Seeing as how Matthew E White and his band are on tour in the UK this week (I’m seeing him play in London tomorrow), it seemed a good time to post the feature about my visit to Richmond a couple of months ago. I’ve put a few links to stuff in here, too, so you can get a taste of the really interesting music coming out of the scene that revolves around White. Long read, this one…
It’s Record Store Day on Saturday; a kind of weird, but necessary I guess, annual event that’s become a critical point in release schedules. I’ve been going through the lists of releases at recordstoreday.com and thought it might be worth picking out a few things that are worth looking out for.
Increasingly, a fair amount of the day’s business is built on canny catalogue management aimed at collectors (especially vinyl fetishists), and there are a bunch of things here that fall roughly into that sector:
Eric Burdon’s new album, ’Til Your River Runs Dry, is reviewed in the new issue of Uncut, dated May 2013 and out now – so for this week’s archive feature we thought we’d revisit this piece from Uncut’s May 2009 issue (Take 144), which examines how Burdon and his Geordie bluesmen somehow turned a lengthy folk staple about a brothel into a massive international hit… but don’t mention the royalties… Words: Nick Hasted
Bob Dylan has been voted an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the first time a rock musician has received the high honor.
The Academy is an exceedingly exclusive club to join. Beside the honorary members, a scant 250 members populate the New York-based institution, with new inductees only to replace the dead. Honorary members are rare, too; there are a mere 82, only 12 of whom are American.
R.E.M are to release a deluxe, 25th anniversary reissue of Green.
The reissue will include a remastered version of the band's 1988 album accompanied by a live live disc taken from a November 10, 1989 show in Greensboro, North Carolina, the penultimate date of the band's Green World Tour. Sleeve notes will be written by Uncut's editor, Allan Jones.
Green was R.E.M’s sixth studio album and their first for major label Warners. It includes the breakthrough singles, “Stand” and “Orange Crush”.
Reg Presley has died at the age of 71.
Presley died at his home in Andover, Hampshire – the town of his birth – from cancer yesterday (February 4), in the company of his family. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in December 2012 during a tour of Germany, and is reported to have had a number of strokes before the diagnosis, according to messages posted by music publicist and close friend Keith Altham.
Recently reunited hardcore group Black Flag are set to record a brand new album.
Last week, the 1979-80 line-up of the band - fronted by Ron Reyes - announced that they would be reforming to play the Hevy Fest in Kent as well as Ruhrpott Rodeo in Germany and the Muddy Roots Music Festival in Tennessee.
However, on the same day, another incarnation of the band also announced that they would be playing shows in 2013.
