Arab Strap have announced their reunion with the release of a new single, their first in almost 15 years.
Listen to “The Turning Of Our Bones” below:
Says the band’s Aidan Moffat: “’The Turning Of Our Bones’ is an incantation, a voodoo spell to raise the dead. Inspired by the Famadihana ritual of the Malagasy people of Madagascar, in which they dance with the corpses of loved ones; it’s all about resurrection and shagging.”
“The Turning Of Our Bones” will be released as a physical single (backed with 7″ exclusive track “The Jumper”) on October 23 via Rock Action.
A previously unheard Cardiacs song has been released today to mark the funeral of bandleader Tim Smith, who died in July aged 59.
Listen to “Vermin Mangle” below:
A note accompanying the release reads:
Of stars and planets,
of darkness and light,
of all universal energies issues forth
the fragile beauty of
VERMIN MANGLE…
…a present for YOU
by way of gracious thanks
for your abiding LOVE
and LOYALTY towards,
the stellar gift that was and will forever be,
TIMOTHY CHARLES SMITH.
Send him home:
Send him near and far.
Remember him.
July 3rd, 1961 – July 22nd, 2020
Go here to read a moving funeral notice from Tim’s brother and bandmate Jim Smith and to donate to the family’s chosen charity, The Wiltshire Wildlife Hospital.
Kevin Morby has announced that his new album Sundowner will be released on October 16 via Dead Oceans.
Watch a video for lead single “Campfire” below:
Sundowner was recorded with Brad Cook at Sonic Ranch in Texas. Morby played nearly every instrument on the album including lead guitar, mellotron and pump organ, with bass and some keys from Cook plus James Krivchenia on percussion.
Says Morby of the album: “It is a depiction of isolation. Of the past. Of an uncertain future. Of provisions. Of an omen. Of a dead deer. Of an icon. Of a Los Angeles themed hotel in rural Kansas. Of billowing campfires, a mermaid and a highway lined in rabbit fur. It is a depiction of the nervous feeling that comes with the sky’s proud announcement that another day will be soon coming to a close as the pink light recedes and the street lamps and house lights suddenly click on.”
Additionally, Morby has announced a virtual tour via Noon Chorus. Every Thursday starting on September 10 he’ll perform his complete discography in chronological order, culminating in a performance of Sundowner the day before the album’s release:
Sept 10 – Harlem River
Sept 17 – Still Life
Sept 24 – Singing Saw
Oct 1 – City Music
Oct 8 – Oh My God
Oct 15 – Sundowner
“We had a lot of problems by the time we made Goats Head Soup, extraneous problems in all kinds of directions,” explains Mick Jagger. “Tours – were they going to go or were they not? Would we get a visa to go to the US, or not? We couldn’t get visas at that point because of all the drug busts.”
Abandoning England in April 1971 for the South of France – “We were broke and we owed loads of money to the Inland Revenue,” says Jagger – by 1973, the Stones held ‘persona non grata’ status in several European countries. For a band who had been positioned at the start of their career as the anti-Beatles, being bad had become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Strung out in Jamaica – one of the few countries left that would take them – the Stones cooked up the grimmest funk.
“We started to feel the pressure of being in exile on this album,” says Keith Richards. “When we made Exile On Main Street in France, we’d just left home and had stuff to do. We just carried on. But Goats Head Soup was the first album where we had to learn to work differently, to work apart and put songs together while actually being in exile.”
Not for the first time, The Rolling Stones demonstrated their ability to play resourcefully the cards they were dealt. This is where the Stones’ sound of the late 1970s and ’80s was born – an exotic, soulful fusion of rock and funk – but for all the gouched-out wah-wah pedals and clavinets, Goats Head Soup is still unambiguously the work of the musicians who made “Jumping Jack Flash”.
“Exile… was overwhelming in a way,” says Richards. “Because it was a double album, it was still pretty relevant when we were doing this one.”
“We spent so much time on Exile…,” adds Jagger. “This is different. A different studio, different attitude to playing. It’s done in a shorter time. All these things affect it. Maybe it was simpler, in some ways…”
Long seen as perhaps the quintessential American indie band, this unassuming Hoboken, New Jersey trio have a far more fiery and fearless back catalogue than that dubious epithet would suggest. In fact, they’ve quietly established themselves as one of the most stunningly eclectic and experimental rock bands of the last 30 years. Producing 13 albums and countless side-projects, married couple Georgia Hubley (drums, keys and vocals) and Ira Kaplan (guitar, keys and vocals), along with bassist James McNew, have spun away from the jangly garage-rock of their mid-’80s origins to embrace the dustier corners of their enviable record collections – taking in krautrock, shoegaze, ambient, even Bacharach-esque pop and tropicália, and inspiring artists like The Flaming Lips and Graham Coxon along the way. “It all comes down to not really knowing what we were doing!”
_____________________
Ride The Tiger Coyote, 1986 The timid, compact debut, featuring Ira on what he later termed “naïve guitar”, and, in what would become a pattern for their early years, a revolving cast of bassists.
Ira Kaplan: This album feels very far away. Some things feel like yesterday; that is not one of them. It was recorded in Boston, at White Dog. I don’t think overconfidence was ever our problem – we were big fans of Mission Of Burma, and having somebody we respected as much as Clint Conley [bassist/vocalist] to sign on to produce us meant a lot. We were not anywhere close to knowing what we were doing…
Georgia Hubley: Our influences were not terribly different from now – forgetting things that came after, of course. A bit of US garage rock, ’60s folk rock, The Feelies.
Ira: I think we were happy with the album at the time, to a certain extent. There were things about it that were definitely very exciting. Dave [Schramm, lead guitarist on the album] had so much to do with it. Some of the more orchestrated, overdubbed things were ideas from him. There were definitely things we were discovering about ourselves. I think it all really comes down to not really knowing what we were doing!
James McNew: I think I heard Yo La Tengo for the first time on a college radio station in my town, Charlottesville, Virginia. Whether I would’ve heard Ride The Tiger first or [1987’s] New Wave Hot Dogs I’m not sure, but it would’ve been right around that time.
_____________________
Fakebook Bar None, 1990 After losing their bassist, Stephan Wichnewski, Ira and Georgia record a charming acoustic set mainly comprised of covers, including songs by Cat Stevens, John Cale and the Flamin’ Groovies.
Ira: There was a day on tour when Georgia was walking down the street somewhere in the mid-West and she actually overheard people laughing about the terrible radio interview that they’d just heard with us. So we thought, ‘How can we get out of this stuff?’ – so we brought a guitar to the interviews and started singing songs. It became a repertoire we developed with all these cover songs. Fakebook was trying to present that side of us – there’s a couple of songs we wrote for it, but mostly it was things we’d been doing that way already. The whole record was done very quickly, we were rehearsing in our living room at the time because we were playing so quietly we could rehearse almost anywhere. It had the advantage that Georgia wasn’t having to play drums and sing at the same time…it was a two-tiered thing: the confidence to sing and the ability and confidence to sing while playing drums. Having to do just the one definitely made it easier.
Georgia: I suppose I did [find my voice] here. Trying parts that I knew from listening to records was kind of an entry way into singing. I think I’m a lot more confident now. I’m more accepting of the imperfections, which actually makes it easier to carry on and possibly improve.
_____________________
Painful Matador, 1993 With Matador, new producer Roger Moutenot and the latest (and last) bassist James on board, the band get busy reinventing themselves as noise-rocking sonic explorers.
Ira: James is on [1992’s] May I Sing With Me, but there he’s still kind of the guy who’s filling in, we didn’t necessarily think he’d be around 12 months on.
Georgia: I think Painful is where the three of us really joined up as a single-headed monster. That’s the record where we really decided we could do whatever we wanted. It’s where we discovered that creative freedom, to do things we hadn’t done before. Then, the more successful it was, it gave us the courage to be weirder. I know when we were making Painful, though, it was kind of a rough period for us. We were changing record labels, it was a very stressful time – not making the music, but other stuff. Although it is one of my favourite records, there were a lot of challenges.
Ira: Once James moved to Brooklyn and was actually going to be in the group, our whole approach changed. There was a lot of practicing, and regular practicing, it wasn’t like ‘who’s available on Thursday night?’, it became an everyday kind of thing.
James: In the interim between May I Sing With Me and Painful, we took this organ off the shelf in the practice space – it belonged to someone else who practised there – and spent the day just playing our songs in this re-arranged lineup. We just thought ‘that’s kind of funny’ – and then realised, ‘Oh, that’s pretty good, actually!’
_____________________
Electr-O-Pura Matador, 1995 To Nashville, where the trio meet Lambchop, try the city’s famous hot chicken and jam their sound into groovier, krautrocking pastures.
Ira: We knew we needed to work with Roger again and he’d moved to Nashville. So we blocked out I-don’t-remember-how-many weeks, and we went down there and exclusively worked. I believe it was Richard Baluyut from the band Versus who told us that going to Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack was a must do…
Georgia: Hot chicken is a local, hot, spicy chicken. It’s fried chicken with a red hot chili coating but mostly it tastes like southern fried chicken – very tasty but not so good for your digestive tract!
James: We became friends with Lambchop around that time, which was great, because all of a sudden you have twenty new friends in a town you don’t know that well – the people from Lambchop were really like family, like it was a really special connection that we had.
Ira: In between Painful and Electr-O-Pura we started working with [Half Japanese’s] Jad Fair for a record, Strange But True. Jad suggested we record without any preparation. We were so intrigued by the things we were coming up with spontaneously that we thought that would make a good direction. Sometimes writing like that is easy, sometimes it’s not. The neighbours like it better.
James: I know that ‘Tom Courtenay’ began as a forty-five minute instrumental jam.
_________________
I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One Matador, 1997 The finest embodiment of the band’s many sides: from distorted indie (“Sugarcube”) and tender ballads (“Shadows”) to bossanova (“Center Of Gravity”) and ten-minute organ grinds (“Spec Bebop”).
Ira: I think we’re aware that many other people view it [as their favourite]. We’re aware when we play we live that “Sugarcube” and “Stockholm Syndrome” and “Autumn Sweater” are getting a response. I think we were probably just more confident by this point. Everything is kind built on what came before and I think there were things that we were trying here that we hadn’t tried before. We put out an EP called “Camp Yo La Tengo” that had a [nine-minute instrumental] song called “Mr Ameche Plays The Stranger”, and I remember feeling at the time that that was a thing that we really liked that we left off of Electr-O-Pura. So there was a kind of feeling throughout the group, that ‘we’re not leaving that one off again on this album.’ We felt as strongly about those kind of songs as we did “Sugarcube” or “Stockholm Syndrome”. Things like [Beach Boys cover] “Little Honda”, which might not have been on an earlier record, were on that record.
James: It’s not as though I feel any prouder of that one than I do of anything else that we’ve done. I feel very strongly about all of it. I wish I were able to shed some light on it. Maybe, looking back, I feel that we had gained confidence in making that record. I think that we showed different sides of ourselves a little bit, showed different ways we could play, yet they were all still us, they were all our personalities, and I think maybe that’s where that became a more regular thing. I mean, I know that when we played live we would play loud and quiet, that was just who we were, and I think that that expanded quite a bit around that time in terms of showing other styles and textures. We’ve started lots of shows with “Green Arrow”… A song that’s in one space on an album is in a completely different space in a live show, and in the different contexts, the songs and the moods are very flexible for us. I think they’re open to interpretation and change. Georgia is really the best when it comes to sequencing things, and this was a great one.
Georgia: This one kind of came together pretty easily – sequencing is like a puzzle, it dictates where the songs can go. I can’t really take all the credit for it, I’m just more emphatic about what I want!
_____________________
And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out… Matador, 2000 Named after a Sun Ra lyric, this is a hushed and spooky sojourn into the dark heart of domesticity and the suburban night – once again recorded at Nashville’s Alex The Great with Roger Moutenot.
Ira: It was never part of the plan to make a quiet record. It seemed to keep happening that when we’d play loud it just wasn’t sticking, if we played quiet, it was. At the time we didn’t know why it was happening. Later, we hypothesised that it could have been the sound in our new practice space. I’ve always thought that a lot of the development of the band is confidence, and confidence to accept that, ‘OK, this may not be anything like anything we’ve done before but that’s alright.’
Georgia: I wouldn’t say we are exactly floating along in outer space, but [our ethos] is open-ended. Opportunities are often very exciting when things arise, cause you didn’t plan it.
James: [18-minute closer] “Night Falls On Hoboken” was recorded completely live. We wanted to figure out a way to properly capture what we had been doing, you know, physically, so it took us… a couple of days, I think… ‘Okay, let’s try one!’ and half an hour later, ‘Let’s try another one!’ We definitely chased it for a couple of days until we hit on the way that we could actually do it the way we were doing it, and we were really happy once we got it.
_____________________
The Sounds Of The Sounds Of Science Egon, 2002 An instrumental soundtrack to eight Surrealist nature documentaries by the eccentric French director Jean Painlevé, including “The Love Life Of The Octopus” and “Shrimp Stories”…
Georgia: It was a weird time – we made The Sounds Of The Sounds Of Science literally right after September 11. We were at a wedding in North Carolina, and we had all our equipment with us, as we were planning to head on to Nashville to record. We almost cancelled – you just want to be there when things like that happen, but it was more practical to make the record. I really loved that record, but it was very strange recording it.
Ira: We were approached by San Francisco International Film Festival about doing something. we were not familiar with Painlevé, they brought him to our attention. We got some VHS copies of some of his movies, and we thought, ‘Great, we love the movies…’, and saw how we could find our way in.
James: It was definitely another jam-oriented time. We had been playing a lot, practising a lot. We had all these jams coming into play before that project even came about. I think we sort of went through what we had and found that quite a bit of it matched up to the images. I know that the “Sea Urchins” track is actually two separate pieces of music that we had already composed, mashed into each other. Maybe there is something in an all-instrumental set that does allow us a little more room, I guess, to be freakier and looser, and more psychedelic, I don’t know. But I like how it feels.
_____________________
Condo Fucks Fuckbook Matador, 2009 A lo-fi YLT alter-ego is born – feedback-drenched garage-rockers tearing up classics by the Small Faces, The Kinks, The Beach Boys and even Slade.
Ira: This pretty much was recorded in real time! It was an accidental record. We were going to open for The A-Bones, who are friends of ours that I play with sometimes, in a small bar. We wanted to do it under a fake name, so we just came up with that repertoire and came up with that name. Meanwhile, James had got some new recording equipment and wanted to try it out so we just recorded a rehearsal and played the set from start to finish, but the recording sounded pretty good. We were ready to release it on Egon, but to our surprise Matador decided it was Matador material.
James: A lot of them were songs we had already been doing, like songs that had been in our live sets – almost all of them were song that we’d known already. I think we were really attracted to the idea of no tonal variety at all, and just everything basically sounding the same… No switching of instruments, just completely straight-ahead, like, for half an hour, no talking between songs. Yeah, that was pretty appealing. I recorded it, kind of… that was one of the first full band recordings that I ever did, and it was very easy because I certainly didn’t have to worry about level, I just pushed everything into the red and practically recorded it live.
_____________________
Fade Matador, 2012 Recorded in Chicago with a new producer, Tortoise’s John McEntire, the band’s thirteenth record is a typically varied mix of sweet harmony and unorthodox textures, dominated by its second side of woozily pretty ballads.
Georgia: The only thing we decided to do was to keep this more concise, possibly shorter. It was fun to really pare down the music and the songs and get them a little tighter and shorter. After they’re done, I do not spend a lot of time thinking about our records! I can literally be at a bar and a song can come on and it will sound oddly familiar. It’ll literally take half the song to realise!
Ira: We had a really great time with John, we’ve known him for a long time. He’s got all sorts of stuff in his studio; it’s quite a playhouse he’s put together.
James: John’s studio is amazing, it’s like a very clean spaceship. There was one thing that I became very attached to, called the Luminous Garden. It’s a box with different wires sprouting out of the top of it, with a contact mic inside the box, and various echo and filter processes built into it. It creates these amazing oscillating percussive sounds. I’m perfectly ready to forfeit every instrument in the band and do all of our songs just on this crazy instrument. And I don’t think people will enjoy it, but I know I’ll have a really good time doing it!
In 2014, Canadian songwriter Kathleen Edwards surprised everyone when she announced she was stepping back from music, moving back to her hometown and opening a coffee shop called Quitters. The name was tongue-in-cheek, in line with the self-deprecating humour found in Edwards’ music whenever things were getting too serious. But as the years passed, and Edwards shared more about the depression that soured the release of her 2012 Polaris Prize-shortlisted masterpiece Voyageur, new music seemed increasingly unlikely.
It turns out that a break was what Edwards needed to fall back in love with songwriting. An invitation to co-write in Nashville with Maren Morris and Ian Fitchuk, fresh from his work on Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour, turned into writing for herself again – and those songs became Total Freedom, her first album in eight years. Recorded partly in Nashville with Fitchuk and partly at home in Ontario with longtime collaborator Jim Bryson, its 10 tracks sing with warmth, love, gratitude and lessons learned.
“Glenfern”, named after the street where Edwards first lived with ex-husband Colin Cripps, is a breezy, nostalgic album opener and one that circles back to Voyageur, an album often misinterpreted as being about the breakdown of the couple’s marriage and Edwards’ short-lived relationship with co-producer Justin Vernon. The song is packed with loving details, both domestic and professional: touring the world and playing with their heroes, Cripps caught on Google Street View “in your slippers on the front porch with the Siamese cat”. “It’s not up there any more, but I will always be thankful for it,” Edwards sings warmly, in the same tone she applies to reminiscing about her later successes.
Edwards’ photographic memory for the little details, and ability to translate them into the perfect lyric, is one of the reasons that Failer, her 2003 debut, still resonates two decades later. Those details can charm: sleeping dogs at sunrise on “Birds On A Feeder”, the friendship at the heart of “Simple Math” that retains its magic “now we are our mothers’ ages”. But they can also devastate, whether it’s a painted rock under a catalpa tree marking the final resting place of Edwards’ beloved golden retriever, or the throwaway lines – pulled threads in sweaters, unpaid birthday dinner bills – that taken together paint a vivid picture of an emotionally abusive relationship.
Fitchuk and Bryson share co-production credits with Edwards, and together the trio combine the lush textures of her Voyageur-era sound with the roots-rock sensibility of earlier material. Lead single “Options Open” – which started out embracing the giddy new-love rush of the early days of a relationship, only to fold back and celebrate the self when that relationship went sour – has the bright, poppy bounce of Fitchuk’s work with Morris or Musgraves, but the acerbic bite of the lyrics is Edwards’ own: “I swore I wouldn’t go near you with a ten-foot pole,” she sings, “but I’m holding up a mirror, we look so sweet.” Fitchuk also oversees, and plays brooding piano on “Ashes To Ashes”, a memento mori dedicated to a Quitters customer and friend, punctuated by sombre backing vocal from Courtney Marie Andrews and an emotive banjo solo from Todd Lombardo.
Bryson, who Edwards credits with “making me feel safe” as she navigated a return to recording that coincided with her exit from the abusive relationship that casts a shadow over some of the album’s more gut-wrenching tracks, shares production credits on some of these darker songs. They include “Feelings Fade”, a “parting middle finger” recorded in one raw vocal take, haunted by Kinley Dowling’s string arrangements and Aaron Goldstein’s pedal steel; “Hard On Everyone”, on which you can hear the daily microaggressions and anxieties of abuse build and snowball until the song reaches a screaming, cathartic electric guitar avalanche; and Edwards’ “armour song” “Fool’s Ride”, on which she mocks romantic cliches, and herself, from the safety of her freedom.
But the story of this album is not of that one relationship, but of the “total freedom” of the title: freedom to watch the birds on the feeder in the garden as the sun comes up, in a life full of the love of good dogs and good people. “Birds On A Feeder” was one of the earliest songs written for the album, before the relationship that would change its meaning, here rearranged by Fitchuk from the version Edwards played him on his sofa. “Come on, spring, won’t you show yourself to me,” sings Edwards, her voice as deft as those birds in flight, as her powers reawaken.
Q&A
Kathleen Edwards on fans, friends, freedom…
What got you writing music again?
I give Maren Morris some credit for that. She reached out to say she was a fan of mine from my early records, and would I consider writing with her. I went to Nashville for a few days and did this writing session, and it ended up being the spark that I needed.
What does ‘total freedom’ mean to you?
My original working title for the album was ‘Quitsville’, but Ian pushed me away from that. It’s really funny that the title comes from the song “Birds On A Feeder”. Not long after I wrote it, I got into a relationship with someone who ended up being an emotionally abusive person. When I finally realised what I was dealing with, I did it feeling incredible gratitude: that I had the strength of self to go, and to have cultivated a life with amazing friends around me who knew something was wrong. It felt like total fucking freedom.
And yet the album is ultimately very loving.
One of the things about taking a big break from music and doing something totally different was that it gave me a chance to reflect. The last thing I wanted to do when writing a record was have it be very angry and reflective of bad memories. I don’t want to get on stage and sing about that every night! So I just put it in that lens, and it came pretty easily.
INTERVIEW: LISA-MARIE FERLA
The Blue Note legend is not based on distinctive artwork alone. Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, the company’s founders, cared enough about quality to pay for rehearsal time as well as putting the musicians in a good studio with a fine engineer. Yes, they presented the results in an attractive package with a coherent label identity. But they also paid scrupulous attention to what they included on their monthly schedule. Albums were selected for release according to how they would benefit the artists’ careers as well as the company.
They also recorded more than the label could release, which meant that when they effectively ceased their activities at the end of ’60s, there would be plenty left for archivists to discover.
Sometimes – as with the vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson’s Oblique – it was hard to work out why a session had not been deemed worthy of release at the time. Occasionally it was easier to understand: Grant Green’s Matador did not match the funkier direction in which the guitarist was heading; the tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks had faded into the shadows of addiction, which is why three of his five albums had to wait until after his death in 1974 to reach his small but devoted following. Someone with Brooks’ needs would have been particularly grateful for the label’s practice of recording so frequently, since Lion and Wolff paid by the session.
The principal reason the session Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers recorded in a single day in March 1959 remained unreleased for more than 60 years is obvious. Five weeks later, the same lineup recorded live at Birdland in New York City. Blakey’s bands always responded well to being taped on stage, as the three 10-inch volumes of A Night at Birdland had proved in 1954. Or perhaps it was Blakey himself whose reaction was key: his backbeats slammed harder and his press-rolls mushroomed more extravagantly in front of an audience, spurring his sidemen to new heights.
By comparison with the two volumes of At The Jazz Corner Of The World, as the Birdland recordings were titled when they were released to great acclaim later in 1959, the session now released as Just Coolin’ seems like a dry run, particularly since it wasn’t given a title or a catalogue number at the time. Of its six compositions, four appeared on the live albums, so direct comparisons are possible. The Messengers’ lineup changed frequently, for a variety of reasons, but it was a priceless graduate school for musicians from Clifford Brown to Wynton Marsalis, and Blakey always encouraged his players to bring along their own compositions. Immediately before the Just Coolin’ lineup came together, Benny Golson and Bobby Timmons had filled the repertoire with catchy items like the funky “Blues March” and the gospelly “Moanin’”. Immediately after, in would come Wayne Shorter, with more complex and unorthodox pieces like “Lester Left Town” and “Children Of The Night”. But this, in the spring of 1959, was an interim group, with Hank Mobley, a member of an earlier lineup, drafted back in to replace Golson and contributing three of his neat hard-bop tunes.
Welcoming the audience at Birdland in April, Blakey told them, “If you feel like patting your feet, pat your feet. If you feel like clapping your hands, clap your hands. And if you feel like taking off your shoes, take off your shoes. We are here to have a ball.” That’s not an easy mood to recreate in a studio, with only a handful of technicians for an audience, and although the band can still swing like mad, as they show on the up-tempo “Jimerick” (the only track whose composer remains unknown) and Mobley’s exuberant “M&M Blues”, inevitably Just Coolin’ has a more restrained air. Just as naturally, the intervening weeks have seen the compositions and arrangements evolve in different ways. Mobley’s “Hipsippy Blues” is slightly faster and crisper in the studio than the more relaxed and expansive subsequent live version, while the modal intro to the standard “Close Your Eyes” benefits in its later treatment from a nifty passage of cross-rhythms.
That’s not to say the studio session – one of the last to be recorded in engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s original studio, set up in his parents’ house – is substandard. Any chance to hear more of the extraordinary Lee Morgan is welcome; at the time he seemed the equal of his contemporaries (and fellow Blue Note stars) Freddie Hubbard and Donald Byrd, but the decades have set his brilliant and apparently inexhaustible imagination apart. Mobley, too, is someone whose laconic style never overstayed its welcome, although his occasional reed-squeaks might have given the producer a problem, had the session been considered for immediate release.
So you could say that it all turned out for the best. At The Jazz Corner Of The World will always remain a classic of live jazz recording, to which Just Coolin’ – released in a sleeve approximating Reid Miles’s original Blue Note designs – provides something more than a footnote.
Neil Young is releasing a new EP, The Times, through Amazon Music.
Streaming from September 18, the EP includes a politically-charged collection of classics spanning Neil Young’s catalogue as well as a cover of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’“.
The Times EP contains protest songs like “Ohio”, “Alabama”, “Southern Man” and “Campaigner”. The EP also features “Lookin’ For A Leader 2020”, a revised update to a song which was originally released on Young’s 2006 Living with War.
The Times’ tracklist: “Alabama”
“Campaigner”
“Ohio”
“The Times They Are A-Changin’”
“Lookin’ for a Leader 2020”
“Southern Man”
“Little Wing”
Richman released his last solo album, SA, in 2018. Earlier this month, he reissued his fourth solo album I, Jonathan on vinyl for the first time earlier this month.
A new box set covering John Lennon‘s post-Beatles career will be released on October 9, 2020, to coincide with what would have been his 80th birthday.
Gimme Some Truth: The Ultimate Mixes arrives via Capitol/UMe in a variety of physical and digital formats, including a Deluxe Edition Box Set and as 1CD, 2CD, 2LP, 4LP and streaming/download.
The songs have all been completely remixed from scratch. Here’s the new mix of “Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)”.
Here’s the tracklisting for the deluxe box set. It also comes with a 124-page book of interviews, previously unseen photographs, letters, lyric sheets, tape boxes and more from the Lennon-Ono archives plus a poster, postcards and a bumper sticker. A Blu-ray audio disc features the 36 tracks in high definition 24-96 stereo, 5.1 surround sound and Dolby Atmos. A 2-CD set features the same tracks in stereo.
CD1
1. Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)
2. Cold Turkey
3. Working Class Hero
4. Isolation
5. Love
6. God
7. Power To The People
8. Imagine
9. Jealous Guy
10. Gimme Some Truth
11. Oh My Love
12. How Do You Sleep?
13. Oh Yoko!
14. Angela
15. Come Together (live)
16. Mind Games
17. Out The Blue
18. I Know (I Know)
CD2
1. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
2. Bless You
3. #9 Dream
4. Steel and Glass
5. Stand By Me
6. Angel Baby
7. (Just Like) Starting Over
8. I’m Losing You
9. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)
10. Watching The Wheels
11. Woman
12. Dear Yoko
13. Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him
14. Nobody Told Me
15. I’m Stepping Out
16. Grow Old With Me
17. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
18. Give Peace A Chance
BLU-RAY AUDIO DISC
All of the above thirty-six tracks, available in High Definition audio as:
1. HD Stereo Audio Mixes (24 bit/96 kHz)
2. HD 5.1 Surround Sound Mixes (24 bit/96 kHz)
3. HD Dolby Atmos Mixes
A more compact set features these tracks:
1. Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)
2. Cold Turkey
3. Isolation
4. Power To The People
5. Imagine
6. Jealous Guy
7. Gimme Some Truth
8. Come Together (live)
9. #9 Dream
10. Mind Games
11. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
12. Stand By Me
13. (Just Like) Starting Over
14. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)
15. Watching the Wheels
16. Woman
17. Grow Old with Me
18. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
19. Give Peace a Chance
Yo La Tengo have announced details of a new EP, Sleepless Night.
Released on October 9 by Matador Records, this six-song EP features a new song, “Bleeding”, plus covers of songs by The Byrds, The Delmore Brothers, Bob Dylan, Ronnie Lane and The Flying Machine. You can hear the band’s cover of The Byrds’ “Wasn’t Born To Follow” below.
The songs on Sleepless Night were originally released as one side of an LP included within a limited-edition catalogue for Yoshitomo Nara’s Los Angeles County Museum of Art exhibition. The artist worked in collaboration with Yo La Tengo to choose the EP’s songs. The new edition of the EP features cover art by Nara.
Philadelphia isn’t a place generally spoken of with the same reverence as those other, more mythologised centres of American rock’n’roll – a Seattle, say, a Detroit or a New York City. All the same, for the last decade or so the city has kept hitting home runs. From hometown heroes The War On Drugs, Kurt Vile and Steve Gunn to a rich punk rock demimonde that includes Sheer Mag, Swearin’ and other paragons of the DIY sound, recent times have seen Philly kicking out the jams with the best of them. But if Philadelphia lacks the hype afforded to some of its peers, it means that it can still shelter a few best-kept secrets, and of those, Mike Polizze might just be the best of all. A transplant from nearby Media, a borough a short drive out to the city’s west, Polizze has carved out a sterling underground rep through his work in two bands – as guitarist for hard-rocking power trio Birds Of Maya, and as the creative force behind Purling Hiss, a decade-old project that’s released a string of frenetic, squalling but increasingly ambitious records through celebrated imprints including Mexican Summer, Woodist and Drag City.
As most have understood it, Purling Hiss and Mike Polizze are more or less synonymous; founded as a solo project, later expanded into a live unit, one was effectively interchangeable with the other. Polizze going out under his given name, then, feels like a calculated and symbolic move; an indication of a change of sound and style, something real and honest presented without mask or pretence. Long Lost Solace Find is all of those things, but it’s more too. Shunning electric guitar shred and garage distortion in favour of languid fingerstyle acoustic music and heavy-lidded balladry, these 12 tracks feel on the surface light and casual, but scrutinised up close betray a deep artistry and care. It’s the sort of record that makes you wonder: where, exactly, has he been hiding this stuff?
If you’re looking for an antecedent for Long Lost Solace Find, you might look to Kurt Vile’s 2011 breakthrough LP Smoke Ring For My Halo – another record that found a Philadelphia rock’n’roller choosing to soften and space out his sound, reaching back into the annals of folk and heartland rock for inspiration. This is particularly worth mentioning because Vile himself is all over Long Lost Solace Find. A buddy of Polizze since the mid-noughties, the pair have toured together, jammed together, and batted ideas back and forth. Now Vile’s on board as a kind of right-hand man, backing roughly half the album’s songs with trumpet, Farfisa, slide guitar and occasional winsome backing vocals. For a glimpse of the pair’s special chemistry, pull up first at “Revelation”, a mussy-headed folk strum that swings from hippie melancholia to starstruck romance in four-and-a-half perfectly pitched minutes. When the chorus breaks out for the first time, around 90 seconds in, it’s like sunlight breaking through the clouds, and just when you think you’ve seen it all, Vile steps up to cap off the track with an audaciously jaunty horn solo.
There are many reference points that run through Long Lost Solace Find, but it sounds like a Philly record to the core, harnessing a few qualities – sly virtuosity, a woozy amiability, a sideways swing at rock classicism – that are coming to feel like city trademarks. It was recorded over the course of a year at Philadelphia’s Uniform Recording with The War On Drugs’ engineer Jeff Siegler on the buttons. Considering this extended gestation, it feels remarkably cohesive. It’s beautifully recorded, carefully multi-tracked, but with the freshness and integrity of the live performances feeling intact. Most crucially, it never sounds overcooked, the likes of “Wishing Well” and “Sit Down” unfurling with an unhurried spaciousness that feels like the perfect foil for Polizze’s casual, dizzy lyricism.
Certainly, Polizze’s got a way with words, although his songs are seldom easy to pin any one specific meaning to, more typically communicating their spirit through a language of mood, feeling and vibe. His lyrics have a playful, sometimes mischievous quality, often laced with internal rhymes and half-rhymes. At times he summons up stunning imagery, as on “Edge Of Time”, a psychedelic country ballad that wends its way from a “mountain of begonias” to the distant reaches of the cosmos. Elsewhere, there’s fun nonsense, like the “bam-bam a rambling man, a midnight sham” of “Revelation”, or the frayed “Marbles”, a song about going mad, or perhaps being sane in a world gone mad (“It’s twisting my melon/And it’s hurting my custard/And mangling my brain”). The song “Cheewawa”, meanwhile, appears to be named after a particularly vicious Pomeranian dog.
If there is a presiding tone here, it’s matters of the heart, and the difficulties of navigating such. In Polizze’s words, Long Lost Solace Find is a record of “moody jams and love songs”, and much here falls into both categories, the general message being that romance doesn’t always run smooth. Even when Polizze’s at his most melancholy and hangdog, the songs themselves gleam like diamonds. “Went the wrong direction, reaching perfection/At losing your affection, always on your mind,” he sings on “Bainmarie”, a bittersweet love song with a lilting guitar line that sashays in and out, capricious and elusive. “Eyes Reach Across”, meanwhile, finds Polizze writing the post-mortem of a romance as his fingers lead a merry dance up and down the fretboard. “You did the crime, but not the time,” he muses, “and take my heart but give no part.”
But the main thing that you take from Long Lost Solace Find is that Polizze is a true craftsman. It’s something you might already have figured out from Purling Hiss, were you able discern it through all the noise and distortion. But here it’s all laid out and on show, each song striking the right balance between live-and-unplugged spontaneity and smartly plotted orchestration. The album’s one instrumental, a focused and intricate fingerstyle excursion titled “D’Modal”, harks back to the music of another Philly hero, the late and lamented Jack Rose, and through him a legacy of acoustic guitar wranglers from John Fahey to Robbie Basho. Elsewhere, songs blossom with sweet little moments that elevate a good song to a great one; take the jaunty little whistle hidden in the depths of “Edge Of Time”, or the passionate whoop he lets out in “Rock On A Feather”.
Polizze says that Purling Hiss is by no means done. But it’s clear that on Long Lost Solace Find, he’s uncovered a rich seam of songwriting, classic-sounding yet modern, unquestionably nostalgic in temperament but undeniably vital despite it. In short, you get the sense Mike Polizze is going to be knocking around these parts for a while. As he sings on “Do Do Do”: “Racking up the years, holding back the tears/Going deaf in style, hope it takes a while.” Well, amen to that.
Q&A
Mike Polizze on being part of the Philadelphia “gene pool” and first playing with Kurt Vile…
Does going out under your given name feel like a clean slate?
Yeah, I feel like I’m, you know, shedding my skin a little bit. But it all makes sense, because it’s more of an intimate affair. It’s out of the shroud of that wall-of-noise, loud guitar thing – this more up-close songwriting thing. And it kind of made sense working with the label Paradise Of Bachelors.
It was thanks to Paradise Of Bachelors that you started performing solo shows, right?
I’ve been good friends with those guys, especially Chris Smith, for like 15, 16 years now. Back in 2015 he kind of caught me off guard. He was like, “One of my bands, The Weather Station, is coming through… Why don’t you do a solo show?” I was shy. Like, “I don’t know, I really only play with my band,” and stuff. And he twisted my arm. That was the beginning. I played that show, and it seemed like I was pretty busy [with solo shows] for 2015 and 2016. The big difference between then and now is that I would play sitting down playing acoustic, but I would still, like, add distortion and use loop pedals. After the show, Chris was like, “No pressure, but if you ever want to do like a solo record…” And I was like, “Oh, that’s cool.” I never really thought of it that way. That was the beginning, right there.
So how long have you written in this kind of style?
I feel like I struggle. Because I love all kinds of different music – but I’m always like, how do I harness this? I want it to be cohesive. You don’t want to do something that’s all over the place. I’ve written acoustically – quieter songs, mellower songs – my whole life. But I feel like this is great and special because they kind of like… made sense. When Chris asked me and I agreed to do it, I could kind of envisage, like: what can I conjure, making a record for Paradise Of Bachelors? I brought some old ideas, I came up with some new ideas. It was a new thing for me, too.
It feels like this record sits in a lineage of Philly music.
Yeah, it’s really nice to be a part of like the gene pool of, you know, similar artists – Jack Rose and Kurt Vile and The War On Drugs and Steve Gunn. It’s like we’re a little family. I grew up around Philly, moved there in my early twenties and made friends, and that’s where all my musical friendships came from. I met Chris from Paradise Of Bachelors, like, the first month or two after I moved. I definitely feel there’s a lineage that’s been there over the last 15 or so years, namely around Fishtown. A lot of people have dispersed, but we’re still in touch. I was 10 years younger than Jack Rose, but I got to meet him right before he passed away. He actually liked Birds Of Maya, invited us to play a show together. And he did an interview with Arthur magazine, said nice things about us. He was kind of intimidating, but I look up to him as a musician and an artist.
You’ve known Kurt Vile for years…
In 2008 going into 2009, he was doing a tour, and Jesse who plays in the band couldn’t do the tour so I filled in and played guitar – this was when Adam [Granduciel] from The War On Drugs was still in the band. It wasn’t like a super bonding moment – I’m sure he was just focusing on his tour, you know – but it was a really fun trip. Like, it was one of my first tours and we’re going out to Chicago to open for The Black Keys for two nights in a row. And then he took Purling Hiss out on our first tour. It’s kind of always felt like we’re gonna do something together. He has a crazy good memory. He remembered something from 2008 where we sat down for, like, five minutes – it was probably at someone’s house on tour. We jammed on something, started to connect. And then that moment was gone forever. Then two years ago, he’s like, “Remember that time we almost wrote a song?” [Laughs] I was like, “I remember that, but you remember that? You’re way busier.”
What role did he play in bringing this record together?
He often plays on friends’ albums, makes guest appearances. I just said, “Hey man, you want to come in for the day, any chance you’re around?” I had this idea, maybe he could play trumpet on the bridge to “Revelation”. He just showed up with all his harmonicas, a trumpet, this Dobro slide guitar, he had it open tuned to E. He just ended up playing on a bunch of songs, and it was great. It felt like such a natural thing, it was only for one day, and it was seamless. I had just a simple idea for what he could do with his trumpet, but his phrasing is just so great. It’s jazzy, like Coltrane or Pharoah Sanders. It just felt inspired. It was really neat.
INTERVIEW: LOUIS PATTISON
It was still only 1984 when, on The Waterboys’ second album A Pagan Place, Mike Scott revealed “The Thrill Is Gone”, a mournful eulogy to the growing realisation that a relationship has run its course. It’s a line that’s at times haunted both him and his audience: Scott’s pursued a dedicated but haphazard path, trying copious genres on for size, and sometimes – not least around 1993’s Dream Harder, which led to the group’s original dissolution – he’s lost his way.
Since reanimating the Waterboys name in 2000, however, and especially over the last decade, his openness to his muse’s whims appears to have restored the thrill. He successfully hosted his long-time hero’s poetry on 2011’s An Appointment With Mr Yeats, identified likeminded souls in Muscle Shoals for 2015’s Modern Blues, transformed himself into a bedroom producer for 2017’s Out Of All This Blue, then drew upon elements of all three for last year’s Where The Action Is. None were flawless, of course, but their strengths outweighed their weaknesses thanks, as much as anything, to Scott’s enduring individuality.
Such idiosyncrasy ensures The Waterboys’ 14th album is likewise engaging, Scott’s aesthetic encapsulated in “Postcard From The Celtic Dreamtime”, a vivid spoken-word depiction, set to a sparkling downtempo groove, of his retreat indoors during a storm on Ireland’s west coast. He recounts how “the ever-present past and the ever-passing present blend with the landscape”, and this timeless collection is full of the wide-eyed mysticism that’s coloured so much of his catalogue, while remaining alert to the traditions with which he works.
Good Luck, Seeker opens with the brassy “The Soul Singer”, a rambunctious portrait celebrating a veteran performer’s talent (“his genius was uncontained”) while acknowledging his defects (“they call him curmudgeon”). Possibly inadvertently, it places Scott, who concludes with James Brown meows, in a similar lineage, his vocabulary indicative of the qualities for which he lauds this “poet prince of the high trapeze”. Later he extols another complicated icon in the comparably rowdy “Dennis Hopper”, winningly described as a “dude with a ’tache on a chariot chopper”. Backed by Ralph Salmins’ crunching beat, his voice albeit perhaps ill-advisedly processed, Scott satisfies his ongoing urge, even in his seventh decade, to enjoy rock’n’roll’s simple pleasures while basking in multiple mythologies, noting “his suit’s as slick as a lick by Cropper”.
A cover of kindred spirit Kate Bush’s “Why Should I Love You?” also captures Scott’s newfound happiness in marriage and fatherhood, epitomised in his gasped “Did you ever see a statue of Buddha laughing?/Oh! That’s one beautiful smile”. Other breakbeat-driven tunes, however, are less convincing. “The Golden Work”’s superfluous vocal effects are almost as archaic as its “druids” and “Cornish kings”, and “Freak Street”’s short-lived psychedelic interlude eclipses the song’s desultory drift towards its conclusion. The fairy-tale-like “You’ve Got To Kiss A Frog Or Two”, meanwhile, sadly falls short of achieving for ’80s soul what Lambchop did for its ’70s equivalent on Nixon.
In the album’s closing half a dozen songs, though, Scott explores more esoteric realms only hinted at earlier by his surprisingly edgy interpretation of traditional folk tune “Low Down In The Broom”. Using rhythmic discipline as the foundation for more metaphysical and – aside from “Everchanging”’s filthy, furious, guitar-fuelled poetry – more contemplative investigations, he shares life lessons in the words of 19th-century American philosopher William James on “Beauty In Repetition” and, on the shuffling, title track, recites texts, like a dusty, aristocratic guru, from Dion Fortune’s The Mystical Qabalah and The Esoteric Philosophy Of Love And Marriage, with additional trimmings sampled from 2012’s Diversions, Vol 2: The Unthanks With Brighouse And Rastrick Brass Band. “On The Land Of Sunset”, furthermore, he returns, though more pensively, to the world of Dream Harder’s “Glastonbury Song”, accompanied this time by a sample of Peadar O’Riada’s penny whistle as he reflects, Jackanory style, on a moment of intimate significance.
It’s “My Wanderings In The Weary Land”, however, that best summarises Good Luck, Seeker’s pioneering resolve. With old comrade Steve Wickham’s wild, cyclical violin lines harrying him on towards another epic climax, Scott relates a partially autobiographical tale of a long journey towards personal and artistic redemption, his unadulterated joy in howling “This place is love’s fortress/And so am I!” indicative of the thrill he still finds in music. Gathering together the strands that have occupied him throughout his career, he’s forged an album of passion, wit and spirituality that, like its title, invites us not only to evolve, but to revel in our evolution. He’s certainly worthy of the epithet Dennis Hopper offered Marlon Brando’s Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now: “a poet warrior in the classic sense”.
Q&A
Mike Scott on “joke songs” and “the Pan within”
You appear to be having a great deal of fun. Did you ever baulk at using humour in songs like “Dennis Hopper”?
I often made up joke songs as a teenager and young bandleader, and since I worked out how to do it in my “official” music on ‘Hank’ and ‘And A Bang On The Ear’ back in 1988, I’ve carried on. I hope you caught the “Get yourself on the outside of this, mate, it’ll blow yer mind” joke in the third chorus of ‘…Hopper’ in the right-hand speaker.
Can you tell me more about Dion Fortune, whose words you share?
She was a British mystical author active between the 1920s and ’40s. I love her way with words, and they taught me a lot over the years. She was also the source of the phrase “the Pan within” and wrote a beautiful book about Glastonbury in 1934 called Avalon Of The Heart, which is where Van Morrison got the song title. Bowie also was a reader.
How did you end up working with The Unthanks?
They played a show with us in 2012 and I loved their music. On one of their albums was a fantastic instrumental section with a brass band. I turned it backwards in search of sonic fun and it sounded awesome. For seven years it’s been part of our pre-show music. Finally, I took that Dion Fortune extract and turned it into “Good Luck Seeker”.
WYNDHAM WALLACE
From their scuzzy early days with Royal Trux, Smog, Palace Brothers and Pavement, to their more expansive roster today – still featuring a transformed Bill Callahan and Will Oldham – Drag City have released music by many of our most beloved artists over the last three decades.
To celebrate their stellar form, and Callahan’s new Gold Record, we asked the Chicago crew to put together a compilation of their own favourite releases from the last 12 months. Here, then, is a survey of Drag City today, an eclectic and global sonic stew: one can drop in on Ty Segall in Laurel Canyon, eavesdrop on Masaki Batoh in Tokyo or hang out with Alasdair Roberts in Glasgow. There’s also a very fine taster from Callahan’s new LP, a modern classic from Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s long-awaited 2019 album I Made A Place and much more from Wand, Jackie Lynn, Tim Presley and others. While you track down a copy of the latest issue and ready your stereo, here’s Drag City’s Rian Murphy to guide you through the 15 tracks…
_______________
1 BILL MACKAY PRE-CALIFORNIA A dusty, overdriven instrumental from the guitarist and Ryley Walker collaborator RIAN MURPHY: There’s always a lovely conversation to be had whenever we see Bill Mackay. Then he drowns the chatter with his beautiful guitar sounds, which he’s been playing around here (and there, but never everywhere) for years… The first solo record he did with us had a pure Americana vibe, but by the time of his second one, he seemed less moored to a set archetype, with an acidic strain roughening his sound. That’s what you get here, imagining the land before a land of Americana. But post-acid.
2 NO AGE TURNED TO STRING The experimental LA art-punks let rip on a track from new LP Goons Be Gone RM: Their art-punk aligns with our own sense of the conceptual – like, taking the trope of a kind of music and turning it inside out, then detailing the effect of that with the things you find having reversed it. No Age get an amazing amount of sounds for a guitar, drums and vocals duo – their opus just kept terraforming, and the two albums they’ve given us have really different approaches from their others, or anyone else’s.
3 ALASDAIR ROBERTS A KEEN Ornate eldritch folk from the Scottish singer-songwriter RM: We first heard Alasdair 25 years ago – really? Really. Ali’s a passionate guy with what seems to us damn Americans to be a very reserved Scottish manner. He goes deep into songs, finding places for the new information he’s been absorbing. It may make any music compelling, but to have him weave the range of stuff in his mind through the cloth of traditional music generates something completely unique. He’s boiling the music of a thousand years into something meant expressly for now. To be taken internally, on an empty stomach.
4 MASAKI BATOH SUNDOWN A trippy highlight from the former Ghost frontman’s fourth solo album, Nowhere RM: When the Ghost records started coming over on import in the early ’90s, we were instantly hooked, so it’s hard to imagine not getting excited about anything Batoh does. We’ve spent over 25 years with that rare joy-terror of not knowing what the fuck will come next! His sense of commitment is totally inspiring to us, and he manages to weave mystery into his music in a way very few ever have – ie, effectively.
5 SEAN O’HAGAN CANDY CLOCK Rabid experimental balladry from the High Llamas mastermind RM: When The High Llamas, and Sean’s work with Stereolab, were first coming out, it was a special thrill hearing someone reach for these kind of chords and get those kinds of sounds with them; it still is. We did the Turn On record that Sean and Tim Gane did together, and then High Llamas records from ’99, after their V2 deal ended. Whether they’re doing neo-bossa, keys-and-ring-modulation or chamber pop, Sean’s always subtly shifting emphases in the sound to keep it fresh – and his solo record feels like a really bumpin’ departure from the Llamas’ traditional elements.
6 JACKIE LYNN ODESSA A pulsing, seven-minute electronic voyage from Haley Fohr’s out-there alter ego RM: We’ve been obsessed with Bitchin’ Bajas and Circuit Des Yeux for years, then when the first Jackie Lynn record dropped, we were gobsmacked at the pure synthesis of that voice with the post-Suicide musical modes. Then the seas parted and we got the opportunity to do the new Jackie Lynn LP, which grows in leaps and bounds on every listen. The synthy dance elements have blown up into a huge production sound, but not without the deep emotional currents getting deeper too.
7 TIM PRESLEY’S WHITE FENCE NEIGHBORHOOD LIGHT A reliably excellent cut from Presley’s latest album, I Have To Feed Larry’s Hawk RM: Here’s Tim in what we think of as “post-White Fence” mode. People really dug the swirly garage psych of the WF records, but it’s the songs underneath, the feeling and the way his expression is both blithe and oblique, which is to our ears the key. He’s been dialed in as a writer since Cyclops Reap – just one killer album after another. This number’s a pleasurable pop ditty suddenly metastasizing with unknown depths.
8 MIKE DONOVAN B.O.C. RATE APPLIED The former Sic Alps leader embraces psych-folk on the superbly named Exurbian Quonset RM: Sic Alps, The Peacers and Mike’s solo works have produced tons of true favourites over the years. Like Tim Presley, Mike’s able to channel stuff that in anybody else’s hands might seem retro, but from him, it’s on an alternate timeline that pours out effortlessly, guitar pop loaded with irreverence, melodicism and hooks and the mysterious presence of something meta going down. Here, it’s a Sister Lovers feeling, but Mike’s songs and sound occupy their own space with great intimacy and authority.
9 BILL CALLAHAN BREAKFAST The latest transmission from BC, now stunningly prolific RM: We started working with Bill in his Smog guise in 1991, when there were only a couple of artists on the label. Through circumstance and action, he’s regularly helped set the tone for what some might consider to be ‘Drag City’ – us included! Part of that means evolving in a transformative way, all while maintaining an impossible-to-put-one’s-finger-on continuity – you know, like you do! Here, Bill’s got the kind of song he might have sung back in the Smog days, about a tough relationship maybe not working, but breathing a sense of life and redemption that alters everything.
10 TY SEGALL I SING THEM If every Segall album is in part conceptual, First Taste is the strictest – no guitars! Happily, rock still ensues RM: It’s been almost 10 years since we started working with Ty and it doesn’t feel like it at all. He’s got a rap for putting out tons of records; if only it were 1966 again! Ty’s always looking for two things: rock and something different from that, and he always gets them. On every record, there’s at least a couple singles, and this one we were hoping to hit like Hotlegs’ “Neanderthal Man”. It does every time we spin it anyway – thanks for nothing, England!
11 SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE TWO FORMS MOVING A cut from this February’s Companion Rises, one of Ben Chasny’s bravest and most beautiful records RM: Ben Chasny’s early Six Organs records – and natively unique guitar style – were such impactful and essential listens, we knew we had to try and get with him to make some stuff for us. That was 15 years ago already! The man just keeps moving. He’s got all the great traits we never think to look for but always end up finding in our (and any) great artists – super-restless, quick to fire up with fascination, enthusiasm and ideas and irascible as fuck at the same time. His last couple of records make us so happy, and can you imagine how tough a feat that is?
12 SIR RICHARD BISHOP THE COMING OF THE RATS A haunting instrumental from the Sun City Girls/Rangda guitar wrangler RM: The riff starts and you’re like, ‘Sounds like chill-out time. Cool, but the song’s called “The Coming Of The Rats”, so…’ Rick Bishop is just funny, and the combination of his humour with the largely non-hilarious-and-to-our-ears virtuosic music he plays just makes it twice as fun! The whole thing is ripe and juicy with streams of contradiction having as much to do with visceral pleasure as an appreciation for his ascetic guitaring skills.
13 DEAD RIDER THE SALE A digital-only release from the experimental Chicago crew RM: We first heard Todd Rittmann in US Maple 150 years ago, playing the future backwards to bring it to us where we stood at the end of the 20th century. His stuff plays a lot more clearly today, which is not to say that he’s softened his approach to confounding as a basic principle in music. Doesn’t bother us a bit – it always goes hand-in-hand with his fractured funk and blues licks and sudden rock rave-ups, as if it were just another night of rock’n’roll.
14 BONNIE ‘PRINCE’ BILLY I HAVE MADE A PLACE The (quasi-) title track from Will Oldham’s overdue return to his songs RM: Will’s said that he’d heard the first Silver Jews record, felt like he could make music for a label that released that and sent us a tape. That was in 1992. Since then, working with him has changed what we think we’re doing so many times – that’s just the way he works, and now so do we, whether we understand it or not. I Made A Place came out after a six-year gap and with it songs that we truly believe will be among his most enduring. Literal magic!
15 WAND RIO GRANDE Soaring, transcendent ambient-rock from the LA quintet RM: Ty Segall introduced us to Wand in 2014. Playing their debut back-to-back with their latest, Laughing Matter, is like playing Meat Puppets against Up On The Sun – you never saw it coming and it happened so fucking fast. They were one thing, then they were another. If we’re not all dead by next year (relax, that’s sarcasm), Wand bode well for the future, as this cut brings us full-circle, measuring some truths about America and Americana in the provocative form of new music. May it always be. Also post-acid.
The guitarist with Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers died due to complications related to the cancer.
His death was confirmed by Los Angeles club Starwood, who said Lure died on Saturday (August 22) due to complications related to the cancer.
“Walter Lure (April 22, 1949 – August 22, 2020) our dear friend has passed away,” the venue said in a statement. “Walter was diagnosed with liver and lung cancer in July 2020, which spread rapidly and he died from complications related to the cancer at the age of 71, peacefully in the hospital, surrounded by family.”
They added: “He was much loved by all and respected for all he contributed to the world of music. He will be dearly missed. To his family, friends and fans our deepest condolences. May he RIP.”
Walter Lure (April 22, 1949 – August 22, 2020) our dear friend has passed away. Walter was diagnosed with liver and…
The New York-based guitarist appeared on the band’s only studio album, 1977’s L.A.M.F., alongside frontman Johnny Thunders, bassist Billy Rath and drummer Jerry Nolan. He left the following year, to return on a number of occasions until 1991.
Lure reunited with the Heartbreakers a number of times before Thunders’ death in 1991 and Nolan’s death the following year. (Rath also died in 2014.)
After leaving the band, Lure became a stock broker but continued to play music. He worked with the Ramones on their LPs Subterranean Jungle and Too Tough To Die, released a single with the Blessed, and started a number of bands, including the Hurricanes, The Heroes, and The Waldos, who released their debut, Rent Party, in 1995.
Earlier this year, Lure released his memoir To Hell And Back: My Life In Johnny Thunders’ Heartbreakers, In The Words Of The Last Man Standing.
A statement alongside a picture of Earle was posted to the musician’s official Facebook page early on August 24. It reads: “It is with tremendous sadness that we inform you of the passing of our son, husband, father and friend Justin.
“So many of you have relied on his music and lyrics over the years and we hope that his music will continue to guide you on your journeys.”
The post also shared lyrics from Earle’s 2014 track, “Looking For A Place To Land”: “I’ve crossed oceans / Fought freezing rain and blowing sand / I’ve crossed lines and roads and wondering rivers / Just looking for a place to land”.
It is with tremendous sadness that we inform you of the passing of our son, husband, father and friend Justin. So many…
The American songwriter, and son of Steve Earle, had released nine albums during his career, with the latest – The Saint Of Lost Causes – released in May 2019.
Earle’s cause of death is not known to the public at the time of writing.
On social media, tributes to Earle were shared by his contemporaries and fans, including Stephen King, Margo Price, Robyn Hitchcock, Jason Isbell, Courtney Marie Andrews and Drive-By Truckers.
It appears that Justin Townes Earle has died. I hope it's a hoax but fear it is not. What a loss.
1) upon finishing our first tour out with him in 2009, standing outside Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, TX saying our goodbyes, Justin hands me $400 (apart from our payout) and says "$100 for each of ya, I know it's hard out there"
How terrible that the great Justin Townes Earle has died – what a merciless place America has become, that yet another finely-tuned talent has left this world altogether.
We’re heartbroken to hear of Justin’s passing. He was a sweetheart. I have fond memories of fun evenings in Portland, Denver and especially a blast in Toronto. Loved his wry sense of humor. RIP. Sad condolences to his many loved ones.
Originally published in Uncut’s October 2019 issue
Cabaret Voltaire’s Kirk reveals eight records that have shaped his music taste and life…
TONY CONRAD WITH FAUST OUTSIDE THE DREAM SYNDICATE CAROLINE, 1973
Richard H Kirk: There was some interesting stuff bubbling under before punk kicked in. I’d been listening to Faust when I was at sixth form, so I probably just spotted this somewhere in a record shop. I was quite into the whole idea of drones and long repetitive tracks. I used one side of this, “From The Side Of Man And Womankind”, as an intro for Cabaret Voltaire in the late ’70s, because it was a really good tension builder, it just went on and on. I intercut it with James Brown and some ’60s R&B, and it was perfect for building a tense atmosphere before the show. You can’t beat a good drone!
FRIPP & ENO (NO PUSSYFOOTING) ISLAND/EG, 1973
The combination of Eno doing what he was doing, and then Fripp playing his guitar through two or three tape machines to get these really sustained delays made for a good end result. I used a lot of effects on my guitar, so I suppose to a certain extent I was influenced by this. The cover is kind of like a labyrinth, hall of mirrors thing, and apparently if you look closely there’s some pornographic playing cards in the middle of it… I could have easily picked [1975’s] Evening Star, which is just as strong.
THE CRAMPS SONGS THE LORD TAUGHT US IRS/ILLEGAL, 1980
The Cramps were ticking a lot of boxes for me, especially with that trash horror thing I loved in films. They were doing stuff with guitars that wasn’t punk but still had that punk energy to it. They had that rockabilly aspect to it as well, and almost a surf feel with Poison Ivy twanging. The Cramps played in Sheffield around this time, and I remember Lux Interior smashed a hole in the ceiling above the stage, he just punched the fuck out of this low roof, and as a result they didn’t get paid because they had to repair the damage. You don’t see stuff like that much these days!
VARIOUS ARTISTS RASS CLAAT DUB GROUNATION, 1976
There was a record store in Sheffield back in the mid-’70s called New Beat, and it was basically all Jamaican stuff. Adrian Sherwood used to deliver records there in his younger days. It was in there that I saw the cover and title of this and thought, ‘This sounds interesting.’ To this day I don’t know who some of the artists are, because it doesn’t have any information on it. But I know there’s a Bob Marley cover on there for sure. Oddly this album’s sponsored by Air Jamaica! But it’s a great cross-section of dub with some nice vocals as well, and a quite dark and heavy vibe.
LA DÜSSELDORF LA DÜSSELDORF NOVA/RADAR, 1976
This is basically Neu! without Michael Rother. The first side is a bit tinny, there’s not a lot of bass, but I was fascinated by it. The sleeve looks like a photograph of Düsseldorf airport, and it was just more great German stuff. This was a bit of a favourite, with Hans Lampe and Thomas Dinger on double drums and that motorik beat. The first side had quite an amphetamine vibe to it, but maybe that’s just my take on it, I’m not sure what those guys were up to – probably more psychedelics than amphetamine.
KRAFTWERK THE MAN-MACHINE KLING KLANG/EMI ELECTROLA, 1978
I don’t know a Kraftwerk record that I don’t like, I’ve been a massive fan ever since Autobahn came out. The Man-Machine is 40 years old and it still sounds like the future, it’s just so clean and perfect. Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” has a similar feel, with similar sequencer parts, and that’s just great as well. The idea of ‘the man-machine’ is basically what Kraftwerk are now – I saw them live in 2017 and they’re a living museum of art, totally all-encompassing. I’m sure at some point they will replace themselves with proper, advanced robots.
LOU REED TRANSFORMER RCA, 1972
This is quite ahead of its time, in terms of LGBT themes – I mean, he was hanging around with Warhol and all the transvestites [in that scene]. It’s quite a sweet record really, compared to the Velvets, but then Lou always had a sensitive melodic side as well as the more abrasive anti-music side. Listening to “Perfect Day” and “Satellite Of Love”, they’re just really beautiful pieces of music with a knowing sense of humour. So yeah, it was a popular record. Obviously Bowie had quite a hand in it, as did Mick Ronson, who did all the arrangements and played guitar.
FELA ANIKULAPO KUTI AND ROY AYERS MUSIC OF MANY COLOURS PHONODISK/EUROBOND, 1980
I’d been listening to Fela Kuti since the ’70s and I loved his stuff, loved the fact he was political – he was really abrasive about the Nigerian government and the army, which got him into serious trouble. This is slightly different from what you’d normally get from Fela. On “2000 Blacks Got To Be Free”, Roy Ayers plays vibes and sings, which gives it a whole different feel. What I like most about the album is the sentiment, about unity and black people getting a better deal. In the days of Trump and populism, it’s even more relevant now than it might have been when it came out.
The Doors have announced details of a 50th Anniversary Edition of Morrison Hotel.
Released by Rhino on October 9, the 2-CD/1-LP set expands The Doors’ fifth studio album with over an hour of unreleased session outtakes.
The original album newly remastered by The Doors’ longtime engineer and mixer Bruce Botnick, while the bonus disc features 19 outtakes.
The CD tracklisting is: CD Track Listing
Disc One: The Original Album
Side One: Hard Rock Cafe
“Roadhouse Blues”
“Waiting For The Sun”
“You Make Me Real”
“Peace Frog”
“Blue Sunday”
“Ship Of Fools”
Side Two: Morrison Hotel
“Land Ho!”
“The Spy”
“Queen Of The Highway”
“Indian Summer”
“Maggie M’Gill”
Disc Two: Mysterious Union Black Dressed In Leather (Queen Of The Highway Sessions)
First Session (11/15/68)
“Queen Of The Highway” (Take 1, She Was A Princess) *
“Queen Of The Highway” (Various Takes) *
“Queen Of The Highway” (Take 44, He Was A Monster) * Second Session (1/16/69)
“Queen Of The Highway” (Take 12, No One Could Save Her) *
“Queen Of The Highway” (Take 14, Save The Blind Tiger) * Third Session (Date Unknown)
“Queen Of The Highway” (Take 1, American Boy – American Girl) *
“Queen Of The Highway” (Takes 5, 6 & 9, Dancing Through The Midnight Whirlpool) *
“Queen Of The Highway” (Take 14, Start It All Over) *
“I Will Never Be Untrue” *
“Queen Of The Highway” (Take Unknown) *
Money Beats Soul (Roadhouse Blues Sessions) First Session
“Roadhouse Blues” (Take 14, Keep Your Eyes On The Road) *
“Money (That’s What I Want)” *
“Rock Me Baby” * Second Session
“Roadhouse Blues” (Takes 6 & 7, Your Hands Upon The Wheel) *
“Roadhouse Blues” (Take 8, We’re Goin’ To The Roadhouse) * Third Session
“Roadhouse Blues” (Takes 1 & 2, We’re Gonna Have A Real Good Time) *
“Roadhouse Blues” (Takes 5, 6 & 14, Let It Roll Baby Roll) *
Dawn’s Highway (Peace Frog/Blue Sunday Session)
“Peace Frog/Blue Sunday” (Take 4) *
“Peace Frog” (Take 12) *
Tom Petty‘s 1994 album Wildflowers is being reissued as a box set, Wildflowers & All The Rest.
Due for release Warner Records on October 16 – a few days before what would have been Petty’s 70th birthday – the set includes unreleased songs, home studio recordings, alternate versions, live renditions and more.
A Deluxe Edition of Wildflowers contains 54 tracks, 8 unreleased songs, and 24 unreleased alternate versions. In addition to the 15 track original album (remastered), the deluxe edition contains the album All The Rest (10 songs from the original Wildflowers sessions), a full CD of 15 solo demos recorded by Petty at his home studio, and a disc of 14 live versions of Wildflowers songs recorded from 1995 – 2017.
A Super Deluxe Edition of Wildflowers contains 70 tracks, 9 unreleased songs, and 34 unreleased versions. In addition to the 15 track original remastered album, the deluxe edition contains the album All The Rest (10 songs from the original Wildflowers sessions), a disc of 15 solo demos recorded by Petty at his home studio, and an additional disc of 14 live versions of Wildflowers songs recorded from 1995 – 2017. Exclusive to the super-deluxe, this edition also includes a CD of 16 alternate versions recorded in the studio (“Finding Wildflowers”).
An Ultra Deluxe Edition also includes replica memorabilia, lyric books, a lithograph and plenty more.
You can find more information about the various releases on Petty’s website.
Thin Lizzy have unveiled details of a mammoth Super Deluxe box set.
Rock Legends is a six CD one DVD set that features 99 Tracks in total, 74 of which are unreleased and 83 of which have never been released on CD or streaming platforms.
The box set covers the bands whole career over 6 discs and features a raft of unreleased material including demos, radio sessions, live recordings and rare single edits. The track listing has been co-compiled by Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham from a collection of newly discovered tapes most of which have never been heard before.
The box is housed in a 10” x 6” slipcase and in addition to the six CDs contains a DVD with an hour long BBC documentary and the band’s performance on the Rod Stewart A Night on the Town TV Special from 1976.
The set also contains replicas of the bands tour programmes bound into a hard-backed book, Phil Lynott poetry books, 4 art prints and a book containing quotes by all the members of the band about their experiences playing with Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy.
THIN LIZZY – ROCK LEGENDS – SUPER DELUXE EDITION TRACKLISTING
PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED*
PREVIOUSLY UNAVAILABLE ON CD & STREAMING*
CD ONE The Singles
Whiskey in The Jar – 7″ Edit
Randolph’s Tango – Radio Edit*
The Rocker – 7″ Edit
Little Darling – 7″ Single
Philomena – 7″ Single
Rosalie – 7″ Mix*
Wild One – 7″ Single
The Boys Are Back in Town – 7” Edit*
Jailbreak – 7” Edit*
Don’t Believe A Word – 7″ Single
Dancing in The Moonlight – 7″ Single
Rosalie / Cowgirl’s Song – 7″ Single
Waiting for An Alibi – Extra Verse
Do Anything You Want To – 7″ Single
Sarah – 7″ Single
Chinatown – 7” DJ/Radio Edit*
Killer on the Loose – 7″ Single
Trouble Boys – 7″ Single
Hollywood (Down on Your Luck) – 7” Edit*
Cold Sweat – 7″ Single
Thunder and Lightning – 7” Edit*
The Sun Goes Down – 7” Remix*
CD TWO Decca Rarities
The Farmer – Debut 7″ single
I Need You – Debut 7″ single B-side*
Whiskey in The Jar – Extended Version Rough Mix*
Black Boys on The Corner – Rough Mix*
Little Girl in Bloom – US Single Promo Edit*
Gonna Creep Up on You – Acetate*
Baby’s Been Messin’ – Acetate*
1969 Rock + Intro – RTE Radio Eireann Session 16 January 1973*
Buffalo Gal + Intro – RTE Radio Eireann Session 16 January 1973*
Suicide + Intro – RTE Radio Eireann Session 16 January 1973 *
Broken Dreams + Intro – RTE Radio Eireann Session 16 January 1973*
Eddie’s Blues/Blue Shadows + Intro – RTE Radio Eireann Session 16 January 1973*
Dublin + Intro – RTE Radio Eireann Session 16 January 1973*
Ghetto Woman – RTE Radio Eireann Session 04 January 1974*
Things Ain’t Working Out Down at The Farm – RTE Radio Eireann Session 04 January 1974*
Going Down – RTE Radio Eireann Session 04 January 1974*
Slow Blues – RTE Radio Eireann Session 04 January 1974*
CD THREE Mercury Rarities
Rock and Roll with You – Instrumental Demo*
Banshee – Demo*
Dear Heart – Demo*
Nightlife – Demo*
Philomena – Demo*
Cadillac – Instrumental Demo*
For Those Who Love to Live – Demo*
Freedom Song – Demo*
Suicide – Demo*
Silver Dollar – Demo*
Jesse’s Song – Instrumental Demo
Kings Vengeance – Demo*
Jailbreak – Demo*
Cowboy Song – Demo*
CD FOUR Mercury Rarities
The Boys Are Back in Town – Demo*
Angel from The Coast – Demo*
Running Back – Demo*
Romeo and The Lonely Girl – Demo*
Warriors – Demo*
Emerald – Demo*
Fool’s Gold – Demo*
Weasel Rhapsody – Demo*
Borderline – Demo*
Johnny – Demo*
Sweet Marie – Demo*
Requiem for A Puffer (aka Rocky) – Alternate Vocal, “Rocky He’s A Roller”*
Killer Without A Cause – Demo*
Are You Ready – Demo*
Blackmail – Demo*
Hate – Demo*
CD FIVE Mercury Rarities
S & M – Demo*
Waiting for An Alibi – Demo*
Got to Give It Up – Demo*
Get Out of Here – Demo*
Roisin Dubh (Black Rose) A Rock Legend – Demo*
Part One: Shenandoah*
Part Two: Will You Go Lassie Go*
Part Three: Danny Boy*
Part Four: The Mason’s Apron*
We Will Be Strong – Demo*
Sweetheart – Demo*
Sugar Blues – Demo*
Having A Good Time – Demo*
It’s Going Wrong – Demo*
I’m Gonna Leave This Town – Demo*
Kill – Demo*
In the Delta – Demo*
Don’t Let Him Slip Away – Demo*
The Sun Goes Down – Demo*
CD SIX Chinatown Tour 1980
Are You Ready? – Hammersmith Day 2 (29/05/1980) *
Hey You – Hammersmith Day 2 (29/05/1980)*
Waiting for An Alibi – Hammersmith Day 2 (29/05/1980) *
Jailbreak – Hammersmith Day 2 (29/05/1980)*
Do Anything You Want to Do – Hammersmith Day 2 (29/05/1980)*
Don’t Believe A Word – Tralee (12/04/1980) *
Dear Miss Lonely Hearts – Hammersmith Day 2 (29/05/1980)*
Got to Give It Up – Hammersmith Day 3 (30/05/1980)*
Still in Love with You – Hammersmith Day 3 (30/05/1980)*
Chinatown – Hammersmith Day 3 (30/05/1980)*
The Boys Are Back in Town – Hammersmith Day 3 (30/05/1980)*
Suicide -Hammersmith Day 3 (30/05/1980)*
Sha La La – Hammersmith Day 2 (29/05/1980)*
Rosalie – Hammersmith Day 2 (29/05/1980)*
Whiskey in The Jar – Hammersmith Day 3 (30/05/1980)*
DVD
NIGHT ON THE TOWN – ROD STEWART LWT TV SPECIAL BROADCAST OCTOBER 24th 1976
Four songs never before commercially released recorded for a Rod Stewart TV special in 1976.
Jailbreak
Emerald
The Boys Are Back in Town
Rosalie / Cowgirl’s Song
BAD REPUTATION DOCUMENTARY
Never before commercially released 60-minute documentary made by Linda Brusasco and first broadcast on BBC4 in September 2015.
