Page 339 – UNCUT

The Best Films Of 2015: a personal list

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30th November 2015

Following on from John’s blog on his favourite albums of 2015, I thought I’d post my favourite films of 2015.

I should say I was out of action for a while this year – the birth of my daughter coincided with screenings of Spectre, Sicario and Black Mass, and I’ve still not had a chance to catch them. Admittedly, a lot has already been written about all three films; but I’d at least have liked the chance to wade in with some views of my own on Johnny Depp‘s remarkable tonsure.

I guess one thing that inevitably comes to mind while compiling this list – and totting up the scores for our writers’ Films Of The Year in the current issue of Uncut – is whether 2015 was a ‘vintage’ year; or how worthwhile those kind of comparators really are. Some of my favourite directors – Todd Haynes, Noah Baumbach (twice) and Peter Strickland – delivered excellent work this year. Paul Thomas Anderson did his best with Inherent Vice – but I think, though, he had an unenviable task trying to streamline Pynchon’s wild narrative excursions.

The volume and variety of strong films outside the immediate Hollywood system was especially heartening, with powerful films set in Jordan, Mali and Iran alongside strong documentaries on Mexican drug gangs, 60s’ paramilitary organisations and even a nonagenarian fashion icon.

Anyway, as ever, let me know what you think.

Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner

20
WHIPLASH

19
LAMBERT & STAMP

18
AMY

17
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

16
MISTRESS AMERICA

15
FOXCATCHER

14
THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION

13
INHERENT VICE

12
BRIDGE OF SPIES

11
LEGEND

10
IRIS

9
CARTEL LAND

8
WHILE WE’RE YOUNG

7
A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT

6
BEASTS OF NO NATION

5
THEEB

4
LOVE AND MERCY

3
THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY

2
CAROL

1
TIMBUKTU

The January 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring Paul Weller, David Bowie, Best Of 2015, Roger Waters, Father John Misty, Pere Ubu, Robert Forster, Natalie Prass, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Sunn O))), Jonny Greenwood, Arthur Lee & Love, Neil Young, Janis Joplin and more.

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

David Bowie, Thom Yorke, Björk and others sign climate change petition

News

Michael Bonner

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30th November 2015

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David Bowie, Thom Yorke, Björk and others sign climate change petition

David Bowie, Thom Yorke and Björk are among the artists who have signed a climate change petition urging world leaders to reach a deal at the UN’s climate change conference in Paris.

Dazed reports that over 300 ‘creatives’ have signed the open letter, including Robert Plant, Yoko Ono, Damon Albarn, Courtney Barnett, the actor Mark Rylance and author Phillip Pullman.

According to the letter, “The creative community – design, advertising, broadcasting, publishing, film, gaming, fashion, literature, music, the performing and visual arts, galleries and museums – can make a unique contribution to the global sustainability challenge. Collectively we shape not just our material world, but our conceptual world too, including the values that underpin our lives. The creative industries generate wealth and employment but we also innovate, we shape and express cultural values, influencing how people feel and the choices they make: as such we have huge potential to prompt, and reinforce, positive and sustainable change.”

The governments of more than 190 nations will gather in Paris today [November 30, 2015] to discuss a possible new global agreement on climate change, aimed at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and thus avoiding the threat of dangerous climate change.

You can read the full letter by clicking here.

The January 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring Paul Weller, David Bowie, Best Of 2015, Roger Waters, Father John Misty, Pere Ubu, Robert Forster, Natalie Prass, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Sunn O))), Jonny Greenwood, Arthur Lee & Love, Neil Young, Janis Joplin and more.

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

Hear Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold cover the Five Keys’ “Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind”

News

Michael Bonner

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30th November 2015

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Hear Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold cover the Five Keys’ “Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind”

Robin Pecknold has shared a cover of the Five Keys’ “Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind”.

Pecknold posted the song on the Fleet Foxes’ Facebook page to coincide with the Thanksgiving break in America.

Pecknold wrote, “Happy holidays – here’s a cover.”

The cover is credited to “Robin Pecknold: Vocals, etc. Neal Morgan: Percussion, Gabe Wax: Engineering & Mixing”.

Pecknold and Morgan had previously collaborated on an off-Broadway production, Wyoming, earlier this year.

https://soundcloud.com/robin-pecknold/out-of-sight-out-of-mind-the-five-keys

The Fleet Foxes have yet to release a follow-up to 2011’s Helplessness Blues. In April, 2014, Pecknold wrote on Facebook, “For anyone who’s curious, this is a short Fleet Foxes update – been a while! So, after the last round of touring, I decided to go back to school. I never got an undergraduate degree, and this felt like the right time to both see what that was about and to try something new after a while in the touring / recording lifestyle. I moved to New York and enrolled at Columbia, and I’ve mostly been doing that, but I’m working on songs and excited for whatever happens next musically, even if it’s down the line. Hope all is well out there.”

The January 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring Paul Weller, David Bowie, Best Of 2015, Roger Waters, Father John Misty, Pere Ubu, Robert Forster, Natalie Prass, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Sunn O))), Jonny Greenwood, Arthur Lee & Love, Neil Young, Janis Joplin and more.

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

Black Friday: get 50% off annual subscriptions to Uncut and History Of Rock!

News

Michael Bonner

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27th November 2015

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Black Friday: get 50% off annual subscriptions to Uncut and History Of Rock!

To coincide with this year’s Black Friday event, we’re offering half price subscriptions to both Uncut and our sister title, History Of Rock.

Now you can enjoy both your favourite quality rock monthlies for a fraction of the price.

Uncut is available as both print and digital subscriptions; History of Rock is only available as a print subscription.

This amazing offer is available for anyone, anywhere in the world, until 12am GMT on Monday, November 30.

Just click on the links below, and you’ll find all the information you need to sign up to Uncut and History Of Rock!

Subscribe to Uncut by clicking here.

Subscribe to History Of Rock by clicking here.

The January 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring Paul Weller, David Bowie, Best Of 2015, Roger Waters, Father John Misty, Pere Ubu, Robert Forster, Natalie Prass, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Sunn O))), Jonny Greenwood, Arthur Lee & Love, Neil Young, Janis Joplin and more.

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

Jonny Greenwood on new Junun album: “We pretended we were playing with James Brown and Miles Davis”

News

Tom Pinnock

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27th November 2015

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Jonny Greenwood on new Junun album: “We pretended we were playing with James Brown and Miles Davis”

Jonny Greenwood has discussed the making of Junun, the new album he’s created in collaboration with Shye Ben Tzur and The Rajasthan Express, speaking in the new issue of Uncut, out now.

The Radiohead guitarist travelled to the Mehrangarh fort in Jodhpur to record with the collective, in sessions documented by director Paul Thomas Anderson. The musical and visual results are out now.

“My role was overseeing production,” explains Greenwood. “Basically to sit in with the drummers and pretend we were accompanying James Brown and Miles Davis. What I didn’t want was an overly reverential ‘field’ recording of – terrible name – ‘world music’. We were making a record.

“We were using every last piece of equipment we had – we brought everything from the Radiohead studio. These limitations were good for us: Nigel [Godrich] and Sam constructed an echo chamber in a basement of the fort, so it felt like the whole building became part of the record.”

The new issue of Uncut, dated January 2016, is out now.

The January 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring Paul Weller, David Bowie, Best Of 2015, Roger Waters, Father John Misty, Pere Ubu, Robert Forster, Natalie Prass, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Sunn O))), Jonny Greenwood, Arthur Lee & Love, Neil Young, Janis Joplin and more.

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

Dr John: “People had never seen things onstage like Chicken Man biting the heads off chickens…”

Tom Pinnock

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27th November 2015

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Dr John: “People had never seen things onstage like Chicken Man biting the heads off chickens…”

For over 40 years, he’s been a Doctor, but really Mac Rebennack – the 71-year-old musician who performs as Dr John – is rather more stately than any normal physician. His hat at a jaunty angle, his walking stick rattling with eclectic souvenirs, a cheroot at his lips, he seems more like a visiting dignitary from some incredibly exotic foreign clime.

Which isn’t really an incorrect impression. A man with deep roots in New Orleans music and also the city’s spiritual culture, Dr John’s worldview is as unique as his life experience – ex-junkie; ex-con; ex-guitarist – is alarmingly wide. At our meeting in his central London hotel, Mac is a man entirely on his own wavelength but who happily receives any enquiry on that frequency.

For all he is a good interview, music is how Dr John communicates, and it’s a language he’s been evolving since he started out over 50 years ago. “I was taught as a studio musician to be aware, and to play all music the best that you could play it, whether you’re familiar with it, or even if you don’t like it, play it to the best of your ability,” he says today. “And that’s a code I still live by.”

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When we were recording The Sun, Moon & Herbs album in London, you put a gris-gris cross on my head. What is it, and what does it do?
Bobby Whitlock, Derek And The Dominos
Well, it’s a blessing, and any blessing is good. But, for Bobby’s information, I thought it would be a good idea for Bobby: he was playing with Eric (Clapton)’s band when they was Derek And The Dominos. I thought Bobby was a good singer and a good musician, but he just needed to have something called… perseverance. Because I could see he was going two ways at once.

How did you end up in prison?
J Gerard, via email
I was arrested for narcotics. In those days, there wasn’t rehabs or the places you can go today. In some ways I think I was blessed to go to a federal joint rather than a state joint, because they treated you better, though I can’t say that for a fact, because I never went to a state joint. Listen, I’ll tell you this. Prisons are not made for the betterment of people – all they teach you is how to be a better criminal. There are more people in prisons in the USA than there ever was, and that’s mainly because of drugs. It’s not a smart idea, to put people in drug culture in prisons. There are alternatives.

How do you rate Hugh Laurie’s piano playing?
Phil Newman, Brighton
I thought he played good. My little friend here [assistant/girlfriend, Susie] turned me on to Hugh Laurie – her friend knew his friend and whatever, and all of a sudden, I went to do a record with him in LA. He sent me a recording with Bessie Smith singing a soul song, and I cut it [for Laurie’s debut album, 2011’s Let Them Talk], and it was cool, and he played piano on it and that was cool, too. When things happen like that, it’s spiritual.

The Beatles – 1+

Richard Williams

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27th November 2015

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At the very beginning, the way the Beatles looked was as important as the way they sounded. It was impossible to separate the scrubbed Merseybeat rhythm guitar and the sweet-and-sour two-part harmonies from the lengthening forward-combed hair and the black polo-necks. A compilation of their promo films and other significant bits of video enables us to fast-forward through evidence of the huge changes they underwent, individually and collectively, in those crowded eight years together.

The 27 short films on 1, a single CD/DVD, and the further 23 on 1+, a double set, all with restored visuals and remastered sound, also invite the viewer to speculate on precisely when each member of the group was at his aesthetic peak. Any conclusions are likely to be subjective, but here are mine. George, with the advantage of the best hair and cheekbones, most perfectly incarnates the basic Beatle look early on, around the time of “A Hard Day’s Night” (which appears on the single disc in the form of a performance in June 1965 at the Palais des Sports in Paris). By May 1966, when they mime to “Rain” in the gardens of Chiswick House, Ringo has added an interesting layer of mature introspection to his lovable goofiness. John’s look for the “Penny Lane” video, shot in February 1967, features the combination of droopy moustache, reefer jacket, striped college scarf and granny specs that would become de rigueur for the more intellectual types on the barricades in Paris 15 months later. Paul’s full beard, worn on the Apple roof concert in January 1969, reduces the familiar winsomeness and signals his new healthy outdoor grown-up life with Linda.

The visual shifts and nuances are endlessly fascinating as the protagonists merge and separate and reconvene in a parade of evolving preoccupations and changing loyalties. Nothing is more affecting than the promo clip for “Something” put together in October 1969, blending footage of the four couples: Paul and Linda gambolling with Martha, the celebrity Old English sheepdog, on the Mull of Kintyre; Ringo and Maureen on a pair of monkey bikes in their garden; George and Patti exchanging moonstruck gazes at home in Esher; John and Yoko gliding down the steps of Tittenhurst Park in long black capes, as if on their way to a black mass. The Beatles’ life together is coming apart, along with the stockbroker-belt existence that was the default domestic setting when the money started flowing in.

Very little of this selection of clips involves actual live performance (“From Me to You” at the 1963 Royal Variety Performance is among a handful of exceptions). Most of it is mimed, including a marvellous “Twist and Shout” for Granada TV’s Scene At 6.30 show in August 1963, in which the anonymous director creates the bold high-contrast black and white iconography that would turn up three months later on the cover of With the Beatles.

The obvious stuff includes Peter Goldmann’s magnificent “Strawberry Fields Forever” film and “All You Need Is Love” from the One World international telecast. The “Come Together” animation created in 2000 for the launch of thebeatles.com is one of the few duds. For capturing their essence, nothing betters the group of songs – here represented by “Day Tripper”, “I Feel Fine”, “We Can Work It Out”, “Ticket to Ride” and “Help!” – filmed by Joe McGrath in a single day at Twickenham Studios in November 1965. As Ringo rides an exercise bike positioned where the drum kit should be and John sings while gobbling fish and chips out of a newspaper, the last pretence of fidelity to stage performance falls away, the victim of their world-changing disinclination to observe the old rules.

The colour restoration is immaculate and the audio tracks benefit immensely from new stereo mixes by Giles Martin and Sam Okell, although the 5.1 surround version is excessive: the Beatles never sounded as pristine, as glistening, as that. It’s the equivalent of using the film restoration team to make visual repairs to Paul’s chipped front tooth, John’s NHS fillings and George’s decaying molars, which feature in the early clips and, when exposed on the Ed Sullivan Show, must have contributed significantly to the average American’s scornful view of British dentistry.

The January 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring Paul Weller, David Bowie, Best Of 2015, Roger Waters, Father John Misty, Pere Ubu, Robert Forster, Natalie Prass, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Sunn O))), Jonny Greenwood, Arthur Lee & Love, Neil Young, Janis Joplin and more.

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

The Best Albums Of 2015

John Mulvey

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26th November 2015

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OK so I’ve decided I can’t wait any longer to let this go; here are my 140 favourite albums of 2015, more or less ranked.

As ever, a few caveats. The ranking is predictably pretty arbitrary beyond the top 20 or so; Natural Snow Buildings, say, should certainly not feel aggrieved to be at Number 140, given they could have ended up somewhere inside the top 50 on another day. I know admissions of imprecision like this don’t do much to foster an impression of empirical truth and authority, but I figure it’s best to be honest about how ad hoc the construction of a personal chart can be.

Nevertheless, there’s obviously a lot of sport and pleasure in ranking so many albums. I imagine plenty of you will be rather sceptical about there being 140 albums good enough to bother with from 2015, and while it’d be disingenuous of me to claim that every one here is to my mind an unimprovable classic, I’ve enjoyed them all and believe they all, without exception, deserve at the very least a few listens.

I probably say this around this time at 12 month intervals, but I remain convinced that every year is a good one for music, if you have the time, energy and enthusiasm to dig deep. That’s why I always think it’s useful to compile lists of such excessive length rather than tight little top 20s, or whatever: I’d like a lot more people to listen to, for instance, Byron Westbrook’s “Precipice” on the Root Strata label, so if I can give a bunch of these things a platform, and contextualise them with a few more familiar albums, that seems like a good plan to me.

I should say that for a much more democratic summary of the year’s music, we have a very fine Top 75 in the current issue of Uncut, compiled from the votes of 40-odd writers and staffers. If you’re concerned that Father John Misty and Jason Isbell’s albums are absent from my list, you’ll certainly find them there.

I’m sure, though, that a few things have slipped my memory, and that you’ll be able to turn me on to some other records I may have missed, so please post your own favourites/charts/recommendations etc at the bottom of the page. Many thanks, in advance – and thanks for your indulgence in reading this…

Follow me on Twitter @JohnRMulvey

140 Natural Snow Buildings – Terror’s Horns (Ba Da Bing)

139 !!! – As If (Warp)

138 Saun & Starr – Look Closer (Daptone)

137 Patrick Higgins – Bachanalia (Telegraph Harp)

136 Alif – Aynama-Rtama (Nawa Recordings)

135 Cat’s Eyes – The Duke Of Burgundy: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Caroline)

134 The Unthanks – Mount The Air (Rabble Rouser)

133 Beirut – No No No (4AD)

132 Samba Toure – Gandadiko (Glitterbeat)

131 Pops Staples – Don’t Lose This (Anti-)

130 The Dead Weather – Dodge And Burn (Third Man)

129 Cannibal Ox – Blade Of The Ronin (iHiphop)

128 Lubomyr Melnyk – Rivers and Streams (Erased Tapes)

127 Blond-ish – Welcome To The Present (Kompakt)

126 Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe & Ariel Kalma – FRKWYS Vol. 12: We Know Each Other Somehow (RVNG INTL)

125 Peacers – Peacers (Drag City)

124 Panda Bear – Panda Bear Vs The Grim Reaper (Domino)

123 Wand – 1000 Days (Drag City)

122 Marry Waterson And David A. Jaycock – Two Wolves (One Little Indian)

121 M Dwinell – Golden Ratio (Amish)

120 Follakzoid – III (Sacred Bones)

119 Duke Garwood – Heavy Love (Heavenly)

118 Dungen – Allas Sak (Smalltown Supersound)

117 Aye Aye – Aye Aye (Richie/Testoster Tunes)

116 Tom Carter – Long Time Underground (Three Lobed Recordings)

115 Chris Connolly – Alameda (Caldo Verde)

114 Wand – Golem (In The Red)

113 Master Musicians Of Bukkake – Further West Quad Cult (Important)

112 Robert Glasper – Covered (Blue Note)

111 Trembling Bells – The Sovereign Self (Tin Angel)

110 Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – Loin Des Hommes: Original Motion Picture (Goliath Entertainment)

109 Elephant Micah – Where In Our Woods (Western Vinyl)

108 Matt Valentine – Midden Mound (Child Of Microtones)

107 Leon Bridges – Coming Home (Columbia)

106 Fraser A Gorman – Slow Gum (Milk!/Marathon Artists)

105 Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood And The Rajasthan Express – Junun (Nonesuch)

104 Darts & Arrows – Altamira (Ears & Eyes)

103 The Arcs – Yours, Dreamily (Nonesuch)

102 Alasdair Roberts – Alastair Roberts (Drag City)

101 Moon Duo – Shadow Of The Sun (Sacred Bones)

100 Howlin Rain – Mansion Songs (Easy Sound Recording Co)

99 Alela Diane & Ryan Francesconi – Cold Moon (Believe Recordings)

98 Mbongwana Star – Kinshasa (World Circuit)

97 The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Freedom Tower – No Wave Dance Party (Bronzerat)

96 Omar Souleyman – Bahdeni Nami (Monkeytown)

95 Promised Land Sound – For Use And Delight (Paradise Of Bachelors)

94 Thunderbitch – Thunderbitch (Blackfootwhitefoot)

93 King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Paper Mâché Dream Balloon (Heavenly)

92 Gospelbeach – Pacific Surf Line! (Alive Naturalsound)

91 Simon Scott – Insomni (Ash International)

90 King Midas Sound/Fennesz – Editions 1 (Ninja Tune)

89 Michael Chapman – Fish (Tompkins Square)

88 Deradoorian – The Expanding Flower Planet (Anticon)

87 Yo La Tengo – Stuff Like That There (Matador)

86 Cath & Phil Tyler – The Song-Crowned King (Ferric Mordant)

85 Arthur’s Landing – Second Thoughts (Buddhist Army)

84 Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba – Ba Power (Glitterbeat)

83 Rachel Grimes – The Clearing (Temporary Residence)

82 Sonny Vincent And Rocket From The Crypt – Vintage Piss (Swami)

81 Chilly Gonzales – Chambers (Gentle Threat)

80 Crying Lion – The Golden Boat (Honest Jon’s)

79 Todd Rundgren/ Emil Nikolaisen/Hans-Peter Lindstrøm – Runddans (Smalltown Supersound)

78 Laurie Anderson – Heart Of A Dog (Nonesuch)

77 Laura Marling – Short Movie (Virgin)

76 The Cairo Gang – Goes Missing (God?)

75 Hot Chip – Why Make Sense? (Domino)

74 Colleen – Captain Of None (Thrill Jockey)

73 Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Just Sit And Think And Sometimes I Just Sit (Anxiety/Marathon)

72 Byron Westbrook – Precipice (Root Strata)

71 Circles Around The Sun – Interludes For The Dead (Rhino)

70 Laura Cannell – Beneath Swooping Talons (Front And Follow)

69 Blanck Mass- Dumb Flesh (Sacred Bones)

68 United Bible Studies – The Ale’s What Cures Ye (MIE Music)

67 Goran Kajfeš Subtropic Arkestra – The Reason Why Vol 2 (Headspin)

66 Rhiannon Giddens – Tomorrow Is My Turn (Nonesuch)

65 Liam Hayes – Slurrup (Fat Possum)

64 Steve Hauschildt – Where All Is Fled (Kranky)

63 Lou Barlow – Brace The Wave (Domino)

62 Chris Forsyth & Koen Holtkamp – The Island (Trouble In Mind)

61 William Basinski – Cascade (2062/Temporary Residence)

60 Martin Courtney – Many Moons (Domino)

59 Ballaké Sissoko & Vincent Segal – Musique De Nuit (No Format)

58 James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg – Ambsace (Paradise Of Bachelors)

57 Richard Thompson – Still (Proper)

56 Sleater-Kinney – No Cities To Love (Sub Pop)

55 Bill MacKay & Ryley Walker – Land Of Plenty (Whistler)

54 Áine O’Dwyer – Music For Church Cleaners Vol. I & II (MIE)

53 Wolfgang Voigt – Rückverzauberung 10 (Kompakt)

52 Daniel Bachman – River (Three-Lobed)

51 Kurt Vile – B’lieve I’m Goin Down (Matador)

50 Sun Kil Moon – Universal Themes (Rough Trade)

49 Dave Heumann – Here In The Deep (Thrill Jockey)

48 Peaches – Rub (I U She Music)

47 Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell (Asthmatic Kitty)

46 Eleventh Dream Day – Works For Tomorrow (Thrill Jockey)

45 Bop English – Constant Bop (Blood And Biscuits)

44 Joan Shelley – Over And Even (No Quarter)

43 Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Multi-Love (Jagjaguwar)

42 Low – Ones And Sixes (Sub Pop)

41 Kamasi Washington – The Epic (Brainfeeder)

40 Rob St John – Surface Tension (Surface Tension)

39 Necks – Vertigo (RER Megacorps/Northern Spy)

38 Jessica Pratt – On Your Own Love Again (Drag City)

37 Neil Young & The Promise Of The Real – The Monsanto Years (Reprise)

36 Meg Baird – Don’t Weigh Down The Light (Wichita/Drag City)

35 Dean McPhee – Fatima’s Hand (Hood Faire)

34 Thee Oh Sees – Mutilator Defeated At Last (Castle Face)

33 Houndstooth – No News From Home (No Quarter)

32 Holly Herndon – Platform (4AD)

31 Badbadnotgood & Ghostface Killah – Sour Soul (Lex)

30 Dave Rawlings Machine – Nashville Obsolete (Acony)

29 Kelley Stoltz – In Triangle Time (Castle Face)

28 Bitchin Bajas – Transporteur (Hands In The Dark)

27 Bjork – Vulnicura (One Little Indian)

26 Sir Richard Bishop – Tangier Sessions (Drag City)

25 Bilal – Another Life (BBE)

24 Nadia Reid – Listen To Formation, Look For The Signs (Scissor Tail/Spunk)

23 Soldiers Of Fortune – Early Risers (Mexican Summer)

22 Steve Gunn & The Black Twig Pickers – Seasonal Hire (Thrill Jockey)

21 Sam Lee & Friends – The Fade In Time (Nest Collective)

20 Matthew E White – Fresh Blood (Spacebomb/Domino)

19 Jamie xx – In Colour (Young Turks)

18 Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress (Constellation)

17 Floating Points – Elaenia (Pluto)

16 Jim O’Rourke – Simple Songs (Drag City)

15 Wilco – Star Wars (dBpm)

14 Israel Nash – Israel Nash’s Silver Season (Loose/Thirty Tigers)

13 Robert Forster – Songs To Play (Tapete)

12 Julia Holter – Have You in My Wilderness (Domino)

11 Four Tet – Morning/Evening (Text)

10 Alabama Shakes – Sound &; Color (Rough Trade)

9 Ryley Walker – Primrose Green (Dead Oceans)

8 Duane Pitre – Bayou Electric (Important)

7 Phil Cook – Southland Mission (Thirty Tigers)

6 The Deslondes – The Deslondes (New West)

5 Natalie Prass – Natalie Prass (Spacebomb)

4 Natural Information Society & Bitchin Bajas – Autoimaginary (Drag City)

3 The Weather Station – Loyalty (Paradise Of Bachelors)

2 Joanna Newsom – Divers (Drag City)

1 Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly (Top Dawg)

Paul Westerberg and Juliana Hatfield share new song, “King Of America”

News

Michael Bonner

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26th November 2015

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Paul Westerberg and Juliana Hatfield share new song, “King Of America”

Paul Westerberg and Juliana Hatfield have released a new song as The I Don’t Cares.

The collaborative project between Westerberg and Hatfield first came to light earlier this year, when they released a single, “1/2 2 P“, on Halloween.

They have followed that up with “King Of America“, which is available to buy from iTunes for $0.99.

An album, Wild Stab, is reportedly due in the New Year.

The I Don’t Cares is Westerberg’s first new music since The Replacements disbanded earlier this year – for the second time.

Westerberg announced from the stage at Primavera Porto on Friday, June 5 that it was be their final show together, reports The Guardian. He also noted that the rest of the band – who reformed in 2013 – had stayed at their hotel rather than soundchecking, calling them “lazy bastards to the end”.

Considering the band’s future in an interview with Uncut earlier this year, Westerberg said, “There’s a 50/50 chance that we might not ever play another note, or it might last another 5 years. As of today, I don’t even know who’s in the band! My bet is that we’ll finish this year out with the same four as last year, hopefully no one will die, and we’ll reassess. If it continues to be fun, we’ll play. If it’s not fun, we can at least get it up for the show. It’s what I wanna do for now, anyway.”

The January 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring Paul Weller, David Bowie, Best Of 2015, Roger Waters, Father John Misty, Pere Ubu, Robert Forster, Natalie Prass, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Sunn O))), Jonny Greenwood, Arthur Lee & Love, Neil Young, Janis Joplin and more.

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

Bridge Of Spies

Film
Reviews

Michael Bonner

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26th November 2015

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Steven Spielberg was 11 years old in 1957, roughly the same age as Roger – a young boy in Bridge Of Spies whose fertile imagination is fired by public service broadcasts instructing viewers on tips to survive a nuclear attack. While Roger is busy filling the bath to conserve water, his father is closer to the heart of the Cold War than perhaps he’d like. Played by Tom Hanks, James B Donovan is a partner in a New York law firm who is assigned to represent Rudolph Abel (Mark Rylance), a Russian spy who faces the death penalty if found guilty. The first half of Spielberg’s Bridge Of Spies slyly plays Hanks’ show and tell against the more nuanced Rylance, an actor who inhabits rather than exhibits.

Hanks’ Donovan represents the film’s James Stewart-style moral centre – a man doing his job, who believes in due process, even if the windows in his living room are shot out. He finds himself warming to Abel, while the rest of the judicial community – and America, in general – believe he should be strung up. The second half of the film, meanwhile, shifts a gear. Following the downing over Soviet airspace of U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, the incarcerated Abel suddenly becomes a valuable commodity, and Donovan is dispatched to wintry Berlin to arrange an exchange: Abel for Powers. Berlin, we learn, is “a complicated place” and the film slowly drifts away from Hollywood classicism into muddier waters more suited to a LeCarre story – or, perhaps, Munich, which remains Spielberg’s most dark, conflicted film.

Late in Bridge Of Spies, Donovan laments, “There’s a lot of fictions going on.” For a filmmaker usually as unambiguous as Spielberg, it’s surprising that the thrust of Bridge Of Spies is fictions. Abel’s fictional cover, the fiction behind the US government’s covert methods of gathering information, the fictions Powers reveals under interrogation, the fictions played out by Russian and GDR representatives during their negotiations with Donovan. And, indeed, Donovan’s own fictions – as his Berlin conversations play out, he is revealed as being a shrewd fixer. It’s interesting that the Coen brothers worked on the script for Bridge Of Spies: their presence seems particularly strong on the Berlin sequences, which feature a handful of Coensy grotesques, but also in blurring between truth and fiction, a kind of mischievous game of bluff they excel at. It’s one of Spielberg’s best – anchored by solid work from Hanks but given grace and wit by Rylance. “I’m not afraid to die,” says Abel. “Although it wouldn’t be my first choice.”

The January 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring Paul Weller, David Bowie, Best Of 2015, Roger Waters, Father John Misty, Pere Ubu, Robert Forster, Natalie Prass, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Sunn O))), Jonny Greenwood, Arthur Lee & Love, Neil Young, Janis Joplin and more.

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

PJ Harvey announces first live show of 2016

News

Michael Bonner

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26th November 2015

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PJ Harvey announces first live show of 2016

PJ Harvey has announced her first live show of 2016.

She will headline Field Day on London’s Victoria Park on June 12.

This will be her first UK live show with a full band since she played at the Royal Albert Hall in 2011.

Other acts confirmed for the festival include Deerhunter, Four Tet and Cass McCombs for Saturday June 11; while Beach House, John Grant and The Thurston Moore Band will appear on the Sunday along with Harvey.

Harvey recently showcased new material at the London Literature Festival held at the city’s Southbank Centre in October.

The event coincided with the publication of her new poetry and photography book, The Hollow Of The Hand; a collaboration with photographer Seamus Murphy.

The book of poetry and images was created during Harvey and Murphy’s travels to destinations including Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Washington, DC between 2011 and 2014.

The event included poetry readings and new songs performed by PJ Harvey alongside images and a short film by Murphy.

A number of the songs played were generated during the Recording In Progress sessions that took place at London’s Somerset House earlier this year. Click here to read Uncut’s report of those sessions.

Tickets for Field Day are available by clicking here.

The full list of confirmed acts so far is:

SATURDAY
Ata Kak
Avalon Emerson
Cass McCombs
Dean Blunt
Deerhunter
DJ Koze
Dusky (live)
Floating Points (live)
Four Tet
Holly Herndon (live)
KINK (live)
Meilyr Jones
Motor City Drum Ensemble
Mount Kimbie (DJ)
Mura Masa
Orchestra Baobab
Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band
Red Axes (live)
Roman Flugel
Skepta
Soak
Special Request
Wild Nothing
Yorkston Thorne Khan
Youth Lagoon

SUNDAY
PJ Harvey
Beach House
Ben Watt
Declan McKenna
Goat
John Grant
Junior Boys
Molly Nilsson
Optimo
Thurston Moore Band

The January 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring Paul Weller, David Bowie, Best Of 2015, Roger Waters, Father John Misty, Pere Ubu, Robert Forster, Natalie Prass, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Sunn O))), Jonny Greenwood, Arthur Lee & Love, Neil Young, Janis Joplin and more.

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

Cynthia Robinson, founding member of Sly And The Family Stone, dies aged 69

News

Michael Bonner

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25th November 2015

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Cynthia Robinson, founding member of Sly And The Family Stone, dies aged 69

Cynthia Robinson, a founding member of Sly And The Family Stone, has died aged 69.

According to a post on her Facebook page, she died on Monday, November 23.

“Friends, Famliy and Fans through out the world, Cynthia Robinson, Trumpeter and Co- Founder of Sly and The Family Stone has passed.
“Our condolences go out to the Robinson Family and her bandmates and all family & friends ! You are in our thoughts and prayers and we are here for you. Please continue to support the Cynthia Robinson Cancer Care Fund due to the rising medical costs ( anything helps ). This site will stay up in her memory. God bless you Cynthia!”

Born in Sacramento, California, Robinson met Sly Stone while still in high school and began working with him in 1966, when the bandleader put together a group called the Stoners.

As a trumpet player and vocalist, she played with Sly And The Family Stone until the band’s break up in 1975, but continued to collaborate with Stone.

She also played with George Clinton and Prince, as well as her cousin – and fellow member of the Family Stone – Larry Graham in Graham Central Station.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q1vAa0br0w

The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – is now on sale in the UK. Click here for more details.

Meanwhile, the January 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring Paul Weller, David Bowie, Best Of 2015, Roger Waters, Father John Misty, Pere Ubu, Robert Forster, Natalie Prass, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Sunn O))), Jonny Greenwood, Arthur Lee & Love, Neil Young, Janis Joplin and more.

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

Thom Yorke: Tony Blair’s “advisers tried to blackmail me”

News

Michael Bonner

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25th November 2015

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Thom Yorke: Tony Blair’s “advisers tried to blackmail me”

Thom Yorke has claimed that advisers of Tony Blair “tried to blackmail” him into meeting with the former British Prime Minister.

Speaking in interview with Paris-based magazine Télérama, Yorke claims that the incident took place when he was a spokesperson for climate change campaign The Big Ask in 2003.

The musician was working on behalf of environmental organisation Friends of the Earth to lobby politicians on the issue of climate change.

“We were in the midst of the Iraq War and The Big Ask campaign was proving very successful,” explains Yorke in the interview. “So Blair said: ‘‘I should meet this guy’’. Then Blair’s advisors tried to blackmail me, saying: ‘‘if you don’t agree to meet the Prime Minister, Friends of the Earth will be denied all access to him.’’ because of the Iraq war, I didn’t want to do it. I felt it was morally unacceptable for me to be photographed with Blair.

Elsewhere in the Télérama interview, Yorke explains how he has responded to climate change as a musician, including turning vegetarian and forming a carbon neutral touring initiative with Radiohead.

Yorke recounted becoming aware of climate change in the late 90’s. He has since worked with Greenpeace, Friends of The Earth and art.350.org.

Asked whether he would consider writing a protest song, Yorke replied, “if I was going to write a protest song about climate change in 2015, it would be shit.”

“In the 60’s, you could write songs that were like calls to arms, and it would work. Well, kind… ish. It’s much harder to do that now,” he said. “If I was going to write a protest song about climate change in 2015, it would be shit. It’s not like one song or one piece of art or one book is going to change someone’s mind. However, things happen gradually and accusatively and that is when it snowballs.”

The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – is now on sale in the UK. Click here for more details.

Meanwhile, the January 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring Paul Weller, David Bowie, Best Of 2015, Roger Waters, Father John Misty, Pere Ubu, Robert Forster, Natalie Prass, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Sunn O))), Jonny Greenwood, Arthur Lee & Love, Neil Young, Janis Joplin and more.

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

Ringo Starr auctioning off first copy of the ‘White Album’

News

Michael Bonner

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25th November 2015

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Ringo Starr auctioning off first copy of the ‘White Album’

Ringo Starr is auctioning off more than 1,300 items from his personal collection of artwork and heirlooms, including the first pressing of The Beatles’ ‘White Album‘.

Dangerous Minds reports that the auction also contains a Sgt. Pepper upholstered leather chair, a Yellow Submarine Rock-Ola jukebox, a script from Help!, and Starr’s Ludwig Oyster black three piece drum kitdrum kit.

Other items include John Lennon‘s 1964 Rose-Morris Rickenbacker, given to Starr in 1968, and a 2000 Mercedes Coupe once owned by George Harrison.

Proceeds are expected to top $10 million, and will benefit Starr’s charity, The Lotus Foundation.

The auction is being hosted by Julien’s Auctions of Beverly Hills, and you can see the full itinerary by clicking here.

Ringo Starr's UK 1st pressing White Album No 0000001 is part of our auction on December 4th! #TheBeatles #Auction pic.twitter.com/NpJgRzQk4e

— Juliens Auctions (@JuliensAuctions) November 5, 2015

The rarest piece of rock memorabilia is Starr’s copy of the ‘White Album’, numbered 0000001.

As Dangerous Minds notes, it’s accepted that copies one to four are in the possession of Beatles’ members, with it previously assumed John Lennon had No. 0000001.

Until now, according to Vinyl Factory, the lowest numbered UK first mono pressing album to come to market was No.0000005 – which sold for just under $30,000 back in 2008.

Julien’s estimates the LP will fetch anywhere between $40,000 and $60,000. at the auction, which will be held between December 3-5.

The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – is now on sale in the UK. Click here for more details.

Meanwhile, the January 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring Paul Weller, David Bowie, Best Of 2015, Roger Waters, Father John Misty, Pere Ubu, Robert Forster, Natalie Prass, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Sunn O))), Jonny Greenwood, Arthur Lee & Love, Neil Young, Janis Joplin and more.

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

January 2016

Jo Weakley

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24th November 2015

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Paul Weller, David Bowie, Roger Waters and the best albums of 2015 all feature in the new issue of Uncut, out now.

We join Paul Weller on tour in San Francisco, and find the Modfather five years sober, “enjoying the clarity” of playing to enthusiastic crowds and breaking the US, his way.

“I love playing music,” he tells Uncut. “I can’t imagine that passion ever stopping.”

Also in the new issue, we delve inside David Bowie’s new, ambitious Blackstar album. As well as an extensive, in-depth review, Blackstar’s bandleader, saxophonist Donny McCaslin, reveals all about Bowie’s remarkable working practices, including jazz solos, conceptual feedback and sushi lunches.

“I remember Tony [Visconti] and David both saying, ‘Wow, this is going so fast. You’re doing a great job.’ David took everything we did during the day home at night and listened intently to it, trying to figure out what he wanted and so on. His attention to detail that way was eye-opening.”

Elsewhere, as he prepares to release a new film of The Wall, Roger Waters discusses war, Pink Floyd and a lifetime of being “a very angry young man”. “If you’re honest in any way,” he tells us, “you paint what you see. I lived in a political household, so politics was always part of my life.”

Also in the issue, we reveal the finest albums, reissues, films and books of 2015, all voted for by Uncut’s staff and contributors, and put your questions to Josh Tillman aka Father John Misty. “If anyone could provide a fragrance experience that would encapsulate what it means to be a young woman today, it was me,” he quips.

Pere Ubu’s original members, including frontman David Thomas and synth pioneer Allen Ravenstine, take us through the creation of their debut single, “30 Seconds Over Tokyo” – “we had to assure the pressing plant that that was what the song was supposed to sound like!” says Thomas.

In our ‘album by album’ feature this month, Robert Forster recalls The Go-Betweens, recreating a photograph of James Joyce for the cover of his debut solo album, and why he “never made a bad record in London”.

The 40-page reviews section includes releases from David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Sunn O))), Jonny Greenwood, Arthur Lee & Love, The Magnetic Fields and Laurie Anderson, while U2 and Joanna Newsom‘s live sets are reviewed.

Neil Young, Janis Joplin, Miracle Legion and Gwenno are all to be found within our Instant Karma news section, while Natalie Prass takes us through the songs and albums that have shaped her life.

The free CD, The Best Of 2015, includes some of the finest songs of the year, from the likes of Ryley Walker, Courtney Barnett, Wilco, Father John Misty, Björk, New Order and Julia Holter.

The new issue of Uncut is out now.

The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – is now on sale in the UK. Click here for more details.

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

Introducing the new issue of Uncut…

News

John Mulvey

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24th November 2015

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Not to overstate matters, but putting together a Best Albums Of The Year list, at least before autumn has fully blown through, seems an increasingly perilous business. Twelve months ago, for instance, Uncut’s extended family of staff and writers diligently submitted their favourites, unaware that an album which might have surpassed most of their choices – D’Angelo’s “Black Messiah” – would suddenly materialise on December 15.

Today, the new issue of Uncut arrives in UK shops, and I suppose there’s a fair chance something similar might happen again between now and the end of the year; these, I guess, are the gambles we have to take as part of putting together a monthly magazine.

For a brief period of intrigue, possibility and anticipation, it even looked as if a new David Bowie album might sneak artfully into this calendar year. As it turns out, “Blackstar”., is scheduled for release in January 2016, but inside the new Uncut you’ll find a first, forensic review of one of Bowie’s most audacious albums to date, plus a revelatory piece on the making of the album from Donny McCaslin, the jazz saxophonist who has taken on the role of Bowie’s key collaborator for the project.

Last-minute surprises notwithstanding, our list of this year’s top 75 new albums feels like a particularly fresh and eclectic one – and one which hopefully reflects Uncut’s continuing commitment to find exciting new music. If you’ve an appetite to dig deeper, I’m trying to pull together a personal list that I’ll post here in the next week or so, and which will probably stretch to around 140 albums that I’ve enjoyed to a greater or lesser degree in 2015.

For the time being, though, hopefully this issue should suffice. Besides the Bowie and end of year business, we have Paul Weller, Father John Misty, Roger Waters, Natalie Prass, Gwenno, Pere Ubu, Miracle Legion and an interview I conducted with one of my heroes, Robert Forster, in which we talk through a good few of his finest albums; Go-Betweens classics included, but also relatively unsung stuff like this…

“Every man for the rest of your life will be less than me…”

Hear new James song, “To My Surprise”

News

Michael Bonner

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24th November 2015

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James have returned with new single “To My Surprise” from their upcoming album Girl At The End Of The World.

Girl At The End Of The World – James’ 14th studio LP – will be released on March 18, 2016. The record was produced by Max Dingel (The Killers, Muse) and features a cameo from Brian Eno.

It follows on from 2014’s La Petite Mort.

You can listen to “To My Surprise” below.

The band’s Jim Glennie says of the album: “The songs for this record were written exclusively in Scotland. Not for any particular reason but still a fact. If you pay close attention whilst you’re listening, in a couple of places you can actually smell peat burning mixed with the salty tang of seaweed on the air. Also, possibly bagpipes but that might be just my tinnitus playing up.”

“Girl At The End Of The World is a record we are very proud of and picks up nicely where La Petite Mort left off. But hopefully, as always, pushes the edges out a little further. The songs are big but personal, abrasive but warming and after taking you on a journey and throwing you a few curve balls, ultimately uplifting.”

The tracklisting for the album is:

‘Bitch’
‘To My Surprise’
‘Nothing But Love’
‘Attention’
‘Dear John’
‘Feet Of Clay’
‘Surfer’s Song’
‘Catapult’
‘Move Down South’
‘Alvin’
‘Waking’
‘Girl At The End Of The World’

James will also play a full UK tour in May 2016. See those dates below. Tickets are on sale now.

Bristol Colston Hall (May 2, 2016)
Southend Cliffs Pavilion (3)
London O2 Shepherds Bush Empire (4)
London Forum (6)
London O2 Academy Brixton (7)
Norwich UEA (9)
Bournemouth O2 Academy (10)
Llandudno Venue Cymru Arena (12)
Manchester Arena (13)
Leeds First Direct Arena (14)
Hull City Hall (16)
Newcastle City Hall (17)
Glasgow The SSE Hydro (19)
Birmingham Barclaycard Arena (20)
Nottingham Royal Concert Hall (21)

The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – is now on sale in the UK. Click here for more details.

Meanwhile, the December 2015 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring Kurt Cobain, PJ Harvey, Don Henley, Bob Dylan, Courtney Barnett, Noddy Holder, The Beatles, Neko Case, Ken Kesey’s Acid Tests, Jimi Hendrix and more.

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

This month in Uncut

News

Tom Pinnock

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24th November 2015

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