The car is one of the most potent symbols in rock’n’roll. Typically it stands for freedom, escape, personal agency and a mysterious, no-strings sexuality. But where rock’n’roll symbolism is concerned, Arctic Monkeys like to have their cake and eat it: whatever you think it is, that’s what it’s not. In lead single and album opener “There’d Better Be A Mirrorball”, the car is not the beginning of a new adventure but the end of one, the place to walk someone when giving them the ultimate brush-off: “‘Baby, it’s been nice’”. ORDER NOW: Bob Dylan is on the cover of...
In a challenge to name the undisputed overlords of modern psych rock, two heavyweight contenders spring to mind – Osees and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. Both bands have a lot in common: their resistance to said definition, for starters, along with their omnivorous musical appetites and protean vision. They also share a ferocious work ethic, releasing an avalanche of records in what seems like an urgent and endless artistic venting. ORDER NOW: Bob Dylan is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut It’s hard not to boggle at King Gizzard’s stats. This month the Melbourne...
When people talk about Bob Dylan’s “born again period,” they can miss the point. If there was a determining spiritual rebirth, it didn’t happen in the late-1970s, but two decades earlier, when the Hibbing kid with a headful of Hank Williams and Little Richard vowed to dedicate his life to song. It became a never-ending baptism; he immersed himself in that river and never emerged, just swum deeper, followed the river to the sea and got tangled up in a polygamous marriage with all the siren mermaids. Speak to anyone who has spent time playing music with him, and...
Emerging from their west London squat during the racially charged late ’70s, they battled inequality and injustice through their powerful “progressive protest music”. They went on to record one of the greatest live albums of all time, enjoy the patronage of John Peel and Pete Townshend, and become the first British reggae group to play in Russia – before relocating to a farm in Zimbabwe. All while they endured trauma and tragedy whose scars can still be felt to this day. This, then, is the remarkable story of MISTY IN ROOTS. “The music is our legacy,” they tell Dave...
If you’ve turned on BBC 6Music in the last few years, you’ll have probably heard a lot of talking; not the DJs, but rather the prevailing tide of sprechgesang in modern indie. Arguably starting with The Fall and The Flying Lizards, it was carried on by Pulp, Earl Brutus, Life Without Buildings and then The Streets, and is now flooding our airwaves. It comes in many forms: there are the modern pioneers like Sleaford Mods and Courtney Barnett, the cartoony post-punk of IDLES and Yard Act, the infectious Wet Leg and Self Esteem, the peerless Fontaines D.C. and Black...
Animals was always something of a runt in Pink Floyd’s 1970s litter, which is appropriate for an album obsessed with beastly metaphors. Conceived as a vicious commentary on Britain’s social decay, it never fitted comfortably in the Floyd’s timeline, lacking the humanising warmth of Wish You Were Here without quite achieving the furious grandeur promised by that marvellous cover or later attained by The Wall. That could be down to the circumstances of its creation. The first Pink Floyd album recorded at Britannia Row, it was almost entirely the work of Roger Waters, whose domination was starting to exacerbate...
Presenting our latest online exclusive: The Greatest Albums Of The 1960s, The greatest music of the decade, as voted for by Uncut, 500 albums reviewed! Get inside the music, with our selection of archive interviews. Buy a copy here!
Axl Rose! Cat Stevens! Songs to sing at funerals! As a 20th-anniversary boxset expands the technicolour universe of THE FLAMING LIPS’ Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, WAYNE COYNE reveals the real story of how his band of freaks inherited the Earth. “We just embraced it all, and did it our way,” learns Sam Richards, in the latest issue of Uncut magazine – in UK shops from Thursday, October 13 and available to buy from our online store. When Wayne Coyne answers our FaceTime call, he’s just leaving his local hardware store. Presumably he’s a valued customer – down the years,...
“We’ve learnt a new song to drive sorrows away”, declare The Unthanks on the epic title track of their latest album. It’s a simple enough sentiment, yet one loaded with profound meaning. For a band who draw strength and inspiration from the act of communal togetherness, the past couple of years have been especially tough. Not only did the enforced lockdown prevent them from playing live, but it put a stopper in the residential workshops and weekends that have been such a crucial part of The Unthanks’ MO for a decade or so. ORDER NOW: Bob Dylan is on...
Looking back 20 years later, it seems clearer now that Joe Strummer’s final three albums were each made under very different circumstances, for very different reasons; listening to them, it seems all the more remarkable how cohesive they sound, all shouting from the same street. ORDER NOW: Bob Dylan is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut The group Strummer dubbed the Mescaleros began as a band in name only, but then rapidly evolved into the real deal, only to be stopped in their tracks in the worst way, just as things had started to fly. The...