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Sex Pistols – Live In The USA 1978

Peter Watts
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Sex Pistols – Live In The USA 1978

Buy Live In The USA here

The Sex Pistols’ chaotic tour of America in 1978 has always divided opinion. For some observers – and even participants – it was a disaster, “the worst thing you’ve ever seen”, as John Lydon said at one show, and “a complete circus” as Steve Jones remembered in his autobiography. But others were enthused. American critics raved about the shows, while Rory Gallagher was at the infamous final show in San Francisco. Deciding that “this is as close to Eddie Cochran as you’re going to see”, he promptly abandoned the album he’d recorded with Elliot Mazer and regrouped with a new, ass-kicking power trio.

THE MAY 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING SMALL FACES, A SMALL FACES RARITIES CD, RADIOHEAD, LOU REED, BOOTSY COLLINS, POGUES, THESE NEW PURITANS, SUZANNE VEGA AND MORE

These shows have long been available in bootlegs of variable quality, but now three of the seven concerts receive an official release: Atlanta, Dallas and San Francisco – the first and last dates of the tour, and one from the very middle. These are initially released in stages on vinyl – red, white and blue respectively, with one coming out each month in February, March and April. Then all three concerts are released together in a 3CD boxset.

The Pistols hit the States like Apocalypse Now on a tour bus. Lydon had had enough, Vicious craved attention and heroin in equal measure, while Paul Cook and Jones were fed up with their bandmates but ready to see where Malcolm McLaren’s rollercoaster would take them next. The tour was meant to start in Pennsylvania before heading to Chicago, Cleveland and Virginia but these had to be cancelled because of visa issues; the seven remaining dates were strung across the South, where the Pistols would meet an audience composed of fellow freaks as well as local meatheads and rubberneckers, who Sid routinely dismissed as “cowboys”.

Pelted with objects by the hostile audience, the band responded physically and verbally, all of which got in the way of the music. The first show of the tour was in Atlanta, where Peter Buck was in the audience, at least until he was ejected after one song. “New York” is the first of several disasters as instruments drop out, equipment fails, and timing and tunings go to pot. But Cook and Jones’s brutal muscle and Lydon’s more slippery charisma remain enthralling, pushing through the wince-inducing moments. As for Vicious, the bass is barely discernible, but his audience-goading is essential.

For all its faults, this is the best sounding of the three shows – perhaps sourced from bootlegs but the origin isn’t clear – with great moments like a wild “Problems” and a cracking “Pretty Vacant”, consistently their strongest live tune. The closing number, “Anarchy In The UK”, might be good, but comes from a completely different sound source, recorded somewhere in the middle of the crowd. It’s enough to leave Atlanta screaming for more; one audience member can be heard telling a friend “I’m blown away” as the tape continues to roll and an upcoming show by The B-52s is announced to the departing crowd over the PA.

Five days later, following brutal shows in Memphis, San Antonio (the legendary “shoot-out”, still frustratingly unavailable through official channels) and Baton Rouge, the band were in Dallas, at a club once owned by Jack Ruby. The recording begins with a gloriously over-the-top radio advert, but the show is more subdued, at least until Sid decides to call the crowd “a fucking bunch of cowboys” and is knocked to the floor during “Holidays In The Sun” – to Lydon and Jones’s obvious delight – playing the rest of the show with a broken nose. That spurs the band into a frantic “No Feelings”, followed by a thundering “Pretty Vacant” and “Anarchy In The UK”, rewritten as “Anarchy In The USA”.  This time the band return for an encore, playing a jagged, echoey, PIL-inducing “No Fun”. The sound is muddier than Atlanta, but the strange energy is fascinating.

Following a show in Tulsa – where a hole in the wall punched by Sid is still framed backstage – the Sex Pistols limped into San Francisco for their final performance. The gig was filmed and widely bootlegged as Gun Control, and while this recording is initially murky, the sound quickly improves as the band deliver a fine “I Wanna Be Me” and then bludgeon the audience with “EMI”. Widely dismissed as a disaster, the concert is far better than its reputation, even with occasional equipment malfunctions and Lydon’s unpredictability – one moment clearly bored and disheartened, the next at his seething, charmless best.

The show ends with “No Fun” and Lydon’s famous exit lane – “ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” – probably the greatest onstage quip since Lennon’s “rattle your jewellery”. Within days Lydon had left the band, and the Sex Pistols were, effectively, kaput. Disintegration has rarely sounded so compelling.

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Bob Mould – Here We Go Crazy

Daniel Dylan Wray
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Bob Mould – Here We Go Crazy

On Bob Mould’s last solo album, 2020’s Blue Hearts, he unleashed a fire in his belly. The album contained a series of polemics that railed against the state of America and all the parallel injustices and inequalities that he saw mirroring the Reagan era that defined his formative years. On the follow-up, his 15th solo album, the same musical dynamism can be heard – striking, sharp, sub-three-minute bursts of intense pop-coated alt.rock that recalls the fizzy joy of the Buzzcocks – but Mould’s political bite is tamed here. Instead, it’s a record that grapples with his own life, past, present and potential future, along with navigating the crippling uncertainties and colossal fears that modern life can impart on us all.

Buy Here We Go Crazy here

On Bob Mould’s last solo album, 2020’s Blue Hearts, he unleashed a fire in his belly. The album contained a series of polemics that railed against the state of America and all the parallel injustices and inequalities that he saw mirroring the Reagan era that defined his formative years. On the follow-up, his 15th solo album, the same musical dynamism can be heard – striking, sharp, sub-three-minute bursts of intense pop-coated alt.rock that recalls the fizzy joy of the Buzzcocks – but Mould’s political bite is tamed here. Instead, it’s a record that grapples with his own life, past, present and potential future, along with navigating the crippling uncertainties and colossal fears that modern life can impart on us all.

THE MAY 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING SMALL FACES, A SMALL FACES RARITIES CD, RADIOHEAD, LOU REED, BOOTSY COLLINS, POGUES, THESE NEW PURITANS, SUZANNE VEGA AND MORE

On the opening “Here We Go Crazy”, Mould lays out the literal landscape of the album, setting a scene of wide-open Californian desert terrain with wind blowing in the mountain tops, as he ponders the volatilities of life, as man and nature square off. In a snappy, hooky, chorus Mould sings “here we go crazy” as his own vocal harmonies sing backing lines about being lost in the mountains. It sets the tone for the album that is loaded with breezy, infectious, sometimes soothing melodies that can often bely a darker lyrical undercurrent. Tracks such as “Neanderthal”, a two-minute firecracker of a song driven by Jon Wurster’s pummeling drums and Mould’s racing riff work, may be about revisiting the violent household that Mould grew up in, and a means of processing that trauma, but it almost recalls Mould’s Sugar era, such is its catchy and irresistible nature.

Mould assembled the record to have a three-act structure: an opening collection of songs that tap into uncertainties, feeling unsettled and unsure, before a mid-section that explores a darker period, and the final part coming out of the other side and seeing flashes of hope and optimism emerge from periods of pain and anguish. What’s especially impressive with Mould’s approach, though, is just how much fun he makes the whole thing sound. Even on songs which tap into more difficult territory, such as “When Your Heart Is Broken”, he delivers it with such a seamless knack for melodic songcraft, that he even turns heartache into foot-stomping riffs and sing-along choruses. Similarly, while “Fur Mink Augus” may plunge the listener deep into the frozen depths of a long, cold, isolated winter as feelings of cabin fever takes hold, the sheer energy of the song – with a remarkable drum outro from Wurster – keeps it as arresting and incandescent as it does angry and downcast.  

Perhaps part of the immediacy of the album is down to Mould’s decision to strip things back. The sonic palette is as basic as it gets, with very little in the way of added instrumentation, production or bells and whistles. Inspired by his recent solo tours, where many of these songs were debuted, there’s a feeling of wanting to capture a similar sense of connection – removing all the obstacles that get in the way, and leaving as direct a path between Mould and his audience as possible.

The third and final act of the album, of creeping towards the light from the darkness, is typified by songs such as “You Need To Shine”. Unashamedly uplifting, it could be read either as a message of hope and positivity for those going through a dark time or as a bold statement of self-affirmation – “don’t let sadness get into our weary bones, don’t let darkness take your soul… you need to shine.” With REM-esque overlaps of vocal harmonies giving way to a Dinosaur Jr-like squealing guitar solo, it’s a genuinely joyous piece of music.

The closing “Your Side” is the slowest, quietest song here, wrapping things up with an ode to how love and companionship will prevail despite the ongoing anxieties and catastrophes of the world, especially the climate crisis. In many ways, it’s a sad song to close on, imagining a world where “everything is gone” and clinging to whatever you have that’s left dear. But it’s also a touching sentiment, and one that underpins the record as a whole: cherish those you love and find beauty amid chaos where you can.

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We’re New Here: Silver Synthetic

Rob Hughes
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We’re New Here: Silver Synthetic

Buy Rosalie here

“We’ve definitely refined our sound on Rosalie,” says singer-guitarist Chris Lyons of Silver Synthetic’s latest album. “We were still figuring out who we were on our first record, but this one has a clearer identity. It’s just a lot more dynamic.”

A beatific union of cosmic Americana and harmonious guitar grooves, Rosalie is certainly a step up from the New Orleans quartet’s 2021 debut. Its charm partly lies in its warm evocation of another era, while also aligning the band to contemporaries like Rose City Band or Beachwood Sparks. Indeed, the latter’s Brent Rademaker was so impressed that he signed Silver Synthetic to his Curation imprint, enthusing: “This is the album the label have been looking for!”

THE MAY 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING SMALL FACES, A SMALL FACES RARITIES CD, RADIOHEAD, LOU REED, BOOTSY COLLINS, POGUES, THESE NEW PURITANS, SUZANNE VEGA AND MORE

Curation may feel like a perfect fit, but it’s taken the band a while to find their way. The journey began in 2017, when Lyons found himself writing pieces that didn’t suit the garage-punk aesthetic of his regular outfit, BottomFeeders. His first instinct was to call guitarist Kunal Prakash. “I had all these songs with a mellower thing going on,” he explains. “I’d seen Kunal around and knew he was a sick guitar player.”

Fresh from Nashville rockers JEFF The Brotherhood, Prakash was intrigued by the invitation. The pair soon began shaping the songs together, alongside bassist Pete Campanelli and BottomFeeders drummer Lucas Bogner. “We were jamming for about a year,” Prakash recalls. “So by the time we started playing shows, it felt like we were a proper band.”

Their musical direction found a natural course. “We definitely had some discussions about what not to do,” says Prakash. “All of us – at least me and Chris and Lucas – had been playing around New Orleans, where there’s a lot of garage punk bands. So the most punk thing we could do was be the opposite of that: sing in harmony and play melodic music. Keep the guitars and production pretty clean. We didn’t want to sound like all these modern psych bands.”

Having played locally, Silver Synthetic were picked up by Third Man after a gig in Nashville, only their second ever show outside New Orleans. “From the start, the reactions we were getting were pretty high,” says Lyons. “It just felt like we’d hit something.” 2020 EP “Out Of The Darkness” and the ensuing Silver Synthetic album blended the band’s love of Neil Young, mid-’70s Lou Reed, Big Star and Eno circa Here Come The Warm Jets, but their relationship with the label didn’t work out.

“At a certain point, we knew we needed to leave Third Man,” says Prakash. “We asked them if we could and they said yes, and that we could take our record with us. So I started reaching out to friends and other musicians.”

With new bassist Ben Jones in place, Rosalie smooths the contours of their debut, streamlining those same influences into something quietly spectacular. Prakash cites Modern Nature as a key reference point: “All Jack Cooper’s stuff has been big for me. I love those albums, particularly the drum sounds. The production feels really natural and there’s a lot of space, which resonates with us, trying to keep things uncluttered and human.” Rosalie also invites parallels to Teenage Fanclub, which can be no bad thing. “We get compared to that band a lot, especially when we played the UK,” says Lyons. “Everyone was bringing them up. Even the sound guys would put them on after our shows.” Prakash can’t resist a cheeky shout-out: “They’re such a great band. So yeah, if they end up reading this, take us on tour!”

Rosalie is released by Curation Records on April 25

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Ultimate Record Collection: The Beatles, 1965-1970

John Robinson
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Ultimate Record Collection: The Beatles, 1965-1970

As we join the Beatles in the latest Ultimate Record Collection, it is the start of 1965, and Beatlemania is cresting. You can tell because there are still seemingly dozens of new singles, Eps, US album variations, and key personal appearances appearing in our definitive timeline. On the covers of their records they appear under umbrellas, joining hands, and on stage. But which is the truest representation of the group?

As we join the Beatles in the latest Ultimate Record Collection, it is the start of 1965, and Beatlemania is cresting. You can tell because there are still seemingly dozens of new singles, Eps, US album variations, and key personal appearances appearing in our definitive timeline. On the covers of their records they appear under umbrellas, joining hands, and on stage. But which is the truest representation of the group?

Perhaps it’s the tired eyes of the 1964 Beatles For Sale group, on an EP which appears at the start of the year which tells the truest story. The narrative of the first part of this publication was how the group’s releases took them to the top. In this second part, it’s all about maintaining their musical peak while managing a retreat from the spotlight and reclaim ownership of their own lives. Except, as the poet Philip Larkin observed once they were at the top, The Beatles “could not get down.”

They couldn’t completely escape, but the group could certainly evolve. By the time they decided to quit touring – unbelievably not until August 1966 – their studio work was already audacious in its innovations. As you can read in the new writing here about every album – in fact, every track – the music which followed reflected the consequences of that decision. It brought us the glorious Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and the profoundly original self-titled White Album.  On the other, it slowed their output down, and served to remind them how much they relished playing live – they just needed to find a new way to do it.

Sometimes, even The Beatles’ hands were forced. As they looked forward to a period of relative relaxation in the wake of Sgt Pepper, they were still committed to provide new music for not one, but two film projects which would extend some of the Pepper magic. Even if it spread them thin, both Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine showed what may be the group’s absolutely unique ability: to write outstanding new music against the most alarming of deadlines.   

As the magazine closes, the Beatles are evolving as individuals to the point where the group can no longer comfortably contain them. It’s a testament to their later-period recordings that they can still summon breathtaking originality even when there’s only two of them in the room – as with “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” – or, as with their final Christmas recordings – when there are none at all.

The last release we cover here is a compilation of their Fanclub-only singles, under the punning title of From Then To You. It’s a reminder that even with Brian Epstein dead, and the group disbanded, the music, and their spontaneous, joyful outlook would live on.    

Enjoy the magazine.

Led Zeppelin: “‘Kashmir’ was new music, no one had ever heard anything like it.”

Michael Bonner
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Led Zeppelin: “‘Kashmir’ was new music, no one had ever heard anything like it.”

Led Zeppelin are on the cover of Uncut’s April 2025 issue, as Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones celebrate the 50th anniversary of Physical Graffiti with exclusive new interviews.

THE APRIL 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT, STARRING LED ZEPPELIN, JASON ISBELL, BRYAN FERRY, MARIANNE FAITHFULL, THE WATERBOYS, DAVID BOWIE, MADDY PRIOR AND MORE, IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW

In this extract, Page and Plant recall a pivotal trip to Morocco – just after they finished their 1973 tour in support of Houses Of The Holy – and how inspiration from their travels fed into “Kashmir“, when the band reconvened at Headley Grange in October 1973 to begin work on their masterpiece, Physical Graffiti.

PAGE:  We went to Morocco more or less straight after Madison Square Garden. Robert was going to Marrakech with Maureen, his wife, and I was going to go over there and join them. We were going to do some traveling and then we were going to do some recording at the tail end sometime in that year. There was a folk festival in Marrakech, with tribes coming from all over Morocco in their traditional dress and playing their local music. When they came off the stage, they’d carry on playing or singing while the next lot are coming on, so you did get this sort of crossfading. That was the first time I heard Joujouka musicians for real. It was spine-tinging stuff, so was a lot of the other music that you heard. Then we started traveling around Morocco. We had a wonderful adventure.

PLANT:  We needed space and time to be stimulated. I already knew a couple of people in Guelmim from when I first was in Morocco. The women took Maureen off somewhere in and painted her up with Henna and I ended up playing 11 aside football in 30 degrees Celsius. But it was great. So, to go back there with Jimmy… he and I went way down in the desert past Tantan, where the Green March had gone into Western Sahara. That area by Tarfaya, down in the bottom before you get to Mauritania. You can get there now, of course, that’s where the gods are resting. That’s where it all hangs out, where there’s space. It’s so evocative.

PAGE: On the second day [at Headley Grange], I went through some things with John Bonham. But when we came back the following week, I put more of my own stuff, this adrenaline music I’d worked on at home, to John Bonham, to see what he likes and hope he likes it all. I went through “Sick Again” and “Wanton Song” with John. I play him a little bit of “In My Time Of Dying”. I had this other riff, but I didn’t want to lay it on him straight away. Finally, I thought, ‘Right, this is the opportunity…’ Once we started playing “Kashmir”, I don’t know how long we played it for but he didn’t want to stop and I didn’t want to stop. There’s a bootleg where we’re just playing the riff repeatedly, it just locks in. By now, we had people to assist us. We record “Kashmir” and “Sick Again”. With “Kashmir”, I wanted to record it so that I could try out these other ideas. I had a fanfare that I wanted to lay on top of it. So we start putting the arrangement together. We know that we’re on something, nobody’s ever gone anywhere near this. It was new music, no one had ever heard anything like it.

PLANT: I wasn’t really writing in the 1st person, I was creating this melange of how it felt. “And then all I see turns to brown”. At different times of the day, the cliffs and the mountains would change colour. And so as it developed as a four piece, it grew and grew until everything made sense. All of it, the weave of the whole thing was something. I can hear it now and keep walking, but sometimes I hear it and I just sit down and listen. “Kashmir”, it is what it is. It’s just such an achievement – and it is an achievement even now, all these years later. I think it was the personalities of us that made us say, ‘This is it,’ because it’s just enough, and for people, maybe later, it was too much. But on the record, there were moments where it was like, “Let’s get on with this. Let’s make something that’s going to hit you between the ears.” I’ve got the book at home [with the original lyrics]. It’s got the sticker, magenta on white, of the Zeppelin IV logos. It’s stuck across a notepad with all sorts of meanderings. ‘Driving through Kashmir’. Oh, fancy that. For me, if I’m inspired, I can bring something forward. It’s not Blood On The Tracks, it doesn’t have the same intense, mature overview. This was still before the big crash. Time, joy, camaraderie were all perfectly, beautifully intact.

TO READ THE FULL INTERVIEWS WITH PAGE, PLANT AND JONES, PICK UP A COPY OF THE APRIL 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT – IN SHOPS NOW OR AVAILABLE TO BUY DIRECT FROM US

Inside our latest free Uncut CD – Time To Fly: 15 tracks of the month’s best music

Uncut Staff
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Inside our latest free Uncut CD – Time To Fly: 15 tracks of the month’s best music

The Waterboys, Jason Isbell, Dean Wareham, Valerie June, Black Country New Road and more feature on our latest free Uncut CD.

The Waterboys, Jason Isbell, Dean Wareham, Valerie June, Black Country New Road and more feature on our latest free Uncut CD.

The 15-track compilation, titled Time To Fly, showcases some of the month’s best music and comes with the Uncut dated April 2025.

See below for more on the tracklisting…

ORDER A COPY FROM US HERE

1 Tobacco City
Buffalo
Chris Coleslaw and Lexi Goddard are going from strength to strength. A set of confident Americana rock’n’roll, new album Horses really builds up a head of steam on this infectious slice of choogle, with an unexpected coda.

2 Florist
Have Heaven
Jellywish is the new album from Emily Sprague’s Florist project, and her best yet. There are echoes of Big Thief in its crepuscular, hushed songcraft, but also a light rural psychedelia in its picked acoustic guitars, warbling tapes and curdled electronics.

3 Nico Georis
Geological Observations
From his Granny’s Dancehall studio in Death Valley, this sonic adventurer has been busy working with the electronic pulses of psychedelic mushrooms over recent years. Music Belongs To The Universe is all his own work, however, a welcoming collision of ambient, new age and far-out lysergic drones.

4 Dean Wareham
Yesterday’s Hero
Back with only his third solo album, That’s The Price Of Loving Me, Wareham is on top form. This quietly despairing track, one of the high points of the record, examines the passing of time with a wry outlook: “All our marches got nowhere…”

5 Eiko Ishibashi
October
Antigone is the long-awaited latest from this Japanese singer, songwriter and experimentalist, who’s been busy soundtracking Hamaguchi films such as Drive My Car and Evil Does Not Exist in recent years. Teaming up with Jim O’Rourke on production, her new LP is a sugared, strange and deeply fascinating adventure.

6 Brown Horse
Dog Rose
This Norwich troupe haven’t taken long to follow up their debut, but All The Right Weaknesses is an even finer record. “Dog Rose” is a good measure of the rest: crunching guitars and pedal steel, enigmatic lyrics and a wooziness that recalls Pavement and Silver Jews as much as Tonight’s The Night. 

7 Black Country, New Road
Besties
South London’s most eclectic crew continue their journey towards baroque prog-pop perfection on new LP Forever Howlong. For the first time, all the songs are written and sung by the three female members of the group, with “Besties” led by Jockstrap’s Georgia Ellery.

8 The Waterboys
Hopper’s On Top (Genius)
Mike Scott’s sprawling concept record Life, Death & Dennis Hopper is our Album Of The Month, and “Hopper’s On Top…” feels like a good introduction to its gonzo charms. Elsewhere on the LP, there’s Bruce Springsteen, Fiona Apple, Steve Earle and more.

9 Songs Of Green Pheasant
Dark
Duncan Sumpner’s hazy folk-rock project has long been under the radar – just the way the Yorkshireman likes it – but new album Sings The Passing may be his most enticing yet.

10 Valerie June
Sweet Things Just For You
Owls, Omens And Oracles is the new record from this Memphis singer-songwriter, who’s teamed up with M Ward for her latest foray into the astral and the earthy. Inspired by ’60s soul and folk, the skipping “Sweet Things…” is a boogie-down highlight.

11 Index For Working Musik
Sister
This London group have sprung from the roots of Toy to offer a kind of ragged post-punk folk horror on their second album, Which Direction Goes The Beam. Sawing strings and Nathalia Bruno’s stern vocals drive this waltzing, Velvets-y anxiety dream to stunning effect.

12 Jason Isbell
Foxes In The Snow
Here’s the title track to Isbell’s new acoustic album, a daring showcase of his singing, guitar skills and way with a turn of phrase and a lilting riff. These have been difficult times for the songwriter, and it’s all laid out here.

13 Sam Akpro
Evenfall
This is the title track of south Londoner Akpro’s debut album; imagine King Krule with a little less jazz and a little more gothic Portishead clamour and you might come somewhere close to this blown-out, industrial delight.

14 Snapped Ankles
Pay The Rent
Forest-born shamans (or so they claim, anyway), this London-based collective have got their dancing shoes on for new LP Hard Times Furious Dancing. Like LCD Sounsystem soundtracking The Wicker Man, it’s a transportative joy, as heard on this propulsive, dance-punk epic.

15 Butler, Blake & Grant
Bring An End
Sublimely low-key, this indie supergroup – Bernard Butler, Norman Blake and James Grant – are standing by the power of their heartfelt songs and gorgeous harmonies. On this evidence, it’s a distinction all round.

ORDER A COPY FROM US HERE

Jesse Malin: Keep On Burning

Peter Watts
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Jesse Malin: Keep On Burning

In May 2023, Jesse Malin was walking to his local restaurant in New York when he felt a sharp pain in his upper thigh. He tried to shake it off, but by the end of the night he was lying on the floor as he settled the bill, having suffered a spinal stroke that left him paralysed. It’s been a tough 18 months, but Malin will be back onstage in December to perform a full set at New York’s Beacon Theatre, at a benefit show for his treatment, with special guests including Lucinda Williams and Jakob Dylan. Two London dates follow in May.

THE APRIL 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT, STARRING LED ZEPPELIN, JASON ISBELL, BRYAN FERRY, MARIANNE FAITHFULL, THE WATERBOYS, DAVID BOWIE, MADDY PRIOR AND MORE, IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW

“I will be there if I have to swim across the Atlantic,” says Malin. “We can’t reveal the names of the artists yet, but it will be similar to the Beacon, with me doing a set and then the guests.” A lot of those musicians played on recent Malin tribute album Silver Patron Saints, and the range and stature of those involved – Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Susanna Hoffs, Spoon, Dinosaur Jr, Agnostic Front – gives some indication of Malin’s cross-genre appeal. “It’s funny having Lucinda Williams and Rancid on the same record but that’s my world,” he says. “It’s all songs in the end, people who want to sing from their heart with a couple of chords.”

As his friends recorded the songs, they were sent to Malin as he underwent physical therapy in Argentina. He says that gave him a boost, and allowed him to reflect on the warmth and support of a community that has rallied around him. “Jesse Malin is truly a titan of rock’n’ roll in New York,” says Craig Finn, who covers “Death Star” with The Hold Steady on the record, and will appear at the Beacon. “He’s been a beacon of positivity, a musical hero, a fan and a friend to myself and The Hold Steady. I’ve always loved his stories, his songs and his whole thing. We look forward to playing alongside some heavy-hitters to celebrate Jesse’s return to the stage.”

During his recovery, Malin worked on a memoir, which he describes as “like The Basketball Diaries with a guitar”. It covers his time as a pre-teen rocker, having auditioned at CBGB with hardcore band Heart Attack when he was 12. After tiring of scene conventions, Malin formed D Generation before eventually going solo with classic breakthrough album The Fine Art Of Self Destruction in 2002. “[The book] will have the stories I tell on stage, like going to a hooker in Times Square when I was 11 and getting mugged,” says Malin. “There are the characters I have met along the way, but it’s about persevering and making things happen, manifesting things, hopefully with the right sense of humour.”

Malin is a quintessential New Yorker, but the UK has been one of his favourite destinations since The Fine Art… was lauded by British fans. “People didn’t know D Generation in Britain, so I was like a new artist at 33,” he says. “I felt so at home. I’d see the street names and think of songs by The Jam or The Clash or The Kinks. I noticed people came early to shows and bought the records. I found that, with a guitar, I could connect with people even though I was so far from home.” As Malin enthusiastically recalls his life of musical passions, from “Crocodile Rock” to the Ramones, a thought occurs: “You know, when you start talking about music, you forget all about your own problems for a while.”

Silver Patron Saints is out now on Glassnote Records; Jesse Malin and guests play Islington Assembly Hall on May 1 and 2

I’m New Here: Sam Moss

Stephen Deusner
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I’m New Here: Sam Moss

Sam Moss always looks for the irregular pieces of wood at his local lumber yard. “They have a pile of weird scraps that they can’t sell,” says the woodworker and singer-songwriter based in Staunton, Virginia. “I like to paw through and take a bunch of odd pieces and make them into strange little tables or whatever.” When he’s not touring, Moss is at home in his workshop or doing handyman jobs around town. “I do a lot of work fixing and renovating houses, where you want straight lines and functionality. But my woodworking is the opposite, and I get a lot of joy out of these odd shapes.”

THE APRIL 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT, STARRING LED ZEPPELIN, JASON ISBELL, BRYAN FERRY, MARIANNE FAITHFULL, THE WATERBOYS, DAVID BOWIE, MADDY PRIOR AND MORE, IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW

He brings a similar philosophy to his music, turning stray thoughts and errant emotions into bespoke musings on the world and his place in it. Swimming, his latest effort, is an album about small moments, modest joys, walking in the woods or feeding the ducks – nothing life-changing, but everything life-sustaining. “I felt the birds give meaning to an otherwise broken day,” he sings on “Feathers”, with its crisp banjo strums. “I wouldn’t describe myself as an inspirational songwriter, but I feel the way I think a lot of people feel. I feel a lot of heaviness, but also a lot of joy. When I’m writing, I try not to be devastatingly sad or manically upbeat, but somewhere in between.”

Moss started writing and recording in Boston, where he studied music at Berklee and became a fixture on the local music scene. After recording and self-releasing three albums of well-observed folk songs, he followed his partner down to Virginia, where she studies Shakespearean drama. There he found a good balance between music-making and woodworking. “If I’m working with wood and can get into a groove with it, I do love listening to music. Using my hands to create things that are physical leaves room for me to get into the esoteric songwriting headspace.”

When Moss was ready to record his fourth album, he knew he wanted to find new people. He booked time at Betty’s in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the studio run by Sylvan Esso, and invited one of his personal heroes to produce: Joe Westerlund of DeYarmond Edison and Megafaun. Together, they assembled a backing band of multi-instrumentalists who stretched the songs into those odd shapes that Moss always looks for.

“It ended up feeling like summer camp,” he says. “I really like to work live, so there had to be a certain amount of trust there. We had to work fast, but everybody created these magic moments of surprise. Like ‘Moonbeams’ – the take on the album is the very first time we played together. We cut it a few more times, but that version had a good, spontaneous energy.” Moss’s friend and tourmate Jake Xerxes Fussell dropped by for an afternoon to play guitar on “Lost”, which came together just as quickly. “When I listen to that song, I can hear everybody in the room being surprised at each other. I can feel them getting to know each other in real time.”

For the frayed and menacing “Eyes”, Moss sat in the drum booth, played a repeating part on acoustic guitar, and watched the musicians tear into the song. “I had very little work to do with my simple theme, so I could look out at them going nuts. They were giving the song everything, and I was just leaning back, watching it all happen. That’s one of the moments when I saw the song blooming right in front of my eyes.”

Swimming is out now via Sleep Walk Songs

Low’s Alan Sparhawk announces new solo album, With Trampled By Turtles

Michael Bonner
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Low’s Alan Sparhawk announces new solo album, With Trampled By Turtles

Low‘s Alan Sparhawk has announced details of a new solo album. With Trampled By Turtles is released through Sub Pop on May 30. Scroll down to hear “Stranger” from the album.

THE APRIL 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT, STARRING LED ZEPPELIN, JASON ISBELL, BRYAN FERRY, MARIANNE FAITHFULL, THE WATERBOYS, DAVID BOWIE, MADDY PRIOR AND MORE, IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW

The album follows follows Sparhawk’s 2024 debut solo album, White Roses, My God.

The album was recorded at the end of 2023 at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota with Sparhawk accompanied by long-time friends and fellow Minnesotans, Trampled By Turtles.

You can pre-order the album here.

Tracklisting for the album is:

Stranger
Too High
Heaven
Not Broken
Screaming Song
Get Still
Princess Road Surgery
Don’t Take Your Light
Torn & In Ashes

Edith Frost – In Space

Stephen Deusner
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Edith Frost – In Space

Edith Frost opens her first album in almost 20 years with an organ, some dramatic guitar strums, and an important question: “Can you hear me?” she sings on “Another Year”. The moment is small and intimate, as though she’s clearing her throat or testing her microphone. The song might have started as a downhearted pandemic Christmas song about spending the holiday away from loved ones, but in this new incarnation, it serves as a fitting reintroduction to this cult country singer, a witty means of acknowledging the long interval between records. “Been a long time, but I’m alright,” she continues. “At least I survived.”

Buy In Space here

Edith Frost opens her first album in almost 20 years with an organ, some dramatic guitar strums, and an important question: “Can you hear me?” she sings on “Another Year”. The moment is small and intimate, as though she’s clearing her throat or testing her microphone. The song might have started as a downhearted pandemic Christmas song about spending the holiday away from loved ones, but in this new incarnation, it serves as a fitting reintroduction to this cult country singer, a witty means of acknowledging the long interval between records. “Been a long time, but I’m alright,” she continues. “At least I survived.”

THE APRIL 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT, STARRING LED ZEPPELIN, JASON ISBELL, BRYAN FERRY, MARIANNE FAITHFULL, THE WATERBOYS, DAVID BOWIE, MADDY PRIOR AND MORE, IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW

Frost specialises in making small moments and little epiphanies sound much bigger than they are. Her previous albums were full of the kinds of everyday worries and mundane concerns that gnaw at you over time, and In Space picks up those threads as though no time has passed at all. These new songs consider ideas and attitudes about absence, alienation and reconciliation, but Frost never sounds merely clever and doesn’t revel in meta career commentary. Instead, she simply settles into these small moments and patiently allows them to accumulate into something bigger and more powerful. As a result, this long-awaited album doesn’t sound like a comeback. Instead, it’s simply a continuation of what she’s been doing for 30 years now. She might be testing her mic, but there’s no rust in her voice.

Back in the mid 1990s, with the alt.country movement in full chug, the Texas-born Frost signed with Drag City, where she remains today. Like Kelly Hogan and Neko Case – two other Windy City transplants who thrived during the No Depression era – Frost always had one foot in twang and another somewhere else. Her EPs and LPs featured locals from other scenes, Jim O’Rourke and Sean O’Hagan on her 1997 full-length debut Calling Over Time, Royal Trux on the following year’s Telescopic, and members of Wilco and The Sea & Cake on 2001’s standout Wonder, Wonder. Her brand of country sounded distinctive, idiosyncratic and deeply embedded in Chicago.

After 2005’s It’s A Game, whose breakup songs have taken on more weight in retrospect, Frost went silent. Musically, at least. She didn’t retire from the industry or retreat from the scene, but simply stopped recording and releasing music. Even after she left Chicago for Austin, Texas, she still appeared on records by Chris Gantry and James Elkington’s old band The Zincs. Her biggest moment of righteous notoriety came when she was kicked off what was then known as Twitter for impersonating Elon Musk.

In Space emphasises the traits that distinguished her in the 1990s, but she’s not simply revisiting old glories. Working with longtime collaborators Rian Murphy and Mark Greenberg, she tracked these songs at the Loft, Wilco’s legendary clubhouse/studio in Chicago, with Sima Cunningham from Finom (formerly Ohmme) harmonizing subtly with her. Together, they create a casually twangy, tenderly psychedelic backdrop for Frost’s assured vocals while adding little flourishes in the margins, like the billowing Beach Boys chorus on “Nothing Comes Around” and the jazzy guitar licks on “Back Again”. She has a tendency to flatten out certain notes, to dive deep into her lower register and to break syllables in unexpected places – all of which allows her to convey sadness with warmth and wisdom.

Ultimately, In Space is an album caught between the past and the present, the old and the new. On “Little Sign”, which she originally cut as a one-off for the 2020 presidential election, she exhorts her listeners to dissent and resist in whatever ways feel right to them: “Make up a little sign, get happy with your mind.” It’s rare to hear a protest song so gentle and generous. Even as she roots herself in this moment, the past just won’t leave Frost alone. “Oh, when it all comes flooding back around me now/The sounds of an ancient past arriving now,” she chants on the title track, as her band churn up a quietly dramatic din around her.

In Space is that rare species of comeback album that doesn’t try to insist that no time has passed. Instead, every one of those 20 unrecoverable years plays out in every song. It’s a lively and vivid collection, funny and angry and chagrinned, but mostly it’s a very specific kind of melancholy: not gloomy or despondent, but quietly aware of what has been lost and cannot be regained. “Our funny little world has gone away,” she declares on “The Bastards”, but she’s rebuilding it song by song, moment by moment.

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Lonnie Holley – Tonky

Louis Pattison
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Lonnie Holley – Tonky

It’s still early in 2025, but “Seeds”, the opening track from Lonnie Holley’s fifth studio album Tonky, might be one of the most powerful and affecting pieces of music you’ll hear all year. Across its nine minutes, the 75-year-old artist and musician tells the tale of his formative years at the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children, a juvenile correctional facility that was run in conditions not far off those of a slave plantation.

Buy Tonky here

It’s still early in 2025, but “Seeds”, the opening track from Lonnie Holley’s fifth studio album Tonky, might be one of the most powerful and affecting pieces of music you’ll hear all year. Across its nine minutes, the 75-year-old artist and musician tells the tale of his formative years at the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children, a juvenile correctional facility that was run in conditions not far off those of a slave plantation.

THE APRIL 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT, STARRING LED ZEPPELIN, JASON ISBELL, BRYAN FERRY, MARIANNE FAITHFULL, THE WATERBOYS, DAVID BOWIE, MADDY PRIOR AND MORE, IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW

Over a minimalist pulse that gently builds in intensity, accruing layers of twinkling synth, strings and choral chants, Holley remembers it all. Picking cotton in the endless rolling fields. The savage beatings that left his bed sheets stained with blood. That feeling of being all alone in the world. The music is as rousing and beautiful as the lyrical content is unconscionable, unbearable. Then, right at the moment the music peaks and slowly begins to fade, Holley pauses to reflect: “Oh I wish that I could rob my memory,” he intones. “I’d be like Midas, and turn my thoughts to gold/And one day just end up being alright.”

What strength of will and generosity of spirit does it take to turn this sort of unimaginable pain into music about love and forgiveness? It is hard to fathom, but this ability gives Holley a superhuman quality, and Tonky the sense of an almighty feat of overcoming. Holley has primarily been known as a visual artist. Discovered in the 1980s, his sculptural and installation work – originally assembled using found objects in and around his hilltop home in Birmingham, Alabama – has found its way from American folk art exhibitions to the Royal Academy of Arts in London. But in 2012, he released his debut album, and since then he’s continued to record at pace. His voice combines the powerful, righteous exhortations of a gospel preacher with the wounded emotion of an old bluesman, and he has a talent for improvising songs on the spot, the words flowing forth in long, unbroken takes.

Like its immediate predecessor, 2023’s Oh Me Oh My, Tonky was made with the assistance of Jacknife Lee, a producer and multi-instrumentalist who has played a key role in helping Holley focus his vision into something honed and coherent. The music – a mix of sleek jazz, soul and synthetic soundscaping – is polished but never bland, and comes dotted with a wealth of special guests: the harpist Mary Lattimore and the poet Saul Williams, rappers Open Mike Eagle and Billy Woods, Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock and jazz musicians Angel Bat Dawid and Alabaster De Plume. Importantly, though, all these names are folded neatly into Holley’s broader vision, supporting him as he communicates his message of love in the face of misery, the importance of faith and the promise of salvation.

Holley’s personal story is gripping enough. But a big part of what makes Tonky compelling is how he stitches his tales into a wider fabric of African-American experience. On “The Same Stars”, he envisages shackled bodies on slave ships, gazing up through the darkness at the night sky. “Kings In The Jungle, Slaves In The Field” first harks back to that prelapsarian existence in Africa, and then documents how that birthright was – and continues to be – torn away, Holley’s voice lifted on the chorus of the all-female gospel group The Legendary Ingramettes. Particularly harrowing is “I Looked Over My Shoulder”. To the serrated whine of collaborator Davide Rossi’s violin and viola, Holley dwells on the insidious effects of poverty, and its relationship to the Black experience. “People crying, quaking and breaking, falling apart/Bloody heads and skinned bodies,” he booms, and the moment is so intense that even Billy Woods’ hardscrabble rap feels like a relief from the tension.

Beyond “Seeds”, perhaps the key song on Tonky is “The Burden (I Turned Nothing Into Something)”. To the sigh of Angel Bat Dawid’s clarinet, Holley muses on the way that trauma can be generational, passed down through those we love. Framed this way, you could view both his music and art as a way to break that vicious cycle – a way to recognise and commemorate that hurt, before turning that pain into love.

The final song on Tonky is “A Change Is Gonna Come” – not the Sam Cooke classic, but an original song that hits some of the same notes. Life is filled with struggle. It can feel like adversity is piling up before us. But Holley sees a path through. “Oh, humans, can’t you feel it?” he sings. “Everything gonna be alright.” If a man who has felt the sort of pain that Lonnie Holley has felt can look to the future and still feel optimism, perhaps there’s hope for us all yet.

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Looking back into the future

Uncut Staff
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Looking back into the future

In partnership with Marshall

Gen And The Degenerates

Gig of the year? There was a show in Penn’s Peak, Pennsylvania, that was in this Western-style theatre that was all wood on the inside, so it looked like some line-dancing club or something. It was on top of a mountain, the crowd was drunk and rowdy, and at one point during a song, Gen made a full sprint across the venue through the crowd, with venue security in pursuit. Fun.

Best LP of 2024? Foxing continue to be one of the best and most underrated bands on the planet, and the new Fontaines DC album is unreal. 

Tell us about your own best track from 2024? There is one song we’ve been playing live a lot, that says fuck it to the idea of basing your self-image on what people want from you. That resonates with us a lot. The title is taken from an essay by Eve Babitz, “I Used to Be Charming”, and it’s sonically riffing on stuff like Squeeze, Blondie, B-52s, Talking Heads.

King Nun

Best LP of 2024? No Name by Jack White. Just listen to it.

What music did you rediscover in 2024? Cosmo’s Factory by Creedence Clearwater Revival was the soundtrack to a lot of long, late-night drives on our UK and European headline tours.

Tell us about your own best track from 2024? “Figure 8”. We wanted to write a song with the same energy as our live show, and the second we found something that felt right, the rest of the song fell in our lap and wrote itself.

Terry Marshall

Gig of the year? Playing at the Ealing Blues Festival in July with the majority of artists who appear on my recent album, Living The Blues. The festival is an important feature of the blues scene and was started over 30 years ago by Robert Hokum who we were lucky enough to have play on the album, a good friend and sadly recently departed.

Goal for 2025? At the age of 80, my main goal is to still be playing in 2025 when I’m 81!

Laurence Jones

Photo: Blackham Images

Gig of the year? Supporting Status Quo at Dreamland in Margate in the summer. It was great to be back in the Netherlands for my headline tour, always a highlight of the year for me personally. 

Goal for 2025? I’m really looking forward to my 2025 Music Venue Trust tour! 

Gallus

Photo: Sheva Kafai

Gig of the year? McChuills after TRNSMT was probably the sweatiest gig we’ve ever played – a lot of photos were unusable due to the condensation in the room! – and we’re about to tour the UK with Dead Pony and Soapbox so any one of them could end up being a contender. 

Best LP of 2024? I loved Kneecap and Fontaines DC’s records. Kneecap’s ability to bring their particular brand of rap to an increasingly bigger British audience feels like a real watershed moment in our society, and Fontaines’ record is banger after banger.  

What music did you rediscover in 2024? I got back into Mogwai’s last album As The Love Continues and have been listening to Arab Strap a lot again recently. Scottish indie music from the ’90s/early 2000s was obviously very formative in my own tastes so it’s been nice to revisit some of those bands. 

Goal for 2025? Dethrone Taylor Swift! And stay humble.

Nova Twins

Photo: Federica Burelli

What was 2024’s biggest creative challenge? Writing our next album while on the road was a huge challenge. We were constantly switching between two headspaces, from high-energy performances across America to focusing in the studio. It felt like being in two different worlds.

Gig of the year? Hellfest in France was incredible! We were so emotional seeing tens of thousands of passionate music lovers, making us feel like we were all part of something bigger.

Therapy?

Photo: Trix

Gig of the year? This year has been a relatively quiet touring year for us, but we do have an amazing end-of-year lined up with the Troublegum 30th-anniversary shows.

Best LP of 2024? The release that inspired me the most was the “We Are Making A New World” EP by Gimic on Crew Cuts records. Inventive punk rock with intelligent arrangements and incendiary delivery.

What music did you rediscover in 2024? Buzzcocks! When I was 12 they were my favourite band, and Love Bites was released on my birthday. I got a paper round just to buy it. It’s just as good as ever.

Goal for 2025? The number one goal would be getting new songs in place, rehearsing and recording.

Shack announce first tour since 2007

Michael Bonner
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Shack announce first tour since 2007

Shack have announced their first tour dates since 2007. Reuniting Michael and John Head, with original bassist Pete Wilkinson, they are due to play four shows beginning with an opening homecoming date at the Liverpool Olympia.

THE APRIL 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT, STARRING LED ZEPPELIN, JASON ISBELL, BRYAN FERRY, MARIANNE FAITHFULL, THE WATERBOYS, DAVID BOWIE, MADDY PRIOR AND MORE, IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW

The band will also be joined by The Coral‘s Ian Skelly, replacing original drummer Iain Templeton, who died in December 2022.

“Iain was a massive part of Shack,” explains John Head. “I didn’t ever think that this could happen because Iain was no longer around. His contribution was enormous and he was one of us. It’s still a massive thing him not being here. He remains irreplaceable, but we have someone on board now in Ian (Skelly), who will do an amazing job and is a huge fan of what Iain did with Shack himself.”

Nathaniel Cummings, a member and co-songwriter in Michael Head’s Red Elastic Band, will complete the 2025 version of Shack.

The confirmed, upcoming Shack 2025 live dates are:

Fri 25 April – Liverpool Olympia – SOLD OUT
Thu 1 May – Glasgow, St. Luke’s 
Fri 2 May – Manchester, O2 Ritz
Mon 5 May – London, Union Chapel – SOLD OUT

Limited, remaining tickets and any returns can be found here.

Stevie Wonder to play BST Hyde Park

Michael Bonner
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Stevie Wonder to play BST Hyde Park

Stevie Wonder is the final headliner for this year’s American Express presents BST Hyde Park series.

THE APRIL 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT, STARRING LED ZEPPELIN, JASON ISBELL, BRYAN FERRY, MARIANNE FAITHFULL, THE WATERBOYS, DAVID BOWIE, MADDY PRIOR AND MORE, IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW

Joining previous announced headliners – including Neil Young (July 11), Olivia Rodrigo (June 27) and Jeff Lynne’s ELO (July 13) – Wonder tops the bill in Hyde Park on Saturday July, 12 as part of his LOVE, LIGHT & SONG UK 2025 performances. Wonder previously headlined BST Hyde Park in 2016 and 1019.

Tickets go on general sale at 10am GMT on Friday, March 21.

Click here for more details.

Tickets:

Amex Presale Tickets® begins 10am GMT on Monday, March 17, ends 10am GMT on Wednesday, March 19

Artist Fanclub – 10am GMT Wednesday, March 19 

General On Sale – 10am GMT on Friday, March 21 

Out now! The Ultimate Music Guide: Pink Floyd, Definitive Edition

John Robinson
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Out now! The Ultimate Music Guide: Pink Floyd, Definitive Edition

When Nick Mason speaks about his relationship with Pink Floyd these days, he does so in terms of circularity. As the latter-day custodian (some might say saviour of) the reputation of Pink Floyd, it is he that that has managed to remind the world that before the huge-selling albums, the heavy concepts, and the sales records, there was a band setting out without a destination in mind: simply setting the course for something new.

It needed saying. For a band regarded with so much affection by so many millions of people, it’s been sad to note that the relationship between its surviving principal members has been so fragile, and often so hostile. After a surprising rapprochement brokered by Bob Geldof for the Live 8 charity event in 2005, in which the classic 1970s line-up of the group reformed and played for a cordial half hour, the group has been (to risk a Roger Waters-style analogy) in danger of winning the war, but losing the peace.

As you’ll read in this 172-page updated Definitive Edition, the group managed to hold it together to work on a massive, long-awaited box set of their breakthrough works with and post-Syd Barrett (The Early Years). There were deluxe reissues of their career-defining albums The Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall. There was even collaboration, as recently as 2016, on a V&A exhibition, drolly titled Their Mortal Remains.  What has happened since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, though – ouch, let’s not even go there.

But happily, there’s been Nick Mason’s “pleasing circularity” to help us. Even while Waters and Gilmour have resumed hostilities, Mason has been on a more innocent trip, reminding us that there is a joy to be had in revisiting this music in whatever form you choose. There was a Pink Floyd without Syd Barrett – but you could never take Syd Barrett out of Pink Floyd, where he remained as subject, inspiration, and spiritual guide. These days, Nick’s band Saucerful Of Secrets have provided an unexpected trapdoor in time: taking us back in time to the heart of the “Early years”, revitalising the Syd-era music, all the way up to “Echoes”.

“Echoes” is independently on its way back to us on Floyd’s endless river. As we write, a new remastered cut of Adrian Maben’s Pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii film is set for release. In October 1971, with Syd now long gone, and a major breakthrough within sight, the French director’s cameras set up in the Roman amphitheatre in Pompeii in to watch the band in peak form. Someone needs to get Nick Mason some sunscreen. Otherwise, the mood is completely untroubled as the band pilot their way seamlessly through the harmonious elevations of “Echoes”, accompanied by shots of gargoyles and bubbling mud.

It certainly won’t always be as peaceful as this, but the band are now on their way to a greatness they likely never expected to reach. Nor, as they gaze at rows of empty seats, can they guess how many of us will join them on the journey.

Enjoy the magazine. You can get yours here, as a limited hardback here and check out our Ultimate Music Guide to the solo years here.

Hear “Burning Moonlight”, from Marianne Faithfull’s posthumous EP

Michael Bonner
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Hear “Burning Moonlight”, from Marianne Faithfull’s posthumous EP

A four track EP of new music by Marianne Faithfull is to be released posthumously on April 12 for Record Store Day.

THE APRIL 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT, STARRING LED ZEPPELIN, JASON ISBELL, BRYAN FERRY, MARIANNE FAITHFULL, THE WATERBOYS, DAVID BOWIE, MADDY PRIOR AND MORE, IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW

Released initially as a limited-edition vinyl EP, Burning Moonlight will be available worldwide as a digital EP on June 6. You can hear the title track below.

The four new recordings are inspired by, and have their creative roots in, Faithfull’s first two albums released simultaneously 60 years ago on April 15, 1965. The EP’s executive producer Andrew Batt explains; “It was so unusual to start your career this way, so we decided to bring the music full circle. One side of the EP would be inspired by her debut pop LP Marianne Faithfull while the flip would honour her folk roots on Come My Way.”

Side 1 is a tribute to Marianne’s pop past and opens with the poignant “Burning Moonlight”, which is released today. This moving ballad of resilience and acceptance was inspired by the opening line of her debut single “As Tears Go by’ (“It is the evening of the day”) and is followed by “Love Is” an uplifting homage to her ‘60s pop sound written with her grandson Oscar Dunbar.

Side 2 of the EP reconnects Marianne to her folk background with “Three Kinsmen Bold”, a traditional song learned from her father Glynn Faithfull who had been a formative influence on her folk recordings, and a new interpretation of “She Moved Thru’ The Fair”, a song Faithfull performed throughout her life, and which she first recorded in 1966.

“It’s a good time to look back,” she said after completing the project. “It helps me to remember all the things I’ve done. I can’t say I’m a particularly nostalgic person, but I am enjoying this period of reflection.”

The EP is produced by Head with Rob Ellis, Oscar Dunbar and Andrew Batt, and includes specially commissioned artwork by the acclaimed Australian artist David Frazer.

Head first worked with Faithfull in 2004 on the album Before The Poison. “I’m so happy we found a time when Marianne felt able to write and sing again” he says. “When she asked me to produce these songs, we were all aware that her health had made things difficult but, in true Marianne fashion, she persevered, and I think we were able to go in a new direction again – something she always tried to push herself to do throughout her long career.”

Giving you The Chills

Nick Hasted
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Giving you The Chills

When The Chills’ songwriter and sole constant Martin Phillipps died in July 2024, he left behind a last testament. His band’s eighth and final album, Spring Board: The Early Unrecorded Songs, comprises fresh takes on demo tapes from the ’80s and ’90s. “These were things that he was supposed to record back in the day, but never got around to because he had so much material,” explains Todd Knudson, The Chills’ drummer since 1999. “He was not very well and struggling a bit, but I think he knew that with all the damage he’d done to himself, he only had a certain amount of time and he wanted to complete things. He was a bit of a completist anyway. And this album brings him full circle.”

THE APRIL 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT, STARRING LED ZEPPELIN, JASON ISBELL, BRYAN FERRY, MARIANNE FAITHFULL, THE WATERBOYS, DAVID BOWIE, MADDY PRIOR AND MORE, IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW

Formed in 1980 in Dunedin, New Zealand, The Chills led a local scene that helped define indie-rock. Phillipps refreshed ‘60s verities by mixing melancholy sensitivity with dark lyrical twists, punk idiosyncrasy and aggression, his compatriot Neil Finn noting (in 2019 documentary The Chills: The Triumph & Tragedy of Martin Phillipps) “a sense of longing, a little alienation, but also an embrace of all those things”. The band’s influence extends far and wide. “The Chills have this outsider attractiveness,” Jane Weaver tells Uncut. “Martin Phillipps was such an enigmatic frontman, poetic and deep in his words but then melodic and poppy – a bittersweet mix.”

Phillipps’ personality could be equally knotty and rewarding. “He could seem like he’s on another planet, like an alien,” recalls Chills bassist Callum Hampton. “His sense of humour didn’t come out in the songs, but he was very dry, very quick.” Knudson concurs: “In another life he could have been a comedian – or a pirate!”

Phillipps nearly died in the 2010s from alcoholism and Hepatitis C, contracted as a consequence of earlier heroin addiction. Recovery from both gave him a new, urgent lease of life. “Did he have a sense of limited time? Definitely,” Knudson says. “He felt lucky to be given a second chance and he went for it.” The Chills released three albums since 2015 (having only managed four in the previous 35 years) and this momentum was maintained for Spring Board.“All of the songs needed various degrees of rewriting,” Phillipps said of the project. “A 60-year-old man couldn’t just stick to the lyrics of those formative years.” However, his chosen closing song, “I Don’t Want To Live Forever”, with its now-poignant line “There’s so much to do before I’m through”, was left largely intact. “I don’t think he changed it from the demo,” Hampton says. “That’s him in the ’90s.”

Phillipps had been anticipating a February 2025 live return to the UK and Europe. “The actual last show was in Galway,” Hampton says. “But the last New Zealand show was at Feastock [on April 22, 2023], a festival in the backyard of my house with a few hundred people. Martin was like, ‘Fuck yeah, we’ll play that.’ He loved it, and afterwards he watched all the other Dunedin bands and chatted away. It was a special moment.”

Jane Weaver recalls another moving scene. “After supporting The Chills in the US, I bought Martin a signed card from the band to say, ‘Thanks so much for having us on tour!’ Our bass player saw Martin open the card and read it – he said he was looking at it for ages like he was really touched by the simple gesture. It makes me cry a bit now, as Martin was such a sweet guy.”

“I still talk to Martin, and I miss him a lot,” Knudson says. “But then I remember the body of work he put out. My goodness!”

Spring Board: The Early Unrecorded Songs is available now from Fire

The Tubs – Cotton Crown

Peter Watts
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The Tubs – Cotton Crown

Buy Cotton Crown here

In 2014, Owen Williams’ mother, the writer and musician Charlotte Greig, took her own life while suffering from cancer. At the wake, a stranger told Williams he should write a song for his mum. It took Williams more than a decade to find the right words. “Well, whoever the hell you are, I’m sorry, I guess this is it,” he sings on “Strange”, the bruising final song on The Tubs’ superb second album, Cotton Crown.

THE APRIL 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT, STARRING LED ZEPPELIN, JASON ISBELL, BRYAN FERRY, MARIANNE FAITHFULL, THE WATERBOYS, DAVID BOWIE, MADDY PRIOR AND MORE, IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW

“Strange” is one of those songs that could be a short story or poem but is given added potency when set to music. Everything that makes The Tubs interesting can be found in the song – the addictive jangle of the music, the sheen of darkness behind the melody and the lyrical concision of Williams, who writes a song about writing a song that is exorcism, confession and accusation all at once.

It’s difficult to imagine having to confront such a personal subject in such a public manner, but that, after all, is what art is all about. There’s a photo of Charlotte on the album cover. She is in a graveyard, cradling an infant. The picture is a promotional shot for her eerie 1998 folk debut, Night Visiting Songs, and the child is Owen, who went on to form Welsh indie-pop experimentalists Joanna Gruesome. Three members of Joanna Gruesome are in The Tubs – Williams, guitarist George Nicholls and Max Warren on bass – while Joanna Gruesome’s original lead singer, Lan McArdle, sings backing vocals on several tracks.

But where Joanna Gruesome could be delightfully impenetrable, hiding behind a screen of screaming, noise and feedback, The Tubs are more confident about being approachable. It’s that classic indie combination: lyrics for the heart and soul, music for the feet and guts, as Williams sings fetchingly of self-hate and personal failure while Nicholls flays the guitar and the rhythm section pound a spry beat. The Smiths are one touchstone and “Narcissist” even begins with a drumbeat intro reminiscent of “This Charming Man”, while Williams make a romantic appeal to an individual who might be a sociopath but at least offers an alternative to solitude in one of London’s lonely rooms.

The Tubs’ 2022 debut, Dead Meat, was a nine-track janglethon with fantastic melodies and folk inflections that saw Williams compared to Richard Thompson. Those elements are still in place, but Cotton Crown is more firmly in the power-pop vein, recalling The Go-Betweens, Elvis Costello, The Clash, Pretenders and Sugar as well more distant forbears like The Byrds.   

But it’s The Smiths that most often spring to mind. The Marr-like cascading chimes of opening number “The Thing Is” introduce one of the leaner songs on the album. Wiliams adopts the role of a feckless lover, one who will abandon their partner in Catford Wetherspoons, but knows they will be able to get away with it. The music mirrors the persuasive charm of the narrator, hooking you in even as the singer boasts they’re a bit of a heel.

It’s a great example of Williams’ skill as a writer and musician. As well as leading The Tubs, Williams edits a literature and poetry magazine called Perfect Angel, plays bass in Porridge Radio and has just released his second album as Ex-Vöid, a duo with McArdle. In fact, Williams plays in half-a-dozen bands, part of an overlapping web of London-based artists called Gob Nation. These include TSG, whose singer is Tubs drummer Taylor Stewart, and Sniffany And The Nits, whose bassist is The Tubs’ Max Warren. Sniffany And The Nits’ guitarist is Matt Green, who runs the studio favoured by Gob Nation bands. He co-produced Cotton Crown and played additional guitar and keyboard. Oh, and Williams is another one of The Nits, on drums this time. It’s all reminiscent of the LA scene that revolves around Ty Segall.

To add to the fun, there’s even a Gob Nation band called Cotton Crown – that’s the name under which Owen Williams records solo songs such as Cotton Crown’s “Freak Mode”. These are more thought-through than a simple demo. On Cotton Crown, “Freak Mode” comes flying out the blocks like something from Sugar’s debut album, but the solo Cotton Crown version is more shoegazey, with acoustic guitar, treated vocals and samples.

There’s something bolder about The Tubs’ simpler version, with Williams enjoying the security provided by Nicholls’ rich guitar tones as he admits to being “a freak in love”. While The Tubs generally stick to their winning formula, they do introduce elements from the other bands in the extended Gob Nation universe. “Illusion” is a more restrained version of the punky approach of Sniffany And The Nits or TSG, while “Chain Reaction” sees Williams adopt a sneerier tone. The abrasive “One More Day” switches between confrontational verses, similar to Sleaford Mods, and a chorus, initially pleading and soothing but increasingly demanding, on which Williams begs for “one more day”.

Most of the songs on Cotton Crown are directed at a lover, and Williams rarely paints himself in favourable terms. On the new wave-ish “Embarrassing”, he’s drinking and taking speed as he waits for a call that will never come. “Know I’ve been an arsehole baby/Know I’ve been such a pain”, he sings on “Fair Enough”, while “Chain Reaction” begins with the confession that “I am a scammer in the world of love”. That makes the poignant “Strange” such a mood shift, particularly when the ever-present guitar suddenly drops out and lets Williams carry the song, folk-style, to honour his mum. “How strange it all is,” he concludes ruefully against a retreating wave of dark synths, and sometimes there’s nothing more to be said.

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Panda Bear – Sinister Grift

Sharon O'Connell
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Panda Bear – Sinister Grift

Buy Sinister Grift here

The claim that Animal Collective changed the shape of experimental indie pop, not just for however long a trend’s shelf-life was in the noughties, but permanently, is hard to deny: 17 years on from their Strawberry Jam crossover, their influence endures in myriad disparate forms from Mermaid Chunky to Sun Araw and UMO. You might imagine that membership of a band so significant and distinctive would involve at least some wrestling on the part of the four individuals who maintain parallel careers, but the parent band-solo artist dynamic seems to be a mutually supportive, multiway street.

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Noah Lennox’s latest as Panda Bear is clear evidence of these long-standing friendships with benefits. Recorded at his home studio in Lisbon and co-produced by Josh Dibb aka AnCo’s Deakin, Sinister Grift also features David Portner (Avery Tare, returning a guest favour from last year’s “Vampire Tongues”) and Brian Weitz (Geologist, credited with “sounds”), though it’s demonstrably a solo album – Lennox plays guitar, bass, drums/percussion, synth and piano. Sadness and reflection have always marked his records out from both his bandmates’ and the Collective’s but on 2019’s Buoys, Lennox increased the lonesomeness by streamlining his song structures, dialling down the effects and, most strikingly, singing in an expressive high croon.

He’s pulled the first two of those changes into the new album in a way that feels less dramatic because it’s a more uniform approach. That’s not to say the songs are of one kind, simply that they’re lean and immediate in nature, with a melodic ease that belies lyrics awash with loss and uncertainty, regret, overwhelm and defeat, feelings that sit right on the surface, undisguised. Tempting though it is to read them as related to Lennox’s putative split from his wife, as he told Uncut, “the songs aren’t strictly autobiographical. The feelings and some of the experiences referenced are inspired by difficult times I’d been through, but they’ve been expanded and twisted so as to assume a character of their own.”

“Praise” opens the set: driven by a simple, handclap-style beat and featuring Beach Boys-ish harmonies heavy on the reverb, it’s like being greeted by an old friend, an effect that’s amplified by “Anywhere But Here”, which sees Lennox’s daughter, Nadja, stepping up to the mic for spoken verses in Portuguese. However light and charmingly familiar the music, though, her father’s voice is weighted with emotion: “I’m crumbling within, can’t do what I swore,” he declares. “Not anymore/Because I can’t let go, can’t say goodbye/A residue in spite of you”. Though it’s no less melancholic, there’s a slight shift in tone with “50mg”, which suggests Kevin Parker on an early Beatles and Byrds tip, a touch of lap steel upping the existential doubt. With its mento swing, brief echo of “La Bamba” and simulated steel pans, “Ends Meet” can’t help but call to mind Vampire Weekend, while “Ferry Lady” is a poppier echo of Lennox’s previous dub/reggae excursions which unfolds the crosscurrents of feeling that run beneath relationships of all stripes (“thought we’d be friends again/Pushed to the end/We can but we don’t). “Left In The Cold” and “Elegy For Noah Lou” are of a kind sonically and temperamentally, standing apart from the rest of the record. The former is a gently undulating, melancholic meeting of Harold Budd, MBV and Radiohead circa A Moon Shaped Pool, the latter a delicately housed-up, winnowing submergence of guitar and electronics that tilts at both Scott Walker and Kompakt acts like Superpitcher. It’s also a welcome reminder of the innate, emotional potency of Lennox’s voice.

The album closes on a slightly ambiguous note with the steadily loping, psych-gospel pull of “Defense”. Featuring pivotal overdubs from guitarist Patrick Flegel (aka Cindy Lee), it has the kind of bereft, radiant beauty that James Mercer and Jason Pierce might appreciate. Constitutionally, though, it’s a pool of exhausted feelings. “In some sense feel like I’m beat/Let down by your pride,” says Lennox, his voice rising and falling, clean and sweet. Later, “with respect/Trying to reset what’s inside my mind/This place I can’t occupy/Here I come”. It’s those last three words that carry tentative hope for the future.

Sinister Grift may not be a riot of experimentation – there are no extended psychedelic ragas, vast meshes of effects or dense sample interplay, and Lennox’s voice is seldom reverbed (clearly, he wants the words to hit) – but maybe he’s done with dizzying florescence. If at this point he prefers to see the wood for the trees, he’s earned the right.

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Hear Matt Berninger’s new track, “Bonnet Of Pins”

Michael Bonner
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Hear Matt Berninger’s new track, “Bonnet Of Pins”

Matt Berninger has announced details of a new solo album, Get Sunk. The National frontman’s second solo album, following 2020’s Serpentine Prison, it will be released by Book/Concord Records on May 30. You can pre-order the album here.

You can hear “Bonnet Of Pins” from Get Sunk below.

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Beringer worked on the album with engineer and co-writer, Sean O’Brien, in Silverlake, California.

Guests on Get Sunk include Meg Duffy (Hand Habits), Julia Laws (Ronboy), Kyle Resnick (The National, Beirut), Garret Lang, Sterling Laws, Booker T Jones, Harrison Whitford, Mike Brewer and The Walkmen’s Walter Martin and Paul Maroon.

Tracklisting for Get Sunk is:

Inland Ocean
No Love
Bonnet of Pins
Frozen Oranges
Breaking Into Acting (feat. Hand Habits)
Nowhere Special
Little by Little
Junk
Silver Jeep (feat. Ronboy)
Times of Difficulty

Berninger will also tour the album, including End Of The Road festival.

May 19 – Seattle, WA – The Showbox
May 20 – San Francisco, CA – Bimbo’s 365 Club
May 21 – Los Angeles, CA – Palace Theatre
May 23 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
May 24 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
May 26 – Toronto, ON – Concert Hall
May 28 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
May 29 – Washington, DC – Lincoln Theatre
May 30 – New York, NY – Webster Hall
August 23 – Dublin, Ireland – Vicar Street
August 25 – Glasgow, UK – SWG3 Galvanizers
August 26 – Manchester, UK – Albert Hall
August 27 – London, UK – Troxy
August 28-31 – End Of The Road Festival
August 31 – Utrecht, Netherlands – Tivoli Vredenburg
September 1 – Antwerp, Belgium – Olt Rivierenhof
September 2 – Paris, France – Elysee Montmartre
September 4 – Berlin, Germany – Huxleys
September 5 – Copehagen, Denmark – Vega
September 6 – Oslo, Norway – Rockefeller Music Hall

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