Innehållsförteckning för December 2020 #283 från UNCUT

“I am open to doing almost anything stylistically – except for country music” EVEN before the pandemic hit, Todd Rundgren was adept at working remotely. 2017’s White Knight and its imminent follow-up Space Force feature a typically eclectic array of collaborators – from Trent Reznor to The Roots – but Rundgren doesn’t generally expect them to drop by his home studio, given that he lives on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, a 100-mile hop from the capital Honolulu. “The lifestyle is extremely laidback,” he admits via Zoom. “A lot of people move here because of how idyllic it is, and then a year later they move again because they can’t slow down enough…” Among the things Rundgren likes most about Hawaii is that it’s “probably one of the most polyglot…

The 2020s are the sixth decade in which you’ve released an album. How likely a trajectory would that have seemed to you circa My Aim Is True ? I hoped that I would have the opportunity to do this for a lifetime. Each door has led into a different room, like ‘Elvis In Wonderland’. The album was recorded in Helsinki, Paris and New York. Do you find that location makes a difference, over and above the studio? When I made my first record, I didn’t have a band and no one knew me. So I went to Helsinki to have that feeling again. In Paris, Steve Nieve had put together a group that knew no fear or saw no border and played what they felt. We didn’t need words between…

Richard H Kirk “It’s nice to put a spanner in the works” What made you rehabilitate Cabaret Voltaire on your own? Because I could! I was asked by a festival in Berlin [ Atonal in 2014 ] and thought, “Why not?” And I also kind of did it to wind people up. Part of Cabaret Voltaire was always about not giving people what they expect. When you first played again you vowed only to play new music, some of which evolved into Shadow Of Fear … This idea of “let’s perform our classic album in full”… where did that come from? It’s nice to put a spanner in the works. If you came to any of those shows and now listen to the new album, you’d recognise parts of it…

“Murdochbeckonsmenow/Calls me brother not friend” TRAD-ARR opportunists with freeform tendencies, Trees’ in-concert freakouts often left their cut-crystal-voiced singer Celia Humphris at a loose end. “I used to ‘wiggle’, or dance on the spot, during the long breaks,” she remembers in the sleevenotes to this 4CD anthology of the band’s brief career. “But when we played at Wellington College Boys’ School, one of the masters asked me to stop wiggling as it was ‘upsetting’ the boys. That was when I started to lie down on stage instead.” It was a novel way of shifting the focus to her bandmates, but one fraught with pitfalls: one live extemporisation on the traditional “Streets Of Derry” proved so enthralling that Humphris actually fell asleep. Enthusiastic – often to a fault – Trees blundered excitably…

LP 1: Gyrate 1 Volume 2 Feast On My Heart 3 Precaution 4 Weather Radio 5 The Human Body 6 Read A Book 7 Driving School 8 Gravity 9 Danger 10 Working Is No Problem 11 Stop It LP 2: Chomp 1 K 2 Yo-Yo 3 Beep 4 Italian Movie Theme 5 Crazy 6 M-Train 7 Buzz 8 No Clocks 9 Reptiles 10 Spider 11 Gyrate 12 Altitude LP 3: Extra 1 Untitled 2 Cool 3 Dub 4 Recent Title 5 Danger!! (Danger Remix) 6 Crazy (Single Mix) 7 Reptiles (Channel One Version) 8 No Clocks (Channel One Version) 9 Spider (Alternative Mix) 10 3 x 3 (Live) 11 Danger III (Live) LP 4: Razz Tape 1 The Human Body 2 Modern Day Fashion Woman (Version 1) 3 Read A…

Jason Lytle goes off-grid… How was revisiting The Sophtware Slump ? There was a lot of potential for it to be too much rehash, too much nostalgia… but it was fun, it was like hanging out with some old friends – the songs being the old friends – a quick visit and then let them be on their way. You recorded at home on your own, as usual? I was going round studios in LA auditioning pianos before the pandemic. I was already anticipating that the album was going to be boring [ laughs ], so I figured I’d mix it up with three different pianos. Then the pandemic happened, those studios closed and I learned that the deadline was three weeks away. ‘What am I gonna do? I guess…

AMANAZ “KHALA MY FRIEND” TAKEN FROM THE  ALBUM AFRICA [ZAMBIA MUSIC PARLOUR, 1975] “A beautiful African soul ballad. It’s a wistful song but it’s a really casual performance. That’s part of the charm and I wanted to make sure that there was music like that on the record.” CURTIS MAYFIELD “THE MAKINGS OF YOU” TAKEN FROM THE  ALBUM CURTIS [CURTOM,1970] “His vocals sound like they’re floating on air. Lyrically, he’s saying, ‘Hey, you’re great,’ to somebody – honouring them. It probably affected how I thought about the lyrics.” THE ROCHES “HAMMOND SONG” TAKEN FROM THE ALBUM THE ROCHES [ WARNER BROS, 1979] “I love that wild harmony signing, where there’s a lot of long, sustained notes. That kind of thing shows up on ‘A Long Way Past the Past’.” PIERO…

THE recording of Bruce Springsteen’s last two albums – Springsteen On Broadway and Western Stars – were filmed by Thom Zimny, and Zimny was again on hand to record the Letter To You sessions. This meant an extra consideration for the musicians in the studio – “A couple of times I had to tell a cameraman he was in my sightline,” says Bittan – and it means there is a visual accompaniment to the album in place of the planned tour. According to Stevie Van Zandt, the film is much like the one released with Western Stars – a recording of the sessions, with Springsteen’s narrative explaining the concept to the viewer. “Bruce and Thom conceived it, Thom directed it, Bruce wrote it,” says Landau. “Shot in black and white…

DURING the conversations between Mitchell and Cameron Crowe that serve as liner notes for Archives , talk unexpectedly turns to partying with Jimi Hendrix after a show in Ottawa in early 1968. Mitchell was in residency at Le Hibou coffee house, while Hendrix and the Experience were across town at the Capitol Theatre. Hendrix’s diary entry of March 19 reads: “Talked with Joni Mitchell on the phone… I think I’ll record her tonight with my excellent tape recorder… Went down to the little club to see Joni. Fantastic girl with heaven words.” Crowe takes up the story: “Hendrix was in the front row of this club, taping her on a reel-to-reel, apparently with stereo mics, and then the tape got stolen two nights later and the reel-to-reel machine, too. So…

MUSIC IN EXILE TRANSGRESSIVE, 2015 Their debut finds the group and producer Nick Zinner experimenting with classic desert-blues sounds, but with a funkier, more soulful edge than most. The opening “Soubour” is where it all started. 7/10 RÉSISTANCE TRANSGRESSIVE, 2017 Their more expansive second record finds Songhoy embracing fuzzier textures on “Voter” and “Sahara”, the latter featuring a cameo from Iggy Pop. Elsewhere, there’s added brass and even a children’s choir on closer “One Colour”. 8/10 “MEET ME IN THE CITY” EP TRANSGRESSIVE, 2019 This recent EP features some brave moments, from the Blake Mills mix of “Time To Go Home”, co-written with Matt Sweeney and Will Oldham, to the group’s version of the Junior Kimbrough title track and their shimmying Femi Kuti collaboration, “Shakara”. 7/10 OPTIMISME TRANSGRESSIVE, 2020 A…

“I always wanted to be an artist – music was just something I fell into” KIM GORDON IN contrast to her sometimes painfully raw 2015 autobiography Girl In A Band, written in the aftermath of the break-up of both her marriage to Thurston Moore and their group Sonic Youth, Kim Gordon’s new book, No Icon, was a breeze to put together. “This was basically just sifting through pictures – it’s not like writing, so it was pretty painless,” Gordon confirms down the phone from Los Angeles. Her main struggle was with embarrassment over “some outfits that I thought were really bad. But after a certain amount of time you’re like, fuck it!” Her aims for No Icon may be modest – “They did one of Chloë Sevigny, which I wrote…

SINÉAD O’CONNOR “Trouble Of The World” HEAVENLY Inimitable vocalist’s timely return, via a haunting gospel-blues number made famous by Mahalia Jackson. Subtle  cinematic gloss c/o David Holmes. THE WAR ON DRUGS “Eyes To The Wind (Live)” SUPER HIGH QUALITY From the new Live Drugs album, the Lost In The Dream centrepiece is masterfully eked out for nine majestic minutes. LINDSTRØM & PRINS THOMAS III SMALLTOWN SUPERSOUND Norwegian cosmic disco titans reconvene after 12 years to complete their Balearic trilogy; icy synths signal a retreat from the beach and a returntothe fjords. DOMENIQUE DUMONT People On Sunday THE LEAF LABEL Latvian producer pretending to be French writes soundtrack for German  silent movie. Blissful, burbling miniatures, like Sakamoto recording for KPM. HAYDEN THORPE Aerial Songs EP DOMINO For the Lake District’s Aerial…

Patterson Hood: “It’s going to get really ugly” Was another album of mostly protest songs inspiredbydesperate times how you wanted to follow American Band and The Unraveling ? Absolutely not. I guess the times and situations argued otherwise. I had a very specific album in mind for the next DBT album. This one kinda came calling and couldn’t be  ignored. I owe it to my kids to do everything in my power to change this shit. What was your own experience of the federal occupation of Portland you refer to on “The New OK”? I wrote that song in August, the week after spending about six hours on the streets with thousands of protesters. I walked home just before midnight and could hear the feds launching their attack. Teargassing those…

1 Muddy Water 2 Sometimes Darkness/Railroad/Sometimes Darkness Reprise 3 Old Swingin’ Bell 4 Did Ya Know Him? 5 Common Void 6 The Rise Of The Integratron 7 Don’t Feel Bad About Being Alive 8 Night Walking, Alone 9 Atom Bomb 10 Power Produced by: James Wallace Recorded at: Spacebomb Studios,Richmond, Virginia; Huge Planet Studios, Nashville, TN Personnel include: James Wallace (vocals, piano, keys, guitar), Alan Parker (guitars), Pinson Chanselle (drums, perc), Cameron Ralston (bass), Dabney Morris (string arrs, perc, drums)…

COMUS First Utterance DAWN, 1971 Beckenham arts lab pals of David Bowie, Comus’s wheezing  acoustic debut album was entirely ignored on release, its King Crimson dynamics and Dennis Wheatley slasher atmos a hey-nonny-no-no for tradminded folk heads. As Sounds’ Penny Valentine put it: “like a cross between a frenzied version of the witches chorus from Macbeth , and Marc Bolan being squeezed to death.” 8/10 MR FOX The Gypsy TRANSATLANTIC, 1971 Proper folkies who saw which way the wind was blowing,  Bob and Carole Pegg made two swirly-keyboard-dominated albums with Mr Fox. “Mendle”, the opening cut on their second LP, is the one prog-psych zealots rave about, but the colossal title suite is better still. Mr Fox’s bassist Barry Lyons and drummer Alan Eden joined Trees for their ill-starred second…

Westbound Records founder Armen Boladian on his “raw, gutty” signings How did you first encounter Funkadelic? They were just starting out and I went to one of their concerts at a lounge in Detroit. I had heard they had fantastic potential and I wanted to check them out. They were uniquely different especially from all the other acts that were popular at the time. They had their own sound, style and look. Signing them to Westbound was a visionary act. I thought they had a lot of potential. It was a challenge trying to get them airplay on the radio because they were so unique and not like anyone else out there.›Many stations thought their music was a little rough and funky at the time. My hopes were that we…

THE POGUES Rum Sodomy & The Lash STIFF, 1985 Some prefer the 1984 debut Red Roses For  Me, but on reflection it’s a bit fast and too lyrically dense. The follow-up features uptempo belters like “The Sick Bed Of Cuchulainn” and “Sally MacLennane”, but here producer Elvis Costello also directs MacGowan’s drunken energy into heart-tugging ballads like “A Pair Of Brown Eyes” and “The Old Main Drag”. 8/10 THE POGUES If I Should Fall From Grace Of God POGUE MAHONE/WARNERS/ ISLAND, 1988 A prog epic by Pogues standards, with Steve Lillywhite helming the Led Zep-ish orientalism of “Turkish Song Of The Damned”, the spy-movie swing of “Metropolis”, and the furiously political medley “Streets Of Sorrow/Birmingham Six”. But it’s all leavened by big hits “Fiesta” and “Fairytale Of New York”. 9/10…

“I REMEMBER begging this venue in Seattle to let me go see Elliott Smith when I was 16. My parents offered to chaperone me, but even then, they wouldn’t let me in because I wasn’t 18. After that, the only reason I wanted to be 18 was because I’d be able to see Elliott Smith. Then that was no longer possible and that ended up being his last solo show in Seattle. “In the last couple of years, there has been such a resurgence in interest in Elliott’s music. There’s people like Phoebe Bridgers citing him as an influence. I’m awed sometimes by music’s power to keep someone alive so people can keep learning from them. With Shore , just working references to other musicians into the lyrics, or messing…

“THE FEVER” [18 TRACKS] Recorded in one take in 1973, this slow-burning soulful favourite wasn’t released until 18 Tracks , an album that was produced in  response to fans’ disappointment the song hadn’t been included in the original Tracks . “LINDA LET ME BE THE ONE” [TRACKS] Bumped from Born To Run late on, this yearning rocker eventually made it on to Tracks . Other fine Born To Run out-takes like “Lonely Night In The Park” remain unreleased. “DETROIT MEDLEY” [HAMMERSMITH ODEON, LONDON ’75] The E Street’s 1975 live homage to Motown mashes together two Mitch Ryder R&B singles, which were themselves medleys of two songs - “CC Rider” and “Jenny Jenny” plus “Devil With The Blue Dress” and “Good Golly Miss Molly”. Performed more than 400 times but never…

1 One Minute You’re Here 2 Letter To You 3 Burnin’ Train 4 Janey Needs A Shooter 5 Last Man Standing 6 The Power Of Prayer 7 House Of A Thousand Guitars 8 Rainmaker 9 If I Was The Priest 10 Ghosts 11 Song For Orphans 12 I’ll See You In My Dreams Produced by Ron Aniello with Bruce Springsteen Recorded at Stone Hill Studios, New Jersey Personnel: Bruce Springsteen (vocals, guitar, harmonica), Stevie Van Zandt (guitar, vocals), Nils Lofgren (guitar, vocals), Charlie Giordano (organ, vocals), Roy Bittan (piano, vocals), Garry Tallent (bass guitar, vocals), Max Weinberg (drums, vocals), Jake Clemons (saxophone), Patti Scialfa (vocals)…

“JONI Mitchell was always the dream interview,” explains Cameron Crowe, who began writing for Rolling Stone in 1973, aged just 15. “But she never did any and that was really well known in the world of journalism. One night, I’m interviewing Bonnie Raitt in the dressing room of the Troubadour, with my sister Cindy, when the door opens and somebody walks in. I’m still looking at Bonnie, but everybody else is looking past me. I casually turn and see Joni Mitchell, who appears to have walked straight off the cover of For The Roses . She sits down and starts to participate in this interview with Bonnie Raitt. I’m freaking out. It all grew to the point where, six years later when she wanted to discuss Mingus , [ manager…

“I’VE been listening to myself talk for four hours,” says Metallica co-founder Lars Ulrich down the line from his San Francisco HQ. “I’m fuelled by tea!” Tea is good stuff, but it cannot alone account for the prolixity of this legendary rock drummer. Happily, one of hard rock’s most notorious talkers is also one of its most articulate thinkers and driven professionals. Practised in the art almost to the point of being Post-Interview, Lars is also able to channel strong flavours from the greatest work by one of the world’s best – and biggest – hard rock bands. Today’s conversation is occasioned by a new album, S&M2 which revisits a proposition (Metallica with a symphony orchestra) which sounds as if it originated in a prank or a mishearing, but which…

YOU’LL find Hollywood Vaults tucked away between Santa Monica Blvd and Melrose Avenue. A vast, high-security storage facility, it is home to archives belonging to the biggest names in film, television and music. To protect the materials, temperature and humidity is maintained at 45°F. One visitor says this does something peculiar to your bladder, so you have to use the toilet every hour on the dot. The Doors have kept their archives in Hollywood Vaults for more than two decades. The band ceased recording new material more than 40 years ago, but the inventory continues to grow as tapes are truffled out from defunct studios or record labels or via collectors and bootleggers. Some items are easy to acquire. Tapes of a 1966 concert at LA’s London Fog, for instance,…

OLA 1 1 Soon Is Good 2 Pumpkin Seeds 3 Marigold 4 Sight To Behold 5 Body Breaks 6 Autumn’s Child 7 We All Know 8 Little Yellow Spider 9 A Ribbon 10 At The Hop 11 Charles C Leary 12 This Is The Way 13 Siobhan 14 Will Is My Friend 15 Todo Los Dolores 16 Poughkeepsie 17 Fistful Of Love OLA 2 1 Santa Maria De La Feira 2 Heard Somebody Say 3 Long Haired Child 4 Quédate Luna 5 Dragonfly’s 6 Mama Wolf 7 How’s About Tellin A Story 8 So Long Old Bean 9 Samba Vexillographica 10 Bad Girl 11 Shabop Shalom 12 Carmensita 13 The Other Woman 14 Freely 15 I Remember 16 My Dearest Friend OLA 3 1 Angelika 2 Chin Chin & Muck…

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 Directed by Aaron Sorkin Starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen Opens October 2 Cert 15 7/10 ABOUT ENDLESSNESS Directed by Roy Andersson Starring Martin Serner, Jessica Louthander Opens November 6 Cert To be confirmed 7/10 SUMMER OF 85 Directed by François Ozon Starring Félix Lefebvre, Benjamin Voisin Opens October 2 Cert To be confirmed 8/10 SAINT MAUD Directed by Rose Glass Starring Morfydd Clark, Jennifer Ehle Opens September 9 Cert 15 8/10 MOGUL MOWGLI Directed by Bassam Tariq Starring Riz Ahmed, Alyy Khan Opens October 2 Cert 15 7/10…

MUSIC, MONEY, MADNESS… JIMI HENDRIX LIVE IN MAUI EXPERIENCEHENDRIX 8/10 Documentary spills the beans on one of Jimi Hendrix’s final – and weirdest – live performances. By Peter Watts THE trippy story of how Jimi Hendrix ended up playing a concert in front of a few hundred spectators at a windy cow farm next to a Hawaiian volcano features a cast of characters that could come from a Thomas Pynchon novel. There’s Chuck Wein, aka The Wizard, a Leary-lite Harvard graduate who dated Edie Sedgwick and made films with Warhol before dropping into the hippie world. There’s Michael Jeffery, Hendrix’s manager, a shady operator with a line in tall stories about his career in the British Army. And there’s Hendrix, who found himself committed to making a soundtrack for Wein…

IN 1979, Evie Sands became one of the first women to co-produce her own LP – Suspended Animation, which had Dusty Springfield on backing vocals – and four decades later she is still doing things for herself. Her latest album, Get Out Of Your Own Way, has been released on her own label and is filled with the sort of upbeat blue-eyed soul that made her 1966 single “Picture Me Gone” a northern soul classic. “I’m a proud, badge-wearing DIYer with my own label,” she says. “I love collaboration but I have a problem with the gatekeepers who have fixed ideas and shut the gate for non-artistic reasons and the various isms – sexism and ageism.” “If you have a really good song you can do it any number of…

Gimme some truth! Celebrating what would have been his 80th birthday, our Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide to JohnLennon is now in shops (and available from Uncut.co.uk). Every album reviewed. Amazing interviews rediscovered. Also includes Yoko on John, his top 30 songs, and a trip inside the making of the new Ultimate Collection boxsets… This year’s Secret 7 ” exhibition is currently open at the NOW Gallery, London SE10. On display are 700 sleeves anonymously created by artists such as AnishKapoor, MichelGondry and JeremyDeller for singles including Bob Dylan’s “Blind Willie McTell” and ArethaFranklin’s “One Step Ahead”. The charity auction takes place via eBay on November 1… An apology: last issue we assigned the wrong score to Richard Williams’ review of OliverMurray’s documentary film Ronnie’s. It should have been 9/10……

MOONDOG Moondog COLUMBIA, 1969 “The Viking of Sixth Avenue” delivers a major-label album. Hypnotic tunes, expanded  harmonically, with a layer of musique concrète and gnostic poetry. Like folk songs set for classical orchestra, never outstaying their welcome. MASTERWILBURN BURCHETTE Guitar Grimoire BURCHETTE BROTHERS, 1973 Occult psychedelia on reverberating solo electric  guitar – like the Staples Singers gone over to the dark side. Says Raymond: “I didn’t know any of the backstory and then when I did it’s just… He claimed to have created a tremolo pedal that could unlock the power of the godhead. That’s fucking great, man.” VARIOUS ARTISTS Wayfaring Strangers: Cosmic American Music NUMERO GROUP, 2016 More from Raymond’s stash of private-press business. This  release from the private-press aficionados at Numero Group continues their twin mission of musical…

1 Revolution #49 2 No Flag 3 They’re Not Laughing At Me Now 4 Newspaper Pane 5 I Do (Zula’s Song) 6 We Are All Cowards Now 7 Hey Clockface/ How Can You Face Me? 8 The Whirlwind 9 Hetty O’Hara Confidential 10 The Last Confession Of Vivian Whip 11 What Is It That I Need That I Don’t Already Have? 12 Radio Is Everything 13 I Can’t Say Her Name 14 Byline Produced by: Elvis Costello, Sebastian Krys, Michael Leonhart Recorded at: Suomenlinnan studio, Helsinki; Les Studios Saint Germain, Paris; Leonia Sounds, New York City Personnel includes: Elvis Costello (vocals, guitar, drums, organ, bass), Steve Nieve (keys), Renaud-Gabriel Pion (horns), Mickaël Gasche (horns), Pierre-Francois Dufour (cello), AJUQ (drums, perc), Bill Frisell (gtr, keys), Michael Leonhart (drums, gtrs, keys), Nels…

Jeff’s Tweedy’s “comfort food” This is your lockdown album. Wereyou trying to writea song a day?› One of the things that I learned early on, whether it’s true or not, was that King Lear was written during quarantine for the plague. So my sons and I started coming to the studio every day. There was a feeling to the recordings we were making. For a while we were thinking aboutacountryalbumcalled King Lear . It’s a beautiful idea. But I’ve had a long string of namingrecordsafterthings thatarealreadyfamous,like StarWars and Ode To Joy , so I felt like it was tempting fate. How didthe material develop?› I’ve always written songs and worked on music when I’m feeling the weight of the world. It’s always been a way to push the world away.…

James Wallace talks revelations and rock operas How did the Spacebomb association come about? I met Pinson [ Chanselle ], the house-band drummer, my first day at college. Over the years I’ve kept close ties to that musical community as I saw something really interesting blossoming there. Why did you choose to reinterpret traditional gospel songs on the album? They’re songs that I’ve known for a long time and that have followed me. I have a tenuous relationship with Christianity and its place in America, but a lot of the messages born out of the early American spirituals are still universal. I take an element of that and turn it on its head and secularise it – and probably from some perspectives, blasphemise it! But it feels like I’m understanding…

Disc1 - The Garden Of Jane Delawney  1 Nothing Special 2 The Great Silkie 3 The Garden Of Jane Delawney 4 Lady Margaret 5 Glasgerion 6 She Moved Thro’ The Fair 7 Road 8 Epitaph 9 Snail’s Lament Disc2 - On The Shore  1 Soldiers Three 2 Murdoch 3 Streets Of Derry 4 Sally Free And Easy 5 Fool 6 Adam’s Toon 7 Geordie 8 While The Iron Is Hot 9 Little Sadie 10 Polly On The Shore Disc3 - Fore& After (Part1)  1 Soldiers Three (Remix 2007) 2 Murdoch (Remix 2007) 3 Streets Of Derry (Remix 2007) 4 Geordie (Remix 2007) 5 Polly On The Shore (Remix 2007) 6 Fool (Remix 2007) 7 Polly On The Shore (demo ’70) unreleased 8 Streets Of Derry (demo ’70) unreleased DiscFour -…

Vanessa Briscoe Hay and Michael Lachowski on Pylon’s staying power. How does it feel to know there’s still so much interest in Pylon so many years after the band’s original run? Hay:It is overwhelming really. None of us had any idea that Pylon would be remembered so fondly this many years later. What do you think is so special about this music? Hay: That is a good question. Perhaps people sense our individualism and our independence? Maybe it still sounds fresh because it has that snaky bassline with a four-on-the-floor beat that you can dance to? Maybe they are enamoured of Randy Bewley’s amazing›guitar sounds? I am usually the one who isn’t everyone’s cup of tea! But together we were greater than the parts. It’s striking to note the sheer…

LP1:TheSophtware Slump Originalalbum LP2:TheSophtware Slump … on a woodenpiano Pianoversion LP3:Rarities 2000-2001 1 He’s Simple, He’s Dumb, He’s The Pilot (original introduction) 2 LFO 3 Wonder Why In LA 4 I Don’t Want To RecordAnymore 5Chartsengrafs (demoversion) 6XD-Data-II 7AirConditioners In The Woods 8 Our Dying Brains 9 Moe Bandy Mountaineers 10 Rode My Bike ToMyStepsister’s Wedding 11BeautifulGround (originalcassette tapedemo) 12 Street Bunny 13NBlender LP4Rarities 2000-2001 1FirstMovement/ MessageFade 2 Hewlett’s Daughter (cassette tapedemo) 3 What Can’t Be Erased(Drinking Beer In The Bank Of America With Two Chicks From Tempe Arizona) 4 Aisle Seat 37-D 5SheDeleter 6HandCrank Transmitter 7 Jeddy 3’s Poem 8 MGM Grand 9 Protected From TheRain 10 Wives Of Farmers 11 Fare Thee Not WellMutineer…

NILS Lofgren occupies a privileged position as guitarist in both Crazy Horse and E Street, two bands that act as extensions of their respective leaders’ unique ways of working. While these methods seem to be wildly opposing – the whimsical, capricious Young versus the diligent, detail-heavy Springsteen – Lofgren maintains that once you dig into it, the differences aren’t actually all that great. “Crazy Horse and E Street aren’t a long way apart,” he says, explaining how he can function effectively within them both. “The real difference, past the sound of their guitar-playing, their voices, isn’t much at all. They are two of the greatest writers we’ve ever had and are very into something being raw, immediate and emotional. The last two shows I played with Neil Young up in…

“THE song was a product of the time, as the band was,” says Paul Weller. “Sometimes I think I wasn’t affected by the ’80s – it’s only when you look back that you realise you were. You can’t really avoid it. Whether it was a stupid haircut or the clothes. Win some, lose some!” As a new compilation, Long Hot Summers, and an accompanying documentary tell the story of The Style Council, Weller and his bandmates are reliving those halcyon days for Uncut. Perhaps their most striking moment – in today’s climate, at least – is their ninth single, the punchy “Walls Come Tumbling Down!”, which tackled political oppression and complacency over a pounding beat. The song marked a new phase for The Style Council: after the loose collective Weller…

SUPPORTING The Doors at their final show were Kansas, who had been personally invited by Morrison following a chance encounter in New Orleans in 1969. Phil Ehart was then playing with White Clover, a covers band that performed every night in a dive bar called The Roach. One night, Jim Morrison showed up and asked if he could try out some new lyrics while they played “Light My Fire”. “It was just after Miami,” recalls Ehart. “We asked him about it and he said, ‘Don’t believe everything you read.’ He was very lucid, very normal. We went back on stage, started doing ‘Light My Fire’, then stopped in the middle, rocking back and forward on some chords. Jim came up on stage and started reading poetry in that voice of…

HANK WILLIAMS “I’LL NEVER GET OUT OF THIS WORLD ALIVE” MGM, 1952 He was really one of the first rockers. His songs relate to working people, the humour and fun and fragility of working-class people – in this song he talks about shoes that are so worn out, if you trod on a dime you could tell if it was heads or tails. Ray and I grew up in a big working-class family in Muswell Hill, and listening to the words of Hank Williams was a major influence on our lives. That set the ball rolling for us for writing, that idea that things were not all glamorous. I should also mention Johnny Cash; his “Ballad Of A Teenage Queen” was the first record I bought myself. The B-side was…