Subscribe
Home Blog Page 684

Aretha Franklin announces new album details

Uncut
-
0
Aretha Franklin announces new album details
Aretha Franklin has announced the release of her new album 'A Woman Falling Out Of Love'. The record, due out on May 2, will be her first new album since 2003’s 'So Damn Happy'. It features production from two of her sons, Kecalf and Eddie, reports Antimusic.com. The album also includes her vers...

Aretha Franklin has announced the release of her new album ‘A Woman Falling Out Of Love’.

The record, due out on May 2, will be her first new album since 2003’s ‘So Damn Happy’. It features production from two of her sons, Kecalf and Eddie, reports Antimusic.com.

The album also includes her version of ‘My Country ‘Tis Of Thee’, which she sang at Barack Obama’s Presidential inauguration, plus two tracks written and produced by Franklin including new single ‘How Long I’ve Waited’.

The tracklisting of ‘A Woman Falling Out Of Love’ is:

‘How Long I’ve Waited’

‘Sweet Sixteen’

‘This You Should Know’

‘U Can’t See Me’

‘Theme From A Summer Place’

‘The Way We Were’

‘New Day’

‘Put It Back Together Again’

‘Faithful (featuring Karen Clark-Sheard)’

‘His Eye Is On The Sparrow’

‘When Two Become One’

‘My Country ‘Tis Of Thee’

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Kasabian to release new album in October

Uncut
-
0
Kasabian to release new album in October
Kasabian will release their new album in October, a record label spokesperson for the band has said. Although the album is still being finished and is currently untitled, the spokesperson said that plans to release it have now been put in place. "They're mixing it," the Sony/BMG rep told Thisislei...

Kasabian will release their new album in October, a record label spokesperson for the band has said.

Although the album is still being finished and is currently untitled, the spokesperson said that plans to release it have now been put in place.

“They’re mixing it,” the Sony/BMG rep told Thisisleicestershire.co.uk, as well as revealing the October release plan. It is believed that the rockers have been working with producer Dan The Automator on the record, and have been recording in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Guitarist Serge Pizzorno described the sound of the record by saying he thinks the band have bettered their last album, ‘West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum’.

“Well, it’s epic,” he claimed. “It’s big songs that make you feel like anything’s possible. It’s a really positive record. I suppose it’s a combination of all three records but we’ve just taken it a bit further.”

He added: “I’m really excited about it, because after the last record, people really liked it and wanted to know what was next, and I’m happy to say that it’s got better. I’m excited about playing it live – there are tunes on there that are going to take people to a new place.”

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

PANDA BEAR – TOMBOY

Uncut
-
0
PANDA BEAR – TOMBOY

It ain’t where you come from, it ain’t even where you’re at. For a particular generation these days, it’s all about where you came from. For the new folkies, the hauntologists, the hypnagogues and all those surfing the chillwave, music has become a chess match of reference points, opening moves establishing a time-frame, offensive manoeuvres pushing key genre tics, but all ultimately tending towards an artistic stalemate. Whether it’s the Day-Glo ’80s plastic soul of Dãm-Funk or Toro Y Moi, or the fuzzy-felt folk of Fleet Foxes, the ghosts of past musics seem to have entirely taken over the soul of much of today’s sounds. The Animal Collective trio have previously hovered on the cusp of this tendency, their honeyed, ritualistic tracks touching on a legacy of melancholic American dream pop from The Beach Boys to Don Henley. Individually, though, their offerings have frequently been more than the sum of their parts, especially 2007’s Person Pitch by Panda Bear, the alter ego of Noah Lennox. Now based in Lisbon, Lennox spent a portion of last year letting out his new album in dribs and drabs, on a low-key series of 7” releases on Kompakt, Domino, FatCat and Animal Collective’s own label Paw Tracks. Now, Tomboy has appeared, featuring many of those tracks in different mixes, many of them effected by Pete “Sonic Boom” Kember, one-time guitarist with Spacemen 3 and Spectrum, who contacted Lennox after finding himself namechecked on Person Pitch. Having just produced MGMT’s Congratulations, Kember used the same Blanker Unsinn studio to finish off Lennox’s homebaked nuggets. Although it’s not clear where Panda ends and Boom begins, the soundworld of the whole album is consistent and instantly recognisable: it’s obfuscatory, full of discomfiting aural hallucinations (voices flitting at the fringes of hearing, dublike stabs and delays), while the vocals are like markings on the floor of a swimming pool, perpetually rippling. Like the long-lost days of shoegaze, Lennox’s lyrics are all but swamped in the mixes’ textural scurf, as though he’s buried in sand and lisping through a mouthful of salt water. And the sea never seems far away. “Surfers Hymn” recalls vintage Animal Collective at their most Pet Sounds-ing. “Slow Motion”’s hook line sinks into a stuck-record vortex, a whirlpool whose eddies suck the riffs into melodious spirals. “Last Night At The Jetty” is a doo-wop ballade wearing electronic armature, reminiscent of the way David Lynch dressed up sentimental melodies in the eerie voice of Julee Cruise to claustrophobic effect in Twin Peaks. Here Lennox, trebling his vocal lines, turns himself into a one-man ensemble, tapping in to a peculiarly American dream of starlit dips and beach romance. Yet deciphering these private raptures via their texts alone remains largely a hopeless task. Tomboy largely consists of variations on one sonic texture – the vocals are embedded in echo chambers, bass tones are almost totally absent, and only small signatures define each track: audience and soccer crowd noise intrudes on both “Alsatian Darn” and “Benfica”; while “Afterburner” is the lone mould-breaker, with a minimal techno pulse garlanded with chorused guitar. At times, as on “Scheherazade” or “Friendship Bracelet”, the music achieves an awe-ful beauty. And where Panda Bear transcends his contemporaries is in evoking a sense of nostalgia without entirely giving in to the retro impulse, even when trading King Tubby-style one-drops on “Slow Motion”. The result is a record that demands to live not in some mythologised ’80s, but in the here and now. Rob Young

It ain’t where you come from, it ain’t even where you’re at. For a particular generation these days, it’s all about where you came from.

For the new folkies, the hauntologists, the hypnagogues and all those surfing the chillwave, music has become a chess match of reference points, opening moves establishing a time-frame, offensive manoeuvres pushing key genre tics, but all ultimately tending towards an artistic stalemate.

Whether it’s the Day-Glo ’80s plastic soul of Dãm-Funk or Toro Y Moi, or the fuzzy-felt folk of Fleet Foxes, the ghosts of past musics seem to have entirely taken over the soul of much of today’s sounds. The Animal Collective trio have previously hovered on the cusp of this tendency, their honeyed, ritualistic tracks touching on a legacy of melancholic American dream pop from The Beach Boys to Don Henley.

Individually, though, their offerings have frequently been more than the sum of their parts, especially 2007’s Person Pitch by Panda Bear, the alter ego of Noah Lennox. Now based in Lisbon, Lennox spent a portion of last year letting out his new album in dribs and drabs, on a low-key series of 7” releases on Kompakt, Domino, FatCat and Animal Collective’s own label Paw Tracks.

Now, Tomboy has appeared, featuring many of those tracks in different mixes, many of them effected by Pete “Sonic Boom” Kember, one-time guitarist with Spacemen 3 and Spectrum, who contacted Lennox after finding himself namechecked on Person Pitch. Having just produced MGMT’s Congratulations, Kember used the same Blanker Unsinn studio to finish off Lennox’s homebaked nuggets. Although it’s not clear where Panda ends and Boom begins, the soundworld of the whole album is consistent and instantly recognisable: it’s obfuscatory, full of discomfiting aural hallucinations (voices flitting at the fringes of hearing, dublike stabs and delays), while the vocals are like markings on the floor of a swimming pool, perpetually rippling. Like the long-lost days of shoegaze, Lennox’s lyrics are all but swamped in the mixes’ textural scurf, as though he’s buried in sand and lisping through a mouthful of salt water.

And the sea never seems far away. “Surfers Hymn” recalls vintage Animal Collective at their most Pet Sounds-ing. “Slow Motion”’s hook line sinks into a stuck-record vortex, a whirlpool whose eddies suck the riffs into melodious spirals. “Last Night At The Jetty” is a doo-wop ballade wearing electronic armature, reminiscent of the way David Lynch dressed up sentimental melodies in the eerie voice of Julee Cruise to claustrophobic effect in Twin Peaks. Here Lennox, trebling his vocal lines, turns himself into a one-man ensemble, tapping in to a peculiarly American dream of starlit dips and beach romance.

Yet deciphering these private raptures via their texts alone remains largely a hopeless task. Tomboy largely consists of variations on one sonic texture – the vocals are embedded in echo chambers, bass tones are almost totally absent, and only small signatures define each track: audience and soccer crowd noise intrudes on both “Alsatian Darn” and “Benfica”; while “Afterburner” is the lone mould-breaker, with a minimal techno pulse garlanded with chorused guitar. At times, as on “Scheherazade” or “Friendship Bracelet”, the music achieves an awe-ful beauty. And where Panda Bear transcends his contemporaries is in evoking a sense of nostalgia without entirely giving in to the retro impulse, even when trading King Tubby-style one-drops on “Slow Motion”. The result is a record that demands to live not in some mythologised ’80s, but in the here and now.

Rob Young

EMMYLOU HARRIS – HARD BARGAIN

Uncut
-
0
EMMYLOU HARRIS – HARD BARGAIN

She is rarely creatively inactive, almost always touring and joining forces with one fellow traveller or another, but fans of Emmylou Harris might nonetheless feel they have been handed meagre rations over recent years. For all its commercial success, All The Roadrunning, her 2006 partnership with Mark Knopfler, was a patchy affair, at least if you aren’t partial to the Knopf’s growl. 2008’s All I Intended To Be felt even more like a stop-gap, its handful of new songs augmented with judicious covers of Merle Haggard, Tracy Chapman and others. Hard Bargain brings us back to Emmylou herself. All but two of its 13 songs are self-penned, the exceptions being Ron Sexsmith’s title track and “Cross Yourself”, a pleasant but lightweight contribution from Jay Joyce, who also produced the album and multi-tracked its guitars. For company Joyce had just percussionist Giles Reaves, plus Emmylou herself on acoustic guitar. The sound is lean without being minimal – there isn’t much ‘downhome’ about it, no pedal steel or mandolin (though there is a sprinkle of banjo), but plenty of rock muscle when needed. Indeed, Joyce seems to aspire to the cavernous approach of U2 or the ricocheting ambience/empty echo (delete according to taste) that Daniel Lanois brought to Emmylou’s 1995 Wrecking Ball. At times she seems to be singing from the bottom of a well. The opener, “The Road”, is a case in point, its chorus delivered amid a hail of Edge-style twangerama. The song, which has nothing to do with Cormac McCarthy’s novel, is one of Hard Bargain’s talking points, being Harris’ reflections on her long lost creative partner Gram Parsons. It is now approaching 40 years since the death of the wayward singer, yet Emmylou’s wounds are still apparent on verses that admit “I still think about you/Wonder where you are/Can you see from somewhere/Up there among the stars?” There’s another tribute to a fallen friend in “Darlin’ Kate”, a song for the late Kate McGarrigle, Harris’ friend and accomplice. It’s a tear-jerker of a farewell, its line “you slip the surly bonds of earth and sail away” recalling another life-after-death scenario, “Sailing Round The Room” from All I Intended To Be. Heaven knows country music has never shied away from singing of ‘that other shore’, yet there’s a mawkish cast to all these songs. The same might be said of “Emmett Till”, a song that tells the tragic tale of the murdered teenage boy who became an unwitting martyr for the Civil Rights cause in 1962, his death already chronicled by Dylan back in the bard’s early days. Harris’ tribute, written from Till’s perspective, is fine enough, though its timing is a puzzle. Why now? Less unsettling are the midtempo, catchy “Home Sweet Home” and the slower “Goodnight Old World”, which are both as straight ahead as their titles suggest. Likewise “New Orleans”, an uptempo celebration of the Crescent City, while “Big Black Dog” is a canine joke song in the tradition of McCartney’s “Martha My Dear” or Norah Jones’ “Man Of The Hour” – a shaggy oddity. Elsewhere we are returned to portraits of life as a disappointment, its moments of happiness fleeting. “The Ship On His Arm” is a portrait of a soldier in combat missing his sweetheart, “Lonely Girl” ponders a woman finding herself stranded alone, while “Nobody” reprises the theme of the loveless life where “no-one ever stays” and which ends with a child grown to old age, “wondering if there really is a heaven”. Sexsmith’s “Hard Bargain”, while stricken by disappointment, still seems warm by comparison with the majority of the songs here. Perhaps that’s why Harris chose it as the title track for the album. Beneath its appealing veneer this remains a work wracked with personal anguish and doubt, and any positive engagement with life is welcome in it – even if, from necessity, it has to come from someone else. Neil Spencer

She is rarely creatively inactive, almost always touring and joining forces with one fellow traveller or another, but fans of Emmylou Harris might nonetheless feel they have been handed meagre rations over recent years.

For all its commercial success, All The Roadrunning, her 2006 partnership with Mark Knopfler, was a patchy affair, at least if you aren’t partial to the Knopf’s growl. 2008’s All I Intended To Be felt even more like a stop-gap, its handful of new songs augmented with judicious covers of Merle Haggard, Tracy Chapman and others.

Hard Bargain brings us back to Emmylou herself. All but two of its 13 songs are self-penned, the exceptions being Ron Sexsmith’s title track and “Cross Yourself”, a pleasant but lightweight contribution from Jay Joyce, who also produced the album and multi-tracked its guitars. For company Joyce had just percussionist Giles Reaves, plus Emmylou herself on acoustic guitar. The sound is lean without being minimal – there isn’t much ‘downhome’ about it, no pedal steel or mandolin (though there is a sprinkle of banjo), but plenty of rock muscle when needed. Indeed, Joyce seems to aspire to the cavernous approach of U2 or the ricocheting ambience/empty echo (delete according to taste) that Daniel Lanois brought to Emmylou’s 1995 Wrecking Ball. At times she seems to be singing from the bottom of a well.

The opener, “The Road”, is a case in point, its chorus delivered amid a hail of Edge-style twangerama. The song, which has nothing to do with Cormac McCarthy’s novel, is one of Hard Bargain’s talking points, being Harris’ reflections on her long lost creative partner Gram Parsons. It is now approaching 40 years since the death of the wayward singer, yet Emmylou’s wounds are still apparent on verses that admit “I still think about you/Wonder where you are/Can you see from somewhere/Up there among the stars?”

There’s another tribute to a fallen friend in “Darlin’ Kate”, a song for the late Kate McGarrigle, Harris’ friend and accomplice. It’s a tear-jerker of a farewell, its line “you slip the surly bonds of earth and sail away” recalling another life-after-death scenario, “Sailing Round The Room” from All I Intended To Be. Heaven knows country music has never shied away from singing of ‘that other shore’, yet there’s a mawkish cast to all these songs.

The same might be said of “Emmett Till”, a song that tells the tragic tale of the murdered teenage boy who became an unwitting martyr for the Civil Rights cause in 1962, his death already chronicled by Dylan back in the bard’s early days. Harris’ tribute, written from Till’s perspective, is fine enough, though its timing is a puzzle. Why now?

Less unsettling are the midtempo, catchy “Home Sweet Home” and the slower “Goodnight Old World”, which are both as straight ahead as their titles suggest. Likewise “New Orleans”, an uptempo celebration of the Crescent City, while “Big Black Dog” is a canine joke song in the tradition of McCartney’s “Martha My Dear” or Norah Jones’ “Man Of The Hour” – a shaggy oddity.

Elsewhere we are returned to portraits of life as a disappointment, its moments of happiness fleeting. “The Ship On His Arm” is a portrait of a soldier in combat missing his sweetheart, “Lonely Girl” ponders a woman finding herself stranded alone, while “Nobody” reprises the theme of the loveless life where “no-one ever stays” and which ends with a child grown to old age, “wondering if there really is a heaven”.

Sexsmith’s “Hard Bargain”, while stricken by disappointment, still seems warm by comparison with the majority of the songs here. Perhaps that’s why Harris chose it as the title track for the album. Beneath its appealing veneer this remains a work wracked with personal anguish and doubt, and any positive engagement with life is welcome in it – even if, from necessity, it has to come from someone else.

Neil Spencer

THOR

Uncut
-
0
THOR
DIRECTED BY Kenneth Branagh STARRING Chris Hemshaw, Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins What to expect, then, from Kenneth Branagh’s take on Thor, Marvel Comics’ spin on the mighty Norse god of thunder? Richard Briers cameoing as a kindly, twinkle-eyed retainer, perhaps? Or Robbie Coltrane as a h...

DIRECTED BY Kenneth Branagh

STARRING Chris Hemshaw, Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins

What to expect, then, from Kenneth Branagh’s take on Thor, Marvel Comics’ spin on the mighty Norse god of thunder? Richard Briers cameoing as a kindly, twinkle-eyed retainer, perhaps? Or Robbie Coltrane as a humorously rotund demi-god, with a winning line in bad puns and comedic asides?

In truth, Thor could do with a little more of this kind of off-piste thinking. It’s deathly long, it struggles to be coherent in places and, at times, it’s really just like the last superhero film you saw, but with slightly different costumes. Oh, and it’s in 3D. But then these days, what isn’t?

Certainly, Kenneth Branagh seems to be an unusual choice to direct a superhero movie. But then, you could argue that Thor is the odd-one-out in the Marvel Comics‘ cannon. He isn’t the regular guy, struggling to come to terms with new-found superpowers – the template for most Marvel protagonists. He’s the son of Odin One-Eye, the All-Father, head of the Æsir – a race of gods who watch over the Nine Realms from their home on Asgard.

As you might expect, when Anthony Hopkins (replacing Brian Blessed) arrives sporting a flowing white beard and bellowing heartily as Odin, Thor strives for the kind of sub-Shakespearean gravitas that Hollywood demands accompanies all on-screen portrayals of ancient deities.

A variety of actors – some of them known to us, like Idris Elba, The Wire’s Stringer Bell – appear dressed in colourful body armour declaiming wildly. Fortunately, no-one forsooths. While the splendour of Asgard is realised via typically accomplished special effects – the Bifröst bridge that links worlds, particularly, has requisite wow-factor – you can’t but help feel that in some respects this city of gods resembles nothing more out-of-this-world than a high end hotel complex in Dubai.

It’s only when Thor is banished to Earth, and befriends scientists Natalie Portman and Stellan Skarsgård, that Branagh’s film finally reveals its charms.

Looking more like a bearded, long-haired surfer dude than a Norse god, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor strides manfully at one point into a pet shop and pompously demands a horse. It’s camp-y, fish-out-of-water fun, and offers some diversion from the generic CGI battles between the Æsir and the evil Frost Giants of Jotunheim, or Thor and an enchanted suit of armour called The Destroyer. He spends much of his time on Earth trying to retrieve Mjölnir, his hammer and the source of his powers. The central conflict, though, lies between Thor and the god of mischief, his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston, a veteran of Branagh’s Wallander series). Hiddleston does sly and manipulative with relative restraint, that balances out Hemsworth’s shouty braggadocio.

But, really, it’s all about a bloke and his hammer.

MICHAEL BONNER

Bon Iver announce new album tracklisting

Uncut
-
0
Bon Iver announce new album tracklisting
Bon Iver have announced that their June-bound new album will be self-titled and released its tracklisting. The album will be released on June 21 in the US – see below for the tracklisting. Each song on the album is named after or represents a place. Frontman Justin Vernon has said of album close...

Bon Iver have announced that their June-bound new album will be self-titled and released its tracklisting.

The album will be released on June 21 in the US – see below for the tracklisting.

Each song on the album is named after or represents a place. Frontman Justin Vernon has said of album closer ‘Beth/Rest’, his favourite on the LP: “It’s definitely the part where you pick up your joint and re-light it.”

The tracklisting of ‘Bon Iver’ is:

‘Perth’

‘Minnesota, WI’

‘Holocene’

‘Towers’

‘Michicant’

‘Hinnom, TX’

‘Wash.’

‘Calgary’

‘Lisbon, OH’

‘Beth/Rest’

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Liam Gallagher reveals Beady Eye second album plans

Uncut
-
0
Liam Gallagher reveals Beady Eye second album plans
Liam Gallagher has promised that Beady Eye won't be hanging around when it comes to releasing their second album. The singer told the Irish Times that they wouldn't let promotion for their recent debut 'Different Gear, Still Speeding' run into 2012 and instead would get to work on its follow-up. C...

Liam Gallagher has promised that Beady Eye won’t be hanging around when it comes to releasing their second album.

The singer told the Irish Times that they wouldn’t let promotion for their recent debut ‘Different Gear, Still Speeding’ run into 2012 and instead would get to work on its follow-up.

Comparing life in Beady Eye to his old Oasis regime he said: “We’re not going to put the ball down, sit around in a big house and go ‘We’re great’. We won’t be booking into the studio for months and months on end.”

He added: “We’re not going to be rolling over this album into the next year. There will be an awesome second album coming soon. We’re responsible for our every move. We’re on our own label. We do all our own artwork and videos. It’s not like, ‘Oh, send that off to the visual arts person’.”

‘Different Gear, Still Speeding’ was released in February.

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

The 15th Uncut Playlist Of 2011

John Mulvey
-
0
Ashley Wales’ remix of “You’re No Good”… the second movement of Fucked Up’s rock opera… “I Had A Dream” by The Long Ryders still sounding levitational, right up to the last second when someone observes, correctly, “That was tight!”… Robert Stillman… The People’s Temple ra...

Ashley Wales’ remix of “You’re No Good”… the second movement of Fucked Up’s rock opera… “I Had A Dream” by The Long Ryders still sounding levitational, right up to the last second when someone observes, correctly, “That was tight!”… Robert Stillman… The People’s Temple ramalam I blogged about yesterday… “The Only Way I Know To Love You” by Joe Tex… Andre Adams… “Supercollider”… and Sun Araw covering Teenage Fanclub, downloaded from the always on-point Raven Sings The Blues… All good…

Continue

Arcade Fire to release two new songs this June

Uncut
-
0
Arcade Fire to release two new songs this June
Arcade Fire are to re-release 'The Suburbs' in June, with the addition of two brand new songs. The tracks, which are titled 'Speaking In Tongues' and 'Culture War', will be released on June 27 in a new, deluxe edition of the band’s third album. The new edition will also include the band's shor...

Arcade Fire are to re-release ‘The Suburbs’ in June, with the addition of two brand new songs.

The tracks, which are titled ‘Speaking In Tongues’ and ‘Culture War’, will be released on June 27 in a new, deluxe edition of the band’s third album.

The new edition will also include the band’s short film, ‘Scenes From The Suburbs’. A ‘Making Of’ documentary will also be part of the package.

The re-release was announced last night (April 18) on Zane Lowe’s BBC Radio 1 Show, which will also be the first radio show to air the tracks, on May 23.

Arcade Fire return to the UK in June to headline Hyde Park.

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Rufus Wainwright to play London Royal Opera House residency

Uncut
-
0
Rufus Wainwright to play London Royal Opera House residency
Rufus Wainwright has announced a five night residency at London's Royal Opera House for July. The Canadian singer songwriter will play a different themed concert each night during the run, which takes place from July 18 – 23. The opening night (July 18) will see Wainwright perform his Judy Garl...

Rufus Wainwright has announced a five night residency at London‘s Royal Opera House for July.

The Canadian singer songwriter will play a different themed concert each night during the run, which takes place from July 18 – 23.

The opening night (July 18) will see Wainwright perform his Judy Garland tribute show ‘Rufus Does Judy’, which was released as a live album in 2007. He will also perform this on July 22.

He will then play an evening with his sister Martha the following night (July 19) and his father Loudon Wainwright III on July 21.

The final night (July 23) will see a performance of his 2010 opera Prima Donna, followed by a show, which is titled ‘Rufus Does Rufus’.

The gigs are to support the release of a new 19 disc box set, ‘House Of Rufus’. This features the singer’s six studio albums, two live albums, four additional CDs of rarities and demos and six DVDs.

‘House Of Rufus’ is released on July 18.

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Radiohead make Record Store Day single available online

Uncut
-
0
Radiohead make Record Store Day single available online
Radiohead have made their Record Store Day songs 'Supercollider' and 'The Butcher' available to download to fans who bought their 'Kings Of Limbs' album. The tracks were made available on limited-edition vinyl on Saturday (April 16) but in an email that opens with "thank you" in 27 languages, the b...

Radiohead have made their Record Store Day songs ‘Supercollider’ and ‘The Butcher’ available to download to fans who bought their ‘Kings Of Limbs’ album.

The tracks were made available on limited-edition vinyl on Saturday (April 16) but in an email that opens with “thank you” in 27 languages, the band state that the tracks are being given away to reward fans for their support.

“This is not part of a new loyalty points scheme, a Radiohead clubcard or even an air miles redeemable reward type thing… It is just a big old-fashioned thank you!” the email, from their Waste.uk.com merchandise site added.

To download the two tracks go to the band’s official album site Thekingoflimbs.com

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

The People’s Temple: “Sons Of Stone”

John Mulvey
-
0

The new Black Lips album – produced by Mark Ronson, weirdly – arrived yesterday, and reminded me of a couple of things. First, that I always feel unaccountably guilty for not liking Black Lips records as much as I think I should. And second, I actually have a bunch of good garage records that need writing about. Foremost among them, I reckon, is “Sons Of Stone”, the debut album by The People’s Temple on Hozac. The People’s Temple come from Lansing, Michigan, but their particular strain of garage seems to be derived from further south, rich as it is with allusions to the blasted Texan psych of the 13th Floor Elevators and at least some of the International Artists label. As with so many of these contemporary garage bands, The People’s Temple maintain a peculiar and effective balance between incredible diligence, in their recreation of an antique ‘60s sound, and ramshackle spontaneity. Plenty of “Sons Of Stone” captures the bravura and naivety of a bunch of freshmen who’ve just heard, say, Them (“Where You Gonna Go?”) for the first time, or who’ve dedicated themselves to producing a darker analogue to “Paint It, Black” and then accidentally strayed into “Peter Gunn” in the process (the closing “The Surf”). There are stringy, uncanny echoes of early Love here, too, and, in some of the lysergic twanging lead guitar, surely accidental ones to the first Blur album. On their Myspace, incidentally, The People’s Temple reference The Brian Jonestown Massacre, which I personally find pretty offputting, but “Sons Of Stone” sounds like the most optimistic bits of that band’s rhetoric, rather than the shoey disappointments of their actual music. The People’s Temple have the thrust and the tunes – the title track and “Axe Man”, especially - to carry them through, so that they don’t sound, like a good few garage bands old and new, that they’re still quaintly grappling with the concept of a longplayer. Off the top of my head, it feels like the garage record I’ve most enjoyed since the last Fresh & Onlys and, especially, Ty Segall’s “Melted”. I have the new Segall album here (on Drag City), to listen to some more, and also a record by the Cosmonauts that I really should do something on. In the meantime, check out The People’s Temple on the cursed Myspace and let me know what you think.

The new Black Lips album – produced by Mark Ronson, weirdly – arrived yesterday, and reminded me of a couple of things. First, that I always feel unaccountably guilty for not liking Black Lips records as much as I think I should. And second, I actually have a bunch of good garage records that need writing about.

Continue

Glastonbury 2011 line-up announced

Uncut
-
0
Glastonbury 2011 line-up announced
Glastonbury festival organisers have revealed the full line-up for this June's event. Taking place at Worthy Farm from June 24-26, the festival's Pyramid Stage has already been confirmed to be headlined by U2 (24), Coldplay (25) and Beyonce (26). Glastonbury 2011 ticket returns are [url=http://ww...

Glastonbury festival organisers have revealed the full line-up for this June’s event.

Taking place at Worthy Farm from June 24-26, the festival’s Pyramid Stage has already been confirmed to be headlined by U2 (24), Coldplay (25) and Beyonce (26).

Glastonbury 2011 ticket returns are [url=http://www.nme.com/news/glastonbury/55704]set to go on sale on Sunday (April 17) at 9am (GMT)[/url].

The full line-up for this year’s Glastonbury festival is:

June 24

Pyramid Stage

U2

Morrissey

Biffy Clyro

BB King

Wu Tang Clan

Two Door Cinema Club

Metronomy

The Master Musicians of Joujouka

Other Stage

Primal Scream

Mumford And Sons

Fleet Foxes

Bright Eyes

The Wombats

The Vaccines

The Kills

Brother

Chipmunk

John Peel Stage

DJ Shadow

Example

The Coral

I Am Kloot

Darwin Deez

Cage The Elephant

Miles Kane

Mona

Stonefield

Cocoon

The Park Stage

Crystal Castles

Caribou

Special Guests

Big Audio Dynamite

Warpaint

Jenny & Johnny

Caitlin Rose

Dylan Le Blanc

Group Love

Narisarato

West Holts

Cee Lo Green

Chase And Status

Jimmy Cliff

Heliocentrics With Mulatu

Little Dragon

Gonjasufi

Dengue Fever

Ziriguidum

Acoustic Stage

Brit Floyd

Raul Malo from The Mavericks

Eric Bibb

Hothouse Flowers

Newton Faulkner

The Otway Band

Sean Rowe

Gabrielle Aplin

Rainy Boy Sleep

East Dance

Fatboy Slim

Fatboy v Carl Cox

Carl Cox

Ke$ha

The Midnight Beast

Katy B

Fenech Soler

Mike Posner

Beardyman

Oxlyers On West

Annie Mac

Erol Alkan

James Holden

Jamie xx

Sbtrkt Live

Jim Jones Revue

King Blues

The Guillemots

Emmy The Great

Summer Camp

Dry The River

Danny And The Champions Of The World

Spirit Of 71

Melanie

The Crazy World of Arthur Brown

Edgar Broughton

Shpongle DJ Set feat Raja Ram

Murray Lachlan Young

Noel Harrison Trio And Friends

Solstice String Quartet

Glade Stage

Asian Dub Foundation

Younger Brother

Robert Babicz

Engine Earz

Dub FX

Pathaan

Nathan Lee

June 25

Pyramid Stage

Coldplay

Elbow

Paolo Nutini

Tinie Tempah

Rumer

The Gaslight Anthem

Tame Impala

Stornoway

Other Stage

The Chemical Brothers

White Lies

Friendly Fires

Jimmy Eat World

Jessie J

Twilight Singers

Treetop Flyers

Alice Gold

John Peel Stage

Glasvegas

Battles

Noah And The Whale

The Horrors

Warpaint

Anna Calvi

Dry The River

Yuck

Brave Yesterday

The Park Stage

Wild Beasts

James Blake

Special Guests

Tame Impala

The Walkmen

Graham Coxon

Those Dancing Days

About Group

Baelearic Folk Orchestra

Ellen & The Escapades

West Holts

Big Boi

Janelle Monae

Aloe Blacc

Fools Gold

Omar Souleyman

Brandt Bauer Frick

Nicolas Jaar Live

Narasirato

London Afrobeat Collective

Acoustic

Deacon Blue

Nick Lowe

Pentangle

Thea Gilmore sings Dylan’s John Wesley Harding

The Webb Sisters

Emily and The Woods

Isobel Anderson

Kassidy

Simon Lynge

East Dance

Professor Green

Devlin

Labrinth

Wretch 32

Jodie Connor

MistaJam

Skepta

Yasmin

Giggs

MZ Bratt

P Money

Griminal

Dot JR

Oxlyers On West

John Digweed

Sander Kleinenberg – 5K Live featuring Dev

Yousef

Zinc

Krafty Kuts with Dynamite MC

Dreadzone

Cherry Ghost

Patrick Wolf

Pulled Apart By Horses

Brother

Fujiya & Miyagi

Phoenix Foundation

Exlovers

Spirit Of 71

Terry Reid

Linda Lewis

BJ Cole and Emily Burridge

Nick Lowe

Pink Fairies

Charlie Dore & the Hula Valley Orchestra

Bex Marshall

Tom E.Lewis

Baku Dan with Moussa Kouaty

Glade Stage

Lee Scratch Perry

Don Letts

Hiatus Feat. LKJ

Prem Joshua

Tristan

Gaudi Live

Tom E.Lewis

Black Jesus Experience

June 26

Pyramid Stage

Beyonce

Pendulum

Plan B

Paul Simon

Laura Marling

Don McLean

The Low Anthem

Fisherman’s Friends

Other Stage

Queens Of The Stone Age

Kaiser Chiefs

Eels

TV On The Radio

Bombay Bicycle Club

The Noisettes

Cold War Kids

Clare Maguire

Dan Mangan

John Peel Stage

The Streets

Robyn

Hurts

The Vaccines

Everything Everything

OK GO

The Joy Formidable

Foster The People

Ragu Dixit

My Tiger Timing

The Park Stage

Gruff Rhys

Lykke Li

John Grant

The Bees

James Vincent McMorrow

Jonny

Sea Of Bees

The Pierces

Troy Ellis & Hall Jamaica

West Holts

Kool & The Gang

Hercules And Love Affair

The Go! Team

Duane Eddy

Bellowhead

Jah Wobble & the Nippon Dub Ensemble

Jamie Woon

The Hidden Orchestra

Acoustic

Suzanne Vega

Imelda May

John Cooper Clarke

Wine Women & Song

London Community Gospel Choir

The Magnets

Iona Marshall

Caitlin Rose

Ellyn Maybe

East Dance

Pete Tong

The Japanese Popstars

Steve Lawler

Claude Vonstroke

Azari & 111

Funkagenda & Chris Lake B2B

Mark Knight

Matt Hardwick

Oxlyers On West

Subfocus & ID

Photek

DJ Fresh

Caspa & Rod Azlan

Skream & Benga

Joker

Metronomy

dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip

Egyptian Hip Hop

Crystal Fighters

Cults

Esben And The Witch

Mirrors

Spirit Of 71

System 7

Nik Turner’s Space Ritual

Robyn Hitchcock

Chris Jagger

Gringo Ska

Nigel Mazyln Jones

Avalon Free State Choir

Glade Stage

Plump DJs

Pretty Lights

Freestylers

London Elektricity

Camo & Krooked

Mr Nice

Correspondents

Sashi & The Wild Beans

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

The Shins announce live comeback gig

Uncut
-
0
The Shins announce live comeback gig
The Shins have announced their first gig for two years. The Portland indie rock favourites have been on hiatus since their album 'Wincing The Night Away' in 2007. However, they have just been confirmed to play San Francisco's Outside Lands Festival which takes place on Golden Gate Park from Augus...

The Shins have announced their first gig for two years.

The Portland indie rock favourites have been on hiatus since their album ‘Wincing The Night Away’ in 2007.

However, they have just been confirmed to play San Francisco‘s Outside Lands Festival which takes place on Golden Gate Park from August 12-14.

Also confirmed for the festival are Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Arcade Fire, MGMT and Deadmau5.

During their time away, frontman James Mercer formed Broken Bells with Danger Mouse. In the meantime, keyboardist Marty Crandall and drummer Jesse Sandoval left the band, being replaced by Ron Lewis and Joe Plummer from Modest Mouse respectively.

The Shins are expected to release a new album later this year, having left Sub Pop for Mercer‘s own label Aural Apothecary.

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

The Strokes to play T In The Park 2011

Uncut
-
0
The Strokes to play T In The Park 2011
The Strokes have been confirmed as playing this year's T In The Park. Foo Fighters, Pulp, Beady Eye, Arctic Monkeys and Coldplay are also on the bill for the Scottish event, which takes place in Balado on July 8–10. See Tinthepark.com for more information. The line up, for T In The Park, so far,...

The Strokes have been confirmed as playing this year’s T In The Park.

Foo Fighters, Pulp, Beady Eye, Arctic Monkeys and Coldplay are also on the bill for the Scottish event, which takes place in Balado on July 8–10. See Tinthepark.com for more information.

The line up, for T In The Park, so far, is:

The Strokes

Foo Fighters

Arctic Monkeys

Coldplay

The View

Pendulum

Tom Jones

Blink-182

The Script

Plan B

Imelda May

Pulp

My Chemical Romance

Weezer

Deadmau5

Beady Eye

Ocean Colour Scene

Tinie Tempah

Cast

Hurts

You Me At Six

Brandon Flowers

Blondie

Jessie J

Eels

The Streets

Vitalic

Jimmy Eat World

The Saturdays

Bloody Beetroots

Chase and Status

Josh Wink

Noah & The Whale

House Of Pain

Bright Eyes

Diplo

Bloody Beetroots Death Crew

Miles Kane

Crystal Castles

Manic Street Preachers

White Lies

The Vaccines

Slam

To check the availability of [url=http://www2.seetickets.com/nme/?c=487152&filler2=487152]T In The Park tickets[/url] and get all the latest listings, go to [url=http://www.nme.com/gigs]NME.COM/TICKETS[/url] now, or call 0871 230 1094.

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

YOUR HIGHNESS

Uncut
-
0
YOUR HIGHNESS
Directed by David Gordon Green Starring Danny McBride, Natalie Portman, James Franco/ Regular viewers of the Uncut Channel – HBO – may already be familiar with Danny McBride, the star and co-writer of Your Highness. McBride is the creative force behind the channel’s comedy series Eastbound &...

Directed by David Gordon Green

Starring Danny McBride, Natalie Portman, James Franco/

Regular viewers of the Uncut Channel – HBO – may already be familiar with Danny McBride, the star and co-writer of Your Highness. McBride is the creative force behind the channel’s comedy series Eastbound & Down, in which he plays Kenny Powers – a disgraced former professional baseball player forced to take a humiliating career downgrade, teaching gym class at his old school. Powers is arrogant and obnoxious – traits McBride successfully exported to other movies such as 2006’s micro-budget indie The Foot Fist Way (his American breakthrough), Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express.

McBride brings to life another of his reprehensible gargoyles for Your Highness – a terrific, bawdy riff on fantasy movies, whose plot takes in a kidnapped princess, an evil wizard, knights, crones and mythical beasts. McBride plays Thadeous, the second in line to the throne of Mourne, a magical kingdom ruled by benevolent king Tallious (Charles Dance). Thadeous is the black sheep of the family: an inveterate shagger, liar and coward. His elder brother is high achiever Fabious, played with wholesome vigour by James Franco (fresh from his Oscar nomination for 127 Hours). As is often the case with younger siblings who are overlooked in favour of their more successful elders, Thadeous is resentful towards Fabious. When Fabious’ new bride Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel) is kidnapped on their wedding day by evil wizard Leezar (a camp, scene-stealing Justin Theroux, looking like the drummer in an ’80s metal band), Thadeous is dispatched against his will with his elder brother on a quest to retrieve her. Also along for the ride: Toby Jones’ oily courtier, Damian Lewis and a banner of knights, Thadeous’ knave Courtney (Saxondale’s Rasmus Hardiker) and a mechanical bird, called Simon.

As with Pineapple Express, which also starred Franco and McBride, Your Highness is directed by David Gordon Green. Green’s career trajectory has been an exemplar of the stark realities of modern independent filmmaking. He made his debut, aged 25, with George Washington (2000) – a languorous study of rural American life that won him lofty comparisons with Terrence Malick. He followed it up with another low-budget movie, 2003’s All The Real Girls, starring Zooey Deschanel (and, in his first film role, McBride). A brilliant film – but, alas, no-one saw it. Even fewer people saw his next, Undertow, while his fourth film, Snow Angels, was never released in the UK.

At some point, Green made a pragmatic decision to cut his losses. Moving away from deeply personal independent movies, he teamed up with producer Judd Apatow and star/writer Seth Rogen for Pineapple Express – a rowdy stoner action film, no less. Green has also secured a Consulting Producer title and sporadic directing credits on McBride’s Eastbound & Down. It’s been a risky, but broadly successful transition from the arthouse to the mainstream for Green. Pineapple Express took over $100 million at the box office. Critically, it also felt like a legitimate

attempt to extend the painfully limited boundaries of the frat boy comedy; its reference points included Midnight Run and 48 Hours as much as the Cheech & Chong films. It took the ‘serious’ parts of the movie, well, seriously; the perils faced by Franco and Rogen’s characters seemed genuine enough in context. Indeed, characters died in the film. Its take on Franco and Rogen’s characters was unusually melancholic for a comedy; here were two burned-out men, locked into a state of permanent adolescence.

For Your Highness, Green, McBride and co-writer Ben Best (another Eastbound & Down veteran) cleave close to the specifics of fantasy movies, but then do their own funny, filthy thing with them. So, Leezar’s plan to impregnate Belladonna in accordance with an ancient prophecy is called “The Fuckening”. In a nod to Jim Henson’s marvellous animatronic creations from movies like Labyrinth, there’s a dope-smoking ‘wise wizard’ – a funny, turtle-like creature who Fabious reveals, “I’ve known since I was a boy. Sometimes we’d take off our shirts and jump up and down on the bed.” Indeed.

If you think it sounds like a ruder version of The Princess Bride, then that’s not too far from the truth. As with William Goldman’s film (and novel), Your Highness both affirms and challenges genre conventions. But Your Highness is, frankly, a lot less innocent and charming. While James Franco and Natalie Portman – as a female warrior on a quest of her own – keep commendably straight faces amid the stream of knob gags, McBride gives free rein to Thadeous’ devious, philandering instincts. When first we meet him, he’s about to be hung for bedding the Dwarf King’s wife. Later, when Fabious is struggling to hold down a lungful of dope smoke, an irritated Thadeous snaps at his less-worldly brother: “Learn to handle your shit, Fabious.” It’s the kind of character you could imagine Jack Black or Will Ferrell playing; bulging eyes, potty mouthed, screamingly funny. With Black and Ferrell both currently experiencing career lulls, it might not be too much longer before McBride assumes their place at the movie comedians’ top table.

McBride has range, too – witness his performance as George Clooney’s future brother-in-law in Up In The Air. Promisingly, we’ll next see him as Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, opposite Seth Rogen as Mike D and Elijah Wood as Ad Roc, in Fight For Your Right Revisited; a comedy short directed by Yauch about the Beastie’s “Fight For Your Right To Party” video. The last couple of years have been quite a remarkable ride for Danny McBride. One only hopes he can continue to handle his shit.

Michael Bonner

TV ON THE RADIO – NINE TYPES OF LIGHT

Uncut
-
0
TV ON THE RADIO – NINE TYPES OF LIGHT

Emerging from their Brooklyn loft-studio in 2003, TV On The Radio rapidly grew to epitomise a musical New York renaissance that owed nothing to The Strokes’ new-wave jangle of two years previous. As their soulful debut EP Young Liars demonstrated, this was a group with rather more visionary ideas in mind: TVOTR’s modernist art-rock combined experimental production with mass appeal, and while their albums have not sold in earth-shaking quantities, the ingenuity of the likes of 2006’s Return To Cookie Mountain marked out the band’s David Sitek as a sort of Eno-like superproducer for the Big Apple set, playing midwife to albums for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars and Scarlett Johansson. If there’s a common rule to such auteurs, though, it’s that they seldom sit still for long. So after 2008’s Dear Science, Sitek upped sticks and crossed the continent, holing up in Los Angeles and embarking on a solo project, Maximum Balloon. Following 2008’s Dead Science, vocalist/loops man Tunde Adebimpe and guitarist/co-vocalist Kyp Malone also took leave, the former pursuing an acting career, the latter recording as Rain Machine. Reconvening for the making of Nine Types Of Light, TVOTR looked west to Sitek’s hilltop Beverly Hills abode, and LA’s free and easy spirit appear to have left an imprint on the record itself – as Sitek put it recently, “having a barbecue running the whole time was certainly a different vibe.” While this record resembles its predecessor, it has certainly soaked up a little sun along the way. The opening “Second Song” is very TVOTR, being both a song about being in love with music, and being a bit geeky about the process of its creation. “Every sonic evolution/Make your contribution/To the light” sings Kyp Malone in tingling falsetto, over scintillating guitars and massed horns. In the past, their lyrics have tended towards the cryptic, but here they are often rather straightforward, and better for it: “If the world falls apart/How’m I gonna keep your heart?” croons Malone on “Keep Your Heart”, a pretty concoction of acoustic guitar and snowy synths caught mid-thaw. The excellent “Will Do”, meanwhile, recalls a mellow Peter Gabriel. Sitek’s critics maintain his kitchen sink productions are too cluttered, which isn’t entirely unfair – there are times, such as the spiky, percussive “New Cannonball Blues” where you feel the song is stifled by the layers of bleeps, brass and strings. He is learning to hold back, though: see “Killer Crane”, a serene ballad that changes utterly with just the ring of a banjo halfway through. And notably, much of the claustrophobia of the past has lifted, with the record’s more energetic moments tending to feel rather more celebratory than on-edge. “Caffeinated Consciousness” rides an enjoyably lunk-headed riff of horns and cranked guitar, while the Malone-fronted “No Future Shock” is a delirious jive that invents its own end-of-days dance craze – “Do the No Future! Do the No Future!” – in the process. Elsewhere, the band remain fond of doffing the cap to footnotes of musical history, with “Repetition” riffing on the hook of Dream Warriors’ jazz-rap hit “My Definition Of A Boombastic Jazz Style”. “My repetition/My repetition is this!” chants Malone over shrieking guitars – although elsewhere, the song investigates more disquieting territory, evoking shadowy, Lynchian goings on. This dark tint filters into Nine Types Of Light’s closing track, “Forgotten”. Powered by low-riding synths, it’s a nocturnal-feeling satire on valley living, from plastic surgery to social etiquette: “Beverly Hills/Nuclear winter/What shall we wear/And who’s for dinner?”sings Adebimpe. It’s an arch look at La-La Land through New York eyes, and the most explicit sign here that TVOTR are far from home. Don’t worry about them, though: Nine Types Of Light suggests they’re settling in nicely. Louis Pattison

Emerging from their Brooklyn loft-studio in 2003, TV On The Radio rapidly grew to epitomise a musical New York renaissance that owed nothing to The Strokes’ new-wave jangle of two years previous. As their soulful debut EP Young Liars demonstrated, this was a group with rather more visionary ideas in mind: TVOTR’s modernist art-rock combined experimental production with mass appeal, and while their albums have not sold in earth-shaking quantities, the ingenuity of the likes of 2006’s Return To Cookie Mountain marked out the band’s David Sitek as a sort of Eno-like superproducer for the Big Apple set, playing midwife to albums for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars and Scarlett Johansson.

If there’s a common rule to such auteurs, though, it’s that they seldom sit still for long. So after 2008’s Dear Science, Sitek upped sticks and crossed the continent, holing up in Los Angeles and embarking on a solo project, Maximum Balloon. Following 2008’s Dead Science, vocalist/loops man Tunde Adebimpe and guitarist/co-vocalist Kyp Malone also took leave, the former pursuing an acting career, the latter recording as Rain Machine.

Reconvening for the making of Nine Types Of Light, TVOTR looked west to Sitek’s hilltop Beverly Hills abode, and LA’s free and easy spirit appear to have left an imprint on the record itself – as Sitek put it recently, “having a barbecue running the whole time was certainly a different vibe.”

While this record resembles its predecessor, it has certainly soaked up a little sun along the way. The opening “Second Song” is very TVOTR, being both a song about being in love with music, and being a bit geeky about the process of its creation. “Every sonic evolution/Make your contribution/To the light” sings Kyp Malone in tingling falsetto, over scintillating guitars and massed horns. In the past, their lyrics have tended towards the cryptic, but here they are often rather straightforward, and better for it: “If the world falls apart/How’m I gonna keep your heart?” croons Malone on “Keep Your Heart”, a pretty concoction of acoustic guitar and snowy synths caught mid-thaw. The excellent “Will Do”, meanwhile, recalls a mellow Peter Gabriel.

Sitek’s critics maintain his kitchen sink productions are too cluttered, which isn’t entirely unfair – there are times, such as the spiky, percussive “New Cannonball Blues” where you feel the song is stifled by the layers of bleeps, brass and strings. He is learning to hold back, though: see “Killer Crane”, a serene ballad that changes utterly with just the ring of a banjo halfway through. And notably, much of the claustrophobia of the past has lifted, with the record’s more energetic moments tending to feel rather more celebratory than on-edge. “Caffeinated Consciousness” rides an enjoyably lunk-headed riff of horns and cranked guitar, while the Malone-fronted “No Future Shock” is a delirious jive that invents its own end-of-days dance craze – “Do the No Future! Do the No Future!” – in the process.

Elsewhere, the band remain fond of doffing the cap to footnotes of musical history, with “Repetition” riffing on the hook of Dream Warriors’ jazz-rap hit “My Definition Of A Boombastic Jazz Style”. “My repetition/My repetition is this!” chants Malone over shrieking guitars – although elsewhere, the song investigates more disquieting territory, evoking shadowy, Lynchian goings on.

This dark tint filters into Nine Types Of Light’s closing track, “Forgotten”. Powered by low-riding synths, it’s a nocturnal-feeling satire on valley living, from plastic surgery to social etiquette: “Beverly Hills/Nuclear winter/What shall we wear/And who’s for dinner?”sings Adebimpe. It’s an arch look at La-La Land through New York eyes, and the most explicit sign here that TVOTR are far from home. Don’t worry about them, though: Nine Types Of Light suggests they’re settling in nicely.

Louis Pattison

BOB DYLAN – IN CONCERT: BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 1963

Uncut
-
0
BOB DYLAN – IN CONCERT: BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 1963

On May 10, 1963, 21-year-old Bob Dylan played a folk festival at Brandeis University, a Jewish college in Waltham, Massachusetts, on the outskirts of Boston, just as his career was about to explode. Now, thanks to a reel-to-reel soundboard tape recently discovered in the archives of the late music critic Ralph J Gleason, we have a snapshot of this game-changing artist on the verge of being recognised as such. This was just before Columbia finally got around to releasing The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, the far more revealing and successful follow-up to his anaemic-selling 1962 self-titled debut. That summer, Peter, Paul & Mary’s cover of “Blowin’ In The Wind” would top the US charts en route to becoming an anthem of the Civil Rights and anti-war movements, while his stunning set at the Newport Folk Festival would irrevocably transform folk music, previously the province of clean-cut journeyman groups like The Kingston Trio, The Brothers Four and The Highwaymen. But the Bob Dylan who headed up to Brandeis was one of the more obscure performers booked for the festival, his prospects seemingly further dimmed by his woolly bray and atonal harmonica playing. We’ll never know whether Dylan gave a thought to where he was playing, or whether the Brandeis underclassmen who got their first taste of his music that day had any inkling that this rustic from the upper Midwest was also Jewish. What we do know is that, by this time, his sensibility was fully formed and he was brimming with confidence, enough so that his decisions were unsullied by any external pressures. By the time he’s finished the first number, a folk chestnut he’d reconfigured as “Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance”, Dylan appears to have gauged his audience and figured out how to entertain them, captivate them and astound them, all the while amusing himself in the process. Without any preliminary comments, he launches into “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues”, and within two or three verses fully engages the initially indifferent crowd with this caterwauling send-up of right-wing extremists. Given the composition of the audience, this is provocative material indeed, with the clueless narrator’s references to Hitler’s genocide and the McCarthy era’s blacklisting of many largely Jewish intellectuals. They eat it up, peals of laughter rolling toward Dylan onstage with every verse-resolving punchline, as he does what amounts to a stand-up routine in rhyme. (Just two days later, Dylan would walk out of a scheduled appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show – his first shot at national exposure – when the producers refused to let him perform this song.) He then undergoes a radical mood shift from sociopolitical humour to Shakespearean high drama in modern dress with “Ballad Of Hollis Brown”, which tells the story of an impoverished South Dakota farmer who goes over the edge, killing his wife and children before turning the shotgun on himself. Dylan progressively ratchets up the tension during the seven-minute performance, the crowd now hushed, rapt. With barely a pause, he undergoes another transformation, from tragedian to protest singer, with “Masters Of War”, the audience now completely in his thrall. The first set ends with sustained applause punctuated with cheers. In his later three-song performance, he opts to sandwich the satirical “Talkin’ World War III Blues” and “Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues”, each of which finds broad humour in human foibles, around the Freewheelin… lynchpin “Bob Dylan’s Dream”, a shimmering vision of humanity at its most noble and precious. Most of those in attendance had no idea who Bob Dylan was before today, but they’ll never forget him now. If Live At The Gaslight from October 1962 – long-bootlegged but officially released in 2005 – showed the young Dylan in his element, then this recording demonstrates what he was capable of out of his element: a skillful entertainer working the crowd, reaching into his trick bag and pulling out just what he needs to get the job done. And whether he’s being perverse or instinctual, he doesn’t even bother to break out any of the indelible showstoppers that are by this point in his arsenal. This is the young Dylan in microcosm, marching to the beat of a different drummer, and taking no prisoners. Bud Scoppa

On May 10, 1963, 21-year-old Bob Dylan played a folk festival at Brandeis University, a Jewish college in Waltham, Massachusetts, on the outskirts of Boston, just as his career was about to explode. Now, thanks to a reel-to-reel soundboard tape recently discovered in the archives of the late music critic Ralph J Gleason, we have a snapshot of this game-changing artist on the verge of being recognised as such.

This was just before Columbia finally got around to releasing The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, the far more revealing and successful follow-up to his anaemic-selling 1962 self-titled debut. That summer, Peter, Paul & Mary’s cover of “Blowin’ In The Wind” would top the US charts en route to becoming an anthem of the Civil Rights and anti-war movements, while his stunning set at the Newport Folk Festival would irrevocably transform folk music, previously the province of clean-cut journeyman groups like The Kingston Trio, The Brothers Four and The Highwaymen. But the Bob Dylan who headed up to Brandeis was one of the more obscure performers booked for the festival, his prospects seemingly further dimmed by his woolly bray and atonal harmonica playing.

We’ll never know whether Dylan gave a thought to where he was playing, or whether the Brandeis underclassmen who got their first taste of his music that day had any inkling that this rustic from the upper Midwest was also Jewish. What we do know is that, by this time, his sensibility was fully formed and he was brimming with confidence, enough so that his decisions were unsullied by any external pressures. By the time he’s finished the first number, a folk chestnut he’d reconfigured as “Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance”, Dylan appears to have gauged his audience and figured out how to entertain them, captivate them and astound them, all the while amusing himself in the process.

Without any preliminary comments, he launches into “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues”, and within two or three verses fully engages the initially indifferent crowd with this caterwauling send-up of right-wing extremists. Given the composition of the audience, this is provocative material indeed, with the clueless narrator’s references to Hitler’s genocide and the McCarthy era’s blacklisting of many largely Jewish intellectuals. They eat it up, peals of laughter rolling toward Dylan onstage with every verse-resolving punchline, as he does what amounts to a stand-up routine in rhyme. (Just two days later, Dylan would walk out of a scheduled appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show – his first shot at national exposure – when the producers refused to let him perform this song.)

He then undergoes a radical mood shift from sociopolitical humour to Shakespearean high drama in modern dress with “Ballad Of Hollis Brown”, which tells the story of an impoverished South Dakota farmer who goes over the edge, killing his wife and children before turning the shotgun on himself. Dylan progressively ratchets up the tension during the seven-minute performance, the crowd now hushed, rapt. With barely a pause, he undergoes another transformation, from tragedian to protest singer, with “Masters Of War”, the audience now completely in his thrall. The first set ends with sustained applause punctuated with cheers. In his later three-song performance, he opts to sandwich the satirical “Talkin’ World War III Blues” and “Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues”, each of which finds broad humour in human foibles, around the Freewheelin… lynchpin “Bob Dylan’s Dream”, a shimmering vision of humanity at its most noble and precious. Most of those in attendance had no idea who Bob Dylan was before today, but they’ll never forget him now.

If Live At The Gaslight from October 1962 – long-bootlegged but officially released in 2005 – showed the young Dylan in his element, then this recording demonstrates what he was capable of out of his element: a skillful entertainer working the crowd, reaching into his trick bag and pulling out just what he needs to get the job done. And whether he’s being perverse or instinctual, he doesn’t even bother to break out any of the indelible showstoppers that are by this point in his arsenal. This is the young Dylan in microcosm, marching to the beat of a different drummer, and taking no prisoners.

Bud Scoppa

The 14th Uncut Playlist Of 2011

John Mulvey
-
0

An extra-long list this week, since we seem to have worked our way through more stuff than usual. A lot of good stuff, too, I’d say, with one or two exceptions, and a tremendous new mystery record that’s coming out in the summer and which hasn’t, I think, been announced as yet – hence the necessary evasiveness. A quick thanks, before I roll this one out, to Arbouretum’s Dave Heumann, who posted on the review of Arbouretum’s recent London show; nice that they enjoyed it as much as we did. 1 Robert Johnson – The Centennial Collection (Legacy) 2 Big Youth – Screaming Target (Sunspot) 3 Ty Segall – Good bye Bread (Drag City) 4 WhoMadeWho – Knee Deep (Kompakt) 5 Metronomy – The English Riviera (Because) 6 The Black Swans – Don’t Blame The Stars (Misra) 7 Elle Osborne – So Slowly Slowly She Got Up (Folk Police) 8 Blanck Mass – Blanck Mass (Rock Action) 9 My Morning Jacket – Circuital (V2) 10 The Outsiders – CQ (RPM) 11 Roy Harper – Songs Of Love And Loss Volumes 1 And 2 (Believe) 12 Bill Callahan – Apocalypse (Drag City) 13 Huntsville – For Flowers, Cars And Merry Wars (Hubro) 14 Mystery Record 15 The Oscillation – Veils (All Time Low) 16 Sebastian – Total (Ed Banger) 17 Jesse Sparhawk & Eric Carbonara – Sixty Strings (VHF) 18 Howlin Wolf – The Howlin Wolf Album (Get On Down) 19 Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact (4AD) 20 Tamikrest – Toumastin (Glitterhouse) 21 Moon Duo – Mazes (Souterrain Transmissions) 22 The People’s Temple – Sons Of Stone (Hozac) 23 Barn Owl – Lost In The Glare (Thrill Jockey) 24 Suuns – Zeroes QC (Secretly Canadian) 25 Arborea – Red Planet (Strange Attractors Audio House)

An extra-long list this week, since we seem to have worked our way through more stuff than usual. A lot of good stuff, too, I’d say, with one or two exceptions, and a tremendous new mystery record that’s coming out in the summer and which hasn’t, I think, been announced as yet – hence the necessary evasiveness.

Continue

Soundgarden abandon grunge for new album

Uncut
-
0
Soundgarden abandon grunge for new album
Soundgarden have said that their new album will be quite different from their early material. The band have previously said in the past that their first album for 15 years will [url=http://www.nme.com/news/soundgarden/55297]feature 'updated old material'[/url], but guitarist Kim Thayil has seemingl...

Soundgarden have said that their new album will be quite different from their early material.

The band have previously said in the past that their first album for 15 years will [url=http://www.nme.com/news/soundgarden/55297]feature ‘updated old material'[/url], but guitarist Kim Thayil has seemingly ruled this out, saying the band’s new LP will sound quite different.

Speaking to Kerrang!, Thayil said: “We want to make sure the material excites us. The last thing we want to make is another grunge or metal record.”

He added that the Seattle band want to record an album with “material that excites us.”

Thayil said that there was no target release date for the album yet, only adding that the band want to record and release the album “as soon as possible”, but that singer Chris Cornell‘s solo tour and drummer Matt Cameron‘s commitments with Pearl Jam have to come first.

He said: “Everything is contingent on the primary careers of the band. Everyone wants the album to come out as soon as possible, but at the moment, there’s no reason to rush anything.”

Thayil also said the band would be likely to tour the new album when it is released.

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

1...683684685...1,271Page 684 of 1,271

SHOP UNCUT