uncut january 2015

A fond farewell to

JACK BRUCE

ROGER MCGUINNReunions? I dont want

to be in The Byrds!

llllllllllllllllllllllllll tttttPLUS

AC/DC: Its always been do or die!WILCO

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND

JONI MITCHELL

SPRINGSTEEN

PIXIES

AND MORE...

40 PAGES OF REVIEWS

AND

LEE BAINS IIISLEAFORD MODS

SMASHING PUMPKINSSWAMP DOGG

Life is full of strange delights/And in the darkness we find lights/To make our way back home again

BLAKE MILLS

EINSTRZENDE NEUBAUTEN

AND EARLS COURT REMEMBERED

Uncuts 2014 Hall Of Fame

starring...

NEIL YOUNG

KATE BUSH

JIMMY PAGE

ST VINCENT

MARK KOZELEK

SWANS

The ultimate

Reviewof the Year

75 BEST ALBUMS!

30 KEY REISSUES!

The nest lms, books and DVDsof 2014

JANUARY 2015 | UNCUT.CO.UK

AT SOME POINT in October, I started receiving emails from record labels

and publicists about their Tips For 2015. A new year loomed, distantly,

and with it the annual music business imperative to embrace a tranche

of new artists. Around the same time, the 2014 Mercury Prize hoopla

culminated with a victory for the Scottish hip-hop act, Young Fathers, and their

Dead album, one of seven debuts in the shortlist of 12.

It is hard not to conclude from all this that the British music business has

abandoned the idea of sticking with artists for the long haul: not always the most

expedient commercial approach, but one which had at least a little bit of traction

before neurotic short-termism went into overdrive. The subtext, perhaps, is that the

industry, the media and, both would presume, the general public, find artists who

grow incrementally to be boring underachievers. If you dont start with a major

success, then youre expendable. Soon enough, therell be another new year and

another horde of contenders to fling optimistically in the direction of the BBCs

Sound Of 2015 poll.

Uncuts Albums Of 2014, though, tell another story. Four hundred and one releases

were nominated by our 42 voters. In the Top 75 albums, only seven were technically

debuts, and three of those were by artists with considerable

careers in other bands behind them. Plenty of the acts felt

fresh and exciting (Sleaford Mods, for instance, who we

feature on page 106), but many had discreetly worked at their

art for a few years, just off the radar, cumulatively growing

with every release.

Take Mark Kozelek, who came up with what may be his

masterpiece, Benji, 22 years into a career mostly conducted

on the margins. I felt confident that Benji would be received

poorly, that people would find it to be middle-aged

ramblings about dead relatives, Kozelek told me this

month, in his most in-depth interview in years. But

something about it resonated with people.

Kozeleks career and those of Sharon Van Etten, The War On Drugs, St Vincent,

Caribou, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Future Islands, Steve Gunn and many other key

players of 2014, to say nothing of Neil Young is an object lesson in how things can

be done differently. This end-of-year Uncut special, we hope, is a testament to the

enduring creative health of our corner of the music scene; a place where many

inspiring albums are still being made, regardless of the Death Of Rock thinkpieces

that will doubtless proliferate, as they do every year, in the next month or two.

If youre hungry for more of this, Ill be posting my own personal chart of 100 or so

records Ive enjoyed in 2014 at www.uncut.co.uk any day now. In the meantime, a

heartfelt thanks for all your support over the past 12 months. Until next year

Are we rolling?

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40 PAGES OF REVIEWS!

John Mulvey, Editor. Follow me on Twitter @JohnRMulvey COV

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4 Instant Karma!Jack Bruce remembered; Deeply Vale Festival; Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires

14 Jimmy PageAn audience with the Zeppelin guitarist

REVIEW OF 201422 Albums Of The Year

The 75 best records of 2014

33 Reissues Of The Year

36 Films Of The Year

39 Books Of The Year

40 Kate BushThe making of Wuthering Heights

44 Neil Young The legends crazy year, charted by his closest compadres, including Graham Nash and Frank Poncho Sampedro

54 St VincentAlbum by album with Annie Clark

56 Mark Kozelek The former Red House Painter aka

Sun Kil Moon reects on fame, infamy, and his war with The War On Drugs

63 New Albums Including: AC/DC, Smashing

Pumpkins, Blake Mills

81 The ArchiveIncluding: The Velvet Underground,

Bruce Springsteen, Pixies

96 Film & DVD Bill Murray in St Vincent, Muhammad

Ali documentary, The Doors

104 LiveRoger McGuinn, Sleaford Mods

117 BooksRobert Wyatt, Mick Fleetwood

118 Not Fade AwayThis months obituaries

120 FeedbackYour letters, plus the Uncut crossword

122 My Life In MusicSwans Michael Gira

4 | UNCUT | JANUARY 2015

THIS MONTHS REVELATIONS FROM THE WORLD OF UNCUT Featuring DEEPLY VALE FESTIVAL

I N S T A N T K A R M A !Jack Bruce in 1967:

He never sang or

played a dishonest

word or note in his life

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JANUARY 2015 | UNCUT | 5

IFIRST MET Jack when I was a poet in the

early to mid-60s, and I was doing a lot of

shows with jazz people like The Graham

Bond Organisation, who Jack played with.

After Cream formed, Ginger phoned me

up. It seemed like an emergency they were in the

studio, and had done this backing track, which ended

up being Wrapping Paper, their first single, but they

didnt have any words. I went down there and ended

up writing the lyrics for it.

I was living in the same place as Eric Clapton, and

we tried to write a couple of

things, and I also tried with

Ginger, but it became fairly

obvious that the chemistry was

with Jack and myself. We came

up with I Feel Free, and then it

became easier after that. There

was real chemistry between us,

and we got a lot of good stuff

down. Another thing we always

had in common was politics, we

were both dedicated socialists.

I remember once Jack and I

were sitting there at about five in

the morning, trying to get some

stuff ready for Disraeli Gears. Jack

picked up his double bass and

played a riff, and I looked out of the window and wrote,

Its gettin near dawn/When lights close their tired

eyes Jack and I wrote the verses, and then the pair

of us and Eric wrote the hook, and of course that was

Sunshine Of Your Love. Most of the successful Cream

songs were by Jack and myself, with the possible

exception of Tales Of Brave Ulysses and Badge.

Did I see any conflict between the three of them in

Cream? Oh yeah! Having three people in a band is very

claustrophobic, and it was quite a pressurised situation,

because they were the cash cow of that particular

management, so they were working them as hard as

they could. Ginger and Jack had a history of certain

amounts of conflict, and they would compete musically,

and in other ways. A three-piece lineup was incredibly

limiting for somebody like Jack as a composer and a

player, he needed a bigger palette

to work with, which is one of the

reasons they broke up.

Of course, things like Cream,

where the songs become almost

standards, do haunt you. Cream

was nearly juvenilia for Jack I

think some of his more mature

work will eventually be seen to

be just as good, if not better than

that. Funnily enough, when they

did the reunion [in 2005] they

sounded so much better than they

had before, so much more subtle

and thoughtful. They were really

listening to each other, catching

nuances that werent possible

technically because of sound systems in the 60s.

Some of Jacks early solo songs had already been

written for Cream, like Songs For A Tailors Theme For

An Imaginary Western, but Jacks manager hated them

and conspired to lose them. Originally I gave Rope

A striving to make things that were beautiful and interesting and groovy and stimulating...

JACK BRUCE remembered by his

colleague of 48 years, PETE BROWN

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Jack was an incredible

composer and arranger, I was in awe of him as

a musician PETE BROWN

JACK BRUCE | 1943-2014

I N S T A N T K A R M A !


NODDY HOLDER REMEMBERS Slades

landmark show at Londons Earls Court

Exhibition Centre in July 1973 with pride.

We were the first band to think of playing Earls

Court, nobody else had done it, the singer tells

Uncut. Bowie played there first, but only

because hed heard wed booked it. Unluckily for

him he had terrible sound and got bad reviews,

and we learnt from that, put in baffles and got

much better sound. Id love to have been in the

audience. Apparently the tube was full of 20,000

people in Slade gear, everybody in top hats and

glitter. Nobody had seen anything like it.

And nobody will again, at least not at Earls

Court. Barring a last-minute miracle, the centre

is being demolished this February, the latest

London venue to pay the price of regeneration.

It will be replaced by flats, shops and offices. A

venue that saw important shows by Pink Floyd,

Bowie, the Stones, Led Zeppelin and Dylan, as

well as events from the Royal Tournament to

the Ideal Home Show, will be gone for good.

Its a huge loss for London, says Duggie

Fields, who can see the exhibition centre from

the flat he used to share with Syd Barrett, the

same one that appeared on the cover of The

Madcap Laughs. Fields, an artist, has been

campaigning to save the 1937 Art Deco building,

but now feels its destruction is inevitable.

The developers got a legal injunction against

anybody listing the building, he explains.

In London, it seems everything thats not

a shop, offices or luxury apartments is being

demolished. This striking building still attracts

millions of people from around the world, and

were throwing that history and heritage away.

Earls Court hosted some of the biggest shows

of the 1970s. Pink Floyd and David Bowie played

there in the same week in May 1973, and Floyd

would return to tour The Wall and The Division

Bell. Their shows there in June 1981 for The Wall

were the last full-length ones with Roger Waters,

while October 29, 1994 was the bands last public

performance until the 2005 reunion. In May 1975,

Led Zeppelin played five shows that some

consider the best they ever performed. Bowies

1978 show was filmed by David Hemmings, but

has yet to be released, while Dylans shows that

same year were his first in London since 1966.

More recently, the venue has hosted Take That,

Morrissey, Muse, Arctic Monkeys and Oasis,

while Arcade Fire played two shows in June.

Fields thinks this continued popularity may

be part of the problem for wealthy locals.

The fact that Earls Court draws people to

concerts is fabulous, he says. The whole area is

buzzing. But I think the concerts attract too many

of the unwashed masses in the view of the more

snobbish locals and the council. When Madonna

played [in 2001] there were thousands of girls in

the streets staggering round in boas and cowboy

hats. I think that adds life to the neighbourhood.

That is culture and we should consider ourselves

lucky to have had a venue that could draw

performers like that to it. PETER WATTS

WISH YOU WERE STILL HEREIn memoriam: Earls Court,

venue of legends. Its a

huge loss for London

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Ladder To The Moon to Arthur Brown, but

Arthur didnt know what to do with it so I gave it

to Jack, and he came up with the most incredible

music that was just absolutely 100 per cent

right. I generally kept out of things musically

with Jack he was an incredible composer and

arranger, I was in awe of him as a musician.

I learnt a lot from him, especially as a singer.

We actually worked together for 48 years, on

and off. I was extremely glad when Jack asked

me to write his last record, [2014]s Silver Rails,

with him. He said to me, I want this to be an old

mans album. Its got no pretensions to youth,

or machismo. It should reflect how I am, and

the age that I am. Thats a very honest thing to

say in todays world, where were all trying to

be as young as we possibly can!

Jack was a little frail when we recorded it,

and when we last saw each other, at a Silver

Rails playback, maybe it was slightly obvious

it might have been the

final time. Jack had a

liver transplant a way

back, and managed to

survive it. We all thought

of Jack as a tremendous

survivor, so I knew

it was pretty bad

this time, but I was

hoping he would

make it again.

I think Jack

would have liked to

be remembered just

as a great musician.

He related a lot to

Monk and Mingus;

those guys were

composers and in

fact Jack, with the classical training he had on

the cello, had an even wider palette than some

of those guys. He could score for strings, horns

and orchestras. Jacks achievements were not

out of a striving for money, they were out of

a striving to actually make things that were

beautiful and interesting and groovy and

stimulating. Jack never sang or played a

dishonest word or note in his life. It is genuine,

honest stuff and thats why a lot of people like

it, because it doesnt come with any bullshit or

fakery. Its real. INTERVIEW: TOM PINNOCK

Jack Bruce, left, with

Pete Brown, 2005

Pink Floyd fans

outside Earls Court,

August 1980, and

below, Bowie at

Earls Court, 1973

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Free Super Saver Delivery and Unlimited One-Day

Delivery with Amazon Prime are available. Terms

and conditions apply. See Amazon.co.uk for details.

The New Album

December 1st

ACDC.COM COLUMBIA.CO.UK

IN APRIL 2010, the New York-based filmmaker

Alex Steyermark travelled to Quogue, Long

Island, on a rather unusual errand. Theres

an eccentric guy who lives in an old fishermans

shack way out on the south shore, Steyermark

explains. He buys old gear from studios and radio

stations that are going out of business, fixes some

of the stuff up, and sells it to collectors around the

world. There, Steyermark bought two Presto

disc recorders, similar to the machines used by

folklorist Alan Lomax in the 1930s and 40s to

document regional folk music in America.

These machines are at the heart of The 78

Project, a documentary by Steyermark and

collaborator Lavinia Jones Wright which both

honours Lomaxs fieldwork and the machines he

used. In the film, the pair travel around America

recording todays musicians on their Prestos.

As Steyermark and Wright explain, The 78

Project began as a web project in 2011, where they

invited musicians they knew to record a song onto

the Presto. Their only stipulations were that each

artist play a song in the public domain, in one take,

and that the artist choose the location. Soon, they

secured the involvement of artists including

Richard Thompson, Loudon Wainwright III and

Rosanne Cash. The series grew until, in 2011, they

decided to make a feature-length documentary.

We decided to take a road trip, says

Steyermark. We want

to show how people

from different

cultural backgrounds

can be connected

around this

transforming

experience that takes

place when you have

to cut a record using

old technology.

Their journey took them from the

hallowed archives at the Library of

Congress to a lacquer disc plant in

California, a remote farmhouse in rural

Louisiana and even an old karate school

in Memphis where Elvis Presley studied

(Its not there anymore, laments

Steyermark. Its been turned into a

sports bar.) Their subjects include a

smattering of familiar faces: John C Reilly,

Dawn Landes and Kid Creoles former

lieutenant, Coati Mundi, who is filmed in

his kitchen delivering a rendition of Billy

Boy accompanying himself on the

spoons. Other less well-known participants

include the Reverend John Wilkins son of early

blues artist Robert Wilkins, whose Thats No Way

To Get Along was recorded as Prodigal Son by

The Rolling Stones. Filmed at Hunters Chapel in

Como, Mississippi, the 73-year old Wilkins delivers

a rendition of I Want Jesus To Walk With Me that

feels like an authentic connection to Lomaxs

recordings. While Steyermark films, Wright

operates the machine, brushing away the chaff as

its stylus cuts into an acetate disc. Besides being

antique, Prestos are notoriously temperamental.

The manuals only one page, laughs Steyermark.

But the troubleshooting guide is four

We see the project as bridging 100 years of

technology, adds Wright. The music is captured

on an analogue artefact, but the project is taking

into account all the technology thats available.

Indeed, the film continues to play at festivals

with a DVD and online release next year. There

are also two albums of recordings from the web

series and film. Essentially, The 78 Project is a very

modern exercise in nostalgia. Its interesting,

says Wright, how this 80-year-old machine

interacts with new ones.

Every time we recorded,

someone would get their

iPhone out and take a

picture or a video. So its

co-existing with all these

different technologies

MICHAEL BONNER

For more information visit

www.the78project.com

LOMAX FIDELITY

Jones Wright and

Steyermark with

the Presto, the star

of the project

Recording with old tech is a transforming

experience ALEX STEYERMARK

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THE CLASSIFIEDSThis month: The Clash and The Slits raise money for Sid Vicious murder

defence fund, while The Jam get festive From the NME, December 9, 1978


Were bridging 100 years of technology!Hey Presto! Two filmmakers, an antique disc recorder, and

a quest to record in exactly the same way as Alan Lomax

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FROM THE MAKERS OF

AVAILABLE IN ALL GOOD UK NEWSAGENTS

OR ORDER FROM UNCUT.CO.UK/STORE

ON SALE NOW!


THE FLYER PROMISED free

food and 10,000 beautiful

people: All you need is love,

but the love revolution needs

you. 1978s Deeply Vale

Festival, then in its third year, was fast

becoming the countercultural hub of the

north. Held in a wooded valley on the

fringe of Rochdale, it represented a

cultural shift. The hippy dream had

crashed and burned, explains The Fall

and Billy Bragg producer Grant Showbiz,

then involved with festival regulars Here

And Now. It was all falling to pieces and

we had to learn to fend for ourselves. We

thought that Deeply Vale was a pointer to

the future, so there was this huge kind of

political meaning to it all. It was a really

transformative moment.

Conceived by five members of a

Rochdale commune, Deeply Vale saw

disparate tribes punks, hippies, new-

wavers, tipi people co-exist in a spirit of

alternative living. As a new 6CD boxset

proves, it was reflected in the diversity

of bands, from newcomers The Fall, The

Ruts and The Durutti Column to relative

veterans Steve Hillage, Tractor and Nik

Turner. Whats more, everything was free.

In 76, we found this natural

amphitheatre, recalls Deeply Vale

co-founder and Ozit label chief Chris

Hewitt. A beautiful little valley with a

stream and lakes for swimming. We knew

the farmer and initially asked if we could

have a birthday party for 10 people

camping. But we ended up with 20 bands

and 300 people. The next year we had

3,000 there,

30-odd acts and

a review in NME.

By 78, we had a

crowd of 20,000.

Years before

Glastonbury, we

were the first free

festival to allow punk bands on. The

Crass thing was about to happen, then

Chumbawamba and the rest of it.

One of the more anarchic local bands

at the 1978 festival was Danny And The

Dressmakers, whose ranks included a

17-year-old Graham Massey, later of 808

State. It was a good kind of chaos, he

recalls. The stage was basic. Wire and

scaffold poles, daylight in a Hobbit wood.

Sister Maura, our 17-year-old convent

schoolgirl lead singer, just screamed like a

car alarm until her voice packed up. The

festival seemed to be a platform for

musical ideas at a time when the scene

was in flux. Punk didnt divide people in

the north. There was a commonality to

anti-establishment themes and Deeply

Vale was where it played out.

The next generation were in attendance,

too, among them David Gedge, The

Chameleons, Ian Brown, Andy Rourke

and an eight-year-old Jimi Goodwin, later

of Doves; while those who performed

included teenage punks Wilful Damage,

Fast Cars, Alternative TV, Pegasus

(featuring a pre-OMD Andy McCluskey)

and Crispy Ambulance. The latters Alan

Hempsall remembers: In 1978, wed only

been going for six months. Tony Wilson

made the biggest impression

on me. He had a spot on

Saturday and put on The Fall

and Durutti Column. I think it

was the beginning of his idea

for Factory. He hadnt seen Joy

Division yet, but he

knew Vini Reilly from

Ed Banger And The

Nosebleeds. Vini

wanted something

that showed off his

talents more.

Reillys presiding

memory is of Les

Pryor, formerly of

Alberto Y Los Trios

Paranoias, coming to

the rescue when his

Watkins echo unit gave up: Les stepped

forward and said to the audience, Has

anyone got an elastic band? He diffused

the situation and made everyone laugh

their heads off. I had a giggling fit. The

rest of the time, says Reilly, was spent

wandering around in a hallucinogenic

fug, listening to Fela Kuti on his Walkman:

There was this very pure, strong herb that

I used to get from Moss Side. It was idyllic.

The last Deeply Vale Festival was held in

1979, though by then it had become victim

to local bureaucracy. An injunction was

served, demanding a better water supply

and sanitary conditions. And though it

struggled on for another two summers at

nearby Pickup Bank, it was all but over.

Thatcherism had come in and

community spirit went at the end of the

70s, says Hewitt. Deeply Vale was

special because it was about everybody.

Wed all been to see Woodstock and

bought the triple vinyl. So we just thought,

Wow, wouldnt it be great to do that here?

We still had that dream of the Woodstock

generation. ROB HUGHES

The Deeply Vale Box Set, including six

CDs, a 272-page book and a pack of

incense, is released Dec 1 on Dandelion

The Deeply Vale

Festival, 1978: a

British Woodstock?

INTO THE VALLEY!1978. Hippies and punks come together

at an idyllic free festival near Rochdale:

It was a really transformative moment!

DEEPLY VALE FESTIVAL

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A QUICK ONE

Bruce Springsteen recently revealed to the New York Times that his fantasy dinner-party guests would be Philip Roth, Keith Richards, Tolstoy and Dylan. A clue as to what he might serve them came on November

5, when the Boss auctioned a lasagne dinner at his place in aid of US veterans. The price? $300,000.

Its a livin thing! After his Hyde Park show, Jeff Lynne appears to be planning a full comeback. Talking to Billboard, Lynne revealed that hes working on an album, with a view to playing new material at US shows in 2015.

Stumped for that last-minute festive treat? The sequel to 4:13 Dream might not have appeared in 2014, but The Cure finish the year with three Christmas shows in London. The venue is the Eventim Apollo, on December 21-23.

The latest Uncut Ultimate Music

Guide is now on sale, dedicated to the indefatigable genius of Paul McCartney, and full of fab old NME and Melody Maker interviews and insightful new reviews. And visit uncut.co.uk, packed with news and reviews, and some of Uncuts best features from the archives.the archives.



ON THE STEREO THIS MONTH

THE PLAYLIST

NATALIE PRASS

Natalie Prass SPACEBOMB

Stepping out of Jenny Lewis band and into Matthew E Whites Spacebomb cabal, the Nashville singers debut is a sumptuous country-soul classic.

THE GO-BETWEENS

G Stands For Go-Betweens DOMINO

An exhaustive, revelatory 8CD trawl through Forster, McLennan and Morrisons formative years. Further, longer, higher, older

JESSICA PRATT

On Your Own Love Again DRAG CITY

A second album of eldritch, candlelit folk from the fine Californian singer-songwriter, often sounding kin to Karen Dalton.

THE WATERBOYS

Modern Blues

HARLEQUIN AND CLOWN

Mike Scotts latest musical adventure takes him to Nashville, and a soulful new Waterboys featuring Muscle Shoals legend David Hood on bass.

PANDA BEAR

Panda Bear Meets

The Grim Reaper

DOMINO

The Animal Collectives most high-profile member returns with his fifth exuberant and poppiest solo album.

SLEATER-KINNEY

No Cities To Love SUB POP

Hot on the heels of their career-spanning boxset, a new chapter of S-Ks storied career begins with an album picking up roughly where 2005s The Woods left off.

LIAM HAYES

Slurrup FAT POSSUM

An unprecedented burst of activity in the Plush mans 20-year career, following up this autumns Korp Sole Roller with a ragged, punchier powerpop set. VARIOUS ARTISTS

Black Fire! New Spirits! Deep And Radical

Jazz In The USA 1957-75 SOUL JAZZ

What it says on the proverbial tin. A potent Soul Jazz round-up, featuring Don Cherry, Archie Shepp, Yusef Lateef et al.

HOWLIN RAIN

Mansion Songs EASY SOUND

A weird major-label sojourn behind him, Ethan Miller leads his SF rockers in a strung-out, reflective new direction.

8:58

Eight Fifty Eight PLEDGE

In the wake of Orbitals split, Paul Hartnoll updates the intricate systems of his old band circa Snivilization.

For regular updates, check our blogs at www.

uncut.co.uk and follow @JohnRMulvey on Twitter

Aw, I got nervous writing all these

songs, says Lee Bains III. I was

raised not to talk about politics,

religion or sex in polite company. And theres

a lot on this record about the two of those that

rocknroll isnt supposed to be about.

Bains has just been asked how hesitant he was

about deploying the motto of his home state of

Alabama We Dare Defend Our Rights! as

the title of a song which does not, to understate

matters audaciously, full-throatedly endorse the

insular belligerence with which the South in

general, and Alabama in particular, are often

associated. Bains song of the same name is,

rather, an angry elegy to the victims of the 1963

bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in his

native Birmingham accompanied, like every

song on Bains & The Glory Fires stunning second

LP, Dereconstructed (No 40 in Uncuts Albums

Of 2014 list), by unmistakeably

Southern rock guitars.

But theres a history, says

Bains, of Southern bands

undermining the social strictures

the Allmans, Marshall Tucker,

Skynyrd. And I really value that

tradition. When I was in high

school, all the bands I got stoked

about coming through town were

from Gainsville and Richmond,

who had this aesthetic of loud

guitars and politicised lyrics.

These were two-guitar, bearded

punk bands, but they were

where I learned about LGBT

politics and feminism.

Bains concedes that hes far from the first

Southern musician to be drawn to what one

obvious antecedent, Drive-By Truckers, defined

as the duality of the Southern thing. (Matt

Patton, a former compadre of Bains in

Tuscaloosa punkers The Dexateens, recently

joined the DBTs on bass.) The South remains

unfairly caricatured not least, as Bains has said

previously, by Southerners but its tormented

history provides any native artist with what

sometimes seems almost an unfair advantage:

a blessing, to coin a phrase, and a curse. That

white, Protestant, Anglo-Saxon type, says

Bains, has been problematic since the inception

of the South. Im interested in expanding the idea

of a monolithic, static South into a much more

multiplicitous and dynamic set of identities.

For all that Bains lyrics are clearly important to

him, its striking, on much of Dereconstructed,

how hard they are to hear beneath

the squalling furies of the music.

That nervousness, again?

No, thats not why, he says. Or

at least not quite we hemmed and

hawed about that. But I wanted it

to be a rager, to sound abrasive, to

represent the contents of the lyrics

sonically. The records Ive loved

were ones that had vocals pushing

to crack through the guitars, and

made me feel I was in a basement

watching a band play through

Marshall stacks with a busted PA.

Pandemonium. ANDREW MUELLER

Dereconstructed is out on Sub Pop

Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires

WERE NEW HERE

The Glory Fires,

2014: (l-r) Lee Bains, Blake Williamson,

Eric Wallace and

Adam Williamson

I M Y O U R F A N

Lee Bains III

is Southern

punk rock at

its nest...Patterson Hood,

Drive-By Truckers

Panda Bear

Recommended this month: politics, religion and

rocknroll! The radical new firebrands of Southern Rock

ud

s.

rded

made

watc

Mars

Pand

Dere

Jimmy Page

STAR QUESTION

Would you please

show me how

to play Black

Dog? Its been

bothering me

for a long time.

Brian MayWell, Ill have to, then, if Brians

asked! What are the chords for

Black Dog? Its in A, and then it

sort of goes to an E chord but then

while its snaking around it, it has

some sort of little triplets that take

you back into the A. So, yes, its

tricky. You just have to sort of know

how to count it.

Why has it taken you so long to

finish your autobiography?

Christian Parker, ShoreditchI was doing other things at the same

time! One of the things that slowed

it up was knowing, say, there was

a photo session in the past, in the

70s, and knowing that there were

contact sheets. Maybe the images

are now with agencies, but not the

contact sheets. So I wanted to get

into the contact sheets, and that

wasnt always so easy to do. There

were also certain photos I wanted

to get, but I didnt remember who

the photographer was. It just took

time to piece it all together. But

however long it took, I knew that

nobody had done an autobiography

in photographs. As it goes from 13

through to 70 years of age, its got

a whole history of a working

musician. All the changes that go

on are almost chameleon-like but

nevertheless theyre driven by this

one thing a passion towards

music. That was the challenge: to

do something that had never been

done before but which just unfolds

the more you go through it.

What new projects are in the

pipeline and when can we

expect to hear them?

Derek Murphy, Dublin, IrelandIve been involved in some other

epic projects. Ive got all the

Zeppelin remasters finished, for all

of the albums, so theyll be coming

out in staggered release. I also got

material for a what happened in

this day in history for the website,

its all stockpiled. So things will be

coming out in healthy instalments,

which then allows me to focus on

musicians and music that I want

to be seen to be doing next year. I

hoped I could do it this year, but I

cant. Its too much. I dont want to

have to contract musicians and

then go, Im sorry, Ive gotta go

over to the States for a month to

do some promo. I want to start

generating the passion within

all of the musicians that Im

working with, and were going

to go through like a rocket. Itll

manifest itself next year. Can

I tell you anything about it? Well,

Ill be playing guitar. That we

can all guarantee. And I wont be

singing. I want to go out there and

play music from all the way

through. I did a solo tour in 1988.

You know, Ive only had one solo

album out, really. And one single in

1965. So I havent tried to sort of

flood the market with my own

stuff! I want to get out there and

play exactly what it is that Ive got

in mind here to do, including new

material. But therell be some good

surprises in there. I think people

want me to go out there and play.

They know all the sort of stuff

that I can do. I can play in many

sorts of categories because weve

seen that with Led Zeppelin, all

the acoustic stuff, and this, that

and the other. Thats exactly

what I would do.

BY JIMMY PAGEs standards, 2014 has been a

surprisingly busy year. He has overseen the launch

of a lengthy Led Zeppelin reissue campaign,

published his autobiography and even teamed up

with designer Paul Smith for a range of limited-

edition Zeppelin scarves. Next year, he promises,

there will even be the prospect of new music.

Time sometimes passes quite quickly, he tells

Uncut, in the library of a boutique London hotel. Page will be 71 in January,

but he looks in remarkably good shape. With his bronze tan, white pony-

tail and wide smile he resembles an old-school Hollywood star recently

returned from the South Of France. Dressed in black, taking occasional

sips from a glass of sparkling mineral water, he is animated as he answers

your questions on subjects ranging from deep Zeppelin album cuts to the

prospect of a Yardbirds reunion, his formative musical inspirations and

his extraordinary session work from the 1960s. Page even responds to

Robert Plants claim in these very pages that he suggested reuniting

with his former bandmate for an acoustic project Its just spin, says

Page. I dont think its productive in any shape or form to what hes doing

or what Im doing. Now, on with your questions

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Interview: Michael Bonner

Photograph: Ross Halfin


Page, left (circa

1959), outside

school in Epsom

with friend Rod

Wyatt (right)

The Led Zeppelin guitarist discusses his glittering career, occult bookshops and

Robert Plants claims of a possible acoustic reunion: Its just spin, and its not on!

Nobody had done

an autobiography

in photographs...

Its got a whole

history of a

working musician

Are there plans to release any

more experimental music?

Bruce Yardley, LeedsIll tell you whats coming out that

Im really excited about, the mix

that I did of Lucifer Rising, but Im

leaving the guitar on it, a 12-string,

because thats the guide guitar

thats showing me where Im going

to do the overdub. This isnt what

got sent to Kenneth Anger, because

I didnt want hardly any guitar at

all, theres only a little bit of guitar

at the end, guitars coming in more

across it but the mix is really, really

superb, Im really proud of it. And

Ive got some experimental music

that was done with bow and

Theremin which is like, hang on to

your seats, because it really, really

is something else, its disturbing.

Ive got home stuff that I did at the

same studio or equipment that I did

the Lucifer Rising [soundtrack] on,

with the whole guitar textures and

overdubs. I think people want to

hear that. They want to know what

it was I was doing. Ill show you

what it was like and what I was

doing and youll see. Thats coming

on the website. Vinyl.

STAR QUESTION

Reliving

all of the

wonderful

moments

from this

canon of

music,

which moment took you by

surprise the most?

Michael Des BarresA lot of it you think, Well, this

might possibly happen, that might

possibly happen. But Id say as

far as the manifestation of it went, it

was getting the first gold disc for

Led Zeppelin I. You were fully

aware of gold discs and things like

that, with artists that you were

personally endeared to along

the way, American artists.

Suddenly everything wed done,

all the work etcetera, etcetera

wed broken America, I know, but

the fact is, that gold disc was so

symbolic of everything for me, a

major thing.

Who first inspired you to play

the guitar?

Maryann, CaliforniaLonnie Donegan inspired

everyone because he made it look

as though it was possible to do.

But who really moved it out of just

playing acoustic to electric was all

those people that were playing in

the 1950s. Initially, it was the

rockabilly-style guitar, the Johnny

Burnette Rock & Roll Trio. When

you heard that, it was just

something that inspired you so

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much to want to play out of the

box, as its so abstract, the

guitar playing. Scotty Moore,

Cliff Gallop, Jonny Neats, they

gave me the inspiration If

you heard them, you were

infected by them, seduced.

That was what was going to

write the whole of the manual

for us as much as anything

else. Then The Beatles opened

it up for bands to write, and

down here in the south it was

the Chess catalogue more than

Tamla Motown. There was this

great fusion that had gone on from

rock though the blues and all that

wonderful music, that Chicago

blues movement, really, that went

on Vee-Jay and Chess. All that stuff

was so exhilarating.

Where did you buy your records

when you were growing up?

Paul Lloyd, Crystal PalaceIn Epsom. Rumbelows. It was by

the Clock Tower. Rumbelows had a

little section at the back where they

sold records. Its just like you see

this old footage where theyve got

people going in booths. So Id go

there from school on the day

when they had their deliveries

in on weekdays for the

weekend and you could

check certain artists to see

what their new record was.

Yeah thats it, I was really on

that. I didnt wait til Saturday,

in case something had already

sold out in the morning. I could only

afford the equivalent of my pocket

money, like one single. But I also

had to pay for guitars, so there was

a lot of bobbing and weaving when

it came to being a record collector or

a guitar player.

Is there a definitive list of

all your session work?

David Burns, via emailNo, but Ill tell you something

interesting. On the BBC, theres a

little musical clip that comes on, I

think the songs called Ive Got

Everything You Need Babe.

Theres a new version

of it right now, but beforehand

when it was originally there,

I heard this solo and I said,

My goodness, thats me! So

I tracked it down and it was

Bern Elliott & The Fenmen. So

I must have done this session,

because its me without a

shadow of a doubt. I wouldnt

have remembered I did a solo

let alone a song or was on the

session, they were coming fast

and furious. You didnt know

who you were going in with,

thats the important thing, so

I didnt have a whole list

myself. I can estimate how

many. Its a hell of a lot, its

gotta be. I was doing it for the

equivalent of three years or

so. Three sessions a day.

Are there any surviving

live multi-track tapes from

the Japan 1971 tour?

Ian Coe, TorontoMaybe. But not for now.

Theres been a lot of Led

Zeppelin material thats

come out, including live material,

but more importantly, with visual.

But also theres the O2 which shows

the three remaining members with

Jason, a more recent incarnation.

Im so keen for the Led Zeppelin

material from the studio to go out

to give more information on what

went on and I thought that really

tipped the scales. Now theres

other things to do. And I stockpile

material. So, yeah, theres always

someone wanting to know whats

considered to be the Holy Grail

cause its yet to be discovered. But

theres no point in even thinking

about that at the moment. Ive put

quite a lot of time into the Led

Zeppelin material.

What do you consider to be

your finest non-Led Zeppelin

achievement?

David Goodson, via emailIts hard to say. Theres so many

different areas. Id surprise

everyone, but Id be very sincere

if I said that doing the Olympics

[Beijing, 2008] with Leona Lewis

was phenomenal. Shes really

plucky, shes superb, and she sang

Whole Lotta Love brilliantly. We

managed to do the full length of

Whole Lotta Love it wasnt

edited and she sang it beautifully.

It was so cool the way she

approached it. For that audience,

and the fact we didnt fuck it up

were really going to do this and

were going to do it proud. That was

important. It was a Led Zeppelin

number but it took on another

persona. I was proud to be able to

play that riff for the handover.

ming

ight

sold r

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The five-piece

Yardbirds in

1966, with Jeff

Beck, below left,

and Jimmy Page,

top right

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Would you consider playing

with The Yardbirds again?

Byron Lewis, Barry, WalesBut who would sing? Keith Relf

died all those many years ago.

Hed done a couple of other things,

Renaissance and Medicine Head.

Keith Relf was damn good. Could

Jeff Beck do it? Sing? He doesnt

want to sing Hi Ho Silver Lining

let alone sing For Your Love.

Thats really unfair! But I cant sing,

so there we are. Maybe Eric would

like to sing? No, dont say that,

because itll start all the stupid

rumours. Im not starting. Im just

thinking whos going to sing. At

least you got three of the original

guitarists still there and the current

ones that have been since.

STAR QUESTION

Is there one guitar

youve had that

you feel is more

magical than the

rest? J MascisI think most people

would think its a

59 Les Paul Jed Walsh insisted I

buy it off him in 1969, and I go into

the second album with that. So

Whole Lotta Love is done on it,

and I also played it at the O2. Same

guitar. Im pretty loyal to my guitars

you know, but then theyre pretty

loyal to me, too. Theres also an

acoustic guitar that all of the first

four albums were written on. So

thats quite an important one. But

as far as the one that people got to

see then its the 59 Les Paul. How

many guitars do I have? I dont

know! More than I can play at

any one point in time. Even though

I do have double-necks so that I

can try and play more than one at

one time!

Where does Zoso come from?

Preston Currie, Sudbury, SuffolkIt comes from me everyone had

a symbol. Originally, there was

going to be no information on

Led Zeppelin IV. Then somebody

suggested having a sort of

craftsman mark. But it wasnt going

to be so easy because everyones

going to have their idea on what

that one symbol should be, so it

came down to everyone should

choose their own symbol. Because

its the fourth album, all the others

have been I, II and III in Roman

numerals, so then well have four

characters, if you like. Having been

working on it along with all the re-

releases, I think of it as IV and

actually I think of Houses Of The

Holy as V. That said, everyone chose

their own symbol and I chose mine.

What does it mean?

It means I chose my

symbol and put it on

there. If I do a book,

then thats probably

the right time to

describe the whole

process of it, if you

dont mind.

A telephone

can be clearly

heard ringing in

the studio on

Zeppelins The

Ocean. Who

was on the line?

Phil Tate, South Shields, Tyne & WearI dont know. Do I

find it strange

that people pick up

on these very

specific points of

records? No. Im

thrilled the records

are recorded in such

a way that the hi-fi

quality, even

though its tough

the musics not light and wimpy

that you can hear detail on it

because thats what youre

supposed to do. It was supposed to

be something whereby you could

hear everything that was going on

and yet thered still be an intensity

and a character for each number,

each one a separate sound, very

different in its approach, almost

in its performance. I think thats got

a lot to do with the analogue

recording. All of those things were

done from analogue. On IV, youll

hear a version of Stairway To

Heaven that is absolute hi-fi, thats

exactly what hi-fi is all about. It was

done well in the first place, superbly

well, and of course when youve got

these great musicians, you want to

make sure you can hear what

theyve done.

In the 70s, you ran a bookshop

called Equinox. Can you tell

us about it?

Julie & Mo, GermanyI was interested in alternative

basically, things alternative.

There was quite a number of like-

minded people around at that

point in time, so I had a bookshop

in West London because there were

a couple on Museum Street and

one in Cecil Court. Basically,

it was an occult bookshop, and it

covered all manner of things like

astrology and yoga, Eastern

mysticism, Western mysticism,

it was right across the board. Its

very similar to what you have

in a bookshop like Watkins [Cecil

Court, London WC2], really, thats

what it was.

How involved were you in Swan

Song? Davy Maguire, DublinVery much so. We were all very keen

to have something as a record label.

We were thrilled. Dave Edmunds,

Pretty Things. Detective, they were

good. That first album of theirs,

it was really good. It should have

been more popular, shouldnt it?

Bad Company that was more Peter

Grants thing, and that was really a

great band to have on there because

of Paul Rodgers. Hes phenomenal

he was then and still is. The Pretty

Things were a band that were really

changing their music and had done

because they probably did one of

the best singles way back in the day

with Rosalyn. Thats wild! Thats

serious! And then theyd gone

through SF Sorrow and the music

that they were doing on Swan Song

was incredible. It was the sort of

band that when someone said, Oh,

some tapes have come in, I was

keen to hear what theyd done,

because it was always so good!

Good writing, good performance

from everybody. A fine band.

Jimmy, would you agree with

Robert Plants offer to do an

all-acoustic set?

Taylor Miranda, Ferndale, CAThats coming from a soundbite

that is inaccurate. He would have

no intention whatsoever of doing

it. So Im not getting into it. People

keep giving me these quotes. I dont

follow what he says all I know

is, its speaking in volumes that we

just did that one show. He can say

whatever he wants. He can say

Jimmy this, Jimmy that I dont

care. Ive got acoustic songs.

Dont you think Ive got some new

material for what Im going to do?

Its just spin. Its spin, and its not

on. The Robert Plant questions are

difficult for me to answer because

Ive had enough of all of this stuff,

to be honest. Robert says this,

Robert says that. I just dont want to

be presenting soundbites so that its

like some kind of ping-pong match.

Ive had enough. I dont need it. The

only reality of it is that we did one

concert. No matter how you dress it

up, look at the situation. Thats it.

Jimmy Page, the

official autobiography

by Jimmy Page, is out

now, published by

Genesis Publications.

Price 40 from major

bookstores or jimmypagebook.com

The latest batch of Led Zeppelin

remasters IV and Houses Of The

Holy are available from Rhino

UNCUT.CO.UK

Log on to see whos in

the hot-seat next month

and to post your questions!

I wouldnt have remembered if I did a solo, let

alone a song or a session they

were coming fast and furious!


Zoso with Led

Zeppelin at

the Oakland

Coliseum, CA,

July 23, 1977

PA L E G R E E N G H O S T S

c o m p l e t e l y c o m p e l l i n g

* * * * * G U A R D I A N * * * * * M O J O

t r u l y b e a u t i f u l

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T H E C Z A R S B E S T O F

f e a t u r i n g

J O H N G R A N T

m o n d a y 1 s t d e c e m b e r

Q U E E N O F D E N M A R K

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The nal, denitive word on 2014, as the Uncut team rank the key releases of the year. Once youve worked your way through all our charts, please send us your own thoughts:

[email protected]

THE ESSENTIAL ALBUMS FILMS, DVDS & BOOKS OF THE YEAR

22 THE TOP 75 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 33 THE BEST REISSUES & COMPS 36 2014S FINEST FILMS 39 THE YEARS BEST BOOKS

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IN ASSOCIATION WITH

JANUARY 2015 | UNCUT | 21

50 WILD BEASTSPresent Tense

DOMINO

If 2011s Smother was

somewhat uptight,

a little frigid, reined-

in, corseted, Present

Tense was a welcome

return in parts to the more

colourfully ribaldry of Wild Beasts

first two albums. Synthesisers

dominated, but the album was

never alien or abrasive, more often

intimate, eerily seductive, an exotic

pleasure, indebted partly to both

Kate Bush and The Blue Nile.

49 ROBYN HITCHCOCKThe Man Upstairs

YEP ROC

Produced by Joe

Boyd, who helmed

landmark albums by

many of Hitchcocks

musical heroes, The

Man Upstairs was a largely acoustic

collection of sombre originals and

impeccably selected covers. Among

them were revelatory versions of

The Doors The Crystal Ship and

Roxys Avalon-era To Turn You On.

At 61, Hitchcock seemed finally to

have outgrown surreal whimsy. His

new maturity suited him perfectly.

48 MORRISSEYWorld Peace Is None

Of Your BusinessHARVEST

His first album in

five years was barely

in the shops when

Morrissey threw a fit

over Harvests

ineffective promotion. In the

subsequent public row, it was

rather forgotten that World Peace

sounded as fresh as Viva Hate did in

the wake of The Smiths. At its best,

it was a vivid reminder how great

he once was and can be still.

47 ALLAH-LASWorship The Sun

INNOVATIVE LEISURE

Allah-Las highly

regarded 2011 debut

drew obsessively

from a wellspring of

mid-60s influences

and was in thrall to fuzzy US garage

rock, surf-pop, early psychedelia,

primitive beat music, Loves

psychotic twitchiness and The

Byrds trebly jangle. Their second

album was a similar helping of

impeccable Californian retro-

fetishism that subverted ridicule

by achieving so spectacularly what

it set out to do.

46 WILLIE WATSONFolk Singer, Vol. 1

ACONY

Willie Watson,

formerly of Old Crow

Medicine Show,

picked his way

through a sometimes

arcane collection of old and obscure

folk and country songs on his

outstanding solo debut, produced

by Dave Rawlings for the label he

runs with musical partner Gillian

Welch. The results were like

something you might have heard

on an anthology compiled by

Harry Smith.

45 KATE TEMPESTEverybody Down

BIG DADA

London poet

and spoken-word

artist Tempest, the

youngest winner of

the 2012 Ted Hughes

Award poetry prize, made her debut

as a rapper on the Mercury-

nominated Everybody Down, an

ambitious narrative about love,

drugs and redemption, each song

a new chapter in a sometimes lurid

and generally bleak tale, partly

indebted to The Streets A Grand

Dont Come For Free.

44 THOM YORKETomorrows

Modern Boxes SELF-RELEASEDSeptembers surprise

release of Thom

Yorkes second solo

album provoked

more discussion

about how the music was delivered

than the music itself, which rather

overlooked the fact that it contained

some of his most lovely, clever and

subtly involving work of the decade.

The album gave up its riches

incrementally, even reluctantly,

but there were great rewards for

the patiently attentive.

43 EAST INDIA YOUTHTotal Strife Forever

STOLEN RECORDINGS

If Brian Wilson, Eno

and Bjrk had ever

made an album

together, the results

of their stellar

Morrissey: a

turbulent year

The 2014 End of Year Review in association with


75 RICHARD THOMPSON

Acoustic Classics BEESWING

74 TEMPLES

Sun Structures HEAVENLY

73 DAVE & PHIL ALVIN

Common Ground YEP ROC

72 DAN MICHAELSON

Distance THE STATE51 CONSPIRACY

71 BOB MOULD

Beauty & Ruin MERGE

70 FIRST AID KIT

Stay Gold COLUMBIA

69 GULP

Season Sun SONIC CATHEDRAL

68 LYDIA LOVELESS

Somewhere Else BLOODSHOT

67 PERFUME GENIUS

Too Bright CAROLINE INTERNATIONAL S&D

66 THURSTON MOORE

The Best Day MATADOR

65 THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS

Brill Bruisers MATADOR

64 KING CREOSOTE

From Scotland With Love DOMINO

63 GAZELLE TWIN

Unflesh ANTI GHOST MOON RAY

62 PAOLO NUTINI

Caustic Love ATLANTIC

61 AFGHAN WHIGS

Do To The Beast SUB POP

60 FRAZEY FORD

Indian Ocean NETTWERK

59 RODDY FRAME

Seven Dials AED

58 JAMIE T

Carry On The Grudge VIRGIN EMI

57 THE DELINES

Colfax DECOR

56 ANGEL OLSEN

Burn Your Fire For No Witness JAGJAGUWAR

55 SCOTT WALKER AND SUNN O)))

Soused 4AD

54 TOM PETTY

Hypnotic Eye REPRISE

53 GOAT

Commune ROCKET

52 LIARS

Mess MUTE

51 JENNY LEWIS

The Voyager WARNER BROS

REVIEW OF 2014 N|E|W|R|E|L|E|A|S|E|S

DA

VE

McC

LIS

TE

R

collaboration might have sounded

not unlike this impressive debut

from William Doyle. Total Strife

Forever shifted kaleidoscopically

from shoegaze shimmer to ambient

abstraction, full-on electro-

orchestral symphonies, modern

classical austerity and pumping

acid house.

42 MOGWAIRave Tapes

ROCK ACTION

Mogwais eighth

album sounded

like a major

achievement, on

which the bands

familiar predilection for vast

musical landscapes drenched by

torrential guitars and the swell of

often lachrymose melodies came

up against dark electronic

experiments, in which there were

echoes of Boards Of Canada and

even Depeche Mode. This was

music to terrorise and delight,

uniquely Mogwai.ON YOUR FREE CD TRACK 9

41 MARK LANEGAN BANDPhantom Radio

FLOODED SOIL/VAGRANT/HEAVENLY

2012s synth-heavy

Blues Funeral

marked a surprising

development in

Mark Lanegans

illustrious career, and he furthered

that albums overlapping of the

blues and folk, that have been a

cornerstone of his music, with

modern electronics on Phantom

Radio. The hypnotic pulse of

programmed drums and

washes of synthesiser created

a dramatic musical landscape

over which Lanegans weather-

beaten vocals loomed with

dark majesty.

40 LEE BAINS III & THE GLORY FIRES

Dereconstructed SUB POP

Ferocious Southern

rock indebted to

Lynyrd Skynyrd

and Drive-By

Truckers, with

an exciting dash of The Rolling

Stones, the second album from

Alabamas Lee Bains III & The

Glory Fires was also a potent,

articulate attempt to bring an

enlightened perspective to hoary

Southern traditions of regional

pride, faith, virility and political

intransigence.

39 FUTURE ISLANDSSingles 4AD

Its about real things.

Love, loss, nature,

Future Islands

vocalist Samuel T

Herring told Uncut

about his bands fourth album, their

first for 4AD. Recorded in a hunting

cabin in their native North Carolina,

Singles was full of rousing synth-pop,

Herrings operatic croon bringing an

urgent hyper-sincerity to a collection

of emotionally bold, heartfelt songs.

38 FENNESZBcs EDITIONS MEGO

Since 2001s Endless

Summer, in which

guitar feedback

and processed

electronics

shimmered over discreet, nostalgic

melodies, Christian Fennesz has

never quite as successfully matched

its ample serenity, despite his

growing status as an experimental

composer who favours warmth and

romance to clinical austerity. Bcs,

though, was, however, a ravishing

experience, Fennesz emerging from

its billowing clouds of noise as

Kevin Shields most auspicious peer.

37 WILLIE NELSONBand Of Brothers

SONY LEGACY

This was a surprise:

a Willie Nelson

album mostly

written by Willie

Nelson and further

distinguished by the simple

grandeur of the hardy veterans

much-weathered voice. On his most

intimate and open-hearted record in

years, there were nods to his hell-

raising 60s and 70s prime and

riotous Nashville days, while Billy

Joe Shavers Hard To Be An

Outlaw was delivered with the

surly panache of a true renegade.

36 LA ROUXTrouble In Paradise

POLYDOR

At the time of its

mid-summer release,

the belated follow-up

to La Rouxs self-

titled 2009 debut

seemed to our reviewer like the

best pop album of 2014 so far,

warmer and much more luxurious

than its sometimes shrill

predecessor, a triumph for the

now effectively solo Elly Jackson,

following the departure of former

collaborator Ben Langmaid.

By years end, its appeal had

barely diminished.

35 DRIVE-BY TRUCKERSEnglish Oceans

ATO

Returning from the

much-needed break

they took after 2011s

Go-Go Boots, Drive-

By Truckers were

reinvigorated on English Oceans.

Band cornerstone Mike Cooley

sounded especially refreshed,

contributing nearly half the

songs on an album that followed

a blazing arc from the rowdy,

horn-driven Exile On Main St

rock of Shit Shots Count to the

epic closer Grand Canyon, and

held together better than anything

since 2003s Decoration Day.

34 CHRIS FORSYTH & THE SOLAR

MOTEL BANDIntensity Ghost NO QUARTER

The brilliant

Philadelphia

guitarists debt to

Television was even

more apparent on

Intensity Ghost than last years

raging Solar Motel, his new

album taking up where Marquee

Moon left off. If Forsyths solo

albums showcased his wiry

virtuosity, then the newly

minted Solar Motel Band

(featuring members of Spacin

and The War On Drugs) added

serious cosmic heft to his

frequently ecstatic music.

True renegade

Willie Nelson

Breakthrough trio

Future Islands


REVIEW OF 2014N|E|W|R|E|L|E|A|S|E|S

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future islands singles 8

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8 david graymutineers 8

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lucinda williamsdown where the spirit meets the bone: 2cd

fopp stores

This offer applies to all cds, dvds and books instore and is only available on production of a valid receipt dated no more than four weeks from the time of your original purchase. Goods must be in the condition as sold, both the sleeve/case, disc or spine/pages. We reserve the right to refuse this offer. This offer in no way affects your statutory rights. Titles subject to availability, while stocks last. Individual titles which appear elsewhere in the store, outside of this campaign, may be priced differently.

buy your cds, dvds and books from fopp if they suck well give you a swap or your lolly

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33 STURGILL SIMPSONMetamodern

Sounds In Country MusicLOOSE

Simpsons 2013

debut album, High

Top Mountain, was

steeped in the

Outlaw country

of Waylon Jennings and Merle

Haggard. Its follow-up was rather

more cosmically inclined, whose

beauty lay in the contrast between

timeworn country obsessions

loneliness, the road, heartbreak

and a new-found starry

adventurism. If metaphysical

prog country was your bag, this

was the album for you.

32 MERCHANDISEAfter The End

4AD

Floridas

Merchandise

shocked many fans

with the new musical

direction essayed on

2013s Totale Nite and moved even

further away from their hardcore

roots on After The End, an album of

80s pop and brooding white soul.

There were overtones of both New

Order and Lloyd Cole, while their

love of The Smiths was evident in

Carson Coxs Morrissey-like vocals.

31 TUNE-YARDSNikki Nack

4AD

With contributions

from producers John

Hill and Malay and

Grammy-winning

vocal group Roomful

Of Teeth, Nikki Nack was a more

collaborative effort than usual from

Merrill Garbus. Their presence did

little, however, to temper her

characteristic hyperactivity. Nikki

Nack was an album bursting with

adventure and originality, a drum-

heavy, soul-jazz mix of teasing

sensuality, waspish protest and

art-pop mysticism.

30 SPOONThey Want My Soul

LOMA VISTA

Spoon returned

after a three-year

break, sounding

brighter and louder

than ever on They

Want My Soul, an album of classic,

joyous rocknroll, the band

swaggering through blasts of

raucous garage rock and blues

stompers, hunched art-rock and

pretty balladry with hugely

confident panache. The exquisitely

romantic Inside Out, set to an

old-school rap breakbeat, was

a career highlight.

29 JACK WHITELazaretto THIRD MAN/XL

A characteristic of

Jack Whites post-

White Stripes career

has been its self-

consciously

antithetical drift away from the

Stripes dynamic minimalism.

Lazaretto in this respect featured

some of the most dense, busy and

wild music hes ever made, but

was paradoxically at its best when

Whites bravura showmanship

gave way to reflective calm and

rare moments of vulnerable

introspection.

28 THE BLACK KEYSTurn Blue NONESUCH

2011s El Camino was

a platinum-selling

album of in-your-

face rockers that

turned The Black

Keys into one Americas biggest

bands. Turn Blue was therefore a

brave shift in musical emphasis,

largely mid-tempo, moody, lush

and deeply soulful that played like

a love letter to Motown soul. If El

Camino was their catchiest album,

this was their most seductive,

insidious and satisfying.

27 BEN WATTHendra

UNMADE ROAD

His first solo album

since North Marine

Drive, 31 years ago,

Hendra found Ben

Watt in reflective

middle-age, trying to re-engage

with a youthful optimism that

preceded his long career with

Everything But The Girl. Bernard

Butlers guitars wonderfully

enhanced these elegant songs of

emotional resilience and David

Gilmours lap-steel solo on The

Levels was an album highlight.

26 STEVE GUNNWay Out Weather

PARADISE OF BACHELORS

Brooklyns Steve

Gunn originally

impressed as a

virtuoso guitarist

with a flair for

extended improvisations. On

Way Out Weather, however, he

transformed himself into a classic

singer-songwriter, his formidable

instrumental chops placed at the

service of a collection beautifully

constructed songs, the woozy,

cyclical dynamic of the title track

evidence of a recent stint with

Kurt Viles Violators.

25 SLEAFORD MODSDivide And Exit

HARBINGER SOUND

Sleaford Mods

seventh album was a

typically angry howl

from societys piss-

stained basement.

Jason Williamsons scatological

broadsides were delivered furiously

over Andrew Fearns brutally crude

backing tracks. Often compared

to northern ranters like John

Cooper Clarke and Mark E Smith,

Williamson here more resembled

Arthur Seaton, the bitter working-

class hero of Alan Sillitoes Saturday

Night And Sunday Morning.

Far-out

country:

Sturgill

Simpson

Bursting with

adventure:

Tune-Yards

Jack White, still

the showman

MA

DIS

ON

FU

LL

ER

; H

OL

LY

AN

DR

ES



REVIEW OF 2014 N|E|W|R|E|L|E|A|S|E|S

24 TWEEDY Sukierae DBPM/ANTI-

Wilcos Jeff Tweedy

had just started work

on this intimate

collaboration with

his 18-year-old

drummer son, Spencer, when

Tweedys wife was diagnosed with

cancer, a family crisis that inevitably

impacted on the record he eventually

made. Sukierae, however, rarely

sank into post-diagnosis

melancholy, Tweedy addressing

life-changing events with great

dignity on an album of profound

depth and emotional richness.

23 ARIEL PINKPom Pom 4AD

Pom Pom was the

most consistently

entertaining Ariel

Pink album to date.

It was also the most

chaotic, vexing and ridiculous.

Across the equivalent of four sides

of vinyl, Pink giddily mixed

elements of goth, glam, pre-Beatles

teen beat, 80s MOR, twee pop, prog,

advertising jingles and themes from

kids TV shows. The results were

gleefully deranged, time-warped

and sometimes slightly sinister.

22 BECKMorning Phase

CAPITOL

Beck was reluctant

to acknowledge

Morning Phase as a

companion piece to

2002s Sea Change,

but his first album of new songs in

six years seemed tethered to the

traumas of the earlier album,

despite being presented as a new

musical dawn. The cosmic

Californian music he grew up

with was a shaping influence,

but even more affecting were the

solemn echoes of Nick Drakes

fragile folk sensibility.

21 EARTHPrimitive And Deadly

SOUTHERN LORD

Seattle drone-rock

pioneer Dylan

Carlson has lately

busied himself with

film soundtracks

and, as Drcarlsonalbion,

adaptations of traditional British

folk songs. He occupied more

familiar ground here, Earths

monolithic heaviness never

weightier or more glacial. Highlights

included There Is A Serpent

Coming and Rooks Across The

Gates, featuring Mark Lanegan.ON YOUR FREE CD TRACK 14

20 STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS

Wig Out At Jagbags DOMINO

Stephen Malkmus

first album since

relocating to Berlin,

the wonderfully

titled Wig Out

struck an almost perfect balance

between his idiosyncratic pop

instincts and affection for sonic

squalls and noisy rumblings. There

were still a lot of guitar-heavy jams,

but the pithy tunefulness of its best

songs made this one of his most

consistently engaging records since

Pavements gilded heyday.ON YOUR FREE CD TRACK 4

19 HURRAY FOR THE RIFF RAFF

Small Town Heroes ATO

Like Gillian Welch,

Alynda Lee Segarra

is inspired by

American folk

traditions, to which

she here brought a radical new

perspective, notably exposing the

sociopathic misogyny of murder

ballad Delia on The Body

Electric, which alone confirmed

Hurray For The Riff Raff as standard

bearers for a new generation of

forward-thinking roots musicians. ON YOUR FREE CD TRACK 10

18 SWANSTo Be Kind

YOUNG GOD/MUTE

Scale, a sense of

hugeness, in fact,

has always been

a key element of

Swans music, but

the vastness of Michael Giras sound

was especially apparent on To Be

Kind, which like 2012s The Seer,

ran to nearly two hours of assaultive

noise symphonies. It was much to

Giras credit that he made such

music not just tolerable, but

absolutely gripping.ON YOUR FREE CD TRACK 13

17 LUCINDA WILLIAMSDown Where The

Spirit Meets The BoneHIGHWAY 20

Williams first

release on her own

label was a 20-track

double album that

was also her best

record since 1998 masterpiece, Car

Wheels On A Gravel Road. Supported

by a stellar lineup including Tony

Joe White, Bill Frisell, Jakob Dylan,

Ian McLagan and Jonathan Wilson,

she rousingly mixed hillbilly

country, barroom ballads,

atmospheric Southern gothic,

hard blues, gospel and lashings

of country soul.

16 GRUFF RHYSAmerican Interior

TURNSTILE

In 1792, 22-year-

old John Evans, a

former Snowdonia

farmhand turned

explorer, set off

on a solo expedition through

America in search of a reputed

tribe of Welsh-speaking Native

Americans. 200 years later, his

descendent, Gruff Rhys,

immortalised Evans journey

in a documentary film, book,

app and this vivid, genre-

defying, wonderfully droll,

sometimes poignant and

enjoyably baffling re-telling

of an extraordinary story.ON YOUR FREE CD TRACK 12

Hurray For The

Riff Raffs Alynda

Lee Segarra



20 BESTAMERICANAALBUMS1 HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER

Lateness Of Dancers MERGE

2 ROSANNE CASH

The River & The Thread DECCA

3 LUCINDA WILLIAMS

Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone HIGHWAY 20

4 HURRAY FOR THE RIFF-RAFF

Small Town Heroes ATO

5 STEVE GUNN

Way Out Weather PARADISE OF BACHELORS

6 STURGILL SIMPSON

Metamodern Sounds In Country Music LOOSE

7 DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS

English Oceans ATO

8 WILLIE NELSON

Band Of Brothers LEGACY

9 LEE BAINS III & THE GLORY FIRES

Dereconstructed SUB POP

10 WILLIE WATSON

Folk Singer, Vol 1 ACONY

11 THE DELINES

Colfax DECOR

12 FRAZEY FORD

Indian Ocean NETTWERK

13 LYDIA LOVELESS

Somewhere Else BLOODSHOT

14 DAVE & PHIL ALVIN

Common Ground YEP ROC

15 ALICE GERRARD

Follow The Music TOMPKINS SQUARE

16 REIGNING SOUND

Shattered MERGE

17 SIMONE FELICE

Strangers TEAM LOVE

18 NATHAN BOWLES

Nansemond PARADISE OF BACHELORS

19 PETER ROWAN

Dharma Blues OMNIVORE

20 SHOVELS & ROPE

Swimmin Time DUALTONE

MC Taylor

aka Hiss

Golden

Messenger

2014caribouour love 8

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fopp stores

This offer applies to all cds, dvds and books instore and is only available on production of a valid receipt dated no more than four weeks from the time of your original purchase. Goods must be in the condition as sold, both the sleeve/case, disc or spine/pages. We reserve the right to refuse this offer. This offer in no way affects your statutory rights. Titles subject to availability, while stocks last. Individual titles which appear elsewhere in the store, outside of this campaign, may be priced differently.

buy your cds, dvds and books from fopp if they suck well give you a swap or your lolly

suck it and seebristol college green // cambridge sidney st // edinburgh rose st // glasgow union st & byres rd // london covent garden // manchester brown st // nottingham broadmarsh shopping centre

8

best of

15 ROSANNE CASHThe River &

The Thread DECCARosanne Cashs first

album of original

material in seven

years, and her first

since recovering

from brain surgery in 2007, The River

& The Thread was a magisterial

comeback. A mesmerising journey

through Americas Deep South that

vividly engaged with its history,

landscape and people on songs

that were by turns haunting, poetic

and profoundly moving.

14 REAL ESTATEAtlas DOMINO

The sun-dappled

innocence and bright

immediacy of Real

Estates first two

albums gave way

on Atlas to a more autumnal

wistfulness. Where previously their

songs soundtracked an endless

smalltown summer, largely

untroubled by adult woes, the best

tracks on Atlas were peppered

with images of change, distance,

separation and anxiety and glowed

with a beatific melancholy.ON YOUR FREE CD TRACK 8

13 TY SEGALLManipulator

DRAG CITY

Segalls seventh

long-player in seven

years was a 17-track

double-album that

drew on the sounds

and styles of all his previous records.

Since no two of them have to date

sounded much like each other,

Manipulator was a torrid whirl

through Tys musical universe,

packed with amp-burning fuzz

guitars, glam-punk riffs and

frayed ballads, often notably

embellished by Mikal Cronins

decorous string arrangements.

12 CARIBOUOur Love

CITY SLANG

Four years

on from his

breakthrough

album, Swim,

Canadas Dan

Snaith here completed a journey

from indie-electronica to wide-

screen rave pop. Our Love was

a kaleidoscopic rush, full of

dancefloor euphoria and a

heightened sense of the ecstatic

on the blissed-out likes of Your

Love Will Set You Free and the

rapturous title track. ON YOUR FREE CD TRACK 7

11 TOUMANI DIABAT & SIDIKI DIABAT

Toumani & SidikiWORLD CIRCUIT

Malian kora maestro

Toumani Diabat

was joined here by

his 24-year-old son,

Sidiki, another kora

virtuoso, on partly improvised

interpretations of traditional African

songs. The mood was reflective,

typified by the one original.

Lampedusa commemorated the

300 African migrants who drowned

off the Italian island in 2013, its

slow, poignant melody a hushed

lament for the lost.ON YOUR FREE CD TRACK 11

10 SUN KIL MOONBenji CALDO VERDE

This brutally sad

album about death

and the way people

die took confessional

songwriting to new

extremes of naked and unflinching

emotional candour. The results

were often heart-rending, hugely

affecting reflections on mortality

and loss. As demonstrated by a

recent spat with The War On Drugs,

Kozelek can seem gratuitously

churlish. But he remains a

songwriter of uncommon genius.ON YOUR FREE CD TRACK 2

9 ST VINCENTSt Vincent

LOMA VISTA/REPUBLIC

Annie Clarks fourth

album replaced the

sometimes fraught

art-pop of its

predecessors with

rhythmic-centred party music in

whose funky grooves you could

variously hear echoes of Parliament/

Funkadelic, The Gap Band, Talking

Heads, 80s Bowie, Blondie, Gary

Numan and Madonna. Twisting the

common language of pop, Clark

ended up speaking in tongues, as

uncontrollably strange as ever.ON YOUR FREE CD TRACK 5

8 DAMON ALBARNEveryday Robots

PARLOPHONE

Damon Albarns

most personal project

to date, Everyday

Robots was an album

whose musical

shapes and lyrical images created

a coded, semi-abstract self-portrait,

from childhood innocence, through

adolescence to problematic

maturity. Often bravely vulnerable

and candid, its songs were

suspended in fragile nets of found

percussion loops, field recordings

and pastel melodies, the whole

suffused in reflective melancholy.

7 HISS GOLDEN MESSENGERLateness Of Dancers

MERGE

MC Taylors scholarly

appreciation of

American roots

music has sometimes

made the albums hes

released as Hiss Golden Messenger

sound like academic pastiche,

hugely enjoyable, if a little dry.

Lateness Of Dancers, however, was

a triumph, a collection of personal

songs that addressed big questions

of faith and mortality, responsibility

and doubt, the Dylan of Planet

Waves perhaps a touchstone.ON YOUR FREE CD TRACK 6

2014s master of

fuzz, Ty Segall

Kora masters

Diabat and son

DE

NE

E P

ET

RA

CE

K;

YO

UR

I L

EN

QU

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1997 BOB DYLAN

Time Out Of Mind COLUMBIA

1998 MERCURY REV

Deserters Songs V2

1999 THE FLAMING LIPS

The Soft Bulletin WARNER BROS

2000 LAMBCHOP

Nixon CITY SLANG

2001 RYAN ADAMS

Gold LOST HIGHWAY

2002 THE FLAMING LIPS

Yoshimi Battles The Pink

Robots WARNER BROS

2003 WARREN ZEVON

The Wind ARTEMIS/RYKO

2004 BRIAN WILSON

Smile NONESUCH

2005 ARCADE FIRE

Funeral ROUGH TRADE

2006 BOB DYLAN

Modern Times COLUMBIA

2007 LCD SOUNDSYSTEM

Sound Of Silver DFA/EMI

2008 PORTISHEAD

Third ISLAND

2009 ANIMAL COLLECTIVE

Merriweather

Post Pavilion DOMINO

2010 JOANNA NEWSOM

Have One On Me DRAG CITY

2011 PJ HARVEY

Let England Shake ISLAND

2012 LEONARD COHEN

Old Ideas COLUMBIA

2013 MY BLOODY VALENTINE

m b v MY BLOODY VALENTINE

PREVIOUS WINNERS

PIE

TE

R M

VA

N H

AT

TE

M;

ED

MIL

uncut january 2015

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