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Pixies confirm new album Doggerel with single “There’s A Moon On”

Charlotte Krol
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Pixies confirm new album Doggerel with single “There’s A Moon On”
Pixies have confirmed the release date for their eighth album Doggerel – see all the details below. ORDER NOW: Queen are on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: An Audience With… Frank Black The Boston rockers will share their new album along with the single "There's A ...

Pixies have confirmed the release date for their eighth album Doggerel – see all the details below.

The Boston rockers will share their new album along with the single “There’s A Moon On” on September 30 via BMG. You can pre-order the album here and hear the first single below.

Vocalist/guitarist Black Francis said of the new album: “We’re trying to do things that are very big and bold and orchestrated. The punky stuff, I really like playing it but you just cannot artificially create that shit. There’s another way to do this, there’s other things we can do with this extra special energy that we’re encountering.”

Guitarist Joey Santiago added: “This time around we have grown. We no longer have under two-minute songs. We have little breaks, more conventional arrangements but still our twists in there.”

In addition to digital/streaming formats, Doggerel will also be issued in a variety of physical configurations. There will be a range of gatefold colour vinyl options: the standard red vinyl; a yellow vinyl will be available exclusively from select independent stores, and an orange vinyl that is only available from the Pixies’ official store that also offers an exclusive red cassette. The formats are completed by a deluxe CD.

Listen to “There’s A Moon On” and see the Doggerel tracklist below.

Doggerel tracklist:

01. “Nomatterday”
02. “Vault of Heaven”
03. “Dregs of the Wine”
04. “Haunted House”
05. “Get Simulated”
06. “The Lord Has Come Back Today”
07. “Thunder & Lightning”
08. “There’s A Moon On”
09. “Pagan Man”
10. “Who’s More Sorry Now?”
11. “You’re Such A Sadducee”
12. “Doggerel”

News of the new LP follows the band sharing a short documentary with a behind-the-scenes look at the making of their new album. Watch the film below:

Pixies also play UK summer tour dates including outdoor headline shows in Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle, plus a BST Hyde Park show as guests to Pearl Jam.

Since the release of Pixies’ most recent album, the band have released an EP of scrapped demos from that album’s studio sessions and two standalone singles: “Hear Me Out” in September 2020, and “Human Crime” earlier this year.

Foo Fighters announce Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts

Rhian Daly
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Foo Fighters announce Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts
Foo Fighters have shared details of two Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts that will take place this September. ORDER NOW: Queen are on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut Hawkins, the band’s drummer since 1997, died in Bogotá, Colombia on March 25. He was 50 years old. Together with ...

Foo Fighters have shared details of two Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts that will take place this September.

Hawkins, the band’s drummer since 1997, died in Bogotá, Colombia on March 25. He was 50 years old.

Together with the rock icon’s family, Foo Fighters will celebrate Hawkins’ memory and music at two special gigs in London and Los Angeles. The Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concerts will stop at Wembley Stadium on September 3 before taking over LA’s Kia Forum on September 27.

The shows will see several artists who inspired and were inspired by the legendary drummer join his family and bandmates to play “the songs that he fell in love with and the ones he brought to life”, according to a press release.

Taylor Hawkins
The Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concerts poster. Image: Courtesy of Foo Fighters

The line-up for each show will be announced soon. Fans can sign up to receive information on timings, ticketing links and on-sale dates on Foo Fighters’ official website.

Hawkins’ wife Alison has also shared a statement thanking the band’s fans for their support in the months since his death. “My deepest thanks and admiration go out to the global Foo Fighters community and Taylor’s fans far and wide for the outpouring of love each and every one of you have shown our beloved Taylor,” she wrote. “Your kindness has been an invaluable comfort for my family and me during this time of unimaginable grief.”

She continued: “As Taylor’s wife, and on behalf of our children, I want to share how much you meant to him and how dedicated he was to ‘knocking your socks off’ during every performance. Taylor was honoured to be a part of the Foo Fighters and valued his dream role in the band every minute of his 25 years with them. We consider every band member and the extended Foo Fighters team our family.

“Taylor’s endearing spirit and deep love of music will live on forever through the collaborations he so enjoyed having with other musicians and the catalogue of songs he contributed to and created.”

Alison added that, in “celebration of his life”, “it is now up to all of us who loved him most to honour Taylor’s legacy and the music he gave us”.

Taylor Hawkins Alison Hawkins statement
Image: Courtesy of Alison Hawkins

The two Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts will mark Foo Fighters’ first live performances since the drummer’s death.

Graham Coxon announces autobiography Verse, Chorus, Monster!

Will Richards
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Graham Coxon announces autobiography Verse, Chorus, Monster!
Blur's Graham Coxon has announced details of his autobiography, Verse, Chorus, Monster!. ORDER NOW: Queen are on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Graham Coxon on Blur and pop: “It’s a strange, limiting form… but me and Damon are more receptive these days” The mem...

Blur’s Graham Coxon has announced details of his autobiography, Verse, Chorus, Monster!.

The memoir is described as “an intimate, honest reflection on music, fame, addiction and art by one of Britain’s most iconic musicians.” It will be published on October 6 this year via Faber.

A press release for the book reads: “Among the noise and clamour of the Britpop era, Blur co-founder Graham Coxon managed to carve out a niche to become one of the most innovative and respected guitarists of his generation – but it wasn’t always easy.

“Graham grew up as an Army kid, moving frequently in his early years from West Germany to Derbyshire and Winchester before settling in Colchester, Essex. A shy child, he had a thing for eating soil and drawing intense visions; his anxiety was tempered by painting and a growing love of music.”

It adds: “These twin passions grew into obsessions, and as he honed his artistic skill at school, Goldsmiths and beyond, his band with school friend Damon Albarn, fellow art student Alex James, and a drummer called Dave Rowntree began to get noticed.

“But there are things they don’t tell you before you get famous. There are monsters out there. And some may even be lurking inside yourself.”

Back in April, Coxon announced a new duo called The WAEVE with Rose Elinor Dougall, the former Pipettes member-turned-Mark Ronson collaborator.

Last month (May 4), The WAEVE played a pair of intimate launch shows at The Lexington in London, returning the next day with first single “Something Pretty”.

Ahead of their debut gig, the duo said: “We are greatly looking forward to unleashing our new sound live at the Lexington. We’ve been locked away, busy translating the varied sounds of our songs into a dynamic live show, with the help of some great musician friends. We invite you to surrender to the world of The WAEVE.”

The WAEVE came together after exchanging messages during the lockdown Christmas of 2020. They soon started writing songs before their collaboration “gave rise to an unexpected sonic universe”, per a statement.

Bonny Light Horseman unveil new album, Rolling Golden Holy

Michael Bonner
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Bonny Light Horseman unveil new album, Rolling Golden Holy
Bonny Light Horseman have announced details of their new album, Rolling Golden Holy. ORDER NOW: Queen are on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut Produced by the band’s Josh Kaufman, the follow up to self-titled debut will be released on October 7 2022, via 37d03d Records. Click here to...

Bonny Light Horseman have announced details of their new album, Rolling Golden Holy.

Produced by the band’s Josh Kaufman, the follow up to self-titled debut will be released on October 7 2022, via 37d03d Records. Click here to pre-order.

You can hear “California”, from the new album, here.

The tracklisting for Rolling Golden Holy is:

Exile
Comrade Sweetheart
California
Summer Dream
Gone By Fall
Sweetbread
Someone To Weep For Me
Fleur De Lis
Once On Another Day
Fair Annie
Cold Rain and Snow

Bonny Light Horseman are currently on tour in America supporting Bon Iver and have announced their own headline dates there in the Autumn. Full run here.

Hear Cass McCombs’ new track, “Unproud Warrior”

Michael Bonner
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Hear Cass McCombs’ new track, “Unproud Warrior”
Cass McCombs has announced details of his 10th studio album, Heartmind, and a run of UK and EU tour dates. ORDER NOW: Queen are on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut The album is released on August 19 (vinyl on September 23) via ANTI-. You can pre-order here. Ahead of this, he's rele...

Cass McCombs has announced details of his 10th studio album, Heartmind, and a run of UK and EU tour dates.

The album is released on August 19 (vinyl on September 23) via ANTI-. You can pre-order here.

Ahead of this, he’s released “Unproud Warrior“, featuring Wynonna Judd and Charlie Burnham.

The tracklist for Heartmind is:

Music Is Blue
Karaoke
New Earth
Unproud Warrior
Krakatau
A Blue, Blue Band
Belong to Heaven
Heartmind

To coincide with the album, he’s also announced a run of UK/EU tour dates:

September 28 – Madrid, ES @ Teatro Bellas Artes
September 29 – Zaragoza, ES @ Luis Galve
September 30 – Alicante, ES @ Teatro Arnichas
October 1- Valencia, ES @ Sala Loco
October 4 – Milano, IT @ Bellezza
October 6 – St Gallen, CH @ Palace St Gallen
October 7 – Schorndorf, DE @ Manufaktur
October 8 – Paris, FR @ Café De La Danse
October 10 – Bristol @ Redgrave Theatre
October 12 – Manchester @ The Stoller Hall
October 13 – London @ Alexandra Palace Theatre
October 15 – Dublin @ Liberty Hall
October 16 – Glasgow @ Mackintosh Church
October 18 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique Rotonde
October 19 – Cologne, DE @ Artheater
October 20 – Utrecht, NL @ TivoliVredeburg Cloud 9
October 22 – Berlin, DE @ Frannz Club
October 23 – Hamburg, DE @ Nochtspeicher
October 25 – København S, DK @ DR Studie 2
October 26 – Stockholm, SE @ Slaktkyrkan
October 28 – Oslo, NO @ Oslo Parkteatret

Blondie announce mammoth box set, Against The Odds 1974 – 1982

Michael Bonner
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Blondie announce mammoth box set, Against The Odds 1974 – 1982
Blondie have announced details of their long-delayed box set, Blondie: Against The Odds 1974-1982. ORDER NOW: Queen are on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut The box set will be released on August 26 via UMC and The Numero Group. It's available to pre-order here. To coincide with the...

Blondie have announced details of their long-delayed box set, Blondie: Against The Odds 1974-1982.

The box set will be released on August 26 via UMC and The Numero Group. It’s available to pre-order here.

To coincide with the announcement, they’re released a previously unheard cover of The Doors’ “Moonlight Drive”.

The box features 124 tracks – 36 of which are previously unissued – as well as two volumes of liner notes (by Uncut contributor Erin Osmon), track by track commentary, an illustrated discography and dozens of previously unpublished photos. The music has been remastered from the original analog tapes, vinyl cut at Abbey Road Studios.

It’s available on Deluxe 4LP, Deluxe 8CD and 3CD Editions as well as a Super Deluxe Collectors’ Edition (10xLP, 1×7”, 1×10” in Red, White, and Black vinyl formats).

The box features their first six studio albums – Blondie, Plastic Letters, Parallel Lines, Eat To The Beat, Autoamerican, The Hunter – as well as demos (including the group’s first-ever recording session), alternate versions, and studio outtakes.

Says Debbie Harry, “It really is a treat to see how far we have come when I listen to these early attempts to capture our ideas on relatively primitive equipment. Fortunately the essence of being in a band in the early 70’s held some of the anti-social, counter culture energies of the groups that were the influencers of the 60’s. I am excited about this special collection. When I listen to these old tracks, it puts me there like I am a time traveler. As bad as it was sometimes, it was also equally as good. No regrets. More music.”

“I am hopeful that this project will provide a glimpse into the ‘process’ and some of the journey that the songs took from idea to final form,” adds Chris Stein. “Some of this stuff is like early sketches; the old tape machines are like primitive notebooks. The trickiest thing for me was always about getting the melodies out of my head into reality and the changes that would happen along the way.”

“It is amazing that after all this time, and against the odds, our Blondie archival box set will finally be released,” says Clem Burke. “It’s been a long time coming and we are all very happy and excited with the final results.”

The box set was first announced in 2018, since when it has been subject to a number of manufacturing delays.

The tracklisting for the Super Deluxe Collectors’ Edition is:

Blondie
Side A
1. X Offender
2. Little Girl Lies
3. In The Flesh
4. Look Good In Blue
5. In The Sun
6. A Shark In Jets Clothing
Side B
1. Man Overboard
2. Rip Her To Shreds
3. Rifle Range
4. Kung Fu Girl
5. The Attack Of The Giant Ants

Plastic Letters
Side A
1. Fan Mail
2. Denis
3. Bermuda Triangle Blues (Flight 45)
4. Youth Nabbed As Sniper
5. Contact In Red Square
6. (I’m Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear
7. I’m On E
Side B
1. I Didn’t Have The Nerve To Say No
2. Love At The Pier
3. No Imagination
4. Kidnapper
5. Detroit 442
6. Cautious Lip

Parallel Lines
Side A
1. Hanging On The Telephone
2. One Way Or Another
3. Picture This
4. Fade Away And Radiate
5. Pretty Baby
6. I Know But I Don’t Know
Side B
1. 11:59
2. Will Anything Happen
3. Sunday Girl
4. Heart Of Glass
5. I’m Gonna Love You Too
6. Just Go Away

Eat To The Beat
Side A
1. Dreaming
2. The Hardest Part
3. Union City Blue
4. Shayla
5. Eat To The Beat
6. Accidents Never Happen
Side B
1. Die Young Stay Pretty
2. Slow Motion
3. Atomic
4. Sound-A-Sleep
5. Victor
6. Living In The Real World

Autoamerican
Side A
1. Europa
2. Live It Up
3. Here’s Looking At You
4. The Tide Is High
5. Angels On The Balcony
6. Go Through It
Side B
1. Do The Dark
2. Rapture
3. Faces
4. T-Birds
5. Walk Like Me
6. Follow Me

The Hunter
Side A
1. Orchid Club
2. Island Of Lost Souls
3. Dragonfly
4. For Your Eyes Only
5. The Beast
Side B
1. War Child
2. Little Caesar
3. Danceway
4. (Can I) Find The Right Words (To Say)
5. English Boys
6. The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game

7″ 45 rpm
1. Moonlight Drive
2. Mr. Sightseer

10″ LP Out-takes & rarities (‘Out In The Streets’)
Side A (1974 Session)
1. Out In The Streets (1974)
2. The Disco Song
3. Sexy Ida
Side B (Betrock Demo)
1. Platinum Blonde
2. The Thin Line
3. Puerto Rico
4. Once I Had A Love (1975)
5. Out In The Streets (1975)

LP 1 Out-takes & rarities (‘Plaza Sound’)
Side A
1. X Offender (Intro)
2. X Offender (Private Stock Single)
3. In The Sun (Private Stock Single)
4. Little Girl Lies (Private Stock Mix)
5. In The Flesh (Extended Intro)
6. A Shark In Jets Clothing (Take 2)
7. Kung Fu Girls (Take 8)
8. Scenery
Side B
1. Denis (Terry Ellis Mix)
2. Bermuda Triangle Blues – Flight 45 (Take 1)
3. I Didn’t Have The Nerve To Say No (Take 1)
4. I’m On E (Take 2)
5. Kidnapper (Take 2)
6. Detroit 442 (Take 2)
7. Poets Problem

LP 2 Out-takes & rarities (‘Parallel Beats’)
Side A
1. Once I Had A Love (Mike Chapman Demo)
2. Sunday Girl (French Version)
3. I’ll Never Break Away From This Heart Of Mine (Pretty Baby)
4. Hanging On The Telephone (Mike Chapman Demo)
5. Will Anything Happen (Instrumental)
6. Underground Girl
Side B
1. Call Me
2. Spaghetti Song (Atomic Part 2)
3. Die Young Stay Pretty (Take 1)
4. Union City Blue (Instrumental)
5. Llámame

LP 3 Out-takes & rarities (‘Coca Cola’)
Side A
1. I Love You Honey, Give Me A Beer (Go Through It)
2. Live It Up (Giorgio Moroder Demo)
3. Angels on the Balcony (Giorgio Moroder Demo)
4. Tide Is High (Demo)
5. Susie & Jeffrey
Side B
1. Rapture (Disco Version)
2. Autoamerican Ad
3. Yuletide Throwdown

LP 4 Out-takes & rarities (‘Home Tapes’)
Side A
1. Nameless (Home Tape)
2. Sunday Girl (Home Tape)
3. Theme From Topkapi (Home Tape)
4. The Hardest Part (Home Tape)
5. Ring of Fire (Home Tape)
Side B
1. War Child (Chris Stein Mix)
2. Call Me (Chris Stein Mix)
3. Heart of Glass (Chris Stein Mix)

The making of Yo La Tengo’s “Sugarcube”

Tom Pinnock
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The making of Yo La Tengo’s “Sugarcube”
“I think it was shown on MTV once, maybe twice,” says bassist James McNew, of the video for Yo La Tengo’s “Sugarcube”. “As far as I know, that’s it. That’s all.” ORDER NOW: Queen are on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut In the 25 years since, however, the promo has ra...

“I think it was shown on MTV once, maybe twice,” says bassist James McNew, of the video for Yo La Tengo’s “Sugarcube”. “As far as I know, that’s it. That’s all.”

In the 25 years since, however, the promo has racked up millions of views on YouTube, no doubt helped by the presence of its stars David Cross and Bob Odenkirk, the latter now better known as lawyer Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. He has, it turns out, been a Yo La Tengo fan since the early ’90s.

“We were all fans of Bob’s from The Larry Sanders Show,” explains Ira Kaplan. “Then Georgia and I were on vacation out in LA and we saw that Bob was doing stand-up at a bookstore, so we went out to see the show. Afterwards he was just browsing the record section, and it was kind of out of character for us to do this, but we introduced ourselves. It turned out he knew our band.”

There’s more to “Sugarcube” than its video, of course. Since the mid-’80s, the Hoboken-based group had been charting a unique path, mastering the acoustic hush of 1990’s Fakebook as adeptly as they did the brutal fuzz workouts of ’92’s May I Sing With Me. On their eclectic eighth album, 1997’s I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One – now celebrating its 25th anniversary with a digital and vinyl reissue – they perfected this sonic tightrope walk. “Sugarcube”, a highlight among its 16 tracks, is a propulsive, droning delight, Hubley’s drumming and McNew’s unusual organ bass driving Kaplan’s freeform guitar wrangling and their surprisingly gentle harmonies.

“It feels really natural to play “Sugarcube” or to play [quiet instrumental] “Green Arrow”,” says McNew. “Loud music is us and quiet music is us, atmospheric music is us and straight-ahead music is us. We were more comfortable with that idea than other people were, it seems.”

Recording took place in Nashville’s House Of David, a studio converted for Elvis Presley, with the sessions – somewhat typically for Yo La Tengo – efficient and exploratory at the same time. “We’d recorded before at Alex The Great in Nashville,” recalls Hubley, “which is a much more bohemian studio, with a lot of character. But House Of David was on a real street, with a lot of music industry stuff on that road, you know, publishing companies and other recording studios.”

Send us your questions for Karl Bartos

Sam Richards
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Send us your questions for Karl Bartos
Very few people were ever allowed a glimpse inside Kraftwerk's legendary Kling Klang studio, close to Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof. But for 15 years, from 1975 to 1990, it was Karl Bartos' primary place of work as he helped envisage music's new electronic future. A graduate of the Robert Schumann Con...

Very few people were ever allowed a glimpse inside Kraftwerk’s legendary Kling Klang studio, close to Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof. But for 15 years, from 1975 to 1990, it was Karl Bartos’ primary place of work as he helped envisage music’s new electronic future.

A graduate of the Robert Schumann Conservatory, Bartos joined Kraftwerk initially as a percussionist, but soon became a co-writer and a key component of the band’s revolutionary mensch-maschine on albums such as Trans-Europe Express and Computer World.

After leaving Kraftwerk, he formed Elektric Music and collaborated with Andy McCluskey, Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner, appearing on albums by OMD and Electronic. This century he’s released three solo albums – with another one on the way – as well as inventing his own music-creation app and writing his memoir, The Sound Of The Machine, soon to be published in English for the first time.

And now he’s kindly submitting himself to a gentle grilling from you, the Uncut readers. So what do you want to ask a Kraftwerk insider and electronic music originator? Send your questions to audiencewith@www.uncut.co.uk and Karl will answer the best ones in a future issue of Uncut.

The Beach Boys – Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide

Uncut
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The Beach Boys – Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide
Celebrating 60 years of a unique American band, we present the Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide to The Beach Boys. How the exceptional, vulnerable talent of Brian Wilson crested the wave of the surf craze, only to ride out into beautiful and uncharted compositional waters. “I’m a leaf on a windy day/...

Celebrating 60 years of a unique American band, we present the Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide to The Beach Boys. How the exceptional, vulnerable talent of Brian Wilson crested the wave of the surf craze, only to ride out into beautiful and uncharted compositional waters. “I’m a leaf on a windy day/Pretty soon I’ll be blown away…”

Buy a copy here!

Introducing the Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide to The Beach Boys

John Robinson
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Introducing the Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide to The Beach Boys
BUY THE BEACH BOYS ULTIMATE MUSIC GUIDE HERE It’s always good news when we get to announce a new publication here at Uncut. This time is no exception: as we bring you word of our new 148 page, bushy-bushy, 60th anniversary deluxe edition of our Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide to The Beach Boys. Wha...

BUY THE BEACH BOYS ULTIMATE MUSIC GUIDE HERE

It’s always good news when we get to announce a new publication here at Uncut. This time is no exception: as we bring you word of our new 148 page, bushy-bushy, 60th anniversary deluxe edition of our Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide to The Beach Boys. What’s particularly special this time, is that we’re not only announcing the magazine but also the possibility of a full-scale Beach Boys reunion!

As you’ll read in the new issue, the story of The Beach Boys has involved the timeless and ground-breaking music that you’ll know and love. It’s also brought its fair share of personal tragedy, mental cruelty, line-up changes, litigations, and retrospective score-settling – an unseemly scramble for control of the band’s brand name, often at the risk of tarnishing the wounded innocence of much of the best Beach Boys music.

Writing to you now in June 2022, there are two Beach Boys-related acts about to celebrate the band’s 60th anniversary this summer. One is headed up by Brian Wilson (billed as ‘Co-founder of the Beach Boys’), who plays with a band which includes Beach Boys Al Jardine and early 1970s wunderkind Blondie Chaplin. The other is The Beach Boys themselves, whose current iteration features founder member Mike Love and Bruce Johnston, who joined the band as a replacement for Glen Campbell in 1965 and spent the next six years delighting audiences and casually dropping compositional gems into the band’s recorded catalogue.

We’ve spoken at length to both Al and to Bruce to bring you the warm and vivid reminiscences that begin and end the new magazine. We’ve also picked up with to Blondie Chaplin about his time with the group round 1972-3, and how Carl is the Beach Boy we should all be listening out for more (if you know his song “The Trader” you’ll know why he’s right). Along the way, we’ve spoken to the current guardian of the Beach Boys legacy, Mike Love about his favourite songs, and about the future.

It’s here where things start to get interesting. The Beach Boys haven’t really been reunited in a substantial way since their 50th anniversary tour with Brian, Mike, Al, Bruce and early member David Marks in 2012. There was an album, That’s Why God Made The Radio, too but since then, the band members have kept their harmonies in separate camps.

But hold on! Asked about his part in that 2012 reunion, Al told us straight away: “I was rather hoping to have another one. When you talk to Mike tell him it’s really imperative that we need to do it one more time for the world. We all need to get out there and show some unity and do some fundraising. I know Mike would like to do a couple of things and I wanna reinforce that. We should do a world tour together.”

We put the idea to Mike. “Oh, we’re trying to find the time,” he said. “We’re doing our thing at the Royal Albert Hall in a couple of months, so we’re trying to find an appropriate place to start along those lines, so we’ll see what happens. Wouldn’t it be nice!”

To use our magazine to put The Beach Boys together would be nice, it’s true. But it’s Al Jardine who really got to the essential simplicity at the heart of 60 years of The Beach Boys. “What would we do without music?” he asked us.

“We’d be lost, wouldn’t we?”, he said, before we could answer – as only someone with a feeling for its healing power truly can.

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

Todd Rundgren and King Crimson’s Adrian Belew to embark on David Bowie tribute tour

Charlotte Krol
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Todd Rundgren and King Crimson’s Adrian Belew to embark on David Bowie tribute tour
Todd Rundgren and King Crimson’s Adrian Belew have shared details of a Celebrating David Bowie tribute tour that's due to hit North America this autumn. ORDER NOW: Queen are on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: David Bowie’s contemporaries on lost album Toy: “We alway...

Todd Rundgren and King Crimson’s Adrian Belew have shared details of a Celebrating David Bowie tribute tour that’s due to hit North America this autumn.

The celebrated guitarist and ex-King Crimson axeman will be joined by Spacehog’s Royston Langdon, Fishbone’s Angelo Moore and Jeffrey Gaines on the 15-date tour to pay tribute to the late, influential British musician.

Bassist Angeline Saris, drummer Michael Urbano, saxophonist Ron Dziubla, and guitarist Scrote (Angelo Bundini), who put together the first Celebrating David Bowie tour in 2017, are in the tour’s backing band. Scrote is producing the tour alongside Miles Copeland.

Langdon said in a statement [via Rolling Stone]: “David Bowie was a master. It’s impossible to put into words quite how much he taught me. It gives me a huge thrill to get to honour Mr. B. and to be a small part of this immense celebration of his life and work with these world-class musicians and everyone, who like me feels his energy alive and vital around me now just as it was then & forever shall be.”

David Bowie performing in 1987. Credit: Ebet Roberts/Redferns
David Bowie performing in 1987. Image: Ebet Roberts / Redferns

Scrote added: “One of the things we’re doing differently on this tour is featuring a three-guitar attack. David has always been famous for his spectacular guitarists – the epic solos of Mick Ronson, the bluesy feel of Earl Slick, the funkiness of Carlos Alomar and Nile Rodgers, the bombast of Reeves Gabrels, and the otherworldly guitar of Adrian Belew who is still one of the most original guitarists working today.

“To explore all of these guitar sides of Bowie’s songs, we’re highlighting Adrian’s brilliance, Todd’s guitar wizardry, and whatever guitar mayhem I can muster in between.”

Celebrating David Bowie 2022 tour dates (buy tickets here):

OCTOBER
06 – San Diego, CA @ Balboa Theatre
07 – Beverly Hills, CA @ Saban Theatre
08 – San Jose, CA @ San Jose Civic
09 – Anaheim, CA @ City National Grove
13 – Prior Lake, MN @ Mystic Lake Showroom
17 – Quebec City, QC @ Le Capitole
18 – Montreal, QC @ Olympia
31 – Annapolis, MD @ Rams Head On Stage

NOVEMBER
03 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern
05 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
07 – Nashville, TN @ Schermerhorn Symphony Ctr
10 – Denver, CO @ Paramount Theatre
11 – Albuquerque, NM @ Kiva Auditorium
12 – Tucson, AZ @ TCC Music Hall
13 – Phoenix, AZ @ Celebrity Theatre

Meanwhile, the director of the forthcoming Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream has said that he worked himself so hard on the movie that he suffered a heart attack.

Helmed by Brett Morgen (Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, Jane), the docufilm promises to take viewers on an “immersive” journey via “sublime, kaleidoscopic imagery, personal archived footage, unseen performances” that are anchored by Bowie’s music and words.

It’s the first film to be supported by the David Bowie Estate, which granted Morgen unprecedented access to its collection. Press material says that the Estate presented Morgen with more than five million assets in 2017.

The director has now said his own life was “out of control” when he began work on the film in January of that year. “Just as I started working on this film, I suffered a massive heart attack. I flatlined for three minutes and was in a coma,” Morgen said.

New Lou Reed album to feature never-before-heard material and early versions of iconic songs

Rhian Daly
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New Lou Reed album to feature never-before-heard material and early versions of iconic songs
A new Lou Reed album will share never-before-heard material and early versions of some of the star’s most iconic songs. ORDER NOW: Queen are on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: The rich and musical life of Lou Reed: “There are many plans to continue putting out Lou’s ...

A new Lou Reed album will share never-before-heard material and early versions of some of the star’s most iconic songs.

Words & Music, May 1965 is set to be released on August 26 via Light In The Attic in partnership with Reed’s partner Laurie Anderson, in tandem with celebrations for what would be the musician’s 80th birthday.

The songs on the album were written by Reed and recorded to tape by his future Velvet Underground bandmate John Cale. Reed posted the tape to himself as a “poor man’s copyright” and it remained sealed in its original envelope for nearly 50 years.

The record will include the earliest known recordings of iconic tracks including “Heroin”, “Pale Blue Eyes” and “I’m Waiting For The Man”. The latter has been shared today (June 6) to coincide with the album’s announcement – listen to it below now.

Elsewhere on the tracklist are previously unreleased demos including “Buttercup Song”, “Buzz Buzz Buzz” and “Stockpile”. Words & Music, May 1965 will be released in a variety of formats including LP, cassette, 8-track, digital and CD.

A deluxe 45-RPM double LP edition of the album will be limited to 7,500 copies worldwide and will include two 12-inch LPs, a bonus 7-inch including six previously-unreleased bonus tracks such as a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” a saddle-stitched, die-cut 28-page book featuring lyrics, archival photos and liner notes, and an archival reproduction of a rarely-seen letter written by Reed to his college professor and poet Delmore Schwartz, circa 1964.

All formats will be released on August 26, while a six-song digital EP Gee Whiz, 1958-1964 will arrive on October 7 and will feature the bonus content from the aforementioned 7-inch.

The tracklist for the double LP and CD deluxe editions of Words & Music, May 1965 is as follows:

“I’m Waiting For The Man (May 1965 Demo)”
“Men Of Good Fortune (May 1965 Demo)”
“Heroin (May 1965 Demo)”
“Too Late (May 1965 Demo)”
“Buttercup Song (May 1965 Demo)”
“Walk Alone (May 1965 Demo)”
“Buzz Buzz Buzz (May 1965 Demo)”
“Pale Blue Eyes (May 1965 Demo)”
“Stockpile (May 1965 Demo)”
“Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams (May 1965 Demo)”
“I’m Waiting For The Man (May 1965 Alternate Version)”

Bonus 7-inch:

“Gee Whiz (1958 Rehearsal)”
“Baby, Let Me Follow You Down (1963/4 Home Recording)”
“Michael, Row The Boat Ashore (1963/4 Home Recording)”
“Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (Partial) (1963/4 Home Recording)”
“W & X, Y, Z Blues (1963/4 Home Recording)”
“Lou’s 12-Bar Instrumental (1963/4 Home Recording)”

Lou Reed tape
The enveloped Lou Reed mailed himself the tape in. Image: Courtesy of Canal Street Communications, Inc.

You can find further information on the release and its different formats, and pre-order the album, here.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will also host a special exhibit chronicling the life’s work of Reed through the voices, images and music of the star and his collaborators. Lou Reed: Caught Between The Twisted Stars will open on June 9 – visit the NYPL website for more information.

Earlier this year, a “lost” concert film by director/cinematographer Ed Lachman of Lou Reed and John Cale’s Songs For Drella album was found and announced to be coming to streaming. The film shows the Velvet Underground bandmates performing songs from their song cycle tribute album to their former manager, Andy Warhol, who died three years prior to the joint album’s release in 1990.

Queen have discovered an unreleased song featuring Freddie Mercury

Rhian Daly
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Queen have discovered an unreleased song featuring Freddie Mercury
Queen’s Roger Taylor and Brian May have confirmed that they have unearthed an unreleased song by the band featuring late frontman Freddie Mercury. The band members shared the revelation during an interview this weekend with Zoe Ball on BBC Radio 2. ORDER NOW: Queen are on the cover of the...

Queen’s Roger Taylor and Brian May have confirmed that they have unearthed an unreleased song by the band featuring late frontman Freddie Mercury.

The band members shared the revelation during an interview this weekend with Zoe Ball on BBC Radio 2.

“We did find a little gem from Freddie that we’d kind of forgotten about,” Taylor said. “And it’s wonderful. Actually, it was a real discovery. It’s from the Miracle Sessions and I think it’s going to be out in September.”

Asked who found the track, the title of which will be “Face It Alone”, May replied: “It was kind of hiding in plain sight. We looked at it many times and thought, ‘Oh no, we can’t really rescue that’. But in fact, we went in there again and our wonderful engineering team went, ‘OK, we can do this and this’. It’s like stitching bits together. But it’s beautiful. It’s touching.”

Freddie Mercury and Brian May of Queen perform live in 1985
Freddie Mercury and Brian May of Queen perform live in 1985. Image: Bob King / Redferns

Taylor added: “It’s a very passionate piece.” Listen to the interview in full on the BBC website.

Since Mercury’s death in 1991, Queen have released a number of previously unheard tracks featuring the frontman. In 2014, they shared the compilation album Queen Forever, which was comprised of songs recorded in the ‘80s that had been “forgotten about” and featured the vocals of the band’s original lead singer.

Ringo Starr shares drumming tips as he accepts honorary degree: “I just hit the buggers”

Ali Shutler
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Ringo Starr shares drumming tips as he accepts honorary degree: “I just hit the buggers”
Ringo Starr was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College Of Music on June 2 and during his acceptance speech, imparted some drumming advice. ORDER NOW: Queen are on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut The former Beatles drummer was supposed to receive the honour last month ...

Ringo Starr was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College Of Music on June 2 and during his acceptance speech, imparted some drumming advice.

The former Beatles drummer was supposed to receive the honour last month but couldn’t make it, sharing a short video message instead. But while on tour with his All Starr Band, Ringo Starr was able to take part in the special ceremony.

“It’s far out, I don’t have a lot to say,” began Starr’s speech after showing off the certificate to the room. “The idea that I’m a doctor blows me away.”

“You know, I just hit them,” he continued, talking about his drumming technique. “That’s all I do. I just hit the buggers. And it seems to be, I hit them in the right place.”

Starr then got behind the drum kit that was on the stage, and showed off a simple beat that he used to show kids he was teaching. “And if they couldn’t do that, I’d politely tell them ‘maybe piano for you’.”

“The other side of that story is that I gave my son Zak (Starkey, drummer for The Who) that lesson. Then a couple of weeks later, I gave him another lesson,” Starr continued, playing a slightly more complex beat. “He said ‘I can do that Dad’ so I said ‘well, you’re on your own’ and he turned out pretty good.”

Starr said receiving the award was like “some strange fairy tale. I started out playing in the factory I worked at and it just so happened my next door neighbour played guitar and my best friend at the factory played bass. We’d play for the men in the basement, those were my first gigs. But life is good. I love the drums,” he continued.

He then went on to say how he received his very first drum while recovering from tuberculosis. “I hit that drum and it was like madness. I just wanted to be a drummer from that moment on. It was my big dream and it’s still unfolding.”

“I’m not going to go on forever,” said Starr, finishing up his speech. “I’m just going to say thank you, and peace and love.”

Ringo Starr And His All Starr Band – which features Toto‘s Steve Lukather, Men At Work‘s Colin Hay, Warren Ham, Gregg Bissonette, Average White Band‘s Hamish Stuart and Edgar Winter – kicked off their North American tour at the end of last month and will run until July. They will hit the road again in October.

Nick Cave dedicates “I Need You” to his sons at Primavera Sound

Ali Shutler
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Nick Cave dedicates “I Need You” to his sons at Primavera Sound
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds played Primavera Sound Festival on Saturday (June 4) and dedicated a song to Cave’s two sons. ORDER NOW: Queen are on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds on new B-Sides & Rarities compilation: “You can’t buy t...

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds played Primavera Sound Festival on Saturday (June 4) and dedicated a song to Cave’s two sons.

Before performing “I Need You”, from 2016’s Skeleton Tree, Nick Cave told the crowd “This is a song I want to dedicate to my two boys, Luke and Earl. They’re probably over there waiting for Bauhaus to begin.”

“Hang on, is my hair alright,” he joked after the emotional performance, before performing “Waiting For You” from 2019’s Ghosteen.

The show was only the second gig Nick Cave has played since the death of his son Jethro Lazenby, after The Bad Seeds headlined Northside Festival earlier this week. Jethro passed away at the start of May at the age of 31. Another of Cave’s sons, Arthur, died in 2015.

Following the death of Jethro, Cave shared a thank-you note to fans.

“I have no question for you today,” Teresa from Australia wrote to Cave, via his The Red Hand Files blog. “I just wanted to send my heartfelt condolences on the tragic loss of Jethro. All I can do is offer the collective love of all who read your letters. Much love to you and all your family.”

Cave responded: “Dear Teresa. Thank you for your letter. Many others have written to me about Jethro, sending condolences and kind words. These letters are a great source of comfort and I’d like to thank all of you for your support.”

In 2019, Cave spoke about how he coped with the loss of Arthur.

“For us, grief became a way of life, an approach to living, where we learned to yield to the uncertainty of the world, whilst maintaining a stance of defiance to its indifference. We surrendered to something over which we had no control, but which we refused to take lying down,” he wrote.

“Grief became both an act of submission and of resistance — a place of acute vulnerability where, over time, we developed a heightened sense of the brittleness of existence. Eventually, this awareness of life’s fragility led us back to the world, transformed.”

 

This Much I Know To Be True, which was in cinemas for one night only on May 11, is a documentary-meets-performance film that centres on the creative relationship between Cave and his Bad Seeds bandmate and longtime collaborator Warren Ellis, and looks at the creation of their most recent albums Ghosteen and CARNAGE.

Mark Ronson shares Amy Winehouse’s demo vocal for “Back To Black”

Will Richards
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Mark Ronson shares Amy Winehouse’s demo vocal for “Back To Black”
Mark Ronson has shared behind-the-scenes insight into working with Amy Winehouse – hear her demo vocal for "Back To Black" below. ORDER NOW: Queen are on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut Ronson was one of the late singer’s most influential collaborators, having produced her semina...

Mark Ronson has shared behind-the-scenes insight into working with Amy Winehouse – hear her demo vocal for “Back To Black” below.

Ronson was one of the late singer’s most influential collaborators, having produced her seminal second album, also called Back to Black, in 2006.

Sharing a TikTok video of how they made the song together, Ronson said: “Amy came to my studio right here and we met for the first time and I instantly loved her and she played me all of this great Sixties music and she left and I got very inspired and I came up with this piano right here,” going on to play the piano riff from “Back To Black”.

“The next day she came in and wrote these incredible lyrics which she scribbled in the back room,” he added, captioning the post: “All hail the lioness.”

Watch the TikTok below.

@markronson

#stitch with @ruben.tt all hail the lioness ❤️

♬ original sound – Mark Ronson

Last year, Ronson expressed regret over the way he treated Winehouse while she was at the height of her addiction issues.

“Obviously, we had our ups and downs, and it was troubling,” Ronson told The Guardian. “I don’t know if I fully loved the way that I behaved around her.”

The DJ and producer subsequently explained that he wished he had been more vocal in supporting Winehouse throughout her struggles.

“When she was going through addiction, I wish I’d been a little bit more upfront or confrontational about it,” he explained. “But I just was like, ‘Ah, she’ll sort it out – she did it already once.’”

Winehouse underwent a stay in rehab in 2008, but continued to struggle with alcohol abuse. She died from accidental alcohol poisoning in 2011.

Last summer (July 2021) marked 10 years since the late music icon’s death, with tributes pouring in from the music world.

Norman Whitfield’s desire for creative control took him to war: “He was a winner, but you can’t win all the time”

Nick Hasted
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Norman Whitfield’s desire for creative control took him to war: “He was a winner, but you can’t win all the time”
When the pressure grew too much, Motown producer Norman Whitfield disappeared off the face of the earth. Quitting the studio overnight without explanation, he drove from Los Angeles through the desert to Las Vegas. “We’d set off in his Jensen [convertible sports car] at 3am,” remembers The Und...

When the pressure grew too much, Motown producer Norman Whitfield disappeared off the face of the earth. Quitting the studio overnight without explanation, he drove from Los Angeles through the desert to Las Vegas. “We’d set off in his Jensen [convertible sports car] at 3am,” remembers The Undisputed Truth’s lead singer Joe “Pep” Harris, one of
the musicians who’d accompany Whitfield on such trips. “We’d wake up in daylight, we’re in the damn car, people walking up and down the damn street! He’d tell the studio, ‘I’m in Vegas.’ ‘Say what?’ Then he’d tell them: ‘Keep working. The record ain’t close to being finished.’”

“Norman had a credit line at Caesars Palace of $5 million,” says Duane Moody, Whitfield’s former manager and PR. “He’d drive to Vegas to feed his energy and competitive spirit. Norman didn’t smoke, drink or get high, but he loved gambling. Norman loved shooting dice and playing craps for two to three days straight, putting $20–30,000 on a number. He used the energy he got from that to write another Temptations song.”

A teetotal gambler with a taste for fast exits, Norman Whitfield had many eye-catching qualities. As a songwriter and producer, he was capable of similar extremes. Among his masterpieces for Motown, Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” and The Temptations’ “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone” were full of simmering, cinematic tension, recorded by singers who Whitfield pushed to their limits. His brace of psychedelic soul hits were critical, not just for their wild sonic experimentation but the way that they radically updated the Sound of Young America for changing times.

“Norman was the most creative producer Motown ever had,” says Shelly Berger, The Temptations’ manager since 1965. “Berry Gordy feels the same. Norman was grittier and more varied than Holland-Dozier-Holland or Smokey Robinson.”

“I saw Michael Jackson sitting with Norman once, because he wanted information,” says Joe Harris. “Michael said, ‘I can tell when it’s a Whitfield song, because all that other stuff sounds like it’s standing still.’”

Whitfield’s time at Motown was characterised by a relentless battle for independence and control; later, when he founded Whitfield Records in 1975, his riotous, eccentric tendences were given free rein. He carried himself in the studio as if he was the star, with an attitude and fashion sense as outsized as his lavish productions.

“He always had a big ’fro comb in his hair,” laughs Isy Martin, guitarist with The Undisputed Truth. “He had this big, shit-eating grin on his face that just let you know: ‘I’m Norman.’” At the same time, Whitfield kept himself to himself, preferring to keep his real feelings hidden from view. “He looked like he held things inside,” says Martin. “Things that he didn’t want to talk to anyone about.”

Kate Bush granted Stranger Things permission to use “Running Up That Hill” because she’s a fan

Erica Campbell
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Kate Bush granted Stranger Things permission to use “Running Up That Hill” because she’s a fan
Kate Bush reportedly gave permission to Stranger Things to use her song "Running Up That Hill" because she's fan of the series. ORDER NOW: Queen are on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Kate Bush on her album The Dreaming: “I wanted to take control of everything” Str...

Kate Bush reportedly gave permission to Stranger Things to use her song “Running Up That Hill” because she’s fan of the series.

Streams of the ’80s synth pop track had increased by 153 per cent after the song appeared on the latest season of the Netflix show. Bush’s seminal hit features on the first episode, in a key moment involving Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink).

The song, taken from Bush’s Hounds Of Love, overtook “Wuthering Heights” on Spotify to become her most popular title on the service after it experienced a surge in streams on Spotify. It was described as “the biggest gainer on the Global Spotify chart” by the streaming giants.

Now, the show’s music supervisor Nora Felder has explained to Variety how they were able to get Bush’s permission to use the track on the show.

“Each of the prospective song placements in the initial scripts was tagged with the placeholder, ‘TBD Max song’,” Felder said. “From there, I made an effort to internally align myself with what the Duffers felt were the most important elements needed, and my own intuitive grasp of Max’s complex feelings.”

Felder went on to say that when she landed on “Running Up That Hill”, the song “immediately struck me with its deep chords of the possible connection to Max’s emotional struggles and took on more significance as Bush’s song marinated in my conscious awareness.”

“I sat with my clearance coordinator, and laid out all the scripted scenes for song uses that we knew of at that point,” she continued. “Knowing the challenges, we proceeded to create elaborate scene descriptions that provided as much context as possible so that Kate and her camp would have a full understanding of the uses. When we finished, we were on edge, but excited and hopeful.”

Next, the music supervisor had to track down the publisher, which brought her to Wende Crowley, Sony Music Publishing’s SVP of creative marketing, film and TV, received the request.

Stranger Things 4
STRANGER THINGS (L to R) Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas, Sadie Sink as Max, Joe Keery as Steve, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin in STRANGER THINGS. Image: Courtesy of Netflix © 2022

“Nora Felder came to us pre-pandemic to discuss the idea of using it as Max’s ‘song’ for this season,” Crowley said. “She wanted to make sure it was within the realm of possibility before she got the [executive producers] The Duffer Brothers on board with the idea since the song was going to be “such a focal point to Max’s storyline.”

Crowley continued: “Kate Bush is selective when it comes to licensing her music and because of that, we made sure to get script pages and footage for her to review so she could see exactly how the song would be used.”

Bush, being a fan of the show granted them permission after understanding the intent and vision meant for the song.

The Smile – A Light For Attracting Attention

Stephen Troussé
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The Smile – A Light For Attracting Attention
“There was a point a year and a half ago when I wondered whether I would be doing this again,” admitted Thom Yorke on stage at the Albert Hall last October. “I’m a British musician, and I was told during the pandemic, like all British musicians, that I should consider retraining. And after w...

“There was a point a year and a half ago when I wondered whether I would be doing this again,” admitted Thom Yorke on stage at the Albert Hall last October. “I’m a British musician, and I was told during the pandemic, like all British musicians, that I should consider retraining. And after we finally left [the EU] they told us we didn’t really need to tour around Europe anyway, did we? So perhaps I’m one of a dying breed… who knows?”

That classic Radiohead sense of embattled, paranoid defiance was only amplified by Mark Jenkin’s video for The Smile’s “Skrting On The Surface”, released in March, which cast Yorke as a miner, 200 feet beneath Cornwall, his face grimy with soot and sweat as he trundled his lonely cart down a rail track.

Is UK indie rock one more venerable heartland industry to be blithely cast onto the national slagheap? Could Thom and Jonny Greenwood’s next jobs be in cyber? It’d take a heart of stone not to smirk – but there’s something heartening about Yorke and Greenwood’s vocational commitment to angular, knotty, intensely pissed-off art-rock. While their ’90s contemporaries have wandered far and wide in search of fresh purpose in the 21st century, they have remained steadfast, even when venturing through abstract electronica or orchestral soundtracks, in mining the same rich seam of truculence and awe.

So much so that The Smile, ostensibly a lockdown project for Thom, Jonny and Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner, along with long-time producer Nigel Godrich, feels more like a refreshment, refinement or even fulfilment of Radiohead core principles, rather than an extracurricular dalliance. An early version of “Skrting…” was in fact a feature of the parent band’s live shows at least as far back as The King Of Limbs, while the surging, splenetic debut single “You Will Never Work In Television Again” (“He’s fat fucking mist/Young bones spat out/Girls slitting their wrists…”) suggests the apprentice work of a neural network trained on the Yorke lyrical canon. On the irresistible one-two of “Open The Floodgates” into “Free In The Knowledge”, he even ventures as close as he’s come to the acoustic balladry of The Bends in a couple of decades.

Funnily enough, though A Light… feels on first listen like Continuity Radiohead, you might find the source or mother lode in a backstage performance from 2008, just Yorke and Greenwood with a couple of acoustic guitars, fingerpicking through Portishead’s “The Rip” as though they had just come up with it in an idle jam session. The album begins with the forlorn life-support bleep of a fritzing antique Moog, and it surfaces like a subterranean river throughout an album which seems to chart the same blasted, war-torn landscape as Portishead’s Third.

Sensationally so on “Speech Bubbles”, the beautifully mournful centrepiece of the record, set in the eerie calm after a terror attack (“Devastation has come, left in a station with a mortar bomb”). The serpentine guitar figure might be a cousin of the one that unravelled through the verses of “Paranoid Android”, but what takes the track to a new dimension is Greenwood’s orchestration. If Robert Kirby’s strings once roamed over the vales of Nick Drake songs like the cumulus clouds in a Constable landscape, then here Greenwood’s rippling piano, breaking through looming uneasy strings and woodwind, feels like a sunbeam in an otherwise foreboding Ravilious seascape.

On “The Smoke”, Greenwood’s heady brew of horns and flutes rise moodily and magnificently through Tom Skinner’s cavernous beat, like steam from the streets of New York in some early-’70s blaxpoitation movie. In fact, it feels like Skinner is the catalyst that’s refreshed the Yorke–Greenwood creative bromance. Around The King Of Limbs, Radiohead felt the need to add a second drummer to supplement Phil Selway on the songs’ skittering polyrhythms, but Skinner seems to be a one-man rhythm factory, turning his hands impressively from motorik to afrobeat, from algebraic math-rock to the avant-garage racket of Sonic Youth circa Daydream Nation.

And maybe it’s Skinner’s presence too that helps usher songs like “Pana-Vision” from the fringes of Satie to the kind of afro-futurist soundworlds Bowie approached with the help of Donny McCaslin on Blackstar. “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus”, sings Thom, quoting the immortal words of Roxette, on the hymnal “Open The Floodgates”, but at its best A Light… feels like a subtle jazz improvisation on old Radiohead themes, finding new paths through familiar territory.

“I’m stuck in a rut in a flatland drainage ditch/And I’m drowning in irrelevance”, Yorke squawks on “We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings”, which races nervily like Magazine trying their hand at Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” – but in truth he hasn’t sounded so invigorated and energised since the days of Kid A. If Radiohead’s hiatus is looking increasingly permanent, then The Smile will do very nicely.

Wilco – Cruel Country

Stephen Deusner
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Wilco – Cruel Country
After the amiable twang of their 1995 debut A.M. and the more ambitiously conceptual rock’n’roll of 1996’s Being There, Wilco went straight-up pop on 1998’s Summerteeth, trading the pedal steel for an orchestra and treating The Beach Boys as their new Gram Parsons. Country, even alt.country,...

After the amiable twang of their 1995 debut A.M. and the more ambitiously conceptual rock’n’roll of 1996’s Being There, Wilco went straight-up pop on 1998’s Summerteeth, trading the pedal steel for an orchestra and treating The Beach Boys as their new Gram Parsons. Country, even alt.country, was far too restrictive, too conservative both musically and culturally, for many bands identified with that movement, and some of the biggest acts – The Old 97s, Joe Henry, The Jayhawks – were toying with power pop and art rock. Few, however, went as far or as hard as Wilco, who by the 2000s were embracing noise and krautrock to capture something essential about America at the turn of the century.

It’s probably a coincidence that the upcoming 20th anniversary of Wilco’s 2001 breakout album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is preceded by a new studio album that gets back to their country roots. While it’s still a far cry from anything coming out of Nashville at the moment, Cruel Country is self-consciously grounded in classic country music and old-time folk – two styles that influenced Jeff Tweedy’s earliest music 30 years ago, first with Uncle Tupelo and then with Wilco. Yet it’s not that far removed from their recent Ode To Joy, partly because their idea of country is expansive. Emphasising acoustic instruments and relatively austere arrangements, it encompasses the CSNY harmonies on “A Lifetime To Find”, the two-step rhythms underpinning “Falling Apart (Right Now)”, the string-band plucks of “Sad Kind Of Way”, and even the bucolic psychedelia of the eight-minute epic “Many Worlds”.

Fittingly, the members of Wilco gravitated toward the country setting organically. Cruel Country arose from informal jams at The Loft in Chicago, with the musicians picking up instruments they’d been neglecting recently: acoustic guitars, pedal steel, dobro. There are still electric guitars, but they’re played more in the style of The Buckaroos than Can or Nilsson. Because they found themselves obsessed with this particular palette, they put aside the more “traditional” Wilco album they’d been making and devoted themselves to pursuing this very particular sound. And because Tweedy was incredibly prolific during the pandemic, they found themselves with enough songs for a double album.

Cruel Country sounds like a band playing first and foremost for and to themselves, which means there’s a zippy energy to these songs, even the slower, sparser ones like “The Universe” and “Tonight’s The Day”. It’s invigorating to hear these musicians question how their instruments fit within the songs and rethink how Wilco does what Wilco does. “The Empty Condor” creeps along on Mikael Jorgenson’s muted piano rhythm, which adds a sense of menace and movement to the verses. The song is all push-and-pull: the lightness of Nels Cline’s guitar solo is undone by Tweedy holding his notes just a bit longer than his voice can go. That friction is all the more unsettling for being so understated.

No-one in the band seems to be questioning their role quite as much as Tweedy himself, whose vocals sound nuanced and expressive – acutely alive to the subtleties of emotion his lyrics convey. That’s clearest on the time-stopping “Ambulance”, a harrowing tale of a near-death experience. Its fractured imagery sits uneasily in this country setting: “Once just by chance, I made a friend in an ambulance”, he sings over a gently picked bluegrass guitar line. “I was half man, half broken glass”. He sounds like someone who just got back from a brief stopover in the afterlife, and the placidity of the music evokes the painful fragility of life.

Of course, “country” on Cruel Country refers not just to a musical setting, but to a larger idea prickly with political and cultural implications. Wilco explore that duality most explicitly on the title track, which makes even the dissent of Ode To Joy sound tentative. This song is angrier, animated by a relatable outrage at a particularly American divide: “I love my country, stupid and cruel, red white and blue”, Tweedy exclaims. It’s about performative righteousness, but Wilco complicate it by implicating themselves in the prevailing discord. When Tweedy sings, “All you have to do is sing in the choir”, it’s easy to imagine a red-state strawman, at least until he adds, “… with me” to the end of that declaration.

Cruel Country is so thoroughly a Wilco album that even diehard fans might wonder if that twang wasn’t there all along. In addition to redeeming A.M., which no longer sounds like the band’s least essential album, these 21 songs direct listeners to some relatively dark corners in Tweedy’s songwriting career, such as the dreamy old-time songs on Uncle Tupelo’s March 16–20, 1992 (specifically “I Wish My Baby Was Born”) and his folksier contributions to the supergroup Golden Smog (“Please Tell My Brother”, notably). Moreover, these songs suggest that country music – “a kind of comfort food”, Tweedy says – has always informed Wilco’s music, even when the band actively resisted that label. It’s there underpinning the noise on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the migraine jams of A Ghost Is Born, even the self-referential in-jokes on Wilco (The Album). Cruel Country is the rare album that throws everything that came before it into sharp relief – a small miracle for a band 30 years into its run.

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