Leonard Cohen comes on stage at a veritable trot, almost skipping, more sprightly by a distance than you would expect of a man in his mid-seventies. The crowd, who have clearly come to adore him, reward his athleticism with a standing ovation. It’s the first of many tonight, although the others that follow are for performances of songs from his majestic back catalogue that are played to something we’d have to call perfection.
Gentle readers of UNCUT, you can rest easy. While large chunks of the Internet seem obsessed with quite how slavishly close to the original Zack Snyder’s treatment of Watchmen, the Holy Grail of modern comics, will be, I think we can permit ourselves a small smile. Bob Dylan, it seems, is a fan.
A bumper list this week, as the 2009 releases start arriving in the Uncut office. Not everything here is going down ecstatically, but a first listen to the new Fennesz album today suggests that one was well worth waiting for. In the continuing absence of those My Bloody Valentine reissues, let alone any unreleased material from Kevin Shields’ archives, “Black Sea” really deserves to bring Christian Fennesz to a wider audience, I think.
As promised, the judges' prevarications over the Uncut Music Award shortlist continue today. Here's what they said about the Elbow record. Monday, I'll post the Drive-By Truckers discussions.
As you may have seen elsewhere on our website, the first winners of the Uncut Music Award have just been revealed as the Fleet Foxes. I spoke to Robin Pecknold last week to get his reaction, and found out a couple more things from him. One, he’s as anxious to hear the new Animal Collective album as many more Wild Mercury Sound regulars.
