One of the highlights of Dave Alvin’s last solo album, 2011’s Eleven Eleven, was a track called “What’s Up With Your Brother?”, a droll blues about Dave’s famously fractious relationship with his brother, Phil, that ended hilariously with them having the kind of argument that put paid to The Blasters, the band they were in together before fraternal tensions drove them into a ditch. They split in 1985, after just five albums. While Dave became dedicated to life as a hard travelling road dog, Phil completed a master’s degree in mathematics and artificial intelligence.

I've been playing the new Jeff Tweedy album, "Sukierae", a good deal these past few weeks - or, I should say, the new Tweedy album, since these quietly wired tracks are, strictly speaking, collaborations between the Wilco man and his eldest son, Spencer. I'm slowly beginning to think it might be the best studio album he's been involved with since "A Ghost Is Born".

Matt Berninger's awkward little brother creates a strange and moving documentary...

The Manics release their 12th album, Futurology, on Monday (July 7) – here, we head back to the November 2011 issue of Uncut (Take 174) to hear James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore talk us through their history, and introduce us to their next stage, “the third and final great leap forward…” Words: David Quantick

In this month's Uncut, I reviewed the deluxe edition of The The's Soul Mining, which has been reissued as a box set with additional material. I was fortunate enough to speak to Matt Johnson for a Q&A to run with the review. In the end, we ended up talking for about an hour, so I thought I'd post the full transcript of my interview here. I hope you enjoy it. I'll endeavour to post the review itself in the next week or so; better still, you can find it in the issue on sale now... (apologies for the shameless plug...)

I love the smell of Glastonbury in the morning. It smells like... OK, not quite victory. But not quite defeat either. More like bacon, coffee, marijuana, mud, sweat and beers. And, there is no getting away from it, cow shit...

Noise abatement! The Scots' chilly, sparse masterpiece gets a lavish, four-album treatment...

Jack White will play a special session for BBC Radio 1 next week. While will appear on Zane Lowe's show on Wednesday July 2, for a live performance from Maida Vale Studios, which will be broadcast from 7-9pm. The session will come after his appearance at Glastonbury this weekend and ahead of his sold out show at London's Eventim Apollo on July 3. White will return to the UK this autumn for a three date arena tour, playing Leeds First Direct Arena on November 17, Glasgow SSE Hydro on November 18 and London O2 Arena on November 19.

“Welcome to an evening of country and eastern,” smiles Robert Plant as he gestures expansively round this fabled Paris venue, taking in not just the lively capacity crowd gathered here tonight but also to his latest musical collaborators, The Sensational Space Shifters.

When Graeme Thomson sent us his interview with Eric Clapton, it was not, to be honest, quite what we expected. We anticipated a poignant chat about Clapton’s old friend JJ Cale, to tie in with the forthcoming tribute album, “The Breeze”. As it transpired, though, the album was just a jumping-off point for one of the most unexpected and revealing Clapton pieces most of us can remember.