Home Blog Page 928

Radiohead – In Rainbows Discbox/CD Box Set/USB

0

Like the universe itself, it starts with an explosion and expands to barely comprehensible proportions. With Radiohead, though, you can still hear the eruption that started them in earnest: scoot to 'Pablo Honey' – the unexceptional debut CD from Parlophone’s freshly-minted box set (or, if you were quick, limited edition USB stick) – and press play on “Creep”. One minute in, Jonny Greenwood’s famous powerchord surges into an amp that can barely take it, and nothing can quite be the same again. Fifteen years later, it’s still impossible to understand what followed without reference to that one song. It was, after all, the pressure to emulate “Creep” that sent Radiohead hurtling into creative paralysis in the sessions for 'The Bends'. Only by addressing the problem on My Iron Lung (‘Here is our new song/Just like the last one’), did Thom Yorke finally threw open the creative floodgates. The classic status of 'The Bends' has, however, never sat easily with Radiohead’s frontman, dreamy, drunken consolation songs like “[Nice Dream]” apparently leaving him feeling exposed. Small wonder that since then, Yorke’s move towards deliberate obfuscation has intensified. He still writes great songs, albeit few with the unnerving emotional clarity of “Lucky” or “Let Down” from 'OK Computer'. But had the acuity of Radiohead’s musical instincts wavered, they would have lost most of their fanbase at this point. The thing that strikes you about 'Kid A' and 'Amnesiac' now – in particular the childlike aspergers pop of “Everything In Its Right Place” and either version of “Morning Bell” – is just how melodic they are. If there’s a poor relation in the Parlophone box, it’s probably the group’s final album for the label. Having set new standards of innovation, 'Hail To The Thief' saw Radiohead judged harshly against them by some. Yet the best songs on their 2003 opus – the oil-can disco of “Where I End And You Begin”, the windscreen-shattering terror of “Sit Down, Stand Up” – are among the finest by any band in recent years. Four years on, unanimous praise greeted In Rainbows – in particular, the febrile “15 Step” and the baroque beauty of “Faust Arp”. Eight more songs complete the physical release of Radiohead’s seventh album. That “Mk I” kicks things off with the same piano note that concluded the download version suggests these songs are not so much an appendage to 'In Rainbows' as a continuation of it. Certainly, they’re anything but leftovers. With strings that sound like Bernard Herrmann conducting the Love Unlimited Orchestra, the shuffling fever-funk of “Down Is The New Up” reaches a state of grace few bands ever get to achieve. But will any of these new songs come any closer to telling you where Radiohead fit into the prevailing music climate? Surely, what we love about Radiohead is the fact that they don’t. You can still imagine Thom Yorke casting an eye around at the competition and exclaiming, “What the hell am I doing here?” And so, the “Creep” effect continues. PETER PAPHIDES

Like the universe itself, it starts with an explosion and expands to barely comprehensible proportions. With Radiohead, though, you can still hear the eruption that started them in earnest: scoot to ‘Pablo Honey’ – the unexceptional debut CD from Parlophone’s freshly-minted box set (or, if you were quick, limited edition USB stick) – and press play on “Creep”. One minute in, Jonny Greenwood’s famous powerchord surges into an amp that can barely take it, and nothing can quite be the same again.

Fifteen years later, it’s still impossible to understand what followed without reference to that one song. It was, after all, the pressure to emulate “Creep” that sent Radiohead hurtling into creative paralysis in the sessions for ‘The Bends’. Only by addressing the problem on My Iron Lung (‘Here is our new song/Just like the last one’), did Thom Yorke finally threw open the creative floodgates. The classic status of ‘The Bends’ has, however, never sat easily with Radiohead’s frontman, dreamy, drunken consolation songs like “[Nice Dream]” apparently leaving him feeling exposed.

Small wonder that since then, Yorke’s move towards deliberate obfuscation has intensified. He still writes great songs, albeit few with the unnerving emotional clarity of “Lucky” or “Let Down” from ‘OK Computer’. But had the acuity of Radiohead’s musical instincts wavered, they would have lost most of their fanbase at this point. The thing that strikes you about ‘Kid A’ and ‘Amnesiac’ now – in particular the childlike aspergers pop of “Everything In Its Right Place” and either version of “Morning Bell” – is just how melodic they are.

If there’s a poor relation in the Parlophone box, it’s probably the group’s final album for the label. Having set new standards of innovation, ‘Hail To The Thief’ saw Radiohead judged harshly against them by some. Yet the best songs on their 2003 opus – the oil-can disco of “Where I End And You Begin”, the windscreen-shattering terror of “Sit Down, Stand Up” – are among the finest by any band in recent years.

Four years on, unanimous praise greeted In Rainbows – in particular, the febrile “15 Step” and the baroque beauty of “Faust Arp”. Eight more songs complete the physical release of Radiohead’s seventh album. That “Mk I” kicks things off with the same piano note that concluded the download version suggests these songs are not so much an appendage to ‘In Rainbows’ as a continuation of it.

Certainly, they’re anything but leftovers. With strings that sound like Bernard Herrmann conducting the Love Unlimited Orchestra, the shuffling fever-funk of “Down Is The New Up” reaches a state of grace few bands ever get to achieve. But will any of these new songs come any closer to telling you where Radiohead fit into the prevailing music climate? Surely, what we love about Radiohead is the fact that they don’t. You can still imagine Thom Yorke casting an eye around at the competition and exclaiming, “What the hell am I doing here?” And so, the “Creep” effect continues.

PETER PAPHIDES

Wu-Tang Clan – 8 Diagrams

0

How we’ve missed the Wu-Tang Clan. Ghostface Killah apart, The Wu lost their way in the late-’90s – Ol’ Dirty Bastard terminally – but against all expectations, their first album for six years is a stormer. RZA’s lurching beats and raw, spectral productions, peppered with kung-fu film samples, are back to their thrillingly weird best. “The Heart Gently Weeps” – featuring Dhani Harrison playing his Dad’s guitar line – could have been a car-crash, but the Beatles lift is used brilliantly. “Stick Me For My Riches” is a lush Blaxploitation lament, and there are stunning verses everywhere, especially from Genius and U-God, who rap like men in full repossession of their mojos. Behind-the-scenes, this isn’t a happy reunion. RZA’s dictatorial rule has ostracised Ghost and Raekwon, but you can’t argue with the results. On record at least, Wu-Tang have made the comeback of the decade. SAM RICHARDS

How we’ve missed the Wu-Tang Clan. Ghostface Killah apart, The Wu lost their way in the late-’90s – Ol’ Dirty Bastard terminally – but against all expectations, their first album for six years is a stormer. RZA’s lurching beats and raw, spectral productions, peppered with kung-fu film samples, are back to their thrillingly weird best.

“The Heart Gently Weeps” – featuring Dhani Harrison playing his Dad’s guitar line – could have been a car-crash, but the Beatles lift is used brilliantly. “Stick Me For My Riches” is a lush Blaxploitation lament, and there are stunning verses everywhere, especially from Genius and U-God, who rap like men in full repossession of their mojos. Behind-the-scenes, this isn’t a happy reunion. RZA’s dictatorial rule has ostracised Ghost and Raekwon, but you can’t argue with the results. On record at least, Wu-Tang have made the comeback of the decade.

SAM RICHARDS

Ringo Starr – Liverpool 8

0

Very few 67 year olds are releasing pop albums currently, and of those 67 year olds, even fewer are releasing records as jaunty as this one. Ringo Starr has always been the most agendaless Beatle, the least vain and untainted by politics, religion or whimsy. And frequently - from the low-key disingenuity of 'Beaucoups Of Blues' to the brilliant pop singles of “It Ain't Easy”, “Photograph”, “Back Off Boogaloo” (which out-performed his fellow solo Fabs at the time) - he's been the coolest ex-Beatle. But alcohol, bad albums, and, if we're honest, being the drummer rather than John, Paul or even George removed Ringo from the charts in the mid-'70s and he's not been back. Of late, however, the muse and the charm have returned and recentish albums have all had their moments. And now 'Liverpool 8' comes along, possibly the best thing he's done since 'Goodnight Vienna'. This may be due to the album’s odd gestation. Begun with long-term Ringo cohort Mark Hudson, it almost derailed when Starr allegedly sacked Hudson for dropping out of a tour. Then Hudson was replaced by the sane man's Jeff Lynne, Dave Stewart, which certainly explains the album’s increased pop sheen and may well be a lot to do with the fact that 'Liverpool 8' sounds like it was made if not in, then at least near, the 21st century. Every song, from the title track (guess what that's about) to country closer “Crossover” has melody, wit and the galumphing charm that has marked Starr's best work since the days of “Act Naturally”. And, like the best work of anyone with a long pedigree, it often sounds like a compilation album from a parallel universe (check out the Nilsson tribute “Harry’s Song” which is lost-weekend perfect, or “Think About You” which is virtually “I’m The Greatest”’s twin brother). It’s hard to say who would be crying out for a new Ringo Starr album these days, but anyone who buys records based on the abilities rather than the age of the artist should feel no shame owning 'Liverpool 8', which stands happily beside Starr's recent hits compilation, holds its own as a companion piece to McCartney's similarly vital 'Memory Almost Full', and makes a nice day off from having to like Radiohead. DAVID QUANTICK

Very few 67 year olds are releasing pop albums currently, and of those 67 year olds, even fewer are releasing records as jaunty as this one. Ringo Starr has always been the most agendaless Beatle, the least vain and untainted by politics, religion or whimsy.

And frequently – from the low-key disingenuity of ‘Beaucoups Of Blues’ to the brilliant pop singles of “It Ain’t Easy”, “Photograph”, “Back Off Boogaloo” (which out-performed his fellow solo Fabs at the time) – he’s been the coolest ex-Beatle. But alcohol, bad albums, and, if we’re honest, being the drummer rather than John, Paul or even George removed Ringo from the charts in the mid-’70s and he’s not been back.

Of late, however, the muse and the charm have returned and recentish albums have all had their moments. And now ‘Liverpool 8’ comes along, possibly the best thing he’s done since ‘Goodnight Vienna’. This may be due to the album’s odd gestation. Begun with long-term Ringo cohort Mark Hudson, it almost derailed when Starr allegedly sacked Hudson for dropping out of a tour. Then Hudson was replaced by the sane man’s Jeff Lynne, Dave Stewart, which certainly explains the album’s increased pop sheen and may well be a lot to do with the fact that ‘Liverpool 8’ sounds like it was made if not in, then at least near, the 21st century.

Every song, from the title track (guess what that’s about) to country closer “Crossover” has melody, wit and the galumphing charm that has marked Starr’s best work since the days of “Act Naturally”. And, like the best work of anyone with a long pedigree, it often sounds like a compilation album from a parallel universe (check out the Nilsson tribute “Harry’s Song” which is lost-weekend perfect, or “Think About You” which is virtually “I’m The Greatest”’s twin brother).

It’s hard to say who would be crying out for a new Ringo Starr album these days, but anyone who buys records based on the abilities rather than the age of the artist should feel no shame owning ‘Liverpool 8’, which stands happily beside Starr’s recent hits compilation, holds its own as a companion piece to McCartney‘s similarly vital ‘Memory Almost Full’, and makes a nice day off from having to like Radiohead.

DAVID QUANTICK

Dory Previn – The Art Of Dory Previn

0

Often dismissed as Andre Previn’s bonkers ex-wife, the erstwhile Dorothy Langdon was a Hollywood songwriter and poet who recorded for a range of major labels throughout the 1970s. This 17-track taster is culled from four United Artists LPs released during her incredibly productive 1970-72 heyday. The accompaniment switches wildly from folk rock to bluegrass to trad jazz and beyond, but it’s the witty, highly personal and beautifully enunciated lyrics – about myth, religion, sexual politics, mental illness, child abuse, and losing your husband to Mia Farrow – that serve as compelling mini-screenplays; a curious hybrid of Janis Ian, Randy Newman and Ivor Cutler. JOHN LEWIS

Often dismissed as Andre Previn’s bonkers ex-wife, the erstwhile Dorothy Langdon was a Hollywood songwriter and poet who recorded for a range of major labels throughout the 1970s. This 17-track taster is culled from four United Artists LPs released during her incredibly productive 1970-72 heyday.

The accompaniment switches wildly from folk rock to bluegrass to trad jazz and beyond, but it’s the witty, highly personal and beautifully enunciated lyrics – about myth, religion, sexual politics, mental illness, child abuse, and losing your husband to Mia Farrow – that serve as compelling mini-screenplays; a curious hybrid of Janis Ian, Randy Newman and Ivor Cutler.

JOHN LEWIS

Adele Tops New Music Talent Poll

0

Teenage soul singer Adele has topped a music industry poll for artists who will succeed in 2008. The BBC new music talent list is compiled annually by 150 music critics and journalists who are asked for their top three new artists. Adele, a graduate of the BRIT school (like Amy Winehouse and Kate Nash) only released her debut single 'Hometown Glory' last October, and her album '19' is due for release on January 28. Runner-up in the poll was Duffy, another young female singer/songwriter. Duffy's debut album 'Rockferry' includes musicians Bernard Butler and David McCalmont in her band, and is due out through Polydor records in March. Duffy is currently leading the public vote being run on the BBC website, you can have your say in the new music poll by clicking here. Other bands who featured highly in the 'ones to watch' list include The Ting Tings, Foals and Glasvegas. To see Uncut's tips for 2008, and for more on Adele, see John Mulvey's Wild Mercury Sound blog by clicking here. The full BBC new music list Top Ten was: 1. Adele 2. Duffy 3. The Ting Tings 4. Glasvegas 5. Foals 6. Vampire Weekend 7. Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong 8. Black Kids 9. MGMT 10. Santogold

Teenage soul singer Adele has topped a music industry poll for artists who will succeed in 2008.

The BBC new music talent list is compiled annually by 150 music critics and journalists who are asked for their top three new artists.

Adele, a graduate of the BRIT school (like Amy Winehouse and Kate Nash) only released her debut single ‘Hometown Glory’ last October, and her album ’19’ is due for release on January 28.

Runner-up in the poll was Duffy, another young female singer/songwriter.

Duffy’s debut album ‘Rockferry’ includes musicians Bernard Butler and David McCalmont in her band, and is due out through Polydor records in March.

Duffy is currently leading the public vote being run on the BBC website, you can have your say in the new music poll by clicking here.

Other bands who featured highly in the ‘ones to watch’ list include The Ting Tings, Foals and Glasvegas.

To see Uncut’s tips for 2008, and for more on Adele, see John Mulvey’s Wild Mercury Sound blog by clicking here.

The full BBC new music list Top Ten was:

1. Adele

2. Duffy

3. The Ting Tings

4. Glasvegas

5. Foals

6. Vampire Weekend

7. Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong

8. Black Kids

9. MGMT

10. Santogold

First Look — Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd

0

Watching TV over the Christmas and New Year period, chances are you might have caught Johnny Depp in a number of films. I'm pretty sure I spotted all three Pirates Of The Caribbean movies spread out across various terrestrial and satellite channels, plus the overlooked Secret Window and -- a personal favourite -- Finding Neverland, a very moving take on the relationship between author JM Barrie and the children who inspired him to write Peter Pan. In a way, these films are emblematic of the Depp's dualistic approach to his movies. In Pirates, he's performing; in Window and Neverland, he's acting. Sweeney Todd, his sixth collaboration with director Tim Burton, falls into the former camp. You have to forgive me, I should say, if I'm fairly broad in my assessment here -- I saw it way before Christmas, but have been under the cosh of one of these embargos that forbids me from writing about it, under pain of death, until now. It's a big, brash turn, full of swagger and brio, well suited to Burton's extravagant Gothic melodrama from Stephen Sondheim's musical. Depp's Sweeney is a serial killing barber whose victims are turned into pies by his accomplice Mrs Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter). Necks are slit, large quantities of blood slosh across the screen and a number of jolly songs are sung along the way, often in chirpy Cockernee accents. It's a faintly ludicrous proposition -- but, admittedly, no more so than the idea of a lonely inventor building himself a son but dying before he could complete him, leaving a pair of giant shears where his arms should be. In fact, Burton pretty much lets himself go here, the whole thing having a rather gleefully demented feel to it. It's not quite Herschell Gordon Lewis or Lucio Fulci, but it's pretty grisly stuff all the same; thick arterial blood flying in crimson arcs, human flesh baked into pies, that kind of thing. Depp, shrewd as ever, manages to draw pathos out of the Grand Guignol. Deathly pale with panda bear rings round his eyes, Depp's Sweeney is a walking ghost, his life leeched from him by the death of his wife and lost daughter. He's more of a melancholic figure than some zealous, hellbent lunatic out for revenge, despite his early declamation that "They all deserve to die!" There are, I have to admit, too many songs for me (yes, I do know it's a musical), but Burton and Depp are clearly having great fun here -- in the new issue of UNCUT, Burton explains how he and Depp are "in the same zone from the beginning." Sweeney might not be Depp's greatest character for Burton (that would be Edward Scissorhands or Ed Wood), but the exuberance and grim humour of this spectacle make cohesively for one of their strongest collaborations. To close allow me this random aside. I see that Depp's scheduled to play American gangster John Dillinger for Michael Mann soon. As a huge fan of both Depp, Mann and John Milius' brilliant version of the Dillinger story (due, largely, to a fantastic performance from Warren Oates), I am extremely excited. Anyway... Sweeney Todd opens in the UK on January 25.

Watching TV over the Christmas and New Year period, chances are you might have caught Johnny Depp in a number of films. I’m pretty sure I spotted all three Pirates Of The Caribbean movies spread out across various terrestrial and satellite channels, plus the overlooked Secret Window and — a personal favourite — Finding Neverland, a very moving take on the relationship between author JM Barrie and the children who inspired him to write Peter Pan.

In a way, these films are emblematic of the Depp’s dualistic approach to his movies. In Pirates, he’s performing; in Window and Neverland, he’s acting.

Glastonbury 2008 Ticket Details Announced

0
Glastonbury Festival organisers have announced that tickets for this year's music event will go on sale to the public on April 6. The three day festival, takes place on Worthy Farm, Somerset is set to take place on the weekend of June 27, 28 and 29, and as with last year's event, fans wanting to ap...

Glastonbury Festival organisers have announced that tickets for this year’s music event will go on sale to the public on April 6.

The three day festival, takes place on Worthy Farm, Somerset is set to take place on the weekend of June 27, 28 and 29, and as with last year’s event, fans wanting to apply for tickets will need to register their details.

The registration process, which includes providing a photograph for use as ID was introduced last year in an effort to stop ticket touts re-selling tickets.

Details about the registration process will be announced through the official festival website www.Glastonburyfestivals.co.uk later this month.

Check back to www.uncut.co.uk for details as we get them.

Last year’s event was headlined by The Killers, Arctic Monkeys and The Who.

The Sound Of 2008?

0

The music business is in unseasonal heat today, with the publishing of the BBC's Sound Of 2008 poll. The winner, unsurprisingly, is Adele, who's OK. But I must admit I'm a bit suspicious of the whole self-perpetuating hype of all this - I agree with most of this piece from The Observer from last month. Tellingly, Kitty guessed eight out of ten right in the BBC list, proving how predictable these things have become. To admit some culpability, though, I was one of the voters in the BBC poll, though I did the online equivalent of spoiling my ballot paper by voting for things I was really interested in, rather than things that'll actually become big (like, say, Adele, Duffy, Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong etc). For what it's worth, my "tips" were No Age, Wild Beasts and Yeasayer. I must admit, I've jumped on the No Age bandwagon pretty late after reading the compelling Sasha Frere Jones piece on them in The New Yorker (and what a great writer he is, apart from that dubious indie/racism thinkpiece which generated some wearying debate last autumn). No Age - as their terrific "Weirdo Rippers" comp on FatCat proves - are an innovative punk duo from LA, who remind me variously - and sometimes simultaneously - of vintage DC hardcore, My Bloody Valentine, and a surprisingly poppy take on the avant virility of Lightning Bolt. Can't wait to see them live. Wild Beasts I've written about before here; they're a pretty conventional British indie band in many ways, but it's the extraordinary tonsil origami of the singer which makes them so interesting - and so difficult to sell, I fear. Yeasayer I've covered here, too. I see MGMT and Vampire Weekend both made it into the BBC chart, but of the new Brooklyn bands (there's a good piece on them all in the new Uncut, incidentally), Yeasayer strike me as the most intriguing. But let's see what you think. How about posting your tips here, and see if we can reach some kind of alternative consensus?

The music business is in unseasonal heat today, with the publishing of the BBC’s Sound Of 2008 poll. The winner, unsurprisingly, is Adele, who’s OK. But I must admit I’m a bit suspicious of the whole self-perpetuating hype of all this – I agree with most of this piece from The Observer from last month. Tellingly, Kitty guessed eight out of ten right in the BBC list, proving how predictable these things have become.

Weezer Demos Available To Stream Now

0

As previously reported on www.uncut.co.uk, Weezer's Rivers Cuomo is to release a collection of demos next month, including songs from his unfinished rock musical 'Songs From The Black Hole' as well as other never heard before tracks and cover versions. The eighteen track compilation 'Alone - The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo' is as Rivers Cuomos says himself: "a CD of my favorite home demos from ’92 to ’07." Listen to clips from three of the demo tracks by clicking on the links below: 1. Longtime Sunshine 2. Blast Off 3. Superfriend 'Alone...' is released through Geffen on February 4. The full track listing is: 'Ooh' 'World We Love So Much' 'Lemonade' 'The Bomb' 'Buddy Holly' 'Chess' 'Longtime Sunshine' 'Blast Off!' 'Who You Callin' Bitch?' 'Wanda (You're My Only Love)' 'Dude We're Finally Landing' 'Superfriend' 'Lover In The Snow' 'Crazy One' 'This Is The Way' 'Little Diane' 'I Wish You Had An Axe Guitar' 'I Was Made For You'

As previously reported on www.uncut.co.uk, Weezer‘s Rivers Cuomo is to release a collection of demos next month, including songs from his unfinished rock musical ‘Songs From The Black Hole’ as well as other never heard before tracks and cover versions.

The eighteen track compilation ‘Alone – The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo’ is as Rivers Cuomos says himself: “a CD of my favorite home demos from ’92 to ’07.”

Listen to clips from three of the demo tracks by clicking on the links below:

1. Longtime Sunshine

2. Blast Off

3. Superfriend

‘Alone…’ is released through Geffen on February 4.

The full track listing is:

‘Ooh’

‘World We Love So Much’

‘Lemonade’

‘The Bomb’

‘Buddy Holly’

‘Chess’

‘Longtime Sunshine’

‘Blast Off!’

‘Who You Callin’ Bitch?’

‘Wanda (You’re My Only Love)’

‘Dude We’re Finally Landing’

‘Superfriend’

‘Lover In The Snow’

‘Crazy One’

‘This Is The Way’

‘Little Diane’

‘I Wish You Had An Axe Guitar’

‘I Was Made For You’

Radiohead To Top UK Album Chart

0
Radiohead's new latest studio album 'In Rainbows' is on course to be the New Year's first Number One album this Sunday (January 6). The album, the band's seventh, was released as a physical format through their new label XL Recordings on December 31, after previously only being available as a downl...

Radiohead‘s new latest studio album ‘In Rainbows’ is on course to be the New Year’s first Number One album this Sunday (January 6).

The album, the band’s seventh, was released as a physical format through their new label XL Recordings on December 31, after previously only being available as a download from Radiohead’s own website.

‘In Rainbows” original online release meant that the album was ineligible for a chart placement. However, huge sales in the past week for the CD and LP estimated to reach 50,000 copies should see the band hit the top spot this weekend.

Music retailer HMV’s spokesman Gennaro Castaldo has explained: “No doubt many people appreciated the opportunity to download the album for free, but this demand also underlines the enduring appeal of the CD.”

He added: “As true fans we love to buy and collect albums by our favourite artists in their physical form while also having the opportunity to create our favourite playlists via downloads. The simple truth is we want to have the best of both worlds – to be able to mix and match between physical and digital music, and as retailers we’re doing more and more to cater to this growing trend.”

Pic credit: PA Photos

The First Uncut Playlist Of 2008

0

A surprising amount of good post was waiting for us at the office yesterday, which means a lot of stuff we've played thus far this year has been brand new. There are a handful of disappointments on the list which follows, but the undisputed favourite at the moment is the new Stephen Malkmus album. I'll try and write something more substantial about the Jicks' monumental jams in the next few days. In the meantime, here's the rundown: 1 Mahmoud Ahmed - Ethiopiques Volume 7: Ere Mela Mela (Buda Musique) 2 Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Real Emotional Trash (Domino) 3 Autechre - Quaristice (Warp) 4 Foals - Antidotes (Transgressive) 5 Terry Riley/Kronos Quartet/Wu Man - Can't remember the title because we biked the CD off to a reviewer (Nonesuch) 6 Earth - The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull (Southern Lord) 7 Toumani Diabate - The Mande Variations (World Circuit) 8 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Accidents Will Happen (Mute) 9 The Kills - Midnight Boom (Domino) 10 Lupe Fiasco - The Cool (Atlantic) 11 The Rockets - The Rockets (Varese Sarabande) 12 Martina Topley Bird - Carnies (Independiente) 13 Mystery Jets - Sampler (Sixsevenine) 14 Speck Mountain - Summer Above (Peacefrog) 15 Kelley Stoltz - Circular Sounds (Sub Pop)

A surprising amount of good post was waiting for us at the office yesterday, which means a lot of stuff we’ve played thus far this year has been brand new. There are a handful of disappointments on the list which follows, but the undisputed favourite at the moment is the new Stephen Malkmus album. I’ll try and write something more substantial about the Jicks‘ monumental jams in the next few days. In the meantime, here’s the rundown:

R.E.M New Studio Album Ready

0
R.E.M have announced that their latest album is ready and will be called 'Accelerate.' The Atlanta band's 14th studio album is to be released on March 31, with a American release following on April 1. Several tracks from 'Accelerate' were unveiled during a five night residency at Dublin's Olympia T...

R.E.M have announced that their latest album is ready and will be called ‘Accelerate.’ The Atlanta band’s 14th studio album is to be released on March 31, with a American release following on April 1.

Several tracks from ‘Accelerate’ were unveiled during a five night residency at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre last Summer, and they include ‘Until The Day Is Done’, ‘Mr Richards’, ‘I’m Gonna DJ’, ‘Living Well Is The Best Revenge’ and ‘Staring Down The Barrel Of Middle Distance’.

The new album, R.E.M’s first since 2004’s ‘Around The Sun’ has been recorded in Vancouver with Jacknife Lee whose previous producing credits include Snow Patrol and Bloc Party.

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young Film To Premiere This Month

0
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are the subject of a new documentary that receives its world premieres later this month at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. Called ‘CSNY Déjà Vu’, it's directed by Neil Young under his Bernard Shakey alias. The film takes place against the backdrop of the s...

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are the subject of a new documentary that receives its world premieres later this month at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

Called ‘CSNY Déjà Vu’, it’s directed by Neil Young under his Bernard Shakey alias. The film takes place against the backdrop of the supergroup’s 2006 Freedom Of Speech Tour, during which the band were joined by Mike Cerre, a veteran correspondant of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, who conducted many interviews with CSNY fans about the war in Iraq and the Bush administration.

The film, which is expected to get a full theatrical release later in the year, also features music from Young’s 2006 Living With War album.

Young has directed films before under the Shakey pseudonym, including Journey Through The Past, Human Highway and Greendale.

Another major music documentary, Patti Smith: Dream Of Life, is also scheduled to screen at Sundance.

More information on the Sundance Film Festival can be found here: www.sundance.org/festival

Bruce Springsteen, Michael Rother, Mahmoud Ahmed and your 2007 favourites

0

Happy New Year, everyone, and many thanks for all your responses to the Bruce Springsteen and Favourite Albums Of The Year blogs I posted just before Christmas. Following some of your advice, I had a good listen to "Born To Run" and "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" while cruising the North Nottinghamshire badlands and so forth over the holidays. And while I don't think they quite compare with the euphoric thickness of the live show (I'm stunned by Tim's suggestion that the O2 gig was a relative off night), I am beginning to get the point. One revelation was "Racing In The Street", which struck me as being exactly what I imagined Springsteen was like, but somehow more tender and nuanced; all the epic romance and finely-tuned cliche given much more humanity and gravity than I thought possible. Another was "Adam Raised A Cain", which was, on the other hand, nothing quite like what I expected of Springsteen - much more ragged and grungy, and deeply pleasing for that. Listening to "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out", meanwhile, I was struck by an affinity with one of my favourite bands, Dexy's Midnight Runners. Not just in the vigorous, Staxy horn section, but in that weird conceit, so prevalent in whiteboy soul - I'm thinking of Van Morrison here too - of fanatically self-conscious "passion". On paper, it always looks pretty constipated and excruciating, but Springsteen, like Kevin Rowland, somehow pulls it off. Anyway, besides Springsteen, my Christmas listening was fixed mainly on those first four Michael Rother solo reissues that turned up at the end of last year, and the start of my further explorations of the Ethiopiques catalogue; "Volume 7: Mahmoud Ahmed". Ahmed is terrific, with the persistent grooves that make so much of this Ethiopian funk so compelling, coupled with a melodious wail that seems - to my semi-tutored ears - a little more North African than some of his contemporaries (though I haven't heard the records in years, the memory of some late '80s and early '90s Rai spring to mind, maybe Cheb Khalid specifically). I'm slightly embarrassed that I've never investigated the Rother albums before, since the first two especially - that's "Flammende Herzen" and "Sterntaler" - seem a logical continuation of the Neu! motorik. I guess Klaus Dinger's volatility is missing - this is more streamlined than ever, and Can's Jaki Liebezeit mainly reins in his more octopoidal rhythmic tendencies. But I love how Rother mixes that familiar motorway guitar strafe with some twanging classicism that calls to mind The Ventures and takes these two lovely albums out of the Krautrock experimental sector and into a broader rock'n'roll continuum. Works on the A1 for me. Finally, thanks again for all those Best Ofs. I should point out that I reviewed - and liked - something like 150 albums on this blog in 2007, so their absence from my Top 20 - like, say, Devendra Banhart's misunderstood and underrated "Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon" - is hardly evidence of me disliking them. Good to see we share many highlights and prejudices, though one thing that's baffling me a bit is the massive support for "Boxer" and The National. They always struck me as a pretty corny stab at the bohemian and the literate, set to some ponderous foursquare music, and most of their supporters at Uncut seemed to prefer "Alligator". But, as you can see, at our continuing Best Albums Of The Year vote, "Boxer" is doing great. Just don't ask me to try re-evaluating it in 2008. Plenty more to be getting on with, and the new Stephen Malkmus album just arrived. Onwards!

Happy New Year, everyone, and many thanks for all your responses to the Bruce Springsteen and Favourite Albums Of The Year blogs I posted just before Christmas.

Patti Smith Presents Dylan’s Life Story – And It’s Free!

0

A free series of official Bob Dylan podcasts presented by Patti Smith has been made available by Sony. Ten short casts have already been posted telling the astonishing story of Dylan's career chronologically and it is anticipated that the series will eventually run to about 20 episodes, forming a two hour documentary. The tenth episode, which was posted this week, took the story up to the late '70s and the beginning of the 'born again' period. With Smith acting as the presenter and linkwoman, each includes Dylan recordings and historic interview snippets with the man himself plus contributions from musicians such as Roger McGuinn and Garth Hudson and commentators including Greil Marcus. All are legally downloadable as MP3 files from: http://blogs.legacyrecordings.com/podcast/category/bob-dylan

A free series of official Bob Dylan podcasts presented by Patti Smith has been made available by Sony.

Ten short casts have already been posted telling the astonishing story of

Dylan’s career chronologically and it is anticipated that the series will eventually run to about 20 episodes, forming a two hour documentary. The

tenth episode, which was posted this week, took the story up to the late

’70s and the beginning of the ‘born again’ period.

With Smith acting as the presenter and linkwoman, each includes Dylan recordings and historic interview snippets with the man himself plus contributions from musicians such as Roger McGuinn and Garth Hudson and commentators including Greil Marcus.

All are legally downloadable as MP3 files from:

http://blogs.legacyrecordings.com/podcast/category/bob-dylan

Cut Of The Day: R.E.M Duet With Springsteen

0

Cut of the day: With Springsteen fever in the Uncut office today - we thought we'd have a dig around on Youtube... Check out this amazing duet of Springsteen and the E Street Band with R.E.M performing at the Vote For Change political concert in Washington in October 2004. They all duet on R.E.M.'s hit 'Man On The Moon' - watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BisS5JxeUW0&rel=1 If you have any trouble viewing the embedded video here, click here.

Cut of the day:

With Springsteen fever in the Uncut office today – we thought we’d have a dig around on Youtube…

Check out this amazing duet of Springsteen and the E Street Band with R.E.M performing at the Vote For Change political concert in Washington in October 2004.

They all duet on R.E.M.’s hit ‘Man On The Moon’ – watch it here:

If you have any trouble viewing the embedded video here, click here.

Bruce Springsteen Rocks London: Read The Full Report Here

0
Bruce Springsteen rocked with The E Street Band for a one-off date at London's O2 Arena last night (December 19). A mammoth two and a half hour set, ended just like his only other UK date in 2007 at Belfast's Odyssey Arena last weekend, with the veteran rocker donning a Christmas styled cowboy hat ...

Bruce Springsteen rocked with The E Street Band for a one-off date at London’s O2 Arena last night (December 19).

A mammoth two and a half hour set, ended just like his only other UK date in 2007 at Belfast’s Odyssey Arena last weekend, with the veteran rocker donning a Christmas styled cowboy hat and serenading the audience with the festive classic ‘Santa Claus Is Coming To Town’.

To read the full report from last night’s show, Click here for John Mulvey’s Wild Mercury Sound Blog.

Springsteen, playing with the E Street Band for the first time in nearly five years, played tracks from throughout his career, several from his 1975 classic album ‘Born To Run’ through to this year’s number one charting album ‘Magic.’

The Boss returns to the UK for some stadium dates next Summer, including the first ever concerts at the home ground of Arsenal Football Club, the Emirates Stadium. Demand has meant a second date has just been announced for May 31st.

He will now play:

Manchester, Old Trafford Stadium (May 28)

London, Emirates Stadium (30/31)

Cardiff, Millennium Stadium (June 14)

Springsteen’s London set list was as follows:

Radio Nowhere

No Surrender

Night

Lonesome Day

Gypsy Biker

Magic

Reason to Believe – nebraska

Because the Night

She’s the One

Livin’ in the Future

The Promised Land

Waitin’ on a Sunny Day

Working on the Highway

Racing in the Street

Devil’s Arcade

The Rising

Last to Die

Long Walk Home

Badlands

~

Girls in Their Summer Clothes

Jungleland

Born to Run

Dancing in the Dark

~

American Land

Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town

Pic credit: Phil Wallis

Win! The Chance To Play like Dylan With A Gibson Epiphone!

0

Celebrating the release of Uncut’s Film of the Month I’m Not There (Cert 15) everywhere this Friday (December 21), www.uncut.co.uk has teamed up with www.epiphone.com to giveaway a Gibson guitar! Rated five-stars in the current issue of Uncut ‘I'm Not There’ is an unconventional journey into the life and times of Bob Dylan. Six actors portray Dylan as a series of shifting personae - from the public to the private to the fantastical - weaving together a rich and colorful portrait of this ever-elusive American icon. For your chance of winning this fantastic prize, simply enter the competition by clicking here. For more information on the film please visit www.imnotthere.co.uk You can view the I'm Not There Trailer here: Windows Media Low /High Real Media Low High This competition closes on January 11. Copyright: Artwork © 2007 The Weinstein Company. All Rights Reserved.

Celebrating the release of Uncut’s Film of the Month I’m Not There (Cert 15) everywhere this Friday (December 21), www.uncut.co.uk has teamed up with www.epiphone.com to giveaway a Gibson guitar!

Rated five-stars in the current issue of Uncut ‘I’m Not There’ is an unconventional journey into the life and times of Bob Dylan. Six actors portray Dylan as a series of shifting personae – from the public to the private to the fantastical – weaving together a rich and colorful portrait of this ever-elusive American icon.

For your chance of winning this fantastic prize, simply enter the competition by clicking here.

For more information on the film please visit www.imnotthere.co.uk

You can view the I’m Not There Trailer here:

Windows Media Low /High

Real Media Low High

This competition closes on January 11.

Copyright: Artwork © 2007 The Weinstein Company. All Rights Reserved.

Bruce Springsteen live in London

0

It is, I guess, a quintessential Bruce moment. The house lights are on, and as I walk across the floor of the O2 Arena, everyone is bellowing along unself-consciously to “Born To Run”. For the best part of two and a half hours, the E Street Band have played with a thickness, a relentlessness, a charged virtuosity that is pretty astounding. Now, they’re peaking, and it seems conceivable that they could keep going all night. To a lot of you, I imagine, none of this is news. But somehow, I’ve managed to fluke my way into the Deputy Editor’s chair at Uncut in spite of never having seen a Bruce Springsteen gig. In spite, furthermore, of not ever having liked Springsteen a great deal, if truth be told. But over the past year or two, I’ve had a sneaking suspicion that those ‘70s albums stacked up on my shelves might actually be worth playing. I’ve found myself infatuated with The Hold Steady, and generally impressed by the Arcade Fire, while realising that both bands are almost comically indebted to Springsteen. And finally, I’ve been playing “Magic” to death for the past few months; finally invigorated by this thunderous music. You’ll have to excuse me, then, for not having much in the way of critical objectivity today. I am, frankly, hopelessly unqualified to write a proper review of last night’s Springsteen show. Instead, I figure that this must be something of a personal epiphany, and an attempt to try and work out why his music suddenly makes sense to me. My hunch, as I’m transfixed by a bunch of bold, shamelessly epic songs from “Magic” – chiefly “Long Walk Home”, “Devil’s Arcade” and a fabulous “Gypsy Biker” with Springsteen and Miami Steve Van Zandt facing each other off with needling, high-end solos – is that what I like about Springsteen is the big pop imperative. It’s not the rocking – although his band are incredibly well-drilled at doing just that. It’s certainly not the horny-handed son-of-the-soil stuff, the earnest, rootsy singer-songwriter vibes that have sired so much boring Americana over the years – although, again, “Reason To Believe” sounds brilliant tonight. I think what I love here – and about “Magic” – is that, while there’s real serious substance to the songs, there’s a brassy showiness to the whole thing, wired into a very pop, swinging tradition. From the moment a fairground calliope parps into action to signal the arrival of the E Street Band, it’s the gaudy melodrama which I find so gripping, not the long-vaunted honesty and passion. Increasingly, the whole myth of authenticity bugs me as bogus and irrelevant, particularly when it’s applied to artists like Springsteen. There’s no doubting his integrity, but what is most impressive is the workrate, the thrilling choreography, the sweat-soaked revitalisation of Phil Spector’s pop masterplan. Springsteen doesn’t talk much tonight – there are no long soliloquies, just some rote bellowing and a couple of brief anti-Bush homilies that are virtually word-for-word identical to the ones Andrew Mueller reported in his thought-provoking piece on the Mid-West leg of the tour in the current issue of Uncut (one of the very best things we’ve printed in 2007, I think). We can invest any amount of meaning into these songs I’ll be learning over the next couple of weeks – “Racing In The Street”, “Night”, “Waitin’ On A Sunny Day”. But tonight, they’re not stadium rock so much as rock’n’roll theatre, right down to the fatherly nods of admiration Springsteen bestows on Clarence Clemons, Soozie Tyrell, Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren whenever one of them steps up for a brief, meticulous, rousing solo. Not fraudulent, but certainly knowing. The bandmember I’m most taken with, though, is Max Weinberg: as I watch him play erectly, with a sort of effortless force, all mighty forearms, I finally understand why an old boss – a drummer, actually – used to revere him so much. Like his bandmates, Weinberg seems to conjure up a vigorous spirit of community and celebration, but does so with a fearsome professional rigour. What else should I mention? A rousing “American Land”, with two accordions. And finally “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town”, delivered in Santa hats, with Van Zandt destroying his Sopranos credibility with some magnificently goofy earmuffs. Why? Because it’s just entertainment, folks, and now I get it - apart from "Dancing In The Dark", mind. If anyone would like to file a responsible and more measured review, please do below, and also: where should I start on my hilariously belated voyage of discovery? I’m thinking “Darkness On The Edge Of Town” but, as ever, any advice would be great.

It is, I guess, a quintessential Bruce moment. The house lights are on, and as I walk across the floor of the O2 Arena, everyone is bellowing along unself-consciously to “Born To Run”. For the best part of two and a half hours, the E Street Band have played with a thickness, a relentlessness, a charged virtuosity that is pretty astounding. Now, they’re peaking, and it seems conceivable that they could keep going all night.

My Favourite Albums Of The Year: Part Two

0

As promised on this Albums Of The Year blog, here are my favourite reissues and compilations of 2007. Again, feel free to add your own selections below. REISSUES 1 Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation 2 Boredoms - Super Roots 7 3 Fairport Convention - Liege & Lief 4 The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday 5 The Pop Group - Y 6 Harmonia - Live 1974 (not technically a reissue, but still) 7 Sly & The Family Stone - There's A Riot Goin' On 8 John Fahey - Fare Forward Voyagers (Soldier's Choice) 9 Leonard Cohen - Songs Of Leonard Cohen 10 Trees - On The Shore COMPILATIONS 1 Various Artists - The Very Best Of Ethiopiques 2 Dexys Midnight Runners - The Projected Passion Revue 3 Various Artists - Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970 4 Shack - Time Machine: The Best Of Shack 5 Led Zeppelin - The Mothership 6 Various Artists - I'm Not There: Original Soundtrack 7 Elliott Smith - New Moon 8 Various Artists - Songs The Bonzo Dog Band Taught Us 9 Nico - The Frozen Borderline 1968-1970 10 Vernon Elliott Ensemble - Pogles Wood/ Ivor The Engine

As promised on this Albums Of The Year blog, here are my favourite reissues and compilations of 2007. Again, feel free to add your own selections below.