Trans am

There’s an interesting snippet in the next issue of Uncut, when the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne talks about Portishead’s “Third”. “It got under my skin,” he says. “From the standpoint of being in a band, they do some fun production things, it’s pretty inspiring. I liked how they embraced more stranger elements of prog-rock, and Silver Apples-influenced drum loops and things like that.”

Noisy retooling of the 1970s’ heist classic with Denzel Washington and John Travolta

Putting aside my morbid suspicion of quirky cover versions for five minutes, have a look at this: an enjoyable take on Joy Division’s “Transmission”, filmed at Jeremy Deller’s Procession for the Manchester International Festival last weekend.

Billy Paul and Philadelphia sound documentary

The last time I wrote about James Yorkston, I seem to remember some vaguely disinterested feelings about the extended Fence Collective family resulted in a bit of a spat with that scene’s loyalists. So avoiding context this time out, Yorkston has come up with what feels like a pretty fast follow-up to “When The Haar Rolls In”.

Blur guitarist’s eccentric talents are a delight

“I’m pretty nervous tonight,” Nancy Wallace confesses to a packed Borderline. “I can see the whites of your eyes,” she tells the people in front of her, all of them staring in her direction, rapt as ecstatics, transported, hanging on her every word.

I don’t want to simplify a harrowing business. But when, in the middle of this concert with his Spatial AKA Orchestra, Jerry Dammers has a go at “Ghost Town”, the idea that this man would ever rejoin The Specials seems, frankly, insane.

The full transcript from Uncut's neil Young Archives cover story

Heart condition takes the influential singer aged just 62