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This Much I Know To Be True

Alastair McKay
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This Much I Know To Be True
Andrew Dominik’s second documentary about Nick Cave begins with a feint worthy of This Is Spinal Tap. “I’ve retrained as a ceramicist,” Cave tells the camera, deadpan, “because it’s no longer viable to be a musician.” And it’s true. Inspired by his collection of Staffordshire pottery...

Andrew Dominik’s second documentary about Nick Cave begins with a feint worthy of This Is Spinal Tap. “I’ve retrained as a ceramicist,” Cave tells the camera, deadpan, “because it’s no longer viable to be a musician.” And it’s true. Inspired by his collection of Staffordshire pottery, Cave has diversified into trinkets. Not just any trinkets. After a flawed attempt to cast a mantelpiece ornament of a saint boiling in oil, Cave has moved on to a series of 18 figurines telling the story of the Devil. Here is the (unglazed) Devil as a baby.

Here he is “growing up and doing bold, dangerous things”. Does the camera linger when we get to the Devil killing his first child? It does, then it’s on to the Devil becoming separated from the world through his transgressions, then his remorse, and on – spoiler alert – to the Devil bleeding to death in a lake of blood with white swans, “goat-like things” and women holding torches.

The ceramic devilry in this Repair Shop-style interlude reflects the influence of Covid restrictions on Cave’s touring activity. This Much I Know To Be True is a continuation of Cave/Dominik’s 2016 documentary One More Time With Feeling, a haunting film that allowed Cave to address the tragic death of his son Arthur, and showed how he channelled despair into creativity. The intimacy between director and musician remains intact. The core of this film is the creative journey from Ghosteen (grief turned into myth) and Carnage (lockdown isolation, creative communion between Cave and the musically dominant Warren Ellis). Ellis talks of reaching a “meditative state” that “clicks into something transcendent” as he experiments with fractured sounds. Cave puts his more traditional songs aside to respond to Ellis’ wild energy. The musical sequences are impeccably rendered.

Cinematographer Robbie Ryan (who also filmed Cave’s solo lockdown event, Idiot Prayer) has a circular track surrounding the musicians, and after the enforced isolation of Idiot Prayer there is a communal feel to the performances with Cave and Ellis, plus an expanding group of players and singers, reaching an intensity that summons peephole glimpses of religiosity. Marianne Faithfull makes a suitably domineering cameo, removing her oxygen supply to read May Sarton’s Prayer Before Work, an intervention that serves to highlight the way in which Cave’s vocal style has become almost spoken word, fluctuating between sermon and stream-of-consciousness.

Cave is entirely in control throughout, of course, but he uses an interview sequence in the back of a taxi to suggest – or possibly confess – that his life now has “a real sense of meaning” that is not dependent on his work. “I’m much happier than I used to be,” he says, sounding freshly amazed.

Kevin Morby – This Is A Photograph

Erin Osmon
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Kevin Morby – This Is A Photograph
What is Americana, exactly? Since its birth in the margins of Nashville, and in off-lying corners of the American South and Midwest, it’s become a vast, amorphous catch-all for American music that is vaguely rootsy, twangy and aware of tradition, but that does not purport to be country or blues. T...

What is Americana, exactly? Since its birth in the margins of Nashville, and in off-lying corners of the American South and Midwest, it’s become a vast, amorphous catch-all for American music that is vaguely rootsy, twangy and aware of tradition, but that does not purport to be country or blues. Today, in America at least, it’s swelled beyond a discernible sound or identity, making way for legions of imitators in brimmed hats and put-on Southern accents – working-class cosplay in search of a record deal on Music Row.

There is plenty of great music being crafted under its banner, to be sure, but its sprawling and watered-down status also begs for a reappraisal. Kevin Morby seems acutely aware of this as he edges steadily toward a new sound of tradition. With his latest, This Is A Photograph, he interrogates the people and places that comprise the Middle American region celebrated by Americana while also opening the door for a more nuanced, creative and inclusive future for the genre. He ditches its tropes for an aesthetic that combines the tortured soul of Memphis and the vastness of the Great Plains, tracing an arc from Americana’s mix of blues, rock and country, and the people of colour who pioneered those sounds.

It comes on the heels of a winding journey. Born in Texas and raised in Kansas, throughout his 34 years Morby has trodden a familiar path for those born outside of America’s cultural capitals. After high school, he moved to Brooklyn to see if it matched the movies, becoming a modern garage-rock hipster and friend to everyone cool. Then, to LA, where his sound became earthier, more bohemian and twangy, an indie-rock guy through the haze of Bakersfield and Laurel Canyon. And finally, the prodigal son returned home, to Kansas, where he embraced the coveted and precarious position of a Voice of Middle America, energised by his environs while subverting the outside forces that aim to box him in.

As with many former journeymen, Morby’s at his best when he mines from his own province. And with This Is A Photograph, he offers the wisest and most assured rendering of the Middle American vision he’s been honing of late, one where Dylan-esque anti-singing narrates impassioned, earnest and earthen tales of family, place, love and heroes, and a crack band shakes the rafters. It is a more dynamic and liberated Singing Saw, and a more expansive Sundowner. If Morby’s whole thing was ever perplexing, this is the album that will close the deal, that will erase any shred of doubt. It also hints at a new life for Americana, a rebirth shedding its costumes and prejudice, a welcome revisionist stance on who broadcasts the legacy of working people in marginalised corners, and what that sounds and looks like.

The eponymous lead single acts as a highly personal, soul-shaking warm-up to the LP’s impressionistic third track, “A Random Act Of Kindness”, one of Morby’s finest recorded performances whose lyrical repetition and emotional crescendo recalls Gertrude Stein’s proposition that things are what they are until they very much aren’t. “Lift me up, by my hand/Lift me up, if you can/Lift me up, be my friend/Through a random act of kindness/One that’s done in blindness”, he pleads ahead of blooming strings, an appeal to personal and communal consciousness.

Rising Nashville luminary Erin Rae’s singing opens “Bittersweet, TN”, a misty rumination steered by banjo and bittersweet nostalgia, a welcome union of voices. “A Coat Of Butterflies” finds Morby’s narrator back in the Volunteer State, this time in Memphis, pondering the greatness of Jeff Buckley and the passing of youth. His voice here is rhythmic and exacting, shimmying towards a rap atop backing vocals by students of the Stax Music Academy, while Makaya McCraven’s silken drumming and glimmering shards of harp and saxophone round out the soulful mood.

Album closer “Goodbye To Good Times” finds the frontman back in his childhood home in Kansas, navigating its modest halls and outsized memories, and singing of his family’s cultural heroes as well as America’s – Tina Turner, Diane Lane, Otis Redding and Mickey Mantle. “Sometimes the good die young, and sometimes they survive”, he sings, proffering a merciful sense of resolve for cycles of fame, tragedy and legacy, closing on an image that is not a photograph, but a living document of life and art.

The Americans – Stand True

Rob Hughes
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The Americans – Stand True
The Americans’ profile is still pretty low-key, but the band comes with high-end endorsements. Greil Marcus was swept up by 2017 debut I’ll Be Yours and was left hankering for more. T Bone Burnett and Jack White commandeered them for The American Epic Sessions, with Burnett singing their virtues...

The Americans’ profile is still pretty low-key, but the band comes with high-end endorsements. Greil Marcus was swept up by 2017 debut I’ll Be Yours and was left hankering for more. T Bone Burnett and Jack White commandeered them for The American Epic Sessions, with Burnett singing their virtues as “genius 21st-century musicians that are reinventing American heritage music for this century. And it sounds even better this century.”

Belated second album Stand True reveals the West Coast threesome of Patrick Ferris (vocals/guitar), Jake Faulkner (bass) and Zac Sokolow (guitar) to be keenly attuned to the kind of roots-up music that built America. You can hear the heartland bleat of Springsteen or Bob Seger in their raw grooves, along with the rugged Southern churn of Jason Isbell or Drive-By Truckers. There’s plenty of soul here too, with Ferris clearly in thrall to ’70s Van Morrison on songs like “The Day I Let You Down” and “What I Would Do”, the latter flavoured with a distinct twist of Memphis. His quivering voice is particularly striking on the title track, a paean to commitment and staying power, often in the face of overwhelming odds, that sets up the lyrical theme of the album.

It’s the kind of impassioned stuff that demands a big canvas, the band reaching for the epic on the blustery “Give Way”, the brutish, scorned “Romeo” and “Sore Bones”, the heaviest thing on here. On “The Day I Let You Down”, Ferris sounds desolate – “If there’s penance to be paid/That’s just what I’ll do/I’ll get down on bended knee” – before being hauled up into a great surging chorus. A folkish acoustic guitar picks out the silken rhythm of “Guest Of Honour”, another song of loss that weighs heavy on his jilted heart. “I feel like nothing that you loved,” he pines, “And everything you touched”. As emotional drama, it sounds wholly persuasive. Much like Stand True itself, in fact.

Kikagaku Moyo – Kumoyo Island

Sam Richards
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Kikagaku Moyo – Kumoyo Island
Kikagaku Moyo seemed like a band going places. After initially struggling to make headway in their native country – despite tapping into a noble lineage of Japanese longhairs stretching back through Acid Mothers Temple to Happy End and Flower Travellin’ Band, Kikagaku bandleader Go Kurosawa comp...

Kikagaku Moyo seemed like a band going places. After initially struggling to make headway in their native country – despite tapping into a noble lineage of Japanese longhairs stretching back through Acid Mothers Temple to Happy End and Flower Travellin’ Band, Kikagaku bandleader Go Kurosawa complained to MonsterChildren.com that “most people [in Japan] don’t like this kind of thing, they like following the rules” – they’d been steadily building a worldwide following since relocating to Amsterdam in 2017. They toured with Wooden Shjips and hooked up with Ryley Walker at Le Guess Who? for a heady live improv set, released on his Husky Pants label as Deep Fried Grandeur; and last year they reached their biggest audience to date with a well-received set on the main stage at End Of The Road.

But now it’s all over. A brief statement on their website confirms that Kumoyo Island will be their final album and Kikagaku Moyo will “go on an indefinite hiatus” after their 2022 world tour, having “truly achieved our core mission as a band”. Exactly what that mission was and how Kumoyo Island might be seen to have achieved it is not immediately clear. In death as in life, Kikagaku Moyo remain a tantalising enigma.

Kumoyo Island is not a grandiose swansong, bankrupting the band with a surfeit of orchestral indulgence; nor does it sound like a record made by musicians pulling in different directions, desperate to get away and do their own thing. There’s certainly an abundance of good ideas – often several within the course of one song, with hooks emerging from the fog before dissolving as quickly as they came – but the band seem to work through them in perfect harmony, on the way to even greater things. Psychedelic rock is, famously, all about the journey not the destination (man) but the lack of finality or certainty here is curious.

The PR spiel for the album gamely proffers a kind of ‘back to our roots’ narrative, but that too begins to crumble under scrutiny. As a result of the Netherlands’ strict lockdown rules, Kikagaku Moyo did indeed find themselves recording back in Tokyo, in the same studio where they made their first albums. But apart from the min’yo melody of the opening track “Monaka” – the name of a wafer-based snack and a Dragon Ball character – there isn’t too much else rooting the album in Japan.

Psychedelia is very much a global language and Kikagaku Moyo are of the generation where a whole world of musical adventure has always been available at the click of a mouse. Kumoyo Island contains strong ripples of Tropicália, dub, raga rock, new age, English folk, Anatolian psych and every shade of krautrock (there’s a reason why the band named their label Guruguru Brain). You can also hear the influence of hip-hop on the way they make use of percussion loops and breakbeats to drive the music forward or allow a kind of trance state to kick in. Led by Ryu Kurosawa’s stirring sitar riff, “Dancing Blue” is a terrific wedding stomp that gives Altin Gün a run for their money; it’s immediately followed by the gently clattering groove and reverbed fanfares of “Effe”, suggesting a kind of Balearic Can.

It might sound like they’re singing in Japanese, but most songs are actually in their made-up “Kika language” with syllables chosen not for their meaning but for their sonic effect. The two exceptions are a gorgeous cover of Erasmo Carlos’s “Meu Mar” and the wistful prog epic “Yayoi, Iyayoi”, whose lyrics were assembled, cut-up style, from various old poetry and nature books in order to avoid putting across anything too concrete. You’re left to conclude that ambiguity itself is the goal, the band swirling everything together until it starts to give off unexpected resonances. Final track “Maison Silk Road” is a beautiful ambient question mark, fragments of piano and untethered Göttsching-esque guitar floating off into the ether.

It’s too easy, these days, to situate yourself squarely in a pre-existing tradition and by slavishly following its rules attempt to claim a bogus authenticity. Kikagaku Moyo are having none of that – not least because doing what you want, and grabbing a little bit of everything like famished pilgrims at a hotel buffet, is much more fun. Having just made their best album, it’s a shame that their journey ends here, although you suspect that they’ll return in new permutations before too long. For now though, you have to say: mission accomplished.

The Rolling Stones announce 1963-1966 singles box set

Elizabeth Aubrey
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The Rolling Stones announce 1963-1966 singles box set
The Rolling Stones have announced the upcoming release of a box set featuring all their single releases from 1963-1966. ORDER NOW: Miles Davis is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Kurt Vile, Cat Power and more dig deep into the genius of The Rolling Stones’ Exile On Mai...

The Rolling Stones have announced the upcoming release of a box set featuring all their single releases from 1963-1966.

ABKCO Records will release The Rolling Stones Singles 1963-1966 on June 10 in celebration of the group’s 60th anniversary this year. You can pre-order the collection here.

The limited-edition set includes reproductions of the first 18 7” vinyl singles and extended play records, which were originally released by Decca and London Records. The tracks have all been remastered by 12-time Grammy Award-winning engineer Bob Ludwig.

The set will also come with a 32-page book with extensive liner notes by Stones expert Nigel Williamson, as well as rare photos and ephemera plus a set of five photo cards and a poster, all housed in a hard-shell box.

A companion second vinyl box set in the series, The Rolling Stones Singles 1966-1971, will be released next year.

You can see the collection here:

Rolling Stones
Rolling Stones new single collection. Image: Press

The Rolling Stones recently shared two previously unheard live recordings. The tracks, “Tumbling Dice” and “Hot Stuff”, were recorded in March 1977 during the Stones’ secret concerts at the 300-capacity Toronto club El Mocambo.

The two songs are set to feature on the upcoming Live At The El Mocambo album, which is being released in full for the first time on May 13.

That album will be available on double CD, 4xLP Black Vinyl, 4xLP Neon Vinyl and digitally. It features the Stones’ full set from the March 5 show, plus three bonus tracks from the March 4 gig, newly mixed by Bob Clearmountain. You can pre-order Live At The El Mocambo here.

Meanwhile, the 60th anniversary of The Rolling Stones is set to be celebrated with a special BBC docuseries and a radio programme featuring exclusive interviews with the band members.

The four-part series My Life As A Rolling Stone will air on on BBC Two and iPlayer this summer, with each one-hour episode dedicated to the legendary rock band’s four members: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and the late Charlie Watts.

New interviews with the musicians (except for the late Watts, who died last year) and unseen footage will form “intimate portraits” in which they’ll reflect on their busy careers. For the Watts-focused episode, his story will be told via archive interviews and tributes from his fellow bandmates and musical peers.

The Rolling Stones’ manager Joyce Smyth said in a statement: “We are thrilled to celebrate 60 years of The Rolling Stones with these four films which give fans around the world a new and fascinating look at the band.”

Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle creates original music for new podcast series Beast Master

Tom Pinnock
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Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle creates original music for new podcast series Beast Master
Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle has created an album-length musical score for a new non-fiction podcast. The Californian musician and producer has soundtracked the eight-part series Beast Master, in which British writer Jamie Fullerton investigates Sam Mazzola, known as ‘Ohio’s bear king’. Fuller...

Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle has created an album-length musical score for a new non-fiction podcast.

The Californian musician and producer has soundtracked the eight-part series Beast Master, in which British writer Jamie Fullerton investigates Sam Mazzola, known as ‘Ohio’s bear king’. Fullerton himself wrestled one of Mazzola’s bears, Caesar, in 2006.

Lytle’s contributions, which are only available to hear on the podcast, touch on darker textures and moods than some of his work with Grandaddy.

“Jamie did a really great job giving me detailed visuals on almost all of the scenes,” Lytle tells Uncut. “At times it almost became too much and often very uncomfortable for me. I mean, it’s a pretty twisted and unbelievable epic of a tale, and there were a lot of strange details.

“A common situation that began to occur was me defaulting into my sonic comfort zone, which is often lush and pleasant with maybe some clever elements, and Jamie would just continue asking for ‘darker, more sinister, more twisted’. To be honest, it started to do a number on my head… I would come out the other end a little messed up.”

“Jason’s music has been a huge part of my life since I became obsessed with Grandaddy around the year 2000,” says Fullerton. “When I began getting Beast Master together, with no network deal and my life savings ploughed into rural Ohio motel fees, I drove around the state daydreaming about what it might sound like if Jason made music for it. To be able to make that daydream a reality has been pretty special.

“In places in the Beast Master soundtrack, Grandaddy fans will recognise the warm piano tones Jason is known for. But he had to make the music using a darker sonic palate than he’s used to, for this truly dark story. I reckon the Beast Master soundtrack proves that Jason is a more intriguing and deeply talented songwriter than even his seminal work with Grandaddy has shown.”

You can hear Beast Master from today (May 12), exclusively on Audible.

Kurt Vile, Cat Power and more dig deep into the genius of The Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main St: “It has got everything”

Uncut
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Kurt Vile, Cat Power and more dig deep into the genius of The Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main St: “It has got everything”
“Exile On Main St stands apart from other Stones albums, even other Stones albums from that period,” says The War On Drugs’ Adam Granduciel. “It’s not just that it’s a double album. It’s not just the circumstances in which it was recorded. There’s something about it – a vibe, a fee...

“Exile On Main St stands apart from other Stones albums, even other Stones albums from that period,” says The War On Drugs’ Adam Granduciel. “It’s not just that it’s a double album. It’s not just the circumstances in which it was recorded. There’s something about it – a vibe, a feeling. It has such a sound. The horns, the R&B, the blues. I listen to Exile all the time and still get blown away by it.”

Released 50 years ago in May, Exile On Main St (working title: Tropical Disease) brought into focus the Stones’ gifts for music, myth-making and self-publicity in one fairly explosive package. On the run from the taxman, in April 1971 the Stones decamped to Villa Nellcôte – Keith Richards’ rented waterfront residence at Villefranche-sur-Mer on the Côte D’Azur – where, as a beautiful entourage socialised upstairs, the band alchemised their masterpiece in the mansion’s spacious basement.

“You can dive into the mythology of Exile, look at photos and imagine what it might have been like to have been there for a weekend,” says Kurt Vile. “What the days would have been like, and the nights, down in that murky basement, making music, hanging out with Gram Parsons. It’s pretty amazing.”

While the sessions at Nellcôte provided Exile with its source material and muggy atmosphere, the album was the result of several years’ worth of work, beginning at Olympic Studios in London during June 1969 and finishing with the overdubbing-and-mixing sessions at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles, in March 1972. Despite the dark mythology of their problematic tax situation, the nocturnal lifestyles, break-ins and drug busts at Nellcôte, Exile proved to be a testament to the band’s iron will. “It was about proving that it doesn’t matter what you throw at The Rolling Stones, we can come up with the goods,” Richards later told Uncut.

“Exile is like a punk rock record,” says Royal Trux’s Jennifer Herrema. “It was a one-take situation for most all of the songs. I think that was important. Nothing had to be perfect – even though Exile is perfect! – and then they took it from France to LA to make it sparkle. The album artwork by Robert Frank features photos from his book The Americans… it all sums up ‘exile’ for the Stones. Like, where do we belong? Nowhere, but everywhere.”

The 3rd Uncut New Music Playlist of 2022

Sam Richards
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The 3rd Uncut New Music Playlist of 2022
"As I get a l'il older," considers Kendrick Lamar at the start of his astonishing new single "The Heart Part 5", "I realise life is perspective..." So whatever your perspective, we reckon you'll find plenty to enjoy in the playlist below, not least some tidy new gear from lifelong Uncut faves Dri...

“As I get a l’il older,” considers Kendrick Lamar at the start of his astonishing new single “The Heart Part 5”, “I realise life is perspective…”

So whatever your perspective, we reckon you’ll find plenty to enjoy in the playlist below, not least some tidy new gear from lifelong Uncut faves Drive By-Truckers and Wilco, the compelling returns of Julia Jacklin, Nina Nastasia and Aoife Nessa Frances, and some welcome Latin American sunshine from Daniel Villarreal and Sessa. Don’t delay, dig in today…

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS
“Every Single Storied Flameout”
(ATO)

JULIA JACKLIN
“Lydia Wears A Cross”
(Transgressive)

WILCO
“Tired Of Taking It Out On You”
(dBpm)

KENDRICK LAMAR
“The Heart Part 5”
(Top Dawg / Aftermath)

ANGEL OLSEN
“Big Time”
(Jagjaguwar)

VIEUX FARKA TOURÉ
“Flany Konare”
(World Circuit)

CASS McCOMBS
“Belong To Heaven”
(Anti-)

DANIEL VILLARREAL
“Patria”
(International Anthem)

GWENNO
“Tresor”
(Heavenly)

SESSA
“Gostar do Mundo”
(Mexican Summer)

SHABAKA
“Black Meditation”
(Impulse!)

DANGER MOUSE & BLACK THOUGHT
“No Gold Teeth”
(UMG)

AOIFE NESSA FRANCES
“Emptiness Follows”
(Partisan)

NINA NASTASIA
“This Is Love”
(Temporary Residence)

BDRMM
“Three”
(Sonic Cathedral)

THE UTOPIA STRONG
“Castalia”
(Rocket Recordings)

ANDREW TUTTLE
“Correlation”
(Basin Rock)

Bob Dylan unveils seven-tonne Rail Car sculpture in France

Sam Richards
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Bob Dylan unveils seven-tonne Rail Car sculpture in France
Bob Dylan has unveiled his biggest artwork to date, in the form of a "monumental" sculpture of a railway freight carriage. Constructed from seven tonnes of wrought iron, Rail Car has been installed on actual train tracks as part of the 'art and architecture' trail at Château La Coste vineyard in...

Bob Dylan has unveiled his biggest artwork to date, in the form of a “monumental” sculpture of a railway freight carriage.

Constructed from seven tonnes of wrought iron, Rail Car has been installed on actual train tracks as part of the ‘art and architecture’ trail at Château La Coste vineyard in south-west France.

Credit: CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU/AFP via Getty Images

The unveiling of Rail Car coincides with an exhibition featuring 24 of Dylan’s paintings, entitled Drawn Blank In Provence, running until 15 August in Château La Coste’s art gallery. The unseen canvases are based on drawings Dylan originally made on tours of Europe and America between 1989 and 1991.

Dylan’s previous sculptures include a set of enormous iron gates for a casino in Maryland.

Bob Dylan’s Rough And Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour picks up again in Spokane, Washington on May 28 – see all the tourdates here. He will also publish a collection of 60 essays, The Philosophy of Modern Song, via Simon & Schuster in November.

Pink Floyd reportedly in talks to sell back catalogue for hundreds of millions

Elizabeth Aubrey
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Pink Floyd reportedly in talks to sell back catalogue for hundreds of millions
Pink Floyd look to be the latest musicians in talks to sell their back catalogue for millions. ORDER NOW: Miles Davis is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Introducing our latest online exclusive: The Ultimate Companion to Pink Floyd Live According to Bloomberg, the ba...

Pink Floyd look to be the latest musicians in talks to sell their back catalogue for millions.

According to Bloomberg, the band have reportedly begun talks with several potential buyers for the rights to the entirety of their back catalogue this week. If successful, the bid could be worth hundreds of millions, according to reports.

As noted in Bloomberg, “representatives for the band have reached out to potential buyers” according to sources “familiar with the matter”. The report added that “the process began in the last few days, and it’s too early to know what the outcome will be, [the sources] said.”

Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd at their reunion 2005. Image: Getty Images

The likes of Neil Diamond, Sting, Bob Dylan, ZZ Top, Tina Turner, Stevie Nicks and more have all sold their back catalogues recently.

Many artists – including Neil Young, Blondie, Shakira and Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie – have all sold the rights to their catalogues via the Hipgnosis Song Fund. The company’s CEO Merck Mercuriadis explained his criteria for buying up catalogues last year.

“For me, the criteria is not just predictable and reliable income, but it’s cultural importance as well,” he said. “Everything that I buy is proven, it’s successful, but it’s also culturally important.

“So when you look at Eurythmics’ ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)’, Mark Ronson’s records including ‘Uptown Funk’, Lady Gaga, Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac, Steve Winwood, Nile Rodgers and Chic with Bernard Edwards, these are all culturally important artists who made big records that the whole world can sing, but are really important to people as well.”

Asked in an interview with the BBC if she was also planning to do the same, Dolly Parton recently said she would consider selling her back catalogue too.

“I would not be above doing that. All I would do then is to take that money and do whatever for my family or other businesses,” she said.

“Then I would start a whole new publishing company, start over in a few years, sell that too if I wanted to. Never say never, as they say.”

Listen to Wilco’s bittersweet new song, “Tired Of Taking It Out On You”

Elizabeth Aubrey
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Listen to Wilco’s bittersweet new song, “Tired Of Taking It Out On You”
Wilco have shared a new song - listen to "Tired Of Taking It Out On You" below. ORDER NOW: Miles Davis is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Wilco – Album By Album It's taken from the band's upcoming new double-disc album, Cruel Country, which is released next month. ...

Wilco have shared a new song – listen to “Tired Of Taking It Out On You” below.

It’s taken from the band’s upcoming new double-disc album, Cruel Country, which is released next month.

The band’s 12th studio album is set to arrive on May 27 via dBpm Records. This is the same weekend as their Solid Sound Festival in North Adams, MA, where the band will perform the new record for the first time.

Speaking about the latest single release, Jeff Tweedy said: “I’ve realised over the years that a lot of the songs I’ve written have worked as reminders to myself to pay attention to various things.

“Sometimes I think I’ve figured out how the world works in some small way, and I worry I’ll forget it if I don’t sing it back to myself occasionally. This song, I believe, is going to come in handy for just that purpose. I’m a person who needs to stay alert to how I’m treating others when I’m not feeling my best.

“And now that I mention it, when I look around, it seems like a lot of us have been taking things out on each other when we would be better served striving for understanding and empathy. I’m just trying to be honest with myself, and I guess I’m hoping if this song can help me focus on that, maybe someone else could find it useful in the same way.”

Listen to the new song here:

Comprising of 21 tracks total, Cruel Country was created with all six members together in The Loft in Chicago for the first time since the 2011’s The Whole Love, and it’s made up of almost entirely live takes.

“It’s a style of recording that forces a band to surrender control and learn to trust each other, along with each others’ imperfections, musical and otherwise,” Tweedy said of the new album. “But when it’s working the way it’s supposed to, it feels like gathering around some wild collective instrument, one that requires six sets of hands to play.”

As for themes on the new album, Tweedy explained that there’s a loose conceptual narrative on the history of the United States.

“It isn’t always direct and easy to spot, but there are flashes of clarity,” Tweedy said. “It’s all mixed up and mixed in, the way my personal feelings about America are often woven with all of our deep collective myths. Simply put, people come and problems emerge. Worlds collide. It’s beautiful. And cruel.”

He continued: “The specifics of an American identity begin to blur for me as the record moves toward the light and opens itself up to more cosmic solutions—coping with fear, without belonging to any nation or group other than humanity itself.”

Due out May 27, you can pre-order Cruel Country here.

Meanwhile, Wilco are set to perform at Black Deer Festival in the UK this summer.

The band will headline the Saturday line-up of the Kent event on June 18. Other headliners across the weekend include James and Van Morrison.

David Bowie tribute show to be held in UK’s largest planetarium

Matt Doria
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David Bowie tribute show to be held in UK’s largest planetarium
David Bowie will be honoured with a new stage performance at the National Space Centre, with four shows slated to go down later this month. ORDER NOW: Miles Davis is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: David Bowie’s contemporaries on lost album Toy: “We always felt that...

David Bowie will be honoured with a new stage performance at the National Space Centre, with four shows slated to go down later this month.

The show, titled Bowie: Oddity To Mars, features a live performance from the five-piece tribute band David Live – named for Bowie’s 1974 live album – alongside projections of footage provided by NASA, and an additional visual element developed by the Space Centre’s own in-house team.

NASA’s footage, which will be delivered in the show as a 360-degree projection, was shot during the journey of Apollo 17 – the Apollo program’s final mission to Mars in 1972. The show itself will celebrate the same stretch of Bowie’s career that the Apollo program ran for, beginning with 1969’s self-titled record and ending with The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year).

The show will take place in the Space Centre’s Sir Patrick Moore Planetarium – the largest of its ilk in the UK – on Friday May 20 and Saturday 21. Two shows will be held on each evening, with tickets on sale now from the Space Centre’s website.

In a press statement, Malika Andress – head of marketing for the National Space Centre – said: “It is really fitting this hit show is our first big evening event, following the pandemic. David Live are phenomenal, bringing the music of David Bowie to life in our planetarium alongside stunning visuals created by our in-house team.”

Last month, Parlophone announced a 50th anniversary edition of Ziggy Stardust due to be released on June 17. It will be issued as a half-speed mastered LP and a picture disc, featuring the same master and a replica promotional poster for the album.

Recently, details of the forthcoming Bowie film Moonage Daydream – the first to receive official approval from the late star’s estate – were revealed. It was reported back in November that Brett Morgen, who directed the Kurt Cobain documentary Montage Of Heck, had spent four years working on a film project that involved compiling thousands of hours of Bowie’s archival performance footage, the majority of which had never been released publicly.

Exclusive! Hear Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band’s “ American Kid”

Michael Bonner
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Exclusive! Hear Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band’s “ American Kid”
We’re thrilled to premier “American Kid”, the latest track by Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band to be taken from their forthcoming album, Dear Scott. “American Kid” follows previous tracks, “Kismet” and “Broken Beauty”. You can hear “American Kid” below. ORDER NOW: ...

We’re thrilled to premier “American Kid”, the latest track by Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band to be taken from their forthcoming album, Dear Scott.

“American Kid” follows previous tracks, “Kismet” and “Broken Beauty”. You can hear “American Kid” below.

“American Kid is about two best friends growing up in Kirby, Liverpool,” says Head. “They were in the same class at school, the same Sunday League football team and are inseparable. Todd’s going away to university and Eddie is off to finish drama school, then astonish Broadway. Eddie’s been brought up in a household of Americana. Old movies and western-themed soap operas from the ’60s like Bonanza, The High Chaparral and The Big Valley. The equivalent of Emmerdale only with Stetsons and guns. He says things like ‘sucks’ and doesn’t think about tipping his imaginary Stetson to lollipop ladies saying something like ‘Thank you kindly,’ in a Louisiana accent.

“When Todd gets back from university a lot has changed. Eddie now lives in the town centre and has become Kathy. Gone are his ‘shucks’ and southern charm. He’s in a different world and happy as their friendship grows even stronger.”

The follow-up to 2017’s Adiós Señor Pussycat, Dear Scott has been produced by Bill Ryder-Jones and will be released on June 3.

The current issue of Uncut features a major interview with Head, where he talks about Dear Scott and his other, magical albums.

Head and The Red Elastic Band are on the road in June:

Wed 1 June – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
Thu 2 June – Newcastle, The Cluny
Fri 3 June – Glasgow, St Luke’s
Sat 4 June – Manchester, Gorilla
Wed 8 June – Bristol, Thekla
Thu 9 June – Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
Fri 10 June – Liverpool, Eventim Olympia
Sat 11 June – London, o2 Shepherds Bush Empire

Remaining tickets for all shows can be found via ticket links; click here for more details.

Watch The Smile’s stop-motion animated video for “Thin Thing”

Arusa Qureshi
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Watch The Smile’s stop-motion animated video for “Thin Thing”
The Smile have shared the video for their new single "Thin Thing" - watch below. ORDER NOW: Miles Davis is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut The band – comprising Thom Yorke, his Radiohead bandmate Jonny Greenwood and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner – formed last year an...

The Smile have shared the video for their new single “Thin Thing” – watch below.

The band – comprising Thom Yorke, his Radiohead bandmate Jonny Greenwood and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner – formed last year and announced their debut album A Light For Attracting Attention last month.

“Thin Thing” follows “You Will Never Work In Television Again”, “The Smoke”,  “Skrting On The Surface” and “Pana-vision”, a track taken from the Peaky Blinders soundtrack.

It arrives with a stop-motion animated video directed by Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña, which took the pair six months to make.

Speaking about the video, they said: “Hearing the song for the first time, we imagined a frenetic fluid that carries machines, pieces of human bodies and carnivorous plants.

“When presenting the idea to the band, Thom told us about a dream that made him write the song. We believe the video is the conjunction of these two things.”

A Light For Attracting Attention arrives this Friday (May 13) digitally, and June 17 physically, via XL Recordings.

Produced and mixed by Nigel Godrich and mastered by Bob Ludwig, the 13-track album will feature strings by the London Contemporary Orchestra and a full brass section of contemporary UK jazz players including Byron Wallen, Theon and Nathaniel Cross, Chelsea Carmichael, Robert Stillman and Jason Yarde.

The Smile’s debut live shows came earlier this year with three gigs in one night at the Magazine venue in Greenwich, London.

The Smile are set to embark on their first UK and European tour this month, with shows scheduled throughout May, June and July. Buy any remaining tickets here.

Nick Cave’s son Jethro Lazenby has died, aged 31

Elizabeth Aubrey
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Nick Cave’s son Jethro Lazenby has died, aged 31
Nick Cave's son Jethro Lazenby has died, aged 31. Cave lost another son, Arthur, in 2015 after he fell to death from a cliff in Brighton. He was 15-years-old. Jethro was born in Melbourne in 1991 and only learned that Cave was his father aged eight. He became a model after being scouted out...

Nick Cave’s son Jethro Lazenby has died, aged 31.

Cave lost another son, Arthur, in 2015 after he fell to death from a cliff in Brighton. He was 15-years-old.

Jethro was born in Melbourne in 1991 and only learned that Cave was his father aged eight.

He became a model after being scouted out while in the city, but had also tried his hand at acting, with roles in 2007’s Corroboree and 2011’s My Little Princess. He’d also worked more recently as a photographer.

Jethro Lazenby
Jethro Lazenby. Image: Getty Images

Last month, Jethro was jailed following an assault on his mother, Beau Lazenby, in Melbourne, Australia.

According to reports in local media, Beau found Jethro at her front door before convincing her to let him stay over at the house. Reports add that the following morning, the pair had an argument, during which Jethro attacked his mother.

Representatives for Jethro at the trial argued that he had recently been diagnosed with schizophrenia and that affected his judgement.

He was released on bail from Melbourne Remand Centre last Thursday (May 5) after a magistrate instructed that he must undergo substance abuse treatment and avoid contact with his mother for the next two years. Lazenby appeared at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court via a video link in custody.

Magistrate Donna Bakos told Jethro: “I do say to you that it’s entirely in your best interests to participate with all support services that I’ve set up for you. It’s very very important that your path to rehabilitation will be a much more positive one and therefore you will be less of a risk to the community at large and in particular to your mother.”

In 2018, he had previously committed a series of assaults on his girlfriend which saw him spend time in jail.

Nick Cave
Nick Cave in the trailer for This Much I Know To Be True. Image: YouTube

Following news of Jethro’s passing, Nick’s wife Susie shared a picture of Jethro on Instagram with the caption “Darling Jethro”. You can see that and some of the other tributes below.

 

Nick Cave has spoken previously about how he coped with loss in the years following his son’s Arthur’s death.

In an edition of his his regular question-and-answer fan interaction site The Red Hand Files, Cave responded to two fans who both contacted the singer after recently suffering the loss of a child.

“Susie [Cave’s wife] and I have learned much about the nature of grief over recent years. We have come to see that grief is not something you pass through, as there is no other side,” he wrote in 2020.

“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.

“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.”

He continued: “We found grief contained many things — happiness, empathy, commonality, sorrow, fury, joy, forgiveness, combativeness, gratitude, awe, and even a certain peace. For us, grief became an attitude, a belief system, a doctrine — a conscious inhabiting of our vulnerable selves, protected and enriched by the absence of the one we loved and that we lost.”

He also explored the loss of Arthur through his album Ghosteen and via the film One More Time With Feeling, a documentary about how he and wife Susie dealt with the loss of Arthur while the Bad Seeds were completing their 16th album Skeleton Tree.

Another Cave documentary – This Much I Know To Be True – is released this week and explores in part how Ghosteen and his collaborative album CARNAGE with Bad Seeds bandmate Warren Ellis were made, along with new personal interviews with Cave and Ellis.

The Bad Seeds are currently set for a long string of tour dates throughout the summer.

Faith, Hope & Carnage, a new book from Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan, follows on September 20.

The Haçienda to host 40th anniversary rave in car park where original club once stood

Sam Moore
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The Haçienda to host 40th anniversary rave in car park where original club once stood
A rave celebrating the upcoming 40th anniversary of Manchester's legendary Haçienda is set to take place in a car park which was built on the site of the original club. ORDER NOW: Miles Davis is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: New Order – Movement: The 
Definitive ...

A rave celebrating the upcoming 40th anniversary of Manchester’s legendary Haçienda is set to take place in a car park which was built on the site of the original club.

The Haçienda, which was co-owned by Factory Records and New Order, first opened its doors in a former yacht warehouse on Whitworth Street West in May 1982. It closed in 1997, and was demolished in 2002 to make way for The Haçienda Apartments.

As the Manchester Evening News reports, the 40th anniversary rave will take place in the apartments’ basement car park, where the original Haçienda’s dancefloor once stood.

The MEN adds that residents of the Haçienda apartments have been invited to join the celebrations, which will take place on May 21. Letters that were recently sent to residents also make clear that arrangements will be made for off-site car parking during the rave.

The letters were reportedly signed by former New Order member Peter Hook and his fellow organisers Paul Fletcher, James Masters and Aaron Mellor.

Peter Hook, of New Order and Joy Division
Peter Hook at the Hacienda Apartments, formerly the Hacienda club, on December 16th 2009 in Manchester. Image: Jon Super / Redferns

“The Haçienda is revered as part of both Manchester’s and the UK’s musical history,” the letters state. “Returning to the original site of the club for the 40th anniversary will be very special for everyone, undoubtedly enhancing the reputation of the building.

“As you might be aware, FAC51 The Haçienda celebrates its 40th anniversary in May 2022, having opened its doors in May 1982 to create the legacy which has given the apartments their unique heritage and history.”

It adds that it hopes that residents will be “enthusiastic about the event” and apply for tickets to attend, before saying: “It will generate worldwide attention and media on the building, and be a great event for all concerned.”

Residents have also been reassured that the Haçienda organisers have “vast experience in producing these sort of events”, citing the organisation of recent Haçienda Classical gigs and events across the UK.

A similar event was held in the same car park in 2012 to celebrate the Haçienda’s 30th anniversary, and was attended by roughly 500 people. All proceeds from that celebration were donated to charity, with the intention to do the same in 2022.

Phoebe Bridgers pledges portion of tour proceeds to abortion charity

Rhian Daly
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Phoebe Bridgers pledges portion of tour proceeds to abortion charity
Phoebe Bridgers has pledged a portion of proceeds from her upcoming North American tour to an abortion charity. The singer-songwriter announced her decision on social media earlier on May 6, a week before the tour kicks off in Las Vegas. ORDER NOW: Miles Davis is on the cover of the latest ...

Phoebe Bridgers has pledged a portion of proceeds from her upcoming North American tour to an abortion charity.

The singer-songwriter announced her decision on social media earlier on May 6, a week before the tour kicks off in Las Vegas.

The move follows the leak of an initial draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito that suggested the US Supreme Court is prepared to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Chief Justice John Roberts has since confirmed the authenticity of the document, but has said the draft “does not represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case”.

Draft opinions can be subject to multiple drafts and vote-trading, sometimes until just days before they are shared, so the court’s decision is not final. If the court goes through with overturning the landmark case, however, abortion would no longer be protected as a federal right in the US, and each state would be able to decide individually whether to restrict or ban abortion.

“Tour starts in seven days,” Bridgers wrote on Instagram. “A dollar of each ticket will go to The Mariposa Fund, who work to provide abortions, specifically for undocumented people who already face huge systemic barrier when trying to obtain safe reproductive health services.”

The musician also added some new shows to her itinerary, including one at New York’s Forest Hills Stadium. Sloppy Jane, Charlie Hickey, Claud, MUNA and Christian Lee Hutson will join her at various stops on the tour.

Bridgers’ action follows her speaking out against the potential of Roe vs. Wade being overturned last week. While doing so, the star shared her own experience with abortion, saying: “I had an abortion in October of last year while I was on tour. I went to planned parenthood where they gave me the abortion pill. It was easy. Everyone deserves that kind of access.”

Posthumous Dr. John album to arrive later this year

Rhian Daly
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Posthumous Dr. John album to arrive later this year
A posthumous album from New Orleans R&B icon Dr. John will be released later this year, it has been announced. ORDER NOW: Miles Davis is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut The legendary musician died in June 2019 after suffering a heart attack. He was 77 years old. At the time...

A posthumous album from New Orleans R&B icon Dr. John will be released later this year, it has been announced.

The legendary musician died in June 2019 after suffering a heart attack. He was 77 years old.

At the time of his death, Dr. John – real name Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. – was working on a new project, which will be shared via Rounder Records this year. Titled Things Happen That Way, the album was executive produced by Rebennack’s daughter Karla R. Pratt, according to Rolling Stone, and will be released on September 23.

Things Happen That Way was recorded in New Orleans in 2018 and was co-produced by the star and guitarist Shane Thierot. Its tracklist reportedly includes covers of classic country songs, as well as new material.

Dr John
Dr. John. Image: Rick Diamond / Getty Images

Guest appearances for the record have also been confirmed, with Lukas Nelson and Promise Of The Real set to feature on a re-worked version of Dr. John’s “I Walk On Guilded Splinters”. Willie Nelson and Aaron Neville are also said to make cameos on the record.

Last year, The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach announced that he would make his directorial debut with a documentary about Dr. John. The musicians collaborated multiple times during the last decade of the legend’s life, with Auerbach producing and playing guitar on his Grammy Award-winning 2012 album Locked Down.

However, Dr. John’s estate later announced that the project did not have its blessing. “The Official Estate of Malcolm John Rebennack, Jr., p/k/a Dr. John, clarifies that the Estate has not authorized the recently announced documentary on the life of Dr. John purportedly to be produced by Impact Artist Productions (and Management) and Radical Media,” a statement read.

“The Estate thanks Mac’s fans for their support and assures that the Estate will ‘Walk On Guilded Splinters’ to deliver new music and an officially authorized documentary, to be announced In The Right Place at the right time.”

The Eagles – Ultimate Music Guide

Uncut
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The Eagles – Ultimate Music Guide
As the band head out on a major reunion tour, we present the Ultimate Music Guide to The Eagles. A band who made melodic music drawing on an explosive creative tension, their massive-selling albums unleashed the metaphorical power of California for a generation. “Two voices called to you from wher...

As the band head out on a major reunion tour, we present the Ultimate Music Guide to The Eagles. A band who made melodic music drawing on an explosive creative tension, their massive-selling albums unleashed the metaphorical power of California for a generation. “Two voices called to you from where they stood…”

Buy a copy here!

Introducing the Ultimate Music Guide to The Eagles

John Robinson
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Introducing the Ultimate Music Guide to The Eagles
BUY THE EAGLES ULTIMATE MUSIC GUIDE HERE One thing you can be pretty sure the Eagles never did was to take it easy. Though already veterans of several countrywide late 1960s bands from the tail-end of the country rock boom, by the time the original line-up came together at Doug Weston’s Troubad...

BUY THE EAGLES ULTIMATE MUSIC GUIDE HERE

One thing you can be pretty sure the Eagles never did was to take it easy. Though already veterans of several countrywide late 1960s bands from the tail-end of the country rock boom, by the time the original line-up came together at Doug Weston’s Troubadour Club in Los Angeles, they weren’t so much disheartened by what had gone before, more primed and ready to make their next move.

In the band’s circle were other promising artists. Linda Ronstadt, with whom they first performed together. John David Souther, who was in a band with Frey. And Jackson Browne, who, like Souther, contributed material to the new group. “Everyone was coming to California, and in the end that was what they were writing about,” Browne told Uncut, in just one of the eye-opening archive interviews you’ll find inside this latest Ultimate Music Guide. “That projected dream of what freedom could be. Vacate your assigned positions in life and be what you fucking want.”

Now in the right place at the right time, the Eagles seized their moment. Ambitious musically as well as personally, they were driven by what some called perfectionism, but might more correctly be identified as a desire to maximise their potential. Over their legendary run of albums in the 1970s – reviewed in-depth on the following pages – the band moved from definitively mellow recordings with contributions from each member, through concept albums, and increasingly to a completely unique and widescreen take on the state of their era. Along the way, they touched on ecology, paranoid relationships, hard rock and disco.

As it had been for Crosby, Stills and Nash, close harmony served both as a description of the band’s vocal style, and an ironic comment on the state of relations within the group. As you’ll read, what began as a group perceived as based around the talents of its two most experienced members – Bernie Leadon, once a Flying Burrito Brother; Randy Meisner, late of Poco – quickly came to turn on the fortunes of the youngest members: Don Henley and Glenn Frey.

The person who got the point quicker than anyone was Irving Azoff, who became the Eagles’ manager/champion. The other players were, as he saw it, “sidemen” and this became a governing principle for the band. Other musicians might contribute. Joe Walsh brought a toughness to their sound and one of their greatest songs, “Pretty Maids All In A Row”. Guitarist Don Felder didn’t only mesh well with Walsh, he also wrote the chord progression that the band called “Mexican Reggae” and which we know as “Hotel California”. Still, no-one pretended that this was a democracy.

The fact that the Eagles are still playing in 2022 is down to the strength of music made on that run of 1970s albums, and to Azoff’s belief in the band long after it had ceased to exist. After a decade watching them do their own thing separately, Azoff put together the Common Thread tribute album in which country artists performed Eagles songs. He held a fabled lunch meeting at which he persuaded the warring factions to bury the hatchet, and reform.

In his most recent meeting with Uncut, the band’s driving force, Don Henley, was circumspect on many aspects of the band’s career – but still couldn’t quite get over that decision to reform, and just how much Eagles music still means.

“When the Eagles broke up for 14 years, we didn’t know there were so many people who still wanted to see us play,” Don told Andy Gill. “We were just too angry and fed up with each other: ‘I’m not getting onstage with that guy again, no matter how many people want to see us!’ But when we started touring again, we were just flabbergasted at how many people were turning up.”

Enjoy the magazine, and the shows if you’re going. And take it easy.

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

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