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Black Dice announce first album in nine years Mod Prig Sic, share first single “White Sugar”

Josh Martin
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Black Dice announce first album in nine years Mod Prig Sic, share first single “White Sugar”

Black Dice have announced their first album in nine years, Mod Prig Sic, and shared the first single off it, “White Sugar”.

Listen to the Brooklyn-based experimentalists’ characteristically fractured, squelchy art freakout below:

 

Mod Prig Sic will be the inaugural release for former DFA label head Jonathan Galkin’s new label FourFour on October 1 this year. Black Dice were signed to DFA during their mid-2000s heyday, releasing their first four albums on the label from 2002 to 2005.

The band then moved to Paw Tracks, a label founded by Animal Collective’s Panda Bear. The former group often cited Black Dice as an influence.

Although Black Dice last released an album in 2012 (Mr. Impossible), they haven’t been dormant since. In 2016, they released the two-track EP Big Deal, and last month they remixed “Summer Crane” for The Avalanches’ 20th anniversary edition of Since I Left You.

See the Mod Prig Sic tracklist below:

1. “Bad Bet”
2. “Tuned Out”
3. “Swinging”
4. “Scramblehead”
5. “White Sugar”
6. “Plasma”
7. “Big Chip”
8. “All the Way”
9. “Scramblehead II”
10. “Jocko”
11. “Downward Arrow”
12. “Scramblehead III”

Hear Jeff Tweedy cover Roky Erickson’s “For You (I’d Do Anything)”

Cillian Breathnach
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Hear Jeff Tweedy cover Roky Erickson’s “For You (I’d Do Anything)”

Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy has shared a cover of Roky Erickson’s “For You (I’d Do Anything)”, off his 1995 solo album All That May Do My Rhyme.

The cover is part of Light In The Attic’s upcoming covers compilation May The Circle Remain Unbroken: A Tribute to Roky Erickson, which will be released on July 17 as part of Record Store Day.

Besides Tweedy, the compilation will feature contributions from names such as Margo Price, Neko Case, Ty Segall, Gary Clark Jr and Eve Monsees, Lucinda Williams, and Chelsea Wolfe.

You can hear Tweedy’s cover below.

Erickson, who died in 2019, is remembered as a pioneering figure of the early psychedelic rock scene. He was the founding frontman of the 13th Floor Elevators, beginning his career with them in 1965. In addition to three studio albums released by the band, he had a prolific solo career.

Wilco’s latest studio album was 2019’s Ode To Joy. In our 9/10 review of the record, we said: “Ode To Joy counters the loose and low-stakes nature of Star Wars and Schmilco in a series of finely honed reflections that adds a new perspective to the conversation of politics.”

Thurston Moore announces North American tour dates for September 2021

Cillian Breathnach
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Thurston Moore announces North American tour dates for September 2021

Thurston Moore has announced dates for a brief tour in September which kicks off with one show in London before heading over to the US.

Moore announced the tour on social media, but has been cryptic about who will be joining him onstage at the shows apart from fellow ex-Sonic Youth drummer, Steve Shelley.

The posts suggest the guitarist’s usual touring backing band – consisting of My Bloody Valentine’s Debbie Googe on bass and Nøught’s James Sedwards on guitar – could include a change in members.

“New York state of mind September 12 2021 with Steve Shelley and ? serenades of car horns and concrete rumbling subway soliloquies,” he wrote in one post.

Posted by Thurston Moore on Tuesday, June 29, 2021

You can see the full list of tour dates below. Tickets are available now here.

  • Aug 29 – The Clapham Grand in London, United Kingdom
  • Sep 12 – Le Poisson Rouge in New York City
  • Sep 14 – Empty Bottle in Chicago, Illinois
  • Sep 14 – Empty Bottle in Chicago, Illinois
  • Sep 17 – Turf Club in St Paul, Minnesota
  • Sep 18 – Summerfest 2021 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Moore will also star as the headlining act for Rockaway Beach’s Grand Day Out in London this August.

Moore dropped his seventh solo studio album, By The Fire, last September. In our 8/10 review of the record, we said: “Like anyone with almost 40 years of adventuring behind them, Moore’s music is now more about the deep, nuanced dig into established territory than striking out to plant a flag someplace new, plus exploring different contexts for his signature sound through continued collaboration.”

Nick Cave shares advice on being a songwriter: “I have an affinity with artists who treat their craft as a job”

Will Richards
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Nick Cave shares advice on being a songwriter: “I have an affinity with artists who treat their craft as a job”

Nick Cave has explained how inspiration hits him as a songwriter, and how musicians and writers “just go to work” every day.

Writing on his frequently updated Red Hand Files website, Cave was asked about inspiration by a fan.

“I’ve always had an affinity for songwriters who put a lot of craft into their songs like they’re building a wooden table, everything is where it should be,” a fan called Jake from Canada wrote. “Do you think it is more important to find inspiration or to get to work and write?”

Another simply asked: “What’s it like to write a song?”

In response, Cave said: “I also have an affinity with artists who treat their craft as a job and are not dependent on the vagaries of inspiration – because I am one of them. Like most people with a job, we just go to work.

“It never occurs to us not to work, there is never a moment when we don’t work because ‘we are not feeling it’ or ‘the vibes aren’t right’. We just do our hours, as I am doing mine now, writing to you, Jake, and to you, Freya.

Nick Cave
Nick Cave performs on stage at All Points East in Victoria Park on June 3, 2018 in London (Picture: Gus Stewart/Redferns)

He added: “The most important undertaking of my day is to simply sit down at my desk and pick up my pen. Without this elementary act I could not call myself a songwriter, because songs come to me in intimations too slight to be perceived, unless I am primed and ready to receive them. They come not with a fanfare, but in whispers, and they come only when I am at work.”

Elsewhere in the letter, Cave revealed how he feels “powerless to influence the outcome” of sitting down to write lyrics or music. “So often we stand bereft before our ingenuity, with nothing to show for our efforts. Yet at other times we are ushered in.”

“Once inside the imagination all manner of inexplicable things occur,” Cave continued. “Time gets loopy, the past presses itself against the present, and the future pours out its secrets. Suddenly words behave in ways they shouldn’t, but wonderfully do, our pulse quickens, yummy butterflies explode in our tummies and songwriting becomes a collision between the pragmatic and the completely gaga.”

Read the full letter and response here.

Last month Cave shared the full version of his song “Letter to Cynthia” online – a track inspired by a fan letter that was sent to him on Red Hand Files.

It follows Carnage, his collaborative album with Bad Seeds member Warren Ellis, which came out back in February.

Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor announces sixth solo album, Silence

Tom Skinner
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Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor announces sixth solo album, Silence

Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor has announced his sixth solo album, Silence – check out the single “Dying In Heaven” below.

The musician/singer-songwriter will release the 12-track follow-up to 2018’s Beautiful Thing on September 17 via AWAL, having largely composed the material in enforced isolation. You can pre-order/pre-save it here.

Arriving yesterday (June 30), the emotional and expansive first preview of the upcoming record is accompanied by a cinematic official video, which was directed by Brian DeRan.

“Over the last year or so, confined to our homes and restricted in our activities, many of us have spent more time alone than we ever imagined, or wanted, facing a test of our resolve in extraordinary circumstances, and compelled to confront ourselves,” DeRan explained of the visuals.

“Our time in the desert nearly over, now is a time to take stock, cast off the shadows, and emerge into the world again, renewed and invigorated by the journey ahead.”

As for the full album, Taylor said: “I’m not religious myself, but the songs which deal with the idea of gospel music or religion, look at it from a distance (rather like the shaky hand-held lens through which we follow the action in Pasolini’s ‘Gospel According To Matthew’) and try to uncover its influence on music and on people in desperate circumstances.”

Other songs featured on the record include “Death Of Silence”, “Strange Strings”, “Melting Away”, “You’ve Changed Your Life” and “Wollongong Waves” – you can see the full tracklist below.

  1. “Dying In Heaven”
  2. “Death Of Silence”
  3. “House Of The Truth”
  4. “Violence”
  5. “Strange Strings”
  6. “Thylacine”
  7. “I Look To Heaven”
  8. “Melting Away”
  9. “Consequences”
  10. “You’ve Changed Your Life”
  11. “Silence”
  12. “Wollongong Waves”

Alexis Taylor will showcase Silence during a special live show held at Rio Cinema in Dalston, London on September 16. Tickets are available now here.

Meanwhile, Hot Chip are set to headline End Of The Road Festival in September alongside Sleaford Mods, Stereolab and King Krule. They’ll also top the bill at next month’s Standon Calling, which confirmed on June 29 that it will go ahead at full capacity.

Ride’s Andy Bell announces debut album under electronic alias GLOK

Will Richards
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Ride’s Andy Bell announces debut album under electronic alias GLOK

Ride‘s Andy Bell has announced details of his debut album under his electronic alias GLOK.

Pattern Recognition is set to come out on October 1 and is being previewed by single “Maintaining the Machine”, a collaboration with Sinead O’Brien and featuring Primal Scream’s Simone Marie Butler.

“GLOK is all about the push and pull between electronic and psych in my music,” Bell said of the alter-ego in a statement.

Listen to new track “Maintaining the Machine” below.

Prior to the debut album, Bell recently shared new GLOK track “Tories In Jail”, a collaboration with Daniel Avery, Roisin Murphy and Nitzer Ebb, for a fundraiser for Hackney pub The Gun Aid.

See the artwork and tracklist for Pattern Recognition below, and pre-order the album here.

01 “Dirty Hugs”
02 “Closer”
03 “That Time Of Night” (feat Shiarra)
04 “Process” (feat Shamon Cassette)
05 “Memorial Device”
06 “Maintaining the Machine” (feat Sinead O’Brien and Simone Marie Butler)
07 “Kintsugi”
08 “Entanglement” (feat C.A.R.)
09 “Day Three”
10 “Invocation”

Bell released his debut solo album under his own name, The View From Halfway Down, last year. Sinead O’Brien, meanwhile, released new EP Drowning In Blessings last year.

Listen to Big Red Machine’s stripped-back new single “The Ghost Of Cincinnati”

Tom Skinner
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Listen to Big Red Machine’s stripped-back new single “The Ghost Of Cincinnati”

Big Red Machine have shared a new track called “The Ghost Of Cincinnati” – listen below.

The collaborative project from The National’s Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon announced their second album How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? earlier this week (June 29) with the song “Latter Days”, which features Anaïs Mitchell.

Yesterday (June 30) the band dropped the second preview of the record, an acoustic solo number from Dessner, along with an artistic official lyric video.

“I park at this spot and stare at the water/ Try to remember I’m somebody’s father/ Dawn commute across Covington Bridge/ Get lost in my head, just looking at it“, Dessner sings in one verse.

Announcing the single on Instagram, Dessner explained: “‘The Ghost of Cincinnati’ is one that I play and sing all by my lonesome. It was inspired by a screenplay called Dandelion by the filmmaker @nicriegel (who co-wrote the lyrics with me), which my brother @brycedessner and I are working on.

“It’s about someone who feels like a ghost, stalking the streets of their hometown, interrogating the past and contemplating their fate – something I can deeply relate to. I imagine this could be a little bit about myself, or friends I’ve lost or someone who has overextended and overspent themselves to a point where they’ve lost everything, empty and hollow like a ghost.”

Set for release on August 27, How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? includes two guest spots from Taylor Swift (on “Birch” and “Renegade”). It comes after both Dessner and Vernon worked with the singer-songwriter on her surprise 2020 albums, Folklore and Evermore.

Dessner said in a Facebook post that he had been working on the songs on the album with Vernon and their collaborators – including Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold, Ben Howard and Sharon Van Etten – for “a large part of the last three years”.

“These songs are connected by emotional threads, especially nostalgia for the innocence of childhood before mistakes have been made and relationships have faltered and the feeling of investigating the past in search of a remedy,” he explained.

Altın Gün: “Songs about love, hate, tragedy, death, war… it’s all basic human emotions”

Tom Pinnock
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Altın Gün: “Songs about love, hate, tragedy, death, war… it’s all basic human emotions”

There’s a rumbling deep beneath Vondelpark – more precisely, emanating from the Vondelbunker, a Cold War nuclear shelter under a bridge in one of Amsterdam’s biggest parks. These days, it’s a volunteer-led space for cultural events and houses practice rooms where bands, including Altın Gün, rehearse. “It’s a proper bunker!” laughs Merve Dasdemir, the band’s singer and keyboardist.

“We have a very nice space there,” says bassist and founder Jasper Verhulst. “Though there are no windows and there’s not a lot of air in there.”

At the Vondelbunker, Altın Gün can rehearse whenever they want. But there’s not been much call for that lately. There’s Covid, of course. But before that, the band’s busy gig schedule meant little practice was necessary. “We used to play a lot,” says Dasdemir, “so we’d usually be gone.”

Much of the world, it seems, has been calling out for Altın Gün since they released their debut album, 2018’s On. Their kaleidoscopic mix of psychedelic rock, disco and Turkish traditional music has found appreciation with both younger hipsters and the Turkish diaspora across the globe. That’s good going for a group whose repertoire – Halkali Şeker, for instance, from debut On – is probably most often heard at weddings in Turkey.

Indeed, they’ve been asked to act as a wedding band many times, according to Dasdemir: “We’re trying to stay out of weddings, because if you go in there you can’t get out!”

Some are more wary of weddings than others. Erdinç Ecevit, co-vocalist, keyboardist and saz player, of Turkish heritage but born in the Netherlands, regularly played at Turkish weddings in the Low Countries for work, until the band took off. Along with the rest of the members, Ecevit is now happiest playing with Altın Gün, taking traditional material and processing it through their own radical, groove-based filter.

“At a wedding, people constantly want to tell you what to play,” says Verhulst, “which is understandable but, if you’re a band like us, it wouldn’t really work.” “Sometimes it happens at shows, though!” says Dasdemir. “They write the name of a song on a napkin
and give it to me onstage. I’m like, ‘Dude, we’re not that kind of band…’”

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW IN UNCUT AUGUST 2021

Hear St Vincent cover Metallica’s “Sad But True”

Cillian Breathnach
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Hear St Vincent cover Metallica’s “Sad But True”

Following on from the announcement of The Metallica Blacklist, St Vincent’s cover of “Sad But True” has landed on streaming services.

The Metallica Blacklist is a massive covers album celebrating 30 years of The Black Album. Besides St Vincent’s track, the album will feature 52 other songs from the likes of Jason Isbell, Rina Sawayama, Phoebe Bridgers, The Hu, Idles, Moses Sumney, Miley Cyrus, Elton John, Chase & Status and Igor Levit.

The full album will arrive on 1 October. Listen to the St Vincent cover below:

Alongside the announcement of the covers album, Metallica also revealed plans to remaster and reissue the original Black Album. The remastered Black Album will land in multiple configurations including digitally, as a 180-gram 2LP, a standard CD, a 3CD expanded edition and a limited-edition boxset.

The latter set includes the album remastered on 180-gram 2LP, a picture disc, three live LPs, 14 CDs (containing rough mixes, demos, interviews, live shows), six DVDs (containing outtakes, behind the scenes, official videos, live shows), a 120-page hardcover book, four tour laminates, three lithos, three guitar picks, a Metallica lanyard, a folder with lyric sheets, and a download card for the digital edition of the album.

Memoir by late Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland getting film adaptation

Surej Singh
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Memoir by late Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland getting film adaptation

A film based on the memoir by late Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland, Not Dead & Not For Sale, has been announced.

The film, currently titled Paper Heart, was picked up after production house Dark Pictures and producer Orian Williams acquired the book rights to the 2011 memoir, which Weiland penned with David Ritz.

Paper Heart is being written by Jennifer Erwin, Dark Pictures’ co-founder and a “die-hard” Stone Temple Pilots fan. The film will tell the story of Weiland’s life, including his battles with addiction and his comebacks.

Erwin said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter: “It’s an honour to have the trust to tell Scott’s story and the ability to portray the lesser known sides of him – the loving and tender man he was, the high school athlete he was, the melancholy soul he was and the legendary frontman that he will always be.”

Added producer Williams, “We want to make the most authentic film possible about this remarkable artist. Beyond Scott’s page-turning memoir, connecting with those closest to Scott is important to get the details right.”

Dark Pictures has gotten access to unreleased music by Weiland for the film, Williams added.

David Vigliano, founder and CEO of Vigliano Associates, which represents the Weiland estate, said that they had been “approached many times about Scott’s story” and that Dark Pictures’ vision “felt right”.

More details surrounding the upcoming Paper Heart film, including its cast and release date, have yet to be announced.

Scott Weiland – who also served as Velvet Revolver’s frontman from 2003 till 2008 and once again in 2012 for a one-off reunion performance – passed away in late 2015 aged 48 due to an accidental overdose.

David Bowie painting that was bought for £3 has sold at auction for £63,000

Surej Singh
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David Bowie painting that was bought for £3 has sold at auction for £63,000

A painting by David Bowie that was bought for just CAD$5 (£3) has fetched nearly CAD$108,120 (£63,115) at a recent auction.

The 1997 painting, which put up for auction by Canadian fine arts seller and auctioneer Cowley Abbott president Rob Cowley, is part of a series of 47 paintings that Bowie had worked on between 1995 and 1997.

Bowie signed and dated the painting on the back of its 9.75×8-inch canvas. Its title, “DHead XLVI”, is also on the back of the artwork, according to Cowley Abbott’s catalogue.

The piece was picked up for approximately CAD$5 (approximately £3) last year at a donation centre at a landfill in Ontario, Canada, Cowley told CNN prior to the auction.

The piece was estimated to reach a bid of CAD$12,000 (£7,000) but surpassed its evaluation amount during the first day of the auction.

The painting was authenticated by Bowie specialist Andy Peters (of davidbowieautograph.com), who told CNN that he recognised it as a Bowie artwork the instant he saw it.

“When I first saw the painting, I knew what it was straightaway,” Peters said. “I did not need to see the autograph on the back because I knew, but obviously the signature sealed the deal.”

Cowley said that the unidentified seller – who is not an art collector – contacted him in November last year, and the two parties began working to authenticate the work.

The portrait is part of Bowie’s DHead collection, in which he painted “friends, family, and other musicians” as well as self-portraits.

David Bowie passed in January 2016 following an 18-month battle with cancer at the age of 69.

It was announced earlier this month that Liverpool is set to host the first-ever David Bowie World Fan Convention next year. The convention – which will include panels, live performances, and a “Bowie Ball” – will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the artist’s classic album The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.

Descendents release third taster from original-lineup album, “Like The Way I Know”

David James Young
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Descendents release third taster from original-lineup album, “Like The Way I Know”

Descendents have shared another new track from their upcoming album 9th And Walnut, set for release on July 23.

“Like The Way I Know” follows the release of “Baby Doncha Know” in early May and “Nightage” a month later. Drummer and founding member Bill Stevenson explained in a press statement that “Like The Way I Know” was “one of the very first Descendents songs”.

“[It was] written in 1977 by [founding member] David Nolte, about how living in Hermosa Beach made him feel like a freak,” said Stephenson.

Listen to “Like The Way I Know” below:

As announced in May 2021, 9th And Walnut will finally unearth a project that began in 2002. Having undergone multiple line-up changes since forming in 1977, the band’s first established line-up reunited to record their earliest-known material. The project was completed last year, with vocalist Milo Aukerman recording new vocals from his home.

The current line-up of Descendents – Aukerman, Stephenson, guitarist Stephen Edgerton and bassist Karl Alvarez – are set to return to the stage next month on a North American tour with Rise Against. The band will also play a string of headlining dates in August, followed by an appearance at the three-day Punk Rock Bowling Festival in September.

Big Red Machine announce new album featuring Fleet Foxes, Sharon Van Etten, Taylor Swift and more

Michael Bonner
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Big Red Machine announce new album featuring Fleet Foxes, Sharon Van Etten, Taylor Swift and more

Big Red Machine – the collaborative project between The National’s Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon – have announced details of their second album, How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?.

The album features contributions from Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold, Taylor Swift, Anaïs Mitchell and Sharon Van Etten, among others, and will be released August 27th via Jagjaguwar and 37d03d.

How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? was produced by Dessner at his Long Pond studio in upstate New York. The album is available to pre-order here.

They’re also released a new song, “Latter Days“, which you can hear below. The song features vocals from Vernon and Anaïs Mitchell.

The tracklisting for How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? is:

Latter Days (feat. Anaïs Mitchell)
Reese
Phoenix (feat. Fleet Foxes and Anaïs Mitchell)
Birch (feat. Taylor Swift)
Renegade (feat. Taylor Swift)
The Ghost of Cincinnati
Hoping Then
Mimi (feat. Ilsey)
Easy to Sabotage (feat. Naeem)
Hutch (feat. Sharon Van Etten, Lisa Hannigan, and Shara Nova [My Brightest Diamond])
8:22am (feat. La Force)
Magnolia
June’s a River (feat. Ben Howard and This Is The Kit)
Brycie
New Auburn (feat. Anaïs Mitchell)

Send us your questions for David Crosby

Sam Richards
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Send us your questions for David Crosby

As a bedrock for much of the music that gets written about in Uncut, David Crosby surely needs no introduction. Byrd, CSNYer, solo artist, collaborator, early champion of Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan superfan, moustache-grower, sailor, agitator, Twitter don, cannabis connoisseur… Croz is all this and more.

On July 23, he’s poised to released the latest album in his remarkable 21st Century solo renaissance. For Free is named after the Joni Mitchell song he covers on the record, which also features a co-write with Donald Fagen. You can pre-order For Free by clicking here.

Now Crosby has agreed to undergo a gentle grilling from you, the Uncut readers, for our latest Audience With feature. So what do you want to ask a living folk-rock legend? Send your questions to audiencewith@www.uncut.co.uk by Wednesday July 7 and Croz will answer the best ones in the next issue of Uncut.

Stereolab, Black Midi, Moses Boyd will play at first-ever Pitchfork Music Festival London

Will Richards
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Stereolab, Black Midi, Moses Boyd will play at first-ever Pitchfork Music Festival London

Pitchfork Music Festival has announced its first-ever London-based edition, with a five-day event coming in November.

The festival, which began in Chicago, has since expanded to Paris, and will now touch down in the UK from November 10-14 this year.

Featuring at the event, which will be held as separate shows in venues across the city, will be Bobby Gillespie & Jehnny Beth, Black Midi, Moses Boyd, Stereolab, Girl Band, Iceage and many more.

The festival will kick off on November 10 with a show at Village Underground featuring the likes of Mykki Blanco and Charlotte Adigéry. On the same night, Anna Meredith and PVA will play Fabric.

Elsewhere across the five-day festival, Stereolab and Girl Band will play Roundhouse (November 14), Tirzah will headline an event across three East London venues on Saturday 13, while Black Midi will play the Southbank Centre on the previous evening.

See the full schedule for Pitchfork Music Festival London along with an announcement video below.

“After an incredibly difficult year for artists, fans, and our music community, we’re excited to celebrate the return of live music with so many legendary venues across two of the most important music cities in the world,” Pitchfork editor Puja Patel said in a statement.

“That we’re able to host festivals in London and Paris during the publication’s 25th anniversary feels all the more special.”

Pitchfork’s Paris-based festival will immediately follow the London edition, running from November 16-20. The line-up for that festival has also been revealed along with news of the London edition. See the full list of names below.

The UK is currently set to remove all COVID-19 restrictions on July 19, after the initial date of June 21 was moved back.

This week, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said life will “pretty much” return to normal when the restrictions are removed, and remains confident that the easing of lockdown will happen on the new planned date, despite the surge in cases of the Delta variant in the UK.

Bobby Gillespie and Jehnny Beth announce Utopian Ashes live shows

Patrick Clarke
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Bobby Gillespie and Jehnny Beth announce Utopian Ashes live shows

Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie and Savages’ Jehnny Beth have announced their first run of live shows in support of their forthcoming joint album Utopian Ashes.

The two musicians will play across the UK in November including a set at the inaugural Pitchfork Festival London. They’ll also play its sister event, Pitchfork Festival Paris, a few days later.

The two will release their first joint album Utopian Ashes via Sony on Friday (July 2). Fans who pre-order the album before 3pm BST today (June 29) will have access to a pre-sale for tickets for the live shows. General sale begins at 10am BST on Friday and will be available here.

Bobby Gillespie and Jehnny Beth will play:

November 2021

Sunday 7 – Edinburgh, Queen’s Hall
Monday 8 – Glasgow, Pavilion
Wednesday 10, Thursday 11 – London, EartH (Pitchfork Festival)
Friday 13 – Manchester, Cathedral
Saturday 14 – Brighton, Theatre Royal
Sunday 15 – Paris, Saint-Eustache (Pitchfork Festival)

The duo first met in 2015 before later convening in Paris in 2017 to write and record together.

They first announced Utopian Ashes in March, along with the lead single “Remember We Were Lovers”, and then shared a second preview in the form of the track “Chase It Down” in May.

The music also features the work of Primal Scream’s Andrew Innes (guitar), Martin Duffy (piano) and Darrin Mooney (drums), as well as Beth’s music partner Johnny Hostile (bass).

Last year saw Beth release her acclaimed debut solo album, To Love Is To Live. Gillespie meanwhile, will publish his autobiography Tenement Kid in October.

Ringo Starr invites everyone to “spread peace and love” on his birthday

Will Lavin
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Ringo Starr invites everyone to “spread peace and love” on his birthday

Ringo Starr will be celebrating his 81st birthday next month, and he’s inviting everyone to “spread peace and love” on the landmark date.

The invitation comes as part of his annual Peace And Love birthday initiative, a tradition he started on July 7, 2008, the date of his 68th birthday, after being asked by a journalist what he would like for his birthday. “Peace and love,” was his answer.

Since then the Beatle has invited everyone everywhere to think, say or post #peaceandlove at noon their local time on July 7 “to fulfil his birthday wish and encircle the planet in a wave of Peace and Love”.

Yesterday (June 28), Starr shared a video message. “I’m inviting everyone who wants to join the peace and love celebration for my birthday at noon your time wherever you are, 7-7-21,” he said.

“You can post it, you can say it, you can even think it – but it would be really cool if you go ‘Peace and Love’ at noon on my birthday – so let’s spread peace and love on my birthday – c’mon everybody!”

You can watch the message below:

Usually on his birthday, Starr meets with fans wherever he is in the world. It’s a tradition that began on July 7, 2008 when he convened with fans and friends in front of the Hard Rock Café in Chicago, passing out cupcakes and joining the crowd for “Peace and Love” at exactly noon.

Last year, the pandemic prevented an in-person event, and Starr instead moved the celebration online, hosting Ringo’s Big Birthday Show, which featured unseen concert and unique performances by Starr, Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh, Ben Harper and Dave Grohl, Sheryl Crow, Gary Clark Jr, Sheila E, and more.

In 2019 there were over 30 Peace And Love events in countries around the world. Details about 2021’s regional gatherings for the initiative, which will be hosted by fans – both in person and on Zoom – can be found on Starr’s Facebook page here.

Meanwhile, Disney+ has announced plans to stream Peter Jackson’s new The Beatles: Get Back documentary.

The Beatles film will focus on the making of the band’s last studio album Let It Be and will showcase their final concert as a band, on London’s Savile Row rooftop, in its entirety.

Peter Hook is selling off hundreds of New Order artefacts, including an NME Award

Patrick Clarke
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Peter Hook is selling off hundreds of New Order artefacts, including an NME Award

Peter Hook has announced an exhibition and accompanying auction of hundreds of items from across his time playing with New Order.

The musician will host an exhibition of the items, billed The Peter Hook Signature Collection – New Order, from October 4-8 at Omega Auctions in Merseyside, UK. Donations from the auction will be supporting Epilepsy Society and The Christie charity.

The lots include a number of Hook’s own guitars and instruments, such as the Overwater Bass Guitar originally owned by John Entwhistle and the Prophet 5 Synthesiser And Sequencer used in the recording of “Blue Monday”.

Elsewhere there’s extremely rare vinyl including test pressings, tapes, CDs, artwork, and the audio rig ‘The End’ from New Order’s “farewell” concert in Buenos Aires in 2006.

Hook (left) with New Order bandmates Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris at the 2005 NME Awards CREDIT: Brian Rasic/Getty Images

Some of the awards accrued by the bassist across his career are also featured, including the NME Award he received when New Order were crowned Godlike Genius in 2005, his 2006 Ivor Novello award, and the Blue Monday Anvil presented to the band by Factory Records’ Tony Wilson to mark 500,000 sales.

They will then go up for auction on October 8, with over 400 lots set to go under the hammer. You can see a full catalogue here.

The Best Of 2021 – Halftime Report

Michael Bonner
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The Best Of 2021 – Halftime Report

First off, a gentle reminder that our excellent new issue of Uncut is in the shops now, featuring Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic on Nirvana, plus Sly Stone, Paul McCartney, Amy Winehouse, Altın Gün, Grateful Dead, The Jam, Will Sergeant, Rodney Crowell, Sparks, Rodrigo Amarante and more. Full details about the new Uncut are here, in case you missed them.

As is tradition abound now, I tried to round up my favourite albums from so far; specifically releases from January until the end of June. I’ve listed them here in (roughly) order of release – just to be painfully clear, this is very much my personal choice and is in no way representative of the Uncut writers in general.

UPDATE! Okay, a quick couple of amendments. Firstly, I’ve removed one of the duplicate entries for The Coral and also added two albums I can’t believe I forgot to include: Nick Cave & Warren Ellis’ Carnage (thanks for the spot, Robert Franks) and also Field Works’ Cedars.

Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner

1. Black Country, New Road – For The First Time (Ninja Tune)
2. The Weather Station – Ignorance (Fat Possum)
3. Ryan Dugre – Three Rivers (11A)
4. Altın Gün – Yol (Giltterbeat)
5. Sunburned Hand Of The Man – Pick A Day To Die (Three Lobed)
6. Ryley Walker + Kikagaku Moyo – Deep Friend Grandeur (Husky Pants)
7. Cory Hanson – Pale Horse Rider (Drag City)
8. Teenage Fanclub – Endless Arcade (PeMa)
9. SUSS – Promise (Northern Spy)
10. Israel Nash – Topaz (Loose)
11. Jane Weaver – Flock (Fire)
12. Julien Baker – Little Oblivions (Matador)
13. Natalie Bergman – Mercy (Third Man)
14. Tindersticks – Distractions (City Slang)
15. Lael Neale – Acquainted With Night (Sub Pop)
16. Besnard Lakes – Besnard Lakes Are The Last Of The Great Thunderstorm Warnings (Full Time Hobby)
17. Elori Saxl – The Blue Of Distance (Western Vinyl)
18. Chuck Johnson – The Cinder Grove (VDSQ)
19. Bobby Lee – Origin Myths (Natural Histories Records)
20. Mason Lindahl – Kissing Rosy In The Rain (Tompkins Square)
21. Valerie June – The Moon And Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers (Fantasy)
22. Renée Reed – Renée Reed (Keeled Scales)
23. Hiss Golden Messenger – Quietly Blowing It (Merge)
24. Janet Simpson – Safe Distance (Cornelius Chapel Records)
25. Julius Eastman – Femenine performed by ensemble 0 (Sub Rosa)
26. Marianne Faithfull with Warren Ellis – She Walks In Beauty (BMG)
27. Dinosaur Jr – Sweep It Into Space (Jagjaguwar)
28. Rhiannon Giddens – They’re Calling Me Home (Nonesuch)
29. Jakob Bro, Arve Henriksen, Jorge Rossy – Uma Elmo (ECM)
30. Satomimagae – Hanazono (RVNG Intl/Guruguru Brain)
31. Ballaké Sissoko – Djouru (Nø Førmat!)
32. Whitney K – Maryland (Maple Death Records)
33. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & the London Symphony Orchestra – Promises (Luaka Bop)
34. Four Tet – Parallel (Text)
35. Pino Palladino & Blake Mills – Notes With Attachments (New Deal / Impulse!)
36. Dean McPhee – Witch’s Ladder (Hood Faire/Cargo)
37. The Coral – Coral Island (Run On Records/Modern Sky UK)
38. Angel Bat Dawid & The Brotherhood – Live (International Anthem)
39. Matt Sweeney & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Superwolves (Domino)
40. Rose City Band – Earth Trip (Thrill Jockey)
41. Ryley Walker – Course In Fable (Husky Pants)
42. Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band – Rare Dreams: Solar Live 2.27.18 (Cafe Oto)
43. Natural Information Society With Evan Parker – Descension (Out Of Our Constrictions (Aguirre Records)
44. Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble – NOW (International Anthem)
45. Sarah Louise – Earth Bow (Earth Bow)
46. Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime (Matador)
47. Lucy Dacus – Home Video (Matador)
48. Lamchop – Showtunes (City Slang)
49. Joana Serrat – Hardcore From The Heart (Loose)
50. Andrew Tuttle & Padang Food Tigers – A Cassowary Apart (Bedroom Suck Records)
51. BLK JKS – Abantu/Before Humans (Glitterbest)
52. Daniel Bachman – Axacan (Three Lobed)
53. Six Organs Of Admittance – The Veiled Sea (Three Lobed)
54. Marisa Anderson/William Tyler – Lost Futures (Thrill Jockey)
55. Dorothea Paas – Anything Can’t Happen (Telephone Explosion)
56. Shabason, Krgovich & Harris – Florence (idée fixe)
57. David Grubbs & Ryley Walker – Fight Of Flight Simulator (Takuroku)
58. Chuck Johnson – Alpenglow (Bandcamp)
59. Faye Webster – I Know I’m Funny ha ha (Secretly Canadian)
60. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – Carnage (Goliath)
61. Melt – Blank Gloss (Kompakt)
62. Brooklyn Raga Massive – Quarantine Dreams (Bandcamp)
63. Arooj Aftab – Vulture Prince (New Amsterdam Records)
64. Amaro Freitas – Sankofa (Far Out)
65. Birds Of Maya – Valdez (Drag City)
66. Marina Allen – Candlepower (Fire)
67. Sault – Nine (Forever Living Originals)
68. Field Works – Cedars (Temporary Residence)

Making The Sparks Brothers documentary: “Being ahead of the curve for 50 years is a lonely place to be”

Stephen Troussé
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Making The Sparks Brothers documentary: “Being ahead of the curve for 50 years is a lonely place to be”

“Is the Sparks story even that interesting?” wonders Ron Mael aloud, with one of those quizzical frowns that over 50 years have variously signalled wry mockery, abject despair, ironic ennui or absurd determination. “We joked about this with Edgar [Wright] when we began work on The Sparks Brothers project. Because other bands in documentaries usually have a tragic ending – you know, a suicide – or they had a drug issues and were able to overcome their habit to win in the end, or their career had a meteoric rise then a tragic fall… But our story didn’t fit into any of those categories. We found ourselves saying: “Guys, is there anything interesting about us to really warrant a movie?’”

It’s not the first time Sparks have failed to fit into established formats. Yet this summer sees one more of those periodical cosmic alignments that have occurred through the brothers’ career – where this most singular, perverse and eccentric group miraculously chimes with the times – like a comet, determinedly following its lonely elliptical orbit through the dark for years, to suddenly blaze once more across the horizon of public attention.

In July, Annette, their decade-in-the-making collaboration with Leos Carax, the holy terror of modern French cinema, is finally set to open – at the Cannes Film Festival, no less. “Cannes!” sighs Ronald, giddy as a schoolgirl. “It’s the most magical word to us!”

But first there is The Sparks Brothers, Edgar Wright’s bravura, breathless, screwball documentary which rounds up collaborators and famous fans for a tour of the weirdest half century in pop history. You can imagine one day The Sparks Story being a told as a fully fictionalised MGM biopic, as fabulously far-fetched as that version of the Cole Porter story starring Cary Grant. Or maybe in the style of Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There with different brothers played by different actors at different phases of their career: “Can I suggest Benedict Cumberbatch?” wonders Ron.

Wright’s documentary throws in a fair amount of fabulation and some lovely sequences of animation, but for the most part sticks faithfully to the facts, although there is some understandable haziness about the early days – “We thought it might be like a pop version of Rashomon,” chuckles Russell. Winningly, it presents the brothers as great pop survivors and pioneers.

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW IN UNCUT AUGUST 2021

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