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Paul McCartney announces new photography book, 1964: Eyes Of The Storm

Tom Skinner
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Paul McCartney announces new photography book, 1964: Eyes Of The Storm

Paul McCartney has announced a new photography book containing 275 never-before-seen images taken by the former Beatle himself. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Introducing the Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide to Paul McCartney Titled 1964: Eye...

Paul McCartney has announced a new photography book containing 275 never-before-seen images taken by the former Beatle himself.

Titled 1964: Eyes Of The Storm, the project provides an intimate look at the months towards the end of 1963 and beginning of 1964 when Beatlemania took off in the UK, and the Fab Four rose to global fame after their first US trip.

The featured photographs are McCartney’s personal record of this historic period in music, and were shot in six cities: Liverpool, London, Paris, New York, Washington, D.C. and Miami. Fans will see many previously-unreleased portraits of John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

In his foreword and introductions, McCartney recalls the “what else can you call it – pandemonium” of that time of his career and conveys his impressions of Britain and America in 1964.

The idea for 1964: Eyes Of The Storm came about back in 2020 when nearly a thousand photographs taken by Paul McCartney on a 35mm camera was re-discovered in his archive.

“Anyone who rediscovers a personal relic or family treasure is instantly flooded with memories and emotions, which then trigger associations buried in the haze of time,” says McCartney.

the official cover of Paul McCartney's new photo book '1964: Eyes Of The Storm'
‘1964: Eyes Of The Storm’ – Paul McCartney. Image: Penguin / Press
a black and white image from Paul McCartney's new photography book '1964: Eyes Of The Storm'
‘1964: Eyes Of The Storm’ – Paul McCartney. Image: Penguin / Press

“This was exactly my experience in seeing these photos, all taken over an intense three-month period of travel, culminating in February 1964. It was a wonderful sensation to be plunged right back.”

McCartney continued: “Here was my own record of our first huge trip, a photographic journal of The Beatles in six cities, beginning in Liverpool and London, followed by Paris (where John and I had been ordinary hitchhikers three years before), and then what we regarded as the big time, our first visit as a group to America.”

The book also includes an introduction by Harvard historian and New Yorker essayist Jill Lepore, a preface by Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, and an essay by Senior Curator Rosie Broadley.

1964: Eyes Of The Storm is due for publication on June 13 via Penguin (pre-order here). You can see the cover artwork, a preview image and the official trailer above.

The photographs will also be displayed for the first time in the exhibition, Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm, at the National Portrait Gallery. It runs from June 28 until October 1, 2023.

Reviewed! Bob Dylan’s Fragments: Time Out Of Mind Sessions (1996-1997)

Nick Hasted
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Reviewed! Bob Dylan’s Fragments: Time Out Of Mind Sessions (1996-1997)

I heard Time Out Of Mind’s miracle on a preview cassette in a friend’s parked car, our jaws dropping to at least four plainly great songs from a hero who’d seemed spent. Then there was Daniel Lanois’s production: an inescapable, miasmic atmosphere thicker yet than his work on Oh Mercy, techn...

I heard Time Out Of Mind’s miracle on a preview cassette in a friend’s parked car, our jaws dropping to at least four plainly great songs from a hero who’d seemed spent. Then there was Daniel Lanois’s production: an inescapable, miasmic atmosphere thicker yet than his work on Oh Mercy, technologically mutating the echoing ’50s sound Dylan had requested. Twenty-five years on, “Standing In The Doorway”, “Tryin’ To Get To Heaven”, “Not Dark Yet” and “Highlands” are still peaks, and Lanois’s work still sometimes tips from essential to overwhelming, just as he and Dylan fiercely wrestled for control during the record’s fraught Miami sessions.

Fragments, the new five-disc Bootleg Series excavation of those sessions, reimagines Time Out Of Mind in a Michael Brauer remix which strips away Lanois’s arguable excesses, leaving it closer, it’s claimed, to how the music sounded in the room. It also disinters initial, autumn 1996 sessions at Lanois’s funky Teatro home studio in Oxnard, California, discovering mind-blowing sketches for a radically different, R&B-flavoured album, its death-haunted lyrics less important than Dylan’s lusty exuberance at his creative rebirth. Seemingly lesser songs now dance from the speakers, reborn.

Fragments also traces the work’s January 1997 shift in Miami towards its final form, adds Never-Ending Tour reimaginings of the songs and, in a fifth disc, relevant tracks already released on Tell-Tale Signs. That collection’s motherlode of great unreleased songs seems exhausted, the Bootleg Series now instead focusing on showing facets of Dylan’s many jewels in a new light.

It’s a moot point just how stripped back this remix really is, as Dylan’s voice retains a Sun Studio echo, and the same worked-over takes are used. The album’s vinyl incarnation also anyway steered much closer to the jumping ’50s sound Dylan wanted. Here, though, lost verses return, and that voice is the absolute focus – driven on by massive drums on “Love Sick”, left still more bereft on “Standing In The Doorway” and upfront in its gorgeous articulation of disaffection on “Not Dark Yet”.

“Dirt Road Blues”’ skipping roadhouse groove is bettered by “Million Miles”’ slinky urban simmer, its cymbals’ jazzy, crystalline glint and rock’n’roll guitar’s rough, metallic grain sounding like a Shadow Kingdom refit. The drums then stormily whip up “Cold Irons Bound”, Dylan seeing “nothing but clouds of blood” in this version. “Make You Feel My Love” is a glorious gospel ballad carried by hushed organ, “Can’t Wait” is sexy, funky and funny with a steam-hammer beat. “Highlands”, enlivened by spectral touches of wild mercury guitar, reveals its unsuspected, close connection to more phantasmagoric mid-’60s epics, as he follows “the snap of the bow” into the titular, mythic hills.

Discs 2 and 3 detail the sessions that led to this, opening with the Oxnard “Dreamin’ Of You”, wildly different to both its Tell-Tale Signs take and evolution as “Standing In The Doorway”. Now Dylan sounds like an Al Green loverman in a dimly lit club as dawn breaks, and feels like “a ghost in love”. “I squandered the years of my youth,” he finally confesses. “It’s a scary thing, the truth.” “The Water Is Wide” switches to a humbly prayerful folk vocal, and “Red River Shore (Version 1)” sounds straight off The Basement Tapes, Dylan deliberately choosing from a wealth of styles.

The R&B mood then returns in Miami. “Not Dark Yet (Version 1)” is more unbelievable yet, up-tempo Memphis country-soul with Willie Mitchell-style guitar. “Nah, it’s not dark yet,” Dylan decides.

“Can’t Wait (Version 1)” is a mighty take, the band meeting Dylan’s rasping roar with smashing drums. Excised lyrics are equally majestic, cutting to Time Out Of Mind’s heart: “Well my back is to the sun because the light is too intense/ I can see what everyone in the world is up against”; and, “I’m getting old/ Anything now can happen to anyone.” People revere Dylan’s 1979-80 ‘Gospel’ shows, captured on the Bootleg Series’ Trouble No More. His blues and soul singing here is still more fiercely potent, these session performances ranking among his very best.

“Cold Irons Bound” is good Lanois sonic weirdsville, guitars and keyboards blurring. “Make You Feel My Love (Take 1)” already sounds like an AOR classic Clapton would kill for, studio applause breaking out at Dylan’s sensitive balladeer singing. As the sessions progress towards their familiar destination, interest inevitably falls away. On “Not Dark Yet (Version 2)”, the tone we know locks tights, as Dylan finally accepts his words’ deathly weight.

The live disc draws strongly on what sound like audience recordings of Dylan’s landmark 2000 tour, when his voice and intent were at their strongest for years. Birmingham’s “Tryin’ To Get To Heaven” is unrecognisable, of course, refashioned as the sort of lacily delicate old-time ballad “Love And Theft” would soon introduce. Nashville ’99’s “Can’t Wait” adds a reggae lope to its funk, Dylan pushing his voice hysterically high. Last comes “Highlands” in Newcastle, Australia in 2001, a shaggy-dog talking blues told in stand-up nightclub fashion, so jauntily uptempo it shaves six minutes from the album.

No one thought that Dylan would make one of his finest albums in 1997 (or maintain that hot streak for the next quarter-century). No one thought, either, that the outtakes from such sessions could fill a compelling, sometimes revelatory box set. But here it is.

David Crosby was working on a new album when he died

Will Richards
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David Crosby was working on a new album when he died

The late David Crosby was working on a new album when he died, a collaborator has revealed. READ MORE: An Audience With David Crosby: “I can’t claim to be wise!” Crosby, a founding member of The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, died last week (January 19) at the age of 81 followin...

The late David Crosby was working on a new album when he died, a collaborator has revealed.

Crosby, a founding member of The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, died last week (January 19) at the age of 81 following a long illness.

The legendary songwriter played his last gig in 2019, but guitarist Steve Postell told Variety that new music was on the way, and that Crosby “seemed practically giddy” about the new material.

“David didn’t think he was gonna last for years, which he joked about all the time. But there was no sense that we weren’t gonna be able to do this show and these tours,” Postell – who was working on the music with Crosby – said.

“We were talking tour buses and what kind of venues and the whole team was all back together again – the road manager and tour manager and sound guys – on top of this band we’d put together. There was not even a remote sense that we weren’t about ready to hit the world. And it’s a shame people didn’t get to hear it.”

Postell added that the pair had gone into rehearsals the week before Crosby’s death, and that a tour was in the works.

“He was showing us new songs, like, ‘What do you think of these lyrics?’ He hadn’t lost the fire. I’d like people to know that he was on it,” the guitarist said.

“He was writing, playing, singing his ass off and preparing a fantastic show. That’s what he was doing. He was not lying in a bed for two years, out of it. That’s not what happened at all.”

David Crosby
David Crosby. Image: Burak Cingi / Redferns

In the days following his death, Crosby’s friends, collaborators and fans have paid tribute to him online.

Graham Nash – his bandmate in Crosby, Stills & Nash, paid tribute, saying that it was with “a deep and profound sadness” that he learned about Crosby’s death.

“I know people tend to focus on how volatile our relationship has been at times, but what has always mattered to David and me more than anything was the pure joy of the music we created together, the sound we discovered with one another, and the deep friendship we shared over all these many long years,” he wrote.

Neil Young also shared his memories of the late Crosby. In a blog post on his Neil Young Archives website, he wrote: “David is gone, but his music lives on. The soul of CSNY, David’s voice and energy were at the heart of our band. His great songs stood for what we believed in and it was always fun and exciting when we got to play them together.

““Almost Cut My Hair”, “Deja Vu” and so many other great songs he wrote were wonderful to jam on and Stills and I had a blast as he kept us going on and on. His singing with Graham was so memorable, their duo spot a highlight of so many of our shows.”

Crosby’s wife confirmed the news of his death in a statement given to Variety, writing: “It is with great sadness after a long illness, that our beloved David (Croz) Crosby has passed away.

“He was lovingly surrounded by his wife and soulmate Jan and son Django. Although he is no longer here with us, his humanity and kind soul will continue to guide and inspire us. His legacy will continue to live on through his legendary music.”

She continued: “Peace, love, and harmony to all who knew David and those he touched. We will miss him dearly. At this time, we respectfully and kindly ask for privacy as we grieve and try to deal with our profound loss. Thank you for the love and prayers.”

Sparks re-sign to Island Records for new album The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte

Tom Skinner
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Sparks re-sign to Island Records for new album The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte

Sparks have returned to Island Records after almost 50 years to release their 26th studio album, The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Making The Sparks Brothers documentary: “Being ahead of the curve for 50 year...

Sparks have returned to Island Records after almost 50 years to release their 26th studio album, The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte.

The Los Angeles duo’s breakthrough third record, Kimono My House, came out via the label back in 1974. Sparks remained with Island until 1976. Their seventh LP, 1977’s Introducing Sparks, was released through Columbia (US) and CBS (UK).

On January 24, Sparks – comprising brothers Ron and Russell Mael – have confirmed that the follow-up to 2020’s A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip will arrive on May 26. Pre-orders are currently not available.

Per a press release, the forthcoming full-length project sees the band continue down a “unique and uncompromising path”, and is described as a “bold, genre defying, modern masterpiece”.

The group are yet to share a single, tracklist or official artwork for The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte. See the announcement tweet below.

Speaking of their return to Island, Sparks said in a joint statement: “Funny how things work! One of the most memorable periods for Sparks, the one that forever cemented our relationship with the UK and also exposed Sparks to a bigger audience around the world, was the 70s Island Records era.

“And here we find ourselves in 2023, almost 50 years later, re-signing with Island Records, again with an album that we all feel is as bold and uncompromising as anything we did back then, or for that matter, anytime throughout our career.”

They continued: “We’re happy that after so much time, we’ve reconnected with Island, sharing the same spirit of adventure that we all had way back when, but with our new album, The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte.”

Louis Bloom, Island President, added: “Sparks have always been one of the most original, ground-breaking and creative groups in pop and their longevity is partly down to their ability to constantly reinvent themselves. It’s an honour and thrill having Sparks back on Island.

“Next year it will be 50 years since Island released Kimono My House. That album sounded like it came from the future and once again with The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte, Ron & Russell have created a pop masterpiece that sounds like no one else.”

Air announce 25th anniversary vinyl reissue of Moon Safari

Will Richards
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Air announce 25th anniversary vinyl reissue of Moon Safari

Air have announced a 25th anniversary vinyl reissue of their classic debut album Moon Safari. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Air – 10 000 Hz Legend review The French duo – comprised of Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel – relea...

Air have announced a 25th anniversary vinyl reissue of their classic debut album Moon Safari.

The French duo – comprised of Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel – released their debut album in 1998.

After celebrating 20 years of its 2001 follow-up 10 000Hz Legend with a reissue in 2021, Moon Safari will now be reissued on vinyl via Vinyl Me Please to celebrate its 25th birthday.

The reissue will land on February 1 and be pressed on an exclusive 180gram “Sea of Tranquility” coloured vinyl.

It will feature lacquers cut by Marie Pieprrzownik alongside a Listening Notes article by Sophie Frances Kemp and an art print from Mike Mills.

The liner notes for the reissue say of the album: “It feels like a dream sequence. One moment you’re walking through a room drenched in pink light while dressed in a tuxedo, the next you’re diving into the neighbour’s pool butt-naked with your high school crush.

“It’s a mood you want to live inside of forever. It’s a revelation. It’s conversation pit music for a better future.”

Find out how to get your copy below.

Air last studio effort, Le Voyage Dans La Lune, came out in 2012.

Belle & Sebastian cancel North American tour due to Stuart Murdoch’s health

Elizabeth Aubrey
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Belle & Sebastian cancel North American tour due to Stuart Murdoch’s health

Belle & Sebastian have cancelled their upcoming American tour, citing Stuart Murdoch's health. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut The band announced details of the upcoming North American tour last October. They were due to kick off the tour in Mexico...

Belle & Sebastian have cancelled their upcoming American tour, citing Stuart Murdoch’s health.

The band announced details of the upcoming North American tour last October. They were due to kick off the tour in Mexico before heading to cities including Milwaukee, Detroit, Columbus, Toronto and finishing up in St. Louis and Kalamazoo.

Now, the band have released a statement saying that Murdoch had not yet recovered from an illness in late 2022.

The statement read: “Hi folks. It’s Stuart from Belle and Sebastian here. We are sorry to have to announce the cancellation of our North American tour for 2023.

“As you might be aware my health took a dive around November 2022. While I am hoping that I will improve over the coming months, we felt it would be a safer route to cancel this tour and leave a clear path to recovery, rather than take a risk and have to cancel at the last minute.

“We had a great plan in place, to release our second LP in six months and hit America up again! While the record made it out, we’re going to have to wait a bit longer until we can tour it. We apologise again for the inconvenience we have caused you. Sincerely yours, Stuart.”

The affected dates are as follows:

APRIL
24 – Guadalajara, Mexico – Theatre Diana
25 – Mexico City, Mexico – Metropolitan Theatre
28 – Milwaukee, WI – Turner Hall
29 – Detroit, MI – Majestic Theatre
30 – Columbus, OH – Athenaeum Theatre

MAY
02 – Toronto, Ontario – History
03 – Ottawa, Ontario – Bronson Centre
04 – Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
05 – Ithaca, NY – State Theatre
06 – New Haven, CT – College Street Music Hall
08 – Hudson, NY – Basilica Hudson
09 – Jersey City, NJ – White Eagle Hall
10 – Richmond, VA – The National
12 – Atlanta, GA – The Eastern
13 – St. Augustine, FL – Backyard at St. Augustine Amphitheatre
14 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – Culture Room
15 – St. Petersburg, FL – Jannus Landing
17 – Birmingham, AL – Saturn
18 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
19 – Kalamazoo, MI – Bell’s Brewery (Outdoor)

Earlier this month, Belle & Sebastian announced details of a surprise new album, Late Developers and shared the single “I Don’t Know What You See In Me”. It’s the Scottish indie veterans’ 12th studio album and was released on January 13.

Belle & Sebastian are still set to embark on a UK tour this summer.

Complete Mountain Almanac reveal the creative process of their self-titled album

Graeme Thomson
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Complete Mountain Almanac reveal the creative process of their self-titled album

As Complete Mountain Almanac, Rebekka Karijord and Jessica Dessner have written a song for every month of the year – with the aid of the latter’s notable siblings in our FEBRUARY 2023 issue of Uncut, available to buy here. Jessica Dessner may be due some of the credit for the success of The N...

As Complete Mountain Almanac, Rebekka Karijord and Jessica Dessner have written a song for every month of the year – with the aid of the latter’s notable siblings in our FEBRUARY 2023 issue of Uncut, available to buy here.

Jessica Dessner may be due some of the credit for the success of The National. “There’s a long tradition, from the time we were teenagers, of me playing music for my brothers that I think they should like,” says the poet, dancer, visual artist and sister to that band’s twin guitarists Bryce and Aaron. “I remember in early interviews they used to give credit to their punky older sister playing stuff, and my punky boyfriends coming around
to teach them to play drums.”

When Dessner began collaborating with Stockholm-based Norwegian singer and composer Rebekka Karijord, it was time for her to call in a return favour. “In 2018 we were all together at Aaron’s house for Christmas, and I said, ‘Listen, there’s this project I want to tell you about.’ I played a couple of demos and they both got ‘the look’. I know the look! In the end I said, ‘Would you guys want to be a part of it?’ It just happened organically. Also, there’s an element of big sister telling little brothers what to do! It’s rare nowadays that I do that, but if I can use it, I will…”

It’s easy to hear why the Dessner brothers got “the look”. Combining Jessica’s poetry with Karijord’s music and melodies, Complete Mountain Almanac is an intimate, immersive mix of folk, classical and chamber music. Its 12 songs, one for every month of the year, address decay and healing, both global and personal.

The project had a prolonged gestation. Friends since the 2000s, Karijord contacted Dessner in 2016 after struggling with the idea of writing “a climate change record. I thought it was going to be solely instrumental, but I felt it was too abstract, too big to grasp. I contacted Jessica and said, ‘Do you want to try to write something for this project?’ She said yes right away and we started emailing back and forth.”

Momentum then stalled while Dessner processed a breast cancer diagnosis. “Rebekka very gracefully left me alone for the most intensive part of that,” she says. “At some point, she sent me a little note to say that if I wanted to use the project to address what I was going through health-wise, she would be totally open to that. I couldn’t commit to anything, but I held that in mind.”

Eight months later, Karijord visited Dessner at her home in rural northern Italy. “Jessica handed me this 40-page manuscript called Complete Mountain Almanac and said, ‘It’s all yours.’ She was able to express exactly what I wanted to say but in a far more personal manner. There’s a synergy between the cancer in our natural world, our attack on ourselves, and the essence of a person going through a disease, the body attacking itself. She managed to tie those things together. I very freely took what stood out to me, then sent her demos.”

Once schedules aligned, the songs were recorded in Paris early in 2020, just before lockdown. Used to working alone, Karijord set aside her usual “control freakery”, apart from one rule: “I wanted that every song was made live with only me and the two brothers playing,” she says. Minimalist overdubs were added later, alongside string arrangements written by Bryce and performed by the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, “but the fundamentals should be live with all the flaws and love and edge. And I wanted to record it chronologically. ‘January’ is the first take we did in the studio together. That week was one of the most intense and inspiring I’ve ever had.”

Karijord is planning live shows with the twins, and she and Jessica are already discussing a new collaboration. “We’re talking about the next one,” says Dessner. “We need some time to let this one land, then we’ll see where we go.”

Complete Mountain Almanac is out on January 27 via Bella Union.

Introducing our Quarterly Special Edition: The Complete David Bowie… Ranked 

John Robinson
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Introducing our Quarterly Special Edition: The Complete David Bowie… Ranked 

When Bowie passed in 2016, it was tempting to see his death – two days after the release of his final album – as the completion of a circle; the perfection of a life characterised by a profusion not only of incredible music but of innovative ideas, eccentric pre-occupations and tantalising self-...

When Bowie passed in 2016, it was tempting to see his death – two days after the release of his final album – as the completion of a circle; the perfection of a life characterised by a profusion not only of incredible music but of innovative ideas, eccentric pre-occupations and tantalising self-reference. In a career which had seen many high-profile resignations and comebacks, it was fitting that Bowie’s first posthumous release should have been the soundtrack album to his Lazarus musical – a work which revisited themes which Bowie had explored in life and served as a kind curtain call, his final comeback.

It’s in this world of ideas, high concepts and pleasant surprises that The Complete David Bowie…Ranked makes camp. Inside we’ve reviewed and rated Bowie’s work in the kind of respectful but sideways fashion that we think he might have appreciated. We’ve reviewed and voted on all the studio albums – think you know the number 1? You may be surprised…– the best singles, box sets, screen appearances, live albums and compilations.

There’s more, of course. In the hope of giving you the background to why Bowie’s career took the course it did, we’ve also dug into his important influences, whether they’re people – Iggy, Angie, Kenneth Pitt – religious affiliations, concepts and paradigms – say, “Advertising” or “The internet”. We’ve ranked his managers, not forgetting his key collaborators, alternative single sleeves and rarities. Books? In case you want more, we’ve done the books, too.

We’ve also dived into our archive of Bowie-related interviews to bring you the top 20 Bowie anecdotes. As with the rest of the magazine, we hope these will bring you closer to the music and the Bowie you already know. For sure, you’ll read about the zealous nightclubber of early 70s London, and the occult practitioner of the of Station To Station era. But you’ll also read about the young mod tryer, the generous collaborator, the New York commuter and the artist who didn’t only know how to make a meaningful exit – he also knew all about a spectacular entrance.

As you’ll learn on these pages, Bowie had been impressed by the work of Lou Reed’s touring guitarist Chuck Hammer, and asked him to attend a tracking session for what became “Ashes To Ashes”. Bowie was running late for the studio. When he bowled in, however, he more than made up for it.

“He comes walking in wearing a full-length leather jacket with open-toed Japanese sandals, with a big wooden cross round his neck,” Chuck tells us. “He had a moustache, and was carrying a clipboard in one hand and a quart of milk in the other. He said, “Chuck, how nice to see you again. Your tape is all I listen to.”

Enjoy the magazine.

Buy a copy of the magazine here. Missed one in the series? Bundles are available at the same location…

The Complete David Bowie… Ranked 

Uncut
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The Complete David Bowie… Ranked 

Presenting our latest online exclusive: The Complete David Bowie… Ranked, one of the world's most celebrated geniuses. With the 50th anniversary of Aladdin Sane almost upon us, it seems a good time to decide where that sits in the order of classic Bowie albums – and rank his entire output, 19...

Presenting our latest online exclusive: The Complete David Bowie… Ranked, one of the world’s most celebrated geniuses.

With the 50th anniversary of Aladdin Sane almost upon us, it seems a good time to decide where that sits in the order of classic Bowie albums – and rank his entire output, 1964-2016! So here are the songs, films, live albums, ’60s cuts, hairstyles, books and much more from the world of Bowie – including The World Of David Bowie – all reviewed and ranked for your enjoyment.

Buy a copy here!

Sparkle Hard

Daniel Dylan Wray
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Sparkle Hard

Alex Crowton, director of a new documentary about Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous, admits it would be easy to sensationalise the life of the troubled musician, who took his own life in 2010. “But we tried to shy away from that,” says Crowton. “We wanted to focus on the music and make it about hi...

Alex Crowton, director of a new documentary about Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous, admits it would be easy to sensationalise the life of the troubled musician, who took his own life in 2010. “But we tried to shy away from that,” says Crowton. “We wanted to focus on the music and make it about his amazing records.”

Prior to his death, Virginia native Linkous had built up a unique body of work. Elements of gothic country permeated his five studio albums, as did a love of melancholy rock, lo-fi sensibilities and a punk spirit – all combined with a voice that was as ghostly and delicate as it was weathered and rusty. “He was an incredibly talented writer and musician,” says singer-songwriter Gemma Hayes, who appears in the film, alongside Linkous collaborators David Lynch, Mercury Rev, John Parish, Grandaddy and Adrian Utley.

Linkous’s proclivity for using cheap, broken or junk-shop instruments added an often eerie tone to his work. “He seemed to see life in what most people would describe as dead things,” says Hayes. “This made his music very profound, strange and darkly beautiful.”

This Is Sparklehorse is a labour of love for Crowton and co-director Bobby Dass. It’s a documentary that emphasises the poignant beauty and unsettling sadness of Linkous’s music. “We are fans but it’s not a fanboy film,” says Crowton. “It’s an appreciation of the music. We knew the way his work had spoken to us would speak to others.”

Underscoring Linkous’s story is a lifetime of mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse, and the after-effects of a near-fatal overdose while on tour with Radiohead in 1996. Linkous took a cocktail of alcohol, antidepressants, Valium and heroin and passed out in a hotel room with his legs trapped under him. This caused a build-up of potassium, which, when freed, entered his bloodstream and stopped his heart. “I guess it did kill me for a few minutes,” Linkous reflects at one point in the film, in an interview Crowton and Dass did with him back in 2007. He nearly lost his legs and had to use a wheelchair for some time after. Some friends believe he was never the same again, becoming even more withdrawn and reclusive.

This Is Sparklehorse captures Linkous’s duality: a kind, gentle soul with a clear talent but also one prone to bouts of “vulnerability and not a lot of self-worth” as David Lynch observes. Lynch worked with Linkous on his final album, the Danger Mouse collaboration Dark Night Of The Soul, as did producer John Parish, who saw these complexities up close: “His self-confidence would take a dive and he needed some coaxing to recognise the value and beauty of what he was doing.”

The suicide of close friend Vic Chesnutt in 2009 hit Linkous hard. “It had a profound effect on him,” says Crowton. A year later Linkous sadly followed his friend’s path. However, despite the tragic end to a difficult life, Hayes’ memories of Linkous underline his unique and enduring qualities as an artist. “Mark lived outside the confines of ego,” she says. “He was pure and open and so was his music. That calibre of art just stays fresh forever. I’ve never come across someone as brave as him.”

This Is Sparklehorse is available to stream at sparklehorsefilm.com

Hear “Headwaters”, the ravishing new track from the Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble

Michael Bonner
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Hear “Headwaters”, the ravishing new track from the Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble

The Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble have returned with new music. The Chicago trio - McLaughlin (six and 12-string guitar), Jason Toth (upright bass) and Joel Styzens (hammered dulcimer) - have just released "Headwaters", taken from their upcoming third album, Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble III. You can h...

The Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble have returned with new music. The Chicago trio – McLaughlin (six and 12-string guitar), Jason Toth (upright bass) and Joel Styzens (hammered dulcimer) – have just released “Headwaters“, taken from their upcoming third album, Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble III.

You can hear the track below.

For this new album, the ensemble continue to develop their MO – American primitivism meets free jazz – moving into beguiling new territories with the addition of guests, cellist Katinka Kleijn and pianist Adler Scheidt.

The album is released by Astral Spirits on March 24 in a pressing of 500 copies and as a digital download.

You can pre-order the album by clicking here.

The tracklisting for Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble III is:

Intro (feat. Katinka Kleijn)
Headwaters
Parallax (feat. Katinka Kleijn)
Tributary
Point of Departure (feat. Katinka Kleijn)
Braided River (feat. Katinka Kleijn)
Coloring of Lake/Sky

“It’s a scary thing, the truth…” Inside Dylan’s Time Out Of Mind sessions

Damien Love
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“It’s a scary thing, the truth…” Inside Dylan’s Time Out Of Mind sessions

“I squandered the years of my youth/It’s a scary thing, the truth…” With a new instalment of his ongoing Bootleg series celebrating BOB DYLAN’s 1997 album Time Out Of Mind, Damien Love digs deep to find these latest archival treasures cast new light on one of its creator’s most powerful,...

“I squandered the years of my youth/It’s a scary thing, the truth…” With a new instalment of his ongoing Bootleg series celebrating BOB DYLAN’s 1997 album Time Out Of Mind, Damien Love digs deep to find these latest archival treasures cast new light on one of its creator’s most powerful, emotionally complex records…in the latest issue of Uncut magazine – in UK shops from Thursday, January 12 and available to buy from our online store.

On February 25, 1998, Bob Dylan sauntered out on stage at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan to pick up the third Grammy Award of the night for his LP Time Out Of Mind. The record had already won Best Contemporary Folk Album and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, for the clamorous track “Cold Irons Bound”. But this was the main event: crowned Album Of The Year, seeing off nominees including Radiohead’s OK Computer and Paul McCartney’s Beatles-referencing Flaming Pie.

The Grammys hat trick capped an extraordinary moment in Dylan’s career, one that started when he began work on the record in late summer 1996. It could have ended as he was finalising its mixing and sequencing early summer 1997, when newspapers around the world flashed headlines that he was seriously ill in hospital, possibly facing a fight for his life.

That health scare was one of the reasons Time Out Of Mind was characterised by sections of the media on release as that damnable thing, “a comeback”, but not the only one. It was the first album of original material Dylan had issued in seven years. Many, including Dylan himself, had wondered if he’d ever write a song again.

Now here he was, looking like a dapper ghost as he collected an award for writing the year’s finest album, a haunted tour de force wrapped in all the colours of the blues to rank alongside any record from his past. In his acceptance speech, Dylan spoke of the album in characteristically colourful style, crediting Buddy Holly’s phantom for joining them in the studio while they worked, and invoking Robert Johnson: “The stuff we got’ll blow your brains out.” In retrospect, though, the most curious thing he said about making Time Out Of Mind was perhaps the most telling: “Everybody worked really hard on this and we didn’t know what we had when we did it. But we did it anyway.”

Twenty-five years since its release, tales of the confusion and conflict that fed the creation of Time Out Of Mind almost as much as Dylan’s vision of the music he was searching for have grown legion. Many of those stories first came to light in these pages, in 2008, when
Uncut interviewed several key participants for the release of The Bootleg Series Vol 8: Tell Tale Signs (Rare And Unreleased 1989–2006), which included 10 eye-opening outtakes from the sessions and proved one of the most revelatory editions of Dylan’s ongoing archive project.

“Sometimes, when it was all going on, it would be chaotic for an hour or more,” the late Jim Dickinson, who Dylan enlisted on piano for the record, told me back then. “But then there would be this period of clarity: just five or eight minutes of absolute clarity, where everybody in the room knew we were getting it. It was unlike any session I’ve ever been on.”

PICK UP THE NEW ISSUE OF UNCUT TO READ THE FULL STORY

An Audience With David Crosby: “I can’t claim to be wise!”

Sam Richards
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An Audience With David Crosby: “I can’t claim to be wise!”

In memory of David Crosby, who passed away aged 81, we revisit our final interview with the singer-songwriter from Uncut Take 293, October 2021 “I’ve been having a fairly good time, man,” admits David Crosby, logging into Zoom from his home in the “stunningly beautiful” countryside near...

In memory of David Crosby, who passed away aged 81, we revisit our final interview with the singer-songwriter from Uncut Take 293, October 2021

“I’ve been having a fairly good time, man,” admits David Crosby, logging into Zoom from his home in the “stunningly beautiful” countryside near Santa Barbara. It certainly sounds like there are worse places to be locked down. “I’m looking out through a bunch of trees at some cow pasture. It’s a sunny day, absolutely lovely – California at its best!”

He has his dogs to walk, a pool to swim in and a garden where he and his wife grow vegetables – and pot, naturally. “But I have also been working on records at long distance with my son James and with my other writing partners. It’s not as much fun as doing it live and in person, but we have been able to make pretty good music, in spite of the fact that we couldn’t get in the same room. So that’s been life! I’m feeling pretty happy and I’m really loving making music.”

Thanks to social media, Croz has also gained a reputation for generously sharing his findings from 79 years spent on this planet. Does he enjoy being a wise old oracle now? “I dunno, man, I made so many mistakes that I can’t claim to be wise! But I’m kinda happy with my role right now. There’s a bit of curmudgeon in there. Some of it’s gonna piss people off, I’m sure. But that’s not my aim. My aim is to be funny if I can, and insightful if I can.” Then again, “There’s some people I might want to piss off!”

Your songs are flowing faster than at any time since the ’60s. What do you attribute that to?
Jacob Tanner, Shrewsbury

Well, that’s easy. I learned a long time ago, when I wrote “Wooden Ships” with Paul Kantner and Stephen Stills, that you can write really good songs with other people. Most of my compatriots in this business want all of the credit and all of the money, and so they don’t do that. I’ve found that it’s really fun and it generates good art. I didn’t come for the money and I don’t care about the credit, but I do really care about the songs. My son James is a perfect example; he’s grown into, if anything, an even better writer than I am. He wrote the best song on this record, “I Won’t Stay For Long”. The other people that I write with – Michael League, Michelle Willis, Becca Stevens, Michael McDonald, Donald Fagen – these are all people that I picked because they’re all incredible writers, they’re a joy to write with. And it’s extended my useful life as a writer by 10 or 20 years. I think I would have petered out a while ago without it.

What was it like to write a song with Donald Fagen and how does that work in practice?
Besty, via email

Donald’s not a wide open sort of person, he doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve. He knew going in that Steely Dan was my favourite band. But it’s taken a while for him to trust me enough [to collaborate]. My son wrote the music, I contributed something to the melody. [Fagen] just sent the words and stood back to see what would happen. He knew what our taste was and he knew what we would probably try to do. He’s an extremely intelligent guy and I think he knew
what would happen. We know his playbook pretty well, so we deliberately went there – complex chords, complex melodies. We Steely Danned him right into the middle of this as far as we could! And fortunately Donald liked it, so I couldn’t be more grateful. I feel like one of the luckiest guys in the world, truthfully.

Do you have any memories of going on film sets with your father, cinematographer Floyd Crosby?
Lyle Bartlett, via email

Yeah, I do. He’d be shooting at a little fake Western town out in the valley someplace, and I’d get to run around. It was something he was a little reticent to do, ’cos I was kinda a wild kid and he was a very serious guy. My dad was not a fun guy – he was a not a good dad, either. But he was really good at his job. What films did I get to see being made? High Noon. The motion picture that he shot was really quite beautiful, but it had crappy music which screwed it up for me.

Are you still miffed about McGuinn and Hillman’s rewriting of “Draft Morning” [from The Notorious Byrd Brothers]?
Cosmic Andy, Edinburgh

Lord, no! It’s all fine. I don’t really remember [what happened], man. I think I had it one way and they changed it, that must’ve been it. It’s ancient history and I don’t really do ancient history that much. Could I have done more with The Byrds? Yeah, sure. But human lives do not go on parallel paths and we’re all always getting closer or further away from the people around us. What happened is that I encountered Stephen Stills and he swung really hard. He could play a kind of music that The Byrds couldn’t play and it appealed to me tremendously. I wanted that, and I really didn’t want to go in the direction that Chris and Roger wanted to go in, of becoming more country. I’m glad they did go there because they kinda invented that country-rock stuff, and they did a really good job. But it wasn’t where I wanted to go.

Have you ever considered a tour where you play If I Could Only Remember My Name in its entirety?
Roger Way, via email

I have. But Garcia’s dead, and that puts quite a crimp in it. Nobody else plays the way he did. And there’s no point trying to duplicate what happened there without him, ’cos he’s all over it. There was a certain magic that happened every time he and I picked up two guitars. If you listen to the beginning of [album outtake] “Kids And Dogs”, we’re playing a game with each other where we’d count: one, two, three, play! Each time we’d play a note, and neither of us knows what note the other guy’s gonna play. So it’s really random and it can go really wrong! Or it can go really right. And if you hear us, we’re doing that game, playing with each other, and then we hit a chord that’s so good that Garcia starts laughing, and you can hear him laughing on the tape. That’s what used to happen every time.

Is it true that Miles Davis kicked you out of his house when he played you his version of “Guinnevere” and you didn’t hear any resemblance to your song? Mike L, Southend

That’s a little more extreme than what actually happened. I didn’t really get it, the first time that I heard it. It was actually a really good record that he’d made, and I loved it in hindsight. But we just didn’t hit it off at first contact. And it’s a shame, because he was very kind to me and he had done a lot of good things for me – he liked my music or he would not have recorded it, it’s that simple. He’s also one of the main reasons The Byrds got a contract with Columbia. When we sent our tape in, he was a hero at that point – jazz was big – and he was on Columbia. So they went to him and said, ‘Hey Miles, whadda we do with this?’ And he said, ‘Sign ’em!’ And that’s why we were on Columbia. The guys who ran the company didn’t have any clue. Miles was a prickly guy and he didn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, but I love him. He was a fine cat, and brave. And I’m totally honoured that he cut my tune.

How did you feel about selling your publishing? What is the first thing you bought with the money?
Josip Radić, Zagreb, Croatia

I was not happy about doing it, but I was glad that I could do it. It wasn’t what I would have chosen to do, but since I lost both of my income streams, I didn’t have a choice. They don’t pay you for records any more and we can’t tour because of Covid, so what do you expect us to do? They’re starting the tours back up again but now I’m too old to do it. I can’t do bus tours any more, it just beats the crap outta me. I’m turning 80. I mean, never say never… I might do a residency – a week in New York, a week in LA, that kind of thing. But I don’t see me going on the road again. What I did with the money was pay off the house. And if you saw the smile on my wife’s face when I told her the house was paid off, you’d know why I did it!

What is the most memorable encounter you’ve ever had with another musician?
Jerry McGuire, via email

One time, Stills and Hendrix and I played for a while, at Stills’ beach house. That was pretty good. But probably the best was visiting The Beatles when they were making Sgt Pepper. I came in and I was very high. They sat me down on a stool in the middle of the studio and rolled up two six-foot tall speakers on either side of me. Then, laughing, they climbed the stairs back to the control room and left me there. And then they played “A Day In The Life”… At the end of that last chord, my brains just ran out my nose onto the floor in a puddle. I didn’t know what to do, I was just stupefied.

Who was the inspiration for the famous David Crosby moustache?
Zoran Tučkar, via email

Ah, it just grew there! I didn’t have any mentors or heroes that had moustaches that I can think of. It just happened on my lip and I didn’t wanna cut it.

John Cale – Mercy

Tom Pinnock
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John Cale – Mercy

If rock fully sparked into life in the mid-’60s, then those pioneers are now well past collecting their pensions. Some are gone, of course, others creatively spent. A select few, over the last few years, have entered a new creative realm: here, the white-hot urgency of youth is regained, this time...

If rock fully sparked into life in the mid-’60s, then those pioneers are now well past collecting their pensions. Some are gone, of course, others creatively spent. A select few, over the last few years, have entered a new creative realm: here, the white-hot urgency of youth is regained, this time tempered with the wisdom of age and the bittersweet passing of time. The results have been stunning: there’s Rough And Rowdy Ways, of course, and Blackstar, along with Leonard Cohen’s final trio, Roy Harper’s Man & Myth, McCartney III, Bill Fay and Mavis Staples’ recent work, and so on. When an album may be your last, there’s every reason to not go quietly into that good night.

When a latterday masterpiece is a chance to either distil your craft or launch into wild new adventures, it’s no surprise which of those Cale has gone for on Mercy, his first album since 2012’s Shifty Adventures In Nookie Wood. If a reminder is needed, this is the experimentalist who left Wales for New York City, who played in La Monte Young’s Theatre Of Eternal Music, who brought much of the pioneering squall to The Velvet Underground and changed rock music, who stuck with Nico and helped her make some incredible solo albums, and who produced pivotal records by the Stooges, Patti Smith and Happy Mondays.

Of course, he’s never stopped experimenting: two decades ago he got into hip-hop through Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot” and, pushing 81, he’s still enraptured by Earl Sweatshirt, Kendrick Lamar and Chance The Rapper. This century, his music has been invigorated, with 2005’s rocky BlackAcetate and its future-funk follow-up among his best. He’s spent the last decade honing his live craft, delving into his whole catalogue, and reassessing past triumphs, most notably on 2016’s M:FANS, a reworking of 1982’s Music For A New Society.

All that now feels like taking stock before pushing off into the great unknown – for Mercy is the most out-there work Cale has made in some time, a hermetically sealed, hallucinogenic journey that’s as neon-lit and gothic as its cover art. The presence of Cale’s voice – familiar, rich and avuncular – almost disguises just how radical much of the music is. For instance, the glitchy, doomy crawl of “Marilyn Monroe’s Legs (Beauty Elsewhere)”, created in collaboration with Cale’s favourite Actress, is brought into the light by the Welshman’s low croon and high falsetto, flitting hypnotically between a few notes. Even so, it’s the most difficult piece here, as much sound design as song, seven minutes long and positioned up front as track two.

Later in the record, “The Legal Status Of Ice”, featuring Fat White Family and first performed live by Cale and his band pre-pandemic, demonstrates just how far-out Cale is determined to go. It begins as industrial trip-hop with a one-note vocal line and a hip-hop-inspired “pour that liquor out” refrain, before transitioning into brilliant mutant dancehall with descending chords, droning synths and a spitting drum machine. Cabaret Voltaire were inspired by the churn of the Velvets, and here it sounds like Cale is returning the favour.

While Fat White Family’s grubby fingerprints are pretty faint, that’s testament to just how involved Cale is with every facet of Mercy: he plays almost every instrument, with collaborators generally credited with “additional” roles. Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering is the most obvious contributor, joining Cale on the bad-trip R&B of “Story Of Blood” – her solemn, deep voice occasionally has an air of Nico about it here, which can’t have escaped Cale’s attention.

Two tracks on, he turns to more obvious consideration of his old collaborator on “Moonstruck (Nico’s Song)”, a hyperpop ballad with queasy, unreal strings and a tender refrain about a “moonstruck junkie lady”. As two chords seesaw over an endless sequenced bassline, Cale’s processed vocals mass as he pays a bruised tribute: “I have come to make my peace…” You imagine the song’s subject would have particularly enjoyed the sub-bass rumble that subsumes the track in its final minute.

It’s not the only time Cale weaves his history into the record either. The video for “Night Crawling”, Mercy’s first single and its most accessible track by a mile, depicts an animated Cale and Bowie cruising around New York’s nightspots, as they did in real life. It’s the only track here that could have fitted on Shifty Adventures…, and it shows how far Cale’s come in the past decade. Amid the electronic sturm und drang, there are musical references to his past too, such as the hymnal chord changes in the middle section of “Time Stands Still”, reminiscent of one of his stately ’70s storytelling ballads, such as Fear’s “Buffalo Ballet”. Elsewhere, the piano intro to “Story Of Blood” is almost identical to the verse melody of that same record’s centrepiece, “Gun”.

Lyrically, he’s in typically opaque form, whether building a song around a handful of conversational lines, or harking back to the disjointed vividness of Paris 1919 – “With the camels standing senseless / From driving through the night” on “Not The End Of The World”, or “The grandeur that was Europe / Is sinking in the mud” on “Time Stands Still”. “I Know You’re Happy”, its lilting chorus and Tei Shi’s melodramatic vocals almost suitable for a TikTok clip, depicts an unequal relationship, the narrator glumly coming to terms with the fact their partner is only content “when I’m sad”.

The final track, one of Mercy’s strongest, finds some hope amid references to suicide and despair. “If you jump out your window / I will break your fall / I’ll hold you close and keep you calm / Wherever you decide to go”, sings Cale over metronomic piano that’s not unlike the musician’s pounding accompaniment on the Velvets’ “I’m Waiting For The Man”. Here, instead of being violent and physical, it’s brutal in a different way: mechanised, relentless and shrouded in thick reverb. At times like this, Mercy recalls the digital distortion of Low’s Double Negative, the clipped onslaught creating its own beauty.

As “Everlasting Days” degrades into claustrophobic drum and bass, with Animal Collective’s vocals cut-up and pitch-shifted, we’re reminded of Bowie’s Blackstar, not only sonically, but in its creator’s audacity and boundless enthusiasm for the new, the strange, the disconcerting. If this were to be the last we hear from Cale – and let’s hope there’s more to come – he’d at least be departing on a triumph, with an uncompromising, thoroughly modern trip into the twilight, to places where even his collaborators and acolytes would fear to tread. Rage, rage.

Guided By Voices – La La Land

Peter Watts
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Guided By Voices – La La Land

Since making their second comeback in 2017, Guided By Voices have continued to record at a vicious lick while maintaining standards of quality control that seem frankly unreal. La La Land is their 14th album since the band’s return, and they’re all good – sometimes great. Perhaps Robert Pollar...

Since making their second comeback in 2017, Guided By Voices have continued to record at a vicious lick while maintaining standards of quality control that seem frankly unreal. La La Land is their 14th album since the band’s return, and they’re all good – sometimes great. Perhaps Robert Pollard learnt from the previous comeback between 2010 and 2014, a “classic lineup” reunion that never really delivered on the goodwill. When that fell apart, it seemed like the end of the road. In 2016, Pollard brought out a Guided By Voices album called Please Be Honest, which featured him playing every instrument. That didn’t really work either. So Pollard, who is nothing if not persistent, tried again, this time recruiting a band that included old hands Doug Gillard and Kevin March on guitar and drums respectively, with accomplished newbies Mark Shue on bass and Bobby Bare Jr on second guitar. This time, it gelled. And how.

The new lineup are everything that people love about GBV – eclectic, quirky, provocative, melodic, clever, unexpected – but with greater depth and texture and a more pronounced sense of mischief. Their productivity is unparalleled, beginning with 2017’s August By Cake, an exuberant double. Of their 14 releases, two are doubles and another, 2019’s Warp And Woof, had 24 tracks, nearly all of which came in at around 90 seconds or less. While 2017’s sparkling How Do You Spell Heaven and 2019’s heavy-rocking Zeppelin Over China are probably the best, they are all worth your time. Sure, there’s no “Motor Away” or “Game Of Pricks” from the glory days but every album has a mood and two or three special moments: there’s the skronky title track from 2018’s Space Gun, the ace ’90s throwback “My Wrestling Days Are Over” from 2019’s Sweating The Plague, the power pop marvel “My (Limited) Engagement” from 2021’s It’s Not Them… or the epic “Who Wants To Go Hunting?” from last year’s superb Tremblers And Goggles By Rank.

La La Land picks up where that album – their second of 2022 – left off. That means “longer songs… more adventurous structures”, as Pollard tells Uncut. It’s exemplified by the six-minute centrepiece “Slowly On The Wheel”. Pollard manages to pack plenty of twists into even a 90-second song, so six minutes of GBV brings mondo hyperactivity, with the song starting from a minimalist single-chord solo and ending in a blaze of stadium rock thunder. In between comes jangle, heavy metal and eastern chord progressions. It’s followed by the equally fluid “Cousin Jackie”, which sounds like Zeppelin doing doo wop, has the album’s most delirious vocal and boasts a delightful portfolio of drumming from March, who like the rest of the band has to demonstrate consistency within a versatile framework.

Both these tracks, like the best bits of Tremblers…, sound like The Who’s wilder psych-pop symphonies – but if you don’t like that, hang around a minute or three and GBV will have something else to offer. Opener “Another Day To Heal” (the only sub-two-minute song) and “Face Eraser” bring a jerky punk-like energy, while “Ballroom Etiquette” is all about the R.E.M. jangle – plus a lyric that nonchalantly drops the word “fastidious” into a catchy waltz (“I just like the sound of the word,” admits Pollard). “Released Into Dementia” has some of The Flaming Lips’s lysergic drawl, while “Instinct Dwelling” has an intro that sounds very much like the start of Queen’s “Flash’s Theme” before developing into a similarly ominous march. Later, the genteel thrash of “Wild Kingdom” gives way to ballad “Caution Song”, one of the few songs where you can almost anticipate what is going to come next. “Who wants a sad song these days?” asks Pollard on a lyric that otherwise comes across like Dada Morrissey.

Pollard’s lyrics are often abstruse but with memorable lines and a perverse rhythmic charm like the opening to “Instinct Dweller” with its “crypto woman” and “thermometer child”. Pollard’s love of wordplay concludes with “Pockets”, which explores all the different types of pocket, from pool tables to pockets of resistance to places “to cram a jammed fingered glove”. It’s a wonderful example of Pollard’s ability to write a song about almost anything, taking a melody or concept and running with it, and then doing it again, and again, and again, over and over, with spirit-raising results. The one after this will be called Welshpool Frillies, by the way.

Pink Floyd announce The Dark Side Of The Moon 50th anniversary reissue

Rhian Daly
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Pink Floyd announce The Dark Side Of The Moon 50th anniversary reissue

Pink Floyd have announced a special 50th anniversary reissue box set of their iconic album The Dark Side Of The Moon alongside a book, new music videos and more. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Pink Floyd – Animals (2018 Remix) review ...

Pink Floyd have announced a special 50th anniversary reissue box set of their iconic album The Dark Side Of The Moon alongside a book, new music videos and more.

Over the last five decades the record has become one of the best-selling albums of all time and is widely regarded as one of the most influential albums in history.

The new box set will arrive days after the 50th anniversary of its UK release (which was on March 16, 1973) on March 24 and will celebrate the seminal record through a newly remastered version of the original release. The reissue will feature a CD and gatefold vinyl of the album, plus Blu-Ray and DVD audio featuring the original 5.1 mix and remastered stereo versions.

In addition, it will also include another Blu-Ray disc of Atmos mix plus CD and LP of The Dark Side Of The Moon – Live At Wembley Empire Pool, London, 1974’. The live recording will also be released independently on CD and vinyl on the same day as the box set, marking the first time it will be available as a standalone album.

Pink Floyd Dark Side Of The Moon box set
‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ box set cover. Image: Press

A book titled Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon: 50th Anniversary will also arrive on March 24. Curated by photographer Jill Furmanovsky and created in collaboration with the band, it will feature rare and previously unseen photos taken during the Dark Side Of The Moon tours between 1972 and 1975.

Elsewhere, Pink Floyd will celebrate the milestone anniversary by inviting a new generation of animators to create music videos for any of the songs on the album as part of a new competition.

Animators can enter up to 10 videos – one per song on the tracklist – and a winner will be selected from a panel of experts, including the band’s drummer Nick Mason, their creative director Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell, and the British Film Institute (BFI). Submissions can be entered until November 30, 2023 – for more information, visit the band’s official website.

Fans will also be able to experience The Dark Side Of The Moon at planetariums around the world as the band recall their successful stargazing events at the London Planetarium in 1973. Back then, only images of stars and constellations could be shown while soundtracked by the music but thanks to advancements in technology the 2023 events will feature visuals of the solar system and beyond.

The new show will split between the album’s 10 tracks, in chronological order, with each having a different theme – some of which will look to the future, while others will offer a retro acknowledgement of Pink Floyd’s visual history. Fans are advised to contact their local planetarium for screening details.

Last year Pink Floyd released a special benefit single called “Hey Hey Rise Up” to raise money for humanitarian charities aiding those affected by the ongoing Russian-Ukraine war. In December the band revealed they had raised £500,000 for the cause through the song.

Of that figure, £450,000 reportedly came from single sales and streaming revenue, while the remaining £50,000 was contributed by frontman David Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason.

The money will be distributed between five humanitarian charities: Hospitallers, The Kharkiv And Przemyśl Project, Vostok SOS, Kyiv Volunteer and Livyj Bereh.

“So many great times…” Neil Young on David Crosby

Rhian Daly
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“So many great times…” Neil Young on David Crosby

Neil Young has honoured David Crosby, who has died aged 81. Writing on his Archives website Young said, "David is gone, but his music lives on. The soul of CSNY, David’s voice and energy were at the heart of our band. His great songs stood for what we believed in and it was always fun and excit...

Neil Young has honoured David Crosby, who has died aged 81.

Writing on his Archives website Young said, “David is gone, but his music lives on. The soul of CSNY, David’s voice and energy were at the heart of our band. His great songs stood for what we believed in and it was always fun and exciting when we got to play together. ‘Almost Cut My Hair’ ‘Dejavu’, and so many other great songs he wrote were wonderful to jam on and Stills and I had a blast as he kept us going on and on. His singing with Graham was so memorable, their duo spot a highlight of so many of our shows.

“We had so many great times, especially in the early years. Crosby was a very supportive friend in my early life, as we bit off big pieces of our experience together. David was the catalyst of many things.

“My heart goes out to Jan and Django, his wife and son. Lots of love to you. Thanks David for your spirit and songs, Love you man. I remember the best times!”

“I CAN’T CLAIM TO BE WISE…” READ UNCUT’S FINAL INTERVIEW WITH DAVID CROSBY HERE

Earlier, Crosby’s other former CSNY bandmates Graham Nash and Stephen Stills paid tribute to Crosby

David Crosby
David Crosby in 2011. Image: Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Sharing a black and white photo on Instagram of his and Crosby’s guitar cases next to one another, Nash wrote that it was with “a deep and profound sadness” that he learned about Crosby’s death.

“I know people tend to focus on how volatile our relationship has been at times, but what has always mattered to David and me more than anything was the pure joy of the music we created together, the sound we discovered with one another, and the deep friendship we shared over all these many long years,” he continued.

“David was fearless in life and in music. He leaves behind a tremendous void as far as sheer personality and talent in this world. He spoke his mind, his heart, and his passion through his beautiful music and leaves an incredible legacy. These are the things that matter most. My heart is truly with his wife, Jan, his son, Django, and all of the people he has touched in this world.”

Graham Nash and David Crosby performing together in 2000
Graham Nash and David Crosby performing together in 2000. Image: Tim Mosenfelder / Getty Images

Meanwhile, Stills wrote, “He was without question a giant of a musician, and his harmonic sensibilities were nothing short of genius. The glue that held us together [in CSN and CSNY] as our vocals soared, like Icarus, towards the sun. I am deeply saddened at his passing and shall miss him beyond measure.”

Crosby co-founded The Byrds alongside Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke in 1964, after performing on the acoustic coffeehouse circuit and in other bands, including Les Baxter’s Balladeers.

He was critical to their creative evolution from Beatles-inspired folkies to electric 12-string revolutionaries taking trad arr to a new dimension, bringing John Coltrane into psychedelic pop and beyond. His work with them culminated in 1967’s Younger Than Yesterday. He also appeared on their fifth record, The Notorious Byrd Brothers, before he was fired from the band in 1967.

Crosby later produced their 1973 reunion album, Byrds.

IN 1967, Crosby discovered Joni Mitchell playing in a Florida club. He went on to produce her debut album, Song To A Seagull.

A year after leaving The Byrds, Crosby formed Crosby, Stills & Nash with Nash and Buffalo Springfield’s Stephen Stills. The supergroup won Best New Artist at the 1969 Grammys following the release of their self-titled debut album and played their second ever gig at Woodstock. their self-titled debut in 1969. Joined by Neil Young, they released Déjà Vu the following year.

Together, Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young) released eight studio albums; their last was 1999’s Looking Forward.

Outside of CSN/Y, Crosby often collaborate with Nash, releasing four studio albums together.

Aside from their own records, Crosby and Nash quickly became the go-to harmony vocalists for other acts of the ‘70s, including their bandmates Stills and Young. Elsewhere, they appeared on Mitchell’s “Free Man In Paris”, James Taylor’s “Mexico” and Jackson Browne’s “The Pretender”.

Crosby‘s solo career began with 1971’s If I Could Only Remember My Name. He released a few more solo albums through the ’80s and ’90s, before a 20-year break. He enjoyed a successful late creative surge, however, releasing five albums since 2014. His latest solo release was 2021’s For Free, named after a Mitchell song he recorded for the album.

In 2019, he became the focus of his own documentary, David Crosby: Remember My Name. The film was produced by Cameron Crowe and was nominated for Best Music Film at the 2020 Grammys.

Crosby was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame twice – first, with The Byrds in 1991 and again with Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1997.

David Crosby
David Crosby. Image: Gijsbert Hanekroot / Redferns

Aside from Nash and Stills, tributes have been paid across the board to Crosby. Brian Wilson wrote: “I don’t know what to say other than I’m heartbroken to hear about David Crosby. David was an unbelievable talent – such a great singer and songwriter.

“And a wonderful person. I just am at a loss for words. Love & Mercy to David’s family and friends.”

Elsewhere, David Gilmour shared a photo of the pair together. “We sang together, we played together and had great times together,” he wrote. “I’ll miss The Croz more than words can say. Sail on.”

“Grateful for the time we had with David Crosby. We’ll miss him a lot,” Jason Isbell tweeted.

Screaming Trees bassist Van Conner dies aged 55

Arusa Qureshi
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Screaming Trees bassist Van Conner dies aged 55

Van Conner, the bassist and co-founder of Washington band Screaming Trees, has died at the age of 55. The news was confirmed by Conner's brother Gary Lee, who also played guitar in the band. He wrote in a social media post on January 18: “Van Conner bassist and song writer of Screaming Trees di...

Van Conner, the bassist and co-founder of Washington band Screaming Trees, has died at the age of 55.

The news was confirmed by Conner’s brother Gary Lee, who also played guitar in the band. He wrote in a social media post on January 18: “Van Conner bassist and song writer of Screaming Trees died last night of an extended illness at 55. It was pneumonia that got him in the end. He was one of the closest friends I ever had and I loved him immensely. I will miss him forever and ever and ever.”

Lee had previously shared on Facebook that his brother had been unwell, writing three days ago: “He’s still pretty out of it but he’s coming back again. It’s going to be a long road for him but his family is giving him a lot of support. He has many more songs to write.”

Last year, Screaming Trees singer Mark Lanegan passed away at his home in Killarney, Ireland on February 22, aged 57.

Let me put this letter on Van’s grave. ???????????????Van Conner bassist and song writer of Screaming Trees died last…

Posted by Gary Lee Conner on Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Conner co-founded Screaming Trees alongside his brother, Lanegan and drummer Mark Pickerel in Ellensburg in 1984. Though they became widely associated with the grunge genre, they were known for their hard rock and psychedelic sound.

They produced several EPs and eventually signed with SST Records, releasing their second record Even If And Especially When in 1987. They then signed with Epic Records in 1990 and released their major label debut album Uncle Anesthesia – which was co-produced by Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell – in 1991.

Screaming Trees had success with the single “Bed Of Roses” and released their most successful album Sweet Oblivion in 1992. Its lead single “Nearly Lost You” was included on the soundtrack of Cameron Crowe’s romantic comedy Singles.

After an extended hiatus, they released Dust in 1996. But due to tensions in the band, they announced their official break-up in 2000. A previously unreleased album, titled Last Words: The Final Recordings, was their last record, arriving in 2011.

Mike Johnson, who has played in Dinosaur Jr. and Lanegan’s band, paid tribute to Conner, writing on Twitter. “Rest in Peace and Power to one of the very greatest, a true gentleman and great songwriter/musician Van Conner you will be dearly missed by so many. Love to you forever.”

See more tributes below.

 

The National share new single “Tropic Morning News”, announce album and UK shows

Damian Jones
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The National share new single “Tropic Morning News”, announce album and UK shows

The National have shared their new single "Tropic Morning News" and announced full details of their forthcoming ninth album First Two Pages Of Frankenstein. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: The National: How we made “Bloodbuzz Ohio” Th...

The National have shared their new single “Tropic Morning News” and announced full details of their forthcoming ninth album First Two Pages Of Frankenstein.

The record will be released on April 28 via 4AD and as previously reported Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers and Sufjan Stevens, will all feature on the album with Swift on the track “The Allcott” and Bridgers featuring on two songs – “This Isn’t Helping” and “Your Mind Is Not Your Friend”. You can pre-order/pre-save the album here.

After teasing new single “Tropic Morning News” on Tuesday (January 17), the band have delivered on their promise and shared the rousing song. You can listen to it below.

Co-written with frontman Matt Berninger’s wife Carin Besser, the track takes its title from a phrase Besser invented to describe the regrettably routine practice of doomscrolling, according to a press release. “The idea of referring to the darkness of the news in such a light way unlocked something in me,” said Berninger. “It became a song about having a hard time expressing yourself, and trying to connect with someone when the noise of the world is drowning out any potential for conversation.”

According to Berninger, the record initially stalled as he navigated “a very dark spot where I couldn’t come up with lyrics or melodies at all. Even though we’d always been anxious whenever we were working on a record, this was the first time it ever felt like maybe things really had come to an end.”

“We managed to come back together and approach everything from a different angle, and because of that we arrived at what feels like a new era for the band,” added guitarist/pianist Bryce Dessner.

You can view the full track list below.

“Once Upon A Poolside” (feat. Sufjan Stevens)
“Eucalyptus”
“New Order T-Shirt”
“This Isn’t Helping” (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)
“Tropic Morning News”
“Alien”
“The Alcott” (feat. Taylor Swift)
“Grease In Your Hair”
“Ice Machines”
“Your Mind Is Not Your Friend” (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)’
“Send For Me”

The National have also announced a full UK/EU and North American tour which includes a special show with Patti Smith on August 18 at New York’s Madison Square Garden and shows in Leeds, Glasgow and London’s Alexandra Palace in September.

Tickets go on sale on January 27 at 10am local time. Support will come from Soccer Mommy, The Beths and Bartees Strange.

You view the full list of dates below:

MAY
20 – Chicago Auditorium Theatre *
21 – Chicago Auditorium Theatre *
24 – Washington The Anthem *
26 –  Boston Calling Festival
28 – Bottlerock Festival
30 – Los Angeles Greek Theatre *

JUNE
2 – Troutdale McMenamins Edgefield *
3 – Troutdale McMenamins Edgefield *
4 – Redmond Marymoor Park *
5 – Burnaby Festival Lawn at Deer Lake Park *

AUGUST
1 – The Met Philadelphia ~
3 – New Haven Westville Music Bowl ~
7 – The Fillmore Detroit ~
8 – Madison The Sylvee ~
9 – Minneapolis The Armory ~
11 – Denver Mission Ballroom ~
15 – Nashville Ascend Amphitheater ~
16 – Atlanta Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park ~
18 – New York Madison Square Garden with very special guest Patti Smith and her band

SEPTEMBER
21 – Dublin 3 Arena *
23 – Leeds First Direct Arena *
24 – Glasgow OVO Hydro Arena *
26 – London Alexandra Palace *
29 – Amsterdam Ziggo Dome ^
30 – Berlin Max-Schmeling-Halle ^

OCTOBER
1 – Munich Zenith ^
4 – Madrid WiZink Center ^
5 – Porto Super Bock Arena ^
6 – Lisbon Campo Pequeno ^

Support:
*Soccer Mommy
~The Beths
^ Bartees Strange

The Bad Ends’ Bill Berry: “Lyrically, the thread of this record is death and dealing with it”

Stephen Deusner
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The Bad Ends’ Bill Berry: “Lyrically, the thread of this record is death and dealing with it”

R.E.M.’s Bill Berry tells us about The Bad Ends, his ‘Athens supergroup’ with Five Eight frontman Mike Mantione, in our JANUARY 2023 issue of Uncut, available to buy here. Athens, Georgia, is the kind of town where two local legends can just bump into each other on the street and start a ba...

R.E.M.’s Bill Berry tells us about The Bad Ends, his ‘Athens supergroup’ with Five Eight frontman Mike Mantione, in our JANUARY 2023 issue of Uncut, available to buy here.

Athens, Georgia, is the kind of town where two local legends can just bump into each other on the street and start a band. In 2017, R.E.M. co-founder and occasional Love Tractor guitarist Bill Berry was minding his own business when he was collared by Five Eight frontman Mike Mantione, who was working on songs for what he thought would be a solo album. “I immediately asked Bill, ‘Would you play on my record?’ I’m sure he thought I was crazy.”

Quite the opposite. “It was actually good fortune for me,” says Berry. “His invitation was alluring. It had been two decades since I was in any way involved with making a record. Of course I wanted to hear the stuff before committing. Frankly, I wouldn’t have signed up if I thought the material was beneath my arrogant standards. But I liked the first song he sent so much that I immediately enlisted into this man’s army.”

Together, they worked these songs out at Mantione’s home in Atlanta. “I’m a total fanboy,” he admits, “and the whole time I kept thinking, ‘Oh my god! Bill Berry’s in my house.’” Berry initially thought he’d been conscripted as a guitarist, but he soon settled into his familiar role as a drummer. The band was cemented with a homemade Italian meal courtesy of Mantione’s mom. “Pasta properly prepared makes any activity afterward a pleasure,” smiles Berry. “Fuelled by meatballs, we had our best rehearsal that night,” confirms Mantione. “As he was leaving, I remember Bill saying, ‘I think I’m in a band again.’”

The duo eventually called themselves The Bad Ends, added a few more local musicians, and recorded a powerful, poignant debut, The Power And The Glory, which captures the frantic jangle of Athens’ heyday but marries it to melancholy observations about music, ageing, friendship, and death. For Berry, it marked a surprising first: “Until this project, I’d never recorded a full album in Athens. It was wonderful to finish at night and be such a short drive to my own bed.”

“The way Bill works is very different from the way I work,” says Mantione. “I’m like, ‘Play the song through once and we’re ready to go out and play it live.’ Bill’s like, ‘Let’s do it again.’ And again. And again. The 20th time through, we’d rush over to Mike Albanese’s Espresso Machine studio and get it down before we forgot anything.”

Mantione calls The Power And The Glory “depressed dad rock. It’s music as a human consolation prize for having to die”. But it’s a fun world-weariness, thanks to his sharp guitar riffs and Berry’s always inventive rhythms. First single “All Your Friends Are Dying” recounts a local Big Star tribute, organised in the wake of Alex Chilton’s death in 2010, with Mantione noticing all the people who weren’t there: “There were some pretty big holes onstage / And more than anything else I wanted to hear them filled”.

“Lyrically, the common thread on this record is death and dealing with it,” says Berry. “Would I have wanted to produce a record like that 40 years ago? Absolutely not. But at my current age, the concept of death occurs to me with greater frequency than when I was in my twenties. Many of my friends have died. Mike just wrote about it so beautifully.”

The Power And The Glory is released by New West Records on January 20.

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