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Album Reissues: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

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Album Reissues: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS: REISSUES From Her To Eternity R1984 4* The Firstborn Is Dead R1985 3* Kicking Against The Pricks R1986 3* Your Funeral, My Trial R1986 4* *** Of all the images that might be said to crystallise the cult of Aussie post-punkists The Birthday Party, one of the most...

NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS: REISSUES

From Her To Eternity R1984 4*

The Firstborn Is Dead R1985 3*

Kicking Against The Pricks R1986 3*

Your Funeral, My Trial R1986 4*

***

Of all the images that might be said to crystallise the cult of Aussie post-punkists The Birthday Party, one of the most memorable occurred at London’s Electric Ballroom one night in 1983, when Nick Cave introduced “Sonny’s Burning†like a berserk evangelist – “Hands up who wants to die!!†– and 900 arms shot into the air in unison. Utterly Pavlovian (and very funny to watch), it must, all the same, have seemed to Cave like an exercise in shelling peas. Within months, the restless singer was recording ambitious new material in a Shoreditch studio, and his audience would have to adjust to the changes.

If The Birthday Party’s music had been surrealist-meets-sociopathic, the ‘solo’ Cave was anxious to ensure his songs would play like films, not cartoons, in the mind’s eye. He locked away the bats and the big-Jesus-trash-cans, and wrote long, intricate lyrics of great portent and woe (“Saint Huckâ€, “A Box For Black Paulâ€), furnishing them sparsely with a bass pattern here, a mournful piano there, and perhaps a few clangs of Blixa Bargeld’s recalcitrant guitar for atmosphere. A sudden upward swoop from Barry Adamson’s bass qualified as a dramatic incident. When Bargeld played his guitar like a machine gun (“From Her To Eternityâ€) it was clear Cave’s musicians offered everything that his frenzied, claustrophobic wordplay demanded.

An Australian who engaged emotionally with the literature and legend of America’s South, Cave developed an idiosyncratic style, fusing myth, truth, juxtaposition of two or more narratives, and, often as not, Biblical premonition. The epitome of his technique, arguably, is “Tupelo†(on The Firstborn Is Dead), a Mississippi blues moan for the modern era, in which a symbolic thunderstorm heralds the coming of Satan, a terrible flood, the birth of Elvis Presley and the death of his twin – in that order. The writing is vivid, insistent: “In a clap-board shack with a roof of tin/Where the rain came down and leaked within/A young mother frozen on a concrete floor/With a bottle and a box and a cradle of straw.â€

Released between 1984 and 1986, these first offerings in Mute’s comprehensive Cave/Bad Seeds reissue campaign have not withstood the passing of 25 years without some collateral damage. An accomplished crooner these days, Cave had a strangulated vocal delivery in the ’80s which rather gets on the nerves now. Pitch-wise, he’s horribly off-target on Leonard Cohen’s “Avalanche†(which opens From Her To Eternity), and other tracks find him unconvincingly scrawny-sounding in places where he badly needs to exert his vocal authority. However, Kicking Against The Pricks (1986), his album of wryly chosen cover versions (“By The Time I Get To Phoenixâ€? “The Carnival Is Overâ€!?), surmounts this difficulty and holds the listener in a persuasive grip, mainly because Cave isn’t just singing these songs, he’s overseeing their reconstruction from scratch. In a world where we’re used to the covers album as a mid-career holding strategy, it’s important to note that Cave’s was among the least deferential and most risk-taking. In its most outrageous triumph, the Bad Seeds do to Jimi Hendrix’s “Hey Joe†what Hendrix did to Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtowerâ€.

Just as there was always more to Cave than splatter-painting in Bedlam, there was more to the Bad Seeds than a backing band. Seeking innovative sound-collisions, they assembled in odd configurations of two and three, rarely forming into an orthodox line-up. Your Funeral, My Trial (1986), the stand-out album from this batch, and a pig to record, was a minor miracle of Bad Seeds ingenuity and dedication (notably from long-serving multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey, who recently announced his departure from the band). Cave had a debilitating heroin habit, and at times sounds lost in the clouds, even as his churchy Hammond organ lends a near-religious grief to the melodies. By contrast, the album’s violent second half (it was released on vinyl as two 12-inch EPs) sees Cave metaphorically slapped awake by his captors and dragged before a firing squad. The climactic “Long Time Man†(a Tim Rose song) is surely the howl of a cornered animal, in both art and life.

All four of these albums are available as remastered CDs (sounding significantly sharper than before) with original tracklistings and no extras. Alternatively, they come in Collectors’ Editions with a DVD of bonus tracks (singles, b-sides, etc), plus a 5.1 surround sound album remix and a 40-minute film. Having scientifically tested “Tupelo†and “Stranger Than Kindness†in 5.1, it’s uncanny how the format suits the Bad Seeds’ cinematic-style arrangements. No less impressive are the films by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard (Do You Love Me Like I Love You, parts 1–4). Cave’s musicians, friends, fans and ex-associates are edited into a seamless flow, looking directly into the camera and telling their stories with no interruptions, captions or music. Even a Cave sceptic might find the effect thoroughly hypnotic.

DAVID CAVANAGH

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

Bill Callahan – Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle

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Bill Callahan – Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle

As it is with his old friend Will Oldham, hunting for clues about Bill Callahan’s state of mind in his songs can be something of a doomed mission. Nevertheless, among all the equine and river metaphors, the unreliable narrators, the droll misanthropy, the unlikely romance of his later records, an irresistible line occasionally springs out. On 2005’s A River Ain’t Too Much To Love, when Callahan still traded under the name of Smog, it came in the penultimate song, “I’m New Hereâ€. “I told her I was hard to get to know,†he adjudged, in his usual uncanny baritone, “and near impossible to forget.†Plenty who have lived with Callahan’s work over the past 15 or 20 years will be tempted to agree. Again like Oldham, his career represents a quixotic, restless and probably somewhat perverse re-think of the vintage singer-songwriter model. Over 13 albums, he has moved from fractious lo-fi experiments (Sewn To The Sky, Julius Caesar), through spare and unnerving folk (The Doctor Came At Dawn) and chamber pop (1999’s exceptional Knock Knock), on into unforgiving Lou Reed territory (Rain On Lens) in the early part of this century. Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle begins with a song called “Jim Cainâ€, ostensibly about The Postman Always Rings Twice author James M Cain, in which Callahan wryly addresses his own public persona. “I used to be darker, then I got lighter, then I got dark again,†he intones, as a string section manoeuvres gracefully around him. Certainly, 2007’s Woke On A Whaleheart found Callahan in an uncommonly cheerful mood – or at least assuming the voice of better-adjusted protagonists than usual. …Whaleheart was a mixed and often tender bag, with twinkling pop songs and jovial country lopes. An accompanying photo, by Callahan’s then-girlfriend Joanna Newsom, even saw a new look for this enigmatic shape-shifter. Weirdly, he was smiling. Callahan has never quite received the acclaim of Will Oldham; an extensive profile in The New Yorker, as was recently accorded Oldham, seems as unlikely as ever. Quietly, though, he has accumulated an equally strong body of work, and …Eagle is as good as anything he’s ever done. Gossip-hounds might suspect that, in the wake of his split from Newsom, Callahan would have “got dark againâ€. But, true to form, he is far too tricksy and sophisticated a songwriter to be so obvious, and the prevailing mood is, perhaps, rueful. One beautiful and touching song, “Eid Ma Clack Shawâ€, might conceivably be about the end of a relationship, since its narrator notes, “Last night I swear I felt your touch, gentle and warm, the hair stood on my arm – how?†and, later, “I dreamed it was a dream that you were gone.†But it could just as easily be tackling bereavement, and there’s a curious line involving forelocks, withers and riders that seems to place Callahan right into the mind of a horse, a recurring beast in his songs since 1996’s “I Break Horsesâ€. Then there’s the dénouement. Callahan drifts back to sleep, dreams “the perfect songâ€, then briefly wakes to scribble it down. The next morning he reads it back and, as the cellos stab forward urgently, he reveals his perfect lyrics. “Eid ma clack shaw,†they begin. They are complete gibberish. Like one obvious role model, Leonard Cohen, it’s a reminder that Callahan’s calmly intoned songs can be both funny and poignant, rather than straight-forwardly miserable. He generally half-speaks his lyrics, navigating a linear, measured path, letting his musicians find their own way along. Here, the musical mood is constant, and discreetly baroque. Callahan recorded the songs with a small band in Texas last August, then headed off on tour. When he returned, an Austin musician called Brian Beattie had written them arrangements for violins, cellos and French horns (a similar process, ironically, to how Van Dyke Parks augmented Joanna Newsom’s Ys). Though it has sometimes seemed as if Callahan’s erudite, minimal songs are best suited to a stripped-back folk setting, Beattie’s settings give, say, “Rococo Zephyr†or the decorously snarled motorik of “My Friend†a subtle depth, enhancing Callahan’s reflective state, or at least the ornithological imagery that flits through the nine fine songs. By the end, on the gentle fantasia of “Faith/Voidâ€, he is chanting “It’s time to put God away†on and off for the best part of 10 minutes. He ended the record with that sentiment, he says, “Because it really is. It’s a culmination song. It’s a time-suspending song. Can I just say this is a great record?†Bill Callahan hasn’t been, historically, the sort of singer-songwriter you can trust. Here, though, he has a point. *** UNCUT Q&A: Bill Callahan: UNCUT: After the various styles on …Whale-heart, …Eagle feels cohesive. Was that a plan? BC: …Whaleheart was more of a grab bag, like a Jimmy Webb record – an LA ’70s songwriter thing. The new record is more centred in a place. In the past, I’ve gone for arrangements that mess with the context or are intentionally blank, unguiding. But with …Eagle it’s more, “Come in, sit down.†Can you explain the album’s title? BC: If you want to dumb it down to a little nub, it is a wish for a true love. But it has – I hope – a little more to it than that, a mind movie built into it that will be triggered if you let it. Try saying it to your old lady when things are rough. She will treat you right. Who is Jim Cain? BC: James M Cain. He was saddled with being called the father of hardboiled fiction. Apparently he didn’t like this saddle. I tried to write the lyrics in a bunch of different voices – a voice that could be his, mine, or one of his characters. He was born in Mary-land, like me. And wanted to be a singer. Like me. But was told he wasn’t good enough. Like me. He died in alcoholic obscurity. Hmm… I also like that his middle name was Mallahan. JOHN MULVEY

As it is with his old friend Will Oldham, hunting for clues about Bill Callahan’s state of mind in his songs can be something of a doomed mission. Nevertheless, among all the equine and river metaphors, the unreliable narrators, the droll misanthropy, the unlikely romance of his later records, an irresistible line occasionally springs out. On 2005’s A River Ain’t Too Much To Love, when Callahan still traded under the name of Smog, it came in the penultimate song, “I’m New Hereâ€. “I told her I was hard to get to know,†he adjudged, in his usual uncanny baritone, “and near impossible to forget.â€

Plenty who have lived with Callahan’s work over the past 15 or 20 years will be tempted to agree. Again like Oldham, his career represents a quixotic, restless and probably somewhat perverse re-think of the vintage singer-songwriter model. Over 13 albums, he has moved from fractious lo-fi experiments (Sewn To The Sky, Julius Caesar), through spare and unnerving folk (The Doctor Came At Dawn) and chamber pop (1999’s exceptional Knock Knock), on into unforgiving Lou Reed territory (Rain On Lens) in the early part of this century.

Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle begins with a song called “Jim Cainâ€, ostensibly about The Postman Always Rings Twice author James M Cain, in which Callahan wryly addresses his own public persona. “I used to be darker, then I got lighter, then I got dark again,†he intones, as a string section manoeuvres gracefully around him.

Certainly, 2007’s Woke On A Whaleheart found Callahan in an uncommonly cheerful mood – or at least assuming the voice of better-adjusted protagonists than usual. …Whaleheart was a mixed and often tender bag, with twinkling pop songs and jovial country lopes. An accompanying photo, by Callahan’s then-girlfriend Joanna Newsom, even saw a new look for this enigmatic shape-shifter. Weirdly, he was smiling.

Callahan has never quite received the acclaim of Will Oldham; an extensive profile in The New Yorker, as was recently accorded Oldham, seems as unlikely as ever. Quietly, though, he has accumulated an equally strong body of work, and …Eagle is as good as anything he’s ever done.

Gossip-hounds might suspect that, in the wake of his split from Newsom, Callahan would have “got dark againâ€. But, true to form, he is far too tricksy and sophisticated a songwriter to be so obvious, and the prevailing mood is, perhaps, rueful. One beautiful and touching song, “Eid Ma Clack Shawâ€, might conceivably be about the end of a relationship, since its narrator notes, “Last night I swear I felt your touch, gentle and warm, the hair stood on my arm – how?†and, later, “I dreamed it was a dream that you were gone.†But it could just as easily be tackling bereavement, and there’s a curious line involving forelocks, withers and riders that seems to place Callahan right into the mind of a horse, a recurring beast in his songs since 1996’s “I Break Horsesâ€.

Then there’s the dénouement. Callahan drifts back to sleep, dreams “the perfect songâ€, then briefly wakes to scribble it down. The next morning he reads it back and, as the cellos stab forward urgently, he reveals his perfect lyrics. “Eid ma clack shaw,†they begin. They are complete gibberish.

Like one obvious role model, Leonard Cohen, it’s a reminder that Callahan’s calmly intoned songs can be both funny and poignant, rather than straight-forwardly miserable. He generally half-speaks his lyrics, navigating a linear, measured path, letting his musicians find their own way along. Here, the musical mood is constant, and discreetly baroque. Callahan recorded the songs with a small band in Texas last August, then headed off on tour. When he returned, an Austin musician called Brian Beattie had written them arrangements for violins, cellos and French horns (a similar process, ironically, to how Van Dyke Parks augmented Joanna Newsom’s Ys).

Though it has sometimes seemed as if Callahan’s erudite, minimal songs are best suited to a stripped-back folk setting, Beattie’s settings give, say, “Rococo Zephyr†or the decorously snarled motorik of “My Friend†a subtle depth, enhancing Callahan’s reflective state, or at least the ornithological imagery that flits through the nine fine songs. By the end, on the gentle fantasia of “Faith/Voidâ€, he is chanting “It’s time to put God away†on and off for the best part of 10 minutes. He ended the record with that sentiment, he says, “Because it really is. It’s a culmination song. It’s a time-suspending song. Can I just say this is a great record?†Bill Callahan hasn’t been, historically, the sort of singer-songwriter you can trust. Here, though, he has a point.

***

UNCUT Q&A: Bill Callahan:

UNCUT: After the various styles on …Whale-heart, …Eagle feels cohesive. Was that a plan?

BC: …Whaleheart was more of a grab bag, like a Jimmy Webb record – an LA ’70s songwriter thing. The new record is more centred in a place. In the past, I’ve gone for arrangements that mess with the context or are intentionally blank, unguiding. But with …Eagle it’s more, “Come in, sit down.†Can you explain the album’s title?

BC: If you want to dumb it down to a little nub, it is a wish for a true love. But it has – I hope – a little more to it than that, a mind movie built into it that will be triggered if you let it. Try saying it to your old lady when things are rough. She will treat you right. Who is Jim Cain?

BC: James M Cain. He was saddled with being called the father of hardboiled fiction. Apparently he didn’t like this saddle. I tried to write the lyrics in a bunch of different voices – a voice that could be his, mine, or one of his characters. He was born in Mary-land, like me. And wanted to be a singer. Like me. But was told he wasn’t good enough. Like me. He died in alcoholic obscurity. Hmm… I also like that his middle name was Mallahan.

JOHN MULVEY

Peter Doherty – Grace/Wastelands

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Peter Doherty – Grace/Wastelands

Self-mythologis-ing is always dull if you’re not part of the myth. Those not obsessed with Mott The Hoople found it hard to care if Buffin lost his child-like dreams, while The Clash’s propensity for writing songs about The Clash was always properly vexing. Pete Doherty has always been about mythology, having collaged his dreams from an early age into a splotchy wallpaper of English romantic seediness. But while the equally prolix and anglocentric Russell Brand gave up the drugs and actually got to play Flash Harry, Pete Doherty very quickly became a drug casualty with better notebooks than songs. With the very rare exception (which would be “Albionâ€, a song never fully realised on record), none of Doherty’s bands ever got round to producing a “Clash City Rockersâ€, let alone a “Saturday Gigsâ€. With a physical state unconducive to making good music and a private life designed to irritate rather than inspire, Pete Doherty’s seemed determined to become not a great English rock star, but a sort of Dead Ringers parody of Bobby Gillespie. This is, traditionally, the part of the review where the writer either says, “But all that changes with this new album†or “And so the farce continuesâ€, depending on his or her fondness for, or deep hatred of, the artist being reviewed. As it turns out, neither route is ideal for Grace/Wastelands (although that is a shit title). Largely acoustic, featuring Graham Coxon on all but one track, and with jauntiness taking a slight lead over lethargy for a change, this is a record that does defy the odd expectation. Someone – Stephen Street – has done a great job with the arrangement and production of this record. There’s a lightness to it, there’s some delightful folky and jazzy guitar, and the band, extraordinarily for Doherty, actually swings. Everything, even Pete’s always wobbly voice, is mixed right up front, and it’s like having him in the room with you, except your wallet’s safe. And the songs have been given room to breathe. Live, or in the context of those ropey bands, Doherty’s songs are often undeveloped, or cut off before they’ve finished saying their piece. But here, songs take their time. Stories are told. Codas are permitted. There’s a sense of lyrical cohesion. Doherty comes across as a man with a view of life. Even the mythologising doesn’t hurt, which is no mean feat when there are songs named after a Tony Hancock joke, a Jam album track, the start of WWII and sheepskin jackets. Sometimes listening to Pete Doherty’s lyrics is like being trapped in an episode of Minder directed by Ken Russell and based on an idea by Roger Waters, but by and large this time it all works. There are songs here that people like me, who you might have noticed is not a massive Libertines or Babyshambles or “with Wolfman†fan, can enjoy in and out of context. “I Am The Rainâ€, despite a lumbering melody and a lyric that seems to compare Doherty with irritating weather, has a delightful, oddly sunny ending that for once recalls South America rather than North Islington. “Sweet By And By†is jazz, possibly in the way that The Clash’s “Jimmy Jazz†is jazz, but Coxon’s playing and Doherty’s casual vocal make it something appealing and unique. Even the annoying suicide girl lyric of “Lady, Don’t Fall Backwards†rides over something musically quite compelling. This is, without a doubt, the most consistent record Pete Doherty has ever made. It actually sounds like it was thought out, planned and put together to sound like a proper album that could be sold in shops. Pete Doherty fans will not only love it, they’ll be able to play it to their friends. But it is far from perfect. The problem is partly Doherty’s voice; never a natural singer, he’s forced to rely too often on vocal charisma and personal charm to get over a lyric. This, combined with a lack of melodic variation (ie most of his songs sound a bit the same), means that large stretches of the album can go by without anything varied happening at all. At one point – possibly between “Salome†and “I Am The Rain†– I didn’t realise we were at a gap between songs, I thought he’d just stopped playing for three seconds and started again. Grace/Wastelands will do very well. It will, rightly, go a long way to repairing Pete Doherty’s reputation as a singer and songwriter of note. But half of it is a bit boring. I won’t be playing it much; but, for once, I will be looking forward to his next record. DAVID QUANTICK For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

Self-mythologis-ing is always dull if you’re not part of the myth. Those not obsessed with Mott The Hoople found it hard to care if Buffin lost his child-like dreams, while The Clash’s propensity for writing songs about The Clash was always properly vexing. Pete Doherty has always been about mythology, having collaged his dreams from an early age into a splotchy wallpaper of English romantic seediness. But while the equally prolix and anglocentric Russell Brand gave up the drugs and actually got to play Flash Harry, Pete Doherty very quickly became a drug casualty with better notebooks than songs. With the very rare exception (which would be “Albionâ€, a song never fully realised on record), none of Doherty’s bands ever got round to producing a “Clash City Rockersâ€, let alone a “Saturday Gigsâ€. With a physical state unconducive to making good music and a private life designed to irritate rather than inspire, Pete Doherty’s seemed determined to become not a great English rock star, but a sort of Dead Ringers parody of Bobby Gillespie.

This is, traditionally, the part of the review where the writer either says, “But all that changes with this new album†or “And so the farce continuesâ€, depending on his or her fondness for, or deep hatred of, the artist being reviewed. As it turns out, neither route is ideal for Grace/Wastelands (although that is a shit title). Largely acoustic, featuring Graham Coxon on all but one track, and with jauntiness taking a slight lead over lethargy for a change, this is a record that does defy the odd expectation. Someone – Stephen Street – has done a great job with the arrangement and production of this record. There’s a lightness to it, there’s some delightful folky and jazzy guitar, and the band, extraordinarily for Doherty, actually swings. Everything, even Pete’s always wobbly voice, is mixed right up front, and it’s like having him in the room with you, except your wallet’s safe.

And the songs have been given room to breathe. Live, or in the context of those ropey bands, Doherty’s songs are often undeveloped, or cut off before they’ve finished saying their piece. But here, songs take their time. Stories are told. Codas are permitted. There’s a sense of lyrical cohesion. Doherty comes across as a man with a view of life. Even the mythologising doesn’t hurt, which is no mean feat when there are songs named after a Tony Hancock joke, a Jam album track, the start of WWII and sheepskin jackets. Sometimes listening to Pete Doherty’s lyrics is like being trapped in an episode of Minder directed by Ken Russell and based on an idea by Roger Waters, but by and large this time it all works.

There are songs here that people like me, who you might have noticed is not a massive Libertines or Babyshambles or “with Wolfman†fan, can enjoy in and out of context. “I Am The Rainâ€, despite a lumbering melody and a lyric that seems to compare Doherty with irritating weather, has a delightful, oddly sunny ending that for once recalls South America rather than North Islington. “Sweet By And By†is jazz, possibly in the way that The Clash’s “Jimmy Jazz†is jazz, but Coxon’s playing and Doherty’s casual vocal make it something appealing and unique. Even the annoying suicide girl lyric of “Lady, Don’t Fall Backwards†rides over something musically quite compelling.

This is, without a doubt, the most consistent record Pete Doherty has ever made. It actually sounds like it was thought out, planned and put together to sound like a proper album that could be sold in shops. Pete Doherty fans will not only love it, they’ll be able to play it to their friends. But it is far from perfect. The problem is partly Doherty’s voice; never a natural singer, he’s forced to rely too often on vocal charisma and personal charm to get over a lyric. This, combined with a lack of melodic variation (ie most of his songs sound a bit the same), means that large stretches of the album can go by without anything varied happening at all. At one point – possibly between “Salome†and “I Am The Rain†– I didn’t realise we were at a gap between songs, I thought he’d just stopped playing for three seconds and started again.

Grace/Wastelands will do very well. It will, rightly, go a long way to repairing Pete Doherty’s reputation as a singer and songwriter of note. But half of it is a bit boring. I won’t be playing it much; but, for once, I will be looking forward to his next record.

DAVID QUANTICK

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

PJ Harvey & John Parish – A Woman A Man Walked By

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PJ Harvey & John Parish – A Woman A Man Walked By
John Parish’s 1980s group, Automatic Dlamini, was – if my beer-fogged memory of seeing them at a Bristol outdoor festival serves – a spiky hybrid of Beefheart, Shriekback and Test Department. A couple of years afterwards, the teenaged Polly Harvey volunteered to join the group, which eventuall...

John Parish’s 1980s group, Automatic Dlamini, was – if my beer-fogged memory of seeing them at a Bristol outdoor festival serves – a spiky hybrid of Beefheart, Shriekback and Test Department. A couple of years afterwards, the teenaged Polly Harvey volunteered to join the group, which eventually led to her jumpstarting her own solo career. And Havey and Parish have kept up a special relationship ever since.

Harvey’s moves since her electrifying debut, Dry, are well known. Parish’s three solo albums have exerted a more subterranean effect, but like Tim Friese-Greene or Flood (who also mixed this release), he’s a catalytic producer who’s not averse to unveiling his own music at random intervals. Parish produced Harvey’s 2007 album, White Chalk, encouraging her to drift free of the guitar and concentrate her songwriting around the piano and other atmospherics. Now, nearly 13 years after their Dance Hall At Louse Point collaboration, the former bandmates have reunited for a highly satisfying hotchpotch of tracks.

The division of labour is clear: Harvey ransacks her copious notebooks for lyrics, while Parish constructs a selection of diverse musical frameworks. Many of Parish’s arrangements still retain the abrasiveness of the Automatic Dlamini days. The Pavement-ish chug of their opening gambit, “Black Hearted Loveâ€, could wake up the sleepiest of stadium audiences. But the next track, “Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteenâ€, displays a folkier edge with a droning banjo reminiscent of the pummelling acoustic cuts on Led Zeppelin’s third and fourth LPs. The sparse backing for “The Soldier†is equally impressive: gently ticking banjo, airy harmonium notes, and Harvey’s meek croon punctuated by judicious stabs of piano. “The Chair†glides on an air cushion of ambient dub bass, Krautrock drums and Richard Lloyd-style electric guitar. Flutey recorders and wobbling Wurlitzers periodically turn up unannounced.

Impressive though these earthy arrangements are, there’s an even greater pleasure to be taken from Harvey’s singing. In the company of her old colleague and confidant, she abandons herself to a diverse collection of vocal personae. On “Aprilâ€, her glottal, nicotine-rough delivery appears to be a homage to that other West Country vocal stylist, Portishead’s Beth Gibbons. For the adolescent hide-and-seek scenario of “Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteenâ€, she regresses to a breathless Celtic bawl. “Pig Will Notâ€, yelled through a megaphone, is built on her cacophonous howls of refusal – “I will not!†– over Parish’s threshing drums.

Her best turn of all comes in “A Woman A Man Walked Byâ€, and the tirade of gleeful insults hurled at some grotesque, balding hermaphrodite. With rumbustious vitality, and in an accent located midway between Devon and Dublin, Harvey witheringly dismisses this imaginary mutant’s “chicken liver balls†and “lily-livered little partsâ€. It’s her most hilariously hammy performance to date. That song, which segues into an instrumental shuffle mystifyingly subtitled “The Crow Knows Where All The Little Children Goâ€, falls into the same catchment area as Grinderman, the side project of Harvey’s erstwhile squire, Nick Cave: aggro-grunge that can still laugh at its own abysmal anger management.

It’s testament to Harvey’s current emotional range that she can complement these almost camp hatebombs with some plaintive heartbreakers, too. “The Chair†is the lament of a bereaved mother whose heart has been skipping beats since the drowning of her son, and Parish supplies juddering cardiac rhythms to match. In “The Soldierâ€, she recounts a dream about stepping on the faces of women and people she’s left behind and pleads, “Send me home damaged and wantingâ€. Whether it’s Harvey’s own dream, or an attempt to inhabit the mind of a war veteran, remains ambiguous. There are deaths here, too: of a love affair in “Passionless, Pointlessâ€; of a love affair with the West Coast in “Leaving Californiaâ€; and in the funeral parlour of “Cracks In The Canvasâ€, where Harvey intently studies the myriad lines of an oil painting as they transform into a boundless road map leading the way to a more hopeful future.

Together, Parish and Harvey sound confidently experimental, like two soldiers daring each other to ever more stupendous feats of bravery. Here’s hoping this exploration continues to feed back into the work she produces under her own name, and that Parish gets his dues as one of Britain’s most resourceful and imaginative studio craftsmen.

ROB YOUNG

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

Elvis Costello Readies New Album For June

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Elvis Costello Readies New Album For June
Elvis Costello has recorded a new album ‘Secret, Profane & Sugarcane’ with legendary producer T Bone Burnett, which will be ready for release on June 1. Recorded at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studio in just 3 days, the bluegrass musicians who helped Costello include Jerry Douglas (dobro),...

Elvis Costello has recorded a new album ‘Secret, Profane & Sugarcane’ with legendary producer T Bone Burnett, which will be ready for release on June 1.

Recorded at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studio in just 3 days, the bluegrass musicians who helped Costello include Jerry Douglas (dobro), Stuart Duncan (fiddle), Mike Compton (mandolin), Jeff Taylor (accordion) and Dennis Crouch (double bass).

‘Secret, Profane & Sugarcane’ features ten previously unrecorded songs, plus two songs were co-writes with Burnett; “Sulphur to Sugarcane†and “The Crooked Lineâ€.

Two songs originally written for Johnny Cash “Hidden Shame†and “Boom Chicka Boom†have also been revisted, this time with a string band.

Costello is about to announce some North America live dates in June and August, stay tuned to www.uncut.co.uk for info soon.

The ‘Secret, Profane & Sugarcane’ track list is:

1. Down Among the Wine and Spirits

2. Complicated Shadows

3. I Felt the Chill

4. My All Time Doll

5. Hidden Shame

6. She Handed Me a Mirror

7. I Dreamed of My Old Lover

8. How Deep is the Red

9. She Was No Good

10. Sulfur to Sugarcane

11. Red Cotton

12. The Crooked Line

13. Changing Partners

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Arcade Fire Feature On New Spike Jonze Film

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Arcade Fire Feature On New Spike Jonze Film
Arcade Fire's song "Wake Up" features on the soundtrack for acclaimed director Spike Jonze's forthcoming film 'Where The Wild Things Are'. The track, from the Canadian's 2004 album 'Funeral' currently appears as the backing track on the film's trailer. Where the Wild Things are is based on a popula...

Arcade Fire‘s song “Wake Up” features on the soundtrack for acclaimed director Spike Jonze‘s forthcoming film ‘Where The Wild Things Are’.

The track, from the Canadian’s 2004 album ‘Funeral’ currently appears as the backing track on the film’s trailer. Where the Wild Things are is based on a popular US children’s book.

Karen O, frontwoman for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is also working on the Jonze film soundtrack, composing music with Carter Burwell and Deerhunter‘s Bradford Cox.

Where the Wild Things Are, based on Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book stars The Sopranos’ James Gandolfini and Forest Whittaker and is due for release in October.

See the trailer for ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ here

For more music and film news click here

Pic credit: Andy Willsher

Peaches: “I Feel Cream”

John Mulvey
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When I went off on my annual start-of-year rant about hotly-tipped new bands in January (and Lord, I’ve been forced to rethink my opinions about Florence And The Machine after seeing her shocking performance with Glasvegas at the NME Awards), I mentioned that, in the midst of so much electropop, “Maybe even Peaches might get a bit more love as the result of all this, which would be great.†Well, now’s her chance. The new Peaches album, “I Feel Cream†is, in many ways, as dirty, hard and uncompromising as ever. For starters, it’s doubtful that someone like La Roux, to pick a victim at random, would ever come up with a harsh throbber like “Moreâ€; a song which possibly has more in common with the stern, rubber-shorted repetitions of European Body Music than ’80s New Pop. Not my thing, normally, but Peaches always gets away with this stuff because of the wit and spirit she brings to it; she understands, unlike most of the inadvertently comic po-faces who usually make this kind of music, that it’s possible to subvert and deconstruct ideas of female sexuality while at the same time celebrating them. On “I Feel Creamâ€, though, Peaches also has a crack at a poppier sound, which works out enormously well. The title track finds her singing in an uncannily high and innocent voice over jagged rave arpeggios. She’s virtually cooing here, until the requisite saucy rap arrives, and while the backing track is pretty brutal, the vocal melody is quite lovely. “Lose Youâ€, meanwhile, is even sweeter and lusher electro – and, again, far preferable round these parts to any of the younger and presumably less shit-stirring competition. This is, after all, a woman who’s seen it all before quite a few times. The opening track, “Serpentineâ€, begins with one of her trademark hyper-gabbled raps in which she seems to me saying, more or less, that she’s outlasted the backlash of electroclash – several backlashes, maybe: it’s a sobering thought that it’s nearly a decade since Fischerspooner first released “Emergeâ€. There’s a chance this time, though, that Peaches might muscle her way a bit closer towards the mainstream, her age (articulated provocatively on “Mommy Complexâ€) notwithstanding. It won’t be with things like “Show Stoppersâ€, which is more or less an electronic reconfiguration of The Stooges, “Billionaire†(featuring Shunda K of Yo Majesty – a potty-mouthed, topless lesbian rapper that Peaches would’ve invented if she didn’t already exist), or even “Trick Or Treatâ€, which reminds me a bit – doubtless because of the title – of Gruff Rhys’ Neon Neon record. Nope, it’ll be the first single that might just get Peaches in the face of a wider world. “Talk To Meâ€, produced by Soulwax apparently, is a strident and ferociously catchy, full-bodied pop song that, if it’s not a hit, should probably be covered by Pink or someone. It’s brilliant, if not the sort of music I normally write about here, so have a go at Peaches’ Myspace. The classic “Fuck The Pain Away†is still playing there, too, if you’re feeling adventurous.

When I went off on my annual start-of-year rant about hotly-tipped new bands in January (and Lord, I’ve been forced to rethink my opinions about Florence And The Machine after seeing her shocking performance with Glasvegas at the NME Awards), I mentioned that, in the midst of so much electropop, “Maybe even Peaches might get a bit more love as the result of all this, which would be great.â€

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Iggy Pop To Release ‘Jazz’ Influenced New Album

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Iggy Pop To Release ‘Jazz’ Influenced New Album
Iggy Pop is to release a new Michel Houellebecq-inspired jazz album called Préliminaires on May 18. Iggy Pop says the new material the sound he hears when he reads Houellebecq's The Possibility Of An Island. On his website, a video message says: "[The book] is about death, sex, the end of the huma...

Iggy Pop is to release a new Michel Houellebecq-inspired jazz album called Préliminaires on May 18.

Iggy Pop says the new material the sound he hears when he reads Houellebecq’s The Possibility Of An Island. On his website, a video message says: “[The book] is about death, sex, the end of the human race, and some other pretty funny stuff […] I read the book with intense pleasure when it came out, and in my mind, I created music that would have been the music that I would hear in my soul when I read this book”

The quieter album with ‘jazz overtones’ came about, as Iggy explains also: “At one point I just got sick of listening to idiot thugs with guitars banging out crappy music and I’ve started listening to a lot of New Orleans-era, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton type of jazz. And I’ve always loved quieter ballads as well.”

‘Preliminaires’ means Foreplay in French, and Iggy Pop sings in French on a cover of Jazz standard “Les Feuilles Mortes (Autumn Leaves)”, previously performed by Edith Piaf.

Other titles include “King Of The Dogs”, a tale about a dog named Fox and

a jazz and bossa nova standard “How Insensitive.”

The album’s artwork will be created by French/Iranian graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi who Iggy met when working on the Academy-award nominated movie ‘Persepolis.’

www.iggypoppreliminaires.com

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Ask The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde Your Questions!

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Ask The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde Your Questions!
The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde is soon to be in the hot seat for UNCUT’s An Audience With... feature, and we’re after your questions. So, put your thinking caps on and let us know if there’s anything you’ve always wanted to ask Chrissie. Maybe you’re curious to hear her memories of worki...

The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde is soon to be in the hot seat for UNCUT’s An Audience With… feature, and we’re after your questions.

So, put your thinking caps on and let us know if there’s anything you’ve always wanted to ask Chrissie.

Maybe you’re curious to hear her memories of working in Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s infamous SEX boutique in the early Seventies?

Or how she ended up singing a duet with Bruce Willis in a Rugrats movie?

Or what it was like joining Dylan on stage at Wembley in 1984?

Send your questions by Friday, March 27 to uncutaudiencewith@ipcmedia.com

The best questions and Chrissie’s answers will be published in a future edition of Uncut magazine.

Spandau Ballet Announce Reunion Tour – It’s True!

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Spandau Ballet Announce Reunion Tour – It’s True!

All five members bury the hatchet to reform for UK showsSpandau Ballet have announced that have reformed and will embark on a 'greatest hits' UK and World tour later this year. Speaking at a press conference in the dining room of the HMS Belfast on Wednesday (March 25), previously the scene of an early raucous live show in 1980, all five members, who originally dibanded in 1989, formally announced their comeback. In their heyday Spandau Ballet scored 17 UK Top 40 hits including "Gold" and "To Cut A Long Story Short." Frontman Tony Hadley said that they will play a greatest hits set at the shows, as fans "want the Spandau they remember." Drummer John Keeble, when asked if they were going to record any new material said: "Don't rule it out", conceding they want "to concentrate on the live shows for now." The original 80s New Romantics tour will kick off in Dublin on October 13, with world tour dates to be announced in the next month. Spandau Ballet will play the following UK live dates: Dublin, O2 (October 13) Belfast, Odyssey Arena (14) Sheffield, Arena (16) Glasgow, SECC (17) London, O2 Arena (20) Birmingham (24) Newcastle, Metro Radio Arena (26) Manchester, MEN Arena (28) For more music and film news click here Pic credit: PA Photos *******************************************************************

All five members bury the hatchet to reform for UK showsSpandau Ballet have announced that have reformed and will embark on a ‘greatest hits’ UK and World tour later this year.

Speaking at a press conference in the dining room of the HMS Belfast on Wednesday (March 25), previously the scene of an early raucous live show in 1980, all five members, who originally dibanded in 1989, formally announced their comeback.

In their heyday Spandau Ballet scored 17 UK Top 40 hits including “Gold” and “To Cut A Long Story Short.”

Frontman Tony Hadley said that they will play a greatest hits set at the shows, as fans “want the Spandau they remember.”

Drummer John Keeble, when asked if they were going to record any new material said: “Don’t rule it out”, conceding they want “to concentrate on the live shows for now.”

The original 80s New Romantics tour will kick off in Dublin on October 13, with world tour dates to be announced in the next month.

Spandau Ballet will play the following UK live dates:

Dublin, O2 (October 13)

Belfast, Odyssey Arena (14)

Sheffield, Arena (16)

Glasgow, SECC (17)

London, O2 Arena (20)

Birmingham (24)

Newcastle, Metro Radio Arena (26)

Manchester, MEN Arena (28)

For more music and film news click here

Pic credit: PA Photos

*******************************************************************

**2015 tickets are on sale now, click here to buy**

3Arena Dublin (March 3, 2015)

Odyssey Belfast (4)

Motorpoint Arena Sheffield (6)

Liverpool Echo Arena, (7)

Glasgow The Hydro, (8)

Capital FM Arena Nottingham, (10)

Brighton Centre, Wednesday (11)

Motorpoint Arena Cardiff (13)

Phones 4 U Arena Manchester (14)

Newcastle Metro Radio Arena (15)

London The O2 (17)

Birmingham LG Arena (19)

Uncut On Twitter

John Mulvey
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Seems we've been dragged kicking and screaming into 2008 here at Uncut, as we're now "on" Twitter at http://twitter.com/uncutmagazine. I think what this means is that whenever we post a blog, it'll show up on Twitter, as well as some news links and, possibly, a few other bits and pieces from my colleagues: John Robinson has some plan to post what we're playing on the stereo as a sort of constantly updating playlist, which sounds good. I'm still struggling a bit with the concept, and may have to be restrained from writing things like "Adequate sandwich (1.19)", "On bus (6.32)" and so on. But this could be useful: JOIN US.

Seems we’ve been dragged kicking and screaming into 2008 here at Uncut, as we’re now “on” Twitter at http://twitter.com/uncutmagazine.

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Jeff Beck and the power of the Internet

Michael Bonner
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Some news that, we hope, will put a bounce in your Wednesday afternoon. We now have the power to embed video content into the blogs. This is, I hope you'll agree, a marvellous step forward for the UNCUT blogosphere, as I should now be able to include trailers, clips and other tasty visual morsels in my posts from now on. So, to try it out (and, please, accept my profoundest apologies if this all goes horribly wrong and I delete the Internet by accident), here's a clip from Jeff Beck's forthcoming Blu-ray and DVD, Performing This Week... Live At Ronnie Scott's. Recorded at the end of last year, during a five-night stand at the London jazz club, it finds Beck digging jewels out of his lengthy back catalogue, with a little help from some chums like Eric Clapton. So, look. Here's some pictures. And they move. Excited? Of course. [brightcove]17382838001[/brightcove]

Some news that, we hope, will put a bounce in your Wednesday afternoon.

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Happy Mondays To Headline Guilfest

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Happy Mondays To Headline Guilfest

The Happy Mondays have been announced as the third headliner for this year's Guilfest, joining previously announced bill toppers Brian Wilson and Motorhead. The Madchester icons will headline the festival on Sunday July 12, performing hits from their 20 year career, including "Kinky Afro" and "Step On." Also added to the bill are The Charlatans, who will play the mainsatge on Saturday July 11, before Brian Wilson headlines. More information and tickets are available from the Guilfest website here: click here For more music and film news click here

The Happy Mondays have been announced as the third headliner for this year’s Guilfest, joining previously announced bill toppers Brian Wilson and Motorhead.

The Madchester icons will headline the festival on Sunday July 12, performing hits from their 20 year career, including “Kinky Afro” and “Step On.”

Also added to the bill are The Charlatans, who will play the mainsatge on Saturday July 11, before Brian Wilson headlines.

More information and tickets are available from the Guilfest website here: click here

For more music and film news click here

Waterboys Release Download Only Single

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Waterboys Release Download Only Single

The Waterboys have recorded a new track to mark the centenary of the death of the great Irish writer J.M. Synge, who died on March 24 1909, and it is available to download now. The band have set music to one of Synge's poems "The Passing Of The Shree" and the song comes backed with another brand new song "Vigilante." Mick Puck produced both new tracks. The double 'A' side single is available from the the Waterboys website store for £1.49 from here. For more music and film news click here

The Waterboys have recorded a new track to mark the centenary of the death of the great Irish writer J.M. Synge, who died on March 24 1909, and it is available to download now.

The band have set music to one of Synge’s poems “The Passing Of The Shree” and the song comes backed with another brand new song “Vigilante.” Mick Puck produced both new tracks.

The double ‘A’ side single is available from the the Waterboys website store for £1.49 from here.

For more music and film news click here

Dinosaur Jr Ready New Album

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Dinosaur Jr Ready New Album
Dinosaur Jr have revealed details of their fifth studio album 'Farm' which is set for release on June 23. The 11-track album was recorded and produced by frontman J Mascis in Massachusetts. The trio, also including Lou Barlow and Murph reunited to make 2007's highly praised 'Beyond' album, their f...

Dinosaur Jr have revealed details of their fifth studio album ‘Farm’ which is set for release on June 23.

The 11-track album was recorded and produced by frontman J Mascis in Massachusetts.

The trio, also including Lou Barlow and Murph reunited to make 2007’s highly praised ‘Beyond’ album, their first new material together in more than 20 years.

Dinosaur Jr’s ‘Farm’ tracklisting is as folllows:

‘Pieces’

‘I Want You To Know’

‘Ocean In The Way’

‘Plans’

‘Your Weather’

‘Over It’

‘Friends’

‘Said The People’

‘There’s No Here’

‘See You’

‘I Don’t Wanna Go There’

‘Imagination Blind’

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The 12th Uncut Playlist Of 2009

John Mulvey
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Not quite as long a playlist as usual this week, chiefly because Number Nine here – The Grateful Dead live at “Winterland 1973†– is a box set of nine CDs, and we played the first three, comprising the entire set from November 9, straight through yesterday. November 10 and 11 to come in the next couple of days, if my colleagues will let me get away with it, then there’s a 3CD set from around the time of “Terrapin Station†to have a go at, too. In other news, still no sign of the complete White Denim and Jarvis Cocker albums, though the new one from Tortoise has turned up. Also, I’ve just opened a fantastic-looking package from Honest Jon’s which includes the Trembling Bells debut, something which I’ve been looking forward to for a few months. Will report back soon, but here’s a quote on the press release from Will Oldham to whet your appetites. “Jesus fucking shit! These jamz claw so hard at the tatties below methinks the Lord misnamed them, having intended to say trembling BALLS.†1 Peter Walker – Long Lost Tapes 1970 (Tompkins Square) 2 Jarvis Cocker – Further Complications (Rough Trade) 3 Red Red Meat – Bunny Gets Paid: Deluxe Edition (Sub Pop) 4 White Denim – Tracks (Full Time Hobby) 5 Cass McCombs – Catacombs (Domino) 6 Murry Wilson – The Many Moods Of Murry Wilson (Cherry Red) 7 Pink Mountaintops – Outside Love (Jagjaguwar) 8 Boredoms – Super Roots 10 (Avex Trax) 9 The Grateful Dead – Winterland, 1973 (Rhino) 10 Mastodon – Crack The Skye (Reprise) 11 Tortoise – Beacons Of Ancestorship (Thrill Jockey) 12 Matteah Baim – Laughing Boy (DiCristina) 13 A Hawk And A Hacksaw – Délivrance (The Leaf Label)

Not quite as long a playlist as usual this week, chiefly because Number Nine here – The Grateful Dead live at “Winterland 1973†– is a box set of nine CDs, and we played the first three, comprising the entire set from November 9, straight through yesterday. November 10 and 11 to come in the next couple of days, if my colleagues will let me get away with it, then there’s a 3CD set from around the time of “Terrapin Station†to have a go at, too.

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Part 17: Dean Stockwell

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Part 17: Dean Stockwell
DEAN STOCKWELL Actor, Topanga Canyon resident and long term friend of Young. Stockwell wrote the screenplay that inspired After The Goldrush *** UNCUT: How did you first meet Neil? STOCKWELL: My first real contact with Neil was when he was living in Topanga Canyon, as I was, in the late â€...

DEAN STOCKWELL

Actor, Topanga Canyon resident and long term friend of Young. Stockwell wrote the screenplay that inspired After The Goldrush

***

UNCUT: How did you first meet Neil?

STOCKWELL: My first real contact with Neil was when he was living in Topanga Canyon, as I was, in the late ‘60s. And I had done a movie with Dennis Hopper in Peru, The Last Movie, and Dennis very strongly urged me to write a screenplay, and he would get it produced. I came back to Topanga and wrote a screenplay, After the Goldrush, that never got produced. But a copy of it somehow got to Neil. And as I understand it, he had had writer’s block for months and months and months, and his record company was after him. And after he read this screenplay, he wrote After the Goldrush in three weeks. And then even though I had the album, I still couldn’t get the screenplay produced…

What I know of the film is that it’s about an artistic community living in Topanga Canyon, and an earthquake causes a tidal wave that washes them away. Have I got that right?

That’s very loosely it. It’s not a linear, regular story-telling kind of film. Anyway, I got together with Neil. And when he got to do the album, he invited me to be there, at the studio attached to his house, for the recording of the whole thing, one of the great privileges I’ve ever been involved with. Some songs were worked up, some were fully-formed, but they were all pretty clear in his head, and communicated to the musicians.

After The Goldrush seems so pertinent to the culture at the start of the ‘70s. Was that sort of thing in your mind?

Well, really what was in my mind was that the goldrush in effect created California. And the film took place on the day California was supposed to go into the ocean. So that’s what happened after the goldrush.

Is there anything in the song “After The Goldrush†itself that relates directly to the screenplay.

It relates to it in an artistic way, not in a direct way, in dialogue or anything. That’s how he found himself in the screenplay, and how he saw it, which coincided beautifully with what I had in mind.

Do most of the songs on the album have some relation to the movie?

The whole rush of writing does, with the exception of “Southern Manâ€, that he had already recorded – thank God. In my opinion, Neil was always a great man. If not the top guy, then him and Bob. And a very funny fucking guy, man, let me tell ya. You’ve gotta be there for that. And generous. When he did After the Goldrush, the kid playing rhythm guitar, Neil provided this fantastic guitar for him to play, and gave it to him at the end, it was probably worth a couple of thousand dollars. But it was more a generosity of spirit. If you could calculate the amount of human energy that goes into the making and performing of one of his songs, you would have a really fucking high number man.

Was he a very intense person in the studio?

Oh yeah, but it wasn’t an intensity with any dark edges to it. He was very meticulous as a musician. Everybody has to understand what they’re playing and how they’re going about it just right, and they did. It didn’t present great difficulties for him to communicate those songs, they snapped to and did it perfectly. Whatever was required, he seemed to come up with.

So he was extremely mentally organised?

Oh, yeah.

What was special about Topanga Canyon?

Well, it was an old Indian sacred ground, and I think that vibration was part of what attracted an awful lot of interesting people. In addition to Neil and myself, Linda Ronstadt, Spirit, Taj Mahal and Wallace Berman lived there. It was loaded with talented and interesting people.

INTERVIEW: NICK HASTED

Manic Street Preachers Announce 2009 UK Tour

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Manic Street Preachers Announce 2009 UK Tour
Manic Street Preachers have announced a UK tour to promote their new studio album 'Journal For Plague Lovers' this May. The album, out on May 18, was recorded using missing guitarist Richey Edwards' lyrics. The short series of live starts starts in Glasgow on May 25. Manic Street Preachers will p...

Manic Street Preachers have announced a UK tour to promote their new studio album ‘Journal For Plague Lovers’ this May.

The album, out on May 18, was recorded using missing guitarist Richey Edwards‘ lyrics.

The short series of live starts starts in Glasgow on May 25.

Manic Street Preachers will play the folllowing dates. Tickets go onsale on Froday March 27 at 9.30am.

Glasgow Barrowlands (May 25)

Llandudno Cymru Arena (26)

London Roundhouse (28-30)

Wolverhampton Civic Hall (June 1)

Brighton Dome (2)

For more music and film news click here

Depeche Mode Announce New UK and Ireland Shows

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Depeche Mode Announce New UK and Ireland Shows
Depeche Mode have announced a series of UK and Ireland live shows, as part of their 2009 Tour of the Universe. Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher previously announced just one show, which takes place at London's O2 Arena on May 30, but they now return in December for five more live dates. D...

Depeche Mode have announced a series of UK and Ireland live shows, as part of their 2009 Tour of the Universe.

Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher previously announced just one show, which takes place at London’s O2 Arena on May 30, but they now return in December for five more live dates.

DM’s new studio album Sounds of the Universe is out on April 20.

Tickets for the newly announced UK shows will go on sale on Friday March 27 at 9 am. Dublin is already on sale.

Depeche Mode will play:

Dublin, O2 The Point (December 10)

Glasgow, SECC (12)

Birmingham, LG Arena (13)

London, O2 Arena (15)

Manchester, MEN Arena (18)

For more music and film news click here

Boredoms: “Super Roots 10”

John Mulvey
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Been a while since we had some Boredoms activity to write about here – since, perhaps, “Super Roots 9â€, their live recording plus choir, came out on Thrill Jockey. However, “Super Roots 10â€, the latest instalment in their epic EP series, has quietly surfaced in Japan – let’s hope Thrill Jockey pick this one up for a wide release, too. This one begins with about 30 seconds of barely audible friction, before launching into five versions of a new track called “Ant 10â€. The first, original version begins predictably enough, with a howled invocation from Eye, a drum circle clatter and the sort of ecstatic arpeggios that have filled out their live shows (and “Seadrumâ€) for nearly a decade now. Soon, though, it mutates fractionally, as a 4:4 dance beat comes in as well, giving the whole jam a more streamlined, pulsating dynamic. If you saw them on their last UK tour in 2007, as I did, it does sound a little familiar: in the review, I think it’s the bit near the end that I compare with Eye’s single as The Lift Boys. As the disc goes on, and the series of remixes of “Ant 10†run on, it all becomes progressively dancier. It’s interesting to see the dynamics of house applied to the Boredoms: once they usually peak, they tend to stay at an extreme point of euphoria indefinitely. Dance music, though, demands more builds, more isolated highs, more undulating musical territory. So it’s interesting to see how Japanese producer Altz (who has two cracks), Lindstrom and the mysterious DJ Finger Hat (Eye, not inconceivably) work over “Ant 10â€â€™s synth vamps, guitar squiggles, massed beats and variegated chants into some quite wonderful music. Altz fiddles a lot with the vocals, pitchshifting Eye and pitching him against each other. DJ Finger Hat finds a choir of sorts to ramp up the atmosphere even further. Best of all, Lindstrom’s astonishing take transforms “Ant 10†into an epic piece of cosmic disco, with Italian house piano runs and a Stevie Wonder/â€Superstition†Clavinet effect that makes it kin to the “Pretentious†mix of LCD Soundsystem’s “Yeahâ€. Eventually, one of Lindstrom’s friends adds a “BOW-BOW-BOW†vocal line and the whole thing explodes into the most exaggerated and plausible party breakdown I’ve heard on a record in an age. Track of the year, in this morning’s hype stakes.

Been a while since we had some Boredoms activity to write about here – since, perhaps, “Super Roots 9â€, their live recording plus choir, came out on Thrill Jockey.

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