Ache

If you were looking for a unifying thread running through HBO’s excellent new series, True Detective, then it might well be to do with faith: those who have it, those who don’t and those who may well be exploiting it for their own ends.

Slowdive has confirmed they are to reunite. The band's original line-up - Neil Halstead, Rachel Goswell, Christian Savill, Simon Scott and Nick Chaplin - will perform at London'sVillage Underground on May 19. Tickets will be available here from Friday, January 31 at 9am. They will also play the Primavera Festival in Barcelona on May 30 on a bill that includes Pixies, The National and Slint.

Afghan Whigs will release their first new album in 16 years later this year.

Radio on - the dons of magisterial cool get up-close and personal...

There’s a story about Brendan Gleeson meeting unsuccessfully with a Hollywood agent to discuss furthering his acting career overseas. This was in the mid-Nineties, and until then Gleeson had largely worked in television, mostly in his native Ireland, with only a handful of minor film roles to his credit. Admittedly, Gleeson had come late to acting: he’d been a secondary school teacher in Dublin before taking up acting full time in 1991 and was now in his early forties.

It’s recently been announced that a rare live recording of Syd Barrett guesting on guitar with The Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band in Cambridge in July 1972 is to be released – so now seems like a perfect time to revisit the extensive tribute we published in Uncut just after Barrett’s death in July 2006 (Take 112, September 2006). As well as a fantastic piece written by David Cavanagh, we hear from Syd’s friends, collaborators and admirers, including David Bowie, David Gilmour, Mick Rock, Peter Jenner, Damon Albarn, Julian Cope and Kevin Ayers. Shine on…

Reed and Cale's most experimental work. Still mind-blowing...

Slowdive are rumoured to be close to announcing reunion details. Former members of the band - who split in 1995 - have been Tweeting a countdown, prompting rumours of the band's reunion, according to a report in The Guardian.

Introducing, from Dublin, a new star of psychedelic folk-rock…

Good-time title, sombre message on The Boss' 18th studio album proper...