I have a pretty firm band reunion policy. In a nutshell: "Leave the lengend alone." Yes, the fanboy in me would give a non-essential organ to see The Smiths or The Replacements go at it one more time, but my kneejerk reaction to bands reforming after long (and sometimes nasty) breakups is: No, thanks. While I've been tempted to see many of the high-profile reunions of the last 20 years, I've passed on most. Sex Pistols? I'd rather not watch a bloated Johnny Lydon pretend to care (or not care). The Pixies? Eh. More on them later. Guns N' Roses? Oh, please.

There have only been a few exceptions to my rule (Naked Raygun's recent reunion the latest example): I remember seeing the Buzzcocks on their first U.S. tour in the late '80s and leaving completely sated and sweaty. My girlfriend at the time opined, "They looked like a bunch of pasty old men up there." Them were fighting words at the time--and we broke up the next day.... I'm still kicking myself for not seeing My Bloody Valentine on their All Tomorrow's Party-inspired batch of shows.... And I almost went to see the Avengers a couple of years back but just couldn't do it: Penelope Houston was my first punk rock crush, and I wanted to keep it that way.

So you can imagine that I was torn when I heard the news of Pavement's decision to tour again. Like so many other artists, they've put aside whatever personal or creative differences they may have had in the past to recapture those indie rock bygone days. Twenty years ago, economics—and not necessarily creative urges--played a part in the Buzzcocks' decision to get back together, but there weren't the kinds of opportunities that exist today.

Pavement will surely make the rounds on the festival circuit and get handsomely rewarded for it (as they should). But it will be interesting to see if, like fellow college rock pioneers Dinosaur Jr., they'll play with renewed vigor, or, like the Pixies (another of their luminaries), you'll swear you can see the dollar signs in their pupils. I make the distinction because the latter toured relentlessly (for sizable guarantees) and released NO NEW MUSIC. Dinosaur Jr., meanwhile, apparently worked through the very public baggage that existed among them and re-emerged with all new material that rivals the best in their already memorable canon.

Will I go see Pavement on this tour? Most likely. And will they be writing new material? With a back catalog as strong as there's, it's hard to fathom that they wouldn't someday record another album. I'll even bet my autographed copy of Another Music in a Different Kitchen on it.

One of the best punk labels around  has been resurrected. Sailor's Grave Records - the sister label to hardcore label Thorp - has been hibernating for the last year or so, coming to life only once or twice to put out Mark Lind's (Ducky Boys) latest or give an update on Roger Miret.

Over the past month though, label founder Andy King has announced four new records SGR is putting out:  STITCH HOPELESS AND THE SEA LEGS, BURNING STREETS, MOUTHGUARD and BEANTOWN BOOZEHOUNDS - all great street punk bands, not too far from the sound of bands that have also called Sailor's Grave home at one time or another (The Welch Boys, Mad Sin and Born to Lose, among others).  Even better is news that the label will be putting out a new album from Boston horn-heavy, punk/R&B band THE KINGS OF NUTHIN.  Almost makes up for year or two of silence from the label.

Another creepy bloggy story... remove all pets from the room before reading... and happy Halloween, from the Ettes!

By Coco Hames

I'm raising my kids on a farm.  My kids will be John the Savage.  I'm going to make them chop wood.  If I am unable to completely block the crazy world from impacting my smart, sensitive kids know this: I am a big proponent for after school activities, if I ever have kids, I'm going to make them do something.  Sports, piano, woodworking, whatever.  Something mentally and physically involved from about 3pm to 6pm.  Then you come home and eat dinner with the family and go do your homework.  You can go out Friday or Saturday night, not both.  Until you are 17.  Your curfew increases in increments of 30 minutes every year.  When you are a freshman it's 10:30, sophomore 11, junior 11:30 and senior midnight.  Nothing good happens after midnight, not for you, future imaginary teenager of mine.  I know you're an angsty, self-absorbed teenager and you think I don't know anything, but you need these restrictions, trust me, because for the brief couple of weeks my freshman year of high  school I got up to SO much no good.  Breaking into construction sites, smokin' cigarettes, stealing road signs, tying boys' bikes up into trees, taking out all of your parents ski clothes and putting them out on the lawn, dyeing cats...

One boring afternoon my friend Jennifer and I decided it would be a good idea to dye her black cat blonde.  We walked up to the drugstore, purchased some blonde hair dye, and just to be safe, called the helpline on the back of the box, since there weren't any instructions for coloring cat hair, and we sagely figured there were probably some differences worth considering.

"L'Oreal helpline, this is Debbie, how may I help you?"

"Oh hi Debbie, I just have some questions about the Excellence Creme hair color."

"Okay, go ahead."

"Well, it doesn't say anything on here about cat hair, and I'm wondering if it's safe or not safe, or if it's going to have the same effect, you know, as what's on the box, 'cause it's different hair?"

Once she understood what I was planning to do, she's all "Oh no no, I do not advise using this product on a cat, no no, that's not what this is for..."  But she was boring me and we did it anyway and that cat was very unhappy, probably because the color came out WAY brassy.

Shhh, I don't ADVISE this, I'm just saying it happened and the cat was FINE, he just looked a bit strange for a while... Well anyway.

Then we found a baby squirrel, named him Kirby (like the video game) and trained him up, carried him around in our shirts.  Then I was forced to join a sports, so I did.

Idle hands are the devil's workshop y'alll.

PS - Officially: no one pays me for my creepy bloggy stories.

***

Blurt "co-co-editor" Coco Hames fronts The Ettes - Hames on guitar, Jem Cohen on bass and Poni Silver on drums - whose album Look At Life Again Soon and EP, Danger Is, were released by Take Root. Their new Greg Cartwright-produced album Do You Want Power arrived in stores Sept. 29, and you bet we've got a big feature on the band in our new print issue. Check out the band's MySpace page for music and tour dates.

First things first, exclusive Donald Passman interview posted here next week! Sweet.

Meanwhile... you know the drill but as a reminder, In Short is our "tribal" feature here at Outlandos HQ. Meaning that, chances are if we share the same taste in music, we share the same taste in other random stuff --- lifestyle stuff. And by lifestyle, we mean drinking, bouncing or jumping up and down on the stairs for the fun of it. All in a day's work, so to speak.

1. Boxed Wine
Recently dabbling in it. After all, 4 to 6 bottles of wine for the price of one. Wine not? Apparently, boxed wine sales across the board increase 30% this year thanks to ye old recession. Our new fave is Black Box. Our least:



2. It's a Bird. It's a Plane. It's a Dude on a Rubber Ball.
Whoa. You might miss it the first time, keep your eyes near the upper right

[...]

A Triple-A radio programming veteran, Kate has served as Music Director of the Loft at XM, Midday Host at WYEP, Evening Host at both WNCS and WUIN, as well as Content Supervisor for Pump Audio. Currently, she's the CEO of Outlandos Music, a new-music discovery service for grown-ups. Kate has been nationally recognized for her ardent presentation of music and her ability to champion talented, compelling artists.

Out ‘n' about in the City of Angels with Blurt's roving shutterbug (10-5 thru 10-19)

By Scott Dudelson

Motorhead (Lemmy pictured, above) - Live @ Club Nokia (www.clubnokia.com)  - 10/8

Leo Nocentelli (of The Meters) & Stanton Moore (of Galactic) - Live @ The Mint (www.themintla.com) - 10/9

Karl Denson's Tiny Universe - Live @ The Mint (www.themintla.com) - 10/10

Great Lake Swimmers - Live @ The El Rey Theatre (www.theelrey.com) - 10/12

Wooden Birds (feat: Andrew Kenny of American Analog Set) - Live @ The El Rey Theatre (www.theelrey.com) - 10/12

Portable Payback (feat: Soup & Marc7eleven of Jurassic Five) - Live @ The Mint (www.themintla.com) - 10/15

The Pogues (Shane MacGowan pictured) - Live @ Club Nokia (www.clubnokia.com) - 10/16

***

Scott Dudelson is a music journalist and concert photographer based in Los Angeles.  Scott is also the Chief Operating Officer of Prodege, LLC, the company behind www.swagbucks.com.

No. 4: Royally screwed

By Bryan Reed

I feel bad for any number of bands and labels who thought, months ago, that October 13, 2009, would be the best day to release their new record. I feel bad, even for the good records. Among them: Skeletonwitch's Breathe the Fire, a riotously fun blend of black metal, death metal and NWOBHM; Marduk's Wormwood, another solid entry from the Polish black metal titans; reissues from the UK's Bolt Thrower and France's Gojira; the latest psych-rock excursion from ex-Yeah Yeah Yeahs sideman Imaad Wasif; and Grond, the second entry in an alleged trilogy from the mysterious and brutal black metal outfit Nihill.

They all lose. They got screwed. Royally.

Baroness also thought October 13, 2009 would be the best day to release its new album, Blue Record (Relapse) and it's absolutely untouchable.

You remember Baroness, of course, for 2007's Red Album, a startlingly diverse collection that rampages through acoustic blues and backwoods folk, prog, psych rock and sludgy Southern metal. Blue Record is not so much a departure as a continuation and a refinement, as though the whole purpose was for Baroness to render its excellent predecessor obsolete with superior quality on all fronts. The metal parts are heavier, when the riffs gallop it's like the Apocalypse is coming and it's the best thing ever. The melodies are more intricate, more reliant on the instrumentalists' interplay and counterpart than ever before. Guitar harmonies worthy of Iron Maiden flicker like gemstones underfoot. You'll hear moments of everything that's ever been great about heavy rock, metal or otherwise - noise, psychedelic rock, even indie rock. It's all represented, and all seamlessly woven into Baroness' masterpiece.

It's almost reductive to try to describe or critique this record, when saying it's essential should about cover it.

Also in rotation: This time, just Baroness.

***

Bryan Reed is from North Carolina and, despite his best efforts, he still hasn't grown out of the racket that irritated his friends and family in high school, and continues to irritate them in the present. Stalker-types should know that they can follow Bryan on Twitter @subparrockstar.

Just getting ready to program The Daily Dose for November, for sure, these guys will be showing up alongside older tunes we think make sense as well as our wine and cheese picks.

What's that you say? You couldn't stand to miss a single Dose? We hear ya. So, an RSS feed to solve your woes, because we love you. We really do.

Now for what's been playing at Outlandos HQ so far this month:

1. The Dimes, The King Can Drink the Harbor Dry



Portland Oregon 4-piece. Mellow but not in the annoying Gray's Anatomy way. Sounds a whole lot like John Stirratt's (of Wilco) side project The Autumn Defense. Simon & Garfunkel too [...]

A Triple-A radio programming veteran, Kate has served as Music Director of the Loft at XM, Midday Host at WYEP, Evening Host at both WNCS and WUIN, as well as Content Supervisor for Pump Audio. Currently, she's the CEO of Outlandos Music, a new-music discovery service for grown-ups. Kate has been nationally recognized for her ardent presentation of music and her ability to champion talented, compelling artists.

Out ‘n' about in the City of Angels with Blurt's roving shutterbug (9-23 thru 10-5)

By Scott Dudelson

Dave Gonzales (of Hacienda Brothers / Paladins) - Live at the Mint (www.themintla.com) - 9/23

Banyon (featuring Stephen Perkins of Janes Addiction, Dan Shulman of Garbage, Willie Waldman, Tim Kobza, and Norton Wisdom - Live at the Mint (www.themintla.com) - 9/25

Greg Dulli - Live at The Roxy Theatre (www.theroxyonsunset.com) - 9/27 (a benefit for Scott Ford, bass player of Twilight Singers)

Steve O (of Jackass) -  Live at The Roxy Theatre (www.theroxyonsunset.com) - 9/27 (a benefit for Scott Ford, bass player of Twilight Singers)

Peter Frampton - Live at The Mint (www.themintla.com) - (sitting in with Back Door Slam) - 9/30

Loney Dear - Live at Troubadour (www.troubadour.com) - 9/30

Albert Lee - Live at the Canyon Club (www.canyonclub.net) - 10/3 (a benefit for Richie Hayward, Drummer of Little Feat)

Coco Montoya - Live at Canyon Club (www.canyonclub.net) - 10/3 (a benefit for Richie Hayward, Drummer of Little Feat)

Jackson Browne - Live at Canyon Club (www.canyonclub.net) - 10/3 (a benefit for Richie Hayward, Drummer of Little Feat)

Ray Manzarek (feat: Brett Scallions of Fuel on vocals), Robby Krieger, the Doors - Live at Club Nokia (www.clubnokia.com) - 10/5

***

Scott Dudelson is a music journalist and concert photographer based in Los Angeles.  Scott is also the Chief Operating Officer of Prodege, LLC, the company behind www.swagbucks.com.

Where have all of the heroes gone?

News broke yesterday that the GOP had launched a new site that lists (among other things) 16 Heroes  who represented the currently de-fanged Republican party through history. Among them: Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and... Jackie Robinson? The former Dodger who, in the 1960s, along with Jim Brown and Muhammad Ali (née Cassius Clay) single-handedly brought the issue of race to the forefront of the intersection of sports and culture? Oh, please.
 
Talk about revisionism. This smacks of a party so completely lacking in power, substance, and direction that it's hoping to tap into America's love of all things baseball and apple pie, and that maybe, just maybe, it can swing a few more minority votes by claiming a revered African-American as one of its own. As if the GOP's cynical appointment of Maryland Republican Michael Steele-the current GOP mouthpiece- wasn't bad enough...
 
Not that the GOP didn't do its homework. Sort of. Robinson definitely had a one-time fondness for conservative and then-future Vice President Nelson Rockefeller when he ran for the New York governor's office-Robinson even helped him on the campaign trail. But whether he agreed with the man ideologically is a matter of debate, especially after seeing Robinson's autobiography I Never Had It Made, where the Hall of Famer states:
 
"Every chance I got while I was campaigning, I said plainly what I thought of the right-wing Republicans and the harm they were doing. I felt the GOP was a minority party in term of numbers of registered voters and could not win unless they updated their social philosophy and sponsored candidates and principles to attract the young, the black, and the independent voter. By and large, Republicans had ignored blacks and sometimes handpicked a few servile leaders in the black community to be their token ‘niggers.' How would I sound trying to go all out to sell Republicans to black people? They're not buying. They know better."
 
They do know better. And this not-so-thinly-veiled attempt at winning over a few more minority votes come next election cycle shouldn't go unnoticed. It exposes the Republican Party for what it's become (and NOT what it's always been): extremist, fear-mongering, powerless, and woefully out of touch.
 
Now, if only one of today's sports figures--whether conservative or liberal--would go out on a limb like Robinson and his '60s brethren to put their career on the line for their own ideological outlook. In the last decade, a few have, mostly after announcing their retirement like (ahem) Charles Barkley. But in general, today's athletes seem to lack the interest-and the inclination-to want to press the status quo. Is it apathy? Greed? Perhaps. But in many ways, even under a liberal Obama administration, there's just as much at stake today as there was in 1964 when Robinson was so outspoken in his opposition of Republican shit-stirrer Barry Goldwater.
 
While yesterday's GOP announcement is painfully transparent, I'd give anything to hear a notable athlete's stance on something political or social. Humor me for a second and just imagine what it'd do for America's undecided if ESPN gave airtime to Tom Brady to ruminate on the current state of U.S. corporate imperialism. Or Venus Williams debate the merits of school vouchers. What about Floyd Mayweather weighing in on the current health care crisis? Or Kobe Bryant waxing philosophical on our role in Afghanistan, Iraq and the rest of the Middle East? Hell, at this point, I'd welcome it if they just debated something other than how they "put points on the board." Let's not let the GOP-or any party-co-op history's, um, game-changing personalities for their own political agenda. Unless, of course, it's the truth.

No. 3: Wig, flipped

By Bryan Reed

It's interesting how a small deviation from what we expect can make such a huge impact in the way we respond to something. It's what makes difficult music difficult in the first place, and why it takes an adventurous listener to even approach experimental music.

My expectations were rattled recently when the self-titled debut from Philadelphia's Seabrook Power Plant (pictured above) arrived in my mailbox. I was previously unaware of the band, led by jazz guitarist/banjoist Brandon Seabrook, but they share a publicist with Asheville, N.C. skronk-rock trio Ahleuchatistas, and I guess he thought (correctly) if I liked one, I'd like the other. The album explodes from the start with "Peter Dennis Blanford Townshend" (in homage to The Who guitarist), in which any expectations about how Brandon Seabrook might be wielding his banjo are upended as soon as the instruments percussive flair begins to resemble a Dave Lombardo blast.

The way the trio uses the banjo's percussive attack in its math-metal fueled cuts (the album was recorded by Colin Marston of Dysrhythmia and Krallice, so it's got its loud rock bona fides) is at once novel and effective. On the transcendent "Ho Chi Minh Trial," Seabrook's banjo is an instrument of surprising melodic acuity, evoking Eastern melodic structures, even as its frantic percussiveness drives the song like there's a machine gun shooting at its feet.

Brandon's brother, Jared Seabrook, drums with finesse and power (notably on the chiming doom of "Doomsday Shroud," where his plodding punctuations split the haze of electric guitar and bass, pushing the song forward behind Brandon Seabrook's hypnotic, repetitive riffs).

Bassist Tom Blancart drives the melody, answering Brandon Seabrook on the jazzabilly "Base Load Plant Theme," alternately echoing Brandon Seabrook's riffs, or pulsing ahead of Jared Seabrook's backbeat.

That there could exist a trio of musicians playing a mix of frantic punk, tech-metal and jazz-skronk is hardly surprising, though. And after listening a few times, the banjo's timbre is less novel, though no less effective. What really defies expectations is the consistency with which the three players' talents are congealed here.

That's also what made listening to Eight Bells, the latest from longstanding heavy-psych outfit SubArachnoid Space exciting for me. This album was my introduction to the band, through cursory research reveals an almost 15-year career with releases on labels including Relapse, and, for Eight Bells, Crucial Blast.

Led by guitarist Melynda Jackson, SubArachnoid Space has, apparently, been a shape-shifting creature, constantly rotating its roster. But on this record, the shapes that shift are mostly textural, as the band's spacey tracks move fluidly through different melodic passages and layered drones.

But what surpasses expectations, isn't that the band touches on psychedelic rock, drone, noise and post-hardcore, but that it envelops it influences and coalesces as something new and exciting. Perhaps it's the ever-shifting line-up that contributes to the fresh, extemporaneous feeling I hear in Eight Bells, or perhaps it's a well-honed professionalism masquerading as startled discovery. It doesn't matter. The record's front-to-back good, and that will always be a welcome, but unexpected attribute.

Also in rotation: Ahleuchatistas - Of The Body Prone (Tzadik); Lightning Bolt - Earthly Pleasures (Load); Psyched To Die - Year One (Dirtnap); Horseback - MILH IHVH (Turgid Animal); Baroness - Blue Record (Relapse); Converge - Axe To Fall (Epitaph); Pelican - What We All Come To Need (Southern Lord); White Mice - Ganjahovahdose (20 Buck Spin); Skeletonwitch - Breathe The Fire (Prosthetic)

***

Bryan Reed is from North Carolina and, despite his best efforts, he still hasn't grown out of the racket that irritated his friends and family in high school, and continues to irritate them in the present. Stalker-types should know that they can follow Bryan on Twitter @subparrockstar.

[Photo of Seabrook Power Plant by Peter Gannushkin]