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GIL SCOTT-HERON – I’M NEW HERE

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GIL SCOTT-HERON – I’M NEW HERE

Anyone examining Gil Scott-Heron's career will be troubled by a profound paradox. Here is a hugely intelligent poet, jazz musician and political activist who spent four decades dispensing sage advice to black America - and ended up ignoring it all. For much of the past 20 years, while playing to packed venues around the world, delivering Chomskian rants about injustice and singing anti-drug anthems like "The Bottle", he was, according to one ex-girlfriend, living in a Harlem crack-house, cavorting "butt-naked with two-dollar crack whores". Since being arrested in 2003 for possession of cocaine he's spent most of the past decade ricocheting between drug rehabilitation programmes and prison. A depressing 2003 BBC documentary, directed by Don Letts, featured a toothless, mumbling Scott-Heron, who looked 20 years older than his actual age. It was this sorry figure who was tracked down by long-term fan Richard Russell, boss of XL Records. Russell met Gil at the Rikers Island prison in New York in 2007, suggested a collaboration and, on Gil's release, started discussing song ideas. You could see Russell's approach as a grand intervention, a way of forcing Gil to confront his demons through music. But, drug problems aside, Scott-Heron's career has long needed rebooting. While he managed 13 studio albums between 1970 and 1982, he's only made one since then (1994's Spirits) and has long been stuck in smooth jazz purgatory. Whereas, say, Rick Rubin<.strong> might encourage the 60-year-old to revisit his early-1970s golden age, Russell drags Scott-Heron far out of his comfort zone. There is no Fender Rhodes for him to accompany himself, no cute wordplay, no witty Dr Seuss rhyming couplets. Instead, Gil recites bleak, highly personal poetry in his deep, chocolate-brown voice, while Russell provides harsh electronic accompaniment. Russell's twitchy industrial beats and spooky ambient sound effects sometimes evoke dubstep producers like Burial or (in particular) Various Productions, but they invariably provide contemporary clothing for the blues. "Me And The Devil" is a slightly clumsy Delta-meets-dubstep effort; better is "I'll Take Care Of You", a big, full-throated junky's love song, where Gil's hesitant piano chords are elevated by use of a sombre string section. Even better is "New York Is Killing Me", in which Gil's plantation blues growl is backed by a Timbaland bounce and a handclap riff. "Let me tell you that city living is not all it's cracked up to be," he hollers. "Eight million people and I didn't have a single friend." As Russell piles in eerie synths, female backing vocals and a dobro, it becomes a truly devastating panhistorical evocation of the blues, the missing link between Robert Johnson and Missy Elliott. There is one other "proper song" - the title track is a faithful cover version of Smog's "I'm New Here". The other tracks are poems set to beats. The beautifully ironic "On Coming From A Broken Home" is a hymn of praise to the women who raised him, questioning our definitions of "brokenness". Others are elliptical, apparently autobiographical, meditations. "Running" enters the mind of a man on the run. "I'm not running for my life/because I have to be running for something of more value," he recites, over a clanking industrial beat. It segues into "The Crutch", another bleak self-portrait. Most dramatic of all is "Your Soul And Mine", which sees him reciting blank verse about a metaphorical vulture that is "standing in the ruins of another black man's life" while an ominous Massive Attack string section rumbles on. Not all of it works. Some of the drum loops sound a little dated, while the album's brevity (28 minutes) and fragmented nature give the impression that Gil was only partly committed to the project; the finished article assembled, Bowfinger-style, without his knowledge. But, as a radical overhaul of a career, it's a brave, brilliant and highly personal statement. John Lewis

Anyone examining Gil Scott-Heron‘s career will be troubled by a profound paradox. Here is a hugely intelligent poet, jazz musician and political activist who spent four decades dispensing sage advice to black America – and ended up ignoring it all.

For much of the past 20 years, while playing to packed venues around the world, delivering Chomskian rants about injustice and singing anti-drug anthems like “The Bottle”, he was, according to one ex-girlfriend, living in a Harlem crack-house, cavorting “butt-naked with two-dollar crack whores”. Since being arrested in 2003 for possession of cocaine he’s spent most of the past decade ricocheting between drug rehabilitation programmes and prison. A depressing 2003 BBC documentary, directed by Don Letts, featured a toothless, mumbling Scott-Heron, who looked 20 years older than his actual age.

It was this sorry figure who was tracked down by long-term fan Richard Russell, boss of XL Records. Russell met Gil at the Rikers Island prison in New York in 2007, suggested a collaboration and, on Gil’s release, started discussing song ideas.

You could see Russell’s approach as a grand intervention, a way of forcing Gil to confront his demons through music. But, drug problems aside, Scott-Heron’s career has long needed rebooting. While he managed 13 studio albums between 1970 and 1982, he’s only made one since then (1994’s Spirits) and has long been stuck in smooth jazz purgatory. Whereas, say, Rick Rubin<.strong> might encourage the 60-year-old to revisit his early-1970s golden age, Russell drags Scott-Heron far out of his comfort zone. There is no Fender Rhodes for him to accompany himself, no cute wordplay, no witty Dr Seuss rhyming couplets. Instead, Gil recites bleak, highly personal poetry in his deep, chocolate-brown voice, while Russell provides harsh electronic accompaniment.

Russell’s twitchy industrial beats and spooky ambient sound effects sometimes evoke dubstep producers like Burial or (in particular) Various Productions, but they invariably provide contemporary clothing for the blues. “Me And The Devil” is a slightly clumsy Delta-meets-dubstep effort; better is “I’ll Take Care Of You”, a big, full-throated junky’s love song, where Gil’s hesitant piano chords are elevated by use of a sombre string section. Even better is “New York Is Killing Me”, in which Gil’s plantation blues growl is backed by a Timbaland bounce and a handclap riff. “Let me tell you that city living is not all it’s cracked up to be,” he hollers. “Eight million people and I didn’t have a single friend.” As Russell piles in eerie synths, female backing vocals and a dobro, it becomes a truly devastating panhistorical evocation of the blues, the missing link between Robert Johnson and Missy Elliott.

There is one other “proper song” – the title track is a faithful cover version of Smog’s “I’m New Here”. The other tracks are poems set to beats. The beautifully ironic “On Coming From A Broken Home” is a hymn of praise to the women who raised him, questioning our definitions of “brokenness”. Others are elliptical, apparently autobiographical, meditations. “Running” enters the mind of a man on the run. “I’m not running for my life/because I have to be running for something of more value,” he recites, over a clanking industrial beat. It segues into “The Crutch”, another bleak self-portrait. Most dramatic of all is “Your Soul And Mine”, which sees him reciting blank verse about a metaphorical vulture that is “standing in the ruins of another black man’s life” while an ominous Massive Attack string section rumbles on.

Not all of it works. Some of the drum loops sound a little dated, while the album’s brevity (28 minutes) and fragmented nature give the impression that Gil was only partly committed to the project; the finished article assembled, Bowfinger-style, without his knowledge. But, as a radical overhaul of a career, it’s a brave, brilliant and highly personal statement.

John Lewis

MASSIVE ATTACK – HELIGOLAND

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MASSIVE ATTACK – HELIGOLAND
Massive Attack are not just here for the nasty things in life, but so often it seems that they are. With the country mired in recession and the prospect of a Tory government installed by the summer, conditions are ripe for the arrival of Heligoland. This is the Bristol crew's first new LP in seven y...

Massive Attack are not just here for the nasty things in life, but so often it seems that they are. With the country mired in recession and the prospect of a Tory government installed by the summer, conditions are ripe for the arrival of Heligoland. This is the Bristol crew’s first new LP in seven years and, like a battleship launched in the dead of night, it’s greeted with that mix of trepidation and curiosity reserved for every major Massive release. Their hometown trip hop peers Portishead and, to a lesser extent, Tricky have staged notable comebacks. Now, surely, after a decade mooching in the shadows, it’s Massive’s turn.

Even by their standards, Heligoland, which is named after the German archipelago of two tiny islands in the North Sea (and also resembles phonetically, and in some ways spiritually, “Hallogallo” by Neu!), has been a long time coming. But then, everything this glum duo do comes laden with baggage. One senses that for Robert ‘3D’ Del Naja and Grant ‘Daddy G’ Marshall, making a record (together) is a struggle, that, poor things, theirs could well be the toughest job in the world.

Certainly, Massive Attack appeared to be going through the motions on 2003’s 100th Window, a cinematic, acutely paranoid set smothered by surly electronics and bereft of big names, that sounded far removed from the group’s funkier, soundsystem roots. That album was effectively a Del Naja solo affair – Marshall left the group around 2001 to raise his daughter – and its claustrophobic feel reflected 3D’s interest in composing film scores. When Marshall returned in 2005, they began sessions for Heligoland, recording with a number of artists including Mike Patton, Beth Orton and Elizabeth Fraser, none of whom have ultimately ended up on the album.

The intention, perhaps, was to make a more ‘human-sounding’ record, or at least to return to producing the kind of dramatic futureproof soul that excited them in the first place. By whichever means they finally got there – their curatorship of last year’s Meltdown festival may have spurred them on – Heligoland has turned out to be a tremendous record. Not since 1994’s Protection have Massive Attack sounded quite so vital or unusual. Listening to the array of styles, from the Jim O’Rourke-like folk of “Psyche”, laced with Martina Topley-Bird’s cosmic incantation, to “Splitting The Atom”‘s opiated rocksteady or Hope Sandoval‘s dusky ballad, “Paradise Circus”, it’s conceivable Del Naja and Marshall needed every minute of those years to concoct such alluring material.

Still, it’s the roll-call of weatherbeaten indie stars who appear on Heligoland that provides a lot of the appeal here. There’s Damon Albarn, sleepily croaking on the record’s prettiest moment, “Saturday Come Slow”; Elbow’s Guy Garvey, flanked by blips and drones, purrs ruefully on “Flat Of The Blade”; and Tunde Adebimpe adds his voice to the industrial grind of opener “Pray For Rain”, which bursts into the kind of sunny Beach Boys middle-eight of which Animal Collective are so fond. Long-time collaborator Horace Andy, his voice sweeter than ever, attends to “Girl I Love You” with more than a hint of malice. Propelled by a low-end rumble and lashed with wavesof surging brass – imagine Jason Pierce producing Portishead – this must be one of the defining Massive tracks.

The sound of a group at the very height of their power, flexing their ample muscle, Heligoland is the album Massive Attack had to produce for fear of fading further from relevance. Now we can all learn to love them once again.

Piers Martin

PiL – METAL BOX/PLASTIC BOX

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PiL – METAL BOX/PLASTIC BOX
"Public Image would like to thank absolutely no-one." The dedication on PiL's first album served notice that John Lydon's punk sneer hadn't entirely vanished. Released in December 1978, First Edition found Lydon and his principal cohorts, Keith Levene and Jah Wobble, stuck between snottiness and art...

“Public Image would like to thank absolutely no-one.” The dedication on PiL’s first album served notice that John Lydon‘s punk sneer hadn’t entirely vanished. Released in December 1978, First Edition found Lydon and his principal cohorts, Keith Levene and Jah Wobble, stuck between snottiness and artiness. To spite Virgin, the LP was kept to the contractual minimum of 30 minutes, while blatant instrumental filler like “The Cowboy Song” and “Fodderstompf” mocked the fans.

Yet there was also brilliance. “Public Image” came in a blaze of piercing guitar and pulsing reggae bass, over which Lydon reclaimed his artistic self-determination. “Attack” and “Annalisa” repeated the trick almost as well. Most of all, First Edition sounded like nothing else on offer, a strange hybrid that hovered between the motorik rhythms of Krautrock and the spacey mixes of dub.

Metal Box, released a year later, moved the PiL sound into still stranger territory, and suggested the group might realise their vaunted ambition to be something more than just another rock band. Housed in a film canister, a slip of paper for a tracklist, its three 12″ 45 rpm discs comprised an ‘album’ with no clear structure or sequence. The industrialism of the packaging reflected the hour of stark, unsettling music it contained: 10 minutes of hammering bass and circular, scratchy guitar on “Albatross”, for example, with Lydon moaning like a somnambulist unable to escape a bad dream (the Sex Pistols, clearly, also the subject of “Memories”).

Wobble’s relentless basslines, throbbing and humming across a full, three octave range, are the album’s lynchpin, with Levene jangling, scything and picking spiky lines from his aluminium guitar, or sending out squalls of synth – a huge novelty at the time. The drums, played variously by Richard Dudanski, Martin Atkinson, Wobble and Levene, were simple, utilitarian, relentless.

A mood of paranoia and resignation was crystallised by Lydon’s baleful vocals and lyrics. “Careering” was, and remains, the most evocative depiction of the casual murderousness of Ulster’s civil war. “Poptones”, a suggestive sketch of abduction and rape, and “Swan Lake” (aka “Death Disco“), a description of watching a dear one die (in this case Lydon’s mother), likewise glared unblinking into the void.

Metal Box still sounds like a revolution in progress; even its clumsy attempts at disco (post-punk heresy in ’79) and Levene’s synth piece, “Radio 4”, are endearing. Uncompromising, occasionally indulgent, patched together at the mixing desk, it remains a magnificent, jarring creation.

Although PiL had a reputation as a band that wouldn’t/couldn’t play live, the three John Peel Session tracks on Plastic Box(“Poptones”, “Careering”, “Chant”) show them quite capable of reproducing their studio form when required. The will to strive and achieve wasn’t present, however, at least not in Levene, labouring under a chronic heroin habit, or Lydon, content to idle away weeks in a blur of lager, amphetamines and misanthropy.

Disgruntled by the poor wages and slack work ethic, Wobble was soon off, leaving a void no amount of prickly posturing could fill. Flowers Of Romance, PiL’s third, succeeded only in patches. The title track (a hit!) ran with the tribal beats popularised by Adam Ant, and “Go Back” reprised Metal Box, this time lampooning the Oi boys of the fascist right. The lashings of cod avant-garde elsewhere were strictly for the impressionable.

A lurch back to mainstream rock arrived on the hit “This Is Not A Love Song” (“I’m changing my ways where money applies,” says it all) and accelerated once Levene left. Where the first two CDs of Plastic Box – essentially the first three albums – are a mix of bravery and self-gratification, the second pair are a catalogue of mediocrity and dead ends. The Laswell-produced Album (’86) is often poor man’s Iggy (try “F.F.F.”), while Happy (’87), 9 (’89) and That What Is Not (’92) drift into Motšrhead lite (“Luck’s Up”) and, ulp, Simple Minds (“Disappointed”). Two CDs and 32 tracks of generic rock are distinguished only by Lydon’s trademark bark, now ossified into an unvarying wail, and lyrically usually fighting yesterday’s battles; avant-garde turned same-old.

Neil Spencer

YOUTH IN REVOLT

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YOUTH IN REVOLT
DIRECTED BY Miguel Arteta STARRING Michael Cerra, Steve Buscemi, Ray Liotta It’s perhaps serendipitous that CD Payne’s Nick Twisp emerges onto our cinema screens within a week of JD Salinger’s death. Payne’s Twisp is, like many of literature’s angsty teen protagonists since Catcher In ...

DIRECTED BY Miguel Arteta

STARRING Michael Cerra, Steve Buscemi, Ray Liotta

It’s perhaps serendipitous that CD Payne’s Nick Twisp emerges onto our cinema screens within a week of JD Salinger’s death.

Payne’s Twisp is, like many of literature’s angsty teen protagonists since Catcher In The Rye, inevitably caught in the shadow of Holden Caulfield. Certainly, Twisp channels many of Caulfield’s nerdy, super intellectual qualities, as well as his penchant for vivid fantasies.

But Twisp – played here by Michael Cerra – also captures something of Woody Allen’s neurotic anti-heroes. If – with Juno and Superbad – Michael Cera has become the go-to guy for filmmakers searching for a stringy leads with zero muscle-tone for their hipster studio-indie comedy, then Youth In Revolt arguably finds Cera drawing a line under this phase of his career. It’s Ferris Bueller meets Fight Club! Sort of.

Twisp – a chronic masturbator and Sinatra fan – lives in a trailer park with his mum and her boyfriend. He meets Francophile teen Sheeni, and sets out to win her love, to which end he’s prepared to create a fictional alter ego, Francois Dillinger, to liberate his libido. Director Miguel Arteta punches the plot – essentially, a series of increasingly absurd sketches – along, and there’s excellent, if brief, turns from Steve Buscemi, Ray Liotta, M Emmet Walsh and Fred Willard. It’s funny, but you wonder who the demographic is. As the film skips along through increasingly bananas set-pieces – gasp as Twisp attempts to allude the police while wearing a dress and string-set! – you suspect the biggest laughs are coming from thirtysomething males, rather than 16-year olds who might prefer to see Cera in something similar to Superbad.

MICHAEL BONNER

Massive Attack commission short films to accompany new album

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Massive Attack commission short films to accompany new album
Massive Attack have commissioned seven independent filmmakers to film shorts to accompany tracks from their new album 'Heligoland'. The videos are being shown on Heligoland-films.massiveattack.com, and showcase an eclectic range in styles. One, for the track 'Paradise Circus', features a 73-year-ol...

Massive Attack have commissioned seven independent filmmakers to film shorts to accompany tracks from their new album ‘Heligoland’.

The videos are being shown on Heligoland-films.massiveattack.com, and showcase an eclectic range in styles. One, for the track ‘Paradise Circus’, features a 73-year-old former porn star Georgina Spelvin reflecting on her career. Directed by Toby Dye, it features a close up of Spelvin, who starred in 1973 film ‘The Devil In Miss Jones’, reminiscing on her role in the film.

Other directors include Ewan Spencer (‘Flat Of The Blade’), Edouard Salier (‘Splitting The Atom’) and long-term Massive Attack filmmaker Baillie Walsh, who also interprets ‘Splitting The Atom’.

Head to Heligoland-films.massiveattack.com to watch the films.

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Midlake announce one-off London show

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Midlake announce one-off London show
Texan band Midlake, have announced details of a one-off London show. The 5 piece will play at The Roundhouse in Camden on November 2. Midlake are about to embark on a series of UK tour dates starting in Bristol on February 12. The band released their new album 'The Courage Of Others' on Monday (...

Texan band Midlake, have announced details of a one-off London show.

The 5 piece will play at The Roundhouse in Camden on November 2.

Midlake are about to embark on a series of UK tour dates starting in Bristol on February 12. The band released their new album ‘The Courage Of Others’ on Monday (February 1).

Midlake play:

Bristol Anson Rooms (February 12)

Dublin Vicar St (14)

Glasgow ABC (15)

Birmingham Town Hall (16)

Manchester Academy (17)

London Shepherds Bush Empire (18)

London The Roundhouse (November 2)

Tickets for the November show are on sale now.

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Jack White putting finishing touches to new Dead Weather album

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Jack White putting finishing touches to new Dead Weather album
Jack White has announced that The Dead Weather's second studio album should be released this April. Speaking to Triple J, White gave an update of the progress of the record. "The Dead Weather are finishing recording the last couple of songs," he said. "I'm going to start mixing in the next two wee...

Jack White has announced that The Dead Weather‘s second studio album should be released this April.

Speaking to Triple J, White gave an update of the progress of the record.

“The Dead Weather are finishing recording the last couple of songs,” he said. “I’m going to start mixing in the next two weeks, so yeah it should be out in April.”

Talking about the sound of the album White said it was “bluesier and heavier than we ever thought we could be”.

White also mentioned that he would take over the vocals from singer Alison Mosshart for the album’s first single, ‘Blue Blood Blues’.

The new album comes just eight months after the release of their debut, ‘Horehound’.

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The White Stripes: “Under Great White Northern Lights”

John Mulvey
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Jack White’s increasingly baroque love of packaging means that it takes more than one review to get to grips with a solitary release. Hence “Under Great White Northern Lights”, a package commemorating The White Stripes’ 2007 tour of Canada which, in its simplest iteration, comes as a live CD...

Jack White’s increasingly baroque love of packaging means that it takes more than one review to get to grips with a solitary release. Hence “Under Great White Northern Lights”, a package commemorating The White Stripes’ 2007 tour of Canada which, in its simplest iteration, comes as a live CD and a longform documentary DVD about the ambitious jaunt.

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Major Stars: “Return To Form”

John Mulvey
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Never personally had much time for Martin Amis’ writing, but I was idling my way through an interview with him in The Guardian the other day, when I came across his predictably splenetic response to The Bookseller’s claim that the new Amis novel, The Pregnant Woman, was a “return to form”. "What's this return shit? He never went away," Amis told the interviewer. "Return to form will become a kind of slogan, unless it goes the other way and they say 'further spiral of decline'... I'm sick of rising above it. I've had to do so much rising above it." Obviously, the concept of Martin Amis’ grim artistic struggle for acclaim is enough to melt the hardest of hearts. But by some unlikely karmic chance, I’d just finished playing the new album by Major Stars, wryly titled “Return To Form”. The joke here is that Major Stars - with a longish history that also involves Magic Hour and Vermonster, among other bands – have rarely been in a position where critics can talk with authority about how an album fits into the band’s entire catalogue. Is “Return To Form” a return to form? How many people honestly know? In truth, I’m a little confused about why my own knowledge of Major Stars is so sketchy: they’ve drawn enough love and deference from people like Comets On Fire, for a start, and I remember being very taken with a Magic Hour – fronted by the same pair of guitarists, Wayne Rogers and Kate Biggar – album back in the early ‘90s, with fellow Bostonites Damon & Naomi as the rhythm section. Whatever’s happened in the intervening years, “Return To Form” suggests at the very least a certain consistency of tone. The default setting here is a full-throttle kind of psych-punk, with three guitars tussling it out in a series of high-velocity jam-offs, of which “Run From Me Devil” is currently my favourite. It’s fast, fervid stuff throughout, and at times Major Stars come across as distinct kin of Dinosaur Jr, not least the way they graft unabashed guitar heroics onto heads-down hardcore dynamics: check the thrumming basslines on, say, “The Space You Know” or “Black Point”. In the midst of it all, though, there’s a singer, Sandra Barrett, whose blues-tinged voice is mixed surprisingly upfront. At times, this works fine: as someone pointed out here the other day, Barrett’s vocal resemblance to Corin Tucker makes “Return To Form” a bit like Sleater-Kinney stretching out into psych without losing any of their velocity and focus; there’s also a touch of Beth Ditto in the holler, especially on “Black Point”. Occasionally, though, her voice jars a little with the riffing, as if she’s trying a bit too hard in comparison with the looser approach of her bandmates. That said, she never really sticks around for that long, overwhelmed again and again by the snaking, thrashing, pummelling sound of her bandmates. Anyone who can help me pick a way through the back catalogue, please don’t be a stranger.

Never personally had much time for Martin Amis’ writing, but I was idling my way through an interview with him in The Guardian the other day, when I came across his predictably splenetic response to The Bookseller’s claim that the new Amis novel, The Pregnant Woman, was a “return to form”.

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Stevie Wonder and Muse to headline Glastonbury 2010

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Stevie Wonder and Muse to headline Glastonbury 2010
Stevie Wonder and Muse have been unveiled as the headline acts at Glastonbury Festival later this year. Organiser Michael Eavis announced the news at the Event Production Show at the Olympia 2 in London. He stated that Muse will play the Saturday night (June 26) and said that it was probably that ...

Stevie Wonder and Muse have been unveiled as the headline acts at Glastonbury Festival later this year.

Organiser Michael Eavis announced the news at the Event Production Show at the Olympia 2 in London. He stated that Muse will play the Saturday night (June 26) and said that it was probably that Stevie Wonder will headline the Sunday night (27). U2 have previously been announced as the Friday night (25) headliner.

Hot Chip, Vampire Weekend, Fatboy Slim and MGMT are also strongly rumored to play the Somerset festival in June.

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Bob Dylan to stage London art exhibition

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Bob Dylan to stage London art exhibition
Bob Dylan is to exhibit a collection of his artwork at London's Halcyon Gallery later this month. The exhibition features work based on drawings and sketches from Dylan's 'Drawn Blank Series', and opens on February 13. It is set to feature almost 100 limited edition graphics from the series, as we...

Bob Dylan is to exhibit a collection of his artwork at London‘s Halcyon Gallery later this month.

The exhibition features work based on drawings and sketches from Dylan‘s ‘Drawn Blank Series’, and opens on February 13. It is set to feature almost 100 limited edition graphics from the series, as well as the world premiere of 30 of Dylan‘s large paintings

“I just draw what’s interesting to me, and then I paint it,” Dylan said of his artwork. “I’m not trying to make social comment or fulfil somebody’s vision and I can find subject matter anywhere. I guess in some way that comes out of the folk world that I came up in.”

‘The Drawn Blank Series’ by Bob Dylan will be on display at 24 Bruton Street, London from February 13 until March 10.

For more information, see Halcyongallery.com

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The Flaming Lips to take ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ cover album on the road

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The Flaming Lips to take ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ cover album on the road
The Flaming Lips are to take their cover album of Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side Of The Moon' on the road later this year, playing it at Bonnaroo Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. The band initially released a cover LP of the album in December, and played it live in its entirety at thier New Year's Eve s...

The Flaming Lips are to take their cover album of Pink Floyd‘s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ on the road later this year, playing it at Bonnaroo Festival in Manchester, Tennessee.

The band initially released a cover LP of the album in December, and played it live in its entirety at thier New Year’s Eve show in Oklahoma.

Speaking to Spinner about the project, frontman Wayne Coyne said: “We did it at the New Year’s Eve show just knowing everybody’s gonna be taking acid, staying awake until five in the morning. I don’t think it’ll be that much of a stretch to think Friday night at 2:30 in the morning at Bonnaroo would be that much different than being in Oklahoma City on New Year’s Eve.”

Coyne did not add whether there were any other dates planned.

Bonnaroo takes place from June 10 -13.

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Joanna Newsom: “Good Intentions Paving Company”

John Mulvey
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This is pretty fantastic. A few days ago, Drag City streamed a song from the forthcoming Joanna Newsom album, “Have One On Me”, which I really should’ve flagged up. “’81” was a solo harp piece that some might recognise from Newsom gigs of old: I knew it from Latitude 2007, when she played it on piano and I wrote, “The third, which for the purposes of this blog I’m going to call ‘Meet Me In The Garden Of Eden’, brings to mind one of the default comparisons for Newsom, Kate Bush, specifically “Army Dreamers”. I’m not convinced she’s ever written a catchier song.” “’81” has disappeared from the Drag City site now, but in its place you can find “Good Intentions Paving Company” which is, if anything, even better. Back in that Latitude review, I mentioned a more soulful feel to Newsom’s voice and apparent direction - reminiscent of Laura Nyro, maybe - which certainly comes to the fore here. The arrangement’s a lot more spacious and jazzy than anything on “Ys”, too. Have a listen and, as ever, let me know what you think.

This is pretty fantastic. A few days ago, Drag City streamed a song from the forthcoming Joanna Newsom album, “Have One On Me”, which I really should’ve flagged up.

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Broken Social Scene, Delphic, Ellie Goulding confirmed for The Great Escape festival

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Broken Social Scene, Delphic, Ellie Goulding confirmed for The Great Escape festival
Broken Social Scene, Marina And The Diamonds, Delphic and Ellie Goulding are among the acts confirmed to play this year's Great Escape festival in Brighton. Other acts on the bill for the multi-venue May 13-15 event include The Ruby Suns, Slow Club, Crystal Fighters and Hurts. The Great Escape Fes...

Broken Social Scene, Marina And The Diamonds, Delphic and Ellie Goulding are among the acts confirmed to play this year’s Great Escape festival in Brighton.

Other acts on the bill for the multi-venue May 13-15 event include The Ruby Suns, Slow Club, Crystal Fighters and Hurts.

The Great Escape Festival line-up so far is:

Delphic

Chase And Status

Broken Social Scene

Marina And The Diamonds

Ellie Goulding

Crystal Fighters

Slow Club

Cold Cave

Esben And The Witch

Hurts

Japandroids

Real Estate

Timber Timbre

Darwin Deez

Best Coast

The Cheek

Wild Palms

The Ruby Suns

Tickets are on sale now.

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

2010 Oscar nominations!

Michael Bonner
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This year’s Academy Award nominations have just been announced. No great surprises, I see – plenty for The Hurt Locker, Up In The Air and **whisper it** Avatar in the big categories. But it’s certainly grand to see the likes of Kathryn Bigelow, Jeremy Renner, Jeff Bridges, Michael Haneke and Jacques Audiard in there, at any rate. Anyway, here’s what’s what in the key categories, with my take on the nominations, for what it’s worth. BEST PICTURE Avatar The Blind Side District 9 An Education The Hurt Locker Inglourious Basterds Precious A Serious Man Up Up In The Air As you can probably tell, this category has been opened up to incorporate 10 films. Why? Presumably to ramp up the levels of anticipation and excitement. Fatal flaw? Avatar. While I’d happily take The Hurt Locker, Pixar’s brilliant Up, A Serious Man or Up In The Air as serious Oscar contenders, rather sadly the all-conquering box office success of James Cameron’s 3D film looks likely to see it pick up the big prize here. While I didn’t **not** like Avatar – it was by no means as bad as I thought it was going to be, and the “Wow!” factor was, admittedly, suitably “Wow!”, personally I think there’s been better films out this year. Who’ll win: Avatar Who I’d like to win: The Hurt Locker BEST DIRECTOR James Cameron, Avatar Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds Lee Daniels, Precious Jason Reitman, Up In The Air Once again, I suspect Cameron’s name has already been engraved on the statuette. And, once again, a shame for the better and more worthwhile movies here – The Hurt Locker and Up In The Air key among them. The Oprah factor that’s helped ghetto drama Precious along isn’t likely to have much of an effect here. Tarantino’s done extremely well to get in to this category, considering …Basterds was pretty much a shambles (an enjoyable shambles, but a shambles nonetheless). And good skills to Reitman, muscling in here for the excellent Up In The Air. Who’ll win: James Cameron Who I’d like to win: Kathryn Bigelow BEST ACTOR Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart George Clooney, Up In The Air Colin Firth, A Single Man Morgan Freeman, Invictus Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker Possibly the strongest category in terms of genuine acting chops going head to head. I suspect Bridges will get it, for a great Autumn career peak as a Country and Western singer in Crazy Heart – he’s pretty much cleared up in this category in all the other awards ceremonies thus far. Clooney is great in Up In The Air – as our reviews ed John Robinson just described him, “The only film star worth the name.” Renner, meanwhile, is incredible in The Hurt Locker. I’d be happy with any of those three, though I would be amazed, frankly, is anyone other than Bridges won it. Who’ll win: Jeff Bridges Who I’d like to win: Jeff Bridges BEST ACTRESS Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side Helen Mirren, The Last Station Carey Mulligan, An Education Gabourey Sidibe, Precious Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia A nod, first, to Mulligan, whose trajectory has been phenomenal, from Doctor Who two years ago to an Oscar nomination. She’s very good, incidentally, in An Education. But she’s obviously up against some pretty major talent here – Mirren and Streep, obviously – but my suspicion is Bullock might well scoop this. The Blind Side is basically heart-warming stuff, with Bullock as the mother in a well-off white family who take in a homeless African-American youngster. Life lessons are learned. That kind of thing. The Academy will love it. Who’ll win: Sandra Bullock Who I’d like to win: Carey Mulligan BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Matt Damon, Invictus Woody Harrelson, The Messanger Christopher Plummer, The Last Station Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds Strong names – Damon, Harrelson, Plummer, Tucci – who’re all reliably good in their respective roles. But, as with Jeff Bridges, Waltz has cleaned up on this award elsewhere; I think it’d take a lot to derail this one. He’s also by far and away the best thing in Tarantino’s film, and deserves this for the opening 10 minutes of …Basterds alone. Who’ll win: Christoph Waltz Who I’d like to win: Christoph Waltz BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Penelope Cruz, Nine Vera Farminga, Up In The Air Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart Anna Kendrick, Up In The Air Mo’Nique, Precious More pips for Up In The Air – which has garnered more nominations in the key categories than any other film. I’m particularly pleased to see Farmiga up for this – I thought she was every bit the equal of Clooney in Up In The Air and, as with The Departed, has proven relatively quickly she’s more than capable of matching A list male leads. I think, though, Mo’Nique will probably scoop this. Who’ll win: Mo’Nique Who I’d like to win: Vera Farmiga BEST ORIGINAL SONG “Almost There”, Randy Newman “Down In New Orleans”, Randy Newman “Loin De Paname”, Reinhardt Wagner, Frank Thomas “Take It All”, Maury Yeston “The Weary Kind”, Ryan Bingham, T Bone Burnett Obviously, a good category for UNCUT friendly songwriters of a certain age in the past – Dylan and Springsteen being key among them. This time out, it’s the 18th and 19th Oscar nominations for Newman, so perhaps he’ll get lucky with these two songs from Disney’s The Princess & The Frog. Rising Alt.country star Bingham (and Burnett) might do well for “The Weary Kind” – from Crazy Heart. Who’ll win: Randy Newman Who I’d like to win: Randy Newman BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds Allesando Camon, Oren Moverman, The Messanger Joel and Ethan Coen, A Serious Man Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Up The Hurt Locker is undeniably the best film of the year, but much of that lies in Bigelow’s incredibly mastery of tension, and Jeremy Renner’s performance, so I suspect Boal’s lean, focussed script might get overlooked. I don’t for a minute think Tarantino’s script was good enough for …Bastards, and while the Coens was typically strong for A Serious Man, I don’t think it seriously raised the game on their previous scripts. I’d like to see Up given proper recognition for what was a fantastic addition to the already considerable Pixar catalogue. Who’ll win: Coens/Peterson, Docter Who I’d like to win: Peterson, Docter Anyway, you find out whether I'm right on wrong on March 7. Meanwhile, do tell us what or who you'd like to see win. Maybe we should think about a blog sweepstake...

This year’s Academy Award nominations have just been announced. No great surprises, I see – plenty for The Hurt Locker, Up In The Air and **whisper it** Avatar in the big categories. But it’s certainly grand to see the likes of Kathryn Bigelow, Jeremy Renner, Jeff Bridges, Michael Haneke and Jacques Audiard in there, at any rate. Anyway, here’s what’s what in the key categories, with my take on the nominations, for what it’s worth.

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The Charlatans to play debut album ‘Some Friendly’ in full at London gig

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The Charlatans to play debut album ‘Some Friendly’ in full at London gig
The Charlatans are set to play their debut album 'Some Friendly' in full at a London gig to take place this May. They'll play London venue The Roundhouse on May 31, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the album's release. A reissue of the album is expected to be released around the same time. Mea...

The Charlatans are set to play their debut album ‘Some Friendly’ in full at a London gig to take place this May.

They’ll play London venue The Roundhouse on May 31, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the album’s release. A reissue of the album is expected to be released around the same time.

Meanwhile, The Charlatans are currently in the studio with producer Youth recording their eleventh studio album. The band are aiming to release the new record in June.

Tickets for the gig go on sale this Friday (February 5) at 9am (GMT).

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

The Fifth Uncut Playlist Of 2010

John Mulvey
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Quite a good one, this week: I think I can be more or less positive about everything here, actually, with the vague exception of the Yellow Swans live comp, which is a bit too industrial for me (John Cale, as it happens, described them thus: “The Swans’ sound grates on your nerves - like you’ve put your head in a jet engine.” Thumbs up!). Thanks to Robin who, following the Harappian Night Recordings post, recommended an old Moroccan band called Jil Jilala, who sound excellent. And before anyone starts asking about a new reissue, that Joni record is my old copy I brought in, to check a hunch that an album I’m reviewing occupied some similar territory… 1 Joni Mitchell – Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter (Asylum) 2 Carlton Melton – Pass It On… (Mid-To-Late) 3 White Hills – White Hills (Thrill Jockey) 4 Andrew WK – Close Calls With Brick Walls/Mother Of Mankind (Steev Mike) 5 Andrew Thomas – Between Buildings And Trees (Kompakt) 6 Major Stars – Return To Form (Drag City) 7 Caribou – Swim (City Slang) 8 Sleepy Sun – Fever (ATP Recordings) 9 Various – Kompakt Pop Ambient 2010 (Kompakt) 10 Jil Jilala – MP3 at Awesome Tapes From Africa 11 Dove Yellow Swans – Live During War Crimes #3 (Release The Bats) 12 Various Artists – Afro-Rock Volume One (Strut) 13 The Triffids – Wide Open Road: The Best Of The Triffids (Domino) 14 Mushroom – Naked, Stoned & Stabbed (4Zero)

Quite a good one, this week: I think I can be more or less positive about everything here, actually, with the vague exception of the Yellow Swans live comp, which is a bit too industrial for me (John Cale, as it happens, described them thus: “The Swans’ sound grates on your nerves – like you’ve put your head in a jet engine.” Thumbs up!).

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Faber & Faber editor asks to release Morrissey memoirs

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Faber & Faber editor asks to release Morrissey memoirs

A senior editor at publishing company Faber & Faber has appealed to Morrissey to let the company release his memoirs. In an open letter to Morrissey onThethoughtfox.co.uk, Lee Brackstone said it would be a "publishing dream" for Faber & Faber to release the book, which the former Smiths singer is reportedly writing at the moment. "I have been trying to persuade you of the virtues and wisdom of this for some years now. You probably won’t remember," Brackstone wrote of Morrissey. "Our shelves groan and bulge and spill over under the weight of Ezra, Larkin, Hughes and Heaney. And that’s just the surface; deep as it may seem. We feel very strongly that you belong in this company." Brackstone added: "To me (and to many of my colleagues) you are already in this company. It would be the fulfilment of my most pressing and persistent publishing dream to see that 'ff' sewn into the spine of your Life. Just any other publisher won't do. You deserve Faber and the love we can give you. History demands it; destiny commands it." Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

A senior editor at publishing company Faber & Faber has appealed to Morrissey to let the company release his memoirs.

In an open letter to Morrissey onThethoughtfox.co.uk, Lee Brackstone said it would be a “publishing dream” for Faber & Faber to release the book, which the former Smiths singer is reportedly writing at the moment.

“I have been trying to persuade you of the virtues and wisdom of this for some years now. You probably won’t remember,” Brackstone wrote of Morrissey.

“Our shelves groan and bulge and spill over under the weight of Ezra, Larkin, Hughes and Heaney. And that’s just the surface; deep as it may seem. We feel very strongly that you belong in this company.”

Brackstone added: “To me (and to many of my colleagues) you are already in this company. It would be the fulfilment of my most pressing and persistent publishing dream to see that ‘ff’ sewn into the spine of your Life. Just any other publisher won’t do. You deserve Faber and the love we can give you. History demands it; destiny commands it.”

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Etta James hospitalised

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Etta James hospitalised
Etta James is suffering from Alzheimer's and the MRSA superbug, her son has revealed. The singer, 72, has been in the Riverside Community Hospital in southern California for the past week, according to Donto James. James was diagnosed with Alzheimer's over a year ago, though it was not made publi...

Etta James is suffering from Alzheimer’s and the MRSA superbug, her son has revealed.

The singer, 72, has been in the Riverside Community Hospital in southern California for the past week, according to Donto James.

James was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s over a year ago, though it was not made public. She is also suffering from speech difficulties at present, though a cause for that is currently unknown.

He told CNN that he is concerned about her health: “I am going to end up losing my mother if it keeps going on like this,” Donto James said, adding that he wants to find more information about his mothers condition. “There has to be another doctor out there who can tell me what is going on with my mother.”

Donto James, who plays in his mothers’ band, said he believes she can still recover. “I want my mother back onstage again,” he said. “I know it can happen.”

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

MIDLAKE – THE COURAGE OF OTHERS

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MIDLAKE – THE COURAGE OF OTHERS

The authentically auburn harmonies and storied West Coast AOR of Midlake's breakthrough album, 2006's The Trials Of Van Occupanther, suggested that the band had been wallowing in Laurel Canyon lore their whole lives. In fact, Midlake's chief songwriter Tim Smith recently let slip that prior to starting work on that album, he'd never even listened to Neil Young. Midlake began life as a student jazz band, in thrall to John Coltrane and Herbie Hancock. They were sniffy about modern rock music until they heard Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" - consequently, their debut album was a fairly rigorous homage to OK Computer. Then came a crash course in smooth '70s rock, from which emerged the glorious ...Van Occupanther. Now they've spent the last three years immersing themselves in another previously-unfamiliar field, that of British electric folk. Midlake have done their homework: in interviews trailing this album, they've namedropped not only Fairport and Fotheringay, but more obscure perfumed garden peculiars such as Mellow Candle and Windy Corner. However, Midlake's secret is out: they're highly skilled dilettantes, attempting to master a different genre on each album just to give themselves a challenge. That's no crime in itself, and it beats making the same record over and over again, but it may explain the gaping hole at the heart of this strangely frigid album. The pristine harmonies are retained, but this time they're hitched to aching minor-key progressions, sung with cowed solemnity rather than uplifting abandon. Acoustic guitars and flute interweave in the space left behind by the absence of the last album's freewheeling piano, while an electric guitar smoulders in the background like an abandoned campfire. Songs linger rather than glide, and while opener "Acts Of Man" is exquisitely forlorn - "When the acts of men cause the ground to break open/ Oh let me inside, let me inside not to wake" - the sombre mood soon becomes a bit oppressive. There are no "Roscoe"-style fantasies here to save us, either. Smith's delicate but austere lyrics evoke tableaux of weatherbeaten figures fruitlessly hoeing dry soil or huddling for warmth around a dying flame. "I will train my feet to go on with a joy/A joy I have yet to reach/I will let the sounds of these woods that I've known/Sink into blood and to bone," he sings dolefully on "Core Of Nature", like the protagonist of Cormac McCarthy's The Road forcing himself onward through the ravaged landscape. ...Van Occupanther's golden wistfulness shines on "Fortune", but such sunny intervals are scarce. The title track's forbidding drone heralds Smith's most vulnerable lyric to date. "I will never have the courage of others," he bemoans, before the song slips rather readily into a weary coda, Smith repeating the words "he trembles alone" like a fraught mantra, before he's consumed by duelling guitars. The lilting rhythm of closing track "In The Ground" finally gives the album a bit - but only a bit - of the verve it's been lacking, before it too succumbs to the frost. Perhaps if The Courage Of Others had been released 10 years ago, it might've seemed more special, but the whole Brit-folk thing is ground that's been raked over fairly thoroughly in the last decade by the likes of Espers. If Midlake are taking suggestions for which genre to tackle next, let's propose something a little further off the beaten track, like Hawaiian exotica, or go-go. They're obviously good enough musicians to make a decent fist of pretty much anything. Like ...Van Occupanther, The Courage Of Others is texturally rich and technically refined, elegantly capturing the ambience of the folk rock scene to which it pays fulsome tribute. But sadly, there's something cold and unwelcoming at its core. Sam Richards

The authentically auburn harmonies and storied West Coast AOR of Midlake’s breakthrough album, 2006’s The Trials Of Van Occupanther, suggested that the band had been wallowing in Laurel Canyon lore their whole lives. In fact, Midlake’s chief songwriter Tim Smith recently let slip that prior to starting work on that album, he’d never even listened to Neil Young.

Midlake began life as a student jazz band, in thrall to John Coltrane and Herbie Hancock. They were sniffy about modern rock music until they heard Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android” – consequently, their debut album was a fairly rigorous homage to OK Computer. Then came a crash course in smooth ’70s rock, from which emerged the glorious …Van Occupanther.

Now they’ve spent the last three years immersing themselves in another previously-unfamiliar field, that of British electric folk. Midlake have done their homework: in interviews trailing this album, they’ve namedropped not only Fairport and Fotheringay, but more obscure perfumed garden peculiars such as Mellow Candle and Windy Corner.

However, Midlake’s secret is out: they’re highly skilled dilettantes, attempting to master a different genre on each album just to give themselves a challenge. That’s no crime in itself, and it beats making the same record over and over again, but it may explain the gaping hole at the heart of this strangely frigid album.

The pristine harmonies are retained, but this time they’re hitched to aching minor-key progressions, sung with cowed solemnity rather than uplifting abandon. Acoustic guitars and flute interweave in the space left behind by the absence of the last album’s freewheeling piano, while an electric guitar smoulders in the background like an abandoned campfire. Songs linger rather than glide, and while opener “Acts Of Man” is exquisitely forlorn – “When the acts of men cause the ground to break open/ Oh let me inside, let me inside not to wake” – the sombre mood soon becomes a bit oppressive.

There are no “Roscoe”-style fantasies here to save us, either. Smith’s delicate but austere lyrics evoke tableaux of weatherbeaten figures fruitlessly hoeing dry soil or huddling for warmth around a dying flame. “I will train my feet to go on with a joy/A joy I have yet to reach/I will let the sounds of these woods that I’ve known/Sink into blood and to bone,” he sings dolefully on “Core Of Nature”, like the protagonist of Cormac McCarthy‘s The Road forcing himself onward through the ravaged landscape. …Van Occupanther’s golden wistfulness shines on “Fortune”, but such sunny intervals are scarce.

The title track’s forbidding drone heralds Smith’s most vulnerable lyric to date. “I will never have the courage of others,” he bemoans, before the song slips rather readily into a weary coda, Smith repeating the words “he trembles alone” like a fraught mantra, before he’s consumed by duelling guitars. The lilting rhythm of closing track “In The Ground” finally gives the album a bit – but only a bit – of the verve it’s been lacking, before it too succumbs to the frost.

Perhaps if The Courage Of Others had been released 10 years ago, it might’ve seemed more special, but the whole Brit-folk thing is ground that’s been raked over fairly thoroughly in the last decade by the likes of Espers. If Midlake are taking suggestions for which genre to tackle next, let’s propose something a little further off the beaten track, like Hawaiian exotica, or go-go. They’re obviously good enough musicians to make a decent fist of pretty much anything. Like …Van Occupanther, The Courage Of Others is texturally rich and technically refined, elegantly capturing the ambience of the folk rock scene to which it pays fulsome tribute. But sadly, there’s something cold and unwelcoming at its core.

Sam Richards

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