Subscribe
Home Blog Page 644

Bruce Springsteen’s gig in Hyde Park at risk

Tom Goodwyn
-
0
Bruce Springsteen’s gig in Hyde Park at risk

Gigs set for this summer in Hyde Park, London are reportedly at risk because of complaints by local residents. The London Evening Standard writes that Mayfair residents have complained about the noise from the regular shows which take place in the public park every summer. Rihanna and Drake are set to headline Wireless Festival over the weekend of July 6-8, while Madonna will play the park on July 11 and Bruce Springsteen on July 14. The acts most at risk of being pulled are dance acts who play repetitive beats. A report says last summer 109 complaints about the noise were made, which was double the number from 2010. The Environmental Health Department at Westminster City Council has now filed a report in application for a review of the licence to hold concerts in Hyde Park, with Westminster councillors set to make a decision on the review tomorrow (February 17). The report recommends that the number of shows is cut from 13 to six each summer, and also proposes that the capacity for four of those gigs is reduced from 80,000 to 65,000 people. The remaining two shows would hold a capacity of 50,000. The Evening Standard quotes two local residents who say of the noise: "It's pretty bad. There are two issues for us - the number of concerts and noise they're allowed to make. If you sit here with the windows open on a hot day, you can hear every word," says Mike Dunn, vice-chairman of the Mayfair Residents Group. Meanwhile, Councillor Glenys Roberts said: "I like to watch the men's Wimbledon final but there's always a concert on that Sunday and the noise completely drowns out the television." Mayor of London Boris Johnson has also stepped into the debate, adding: "I want to see Madonna in Hyde Park and so does everybody else, I hope a good solution will be reached this week."

Gigs set for this summer in Hyde Park, London are reportedly at risk because of complaints by local residents.

The London Evening Standard writes that Mayfair residents have complained about the noise from the regular shows which take place in the public park every summer. Rihanna and Drake are set to headline Wireless Festival over the weekend of July 6-8, while Madonna will play the park on July 11 and Bruce Springsteen on July 14.

The acts most at risk of being pulled are dance acts who play repetitive beats. A report says last summer 109 complaints about the noise were made, which was double the number from 2010. The Environmental Health Department at Westminster City Council has now filed a report in application for a review of the licence to hold concerts in Hyde Park, with Westminster councillors set to make a decision on the review tomorrow (February 17).

The report recommends that the number of shows is cut from 13 to six each summer, and also proposes that the capacity for four of those gigs is reduced from 80,000 to 65,000 people. The remaining two shows would hold a capacity of 50,000.

The Evening Standard quotes two local residents who say of the noise: “It’s pretty bad. There are two issues for us – the number of concerts and noise they’re allowed to make. If you sit here with the windows open on a hot day, you can hear every word,” says Mike Dunn, vice-chairman of the Mayfair Residents Group.

Meanwhile, Councillor Glenys Roberts said: “I like to watch the men’s Wimbledon final but there’s always a concert on that Sunday and the noise completely drowns out the television.”

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has also stepped into the debate, adding: “I want to see Madonna in Hyde Park and so does everybody else, I hope a good solution will be reached this week.”

Kraftwerk to play eight night ‘3D’ residency at New York’s Museum of Modern Art

Tom Goodwyn
-
0
Kraftwerk to play eight night ‘3D’ residency at New York’s Museum of Modern Art

Iconic German synth band Kraftwerk are set to play an eight-night residency at New York's Museum of Modern Art in April. The band will appear in 'Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8' from April 10-17 in The Donald B. and Catherine C Marron Atrium at the museum. They will play each of their albums live, in order, accompanied by a '3D visualization' of the record. Kraftwerk will also play additional songs from other albums at each show. Kraftwerk will play: 1 – 'Autobahn (1974) (April 10) 2 – 'Radio-Activity' (1975) (11) 3 – 'Trans Europe Express (1977) (11) 4 – 'The Man-Machine' (1978) (13) 5 – 'Computer World' (1981) (14) 6 – 'Techno Pop' (1986) (15) 7 – 'The Mix' (1991) (16) 8 – 'Tour de France' (2003) (17) Tickets will go on sale February 22. For more information, visit: MoMA.org Kraftwerk last performed in the UK in 2009, at Bestival and the Manchester International Festival. At the latter they appeared at the Manchester Velodrome and whilst playing 'Tour de France' were accompanied by members of the GB cycling team, who cycled around the track along with the music.

Iconic German synth band Kraftwerk are set to play an eight-night residency at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in April.

The band will appear in ‘Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8’ from April 10-17 in The Donald B. and Catherine C Marron Atrium at the museum. They will play each of their albums live, in order, accompanied by a ‘3D visualization’ of the record. Kraftwerk will also play additional songs from other albums at each show.

Kraftwerk will play:

1 – ‘Autobahn (1974) (April 10)

2 – ‘Radio-Activity’ (1975) (11)

3 – ‘Trans Europe Express (1977) (11)

4 – ‘The Man-Machine’ (1978) (13)

5 – ‘Computer World’ (1981) (14)

6 – ‘Techno Pop’ (1986) (15)

7 – ‘The Mix’ (1991) (16)

8 – ‘Tour de France’ (2003) (17)

Tickets will go on sale February 22. For more information, visit: MoMA.org

Kraftwerk last performed in the UK in 2009, at Bestival and the Manchester International Festival. At the latter they appeared at the Manchester Velodrome and whilst playing ‘Tour de France’ were accompanied by members of the GB cycling team, who cycled around the track along with the music.

Paul McCartney: ‘We never reformed The Beatles in case it ruined our legacy’

Tom Goodwyn
-
0
Paul McCartney: ‘We never reformed The Beatles in case it ruined our legacy’
Paul McCartney has revealed that The Beatles considered reforming while they were all still alive, but decided against it in case it ruined their legacy. The singer, who released his new studio album 'Kisses On The Bottom' earlier this month (February 6), told Rolling Stone that the Fab Four had ...

Paul McCartney has revealed that The Beatles considered reforming while they were all still alive, but decided against it in case it ruined their legacy.

The singer, who released his new studio album ‘Kisses On The Bottom’ earlier this month (February 6), told Rolling Stone that the Fab Four had discussed reuniting on several occasions but the arguments to do so were “never convincing enough”.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, he said: “There was talk of reforming The Beatles a couple of times, but it didn’t gel, there was not enough passion behind the idea. More importantly, it could have spoiled the whole idea of The Beatles, so wrong that they’d be like, ‘Oh, my God, they weren’t any good’.”

He went on to reveal that he and his three former bandmates had never all been persuaded that it was the right thing to do, adding: “The reformation suggestions were never convincing enough.

“They were kind of nice when they happened – ‘That would be good, yeah’ – but then one of us would always not fancy it. And that was enough, because we were the ultimate democracy.”

‘Kisses On The Bottom’ is made up of songs McCartney listened to as a child as well as two new songs, ‘My Valentine’ and ‘Only Our Hearts’. It was recorded with producer Tommy LiPuma, Diana Krall and her band and also features appearances from Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder.

Kings Of Leon to begin writing new album this year?

Tom Goodwyn
-
0
Kings Of Leon to begin writing new album this year?
Kings Of Leon have hinted that they could start work on a new studio album this year. Speaking to MTV, drummer Nathan Followill said the band had repaired their relationship after a tumultuous 2011 and would "probably start kicking around" some new ideas in the studio in the next six months. Th...

Kings Of Leon have hinted that they could start work on a new studio album this year.

Speaking to MTV, drummer Nathan Followill said the band had repaired their relationship after a tumultuous 2011 and would “probably start kicking around” some new ideas in the studio in the next six months.

The Tennessee stadium rockers were forced to cancel their entire US tour last year after frontman Caleb Followill stormed offstage in Dallas on July 29 and was deemed too ill and exhausted to tour, with his bandmates later plagued by rumours that they wanted to kick him out of the band and were forcing him to go to rehab.

However, Nathan claimed that the band were now on good terms, stating: “Over the holidays, [you] break some bread, have some turkey, everyone makes up. I don’t think it was as big as people thought it was, but the press machine takes it and runs with it.”

The sticksman also revealed that they had recently purchased a studio in Nashville and were hoping to start working on new material there soon, adding: “We’re going to spend the next few months getting that up and running; kind of make it our little clubhouse to get there and just kind of goof off whenever we want to. But, I’d say within the next six months, we’ll probably start kicking some stuff around.”

Meanwhile, his brother Caleb revealed that he had already started work on new ideas and was in the early stages of the writing process. “I’ve been writing a lot,” he said. “Kinda want everyone to get a little break from each other, but whenever they’re ready, I want to play some stuff.”

Speaking of his early efforts, he added: “The melodies are really strong, and the lyrics that I have written I think are pretty good, but we’ll see. These guys are always a good judge of if I’m going the right way with something or not.”

Kings Of Leon released their fifth studio album ‘Come Around Sundown’ in October 2010.

Singer-songwriter Dory Previn dies aged 86

Tom Goodwyn
-
0
Singer-songwriter Dory Previn dies aged 86

US singer-songwriter Dory Previn has died aged 86. Previn, who was formerly married to composer Andre Previn and collaborated with him on two Oscar-nominated songs, passed away in Massachusetts, according to the New York Times. Her death was confirmed by her current husband Joby Baker. She was born in 1925 as Dorothy Veronica Langin and embarked upon a career as an actress and a dancer before she met and married Andre in 1959. The pair received an Oscar nomination for their song 'Faraway Part Of Town' from the film Pepe in 1961, and picked up another nod from the Academy in 1961 for 'Second Chance', which featured on the soundtrack of Two For The Seesaw. Previn was briefly institutionalised in 1965 after she suffered a nervous breakdown. Her classic 'Valley Of The Dolls' soundtrack was written in 1967, but in 1970 she and Andre divorced after he had an affair with actress Mia Farrow. She responded by releasing six albums that decade directly inspired by the split, and also married for a second time in 1984 to Canadian actor Joby Baker. According to the BBC, Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker is amongst the artists to have publicly stated that they were influenced by Previn. He chose her track 'Lady With The Braid' as one of his Desert Island Discs in 2005, and also paid tribute to her in his 2011 tome Mother, Brother, Lover.

US singer-songwriter Dory Previn has died aged 86.

Previn, who was formerly married to composer Andre Previn and collaborated with him on two Oscar-nominated songs, passed away in Massachusetts, according to the New York Times. Her death was confirmed by her current husband Joby Baker.

She was born in 1925 as Dorothy Veronica Langin and embarked upon a career as an actress and a dancer before she met and married Andre in 1959. The pair received an Oscar nomination for their song ‘Faraway Part Of Town’ from the film Pepe in 1961, and picked up another nod from the Academy in 1961 for ‘Second Chance’, which featured on the soundtrack of Two For The Seesaw.

Previn was briefly institutionalised in 1965 after she suffered a nervous breakdown. Her classic ‘Valley Of The Dolls’ soundtrack was written in 1967, but in 1970 she and Andre divorced after he had an affair with actress Mia Farrow.

She responded by releasing six albums that decade directly inspired by the split, and also married for a second time in 1984 to Canadian actor Joby Baker.

According to the BBC, Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker is amongst the artists to have publicly stated that they were influenced by Previn. He chose her track ‘Lady With The Braid’ as one of his Desert Island Discs in 2005, and also paid tribute to her in his 2011 tome Mother, Brother, Lover.

Watch Jack White’s new video for ‘Love Interruption’

Tom Goodwyn
-
0
Watch Jack White’s new video for ‘Love Interruption’
Jack White has revealed the new video for his debut solo single 'Love Interruption' - scroll down to the bottom of the page and click to watch. As promised, the former White Stripes man released the video, which he also directed, for St Valentine's Day. The track sees him work with singer Ruby Ama...

Jack White has revealed the new video for his debut solo single ‘Love Interruption’ – scroll down to the bottom of the page and click to watch.

As promised, the former White Stripes man released the video, which he also directed, for St Valentine’s Day. The track sees him work with singer Ruby Amanfu, who provides backing vocals, and Emily Bowland on bass clarinet and Brooke Wagonner on Wurlitzer electric piano.

White has also announced plans for his debut solo live shows, which will take place in March in the United States.

Prior to his show at Radio 1’s Hackney Weekend on June 23-24, alongside Lana Del Rey and The Maccabees, White will play a number of Stateside shows, appearing in Chattanooga, Birmingham, Memphis and Tulsa.

White’s debut solo album ‘Blunderbuss’, produced by the man himself and recorded at his Third Man Studio in Nashville, will be released on April 23. Of the album, he said it was a record he “couldn’t have released until now”.

He said: “I’ve put off making records under my own name for a long time but these songs feel like they could only be presented under my name. These songs were written from scratch, had nothing to do with anyone or anything else but my own expression, my own colours on my own canvas.”

Jack White will play:

Chattanooga Track 29 (March 10)

Birmingham WorkPlay Soundstage (12)

Memphis New Daisy Theatre (13)

Tulsa Cain’s Ballroom (15)

London ATP venue gets restoration grant

Tom Goodwyn
-
0
London ATP venue gets restoration grant

Alexandra Palace, where All Tomorrow's Parties holds its now yearly I'll Be Your Mirror event - headlined in 2011 by Portishead - has received a £320,000 grant from English Heritage for "urgent repairs". The roof of the Victorian theatre, which has been closed to the public for years, will be fixed up, as will the south terrace, reports the Hornsey Journal. Alexandra Palace has been on English Heritage's Buildings At Risk Register for 15 years. ATP campaigned for money to help with the restoration of the Victorian theatre last year. This year's I'll Be Your Mirror takes place May 25-27, and will be co-curated by Mogwai and see sets from Slayer, Dirty Three, Mudhoney, Yuck and Melvins. The Black Keys recently played three nights at the iconic venue in Wood Green, North London, and the London landmark has seen shows from Arctic Monkeys, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and the White Stripes over the years.

Alexandra Palace, where All Tomorrow’s Parties holds its now yearly I’ll Be Your Mirror event – headlined in 2011 by Portishead – has received a £320,000 grant from English Heritage for “urgent repairs”.

The roof of the Victorian theatre, which has been closed to the public for years, will be fixed up, as will the south terrace, reports the Hornsey Journal. Alexandra Palace has been on English Heritage’s Buildings At Risk Register for 15 years.

ATP campaigned for money to help with the restoration of the Victorian theatre last year. This year’s I’ll Be Your Mirror takes place May 25-27, and will be co-curated by Mogwai and see sets from Slayer, Dirty Three, Mudhoney, Yuck and Melvins.

The Black Keys recently played three nights at the iconic venue in Wood Green, North London, and the London landmark has seen shows from Arctic Monkeys, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and the White Stripes over the years.

Jamie Oliver finds Joy Division and New Order master tapes in restaurant basement

Tom Goodwyn
-
0
Jamie Oliver finds Joy Division and New Order master tapes in restaurant basement

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has apparently found rare Joy Division and New Order master tapes when digging up the basement of a new restaurant in Manchester. The new restaurant, which is being built in a former branch of Midland bank, was being excavated when the tapes were found, alongside guns, gold and jewellery. The total value of the haul is £1.1 million, reports Holy Moly. Oliver has since given everything found in the basement to the treasury. New Order have just been announced as the Saturday night (September 8) headliner at this year's Bestival. Bestival will take place from September 6–9 at Robin Hill Park on the Isle Of Wight. For more information about the event, see Bestival.net. Prior to that, the Manchester band tour the UK for the first time in over five years. New Order will play: O2 Apollo Manchester (April 26, 27) Birmingham Ballroom (29) O2 Academy Brixton (May 2, 3) O2 Academy Glasgow (5)

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has apparently found rare Joy Division and New Order master tapes when digging up the basement of a new restaurant in Manchester.

The new restaurant, which is being built in a former branch of Midland bank, was being excavated when the tapes were found, alongside guns, gold and jewellery. The total value of the haul is £1.1 million, reports Holy Moly. Oliver has since given everything found in the basement to the treasury.

New Order have just been announced as the Saturday night (September 8) headliner at this year’s Bestival.

Bestival will take place from September 6–9 at Robin Hill Park on the Isle Of Wight. For more information about the event, see Bestival.net.

Prior to that, the Manchester band tour the UK for the first time in over five years.

New Order will play:

O2 Apollo Manchester (April 26, 27)

Birmingham Ballroom (29)

O2 Academy Brixton (May 2, 3)

O2 Academy Glasgow (5)

Paul McCartney will not make a cameo appearance in ‘Mad Men’

Tom Goodwyn
-
0
Paul McCartney will not make a cameo appearance in ‘Mad Men’
Paul McCartney will not be making a cameo in US television show Mad Men, despite earlier reports suggesting he would. McCartney, who released his new album 'Kisses On The Bottom' last week (February 6), has signed a deal with the show's producers giving them permission to use his songs. A sourc...

Paul McCartney will not be making a cameo in US television show Mad Men, despite earlier reports suggesting he would.

McCartney, who released his new album ‘Kisses On The Bottom’ last week (February 6), has signed a deal with the show’s producers giving them permission to use his songs.

A source had told The Sun that the Beatles legend could also make a fleeting appearance in the programme himself, but this rumour has now been quashed by Vulture.com who say a source close to the show has denied that Macca will appear.

Last month Mad Men‘s creator teased more details about the show’s imminent fifth season. Matthew Weiner gave hints about what fans can expect from the opening episode A Little Kiss in an interview with TV Guide.

Of the two-hour special, Weiner said: ”I like the title to have some kind of synergy with the show so it will pique your interest.”

He said that the kiss in question could be between Don Draper and his new fiancé Megan or ex-wife Betty: “Who says Megan’s even going to be part of Don’s life? He may be back with Betty. One of my favourite scenes from [the series four finale] was when Betty offered herself to him again. And let’s face it, those two look really good together.”

After contractual negotiations took the show off air in 2011, Mad Men‘s fifth series begins in the US on March 25, with the UK premiere expected shortly after.

Radiohead confirm another summer festival headline slot

Tom Goodwyn
-
0
Radiohead confirm another summer festival headline slot
Radiohead have confirmed that they will headline this summer's Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. The festival, which runs from June 7–10, will be headlined by the Oxford band as well as Phish and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Also on the bill are the newly reunited Be...

Radiohead have confirmed that they will headline this summer’s Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee.

The festival, which runs from June 7–10, will be headlined by the Oxford band as well as Phish and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Also on the bill are the newly reunited Beach Boys, Bon Iver, Foster The People, Skrillex, Two Door Cinema Club, The Black Lips and a whole host of others.

Radiohead are currently preparing for their extensive world tour in support of 2011 album ‘The King Of Limbs’, They will tour the US in February and March and have booked assorted European shows and festival appearances throughout the summer, including slots at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Bilbao BBK Live festival.

The band are expected to confirm UK dates in the coming weeks, but are yet to say when this will be. Guitarist Ed O’Brien has previously hinted that the band will play arena shows in the UK rather than festival dates.

For more information about Bonnaroo, visit Bonnaroo.com.

The Seventh Uncut Playlist Of 2012, and Dory Previn RIP

John Mulvey
-
0
The Seventh Uncut Playlist Of 2012, and Dory Previn RIP

Sad news this morning, with the announcement of Dory Previn’s death at the age of 86. The first thing I came across this morning at home was a useful comp from a few years back, “The Art Of Dory Previn”, which works well as a primer to this eccentric, wise and mostly undervalued singer-songwriter. It’s often easier to compare women singer-songwriters with others of their own sex, though not always the fairest way to adjudge their talents. Playing again some of my favourite Previn songs – “Beware Of Young Girls”, “Doppelganger”, “Angels And Devils The Following Day” – it’s striking how better they match up against contemporary work by Leonard Cohen, David Ackles, perhaps Randy Newman, too, rather than, say, Joni Mitchell. A fine artist: please check her out today – “Beware Of Young Girls” is here, “Doppelganger” here - if you’re unfamiliar. Apologies for the scarcity of blogs this week: we’ve been a little distracted by finishing up the next issue of our generously reupholstered magazine. The redesign is looking good, I think – though of course I would say that. I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts when it goes on sale at the end of the month, anyhow. There has been time, of course, to put a few tunes on: much love, as a consequence, for the Ty Segall and White Fence hook-up, for the rejuvenated Dexys, and for Dan Auerbach’s gris-gris-heavy production makeover of Dr John. Elsewhere, though, it seems a particularly apposite week to point out again that I don’t always personally like all the records we play here and consequently include in the playlist. One or two tough spots to get through here, I found… 1 “Blue” Gene Tyranny – Detours (Unseen Worlds) 2 Ty Segall & White Fence – Hair (Drag City) 3 Lower Dens – Nootropics (Ribbon) 4 Rocket Juice And The Moon – Rocket Juice And The Moon (Honest Jon’s) 5 Rufus Wainwright – Out Of The Game (Polydor) 6 Dexys – Nowhere/Lost (?) 7 Julia Holter – Ekstasis (RVNG ITL) 8 Various Artists – Julia Holter Fact Mix (Fact) 9 Norah Jones – Little Broken Hearts (Capitol) 10 The Men – Open Your Heart (Sacred Bones) 11 Hiss Golden Messenger – Fennario (Tompkins Square) 12 Dr John – Locked Down (Nonesuch) 13 Universal Energy – Universal Energy (Harvest) 14 Hannah Cohen – Child Bride (Bella Union) 15 Deer Tick – Divine Providence (Partisan) 16 Spiritualized – Sweet Heart Sweet Light (Double Six) 17 Dylan LeBlanc – Cast The Same Old Shadow (Rough Trade) 18 Howlin Rain – The Russian Wilds (Agitated) 19 Dory Previn – The Art Of Dory Previn (EMI) Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey

Sad news this morning, with the announcement of Dory Previn’s death at the age of 86. The first thing I came across this morning at home was a useful comp from a few years back, “The Art Of Dory Previn”, which works well as a primer to this eccentric, wise and mostly undervalued singer-songwriter.

It’s often easier to compare women singer-songwriters with others of their own sex, though not always the fairest way to adjudge their talents. Playing again some of my favourite Previn songs – “Beware Of Young Girls”, “Doppelganger”, “Angels And Devils The Following Day” – it’s striking how better they match up against contemporary work by Leonard Cohen, David Ackles, perhaps Randy Newman, too, rather than, say, Joni Mitchell. A fine artist: please check her out today – “Beware Of Young Girls” is here, “Doppelganger” here – if you’re unfamiliar.

Apologies for the scarcity of blogs this week: we’ve been a little distracted by finishing up the next issue of our generously reupholstered magazine. The redesign is looking good, I think – though of course I would say that. I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts when it goes on sale at the end of the month, anyhow.

There has been time, of course, to put a few tunes on: much love, as a consequence, for the Ty Segall and White Fence hook-up, for the rejuvenated Dexys, and for Dan Auerbach’s gris-gris-heavy production makeover of Dr John. Elsewhere, though, it seems a particularly apposite week to point out again that I don’t always personally like all the records we play here and consequently include in the playlist. One or two tough spots to get through here, I found…

1 “Blue” Gene Tyranny – Detours (Unseen Worlds)

2 Ty Segall & White Fence – Hair (Drag City)

3 Lower Dens – Nootropics (Ribbon)

4 Rocket Juice And The Moon – Rocket Juice And The Moon (Honest Jon’s)

5 Rufus Wainwright – Out Of The Game (Polydor)

6 Dexys – Nowhere/Lost (?)

7 Julia Holter – Ekstasis (RVNG ITL)

8 Various Artists – Julia Holter Fact Mix (Fact)

9 Norah Jones – Little Broken Hearts (Capitol)

10 The Men – Open Your Heart (Sacred Bones)

11 Hiss Golden Messenger – Fennario (Tompkins Square)

12 Dr John – Locked Down (Nonesuch)

13 Universal Energy – Universal Energy (Harvest)

14 Hannah Cohen – Child Bride (Bella Union)

15 Deer Tick – Divine Providence (Partisan)

16 Spiritualized – Sweet Heart Sweet Light (Double Six)

17 Dylan LeBlanc – Cast The Same Old Shadow (Rough Trade)

18 Howlin Rain – The Russian Wilds (Agitated)

19 Dory Previn – The Art Of Dory Previn (EMI)

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

Beth Jeans Houghton set to record in Los Angeles after Neil Young encounter

Tom Goodwyn
-
0
Beth Jeans Houghton set to record in Los Angeles after Neil Young encounter
Beth Jeans Houghton has spoken about her plans to make her second album in Los Angeles, explaining that Neil Young has a lot to do with her decision. The Newcastle-born singer wants to record the follow-up to her delayed debut album 'Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose', released earlier this month, as q...

Beth Jeans Houghton has spoken about her plans to make her second album in Los Angeles, explaining that Neil Young has a lot to do with her decision.

The Newcastle-born singer wants to record the follow-up to her delayed debut album ‘Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose’, released earlier this month, as quickly as possible, and after a special experience in Los Angeles last year, wants to do it in the City Of Angels.

She told NME: “I was with a mate who said ‘I’m going to meet my friend Neil later. You should come.’ When we arrived, it turned out ‘Neil’ was Neil Young. He picked us up in a white Cadillac and we drove around Malibu beach all day. He’s a slow driver, but a lovely man.”

Asked whether Young had any tips for her, Houghton said: “Don’t be daft. I didn’t tell him I was a musician. How do you tell Neil Young that you also write songs?”

Of her LA love, she added: “Whenever I’ve been there I’ve always loved it. It’s such a poetic city, and a great place to work. I love the weather, the palm trees, the feeling it’s still the 1970s and the fact there’s not much around you to prove that it isn’t.”

Beth Jeans Houghton and the Hooves Of Destiny begin their UK tour at Glasgow Captain’s Rest on February 17.

Sharon Van Etten announces UK tour dates

Tom Goodwyn
-
0
Sharon Van Etten announces UK tour dates
Sharon Van Etten has announced a UK tour for May, which includes her biggest ever UK headline show at London's Scala on May 16. Van Etten, known for her work with The Antlers and The National alongside her solo career, will also release new single 'Leonard', taken from third album 'Tramp' on Marc...

Sharon Van Etten has announced a UK tour for May, which includes her biggest ever UK headline show at London’s Scala on May 16.

Van Etten, known for her work with The Antlers and The National alongside her solo career, will also release new single ‘Leonard’, taken from third album ‘Tramp’ on March 12.

The Brooklyn-based singer songwriter is also one of the first confirmations for December National-curated ATP Nightmare Before Christmas, which takes place between December 7-9 at Butlins in Minehead, Somerset.

She will also appear at London’s Rough Trade East on February 28, and at Cargo on March 1.

You can stream Van Etten’s latest album ‘Tramp’ on NME.com

Sharon Van Etten will play

London Scala (May 16)

Manchester Deaf Institute (17)

Dublin Whelans (18)

Leeds Brudenell Social Club (20)

Brighton Komedia (21)

Arcade Fire record new track ‘Abraham’s Daughter’ for ‘The Hunger Games’ soundtrack

Tom Goodwyn
-
0
Arcade Fire record new track ‘Abraham’s Daughter’ for ‘The Hunger Games’ soundtrack
Arcade Fire have recorded a brand new song for the soundtrack to the new fantasy film The Hunger Games. The track, which is titled 'Abraham's Daughter', was recorded last week and is confirmed to feature on the soundtrack along with tracks from The Decemberists, Kid Cudi and The Low Anthem. The...

Arcade Fire have recorded a brand new song for the soundtrack to the new fantasy film The Hunger Games.

The track, which is titled ‘Abraham’s Daughter’, was recorded last week and is confirmed to feature on the soundtrack along with tracks from The Decemberists, Kid Cudi and The Low Anthem.

The film itself will also feature a track titled ‘Horn Of Plenty’ which has been written and recorded by Arcade Fire’s Win Butler and Regine Chassagne.

The Hunger Games is set to be released on March 23 in the UK and stars Winter’s Bone actress Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson and Elizabeth Banks.

The tracklisting for ‘The Hunger Games: Songs From District 12 and Beyond’ is as follows:

Taylor Swift – ‘Safe & Sound’

Taylor Swift – ‘Eyes Wide Open’

Arcade Fire – ‘Abraham’s Daughter’

Kid Cudi – ‘The Ruler & The Killer’

Miranda Lambert – ‘Run Daddy Run’

The Civil Wars – ‘Kingdom Come’

The Decemberists – ‘One Engine’

Glen Hansard – ‘Take The Heartland’

The Low Anthem – ‘Lover Is Childlike’

Punch Brothers – ‘Dark Days’

The Secret Sisters – ‘Tomorrow Will Be Kinder’

Birdy – ‘Just A Game’

Ella Mae Bowen – ‘Oh Come And Sing’

Jayme Dee – ‘Rules’

Carolina Chocolate Drops – ‘Reaping Day’

Throbbing Gristle: the industrial pioneers, reissued

Michael Bonner
-
0
Throbbing Gristle: the industrial pioneers, reissued

Their unsavoury reputation precedes them, but the photo of Throbbing Gristle on the sleeve of Greatest Hits (1981; 7/10) reminds us there was more to the first Industrial group – their capital letter – than first appeared. Posing in a tiki lounge in Hawaiian shirts, Cosey Fanni Tutti coquettish in a cocktail dress, they look more like Hi-De-Hi campers than the group Tory MP Nicholas Fairbain called “wreckers of civilisation”. Nor was this irony, exactly. ‘Dedicated to Martin Denny’, reads the sleeve, and one might wonder what the bandleader and self-styled “king of exotica” made of it all, were his letter of response not printed in the glossy booklet inside. “I do have a sense of humour,” types Denny, before admitting to being “incredulous” that someone would choose to cut Throbbing Gristle’s music to wax. “Is it intended to be a shocker?” he asks. “I would appreciate a reply.” To be fair to Denny, this sort of confusion to the work of Genesis P-Orridge and friends was far from uncommon. Appearing in 1976, Throbbing Gristle shared certain things with punk – an outsider stance, a taste for transgression – but their methods were alien by comparison. While the punks were busy scribbling zines and folding seven-inch sleeves, TG were way ahead; their DIY activity yielded modular synths, tape-loop machines, and the Gristleizer, a custom effects box built by the group’s electronics wizard Chris Carter. They recorded in the ruin of a Hackney school, provocatively christened the Death Factory, and released it on their own Industrial Records, styled like a corporation, right down to the pseudo-businesspeak communiques. Jon Savage described them in the terms of a “laboratory… a research institute”, while vocalist Genesis P-Orridge said, of the group’s ambitions: “We wanted to get away from all the connotations of rock’n’roll and blues… drag it out of slave music and into the 20th Century”. The death of the band’s Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson in 2010 brought to a close the second incarnation of the band, precipitating this final issue of five albums. The music collected within veers from visionary electronic invention to meandering unmusical passages and ambiguous field recordings. That moments border on being boring would seem to be the point: TG specialised in a sort of exquisite tedium, of music decayed. 1977’s Second Annual Report (8/10) collects live recordings and one studio piece, “After Cease To Exist”, but really it’s more about an atmosphere than distinct songs, a dystopian churn of smoke and asbestos dust, P-Orridge reciting true-crime tales from the gloom. Queerly hypnotic, it takes a live rendition of “Maggot Death” from Brighton to break the spell, as the music is interrupted by hecklers, an irate DJ berating them as “a load of fucking wankers” before putting a record on. If Throbbing Gristle were much misunderstood in their day, perhaps this was because in an era of preachers and polemicists, they stood at a slight remove from their material; they were documenters of their surroundings, paying special attention to social ills, the mechanical and the macabre. 1978’s excellent DOA: The Third And Final Report (8/10) reflects the world in strange and bold ways. “IBM” utilises chattering machine code found on a tape disposed of by the computer manufacturers. “Hamburger Lady”, inspired by the tale of a burns victim, pulsates like some grotesque organism. “Death Threats” is audio direct from the group’s answering machine, while the rudimentary electropop of “United” – inspired by Abba, quoting Alastair Crowley – showed the breadth of their reference. 1979's 20 Jazz Funk Greats (8/10) marked a turn into lighter territory, the tongue-in-cheek cover picturing Throbbing Gristle posing like catalogue models at notorious suicide spot Beachy Head. Musically, it turned away from the precipice; not exactly jazz and funk, but sublimating TG’s noise elements within electronic rhythms and proto-exotica. Album highlight “Hot On The Heels Of Love” is convincingly Moroder-esque disco, Cosey breathing sweet nothings amid bubbling synthesisers and whip-crack snare. Elsewhere, P-Orridge mines a lyrical seam of control and domination. “I’ve got a little biscuit tin,” he wheedles of “Persuasion”, “to keep your panties in.” Two more releases complete the campaign: 1980's Heathen Earth (6/10), a stern live album recorded in front of an invited audience, and Greatest Hits. Marking the group’s 1981 split, it mixes TG’s modes with impunity, brittle synth disco giving way to misanthropic squall, and back again. A bewildering entry point, as Martin Denny could confirm, but there is pleasure in the fact that Throbbing Gristle remained perverse until the end. Louis Pattison Q&A Chris and Cosey What has taken place in this reissue process? Cosey: When Sleazy left us last year we were just about to start work on the reissues. Historically he'd always overseen TG's artworks, graphics and photography. By the time we could actually face doing anything and Chris had completed the remastering, it dawned that responsibility for redoing the cover artworks was on our shoulders. Chris: Gen offered to send us material but didn't bother to follow it through. But we hold the bulk of the TG archive and had access to Sleazy's negatives so it's not like we had a shortage of material. Is there an album that stands out as a favourite? Chris: My strongest connection is with DOA because at the time of recording I'd fallen head over heels in love with Cosey. DOA showcased some of our strongest work and established the course we would head in. And what of the final TG record? Chris: Desertshore - The Final Report will be TG's last studio album, and is a cover of the Nico album. The concept came about in Berlin in 2006, but when Genesis walked out on TG in 2010, Sleazy began reworking the album with the intention of using guest vocalists and an esoteric piece of equipment he'd bought. This year we've been recording those vocals and trying to make sense of the recordings he left us with. INTERVIEW: LOUIS PATTISON

Their unsavoury reputation precedes them, but the photo of Throbbing Gristle on the sleeve of Greatest Hits (1981; 7/10) reminds us there was more to the first Industrial group – their capital letter – than first appeared.

Posing in a tiki lounge in Hawaiian shirts, Cosey Fanni Tutti coquettish in a cocktail dress, they look more like Hi-De-Hi campers than the group Tory MP Nicholas Fairbain called “wreckers of civilisation”. Nor was this irony, exactly. ‘Dedicated to Martin Denny’, reads the sleeve, and one might wonder what the bandleader and self-styled “king of exotica” made of it all, were his letter of response not printed in the glossy booklet inside. “I do have a sense of humour,” types Denny, before admitting to being “incredulous” that someone would choose to cut Throbbing Gristle’s music to wax. “Is it intended to be a shocker?” he asks. “I would appreciate a reply.”

To be fair to Denny, this sort of confusion to the work of Genesis P-Orridge and friends was far from uncommon. Appearing in 1976, Throbbing Gristle shared certain things with punk – an outsider stance, a taste for transgression – but their methods were alien by comparison. While the punks were busy scribbling zines and folding seven-inch sleeves, TG were way ahead; their DIY activity yielded modular synths, tape-loop machines, and the Gristleizer, a custom effects box built by the group’s electronics wizard Chris Carter. They recorded in the ruin of a Hackney school, provocatively christened the Death Factory, and released it on their own Industrial Records, styled like a corporation, right down to the pseudo-businesspeak communiques. Jon Savage described them in the terms of a “laboratory… a research institute”, while vocalist Genesis P-Orridge said, of the group’s ambitions: “We wanted to get away from all the connotations of rock’n’roll and blues… drag it out of slave music and into the 20th Century”.

The death of the band’s Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson in 2010 brought to a close the second incarnation of the band, precipitating this final issue of five albums. The music collected within veers from visionary electronic invention to meandering unmusical passages and ambiguous field recordings. That moments border on being boring would seem to be the point: TG specialised in a sort of exquisite tedium, of music decayed. 1977’s Second Annual Report (8/10) collects live recordings and one studio piece, “After Cease To Exist”, but really it’s more about an atmosphere than distinct songs, a dystopian churn of smoke and asbestos dust, P-Orridge reciting true-crime tales from the gloom. Queerly hypnotic, it takes a live rendition of “Maggot Death” from Brighton to break the spell, as the music is interrupted by hecklers, an irate DJ berating them as “a load of fucking wankers” before putting a record on.

If Throbbing Gristle were much misunderstood in their day, perhaps this was because in an era of preachers and polemicists, they stood at a slight remove from their material; they were documenters of their surroundings, paying special attention to social ills, the mechanical and the macabre. 1978’s excellent DOA: The Third And Final Report (8/10) reflects the world in strange and bold ways. “IBM” utilises chattering machine code found on a tape disposed of by the computer manufacturers. “Hamburger Lady”, inspired by the tale of a burns victim, pulsates like some grotesque organism. “Death Threats” is audio direct from the group’s answering machine, while the rudimentary electropop of “United” – inspired by Abba, quoting Alastair Crowley – showed the breadth of their reference.

1979’s 20 Jazz Funk Greats (8/10) marked a turn into lighter territory, the tongue-in-cheek cover picturing Throbbing Gristle posing like catalogue models at notorious suicide spot Beachy Head. Musically, it turned away from the precipice; not exactly jazz and funk, but sublimating TG’s noise elements within electronic rhythms and proto-exotica. Album highlight “Hot On The Heels Of Love” is convincingly Moroder-esque disco, Cosey breathing sweet nothings amid bubbling synthesisers and whip-crack snare. Elsewhere, P-Orridge mines a lyrical seam of control and domination. “I’ve got a little biscuit tin,” he wheedles of “Persuasion”, “to keep your panties in.”

Two more releases complete the campaign: 1980’s Heathen Earth (6/10), a stern live album recorded in front of an invited audience, and Greatest Hits. Marking the group’s 1981 split, it mixes TG’s modes with impunity, brittle synth disco giving way to misanthropic squall, and back again. A bewildering entry point, as Martin Denny could confirm, but there is pleasure in the fact that Throbbing Gristle remained perverse until the end.

Louis Pattison

Q&A Chris and Cosey

What has taken place in this reissue process?

Cosey: When Sleazy left us last year we were just about to start work on the reissues. Historically he’d always overseen TG’s artworks, graphics and photography. By the time we could actually face doing anything and Chris had completed the remastering, it dawned that responsibility for redoing the cover artworks was on our shoulders.

Chris: Gen offered to send us material but didn’t bother to follow it through. But we hold the bulk of the TG archive and had access to Sleazy’s negatives so it’s not like we had a shortage of material.

Is there an album that stands out as a favourite?

Chris: My strongest connection is with DOA because at the time of recording I’d fallen head over heels in love with Cosey. DOA showcased some of our strongest work and established the course we would head in.

And what of the final TG record?

Chris: Desertshore – The Final Report will be TG’s last studio album, and is a cover of the Nico album. The concept came about in Berlin in 2006, but when Genesis walked out on TG in 2010, Sleazy began reworking the album with the intention of using guest vocalists and an esoteric piece of equipment he’d bought. This year we’ve been recording those vocals and trying to make sense of the recordings he left us with.

INTERVIEW: LOUIS PATTISON

Former Supergrass singer Gaz Coombes: ‘I don’t want to be in a band’

Tom Goodwyn
-
0
Former Supergrass singer Gaz Coombes: ‘I don’t want to be in a band’

Former Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes has said that he is relieved to have gone solo and doesn't miss being in a band. Coombes is set to release his debut solo album 'Here Come The Bombs' on May 21, with a single 'Hot Fruit', preceeding it on May 14. You can stream his new track 'Sub Divider' now by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking on the link. The track is his first new material since Supergrass announced their split in June of 2010. Speaking to NME, Coombes said: "With my solo album I'm making the kind of music I want to make. I don't have to have a discussion with a bandmate where I'm trying to convince them of the direction I want to go in. Right now I don't want to to be in a band or anything like a band." He continued: "I get a bit anxious because of my experiences. I don't want to sound negative, because it was great to spend 18 years in a band with guys I love. But I'm happy doing what I'm doing now." The singer told us that the new album was influenced by the soundtrack work of John Barry and John Carpenter. "In terms of experimenting with sounds, using synths and finding sounds, I was looking to soundtracks," he said. Coombes added that he would love to collaborate with Tim Burton on the visuals for the project. "He'd do some great, strange animation for it," he said. Speaking about the track 'Sub Divider', Coombes explained: "It has two distinctive sections. It doesn't have a verse or chorus part. It's one of my favourites, it's about identity."

Former Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes has said that he is relieved to have gone solo and doesn’t miss being in a band.

Coombes is set to release his debut solo album ‘Here Come The Bombs’ on May 21, with a single ‘Hot Fruit’, preceeding it on May 14. You can stream his new track ‘Sub Divider’ now by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking on the link. The track is his first new material since Supergrass announced their split in June of 2010.

Speaking to NME, Coombes said: “With my solo album I’m making the kind of music I want to make. I don’t have to have a discussion with a bandmate where I’m trying to convince them of the direction I want to go in. Right now I don’t want to to be in a band or anything like a band.”

He continued: “I get a bit anxious because of my experiences. I don’t want to sound negative, because it was great to spend 18 years in a band with guys I love. But I’m happy doing what I’m doing now.”

The singer told us that the new album was influenced by the soundtrack work of John Barry and John Carpenter. “In terms of experimenting with sounds, using synths and finding sounds, I was looking to soundtracks,” he said.

Coombes added that he would love to collaborate with Tim Burton on the visuals for the project. “He’d do some great, strange animation for it,” he said.

Speaking about the track ‘Sub Divider’, Coombes explained: “It has two distinctive sections. It doesn’t have a verse or chorus part. It’s one of my favourites, it’s about identity.”

Public Image Ltd to play one-off London gig in March

Tom Goodwyn
-
0
Public Image Ltd to play one-off London gig in March
Public Image Ltd will play a one-off London show in March to celebrate the 10th anniversary of BBC Radio 6 Music. John Lydon and co will be the special guests at the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre on March 16, with Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys, songstress Anna Calvi and B...

Public Image Ltd will play a one-off London show in March to celebrate the 10th anniversary of BBC Radio 6 Music.

John Lydon and co will be the special guests at the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre on March 16, with Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys, songstress Anna Calvi and Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves Of Destiny also scheduled for the bash.

Meanwhile, the Purcell Room in the same venue will host performances from Laura Marling and BBC Sound Of 2012 nominee Lianne La Havas, also on March 16. For more information, see Southbankcentre.co.uk.

Public Image Ltd will release their new EP ‘One Drop’ on April 16, with their new studio album ‘This Is PiL’ expected to drop in May or June of this year.

Speaking to NME about the LP, Lydon said: “It’s very different. I would call it folk music. I’ve met with quite a few of the Irish folkies and they hate me. They think I’m mocking tradition, but for God’s sake, that’s been the story of my life. It’s not mockery, it’s called advancement. We can’t all be stuck in 17th century ditties.

“It comes from the heart and the soul. Whether that be electric, acoustic, digital or analogue, that’s still heart and soul. It’s not pop fodder and finely crafted pieces of fluff.”

Last month, the singer said that the reason the band had struggled to find a record label they wanted to work with was because of the popularity of shows such as The X Factor and the music industry’s unwillingness to take risks.

Jack White announces debut solo live shows

Tom Goodwyn
-
0
Jack White announces debut solo live shows
Jack White has announced plans for his debut solo live shows, which are set to take place in March in the United States. The video for his debut solo single, 'Love Interruption', which White directed himself, will premiere at 4.30pm (GMT) on February 14, Valentine's Day at Vevo.com. The video wi...

Jack White has announced plans for his debut solo live shows, which are set to take place in March in the United States.

The video for his debut solo single, ‘Love Interruption’, which White directed himself, will premiere at 4.30pm (GMT) on February 14, Valentine’s Day at Vevo.com.

The video will feature appearances from vocalist Ruby Amanfu, Emily Bowland (bass clarinet) and Brooke Wagonner (Wurlitzer electric piano).

Prior to his previously announced show at Radio 1’s Hackney Weekend on June 23-24, alongside Lana Del Rey and The Maccabees, Jack White will play a number of Stateside shows, in the south of the country, appearing in Chattanooga, Birmingham, Memphis and Tulsa.

The ex-White Stripes man releases his debut solo album ‘Blunderbuss’ on April 23. The album was produced by White at his own Third Man Studio in Nashville. Speaking about ‘Blunderbuss’, White commented that it was “an album I couldn’t have released until now”.

He continued: “I’ve put off making records under my own name for a long time but these songs feel like they could only be presented under my name. These songs were written from scratch, had nothing to do with anyone or anything else but my own expression, my own colours on my own canvas.”

Jack White will play:

Chattanooga Track 29 (March 10)

Birmingham WorkPlay Soundstage (12)

Memphis New Daisy Theatre (13)

Tulsa Cain’s Ballroom (15)

New Order to headline Bestival

Tom Goodwyn
-
0
New Order to headline Bestival
New Order have been announced as the Saturday night (September 8) headliner at this year's Bestival. Friendly Fires, Death in Vegas, Django Django, Daughter and Drums of Death have also been added to the line-up. Last week The xx, Sigur Ros and The Horrors were revealed to be on the bill for Best...

New Order have been announced as the Saturday night (September 8) headliner at this year’s Bestival.

Friendly Fires, Death in Vegas, Django Django, Daughter and Drums of Death have also been added to the line-up. Last week The xx, Sigur Ros and The Horrors were revealed to be on the bill for Bestival, which takes place on the Isle of Wight from September 6-9.

Two Door Cinema Club, Azealia Banks, Soulwax, Nero, Emeli Sande, Warpaint, Spiritualized, Gary Numan, Charli XCX, First Aid Kit, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Turbowolf, De La Soul, Major Lazer, Justice and Gallows will also play the four-day event.

The festival’s organiser Rob da Bank has confirmed that Sigur Ros and The xx will make their only UK festival appearances of 2012 at Bestival.

Bestival will take place from September 6–9 at Robin Hill Park on the Isle Of Wight. For more information about the event, see Bestival.net.

The Lost Genius Of Paul Siebel

Uncut
-
0
The Lost Genius Of Paul Siebel

After spending last weekend catching up with what seems like a veritable deluge of great new music, I had a yen for some old favourites this weekend, among them two albums by the cult singer-songwriter, Paul Siebel, Woodsmoke & Oranges and Jack-Knife Gypsy. It’s sadly probable that only a handful of people reading this will actually have heard of Siebel, let alone the music he made on these two incredible records. Originally released in 1970 and 1971, they quickly disappeared without trace, vinyl chimera, as did, soon after, Siebel, their charismatic author. What acknowledgement they received at the time was unbelievably meagre, but often ecstatic. For those of us fortunate enough to have heard them on first release, these albums were testaments to a breathtaking talent, whose genius flared briefly, but brilliantly enough to be mentioned in the same breath as any of the songwriting legends who rode the folk and country rock booms of the 60s and early 70s, from Dylan to Gram Parsons. Much revered by his contemporaries, Siebel simply blew out of town after Jack-Knife Gypsy, destination: obscurity. He was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1937, studied at the university there and later spent time in the US Army. By 1965, after serving a musical apprenticeship in the clubs and coffee houses in Buffalo, he was in Greenwich Village, playing the usual haunts. Inspired by Hank Williams and Dylan, he was also by now writing the brilliant songs that eventually got him signed to Elektra, who bankrolled the four three hour sessions it took to record Woodsmoke And Oranges. With fiddles, acoustic guitars, occasional pedal steel and Siebel’s glorious voice to the fore, Woodsmoke’s honky tonk exuberance, backporch ruminations and broken-hearted ballads are more than passingly reminiscent of Gram Parsons’ first solo album, GP. It would be fair to say from some of these songs that Siebel’s view of love is somewhat more than jaundiced, and there’s a cruel misogynistic edge to songs like “Miss Cherry Lane” that wouldn’t be out of place in the Jagger-Richards’ songbook. More typical, however, of Siebel’s temperament, is the dream-like reverie of “Long Afternoons”, a requiem for lost love set to one of his most achingly affecting melodies – as keenly piercing as anything on Blood On The Tracks. Siebel also has an unflinching eye for the sad detail of emotional trauma. And while the captivating “Then Came The Children” and the anti-war song “My Town” are lyrically allusive, powerfully allegorical, the best of his early songs – “Louise” and “Bride 1945” – are models of narrative clarity, deeply moving portraits of a lonely truckstop whore and a young war bride, the two women separately condemned to lives of mutual disappointment and serial unhappiness. If he’d never written anything else, these two songs alone would justify Siebel’s reputation as one of the finest songwriters of his time. The people who heard it and got it loved Woodsmoke. . ., but it sold poorly. Elektra gave Siebel another chance, however, and with a band of crack session men – including Byrds’ guitarist Clarence White, David Grisman on mandolin, Buddy Emmons on pedal steel, drummer Russ Kunkel, Doug Kershaw, Sea Train’s Richard Greene – he recorded Jack-Knife Gypsy, which is by turns ravishing, forlorn, ecstatic, delirious and ultimately bleak beyond words. Dylan’s influence is again enormous – especially on the dark and menacing title track and the surreal “Jasper And The Miners” – with Siebel revelling in the vernacular story-telling styles of The Basement Tapes and John Wesley Harding. Elsewhere, there’s the rhapsodic “Prayer Song”, the desperate “If I Could Stay” and – best of all - the desolate introspection of “Chips Are Down”, one of the most self-lacerating songs ever written, a bleak nugget, as soiled as Dylan’s “Dirge”. Disappointed by poor sales, Siebel went into artistic decline, writer’s block giving way to addiction, depression and self-destruction. He was last heard of, in 1996, working as a bread-maker in a café in Maryland. We shouldn’t lament for too long his drift towards the edge of things, however, because over the course of these two albums Siebel recorded more good songs than most artists manage in a lifetime. Elektra re-released Woodsmoke & Oranges and Jack-Knife Gypsy in 2004 as a double CD, after a long period out of catalogue. Miraculously, it’s still available or you can download them individually on iTunes for an incredibly reasonable £3.95 each. There's also a third album, Live At McCabe's, recorded in 1978 with guitarists David Bromberg and Gary White that you can also get easily enough from either Amazon or iTunes, that features tracks from his two studio albums as well as covers of "Lonesome House", originally recorded in 1927 by Blind Lemon Jefferson, Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonely I Could Cry" and Jimmie Rodgers' "Woman Made A Fool Out Of Me" and "I'm In The Jailhouse Now". Give them a listen, at least. Have a good week.

After spending last weekend catching up with what seems like a veritable deluge of great new music, I had a yen for some old favourites this weekend, among them two albums by the cult singer-songwriter, Paul Siebel, Woodsmoke & Oranges and Jack-Knife Gypsy.

It’s sadly probable that only a handful of people reading this will actually have heard of Siebel, let alone the music he made on these two incredible records. Originally released in 1970 and 1971, they quickly disappeared without trace, vinyl chimera, as did, soon after, Siebel, their charismatic author.

What acknowledgement they received at the time was unbelievably meagre, but often ecstatic. For those of us fortunate enough to have heard them on first release, these albums were testaments to a breathtaking talent, whose genius flared briefly, but brilliantly enough to be mentioned in the same breath as any of the songwriting legends who rode the folk and country rock booms of the 60s and early 70s, from Dylan to Gram Parsons. Much revered by his contemporaries, Siebel simply blew out of town after Jack-Knife Gypsy, destination: obscurity.

He was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1937, studied at the university there and later spent time in the US Army. By 1965, after serving a musical apprenticeship in the clubs and coffee houses in Buffalo, he was in Greenwich Village, playing the usual haunts. Inspired by Hank Williams and Dylan, he was also by now writing the brilliant songs that eventually got him signed to Elektra, who bankrolled the four three hour sessions it took to record Woodsmoke And Oranges.

With fiddles, acoustic guitars, occasional pedal steel and Siebel’s glorious voice to the fore, Woodsmoke’s honky tonk exuberance, backporch ruminations and broken-hearted ballads are more than passingly reminiscent of Gram Parsons’ first solo album, GP. It would be fair to say from some of these songs that Siebel’s view of love is somewhat more than jaundiced, and there’s a cruel misogynistic edge to songs like “Miss Cherry Lane” that wouldn’t be out of place in the Jagger-Richards’ songbook. More typical, however, of Siebel’s temperament, is the dream-like reverie of “Long Afternoons”, a requiem for lost love set to one of his most achingly affecting melodies – as keenly piercing as anything on Blood On The Tracks. Siebel also has an unflinching eye for the sad detail of emotional trauma.

And while the captivating “Then Came The Children” and the anti-war song “My Town” are lyrically allusive, powerfully allegorical, the best of his early songs – “Louise” and “Bride 1945” – are models of narrative clarity, deeply moving portraits of a lonely truckstop whore and a young war bride, the two women separately condemned to lives of mutual disappointment and serial unhappiness. If he’d never written anything else, these two songs alone would justify Siebel’s reputation as one of the finest songwriters of his time.

The people who heard it and got it loved Woodsmoke. . ., but it sold poorly. Elektra gave Siebel another chance, however, and with a band of crack session men – including Byrds’ guitarist Clarence White, David Grisman on mandolin, Buddy Emmons on pedal steel, drummer Russ Kunkel, Doug Kershaw, Sea Train’s Richard Greene – he recorded Jack-Knife Gypsy, which is by turns ravishing, forlorn, ecstatic, delirious and ultimately bleak beyond words.

Dylan’s influence is again enormous – especially on the dark and menacing title track and the surreal “Jasper And The Miners” – with Siebel revelling in the vernacular story-telling styles of The Basement Tapes and John Wesley Harding. Elsewhere, there’s the rhapsodic “Prayer Song”, the desperate “If I Could Stay” and – best of all – the desolate introspection of “Chips Are Down”, one of the most self-lacerating songs ever written, a bleak nugget, as soiled as Dylan’s “Dirge”.

Disappointed by poor sales, Siebel went into artistic decline, writer’s block giving way to addiction, depression and self-destruction. He was last heard of, in 1996, working as a bread-maker in a café in Maryland. We shouldn’t lament for too long his drift towards the edge of things, however, because over the course of these two albums Siebel recorded more good songs than most artists manage in a lifetime.

Elektra re-released Woodsmoke & Oranges and Jack-Knife Gypsy in 2004 as a double CD, after a long period out of catalogue. Miraculously, it’s still available or you can download them individually on iTunes for an incredibly reasonable £3.95 each. There’s also a third album, Live At McCabe’s, recorded in 1978 with guitarists David Bromberg and Gary White that you can also get easily enough from either Amazon or iTunes, that features tracks from his two studio albums as well as covers of “Lonesome House”, originally recorded in 1927 by Blind Lemon Jefferson, Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonely I Could Cry” and Jimmie Rodgers’ “Woman Made A Fool Out Of Me” and “I’m In The Jailhouse Now”. Give them a listen, at least.

Have a good week.

1...643644645...1,275Page 644 of 1,275

SHOP UNCUT