Ache

Last week started on an absolute high when Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s Alchemy tour rocked up to London’s 02 Arena, turbulence in its wake, some of the crowds they had recently played to evidently unhappy with aspects of the band’s current set, notably the long jams around the songs they are playing from last year’s Psychedelic Pill, especially “Walk Like A Giant” and the extended feedback cacophony of its final 10 minutes, which was spectacularly brutal. Audiences in Birmingham and Newcastle had been from all accounts clearly agitated.

From Uncut's September 2002 issue: In one of the most revealing interviews of his career, Bruce Springsteen talks exclusively to Adam Sweeting about his new album, The Rising, much of which was written in the aftermath of September 11, and which reunites him with the E Street Band for their first studio album since Born In The USA.

If I’d had the time/guts to put my favourites of 2013 list into some order, I suspect Steve Gunn’s “Time Off” would’ve come out pretty near the top, so it’s a great pleasure to host these new videos today of Gunn and his band in session.

Five-CD boxset from punk years shows the Stranglers were the outsider’s outsiders...

Consider this the last in a short series of encounters with somewhat cantankerous sorts, following accounts in this space over the couple of weeks of meetings with Lou Reed and Gordon Lightfoot, both of which have stirred some passing interest and lively comment. Today’s subject is Van Morrison, by reputation a notoriously tough assignment, as I would discover.

The appearance of Werner Herzog as the icy criminal mastermind in Tom Cruise’s most recent film, Jack Reacher, may have come as a surprise to those who assumed that the German director wouldn’t have much interest in such conventional film making.

In a new episode of the Noisey series Guitar Moves, Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys teaches the show's host Matt Sweeney how to play slide guitar.

Around this time in 2012, I came up with 40 records, released between January and June, that I liked enough to include in a six-month Best-Of list. Either I’m being more diligent, or less discerning, or else 2013 is shaping up to be a better year: as you can see, I’ve managed 67 here.

Understated and emotive country-folk from lauded Austin songstress...

Neil Young & Crazy Horse kicked off the European leg of their Alchemy tour last night (June 2). The band played in Waldbühne, Berlin, an outdoor arena with a capacity of 22,000. According to reports, the stage sets that the band had used on the previous legs of the tour were absent.