Exclusive! Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds roar back with new album Wild God, celebrated with an in-depth, wide-ranging and emotional audience with the man himself. Also in the magazine this month: Van Morrison – in search of Veedon Fleece; James Brown – his Superbad ’70s; Fontaines D.C. – their new album unpicked; Joe Boyd – folk-rock Renaissance dude. Plus: Françoise Hardy; The Jesus & Mary Chain; Doug Sahm; Cassandra Jenkins; Average White Band; The Jesus Lizard; The Police; Man; Sparks’ socks and Syd Barrett’s floorboards!
THIS MONTH’S COVERMOUNT CD is Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Classic. Live Rare. 1984-2024. Fourteen tracks of superior Cave sturm und drang, dramatic balladry and multi-hued musical questing, cherry-picked from his back catalogue. A must for Bad Seeds fans! And everyone else!
HAVE MOJO 370 SENT STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOME
CONTENTS MOJO 370
COVER STORY: NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS As he prepares to unleash a muscular, multi-hued new Bad Seeds LP, Cave talks exclusively to Dorian Lynskey of post-traumatic fame and the mysteries of songwriting: “There’s a lot of times I think, What the fuck am I doing?”
VAN MORRISON How the burnt-out Celtic soul star revived in rural Ireland and returned with Veedon Fleece. Fifty years on, bandmates relive its “transcendental tension”.
THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN The making of 1985’s generational noise-pop opus, Psychocandy, in the rucking Reid brothers’ own words. From their revelatory new memoir, Never Understood.
CASSANDRA JENKINS New York City’s songwriting sophisticate on how William Shatner, pet-shop lizards, Foo Fighters videos and the late David Berman inform her aesthetic.
JOE BOYD From tour-managing Sister Rosetta Tharpe and producing Nick Drake and R.E.M., to his remarkable new world music tome: a Renaissance dude speaks.
JAMES BROWN In the mid-’70s, Mr. Dynamite followed the tragic death of his son with his greatest album: The Payback. Then crazy career management undid all the good work.
DOUG SAHM Sixty years since the formation of the Sir Douglas Quintet, Michael Simmons remembers the wild times of the Americana cornerstone and ornery one-off.
AVERAGE WHITE BAND The funky Scotsmen’s best of times – a mega hit with Pick Up The Pieces – was also, tragically, the worst of times: “It was immediate crash and burn.”
REVIEWED Fontaines D.C. / The Police / Jon Hopkins / Beastie Boys / Blur / Sturgill Simpson / Buzzcocks / X / Meshell Ndegeocello / Hamish Hawk / Ray LaMontagne / Common & Pete Rock / Graham Gouldman / Focus / Los Bitchos / Bill Wyman / Fucked Up / Jon Anderson / King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard / Minny Pops / Scientist / Paul Weller / The Rolling Stones / Little Feat / Oasis
PLUS Adieu,Françoise Hardy / For sale: Syd Barrett’s floorboards / Elvis Costello – the musical! / Sparks in the studio / Moon Unit Zappa on life with and without dad Frank / Jody Stephens meets the Beatles / How To Buy… Man, man! / Wand and The Red Clay Strays are Rising / Les Paul rocks 1952 to the core / Milton Nascimento / And… The Jesus Lizard!