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]

Twenty years together in a band is pretty damn impressive.  Twenty years together for a punk band is a fucking miracle.

For two decades now, the guys in Simi Valley-based punk band Strung Out have been churning out record after record of politically-tinged melodic punk rock, spiked with a bit of hardcore.  Strung Out is also one of the few punk bands that happen to find itself in the record collection of black-shirt clad metal kids as well.   Having just released Agents of the Underground, their seventh album, the band is about to gas up the bus and heard out on tour.
 
Frontman Jason Cruz was kind enough to talk to Blurt this week about keeping the band together, Hank William Sr. and Scandinavian hookers. 

Congratulations on 20 years. Ever have any idea when you were starting the band that you'd be around this long?
Fat Mike once told me it takes about 10 years to "make it" at whatever you set out to do... Hmmm have I made it yet? If I have where the fuck am I and somebody please save me!

Why do you think you guys have been able to make it for so long when so many other punk bands break up after just a few years?
Because they're pussies and they never really wanted rock up their ass in the first place, that's why. If you are doing this, you really have to get a shitty little job to sustain yourself for a bit. Sell your girlfriend and the dog and get to it!

Got to admit, I'm impressed that the band has done so well with little airplay and no absolutely no help from MTV and the like. Why do you think your music resonates so well with people?
I believe it's because we look so damn goofy and un-cool. I mean who will believe a word the gorgeous kid with Motley Crue hairdo says anyway?

 Is there a theme to the songs on Agents of the Underground, your new record?
The theme would have to be of loss and the certainty of re-birth. Loss is a fact of life we seem to be so afraid of and to confront that fact is not always an easy thing to do. The things you do not let go will be ripped away type thing.

Do you still get approached by younger bands who mention that they grew up with your music? Is that ever weird?
Yes (and) it's weird and I may not have a fat sack sittin' in a fat car parked in my fat pad but I gots respect and to me that'll sink ships any day brotha.

So over the past 20 years, did the band ever come close to splitting up?
Twelve times! Each time had to do with a Scandinavian hooker we all loved at one time or another. She played us and left us for the boys in Avenged Sevenfold ...Good luck boys!

Any regrets with the band?
I don't really regret a single thing with this band; it all happened for one reason or another and led me here. I am healthy, I am strong, and I love the new record. Shit like that don't last so I'm going with it.

In two decade, obviously, you've hit some major milestones. As a band, is there anything else you want to be able to accomplish?   
Big fat royalty checks when I'm seventy?


 

The last couple of years, I've been off meat, generally. If it's bloody, it's out. I know, kind of weenie. Believe me, I have tried. But unless it's stringy, in a pattie, in casing or bacon, no go.

But our friends have been raving about this local meaterie, Fleisher's. It's the next town over, about a 30 minute drive. High-end stuff, all organic. So we finally go on Saturday and at first, I'm a little wary. The vibe is well... all-meat, all-the-time. A hand-painted sign above a cabinet full of spices commands "Rub Your Meat." Five points for bawdy humor. Although, I steer far away from the ribeye and steak section, which, I know, if that's your thing, these babies are like the gleaming rubies of Meatville. But when in Rome....

About 10 of us were waiting around for 15-20 minutes while the clerk took what seemed like forever helping the guy in front of us (he'd never heard of kielbasa!). More and more people were piling in. Call me impatient [...]

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.

The Ettes Present Their Touring-Band Food Tips: How would you feel about bathing in some baked beans? You'd feel really good about it, that's how you'd feel...

By Coco Hames

Part of the justification for living in a van -- with three other people and one-to-two dogs, constantly driving around the country, not doing laundry or sleeping -- is 1) we get to play rock shows, and 2) we get to eat exciting, awesome regional treats! 

The best Chinese food in the country is in New York, though Poni and Jem assure me the New York Chinese diaspora has created a good pocket of Chinese food in south Florida.  New York DOES have the best pizza (and bagels, they say it's the water), and do not even try to engage me comparing Chicago deep dish with New York pizza: there is no comparison.  Like what you like but don't compare apples to oranges; they ain't the same fruit.  Same goes for California-style fancy pants thin crust gourmet pizza with figs and prosciutto; give me a break.  That is delicious but it's not the same species as a wonderful, perfect, regular old slice of New York cheese pizza.  You may only compare pizza slices within New York City and Brooklyn.  Thanks. 

We get cheese steaks in Philly, and most people will tell you (if you ask them whether Pat's or Gino's is the best) whichever has the shortest line at the time you go is your best bet.  That's good advice.  Philly cheese steaks are hard to mess up, long as they gots the gooey cheese and onions ("whiz with") and you also should use the granular hot sauce and chuck on some chilies!  Also I hear Tony Luke's is good.  But Italian beef in Chicago is a whole new world.  Get it dipped (in au jus) and with peppers (spicy or sweet, it's up to you) and you cannot go wrong. 

Seafood is always best nearest its home, and we've had memorably killer seafood in Rhode Island, California, Louisiana, South Carolina, Maine and Florida.  I'm partial to Floridian seafood, especially the kind you can get at J.B.'s Fish Camp in New Smyrna.  You sit outside (it doesn't matter how hot it is, you're on the intercoastal) and drink cheap beer and eat oysters they harvest on the side of the dock and watch dolphins cavort in the water. 

Nashville has meat-and-threes, which means a meat (roast beef?) and three sides (mac and cheese, collard greens, black eyed peas, green beans, mashed potatoes, etc.) but I usually get a meat-and-one because my eyes are way bigger than my stomach.  And you get you some sweet tea.  At Arnold's. 

In St. Louis they have a special creepy pizza, which we call the ketchup gravy pizza, but evidently they mean to make it like that and we're supposed to like it, and we kind of always do.  Johnny likes ribs (who doesn't?) but the rest of the Ettes are divided on their favorite barbeque style.  Poni and I prefer North Carolina barbeque, in which you will find a vinegar-based bbq sauce (other common ingredients often include ketchup, onion powder, garlic, and sometimes grape soda!) but Jem likes Memphis-style, specifically Payne's (suggested to us by Greg Cartwright) where you will find coleslaw on the sandwich and no decipherable sauce, which purists insist puts emphasis where it belongs: on the meat. 

Green chiles (they're not hot) in Arizona and New Mexico find their way into everything, and even though clever Trader Joe's sells them canned now, you can't beat them fresh.  All the chiles down around them parts, mmmm.  The Mexican diaspora in this country over the last ten years or so is indeed extensive, and so, so welcome.  Mexican food is so good.  You would assume Boise has potatoes, but how would you feel about local potato vodka and a potato burrito?  You'd feel really good about it, that's how you'd feel.  In your mouth. Texas is #1 for breakfast tacos and its own style of barbeque, but Austin just wins all around for best city in general, food included. 

We used to be very serious about the best Mexican food being in LA (not, as you might think, in El Paso, a city that is a stone's throw from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico) though San Francisco's taquerias (not the same thing as a Mexican restaurant) are pretty much the bomb.  Seattle has a real gift for rock-and-roll diner food (Hattie Hat's), as does Atlanta (the Earl).  Every city needs a rock-and-roll diner. 

A rock-and-roll diner is a place that typically features a highly tattooed kitchen and wait staff, and should be run by an ex-touring musician or skater.  The decor is casual and kitschy, there should be skulls and motorcycle stuff everywhere, there should be good local beer on draft, and the food should be structured as American comfort food (burgers, tater tots, meatloaf, fried chicken, etc.) but done in an inspired new (and usually more healthful) way.  More of these!  Everywhere! 

I'm obviously not mentioning everywhere we've ever gone or want to go (and eat), I'm just excited that we're headed to Wisconsin and Poni and I are looking for cheese, and Jem says he heard of a good local beer, yessssss!

***

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.

Steve Cropper, Pop Staples, Albert King are Jammed Together.

By Carl Hanni

Here's another good one from the never-ending list of worthy records that never really got their due.

Jammed Together is a Stax Records all-star throw-down loaded with with heavy hitters; a loose, relaxed mutual appreciation society of giants enjoying each other's chops. This practically lost burner from 1969 fronts three of Stax's hottest pickers (Steve Cropper, Albert King and Pop Staples) with an air-tight backing band and a shifting line-up of A-list in-house producers. Various combinations of Al Bell, Issac Hayes, Al Jackson, David Porter, Booker T Jones, Terry Manning, Homer Banks and others all take turns group producing, a guaranteed head-turner for discerning crate diggers and analog devotees looking for a warm, vinyl fix.

Three vocal numbers - one each from the three principals - are trumped by seven instrumentals, where the real sparks fly. Albert King, for one, seldom sounded better. His unbelievably agile, sweet but stinging leads propel "Big Bird," "Trashy Dog" "Opus De Soul," "Homer's Theme" and "Knock On Wood" into soul-blues nirvana. Steve Cropper is, of course, as steady as they come, tastefully blasting away on the same tracks and putting a real fire under King's mighty feet. But Pop Staples and his patented tremolo and vibrato-laden guitar may be the unexpected ringer and perfect foil for these other two giants; his laid-back, shimmering style has just the spongy flex that these tracks need to achieve maximum lift-off.

None of this would be nearly as essential if their rhythm section wasn't as ready to rock and soul as they were, but the unnamed players split the difference between rocking soul and rocking blues, and Jammed Together comes down on the soul side of the equation. They may be unnamed but they sure sound familiar; anyone want to bet that's Al Jackson Jr. and Duck Dunn, brother MG's, on at least some if not all of the tracks?

There's real joy and a sense of playfulness in these warm, dynamic grooves, produced by a fraternity of players and producers with a rich shared history and absolutely nothing to prove. Jammed Together beats the super-star-jam curse hands down and really doesn't care if you know about it or not. And there-in lies much of the appeal: Jammed Together is simultaneously humble and thrown together, and supremely well crafted and full of bravado. Kind of like Stax Records itself.

You can leave comments below or e-mail them to me directly at modmedia@theriver.com. 

Carl Hanni is a music writer, music publicist, disc jockey and vinyl archivist living in Tucson, AZ. He  hosts the vinyl-only Scratchy Record Show every Tuesday night at the Red Room in downtown Tucson, and spins records wherever and whenever he can. He believes that in a better (all analog) world all records would be released on vinyl, but takes good music from wherever he finds it--even on CD. His feature piece on legendary bass player/record producer Harvey Brooks was recently published in Goldmine.