Ache

Daring and masterful: late-flowering Plant blooms anew...

As AC/DC announce Malcolm Young's retirement and the release of a new album, Rock Or Bust, we look back at the life of former frontman Bon Scott in a piece taken from Uncut's December 2013 issue (Take 199). A street poet who’d been inside for ‘carnal knowledge’? A teenybop idol and hippy seer? A tearaway who swam with jellyfish and rode motorbikes naked? “A fantastic guy, a real human, so different to what people thought…” Words: Peter Watts _________________________

No point in messing about this week: scroll down to hear new music from, among others, Neil Young, Cool Ghouls, Bryan Ferry, Frazey Ford, Kendrick Lamar, Joan Shelley and the extremely promising D.D. Dumbo, plus a couple of amazing full gigs from Hiss Golden Messenger and a Purling Hiss/Spacin' supersession, both courtesy of the invaluable www.nyctaper.com.

The Replacements are reportedly planning to record a new album, their first since 1990's All Shook Down. The reunited Minneapolis group, fronted by Paul Westerberg, even have a bunch of new songs ready for the projected release, according to Rolling Stone. Two titles that Westerberg revealed are "Are You In It For The Money?" and "Dead Guitar Player", perhaps a reference to the group's original lead guitarist, Bob Stinson, who died in 1995.

U2’s shock-released new album, Songs Of Innocence, is largely themed around the band’s childhoods and adolescence in Dublin, according to Bono. Well, here’s what came next… This is the full story, as told by those who were there, of U2’s rise from indie hopefuls to becoming the Biggest Rock Band On The Planet. Written by Stephen Dalton, and originally published in Uncut’s December 1999 issue (Take 31).

The Replacements appeared on The Tonight Show last night (September 9). The cult alt rock band performed 'Alex Chilton' from their fifth album, 1987's 'Pleased to Meet Me', on the Jimmy Fallon hosted show. The performance comes 30 years after the group were banned from 'The Tonight Show' studio at 30 Rockefeller Center, New York after a chaotic performance on Saturday Night Live. Click above to watch their performance. The band are currently on tour in North America, and will play Austin City Limits festival next month.

Cat Power will play two London gigs this November. The singer will appear at the Union Chapel on November 10 and 11. Tickets go on sale September 11 and the performances mark Chan Marshall's first headline shows in the UK since she appeared at the Brighton Festival in May of this year. Cat Power will play: London Union Chapel (November 10, 11) Cat Power recently collaborated with Coldplay's Chris Martin to record the title song for actor/director Zach Braff's new film, Wish I Was Here.

Robert Fripp showcases the revitalised King Crimson, complete with a brand new, three-drummer lineup, at their first show in Albany, New York, on September 9. In this feature from Uncut’s July 2012 issue (Take 182), Rob Young asks Fripp and many of his former bandmates how they gave birth to a bright and extravagant series of albums and – inadvertently – to a whole new genre: prog rock. Surprising, desperate – and shocking... Even Jimi Hendrix was taken aback!

After my blog about the Aphex Twin the other week, it's a real pleasure to embed the first leaked track from "Syro" this morning. It's called "minipops 67 [120.2][source field mix]", and I think it's excellent.

The last major works by one of Hollywood's greatest modern actors.