Latest news with #NickDrake
New York Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Nick Drake, Long a Folk Mystery, Is (Partly) Revealed
It all goes back to that Volkswagen ad: four young people blissed out in a Cabrio convertible while Nick Drake's 'Pink Moon' provides the soundtrack for their starlit back-road drive. When the striking TV spot first aired in 1999, the English folk singer — who died of an antidepressant overdose in 1974 after three brilliant, barely noticed albums — had begun a posthumous ascent from cognoscenti secret handshake to cultural touchstone. The spot spring-loaded it. Nowadays, Drake's influence is common. You can hear aspects of his sound — a hushed baritone coo unfurled over an eddy of fingerstyle guitar — in the intimate soul of Annahstasia, the finely stitched folk-rock of Joan Shelley and the fragile indie-pop of Skullcrusher (who has a single called 'Song for Nick Drake'). Shelley and Skullcrusher contributed to a 2023 tribute album, 'The Endless Coloured Ways: The Songs of Nick Drake,' as did the Irish rock band Fontaines D.C., who delivered a potent version of ''Cello Song.' 'We're all really big Nick Drake fans,' said the group's Conor Deegan III, who first heard Drake's music in the VW ad and responded, like his bandmates, to 'something melancholy and otherworldly' about him. That otherworldliness is magnified by the scant evidence of his time in the world. A famously shy performer who played few shows before he was sidelined by mental illness, there are few documents and no known film footage of his music-making. Notwithstanding home recordings circulated on bootlegs and disappointingly scattershot compilations, his three studio LPs — 'Five Leaves Left' (1969), 'Bryter Layter' (1971) and 'Pink Moon' (1972) — have stood as Drake's immaculate legacy. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Time Out
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
BBC's ‘Mix Tape' Soundtrack: Full Tracklist of Songs by Episode
One of those decades-spanning love stories that puts you through the emotional wringer, Mix Tape is a perfect binge for anyone who still wistfully remembers One Day (Netflix series, book or movie). And in a twist of fate, the BBC/Binge four-parter also stars Jim Sturgess, the lead in the 2011 One Day movie, as another lovelorn character who holds a torch for an old flame from his teenage years into his middle years. Sturgess plays Daniel and The Fall Guy 's Teresa Palmer is his long-time crush Alison in a music-soaked romantic drama that follows the pair from their partying youths (where they're played by Bridgerton 's Florence Hunt and newcomer Rory Walton-Smith) to wobbly married lives with other people on different continents. As its title implies, the bond of music – especially alternative anthems of the '80s and '90s – offers a motif for the pair's enduring connection throughout the series. And what a soundtrack it is, reflecting the music scenes of its two cities – Sheffield and Sydney – in fairly iconic style. In common with the novel on which its based, the show packs in a crate load of tunes: from Aussie bands like 1927 and The Church, to British post-punk legends like The Psychedelic Furs and The Cure, and Sheffield hometown heroes Arctic Monkeys and Richard Hawley. Listen out for the great Nick Drake too. Here's the soundtrack in full: EPISODE 1 Fool's Gold – The Stone Roses Home is the Range – The Comsat Angels Bizarre Love Triangle – New Order Fluorescent Adolescent – Arctic Monkeys Sweet Tooth Outlaw – The Psychs Prize – Kitchens of Distinction Northern Sky – Nick Drake Late Again - ALWAYS Road – Nick Drake Outro – Jackson Reid Briggs & The Heaters Under The Milky Way - The Church Close To Me - The Cure Stephanie Says - The Velvet Underground Some Candy Talking - The Jesus and Mary Chain EPISODE 2 Hit the North – The Fall That's When I Think of You - 1927 Love My Way - The Psychedelic Furs Lovesong - The Cure Tainted Love - Gloria Jones The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadow s - Gang of Youths EPISODE 3 Big Jet Plane - Angus and Julia Stone Something Is - Richard Hawley Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division Bizarre Love Triangle - Frente! EPISODE 4 I Fall Apart - Rory Gallagher She is Everything – Blue In Heaven Background Check - Display Homes I Love You - The Brian Jonestown Massacre Live It Up - Mental As Anything Lovesong - The Cure How can I watch Mix Tape? All four episodes are on BBC iPlayer now. The best TV and streaming shows of 2025 (so far). The 101 most romantic movies of all time.
Forbes
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Q&A: Why Annahstasia's Brilliant Debut Is The Album We Need Now
Timing is indeed everything. L.A.-based singer/songwriter Annahstasia has been working for years on her stunning debut album, Tether. Now, when she is finally ready to share it with the world, the sublime folk-tinged collection is the perfect album for these troubled times. Indeed, from the opening 'Be Kind' Annahstasia has crafted a soothing, calming, essential manifesto, that at times conjures up the eternal Nick Drake, to help us navigate the anger and aggression of the world right now. Tether is more than just a brilliant debut album. It is a tonic for these times. I spoke with Annahstasia about the album, celebrity I the digital age, vulnerability and more. Steve Baltin: Did you think about the gentility of this record and the sharp contrast with the world climate? Annahstasia: I did think about that for this record. I think a long part of my career up to this point was me trying to find my relationship with silence and my relationship with making noise and where I sat within that. And in an industry that constantly is asking you to be the sparkliest gem in the room or to draw a lot of attention to yourself, I never felt comfortable doing that for no reason. It's not that I don't enjoy the attention or the applause, it's more that I don't think I should be getting that if I don't earn it or haven't done something that I feel contributes to the world. So, my persona developed as I just grew, I noticed I'm the person at the party, I sit in one place in the room and then let everybody come and talk to me if they choose and engage in that conversation and I'm open hearted in that way where I'll sit and I'll talk with someone for as long as they want to sit there. But I don't really move and my music in a way is the same where I'm going to just perform this at my volume, at my pace, at my level of silence and respect for softness and let everybody crouch to listen, kind of like people who talk in a whisper who are very wise. You just kind of shut up and you have to be quiet to listen and hear what they're saying. Baltin: How long did it take you to get comfortable with that because as you say, it is an industry that wants you to be loud? Anahstasia: I've had this conversation with a lot of my peers and with myself. The idea of being an artist now in the digital age, it's just a more extreme version of what, and somehow also micro version of what artistry, music, music, musicianship and being a performer was like in the '70s and '80s. I think of [David] Baltin: Bowie was able to change all the time, but he was absolutely pedestaled all the time. Annahstasia: They had privacy to be pedestaled. You still had mystery; the difference now is you don't have that mystery. It's impossible to be a perfect anything. These people have passed away and now all the dirty laundry is coming out through the stories that people are telling and you're finding out that maybe Bowie wasn't the most aspirational person, or Michael Jackson wasn't the most aspirational person or Marvin Gaye, or the list goes on and on. I think that their separation of their personal life from their artistry was only possible because they didn't have the internet in the way we have today so now considering that we can't get rid of the internet. As a person who is flawed and who is learning and exercising life, how do you protect yourself from the expectation that you're going to be a role model all the time? Baltin: I also think though that if you make a record like you've made that is so vulnerable and open people do respond more to the music than anything else. Have you found that? Annahstasia: Yeah, and it's only on purpose in the sense that my goal is to be honest. The music that I want to make is music that I feel can apply to the broadest amount of human experience because the place that I sing from I sing to heal myself, but I also sing for the people who can't express certain aspects of their emotion, or they can't really put their finger on it. So, it's extremely vulnerable what I'm putting out in the world. And when you put out something that is truly vulnerable it's like seeing a baby bird with a broken wing on the street. You're not going to run over it, you're going to move it out of the way and take care of it. I've put myself out there in the world just that fragile. Baltin: You say you sing to heal yourself. Were the songs on here that surprised you because I have found talking to artists writing is so subconscious? Annahstasia: Yeah, I find my experience with writing to be outside of time most of the time. Very subconscious writing style because I sit down with the guitar and I just start singing and things stick and then that's the song. I don't ever sit down and go, 'I'm going to write a song about this person, or I'm going to sit and write a song about this event.' It never happens that way for me. So sometimes I'll write a song and I'll be like, "I didn't I didn't know I was feeling like that or that doesn't even resonate with where I'm at in my life right now.' But two, three years later I'll be singing it somewhere, I'll be listening to it and it'll all click into place and be like that's why I wrote this song or that's the advice that I needed now but it came through three years prior. Most of the songs on this record are that way and that's also why I took so much time with the record. I wrote those songs and then as I was writing them I was performing them live and I was touring with them across the earth and the U.S. and every time I would sing them, the ones that felt more true were the ones that eventually made it on the album or the ones that aligned with the lessons that I needed and the themes around the idea of grounding and tether and finding home within myself. But 'Villain' is a great example. 'Villain,' when I wrote it, I was in a very vindictive place. I was just mad at this person and feeling very much like I didn't want any part of them in my life anymore. I felt betrayed, I felt disappointed and hurt. That sentiment was very like just throwing someone's stuff out of the window. Take it back. But now as I listen to it, it's actually more of a song about being able to hold both sides of yourself the light and the dark and to realize that we're all in a way trying our best and that all we can do is keep trying. There's kindness in it, there's also the freedom of accepting that you are the villain in some narratives. Once you accept your rock bottom there's a freedom from that point on.
The Guardian
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Yoshitomo Nara review: cutesy terrors swear, smoke, play guitar and burn down houses
There's a video online of 100 kids playing football against three adult pros. The kids get absolutely annihilated. But they'd do a whole lot better if they were more like the menacing, knife-wielding little terrors who populate Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara's world. Try dribbling past a toddler when he's just jabbed a shiv in your calf, Lionel Messi. For 40 years now Nara has been dealing in cutesy kitsch with a vicious edge. His paintings and drawings of adorably bug-eyed little nippers are singularly Nara: love it or hate it, he's carved out his own instantly recognisable aesthetic path. Me, I quite like it. It's full of punk rock attitude, dark humour and comic book immediacy. This huge show at the Hayward kicks off with a ramshackle shed in the middle of the gallery, filled with empty beer cans, coffee cups and hundreds of drawings on paper and cardboard. A speaker blasts out rock'n'roll and folk classics by Nick Drake and David Bowie. A painting on the outside shows a blissed out little kid in a serene green field: 'place like home', it says in big bold all-caps. The huge wall opposite is lined with old prog and rock LPs. This could've been the whole show and it would have been perfect; it's everything Nara needs to say. Here in this little wooden shack sanctuary he loses himself in music and draws his heart out. The images all over the floor show punk-rocking kids blasting out chords on electric guitars, protesting against war and shooting pistols while standing on a snarling dog, yelling 'I'm a son of a gun'. It's Nara summed up: a joyful mashup of music nerdery, political anxiety and the uncontrollable urge to draw, draw, draw. You get the sense that if his career had started and ended in this shack, no success, no big museum-style shows, just music and art, he'd have been pretty happy. But this is a big show so there's a lot more to get through. His early work is more expressionistic and dark, a little more scrawly and angry, like a pissed off Basquiat, or George Grosz drawing comics. But by the mid-90s he'd figured himself out and stripped everything back. His cartoon-y grumpy kids now sit against plain backgrounds, there's nothing to distract you from them as symbols of Nara's emotional states: boredom, anger, loneliness, sadness, frustration. That's all that's here, emotion pure and simple. A little girl with a bandaged face is livid about having the mumps, a figure (dressed as kitty) sitting on duck-shaped potty is seriously angry that you're having a peek, and the world's naughtiest child is grinning demonically after cutting a flower down with a saw, a big 'fuck you' painted on the back of her jacket. It's super-direct, simple, funny, emotional painting. Nara repeats this approach over and over across the years. His figures burn down houses, swear, smoke, brandish weapons, play guitars. It's the punk rebellion of youth continuing to find a voice. The kids resemble a take on forest sprites, little mythological figures used to tell stories, express emotions. It's not all angry self-reflection. More recent work finds Nara fighting for peace. One girl wears a 'no war' T-shirt, another stands under a massive 'stop the bombs' banner. Things change in 2011, when the tragedy of Fukushima sends Nara spiralling. Now the kids are all hazy and heartbroken. They're not ranting and raving any more, they just seem to haunt the canvases, barely there, sad and forlorn. I don't think these are good paintings for the most part, despite being about something incredibly sad: they're just too washed out and overthought, a bit mawkish and soft focus. And there's something not quite right about giving these big canvases all this space, and these benches for you to contemplate them from, in a show that's otherwise all chaos and energy. I'm not totally convinced the work warrants this many rooms. It all gets a bit repetitive and stretched. And the ceramic heads dotted around the space, especially the tea cup fountain at the end, add absolutely nothing to the exhibition. But the best work here can be so joyful, approachable, angry and relatable that you can forgive these faults. Nara is best when he's being direct and immediate, when his art is about rocking out, fighting back and letting his heart spill on to the canvas. When he's hey ho-ing and let's going like his beloved Ramones. I've never encountered a show less in need of explanatory wall texts, or more resistant to artsy over-intellectualising: Nara tells you exactly what he feels, all the time. He just does it with the stereo blasting, and a knife behind his back. At the Hayward Gallery, London, from 10 June to 31 August
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
April skygazing: A pink micromoon, the Lyrid meteor shower, and more
As spring approaches in the Northern Hemisphere, the nights are getting shorter. This might be good news for early risers, but a bit of bad news for stargazers. Still, April is not without its celestial highlights: it brings the annual Lyrid meteor shower. This first full month of spring also presents a micromoon, a chance to see an iconic (if distant) galaxy, and a very frisky Jupiter. The solar system's large adult son will be particularly bright in early April, blazing in the western sky in close proximity to the waxing crescent moon. Both will be visible in the same region as the constellation Taurus, around 30° from the horizon. On April 1, the moon will hover above the Pleiades, also known as the 'Seven Sisters' in Greek mythology and, in Japan, as 'Subaru'. If you've ever wondered about the provenance of the car company Subaru's logo, now you know. The start of April provides an opportunity to take a look at a galaxy far, far away: Messier 94. It is located about 17 million light years from us in the constellation Canes Venatici. This spiral galaxy is known informally as the 'Croc's Eye' or 'Cat's Eye,' for reasons that will become clear if you get out your telescope or a set of good binoculars while it's at its highest point in the sky this year. In North America, the galaxy will become visible 41° above the north-eastern horizon at around 8:30 p.m. EDT, and continue rising until it's almost directly above around midnight. It will then sink towards the northwestern horizon as the day approaches. The Hubble Space Telescope has taken some spectacular images of Messier 94 over the years. While you're not going to see anything like this from Earth, it's still fascinating to be able to see the same object with your own eyes! There's nothing quite as dramatic as last month's blood moon this time around, but Nick Drake fans can rejoice, because April is the month of the Pink Moon. As per the Farmer's Almanac, this month's full moon takes its name from the vibrant pink flowers of Phlox subulata, or 'moss pink,' which comes into full bloom this month. [ Related: How the blood moon gets its ghoulish hue. ] Native American culture provides several additional names for April's full Oneida call it 'Wasakayutese' ('It's Thundering Moon') and in the language of the Catawba nation it's 'YitAruwakrere Nuti' ('Bear a Child Moon'). The Anishinaabemowin language of the Ojibwe provides multiple monikers, including 'Bobookwedaagime-giizis' ('Snowshoe Breaking Moon') and 'Maango-giizis' ('Loon Moon'). And that's not all! This month's full moon is also notable for being a micromoon. The moon's elliptical orbit means that its distance from the Earth varies throughout the month finds the moon at its apogee, which means that it's as far away from us as it gets. The opposite scenario, when the moon is at its perigee, is called a next supermoon is not until November, so stay patient. It's meteor shower time! The 2025 installment of the annual Lyrid meteor shower is predicted to begin on April 21, peaking in the late afternoon of April 22. This isn't far out from the full moon, which tends to make seeing other celestial objects difficult, so the best time to look for meteors will be when the moon's not around. The Adler Planetarium and the Farmer's Almanac both suggest the early hours of April 22. The moon rises at 3:32 a.m. CDT that morning, so you'll either have to stay up late or get up unconscionably early to catch the show. As always, you'll get the best experience if you get away from any sources of light pollution—and you check out our stargazing tips before you head off into the darkness. Until next month!
