Ryan Adams has a plan

It's been a while since Ryan Adams recorded something memorable. I'm sure there's been something this century, but nothing springs to m... actually, that means it wasn't memorable, doesn't it?

Still, all that's about to change as about to release an album full of top quality material.

One hitch, though. Not his songs:

Adams is covering a singer with a country past of her own: Taylor Swift. Today Adams announced on Twitter and Instagram that he’s recording a cover of her hit 2014 album 1989. The 28-second clip of “Welcome to New York” that Adams shared sounds like a big improvement over the original: With heavy guitar backing and Springsteenian vocal harmonies, Adams makes 1989’s weakest track sound like a bona-fide rock anthem.

It's not actually better, but it's better than anything else Adams has done recently.

Moore/Adams - a house divided

The marriage between Ryan Adams and Mandy Moore, which upset a lot of indie purists back in 2008, has been ended.

The divorce is down to "irreconcilable differences". Kind of wish they'd gone with musical differences, but I suppose they weren't in the mood to go for for the punchline.

Twittergem: Ryan Adams

I wish I could make as good a record as John Mayer made. If I can do that I will be happy.

- @theRyanAdams

Ryan Adams goes metal

I can't quite remember where Orion, Ryan Adams po-mo/po-faced metal album is supposed to sit in the order of things (before the whore of Babylon, after the four horsemen - is that right?) but we're only days away.

Ryan Adams gets to the point. Eventually.

It takes Adams a while to get round to it, but in short: The Cardinals are over.

Noel Gallagher joins the blogopolis

Is Noel Gallagher really writing his own US tour blog, or is it someone from the Oasis organisation trying to make him look good?

Woke up to a beautiful sunny day today in Edmonton. Didn’t get nearly enough kip though. This jet-lag’s a fucker. There seems to be a wedding party milling around the bar in the hotel so a couple of us jib outside to the terrace for tea and cigarettes. We’re discussing another player (who we’ve never heard of) who’s just signed for City (he’s an Argentinian. I predict fireworks!) Some old lady approaches us to ask if we’d mind doing a “quick picture” with the bride and groom! “Erm..no, I don’t think so” (who do they think we are? Robbie Williams?) “Oh, go on, the bride will be heartbroken”. “Good”, I think to myself and off we go to the venue.

Clearly, then, it's not a PR stunt. Unless they really do think that everyone loves a self-absorbed tosser who treats his biggest fans like hunks of shit, even on their wedding days.

What is a bit of a shame, though, is that Ryan Adams is also blogging the tour - he's doing the 'support' slots (much as a slim steel frame supports a much larger building) and had been doing a half-decent job of making Noel and Liam sound quite pleasant people to be around. Maybe he's not asking for photographs.

After Pete Doherty's hat, there's a second day of plane-related trauma as Noel loses a bag in transit:

No major drama though except one of my bags hasn't made it. THE BASTARD. Please don't let me suffer the indignity of shopping for undies on the morning of the gig the person who serves me is bound to be a fan!

Oh, how terrible to be so popular you can't buy pants without a fan serving you.

And if you keep telling mothers of the brides to get lost, it's not going to be long before you'll not have to worry... at all... cab for Mr Gallagher... out west, actually... he might need a horse... horseback... bareback... going, going...

Ryan Adams: His response

Having been accused of something or other by Courtney Love - stealing her money from Kurt's hands or something like that - Ryan Adams has maintained a dignified silence so far.

To be fair, he might have been trying to work out exactly what he was supposed to have done before coming back. And now he has done so, in a way that's quite kind to a woman clearly in distress:

these days i find myself working harder than ever at being at my best, overcoming my fears and pushing myself creatively in my every endeavor. my only wish after the work is completed is that it may prove further evidence that no matter how isolated we all may all feel at times, as sad or misrepresented, we are not alone. there's hope for and within each of us.

I've been dealing with the truth that i have at times been a bad example and/or glorified self destructive behavior. this was never intentional, but rather a consequence of leading a public life in plain sight and never expecting any sort of preferential treatment, isolation or protection.

Regardless of varied judgments as to my cultural relevance, i am thankfully alive and exercising my joy in creating. i only hope anyone who hears, reads or sees any of my contributions will permit the work to speak where i cannot.

i've realized and accepted that if people decide to dislike me, they're going to find reasons to justify disliking me. there's nothing i can do about that. that said, it still does pain me to be accused of fictional crimes against innocents or to be implicated in romantic gossip involving the possibly reality-challenged--however unreliable the source or outlandish the accusations. in the end, however, i know that i have never done or even meant anyone any harm.

anyway, the lives of public figures are so much more boring than anyone can imagine. honestly.

and also i like metal. A LOT. (even more than last time).

We're guessing the use of lowercase is to set himself stylistic against Courtney's Caps Lock happy approach.

And Courtney's been back on

Courtney has - despite having had all her computers removed on account of her AOL being violated - gone back on to her MySpace blog, this time to, erm, accuse Ryan Adams of funding the Rock & Roll album by stealing USD858,000 from Frances Bean's trust fund.

Yes, it came out five years ago. Courtney has only just noticed:

But i was sitting with some people going thru the 29 american express cards that i didnt know existed that were connected to a few HUNDRED bank accounts,and there were all the bills for Ryan Adams worst record and one of the worst records i can think of in rock and roll history ironically called"Riock and Roll " and it was paid for by ME and mostly by my child.

Now, let's be fair: it might be true that Adams did this. Somehow. Even if he did, you could probably argue that the best way to deal with it might not be posting a barely-legibile rant on MySpace. If he didn't, let's hope Adams is the sort of man who will swallow down being accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a child with good grace and won't, you know, instruct lawyers or anything.

We say "stealing hundreds of thousands from a child" - Courtney puts it slightly differently:

stealing from a suicide? A MARTYRED HERO? fun for you. big man. wow. impressive.
Yeah well theres nothing good about suicide and i should know- but to take my near suicidal depression and use it on my daughters paying fo ryour shit record

Um... was Kurt actually a martyred hero? Perhaps it's best not to ask.

Courtney claims to have all these Amex bills as proof of what went on. But since her post doesn't really make sense, it could be that the people who are failing to help her now failed to help her back then. And even if there is paperwork detailing this, it's a bit of a leap to suggest Adams knew what was going on. After all, if Love can't keep track of her own money, why should she expect Ryan Adams to know about it?

More to the point, if the cash was Frances Beans, shouldn't it have been in some sort of trust? Where were the trustees?

Is there nobody who cares about Love enough to suggest that she stops washing her laundry like this?

The smart before the hoarse

Assuming that (a) they're let in and (b) that Liam turns up, Oasis have signed up for a Canadian and Washington State tour. Ryan Adams and The Cardinals are opening, which is surely all wrong.

Still, the next time Noel goes on and on about Knebworth, we'll all be able to pipe up "yeah, and what about the Pengworth Saddledrome, eh?"

Ryan Adams, blogger

Joining the blogging massive - with a Tumblr, no less - is Ryan Adams. He's posted a video of himself playing something back in 1986 - or so he says - and a tribute to Morrissey:

my god. I never touched a penis (i mean, besides my own) but he sure made it sound interesting. Neo-Classicism at it’s finest. Also, great content thief. Lovely.

You've never touched a penis, Ryan? Really? Ever?

Adams has a witty retort prepared

Fan to Ryan Adams, during last night's Cardinals gig: I can't see your face
Ryan Adams, holding up lighter: Go and see Coldplay instead.

Okay, it's not that witty, but at least the fan got off better than the guys he threw out for yelling for Bryan Adams songs.

Adams gets clean

Ryan Adams has quit drink and drugs, possibly through a 2-for-1 cleaning deal at Bollom. He's quite proud:

"I'd wake up, work, go for a drink or two and be exhausted," he told Rolling Stone magazine about his former habits. "I would have drugs to keep my physical being going in order to never have to stop working in the night."

"Think about falling off a bicycle and smashing your nuts on that bar, or the most horrible sports accident you can think of," he continued. "That doesn't cover what it would be like for me to imagine drinking or doing drugs again."

This proves that there is scientific need for you to have an implant provided for you by the money earned from your girlfriend's supermodelling jobs.

It's not clear if Adams will now release fewer records, although the smart money is on him no longer churning out six or seven records at a time.

Ryan Adams to become a Junkie

We're not sure that the addition of Ryan Adams to the personnel of the Cowboy Junkies for the 20th anniversary live re-working of their Trinity Sessions album actually makes it more or less of a special occasion - slightly less so, we think - but the event at the Albert Hall on October 10th should still be the highlight of this year's Don't Look Back.

Box set or buy Ryan

Ryan Adams is preparing a box set full of stuff that has previously been unleaked to the internet, including two albums which haven't had a release before, and a lot of rarities. Of course, by the time it emerges in the autumn, he'll have gone and recorded more stuff, so there's still going to be a load of unreleased stuff laying about.

The sound of Ryan Adams

Of course, those of you hipper than us will be busily posting how you downloaded this about seventy-three years ago, but for those of you who haven't heard them yet, Spinner is offering up two Ryan Adams mp3s: One is Two, and two is Everybody Knows. It's by way of a taste of next month's Easy Tiger album.

Somethings to listen to

Be amongst the second thirty thousand to listen to Two, a forthcoming Ryan Adams single featuring Sheryl Crow on backing vocals, through his MySpace.

Meanwhile, Today interviewed Jarvis Cocker this morning about his Meltdown festival. [Real Audio link, permanent, but they've stopped parceling up the show into pieces, so this is the 8.00 - 8.30 chunk; Jarvis appears about 25 minutes in]

Adams turned away from Stonehenge

Ryan Adams' planned gig at Stonehenge has been called off after English Heritage worried that it might awaken unquiet spirits in the Wiltshire countryside, and/or lead to people stopping their cars on the A33 to watch, causing accidents.

Ryan Adams? Hard as it may be to believe, but people were going nuts for the tickets:

"We are very sorry that Ryan Adams will not be able to perform at Stonehenge, but the demand for tickets was both unprecedented and unforeseen, and we have to put public safety first," explained Stonehenge director Peter Carson.

He added: "We have worked with Salisbury International Arts Festival to try and identify a suitable alternative, and have offered to make available another English Heritage site, but we appreciate that it would be hard to find an appropriate substitute for such a unique venue."

Oh, god forbid that Adams might be forced to move his gig to a venue that isn't a world heritage site. I mean, how awful would it be if he just had to play out in the Wiltshire countryside or something?

Actually, they should have shifted him a mile or so up the road to the less-impressive Woodhenge - there's plenty of parking there. Or how about Salisbury Plain firing range? We'd pay money to see that.

Skeleton news service

Lee Roth sues Van Halen - again?... Ryan Adams to open for Rolling Stones, complete transition from prince of cool to embarrassing 'New Weller' in 2003... David wins Fame Academy and promises to return to sing at next year's final if the manager at KFC will give him the night off... BBC invite listener's comments on Mariah's new album and record company and PR rally round...

What the pop papers say: God, isnt BlueYonder rubbish - 36 hours and nothing's fixed edition

"Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez talk about how they'll celebrate their wedding" promises Hello - apparently by Jennifer turning into Jackie Kennedy to judge by the front page. "Jennifer explains why this marriage will be her last" - I'd imagine because having worked her way through the men, she'll be getting cracking on the chicks next, is it? Or maybe it's because interest is waning, what with Jenny From The Block barely managing to sell more than 40,000 copies...

In Music Week, Alan Jones takes a hard look at Shania Twain's album and its oddities - a double CD that isn't advertised as such; in the US disc 2 is country mixes, while in the rest of the world you get the ghastly-sounding 'world mixes' and, scarily, nine of the tracks have exclamation marks. As does Up! itself. It sold 73,000 copies in first week in the UK racks, which compares well with the start Come On Over made (just 122 copies). If Up! reaches total sales as proportionately high to its week one as its predecessor, Shania can expect to flog nearly two billion here...

MW also reports further changes at the nme where, following on from appointment of former Daily Express writer Melissa Myers as news editor, deputy editor James Oldham is quitting to run a pretend indie label, Loog, part of the Vivendi-Universal conglomerate. Actually, we wish him well, although its a pity that he feels his time at the NME has "reached its natural conclusion", which we wouldn't be so cheap as to suggest has anything to do with the recent change in the editor's chair at Kings Reach Tower...

talking of what and which, there's two things lurking in the placcy bag the paper comes in this week - a Chain With No Name advent calendar (December 7th has a Haven Album clearly shoved in a girl's vagina); poorly drawn versions of celebs litter the calendar, offering a badly drawn Badly Drawn Boy and Conor Oberst looking like he's mid-change from mild scientist David Banner...

then there's a Bring It On - another month over so soon? - with The Datsuns on the front, pretty girls make graves, the thrills, the kills (rhyming bands alert), glassjaw, kinesis, the rapture and a scary close-up of conor oberst plus a better quality shot of Pete Libertines in his skirt...

so, onto the nme proper, with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club on the front - huzzah...

news: Kelly Osbourne says "I'm no Britney" - thats right, love, Britney can carry a tune when she has to; eminem is thinking about taking more acting roles following the success of 8 Mile - apparently playing largely himself in a film has given him to confuse himself with an actor. Someone should play him Desperately Seeking Susan and Shanghai Surprise back to back, and quickly; "Could former Marilyn Manson guitarist Twiggy Ramirez be about to join Blur? Could Courtney Love be about to join the former members of Guns N Roses?" asks the nme. No, and no. Next? Fabrizio Moretti has cut his hair off (hmmm, you'd have to say, having the Daily Star's gossip columnist at the news desk is starting to look less like a duff plan if this is the standard her news coverage is going to have rise to next week); what's puzzling about Kylie getting the huff over a body double being used for the unofficial hits package is not why she's arsey, but why the label behind the album had trouble finding a nearly nude Kylie shot to use for real; stars are asked what they think of Kurt's Diary in a feature entitled "Let's see if we can squeeze some more mileage out of this, then." What do the stars think then? We simply don't know. But we do know what Ryan Adams ("I'm just trying to read the stuff that makes me laugh" - anyone who can explain how you go about doing this wins a prize); Wayne Coyne ("He knew he was going to die, why didn't he take these things and burn them?"); Henry Rollins ("I'd like to see the version of the journal that says 'I'm really trying to get away from my psycho wife" - thanks for playing, Henry"); Roddy Woomble ("I don't feel the need to read it"); Steve Lamacq ("I met him") and Eddie Vedder ("I probably could relate to the suspiscion coming out of his brain [...] I've [...] I've [...] I've had a hard time [...] I used to [...] I'm [...] I've [...] "); Fischerspooner story blah blah blah oh give it up; you can win a free Winona Ryder tshirt by completing a sentence - which is ironic, being as how that's how Winona's going to have to win her freedom, too. ("Winona is innocent because...", by the way. Um, only she's not, is she?); there's a thing which claims the nme has come with three free badges "this week" which, clearly is meant to run next week - still time to realise just how shitty and awful the concept and, indeed the badges themselves are (More Melody Maker style "you all use our catchphrases like 'You Cock' and 'If they bring someone in over my head, I'm off to Polydor' all the time, don't you?" self-regarding nonesense, I'm afraid); there's two pages of Robbie Williams news - like we give a shit; there's also fevered speculation as to why Chris Martin had the letters BH on his hand at the MTV Music Award - it was a greeting for one of his friends who was having a birthday. You might think that someone with a top ten album might have sent a card and a bottle of beer or two; Ryan Adams has recorded hardcore punk for The Finger's We Are Fuck You album; Tim Burgess says that the solo album has come about because he feels isolated from the rest of the Charlatans - presumably the implication of living on the other side of the world not thought through, there, then; he's also been on a pilgramage to the Joshua Tree National Park to try and capture the spirit of Gram Parsons. Probably lucky the body had already gone, then...

hot new bands: pretty girls make graves - hot? yes; new? debatable...

sum 41's dave baksh does the pretend cd thing... he calls it Ass Invaders... huh huh huh huh... he said 'ass'... heh heh heh heh... Beavis chooses Anthrax, Pantera, Carcass and Death...

the pisspoor concept of getting readers to email gossip in is showing itself up for the mouldy cake it seemed like - Ladytron were spotted backstage at their own gig, believe it or not. Fancy...

Cranebuilders are interviewed so briefly as to have nothing worth mentioning there...

ryan adams is smeared lusily over four pages. He addresses the "humourless" charge over the Bryan Adams affair by pointing out the guy he gave the money back to had been using the same joke right through the gig, and it was at the Ryman Auditorium which was, personally, a big deal to him. And apparently Neil Young has since told him "You're lucky. All my life I got Neil fuckin' Diamond." He also claims he never went out with Beth Orton, and then turns his attention to Denise Richards who wears a mask to avoid breathing the air on planes: "How do you hold a penis in your hand? Charlie Sheen's penis mind you... you put that in your mouth and yet you put a bag on your head so you won't breathe the same air as other people."...

James Murphy/ LCD Soundsystem believes he's reuniting rock and dance, which were separated by homophobia and racism...

Good idea to investigate rock at violence, post-Leeds toilet riots and someone getting sexually assaulted at a Richard Ashcroft gig. Bad idea to try and do it in half a page, although Anton Brookes is on hand to provide the backbone to the piece: "You get these idiots, they read about what the hardcore days were like... but they don't get it. It used to be about self-expression and everybody would help each other. Now you just get a load of morons going mental."...

BRMC, then: it's a good article, but it's perhaps a little too heavy on letting daylight in on magic and explaining the new songs...

reviews: albums:
ladytron - light and magic - "it doesn't all work, but...", 8
audioslave - audioslave - "what does this parade of heavyweights amount to? nothing very much at all", 4
meat beat manifesto - ruok? - "none of this sounds less than seven years old", 4
ja rule - the last temptation - "aimed at the doubters, not the kids", 6
blazin squad - in the beginning - "PG treatment of adult themes", 6

singles:
sotw - eminem - lose yourself - "genius"
the raveonettes - attack of the ghost riders - "best JAMC-indebted Danish goth-garage band around"
tegan and sara - monday, monday, monday - "they have no tunes. rubbish"

live:
doves - glasgow - "untouchable"
the rapture - london ICA - "absurd in theory; compelling in practice"
john squire - liverpool uni - apparently a lot of Roses stuff
ladytron - london WC2 - "'can we stop talking about porn now?' asks Danny 'can we talk about nice things?'"

best thing in nme this week: the model in the virgin mobile advert. in tights. he's yummy.

Irritate Ryan - win big cash prizes

We're not sure that Robbie Fulks has really seen Ryan Adam's ejection of a fan as the good-humoured jape we take it to be (certainly, he's done it three or four times already, apparently); but if Adams is as touchy as he seems to think about the Bryan-Ryan jokes, Fulk's offer of merchandise rewards to anyone who disrupts Ryan's shows with calls for songs by his homonymical Canadian cousin may yet blow up in his face. Robbie should brace himself for any number of attempts to cash in...

(getting an 'additional reporting by' credit - morag)