First off, a gentle reminder that our excellent new issue of Uncut is in the shops now, featuring Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic on Nirvana, plus Sly Stone, Paul McCartney, Amy Winehouse, Altın Gün, Grateful Dead, The Jam, Will Sergeant, Rodney Crowell, Sparks, Rodrigo Amarante and more. Full details about the new Uncut are here, in case you missed them. As is tradition abound now, I tried to round up my favourite albums from so far; specifically releases from January until the end of June. I’ve listed them here in (roughly) order of release – just to be painfully...
“Is the Sparks story even that interesting?” wonders Ron Mael aloud, with one of those quizzical frowns that over 50 years have variously signalled wry mockery, abject despair, ironic ennui or absurd determination. “We joked about this with Edgar when we began work on The Sparks Brothers project. Because other bands in documentaries usually have a tragic ending – you know, a suicide – or they had a drug issues and were able to overcome their habit to win in the end, or their career had a meteoric rise then a tragic fall… But our story didn’t fit...
American avant-garde composer Jon Hassell died yesterday (June 26), according to a statement shared by his family on social media. “After a little more than a year of fighting through health complications, Jon died peacefully in the early morning hours of natural causes,” the statement, posted to Facebook, explained. “He cherished life and leaving this world was a struggle as there was much more he wished to share in music, philosophy, and writing.” CLICK TO GET THE NEW UNCUT DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR A GoFundMe had previously been started by long-time friend and collaborator Brian Eno in April 2020,...
Alan Lewis, who served as editor of NME and was Uncut‘s editor-in-chief at launch – among other roles in a storied publishing career – has died aged 76, prompting tributes from across the music press. CLICK TO GET THE NEW UNCUT DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR Danny Kelly, who succeeded Lewis as NME editor in the late 1980s, shared the news on Twitter yesterday (June 25), remembering him as “a quiet chap, but wickedly funny, no man better knew his way round a magazine flatplan or a public bar. My heart aches. Thank you for everything Alan.” The cause of Lewis’ death is...
A bounty here: 16 tracks in total, covering a lot of ground. I won’t take up too much of your time pontificating. Just dive in – there’s plenty for everyone. 1 WILLIAM TYLER & LUKE SCHNEIDER “The Witness Tree” (Leaving) Understand by William Tyler & Luke Schneider Advertisement 2 UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA “Weekend Run” (Jagjaguwar) 3 SAULT “London Gangs” (Self-released) ‘NINE’ by SAULT 4 NITE JEWEL “This Time” (Gloriette) Advertisement 5 KHRUANGBIN “Pelota (Cut a Rug Mix) – by Quantic” (Dead Oceans / Night Time Stories) 6 SARAH DAVACHI “Rushes Recede” (Late Music) 7 JASON SHARP “Everything Is Waiting...
A bounty here: 16 tracks in total, covering a lot of ground. I won’t take up too much of your time pontificating. Just dive in – there’s plenty for everyone. CLICK TO GET THE NEW UNCUT DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR 1 WILLIAM TYLER & LUKE SCHNEIDER “The Witness Tree” (Leaving) Advertisement Understand by William Tyler & Luke Schneider 2 UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA “Weekend Run” (Jagjaguwar) 3 SAULT “London Gangs” (Self-released) ‘NINE’ by SAULT 4 NITE JEWEL “This Time” (Gloriette) Advertisement 5 KHRUANGBIN “Pelota (Cut a Rug Mix) – by Quantic” (Dead Oceans / Night Time Stories) 6 SARAH DAVACHI...
In 2019, Lucy Dacus marked seven significant national holidays (including Valentine’s Day, Christmas and Bruce Springsteen’s birthday) with a new song. The resulting EP, her last formal release to date, skewed towards covers. But, as those songs were being released, she was also working on her most inward-looking project yet. ORDER NOW: The August 2021 issue of Uncut Recorded at the same Nashville studio and with many of the same collaborators, as 2018’s Historian, Home Video is Dacus at her most autobiographical and lyrically direct. Its 11 tracks draw from her youth in Richmond, Virginia – lost friendships, fierce loyalties,...
On Both All The Time, Faye Webster sounds so lonesome she could cry. Over a smear of pedal steel, a stair-stepping piano and a slow-motion rhythm section, she digs into that old country plaint and realises, “There’s a difference between lonely and lonesome, but I’m both all the time”. The song depicts the Atlanta singer-songwriter/photographer/yo-yo enthusiast as a woman at home by herself, locked away with her thoughts and her beloved Harmony Strat. It’s an image that comes up repeatedly on her inviting and immersive fourth album, I Know I’m Funny haha: the artist drinking beer in the shower,...
When he remembers the smell of melting snow back in Buchanan, Michigan (population: 4,456), John Grant sometimes yearns to move back to the town where he spent his earliest years. However, as he fretted over the US elections during the recording of his Vangelis-meets-Harry Nilsson fifth solo album, Grant was reminded just why he remains in self-imposed exile in Iceland. ORDER NOW: The August 2021 issue of Uncut “There’s so much rage there,” the 52-year-old tells Uncut of his home country. “It’s always been that way. That’s what happens when you start your country the way ours started and then...
Wilco have announced new dates for a planned run of shows across the US, following coronavirus-enforced postponements. ORDER NOW: The August 2021 issue of Uncut Originally announced in March 2020, the band will embark on their It’s Time co-headline tour with Sleater-Kinney throughout this August. Wilco will then go it alone for a number of festival and solo headline shows. In October, the band will then begin the Ode To Joy tour, in support of their 11th LP An Ode To Joy. The shows were first announced back in 2019. Advertisement As well as rescheduled shows for which original tickets remain valid,...