The new issue of Uncut, which hits shelves today (July 27), features Joe Strummer, Captain Beefheart, Bob Dylan and Animal Collective.
Strummer is on the cover, and inside is the story of the late Clash legend’s secret history – the wilderness years between the end of his group and his final creative rebirth.
Captain Beefheart’s whole story is told by The Magic Band, while Bob Dylan’s live show at Hop Farm is reviewed and Animal Collective talk us through their back catalogue.
As yesterday’s playlist indicated, the Avey Tare solo album has arrived, and I’ll do my best to write something about it in the next day or two. In the meantime, though, those of you attracted to the wilder shores of the Animal Collective might be interested in this one, the latest effort by a shadowy but productive band from Finland called Kemialliset Ystävät (“Chemical Friends”, I am informed).
If the accelerating success of Animal Collective in 2009 was weird enough, the level of anticipation surrounding their projects for 2010 must be astronomical, following the placing of “Merriweather Post Pavilion” at Number One in so many end-of-year polls.
After last week’s goldrush, a few more choice new arrivals in Playlist 42, not least the superb new Animal Collective, which I’ve been expressly forbidden to write about ‘til next week.
First off this week, a quick reminder that we’ve just announced Tinariwen as the winner of our annual Uncut Music Award. I’ve started posting transcripts of the judges’ discussions on the Uncut Music Award blog, beginning with their opinions on Tinariwen and Animal Collective. Kings of Leon, Bob Dylan, Wilco, The Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear and The Low Anthem will be coming up over the next week or so.
The first Monday morning of spring seems a good time to finally tackle the new Grizzly Bear album, “Veckatimest”, which I know I’ve been promising for a while. Without getting into some blog hype thing in the tradition of the Animal Collective (it was Grizzly Bear who reputedly leaked a couple of AC tracks and caused a lot of the fuss, if I remember right), “Veckatimest” is looking from here like the best album of this bit of 2009, at the very least.
It’s beginning to look as if, in certain online circles, there’s going to be quite a fuss around the new Grizzly Bear album, “Veckatimest” – comparable perhaps to the heat around the Animal Collective record at the end of last year. Security’s comparably tight around “Veckatimest” – ironic considering it was Grizzly Bear themselves who benignly leaked a couple of “Merriweather Post Pavilion” tracks – but we did manage to sneak one listen yesterday.
As you may have seen elsewhere on our website, the first winners of the Uncut Music Award have just been revealed as the Fleet Foxes. I spoke to Robin Pecknold last week to get his reaction, and found out a couple more things from him. One, he’s as anxious to hear the new Animal Collective album as many more Wild Mercury Sound regulars.
