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Ryan Adams Rides On With America

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Ryan Adams Rides On With America

Prolific alt.rock musician Ryan Adams has appeared with US country rockers America- they of "Horse With No Name" fame-on The Late Show With David Letterman. But Adams' involvement with the band doesn't end there: he also contributes guitar and backing vocals to "Ride On", a standout track on America's new studio album, "Here & Now" - the group's first since 1984's "Perspectives." In fact, the band's new LP is crammed with surprising star names. James Iha, formerly of Smashing Pumpkins, co-produced the album along with Fountains Of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger. Other notable artists contribute too. Ben Kweller (who also guested on Letterman with Adams), Matthew Caws and Ira Elliot of Nada Surf and Jim James and Patrick Hallahan of My Morning Jacket all make an appearance. "Here & Now" even includes cover versions of songs by the contributors- America have a crack at Nada Surf's, "Always Love" and "Golden" by My Morning Jacket. The veteran rockers have announced an eight-date tour of the UK, starting in London in March. There's no telling which guests might spring a surprise visit! America play here, soon: London Hammersmith Apollo (March 13) Wolverhampton Civic Hall (14) Cambridge Corn Exchange (15) Basingstoke Anvil (17) Salford Lowry (18) Cardiff St. David's Hall (19) Gateshead The Sage (21) Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (220 See the video of the Letterman show here - Check out Ryan Adam's 'sha-la-la-las'!

Prolific alt.rock musician Ryan Adams has appeared with US country rockers America- they of “Horse With No Name” fame-on The Late Show With David Letterman.

But Adams’ involvement with the band doesn’t end there: he also contributes guitar and backing vocals to “Ride On”, a standout track on America’s new studio album, “Here & Now” – the group’s first since 1984’s “Perspectives.”

In fact, the band’s new LP is crammed with surprising star names. James Iha, formerly of Smashing Pumpkins, co-produced the album along with Fountains Of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger.

Other notable artists contribute too. Ben Kweller (who also guested on Letterman with Adams), Matthew Caws and Ira Elliot of Nada Surf and Jim James and Patrick Hallahan of My Morning Jacket all make an appearance.

“Here & Now” even includes cover versions of songs by the contributors- America have a crack at Nada Surf’s, “Always Love” and “Golden” by My Morning Jacket.

The veteran rockers have announced an eight-date tour of the UK, starting in London in March. There’s no telling which guests might spring a surprise visit!

America play here, soon:

London Hammersmith Apollo (March 13)

Wolverhampton Civic Hall (14)

Cambridge Corn Exchange (15)

Basingstoke Anvil (17)

Salford Lowry (18)

Cardiff St. David’s Hall (19)

Gateshead The Sage (21)

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (220

See the video of the Letterman show here – Check out Ryan Adam’s ‘sha-la-la-las’!

Wreckless Eric Is A Big Smash Once More

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Wreckless Eric Is A Big Smash Once More

Stiff Records, the label that brought us independent sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll in the 70s and early 80s, is reissuing six classic albums from its catalogue this March. Wreckless Eric's 1980 album 'Big Smash' is one of the titles to be revamped. Wreckless was one of the original Stiff artists, along with Elvis Costello and Ian Dury, and this album spawned his hit single "Whole Wide World" - which even 26 years later has found its way onto the soundtrack for recent Will Ferrell-starring movie "Stranger Than Fiction." As well as the original album, "Big Smash" will feature tracks from his two 1978 albums, "Wreckless Eric" and "Wonderful World Of Wreckless Eric." Wreckless has also recorded a commentary to accompany all of the rare tracks, B-sides and imports that have been included in this new collection. The Stiff reissues will also feature popstar-turned-comedienne, Tracey Ullman's 1983 album "You Broke My Heart In Seventeen Places." With contributions from Kirsty MacColl, and the hit single "Breakaway," the record originally sold in excess of 150,000. This will be the first time her debut album has been made available on CD. Other Stiff artists getting the reissue treatment are Rachel Sweet, Dirty Looks and Any Trouble. All six reissues will be available from March 12. To check out the Stiff Records rock 'n' roll story - Click here to go the label's website

Stiff Records, the label that brought us independent sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll in the 70s and early 80s, is reissuing six classic albums from its catalogue this March.

Wreckless Eric’s 1980 album ‘Big Smash’ is one of the titles to be revamped. Wreckless was one of the original Stiff artists, along with Elvis Costello and Ian Dury, and this album spawned his hit single “Whole Wide World” – which even 26 years later has found its way onto the soundtrack for recent Will Ferrell-starring movie “Stranger Than Fiction.”

As well as the original album, “Big Smash” will feature tracks from his two 1978 albums, “Wreckless Eric” and “Wonderful World Of Wreckless Eric.” Wreckless has also recorded a commentary to accompany all of the rare tracks, B-sides and imports that have been included in this new collection.

The Stiff reissues will also feature popstar-turned-comedienne, Tracey Ullman’s 1983 album “You Broke My Heart In Seventeen Places.” With contributions from Kirsty MacColl, and the hit single “Breakaway,” the record originally sold in excess of 150,000. This will be the first time her debut album has been made available on CD.

Other Stiff artists getting the reissue treatment are Rachel Sweet, Dirty Looks and Any Trouble.

All six reissues will be available from March 12.

To check out the Stiff Records rock ‘n’ roll story – Click here to go the label’s website

See Pulp Live At Glastonbury!

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See Pulp Live At Glastonbury!

Every day, we bring you the best thing we've seen on YouTube - a great piece of archive footage, a music promo or a clip from one of our favourite movies or TV shows. Today: Watch an electric performance by Pulp – live at Glastonbury festival in 1995. Charismatic frontman Jarvis Cocker leads the crowd in a resounding sing-along to their hit single “Common People” – one of the most memorable festival performances of all time. See the electric Pulp video footage by clicking here

Every day, we bring you the best thing we’ve seen on YouTube – a great piece of archive footage, a music promo or a clip from one of our favourite movies or TV shows.

Today: Watch an electric performance by Pulp – live at Glastonbury festival in 1995.

Charismatic frontman Jarvis Cocker leads the crowd in a resounding sing-along to their hit single “Common People” – one of the most memorable festival performances of all time.

See the electric Pulp video footage by clicking here

Uncut’s 2007 Album Preview Special

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Uncut’s 2007 Album Preview Special

J MASCIS talks (very slowly) about reforming the original line-up of DINOSAUR JNR with bassist Lou Barlow and drummer Murph and their new album, due later this year. UNCUT: It’s nearly 20 years since Bug. How’s the dynamic changed between you, Lou and Murph? MASCIS: It’s different. Bug was pretty bad energy. We relate to each other differently now. Lou never used to talk before, now he talks. Why did you decide to make a new album? If we were going to keep playing, we were going to get sick of playing the songs. So we decided maybe we should record some new stuff. I mean, historically, most bands I can think of, it’s never been that good if they do a new album 20 years later. We’ll see. I guess it’s an individual thing, everyone will have to judge for themselves. But I hope it’ll be good. Were you expecting the response you got? I wasn’t expecting that level of enthusiasm that greeted us. It was kind of an experiment, just to see what would happens. It seemed to be going pretty well, so we just kept doing it. How’s the vibe in the studio? Every few minutes the vibe changes. Sometimes you think it might be good, sometimes you think it’ll never work. We’re just hoping it’ll be good in the end. Do you see this as a long-term plan? We thought we could play some more shows then we thought we should have some new songs. Either it’ll stay the same, get better, get worse, but it just seems a step we have to take for the next thing to happen, for it to keep going or for it to end. It just seems like: We might as well do this happen and see what happens. What can we expect? There’s some loud guitar. How do the songs differ from Bug? It’s different songs, so I guess it’s different. It’s hard to tell. All records are different. It’s a photo album of a year, of its time. Do you worry that this record will be compared with Bug? It’s fine, I don’t care if these songs are judged against Bug. Have you got a favourite track? Yeah, it’s called “By The Fire”. It’s the longest song, so it’s got the longest solo… INTERVIEW: MICHAEL BONNER

J MASCIS talks (very slowly) about reforming the original line-up of DINOSAUR JNR with bassist Lou Barlow and drummer Murph and their new album, due later this year.

UNCUT: It’s nearly 20 years since Bug. How’s the dynamic changed between you, Lou and Murph?

MASCIS: It’s different. Bug was pretty bad energy. We relate to each other differently now. Lou never used to talk before, now he talks.

Why did you decide to make a new album?

If we were going to keep playing, we were going to get sick of playing the songs. So we decided maybe we should record some new stuff. I mean, historically, most bands I can think of, it’s never been that good if they do a new album 20 years later. We’ll see. I guess it’s an individual thing, everyone will have to judge for themselves. But I hope it’ll be good.

Were you expecting the response you got?

I wasn’t expecting that level of enthusiasm that greeted us. It was kind of an experiment, just to see what would happens. It seemed to be going pretty well, so we just kept doing it.

How’s the vibe in the studio?

Every few minutes the vibe changes. Sometimes you think it might be good, sometimes you think it’ll never work. We’re just hoping it’ll be good in the end.

Do you see this as a long-term plan?

We thought we could play some more shows then we thought we should have some new songs. Either it’ll stay the same, get better, get worse, but it just seems a step we have to take for the next thing to happen, for it to keep going or for it to end. It just seems like: We might as well do this happen and see what happens.

What can we expect?

There’s some loud guitar.

How do the songs differ from Bug?

It’s different songs, so I guess it’s different. It’s hard to tell. All records are different. It’s a photo album of a year, of its time.

Do you worry that this record will be compared with Bug?

It’s fine, I don’t care if these songs are judged against Bug.

Have you got a favourite track?

Yeah, it’s called “By The Fire”. It’s the longest song, so it’s got the longest solo…

INTERVIEW: MICHAEL BONNER

Tinariwen – Aman Aman: Water Is Life

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Tinariwen – Aman Aman: Water Is Life

When they first formed in the Libyan guerilla camps of the late ‘70s, Tinariwen referred to their music simply as “guitar”. And no wonder. Electric guitars in the North African desert sound different from ordinary electric guitars. Like the bluesy modal drones of the late Ali Farka Touré, Tinariwen’s guitars are crabbed, dusty, skittering around single bleak chords. On Aman Iman the guitars almost seem to chatter, the notes tight and clustered as they intertwine with undulating Arabic vocal lines and chant-like backing choruses. Producer (and Robert Plant sideman) Justin Adams, working again at Bamako’s Bogolan studio, captures Tinariwen in the raw – a minimalist collective playing a kind of lo-fi funk that’s both sleepy and at times jarringly jerky. “Ahimana” and “Awadijen” sound almost wrong to first-world ears, so weird are their lurching beats. “63” is as austere and undercooked as pre-war delta blues – you could trace a line from Africa to The White Stripes via John Lee Hooker and the Stones’ “Shake Your Hips”. On “Assouf”, the band push the envelope and run a guitar through a wah-wah pedal. Handclaps and ululations feature throughout. As you might infer from its title, the album’s themes are broadly concerned with the realities of heat and aridity, along with the semi-nomadic existence of the Touareg people. The militancy of the band’s early (and outlawed) cassettes may be less in evidence, but the constants of thirst and emptiness remain. “Water is life,” say the Touareg, “and milk is survival” - a perfect message for our overheating planet. From Robert Plant and Thom Yorke to anyone who dug the turban-bedecked troupe on Later with Jools Holland back in 2004, many are the English patients who’ve succumbed to the hypnotic mystery of Tinariwen’s sound. Now signed to Andy MacDonald’s Independiente – home to Embrace and Paul Weller – this extraordinary band are clearly pushing for more than cult world-music status. They fully merit it. BARNEY HOSKYNS

When they first formed in the Libyan guerilla camps of the late ‘70s, Tinariwen referred to their music simply as “guitar”. And no wonder. Electric guitars in the North African desert sound different from ordinary electric guitars. Like the bluesy modal drones of the late Ali Farka Touré, Tinariwen’s guitars are crabbed, dusty, skittering around single bleak chords.

On Aman Iman the guitars almost seem to chatter, the notes tight and clustered as they intertwine with undulating Arabic vocal lines and chant-like backing choruses. Producer (and Robert Plant sideman) Justin Adams, working again at Bamako’s Bogolan studio, captures Tinariwen in the raw – a minimalist collective playing a kind of lo-fi funk that’s both sleepy and at times jarringly jerky. “Ahimana” and “Awadijen” sound almost wrong to first-world ears, so weird are their lurching beats.

“63” is as austere and undercooked as pre-war delta blues – you could trace a line from Africa to The White Stripes via John Lee Hooker and the Stones’ “Shake Your Hips”. On “Assouf”, the band push the envelope and run a guitar through a wah-wah pedal. Handclaps and ululations feature throughout.

As you might infer from its title, the album’s themes are broadly concerned with the realities of heat and aridity, along with the semi-nomadic existence of the Touareg people. The militancy of the band’s early (and outlawed) cassettes may be less in evidence, but the constants of thirst and emptiness remain. “Water is life,” say the Touareg, “and milk is survival” – a perfect message for our overheating planet.

From Robert Plant and Thom Yorke to anyone who dug the turban-bedecked troupe on Later with Jools Holland back in 2004, many are the English patients who’ve succumbed to the hypnotic mystery of Tinariwen’s sound. Now signed to Andy MacDonald’s Independiente – home to Embrace and Paul Weller – this extraordinary band are clearly pushing for more than cult world-music status. They fully merit it.

BARNEY HOSKYNS

Steve Hillage – Reissues

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Steve Hillage – Reissues

Fish Rising- R1975 VIRGIN/EMI 4* L- R1976 VIRGIN/EMI 3* Motivation Radio- R1977 VIRGIN/EMI 4* Rainbow Dome Musick- R1979 5* In the 1970s, Steve Hillage was simultaneously a cult guitar hero wowing huge crowds at festivals like Deeply Vale and a straggly-bearded symbol of everything that punk reviled. In 1976, the year of “Anarchy In The UK”, Hillage had his numbers mixed up and was flying 1967’s freak flag high on L, which featured covers of The Beatles’ “It’s All Too Much” and Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man” (this reissue adds an “Eight Miles High” remake done with kindred spirit Todd Rundgren). With his Hendrix-like ditties about “Electrick Gypsies” and slick virtuosity, it’s hard to think of an artist who’s been more hopelessly out of synch with the zeitgeist. Yet now that our sense of pop time and historical sequence is utterly jumbled thanks to retromania and downloading, it’s easy to decontexualise Hillage’s music and salvage what’s good about it. The clean separation of the production on 1975’s Fish Rising might have seemed clinical at a time when the “cutting edge” was Dr Feelgood recording their debut in mono, but nowadays that kind of CD-friendly gloss and filigree just sounds normal. The guitarist’s flashy pyrotechnique is frequently a thing of sheer splendour. And Hillage could be lyrical when he toned down the quicksilver-nimble acrobatics and went into meander mode. There’s plenty of that on Fish, whose aqueous textures and aqua-utopian concept pick up where Hendrix’s “1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)” left off. Another thing that’s striking about Hillage’s music by the time of 1977’s Motivation Radio is its sheer funk, the hot rhythm section of Joe Blocker and Reggie McBride shimmying and strutting on a par with the Blockheads. There’s also a sense in which Hillage wasn’t behind-of-his-own-time but actually way in advance. A synthesiser fan since his Gong days, he employed three keyboard players in his live band, including girlfriend/creative partner Miquette Giraudy. On Motivation’s “Searching For The Spark”, the arpeggiated synth-ripples are basically trance 15 years ahead of schedule. In 1979 Hillage and Giraudy released the fabulous Rainbow Dome Musick, whose side-long tracks, “Garden of Paradise” and “Four Ever Rainbow”, pioneered the wafting and shimmering ambient techno that would soundtrack the early ‘90s post-rave chill-out culture. Hats off to Hillage. SIMON REYNOLDS

Fish Rising- R1975

VIRGIN/EMI

4*

L- R1976

VIRGIN/EMI

3*

Motivation Radio- R1977

VIRGIN/EMI

4*

Rainbow Dome Musick- R1979

5*

In the 1970s, Steve Hillage was simultaneously a cult guitar hero wowing huge crowds at festivals like Deeply Vale and a straggly-bearded symbol of everything that punk reviled. In 1976, the year of “Anarchy In The UK”, Hillage had his numbers mixed up and was flying 1967’s freak flag high on L, which featured covers of The Beatles’ “It’s All Too Much” and Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man” (this reissue adds an “Eight Miles High” remake done with kindred spirit Todd Rundgren). With his Hendrix-like ditties about “Electrick Gypsies” and slick virtuosity, it’s hard to think of an artist who’s been more hopelessly out of synch with the zeitgeist.

Yet now that our sense of pop time and historical sequence is utterly jumbled thanks to retromania and downloading, it’s easy to decontexualise Hillage’s music and salvage what’s good about it.

The clean separation of the production on 1975’s Fish Rising might have seemed clinical at a time when the “cutting edge” was Dr Feelgood recording their debut in mono, but nowadays that kind of CD-friendly gloss and filigree just sounds normal. The guitarist’s flashy pyrotechnique is frequently a thing of sheer splendour. And Hillage could be lyrical when he toned down the quicksilver-nimble acrobatics and went into meander mode.

There’s plenty of that on Fish, whose aqueous textures and aqua-utopian concept pick up where Hendrix’s “1983… (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)” left off. Another thing that’s striking about Hillage’s music by the time of 1977’s Motivation Radio is its sheer funk, the hot rhythm section of Joe Blocker and Reggie McBride shimmying and strutting on a par with the Blockheads.

There’s also a sense in which Hillage wasn’t behind-of-his-own-time but actually way in advance. A synthesiser fan since his Gong days, he employed three keyboard players in his live band, including girlfriend/creative partner Miquette Giraudy. On Motivation’s “Searching For The Spark”, the arpeggiated synth-ripples are basically trance 15 years ahead of schedule. In 1979 Hillage and Giraudy released the fabulous Rainbow Dome Musick, whose side-long tracks, “Garden of Paradise” and “Four Ever Rainbow”, pioneered the wafting and shimmering ambient techno that would soundtrack the early ‘90s post-rave chill-out culture. Hats off to Hillage.

SIMON REYNOLDS

Norah Jones – Be On Time

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Norah Jones – Be On Time

Come Away With Me, Norah Jones’ landmark 2002 debut, stands as this decade’s Tapestry. Although she wrote very little of the album, the material was painstakingly designed for her amber alto and unhurried delivery. The further refinements of 2004’s Feels Like Home suggested that Jones could continue spinning out variations on the winning formula ad infinitum, occupying her own cosy corner of the mainstream. Instead, she’s chosen to go deeper and subtler, and while the move proves to be less radical than, say, Lindsey Buckingham’s bungee jump from Rumours to Tusk, it’s still a bold one. Paring the arrangements down to the bone, Jones and her bassist/boyfriend Lee Alexander, who produced, fashion these 13 songs, all written or co-written by the artist, with a jeweller’s delicate precision. In contrast to the earlier LPs, the arrangements on Be On Time are keyed not to mood but to subject matter. Jones no longer seems interested in crafting soft-pop confections in the manner of her hits. Rather, she deals with both her emotional state (which appears for the most part to be A-OK) and the state of the world she’s living in (which is anything but). The album sets its parallel agendas on the opening track, “Wish I Could”, in which the narrator finds herself unable to step into the watering hole she once frequented with her ex-lover. Pretty standard so far. Then comes the first narrative wrinkle, as a female acquaintance standing in the doorway beckons her. Jones sings, “She says love in the time of war is not fair/He was my man but they didn’t care,” the couplet yanking the song into a the context of present-day unease. Jones and co-writer Alexander have one more card to play, as they reveal, in an O’Henry-like twist, that both women are aching for the same man. The pithy narrative plays out over a minimalist ensemble consisting of nothing more than a plunked acoustic guitar and a pair of cellos. Having immediately established that this LP is not designed for dinner parties, Jones and her henchmen then head straight to Tom Waits territory. The refracted sea shanty “Sinkin’ Soon” has an “end of the world as we know it” text. But it is presented with the most whimsical of metaphors – an oyster cracker on the stew, a wheel of cheese in the sky – as Jones gives free reign to her inner Billie Holiday, at moments nearly fraying the crushed velvet of her voice. A tipsy horn section, featuring muted trombone, provide just the right shading. The only song containing a conventional hook is “Thinkin’ About You”, the first single, almost by default. Otherwise, one surprise follows another, most strikingly with the playfully sexy intimacy of “Little Room” and the Newman-esque sociopolitical tableau of “My Sweet Country”, which stands as a contender for the most reasonable protest song ever penned. What’s especially daring about Be On Time is the degree to which Jones and Alexander trust their songs and her languorous voice to hold the listener’s interest. The album whispers along with no pace or dynamics to speak of, and yet the effect is beguiling, as the tonalities of this rigorously subdued form of chamber pop – with pedal steel, bowed bass, Hammond B-3, Wurlitzer piano, Mellotron, brass and reeds providing the watercolour hues – blend with the finely nuanced material to create something altogether fresh. And just like that, Jones transforms herself into the gentlest of cutting-edge artists. BUD SCOPPA

Come Away With Me, Norah Jones’ landmark 2002 debut, stands as this decade’s Tapestry. Although she wrote very little of the album, the material was painstakingly designed for her amber alto and unhurried delivery. The further refinements of 2004’s Feels Like Home suggested that Jones could continue spinning out variations on the winning formula ad infinitum, occupying her own cosy corner of the mainstream. Instead, she’s chosen to go deeper and subtler, and while the move proves to be less radical than, say, Lindsey Buckingham’s bungee jump from Rumours to Tusk, it’s still a bold one.

Paring the arrangements down to the bone, Jones and her bassist/boyfriend Lee Alexander, who produced, fashion these 13 songs, all written or co-written by the artist, with a jeweller’s delicate precision. In contrast to the earlier LPs, the arrangements on Be On Time are keyed not to mood but to subject matter. Jones no longer seems interested in crafting soft-pop confections in the manner of her hits. Rather, she deals with both her emotional state (which appears for the most part to be A-OK) and the state of the world she’s living in (which is anything but).

The album sets its parallel agendas on the opening track, “Wish I Could”, in which the narrator finds herself unable to step into the watering hole she once frequented with her ex-lover. Pretty standard so far. Then comes the first narrative wrinkle, as a female acquaintance standing in the doorway beckons her. Jones sings, “She says love in the time of war is not fair/He was my man but they didn’t care,” the couplet yanking the song into a the context of present-day unease. Jones and co-writer Alexander have one more card to play, as they reveal, in an O’Henry-like twist, that both women are aching for the same man. The pithy narrative plays out over a minimalist ensemble consisting of nothing more than a plunked acoustic guitar and a pair of cellos.

Having immediately established that this LP is not designed for dinner parties, Jones and her henchmen then head straight to Tom Waits territory. The refracted sea shanty “Sinkin’ Soon” has an “end of the world as we know it” text. But it is presented with the most whimsical of metaphors – an oyster cracker on the stew, a wheel of cheese in the sky – as Jones gives free reign to her inner Billie Holiday, at moments nearly fraying the crushed velvet of her voice. A tipsy horn section, featuring muted trombone, provide just the right shading.

The only song containing a conventional hook is “Thinkin’ About You”, the first single, almost by default. Otherwise, one surprise follows another, most strikingly with the playfully sexy intimacy of “Little Room” and the Newman-esque sociopolitical tableau of “My Sweet Country”, which stands as a contender for the most reasonable protest song ever penned.

What’s especially daring about Be On Time is the degree to which Jones and Alexander trust their songs and her languorous voice to hold the listener’s interest. The album whispers along with no pace or dynamics to speak of, and yet the effect is beguiling, as the tonalities of this rigorously subdued form of chamber pop – with pedal steel, bowed bass, Hammond B-3, Wurlitzer piano, Mellotron, brass and reeds providing the watercolour hues – blend with the finely nuanced material to create something altogether fresh. And just like that, Jones transforms herself into the gentlest of cutting-edge artists.

BUD SCOPPA

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Some Loud Thunder

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Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Some Loud Thunder

I didn’t realise how much I’d grown to like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s debut album until it dawned on me that I’d been playing it virtually daily for nigh on a year. What at first had seemed no more than cheerfully engaging had become something of an addiction. I really couldn’t get enough of its mentholated neurotic breeziness, so reminiscent of early Talking Heads, and I’m a sucker for anything that draws as wonderfully on the relentless thrum of The Velvet Underground’s “What Goes On” as CYHSY at their headstrong best. This was thoughtful and exciting modern American music that also had something in common with the collegiate rock of Arcade Fire and The National, knowing and intense. I’d have been more than passably happy if there’d been more of it here. But it seems to have been important to Alec Ounsworth – the main architect of what we’re listening to – that CYHSY should be seen to have “moved on” from the more chipper moments of the first album, add a little ballast and gravity to their sound. To which end they’ve brought in ubiquitous producer Dave Fridmann, who does so much to render Flaming Lips unlistenable. The results at first seem patchy. Fridmann brings along his usual bag of tricks, and there’s a predictable cavalcade of bleeps, scratches, hazy atmospherics and an assortment of random plinkings, burps, queasy discordancies and staticky irrelevance. No doubt Clap Your Hands think this is all terribly grown up, “deeper”, perhaps more meaningful than what they’ve done before. Initially, however, it’s simply distracting. Persevere, though. There are some brilliant moments here – notably the winsome drift and melodic starbursts of “Mercury Walks An Orange Sun/She Arrives In Relative Stitches” and the delirious “Satan Said Dance”. “Goodbye To Mother And The Cove”, meanwhile, is as lovely as anything they’ve done, including the great, John Cale-inspired “Details Of War” from their debut. A flawed but fascinating follow-up. ALLAN JONES

I didn’t realise how much I’d grown to like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s debut album until it dawned on me that I’d been playing it virtually daily for nigh on a year. What at first had seemed no more than cheerfully engaging had become something of an addiction. I really couldn’t get enough of its mentholated neurotic breeziness, so reminiscent of early Talking Heads, and I’m a sucker for anything that draws as wonderfully on the relentless thrum of The Velvet Underground’s “What Goes On” as CYHSY at their headstrong best.

This was thoughtful and exciting modern American music that also had something in common with the collegiate rock of Arcade Fire and The National, knowing and intense. I’d have been more than passably happy if there’d been more of it here. But it seems to have been important to Alec Ounsworth – the main architect of what we’re listening to – that CYHSY should be seen to have “moved on” from the more chipper moments of the first album, add a little ballast and gravity to their sound. To which end they’ve brought in ubiquitous producer Dave Fridmann, who does so much to render Flaming Lips unlistenable.

The results at first seem patchy. Fridmann brings along his usual bag of tricks, and there’s a predictable cavalcade of bleeps, scratches, hazy atmospherics and an assortment of random plinkings, burps, queasy discordancies and staticky irrelevance. No doubt Clap Your Hands think this is all terribly grown up, “deeper”, perhaps more meaningful than what they’ve done before. Initially, however, it’s simply distracting.

Persevere, though. There are some brilliant moments here – notably the winsome drift and melodic starbursts of “Mercury Walks An Orange Sun/She Arrives In Relative Stitches” and the delirious “Satan Said Dance”. “Goodbye To Mother And The Cove”, meanwhile, is as lovely as anything they’ve done, including the great, John Cale-inspired “Details Of War” from their debut. A flawed but fascinating follow-up.

ALLAN JONES

Oscar Nominations Announced!

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Oscar Nominations Announced!

In the last couple of weeks, Colin Welland’s rallying cry “the British are coming” has been given a new lease of life as the UK film community set their sights on this year’s Oscar race, their hopes raised by the volume of homegrown hits in the last 12 months, from Borat to The Queen. When the nominations were announced at 5.30 this morning (Jan 23), British films received an impressive 11 shouts in the key categories – including, in the Best Director category, Stephen Frears for The Queen and Paul Greengrass for United 93. The Queen also received nominations for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress – an award Helen Mirren is likely to walk away with on February 25. The success of British cinema this year is rather overshadowed by a repeat of the Clint Eastwood-Martin Scorsese face-off from the 2005 Academy Awards, where Scorsese’s The Aviator lost out to Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby in the Best Picture and Best Director categories. This year, Scorsese and Eastwood go head-to-head for The Departed and Letters From Iwo Jima. This is the sixth time Scorsese has been nominated for Best Director. Something of a pleasant surprise to see our current Film Of The Month, Babel, accrue five nominations in the key categories, including Best Picture and Best Director for Alejandro González Iñárritu. We’re also delighted that another former Film Of The Month, Little Miss Sunshine, is also up for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. Other surprises include the appearance of Will Smith in the Best Actor category for The Pursuit Of Happyness, a sludgey feelgood flick that’s been widely panned and Penelope Cruz picking up a random Best Actress nomination for her brilliant performance in Pedro Almodovar’s Volver. We’re also rather disappointed Guillermo Del Toro didn’t get a Best Director nod for the stunning Pan’s Labyrinth, nor acting nominations for Jack Nicholson in The Departed or Sacha Baron-Cohen for Borat. If one can safely assume Mirren will walk with Best Actress award, it seems equally likely Forest Whitaker is going to take the Best Actor award for his mesmerising performance as Idi Amin in The Last King Of Scotland. If we could dearly hope for anything, then it’d be that Marty finally gets to take home that elusive Best Director statuette – and, maybe, even one for Best Picture, too. The 2007 Academy Awards are to take place on February 25. MICHAEL BONNER

In the last couple of weeks, Colin Welland’s rallying cry “the British are coming” has been given a new lease of life as the UK film community set their sights on this year’s Oscar race, their hopes raised by the volume of homegrown hits in the last 12 months, from Borat to The Queen.

When the nominations were announced at 5.30 this morning (Jan 23), British films received an impressive 11 shouts in the key categories – including, in the Best Director category, Stephen Frears for The Queen and Paul Greengrass for United 93. The Queen also received nominations for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress – an award Helen Mirren is likely to walk away with on February 25.

The success of British cinema this year is rather overshadowed by a repeat of the Clint Eastwood-Martin Scorsese face-off from the 2005 Academy Awards, where Scorsese’s The Aviator lost out to Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby in the Best Picture and Best Director categories.

This year, Scorsese and Eastwood go head-to-head for The Departed and Letters From Iwo Jima. This is the sixth time Scorsese has been nominated for Best Director.

Something of a pleasant surprise to see our current Film Of The Month, Babel, accrue five nominations in the key categories, including Best Picture and Best Director for Alejandro González Iñárritu. We’re also delighted that another former Film Of The Month, Little Miss Sunshine, is also up for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.

Other surprises include the appearance of Will Smith in the Best Actor category for The Pursuit Of Happyness, a sludgey feelgood flick that’s been widely panned and Penelope Cruz picking up a random Best Actress nomination for her brilliant performance in Pedro Almodovar’s Volver. We’re also rather disappointed Guillermo Del Toro didn’t get a Best Director nod for the stunning Pan’s Labyrinth, nor acting nominations for Jack Nicholson in The Departed or Sacha Baron-Cohen for Borat.

If one can safely assume Mirren will walk with Best Actress award, it seems equally likely Forest Whitaker is going to take the Best Actor award for his mesmerising performance as Idi Amin in The Last King Of Scotland. If we could dearly hope for anything, then it’d be that Marty finally gets to take home that elusive Best Director statuette – and, maybe, even one for Best Picture, too.

The 2007 Academy Awards are to take place on February 25.

MICHAEL BONNER

Damien Rice Announces UK Arena Tour

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Damien Rice Announces UK Arena Tour

This will be the Brit Award nominee's first full tour in three yearsDamien Rice has announced details of a UK arena tour to take place this October. The tour, which kicks off at Newcastle Arena on October 1, will be the first time Rice has toured the UK in three years. It will also be the first time he has performed songs from his acclaimed second album "9," which was released late last year. The singer, who is also nominated for Best International Male at this year's Brit Awards, will play the following nine-date tour: Newcastle Arena (Oct 1) Birmingham NIA (2) Glasgow SECC (4) London Wembley Arena (6) Plymouth Pavilion (8) Manchester MEN (11) Cardiff Arena (12) You're reading an old newsstory. However, Damien Rice tickets are on sale now for his London Palladium show on 7th November 2014. Click here to buy.

This will be the Brit Award nominee’s first full tour in three yearsDamien Rice has announced details of a UK arena tour to take place this October.

The tour, which kicks off at Newcastle Arena on October 1, will be the first time Rice has toured the UK in three years.

It will also be the first time he has performed songs from his acclaimed second album “9,” which was released late last year.

The singer, who is also nominated for Best International Male at this year’s Brit Awards, will play the following nine-date tour:

Newcastle Arena (Oct 1)

Birmingham NIA (2)

Glasgow SECC (4)

London Wembley Arena (6)

Plymouth Pavilion (8)

Manchester MEN (11)

Cardiff Arena (12)

You’re reading an old newsstory. However, Damien Rice tickets are on sale now for his London Palladium show on 7th November 2014. Click here to buy.

See The MTV Performance That Got Metallica Banned

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See The MTV Performance That Got Metallica Banned

Everyday, we bring you the best thing we've seen on YouTube - a great piece of archive footage, a music promo or a clip from one of our favourite movies or TV shows. Today: Watch a rebellious Metallica performance at the 1996 MTV European Music Video Awards, filmed live in London. The heavy metal group fronted by James Hetfield were due to play their song “King Nothing” but instead deviated to play a thumping cover of The Misfits classic “Last Caress,” and their own song “So What” – replete with all swearing. This performance got Metallica banned from being mentioned at ANY future MTV awards show. Warning: This clip contains swearing. And lots of it. Watch the archive footage by clicking here

Everyday, we bring you the best thing we’ve seen on YouTube – a great piece of archive footage, a music promo or a clip from one of our favourite movies or TV shows.

Today: Watch a rebellious Metallica performance at the 1996 MTV European Music Video Awards, filmed live in London.

The heavy metal group fronted by James Hetfield were due to play their song “King Nothing” but instead deviated to play a thumping cover of The Misfits classic “Last Caress,” and their own song “So What” – replete with all swearing.

This performance got Metallica banned from being mentioned at ANY future MTV awards show.

Warning: This clip contains swearing. And lots of it.

Watch the archive footage by clicking here

Uncut’s 2007 Album Preview Special

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Uncut’s 2007 Album Preview Special

UNCUT: How you doing, are you alright? GUTO: Yeah, not bad. Where are you at the moment? I’m in Cardiff at the moment. Do you know what it’s called yet? No. It’s not called no, it’s just ‘No I don’t know’ just to clarify. Anything in the offing? We always have about 10 possible titles and we see which one annoys us the least, and then pick it. We don’t often have titles before we’re in the studio. Wings Around The World we had, but mostly it tends to be last thing. Where did you record it? We recorded it in the South of France. In a vineyard, so we were very much involved in the wine world as well as the music world. Who produced it for you? A guy called Dave newfield, who’s probably most famous for Broken Social Scene, he came over from Canada and recorded it with us. Is that an indication of the sort of stuff you’ve been listening to prior to recording? No. The songs we chose were pretty much guitar-based. I wrote songs that could be recorded fairly live in the studio. Theirs was a record we liked the sound of. Are you all writing now? Because I know Lovecraft was more a collaborative album. Yeah, songs came from all directions really. You know, we’ve always got tunes but yeah Scott and Kian, Kian’s got a song. We’re all pretty involved. Are there any good song titles? Yeah, there’s one called ‘Neo-consumer’ which is a title I like. There’s a song called ‘Battersea Odyssey’ which is inspired by the power station. ‘Wolves’ as in the animal, not the football team. You say it’s a guitar record, how would you describe it? It’s really rowdy and it’s upbeat. Is there anything you’d compare it to in your back catalogue? Tricky really, I hope not, because we’re always trying to move forward. But it’s a lot of Eastern European instruments like a… that’s the one on Get Carter, that sort of starry sound. And we’ve got an instrument called a saz from when we were in turkey last year. What does that sound like? That’s kind of like a Ballalica sort of vibe, we’ve been listening to a lot of seventies Turkish music. That’s kind of subtly influenced us. We never make a record geographically, we take instruments from all over the world and blend them all together. Are there any kind of great surprises in store for us? People might be surprised how ‘rock’ it is, actually. By ‘rock’ do you mean in a Guns N’ Roses sense or in a Metallica sense. ? I mean more Black Sabbath, you know, there’s no tight trousers in this band we’re still loose fit, and there’s no bandanas. They look good on other people, but never myself. And you tend to need some sort of handlebar moustache to go with them… You do, and the charisma to carry it off. You know, people who wear a bandana obviously don’t give a shit about anything, and that’s really cool. Is there anything that you’re particularly proud of about the album? Just the energy of the whole record, it is really quite, vibey. It’s a sort of party record. It’s so difficult to try and put it across because other people haven’t heard it and it’s usually other people who can say what it’s like more than I can. We’re really excited about it, it’s definitely different but still it’s the same band and I don’t think we’re treading old ground, for us at anyway. We’ve got a new bunch of influences like Turkish prog. rock. There’s even like a groovy Motown influence in it, not that it’s a motown record, just the way they make those records, live in the room. The band playing on their own getting a groove going, you know, quite a dirty groove. It’s not a clean record. INTERVIEW: MICHAEL BONNER

UNCUT: How you doing, are you alright?

GUTO: Yeah, not bad.

Where are you at the moment?

I’m in Cardiff at the moment.

Do you know what it’s called yet?

No. It’s not called no, it’s just ‘No I don’t know’ just to clarify.

Anything in the offing?

We always have about 10 possible titles and we see which one annoys us the least, and then pick it. We don’t often have titles before we’re in the studio. Wings Around The World we had, but mostly it tends to be last thing.

Where did you record it?

We recorded it in the South of France. In a vineyard, so we were very much involved in the wine world as well as the music world.

Who produced it for you?

A guy called Dave newfield, who’s probably most famous for Broken Social Scene, he came over from Canada and recorded it with us.

Is that an indication of the sort of stuff you’ve been listening to prior to recording?

No. The songs we chose were pretty much guitar-based. I wrote songs that could be recorded fairly live in the studio. Theirs was a record we liked the sound of.

Are you all writing now? Because I know Lovecraft was more a collaborative album.

Yeah, songs came from all directions really. You know, we’ve always got tunes but yeah Scott and Kian, Kian’s got a song. We’re all pretty involved.

Are there any good song titles?

Yeah, there’s one called ‘Neo-consumer’ which is a title I like. There’s a song called ‘Battersea Odyssey’ which is inspired by the power station. ‘Wolves’ as in the animal, not the football team.

You say it’s a guitar record, how would you describe it?

It’s really rowdy and it’s upbeat.

Is there anything you’d compare it to in your back catalogue?

Tricky really, I hope not, because we’re always trying to move forward. But it’s a lot of Eastern European instruments like a… that’s the one on Get Carter, that sort of starry sound. And we’ve got an instrument called a saz from when we were in turkey last year.

What does that sound like?

That’s kind of like a Ballalica sort of vibe, we’ve been listening to a lot of seventies Turkish music. That’s kind of subtly influenced us. We never make a record geographically, we take instruments from all over the world and blend them all together.

Are there any kind of great surprises in store for us?

People might be surprised how ‘rock’ it is, actually.

By ‘rock’ do you mean in a Guns N’ Roses sense or in a Metallica sense. ?

I mean more Black Sabbath, you know, there’s no tight trousers in this band we’re still loose fit, and there’s no bandanas. They look good on other people, but never myself.

And you tend to need some sort of handlebar moustache to go with them…

You do, and the charisma to carry it off. You know, people who wear a bandana obviously don’t give a shit about anything, and that’s really cool.

Is there anything that you’re particularly proud of about the album?

Just the energy of the whole record, it is really quite, vibey. It’s a sort of party record. It’s so difficult to try and put it across because other people haven’t heard it and it’s usually other people who can say what it’s like more than I can. We’re really excited about it, it’s definitely different but still it’s the same band and I don’t think we’re treading old ground, for us at anyway. We’ve got a new bunch of influences like Turkish prog. rock. There’s even like a groovy Motown influence in it, not that it’s a motown record, just the way they make those records, live in the room. The band playing on their own getting a groove going, you know, quite a dirty groove. It’s not a clean record.

INTERVIEW: MICHAEL BONNER

Crowded House To Play Coachella

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Crowded House To Play Coachella

Crowded House are set to reform - a decade after the group's 'farewell concert' at the Sydney Opera House. The band have already been confirmed as appearing at US rock festival Coachella in May, and are widely expected to undertake a world tour this year. An official announcement is expected this Thursday (January 25). Details about the reunion began to emerge when frontman Neil Finn and bassist Nick Seymour placed an advert in their local newspaper, The Dominion Post. They were seeking a replacement for original drummer Paul Hester, who committed suicide in 2005. Neil Finn's New Zealand publicist, Julia Connolly, told The Dominion Post that: "At the moment, they're just working at getting the band together." Something's formally coming out once the band is in place." We'll announce more details about the rumoured 12-month world tour on Uncut.co.uk. Check back this Thursday.

Crowded House are set to reform – a decade after the group’s ‘farewell concert’ at the Sydney Opera House.

The band have already been confirmed as appearing at US rock festival Coachella in May, and are widely expected to undertake a world tour this year. An official announcement is expected this Thursday (January 25).

Details about the reunion began to emerge when frontman Neil Finn and bassist Nick Seymour placed an advert in their local newspaper, The Dominion Post. They were seeking a replacement for original drummer Paul Hester, who committed suicide in 2005.

Neil Finn’s New Zealand publicist, Julia Connolly, told The Dominion Post that: “At the moment, they’re just working at getting the band together.” Something’s formally coming out once the band is in place.”

We’ll announce more details about the rumoured 12-month world tour on Uncut.co.uk. Check back this Thursday.

Uncut’s 2007 Album Preview Special

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Uncut’s 2007 Album Preview Special

NICKY WIRE on Send Away The Tigers – the 8th album from the Manic Street Preachers UNCUT: When did you start working on the record? WIRE: We started writing last October, about a year ago. That was more writing than demoing. We haven’t rehearsed an album for a long time, we’d just realised we’d got a bit lazy, and we wanted to be able to go in and play a record together. Since This Is My Truth we just haven’t practised together enough, so it made it much easier to go into the studio and play a lot of it live and look at each other – not so easy! How did making the solo albums affect the band’s dynamic? I think it helped. James always wanted to be Jackson Browne and I always wanted to make Metal Machine Music. I think that helped, to make a selfish record, and then get back to making a right old racket together. How would you describe it? It’s a real glossy punk album. It’s more Guns N Roses than McCarthy. They’re too hard to copy. Some bands you’ve got to leave alone. Joy Division, Sex Pistols and McCarthy, just stay away form them, they’re too good. It’s the best bits of Everything Must Go and Generation Terrorists. It’s the youthful idealism of Generation Terrorists, the kind of ambition we couldn’t pull off back then, and the song-writing of Everything Must Go. A vague sense of euphoria you can hear on Everything Must Go, which isn’t easy for us to get; there’s an uplifting feel to that album, and I think we wanted to get that again. Did the reissue of Everything Must Go have any impact? There’s definitely been a bit of that, especially because the press has been so good about it. I worked on that as well, because I’m the Bill Wyman archivist, so I’ve been knee-deep in that. That was enjoyable, rediscovering all the raw rehearsal tapes and little demos from my house. It reminded us that, post-Ritchey, is probably what we’re best at – trying to be intelligent and trying to be thought-provoking, and also writing huge, anthemic rock songs. But there is that overshadowing thing. But it’s always going to be there with us. Does it remind you of anything else? The things that we thought we were good at – a bit of politics, working class rage. And the sense of euphoria, which we think had been lacking on our last two records, really. As happens with all bands, you try to react against what made you popular and by the end of This Is My Truth, for all our bravado, I don’t think we ever actually thought we could get that back – and when we did, we reacted against it. We spent eight years denying who we are. When we released Lifeblood, people didn’t actually know it was us. Friends would come up to me and say: “Is that you, or the Pet Shop Boys with a rock vocalist?” Why the title? Send Away The Tigers. It’s what Tony Hancock used to say when he wanted a drink – it’s like, “the demons are coming”. It deals with Tony Hancock and the decline of Tony Blair. The liberation of the zoo in Baghdad is a central theme. It’s very similar to “All You Need Is Love” played by Guns N Roses. Is it a political record? The world we live in does hang over the album, but it’s not in your face politics as such. You can’t just avoid. I love cynicism, I love nihilism, but when we started we were idealistic beneath all that. I just tried to write a little bit as a younger person rather than a sad, cynicised older person. It’s good to break out of that. It’s more idealism that nihilism. Do you have any particular songs on it you’d like to talk about? There’s a track called “Rendition”, which is kind of based on Jack Lemmon in the film Missing, mixed with the CIA act of rendition. “Rendition rendition Oh good God I feel like a liberal/Rendition, rendition I wish we still had Jack Lemmon.” It’s a slight sense of joie de vrie about this album – I don’t want to be pious. There’s got to be a sense of fun about it. Any others? The song with Nina [from The Cardigans], “Your Love Alone Is Not Enough”, sounds very much like a single. There’s a track called “I’m Just A Patsy”, which is comparing me to Lee Harvey Oswald – the usual ridiculousness, really. There’s a “Sweet Child O Mine” song called “Autumn Song”, which is based on the same sort of ideals of “Sweet Child O Mine” – it’s falling in love with your girlfriend at the age of 16. I needed a lot of regressive therapy for that! INTERVIEW: MICHAEL BONNER

NICKY WIRE on Send Away The Tigers – the 8th album from the Manic Street Preachers

UNCUT: When did you start working on the record?

WIRE: We started writing last October, about a year ago. That was more writing than demoing. We haven’t rehearsed an album for a long time, we’d just realised we’d got a bit lazy, and we wanted to be able to go in and play a record together. Since This Is My Truth we just haven’t practised together enough, so it made it much easier to go into the studio and play a lot of it live and look at each other – not so easy!

How did making the solo albums affect the band’s dynamic?

I think it helped. James always wanted to be Jackson Browne and I always wanted to make Metal Machine Music. I think that helped, to make a selfish record, and then get back to making a right old racket together.

How would you describe it?

It’s a real glossy punk album. It’s more Guns N Roses than McCarthy. They’re too hard to copy. Some bands you’ve got to leave alone. Joy Division, Sex Pistols and McCarthy, just stay away form them, they’re too good. It’s the best bits of Everything Must Go and Generation Terrorists. It’s the youthful idealism of Generation Terrorists, the kind of ambition we couldn’t pull off back then, and the song-writing of Everything Must Go. A vague sense of euphoria you can hear on Everything Must Go, which isn’t easy for us to get; there’s an uplifting feel to that album, and I think we wanted to get that again.

Did the reissue of Everything Must Go have any impact?

There’s definitely been a bit of that, especially because the press has been so good about it. I worked on that as well, because I’m the Bill Wyman archivist, so I’ve been knee-deep in that. That was enjoyable, rediscovering all the raw rehearsal tapes and little demos from my house. It reminded us that, post-Ritchey, is probably what we’re best at – trying to be intelligent and trying to be thought-provoking, and also writing huge, anthemic rock songs. But there is that overshadowing thing. But it’s always going to be there with us.

Does it remind you of anything else?

The things that we thought we were good at – a bit of politics, working class rage. And the sense of euphoria, which we think had been lacking on our last two records, really. As happens with all bands, you try to react against what made you popular and by the end of This Is My Truth, for all our bravado, I don’t think we ever actually thought we could get that back – and when we did, we reacted against it. We spent eight years denying who we are. When we released Lifeblood, people didn’t actually know it was us. Friends would come up to me and say: “Is that you, or the Pet Shop Boys with a rock vocalist?”

Why the title?

Send Away The Tigers. It’s what Tony Hancock used to say when he wanted a drink – it’s like, “the demons are coming”. It deals with Tony Hancock and the decline of Tony Blair. The liberation of the zoo in Baghdad is a central theme. It’s very similar to “All You Need Is Love” played by Guns N Roses.

Is it a political record?

The world we live in does hang over the album, but it’s not in your face politics as such. You can’t just avoid. I love cynicism, I love nihilism, but when we started we were idealistic beneath all that. I just tried to write a little bit as a younger person rather than a sad, cynicised older person. It’s good to break out of that. It’s more idealism that nihilism.

Do you have any particular songs on it you’d like to talk about?

There’s a track called “Rendition”, which is kind of based on Jack Lemmon in the film Missing, mixed with the CIA act of rendition. “Rendition rendition Oh good God I feel like a liberal/Rendition, rendition I wish we still had Jack Lemmon.” It’s a slight sense of joie de vrie about this album – I don’t want to be pious. There’s got to be a sense of fun about it.

Any others?

The song with Nina [from The Cardigans], “Your Love Alone Is Not Enough”, sounds very much like a single. There’s a track called “I’m Just A Patsy”, which is comparing me to Lee Harvey Oswald – the usual ridiculousness, really. There’s a “Sweet Child O Mine” song called “Autumn Song”, which is based on the same sort of ideals of “Sweet Child O Mine” – it’s falling in love with your girlfriend at the age of 16. I needed a lot of regressive therapy for that!

INTERVIEW: MICHAEL BONNER

Uncut’s 2007 Album Preview Special

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Uncut’s 2007 Album Preview Special

WATERBOYS frontman MIKE SCOTT on Book Of Lightning – one of our most anticipated albums of 2007 UNCUT: Do you have a title yet? SCOTT: I'm still deciding on a title, I'm not absolutely certain yet. It's most likely to be called Book Of Lightning. Where did that come from? Some corner in my head. [laughs] When did you go in the studio to start work in it? Began in early September, well I say that… most of it was recorded in early September in Basing Street Studios in London, or SARM West as it's officially called. I think of it as a bit of history because it's the old Island Record studio from the 60s and 70s, but I did record a track in Vancouver in June that is on the album. How was it recording in Vancouver? That was good fun. It was a band that covered one of my old songs and I loved what they did with it and I asked if they'd back me for a track, and so that's how that happened. So this is a Waterboys album, but who's actually on there? There's me on everything. Bass player, got Mark Smith is the next most frequent contributor. Steve Wickham plays fiddle as usual. Richard Neiff plays keyboards and a couple of drummers – Brady Blade who's a top American drummer, played with Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, lots of people. And an English drummer called Jeremy Stacey. When you're working on material, do you think “This is going to be a solo record, or this is going to be a Waterboys record?” Ah no, I think of them all as Waterboys records. It's just that I went solo for a while in the mid-nineties, basically because I'd made an album on which I played all the instruments. Then I continued solo for a little while, didn't like it, switched back to the Waterboys. So there's no decisions to be made when I make a record these days, it's just a Waterboys record the solo thing was [adopts cockney accent] just a phase, mate. So what can we expect from this record? It's a broad canvas – its part psychedelic, part protest, there's some personal songs, some relationship songs, all different. So I can't sum it up. With the protest songs, is that the world we live in at the moment? Um, they're to do with power and people becoming glamoured by power. Universal Hall was the last studio album, which in itself was pretty different from A Rock in the Weary Land… Absolutely. So where are you going with this? Well this is very different again, but as I say, it's a broad canvas, a wide range of music. Some of it is electric and psychedelic; some of it is based around acoustic guitar, fiddles, keyboards and drums – a more pure sound. Could you put it in relation to past Waterboys albums? I'm glad to say I don't think it sounds like any of the older records, although there are two songs that were written at the Fisherman's Blues period that I never recorded, so they have echoes of that sound. What made you want to go back to those songs? I've written songs for a long time and I have a book full of all the ones I've never used. Every time I make a record I go back through that book and see if there are any that fit with the mood of whatever the new style is, or the new theme is. What are they called? There's “You In The Sky” and “Everybody Takes A Tumble”…I'm like Roger the Dodger with his dodge books – do you remember in the Beano, he used to have this shelf with all his dodge books and I've got songbooks of all my old songs that I've never used [laughs] How many books are there? I've got seven or eight books up there, I'm sure there's some overlaps, but yeah loads of them. I use these big black…I suppose they're for artists or for sketchers, you buy them in art shops. Massive, black books that I use. Are you gonna be touring the record? Yeah, beginning in March when the record comes out. What's the release date? Well I'm told it's March the 6th …I've never had a release date in my life that's been held to but maybe we'll make it this time. I've delivered the album on time anyway and it's on a new label for us – (Where's 14?), which is part of Universal. INTERVIEW: MICHAEL BONNER

WATERBOYS frontman MIKE SCOTT on Book Of Lightning – one of our most anticipated albums of 2007

UNCUT: Do you have a title yet?

SCOTT: I’m still deciding on a title, I’m not absolutely certain yet. It’s most likely to be called Book Of Lightning.

Where did that come from?

Some corner in my head. [laughs]

When did you go in the studio to start work in it?

Began in early September, well I say that… most of it was recorded in early September in Basing Street Studios in London, or SARM West as it’s officially called. I think of it as a bit of history because it’s the old Island Record studio from the 60s and 70s, but I did record a track in Vancouver in June that is on the album.

How was it recording in Vancouver?

That was good fun. It was a band that covered one of my old songs and I loved what they did with it and I asked if they’d back me for a track, and so that’s how that happened.

So this is a Waterboys album, but who’s actually on there?

There’s me on everything. Bass player, got Mark Smith is the next most frequent contributor. Steve Wickham plays fiddle as usual. Richard Neiff plays keyboards and a couple of drummers – Brady Blade who’s a top American drummer, played with Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, lots of people. And an English drummer called Jeremy Stacey.

When you’re working on material, do you think “This is going to be a solo record, or this is going to be a Waterboys record?”

Ah no, I think of them all as Waterboys records. It’s just that I went solo for a while in the mid-nineties, basically because I’d made an album on which I played all the instruments. Then I continued solo for a little while, didn’t like it, switched back to the Waterboys. So there’s no decisions to be made when I make a record these days, it’s just a Waterboys record the solo thing was [adopts cockney accent] just a phase, mate.

So what can we expect from this record?

It’s a broad canvas – its part psychedelic, part protest, there’s some personal songs, some relationship songs, all different. So I can’t sum it up.

With the protest songs, is that the world we live in at the moment?

Um, they’re to do with power and people becoming glamoured by power.

Universal Hall was the last studio album, which in itself was pretty different from A Rock in the Weary Land…

Absolutely.

So where are you going with this?

Well this is very different again, but as I say, it’s a broad canvas, a wide range of music. Some of it is electric and psychedelic; some of it is based around acoustic guitar, fiddles, keyboards and drums – a more pure sound.

Could you put it in relation to past Waterboys albums?

I’m glad to say I don’t think it sounds like any of the older records, although there are two songs that were written at the Fisherman’s Blues period that I never recorded, so they have echoes of that sound.

What made you want to go back to those songs?

I’ve written songs for a long time and I have a book full of all the ones I’ve never used. Every time I make a record I go back through that book and see if there are any that fit with the mood of whatever the new style is, or the new theme is.

What are they called?

There’s “You In The Sky” and “Everybody Takes A Tumble”…I’m like Roger the Dodger with his dodge books – do you remember in the Beano, he used to have this shelf with all his dodge books and I’ve got songbooks of all my old songs that I’ve never used [laughs]

How many books are there?

I’ve got seven or eight books up there, I’m sure there’s some overlaps, but yeah loads of them. I use these big black…I suppose they’re for artists or for sketchers, you buy them in art shops. Massive, black books that I use.

Are you gonna be touring the record?

Yeah, beginning in March when the record comes out.

What’s the release date?

Well I’m told it’s March the 6th …I’ve never had a release date in my life that’s been held to but maybe we’ll make it this time. I’ve delivered the album on time anyway and it’s on a new label for us – (Where’s 14?), which is part of Universal.

INTERVIEW: MICHAEL BONNER

Peter Gabriel Goes It Online And Alone

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Peter Gabriel Goes It Online And Alone

Former founding Genesis member and multi-instrumentalist Peter Gabriel has announced that he will release his next album in the US without the aid of a record company. First reported in The Times newspaper yesterday (January 21), Gabriel, an early pioneer of digital music distribution, has raised £2 million towards recording and 'shipping' his next as-yet-untitled album in a venture with investment boutique Ingenious Media. Gabriel is expected to earn double the money that he would get through a conventional record deal. Commercial director Duncan Reid of Ingenious explains the business savvy of the deal, saying, "If you're paying a small distribution fee and covering your own marketing costs, you enjoy the lion's share of the proceeds of the album. Gabriel is expected to outsource CD production for worldwide release through Warner Bros. Records. The new album deal covers the North America territory, where Gabriel is currently out of contract. Ingenious has previously scored chart entries with independently released albums by Mick Hucknall's Simply Red.

Former founding Genesis member and multi-instrumentalist Peter Gabriel has announced that he will release his next album in the US without the aid of a record company.

First reported in The Times newspaper yesterday (January 21), Gabriel, an early pioneer of digital music distribution, has raised £2 million towards recording and ‘shipping’ his next as-yet-untitled album in a venture with investment boutique Ingenious Media.

Gabriel is expected to earn double the money that he would get through a conventional record deal.

Commercial director Duncan Reid of Ingenious explains the business savvy of the deal, saying, “If you’re paying a small distribution fee and covering your own marketing costs, you enjoy the lion’s share of the proceeds of the album.

Gabriel is expected to outsource CD production for worldwide release through Warner Bros. Records.

The new album deal covers the North America territory, where Gabriel is currently out of contract.

Ingenious has previously scored chart entries with independently released albums by Mick Hucknall’s Simply Red.

Dexys Kevin Rowland To DJ

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Dexys Kevin Rowland To DJ

Kevin Rowland has announced that he will have 'carte blanche' as DJ at indie-pop club How Does It Feel To Be Loved next month. The Dexys Midnight Runners frontman will be picking the records on Friday February 2, at the club's first Friday of the month venue, The Canterbury Arms in Brixton, South London. Guest DJs at the the popular twice-monthly club, are usually asked to try to adhere to the club's policy of music, but HDIF-hero Rowland should have no trouble at all. Lyrics taken from Dexys' "Let's Make It Precious" are stated as the indie club's music policy, "Sing me a record/That cries pure and true/ No not those guitars/They're too noisy and crude. The kind that convinces refuses to leave/There's no need to turn it up. If it's pure I'll feel it from here." The HDIF club website translates the young soul rebel's words to playing a mixture of Tamla motown, northern soul and 60s heartbreak groups. Click here for advance tickets for HDIF from www.wegotickets.com/event/15414 For more details about HDIF - click here for the club's website and messageboard Dexy's recently released The Projected Passion Revue- To read John Mulvey's review click here

Kevin Rowland has announced that he will have ‘carte blanche’ as DJ at indie-pop club How Does It Feel To Be Loved next month.

The Dexys Midnight Runners frontman will be picking the records on Friday February 2, at the club’s first Friday of the month venue, The Canterbury Arms in Brixton, South London.

Guest DJs at the the popular twice-monthly club, are usually asked to try to adhere to the club’s policy of music, but HDIF-hero Rowland should have no trouble at all.

Lyrics taken from Dexys’ “Let’s Make It Precious” are stated as the indie club’s music policy, “Sing me a record/That cries pure and true/

No not those guitars/They’re too noisy and crude.

The kind that convinces refuses to leave/There’s no need to turn it up.

If it’s pure I’ll feel it from here.”

The HDIF club website translates the young soul rebel’s words to playing a mixture of Tamla motown, northern soul and 60s heartbreak groups.

Click here for advance tickets for HDIF from www.wegotickets.com/event/15414

For more details about HDIF – click here for the club’s website and messageboard

Dexy’s recently released The Projected Passion Revue- To read John Mulvey’s review click here

Uma Thurman Is New Face Of Virgin

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Uma Thurman Is New Face Of Virgin

Hollywood actress Uma Thurman has just been signed by Telewest as the face of a new Virgin rebranding campaign. Expected to launch on February 14, Virgin Media will be a new company comprising Virgin Mobile, land-line, broadband and TV services. MD of Virgin Media marketing has said that beauty Uma Thurman is the "perfect fit" for the new campaign. The re-branding is expected to cost £20 million, but will push Virgin Media to be the largest Virgin-branded company in the world. Past Virgin Mobile advertisements have used top-name celebrities including Busta Rhymes, Christine Aguilera, Pamela Anderson and Kate Moss.

Hollywood actress Uma Thurman has just been signed by Telewest as the face of a new Virgin rebranding campaign.

Expected to launch on February 14, Virgin Media will be a new company comprising Virgin Mobile, land-line, broadband and TV services.

MD of Virgin Media marketing has said that beauty Uma Thurman is the “perfect fit” for the new campaign.

The re-branding is expected to cost £20 million, but will push Virgin Media to be the largest Virgin-branded company in the world.

Past Virgin Mobile advertisements have used top-name celebrities including Busta Rhymes, Christine Aguilera, Pamela Anderson and Kate Moss.

Maximo Park Ready New Album Of Pleasures

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Maximo Park Ready New Album Of Pleasures

Newcastle post-punk revivalists Maximo Park have announced that their second album 'Our Earthly Pleasures' will be released on April 2. A single "Our Velocity" will precede the new album on March 19. "Our Earthly Pleasures" is the anticipated follow-up to 2005's Mercury Prize nominated "A Certain Trigger" which featured four Top 20 singles. The new 12-track studio album was produced by Gil Norton, whose previous credits include the Pixies and Foo Fighters. Paul Smith, the band's singer, says that the new album is more rock, but without cliché. "Thanks to two years of touring the world and with the contribution of Gil Norton, Our Earthly Pleasures is a heavy, eye-opening record. It's rock music without the clichés, dealing with the world on an emotional level. Ultimately we want to reach as many people as possible because we feel this record has the ability to inspire and affect people,” says Smith. The full tracklisting for the album is: 1-Girls Who Play Guitars 2-Our Velocity 3-Books From Boxes 4-Russian Literature 5-Karaoke Plays 6-Your Urge 7-The Unshockable 8-By The Monument 9-Nosebleed 10-A Fortnight’s Time 11-Sandblasted And Set Free 12-Parisian Skies Maximo Park are currently on a European Tour and are due to play Moscow this Thursday (January 25) and Istanbul on Saturday (January 27). The band will also headline a sold-out Shockwaves NME Awards show on Wednesday 21st February. More UK dates are expected to be announced soon.

Newcastle post-punk revivalists Maximo Park have announced that their second album ‘Our Earthly Pleasures’ will be released on April 2.

A single “Our Velocity” will precede the new album on March 19.

“Our Earthly Pleasures” is the anticipated follow-up to 2005’s Mercury Prize nominated “A Certain Trigger” which featured four Top 20 singles.

The new 12-track studio album was produced by Gil Norton, whose previous credits include the Pixies and Foo Fighters.

Paul Smith, the band’s singer, says that the new album is more rock, but without cliché. “Thanks to two years of touring the world and with the contribution of Gil Norton, Our Earthly Pleasures is a heavy, eye-opening record. It’s rock music without the clichés, dealing with the world on an emotional level. Ultimately we want to reach as many people as possible because we feel this record has the ability to inspire and affect people,” says Smith.

The full tracklisting for the album is:

1-Girls Who Play Guitars

2-Our Velocity

3-Books From Boxes

4-Russian Literature

5-Karaoke Plays

6-Your Urge

7-The Unshockable

8-By The Monument

9-Nosebleed

10-A Fortnight’s Time

11-Sandblasted And Set Free

12-Parisian Skies

Maximo Park are currently on a European Tour and are due to play Moscow this Thursday (January 25) and Istanbul on Saturday (January 27).

The band will also headline a sold-out Shockwaves NME Awards show on Wednesday 21st February.

More UK dates are expected to be announced soon.

The Charlatans To Frolic In Forest

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The Charlatans To Frolic In Forest

The Charlatans have announced details for special show this summer at Delamere Castle in Cheshire, as part of the The Forestry Commissions tour this summer. The band, fronted by Tim Burgess, were formed in Northwich and this show which takes place on June 15 at Delamere Forest in Linmere, is being billed as a home-coming gig. Booker for The Forestry Commission, Simon Hough, says: "We are delighted that The Charlatans are the first act to be confirmed, especially as they are local to the area." Last year, The Charlatans released "Forever-The Singles" featuring 16 of their Top 40 singles, including "The Only One I Know", "One To Another", "How High," "North Country Boy" and recent remix-single "You’re So Pretty We’re So Pretty." Tickets priced £24.00 (subject to booking fee) go on sale this Friday (January 26). Click here for more information about The Forestry Commission And click here to go to The Charlatans' homepage

The Charlatans have announced details for special show this summer at Delamere Castle in Cheshire, as part of the The Forestry Commissions tour this summer.

The band, fronted by Tim Burgess, were formed in Northwich and this show which takes place on June 15 at Delamere Forest in Linmere, is being billed as a home-coming gig.

Booker for The Forestry Commission, Simon Hough, says: “We are delighted that The Charlatans are the first act to be confirmed, especially as they are local to the area.”

Last year, The Charlatans released “Forever-The Singles” featuring 16 of their Top 40 singles, including “The Only One I Know”, “One To Another”, “How High,” “North Country Boy” and recent remix-single “You’re So Pretty We’re So Pretty.”

Tickets priced £24.00 (subject to booking fee) go on sale this

Friday (January 26).

Click here for more information about The Forestry Commission

And click here to go to The Charlatans’ homepage

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