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Black Power Mixtape

Michael Bonner
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0
Black Power Mixtape

Black America’s militant years, captured on rediscovered Swedish documentaries. Right on! Black America’s brave fight for emancipation during the 1960s and 1970s started with the Civil Rights marches of Dr Martin Luther King and ended in the ignominy of ghettos awash with hard drugs and crime. The struggle was not without victories – the end of legalised segregation in the South, the emergence of an honoured class of black artists and intellectuals (even a black President in the White House) – but the sense of failure is far more profound. It’s a long fall from the optimism of King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech and the great albums of Curtis Mayfield and Stevie Wonder to the misogny of Gangster Rap and the underclass squalor depicted in The Wire. Using a cache of forgotten documentaries discovered in a Stockholm basement, Black Power Mixtape is a juddering return to the hopes, conflicts and sinister political plays of the Black American Uprising. The movie is a time capsule, and while its 90 minutes are an inevitably incomplete portrait, its footage – most of it finely shot in black and white and with some terrific interviews – offers a mesmerising glimpse into an under-documented era. Here is a coolly militant Stokely Carmichael – the man who coined the term ‘Black Power’ - in 1967 with his critique of Dr King’s non-violent protests – “It was founded on the false assumption that America has a conscience – it doesn’t.” Here is Angela Davis, the Stones’ “Sweet Black Angel”, welling with tears and anguish under her giant Afro as she faces the death penalty on trumped-up charges. Here is Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver in 1970, defiant but clearly broken by his enforced exile in Algeria. Alongside such charismatic headline-makers come shocking scenes of police brutality on protesters, vox pop interviews, Black Panther soup kitchens, and glimpses of the seedy New York that provided the scenario for The French Connection. There’s even a surreal cameo of a Swedish bus tour of Harlem from 1973, with well-heeled Scands rubbernecking at the Big Apple’s mean streets. The material was shot for Swedish television. Sweden’s criticism of the US ’s uncompromising response to black protest, specifically the ‘show trials’ of dissidents in the early 1970s and the apparently co-ordinated assassination of black power firebrands, led to the Nixon regime breaking off diplomatic relations with the historically neutral country in 1972, an event unimaginable today. Presented chronologically, the original footage is sensibly left unadorned, though there are voice-overs from modern times. Angela Davis (now a retired professor) reflects that “They meant to send me to the death chamber simply because I was a convenient figure.” The story that emerges from the film’s assemblage is of an unyielding and corrupt US government prepared to go to extreme and at times murderous lengths to eliminate its critics. The Vietnam war provides an intrusive backdrop to the story. In 1967 the US had over 500,000 troops in Vietnam (today there are 68,000 in Afghanistan), a disproportionate number of them black Americans (cf Platoon and Apocalypse Now). Martin Luther King’s widening of the civil rights struggle to a “Stop The War” stance is, it’s implied by several commentators, the reason behind his assassination. “He was tampering with the playground of the wealthy,” reckons singer, actor and activist Harry Belafonte. The proliferation of hard drugs in black ghettoes in the early 1970s is another, shadowy strand of the tale. Smacked-out Vietnam veterans were part of the problem (“they weren’t killed on active service, they OD’d,” comes one voice), but it’s suggested that the CIA also fuelled the heroin boom to quell dissent. With its leaders silenced or exiled, its street warriors imprisoned or addicted, its optimism dismayed, Black America’s revolt wilted. The humanitarian, democratic impulses of the King years give way to Marxist cant – the Panthers become “the vanguard of the People’s party” – and the apocalyptic tones of the Nation of Islam. The 1974 allegation by Louis Farrakhan, a former calypso singer, that “the white race is one of devils” is a low point. Neil Spencer

Black America’s militant years, captured on rediscovered Swedish documentaries. Right on!

Black America’s brave fight for emancipation during the 1960s and 1970s started with the Civil Rights marches of Dr Martin Luther King and ended in the ignominy of ghettos awash with hard drugs and crime. The struggle was not without victories – the end of legalised segregation in the South, the emergence of an honoured class of black artists and intellectuals (even a black President in the White House) – but the sense of failure is far more profound. It’s a long fall from the optimism of King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech and the great albums of Curtis Mayfield and Stevie Wonder to the misogny of Gangster Rap and the underclass squalor depicted in The Wire.

Using a cache of forgotten documentaries discovered in a Stockholm basement, Black Power Mixtape is a juddering return to the hopes, conflicts and sinister political plays of the Black American Uprising. The movie is a time capsule, and while its 90 minutes are an inevitably incomplete portrait, its footage – most of it finely shot in black and white and with some terrific interviews – offers a mesmerising glimpse into an under-documented era. Here is a coolly militant Stokely Carmichael – the man who coined the term ‘Black Power’ – in 1967 with his critique of Dr King’s non-violent protests – “It was founded on the false assumption that America has a conscience – it doesn’t.” Here is Angela Davis, the Stones’ “Sweet Black Angel”, welling with tears and anguish under her giant Afro as she faces the death penalty on trumped-up charges. Here is Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver in 1970, defiant but clearly broken by his enforced exile in Algeria.

Alongside such charismatic headline-makers come shocking scenes of police brutality on protesters, vox pop interviews, Black Panther soup kitchens, and glimpses of the seedy New York that provided the scenario for The French Connection. There’s even a surreal cameo of a Swedish bus tour of Harlem from 1973, with well-heeled Scands rubbernecking at the Big Apple’s mean streets.

The material was shot for Swedish television. Sweden’s criticism of the US ’s uncompromising response to black protest, specifically the ‘show trials’ of dissidents in the early 1970s and the apparently co-ordinated assassination of black power firebrands, led to the Nixon regime breaking off diplomatic relations with the historically neutral country in 1972, an event unimaginable today. Presented chronologically, the original footage is sensibly left unadorned, though there are voice-overs from modern times. Angela Davis (now a retired professor) reflects that “They meant to send me to the death chamber simply because I was a convenient figure.” The story that emerges from the film’s assemblage is of an unyielding and corrupt US government prepared to go to extreme and at times murderous lengths to eliminate its critics.

The Vietnam war provides an intrusive backdrop to the story. In 1967 the US had over 500,000 troops in Vietnam (today there are 68,000 in Afghanistan), a disproportionate number of them black Americans (cf Platoon and Apocalypse Now). Martin Luther King’s widening of the civil rights struggle to a “Stop The War” stance is, it’s implied by several commentators, the reason behind his assassination. “He was tampering with the playground of the wealthy,” reckons singer, actor and activist Harry Belafonte.

The proliferation of hard drugs in black ghettoes in the early 1970s is another, shadowy strand of the tale. Smacked-out Vietnam veterans were part of the problem (“they weren’t killed on active service, they OD’d,” comes one voice), but it’s suggested that the CIA also fuelled the heroin boom to quell dissent.

With its leaders silenced or exiled, its street warriors imprisoned or addicted, its optimism dismayed, Black America’s revolt wilted. The humanitarian, democratic impulses of the King years give way to Marxist cant – the Panthers become “the vanguard of the People’s party” – and the apocalyptic tones of the Nation of Islam. The 1974 allegation by Louis Farrakhan, a former calypso singer, that “the white race is one of devils” is a low point.

Neil Spencer

Boardwalk Empire

Michael Bonner
-
0
Boardwalk Empire

HBO's handsome, if flawed, Prohibition era crime drama... Whenever he was at his most distracted, Tony Soprano generally made his way to the Boardwalk. Though he never actually left the house, in his troubled imagination, the anxious mob boss was frequently condemned by his conscience to return to the stomping ground of Bruce Springsteen, the shoreline at Asbury Park, New Jersey, there to confront his demons: murder victims of his regime; strange visions; on one occasion, a fish whom he became convinced was his onetime colleague Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bompensiero, and with whom he had a conversation. Such multi-layered, innovative post-modern and above all engrossing storytelling is not something you’ll often find in Boardwalk Empire, though at first glance many similar ingredients are present. Among them, there’s nefarious activity in a coastal location (the series is set in prohibition era Atlantic City, in which the resort came into its own as a hotbed of illegality). There’s producer Terence Winter, a guiding light of The Sopranos as a writer. There’s quality acting talent (headed by Steve Buscemi, another Sopranos vet, here playing Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, about whose New Jersey empire we are ostensibly talking). There’s Martin Scorsese, who exec produces and directs the opening episode. Then there is, of course, the Boardwalk itself. This, understandably, given the considerable expense involved in building it, is something of which the show is justifiably proud. Prior to the show’s release, HBO released a promotional stop-motion film showing the construction of this $5million principal set. On one level, it was a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain. On another, it brought an unwelcome note of reality to our not-yet-actually-suspended disbelief, as if we had accidentally skipped to the DVD Extras before watching the main feature. A tale rooted for the most part in the true story of Atlantic City’s nefarious rise, Boardwalk Empire introduces us to the architects of that rise, some real, some not. The sketchy morality of institutions and the corruption of individuals that exploit them for their own ends is the familiar theme here. Nucky Thompson is Mayor of Atlantic City. Publicly, he’s a supporter of causes and defender of the weak. Privately, he’s a womanising villain, albeit a complex one – a complexity Buscemi effortlessly inhabits. He and his jawdropping mistress Lucy Danziger (Paz De La Huerta, the actress from the Lana Del Rey video) provide edgy HBO content of an indoor kind, while on the sly, he quietly becomes intrigued by recent immigrant Mrs Schroeder (Kelly Macdonald). The picture is filled out by Nucky’s enforcer and WWI veteran, Jimmy Dormody (Michael Pitt, looking these days more Jack White than Kurt Cobain) and magnificently, investigating agent Nelson Van Alden (the superb Michael Shannon). These people are all in transitions of a kind, but all in a way, playing their own angle. Strange to say for a 12 part series, but somehow for all the class on display, all of which makes this very watchable, there’s not enough actual story. In a way, Boardwalk Empire is a victim of HBO’s success. It’s trying to turn the clock back, not only to the prohibition era (which it does successfully enough) but also to a time before mobster movies (which it cannot hope to do). Since the 1970s, our minds have been blown by the resourcefulness with which racketeering and mob violence has been dealt with on screen. In The Sopranos, the mood and quality of the piece was heightened either by knowing reference to these works, or offering genuinely new takes on familiar situations. The writing and direction of Boardwalk Empire leave Nucky and his crew prisoners of their own era, their situations already over-familiar to us. An early twentieth century automobile at night? You’re right: it will soon be riddled with bullets. Boardwalk Empire might be best described, along with David Simon’s Treme as the first post-HBO series, in which we have come to accept long form storytelling as a given. In any meaningful way, however, the show doesn’t deliver anything like the quality of The Wire, The Sopranos or even Deadwood, whose plot it closely resembles. The story, at times seems simply to be struggling to sustain itself. As Tina Fey’s character Liz Lemon says when delivering a reality check to a cast member in 30 Rock “This isn’t HBO. This is TV.” It’s a valuable reminder about delivering what people want to watch. For all the painterliness of direction, historical accuracy, TV still needs to fish us in. For all the top performances, somewhere in among all the bignames, someone seems to have forgotten how that’s done. EXTRAS: Commentaries, Making Of…, featurettes including one on Atlantic City and another on creating the Boardwalk itself. John Robinson

HBO’s handsome, if flawed, Prohibition era crime drama…

Whenever he was at his most distracted, Tony Soprano generally made his way to the Boardwalk. Though he never actually left the house, in his troubled imagination, the anxious mob boss was frequently condemned by his conscience to return to the stomping ground of Bruce Springsteen, the shoreline at Asbury Park, New Jersey, there to confront his demons: murder victims of his regime; strange visions; on one occasion, a fish whom he became convinced was his onetime colleague Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bompensiero, and with whom he had a conversation.

Such multi-layered, innovative post-modern and above all engrossing storytelling is not something you’ll often find in Boardwalk Empire, though at first glance many similar ingredients are present. Among them, there’s nefarious activity in a coastal location (the series is set in prohibition era Atlantic City, in which the resort came into its own as a hotbed of illegality). There’s producer Terence Winter, a guiding light of The Sopranos as a writer. There’s quality acting talent (headed by Steve Buscemi, another Sopranos vet, here playing Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, about whose New Jersey empire we are ostensibly talking). There’s Martin Scorsese, who exec produces and directs the opening episode. Then there is, of course, the Boardwalk itself.

This, understandably, given the considerable expense involved in building it, is something of which the show is justifiably proud. Prior to the show’s release, HBO released a promotional stop-motion film showing the construction of this $5million principal set. On one level, it was a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain. On another, it brought an unwelcome note of reality to our not-yet-actually-suspended disbelief, as if we had accidentally skipped to the DVD Extras before watching the main feature.

A tale rooted for the most part in the true story of Atlantic City’s nefarious rise, Boardwalk Empire introduces us to the architects of that rise, some real, some not. The sketchy morality of institutions and the corruption of individuals that exploit them for their own ends is the familiar theme here. Nucky Thompson is Mayor of Atlantic City. Publicly, he’s a supporter of causes and defender of the weak. Privately, he’s a womanising villain, albeit a complex one – a complexity Buscemi effortlessly inhabits. He and his jawdropping mistress Lucy Danziger (Paz De La Huerta, the actress from the Lana Del Rey video) provide edgy HBO content of an indoor kind, while on the sly, he quietly becomes intrigued by recent immigrant Mrs Schroeder (Kelly Macdonald). The picture is filled out by Nucky’s enforcer and WWI veteran, Jimmy Dormody (Michael Pitt, looking these days more Jack White than Kurt Cobain) and magnificently, investigating agent Nelson Van Alden (the superb Michael Shannon). These people are all in transitions of a kind, but all in a way, playing their own angle. Strange to say for a 12 part series, but somehow for all the class on display, all of which makes this very watchable, there’s not enough actual story.

In a way, Boardwalk Empire is a victim of HBO’s success. It’s trying to turn the clock back, not only to the prohibition era (which it does successfully enough) but also to a time before mobster movies (which it cannot hope to do). Since the 1970s, our minds have been blown by the resourcefulness with which racketeering and mob violence has been dealt with on screen. In The Sopranos, the mood and quality of the piece was heightened either by knowing reference to these works, or offering genuinely new takes on familiar situations. The writing and direction of Boardwalk Empire leave Nucky and his crew prisoners of their own era, their situations already over-familiar to us. An early twentieth century automobile at night? You’re right: it will soon be riddled with bullets.

Boardwalk Empire might be best described, along with David Simon’s Treme as the first post-HBO series, in which we have come to accept long form storytelling as a given. In any meaningful way, however, the show doesn’t deliver anything like the quality of The Wire, The Sopranos or even Deadwood, whose plot it closely resembles. The story, at times seems simply to be struggling to sustain itself.

As Tina Fey’s character Liz Lemon says when delivering a reality check to a cast member in 30 Rock “This isn’t HBO. This is TV.” It’s a valuable reminder about delivering what people want to watch. For all the painterliness of direction, historical accuracy, TV still needs to fish us in. For all the top performances, somewhere in among all the bignames, someone seems to have forgotten how that’s done.

EXTRAS: Commentaries, Making Of…, featurettes including one on Atlantic City and another on creating the Boardwalk itself.

John Robinson

Jack White to play BBC Radio 1’s Hackney Weekend

Tom Goodwyn
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0
Jack White to play BBC Radio 1’s Hackney Weekend
Jack White, has been added to the line-up for BBC Radio 1's Hackney Weekend event: a huge outdoor festival set to take place next summer to celebrate the 2012 Olympic Games. The event will take place on London's Hackney Marshes on June 23–24 and will hold up to 100,000 people. Over 20 new acts ...

Jack White, has been added to the line-up for BBC Radio 1’s Hackney Weekend event: a huge outdoor festival set to take place next summer to celebrate the 2012 Olympic Games.

The event will take place on London‘s Hackney Marshes on June 23–24 and will hold up to 100,000 people. Over 20 new acts have been added to its bill this morning (February 3).

White will perform on a bill of artists that includes Lana Del Rey, Florence And The Machine, Bombay Bicycle Club, Calvin Harris, Chase & Status, The Maccabees and The Ting Tings.

The majority of the tickets for the event, which will all be free, will be given to residents of Hackney and the surrounding London boroughs.

BBC Radio 1’s Hackney Weekend will act as the station’s annual One Big Weekend festival. This year’s event was held in Carlisle last weekend.

Gene Simmons says Kiss are in talks with ‘Angry Birds’ team over spin-off game

Tom Goodwyn
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0
Gene Simmons says Kiss are in talks with ‘Angry Birds’ team over spin-off game
Kiss's Gene Simmons has revealed that the band are in talks with the team behind the computer game Angry Birds about starring in their own spin-off. In an interview with Industry Gamers, Simmons said he was confident that the mooted-project "will become a deal" and also claimed that the rockers w...

Kiss‘s Gene Simmons has revealed that the band are in talks with the team behind the computer game Angry Birds about starring in their own spin-off.

In an interview with Industry Gamers, Simmons said he was confident that the mooted-project “will become a deal” and also claimed that the rockers were in discussions with Sony Games.

“We’re talking with Sony Games now,” he said. “We are really trying to take it in areas that haven’t been done before and have stayed out of the marketplace because the ideas simply weren’t exciting enough. So while the gaming world is waiting for the Kiss games that are going to explode, we’re busy taking the brand to places where no brand has gone before.”

He went on to add: “We’re talking with Angry Birds, Kiss and Angry Birds, which will become a deal.”

Simmons also said that the gaming industry had had a big impact on the music business, adding: “Technology has impacted the music industry in more ways than even it understands. People think it’s about the internet, but it’s usually a cold experience. You’re just watching it.

“The more you get involved, the more it connects with you and the more you’re doing it and the more you control the music and the visuals, the more it becomes important.”

Arctic Monkeys to live stream their Paris show tonight (February 3)

Tom Goodwyn
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0
Arctic Monkeys to live stream their Paris show tonight (February 3)
Arctic Monkeys will broadcast their sold out live show at Paris' Olympia venue tonight (February 3) live on the internet. The show, which kicks off at 9.15pm (CET), which is 8.15pm in the UK, will be broadcast live and in full on the band's official website Arcticmonkeys.com. The show is part o...

Arctic Monkeys will broadcast their sold out live show at Paris’ Olympia venue tonight (February 3) live on the internet.

The show, which kicks off at 9.15pm (CET), which is 8.15pm in the UK, will be broadcast live and in full on the band’s official website Arcticmonkeys.com.

The show is part of a small run of European dates the band will play before they undertake a lengthy stint across the USA and Canada as support to The Black Keys on their US arena tour.

The band released their latest single from their fourth album ‘Suck It And See’ earlier this month. ‘Black Treacle’, which is the fourth single from the album, features a new B-side, which is titled ‘You And I’.

The track features Richard Hawley on guest vocals and was released as part of the single package on Monday (January 23).

Paul McCartney to stream ‘Kisses On The Bottom’ live set on Thursday (February 9)

Tom Goodwyn
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0
Paul McCartney to stream ‘Kisses On The Bottom’ live set on Thursday (February 9)
Paul McCartney is set to live stream a performance of songs from his new album 'Kisses On The Bottom' next week. The former Beatles man releases the album, which is largely comprised of cover versions, into shops on Monday (February 6) and will celebrate by performing tracks live at Capitol Studi...

Paul McCartney is set to live stream a performance of songs from his new album ‘Kisses On The Bottom’ next week.

The former Beatles man releases the album, which is largely comprised of cover versions, into shops on Monday (February 6) and will celebrate by performing tracks live at Capitol Studios, where the album was recorded, on Thursday (February 9). The whole set will be live streamed over iTunes.

The album is made up of songs McCartney listened to as a child as well as two new songs, ‘My Valentine’ and ‘Only Our Hearts’.

It has been recorded with producer Tommy LiPuma, Diana Krall and her band and it also features appearances from Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder.

McCartney revealed over the weekend that his love of mischief led him to call the album ‘Kisses On The Bottom’ and that he believed a little controversy is “good for the soul”.

He said: “I like mischief. It’s good for the soul, it’s always a good idea – if only because people think it’s a bad idea.”

Chimes Of Freedom – The Songs Of Bob Dylan

Michael Bonner
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0
Chimes Of Freedom – The Songs Of Bob Dylan

Collection of covers of Bob songs; some good, some not so good. In May 1961, an English lawyer named Peter Benenson wrote a newspaper article highlighting a worldwide blight of people imprisoned ­ and worse ­ for no greater crime than expressing an opinion. Later that year, an American A&R executive called John Hammond signed a twenty-year-old folksinger to Columbia records. A tick over half a century later, the leviathans turned loose by this pair ­ respectively, Amnesty International and Bob Dylan are a congruent pairing. Both are widely regarded, especially among actual and spiritual children of the 1960s, as irreproachable touchstones of all that is admirable. Both are occasionally given to vexing those who nurture an idealised vision of them. Both certainly stand, one by charter and one by example, for individual liberty. Only one ­ Amnesty ­ has a Nobel Prize, but Dylan was the subject of speculation vis-a-vis the Literature gong as recently as last October, and an eventual award would not be unseemly. The sheer heft of the inevitably titled Chimes Of Freedom reflects a belief that both golden jubilees are noteworthy: four discs, 75 tracks, more than 80 artists (none of whom are profiting from the exercise). It’s a lot to take in ­ indeed, in a few cases, specifically Miley Cyrus's risibly miscast “Lonesome When You Go”, Daniel Bedingfield’s belief-beggaring Nine Inch Nails impression on “Long Black Coat”, and Sting's prissy whine of “Girl From The North Country”, it’s rather too much to take in. But at worst, best and all points between, Chimes Of Freedom is a monumental demonstration of the extent to which Dylan ­ however much he has bristled at his works being characterised as such ­ has cornered the protest song market. Fifty years since he first whined “Song To Woody” into a microphone at the Columbia Recording Studio in New York, Dylan has become to any politically engaged musician what Shakespeare is to actors: something you feel you have to step up to at some point. In the case of both bards, the greatest rewards are frequently reaped by those who can summon the nerve to take liberties. There are some perfectly decent, faithful readings on Chimes Of Freedom: Kris Kristofferson’s “Mighty Quinn”, Steve Earle's “One More Cup Of Coffee”, Maroon 5’s “I Shall Be Released”. These suffer, however, not from a lack of inherent quality but from the fact that you've already heard any number of perfectly decent, faithful readings of them. The cuts which stand out ­ and which you can just about imagined tickling Dylan’s own presumably, by now, leatherlike palate ­ are the ones unafraid of what they're dealing with. Former Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello turns “Blind Willie McTell” into a electrified trip-hop nightmare, The Gaslight Anthem bounce “Changing Of The Guards” off the garage walls with abandon, and Queens Of The Stone Age simply swagger through “Outlaw Blues” as if it had always been a Queens Of The Stone Age tune. It’s not an exact science, of course. Some straightforward takes are lovely ­ Mark Knopfler’s “Restless Farewell”, Thea Gilmore’s “I'll Remember You”. And not all efforts at stamping one’s own brand find their mark. Michael Franti's “Subterranean Homesick Blues” sounds like a Sesame Street sketch, and Natasha Bedingfield’s ­ “Ring Them Bells” would elicit pleas for mercy from Celine Dion. Whether or not it was ever Dylan's intention, it has now been the case for half a century that any songwriter who lifts a pen in any cause knows that there’s already a Dylan song which will do at least as well, and probably better. Dorian Lynskey, in the epilogue of 33 Revolutions Per Minute, his superb 2011 history of the protest song, effectively wonders if the artists on Chimes Of Freedom are urging along a mount going nowhere but the glue factory: “For a songwriter coming of age now, the idea that music can, and should, engage with politics seems increasingly distant. This is entangled with a broader loss of faith in ideology and a fading belief in what we might call heroes: inspirational individuals with the power to move mountains.” Chimes Of Freedom makes the case, if inadvertently, that the ebbing of the protest song might also be due to the form’s domination by one writer, whose overwhelming prodigiousness has cowed all potential peers and successors beyond the point at which they feel able to say here is your throat back, thanks for the loan. Andrew Mueller

Collection of covers of Bob songs; some good, some not so good.

In May 1961, an English lawyer named Peter Benenson wrote a newspaper article highlighting a worldwide blight of people imprisoned ­ and worse ­ for no greater crime than expressing an opinion. Later that year, an American A&R executive called John Hammond signed a twenty-year-old folksinger to Columbia records. A tick over half a century later, the leviathans turned loose by this pair ­ respectively, Amnesty International and Bob Dylan are a congruent pairing. Both are widely regarded, especially among actual and spiritual children of the 1960s, as irreproachable touchstones of all that is admirable. Both are occasionally given to vexing those who nurture an idealised vision of them. Both certainly stand, one by charter and one by example, for individual liberty.

Only one ­ Amnesty ­ has a Nobel Prize, but Dylan was the subject of speculation vis-a-vis the Literature gong as recently as last October, and an eventual award would not be unseemly. The sheer heft of the inevitably titled Chimes Of Freedom reflects a belief that both golden jubilees are noteworthy: four discs, 75 tracks, more than 80 artists (none of whom are profiting from the exercise). It’s a lot to take in ­ indeed, in a few cases, specifically Miley Cyrus’s risibly miscast “Lonesome When You Go”, Daniel Bedingfield’s belief-beggaring Nine Inch Nails impression on “Long Black Coat”, and Sting’s prissy whine of “Girl From The North Country”, it’s rather too much to take in. But at worst, best and all points between, Chimes Of Freedom is a monumental demonstration of the extent to which Dylan ­ however much he has bristled at his works being characterised as such ­ has cornered the protest song market. Fifty years since he first whined “Song To Woody” into a microphone at the Columbia Recording Studio in New York, Dylan has become to any politically engaged musician what Shakespeare is to actors: something you feel you have to step up to at some point.

In the case of both bards, the greatest rewards are frequently reaped by those who can summon the nerve to take liberties. There are some perfectly decent, faithful readings on Chimes Of Freedom: Kris Kristofferson’s “Mighty Quinn”, Steve Earle’s “One More Cup Of Coffee”, Maroon 5’s “I Shall Be Released”. These suffer, however, not from a lack of inherent quality but from the fact that you’ve already heard any number of perfectly decent, faithful readings of them. The cuts which stand out ­ and which you can just about imagined tickling Dylan’s own presumably, by now, leatherlike palate ­ are the ones unafraid of what they’re dealing with. Former Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello turns “Blind Willie McTell” into a electrified trip-hop nightmare, The Gaslight Anthem bounce “Changing Of The Guards” off the garage walls with abandon, and Queens Of The Stone Age simply swagger through “Outlaw Blues” as if it had always been a Queens Of The Stone Age tune. It’s not an exact science, of course. Some straightforward takes are lovely ­ Mark Knopfler’s “Restless Farewell”, Thea Gilmore’s “I’ll Remember You”. And not all efforts at stamping one’s own brand find their mark.

Michael Franti’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” sounds like a Sesame Street sketch, and Natasha Bedingfield’s ­ “Ring Them Bells” would elicit pleas for mercy from Celine Dion.

Whether or not it was ever Dylan’s intention, it has now been the case for half a century that any songwriter who lifts a pen in any cause knows that there’s already a Dylan song which will do at least as well, and probably better. Dorian Lynskey, in the epilogue of 33 Revolutions Per Minute, his superb 2011 history of the protest song, effectively wonders if the artists on Chimes Of Freedom are urging along a mount going nowhere but the glue factory: “For a songwriter coming of age now, the idea that music can, and should, engage with politics seems increasingly distant. This is entangled with a broader loss of faith in ideology and a fading belief in what we might call heroes: inspirational individuals with the power to move mountains.”

Chimes Of Freedom makes the case, if inadvertently, that the ebbing of the protest song might also be due to the form’s domination by one writer, whose overwhelming prodigiousness has cowed all potential peers and successors beyond the point at which they feel able to say here is your throat back, thanks for the loan.

Andrew Mueller

‘American Idol’ runner – up Adam Lambert claims he’s Queen’s new frontman

Tom Goodwyn
-
0
‘American Idol’ runner – up Adam Lambert claims he’s Queen’s new frontman
American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert has claimed that he is set to join Queen as their new frontman for a tour this summer. Lambert, who reportedly impressed the band when he teamed up with them to perform classic tracks including 'The Show Must Go On' and 'We Are The Champions' at the MTV Europe...

American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert has claimed that he is set to join Queen as their new frontman for a tour this summer.

Lambert, who reportedly impressed the band when he teamed up with them to perform classic tracks including ‘The Show Must Go On’ and ‘We Are The Champions’ at the MTV European Music Awards last November, told the Daily Star that he had “no intention” of trying to replace the group’s original frontman Freddie Mercury.

“The intention is to pay tribute to Freddie and the band by singing some fucking great songs. It’s to keep the music alive for the fans and give it an energy that Freddie would have been proud of,” he said.

He went on to add: “After the EMAs, I heard faint little slithers of backlash from people saying: ‘You can’t replace Freddie Mercury.’ But I already knew that. There’s no intention in my mind of replacing Freddie. That’s impossible. The way I’m choosing to view it is that it’s a great honour and one I’m in no way going to shirk.”

The tabloid also reports that Queen are set to headline this year’s Sonisphere Festival, but similar rumours which surfaced last week were dismissed as “completely false” by the event’s official spokesman (January 26).

Last December, Queen guitarist Brian May admitted that he and drummer Roger Taylor can “never be Queen” in the way that they used to be without Mercury and bassist John Deacon. It was previously reported that they were in talks with Lady Gaga about the possibility of her becoming the band’s frontwoman.

Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward threatens to pull out of reunion

Tom Goodwyn
-
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Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward threatens to pull out of reunion

Bill Ward – drummer with Black Sabbath – has threatened to pull of the legendary heavy metal band's latest reunion. Ward has stated that he is unhappy with the contract for the band's new album and world tour, and has said that he will not take part in the new album sessions and shows if a 'fair agreement' is not met. Posting a statement on his Facebook page earlier today (February 2), Ward wrote: "I am unable to continue unless a 'signable' contract is drawn up; a contract that reflects some dignity and respect toward me as an original member of the band." He continued to express his dissatisfaction, writing: "Several days ago, after nearly a year of trying to negotiate, another "unsignable" contract was handed to me... The place I'm in feels lousy and lonely because as much as I want to play and participate, I also have to stand for something and not sign on. If I sign as-is, I stand to lose my rights, dignity and respectability as a rock musician. I believe in freedom and freedom of speech." Ward does not detail the exact terms of the contract, but added that he "definitely want[s] to play on the album, and I definitely want to tour with Black Sabbath" but explained he feels he cannot do so until he is handed a different contract. He also said that he was not motivated by 'greed'. "My position is not greed-driven," he wrote. "I'm not holding out for a "big piece" of the action (money) like some kind of blackmail deal. I'd like something that recognizes and is reflective of my contributions to the band.” To see the full statement, visit: Facebook.com/billward Black Sabbath are set to headline the closing night of Download Festival this June and will then embark on a world tour and release a new, Rick Rubin produced album.

Bill Ward – drummer with Black Sabbath – has threatened to pull of the legendary heavy metal band’s latest reunion.

Ward has stated that he is unhappy with the contract for the band’s new album and world tour, and has said that he will not take part in the new album sessions and shows if a ‘fair agreement’ is not met.

Posting a statement on his Facebook page earlier today (February 2), Ward wrote: “I am unable to continue unless a ‘signable’ contract is drawn up; a contract that reflects some dignity and respect toward me as an original member of the band.”

He continued to express his dissatisfaction, writing: “Several days ago, after nearly a year of trying to negotiate, another “unsignable” contract was handed to me… The place I’m in feels lousy and lonely because as much as I want to play and participate, I also have to stand for something and not sign on. If I sign as-is, I stand to lose my rights, dignity and respectability as a rock musician. I believe in freedom and freedom of speech.”

Ward does not detail the exact terms of the contract, but added that he “definitely want[s] to play on the album, and I definitely want to tour with Black Sabbath” but explained he feels he cannot do so until he is handed a different contract.

He also said that he was not motivated by ‘greed’. “My position is not greed-driven,” he wrote. “I’m not holding out for a “big piece” of the action (money) like some kind of blackmail deal. I’d like something that recognizes and is reflective of my contributions to the band.”

To see the full statement, visit: Facebook.com/billward

Black Sabbath are set to headline the closing night of Download Festival this June and will then embark on a world tour and release a new, Rick Rubin produced album.

Bruce Springsteen to perform at Grammy Awards ceremony

Tom Goodwyn
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0
Bruce Springsteen to perform at Grammy Awards ceremony
Bruce Springsteen is set to perform at the Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on February 12. The American rock legend will be joining Adele – who makes her live comeback following last year's vocal chord surgery – at the event. Other artists appearing at the 54th annual Grammy Awards are ...

Bruce Springsteen is set to perform at the Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on February 12.

The American rock legend will be joining Adele – who makes her live comeback following last year’s vocal chord surgery – at the event. Other artists appearing at the 54th annual Grammy Awards are Katy Perry, Glen Campbell, Coldplay, Rihanna, Foo Fighters, Paul McCartney and Nicki Minaj, reports Rolling Stone.

Bruce Springsteen‘s 17th studio album will be titled ‘Wrecking Ball’ and released on March 5. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band first played the album’s title track live on their 2009 world tour. The first single from the album, ‘We Take Care of Our Own’, is out now.

The album follows 2009’s ‘Working On A Dream’ and 2010’s outtakes collection ‘The Promise’. Springsteen is scheduled to deliver the keynote speech at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas on March 15 and he then begins his European tour on May 13 in Sevilla, Spain.

US dates are still to be announced, but he plays Sunderland Stadium of Light (June 21), Manchester Etihad Stadium (22), Isle Of Wight Festival (24) and London Hard Rock Calling (July 14) this summer.

Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon: ‘It might be five years until our next album’

Tom Goodwyn
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0
Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon: ‘It might be five years until our next album’

On the road DVD Trailer from Rogcity Fitness on Vimeo.

Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon has said he might not release another album for five years.

In an interview with USA Today, the singer revealed that he had not yet started work on the follow-up to the band’s self-titled second studio album, which was released in June last year, and said it could take as long as half-a-decade to put out his next LP.

He said: “I don’t have any songs written yet. I’m guessing three years. But it could be five. It could be only one more. It just depends when the songs come about. I sort of have to wait till they reveal themselves.”

However, Vernon did say that he was planning on working on other projects away from Bon Iver, including records with his other groups Shouting Matches and Volcano Choir, and was also collaborating with Alicia Keys. “I have a big idea to do an American songbook of the greatest women singers,” he added. “There are so many: Casey (Dienel) from White Hinterland, Bonnie Raitt, Alicia.”

Earlier this month, the frontman announced that he had launched his own record label, called Chigliak Records, which will release ‘lost’ albums and new music.

Last December, meanwhile, it was reported that Bon Iver were set to appear in a new workout DVD called On The Road. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click to watch the trailer.

On the road DVD Trailer from Rogcity Fitness on Vimeo.

New Order extend their April UK tour

Tom Goodwyn
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0
New Order extend their April UK tour
New Order have added second shows in Manchester and London to their April UK tour. The band will play two hometown shows at Manchester's O2 Apollo on April 26 and 27, two shows at London's O2 Academy Brixton on May 2 and 3, and gigs in Birmingham and Glasgow on the tour. New Order, who are also...

New Order have added second shows in Manchester and London to their April UK tour.

The band will play two hometown shows at Manchester’s O2 Apollo on April 26 and 27, two shows at London’s O2 Academy Brixton on May 2 and 3, and gigs in Birmingham and Glasgow on the tour.

New Order, who are also set to play a series of European festivals during this summer, announced in late 2011 that they had reformed, but that founding member and bass player Peter Hook would not be part of their line-up.

Instead keyboard player Gillian Gilbert, who hadn’t performed with the band for over 10 years, rejoined and bass duties were taken up by Tom Chapman, who was part of frontman Bernard Sumner’s recent project Bad Lieutenant.

The tour is the band’s first in the UK for over five years.

New Order will now play:

O2 Apollo Manchester (April 26, 27)

Birmingham Ballroom (29)

O2 Academy Brixton (May 2, 3)

O2 Academy Glasgow (5)

Arbouretum & Hush Arbors: “Aureola”

John Mulvey
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Arbouretum & Hush Arbors: “Aureola”

A bit of a misunderstanding with regard to this album from Hush Arbors and Arbouretum, “Aureola”, which at first looked to be a collaboration between two acts I’ve written a fair amount about over the years. As it turns out, “Aureloa” ia, quaintly, a split album, with five songs from Hush Arbors (aka Keith Wood) and three longer ones on what must be the flipside from Arbouretum. Wood – last seen, I think, as part of Thurston Moore’s band - has been following a path between a fulsome, slightly fey kind of Byrds-rock and more abstract work for a few years, and his contributions here fall very much into the former category. Nice, rich, with my usual caveat that Wood’s voice can sound a bit thin when exposed. But very much worth listening to alongside his Ecstatic Peace albums “Hush Arbors” and “Yankee Reality”(follow the links to my old blogs on each, where I’ve possibly been more articulate and considered). Some danger of repeating myself on the subject of Dave Heumann’s mighty Arbouretum, too (here’s a piece on “The Gathering”, their last album, with a lot of other links; and one on the Uncut show they played a year ago). Worth reiterating, though, that I can’t think of many contemporary rock bands that impress me as much as Arbouretum, or who execute a good idea – in this case, Anglo-style folk-rock played with unusual heft – so brilliantly. All that is crystallised on their three “Aureola” tracks, which mostly follow a familiar pattern of churning bass and drums (halfway between Crazy Horse and Om, as discussed), with an ancient-sounding vocal melody and some frictional guitar activity to top it off. If anything, these songs – “St Anthony’s Fire” especially – move closer to the ritual abandon of Arbouretum’s live show, in that Heumann’s vocal (melodically closer to Steeleye Span than the usual touchstone of Fairport Convention, perhaps) seems stronger and looser, and his solos have even more exploratory zeal than ever. Can never recommend this band enough: rather weird to link to a Myspace page in 2012, but there’s a bunch of stuff at the Arbouretum site if you’ve never heard them before. Please give them a go. Follow me on Twitter: @JohnRMulvey

A bit of a misunderstanding with regard to this album from Hush Arbors and Arbouretum, “Aureola”, which at first looked to be a collaboration between two acts I’ve written a fair amount about over the years.

As it turns out, “Aureloa” ia, quaintly, a split album, with five songs from Hush Arbors (aka Keith Wood) and three longer ones on what must be the flipside from Arbouretum. Wood – last seen, I think, as part of Thurston Moore’s band – has been following a path between a fulsome, slightly fey kind of Byrds-rock and more abstract work for a few years, and his contributions here fall very much into the former category. Nice, rich, with my usual caveat that Wood’s voice can sound a bit thin when exposed. But very much worth listening to alongside his Ecstatic Peace albums “Hush Arbors” and “Yankee Reality”(follow the links to my old blogs on each, where I’ve possibly been more articulate and considered).

Some danger of repeating myself on the subject of Dave Heumann’s mighty Arbouretum, too (here’s a piece on “The Gathering”, their last album, with a lot of other links; and one on the Uncut show they played a year ago). Worth reiterating, though, that I can’t think of many contemporary rock bands that impress me as much as Arbouretum, or who execute a good idea – in this case, Anglo-style folk-rock played with unusual heft – so brilliantly.

All that is crystallised on their three “Aureola” tracks, which mostly follow a familiar pattern of churning bass and drums (halfway between Crazy Horse and Om, as discussed), with an ancient-sounding vocal melody and some frictional guitar activity to top it off. If anything, these songs – “St Anthony’s Fire” especially – move closer to the ritual abandon of Arbouretum’s live show, in that Heumann’s vocal (melodically closer to Steeleye Span than the usual touchstone of Fairport Convention, perhaps) seems stronger and looser, and his solos have even more exploratory zeal than ever.

Can never recommend this band enough: rather weird to link to a Myspace page in 2012, but there’s a bunch of stuff at the Arbouretum site if you’ve never heard them before. Please give them a go.

Follow me on Twitter: @JohnRMulvey

Lou Reed announces ‘From Vu To Lulu’ European tour

Tom Goodwyn
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0
Lou Reed announces ‘From Vu To Lulu’ European tour
Lou Reed has announced a full European tour for this June. The singer, who has most recently collaborated with Metallica for the much-discussed album 'Lulu', will play 17 dates across Europe during June and early July. The gigs begin in Luxembourg at the Rockhal on June 6 and run until July 5 w...

Lou Reed has announced a full European tour for this June.

The singer, who has most recently collaborated with Metallica for the much-discussed album ‘Lulu’, will play 17 dates across Europe during June and early July.

The gigs begin in Luxembourg at the Rockhal on June 6 and run until July 5 when Reed will play the Trencin Pohoda Festival in Slovakia.

Reed will be joined by a 4-piece band which will feature Tony ‘Thunder’ Smith on drums, Rob Wasserman on bass, Kevin Hearn on keyboards and Aram Bajakian on guitar.

The tour is titled ‘From Vu To Lulu’ and will see Reed play a set list that includes material from his days in the Velvet Underground right through to material from ‘Lulu’.

Lou Reed will play:

Luxembourg Rockhal (June 6)


Caribana Festival, Switzerland (8)


Montereau Festival, France (9) 


Paris Olympia (11) 


Lille L’Aeronef (12) 


Amsterdam Heineken Music Hall (14) 


Brussels Ancienne Belgique (15) 


Copenhagen Falconer Salen (18) 


Berlin Citadel Music Festival (20) 


Mainz Zollhafen/Nordmole (23) 


Clermont Ferrand Cooperative de Mai (25) 


Bordeaux Fete le Vin (26) 


Bonn Kunst! Rasen (29) 


Dresden Filmnächte am Elbufer (30) 


Munich Tollwood Festival (July 1) 


Trencin Pohoda Festival, Slovakia (5)

Calexico – Selections From Road Atlas 1998-2011

Michael Bonner
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Calexico – Selections From Road Atlas 1998-2011

A fine digest of Calexico in a handsome, limited edition box set... Fifteen years into their career, we have an idea what Calexico are supposed to sound like. Broadly, you may expect desert dust, a bit of Ennio Morricone twang, occasional trumpets. Since the group is headquartered in Arizona, we may employ critical shorthand to signpost these expectations: desert rock doesn’t quite do it, so let’s settle for “Southwestern soundscapes”. And it’s true, on most of their records, the musical collective which has coalesced around Joey Burns and John Convertino will deliver something to fit that template. But, more often than not, their music will explore uncharted territories. Yes, there will be a hint of Sergio Leone carried on the hot, dry air, and the lyrics may be specific to the troubled terrain which connects the US to Mexico, but the essence of the songs will be broader. To extend the film metaphor – Calexico don’t really sound like a spaghetti western; their songs are John Sayles micro-dramas, examining the politics of emigration and borderlands on a human scale, finding the universal in the particular. (With occasional twang.) But away from their official releases, there is another Calexico. The group’s ‘tour only’ albums are sold at gigs, and showcase a more playful, experimental side to their creativity. There are eight albums in all, and they have now been collected in a handsome, limited edition, 12 x LP box set called Road Atlas. Two of these are live sets, and there are six albums of original material. Some of these are very fine indeed; Travellal (from 2000) is a beautifully evocative, ambient jazz album, in which Calexico make a sideways nod to Charles Mingus (a native of Nogales, on the Arizona border); and the soundtrack from Aaron Schock’s Mexican circus documentary Circo (from 2010) makes effective use of their cinematic sense of atmosphere. For those who are nervous of investing in the box, the tour albums are available individually on the Touch & Go/Quarterstick website) but, short of that, Selections is well-curated compilation which stands comparison with any of the band’s official label releases. Those in search of the twang will be reassured by “Glowing Heart of The World” (from 98-99 Road Map), which is almost like a re-imagined “Ghost Riders In The Sky”, starting gently, and cantering into a western melody that couldn’t be more Morricone if it featured Eli Wallach on maracas. There’s some lovely slide guitar on ‘El Morro’ (from 98-99 Road Map), a dusty desert instrumental which channels Ry Cooder. And “Waitomo” (from 2007’s Tool Box) has some of the instrumental snap Burns and Convertino first located on their pre-Calexico lounge band, Friends of Dean Martinez. Then there is their beautiful re-styling of “All The Pretty Horses” (from 2001’s Aerocalexico), which adds campfire melodies and some eerie steel guitar to the children’s lullaby, making it bleaker than it has any right to be (buried beneath the sweetness of Burns’ singing is a line about a poor little child having its eyes pecked out by bees and flies). Also from Aerocalexico is the original version of “Crystal Frontier”, delivered here with greater percussive spring, and outer space sound effects. Sadder yet is “Gift X-Change”, an existential Christmas song seemingly-fashioned from an old Scottish lament. “I trust you’ll find some inner peace through times that are rough,” sings Burns, sounding far from convinced. But it’s the more marginal pieces which make Selections work as an album. “Entrenando A Los Tigres” is little more than a percussive sketch, but is jammed with atmosphere. “Inch by Inch” is like a Neil Young blues, condensed into a minute. And “Boletos” is 90 seconds of Top Cat jazz, with taco seasoning. If that sounds fragmented, it isn’t. In another life, not entirely dissimilar to this one, Calexico would be a jazz band. In this life, they make the music that leaks through the walls of abandoned motels. It is majestic music; sometimes futuristic, often traditional. It’s a soundtrack for now, which accounts for the tears. Alastair McKay Q&A with Joey Burns What is the idea behind the Tour Only albums? “They were our way to give something back to the fans at our concerts. Hopefully they give another perspective to our identity. So we experimented a lot, and mashed the lo-fi recordings together with proper studio recordings as well as instrumentals and songs. There are no rules to the construction of our Tour Only albums.” How does the material differ stylistically from your official releases? The Tour Only material seems to lean more on the spontaneous and dares to be as different as we can make it within our general sense of style and aesthetic. I guess we do have some limits, but at the same time there are some huge leaps here and there. When can we expect new material from Calexico - and what will it be like? We are setting our sights on releasing a new Calexico record in 2012 to help ramp up to the celebration of the Mayan calendar's changing of the guard. The world news has been so bizarre and crazy that I have become a full-on news junkie, tuning in my radio dial to the 7am broadcasts. INTERVIEW: ALASTAIR McKAY

A fine digest of Calexico in a handsome, limited edition box set…

Fifteen years into their career, we have an idea what Calexico are supposed to sound like. Broadly, you may expect desert dust, a bit of Ennio Morricone twang, occasional trumpets. Since the group is headquartered in Arizona, we may employ critical shorthand to signpost these expectations: desert rock doesn’t quite do it, so let’s settle for “Southwestern soundscapes”.

And it’s true, on most of their records, the musical collective which has coalesced around Joey Burns and John Convertino will deliver something to fit that template. But, more often than not, their music will explore uncharted territories. Yes, there will be a hint of Sergio Leone carried on the hot, dry air, and the lyrics may be specific to the troubled terrain which connects the US to Mexico, but the essence of the songs will be broader. To extend the film metaphor – Calexico don’t really sound like a spaghetti western; their songs are John Sayles micro-dramas, examining the politics of emigration and borderlands on a human scale, finding the universal in the particular. (With occasional twang.)

But away from their official releases, there is another Calexico. The group’s ‘tour only’ albums are sold at gigs, and showcase a more playful, experimental side to their creativity. There are eight albums in all, and they have now been collected in a handsome, limited edition, 12 x LP box set called Road Atlas. Two of these are live sets, and there are six albums of original material. Some of these are very fine indeed; Travellal (from 2000) is a beautifully evocative, ambient jazz album, in which Calexico make a sideways nod to Charles Mingus (a native of Nogales, on the Arizona border); and the soundtrack from Aaron Schock’s Mexican circus documentary Circo (from 2010) makes effective use of their cinematic sense of atmosphere.

For those who are nervous of investing in the box, the tour albums are available individually on the Touch & Go/Quarterstick website) but, short of that, Selections is well-curated compilation which stands comparison with any of the band’s official label releases. Those in search of the twang will be reassured by “Glowing Heart of The World” (from 98-99 Road Map), which is almost like a re-imagined “Ghost Riders In The Sky”, starting gently, and cantering into a western melody that couldn’t be more Morricone if it featured Eli Wallach on maracas. There’s some lovely slide guitar on ‘El Morro’ (from 98-99 Road Map), a dusty desert instrumental which channels Ry Cooder. And “Waitomo” (from 2007’s Tool Box) has some of the instrumental snap Burns and Convertino first located on their pre-Calexico lounge band, Friends of Dean Martinez.

Then there is their beautiful re-styling of “All The Pretty Horses” (from 2001’s Aerocalexico), which adds campfire melodies and some eerie steel guitar to the children’s lullaby, making it bleaker than it has any right to be (buried beneath the sweetness of Burns’ singing is a line about a poor little child having its eyes pecked out by bees and flies). Also from Aerocalexico is the original version of “Crystal Frontier”, delivered here with greater percussive spring, and outer space sound effects. Sadder yet is “Gift X-Change”, an existential Christmas song seemingly-fashioned from an old Scottish lament. “I trust you’ll find some inner peace through times that are rough,” sings Burns, sounding far from convinced.

But it’s the more marginal pieces which make Selections work as an album. “Entrenando A Los Tigres” is little more than a percussive sketch, but is jammed with atmosphere. “Inch by Inch” is like a Neil Young blues, condensed into a minute. And “Boletos” is 90 seconds of Top Cat jazz, with taco seasoning. If that sounds fragmented, it isn’t. In another life, not entirely dissimilar to this one, Calexico would be a jazz band. In this life, they make the music that leaks through the walls of abandoned motels. It is majestic music; sometimes futuristic, often traditional. It’s a soundtrack for now, which accounts for the tears.

Alastair McKay

Q&A with Joey Burns

What is the idea behind the Tour Only albums?

“They were our way to give something back to the fans at our concerts. Hopefully they give another perspective to our identity. So we experimented a lot, and mashed the lo-fi recordings together with proper studio recordings as well as instrumentals and songs. There are no rules to the construction of our Tour Only albums.”

How does the material differ stylistically from your official releases?

The Tour Only material seems to lean more on the spontaneous and dares to be as different as we can make it within our general sense of style and aesthetic. I guess we do have some limits, but at the same time there are some huge leaps here and there.

When can we expect new material from Calexico – and what will it be like?

We are setting our sights on releasing a new Calexico record in 2012 to help ramp up to the celebration of the Mayan calendar’s changing of the guard. The world news has been so bizarre and crazy that I have become a full-on news junkie, tuning in my radio dial to the 7am broadcasts.

INTERVIEW: ALASTAIR McKAY

New Order’s Bernard Sumner hints they could record new material

Tom Goodwyn
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0
New Order’s Bernard Sumner hints they could record new material
New Order frontman Bernard Sumner has hinted that the band could record new material this year. In an interview with XFM, Sumner revealed that although he and his bandmates were focused on their forthcoming UK live tour, they hadn't ruled out the possibility of hitting the studio to work on new s...

New Order frontman Bernard Sumner has hinted that the band could record new material this year.

In an interview with XFM, Sumner revealed that although he and his bandmates were focused on their forthcoming UK live tour, they hadn’t ruled out the possibility of hitting the studio to work on new songs.

“Not even thinking about [writing and recording] at the moment because our heads are really on playing live,” he said. “It really is one day at a time – or one year at a time – and this year is playing live.”

However, he then went on to add: “Let’s see [about working on new material]. Hopefully there’ll be some recorded music as well.”

Earlier this week, New Order announced details of a four-date tour of the UK to take place this April. The band reformed in late 2011 but without founding member and bass player Peter Hook – instead, keyboard player Gillian Gilbert, who hadn’t performed with the band for over 10 years, rejoined and bass duties were taken up by Tom Chapman, who was part of Sumner’s recent project Bad Lieutenant.

Although the band have made it clear that they have every intention of continuing to perform under the name New Order, Peter Hook revealed to NME last week that he has instigated legal proceedings against his former bandmates to stop them doing so.

He told NME of his situation with the band: “It’s in the hands of the lawyers. The point is that they shouldn’t be using the New Order name without me and it’s up to the lawyers.”

New Order will play:

O2 Apollo Manchester (April 26)

Birmingham Ballroom (29)

O2 Academy Brixton (May 2)

O2 Academy Glasgow (5)

Blur’s Damon Albarn to headline April’s Honeyfest event

Tom Goodwyn
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0
Blur’s Damon Albarn to headline April’s Honeyfest event
Blur's Damon Albarn will headline this year's Honeyfest with his opera Doctor Dee. The opera, which ran in Manchester earlier this summer as part of the Manchester International Festival and received considerable praise from critics, details the life of 16th century scientist John Dee. The show...

Blur‘s Damon Albarn will headline this year’s Honeyfest with his opera Doctor Dee.

The opera, which ran in Manchester earlier this summer as part of the Manchester International Festival and received considerable praise from critics, details the life of 16th century scientist John Dee.

The show features Albarn singing 10 songs from a position a third level above the stage and will be performed at the close of the event, which takes place on April 14 in Tumuli Field in Marlborough, Wiltshire.

Also confirmed to appear at the event are BBC Sound Of 2012 nominees Dry The River, Rae Morris, Nick Harper, Cut A Shine and Kidnap Alice

Doctor Dee is also set to be performed at London’s Coliseum during this summer. The opera will open at the UK capital venue on June 25 and will then be performed on June 26, 28, 29, July 4, 6 and 7. All the performances begin at 7.30pm, with a matinee performance also booked for July 7 at 2.30pm.

For more information about Honeyfest, visit Honeyfestuk.com.

Richard Hawley, Dirty Three, Andrew Bird to headline No Direction Home festival

Tom Goodwyn
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0
Richard Hawley, Dirty Three, Andrew Bird to headline No Direction Home festival
Richard Hawley, Andrew Bird, The Low Anthem and Dirty Three have been confirmed as the headliners of the brand new No Direction Home Festival. The event, which is the sister festival of End Of The Road Festival, will take place from June 8 – 10 at Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire. Dirty Three...

Richard Hawley, Andrew Bird, The Low Anthem and Dirty Three have been confirmed as the headliners of the brand new No Direction Home Festival.

The event, which is the sister festival of End Of The Road Festival, will take place from June 8 – 10 at Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire.

Dirty Three will co-headline the event’s opening night (June 8) with The Low Anthem, while Andrew Bird will headline the Saturday (June 9), with Richard Hawley closing proceedings on the Sunday (June 10).

Also confirmed to play across the weekend are Austra, Gruff Rhys, Django Django, Veronica Falls, Slow Club, Spectrals and a whole host of other artists.

For more information about the event, visit Nodirectionhomefestival.com.

The line-up for No Direction Home Festival so far is as follows:

Andrew Bird

Austra

Beth Jeans Houghton & the Hooves of Destiny

Cold Specks

David Thomas Broughton

Diagrams

Django Django

Dirty Three

Gruff Rhys

Lanterns On The Lake

Liz Green

Martin Carthy

Martin Simpson

Moon Duo

Other Lives

Slow Club

Spectrals

The Low Anthem

The Unthanks with the Brighouse & Rastrick Brass Band

Veronica Falls

Wet Nuns

Ringo Starr: ‘There’s no rivalry between me and Paul McCartney’

Tom Goodwyn
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0
Ringo Starr: ‘There’s no rivalry between me and Paul McCartney’

Ringo Starr has insisted that there is no rivalry between him and Paul McCartney, even though they are both releasing albums within a week of each other. The drummer's new LP 'Ringo 2012' was officially released yesterday while McCartney's latest effort, 'Kisses On The Bottom', will be available from next Monday (February 6). However, in an interview with Spinner, Starr claimed that he didn't feel as if he was in competition with his fellow former Beatles member. "In all honesty, we had dinner just after Christmas together and I didn't know he had one coming out," he said. "I didn't know that it was going to come out within weeks of each other." He went on to add: "No, there's no rivalry. Paul is Paul, Ringo is Ringo and this is what we do. We don't phone each other and say, 'You can't you bring your record out because I've got one!'. We live our lives, we make our music and pick a release date. This was the date we picked and that's just how it is." Starr also had some words of his encouragement The Rolling Stones and said he hoped they would tour this year to mark their 50th anniversary. Following reports last year that that Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were set to put aside their differences to discuss the possibility of playing live together, he said: "I only advise everybody to get out there and play and I hope The Rolling Stones pull it together and I hope Keith and Mick pull it together and stop squabbling and get out there and do it – says Ringo!"

Ringo Starr has insisted that there is no rivalry between him and Paul McCartney, even though they are both releasing albums within a week of each other.

The drummer’s new LP ‘Ringo 2012’ was officially released yesterday while McCartney’s latest effort, ‘Kisses On The Bottom’, will be available from next Monday (February 6).

However, in an interview with Spinner, Starr claimed that he didn’t feel as if he was in competition with his fellow former Beatles member. “In all honesty, we had dinner just after Christmas together and I didn’t know he had one coming out,” he said. “I didn’t know that it was going to come out within weeks of each other.”

He went on to add: “No, there’s no rivalry. Paul is Paul, Ringo is Ringo and this is what we do. We don’t phone each other and say, ‘You can’t you bring your record out because I’ve got one!’. We live our lives, we make our music and pick a release date. This was the date we picked and that’s just how it is.”

Starr also had some words of his encouragement The Rolling Stones and said he hoped they would tour this year to mark their 50th anniversary. Following reports last year that that Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were set to put aside their differences to discuss the possibility of playing live together, he said: “I only advise everybody to get out there and play and I hope The Rolling Stones pull it together and I hope Keith and Mick pull it together and stop squabbling and get out there and do it – says Ringo!”

Pearl Jam Twenty

Michael Bonner
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Pearl Jam Twenty

Cameron Crowe's feature length documentary celebrates the grunge legends... This is not the first time Pearl Jam have featured in a Cameron Crowe film. In Crowe’s affectionate Seattle rom-com Singles, released at the peak of the grunge boom in 1992, Eddie Vedder, Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard appeared as members of Citizen Dick, a hapless fictional group fronted by an epically gormless Matt Dillon. In Pearl Jam Twenty, essentially Crowe’s present to a band he has long loved, the same musicians are altogether more businesslike. The key theme of the film – young men learning to cope with sudden fame – is also its key drawback. What Pearl Jam learnt on their journey from wannabes to megastars is that you only stay sane during that supremely head-messing trip by setting parsiomonious limits on how much of yourself you give away, whichever old friend and distinguished rock journalist turned Oscar-winning director is asking the questions. “At some point,” says Stone Gossard, reflecting on Pearl Jam’s early ascent, a rise so vertiginous that it threatened to cause breakups and breakdowns, “you have to say no.” It’s possible to see that this is a good thing for the members of Pearl Jam, who all appear to have arrived in middle age thoughtful, grateful, businesslike – and, above all, content. As Crowe’s insightful illustration of the 80s/90s Seattle milieu that spawned Pearl Jam reminds, this was never guaranteed. Though the scene was unusually mutually supportive, it was also somewhat self-destructive. Pearl Jam might never have existed had Andrew Wood, who sang in Gossard and Jeff Ament’s previous group, Mother Love Bone, not overdosed. One of the most affecting of the archive clips is of Pearl Jam performing the night they learnt of the self-inflicted death of their inspirational rival Kurt Cobain, Eddie Vedder gripped by a rare struggle for words. Intriguingly, Pearl Jam Twenty suggests that what saved the group was their friendship and collaboration with Neil Young, who seems to have served as a sort of gnarled spirit guide. Young’s voice is heard in the portion of the film that deals with Cobain’s death, sighing that he’d wanted to call the kid and remind him that he was under no obligation – that if he found being a rock star that much of a hassle, he could cease being one, or continue on whatever terms suited him. Pearl Jam are eternally grateful for his counsel. “I was happy,” recalls Vedder, “to finally have an adult in my life who leads by example.” If Pearl Jam Twenty is shortish on personal revelations, it is gratifyingly long on exceptional live material. The early footage is especially astonishing. At their second ever show, barely a week after they first convened, Vedder hides behind his hair. Within months, as the Ten tour rolls across America and Europe, he has blossomed into an exhibitionist as thrilling as he is dangerous, regularly vaulting into Pearl Jam’s burgeoning crowds from stages, crash barriers and lighting rigs. McCready, Ament and Gossard all attest that at various points they worried about him killing himself. earl Jam Twenty is the story of a man and a band finding a way to return gently to Earth. Andrew Mueller

Cameron Crowe’s feature length documentary celebrates the grunge legends…

This is not the first time Pearl Jam have featured in a Cameron Crowe film. In Crowe’s affectionate Seattle rom-com Singles, released at the peak of the grunge boom in 1992, Eddie Vedder, Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard appeared as members of Citizen Dick, a hapless fictional group fronted by an epically gormless Matt Dillon.

In Pearl Jam Twenty, essentially Crowe’s present to a band he has long loved, the same musicians are altogether more businesslike. The key theme of the film – young men learning to cope with sudden fame – is also its key drawback. What Pearl Jam learnt on their journey from wannabes to megastars is that you only stay sane during that supremely head-messing trip by setting parsiomonious limits on how much of yourself you give away, whichever old friend and distinguished rock journalist turned Oscar-winning director is asking the questions. “At some point,” says Stone Gossard, reflecting on Pearl Jam’s early ascent, a rise so vertiginous that it threatened to cause breakups and breakdowns, “you have to say no.”

It’s possible to see that this is a good thing for the members of Pearl Jam, who all appear to have arrived in middle age thoughtful, grateful, businesslike – and, above all, content. As Crowe’s insightful illustration of the 80s/90s Seattle milieu that spawned Pearl Jam reminds, this was never guaranteed. Though the scene was unusually mutually supportive, it was also somewhat self-destructive. Pearl Jam might never have existed had Andrew Wood, who sang in Gossard and Jeff Ament’s previous group, Mother Love Bone, not overdosed. One of the most affecting of the archive clips is of Pearl Jam performing the night they learnt of the self-inflicted death of their inspirational rival Kurt Cobain, Eddie Vedder gripped by a rare struggle for words.

Intriguingly, Pearl Jam Twenty suggests that what saved the group was their friendship and collaboration with Neil Young, who seems to have served as a sort of gnarled spirit guide. Young’s voice is heard in the portion of the film that deals with Cobain’s death, sighing that he’d wanted to call the kid and remind him that he was under no obligation – that if he found being a rock star that much of a hassle, he could cease being one, or continue on whatever terms suited him. Pearl Jam are eternally grateful for his counsel. “I was happy,” recalls Vedder, “to finally have an adult in my life who leads by example.”

If Pearl Jam Twenty is shortish on personal revelations, it is gratifyingly long on exceptional live material. The early footage is especially astonishing. At their second ever show, barely a week after they first convened, Vedder hides behind his hair. Within months, as the Ten tour rolls across America and Europe, he has blossomed into an exhibitionist as thrilling as he is dangerous, regularly vaulting into Pearl Jam’s burgeoning crowds from stages, crash barriers and lighting rigs. McCready, Ament and Gossard all attest that at various points they worried about him killing himself. earl Jam Twenty is the story of a man and a band finding a way to return gently to Earth.

Andrew Mueller

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