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Cat Power – Redemption Songs

Tom Pinnock
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Cat Power – Redemption Songs
Chan Marshall’s new album, Sun, is reviewed in the latest issue of Uncut (Take 185, October 2012) – this week’s archive feature, from December 2006 (Take 115), finds Marshall recovering from a breakdown after perhaps her most successful year to date. Here, she tells Marc Spitz how she pulled h...

Chan Marshall’s new album, Sun, is reviewed in the latest issue of Uncut (Take 185, October 2012) – this week’s archive feature, from December 2006 (Take 115), finds Marshall recovering from a breakdown after perhaps her most successful year to date. Here, she tells Marc Spitz how she pulled herself back from the edge…

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The time is 10.30am, the venue New York’s swish Mercer Hotel. Charlyn Marie Marshall, Chan for short, and Cat Power professionally, has been up a while. It’s not only odd to see her so spry at this un-rock’n’roll hour, it’s a surprise to see her at all; in the flesh, alive and well.

Marshall, 34, is currently at her most successful, both commercially and critically. The response to her seventh album, The Greatest – a downright poetic Memphis soul stew – has been rapturous. And yet, just a few weeks after its release in late January 2006, and on the eve of a sold-out tour, she was committed to the psychiatric ward of Miami’s Mount Sinai Medical Center: dirty, disorientated, possibly suicidal. Although famously erratic, often in public (a 1999 onstage meltdown at New York’s Bowery Ballroom has already passed into myth), Marshall had finally tasted the floor after years of alcoholism, depression and inexplicable shame.

Marshall had been alone and muttering to herself at the very moment that thousands of record buyers, many of them new converts to the Cult of Cat, were just beginning to sing her beautiful songs to themselves.

“I’ll never forget hearing her the first time,” Dave Grohl, who guested on Cat Power’s 2003 release, You Are Free, tells Uncut. “I was in New Zealand. My friend had a mixtape going in the van and ‘Cross Bones Style’ from the Moon Pix album came on. I turned it up and asked, ‘Who the fuck is this?’ I swear, nothing else mattered at that moment. Not the sun. Not the sea. Or the perfect summer day. Her voice was chilling. Her guitar was beautiful. Her words were so pure.”

Marshall, with her hair pulled back, looks older and less cherubic in person than she does onstage or in photos. She’s a muse to fashion designer Marc Jacobs and filmmakers Wong Kar Wai and Harmony Korine (who directed her most recent video for the single “Living Proof”). She posed for the late Richard Avedon, who was reportedly smitten as well. A recent concert in Austin, Texas lured professional cool types David Byrne, Michael Stipe, Jake Gyllenhaal, Sam Rockwell, Michael Imperioli and Vincent Gallo (who she directly addressed in a very early tune, “Mr Gallo”). She’s already the closest thing that her generation – and, some might argue, indie rock in general – has to a real living legend. And she’s now well aware of how perilously close she came to becoming just another dead one. It’s been a great year. It’s been a terrible year, too.

In January, the buzz on The Greatest – recorded with legendary Al Green cohorts Mabon “Teenie” Hodges, his brother Leroy “Flick” Hodges, and a Southern soul all-star team of percussionists and horn players – was that it would be the one to deliver Marshall to the mainstream. Her vocals – softer, sexier and jazzier than usual – seemed perfect for the Starbucks masses. The crack Memphis Rhythm Band, led by Hodges, was booked for her sold-out tour. One week after its release, the album charted Stateside at No 34. And then, just days before the tour was due to kick off, Matador Records, her label since 1996, announced it would be cancelled due to “health reasons”. For the sake of Marshall’s “privacy”, no further details were offered. Most assumed the worst.

“My friend cancelled the tour,” Marshall says with a candour common to rehabbers. “A painter, Susanna Vapnek. She heard my prayers. Had a bad feeling, came down to Miami. I didn’t even recognise her at first. I hadn’t eaten in eight days. Hadn’t answered the phone.”

Marshall spent a week in hospital, emerging on heavy meds, but off the whiskey. “I started reading,” she says of her early sobriety. “I read every Murakami book. I woke up at 6am and swam in the ocean. I didn’t have to be on a plane or at soundcheck. I didn’t have to do an interview. I could come back from the beach, sleep ’til four, go see two movies. I started biking with my friends at sunset. Started thinking about getting a dog. I started being a human being.”

Marshall was born poor to an alcoholic mother and a frustrated musician father. As a child, she used to save up her allowance while planning to run away. “I’d hide it in the mattress because I thought once I had $12, I’d go,” she tells Uncut in a gentle Southern drawl. Once she hit 17, she left Georgia with only a little more than that. And although she was the only member of her family to escape the South, she took a lot of Atlanta with her. Choosing her stage name randomly after a farm equipment company, Marshall spent the early ’90s on the pre-gentrified Lower East Side of Manhattan, doing odd jobs, drinking in dives and writing songs on a $75 guitar. Once she began releasing records, critics found her dissolute, Flannery O’Connor-heroine chic irresistible. But it was, and would remain, a millstone.

“Mental disability tends to run in poor families,” she says, “Due to the oppression. My grandma was a cotton picker. Her mom was a Native American. Alcohol tends to be in the family more when you’re poor and uneducated. I’m illegitimate. My dad’s illegitimate. You either drink or go to church like my grandmother, believe in God and hope for something to keep yourself sane and positive. Did music help me break that cycle? Hell, yeah.”

A deal with Matador and the college radio success of her third album, What Would The Community Think, permitted her to stop looking back; but, to do so, she had to barrel ahead blindly. She lost friends to overdoses, AIDS and violence, but she just kept touring. And drinking. In 1998, she tried to settle down in North Carolina with then partner Smog’s Bill Callahan. Soon, she was recording Moon Pix in Australia with backing band the Dirty Three.

“Drinking, drinking, drinking,” she recalls, “That was the lifestyle…being in bars. I had these shackles on. Being Southern, female, uneducated, poor. Even after I started releasing records, I could never really accept that people wanted to see me, or do interviews. I look at faces in the crowd now and see them smiling at me and I understand it. I don’t think I’m a piece of shit any more.”

Over the weekend Uncut spends with her, Marshall plays three sold-out shows, and she plans to spend much of the remainder of 2006 on the road. There are London dates, too. Most audiences are lifted by the big band’s interpretations of her agonised oldies (her landmark ’96 single, “Nude As the News”, now dovetails into an Otis Redding-style cover of “Satisfaction”), but some purists almost require misery from her. She has two songs already written for her next album, and a possible collaboration with Jack White is in the works.

Life must suddenly be looking pretty good. So will the elimination of her pain diminish her effectiveness as an artist? “I know what you’re saying,” she nods, lighting up a cigarette and exhaling defiantly.

“But it’s tough shit, because it hurt too long.”

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The pick of the litter: your guide to Cat Power’s best, pre-The Greatest

“Yesterday Is Here”

Dear Sir (1995, RUNT RECORDS)

“All our dreams come true.” Marshall wails in this chilling blue that outdoes Polly Harvey pain for pain, hunger for hunger. No small feat. Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan wrote it, Chan Marshall probably lived it.

“We All Die”

Myra Lee (1996, SMELLS LIKE RECORDS)

With its looped, sludge-punk riff and howling vocals, this five-minute meditation on mortality isn’t far removed from the then-waning Seattle grunge sound, but it’s weirder and more sinister.

“Nude As The News”

What Would The Community Think (1996, MATADOR)

The closest thing Cat Power ever had to a set-closing “encore”, or hit. Ostensibly about a woman telling her man that he’s gonna be a dad, but warning him, “I still have a flame gun for the cute ones…”

“American Flag”

Moon Pix (1998, MATADOR)

Hendrix squeals, hip-hop beats, and a psycho-goth vocal that sounds like it’s being sung from a gurney in the back of an ambulette. Twisted, haunting indie trip-hop with backing band the Dirty Three bringing the disease.

“I Found A Reason”

The Covers Record (2001, MATADOR)

This Velvet Underground cover is arranged (like most of the songs on the album) so that it barely resembles Reed’s doo-wop-influenced original. But it’s one of Marshall’s sweetest vocals; a one-minute-fifty-eight-second-long daydream for lovers.

“Good Woman”

You Are Free (2003, MATADOR)

Country blues, complete with weeping fiddle and gutting goodbyes to a lover she’s either lost or is rapidly losing. Put it on a mixtape for someone you’d like to damage.

Picture: Pieter M Van Hattem

Bob Dylan – Tempest

Uncut
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Bob Dylan – Tempest
Bob Dylan’s fantastic new album opens with a train song. Given the wrath to come and the often elemental ire that accompanies it, not to mention all the bloodshed, madness, death, chaos and assorted disasters that will shortly be forthcoming, you may be surprised that what’s clattering along the...

Bob Dylan’s fantastic new album opens with a train song. Given the wrath to come and the often elemental ire that accompanies it, not to mention all the bloodshed, madness, death, chaos and assorted disasters that will shortly be forthcoming, you may be surprised that what’s clattering along the tracks here isn’t the ominous engine of a slow train coming, a locomotive of doom and retribution, souls wailing in a caboose crowded with the forlorn damned and other people like them.

“Dusquesne Whistle”, instead, and at odds it will shortly transpire with much we go on to encounter, joyfully evokes the jubilee train of gospel legend, bound for glory; a salvation express full of hopeful hallelujahs, its destination somewhere better than here, this sickly place and its trampled sadness, unceasing strife and grief everywhere you look. In ways some distance removed from the things waiting on the rest of the album, “Dusquesne Whistle” is passably carefree, possibly even best described as rambunctious.

It begins fabulously, with a jazzy instrumental preface, reminiscent of “Nashville Skyline Rag”, guitarists Charlie Sexton and Stu Kimble briskly exchanging Charlie Christian licks. It’s like turning on the radio and tuning into the past, nostalgically evocative of a more sunlit innocent time. There is too the impression that we have joined the album, somehow, after it’s already started and eerily like this music has been playing forever on a disc that never stops spinning. Then the whole group blows in, the magnificent road band that’s backed Dylan, most of them anyway, on everything he’s recorded since ‘Love And Theft’, and so includes Modern Times, Together Through Life and Christmas In The Heart.

They are ablaze here and on fire throughout, and at their jitterbugging point of entry, “Dusquesne [phonetically, Doo-Kayne] Whistle” takes on an unstoppable momentum that may remind you of, say, “Highway 61 Revisited” or “Tombstone Blues” (I was also fleetingly reminded of Cat Power’s swinging version of “Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again” from the I’m Not There soundtrack). Even as the song is apparently celebrating what’s good in the world, something more awry is stirring, clouds gathering. “Can’t you here that Dusquesne Whistle blowin’, blowin’ like the sky’s gonna blow apart,” Dylan sings in intimation of shadows about to fall paradise. In other words, Tempest is not dark yet, but will be soon enough.

When Dylan convened with his band at Jackson Browne’s Groove Masters studios in Santa Monica, he’s said it was his intention to make a ‘religious’ album, though he wasn’t specific about quite what he meant by this and whether there was any connection between the record he had in mind and his so-called Born Again albums, that trio of discs including Slow Train Coming, Saved and Shot Of Love that 30 years ago shocked and confounded his audience, when they were also alarmed by the vengeful sermonising that punctuated his concerts of the time. There are inklings, though, of the album Dylan originally envisioned on, for instance, “Dusquenes Whistle”, where a voice the singer hears “must be the mother of our Lord”, and even more apparently on the devotionally-inclined “Long And Wasted Years” and the gospel-influenced “Pay In Blood”, which follows. The testing of belief in extreme circumstances is a recurring theme.

“Long And Wasted Years” finds Dylan almost talking his way through the song, in the manner of “Three Angels” from New Morning, over a slightly churchy organ and a lovely bluesy guitar refrain. “I think that when my back was turned, the whole world behind me burned,” Dylan recites at one point, the charred landscape that so much of Tempest occupies coming fully into focus, a forlorn sort of place, populated by the displaced and the lost, to who Dylan gives poignant voice. “I ain’t seen my family in 20 years,” he reflects wearily in one of the verses. “They may be dead by now/I lost track of them after they lost their land.” The bereft hopelessness that is evident in many instances on the album is especially well articulated here, especially in the song’s chastening final image: “We cried on a cold and frosty morn,” Dylan mourns, and there’s no other word for it. “We cried because our souls were torn/So much for tears, so much for these long and wasted years”.

“Pay In Blood” opens with guitars, piano and a little Tex-Mex swagger over a vaguely menacing chord sequence reminiscent of one of those great declamatory Warren Zevon songs that Dylan so admires, like “Lawyers, Guns And Money”, “Boom Boom Mancini” (which Dylan covered in concert several times as a tribute when Zevon died in 2003). There’s a hint, too, in the arrangement, of the song’s gospel roots, and something of the Stones in Charlie Sexton’s admirable guitar riff. It’s a song in part about the futile notion of suffering being in any way ennobling. “How I made it back home, nobody knows/Or how I survived so many blows/I’ve been through hell, what good did it do?” Dylan asks, a bitter question, asked perhaps of God, since he then adds: “You bastard, I’m supposed to respect you? I’ll give you justice. . .” The singer’s anger is anger palpably rising, and he is prone to reject communal solace for a life apart, lonely and slightly terrified. “This is how I spend my days/I take my fear and sleep alone,” Dylan sings, following it with the chilling pay-off line, several times repeated: “I pay in blood, but not my own.”

“Soon After Midnight”, meanwhile, sounds at first like a touching, funny country love song, gently crooned, with the languid melodic lope of “Mississippi”. It gives way suddenly, however, to a similar distress – “My heart is fearful/It’s never cheerful/I’ve been down on the killing floor” – and an incrementally vengeful mood that surfaces several times elsewhere, with even greater malevolence. “Narrow Way”, for instance, is seven minutes of wrath, driven by the kind of scalding guitar circulations that propelled “Dirt Road Blues” on Time Out Of Mind and Modern Times’ “Rollin’ And Tumblin’”, both of which also were indebted to Muddy Waters. “This is a hard country to stay alive in,” Dylan sings, in condemnation of the people who have made it thus, adding in warning: “I’m armed to the hilt.”

“Early Roman Kings” is equally livid, an accusatory tirade, again directed at the same people Dylan has pretty much railed against since he first put plectrum to guitar string and started having his say about things. The “kings” of the song’s title are vividly seen “in their sharkskin suits, bow-ties and buttons and high-top boots” as shyster bankers, corrupt money-men who have bankrupted nations, impoverished millions. As Dylan puts it, “The meddlers and the peddlers, they buy and they sell/they destroyed your city, they’ll destroy you as well.” What Dylan feels about them is akin to the savage hate expressed on “Masters Of War”, say. “I could strip you of life, strip you of breath/Ship you down to the house of death,” he sings with hostile contempt, nothing particularly equivocal about this point of view, which is in a word merciless.

“Early Roman Kings” is the closest thing here to the kind of roadhouse blues that has been a signature of a lot of recent Dylan , especially Together Through Life. David Hidalgo from Los Lobos adds typically gutsy accordion to the band’s robust vamping and the track’s lurching gait is an absolute gas, its vicious sentiment notwithstanding. The blues continues to be a vital part of Dylan’s music, but Tempest on key songs also marks a return to a folk tradition that has latterly not been as much in evidence. “Scarlet Town” is notably set to a melody that sounds like it’s been passed down the ages and has a courtly mien reminiscent of the Gillian Welch song from last year’s The Harrow & The Harvest with which it shares a title. Fiddle and banjo take the lead here, creating a mysterious swirling atmosphere. There are flashes of bawdy humour, too; but the pervasive mood, here as elsewhere, is ultimately of turmoil and unrest. Towards the end of its seven minute running time, the track is further interrupted by a wraith-like guitar solo that rises out of the mix like something emerging from a fog and adds a particular creepiness to things.

“Tin Angel” sounds similarly as if it could have been lifted wholesale from an anthology of traditional folk songs, where hundreds of such tales must lurk. It’s a revenge ballad, nine minutes long, with no chorus, banjo and fiddle again to the fore. The setting is vague. References in one of the later verses to a helmet and cross-handed sword suggest a chivalric age. But soon after that, there’s a gunfight, the kind of point-blank shoot-out set-piece you used to find in Walter Hill movies, which suggests Dylan at one point may have had a Western setting in mind, perhaps inspired by a recent tour bus viewing of something like Duel In The Sun, a torrid oater starring Dylan favourite Gregory Peck.

What happens, anyway, is that someone called The Boss, which is not a name you probably come across too often n the Child Ballads, one day comes home from wherever to find his wife has gone missing. Whither the missus? Has she simply left him, or been abducted? Boss upon investigation is tipped off by a faithful retainer that the errant spouse has in fact made off with one Henry Lee, leader of an unidentified clan. Boss orders his men to horse and off they gallop in hot pursuit, his men deserting him along the way. Dogged Boss continues alone. After presumably much travail, Boss tracks down Henry Lee and his wife, bursts in on their amorous coupling and after declaring his love for his wife starts blasting away. Henry Lee’s the better shot and soon Boss is dying in his own blood. The missus takes this surprisingly badly and stabs Henry Lee before plunging a dagger into her own heart. The final image of the three of them tossed into a single grave “forever to sleep” is chillingly unforgettable.

And so to the title track: 45 verses over 14 minutes about the sinking of The Titanic, inspired by Dylan’s musings on The Carter Family’s “The Titanic”, but at times as much in debt to James Cameron’s blockbuster movie (whose leading man, Leonardo DiCaprio is name-checked twice). The piece starts with what sounds like a string quartet, after which brief overture the song settles into a long unwinding waltz, progressing with stately resolution, verse following verse, like a latter day “Desolation Row”. The song vividly describes the panic and confusion as the great ship flounders, a metaphor for the folly of over-reaching ambition; mankind again brought low by God’s intervention.

The scale of the disaster is enormous, contains “every kind of sorrow”, Dylan dramatically capturing the dark panic of the moment – the blown hatches, the water poring everywhere, the ship’s smokestack crashing down, humbler passengers trapped below decks – and as in the film, certain characters are given their own scenes, each verse then a gripping vignette. There’s for instance someone called Wellington, holed up in his cabin: “Glass and shattered crystal lay scattered round about/He strapped on both his pistols/How long could he hold out?” And here’s Jim Backer: “He saw the starlight shining/Streaming from the east/ Death was on the rampage, but his heart was now at peace.” “Davy the Brothel-Keeper,” meanwhile, “came out, dismissed his girls/saw the water getting deeper, saw the changing of his world.” The ship’s captain at the moment of its sinking catches his reflection in the glass of a compass and “in the dark illumination, he remembered bygone years/He read the Book of Revelation, filled his cup with tears”.

After such calamity, the sheer tenderness of the closing “Roll On, John” is as much of a shock as a mere surprise. A belated tribute to John Lennon, the song’s as direct and heartfelt as anything Dylan’s written probably since “Sara”, whose occasional gaucheness it recalls, as Dylan roams over Lennon’s career, “from the Liverpool docks to the red-light Hamburg streets”, quoting from Lennon and Beatles’ songs along the way, including “A Day In The Life”, “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” and “Come Together”. The affection expressed for Lennon in the song is tangible, makes it glow like a force-field, and by the end is totally disarming. “Your bones are weary, you’re about to breathe your last,” Dylan sings to his dead friend. “Lord you know how hard that bit can be,” before moving onto a spine-tingling elegiac chorus: “Shine a light/Move it on/You burned so bright/Roll on, John”.

We must address, I suppose, in closing, the similarity of this album’s title to Shakespeare’s final play, The Tempest, and the idea that follows that this record is likewise some farewell, a summation of sorts, a final rallying of waning creative energies, perhaps the last act in Dylan’s storied career. The idea of Bob as a kind of riverboat Propsero is hugely appealing, and he remains, supremely, a story-telling sorcerer, but Dylan has already dismissed the comparison as simply wrong-headed and therefore pointless. And for all its evident preoccupation with death and the end of things, Tempest is in many respects the most far-reaching, provocative and transfixing album of Dylan’s later career. Nothing about it suggests a swansong, adios or fond adieu.

“I ain’t dead yet, my bell still rings,” he sings on “Early Roman Kings”, and how loud and bright and strong that clarion toll yet sounds.

Allan Jones

John Hillcoat interview

Michael Bonner
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John Hillcoat interview

As part of our Nick Cave cover story in the current issue of Uncut, I spoke to film maker John Hillcoat. Hillcoat and Cave’s friendship stretches back to Melbourne in the late 1970s, while their first professional collaboration came in 1981, when Hillcoat edited the promo video for The Birthday Party single, “Nick The Stripper”. Since Mick Harvey left the Bad Seeds, I’m pretty sure Hillcoat can now claim the dubious honour of being Cave’s longest-serving collaborator. Their work together includes the occasional Bad Seeds and Grinderman video, while Cave has also scored Hillcoat’s films To Have And To Hold (1996) and The Road (2009). But more substantially, Hillcoat has directed three of Cave’s screenplays: Ghosts… Of The Civil Dead (1988), The Proposition (2005) and, of course, Lawless. What was the appeal of the material? The book seemed very much to dovetail together a lot of our shared influences, going right back to when we first met. Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy loomed large in our formative years. Nick just happened to be tapping into the same sort of music, when we were younger, of the blues and country and folk and rock. So all these forces and influences all came together in this one book. The world was really interesting. And that opened it up for the music as well. You’ve known Nick since the late 1970s. Can you give us a flavour of what Melbourne was like back then? Oh, it was wild. It was just like the film: lawless. Weirdly enough, our first really in depth working experience was on Ghosts… Of The Civil Dead. I was attacked and my jaw was broken in two places. My entire mouth was wired shut. So I was talking to him through clenched teeth and having liquefied meals through straws. Literally, that’s how we started working about the script, talking about high security prison and violence, having been a victim of violence. There was definitely an edge to Melbourne. It’s got a real underbelly. There used to be a lot of police corruption and there’s always been a huge influx of illegal drugs, and with police involvement. That was very much prevalent in our youth. I grew up in the late Sixties in New Haven, Connecticut. I’d seen police shoots out in front of my eyes, a car chase with the cops leaning out the window firing bullets which sounded more like a cap-gun or a pop-gun, very anti-climactic. But the thing that impacted on me as a youth were all the cultural upheavals, going on Martin Luther King’s funeral march, the repeated black and white TV showing Robert Kennedy’s assassination. In a very short time, all my parents heroes had perished and been assassinated violently, whether they were the president all the way down to rock stars. Can you tell us about the influence Michael Ondatjee’s Billy The Kid poems had on you and Nick. Weirdly enough, when I was in Canada I had that as a teenager. It was only on the University of Toronto press, he was just a local university writer. I was blown away by that mixture of documentary realism and poetic prose. It was so like the movies I was watching – Peckinpah, Scorsese, Arthur Penn’s Bonnie & Clyde, The Godfather. It had a huge impact on me and likewise Nick loved that book. It was a real galvanising force, the Ondatjee book during that era in the Seventies. It was a very vibrant time, I might add. Who else was on the Melbourne scene at the time? It was the Little Bands scene. It was that whole post punk period where it was like a cottage industry. All these people we knew who had their own record labels, and we all went to certain venues to see the concerts, so it was all self generating. Between the local, tiny record shops and record companies and the venues there was this circular thing, where everyone we knew were forming bands and being in bands and then watching bands and listening to music. There was Missing Link and Au Go Go and these labels that are long since gone, but they picked up on Nick’s band. There was a band called The Reels Nick and I featured the singer in Ghosts… Of The Civil Dead [Dave Mason]. They had offers from every major record company in the world, but they were ferociously uncompromising. There was a whole two fingers up at authority. We had tiny venues where The Clash, Iggy Pop, The Cure were all going through, like the Crystal Ballroom. I had the job of filming those shows, working in the venue doing a recording for their archive. And then Nick, when he went overseas, they really took up. How did Nick’s contributions for Ghosts… Of The Civil Dead come about? He was already clued up on the whole music/prison thing, and the blues – all these characters came from literature and secondary sources. Then myself and the co-writer who was also producing, Evan English, did a lot more real research where we went into the prisons, so we took it somewhere more grounded in realism. But Nick did create these very flamboyant characters, and one of them of course was this character who was tailor made for him. Nick was a bit wild at the time, and it just suited his particular state to let him go off. We even created this set – I’ll never forget – we just had a basic plan of this guy entering the unit and just being so obnoxious: he drew on some experience when he was in a lock up in New York, and we reference self-mutilating which was very popular in high security prisons. So he got all these aspects and then just ran with them, because he couldn’t… he was too of the frame of mind, he couldn’t learn lines and work in a traditional sense. So we just let him rip. Nick says his acting peaked with Maynard. Do you agree? Yeah, even the ex-inmates who’d done a lot of hard time were wary of Nick. Let’s just say, we got him at the right time and tailored it to the state that he was in. Maybe that a little bit exploitative, but he didn’t seem to mind. [laughs] It’s his acting triumph. I hear Russell Crowe was nearly cast in The Proposition. What happened there? He was a big fan of Nick’s, and he was very keen on getting involved. He was quite a star at the time and it was a difficult negotiation. We talked about him doing the Ray Winstone role, but then we all agreed that the Danny Huston role was the most appropriate. There were all sorts of logistics and other reasons… tight schedules, and all that. We actually had a different cast. At one stage, we even had Liam Neeson involved and Danny Huston was going to play Ray Winstone’s role. It was a lot of moving pieces. Guy [Pearce] was the first one in, and remained loyal throughout. It took us years, many years to get that off the ground. Nick is very much in charge in his music career. But in his film career, he’s more at the mercy of other, external factors – studios, budgets, schedules. Is that frustrating for him, or do you think he enjoys being part of something bigger than him? What he hates is the whole dance and the politics and the pressures. He’s got very little patience for it. We all hate that, but he in particular, because he’s so used to things getting done his way. But actually there is also the aspect of losing himself and being part of the process, a craftsman, a collaborator in a very real sense, that he enjoys. So it’s pros and cons. The negative is all the time delays and the financial pressures and the politics. But the way the collaboration works takes him away from being the frontman. What parallels do you see between Nick’s film and music careers? For me, it’s a real treat because there is an extra cohesion you don’t normally get. Because you start with a script and end with sound and music. But we talk about music at a very early stage, when he’s writing the script, which is an interesting way of approaching scores and soundtracks. And there is in his writing. What makes him such a great scriptwriter is he’s got an ear for dialogue and he’s got a kind of… I came to film making via editing, and editing is all about rhythms and pace and likewise with music. I think there is a rhythm, a musicality in his scripts, that is quite special and unique. We love collaborating together, and when I’ve directed his music videos, it’s nice for me to lose myself and just facilitate his requirements as the frontman. But it’s very different mediums though, with music projects and music videos, and that’s something else that Nick has great grasp of. What are your future plans with Nick? He’s worked on another script, from another scriptwriter, that he has rewritten for me, which is my next film. It’s very different. It’s a contemporary crime thriller, so far set in LA, that we’re casting. So that’s very different for Nick and I. It’s called Triple Nine. But there’s numerous things we’re talking about, and we’re no the lookout to find the next thing. We’re always, as soon as we finish one thing, we’re talking about the next. There’s several things on the horizon. Lawless is released in the UK on Friday

As part of our Nick Cave cover story in the current issue of Uncut, I spoke to film maker John Hillcoat. Hillcoat and Cave’s friendship stretches back to Melbourne in the late 1970s, while their first professional collaboration came in 1981, when Hillcoat edited the promo video for The Birthday Party single, “Nick The Stripper”.

Since Mick Harvey left the Bad Seeds, I’m pretty sure Hillcoat can now claim the dubious honour of being Cave’s longest-serving collaborator.

Their work together includes the occasional Bad Seeds and Grinderman video, while Cave has also scored Hillcoat’s films To Have And To Hold (1996) and The Road (2009). But more substantially, Hillcoat has directed three of Cave’s screenplays: Ghosts… Of The Civil Dead (1988), The Proposition (2005) and, of course, Lawless.

What was the appeal of the material?

The book seemed very much to dovetail together a lot of our shared influences, going right back to when we first met. Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy loomed large in our formative years. Nick just happened to be tapping into the same sort of music, when we were younger, of the blues and country and folk and rock. So all these forces and influences all came together in this one book. The world was really interesting. And that opened it up for the music as well.

You’ve known Nick since the late 1970s. Can you give us a flavour of what Melbourne was like back then?

Oh, it was wild. It was just like the film: lawless. Weirdly enough, our first really in depth working experience was on Ghosts… Of The Civil Dead. I was attacked and my jaw was broken in two places. My entire mouth was wired shut. So I was talking to him through clenched teeth and having liquefied meals through straws. Literally, that’s how we started working about the script, talking about high security prison and violence, having been a victim of violence. There was definitely an edge to Melbourne. It’s got a real underbelly. There used to be a lot of police corruption and there’s always been a huge influx of illegal drugs, and with police involvement. That was very much prevalent in our youth. I grew up in the late Sixties in New Haven, Connecticut. I’d seen police shoots out in front of my eyes, a car chase with the cops leaning out the window firing bullets which sounded more like a cap-gun or a pop-gun, very anti-climactic. But the thing that impacted on me as a youth were all the cultural upheavals, going on Martin Luther King’s funeral march, the repeated black and white TV showing Robert Kennedy’s assassination. In a very short time, all my parents heroes had perished and been assassinated violently, whether they were the president all the way down to rock stars.

Can you tell us about the influence Michael Ondatjee’s Billy The Kid poems had on you and Nick.

Weirdly enough, when I was in Canada I had that as a teenager. It was only on the University of Toronto press, he was just a local university writer. I was blown away by that mixture of documentary realism and poetic prose. It was so like the movies I was watching – Peckinpah, Scorsese, Arthur Penn’s Bonnie & Clyde, The Godfather. It had a huge impact on me and likewise Nick loved that book. It was a real galvanising force, the Ondatjee book during that era in the Seventies. It was a very vibrant time, I might add.

Who else was on the Melbourne scene at the time?

It was the Little Bands scene. It was that whole post punk period where it was like a cottage industry. All these people we knew who had their own record labels, and we all went to certain venues to see the concerts, so it was all self generating. Between the local, tiny record shops and record companies and the venues there was this circular thing, where everyone we knew were forming bands and being in bands and then watching bands and listening to music. There was Missing Link and Au Go Go and these labels that are long since gone, but they picked up on Nick’s band. There was a band called The Reels Nick and I featured the singer in Ghosts… Of The Civil Dead [Dave Mason]. They had offers from every major record company in the world, but they were ferociously uncompromising. There was a whole two fingers up at authority. We had tiny venues where The Clash, Iggy Pop, The Cure were all going through, like the Crystal Ballroom. I had the job of filming those shows, working in the venue doing a recording for their archive. And then Nick, when he went overseas, they really took up.

How did Nick’s contributions for Ghosts… Of The Civil Dead come about?

He was already clued up on the whole music/prison thing, and the blues – all these characters came from literature and secondary sources. Then myself and the co-writer who was also producing, Evan English, did a lot more real research where we went into the prisons, so we took it somewhere more grounded in realism. But Nick did create these very flamboyant characters, and one of them of course was this character who was tailor made for him. Nick was a bit wild at the time, and it just suited his particular state to let him go off. We even created this set – I’ll never forget – we just had a basic plan of this guy entering the unit and just being so obnoxious: he drew on some experience when he was in a lock up in New York, and we reference self-mutilating which was very popular in high security prisons. So he got all these aspects and then just ran with them, because he couldn’t… he was too of the frame of mind, he couldn’t learn lines and work in a traditional sense. So we just let him rip.

Nick says his acting peaked with Maynard. Do you agree?

Yeah, even the ex-inmates who’d done a lot of hard time were wary of Nick. Let’s just say, we got him at the right time and tailored it to the state that he was in. Maybe that a little bit exploitative, but he didn’t seem to mind. [laughs] It’s his acting triumph.

I hear Russell Crowe was nearly cast in The Proposition. What happened there?

He was a big fan of Nick’s, and he was very keen on getting involved. He was quite a star at the time and it was a difficult negotiation. We talked about him doing the Ray Winstone role, but then we all agreed that the Danny Huston role was the most appropriate. There were all sorts of logistics and other reasons… tight schedules, and all that. We actually had a different cast. At one stage, we even had Liam Neeson involved and Danny Huston was going to play Ray Winstone’s role. It was a lot of moving pieces. Guy [Pearce] was the first one in, and remained loyal throughout. It took us years, many years to get that off the ground.

Nick is very much in charge in his music career. But in his film career, he’s more at the mercy of other, external factors – studios, budgets, schedules. Is that frustrating for him, or do you think he enjoys being part of something bigger than him?

What he hates is the whole dance and the politics and the pressures. He’s got very little patience for it. We all hate that, but he in particular, because he’s so used to things getting done his way. But actually there is also the aspect of losing himself and being part of the process, a craftsman, a collaborator in a very real sense, that he enjoys. So it’s pros and cons. The negative is all the time delays and the financial pressures and the politics. But the way the collaboration works takes him away from being the frontman.

What parallels do you see between Nick’s film and music careers?

For me, it’s a real treat because there is an extra cohesion you don’t normally get. Because you start with a script and end with sound and music. But we talk about music at a very early stage, when he’s writing the script, which is an interesting way of approaching scores and soundtracks. And there is in his writing. What makes him such a great scriptwriter is he’s got an ear for dialogue and he’s got a kind of… I came to film making via editing, and editing is all about rhythms and pace and likewise with music. I think there is a rhythm, a musicality in his scripts, that is quite special and unique. We love collaborating together, and when I’ve directed his music videos, it’s nice for me to lose myself and just facilitate his requirements as the frontman. But it’s very different mediums though, with music projects and music videos, and that’s something else that Nick has great grasp of.

What are your future plans with Nick?

He’s worked on another script, from another scriptwriter, that he has rewritten for me, which is my next film. It’s very different. It’s a contemporary crime thriller, so far set in LA, that we’re casting. So that’s very different for Nick and I. It’s called Triple Nine. But there’s numerous things we’re talking about, and we’re no the lookout to find the next thing. We’re always, as soon as we finish one thing, we’re talking about the next. There’s several things on the horizon.

Lawless is released in the UK on Friday

Billy Corgan: “I’m writing a spiritual memoir with plenty of sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll”

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Billy Corgan: “I’m writing a spiritual memoir with plenty of sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll”
Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has revealed that he is writing an autobiography, which he has described as "a spiritual memoir". The singer, whose band released their new studio album Oceania in June, has said that though his book isn't "a rock 'n' roll autobiography", it does contain "pl...

Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has revealed that he is writing an autobiography, which he has described as “a spiritual memoir”.

The singer, whose band released their new studio album Oceania in June, has said that though his book isn’t “a rock ‘n’ roll autobiography”, it does contain “plenty of sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll'”.

Speaking to Billboard, Corgan also confirmed that the band are already working on the follow-up to Oceania and he has said he hopes to have it out by December 2013.

Asked about new material, the singer replied: “I’ve already started writing songs for a new album and definitely seems like it’s going to be more of a rockin’ affair.”

Then asked about his hope of a December 2013 release, he added: “That’s really ambitious, because we’re still touring, and I’ve never been successful writing on tour. I don’t even try. So even if we went into the studio in November when we come off of this tour, it’s still pretty ambitious to have it out by then.”

‘Oceania’ marked the Smashing Pumpkins return to making music in a traditional album format having spent the last few years releasing music straight on to the internet as part of their Teargarden By Kaleidyscope project.

Asked if he now was convinced that albums were here to stay, Corgan said: “I think it’s a lot of energy for not a lot of return. I mean, what are great sales today? At least back in the day, it was like a million, two million — at least people were listening to it. Now you sell 100,000, and for all you know two million people are listening to it but you don’t see it. You don’t get the reward for it.”

He continued: “The business treats you like shit if you don’t do certain numbers. You can’t get played on the radio ’cause the guy in the nameless band is outselling you. I really wish someone had come up with an alternative, but I don’t know what supplants it. It’s all very mystifying.”

Oceania is the seventh of the Smashing Pumpkins career and was released on June 18.

Dr Dre named the richest man in hip hop

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Dr Dre named the richest man in hip hop
Dr. Dre has been named as the richest hip hop artist in the world. The rapper, producer and founder of the popular Beats by Dre headphones and speaker line has topped Forbes' Cash Kings 2012: Hip Hop list, with pre-tax earnings of $110 million. Dre beat Diddy into second place, earning less than h...

Dr. Dre has been named as the richest hip hop artist in the world.

The rapper, producer and founder of the popular Beats by Dre headphones and speaker line has topped Forbes’ Cash Kings 2012: Hip Hop list, with pre-tax earnings of $110 million.

Dre beat Diddy into second place, earning less than half of Dre’s total in the past year and raking in just $45 million. Jay-Z came in third place, earning $38 million and his The Throne partner Kanye West wasn’t far behind, with $35 million.

The only woman in the list is Nicki Minaj, who was placed above Eminem at Number Eight, with earnings of $15.5 million. See below for the full Top 20.

The Forbes’ Cash Kings 2012: Hip Hop list is:

1. Dr. Dre — $110 million

2. Diddy — $45 million

3. Jay-Z — $38 million

4. Kanye West — $35 million

5. Lil Wayne — $27 million

6. Drake — $20.5 million

7. Bryan “Birdman” Williams — $20 million

8. Nicki Minaj — $15.5 million

9. Eminem — $15 million

10. Ludacris — $12 million

11. Pitbull — $9.5 million

12. Rick Ross — $9 million (tie)

12. Wiz Khalifa — $9 million (tie)

14. Snoop Lion — $8.5 million

15. 50 Cent — $7.5 million

16. Swizz Beatz — $7 million (tie)

16. Pharrell Williams — $7 million (tie)

16. Young Jeezy — $7 million (tie)

19. Mac Miller — $6.5 million

20. Akon — $6 million (tie)

20. Timbaland — $6 million (tie)

20. Tech N9ne — $6 million (tie)

Graham Coxon, Hot Chip, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs for Oxfam in-store shows Graham Coxon Tickets

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Graham Coxon, Hot Chip, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs for Oxfam in-store shows Graham Coxon Tickets
Graham Coxon, Hot Chip and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs are all set to play gigs in an East London branch of the charity shop Oxfam as part of the annual Oxjam event. Theme Park, Lucy Rose, The 2 Bears and Kyla La Grange will all also take part in the sixth annual Oxjam event, kicking off the...

Graham Coxon, Hot Chip and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs are all set to play gigs in an East London branch of the charity shop Oxfam as part of the annual Oxjam event.

Theme Park, Lucy Rose, The 2 Bears and Kyla La Grange will all also take part in the sixth annual Oxjam event, kicking off the month long fundraising celebrations.

Of the gigs, Coxon said: “In all the years of doing gigs, I’ve never played in a charity shop before! It is a small venue so it will be great to be able to give the fans a really intimate and personal show to kick off Oxjam!”

Orlando Higginbottom, otherwise known as Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs added: “Last year I travelled to the DRC with a group of British and American producers to create an album with local musicians, raising money for Oxfam’s work in the area.”

“It was a great experience to be able to support a charity by doing what I love. Likewise with Oxjam where fellow artists can also do what they love in order to raise money to help fight global poverty, is something I am very happy being part of.”

Tickets go on sale today (September 6) at wegottickets.com/oxjam

The line-up is:

Graham Coxon, Theme Park (acoustic set), plus support (September 24)

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs DJ set, Breach (Aka Ben Westbeech), plus support (25)

Lucy Rose, Kyla La Grange, plus support (26)

Hot Chip & friends including Hot Chip DJ set, The 2 Bears and special guests TBA (27)

LA store owner receives hate mail for releasing new Charles Manson album

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LA store owner receives hate mail for releasing new Charles Manson album

A Los Angeles boutique owner and producer has received hate mail after releasing an album of 'new' music from notorious imprisoned murderer, Charles Manson. Manuel Vasquez made friends with Manson and turned to Kickstarter in order to raise money to help put out the 40 minute album, Just Fucking Around, which features tracks performed by Manson, who was accused of being behind a string of murders in Los Angeles in 1969, including the slaying of pregnant actress Sharon Tate. Of releasing the record, which has been limited to 500 copies, Vasquez told the LA Times: "I've gotten some hate mail from it. There are people not appreciating the release of music by him. People say they don't understand why I'd want to associate myself with this or why I would be interested in releasing it." The music on the album was recorded in the 1980s at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville and its artwork features on the back a geometric design by Manson and a drawing of Manson by a fellow inmate at Cochran State Prison on the front. The record is made up of six songs and poetry and commentary from Manson. "It's really low-fi, mono," says Vasquez, who adds: "I don't think there was ever a chance for mass popularity of his music. Most people won't like it. It probably requires an acquired taste." Despite receiving hate mail regarding the release, Vasquez said: "They're going so fast I may have to do a second pressing."

A Los Angeles boutique owner and producer has received hate mail after releasing an album of ‘new’ music from notorious imprisoned murderer, Charles Manson.

Manuel Vasquez made friends with Manson and turned to Kickstarter in order to raise money to help put out the 40 minute album, Just Fucking Around, which features tracks performed by Manson, who was accused of being behind a string of murders in Los Angeles in 1969, including the slaying of pregnant actress Sharon Tate.

Of releasing the record, which has been limited to 500 copies, Vasquez told the LA Times: “I’ve gotten some hate mail from it. There are people not appreciating the release of music by him. People say they don’t understand why I’d want to associate myself with this or why I would be interested in releasing it.”

The music on the album was recorded in the 1980s at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville and its artwork features on the back a geometric design by Manson and a drawing of Manson by a fellow inmate at Cochran State Prison on the front. The record is made up of six songs and poetry and commentary from Manson. “It’s really low-fi, mono,” says Vasquez, who adds:

“I don’t think there was ever a chance for mass popularity of his music. Most people won’t like it. It probably requires an acquired taste.”

Despite receiving hate mail regarding the release, Vasquez said: “They’re going so fast I may have to do a second pressing.”

Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic joins The Vaselines to perform ‘Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam’

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Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic joins The Vaselines to perform ‘Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvSQxPWPMxM Former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic joined Scottish indie stalwarts The Vaselines onstage to perform "Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam" on Monday (September 3). The performance, which you can watch above, took place at Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival...

Former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic joined Scottish indie stalwarts The Vaselines onstage to perform “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam” on Monday (September 3).

The performance, which you can watch above, took place at Seattle’s Bumbershoot Festival and saw the reclusive grunge icon play accordion on the track.

Nirvana and The Vaselines share a tangled history regarding the track, which the former brought to global attention when they covered it on their live acoustic album Unplugged In New York. At the taping, Kurt Cobain introduced it as “a rendition of an old Christian song, I think. But we do it The Vaselines way.”

It was originally recorded by the Scottish band as “Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam”, as a parody on Christian children’s hymn “I’ll Be A Sunbeam” on their 1988 EP ‘Dying For It’. The track remained little known outside of twee indie-pop circles, until 1992 when it was re-recorded with the amended title and included on compilation ‘The Ways Of The Vaselines: A Complete History’.

As well as the Unplugged version, two alternative Nirvana versions of the song were later released on the 2004 boxset With The Lights Out, one electric and one acoustic.

Novoselic has largely retired from music, but in recent years has made tentative steps to embracing the Nirvana legacy in public. In 2010 he appeared with Foo Fighters at a secret show in Tarzana, California where they “Marigold”, the Grohl-penned B-side to “Heart-Shaped Box”. He also played bass and accordion on the band’s album track “I Should Have Known” from last year’s Wasting Light.

Jack White extends his November UK and Ireland tour

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Jack White extends his November UK and Ireland tour
Jack White has extended his full UK and Ireland tour, which will take place later this year. The guitar virtuoso, who released his debut solo album Blunderbuss earlier this year, has added a second show at London Alexandra Palace on November 3, having previously announced a November 2 show at the v...

Jack White has extended his full UK and Ireland tour, which will take place later this year.

The guitar virtuoso, who released his debut solo album Blunderbuss earlier this year, has added a second show at London Alexandra Palace on November 3, having previously announced a November 2 show at the venue.

The run of seven dates now begins at Dublin’s O2 Arena on October 31 and runs until November 8 when White headlines Edinburgh’s Usher Hall.

The tour also includes shows in Birmingham, Bridlington and Blackpool’s Empress Ballroom, the venue where The White Stripes recorded their first live DVD Under Blackpool Lights.

Last month, Tom Jones told NME that he “would love” to do a full album with Jack White.

Jones collaborated with White for a one-off release on his Third Man Records label earlier this year, recording a version of Frankie Lane’s track “Jezebel” and a cover of Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘Evil’ for the release.

Asked about working with White, the singer said: “Jack White had an idea for two songs ‘Evil’ and ‘Jezabel’, which is an old Frankie Laine song and he had a new arrangement for it. So he said to me ‘Do you know these songs?’ and I said ‘Yes, I know both of them’.”

He continued: “I was in Nashville at the time so we got together and we did the two songs. I’d love to do an album with Jack White in the future.”

Jack White will play:

O2 Arena Dublin (October 31)

London Alexandra Palace (November 2, 3)

Bridlington Spa (4)

Blackpool Empress Ballroom (6)

O2 Academy Birmingham (7)

Edinburgh Usher Hall (8)

Recordings of Ringo Starr’s first band discovered after 50 years

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Recordings of Ringo Starr’s first band discovered after 50 years

Recordings of The Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr's first band Rory Storm And The Hurricanes have been discovered, 50 years after they were originally made. The tapes were recorded in March 1960, a full two years before Starr was asked by producer Brian Epstein to join The Beatles. The band performed alongside The Beatles during their stint in Hamburg and were considered to be one of the leading lights of the Liverpool scene. They were fronted by Rory Storm [whose real name is Alan Caldwell], who died in 1972. It is in the basement of his sister's house that the new tapes have been found. The tapes include tracks recorded at the Jive Hive club in north Liverpool, and at Storm's house, which was known locally as Stormsville, where bands including The Beatles would get together once clubs like The Cavern had shut at night. Storm's sister Iris Caldwell spoke about her brother, who she said was "so far ahead of his time". She told BBC News: "Rory was a performer. He wasn't, like The Beatles, a brilliant songwriter. They called him The Golden Boy and Mr Showbusiness. Rory was so far ahead of his time. He was doing glam rock then. I suppose these tapes have been in an old sealed box ever since [they were recorded]." Caldwell also said she believed Brian Epstein did not give her brother a real shot at becoming a major success because he "didn't want any major competition" for The Beatles. It is not yet whether the tapes will be released to the public as yet. Ringo Starr released his 16th solo album Ringo 2012 in January.

Recordings of The Beatles‘ drummer Ringo Starr’s first band Rory Storm And The Hurricanes have been discovered, 50 years after they were originally made.

The tapes were recorded in March 1960, a full two years before Starr was asked by producer Brian Epstein to join The Beatles.

The band performed alongside The Beatles during their stint in Hamburg and were considered to be one of the leading lights of the Liverpool scene. They were fronted by Rory Storm [whose real name is Alan Caldwell], who died in 1972. It is in the basement of his sister’s house that the new tapes have been found.

The tapes include tracks recorded at the Jive Hive club in north Liverpool, and at Storm’s house, which was known locally as Stormsville, where bands including The Beatles would get together once clubs like The Cavern had shut at night.

Storm’s sister Iris Caldwell spoke about her brother, who she said was “so far ahead of his time”. She told BBC News: “Rory was a performer. He wasn’t, like The Beatles, a brilliant songwriter. They called him The Golden Boy and Mr Showbusiness. Rory was so far ahead of his time. He was doing glam rock then. I suppose these tapes have been in an old sealed box ever since [they were recorded].”

Caldwell also said she believed Brian Epstein did not give her brother a real shot at becoming a major success because he “didn’t want any major competition” for The Beatles.

It is not yet whether the tapes will be released to the public as yet. Ringo Starr released his 16th solo album Ringo 2012 in January.

The xx: “We make music over iChat”

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The xx: “We make music over iChat”
The xx have revealed that they still make music separately in their bedrooms over iChat. In BBC Radio 1 documentary Night Time With The xx, which aired last night, singer Romy Madley-Croft revealed: "iChat is a really good way of working – that seperation is nice – but we do sit together and li...

The xx have revealed that they still make music separately in their bedrooms over iChat.

In BBC Radio 1 documentary Night Time With The xx, which aired last night, singer Romy Madley-Croft revealed: “iChat is a really good way of working – that seperation is nice – but we do sit together and listen to demos, talk about them.”

After initial sessions, they only regrouped later in a shared studio to make new album Coexist, which is released on Monday (September 10). In the documentary, presented by Huw Stephens, the band describe how growing up has affected their lyric writing.

“Our first songs were fantastical experiences about love – we were only 16, we didn’t know a lot and we hadn’t really gotten up to much,” said Oliver Sim. “But as time went on it became about stuff we were going through.”I thought this new album would be like a diary, because now we’ve actually had those experiences, but I’ve actually found myself reverting more to the fantastical – I’ve been storytelling, writing about how things could play out in my head, rather than how they have.”

The London band will celebrate the release of Coexist with a trio of intimate UK shows this month. They will take to the stage at the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire on September 10, followed by gigs at The Coal Exchange in Cardiff on September 11 and Edinburgh’s Usher Hall on September 12.

The xx are also booked to play Bestival on the Isle of Wight on Friday (September 7), making their only UK festival appearance of the summer on the event’s Main Stage before headliners Florence And The Machine. Appearing on the BBC documentary, Florence Welch describing the first time she encountered the band.

She said: “I went to one of [The xx’s] first gigs, maybe their very first gig. It was very subdued and I didn’t quite know what to make of it. I remember hearing the record and it clicked… there was something so moving about it, so quiet and seductive, and its minimalism was its power… like something tugging at your insides.”

The Black Keys debut video for “Little Black Submarines” – watch

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The Black Keys debut video for “Little Black Submarines” – watch
The Black Keys have today premiered the video for 'Little Black Submarines', the fourth single to be taken from last year's 'El Camino' album. The video sees the band playing at Nashville’s Springwater Supper Club, a former speakeasy. "It's a really cool building," singer Dan Auerbach told Rol...

The Black Keys have today premiered the video for ‘Little Black Submarines’, the fourth single to be taken from last year’s ‘El Camino’ album.

The video sees the band playing at Nashville’s Springwater Supper Club, a former speakeasy.

“It’s a really cool building,” singer Dan Auerbach told Rolling Stone. “It’s been there forever. It’s got a lot of history. It’s one of three or four different little small dive bars in town. It’s special because it’s so old.”

The Black Keys proved one of the big hits at last month’s Reading And Leeds Festivals. They return to Europe in November and December for their biggest tour to date. The Ohio duo will kick off their six-date UK leg at Newcastle’s Metro Radio Arena on December 7, concluding at London’s O2 Arena on December 12 and 13.

The Black Keys will play:

Newcastle Arena (December 7)

Glasgow SECC (8)

Birmingham National Indoor Arena (9)

Manchester Arena (11)

London O2 Arena (12-13)

Paul McCartney to be given France’s Legion Of Honour medal

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Paul McCartney to be given France’s Legion Of Honour medal
Paul McCartney is to be given a Legion Of Honour medal in France on Saturday (September 8). The medal will be given to the former Beatles man by French President Francois Hollande and is the highest public distinction that the President can bestow upon a member of the public. According to Reuters...

Paul McCartney is to be given a Legion Of Honour medal in France on Saturday (September 8).

The medal will be given to the former Beatles man by French President Francois Hollande and is the highest public distinction that the President can bestow upon a member of the public.

According to Reuters, McCartney will join the likes of Clint Eastwood and Liza Minnelli in being awarded the medal, which was first created in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte.

The honour carries social status but no money, and, McCartney will even have to buy his own medal from a licensed jeweler, with prices ranging from 169 euros to 700 euros (£134 to £553) for the highest rank.

Earlier this summer, it was reported that McCartney has reportedly recruited Mark Ronson to produce his new album.

The pair, who apparently met when Ronson was DJ at McCartney’s 2011 wedding to Nancy Shevell, are said to have spent this week working together in New York. A source told the Sunday Mirror: “This week they went to the studio and started knocking about together to see what they can do together. Everybody’s really excited about the prospect of Mark working with Paul.”

In February, McCartney released his 15th solo LP, an album of traditional pop and jazz covers called Kisses On The Bottom. However, the Beatles legend reportedly wants to return to a more contemporary sound for his next project. The source added: “Paul respects Mark’s knowledge and is wanting to produce a classic album with a young hip edge. And obviously Mark is over the moon to be working with a Beatle.”

Animal Collective – Centipede Hz

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Animal Collective – Centipede Hz

“Sometimes you gotta go get mad!” The full gang reconvene in Baltimore for a feral but friendly ninth... Animal Collective are a group enamoured by the process of their own evolution, reliable only in the sense that every one of their records is reliably different. As with Charles Darwin’s theory, there’s no predestination here, no clear end in mind. Rather, this unassuming bunch of Baltimore nature kids have always made a point of adapting to their environment - whatever or wherever that might be. The last five years alone have witnessed a bewildering catalogue of mutations. Deprived of guitarist Josh Dibb following the sickly-sweet psych-outs of 2007’s Strawberry Jam, Animal Collective ditched freak-folk for electronics and samplers and made the rave-flecked Merriweather Post Pavilion, a sewing together of dreamy textures, aquatic reverb and Noah ‘Panda Bear’ Lennox’s tumbling Beach Boys harmonies that played a hand in inventing ‘chillwave’, cracked the Billboard Top 20 and would be voted Uncut’s 2009 Album Of The Year. Then, capitalising on a friendship with director Danny Perez, they made an daringly uncommercial follow-up – “visual album” ODDSAC, a retina-scorching blend of Kenneth Anger surrealism, B-movie gore and cream-cake food fights with a gooey, psychedelic soundtrack to match. Now, another shift. Bristly and urgent, red in tooth and claw, the songs on their ninth album recall wilder, more chaotic earlier outings such as 2003’s Here Comes The Indian or 2005’s Feels. With its mix of rattling percussion and mangled electronics, “Monkey Riches” sounds part deranged drum-circle, part soundtrack to some lost Donkey Kong platformer, while the jittery Tropicalia of “Today’s Supernatura” romps around with hackles up, Dave ‘Avey Tare’ Portner bawling: “Sometimes it won’t come so easy/Sometimes you’ve gotta go get maaaad!” But Centipede Hz is a more confident and elaborate piece than such primitive outings, a sign of a band more at ease with its protean nature. It works from an unusual mood board. Dave ‘Avey Tare’ Portner describes it as “less aquatic than some of our earlier records… it’s more rocks and angles”. HP Lovecraft and pulp sci-fi novels were amongst the inspirations, and to get into the right headspace, the band imagined music escaping our planet in the form of radio waves, finding their way to distant worlds to be heard and interpreted by alien ears. This idea works both figuratively – if George Lucas wanted to further update Star Wars, one could easily imagine hyperactive, hyper-melodic sing-songs like “Applesauce” and “Father Time” issuing from a back room at the Mos Eisley Cantina – and also more literally: the songs themselves are laced with snippets of old radio broadcasts, adverts and idents warped and fuzzed out and crammed in the cracks like stuffing. This new vitality is explicable. Whereas albums back to Strawberry Jam have been pieced together remotely, parts bounced back and forth via email, Centipede Hz was born out of three months of intense jamming in in the group’s native Baltimore, Lennox sat down behind a drum kit for the first time since Feels. At times it is a bit of a racket: the opening “Moonjock”, with its crashing carnival drums and curdled group choruses, may weed out the fair-weather sorts enticed by Merriweather’s cool lagoons of sound. Still, for all their renewed energy, Animal Collective now work with a certain restraint. Despite its uncanny material – all distorted drums, creaky-gate melodies, and bursts of unchecked electricity – “New Town Burnout” is balladic and beautiful, a tale of homecoming and hard-found catharsis. Similarly exceptional is “Wide Eyed”. Marking Josh ‘Deakin’ Dibb’s debut lead vocal with the band, it chains strobing synths and spasmodic, tumbling drums into a wistful, Flaming Lips-like spiritual: “What’s the change for the better,” ponders Dibb, “For a child who learns not to cry?” Key to Centipede Hz’s success, one suspects, is the presence of producer Ben Allen. A former engineer for P Diddy’s Bad Boy Records and producer for Gnarls Barkley, Allen was originally credited for bringing Merriweather’s pneumatic low-end. Here, though, his job is different; rhythms are kept crisp, and the chaos is tightly corralled so songs shine through. The result sounds a far cry from chillwave’s soft, gauzy textures; possessed of a strange beauty, hard and bright, and probably unlikely to elicit the broad appeal that was granted to Merriweather. Centipede Hz is an album that both gazes up into the cosmos, and stares down into the dirt - and perhaps that’s not so weird. “I’m going hiking/Are you coming hiking?” proffers Portner on the album’s closer, “Amainta”. Because that is where Animal Collective find themselves: forever on the move, over grass and under stars. Louis Pattison Q+A Animal Collective You recorded Centipede Hz back in your native Baltimore… Josh: My mother runs a spiritual community - there was a building like an old barn from the 19th century, like falling apart, and they had to tear it down. We just put up an basic a-frame on the same footprint… it’s like a workshop. Brian: We thought it might be too small at first – we probably had less square footage than this room to set up and play. But it was nice to play that close to one another. Noah: It was loud. Very loud. It sounds like the wild feel of some of your early material has leaked back in… Brian Weitz: At the end of touring Merriweather, we did this DJ set at David Holmes’ bar in Belfast. It was nothing serious, just ‘Do you guys wanna come by the bar and bring your iPods?’, so we had no expectations. We didn’t play techno or dance music - it was all rock music, psych… There was probably a lot of Can, Selda, because one of our friends was really into Turkish psych. I played “Autumn Almanac” by the Kinks and people went nuts - it felt like we couldn’t do anything wrong! One group of people came up and kept requesting Faust, and everyone was dancing but to this weird rock music. It became this really sweaty dance party – we wanted that really sweaty, high energy feel. INTERVIEW: LOUIS PATTISON

“Sometimes you gotta go get mad!” The full gang reconvene in Baltimore for a feral but friendly ninth…

Animal Collective are a group enamoured by the process of their own evolution, reliable only in the sense that every one of their records is reliably different. As with Charles Darwin’s theory, there’s no predestination here, no clear end in mind. Rather, this unassuming bunch of Baltimore nature kids have always made a point of adapting to their environment – whatever or wherever that might be.

The last five years alone have witnessed a bewildering catalogue of mutations. Deprived of guitarist Josh Dibb following the sickly-sweet psych-outs of 2007’s Strawberry Jam, Animal Collective ditched freak-folk for electronics and samplers and made the rave-flecked Merriweather Post Pavilion, a sewing together of dreamy textures, aquatic reverb and Noah ‘Panda Bear’ Lennox’s tumbling Beach Boys harmonies that played a hand in inventing ‘chillwave’, cracked the Billboard Top 20 and would be voted Uncut’s 2009 Album Of The Year. Then, capitalising on a friendship with director Danny Perez, they made an daringly uncommercial follow-up – “visual album” ODDSAC, a retina-scorching blend of Kenneth Anger surrealism, B-movie gore and cream-cake food fights with a gooey, psychedelic soundtrack to match.

Now, another shift. Bristly and urgent, red in tooth and claw, the songs on their ninth album recall wilder, more chaotic earlier outings such as 2003’s Here Comes The Indian or 2005’s Feels. With its mix of rattling percussion and mangled electronics, “Monkey Riches” sounds part deranged drum-circle, part soundtrack to some lost Donkey Kong platformer, while the jittery Tropicalia of “Today’s Supernatura” romps around with hackles up, Dave ‘Avey Tare’ Portner bawling: “Sometimes it won’t come so easy/Sometimes you’ve gotta go get maaaad!”

But Centipede Hz is a more confident and elaborate piece than such primitive outings, a sign of a band more at ease with its protean nature. It works from an unusual mood board. Dave ‘Avey Tare’ Portner describes it as “less aquatic than some of our earlier records… it’s more rocks and angles”. HP Lovecraft and pulp sci-fi novels were amongst the inspirations, and to get into the right headspace, the band imagined music escaping our planet in the form of radio waves, finding their way to distant worlds to be heard and interpreted by alien ears. This idea works both figuratively – if George Lucas wanted to further update Star Wars, one could easily imagine hyperactive, hyper-melodic sing-songs like “Applesauce” and “Father Time” issuing from a back room at the Mos Eisley Cantina – and also more literally: the songs themselves are laced with snippets of old radio broadcasts, adverts and idents warped and fuzzed out and crammed in the cracks like stuffing.

This new vitality is explicable. Whereas albums back to Strawberry Jam have been pieced together remotely, parts bounced back and forth via email, Centipede Hz was born out of three months of intense jamming in in the group’s native Baltimore, Lennox sat down behind a drum kit for the first time since Feels. At times it is a bit of a racket: the opening “Moonjock”, with its crashing carnival drums and curdled group choruses, may weed out the fair-weather sorts enticed by Merriweather’s cool lagoons of sound.

Still, for all their renewed energy, Animal Collective now work with a certain restraint. Despite its uncanny material – all distorted drums, creaky-gate melodies, and bursts of unchecked electricity – “New Town Burnout” is balladic and beautiful, a tale of homecoming and hard-found catharsis. Similarly exceptional is “Wide Eyed”. Marking Josh ‘Deakin’ Dibb’s debut lead vocal with the band, it chains strobing synths and spasmodic, tumbling drums into a wistful, Flaming Lips-like spiritual: “What’s the change for the better,” ponders Dibb, “For a child who learns not to cry?”

Key to Centipede Hz’s success, one suspects, is the presence of producer Ben Allen. A former engineer for P Diddy’s Bad Boy Records and producer for Gnarls Barkley, Allen was originally credited for bringing Merriweather’s pneumatic low-end. Here, though, his job is different; rhythms are kept crisp, and the chaos is tightly corralled so songs shine through.

The result sounds a far cry from chillwave’s soft, gauzy textures; possessed of a strange beauty, hard and bright, and probably unlikely to elicit the broad appeal that was granted to Merriweather. Centipede Hz is an album that both gazes up into the cosmos, and stares down into the dirt – and perhaps that’s not so weird. “I’m going hiking/Are you coming hiking?” proffers Portner on the album’s closer, “Amainta”. Because that is where Animal Collective find themselves: forever on the move, over grass and under stars.

Louis Pattison

Q+A

Animal Collective

You recorded Centipede Hz back in your native Baltimore…

Josh: My mother runs a spiritual community – there was a building like an old barn from the 19th century, like falling apart, and they had to tear it down. We just put up an basic a-frame on the same footprint… it’s like a workshop.

Brian: We thought it might be too small at first – we probably had less square footage than this room to set up and play. But it was nice to play that close to one another.

Noah: It was loud. Very loud.

It sounds like the wild feel of some of your early material has leaked back in…

Brian Weitz: At the end of touring Merriweather, we did this DJ set at David Holmes’ bar in Belfast. It was nothing serious, just ‘Do you guys wanna come by the bar and bring your iPods?’, so we had no expectations. We didn’t play techno or dance music – it was all rock music, psych… There was probably a lot of Can, Selda, because one of our friends was really into Turkish psych. I played “Autumn Almanac” by the Kinks and people went nuts – it felt like we couldn’t do anything wrong! One group of people came up and kept requesting Faust, and everyone was dancing but to this weird rock music. It became this really sweaty dance party – we wanted that really sweaty, high energy feel.

INTERVIEW: LOUIS PATTISON

Bob Dylan streams new album ‘Tempest’ online in full

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Bob Dylan streams new album ‘Tempest’ online in full
Bob Dylan is streaming his new album Tempest online in full via iTunes, click here to listen to the album. The album, which is the 35th studio LP of Dylan's career, will come out on Monday (September 10) in the UK and Tuesday (September 11) in the US. It contains a total of 10 tracks and has been...

Bob Dylan is streaming his new album Tempest online in full via iTunes, click here to listen to the album.

The album, which is the 35th studio LP of Dylan’s career, will come out on Monday (September 10) in the UK and Tuesday (September 11) in the US.

It contains a total of 10 tracks and has been produced by Dylan himself (although, as with his recent studio albums, the producer is named as ‘Jack Frost’). The album includes a special tribute to John Lennon, which is named ‘Roll On John’ and a 14-minute epic inspired by the Titanic, which is fittingly called “Tempest”.

The release of Tempest will coincide with the celebration of Dylan’s 50 years as a recording artist. He released his self-titled debut album back in March of 1962.

Dylan is currently completing a European tour and this weekend headlined Spain’s Benicassim Festival. He is expected to return for a full UK tour in 2013.

The tracklisting for Tempest is as follows:

‘Duquesne Whistle’

‘Soon After Midnight’

‘Narrow Way’

‘Long and Wasted Years’

‘Pay In Blood’

‘Scarlet Town’

‘Early Roman Kings’

‘Tin Angel’

‘Tempest’

‘Roll On John’

Exclusive preview! Hear two tracks from Nick Cave’s new film, Lawless

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Exclusive preview! Hear two tracks from Nick Cave’s new film, Lawless

We're delighted to give you the chance to hear exclusive previews of two songs from the soundtrack to Lawless, the new film written by Nick Cave. The tracks are "Fire And Brimstone" and "Midnight Run". "Fire And Brimstone" is performed by Mark Lanegan and The Bootleggers - that's Cave, regular Bad Seeds/Grinderman Warren Ellis and Martyn Casey, augmented by Groove Armada guitarist George Vjestica and composer/producer David Sardy. Here, Lanegan channels the hellfire, Stones-y spirit of Link Wray's 1971 original, while Ellis' fiddle hangs Appalachian meat on its frame. Meanwhile, "Midnight Run" is performed by Willie Nelson. It's a fine cover of Marc Copely's rousing entry in the moonshine-runner subgenre: "There might be trouble because everybody's got a gun..." The Lawless soundtrack is released on Monday, September 10 by Sony Music. You can pre-order it here. Lawless is in cinemas this Friday, and you can read our exclusive cover story with Nick Cave in the edition of Uncut on sale now.

We’re delighted to give you the chance to hear exclusive previews of two songs from the soundtrack to Lawless, the new film written by Nick Cave.

The tracks are “Fire And Brimstone” and “Midnight Run”.

“Fire And Brimstone” is performed by Mark Lanegan and The Bootleggers – that’s Cave, regular Bad Seeds/Grinderman Warren Ellis and Martyn Casey, augmented by Groove Armada guitarist George Vjestica and composer/producer David Sardy. Here, Lanegan channels the hellfire, Stones-y spirit of Link Wray’s 1971 original, while Ellis’ fiddle hangs Appalachian meat on its frame.

Meanwhile, “Midnight Run” is performed by Willie Nelson. It’s a fine cover of Marc Copely’s rousing entry in the moonshine-runner subgenre: “There might be trouble because everybody’s got a gun…”

The Lawless soundtrack is released on Monday, September 10 by Sony Music. You can pre-order it here.

Lawless is in cinemas this Friday, and you can read our exclusive cover story with Nick Cave in the edition of Uncut on sale now.

Paul Weller – The Ultimate Music Guide

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Paul Weller – The Ultimate Music Guide

Please excuse the wholly shameless plug, but I thought you might like to know that the next in our series of Ultimate Music Guides goes on sale tomorrow (September 6) and this one is dedicated to Paul Weller. In the by now time-honoured tradition of the Ultimate Music Guides, we take a new look at everything Weller’s recorded, from The Jam through The Style Council and his solo albums. There’s also a ton of legendary interviews, going back to The Jam's first major NME feature in May 1977 and including the classic encounter between the young upstart Weller and a somewhat gnarly Pete Townshend, arranged by Melody Maker, in which the two mod icons squared up to each other nervously, a surprising gulf emerging between Weller and one of his musical heroes. We also trawl through all the live albums and compilations, singles, collaborations, rarities and more and there’s a host of rare pictures, plus an exclusive introduction by Weller. “I don’t mind looking back now,” he observes, sounding more at ease with his past than he’s ever been, “because I’m still making new music that excites me, and that people want to hear.” Paul Weller – the Ultimate Music Guide will be on sale from all the usual outlets and also available to order online at www.uncut.co.uk/store or to download digitally at www.uncut.co.uk/download. At Uncut HQ, meanwhile, we’re busy finishing off the next issue to a soundtrack mostly of Psychedleic Pill, the new Neil Young and Crazy Horse album, as mentioned here last week, which is even more epic than anticipated, so much music on it that it will be released as a double CD and triple vinyl LP. John has already written about two of the album’s extended jams, “Walk Like A Giant” and “Ramada Inn”, but we’ve also been totally enthralled by the 27 minutes of “Drifting Back”. For a full review, don’t miss next month’s issue. In the lulls between blasts of Neil and Crazy Horse doing what they do so spectacularly, I’ve also been playing fine new albums by Dan Deacon, Allah-La’s, Grizzly Bear, Dan Stuart and Mark Eitzel’s Don’t Be a Stranger. Eitzel, by the way, headlines the Uncut Sessions at the fourth SXSC festival this coming Sunday (September 9) at The Railway in Winchester, topping a strong bill that also includes former Green on red front-man Dan Stuart and Hurray For The Riff Raff. For the full line-up and ticket details, go to www.railwaylive.co.uk. Have a good week. Allan

Please excuse the wholly shameless plug, but I thought you might like to know that the next in our series of Ultimate Music Guides goes on sale tomorrow (September 6) and this one is dedicated to Paul Weller.

In the by now time-honoured tradition of the Ultimate Music Guides, we take a new look at everything Weller’s recorded, from The Jam through The Style Council and his solo albums. There’s also a ton of legendary interviews, going back to The Jam’s first major NME feature in May 1977 and including the classic encounter between the young upstart Weller and a somewhat gnarly Pete Townshend, arranged by Melody Maker, in which the two mod icons squared up to each other nervously, a surprising gulf emerging between Weller and one of his musical heroes.

We also trawl through all the live albums and compilations, singles, collaborations, rarities and more and there’s a host of rare pictures, plus an exclusive introduction by Weller. “I don’t mind looking back now,” he observes, sounding more at ease with his past than he’s ever been, “because I’m still making new music that excites me, and that people want to hear.”

Paul Weller – the Ultimate Music Guide will be on sale from all the usual outlets and also available to order online at www.uncut.co.uk/store or to download digitally at www.uncut.co.uk/download.

At Uncut HQ, meanwhile, we’re busy finishing off the next issue to a soundtrack mostly of Psychedleic Pill, the new Neil Young and Crazy Horse album, as mentioned here last week, which is even more epic than anticipated, so much music on it that it will be released as a double CD and triple vinyl LP. John has already written about two of the album’s extended jams, “Walk Like A Giant” and “Ramada Inn”, but we’ve also been totally enthralled by the 27 minutes of “Drifting Back”. For a full review, don’t miss next month’s issue.

In the lulls between blasts of Neil and Crazy Horse doing what they do so spectacularly, I’ve also been playing fine new albums by Dan Deacon, Allah-La’s, Grizzly Bear, Dan Stuart and Mark Eitzel’s Don’t Be a Stranger. Eitzel, by the way, headlines the Uncut Sessions at the fourth SXSC festival this coming Sunday (September 9) at The Railway in Winchester, topping a strong bill that also includes former Green on red front-man Dan Stuart and Hurray For The Riff Raff. For the full line-up and ticket details, go to www.railwaylive.co.uk.

Have a good week.

Allan

The Rolling Stones confirm new greatest hits comp, plus two new songs

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The Rolling Stones confirm new greatest hits comp, plus two new songs
The Rolling Stones have announced the release of a new 'greatest hits' compilation, Grrr!. The album will be released on November 12 in the UK and a day later in north America. Grrr! will be available across four different formats, including a 30 track triple CD set, and a 50 track edition. The al...

The Rolling Stones have announced the release of a new ‘greatest hits’ compilation, Grrr!.

The album will be released on November 12 in the UK and a day later in north America.

Grrr! will be available across four different formats, including a 30 track triple CD set, and a 50 track edition. The album will be a mix of singles and classic album tracks from the band’s catalogue, starting with their 1963 debut single, a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Come On”.

The album also features two new songs: “Gloom And Doom” and “One Last Shot“, which were recorded recently in Paris. These new recordings constitute the first time Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood have all been together in the studio since completing the A Bigger Bang album in 2005.

Grrr! will be available in these formats:

50 Track 3CD album

3CD / 50 tracks in a digipack with 24 page booklet

50 Track 3CD Deluxe Edition

3CD / 50 tracks in a DVD size box with 36 page hardback book and 5 postcards

Super Deluxe Edition Box Set

4CD / 80 tracks plus Bonus CD, 7″ Vinyl, Hardback book, Poster, 5 postcards in a presentation box

12” Vinyl Box Set

5x 12” Vinyl / 50 tracks in a casebound LP Box

The Killers announce full UK arena tour for November

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The Killers announce full UK arena tour for November
The Killers have announced a full UK arena tour for this November. The Las Vegas band, who release their fourth studio album Battle Born on September 17, will play 11 shows on the trek. The run of dates begins at Glasgow's SECC on October 26 and runs until November 17 when the band headline the ...

The Killers have announced a full UK arena tour for this November.

The Las Vegas band, who release their fourth studio album Battle Born on September 17, will play 11 shows on the trek.

The run of dates begins at Glasgow’s SECC on October 26 and runs until November 17 when the band headline the second of two shows at London’s O2 Arena.

The tour also includes stops in Aberdeen, Birmingham, Nottingham, Newcastle, Cardiff, Sheffield, Liverpool and Manchester.

The band will also play two intimate UK shows this month, firstly performing a free show at London’s HMV Forum on September 10 and then a gig at London’s Roundhouse on September 11 as part of the iTunes Festival.

The Killers will play:

Glasgow SECC (October 26)

Aberdeen Exhibition Centre (27)

Birmingham LG Arena (31)

Nottingham Capital FM Arena (November 3)

Newcastle Metro Radio Arena (4)

Cardiff Motorpoint Arena (5)

Sheffield Motorpoint Arena (8)

Liverpool Echo Arena (9)

Manchester Arena (13)

London O2 Arena (16, 17)

Jesse Hughes: “New Queens Of The Stone Age album is badass”

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Jesse Hughes: “New Queens Of The Stone Age album is badass”

Eagles Of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes has said that the forthcoming new Queens Of The Stone Age album is "badass". Speaking to NME, Josh Homme's Eagles Of Death Metal bandmate added that the material he's heard from the follow-up to 2007's Era Vulgaris is "really cool". Hughes said: "The shit I've heard from the new Queens album is so badass. It's really cool. It's the kinda shit that makes John Holmes [legendary porn star] have a bigger dick and he's dead, so that's pretty rad." Queens Of The Stone Age are currently working on their sixth studio album. Last month the band took to their official Facebook page, at Facebook.com/QOTSA, and simply updated their status with the word "Recording", receiving tens of thousands of 'likes' in minutes. Hughes – who also records solo under the alias Boots Electric – told NME that "because Joshua Homme's my best friend, I'm very fortunate in that I get to be privy to a lot of the cool shit that happens… [including] the writing process for the new Queens album."

Eagles Of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes has said that the forthcoming new Queens Of The Stone Age album is “badass”.

Speaking to NME, Josh Homme’s Eagles Of Death Metal bandmate added that the material he’s heard from the follow-up to 2007’s Era Vulgaris is “really cool”.

Hughes said: “The shit I’ve heard from the new Queens album is so badass. It’s really cool. It’s the kinda shit that makes John Holmes [legendary porn star] have a bigger dick and he’s dead, so that’s pretty rad.”

Queens Of The Stone Age are currently working on their sixth studio album.

Last month the band took to their official Facebook page, at Facebook.com/QOTSA, and simply updated their status with the word “Recording”, receiving tens of thousands of ‘likes’ in minutes.

Hughes – who also records solo under the alias Boots Electric – told NME that “because Joshua Homme’s my best friend, I’m very fortunate in that I get to be privy to a lot of the cool shit that happens… [including] the writing process for the new Queens album.”

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