Ut Mini Interview (playing our End Of An Era Part 2 in November!)
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This November we will be putting on two final UK holiday camp festivals in Camber Sands, UK under the banner The End Of An Era. The first weekend is sold out, with tickets available now for Weekend 2 curated by ATP & Loop. Tickets and more info on the event are available now from this link. See below for another in a series of mini interviews with bands playing the event. This time Ut have given us their answers. You can check out tracks from them at their website.
Name of Artist: Ut
Hometown: Ut originated in NYC before relocating to London.
Year Formed: 1978
Bio:
“The raw power and sheer drive of Ut is quite straightforward and unmistakable. This is a true threatening guitar band.” — NY Rocker
“When they’re good, they’re like nothing else, taking risks no one else would take [and] rescripting the possibilities of three piece rock.” —Mark Sinker, New Musical Express
Sprung from the downtown No Wave scene, Ut (Nina Canal, Jacqui Ham and Sally Young) originated in New York City in December 1978.
The band were joined briefly by filmmaker Karen Achenbach in 1979 before resuming as a three-piece and migrating to London in 1981. They toured with the Fall, were admired by John Peel and cited as a formative influence by label mates Sonic Youth. Originally releasing albums on their own label, Out Records, the band became a favourite of John Peel’s and recorded sessions for his show in 1984 and 1987 before joining forces with Blast First.
The critically acclaimed In Gut’s House was originally released in 1988 and made NME’s Top 50 that year. As The Washington Post exclaimed:
“With In Gut’s House, Ut has scraped and droned one of the finest underground rock albums of the year… The tightly interwoven, firmly focused sound… is rich, spooky, urgent and quite unexpectedly beautiful.”
In 1989 the band recorded and released the album Griller. Engineered by label mate Steve Albini, who shared Ut’s raw aesthetic, Griller captured the gripping intensity and sheer power of the Ut experience.
"If we list their precursors – from Pere Ubu through DNA to The Raincoats, and from Television through The Cramps to The Runaways – all we’re left with is lists, and a space too wide to pin them down." — Mark Sinker
In 1999, Ut were name-checked in Le Tigre’s feminist anthem “Hot Topic,” which pays tribute to dozens of inspiring artists, musicians, writers and feminists. Newly reunited, the band recently completed a brief East Coast tour.
Do your best to describe your sound in one sentence:
Intense experimental out rock
What are the most recent activities of your band?
Ut played two dates in Paris (the Paris Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture and the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine) and one in Brussels (Atelier Claus) in spring 2013.
How excited are you to play this event?
Very. We've always wanted to play ATP and now finally have the chance and – as it turns out – the last chance to play at Camber Sands.
How do you feel about being asked to play the last ever ATP holiday camp event?
Great!
Do you have a connection with the curators / an idea why you were chosen to play?
Robert Hampson has been into Ut's music for a long time and his label Reactor is remastering and reissuing three of Ut's albums – Conviction, In Gut's House and Griller – in 2-CD sets, one of the album intact and the other a mixture of long-deleted EPs, rarities and previously unreleased material. The first of these releases, Conviction, is due out in November 2013.
Which of your releases do you feel ATP attendees should check out first?
Our last two studio albums – In Gut's House and Griller
Is there one of your tracks you think specifically represents you best?
As we all write songs, sing and alternate playing guitar, bass and drums (and sometimes violin), the music is too diverse to be capsulized in one song. Our website has a good range of tracks available for people to listen to at http://www.utmusic.net/ut-discography
Are there any other currently confirmed bands you're excited about seeing?
Slint, Mogwai, Neu!, Loop and Shellac
If you were curating, name three bands you'd want to play your event.
We couldn't pare it down to three, but would have Sightings, Nissendenmondai, Baaba Maal, Fiona Apple, Television, The Fall, The Dead C and Neptune (the Boston band)
If you could pick one record release in the last year which would you recommend?
Western Front by Dial
And what's the best gig you've seen in the last year?
John Coltrane – Resolution, a live video seen recently on youtube at John Coltrane, Paris 1965 Live, Pt 1 and Pt 2 (unfortunately these have been taken down, either temporarily or permanently), and Tamores de Liberdade at the Fête du Panier in Marseille, France, a clip of which is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLJ7E4xKQbA