocking how raw it sounds now. That wasn’t deliberate. We played to the best of our abilities on the best equipment we had.”

The Fraught, Edgy Fifth

WILL OLDHAM

Joya (Drag City/Domino, 1997)

The Palace conceit discarded, Oldham ventures out under his own name, retaining a countryish sound while lyrically visiting forbidding depths. Later reissues are credited to Bonnie “Prince” Billy.

“There was no thought about the name. I just thought, it’s probably not a good idea to put out a record with no name on it, but I can’t think of another name right now. So, we’ll use Will Oldham. That was it. Joya was many years in the works, then three days of recording and mixing. It was made in three days because it was a last, desperate effort before resigning myself to not even trying to make records anymore. It was so confusing, so hard. I’d given up.

“It was exciting and fulfilling to make records, but the reality of a musician’s life was not something I could get with. I felt like it was pulling me away from the life I valued, with loved ones, and not having to be in rooms full of people watching you work. And making records outside the system can be disorienting. You’re looking at this thing, and thinking, ‘Well, this looks like a record,’ and realising that you only share that opinion with a very small number of people. Everything that was supposed to be a reward for being a musician – shows, doing interviews – I hated. I wasn’t ready to be a working musician. Dan [Koretzky] from Drag City and Rian [Murphy] kind of forced things along with the aid of pharmaceutical uppers, and we knocked it out as fast as humanly possible.”

The Undisputed Classic

BONNIE “PRINCE” BILLY

I See A Darkness (Drag City/Domino, 1999)

A new stage name, and Oldham gets his act properly together. This is a glorious, gloomy masterpiece of gothic country, and Johnny Cash pays the title track the supreme compliment, recording it for 2000’s American III: Solitary Man with Oldham himself on harmony vocals…

“I realised that I had to learn to approach things with more levity, and more distance, and accept the givens of what it is to make a record – to have a name, for example. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy seemed like a good name. I thought of it as a bastardisation of the Nat ‘King’ Cole tradition, then someone pointed out that it’s also a reversal of Billy The Kid’s real name, William Bonney, which must have been somewhere in the back of my head at the time. I also realised that I can write songs that have… bridges! Make ’em songs. If I’m gonna make records, I should fucking do it right. I’d been thinking of songwriting as somewhat of a craft, but now I thought I should treat it like one.

“I was flying back from Australia when I started thinking about this idea of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, and I started writing three of the songs on the flight. I didn’t think the material was necessarily a leap forward, but it was different. Rather than trying to fit square pegs into round holes, why not see what proper penetration feels like – that’s supposed to feel good, let’s see if it’s true.

“It probably will sound strange, and conceited, but when I heard about the Cash cover, it felt like… justice. I thought: ‘Fuck, yeah.’ It didn’t sound weird to me, it sounded like: that’s a good idea. I found out because a friend of mine was talking to Rick Rubin, and Rick told him they’d cut the song. My friend called and told me: ‘Johnny Cash has recorded your song.’ I met Rick when he came to a show, and convinced him to let me come along to a session. I knew that Cash was recording a lot of songs, and I didn’t necessarily think the song was going to make the final cut – and possibly it wouldn’t have if I hadn’t said I’d like to come and meet Johnny and June.

“I flew out to California, and Johnny Cash just said, ‘Okay, let’s work on that song.’ At that point, it was all about maintaining a level head and pretending to myself that I believed what was happening: ‘Think about this later, right now, just act and react.’ There was so much energy in suppressing my feelings that I can still pull up, and live off, the emotions of that day.”

The Pop-Sheened Seventh

BONNIE “PRINCE” BILLY

Ease Down The Road (Palace/Domino, 2001)

Previous collaborator and Slint/Zwan guitarist David Pajo is enlisted as co-producer. Lush pop sounds suit Oldham’s most whimsical songs so far, including much-loved “After I Made Love To You”. Filmmaker Harmony Korine appears as a backing vocalist.

“We try to make every record as presentable as possible. Growing up, there were definitely artists whose records became arguably more listenable, and it wasn’t always a good thing. So when people say that about one of my records, I think, ‘Uh-oh. Shit.’ But I trust that our intentions going in are always the same: to try and make the best record possible.

“I asked Pajo to officially form a production team, which meant that for the first time there was someone there from the beginning of tracking to the end of mixing, making joint decisions. I knew that would make a difference, that it would have a smoothness to it that a record like I See A Darkness didn’t, because that’s Dave’s tendency, to put a certain gloss on things.

“’After I Made Love To You’ is one of my favourite songs I’ve written. I like how it moves. I don’t think the humour in my work gets overlooked, no – I think the audience is pretty smart and attentive.”

The Nashville Special

BONNIE “PRINCE” BILLY

Sings Greatest Palace Music (Drag City/Domino, 2004)

Oldham revisits his own Palace back catalogue, Billy Sherrill style, with Lambchop producer Mark Nevers and the cream of Nashville sessioneers. Provokes baffling invective from precious Palace fans who seem to think that Oldham has only done it to annoy them…

“I was very surprised by that. I went into it with utter joy, glee and celebration. The idea came from making [2003’s] Master And Everyone in Nashville with Mark. He’d spent a long time working inside the country hit-making machine, so he was able to call on these incredible musicians, who were revelations: they’d do things and I’d just think, ‘Oh. My. God.’ Mark said we could make a whole record like this – get the A-list old-timers, who’d probably love it, because they hate the shit they’re playing on now, and they don’t get to play with each other that often.

“At first, I put together a list of covers – Elton John, REO Speedwagon, Meat Loaf – thinking of taking these songs which are kind of guilty pleasures and make them not guilty pleasures, remind people that they’re good. Then I thought I should do something more practical – bring the Palace songs to a Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy audience. I made demos for the band, they’d listen to them, say ‘Okay,’ and we’d record them, full band live.

“There’s a lot of Billy Sherrill-style playing, but some of Billy Sherrill’s production techniques are still a little sappy and hard to listen to, for me. But the musicians he worked with, including a couple of the guys who played on this, are great. It was like I’d walked into Oz. The joy of it was feeling like I’d put in this work as a singer, player and writer, and – not to put myself on a level with these people – I felt comfortable with them. They gave the songs energy and respect. It was also one of the amazing things about working with Johnny Cash – he had no conceit. It was just: we’re making music together. That’s what we do.”

The Wildcard

BONNIE “PRINCE” BILLY & MATT SWEENEY

Superwolf (Drag City/Domino, 2005)

Oldham forms a one-off double act with guitarist Sweeney, late of Chavez, Guided By Voices and Zwan, among others. Unsurprisingly heavy on the guitars and utterly unfettered in its lyrics: it’s the least Oldham-like of Oldham’s albums.

“We decided to make a record where he would write the music and I would write the words. I sent him lots of lyrics that I didn’t have music for. In the recording, it was basically my brother Paul engineering while we did almost everything else – arguing about how things should sound, each constantly yielding to the other, like, ‘Okay, you can have that vocal part if I can put this guitar on.’ Really pushing it with each other, but it was a fully collaborative record, in every way.

“It was liberating to hear someone else create melodies for the words – it taught me something about the way my words can come across. The longer songs, like ‘My Home Is The Sea’ and ‘Goat And Ram’, I’m sending him long, rhythmically disjointed lyrics, and it was his challenge to create parts that fit these words that don’t have verses and choruses. And it was a great and fun challenge for him, and he came back with incredible songs. If it felt awkward, I’d fight it, but he’d insist, and we’d end up somewhere in between if I couldn’t time it the way he had it in his head. With collaborators, I’m just looking for people who are willing and able to contribute, to listen, with energy and some kind of sympathetic ear and voice.”

Icelandic Isolation

BONNIE “PRINCE” BILLY

The Letting Go (Drag City/Domino, 2006)

Oldham holes up in Reykjavik with Björk collaborator Valgeir Sigurðsson, and delivers an appropriately bleak and wintry collection of laments, abetted by Faun Fables vocalist Dawn McCarthy. The degree to which the landscape informs the work is discernible in those portraits of Iceland’s rugged tundra on the cover…

“Actually, that’s Hawaii. Eastern Oahu. Another volcanic island entirely. I’d met Björk through Harmony Korine, and she asked if I’d be interested in opening some shows for her. During that time, I met Valgeir Sigurðsson, who’d done a lot of her recording.

“I was in Reykjavik about a month, in winter. For the brief amount of time that I’m making a record, I like to be cut off from the world, and I like the other musicians to do that, and be happy about it – for all of us to be away from our homes, so you don’t feel guilty if you work till 2am, and if your pipes burst at home, you don’t even know. It seemed like Iceland would be good for that, especially in winter. It’s dark outside, and we don’t know anyone, but this house is warm, the food’s good, and we like playing together.

“We had this completely magical woman on the album, Dawn McCarthy, who came to Iceland and wanted to know everything about Icelandic folklore – she and Valgeir were our conduits to where we were. When we finished the basic tracking, we went to Valgeir’s dad’s cabin – a little wooden thing in this stark, volcanic valley in the middle of the Icelandic winter. He stir-fried some whale meat, and we sat and ate it and listened to what we’d done.”

And Now, Back To The Country…

BONNIE “PRINCE” BILLY

Beware (Drag City/Domino, 2009)

The pedal steel is back, on Oldham’s most explicitly country album in a long time. Riddled with traces of the classics, notably Merle Haggard’s late-’60s peak and Gene Clark’s cosmic country epic, No Other. Also echoes of contemporaries such as Ryan Adams and Calexico.

“We recorded this one in Chicago, at a studio called Engine. Emmett Kelly, who played on The Letting Go and Lie Down In The Light is on it. Josh Abrams played double bass. There’s a drummer called Michael Zerang, primarily a free jazz drummer. And then Jennifer Hutt playing violin – she’s from Baltimore, but lives in Paris. That was the core group, and we brought in pedal steel, flute, cornet, banjo.

“There is a country influence on the writing, yes. There’s a song on there called ‘Heart’s Arms’, which was definitely written under the influence of [Doug] Dillard & [Gene] Clark. ‘I Don’t Belong To Anyone’ is very obviously Merle Haggard-influenced. Maybe he’ll cover it one day. On ‘You Are Lost’, I was trying to write a big Kenny Chesney kind of song. The rest is very folk, very Elvis, very Great American Songbook.

“I don’t feel like I have the perspective to measure one record against another, but your previous experience does inform the making of the record. It’s more fun than not fun, now. Every record is still a little bit traumatic at some points in the session – and a lot traumatic at certain points in the session. It’s sometimes tedious, sometimes difficult, but it’s more often challenging, and rewarding, and one of the best ways to spend time with people.”

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