Editorial

“You can’t start a fire without a spark”

Motown bunk!

THIS MONTH’S REVELATIONS FROM THE WORLD OF UNCUT

Soundtrack of his life

John Murry and Cowboy Junkies’ Michael Timmins on writing the music for a new film about… John Murry!

“It’s just so powerful”

Dawn Landes on bringing The Liberated Woman’s Songbook to life, with a little help from Peggy Seeger

Reptile be back

Incendiary Austin noise-punks The Jesus Lizard return with their first album of the 21st century

MJ Lenderman

Wednesday guitarist joins a rich tradition of storytelling Southern rock

On The Highway

15 tracks of the month’s best music

STEVE DIGGLE

The Buzzcocks bosun talks acid, existentialism, accidental genius and missing Pete Shelley

ALAN SPARHAWK

THE UNCUT GUIDE TO THIS MONTH’S KEY RELEASES

NOT SO LOW

Some of Sparhawk’s extracurricular activities

Q & A

Alan Sparhawk has had his mind “cracked open”…

NICK LOWE

9/10

Q & A

Nick Lowe: “We released the demos before the album”

A to Z

This month… P28 LAURIE ANDERSON P29 BLUR P30

LAURIE ANDERSON

8/10

Q & A

Laurie Anderson: “How do you know what’s in someone’s head?”

ENUMCLAW

Aramis Johnson: “I can’t pay ren toff this band”

NILÜFER YANYA

8/10

Q & A

Nilüfer Yanya: “We were the only judges at the end of the day”

SHOVELS & ROPE

Something Is Working Up Above My Head

Q & A

Andrew Tuttle and Andru Chapman: “I thought, yes…”

ANDREW TUTTLE / MICHAEL CHAPMAN

8/10

KRONONAUT

Leo Abrahams: “We’re travelling through time”

EL KHAT

8/10

Q & A

El Khat’s Eyal El Wahab: “My identity should not matter”

MARK LANEGAN BAND

REISSUES | COMPS | BOXSETS | LOST RECORDINGS

LANDMARK RELEASES

Three more pivotal records from Lanegan’s mighty discography

Q&A

ARCHIVE Troy Van Leeuwen & Brian Klein (executive

TEN YEARS AFTER

Woodstock 1969

Q&A

Leo Lyons, bassist: “There was a downpour like

AtoZ

ARCHIV This month… P46 SANDY BULL P47 FANNY

STUART MOXHAM

Fabstract

DOROTHY CARTER

Troubadour (reissue, 1976) DRAG CITY

Q& A

Eric Demby, reissue producer “They were inventing a

“BLUE”GENE TYRANNY

Real Life And The Movies, Volume 1 (reissue, 1982) UNSEEN WORLDS 8/10

Archive

SYLVESTER Live At The Opera House CRAFT 9/10

COMING NEXT MONTH...

JUST appearing above the horizon of the next

HALF A WORLD AWAY

Despite rupturing his vocal cords in 2021, rumours of STURGILL SIMPSON’s retirement are greatly exaggerated. Instead, overcoming one of his “darkest periods”, the restless country music outsider has moved to Europe and adopted the alter ego Johnny Blue Skies for a new album of freewheeling love songs influenced by Serge Gainsbourg, Gerry Rafferty and Homer’s Odyssey. “I’m just trying to find happiness and purpose, like anybody else,” he tells Nick Hasted

“JERRY GARCIA SAVED MY LIFE!”

Sturgill meets the Dead

A SAILOR’S GUIDE

How to buy Sturgill Simpson HIGH TOP MOUNTAIN

Rock’n’roll Doctor

A graduate of both Hollywood High School and Frank Zappa’s Mothers Of Invention, LOWELL GEORGE’s gifts were boundless: singer, songwriter, producer, arranger, frontman, slide guitarist supreme… Now, 45 years since his untimely death, his former LITTLE FEAT bandmates and assorted collaborators hymn their fallen comrade with tales involving swimming pools in Topanga, suitcases full of cash, heavy drugs and a sublime mastery of groove. “Lowell was right up there with the very best,” learns Rob Hughes. “I didn’t think anything could happen to him. To me, Lowell was invincible.”

By George!

10 Lowell classics L ITTLE FEAT “WILLIN’” (LITTLE

Inside Sam’s Place

The surviving members of Little Feat on their new album

X

Exene Cervernka and Joe Doe reflect on fourdecades-plus of punk, pop, roots rock and metal

LOS ANGELES

GEORGEROSE/GETTYIMAGES SLASH, 1980 A majestic chronicle of early

KINGS OF PAIN

At the peak of their success, holed up in a glamorous Caribbean location, THE POLICE went into battle… with themselves. But between the screaming matches and crisis meetings, they created their final album, Synchronicity: an epic, international hit that brought into focus their unwavering commitment to the music, even while the band fell apart. “Outside the island we were each of us a god, adored and loved by the masses,” hears Peter Watts. “But in that room we were three pieces of shit…”

YOUNGER THAN YESTERDAY

After a 10-year hiatus, BEACHWOOD SPARKS return with Across The River Of Stars, a new studio album that brings pathos to their sun-dappled brand of country rock. From their Ventura HQ, California’s psych cowboys look back to move forward – on enduring friendships, poignant losses and anthems of cosmic love. “The goal was to play in honkytonks as well as biker bars,” learns Stephen Deusner

CREATION OF CURATION

Behind the scenes at the label Be achwood Sparks built

HOW TO BUY…

BEACHWOOD SPARKS BEACHWOOD

“Nothing But A Heartache”

Most Northern Soul staples began life in the States, but not this one: “We were all excited to be coming to London…”

KEY PLAYERS

Earnestine Pearce Lead vocals Shirley Pearce Vocals Vie

DESTINY STOPS SCREAMING

THE SOUND AS POST-PUNK BEGAN TO EVOLVE INTO A MORE WINDSWEPT AND EPIC KIND OF MUSIC, ADRIAN BORLAND AND THE SOUND SEEMED WELL-PLACED FOR STARDOM. BUT SUCCESS NEVER ARRIVED. FINALLY, A NEW BIOGRAPHY AND A BRACE OF REISSUES ARE GIVING THIS GREAT, UNDERVALUED BAND AND THEIR BRILLIANT BUT TROUBLED SINGER THE RECOGNITION THEY RICHLY DESERVE. “ADRIAN COULD BE A JOVIAL CHARACTER,” HEARS DAVE SIMPSON, “BUT THERE WAS PART OF HIM THAT DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO BOND WITH PEOPLE ON AN EMOTIONAL LEVEL.”

“HE FELT BONO HAD STOLEN A LOT FROM HIM”

Chameleons singer Mark Burgess talks about his friend, Adrian Borland

SENSE OF PURPOSE

A buyer’s guide to The Sound

“Nowhere to run, ain’t got nowhere to go...”

BORN IN THE USA may be BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN’s most successful album – but it is also his most misunderstood. As this landmark record turns 40, Stephen Deusner investigates how The E Street Band spun stadium rock gold from Springsteen’s unflinching studies of alienation, self-doubt and the American dream gone sour. Meanwhile, long-term admirers KURT VILE, LUCINDA WILLIAMS, TOM MORELLO and ADAM GRANDUCIEL celebrate an album of relatable characters, surprisingly raw performances and “total Boss music”

“HE’S GOT SO MANY SONGS THAT CUT THROUGH YOUR HEART”

KURT VILE: What I like about Springsteen is

“WEALWAYSKNEWWHERE HESTOOD,WHICHWAS IMPORTANT”

Springsteen live:portraying characterswith “real depth” LUCINDA WILLIAMS: I

“ANEXTREMELYDARK RECORD, MASKED BY GENIUS SONGWRITING”

With Rage Against TheMachine’s TomMorello backstageat MadisonSquare Garden,October

“IT WAS INEVERY HOUSE, LIKEIT HADALWAYS BEEN THERE”

ADAM GRANDUCIEL: When I talk to my friends,

GLORY DAYS!

Photographer ROB DeMARTIN has documented Springsteen’s 2024 tour, capturing the E Street Band from rehearsals to performance. In these remarkable and candid photographs, we get up close to the Boss on stage and off. Plus – the fans speak! We hear from Tramps in Columbus, Kilkenny and Cork.

OUTLAW MUSIC FESTIVAL TOUR

PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, New Jersey, June 30

MAVIS STAPLES

Union Chapel, London, June 24

SCREEN

Belfast rappers’ riotous backstory; identities blur in a ’90s TV-show nightmare; a Turkish teacher stands accused…

ALSO OUT...

HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON RELEASED AUGUST 2

ENOFILM FIRST / TIGERLILY 9/10

DIRECTOR: GARY HUSTWIT

BOOKS

SOMEWHERE near the end of And The Roots

The pick of the latest active speakers

KLIPSCH R-50PM Price £599 WE’RE the first to

Not Fade Away

Fondly remembered this month...

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Crossword

WIN! One LP copy of Nick Lowe’s

Uncut

Kelsey Media, The Granary Downs Court, Yalding Hill,

Horace Panter

The Specials’ bassist on his journey to the Dirt Road Band: “I knew that there was a new world somewhere”