State of grace

With just one calendar month to go until Uncut's favourite event of the summer, we'll be bringing you daily artist previews, news updates and prize giveaways as we count down to Suffolk... Today: The Gaslight Anthem's guitarist Alex Rosamilia took a couple of minutes out of the band's hectic touring schedule to tell Uncut about their just announced slot at Latitude 2009...

I suspect I may have written more about Wild Beasts than any other British band in the two or so years Wild Mercury Sound has been running, doubtless to the bafflement and irritation of a good few regular readers.

Somewhat belatedly, I’ve just got round to reading Alex Ross’ fantastic book on 20th Century composition, The Rest Is Noise. A lot to talk about in there, but one quote stuck out yesterday. “Back in 1915,” Ross writes, “the critic Van Wyck Brooks had complained that America was caught in a false dichotomy between ‘highbrow’ and ‘lowbrow’, between ‘academic pedantry and pavement slang’. He called for a middle-ground culture that would fuse intellectual substance with communicative power.”

A bit of a Wilco binge in the last couple of days, since I’ve been trying to write a review of “Wilco (the album)” for the next issue of Uncut. Auspicious arrivals, too, from Wild Beasts and from Ben Reynolds, who’s the guitarist of Trembling Bells and who seems to have slotted rather gracefully into the space left by James Blackshaw on the Tompkins Square roster.

Hey, that’s the way to say goodbye. One classic gig, on two CDs

A few weeks ago, I received an email from America that mostly consisted of an encomium from Michael Gira on the subject of his newest signing to Young God, James Blackshaw. I’m more of an admirer than a fan of Gira’s music, and not all of the music on his label has worked for me; Akron/Family, for instance, after countless attempts remain mystifyingly unappealing.

Lucky 13th from The Artist Formerly Known As Smog

Read the full transcript from the Uncut cover feature here!

Never mind the omissions, here’s a great retelling of the Factory story

Paul McCartney soars out of his comfort zone