Subscribe
Home Blog Page 485

The Best Albums Of 2013 – The Editor’s Choice

Uncut
-
0
The Best Albums Of 2013 – The Editor’s Choice

The current issue of Uncut comes with a rather spiffing free 52-page magazine that hosts our essential guide to the best new albums, reissues, box sets, films, DVDs and books of 2013. This year we’ve expanded our new album section to a Top 80, as voted for by the Uncut staff and nigh on 50 of our regular contributors. John has already posted a Wild Mercury Sound Best 143 Albums Of 2013, which you can see here . Below, I’ve listed the 20 albums I voted for in our end of year poll, plus 10 that didn’t quite make the final cut. Inadvertently, my number one choice might be considered controversial in the light of allegations made against Roy Harper since my list was compiled. I’m not quite sure how my vote would have been affected if the charges against Roy had been made public earlier, but I haven’t changed it retrospectively for the simple reason that I wanted to be faithful to my original choice and Man & Myth was the new album I played most in 2013. Anyway, I’d be interested as ever in your comments on the list below. As usual, please let me know at the usual address what you made of our Top 80 and my Top 30 and maybe even let me know what your own favourite albums of the year were. You can reach me on allan_jones@ipcmedia.com. It’s always good to hear from you. 30 Thee Oh Sees – Floating Coffin 29 Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – Push the Sky Away 28 Promised Land Sound – Promised Land Sound 27 Guy Clark – My Favourite Picture Of You 26 Julia Holter – Loud City Song 25 Cian Nugent & The Cosmos - Born With The Caul 24 Diana Jones – Museum Of Appalachia Recordings 23 The Shouting Matches – Grownass Man 22 Richard Thompson - Electric 21 Endless Boogie – Long Island 20 Bill Callahan – Dream River 19 The Strypes – Snapshot 18 Lord Huron – Lonesome Dreams 17 Mark Kozelek & Desertshore – Mark Kozelek & Desertshore 16 Caitlin Rose – The Stand-Ins 15 Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires Of The City 14 Neko Case – The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight The More I Love You 13 Hiss Golden Messenger – Haw 12 Houndstooth – Ride Out The Dark 11 Jonathan Wilson – Fanfare 10 My Bloody Valentine - mbv 9 Matthew E White – Big Inner 8 Okkervil River – The Silver Gymnasium 7 Israel Nash Gripka – Israel Nash Gripka’s Rain Plans 6 Kurt Vile – Wakin on A Pretty Daze 5 Jason Isbell – Southeastern 4 Pond – Hobo Rocket 3 Laura Marling – Once I Was An Eagle 2 Phosphoresecent – Muchacho 1 Roy Harper – Man & Myth

The current issue of Uncut comes with a rather spiffing free 52-page magazine that hosts our essential guide to the best new albums, reissues, box sets, films, DVDs and books of 2013. This year we’ve expanded our new album section to a Top 80, as voted for by the Uncut staff and nigh on 50 of our regular contributors.

John has already posted a Wild Mercury Sound Best 143 Albums Of 2013, which you can see here . Below, I’ve listed the 20 albums I voted for in our end of year poll, plus 10 that didn’t quite make the final cut. Inadvertently, my number one choice might be considered controversial in the light of allegations made against Roy Harper since my list was compiled. I’m not quite sure how my vote would have been affected if the charges against Roy had been made public earlier, but I haven’t changed it retrospectively for the simple reason that I wanted to be faithful to my original choice and Man & Myth was the new album I played most in 2013.

Anyway, I’d be interested as ever in your comments on the list below. As usual, please let me know at the usual address what you made of our Top 80 and my Top 30 and maybe even let me know what your own favourite albums of the year were.

You can reach me on allan_jones@ipcmedia.com. It’s always good to hear from you.

30 Thee Oh Sees – Floating Coffin

29 Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – Push the Sky Away

28 Promised Land Sound – Promised Land Sound

27 Guy Clark – My Favourite Picture Of You

26 Julia Holter – Loud City Song

25 Cian Nugent & The Cosmos – Born With The Caul

24 Diana Jones – Museum Of Appalachia Recordings

23 The Shouting Matches – Grownass Man

22 Richard Thompson – Electric

21 Endless Boogie – Long Island

20 Bill Callahan – Dream River

19 The Strypes – Snapshot

18 Lord Huron – Lonesome Dreams

17 Mark Kozelek & Desertshore – Mark Kozelek & Desertshore

16 Caitlin Rose – The Stand-Ins

15 Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires Of The City

14 Neko Case – The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight The More I Love You

13 Hiss Golden Messenger – Haw

12 Houndstooth – Ride Out The Dark

11 Jonathan Wilson – Fanfare

10 My Bloody Valentine – mbv

9 Matthew E White – Big Inner

8 Okkervil River – The Silver Gymnasium

7 Israel Nash Gripka – Israel Nash Gripka’s Rain Plans

6 Kurt Vile – Wakin on A Pretty Daze

5 Jason Isbell – Southeastern

4 Pond – Hobo Rocket

3 Laura Marling – Once I Was An Eagle

2 Phosphoresecent – Muchacho

1 Roy Harper – Man & Myth

Noddy Holder to earn £800,000 this year from Slade’s “Merry Xmas Everybody”

Uncut
-
0
Noddy Holder to earn £800,000 this year from Slade’s “Merry Xmas Everybody”
Noddy Holder is set to earn £800,000 this year from Slade's festive 1973 hit, "Merry Xmas Everybody". The track is top of the Christmas song list when it comes to pulling in the royalties, with The Pogues in second place, set to earn £520,000 by the end of the year from "Fairytale Of New York" an...

Noddy Holder is set to earn £800,000 this year from Slade’s festive 1973 hit, “Merry Xmas Everybody”.

The track is top of the Christmas song list when it comes to pulling in the royalties, with The Pogues in second place, set to earn £520,000 by the end of the year from “Fairytale Of New York” and Mariah Carey in third, as she is likely to make £455,000 from “All I Want For Christmas Is You” in 2013.

The cash will come from PRS royalties, which stack up through radio, television, jukebox and shop plays as well as compilation album sales, reports Prezzybox.com. See how much the Top 10 festive tracks have earned so far this year below.

1. Slade – ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ £512,000

2. Pogues – Fairytale Of New York’ £386,270

3. Mariah Carey – ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ £347,615

4. Wham – ‘Last Christmas’ £301,622

5. Cliff Richard – ‘Mistletoe & Wine’ £98,408

6. Band Aid – ‘Do they Know It’s Christmas’ £78,030

7. Shakin’ Stevens – ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ £53,834

8. Pretenders – ‘2000 Miles’ £45,344

9. East 17 – ‘Stay Another Day’ £30,219

10. John Lewie – ‘Stop The Calvary’ £13,258

Lou Reed Remembered documentary to be broadcast this weekend

Uncut
-
0
Lou Reed Remembered documentary to be broadcast this weekend
Lou Reed Remembered will air at 9pm on BBC Four this Sunday [December 15] and will include contributions from Reed's former Velvet Underground bandmates Mo Tucker and Doug Yule plus Thurston Moore and Debbie Harry. Berlin guitarist Steve Hunter, novelist Paul Auster and photographer Mick Rock will...

Lou Reed Remembered will air at 9pm on BBC Four this Sunday [December 15] and will include contributions from Reed’s former Velvet Underground bandmates Mo Tucker and Doug Yule plus Thurston Moore and Debbie Harry.

Berlin guitarist Steve Hunter, novelist Paul Auster and photographer Mick Rock will also speak about Reed while Trash actress Holly Woodlawn will also appear.

A BBC statement about the documentary reads: “With the help of friends, fellow musicians, critics and those who have been inspired not only by his music but also by his famously contrary approach to almost everything, the documentary looks at how Reed not only helped to shape a generation but also helped to create a truly alternative, independent rock scene, while also providing New York with its most provocative and potent soundtrack.”

Neil Young announces more live dates for 2014

Uncut
-
0
Neil Young announces more live dates for 2014
Neil Young has announced four more tour dates for January 2014. Young will follow his four-night residency at New York's Carnegie Hall on January 6, 7, 9 and 10 with four Canadian shows to raise money for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Legal Defense Fund. The run of shows has been branded ...

Neil Young has announced four more tour dates for January 2014.

Young will follow his four-night residency at New York’s Carnegie Hall on January 6, 7, 9 and 10 with four Canadian shows to raise money for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Legal Defense Fund.

The run of shows has been branded ‘Honor The Treaties concerts and they will aid the native Canadians in their battle against oil companies and the government to preserve their land. Tickets go on sale December 13.

“The theme of the concerts is honour the treaties,” said Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation spokeswoman Eriel Deranger in a story on CTV Regina News . “All the ticket sales, all the proceeds from the concerts, not a single cent goes to anyone other than (the First Nation).”

“A Legal Defense fund was set up to support the ACFN‘s legal challenges against oil companies and government that are obstructing their traditional lands and rights,” says a press release quoted in Rolling Stone. “As people of the land the ACFN have used and occupied their traditional lands in the Athabasca region for thousands of years, hunting, trapping, fishing and gathering to sustain themselves and continue spiritual cultural rights passed down through generations.”

Yesterday, Young confirmed that he would return to the UK with Crazy Horse to play London’s Hyde Park on July 12. Support comes from The National.

The Honor the Treaties shows are:

January 12: Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario

January 16: Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg, Manitoba

January 17: Conexus Arts Centre, Regina, Saskatchewan

January 19: Jack Singer Concert Hall, Calgary, Alberta

Pixies name Paz Lenchatin as new bassist

Uncut
-
0
Pixies name Paz Lenchatin as new bassist
Pixies have confirmed that bassist Paz Lenchatin, will replace Kim Shattuck for a series of live dates in America and Europe next year. Last week Shattuck revealed that her time playing with the band had come to an end. She, herself, was a replacement for original Pixies bassist Kim Deal who depar...

Pixies have confirmed that bassist Paz Lenchatin, will replace Kim Shattuck for a series of live dates in America and Europe next year.

Last week Shattuck revealed that her time playing with the band had come to an end. She, herself, was a replacement for original Pixies bassist Kim Deal who departed the band prior to the release of the group’s ‘EP1’ earlier this year. Lenchatin has previously played with Billy Corgan’s Zwan as well as A Perfect Circle and The Entrance Band.

Confirming the arrival of Lenchatin via press release, Pixies confirm she will play with the band on a 33 date US tour as well as European festival dates, including Primavera in Spain and Lollapalooza in South America. “We are really looking forward to playing with her on these dates,” said drummer Dave Lovering. “Working with different bass players is very new for the band, but we’re having a great time doing it.”

Lenchatin will also perform with Pixies when the band headline Field Day in London next year. The festival, which will expand to a two day event when it takes place over one weekend next year, confirmed that the US alt-rock band will headline on Sunday, June 8, 2014. For more information, see Field Day’s website.

The Who – Tommy (Deluxe and Super Deluxe editions)

Uncut
-
0
The Who – Tommy (Deluxe and Super Deluxe editions)

Another night at the opera, with demos and live versions... Another year, another ‘remaster’. Techies may claim otherwise, but one suspects the best way to listen to The Who's ‘rock opera’ is still via the primal technology of unscratched vinyl and a decent valve amplifier. For those hungering to hear Pete Townshend’s tale of the deaf, dumb and blind kid turned guru in 5:1 surround sound, however, here’s the ‘super deluxe’ version at an eye-watering £80, which also buys you 20 unreleased demos from Pete’s vaults, a 1969 concert performance (dubbed ‘bootleg’ though garnered from an official recording), a 20,000 word book by chronicler Richard Barnes and a repro poster. The deluxe edition delivers just the original and concert versions at a more manageable £14. The sonics of Tommy have always been a singular case in The Who’s catalogue, eschewing the bright pop sound of their early work without embracing the heavy rock dynamics that were already the norm on stage and which followed on Who’s Next. Instead came what Townshend called “deliberate blandness”, with Roger Daltrey’s vocals foregrounded over Townshends’s layered acoustic guitars, a modest input of power chords and Keith Moon’s hyper-active drumming set back in a production Moon found “very un-Who like”. Richard Barnes’ account of the album’s creation reveals that manager/producer Kit Lambert, in a hurry to get to Egypt, left the mix to engineer Damon Lyon-Shaw, albeit with detailed instructions. The band’s fear was that Lambert was planning orchestral overdubs; instead, he simply wanted Tommy to sound uncluttered. The concert version (mostly from a single Canadian show late in 1969) prove Lambert’s ideas were right. The performances have their moments – Daltrey is mostly outstanding – but Tommy live is a very different animal, with Townshend’s guitar, often turned up to eleven, weighing heavily on the songs’ drama. No shortage of power chords here – check the noisy “Amazing Journey” – or of Moon’s kit-thrashing. There’s no “Underture” and the piece emerges, inevitably, more rock than opera. The demos are another matter. Firstly they show just how meticulously the 20 year old Townshend planned Tommy, at least musically. There are few surprises compared to the finished album; Pete’s reedy pipes replace Roger’s gutsy holler, but the musical parts are all in place, though often played on shonky piano rather than guitar. Lyon-Shaw describes recording proceeding with a minimum of fuss. “The band would listen in the control room, talk over what was required, and then go to into the studio and re-interpret the demos. It was usually quite spontaneous. Very few bands could grasp what was played on demos and re-interpret the ideas into a finished product." The demos’ notable departures include a substantial amount of reverse guitar on “Amazing Journey” – the genesis of the entire opera according to Townshend – and on something called “Dream One”, an instrumental psych ramble studded with feedback and whoopee whistle. Ah, the joys of a home studio. Also included among the demos is a band version of Mose Allison’s “Young Man Blues”, a song that clearly wouldn’t leave Townshend alone, and which he hoped to include on Tommy alongside Allison’s “Eyesight to the Blind” (which became “The Hawker”). At under three minutes it’s a more concise and appealing take of the number than the pumped-up version on Live At Leeds, though still with Townshend’s guitar at its gnarliest. A find. The mini-book by Barnes, a friend from Townshend’s art school days, proves exhaustive and occasionally exhausting. It’s richly illustrated, prominent among the exhibits being the notebooks and envelopes on which Townshend planned ideas and jotted songs (a gloriously tatty “Pinball Wizard” among them). Tommy’s evolution from vibes-tuned autistic kid to pinball-playing guru was circuitous, receiving a vital shove from writer Nic Cohn, who judged what he heard “po-faced” and suggested the pinball motif. The ideas of Townshend’s adopted guru, Meher Baba, were always central, though fellow follower Mike McInnerney, who designed the artwork, rejects any idea of proselytising. “We’re not the Mormons!” he snorts. The opera’s plot, which bassist John Entwhistle claimed he “never understood before I saw the film”, remains unconvincing, but the spine of great songs on which Tommy is built – “Acid Queen”, “Sensation”, “I’m Free”, “Amazing Journey” among them – along with the catchy bridges and bravura playing, overcome its problems. “People who couldn’t get into the spiritual end of it could see it as a huge cartoon strip,” judged Townshend. Tired of playing crowd pleaser “Magic Bus” (“a nonsense number”), his opus renewed him. “With Tommy in our back pocket I felt I was riding two horses at once: a clod-hopping pantomime version on one hand, and a winged unicorn leading the heavenly host on the other.” Pete’s unicorn flew true. Tommy remains magnificent, the best (pace Arthur, Quadrophenia, Ziggy) of rock’s erratic operatic turns. Neil Spencer

Another night at the opera, with demos and live versions…

Another year, another ‘remaster’. Techies may claim otherwise, but one suspects the best way to listen to The Who‘s ‘rock opera’ is still via the primal technology of unscratched vinyl and a decent valve amplifier. For those hungering to hear Pete Townshend’s tale of the deaf, dumb and blind kid turned guru in 5:1 surround sound, however, here’s the ‘super deluxe’ version at an eye-watering £80, which also buys you 20 unreleased demos from Pete’s vaults, a 1969 concert performance (dubbed ‘bootleg’ though garnered from an official recording), a 20,000 word book by chronicler Richard Barnes and a repro poster. The deluxe edition delivers just the original and concert versions at a more manageable £14.

The sonics of Tommy have always been a singular case in The Who’s catalogue, eschewing the bright pop sound of their early work without embracing the heavy rock dynamics that were already the norm on stage and which followed on Who’s Next. Instead came what Townshend called “deliberate blandness”, with Roger Daltrey’s vocals foregrounded over Townshends’s layered acoustic guitars, a modest input of power chords and Keith Moon’s hyper-active drumming set back in a production Moon found “very un-Who like”.

Richard Barnes’ account of the album’s creation reveals that manager/producer Kit Lambert, in a hurry to get to Egypt, left the mix to engineer Damon Lyon-Shaw, albeit with detailed instructions. The band’s fear was that Lambert was planning orchestral overdubs; instead, he simply wanted Tommy to sound uncluttered.

The concert version (mostly from a single Canadian show late in 1969) prove Lambert’s ideas were right. The performances have their moments – Daltrey is mostly outstanding – but Tommy live is a very different animal, with Townshend’s guitar, often turned up to eleven, weighing heavily on the songs’ drama. No shortage of power chords here – check the noisy “Amazing Journey” – or of Moon’s kit-thrashing. There’s no “Underture” and the piece emerges, inevitably, more rock than opera.

The demos are another matter. Firstly they show just how meticulously the 20 year old Townshend planned Tommy, at least musically. There are few surprises compared to the finished album; Pete’s reedy pipes replace Roger’s gutsy holler, but the musical parts are all in place, though often played on shonky piano rather than guitar. Lyon-Shaw describes recording proceeding with a minimum of fuss. “The band would listen in the control room, talk over what was required, and then go to into the studio and re-interpret the demos. It was usually quite spontaneous. Very few bands could grasp what was played on demos and re-interpret the ideas into a finished product.”

The demos’ notable departures include a substantial amount of reverse guitar on “Amazing Journey” – the genesis of the entire opera according to Townshend – and on something called “Dream One”, an instrumental psych ramble studded with feedback and whoopee whistle. Ah, the joys of a home studio.

Also included among the demos is a band version of Mose Allison’s “Young Man Blues”, a song that clearly wouldn’t leave Townshend alone, and which he hoped to include on Tommy alongside Allison’s “Eyesight to the Blind” (which became “The Hawker”). At under three minutes it’s a more concise and appealing take of the number than the pumped-up version on Live At Leeds, though still with Townshend’s guitar at its gnarliest. A find.

The mini-book by Barnes, a friend from Townshend’s art school days, proves exhaustive and occasionally exhausting. It’s richly illustrated, prominent among the exhibits being the notebooks and envelopes on which Townshend planned ideas and jotted songs (a gloriously tatty “Pinball Wizard” among them). Tommy’s evolution from vibes-tuned autistic kid to pinball-playing guru was circuitous, receiving a vital shove from writer Nic Cohn, who judged what he heard “po-faced” and suggested the pinball motif. The ideas of Townshend’s adopted guru, Meher Baba, were always central, though fellow follower Mike McInnerney, who designed the artwork, rejects any idea of proselytising. “We’re not the Mormons!” he snorts.

The opera’s plot, which bassist John Entwhistle claimed he “never understood before I saw the film”, remains unconvincing, but the spine of great songs on which Tommy is built – “Acid Queen”, “Sensation”, “I’m Free”, “Amazing Journey” among them – along with the catchy bridges and bravura playing, overcome its problems. “People who couldn’t get into the spiritual end of it could see it as a huge cartoon strip,” judged Townshend. Tired of playing crowd pleaser “Magic Bus” (“a nonsense number”), his opus renewed him. “With Tommy in our back pocket I felt I was riding two horses at once: a clod-hopping pantomime version on one hand, and a winged unicorn leading the heavenly host on the other.”

Pete’s unicorn flew true. Tommy remains magnificent, the best (pace Arthur, Quadrophenia, Ziggy) of rock’s erratic operatic turns.

Neil Spencer

Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run” manuscript sells for $197,000

Uncut
-
0
Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run” manuscript sells for $197,000

A handwritten, working manuscript of Bruce Springsteen's 1975 hit "Born To Run" has sold for $100,000 over estimate. The piece of rock and roll history was auctioned in Manhattan earlier this week with an estimate of $70,000 (£42,918) to $100,000 (£61,312), but actually sold for $197,000 (£120,533) by Sotheby's in New York, reports the New York Times. The auction house said the document used to be in the collection of Springsteen's former manager, Mike Appel, but the seller was not revealed. The identity of the buyer is also a mystery. The manuscript shows Springsteen's processes as he works out the lyrics for the song, featuring alternative lyrics not heard on the finished record. Part of the text reads: "This town'll rip the (out your) bones from yourback / it's a suicide trap (rap) (it's a trap to catchthe young) your dead unless / you get out (we gotto) while your young so (come on! / with) take myhand cause tramps / like us baby we were born to run". There are words in the margins including "wild" and "angels" and one that looks like "velocity". The auctioneer said: "Although Springsteen is known to have an intensive drafting process, few manuscripts of "Born To Run" are available, with the present example being one of only two identified that include the most famous lines in the song." Bruce Springsteen will release a new album High Hopes in January 2014.

A handwritten, working manuscript of Bruce Springsteen‘s 1975 hit “Born To Run” has sold for $100,000 over estimate.

The piece of rock and roll history was auctioned in Manhattan earlier this week with an estimate of $70,000 (£42,918) to $100,000 (£61,312), but actually sold for $197,000 (£120,533) by Sotheby’s in New York, reports the New York Times.

The auction house said the document used to be in the collection of Springsteen’s former manager, Mike Appel, but the seller was not revealed. The identity of the buyer is also a mystery.

The manuscript shows Springsteen’s processes as he works out the lyrics for the song, featuring alternative lyrics not heard on the finished record. Part of the text reads: “This town’ll rip the (out your) bones from yourback / it’s a suicide trap (rap) (it’s a trap to catchthe young) your dead unless / you get out (we gotto) while your young so (come on! / with) take myhand cause tramps / like us baby we were born to run”.

There are words in the margins including “wild” and “angels” and one that looks like “velocity”. The auctioneer said: “Although Springsteen is known to have an intensive drafting process, few manuscripts of “Born To Run” are available, with the present example being one of only two identified that include the most famous lines in the song.”

Bruce Springsteen will release a new album High Hopes in January 2014.

Bob Dylan’s Newport Folk Festival guitar breaks auction record

Uncut
-
0
Bob Dylan’s Newport Folk Festival guitar breaks auction record

The guitar that Bob Dylan played at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 has become the most expensive guitar ever to go up for auction. The Fender Stratocaster was sold Friday (December 6) for $965,000 (£590,430), topping the sale price for a guitar once owned by Eric Clapton which sold for $959,500 (£587,065) in 2004, reports Spin. The sale happened at Christie's in New York City and the guitar was bought by an absentee buyer. The instrument was sold with its original strap and hard shell case. For almost half a century, the guitar was in the family of the late Vic Quinto, a private plane pilot, who worked for Dylan's manager. The guitar was left in his plane and though he asked the management company what to do with the item, they failed to respond. Over this issue, a statement from Christie's read: "Representatives for Bob Dylan do not contest the sale of the guitar, and are aware of Christie's plan to bring it to auction."

The guitar that Bob Dylan played at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 has become the most expensive guitar ever to go up for auction.

The Fender Stratocaster was sold Friday (December 6) for $965,000 (£590,430), topping the sale price for a guitar once owned by Eric Clapton which sold for $959,500 (£587,065) in 2004, reports Spin. The sale happened at Christie’s in New York City and the guitar was bought by an absentee buyer. The instrument was sold with its original strap and hard shell case.

For almost half a century, the guitar was in the family of the late Vic Quinto, a private plane pilot, who worked for Dylan’s manager. The guitar was left in his plane and though he asked the management company what to do with the item, they failed to respond. Over this issue, a statement from Christie’s read: “Representatives for Bob Dylan do not contest the sale of the guitar, and are aware of Christie’s plan to bring it to auction.”

Neil Young And Crazy Horse to play London’s Hyde Park

Uncut
-
0
Neil Young And Crazy Horse to play London’s Hyde Park
Neil Young And Crazy Horse will headline a huge outdoor show at London's Hyde Park on Saturday July 12 next year. They'll be joined at Barclaycard British Summer Time by special guests The National, Tom Odell, Caitlin Rose, Phosphorescent and Flyte. Earlier this year, Neil Young And Crazy Horse c...

Neil Young And Crazy Horse will headline a huge outdoor show at London’s Hyde Park on Saturday July 12 next year.

They’ll be joined at Barclaycard British Summer Time by special guests The National, Tom Odell, Caitlin Rose, Phosphorescent and Flyte.

Earlier this year, Neil Young And Crazy Horse cancelled a number of gigs after guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro sustained an injury.

Tickets go on general sale for the Hyde Park show on Friday December 13.

This year’s British Summer Time series of gigs were headlined by artists including the Rolling Stones.

AEG Live was awarded the five-year contract to create this event in Hyde Park towards the end of 2012.

We want your questions for Jim Jarmusch!

Uncut
-
0
We want your questions for Jim Jarmusch!

As he prepares to release his new film, Only Lovers Left Alive, Jim Jarmusch is set to answer your questions in Uncut as part of our regular Audience With… feature. So is there anything you’ve always wanted to ask the legendary film director? Joe Strummer, Tom Waits, Jack White, Iggy Pop... are there any other rock stars he'd like to cast in his films? What are his memories of the No Wave scene in late Seventies New York? What was it like working with Neil Young on Dead Man and Year Of The Horse? Send up your questions by noon, Monday December 16 to uncutaudiencewith@ipcmedia.com. The best questions, and Jim's answers, will be published in a future edition of Uncut magazine. Please include your name and location with your question.

As he prepares to release his new film, Only Lovers Left Alive, Jim Jarmusch is set to answer your questions in Uncut as part of our regular Audience With… feature.

So is there anything you’ve always wanted to ask the legendary film director?

Joe Strummer, Tom Waits, Jack White, Iggy Pop… are there any other rock stars he’d like to cast in his films?

What are his memories of the No Wave scene in late Seventies New York?

What was it like working with Neil Young on Dead Man and Year Of The Horse?

Send up your questions by noon, Monday December 16 to uncutaudiencewith@ipcmedia.com. The best questions, and Jim’s answers, will be published in a future edition of Uncut magazine. Please include your name and location with your question.

Reviewed: Linda Perhacs live at Cecil Sharp House, London, December 5, 2013

John Mulvey
-
0
Reviewed: Linda Perhacs live at Cecil Sharp House, London, December 5, 2013

There are some things you never expect to see. Take, for example, a live performance of “Parallelograms”; a song of uncanny atmospheres and dynamics, recorded in 1970 by a dental hygienist with only a fleeting involvement with the music business. Like much of the album of the same name, “Parallelograms” sounded more or less unperformable when I first heard it a decade or so ago; an academic point, really, since its creator, Linda Perhacs, had never sung live during her short and unsuccessful pop career at the start of the ‘70s, let alone in the intervening 30-odd years. Still, interviewing her in 2004, she told me, ““The songs that have poured out of me in the past year are the best and strangest of my entire life. The world has so many catastrophic problems right now, I began to realise it’s a better time than ever for those of us who are sensitive to be expressing some of our ideas.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXBd-SjQxpQ It has taken another decade for Perhacs to record a new set of songs but, perhaps even more weirdly, here she is, manifested in Britain for the first time at the end of a short European tour (her first ever trip out of the States, according to her bandleader/co-producer/co-songwriter Fernando Perdomo). The venue is our home of indigenous folk music, Cecil Sharp House in North London, but from the opening synth wash it becomes obvious that Perhacs has been mostly miscategorised as a folk singer, even of the notionally psychedelic variety. She is playing “Chimacum Rain”, from “Parallelograms” and where, on the original version, her fragile vocal was multitracked into a kind of vortex, tonight the disorientation is recreated by reverberant harmonies from Michelle Vidal and Durga McBroom (a woman with an interesting past, having spent a good few years belting out “The Great Gig In The Sky” as part of the Pink Floyd monolith, as well as a short stint as a UK pop-house star fronting Blue Pearl, of brief “Naked In The Rain” fame). The expediencies of live performance do nothing, mercifully, to detract from the strangeness of this music, or its beauty. In re-imagining these ancient and delicate studio confections, Perdomo and the other co-producer/co-songwriter Chris Price have conspired with Perhacs to keep the instrumentation minimal – a little pre-set synth/electric piano, acoustic guitar, occasional bass, even rarer hand drums from Vidal – and focus tightly on the heady vocal blend. It’s a judicious strategy, never more apparent than on a mighty version of “Parallelograms”: the temptation to fill the avant-garde void at the song’s heart with session muso trickery must have been strong, but mostly they leave a potent space for the madrigal harmonies and Perhacs’ incantations, only slightly disrupted by McBroom’s improvised warcries. A couple more “Parallelograms” songs, “Hey, Who Really Cares” and “If You Were My Man”, are broadly more conventional in nature, if no less beguiling, sounding in this context a bit like the work of a New Age Bacharach & David, an astral Carpenters. This is, too, the predominant vibe of Perhacs’ lovely new album, “The Soul Of All Natural Things”, due out next February. It’s to the credit, again, of Perdomo and Price that the batch of new songs – notably “Freely”, “Song Of The Planets” and, especially, “Prisms Of Glass” – fit so seamlessly into the aesthetic established by what Perhacs continually refers to as “the ‘70s album”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n-nWy6fB00 Consummate musos, Perdomo and Price don’t appear to have the avantist chops of, say, Julia Holter; a Perhacs fellow traveller whose contribution to “The Soul Of All Natural Things” is mostly limited to providing background vocals. Nevertheless, there’s a clear empathy between them and Perhacs, a shared sense of purpose that means solo turns by all four of the band, while not exactly essential (Vidal’s resounding gospel blues is the pick, I think), do nothing to undermine the beatific air of goodwill that pervades the whole show. Entering this environment, of course, demands a certain suspension of cynicism. Perhacs’ language of nebulous energies, celestial harmonies and spiritual visitations will not be to everyone’s tastes: describing the origins of “Parallelograms”, she talks of having visions that involved something she describes, with characteristic vagueness, as “pure physics”, and which – she is keen to wryly assert - pre-dated the 1970s. ““I’m not a drug user,” she told me earlier this year. “I never was in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but I loved those people because they were dealing with energies, and our conversation level would be very deep. I’m deeply intuitive, I see and hear things the average person might not experience.” Tonight’s show, though, is a gentle masterclass in how music can be so gorgeous and compelling that it forces us – or some of us, at least – to momentarily suspend our disbelief. The recycling and relaunching of supposedly “lost” artists has become such a common and in some cases lucrative business (The Rodriguez Syndrome, is probably the technical term) that Linda Perhacs’ return should not, now, feel exceptional. But it does: as if an ineffably precious sound and worldview has been preserved in aspic, and carefully put on public display as never before. Miracles, as Perhacs would doubtless have us believe, evidently can happen.

There are some things you never expect to see. Take, for example, a live performance of “Parallelograms”; a song of uncanny atmospheres and dynamics, recorded in 1970 by a dental hygienist with only a fleeting involvement with the music business.

Like much of the album of the same name, “Parallelograms” sounded more or less unperformable when I first heard it a decade or so ago; an academic point, really, since its creator, Linda Perhacs, had never sung live during her short and unsuccessful pop career at the start of the ‘70s, let alone in the intervening 30-odd years. Still, interviewing her in 2004, she told me, ““The songs that have poured out of me in the past year are the best and strangest of my entire life. The world has so many catastrophic problems right now, I began to realise it’s a better time than ever for those of us who are sensitive to be expressing some of our ideas.”

It has taken another decade for Perhacs to record a new set of songs but, perhaps even more weirdly, here she is, manifested in Britain for the first time at the end of a short European tour (her first ever trip out of the States, according to her bandleader/co-producer/co-songwriter Fernando Perdomo). The venue is our home of indigenous folk music, Cecil Sharp House in North London, but from the opening synth wash it becomes obvious that Perhacs has been mostly miscategorised as a folk singer, even of the notionally psychedelic variety. She is playing “Chimacum Rain”, from “Parallelograms” and where, on the original version, her fragile vocal was multitracked into a kind of vortex, tonight the disorientation is recreated by reverberant harmonies from Michelle Vidal and Durga McBroom (a woman with an interesting past, having spent a good few years belting out “The Great Gig In The Sky” as part of the Pink Floyd monolith, as well as a short stint as a UK pop-house star fronting Blue Pearl, of brief “Naked In The Rain” fame).

The expediencies of live performance do nothing, mercifully, to detract from the strangeness of this music, or its beauty. In re-imagining these ancient and delicate studio confections, Perdomo and the other co-producer/co-songwriter Chris Price have conspired with Perhacs to keep the instrumentation minimal – a little pre-set synth/electric piano, acoustic guitar, occasional bass, even rarer hand drums from Vidal – and focus tightly on the heady vocal blend. It’s a judicious strategy, never more apparent than on a mighty version of “Parallelograms”: the temptation to fill the avant-garde void at the song’s heart with session muso trickery must have been strong, but mostly they leave a potent space for the madrigal harmonies and Perhacs’ incantations, only slightly disrupted by McBroom’s improvised warcries.

A couple more “Parallelograms” songs, “Hey, Who Really Cares” and “If You Were My Man”, are broadly more conventional in nature, if no less beguiling, sounding in this context a bit like the work of a New Age Bacharach & David, an astral Carpenters. This is, too, the predominant vibe of Perhacs’ lovely new album, “The Soul Of All Natural Things”, due out next February. It’s to the credit, again, of Perdomo and Price that the batch of new songs – notably “Freely”, “Song Of The Planets” and, especially, “Prisms Of Glass” – fit so seamlessly into the aesthetic established by what Perhacs continually refers to as “the ‘70s album”.

Consummate musos, Perdomo and Price don’t appear to have the avantist chops of, say, Julia Holter; a Perhacs fellow traveller whose contribution to “The Soul Of All Natural Things” is mostly limited to providing background vocals. Nevertheless, there’s a clear empathy between them and Perhacs, a shared sense of purpose that means solo turns by all four of the band, while not exactly essential (Vidal’s resounding gospel blues is the pick, I think), do nothing to undermine the beatific air of goodwill that pervades the whole show.

Entering this environment, of course, demands a certain suspension of cynicism. Perhacs’ language of nebulous energies, celestial harmonies and spiritual visitations will not be to everyone’s tastes: describing the origins of “Parallelograms”, she talks of having visions that involved something she describes, with characteristic vagueness, as “pure physics”, and which – she is keen to wryly assert – pre-dated the 1970s. ““I’m not a drug user,” she told me earlier this year. “I never was in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but I loved those people because they were dealing with energies, and our conversation level would be very deep. I’m deeply intuitive, I see and hear things the average person might not experience.”

Tonight’s show, though, is a gentle masterclass in how music can be so gorgeous and compelling that it forces us – or some of us, at least – to momentarily suspend our disbelief. The recycling and relaunching of supposedly “lost” artists has become such a common and in some cases lucrative business (The Rodriguez Syndrome, is probably the technical term) that Linda Perhacs’ return should not, now, feel exceptional. But it does: as if an ineffably precious sound and worldview has been preserved in aspic, and carefully put on public display as never before. Miracles, as Perhacs would doubtless have us believe, evidently can happen.

Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band – Trout Mask Replica

Uncut
-
0
Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band – Trout Mask Replica

Newly remastered and still astonishing... An album has approximately the same relationship to where it was made as a crime does to its scene – this one more than most. Not that you’d perceive that from the jaunty 2010 real estate listing that described 4295 Ensenada Drive, Woodland Hills California as “a charming Girard cabin with a famous rock ‘n’ roll history.” In the legend of Captain Beefheart, this is a location not noted for its charm: this was the site of the nine month regime of harsh discipline, welfare cheese and psychological warfare that ultimately gave rise to Trout Mask Replica. Time has a way of gentrifying even the most edgy location, but 44 years after its release, after its admission to the USA’s National Recording Registry; even after all those recommendations from Matt Groening, the Simpsons guy,Trout Mask refuses to become a domestic animal. It has aged, but it hasn’t mellowed. Unfairly to the music, it is a hip barometer; a gauntlet thrown down, daring you take up its challenge. Tom Waits, a fan, recently described it as like “a glimpse into the future; like curatives, recipes for ancient oils.” Even Elliott Ingber, a Magic Band guitarist and very out-there human was floored by it: “After you put it on,” he said to me last year, “everything was shambles.” As if to confirm its under-the-radar quality, this new version (deriving not from the Warners-held original multitracks, but remastered by Bob Ludwig from “safety tapes” from the archive of album producer Frank Zappa) came out with no advance publicity in May. (You mean you didn’t sense it was coming?) Some may even question how a record so inextricably linked to the rawness of the environment which gave rise to it can possibly benefit from such sonic buffing. In fact, this remaster re-affirms the value in the kind of repeated, attentive listening which Trout Mask Replica (a record that abuts beat poetry to musing on the holocaust, to field recordings, unschooled jazz and, occasionally, swinging psychedelic rock) has required since its release. Zappa originally intended to capture the fraught intensity in the “Trout House” and record in situ. Beefheart, thinking his old friend was attempting to save money, refused, insisting on a studio production. Trout Mask Replica lost nothing for that. A record of disorientating pace and abrasiveness, the teeming “Frownland” begins a 78 minute outpouring of chaotic-seeming but meticulously-planned composition. It is a record of disorientating juxtaposition and violent collage. One track (“Pena”) is actually a recording of the Mothers Of Invention. Others (“Hair Pie, Bake 1”, “China Pig”) are indeed field recordings from the house. For all his avowed rehearsal brutality, Beefheart himself busts out of the confinement of the blues and r’n’b idiom with a winning charm. His vision is surreal (“Fast and bulbous!”) and devastatingly lyrical (“the black paper between a mirror breaks my heart…”). Taken all at once, it’s a journey into a thorny, hugely varied, but irresistible landscape – once you have noted the dangers, you can begin to observe the beauty. Trout Mask Replica does still contain beauty, and the job that Bob Ludwig has done has been to create mastering that suggests and reveals it, rather than insists on pointing it out. This is not often a question of increased volume (but when it is, as on the a capella “The Dust Blows Forward And The Dust Blows Back”, it is so we hear more clearly the huffing and puffing of the Captain declaiming live to tape). Though subtle, the new sound suggests a greater crispness in the level of detail in songs like “Pachuco Cadaver” or “Sweet Sweet Bulbs”. The latter, a stealth classic of the record, is a song of massive groove and here we can hear freshly-articulated the depth of immersion in classic r ‘n’ b playing in the interactions between the Magic Band’s two 20 year old guitarists Jeff Cotton (“Antenna Jimmy Semens”) and Bill Harkleroad (“Zoot Horn Rollo”). On the likes of “Bill’s Corpse”, it seems that the refit has subtly adjusted the Captain’s disproportionate volume in relation to his band. After all, as befits an album where he didn’t so much lead the band as dictate to it, Beefheart’s vocals were recorded in presidential isolation, then dropped later on top of the extant music. The band, meanwhile – berated by Beefheart and then schooled in their parts by drummer John French (“Drumbo”) were told by Zappa that to record their double album, they had just six hours. They did it in four – a testament to the musical accomplishment that The Magic Band for all they endured, brought to Beefheart’s vision. Still, as arduous and unforgiveable as the process of making the record must have been, all Magic Band’s pains and psychological torments, were not quite in vain. If they can never get over Trout Mask Replica, it’s worth noting that nobody else will, either. John Robinson Q&A JOE TRAVERS “VAULTMEISTER” of ZAPPA RECORDS Is Trout Mask a project you’ve wanted to realize for a while? Trout Mask was not really ever a priority for me, simply because the opportunity seemed so far out of reach due to the master tapes being owned by a different company. In 2012, that situation changed. As soon as we got the tapes, we transferred them only to find that it had suffered over the years from age and many plays. So, the restoration had to be put in full swing. What, to your ears, has Bob Ludwig achieved? Because we had to generate new masters from safety elements from the Vault, Bob had better sounding sources to use for the current remaster. Almost all of the entire record is remastered from an alternate source than the main master tape that has been used so many times in the past. Bob is very musical and we have a great understanding about the fine line between loudness war brickwall-type mastering and dynamic audiophile-type mastering. Bob achieved that with the new Beefheart master, keeping the integrity of the original mixes and presenting them in a modern way, maintaining a rich, full sound yet not overblowing it! Are there any other Zappa/Beefheart treasures awaiting? Absolutely. Someday there will be a fabulous compilation of stuff found in the vault that contain various nuggets of things from all eras of FZ & Beefhearts' time together. From the Cucamonga days, up until the Bongo Fury era. INTERVIEW: JOHN ROBINSON

Newly remastered and still astonishing…

An album has approximately the same relationship to where it was made as a crime does to its scene – this one more than most. Not that you’d perceive that from the jaunty 2010 real estate listing that described 4295 Ensenada Drive, Woodland Hills California as “a charming Girard cabin with a famous rock ‘n’ roll history.” In the legend of Captain Beefheart, this is a location not noted for its charm: this was the site of the nine month regime of harsh discipline, welfare cheese and psychological warfare that ultimately gave rise to Trout Mask Replica.

Time has a way of gentrifying even the most edgy location, but 44 years after its release, after its admission to the USA’s National Recording Registry; even after all those recommendations from Matt Groening, the Simpsons guy,Trout Mask refuses to become a domestic animal. It has aged, but it hasn’t mellowed. Unfairly to the music, it is a hip barometer; a gauntlet thrown down, daring you take up its challenge. Tom Waits, a fan, recently described it as like “a glimpse into the future; like curatives, recipes for ancient oils.” Even Elliott Ingber, a Magic Band guitarist and very out-there human was floored by it: “After you put it on,” he said to me last year, “everything was shambles.”

As if to confirm its under-the-radar quality, this new version (deriving not from the Warners-held original multitracks, but remastered by Bob Ludwig from “safety tapes” from the archive of album producer Frank Zappa) came out with no advance publicity in May. (You mean you didn’t sense it was coming?) Some may even question how a record so inextricably linked to the rawness of the environment which gave rise to it can possibly benefit from such sonic buffing.

In fact, this remaster re-affirms the value in the kind of repeated, attentive listening which Trout Mask Replica (a record that abuts beat poetry to musing on the holocaust, to field recordings, unschooled jazz and, occasionally, swinging psychedelic rock) has required since its release. Zappa originally intended to capture the fraught intensity in the “Trout House” and record in situ. Beefheart, thinking his old friend was attempting to save money, refused, insisting on a studio production.

Trout Mask Replica lost nothing for that. A record of disorientating pace and abrasiveness, the teeming “Frownland” begins a 78 minute outpouring of chaotic-seeming but meticulously-planned composition. It is a record of disorientating juxtaposition and violent collage. One track (“Pena”) is actually a recording of the Mothers Of Invention. Others (“Hair Pie, Bake 1”, “China Pig”) are indeed field recordings from the house. For all his avowed rehearsal brutality, Beefheart himself busts out of the confinement of the blues and r’n’b idiom with a winning charm. His vision is surreal (“Fast and bulbous!”) and devastatingly lyrical (“the black paper between a mirror breaks my heart…”).

Taken all at once, it’s a journey into a thorny, hugely varied, but irresistible landscape – once you have noted the dangers, you can begin to observe the beauty. Trout Mask Replica does still contain beauty, and the job that Bob Ludwig has done has been to create mastering that suggests and reveals it, rather than insists on pointing it out. This is not often a question of increased volume (but when it is, as on the a capella “The Dust Blows Forward And The Dust Blows Back”, it is so we hear more clearly the huffing and puffing of the Captain declaiming live to tape).

Though subtle, the new sound suggests a greater crispness in the level of detail in songs like “Pachuco Cadaver” or “Sweet Sweet Bulbs”. The latter, a stealth classic of the record, is a song of massive groove and here we can hear freshly-articulated the depth of immersion in classic r ‘n’ b playing in the interactions between the Magic Band’s two 20 year old guitarists Jeff Cotton (“Antenna Jimmy Semens”) and Bill Harkleroad (“Zoot Horn Rollo”). On the likes of “Bill’s Corpse”, it seems that the refit has subtly adjusted the Captain’s disproportionate volume in relation to his band.

After all, as befits an album where he didn’t so much lead the band as dictate to it, Beefheart’s vocals were recorded in presidential isolation, then dropped later on top of the extant music. The band, meanwhile – berated by Beefheart and then schooled in their parts by drummer John French (“Drumbo”) were told by Zappa that to record their double album, they had just six hours.

They did it in four – a testament to the musical accomplishment that The Magic Band for all they endured, brought to Beefheart’s vision. Still, as arduous and unforgiveable as the process of making the record must have been, all Magic Band’s pains and psychological torments, were not quite in vain. If they can never get over Trout Mask Replica, it’s worth noting that nobody else will, either.

John Robinson

Q&A

JOE TRAVERS “VAULTMEISTER” of ZAPPA RECORDS

Is Trout Mask a project you’ve wanted to realize for a while?

Trout Mask was not really ever a priority for me, simply because the opportunity seemed so far out of reach due to the master tapes being owned by a different company. In 2012, that situation changed. As soon as we got the tapes, we transferred them only to find that it had suffered over the years from age and many plays. So, the restoration had to be put in full swing.

What, to your ears, has Bob Ludwig achieved?

Because we had to generate new masters from safety elements from the Vault, Bob had better sounding sources to use for the current remaster. Almost all of the entire record is remastered from an alternate source than the main master tape that has been used so many times in the past. Bob is very musical and we have a great understanding about the fine line between loudness war brickwall-type mastering and dynamic audiophile-type mastering. Bob achieved that with the new Beefheart master, keeping the integrity of the original mixes and presenting them in a modern way, maintaining a rich, full sound yet not overblowing it!

Are there any other Zappa/Beefheart treasures awaiting?

Absolutely. Someday there will be a fabulous compilation of stuff found in the vault that contain various nuggets of things from all eras of FZ & Beefhearts’ time together. From the Cucamonga days, up until the Bongo Fury era.

INTERVIEW: JOHN ROBINSON

Tracklisting revealed for David Ackles reissue

Uncut
-
0
Tracklisting revealed for David Ackles reissue
David Ackles’ self-titled 1968 debut is being re-issued by International Feel Records. The album has been out of print for a decade. This will be its first re-release on vinyl since the 1970′s while the CD features five bonus tracks and liner notes. Amazon.com are carrying a release date of De...

David Ackles’ self-titled 1968 debut is being re-issued by International Feel Records.

The album has been out of print for a decade. This will be its first re-release on vinyl since the 1970′s while the CD features five bonus tracks and liner notes.

Amazon.com are carrying a release date of December 10.

TRACK LISTING

The Road to Cairo

When Love Is Gone

Sonny Come Home

Blue Ribbons

What A Happy Day

Down River

Laissez-Faire

Lotus Man

His Name Is Andrew

Be My Friend

CD-Only Bonus Tracks:

Old Shoes (Previously Unreleased)

Grave of God (Previously Unreleased)

Be My Friend (Single Version)

Down River (Piano Version)

La Route A Chicago (French Version)

Jack White to reissue Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison singles

Uncut
-
0
Jack White to reissue Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison singles
Jack White's Third Man Records have announced plans to reissue singles by Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and DA Hunt as part of a partnership it has with Sun Records. As Uncut previously reported, Third Man have already reissued three Sun 7"s - Johnny Cash's "Get Rhythm", Rufus Thomas' "Bear Cat" and...

Jack White‘s Third Man Records have announced plans to reissue singles by Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and DA Hunt as part of a partnership it has with Sun Records.

As Uncut previously reported, Third Man have already reissued three Sun 7″s – Johnny Cash‘s “Get Rhythm”, Rufus Thomas’ “Bear Cat” and The Prisonaires’ “Just Walking In The Rain” on May 21.

This new batch consists of Jerry Lee Lewis‘ “Great Balls of Fire”, DA Hunt’s “Lonesome Old Jail” and Orbison’s “Rockhouse”.

Third Man will announce “Sun Ray” limited editions of each single, on marbled black and yellow vinyl, shortly.

The Black Keys announce festival date for 2014

Uncut
-
0
The Black Keys announce festival date for 2014
The Black Keys are set to headline the The Heineken Open'er Festival 2014. The duo are the first band to be announced for the yearly event, which takes place in Gdynia, Poland. Next year's festival will take place from July 2-5, 2014. Tickets are already on sale at Opener.pl/en and more artists wil...

The Black Keys are set to headline the The Heineken Open’er Festival 2014.

The duo are the first band to be announced for the yearly event, which takes place in Gdynia, Poland. Next year’s festival will take place from July 2-5, 2014. Tickets are already on sale at Opener.pl/en and more artists will be announced over the coming months. The Black Keys will be headlining the opening day of the festival, July 2.

Last summer’s festival took place in July 2013 and was headlined by Arctic Monkeys, Kings Of Leon, Blur and Queens Of The Stone Age. Rihanna also performed a bonus gig for people who had four-day festival tickets. Also on the bill were The National, Palma Violets, Savages, Alt-J , Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Editors, Disclosure, Tame Impala and Animal Collective. For more information about the event, visit: Opener.pl/en

An Audience With… Bobby Gillespie

Uncut
-
0
An Audience With… Bobby Gillespie
Primal Scream are touring the UK next week, beginning their trip at Manchester’s Apollo (December 10) – a fitting time, then, to revisit this piece from Uncut’s June 2006 issue (Take 109), in which frontman Bobby Gillespie answers questions from fans and famous admirers, discusses E, regrets, ...

Primal Scream are touring the UK next week, beginning their trip at Manchester’s Apollo (December 10) – a fitting time, then, to revisit this piece from Uncut’s June 2006 issue (Take 109), in which frontman Bobby Gillespie answers questions from fans and famous admirers, discusses E, regrets, rock’n’roll and The Jesus And Mary Chain. Interview: Nick Hasted

_______________

Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie is pacing the room, picking up speed. He’s had a row with his manager minutes before, and some mildly cheeky questions from Uncut’s readers are enough to send him careening towards total meltdown, threatening indiscriminate carnage and National Service on his interrogators as he goes. Against this, as his volcanic mood gradually subsides, Gillespie channels his frustration into eloquent reams of rock’n’roll ranting and idealism, before coming to a stop an hour later, a picture of beatific calm.

It’s the sort of riveting, chaotic performance that has characterised Gillespie throughout a career that began as The Jesus And Mary Chain’s barely competent drummer in 1984, then continued with Primal Scream on early indie hit “Velocity Girl”, and ’91’s decade-defining rock/dance/E landmark, Screamadelica. They’ve regularly pushed their own sonic boundaries through five further albums, embracing Memphis soul, P-Funk and Krautrock, right up to the new, stripped-back rock of new LP Riot City Blues. If they move, Bobby, shoot ’em…

_______________

Do you remember your first E?

Sarah Jezzard, Gosport

I went to see the Happy Mondays at the Zap Club in Brighton. Alan McGee got me it, but I remember it never worked! [laughs] I think he bought it from the band, or their entourage. I remember waiting for it to work, and it never worked. The Mondays were amazing. I’d seen them in Jeff Barrett’s club before that, totally straight, the night of the great storm in ’87. There probably was a time when it really worked the first time. But I’m not in the mood for it today.

Back in 1993, you gave me a Flying Burrito Brothers record, and it changed my life. Respect – and my wife Michelle has always wanted me and you to do a cover version of “Hot Burrito #1”. Would you be up for that?

Tim Burgess

Yeah! Get “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow out to play on it, because he lives out in LA, doesn’t he? Alright, see you in LA. Where Gram Parsons died, the Joshua Tree… we’ll make it up at Joshua Tree. Yeah, great idea, Tim, I’d love to do that.

Are you aware Screamadelica was the soundtrack to a crucial part of many people’s lives, including mine? How does that make you feel?

Jack Godrick, Blackpool

It’s nice. I’m glad. It’s a good thing. A lot of people come up and say they love that record. It’s a nice feeling, y’know. A lot of other people’s music means so much to me, so it’s nice to get that back. It’s lovely. Thanks.

When we’ve been out and we’ve got really drunk, I can never understand a fucking word you’re saying. One word is “Bannockburn”, and the other is “Sassenach”. How do the two words relate, and what would be the rest of the conversation?

Bernard Sumner

I don’t know if I’ve ever said that to him. I remember Bernard saying something to me about Culloden and the Duke of Cumberland because he’d seen Braveheart or some Jocksploitation movie. Bannockburn was the last time that Scotland beat England in a military battle. Robert the Bruce was the Scottish king, but he was actually a French Knights Templar. So the biggest Scottish hero was French. No wonder we’ve got an identity crisis. Yeah, King Edward II’s army was defeated at Bannockburn – “sent ’em homewards to think again” as the song goes. It’s a Jocksploitation question.

Given your behaviour after Screamadelica, should you be dead now?

Nick James, Swansea

As a band, yeah. Certain band members – yeah. Me – maybe. Some people we know – yes. They are dead. And some people never came back, mentally and emotionally. But we had a good time, so…regrets? Nah, nah, nah, nah.

Do you regret Give Out But Don’t Give Up [the much rockier ’94 follow-up to Screamadelica]?

Wes Newman, London

I don’t regret it. We never really had a choice. That’s the songs the band were writing. And the band was in a bit of a mess. It’s just hard to keep something like Screamadelica going. Heroin and cocaine came in, in a big way, and fucked up the creativity. Heroin was coming in anyway, in 1991. It just got worse. I was never into that. When we went to Memphis and made the Dixie Narco EP in November ’91, that was the last time it was good. After that, it was pretty dark. Everybody got too fucked up and the band dissipated, just fell apart, really. Yeah, the creativity was destroyed. It was pretty good for a few minutes. Then I thought, oh, the band’s fucked, everybody’s in a mess, we haven’t written any songs. People were only turning up to rehearsals in Brighton to score heroin – and speed, and coke. Because you could get them really cheap there. They’d come in, score drugs, split back on the train to London. It was a pretty depressing time.

But a couple of the best things we’ve done are on that, like “Sad And Blue”. I listen to that and I’m really proud to be in Primal Scream. We played with the Muscle Shoals rhythm section, and we were as good as them. No British band can play country-soul as good as we can. A lot of people have tried [Bobby points to a picture of Elvis Costello] – they can’t do it. We’ve actually got the fucking groove to do it. It’s hard to play that slow and soft and gentle. Whatever people say, we did try to do something different. It was a million miles away from Screamadelica. We lost a whole audience. But, hey, that’s good.

If the tabloids had been following you and Kate Moss around in the ’90s, would you have been Public Enemy No 1 in the same way Pete Doherty is now?

Stephen Farrer, Glasgow

Nah. Pete’s different than me. I’m not into that tabloid thing. I just wanna be a musician. But it’s none of my business what other people get up to. I don’t really care.

Why did you want to be a rock star, and what did you think a rock star was?

Lucy Sandford, London

I went to see Thin Lizzy in 1976, when I was 14. Seeing Phil Lynott onstage dressed in black leather, playing a Fender bass with a huge big mirror on it, rocking like fuck and singing “The Boys Are Back In Town”, with thousands of screaming girls who want to fuck him. Lights everywhere, smoke bombs. I saw Phil Lynott running down the street outside the Glasgow Apollo that afternoon, hundreds of girls chasing him, and he was laughing. I always wanted to be a rock’n’roll star.

XTRMNTR is probably the dirtiest-sounding record I’ve ever heard. How did you get that sound?

Serge Pizzorno, Kasabian

I guess, Serge, that we were trying to get, on a tape, all the sounds and the feelings that we had inside our heads. We were trying to describe, accurately, the culture, and how it felt to us. And I guess at the time we felt claustrophobic, paranoid, concrete. A bit cold. Not numb. Because we were feeling – there’s a hell of a lot of feeling in that record. It’s just a bit diseased, y’know?

Was there a point when you stopped impersonating a rock star and became one?

Joe James, Gloucester

Is he a female impersonator, himself? Get a life. Next question. You know what I hate about interviews? People like that are like cops, they just want to find out more stuff about you. The problem is that people have no respect. When you walk onstage and you’re playing rock’n’roll and there’s thousands of people there, you’re a rock’n’roll star. When you’re in the audience, you’re a spectator. I never wanted to be a spectator. I needed to take part in the society of the spectacle that Guy Debord and the Situationists were writing about – everything that’s happening now, like people believing the war in Iraq’s curing anything, these people are suckers for the spectacle. I’ve never been a spectator. I’m an activist. I’m a militant and I’ve always been fucking creative and I always will be. I don’t look to other people – I’ve always followed my own instincts and my own soul. So that’s the fucking answer. It’s just too much for me, all this attention. I don’t want to be anything other than a singer in a band. I’m pissed off at everything today.

Was it tough to leave The Jesus And Mary Chain when you’d just made Psychocandy?

Alan Smith, Inverness

It was heartbreaking. They asked me to leave Primal Scream and be their drummer. And I couldn’t do it. Because I knew that I’d have a limited lifespan being a drummer, because I wasn’t one. So I stuck with Primal Scream. I had more fun being in the Mary Chain at that point. They were a better band, better people, better fun. I’d go round the world with them, playing Psychocandy. Our band was still starting out. Shitty rehearsal rooms, shitty gigs, shitty little record on Creation. I was playing drums in a classic rock’n’roll band. I was in ecstasy. In retrospect it looks brave to leave. But I had no choice. I’d maybe have had one more year in Mary Chain – the best year of my life. After that, they’d have wanted a real drummer. They replaced me with a drum machine, which was good.

Did you sober up at all after the ’90s?

Brian Earl, London

The ’90s? [disbelieving] No – och, I don’t know. What a stupid question. It’s nobody’s business what somebody fucking does. I just hate it, man, some weird puritan obsessed with other people’s lives. I mean, maybe that guy meant it in a nice way. But I don’t feel like answering that question. But, y’know, it’s a strange business, rock’n’roll. When I’m with my family and stuff, I feel sane. And then I come into rock’n’roll, and I feel insane. Today, I feel like I’m going insane, and this is the first interview. We’ve made a line of brilliant records, consistently. You can’t do that if you’re too fucked up. I just don’t want to defend myself. Every time I do interviews, it’s like going to court. I gave all that shit up when I was a teenager… I wish you could just put a record out and not speak to anybody. Because everything that’s going on is in the music, that’ll tell you about where we are. I’m not sitting here smoking crack and shooting up heroin in front of you. Are the other questions obnoxious? [Mildly] I just think people should go and fucking die, y’know? I don’t care if most people fucking die. [Bobby gets up and stalks around a little] I ain’t a fucking hippie, man, y’know? Just destroy the c***s. Wipe ’em out. Send ’em to Iraq. Put ’em in the front line. I’m only joking. I’m a peace-lover!

What are your memories of the ICA Rock Week in 1986?

Bob Stanley, Saint Etienne

I was far too young and it was a long time ago. The one time I really remember playing there was with The Jesus And Mary Chain, in about 1984, and when I walked onstage a whisky bottle went flying past my head. In 1986, I would’ve had a bowl haircut. It was in the summer. There were six of us in the band, and we were wearing crombies, a Dexys thing. We were all lined up across the stage, really proud. It wasn’t a disaster – because some of the gigs we played then were fucking hit and miss. Sometimes we’d walk off after two songs because all the instruments had been tuned by different people. I remember it as being a good gig. And it was a summer’s night, and it felt like anything could happen.

Do you regret singing “Bomb The Pentagon”? And do you regret changing it?

Jim Unsworth, Newcastle

I don’t regret anything. Next question. I regret having to do loads of interviews and having to explain myself. I don’t give a fuck. What’s the guy’s name? Do you regret your unfortunate name? Next question. [Returning to the subject after a bit] But y’know what? The whole 9/11 thing was the ultimate spectacle. To pull the wool over people’s eyes and get the green light for America to go to war with the world. As a musician, you can’t go against it very far. Because no musician’s ever toppled a government. But I still have my point of view. And I’m just giving it. I’m with William Burroughs. I believe in total resistance for all souls everywhere, fighting against any tyranny or oppression. This new record’s got a joy and ecstasy in it – not the drug. It’s funny, too. It hopefully can make people smile and dance and just feel good when they hear it, like I did listening to “American Girl” by Tom Petty on the way here. It’s just pure joy. If we can do that for somebody else then I’m a very happy guy. And I guess that’s one way you can fight against the system, the powers – the vampires, high on blood sacrifice. Putin, Bush, Blair – I’m not going to topple them. At the end of the day, I’m just a singer in a rock’n’roll band. But there’s different ways of having resistance, and my way of fighting the greyness and sterility of modern society and conventions is to play rock’n’roll with Primal Scream. That’s as far as it goes. I don’t think I’m trying to bring down the government. I never was. I don’t wanna protest too much.

I’ve heard you’re going back to basics with the new album. Have you had enough of being pioneers?

Jenny Johnson, Canterbury

We just wanted to make some good, exciting rock’n’roll music that was ecstatic. I love the early Beatles singles, the joy in that is incredible. It’s the rarest drug in the world. It’s like being in love. Without even knowing it, I think that’s what we were looking for. I think we’re one of the most exciting rock’n’roll bands in the world live, and I wanted to capture that on record.

Nick Lowe: “I became convinced I was Johnny Cash…”

Uncut
-
0
Nick Lowe: “I became convinced I was Johnny Cash…”

In the new issue of Uncut, Nick Lowe jokingly explains how he became convinced he was Johnny Cash when once writing a song. However, after sobering up, he was forced to play the idea to Cash himself, the stepfather of his then-wife Carlene Carter. “I had this idea for a song, had the first verse, and I stayed up all night thinking, ‘Oh, I can play this for [Cash]’,” says Lowe. “I drank I don’t know how much, but a lot. I became convinced I was Johnny. It sounded good after a few bottles of wine. “The next thing I knew I was waking up to Carlene talking on the phone, saying, ‘Yeah, we’re looking forward to seeing you, Nick’s written this great song. He stayed up all night and he really wants to play it you.’ I opened my eyes to a hideous hangover. I definitely didn’t feel like Johnny Cash!” Lowe also recalls once putting up Cash and wife June Carter Cash in his Shepherd’s Bush house, making records in Oswald Mosley’s former lock-up and attempting to steal “Oliver’s Army” from Elvis Costello. He also reveals the true origins of his "Basher" nickname. The new issue of Uncut, dated January 2014, is out now. Picture: Dan Burn-Forti

In the new issue of Uncut, Nick Lowe jokingly explains how he became convinced he was Johnny Cash when once writing a song.

However, after sobering up, he was forced to play the idea to Cash himself, the stepfather of his then-wife Carlene Carter.

“I had this idea for a song, had the first verse, and I stayed up all night thinking, ‘Oh, I can play this for [Cash]’,” says Lowe. “I drank I don’t know how much, but a lot. I became convinced I was Johnny. It sounded good after a few bottles of wine.

“The next thing I knew I was waking up to Carlene talking on the phone, saying, ‘Yeah, we’re looking forward to seeing you, Nick’s written this great song. He stayed up all night and he really wants to play it you.’ I opened my eyes to a hideous hangover. I definitely didn’t feel like Johnny Cash!”

Lowe also recalls once putting up Cash and wife June Carter Cash in his Shepherd’s Bush house, making records in Oswald Mosley’s former lock-up and attempting to steal “Oliver’s Army” from Elvis Costello. He also reveals the true origins of his “Basher” nickname.

The new issue of Uncut, dated January 2014, is out now.

Picture: Dan Burn-Forti

The Wild Mercury Sound Best 143 Albums Of 2013

John Mulvey
-
0
The Wild Mercury Sound Best 143 Albums Of 2013

OK, I’ve managed to remember 143 albums that came out this year and that I liked. As in previous years, I didn’t see much point in hacking my list down to a Top 100, or Top 50, or whatever. While it’d be a stretch to claim every one is an imperishable classic, I do feel broadly confident recommending them all. Another caveat: I’ve spent a bit of time trying to put them in some kind of order, but realistically a lot of the placings are pretty arbitrary below the Top 30 or Top 50 – and not, of course, exactly scientific in the upper echelons, either. For a more assiduous and calculated rundown of the year’s best albums, I should refer you to the current issue of Uncut, where you’ll find a mathematically rigorous Top 80 that was voted for by almost 50 of the magazine’s staff and contributors. Since the Uncut list was published, I’ve seen some comments online express surprise at the inclusion of Roy Harper’s “Man & Myth”. The chart was voted for and compiled before Harper’s charges became public, in answer to your questions, and I can’t speculate on how our writers would have acted if that hadn’t been the case. As you’ll see, though, I’ve included “Man & Myth” in my list, because I wanted it to be accurately representative of the music I’ve played and enjoyed over the last year. At this point, I can’t honestly say when I will want to hear that record again, but that doesn’t strike me as relevant to a retrospective list like this one. Anyhow, please let me know what you make of my Top 143. I've added plenty of links to things I've written about the albums, and also to pieces on some of them by my colleagues at Uncut. I’m sure there are a few albums I’ve forgotten - remind me! - and I’d also welcome your personal charts in the comments box at the bottom of all this. A quick thank you, too, for all your engagement and support over the year; as ever, it’s very much appreciated. I seem to be blessed with the most enthusiastic, least snarky commenters on the internet, and I’m very grateful for that. Thanks again. Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey 143. Cool Ghouls - Cool Ghouls (Empty Cellar) 142. Dead Meadow – Warble Womb (Xemu) 141. Bill Orcutt - A History Of Every One (Editions Mego) 140. King Champion Sounds – Different Drummer (Wormer Brothers) 139. Matias Aguayo – The Visitor (Cómeme) 138. Kitchens Of Distinction – Folly (3Loop Music) 137. Deep Magic – Reflections of Most Forgotten Love (Preservation) 136. Gregor Schwellenbach – Gregor Schwellenbach Spielt 20 Jahre Kompakt (Kompakt) 135. Elephant Micah - Globe Rush Progressions (Product Of Palmyra) 134. Mike Donovan – WOT (Drag City) 133. Adrian Utley’s Guitar Orchestra – In C (Invada) 132. Jozef Van Wissem - Nihil Obstat (Important) 131. Carlton Melton– Always Even (Agitated) 130. Eiko Ishibashi – Resurrection (Drag City) 129. Lubomyr Melnyk – Three Solo Pieces (Unseen Worlds) 128. Cate Le Bon – Mug Museum (Turnstile) 127. The Julie Ruin – Oh Come On (TJR) 126. Bitchin Bajas – Bitchitronics (Drag City) 125. Buchikamashi – Out Of Body Experience (Fort Evil Fruit) 124. A Hawk And A Hacksaw - You Have Already Gone To The Other World (Lm Dupli-Cation) 123. Dawn McCarthy & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – What The Brothers Sang (Domino) 122. Arp – More (Smalltown Supersound) 121. Goran Kajfeš Subtropic Arkestra - The Reason Why Vol. 1 (Headspin) 120. Eleanor Friedberger – Personal Record (Merge) 119. Julian Cope - Revolutionary Suicide (Head Heritage) 118. James Blackshaw & Lubomyr Melnyk – The Watchers (Important) 117. Wooden Shjips – Back To Land (Thrill Jockey) 116. White Fence – Cyclops Reap (Castleface) 115. Plankton Wat – Drifter’s Temple (Thrill Jockey) 114. Kandodo – k20 (Thrill Jockey) 113. Diana Jones – Museum Of Appalachia Recordings (Proper) 112. Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats – Mind Control (Rise Above) 111. Blondes – Swisher (RVNG INTL) 110. Lawrence English - Lonely Woman's Club (Important) 109. μ-Ziq – Chewed Corners (Planet Mu) 108. The Knife – Shaking The Habitual (Rabid) 107. Spain– The Morning Becomes Eclectic Session (Glitterhouse) 106. Cave – Threace (Drag City) 105. Ravi Shankar - The Living Room Sessions Part 2 (East Meets West Music) 104. Rangda/Dead C – Rangda/Dead C (Ba Da Bing) 103. Africa Express – Maison Des Jeunes (Transgressive) 102. Vieux Farka Touré – Mon Pays (Six Degrees) 101. Master Musicians Of Bukkake – Far West (Important) 100. Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood – Black Pudding (Heavenly) 99. Glenn Jones – My Garden State (Thrill Jockey) 98. Duane Pitre – Bridges (Important) 97. Mark Kozelek - Like Rats (Caldo Verde) 96. Cavern Of Anti Matter – Blood-Drums (Grautag) 95. Califone – Stitches (Dead Oceans) 94. Liam Hayes – A Glimpse Inside The Mind Of Charles Swan III (Night Fever) 93. MIA – Matangi (XL) 92. Arctic Monkeys – AM (Domino) 91. Janelle Monae – Electric Lady (Atlantic) 90. Magik Markers – Surrender To The Fantasy (Drag City) 89. Tony Joe White – Hoodoo (Yeproc) 88. Julianna Barwick – Nepenthe (Dead Oceans) 87. Wooden Wand & World War IV - Wooden Wand & World War IV (Three Lobed Recordings) 86. Forest Swords – Excavations (Tri Angle) 85. King Khan & The Shrines – Idle No More (Merge) 84. The Limiñanas - Costa Blanca (Trouble In Mind) 83. The Oblivians – Desperation (In The Red) 82. Chuck Johnson - Crows In The Basilica (Three Lobed Recordings) 81. Matt Kivel – Double Exposure (Olde English Spelling Bee) 80. Mazzy Star – Seasons Of Your Day (Rhymes Of An Hour) 79. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - II (Jagjaguwar) 78. Darkside – Psychic (Matador) 77. Part Pelt Wild Gate – Hung On Sunday (MIE Music) 76. Duane Pitre – Feel Free: Live At Cafe OTO (Important) 75. Ultramarine - This Time Last Year (Real Soon) 74. Black Twig Pickers – Rough Carpenters (Thrill Jockey) 73. White Fence – Live In San Francisco (Castleface) 72. Fuck Buttons – Slow Focus (ATP Recordings) 71. Omar Souleyman – Wenu Wenu (domino) 70. Daniel Bachman – Jesus I’m A Sinner (Tompkins Square) 69. Sebadoh – Defend Yourself (Domino) 68. Lubomyr Melnyk – Corollaries (Erased Tapes) 67. Mountains – Centralia (Thrill Jockey) 66. Prefab Sprout - Crimson/Red (Icebreaker) 65. Danny Paul Grody – Between Two Worlds (Three Lobed Recordings) 64. Tim Hecker – Virgins (Kranky) 63. Retribution Gospel Choir – 3 (Chaperone) 62. Richard Thompson – Electric (Proper) 61. These New Puritans – Field Of Reeds (Infectious) 60. Dawn Of Midi – Dysnomia (Thirsty Ear) 59. Splashgirl – Field Day Rituals (Hubro) 58. Jim James - Regions Of Light And Sound Of God (V2) 57. Broadcast – Berberian Sound Studio (Warp) 56. Jonathan Wilson - Fanfare (Bella Union) 55. Israel Nash Gripka - Israel Nash’s Rain Plains (Loose) 54. Van Dyke Parks – Songs Cycled (Bella Union) 53. Ty Segall - Sleeper (Drag City) 52. Fuzz – Fuzz (In The Red) 51. Kevin Morby – Harlem River (Woodsist) 50. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories (Columbia) 49. Four Tet – Beautiful Rewind (Text) 48. Matmos – The Marriage Of True Minds (Thrill Jockey) 47. Arbouretum – Coming Out Of The Fog (Thrill Jockey) 46. Courtney Barnett – The Double EP: A Sea Of Split Peas (House Anxiety) 45. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires Of The City (XL) 44. Steve Gunn & Mike Gangloff - Melodies For A Savage Fix (Important) 43. Bitchin Bajas – Krausened (Permanent) 42. The Handsome Family – Wilderness (Loose) 41. Chris Thile – Bach: Sonatas And Partitas, Volume One (Nonesuch) 40. Mikal Cronin – MCII (Merge) 39. Pantha Du Prince & The Bell Laboratory – Elements Of Light (Rough Trade) 38. Kelley Stoltz - Double Exposure (Third Man) 37. Josephine Foster – I’m A Dreamer (Fire) 36. Alela Diane – About Farewell (Rusted Blue) 35. Jon Hopkins – Immunity (Domino) 34. Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold (What’s Your Rupture) 33. Kurt Vile - Wakin On A Pretty Daze (Matador) 32. Roy Harper – Man And Myth (Bella Union) 31. Low – The Invisible Way (Sub Pop) 30. Julia Holter – Loud City Song (Domino) 29. Holden – The Inheritors (Border Community) 28. Alasdair Roberts & Robin Robertson – Hirta Songs (Stone Tape) 27. The Cairo Gang – Tiny Rebels (Empty Cellar) 26. Purling Hiss – Water On Mars (Drag City) 25. Houndstooth – Ride Out The Dark (No Quarter) 24. Promised Land Sound - Promised Land Sound (Paradise Of Bachelors) 23. White Denim – Corsicana Lemonade (Downtown) 22. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Push The Sky Away (Bad Seed Ltd) 21. The Shouting Matches – Grownass Man (Middle West) 20. William Tyler – Impossible Truth (Merge) 19. Factory Floor – Factory Floor (DFA) 18. Desert Heat – Cat Mask At Huggie Temple (MIE Music) 17. Golden Gunn – Golden Gunn (Three Lobed Recordings) 16. Date Palms – The Dusted Sessions (Thrill Jockey) 15. Atoms For Peace – Amok (XL) 14. Hiss Golden Messenger – Haw (Paradise Of Bachelors) 13. Laura Marling – Once I Was An Eagle (Virgin) 12. Thee Oh Sees – Floating Coffin (Castleface) 11. Boards Of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest (Warp) 10. Chris Forsyth – Solar Motel (Paradise Of Bachelors) 9. Steve Gunn – Time Off (Paradise Of Bachelors) 8. Mark Kozelek & Jimmy Lavalle – Perils From The Sea (Caldo Verde) 7. Mark Kozelek & Desert Shore - Mark Kozelek & Desert Shore (Caldo Verde) 6. The Necks – Open (ReR/Northern Spy) 5. My Bloody Valentine – m b v (My Bloody Valentine) 4. Cian Nugent & The Cosmos – Born With The Caul (No Quarter) 3. Endless Boogie – Long Island (No Quarter) 2. Matthew E White – Big Inner (Domino) 1. Bill Callahan – Dream River (Drag City)

OK, I’ve managed to remember 143 albums that came out this year and that I liked. As in previous years, I didn’t see much point in hacking my list down to a Top 100, or Top 50, or whatever. While it’d be a stretch to claim every one is an imperishable classic, I do feel broadly confident recommending them all.

Another caveat: I’ve spent a bit of time trying to put them in some kind of order, but realistically a lot of the placings are pretty arbitrary below the Top 30 or Top 50 – and not, of course, exactly scientific in the upper echelons, either. For a more assiduous and calculated rundown of the year’s best albums, I should refer you to the current issue of Uncut, where you’ll find a mathematically rigorous Top 80 that was voted for by almost 50 of the magazine’s staff and contributors.

Since the Uncut list was published, I’ve seen some comments online express surprise at the inclusion of Roy Harper’s “Man & Myth”. The chart was voted for and compiled before Harper’s charges became public, in answer to your questions, and I can’t speculate on how our writers would have acted if that hadn’t been the case. As you’ll see, though, I’ve included “Man & Myth” in my list, because I wanted it to be accurately representative of the music I’ve played and enjoyed over the last year. At this point, I can’t honestly say when I will want to hear that record again, but that doesn’t strike me as relevant to a retrospective list like this one.

Anyhow, please let me know what you make of my Top 143. I’ve added plenty of links to things I’ve written about the albums, and also to pieces on some of them by my colleagues at Uncut. I’m sure there are a few albums I’ve forgotten – remind me! – and I’d also welcome your personal charts in the comments box at the bottom of all this. A quick thank you, too, for all your engagement and support over the year; as ever, it’s very much appreciated. I seem to be blessed with the most enthusiastic, least snarky commenters on the internet, and I’m very grateful for that. Thanks again.

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey

143. Cool Ghouls – Cool Ghouls (Empty Cellar)

142. Dead Meadow – Warble Womb (Xemu)

141. Bill Orcutt – A History Of Every One (Editions Mego)

140. King Champion Sounds – Different Drummer (Wormer Brothers)

139. Matias Aguayo – The Visitor (Cómeme)

138. Kitchens Of Distinction – Folly (3Loop Music)

137. Deep Magic – Reflections of Most Forgotten Love (Preservation)

136. Gregor Schwellenbach – Gregor Schwellenbach Spielt 20 Jahre Kompakt (Kompakt)

135. Elephant Micah – Globe Rush Progressions (Product Of Palmyra)

134. Mike Donovan – WOT (Drag City)

133. Adrian Utley’s Guitar Orchestra – In C (Invada)

132. Jozef Van Wissem – Nihil Obstat (Important)

131. Carlton Melton– Always Even (Agitated)

130. Eiko Ishibashi – Resurrection (Drag City)

129. Lubomyr Melnyk – Three Solo Pieces (Unseen Worlds)

128. Cate Le Bon – Mug Museum (Turnstile)

127. The Julie Ruin – Oh Come On (TJR)

126. Bitchin Bajas – Bitchitronics (Drag City)

125. Buchikamashi – Out Of Body Experience (Fort Evil Fruit)

124. A Hawk And A Hacksaw – You Have Already Gone To The Other World (Lm Dupli-Cation)

123. Dawn McCarthy & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – What The Brothers Sang (Domino)

122. Arp – More (Smalltown Supersound)

121. Goran Kajfeš Subtropic Arkestra – The Reason Why Vol. 1 (Headspin)

120. Eleanor Friedberger – Personal Record (Merge)

119. Julian Cope – Revolutionary Suicide (Head Heritage)

118. James Blackshaw & Lubomyr Melnyk – The Watchers (Important)

117. Wooden Shjips – Back To Land (Thrill Jockey)

116. White Fence – Cyclops Reap (Castleface)

115. Plankton Wat – Drifter’s Temple (Thrill Jockey)

114. Kandodo – k20 (Thrill Jockey)

113. Diana Jones – Museum Of Appalachia Recordings (Proper)

112. Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats – Mind Control (Rise Above)

111. Blondes – Swisher (RVNG INTL)

110. Lawrence English – Lonely Woman’s Club (Important)

109. μ-Ziq – Chewed Corners (Planet Mu)

108. The Knife – Shaking The Habitual (Rabid)

107. Spain– The Morning Becomes Eclectic Session (Glitterhouse)

106. Cave – Threace (Drag City)

105. Ravi Shankar – The Living Room Sessions Part 2 (East Meets West Music)

104. Rangda/Dead C – Rangda/Dead C (Ba Da Bing)

103. Africa Express – Maison Des Jeunes (Transgressive)

102. Vieux Farka Touré – Mon Pays (Six Degrees)

101. Master Musicians Of Bukkake – Far West (Important)

100. Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood – Black Pudding (Heavenly)

99. Glenn Jones – My Garden State (Thrill Jockey)

98. Duane Pitre – Bridges (Important)

97. Mark Kozelek – Like Rats (Caldo Verde)

96. Cavern Of Anti Matter – Blood-Drums (Grautag)

95. Califone – Stitches (Dead Oceans)

94. Liam Hayes – A Glimpse Inside The Mind Of Charles Swan III (Night Fever)

93. MIA – Matangi (XL)

92. Arctic Monkeys – AM (Domino)

91. Janelle Monae – Electric Lady (Atlantic)

90. Magik Markers – Surrender To The Fantasy (Drag City)

89. Tony Joe White – Hoodoo (Yeproc)

88. Julianna Barwick – Nepenthe (Dead Oceans)

87. Wooden Wand & World War IV – Wooden Wand & World War IV (Three Lobed Recordings)

86. Forest Swords – Excavations (Tri Angle)

85. King Khan & The Shrines – Idle No More (Merge)

84. The Limiñanas – Costa Blanca (Trouble In Mind)

83. The Oblivians – Desperation (In The Red)

82. Chuck Johnson – Crows In The Basilica (Three Lobed Recordings)

81. Matt Kivel – Double Exposure (Olde English Spelling Bee)

80. Mazzy Star – Seasons Of Your Day (Rhymes Of An Hour)

79. Unknown Mortal Orchestra – II (Jagjaguwar)

78. Darkside – Psychic (Matador)

77. Part Pelt Wild Gate – Hung On Sunday (MIE Music)

76. Duane Pitre – Feel Free: Live At Cafe OTO (Important)

75. Ultramarine – This Time Last Year (Real Soon)

74. Black Twig Pickers – Rough Carpenters (Thrill Jockey)

73. White Fence – Live In San Francisco (Castleface)

72. Fuck Buttons – Slow Focus (ATP Recordings)

71. Omar Souleyman – Wenu Wenu (domino)

70. Daniel Bachman – Jesus I’m A Sinner (Tompkins Square)

69. Sebadoh – Defend Yourself (Domino)

68. Lubomyr Melnyk – Corollaries (Erased Tapes)

67. Mountains – Centralia (Thrill Jockey)

66. Prefab Sprout – Crimson/Red (Icebreaker)

65. Danny Paul Grody – Between Two Worlds (Three Lobed Recordings)

64. Tim Hecker – Virgins (Kranky)

63. Retribution Gospel Choir – 3 (Chaperone)

62. Richard Thompson – Electric (Proper)

61. These New Puritans – Field Of Reeds (Infectious)

60. Dawn Of Midi – Dysnomia (Thirsty Ear)

59. Splashgirl – Field Day Rituals (Hubro)

58. Jim James – Regions Of Light And Sound Of God (V2)

57. Broadcast – Berberian Sound Studio (Warp)

56. Jonathan Wilson – Fanfare (Bella Union)

55. Israel Nash Gripka – Israel Nash’s Rain Plains (Loose)

54. Van Dyke Parks – Songs Cycled (Bella Union)

53. Ty Segall – Sleeper (Drag City)

52. Fuzz – Fuzz (In The Red)

51. Kevin Morby – Harlem River (Woodsist)

50. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories (Columbia)

49. Four Tet – Beautiful Rewind (Text)

48. Matmos – The Marriage Of True Minds (Thrill Jockey)

47. Arbouretum – Coming Out Of The Fog (Thrill Jockey)

46. Courtney Barnett – The Double EP: A Sea Of Split Peas (House Anxiety)

45. Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires Of The City (XL)

44. Steve Gunn & Mike Gangloff – Melodies For A Savage Fix (Important)

43. Bitchin Bajas – Krausened (Permanent)

42. The Handsome Family – Wilderness (Loose)

41. Chris Thile – Bach: Sonatas And Partitas, Volume One (Nonesuch)

40. Mikal Cronin – MCII (Merge)

39. Pantha Du Prince & The Bell Laboratory – Elements Of Light (Rough Trade)

38. Kelley Stoltz – Double Exposure (Third Man)

37. Josephine Foster – I’m A Dreamer (Fire)

36. Alela Diane – About Farewell (Rusted Blue)

35. Jon Hopkins – Immunity (Domino)

34. Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold (What’s Your Rupture)

33. Kurt Vile – Wakin On A Pretty Daze (Matador)

32. Roy Harper – Man And Myth (Bella Union)

31. Low – The Invisible Way (Sub Pop)

30. Julia Holter – Loud City Song (Domino)

29. Holden – The Inheritors (Border Community)

28. Alasdair Roberts & Robin Robertson – Hirta Songs (Stone Tape)

27. The Cairo Gang – Tiny Rebels (Empty Cellar)

26. Purling Hiss – Water On Mars (Drag City)

25. Houndstooth – Ride Out The Dark (No Quarter)

24. Promised Land Sound – Promised Land Sound (Paradise Of Bachelors)

23. White Denim – Corsicana Lemonade (Downtown)

22. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Push The Sky Away (Bad Seed Ltd)

21. The Shouting Matches – Grownass Man (Middle West)

20. William Tyler – Impossible Truth (Merge)

19. Factory Floor – Factory Floor (DFA)

18. Desert Heat – Cat Mask At Huggie Temple (MIE Music)

17. Golden Gunn – Golden Gunn (Three Lobed Recordings)

16. Date Palms – The Dusted Sessions (Thrill Jockey)

15. Atoms For Peace – Amok (XL)

14. Hiss Golden Messenger – Haw (Paradise Of Bachelors)

13. Laura Marling – Once I Was An Eagle (Virgin)

12. Thee Oh Sees – Floating Coffin (Castleface)

11. Boards Of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest (Warp)

10. Chris Forsyth – Solar Motel (Paradise Of Bachelors)

9. Steve Gunn – Time Off (Paradise Of Bachelors)

8. Mark Kozelek & Jimmy Lavalle – Perils From The Sea (Caldo Verde)

7. Mark Kozelek & Desert Shore – Mark Kozelek & Desert Shore (Caldo Verde)

6. The Necks – Open (ReR/Northern Spy)

5. My Bloody Valentine – m b v (My Bloody Valentine)

4. Cian Nugent & The Cosmos – Born With The Caul (No Quarter)

3. Endless Boogie – Long Island (No Quarter)

2. Matthew E White – Big Inner (Domino)

1. Bill Callahan – Dream River (Drag City)

Morrissey announces ‘Definitive Master’ edition of Your Arsenal

Uncut
-
0
Morrissey announces ‘Definitive Master’ edition of Your Arsenal
Morrissey is to release a new edition of his third solo album, Your Arsenal. Originally released in 1992, Your Arsenal was produced by Mick Ronson. The Definitive Master will be released on February 24 via Parlophone Records. It will be available on CD, vinyl and digital download, with the CD edi...

Morrissey is to release a new edition of his third solo album, Your Arsenal.

Originally released in 1992, Your Arsenal was produced by Mick Ronson.

The Definitive Master will be released on February 24 via Parlophone Records.

It will be available on CD, vinyl and digital download, with the CD edition accompanied by a bonus DVD of previously unreleased live concert from 1991.

Morrissey paid tribute to Mick Ronson in January this year in an extensive Q+A for Uncut. You can read the full transcript here.

You can read our Morrissey cover story on the current issue of Uncut, which includes the revelations that Morrissey has two albums’ worth of material ready.

The tracklisting for the Your Arsenal Definitive Masters are:

CD:

1. You’re Gonna Need Someone On Your Side

2. Glamorous Glue

3. We’ll Let You Know

4. The National Front Disco

5. Certain People I Know

6. We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful

7. You’re The One For Me, Fatty

8. Seasick, Yet Still Docked

9. I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday

10.Tomorrow (US Mix)*

DVD (with CD only):

Morrissey at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA, USA – October 31st, 1991.

1. November Spawned a Monster

2. Alsatian Cousin

3. Our Frank

4. The Loop

5. King Leer

6. Sister I’m A Poet

7. Piccadilly Palare

8. Driving Your Girlfriend Home

9. Interesting Drug

10.We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful

11.Everyday Is Like Sunday

12.My Love Life

13.Pashernate Love

14.The Last Of The Famous International Playboys

15.Asian Rut

Encore 1:

16.Angel, Angel, Down We Go Together

17.Suedehead

Encore 2:

18. Disappointed

Your Arsenal Definitive Master heavyweight, gatefold vinyl:

Side 1:

1. You’re Gonna Need Someone On Your Side

2. Glamorous Glue

3. We’ll Let You Know

4. The National Front Disco

5. Certain People I Know

Side 2:

1. We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful

2. You’re The One For Me, Fatty

3. Seasick, Yet Still Docked

4. I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday

5. Tomorrow (US Mix)*

Watch David Bowie’s new video for “I’d Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)”

Uncut
-
0
Watch David Bowie’s new video for “I’d Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)”

A new video for David Bowie's 'I'd Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)' has been unveiled. Scroll down to watch the video. "I’d Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)" appears on the recently released deluxe edition of The Next Day Extra and also appears on Bowie Louis Vuitton advert. The video uses found footage from World War 1, including scenes of soldiers dancing while wearing gas masks, with close up shots of Bowie's distorted face. "I’d Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)" and former LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy's remix "Love Is Lost" will be released on 12" white vinyl on December 16. The new release will come in a unique die cut sleeve designed by Jonathan Barnbrook. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5sf5s3PIyw

A new video for David Bowie‘s ‘I’d Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)’ has been unveiled. Scroll down to watch the video.

“I’d Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)” appears on the recently released deluxe edition of The Next Day Extra and also appears on Bowie Louis Vuitton advert. The video uses found footage from World War 1, including scenes of soldiers dancing while wearing gas masks, with close up shots of Bowie’s distorted face.

“I’d Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)” and former LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy’s remix “Love Is Lost” will be released on 12″ white vinyl on December 16. The new release will come in a unique die cut sleeve designed by Jonathan Barnbrook.

1...484485486...1,269Page 485 of 1,269

SHOP UNCUT