Innehållsförteckning för January 2024 från UNCUT

THE trouble with magnum opuses, Stephin Merritt is fast realising, is the cost and effort of regular restoration. “Oh my god, I’m not looking forward to learning the whole thing again!” he sighs, facing the prospect of once more scaling his three-hour 1999 masterpiece 69 Love Songs for a series of full-album shows in 2024. “And all in a different key, because I was playing baritone guitar on the original tour and I assume I won’t be for this one.” A run of 25th-anniversary US shows has been announced for the spring, with UK dates strongly rumoured to follow. “I’d be amazed if it didn’t happen,” Merritt grins, reclining backstage at the Oasis Teatro club in Zaragoza, Spain, two dates into a European tour. “I would fire my booking agent.”…

THE SMILE Wall Of Eyes XL The London Contemporary Orchestra help to fashion a lusher, dreamier – and therefore more unsettling – follow-up to Uncut’s best album of 2022: “All of that money/Where did it go?” LAETITIA SADIER Rooting For Love DUOPHONIC SUPER 45S Psychedelic chanson and slinky retrofuturist pop on a mission to rewire our selfish brains with rousing slogans of unity and hope. Who needs a new Stereolab album? FABIANO DO NASCIMENTO & SAM GENDEL The Room REAL WORLD Hefty serving of saudade for seven-string guitar and soprano sax, inspired by Getz/Gilberto and Baden Powell À Vontade. J MASCIS What Do We Do Now SUB POP Ken Mauri’s piano adds a rollicking bar-room warmth to the Dino dude’s acoustic-driven powerpop. Only here for the solos? J’s got you…

“If I had to worship a god, at this point I would definitely worship Sun Ra” LIKE many of those who are misleadingly dubbed slackers, Kurt Vile actually has a rigorous work ethic. Having just released an album-length EP entitled “Back To Moon Beach”, he’s about to herd the Violators back into his Philly studio OKV Central for a week of recording before they disperse for the holidays. “It’s come to the end of the touring [cycle], so I’ve got to capture the band while we have a purpose. We have to do it now or we’ll never capture that version of us, that telepathic thing you gain from playing together all the time.” Vile says he has some “snippets” of new song ideas, “but it’s also a lot of…

ANDRÉ 3000 New Blue Sun EPIC 6/10 Outkast oddball’s surprise stab at New Age spiritualism After a decade of flute lessons, the self-consciously wacky one out of Outkast helms an unlikely 90-minute album that’s pitched somewhere between Alice Coltrane-ish spiritual jazz and New Age sonic psychobabble. These eight, lengthy, drumless instrumentals, all with absurdly long titles, feature some stellar talents (including percussionist Carlos Niño and keyboard player Surya Botofasina) and nod towards the (fascinating) electro-acoustic music currently being made in Los Angeles by the likes of Sam Gendel and Miguel Atwood Ferguson. But, despite a few interesting textures, New Blue Sun never really takes flight: André 3000’s digital flute ramblings feature no transcendent moments of virtuosity, no freakouts and no money shots. JOHN LEWIS STEVEN ADAMS Drops FIKA 7/10…

Brain Capers ISLAND, 1971 This album, recorded during what Ian Hunter describes as “five days of chaos”, caught the band on a last-ditch attempt at redemption, playing with a combination of desperation and pride. It’s a hard rock classic, with highlights being the opening number, “Death May Be Your Santa Claus”, and the thundering “The Moon Upstairs”. You can fully appreciate what Bowie heard in them. 8/10 Mott CBS/COLUMBIA, 1973 The post-Bowie Mott were full of confidence throughout this classic, which opens with the rollicking “All The Way To Memphis”. The marvellous glam-punk “Violence” shows why they were adored by the Pistols and their ilk, while the autobiographical “Ballad Of Mott The Hoople” showcases Hunter’s arch but subtle intelligence. 9/10 The Hoople CBS/COLUMBIA, 1974 Ian Hunter signed off with a…

Perry Farrell recently declared that “every Cocteau Twins song sounds like an orgasm”. Was that the idea? Fortunately, I am unfamiliar with the sounds of Perry’s orgasms so it’s a bit difficult to answer, but probably… yes. What do you think of these two albums now? After working on the reissues, I was pleasantly surprised how timeless they sound. I remember them as not being warmly received at the time, perhaps due to the perception of us moving to a major label, or perhaps because of the overpublicised personal issues. Did they feel like the last albums at the time? No, but the workload of promoting them and the touring did take its toll. Too many people with opinions to please. After Milk & Kisses, maybe everyone should have taken time…

What are your fondest memories of the Long Ryders’ early days? The early Long Ryders days were blissful. My West Hollywood neighbourhood was home to John Doe and Exene [Cervenka, both of X], Dwight Yoakam lived nearby, most of Green On Red, two of The Bangles, and three of Rain Parade. Benmont Tench I used to see at our corner shop… You could throw a rock off our porch and you’d hit a musician of note. It was a poor man’s Laurel Canyon. You were around at the same time as the Paisley Underground folks, and for some, you’re aligned with that movement… Every Paisley Underground band was guitar-oriented and in some way referenced the 1960s scene. The Long Ryders were the only band included in lists of the Paisley…

THERE’S a motherlode of goodies next time round, from The Smile’s Wall Of Eyes, Idles’ Tangk and Brittany Howard’s What Now to Hurray For The Riff Raff’s The Past Is Still Alive, J Mascis’ What Do We Do Now, Laetitia Sadier’s Rooting For Love and Kali Malone’s All Life Long. In the archival sphere, we’ll be taking a look at records from Lou Reed, Paul McCartney, Plush, McCoy Tyner, Pauline Anna Strom and The American Analog Set. Catch you there. EMAIL TOM.PINNOCK@KELSEY.CO.UK…

THERE seems to be no end to the stellar records still to be celebrated or rediscovered these days, and 2024 is already promising some gems. Neil Young’s Archives III is likely to finally see the light of day after a number of delays, while alongside the aforementioned Rubber Soul redux, other Fabs-related releases due to hit shelves are deluxe versions of John Lennon’s Mind Games (June) and George Harrison’s The Concert For Bangladesh. It could be an expensive year for Bowie fans, with the long-expected Ziggy Stardust box likely to arrive, and perhaps even the final ‘era’ boxset covering Heathen to Blackstar later in the year. After the success of the Who’s Next/Life House deluxe set recently, we wouldn’t rule out another bells-and-whistles box from The Who either. Perhaps most…

“WE were ambitious and came from a scene that has a complicated approach to ambition,” recalls Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney’s beginnings in Olympia, Washington’s underground circa 1994. Formed by guitarists Brownstein and Corin Tucker, the group recruited drummer Janet Weiss to make their breakthrough on 1997’s Dig Me Out – a relentless mix of angular post-punk, garage thrills and indie rock anthems. “The music in Sleater-Kinney has always been in conversation with itself and we have always reflected on our place in the world at any given moment,” says Brownstein. “That’s because we had to justify our existence from the beginning. We were trying to say as much as we could and disallow categorisation.” But rather than repeat themselves, Sleater-Kinney demonstrated a capacity for reinvention, continually expanding on their central…

“THE front row is not for the fragile, my dear,” warns Nick Cave at the start of Mutiny In Heaven: The Birthday Party. For much of the film’s running time, that’s exactly where director Ian White puts his audiences. “I wanted to drop people in a world,” explains White. “The most powerful aspect of The Birthday Party’s world is live performances. “The band opened up their personal archives,” he continues. “The majority of it has never been seen before. I saw them in Melbourne, and there was always a palpable sense of fear, not so much for the audience as what the band would do to themselves. They were like five individuals trying to escape from something horrible.” Aside from new interviews with most of the surviving band members –…

THE END The Doors As a songwriter, Krieger was The Doors’ secret weapon, able to deliver everything from blues to ragas and – on this – the haunting, icy licks that help scaffold Morrison’s murderous, out-there ruminations. SPANISH CARAVAN Waiting For The Sun Aside from the blues, Krieger’s other formative guitar passion was flamenco, and “Spanish Caravan” is an impressive showcase for his masterful guitar techniques, inspired by Isaac Albeniz’s “Asturias (Leyenda)”. ROADHOUSE BLUES Morrison Hotel “I woke up this morning and I got myself a beer”, yells Morrison, in imperial Lizard King mode. Meanwhile, Krieger’s meaty, Chicago blues riff leads the song’s swagger – aided by guest John Sebastian’s wailing harmonica solo. INDIAN SUMMER Morrison Hotel The first song The Doors recorded at Sunset Sound in August 1966, but…

When I think about Keith, I am reminded that the best songs come from the gutter..but it is a hell of a place to fish when you have to sit on the curb What do you use for bait? a piece of red cloth will do or a candy wrapper Good songs jump right on your hook and the hook is in the song for good..Keith can grit his teeth and he can voice a chord with his upper lip ///and when the night is winding down…..Keith sounds like an orchestra tuning up.. a blue schemer in a wavy glass mirror, like partially melted chords left out in the sun too long..and if you listen to the chords that fall out of Keiths coat..it is like broadway out of focus..an…

THE BOY AND THE HERON Directed by Hayao Miyazaki Starring Luca Padovan, Robert Pattinson, Karen Fukuhara Opens December 26 Cert 12a 9/10 NAPOLEON Directed by Ridley Scott Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Ben Miles Opens November 22 Cert 15 8/10 TRENQUE LAUQUEN Directed by Laura Citarella Starring Laura Paredes, Ezequiel Pierri, Rafael Spregelburd Opens December 8 Cert To be confirmed 9/10 PRISCILLA Directed by Sofia Coppola Starring Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi, Ari Cohen Opens 5 January Cert 15 7/10 SWEET SUE Directed by Leo Leigh Starring Maggie O’Neill, Harry Trevaldwyn, Tony Pitts Opens 22 December Cert 15 7/10…

BRIARCLIFF ENTERTAINMENT 8/10 DISMISSED as his “lost weekend”, John Lennon’s relationship with May Pang was no brief fling. It lasted 18 months, during which time the couple set up home together while Lennon enjoyed his most productive creative period for years. This film, directed by Eve Brandstein, Richard Kaufman and Stuart Samuels, tells that story from Pang’s perspective, starting with her arrival at Apple Records in New York as an unworldly, music-loving, working-class, Chinese-American teen. Pang was scooped up by Yoko Ono, who employed her as personal assistant and gave her various tasks in the not-entirely-normal Lennon-Ono household, such as finding a bunch of houseflies for their 1970 movie Fly and demonstrating “bagism” by getting in a bag when Lennon and Ono were invited on American talk shows. Even today,…

PAUL HARRIS Manassas and Nick Drake keyboardist (1944–2023) PAUL Harris is one of those names found scattered liberally in the small print throughout any good record collection. His most high-profile gig was with Stephen Stills’ Manassas: his piano, organ and clavinet can be heard all over the group’s eponymous 1972 masterpiece, and he also played on the follow-up, 1973’s Down The Road. When the band broke up and Stills returned to the CSNY fold, Manassas refugee and ex-Byrd Chris Hillman took Harris and pedal-steel player Al Perkins with him to join the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, who recorded two country-tinged canyon rock albums before dissolving in 1976. Born in Queens and classically trained, Harris had only to make a short trip across New York to immerse himself in the Greenwich Village folk…

FANTASTICAL ENTERTAINMENT As a regular reader of Uncut, I’m caught between an addictive nostalgia for the past and a glowing optimism for the future of music. So, when I read about Elton’s recent bowing out to an adoring Glasto crowd, I was reminded of a long-ago concert when he really tested the waters. It was early summer in 1975. My mate and I had arrived in London from Melbourne after having dodged a one-way trip to Vietnam courtesy of the Oz government’s birthday/lotto conscription policy. Now we’d secured two tickets to Wembley Stadium to see the Midsummer Music Festival. A veritable curate’s egg of talent for three-and-a-half quid! When we got there, the crowd was starting to build as we heard Stackridge completing their set on what sounded like 10-watt…

HOW TO ENTER The letters in the shaded squares form an anagram of a song by Keith Richards. When you’ve worked out what it is, email your answer to: competitions@uncut.co.uk. The first correct entry picked at random will win a prize. Closing date: Tuesday, January 2, 2024. This competition is only open to European residents. CLUES ACROSS 1+8A This was pretty cirrus stuff from The Orb (6-6-6) 7+29A The Breeze: An Appreciation Of __ ____, album by Eric Clapton & Friends (1-1-4) 8 (See 1 across) 9 Excellent album from XTC (7) 10+7D “The first mate, he got drunk, and broke in the captain’s trunk”, 1966 (5-4-1) 12 Their debut album was The Lexicon Of Love (3) 14 The smallest group named by Green Day (8) 15 Pete ____, US singer-songwriter…

CANADIAN singer-songwriter Corb Lund retired to his living room to record El Viejo (NEW WEST), due in late February. Backed by The Hurtin’ Albertans, he tapped into the acoustic tone and sensibility of Marty Robbins, Kris Kristofferson, Bobbie Gentry and Jerry Reed for tunes about outlaws and free spirits. “It’s a lot of minor keys and gambling songs,” he says. “There’s not a single electric instrument on the whole thing… In terms of having a vision, this is a record I’ve had in my sights for a while.” The album also pays tribute to his late friend and inspiration, Ian Tyson. Fellow countrymen The Dead South are back that month too. Recorded in Mexico City, Chains & Stakes (SIX SHOOTER) finds the quartet immersed in free-ranging mood – swinging bluegrass, country, earthy…

With so many writers, how difficult is it to get a song in the band’s repertoire? ROWAN BRAHAM: It’s getting harder, but that’s the exciting part. We’ve encouraged each other to write and share material and we try to invest equally in each other’s songs. We’re increasingly finding the most satisfying results have come from developing them collaboratively. How did Jimmie Rodgers work his way into “Stealin’ Horses”? PATRICK TURNER: I like it if a song reappears in another song in an openly acknowledged way. There’s a nine-minute version of “Almost Was Good Enough” where Jason Molina starts singing Neil Young’s “Out On The Weekend” six minutes in. I wanted to try something like that, and I’d been listening to Dolly Parton’s version of “Muleskinner Blues” that day. Tell us…

How did you devise the new musical palette for this album? I wanted the musical landscape to avoid the cliches of what is usually partnered with rural imagery. I started messing around with a Rhythm King drum machine, but it felt too playful. Don Cento, the album’s co-producer, began programming a LinnDrum as I played my acoustic. This felt more lonely, more existential. It reminded me of albums I loved growing up, like Tunnel of Love and Go Insane, and it matched the pathos of my new songs. How did you corral this crew on this record? I’ve never been afraid of cold calls, and this was coordinated mostly by emails and texts – a joyous and tedious chore of communication. I wanted to engage players who I spent the…

90 DAY MEN We Blame Chicago NUMERO GROUP 8/10 Definitive overview of oddball Chicago post-rockers After releasing their debut single in 1996, Chicago-based 90 Day Men recorded three albums of fractured, textural and cacophonous music between 2000 and 2004. All three feature on this typically immaculate Numero boxset alongside a previously unreleased four-track 2001 Peel Session, plus a further album containing EPs, singles, rarities and outtakes. While contemporary reviews highlighted the influence of Slint, Nation Of Ulysses, Television and prog to the band’s unique sound, it’s also increasingly apparent that bassist Rob Lowe brought a huge jazz influence into their soundscapes. The music gets denser but richer through the three albums, and the band’s increasing confidence reaches the vocals – the initial post-rock mumble by guitarist Brian Case eventually replaced…

AFTER a rough break-up in 2021, Sydney Ward found herself alone and all but imprisoned in the Los Angeles apartment she and her partner had shared. “I had to stay behind and finish the lease,” she recalls. “I was really depressed and started drinking a lot. I was isolated from everyone I knew. We’d had the same group of friends and I didn’t want to talk to them or anyone else. I was barely eating. I left the apartment only when I really had to. “I had no idea what I was going to do when the lease was up, or if I could even make it that long. I was contemplating suicide. I felt like I had no fight left in me.” Ward – who goes by her stage…

THE PENTANGLE TRANSATLANTIC, 1968 Excellent debut introducing the band’s spectral mix of folk, jazz, traditional and contemporary music, including enduring classics “Mirage” and “Pentangling”. SWEET CHILD TRANSATLANTIC, 1968 Double album, with studio recordings paired with a Royal Festival Hall concert, showcasing impeccable playing as they oscillate between Charles Mingus, Anne Briggs and Jansch originals. BASKET OF LIGHT TRANSATLANTIC, 1969 Their most successful album thanks to “Light Flight”. This near-faultless collection also boasts wonderful takes of “The Hunting Song”, “Springtime Promises” and “Once I Had A Sweetheart”. CRUEL SISTER TRANSATLANTIC, 1970 Overlooked fourth album. The five traditionals on side one are performed with customary skill, while the 18-minute “Jack Orion” is an ambitious epic. SOLOMON’S SEAL REPRISE, 1972 Exhausted and unhappy, Pentangle’s final album by the original lineup still has several…

CHRIS Carr, The Birthday Party’s final manager, is recalling a typical show during the band’s chaotic pomp. “Suddenly, I heard this whack – whack-whack-whack-whack!” he says. “I look round, and Nick Cave’s beating someone in the audience on the head with a mic! That kind of shit went on all the time. I’ve never seen anything like it. By the end it was out of control. I can only imagine it was like the Stooges at their peak.” These days, Nick Cave enjoys a celebrated position as a cultural elder statesman – musician, man of letters, online sage – while his band the Bad Seeds have become arena-filling rock royalty. His music has evolved from savagery to romance and, latterly, somewhere beyond. Yet no matter how far Cave has moved…

What follows over the next 13 pages, then, is a series of remarkable stories, spanning six decades, that reveal a complex, complicated – and frequently surprising – portrait of rock’s most miraculous survivor. As one long-term confidant reveals, “I don’t think, back then, you could have predicted the fullness of the person that he is now. You can live with the cliché of the pirate, but it seems to me that he’s self-defined. That’s admirable.” But first a message from a former bandmate… “Happy birthday young chap, you’ll never catch up with this old man, but keep trying. Have a great celebration.”LOVE BILL Before we hurtle back to the boys’ cloakroom at Sidcup Art School circa 1960, here’s a few words from RON WOOD… KEITH and I used to bump…

OUR paths first crossed when the first American Folk Blues tour came through Manchester [October 21, 1962]. To the true and faithful, it was a clarion call for all blues collectors and enthusiasts. There was an Epsom contingent that travelled up there, and that’s where I first met Keith and Mick. Then I’d see the Stones play various venues around London. Later I’d bump into them at Immediate Records, when I did a few bits and pieces. The first time I actually played with Keith was on the Chris Farlowe sessions that Mick was producing. “Yesterday’s Papers” [1967] was a really good one, I’m playing acoustic on that. Keith and I were sitting next to each other and got on really well, because there was a great mutual respect. Then…

WONKA RELEASED DECEMBER 8 Timothée Chalomet stars as the tyro confectioner/dreamweaver aided by Hugh Grant the Oompa-Loompa in this origin story from the team behind Paddington. Features original songs by Neil Hannon. EARTH MAMA RELEASED DECEMBER 8 British-American director Savanah Leaf makes her feature debut with this powerful story of a pregnant Bay Area single mother, trying to reclaim her kids from foster care. THE THREE MUSKETEERS: MILADY RELEASED DECEMBER 15 Vincent Cassell and Eva Green star in the second part of the Musketeers franchise, with D’Artagnan forced to join forces with Milady De Winter while Athos, Porthos and Aramis find their alliance threatened by old secrets. MONICA RELEASED DECEMBER 15 Transparent’s Trace Lysette stars as a woman returning home to help care for her dying mother in this intimate…

The Ultimate Music Guide is your definitive companion to classic music, featuring in-depth new writing and legendary interviews and encounters. From Uncut’s expert writers, in each issue you will get: • Fresh perspectives on an artist’s entire body of work • A curated selection of classic archive interviews ORDER WHILE STOCKS LAST OR EXPLORE OTHER ISSUES FROM THE ARCHIVE shop.kelsey.co.uk/UNCUT-UMG Call 01959 543 747 Hotline open Monday to Friday 8.30am – 5.30pm. Calls charged at your standard network rate. Scan me…

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THE WHO “My Generation” BRUNSWICK, 1965 This was radical when it came out – everything from the bass solo, to using the volume knob on the guitar for creating that vibrato or tremolo effect, to the fact that it doesn’t really have a traditional chorus. It sums up the sudden self-awareness of teenagers at that time, and it hasn’t dated in my opinion. I would have been about 13, [watching it on] Top Of The Pops or Ready Steady Go! Unlike other bands at the time, The Who seemed to be quite aggressive and I picked up on that. It was the first time I’d heard the bass played like that and it was very exciting. I mean, rock’n’roll has to be exciting, otherwise it’s just background music. DUSTER BENNETT…

Only the strong survive! Introducing the fully updated 172-page Definitive Edition of our Ultimate Music Guide to Bruce Springsteen. Includes a special eight-page fold out on the Six Ages Of Springsteen! It’s in shops on December 21, or you can pre-order now from shop.kelsey.co.uk/uncut… There’s more fab gear in the Archive Collection, celebrating 60 years of Beatlemania with Life In Pictures: The Beatles. Enjoy the band’s story told in pivotal images, from “Love Me Do” to “Now And Then”. It’s in shops or available from our online store now… Paul Weller is heading out on tour in April to play 14 shows in some of the UK’s lesser-visited locales, from Poole to Dunfermline. See the full list of dates and buy tickets at paulweller.com… Also hitting the road in 2024 are…

Manipulator DRAG CITY, 2014 After the sad, sincere acoustic record Sleeper in 2013, Segall followed it with this glittery, glam-rock epic. As is often the case, he played almost all the instruments, and the likes of the swinging “Jean Genie”-ish “The Faker” were cleaner and more addictively catchy than we’d previously come to expect. 8/10 Freedom’s Goblin DRAG CITY, 2018 Arguably the greatest Segall album, like ‘The White Album’ this double LP tries out a different genre on each track. There’s Southern jamming, country-folk, Hawkwind-esque space-rock, hardcore punk, the best Hot Chocolate cover of all time and even an attempt at electro-goth. Every one’s, as it were, a winner. 9/10 Pig Man Lives Vol 1: Demos 2007–2017 SEA NOTE, 2019 Forget double albums, this compilation of Segall’s assorted demos is…

It’s nice to have a title you can hang an album off, right? That’s right. Sadness Sets Me Free is a very singable title, so I just let that do the heavy lifting to start with. As I get older, I feel it’s more important to respect music’s power to uplift and that tells you what you need to do. To what extent are the personal-sounding songs grounded in real life? To start with, the rubbish holiday on the west coast of Wales mentioned in “Bad Friend”… Holidays are often where the kaleidoscopic demands of life threaten to overwhelm you. Broken-down bits of real life definitely make their way into the songs. I once moved house using only a wheelbarrow to move my stuff from one place to the other.…

What were the band’s initial aims for the new LP? We didn’t start writing the album as much as it started writing itself. I believe that can be said of all of our records. I try not to approach the writing process with an agenda. Although a lot of our music is autobiographical, I like to be inspired by the music, so that it pulls something out of me instead of forcing a feeling on top of the music. How is it connected to your last album, As Long As You Are? After the exposure that [2014’s] Singles brought us, we were so buried on the road and burnt out that we all kind of lost ourselves for a few years. ALAYA was the first step for us to take control,…

One of Carlos Niño’s credits is plants. Are these actual plants? Yes. I wasn’t actually physically there when he added his parts, but Carlos loves performing in outdoor places. As we were talking a lot about the album over email, he would send me pictures of himself hiking or beautiful features in nature, like a river or a beautiful sunset. It really inspired the energy of the album. In terms of production, he probably included ‘plants’ in terms of his percussion playing, but I’m not exactly sure how. But when he credited that, I didn’t feel at all shocked. Just because of his nature and how I know the natural world was always a muse throughout the process of working on this album. Can you name a favourite moment or…

IN terms of 2024’s other big albums, IThe Smile are first out of the traps with their second album Wall Of Eyes on January 26. Brittany Howard and J Mascis’s latest solo efforts both follow on Feb 2, with Hurray For The Riff Raff’s The Past Is Still Alive landing on Feb 23. The Libertines’ All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade is scheduled for March 8. Paul Weller is readying a new album for the spring, as is Arooj Aftab, who told us last month that “it’s in the vein of my [previous] solo stuff, but with some new energy and some new direction”. Joan Shelley is halfway through recording a new album; in the meantime, her husband Nathan Salsburg will release his duo album with James Elkington before summer…

ANUS KINGS Seems You Haven’t Learned (2011) In the late 2000s, Sunny War started a folk-punk duo in the mould of The Moldy Peaches and The Dead Milkmen. She and bassist Brian Rodriguez sang fast, loud, sometimes gleefully juvenile songs with dark undercurrent about addiction and homelessness. On their debut, War picks every song like a guitar hero in training. 7/10 SUNNY WAR Worthless (2015) War recorded this short album after getting clean and while she was busking in LA. It’s just her voice and guitar, but already she’s a masterful player, updating old blues techniques for the Venice Beach boardwalk. But it also reveals her to be a sharp, insightful songwriter who conjures the complexities of sobriety and love in economic language. 7/10 SUNNY WAR With The Sun (2018)…

KEITH was a total hero to me as a kid. I loved his guitar-playing, but it was more his ideology, really. I just saw him as someone with ultimate integrity. He was a massive influence on me for his philosophy more than anything. When I was in The Smiths, I felt like I was in my own Rolling Stones. We had a very interesting, idiosyncratic frontman and I was able to take care of just the music, taking the Keith Richards philosophy of being behind the scenes, but also being the engine of the band. He seemed to me to be on a total mission, not to self-destruct, but to find something in music that he loved. Almost a crusade. “Gimme Shelter” has the best guitar solo that’s ever been…

ORDER TODAY! REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2023 COVER STORY Bob Dylan INSIDE The Beatles • Paul Simon Ray Davies • Shirley Collins • PJ Harvey DECEMBER 2023 COVER STORY Sly Stone INSIDE CSNY • Rolling Stones • Nirvana Jason Isbell • Talking Heads • Lankum NOVEMBER 2023 COVER STORY The Who  INSIDE Robbie Robertson • Wilco • Teenage Fanclub • Kristin Hersh • Devo OCTOBER 2023 COVER STORY Tom Waits INSIDE Neil Young • Sinéad O’Connor • Ziggy • Warren Zevon • The Breeders SEPTEMBER 2023 COVER STORY Kate Bush INSIDE Ronnie Lane • Elliott Smith • Blur • Moby Grape • Joan Jett • XTC AUGUST 2023 COVER STORY Bruce Springsteen INSIDE Siouxsie • Black Sabbath • Fleet Foxes • Syd Barrett • Dexys JULY 2023 COVER STORY Nick…

NEAR the end of Living The Beatles Legend, his lengthy biography of the band’s gofer Mal Evans, Kenneth Womack quotes a note from John Lennon. The Beatle has heard that Evans is turning his diary into a memoir and offers a pastiche of its likely contents. “‘Tues: 1965’,” Lennon writes. “‘Got up, loaded van’ … should be a laugh.” It’s a harsh judgement, but not entirely inaccurate. True, Lennon’s quip underestimates the many roles assumed by Evans after he graduated from being a part-time bouncer at the Cavern. It also underscores the way he was taken for granted. What did Evans do? He was a van driver, a roadie, a bodyguard, a gatekeeper, a procurer of girls, a drug supplier, a booze cabinet (his “sin kit”, Womack writes, acted as…