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Keith Richards: “Buyers of digital music are being shortchanged”

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Keith Richards: “Buyers of digital music are being shortchanged”
Keith Richards has admitted that he does not own an iPod and feels that the sound quality of MP3s is leaving fans "short changed". Revealing that he does not own an iPod, Richards says he understands the use of being able to store thousands of songs on one device but that he feels the sound quality...

Keith Richards has admitted that he does not own an iPod and feels that the sound quality of MP3s is leaving fans “short changed”.

Revealing that he does not own an iPod, Richards says he understands the use of being able to store thousands of songs on one device but that he feels the sound quality is poor in comparison to CDs and records. Speaking to Billboard the guitarist says: “I don’t have an iPod. I still use CDs or records actually. Sometimes cassettes. It has much better sound; a much better sound than digital.”

Richards goes on to say: “My old lady’s got one. My kids have got them. I say, ‘Look me up this.’ Or, ‘Oh I like that. Check me that… I know what these things can do. I’m not totally anti-them.”

The Rolling Stones played a tiny club show in Los Angeles last weekend (April 27). The gig took place at The Echoplex in the trendy Echo Park neighbourhood, with most tickets distributed to fans via a ticket lottery which took place earlier in the day at the El Rey venue across town, after the news of the show went online that morning.

The Making Of… The Waterboys’ The Whole Of The Moon

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The Making Of… The Waterboys’ The Whole Of The Moon
This month’s issue of Uncut (June 2013) features The Waterboys discussing their mammoth new Fisherman’s Box release – here, in this archive feature from Uncut’s July 2008 issue, the band, including Mike Scott and Karl Wallinger, reflect on the creation of their pop masterpiece, The Whole Of ...

This month’s issue of Uncut (June 2013) features The Waterboys discussing their mammoth new Fisherman’s Box release – here, in this archive feature from Uncut’s July 2008 issue, the band, including Mike Scott and Karl Wallinger, reflect on the creation of their pop masterpiece, The Whole Of The Moon. Expect disagreements, still; arguments about musical contributions, worries over spending life in prison for hitting someone over the head with a guitar… Words: Nick Hasted

________________

The Waterboys are sitting in Jimmy Page’s west London mansion in the summer of 1985, drinking wine and playing records long into the night with Bob Dylan. Dylan loves This Is The Sea, their third, as-yet unreleased album, and has asked to record with him.

“Dylan had heard what we were doing, and he invited me to the London studio where he was recording to jam,” recalls Mike Scott. “He was gentle, soft-spoken, tousle-headed, and played non-stop burbling lead guitar, even between songs.”

Dylan’s invitation to jam with Scott seemed to legitimize Scott’s vision of “Big Music” following two patchy, relatively unsuccessful albums.

Scott later defines “Big Music” as “A metaphor for seeing God’s vision in the world.” And the song that brought it to the wider British public is one of the most striking of the Waterboys’ career. “The Whole Of The Moon” is a synth-heavy sonic tribute to Prince, its guitars largely buried deep in the mix. Bowie, The Beatles and crashing brass fanfares are there too, matching Scott’s lyric about reaching “too far, too high”.

If the song represented a creative peak for the Waterboys, it also marked the end of Scott’s fractious relationship with Karl Wallinger, who’d joined the band in 1983. Even today, both men are quick to argue over each other’s contribution to “… Moon”. Scott downplays what he calls “exaggerations” of Wallinger’s role. Meanwhile Wallinger, who left the band at the end of 1985 to form World Party, admits to having “great difficulty” working with his former partner.

But “The Whole Of The Moon”, reissued in 1991, became a massive hit. “My song went from a cult classic to an all-time classic,” laughs Scott. “And that was sweet. I’d like 23 more like that.”

________________

Anthony Thistlethwaite, saxophone: I first met Mike in 1982. He was powered up and intense. I went over to New York with him in 1984 for a couple of weeks, and while we were there, we saw Purple Rain at the cinema, and Mike was very impressed. Later that year, supporting U2, the tour coincided a couple of times with Prince, and Mike and Karl went straight over. They were both buzzing on him for a good long while. Working around that feel was one of the big factors in 1985.

Mick Glossop, engineer: The whole album process was new for Mike. The previous two Waterboys albums had been collections of demos, radio sessions and live tracks. This was the first time Mike had set aside time to make an album. It gave him the opportunity to experiment in the studio. “…Moon” was very much a studio track. Everything bar Mike’s piano and vocal came there.

Mike Scott, writer, performer: My life was very squeezed then. Not much social life. I was singularly focused on making my records. I recorded “…Moon” on my own with a drum machine, then brought musicians in as they were needed. It’s about a person who has a spectacular, meteor-like rise, but burns out or dies young. Though the song ain’t about him, the nearest equivalent would be Hendrix. Adding a list of all the things the hero/heroine saw raised the emotional temperature. The final chorus now had an extra fatefulness. To express this I inserted “you came like a comet, blazing your trail”, then a “comet”, a firework sample from a BBC sound effects record. That sweetly collided with Anthony’s sax solo, so that it sounds as if the sax erupts from the comet itself. Magic like that just happens. The sound of “…Moon”, its synths, which crop up almost nowhere else in Waterboys music, was me copping sonic ideas from Prince, which Karl, also a big Prince fan, was able to translate. I’d turned him onto Prince, played him Purple Rain in the summer of ’84.

Karl Wallinger, performer: I did the synth-bass part on “Whole Of The Moon”. And that was a new one for Mike, not using traditional instruments. I was just freaking out to Prince at the time. We were on a U2 tour, and nicked their limo when they went on stage to see a Prince gig in Chicago. I ended up with his manager for 15 years.

Glossop: The basis of the song was Mike’s piano part. Then he and Karl experimented. They were very close collaborators. Karl’s a very giving person. He gave a lot to the Waterboys, certainly. Mike is Springsteen, Patti, Dylan, Van. Karl added Lennon, Prince, Bowie – sophisticated pop influences. On “…Moon”, the polyphonic keyboards, the synth-bass, the upbeat cymbal-accent are classic Prince ideas, which came from Karl. But a lot of ideas were specifically Mike’s. He wrote the songs, he would never be dragged into anything against his will. But it was quite a different recording and arrangement from what one would think of as the Waterboys. The synthesiser element was Karl’s very strong influence.

Thistlethwaite: Normally, Mike, Karl and me performed together on Waterboys records. “…Moon” was a studio creation, more a collage than a performance. Mike got the best out of the musicians by letting us do what we thought was right. Karl made a huge impression. He was full of melodic concepts. I was very close with Mike at the beginning. Then Karl took over that position. Afterwards, it was Steve Wickham. Mike likes having a foil, but it’s hard work. He was intense then. So far as I know, he hardly ever left his flat. He and Karl would stay up reading Aleister Crowley.

Wallinger: Did Mike have to overcome “techno-fear”? There was a definite suspicion of synthesisers. Hanging out at my flat at our late-night sessions gave him time to get over it.

Scott: Karl got the best synth sounds I’d heard, so I asked him to create Prince-like sounds for “…Moon”. Karl was a great mate, but a contributor more than a collaborator. The final word rested with me. His contributions were brilliant, and added degrees of magic and depth to the Waterboys.

Wallinger: I collaborated with Mike with great difficulty. But it was a little more mutual than he says. Maybe he’s remembering the time I said, “Those synths sounds like Jeff Lynne.” He stopped and said, “You know, you shouldn’t say things like that to people. It can really damage them.” If he says he told me to play like Prince – yeah, he taught me everything I know about everything! Oh, man. He’s so great.

Scott: The Beatles’ “Penny Lane” influenced the trumpet break – the sudden injection of super-fresh, bright and clear horns, a sound of optimism and clarity. Bowie’s “Fame” inspired the final descending vocal, thought up and sung by Karl. I wanted the whole thing to sound like a carnival.

Glossop: Having recorded everything, Mike felt the drum-machine rhythm was too straight. Chris Whitten’s drums gave dynamics and energy. It integrated the song more with the Waterboys identity. It still stands out radically. It’s the most commercial track that Mike’s produced. Even on vocal and piano you can hear that. The melody, the chord sequence are untypical. It still has that mildly grandiose feel, that big, wide Waterboys sound. But it has a freshness about its melodic and musical ideas.

Wallinger: Chris Whitten, who did the drums, was brought in by me as well. That’s not what you do when you’re just the hired hand.

Scott: Dylan had heard what we were doing, and he invited me to the London studio where he was recording to jam.

Thistlethwaite: Mike, Steve [Wickham] and myself went down that summer to play with Dylan in Dave Stewart’s church studio in Crouch End. It was mind-blowing. When we came out I went to a phone-box to tell my parents, and I could hardly speak!

Scott: The story that a label guy tried to strong-arm me to do “…Moon” on Top Of The Pops, but was scared off by seeing Bob sitting in my flat, is delicious, but entirely untrue. As is the “Mike Scott wouldn’t play TOTP” myth. We were playing First Avenue, Minneapolis the night the show was filmed.

Wallinger: Mike can’t think in terms of being generous or gregarious, or happy-go-lucky. He didn’t want to do Top Of The Pops. It was stupid. We could have been massive. So I went off and became massive on my own!

Scott: Karl needed to form his own band. I found him quite cantankerous towards the end. I found it quite uncomfortable with him still in the band. And I was very, very relieved when he left.

Wallinger: I left because I didn’t want to spend life imprisonment for hitting someone rapidly over the head with a guitar. It was weird when I left, the way the band went – Irish sweaters and pints of Guinness.

Scott: I think the “high summit” of the “Big Music” sound was “This Is The Sea”. But “…Moon” is a close second with its mighty comet moment and all-encompassing lyric. I could feel the music building album by album to its climax. If “…Moon” had really hit back then in ’85, the stakes would have got raised and the clamour of voices imploring me to repeat the formula, stay in that groove, would have become deafening. So I snuck off to Paddy’s Emerald Isle and got on with the job. I think “The Whole Of The Moon” is terrific. But that layered, studio-created, cinematic music was accomplished to the full, and there was nowhere to take it after that. So I teased out acoustic, troubadour, rootsy strands into the band’s new sound. I was consumed with music, for three years, ’83 to ’85. Ireland was an escape into a wider life. And there was a cost to that. I was still as active and as driven. But I wasn’t this music-making machine any more. When “…Moon” was a hit in ’91, I wondered if it would be like when T.Rex had their first smash and everybody fell in love with Marc Bolan? Or would people just love the song, and I’d sink or swim with what I did next? It was the latter.

Thistlethwaite: It surprised me that “…Moon” was the one Waterboys track the public really took to. Other songs such as “Red Army Blues” seemed more original and bizarre. The next year, when we moved to Ireland, we were in uncharted territory, beyond the record industry’s infrastructure. We’d escaped.

Wallinger:: I had an aneurysm in 2000. Mike phoned up that day, which I thought might be connected…and when I got out of hospital, he wrote me a letter saying, “Karl, I read an article in which you seemed to be saying that you wrote some of the Waterboys stuff. Now, you know Karl, that was all my songs…” I wrote back saying, “Dear Mike, I am well. I hereby confirm that I at no time contributed anything of interest to the Waterboys…” I sent his next letter back, and that was the end of our great relationship. Listen to what the Waterboys did after “Whole Of The Moon”. I don’t think he’s been there again. I rest my case on that.

FACT FILE

Written by: Mike Scott

Performers: Mike Scott (vocal, piano, electric guitar, chimes, effects), Karl Wallinger (keyboard bass, synthesisers, backing vocals), Anthony Thistlethwaite (saxophone), Roddy Lorimer (trumpet), Max Edie (backing vocals), Chris Whitten (drums), Martin Ditcham (percussion, sundries)

Produced by: Mike Scott

Recorded at: Park Gate Studios, Hastings; Livingstone Studio, London

Released as a single: October 1985; reissued March 1991

Highest UK chart position: 3

Highest US chart position: n/a

TIMELINE

MAY 1985 As This Is The Sea nears completion, Scott begins recording “The Whole Of The Moon” in Hastings

JULY 7 1985 The final mix is completed in Amazon Studios, Liverpool

OCTOBER 14 1985 “The Whole Of The Moon” is released as a single, reaching no. 26, the Waterboys’ biggest hit to date. It is rumoured Scott refuses to play Top Of The Pops.

MARCH 1991 Reissued ahead of a Waterboys Best Of…, the song finally hits the Top 3.

Neutral Milk Hotel planning world tour

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Neutral Milk Hotel planning world tour
Neutral Milk Hotel are reportedly planning a world tour for 2014. The group, who have reunited after 15 years apart, recently announced a handful of US dates, as well as one each in Taiwan and Tokyo – but their booking agent has now stated that they will be playing further afield in the future....

Neutral Milk Hotel are reportedly planning a world tour for 2014.

The group, who have reunited after 15 years apart, recently announced a handful of US dates, as well as one each in Taiwan and Tokyo – but their booking agent has now stated that they will be playing further afield in the future.

Jim Romeo from Ground Control Touring told Pollstar: “Everyone is very excited which is great. People should know that they shouldn’t get discouraged if they don’t get tickets to these few shows, there will be some more fall shows announced soon and a much longer and fuller tour planned for 2014 that will span the globe.”

The reunited band features the group’s ‘classic lineup’ of Jeff Mangum, Scott Spillane, Julian Koster and Jeremy Barnes. Neutral Milk Hotel last released a new record in 1998, the acclaimed In The Aeroplane Over The Sea.

Aside from a 2001 live album and a 2002 album of Bulgarian music, the band have been keeping a low profile – although singer Jeff Mangum played a string of solo dates in 2010 and curated ATP at Butlins in Minehead in March last year (2012).

Watch Band Of Horses cover Jason Molina’s ‘I’ve Been Riding With The Ghost’

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Watch Band Of Horses cover Jason Molina’s ‘I’ve Been Riding With The Ghost’
Band Of Horses have covered Jason Molina's 'I've Been Riding With The Ghost' on Jimmy Kimmel's US talk show – you can watch it below. Ben Bridwell's band took to Jimmy Kimmel Live! to perform the song, originally released on Songs: Ohia's 2003 album Magnolia Electric Co, in tribute to the late si...

Band Of Horses have covered Jason Molina‘s ‘I’ve Been Riding With The Ghost’ on Jimmy Kimmel’s US talk show – you can watch it below.

Ben Bridwell’s band took to Jimmy Kimmel Live! to perform the song, originally released on Songs: Ohia’s 2003 album Magnolia Electric Co, in tribute to the late singer-songwriter, who died on March 16, 2013, aged 39.

The group also performed their own 2007 song, ‘The General Specific’, on the show.

Band Of Horses’ most recent album, Mirage Rock, was released in September 2012.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSLkQAEwlDY

Lou Barlow: “Thee Oh Sees set my brain on fire…”

John Mulvey
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Lou Barlow: “Thee Oh Sees set my brain on fire…”

Since Thee Oh Sees start their UK tour tonight in Liverpool (then Leeds on the 7th, Cardiff (8), London (9), and Camber Sands ATP at some point between the 10th and the 12th), today seems a good time to post this excellent piece about the band by Lou Barlow. We asked the Sebadoh/Dinosaur Jr guy to supply a quote about his “favourite band†for something we’re running in the next issue of Uncut. He responded with this flaming stream-of-consciousness rant that, apart from anything else, captures quite a lot of Thee Oh Sees’ tearaway momentum. I think it’s fair to say he likes them… “Thee Oh Sees set my brain on fire... My music nerd brain tries to summon the name of every band they remind me of… The 13th Floor Elevators, Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, Stereolab, “Confusion Is Sexâ€-era Sonic Youth on and on... They manage to encompass every subset of punk, new wave , post-punk, ‘60s garage rock, psychedelic etc... Even now my mind is spitting up fragments, obscure compilation titles, names dates... None of which I can properly order or describe in a way that seems worthy... “When I finally saw them live a couple of weeks ago at Coachella I wanted nothing more than to dance, my arms flailing, my feet sliding beneath me in some spastic imitation of tap-dancing… They turned an enormous tent in the blazing California sun into a musty basement, me into a 21-year-old drunk on cheap beer watching a band blow my mind, making me think that music does make life perfect for fleeting moments... But knowing I'd make a spectacle of myself stage-side and possibly be removed, I just wagged my head fiercely... I envied the kids in the audience sweating and squirming as Thee Oh Sees launched into rave-up after rave-up… “In fact Thee Oh Sees revive the 'rave-up' (the long-lost ‘60s tradition of a band properly losing control in the middle of a song) (see “Last Time Around†by The Del Vetts, “Psychotic Reaction†by The Count 5, Yardbirds etc)... To me, they have it all… Hypnotic, experimental, melodic, atonal, primitive, sophisticated, pure celebration without a hint of condescension... Best of all they literally bring their practice space onstage with them… Their vocal PA balanced precariously on their weathered gear… “I love their records but, dear God, do they ever bring the noise live… Yes… Favourite band…†While I'm here, we've just launched a new Features section on www.uncut.co.uk, where we've archived a bunch of our best and most popular pieces from the past 17 years of the mag. Take a look at www.www.uncut.co.uk/features when you have a minute or two. Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey

Since Thee Oh Sees start their UK tour tonight in Liverpool (then Leeds on the 7th, Cardiff (8), London (9), and Camber Sands ATP at some point between the 10th and the 12th), today seems a good time to post this excellent piece about the band by Lou Barlow.

We asked the Sebadoh/Dinosaur Jr guy to supply a quote about his “favourite band†for something we’re running in the next issue of Uncut. He responded with this flaming stream-of-consciousness rant that, apart from anything else, captures quite a lot of Thee Oh Sees’ tearaway momentum. I think it’s fair to say he likes them…

“Thee Oh Sees set my brain on fire… My music nerd brain tries to summon the name of every band they remind me of… The 13th Floor Elevators, Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, Stereolab, “Confusion Is Sexâ€-era Sonic Youth on and on… They manage to encompass every subset of punk, new wave , post-punk, ‘60s garage rock, psychedelic etc… Even now my mind is spitting up fragments, obscure compilation titles, names dates… None of which I can properly order or describe in a way that seems worthy…

“When I finally saw them live a couple of weeks ago at Coachella I wanted nothing more than to dance, my arms flailing, my feet sliding beneath me in some spastic imitation of tap-dancing… They turned an enormous tent in the blazing California sun into a musty basement, me into a 21-year-old drunk on cheap beer watching a band blow my mind, making me think that music does make life perfect for fleeting moments… But knowing I’d make a spectacle of myself stage-side and possibly be removed, I just wagged my head fiercely… I envied the kids in the audience sweating and squirming as Thee Oh Sees launched into rave-up after rave-up…

“In fact Thee Oh Sees revive the ‘rave-up’ (the long-lost ‘60s tradition of a band properly losing control in the middle of a song) (see “Last Time Around†by The Del Vetts, “Psychotic Reaction†by The Count 5, Yardbirds etc)… To me, they have it all… Hypnotic, experimental, melodic, atonal, primitive, sophisticated, pure celebration without a hint of condescension… Best of all they literally bring their practice space onstage with them… Their vocal PA balanced precariously on their weathered gear…

“I love their records but, dear God, do they ever bring the noise live… Yes… Favourite band…â€

While I’m here, we’ve just launched a new Features section on www.uncut.co.uk, where we’ve archived a bunch of our best and most popular pieces from the past 17 years of the mag. Take a look at www.www.uncut.co.uk/features when you have a minute or two.

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

Man impersonating Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour racks up $100,000 medical bill

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Man impersonating Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour racks up $100,000 medical bill

A man has been accused of impersonating Pink Floyd's David Gilmour in order to get out of paying around $100,000 of medical bills. Phillip Michael Schaeffer entered St Cloud Hospital in Minnesota on April 20, claiming he was the guitarist and singer, and that he didn't have medical insurance. He claimed Pink Floyd were on tour in Canada at the time. The St Cloud Times reports that Schaeffer even signed an autograph as Gilmour for an unsuspecting fan while in the hospital, although suspicions were later raised by staff, resulting in Schaeffer's arrest when he returned for further treatment. St Cloud Hospital spokesperson Jeanine Nistler said: "There was some discussion among security staff leading people to believe that he really wasn’t David Gilmour… So our security supervisor pulled up the security camera shots of when this man entered the hospital and compared them to pictures on the internet of Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and determined he was not David Gilmour.†Schaeffer has now been released from jail while police gather evidence.

A man has been accused of impersonating Pink Floyd‘s David Gilmour in order to get out of paying around $100,000 of medical bills.

Phillip Michael Schaeffer entered St Cloud Hospital in Minnesota on April 20, claiming he was the guitarist and singer, and that he didn’t have medical insurance. He claimed Pink Floyd were on tour in Canada at the time.

The St Cloud Times reports that Schaeffer even signed an autograph as Gilmour for an unsuspecting fan while in the hospital, although suspicions were later raised by staff, resulting in Schaeffer’s arrest when he returned for further treatment.

St Cloud Hospital spokesperson Jeanine Nistler said: “There was some discussion among security staff leading people to believe that he really wasn’t David Gilmour… So our security supervisor pulled up the security camera shots of when this man entered the hospital and compared them to pictures on the internet of Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and determined he was not David Gilmour.â€

Schaeffer has now been released from jail while police gather evidence.

Kurt Vile – Wakin On A Pretty Daze

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Kurt Vile – Wakin On A Pretty Daze

Slackest man in Philadelphia reformats psych-rock for widescreen viewing... Kurt Vile is a man who routinely elevates idleness to an artform. His songs often seem to reuse different combinations of the same minor chords, while a favourite phrase of his is “I don’t care…†He is an associate of and collaborator with Thurston Moore, Jennifer Herrema and J Mascis, very much the holy trinity of 1990s slacker rock. On the cover of his “So Outta Reach†EP of 2011, he is asleep. Duly, “Wakin On A Pretty Dayâ€, the first song on his excellent new album is a nine-minute countrified strum that unfolds at an unhurried pace. This fine morning, Kurt Vile apparently has no more ambition than keeping his head down: “Laying lowâ€, as he puts it. “Lackadaisically so…†To look at 33-year-old Vile, taking in his long hair, noting his benign grin, you might simply think, ‘Well, that figures.’ He seems slightly out of time, as if he can’t quite deal with the constant updates of his own generation, evidently finding more in common with hardy musical adventurers like Neil Young (the guitar solos; the passionate, personal songwriting) and John Fahey (the labyrinthine acoustic picking). As Wakin On A Pretty Daze makes pretty clear, however – appearances can be deceptive. When you see him doing nothing, this is when Kurt Vile is likely to be most active, making the leap from unconnected thoughts to songs. You might hear his mellow, loafing music and imagine he’s not bothered about his career – but he’s productive (this is his 10th release since 2008, not counting his work with fellow Philadelphians War On Drugs) and quietly ambitious. You might see him playing a great show on tour – but he would most likely prefer to be at home, with his young family. Given its off-the-cuff feel, you might even think that this music comes easily to him. But here Kurt and his band the Violators have painstakingly created a warm and epic soundworld. Special guest Farmer Dave Scher from Beachwood Sparks brings the spacy, Pink Floyd-like vibes on pedal steel. Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa keeps some often challenging time. There are cosmic synthesiser hummings. Vile himself plays clanking fingerstyle guitar and tearing electric lead. The more you listen, in fact, the more you appreciate the taste and attention to detail that has gone into it all. You could put it on a T-shirt: It Takes Years Of Practice To Look This Casual. True enough, Wakin On A Pretty Daze does sound like the title of a 1994 Ben Stiller stoner comedy, but its ostensible subject is Vile’s work ethic. For one thing, it substantially enriches the mode (loosely: free-roaming acoustic folk grunge) that he patented on Childish Prodigy (2009) and Smoke Ring For My Halo (2011), and rides it through more ambitious landscapes. On a personal level, the songs often address the demands that are made on Vile’s time as a busy working musician – and what the cost. To that end, on Wakin we hear a development of the sleepy, homesick mood Vile first conjured with “On Tour†from Smoke Ring. Here, “Shame Chamber†(First line: “Everyone saying I should probably give up…â€) and “Snowflakes Are Dancing†(an upbeat account of listening to the titular Tomita album on a plane) all tangentially, and wittily deal with the touring life. It is “Pure Painâ€, however, that gets to the heart of the matter here. An open-tuned acoustic guitar riff lifts the curtain on a domestic scene. If not exactly an argument, then this is at least a robust dialogue about the touring life: “I want to be with you (When can I?)/I don’t know, well I’m workin, babe…†The song then proceeds to a mesmerising, folky section, all layered mandolins, pedal steel and acoustic guitar that provides a poignant change in mood. “All the roads I travel down,†Vile sings, plaintively, “bring me back to my baby…†All round, the song uncovers emotional cost at the heart of fulfilling an ambition like being a musician. Don’t think that he’s moaning, however. “Was All Talkâ€, a drum machine-powered song with multi-layered acoustic guitars, very Johnny Marr plays Krautrock, sounds conceptually like a cousin of “Puppet To The Man†from Smoke Ring, in which Vile offered a rebuttal to Philly scenesters who might accuse him of selling out. Here, Vile is similarly full of vim. There was once, he sings, “a time in my life when they thought I was all talk.†That time, though, has passed. “Making music is easy,†he half jokes. “Watch me!†Amid strong contenders, though, it is probably “Too Hard†(a folky fingerpicked number on which Jennifer Herrema supplies croaky backing vocals) which is probably the album’s best and most moving song, in which Vile reflects on trying not to party too hard, and on how, since he now has the right motivation to meet his responsibilities, avoiding temptation isn’t too hard either. It’s a maturely arranged song about rising to adult challenges, growing up, and ultimately doing the right thing. It’s a case of strong words being softly spoken, and it’s extremely impressive. “There comes a time in every man’s life,†Vile intones sombrely, “when he’s gotta hold tight to the heart of the matter at hand…†One of the most appealing things about Vile’s LPs is their offhand manner: the songs can often sound incredibly casual, their gnomic words and cycles of minor chords making them feel as if you were intruding on the creative process, hearing them being composed in real time. Wakin is no less joyful or spontaneous, but it marks a development in musical gravity to match the personal one, a commitment to leaving something of value; chasing down something with the single-mindedness of your heroes. Final track “Goldtone†describes the search. A companion piece to the title track, it’s a minutely organised piece, sounding a bit like Tortoise in its nods to jazz and minimalism. Again it invites us to join Kurt Vile inside his head, where he’s transforming his feelings into songs. “When I’m in my zone, you might think I’m stoned,†he declares, winningly. “But I never as they say/Touch the stuff…†It’s a tough, late-night, soul-searching kind of process that Kurt Vile has signed up for here. It’s a testament to his talent that he takes it so seriously, but makes it all sound effortless. John Robinson

Slackest man in Philadelphia reformats psych-rock for widescreen viewing…

Kurt Vile is a man who routinely elevates idleness to an artform. His songs often seem to reuse different combinations of the same minor chords, while a favourite phrase of his is “I don’t care…†He is an associate of and collaborator with Thurston Moore, Jennifer Herrema and J Mascis, very much the holy trinity of 1990s slacker rock. On the cover of his “So Outta Reach†EP of 2011, he is asleep. Duly, “Wakin On A Pretty Dayâ€, the first song on his excellent new album is a nine-minute countrified strum that unfolds at an unhurried pace. This fine morning, Kurt Vile apparently has no more ambition than keeping his head down: “Laying lowâ€, as he puts it. “Lackadaisically so…â€

To look at 33-year-old Vile, taking in his long hair, noting his benign grin, you might simply think, ‘Well, that figures.’ He seems slightly out of time, as if he can’t quite deal with the constant updates of his own generation, evidently finding more in common with hardy musical adventurers like Neil Young (the guitar solos; the passionate, personal songwriting) and John Fahey (the labyrinthine acoustic picking).

As Wakin On A Pretty Daze makes pretty clear, however – appearances can be deceptive. When you see him doing nothing, this is when Kurt Vile is likely to be most active, making the leap from unconnected thoughts to songs. You might hear his mellow, loafing music and imagine he’s not bothered about his career – but he’s productive (this is his 10th release since 2008, not counting his work with fellow Philadelphians War On Drugs) and quietly ambitious. You might see him playing a great show on tour – but he would most likely prefer to be at home, with his young family.

Given its off-the-cuff feel, you might even think that this music comes easily to him. But here Kurt and his band the Violators have painstakingly created a warm and epic soundworld. Special guest Farmer Dave Scher from Beachwood Sparks brings the spacy, Pink Floyd-like vibes on pedal steel. Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa keeps some often challenging time. There are cosmic synthesiser hummings. Vile himself plays clanking fingerstyle guitar and tearing electric lead. The more you listen, in fact, the more you appreciate the taste and attention to detail that has gone into it all. You could put it on a T-shirt: It Takes Years Of Practice To Look This Casual.

True enough, Wakin On A Pretty Daze does sound like the title of a 1994 Ben Stiller stoner comedy, but its ostensible subject is Vile’s work ethic. For one thing, it substantially enriches the mode (loosely: free-roaming acoustic folk grunge) that he patented on Childish Prodigy (2009) and Smoke Ring For My Halo (2011), and rides it through more ambitious landscapes.

On a personal level, the songs often address the demands that are made on Vile’s time as a busy working musician – and what the cost. To that end, on Wakin we hear a development of the sleepy, homesick mood Vile first conjured with “On Tour†from Smoke Ring. Here, “Shame Chamber†(First line: “Everyone saying I should probably give up…â€) and “Snowflakes Are Dancing†(an upbeat account of listening to the titular Tomita album on a plane) all tangentially, and wittily deal with the touring life.

It is “Pure Painâ€, however, that gets to the heart of the matter here. An open-tuned acoustic guitar riff lifts the curtain on a domestic scene. If not exactly an argument, then this is at least a robust dialogue about the touring life: “I want to be with you (When can I?)/I don’t know, well I’m workin, babe…†The song then proceeds to a mesmerising, folky section, all layered mandolins, pedal steel and acoustic guitar that provides a poignant change in mood. “All the roads I travel down,†Vile sings, plaintively, “bring me back to my baby…†All round, the song uncovers emotional cost at the heart of fulfilling an ambition like being a musician.

Don’t think that he’s moaning, however. “Was All Talkâ€, a drum machine-powered song with multi-layered acoustic guitars, very Johnny Marr plays Krautrock, sounds conceptually like a cousin of “Puppet To The Man†from Smoke Ring, in which Vile offered a rebuttal to Philly scenesters who might accuse him of selling out. Here, Vile is similarly full of vim. There was once, he sings, “a time in my life when they thought I was all talk.†That time, though, has passed. “Making music is easy,†he half jokes. “Watch me!â€

Amid strong contenders, though, it is probably “Too Hard†(a folky fingerpicked number on which Jennifer Herrema supplies croaky backing vocals) which is probably the album’s best and most moving song, in which Vile reflects on trying not to party too hard, and on how, since he now has the right motivation to meet his responsibilities, avoiding temptation isn’t too hard either. It’s a maturely arranged song about rising to adult challenges, growing up, and ultimately doing the right thing. It’s a case of strong words being softly spoken, and it’s extremely impressive. “There comes a time in every man’s life,†Vile intones sombrely, “when he’s gotta hold tight to the heart of the matter at hand…â€

One of the most appealing things about Vile’s LPs is their offhand manner: the songs can often sound incredibly casual, their gnomic words and cycles of minor chords making them feel as if you were intruding on the creative process, hearing them being composed in real time. Wakin is no less joyful or spontaneous, but it marks a development in musical gravity to match the personal one, a commitment to leaving something of value; chasing down something with the single-mindedness of your heroes.

Final track “Goldtone†describes the search. A companion piece to the title track, it’s a minutely organised piece, sounding a bit like Tortoise in its nods to jazz and minimalism. Again it invites us to join Kurt Vile inside his head, where he’s transforming his feelings into songs. “When I’m in my zone, you might think I’m stoned,†he declares, winningly. “But I never as they say/Touch the stuff…†It’s a tough, late-night, soul-searching kind of process that Kurt Vile has signed up for here. It’s a testament to his talent that he takes it so seriously, but makes it all sound effortless.

John Robinson

Shuggie Otis – Inspiration Information/Wings Of Love

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Shuggie Otis – Inspiration Information/Wings Of Love

The lost prog-soul classic rereleased, with three decades of newly unearthed demos... The Shuggie Otis story is one of the saddest and most mysterious in rock ’n’ roll history. The son of iconic R&B bandleader Johnny Otis, Shuggie made his stage debut at the age of 12, and grew up on the so-called “chitlin circuitâ€, proving himself an exceptional blues guitarist. He guested with R ‘n’ B royalty (Ray Charles, Jimmy Smith, Etta James) while in his early teens, and recorded two solo albums before the age of 18. He guested with Frank Zappa and Al Kooper but turned down chances to join the Rolling Stones, Buddy Miles, Blood Sweat & Tears or David Bowie, refusing to be a sideman for anyone else. In 1974, at the grand old age of 21, he released his masterpiece, Inspiration Information, on which he multi-tasked on guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, electronics and heavenly vocals, also writing arrangements for strings, woodwind and harp. The album flopped. Record companies wouldn’t touch him and so he spent the next three decades battling drink and drug addiction, occasionally guesting in his dad’s showband and playing the odd blues gig around California. In 2001, David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label reissued his great lost masterpiece, introducing him to a new generation of hipsters. Shuggie even did a few live shows and TV appearances to promote it, but he had clearly not recovered from his addiction problems and the shows didn’t go well. But still the legend grew. Over the next decade, the likes of J Dilla, OutKast, Mos Def, Black Eyed Peas, Digable Planets and Beyonce go on to sample his liquid grooves and the world finally started to catch up with Shuggie’s music, much of which sounds almost suspiciously contemporary. People who weren’t even born when Inspiration Information was released thrill to its elastic funk workouts (the title track, “Sparkle Cityâ€), its delicious slow jams (“Pling!â€, “Aht Uh Mi Hedâ€), wiggy synth freak outs (“XL-30â€) and premonitions of punk-funk (“Not Availableâ€). Now the album is getting its third release – this time complete with a wealth of tracks that Shuggie has recorded, in splendid isolation, over the past four decades. Some sniffier critics have suggested that the hallowed status that’s been retrospectively awarded to Inspiration Information is solely down to its cultish rarity, claiming that there’s nothing genuinely “innovative†about it. There is some truth in the latter claim. By 1974, Marvin Gaye and the Temptations had pioneered symphonic soul, Stevie Wonder had turned the analogue synth into a lethal weapon for the agile funk warrior, Sly Stone had made the frictionless clank of a drumbox really groove, while Herbie Hancock had co-opted hard bop into the computer science department. What’s remarkable about the 21-year-old Shuggie is that he’s being Marvin, Stevie, Sly and Herbie *all at once* – often within the same song. On “Island Letter†he sings of lost summer love in his smoothest Marvin croon, over a dreamy tangle of Stevie chords. In the background the same drumbox that Sly used on “Family Affair†splutters gently; a wah wah guitar throbs; and an elegantly arranged string section starts to soar. Then, after nearly four minutes, Shuggie decides that he’s not content with making one of the most perfect slices of digital soul – he decides he’s going to sabotage it by cramming in two concurrent modal jazz solos – one on a Fender Rhodes, another on a Hammond organ – and suddenly the song spins out into avant garde Alice Coltrane territory. There is nothing sonically conservative about this album – this is a collision of prog-soul, astral jazz and electronic funk that will forever sound futuristic. The 17 “new†tracks – four of them tagged onto the CD of Inspiration Information, 13 on CD2, Wings Of Love (it’s not clear if there’s a distinction) – often have a slightly lo-fi, demo-ish quality, but they show that Shuggie’s space-age take on black music did not stagnate in 1974. Tracks such as “Destination You†and “Trying To Get Close To You†continue the motoric funk of Inspiration Information, but other tracks see him surfing subsequent currents in R&B. The magnificent “Specialâ€, recorded in 1980, inhabits the same space as Talking Heads’ Remain In Light, taking a pulsating Africanised disco beat, a bubbling wah-wah guitar and a lopsided bassline through the dub chamber. From 1977, “Walkin’ Down The Country†is another curious hybrid, a world where the Carpenters are backed by The Sound Of Philadelphia string section and placed in a warm bath of heavenly harmonies. Also from 1977, “Things We Like To Do†sounds like an android hybrid of Steely Dan and Earth Wind & Fire, while “Don’t You Run Away†invents 80s disco. Shuggie still has his eye on the ball in the late 1980s, with “Give Me A Chance†and “Fawn†sounding like Alexander O’Neal floor-fillers. Weirdest of all is 1990’s “Wings Of Loveâ€, a 12-minute epic that starts like a Lionel Richie power ballad, mutates into a Fleetwood Mac groove and goes into Sanatana-meets-John McLaughlin guitar meltdown. Looping back to the start of the story is “Black Belt Sheriffâ€, a 6/8 shuffle written in 1978 but recorded at a 2001 concert. Playing a 12-string acoustic in an open tuning, Shuggie slices through the kind of chords that Joni Mitchell might play, but does so with a Hendrix swagger. As he switches between funky rhythm playing and bottleneck blues solos, we can hear him reconnecting with the deepest, darkest recesses of the blues. When Shuggie’s father – the great R ‘n’ B bandleader Johnny Otis – died last year, obituarists observed that he was one of the first white musicians who chose to live “black by persuasionâ€. The Greek-American Nick Veliotis anglicised his name, married an African-American woman, passed off as a “light-skinned negro†and became a walking inventory of black R ‘n’ B Shuggie, born in 1953, has not only absorbed his father’s understanding of soul, gospel, blues, jazz and funk, but Wings Of Love shows him doing the same with mutant disco, salsoul, contemporary R ‘n’ B and quiet storm soul. The tragic story has an inspirational ending. EXTRAS: Four extra tracks on Inspiration Information, from 1971-77, and 13 tracks recorded between 1975 and 2000 on Wings Of Love John Lewis

The lost prog-soul classic rereleased, with three decades of newly unearthed demos…

The Shuggie Otis story is one of the saddest and most mysterious in rock ’n’ roll history. The son of iconic R&B bandleader Johnny Otis, Shuggie made his stage debut at the age of 12, and grew up on the so-called “chitlin circuitâ€, proving himself an exceptional blues guitarist. He guested with R ‘n’ B royalty (Ray Charles, Jimmy Smith, Etta James) while in his early teens, and recorded two solo albums before the age of 18.

He guested with Frank Zappa and Al Kooper but turned down chances to join the Rolling Stones, Buddy Miles, Blood Sweat & Tears or David Bowie, refusing to be a sideman for anyone else. In 1974, at the grand old age of 21, he released his masterpiece, Inspiration Information, on which he multi-tasked on guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, electronics and heavenly vocals, also writing arrangements for strings, woodwind and harp. The album flopped. Record companies wouldn’t touch him and so he spent the next three decades battling drink and drug addiction, occasionally guesting in his dad’s showband and playing the odd blues gig around California.

In 2001, David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label reissued his great lost masterpiece, introducing him to a new generation of hipsters. Shuggie even did a few live shows and TV appearances to promote it, but he had clearly not recovered from his addiction problems and the shows didn’t go well. But still the legend grew. Over the next decade, the likes of J Dilla, OutKast, Mos Def, Black Eyed Peas, Digable Planets and Beyonce go on to sample his liquid grooves and the world finally started to catch up with Shuggie’s music, much of which sounds almost suspiciously contemporary. People who weren’t even born when Inspiration Information was released thrill to its elastic funk workouts (the title track, “Sparkle Cityâ€), its delicious slow jams (“Pling!â€, “Aht Uh Mi Hedâ€), wiggy synth freak outs (“XL-30â€) and premonitions of punk-funk (“Not Availableâ€). Now the album is getting its third release – this time complete with a wealth of tracks that Shuggie has recorded, in splendid isolation, over the past four decades.

Some sniffier critics have suggested that the hallowed status that’s been retrospectively awarded to Inspiration Information is solely down to its cultish rarity, claiming that there’s nothing genuinely “innovative†about it. There is some truth in the latter claim. By 1974, Marvin Gaye and the Temptations had pioneered symphonic soul, Stevie Wonder had turned the analogue synth into a lethal weapon for the agile funk warrior, Sly Stone had made the frictionless clank of a drumbox really groove, while Herbie Hancock had co-opted hard bop into the computer science department. What’s remarkable about the 21-year-old Shuggie is that he’s being Marvin, Stevie, Sly and Herbie *all at once* – often within the same song.

On “Island Letter†he sings of lost summer love in his smoothest Marvin croon, over a dreamy tangle of Stevie chords. In the background the same drumbox that Sly used on “Family Affair†splutters gently; a wah wah guitar throbs; and an elegantly arranged string section starts to soar. Then, after nearly four minutes, Shuggie decides that he’s not content with making one of the most perfect slices of digital soul – he decides he’s going to sabotage it by cramming in two concurrent modal jazz solos – one on a Fender Rhodes, another on a Hammond organ – and suddenly the song spins out into avant garde Alice Coltrane territory. There is nothing sonically conservative about this album – this is a collision of prog-soul, astral jazz and electronic funk that will forever sound futuristic.

The 17 “new†tracks – four of them tagged onto the CD of Inspiration Information, 13 on CD2, Wings Of Love (it’s not clear if there’s a distinction) – often have a slightly lo-fi, demo-ish quality, but they show that Shuggie’s space-age take on black music did not stagnate in 1974. Tracks such as “Destination You†and “Trying To Get Close To You†continue the motoric funk of Inspiration Information, but other tracks see him surfing subsequent currents in R&B. The magnificent “Specialâ€, recorded in 1980, inhabits the same space as Talking Heads’ Remain In Light, taking a pulsating Africanised disco beat, a bubbling wah-wah guitar and a lopsided bassline through the dub chamber. From 1977, “Walkin’ Down The Country†is another curious hybrid, a world where the Carpenters are backed by The Sound Of Philadelphia string section and placed in a warm bath of heavenly harmonies. Also from 1977, “Things We Like To Do†sounds like an android hybrid of Steely Dan and Earth Wind & Fire, while “Don’t You Run Away†invents 80s disco. Shuggie still has his eye on the ball in the late 1980s, with “Give Me A Chance†and “Fawn†sounding like Alexander O’Neal floor-fillers. Weirdest of all is 1990’s “Wings Of Loveâ€, a 12-minute epic that starts like a Lionel Richie power ballad, mutates into a Fleetwood Mac groove and goes into Sanatana-meets-John McLaughlin guitar meltdown.

Looping back to the start of the story is “Black Belt Sheriffâ€, a 6/8 shuffle written in 1978 but recorded at a 2001 concert. Playing a 12-string acoustic in an open tuning, Shuggie slices through the kind of chords that Joni Mitchell might play, but does so with a Hendrix swagger. As he switches between funky rhythm playing and bottleneck blues solos, we can hear him reconnecting with the deepest, darkest recesses of the blues.

When Shuggie’s father – the great R ‘n’ B bandleader Johnny Otis – died last year, obituarists observed that he was one of the first white musicians who chose to live “black by persuasionâ€. The Greek-American Nick Veliotis anglicised his name, married an African-American woman, passed off as a “light-skinned negro†and became a walking inventory of black R ‘n’ B Shuggie, born in 1953, has not only absorbed his father’s understanding of soul, gospel, blues, jazz and funk, but Wings Of Love shows him doing the same with mutant disco, salsoul, contemporary R ‘n’ B and quiet storm soul. The tragic story has an inspirational ending.

EXTRAS: Four extra tracks on Inspiration Information, from 1971-77, and 13 tracks recorded between 1975 and 2000 on Wings Of Love

John Lewis

Beck reveals details of acoustic album; plus Dylan live date

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Beck reveals details of acoustic album; plus Dylan live date
Beck has announced plans for a new acoustic album, which he will be unveiling at a string of shows spread across the summer. The dates - which include one show as part of the Bob Dylan/Wilco/My Morning Jacket AmericanaramA festival - will see Beck road test material from the forthcoming record. â€...

Beck has announced plans for a new acoustic album, which he will be unveiling at a string of shows spread across the summer.

The dates – which include one show as part of the Bob Dylan/Wilco/My Morning Jacket AmericanaramA festival – will see Beck road test material from the forthcoming record.

“These very special performances will feature never before heard material from an upcoming acoustic record,†he said. “The record can best be described as a self-contained work, one that came in the form of a burst of inspiration following the completion of last year’s groundbreaking Song Reader sheet music album.â€

A release date for the acoustic album has yet to be confirmed.

Beck’s American tour dates are:

May 19 Santa Cruz, California | Rio Theatre

May 20 San Francisco, California | Davies Symphony Hall (Song Reader event)

July 02 Paris, France | Days Off Festival

July 27 Wantagh, New York | Americanarama Festival

July 28 Newport, Rhode Island | Newport Folk Festival

July 30 Portland, Maine | State Theatre

August 02 Boston, Massachusetts | Bank of America Pavilion

August 04 Brooklyn, New York | Prospect Park Bandshell

Boards Of Canada interviewed: “We’re too busy to give a shit!”

John Mulvey
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Boards Of Canada interviewed: “We’re too busy to give a shit!”
Been meaning to post this piece for a while, since the whole clandestine operation around the new Boards Of Canada album, “Tomorrow’s Harvestâ€, began. It’s an interview I did with the duo in February 2002, around the release of “Geogaddiâ€. NME billed it erroneously as “Boards Of Canada...

Been meaning to post this piece for a while, since the whole clandestine operation around the new Boards Of Canada album, “Tomorrow’s Harvestâ€, began. It’s an interview I did with the duo in February 2002, around the release of “Geogaddiâ€. NME billed it erroneously as “Boards Of Canada’s first ever interview†at the time, which was pushing it a bit…

From the Pentland Hills, just south of Edinburgh, it’s possible to examine the world at a different angle. Nature becomes reduced to a pattern of hexagons. Melodies sound better in reverse. Bonfires make for better nights out than clubs. And the colour of the universe is, unequivocally, turquoise.

This is where Boards Of Canada, Britain’s most exceptional and reclusive electronica group, see things from. Or, at least, how they may see things. In comparison, the Aphex Twin is an open book, as straightforward in art and life as Fran Healy. A trawl of the internet for facts about the Boards duo of Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin turns up a proliferation of witchy rumours but precious few hard facts. They record in a disused nuclear bunker, it’s suggested. They belong to some defiantly obscure art-collective-cum-cult named Turquoise Hexagon Sun. They fill their music with backwards messages, alternately sinister and playful, that range from invocations to a “horned god” (one old side project was named Hell Interface) to samples of ELO’s Jeff Lynne.

In the Boards of Canada section of the Warp Records website, alongside cover images and a few scant details about release dates, is a link to a Guardian news story which offers conclusive proof the average colour of the universe is “A greenish hue halfway between aquamarine and turquoise” when all visible light is mixed together.

All very intriguing, of course. But when BOC have made one of the most anxiously anticipated albums in years, hardly satisfying. To date, Sandison and Eoin have made a tremendous amount of music, most of which has neither ever been released or else is long unavailable; their 1996 debut EP for the Skam label, “Twoism”, is currently available for a tidy £710 on eBay. For most people, their reputation rests on ‘Music Has The Right To Children’, the 1998 album that mixed spectral, quasi-ambient melodies and dulled hip-hop beats with the constant chatter of infants, hovering tantalisingly beyond comprehension. Deceptively simplistic, there was something about the way the melodies twisted backwards and forwards around each other, about the tangibly creepy atmosphere that pervaded it, that made for an extraordinary debut.

By the time ‘In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country’ an uncommonly beautiful EP, was released at the end of 2000, the band enjoyed a near-holy status among electronica fans – not to mention artists, plenty of whom had diligently adapted BOC’s spooked, rustic kindergarten vibes for themselves. And when the long-promised second album, ‘Geogaddi’, unexpectedly appeared on release schedules a month ago, the grassroots hype became phenomenal.

Knowing that part of the band’s allure is their inaccessibility, Warp embarked on a campaign to make hearing ‘Geogaddi’ as difficult as possible. Virtually no new music made it onto the internet: download apparently new tracks from Audiogalaxy and you’re as likely to discover an ambient fake, four minutes of looped speech samples or an old Brian Eno tune. The track titles, meanwhile, could only be located on HMV’s Japanese site. Eventually, ‘Geogaddi’ was premiered in six churches around the world – in London, New York, Edinburgh, Tokyo, Berlin and Paris. Slides of children playing, of sunsets where the sky is bent into a hexagon, were projected above the altars. Small turquoise hexagons took the place of hymn books.

And then there was the album: 66 minutes and six seconds of music that is both soothing and disorienting, lushly beautiful yet creaky and unnerving. One track, ‘Opening The Mouth’, sounds like a heavy-breathing call from a banshee. Another, the truly horrible ‘The Devil Is In The Details’, alternates between the instructions on a relaxation tape and a desperately crying child. There are ghostly organs and distant tablas, warnings of volcanic explosions, an ecstatic vocal about “1969 in the sunshine” and an overall feeling that this heady, saturated music is how My Bloody Valentine might’ve sounded had they released anything after 1991’s ‘Loveless’. Honestly, it’s that good.

“We take that as a real compliment,” accepts Sandison. “We love the sound of music that seems to be barely under control. We love music that’s out of tune in a beautiful way, or dissonant, or damaged. We tried to make the record work as a giddy, swirling soundtrack. It’s okay to be imperfect – in fact the imperfections are where the magic is. To us, perfect music sounds sterile and dead. The tunes we write are imperfect, the sounds are imperfect, even the artwork. I can’t listen to perfect music, it bores me. We actually put a lot of effort into making things rough and difficult and noisy, even more so on this than on the last album. I think most bands get more polished and over-produced as they go along. But one of the ideas with ‘Geogaddi’ was to go the opposite way, to get it to sound as though it was recorded before the last one.”

Early February 2002, and boards Of Canada have consented to a rare interview with NME, on the understanding it runs after the album’s release. To preserve their privacy, it’s to be conducted by email, but the resulting answers still shed a little light on the world of Sandison and Eoin, without ever completely dismantling their mystique.

To begin, their name derives from the National Film Board Of Canada, whose nature documentaries enraptured the Scottish-born pair when they spent some time living in Calgary as children. “My parents worked in the construction industry out there,” writes Sandison. “My memory of Calgary is a picture of boxy 1970s office blocks dumped in the middle of nowhere against a permanent sunset.”

They started making tapes around 1982 or ’83, when they were still children. At their Hexagon Sun studio, there’s an archive of 20 years of music. “We’re a bit anal about this,” admits Eoin, “and I guess one year we might hunt through it all and release some of it. Though we’ve actually already got the next album half-finished, which will surprise some people to hear. There’s a lot of music.” Though the paucity of their released might suggest otherwise, Sandison and Eoin are anything but lazy. “A typical day for us,” writes Eoin, “is something like 15 hours thumping the shit out of drums and synthesizers and samplers, with frequent breaks for coffee or a beer.” Expectations and pressures from the outside world hardly make an impact, either.

“We’re too busy to give a shit,” reckons Sandison. “Either working in our studio or being out in the fresh air with our friends somewhere. We put pressure on ourselves more than anything. Marcus and myself are pretty ruthless to one another, musically. That’s the toughest criticism we get, which is another reason the album took a long time.”

Why is it so much better to live in the country rather than the city?

Mike: “I don’t think it’s easy to be truly independent as an artist at the same time as being part of an urban community. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it just doesn’t suit us. Besides, when I’m faced with the choice of hanging out with my friends round a bonfire where we live, or being squashed in a London tube with some suit’s elbow in my face, it’s an easy choice to make.”

What’s the significance of hexagons to you?

Marcus: “The hexagon theme represents that whole idea of being able to see reality for what it is, the raw maths or patterns that make everything. We’ve always been interested in science and maths. Sometimes music or art or drugs can pull back the curtain for you and reveal the Wizard of Oz, so to speak, busy pushing the levers and pressing buttons. That’s what maths is, the wizard. It sounds like nonsense but I’m sure a lot of people know what I’m talking about.”

The turquoise hexagon sun idea, the ring of people on the ‘Geogaddi’ cover, and that slightly eerie bucolic feel there is in a lot of your music, suggests something cultish, vaguely pagan.

Mike: “That’s probably just a reflection of the way we live our lives. We are a bit ritualistic, although not religious at all. We’re not really conscious of it in our music but I can see that it is happening. We’re interested in symbols. I don’t know, we never just make a pleasant tune and leave it at that, it would be pointless. So I suppose there is an intention to let the more adult, disturbed, atrocious sides of our imaginations slip into view through the pretty tunes.”

What’s the fascination with children’s voices? Is it to do with a nostalgia for childhood?

Mike: “It’s something that has a peculiar effect in music, it ought not to be there, especially in atonal, synthetic music. It’s completely out of place, and yet in that context that you can really feel the sadness of a child’s voice. Being a kid is such a transitory, fleeting part of your lifespan. If you have siblings, then if you think about it, you’ll have known them as adults for a lot longer than you ever knew them as children. It’s like a little kid lost, gone.” You’ve talked in the past about subliminal messages, hidden ideas, bombs planted in your tunes. What’s the fascination, and what form do these take?

Marcus: “If you’re in a position where you’re making recordings of music that thousands of people are going to listen to repeatedly, it gets you thinking, ‘What can we do with this? We could experiment with this…’ And so we do try to add elements that are more than just the music. Sometimes we just include voices to see if we can trigger ideas, and sometimes we even design tracks musically to follow rules that you just wouldn’t pick up on consciously, but unconsciously, who knows? ‘The Devil Is In The Details’ has a riff that was designed to imitate a specific well-known equation, but in musical terms. Maybe it won’t mean anything to anyone, but it’s interesting just to try it. We do things like this sometimes.”

One thing Boards Of Canada are emphatic about, for all the talk of bonfires and rural retreats, is that they’re not hippies. We ask if they’re a psychedelic band, and Marcus replies: “If you mean psychedelic in a scientific way, then, yeah, that’s probably fair. But if you mean it in a lifestyle way, you know, hippy-large floppy hat, patchouli oil and colourful trousers way, then nothing could be further from who we are.”

Further from what, though? Tempt BOC into the open for a few moments and still, you can only make out the faintest of outlines. And ask them, finally, how important mystery and a lack of information is to their music, and they’ll prove it by sidestepping the question. “We just try to keep ourselves to ourselves,” concludes Marcus Eoin. “The music is what is important.” Of course.

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

Watch Neil Young’s birthday tribute to Willie Nelson

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Watch Neil Young’s birthday tribute to Willie Nelson

Neil Young, Chrissie Hynde and U2 are among the artists who have celebrated Willie Nelson's 80th birthday, which took place yesterday (April 30). Tributes paid by scores of musicians and friends - including Young, Hynde, Bonnie Raitt, John Mellencamp, Norah Jones and Band Of Horses - have been posted on Nelson's website. Neil Young sings "Happy birthday" to Nelson from the balcony of a roadside motel, adding: "80 years, unbelievable. Keep on rocking, man." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHA5wkpY3uQ Hynde has written a piece, in which she says, “Oh Willie - where would we be without you? Always and inspiration...†U2, meanwhile, released a video of them duetting with Nelson. The song, "Slow Dancing", was released on 2003's The Essential Willie Nelson album but the video - directed by Lian Lunsen - has not previously been released. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuqdaBA0gmE The rest of the tributes to Nelson can be found here.

Neil Young, Chrissie Hynde and U2 are among the artists who have celebrated Willie Nelson‘s 80th birthday, which took place yesterday (April 30).

Tributes paid by scores of musicians and friends – including Young, Hynde, Bonnie Raitt, John Mellencamp, Norah Jones and Band Of Horses – have been posted on Nelson’s website.

Neil Young sings “Happy birthday” to Nelson from the balcony of a roadside motel, adding: “80 years, unbelievable. Keep on rocking, man.”

Hynde has written a piece, in which she says, “Oh Willie – where would we be without you? Always and inspiration…â€

U2, meanwhile, released a video of them duetting with Nelson. The song, “Slow Dancing”, was released on 2003’s The Essential Willie Nelson album but the video – directed by Lian Lunsen – has not previously been released.

The rest of the tributes to Nelson can be found here.

The Doors launch new website

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The Doors launch new website
The Doors have launched a new, expanded website. www.thedoors.com contains video clips and new photo galleries, as well as an archive listing all the band’s shows with setlists, gig notes, and in some cases, audio available for download. Users will find detailed info on songs like "Light My Fire"...

The Doors have launched a new, expanded website.

www.thedoors.com contains video clips and new photo galleries, as well as an archive listing all the band’s shows with setlists, gig notes, and in some cases, audio available for download. Users will find detailed info on songs like “Light My Fire”, which showcases the original single artwork as well as videos and lyrics.

Additional website features include an integrated community for fans to meet, discuss and share all Doors memories.

Commenting on the new site, Ray Manzarek said, “What you want to know, it’s here. What you want to see, it’s here. Want to communicate, it’s here. Want to join conversations…here. Want to be an intellectual, join us here on the new site. Want to buy stuff, hell, we got it! This is so well put together, I love it. Hope you do, too.”

Added John Densmore, “Always on the tech cutting edge, I’m proud of the band I’ve been in for many years and proud that our web presence now matches the longevity of the four lads from Venice, California. Each generation gets to view us through the latest cyber-lens that represents their time. Enjoy!”

Fleetwood Mac release their first new material in 10 years

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Fleetwood Mac release their first new material in 10 years
Fleetwood Mac have released their first new material in 10 years. The Extended Play EP is available now on iTunes. It contains four tracks - "Sad Angel," "It Takes Time" and "Miss Fantasy," penned by Lindsey Buckingham, along with "Without You," originally written by Stevie Nicks for Buckingham Ni...

Fleetwood Mac have released their first new material in 10 years.

The Extended Play EP is available now on iTunes.

It contains four tracks – “Sad Angel,” “It Takes Time” and “Miss Fantasy,” penned by Lindsey Buckingham, along with “Without You,” originally written by Stevie Nicks for Buckingham Nicks project.

Buckingham had previously announced that the band would release new material a few weeks ago.

Earlier this year, Mick Fleetwood told Uncut that the band had recorded “eight or nine” new songs.

The Extended Play EP is the band’s first new material since their 2003 studio album Say You Will.

‘Blame it on Jack White…’ Introducing BP Fallon & The Bandits

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‘Blame it on Jack White…’ Introducing BP Fallon & The Bandits

The last time I had occasion to write about my old friend BP Fallon in Uncut was in March, 2010, when he’d just released his debut single, produced by Jack White and released by Jack’s Third Man Records as the first in the label’s new Spoken Word-Instructional record Series. “Fame #9†was backed with “BP Fallon Interview By Jack White†and “I Believe In Elvis Presleyâ€, on which White played some viperish slide guitar, with The Raconteurs’ Patrick Keeler on drums. There was also a video, featuring some of BP’s many friends, including Kevin Shields, Bobby Gillespie and Gemma Hayes. Readers whose memories are still more or less intact may recall me writing about Beep as someone who had loomed large in my life since my very early days on Melody Maker, which I had just joined as a ‘junior reporter’. I first met him in 1974, at a Roy Harper show I was reviewing at Kensington Polytechnic. I recognised him from a photo that had appeared in MM of him interviewing John Lennon and Yoko Ono at the Amsterdam Hilton, where they were holding what I think was their first Bed-In. Lennon was smitten enough with him for Beep to later turn up on Top Of the Pops as a member of The Plastic Ono Band, ‘playing’ bass on “Instant Karmaâ€. Beep was, famously, a self-styled ‘media consultant’, often also described as controversial, since he had an inclination towards the kind of colourfully outlandish behaviour that had made him as legendary as some of the people he has worked with over many years, including Marc Bolan at the height of his popularity, Led Zeppelin, Harper, Ian Dury, The Waterboys and U2. He was what I suppose you might call a ‘scenester’ and that night backstage with Harper I introduced myself and was very quickly regaled with many hilarious tales that he told in a hipster Esperanto of his own sublime invention that was nothing like anything I’d ever heard. I was beguiled to the point of impressionable infatuation and many colourful adventures ensued as we became friends, a night out with Beep not something you would easily forget. Wherever we fetched up, there would be people he knew, and what they had in common was that they all clearly loved Beep, who was popular with everyone, including people his various antics had at times in their relationships with him caused them no end of exasperation. His company is a blessed thing to recall. Anyway, I return to BP now, because when I recently got back from a quick trip to Los Angeles on urgent Uncut business, there was a package waiting for me at home, sent from Texas, that when I opened it to my amazement contained a CD called Still Legal, credited to BP Fallon & the Bandits. And there Beep was on the cover, unmistakably groovy in a picture where he was flanked by his band, The Bandits: former Blondie bassist Nigel Harrison, Aaron Lee Tasjan who has played guitar with The New York Dolls and Blondie drummer Clem Burke. The CD turned out to be a gas and was followed not long after by an email from Beep, who had just played the South By Southwest festival in Austin, with The Bandits, augmented for the occasion by Stooges drummer Scott Ashton and Primal Scream guitarist Barrie Cadogan, pictured below with The Bandits (l-r in shot, we have Nigel Harrison, Aaron Lee Tasjan, BP, Barrie Cadogan, Scott Asheton and Clem Burke). Here’s what Beep wrote, inimitably, plus a clip of him and The Bandits roaring through a version of “Gloria†from one of their SXSW shows: bpbandits300413_W “Never thought I'd be sitting here in Texas emailing you re my rock'n'roll band. Never thought I'd be sitting anywhere telling anyone about my rock'n'roll band. Yesterday I played the test pressings of our LP 'Still Legal' from United Record Pressing in Nashville. Fuck, Allan. To hold this 12" record with my music on it, to look at the grooves, to look at my little message in the matrix... to play the thing, round and round and now - nervously, excitedly - the very first hit of the needle going into the vinyl... and then - bam! - Clem's drums kicking off this crazy mad rock'n'roll adventure. “All this is ludicrous of course - the 109 year old rock singer and his lyrics and his bunch of... well, Bandits. We write the tunes together. Unhumbly, I believe we're fucking great, what rock'n'roll is meant to be, an incredible band on fire with the guitar player Aaron Lee Tasjan a young legend-in-waiting. Catchy songs written in New York about lust and mutual infidelity, drugs and Jesus and models and - as one does - Bob Dylan and Columbus... and sometimes love and the passing of time, age and agelessness... Us Bandits, we have a laugh and we take it very seriously. I'm having the time of my life. Never thought that this would happen. Thank/blame Jack White for lighting the... whatever he lit/set free/unwittingly unleashed. I mean it (man). “At SXSW the promo said "BP Fallon is the most interesting new singer in rock'n'roll". It might even be almost true. If I could wave a wand, we'd do dates in Britain and Ireland with The Strypes and Jake Bugg - it'd be three new bands all loosely drawing on the same well, which is rock'n'roll unfettered and unhomegenised. Rock'n'roll should have a hard-on, not some limp-dicked weediness. Sensitive, yes, but not dribbling like a wimp. Get a grip! And it should be fun and uplifting and out there - and it's time for less segregation between the band and the audience. We're all in this together. Good morning. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gu0wXKwOus “Whatever... it's a crazy story. I've discovered that being in a band is one of the best ways to hear music. If, say, I want to hear more drums, I simply have a choogle nearer to Clem... or to Scott Asheton. It's a hard life. Seriously, I'm more than blessed to have guys of this calibre allowing me to have a band with them. Someone said ‘Put a sticker on your album – “Contains 3 Members Of The Rock'n'Roll Hall Of Fame!â€â€™ Well... no. Sometimes I do go ‘Fuck! That's Scott who played on “I Wanna Be Your Dogâ€â€™ or it flashes on me that my friends playing behind me are the chaps who powered all the Blondie hits like 'Heart Of Glass' or 'Atomic' or 'One Way Or Another' which Nigel wrote with Debbie Harry and has just been a huge hit again, for One Direction which is a hoot. Am I the new Debbie Harry? I feel more like Gene Vincent on acid. “I wore his leather jacket once, the one with the medallion on his LP covers, at York Rialto when I was a schoolboy and he was doing a sound check. I asked him ‘May I put on your leather jacket, please?’ and he took it off over his head and the greasy grapes of quiff falling into his eyes unfurled even more and I put it on and it was quiet tacky close up and The Outlaws who were backing Gene coaxed him into singing the Bill Monroe hepped-up country viber 'Rocky Road Blues' and Gene clung onto the the mic stand and his eyes gazed up forlornly to God knows where and then a gleam came into them and this miraculous voice of wounded freedom soared out, ‘Weeeell, the road is rocky but it won't be rocky long...’ Ah yes. Magnificent. And then suddenly these little old ladies, these little blue haired old dears, are swarming into the auditorium like enthusiastic ants, all cardigans and handbags and excited chatter. It's - God help us - afternoon bingo time. Gene and the band grind to a halt and Gene haltingly asks me for his leather jacket back, saying ‘I'd better put it back on before the faces see me.’ The faces. Wow. Cool American slang. But bingo? What the fuck. What about 'Be Bop A Lula', mister?†There was more, as there always has been with Beep, including a recent picture of him with Willie Nelson (see below). “Did we have a joint or two?†Beep asked. “A gentleman doesn’t tell.†bpwillie300413_W BP Fallon & the Bandits’ Still Legal is out now on Vibrosonic Records All pics: Christopher Durst

The last time I had occasion to write about my old friend BP Fallon in Uncut was in March, 2010, when he’d just released his debut single, produced by Jack White and released by Jack’s Third Man Records as the first in the label’s new Spoken Word-Instructional record Series. “Fame #9†was backed with “BP Fallon Interview By Jack White†and “I Believe In Elvis Presleyâ€, on which White played some viperish slide guitar, with The Raconteurs’ Patrick Keeler on drums. There was also a video, featuring some of BP’s many friends, including Kevin Shields, Bobby Gillespie and Gemma Hayes.

Readers whose memories are still more or less intact may recall me writing about Beep as someone who had loomed large in my life since my very early days on Melody Maker, which I had just joined as a ‘junior reporter’. I first met him in 1974, at a Roy Harper show I was reviewing at Kensington Polytechnic. I recognised him from a photo that had appeared in MM of him interviewing John Lennon and Yoko Ono at the Amsterdam Hilton, where they were holding what I think was their first Bed-In. Lennon was smitten enough with him for Beep to later turn up on Top Of the Pops as a member of The Plastic Ono Band, ‘playing’ bass on “Instant Karmaâ€.

Beep was, famously, a self-styled ‘media consultant’, often also described as controversial, since he had an inclination towards the kind of colourfully outlandish behaviour that had made him as legendary as some of the people he has worked with over many years, including Marc Bolan at the height of his popularity, Led Zeppelin, Harper, Ian Dury, The Waterboys and U2. He was what I suppose you might call a ‘scenester’ and that night backstage with Harper I introduced myself and was very quickly regaled with many hilarious tales that he told in a hipster Esperanto of his own sublime invention that was nothing like anything I’d ever heard.

I was beguiled to the point of impressionable infatuation and many colourful adventures ensued as we became friends, a night out with Beep not something you would easily forget. Wherever we fetched up, there would be people he knew, and what they had in common was that they all clearly loved Beep, who was popular with everyone, including people his various antics had at times in their relationships with him caused them no end of exasperation. His company is a blessed thing to recall.

Anyway, I return to BP now, because when I recently got back from a quick trip to Los Angeles on urgent Uncut business, there was a package waiting for me at home, sent from Texas, that when I opened it to my amazement contained a CD called Still Legal, credited to BP Fallon & the Bandits. And there Beep was on the cover, unmistakably groovy in a picture where he was flanked by his band, The Bandits: former Blondie bassist Nigel Harrison, Aaron Lee Tasjan who has played guitar with The New York Dolls and Blondie drummer Clem Burke.

The CD turned out to be a gas and was followed not long after by an email from Beep, who had just played the South By Southwest festival in Austin, with The Bandits, augmented for the occasion by Stooges drummer Scott Ashton and Primal Scream guitarist Barrie Cadogan, pictured below with The Bandits (l-r in shot, we have Nigel Harrison, Aaron Lee Tasjan, BP, Barrie Cadogan, Scott Asheton and Clem Burke).

Here’s what Beep wrote, inimitably, plus a clip of him and The Bandits roaring through a version of “Gloria†from one of their SXSW shows:

bpbandits300413_W

“Never thought I’d be sitting here in Texas emailing you re my rock’n’roll band. Never thought I’d be sitting anywhere telling anyone about my rock’n’roll band. Yesterday I played the test pressings of our LP ‘Still Legal’ from United Record Pressing in Nashville. Fuck, Allan. To hold this 12″ record with my music on it, to look at the grooves, to look at my little message in the matrix… to play the thing, round and round and now – nervously, excitedly – the very first hit of the needle going into the vinyl… and then – bam! – Clem’s drums kicking off this crazy mad rock’n’roll adventure.

“All this is ludicrous of course – the 109 year old rock singer and his lyrics and his bunch of… well, Bandits. We write the tunes together. Unhumbly, I believe we’re fucking great, what rock’n’roll is meant to be, an incredible band on fire with the guitar player Aaron Lee Tasjan a young legend-in-waiting. Catchy songs written in New York about lust and mutual infidelity, drugs and Jesus and models and – as one does – Bob Dylan and Columbus… and sometimes love and the passing of time, age and agelessness… Us Bandits, we have a laugh and we take it very seriously. I’m having the time of my life. Never thought that this would happen. Thank/blame Jack White for lighting the… whatever he lit/set free/unwittingly unleashed. I mean it (man).

“At SXSW the promo said “BP Fallon is the most interesting new singer in rock’n’roll”. It might even be almost true. If I could wave a wand, we’d do dates in Britain and Ireland with The Strypes and Jake Bugg – it’d be three new bands all loosely drawing on the same well, which is rock’n’roll unfettered and unhomegenised. Rock’n’roll should have a hard-on, not some limp-dicked weediness. Sensitive, yes, but not dribbling like a wimp. Get a grip! And it should be fun and uplifting and out there – and it’s time for less segregation between the band and the audience. We’re all in this together. Good morning.

“Whatever… it’s a crazy story. I’ve discovered that being in a band is one of the best ways to hear music. If, say, I want to hear more drums, I simply have a choogle nearer to Clem… or to Scott Asheton. It’s a hard life. Seriously, I’m more than blessed to have guys of this calibre allowing me to have a band with them. Someone said ‘Put a sticker on your album – “Contains 3 Members Of The Rock’n’Roll Hall Of Fame!â€â€™ Well… no. Sometimes I do go ‘Fuck! That’s Scott who played on “I Wanna Be Your Dogâ€â€™ or it flashes on me that my friends playing behind me are the chaps who powered all the Blondie hits like ‘Heart Of Glass’ or ‘Atomic’ or ‘One Way Or Another’ which Nigel wrote with Debbie Harry and has just been a huge hit again, for One Direction which is a hoot. Am I the new Debbie Harry? I feel more like Gene Vincent on acid.

“I wore his leather jacket once, the one with the medallion on his LP covers, at York Rialto when I was a schoolboy and he was doing a sound check. I asked him ‘May I put on your leather jacket, please?’ and he took it off over his head and the greasy grapes of quiff falling into his eyes unfurled even more and I put it on and it was quiet tacky close up and The Outlaws who were backing Gene coaxed him into singing the Bill Monroe hepped-up country viber ‘Rocky Road Blues’ and Gene clung onto the the mic stand and his eyes gazed up forlornly to God knows where and then a gleam came into them and this miraculous voice of wounded freedom soared out, ‘Weeeell, the road is rocky but it won’t be rocky long…’ Ah yes. Magnificent. And then suddenly these little old ladies, these little blue haired old dears, are swarming into the auditorium like enthusiastic ants, all cardigans and handbags and excited chatter. It’s – God help us – afternoon bingo time. Gene and the band grind to a halt and Gene haltingly asks me for his leather jacket back, saying ‘I’d better put it back on before the faces see me.’ The faces. Wow. Cool American slang. But bingo? What the fuck. What about ‘Be Bop A Lula’, mister?â€

There was more, as there always has been with Beep, including a recent picture of him with Willie Nelson (see below). “Did we have a joint or two?†Beep asked. “A gentleman doesn’t tell.â€

bpwillie300413_W

BP Fallon & the Bandits’ Still Legal is out now on Vibrosonic Records

All pics: Christopher Durst

Prince to tour UK small venues?

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Prince to tour UK small venues?
Prince is reportedly on the look out for small venues to play when he comes to the UK. The singer, who is reportedly releasing a new album later this year, has apparently asked his promoters to look for smaller spaces for is gigs. The last time Prince performed in the UK, he played to over 500,000...

Prince is reportedly on the look out for small venues to play when he comes to the UK.

The singer, who is reportedly releasing a new album later this year, has apparently asked his promoters to look for smaller spaces for is gigs. The last time Prince performed in the UK, he played to over 500,000 fans over 21 shows at London’s O2.

A source told The Sun: “Prince has gone back to basics this year, playing in front of 300 people at the SXSW festival in Texas. He’s now on a US tour of small club shows and wants to do something similar in the UK later in the year. It’s still to be decided if he’ll stay at one small venue and play 20 or more gigs or split his time between a few places around the country.” They added: “Prince has asked his team to find unusual venues his fans wouldn’t expect him to play.”

Prince has been releasing a slew of new music recently by posting material on the 3rdeyegirl website. In December he released the track ‘Rock And Roll Love Affair’ and followed it up with ‘Screwdriver’ and another new song, ‘Breakfast Can Wait’, in February.

Morrissey encouraged to crowdsource next album

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Morrissey encouraged to crowdsource next album

Amanda Palmer has written an open letter to Morrissey offering to help him crowdsource his next album. In her letter, written for Salon, the former Dresden Dolls singer shares her love of Morrissey's music, even admitting to turning down the opportunity to meet him in person: "I couldn’t stomach the idea of Morrissey meeting me and not liking me, even if the chances were small." After asking her Twitter followers how many of them would be prepared to pay £3.22 to fund a digital-only Morrissey album, she gained over 1,400 positive responses "You have some of the most fanatical fans in the world; caring and devoted people from countries far and wide who would be really, really happy to support you at levels far beyond $5 just to have the songs in their ears," she writes. "You’re possibly one of the best candidates on the planet to use crowdfunding, because of who you are and what you mean." Dismissing the idea that an artist needs a record label, Palmer continues: "What does one need a record label for nowadays? To put albums in stores? The stores are closing. To make all the phone calls, so that radio plays the album? The radio stations are closing. The good outlets with human beings programming them (non-commercial radio, college, the BBC) will probably just download the record if it’s good, and play it." However, Palmer ends the letter by admitting she thinks it unlikely Morrissey would get involved with a crowd-funded album. Crowdsourcing has proved successful recently; with American TV show Veronica Mars raising $2 million in under 12 hours on Kickstarter and Scrubs star Zach Braff gaining the same amount to produce a follow-up to his 2004 film Garden State.

Amanda Palmer has written an open letter to Morrissey offering to help him crowdsource his next album.

In her letter, written for Salon, the former Dresden Dolls singer shares her love of Morrissey’s music, even admitting to turning down the opportunity to meet him in person: “I couldn’t stomach the idea of Morrissey meeting me and not liking me, even if the chances were small.”

After asking her Twitter followers how many of them would be prepared to pay £3.22 to fund a digital-only Morrissey album, she gained over 1,400 positive responses “You have some of the most fanatical fans in the world; caring and devoted people from countries far and wide who would be really, really happy to support you at levels far beyond $5 just to have the songs in their ears,” she writes. “You’re possibly one of the best candidates on the planet to use crowdfunding, because of who you are and what you mean.”

Dismissing the idea that an artist needs a record label, Palmer continues: “What does one need a record label for nowadays? To put albums in stores? The stores are closing. To make all the phone calls, so that radio plays the album? The radio stations are closing. The good outlets with human beings programming them (non-commercial radio, college, the BBC) will probably just download the record if it’s good, and play it.”

However, Palmer ends the letter by admitting she thinks it unlikely Morrissey would get involved with a crowd-funded album.

Crowdsourcing has proved successful recently; with American TV show Veronica Mars raising $2 million in under 12 hours on Kickstarter and Scrubs star Zach Braff gaining the same amount to produce a follow-up to his 2004 film Garden State.

Neutral Milk Hotel to reform for first live shows since 1999

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Neutral Milk Hotel to reform for first live shows since 1999
Neutral Milk Hotel have announced that they will reunite to play their first live shows since 1999. The band have been on hiatus since their last studio album – 1998's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea and its subsequent tour. Aside from a 2001 live album and a 2002 album of Bulgarian music, the ban...

Neutral Milk Hotel have announced that they will reunite to play their first live shows since 1999.

The band have been on hiatus since their last studio album – 1998’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea and its subsequent tour. Aside from a 2001 live album and a 2002 album of Bulgarian music, the band have been keeping a low profile – although singer Jeff Mangum played a string of solo dates in 2010 and curated ATP at Butlins in Minehead in March last year (2012).

In a bizarre statement on their website, the band announced five dates in the US and Asia, promising “more to come”. As yet no UK dates have been announced. Accompanying the announcement, a cryptic statement reads:

and of water course womb rume is a wandering the welkin woman whose fune caul is all umbilical cord code that comes equipped with read volve vît curtains that Äun seel my văl én tich radio reason in remembrance of mademoiselle gabrielle and her wone tym pad lock of burd language as it borders on twin tolk the wolk king wall of woolpack pigeons pointing to the fly blind readers riddle and his rian boh

The touring line-up will consist of Mangum, Scott Spillane, Julian Koster, and Jeremy Barnes.

Boards Of Canada to release first new album in eight years

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Boards Of Canada to release first new album in eight years
Boards Of Canada have announced plans to release their first new album in eight years. The reclusive duo will put out Tomorrow's Harvest on June 10 via Warp Records. The album will consist of 17 tracks. Scroll down for the full tracklisting. Boards Of Canada, who comprise brothers Marcus Eoin and...

Boards Of Canada have announced plans to release their first new album in eight years.

The reclusive duo will put out Tomorrow’s Harvest on June 10 via Warp Records. The album will consist of 17 tracks. Scroll down for the full tracklisting.

Boards Of Canada, who comprise brothers Marcus Eoin and Michael Sandison, last released an album – The Campfire Headphase – in 2005.

The duo haven’t performed live since 2001.

The Tomorrow’s Harvest tracklisting is:

‘Gemini’

‘Reach For The Dead’

‘White Cyclosa’

‘Jacquard Causeway’

‘Telepath’

‘Cold Earth’

‘Transmisiones Ferox’

‘Sick Times’

‘Collapse’

‘Palace Posy’

‘Split Your Infinities’

‘Uritual’

‘Nothing Is Real’

‘Sundown’

‘New Seeds’

‘Come To Dust’

‘Semena Mertvykh’

The 20 Best Fictional Bands In The Movies

Michael Bonner
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The 20 Best Fictional Bands In The Movies
Later this year, cinemagoers will have the opportunity to watch Meryl Streep play Ricki Rendazzo, the ageing singer and guitarist with Ricki And The Flash, in Jonathan Demme's latest film. The Flash are the latest in a long line of fictional bands to appear in films. Accordingly, after the trailer ...

Later this year, cinemagoers will have the opportunity to watch Meryl Streep play Ricki Rendazzo, the ageing singer and guitarist with Ricki And The Flash, in Jonathan Demme’s latest film.

The Flash are the latest in a long line of fictional bands to appear in films. Accordingly, after the trailer for Ricki And The Flash (who is that familiar-looking guy playing guitar..?) here’s a list of the 20 best fictional bands in the movies… in our humble opinion, of course.

Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner

——

The 20 best fictional bands in the movies are…

1: STILLWATER, Almost Famous
Effectively a composite of a number of bands Cameron Crowe interviewed for Rolling Stone in the early 1970s – Skynyrd, Allmans, maybe the Eagles. The songs played by Stillwater in the film were co-writes between Crowe, his wife Nancy Wilson and Peter Frampton. Jason Lee’s singing voice was provided by Aerosmith collaborator, Marty Frederiksen, while Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready played lead guitar. On screen, Mark Kozelek played Stillwater’s bassist, Larry Fellows.

2: AUTOBAHN, The Big Lebowski
That’ll be Kraftwerk, of course. Flea, Peter Stormare and Torsten Voges are the German nihilists/would-be kidnappers/electronic pioneers. The Coen brothers even went as far as to get a sleeve designed for Autobahn’s sole album, Nagelbett (roughly translated as ‘bed of nails’).

3: BLUESHAMMER, Ghost World
Steve Buscemi’s blues aficionado Seymour goes to see Fred Chatham, an 82-year-old blues veteran play a small bar. “If you really like authentic blues, you’ve got to check out Blueshammer,†he is told. As it turns out, Blueshammer’s “authentic, way-down-in-the-delta blues†turns out to be closer to George Thorogood. Poor Seymour!

Eric Burdon – ‘Til Your River Runs Dry

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Eric Burdon – ‘Til Your River Runs Dry

A revitalised Burdon tells survivor’s tales... One of several pleasant surprises on ‘Til Your River Runs Dry is to hear Eric Burdon, who made his name as a blues shouter, croon achingly on “Waitâ€, a slow, self-written Latin piece with a tango rhythm. It’s one of the album’s stand-outs, perhaps because it ‘s a deeply personal number, written for his wife (and manager) Marianna. It’s also a reminder that Burdon remains one of the best vocalists of his generation, his tenor tones always easy and unforced, whether he’s belting or breezing. At 71, that voice sounds remarkably well preserved. To hear him declaim and roar on “Old Habits Die Hardâ€, a number with a touch of late-Dylan about it – ruminative, defiant, bluesy – brings favourable comparison with the ruined growl of his contemporary. It’s an arresting song, shifting between scenes from the Arab spring and young citizens fighting for their freedom, and Burdon’s recognition of his younger self : “I turn on the TV and I see myself being hassled by The Manâ€. Later Eric makes the claim, with poetic licence perhaps, that “they got a file on me over in Scotland Yardâ€. ‘Til Your River Runs Dry likewise oscillates between past and present, between personal and political. Its lead-in, “Waterâ€, is an eco protest about conservation – “one day soon, the truth will spill into your living room†– but it’s also expressing an unquenched rage: “I will not beg, I will demand!†With its chiming guitars, thudding drums and gospel chorus, the number is cut from Seventies rock cloth, and perfect for AOR audiences. Still, it’s one of the less adventurous outings here, though it reflects Burdon’s kinship with California’s deserts and Indian canyons, which have been refuge and home since he set about rebuilding his U.S. career in the 1980s,the location also easing his asthma and fuelling his interest in nearby Mexico. “Invitation To The White House†finds Burdon dropping in on Barack Obama to offer advice about opening borders to north and south - an entertaining fancy set to a jazzy, big-band version of Muddy Waters’ “I’m A Man†riff. The blues remains a wellspring for Burdon throughout an album that’s a continuum of his past work, with keyboards that recall Alan Price and Brian Auger. There are two tributes to Bo Diddley, one a cover of “Before You Accuse Meâ€, the other, “Bo Diddley Specialâ€, homage to a hero he never met but at whose memorial service he played. The tone is playful, as Eric celebrates Diddley’s tartan jackets and boxy guitars in his inimitable mid-Atlantic Geordie, where ‘motor scooter’ becomes “moda scooodarâ€. Mortality casts a darker shadow on “In The Groundâ€, a rage-against-the-light slow burner, and “27 Foreverâ€, a resonant commentary on the ’27 Club’ of Hendrix, Cobain, Whitehouse et al. With Stax horns and rippling piano riffs, it’s Eric’s warning that the whiskey and women run out and that you sell your soul to the devil for “a place in rock’n’roll heavenâ€. Eerie. Burdon’shistory is ever present. A cover of Marc Cohn’s “Medicine Man†has echoes of “House of the Rising Sunâ€, and the protests of “Sky Pilot†et al continue on“Memorial Dayâ€, which celebrates celebrates the survivors – “hippies and poets†- as well as the fallen of war. The flavours of Burdon’s beloved New Orleans ripple through “The River Is Risingâ€, inspired by Fats Domino’s near miss during the Katrina catastrophe and recorded with members of Domino’s band. It’s a crawling blues whose foreboding atmosphere is shot through with drowsy horns and a chanted chorus, “the greatest piece of music I’ve been involved with†according to its creator. It’s too early to pass such judgment, but in pursuit of Burdon’s stated ambition to “finish my career with my head held highâ€, ‘Til Your River Runs Dry finds his mission fully on course, a hero returned. Neil Spencer Q&A Eric Burdon It’s a surprise to hear you singing a tango! I woke up one morning with one word: ‘Wait’. Everyone’s in such a hurry these days so it was saying slow down. It’s for my wife, for whom I waited and she came along. I wish I could speak Spanish, the record label is dying for a Latin version. I have hardcore fans in Mexico, which is an intriguing place. The US can’t deal with having another country and another language on its border. “27 Forever†is about the six or seven dead rock stars in the ’27 Club’. It’s more like 600 or 700, not just musicians and artists but people from all walks of life, people who don’t want to become adults. It’s an astrological phenomenon too, the Saturn Return. I was close to Jimi, Janis and Jim. You could almost see it coming, they were dicing with death, asking for trouble. I got through that stage partly through witnessing Jimi’s problems. You’re singing well. How do you look after your voice? I don’t, it looks after me! I don’t practice, I don’t like rehearsals. The Animals never rehearsed, but with young musicians you have to give them the parts. You can’t force new material on audiences, they want a re-run of their favourite movie, but I mix it up. You are writing a third memoir. I feel good about what I have written. The trick is to dance around the other two, not to repeat myself. Plus I’m already thinking of the next album. I had an operation on my back last year and spent six months recovering, but I’m almost back to normal. I just can’t lift anything heavy. INTERVIEW: NEIL SPENCER Pic credit: Courtesy of ABKCO Records ©Marianna Burdon

A revitalised Burdon tells survivor’s tales…

One of several pleasant surprises on ‘Til Your River Runs Dry is to hear Eric Burdon, who made his name as a blues shouter, croon achingly on “Waitâ€, a slow, self-written Latin piece with a tango rhythm. It’s one of the album’s stand-outs, perhaps because it ‘s a deeply personal number, written for his wife (and manager) Marianna. It’s also a reminder that Burdon remains one of the best vocalists of his generation, his tenor tones always easy and unforced, whether he’s belting or breezing.

At 71, that voice sounds remarkably well preserved. To hear him declaim and roar on “Old Habits Die Hardâ€, a number with a touch of late-Dylan about it – ruminative, defiant, bluesy – brings favourable comparison with the ruined growl of his contemporary. It’s an arresting song, shifting between scenes from the Arab spring and young citizens fighting for their freedom, and Burdon’s recognition of his younger self : “I turn on the TV and I see myself being hassled by The Manâ€. Later Eric makes the claim, with poetic licence perhaps, that “they got a file on me over in Scotland Yardâ€.

‘Til Your River Runs Dry likewise oscillates between past and present, between personal and political. Its lead-in, “Waterâ€, is an eco protest about conservation – “one day soon, the truth will spill into your living room†– but it’s also expressing an unquenched rage: “I will not beg, I will demand!†With its chiming guitars, thudding drums and gospel chorus, the number is cut from Seventies rock cloth, and perfect for AOR audiences. Still, it’s one of the less adventurous outings here, though it reflects Burdon’s kinship with California’s deserts and Indian canyons, which have been refuge and home since he set about rebuilding his U.S. career in the 1980s,the location also easing his asthma and fuelling his interest in nearby Mexico.

“Invitation To The White House†finds Burdon dropping in on Barack Obama to offer advice about opening borders to north and south – an entertaining fancy set to a jazzy, big-band version of Muddy Waters’ “I’m A Man†riff. The blues remains a wellspring for Burdon throughout an album that’s a continuum of his past work, with keyboards that recall Alan Price and Brian Auger. There are two tributes to Bo Diddley, one a cover of “Before You Accuse Meâ€, the other, “Bo Diddley Specialâ€, homage to a hero he never met but at whose memorial service he played. The tone is playful, as Eric celebrates Diddley’s tartan jackets and boxy guitars in his inimitable mid-Atlantic Geordie, where ‘motor scooter’ becomes “moda scooodarâ€.

Mortality casts a darker shadow on “In The Groundâ€, a rage-against-the-light slow burner, and “27 Foreverâ€, a resonant commentary on the ’27 Club’ of Hendrix, Cobain, Whitehouse et al. With Stax horns and rippling piano riffs, it’s Eric’s warning that the whiskey and women run out and that you sell your soul to the devil for “a place in rock’n’roll heavenâ€. Eerie.

Burdon’shistory is ever present. A cover of Marc Cohn’s “Medicine Man†has echoes of “House of the Rising Sunâ€, and the protests of “Sky Pilot†et al continue on“Memorial Dayâ€, which celebrates celebrates the survivors – “hippies and poets†– as well as the fallen of war.

The flavours of Burdon’s beloved New Orleans ripple through “The River Is Risingâ€, inspired by Fats Domino’s near miss during the Katrina catastrophe and recorded with members of Domino’s band. It’s a crawling blues whose foreboding atmosphere is shot through with drowsy horns and a chanted chorus, “the greatest piece of music I’ve been involved with†according to its creator.

It’s too early to pass such judgment, but in pursuit of Burdon’s stated ambition to “finish my career with my head held highâ€, ‘Til Your River Runs Dry finds his mission fully on course, a hero returned.

Neil Spencer

Q&A

Eric Burdon

It’s a surprise to hear you singing a tango!

I woke up one morning with one word: ‘Wait’. Everyone’s in such a hurry these days so it was saying slow down. It’s for my wife, for whom I waited and she came along. I wish I could speak Spanish, the record label is dying for a Latin version. I have hardcore fans in Mexico, which is an intriguing place. The US can’t deal with having another country and another language on its border.

“27 Forever†is about the six or seven dead rock stars in the ’27 Club’.

It’s more like 600 or 700, not just musicians and artists but people from all walks of life, people who don’t want to become adults. It’s an astrological phenomenon too, the Saturn Return. I was close to Jimi, Janis and Jim. You could almost see it coming, they were dicing with death, asking for trouble. I got through that stage partly through witnessing Jimi’s problems.

You’re singing well. How do you look after your voice?

I don’t, it looks after me! I don’t practice, I don’t like rehearsals. The Animals never rehearsed, but with young musicians you have to give them the parts. You can’t force new material on audiences, they want a re-run of their favourite movie, but I mix it up.

You are writing a third memoir.

I feel good about what I have written. The trick is to dance around the other two, not to repeat myself. Plus I’m already thinking of the next album. I had an operation on my back last year and spent six months recovering, but I’m almost back to normal. I just can’t lift anything heavy.

INTERVIEW: NEIL SPENCER

Pic credit: Courtesy of ABKCO Records ©Marianna Burdon

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