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Andrew Mueller

Andrew Mueller

Andrew Mueller was Reviews Editor at Melody Maker from 1991 until 1993, and a freelance contributor to the magazine until 1996. He has since written for all sorts of publications about all sorts of things, but currently contributes more or less regularly to Monocle, Esquire, Uncut, The Guardian, The Times, The New Humanist and eMusic, among others.

Andrew Mueller has written sleevenotes for the Go-Betweens, Straitjacket Fits, Microdisney and The Fatima Mansions, as well as programme notes for U2. He is the author of two books: 1999's Rock & Hard Places (Virgin), an anthology of his rock journalism and foreign correspondence, and 2008's I Wouldn't Start From Here (Portobello), a personal history of the 21st century, which was described by the Washington Times as "wonderfully entertaining" , by the Financial Times as "a joy", and by the Wagga Wagga Advertiser as "not bad for a guy from Wagga Wagga".
Andrew Mueller is also the singer, songwriter and rhythm guitarist with the Blazing Zoos, an incipient alt.country phenomenon.

Andrew Mueller online

155 articles

List of articles in the library

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Elvis Costello: Elvis Lives!!!

Interview by Andrew Mueller, On The Street, 18 January 1989

IN THE BEGINNING was the Word. And the word was No.No as in No Interview. Elvis Costello would be talking about his forthcoming album, Spike, ...

Transvision Vamp: Hordern Pavilion, Sydney

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 2 September 1989

VAMP COLLECTING ...

Johnny Marr, The Smiths, The The: Johnny Marr: Escape from Strangeways

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 30 September 1989

THIS WEEK, THE THE'S WORLD TOUR FINALLY HITS BRITAIN. ANDREW MUELLER JOINED THE TOUR IN AUSTRALIA TO TALK TO MARR ABOUT HIS ROLE AS ROCK'S ...

Lucinda Williams: Annadale Hotel, Sydney

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 6 January 1990

MICK FROM Weddings Parties Anything and Jon from Paul Kelly's Messengers are The Indigo Boys, the support act, and something I miss entirely except for ...

Mötley Crüe: Entertainment Centre, Sydney

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 26 May 1990

THAT T'CRÜE'S latest single, 'Kickstart My Heart', is from the title down a towering work of dumbo rockin' genius must surely be unarguable. Like Guns ...

Prince: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 1 September 1990

EMPEROR'S NUDE CLOTHES ...

Living Colour: The Marquee, London

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 8 September 1990

ACTUALLY, Living Colour are quite frequently exhilarating. I mean, two days previously they'd cheered up an otherwise dismal early Reading Sunday. But that was just ...

Mariah Carey: Mariah Carey (CBS)

Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 15 Spring 1990

MARIAH CAREY is a very very pretty girl and she has a very very wonderful voice and her debut album is an absolute dog. Comparisons ...

Ride, Slowdive: Forever Now: Ride/Slowdive: Academy, Manchester

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 9 March 1991

RIDE, perhaps, are just too much. Too soon, too quick, too assured, too contemporary, too praised, too openly derivative to even be insulted by being ...

The Replacements: The Marquee, London

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 27 April 1991

SHAKEDOWN! ...

The Fatima Mansions: Fatima Mansions: Limelight Club, Belfast

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 15 June 1991

ANGER, as at least one iconic sneer has already correctly asserted, is an energy. It stimulates, inspires, propels, compels. Our contemporary pop climate is, make ...

Kirsty MaCcoll: Electric Landlady (Virgin)

Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 22 June 1991

VERILY AND forsooth, but there is no mess sorrier than that made by the naturally supremely agile coming a clumsy cropper. ...

Guns N' Roses, Nine Inch Nails, Skid Row: Guns N' Roses, Skid Row, Nine Inch Nails: Wembley Stadium, London

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 7 September 1991

APPETITE FOR INSURRECTION ...

Hole: California Screaming

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 23 November 1991

From out of Nowhere, California, to topping the English independent charts and headlining London, HOLE have been one of the year's most talked-about bands. A laughable hangover of the post-Sub Pop ...

The Sugarcubes: Joyriders On The Storm

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 1 February 1992

"The shock of the renewed" is how ANDREW MUELLER magnificently greets Stick Around For Joy, The 'Cubes' return to the forefront of the fray. Hang ...

Pearl Jam: Fjord Fiestas

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 20 February 1992

Like Nirvana and Jane's Addiction before them, PEARL JAM look set to become this year's big US rock event. With Top 20 single 'Alive', they've ...

Suede: Afrika Centre, London

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 9 May 1992

THOSE OF you by now wearied of the periodic meanders up the garden path you have made at this paper's behest will read this, as ...

The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy: The Riot Stuff

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 23 May 1992

An uneasy truce hangs over America in the aftermath of the LA riots. Is there worse to come or has the anger, for the moment, ...

The Fatima Mansions, Microdisney, U2: Fatima Mansions: Putting the Catalan among the pigeons

Report and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 6 June 1992

What can CATHAL COUGHLAN and BONO possibly have in common? ANDREW MUELLER flew to Barcelona to discover why the acerbic lead singer decided to support ...

Bob Mould, Sugar: Sugar: Big Rock Candy Mountain

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 8 August 1992

Sugar are Bob Mould's New Band. Bob Mould used to be in Husker Du. Without Husker Du, maybe Nirvana would never have happened. Andrew Mueller ...

Ice Cube, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Lush, Ministry, Pearl Jam, The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Lollapalooza 2: One Nation Under a Groove

Report by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 15 August 1992

It's Glastonbury on wheels, a mobile Reading, the lovechild and legacy of ex-Jane's Addiction frontman and all-round chap, Perry Farrell. It's LOLLAPALOOZA, in its second ...

Ride: Smile (Creation)

Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 9 January 1993

PERHAPS MORE than any of their contemporaries, Ride encapsulate all that is right and wrong with the English music scene as she now is, or ...

Wendy James: This Year's Model: The Second Coming of Wendy James

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 6 February 1993

The last time we spoke to WENDY JAMES, she made a lot of typically outrageous claims for herself. She would be the biggest name in ...

American Music Club: 'Club for Zeroes'

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 27 March 1993

AMC MAKE MUSIC for losers, loners, early-hour fuck-ups and late-night wasters. Perfect for us, really. ...

U2: Pairc Ui Chaoimh, Cork

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 11 September 1993

THE BRITISH Royal Family would need to perish en masse in a satanic suicide pact to generate half the press that Zoo TV's long-awaited Irish ...

Kristin Hersh: Hips And Makers (4AD)

Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 15 January 1994

PELVIS IS KING ...

The Auteurs: Haughty by Nature

Interview by Andrew Mueller, New Musical Express, 9 April 1994

Yup, it's six-gun 'n' ten-gallon — from Odd bins — fun all the way. as THE AUTEURS release their second album, Now I'm A Cowboy. ...

Counting Crows: Abacus:Arrival

Interview by Andrew Mueller, New Musical Express, 23 April 1994

They've gone from COUNTING CROWS to counting dollars in the space of one album, but rook leader ADAM DURITZ still has to avoid the questions ...

Violent Femmes: New Times (Elektra/All Formats)

Review by Andrew Mueller, New Musical Express, 21 May 1994

IN A SANE world, every child on earth would be issued with a copy of the Femmes' 1985 debut the moment they reached puberty — ...

The Fatima Mansions: Fatima Mansions: The Garage, Highbury, London

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, New Musical Express, 28 May 1994

THE FIRST hundred through the doors are issued with oranges — satsumas are out of season — and a free single ('Humiliate Me') in a ...

Fun-Da-Mental, Ice Cube, Kitchens of Distinction, Manic Street Preachers, Primal Scream, Pulp, Radiohead, Reverend Horton Heat, Senseless Things, Terrorvision: Primal Scream, Radiohead, Pulp, Manic Street Preachers et al: Reading Festival, Berkshire — Saturday

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 3 September 1994

ON A REMARKABLE autumn's day on which Chelsea go from to two down to three up at Leeds, Everett True gets hospitalised because he's too ...

David Gray: Flesh (Hut 8 39770 24 10 tracks/45 mins/FP)

Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 17 September 1994

FLESH. HONEST title. Bare, bloody, real and sweaty. Neat choice from a man apparently on an endearingly Quixotic solo crusade to rescue the idea of ...

Grant Lee Buffalo: Bad Moon Rising

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 17 September 1994

GRANT LEE BUFFALO'S new album, Mighty Joe Moon, is a raging apocalyptic masterpiece, a cinematic evocation of America sinking ever-deeper into lunacy, massacre and madness. ...

Woodstock '94: Dirty Weekend

Report by Andrew Mueller, Vox, October 1994

Only the pissing rain made Woodstock '94 faithful to the original. Mostly, it was a hyped-up, chaotic gathering of middle-class punters and middle-order bands. ...

Arrested Development: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 1 October 1994

IT TAKES A while, but I finally work out what it is they remind me of. ...

Echobelly: Get Yer Sonya Ya's Out!

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 15 October 1994

You may have read about ECHOBELLY before, but you won't have — seen them clambering on a roof in Manchester! Watched them in a courtroom ...

Nirvana: Postcard From The Edge: Nirvana: Unplugged In New York (Geffen)

Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 29 October 1994

When Nirvana embarked upon MTV's Unplugged session last year, no one dreamed it would be their last-ever album. Now, handicapped as it is by the ...

Elastica: Things that make you go URGGHHH!

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Vox, December 1994

JUSTINE FRISCHMANN sings and plays guitar with Elastica, a band whose cool balance of ingenuousness and ingenuity should shortly eclipse her other claims to fame as ...

Nirvana, Pearl Jam: Pearl Jam: Reluctant Hero

Comment by Andrew Mueller, Vox, January 1995

After years of putting Eddie Vedder down, Kurt Cobain's final retribution was to pass him Grunge's crown of thorns. But will he be able to ...

Gene, Supergrass: Astoria, London

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 4 February 1995

THE NINE O'CLOCK SNOOZE ...

Morrissey: Empress Ballroom, Blackpool

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 18 February 1995

The Boxer Beat ...

Sleeper: The Venue, Edinburgh

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 25 February 1995

IF NOTHING ELSE, it's one of the better conjuring tricks of the age. Sleeper, as a musical entity, are resolutely standard issue, yet are hailed ...

PJ Harvey: Yeovil! Bum Rush The Show: PJ Harvey: To Bring You My Love (Island)

Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 25 February 1995

From Somerset with love? It came from the west. It sounds like the Deep South. Polly Harvey's third LP proper is one scary place to ...

Slash: Snake Some Action

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 4 March 1995

Slash is probably as close to a rock'n'roll animal as we've got. He's also a rock'n'roller with a lot of animals – specifically cats and ...

Pop Will Eat Itself: No One Likes Us, We Don't Care

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 11 March 1995

SO NO ONE likes Pop Will Eat Itself, and they don't care. Not strictly true, of course – after all, they've enjoyed a good dozen ...

Tupac Shakur: A Load Of Bollock: 2Pac: Me Against The World (Interscope)

Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 1 April 1995

Ner-ner, ner-ner slammm!!! And another one! Is 2Pac (sorry, make that 1Pac) just the shot in the balls rap so sorely needs, or a monorchid ...

Radiohead: Medium Wavering

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 8 April 1995

Radiohead: The Forum, London ...

Juno Reactor, Traci Lords: Traci Lords: 1000 Fires (Radioactive RARD11211 10 tracks/55 mins/FP)

Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 8 April 1995

Let's be perfectly frances here — our Traci may be famous for a lot of things, but musical talent is not one of them. Shame, ...

Janet Jackson: Sheffield Arena

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 15 April 1995

IN PRINCIPLE, of course, any member of the Jacksons should be the recipient of thunderous applause just for existing: they are, after all, the most ...

Suede: New Tower Generation: Suede: The Empire Ballroom, Blackpool

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 3 June 1995

I'D ARRIVED WITH half an idea that maybe Suede had stopped mattering, that they'd wandered off into irrelevance, thanked for the memories but not really ...

The Jesus & Mary Chain: Chain Reaction

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 17 June 1995

"I MUST REMEMBER," says Jim Reid, "never to come here again." ...

John Peel, Pulp: The Jarvis & John Show!

Report and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 30 September 1995

This Saturday, JOHN PEEL will interview JARVIS COCKER on Radio 1FM and play tracks from PULP'S forthcoming album. ANDREW MUELLER goes to Peel Acres to ...

Cast: Dull and Duller — Cast: All Change (Polydor 12 tks/47 mins)

Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 14 October 1995

If the current boom in anything involving jangly melodies played on big Rickenbacker guitars means we have to listen to ultra-conservative, imagination-free trad porridge from ...

R.E.M., Radiohead: R.E.M./Radiohead: Meadows Music Theatre, Hartford, CT

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 21 October 1995

SCARY 'MONSTERS' AND SUPER 'CREEPS' ...

Radiohead, R.E.M.: Radiohead: Shiny Unhappy People*

Report and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 28 October 1995

*Only kidding. RADIOHEAD aren't solely responsible for the Culture Of Despair. But they are prone to the occasional spot of miserabilist navel-gazing, and they have ...

Green Day: Everybody Verts

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 16 December 1995

Green Day's major label debut LP sold more than Nevermind, Vitalogy, Monster and Zooropa. Their new one isn't doing too badly, either. Andrew Mueller meets ...

My Life Story: Dingwall's, London

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, The Independent, 8 March 1996

JAKE SHILLINGFORD, My Life Story's implausibly wonderfully-named singer and songwriter, must live beneath an attic full of broken mirrors, must use a black cat as ...

Veruca Salt: Salted Nuts

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Blah Blah Blah, March 1997

Deadly serious music, fantastically frivolous band — Veruca Salt's Nina and Louise raise a snigger at that great British institution: afternoon tea ...

James: Lucky Jim

Profile and Interview by Andrew Mueller, The Independent, 11 July 1997

THE LAND AROUND here looks like nothing much at all, which is why it can be made to look like almost anything you like. ...

U2: The Year of Living Dangerously

Report and Interview by Andrew Mueller, The Irish Independent, 30 December 1997

U2 started '97 badly, but their annus horribilis has undergone a miraculous recovery. Interview: Andrew Mueller ...

INXS: Michael Hutchence 1960-1997

Obituary by Andrew Mueller, Vox, January 1998

THAT MICHAEL HUTCHENCE should fail to reach his 40th birthday is, perhaps, no surprise in itself – his career was distinguished by a wholehearted subscription ...

Stone Temple Pilots, Scott Weiland: Scott Weiland: No More Mr Vice Guy

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Vox, June 1998

As leader of the Stone Temple Pilots, he took lots of drugs, sold lots of records and was hated by the critics. Now he's off ...

Sigur Ros: The Band at the Edge of the World

Interview by Andrew Mueller, The Face, December 1999

Sigur Ros have a singer who sounds like a whale. Their lyrics are in a secret language. And they want to perfume the world with ...

Rock In The Dock

Comment by Andrew Mueller, The Guardian, 18 January 2003

A FEW WEEKS ago, a nationwide leap in gun crime was lent grim focus by the murder of two young women at a party in ...

The Guitar: Axes To Grind

Comment by Andrew Mueller, The Guardian, 29 November 2003

ACCORDING TO A body of instrument suppliers called the Music Industries Association, in the last 12 months the British people bought no less than 700,000 ...

Randy Newman: Overdue Renaissance Of A Whimsical Prophet

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, The Independent, 20 February 2004

Randy Newman: Barbican, London ...

Rhyme and Punishment

Comment by Andrew Mueller, The Guardian, 21 February 2004

YOU MAY HAVE heard this yarn – it's one of those things people email each other, that they might share a chuckle at the foibles ...

The Long Ryders: Lock 17, London

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, The Independent, 5 July 2004

THE LONG RYDERS enter to a tape of the theme tune from The Magnificent Seven, and begin their set with a cover of the Byrds' ...

Polyphonic Spew

Comment by Andrew Mueller, The Guardian, 10 July 2004

THERE IS NO PERSON more deluded than he or she who has a song programmed into their mobile phone. ...

Beenie Man: Tatchell v Beenie Man: Arrest This Development

Comment by Andrew Mueller, The Guardian, 4 September 2004

LET'S HOPE THAT no friends of the Jamaican dancehall artist Beenie Man have recently reminded him that the only thing worse than being talked about ...

Hunter S Thompson: Rock of Rages

Comment by Andrew Mueller, The Guardian, 26 February 2005

FOLLOWING HUNTER S THOMPSON'S suicide, many obituarists, looking for a representative snippet of the Doctor's bug-eyed vitriol, served up the following trenchant assessment of the ...

INXS Need You Tonight

Report by Andrew Mueller, The Guardian, 19 March 2005

IT'S NOT THE sort of job that often gets advertised. Michael Hutchence, notwithstanding his bizarre death, aged 37, in 1997, generally looked like he was ...

Willie Nelson: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, The Independent, 5 April 2005

AT THIS LATE stage, attending a Willie Nelson concert is more a gesture of pilgrimage than anything else. Nelson, now 71, with a ponytail that ...

Johnny Cash: Cash Upfront

Comment by Andrew Mueller, The Guardian, 28 January 2006

WALK THE LINE, James Mangold's cinematic telling of the early life of Johnny Cash, takes its title from one of its subject's best-known songs. ...

Amy Winehouse: Back To Black (Island) ****

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, November 2006

The first wasn't a fluke. Fine follow-up to Frank ...

Microdisney: Daunt Square To Elsewhere

Sleeve notes by Andrew Mueller, Castle, 2007

THE VERY fact of this compilation's existence tells you a great deal about the music it contains, and the band it honours. The most recent ...

Guns N' Roses: The Endless Wait For Chinese Democracy

Report by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, April 2007

It has been 5650 days since Guns N' Roses last released an album of original material. 24 musicians, 8 producers and 15 million dollars later… ...

James: "We sold 30,000 T-shirts a month!"

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, May 2007

IT'S EASY TO FORGET how huge James were. And still are — eager fans snapped up 25,000 tickets for their reunion tour in just half ...

Prefab Sprout: Steve McQueen (Kitchenware/Sony)

Review and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, May 2007

Remastered '85 masterpiece with extra acoustic disc. ...

Elliott Smith: New Moon

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, June 2007

Astonishing Two-Disc Trove Of Unreleased Mid-'90s Vintage. ...

Bruce Springsteen: Magic

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, November 2007

PROBABLY AS EARLY as his fifth album, 1980's The River, Springsteen reached that sparsely populated stratosphere of artists recognised by surname alone, with a personal ...

Steve Earle: Album By Album

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, December 2007

PLAYWRIGHT, NOVELIST, activist, actor... when Steve Earle has found a moment over the past couple of decades, he has also managed to string together a ...

U2: The Joshua Tree – remastered edition

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, January 2008

20th anniversary reissue of an oft-maligned masterpiece. IT IS VEXINGLY DIFFICULT to improve upon the summation of The Joshua Tree offered by longtime U2 confidant Bill ...

U2: The Joshua Tree (remastered edition)

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, January 2008

20th anniversary reissue of an oft-maligned masterpiece ...

Eels: The Eels: Meet The Eels: Essential Eels Vol 1 (1996-2006)/Useless Trinkets: Rarities And Unreleased (1996-2006)

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, February 2008

E's are good: revisiting a brilliant back catalogue ...

Mark Eitzel: Doctor Eitzel's Hellraising, Heartbreaking True-Life Songs Of Love And Hate – Satisfaction Guaranteed Or Your Money Back

Profile and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, March 2008

When American Music Club play live, frontman Mark Eitzel has to be kept away from the cash; if he thinks it's been a bad show, ...

Drive-By Truckers: Brighter Than Creation's Dark

Review and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, March 2008

Improbably, they find a way to get better than ever. ...

The Black Crowes: Warpaint

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, April 2008

No irony. No significant changes. No problem! ...

Randy Newman: Harps & Angels

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, August 2008

Back with a blinder after almost a decade. ...

Randy Newman: Album By Album

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, September 2008

"CHRIST, I'M getting old," notes Randy Newman, distracted momentarily by his troublesome back. There is nothing, fortunately, wrong with his memory, as he trawls through ...

George Jones: The Grand Tour

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, October 2008

Hard-living legend's monument to heartbreak. ...

Jenny Lewis: Acid Tongue

Review and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, October 2008

Intriguing and perplexing solo salvo from Rilo Kiley mainstay. ...

Lambchop: Album by Album

Retrospective and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, November 2008

There are few bands that this magazine has championed as long and ardently as Lambchop. This fluctuating collective have dramatically broadened the palette of country ...

Lucinda Williams: Little Honey

Review and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, November 2008

Nine albums in, the queen of heartbreak tempts fate by cheering up. ...

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals: Cardinology

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, December 2008

Intermittent greatness from Americana's hardest-working man.  ...

Drive-By Truckers, The Hold Steady: Drive-By Truckers/The Hold Steady: Rock'N'Roll Means Well…

Profile and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, January 2009

… that's the name of Autumn 2008's premium tour, a raucous Stateside double-header featuring Drive-By Truckers and the Hold Steady. From Atlanta to Tallahassee, Uncut ...

Lucinda Williams: Album By Album

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, January 2009

"SNOW COVERS the street lamps and the windowsills," sang the alt.country queen on 2003's 'Minneapolis'. When Uncut calls her in that same city on her ...

Warren Zevon: Warren Zevon

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, January 2009

His first classic, midwifed by L.A.'s rock royalty, plus a disc of extras. ...

R.E.M.: Murmur

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, February 2009

A deathless debut, and the first indie-rock album, says Andrew Mueller ...

Bruce Springsteen: Working On A Dream

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, March 2009

After the furious state-of-the-union of Magic, the Boss returns to the home front — where things are rather better, says Andrew Mueller. ...

The Louvin Brothers

Retrospective by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, March 2009

Charlie, his hellraising late sibling Ira, and a 16-foot plywood Satan. The confessions of a country legend... ...

U2: No Line On The Horizon

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, April 2009

Rock juggernauts' 12th studio album is a grower, says Andrew Mueller ...

Will Oldham – album by album

Profile and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, April 2009

WILL OLDHAM has developed a forbidding reputation since first attracting attention as part of the Palace Brothers in the early '90s. Whether glowering from album ...

Bonnie "Prince" Billy: Will Oldham: Album by Album

Retrospective and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, April 2009

Will Oldham has developed a forbidding reputation since first attracting attention as part of the Palace Brothers in the early '90s. Whether glowering from album ...

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit: Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit

Review and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, June 2009

Confident country-soul from former Drive-By Trucker. ...

Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt: Steve Van Zandt: "We said we'd walk together, come what may…"

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, June 2009

Forty years of friendship: Miami Steve Van Zandt on Bruce Springsteen ...

Brad Paisley: American Saturday Night

Review by Andrew Mueller, bbc.co.uk, 26 June 2009

A spirited challenge to the prejudices of both sides of country's enduring schism. ...

Steven Wells 1960-2009: A Tribute

Memoir by John Doran, Andrew Mueller, John Robb, Terry Staunton, David Stubbs, The Quietus, 29 June 2009

David Stubbs ...

The Lemonheads: Lemonheads: Varshons

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, July 2009

THE COVERS ALBUM is traditionally either or both an indicator of complete creative stasis, or of the onset of monumental hubris. It's why any credible ...

Seasick Steve: Man From Another Time

Review and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, November 2009

More hobo blues, ruthlessly pared on fourth LP. ...

Eels: End Times

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, February 2010

EELS' MARK EVERETT, usually known as E, has not deployed an unconsidered word in seven previous albums, but the title of his eighth is exquisite ...

Jimmy Page: "I want to make sure that I do this music. It's most important that it sees daylight."

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, February 2010

John Paul Jones has Them Crooked Vultures. Robert Plant has Alison Krauss. But what, exactly, is Jimmy Page planning for 2010? As a new movie ...

Hot Chip: One Life Stand ****

Review and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, March 2010

Beguiling fourth from the impressively unclassifiable London brainiacs. ...

The Triffids: Album By Album

Guide by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, April 2010

WHEN FRONTMAN David McComb died in 1999, aged 36, from heroin toxicity, it might have been expected that the band's reputation would dwindle. ...

The La's: Callin' All

Review by Andrew Mueller, bbc.co.uk, 10 May 2010

Shows how a lasting reputation can be founded upon one lucky strike. ...

The National: High Violet

Review and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, June 2010

The Brooklynites set sail for the big time with their fifth LP. ...

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers: Mojo

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, July 2010

NINE TRACKS INTO MOJO, Tom Petty's first album with The Heartbreakers for eight years, the band fire up a plodding blues groove, and Petty makes ...

Willie Nelson For President?

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, July 2010

Onboard his battle bus, Uncut is granted a conference with the laid-back potentate of country music, Willie Nelson. On the agenda: Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, ...

Devo: You Say You Want A De-Evolution

Retrospective and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, August 2010

Well, you know, Devo changed the world. Uncut hears the story of Ohio's plantpot-hatted chroniclers of human absurdity. Or: how five snarky art-rockers consorted with ...

Giant Sand: Blurry Blue Mountain

Review by Andrew Mueller, bbc.co.uk, November 2010

A worthy addition to a catalogue already embarrassed with riches ...

Connie Smith: Long Line of Heartaches

Review by Andrew Mueller, bbc.co.uk, 2011

If Long Line of Heartaches tends toward the generic in its approach to country - and it does — Connie Smith has more excuse than ...

R.E.M.: REM: Live From Austin TX

Film/DVD/TV Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, January 2011

Greatness restored – a fine 2008 performance from a reinvigorated band ...

PJ Harvey: Let England Shake

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, March 2011

THE FIRST OF Polly Harvey's eighth studio album was heard in April 2010, when she made a memorably peculiar appearance on The Andrew Marr Show. ...

The Decemberists — Reconstruction Of The Fables

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, March 2011

COLIN MELOY grew up with "Paul Westerberg in one ear and Morrissey in the other". As hyperliterate frontman of The Decemberists, he has made rock ...

The Louvin Brothers, Charlie Louvin: Charlie Louvin, 1927-2011

Obituary by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, April 2011

THE PASSING OF Charlie Louvin on January 26,2011, aged 83, from complications associated with pancreatic cancer, detaches country music from a vital living root. ...

R.E.M.: REM: Collapse Into Now

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, April 2011

AS RECENTLY as three years ago, it looked like REM were done. The first certifiably poor record of their astonishing career, 2004's Around The Sun ...

Mickey Newbury: An American Trilogy

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, June 2011

An overdue monument to overlooked songwriter. 'AN AMERICAN TRILOGY' is the Mickey Newbury track you'll know if you know one, though he didn't so much ...

J. D. Souther: J.D. Souther: Natural History

Review by Andrew Mueller, bbc.co.uk, 13 June 2011

Old songs, newly recorded, many of which are fine indeed. ...

Gillian Welch: The Harrow & The Harvest

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, July 2011

This is a reaping song! Eight years on from Soul Journey, Welch and David Rawlings return with another timeless country classic... ...

Tom Waits: Bad As Me

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, November 2011

Growling, whooping, yelping and crooning: a swaggering, multifarious tour-de-force, says Andrew Mueller ...

The Rolling Stones: Some Girls

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, January 2012

Fired up by disco and punk, Jagger's swagger returns, with a disc of unreleased songs. ...

Cardinal: Unsung Heroes

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, March 2012

Reunited — the foremost indie control freaks of the early '90s. "Instead of Simon & Garfunkel, we were more like Simon & Simon..." ...

Alabama Shakes: Boys & Girls

Review and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, May 2012

Assured full-length debut by precocious spawn of Muscle Shoals. THERE IS MUCH to admire about Boys & Girls, the full-length debut by Alabama Shakes, not ...

The Gaslight Anthem: Handwritten

Review and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, August 2012

WHEN THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM's Brian Fallon last spoke to Uncut, as he drove home to New Jersey from Nashville after finishing work on Handwritten, he ...

R.E.M.: REM: Document — The 25th-anniversary reissue, accompanied by a contemporaneous live show

Review and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, November 2012

"I DON'T KNOW if I have any commercial expectations for this one at all," Peter Buck told Rolling Stone prior to the release of REM's ...

Dead Can Dance: Back From The Grave!

Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, December 2012

Resurrected after 16 years – the high priest and priestess of global goth-ambience, Dead Can Dance. ...

Eels: Wonderful, Glorious

Review and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, March 2013

EELS' 10TH ALBUM lives up to its fate-tempting title. ...

Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris: Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell: Old Yellow Moon

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, April 2013

A COLLABORATION at once overdue, and worth the wait. ...

George Jones: 1931-2013 — "He could make you cry with his voice..."

Obituary by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, July 2013

HIS FANS RANGED from Gram Parsons to Frank Sinatra, while Roger McGuinn calls him "more than just the greatest country singer ever". Yet, for much ...

Mark Mulcahy: Dear Mark J. Mulcahy, I Love You

Review and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, July 2013

INFLUENTIAL FORMER Miracle Legion mainstay breaks a long silence. ...

Okkervil River: The Silver Gymnasium

Review and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, October 2013

WILL SHEFF goes back to the future... ...

The Hold Steady: Teeth Dreams

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, April 2014

A LEANER, KEENER Hold Steady return from hiatus. ...

Felice Brothers: The Felice Brothers: Favorite Waitress

Review and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, July 2014

THE FELICE BROTHERS' previous proper album, 2011's Celebration, Florida was by far their least characteristic to date — and, for that reason, arguably their most ...

Steve Earle & The Dukes: Terraplane

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, March 2015

STEVE EARLE has earned the indulgences and deferences of statesmanhood: the discography he has assembled these last thirty years is marvellous and important. Not for ...

Calexico: Edge Of The Sun

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, May 2015

OVER NEARLY twenty years of existence on the fringes of Americana, Calexico have not paid for guitar-shaped swimming pools for their constituent members. But they ...

Townes Van Zandt: The Nashville Sessions

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, May 2015

IT COULD HAVE been the record that made him; maybe, even the record that saved him. ...

Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris: Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell: The Traveling Kind

Review and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, June 2015

THE ADAGE which holds that you get your whole life to make your debut album, and barely a year or two to furnish your second, ...

Jason Isbell: Something More Than Free

Review and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, August 2015

2013's Southeastern, was, give or take the odd playful moment, a gripping description of the self-dug pit from which its composer had recently hauled himself. ...

The City: Now That Everything's Been Said

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, November 2015

Carole King's missing link between songwriter and solo superstar. ...

PJ Harvey & Seamus Murphy: Royal Festival Hall, London, October 9,2015

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, December 2015

TONIGHT'S WORLD PREMIERE of PJ Harvey's latest work, The Hollow Of The Hand, is an exciting, occasionally electrifying, 30-minute rock'n'roll show — which, unfortunately, is ...

The Chills: Silver Bullets

Review and Interview by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, December 2015

NEW ZEALAND HAS had an inestimable impact on The Chills. Had singer, guitarist and songwriter Martin Phillipps hailed from certain other countries, he would perhaps ...

Band Of Horses: Why Are You OK

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, August 2016

BAND OF HORSES' Ben Bridwell has muttered elsewhere his dissatisfaction that Why Are You OK will be heard for the first time largely in spring ...

Zac Brown Band, Brad Paisley: Brad Paisley/Zac Brown Band: O2 Arena, London

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, The Guardian, 13 March 2017

Hats off to two entertaining stars of the C2C festival who take contrasting approaches to God, the south and the good ol' US of A. ...

Amanda Shires: To The Sunset

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, September 2018

Prolific enlivener of other people's records returns to centre stage. ...

Steve Earle & the Dukes: Ghosts Of West Virginia

Review by Andrew Mueller, Uncut, May 2020

ON APRIL 5, 2010, 300 metres beneath Raleigh County, West Virginia, methane seeping from the coal seams of Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine ignited ...

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