OCTOBER 2024 TAKE 330

NOT long before we started planning this Hendrix

“He was something special”

JOHN MAYALL 1933–2024

STORY OF THE BLUES

10 essential John Mayall albums

“It’s going to be amazing”

END Of The ROAD 2024

Remember his name

Mike Scott, The Staves and Kate St John unveil their live tribute to David Crosby’s finest hour

Thee Sacred Souls

San Diego trio crafting classic soul with a defiant lyrical edge

Uncut Playlist

On the stereo this month...

Lone Justice for all!

The LA country-punk trailblazers are back, kind of. Maria McKee and bandmates reveal all…

A Quick One

No quarter! Introducing the Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide

CITY TO CITY

A new series in partnership with Marshall

ON THIS MONTH’S CD

Out Past Midnight: A Big Star Sampler

AN AUDIENCE WITH... THURSTON MOORE

The Sonic Youth soothsayer talks free jazz, feminism and Tom Verlaine’s paper-plate poetry

NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS

THE UNCUT GUIDE TO THIS MONTH’S KEY RELEASES

THE NEW TESTAMENT

The road to Wild God

Q&A

Nick Cave: “It’s this force that’s searching for something”

JACK WHITE

White breaks out his White Stripes gear for an ecstatic set of guerrilla blues

A to Z

This month…

BASIC

This Is BASIC NO QUARTER

Q&A

Chris Forsyth : “No noodling. Everybody is all in”

NUBYA GARCIA

The saxophonist on adding dramatic new strings to her bow

MANU CHAO

After 17 years, Manu Chao finally stops in the same place long enough to deliver his fourth solo opus.

WILLIE WATSON

Album of the month

AMERICANA ROUND -UP

WAKE The Dead (YEP ROC) is Chuck Prophet’s

MEMORIALS

Verity Susman and Matthew Simms on not fitting in to one genre

NALA SINEPHRO

Endlessness WARP 8/10

THE THE

Ensoulment CINEOLA /EARMUSIC 6/10

NEIL YOUNG

Archives Vol III (1976-1987) REPRISE

Q&A

Robin Hurley, Senior Vice-President A&R, Warner Records

Q&A

NEIL YOUNG Melody Maker, April 14, 1990

HAROLD BUDD, ELIZABETH FRASER, ROBIN GUTHRIE, SIMON RAYMONDE

The Moon And the Melodies (reissue, 1986) 4AD 8/10

AtoZ

This month…

Q&A

Robin Guthrie on quarter-inch tape, soundtrack success and

LIMBO DISTRICT

Live Limbo CHUNKLET INDUSTRIES 8/10

Q&A

Brian Cannon, sleeve designer

OASIS

Definitely Maybe (30th Anniversary Reissue)

BLACK ARTIST GROUP

For Peace & Liberty: In Paris Dec 1972

COMING NEXT MONTH...

OH, the delights to come: next time, there’ll

THE WAYIT GOES

After a devastating tornado strike, GILLIAN WELCH and DAVID RAWLINGS have spent four years bringing their beloved Nashville studio back to life. As a new masterpiece arrives, Uncut uncovers a tale of destruction and rebirth – and new songs to match the intensity of their near loss. “This feels different from the work we’ve done before,” they tell Stephen Deusner

“OUR STUFF IS LIKE CLASSICAL MUSIC...”

The laborious process of pressing every Gillian Welch album to vinyl

GILLIAN WELCH & DAVID RAWLINGS WOODLAND (ACONY) 9/10

The long-running duo gently expand their palette, with astonishing results

LAST OF THE NEW ROMANTICS

With their astonishing fourth album Romance, FONTAINES DC leave behind the post-punk cobblestones for apocalyptic sci-fi stadium rock. But as they prepare to take the world by storm, they explain how the Arctic Monkeys, Mickey Rourke and “dissonance” have helped usher in their imperial phase – and how they plan to avoid the pitfalls of success. “I really, really don’t want us to turn into dickheads,” learns Stephen Troussé

THE ROAD TO ROMANCE

From the very start there were signs that Fontaines DC were destined to be huge…

TELEVISED MIND

The films that fed into the cinematic vision of Romance

COLT HEROES

With their ragged harmonies, lap steel laments and fiery jams, valiant young upstarts BROWNHORSE are bringing country-rock grit to the badlands of Norfolk. But how do their Songs: Anglia hold up against the alt. standards that inspired them? “We’re trying to be honest about the distance between us and America, rather than performing the role of a cowboy,” learns Sam Richards

EQUINE CITY

A whistlestop tour of Brown Horse’s Norwich haunts

BROWN HORSEʼS VAN JAMS

The CDs on heavy rotation as they speed down the A11

“Roundabout” by Yes

Interminable touring spawns the seeds of a prog classic: “Musical ideas were thrown around and played with”

TIME LINE

MICHAELPUTLAND/GETTYIMAGES March 1971 While touring Scotland to promote

THERE WAS A LIGHT

CHRISBELL was McCartney to Alex Chilton’s Lennon: the other #1 songwriter in BIG STAR. But conflict, disappointment and depression threatened to diminish the power-pop visionary’s brilliance and Bell died tragically young, leaving behind only one posthumously released solo album, I Am The Cosmos. “I hear people talk about how his life was cut short,” his brother David tells Stephen Deusner. “But I think he went just when he was supposed to go.”

THEY ARE THE COSMOS

Mike Mills on the long-running band paying tribute to Big Star and Chris Bell

The Hudson Line

From their base in upstate New York, MERCURY REV preside over a unique environment – full of eccentric sculpture parks, vintage recording studios and the spirits of storied musical pioneers – which has nourished their creativity for over 30 years. With a new album, Born Horses, embedded in the rich topography of the region, Jonathan Donahue and Grasshopper guide Uncut round their home turf. “We’re like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” they tell Will Hermes. “We’re there for each other.”

MAGNUM OPUS

Buyer’s guide to Mercury Rev

DETOURS

Harmony Rockets and other Rev side trips

Cass McCombs

The enigmatic Californian singer-songwriter looks back on a restless career

The Last Rays Of Sun

In June 1970, the completion of Jimi Hendrix’s own Electric Lady Studios in downtown New York unleashed a surge of unbridled creativity. Just three months later, he was gone. As a new film and boxset explore Hendrix’s final sessions, friends, bandmates and studio staff consider how Electric Lady inspired everyone who entered its softly lit sanctuary. “They were free to create,” engineer Eddie Kramer tells Peter Watts. “I never saw Jimi so happy.”

“THERE FOR THE VIBE”

Inside the new documentary, Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision

“IT'S FASCINATING”

Eddy Kramer introduces the Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision album

BUYER’S GUIDE

Hendrix in 1970 THE CRY OF LOVE

“HE WAS UPSET”

Hendrix’s final UK flight at the Isle Of Wight

PATTI SMITH QUARTET

Somerset House, London, July 21

ANOHNI AND THE JOHNSONS

DR Koncerthuset, Copenhagen, July 13

Matt Smith unearths folkloric 1970s horror; an ex-con befriends a wild dog; abandoned sisters break bad; and more…

Fieldofbad dreams:Arthur Shaw, Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark

REVIEWED THIS MONTH

STARVE ACRE Directed by Daniel Kokotajlo Starring Matt

ALSO OUT...

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice TOUCH OPENS AUGUST 30 A widower

STEVIE VAN ZANDT: DISCIPLE

SKY/NOW 9/10

BOOKS

Lawrence: liquoricegood, cheesebad, fameelusive THERE is a short

Turning the tables

The pick of the latest record decks

Not Fade Away Fondly remembered this month...

TOUMANI DIABATÉ Malian kora master (1965–2024) Topbilling: Abdul“Duke”

Feedback

Send your brickbats, bouquets, reminiscences, textual critiques, billets-doux and all forms of printable correspondence to letters@uncut.co.uk

Crossword

One LP copy of Cocteau Twins/Harold Budd’s The Moon And The Melodies

Paul Heaton

The Housemartins and Beautiful South singer on his happiest hours by the stereo: “It still sounds exciting now”

Uncut

Kelsey Media, The Granary Downs Court, Yalding Hill,