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On 10/01/2003 eamonn said: "Let's get down to brass tacks"
Music. From. Today.
First cd of the year - the Uncut magazine cover cd. These are pretty good compilations covering new and old straying not too far from Uncut's idea of serious, worthy music. I keep forgetting which songs I like on them though and have never been compelled to go out and but something because of a song from the Uncut cd. It's good to finally hear James (Jamie?) Yorkston though, pleasant enough all right. The main reason I got it is because there is a Bonnie 'Prince' Billie song "Three Questions" from his new album (end of the month) Master And Everyone. It's quite a good song, stripped back a good bit, nice accordian and female accompaniment. Bodes well for the album (which is on Soulseek due to Domino releasing promo copies in the UK before Xmas. Why do they do that?). They made Master & Everyone album of the month (yeaaaa!......but gulp! my tastes are therefore in line with Uncut - even though I have heard only a couple of songs from the album, I am nearly certain it will be a classic (bias etc I know)) and there is a short email interview with the bearded one. 
Master and Everyone cover
Mid West tour plea
What else is good on the cd - Robert Wyatt (Canterbury folk scenster who fell out a window and started making brilliant ambientesque albums), Neko Case (enjoying the New Pornograpers album at the moment), she Sandovals around a little, a nice uplifting Ron Sexsmith song (Gold In Them Hills), I don't think I had actually ever heard something by him before and now I must seek out some more, Chris Difford who sounds a bit like Jeffrey Lewis to me (even though as one of the sognwriters in Squeeze he must be nearly twice Jeffrey Lewis' age), Radio 4 - a new 'The' band without the 'The' , an Andy Partridge song (used be singer with XTC, has tons of stuff to release, IS the musical ancestor of Jim O'Rourke (well for Eureka anyway) ,a Hayden song, and a Bill Hicks piece. Anyway it's a pretty good cover cd with just a few duff songs.
Uncut is the only music publication that I will more or less read completely nowadays, their feature articles are usually quite interesting and well written (e.g. this month's ones about the making of The Clash album and a quick overview of Husker Du (I never knew that Grant Hart was also gay - great to read how bassist Greg Norton gave up music, became a gourmet chef and runs a successful restaurant). The only problems with Uncut are
- Too many album reviews (well they can't do anything else I guess) and a lot of them are too short.
- Too much Ryan Adams. Not too familiar with him, haven't likeld what I've heard but Uncut follow him like a puppy dog
- A bit too much serious, real, middle aged, white male music. More messiness in the music coverage please!
Other news I noticed that Plush (Liam Hayes) released an album on a Japanese label last year and Marc Caroll (formerly of Puppy Love Bomb? Or Bawl? can't remember) put an album out last year. The Plush one would definitely be worth getting. Big fan of 'More That Becomes You'. Found out about those releases at http://www.americana-uk.com/html/reviews.html