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A sense of purpose MARK STEWART | 1960–2023
The Pop Group’s Gareth Sager salutes the “relentless energy” of his inspirational bandmate
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Brian storm!
“An embodiment of all our dreams”, “a cruel fucker”, or just “a very hurt little boy”? Nick Broomfield explodes the myth of Brian Jones
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The wild one
All hail Ann-Margret! Why the Harley-riding, Elvis-dating Tommy star is still rocking at 82
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“Art is long, life is short”
Ryuichi Sakamoto lives on forever in his groundbreaking final work
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Damien
Omen-inspired electronic funk quartet, featuring Low’s Alan Sparhawk and his son, Cyrus
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Made To Love Magic
15 tracks in the spirit of Nick Drake
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AN AUDIENCE WITH… Evan Dando
The wayward Lemonheads mainman talks severed tendons, Nirvana jam sessions, “killer” new songs and his ultimate life goal: “an acoustic tour of Spain on horseback”
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NEW ALBUMS
A quarter of a century on, fluid Chicago ensemble deliver a career high.
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PAUL SIMON
Echoes of a stellar back catalogue in the octogenarian New Yorker’s captivating new song cycle.
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BRIGID MAE POWER
Belonging, ancestry and a fresh breeze on her fourth.
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BEN CHASNY & RICK TOMLINSON
The experimental guitarists on their first collaboration
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LLOYD COLE
A storied songwriter comes of age (again).
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LAURA CANTRELL
First in nine years from roots-country favourite
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DUDU TASSA & JONNY GREENWOOD
Love songs to the Middle East.
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JASON ISBELL & THE 400 UNIT
Former Trucker still striving to exceed his own expectations.
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WARRINGTON-RUNCORN NEW TOWN DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Something out of nothing with Gordon Chapman-Fox
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BETTYE LAVETTE
Late-blooming soul singer makes the best album of her six-decade career.
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Archive
Three dreamy releases from 1988/’89.
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THE DREAM SYNDICATE
The whole story of the band’s epochal first lineup, remastered and with 31 unreleased tracks.
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T.REX
The half-realised glories of Marc Bolan’s space-age funk period.
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DAVID AXELROD
Influential producer’s neglected sixth returns to vinyl
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DOUG McKECHNIE
Unearthed music by an unlikely modular synth pioneer
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“WE’RE ALL ON MUSHIES FROM NOW ON!”
Salvē, JULIAN COPE! Taking time out from creating a replica of Pompeii in his back garden, the archdrude excavates the barrows and cairns of his own ancient history in The Teardrop Explodes. Stand by for apocalyptically weird stories from the heart of post-punk – involving acid trips, knitting and an unexpected cameo from Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott. “I was always a c*nt for Amon Düül I,” Cope explains to Tom Pinnock
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JULIAN CALENDAR
What else is going on in Cope’s world
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Feed Your Head
Raised in a remote cabin in Arizona on a diet of West Coast classics, KASSI VALAZZA is busy expanding musical traditions in adventurous new ways. But how have a love of Game Of Thrones, the mentorship of Lavender Country’s Patrick Haggerty and assistance from the “Northwest Wrecking Crew” helped her overcome performance anxiety to find her own voice? “I don’t know how I got to do this,” she admits to Robert Ham in her hometown of Portland. “It is special.”
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ONE WAY STREET
In 1970, STEPHEN STILLS escaped from his CSNY bandmates, moved to deepest Surrey and launched a lively solo career with a little help from his new mates. Stand by for jams with Hendrix, cameos from Ringo and Clapton, studio casualties and heavy scenes on the road. “It was a lucky streak,” Stills tells Michael Bonner
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“IN WALKED HENDRIX…”
Calvin ‘Fuzzy’ Samuel lifts the lid on a lost take of “Love The One You’re With”
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HEY, CHILDREN, WHAT’S THAT SOUND?
Five great Stephen Stills songs that aren’t “For What It’s Worth” or “Love The One You’re With”…
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Weekender by Flowered Up
Go out and have a good, good time
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Lipstick Traces
From mascara-clad ingénue of the NEW YORK DOLLS to lounge lizard Buster Poindexter, DAVID JOHANSEN is one of the great survivors of the early-’70s New York music scene. As his life and times are documented by the city’s other great rock’n’roller, Martin Scorsese, the singer recalls high times at the heart of the Dolls’ colourful and outrageous prime. “It was a very groovy scene,” he tells Peter Watts
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“IT BECAME A BIG SCANDAL”
When Malcolm McLaren made Dolls fans see red
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DJ SELECTER
A buyers’ guide to David Johansen
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De La Soul
Original D.A.I.S.Y Age hero Pos traces the recorded story of his hip-hop pioneers
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HEATHEN CHEMISTRY
On stage at Athens, Georgia’s fabled 40 Watt Club, the DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS are in the thick of their annual Homecoming hootenany. A wild celebration of the community that has built up around Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley and their co-conspirators, this year’s Homecoming is also a memorial to fallen comrades. Stephen Deusner hears how the band come to terms with ageing and loss – and what that may mean for their unique blend of Southern Americana. “A big chapter is wrapping up for sure,” says Hood. “But I don’t feel like we’re anywhere near done yet.”
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THE BALLAD OF WES FREED
Remembering the artist who gave the band their distinctive visual signature
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IT’S GREAT TO BE LIVE!
How to buy… Drive-By Truckers live
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PLACE TO BE
Forty-eight years on from his untimely death, the tragic myth of NICK DRAKE persists. But there is another Nick Drake: the spirited and untroubled young man, on the cusp of a bright future, who travelled to Europe and North Africa in pursuit of adventure and honed his skills along the way. Here, Drake’s school friends, fellow travelers and assorted eyewitnesses relive the freewheeling times — from playing folk clubs in Aix-en-Provence to an audience with the Stones in Marrakesh. “It was absolutely central to Nick becoming Nick Drake,” one close confidant tells Nick Hasted. “It opened his eyes to a lot of things…”
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“WE WERE SO PRETENTIOUS!”
Nick Drake’s reading list
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TIME HAS TOLD
Richard Morton Jack’s new biography offers the deepest dive yet into Drake’s brief life.
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“WE WANTED THE SONGS TURNED INSIDE-OUT!”
An all-star covers album adds to Nick Drake’s legacy.
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ARDEN FANS
Five musicians share their love for Nick’s music
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PANDA BEAR & SONIC BOOM Band On The Wall, Manchester, April 19
Two staunch psychedelic explorers bring their great Reset to the masses
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LIFETONES Café Oto, London, April 15
“Time goes a bit weird” as This Heat’s Charles Bullen revives his other band
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FILMS
Ari Aster’s clever-clever fever dream; a Brit murder-mystery to dye for; fig-picking teens in Tunisia…
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MY NAME IS OTTILIE
Fascinating documentary on the godmother of British blues.
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Not Fade Away
Fondly remembered this month…
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CROSSWORD
One copy of Brigid Mae Power’s Dream From The Deep Well
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Susanna Hoffs
The Bangles frontwoman on the records that lit her eternal flame: “I always think of music as my drug”
