Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2021 i UNCUT

THE UPSETTERS “RETURN OF DJANGO” (1969) An instrumental performed by Perry’s band, this reached the UK Top 5 in 1969, making it one of the first breakthrough reggae singles. BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS “SMALL AXE” (1971) One of the early songs that Perry claims to have written for Marley while they lived together, it marked reggae’s shift towards something more spiritual. MAX ROMEO & THE UPSETTERS “WAR INA BABYLON” (1976) Incendiary roots-reggae anthem, title track of one the “holy trinity” of classics recorded at the Black Ark alongside Junior Murvin’s Police And Thieves and The Heptones’ Party Time . THE CONGOS “ROW FISHERMAN” (1977) A simple bucolic nursery rhyme, transformed with a space-age funk beat that bubbles and gurgles. LEE PERRY FEAT MAD PROFESSOR “I’M NOT A HUMAN BEING”…

COREY HARRIS Fish Ain’t Bitin’ ALLIGATOR, 1997 “I discovered him on that boxset Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues , and I studied him a lot to figure out acoustic blues. This album has always stood out to me. It’s a really strong representation of what’s possible with just a voice and a guitar.” 8/10 ERIC BIBB & NEEDED TIME Spirit And The Blues EARTHBEAT, 1999 “He’s had an interesting career as a blues musician. He’s from New York but he’s spent most of his career in Sweden. He can play in modern ways and pushes his songwriting forward. He’s a great songwriter. But he’s stuck to traditions in a lot of ways and he always includes some old spiritual on his records.” 8/10 NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS No…

1 Living Proof 2 Harmonia’s Dream 3 Change 4 I Don’t Wanna Wait 5 Victim 6 I Don’t Live Here Anymore 7 Old Skin 8 Wasted 9 Rings Around My Father’s Eyes 10 Occasional Rain Producedby: Adam Granduciel, Shawn Everett Recordedat: Electric Lady Studios, NYC; Electro-Vox Recording Studios, LA; Subtle McNugget, LA Personnelincludes: Adam Granduciel (vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, piano, organs, Mellotron, synths, celeste, bass), Michael Bloch (guitar), Dave Hartley (bass, synth), Anthony LaMarca (drums, percussion, organ, guitar, electric vibes), James Elkington (electric and acoustic guitars), John Natchez (organ, saxes), Robbie Bennett (piano, synths), Patrick Berkery (drums, percussion), Lee Pardini (grand piano)…

HAYES CARLL You Get It All DUALTONE 8/10 Sad, funny, literate and reassuringly accomplished eighth from rootsy Texan DESPITE a run of consistently fine releases since first making his mark nearly 20 years ago, Hayes Carll has never quite received the credit that his talent demands. Maybe it’s his low-key demeanour, perhaps it’s the disregard for showiness, or it could be the simple fact that he’s operating in an increasingly overcrowded field. But at his best, as on 2011’s pithy KMAG YOYO (& Other American Stories) or 2019’s Dualtone debut What It Is, the Texan singer-songwriter invites comparisons to Guy Clark or Jerry Jeff Walker. You Get It All shows no dip in quality either. Co-produced by wife Allison Moorer, who also oversaw What It Is, it’s a set of…

NORTHEAST CORRIDOR: STEELY DAN LIVE! 1 Black Cow 2 Kid Charlemagne 3 Rikki Don’t Lose That Number 4 Hey Nineteen 5 Any Major Dude Will Tell You 6 Glamour Profession 7 Things I Miss The Most 8 Aja 9 Peg 10 Bodhisattva 11 Reelin’ In The Years 12 A Man Ain’t Supposed To Cry DONALD FAGEN’S THENIGHTFLYLIVE 1 IGY 2 Green Flower Street 3 Ruby Baby 4 Maxine 5 New Frontier 6 The Nightfly 7 The Goodbye Look 8 Walk Between Raindrops Produced by: Donald Fagen & Patrick Dillett Recorded at: The Beacon Theatre, The Met Philadelphia, and other venues Personnel: Donald Fagen (vocals, keyboards), Keith Carlock (drums), “Ready” Freddie Washington (bass), Jim Beard (keyboards), Jon Herington (guitar), Walt Weiskopf, Ari Ambrose, Roger Rosenberg (saxes), Michael Leonhart (flugelhorn, trumpet), Jim…

How much did those ‘comeback’ shows play into how you approached the new album? The 2019 shows really reminded me how much I love playing with the guys and how much magic we share. It’s easy to get burnt out on something if you don’t manage your time right, so having some time and space away really revealed that. Was it crucial to be self-sufficient when recording? It was something we always knew but had not tried in a long time. Since I know how to run a recording studio, once we had it all set up with help from the folks at 64 Sound, I just ran it myself. We were able to really relax and let loose and be vulnerable in a way we hadn’t been able to…

You’ve mentioned that› Shade ›is about respite and the coast... I grew up near the sea; there’s comfort in that familiarity. The landscape here ended up holding a lot of poetic and conceptual weight on Shade . The album speaks to it in a literal way, but also, metaphorically, the water, the ocean; a multitude of experiences that led to it or have been met within it. Grouper’s music has always felt very elemental. How deeply do you feel these connections with stronger forces? Finding calm is one way to touch ground. For me accepting change is also vital. Water is a constant reinforcer of both. Looking at its movement has helped me. Landscape is a shifting metaphor. Any good magic symbol has the capacity to act as a lens…

THE dB’S Stands For deciBels ALBION, 1981 Big Star’s Radio City played at Dead Boys velocity, The dB’s debut does Southern harmonies with a street-smart New York edge. The re-recorded version of debut single “Black And White” is ever bit as manic as the original, with Holsapple (“Big Brown Eyes”, “Bad Reputation”) and Stamey (“Cycles Per Second”, “I’m In Love”) goading each other to greater songwriting heights. 9/10 THE dB’S Repercussion ALBION, 1981 If Positive Touch is the best Undertones LP (NB: it is), then this is The dB’s’ finest, the tension between the two writers’ styles reaching its quasi-psychedelic peak. Holsapple may have been the more conventional pop writer (“Amplifier”, the thrilling “Neverland”), but his “Nothing Is Wrong” is every bit as spooky as Stamey’s more unsettling abstract pieces…

DISC 1 1 Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power) 2 To Ramona 3 Jesus Met The Woman At The Well 4 Mary Of The Wild Moor 5 Need A Woman 6 A Couple More Years 7 Mystery Train 8 This Night Won’t Last Forever 9 We Just Disagree 10 Let’s Keep It Between Us 11 Sweet Caroline 12 Fever 13 Abraham, Martin And John DISC 2 1 Angelina 2 Price of Love 3 I Wish It Would Rain 4 Let It Be Me – International 7” Single B-side * 5 Cold, Cold Heart 6 Don’t Ever Take Yourself Away 7 Fur Slippers 8 Borrowed Time 9 Is It Worth It? 10 Lenny Bruce 11 Yes Sir, No Sir DISC 3 1 Jokerman * 2 Blind Willie McTell * 3 Don’t Fall…

“THERE is no band more mythical than Faust,” wrote Julian Cope in Krautrocksampler, his grand survey of German kosmische music. If Faust are mythic, maybe it’s because the group – formed in 1970 in the counterculture ferment of Hamburg, West Germany – remain resistant to category. Their immediate peers in ’70s German progressive music often felt like the embodiment of certain concepts. Kraftwerk were about the bold march of technology; Can, improvisation as liberation; Tangerine Dream, the sweeping expanse of space. Perhaps what makes Faust mythical is that they are so difficult to pin down. In part this was a question of personnel. Faust had its leaders – drummer Werner “Zappi” Diermaier, bassist Jean-Hervé Péron and the underground journalist turned impresario-cum-producer Uwe Nettelbeck – but the group operated as an…

“I RECKON everyone’s gonna make an ambient album this year! I’ve got a Mellotron, a couple of vintage drum machines, an Acetone, an 808… I’ve listened to a whole lot of different music, and bought a few different instruments, synths and pedals, and I’ve been experimenting with sounds. There’s a whole world – or many, many worlds – to uncover, so yeah, a calm ambient album will probably be next, whether that gets released or not, or it’s just for my own pleasure. With vocals? I don’t know. Maybe not. “Since I got home for Covid, I’ve become an early riser, which I love. I get up before the sun comes up now. I make coffee. Sit on the couch. Read a little. And then I work on whatever my…

RAY: “The Everly Brothers taught us all to harmonise in rock songs. As a boy I sat and watched my family sing and dance to records by the Everlys in the front room of our family home. My big sisters would go for the high voice, while their boyfriends usually took the lead line. I did music classes at school, and the teacher said their songs were possibly a little simplistic, but he was teaching us hymns and traditional English folk songs. He claimed not to know much about American popular songs. “Later, my brother and I tried to sing the parts, and after a while we would start to blend. It was a magical moment when our voices reached that perfect harmony. It was only a simple third, nothing…

“I LIVED on 26th and Garfield,” Peter Jesperson explains, mapping The Replacements’ South Minneapolis. “Chris Mars lived 11 blocks up on 37th and Garfield, Paul Westerberg on 47th and Garfield. Tommy and Bob lived with their mom on 24th and Bryant. It was all within about a mile radius. Down where Chris and Paul lived was residential. Tommy and Bob lived right behind a Super America gas station/convenience store, right around the corner from Hubs Liquors, a place we frequented a little too often.” Westerberg’s early lyrics depict a teenage wasteland of suburban boredom. But the band were actually city boys, as Jesperson explains, who lived at the heart of Twin Cities bohemia. “The Stinsons lived a couple of blocks from the Walker Arts Center and the Guthrie – a…

STANDING in Shannon Lay’s backyard in Pasadena – an upmarket community northeast of Los Angeles known for grand homes, lush gardens and the annual Rose Parade famously name-checked by Elliott Smith – there is a sense of spiritual ease. “There’s a certain kind of warmth coming off of it,” Lay says, pointing to a giant oak tree, which she estimates to be over 200 years old, whose branches envelop the space like a hug. Before she lived here, the area was a refuge from city life. “I lived in Echo Park and Frogtown for a long time,” she says. “And in that situation, you either go to the Guitar Center in Hollywood or the Guitar Center in Pasadena, and I always went to Pasadena because Hollywood can be really hectic.”…

June 2, 1941: Born in University College Hospital, London December 25, 1955: Receives his first drumkit having previously converted a banjo into a snare drum 1958: Joins local jazz band Jo Jones All-Stars. Goes on to play with other jazz bands, including American saxophonist Don Byas in Denmark March 17, 1962: First gig with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated at Ealing Jazz Club, playing with Brian Jones for the first time the following week July 12, 1962: Records live with Blues Incorporated for the BBC. Soon leaves Blues Incorporated to play with Blues By Six so he can maintain his career as a commercial artist January 12, 1963: First gig with Stones in their classic lineup at Ealing Jazz Club February 2, 1963: First gig as a permanent member of The…

OCTOBER 24, 2016. Uncut is in Boston to meet The Rolling Stones. The band are preparing to release Blue & Lonesome – their album of blues covers – and we have been granted an individual audience with each Stone. When it’s Charlie’s turn, he pads quietly into the suite at the Four Seasons hotel that’s been requisitioned for interviews. He’s wearing grey chequered slippers, grey suit trousers and a red fleece top zipped up to the throat. He smiles and shakes hands. The band’s PR has helpfully written the name of the magazine on an A4 piece of paper and stuck it on the wall behind my chair. “Uncut?” He says, squinting a little as he reads the sign. “All right. Let’s go…” UNCUT: How do you normally feel after…

“I GAVE Bob Marley reggae as a present,” said Lee “Scratch” Perry, with a mischievous grin. “He live with me for months. I give him songs to record. I give him rhythms. I give him all my love. He was like a brother to me in some other life gone by. Me think if he recognised me as a brother, he wouldn’t have died. He’d still be here now.” Perry transformed the role of producer. “The studio must be a living machine,” he said Perry’s mentorship of Jamaica’s biggest cultural export remains the starting point for any investigation of Lee “Scratch” Perry, the producer, songwriter and vocalist who has died aged 85. But it was just one part of a 60-year career that saw him transform Jamaican music, studio technology…

Dread to think what the future will bring? Fear not! Forty years on from the release of “Ghost Town”, and with their new Protest Songs LP in shops, we present the Ultimate Music Guide to The Specials. All the albums reviewed in depth, from the debut to the present day via Fun Boy Three and The Special AKA, plus chaotic 2 Tone scenes from the archives and an exclusive new foreword by TerryHall. It’s in shops now or available at Uncut.co.uk … Film music supervisor RandallPoster has assembled a new track-by-track tribute to WoodyGuthrie’s seminal 1940 album Dust Bowl Ballads . Featuring the likes of MarkLanegan, SwampDogg, Shovels& Rope, The Felice Brothers and Waxahatchee, Home In This World is released by Parlophone on September 10… Wowie zowie! Pavement are reforming for…

“I don’t think I found that missing piece until I worked with Gram” EMMYLOU HARRIS is speaking to Uncut from her “big messy bedroom” in Nashville. “I just got back from a weekend of benefits for Crossroads, a social enterprise I’m involved in that helps homeless animals get adopted,” she says. “I did it with Sheryl Crow and Shawn Colvin. It was just a lovely girl’s weekend of beautiful harmonies. But the unpacking is always a problem!” Harris is looking forward to performing more regularly, buoyed by the release of an archival live album called Ramble In Music City: The Lost Concert, recorded at Tennessee Performing Arts Center in 1990 with her bluegrass band The Nash Ramblers. “It was a delightful surprise,” says Harris of the album’s recent unearthing. “I…

Adam Granduciel: excited to “dive back in” What was your approach to the new album?› By this point I know that going into any record is gonna be a long process of writing, demoing, self-doubt and then lots of recording; sometimes it feels like you’re onto something great and then the next day you’re trying to erase everything. We don’t take the songs or that process for granted, so I was just excited to dive back in again – to start writing, collecting ideas and sounds, working as much as I was inspired to work… hopefully ending up somewhere years later that felt real, sonically satisfying and a good representation of where I wanted the band to go. Why are you drawn to dislocation and isolation as themes? Those are…

How’s life in rural California? Grass Valley is a lovely place. It’s really remote and kind of a dream, nine months out of the year at least – there’s a lot of fires around here now, so it’s pretty stressful. When the pandemic coincides with fire season here, you can’t go inside and you can’t go outside, so you’re sort of a prisoner in your own home. We’re getting through it. This feels like your most psychedelic record, but also the most personal. It’s looking at what’s closest to me – I think that’s maybe what everyone’s doing now with the pandemic. It’s a response to that and also to motherhood and to living rurally. All of those things put me in this headspace of [ examining ] what is…

AHEAD of being inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in late September, Alison Krauss has announced her much-anticipated studio reunion with Robert Plant. Raise The Roof WARNER MUSIC is out in mid-November, with producer T Bone Burnett reprising his role from 2007’s Raising Sand . A top-drawer set of players (among them Marc Ribot, David Hidalgo, Bill Frisell and Buddy Miller) help the duo navigate songs by Merle Haggard, Allen Toussaint, The Everly Brothers, Anne Briggs, Bert Jansch, Randy Weeks and more. And look out for the Plant/Burnett co-write, “High And Lonesome”. Late singer-guitarist Neal Casal gets a weighty salute in the form of Highway Butterfly: The Songs Of Neal Casal ROYALPOTATOFAMILY, also due in November. The 41-song collection, available across five LPs or three CDs, brings together…

1 Regularly Scheduled Programming 2 Love Love Love 3 In Color 4 Least Expected 5 Never In The Real World 6 The Devil’s In The Details 7 Lucky To Be Alive 8 Complex 9 Out Of Range Pt 2 10 Penny For Your Thoughts 11 I Never Could Get Enough Produced by: Jim James Recorded at: 64 Sound, Los Angeles Personnel: Jim James (vocals, guitar), Tom Blankenship (bass), Patrick Hallahan (drums), Carl Broemel (electric guitar, Ebowed electric guitar, slide electric guitar, baritone and tenor saxophone, pedal steel), Bo Koster (keyboards), Briana Lee and Maiya Sykes (backing vocals)…

LP1 / CD1 Faust LP2 / CD2 So Far LP3 / CD3 The Faust Tapes LP4 / CD4 Faust IV LP5 / CD5 Punkt LP6 / CD6 Momentaufnahme I LP7 / CD7 MomentaufnahmeII Single 1 1 Lieber Herr Deutschland 2 Baby Single 2 1 So Far (Single Version) 2 It’s A Bit Of A Pain Produced by: Faust, Uwe Nettelbeck Recorded at: Wümme studios, Bremen; The Manor, Oxfordshire; Musicland Studios, Munich Personnel: Werner “Zappi” Diermaier (drums, keyboards, vocals), Hans Joachim Irmler (keyboard, synth), Arnulf Meifert (drums), Jean-Hervé Péron (vocals, bass), Rudolf Sosna (vocals, guitar, keys), Gunther Wüsthoff (synthesiser, sax)…

THE DOUBLE EP: A SEA OF SPLIT PEAS MILK!/HOUSE ANXIETY/ MARATHON ARTISTS, 2013 A compilation of her first two EPs, this set is still essential thanks to the likes of “Avant Gardener”, “Out Of The Woodwork” and “Lance Jr”. 8/10 SOMETIMES I SIT AND THINK, AND SOMETIMES I JUST SIT MILK!/HOUSE ANXIETY/MARATHON ARTITSTS, 2015 The debut album proper, louder and energetic on the grungey “Pedestrian At Best” and “Dead Fox”, but gloriously expansive on two epics, “Small Poppies” and “Kim’s Caravan”. 8/10 LOTTA SEA LICE MARATHON ARTISTS/ MATADOR,2017 Kurt and Courtney team up for this relaxed run  through new songs, covers of each other’s work and a few others. The opener “Over Everything” is a sublime duet, and Barnett’s “Let It Go” a brackish grower. 8/10 TELL ME HOW YOU…

THE EVERLY BROTHERS CADENCE, 1958 Their first LP includes their massive first hit “Bye Bye  Love” and their even bigger follow-up “Wake Up Little Susie”. They’re still working to distinguish themselves musically, but the brothers emerge as strong singers and players blending pop and country. 8/10 SONGS OUR DADDY TAUGHT US CADENCE, 1958 At the height of their success the Everlys  released a quiet album of pop standards and old-time favourites. It’s just their two guitars and their two voices blending together beautifully. Best is the softly heartbreaking “That Silver Haired Daddy Of Mine”. 10/10 IT’S EVERLY TIME WARNER BROTHERS, 1960 Their debut for Warner Brothers is  a sharp collection featuring Chet Atkins on guitar and Floyd Cramer on piano. It open with one of Don’s finest compositions, the intensely…

“LEE Hazlewood changed everything,” says Nancy Sinatra. “I was doing bubblegum music and singing in higher keys and he said, ‘That’s not right. You’re not a virgin any more. You’ve been married and divorced. We need to get you where you belong.’ And he was right – it was silly to keep doing what I called ‘Nancy nice lady’. It was time for a change.” “So Long Babe” was the first fruits of this new collaboration and it charted where all the ‘Nancy nice lady’ singles had failed to. With its kiss-off lyrics and Sinatra’s low, nonchalant delivery, it was what Hazlewood would call “dumb”. “He’d say, ‘If it’s dumb, it’s good,’” says Sinatra, speaking to Uncut from her Hollywood apartment. “Meaning not stupid, but simple. It’s tough to do…

SHANNON LAY LIVING WATER WOODSIST, 2017 Her mystical, acoustic guitar-steered solo debut for Kevin Morby’s Mare label contains Lay’s most popular song, “Recording 15,” which has nearly 50 million plays on Spotify and has been synced in TV shows. “I’ve gotten more messages and comments about that song than any other song I’ve written,” she says. SHANNON LAY ALL THIS LIFE GOING DOWN DO NOT DISTURB, 2017 Lay’s second long-player finds her alternating between acoustic and electric guitar, and singing harmony with herself through layers of reverb. Its 10 songs further Living Water’s lo-fi magnificence, albeit through a layer of effects that obscure her natural ability. SHANNON LAY AUGUST SUB POP, 2019 Her debut Sub Pop finds Lay’s cable-knit electric guitar work in mesmeric form, conveying textural patterns behind her…

SEPTEMBER 7, 1979: Aberdeen’s Capitol Theatre is hosting a Friday-night concert by Siouxsie & The Banshees, who are just a few days into a tour supporting their new album, Join Hands. Rumours are rife that John McKay and Kenny Morris – the Banshees’ guitarist and drummer – have quit earlier that day, following a bust-up during a signing session at the city’s The Other Record Shop. When the Capitol Theatre opens its doors and the bar fills up, punters wonder whether the headliners will even appear. As the evening progresses, the signs aren’t good. The Cure, support band on the tour, play an extended set. Eventually, Siouxsie – in murderous mood – takes to the stage to address the crowd. The bouncers at the Capitol brace themselves for a riot.…

CHARLIE ‘THE COOL ONE’ BECAME RECEIVED WISDOM WHEN The Rolling Stones take the stage at St Louis on September 26, they will be without their drummer – described by many as “their heartbeat” – for the first time since 1963. He had been ill – an unspecified “medical procedure” had kept him out of the Stones’ upcoming run of dates – but at the time, Watts appeared to shrug off an inconvenient situation with typical understatement: “For once my timing has been a little off,” he said. “I am working hard to get fully fit but I have today accepted on the advice of the experts that this will take a while.” This was on August 5. Nineteen days later, on August 24, the news broke that Charlie Watts had…

THE Ealing Jazz Club didn’t promise much from the outside. Situated opposite Ealing Broadway tube station, wedged between a jeweller’s and a tea shop, a tight set of steps led down into a faceless cellar. “It had a capacity of about a hundred people, maybe a few more,” recalls frequent visitor Dick Taylor. “There was a cloakroom, then a narrow room with the bar at one side. It was only a small club. But you’d walk through the door and it would sound like Chicago in there. The atmosphere was incredible.” On March 17, 1962, the club began to operate as Britain’s first regular rhythm’n’blues venue. Led by guitarist Alexis Korner and harmonica player Cyril Davies, Blues Incorporated took over on Saturday nights, providing a nexus for the growing number…

MANDIBLES Directed by Quentin Dupieux Starring Grégoire Ludig, Adèle Exarchopoulos Opens Sept 17 Cert TBC 8/10 PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND Directed by Sion Sono Starring Nicolas Cage, Sofia Boutella Opens Sept 17 Cert TBC 6/10 GAGARINE Directed by Fanny Liatard, Jérémy Trouilh Starring Alseni Bathily, Lyna Khoudri Opens Sept 24 Cert TBC 7/10 ROSE PLAYS JULIE Directed by Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor Starring Ann Skelly, Orla Brady Opens Sept 17 Cert 15 8/10 NEVER GONNA SNOW AGAIN Directed by Malgorzata Szukowska, Michal Englert Starring Alec Utgoff, Maja Ostaszewska Opens Oct 15 Cert TBC 7/10…

GEORGE HELM The Music Of George Helm – A True Hawaiian GOLD COIN, 1977 My mum is Hawaiian. She was a famous hula dancer and made Hawaiian music with my uncles when she was younger. I grew up around that to some degree, even though I was in New Zealand as a kid. This is one of many Hawaiian music albums I really love. It’s a beautiful example of the raw, authentic style of this era. The guitar evokes the warm wind and the beach, while the soaring Hawaiian falsetto voice evokes the passion and pain of the Hawaiian experience. Nothing like it. I think about moving there a lot, but I’m not sure I could handle the chill pace. One day, maybe. BUZZCOCKS Singles Going Steady UNITED ARTISTS, 1979…

“I GOT invited to do some warm-up shows with him and Mad Professor in the 2000s. Every winter we’d ring him up to see if he’d do something with The Orb – and finally after eight years he did. He came to Thomas [Fehlmann]’s studio out in the German countryside. There was nothing there: no shops, no distractions, only nature. Which was perfect, because we just mic’ed him up, went for a walk around a lake and recorded him talking. Incredible moments. “He came over to do an EP, but we ended up doing 16 tracks. Prolific doesn’t cover it. His motormouth came to the fore; it was a constant stream of babble – Allen Ginsberg on loads and loads of marijuana! The man wasn’t even smoking at the time,…

HI Billy, your new album The Million Things That Never Happened is being touted as “the first post-pandemic blues album of our times”. Good to hear we’re now in the ‘post-’ period… Hardly! But it’s been around so long now, if you’re making a new LP, you either ignore it or you try in some way to engage with it. I’ve gone for the latter option. Yet the opening track “Should Have Seen It Coming” is open to interpretation – it could be about Covid… or Brexit… or Trump... Definitely. It’s about whatever that thing is that just whacked you on the back of your head and knocked you sideways. Whether personally or politically, professionally or whatever. In the West we often think that we’re the masters of our own…

STRAWBERRY GUY Sun Outside My Window MELODIC Tapping into a rich heritage of wistful Mersey melody, Alex Stephens conjures a quasi-orchestral marvel from his Liverpool bedroom. JOHNNY MARR “Spirit, Power And Soul” BMG First taste of the upcoming Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 finds the ageless axeman joyously reviving the spirit of a beloved old band (Electronic rather than The Smiths, btw). JOHN COLTRANE A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle IMPULSE! On a newly discovered live recording from late ’65, Trane kneads and stretches his masterpiece into new shapes. Now with added Pharoah! ENDLESS BOOGIE Admonitions NO QUARTER “I’m going full condor!” Truer than ever to their name, the opening track chisels away at the same one-chord riff for 22-and-a-half minutes. No complaints here. MAKAYAMcCRAVEN Deciphering The Message BLUE NOTE New…

JEFFREY ALEXANDER & THE HEAVY LIDDERS Jeffrey Alexander & The Heavy Lidders ARROWHAWK 7›10 Heady underground explorations from cast of collaborators A longtime citizen of the New Weird America, Jeffrey Alexander has gathered an impressive cast of underground collaborators for his new Heavy Lidders project. Marissa Nadler shows up to duet on a woozy cover of the Dead’s “Black Peter”. Ace drummers Ryan Jewell (Ryley Walker, Mosses) and Scott Verrastro (Kohoutek) provide steady, sensitive pulses, while Rosali Middleman drops in with ghostly backing vocals. Best of all, Drew Gardner of the psych-folk duo Elkhorn sets off Neil Young-ish guitar fireworks on the jammed out “Audubon Trooper”. Throughout, Alexander revels in the wonderful sounds he and his friends make. More heady than heavy, but that’s no complaint. TYLERWILCOX BABA ALI Memory…

1 (I Thought) You Wanted To Know (2021 Remix) 2 Black And White (Don Dixon Version) 3 Soul Kiss 4 Bad Reputation (NY Rocker Sessions) 5 If And When (Westbeth Sessions) 6 The Fight (NY Rocker Sessions) 7 Nothing Is Wrong (NY Rocker Sessions) 8 Dynamite (NY Rocker Sessions) 9 We Should Be In Bed (Westbeth Sessions) 10 Ash (Westbeth Sessions) 11 You Got It Wrong (NY Rocker Sessions) 12 Everytime Anytime (NY Rocker Sessions) 13 Death Garage (Live) 14 What About That Cat? (NY Rocker Sessions) 15 Tell Me Two Times (NY Rocker Sessions) 16 What’s The Matter With Me? (NY Rocker Sessions) 17 She’s Green I’m Blue (NY Rocker Sessions) 18 Time Has Come Today (Live) 19 My Sire Wristwatch (Live) 20 Let’s Live For Today (NY Rocker…

BLACK SABBATH Technical Ecstasy: Super Deluxe Edition BMG 6/10 Expanded edition of the Sabs’ coke-addled identity-crisis album from the mid-’70s Black Sabbath’s seventh studio album came just as the quartet were taking their cues from whatever was voguish in 1976, from prog to punk, from funk to cock rock, each track slathered in Gerald Woodroffe’s keyboards while the band play dress-up. The galloping “Back Street Kids” suddenly goes into prog territory around the 1:40 mark; “Rock N Roll Doctor” is a leering piece of cowbell-heavy funk-rock; the acoustic-guitar-led “She’s Gone” is a precursor to Ozzy’s solo career; then there’s a certain prudish astringency to the way in which “Dirty Women” addresses prostitution. “It’s Alright” is a rather good McCartney-esque ballad, written and sung by Bill Ward, although it’s not really…

What’sthestory behind“LieberHerr Deutschland”? Jean-HervéPéron: It was composed in the pre-Faust times by Sosna, Wüsthoff and myself – a trio later named Nukleus, for press clarity reasons. The piece was then rearranged and extended to present as a demo to Polydor when Faust formed soon after. Gunther Wüsthoff: The recording was of a protest against the Vietnam War on Monckebergstraße in 1971, taken on my Uher Report tape recorder. Péron: The lyrics go something like “Dear Mister Germany, keep on doing what you are doing/Keep on building fences/Keep on dreaming your dreams…’ Probably the only song we made with a direct political message. Punkt! wasrecorded atGiorgioMoroder’s MusiclandStudiosin 1974. What do you recall aboutmakingit? Hans-JoachimIrmler: It happened in 1974, during the recordings with Donna Summer. The agreement that I had with Mr…

CD 1  Joni’s home, 1967/ early 1968 4 tracks Lurie’s Apartment, 1967/early 1968 2 tracks Home Demo, Joni’s home, 1967/early 1968 3 tracks Song To A Seagull Session, 1968 4 tracks Jane Lurie’s Apartment, 1968 2 tracks Live at Canterbury House, 1968 3 tracks CD 2  Le Hibou Coffee House, 1968 22 tracks Studio Session, Western Recorders, 1968 1 track Jane Lurie’s Apartment, 1968 3 tracks Top Gear BBC Radio, 1968 6 tracks CD 3  Live at Carnegie Hall, 1969 22 tracks CD 4  Live at Carnegie Hall, 1969 2 tracks Clouds Sessions, A&M Studios, 1969 3 tracks Jane Lurie’s Apartment, 1969 2 tracks The Dick Cavett Show, 1969 5 tracks Ladies Of The Canyon Demo Session, 1969 1 track Live at Centennial Auditorium, 1969 3 tracks Ladies Of The…

“TRY ME” (DEMO) “We’ve included the band’s very first demo, starting with ‘Try Me’, which they’d sent to Twin/Tone for a radio contest. When I found it I was like, ‘Oh my God. How did we miss this? It’s so great!’” “YOU’RE PRETTY WHEN YOU’RE RUDE” (SOLO HOME DEMO) “Paul would sneak me solo recordings he was making. Only a couple have ever been released. This is not only a very cool, funny lyric, but he does this fancy finger-picking I’ve never heard him do before or since.” “JOHNNY’S GONNA DIE” (ALTERNATE VERSIONS)/ “JOHNNY FAST” (BASEMENT VERSION) “The day after we’d all been to see Johnny Thunders, Paul told me he was working on a new song called ‘Johnny’s Gonna Die’. I gulped. We’ve put on versions where Paul’s solos…

1961 After signing to her father Frank’s label, Reprise Records, Nancy Sinatra releases her first single, “Cuff Links And A Tie Clip”. It fails to chart anywhere except Italy 1965 “So Long Babe”, Sinatra’s first collaboration with Lee Hazlewood, introduces her new singing style and musical approach. This time it at least charts in the US, reaching 86 December 1965 Along with a Swinging ’60s image overhaul, her next single, “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’”, comes out. In the following few months it will hit No 1 in charts around the world March 1966 Boots , Sinatra’s debut album, produced by Lee Hazlewood and featuring three of his songs, including the (almost) title track, is released…

SIBYLLE BAIER COLOUR GREEN 2006 During lockdown, Lay taught herself all the songs from the mysterious German singer-songwriter’s lone release, issued in 2006 after her death, but recorded between 1970 and 1973. Its simplicity, tone and unexpected cadences inspired Lay. “I straight up stole her tuning,” Lay says. “All the songs were tuned down to C, so I did the same thing because it’s just so good. It really resonated. The whole record is in that tuning pretty much.” CHAKRA SOUNDS VARIOUS “I was coming out of this phase of being addicted to true crime and Slayer and all of this really intense stuff,” Lay recalls. “All I wanted to hear was like meditative chakra sounds. I wanted a mellow vibe.” BJÖRK VARIOUS “I’m still listening to her all the…

“Charlie Watts was one of a kind – he was The Rolling Stones’  secret ingredient. It doesn’t mean a thing if you haven’t got that swing, and Charlie certainly had it. I remember seeing and hearing them for the first time on Ready Steady Go! in 1964 and immediately loved what they were doing and Charlie’s unique way of playing. “I have so many memories of Charlie, but I’ll never forget our time together during the ARMS tour in ’83 for multiple sclerosis. We had a great time playing together and an equally good time in the bar. He was always a gentleman through and through. The outpouring of love shown after his death is a true testament to what an incredible drummer and even more amazing man he was.…