THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE...

Will Hodgkinson Still recovering from Street-Level Superstar:

OUTSIDERS

LIVE. RARE. UNRELEASED. 1990-2025

Everybody, shirts

RARITIES! RECORD SHOPS! CRATEDIGGERS ASSEMBLE!

Weird Harold’s Records

Time to hit Burlington, Iowa’s pre-eminent, pre-loved record

King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard

In the reptile house: King Gizzard And The

Wild Gallic

This month’s discovery: guitars meet electronics in a double dose of sci-fi brain-overload.

Who only recorded live?

Let us answer your rock-related questions and solve your musical dilemmas.

Ear, Hear Here

Win! A set of Noble FoKus Apollo hybrid driver headphones.

Gary Lachman and Blondie

It began in grimy punk New York, but growing ambition led to the exit ramp.

ALL BACK TO MY PLACE

THE STARS REVEAL THE SONIC DELIGHTS GUARANTEED TO GET THEM GOING...

One Of The Boys

Mott The Hoople and Bad Company guitarist Mick Ralphs left us on June 23.

Theories, rants, etc.

MOJO welcomes correspondence for publication. Write to us at: MOJO, H Bauer Publishing, The Lantern, 75 Hampstead Road, London, NW1 2PL. E-mail to: mojoreaders@bauermedia.co.uk

Soundtrack Pictures, In Motion

THE HOT NEWS AND BIZARRE STORIES FROM PLANET MOJO

JEFF TWEEDY RETURNS WITH SOLO LP FIVE – AND IT’S A TRIPLE!

Operation twilight: Jeff Tweedy seeking the perfect

BEATIFIC SINGER-SONGWRITER MARTIN STEPHENSON, STILL LASSOING THE MOON

Pushing out the Boat : Martin

SWALLOWING THE OCEAN! PETER BUCK AND DRINK THE SEA INVOKE THE SPIRIT OF MARK LANEGAN

Making waves: Drink The Sea Duke Garwood,

MEET EL MICHELS, THE A-LIST’S RETRO SOUL MAN ON SPEED DIAL

In the frame: music is like painting for

MOJO PLAYLIST

Gather round for zydeco, mellow trips and peyote chants.

THE MOJO INTERVIEW

The rich voice of Manfred Mann, and nearly the Stones, he swung hard in Swinging London before God and his choirboy past caught up with him. In 2025 he still sings the blues – but not the naughty stuff. “I’ve changed a lot,” confesses Paul Jones

A LIFE IN PICTURES

Keeping up with the Jones: Paul down the years.

LET ME HAVE IT ALL

The passing of SLY STONE in June shone light on a genre-mashing genius whose peak, multi-hued music preached unity and transcendence. Stone's world darkened as drugs took over and The Family Stone fell apart, but the fruits of a recent, unlikely renaissance included a candid memoir and some tantalising music. “Sly still had all these amazing creative talents," discovers STEVIE CHICK

MOJO PRESENTS

Under the glitz and gobbing off, an artful new LP charts CMAT’s elevation in the craft of Classic Songwriting. With salutes to Leonard Cohen and Judee Sill, she bears witness to everyday joys and sorrows – with a gag or three thrown in. “My sensibilities are towards the kitchen sink,” she tells VICTORIA SEGAL

Impractical MAGIC

Inspired, unique but ill-matched, THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND were the hippy-folk harlequins whose spellbinding music touched the ineffable, skirting the edge of disintegration. A new box set states their case for inclusion among the '60s' true greats. If only its creators could feel the love. "It would be nice to be able to talk," they tell FIM WIRTH

REINTRODUCING THE BAND

Twice derailed by egomania, hard drugs, and Britpop, SUEDE sashay on-wiser, sturdier and, they assert, more creative than ever. An upcoming new album-Antidepressants-revives formative influences (Magazine, The Cult, Crass), and points vigorously to the future. One in the eye for the pundits, and at least one notorious German sceptic? "Stubbornness is in our DNA," they tell KEITH CAMERON.

The Quiet American

Even among his storied peers kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson Townes Van Zandt the songs of Mickey Newbury were legend as soulful and sophisticated as their writer was unassuming enigmatic Today , reissues of his three clasic albums underline his genre-crossing greatness. He brought a whole new dimension to country music discovers Will Hodgkinson

20 YEARS OF AFRICA EXPRESS

It began as a meeting of musical minds in Mali, after the 2005 Live 8 charity show for Africa featured hardly any African artists. Over the next two decades, the train kept on rolling via Glastonbury, Liverpool, Paris, Johannesburg and Mexico, picking up like-minded global artists on a mission to collaborate. Remembering the inspired madness of unfettered musical cross-pollination, principals including Damon Albarn , Fatoumata Diawara and others reflect on “a new way of looking at freedom… it’s crazy how you find pieces of home the more you are away.”

THE END OF INNOCENCE

As The Beach Boys' master architect, BRIAN WILSON hymned the American dream and its shadow flipside with raw spirituality and symphonic sophistication. The price he paid for the beauty he made was steep, but as JOHN MULVEY attests, we'll be bathing in its glow as long as there is rock and pop

OUR SWEET LOVE

AL JARDINE, LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM AND MORE PAY TRIBUTE.

"CAN WE GET A HORSE IN HERE?"

MOJO's 10-song Brian Wilson mixtape, by John Mulvey and Danny Eccleston. With help from Lindsey Buckingham

Skill shot

Weller’s second album of covers finds gold in unexpected places, like ’70s TV and Brian Protheroe’s Pinball. Jackpot! Says Danny Eccleston. Illustration by Andy Bourne.

“I always like those minor key melancholic English tunes.”

Paul Weller speaks to Danny Eccleston.

The Black Keys

★★★★ No Rain, No Flowers EASY EYE SOUND/PARLOPHONE.

Uprooted

Slippery songwriter shakes the branches to release eleventh album

New day rising

Twelve new songs and a new sound for the garlanded bluegrass player

The Hives

★★★★ The Hives Forever, Forever The Hives PIAS.

Ay, caramba!

The circus comes to the Americas: Damon Albarn and pals record in the Mexican jungle.

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

Gush

Mádé Kuti

★★★★ Chapter 1: Where Does Happiness Come From?

EXPERIMENTAL

Stephen Vitiello With Brendan Canty And Hahn Rowe

Construction time again

Hard-working second album from NYC outliers raises the roof.

Soul salvation

Dexys founder’s remorseful memoir.

FOLK

Brìghde Chaimbeul ★★★★ Sunwise TAK:TIL/GLITTERBEAT. CD/DL/LP

Test match special

The much bootlegged ‘Goodbye Summer’ concert at a London cricket ground gets an official release. “Howzat?!” asks Pat Gilbert.

After-boom delights

An exemplary overview of what happened after folk music exploded across America. By Jim Irvin.

The greatest showman

Elvis’s finest biographer turns the spotlight on the singer’s manager.

Opposition party

A new film traces the anarchic spirit of acid house from the 17th century to hippy free festivals.