Following the release of Spying Through A Keyhole, Parlophone have announced that they'll release a further 7" box set of early David Bowie demos on May 17.
Clareville Grove Demos contains six tracks recorded in January 1969 in Bowie’s London flat with John ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson, following the e...
Following the release of Spying Through A Keyhole, Parlophone have announced that they’ll release a further 7″ box set of early David Bowie demos on May 17.
Clareville Grove Demos contains six tracks recorded in January 1969 in Bowie’s London flat with John ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson, following the end of the Feathers trio which featured Bowie’s then girlfriend Hermione Farthingale. Four of the tracks are previously unreleased.
The photograph on the front is by Bowie’s then manager Ken Pitt and was taken in the Clareville Grove flat he had shared with Hermione. His short-haired look was due to him filming his role in the movie The Virgin Soldiers.
Read Parlophone’s annotated tracklisting for Clareville Grove Demos below:
Single 1
Side A
“Space Oddity”
Now featuring the final lyrics, this version of the demo first appeared on the long deleted Space Oddity 40th Anniversary 2CD release. It’s making its debut on vinyl and predates the 2nd February Morgan Studios recording that featured in the unbroadcast Love You Till Tuesday television film.
Side B
“Lover To The Dawn”
This song aimed at a former lover would eventually morph into “Cygnet Committee” recorded for the David Bowie (aka Space Oddity) album later in the year.
Single 2
Side A
“Ching-a-Ling”
Previously recorded in October 1968 by the trio Turquoise featuring David, Hermione and Tony Hill (who became Feathers when Hutch replaced Hill). David and Hutch continued to perform the song as a duo following Hermione’s departure.
Side B
“An Occasional Dream”
Slightly different lyrically to the later album version, this version of the demo also first appeared on the deleted Space Oddity 40th Anniversary release.
Single 3
Side A
“Let Me Sleep Beside You”
A studio version was first recorded in September 1967 but remained unreleased until The World Of David Bowie album in 1970. The song was later recorded in session for the BBC in October 1969 and was one David clearly believed in, recording it once more for the unreleased Toy album 30 years later. That version finally saw the light of day on the Nothing Has Changed 3CD set in 2014.
Side B
“Life Is A Circus”
A cover of an obscure song written by Roger Bunn and recorded by vocal/instrumental quartet Djinn. Vocals are shared, Simon and Garfunkel-style, by David and Hutch.
Following the departure last year of founding member Gerard Love, Teenage Fanclub have unveiled their new line-up. It features Euros Childs of Gorky's Zygotic Mynci on keys and backing vocals, with Dave McGowan moving across to bass.
You can watch the new-look Teenage Fanclub in action on a video f...
Following the departure last year of founding member Gerard Love, Teenage Fanclub have unveiled their new line-up. It features Euros Childs of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci on keys and backing vocals, with Dave McGowan moving across to bass.
You can watch the new-look Teenage Fanclub in action on a video for new single “Everything Is Falling Apart”:
“Everything Is Falling Apart” was recorded at Hamburg’s Clouds Hill Studios in January, ahead of Teenage Fanclub’s US tour which starts tomorrow (full dates below). A press release states that “The band will be playing tracks from their extensive 30-year catalogue, plus brand-new never heard before tracks including ‘Everything Is Falling Apart’.”
Feb 21 Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom^
Feb 22 Seattle, WA – Neptune^
Feb 23 Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom^
Feb 25 San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore (Noise Pop)^
Feb 26 Los Angeles, CA – Teragram Ballroom^
Feb 27 Los Angeles, CA – Teragram Ballroom^
Mar 02 Denver, CO – Bluebird^
Mar 04 Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater^
Mar 05 Madison, WI – Majestic Theatre^
Mar 06 Chicago, IL – Metro^
Mar 07 Detroit, MI – El Club^
Mar 08 Toronto, ON – Phoenix Concert Theatre^
Mar 09 Montreal, QC – Petit Campus^
Mar 11 Boston, MA – Paradise Theatre^
Mar 13 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom^ [SOLD OUT]
Mar 14 Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg^
Mar 15 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer^
Mar 16 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club^
Mar 18 Saxapahaw, NC – Haw River Ballroom (MRG30 kick-off)^*
^ w/ The Love Language
* w/ Eric Bachmann
The Dream Syndicate have announced that their new album These Times will be released by Anti- on May 3.
Watch a video for the song "Black Light" below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGaXfuTWx4k&feature=youtu.be
Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home!
These Tim...
The Dream Syndicate have announced that their new album These Times will be released by Anti- on May 3.
“These Times. That’s it. It is all we’re talking about, all we’re thinking about,” says lead singer and songwriter Steve Wynn. “There is no avoiding the existential panic of a world that’s hurtling somewhere quickly, evolving, and shifting course by the hour. It seems like a lie to not address or reflect the things that we can’t stop thinking about—the whole world’s watching indeed. The lyrics are just a mirror of the dread, panic, mania, speculation, melancholy and ultimately shrugging abandonment that just might follow. It’s just all about where we are.
“When I was writing the songs for the new album I was pretty obsessed with Donuts by J-Dilla,” adds Wynn. “I loved the way that he approached record making as a DJ, a crate-digger, a music fan wanting to lay out all of his favourite music, twist and turn the results until he made them into his own. I was messing around with step sequencers, drum machines, loops—anything to take me out of my usual way of writing and try to feel as though I was working on a compilation rather than ‘more of the same’. You might not automatically put The Dream Syndicate and J-Dilla in the same sentence, but I hear that album when I hear our new one.”
Check out the cover art below and pre-order These Timeshere.
The Smiths' eponymous debut album was released 35 years ago today (February 20).
To celebrate this momentous anniversary, we're giving away two vinyl copies of the album (2011 remaster), along with two copies of The Queen Is Dead (the 5LP box featuring the 2017 master of the album, additional reco...
The Smiths’ eponymous debut album was released 35 years ago today (February 20).
To celebrate this momentous anniversary, we’re giving away two vinyl copies of the album (2011 remaster), along with two copies of The Queen Is Dead (the 5LP box featuring the 2017 master of the album, additional recordings and the ‘Live In Boston’ set).
All you have to do to win a copy of both albums is answer the following question:
Who is the actor depicted on the cover of The Smiths?
a) Terence Stamp
b) Alain Delon
c) Joe Dallesandro
Send your answers to UncutComp@ti-media.com by Friday February 22. The first two correct respondents picked at random from the Uncut inbox will win the LPs.
Remind yourself of what The Smiths sounds like below:
Earlier this year, trailblazing riot grrrl band Bikini Kill announced they were reforming to play a short run of shows in the US.
They've now added a sole European show to their 2019 itinerary, at London's O2 Academy Brixton on June 10.
Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to yo...
Earlier this year, trailblazing riot grrrl band Bikini Kill announced they were reforming to play a short run of shows in the US.
They’ve now added a sole European show to their 2019 itinerary, at London’s O2 Academy Brixton on June 10.
Aldous Harding has announced that her new album Designer will be released by 4AD on April 26.
Watch a video for the first single, "The Barrel", below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyZeJr5ppm8&feature=youtu.be
Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home!
Designer w...
Aldous Harding has announced that her new album Designer will be released by 4AD on April 26.
Watch a video for the first single, “The Barrel”, below:
Designer was recorded in Monmouth and Bristol by John Parrish, and features contributions from Huw Evans (H. Hawkline), Stephen Black (Sweet Baboo), drummer Gwion Llewelyn and violinist Claire MacTaggart.
View Aldous Harding’s full 2019 touring itinerary below, including a new date at London’s Roundhouse on December 5 (tickets available here):
8 April – BROOKLYN, NY, Rough Trade
9 April – WASHINGTON, DC, DC 9
10 April – PHILADELPHIA, PA, Johnny Brenda’s
11 April – KINGSTON, NY, BSP
12 April – MONTREAL, QC, Sala Rosa
14 April – CHICAGO, IL, Empty Bottle
15 April – MINNEAPOLIS, MN, First Ave Presents @ Turf Club
18 April – SEATTLE, WA ,Tractor Tavern
19 April – PORTLAND, OR, Mississippi Studios Presents @ Polaris Hall
22 April – SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Rickshaw
24 April – LOS ANGELES, CA, Zebulon
12 May – BERLIN, Privat Club **SOLD OUT**
14 May – BRUSSELS, Rotonde Botanique **SOLD OUT**
15 May – BRIGHTON, Concorde 2
16 May – CAMBRIDGE, Junction 2
17 May – LEEDS, Brudenell
18 May – GLASGOW, The Art School
19 May – NEWCASTLE, The Cluny 2 **SOLD OUT**
21 May – MANCHESTER, Gorilla
22 May – LONDON, EartH **SOLD OUT**
23 May – BRISTOL, Trinity
25 May – PARIS, La Maroquinerie
26 May – LILLE, Maison Folie Wazemmes
28 May – NANTES, Stereolux
29 May – BORDEAUX, Rock School Barbey
30 May – NIMES, This Is Not A Love Song
31 May – BARCELONA, Primavera Sound
1 June – HILVARENBEEK, Best Kept Secret
7 June – PORTO, Primavera Sound
7 July – BRUGES, Cactus Festival
12 July – DUBLIN, Iveagh Gardens
25-28 July – ST GERMANS, Port Eliot Festival
2-4 August – KATOWICE, OFF Festival
15-18 August – BRECON BEACONS, Green Man Festival
5 December – LONDON, Roundhouse
John Lennon, Keith Richards, Anne Briggs and Jenny Lewis all appear in the new issue of Uncut, out on February 21.
Lennon is on the cover, and inside we look at his revolutionary, pivotal 1969: from bed-ins and radical, experimental films to free jazz and acorns.
“He never said to me, ‘I’m d...
John Lennon, Keith Richards, Anne Briggs and Jenny Lewis all appear in the new issue of Uncut, out on February 21.
Lennon is on the cover, and inside we look at his revolutionary, pivotal 1969: from bed-ins and radical, experimental films to free jazz and acorns.
“He never said to me, ‘I’m doing this to blow up The Beatles,’” says one confidant, “but I felt that was what was happening.”
Keith Richards revisits his solo debut Talk Is Cheap, recorded during that long ’80s hiatus when the Stones’ future looked uncertain to many. Not Richards, of course: “I had no doubt the Stones would regroup,” he says. “They’ve got nowhere else to go!”
Uncut also meets the elusive folk singer Anne Briggs for a very rare and frank discussion of her life and talents. “I don’t know who I am, I don’t know what I am,” she tells us, “but I am.”
Jenny Lewis takes us through her finest albums to date, from Rilo Kiley’s debut Take Offs And Landings to her new solo album On The Line, while Edwyn Collins invites us up to his home in the remote north of Scotland to discuss the local herring industry, beachside epiphanies and his new album, Badbea. “It does look back a little more than I’m used to,” admits Collins.
In our An Audience With feature, Robert Forster answers your questions on The Go-Betweens’ legacy, bunking up with The Birthday Party and his close shave with hairdressing.
Steve Marriott’s ex-bandmates reveal the full story of Humble Pie, from the bad decisions to bad behaviour of this heavy ’70s supergroup.
Lou Reed’s New York album turns 30, and we tell the tale of its creation, from the death of Andy Warhol to the revitalisation of Reed’s career. Moe Tucker, Reed’s ex-wife Sylvia, producer Fred Maher and more recall this pivotal period.
Elsewhere, we detail the making of James Brown’s “Say It Loud – I’m Black And Proud”, catch The Specials and Patti Smith live, and discover the records that have impacted Patty Griffin’s life.
In our Instant Karma front section, we hear about the Elton John biopic Rocketman and a new film about the troubled life of The Sound’s Adrian Borland, and speak to Judy Collins, Dr Strangely Strange and Kel Assouf.
Our extensive reviews section takes in new albums from Pond, Lambchop, Patty Griffin, The Comet Is Coming, Stephen Malkmus and Better Oblivion Community Center, and archive releases from the Flamin Groovies, Keith Richards, Curtis Mayfield, Shirley Collins and The Ruts.
We also look at DVDs, films and TV including Under The Silver Lake, Burning Men and Paul Weller live, and books from Poly Styrene and Damo Susuki.
Our free CD, Holy Rollers, includes 15 tracks of the month’s best music, including Robert Forster, Ex Hex, Lambchop, Pond, Patty Griffin, Stephen Malkmus, Laure Briard, Strand Of Oaks and The Unthanks.
Welcome to the new issue of Uncut. Our cover star is John Lennon, whose momentous 1969 is documented here by Peter Watts – with a little help from assorted eyewitnesses. You could argue that every year during the 1960s was similarly dramatic for the Beatle – but even by those dizzying standards,...
Welcome to the new issue of Uncut. Our cover star is John Lennon, whose momentous 1969 is documented here by Peter Watts – with a little help from assorted eyewitnesses. You could argue that every year during the 1960s was similarly dramatic for the Beatle – but even by those dizzying standards, 1969 found Lennon at a pivotal point in his life, ready to embrace new possibilities. This, then, was a bewildering 12 months that took in four albums, three concerts, two bed-ins and a marriage. Join us for free jazz in Cambridge, rock’n’roll in Toronto and Peace And Love For Christmas; radical interventions, performance art and the amazing Plastic Ono Band. “He never said to me, ‘I’m doing this to blow up The Beatles,’” says one confidant. “But I felt that was what was happening.”
Keith Richards revisits his solo debut Talk Is Cheap, recorded during that long ’80s hiatus when the Stones’ future looked uncertain to many. Not Richards, of course; “I had no doubt the Stones would regroup,” he says confidently. “They’ve got nowhere else to go!” We talk to the reclusive English folk singer Anne Briggs talks about her brief but indelible career – and why it had to end so soon. It’s a haunting interview; full of darkness, anger and revelations. “I learned to read when I was about five years old and all I wanted to be was Mowgli,” she tells Jim Wirth. “Mowgli could do all of the things I wasn’t allowed to do.”
Elsewhere, Steve Marriott swaps Small Faces for Humble Pie – whose remarkable story is recounted by Marriott’s bandmates Peter Frampton, Jerry Shirley and Clem Clemson. Michael Odell spends a bracing 24 hours in the wilds of northern Scotland with Edwyn Collins and his long-suffering wife, Grace Maxwell. “Do your flies up, we’ve got a guest,” she admonishes her errant husband. And then there is Lou Reed, on the brink of a mid-career renaissance with his New York album. Tom Pinnock talks to Reed’s collaborators (including Moe Tucker) about this brilliant LP – and how it lead to the VU reunion.
Meanwhile, Jenny Lewis talks us through her brilliant albums, we take a sneak peek at Elton John‘s Rocketman biopic, Robert Forster answers your questions and the secrets of James Brown‘s working methods are revealed. There’s Judy Collins, Patty Griffin, The Sound, Kel Assouf and Dr Strangely Strange.
Uncut is committed to new music and in this issue you can read about Ex Hex, The Comet Is Coming and Hand Habits. We also check in with Pond, Lambchop, Stephen Malkmus and meet shadowy ‘new’ outfit, The Better Community Oblivion Center.
Just a quick note as we're about to unveil our new issue - more news on that soon - but here's this week's selection of top tunes in heavy rotation on the office stereo. That Modern Nature track really is something else. Enjoy!
Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner
1.
MODERN NATURE
“Supernature”...
Just a quick note as we’re about to unveil our new issue – more news on that soon – but here’s this week’s selection of top tunes in heavy rotation on the office stereo. That Modern Nature track really is something else. Enjoy!
Alice Cooper will bring an all-new show to the UK for seven dates in October.
He'll be supported on the 'Ol’ Black Eyes Is Back' tour by The Stranglers and Wayne Kramer's new incarnation of The MC5, MC50.
Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home!
See the full list of...
Alice Cooper will bring an all-new show to the UK for seven dates in October.
He’ll be supported on the ‘Ol’ Black Eyes Is Back’ tour by The Stranglers and Wayne Kramer’s new incarnation of The MC5, MC50.
OCTOBER
4th – Manchester – Manchester Arena
5th – Aberdeen – Event Complex
7th – Leeds – First Direct Arena
8th – Brighton – Brighton Centre
10th – London – The O2
11th – Birmingham – Resorts World Arena
12th – Cardiff Arena
Tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday (February 22) from here.
After a successful Antipodean run earlier in the year, Nick Cave is bringing his Conversations tour to Europe in May and June.
Described by Cave as “an exercise in connectivity”, he will take questions from the audience and perform some of his most beloved songs on piano.
Order the latest iss...
After a successful Antipodean run earlier in the year, Nick Cave is bringing his Conversations tour to Europe in May and June.
Described by Cave as “an exercise in connectivity”, he will take questions from the audience and perform some of his most beloved songs on piano.
See the full list of Conversations With Nick Cave tourdates below:
Monday 13 May Friedrich-Ebert-Halle, Hamburg, Germany
Wednesday 15 May Admiralspalast, Berlin, Germany
Thursday 16 May Tonhalle, Düsseldorf, Germany
Sunday 19 May Oslo Konserthus, Oslo, Norway
Tuesday 21 May DR Koncerthuset – Koncertsalen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Friday 24 May Philharmonie Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Sunday 26 May Het Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Monday 27 May TivoliVredenburg – Grote Zaal, Utrecht, Netherlands
Wednesday 29 May De Roma, Antwerp, Belgium
Friday 31 May Cirkus Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden Saturday 15 June Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, UK
Monday 17 June Symphony Hall, Birmingham, UK
Wednesday 19 June The Barbican, London, UK
Thursday 20 June The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, UK
Saturday 22 June Usher Hall Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
Sunday 23 June Sage One, Sage Gateshead, Gateshead, UK
Tuesday 25 June Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, UK
Wednesday 26 June Eventim Olympia, Liverpool, UK
Friday 28 June Brighton Dome Concert Hall, Brighton, UK
Tickets go on sale at 9am on Thursday (February 21) from here.
It’s been 10 years since The Specials got back together. Since then they’ve sold out venues from Sydney to San Francisco, from Tokyo to Toronto, and played prominent slots to huge festival crowds from GuilFest to Glastonbury, from Coventry City’s Ricoh Arena to Hyde Park. What they’ve not do...
It’s been 10 years since The Specials got back together. Since then they’ve sold out venues from Sydney to San Francisco, from Tokyo to Toronto, and played prominent slots to huge festival crowds from GuilFest to Glastonbury, from Coventry City’s Ricoh Arena to Hyde Park. What they’ve not done until now, however, is write any new material. This might because the band’s principal songwriter, Jerry Dammers, wasn’t involved in the reunion – either (depending on who you believe) because he was forced out, or because he absented himself.
Instead the remaining members – singers Terry Hall, Lynval Golding and Neville Staple, guitarist Roddy ‘Radiation’ Byers, bassist Horace Panter and drummer John Bradbury – continued without him, playing (largely) Dammers’ songs, unimpeded by any new product.
They’ve since shed a few original members – Bradbury died in 2015, Staple quit owing to ill health in 2012, while Byers (the band’s other prolific songwriter) left in 2014 – leaving just Hall, Golding and Panter as the core members. They’re joined by Danish pianist Nikolaj Torp Larsen (a seasoned session musician who has worked with everyone from Lana Del Rey to Elton John), along with jazz and reggae drummer Kenrick Rowe and Ocean Colour Scene/Paul Weller guitarist Steve Cradock.
Dammers once postulated that the band advanced so much between the first and second albums that it was like they’d shifted from With The Beatles to Sgt Pepper while totally bypassing, say, Rubber Soul. Weirdly, Encore serves as that imaginary intermediate album, a step up from the rough-and-ready monochrome world of the 1979 debut LP but not entirely comfortable with the garish esoterica of More Specials (1980). Its tracks can be split into three groups: cover versions, spoken-word tracks and ‘proper songs’.
Covers have always been an essential part of the Specials catalogue, and there are plenty on Encore. It kicks off with a fearsome, clavinet-heavy disco version of Eddy Grant and The Equals’ funky, multiracial anthem “Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boys”. The band also update an obscure 1967 Trojan track about gun crime, the deceptively jolly “Blam Blam Fever” by The Valentines; and even revisit “The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum)”, a song that Hall, Golding and Staples wrote as the follow-up to “Ghost Town” but ended up performing in the Fun Boy Three. Where the original was stark and minimal, this version, renamed “The Lunatics”, comes beautifully upholstered with antique Afro-Cuban strings and horns, with Larsen providing a lavish and suitably demented piano intro.
Another cover, of sorts, is “Ten Commandments”, a response to Prince Buster’s astonishingly sexist song of the same name. Where the 1965 original is a virtual manifesto for rape, murder, adultery and marital coercion (“Thou shall not provoke me to anger or my wrath will descend upon you heavily”), here the band enlist anti-EDL activist Saffiyah Khan to provide a feminist response, delivering her proclamations in a suitably blank Brummie accent (“thou shall not tell me what to wear or how to wear it”) over a space-age dub backing.
It’s one of three spoken-word songs on the album. “BLM” sees Golding conversationally reciting experiences of racism over a funk groove, while “The Life And Times (Of A Man Called Depression)” sees Hall deliver a brilliantly poetic, soul-baring monologue about mental illness (“I refuse to succumb to what your vision of happy should look like”) over the suitably disorientating time-signature of 5/4.
That leaves just four ‘proper’ original songs. “We Sell Hope” is a gentle, string-drenched plea for global understanding. “Embarrassed By You” is an extremely un-rock’n’roll response to teenage criminality (“We never fought for freedom for nasty little brutes like you,” spits Golding, directing his righteous anger towards moped muggers and knife-wielding hoodlums). “Breaking Point” subverts UKIP’s referendum slogan to attack everything from petty nationalism to smartphone addiction. Best of all is “Vote For Me”, a delightfully bitter little skank about the unreliability of politicians.
Even in his absence, Dammers haunts proceedings, with Larsen constantly referencing his riffs and his arrangements. “Vote For Me” starts with the eerie diminished chord sequence that Dammers used on “Ghost Town”; “The Lunatics” uses the kind of lavish orchestrations that Dammers employed on tracks like “Stereotypes”; while the eccentric, tuba-driven, Balkans-meets-Berlin cabaret of “Breaking Point” would have fitted comfortably onto the world music pastiches on More Specials.
Encore is a perfectly good record – it skanks and bubbles in all the right places, explores some interesting sonic territories, and features at least two tracks that will have live audiences singing along as if they were 40-year-old singles. But one can’t help but wonder how Dammers’ wayward genius might have added a level of glorious unpredictability to proceedings.
On the cover of Bassekou Kouyate’s fifth album, his huge hands grasp a tiny instrument that to the uninitiated looks like a child’s toy. With its four strings, tiny body covered in cow hide and short, fretless neck, Kouyate’s ngoni is an invention of such modest simplicity that you wonder how ...
On the cover of Bassekou Kouyate’s fifth album, his huge hands grasp a tiny instrument that to the uninitiated looks like a child’s toy. With its four strings, tiny body covered in cow hide and short, fretless neck, Kouyate’s ngoni is an invention of such modest simplicity that you wonder how he coaxes such a mighty sound of it.
The answer, of course, is that after paying his dues as a backing musician with Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté, the Malian virtuoso revolutionised the centuries-old instrument on his 2007 solo debut Segu Blue, adding pick-ups and wah-wah to the ngoni’s raw and earthy banjo-like acoustic plucking. Playing with a dynamic rock’n’roll energy and wielding the instrument like an electric guitar rather than performing in the customary seated position, he was swiftly dubbed the “Hendrix of the ngoni”.
Over the course of three further albums his ambition grew ever bolder. On 2013’s Jama Ko, former Arcade Fire producer Howard Bilerman took the helm and upped the rock’n’roll attack. The process reached its high tide with the full-throttle electric roar of 2015’s Ba Power, produced by Walkabouts veteran Chris Eckman.
On first hearing, admirers of those albums may feel that Miri represents a step back. “I have two kinds of people listening to my music,” Kouyate once noted. “African listeners, who understand what I’m telling them, and people in Europe and America, who listen to my music for its vibe but don’t get the lyrics. I wanted a contemporary sound for those listeners. But the balance is to maintain some tradition to please my African audience.”
Miri tilts that balance back towards African tradition. It’s an album on which – metaphorically at least – he reverts to the seated position in which the ngoni was played since time immemorial until the revolution he brought about. The album’s title translates as “contemplation”, and it’s a fitting description of a quieter, more thoughtful set steeped in the folk styles of the Manding and Bambara empires that dominated West Africa for centuries, though the songs exist trenchantly in the here and now, addressing the political and social concerns of modern Malian society.
The good news is that despite the absence of the distortion and effects pedals heard on Kouyate’s last two albums, there is still plenty of invention and crisp note-bending to entice and thrill western ears, from “Wele Ni”, on which he plays the ngoni blues with a bottleneck, to the pneumatic, funk-fuelled rhythms of “Konya” on which his snapping lead lines duel with the electric guitar of Snarky Puppy’s Michael League.
There are plenty of other guests, adding global flavours from Brooklyn to Marrakech, via Havana. Yet at its heart, the record is a family affair, built around Kouyate’s five-piece band Ngoni Ba, featuring the soulfully keening lead vocals of his wife Amy Sacko, sons Madou Kouyate (bass ngoni) and Moctar Kouyate (percussion) and his niece Kankou Kouyate on backing vocals. The family ensemble is heard at its most intimate on the gently rhythmic opener “Kanougan”, an acoustic love song with the lilt of a lullaby that evokes bucolic dream images of Kouyate’s village on the banks of the Niger, far from the noise and turbulence of the capital Bamako, where he’s now based.
“Deli” finds Kouyate’s ngoni rippling with a kora-like elegance rather than the fierce, jagged notes for which he’s become famous. “Kanto Kelena” is bluesier ,with a gritty vocal from Habib Koite on the sort of tune you might find on an Ali Farka Touré album. “Wele Cuba” is a simmering Buena Vista…-style jam that pays tribute to the influence of Cuban rhythms on West African music with Yasel González Rivera from the reggaeton duo Madera Limpia adding spirited salsa vocals.
The instrumental title track contains some of Kouyate’s most virtuosic playing, plangent cascades of notes with almost a flamenco feel, topped only by “Wele Ni” on which his ngoni sounds like Ry Cooder in the slide zone.
As a back-to-the-roots album which at the same time packs a vital contemporary relevance, Miri does everything you could ask and more. “Pour savoir où vous allez, vous devez vous rappeler d’où vous venez,’’ as they say on the streets of Bamako. To know where you’re going, you have to remember where you’ve come from…
In the current issue of Uncut – in shops now and available to buy online by clicking here – Kurt Wagner talks about Lambchop's gradual streamlining from an 11-piece alt.country band to the intimate, dreamy electronica of new album This (Is What I Wanted To Tell You).
“The way we created the l...
In the current issue of Uncut – in shops now and available to buy online by clicking here – Kurt Wagner talks about Lambchop’s gradual streamlining from an 11-piece alt.country band to the intimate, dreamy electronica of new album This (Is What I Wanted To Tell You).
“The way we created the last couple of records is different from the way we started making records, which was just getting together and playing around in the basement and then eventually recording it,” says Wagner to Uncut’s Stephen Deusner. “The songs were already there when we finally got to the studio. Now it’s about reverse-engineering it.”
While This (Is What I Wanted To Tell You) may seem radically different from the band’s earliest releases, it still plays like a Lambchop record. “It’s remarkable how it sounds simultaneously them and not them,” says Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo. “It’s the same impression I had of them when I first heard them. They’ve changed a lot over the years, but what struck me that first time was how so many people could play so quietly together. Lambchop create a cacophony, but it’s such a sweet cacophony.”
Wagner has settled gracefully, even beatifically into his day job as an artist, and he chuckles when he describes himself as “your typical house husband. I try to do what I can during normal working hours, but I try to clock out at five. Cook dinner for my wife. Do some housework. I love my life the way it is, but I’m always trying to find ways to make these things coexist. That’s been my goal from the beginning: to just be a normal dude and do this without being seduced by things that make me a not-better person.”
What Wagner doesn’t want is to become the indie-rock curmudgeon, grumbling about the good old days while shouting at the kids to get off his lawn. Rather, he finds inspiration and something like reassurance in the new generation of musicians moving to Nashville. “I can’t imagine trying to start out in this environment, but people do it everyday. It’s exciting to see them do it. But I can’t imagine being young right now. To live in Nashville and be starting out – they’re working three jobs and playing music, and it’s incredible to me.”
Recently, Wagner and his wife, along with a few friends, invested in a club downtown, which they’re turning into an all-ages venue. “I’m just one of the landlords,” he says. “Maybe it’ll get me out of the house more. Who’s that weird old dude in the back of the club? That’ll be me.” In other words, he knows he can be involved but only at a remove that allows a younger generation to devise their own scene, to play their own shows, to form their own bands. “I’m completely realistic about it. I don’t take for granted that there will be a tomorrow as far as what I do. I’ll always make stuff, whether or not anybody will hear it or not, but I don’t know if it will be a way of sustaining myself.”
When he’s not at the club, he’ll be at home, dreaming up the next Lambchop album and the next one after that. “This is hopefully where I end up, this old guy in an office putting out a record every now and then. I’m just too old to do anything else. Maybe there will be a genre someday called Old Fucks Who Keep Doing Their Thing. I don’t know if there’s a roadmap for us elder statesmen, so I guess I’m just going to create my own map that allows me to do the things I love and avoid the things I don’t.”
You can read much more about Lambchop in the current issue of Uncut, in shops now with Leonard Cohen on the cover.
Originally published in Uncut's February 2017 issue
“I want to try everything, for sure,” insists Ty Segall. The Californian, not yet 30, is looking back over the mass of records he has produced in the last decade. “By the time I made [2010’s] Melted, I had solidified my idea of ‘Don’t ...
TY SEGALL TWINS DRAG CITY, 2012 On his fifth solo album, Segall doses 12 infectious songs with the acidic psychedelia of glam, all processed through the ever-present Fuzz War pedal.
I was back in a basement for this one, but it was cool because Bauer had all this crazy new gear, so we were like kids in a candy shop. It’s crazy, he only got $500 to make Melted with me, because that’s all we had. But by that point, we had a bunch more money to throw around, so it was really cool. We got to do everything at Bauer’s, then mix it at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, where CCR and a bunch of other bands recorded. We recorded almost the whole thing, and then Bauer got a new snare mic and we did the last song, and it sounded so much better that we were like, “Fuck man, we gotta re-record the whole record!” So we did, because of the snare mic. It’s definitely a step up in fidelity, that one, for Bauer. It was totally worth starting over.
If Slaughterhouse was the sketchy, almost punk record, then this was the super-fucked-up pop version of that. When I was 15, it was like rock’n’roll was really not cool with the punks or the weirdos – this was when dance-punk was going on, and the end of screamo and noise-rock. By the time I was in San Francisco, rock’n’roll still wasn’t cool, but you could play guitar and do garage-rock stuff. But honestly, at that time, to do a glammy thing was not cool, I think that’s why I was excited about it. I’m very happy that rock’n’roll is ok, nowadays, to try again!
I used to be a total garage rock purist when I was 20. I’m so much more open-minded in my musical taste now, and I think that has a lot to do with me wanting to write different stuff. Also, I wasn’t so insecure about singing or production. You know, it’s kind of a truth in garage rock that people hide behind reverb and echo and distortion, and I started to get really into the idea of not hiding in certain ways, like I used to. [2011’s] Goodbye Bread was kind of my anti-garage rock record at the time. I had never done anything like it. It’s crazy, because listen to it now and it’s not a clean record, it’s not shiny, it’s weird and it sounds like it’s on tape, but at that time I was like, “This is so clean and frightening and vulnerable…” Many of my albums have ideas that predated the recording – with Twins, it was “I wanna do a pop record where every guitar is a Fuzz War guitar.”
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TY SEGALL MANIPULATOR DRAG CITY, 2014 Segall’s most ambitious record to date, the effervescent Manipulator takes a tour from rock to folk to Krautrock over 17 epic tracks.
With [2013’s] Sleeper, I needed to see if I could write songs that held out on their own. In my opinion, if I can’t write a good song on an acoustic, then something’s up with me. I wrote Sleeper really quickly, and recorded it at home on my [Tascam] 388, and I was like, ‘This is genuine and real, so it’s done.’ After that, it was interesting for me to then write from other people’s perspectives, even if they were made-up characters or whatever. So I think that’s how Manipulator came about, it was an exercise in trying out different lyrical stylings. A lot of my records have a loose concept. This one’s kind of a media blitz thing, in a nutshell. ‘The Crawler’ is kind of an evil rock star! I spent a month recording this with Chris Woodhouse, which is still the longest by far that I’ve ever recorded a record. There are merits to it, but I wouldn’t do it again, you start to lose perspective. The Dock studio is cool, it’s right next to a banana factory, which is weird. Usually I’m very quick with the basic tracks, because I like shit being fucked-up in a weird way, but that was the one thing Chris and I agreed on – he was like, “I’m gonna be really strict with you when it comes to the drums and singing.” I think there’s a definite difference in my singing after Manipulator – I learned a lot about confidence and recording vocals. We did like 50 takes of vocals for some songs, to get them absolutely right. Same with the drums, he’d be like, “Ah, you sped up in the middle, I don’t think it’s gonna be good.” I think that was really great.
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FUZZ II IN THE RED, 2015 The second album by Segall’s power trio – also featuring regular collaborator Charles Moothart – is an epic journey through Sabbath-style stoner-rock, with Ty on drums.
Oh dude, playing in Fuzz rules! It’s so much fun. I love playing drums and it’s just great playing drums in a band, especially that kind of a band. Charles is the craziest guitar player I know, he’s absolutely insane, so it’s cool because I feel like there’s a relationship that everybody has in that band that’s pushing each other to try things they’ve not done before. A lot of the drumming on Fuzz I would not have felt comfortable doing or trying until we became a band and we pushed ourselves to go there. It was really exciting being in Sunset Sound – we were all like, “How the fuck did this happen? What the hell…” We had six days there. I had bought the tape machine and board that Bauer had for Goodbye Bread and Twins, because he upgraded to a crazy MCI board and a two-inch 24-track Studer. So I was like, “Dude, if you ever want to sell the other 16-track…” We took those to Sunset Sound, did all the live tracks there, then brought the machine back to my house and finished it there. It was an interesting experience, a total trial-and-error situation. Definitely a little sketchy, but super fun. Everything was written before we went in, but we had to spend a full day at Sunset Sound fleshing out and deciding some parts on a couple of songs, like “Silent Sits The Dustbowl”. For [closing, 14-minute jam] “II”, we had jammed that out at practice to the point where we had a beginning and an end and the middle was different every time. Every day in the studio we did a version of that one, and the best version we kept. Fuzz is super-rewarding for me; I’m very thankful that Charles wanted to do it, because his guitar-playing and songwriting is amazing – Fuzz is, I’d say, two-thirds Charles’ writing and a third of mine. The cool thing about Fuzz is it seems like we do something every three years. Probably we’ll start thinking about the next album when everybody slows down with their own bands.
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TY SEGALL TY SEGALL DRAG CITY, 2017 Recorded live with a group, Segall’s ninth solo album veers from crunching grunge (“Break A Guitar”) and Grateful Dead-style explorations (“Warm Hands”) to tender acoustic pieces (“Orange Colour Queen”).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqD_4ZvxI48
It felt good to do another self-titled album as a refresher moment, especially after [2016’s] Emotional Mugger. This record doesn’t really have a spin – Emotional Mugger was a super-sketchy concept record thing, Manipulator was like “I wanna do the cleanest, shiniest glam rock record”… They all have a thing, and I think the thing for this record was that I recorded it live with a band. There’s a couple of overdubs, but that’s a band playing. It’s the same idea as Slaughterhouse, but with my songs. Emmett Kelly’s on guitar, we got [Mikal] Cronin on bass, Charles is actually on the drums now, and my friend Ben Boye is playing piano and Wurlitzer, and I’m on guitar and singing. That’s gonna be the band for the indefinite future as well. “Warm Hands” is a story, it’s a total concept song, so I was like, well, we need to have a reprise. Originally, “Warm Hands” and the song before it, “Freedom”, was all supposed to be one song, but I decided it was too long, and that it would be more interesting because of the reprise moment to have it be more of a surprise and have it be its own song. I forget what record I was listening to, where they just brought back a chorus from the A side on the second-to-last song, and I thought it was just the coolest move. I thought I’d like to try it. As for the jam on “Warm Hands”, I love the Dead. I know a lot of people don’t like them, but everyone in the band now is a heavy Deadhead.
Filthy Friends, the indie supergroup featuring Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker and REM's Peter Buck, have announced that their second album Emerald Valley will be released by Kill Rock Stars on May 3.
Hear the first track from it, “Last Chance County”, below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...
Filthy Friends, the indie supergroup featuring Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker and REM’s Peter Buck, have announced that their second album Emerald Valley will be released by Kill Rock Stars on May 3.
Hear the first track from it, “Last Chance County”, below:
Talking about her lyrical inspirations for the album, Tucker says: “I had this long poem growing in my brain. It turned into a sort of manifesto about the kind of place we are at as a country but also as a region. Just taking stock of where we’re at and feeling like I can’t believe we let things get this bad.”
London festival Innervisions has announced the line-up for its 2019 edition, taking place in venues across the city on July 3-7.
Van Morrison will play two nights at the Roundhouse on July 6 and 7, with Mavis Staples playing the same venue on July 4.
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London festival Innervisions has announced the line-up for its 2019 edition, taking place in venues across the city on July 3-7.
Van Morrison will play two nights at the Roundhouse on July 6 and 7, with Mavis Staples playing the same venue on July 4.
James Brown saxophonist Maceo Parker plays the Roundhouse on July 5, with Gilberto Gil at Shepherd’s Bush Empire on July 7.
Ramp play Islington Assembly Hall on July 4 with Aloe Blacc at the Roundhouse on July 3. There’s also a Kraftwerk Re:Werk event at Indigo At The O2 on July 4, with an orchestra playing the music of Kraftwerk.
Wilco have announced a new European tour for September, in addition to their existing dates in June.
The new tour takes in three UK shows at the end of the September. See Wilco's full itinerary below:
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12th June – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels
13th Ju...
Wilco have announced a new European tour for September, in addition to their existing dates in June.
The new tour takes in three UK shows at the end of the September. See Wilco’s full itinerary below:
12th June – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels
13th June – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels
15th June – Paradiso, Amsterdam SOLD OUT
16th June – Paradiso, Amsterdam SOLD OUT
18th June – Aeronef Club, Lille
19th June – Le 106, Rouen
20th June – La Sirene, La Rochelle
22nd June – Azkena Rock Festival, Vitoria-Gasteiz Spain
4th September – Tapperiet, Trondheim
6th September – Stavanger Konserthus Zetlitz, Stavanger
7th September – USF Verftet, Bergen
8th September – Sentrum Scene, Oslo
10th September – Den Gra Hal, Copenhagen
12th September – Tempodrom, Berlin
13th September – Carlswerk Victoria, Cologne
14th September – Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg
15th September – Progresja, Warsaw
18th September – Volkshaus, Zurich
19th September – Fabrique, Milan
20th September – Gran Teatro Geox, Padova
22nd September – Le Trianon, Paris
23rd September – TivoliVredenberg Grote Zaal, Utrecht 26th September – Barrowlands, Glasgow
27th September – Albert Hall, Manchester
28th September – Eventim Apollo, London
Tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday (February 15) from here.
Cambridge Folk Festival, taking place at the city's Cherry Hinton Hall on August 1-4, has added a number of new names to the bill.
Headlining Friday night will be folk-rock supergroup Calexico And Iron And Wine, reprising a collaboration begun on the 2005 joint EP In The Reins. Closing out the fest...
Cambridge Folk Festival, taking place at the city’s Cherry Hinton Hall on August 1-4, has added a number of new names to the bill.
Headlining Friday night will be folk-rock supergroup Calexico And Iron And Wine, reprising a collaboration begun on the 2005 joint EP In The Reins. Closing out the festival on Sunday will be another supergroup, with Amadou & Mariam joining forces with Blind Boys Of Alabama.
To mark the band’s 50th anniversary, Uncut’s latest expanded, deluxe Ultimate Music Guide is an ambitious survey of the entire, brilliant career of Genesis – from prog shapeshifters to stadium gods. We’ve delved deep into the archives of NME and Melody Maker, finding interviews with the band...
To mark the band’s 50th anniversary, Uncut’s latest expanded, deluxe Ultimate Music Guide is an ambitious survey of the entire, brilliant career of Genesis – from prog shapeshifters to stadium gods. We’ve delved deep into the archives of NME and Melody Maker, finding interviews with the band that have languished unseen since the 1970s and ‘80s. We’ve reviewed every album, the solo careers, and there’s a special new introduction by Steve Hackett, too!
