Ocean

The new Uncut’s only been on sale since the end of last week, but there’s already been a fair amount of correspondence about our cover story on The Byrds. Most of it’s been about our Top 20 countdown of The Byrds’s greatest tracks. You were broadly in agreement with what was included, but many of you wondered aloud at certain omissions – “Chestnut Mare” was particularly missed by many, including me it must be said.

Class of '09 grads think bigger; wilder.

Calexico’s new album, Algiers, is reviewed in the current issue of Uncut (October 2012, Take 185) – so we thought we’d take a trip back to April 2003 (Take 71), when Uncut’s John Mulvey flew out to Tucson, Arizona to discover more about the duo’s redrawing of the alt.country map. __________________________

The desert rockers soak up some New Orleans spirit, with refreshing results...

Chan Marshall’s new album, Sun, is reviewed in the latest issue of Uncut (Take 185, October 2012) – this week’s archive feature, from December 2006 (Take 115), finds Marshall recovering from a breakdown after perhaps her most successful year to date. Here, she tells Marc Spitz how she pulled herself back from the edge… ________________________________

Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has revealed that he is writing an autobiography, which he has described as "a spiritual memoir". The singer, whose band released their new studio album Oceania in June, has said that though his book isn't "a rock 'n' roll autobiography", it does contain "plenty of sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll'". Speaking to Billboard, Corgan also confirmed that the band are already working on the follow-up to Oceania and he has said he hopes to have it out by December 2013.

Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has layed into the way the music industry works, saying it "operates on a dumbing down principle". The singer, whose band released their new studio album Oceania in June, has said that he believes few bands get to keep their intelligence if they want to be successful, but did name Radiohead as a notable exception.

One terrible absence from this week’s playlist is, of course, Bob Dylan’s “Tempest”, which Allan heard a while back. If you haven’t read his preview yet, please check it out here. Some fairly lively discussion in the comments thread, too.

Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has said that he firmly believes whoever the next "Kurt Cobain or Courtney Love or Trent Reznor" is, they will not make it big in the same way as those artists. The singer, whose band released their new studio album Oceania last month, has said that most alternative bands will never escape the scene they start in as that scene is now self-sufficient.

It's the Swedish Cracker! Sort of...