Once in a lifetime… Presenting the Ultimate Music Guide to the arty, unparalleled Talking Heads. From the nervy minimalism of their debut to the full-on panglobal funk orchestrations of Stop Making Sense, via solo records, the Tom Tom Club, suits large and small. As David Byrne writes in his exclusive foreword: “the chance to be disruptive and possibly revolutionary was an irresistible lure…”

Buy a copy online by clicking here!

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Once in a lifetime. That’s how often you expect a confluence of talents like those gathered in Talking Heads: the visionary polymath songwriter, the seasoned multi-instrumentalist, the minimalist drummer, and the bass player whose funky pulse helped drive it all inexorably forward.

Buy Uncut’s Ultimate Music Guide to Talking Heads now!

And, aside from a fleeting reunion in 2002 (three days of rehearsal accompanied by their induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame), that was very much the story – a musical event never to be repeated. David Byrne left Talking Heads for an eccentric and magnificent journey through a world of music and big ideas. Jerry Harrison departed to a successful career in production. Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth? They pursued a successful life on their own terms as Tom Tom Club, in production, and as rock’s most enduring married couple.

For this latest Ultimate Music Guide, though, we feel we’ve achieved something quite impressive. It should hopefully go without saying that the issue contains your hoped-for blend of deep new reviews of every album by Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club, and of every decade of David Byrne’s solo work, alongside a wealth of historic interviews and encounters.

But we’ve also pulled off something like a reunion. An insightful afterword by Jerry Harrison. A fun and freewheeling interview with Chris Frantz (accompanied by a snapshot of the author at his desk by Tina Weymouth). Most expansively, we can offer you a foreword written for us by David Byrne, in which he reflects on the factors which were instrumental in the birth of Talking Heads.

Luck was certainly one part of it, he confides. He is also generous enough to note that music writing had a lot to do with it, too – even the bad reviews which described Byrne as a yelping savant whose eyes bugged out. As he wryly notes, the band’s destiny was sealed: “People had to see this freakshow for themselves…”

You’ll definitely want to check it out, too. The magazine hits UK shops on November 12, but you can order a copy now by clicking here.

The post Introducing the Ultimate Music Guide to Talking Heads appeared first on UNCUT.

20 The Lighthouse
Director: Robert Eggers
The director of The Witch offered another exercise in period Gothic with a maritime nightmare in black and white that brought new meaning to the concept of self-isolation. With dialogue channelling Herman Melville and 19th-century mariners’ journals, it starred Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as two men coming to loggerheads at a remote ocean outpost.

19 Calm With Horses
Director: Nick Rowland
From debut director Rowland, this tough, feral story of rural Irish gangland starred Cosmo Jarvis – the discovery from Lady Macbeth – as a boxer turned enforcer to a crime clan, with Barry Keoghan as the young scion who keeps him on a tight leash. Scripted by Joe Murtagh, a steely drama of violence and troubled loyalties. 

18 Vitalina Varela
Director: Pedro Costa
Portuguese director Costa provided another example of poetic severity, again with a non-professional cast from Lisbon’s Cape Verdean immigrant community. His star this time was Vitalina Varela herself, playing the autobiographical role of a woman who arrives in Portugal after years separated from her husband, only to find she is just too late for his funeral.

17 Lovers Rock
Director: Steve McQueen
Part of his Small Axe BBC miniseries about the histories of Britain’s black community, along with Mangrove and Red, White And Blue, this was a kinetic evocation of a 1970s West London blues party, as bodies melt together, dub heats the night and the dancefloor rides on the euphoric high notes of Janet Kay’s “Silly Games”.

16 The 40-Year-Old Version
Director: Radha Blank
Screenwriter, actor, director and playwright Blank put herself on the map this year with this slyly autobiographical comedy about a middle-aged African-American woman named Radha who reinvents herself in line with other people’s expectations, and emerges with a whole new life as rapper RadhaMUSprime. Witty, fresh and mischievously political.   

15 1917
Director: Sam Mendes
Nothing if not immersive, Mendes’ drama took the viewer into the trenches of World War I, following George MacKay as a British soldier on a life-or-death mission. Some felt it turned the Great War into a computer game, but cinematographer Roger Deakins’ bravura simulation of a single shot took some beating as sheer cinematic legerdemain.

14 Saint Maud
Director: Rose Glass
Economically executed, intensely disturbing, this British debut was an audacious essay in psychological horror, with Morfydd Clark excelling as a young woman working as a palliative carer while grappling with her religious traumas. Jennifer Ehle was the worldly patient putting Maud’s worldview to the test. Echoes of Polanski’s Repulsion, in an evocatively tawdry seaside setting.

13 The Trial Of The Chicago 7
Director: Aaron Sorkin
Creator of TV’s The West Wing, and screenwriter of The Social Network,
Sorkin returned to his courtroom drama roots with this account of the 1968 case that shook America – a story with chilling resonances in the year of Black Lives Matter. Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Rylance and a magisterially menacing Frank Langella headed a dream cast. 

12 Tenet
Director: Christopher Nolan
Many seriously expected Nolan’s film to ‘save’ cinema – at least, get a few multiplexes up and running again – and while it performed well, it wasn’t the panacea the industry dreamed of. It divided critics, but its palindromic story of an agent (John David Washington) trying to avert doomsday gave even genre sceptics plenty to puzzle over.

11 Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Director: Eliza Hittman
From the Beach Rats writer-director, this pared-down narrative felt like social realism at its purest: a story of
a young woman’s tripto New York to get an abortion, accompanied by a supportive friend. The film wore its politics lightly, but hit all the harder for that, with newcomer Sidney Flanigan giving a mesmerising, no-frills performance. 

10 Dark Waters
Director: Todd Haynes
US trailblazer Haynes (Poison, Carol, I’m Not There) took an unlikely but altogether convincing departure from his experimental roots – a torn-from-the-headlines legal drama, with Mark Ruffalo as the corporate lawyer taking on a case of chemical pollution. It was Haynes’ unlikely contribution to the Erin Brockovich school of people-vs-the-Establishment dramas, and he absolutely made it his own.

9 Rocks
Director: Sarah Gavron
Devised in collaboration with east London school students, this was one of the highlights of recent British realism – a tender but tautly unsentimental story of an African teenager (Bukky Bakray) tending to her kid brother when their mother goes AWOL. Tough, moving, funny too, with winning performances by its young cast of newcomers. 

8 The True History Of The Kelly Gang
Director: Justin Kurzel
After eccentric side trips into Shakespeare and computer-game cinema, Snowtown director Kurzel returned to his Australian roots with this spectacular, primally intense adaptation of Peter Carey’s novel about the outlaw legend. George MacKay was savagely impressive as the man behind the armour, with vivid support from Nicholas Hoult, Essie Davis and, positively Falstaffian, Russell Crowe.

7 A Hidden Life
Director: Terrence Malick
Few directors have divided critics as radically as Malick, with many long-term admirers increasingly perplexed by his recent films. This was one of his more overtly religious works – the story of an Austrian conscientious objector who died for his refusal to support Nazism. Rarefied and beautiful,
this cinematic Alpine symphony inhabits its own lofty climes.

6 The Painted Bird
Director: Václav Marhoul
This Czech adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski’s controversial bestseller went the full mile in its evocation of wartime horror. Fearless newcomer Petr Kotlar plays the boy on a journey through hell, as he witnesses – and is subjected to – the unimaginable. A stark black-and-white passion play, with support from Harvey Keitel, Julian Sands and Udo Kier. 

5 The Devil All The Time
Director: Antonio Campos
The wood-smoked tones of novelist Donald Ray Pollock provided the voiceover for this adaptation of his Gothic saga of madness, corruption and violence on the Ohio-West Virginia border. Antonio Campos (Simon Killer, Christine) directed a strong cast that included Tom Holland, Riley Keough, Jason Isaacs, a ripely theatrical Robert Pattinson and neo-trad folk-swing crooner Pokey LaFarge.

4 David Byrne’s American Utopia
Director: Spike Lee
David Byrne has made other concert films since then, but this collaboration with Spike Lee was the one that finally measured up to, possibly even eclipsed, Stop Making Sense. Recording a Broadway performance, it had its star barefoot alongside a full singing-playing-dancing ensemble, in a vivid mix of performance art, political comment and Byrnean exuberance.

3 I’m Thinking of Ending Things
Director: Charlie Kaufman
If the 700-page sprawl of his novel Antkind was too much to handle, wayward genius Kaufman also offered something more focused in its derangement, this adaptation of Iain Reid’s novel. Naturally, he made it his own, as a young couple (Jessie Buckley, Jesse Plemons) undergo a road trip to the furthest corners of consciousness.

2 Uncut Gems
Directors: Josh and Benny Safdie
The cinematic equivalent of sticking your finger into a light socket, the latest from the American indie filmmakers Josh and Benny Safdie starred an irreducibly full-on Adam Sandler. He played a New York jeweller getting into increasingly deep water as he tangles with creditors, hustlers, family members and his mistress – a dazzling debut from Manhattan scenester Julia Fox.

1 Parasite
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Parasite premiered in Cannes in May 2019, scooped four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, in February this year, and proved to be a commercial breakthrough worldwide. The seventh feature by South Korean maestro Bong Joon-ho seemed to have rewritten the rules for world cinema, opening up the field to possibilities far beyond the English-language status quo. That was until the world changed.

Parasite’s success now seems to belong to the Great Before – before Covid shut down screens and forced the international film industry to rethink everything. As Cannes was cancelled and other festivals went online, we all became used to a seemingly endless flow of product on streaming platforms, while cinemas stayed dark for months – some of them promptly shutting again almost as soon as they reopened. It turned out that Bong Joon-ho had accidentally made the first lockdown film, and suddenly we were all like the man living in a cellar in Parasite – staying hidden, trying to stay safe and sane.

However much its triumph is eclipsed by the strangeness of 2020, Parasite will endure as one of the most entertaining and ingenious films of recent years, and one of the most politically astute – a trenchant satire about haves and have nots, and about the games people play to keep their heads above a rising tide of tribulation. A film of genuine global urgency, Parasite set a formidable benchmark for cinematic and satirical invention, and a model of possibility to inspire filmmakers the world over, whatever the ‘next normal’ turns out to be.

The post Uncut’s Best Films Of 2020 appeared first on UNCUT.

A dazzling blend of greatest-hits show, avant-garde ballet and timely political statement, David Byrne’s 2018 American Utopia tour was a natural candidate for an extended Broadway encore. Shot in late 2019 and premiered on HBO in October, Spike Lee’s film of Byrne’s sold-out Hudson Theater run is respectfully faithful to the stage performance, with a few deft embellishments.

Stripping the stage down to an artfully minimal art-space, Byrne is joined by a multinational ensemble of 11 bare-footed singer-dancer-musicians, all dressed in stylishly egalitarian grey uniforms. Played on portable wireless instruments in thunderously percussive marching-band arrangements, rebooted Talking Heads classics including “I Zimbra” and “Once In A Lifetime” sound kinetic and vital, while more recent Byrne tracks like “Lazy”, “One Fine Day” and “I Dance Like This” span the musical spectrum from clubby house to gospel-pop to avant-funk. The choreography, by long-time Byrne collaborator Annie-B Parson, is playfully wonky and frequently hilarious, but impressively athletic too.

Tweaking the tour format a little for Broadway, Byrne adds more spoken-word sections that fall somewhere between TED talks and stand-up comedy routines. These short monologues also reinforce the album’s political subtext as the singer quotes James Baldwin, stresses the urgency of voter registration, and pointedly breaks down his band’s multi-racial makeup. Donald Trump’s name is never mentioned, but the broader context is clear.

Sharing a sharp visual flair and intertwined history with Byrne on New York’s febrile 1980s arts scene, Lee was a smart choice to direct American Utopia. One of his lesser-known credits is a dynamic 2009 film of the award-winning Broadway rock musical Passing Strange. Working for the fifth time with esteemed cinematographer Ellen Kuras, Lee reinforces this production’s strong visual aesthetic with geometrically beautiful overhead shots and see-sawing cameras during faster numbers.

More importantly, Lee responds in subtle but inspired ways to Byrne’s pro-diversity message. The singer’s full-band choral cover of Janelle Monae’s Black Lives Matter protest anthem “Hell You Talmbout” was always a bold inclusion, but Lee embellishes it here with photographs showing each of the African-American victims named in the lyric, adding some notorious recent cases including Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. Some of these brief cutaways include surviving family members: a simple, powerful, cinematic flourish that amplifies the song’s impact without disrupting the show’s flow.

As both stage performance and documentary, American Utopia inevitably invites comparison to Jonathan Demme’s beloved 1984 Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense. To the credit of everyone involved, these parallels do not feel hyperbolic. In what may even be a sly homage to Demme, Byrne departs from his usual Broadway format to perform a final uplifting encore of “Road To Nowhere” against bare theatre walls before leading his band on a euphoric victory lap through the crowd. A handsome record of a career-topping, jaw-dropping spectacle, American Utopia is a glorious celebration of music as unifying force, joy as an act of resistance.

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David Byrne’s American Utopia has been confirmed for a re-run on Broadway in 2021 after an initial 17-week return schedule was postponed last year due to the coronavirus crisis.

• ORDER NOW: The August 2021 issue of Uncut

The stage show, which is based on Byrne’s 2018 album of the same name, will this time see a longer, six-month run in New York City’s theatre district, moving from The Hudson to the larger St. James Theatre on 44th Street.

The Talking Heads frontman and solo artist is joined by an 11-piece mobile ensemble playing songs from American Utopia as well as other tracks from his solo catalogue and Talking Heads material.

Byrne said in a statement: “It is with great pleasure that finally, after a year+ like no other, I can announce that our show is coming back to Broadway. You who kept the faith, who held on to your tickets, well, you knew this would happen eventually!

“September 17 – remount previews begin. We’re moving to the St. James Theatre – just down 44th Street from the Hudson, where we were before. The stage is a little wider and the capacity is a little bigger – I guess we did alright!

“Seriously, New York is back, and given all we’ve witnessed, felt and experienced, it is obvious to me that no one wants to go back to a world with everything the way it was – we have an opportunity for a new world here. See you there.”

Ticketholders of dates from the original, cancelled run will be emailed with details about how to proceed. Elsewhere, fans can buy tickets from the show’s official website.

Byrne announced last February that American Utopia would begin a new 17-week run that September after a 121-performance run at the Hudson Theatre between October 2019 and February 2020. However, all shows were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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David Byrne‘s American Utopia is coming to US cinemas for a special one-off showing.

• ORDER NOW: The Beatles are on the cover of the September 2021 issue of Uncut
• READ MORE: Review: David Byrne’s American Utopia

The acclaimed concert film, from director Spike Lee, is coming to cinemas in the US nationwide for a special one-night-only showing on September 15.

The event will also feature a new introduction from Byrne and will also show a never-before-seen conversation between Byrne and Lee, according to Deadline. 

American Utopia is a concert film documenting Byrne‘s Broadway show of the same name.

In a 9/10 review of the film, Uncut called it “a dazzling blend of greatest-hits show, avant-garde ballet and timely political statement” and “a glorious celebration of music as unifying force, joy as an act of resistance”.

Meanwhile, Byrne‘s American Utopia stage show has been confirmed for a re-run on Broadway in 2021 after an initial 17-week return schedule was postponed last year due to the coronavirus crisis.

The show, which is based on Byrne’s 2018 album of the same name, will this time see a longer, six-month run in New York City’s theatre district, moving from The Hudson to the larger St. James Theatre on 44th street.

The Talking Heads frontman and solo artist is joined by an 11-piece mobile ensemble playing songs from American Utopia as well as other tracks from his solo catalogue and Talking Heads material.

The post David Byrne’s American Utopia: Spike Lee’s film is heading to US cinemas appeared first on UNCUT.

David Byrne’s American Utopia is returning to Broadway in modified form due to the surge in Omicron COVID-19 cases in New York.

• ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut
• READ MORE: David Byrne’s American Utopia review

The show started its second run in Manhattan earlier this year but was forced to cancel dates after a rise in cases and company members testing positive for the virus.

Byrne has announced that American Utopia has resumed on December 28, albeit not in its usual form. “Most nights I’m on this stage performing American Utopia On Broadway,” he said in a Facebook video. “However, several members of our company, band and crew – who are fully vaccinated – have tested positive for COVID.

“Fortunately, these band members and crew don’t have severe symptoms and are following the CDC guidelines. We hope that they’ll be back with us in a few weeks. Unfortunately, though, they can’t come to the theatre and they can’t help us make this show. So rather than us cancelling our shows, we’re looking at this as a kind of opportunity to, well, honour our commitment to the audiences who are coming in the coming weeks and creating something special.”

Byrne spun a positive light on the show being short-staffed, calling it “our opportunity to make lemonade from COVID lemons”. “You could call this ‘unplugged’, you could call this ‘unchained’ if you like,” he said. “It will be something unlike anything we’ve done before. It’s not quite the show but it’s gonna be something special.”

He continued to say that he didn’t think the adapted production would happen again beyond this next few weeks. The new, temporary version of the show will feature Talking Heads songs, Byrne’s solo material and tracks from American Utopia.

“We’re having a great time learning this stuff and a lot of fun doing it,” he added. “It’s gonna be amazing. I’m excited about it. I think it shows that we can adapt and persevere.”

American Utopia is held at Broadway’s St. James Theatre. Tickets are on sale now for shows until the end of April 2022.

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A reworked version of David Byrne’s American Utopia returned to Broadway on Tuesday night (December 28) featuring a completely new setlist and modified stage show – watch footage below.

• ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut
• READ MORE: David Byrne’s American Utopia review

The show originally started its second run in Manhattan earlier this year but was forced to cancel dates recently with company members testing positive for COVID-19. However, Byrne announced that the show would go on and set to work creating a modified version of America Utopia.

In a Facebook video, Byrne said that “rather than us cancelling our shows, we’re looking at this as a kind of opportunity to, well, honour our commitment to the audiences who are coming in the coming weeks and creating something special.”

Byrne went on to describe American Utopia: Unchained as “something unlike anything we’ve done before”.

The setlist for the first night of American Utopia: Unchained featured Talking Heads classics “Life During Wartime”, “Heaven”, “(Nothing but) Flowers” and “And She Was”.

Byrne also added a handful of his own solo songs, including “Everyone’s In Love With You” and “Marching Through Wilderness” as well as a selection of his collaborations with Brian Eno like “My Big Nurse”, “Life Is Long” and “Strange Overtones” while regular American Utopia tracks like “Road To Nowhere” were given a stripped back reworking.

Check out footage and the setlist for American Utopia: Unchained below.

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We got bumped from the second balcony to the second row somehow and this was the close and nothing compares to the energy and perfect performance and the spectacle. Thank You @americanutopia and the entire cast and crew for an amazing show worth traveling cross country for! pic.twitter.com/zNPehDAHGD

— Norwegian Dude Fully Vaccinated. (@celticode) December 30, 2021

Cat's out of the bag.

Tickets available now for DAVID BYRNE'S AMERICAN UTOPIA: UNCHAINED, playing at the St. James Theatre for one week only (including tonight at 8PM ). pic.twitter.com/IIqOvW0lDv

— David Byrne's American Utopia on Broadway (@americanutopia) December 29, 2021

Speaking about the reworked show, Byrne said: “We’re having a great time learning this stuff and a lot of fun doing it. It’s gonna be amazing. I’m excited about it. I think it shows that we can adapt and persevere.”

American Utopia: Unchained is set to run for one week only before the regular American Utopia resumes until the end of April 2022. The show is held at Broadway’s St. James Theatre and tickets are on sale now.

The post Watch David Byrne perform Talking Heads classics at first American Utopia: Unchained show appeared first on UNCUT.

Arcade Fire and David Byrne covered Plastic Ono Band’s protest song “Give Peace A Chance” at the final night of four Ukraine benefit gigs in New York City.

• ORDER NOW: Paul McCartney is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut
• READ MORE: Arcade Fire – Everything Now review

The Canadian band were joined by the legendary soloist and former Talking Heads frontman for the rendition of John Lennon and Plastic Ono Band’s 1969 single on March 21 at Bowery Ballroom.

The performance wrapped Arcade Fire’s stint at the NYC venue that has raised money for the Plus1 Ukraine Relief Fund. Initially, the band announced a last-minute show at the Ballroom on Friday (March 18), saying that attendees could pay what they could afford.

But more spontaneous pay-what-you-feel shows followed over the weekend into last night’s gig, at which Byrne made a special appearance as well as actor Mike Myers.

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Myers made a political speech ahead of the encore, which saw Arcade Fire play “Wake Up” and the unreleased “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)” from their forthcoming album WE.

“You can have the government you want, but once you lose democracy, you are fucked. And so, for the people of Ukraine, I just want to say keep fighting, we’ll support you. Democracy is the way to go,” he said.

“My parents fought the fascists in World War II, this is a real thing. I just want to say, we’ve all been asleep. We’ve all been in Covid hibernation. And now ladies and gentlemen – it’s time to wake up.”

As Rolling Stone reports, the 600-person capacity shows were announced just hours before door time with entry wristbands selling out in under an hour.

It added that last night’s show didn’t wrap with Myers and Byrne. Continuing what they’d done on the preceding evenings, Arcade Fire took the gig outdoors, leading fans through the Delancey Street subway station and back to the venue before wrapping up.

Meanwhile, Arcade Fire band member Will Butler has announced that he’s left the group after two decades writing and performing with them.

Hi friends—
I’ve left Arcade Fire

— Will Butler (@butlerwills) March 19, 2022

The band were founded by multi-instrumentalist Butler’s brother Win in Montreal in the early 2000s, with Butler joining in 2004 ahead of their debut album, Funeral.

Arcade Fire returned last week with news of their sixth album and a video for first single “The Lightning I, II”, in which Butler did not appear.

The post Watch Arcade Fire and David Byrne cover Plastic Ono Band’s “Give Peace A Chance” at Ukraine benefit show appeared first on UNCUT.

David Byrne has shared a new festive song, “Fat Man’s Comin'”.

• ORDER NOW: David Bowie is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut
• READ MORE: David Byrne’s American Utopia review

The track, which you can listen to below, was written while he was working on his collaborative album with St. Vincent, Love This Giant. It was produced by Jherek Bischoff.

“I always wanted to write a holiday song,” the former Talking Heads frontman said in a press release (via Consequence). “I wouldn’t call it a Christmas song, as the visitation of Santa (formerly known as St. Nicholas, who mainly did punishing) seems to have evolved to be a more secular consumer moment than a religious or spiritual affair.”

The track is available on Bandcamp under a pay-what-you-can model here, with all proceeds going towards Reasons To Be Cheerful, the good-news-only publication Byrne founded in 2019.

Today David Byrne released a new holiday song, “Fat Man’s Comin’,” exclusively through Bandcamp Friday, a monthly initiative where all proceeds are directed to artists (and their causes). https://t.co/HxiVcZIAkN pic.twitter.com/2hWKggnCQq

— David Byrne's American Utopia on Broadway (@americanutopia) December 2, 2022

Meanwhile, Byrne recently featured on an abortion rights benefit album alongside the likes of Pearl Jam, R.E.M. and Wet Leg.

The compilation LP – Good Music To Ensure Safe Abortion Access To All also featured further contributions from Death Cab For Cutie, Animal Collective, My Morning Jacket, Fleet Foxes, King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard, Mac DeMarco, Ty Segall, Amanda Shires and Jason Isbell.

100 per cent of the proceeds went to non-profit organisations working to provide abortion care access including Brigid Alliance – a referral-based service that provides travel, food, lodging, child care, and other logistical support for people seeking abortions and NOISE FOR NOW, which is working with Abortion Care Network to support independent abortion clinics.

It came in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade earlier this year, which meant abortion would no longer be protected as a federal right in the US for the first time since 1973, and each state would be able to decide individually whether to restrict or ban abortion.

The post David Byrne shares new Christmas song “Fat Man’s Comin'” appeared first on UNCUT.

Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense documentary is returning to cinemas 39 years on from its original release.

• ORDER NOW: Peter Gabriel is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut
• READ MORE: David Byrne’s American Utopia review

The film, directed by Jonathan Demme, captured the band at the height of their powers in 1983. Stop Making Sense was shot in Hollywood at the Pantages Theater, with the band touring in support of their fifth album, Speaking in Tongues.

The entire concert was a tightly choreographed production and something unique at the time. The film’s release was announced via a Tweet which featured frontman David Byrne collecting his famous oversized suit – check it out below.

If the suit still fits… This year, we’re bringing Jonathan Demme’s groundbreaking 1984 Talking Heads concert film STOP MAKING SENSE (newly remastered in 4K!) back to theaters worldwide. #StopMakingSense2023 pic.twitter.com/Kh2Nevaf2X

— A24 (@A24) March 16, 2023

The promo clip sees Byrne collecting his suit from a dry cleaners, telling the owner: “It’s been here a while.” Byrne then, quite literally, suits up and recreates some of his moves from the December ’83 concert.

As of yet, the film – which is being remastered in 4K – hasn’t got a release date. However, there has already been an announcement that alongside the film, there will be a new deluxe edition of its soundtrack. This is due out on August 18 via Rhino Records.

It will be available digitally with a Dolby Atmos mix of the complete concert as a double LP set. The reissue has been mixed by Jerry Harrison and E.T. Thorngren. Of interest to Talking Heads fans will be the addition of two previously unreleased performances of Cities and Big Business / I Zimbra. This is all accompanied by unseen photos and new liner notes from the band’s four members.

You can pre-order the soundtrack as of now from the band’s official website – here.

The post Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense documentary is returning to cinemas after 39 years appeared first on UNCUT.

David Byrne discusses his work with Talking Heads, Brian Eno and St Vincent in the new issue of Uncut, dated August 2015 and out now.

The singer, songwriter and author, who is curating this summer’s Meltdown festival in London, also recalls his early experiences on a stage, playing in a group while still at school.

“I started performing in high school when I was 16 or so, in pop bands with friends, or at folk clubs,” Byrne says. “I took to it, but at that point I was more driven to do it: it was almost like I felt so socially inept that this was the only way I could express myself, by getting up on a stage and doing something, often somebody else’s song, but getting up onstage and asserting myself. And then retreating back into my shell the minute I’d step off stage.

“It was a curious kind of schizophrenic relationship. But if you don’t feel comfortable communicating any other way, if there’s an avenue open to you, you’ll take it.

“Then over the years, that whole thing lessened. And now, it’s a pleasure to step on stage. There’s no desperation. So there was some kind of weird edginess that got lost in that process, but something else was gained.”

The new issue of Uncut is out tomorrow.

Photo: Danny North

The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – goes on sale in the UK on July 9. Click here for more details.

The post David Byrne: “I felt so socially inept, getting onstage was the only way I could express myself” appeared first on UNCUT.

As we were finishing the new issue of Uncut the other day (It has David Byrne on the cover, and is on sale now), I was thinking about the first time I visited New York in the early 1990s. I fetched up with a band at CBGB one quiet soundcheck afternoon, sometime after the club’s heyday, when it was more likely to be hosting a major label showcase of some gauche Britpop aspirants rather than the authentic, unmediated voice of the New York streets.

Nevertheless, the club still had a certain cachet, however historical, which was why the band (and the NME journalist trying to put a new spin on an optimistic plot to take America by storm) were at CBGB in the first place. That day, Hilly Kristal and his dog were encountered, fleetingly. The toilets seemed more like a museum installation about punk interior design than an actual functioning WC. The critical moment occurred when the photographer and I tried to have a game of pool on the worn-out baize table near the door. As I leaned over to take my first shot, a fat cockroach scuttled out of one pocket, swerved the cueball, and disappeared down another. It was a magically horrible moment: a tale of mythic squalor where nothing really bad happened and no-one got hurt.

The legends of New York, of course, and the phenomenal music that has been made there, often come intertwined with grimmer details. The city’s old, edgy reputation is fetishised so much, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the only good art to come out of the place was dependent on a climate of risk. “New York felt so much more real,” Kim Gordon reminisced in Girl In A Band. “When people would ask [me] why Sonic Youth’s music was so dissonant, the answer was always the same: our music was realistic, and dynamic, because life was that way, filled with extremes.”

The truth, then, is probably a bit more complex than the stereotypes, something we’ve strived to take into account while compiling a list of 50 great New York albums for the new issue. It would be disingenuous to pretend that seediness hasn’t had any role to play – if we’d been so daft as to try and rank these 50 vivid records, I’m sure The Velvet Underground & Nico would have ended up somewhere near the top. But it’s a city, and a list, that contains multitudes: from George Gershwin to Nas; The Fania All-Stars to Jeff Buckley; Sinatra to Hendrix; Woody Allen to Talking Heads.

Our excuse for the list, of course, was to complement Andy Gill’s exclusive David Byrne interview, timed to coincide with his curating of the Meltdown festival in London this summer. I would say this, of course, but there’s a lot of good writing in this month’s Uncut: David Cavanagh on BB King and the blues at a crossroads; Laura Snapes on the fascinating Ezra Furman; John Lewis on the early days of Sly & The Family Stone; John Robinson on the multi-faceted Paul McCartney, Michael Bonner on “The Monsanto Years”. Plus, in a notably eclectic selection of interviewees, we can also boast Merle Haggard, Flying Saucer Attack, The Only Ones, The Monkees, Gordon Lightfoot, Mary Wilson and Paul Weller.

Oh, and the free CD features Sleaford Mods and Duke Ellington as well as Omar Souleyman, Stewart Lee and Rocket From The Crypt, besides some more predictable faithful retainers (Jason Isbell, Shelby Lynne, The Dream Syndicate). Something for everyone might be pushing it, a bit, but hopefully you appreciate Uncut’s horizons broadening.

Follow me on Twitter @JohnRMulvey

The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – goes on sale in the UK on July 9. Click here for more details. The August 2015 issue of Uncut is in shops now.

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David Byrne has announced details of a new exhibition, The Institute Presents: Neurosociety, which will run from October 28 to May 31 at Pace Gallery in Menlo Park, California.

According to the New York Times, Byrne and his collaborator, Mala Gaonkar, a London hedge fund manager, have created room-size installations where visitors can undergo a number of cognitive experiments.

In a statement, Byrne and Gaonkar said: “Experiments, we feel, are a form of theatre. We have adopted elements of art installation and immersive theatre to present these experiences in ways we think will be as engaging for others as they have been for us.

“We traveled and met with many scientists who generously welcomed us, patiently answered our untutored questions, and creatively collaborated with us on this project. In the course of creating The Institute, the work of our partner labs has become both a window and a mirror through which we view ourselves and our larger interactions with the world.

“We wanted to share these concepts with as many people as possible.”

The November 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on The Specials, plus Bon Iver, Bob Weir, Shirley Collins, Conor Oberst, Peter Hook, Bad Company, Leonard Cohen, Muscle Shoals, Will Oldham, Oasis, Lou Reed, Otis Redding, Nina Simone, Frank Ocean, Michael Kiwanuka and more plus 140 reviews and our free 15-track CD

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Bruce Springsteen and David Byrne have paid tribute to the filmmaker Jonathan Demme, who has died aged 73.

Springsteen won an Academy Award for Best Original Song with “”Streets Of Philadelphia“, which he wrote for Demme’s 1993 film, Philadelphia.

Over here on E Street, we're deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Jonathan Demme.

— Bruce Springsteen (@springsteen) April 26, 2017

He was an inspiration for me, a beautiful filmmaker and a great spirit.

— Bruce Springsteen (@springsteen) April 26, 2017

Always smiling, always involved with the world and always pushing you to go for your best. He'll be deeply missed.

– Bruce Springsteen

— Bruce Springsteen (@springsteen) April 26, 2017

Demme directed Talking Heads‘ 1984 concert film, Stop Making Sense. Writing on his blog, Byrne said, “His view of the world was open, warm, animated and energetic”. You can read his tribute in full by clicking here.

Demme died from complications due to heart disease and oesophageal cancer.

Justin Timberlake also paid tribute to the filmmaker, who directed 2016 concert film Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids.

View this post on Instagram

Where do I begin..? Words just aren't enough with heartache like this. You, master of humanity. You, genius of storytelling. You, generous and warm man. You, special soul. You taught me so much about life and art and about standing up for what you believe. You made me better at my craft. And, the time I spent with you away from a camera and a stage made a better human out of me. You are truly irreplaceable. I will miss you so dearly, my sweet friend. I hope we meet again someday. I love you, JD. May you Rest In Peace. –Justin

A post shared by Justin Timberlake (@justintimberlake) on Apr 26, 2017 at 2:14pm PDT

The June 2017 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on Summer Of Love, talking to the musicians, promoters and scenesters on both sides of the Atlantic who were there. Plus, we count down the 50 essential songs from the Summer Of Love, from The Seeds to The Smoke, and including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd. Elsewhere in the issue, we remember Chuck Berry, go on the road with Bob Dylan and there are interview Fleet Foxes, Fairport Convention, Fred Wesley, Jane Birkin and David Lynch’s Twin Peaks’ co-conspirators Angelo Badalamenti and Julee Cruise. Our free CD has been exclusively compiled for us by Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold and includes cuts from Todd Rundgren, Neu!, Van Dyke Parks, The Shaggs, Arthur Russell and Cate Le Bon. Plus there’s Feist, Paul Weller, Perfume Genius, Ray Davies, Joan Shelley, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Johnny Cash, Alice Coltrane, John Martyn and more in our exhaustive reviews section

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David Byrne has announced an upcoming solo tour – his first in nine years.

He will be performing a small number of shows on the American East Coast and South America, as well as European festivals including Inmusic in Croatia and Roskilde, Denmark.

A number of new songs, as well as more familiar tunes, will hit the setlist.

“I’m excited. This is the most ambitious show I’ve done since the shows that were filmed for Stop Making Sense, so fingers crossed,” he wrote on Twitter.

A small # of east coast shows! We’ll be doing some new songs, & many others that will, I assume, be familiar. I’m excited. This is the most ambitious show I’ve done since the shows that were filmed for Stop Making Sense, so fingers crossed. Info @ https://t.co/B8YgcnekRv pic.twitter.com/ehQ41X1MyD

— DavidByrne.com (@DBtodomundo) December 12, 2017

The musician also detailed an ambitious visual approach for the show, centred on his band using mobile instruments.

“With everyone mobile, I realized the stage could be completely clear. If we could have the monitors in our ears, the amps off-stage and the lights up high, then we had the possibility of a completely empty space,” he told Brooklyn Vegan.

He then revealed the difficulty in hiding the “people and gear” around the stage, initially considering drapes before settling on lightweight chains.

“It takes color beautifully. Not only does it take color, one can cast shadows on the chain,” he said.

David Byrne’s tour dates below:

March 3: Red Bank, NJ, USA – Count Basie Theatre
March 4: Wilkes-Barre, PA, USA – F.M. Kirby Center For The Performing Art
March 6: Buffalo, NY, USA – Center For The Arts
March 7: Hershey, PA, USA – Hershey Theatre
March 9: Waterbury, CT, USA – Palace Theater
March 10: Kingston, NY, USA – Ulster Performing Arts Center
March 16: Santiago, Chile – Lollapalooza Chile
March 18 Buenos Aires, Argentina – Lollapalooza Argentina
June 25: Zagreb, Croatia – Inmusic Festival
July 06: Roskilde, Denmark – Roskilde Festival

The January 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Bruce Springsteen on the cover. We also celebrate the best of the last 12 months with our Ultimate Review Of 2017 – featuring the best albums, reissues, films and books of the year. Elsewhere in the issue, there are new interviews with LCD Soundsystem, Bjork, The Weather Station, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Mavis Staples and more. Our free 15 track-CD celebrates the best music from 2017.

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David Byrne will release a new album on March 9. American Utopia is a follow-up to 2012’s St Vincent collaboration Love This Giant, and Byrne’s first solo album since 2004’s Grown Backwards. You can listen to lead single “Everybody’s Coming To My House”, co-written with Brian Eno, here:

As well as continuing Byrne’s long musical partnership with Eno, American Utopia’s other collaborators include Daniel Lopatin (AKA Oneohtrix Point Never), Jam City, Jack Peñate and Sampha.

Regarding the title, Byrne says: “These songs don’t describe this imaginary and possibly impossible place, but rather they attempt to describe the world we live in now. That world… immediately commands us to ask ourselves: Is there another way? A better way? A different way?”

He adds: “I am as mystified as any of us – I have no prescriptions or surefire answers – but I sense that I am not the only one asking, wondering and still willing to hold on to some tiny bit of hope, still willing to not succumb entirely to despair or cynicism. It’s not easy, but music helps.”

American Utopia tracklisting:

I Dance Like This
Gasoline And Dirty Sheets
Every Day Is A Miracle
Dog’s Mind
This Is That
It’s Not Dark Up Here
Bullet
Doing The Right Thing
Everybody’s Coming To My House
Here

The February 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with The Great Lost Venues Of Britain on the cover. Elsewhere in the issue, there a giant preview of 2018’s key albums plus new interviews with Keith Richards, Buffalo Springfield, Michael McDonald, The Sweet and many more. Our free 15 track-CD features 15 tracks of the month’s best music.

The post David Byrne announces new solo album American Utopia appeared first on UNCUT.

Another good week, I think. I hate to pick favourites, but I really enjoyed the Stick In The Wheel track – you can read more about them in the next Uncut, incidentally – and the belated return to active service of Chris Carter. Otherwise, a typically strong showing from old favourites like David Byrne, Dirtmusic and Nightmares On Wax. Oh, yeah, and that Jack White guy.

Excuse the tease, but we’ll be back next week with a new issue – which includes what we’re proud to say is one of our strongest free CDs. Look out for more news on that soon…

Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner

1.
CAVERN OF ANTI-MATTER
“Make Out Fade Out”
(Duophonic)

https://soundcloud.com/cavern-of-anti-matter/make-out-fade-out

2.
STICK IN THE WHEEL
“As I Roved Out”
(From Here)

3.
FIELD MUSIC
“Time In Joy”
(Memphis Industries)

4.
PURLING HISS
“Park Bench Imagination”
(Bandcamp)

5.
BELLE & SEBASTIAN
The Same Star
(Matador)

6.
ALASTAIR ROBERTS, AMBLE SKUSE & DAVID McGUINNESS
“Johnny O’ The Brine”
(Drag City)

7.
NIGHTMARES ON WAX
“Shape The Future”
(Warp)

8.
DAVID BYRNE
“Everybody’s Coming To My House”
(Nonesuch)

9.
RIDE
“Catch You Dreaming”
(PIAS)

10.
DIRTMUSIC
“Bi De Sen Söyle”
(Glitterbeat)

11.
CHRIS CARTER
“Blissters”
(Mute)

12.
SHIRT
“Flight Home”
(Third Man)

13.
JACK WHITE
“Connected By Love”
(Third Man)

14.
JACK WHITE
“Respect Commander”
(Third Man)

The February 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with The Great Lost Venues Of Britain on the cover. Elsewhere in the issue, there a giant preview of 2018’s key albums plus new interviews with Keith Richards, Buffalo Springfield, Michael McDonald, The Sweet and many more. Our free 15 track-CD features 15 tracks of the month’s best music.

The post The 2nd Uncut new music playlist of 2018 appeared first on UNCUT.

Listen to “Don’t Worry About the Government” from Talking Heads‘ 1977 debut album and you could take it as a straight homage to Jonathan Richman: “I smell the pine trees and the peaches in the woods / I see the pinecones that fall by the highway”. It’s only gradually that the pastoral takes on sinister overtones: “I see the states, across this big nation / I see the laws made in Washington, D.C / I think of the ones I consider my favorites / I think of the people that are working for me”. It dawns on you that Byrne is singing from the perspective of the President, or even Government itself, as a kind of anonymous, cybernetic Greek chorus. “Don’t you worry about me,” it lulls its anxious citizens, like HAL 9000 in 2001 “I wouldn’t worry about me.”

The song established a signature tone of creepy naivety that has persisted through Byrne’s work, from the ecstatic dread of “Once in a Lifetime”, through the giddy doom of “Road to Nowhere”, right up to the title track of the 2008 Brian Eno collaboration Everything That Happens… It’s a tone that’s all over American Utopia, which considers the state of the union with a surreal impassiveness. It reaches its apogee on “Dog’s Mind”. It begins with portentous piano chords before building to a gospel chorus sung by Government clerks, gazing out upon “a place where nothing matters / Where the wheels of progress turn / Where reality is fiction / But the dogs show no concern”. Is this where the grand experiment of America winds up, wonders the album – with the citizens adrift in doggy dreams, the judiciary hungover, the media quiescent, while the Presidential fiasco proceeds unchecked?

These are good questions for a great American artist like David Byrne to be pondering, but I’m not sure American Utopia adds up to a great piece of work. It is at some level, like Everything That Happens… That album had a dated feel, but there was a great charm in hearing the massed Enoid choir once again supporting Byrne’s quizzical lead. This time around the tracks are based on drum tracks that Eno programmed, but he takes a back seat. It makes you wonder whether Byrne needs more active, engaged collaborators (like the other Talking Heads, Eno, or St Vincent) to really provoke him to greatness.

Left to his own devices, Byrne comes home to a screwball hymnal mode that for all the lyrical left turns, feels a little too predictable. The album begins with the twinkly chords of “I Dance Like This”, an uncanny Philip K Dick vision of the day after the end of the world: “ a fitness consultant / in the negative zone / wandering the city / looking for home”. The chorus is a jarring intrusion, like the song is being given ECT, but it feels arbitrary, the result of an algorithmic decision, rather than anything dramatically disturbed.

“Gasoline and Dirty Streets” is better, entering with synthetic sitar and slapback bass, backed with eerie saxophone and harmonica, one of a number of tracks recalling Talking Heads at their most polished circa “Sax and Violins”. It describes a battle between a woman “who is royalty” (for whom “freedom costs too much”) and “a man who would be king”. Like much of the album it feels overdetermined by recent American politics. At its worst, on “Every Day is a Miracle”, this leads to childlike, slightly pious fables which, which like the political squibs of George Saunders, feel like collaborations between Dr Seuss and Kafka.

If you don’t much care for green eggs and ham, the two sides of the album end with a couple of the best songs of Byrne’s storied career. “This is that” is a yearning tribute to the power of music, sung over synthetic chinese zither, which aquiesces to the clichés we use to describe “that moment when the melody ends and the rhythm kicks in”: “that’s when I call you up, that’s when my river overflows” Byrne sings, falling back, unapologetically, on old soul tropes of transcendence.

The final “Here” is the one track credited to Byrne and Daniel Lopatin, better known as electronic auteur Oneohtrix Point Never, who came on board in the project late in the day. Over roilingdrones and a rhythm track reminiscent of Japan circa Tin Drum, Byrne describes some unnamed territory – possibly a map of neural pathways: “Here is an area—of great confusion / Here is a section—that’s extremely precise / And here is an area—that needs attention / Here’s the connection—with the opposite side”. Maybe due to Lopatin’s involvement it strikes a new, subtler, deeper note on the record. But once again it’s reminiscent of early Talking Heads – in this case “The Big Country” from 1978’s More Songs About Buildings And Food, with its alienated airplane passenger, surveying the flyover counties: “Then we come to the farmlands, and the undeveloped areas / And I have learned how these things work together.” Back then Byrne sang “I wouldn’t live there if you paid me.” This time round he yearns for the making rather than the unmaking of sense, reconciliation, intimacy and the acceptance of the here and now. Maybe, he suggests, this humble, pragmatic ideal is the real American Utopia.

The May 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Johnny Marr on the cover. Elsewhere in the issue, you’ll find exclusive new interviews with John Fogerty, Dan Auerbach, Shirley Collins, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, John Prine and many more. Our free 15-track CD features 15 tracks of this month’s best new music, featuring Kacy & Clayton, Laura Veirs, Wye Oak, Cath & Phil Taylor, Mouse On Mars, Josh T. Pearson, A Place To Bury Strangers and Drinks

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David Byrne has today released six tracks recorded live on his acclaimed American Utopia tour at New York’s Kings Theatre in September.

They have been issued as a standalone EP called “…The Best Live Show of All Time” — NME (yes, that really is the title) as well as being added to the Deluxe Edition of American Utopia, which you can hear below:

Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home!

You can buy “…The Best Live Show of All Time” — NME EP on CD or MP3 direct from the Nonesuch store.

The January 2019 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Jack White on the cover. Inside, White heads up our Review Of The Year – which also features the best new albums, archive releases, films and books of the last 12 months. Aside from White, there are exclusive interviews with Paul Weller, Elvis Costello, Stephen Malkmus, Courtney Barnett, Low and Mélissa Laveaux. Our 15-track CD also showcases the best music of 2018.

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