Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2019 i UNCUT

THE deaths of Mark Hollis and Keith Flint so close together this month robbed us of two immensely talented, though wildly different, musicians. If Hollis’s story was ultimately about retreating from the public eye, leaving a slender but perfectly curated body of work behind, Flint was still very much active in as immediate and startling a way as possible. As Graeme Thomson’s masterful tribute to Hollis makes clear, it is unlikely he planned a triumphant return to the stage; he simply didn’t want to make music for public consumption any longer. All the same, it was possible to hope that he might reconsider his position. Now, alas, that day will never come. With Flint’s loss, meanwhile, we are robbed of a potent and charismatic performer; a man who, in his…

“It’s better people playing with me don’t have any information in their head. I don’t like to have any kind of answer” KENJI “Damo” Suzuki is a performer so dedicated to the art of improvisation, you could even say he’s improvised his own life. Leaving Japan at the age of 18 to pursue the hippie dream in Europe, he landed – via Sweden and rural Ireland – in Germany, where he was spotted busking in his own inimitable style on the streets of Munich by Holger Czukay, who instantly recruited him to replace vocalist Malcolm Mooney in Can. Suzuki’s stint with the krautrock legends ushered in their imperial phase, yielding experimental rock touchstones Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi and Future Days, but he left Can after just three years citing spiritual…

The Outside Room NOT NOT FUN, 2011 Originally released as a CD-R in 2010, Mering’s first full-length record was credited to Weyes Blood and the Dark Juices,  but is effectively her (with The Shadow Ring’s Graham Lambkin providing moral support). Faintly hysterical Tim Buckley meandering wrapped in Psychic TV static, Mering’s melodies crack the permafrost around “His Song” and the moody carnival “Romneydale”. 7/10 The Innocents MEXICAN SUMMER, 2014 Dragged in from the art-space darkness after a spell working with Ariel Pink, Mering linked up with New York’s relatively  mainstream Mexican Summer label for this madrigal mystery tour. The Innocents is Greenwich Village pop folk with scary goth arm-flinging. Want to know what Judy Collins would sound like as a zombie? Sample “Some Winters” and “Bad Magic”. 7/10 Front Row…

1 Oh My God 2 No Halo 3 Nothing Sacred/ All Things Wild 4 Omg Rock N Roll 5 Seven Devils 6 Hail Mary 7 Piss River 8 Savannah 9 Storm (Beneath The Weather) 10 Congratulations 11 I Want To Be Clean 12 Sing A Glad Song 13 Ballad Of Faye 14 O Behold Produced by: Sam Cohen Recorded at: Red Delicious & Jupiter Recordings, Brooklyn; The Isokon, Woodstock; Comp’ny, LA Personnel: Kevin Morby (vocals, piano, organ, handclaps, guitar), Sam Cohen (bass, keyboards, drums, handclaps, guitar), Cochemea Gastelum (saxophone, flute), Nick Kinsey (drums, percussion, handclaps), Jared Samuels (piano, organ), Mary Lattimore (harp), Meg Duffy (guitar), Joe Russo (drums), Jon Shaw (bass), Simone Cohen and Jasmine Muhammad (prayer), Hannah Cohen (backing vocals), Elvis Perkins (Moog), Stuart Bogie (sax), Dave ‘Smoota’ Smith…

“It isn’t hard to find worthwhile things to write about these days,” says songwriter Ian Felice. “There are a lot of storms blooming on the horizon and a lot of chaos that permeates our lives. The hard part is finding simple and direct ways to address them.” The Felice Brothers have risen to the challenge on Undress YEP ROC, the band’s first release in three years after a stint as Conor Oberst’s backing troupe. Due in early May, the album’s subject matter is reflected in pared-back arrangements and exacting harmonies. Also out that week is Front Porch SENSIBILITY/THIRTY TIGERS, the second solo outing from ex-Civil Wars singer Joy Williams. The follow-up to 2015’s Venus was produced in Nashville…

It’s been a while since your last solo record. La Luz got started and we just never took a step back. We were travelling maybe 50 per cent of the time, then in between that we moved a couple of times, so it was hard. I was always working on songs here and there, but it hadn’t been until recently that I had a good chunk of time to sit down and actually focus on the acoustic stuff. Did you know you were writing another solo record? I think I did, yeah. I always play electric with a pick for La Luz, so basically if I’m playing acoustic with my fingers it’s not gonna be La Luz. It seems like there are a lot of dreams involved in your recent…

CD1 Original LP 1 Dreams Never End 2 Truth 3 Senses 4 Chosen Time 5 ICB 6 The Him 7 Doubts Even Here 8 Denial CD2 Demos etc 1 Dreams Never End (Take 2, Western Works demo) 2 Homage (WW demo) 3 Ceremony (WW demo) 4 Truth (WW demo) 5 Are You Ready For This (WW demo) 6 The Him (Cargo demo) 7 Senses (Cargo demo) 8 Truth (Cargo demo) 9 Dreams Never End (Cargo demo) 10 Mesh (Cargo demo) 11 ICB (Cargo demo) 12 Procession (Cargo demo) 13 Cries And Whispers (Cargo demo) 14 Doubts Even Here (Instrumental, Cargo demo) 15 Ceremony (First Mix, Ceremony sessions) 16 Temptation (Alt Mix No 2, Temptation sessions) 17 Procession (Rehearsal) 18 Chosen Time (Rehearsal) DVD Live Shows Hurrah’s, NY, 1980 Peppermint Lounge,…

CITIZEN KANE 1941 Herrmann’s first Hollywood score (earning him an Oscar nomination, although he won for another film the same year) is atypical, as it’s not serving one of the intense psychodramas/ horror movies that later made his name. He uses a waltz, military pomp, comic incidental music and more in the famous “Breakfast Montage”, while “Salammbo’s Aria” is operatic intensity in excelsis. 7/10 CAPE FEAR 1962 That Fantômas saw fit to cover the title theme from J Lee Thompson’s movie on their Director’s Cut is an indication of Herrmann’s exaggeratedly dramatic power. It’s a brilliant set of cues – even the brief “Strip Search” segment, where a percussion detail in a descending coda recalls the slap of wet towels and massed strings thrum like a swarm of deadly bees.…

The National return with I Am Easy To Find , an epic, guest-heavy follow-up to 2017’s Sleep Well Beast , while Cate Le Bon takes to the piano on Reward . Elsewhere, Mac DeMarco continues his subtle hot streak with Here Comes The Cowboy , and Dylan Carlson will re-emerge with Earth’s Full Upon Her Burning Lips . The Dream Syndicate, Sebadoh and Morrissey are also promising new ones. Archivally speaking, the reformed Stereolab reissue two of their early classics, newly remastered by Tim Gane, while Nirvana’s Live At The Paramount is unleashed, and Judy Collins’ work from 1961 to ’68 is boxed. TOM.PINNOCK@TI-MEDIA.COM…

FOLLOWING the release of Mark Hollis in January 1998, Hollis contributed uncredited piano to “Chaos”, a track on James Lavelle’s Psyence Fiction album. Under the pseudonym John Cope, he wrote and played on “Piano”, a 14-minute track on A V 1 , an exercise in extreme minimalism by Dave Allinson and Phill Brown, and in 2001 produced two tracks and played bass on Anja Garbarek’s Smiling And Waving . In 2012, “Arb Section 1” was made available on the Boss soundtrack album. A slight but rather lovely confection of synthetic “voice”, tinkling pulse and simulated woodwind, it’s indicative of the realm Hollis latterly worked in.…

“WE just saw Rust Never Sleeps on the tour bus,” Kurt Vile says, mulling over his abiding love of all things Neil and Crazy Horse. “Billy Talbot’s headbanging. He looks so goofy and you can’t believe how into it he is. That’s the spirit of the Horse right there. My theme on this list is pretty much exclusively when Neil and the Horse get deep.” COWGIRL IN THE SAND (EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE, 1969) “Alongside Down By The River , this is where Neil discovered how to get lost in that hypnotic groove. While Neil’s soloing, Danny Whitten’ll evolve the chords. It’s not as repetitive as it seems. That’s the key to those kinds of jams. Plenty of people have been inspired…

NEIL YOUNG 1969–2019 Vocals, guitar Number of shows: 635 RALPH MOLINA 1969–2019 Drums, vocals Number of shows: 635 BILLYTALBOT 1969–2013/ 2018–2019 Bass, vocals Number of shows: 618 FRANK “PONCHO” SAMPEDRO 1975–2013 Guitar, vocals Number of shows: 534 DANNY WHITTEN 1969–1970 Guitar, vocals Number of shows: 51 BEN KEITH 1973, 1984, 1987 Guitar, vocals Number of shows: 48 NILS LOFGREN 1973, 2018–2019 Guitar, vocals Number of shows: 34 LARRY CRAGG 1987 Saxophone Number of shows: 17 RICK ROSAS 2014 Bass, vocals Number of shows: 17 JACK NITZSCHE 1970, 1976 Piano, vocals Number of shows: 12 (Also includes shows by The Echos and Santa Monica Flyers)…

Number of shows played to date: 635 First show: The Bitter End, New York, February 12, 1969 Most recent show: Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg, MA, February 4, 2019 The longest Neil Young & Crazy Horse show: Tingley Coliseum, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA; 193 minutes Set list: “Falling From Above”“Double E”“Devil’s Sidewalk”“Leave The Driving”“Carmichael”“Bandit”“Grandpa’s Interview”“Bringin’ Down Dinner”“Sun Green”“Be The Rain” “All Along The Watchtower”“Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)”“Powderfinger”“Down By The River”“Roll Another Number”“Rockin’ In The Free World” “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”“Farmer John”“Cortez The Killer”…

EARLY DAZE Summer 1969 (some cuts from around this time have appeared on After The Goldrush or Archives Vol. 1 ). ODEON-BUDOKAN Live record from the March ’76 trip to Japan. According to Young, this is ready to go. GARAGE Recorded during the 1986 Rusted Out Garage tour. The tour’s final show at the Cow Palace was shown on US television and was widely circulated as a VHS. RAGGED GLORY II “Massive and astounding discoveries in the vaults”, proclaimed a post on Young’s Archives site last year, revealing an additional 38 minutes of “mostly unheard” cuts from the 1990 sessions. TOAST Recorded at Toast Studios in San Francisco in 2001, several songs were debuted live in Europe that summer. ALCHEMY Culled from the…

AS Neil Young approaches his mid-seventies, it’s evident he’s not immune to the concerns of age. During the last decade, he has lost close friends and a sense of urgency has overtaken his work: since 2000, there have been two memoirs, nine films, 15 studio LPs, a digital archive and a new audio format. In all this, Crazy Horse is a battered but indefatigable talismanic presence. Yet although sidelined for great swathes of the last 19 years they continue to figure prominently in Young’s personal cosmology. The century began with Toast [2000] – still unreleased – and then Greendale [2003], an anti-corporate project whose significance has become more apparent as Young’s commitment to environmental issues has flourished. Although only recorded as a…

GETS NEXT TO YOU HI, 1971 Green’s second album for Hi only hints at the smoother soul sound he would later pioneer. Instead, he and the Hi Rhythm Section burrow into hard Southern funk on “I’m A Ram” and turn The Temptations’ “Can’t Get Next To You” inside out. And their version of the Doors’ “Light My Fire” makes Jim Morrison sound like a gangly teenager hiding in his bedroom. 9/10 LET’S STAY TOGETHER HI, 1972 This is the record where Al Green finds his voice. The title track, his first and only No 1 hit, still sounds sinewy and seductive, with the singer gliding gracefully up into his upper register. He turns the Bee Gees’ “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?” into a melancholy hymn, exquisitely paced so…

AT ETERNITY’S GATE OPENS MARCH 29 Willem Dafoe is Vincent Van Gogh in Julian Schnabel’s biopic. DUMBO OPENS MARCH 29 Tim Burton’s live-action remake with Michael Keaton and Colin Farrell (neither play Dumbo, mind). PET SEMATARY OPENS APRIL 5 Horror yarn from Stephen King, with John Lithgow among those reanimating corpses in the backyard. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE OPENS APRIL 5 Viddy well, my brothers. Kubrick’s Droogs return in a nice new print from the BFI. HOLY LANDS OPENS APRIL 5 Possibly worth it to see James Caan playing a retired cardiologist raising pigs in Israel. SHAZAM! OPENS APRIL 5 Here’s awkward! Actually, the origin story of another Captain Marvel. Holy copyright business. Just don’t get us started on Miracleman. HELLBOY OPENS APRIL 11 Neil…

SOMETIME in the mid-’60s, Love were playing in San Francisco, most likely at a club called the Warehouse. During an opening set by Big Brother & The Holding Company, guitarist Johnny Echols and Love frontman Arthur Lee went to a bar next door, where they were accosted by a soldier just back from Vietnam. Several beers into a binge, he rambled and ranted about the horrors of combat. “He told us about how when people were wounded, they were calling out family members’ names,” Echols recalls. “It was an enlightening conversation, to say the least.” That conversation – including a grim detail about blood mixing with mud and turning grey – inspired the trippy paranoia of “A House Is Not A Motel”, from Love’s landmark 1967 album Forever Changes. At…

MODERN NATURE Modern Nature EP BELLA UNION Auspicious first offering from kraut-folk supergroup, featuring members of  Ultimate Painting, Beak>, Woods and Sunwatchers going wild in the country. THE NATIONAL I Am Easy To Find 4AD Applying the communal principles of their People project, The National invite Sharon Van Etten, Lisa Hannigan, Gail Ann Dorsey and more to rush their vocal booth – with invigorating effect. LITTLE SIMZ Grey Area AGE 101 / AWAL A new high water mark for British hip-hop: smart, ferocious and with the playful bounce of Run The Jewels or a Big Boi solo album, given a deft London twist. JR BOHANNON Recôncavo PHANTOM LIMB Captivating EP of fingerstyle excursions from the sometime Torres guitarist, with stopovers in São Paolo, West Africa and  Louisville, Kentucky. MAC DEMARCO…

WEYES BLOOD Titanic Rising SUB POP ALBUM OF THE MONTH 9/10 Disaster averted: reformed wyrd folkie finds hope beneath the cold surface. By Jim Wirth “ SHOW me where it hurts,” Natalie Mering whispers at the end of “A Lot’s Gonna Change”, the opening track on Weyes Blood’s gigantic fourth LP. An extraordinary exercise in baroque postmodernism, Titanic Rising repurposes familiar elements – the ’70s radio pop of Wings and Abba, the Brit art rock of Fripp and Eno, the well-thumbed pages of the American Songbook – to tell a thoroughly modern story of what happens when everything you grew up believing in goes bad. Needless to say, it hurts all over. The front cover of her first release for Sub Pop captures the 30-year-old in a drowned…

STEVE ASHLEY One More Thing MARKET SQUARE 7/10 Red flag flying high for Stroll On troubadour Melody Maker called Steve Ashley’s 1974 easygoing debut, Stroll On, “the finest album since folk became contemporary”, but the Albion Country Band alumnus abandoned the folk-rock middle ground as times turned darker in the 1980s. Billed as his last album, the spartan One More Thing casts the 72-year-old as the Phil Ochs of the Momentum age, and while centrist trad-dads might baulk at the PLPbaiting of “My Door Knock Days”, “The Dragonfly” at least harks back to kinder, gentler times. “Dare to question all you see”, Ashley sings on “Keep It Free And Easy”; if that’s his closing statement, it’s a timely one. JIM WIRTH AVEY TARE Cows On Hourglass Pond DOMINO 8/10 New…

How crucial is it that Shovels & Rope remain just the two of you? Michael Trent: It’s never been crucial. It’s always just been more exciting that way. In the studio we have never worried about it too much. Obviously there are things on the records that we won’t be able to re-create live, but figuring out how we’re going to pull it off is one of the great joys of being in this band. It forces us to think about the songs in a different way. What kind of responsibility do you feel rewriting a murder ballad like “Pretty Polly” in 2019? Cary Ann Hearst: Murder ballads are a touchy thing. Obviously we don’t condone murder, yet we have felt comfortable throughout our career revisiting the motif. Even though…

1 Fixture Picture 2 Designer 3 Zoo Eyes 4 Treasure 5 The Barrel 6 Damn 7 Weight Of The Planets 8 Heaven Is Empty 9 Pilot Produced by: John Parish Recorded at: Rockfield Studios, Monmouth; J&J Studios, Bristol Personnel includes: Aldous Harding (lead vocal, acoustic guitar, nylon string guitar, piano), Huw Evans (bass guitar, electric guitar, Nashville guitar, piano, vocals), Gwion Llewelyn (drums, vocals), John Parish (acoustic guitar, congas, percussion, organ, Mellotron), Clare Mactaggart (violin), Stephen Black (bass clarinet, saxophones)…

1 It Rains Love 2 Blessed With The Best 3 Two Faces 4 You’re What’s Needed In My Life 5 Wake Up 6 Will I Get Off Easy 7 Love Prisoner 8 A Promise Is A Promise 9 God Is Real 10 Love Is The Answer Produced by: Leon Michels Recorded at: Diamond Mine and Diamond Mine North, New York City Personnel includes: Lee Fields (vocals), Leon Michels (piano, flute, sax, guitar, perc, vocals), Nick Movshon (bass), Homer Steinweiss (drums), Victor Axelrod (Juno), Paul Spring (guitar), Thomas Brenneck (guitar, piano), Toby Pazner (organ), Dave Guy (trumpet), Viveca Lawrie (trumpet), Hirko Naguchi (violin), Raymond Mason (trombone), Freddy Deboe (baritone sax), Garo Yellin (cello), Elizabeth Pupo Walker (conga), Kate Mattison, Aaron Frazier, Wyndham Baird, Edna Johnson, Chrissy Johnson, Mireya Ramos, Julie Acosta,…

DAVID BOWIE Spying Through A Keyhole/Clareville Grove Demos PARLOPHONE REISSUES OF THE MONTH 7/10/8/10 The right stuff! Ground control prepares for the lift-off of Major Tom, in demo form. By John Robinson THOUGH the end of his professional life was spectacularly well managed, the start of David Bowie’s career was – as we’ve lately been reminded by the Finding Fame documentary – rather less orderly. Given his continuing run of flop singles, and a misunderstood, poorly timed debut album, David Jones didn’t become David Bowie the moment he changed his name in 1966. So when does the David Bowie we know and love really start? As early as 1973, his record companies struggled with this same question: trying gamely to reconcile the eyebrowless glam rock of his present…

TERRY ALLEN & THE PANHANDLE MYSTERY BAND Pedal Steal/Four Corners PARADISE OF BACHELORS 8/10 Avant-garde troubadour’s soundtracks and radio plays Following the superb reissues of Terry Allen’s Juarez and Lubbock (On Everything), Paradise Of Bachelors have taken the plunge with some of the Texan artist’s more esoteric material. This is the first time Pedal Steal has ever been issued on vinyl, while Four Corners – a collection of four radio plays – has never been released before. None of the five pieces were ever really conceived as standalone albums: Pedal Steal was written in 1985 as the soundtrack for a staged dance performance about a wandering steel guitar player, while the Four Corners pieces were recorded as individual radio plays for NPR between 1986 and 1993. The result is a…

FOR a self-proclaimed loner, Neil Young was creatively co-dependent early in his career. After losing his first major artistic foil, Stephen Stills, his debut solo LP was a classic case of too much freedom, suffering from an egregious amount of overdubbing. Young knew it wasn’t working, and decided he needed to find a new band — or at least steal one. In the canyons outside Los Angeles, The Rockets were little more than local legends, most famous for the pot-haze jam sessions they hosted at their Laurel Canyon homebase. In early 1969, Young, an occasional participant, “borrowed” half the band and taught them the material that would break his solo career. What did Young see in the threesome he renamed Crazy Horse? Most thought it was an ego trip, where…

SOMETIMES, flicking through Neil Young’s online Archives, the temptation is to dwell too long on the things that aren’t there. A cursory glance at the site’s filing cabinet-style timeline reveals numerous placeholders – intended to be filled, some day, by the trove of unreleased songs and albums from the vaults, victims of their creator’s sudden shifts in obsession. Many of these date from the ’70s – one of rock’s great purple patches, during which time Young was seldom less than stunning – and on many of these recordings he is accompanied by a rejuvenated Crazy Horse. This new iteration of Crazy Horse featured new guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro – a drifter with little serious musical experience when he was invited to join Crazy Horse by Billy…

“LAST year, out of the blue, I ended up doing five theatre shows in California with Crazy Horse. I don’t know the specifics, but Elliot, Neil’s manager, said that Frank [‘Poncho’ Sampedro] had some family issues to deal with. Rather than cancel the Crazy Horse shows, they called me: ‘Nils, can you jump in?’ There was no rehearsal, we basically sat around a hotel room with acoustic guitars. The first time we put on our instruments was at the soundcheck for the first gig. But that’s the thing. Neil always says, ‘Look, it’s OK if it’s raggedy. Just stay in it and be emotional.’ That’s something I learned from him on Tonight’s The Night, a devil-may-care attitude that changed my outlook on music forever. “With Neil, things tend to happen…

1977: Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh form The Human League in Sheffield, recruiting Phil Oakey on vocals 1980: Marsh and Ware create producing/ songwriting unit British Electronic Foundation (B.E.F.) Late 1980: Human League fracture after two albums. Ware and Marsh call in Glenn Gregory to form Heaven 17 March 6, 1981: Debut single “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang” released. Banned by the BBC for its lyrical content, it reaches No 45 on the UK singles chart March 31, 1981: An instrumental version – “Groove Thang” – is released on B.E.F.’s Music For Stowaways album September 1981: The band’s debut album, Penthouse And Pavement , is released, with “Fascist Groove Thang” as the opening track…

AL GREEN’S career is anchored to Royal Studios, where he recorded all of his classic run of albums in the 1970s with producer Willie Mitchell and the Hi Rhythm Section. Opened in 1957 in a converted theatre near the Washington Heights neighbourhood of Memphis, it is now one of the oldest continuously operating studios in the world. “We’ve never done anything but make records for 60 years,” says Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell, Willie’s son. In addition to Green, Royal hosted sessions by fellow Hi Records artists Ann Peebles, OV Wright, Otis Clay, and Syl Johnson, among many others. “It’s a time capsule,” says Matt Ross-Spang, who produced Green’s latest single. “It’s one of the greatest places in the world to make music. You walk in and you just feel the love.…

“I WAS brought up on Pat Metheny and Michael Hedges, then I kinda got into Elliott Smith and Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Neil Young. My mom got this car for $300, this beat-up grey Toyota, and she would just rock out to the Cocteau Twins, Björk and Talking Heads in there. She seemed so free when she was listening to music, which was inspiring. Nowadays I really enjoy listening to instrumental music, like John Luther Adams, and [Jónsi & Alex’s] Riceboy Sleeps , this beautiful record that just feels like a lullaby. We listen a lot to Grouper in the van, and I’m always into this one album by Pat Metheny, One Quiet Night , which I’ve basically been playing on…

IN early 1967, Luther Grosvenor was a member of The VIP’s, a British blues band who made their reputation at Hamburg’s Star-Club. Another recent recruit was Keith Emerson, a shy, reserved, highly gifted young organist who’d previously played with Gary Farr & The T-Bones. Explains Grosvenor: “The VIP’s lineup was the four people who became Spooky Tooth – me, Greg Ridley, Mike Harrison and Mike Kellie – plus Keith, gigging all over Germany and France. “We used to take a little bit of speed and I remember giving Keith a Black Bomber [ a dextroamphetamine ] one night on stage. I said to him: ‘Why don’t you have one of these, to pick you up a bit?’ Fuck me, I tell you what, halfway through the set he…

PETER TORK The Monkees’ musical mainstay (1942–2019) PETER Tork was the odd one out in The Monkees’ TV series. Whereas the others essentially played versions of themselves, Tork’s lovable goof character belied a deep thinker with genuine aspirations as a serious musician. “He moons around with a lovesick expression on his face,” commented Micky Dolenz. “Not like the real Peter Tork at all.” Proficient on guitar, bass, banjo and piano, Tork had been a regular on the Greenwich Village folk scene of the early ’60s, where he befriended another young hopeful, Stephen Stills. It was only at the insistence of Stills, who’d failed the audition for The Monkees after the pair moved to Los Angeles in 1965, that Tork tried out for the role. Launched on NBC in…

As he embarks on a farewell tour, we present our Ultimate Music Guide to Elton John, in shops now. Rolling like thunder under the cover there are archive interviews, reviews of every album, and loads more – it’s the full-costumed monty, from Empty Sky to the Rocketman biopic… Also available from March 22 is The Best Of NME 1980-1984, the latest in our archival series charting the greatest moments in music history, with legendary features and new eyewitness accounts. This issue: into the ’80s with Nick Cave, David Bowie, The Fall and REM. Talk about the passion… The full list of Record Store Day 2019 releases has been unveiled. Anyone braving the scrum at their local independent vinyl…

1 DRUGDEALER Lonely Starting proceedings this month is this slice of breezy sunshine pop from Michael Collins. You can learn more about his journey from experimental music to classic songwriting on p10. 2 SHANA CLEVELAND The Fireball Reviewed on p36, the second solo album from the leader of La Luz examines the weirdness of Los Angeles, with this moody highlight telling a true story of cosmic matters. 3 KEVIN MORBY No Halo Morby’s latest takes on divine matters with a sparse, colourful palette of instruments. As we say on p22, this track is, joyfully, “90 per cent hand claps”. 4 MEKONS After The Rain The veterans return with the rowdy, rootsy Deserted, our Americana album of the month. “After The Rain” is a fiddle-laced high point with an anthemic chorus…

1 A Lot’s Gonna Change 2 Andromeda 3 Everyday 4 Something To Believe 5 Titanic Rising 6 Movies 7 Mirror Forever 8 Wild Time 9 Picture Me Better 10 Nearer To Thee Produced by: Natalie Mering and Jonathan Rado Recorded at: Dream Star Studio, Los Angeles Personnel: Natalie Mering (vocal, piano, synth, clavichord, bass, harmonics, guitar), Richard Dodd (cello), Michael D’Addario (vocals, drums), Chris Cohen (drums), Jonathan Rado (bass), Michael Chadwick (synth), Walt McClements (organ), Leah Katz (viola), Brian D’Addario (vocals, synth, guitar, bass, piano), Drew Erickson (Rhodes piano, organ), Kenny Gilmore (bass), Daphne Chen (violin), Michael Long (electric guitar), Blake Mills (electric guitar), Keith Karman (stand-up bass), Eric Gorfain (violin)…

Why so little of your usual sense of place? A big influence was flying, existing in nowhere, above the clouds. I felt like I’ve been flying every day for two years, so it was void of time and place, which is kind of how an airplane feels. When I’m on a plane, my mind completely wanders, so it’s that idea of life flashing before your eyes. How religious is the religion? It’s one of those things that is so much in our vocabulary. After “Beautiful Stranger”, people really seemed to connect with that mantra and I felt I needed to expand on that. The phrase “Oh my god” kind of encapsulated my emotions about everything, either as a gasp or laughter or fear. It was how I could sum up…

Designer sort of reads like a two-act play. Was this intentional, to present lighter-feeling songs in the first half, allowing the album to unfold in a sombre conclusion? Both John [ Parrish ] and I wanted to start on the other side of the leaf and then kind of slow it down, like morning and night potentially. Whether it was intended to be seen as two separate fields, possibly not. I think it was more that it felt like the right way to do it. It showcases paired opposites, heavy lyrics with upbeat music, for example. How do such opposing forces inform your perspective as a songwriter? They relate because I am both of those things. I do have a sense of humour. Even I know…

Do you feel a real need to accentuate the positive with your music? I would love to see a trend where artists begin to spread positive vibes, although we also want to keep looking at what is actually happening in the world. I think that we as human beings are what we see and what we hear. If I was born in Germany, I would be speaking German since that’s what I hear. So if what we see and what we hear are positive things, the world becomes positive. If we see negative things, that moulds us, too. So I feel good about singing things that make people see the positive side. Yet do you still want to make sure people pay heed to the “fake news” you warn about…

SPYING THROUGH A KEYHOLE Single 1  1 Mother Grey (demo) 2 In The Heat Of The Morning (demo) Single 2  1 Goodbye 3d (Threepenny) Joe (demo) 2 Love All Around (demo) Single 3  1 London Bye, Ta-Ta (demo) 2 Angel Angel Grubby Face (demo version 1) Single 4  1 Angel Angel Grubby Face (demo version 2) 2 Space Oddity (demo excerpt) 3 Space Oddity (demo) with John ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson CLAREVILLE GROVE DEMOS 1 Space Oddity 2 Lover To The Dawn Single 2  1 Ching-a-Ling 2 An Occasional Dream Single 3  1 Let Me Sleep Beside You 2 Life Is A Circus…

How did you find a way through the chaos of the recording process? One of numerous problems was that we recorded the album in dribs and drabs, which meant we lost any sense of momentum. As the sessions progressed, Martin became more and more difficult and things came to a head at the very end of the album when, on the final mix of “Everything’s Gone Green”, Martin stormed off and left Bernard and Hooky to finish it themselves, believing that it would be beyond them.  He was wrong. That was the end of Martin producing New Order. Oddly enough, it was at just this point that I began to realise that something positive was beginning to happen. We began making a record that sounded a bit like Joy Division…

1 Our Love Is Here To Stay 2 Sugar Plum 3 Stella By Starlight 4 My Foolish Heart 5 Waltz For Debby 6 Round Midnight 7 The Two Lonely People 8 Who Can I Turn To 9 Elsa 10 What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life? 11 Turn Out The Stars 12 Re: Person I Knew 13 Goodbye 14 Come Rain Or Come Shine 15 Very Early 16 So What 17 Midnight Mood 18 Polka Dots And Moonbeams Produced by: Zev Feldman Recorded at: Ronnie Scott’s, London, 1969 Personnel: Bill Evans (piano), Eddie Gomez (double bass), Marty Morell (drums)…

TALK TALK THE PARTY’S OVER (EMI, 1982) More Duran Duran than Can, though a dreamy grandeur runs through “Today” and “Have You Heard The News?”, while Hollis’s voice already commands attention with its aching purity. 6/10 TALK TALK IT’S MY LIFE (EMI, 1984) Tim Friese-Greene arrives as producer, co-writer, instrumentalist and sound-shaper, and a new analogue elegance emerges. The rousing title track reached 31 in America, “Such A Shame” was a massive Euro smash, and “Renee” is simply ravishing. 7/10 TALK TALK THE COLOUR OF SPRING (EMI, 1986) Out with the synths and icy bombast, replaced by woody, organic textures. The pastoral krautrock groove of “Life’s What You Make It” delivered a hit, while “April 5th” and “Chameleon Day” sketch out the more experimental landscape to come. 9/10 TALK TALK…

“WE were 21 or something. Nothing mattered. It was just great. We were The Rockets. Neil had just left the Springfield. We’d meet him up at our house in Laurel Canyon and we’d just play acoustically. I liked him right away. We had much in common. He seemed interesting and I liked his songs. I believe the last time he was there, the police also showed, so that kind of quelled the scene at Rockets Headquarters, as you call it. “Did we mind when he renamed us Crazy Horse? No. It’s like I said, when we were young nothing mattered. I didn’t care if it was Neil & The Ziplocks. “We moved into being Crazy Horse quite naturally. We never thought of it being the end of The Rockets. We…

“I MET Billy and Ralph in early 1973. We started playing at Billy’s house, just jamming. I wrote a couple of songs and Billy wrote some songs. Next thing I knew, Neil showed up. We played with him for a day. Two months later, we were recording Zuma. It was an incredible leap. “Danny? They didn’t talk about him too much. I remember one night, someone broke out a small reel-to-reel tape of four of Danny’s songs that they did before he passed and I was the only person in the room that wasn’t crying. But the songs are really good. I still try and play one to the best of my memory, every now and then. “We recorded Zuma at a house David Briggs was renting at Point Dume.…

“THE difference between Landing On Water and Life was almost total. Landing On Water started as demos in front of a fireplace at Neil’s ranch. And then we cut live to those vocals, with our drum machine as guide, and Danny Kortchmar and Steve Jordan on keyboard, bass and drums, and Neil on guitar, bringing their A-game of creativity to innovate with the tools available then: electronic patches, a mini-bass and mini-Moogs. We blended the innocence of the demos with this very produced, bombastic, almost suffocating sound. “Then when I went in with Crazy Horse for Life, it was probably the closest I’ll ever get to pure rock’n’roll. There was a complete disregard for anything correct. They were using old guitars, old amplifiers, a really loud fuck-you attitude, and you…

“WE saw them pretty much every night for the three months we toured together. It was fascinating to see how serious they were about what they did. Every night we would hear all the guys backstage doing vocal warm-ups and harmony parts. They were very united, and followed Neil anywhere instinctively and flexibly. “Their use of feedback was amazing. They would do long stretches that were not songs, just them improvising, and we related to that so heavily. We would end our sets with ‘Expressway To Yr Skull’, which had a long, open ending where we played with feedback and sound. Neil would be warming up with stretching exercises almost underneath the stage as we played it, and as we came off he’d say how inspiring it was. Thurston […

“Singer Without A Song” (2012–2013) 53 performances “Standing In The Light Of Love” (2001/2014) 39 performances “Hole In The Sky” (2013) 33 performances “Gateway Of Love” (2001) 28 performances “Road Of Plenty” (1986) 23 performances “Rock, Rock, Rock” (1984–1986) 8 performances “Modern World” (1997) 6 performances “Separate Ways” (2014) 5 performances “So Tired” (1984) 4 performances “Your Love Is Good To Me” (1984) 4 performances “You Know I Love You” (1969) 1 performance “Bright Sunny Day” (1978) 1 performance MARK GOLLEY (with thanks to www.sugarmtn.org  and Tom Hambleton)…

BUCK & ANNE A-SIDES/B-SIDES BANDCAMP, 2014 Interlocking their guitars and voices, Buck Meek and Adrianne Lenker recorded these two lengthy EPs live with producer Andrew Sarlo. The lead guitarist contributes some fine songs to the mix, including “Wallet” and “Yuki Onna”. 7/10 BIG THIEF MASTERPIECE SADDLE CREEK, 2016 The group’s debut, featuring drummer Jason Burger – the sound’s slightly grungier, but Lenker’s songwriting skills are clear on the torrid “Lorraine”, especially. 8/10 BIG THIEF CAPACITY SADDLE CREEK, 2017 On this swift follow-up, Big Thief draw from the same well of songs as their debut. Here Lenker sings of family, lovers and violence in an attempt to turn trauma into transcendence. 8/10 ADRIANNE LENKER ABYSSKISS SADDLE CREEK, 2018 Featuring different takes on “From” and “Terminal Paradise”, Lenker’s first solo album since…

“THE stage was like an enormous city,” recalls Hunter of the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, an all-star benefit for Aids Awareness held at Wembley Stadium in April 1992, five months after the singer’s death. “Roger [ Taylor ] and [ Queen manager ] Jim Beach put that together, because Brian [ May ] was in no fit condition to organise it. He was very upset. I remember Roger taking me into this room full of TV sets and saying how it was going out to two billion people.” Hunter, his great friend Mick Ronson (then undergoing treatment for cancer), David Bowie and Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott and Phil Collen, alongside Queen, performed a powerful version of “All The Young Dudes”, the song that Bowie…

1 Porz Goret 2 Naval 3 La Dispute 4 Tempelhof 5 Koad (Wood) 6 Erc’h (Snow) 7 Usal Road 8 Pell (Far) 9 Bloavezhoú (Years) 10 Heol (Sun) 11 Gwennilied (Swallows) 12 Aon (Fear) 13 Prad (Meadow) 14 Beure Kentañ (First Morning) 15 Mouvement Introductiv (Violin) 16 Mouvement Introductiv (Harpsichord) 17 Comptine D’un Autre Été - L’après Midi 18 Le Compteur 19 Rue Des Cascades 20 Grønjørd (Greenworld) 21 7pm ENCORE 1 22 Sur Le Fil 23 La Jetée 24 Le Vieux En Veut Encore 25 Kala ENCORE 2 26 Chapter Nineteen…

THE SISTERS BROTHERS Directed by Jacques Audiard Starring Joaquin Phoenix, John C Reilly Opens April 5 Cert 15 8/10 BEING FRANK: THE CHRIS SIEVEY STORY Directed by Steve Sullivan Starring Chris Sievey, Frank Sidebottom Opens March 29 Cert 15 8/10 MID90S Directed by Jonah Hill Starring Sunny Suljic, Katherine Waterston Opens April 12 Cert 15 8/10 OUT OF BLUE Directed by Carol Morley Starring Patricia Clarkson, Toby Jones Opens March 29 Cert 15 7/10 LORDS OF CHAOS Directed by Jonas Åkerlund Starring Rory Culkin, Emory Cohen Opens March 29 Cert 18 6/10…

HOT TOPIC Just wanted to thank you for the Annie Briggs interview [April issue]. I was on my way to the first Hyde Park festival in ’68 when I stopped by Dobells record shop on Charing Cross Road and was struck by a face on an EP sleeve. That was Briggs’ “The Hazards Of Love” on Topic Records. I purchased the record and have been an avid collector of Topic Records for the last 50 years! Great to hear that Annie is still the same free spirit that she has always been! Along the same lines, pieces on The Incredible String Band, Mellow Candle and Trees would be nice! Robin Hockley, London …Great feature on Anne Briggs. Reminded me that Richard Thompson wrote the beautiful “Beeswing” about her. “She was…

THE MONKEES THEN & NOW ARISTA, 1986 I’m a big Monkees fan! I think they were the first punk band. They picked up the prop instruments on their TV set and flipped off corporate, and invented a band out of themselves. I don’t know that I figured out how great The Monkees were until, like, 10 years ago. Their TV show was about being losers, deconstructing the medium. They would hold the scripts sometimes and be reading from them, or they’d ask a character actor if he flew all the way to LA just for this dumb role. It was an interesting thing to do to the idea of “pop star”. They did crazy shit too – I think crazy shit’s important! FRED ABONG PULSING SELF-RELEASED, 2019 Fred’s the bass…