Alia musica

So it turns out John Lennon was right after all. You really can get a tan from standing in the English rain.

For anyone with even a passing familiarity with the work of Belle and Sebastian songwriter Stuart Murdoch, God Help The Girl – his debut as a writer and director – will hold few real surprises.

Following the triumph of El Camino, Auerbach, Carney and Danger Mouse roll the dice, play it where it lays...

About ten years ago, I had a series of conversations with some people preparing a new edition of Harry Smith’s Anthology Of American Music. Their aim, it seemed, was to take the 84 tracks originally compiled from Smith’s collection of 78s, and subject them to a vigorous digital clean-up. How much better would these songs sound, was their reasoning, if all the grit and static was removed, leaving the performances unsullied and sharp?

Gruff Rhys and Huw Bunford take us through their back catalogue

Bruce Springsteen is on the cover of the new Uncut, which also includes features on Van Morrison, Mama Cass, The Stooges, William Burroughs and The Damned.

“On ‘Sweet Thing’, he asked me to imagine myself as a young, French drummer who was witnessing his first execution,” recalls veteran drummer Tony Newman, recalling the sessions for David Bowie’s 1974 album Diamond Dogs in John Robinson’s cover story for this month’s Uncut, which goes on sale this Friday, February 28.

Damon Albarn-led cultural exchange bears fruit...

Fans of BBC’s Sherlock will know that the legendary detective has what he calls a Memory Palace, in which he is given to roam around, looking usually for clues to mysteries galore. My own equivalent is a sort of Memory Shed, where I am inclined to potter, most recently after reading Peter Watts’ excellent cover story on The Ramones in the current Uncut.