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The Low Anthem – Oh My God, Charlie Darwin

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The Low Anthem – Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
Ben Knox Miller and Jeff Prystowsky started making music together in 2003, when they were students at Rhode Island’s Brown College, and recorded their first album, which these days they are too embarrassed to mention by name, in 2006. The following year, still effectively a duo, they released What...

Ben Knox Miller and Jeff Prystowsky started making music together in 2003, when they were students at Rhode Island’s Brown College, and recorded their first album, which these days they are too embarrassed to mention by name, in 2006. The following year, still effectively a duo, they released What The Crow Brings, a showcase for Miller’s wordy and sometimes wonderful songs, touching examples for the most part of a bereft Americana – song titles like “The Ballad Of The Broken Bones”, “Bless Your Tombstone Heart” and “A Weary Horse Can Hide The Pain” are perhaps indicative of the album’s solemn drift.

What The Crow Brings was shaped by their immersion in America’s folk traditions, with occasional echoes of hillbilly gospel, rousing Appalachian devotionals like “Keep On The Sunny Side”, which is something you could imagine The Carter Family gathering on someone’s porch to sing, a homely crowd gathered around them, long-suffering and noble, giving voice to their own enduring presence in a climate of woe.

The music on What The Crow Brings was elsewhere more hushed, a series of slow dissolves, one song melting into another, with eventually not much variety in tempo or overall mood. It’s an event on the record when drums crash in, the occasional shards of electric guitar a welcome alternative to Miller’s largely murmured vocals and the sparse acoustic arrangements, intricate and lovely in almost every instance, but somewhat spun-out over the album’s 11 tracks.

Following the release of What The Crow Brings – which was widely appreciated by the people who heard it – Miller and Prystowksy, evidently keen to add to The Low Anthem’s musical palette, enlisted classically trained fellow Brown student Jocie Adams on a variety of additional instruments and, more recently, drummer Cyrus Scofield. The broadening of the band’s sound via their recruitment and the more ambitious subsequent tack of Miller’s songwriting contribute tremendously to the success of the album I’m writing about now, which was recorded over 10 chilly days early last year in a holiday cabin in out-season beach resort Block Island, near their Providence, Rhode Island base.

Oh My God, Charlie Darwin was originally released independently by the band last September, in a limited edition. They have since been signed in America to the estimable Nonesuch label – home, among others, to Wilco, Ry Cooder and Randy Newman. The LP, with an updated track sequence and remixed by Bob Ludwig, is out here this month on Bella Union, who clearly hope to repeat the success they deservedly enjoyed with Fleet Foxes, with whom The Low Anthem have several times been compared.

When you hear “Charlie Darwin”, this album’s opening track, it will be clear to you that the comparison is not without merit. Miller’s vocal delivery on What The Crow Brings was, as already noted, conversational, undemonstrative, as quietly reserved as vintage James Taylor, homespun.

He has a new voice here – two, in fact – and the first of them, a falsetto as sublime as Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon or Death Vessel’s Joel Thibodeau, brings a hymnal purity to “Charlie Darwin”, his voice, buoyed by softly lapping supporting harmonies, as pure as sunlight on glass, a thing of transparent beauty. Fans of Fleet Foxes are invited to swoon appropriately.

You expect that like Fleet Foxes’ “Red Squirrel – Sun Rises” that “Charlie Darwin” will define what follows, an overture, if that’s what you want to call it, to more of the luscious same. This holds true, perhaps, for the following “To Ohio”, a gorgeous ballad of bereavement, reminiscent of something suitably yearning by Paul Simon. But on the next couple of tracks, Miller’s second ‘new’ voice – a throaty roar that may for some recall the yee-haw Springsteen of The Seeger Sessions – is on full throttle on barn-burning rockers “The Horizon Is A Beltway” and a hollering cover of “Home I’ll Never Be”, a Jack Kerouac lyric set to music by Tom Waits, that shakes the walls with an unfettered ferocity predicted by nothing they have done. “Champion Angel”, later on the record, similarly has the raucous stomp of something like “Penn Station” or “Run Chicken Run” from The Felice Brothers’ recent Yonder Is The Clock.

In not entirely illuminating interviews about the new album, Miller has explained, not very clearly, that the songs here were inspired by his self-confessed ‘obsession’ with Darwin’s theory of evolution, particularly, it becomes clear, the notion of natural selection, the idea that only the strong survive, the weak, the infirm or otherwise incapable or defenceless pretty much condemned, left to hang in a turning wind. The album in

many respects grieves for these unfortunates, which, let it be said, includes most of us, the sorry majority of the world, not just the prematurely dead lover of “To Ohio”.

Just as the music has opened up since What The Crow Brings, so Miller’s songs have relinquished introversion for universality. “(Don’t) Tremble” is on the one hand an intimate pledge of loyalty to someone close and held in dear affection, but is also a hymn of reassurance to a wider audience, all of us in the same boat – literally so in the case of “Charlie Darwin”, which imagines a drowning world, returned to water, a few sodden souls cast adrift on a sea of sorrow. “Oh my God,” Miller sings in that exquisite falsetto, “life is cold and formless…” It’s a cheerless thought, shorn of hope, that what things have come to is this desolate chill.

The Low Anthem appropriately draw on the vast tradition of apocalyptic folk for “The Horizon Is A Beltway”, with its visions of skylines on fire and expiring flesh, and a sense of imminent catastrophe is in most instances prevalent here. “God Cage The Songbird”, for instance, sounds like something that might be sung by mournful voices, a grieving community gathered on a hillside, rain-swept, beneath glowering skies, the end a-coming.

“Ticket Taker”, arguably the album’s finest moment, is likewise a love song set against a backdrop of doom, “the sky about to fall”, the flood that precedes the plight described in “Charlie Darwin” on its torrential way, on a track that has the morbid cadence of something by Leonard Cohen, who along with Dylan and Neil Young, is a principal influence on The Low Anthem’s songwriting. The tickets being collected by the song’s titular narrator are, in fact, for a modern ark, salvation from the coming deluge available for the privileged rich, everyone else abandoned. The song plays out, finally, like a cross between “Powderfinger” and “Revolution Blues”, two key Neil Young songs. “Many years have passed in this river town, I’ve sailed through many traps,” Miller sings, “I keep a stock of weapons should society collapse…”

The album closes with a reprise of “To Ohio” – possibly superfluous given the perfection of the earlier version, but the only marginal misjudgement on an otherwise largely faultless album.

ALLAN JONES

For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

Lemonheads – Varshons

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Lemonheads – Varshons

The covers album is traditionally either or both an indicator of complete creative stasis, or of the onset of monumental hubris. It’s why any credible list of the very worst records ever made must include several such artefacts: Annie Lennox’s Medusa, The Beautiful South’s Golddiggas, Tori Amos’s Strange Little Girls and, of course, Duran Duran’s Thank You, eternally and vexingly memorable for a reading of Public Enemy’s “911 Is A Joke” as belief-beggaring as it was description-defying. Where the Lemonheads are concerned, however, there is greater basis for optimism than usual in this realm of endeavour. Though the project was allegedly inspired by the mixtapes that Gibby Haynes of Butthole Surfers has been making for Dando for some years, a knack for the well-chosen and deftly executed cover version has been a defining motif of the Lemonheads’ entertaining, if erratic, career: the witty, punky rebore of Suzanne Vega’s “Luka” on 1989’s Lick, the glorious, exuberant tear-up of Mike Nesmith’s “Different Drum” on 1990’s Favourite Spanish Dishes, the lovely, careworn sigh of the “Hair!” excerpt “Frank Mills” that rounded off 1992’s classic It’s A Shame About Ray – at least until another cover, a somewhat ungainly bull-at-a-gate charge at Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs Robinson”, was tacked onto later pressings. The Lemonheads were great at cover versions because they – unlike a wearisome quantity of their indie rock fellows – genuinely respected and admired the source materials, rather than using the original songs as props for their own “subversive” cleverness. That mixture of empathy and adventure is at large throughout Varshons, recorded by a Lemonheads lineup of Dando, bass player Vess Ruhtenburg and drummer Devon Ashley, joined on lead guitar by John Perry, on loan from The Only Ones. It is, by definition, a mixed bag, but the miscues are at least audacious and interesting, and when the Lemonheads get it right, they’re interpreters without many peers. Dando eases himself in gently, starting off with Gram Parsons’ “I Just Can’t Take It Anymore”. This is familiar material for Dando, Parsons a career-long touchstone. Dando covered Parsons’ “Brass Buttons” on the Lemonheads’ 1990 album, Lovey, and duetted with Juliana Hatfield on “$1,000 Wedding” on the 1999 Parsons tribute, Return Of The Grievous Angel. During Dando’s wilderness years in the mid-to-late-’90s, he also looked a decent bet to follow his idol into a wretchedly early grave. Dando’s graceful delivery of this melancholy shuffle, echoing Parsons’ deceptively diffident, conversational vocal, is just one more reason to be glad that Dando chose to retreat from the abyss into which Parsons stepped. When Lemonheads covers have worked in the past, they’ve worked best when Dando has made the least effort to meet the material on its terms – when, that is, he has simply performed them as if they’d been Lemonheads songs all along. The rule holds true throughout Varshons. GG Allin’s brutally nihilist murder ballad “Layin’ Up With Linda” now sounds like an outtake from It’s A Shame About Ray – save, perhaps, for a pure “Another Girl, Another Planet” solo from Perry. Wire’s “Fragile” shapes up startlingly beautifully as a typical Dando acoustic country-pop trundle. The choices from the catalogues of his fellow consumptive troubadours – Townes Van Zandt’s “Waiting Around To Die” and Leonard Cohen’s “Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye”, the latter abetted by Liv Tyler on backing vocals – are masterly negotiations of the fine line between modesty and confidence. It’s when the Lemonheads reach beyond their natural palette that unpretty results occur. The version of Arling & Cameron’s “Dirty Robot” is a dreary electro-glam trudge, redeemed not one whit by the character-free vocal stylings of Kate Moss. July’s obscure ’60s psychedelic nugget “Dandelion Seeds” is reduced to sounding eerily and unpleasantly like a Lenny Kravitz demo. And not even Dando’s ever-more-endearingly weatherbeaten vocal can rescue Linda Perry’s emetic “Beautiful” from the talons of Christina Aguilera. At best, Varshons is a joy forever. Even at worst, it’s a forgiveable, even likeable, labour of love. ANDREW MUELLER For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

The covers album is traditionally either or both an indicator of complete creative stasis, or of the onset of monumental hubris. It’s why any credible list of the very worst records ever made must include several such artefacts: Annie Lennox’s Medusa, The Beautiful South’s Golddiggas, Tori Amos’s Strange Little Girls and, of course, Duran Duran’s Thank You, eternally and vexingly memorable for a reading of Public Enemy’s “911 Is A Joke” as belief-beggaring as it was description-defying.

Where the Lemonheads are concerned, however, there is greater basis for optimism than usual in this realm of endeavour. Though the project was allegedly inspired by the mixtapes that Gibby Haynes of Butthole Surfers has been making for Dando for some years, a knack for the well-chosen and deftly executed cover version has been a defining motif of the Lemonheads’ entertaining, if erratic, career: the witty, punky rebore of Suzanne Vega’s “Luka” on 1989’s Lick, the glorious, exuberant tear-up of Mike Nesmith’s “Different Drum” on 1990’s Favourite Spanish Dishes, the lovely, careworn sigh of the “Hair!” excerpt “Frank Mills” that rounded off 1992’s classic It’s A Shame About Ray – at least until another cover, a somewhat ungainly bull-at-a-gate charge at Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs Robinson”, was tacked onto later pressings.

The Lemonheads were great at cover versions because they – unlike a wearisome quantity of their indie rock fellows – genuinely respected and admired the source materials, rather than using the original songs as props for their own “subversive” cleverness. That mixture of empathy and adventure is at large throughout Varshons, recorded by a Lemonheads lineup of Dando, bass player Vess Ruhtenburg and drummer Devon Ashley, joined on lead guitar by John Perry, on loan from The Only Ones. It is, by definition, a mixed bag, but the miscues are at least audacious and interesting, and when the Lemonheads get it right, they’re interpreters without many peers.

Dando eases himself in gently, starting off with Gram Parsons’ “I Just Can’t Take It Anymore”. This is familiar material for Dando, Parsons a career-long touchstone. Dando covered Parsons’ “Brass Buttons” on the Lemonheads’ 1990 album, Lovey, and duetted with Juliana Hatfield on “$1,000 Wedding” on the 1999 Parsons tribute, Return Of The Grievous Angel. During Dando’s wilderness years in the mid-to-late-’90s, he also looked a decent bet to follow his idol into a wretchedly early grave.

Dando’s graceful delivery of this melancholy shuffle, echoing Parsons’ deceptively diffident, conversational vocal, is just one more reason to be glad that Dando chose to retreat from the abyss into which Parsons stepped. When Lemonheads covers have worked in the past, they’ve worked best when Dando has made the least effort to meet the material on its terms – when, that is, he has simply performed them as if they’d been Lemonheads songs all along.

The rule holds true throughout Varshons. GG Allin’s brutally nihilist murder ballad “Layin’ Up With Linda” now sounds like an outtake from It’s A Shame About Ray – save, perhaps, for a pure “Another Girl, Another Planet” solo from Perry. Wire’s “Fragile” shapes up startlingly beautifully as a typical Dando acoustic country-pop trundle. The choices from the catalogues of his fellow consumptive troubadours – Townes Van Zandt’s “Waiting Around To Die” and Leonard Cohen’s “Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye”, the latter abetted by Liv Tyler on backing vocals – are masterly negotiations of the fine line between modesty and confidence.

It’s when the Lemonheads reach beyond their natural palette that unpretty results occur. The version of Arling & Cameron’s “Dirty Robot” is a dreary electro-glam trudge, redeemed not one whit by the character-free vocal stylings of Kate Moss. July’s obscure ’60s psychedelic nugget “Dandelion Seeds” is reduced to sounding eerily and unpleasantly like a Lenny Kravitz demo. And not even Dando’s ever-more-endearingly weatherbeaten vocal can rescue Linda Perry’s emetic “Beautiful” from the talons of Christina Aguilera.

At best, Varshons is a joy forever. Even at worst, it’s a forgiveable, even likeable, labour of love.

ANDREW MUELLER

For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

Bert Jansch – LA Turnaround

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Bert Jansch – LA Turnaround

When Charisma owner Tony Stratton-Smith hired former Monkee Michael Nesmith to produce Jansch’s 1974 debut for the label, the idea seems to have been to make a record that could bring the folk icon to a wider audience. As it happened, the stunning LA Turnaround became one of Bert Jansch’s least-heard albums. Otherwise, though, mission accomplished: Nesmith brought Red Rhodes, pedal steel genius of his own First National Band, and the greater part of the record is simply Rhodes’ sublimely intuitive playing intertwining with Jansch’s. Throughout, Bert’s deep-rooted British balladry meets Nesmith’s experiments in avant-country, and on songs like the sparkling, hypnotic “Fresh As A Sweet Sunday Morning”, it’s difficult to imagine how anyone could fail to love it. Jansch’s other Charisma albums, (’75’s Santa Barbara Honeymoon and ’77’s A Rare Conundrum) are also making overdue CD appearances. DAMIEN LOVE For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

When Charisma owner Tony Stratton-Smith hired former Monkee Michael Nesmith to produce Jansch’s 1974 debut for the label, the idea seems to have been to make a record that could bring the folk icon to a wider audience.

As it happened, the stunning LA Turnaround became one of Bert Jansch’s least-heard albums. Otherwise, though, mission accomplished: Nesmith brought Red Rhodes, pedal steel genius of his own First National Band, and the greater part of the record is simply Rhodes’ sublimely intuitive playing intertwining with Jansch’s.

Throughout, Bert’s deep-rooted British balladry meets Nesmith’s experiments in avant-country, and on songs like the sparkling, hypnotic “Fresh As A Sweet Sunday Morning”, it’s difficult to imagine how anyone could fail to love it. Jansch’s other Charisma albums, (’75’s Santa Barbara Honeymoon and ’77’s A Rare Conundrum) are also making overdue CD appearances.

DAMIEN LOVE

For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

Ray Davies – The Kinks Choral Collection

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Ray Davies – The Kinks Choral Collection

The leader of The Kinks first collaborated with the Crouch End Festival Chorus for the BBC Electric Proms. No doubt a good time was had by all. Committing the results to disc is more problematic. True, The Kinks’ hits have melodies that are (almost) indestructible, but Davies’ lyrical miniatures are quite unsuited to the rock opera treatment. “Celluloid Heroes” is bearable, but by making “Days” sound like a dreary hymn and adding a funereal backing to “You Really Got Me”, the singer is guilty of self-abuse, if not sacrilege. ALASTAIR McKAY For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

The leader of The Kinks first collaborated with the Crouch End Festival Chorus for the BBC Electric Proms. No doubt a good time was had by all. Committing the results to disc is more problematic.

True, The Kinks’ hits have melodies that are (almost) indestructible, but Davies’ lyrical miniatures are quite unsuited to the rock opera treatment.

“Celluloid Heroes” is bearable, but by making “Days” sound like a dreary hymn and adding a funereal backing to “You Really Got Me”, the singer is guilty of self-abuse, if not sacrilege.

ALASTAIR McKAY

For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

Arctic Monkeys Name Third Album

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Arctic Monkeys Name Third Album
Arctic Monkeys have finally confirmed that the name of their forthcoming third album will be 'Humbug'. The album, set for release on August 24 has been co-produced by Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme and James Ford and features ten tracks. The band will headline the Reading And Leeds Festivals...

Arctic Monkeys have finally confirmed that the name of their forthcoming third album will be ‘Humbug‘.

The album, set for release on August 24 has been co-produced by Queens of the Stone Age‘s Josh Homme and James Ford and features ten tracks.

The band will headline the Reading And Leeds Festivals (Reading on August 29, Leeds on August 28) the week after its release.

As previously announced, Arctic Monkey’s ‘Humbug’ track listing will be:

‘My Propeller’

‘Crying Lightning’

‘Dangerous Animals’

‘Secret Door’

‘Potion Approaching’

‘Fire And The Thud’

‘Cornerstone’

‘Dance Little Liar’

‘Pretty Visitors’

‘The Jeweller’s Hands’

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The Specials Announce New UK Tour!

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The Specials Announce New UK Tour!
The Specials are to play another UK tour, starting in November, to round off their 30th anniversary reunion year. The Specials, reformed without founder member Jerry Dammers recently completed an acclaimed UK tour, including a five-night stint at London's Brixton Academy and are set to play festiva...

The Specials are to play another UK tour, starting in November, to round off their 30th anniversary reunion year.

The Specials, reformed without founder member Jerry Dammers recently completed an acclaimed UK tour, including a five-night stint at London’s Brixton Academy and are set to play festivals including Glastonbury this Summer.

They will now play a further thirteen live shows this Winter, with tickets going on sale at 9am on Friday June 12.

They will play the following venues:

Cardiff Arena (November 1)

Bridlington Spa (2)

Blackpool Empress Ballroom (4)

Plymouth Pavilion (5)

Margate Winter Gardens (7)

Wolverhampton Civic (9)

Edinburgh Corn Exchange (12)

Southend Cliffs Pavilion (18)

Brighton Centre (19)

Nottingham Rock City (21, 22)

London Hammersmith Apollo (24, 25)

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Radiohead’s Thom Yorke To Play Solo Set At Latitude!

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Radiohead’s Thom Yorke To Play Solo Set At Latitude!
Thom Yorke as been announced as a very special guest for next month's Latitude Festival. Taking to the Obelisk Arena stage at midday on Sunday July 19, the Radiohead singer will perform solo, in the same slot that Joanna Newsom performed a hugely acclaimed show at last year's event. Commenting on ...

Thom Yorke as been announced as a very special guest for next month’s Latitude Festival.

Taking to the Obelisk Arena stage at midday on Sunday July 19, the Radiohead singer will perform solo, in the same slot that Joanna Newsom performed a hugely acclaimed show at last year’s event.

Commenting on the latest festival exclusive Managing Director of Festival Republic Melvin Benn says: “There is nothing I can add that Thom Yorke’s confirmation doesn’t already say. That it is a special one off performance for Latitude only fills me with enormous pride at the statement it makes about the festival. I am overjoyed at the thought of it.”

Latitude, Britain’s premier music and arts festival, starts in the middle of next month, running from July 16 to 19 in the grounds of Henham Park near Southwold, Suffolk.

Tickets are still available for £150 for the weekend, from nme.com/gigs

For a chance to win a pair of tickets, click here.

Keep an eye on www.uncut.co.uk and the official website – www.latitudefestival.co.uk – for all the latest updates.

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Rolling Stones’ Jagger Backs Cinema Campaign

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Rolling Stones’ Jagger Backs Cinema Campaign
The Rolling Stones's Mick Jagger is the latest celebrity to back a campaign to save an East London cinema. Jagger joins Tony Robinson and Meera Syal in backing a campaign to re-open the now named EMD cinema which was formerly the Granada Theatre venue in the '60s, before becoming an ABC cinema. Ja...

The Rolling Stones‘s Mick Jagger is the latest celebrity to back a campaign to save an East London cinema.

Jagger joins Tony Robinson and Meera Syal in backing a campaign to re-open the now named EMD cinema which was formerly the Granada Theatre venue in the ’60s, before becoming an ABC cinema.

Jagger performed at the Grade II listed venue with the Stones in 1964, whilst other major artists like The Beatles also played there.

The venue/ cinema is currently abandoned after being bought by the ‘Universal Church of the Kingdom of God’ in 2003 and negotiations with the council over planning permission have failed.

Jagger, joing the the Walthamstow ‘Save Our Cinema’ campaign, spoke to the BBC, saying: “Cinemas and live venues like the Granada where the Stones played in the early days, learning our craft on the way, are the lifeblood of our cultural history.

“They helped launched British popular music on to a world stage and should continue to function as places of entertainment and enjoyment.

“It’s heartbreaking to hear about such a beautiful, important historical building and centre of entertainment being lost to the local community. I fully support the campaign to keep it open and provide film, music and the arts for generations to come.”

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Ken Loach: Looking For Eric

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Ken Loach: Looking For Eric
LOOKING FOR ERIC Directed by Ken Loach Starring Steve Evets, Eric Cantona, John Henshaw *** Loach is rarely averse to eulogies of working-class heroes and the power of solidarity. He is less well known for adopting fanciful comic surrealism. Oddly, in combining the two, he’s made one of his mo...

LOOKING FOR ERIC

Directed by Ken Loach

Starring Steve Evets, Eric Cantona, John Henshaw

***

Loach is rarely averse to eulogies of working-class heroes and the power of solidarity. He is less well known for adopting fanciful comic surrealism. Oddly, in combining the two, he’s made one of his most entertaining, uplifting films.

Eric Bishop (Evets) is a middle-aged postman whose life has lost its lustre. His wife has gone, dumping his out-of-control stepsons on him. He’s having panic attacks. The United fanatic’s only comforts are the camaraderie of his colleagues and cannabis. It may have something to do with the latter, but one day his idol – French soccer star turned cod-philosopher Eric Cantona – appears in his room. Cantona dispenses gnomic advice, and our Eric reclaims his spirit. He strives to woo his true love and to free his stepsons from a cycle of violence.

It’s not plain sailing – Loach wouldn’t abide that – but it’s mighty close to “heart-warming”. The use of Cantona – like Bogart in Woody Allen’s Play It Again, Sam – is a likeable device, while Evets’ nervy energy is brilliant. A risky shot, but a winner.

CHRIS ROBERTS

Red Cliff

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Red Cliff
RED CLIFF DIRECTED BY John Woo STARRING Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Chiling Lin In 208 AD, the battle of Red Cliff on China's Yangtse River pitted the forces of imperial pretender Cao Cao against an alliance of China's western and southern kingdoms. The battle changed Chinese his...

RED CLIFF

DIRECTED BY John Woo

STARRING Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Chiling Lin

In 208 AD, the battle of Red Cliff on China’s Yangtse River pitted the forces of imperial pretender Cao Cao against an alliance of China’s western and southern kingdoms. The battle changed Chinese history and has since became part of national folklore. John Woo has wanted to film the story for over 20 years, but production only commenced in 2004 when he felt technology had reached a point where it could replicate his vision. And while he’s created a spectacle that’s both thrilling and vast, the director never loses grip on the narrative.

The set-piece clashes on land and water are immense but teem with fine detail, not least a stupendous sequence where Cao Cao’s forces are routed by his opponents’ elaborate “tortoise” manoeuvre. Amidst the panoramic action Woo develops a strong cast of characters, particularly the shrewd and scholarly Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and philosophical military commander Zhou Yu (Tony Leung). Their partnership allows the defenders to compensate for their smaller forces by countering Cao Cao’s brawn with lateral-thinking brainpower. Woo has created a resounding epic, blending a distinctly Chinese ethos with a Hollywood sense of scale.

ADAM SWEETING

10 Hits: Neil Young, The Beatles, Eels, Kasabian

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10 Hits: Neil Young, The Beatles, Eels, Kasabian
This week's (ending June 5, 2009) Top 10 most read stories, blogs and reviews have been the following. Click on the subjects below to check out www.uncut.co.uk's most popular pages from the past 7 days: 1. ALBUM REVIEW: NEIL YOUNG - ARCHIVES VOL 1 - Straight in at No 1, the Uncut review of the l...

This week’s (ending June 5, 2009) Top 10 most read stories, blogs and reviews have been the following.

Click on the subjects below to check out www.uncut.co.uk‘s most popular pages from the past 7 days:

1. ALBUM REVIEW: NEIL YOUNG – ARCHIVES VOL 1

– Straight in at No 1, the Uncut review of the long – long – long- awaited first volume of Neil Young’s Archives project. See what we think here and let us know what YOU think…

2. NEWS: THE BEATLES ROCK BAND – WATCH NEW GAME TRAILER HERE! – Following on from the launch, by Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, this week, of The Beatles‘ first ever licensed video game; The Beatles – Rock Band’ – the trailer is now available to watch online.

3. UNCUT ALBUM REVIEW: EELS – HOMBRE LOBO – “An excellent seventh. No appreciable spike in the chuckle count”

4. NEWS: UNRELEASED BIG STAR SONGS ON NEW FOUR DISC BOX SET – Get an MP3 one of the many soon-to-be-released rarities “Lovely Day” FREE here now!

5. ALBUM REVIEW: MANIC STREET PREACHERS – JOURNAL FOR PLAGUE LOVERS – The Welsh trio return with an album made with former member Richey’s lost lyrics set to music. It shouldn’t work, but somehow does – read the Uncut review here.

6. BLOG: The 21st Uncut Playlist Of 2009 – Check out the daily Wild Mercury Sound.

7. NEWS: RICHARD THOMPSON FOUR DISC COLLECTION TO BE RELEASED – A four-disc collection, spanning forty years of Richard Thompson’s work is to be released on August 10 – see the full track listing here.

8. NEWS: THE SPECIALS TO PLAY TINY GLASTO WARM UP GIG – Tickets are free to competition winners…

9. FILM REVIEW: DRAG ME TO HELL – Sam Raimi (Evil Dead) is back in bloody business – read the Uncut review here

10. KASABIAN TAKE UNEXPECTED STANCE ON MPS’ EXPENSES SCANDAL – Serge Pizzorno claims he’s “definitely warming” to Douglas Hogg and his moat

For more music and film news click here

Come back next Friday for another news and reviews digest. Have a great weekend.

Pic credit: PA Photos

Mott The Hoople’s Ian Hunter To Answer Your Questions!

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Mott The Hoople’s Ian Hunter To Answer Your Questions!
Mott The Hoople singer Ian Hunter is in the Uncut 'Audience With' feature hot seat very soon, and we want love to hear your questions to put to him. Ian Hunter, where do we start? From Mott The Hoople, through a stellar solo career, he’s gone from the Crown Prince of Glam to work with everyone fr...

Mott The Hoople singer Ian Hunter is in the Uncut ‘Audience With’ feature hot seat very soon, and we want love to hear your questions to put to him.

Ian Hunter, where do we start? From Mott The Hoople, through a stellar solo career, he’s gone from the Crown Prince of Glam to work with everyone from the E Street Band to John Cale and Mick Jones.

So, what might there be you’d like to ask him?

Did he really nearly join Led Zeppelin..?

What’s his favourite memory of David Bowie..?

He’s also worked as a journalist, road digger and fruit and veg salesman. Which was his favourite?

Send your questions, along with your name and location, by Wednesday, June 10 to uncutaudiencewith@ipcmedia.com

The best questions, and of course, Ian Hunter’s answers will be published in a future edition of Uncut .

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Earliest Tim Buckley Live Recording To Be Released

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Earliest Tim Buckley Live Recording To Be Released

Six Tim Buckley songs, which have never been released on any of his studio or live albums, are part of a new 16-track live recording which is being published on August 25. The tracks, recorded 'Live At The Folklore Center, NYC - March 6,1967' are called "Just Please Leave Me", "What Do You Do (He Never Saw You)", "Cripples Cry", "If The Rain Comes", "Country Boy" and "I Can’t Leave You Loving Me". Tim Buckley's solo acoustic performance at the Folklore Center will be the earliest live recording of the singer/songwriter released, and was an intimate venue for up-and-coming folk singers. The album will be accompanied by a previously unpublished interview with Buckley by the owner of the Folklore Center Izzy Young, which took place over March 17 and 18, 1967. The full track listing for 'Tim Buckley - Live At The Folklore Center, NYC - March 6,1967 is: 1. Song For Jainie 2. I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain 3. Wings 4. Phantasmagoria In Two 5. Just Please Leave Me * 6. Dolphins 7. I Can’t See You 8. Troubadour 9. Aren’t You The Girl 10. What Do You Do (He Never Saw You) * 11. No Man Can Find The War 12. Carnival Song 13. Cripples Cry * 14. If The Rain Comes * 15. Country Boy * 16. I Can’t Leave You Loving Me * For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive For more music and film news click here You can also now follow Uncut on Twitter! For news alerts, to find out what we're playing on the stereo and more, join us here @uncutmagazine

Six Tim Buckley songs, which have never been released on any of his studio or live albums, are part of a new 16-track live recording which is being published on August 25.

The tracks, recorded ‘Live At The Folklore Center, NYC – March 6,1967‘ are called “Just Please Leave Me”, “What Do You Do (He Never Saw You)”, “Cripples Cry”, “If The Rain Comes”, “Country Boy” and “I Can’t Leave You Loving Me”.

Tim Buckley’s solo acoustic performance at the Folklore Center will be the earliest live recording of the singer/songwriter released, and was an intimate venue for up-and-coming folk singers.

The album will be accompanied by a previously unpublished interview with Buckley by the owner of the Folklore Center Izzy Young, which took place over March 17 and 18, 1967.

The full track listing for ‘Tim Buckley – Live At The Folklore Center, NYC – March 6,1967 is:

1. Song For Jainie

2. I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain

3. Wings

4. Phantasmagoria In Two

5. Just Please Leave Me *

6. Dolphins

7. I Can’t See You

8. Troubadour

9. Aren’t You The Girl

10. What Do You Do (He Never Saw You) *

11. No Man Can Find The War

12. Carnival Song

13. Cripples Cry *

14. If The Rain Comes *

15. Country Boy *

16. I Can’t Leave You Loving Me *

For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

For more music and film news click here

You can also now follow Uncut on Twitter! For news alerts, to find out what we’re playing on the stereo and more, join us here @uncutmagazine

David Carradine Taught Bob Dylan Kung Fu

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David Carradine Taught Bob Dylan Kung Fu
David Carradine (1936 - 2009), an old-school Uncut hero was found dead on Thursday (June 5), the causes of death still being investigated. In tribute to the star of Kung Fu, The Long Riders, Boxcar Bertha and Kill Bill, here are some extracts from a 2003 interview by Damien Love, who met the acto...

David Carradine (1936 – 2009), an old-school Uncut hero was found dead on Thursday (June 5), the causes of death still being investigated.

In tribute to the star of Kung Fu, The Long Riders, Boxcar Bertha and Kill Bill, here are some extracts from a 2003 interview by Damien Love, who met the actor prior to his appearance in Kill Bill Vol 2.

Highlights of the conversation include a yarn about teaching Bob Dylan some kung-fu moves…

“UNCUT: Is it true that you introduced Bob Dylan to kung-fu?”

“CARRADINE: Well, Bob took some lessons. He didn’t really stick with it, but we had some fun together. My master used to come out to my house and teach me every morning, and I thought Bob could profit from it, so we went over to his place, and he and his kids took a few classes with us. It was pretty cool. Bob was funny, y’know – anybody who’s just beginning with kung-fu tends to be kinda funny, anyway, but he didn’t stick with it. But Bob’s an amateur boxer. He knows how to take care of himself. I know he seems like just a little wimpy guy. As a matter of fact, he used to spar with Quentin [Tarantino]. Yeah, Quentin is an amateur boxer himself… You okay?”

“I was just trying to picture Quentin Tarantino boxing Bob Dylan”

“CARRADINE: Yeah, it’s a funny image. Aside from the fact that Bob is about five foot eight, something like that, and Quentin is about six-five. But yeah, Dylan showed aptitude for the kung-fu. He was kind of a natural, actually. But, I don’t think it interested him enough. Bob had other fish to fry, other things to do.”

For the full story, click here for Uncut’s film blog

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Wild Beasts: “Two Dancers”

John Mulvey
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I suspect I may have written more about Wild Beasts than any other British band in the two or so years Wild Mercury Sound has been running, doubtless to the bafflement and irritation of a good few regular readers. Wild Beasts, as has been noted by everyone who’s ever written about them, are something of an acquired taste, due chiefly to the untethered falsetto of Hayden Thorpe, who occasionally makes Billy Mackenzie sound like Isaac Hayes, relatively speaking. Once you’re hooked, though, it’s clear Wild Beasts are on quite a run. A year and a bit after their debut, “Limbo, Panto”, “Two Dancers” is just as good. That Associates reference is more apposite than ever, too. While “Limbo” often recalled Orange Juice and The Smiths, “Two Dancers” is lush and elegaic, a slightly more luxurious ride, even though Wild Beasts haven’t materially reconfigured their sound in any obvious way. What they’ve done, it seems, is reined in some of their eccentricities while retaining all their character. Songs don’t clip-clop along in an arch music hall way any more; rather, they stretch out gracefully and romantically, so that the likes of “This Is Our Lot” can be seen as a development on the outstanding “Woebegone Wanderers” from the debut album. Thorpe, too, gargles a little less than previously, though his yodels are still every bit as gymnastic. On the opening “The Fun Powder Plot” (an uncharacteristic tilt into naffness, if only in the title), he glides in over a sort of glassy, opulent groove that reminds me a little of an understated update of the late Roxy Music sound; less abrasive, but still wilfully disruptive. On the brief, mildly sinister cabaret song, “Underbelly”, he faintly resembles Antony Hegarty. “When I’m Sleepy” meanwhile, is gauzy and supple, somehow recalling the Cocteau Twins. But it’s “We Still Got The Taste Dancing On Our Tongues” that stands out as the best example of how the Wild Beasts sound has evolved. The demure, sophisticated funk of Roxy is there again, along with ebbing and ringing guitar riffs that remind me a little of The Edge, oddly. In spite of Thorpe’s vocals, it works in a linear, pulsing, insistent fashion, its quirks embedded rather than overt, and with a gorgeous air of romance, of gently remembered ecstasies. This mood pervades the whole album, even on the songs sung by Wild Beasts’ other, stauncher vocalist, bassist Tom Fleming. Fleming takes the lead on four out of ten songs this time, including the album’s most immediate song, “All The King’s Men”, a swaggering aesthetes’ anthem with a glam beat over which Little summons “Girls from Roedean, girls from Shipley”. It’s another gorgeous album, which seems to be the work of a band maturing in a sensitive and uncompromising way rather than feeling obliged to banish their quirks in pursuit of greater success. Like “Cheerio Chaps” on “Limbo, Panto”, “Two Dancers” closes with a valedictory sway, “The Empty Nest”; one that feels as warm and individual as its predecessor, but less arch, less anxious. Plenty more to come from this lot, I think.

I suspect I may have written more about Wild Beasts than any other British band in the two or so years Wild Mercury Sound has been running, doubtless to the bafflement and irritation of a good few regular readers.

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David Carradine, 1936 – 2009

Michael Bonner
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Sad to report that David Carradine died yesterday. The star, of course, of Kung Fu, The Long Riders, Boxcar Bertha and Kill Bill, he was an old-school UNCUT hero. As a tribute, here's some extracts from an interview Damien Love conducted with Carradine in December 2003, ahead of his appearance in Kill Bill Vol 2. It's great stuff - some yarns about teaching Dylan kung-fu, buying cars with Scorsese and an incident involving a dog and a very delicate body part... UNCUT: Is it true that you introduced Bob Dylan to kung-fu? CARRADINE: Well, Bob took some lessons. He didn't really stick with it, but we had some fun together. My master used to come out to my house and teach me every morning, and I thought Bob could profit from it, so we went over to his place, and he and his kids took a few classes with us. It was pretty cool. Bob was funny, y'know - anybody who's just beginning with kung-fu tends to be kinda funny, anyway, but he didn’t stick with it. But Bob's an amateur boxer. He knows how to take care of himself. I know he seems like just a little wimpy guy. As a matter of fact, he used to spar with Quentin [Tarantino]. Yeah, Quentin is an amateur boxer himself… You okay? I was just trying to picture Quentin Tarantino boxing Bob Dylan. CARRADINE: Yeah, it's a funny image. Aside from the fact that Bob is about five foot eight, something like that, and Quentin is about six-five. But yeah, Dylan showed aptitude for the kung-fu. He was kind of a natural, actually. But, I don't think it interested him enough. Bob had other fish to fry, other things to do. Can I ask you a little about Kung-Fu? How would you sum up the effect that that has had on your career? Did you spend time trying to escape from Kane? CARRADINE: I spent a little time trying to, but it couldn't be done, it became clear. The first couple of things I did after the series, I was trying to destroy the image – like, for instance, Death Race 2000 [1975]. After a while, it became clear to me that I couldn't, and it also became clear to me that I shouldn't. Y'know, it was a remarkable thing that happened, and it was really good for everybody in the world, so, y'know, why should I be trying to get rid of it? When you say it was good for everyone in the world, how do you mean? CARRADINE: It was responsible for bringing to a certain extent I think the detente with the Chinese. When it was first shown, it was real popular, but of course a lot of people hadn't even seen it, and a lot of people didn't even know what the hell it was, so they decided to show it again very shortly afterwards, I'm talking about the first pilot movie. The day that they were supposed to show it, it was pre-empted by Richard Nixon shaking hands with Mao Tse Dung to invite him into the UN. It was a revolutionary series. You worked with Martin Scorsese on his second feature, Boxcar Bertha[1972]. What are your memories of him? CARRADINE: Marty, who I had never heard of, came up to my little, I lived in kind of a Tennessee mountain shack on the top of Laurel Canyon, where all the rest of the outlaws lived. He came up the stairs and into my... clutches, so to speak. And he sat down, and the first thing he said to me, was: "Y'know, I really didn't want you for this part. I wanted somebody else." So I thought, okay, that's putting it right on the line. And I liked that. That honesty. And Marty, he had no experience making a commercial movie at all. He had made two movies before that, one was a tiny little short subject called The Big Shave. You ever seen that? Funny as hell, isn't it? And, of course, he made Who's That Knocking At My Door, but that was in 16mm, and it was essentially a school project. [On Bertha] he had a very difficult time getting what he wanted. And so I became his ally about all that stuff. And we got to be real friends. I remember he decided he needed to get a car since he was living in LA, and he knew I was really big on cars, so he asked me to help him to find a car, and advise him as to what kind of a car he should get an everything else. We went out and found him a vintage Corvette, if you can imagine Marty Scorsese zooming around LA in a Corvette. And then, you know, he grew very fast. One your greatest roles is as Cole Younger, in The Long Riders [1980], with of course your brothers. CARRADINE: Yeah. I relate to that one very strongly. He’s actually, a lot more like me. I mean, not that I'm going around robbing banks or anything, but that character, I put a lot of myself into it. And also, I was very fond of Walter Hill. I mean, we became like brothers. Do you think that with you and your brothers, the Quaids, the Keaches and the Guests, it made it easier or harder for Walter Hill? CARRADINE: Well, I don't think anything is really hard for Walter Hill. Y'know we brought the idea to him, and he got into it. We had a meeting, I was in London, rehearsing for a miniseries about the life of Gaugain, and he was coming back from Europe, and we met in a bar there. I just remember him looking at me and saying, "You really wanna make this picture?" And I said, "Well, do you wanna make this picture, really?" We were being a little cagey with each other I think. But once it was clear to us that each of us wanted to make it, that's when the picture became a go. Up until then, he wasn't certain, I wasn't certain, but between the two of us, it was really the two of us that decided to make the picture. We didn't create it, it was created by the Keaches. But it was me and Walter gettin’ together that settled it as definitely going to happen. And Walter pretty much kept that attitude through the whole picture. In the end, he was very careful to make sure it remained an ensemble, that he didn't give anybody too much of an edge. It was hard not to give Cole Younger an edge. In the first place, it was Walter's favourite character, and in the second place, I was, y'know, I was kinda stealing the picture. I remember after the first screening, Bobby [Carradine] came up to me and he said, "Dave, you stole that picture." And I said, "No I didn't Bobby, I just took it, fair and square." I wanted to finish off with a couple of questions about "your reputation". I wanted to start with maybe the most famous, the one about you being discovered playing piano in a neighbour's house naked and covered in blood. How did that happen? CARRADINE: I was taking peyote with the Indians. AI had left the session early on, I guess, and come home. So I walked around the house, made a few phonecalls, couldn't find anybody in, and meanwhile I'd taken off my clothes, so I decided to walk around the neighbourhood. I was walking into houses. Sometimes there were people there. Most of the time there were. And I'd do things like turn off the television set, stuff like that. I came up the hill, I got to a friend's house. He wasn't home, and in the living room there was a painting on an easel. So I stood there and worked on it for a little while. Then I decided to go down the hill, I could go down through the forest and come to my house, On the way, there's a little cabin. So I tried the door of the cabin and it was locked. I was feeling that doors shouldn't be locked. So I smashed the window. But it didn't break. So I struck it really hard and followed through, and cut myself pretty badly. I thought that was kind of strange and not too great, but what the hell. I went on into the house, and there was a piano there. And I sat down and played the piano. And, of course, that got blood all over the piano. Then I just went on with my life, you know. Walked down the hill and ended up driving my Ferarri up to this house I was building and lost a lot of blood. But I came out of it all right. Next day, of course, there was this hue and cry. But I sorta dealt with it. That's kind of a nutshell version. Is it true that Willie Nelson bailed you out of jail? CARRADINE: Uh, no. I was in jail. I'd gotten, y'know, on a traffic thing, I'd gotten busted and I was supposed to play in about like an hour at the Willie Nelson 4th of July Picnic, which he used to give every year. But it wasn't Willie that put up the money. It was all the security guards got together and did a collection, and they put up the money. It was only about $200. But I didn't have anything one me. I was in a jail cell and I needed to get out so I could come and play. And did you play? CARRADINE: Oh yeah. One last one - is it true that a dog once tried to bite your penis off? CARRADINE: Mmmmmm - not exactly. I had just moved in with the lady who owned him. And I was, in the morning, out in the backyard taking a whizz. And the dog was just trying to show me that this was his house, I think. And what he did was, he did actually take my cock in his mouth. But he was very gentle about it. He just wanted to show me, he didn't wanna bite it off. And I think that he knew that I had just made it with his mistress. So that's why he aimed at that, probably. And he was a huge dog. What I did was punch him in the head, threw a roundhouse punch at his head, to show him that, yeah well you may be boss on your turf, but y'know, so am I. But we got to be great buddies me and that dog. I mean, I loved that guy.

Sad to report that David Carradine died yesterday. The star, of course, of Kung Fu, The Long Riders, Boxcar Bertha and Kill Bill, he was an old-school UNCUT hero.

As a tribute, here’s some extracts from an interview Damien Love conducted with Carradine in December 2003, ahead of his appearance in Kill Bill Vol 2. It’s great stuff – some yarns about teaching Dylan kung-fu, buying cars with Scorsese and an incident involving a dog and a very delicate body part…

Continue

Oasis Offer Refunds For Manchester Homecoming Gig

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Oasis Offer Refunds For Manchester Homecoming Gig
Oasis have proffered full refunds for fans who attended their Manchester homecoming gig in Heaton park on Thursday (June 4). The gig, part of the band's Dig Out Your Soul world tour, was the first of three nights at the park, with two more 70, 000 capacity shows on June 6 and 7. Oasis suffered two...

Oasis have proffered full refunds for fans who attended their Manchester homecoming gig in Heaton park on Thursday (June 4).

The gig, part of the band’s Dig Out Your Soul world tour, was the first of three nights at the park, with two more 70, 000 capacity shows on June 6 and 7.

Oasis suffered two power cuts, one at the very start during “Rock N Roll Star” which resulted in the band having to leave the stage for nearly 40 minutes.

Apologising on their return to continue the show, Liam Gallagher said to fans, who had paid £45 for their tickets: “Really sorry about that, this is a free gig now. Everyone will get a refund.”

Noel Gallagher added: “The curfew’s 11, but we’ll play ’til they kick us off. Keep your ticket and you’ll get your money back.”

Possibbly realising the mathematics of his offer, Noel later back-peddled slightly, saying: “If you’re getting your mum and dad to pick you up outside afterwards, tell we’re not leaving til 2am. Kind of regret offering you your money back now. Apply for it back if you wanna be a c***, we do our best for you.”

Oasis’ first night at Heaton Park (June 4) setlist was:

‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Star’

‘Lyla’

‘The Shock Of The Lightning’

‘Roll With It’

‘Cigarettes And Alcohol’

‘The Meaning Of Soul’

‘To Be Where There’s Life’

‘Waiting For The Rapture’

‘The Masterplan’

‘Songbird’

‘Slide Away’

‘Morning Glory’

‘My Big Mouth’

‘The Importance Of Being Idle’

‘Half The World’

‘I’m Outta Time’

‘Wonderwall’

‘Live Forever’

‘Supersonic’

‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’

‘Fallin’ Down’

‘Champagne Supernova’

‘I Am The Walrus’

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Pic credit: PA Photos

Robert Wyatt To Release All Albums As A Box Set

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Robert Wyatt To Release All Albums As A Box Set
Robert Wyatt's entire solo career is to be released as a box set by Domino records on August 3. The former Soft Machine member's nine albums to date are to be issued with a three-track EP which came out in '98. The collected album's are: 'Rock Bottom' (1974) 'Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard' (1975...

Robert Wyatt‘s entire solo career is to be released as a box set by Domino records on August 3.

The former Soft Machine member’s nine albums to date are to be issued with a three-track EP which came out in ’98.

The collected album’s are:

‘Rock Bottom’ (1974)

‘Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard’ (1975)

‘Nothing Can Stop Us’ (1981)

‘Old Rottenhat’ (1985)

‘Dondestan Revisited’ (1991/1998)

‘Shleep’ (1997)

‘EPS’ (1998)

‘Cuckooland’ (2003)

‘Robert Wyatt & friends, Theatre Royal Drury Lane 8th September 1974’ (2005)

‘Comicopera’ (2007)

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Richmond Fontaine Announce New Album and UK Shows

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Richmond Fontaine Announce New Album and UK Shows
Richmond Fontaine are set to release a new album, called We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River on August 17, and will tour the UK in September to promote it. The follow-up to 2007's Thirteeen Cities, the new 14-track album is produced by Calexico's JD Foster, with all lyrics written by ...

Richmond Fontaine are set to release a new album, called We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River on August 17, and will tour the UK in September to promote it.

The follow-up to 2007’s Thirteeen Cities, the new 14-track album is produced by Calexico‘s JD Foster, with all lyrics written by RF frontman and author Willy Vlautin.

A 7” single “You Can Move Back Here” will be released on July 20, a day after Vlautin plays a solo set at this year’s Latitude Festival.

Vlautin’s own track-by-track guide for We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River reads as follows:

1) “We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like a River” – Living next to an abandoned house that once had a grand swimming pool, the romance of a couple having their first place, and the romance and cost of living in a bad neighborhood.

2) “Northwest” – Instrumental feature Collin Oldham’s cellomobo

3) “You Can Move Back Here” – Getting a call from an old pal drowning in a city

4) “The Boyfriends” – A mom’s series of boyfriends and the kid who has to see them. Features trumpet by Mr. Paul Brainard.

5) “The Pull” – The anxiety and struggle of trying to stay sober. The man in it is so angry and hopeless that he begins boxing, and it works until he gets hurt then it’s taken away as well.

6) “Sitting Outside my Dad’s Old House” – Instrumental

7) “Maybe We Were Both Born Blue” – A high school romance and a neighbor who ruins both of them

8) “Watch Out” – Instrumental

9) “43” – Debt, a paint store, and a basement full of weed.

10) “Lonnie” – Running into your friend’s aunt at Safeway and having her give you a list of all the horrible things her nephews has done.

11) “Ruby and Lou” – A romance and a couple believing there’s a place where the darkness of the world doesn’t exist. The Portland room they get is at the St. Francis Hotel. It’s where Drug Store Cowboy is set and is where I used to stay when I visited Portland.

12) “Walking back to our Place at 3AM” – Instrumental

13) “Two Alone” – In a new town with a job as forklift driver and a pregnant girlfriend who loves credit cards and doesn’t have a job.

14) “A Letter To The Patron Saint of Nurses” – A nurse having a nervous breakdown while drinking wine coolers and listening to Mariachi music.

Richmond Fontaine’s UK tour dates will be:

Pontypridd – Muni Arts Centre Festival (September 5)

Winchester – SXSC Festival (6)

Leicester – The Musician (7)

Newcastle – The Cluny (8)

Glasgow – Stereo (9)

Leeds – The New Roscoe (10)

North York Moors – Band room (11)

Bedford – Civic (12)

End of the Road Festival (13)

Bristol – St Bonaventures (14)

Nottingham – (15)

Manchester – Academy 3 (16)

London – Garage (17)

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Ben Reynolds: “How Day Earnt Its Night”

John Mulvey
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Somewhat belatedly, I’ve just got round to reading Alex Ross’ fantastic book on 20th Century composition, The Rest Is Noise. A lot to talk about in there, but one quote stuck out yesterday. “Back in 1915,” Ross writes, “the critic Van Wyck Brooks had complained that America was caught in a false dichotomy between ‘highbrow’ and ‘lowbrow’, between ‘academic pedantry and pavement slang’. He called for a middle-ground culture that would fuse intellectual substance with communicative power.” Put like that, it’s a pretty noble ambition, notwithstanding the fact that the ‘middlebrow’, as it came to be known, soon enough turned into a pejorative. Curiously, Brooks’ edict and a lot of Ross’ writing (both here and in The New Yorker) makes me think about rock criticism – how some of it is unsatisfying precisely because it’s either “Academic pedantry” or “pavement slang”. In many ways, Ross himself posits a path forward, in his hugely engaging and informative mix of contextualisation, biography and musical criticism which is both allusive and technically specific. He understands that most music of ideas is not best served by being discussed in the abstract; that the character of its author and the cultural/political climate are critical to a full understanding of the music itself. And in many ways, Ross makes me feel rather inadequate as a critic, because he can write about, say, Schoenberg in an incredibly fastidious and technical, musicological fashion without it being remotely arid or alienating to those of us who can’t read music. I mention this today because I have here a solo album by Ben Reynolds, the guitarist from the excellent British folk-rock band Trembling Bells. Reynolds has a solo instrumental album coming out called “How Day Earnt Its Night” and, since it’s on the Tompkins Square label, you can probably guess that it’s another record that, like Reynolds’ predecessor on the label, James Blackshaw, begins in the folk tradition and then gracefully moves somewhere else entirely. The point here – and I don’t mean to detract in any way from the quality of this lovely record – is that, as a non-musician, it can be tough to write specifically about this sort of meditative, evanescent, technical music. When James Blackshaw made his unexpected appearance on Radio 4’s Today programme a while back, it was striking how they privileged a discussion of his technique, adding a dimension to the criticism which my immeasurably vaguer descriptions could never hope to match. Which means that, with Reynolds’ record, I’m left struggling to articulate why he plays with such apparent technical skill without that technique overbearing the emotional and melodic virtues of his music, and why I’m going to have to resort, once again, to a bunch of old reference points. So the stately steel picking of “Skylark (Scorner Of The Ground!)” and “Risen”, for instance, inevitably recall John Fahey, perhaps specifically Fahey’s lustrous settings of hymns on “Yes! Jesus Loves Me”. Reynolds is at pains to assert a British take on this tradition in the press notes, and there’s a distinct hint of Bert Jansch, the milieu of early ‘60s London clubs, to the likes of “All Gone Wrong Blues” and "Kirstie" here, too. But it’s when he stretches out that Reynolds really finds his instrumental voice. On the nine-minute “The Virgin Knows”, he turns a slow blues motif into something more abstract and ethereal, a sort of parallel to Blackshaw’s experiments in formal composition. The title track spends 13 minutes mostly working on a repetitive Reichian theme (delayed and looped in the manner of Alexander Tucker, possibly?) that gradually accumulates more and more melodic intricacies. It’s wonderful, but I’m struggling to say how, exactly.

Somewhat belatedly, I’ve just got round to reading Alex Ross’ fantastic book on 20th Century composition, The Rest Is Noise. A lot to talk about in there, but one quote stuck out yesterday. “Back in 1915,” Ross writes, “the critic Van Wyck Brooks had complained that America was caught in a false dichotomy between ‘highbrow’ and ‘lowbrow’, between ‘academic pedantry and pavement slang’. He called for a middle-ground culture that would fuse intellectual substance with communicative power.”

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