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Calexico – Carried To Dust

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Calexico – Carried To Dust
Joey Burns and John Convertino don’t quite explain it this way, but their last album, Garden Ruin was, if not a mistake, at least a misstep. By putting themselves at the mercy of producer JD Foster – the twanging bass in the Bakersfield sound of Dwight Yoakam – the Tucson-based group signed up...

Joey Burns and John Convertino don’t quite explain it this way, but their last album, Garden Ruin was, if not a mistake, at least a misstep. By putting themselves at the mercy of producer JD Foster – the twanging bass in the Bakersfield sound of Dwight Yoakam – the Tucson-based group signed up for a process of genetic modification. They didn’t sound like themselves. Where were the spaghetti-western flourishes, the Ring Of Fire horns, the Link Wray rhythms? They were packed away, hidden beneath a blanket of folk prissiness. It wasn’t bad exactly; there was still poetry in the lyrics, many of them raging against the brutal carelessness of the Bush junta; and in the haunting French language number, Non De Plume, they delivered an unlikely hybrid of a different stripe: the song was like Serge Gainsbourg scoring The Third Man through a fug of Gitanes.

But on the whole, Garden Ruin was a disappointment, particularly after the rich pleasures of Feast Of Wire. Under Foster’s tutelage, they sounded like a folk-rock group searching for an umbrella in an electrical storm. Such politeness was shocking. Calexico weren’t Calexico.

Burns and Convertino talk diplomatically about the lessons they learned with Garden Ruin. It was about streamlining the sound, they argue, and perhaps the duo did need a break from overseeing every aspect of the music. In the meantime, Calexico brought their aesthetic to bear in other ways, collaborating with (among others) Richmond Fontaine and Roger McGuinn, as well as less celebrated acts such as Amparanoia and Spanish guitarist Jairo Zavala’s group Depedro. (Zavala’s guitar adds new colours here.)

The good news is that Carried To Dust marks a return to form. There’s no bold declaration of intent: this is a subtle record which imposes itself slowly. But on the first few listens, it becomes obvious that Burns and Convertino have rediscovered their mojo. The instrumental, Trigger (Revisited) is purest Calexico, a fresh surf of Morricone stylings that is brisk and cinematic. It is A Fistful Of Dollars condensed into three action-packed minutes. Convertino’s bustling rhythms sound like horses galloping through dust, and it’s impossible to listen to the tune without conjuring images of reticent gunslingers in high noon shootouts. When the whistling starts, the mood is complete. You know how I ordered three coffins, Mr Undertaker? Better make it four.

Inspiracion is another sign that we’re back in Calexico country. The group are named after a border town: this Spanish song is located South of the border, down Mexico way. It’s evocative stuff; a plaintive trumpet sounding above a shuffling dance rhythm. The song would fit happily on Ry Cooder’s Chavez Ravine, but it’s not as traditional as it sounds. Take away the horn, and listen instead to the beat: the wheezes and clicks of the tune are closer to Tom Waits than they are to mariachi music. But Calexico employ their weirdness economically. Everything is done in the service of the song, as Amparanoia’s Amparo Sanchez and trumpet player Jacob Valenzuela waltz through a romantic duet that is ripe with regret.

So far, so reassuring. But listen again to the album and it quickly becomes apparent that Calexico have not fallen into their old ways. This is not a retread of Feast of Wire, but a consolidation of their restless spirit. Burns and Convertino may have encouraged the notion of their band as desert troubadours, but they began life as a lounge act playing Dean Martin covers, and have always displayed an interest in travelling off-map. Calexico have always resisted categorisation, but they represent Americana in its broadest sense; as a place where the declamations of film soundtracks collide with the brusque immediacy of traditional folk forms, sometimes wandering onto the lower slopes of jazz.

With such aural invention going on, it’s easy to forget the words, not least because Burns sings them in a manner that is as unobtrusive as his lyrics are sparsely poetic. Carried To Dust is a less obviously polemical record than Garden Ruin, but if Burns is not railing against Bush, he’s still in a dislocated mood, placing stateless refugees – or possibly spies – on barren landscapes in “Two Silver Trees” (inspired, apparently, by the poet Norman Dubie), and going fully post-apocalyptic on “Man Made Lake”, which conjures a Twilight Zone world of submerged streets and cellphone trees.

In the press notes for the album, Burns suggests an overarching narrative, based on a character who finds himself without work during the Hollywood writers’ strike, and takes a road trip. That’s certainly the subject of the mysterious Writers’ Minor Holiday, but it would be a stretch to suggest that the concept extends across the whole record.

If anything, the songs come from Burns’ travel journal, not least a trip to South America. He was inspired by a visit to La Chascona, the Santiago home of poet Pablo Neruda, and a restorative visit to Valparaiso.

The Chilean trip surfaces in the opening track, Victor Jara’s Hands – which namechecks the poet murdered by Pinochet, whose name lived on as a symbol of artistic bravery and inspiration – and “House Of Valparaiso” (with Sam Beam on misty backing vocals), which suggests the fearful flight of refugees from an oppressive regime. Both Burns and Convertino are aware that the imagery of the sea washes across Carried To Dust, and Burns uses it in his songs to represent a sense of longing, and the promise of fresh horizons. “Red Blooms”, travels furthest, being a wistful reflection on Russian “snowdrops” – those poor souls who fall down drunk in the snow, and aren’t found until spring. If you consider that Burns considers this to be an optimistic image, you’ll appreciate that his worldview still tends towards bleakness.

So, Calexico are back, but this time they’re travelling all over the map. Carried to Dust is a quietly persuasive record. Ironically, its strongest moment comes when they stay closest to home, on the gorgeous country duet “Slowness”. Pieta Brown adds a beautifully plaintive vocal to a song which plays out like a perfect moment, fondly remembered.

ALASTAIR McKAY

Songs For Insane Times: An Anthology 1969-1980

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Songs For Insane Times: An Anthology 1969-1980

While we understand its many megalomaniacs, we’re often less certain what to make of rock’s recluses. In a field so characterized by extremity, it's difficult to know what to think of those who simply refuse to court infamy. Was Bob Dylan ever harder to fathom than when shopping for groceries in Woodstock? What to make of Syd Barrett, quietly and unpsychedelically existing in Cambridge? In many respects, the decision to simply step out of one's place in the world often seems to be the oddest, and most fascinating route a musician can take. The journey mapped out by this excellent survey of Kevin Ayers' solo work is one which is framed, significantly, by two such departures. The first was his exit from Soft Machine, following a hectic US tour with the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1968. Then, disillusioned with the band's "pseudo jazz", he sold his bass guitar and began composing the reflective, lyrical, and often very funny songs collected here. In 1980, after failing to find anything more than a niche for them, Ayers moved to Spain, but for infrequent new recordings effectively quitting a business that had singly failed to find a place for him. As this set amply illustrates, however, it was not for want of trying, and his achievements were unique, and anything but small. From the warm, reflective progressive pop of his first albums (represented here by the likes of "Girl On A Swing", and "Soon Soon Soon"), through different labels (from Harvest to Island, and back), more overtly commercial productions, even a brief, hugely weird spell when he shared management with Elton John and was marketed as a pretty pop star, in the eleven years before his self-imposed exile, Ayers tried different approaches, all the while remaining a square peg ill-shaped for any large market. Perhaps it's not hard to see why. A tendency to public school silliness (a mild obsession with bananas, which endures for a good six years) is certainly present here. Likewise, so is the kind of persona which must have sounded oddly colonial at the time these records were released. A plummy approximation of Nick Drake and Noel Coward, the Ayers of these songs is a café-dwelling roué, keen on girls, who casts a satirical eye over the times, while enthusiastically lapping up what they have to offer. In an earlier generation, you can imagine Ayers of "Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes" ("He offered me some second class food…") shooting tigers, stiff drink at his side. As it is, this collection seems to bear out the idea that if you devote yourself so wholeheartedly to wine and women, song will undoubtedly follow. All of which, if artlessly done, would render Ayers more Monty Python sketch than musician. As it is, as a songwriter, he proves to be a wolf in slightly pissed sheep's clothing. It's something made plain here with two songs pertaining to his friend, Syd Barrett. "O Wot A Dream!" a delightful tale of his first meeting with Barrett (who offers him his last sandwich), not only captures the fundamentals of Barrett's composition, but also a sense of his sense of wonder at the world. A take of "Religious Experience", meanwhile, a joyful three chord mantra features Barrett on guitar, but also exists in an alternate take where Ayers apes the fractured style of his then-indisposed friend. They're both textbook cases of how finely-drawn his songs can be. Indeed, throughout the collection, there's a growing sense that Ayers’ loafing toff persona is a massive asset, as a sweetener for his more bitter pills. Live, it's hilarious (Ayers begins disc 4, a previously unreleased live set from London's QEH in 1973 by announcing, "We're going to play a piece of music I can only describe as marvellous…"). On the very best music here, meanwhile, the devastating coupling of "Whatevershebringswesing" (from the 1971 LP of the same name) and "Decadence" (inspired by Nico, from 1973's Bananamour), there's simply a lot more going on. An eight minute piece of the kind of warm, expansive music that you imagine being made equally by Pink Floyd or Brian Eno, the former track finds Ayers' vocal intoning a familiar mantra: "Let's drink some wine/And have a good time…". Now, though, the party mood has self-evidently vanished, and both Robert Wyatt's ghostly backing vocals and the devastating guitar playing of Mike Oldfield turn the song into a sad, soulful epic. His contemporaries in the progressive era may have been more complex, or louder, or more successful. The Kevin Ayers collected in Songs For Insane Times, however, advances things pretty much by sheer uniqueness of personality alone. “I don’t have any particular goal,” Ayers said, when he returned from obscurity last year. Still, unfazed by external pressures, his music is proof that to devote yourself entirely to frivolity is, in spite of everything, an extremely serious business. JOHN ROBINSON

While we understand its many megalomaniacs, we’re often less certain what to make of rock’s recluses. In a field so characterized by extremity, it’s difficult to know what to think of those who simply refuse to court infamy. Was Bob Dylan ever harder to fathom than when shopping for groceries in Woodstock? What to make of Syd Barrett, quietly and unpsychedelically existing in Cambridge? In many respects, the decision to simply step out of one’s place in the world often seems to be the oddest, and most fascinating route a musician can take.

The journey mapped out by this excellent survey of Kevin Ayers‘ solo work is one which is framed, significantly, by two such departures. The first was his exit from Soft Machine, following a hectic US tour with the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1968. Then, disillusioned with the band’s “pseudo jazz”, he sold his bass guitar and began composing the reflective, lyrical, and often very funny songs collected here. In 1980, after failing to find anything more than a niche for them, Ayers moved to Spain, but for infrequent new recordings effectively quitting a business that had singly failed to find a place for him.

As this set amply illustrates, however, it was not for want of trying, and his achievements were unique, and anything but small. From the warm, reflective progressive pop of his first albums (represented here by the likes of “Girl On A Swing”, and “Soon Soon Soon”), through different labels (from Harvest to Island, and back), more overtly commercial productions, even a brief, hugely weird spell when he shared management with Elton John and was marketed as a pretty pop star, in the eleven years before his self-imposed exile, Ayers tried different approaches, all the while remaining a square peg ill-shaped for any large market.

Perhaps it’s not hard to see why. A tendency to public school silliness (a mild obsession with bananas, which endures for a good six years) is certainly present here. Likewise, so is the kind of persona which must have sounded oddly colonial at the time these records were released. A plummy approximation of Nick Drake and Noel Coward, the Ayers of these songs is a café-dwelling roué, keen on girls, who casts a satirical eye over the times, while enthusiastically lapping up what they have to offer. In an earlier generation, you can imagine Ayers of “Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes” (“He offered me some second class food…“) shooting tigers, stiff drink at his side. As it is, this collection seems to bear out the idea that if you devote yourself so wholeheartedly to wine and women, song will undoubtedly follow.

All of which, if artlessly done, would render Ayers more Monty Python sketch than musician. As it is, as a songwriter, he proves to be a wolf in slightly pissed sheep’s clothing. It’s something made plain here with two songs pertaining to his friend, Syd Barrett. “O Wot A Dream!” a delightful tale of his first meeting with Barrett (who offers him his last sandwich), not only captures the fundamentals of Barrett’s composition, but also a sense of his sense of wonder at the world. A take of “Religious Experience”, meanwhile, a joyful three chord mantra features Barrett on guitar, but also exists in an alternate take where Ayers apes the fractured style of his then-indisposed friend. They’re both textbook cases of how finely-drawn his songs can be.

Indeed, throughout the collection, there’s a growing sense that Ayers’ loafing toff persona is a massive asset, as a sweetener for his more bitter pills. Live, it’s hilarious (Ayers begins disc 4, a previously unreleased live set from London’s QEH in 1973 by announcing, “We’re going to play a piece of music I can only describe as marvellous…”). On the very best music here, meanwhile, the devastating coupling of “Whatevershebringswesing” (from the 1971 LP of the same name) and “Decadence” (inspired by Nico, from 1973’s Bananamour), there’s simply a lot more going on.

An eight minute piece of the kind of warm, expansive music that you imagine being made equally by Pink Floyd or Brian Eno, the former track finds Ayers’ vocal intoning a familiar mantra: “Let’s drink some wine/And have a good time…”. Now, though, the party mood has self-evidently vanished, and both Robert Wyatt‘s ghostly backing vocals and the devastating guitar playing of Mike Oldfield turn the song into a sad, soulful epic.

His contemporaries in the progressive era may have been more complex, or louder, or more successful. The Kevin Ayers collected in Songs For Insane Times, however, advances things pretty much by sheer uniqueness of personality alone. “I don’t have any particular goal,” Ayers said, when he returned from obscurity last year. Still, unfazed by external pressures, his music is proof that to devote yourself entirely to frivolity is, in spite of everything, an extremely serious business.

JOHN ROBINSON

Glasvegas – Glasvegas

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Glasvegas – Glasvegas

The music press is notoriously unreliable at second-guessing what the public want. For every Oasis or Strokes, surfing the zeitgeist from critical acclaim to commercial riches, there’s been an Ultrasound or a Campag Velocet, great white hopes whose career never made it past the newsagents. Latest on this hit’n’miss production line are Glasvegas. A bunch of brylcreemed twenty-somethings boasting an unnerving resemblance to most of the Creation roster circa 1986, they’ve been called “the best group from Glasgow since The Mary Chain” by Alan McGee, thanks to a Spector-esque wall-of-sound delivered with the chin-jutting confidence of Oasis. So, are Glasvegas truly a twenty-first century JAMC or just a modern day James King And The Lone Wolves? At their best, they’re worth every syllable of the hype. Opener “Flowers & Football Tops” swells fuzzily into focus, like a binge-drinking Ronettes, while “Geraldine” is more anthemic than any song about the social services has any right to be. Yes, that’s right, social services. Not for Glasvegas a subscription to the Bobby Gillespie book of rock’n’roll clichés. Instead singer James Allen delivers tales of grief and resilience involving absent fathers (“Daddy’s Gone”), untimely death (“Flowers & Football Tops”) and city centre violence (“Stabbed”) in a broad Glaswegian brogue even the Proclaimers might think twice about. Sometimes it pays not to listen too closely. “It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry” finds him bellowing “Liar. Liar, liar/ Pants on fire” while “Go Square Go” features a chorus of “Here we fucking go!” which must sound great at Barrowlands on a Friday night, but may not wash in Tunbridge Wells. Which brings us to the crux of the problem. Glasvegas have struck a chord because –like Oasis before them- their musical homages to their heroes (Roy Orbison, Suicide, vintage rockabilly) are so obviously heartfelt. Whether this can translate into sales is another matter. If you’re simply after retro thrills, though, these boozy anthems will provide you with one very happy hour. PAUL MOODY

The music press is notoriously unreliable at second-guessing what the public want. For every Oasis or Strokes, surfing the zeitgeist from critical acclaim to commercial riches, there’s been an Ultrasound or a Campag Velocet, great white hopes whose career never made it past the newsagents.

Latest on this hit’n’miss production line are Glasvegas. A bunch of brylcreemed twenty-somethings boasting an unnerving resemblance to most of the Creation roster circa 1986, they’ve been called “the best group from Glasgow since The Mary Chain” by Alan McGee, thanks to a Spector-esque wall-of-sound delivered with the chin-jutting confidence of Oasis.

So, are Glasvegas truly a twenty-first century JAMC or just a modern day James King And The Lone Wolves? At their best, they’re worth every syllable of the hype. Opener “Flowers & Football Tops” swells fuzzily into focus, like a binge-drinking Ronettes, while “Geraldine” is more anthemic than any song about the social services has any right to be. Yes, that’s right, social services. Not for Glasvegas a subscription to the Bobby Gillespie book of rock’n’roll clichés.

Instead singer James Allen delivers tales of grief and resilience involving absent fathers (“Daddy’s Gone”), untimely death (“Flowers & Football Tops”) and city centre violence (“Stabbed”) in a broad Glaswegian brogue even the Proclaimers might think twice about. Sometimes it pays not to listen too closely. “It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry” finds him bellowing “Liar. Liar, liar/ Pants on fire” while “Go Square Go” features a chorus of “Here we fucking go!” which must sound great at Barrowlands on a Friday night, but may not wash in Tunbridge Wells.

Which brings us to the crux of the problem. Glasvegas have struck a chord because –like Oasis before them- their musical homages to their heroes (Roy Orbison, Suicide, vintage rockabilly) are so obviously heartfelt. Whether this can translate into sales is another matter. If you’re simply after retro thrills, though, these boozy anthems will provide you with one very happy hour.

PAUL MOODY

Interview: Calexico

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Interview: Calexico
Q&A with Joey Burns and John Convertino of Calexico UNCUT: How did you approach this record? For Garden Rain you had the whole band recording at once. JOEY BURNS: We just wanted to not think about what we were doing, or have as many people involved. We had a great time doing the last record a...

Q&A with Joey Burns and John Convertino of Calexico

UNCUT: How did you approach this record? For Garden Rain you had the whole band recording at once.

JOEY BURNS: We just wanted to not think about what we were doing, or have as many people involved. We had a great time doing the last record and it was an important one to make, but with this one we just wanted to gradually go in and start rehearsing, building ideas up over time. We actually made a deadline, and without it, we wouldn’t have finished. It’s like taxes.

JOHN CONVERTINO: We wanted to get back together with Craig Schumacher. With Garden Ruin we wanted to see what would happen if we worked with a different producer. That was fun, and we were able to achieve what we wanted, which was to streamline the songs. We learned a lot. With this one we were thinking, ‘Let’s take that experience and mix it up with what we’ve been doing prior to that.’

Of all your albums, Garden Ruin sounded least like what people think of as being Calexico.

JC: I think so too, and that was what was exciting about it. In all the years I’ve done recording, I’ve always had a hand in dealing with the drum sound, and being really particular about it. With that record I just said, ‘You guys do whatever you want’.

The press notes suggest Carried To Dust is a concept album about a writer heading off the map during the Hollywood writers’ strike.

JB: The album was written at the time of the writers’ strike, but there are many themes, many subplots and connections going on here. Maybe more so musically than in the lyrics. Although believe me, I’ve been scanning the lyrics to see if there is any kind of overall theme. The idea of a writers’ strike is interesting. It got me thinking: there was a dark period in American late night television: we need this humour, we need this release from the daily news. We were without this safety valve.

Is there one character throughout the songs, or is that taking it too far?

JB: It might be taking it too far. It depends on the day.

What about literary influences? Previously you’ve alluded to Cormac McCarthy and Lawrence Clark Powell.

JB: After working with Sam (Beam) from Iron and Wine, he turned me onto this American poet, who actually lives in Arizona, Norman Dubie. I’ve been enjoying his poems a lot, and going to them for reference and for different kinds of wordplay, and meanings. Two Silver Trees is definitely influenced by his poetry. He’s got a great collection called Mercy Seat.

The lyrics seem less pointedly political than on the last album.

JB: That is true. I felt like we had done that, and that era is coming to an end. Some of these themes still run inside these songs, and they’ll always be there, because I don’t think you can escape it. But it’s not trying to make a grand statement, or attack anything as large as two terms from the Bush-Cheney administration. These are more introspective times, and I’m fascinated by the stories from our travels down to South America. For the song Red Blooms, my eldest brother John and I were talking about this news item about ‘snowdrops’, who are people who go missing during the winter in Russia. They fall in the snow. The snow piles up, and everyone is praying they are found. It’s a beautiful metaphor for transformation.

Do you feel restricted by people idea of Calexico as a South-Western band?

JC: We have this regional quality to our music which caused writers and even our fans to lock us into this region, and the desert. But when you listen to the record there’s a lot of references to the ocean. Both Joey and I grew up near to the ocean – he the Pacific and me the Atlantic. It’s just amazing when you get to the sea how that changes the way you think and feel about so many things. It’s interesting for a band that’s seemingly landlocked to the desert to have this feel coming across that’s really aquatic.

JB: Rare is the occasion where people really understand that this band started off encompassing many different world cultures. It really is an eclectic thing. When we played shows with Beirut and A Hawk and a Hacksaw, with their use of accordions, I felt such a connection with it, because we had started off with accordion polkas and waltzes. Both John’s dad and my grandfather played accordion, and passed their instruments on to us.

JC: Joey and I have a real similar background, growing up in the Sixties and having a lot of music in the house, but I think our parents are really connected to that Depression era. My grandfather was an Italian immigrant, and they didn’t have much money. I remember my dad telling the story of him playing the accordion and my grandfather passing the hat around. It’s romantic, but it’s really important to keep that spirit alive, that feeling where music is happening in the moment.

There’s a strong sense of dislocation on Carried To Dust.

JB: That’s good. I like dislocation. I often find myself writing about that. I think, as people, we’re trying to get to something, and we’re always looking for that essence that is going to carry us through. You can apply it to anything: love, your job, or your goals, your life. Or just seeing somebody pass by in the street and trying to find them. I’m in Paris, so Amelie comes to mind. Another theme that comes up a lot in our music is the need to preserve nature, the environment, resources. Urban sprawl. And having grown up in the western part of the United States there is a lot of nature surrounding much of the population. Through this avenue I find a lot of inspiration for writing; and how characters find their balance, or their perspective of meaning, and how it all makes sense.

INTERVIEW: ALASTAIR McKAY

TV On The Radio Return With An Album of the Year

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TV On The Radio Return With An Album of the Year
TV On The Radio return with their third studio album 'Dear Science' on September 22, and Uncut reckons its their best album 'by a mile'. You can read John Mulvey's in-depth preview of the follow-up to 2006's acclaimed 'Return To Cookie Mountain' by clicking here. The full tracklisting for TV On T...

TV On The Radio return with their third studio album ‘Dear Science’ on September 22, and Uncut reckons its their best album ‘by a mile’.

You can read John Mulvey’s in-depth preview of the follow-up to 2006’s acclaimed ‘Return To Cookie Mountain’ by clicking here.

The full tracklisting for TV On The Radio’s Dear Science is:

“Halfway Home”

“Crying”

“Dancing Choose”

“Stork & Owl”

“Golden Age”

“Family Tree”

“Red Dress”

“Love Dog”

“Shout Me Out”

“DLZ”

“Lover’s Day”

For more music and film news click here

UNKLE, Ian Brown and Ian Astbury To Open New London Super Club

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UNKLE, Ian Brown and Ian Astbury To Open New London Super Club
UNKLE are to team up with past musical collaborators Ian Brown and The Cult's Ian Astbury for the launch gig at new London super club and live venue Matter. The new 2,600 capacity venue inside the O2 Arena complex launches on Friday September 19 - and other bands also appearing on the night include...

UNKLE are to team up with past musical collaborators Ian Brown and The Cult’s Ian Astbury for the launch gig at new London super club and live venue Matter.

The new 2,600 capacity venue inside the O2 Arena complex launches on Friday September 19 – and other bands also appearing on the night include Iglu & Hartley and Late of the Pier.

The UNKLE performance will be Ian Brown’s second ever live collaboration and Astbury’s first.

Next week (September 8) UNKLE will also be releasing ‘Remix Stories (Volume One)’ on 12″ and digitally; the vinyl coming with four previously unreleased mixes from their last two albums.

The track listing is:

“Trouble in Paradise – Variation on a Theme” (UNKLE Remix)

“Hold My Hand” (Innervisions Orchestra Remix)

“Twilight” (Layo and Bushwacka! Remix)

“Chemistry” (Radio Slave Remix)

You can download or stream new mix of Hold My Hand (Innervisions Orchestra Remix) below:

*Download it here

*Stream it here

For more music and film news click here

Neil Young To Headline Aussie Festival

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Neil Young To Headline Aussie Festival
Neil Young has been confirmed as one of the headliners for next year's Big Day Out shows in Australia. According to Aussie music site undercover.com.au, the singer who is currently touring Europe will play also play a series of his own headline shows in January in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. S...

Neil Young has been confirmed as one of the headliners for next year’s Big Day Out shows in Australia.

According to Aussie music site undercover.com.au, the singer who is currently touring Europe will play also play a series of his own headline shows in January in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

So far this year, Young has unveiled three new songs during his shows, “Just Singing A Song Won’t Change The World”, “Sea Change” and “When World’s Collide. ”

Big Day Out 2009 will be officially announced on September 30, previous headliners have included Rage Against The Machine, Metallica, Bjork and Arcade Fire.

Tickets for Neil’s other shows will go on sale on September 19.

They are:

Brisbane, Entertainment Centre (January 21)

Sydney, Entertainment Centre (24)

Melbourne, Myer Music Bowl (28)

For more music and film news click here

Pic credit: PA Photos

TV On The Radio: “Dear Science”

John Mulvey
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Judging by the activity on the blog about “Golden Age”, there’s a fair amount of excitement about TV On The Radio’s “Dear Science”. And, now that I’ve heard the album properly a few times, I reckon it’s pretty justified: this is the best record the band have made by a mile. I’m going to start by quoting our regular French penfriend, Baptiste, who posted this about “Dear Science” on the “Golden Age” blog. “ It is way more ambitious and broad than ‘Return’... (which I liked btw),” he writes. “Strings and horns, more concise songs, a fuller band , more grief than anger I'd say (even though anger is kind of grief), more soul-ish, I guess, less martial (still, there's a sort of drum'n'bass song). They move on, that's for sure.” I’d agree with most of that, though it seems a hugely angry album to me, and I wasn’t personally a huge fan of “Return To Cookie Mountain”. That record seemed to me prey to David Sitek’s worst excesses: the obsessive layering, a certain overdone aesthetic which often came close to smothering the songs. While the rich complexities of TV On The Radio are still vividly apparent on “Dear Science”, there’s also some space there. You can pick out individual instruments much more easily this time, which as Baptiste points out, heightens our awareness of the fantastic musicianship; there isn’t so much of that glutinous, super-processed merging of sounds. Then of course there’s the increased funkiness, which’ll be readily apparent to anyone who’s heard “Golden Age”. In his fascinating interview with the band in the current Uncut, Peter Shapiro describes “Dear Science” as the work of an Afro-punk-disco band with axes to grind and butts to shake,” which is very good. What’s striking, though, is the way they re-invent various bits of the ‘80s in ways that are not quite like their other Brooklyn/discopunk contemporaries – like, for instance, how they graft Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” onto a Bowie vamp for “Golden Age”. Their old chum Bowie is a prized influence here, so much so that the usual Peter Gabriel reference that has haunted TV On The Radio from day one seems rather superseded. “Stork & Owl” is a tremulous, opulent ballad that could just about have fitted on to “Scary Monsters”. But even there, there’s so much else going on: as my colleague Phil points out, there’s something of Prince’s freaked balladry circa “Sign O’ The Times” here, too. The first three tracks of “Dear Science”, meanwhile, are just about as strong as any start to an album I’ve heard this year. “Halfway Home” has barbershop harmonies that conjure up a sort of gothic, gilded “Surfin’ Bird”, but the overheated synths and voluptuous chorus melody remind me vaguely of one of their predecessors at 4AD, Ultra Vivid Scene. “Crying” is one of the album’s most potent funk tracks (up there with the vibrant mix of Stax horns, Afrobeat rhythms, wiry New York punk-funk guitars and righteous invective that is “Red Dress”), where the weak – in a good way – rhythm guitar is pitched somewhere between the Family Stone and, since it’s more clipped and less sloppy, someone like A Certain Ratio or Quando Quango, maybe. Finally, track three, “Dancing Choose”, fires up an overdriven, drum’n’bass-related breakbeat, then finds one of the singers – Tunde Adebimpe, I think, but he and Kyp Malone flit round each other so much this time round that it’s not always easy for me to identify who’s taking the lead – spit-rapping in the style of a hyper-modernised “Subterranean Homesick Blues” or, perhaps more accurately, “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It”. Superb, exciting music. In this context, baroque ballad constructs like “Family Tree” take longer to bed in. But this is an album with myriad nuances and details to investigate once the initial dazzling punch has worn off. As “Dear Science” goes on, it sometimes feels like the patented Sitek mist is descending again. But on, say, “DLZ”, the intimidating closeness is undercut with a new ferocity and focus. They’ve been in this territory before, but never so successfully. Ditto the finale, “Lover’s Day”, which revisits that martial vibe that Baptiste suggested was played down this time. Sitek really piles it on here, so that it seems like a marching band of Brooklyn bohemians are heading, enraged but with deadly purpose, towards the Whitehouse. But again, the definition is sharper, the tune stronger (a touch of “When Doves Cry”, maybe?), the cumulative effect overwhelming in a dynamic rather than delirious way. It makes “Dear Science” feel like a fabulously ambitious call to arms, rather than an over-elaborate trinket. One for the end-of-year lists, I reckon, then. . .

Judging by the activity on the blog about “Golden Age”, there’s a fair amount of excitement about TV On The Radio’s “Dear Science”. And, now that I’ve heard the album properly a few times, I reckon it’s pretty justified: this is the best record the band have made by a mile.

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Status Quo Celebrate 40 Years With Celebrity Artwork Auction

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Status Quo Celebrate 40 Years With Celebrity Artwork Auction
Status Quo are celebrating 40 years since the release of debut single "Pictures of Matchstick Men" by announcing that they are to hold an auction of unique artwork by celebrities including Brian Wilson, Alice Cooper and Rolf Harris. The celebs have created their own versions of classic Quo single a...

Status Quo are celebrating 40 years since the release of debut single “Pictures of Matchstick Men” by announcing that they are to hold an auction of unique artwork by celebrities including Brian Wilson, Alice Cooper and Rolf Harris.

The celebs have created their own versions of classic Quo single and album covers and all money raised at the Bonhams auction on November 5 will go to The Prince’s Trust.

As well as the auction, the mighty Quo who have released 75 singles over their 40 year career are to release the best as “Pictures: 40 Years of Hits” -a multi format singles collection; a 4CD ‘Earbook’, 3CD, 2CD, USB, vinyl and digital sets – all offering different track listings and rarities.

The 4CD version is fully remastered and will come accompanied with a 120 page Art book featuring the works to go under the hammer at auction.

Status Quo have also announced a mammoth UK Winter tour.

Catch the veteran rockers at the following venues from the end

of the month:

Newcastle City Hall (September 27)

Llandudno Venue Cymru (28, 29)

Bristol Colston Hall (October 1, 2)

Oxford New Theatre (4, 5)

Croydon Fairfields Hall (7, 8)

Harrogate International Centre (10, 11)

Halifax Victoris Theatre (12)

Hull City Hall (14)

Blackpool Opera House (15)

Manchester Palace Theatre (16, 17)

Cambridge Corn Exchange (19)

Southend Cliffs Pavillion (20, 21)

Ipswich Regent Theatre (23, 24)

Portsmouth Guildhall Theatre (26)

Plymouth Pavillions (27)

Brighton Centre (December 12)

London Wembley Arena (13)

Glasgow SECC (14)

Aberdeen ECC (16)

Sheffield Arena (17)

Nottingham Arena (19)

Cardiff International Arena (20)

Birmingham NEC (22)

Bournemouth BIC (23)

For more music and film news click here

Stones Iconic ‘Lips’ To Go On Show In London

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Stones Iconic ‘Lips’ To Go On Show In London

The Rolling Stones' iconic 'Tongue and Lips' original artwork has been purchased by London's Victoria and Albert Museum with help from The Art Fund, an idependent artt charity. One of the most instantly recognisable symbols of rock, the pop art Tongue and Lips were designed by Royal College of Art student John Pasche in 1970, for which he was paid £250 for the artwork in two installments in '70 and '72. Pasche worked with the Stones until 1974 when he then worked with Paul McCartney, The Who, The Stranglers and Dr Feelgood before becoming art director at United Artists (Music) and Chrysalis Records. The work has been bought by the V&A at auction, with 50% of the $92,500 cost being met by The Art Fund. Head of exhibitions at the V&A Victoria Broakes commented on the purchase, saying: "The Rolling Stones 'Tongue' is one of the first examples of a group using branding and it has become arguably the world's most famous rock logo. We are delighted to have acquired the original artwork, especially as it was designed at the Royal College of Art right here in South Kensington by a student who used to visit the V&A's collections for inspiration. We are very grateful for the Art Fund's support in helping us acquire this exciting addition to our collections." For more music and film news click here

The Rolling Stones‘ iconic ‘Tongue and Lips’ original artwork has been purchased by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum with help from The Art Fund, an idependent artt charity.

One of the most instantly recognisable symbols of rock, the pop art Tongue and Lips were designed by Royal College of Art student John Pasche in 1970, for which he was paid £250 for the artwork in two installments in ’70 and ’72.

Pasche worked with the Stones until 1974 when he then worked with Paul McCartney, The Who, The Stranglers and Dr Feelgood before becoming art director at United Artists (Music) and Chrysalis Records.

The work has been bought by the V&A at auction, with 50% of the $92,500 cost being met by The Art Fund.

Head of exhibitions at the V&A Victoria Broakes commented on the purchase, saying: “The Rolling Stones ‘Tongue’ is one of the first examples of a group using branding and it has become arguably the world’s most famous rock logo. We are delighted to have acquired the original artwork, especially as it was designed at the Royal College of Art right here in South Kensington by a student who used to visit the V&A’s collections for inspiration. We are very grateful for the Art Fund’s support in helping us acquire this exciting addition to our collections.”

For more music and film news click here

Coldplay To Release More New Material This Year

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Coldplay To Release More New Material This Year
Coldplay have revealed that they are planning to release an EP of new material entitled "Prospects March" possibly around Christmas time. Speaking to BBC 6Music, band frontman Chris Martin confirmed that more tracks had been recorded than feature on latest chart topping album 'Viva La Vida Or Death...

Coldplay have revealed that they are planning to release an EP of new material entitled “Prospects March” possibly around Christmas time.

Speaking to BBC 6Music, band frontman Chris Martin confirmed that more tracks had been recorded than feature on latest chart topping album ‘Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends’ that would be included on the new release.

Martin also revealed that they are planning a new album release next December. He said: “We’re going to put an EP out at Christmas called ‘Prospects March’ and we’re going to release an album next December to end the decade.”

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First look – Hamlet 2

Michael Bonner
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The movie career of Steve Coogan has so far proved to be a fascinatingly erratic subject. Sure, it’s not unusual to find a successful British TV comedian struggle to establish himself in movies, particularly in Hollywood. For every Dudley Moore, who became a huge movie star in the States with Arthur and 10, you only have to look at Peter Cook - the true genius in that partnership - whose transatlantic film career barely made it beyond Supergirl. Coogan has so far proven himself a lot better in smaller American movies: he’s brilliant as pompous English actor called Steve Coogan in Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee & Cigarettes (2003), and light but good in a rare dramatic role, as Count Mercy d’Anjou in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (2006). Put him in something like Around The World In 80 Days (2004) or Night At The Museum (2006), and he just flounders. You could argue, perhaps, that the famously forensic attention to detail he puts into building his TV characters gets lost in the noise and spectacle of a Hollywood production. But then, having seen Tropic Thunder, where Coogan plays a pompous English director, it’s possible for him hit the mark in a big budget movie. Maybe, too, there’s an argument that Coogan works better in British movies because his particular talents are instinctively familiar to a UK creative team. So far, the two best pieces of cinema on his CV are conspicuously homegrown: 24 Hour Party People (2002) and A Cock And Bull Story (2005), both directed by Michael Winterbottom. I think why Coogan shines in Coffee & Cigarettes, 24 Hour Party People, A Cock And Bull Story and Tropic Thunder is because his characters are insufferable egomaniacs, and he's very good at those. Which is also true of Dana Marschz, Coogan’s character in Hamlet 2. Marschz is a failed actor who now teaches drama at a high school in Tucson, Arizona. His pomposity masks a deep-rooted self-loathing and there’s issues with his father buried not-so-deeply too. He’s a failure who thinks he’s a misunderstood genius. There is certainly the makings of a classic Coogan creation, but Hamlet 2 is too broad and too lazy to make best use of its star’s talents. As an actor, Marschz’s credits included a string of late-night commercials for herpes medication (which, like Tropic Thunder’s fake commercials we see at the film’s opening), an extra in an Al Jazeera TV movie and a weeks’ work as a stand-in for Robin Williams on Patch Adams. The supposed highlights of the school drama calendar are Marschz bi-yearly adaptations of Hollywood movies. We get to see his Erin Brockovich, and we learn he mounted a production of Mississippi Burning the previous year. But they’re awful, playing to a handful of bored looking parents, and routinely savaged by the pimply drama critic on the school paper. When the principal decides to axe drama, Marschz is spurred into action, writing, directing and starring in a rock’n’roll musical sequel to Hamlet in order to try and save his department. Hamlet 2 involves time travel, Jesus, Star Wars and much public exorcising of Marschz’s own Oedipal issues. It is, needless to say, mind-numbingly bad. But not for the right reasons. One of the subjects Hamlet 2 swipes at is inspiration teacher movies like Dead Poet’s Society, Mr Holland’s Opus and Dangerous Minds. But the idea that someone as punchable and probably deranged as Marschz could somehow bring out the best in his class of Hispanic gangbangers is a major flaw. As is the production of Hamlet 2 itself, which looks like it has the budget of the entire school behind it. Thinking of Christopher Guest’s Waiting For Guffman, another movie that similarly sent up the awfulness of talentless amateur dramatics, I’m struck by how little genuine wit there is in Hamlet 2. Coogan himself mugs and leers and crows, and certainly Marschz’s towering self-belief is occasionally reminiscent of Alan Partridge. “I just wondered why in Hamlet everyone had to die,” he says, by way of explaining why he wanted to write his sequel, which he later grandly describes as “a controversial piece of socialist agit-prop theatre.” But beyond these admittedly fantastic glimpses into Marschz’s delusional mind, everything else feels a little flat. Even Catherine Keener, as Marschz’s scathing wife, doesn’t quite elevate the material. Still, at least there’s Tropic Thunder... Hamlet 2 opens in the UK in November; you can see the trailer here

The movie career of Steve Coogan has so far proved to be a fascinatingly erratic subject. Sure, it’s not unusual to find a successful British TV comedian struggle to establish himself in movies, particularly in Hollywood. For every Dudley Moore, who became a huge movie star in the States with Arthur and 10, you only have to look at Peter Cook – the true genius in that partnership – whose transatlantic film career barely made it beyond Supergirl.

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British Sea Power Throw Party At UK’s Highest Pub

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British Sea Power Throw Party At UK’s Highest Pub
British Sea Power have just curated their own three day festival (August 29-31) 'Sing Ye From The Hillsides' at Britain's highest altitude pub (1732 ft above sea level), Tan Hill, in the Yorkshire Dales. Attended by just 200 fans, including Artic Monkey Alex Turner and the Klaxons who arrived on Sa...

British Sea Power have just curated their own three day festival (August 29-31) ‘Sing Ye From The Hillsides’ at Britain’s highest altitude pub (1732 ft above sea level), Tan Hill, in the Yorkshire Dales.

Attended by just 200 fans, including Artic Monkey Alex Turner and the Klaxons who arrived on Saturday as part of an entourage celebrating their producer and Simian Mobile Disco member James Ford‘s stag do, the festival was more akin to a giant camping holiday in the beautiful but brutal landscape.

The famously eccentric band who originally hail from the area (Cumbria and West Yorkshire), worked with local Dent Brewery to create a new beer especially for the festival named ‘British Ale Power’ as well as holding and participating in the Tan Hill Olympics; featuring husky racing, tug of war, egg throwing and doughnut eating competitions as part of the games.

Playing four sets over the course of the three nights, British Sea Power treated those assembled to B-sides and rarities as well as newer material from their Mercury Music Prize nominated third album ‘Do You Like Rock Music?’ with front man Yan stage diving and being carried over the audience at least once amongst the chaos.

The band’s second set in the barn on Saturday night saw a stage invasion with several Klaxons joining in for the extended 25 minute jam session after the midnight fireworks on the moor.

Other bands who performed include I Like Trains, Silvery and Dirty Cakes.

British Sea Power are due to perfom live at next week’s Mercury Prize ceremony (September 9) and will also play the following regional shows next month:

Brighton Corn Exchange (October 2)

Southampton University (3)

Cambridge Junction (5)

Bristol, Academy (6)

Birmingham, Academy (7)

Newcastle, University (9)

Dundee, Fat Sams (10)

Glasgow, ABC (11)

Manchester, Ritz (12)

Leeds, Metropolitan University (13)

Oxford, Regal (15)

London, The Roundhouse (17)

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Uncut Top 10 Most Read

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Uncut Top 10 Most Read
This week's (ending Sept 1, 2008) Top 10 most read stories, blogs and reviews: Top feature is The Verve with the album review for comeback their comeback record 'Forth' , which topped the UK's album chart yesterday (August 31). Click on the subjects below to check out Uncut.co.uk's most popular pa...

This week’s (ending Sept 1, 2008) Top 10 most read stories, blogs and reviews:

Top feature is The Verve with the album review for comeback their comeback record ‘Forth’ , which topped the UK’s album chart yesterday (August 31).

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

1. ALBUM REVIEW: THE VERVE – FORTH

2. ALBUM REVIEW: BRIAN WILSON – THAT LUCKY OLD SUN

3. LIVE REVIEW: REM – Lancashire County Cricket Ground, Manchester, August 24 2008 – Were you at R.E.M’s recent shows? Let us know what you thought here.

4. LIVE REVIEW: Reading Festival 2008: Metallica

5. NEWS: PIXIES STUDIO REUNION IS ‘A WAITING GAME’ says Black Francis

6. THE HOLD STEADY – STAY POSITIVE, the album reviewed

7. VIDEO: WATCH RADIOHEAD COVER CLASSIC NEIL YOUNG SONG

8. NEWS: JOHN LENNON MOVIE IN THE WORKS, from the scriptmaker behind Control

9. GENESIS REISSUE FIVE CLASSIC ALBUMS AS BOX SET

10. NEWS: LED ZEPPELIN BACK IN THE STUDIO!

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Somers Town

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Somers Town
DIRECTED BY: SHANE MEADOWS STARRING: THOMAS TURGOOSE, PIOT JAGIELLO Nottingham's Shane Meadows has become something of a master of the cheap and cheerful. Not always that cheerful, though: This Is England, his last film and his best yet, was a chillingly on-the-ball evocation of far-right 80s skin...

DIRECTED BY: SHANE MEADOWS

STARRING: THOMAS TURGOOSE, PIOT JAGIELLO

Nottingham’s Shane Meadows has become something of a master of the cheap and cheerful. Not always that cheerful, though: This Is England, his last film and his best yet, was a chillingly on-the-ball evocation of far-right 80s skinhead culture. But in Somers Town, Meadows is unashamedly cheap, definitely cheerful, and – at 75 minutes – bracingly brief. This is his first film to be set in London – specifically, the area around the back of St Pancras Station. The film was financed by Eurostar, although the result is anything but an ad for the upmarket salad bars of the new London-Paris terminal.

Thomas Turgoose, the young lead in This Is England, plays Tommo, a teenager from a care home, venturing down to London in the hope of better things. Tommo quickly falls foul of some local kids, but things look up when he falls in with Marek (Piotr Jagiello), a shy Polish boy whose father is a construction worker at the station. Tommo and Marek hit it off after initial wariness, united by their adoration of a French cafe waitress (Elisa Lasowski). Their courtship of her is strictly a teenage boy’s fairy-tale fantasy, as Paul Fraser’s script is quick to recognise, and the rest of the film settles into a more realistic view of life in a mundane but bustling part of the metropolis.

Meadows’s films often have a baggy, happenstance feel, as if he simply enjoys hanging around with characters he likes, and Somers Town fits that pattern. There’s much of Meadows’s usual tomfoolery: Tommo loses his clothes and ends up wearing a ridiculous set of ill-fitting fancy dress. Some priceless comic content comes from neighborhood chancer Graham (Perry Benson, laying on the ‘how’s your father’ dopiness), who cheerfully exploits the lads as hired help on his fly-by-night ventures.

Somers Town slightly comes across like Ken Loach lite, but it’s an enjoyable, honest and emotionally generous film, strongly evocative of how it feels to wile away your afternoons as an outsider in a city that’s indifferent to your troubles.

JONATHAN ROMNEY

The Wackness

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The Wackness
DIRECTED BY: Jonathan Levine STARRING: Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck, Famke Janssen Some things don't seem as though they should ever be put together, but as Sir Ben Kingsley proves in his unlikely making-out scene with US teen poster girl Mary-Kate Olsen, mixing things up a bit can be the lifeblood of ...

DIRECTED BY: Jonathan Levine

STARRING: Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck, Famke Janssen

Some things don’t seem as though they should ever be put together, but as Sir Ben Kingsley proves in his unlikely making-out scene with US teen poster girl Mary-Kate Olsen, mixing things up a bit can be the lifeblood of a good low-budget movie. In The Wackness, everyday angst comes in a double whammy, fusing the standard American-indie coming of age story with the lesser-spotted mid-life crisis comedy, starring kids TV pinup Josh Peck as college graduate Luke Shapiro, who deals grass not only to his peers but to his ex-hippie shrink, Dr Squires (Kingsley).

Luke is sexually frustrated, his shrink anything but, and when Squires’ bitchy young wife throws him out, the two form an unlikely alliance. The life lessons they learn you’ll see coming a mile away, but the rap soundtrack, some quirky touches – the setting is pre-cleanup 1994 New York – and an epic comic performance by Kingsley bring some much-appreciated dopeness to the table.

DAMON WISE

Hush Arbors: “Hush Arbors”

John Mulvey
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It occurred to me, some time after filing the AC/DC blog on Friday, that I’ve been a bit slack at covering underground stuff (“Interstellar Overdrive” notwithstanding) for the past week or two. Checking through the psych/free-folk things around my desk to try and fix that, I’m tempted by a new Jackie O Motherfucker jam (more fractious than the last couple of theirs that have crossed my path), Josephine Foster’s “This Coming Gladness” and, especially, by Helena Espvall & Masaki Batoh’s duo album, which is a lovely investigation of affinities between various folk traditions (especially Swedish and Japanese) by Espers’ cellist and the mainstay of Ghost. The one record from this sector that I’ve been playing most of late, though, is the self-titled album by Hush Arbors. God knows how many albums Keith Wood – aka Hush Arbors, generally – has made thus far; if I remember rightly, I don’t actually have any of them, in spite of having seen him play a good few gigs – sometimes in the company of Sunburned Hand Of The Man, a band which he occasionally figures in. Wood also seems to be a player these days in Current 93, a band whose revolving cast of characters are almost invariably up my street, but whose own actual music never really works for me, chiefly I suppose because I can never quite get on with David Tibet’s voice and the faintly gothic/industrial tradition from which he comes (I’ve always struggled with Tibet’s kindred spirits, most notably Coil, for much the same reasons). Anyway, Ben Chasny – Six Organs Of Admittance, of course – also figures in Current 93, and it emerges that Chasny is Wood’s champion, collaborator and most obvious musical reference point. The customarily erudite and appetising biog from Ecstatic Peace that comes with “Hush Arbors”, drops plenty of tantalising comparisons; to John Phillips, Neil Young, The Byrds, Bert Jansch, Mazzy Star and, regarding “Water II”, to “A Wire subscriber’s ‘Siamese Dream’, ‘Isn’t Anything’ as raised on a diet of wolves and Whitman.” All valid, more or less (though that last one is a bit obtuse), but the combination of eldritch, circling acid-folk and some rockier, if still nimble, adventures, topped off with the thin incantations of Wood, are inescapably reminiscent of Six Organs – in a very fine way, I should hastily add. There’s a notable moment when the jangly folk-rock of “Follow Closely” gets knocked sideways by a fiercely snaking solo. That’s Chasny. Then a couple of songs later, in “Gone”, there’s a real freak-out that matches it blow for blow. This time, it’s Wood himself. “Gone”, as it happens, shows that Hush Arbors, for all their dimly-lit subterranean rep, are actually a rather accessible proposition. “Light”, for instance, is excitingly straightforwardish fuzzpop, while “Sand” is as uncomplicatedly pretty as this sort of psych-folk gets, right up there with my own personal favourite, PG Six (there’s a big echo of Pat Gubler’s style on “Rue Hollow”, incidentally). One more comparison: Alexander Tucker, especially the mix of voice and looping riffs on “Bless You”. All good.

It occurred to me, some time after filing the AC/DC blog on Friday, that I’ve been a bit slack at covering underground stuff (“Interstellar Overdrive” notwithstanding) for the past week or two.

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Rolling Stones Movie Comes To DVD In November

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Rolling Stones Movie Comes To DVD In November

Martin Scorsese's concert movie of The Rolling Stones, "Shine A Light", turns up in the shops as a DVD just in time for Christmas. The DVD is out on November 10, and there'll also be a Collectors Edition with individual numbering and a 16-page booklet of production notes. The DVD features four songs that didn't make it into the cinema version, plus a bunch more backstage, rehearsal and archival footage. The release will also include a second disc, which is a digital copy of the film, so fans can transfer a copy onto their iPod or laptop. For more music and film news click here

Martin Scorsese’s concert movie of The Rolling Stones, “Shine A Light”, turns up in the shops as a DVD just in time for Christmas.

The DVD is out on November 10, and there’ll also be a Collectors Edition with individual numbering and a 16-page booklet of production notes.

The DVD features four songs that didn’t make it into the cinema version, plus a bunch more backstage, rehearsal and archival footage.

The release will also include a second disc, which is a digital copy of the film, so fans can transfer a copy onto their iPod or laptop.

For more music and film news click here

John Lennon Movie In The Works

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John Lennon Movie In The Works

The early life of John Lennon is the subject of a new film. Called Nowhere Boy, it’s to be directed by Turner Prize nominated artist Sam Taylor-Wood from a screenplay by Matt Greenhaigh, who wrote Control, the biopic of Joy Division's Ian Curtis. Based on a book by Lennon's half-sister, Julia Baird, the film will explore the influence Lennon's aunt Mimi and mother Julia played on his life. No casting announcements have been made. Previous films about the life of the ex-Beatle include The Hours And The Times, Backbeat and Chapter 27. Nowhere Boy will mark Taylor Wood’s first full-length feature film. Her previous work includes a video installation of David Beckham, a promotional video for Elton John starring Robert Downey Jr and collaborations with the Pet Shop Boys. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1997. Earlier this year, she directed Love You More from a script by Patrick Marber for producer Anthony Minghella, which was nominated for the short film Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. For more music and film news click here

The early life of John Lennon is the subject of a new film. Called Nowhere Boy, it’s to be directed by Turner Prize nominated artist Sam Taylor-Wood from a screenplay by Matt Greenhaigh, who wrote Control, the biopic of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis.

Based on a book by Lennon’s half-sister, Julia Baird, the film will explore the influence Lennon’s aunt Mimi and mother Julia played on his life. No casting announcements have been made.

Previous films about the life of the ex-Beatle include The Hours And The Times, Backbeat and Chapter 27.

Nowhere Boy will mark Taylor Wood’s first full-length feature film. Her previous work includes a video installation of David Beckham, a promotional video for Elton John starring Robert Downey Jr and collaborations with the Pet Shop Boys. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1997. Earlier this year, she directed Love You More from a script by Patrick Marber for producer Anthony Minghella, which was nominated for the short film Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

For more music and film news click here

AC/DC: “Rock’n’Roll Train”

John Mulvey
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A quick one today, as Brian Johnson might say. I was subbing some copy for the next issue this morning, where a rock star who shall remain nameless for another four weeks revealed that he’d choose the Benny Hill theme as seduction music. AC/DC always seem like the rock equivalent of that, in many ways – so squalid, so repetitive. And yet, as I may have mentioned before, I can’t think of many bands I’ve seen live and enjoyed so much. I’m a sucker for the records, too, so the arrival of “Rock’n’Roll Train” is an enormous pleasure. The practicalities of trying to review this fine song are not new ones: what else is there to say about an AC/DC song other than it sounds like all their other ones, and it’s great? Perusing the tracklisting for the parent album, “Black Ice” (which I should be hearing next week, incidentally), I could have sworn that they’ve used some of these titles before, too. I was going to quote one or two to prove this, but it strikes me that every track on the album is like that – "Rock’n’Roll Train” "Skies On Fire" "Big Jack" "Anything Goes" "War Machine" "Smash 'n' Grab" "Spoilin' For a Fight" "Wheels" "Decibel" "Stormy May Day" "She Likes Rock 'n' Roll" "Money Made" "Rock 'n' Roll Dream" "Rocking All the Way" "Black Ice" Only three with “rock’n’roll” in the title, parsimoniously. Someone in the office mentioned how far they’ve gone with three chords. Their vocabulary hasn’t needed to be much bigger, either. Anyway, some salient facts. “Rock’n’Roll Train” is produced by Brendan O’Brien, and unlike some of his work with Springsteen and Neil Young, it’s suitably clean, crisp and massive. I’ve regularly argued about how, while Angus Young always gets the attention for his shredding, it’s Malcolm Young’s steady, mathematical riffing that is AC/DC’s greatest strength. Unlike most of “Stiff Upper Lip”, this one finds the band doing their patented Herculean plod rather than priapic boogie. As a guide, I’d pitch it somewhere between “You Shook Me All Night Long” and “For Those About To Rock”. We can marvel endlessly about how this took them eight years to come up with, but maybe AC/DC begin with complication and then slowly and ruthlessly pare everything down until there’s nothing left but a riff, a chant, a crude sexual metaphor. Or perhaps they just knock this stuff out in a brief hiatus between three-year holidays. Whatever: fabulous. And it’s here for you to sample. Sceptics, of course, should stay well away. UPDATE: I've now filed a preview of the whole album here.

A quick one today, as Brian Johnson might say. I was subbing some copy for the next issue this morning, where a rock star who shall remain nameless for another four weeks revealed that he’d choose the Benny Hill theme as seduction music. AC/DC always seem like the rock equivalent of that, in many ways – so squalid, so repetitive. And yet, as I may have mentioned before, I can’t think of many bands I’ve seen live and enjoyed so much.

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