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Hear New Bruce Springsteen Album Before It’s Released

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Bruce Springsteen is previewing his brand new album 'Working On A Dream' before it's January 27 release, online now. The E Street Band album is available to listen to here on NPR.org. The follow-up to 2007's 'Magic' has already picked up a Golden Globe Award for the title song to the new Mickey Ro...

Bruce Springsteen is previewing his brand new album ‘Working On A Dream’ before it’s January 27 release, online now.

The E Street Band album is available to listen to here on NPR.org.

The follow-up to 2007’s ‘Magic’ has already picked up a Golden Globe Award for the title song to the new Mickey Rourke starring film The Wrestler.

For more music and film news click here

Iron Maiden Take Flight At A Cinema Near You

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Iron Maiden are to release their first ever feature length film at UK cinemas on April 21, telling the story of the first leg of their multi-million ticket selling 2008 Somewhere Back In Time world tour. The band flew round the world in their own customised Boeing 757, named Ed Force One, and pilot...

Iron Maiden are to release their first ever feature length film at UK cinemas on April 21, telling the story of the first leg of their multi-million ticket selling 2008 Somewhere Back In Time world tour.

The band flew round the world in their own customised Boeing 757, named Ed Force One, and piloted by singer turned captain Bruce Dickinson performed every corner of the globe, starting in India and ending in South America. The tour continues apace this year, but the film ‘Iron Maiden: Flight 666’ will give fans a taste of the rock’n’roll action on the

big screen.

You can see a trailer for the film at Maiden’s website here

Participating cinemas will be announced shortly.

For more music and film news click here

Pic credit: PA Photos

New U2 Single Streaming Online Now

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U2's new single "Get On Your Boots", the first track from forthcoming 12th studio album 'No Line On The Horizon' is now available to stream in full for free on music listening website Last.fm. The single is being released digitally on February 15 with a physical format to follow on February 16 thro...

U2‘s new single “Get On Your Boots”, the first track from forthcoming 12th studio album ‘No Line On The Horizon’ is now available to stream in full for free on music listening website Last.fm.

The single is being released digitally on February 15 with a physical format to follow on February 16 through Mercury/Universal.

Click here to get the first taste of Bono and co.’s new material.

For more info on the new Brian Eno, Danny Lanois and Steve Lillywhite produced album, and the tracklisting click here.

For more music and film news click here

Buddy Holly Commemorative CD and DVD To Be Released

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A new 50 track compilation album commemorating 50 years since Buddy Holly's death is to be released on February 2. 'The Very Best of Buddy Holly and The Crickets' will be accompanied by a DVD 'The Music Of Buddy Holly And The Crickets, The Definitive Story’ - which features live performances from the Ed Sullivan show (pictured above) as well as previously unseen footage and interviews with people that were close to Holly. Holly died in a plane crash on February 3, 1958, however his music influenced a lot of musicians including Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton. For more music and film news click here Pic credit: PA Photos

A new 50 track compilation album commemorating 50 years since Buddy Holly‘s death is to be released on February 2.

‘The Very Best of Buddy Holly and The Crickets’ will be accompanied by a DVD ‘The Music Of Buddy Holly And The Crickets, The Definitive Story’ – which features live performances from the Ed Sullivan show (pictured above) as well as previously unseen footage and interviews with people that were close to Holly.

Holly died in a plane crash on February 3, 1958, however

his music influenced a lot of musicians including Bob Dylan,

The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton.

For more music and film news click here

Pic credit: PA Photos

Kings of Leon to Join U2 at This Year’s BRIT Awards

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Kings Of Leon are to perform at this year's BRIT Awards, which are to take place in London on February 18. Other artists confirmed to appear live include Girls Aloud and Duffy. The bands join a previously announced U2 who are set to premiere the first single from their forthcoming album 'No Line O...

Kings Of Leon are to perform at this year’s BRIT Awards, which are to take place in London on February 18.

Other artists confirmed to appear live include Girls Aloud and Duffy.

The bands join a previously announced U2 who are set to premiere the first single from their forthcoming album ‘No Line On The Horizon’.

Presenting this year’s ceremony at Earls Court will be pop star Kylie Minogue who will appear alongside James Corden and Matthew Horne.

Pet Shop Boys will receive the 2009 Lifetime Achievement award, whilst Florence And The Machine are already named Critic’s Choice.

The full list of shortlisted nominations will be unveiled

tomorrow evening (January 20), at the BRITS launch at

London’s Roundhouse.

For more music and film news click here

Pic credit: PA Photos

Arctic Monkeys Confirmed To Top Bill At European Festival

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Arctic Monkeys have been confirmed as one of the headliners for this year's 7th annual Oya festival taking place in Norway this August. The band who are currently recording their third album with Josh Homme are to be joined on the bill which so far includes Royksopp, Bon Iver, Chairlift and The Bro...

Arctic Monkeys have been confirmed as one of the headliners for this year’s 7th annual Oya festival taking place in Norway this August.

The band who are currently recording their third album with Josh Homme are to be joined on the bill which so far includes Royksopp, Bon Iver, Chairlift and The Bronx.

The festival, Norway’s largest outdoor show, will take place in a medieval park at Middelalderparken, Oslo, from August 11-15.

Bands confirmed so far are, weekend passes are on sale now.

Arctic Monkeys

Royksopp

Bon Iver

Satyricon

The Bronx

Chairlift

Crystal Antlers

Monotonix

For more music and film news click here

UNCUT Q&A: MICKEY ROURKE

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MICKEY ROURKE UNCUT: How are you, Mickey? ROURKE: My legs are fucked up because Darren [Aronofsky, director] ruined them again. Constant pain. Old football injuries blew up: for the wrestling I had to put on 36 pounds and my knees weren’t used to carrying the extra weight. The only way I would d...

MICKEY ROURKE

UNCUT: How are you, Mickey?

ROURKE: My legs are fucked up because Darren [Aronofsky, director] ruined them again. Constant pain. Old football injuries blew up: for the wrestling I had to put on 36 pounds and my knees weren’t used to carrying the extra weight. The only way I would do this movie was if I could give all of myself to it. I wanted to respect the sport and show these guys with as much as honour as possible and win their approval. The hindrance was I got three MRI’s in the first few weeks. My knee buckled, my neck went out with whiplash, had a swollen disc…I f your back’s messed up, the strongest of anybody can’t do anything. I couldn’t lace my shoes, or get off the ground.

I called my agent and said look don’t tell Darren this and I’m not faking but I’m half-paralysed here. I don’t trust doctors, but eventually the stunt co-ordinator took me to the guy who works with all the top cage fighters. I thought: yeah right. Two days and I was better. I wish I’d seen him sooner, because for a month there’s Darren yelling at me, “You’re only giving me 50%! You look like a goddam boxer!”

So you used your boxing experience here?

I had to let it go. See, at first I had no respect for wrestling. I looked down on it as a sport just morons went to. Like WWF, what the fuck is that, y’know? And I’d trained for fifteen years as a boxer to throw punches you didn’t see coming. It was hard to break that and throw punches from, like, back here. It felt ridiculous. I’d wanted to work with Aronofsky, but not like this. But after a while something happened. I started to have fun with it. I’d see these guys do moves and go: Fuck, I wanna do that. Even though I don’t have the greatest equilibrium! I’d tape my wrists hard – I’ve broken them more times than I can count – and shoot them up with Novocaine, which you’re not supposed to do before a fight. I’d land in some pretty ugly positions in practice. And I know me: if I get it first time, great, otherwise it’ll get worse not better. But when we shot that scene in front of 3,000 in between real matches, I fucking nailed the toughest move. I was more proud of that than any acting moment in the whole movie.

Did you base Randy “The Ram” on a real character?

Back when I was a kid I’d go watch boxing while other guys went to the wrestling and I’d think: fucking idiots. But my brother knew this one silly guy. He was a biker with long blond hair and blown-out knees from falling off motorcycles. I’d be talking to him and he wouldn’t look at me and my brother would go, “Bro, he ain’t got his two fucking hearing aids in.” We’d shout at him, “Magic! Magic!” Magic had no money at all, wrestled occasionally, fixed bikes on the side. He had one sweatshirt, one pair of jeans, and red and white cowboy boots. He lived in an old school bus behind the gym. I wanted that in, but Darren wanted the trailer park thing.

You wrote some of your own lines though?

Yeah I didn’t really care for the screenplay. It was mediocre. But I also realised this director had the ability to transcend the material. I’d done my homework and he reminded me of when I met the young Francis Coppola. He’s smart, uncompromising and innovative. He said to me, “You’ll listen to everything I say, you’ll do everything I tell you, you won’t disrespect me. And I can’t pay you yet.” I thought: wow, he’s got some balls. But yes, he allowed me to rewrite my heavy shit scenes with Evan Rachel Wood and the big speech at the end. So the stuff that comes out of my mouth is very personal, stuff I’ve been through. That’s me in there. I was thinking: well, nobody will realise I’m talking about myself. I guess people are smarter than you expect sometimes.

So you and Randy are both faded stars, attempting comebacks..?

It’s about loneliness. I existed in loneliness for many years. When you have a career and self-destruct and ruin it, people don’t rush to put you back to work. And I wasn’t a little bit bad – I was fucking horrible. For fifteen or sixteen years. I was out of line, out of control, out of my mind. I had to lose my house, my wife, my money, everything. I was reduced to selling off my motorcycle collection for cash: where I come from, you’re not supposed to sell your motorcycle. Sly Stallone gave me a part in the Get Carter remake and saved me. I found out he paid my fee out of his own pocket, though he tried to keep that secret from me. Though really it was my therapist who saved me. From myself. See, success upset me because people kissed my ass. I’d washed dishes, worked security for gamblers and whorehouses and transvestite bars – where had they been then? And when I was abused as a kid? So I was mad with rage; I needed to gain the knowledge to fix what was broken. There will always be that little Mad Hatter inside me with his axe. But now I understand there are consequences to actions. There’s still work to do.

Can you appreciate the affection and acclaim you’re getting now?

I’m thankful but wary. Of course I have regrets that I had to fall so far from grace to change. I was ashamed and hopeless, but it feels new now. It’s almost like I never had that other career before.

How did you get Springsteen involved?

I wrote Bruce a letter, because we’ve known each other over twenty years, and he knows what I used to be, or whatever. Where I went. What I’d been reduced to. I told him how I felt lucky now and didn’t have to end up being this guy, being Randy. A while later I got a call in the middle of the night: he said he’d written a little song, for nothing. It’s fucking beautiful, right? I was honoured he took the time, because he’s a busy cat. I mean, I’m so goddam proud of this magical movie and to have Bruce’s input…ain’t nobody in Hollywood with all their millions can just ring the man and he’ll do a song, y’know? And Axl and the guys let me use “Sweet Child O‘ Mine“ for nothing too: we couldn‘t afford it on our budget. These guys stepped up to the plate.

CHRIS ROBERTS

Frost/ Nixon

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DIRECTED BY Ron Howard STARRING Michael Sheen, Frank Langella Frost/Nixon faces, like the stage play that spawned it, a terrifying challenge: that of adding anything to the astonishing drama of the original interviews David Frost conducted with Richard Nixon. Recorded in 1977, those 29 hours of videotape amount to the only sustained interrogation about his myriad crimes to which Nixon ever submitted, and climaxed in the closest he came to an apology. They were unprecedented, and are likely to remain unequalled. Peter Morgan’s stage play recognised this, which was why much of it consisted of verbatim performances of the interviews by the principal actors, Michael Sheen (Frost) and Frank Langella (Nixon). Ron Howard’s film keeps the two leads and much of Morgan’s screenplay, but delves deeper into the behind-the-scenes psychodrama. Fortunately, there is a rich seam to be mined there, commencing with the utter improbability that Frost and Nixon ever met. When Nixon resigned office in August 1974, Frost’s best days, as a trans-Atlantic television superstar, also looked like memories: we see Frost watching the disgraced president’s departure from the White House from the gaudy set of a vapid chat show he was hosting in Australia. Frost’s decision that he, of all people, would be Nixon’s confessor, was staggering hubris, broadly equivalent to Jonathan Ross determining to launch his comeback with a four-part sit-down with George W Bush. But Frost’s pitch was, as the film brilliantly illuminates, an enterprise perched on the cusp of courage and desperation. Frost wanted to be respected, admired and applauded again – and so, Frost recognised, did his putative subject. Nixon, perceiving this grinning limey chat show host as a soft touch, and happy to trouser a US$600,000 fee – much of it an over-extended Frost’s own money – that he wouldn’t have got from queasy American networks, accepted. The film’s lone flaw is a tendency to overcook the similarities between the protagonists’ personalities, culminating in the unnecessary, jarring insertion of a fictional late-night phone call from Nixon to Frost before the final interview. When tethered to reality, Frost/Nixon is splendid. The compelling Sheen radiates Frost’s oleaginous charm and overweening ambition, Langella almost invites sympathy for Nixon – no small accomplishment – and both are ably abetted by an excellent supporting cast: Toby Jones as Nixon’s agent, Swifty Lazar, Kevin Bacon as the former President’s dogged factotum, Colonel Jack Brennan, and Oliver Platt – surely a cinematic Nixon-in-waiting himself – as Bob Zelnick, one of Frost’s American hired hands. But it’s all about the two men on camera, the showman and the politician: superbly rendered exemplars, respectively, of the lengths and the depths to which men will go to be liked. ANDREW MUELLER For more music and film news click here

DIRECTED BY Ron Howard

STARRING Michael Sheen, Frank Langella

Frost/Nixon faces, like the stage play that spawned it, a terrifying challenge: that of adding anything to the astonishing drama of the original interviews David Frost conducted with Richard Nixon. Recorded in 1977, those 29 hours of videotape amount to the only sustained interrogation about his myriad crimes to which Nixon ever submitted, and climaxed in the closest he came to an apology.

They were unprecedented, and are likely to remain unequalled. Peter Morgan’s stage play recognised this, which was why much of it consisted of verbatim performances of the interviews by the principal actors, Michael Sheen (Frost) and Frank Langella (Nixon). Ron Howard’s film keeps the two leads and much of Morgan’s screenplay, but delves deeper into the behind-the-scenes psychodrama.

Fortunately, there is a rich seam to be mined there, commencing with the utter improbability that Frost and Nixon ever met. When Nixon resigned office in August 1974, Frost’s best days, as a trans-Atlantic television superstar, also looked like memories: we see Frost watching the disgraced president’s departure from the White House from the gaudy set of a vapid chat show he was hosting in Australia. Frost’s decision that he, of all people, would be Nixon’s confessor, was staggering hubris, broadly equivalent to Jonathan Ross determining to launch his comeback with a four-part sit-down with George W Bush. But Frost’s pitch was, as the film brilliantly illuminates, an enterprise perched on the cusp of courage and desperation. Frost wanted to be respected, admired and applauded again – and so, Frost recognised, did his putative subject. Nixon, perceiving this grinning limey chat show host as a soft touch, and happy to trouser a US$600,000 fee – much of it an over-extended Frost’s own money – that he wouldn’t have got from queasy American networks, accepted.

The film’s lone flaw is a tendency to overcook the similarities between the protagonists’ personalities, culminating in the unnecessary, jarring insertion of a fictional late-night phone call from Nixon to Frost before the final interview. When tethered to reality, Frost/Nixon is splendid. The compelling Sheen radiates Frost’s oleaginous charm and overweening ambition, Langella almost invites sympathy for Nixon – no small accomplishment – and both are ably abetted by an excellent supporting cast: Toby Jones as Nixon’s agent, Swifty Lazar, Kevin Bacon as the former President’s dogged factotum, Colonel Jack Brennan, and Oliver Platt – surely a cinematic Nixon-in-waiting himself – as Bob Zelnick, one of Frost’s American hired hands.

But it’s all about the two men on camera, the showman and the politician: superbly rendered exemplars, respectively, of the lengths and the depths to which men will go to be liked.

ANDREW MUELLER

For more music and film news click here

Milk

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DIRECTED BY Gus Van Sant STARRING Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, James Franco, Diego Luna Harvey Milk was the first openly gay official elected to major office in America. He was murdered, in November 1978, by fellow San Francisco city supervisor Dan White. White, a Vietnam vet and former policeman, also killed mayor George Moscone the same morning, and later blamed a junk food diet for his unbalanced mental state. This story has been seen on screen before in Rob Epstein’s Oscar-winning 1984 documentary, The Times Of Harvey Milk. But Van Sant and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black flesh out the facts with eight years of personal, psychological and historical detail. Their unanimously high-calibre cast includes the increasingly impressive Brolin as White, but Sean Penn still steals almost every scene, immersing himself totally in Milk’s sardonic speech patterns and rubbery body language. Fans of Van Sant’s experimental quasi-biopics Elephant and Last Days will probably find Milk disappointingly straight (no pun intended) by comparison. It is certainly the director’s most formally conventional film for almost a decade. This functional approach might seem arguably unavoidable, although Danny Elfman’s tearjerking score becomes intrusive. There are niggling omissions in the story, too. White’s true motives for murder are never fully explored, but plainly ran deeper than anti-gay prejudice. Likewise Milk’s history of suicidal lovers, a shock throwaway line that’s left hanging. A little more informed speculation might have helped. Still, otherwise this is a warm, moving, non-preachy and surprisingly funny slice of contemporary history. STEPHEN DALTON For more music and film news click here

DIRECTED BY Gus Van Sant

STARRING Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, James Franco, Diego Luna

Harvey Milk was the first openly gay official elected to major office in America. He was murdered, in November 1978, by fellow San Francisco city supervisor Dan White. White, a Vietnam vet and former policeman, also killed mayor George Moscone the same morning, and later blamed a junk food diet for his unbalanced mental state.

This story has been seen on screen before in Rob Epstein’s Oscar-winning 1984 documentary, The Times Of Harvey Milk. But Van Sant and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black flesh out the facts with eight years of personal, psychological and historical detail. Their unanimously high-calibre cast includes the increasingly impressive Brolin as White, but Sean Penn still steals almost every scene, immersing himself totally in Milk’s sardonic speech patterns and rubbery body language.

Fans of Van Sant’s experimental quasi-biopics Elephant and Last Days will probably find Milk disappointingly straight (no pun intended) by comparison. It is certainly the director’s most formally conventional film for almost a decade. This functional approach might seem arguably unavoidable, although Danny Elfman’s tearjerking score becomes intrusive.

There are niggling omissions in the story, too. White’s true motives for murder are never fully explored, but plainly ran deeper than anti-gay prejudice. Likewise Milk’s history of suicidal lovers, a shock throwaway line that’s left hanging. A little more informed speculation might have helped. Still, otherwise this is a warm, moving, non-preachy and surprisingly funny slice of contemporary history.

STEPHEN DALTON

For more music and film news click here

The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Electric Ladyland

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As much as the world was in turmoil while Electric Ladyland was being made, so, undoubtedly, was The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Made by an over-worked, over-managed group led by a guitarist keeping demandingly odd hours, forty years on the album displays an unquestionable power and beauty, but also records a huge tension. Split between brain-frying psychedelic epics ("1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)") and off the floor live jams like "Voodoo Child", the album is the bridging point between the flowery-shirted psychedelic pop records of Hendrix's London days, and the self-determining war funk of Band Of Gypsies, combining the best of both. This supplants the 2002 reissue only in bundling it with the Classic Albums doc, while sleeve-wise, this continues to use neither the original (that Jimi loathed), nor the Linda Eastman shots he wanted. JOHN ROBINSON For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

As much as the world was in turmoil while Electric Ladyland was being made, so, undoubtedly, was The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Made by an over-worked, over-managed group led by a guitarist keeping demandingly odd hours, forty years on the album displays an unquestionable power and beauty, but also records a huge tension.

Split between brain-frying psychedelic epics (“1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)”) and off the floor live jams like “Voodoo Child”, the album is the bridging point between the flowery-shirted psychedelic pop records of Hendrix’s London days, and the self-determining war funk of Band Of Gypsies, combining the best of both. This supplants the 2002 reissue only in bundling it with the Classic Albums doc, while sleeve-wise, this continues to use neither the original (that Jimi loathed), nor the Linda Eastman shots he wanted.

JOHN ROBINSON

For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

Eagles Of Death Metal – Heart On

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Itself a work of classic rock 'n' roll, the new album by Eagles of Death Metal inevitably calls to mind the work of some classic rock 'n' roll bands: The Rolling Stones, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and also drummer/guitarist/producer Josh Homme's other band, Queens Of The Stone Age. More interestingly, perhaps, and a thought probably not problematic to the album’s lusty creators, Homme and singer/guitarist Jesse Hughes, it also makes you think of Dolly Parton. Chiefly, of the singer’s famous assertion on cosmetic surgery: "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap." In the hands of the Eagles of Death Metal – a project that has now, with Heart On reached an unthinkable degree of accomplishment, its third album – there's a similar kind of oxymoron at work. Rather than looking expensive or sounding cheap, however, the working principle with this band would appear to be "You have to be pretty clever to sound this stupid." Heart On is the fullest vindication yet of an unpromising operating procedure. A band seemingly started with light-hearted aims – main man Jesse "The Devil" Hughes had not picked up a guitar prior to writing the songs for the band's first album; this for a long time seemed to be just one among Josh Homme’s many side-projects – the band's ethos seemed disarmingly simple. Here were two self-proclaimed sexy gentlemen, on a mission to make good time music. So far in their career, however, while one might have had opportunity to admire the talk, one may not, however, have properly observed the walk. Obviously, it would be a foolish person who seized on the uncomplicated punning of Heart On and song titles like "Thought I Couldn't Dance (Tight Pants)" (incidentally, a cousin of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s “Bell Bottoms”), and claimed that this was a record on which the pair had turned a new and serious corner in their work. Throughout this extremely enjoyable record, however, it's more straightforward than ever to see this music as being successful on its own terms, even to those maybe not cognizant of (or even interested in) the group's self-referential backstory. It's true, the band's take on, say, the compositions of the 1970s Rolling Stones (opening track "Anything 'Cept The Truth" and "Cheap Thrills" have the riffs; "Now I'm A Fool" duplicates some of that band's exquisite millionaire langour) are undertaken with an occasionally knowing wink. But this isn't, by a long chalk, irony served cold. Much as LCD Soundsystem have done in the dance/rock field, Eagles are doing for rock: bringing, along with the smile of recognition, a huge genuine love for the source material. It's hard to think of a better vindication for their working methods than the effect that the band had on Axl Rose. After referring to them from the stage as "the Pigeons Of Shit Metal", he threw them off the 2006 Guns N' Roses tour after a single show. Weirdly, though, both Rose and the Eagles are ultimately batting for the same team. Both would appear to be log cabin republicans ("I love my guns and my money, and I don't want anyone taking them from me," Hughes claimed in a recent interview). Both aim to appeal to the American heartland (puns notwithstanding, it's this heart, apparently, from which Heart On takes its title). Maybe more significantly, both are nominally in the tradition of uncomplicated good time music, that’s best heard blasting from a bar or customised automobile. With one significant difference – the Eagles seem to still be having a good time making it. Undoubtedly, though, and this is again a fact both Rose and Hughes can swear to, creating such music is not a process that comes without work. In the short but sweet single "Wannabe In LA", Hughes claims he "Came to LA to make rock ‘n’ roll/Along the way I had to sell my soul…" But really, if this album testifies to anything, it's that rock success is never achieved with so simple a transaction. Rather than a knockabout album, Heart On instead sounds meticulously worked over, the likes of “Prissy Prancin’” buffed by producer/engineer Homme (Queens affiliates Troy Van Leeuwen, Alain Johannes and Dave Catching are also all on board) to a devastating shine, while still punching their considerable weight. All round, a party atmosphere prevails – and undoubtedly a good time is had by all. What it was much harder to have forseen, though, is how essential this finished article might become. Eagles Of Death Metal might have started as in-joke among friends, but theirs are the jokes of the best kind, built on a firm foundation of truth. Already, they're laughing pretty loudly – could be that they laugh the longest, too. JOHN ROBINSON UNCUT Q & A: JESSE “BOOTS ELECTRIC” HUGHES You write the songs, Jesse – what does Josh bring to the party? It must take a lot of hard work to make it sound that easy, right? I write the songs, sometimes they’re just coal – sometimes they’re unpolished diamonds. Josh brings the other half of the song – the manner in which to capture it. I bring the devil and he puts it into the bottle. Can you tell me how EODM albums sessions work? We show up in the studio and Joshua is the man man, the producer, the executive dog. I bring the songs, he brings the noise, and then he leaves the studio and I polish it up, then I leave the studio and he polishes it up some more. We set a production standard to make it the best it can be, and then we obey the music. How important is it to try to connect with the American heartland with your music? Like the American heartland, we’re not so pretentious as to believe we made anything up. We just want to follow in a tradition that’s good. We wear our hearts on our sleeves. And when I wear tight pants, you can notice my boner – that’s my killer riff. You were ‘The Devil’, but now you’re ‘Boots Electric’. Is this simply a change of name, or of state of mind? My mother is a devout southern Baptist and she cried when she saw the devil in my name. And have you seen me dance? My boots set the stage on fire! INTERVIEW: JOHN ROBINSON For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

Itself a work of classic rock ‘n’ roll, the new album by Eagles of Death Metal inevitably calls to mind the work of some classic rock ‘n’ roll bands: The Rolling Stones, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and also drummer/guitarist/producer Josh Homme’s other band, Queens Of The Stone Age. More interestingly, perhaps, and a thought probably not problematic to the album’s lusty creators, Homme and singer/guitarist Jesse Hughes, it also makes you think of Dolly Parton. Chiefly, of the singer’s famous assertion on cosmetic surgery: “It takes a lot of money to look this cheap.”

In the hands of the Eagles of Death Metal – a project that has now, with Heart On reached an unthinkable degree of accomplishment, its third album – there’s a similar kind of oxymoron at work. Rather than looking expensive or sounding cheap, however, the working principle with this band would appear to be “You have to be pretty clever to sound this stupid.”

Heart On is the fullest vindication yet of an unpromising operating procedure. A band seemingly started with light-hearted aims – main man Jesse “The Devil” Hughes had not picked up a guitar prior to writing the songs for the band’s first album; this for a long time seemed to be just one among Josh Homme’s many side-projects – the band’s ethos seemed disarmingly simple. Here were two self-proclaimed sexy gentlemen, on a mission to make good time music. So far in their career, however, while one might have had opportunity to admire the talk, one may not, however, have properly observed the walk.

Obviously, it would be a foolish person who seized on the uncomplicated punning of Heart On and song titles like “Thought I Couldn’t Dance (Tight Pants)” (incidentally, a cousin of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s “Bell Bottoms”), and claimed that this was a record on which the pair had turned a new and serious corner in their work. Throughout this extremely enjoyable record, however, it’s more straightforward than ever to see this music as being successful on its own terms, even to those maybe not cognizant of (or even interested in) the group’s self-referential backstory.

It’s true, the band’s take on, say, the compositions of the 1970s Rolling Stones (opening track “Anything ‘Cept The Truth” and “Cheap Thrills” have the riffs; “Now I’m A Fool” duplicates some of that band’s exquisite millionaire langour) are undertaken with an occasionally knowing wink. But this isn’t, by a long chalk, irony served cold. Much as LCD Soundsystem have done in the dance/rock field, Eagles are doing for rock: bringing, along with the smile of recognition, a huge genuine love for the source material. It’s hard to think of a better vindication for their working methods than the effect that the band had on Axl Rose. After referring to them from the stage as “the Pigeons Of Shit Metal”, he threw them off the 2006 Guns N’ Roses tour after a single show.

Weirdly, though, both Rose and the Eagles are ultimately batting for the same team. Both would appear to be log cabin republicans (“I love my guns and my money, and I don’t want anyone taking them from me,” Hughes claimed in a recent interview). Both aim to appeal to the American heartland (puns notwithstanding, it’s this heart, apparently, from which Heart On takes its title). Maybe more significantly, both are nominally in the tradition of uncomplicated good time music, that’s best heard blasting from a bar or customised automobile. With one significant difference – the Eagles seem to still be having a good time making it.

Undoubtedly, though, and this is again a fact both Rose and Hughes can swear to, creating such music is not a process that comes without work. In the short but sweet single “Wannabe In LA”, Hughes claims he “Came to LA to make rock ‘n’ roll/Along the way I had to sell my soul…” But really, if this album testifies to anything, it’s that rock success is never achieved with so simple a transaction. Rather than a knockabout album, Heart On instead sounds meticulously worked over, the likes of “Prissy Prancin’” buffed by producer/engineer Homme (Queens affiliates Troy Van Leeuwen, Alain Johannes and Dave Catching are also all on board) to a devastating shine, while still punching their considerable weight.

All round, a party atmosphere prevails – and undoubtedly a good time is had by all. What it was much harder to have forseen, though, is how essential this finished article might become. Eagles Of Death Metal might have started as in-joke among friends, but theirs are the jokes of the best kind, built on a firm foundation of truth. Already, they’re laughing pretty loudly – could be that they laugh the longest, too.

JOHN ROBINSON

UNCUT Q & A: JESSE “BOOTS ELECTRIC” HUGHES

You write the songs, Jesse – what does Josh bring to the party? It must take a lot of hard work to make it sound that easy, right?

I write the songs, sometimes they’re just coal – sometimes they’re unpolished diamonds. Josh brings the other half of the song – the manner in which to capture it. I bring the devil and he puts it into the bottle.

Can you tell me how EODM albums sessions work?

We show up in the studio and Joshua is the man man, the producer, the executive dog. I bring the songs, he brings the noise, and then he leaves the studio and I polish it up, then I leave the studio and he polishes it up some more. We set a production standard to make it the best it can be, and then we obey the music.

How important is it to try to connect with the American heartland with your music?

Like the American heartland, we’re not so pretentious as to believe we made anything up. We just want to follow in a tradition that’s good. We wear our hearts on our sleeves. And when I wear tight pants, you can notice my boner – that’s my killer riff.

You were ‘The Devil’, but now you’re ‘Boots Electric’. Is this simply a change of name, or of state of mind?

My mother is a devout southern Baptist and she cried when she saw the devil in my name. And have you seen me dance? My boots set the stage on fire!

INTERVIEW: JOHN ROBINSON

For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

Telepathe – Dance Mother

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Just when you thought New York's stock of exotically plumed indie had been exhausted following albums by high-profile misfits Gang Gang Dance and Animal Collective, here comes one of that freak-scene's most enchanting new records, Dance Mother by Telepathe. Pronounced “telepathy”, Telepathe are Busy Gangnes and Melissa Livaudais, two fresh-faced girls from Brooklyn who dress like Klaxons' witchy sisters and who, last winter, aroused hipsters everywhere with the treacly twirl of "Chromes On It", which painted them as a kind of ghetto Cocteau Twins. Surprisingly, that song turns out to be one of the clunkier numbers on Dance Mother, which, cosmetically at least, taps an idea of world music – the ethnic chants and rhythms, the general sketchiness – previously explored by the likes of Yeasayer and Gang Gang Dance. While it's hard to say exactly how much influence David Sitek of TV On The Radio has had on Telepathe's development – he’s the record's producer, in whose studio it was made – his warm, gauzy sound and fondness for melody is all over the album. Shades of Telepathe's past as a feel-good drone outfit still linger, and are blended, on the primitive machine-pop of "Drugged" and "Devil Trident", with the girls' swooning harmonies and cascading synths. The way Sitek appears to have moulded Telepathe, it would be tempting to label them Brooklyn's answer to Phil Spector and the Ronettes. A little may go a long way with Telepathe, but there's enough variety here to reward repeated listening. From opener "So Fine"'s sturdy electro to the strangely moving "In Your Line", which could be a Prince slow jam from the mid-'90s, it's clear that, despite their often listless delivery of a lot of arcane lyrics, Gangnes and Livaudais can be pretty persuasive performers. At times, with sci-fi jigs like "Lights Go Down" and "Michael", Telepathe seem to stake out new ground between, say, Bat For Lashes and Hot Chip. Whichever way they're going, Telepathe are heading in the right direction. PIERS MARTIN For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

Just when you thought New York’s stock of exotically plumed indie had been exhausted following albums by high-profile misfits Gang Gang Dance and Animal Collective, here comes one of that freak-scene’s most enchanting new records, Dance Mother by Telepathe.

Pronounced “telepathy”, Telepathe are Busy Gangnes and Melissa Livaudais, two fresh-faced girls from Brooklyn who dress like Klaxons’ witchy sisters and who, last winter, aroused hipsters everywhere with the treacly twirl of “Chromes On It”, which painted them as a kind of ghetto Cocteau Twins.

Surprisingly, that song turns out to be one of the clunkier numbers on Dance Mother, which, cosmetically at least, taps an idea of world music – the ethnic chants and rhythms, the general sketchiness – previously explored by the likes of Yeasayer and Gang Gang Dance. While it’s hard to say exactly how much influence David Sitek of TV On The Radio has had on Telepathe’s development – he’s the record’s producer, in whose studio it was made – his warm, gauzy sound and fondness for melody is all over the album.

Shades of Telepathe’s past as a feel-good drone outfit still linger, and are blended, on the primitive machine-pop of “Drugged” and “Devil Trident”, with the girls’ swooning harmonies and cascading synths. The way Sitek appears to have moulded Telepathe, it would be tempting to label them Brooklyn’s answer to Phil Spector and the Ronettes.

A little may go a long way with Telepathe, but there’s enough variety here to reward repeated listening. From opener “So Fine”‘s sturdy electro to the strangely moving “In Your Line”, which could be a Prince slow jam from the mid-’90s, it’s clear that, despite their often listless delivery of a lot of arcane lyrics, Gangnes and Livaudais can be pretty persuasive performers. At times, with sci-fi jigs like “Lights Go Down” and “Michael”, Telepathe seem to stake out new ground between, say, Bat For Lashes and Hot Chip. Whichever way they’re going, Telepathe are heading in the right direction.

PIERS MARTIN

For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

Mott The Hoople Reunion Shows Confirmed!

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Mott The Hoople have confirmed that they are to reunite and play together for the first time in 35 years, to celebrate their 40th anniversary this year. The group featuring all original members; Ian Hunter, Verden Allen, Dale Griffin, Overend Watts and Mick Ralphs will play two shows at London's Ha...

Mott The Hoople have confirmed that they are to reunite and play together for the first time in 35 years, to celebrate their 40th anniversary this year.

The group featuring all original members; Ian Hunter, Verden Allen, Dale Griffin, Overend Watts and Mick Ralphs will play two shows at London’s Hammersmith Apollo on October 2 and 3, 2009.

Formed in 1969, Mott are famous for tracks like the David Bowie-penned “All The Young Dudes” as well as “Roll Away The Stone” and “Honaloochie Boogie”.

Tickets for the Mott The Hoople reunion shows will go onsale

later this month, on January 22.

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U2 Reveal New Album Tracklisting

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The final track listing for U2’s new album, No Line On The Horizon, has been revealed. The full track listing is: 1. No Line On The Horizon 2. Magnificent 3. Moment of Surrender 4. Unknown Caller 5. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight 6. Get On Your Boots 7. Stand Up Comedy 8. Fez – Being Born 9. White As Snow 10. Breathe 11. Cedars Of Lebanon The album, the band’s 12th studio release and their first in five years, will be released on March 2. The album has been produced by Brian Eno, Danny Lanois and Steve Lillywhite. It will be released in a standard format with 24 page booklet and in digipak format. The digipak includes an extended booklet and the album’s companion film “Linear” by Anton Corbijn. A limited edition 64-page magazine will also be available, featuring the band in conversation with artist Catherine Owens, and new Anton Corbijn photographs. No Line On The Horizon will be released on 180gm vinyl. The cover artwork for the album is an image of the sea meeting the sky by Japanese artist and photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto. Meanwhile, a single, Get On Your Boots, is released on February 15th with a physical format to follow on February 16th through Mercury/Universal. For more music and film news click here

The final track listing for U2’s new album, No Line On The Horizon, has been revealed.

The full track listing is:

1. No Line On The Horizon

2. Magnificent

3. Moment of Surrender

4. Unknown Caller

5. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight

6. Get On Your Boots

7. Stand Up Comedy

8. Fez – Being Born

9. White As Snow

10. Breathe

11. Cedars Of Lebanon

The album, the band’s 12th studio release and their first in five years, will be released on March 2.

The album has been produced by Brian Eno, Danny Lanois and Steve Lillywhite. It will be released in a standard format with 24 page booklet and in digipak format. The digipak includes an extended booklet and the album’s companion film “Linear” by Anton Corbijn. A limited edition 64-page magazine will also be available, featuring the band in conversation with artist Catherine Owens, and new Anton Corbijn photographs. No Line On The Horizon will be released on 180gm vinyl.

The cover artwork for the album is an image of the sea meeting the sky by Japanese artist and photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto.

Meanwhile, a single, Get On Your Boots, is released on February 15th with a physical format to follow on February 16th through Mercury/Universal.

For more music and film news click here

Neil Young To Release Brand New Album

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Neil Young will release Fork In The Road, an album of new material, possibly at the end of March. Young, who is currently on tour in Australia and New Zealand until February 1, has previously uploaded the title track on his website, www.neilyoung.com. The announcement of this release ends mo...

Neil Young will release Fork In The Road, an album of new material, possibly at the end of March.

Young, who is currently on tour in Australia and New Zealand until February 1, has previously uploaded the title track on his website, www.neilyoung.com.

The announcement of this release ends months of speculation regarding Young’s forthcoming projects.

The long-awaited Archives project, which was reportedly due for release in February, now appears to have been put back to Spring. There were also reports that Toast, an unreleased album recorded with Crazy Horse, would see the light of day at the end of January. This also appears to have been shunted off the schedules, at least for the time being.

Unverified reports suggest the album will find Young addressing the current economic crisis, in much the same way that 2006’s Living With War album took on George W Bush and the War On Terror.

You can read UNCUT’s verdict on Neil Young’s Fork In The Road now.

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BAFTA nominations, Slumdog Millionaire, The Wrestler

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I happened to be at Chalk Farm tube yesterday, waiting for a train. As a bus user, I’m always curious to see what kind of ad campaigns studios are running on the underground for their current releases. At the moment, as a right-thinking film fan, you might be in a state of near-priapic delight at the wealth of prestige movies in cinemas. There’s posters up for The Wrestler, Slumdog Millionaire, The Reader, Milk and Frost/Nixon, breathlessly described with attention-grabbing quotes like “the feel-good film of the decade”, or “a contender for Best Picture”. It is, of course, January, and rather shamelessly the studios are chucking out their high-calibre movies as we pile headlong into Awards season. It strikes me, not for the first time, to being pretty unfair. In an ideal world, it would make more sense for film fans to be treated to quality movies across the course of the year, rather than clustered together in some faintly undignified race to get them under the noses of various voting academies. I’m probably not alone in having wished this, particularly during the gloomy Summer months when everything’s being choked out by Spider Potter And The Quantum Of Crystal Skulls. Anyway, the BAFTA nominations were announced this morning, which I guess is where I’m heading with this blog. Currently, it’s all about the seemingly unstoppable rise of Slumdog Millionaire, a film that five months ago was in danger of losing its American distributor due to concerns over its apparent lack of commercial prospects. There is something, certainly, about the film’s underdog status that’s clearly struck a chord, both in the UK and US. And it’s a good film, although I think tales of its unfettered brilliance have been greatly exaggerated. I wonder, perhaps, if its success is partly reflective of some broader and maybe more nebulous cultural uplift tied in with Barack Obama’s imminent investiture. Hey, here’s a new President, he’s not George W Bush, now everyone wants to feel good, right? But maybe I’m just looking too deeply into it. Certainly, last year, as the credit crunch bit hard and before Obama’s campaign really took off, there was much Oscar talk circulating around The Dark Knight: a bleak film full of unlikeable and dysfunctional characters that seemed, in its way, to chime with the times. On the subject of The Dark Knight, I don’t buy this posthumous Oscar for Heath Ledger chatter, by the way. The internet is full of it – which is perhaps no surprise, considering how vocal a presence the comic book community has online. He’s good, sure, but it’s only a portrayal of a pretty two-dimensional comic book character we’re talking about here. It's hardly Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood, say. For my part, I’d hope some sense might prevail when the BAFTAs (and, also, the Oscars) are handed out. You can give Mickey Rourke as many awards as you like for his extraordinary work in The Wrestler, and I’m torn equally between Angelina Jolie for Changeling and Kristen Scott Thomas for I’ve Loved You So Long. I don’t think Kate Winslet is particularly good in either The Reader or Revolutionary Road, which is a truly wretched film. Robert Downey Jr was fantastic in Tropic Thunder and Tilda Swinton much better in The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button than she was in Burn After Reading. In terms of Best Film, well, out of all those nominated the one I liked the best was Frost/Nixon. It’s an intelligent and witty film with strong, measured performances that brought what might at first appear a fairly un-sexy subject to life with great skill. But I don't think it'll win. I would have liked excellent Terence Davies' Of Time And The City receive greater recognition, but there. Still, as they say, all will be revealed on February 8. Can you bear the suspense..? At least Masterchef’s back to keep our minds from moithering on such matters too much. Here's the nominations in the key BAFTA categories anyway: BEST FILM THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON FROST/NIXON MILK THE READER SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM HUNGER IN BRUGES MAMMA MIA! MAN ON WIRE SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE DIRECTOR CHANGELING Clint Eastwood THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON David Fincher FROST/NIXON Ron Howard THE READER Stephen Daldry SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE Danny Boyle LEADING ACTOR FRANK LANGELLA Frost/Nixon DEV PATEL Slumdog Millionaire SEAN PENN Milk BRAD PITT The Curious Case of Benjamin Button MICKEY ROURKE The Wrestler LEADING ACTRESS ANGELINA JOLIE Changeling KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS I’ve Loved You So Long MERYL STREEP Doubt KATE WINSLET The Reader KATE WINSLET Revolutionary Road SUPPORTING ACTOR ROBERT DOWNEY JR. Tropic Thunder BRENDAN GLEESON In Bruges PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN Doubt HEATH LEDGER The Dark Knight BRAD PITT Burn After Reading SUPPORTING ACTRESS AMY ADAMS Doubt PENÉLOPE CRUZ Vicky Cristina Barcelona FREIDA PINTO Slumdog Millionaire TILDA SWINTON Burn After Reading MARISA TOMEI The Wrestler

I happened to be at Chalk Farm tube yesterday, waiting for a train. As a bus user, I’m always curious to see what kind of ad campaigns studios are running on the underground for their current releases. At the moment, as a right-thinking film fan, you might be in a state of near-priapic delight at the wealth of prestige movies in cinemas. There’s posters up for The Wrestler, Slumdog Millionaire, The Reader, Milk and Frost/Nixon, breathlessly described with attention-grabbing quotes like “the feel-good film of the decade”, or “a contender for Best Picture”. It is, of course, January, and rather shamelessly the studios are chucking out their high-calibre movies as we pile headlong into Awards season.

Beirut Announces New European Live Dates

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Beirut have announced five European tour dates, around their previously announced appearance at the All Tomorrow's Parties- The Fans Strike Back festival this May. Apart from the Minehead festival show on May 9, Zach Condon's band will also play London's Forum venue the night before (May 8). Beiru...

Beirut have announced five European tour dates, around their previously announced appearance at the All Tomorrow’s Parties- The Fans Strike Back festival this May.

Apart from the Minehead festival show on May 9, Zach Condon’s band will also play London’s Forum venue the night before (May 8).

Beirut’s live shows are as follows, tickets go on general this Friday (January 16).

But, Uncut has an exclusive ticket pre-sale from today until Friday, with seetickets.com!

Follow the link here.

Hamburg Fabrik (May 3)

Amsterdam Paradiso (5)

Brussels Cirque Royal (6)

London The Forum (8)

Minehead All Tomorrow’s Parties – The Fans Strike Back (9)

Paris Bataclan (12)

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Oasis Launch Exclusive Film Online

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Oasis have premiered a brand new 18 minute documentary "Dig Out Your Soul In The Streets" on their MySpace page today (January 14). The film made by White Stripes video directors The Malloys was shot in New York last year, when the Gallaghers took to the streets to teach buskers tracks from their ...

Oasis have premiered a brand new 18 minute documentary “Dig Out Your Soul In The Streets” on their MySpace page today (January 14).

The film made by White Stripes video directors The Malloys was shot in New York last year, when the Gallaghers took to the streets to teach buskers tracks from their album Dig Out Your Soul before it’s release in the US.

Watch the exclusive video, the first to debut in High Definition on the site, by going here: MySpace.com/oasis

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The Second Uncut Playlist Of 2009

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The Neil Young/”Fork In The Road” business I wrote about yesterday seems to be moving on apace, as things suddenly seem to do in Young’s world. Thrasher’s Wheat now have a video and lyrics of the song. And thanks to Mark In Norfolk, who reported rumours that an album, also called “Fork In The Road”, is looking likely to appear in the next couple of months. Sending, we can only assume, “Archives” and “Toast” hurtling back yet again. It did occur to me yesterday, though, that the non-Linc/Volt songs premiered live before Christmas could be “Toast” songs, conceivably? More news as and when, obviously. In the meantime, a meaty second playlist of the year today, kicked off by Springsteen’s “Working On A Dream” album, which briefly manifested itself in the office a couple of days ago. Only heard it all the way through once, and I’m obliged to respect a reviewing embargo on this one for a few more days. I suspect the lawyers won’t be dispatched, though, if I risk revealing that it’s good at this early date. Proper preview next week, with a prevailing wind. 1 Bruce Springsteen – Working On A Dream (Columbia) 2 Pearl Jam – Ten (Epic) 3 Joshua Burkett – Where’s My Hat? (Time-Lag) 4 Various Artists – Pete Fowler’s Psychedelic Guide To Monsterism Island (Lo) 5 Ran Blake – Driftwoods (Tompkins Square) 6 Six Organs Of Admittance – RTZ (Drag City) 7 Neko Case – Middle Cyclone (Anti-) 8 Neil Young – Fork In The Road (Reprise) 9 The Who – The Who Sell Out: Deluxe Edition (Polydor) 10 Ghostface Killah – Fishscale (Def Jam) 11 Papercuts – You Can Have What You Want (Memphis Industries) 12 Rick Tomlinson – Night Tim Recordings From Goteborg (Kning Disk) 13 DM Stith – Heavy Ghost (Asthmatic Kitty) 14 Crystal Stilts – Alight Of Night (Angular) 15 Bat For Lashes – Two Suns (Echo/Parlophone) 16 Bubble Puppy – A Gathering Of Promises (International Artists/Charly) 17 Air France – No Way Down (Something In Construction) 18 Spider & The Flies – Something Clockwork This Way Comes (Mute Irregulars) 19 Ilyas Ahmed – The Vertigo Of Dawn (Time-Lag) 20 Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Beware (Domino)

The Neil Young/”Fork In The Road” business I wrote about yesterday seems to be moving on apace, as things suddenly seem to do in Young’s world. Thrasher’s Wheat now have a video and lyrics of the song.

Sparks Return To UK For Two Live Shows

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Sparks have announced that they are to play two live dates in London on March 20 and 21, returning after last year's unique 21 album, 21 show run last year. For the show on March 20, the Mael brothers will perform 1974's Kimono My House and on March 21, 1979's No.1 In Heaven. Both nights Sparks w...

Sparks have announced that they are to play two live dates in London on March 20 and 21, returning after last year’s unique 21 album, 21 show run last year.

For the show on March 20, the Mael brothers will perform 1974’s Kimono My House and on March 21, 1979’s No.1 In Heaven.

Both nights Sparks will play from their 21st release Exotic Creatures of the Deep.

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