M.I.A by Jan Lehner
Our recap of the main stories we featured during the past seven days includes returns for M.I.A and Ash‘s Charlotte Hatherley.
M.I.A has returned with her The One single and plans for a new album entitled Mata.
“I guess it is just about sticking to what you are and the truth,” she’s told Zane Lowe. “I think, at the end of the day, that is also what this record is about to me, is still trying to find truth.”
“In a way, it’s kind of rebellious because everybody’s expecting me to put out that really havoc. Everyone’s expecting that, but it’s not, that’s not what it is. It’s about the battle of the ego versus you finding yourself and you finding the spiritual leader.”
Alex G has released a new song to go with the announcement of a headline North American tour during the autumn.
After gigs there next month supporting Bright Eyes, Alex Giannascoli will be top of the bill from October 8th in Atlanta, Georgia, and later has two nights in New York at Brooklyn Steel on November 11th and 12th.
Meanwhile, Blessing is another collaboration with Jacob Portrait, and is out with a video directed by Zev Magasis.
Suede will release their next album Autofiction on September 16th.
The latest studio effort from the band since the 2010s reunion was a return to their roots; knocked together as it was in a rehearsal space in Kings Cross.
“Autofiction is our punk record,” Brett Anderson says. “No whistles and bells. Just the five of us in a room with all the glitches and fuck-ups revealed; the band themselves exposed in all their primal mess.”
Ash by Sophie Howarth
Ash have arranged UK tour dates in Manchester, Birmingham and London for later this year to celebrate the 21st birthday of their Free All Angels LP.
Guitarist Charlotte Hatherley is to rejoin the band for the gigs at Manchester’s O2 Ritz on September 15th, the O2 Institute in Birmingham (17th) and London’s O2 Forum (18th).
“We’re delighted to announce that we will be commemorating the 21st anniversary of the release of our 2001 classic, ‘Free All Angels’,” the band have said
Depeche Mode have spoken of their ‘overwhelming sadness’ after the death of the band’s founding member Andy Fletcher was announced on May 26th).
Fletcher’s long association with the hugely successful group goes all the way back to the late seventies with Vince Clarke, his keyboard playing an unmistakable part of the many hit singles and albums which they would go on to enjoy during the subsequent decades.
“We are shocked and filled with overwhelming sadness with the untimely passing of our dear friend, family member, and bandmate Andy ‘Fletch’ Fletcher,” their statement reads.
The Rolling Stones have added some stellar names to their headline appearances in London this spring for BST Hyde Park.
Sam Fender and Courtney Barnett are the main artists who’ll be there in July, while Phoebe Bridgers has signed up for the June date with The War On Drugs, whom Live4ever caught live just last month in Leeds.
“…songs have always transformed under this band once let off the leash on the road, and already I Don’t Wanna Wait has been given freedom to yawn, stretch its arms wide and unlock from any restraint on record to comfortably fill venues of this size and feel here like an immediate career highlight,” our review reads.
