Waits Tom

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We’re back home after three days in a field by the Thames, clothes have been washed and hangovers nursed, so it must be time to discuss who rocked Uncut’s world at the Carling Weekend: Reading Festival and who rocked the boat of musical excellence…

Finally making it onto the Carling Weekend: Reading Festival site, we ran and caught two new(ish) groups, The Horrors and The Enemy. Despite both being bigged up by the NME, the groups share little in common and have slagged each other off in the press. A fan standoff awaits?

I guess there are a few recurring subjects on Wild Mercury Sound, little hives of activity that I seem to keep visiting again and again. Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label is one, and I need to tell you about the mighty new Magik Markers LP sometime soon. But the extended, diverse and interwoven Thompson and Wainwright folk dynasties is definitely another.

ELVIS PERKINS This LA native – the son of the late actor, Anthony “Norman Bates” Perkins – may tap the same talent pools as many other contemporary troubadours (Dylan, Tom Waits, Loudon Wainwright III), but his voice rather suggests that of a 1930s blues crooner whose soul is scarred by terrible loss.

RICKIE LEE JONES Probably best known for her jazz-toned, easy-swinging smash hit from 1979,‘Chuck E’s In Love’ and for once having stepped out with Tom Waits, Jones affects a distinctive style which blends R&B, folk, Beat poeticism and jazz in a foil for her impressively supple, slightly smokey voice.

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