There was exciting news this morning about the release on September 10 of a new Bob Dylan album, which if you haven’t seen the official announcement is called Tempest. There was much talk of the record a few weeks ago, backstage at the Hop Farm Festival, where one or two people rather teasingly inferred they had heard it, or knew someone who had.
Twenty years of touring and recording, of inspiration and graft for moderate acclaim, and it comes down to this. Mark Kozelek, the pivot of first Red House Painters and now Sun Kil Moon, is engaged in one more slog around Europe. It is not going well.
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion are set to release their first new album in eight years.
The 12 track Meat And Bone will be released on September 17 and follows 2004's Damage – which was released under the shortened name of Blues Explosion. It features 12 tracks, and will be the band's ninth LP. Scroll down to listen to the album's opening track "Black Mold".
The Jesus And Mary Chain have announced a new run of American tour dates. The band have just completed their first US tour in four years, and have now confirmed 18 dates to come starting in August.
The band will play:
August 2 – Buffalo, NY @ Thursday at the Harbor
August 3 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Theatre
August 4 – Montreal, QC @ Osheaga Festival
August 5 – New Orleans, LA @ House of Blues
September 6 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
September 7 – Raleigh, NC @ Hopscotch Music Festival
September 8 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Morrissey has announced an extensive tour of North America.
The singer, who recently reissued his 1998 debut album Viva Hate, will play 33 dates beginning in Boston on October 5. The tour eventually closes in Atlantic City on December 8.
Morrissey will play his only UK show of the year at Manchester Arena on July 28.
The North American tour dates are:
10/05 - Boston, Massachusetts - Wang Theatre
10/06 - Waterbury, Connecticut - Palace Theater
10/10 - New York, New York - Radio City Music Hall
10/15 - Portland, Maine - State Theatre
Here we go, then: my 40 favourite albums of 2012 thus far. A very personal list, I should say, so please don’t think it constitutes any kind of canonical Uncut pronouncement.
Welcome back William Friedkin and Matthew McConaughey - both missing in action, it seems, for some years now - with the terribly funny Killer Joe. Typically, for the director of transgressive genre pieces like The Exorcist and Cruising, one of the first things we see here is Gina Gershon’s lower half, naked. “It’s a bit distracting, your bush in my face,” complains her step-son, Chris (Emile Hirsch).
The pianist, singer and songwriter Mac Rebennack, known better as Dr John, faces your questions in the latest Uncut (dated July 2012), out now – but back in October 2010 (Take 161), he took us on a fascinating journey through his most important, and interesting, releases, from Gris-Gris to Exile On Main St. "We went to a nudist camp somewhere, we made up a song called 'The Symphony Of Frogs'…"
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Bon Iver have announced that they will be releasing a new EP next week.
The EP, which is simply titled iTunes Session EP, which will be released on Tuesday (June 19) and contains a total of seven tracks, all of which were recorded live.
Among the tracks scheduled for release is a cover of Bjork's "Who Is It?" and the band's recent single "Holocene".
Bon Iver recently announced two UK dates for later this year.
Apart from headlining this summer's Latitude festival, they will play shows in Glasgow and Belfast in November too.
Jack White, Black Keys and Alabama Shakes are among the acts playing this year's Lollapalooza Festival.
The line-up also includes Franz Ferdinand, Gaslight Anthem, Black Sabbath, the Afghan Whigs and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
You can read the full line-up here: http://lineup.lollapalooza.com/
Started in 1991 by Jane's Addiction frontman, Perry Farrell, the festival takes place this year on August 3 - 5 in Grant Park, Chicago, where it's been based since 2005.
