MOJO 256 / March 2015
ON SALE FROM Tuesday, January 27, the new issue of MOJO features a WORLD EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with Madonna, who surveys her controversial and canonical four-decade career in a sizzling, combative and compelling 13-page feature. To get to the heart of her innovative and edgy musical twists and turns, we harvest the insights of her chief musical collaborators, from Nile Rodgers and Pat Leonard to Stuart Price and Diplo, while our expert team unpicks her glistening sonic élan via five key recordings. If this wasn’t enough, this month’s FREE covermounted CD, Change The Beat, celebrates the No Wave/electro/post-punk disco vibe from which Madge emerged, with 14 funk-edged tracks by 23 Skidoo, Bush Tetras, Arthur Russell, ESG, Curtis Mayfield, Funkadelic and more… PLUS: Bob Dylan’s 20 best covers of other people’s songs; Ronnie Spector spills out her heart and soul; the New York Dolls’ David Johansen undergoes the forensic MOJO Interview; Sleater-Kinney tell their remarkable tale; The Go-Betweens reveal their strange inner workings; Sleaford Mods unveil their next album; Songhoy Blues arise; and Joe Strummer loses his car in Madrid. So get into the groove!
CONTENTS / MOJO 256
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FREE CD! CHANGE THE BEAT DIG THE SOUNDS that funked-up New York’s late ’70s and early ’80s post-punk club scene – featuring 14 tracks by Bush Tetras, Funkadelic, Curtis Mayfield, Arthur Russell, 23 Skidoo, ESG and more…
MADONNA WORLD EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW! As her new album, Rebel Heart, hits the shops, the iron-willed but glass-hearted electro-dance divinity opens up to MOJO’s Tom Doyle about a roiling creative life that has kept her at the cutting-edge of music for more than 30 years.
BOB DYLAN HE’S WRITTEN a peerless catalogue of stonkers himself, of course, but to celebrate his new album of Sinatra-associated covers, Shadows In The Night, MOJO ruminates on Bob’s 20 finest recordings of other people’s songs. You’ll be challenged and surprised!
RONNIE SPECTOR SHE WAS ONE of the defining pop voices of the ’60s, but her introduction to the world of the Stones and The Beatles came at a price: a marriage to Phil Spector that made her a prisoner at 28. “Forty years after I left him he is still causing trouble for me,” she tells Lois Wilson.
DAVID JOHANSEN THE ROWDY VOICE, lipsticked lips and arty conscience of The New York Dolls unloads the skinny on the mid-’70s CBGB punk scene, his Buster Poindexter alter ego and how “history is pretty much a fiction”.
SLEATER-KINNEY THE RIOT GRRRL graduates are back after a ten-year break to talk power, ambition and early ’80s Duran Duran with Jenny Bulley.
THE GO-BETWEENS AUSTRALIA’S BOOKISH INDIE romantics lift the veil on the feisty, troubled inner workings of the band. “We weren’t a normal group,” they admit to Ian Harrison.
ART KANE THE ASTONISHING IMAGES of one of photography’s most imitated masters. Beautiful shots of Janis Joplin, Frank Zappa, The Doors, The Who and more.
REVIEWED Bob Dylan / Mark Ronson / Susanne Sundfør / Father John Misty / Dengue Fever / Songhoy Blues / Sara Lowes / Duke Garwood / Two Gallants / D’Angelo And The Vanguard / Africa Express Presents Terry Riley / Ghost Culture / Swamp Dogg / Steve Earle & The Dukes / Jelly Fish / The Pretty Things / José Prates / Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds / Devo / Royal Trux / Crazy Cavan / Daft Punk
PLUS! All back to Phil Selway from Radiohead’s to listen to Betty Davis / Marilyn Manson wants to kick someone’s ass / Sleaford Mods discuss their next album / Panda Bear selects the tunes that blew his mind / Billy Corgan confides his rock’n’roll secrets / The Exploited recall the subcultural hand-grenade of their first and last Top Of The Pops appearance / James Atkin says hello and goodbye to EMF / Joe Cocker is remembered