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Watch Wilco perform “California Stars” with all-star cast at ACL Hall of Fame induction

Will Lavin
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Watch Wilco perform “California Stars” with all-star cast at ACL Hall of Fame induction
Wilco were inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame last October, and PBS have now aired the honours ceremony. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Jeff Tweedy – Love Is The King review The alt-rockers, who were honoured alongside Luci...

Wilco were inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame last October, and PBS have now aired the honours ceremony.

The alt-rockers, who were honoured alongside Lucinda Williams and Texas singer-songwriter Alejandro Escovedo, capped off their induction with a huge all-star performance of “California Stars” – a highlight of their 1998 album Mermaid Avenue which was created alongside Billy Bragg.

The guest-heavy performance saw Jeff Tweedy and co. joined by Japanese Breakfast, Sheila E., Rosanne Cash, Margo Price, Lenny Kaye, Bill Callahan, Terry Allen and Alex Ruiz. Nels Cline, Jason Isbell, legendary pedal steel guitarist Lloyd Maines and fellow inductee Escovedo also took to the stage.

Isbell, who previously joined Wilco for a performance of “California Stars” in 2016, did the honours of inducting Williams into the ACL Hall of Fame, while Price joined her for a searing take on “Changed The Locks”.

Long-running public television institution ACL established its Hall of Fame in 2014 to honour artists who’ve had a significant impact on its 47-year history, such as Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, and Bonnie Raitt.

The 7th Annual Hall of Fame Honours aired Saturday night (January 8) on PBS. You can watch it in full here, and you can see Wilco’s mega performance of “California Stars” below.

 

Frontman Tweedy, meanwhile, shared a new project entitled Love Is The King in December, which included a cover of Neil Young’s “The Old Country Waltz”.

Back in October, Wilco shared two covers by The Beatles as part of a celebration of the band’s final album Let It Be.

The band covered “Dig A Pony” from the record and Don’t Let Me Down which featured as a B-side to the “Get Back” single, for Amazon Music’s [RE]DISCOVER campaign, which for the month of October was focusing on The Beatles’ final era.

Previously unseen footage of Rolling Stones and more at Altamont released

Rhian Daly
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Previously unseen footage of Rolling Stones and more at Altamont released
Previously unreleased footage from the infamous Altamont Speedway Free Festival in 1969 has been released by the Library of Congress. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: The Rolling Stones’ producer Chris Kimsey on Charlie Watts: “It’s all in ...

Previously unreleased footage from the infamous Altamont Speedway Free Festival in 1969 has been released by the Library of Congress.

The free concert took place at Altamont Raceway Park in northern California on December 6, 1969 and featured performances by The Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and more.

The event was attended by approximately 300,000 people. Infamously, it was the site of severe violence, including the stabbing of 18-year-old Meredith Hunter by Hells Angels, who were serving as security at the festival.

While footage from the day has previously been shown in the Maysles Brothers’ documentary Gimme Shelter, the Library of Congress has now shared a home movie that has never been seen before. The video, which comes without audio, shows Rolling Stones, Gram Parsons, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and more performing and hanging out in the crowd. Watch it below now.

The footage was acquired by archivist Rick Prelinger in 1996, whose 200,000-reel collection was given to the Library in 2022. The Library’s head of the Moving Image Section, Mike Mashon, wrote in a blog that a technician had recently come across “two reels of silent 8mm reversal positive – a common home movie format” which was accompanied by a handwritten note that read “Stones in the Park”.

“When I saw that, I immediately thought that it could be a home movie of the July 5, 1969, Rolling Stones Hyde Park concert held in London a couple of days after the death of guitarist Brian Jones,” Mashon wrote. “But it could also be a copy of a documentary of the same name, which would make the discovery considerably less interesting.

“Regardless, I sent the reels up for 2K digitization by our film preservation laboratory. A couple of days later, I heard from some very excited colleagues that the scan wasn’t the Hyde Park show. It was from the Altamont Speedway concert in California and it definitely wasn’t footage from the 1970 documentary. Many people know the Gimme Shelter documentary pretty well, but there’s a lot more in this home movie.”

Meanwhile, last month, the Rolling Stones played a secret, intimate gig at Ronnie Scotts in their hometown of London last month to celebrate the life of their late drummer Charlie Watts. The musician died in August 2021 at the age of 80.

Woodstock organiser Michael Lang has died

Ali Shutler
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Woodstock organiser Michael Lang has died
Michael Lang, the organiser behind the Woodstock Festival, has died aged 77. According to family spokesperson Michael Pagnotta, Lang passed away following complications from a rare form of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. "We are very sad to hear that legendary Woodstock icon and long time family fr...

Michael Lang, the organiser behind the Woodstock Festival, has died aged 77.

According to family spokesperson Michael Pagnotta, Lang passed away following complications from a rare form of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“We are very sad to hear that legendary Woodstock icon and long time family friend Michael Lang has passed at 77 after a brief illness. Rest In Peace,” Pagnotta shared in a statement on Twitter.

After dropping out of University, Lang, a Brooklyn native, moved to Miami to put on events, including 1968’s Miami Pop Festival which hosted Jimi Hendrix.

The following year a 24-year-old Lang, alongside businessmen John Roberts and Joel Rosenman and music industry promoter Artie Kornfeld, created the Woodstock Music And Art Fair. The festival featured performances from Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Grateful Dead, The Who, Sly and the Family Stone, Joe Cocker and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Famously billed as “Three Days Of Peace And Music,” the New York festival drew up to 400,000 people.

“Woodstock offered an environment for people to express their better selves, if you will,” Lang told Pollstar in 2019. “It was probably the most peaceful event of its kind in history. That was because of expectations and what people wanted to create there.”

Lang featured extensively in Woodstock, the 1970 documentary about the festival and went on to produce subsequent events Woodstock ‘94 (featuring the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Green Day and Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Woodstock ‘99, which hosted sets from the likes of Limp Bizkit, Metallica and Rage Against The Machine.

Lang was also involved in the planning of Woodstock 50, which was set to take place in August 2019 and feature performances from the likes of JAY-Z, Miley Cyrus, The Killers and Halsey.

After their financial backers pulled out, Lang released a statement that said: “Woodstock belongs to the people and it always will. We don’t give up and Woodstock 50 will take place and will be a blast!” However, the festival was cancelled in July 2019 with Lang encouraging “artists and agents, who all have been fully paid, to donate 10% of their fees to HeadCount or causes of their choice in the spirit of peace.”

See tributes to Michael Lang below:

The Chieftains – Chronicles : 60 Years Of The Chieftains

Neil Spencer
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The Chieftains – Chronicles : 60 Years Of The Chieftains
Perhaps it’s only now, with the passing of founder Paddy Moloney, that we can appreciate the enormity of The Chieftains’ achievement. Their longevity and profuse output (44 albums) are cause for celebration, but their real legacy is the transformation of Irish music from a backwater interest to ...

Perhaps it’s only now, with the passing of founder Paddy Moloney, that we can appreciate the enormity of The Chieftains’ achievement. Their longevity and profuse output (44 albums) are cause for celebration, but their real legacy is the transformation of Irish music from a backwater interest to a world-conquering force. It’s hard to understand, in an age when all things “Celtic” are a powerful strand in popular music, but when the Chieftains formed in 1962 – a collection of enthusiastic part-timers – Irish folk had little respect even at home. Inspired by the short-lived composer Sean O’Riada, who aspired to ally the beauty and mystery of folk with classical tradition, and with whom Moloney started his career, The Chieftains re-purposed their native tradition for modern times, becoming hugely influential on a new generation of musicians – Horslips, Planxty, the Bothy Band – and ultimately on their nation’s idea of itself.

Chronicles provides an admirable résumé of the band’s career, mixing tracks from all eras with live performances and collaborations with guest singers – songs always took second place to the purity of instrumentation and the grail of Irish classicism. In performance, they could sound more like an orchestra than a six-piece, and when the bodhran started to thump and twirl, and the pipes and whistles to wail, they rocked; try “Boil The Breakfast Early” from 1981’s Cambridge Folk Festival.

Alongside the jigs and reels, often taken at a manic pace, came the lyrical airs, highlighting the intricate, haunting Uillean pipes of Moloney. The addition of Derek Bell’s harp for 1973’s Chieftains 4 proved pivotal, supplying a gentle counterpoint to the shrill whistles and pipes. The otherworldly “The Women of Ireland (Mna Na hEireann)” on Chieftains 4 remains a defining moment. Written by O’ Riada, its presence on Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon helped awaken North America’s Irish diaspora, formerly fed on the shamrockery of the Clancy Brothers, to the real deal.

A steady stream of albums and success beyond the folk faithful didn’t bring much innovation, though 1983’s visit to China saw them dabble with fusion. Meanwhile, the mainstream was heading for peak Celtic – Clannad, The Pogues and eventually Enya, The Corrs and the dreaded Riverdance. 1988’s meeting with Van Morrison on Irish Heartbeat was a glorious alliance of talents, though it’s unrepresented here aside from a 1999 live version of “Star Of The County Down”. After that the collaborations proliferated; expeditions to Galicia and Nashville, Sinéad O’Connor as Edwardian waif on “The Foggy Dew”, Bon Iver’s spectral “Down In The Willow Garden”, Mick Jagger’s preposterous Deep South drawl on “The Long Black Veil”, Alison Krauss desolate on “Molly Bán (Bawn)” are among the highlights here. A trove of Celtic treasure.

Kelley Stoltz – Antique Glow

Peter Watts
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Kelley Stoltz – Antique Glow
When Kelley Stoltz moved to San Francisco at the start of the millennium, he intended to record an album with his flatmate, a drummer. But after his friend began to take more of an interest in the bars than his bass drum, Stoltz took matters into his own hands. He taught himself to drum and acquired...

When Kelley Stoltz moved to San Francisco at the start of the millennium, he intended to record an album with his flatmate, a drummer. But after his friend began to take more of an interest in the bars than his bass drum, Stoltz took matters into his own hands. He taught himself to drum and acquired a Tascam 388 eight-track reel-to-reel tape recorder. He wedged his mic into a half-open drawer for a mic-stand and when he needed bass, he detuned his guitar. But the coup de grace was a huge old two-deck keyboard loaded with effects that he found for $50 in a Salvation Army charity shop and wheeled home on a skateboard. He dubbed it his “granny organ”.

Using this rudimentary gear he recorded 2001’s Antique Glow, a landmark in home-production techniques thanks to the scale and execution of its ambition. Stoltz’s second album after the CD-only The Past Was Faster, Antique Glow showcased his excellent songwriting in the form of a hard-earned gift for hooks inspired by his love of ’60s pop – a vinyl nut, he worked in a record shop during the day – but also his ability to pull apart melodies and rebuild them in complex and unexpected arrangements. This homespun approach would be influential and extended to the art: each of the 300 vinyl LPs had a unique cover Stoltz painted himself over the sleeves of old records. They were sold at a loss but reaped long-term rewards when Ben Blackwell, passing through SF with the Dirtbombs, picked one up and loved it. Blackwell now works at Third Man Records, where he nurtured this 20th-anniversary reissue, which returns Antique Glow to vinyl and features some of Stoltz’s unused original artworks in a die-cut sleeve that creates six different covers, a nod to the original conceit.

It comes with 13 additional tracks, all pretty much complete and of fine quality (“Old Pictures” and “Baby’s Fingers” in particular) but some of which show the tightrope Stoltz was walking during this period, as he tried to put his own spin on his favourite music. “Too Beck”, so named because it’s, well, too Beck, sees Stoltz deliver a facsimile of “The New Pollution”, while “Discount City VU” does sound a little too like Cale and co for comfort. This additional material demonstrates how many songs Stoltz was writing as he tried to find his own voice, and they amplify how successfully he achieved that on the finished record, which never sounds like a pastiche or homage but is instead an imaginative, ambitious exercise in bedroom pop. It created a template Stoltz still essentially follows today. His last record, 2020’s Ah! (etc), was, much like Antique Glow, a home-recorded melange of styles, brilliantly crafted, offbeat, often inspired, consistent
but unpredictable.

At times on Antique Glow, it feels as if Stoltz is deliberately pulling the rug from under the listener’s feet. “Perpetual Night” begins sounding something like “Here Comes The Sun”, but deep reverb almost immediately takes it into Paisley Underground or Guided By Voices territory. The melody starts chasing its own tail like a Chinese dragon, before harmonica, synth and backing vocals all pile in. There’s even a second nod to George Harrison, in the form of what sounds like sitar. It’s a round trip but the journey has been riotous. Later comes “Mean Marianne”, influenced by Stoltz’s love of Tim Buckley and Nick Drake but with a tonne of distortion and feedback and a wild outro that stops it getting too much like open mic at Les Cousins. Surprisingly perhaps, there isn’t much here like Echo & The Bunnymen, even though Stoltz would cover Crocodiles in its entirety around this time, eventually releasing it on CD in 2006 as Crockodials.

One of the more conventional tracks is the excellent “Are You Electric”, a grizzly rocker that might have caught the ear of Blackwell as it’s not a million miles from The Dirtbombs. Similarly, “One Thousand Rainy Days” comes close to a one-man-band version of The White Stripes. But Stoltz’s magpie spirit doesn’t allow him to settle on a single style, however well he pulls it off. One minute he’s deconstructing CSNY with the delightful “Jewel Of The Evening”, the next he’s delivering an endearingly shambling instrumental on “Tubes In The Moonlight”. Although most of the work was done by Stoltz alone, he does rope in some help: Rob Knevels plays slide guitar on the bouncy “Please Visit Soon”, while Teutonic rocker “Mt Fuji” was recorded with a band at a bona fide studio.

That track sounds great – perhaps a little less claustrophobic than the rest of the album if you listen carefully and with prejudice – but it’s not markedly better than anything Stoltz was doing on his own. Music is so often about collaboration and the way individual talent begets collective genius, but Stoltz showed he could do it on his own. And he inspired others to follow as he forged new and memorable sounds on tracks like “Underwater’s Where The Action Is”, a yelping lurching assault with a Banana Splits-meets-Cramps vibe that eventually collapses in a wheezing heap like a dead Clanger. It’s a throw forward to the sort of effects-laden weirdness that San Francisco acts like Thee Oh Sees, Fresh & Onlys and Ty Segall would soon deliver. All of them were influenced, in some small part, by Antique Glow and Stoltz’s determination to recreate Abbey Road in his bedroom with an eight-track and a Sally Army keyboard.

Robert Fripp – Music For Quiet Moments

Jon Dale
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Robert Fripp – Music For Quiet Moments
When Robert Fripp’s Music For Quiet Moments started to appear with relatively little fanfare in May 2020, as a series of weekly uploads to YouTube and streaming services, their overall effect was one of balm. Moving through the digital ether, Fripp’s ambient soundscapes slowly drifted their way ...

When Robert Fripp’s Music For Quiet Moments started to appear with relatively little fanfare in May 2020, as a series of weekly uploads to YouTube and streaming services, their overall effect was one of balm. Moving through the digital ether, Fripp’s ambient soundscapes slowly drifted their way through a collective psychological environment grappling with the uncertainty of pandemic times. The series unfolded over a year, 52 weekly entries, each offering another aspect of an ever-changing same: Fripp performing live in various contexts, quietly testing out the possibilities afforded to him by music that drops the pretense of narrative and lets itself just be.

He has, of course, been exploring this terrain for some time now, going way back to the early 1970s, when a series of encounters with glam polymath Brian Eno led to two albums, (No Pussyfooting) and Evening Star, where Fripp’s guitar wove a web within Eno’s tape -delay systems. Decades later, Eno would marvel at Fripp’s seemingly preternatural grasp of the nuances of the system: “It’s very easy to get stuck in a kind of drone rut, but he was clever enough to shift out of one mode to another.” These experiences inspired Fripp to develop Frippertronics, a method that hotwired two reel-to-reel tape decks, so they were able to function as a real-time looping system.

Frippertronics became part of Fripp’s extended rig, making its first appearance on record on his 1979 solo album Exposure; he’d subsequently explore the modified terrain offered by this process across his 1980s solo albums and beyond. In the 1990s, digital technology afforded Fripp the chance to update Frippertronics and build a more mutable and expansive kit, now known as Soundscaping. Since then, the soundscape has become a fundamental part of Fripp’s musical armoury: leading away from the tough, abstruse complexity of King Crimson, the soundscapes are remarkably pliant and sensual. Their capacity to evoke an ‘eternal now’, though, always somehow connects Fripp back to the source, those early looping performances and recordings with Eno.

Most recently, the soundscapes have been used to establish mood at King Crimson shows: Fripp describes them as “play-on music, to set up a sonic liminal zone as members of the audience come in from the outside world, the liminal zone before the performance begins. The soundscapes describe and define the liminal zone.” Their reflective melancholy and sutured stasis are something Fripp finds particularly useful for calling the audience into the collective experience: for him, soundscaping “defines a sacred space where something may happen”.

It’s no surprise, then, that he’s also performed the soundscapes on tours of churches in the UK and Estonia: there’s something very powerful about the meditative possibilities in soundscaping, a capacity to capture manifold emotional resonance, drawn from the air of the everyday. If they risk being alienating in certain contexts – and Fripp has talked about the “antipathy” the performances have sometimes received, the way audiences have reacted negatively to the soundscapes as they’ve unfolded in real time and space – they seem particularly perfect for spaces of worship and mourning. And much like Eno’s Music For Airports, what could, on first encounter, appear to be pure process, an abstract navigation of the parameters of a set of conditions, opens up during intensive listening as something, at times, profoundly moving. It’s a classic unanswered, perhaps unanswerable, question: how can the ‘unemotional’ in process be so emotional in outcome?

That’s not to say that Fripp is ‘removed’ from the soundscapes, in particular these Quiet Moments – he’s spoken previously of them being both “deeply personal, yet utterly impersonal”. That seeming paradox is at the crux of the 52 performances in this boxset, all but one of which are drawn from performances that took place between 2004 and 2009, either as dedicated soundscape and churchscape shows, or as part of a larger lineup (with Porcupine Tree or his G3 with Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, for example). What’s particularly surprising about hearing these Quiet Moments collected in an eight-disc box, though, is their consistency, both in quality and in tone.

The soundscapes tend toward permutation: Fripp tends to locate a clutch of tones and let them sigh across the stereo spectrum, adding detail and detour as best fits the moment. Echoing the earlier comment from Eno, while there are drones in abundance here, Fripp never gets stuck in the one spot: as a tonal bed, drones function to gather the listener’s energies, but it’s in the details, the pirouetting guitar figures that dot the landscape of the three-part “A Move Inside” from Asheville, for example, that the magic and deep concentration of the soundscapes becomes apparent. While they often map broadly similar terrain, Fripp is careful to give each soundscape its own space; liminal they may be, but there is something distinctive in each of these quiescent miniatures.

Indeed, if part two of “A Move Inside” feels like classic soundscaping – a music-box ballerina dusting glitter through the air – the third part is altogether more hesitant and shadier, stealthily encroaching into our listening orbit, testing the water, before one of Fripp’s classic sounds – a plastic ray-gun buzz, the guitar singing as though it’s conducting pure electricity – guides the piece in another direction entirely. In moments like this, and similar driftworks, like the 2007 “Pastorale” from Mendoza, or “Time Stands Still” from Udine in 2006, Music For Quiet Moments touches something profound in both its questing tenor and its intimacy, and while the music works well enough as ambience, it’s certainly sturdy enough for prolonged focus and immersion.

If anything feels like the ‘heart’ of Music For Quiet Moments, it’s the various elegies that Fripp has dotted throughout the collection. These draw from many performances – from Rome, Hannover, Nashville, and Paris – and are particularly elegant and moving. The Rome performance, from June 20, 2006, is split across two discs – one excerpt nestles among several other pieces and is remarkable for its lambent flicker, a child’s clutch of notes held together, quietly, patiently, cradled by Fripp as though they’re one step away from fragmenting and falling away. Three more excerpts appear on the following disc, in order, and they begin in a similar vein, but move into deep lung-bursts of cello-like drone, and a lovely, denuded spot of playing, during “Elegy Pt 2”, where Fripp sounds almost like ‘Venusian blues’ guitarist Loren Connors woven through an Echoplex.

The 45-minute “Elegy” from Paris – performed on September 22, 2015 and existing outside the timeline of most of the other soundscapes – is a tour de force, and completely warrants being isolated on its own disc. The piece’s shifting ground, its movement in and out of earshot, its tessellation of tonality, recalls the sacred sadness of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt; a lovingly melancholy embrace, the Paris “Elegy” repeatedly retreats into near silence, as if to renew its reserves, or to find its meditative centre, from which it radiates anew every time. Like much of Music For Quiet Moments, the Paris “Elegy” is all about transformation, about unlocking the immense within the intimate. And at the core of all this music, fundamental to both its existence and its dissemination, is empathy and care, and a kind of everyday, yet profound, wonderment.

Rare cassette tape of Prince’s The Black Album goes up for auction

Damian Jones
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Rare cassette tape of Prince’s The Black Album goes up for auction
A rare promo cassette tape of Prince's The Black Album has gone up for auction. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Shelby J on Prince’s Welcome 2 America: “He knew this album needed to wait. He knew we’d need it later” The LP was origin...

A rare promo cassette tape of Prince’s The Black Album has gone up for auction.

The LP was originally intended to be released in December 1987 but after the late icon became convinced that the album was “evil”, he ordered it to be withdrawn a week before its release date.

All 500,000 copies of the record were recalled and destroyed – although it was eventually released in 1994.

According to the listing, the cassette and album sleeve are promo copies which date back to 1987.

The item is available for auction up until January 13. The highest current bid is $3,384 (£2,500). You can make a bid here.

Image: RR Auction

Five pristine vinyl copies of The Black Album from the same era were previously discovered and three sold for up to $20,000 (£15,000) each. A further copy was later discovered in Canada.

Prince died of a fentanyl overdose at his home in April 2016, leaving no will.

Last October, the estate shared a previously unheard demo of “Do Me, Baby”, released to coincide with the 40th-anniversary celebrations of the original release of Prince’s fourth album from 1981, Controversy.

Back in July, Prince’s “lost” Welcome 2 America album was released.

Listen to Beirut’s “Fyodor Dormant” from upcoming new compilation Artifacts

Sam Moore
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Listen to Beirut’s “Fyodor Dormant” from upcoming new compilation Artifacts
Beirut have shared a new track, "Fyodor Dormant", from their upcoming compilation, Artifacts - you can hear the song below. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Beirut – Gallipoli review The Zach Condon-led band will release the double LP coll...

Beirut have shared a new track, “Fyodor Dormant”, from their upcoming compilation, Artifacts – you can hear the song below.

The Zach Condon-led band will release the double LP collection on January 28 via Pompeii Records, which will feature unreleased Beirut tracks, early works, EPs and B-sides.

“When the decision came to re-release this collection, I found myself digging through hard drives looking for something extra to add to the compilation,” Condon explained in a statement about Artifacts.

“What started as a few extra unreleased tracks from my formative recording years quickly grew into an entire extra records-worth of music from my past, and a larger project of remixing and remastering everything I found for good measure.”

The previously unreleased “Fyodor Dormant”, which you can hear above, will feature on Artifacts, and Condon has explained more about its creation during the early days of Beirut in another statement.

“I was an often lonely and isolated teenager and rarely if ever found friends as obsessive and similar-minded about music as myself, so starting a band always ended up seeming more or less out of the question,” he recalled.

“This was my first experience being able to arrange for all parts with ease, and starting to craft sounds from simple wave shapes into something with character was an exciting endeavour that I still enjoy. It was on songs like this one that I started adding the acoustic instruments back into the mix, using a piano that was moved into the house that I fell in love with, and my dear companion the trumpet.

“It was from about this time at 16 years of age and on that I slowly began to shed the training wheels of the computer program and wander deeper and deeper into the unknown sonic territory of Farfisa organs, accordions and ukuleles.”

Beirut - 'Artifacts' artwork
Beirut – ‘Artifacts’ artwork

You can see the tracklist for Beirut’s Artifacts below.

SIDE A – ‘Lon Gisland, Transatlantique, O Leãozinho’

01 – “Elephant Gun”
02 – “My Family’s Role In The World Revolution”
03 – “Scenic World”
04 – “The Long Island Sound”
05 – “Carousels”
06 – “Transatantique”
07 – “O Leãozinho”

SIDE B – ‘The Misfits’

08 – “Autumn Tall Tales”
09 – “Fyodor Dormant”
10 – “Poisoning Claude”
11 – “Bercy”
12 – “Your Sails”
13 – “Irrlichter”

SIDE C – ‘New Directions and Early Works’

14 – “Sicily”
15 – “Now I’m Gone”
16 – “Napoleon On The Bellerophon”
17 – “Interior of a Dutch House”
18 – “Fountains and Tramways”
19 – “Hot Air Balloon”

SIDE D – ‘The B-Sides’

20 – “Fisher Island Sound”
21 – “So Slowly”
22 – “Die Treue zum Ursprung”
23 – “The Crossing”
24 – “Zagora”
25 – “Le Phare Du Cap Bon”
26 – “Babylon”

Beirut’s most recent studio album Gallipoli was released in 2019.

Listen to Spoon’s new cover of David Bowie’s “I Can’t Give Everything Away”

Sam Moore
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Listen to Spoon’s new cover of David Bowie’s “I Can’t Give Everything Away”
Spoon have shared their cover of David Bowie's "I Can’t Give Everything Away" - you can hear their version below. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Spoon – Hot Thoughts review The cover has been released as part of Amazon Music’s month-l...

Spoon have shared their cover of David Bowie’s “I Can’t Give Everything Away” – you can hear their version below.

The cover has been released as part of Amazon Music’s month-long [RE]DISCOVER campaign which is celebrating Bowie’s 75th birthday, which falls on Saturday (January 8).

Spoon’s take on “I Can’t Give Everything Away” – which featured on Bowie’s final studio album Blackstar in 2016 – was released yesterday (January 6), with frontman Britt Daniel describing the original as “a fantastic song”.

“‘I Can’t Give Everything Away’ is a tune Alex [Fischel, keys and guitar] and I have been playing since we learned it for an acoustic and piano show in Mexico City in 2016,” Daniel explained.

“It’s just a fantastic song, and as the last song on Bowie’s final album it doesn’t disappoint. We recorded this version live in December 2021.”

You can hear Spoon’s cover of “I Can’t Give Everything Away” in the above embed, or by heading here.

In other Bowie news, the BFI’s month-long celebration of the late musician, titled Bowie: Starman And The Silver Screen, is currently ongoing at BFI Southbank.

Earlier this week it was announced that the late icon’s estate has sold his publishing catalogue to Warner Chappell Music for a price reported to be upwards of $250million (£186million).

Spoon, meanwhile, will release their 10th studio album, Lucifer On the Sofa, on February 11 via Matador.

Hear Modern Studies new song, “Light A Fire”

Michael Bonner
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Hear Modern Studies new song, “Light A Fire”
Modern Studies have released "Light A Fire" - ahead of their new album, We Are There. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut The album - their fifth - is set for release on February 18 via Fire Records. You can pre-order a copy by clicking here. https://www.y...

Modern Studies have released “Light A Fire” – ahead of their new album, We Are There.

The album – their fifth – is set for release on February 18 via Fire Records. You can pre-order a copy by clicking here.

The tracklisting for We Are There is:

Sink Into
Light a Fire
Comfort Me
Two Swimmers
Wild Ocean
Open Face
Won’t Be Long
Mothlight
Do You Wanna
Winter Springs

The band released a first taster for the album, “Wild Ocean”, in November last year.

Father John Misty returns with “Funny Girl”

Michael Bonner
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Father John Misty returns with “Funny Girl”
Father John Misty has released, "Funny Girl" - the first single from his upcoming new album. You can hear the track below. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut The song comes from Chloë And The Next 20th Century, Josh Tillman's fifth album and first new mater...

Father John Misty has released, “Funny Girl” – the first single from his upcoming new album. You can hear the track below.

The song comes from Chloë And The Next 20th Century, Josh Tillman‘s fifth album and first new material since his 2020 Sub Pop Singles Club release, “To S.” and “To R.” His last full-length album was God’s Favorite Customer in 2018.

The album had been produced by Jonathan Wilson and Tillman. It will be released on April 8 via Bella Union in the UK/Europe and worldwide by Sub Pop. It is available to pre-order by clicking here.

The tracklisting for Chloë And The Next 20th Century is:

Chloë
Goodbye Mr. Blue
Kiss Me (I Loved You)
(Everything But) Her Love
Buddy’s Rendezvous
Q4
Olvidado (Otro Momento)
Funny Girl
Only a Fool
We Could Be Strangers
The Next 20th Century

The album will be released on assorted formats:

* Limited edition deluxe 2xLP box set with exclusive, expanded artwork in a gorgeous hardcover book containing both LPs pressed on clear red vinyl, a poster by Rafa Orrico, and two bonus 7” singles featuring covers of Chloë and the Next 20th Century songs, performed by Lana Del Rey (“Buddy’s Rendezvous”) and Jack Cruz (“Kiss Me (I Loved You)”).

* Limited 2xLP gatefold version pressed on white vinyl (D2C Europe / Bella Union store only).

* Limited 2xLP gatefold version pressed on blue vinyl (Indie Stores Only)

* Standard 2xLP gatefold version pressed on black vinyl.

* CD in a gatefold digipak with a poster.

* Cassette

* Digital

The Beatles: Get Back rooftop concert to screen in IMAX cinemas

Arusa Qureshi
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The Beatles: Get Back rooftop concert to screen in IMAX cinemas
The Beatles' famous rooftop concert at their Apple Corps' Savile Row headquarters on January 30, 1969 will be screened in IMAX later this month. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: The Beatles: Get Back review The Beatles: Get Back – The Rooft...

The Beatles‘ famous rooftop concert at their Apple Corps’ Savile Row headquarters on January 30, 1969 will be screened in IMAX later this month.

The Beatles: Get Back – The Rooftop Concert will premiere in theatres on January 30, celebrating 53 years since the band’s final public performance.

The 60-minute feature follows on from Peter Jackson’s acclaimed three-part documentary The Beatles: Get Back, which was released on Disney+ on November 25 last year. While the full concert is already included in Jackson‘s film, the footage and audio will be remastered and optimised for IMAX.

Following the screening, Jackson will take part in a special Q&A session, which will be broadcasted simultaneously to all IMAX locations. Tickets are currently on sale here. At the moment, the screenings are only available in the US.

The Beatles: Get Back – Rooftop Concert is coming to IMAX. Experience the unforgettable performance in a special…

Posted by The Beatles on Wednesday, January 5, 2022

“I’m thrilled that the rooftop concert from The Beatles: Get Back is going to be experienced in IMAX, on that huge screen,” Jackson said in a statement. “It’s The Beatles’ last concert, and it’s the absolute perfect way to see and hear it.”

After the premiere on January 30, The Beatles: Get Back – The Rooftop Concert will get a global theatrical release from February 11-13. Get Back will also be released on Blu-ray and DVD in the United States on February 8.

Get Back is Jackson’s accumulation of nearly 60 hours of unseen footage from the recording of Let It Be. The material was originally meant for American filmmaker Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 documentary, which covers the making of the band’s final studio album.

Radiohead side project The Smile share debut single “You Will Never Work In Television Again”

Rhian Daly
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Radiohead side project The Smile share debut single “You Will Never Work In Television Again”
Radiohead side project The Smile have shared their debut single, "You Will Never Work In Television Again" and announced three live shows. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood on his film scoring career: “Getting acce...

Radiohead side project The Smile have shared their debut single, “You Will Never Work In Television Again” and announced three live shows.

The group – which is comprised of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, plus Sons Of Kemet’s Tom Skinner – premiered the song during their Live At Worthy Farm secret show last year.

“You Will Never Work In Television Again” was produced by Yorke and Greenwood’s long-time collaborator Nigel Godrich.

“Turn the lights down low, put the bullet on you,” Yorke sings on the punky track. “You’ll never work in television again.” Listen to it below now.

Later this month, The Smile will play three consecutive live shows within 24 hours at Magazine London. The gigs will be held with a seated audience in the round, while they will also be broadcast in real-time via a livestream. Each show will feature the band’s performance and a cinematic film from director Paul Dugdale (The Rolling Stones, Adele, Paul McCartney).

Physical and livestream tickets will go on general sale from 9am on January 7, with physical passes available here and livestream tickets here. Fans can also sign up to The Smile’s mailing list to access a pre-sale.

The three performances will take place at the following times:

January 29 

Show 1: 8pm GMT

January 30 

Show 2: 1am GMT
Show 3 11am GMT

The Smile

All three livestream broadcasts will also be available to ticketholders as on-demand replays for 48 hours from 2pm GMT on January 30.

Listen to Sea Power’s lively new single “Green Goddess”

Sam Moore
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Listen to Sea Power’s lively new single “Green Goddess”
Sea Power have shared their latest single "Green Goddess" - you can hear their new track below. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut The song is taken from the band's – who were formerly known as British Sea Power – upcoming new album Everything Was Foreve...

Sea Power have shared their latest single “Green Goddess” – you can hear their new track below.

The song is taken from the band’s – who were formerly known as British Sea Power – upcoming new album Everything Was Forever, which is now set for release on February 18.

“Green Goddess” follows on from Sea Power’s two previous singles, “Two Fingers” and “Folly”. Another track from the record, “Lakeland Echo”, was released last month.

“‘Green Goddess’ was written with [guitarist] Noble,” vocalist and guitarist Jan Scott Wilkinson explained in a statement. “He had the initial idea for the music which I helped arrange and add vocals to. It is a love song about everything green from the Lake District to the New Forest. The places I love to be which are quiet and restorative.

“It is also a love song for my wife whose favourite colour is green. A rumination on human and non-human muses.

“There are dark and complicated things going on but sometimes it is good to forget this and go to the places and where you are happy. A hope that the future doesn’t have to be at odds with the past.”

Sea Power are set to head out on a UK tour in April in support of Everything Was Forever – you can see the band’s upcoming live dates below and find tickets here.

April 2022
Tuesday 12 – 1865, Southampton
Wednesday 13 – O2 Institute 2, Birmingham
Thursday 14 – Roundhouse, London
Tuesday 19 – O2 Academy, Bristol
Thursday 21 – Leadmill, Sheffield
Friday 22 – St Lukes, Glasgow
Saturday 23 – Albert Hall, Manchester

The making of William Bell’s “You Don’t Miss Your Water”

Graeme Thomson
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The making of William Bell’s “You Don’t Miss Your Water”
Sixty years ago, a young soul singer and songwriter released his debut solo single on a small independent label in Memphis that had recently changed its name from Satellite to Stax. “You Don’t Miss Your Water” became a local hit for William Bell, boosting a career that began with his first com...

Sixty years ago, a young soul singer and songwriter released his debut solo single on a small independent label in Memphis that had recently changed its name from Satellite to Stax. “You Don’t Miss Your Water” became a local hit for William Bell, boosting a career that began with his first composition at the age of 10 and continues to thrive today.

Having served his apprenticeship in the late ’50s with vocal group The Del Rios, Bell became the first male solo artist signed to Stax. Recorded as a demo with members of The Mar-Keys and MG’s, “You Don’t Miss Your Water” was originally released as the B-side to “Formula Of Love”, only to be promoted when radio DJs preferred its raw, regretful despair. Taking a popular idiom as the cue for its title, Bell told the tale of a “playboy” who doesn’t realise what he has thrown away until it is too late. According to its composer, the ache in the song was not born from infidelity, but homesickness. “We had been away on tour for about six weeks over the summer,” he recalls. “It was just feeling melancholy at that time, missing my home and my girlfriend. It just came to mind.”

From the stately gospel chord changes to the echoes of “Amazing Grace” in the lyric – “I was blind/And I could not see” – “You Don’t Miss Your Water” reflected Bell’s youthful experiences singing in church. Since he cut the original in 1961, the song has been covered by Otis Redding, Percy Sledge, The Byrds, Peter Tosh, The Triffids and Brian Eno among others. “The message is universal: appreciate what you have,” says Bell by way of explanation. “Back then I didn’t realise what I was writing, but after I got a little older, I realised that although the world changes physically, every generation has the same wishes, desires and aspirations. If you just write truthfully about life and write things you think will help people, it will resonate.”

It proved to be the first of several standards. Later in the ’60s, Bell wrote blues staple “Born Under A Bad Sign” with Booker T Jones for Albert King, covered by Cream and Jimi Hendrix, while the languorous “I Forgot To Be Your Lover” was recorded in the ’80s as “To Be A Lover” by Billy Idol. He’s still going strong. In 2017, This Is Where I Live won Bell a Grammy. Now 82, he spoke to Uncut from Georgia, between sessions in the studio. “Busy, busy,” he chuckles. “I can’t let any grass grow under my feet!”

Nirvana Nevermind cover art lawsuit dismissed by judge

Tom Skinner
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Nirvana Nevermind cover art lawsuit dismissed by judge
A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Nirvana that was filed by the man who was photographed as a baby for the classic album's cover art. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Krist Novoselic on Nevermind’s impact: “So much was going on. And th...

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Nirvana that was filed by the man who was photographed as a baby for the classic album’s cover art.

Spencer Elden, 30, took legal action against the band over the image of him as an infant, in which he appears naked and swimming after a dollar bill in a swimming pool. He claimed that he has suffered “lifelong damages” from the photo and that it was “commercial child sexual exploitation” and child pornography.

Representatives for Nirvana refuted the claims in a statement issued last month, saying the lawsuit was “not serious” and is beyond the statute of limitations. The suit would only apply within 10 years of Elden finding out he was the baby on the cover art, with the group rejecting the idea that he had only discovered this in the last decade.

“But the Nevermind cover photograph was taken in 1991,” the statement read. “It was world-famous by no later than 1992. Long before 2011, as Elden has pled, Elden knew about the photograph and knew that he (and not someone else) was the baby in the photograph. He has been fully aware of the facts of both the supposed ‘violation’ and ‘injury’ for decades.”

It went on to cite occasions where Elden seemingly embraced being featured on the album art, claiming that he’d “spent three decades profiting from his celebrity as the self-anointed ‘Nirvana Baby’”.

Nirvana Nevermind
Cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind. Credit: Nirvana/Universal Music

Now, as Spin reports, the lawsuit has been dismissed in U.S. District Court in Central California. According to the outlet, Judge Fernando M. Olguin rejected the case on January 3 “with leave to amend”.

It is said that Elden’s legal team had until last Thursday (December 30) to file an opposition to the Nirvana estate’s request to dismiss the suit, but they failed to meet the deadline. They now have until next Thursday (January 13) to refile a second complaint.

The court said that this will “grant defendants’ Motion and give plaintiff one last opportunity to amend his complaint”. Should the deadline be missed, there will not be an opportunity to refile. If they make the date, Nirvana’s estate has until January 27 to reply to the refiled suit.

“Failure to timely file a Second Amended Complaint shall result in this action being dismissed without prejudice for failure to prosecute and/or failure to comply with a court order,” the ruling said.

A number of legal experts previously said they believed the case was likely to be dismissed. Entertainment litigation partner Bryan Sullivan told The Hollywood Reporter that there being no release form, as Elden claims, “does not mean he has a claim for child pornography”.

“As to the right of privacy, you can waive it by your actions or by his parents’ actions in allowing him to be photographed,” he explained.

Elsewhere in the recent statement from Nirvana‘s reps, it was noted that Elden had recreated the Nevermind cover photo on more than one occasion and has the record’s title tattooed on his chest.

The original lawsuit was filed in August 2021, with Elden seeking $150,000 (£112k) in damages from Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, the estate of Kurt Cobain, album artwork photographer Kirk Weddle and designer Robert Fisher. The labels responsible for the album’s release, including Universal Music and Geffen Records, were also named.

In addition, Elden wants the cover to be altered for any future Nevermind re-releases. “If there is a 30th-anniversary re-release, he wants for the entire world not to see his genitals,” his lawyer Maggie Mabie said. A 30th-anniversary reissue was then released last November, featuring the original photograph.

Noddy Holder wants original Slade line-up to reunite for Glastonbury

Tom Skinner
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Noddy Holder wants original Slade line-up to reunite for Glastonbury
Noddy Holder has expressed his hopes of Slade reuniting to take on Glastonbury's coveted Legends Slot. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut Guitarist Dave Hill is now the only remaining original member of the band, with drummer Don Powell announcing last year ...

Noddy Holder has expressed his hopes of Slade reuniting to take on Glastonbury’s coveted Legends Slot.

Guitarist Dave Hill is now the only remaining original member of the band, with drummer Don Powell announcing last year that he’d been fired over email after over 50 years with the group.

Hill is joined in the current version of Slade by bassist John Berry (who joined in 2003), vocalist and keyboard player Russell Keefe (who joined in 2019) and drummer Alex Bines (who joined in 2020).

Speaking in a recent interview with The Sun, former lead singer Holder – who departed the band in 1992 – revealed that he hopes the original line-up can make amends and appear at Glastonbury Festival in the future.

The newspaper claims that Holder wants to play once again with Jim Lea, Don Powell and Dave Hill for the Legends Slot, which is this year being filled by Diana Ross. Previous artists to have performed the must-see Sunday teatime set include Kylie Minogue, Lionel Richie and Dolly Parton.

Glastonbury 2019
Glastonbury Festival 2019. Credit: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

“It would be amazing if we could work out our differences,” Holder said. “I think we’d probably all have to go [to Glastonbury] in on a coach each. Or we’d all have to have a changing room or caravan each.”

He continued: “And maybe we’d have to have glass barriers between us on stage so that there would be no fisticuffs on stage.” Discussing the current relationship between Hill and Powell, however, Holder explained: “I think it’s a long time before they get talking again. But that happens in rock ’n’ roll bands. If it’s not one crisis, it’s another.”

Powell expressed his “great sadness and regret” over his departure in an official statement in February 2020. “Dave has sent Don a cold email to inform him that his services are no longer required, after working together and being friends since 1963,” the message read.

Bill Kreutzmann pulls out of Dead & Company shows in Mexico on doctor’s orders

Matt Doria
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Bill Kreutzmann pulls out of Dead & Company shows in Mexico on doctor’s orders
Dead & Company drummer Bill Kreutzmann will not be appearing at the band's shows in Mexico over the next two weeks, as his doctor reportedly ordered him to "sit this one out" due to issues with his heart. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut The band – c...

Dead & Company drummer Bill Kreutzmann will not be appearing at the band’s shows in Mexico over the next two weeks, as his doctor reportedly ordered him to “sit this one out” due to issues with his heart.

The band – composed of surviving Grateful Dead members alongside John Mayer, Jeff Chimenti and Oteil Burbridge – are days away from hosting this year’s edition of their destination festival Playing In The Sand. The first leg of the festival, taking place alongside Mexico’s Riviera Cancún, will run from this Friday (January 7) through to Monday (January 10). The second, meanwhile, will take place the following weekend (January 13-16).

Kreutzmann announced via Twitter that he’d be skipping both legs of the festival, citing concerns over his health that began to arise the year prior. “After a lifetime of playing special beats, it’s almost no wonder that my heart came up with its own idea of rhythm,” he quipped.

“All jokes aside, my doctor has ordered me to take it easy (and stay safe) through the end of January so that I can continue to drum and play for you for many tours to come. I have a lot of music left in me and there’s no stopping me from playing it.

“I’ve never been one to obey orders or play by the rules, but in the interest of longevity, I hope you’ll understand.”

Read the full thread from Kreutzmann below:

Rolling Stone reports that Jay Lane will be filling in for Kreutzmann at Playing In The Sand. The former Primus drummer had previously taken Kreutzmann‘s place last October, playing with Dead & Company for four of their shows in Colorado as well as their Halloween gig at the Hollywood Bowl.

Last August, Dead & Company performed a faithful recreation of The Grateful Dead‘s set at Woodstock 1969. It came as part of their ongoing North American tour, with the show in question being held on the original festival site.

2022 Albums Preview Extra

Rob Hughes
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2022 Albums Preview Extra
By now, you'll have hopefully scrutinised our extensive preview of 2022's essential records in the current issue of Uncut. Well, the good news for all of us is that there's even more key records coming - in this online exclusive, learn more about upcoming releases from Animal Collective, Midlake, Ao...

By now, you’ll have hopefully scrutinised our extensive preview of 2022’s essential records in the current issue of Uncut. Well, the good news for all of us is that there’s even more key records coming – in this online exclusive, learn more about upcoming releases from Animal Collective, Midlake, Aoife Nessa Frances, Azar Lawrence and more…

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
TITLE: Time Skiffs
LABEL: Domino
RELEASE DATE: February 2022
First in six years from celebrated avant-pop mavens

NOAH LENNOX: As a band, I don’t think we were tired of each other. It’s more like the longer you go, the more difficult it becomes to find something really new together. Every new batch of songs kind of feels like that: ‘What can we do that’s new? How can we approach an instrument in a different way? What’s an exciting thing?’ That’s really the target for us.
We sent demos to each other in early 2018. Then at the end of that summer we got together in a house outside of Nashville and spent three weeks just sort of hashing things out, seeing what worked and what didn’t and trying to come up with arrangements. After that, we did a short tour in the U.S. and were planning to record in early 2019, but then the pandemic changed everything.
We had a basic idea of what was going to happen, but there were certain songs that relied more on the performative aspects of them, and we just felt like we couldn’t do those remotely. So that cut things down quite a bit.
I went into Namouche, a studio I know pretty well here in Lisbon, and spent two days doing all the drum tracks. For me, it was a case of trying to play the drums in a different way, learning techniques that I didn’t really know how to do, just going for a musical sound and less hammering away. Trying to do something a little more subtle and varied in terms of the textures and tone. But everything else was done in our respective home studio spaces. Doing our own recording is something we’ve done since we were pretty young, in our early teens, so it’s not a totally foreign thing to us. The mixing process was kind of intense though, because the mixes would be going back and forth between us all. So that took a really long time.
I think I brought maybe 30-odd songs, in different points of completion, then just let the guys choose the ones that resonated with them. A song like “Prester John” is a composite of ideas. The first half is mine, then the others did a version of the latter half at a show in New Orleans, maybe three years ago, when I was doing Panda Bear stuff on my own. It wasn’t until pretty late in the game of this batch of songs that I think Dave [Portner, aka Avey Tare] suggested the two could be fused. It made sense thematically and harmonically.
“Walker” is one of mine. It’s an ode to Scott Walker, who’d just passed away. I was such a massive fan of his and wanted to do a song for him, shout him out. But it’s also kind of a song about depression, I should say. Sorry Scott. “Car Keys” is a song that I’ve been hovering around for a long time, since Tomboy [Panda Bear, 2011]. Around 2010 or so, I just started obsessing about what drives us, especially the uglier sides of human beings and where that comes from and why that happens. The first line is about wanting to take ownership of your instincts and the metaphor for me was I wanted to be driving the car, not something else. So car keys became this sort of symbol of self-control.
The album title, Time Skiffs, came from Dave, I believe. To me, the songs become these sort of transportive moments, almost like a time machine thing, so the songs themselves are the skiffs, the little boats that take you to another place. That’s the idea.

NYX NÓTT
TITLE: Themes From
LABEL: Melodic
RELEASE DATE: Spring 2022
Aidan Moffat revives his instrumental side project to follow up to 2020’s Au Pieds de la Nuit

AIDAN MOFFAT: This is actually the third Nyx Nótt album I’ve made. I started recording a second one in lockdown, but decided to scrap it. It was just really quiet and maybe a bit too personal. I kind of made it as an escape, I suppose. So I then went in completely the opposite direction and made something you can maybe dance to. There’s a lot more going on this time around. There’s still a lot of jazzy bits on there, but there’s more electronic stuff. And it’s a bit faster and bolder. There are some big, sweeping orchestras, things like that.
The original idea was to do maybe 20 two-minute tracks and call it Themes From, trying to make a record for the Netflix age. But I got tired of that idea pretty quickly and realised that it’s really unsatisfying to have lots of short songs. So I decided to expand them and ended up just doing eight pretty long tracks. It quite often starts with drums, or just a sample somewhere, then builds up from there. I loved Michael Nyman when I was younger and realised that I’d been listening to him a lot during lockdown. The new songs don’t sound anything like his records, of course, but they’re structured in a similar way, layering and layering things until you don’t even know what’s making the note anymore. They just keep building and building until there’s this big, huge sound.
The songs are named after different types of shows. The first one is “Docudrama”, which is sort of serious and string-based, but it’s got quite a beat to it as well. Then there’s “Porno” – which is jazzy and sleazy – and “Thriller”. And “Hardboiled”, “Action”, “Tearjerker” and I’m sure there’s a “Rom Com” too. And one called “Caper”, which is a chaotic, full-on jazz thing. So I think they all fit together.
Will there be another Arab Strap album? We think so. Neither of us are particularly fond of just releasing a single for streaming, so we’re trying to think of what to do next. But there will be an EP at some point during the year. People seemed to really like the last album, which means we’ve set ourselves standards to live up to. So if it’s nothing short of spectacular then there’s no point.

ANDREW TUTTLE
TITLE: Fleeting Adventure
LABEL: Basin Rock
RELEASE DATE: July 2022
Experimental Australian guitarist/banjo player makes good on 2020’sAlexandra

ANDREW TUTTLE: I started recording in September last year [2020]. I know a lot of albums at the moment are ‘the lockdown album’, but this consciously (i)wasn’t(i) that. Where I live in Brisbane, we’ve really been quite fortunate, because there haven’t been too many cases. So the album is all about this sense of fleeting adventure and excitement, putting things into a new perspective. It’s me opening up to the world again, hearing stories about friends doing things and being able to go to a gig for the first time in a year, or go to the park, or get on a plane.
I’ve had guests on albums before, but working on A Cassowary Apart earlier this year, with Padang Food Tigers [Spencer Grady and Stephen Lewis], was a great eye-opener. It really got me thinking about working further with collaborations. So it’s a combination of new friends, old friends and everything in between. You have some of the Brisbane crew, like Joe Saxby [saxophone], who I’ve known for years, people who I’ve toured with, like Steve Gunn, and people I’ve met in residencies. And then there are a few people who I met online last year – like Luke Schneider and Michael Muller from Balmorhea. It’s like we became playlist friends.
I gave everyone a really free brief. If it was a guitar-led track, I’d say, “Do what you want, then send it back. I’ll keep some of it and we’ll go from there.” That made it really interesting for me, because I wasn’t sure what I was getting back. I didn’t know what instrumentation they’d provide or what song they would play on. And I got to play around with things, which I think really helped with getting that spatial element in the music.
There are two tracks that are really guest heavy: “Overnight’s A Weekend” and “Filtering”. And three tracks are just banjo, acoustic guitar and pedal steel, but it’s not the same people on each one. One track [“Correlation”] has Josh Kimbrough and Chuck Johnson and the other two have Luke Schneider and Darren Cross [“Next Week, Pending” and “New Breakfast Habit”], so it’s funny that there’s almost an accidental trio in there.
For the first part of the album I was listening to a lot of those things on the Sahel Sounds album, so Les Filles de Illighadad [Tuareg band] and North African guitar sounds. Things that were really ongoing, structurally, and you weren’t sure when each track was going to finish. I hadn’t really spent much time with Fela Kuti before, but it’s stuff I’ve been listening to a lot. And a lot of peers as well. Ryley Walker’s latest album [Course In Fable] was just gorgeous and really kicked my butt into gear. So a lot of different things were inspiring me as I went along.

AOIFE NESSA FRANCES
TITLE: Unconfirmed
LABEL: Unconfirmed
RELEASE DATE: Autumn 2022
Irish singer-songwriter heads for the country in the wake of 2020’s ethereal psych-folk debut, Land Of No Junction

AOIFE NESSA FRANCES: My first album had just come out, then the pandemic kicked off and I ended up moving to the west of Ireland, basically for the entire year. I didn’t mean to stay there, but I kind of fell in love with it. County Clare is so beautiful. There was nothing happening and I hadn’t actually gotten to tour properly with my record or anything, so I just started writing songs. I planned to do some demos in a little cabin I’d found in County Kerry. I went down with some friends and we just started recording very casually. But it turned out so well that I was like, ‘Wow, this is definitely an album!’
I was listening to a lot of Jim Sullivan and Alice Coltrane and a lot of ambient music, like Joanna Brouk and then Brazilian music, like Caetano Valoso. I don’t know if any of these sounds are reflected in what I’ve made, but I was listening to different things while I was writing this album.
As far as lyrical themes go, I guess it was unintentional, but maybe when it eventually found some kind of shape there was heartbreak, self-discovery, love and friendship. And autobiography too. Things always come through.
I started out just with the three-piece band and we began recording just over a year ago, in September 2020, and finished it this October. Conor O’Brien of Villagers did horns and Maebh McKenna, my friend, is an amazing harpist. None of these musicians were hearing what they were doing, so everything was quite bare when they were recording. Then we added things afterwards and kind of had to sculpt a lot. Brendan Jenkinson is the producer and he also played different instruments.
We recorded six songs in the cabin, which was just someone’s house, and then we went to a studio in Dublin and I recorded a few at home, where I have my own little set-up. So it was quite spread out, but the bulk of it was recorded in Kerry, in a place called Anascaul. I really enjoy strange, remote recordings, where you’re not necessarily in a studio environment and it feels quite informal. For example, when we were recording I ended up actually standing outside for a lot of it, just for sound separation. There’s no reflection when you’re in the outdoors, you’re not dealing with walls. I was looking out onto the ocean and looking at mountains while I was performing these songs that we were flushing out. And I found that very magical.

AZAR LAWRENCE
TITLE: New Sky
LABEL: Trazar
RELEASE DATE: February 2022
Legendary jazz saxophonist, ex-sideman to McCoy Tyner and Miles Davis, readies both a solo effort and a Pharoah Sanders collaboration

AZAR LAWRENCE: People were in a state of confusion and there was a lot of emotional pain going on during the pandemic. As a musician, and also as a person who tries to be receptive to people as a whole in my community, I was trying to translate that feeling into music of the times. So I wrote the song “New Sky” with Tiffany Austin, who’s a vocalist up in Berkeley, California. She came back with the lyrics, which were very inspiring. And I named it “New Sky” because it seemed as though, after all the turmoil, there was an opening of new possibilities in front of us.
There’s a concept in the spiritual doctrines that relates to harmony through conflict. After what we’ve been going through, with the whole political scene and environmental issues, people are starting to face these things. So there’s a heightened sense of awareness at the moment, which was the foundational point for New Sky. Each song has a harmonious kind of love theme to it. I originally recorded “From The Point Of Love” on my second album for Fantasy Records, Summer Solstice [1975]. And “Revelation” was first done on Speak The Word [2009]. I felt like those two tracks had never really gotten a chance to fully be explored, so I re-recorded them for New Sky with a new fresh concept.
I’m also on the live album of Pharoah Sanders’ 80th birthday concert [Los Angeles, 2020], which is due out next year. Pharoah and I have been close for years. He used to invite me over for Thanksgiving when we lived in New Jersey and then we both ended up here in Los Angeles. So we started hanging out during the pandemic. He and I made a video together and we were going to continue on with writing some more songs. Pharoah already had two that we were going to use, but the pandemic made it difficult for him to move around, because he had some health issues that he was being very careful of. So we decided we’d revisit that concept, as far as us doing a record together, a little further down the line. There’s mutual respect there and we have a deep connection whenever we play. It’s the same kind of connection and form of communication that I used to have with McCoy Tyner.

THE BOO RADLEYS
TITLE: Keep On With Falling
LABEL: Boostr
RELEASE DATE: March 2022
After this summer’s surprise comeback EP, “A Full Syringe And Memories Of You”, Britpop-era favourites – now slimmed to a trio – return in style

SIMON ‘SICE’ ROWBOTTOM: For a long time we haven’t been in the right place in our lives to do this. We’ve had families, we’ve had different careers. It was really sparked by a chance meeting between me and Tim [Brown, bassist] at my birthday party, where we got chatting about working together again. I don’t think there was any intention of making it a Boo Radleys thing, it was just, “Let’s do some songs.” Then Rob [Cieka, drummer] got involved and it all happened so quickly. We had a ton of songs, so the question then raised itself: ‘What are we going to do with them?’ Right up until six months ago we were still thinking it might be a solo thing for me, then finally we made that decision to do it as The Boo Radleys.
It’s very different to the set-up and dynamic that we had with Martin [Carr], and not just because he was the main songwriter. This was also different because of the way we made it, with a lot more chucking files backwards and forwards, changing and adding bits, working on harmonies. So it’s much more collaborative in that sense, a completely different dynamic. This is still The Boo Radleys, but with a different set of songwriters.
Once we had a huge load of collected recorded things, we tried to make the album something that we think is more now and that represents the eclecticism of what we write. One of my favourite albums is Revolver, which goes from “Eleanor Rigby” to “Tomorrow Never Knows”, that brilliant range of songs. So that’s what we’ve tried to do, something with a wide palette.
The lyrics are all pretty personal. A lot of it is very relevant to our individual lives. The main ones that I wrote are about the things I’ve learned and have to remind myself of – adages to live by, those kinds of things. And the ageing process plays into what we do as well. One thing it’s made me realise is that when we were doing this in our 20s we were always looking for the next thing. You’re always looking at playing bigger venues, selling more records, wanting to do this and that. But now it’s all about being in the moment. Living day to day is far more important.
As for the album title, it’s about that thing of taking risks and never being satisfied. It’s a message to me to keep on trying stuff and not to be afraid to fail. Failing and making mistakes is the most important thing. Otherwise, how do you learn?

CHRIS FORSYTH
TITLE: Evolution Here We Come
LABEL: No Quarter
RELEASE DATE: Summer 2022
Free-roaming Philadelphia guitarist rings the changes

CHRIS FORSYTH: I really wanted to change the way I’ve been working. Since I started doing the post-Solar Motel stuff in the early to mid ‘teens, I was making the records with all the same people. But after the last one [2019’s All Time Present] I just felt like we’d wrung it dry. So for this one Ryan [Jewell] returns on drums, but everybody else is different. The bass player is Douglas McCombs from Tortoise and Eleventh Dream Day and the second guitarist is Tom Malach from Garcia Peoples.
It’s more concise than the records I’ve made over the past few years, which have been sprawling double albums with 15- or 20-minute tracks. I wanted to make each of the tracks more of a considered sonic world. There’s a number of songs that can blow up into much longer pieces in live performance, but most of the tracks are around four minutes long, with one or two stretching to eight or nine minutes. So it’s a lot tighter and more focused.
Two songs have vocals. I sing lead on the title track, “Evolution Here We Come”, and then Steve Wynn and Linda Pitmon – Steve’s from The Dream Syndicate, of course, and they both play in The Baseball Project – did backing vocals on a cover of Richard Thompson’s “You’re Going To Need Somebody” [from 1979’s Sunnyvista]. I’d been playing that song live and just felt a real connection to the lyrics.
Marshall Allen from the Sun Ra Orchestra is playing on one track, “Experimental And Professional”, which was such a thrill. It was so exciting to watch the master at work, because he’s on a complete other level. Bill Nace is on that track too, playing a taishōgoto, which is like a keyed Japanese harp, through a whole bunch of effects pedals. It’s a stringed instrument, but you tap keys on it. So there’s a lot more variety and detail in this record.

MIDLAKE
TITLE: For The Sake Of Bethel Woods
LABEL: Bella Union
RELEASE DATE: March 2022
Loss, hope, isolation and communion form the basis of the Texan outfit’s first in nearly a decade

ERIC PULIDO: After Antiphon [2013], we definitely made a conscious decision to put the ship in the dock and move on with our lives in other ways and do other things. But there was some ambiguity, because we didn’t say we were done. It was always open-ended.
Everybody had their respective experiences throughout that time that led any individual to being moved to reconvene. But the passing of Jesse’s dad [in 2018] who then appeared to him in a dream [a photo of keyboardist/flautist Jesse Chandler’s father, taken at the Woodstock Festival, appears on the album sleeve] was a poetic catalyst for us to finally take that decision to make a record. It was just such a beautiful depiction and put things in perspective much more, as friends and musicians.
We all have set-ups in our houses, so we would bounce around ideas in smaller groups together – two or three of us – for the better part of a year. Then we didn’t fully get together until close to the end of the demo’ing stage. It probably helped that some of these side projects that happened between Midlake stopping and then picking things back up involved playing music together, whether it was solo things or collaborations. So we were still very active, whether together or apart. And I think that just doing music in other forms or genres broadened the dynamic of the band when we did return. This album, more than any we’ve done, felt like it didn’t have as much pretence. Something like “Exile”, for instance, is us just trying to embrace the gift of each other and not having any baggage. That was another big part of our reconvening.
This album does have a lot to do with loss, but it’s finding a purpose and redemption in that as well. Even though there’s a duality there, there’s some redemption that gives hope to that initial sentiment. “Meanwhile” basically refers to that time between 2014 and then deciding to pick things back up, and how what transpires in that time can be quite powerful. It’s a quick snapshot of leading up to that time when we put things down and reconvened. It’s kind of like, ‘Meanwhile, in Texas…’
Other songs feel very relationship-based. And there are themes that are particular to the band. As much as I want anyone to relate to a song, I’d be lying if I said there’s not a personal aspect to something like “Gone”. In terms of the band, it’s kind of recognising that an element that was there is not present anymore. “Noble” is very directly personal to McKenzie Smith [drummer], because it’s about his infant son, who was born with a rare brain disorder. It used to be kind of a Midlake theme, where you’d have this very metaphoric type of lyric, so that you wouldn’t know what a song was about. But if I want to write a song about my best friend’s son and make it very literal, then we should that freedom to be able to do that. And hopefully that would translate and still be true to the band. That was, and still is, a very heavy subject and I just felt moved to write a song that was kind of from his perspective and us recognising that this sweet boy has no idea of the condition that he has. He just smiles and loves life and those around him. It’s kind of championing that.
I think artists can sometimes take themselves too seriously and think that whatever they create or say matters more than it does. I hope that what we create together matters. But if it’s to matter, I want it to be authentic and honest. This album is definitely that.

UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA
TITLE: Unconfirmed
LABEL: Jagjaguwar
RELEASE DATE: 2022
“Cheesy” drivetime vibes from New Zealand’s leading psychedelicists

RUBAN NIELSON: Writing started in the summer of 2019. I got a place in Palm Springs, California, before Covid and it eventually became a kind of fancy studio prison with a swimming pool during one of the weirdest times in history. I’ve just recently been able to work with my bandmates, after being forced to play everything myself on about half the record because of Covid. Working alone got boring. It’s nice to remind myself I can still do this all by myself, but I prefer hanging out with the boys and getting a win for the team these days. Having unilateral control is too safe or something. I think technically, as well, recording live is a different beast and we all want new challenges at work. So we were staying in the house, jamming, hanging out like this nightmare never happened – a brief oasis of normal.
Song-wise, I’ve been thinking of all the great offbeat rock radio classics. Sometimes it’s hard to even know what they’re about but they make you feel good. Like the song “Eye Of The Tiger”. What the hell is that about? There’s a list in my head of a certain kind of rock song and I wanted to apply myself to continuing that vein of rock that feels great in your car on the way home from work on a Friday, but the UMO version. The texture is cigarettes, but smooth cigarettes.
Thematically, I wrote a bit about my chaotic love life over the past few years, and looked at the air-conditioned nightmare of everything. Also, for the first time in my lyrics, I tried to make them purposefully cheesy and make a sort of nonsensical sense, like “Eye Of The Tiger”. I think the two singles that came out this year [“Weekend Run” and “That Life”] are indicative. The album will probably end up as a Rolex watch, Porsche 911 of Dad Rock. It sounds like a Ferrari Dino. I didn’t plan it to be like this, it’s just coming out that way.

Rare Lou Reed demos dropped and withdrawn

Will Lavin
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0
Rare Lou Reed demos dropped and withdrawn
A collection of rare Lou Reed demos were released over the holiday period and then quickly withdrawn in an apparent copyright dump. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut According to Variety, RCA/Sony Music uploaded a 17-track album of Lou Reed demos to iTunes ...

A collection of rare Lou Reed demos were released over the holiday period and then quickly withdrawn in an apparent copyright dump.

According to Variety, RCA/Sony Music uploaded a 17-track album of Lou Reed demos to iTunes in Europe on December 23 titled I’m So Free: The 1971 RCA Demos. It was then removed a couple of days later.

Matthew Goody, the author of Needles And Plastic: Flying Nun Records, 1981–1988, took to social media last Thursday (December 30) to point out that the album had been released, sharing a link that previewed the album’s artwork.

“Apparently Lou Reed‘s RCA demos from 1971 were dumped on Apple Music in Europe on Xmas Eve,” he tweeted. “No sign they’ll be available anywhere else.”

The tracklist for I’m So Free includes rough versions of nearly every song from Reed’s self-titled 1972 debut solo album and his breakthrough follow-up, Transformer, although two tracks, “Kill Your Sons” and “She’s My Best Friend”, were not officially released until his 1976 sixth album Coney Island Baby.

The album, which also includes songs like “Perfect Day”, “I’m Sticking With You”, “Ride Into The Sun” and others, appears to be made up of demos that have been doing the rounds for several years – see the full tracklist below.

I’m So Free: The 1971 RCA Demos tracklist:

“Perfect Day (Demo – Takes 1 & 2)”
“I’m So Free (Demo)”
“Wild Child (Demo)”
“I’m Sticking with You (Demo – Take 2)”
“Lisa Says (Demo)”
“Going Down (Demo – Take 2)”
“I Love You (Demo)”
“New York Telephone Conversation (Demo)”
“She’s My Best Friend (Demo)”
“Kill Your Sons (Demo)”
“Berlin (Demo)”
“Ocean (Demo – Takes 1 & 2)”
“Ride Into the Sun (Demo – Take 2)”
“Hangin’ Around (Demo – Take 2)”
“Love Makes You Feel (Demo – Take 2)”
“I Can’t Stand It (Demo)”
“Walk It And Talk It (Demo)”

The reason for the brief release looks to be an apparent copyright dump to extend RCA/Sony Music’s ownership of the recordings. Reed died of liver disease on October 27, 2013.

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