Subscribe
Home Blog Page 77

Nick Mason recalls the “rough” circumstances Pink Floyd faced when recording Animals

Liberty Dunworth
-
0
Nick Mason recalls the “rough” circumstances Pink Floyd faced when recording Animals
In light of the newly-reissued version of their 1977 album Animals, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason has opened up about the technical difficulties the band faced during the recording of the original release. ORDER NOW: Björk is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Introducing...

In light of the newly-reissued version of their 1977 album Animals, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason has opened up about the technical difficulties the band faced during the recording of the original release.

In an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock published 15 September, Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason recalled how the band struggled to create their tenth studio album Animals – referring to it as the “roughest one” of all their releases.

Promoting the album, which was remixed in 2018 – although has only just been released due to personal conflicts between the members – the drummer told the publication about the struggles the band battled with during the initial recording process.

“I think Animals is interesting. On the technical side of all the albums we’ve made, this was perhaps the roughest one, for all sorts of reasons,” he explains. “It was made at the same time that punk was kicking off, [but also] this was our own studio that had been built on a budget.”

“All of our previous recording had been done at Abbey Road, [where they had] the very, very highest standards,” he continues. “The equipment was good [at our studio] but it was not as good. In some ways, it’s not a bad thing, but in another way, it justifies the remix and the remastering.”

Mason also shares a moment which highlights these difficulties best – recalling how he and Roger Waters accidentally deleted an entire guitar solo when trying to mix the album:

“There was absolutely nothing to stop one of us engineering a guitar solo,” he says. “I have a memory of Roger and me actually supervising a guitar solo of David’s and actually wiping it by mistake… That was again, something you wouldn’t get at Abbey Road.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the drummer also names keyboardist Richard Wright as the most under-appreciated member of Pink Floyd, claiming that other members of the band have noticed how little recognition Wright got for his contributions.

“[As for] what Rick brought to the party…” he states. “We felt over the years that probably Rick is the one who never quite got the appreciation that perhaps he deserved.”

After a four-year delay, the reissue of Animals is out now.

Father John Misty covers Stevie Wonder for new live EP

Tom Skinner
-
0
Father John Misty covers Stevie Wonder for new live EP
Father John Misty has covered Stevie Wonder's "I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)" as part of a new live EP. READ MORE: Father John Misty – Chloë and the Next 20th Century review Live At Electric Lady was recorded at the iconic Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village, N...

Father John Misty has covered Stevie Wonder’s “I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)” as part of a new live EP.

Live At Electric Lady was recorded at the iconic Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village, New York City back in May. Comprising six tracks, the special collection contains live versions of five songs from FJM’s latest album Chloë And The Next 20th Century.

Closing the EP is Father John Misty’s take on Wonder’s 1972 number “I Believe…”. You can listen to Live At Electric Lady on Spotify below.

Announcing the project on social media, FJM (real name Josh Tillman) shared a series of behind-the-scenes shots of himself and his accompanying string section recording at NYC’s Electric Lady. See those in the Instagram post beneath.

The tracklist for Father John Misty’s Live At Electric Lady EP is as follows:

1. “We Could Be Strangers”
2. “(Everything But) Her Love”
3. “Goodbye Mr. Blue”
4. “Buddy’s Rendezvous”
5. “The Next 20th Century”
6. “I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)”

Father John Misty is currently out on the road in North America. He will showcase most recent album on a run of UK and European headline dates in 2023, which includes gigs in London, Gateshead, Glasgow and Manchester.

Last month saw Father John Misty take “Buddy’s Rendezvous” to Jimmy Kimmel Live! for a special performance.

Introducing the new Uncut: Björk, Steely Dan, Lamont Dozier and more

Michael Bonner
-
0
Introducing the new Uncut: Björk, Steely Dan, Lamont Dozier and more
As I write this, most of the Uncut team are somewhere en route to this year’s End Of The Road festival for a busy weekend of live music and our regular Uncut Q&As. While Tom, Sam and Mark get to soak up the festival atmosphere and enjoy many of our favourite artists – from Fleet Foxes and Pixies...

As I write this, most of the Uncut team are somewhere en route to this year’s End Of The Road festival for a busy weekend of live music and our regular Uncut Q&As. While Tom, Sam and Mark get to soak up the festival atmosphere and enjoy many of our favourite artists – from Fleet Foxes and Pixies to The Weather Station, Margo Cilker and Tinariwen – the rest of us are back here, putting the finishing touches to the issue that you now hold in your hands.

One of the happy by-products of this exodus to Larmer Tree Gardens is that I’ve spent some extra time reading through this issue’s albums pages. As usual, there’s a wide array of releases for your delectation, but among my favourite pieces of writing, I’d steer you to Jim Wirth’s funny and insightful review of Bill Callahan’s new album, YTI⅃AƎЯ, and Damien Love’s forensic investigation of the anthology covering Joe Strummer’s years with his final band, the Mescaleros.

We have a particularly strong Karma section this month, too, featuring tales from former Cramps/Gun Club/Bad Seed Kid Congo Powers, the reinvention of Can’s Malcolm Mooney, the return of Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 and a “how do you do” to Myriam Gendron – whose two beguiling albums to date, Not So Deep As A Well and Ma Délire – Songs Of Love Lost & Found, come with the highest possible recommendations.

There’s plenty more inside. Stephen Troussé’s interview with Björk is one for the ages. Graeme Thomson has rounded up some heads to share their thoughts on Steely Dan’s peerless original run of albums. Graeme has also spoken at length to Herbie Hancock for this month’s issue: this superb interview reads like history unfolding, as Hancock takes us through his memories of some of the 20th century’s most profound musical and cultural revolutions. There’s also a moving and intimate tribute to Lamont Dozier by his former songwriting partner Brian Holland, The Ruts, Cat Power, Aoife Nessa Frances and Ashley Hutchings – who has surprising revelations to share regarding Bob Dylan’s car boot sale buys.

As ever, let us know what you think: letters@www.uncut.co.uk.

Until next month…

Uncut – November 2022

Uncut
-
0
Uncut – November 2022
HAVE A COPY SENT STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOME Björk, Steely Dan, Ashley Hutchings, Herbie Hancock, Aoife Nessa Frances, Cat Power, The Ruts, The Fall, Lamont Dozier, Brian Auger and Brian Eno all feature in the new Uncut, dated November 2022 and in UK shops from September 15 or available to buy online...

HAVE A COPY SENT STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOME

Björk, Steely Dan, Ashley Hutchings, Herbie Hancock, Aoife Nessa Frances, Cat Power, The Ruts, The Fall, Lamont Dozier, Brian Auger and Brian Eno all feature in the new Uncut, dated November 2022 and in UK shops from September 15 or available to buy online now. This issue comes with an exclusive free 15-track CD of the month’s best new music.

BJÖRK: Returning to Iceland, Björk found herself putting down roots, reconnecting with her ancestry, losing her mother and becoming a grandmother. The result is Fossora – the final part of her own post-divorce pagan comedy that’s taken her from America, via heaven and hell, back to Reykjavík again. Stand by for revelations involving mushrooms, Icelandic obituary songs, headbanging and “punching dinosaurs in the stomach!” “I just wanted to land on planet Earth and dig my toes into the soil,” she explains to Stephen Troussé.

OUR FREE CD! BIG TIME SOUNDS: 15 tracks of the month’s best new music

This issue of Uncut is available to buy by clicking here – with FREE delivery to the UK and reduced delivery charges for the rest of the world.

Inside the issue, you’ll find:

HERBIE HANCOCK: From child prodigy to jazz colossus, Herbie Hancock has repeatedly revolutionised music. In a rare audience with the rockit man, he tells Graeme Thomson about his remarkable career, alongside giants including Miles Davis and Joni Mitchell, and as a formidable solo artist in his own right. But what keeps this tireless innovator going into his ninth decade? “I like to be ahead of the curve,” he says. “I’m trying to make a curve!”

AOIFE NESSA FRANCES: Depressed and anxious following the release of her remarkable debut album Land Of No Junction in 2020, Dubliner Aoife Nessa Frances headed west to spend lockdown with her father and sisters in County Clare. Reinvigorated by the experience, she’s returned with a dark, dreamy and defiant second album, Protector. “Music is magic,” she tells Stephen Troussé as she leads Uncut through the landscape the record grew out of…

STEELY DAN: Fifty years ago, Can’t Buy A Thrill introduced Steely Dan’s impeccable brand of hipster logic – and the whip-smart songwriting partnership of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. To celebrate, Uncut has assembled a cast of Dan aficionados – including
David Crosby, St Vincent, Paddy McAloon, Aimee Mann, Bruce Hornsby, Joan Wasser and Lloyd Cole – to explore the band’s original run of unimpeachable studio albums. “They’re the American Beatles,” learns Graeme Thomson

LAMONT DOZIER: When Lamont Dozier died on August 8, 2022, we lost one of the chief architects of the Motown sound: a master craftsman who helped define popular music during the 1960s. Here Eddie Holland pays a moving, in-depth tribute to his friend and former collaborator – taking us from the factory floor at Hitsville USA during Motown’s imperial phase to revelations about more recent plans to revive the Holland-Dozier-Holland partnership. “Lamont, Brian and I were together so long, the relationship we had was beautiful,” he tells Nick Hasted. “I still don’t really want to think about him being gone.” Plus The Four Tops, The Chairmen Of The Board, Mick Hucknall and more salute Dozier’s songwriting genius.

CAT POWER: The inimitable Chan Marshall on turning 50, dogs versus cats, the “atrocity” of modern-day America and an encounter with “God Dylan”

THE RUTS: The making of “Babylon’s Burning”.

ASHLEY HUTCHINGS: The guv’nor of three key folk-rock groups guides us through his highlights

JOE STRUMMER: Strummer’s last testament, still testifying.

CLICK TO GET THE NEW UNCUT DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR

In our expansive reviews section, we take a look at new records from Brian Eno, Courtney Marie Andrews, The Comet Is Coming, The Unthanks and more, and archival releases from Joe Strummer, Pink Floyd, The Cure, and others. We catch the Connect Festival live; among the films, DVDs and TV programmes reviewed are Flux Gourmet, Hallelujah, Strawberry Mansion, The Lost King and Hatching; while in books there’s Stuart Cosgrove and Stuart Braithwaite.

Our front section, meanwhile, features Sun Ra, Kid Congo Powers, Can’s Malcolm Mooney, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 & Myriam Gendron, while, at the end of the magazine, Brian Auger shares his life in music.

You can pick up a copy of Uncut in the usual places, where open. But otherwise, readers all over the world can order a copy from here.

CLICK TO GET THE NEW UNCUT DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR

Hear Weyes Blood’s new track, “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody”

Michael Bonner
-
0
Hear Weyes Blood’s new track, “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody”
Weyes Blood - aka Natalie Mering - has revealed details of her new studio album, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow. The follow up to Titanic Rising - Uncut's Album Of The Year in 2019 - the new album is released on November 18 by Sub Pop. ORDER NOW: Björk is on the cover of the latest issue...

Weyes Blood – aka Natalie Mering – has revealed details of her new studio album, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow.

The follow up to Titanic Rising – Uncut’s Album Of The Year in 2019 – the new album is released on November 18 by Sub Pop.

To mark the announcement, Natalie has released a taste of the album, “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody“, which you can hear below.

The album features guests including Mary Lattimore, Meg Duffy, Daniel Lopatin and Joey Waronker. It’s produced by Mering along with Jonathan Rado.

You can pre-order the album here.

The tracklisting is:

It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody
Children of the Empire
Grapevine
God Turn Me Into a Flower
Hearts Aglow
And in the Darkness
Twin Flame
In Holy Flux
The Worst Is Done
A Given Thing

Daniel Romano’s Outfit – La Luna

Rob Hughes
-
0
Daniel Romano’s Outfit – La Luna
It’s almost impossible to keep track of Daniel Romano. When he’s not publishing collections of poetry or art, the Ontario musician is either recording solo, producing others (most recently Carson McHone’s Still Life) or creating ambient epics under the guise of varianza. To call him prolific f...

It’s almost impossible to keep track of Daniel Romano. When he’s not publishing collections of poetry or art, the Ontario musician is either recording solo, producing others (most recently Carson McHone’s Still Life) or creating ambient epics under the guise of varianza. To call him prolific feels reductive. In 2020 alone, grounded by the pandemic, he released no fewer than eight albums, either solo or fronting Daniel Romano’s Outfit, including an entire reimagining of Bob Dylan’s Infidels.

La Luna might be his most ambitious project to date. A celestial song cycle in 14 chapters, served in two lengthy parts, it’s a modern psychedelic musical that seeks to address the big stuff: spirituality, God, creation, destiny and the like. The music, lyrics and arrangements are all Romano’s, though his Outfit – chiefly McHone, Julianna Riolino, Roddy Rosetti, David Nardi and brother Ian Romano – helps bring them to life in expansive, polyphonic detail. It’s rich in brass, orchestral strings and massed harmonies, with Romano sharing vocal turns with others.

The opening section, “Genuine Light”, is a micro rock opera with shades of Rufus Wainwright and Queen, the choir singing back to Romano at his own urging: “Love is all reality”. And as it moves into something funkier and more trippy, McHone and Riolino trade verses on what feels like some neo-Aquarian dream, rising into an ecstatic chorus that hails divine conception. The search for enlightenment continues, morphing through country and chamber-folk, as Romano reaches into the heavens: “Nothing is hidden from the eyes of the realised soul”.

Thematically, things are no less weighty or bewildering on the 15-minute “Part 2”. Strings billow and fall as we’re introduced to “the cosmic illusion of time”. A quieter passage, mostly just piano and violin, is swept aside by voluminous psych-pop harmonies and horns, ending in a grand finale that wrestles abstract notions of love, death and universal light. An accompanying full-length film, starring Julie Doiron in the lead role, is due this autumn. Let’s hope it’s just as weirdly exhilarating.

Spain release unearthed track – watch the video

Tom Pinnock
-
0
Spain release unearthed track – watch the video
Spain have released a newly unearthed track, "I Lied", as a taster of their upcoming archival release, World Of Blue – watch the video below. ORDER NOW: Björk is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut The album collects five previously unheard tracks from a 1994 session at Los Angeles'...

Spain have released a newly unearthed track, “I Lied”, as a taster of their upcoming archival release, World Of Blue – watch the video below.

The album collects five previously unheard tracks from a 1994 session at Los Angeles‘s Poop Alley Studio, preceding their debut album, 1995’s The Blue Moods Of Spain.

The demos were lost for decades, and only rediscovered last year, when the tapes were baked in Florida by producer Kramer and newly mixed.

“I paid for the session with weed I grew in my closet,” explains Spain’s leader Josh Haden. “We set up and it starting raining. Tom [Grimley] put a microphone outside. For lunch, we’d walk through the alley over to India Sweets and Spices, on Fairfax just north of Pico. After tracking was finished, Petra [Haden] came over and overdubbed violin. There was a cushioned area where I remember sitting during mixdown. There were little stacks of Aphex 16-track tape everywhere.

“I first learned about the blues as a style and artform when I was a teenager, raiding my father’s record collection. One of the things I noticed that elevated the blues over other musical forms, such as punk rock, was the ability to subtly manipulate the apparent message of a song for deeper effect, for example, making a sad song happy, or vice versa. ‘I Lied’ is an attempt at this concept. It starts out as a love song but ends much differently. I love Kramer’s new production, repeating the vocal line at the end, something I’d wish I’d thought of doing back then.”

World Of Blue is released on September 30 through Shimmy-Disc/Joyful Noise.

Siouxsie And The Banshees announce All Souls

Michael Bonner
-
0
Siouxsie And The Banshees announce All Souls
Siouxsie And The Banshees return with All Souls, personally curated by Siouxsie Sioux, which collates classic tracks and rarities. ORDER NOW: Björk is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut Described as "an Autumnal celebration", the tracks have been re-mastered at half speed at Abbey Ro...

Siouxsie And The Banshees return with All Souls, personally curated by Siouxsie Sioux, which collates classic tracks and rarities.

Described as “an Autumnal celebration”, the tracks have been re-mastered at half speed at Abbey Road with Sioux overseeing the process. It’ll be available on limited edition orange vinyl as well as 180g black vinyl and digitally from October 21 via UMe.

The collection features new and unique artwork directed by Sioux.

The tracklisting for All Souls is:

Side A
Fireworks (12” Version) (Single 1982)
Halloween (Juju album 1981)
Supernatural Thing (Arabian Knights single 1981)
El Dia De Los Muertos (Last Beat Of My Heart single 1988)
The Sweetest Chill (Tinderbox album 1986)

Side B
Spellbound (Juju album 1981)
Something Wicked (This Way Comes) (The Killing Jar single 1988)
Rawhead And Bloodybones (Peepshow album 1988)
We Hunger (Hyæna album 1984)
Peek-A-Boo (Peepshow album 1988)

PJ Harvey to release B-sides, demos and rarities box set

Michael Bonner
-
0
PJ Harvey to release B-sides, demos and rarities box set
PJ Harvey's final release in her reissue programme is a 59-track collection, B-Sides, Demos And Rarities, due for release on November 4 through UMe/Island. ORDER NOW: Björk is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut Available as a 6 LP/ 3 CD/ Digital boxset, most of the songs included hav...

PJ Harvey‘s final release in her reissue programme is a 59-track collection, B-Sides, Demos And Rarities, due for release on November 4 through UMe/Island.

Available as a 6 LP/ 3 CD/ Digital boxset, most of the songs included have been previously unavailable physically or digitally, while 14 tracks are either previously unreleased or in previously unreleased versions. The music has been mastered under the guidance of regular PJ Harvey producer John Parish. The box set also features previously unseen archive photography by Harvey’s long-term collaborator, Maria Mochnacz.

The box is available to pre-order here.

Here’s the tracklisting:

3CD
Disc 1

DRY – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)
MAN-SIZE – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)
MISSED – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)
HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)
ME-JANE – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)
DADDY
LYING IN THE SUN
SOMEBODY’S DOWN, SOMEBODY’S NAME
DARLING BE THERE
MANIAC
ONE TIME TOO MANY
HARDER
NAKED COUSIN
LOSING GROUND
WHO WILL LOVE ME NOW
WHY D’YA GO TO CLEVELAND (previously unreleased)

Disc 2
INSTRUMENTAL #1
THE NORTHWOOD
THE BAY
SWEETER THAN ANYTHING
INSTRUMENTAL #3
THE FASTER I BREATHE THE FURTHER I GO (4 TRACK VERSION)
NINA IN ECSTASY 2
REBECCA
INSTRUMENTAL #2
THIS WICKED TONGUE
MEMPHIS
30
66 PROMISES
AS CLOSE AS THIS
MY OWN PRIVATE REVOLUTION
KICK IT TO THE GROUND (4 TRACK)
THE FALLING
THE PHONE SONG
BOWS & ARROWS
ANGEL
STONE

Disc 3
97°
DANCE
CAT ON THE WALL – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)
YOU COME THROUGH – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)
UH HUH HER – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)
EVOL – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)
WAIT
HEAVEN
LIVERPOOL TIDE
THE BIG GUNS CALLED ME BACK AGAIN
THE NIGHTINGALE
SHAKER AAMER
GUILTY – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)
I’LL BE WAITING – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)
HOMO SAPPY BLUES – DEMO (previously unreleased)
THE AGE OF THE DOLLAR – DEMO (previously unreleased)
THE CAMP
AN ACRE OF LAND
THE CROWDED CELL
THE SANDMAN – DEMO
THE MOTH – DEMO
RED RIGHT HAND

LP Box
LP1 – Side A
DRY – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)
MAN-SIZE – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)
MISSED – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)

LP1 – Side B
HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)
ME-JANE – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)
DADDY

LP2 – Side A
LYING IN THE SUN
SOMEBODY’S DOWN, SOMEBODY’S NAME
DARLING BE THERE
MANIAC

LP2 – Side B
HARDER
NAKED COUSIN
LOSING GROUND
WHO WILL LOVE ME NOW
WHY D’YA GO TO CLEVELAND (previously unreleased)

LP3 – Side A
INSTRUMENTAL #1
THE NORTHWOOD
THE BAY
SWEETER THAN ANYTHING
INSTRUMENTAL #3
THE FASTER I BREATHE THE FURTHER I GO (4 TRACK VERSION)
NINA IN ECSTASY 2

LP3 – Side B
REBECCA
INSTRUMENTAL #2
THIS WICKED TONGUE
MEMPHIS
30

LP4 – Side A
66 PROMISES
AS CLOSE AS THIS
MY OWN PRIVATE REVOLUTION
KICK IT TO THE GROUND (4 TRACK)

LP4 – Side B
THE FALLING
THE PHONE SONG
BOWS & ARROWS
ANGEL
STONE

LP5 – Side A
97°
DANCE
CAT ON THE WALL – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)
YOU COME THROUGH – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)
UH HUH HER – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)
EVOL – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)

LP5 – Side B
WAIT
HEAVEN
LIVERPOOL TIDE
THE BIG GUNS CALLED ME BACK AGAIN
THE NIGHTINGALE
SHAKER AAMER

LP6 – Side A
GUILTY – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)
I’LL BE WAITING – DEMO (previously unreleased demo)
HOMO SAPPY BLUES – DEMO (previously unreleased)
THE AGE OF THE DOLLAR – DEMO (previously unreleased)
THE CAMP

LP6 – Side B
AN ACRE OF LAND
THE CROWDED CELL
THE SANDMAN – DEMO
THE MOTH – DEMO
RED RIGHT HAND

Jimi Hendrix: new live album and book due to mark his 80th birthday

Michael Bonner
-
0
Jimi Hendrix: new live album and book due to mark his 80th birthday
A number of releases are planned to celebrate what would have been Jimi Hendrix' 80th birthday on November 27. First, a live album, Jimi Hendrix Experience Los Angeles Forum: April 26, 1969, will arrive on November 18 on 2LP vinyl, CD and all digital platforms through Experience Hendrix L.L.C. in...

A number of releases are planned to celebrate what would have been Jimi Hendrix‘ 80th birthday on November 27.

First, a live album, Jimi Hendrix Experience Los Angeles Forum: April 26, 1969, will arrive on November 18 on 2LP vinyl, CD and all digital platforms through Experience Hendrix L.L.C. in partnership with Sony’s Legacy Recordings.

You can hear an advance track from the album “I Don’t Live Today” below:

The concert – featuring Hendrix, drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding – has never before been released in its entirety. This release has been remixed by longtime Hendrix producer/engineer Eddie Kramer.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Los Angeles Forum: April 26, 1969 tracklist:

Intro
Tax Free
Foxey Lady
Red House
Spanish Castle Magic
Star Spangled Banner
Purple Haze
I Don’t Live Today
Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
Sunshine of Your Love
Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

Meanwhile, also coming out during the month of Hendrix’s 80th birthday is a new book, JIMI, which you can pre-order here.

Due for publication on November 15 by Chronicle Books imprint Chroma, JIMI has been assembled by Janie Hendrix and John McDermott. Highlights include lesser known and never-before-published photographs, personal memorabilia, and tributes from Paul McCartney, Ron Wood, Jeff Beck, Lenny Kravitz, Eric Clapton, Drake, Dave Grohl and more.

Pixies – Ultimate Music Guide

Uncut
-
0
Pixies – Ultimate Music Guide
As they release a great new album, we present the Ultimate Music Guide to the Pixies – and their magnificent sister group The Breeders. From the spectacular breakthrough, through the mounting tensions and split – and the surprising rebirth – this is the full story of an incredibly influentia...

As they release a great new album, we present the Ultimate Music Guide to the Pixies – and their magnificent sister group The Breeders. From the spectacular breakthrough, through the mounting tensions and split – and the surprising rebirth – this is the full story of an incredibly influential art-rock band dynasty.

“You’ll think I’m dead, but I sail away…”

Buy a copy here!

Introducing the Ultimate Music Guide to Pixies

John Robinson
-
0
Introducing the Ultimate Music Guide to Pixies
BUY THE PIXIES ULTIMATE MUSIC GUIDE HERE It’s rare enough for a rock group to contain enough talent to sustain one brilliant career –small in number as they were, the Pixies (population: 4) managed in its time to give rise to two. In the mid-1980s, the band came together under modest circumst...

BUY THE PIXIES ULTIMATE MUSIC GUIDE HERE

It’s rare enough for a rock group to contain enough talent to sustain one brilliant career –small in number as they were, the Pixies (population: 4) managed in its time to give rise to two. In the mid-1980s, the band came together under modest circumstances to become the most challenging and influential cult band of their time.

It was a turbulent ride to the top of independent music, but certainly not an unproductive one. Kim Deal had more creative energy than the Pixies could harness, and her group The Breeders provided an outlet that transcended the status of side-project to become a commercially successful (and wonderfully strange) band in their own right.

As the Pixies get ready to unleash Doggerel, the third album of their post-reformation second phase, our latest Ultimate Music Guide celebrates the explosive talents and artistic triumphs of both bands in 124 pages of in-depth reviews and revelatory archive interviews. No lesser entity than Black Francis himself has stepped up to introduce the magazine, in which he graciously accounts for the band’s birth and subsequent turbulent history.

“It was very much post-punk alternative rock,” the man today known as Charles Thompson says. “We were really starting from scratch in terms of a sound – it was basically whatever songs I came up with, whatever guitar lines he came up with, that was the sound, that was all we had. Kim Deal came over to my apartment – I had a plain canvas army cot that was my couch, one of these stretchers that you see in a gymnasium during a flood – and she sat on it, she was the only person that answered the ad looking for a bass player. I played her all my songs and she said ‘I like them and I’m interested and I don’t have a bass but I’ll borrow one from my sister’. And we were a band.”

Acclaim brought with it an intense touring schedule which placed additional pressure on the faultlines which were already present in the band. When the band split in 1993, Kim focused fully on The Breeders – piloting them on a course which has led to the huge successes of “Cannonball” and The Last Splash, and on a creative path which continues to be rewarding to the present day.

Still, the lure of the original band couldn’t be denied and in 2004, the original Pixies reunited for 10 years of thrilling live performance. New Pixies music would be made, but without Kim. “After we recorded a few songs Kim definitely didn’t want to do more than that so, to her credit, she just gracefully bowed out. She met us at the coffee shop and said ‘I’m finished, I don’t want to do this anymore’.

In an exclusive interview for the issue, the Pixies tell us about their second phase, and the wild inspirations of their latest album, Doggerel.

“Making new Pixies records has been just as rewarding,” writes Charles “…I don’t think our music pales in comparison to what we did before.”

Buy a copy of the magazine here. Missed one in the series? Bundles are available at the same location…

The Beatles unveil Revolver Special Edition

Michael Bonner
-
0
The Beatles unveil Revolver Special Edition
A special edition of Revolver is set to be released next month. ORDER NOW: Björk is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut It is the latest Beatles album to be re-released as a remixed and expanded deluxe box set following Sgt. Pepper’s in 2017, the ‘White Album’ in 2018, Abbey Roa...

A special edition of Revolver is set to be released next month.

It is the latest Beatles album to be re-released as a remixed and expanded deluxe box set following Sgt. Pepper’s in 2017, the ‘White Album’ in 2018, Abbey Road in 2019 and Let It Be last year.

First released in August 1966, this new configuration includes a range of newly mixed and expanded special edition packages.

All 14 tracks on the original album have been newly mixed by Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell in stereo and Dolby Atmos, while the album’s original mono mix has been sourced from its 1966 mono master tape.

The physical and digital ‘super deluxe’ collections also feature the album’s original mono mix, 28 early takes from the sessions and three home demos. There is also a four-track EP with new stereo mixes and remastered original mono mixes for “Paperback Writer” and “Rain“.

The Revolver special edition will be available in three formats – Super Deluxe, Deluxe and Standard – and will be released on vinyl, CD and digitally. All of the collections will be released on October 28, with pre-order available now.

You can see the full Revolver tracklist, and listen to a new mix of “Taxman“, below.

SUPER DELUXE [5CD + 100-page hardbound book in slipcase | digital audio collection]
CD1: Revolver (New stereo mix)
1: Taxman
2: Eleanor Rigby
3: I’m Only Sleeping
4: Love You To
5: Here, There And Everywhere
6: Yellow Submarine
7: She Said She Said
8: Good Day Sunshine
9: And Your Bird Can Sing
10: For No One
11: Doctor Robert
12: I Want To Tell You
13: Got To Get You Into My Life
14: Tomorrow Never Knows

CD2: Sessions One
1: Tomorrow Never Knows (Take 1)
2: Tomorrow Never Knows (Mono mix RM 11)
3: Got To Get You Into My Life (First version) – Take 5
4: Got To Get You Into My Life (Second version) – Unnumbered mix – mono
5: Got To Get You Into My Life (Second version) – Take 8
6: Love You To (Take 1) – mono
7: Love You To (Unnumbered rehearsal) – mono
8: Love You To (Take 7)
9: Paperback Writer (Takes 1 and 2) – Backing track – mono
10: Rain (Take 5 – Actual speed)
11: Rain (Take 5 – Slowed down for master tape)
12: Doctor Robert (Take 7)
13: And Your Bird Can Sing (First version) – Take 2
14: And Your Bird Can Sing (First version) – Take 2 (giggling)

CD3: Sessions Two
1: And Your Bird Can Sing (Second version) – Take 5
2: Taxman (Take 11)
3: I’m Only Sleeping (Rehearsal fragment) – mono
4: I’m Only Sleeping (Take 2) – mono
5: I’m Only Sleeping (Take 5) – mono
6: I’m Only Sleeping (Mono mix RM1)
7: Eleanor Rigby (Speech before Take 2)
8: Eleanor Rigby (Take 2)
9: For No One (Take 10) – Backing track
10: Yellow Submarine (Songwriting work tape – Part 1) – mono
11: Yellow Submarine (Songwriting work tape – Part 2) – mono
12: Yellow Submarine (Take 4 before sound effects)
13: Yellow Submarine (Highlighted sound effects)
14: I Want To Tell You (Speech and Take 4)
15: Here, There And Everywhere (Take 6)
16: She Said She Said (John’s demo) – mono
17: She Said She Said (Take 15) – Backing track rehearsal

CD4: Revolver (Original mono master)

CD5: Revolver EP
1: Paperback Writer (New stereo mix)
2: Rain (New stereo mix)
3: Paperback Writer (Original mono mix remastered)
4: Rain (Original mono mix remastered)

SUPER DELUXE VINYL [limited edition 4LP+7-inch EP + 100-page hardbound book in slipcase]
LP One: Revolver (New stereo mix)
Side 1
1: Taxman
2: Eleanor Rigby
3: I’m Only Sleeping
4: Love You To
5: Here, There And Everywhere
6: Yellow Submarine
7: She Said She Said

Side 2
1: Good Day Sunshine
2: And Your Bird Can Sing
3: For No One
4: Doctor Robert
5: I Want To Tell You
6: Got To Get You Into My Life
7: Tomorrow Never Knows

LP Two: Sessions One
Side 1
1: Tomorrow Never Knows (Take 1)
2: Tomorrow Never Knows (Mono mix RM 11)
3: Got To Get You Into My Life (First version) – Take 5
4: Got To Get You Into My Life (Second version) – Unnumbered mix – mono
5: Got To Get You Into My Life (Second version) – Take 8
6: Love You To (Take 1) – mono
7: Love You To (Unnumbered rehearsal) – mono

Side 2
1: Love You To (Take 7)
2: Paperback Writer (Takes 1 and 2) – Backing track – mono
3: Rain (Take 5 – Actual speed)
4: Rain (Take 5 – Slowed down for master tape)
5: Doctor Robert (Take 7)
6: And Your Bird Can Sing (First version) – Take 2
7: And Your Bird Can Sing (First version) – Take 2 (giggling)

LP Three: Sessions Two
Side 1
1: And Your Bird Can Sing (Second version) – Take 5
2: Taxman (Take 11)
3: I’m Only Sleeping (Rehearsal fragment) – mono
4: I’m Only Sleeping (Take 2) – mono
5: I’m Only Sleeping (Take 5) – mono
6: I’m Only Sleeping (Mono mix RM1)
7: Eleanor Rigby (Speech before Take 2)
8: Eleanor Rigby (Take 2)

Side 2
1: For No One (Take 10) – Backing track
2: Yellow Submarine (Songwriting work tape – Part 1) – mono
3: Yellow Submarine (Songwriting work tape – Part 2) – mono
4: Yellow Submarine (Take 4 before sound effects)
5: Yellow Submarine (Highlighted sound effects)
6: I Want To Tell You (Speech and Take 4)
7: Here, There And Everywhere (Take 6)
8: She Said She Said (John’s demo) – mono
9: She Said She Said (Take 15) – Backing track rehearsal

LP Four: Revolver (Original mono master)

Revolver EP (7-inch vinyl)
Side 1
1: Paperback Writer (New stereo mix)
2: Rain (New stereo mix)

Side 2
1: Paperback Writer (Original mono mix remastered)
2: Rain (Original mono mix remastered)

DELUXE [2CD in digipak with 40-page booklet]
CD 1: Revolver (New stereo mix)

CD 2: Sessions
1: Paperback Writer (New stereo mix)
2: Rain (New stereo mix)
3: Tomorrow Never Knows (Take 1)
4: Got To Get You Into My Life (Early mix)
5: Love You To (Take 7)
6: Doctor Robert (Take 7)
7: And Your Bird Can Sing (First version) Take 2
8: Taxman (Take 11)
9: I’m Only Sleeping (Take 2) – mono
10: Eleanor Rigby (Take 2)
11: For No One (Take 10) – Backing track
12: Yellow Submarine (Take 4 before sound effects)
13: I Want To Tell You (Speech and Take 4)
14: Here, There And Everywhere (Take 6)
15: She Said She Said (Take 15) – Backing track rehearsal

STANDARD [1CD | digital | 1LP vinyl | limited edition 1LP picture disc vinyl]
Revolver (New stereo mix)

Kraftwerk: a robot speaks!

Sam Richards
-
0
Kraftwerk: a robot speaks!
Karl Bartos on his days in Kraftwerk, the secrets of Kling Klang and Cliff Richard’s hitherto undisclosed influence on New York electro. In the latest issue of Uncut magazine - in UK shops now and available to buy from our online store, he tells Sam Richards more. For a musician synonymous with...

Karl Bartos on his days in Kraftwerk, the secrets of Kling Klang and Cliff Richard’s hitherto undisclosed influence on New York electro. In the latest issue of Uncut magazine – in UK shops now and available to buy from our online store, he tells Sam Richards more.

For a musician synonymous with the interface between music and technology, Karl Bartos’ Hamburg home studio is surprisingly spartan. “I have a piano, a Martin D-28 guitar and a computer,” he reveals. “The core of my old equipment like the MiniMoog and the Arp synthesiser is still there, but they seem to retire now. Usually I go out and record something in the streets.”

Rather than creating his own sounds, Bartos is currently concerned with paying deeper attention to those that already exist around us. “Ambience is really great. I’ve learned a lot from John Cage about that – he said, the great symphony is if you go to a crossroads and listen to the rhythm of the cars. Around here, you hear ships all the time. But basically anything makes a symphony. It’s really a great variety of noises in this world.”

Bartos was always a versatile musician. In his memoir The Sound Of The Machine, recently translated into English, he describes hot-footing it between Kraftwerk’s Kling Kling studio and the orchestra pit at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, while also playing drums in a rock’n’roll band and vibraphone in a jazz quartet. The range of influences that powered minimalist masterpieces like The Man-Machine and Computer World was broader than you think. “I always listen to music as a whole,” says Bartos, settling down to answer your questions. “It’s all the sound of being human.”

Can you describe your feelings the first time you entered Kling Klang studio and played the electronic drums?

– John Densmore, Sunderland
The atmosphere was like what you can read about Andy Warhol’s Factory. It was this big variety of useless things and useful things. In one corner of the room I saw a neon lamp, and so I had this feeling of an art place, not really a musical studio. The first time I went there, we played at a low level. I had these knitting needles in my hand and the sound of them hitting the metal pad was very loud in the room. You can’t really use your technique, if you have a knitting needle! So I get along, and it was OK. But the next time we played full volume, and that makes a difference because then suddenly the sounds were much louder than a normal drum set. The articulation was very low, you had just one boom! But over the years, we developed a style of modulating it through machines, technical effects, and so on. It was an interesting challenge, and it opened my ears to things I knew already. Sly & The Family Stone, they were using a drum machine but I didn’t notice so much because it was deep in the music. What happened with Kraftwerk was the aestheticisation of technology. Like the Eiffel Tower – there’s no facade, it’s just this pure skeleton.

PICK UP THE NEW UNCUT FOR THE FULL STORY

Tinariwen delve into their archives

Michael Bonner
-
0
Tinariwen delve into their archives
Tinariwen are about to release a pair of catalogue projects that sheds new light on their rich history. ORDER NOW: Joni Mitchell is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut They'll release Kel Tinariwen – an early cassette tape recorded in the early 90s that never received a wider release...

Tinariwen are about to release a pair of catalogue projects that sheds new light on their rich history.

They’ll release Kel Tinariwen – an early cassette tape recorded in the early 90s that never received a wider release – alongside first-ever vinyl reissues of 2007s Aman Iman and 2009s Imidiwan: Companions.

Kel Tinariwen is coming on vinyl, CD and cassette while Aman Iman and Imidiwan: Companions reissues come on limited edition coloured vinyl and standard edition black vinyl.

They’re released on November 4 by Craft Recordings.

Aman Iman (Water Of Life) was Tinariwen’s third studio album, recorded in Mali’s capital, Bamako. It was produced by Justin Adams – Robert Plant’s guitarist and producer of Tinariwen’s debut album The Radio Tisdas Sessions. Meanwhile, Imidiwan: Companions was the band’s follow-up produced by Jean-Paul Romann, and recorded in Tessalit, the Malian desert village home of band members Ibrahim Ag Alhabib and Hassan Ag Touhami.

Tracklisting for the three albums is:
Kel Tinariwen
Side A
À L’Histoire
Kedou Kedou
Atahoura Techragh D’Azaka Nin
Matadjem Yinmexan

Side B
Awa Idjan War Infa Iman
Sendad Eghlalan
Tenidagh Hegh Djeredjere
Arghane Manine

Aman Iman
Side A
Cler Achel
Mano Dayak
Matadjem Yinmixan

Side B
Ahimana
Soixante Trois
Toumast

Side C
Imidiwan WinakaliN
Awa Didjen
Ikyadarh Dim

Side D
Tamatant Tilay
Assouf
Izarharh Tenere

Imidiwan: Companions
Side A
Imidiwan Afrik Tendam
Lulla
Tenhert
Enseqi Ehad Didagh
Tahult In
Tamodjerazt Assis
Intitlayaghen

Side B
Imazeghen N Adagh
Tenalle Chegret
Kel Tamashek
Assuf Ag Assuf
Chabiba
Ere Tasfata Adounia

Uncut’s Ultimate End Of The Road Festival 2022 Round-Up!

Michael Bonner
-
0
Uncut’s Ultimate End Of The Road Festival 2022 Round-Up!
So we’re just about back from Larmer Tree Gardens – and what a brilliant time we all had. If we thought last year was great, this year's End Of The Road was even better - with amazing performances from a huge array of brilliant artists to the packed-out crowds at the Uncut Q&As. Huge thanks t...

So we’re just about back from Larmer Tree Gardens – and what a brilliant time we all had. If we thought last year was great, this year’s End Of The Road was even better – with amazing performances from a huge array of brilliant artists to the packed-out crowds at the Uncut Q&As.

Huge thanks to Tom Pinnock, Sam Richards, Mark Beaumont and Laura Barton for representing us so strongly down in Larmer Tree Gardens.

And now, for your convenience, here’s a round up of all our EOTR 2022 blogs… Dive in!

We’re off to the End Of The Road Festival 2022!

Woodland wonders! Six End Of The Road Festival 2022 picks

Khruangbin, Sudan Archives: End Of The Road Festival 2022 – Day 1

Black Midi Q&A: End Of The Road Festival 2022 – Day 2

Naima Bock, James Yorkston, Black Midi: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 2

Tinariwen, Fleet Foxes, Beak: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 2

The Weather Station Q&A: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 3

The Magnetic Fields, Kevin Morby: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 3

Pixies, Margo Cilker, The Weather Station: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 3

Kurt Vile Q&A: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 4

10 Highlights From End Of The Road Festival 2022 – Day 4

Yard Act, Bright Eyes: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 4

Aldous Harding, Ryley Walker, Cassandra Jenkins: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 4

Aldous Harding, Ryley Walker, Cassandra Jenkins: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 4

Sam Richards
-
0
Aldous Harding, Ryley Walker, Cassandra Jenkins: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 4
It’s midday on Sunday at the bijou Piano Stage. For those feeling a little discombobulated and sleep-deprived, Cassandra Jenkins can empathise. She hasn’t been getting much sleep recently either. “But not for the reasons you think,” she explains. “I was asked to write an essay about my fav...

It’s midday on Sunday at the bijou Piano Stage. For those feeling a little discombobulated and sleep-deprived, Cassandra Jenkins can empathise. She hasn’t been getting much sleep recently either. “But not for the reasons you think,” she explains. “I was asked to write an essay about my favourite movie – turns out I have a lot to say about Wayne’s World…”

Her raconteurial gifts also inform her gorgeously slow-burning, consoling songs. Accompanied here just by a saxophonist and a giant dragonfly who keeps divebombing the audience to much amusement, it really feels like a special moment, particularly when Jenkins follows her own “Hard Drive” with a cover of the equally poignant Evan Dando song of the same name. Even more impressive is that when she reappears with a full band on the Garden Stage two hours later, she manages to retain the warm intimacy of the earlier stripped-down set.

Jake Xerxes Fussell is another performer who manages to make it feel like he’s playing in your living room, with his unshowy but mesmeric folk fingerpicking. “Have you ever seen peaches growing on a sweet potato vine?” he sings. No, but at this festival, we’re not ruling anything out – after all, we have just seen a parrot and peacock hanging out together on a tree behind the press cabin.

Jana Horn also plays solo, though not by choice: her guitarist was held up at the airport, necessitating an even more minimal set than usual. Visibly trembling with nerves, she admits that this is the biggest show she’s played since singing at a police officer’s funeral. On some songs she doesn’t even play chords, tapping out single notes to accompany her wan vocal melodies. It makes Jake Xerxes Fussell sound like Muse by comparison. But songs such as “Optimism”, sparse and simple as they are, have a strange, hypnotic allure.

No reticence from Ryley Walker. “Siiiick!” he yells, after successfully negotiating a particularly knotty prog-noise coda. “The surcharge on your ticket is for extra psychedelia!” As part of a virtuoso trio with Andrew Scott Young on bass and the astonishing Ryan Jewell on drums, Walker’s certainly got chops, adding a jaw-dropping free-jazz freakout to the middle of “The Halfwit In Me”. But for the most part his songs are more thoughtful and nuanced than his exaggerated party bro persona suggests. He’s also smart enough to know exactly which county he’s in, taking a very respectable crack at “Knuckle Down” by local heroes XTC.

It’s about as frenetic as Sunday gets. Ethio-jazz legend Hailu Mergia helms a hugely agreeable set of languid, organ-driven funk. Kurt Vile locks into a mellow mid-tempo groove with “Mount Airy Hill” and stays there for 75 minutes. As always, the moment when you start wondering if it might be getting a bit boring is swiftly followed by the realisation that you’d be perfectly happy for him to carry on choogling forever.

Aldous Harding is another less-is-more advocate. Her songs can feel light as air, but anchored by unsettling, cryptic allusions. She’s a captivating presence, even when she’s sitting stock-still holding an acoustic guitar; when she gets up and starts artfully bashing a cowbell for “Old Peel”, it’s like a piece of avant-garde ballet. But what does it all mean? Harding gives nothing away, which ultimately makes it difficult to really fall in love with what she’s doing. At this stage in proceedings, a more unequivocal emotional connection is required.

So the festival gets a fitting send-off down on The Boat stage, deep in the heart of the woods. Standing opposite each other like duelling warriors, saxophonist Waclaw Zimpel and modular synth shaman James Holden summon a throbbing, elemental jazz-techno maelstrom. “This is a tune we wrote yesterday,” declares Holden. But it could have been written 1000 years ago. At the end of the set, a man dressed as Catweazle raises a giant wooden staff to the sky, a salute to the ancient sonic gods. Our quest has indeed reached the end of the road; we have become one with the forest.

Catch up with the rest of Uncut’s End Of The Road 2022 coverage here:

Khruangbin, Sudan Archives: End Of The Road Festival 2022 – Day 1
Black Midi Q&A: End Of The Road Festival 2022 – Day 2
Naima Bock, James Yorkston, Black Midi: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 2
Tinariwen, Fleet Foxes, Beak: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 2
The Weather Station Q&A: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 3
The Magnetic Fields, Kevin Morby: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 3
Pixies, Margo Cilker, The Weather Station: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 3
Kurt Vile Q&A: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 4
Yard Act, Bright Eyes: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 4

Yard Act, Bright Eyes: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 4

Mark Beaumont
-
0
Yard Act, Bright Eyes: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 4
“We are all here together on this little blue marble spinning in space…” As is the way of many long, lost weekends, in the closing hours things get deeply philosophical. Particularly when intoxicants have been imbibed. Unsteady on his feet and noticeably slurring, as Bright Eyes’ Sunday head...

“We are all here together on this little blue marble spinning in space…” As is the way of many long, lost weekends, in the closing hours things get deeply philosophical. Particularly when intoxicants have been imbibed. Unsteady on his feet and noticeably slurring, as Bright Eyes’ Sunday headline set storms roughshod towards its climax, singer Conor Oberst stops writhing and gyrating like a melodramatic Thom Yorke and engages the crowd in a rambling discussion about the bonding nature of human pain and how “most people I know are pretty wonderful, how did the maniacs get in charge of everything?”

End Of The Road 2022, too, appears to be hurtling towards its end with unpredictable hands at the helm. Like Bright Eyes’ set, it’s clearly fraying at the edges. Mid-afternoon, New Orleans’ Hurray For The Riff Raff confront issues as serious as domestic sexual abuse on “SAGA” (“there is a life after the worst thing that’s ever happened to you,” singer Alynda Segarra says) and institutional racism on “PRECIOUS CARGO”, a semi-rap about the inhumanities Segarra witnessed while visiting a for-profit prison for asylum seekers. Yet, out in the field, a caped wizard goes into ritualistic paroxysms, driven to delirium by the band’s scorched Patti Smith folk-rock and chiming electronics that sound simultaneously ultra-modern and a little bit Enya.

Later, in the Big Top, Bristol’s Scalping concoct some of the most gruesome rave maelstroms of recent years, accompanied by unsettling visuals of crawling insect armies and deformed CGI faces. And here, delayed by a sudden electrical storm closing the tent, Yard Act will close out the festival with a brilliantly malformed display, singer James Smith toasting the crowd with a sick bucket and generally coming on like John Shuttleworth fronting PiL, or a spoken-word Babybird. His motormouth poetry detailing the effects of instant wealth (“Rich”) or weaving surreal capitalist metaphors (“The Trapper’s Pelts”) can shift from intimate recital to babbling yowl, as his band flicker between shoegaze grooves and ramshackle funk-punk. Let’s call it wails of the unexpected.

They’re in good company. Arriving to a psychedelic swarm of home-recorded voices, Bright Eyes throw themselves into a headline set which even they don’t seem sure will stay on the rails. This is largely due to the woozy state of Oberst, declaring “I’ll be John Dog if it’s nice to see you guys”, losing himself in elaborate dance moves that James’s Tim Booth might consider over the top, and attacking the graceful agonies of “Dance And Sing”, from the grief-stricken 2020 comeback album Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was, with such intensity that, for a whole verse, he doesn’t notice he’s shaken his microphone lead loose.

Though he’ll stumble over stage equipment, miss sections of the railroad country track “Another Travellin’ Song” and drift off into self-deprecating admissions of his lack of breakthrough success (“all the managers say ‘this one’s gonna be as big as Taylor Swift’, but it’s never happened”), it adds to the sense of unstable elemental chaos that powers his songs, as much unhinged forces of nature as Oberst is himself. Tornados of anguish, political disillusionment and brutal introspection, as soon as they kick in he’s naturally swept along by them, usually towards some howling emotional crescendo of brass, strings or sweeping alt-rock noise.

“Lover I Don’t Have To Love” is a dark soul hymnal that builds grand edifices of brass; “An Attempt To Tip The Scales” essentially the sound of an acoustic ballad exploding. Powerful melodic rock tracks from Down In The Weeds… such as “Mariana Trench” more than hold their own against cloudbusting I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning favourites like “Poison Oak” and Iraq War lament “Old Soul Song (For The New World Order)” and, by and large, Oberst holds it together with a slightly befuddled charm.

He admits to having wept through Hurray For The Riff Raff’s set before inviting Segarra to duet with him on the glam pound of “Haile Selassie” and finds a bar stool profundity in one last between-song ramble, about how “my pain is your pain, your pain is my pain, and we’re all here together on this marble.” It cues up a final “One For You, One For Me” – “the one song that actually means something to me” – condemning the selfishness that emerges from dislocated and unequal societies. Similarly, Bright Eyes themselves are a thing of barely controllable enormity tonight. All we can do is just dance on through.

Catch up with the rest of Uncut’s End Of The Road 2022 coverage here:

Khruangbin, Sudan Archives: End Of The Road Festival 2022 – Day 1
Black Midi Q&A: End Of The Road Festival 2022 – Day 2
Naima Bock, James Yorkston, Black Midi: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 2
Tinariwen, Fleet Foxes, Beak: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 2
The Weather Station Q&A: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 3
The Magnetic Fields, Kevin Morby: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 3
Pixies, Margo Cilker, The Weather Station: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 3
Kurt Vile Q&A: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 4
Aldous Harding, Ryley Walker, Cassandra Jenkins: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 4

Greg Dulli – Album By Album

Sharon O'Connell
-
0
Greg Dulli – Album By Album
In the latest issue of Uncut magazine - in UK shops now and available to buy from our online store, Sharon O'Connell talks to Greg Dulli about his amazing musical journey. Greg Dulli is the driving force of The Afghan Whigs, whose early debt to Hüsker Dü was displaced by a love of ’60s soul ...

In the latest issue of Uncut magazine – in UK shops now and available to buy from our online store, Sharon O’Connell talks to Greg Dulli about his amazing musical journey.

Greg Dulli is the driving force of The Afghan Whigs, whose early debt to Hüsker Dü was displaced by a love of ’60s soul and R&B that marked them out from the grunge pack. Having survived both a breakup and lengthy hiatus, as well as the death of guitarist Dave Rosser, the Whigs remain Dulli’s highest profile – and most successful – band, with nine albums to their credit (including How Do You Burn?, due in September), but it’s by no means his only project of substance. During their tussle with Elektra, Dulli formed The Twilight Singers, a changeable group of simpático players and friends.

They racked up five studio albums, none of which pulled their leader’s focus away from emotional turmoil and existential angst. There was a different working relationship, if no less intense songs, in play with Dulli/Lanegan vehicle The Gutter Twins, who released just one album, but Dulli busted out of type with his surprise solo debut, Random Desire, an adventurous set whose liberating effect seems to have been carried forward to the new Whigs record. Through all this, Dulli’s prime motivation for recording remains the same: “Will I have a good time? Is this fulfilling? Do I want to take these songs out and play them for other people? It’s really that simple”.

THE AFGHAN WHIGS
CONGREGATION
SUB POP, 1992

The Whigs’ third, its debt to ’60s soul, funk and R&B carving out a singular alt.rock profile

I would call it not only our breakthrough to a bigger public, but also a breakthrough for us as a group; I feel like that’s when we became The Afghan Whigs. That’s when we put it all together – all of the promise and all of the gigs and influences and I think my songwriting caught up to my ambitions. [We felt] a fearlessness to just do what we wanted – not be afraid to play slow songs, for example. We were sort of guided a little bit by the label on Up In It [Sub Pop, 1990] and I feel we broke through and just stated our independence within the structure of the label with this record.

I think Congregation was where I first started to experiment with cinematic structure – the person’s voice who opens Congregation is the person who gets sung about in the next album, Gentlemen. I think [the songs’ complexity] came from the interplay of the gigs we got to play, on a nightly basis. A lot of touring happened after Up In It; we were able to tour Europe and play England for the first time. You start to hone your best instincts and then you start to trust them. And that’s when you become special. I think the recording budget [$15,000] was looked at as extravagant. It certainly was extravagant compared to what we got before that! But I felt like we had earned our place and were worth the investment. And clearly, the investment paid off.

THE AFGHAN WHIGS
GENTLEMEN
ELEKTRA, 1993

Recorded in Memphis, the Whigs’ fourth tells of a toxic relationship via intense songs full of swagger, shame and self-loathing

We wrote it on the road – back-to-back records: Congregation ’92, Gentlemen ’93. That’s something that really doesn’t happen any more. We sort of went non-stop: there was an EP between Up In It and Congregation, so with “Uptown Avondale” we had five releases in a row – bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. It was a very prolific period for the group.

When I look back on Gentlemen I see someone trying to figure out relationships, and I think that’s why on side two I gave the big song [“My Curse”] to Marcy [Mays]. There’s no-one like her and we’ve been friends since the late ’80s. That was giving the subject a voice, which also allowed me to call in my own responsibility for the demise of the relationship. And I was able to look at the grey in between the two poles. “Ladies, let me tell you about myself/I got a dick for a brain” was the opening line of “Be Sweet”: clearly, I realised that would get bold faced, so to speak. So much so that I haven’t played that song since that tour. Which is not to say that I don’t think it’s a good song, because I do.

I think the album, Gentlemen, just got hard to sing for a little while. During the Twilight Singers run, I was able to not play those songs and then, when we reunited in 2012, I actually came to a sense of peace about it all. But I still didn’t sing “Be Sweet”. So for whatever reason, that song never got sung again. “I Keep Coming Back” is the flip side to “Turn Back The Hands Of Time”, by Tyrone Davis. I listened to it almost every night. It became like a ritual for me; I became really fixated on that song and the simple message that it was from one person to another.

I remember introducing it to the group at the last minute and we all swapped instruments, so everybody is playing a different instrument on that. It seemed like a good way to end it and then we turned it into a strange instrumental at the end, which gave it the cinematic closing.

PICK UP THE NEW UNCUT FOR THE FULL STORY

Spotted at End Of The Road Festival 2022!

Sam Richards
-
0
Spotted at End Of The Road Festival 2022!
It's been a weird, wonderful and occasionally wild weekend. Here's a selection of curious happenings and colourful characters that have made us smile while wandering the End Of The Road site... ** Best music nerd stage bantz? Ryley Walker, natch: “We’ve only been listening to late 80s ECM r...

It’s been a weird, wonderful and occasionally wild
weekend. Here’s a selection of curious happenings and colourful characters that have made us smile while wandering the End Of The Road site…

** Best music nerd stage bantz? Ryley Walker, natch: “We’ve only been listening to late 80s ECM records – I should technically have a bald ponytail by now”

** Hearty co-sign for Bristol Beer Factory’s Satisfaction ale. Who says you can’t get no? And served by a Deadhead who survived Bickershaw 1972…

** Kudos to the grey-bearded gent in a mirrorball helmet, kindly enhancing everyone’s disco experience in the Somerset Cider Bus tent (big tune: Soulwax’s “NY Excuse”)

** Best wig? It’s a close-run thing but surely taken by the guy in a mohawk made of green carpet

** Not just peacocks but… baby peacocks! And a parrot!

** A woman live-painting The Weather Station’s Tamara Lindeman during her Uncut Q&A. Please send us the finished picture…

** Lunchtime pop bingo for the under 10s. Surely they know “Come On Eileen”?

** Why are a crowd of people gathered in the woods chanting “Stick, stick, stick”? It’s the stick competition of course! Prizes for the longest, sturdiest… and stickiest

** Uncut’s very own Laura Barton and Michael Hann absolutely crushing it at Saturday night’s Silent Disco: “Sabotage“! “Back In Black“! “Cannonball“! Give these people a Fabric residency

** Overheard from a nearby tent: “It’s terrible – we’re having to drink instant coffee!”

** There really is a group of people roaming the festival site with rock wigs and video cameras, trying to recreate Wayne’s World. Cassandra Jenkins wants in

** Not enough disco or UK garage on the bill for your liking? Just head to the Two Tribes barbecue area, the brilliantly incongruous festival within a festival

Catch up with the rest of Uncut’s End Of The Road 2022 coverage here:

Khruangbin, Sudan Archives: End Of The Road Festival 2022 – Day 1
Black Midi Q&A: End Of The Road Festival 2022 – Day 2
Naima Bock, James Yorkston, Black Midi: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 2
Tinariwen, Fleet Foxes, Beak: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 2
The Weather Station Q&A: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 3
The Magnetic Fields, Kevin Morby: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 3
Pixies, Margo Cilker, The Weather Station: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 3
Kurt Vile Q&A: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 4
Yard Act, Bright Eyes: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 4
Aldous Harding, Ryley Walker, Cassandra Jenkins: End Of The Road 2022 – Day 4

1...767778...1,273Page 77 of 1,273

SHOP UNCUT