Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2019 i UNCUT

‘‘IT was a chance to see if we could create the kind of world for which we’d been striving throughout the ’60s. That would be our political statement – proving that peace and understanding were possible and creating a testament to the value of the counterculture.” Welcome, then, to the new Uncut. That’s Michael Lang, organiser of Woodstock, reflecting on the ideals and motivations behind his legendary three-day festival as it celebrates its 50th anniversary. Such anniversaries, of course, are a critical motor for both the music industry at large and also for magazines such as Uncut. This month alone, in our Archive reviews section, you’ll find various anniversary editions under the spotlight, from Sigur Rós (2oth) to Ian Dury (40th) and The Grateful Dead (5oth). For Lang and the…

“I don’t think I’ll ever lose the excitement of performing” GREETING Uncut in the lounge of a Marylebone hotel, Jimmy Cliff is resplendent in a brocaded tunic and matching gold hat emblazoned with the Eye Of Horus. He could be mistaken for African royalty, but Cliff is very much a man of the people, using his day off before a festival appearance to visit some of his old stomping grounds in the capital’s less celebrated postcodes. “I’ve been to Finsbury Park, Tottenham, Chelsea, some of those places I used to live,” reveals the Jamaican singer, who was still just a teenager when he relocated to London – via New York – in the mid-’60s, grafting the all-nighter circuit before eventually achieving global fame towards the end of the decade with…

Wayne Coyne: “It puts you in there…” King’s Mouth was originally an art installation – did you always plan an album version? You’re always hoping there is some vehicle, some momentum by which it might make some great songs. Every time we were around people who were experiencing the King’s Mouth, they would kind of say: “Where’s the album?” Then once we got Mick Jones involved, that kind of sealed it. That gave it another bit of momentum, a bit of hope, a bit of glory. Apparently it was fellow punk legend Don Letts who got Mick on board – is that right? Exactly. We’d only met Mick in passing, at a festival. We all absolutely love him, and when I started to consider that it wasn’t going be one…

1 That’s Just the Way I Feel 2 All My Happiness Is Gone 3 Darkness And Cold 4 Snow Is Falling In Manhattan 5 Margaritas At The Mall 6 She’s Making Friends, I’m Turning Stranger 7 I Loved Being My Mother’s Son 8 Nights That Won’t Happen 9 Storyline Fever 10 Maybe I’m the Only One For Me Produced by: Jeremy Earl and Jarvis Taveniere Recorded at: Jamdek, Chicago; Thump, Brooklyn Personnel includes: David Berman (vocals, guitar), Jeremy Earl (drums, gtr, vocals, perc, Mellotron), Jarvis Taveniere (bass, gtr), Aaron Neveu (gtr, bass, drm), Kyle Forester (piano, organ, Mellotron, harmonica)…

How is Willie doing? He’s doing really good. Still playing, I don’t know, 10, 12, 14 shows a month, still has so much energy at 86 that he’s running rings around everybody. You’ve made a lot of albums with him now. Is there a typical working day? No. Every time he sings a song, it’s in a different style. Every day, he just goes with whatever is happening. He doesn’t care about the way it’s supposed to be, just how it is. Working with him is like going to Adventureland every day. How regulated or otherwise is your songwriting partnership? We’ve written maybe 35-40 songs together, all of them via text messaging. We’ve never sat down in a room with guitars. We bounce messages back and forth until we get…

What was your background? Did you grow up listening to music? Ever since I was in elementary school, I’ve been listening to music. My father was a chief petty officer and music director in the navy. My mother taught Spanish to Spanish people, and she had a perfect Spanish accent. But I’m fortunate that my mother and my father always helped me to take lessons. When we were in Long Beach, we’d go to Los Angeles for lessons. I always loved classical music, and I loved all the Russian composers: Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky. And of course I knew lots of popular music. I played piano, bass, drums, electronic instruments. I taught myself to play acoustic guitar after I watched Joan Baez play. “I loved all the Russian composers… I taught…

CD/LP 2 1 Under Stars 2 The Secret Place 3 Matta 4 Signals 5 An Ending (Ascent) 6 Under Stars II 7 Drift 8 Silver Morning 9 Deep Blue Day 10 Weightless 11 Always Returning 12 Stars CD/LP 2  1 The End Of A Thin Cord 2 Capsule 3 At The Foot Of A Ladder 4 Waking Up 5 Clear Desert Night 6 Over The Canaries 7 Last Step From The Surface 8 Fine-grained 9 Under The Moon 10 Strange Quiet 11 Like I Was A Spectator Produced by: Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois Recorded at: Grant Avenue Studio, Ontario, 1981-2 (Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks) Personnel: Brian Eno (synths, electronics, production), Daniel Lanois (guitar, production), Roger Eno (piano)…

CD1: Original LP 1 Intro 2 Svefn-G-Englar 3 Starálfur 4 Flugufrelsarinn 5 Ný Batterí 6 Hjartað Hamast (Bamm Bamm Bamm) 7 Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása 8 Olsen Olsen 9 Ágætis Byrjun 10 Avalon CD2: Live at Íslenska Óperan, 1999 1 Intro 2 Von 3 Syndir Guðs 4 Flugufrelsarinn 5 Olsen Olsen 6 Ágaetis Byrjun 7 Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása 8 Svefn-G-Englar CD3: Live at Íslenska Óperan, plus rarities 1 Ný batterí (Live) 2 Nýja lagið (Live) 3 Hafsól (Live) 4 Hugmynd 1 (Demo) 5 Hugmynd 2 (Demo) 6 Hugmynd 3 (Demo) 7 Debata mandire (Live at Laugardashöll, 1999) 8 Rafmagnið búið (From Ný Batterí EP, 2000) CD4: Rarities 1 Svefn-G-Englar (Live at Popp í Reykjavík, 1998) 2 Starálfur (Original speed version) 3 Flugufrelsarinn (1998 Demo) 4 Ný Batteri (Instrumental) 5…

COMPOSED while caring for Bubbles, a traumatised dog, and informed by studying the “deep listening” techniques of the electronic pioneer Pauline Oliveros, Chuck Johnson conceived Balsalms as a salve to the stresses of modern living – human or canine. “I had to make music that would help Bubbles stay relaxed. She has very specific musical tastes,” he says. Most reviewers have filed the album under ambient, but the composer is unsure. “It’s a tricky word for me,” he says. “There is a strong melodic component to the record and the basslines propel the music in a linear way.” Inspired by the stylised playing of Daniel Lanois and Jerry Garcia, Johnson had long wanted to experiment with a pedal-steel guitar. “It has so much sustain and glide, there’s a sense you’re…

“MY favourite criticism of what I do is that I only do one thing and it’s all the same,” laughs Billy Childish. “But I write novels and poetry, do blues, country, punk rock, rock’n’roll, some vague psychedelia, and I’m a painter. Just because I’m interested in the elemental in all aspects of life doesn’t mean that it’s one element, it’s the elemental within anything. It’s like cooking – if your basic ingredients are good, you don’t need fancy sauce.” Forty-two years into his career, the Chatham singer and guitarist is currently rehearsing his CTMF group for gigs in Margate and America, and working on short stories and a novel (“I’ve done about 18 drafts over the last few years”), but he takes a couple of hours out to talk Uncut…

MICK JAGGER: “Michael Lindsay-Hogg is a very creative guy. We came up with this idea, to make it a mixture of different kinds of musical acts and circus acts, making it slightly surreal and mixing the two up. We wanted as many different kinds of music as possible. “We always liked the blues and a great favourite of ours was Taj Mahal. We thought Jethro Tull were really different from the kind of rock music we were playing. We had Marianne Faithfull, who was my girlfriend at the time. She was looking very beautiful, so she was the feminine element. “We had a whole lot of other ideas. We wanted to have King Zog of Albania, but he couldn’t make it. We wanted The Beatles, but they weren’t available, so…

Written by: Jez Williams, Andy Williams, Jimi Goodwin Produced: Doves Released: April 15, 2002 Label: Heavenly Recordings Recorded: Jez Williams’ house, Northenden; Revolution, Manchester; Greenhouse, Stockport; The Dairy, London; cottage studio, Ramsbottom Personnel: Jimi Goodwin (lead vocals, bass, guitars, instruments), Jez Williams (vocals, guitars, instruments), Andy Williams (drums, vocals, instruments), Marc Starr, Chris Davies, Billy Booth, Richard Sliwa (percussion) Highest chart position: UK 3; US –…

IT’S certainly an event. For the first time ever, three of the most vaunted names in the annals of hip-hop – Wu-Tang Clan, Public Enemy and De La Soul – are sharing a stage. The inaugural Gods Of Rap Tour mimics the heritage rock model when it comes to selling out arenas, overlooking recent studio endeavours in favour of tried-and-tested back catalogues. A smart move it is too, these wily veterans proving that rap acts can endure in much the same way as their rock counterparts. De La Soul are currently celebrating the 30th anniversary of 3 Feet High And Rising, although demonstrating the richness of their back catalogue, they barely touch on their masterful debut. That does mean the party takes a while to get started, only really popping…

With Liam’s As It Was documentary and Noel’s new High Flying Birds EP both released this month, here’s a timely reminder of what the Gallaghers achieved together. Uncut’s Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide to Oasis, out now, has been updated with a recent Liam interview, new intro and more…  Following on June 21, it’s Uncut’s Ultimate Genre Guide to Soft Rock. The smooth, easylivin’ sounds of Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, ELO, Chicago, Billy Joel, 10cc, Supertramp and more explored via archive interviews and slick new writing… A pair of intriguing new podcasts have launched, featuring Uncut heroes excavating their musical past. Digging Deep, the Robert Plant podcast, “uncovers the moments, people and places that have inspired some of his most treasured music”, while the David Gilmour podcast – Three Different Ones finds…

WHITNEY Forever Turned Around SECRETLY CANADIAN Chicago’s milksop country-rockers up their songwriting game on a delightful second LP of sun-dappled swooners. THE UTOPIA STRONG The Utopia Strong ROCKET RECORDINGS Steve Davis has come a long way since “Snooker Loopy”. The baize bedazzler turns cosmic synth overlord with help from Gong’s Kavus Torabi and Coil associate Michael J York. SUFJAN STEVENS “With My Whole Heart” ASTHMATIC KITTY A personal challenge to “write an upbeat and sincere love song without conflict, anxiety or self-deprecation” yields this featherlight electropop gem. KHRUANGBIN Hasta El Cielo NIGHT TIME STORIES Last year’s most gloriously laidback album gains a further 20 degrees of decline thanks to these heady dub versions. Jamaican  heavyweight Scientist leads the way. JARV IS… “Must I Evolve?” ROUGH TRADE “I entered a dance-off/You…

TRASH KIT Horizon UPSET THE RHYTHM ALBUM OF THE MONTH 8/10 The “clean, glittery melodies” of South African pop inform the post-punk trio’s expansive third. By Jon Dale EOR a good decade now, London trio Trash Kit have been mining a very particular, streamlined sound – chipped, full of nervous, jangling energy, yet somehow symmetrical. Their first two records were packed with tightly interlocked songs, ticking and clock-wound, which sometimes came across, at first blush, as similar to The Raincoats, Y Pants or Pulsallama. But comparisons to post-punk pioneers has always felt a little reductive, particularly when Rachel Aggs busts out one of her winding, circular guitar riffs, which sit closer to chimurenga or other types of South African popular music. You can hear this web of inspiration in Aggs’…

AFRICA EXPRESS EGOLI AFRICA EXPRESS RECORDS 7/10 All aboard! Next stop… Johannesburg Following visits to Mali, Nigeria and Ethiopia, the Damon Albarn-co-founded project headed to South Africa for seven days. Its goal, as always, to eliminate barriers between cultures, genres and generations in the hope of capturing joyous spontaneity through collaboration. That’s why you get London pop sensation Georgia singing with veteran trio Mahotella Queens and Gruff Rhys on the dreamy pop song “Johannesburg”. South African rapper/singer Moonchild Sanelly’s distinctive delivery is a standout discovery on “Morals”. There’s masses to take in – 18 tracks – and stylistically it’s disparate, but that’s the point. It’s a one-time postcard. An advert for uninhibited experimentation. Wish you were here? You bet. GREG COCHRANE THE ALLMAN BETTS BAND Down To The River BMG…

1 Every Last Coffee Or Tea 2 C Or T (verso) 3 Tetuzi Akiyama 4 I Was Real 5 WZN#3 (verso) 6 New New/ The Worm/Like Laundry 7 There’s No Such Thing As A King Bee 8 WZN#4 9 WZN3 Recorded at: Mule Yard, Studio G and Telescope Audio, Brooklyn; Wild Chorus, Knoxville Personnel: Rick Brown (plywood crate, hand and foot percussion, “snowman”, funnel horn, bells, maracas), Che Chen (12-string and quarter-tone guitars, violin, percussion), Sue Garner (guitar, electric bass), Cheryl Kingan (saxophones), Andrew Lafkas (double bass), Steven Maing (quarter-tone guitar), Jim Pugliese (percussion), Karen Waltuch (amplified viola), Barry Weisblat (violin processing, sampler), Carey Balch (hi-hat)…

Final details have yet to be firmed up, but Brandi Carlile and Amanda Shires have been busy in the studio with their newly formed country supergroup The Highwomen. A play on ’80s all-stars The Highwaymen, the band also includes Maren Morris and (possibly) Natalie Hemby, who joined them on stage at Loretta Lynn’s birthday bash in Nashville a couple of months ago. Dave Cobb is producing their debut album at the city’s famed RCA Studio A and there’s also a four-part documentary in the works. Carlile says that she’s rewritten the original “Highwayman” with Jimmy Webb and explains that the new songs tell the story of feminism in rural American music. On a similar theme, Jessi Colter (routinely billed as the first lady of outlaw country back in the ’70s)…

Did writing this album happen gradually over a decade, or was there something very specific or focused that prompted it? It’s always a broken marriage or a parent’s death, isnt it? I feel sorry for young bands that have to try and drum up transformative life changes between albums three and four to justify the new album cycle – “how the death of a childhood pet and a large library fine led to the Coloured Nouns’ new ‘Oracular Jeremiad’”. I lost the entire inner circle of my life. My last connection to the past and only connection to the future. That’s why I’m talking to myself in the opening line – also to imply that I have not broken my silence at all. If I’m just talking to myself in…

1 Bored And Razed 2 Help Me Stranger 3 Only Child 4 Don’t Bother Me 5 Shine The Light On Me 6 Somedays (I Don’t Feel Like Trying) 7 Hey Gyp (Dig The Slowness) 8 Sunday Driver (Now That You’re Gone) 9 Now That You’re Gone 10 Live A Lie 11 What’s Yours Is Mine 12 Thoughts And Prayers Produced by: The Raconteurs Recorded at: Third Man Studio, Nashville, TN Personnel: Jack White (vocals, guitars, piano, synthesisers), Brendan Benson (vocals, guitars, percussion, harmonica), Jack Lawrence (bass, guitar, synthesisers, backing vocals), Patrick Keeler (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Dean Fertita (piano, synthesisers, organ, guitar), Joshua V Smith (backing vocals, organ), Lillie Mae Rische (violin), Scarlett Rische (mandolin)…

NORMA TANEGA Walkin’ My Cat Named Dog (reissue, 1966) REAL GONE MUSIC REISSUE OF THE MONTH 8/10  “WALKIN’ My Cat Named Dog”, the debut single by Norma Tanega as well as the title track of her 1966 debut album, was an act of small but ingenious rebellion. The singer-songwriter had gone from playing at a summer camp in the Catskills to working with Bob Crewe, head songwriter for The Four Seasons, and her sudden professional advancement had prompted a move to the city. As the possibly apocryphal story goes, her new apartment building didn’t allow dogs. To work around that restriction, Tanega got a cat and named it Dog. She wasn’t marching in the streets or bombing army recruitment centres or occupying the dean’s office at Berkeley. Instead, hers was…

Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks – Extended Edition UMC 8/10 AS the ’80s dawned, humanity was once again turning its eyes to the skies. In March 1983, Ronald Reagan, a former screen cowboy turned 40th President Of The United States, unveiled his latest strategy in an increasingly hot Cold War – a strategic missile defence system which, in a nod to the pop culture of the day, earned the nickname “Star Wars”. Star Wars was conceived in the very American spirit that the best defence was a good offence. The idea was that a notional Soviet strike might be averted by simply blasting enemy missiles out of the sky with laser-guided warheads – a sort of nuclear-powered equivalent of the quick-witted gunslinger in a Hollywood western who disarms his opponent by…

The original Apollo was your first recording experience. What led to you being invited to the sessions, and what do you recall about the recording process? I’d long been concerned with music constructed not merely for entertainment purposes, but music that concerned social interactions, meditation and physiological effects. I’d been head of the music therapy department of a psychiatric hospital for two and a half years  where I had been using music for the above purposes. I had recorded a piece that I thought was something of worth on a 90-minute tape in which barely anything happens, and had sent this piece to friends of mine, one of whom was my brother. It was at this time that the invitation came to Brian to write the music for For All…

Was there a grand vision behind Ágætis Byrjun? We felt kind of invincible, like you do when you’re 20 years old. There was lots of confidence and a bunch of arrogance, so we went into the studio eager to show what we could do. There was a point in the process where we suddenly realised, ‘Wow, this is something! This might actually go a little bit further than downtown Reykjavik.’ What things informed the writing and recording? We all had different tastes, from classical music to techno. We used to listen to Spiritualized’s Lazer Guided Melodies a lot. Also ’70s rock. I used to love Pink Floyd too, but I know all the other guys hated them. So there were lots of things. On “Starálfur”, for instance, there’s a dip…

BILL WYMAN: “We hadn’t played any gigs since the early part of ’67. Mick had been talking for some time about trying to do concerts in a different way, and he thought it would be nice to do this as a TV spectacular. We all thought it was a good idea and a bit different. It was about 50 grand, I think, the original budget. That went out the window soon! They had a tiger in a cage, there were people doing tightrope walking, lots of real circus characters, and all the musicians. “The super band was a bit weird, with Eric, John, Mitch Mitchell and Keith. The only way Keith would get on there was to play bass. I was a bit surprised, I must say, because it wasn’t…

1991: Three former school friends and Haçienda veterans form dance trio Sub Sub in Manchester 1993: Sub Sub score a Top 5 UK hit with “Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use)” 1998: After a fire destroys their studio in 1996, the trio return as Doves after rethinking their sound 2001: Work starts on second album The Last Broadcast April 2002: “There Goes The Fear” is released and deleted on the same day, reaching No 3. The Last Broadcast hits No 1 2009: “There Goes The Fear” features in the film 500 Days Of Summer 2019: Doves end a nine-year hiatus with live shows and work on a new album…

DE LA SOUL 1 The Return Of DST 2 The Grind Date 3 Oooh 4 Stakes Is High 5 A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays 6 Me Myself And I 7 Rock Co.Kane Flow PUBLIC ENEMY 1 My Uzi Weighs A Ton 2 Louder Than A Bomb 3 I Shall Not Be Moved 4 Can’t Truss It 5 Don’t Believe The Hype 6 Rebel Without A Pause 7 Timebomb 8 Anti-Nigger Machine 9 He Got Game 10 Fight The Power 11 Welcome To The Terrordome 12 Bring The Noise 13 Shut ’Em Down 14 Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos 15 Public Enemy No 1 16 Harder Than You Think WU-TANG CLAN 1 Bring Da Ruckus 2 Shame On A Nigga 3 Killer Bees On The Swarm 4 Clan…

IN FABRIC Directed by Peter Strickland Starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Gwendoline Christie Opens June 28 Cert 18 TBC 7/10 THE DEAD DON’T DIE Directed by Jim Jarmusch Starring Bill Murray, Adam Driver Opens July 12 Cert 15 6/10 SUPPORT THE GIRLS Directed by Andrew Bujalski Starring Regina Hall, Haley Lu Richardson Opens July 12 Cert 15 8/10 KURSK: THE LAST MISSION Directed by Thomas Vinterberg Starring Matthias Schoenaerts, Colin Firth Opens July 12 Cert TBC 6/10 YESTERDAY Directed by Danny Boyle Starring Himesh Patel, Lily James Opens June 28 Cert 12A 4/10…

CROSBY, STILLS & NASH CROSBY, STILLS & NASH ATLANTIC, 1969 When I first entered high school, Crosby, Stills & Nash and Neil Young were what mattered to me – that three-part harmony thing just blasted through California. I was a runaway when I heard this, and every house that I went to, they had CSN playing. These acoustic, quiet songs of strange origin, like “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”, wandering all over the place and never getting to the point, with these really beautiful harmonies! So enchanting. They had three good writers writing their very best at that time, and whenever you have three writers you have a chance of really hitting the mark, like with The Beatles. CAT STEVENS TEA FOR THE TILLERMAN ISLAND/A&M, 1970 I was about 16, living…

1 75 DOLLAR BILL Tetuzi Akiyama We begin this month with a vibrant instrumental from the NYC duo of Rick Brown (on plywood crate!) and guitarist Che Chen. Interlocked with their sub-Saharan vibes are guests Sue Garner on bass guitar and Cheryl Kingan on baritone sax. 2 JADE JACKSON City Lights This propulsive cut is taken from the LA singer-songwriter’s second album, Wilderness. Catchy and infectious, songs like “City Lights” are nevertheless given a biting edge by producer Mike Ness of Social Distortion. 3 LLOYD COLE When I Came Down From The Mountain Cole has long been interested in electronics, and his new album Guesswork foregrounds this passion on its eight tracks. Fizzing with synths of all kinds, “…Mountain” is also packed with the…

SHOPPING Consumer Complaints MILK, 2013 Their debut album is rough and ready – a clipped, propulsive take on the  dancefloor possibilities of post-punk’s wry playfulness: think The B-52s, Girls At Our Best, Delta 5. Punchy and vibrant – 13 songs in 35 minutes – their songs are declamatory, hortatory, full of vim and vigour. Concealed in these grooves, though, is a razor-sharp take on queer life and politics. 8/10 SACRED PAWS Strike A Match ROCK ACTION, 2017 Aggs’ pop duo with Eilidh Rogers is full of infectious melodies, with big, punchy  brass arrangements giving the songs added depth. There’s something thrillingly just-in-control about Rogers and Aggs’ interplay, as though they could careen away, lost in joy, any minute now. But it’s also a finely hewn, disciplined duo dynamic. Won the…

1 We Don’t Know How And We Don’t Know Why 2 The Sparrow 3 Giant Baby 4 Mother Universe 5 How Many Times?? 6 Electric Fire 7 All For The Life Of The City 8 Feedaloodum Beedle Dot 9 Funeral Parade 10 Dipped In Steel 11 Mouth Of The King 12 How Can A Head?? Produced by: The Flaming Lips, Dennis Coyne, Scott Booker, Dave Fridmann, Mike Fridmann Recorded at: Pink Floor Studios, Oklahoma City; Tarbox Road Studios, Cassadaga, New York Personnel: Wayne Coyne, Steven Drozd, Michel Ivins, Derek Brown, Jake Ingalls, Matt Kirksey, Nicholas Ley, Mick Jones…

What did the “studio as instrument” approach deliver? I don’t think there’s any substitute for getting a strong performance on tape, but I also like the possibilities that arise when you aren’t so precious with those performances once you’ve got them recorded. Miles Davis’s On The Corner is one of my favourite records, and Rick and I are both big fans of the working methods Miles and Teo Macero used on the records they made together. How much is improv a part of this album? There’s a lot of improvising within a very small set of variables. We rehearse a lot and the rhythms, parts and variations we use are very much predetermined, but the durations and sometimes the order of those variations are not. Rick tends to stay close…

Produced by: Buddy Cannon Recorded at: Blackbird, Nashville; Sound Emporium, Nashville; Curb Studio B, Nashville; Pedernales, Austin Personnel: Willie Nelson (vocals, guitar), James Mitchell (guitar), Bobby Terry (guitar, steel guitar), Shawn Camp (guitar), Kenny Greenberg (guitar), Larry Paxton (bass), Barry Bales (bass), Kevin Grantt (bass), Jim Brown (keyboards), Matt Rollings (keyboards), Fred Eltringham (drums), Lonnie Wilson (drums), Michael Rojas (keyboards), Micky Raphael (harmonica), Buddy Cannon (backing vocals), Melonie Cannon (backing vocals), Lukas Nelson (backing vocals), Micah Nelson (backing vocals)…

How did you go about reframing some of these songs from a feminine viewpoint? SARAH LOUISE: Violence against women is pervasive in old songs because it has been - and is - pervasive in our world. Changing some of the lyrics occurred naturally, based on what felt good and true to sing. Perhaps because we’re women, we have this heightened awareness of the injustice that many of these old songs reveal and also the elisions of history which give credit to men when it should be spread around. How did the LP evolve? SALLY ANNE: It all came about naturally, as did our arrangements. We both have wide frames of reference for music. We’re not purists and we’re not precious about it, but we like to try new things. These…

“No Stranger Am I” Springfield confidently navigates the tricky 5/4 time  signature on this song from Tanega’s debut, Walkin’ My Cat Named Dog, adding strings and heightening the song’s ruminative and romantic sense of connection. It was released as the B-side to the 1968 single “I Close My Eyes And Count To Ten” and later compiled on 2006’s The Complete A and B Sides 1963–70. “The Colour Of Your Eyes” Tanega wrote this devastating song about lost love especially for  Springfield, who recorded it in 1968 as the B-side to “I Will Come to You”. The song boasts a light, levitating samba beat and dramatic brass fanfare, as Springfield nurses her romantic regrets. “Who am I to say you didn’t love me, when I can’t remember the colour of your…

Ágætis Byrjun: A Good Beginning KRUNK 9/10 SIGUR RÓS were only partly joking when they made a certain proclamation in 1999. “We do not intend to become superstars or millionaires,” the band posted on their website. “We are simply gonna change music forever, and the way people think about music. And don’t think we can’t do it, we will.” This may have been merely an act of youthful hubris, the lippy pretensions of a bunch of twentysomethings with nothing to lose. But it was also a measure of their brazen ambition and absolute surety in the music they’d been constructing over the past year. So much so that, when second album Ágætis Byrjun landed that summer, it seemed less like hyperbole and more like the fulfilment of a prophecy. Ágætis…

Next time around, Ezra Furman returns with the raw Twelve Nudes , and Modern Nature (featuring members of Ultimate Painting and BEAK>) unveil their debut album, How To Live . Khruangbin are back with a dub version of their Con Todo El Mundo album, and Mabel, Ride and Rodney Crowell have new offerings. Archivally speaking, there’s a mammoth 38CD Woodstock set, Suicide’s debut album reissued on red vinyl and a rediscovered 1969 session from British jazz saxophonist Tubby Hayes, Grits, Beans And Greens: The Lost Fontana Sessions . TOM.PINNOCK@TI-MEDIA.COM…

COUPLE IN A HOLE (ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK) INVADA, 2015 Soundtrack to film about a couple living in shallow hole somewhere in the Pyrenees. Serves, a bit like the current LA Playback compilation album, as a nice primer to the prolific BEAK>/>> period of the band. 7/10 >> BONUS ALBUM INVADA, 2012 This was not especially well loved by the band, but includes the terrific “0898”, which plays like an LSD-warped spy movie theme. It was left off the album, but it’s a favourite of Billy’s wife – and many others. 8/10 >>> INVADA, 2018 Beautifully sequenced selection of BEAK>’s engrossing, vernacular synth/noise grooves. Includes “Brean Down” and closes with “Abbotts Leigh” and “When We Fall”, possibly the band’s most powerful 11 minutes. 9/10 “LIFE GOES ON” EP INVADA, 2019 We’re here…

“YOU get your picture on the cover of Time and Newsweek, but the bus never stops,” a 26-year-old Bruce Springsteen tells the crowd at the Tower Theatre in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. It’s New Year’s Eve 1975, and he’s closing out his biggest year yet by joking about his status as “Rock’s New Sensation”. Before the crowd even has time to laugh, he’s already leading The E Street Band through a rowdy and rambling version of “Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?” That performance is one of the highlights of Springsteen’s archival concert series, which he launched via the live music site Nugs.net in 2014. Since then he has cataloged recent shows with The E Street  Band as well as old favourites from deep within his vault. Toby Scott, Springsteen’s longtime…

“FOR ME, Woodstock was a happy accident,” photographer Henry Diltz tells Uncut . “A few weeks earlier, I’d got a phone call from Chip Monck, an old friend of mine. He was the lighting and stage director at Woodstock, who also ended up being the MC. He said, ‘Henry, you should come out here, we’re going to have a huge concert. I’ll speak to the producer.’ Michael Lang, a soft-spoken guy of few words, called me the next day: ‘Chip says we need you. I’m sending you an airline ticket and $500.’ “Everyone dropped their defences and became a huge family” MICHAEL LANG “Max Yasgur’s cow field was a gently sloping hill and a natural amphitheatre,” Diltz continues. “I spent two weeks taking photos of hippie carpenters, working on this…

KEITH RICHARDS: “My main memory is the utter chaos! It was beautifully ramshackle, but fun. Needless to say, I don’t think there was a straight act in the house. What was amazing in retrospect was the people who turned up to do it. Everybody turned out to be like real circus folk, helping everybody out. There was a great camaraderie. “The Who did a great job, a great mini-rock-opera performance full of energy. I enjoyed particularly doing The Dirty Mac, “Yer Blues”, with John and Eric, because that was really right off-the-cuff. What you see is what you get! Two-thirds of the way through, there was a definite feeling that we’re going to finish this thing. By the time we got to our bit, everybody had been up at least…

WHEN John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers arrived in London for their first show, they found themselves outside what Mayall now recalls as “a very dark and evil-smelling basement” on Wardour Street. There, a narrow door stood wedged between two branches of a shoe shop. It looked unpromising – but this was the Flamingo Club and at midnight every Friday and Saturday when the rest of London was starting to wind down, the Flamingo would spark into life. Soho hipsters and the capital’s demimonde would arrive by the dozen, spending all night listening to R&B in the smoky basement. “It was so dark down there you could hardly see,” says Mayall. “It did all-nighters, so if people liked music more than sleep, that’s where they went. It was unique. It had that seedy…

is a roughneck amalgam of The Stooges and Rose Tattoo. Singer Amy Taylor was clearly born to do this and carries the show for 40 sweaty minutes with her headbanging, miclead swinging and comic Charles Atlas poses, but furious songs like “Gacked On Anger” and “I’m Not A Loser” are also on-point about minimum-wage poverty and self-worth respectively. Across the field, a packed tent shifts in anticipation of Jason Pierce, whose whacked-out gospel, drone rock and sun-glazed psychedelia still constitute a profane Eucharist, 30 years on. Seated, he leads Spiritualized through a mix of fan faves and songs from last year’s And Nothing Hurt, singing about the hurricane inside his veins while guitars and keys intertwine and echo, building to shimmering peaks with calculated grandeur. It’s a worldview and musical…

CHILD’S PLAY OPENS JUNE 21 Luke Skywalker is Chucky! Mark Hammill goes to the Doll Side in remake of the ’80s horror. TOY STORY 4 OPENS JUNE 21 Woody is possessed by horse-headed demon Baphomet who… oh, sorry. No, not that at all. APOLLO 11 OPENS JUNE 28 Doc coinciding with the reissue of Brian Eno’s superb Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks. PENNY SLINGER – OUT OF THE SHADOWS OPENS JUNE 21 The experimental artist showcased with contributions from collaborators including Peter Whitehead. SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME OPENS JULY 2 More webslinging gear from this guy. Avengers business not over, it seems. ANNA OPENS JULY 5 Russian supermodel Sasha Luss becomes an assassin as Luc Besson reheats his own early classic Nikita. DON’T LOOK NOW OPENS JULY 5 Welcome reissue for…

DORIS DAY American star of the ’50s and ’60s (1922-2019) DORIS Kappelhoff never held any ambitions of being a singer, much less a movie star. She’d begun as a dancer in her native Cincinnati, but leg injuries sustained in a car accident put paid to that. Listening to the radio during her recuperation, she became entranced by Ella Fitzgerald, after which she took singing lessons and discovered a natural talent. Changing her name to Doris Day, she scored two US chart-toppers with bandleader Les Brown in 1945: “Sentimental Journey” and “My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time”. They heralded the beginning of a hugely successful solo career that stretched into the mid-’60s, with Andy Williams declaring her voice “so fresh you could smell it”. Day’s musical endeavours…