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Crime And The City Solution – American Twilight

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Crime And The City Solution – American Twilight

First new material in 20 years from celebrated post-punk doomsayers... Perhaps the most enduring document of Crime & The City Solution is to be found in Wim Wenders’ 1987 film Wings Of Desire. A sombre fantasy in which angels watch over the traumatised inhabitants of West Berlin, it climaxes with a scene in which the group – fronted by snakish vocalist Simon Bonney, his sideman the exceptional guitarist Rowland S Howard – perform their “Six Bells Chime” with a holy intensity. Formed in Sydney in 1976, Crime emerged from the same post-punk flux that also spawned The Birthday Party. But never did they seem as at home as they did in Berlin, their apocalyptic punk-blues an eerily perfect fit for this city of decadence and division. The third, Berlin-based incarnation of Crime And The City Solution disintegrated in 1991, a year after fourth album Paradise Discotheque. Bonney moved to Los Angeles, released two solo albums that indicated a growing interest in blues and country, and then… nothing. Nothing until 2011, when a new line-up of Crime & The City Solution sprung from the ashes. Now operating out of Detroit, this incarnation brings together old hands such as violinist Bronwyn Adams with new, if familiar faces: the likes of drummer Jim White, also of The Dirty Three, and David Eugene Edwards, formerly of 16 Horsepower. What is initially startling about American Twilight is how easily they whip up some of the old fire and brimstone. There is hurricane-force rock’n’roll (“Goddess”), apocalyptic Mariachi (“My Love Takes Me There”), Dionysian funk-rock (“Riven Man”). The gothic gospel of “Domina” is a reminder of Bonney’s exceptional, abject lyricism. “Billowing sails… incision of your nails… wheals on the skin…” he spouts, a preacher atop a decaying pulpit. As the title suggests, this is a very American record. Perhaps as Berlin felt in the mid-‘80s, Detroit feels now: a city of division, albeit one whose wounds have been inflicted by capitalism, not war. American Twilight is seldom better than its title track, searing swamp-punk that recalls Grinderman in its sense of diabolic abandon. Elegy for a civilisation in decay, live it’s accompanied by a slideshow of modern Detroit, buildings fallen into dereliction. Not a band tied to any one place, then. But expert at locating something holy in the rubble. Louis Pattison

First new material in 20 years from celebrated post-punk doomsayers…

Perhaps the most enduring document of Crime & The City Solution is to be found in Wim Wenders’ 1987 film Wings Of Desire. A sombre fantasy in which angels watch over the traumatised inhabitants of West Berlin, it climaxes with a scene in which the group – fronted by snakish vocalist Simon Bonney, his sideman the exceptional guitarist Rowland S Howard – perform their “Six Bells Chime” with a holy intensity. Formed in Sydney in 1976, Crime emerged from the same post-punk flux that also spawned The Birthday Party. But never did they seem as at home as they did in Berlin, their apocalyptic punk-blues an eerily perfect fit for this city of decadence and division.

The third, Berlin-based incarnation of Crime And The City Solution disintegrated in 1991, a year after fourth album Paradise Discotheque. Bonney moved to Los Angeles, released two solo albums that indicated a growing interest in blues and country, and then… nothing. Nothing until 2011, when a new line-up of Crime & The City Solution sprung from the ashes. Now operating out of Detroit, this incarnation brings together old hands such as violinist Bronwyn Adams with new, if familiar faces: the likes of drummer Jim White, also of The Dirty Three, and David Eugene Edwards, formerly of 16 Horsepower.

What is initially startling about American Twilight is how easily they whip up some of the old fire and brimstone. There is hurricane-force rock’n’roll (“Goddess”), apocalyptic Mariachi (“My Love Takes Me There”), Dionysian funk-rock (“Riven Man”). The gothic gospel of “Domina” is a reminder of Bonney’s exceptional, abject lyricism. “Billowing sails… incision of your nails… wheals on the skin…” he spouts, a preacher atop a decaying pulpit.

As the title suggests, this is a very American record. Perhaps as Berlin felt in the mid-‘80s, Detroit feels now: a city of division, albeit one whose wounds have been inflicted by capitalism, not war. American Twilight is seldom better than its title track, searing swamp-punk that recalls Grinderman in its sense of diabolic abandon. Elegy for a civilisation in decay, live it’s accompanied by a slideshow of modern Detroit, buildings fallen into dereliction. Not a band tied to any one place, then. But expert at locating something holy in the rubble.

Louis Pattison

Paul McCartney to reissue Wings Over America live album and concert film Rockshow

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Paul McCartney to reissue Wings Over America live album and concert film Rockshow
Paul McCartney has announced that he will be reissuing Paul McCartney & Wings’ 1976 live album Wings Over America. McCartney will also release the live concert film Rockshow on DVD for the first time, which documented the band's Wings Over the World 1976 US tour – watch some footage of it b...

Paul McCartney has announced that he will be reissuing Paul McCartney & Wings’ 1976 live album Wings Over America.

McCartney will also release the live concert film Rockshow on DVD for the first time, which documented the band’s Wings Over the World 1976 US tour – watch some footage of it below.

The newly-remastered Wings Over America LP, will be released on a range of formats, and will include stacks of bonus material including a recording of the band live at San Francisco’s Cow Palace, and a 75-minute television special of ‘Wings Over the World’ as well as a series of never-before-seen photos and artwork from the tour. It will be released on May 27.

Meanwhile a full-length version of Rockshow, a live concert film of the tour which was shot at the Kingdome in Seattle and features tracks by Wings, as well as some of The Beatles and McCartney solo material, will be released for the first time on DVD. A shortened version of the film originally premiered in 1980 in New York. The film will also get a theatrical release for one night only on May 15 at 500 cinemas worldwide, with McCartney himself introducing the film at London’s BAFTA venue on the night.

Morrissey: ‘Margaret Thatcher did not give a shit about people’

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Morrissey: ‘Margaret Thatcher did not give a shit about people’
Morrissey has released an official statement regarding the death of former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. The singer released his comments to fansite True To You yesterday (April 9) following Thatcher's death yesterday at the age of 87. In the strongly worded statement, Morrissey wrote...

Morrissey has released an official statement regarding the death of former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

The singer released his comments to fansite True To You yesterday (April 9) following Thatcher’s death yesterday at the age of 87.

In the strongly worded statement, Morrissey wrote:

Thatcher was not a strong or formidable leader. She simply did not give a shit about people, and this coarseness has been neatly transformed into bravery by the British press who are attempting to rewrite history in order to protect patriotism.

He added: “In truth, of course, no British politician has ever been more despised by the British people than Margaret Thatcher.”

Morrissey also commented that anyone protesting at Thatcher’s funeral next week is “certain to be tear-gassed out of sight by the police”.

Morrissey’s full statement reads:

“The difficulty with giving a comment on Margaret Thatcher’s death to the British tabloids is that, no matter how calmly and measuredly you speak, the comment must be reported as an “outburst” or an “explosive attack” if your view is not pro-establishment. If you reference “the Malvinas”, it will be switched to “the Falklands“, and your “Thatcher” will be softened to a “Maggie.” This is generally how things are structured in a non-democratic society.

“Thatcher’s name must be protected not because of all the wrong that she had done, but because the people around her allowed her to do it, and therefore any criticism of Thatcher throws a dangerously absurd light on the entire machinery of British politics. Thatcher was not a strong or formidable leader. She simply did not give a shit about people, and this coarseness has been neatly transformed into bravery by the British press who are attempting to rewrite history in order to protect patriotism.

“As a result, any opposing view is stifled or ridiculed, whereas we must all endure the obligatory praise for Thatcher from David Cameron without any suggestion from the BBC that his praise just might be an outburst of pro-Thatcher extremism from someone whose praise might possibly protect his own current interests. The fact that Thatcher ignited the British public into street riots, violent demonstrations and a social disorder previously unseen in British history is completely ignored by David Cameron in 2013.

“In truth, of course, no British politician has ever been more despised by the British people than Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher’s funeral on Wednesday will be heavily policed for fear that the British taxpayer will want to finally express their view of Thatcher. They are certain to be tear-gassed out of sight by the police.

“United Kingdom? Syria? China? What’s the difference?”

Morrissey

9 April 2013

Thee Oh Sees: “Floating Coffin”

John Mulvey
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Thee Oh Sees: “Floating Coffin”
John Dwyer has the sort of discography so deep and complicated that one suspects even he must have trouble keeping up with himself. As a consequence, it might be a mistake to try and divine paths and trends in career which his encompassed Coachwhips, Pink and Brown, Landed, Yikes, Burmese, The Hospi...

John Dwyer has the sort of discography so deep and complicated that one suspects even he must have trouble keeping up with himself. As a consequence, it might be a mistake to try and divine paths and trends in career which his encompassed Coachwhips, Pink and Brown, Landed, Yikes, Burmese, The Hospitals, Zeigenbock Kopf and Sword + Sandals (according to Wikipedia, anyway, if I can emphasise my spotty knowledge any more) as well as Thee Oh Sees.

Still, it’s a music journalist’s dubious lot to do just that, and so – risking crude generalisations etc – it feels that, since 2010’s “Warm Slime”, Dwyer and Thee Oh Sees have mostly been finessing a kind of music that might usefully be described as hypno-garage (I’m 95 per cent sure I’ve read this tag somewhere else; apologies for the plagiarism). Hypno-garage, I think, essentially means that Thee Oh Sees have found a way of mixing, at speed, pre-punk punk with the bug-eyed disciplines of spacerock and Kraut, so that it becomes at once exhilarating and mantric. If, in the past, Dwyer’s music has reflected dilettante-ish enthusiasms, now it seems to have a more ruthless focus (that is, if we disregard 2011’s “Castlemania”, which was poppier, gentler and maybe even fractionally twee, though in truth I haven’t heard it for a while).

“Floating Coffin”, anyway, feels like the culmination of all that, and it’s fantastic. The dominant mode is galloping, double-drummered, overdriven but super-tight ramalam. Sometimes, as on the opening “I Come From The Mountain”, Dwyer affects a clipped rasp that makes him sound a little like the guy from The Trashmen. Mostly, though, his voice is high and gusting, something which seems to blur, meld into that of Brigid Dawson, and give an even greater impression of momentum to these generally brilliant tunes.

The hectic psych-punk of “Strawberries 1+2” might be, ironically, the closest Dwyer has got to the sound of his Bay Area disciples like Ty Segall. But more often, “Floating Coffin” feels an ultra-evolved take on the garage rock aesthetic, one that’s learned plenty from Neu! (check the radically accelerated Dingerbeat of “No Spell”), Can (check the radically accelerated “Mother Sky” bassline on the outstanding “Maze Fancier”) and pre-“Autobahn” Kraftwerk (check the etc etc “Ruckzuck”-style flute solo on “Tunnel Time”) along the way.

A few bands have been in this vicinity before, of course; Th’Faith Healers spring to mind a few times as “Floating Coffin” blasts along. The skilled combination of lurch and thrust is reminiscent, too, of The Fall in their Hanley/Scanlon/Wollstonecraft heyday, not least on the closing “Minotaur”, which adds violin and droll gravitas, and recalls, after a fashion, “Bill Is Dead”.

I’m conscious that these slightly rushed blogs can sometimes become bogged down in checklists of perceived influences; when assessing a record at relative speed, it’s easy to resort to using references as signposts if there isn’t the time to engage with the music more thoughtfully. The point is, bands who are as much fun as Thee Oh Sees work through their influences to end up sounding like the latest entry on a continuum of great music, not a mere derivative of it. And if you’ve never come across them before, I can’t recommend “Floating Coffin” highly enough as a place to start. Try this:

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

Photograph: Kristen Klein

Depeche Mode announce details of November UK tour

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Depeche Mode announce details of November UK tour
Depeche Mode have announced details of a November 2013 UK tour. The band, who released their new album Delta Machine last month, have added five new UK arena dates on their European tour in addition to their previously announced dates at London's O2 Arena on May 28 and 29. Depeche Mode will play...

Depeche Mode have announced details of a November 2013 UK tour.

The band, who released their new album Delta Machine last month, have added five new UK arena dates on their European tour in addition to their previously announced dates at London’s O2 Arena on May 28 and 29.

Depeche Mode will play:

Glasgow Hydro (November 11)

Leeds Arena (13)

Manchester Arena (15)

London O2 Arena (19)

Birmingham LG Arena (January 27)

Depeche Mode tickets go on-sale 9am on Friday (April 12).

Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks add dates to Summer tour

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Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks add dates to Summer tour
Brian Wilson has announced further details of shows he will play with Al Jardine and David Marks of The Beach Boys in July. The announcement of the live date comes after the group fell out with fellow members Mike Love and Bruce Johnston in 2012 when the pair revealed plans to continue playing liv...

Brian Wilson has announced further details of shows he will play with Al Jardine and David Marks of The Beach Boys in July.

The announcement of the live date comes after the group fell out with fellow members Mike Love and Bruce Johnston in 2012 when the pair revealed plans to continue playing live under The Beach Boys name, with or without Wilson, Jardine and Marks. The three-piece band announced two dates earlier this year and have added gigs in Atlantic City, Pittsburgh, Interlochen and Los Angeles. A statement on the Brian Wilson website suggests further dates will be added shortly.

Mike Love revealed his plan to continue playing under The Beach Boys name last year following the completion of the band’s hugely successful 50th anniversary tour. In October, Love defended his plans in an open letter published by the LA Times. He wrote: “I did not fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. I cannot fire Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys. I am not his employer. I do not have such authority. And even if I did, I would never fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. I love Brian Wilson.”

Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks will play:

The Grand, Atlantic, New Jersey (July 20)

Stage AE, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (21)

Kresge Auditorum, Interlochen, Michigan (23)

Fraze Pavilion, Kettering, Ohio (25)

Ravina Festival, Highland Park, Illinois (26)

Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, California (October 20)

Saying the unsayable: Elvis Costello, ‘Tramp The Dirt Down’ and Margaret Thatcher

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Saying the unsayable: Elvis Costello, ‘Tramp The Dirt Down’ and Margaret Thatcher

“To make true political music,” the great American critic Greil Marcus wrote nearly 25 years ago, “you have to say what decent people don’t want to hear; that’s something that people fit for satellite benefit concerts will never understand, and that Elvis Costello understood before anyone heard his name.” Marcus was thinking specifically Elvis Costello’s “Tramp The Dirt Down”, from his 1989 album, Spike. The song, of course, is Costello’s furious indictment of Margaret Thatcher and the many ruinous things her Conservative government had done to Britain and its people, in which Costello venomously wishes the dragon dead and looks forward to dancing on her grave. The song is fuelled by the same righteous wrath that Dylan brought to “Masters Of War” – “I hope that you die and your death’ll come soon” – and on release caused grave offence, outrage in predictable quarters. I first heard the song in March 1985, at a benefit for the National Union Of Miners at the Logan Hall in London, on the night that the union’s bitter year-long strike was finally called off, when it was as far as I knew at the time called “All She Thought Of Was Betrayal”. Yesterday, I was surprised to hear someone playing it in the Uncut office, unaware at the time that – ding dong! – the witch was dead. Nearly 30 years on, the song will reflect the mood of many in the wake of Thatcher’s passing, which they will not mourn as much as celebrate, a lot of people as unforgiving still in their opinion of her as Costello was when he wrote it. Funnily enough, “Tramp The Dirt Down” has not yet been a featured part of the soundtrack to any of the television tributes to her that we have so far endured, and rogue MP George Galloway’s reference to it yesterday on Twitter has caused a noisy storm of protest from incensed Thatcher ultras. “Tramp the Dirt Down” was also very curiously absent from a round-up of songs about Thatcher compiled online by The Guardian, which perhaps was uncomfortable with a song that spoke so eloquently ill of the dead. I have no idea how Costello would have received the news of Thatcher’s death yesterday, although I suspect little mourning was involved. But during an epic interview in Dublin not long after it appeared on Spike, I asked him about the song and the recent controversies it had provoked. What does “Tramp the Dirt Down” achieve, what will it change? “Nothing I can think of,” he said. “I honestly don’t think it will change anything. Like I said to one guy who asked a similar question, songs like that, they’re like tiny marker buoys. You know, ‘This is where the ship went down.’ The song’s not a party political broadcast, there’s no manifesto. It just says, ‘I’ll only be happy when this woman’s dead.’ “And some people no doubt might find that extreme. But it’s meant to be. I make no apology for that song. It’s an honest emotional response to events, and writing it was like casting out demons or something. And the song itself is the result of a form of madness, because when you get to that point of thinking these thoughts, actually wishing somebody dead, it really does become a form of madness. It’s a psychopathic thought. And it’s fucking disturbing to find it in your own head. But it would be cowardly not to express it. Because once it’s there, if you don’t get it out, it’s only going to come back and haunt you some more. “I also think you have to remember that it’s not only her that the song is aimed at. It’s what she represents. The way she’s changed the way people value things. It’s like some kind of mass hypnosis she’s achieved. People are afraid to speak out. You know, one thing I thought I’d be asked when people heard it was whether I was saying it might’ve been a good thing if she’d died in the Brighton bombings. I don’t think so. It would have made things 10 times worse, because then she would have been a martyr. We would have had a dead queen. So really, in a profound sense, the song is hopeless. It’s a hopeless argument. Because I think it’s a hopeless situation. So, no, it’s not in a large, historical sense, going to change anything. “But I think it does have maybe an individual effect. There’s always a chance it’ll sneak through somehow. Like, I sang it at a folk festival in the Shetlands, at one place that was very brightly lit and I could see the audience quite clearly. And all the way through, there was one guy nodding away, applauding every line obviously getting into it. And on the other side, there was another guy being physically restrained from getting up on the stage and hitting me. He just fused, he really went. You could see it in his face. And I thought, ‘Well, I’ve really got a winner now.’ To the extent, you know, that it had succeeded in being at least provocative.” Is that all you can ask of a song these days? “I’ve never really known what you’re supposed to expect from song,” he said. “And I think there’s a danger in the very talking about it, it makes it seem like you’ve achieved more than you have.” Especially, perhaps, when the song itself seems not much more than an attention-seeking novelty, like Morrissey’s “Margaret On The Guillotine”. “I don’t know much about Morrissey,” Costello replied. “Apart from the fact he sometimes brings out records with the greatest titles in the world that somewhere along the line he then neglects to write songs for. But I haven’t heard that particular song, so I can’t really comment on it. But generally, I think the best that can be achieved by songs like ‘Tramp The Dirt Down’ is something like ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ achieved. The record didn’t get Mandela released, but it did increase the membership of the anti-apartheid movement, because Jerry Dammers very intelligently printed their address on the sleeve. And the record introduced Mandela to a lot of people who maybe otherwise would never have heard of him. And there’s a point where political art only works on that level – the communication of basic information. “On a more immediate level,” Costello went on,” you can, I suppose, hope to annoy people, like that guy in the Shetlands. I mean, The Sun ran a piece a couple of weeks ago saying I’d been banned by the BBC because I said, ‘I’m fucking sick of this’ on the Late Show. I haven’t seen the programme, but I remember swearing. I was asked something and I remember saying, ‘I’m 35 years old. I’m not a boy anymore. Don’t patronise me.’ It’s like that Grateful Dead song, ‘Ship Of Fools’ – ‘It makes me wild/With 30 years on my head/To have you call me child.’ You do sometimes feel particularly with the nanny aspect of this government that they’re treating everybody like little fucking children. “So The Sun runs this thing saying I swore on a live television show. And it was obviously pre-recorded because I was in America when it was shown. But a spokesman is supposed to have said, ‘Well, it jolly well caused a stink around here at the BBC.’ And they even quoted me. ‘Costello said last night, “I stand by every word.”’ Well, they must be fucking telepathic at the fucking Sun, because no one spoke to me about it. “But that’s an accolade, to get that sort of thing written about you in The Sun. It means you’re still getting up somebody’s fucking nose,” he said, laughing. “These days, that’s an achievement in itself.” Finally, here's a fantastic clip of Costello performing "Tramp the Dirt Down" on the BBC's Late Show special on Spike from February 1989, which at the very least is a reminder of a time when many of us were inclined to cheer at the very mention of Costello's name. Have a good week. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-BZIWSI5UQ

“To make true political music,” the great American critic Greil Marcus wrote nearly 25 years ago, “you have to say what decent people don’t want to hear; that’s something that people fit for satellite benefit concerts will never understand, and that Elvis Costello understood before anyone heard his name.”

Marcus was thinking specifically Elvis Costello’s “Tramp The Dirt Down”, from his 1989 album, Spike. The song, of course, is Costello’s furious indictment of Margaret Thatcher and the many ruinous things her Conservative government had done to Britain and its people, in which Costello venomously wishes the dragon dead and looks forward to dancing on her grave. The song is fuelled by the same righteous wrath that Dylan brought to “Masters Of War” – “I hope that you die and your death’ll come soon” – and on release caused grave offence, outrage in predictable quarters.

I first heard the song in March 1985, at a benefit for the National Union Of Miners at the Logan Hall in London, on the night that the union’s bitter year-long strike was finally called off, when it was as far as I knew at the time called “All She Thought Of Was Betrayal”. Yesterday, I was surprised to hear someone playing it in the Uncut office, unaware at the time that – ding dong! – the witch was dead.

Nearly 30 years on, the song will reflect the mood of many in the wake of Thatcher’s passing, which they will not mourn as much as celebrate, a lot of people as unforgiving still in their opinion of her as Costello was when he wrote it. Funnily enough, “Tramp The Dirt Down” has not yet been a featured part of the soundtrack to any of the television tributes to her that we have so far endured, and rogue MP George Galloway’s reference to it yesterday on Twitter has caused a noisy storm of protest from incensed Thatcher ultras. “Tramp the Dirt Down” was also very curiously absent from a round-up of songs about Thatcher compiled online by The Guardian, which perhaps was uncomfortable with a song that spoke so eloquently ill of the dead.

I have no idea how Costello would have received the news of Thatcher’s death yesterday, although I suspect little mourning was involved. But during an epic interview in Dublin not long after it appeared on Spike, I asked him about the song and the recent controversies it had provoked.

What does “Tramp the Dirt Down” achieve, what will it change?

“Nothing I can think of,” he said. “I honestly don’t think it will change anything. Like I said to one guy who asked a similar question, songs like that, they’re like tiny marker buoys. You know, ‘This is where the ship went down.’ The song’s not a party political broadcast, there’s no manifesto. It just says, ‘I’ll only be happy when this woman’s dead.’

“And some people no doubt might find that extreme. But it’s meant to be. I make no apology for that song. It’s an honest emotional response to events, and writing it was like casting out demons or something. And the song itself is the result of a form of madness, because when you get to that point of thinking these thoughts, actually wishing somebody dead, it really does become a form of madness. It’s a psychopathic thought. And it’s fucking disturbing to find it in your own head. But it would be cowardly not to express it. Because once it’s there, if you don’t get it out, it’s only going to come back and haunt you some more.

“I also think you have to remember that it’s not only her that the song is aimed at. It’s what she represents. The way she’s changed the way people value things. It’s like some kind of mass hypnosis she’s achieved. People are afraid to speak out. You know, one thing I thought I’d be asked when people heard it was whether I was saying it might’ve been a good thing if she’d died in the Brighton bombings. I don’t think so. It would have made things 10 times worse, because then she would have been a martyr. We would have had a dead queen. So really, in a profound sense, the song is hopeless. It’s a hopeless argument. Because I think it’s a hopeless situation. So, no, it’s not in a large, historical sense, going to change anything.

“But I think it does have maybe an individual effect. There’s always a chance it’ll sneak through somehow. Like, I sang it at a folk festival in the Shetlands, at one place that was very brightly lit and I could see the audience quite clearly. And all the way through, there was one guy nodding away, applauding every line obviously getting into it. And on the other side, there was another guy being physically restrained from getting up on the stage and hitting me. He just fused, he really went. You could see it in his face. And I thought, ‘Well, I’ve really got a winner now.’ To the extent, you know, that it had succeeded in being at least provocative.”

Is that all you can ask of a song these days?

“I’ve never really known what you’re supposed to expect from song,” he said. “And I think there’s a danger in the very talking about it, it makes it seem like you’ve achieved more than you have.”

Especially, perhaps, when the song itself seems not much more than an attention-seeking novelty, like Morrissey’s “Margaret On The Guillotine”.

“I don’t know much about Morrissey,” Costello replied. “Apart from the fact he sometimes brings out records with the greatest titles in the world that somewhere along the line he then neglects to write songs for. But I haven’t heard that particular song, so I can’t really comment on it. But generally, I think the best that can be achieved by songs like ‘Tramp The Dirt Down’ is something like ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ achieved. The record didn’t get Mandela released, but it did increase the membership of the anti-apartheid movement, because Jerry Dammers very intelligently printed their address on the sleeve. And the record introduced Mandela to a lot of people who maybe otherwise would never have heard of him. And there’s a point where political art only works on that level – the communication of basic information.

“On a more immediate level,” Costello went on,” you can, I suppose, hope to annoy people, like that guy in the Shetlands. I mean, The Sun ran a piece a couple of weeks ago saying I’d been banned by the BBC because I said, ‘I’m fucking sick of this’ on the Late Show. I haven’t seen the programme, but I remember swearing. I was asked something and I remember saying, ‘I’m 35 years old. I’m not a boy anymore. Don’t patronise me.’ It’s like that Grateful Dead song, ‘Ship Of Fools’ – ‘It makes me wild/With 30 years on my head/To have you call me child.’ You do sometimes feel particularly with the nanny aspect of this government that they’re treating everybody like little fucking children.

“So The Sun runs this thing saying I swore on a live television show. And it was obviously pre-recorded because I was in America when it was shown. But a spokesman is supposed to have said, ‘Well, it jolly well caused a stink around here at the BBC.’ And they even quoted me. ‘Costello said last night, “I stand by every word.”’ Well, they must be fucking telepathic at the fucking Sun, because no one spoke to me about it.

“But that’s an accolade, to get that sort of thing written about you in The Sun. It means you’re still getting up somebody’s fucking nose,” he said, laughing. “These days, that’s an achievement in itself.”

Finally, here’s a fantastic clip of Costello performing “Tramp the Dirt Down” on the BBC’s Late Show special on Spike from February 1989, which at the very least is a reminder of a time when many of us were inclined to cheer at the very mention of Costello’s name.

Have a good week.

First Look – Beware Of Mr Baker

Michael Bonner
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First Look – Beware Of Mr Baker

Hopefully, you'll have seen the new edition of Uncut by now. Among many, many good things in this month's issue, there's Nick Hasted's interview with Ginger Baker. Nick travelled to Baker's home on the outskirts of Canterbury, ostensibly to speak to Baker about a new documentary about the drummer's life. As Nick discovered, Baker himself proved to be quite a character; a fact reinforced by the film's director, Jay Bulger, who had his nose broken by the drummer while filming Beware Of Mr Baker. If you've not already seen the trailer, it's pasted below. Apart from the glowing testimonials to Baker's genius by Stewart Copeland, Lars Ulrich and other superstar drummers, there's some less salutary comments that hint at the more colourful aspects of Baker's tale. "He was fairly consistently horrible to people, and to himself," says Cream collaborator Pete Brown. As Baker says, "If they've got a problem with me, come and see me and punch me on the nose. I ain't going to sue you, i'm going to hit you back." As you'd expect, the footage of Baker playing with Fela Kuti, in Cream and Blind Faith is extraordinary. Anyway, I'll be reviewing the film in the next issue of Uncut. Meanwhile, here's the trailer for you... Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqrigN8jxj8

Hopefully, you’ll have seen the new edition of Uncut by now. Among many, many good things in this month’s issue, there’s Nick Hasted’s interview with Ginger Baker.

Nick travelled to Baker’s home on the outskirts of Canterbury, ostensibly to speak to Baker about a new documentary about the drummer’s life. As Nick discovered, Baker himself proved to be quite a character; a fact reinforced by the film’s director, Jay Bulger, who had his nose broken by the drummer while filming Beware Of Mr Baker.

If you’ve not already seen the trailer, it’s pasted below. Apart from the glowing testimonials to Baker’s genius by Stewart Copeland, Lars Ulrich and other superstar drummers, there’s some less salutary comments that hint at the more colourful aspects of Baker’s tale. “He was fairly consistently horrible to people, and to himself,” says Cream collaborator Pete Brown. As Baker says, “If they’ve got a problem with me, come and see me and punch me on the nose. I ain’t going to sue you, i’m going to hit you back.”

As you’d expect, the footage of Baker playing with Fela Kuti, in Cream and Blind Faith is extraordinary. Anyway, I’ll be reviewing the film in the next issue of Uncut. Meanwhile, here’s the trailer for you…

Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner

Queens Of The Stone Age announce ‘…Like Clockwork’ tracklisting and release date

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Queens Of The Stone Age announce ‘…Like Clockwork’ tracklisting and release date
Queens Of The Stone Age will release their forthcoming new album …Like Clockwork on June 3. Scroll down for the full tracklisting for the band's sixth album, which is the follow-up to 2007's Era Vulgaris. Artwork for the album has been designed by UK artist Boneface. The band premiered the studi...

Queens Of The Stone Age will release their forthcoming new album …Like Clockwork on June 3.

Scroll down for the full tracklisting for the band’s sixth album, which is the follow-up to 2007’s Era Vulgaris. Artwork for the album has been designed by UK artist Boneface.

The band premiered the studio version of the album’s first single “My God Is The Sun” on Zane Lowe’s BBC Radio 1 show this evening (April 8). Speaking about the album, Joshua Homme told Lowe: “I feel like a weight made of monkeys has lifted off my shoulders.”

“Every once in a while this process is difficult,” he added of making the record. “This is documenting the journey of moving forward and it was a tough time… Not to get all Beatles on you, but [I] just ‘Let It Be’.”

The track is available now as a free download to fans who pre-order …Like Clockwork through the band’s label Matador. The iTunes and Amazon pre-order starts on April 9.

“My God Is The Sun” is streaming now at QOTSA.com. Scroll down to listen to the song, which the band debuted live at Lollapalooza Brazil at the end of March.

…Like Clockwork is made up of 10 tracks and was produced by Joshua Homme and the band at Pink Duck in Burbank, California. It was recorded by Mark Rankin with additional engineering by Justin Smith.

The album contains a list of guest stars, including Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner, Dave Grohl, Elton John, Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, and Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters.

The band’s only confirmed live UK date this year is at Download Festival (June 14-16) at Donington Park.

The …Like Clockwork tracklisting is:

‘Keep Your Eyes Peeled’

‘I Sat By The Ocean’

‘The Vampyre of Time and Memory’

‘If I Had A Tail’

‘My God Is The Sun’

‘Kalopsia’

‘Fairweather Friends’

‘Smooth Sailing’

‘I Appear Missing’

‘…Like Clockwork’

The White Stripes to release ‘Nine Miles From The White City’ live album

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The White Stripes to release ‘Nine Miles From The White City’ live album
The White Stripes will release a live album titled 'Nine Miles From The White City', it has been confirmed. The release will come through Jack White's Third Man Records Vault subscription service and will be released as a double vinyl LP featuring 26 songs. Recorded at Chicago's Aragon Ballroom in...

The White Stripes will release a live album titled ‘Nine Miles From The White City’, it has been confirmed.

The release will come through Jack White’s Third Man Records Vault subscription service and will be released as a double vinyl LP featuring 26 songs. Recorded at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom in 2003, the tracklisting includes fan favourites such as ‘Hotel Yorba’ and ‘Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground’ as well as a number of cover versions of songs by Bob Dylan and Captain Beefheart.

The release celebrates 10 years since the release of The White Stripes album Elephant in 2003 and will come with a 7″ featuring demos of the Elephant tracks ‘I Want to Be the Boy to Warm Your Mother’s Heart’ and ‘Little Acorns’ as well as photos of the recording sessions for the album taken by David Swanson. A snippet of the demo version of The White Stripes ‘I Want to Be the Boy To Warm Your Mother’s Heart‘ can be heard below.

Nine Miles From the White City tracklisting:

‘When I Hear My Name’

‘Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground’

‘Love Sick’ (Bob Dylan cover)

‘Hotel Yorba’

‘Aluminum’

‘Cool Drink of Water Blues’ (Tommy Johnson cover)

‘The Hardest Button To Button’

‘I Want to Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother’s Heart’

‘Stones in My Passway’ (Robert Johnson cover)

‘Stop Breakin’ Down’ (Robert Johnson cover)

‘Do’

‘In the Cold, Cold Night’

‘Seven Nation Army’

‘The Same Boy You’ve Always Known’

‘Black Jack Davey’

‘We Are Going to Be Friends’

‘Offend in Every Way’

‘Little Cream Soda’

‘Cannon/’Party Of Special Things To Do’ (Captain Beefheart cover)

‘Candy Cane Children’

‘The Air Near My Fingers’

‘Screwdriver’ (tease)

‘Ball And Biscuit’

‘Screwdriver’ (reprise)

‘Let’s Build a Home’

‘Goin’ Back to Memphis’ (Henry & June cover)

Photo credit: Autumn de Wilde

Fleetwood Mac to release new EP ‘in a few days’

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Fleetwood Mac to release new EP ‘in a few days’

Lindsey Buckingham has announced that Fleetwood Mac will release an EP of new material later this week. The announcement came on stage in Philadelphia where the reunited band were playing one of the first dates of their 2013 world tour at the Fargo Centre on Saturday night (April 6). Speaking to the crowd before playing new song "Sad Angel", Buckingham said: "One of the things we thought would be a good idea before we hit the road would be to go into the studio and cut some new material. So last year we did that. It's the best stuff we've done in a long time and in a few days we're going to drop an EP of new stuff". Scroll down to watch the performance and hear the announcement now. Meanwhile, Christine McVie has said that she would be keen to perform live with Fleetwood Mac when they play live in London later this year. The group will perform three gigs at London's O2 Arena in September as part of a world tour and McVie, who retired from the music industry in 1998, has gone on record as saying that she will "pop back on stage" if the opportunity arises. Speaking to last week, McVie said: "If they wanted me to, I might pop back on stage when they’re in London just to do a little duet or something like that." Fleetwood Mac's UK dates are: Dublin 02 (September 20) London O2 Arena (24, 25, 27) Birmingham LG Arena (29) Manchester Arena (October 1) Glasgow The Hydro (3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CITTkWQyf4g

Lindsey Buckingham has announced that Fleetwood Mac will release an EP of new material later this week.

The announcement came on stage in Philadelphia where the reunited band were playing one of the first dates of their 2013 world tour at the Fargo Centre on Saturday night (April 6). Speaking to the crowd before playing new song “Sad Angel“, Buckingham said: “One of the things we thought would be a good idea before we hit the road would be to go into the studio and cut some new material. So last year we did that. It’s the best stuff we’ve done in a long time and in a few days we’re going to drop an EP of new stuff”. Scroll down to watch the performance and hear the announcement now.

Meanwhile, Christine McVie has said that she would be keen to perform live with Fleetwood Mac when they play live in London later this year.

The group will perform three gigs at London’s O2 Arena in September as part of a world tour and McVie, who retired from the music industry in 1998, has gone on record as saying that she will “pop back on stage” if the opportunity arises. Speaking to last week, McVie said: “If they wanted me to, I might pop back on stage when they’re in London just to do a little duet or something like that.”

Fleetwood Mac’s UK dates are:

Dublin 02 (September 20)

London O2 Arena (24, 25, 27)

Birmingham LG Arena (29)

Manchester Arena (October 1)

Glasgow The Hydro (3)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CITTkWQyf4g

The Rolling Stones announce second London Hyde Park gig

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The Rolling Stones announce second London Hyde Park gig
The Rolling Stones have announced they will play a second gig in London’s Hyde Park. The band will play on July 13, one week after their show on July 6. Jake Bugg, Tom Odell and The 1975 will support the Stones for their second concert. The band's show on July 6 sold out within minutes of ticke...

The Rolling Stones have announced they will play a second gig in London’s Hyde Park.

The band will play on July 13, one week after their show on July 6.

Jake Bugg, Tom Odell and The 1975 will support the Stones for their second concert.

The band’s show on July 6 sold out within minutes of tickets going on sale last week.

Tickets for the July 13 show – which is part of the Barclaycard Presents British Summer Time Hyde Park series – go on sale on Friday at 9am, with Barclaycard Unwind customers able to buy from Wednesday.

Justin Vernon’s new band, The Shouting Matches, stream their debut album

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Justin Vernon’s new band, The Shouting Matches, stream their debut album

The debut album from Justin Vernon's new band, The Shouting Matches, is streaming online now. Grownass Man, the first LP from the trio fronted by the Bon Iver man, is a departure from much of his previous work, showcasing a raw, blues-rock style. The Shouting Matches also feature Phil Cook – who played with Vernon in the band DeYarmond Edison, and now performs as part of Megafaun – and Brian Moen, part of the duo Peter Wolf Crier. The group are set to play at this month's Coachella festival in California. Grownass Man is available to listen to on NPR Music's site.

The debut album from Justin Vernon‘s new band, The Shouting Matches, is streaming online now.

Grownass Man, the first LP from the trio fronted by the Bon Iver man, is a departure from much of his previous work, showcasing a raw, blues-rock style.

The Shouting Matches also feature Phil Cook – who played with Vernon in the band DeYarmond Edison, and now performs as part of Megafaun – and Brian Moen, part of the duo Peter Wolf Crier.

The group are set to play at this month’s Coachella festival in California.

Grownass Man is available to listen to on NPR Music’s site.

Bill Wyman on joining The Rolling Stones again: ‘I’ve got better things to be doing now’

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Bill Wyman on joining The Rolling Stones again: ‘I’ve got better things to be doing now’
The Rolling Stones' former bassist Bill Wyman has said he would never rejoin the band because he's got "better things to be doing". Wyman, who played with the The Rolling Stones between 1962 and 1993, joined the band onstage for their 50th anniversary gigs at London's O2 Arena last November (2012...

The Rolling Stones‘ former bassist Bill Wyman has said he would never rejoin the band because he’s got “better things to be doing”.

Wyman, who played with the The Rolling Stones between 1962 and 1993, joined the band onstage for their 50th anniversary gigs at London’s O2 Arena last November (2012). When asked by The Express what he would say if Mick Jagger asked him back on a permanent basis, he replied: “I’d say ‘no’…Thirty years was great but I’ve got better things to be doing now. That time has gone.”

Wyman, who is now a restaurateur, said playing with his former bandmates for the first time in 20 years last November was “great for five minutes because that’s about as long as they let me play… I thought I was going to get quite heavily involved because I was led to believe that throughout the year by them.”

He added: “Keith [Richards] in particular made me think that I would be a large part of it but when it came to it they told me they only wanted me to do two songs. It was fun but I regretted not playing more. I was a bass guitarist, a rhythm guitarist, I have to be on the button from the moment Charlie [Watts] does that first drum roll… I came off just as I was warming up and getting into it.”

He also revealed that he turned down the chance to play the US leg of the tour: “When they asked me to go to America for two weeks to do three shows there, I said ‘For two songs? No thank you.'”

Last week, tickets to see The Rolling Stones for their forthcoming huge Hyde Park on July 6 gig sold out in three minutes, fuelling speculation that they will add another show due to popular demand. The gig will mark the first time the band have played at the venue since their now-legendary gig in 1969.

The Stones will play in London just a week after they headline the Saturday night of Glastonbury in June.

The National unveil new song ‘Demons’ – listen

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The National unveil new song ‘Demons’ – listen

'Demons', the first song to be released from The National's forthcoming new album, has been premiered on BBC 6 Music. You can listen to the track below. 'Demons' is the second track on Trouble Will Find Me, the group's sixth album, which is set to be released on May 20 on 4AD. Trouble Will Find Me is the follow-up to 2010's High Violet, which debuted at number three in the US Billboard chart. During the three-year gap between High Violet and Trouble Will Find Me, guitarists Bryce and Aaron Dessner, along with singer Matt Berninger, worked on a multimedia production, The Long Count, which also featured vocal contributions from Kim and Kelley Deal, Shara Worden and Tunde Adebimpe. The group's new album features guest appearances from St Vincent, Sufjan Stevens, Sharon Van Etten and Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N527oBKIPMc

‘Demons’, the first song to be released from The National‘s forthcoming new album, has been premiered on BBC 6 Music. You can listen to the track below.

‘Demons’ is the second track on Trouble Will Find Me, the group’s sixth album, which is set to be released on May 20 on 4AD.

Trouble Will Find Me is the follow-up to 2010’s High Violet, which debuted at number three in the US Billboard chart. During the three-year gap between High Violet and Trouble Will Find Me, guitarists Bryce and Aaron Dessner, along with singer Matt Berninger, worked on a multimedia production, The Long Count, which also featured vocal contributions from Kim and Kelley Deal, Shara Worden and Tunde Adebimpe.

The group’s new album features guest appearances from St Vincent, Sufjan Stevens, Sharon Van Etten and Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry.

Black Sabbath announce UK arena tour

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Black Sabbath announce UK arena tour
Black Sabbath have announced a UK arena tour for December 2013. The band will kick off the tour at London's O2 Arena on December 12, before calling in at Belfast, Sheffield, Glasgow and Manchester before a homecoming show at Birmingham’s LG Arena on December 20. The dates will support the band...

Black Sabbath have announced a UK arena tour for December 2013.

The band will kick off the tour at London’s O2 Arena on December 12, before calling in at Belfast, Sheffield, Glasgow and Manchester before a homecoming show at Birmingham’s LG Arena on December 20.

The dates will support the band’s brand new album ’13’, which will be released on June 10. ’13’ is the first album Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler have recorded together since 1978’s ‘Never Say Die!’. The Birmingham rock legends made the album primarily in Los Angeles with renowned producer Rick Rubin (Johnny Cash, Metallica, System Of A Down), and it features Rage Against The Machine’s Brad Wilk, who replaces original sticksman Bill Ward on drums.

Black Sabbath will play:

London O2 Arena (December 10)

Belfast Odyssey Arena (December 12)

Sheffield Arena (December 14)

Glasgow Hydro (December 16)

Manchester Arena (December 18)

Birmingham LG Arena (December 20)

Meanwhile, it was revealed earlier this year that Iommi has written the song that Armenia will enter for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Iommi will not perform at the annual competition, which this year is taking place in Sweden, but he has written the song ‘Lonely Planet’ for Armenian band Dorians.

Tickets for Black Sabbath’s UK arena tour go onsale on Friday (April 12) at 9am.

Andy Johns, Led Zeppelin and Rolling Stones engineer and producer, dies aged 61

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Andy Johns, Led Zeppelin and Rolling Stones engineer and producer, dies aged 61
Andy Johns has died at the age of 61. The producer and engineer was hospitalised last week, collaborator Stacy Blades told Billboard, partly due to liver problems, though no cause of death has yet been announced. The younger brother of producer Glyn Johns, Andy Johns was born in 1952. He began stu...

Andy Johns has died at the age of 61.

The producer and engineer was hospitalised last week, collaborator Stacy Blades told Billboard, partly due to liver problems, though no cause of death has yet been announced.

The younger brother of producer Glyn Johns, Andy Johns was born in 1952. He began studio work as tape operator on The Rolling Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties Request in 1967, before going on to engineer legendary albums such as Led Zeppelin’s II, III and IV and The Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main Street.

Other records he engineered include Free’s Highway, Blind Faith’s self-titled, the Stones’ It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll, Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti, and Joni Mitchell’s Shadows And Light, as well as albums by Mott The Hoople and Jethro Tull.

Johns also carved out a successful career as a producer, working on Television’s Marquee Moon, as well as albums by Steve Miller, Free, Humble Pie, Van Halen, Bobby Whitlock and Ron Wood.

Johns is survived by his wife Anet, as well as his sons Evan, Jesse and Will.

Edwyn Collins – Understated

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Edwyn Collins – Understated

Less is infinitely more for the man who invented indie... “I have been a rover, I have walked alone,” quavers Edwyn Collins, closing his second record since suffering two serious strokes in 2005 with an incongruous rendition of Rod McKuen’s “Love’s Been Good To Me”. It’s the sort of last-orders warhorse that the floppy-fringed Collins might have referenced obliquely in his Orange Juice pomp as he stalked the margins between the classic and the kitschy in a Davy Crockett hat. Here, though - backed by an acoustic guitar and what sounds like a Joe Meek theramin whine - he throws everything he has at it, battling to hold on as his voice cracks around the high notes. You’re waiting for the twist – the wink and the knowing grin – and, as with the rest of Understated, there really isn’t one. Those bewitched by the playful Edwyn Collins of “You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever” or the ironic subversions of his Britpop-era second wind might find Understated hard going. Musically, it is business as usual – out-on-the-floor, stack-heeled indie stompers all the way – but if 2010’s stark Losing Sleep was a little on the abrupt side, this is more concise still. Collins has recovered his vocabulary since his strokes (at one stage, his only four coherent phrases were “yes”, “no”, “Grace Maxwell” – the name of his wife and manager - and “the possibilities are endless”) but has ruthlessly streamlined his songwriting lexicon. “My lyrics are now simple - backward, maybe,” he said. “They used to be very flowery. Now they’re direct and focused and repetitious and precise.” He can say that again, and if Understated is anything to go by, he will. For here is a record where economy – of language, of ideas – is a virtue. Having struggled for life, the simple act of being is mined relentlessly for subject matter, but amid Collins’ drive to document simple, universal truths, the tiny flourishes illuminate the one-time draftsman’s craftsmanship; the life-or-death double-entendre of ‘Dilemma’s refrain “that’s me all over”; the deadpan Otis Redding lift of “I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day” on “Baby Jean”; the syntactical twists that stretch “the question of what you do, what you see are integral to life in my point of view” over four lines in uptempo stomper “Carry On, Carry On”. What epiphanies that come, meanwhile, are elegantly undersold. He measures his pop career matter-of-factly on “31 Years” and acknowledges his teenage days as a graphic artist with the Glasgow parks department on the title track, breaking into what seems like a torrent of emotion by comparison on “Forsooth” – a classic Collins word if ever there was one – as he enjoys a lazy morning around the house. “I’m so happy to be alive,” he repeats over a mesmeric Velvet Underground buzz, descending into what comes close to a Van Morrison-circa-Astral Weeks rapture with the reiterated phrase “I feel alive and I feel reborn”. Given the brisk manner in which he documents his life elsewhere (“Back to life, back to hope,” on the cheery “Too Bad (That’s Sad)” – “to and fro, back to work,” on the smoky “It’s A Reason)” it’s an unexpectedly cathartic moment, all the more so as he is not one given to gush. For all of his reputation as a jangly romantic - Jonathan Richman with the sappy swapped for savvy – Collins is a supremely controlled writer, even his wordiest masterworks littered with pomposity-busting asides and obfuscatory single inverts. Understated dispenses with all those frills and curlicues, and if it does not offer unbridled emotion, its quiet determination strikes a dramatic enough minor chord. “I’ve got music to see me through, I’ve got art to ease the pain,” Collins explains on ‘Baby Jean’, staking out the margins of his new territory once more. No longer so clever maybe, but indubitably wise. Jim Wirth Q&A EDWYN COLLINS You sound like a very positive person: is that a fair assessment? It's fair, certainly. I wake up in a cheerful mood every day, because I have a great life. I'm lucky, I guess. I feel it. Why “Understated”? Words pop into my head, single words, then I try to bend them into a song. "Understated, hmmm, let's see, an interesting idea. My career, perhaps?” But no, actually I'm not at all understated! I'm a show-off. “Forsooth” is extraordinary: can you talk us through it? Obviously, it's a Velvets reference. But it's still all mine. I like the chant feel to it. And ironically, “I feel alive, I feel reborn.” As opposed to “Heroin......” Has the process of writing songs changed since your stroke? Oh yes. Lyrically, more direct and to the point. That's fine - I have no choice, and I like it. Music? I can only play a little now, but all the notes and chords flow easily enough in my brain. My musician friends get my intent, no problem there. I sing them the parts, choose the effects, arrange the instruments. We collaborate, it's brilliant. “Love’s Been Good To Me” is an odd choice of cover. I used to sing it ten years ago, acoustically. I love Rod McKuen, and the Sinatra version. It's just a beautiful song. Ten years ago, I loved to play it on the guitar, especially. INTERVIEW: JIM WIRTH

Less is infinitely more for the man who invented indie…

“I have been a rover, I have walked alone,” quavers Edwyn Collins, closing his second record since suffering two serious strokes in 2005 with an incongruous rendition of Rod McKuen’s “Love’s Been Good To Me”.

It’s the sort of last-orders warhorse that the floppy-fringed Collins might have referenced obliquely in his Orange Juice pomp as he stalked the margins between the classic and the kitschy in a Davy Crockett hat. Here, though – backed by an acoustic guitar and what sounds like a Joe Meek theramin whine – he throws everything he has at it, battling to hold on as his voice cracks around the high notes. You’re waiting for the twist – the wink and the knowing grin – and, as with the rest of Understated, there really isn’t one.

Those bewitched by the playful Edwyn Collins of “You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever” or the ironic subversions of his Britpop-era second wind might find Understated hard going. Musically, it is business as usual – out-on-the-floor, stack-heeled indie stompers all the way – but if 2010’s stark Losing Sleep was a little on the abrupt side, this is more concise still.

Collins has recovered his vocabulary since his strokes (at one stage, his only four coherent phrases were “yes”, “no”, “Grace Maxwell” – the name of his wife and manager – and “the possibilities are endless”) but has ruthlessly streamlined his songwriting lexicon. “My lyrics are now simple – backward, maybe,” he said. “They used to be very flowery. Now they’re direct and focused and repetitious and precise.”

He can say that again, and if Understated is anything to go by, he will. For here is a record where economy – of language, of ideas – is a virtue. Having struggled for life, the simple act of being is mined relentlessly for subject matter, but amid Collins’ drive to document simple, universal truths, the tiny flourishes illuminate the one-time draftsman’s craftsmanship; the life-or-death double-entendre of ‘Dilemma’s refrain “that’s me all over”; the deadpan Otis Redding lift of “I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day” on “Baby Jean”; the syntactical twists that stretch “the question of what you do, what you see are integral to life in my point of view” over four lines in uptempo stomper “Carry On, Carry On”.

What epiphanies that come, meanwhile, are elegantly undersold. He measures his pop career matter-of-factly on “31 Years” and acknowledges his teenage days as a graphic artist with the Glasgow parks department on the title track, breaking into what seems like a torrent of emotion by comparison on “Forsooth” – a classic Collins word if ever there was one – as he enjoys a lazy morning around the house. “I’m so happy to be alive,” he repeats over a mesmeric Velvet Underground buzz, descending into what comes close to a Van Morrison-circa-Astral Weeks rapture with the reiterated phrase “I feel alive and I feel reborn”.

Given the brisk manner in which he documents his life elsewhere (“Back to life, back to hope,” on the cheery “Too Bad (That’s Sad)” – “to and fro, back to work,” on the smoky “It’s A Reason)” it’s an unexpectedly cathartic moment, all the more so as he is not one given to gush. For all of his reputation as a jangly romantic – Jonathan Richman with the sappy swapped for savvy – Collins is a supremely controlled writer, even his wordiest masterworks littered with pomposity-busting asides and obfuscatory single inverts.

Understated dispenses with all those frills and curlicues, and if it does not offer unbridled emotion, its quiet determination strikes a dramatic enough minor chord. “I’ve got music to see me through, I’ve got art to ease the pain,” Collins explains on ‘Baby Jean’, staking out the margins of his new territory once more. No longer so clever maybe, but indubitably wise.

Jim Wirth

Q&A

EDWYN COLLINS

You sound like a very positive person: is that a fair assessment?

It’s fair, certainly. I wake up in a cheerful mood every day, because I have a great life. I’m lucky, I guess. I feel it.

Why “Understated”?

Words pop into my head, single words, then I try to bend them into a song. “Understated, hmmm, let’s see, an interesting idea. My career, perhaps?” But no, actually I’m not at all understated! I’m a show-off.

“Forsooth” is extraordinary: can you talk us through it?

Obviously, it’s a Velvets reference. But it’s still all mine. I like the chant feel to it. And ironically, “I feel alive, I feel reborn.” As opposed to “Heroin……”

Has the process of writing songs changed since your stroke?

Oh yes. Lyrically, more direct and to the point. That’s fine – I have no choice, and I like it. Music? I can only play a little now, but all the notes and chords flow easily enough in my brain. My musician friends get my intent, no problem there. I sing them the parts, choose the effects, arrange the instruments. We collaborate, it’s brilliant.

“Love’s Been Good To Me” is an odd choice of cover.

I used to sing it ten years ago, acoustically. I love Rod McKuen, and the Sinatra version. It’s just a beautiful song. Ten years ago, I loved to play it on the guitar, especially.

INTERVIEW: JIM WIRTH

Mark Knopfler cancels two concerts in Russia in protest over human rights crackdown

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Mark Knopfler cancels two concerts in Russia in protest over human rights crackdown
Mark Knopfler has axed two concerts in Russia in protest over a crackdown on human rights groups. He was due to perform in Moscow on June 7 and in St Petersburg the following night (8) but has now decided to cancel the shows following the decision of Russian prosecutors and tax officials to search ...

Mark Knopfler has axed two concerts in Russia in protest over a crackdown on human rights groups.

He was due to perform in Moscow on June 7 and in St Petersburg the following night (8) but has now decided to cancel the shows following the decision of Russian prosecutors and tax officials to search the offices of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Memorial, Russia’s oldest rights group, in what Kremlin observers claimed were raids aimed at stifling criticism of President Vladimir Putin.

Knopfler wrote on his official website: “Given the crackdown by Russian authorities on groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, I have regretfully decided to cancel my upcoming concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg.”

He added: “I have always loved playing in Russia and have great affection for the country and the people. I hope the current climate will change soon.”

Russian authorities have recently carried out unprecedented searches of over 100 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in rights activism, reports The Daily Telegraph. Putin has signed laws to tighten controls on non-governmental organisations since he returned to the presidency in March last year, requiring those with foreign funding to register as “foreign agents”.

Knopfler previously spoke out in support of Pussy Riot when three members were jailed last year. At the time he said: “Whenever a political regime or religious establishment refuses to tolerate criticism it advertises itself as repressive, backward and insecure. This verdict will diminish Russia in the eyes of the world. I condemn the prison sentences given to these young people and support the right to protest for everyone.”

The National announce UK and European tour dates

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The National announce UK and European tour dates

The National have announced UK and European tour dates. The band, who release their sixth album, Trouble Will Find Me, on May 21, have lined up a run of dates through October and November, including a show at London's Alexandra Palace. The National will play: 31 Oct Finland, Helsinki, Ice Hall 2 Nov Denmark, Copenhagen, Forum 4 Nov Germany, Berlin, Max Schmelling Halle 5 Nov Germany, Dusseldorf, Mitsubishi Electric Hallen 6 Nov Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Rockhal 7 Nov The Netherlands, Amsterdam, Heineken Music Hall 9 Nov UK, Belfast, Odyssey Arena 10 Nov Ireland, Dublin, O2 Arena 11 Nov UK, Manchester, O2 Apollo 13 Nov UK, London, Alexandra Palace 18 Nov France, Paris, Zenith 20 Nov Spain, Madrid, Palacio Vistalegre 21 Nov Portugal, Lisbon, Pavilhao Atlântico For more information and tickets visit: http://www.americanmary.com/tour.php

The National have announced UK and European tour dates.

The band, who release their sixth album, Trouble Will Find Me, on May 21, have lined up a run of dates through October and November, including a show at London’s Alexandra Palace.

The National will play:

31 Oct Finland, Helsinki, Ice Hall

2 Nov Denmark, Copenhagen, Forum

4 Nov Germany, Berlin, Max Schmelling Halle

5 Nov Germany, Dusseldorf, Mitsubishi Electric Hallen

6 Nov Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Rockhal

7 Nov The Netherlands, Amsterdam, Heineken Music Hall

9 Nov UK, Belfast, Odyssey Arena

10 Nov Ireland, Dublin, O2 Arena

11 Nov UK, Manchester, O2 Apollo

13 Nov UK, London, Alexandra Palace

18 Nov France, Paris, Zenith

20 Nov Spain, Madrid, Palacio Vistalegre

21 Nov Portugal, Lisbon, Pavilhao Atlântico

For more information and tickets visit: http://www.americanmary.com/tour.php

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