Key track taken from latest, awesome album.

By Blurt Staff

Back in February we ran a feature on Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion, the Americana-tilting rock ‘n' roll duo (and charter members of the storied Guthrie Family as well), and followed that up not long after with a review of their terrific new Andy Cabic/Thom Monahan-produced album Bright Examples. Now we've got their latest video, for the album track "Speed of Light."

Also check them out performing "Target On Your Heart" on NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DBgI6WLvcA . You can also see them perform the song "Never Far From My Heart" on Carson Daly here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPbxV9LCdOw .Guthrie and Irion will appear at Wilco's "Solid Sound" Festival happening this weekend from June 24 - 26 at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA.

Tour dates:

Friday, June 24 - Sunday, June 26 - Solid Sound Festival @ MASS MoCA - North Adams, MA
Thursday, July 7 - First Thursdays: Concerts in the Park - Baltimore, MD
Friday, July 8 - The Mansion on O Street - Washington, DC
Friday, July 15 - The Dreamaway Lodge - Becket, MA
Saturday, July 16 - Solarfest - Tinmouth, VT
Friday, July 22 - The Guthrie Center - Great Barrington, MA
Saturday, August 13 - Concerts in the Studio - Freehold, NJ
Monday, August 15 - Sunday, August 21 - Song School and Folks Festival - Telluride, CO
Friday, August 26 - Blueberry Hill - St. Louis, MO
Saturday, August 27 - Fayetteville Roots Festival - Fayetteville, AR
Friday, September 9 - Cafe Lena - Saratoga, NY
Saturday, September 10 - Club Passim - Cambridge, MA
Sunday, February 5 - Sunday, February 12, 2012 - Cayamo Cruise - Miami, FL

I represent a small and unique niche of displaced persons . We are the aging rockers-the fans-the minor players-the aficionados-the believers. We went to the original Fillmore,Woodstock,the Electric Factory-Steve Pauls Scene, the Avalon Ballroom/The Troubadour/The Whisky/Max's Kansas City/CBGB's The Star Club & the Cavern. We loitered on Sunset Strip; the East Village; Warhol's Factory; the suburbs of Cleveland and anywhere music blared. We grew up on vinyl and remember it fondly-particularly the albums that had gatefold covers (which allowed us to make sure we lost no dope when we separated the stems & the seeds from the good stuff). We marched for real causes-and we marched to meet girls. We were stupid enough to think we made a difference-and we are still stupid today as we look for a cause to champion. We believed in free love-and missed the concept! We are 5-10 years away from assisted living- and yet we still look as Tim Hardin once said, "for a reason to believe."

We look for truth and guidance in our music . We are the modern day Diogenes carrying our lamps in the daytime looking for an honest rocker. So I ask you: why is it that style trumps substance? Money trumps integrity? And 15 minutes of fame should arrive in 15 minutes-rather than after 15 years of slugging it out? I battle with these questions every day-and I have to tell you: it contributes to my chronic insomnia. Between 11 and 3 AM every night when my wife is long asleep, I've got my trusty changer at my side and I flip through the overpriced premium channels like sundance, HBO, Starz, Encore and Showtime. Fuck Fios-why can't I buy my channels al la carte? Do I really need 50 golf channels or 200 religious channels? Anyway, I flip endlessly looking for something to pull me in ("Cathouse" on HBO?!) but I find myself being suckered into mostly the IFC/Sundance offerings only because they are a bit off the beaten track. One thing they have been running quite a bit of and I can never stop watching is that Ramones documentary "End of the Century". The Ramones were the quintessential dysfunctional rock band-the rock and roll equivalent of the "R.Crumb". Those guys were so fucked up that they truly epitomize what great rockers should be. They were illiterate, stupid, lovable and had no option in life but to play rock and roll. They broke your hearts, made you laugh, powered your brain and crumbled in the end. The last 5 minutes of the film was heartbreaking as Dee Dee is shown running down a hallway in a hotel yelling some fucked up intelligible words-and then the credits roll up saying he died a few weeks later. No "hey hey my my" here. Yes it's tough carrying the dream around remembering when you went to the Fillmore and saw Country Joe Play for the first and maybe the only time in his career-the song, "Quiet Days in Clichy," (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8k-_mmpoog) -before he became a rabid feminist)-or watch Ray Davies fall over dead drunk in 1970 at Carnegie Hall debuting "Lola". I had the coolest Beatle boots and & the music was good-really good!! Only now does the scary thought dawn on me that I might just be the "Aqualung" on the park bench. So as I contemplate the future (and reach for my Lexipro) I can't help but recall the comforting thoughts of the past and my fantasy girls-my loves-first & forever.

Love is the fuel that powers our music and our lives. Yes it can be sappy and syrupy and God knows there are so many crappy love songs out there. But love is truly at the heart of most music and really life itself. Porky's are incurable romantics. We truly love from the earliest years to our inevitable end. We fall hard and our love never dies. All that it takes is a chance encounter-a look-a fantasy. We love our long forgotten girlfriends from 7th grade as though it was yesterday. Each one is unique and holds a special place in our heart. Our most significant and meaningful loves are unfortunately; the ones clearly beyond our reach. And although we never could have a real relationship with these fantasy goddesses-in our mind, these relationships are very real.

Indulge me here:

Susan Oliver

Susan was always 2nd or third billed. She played a nihilistic character who never had a chance. She conveyed the image of beauty and sadness simultaneously.. I think it was her part in the "The Fugitive" with David Jannsen (a lost soul and porky) that stole my heart. Her beauty matches her obscurity-she will always be no.1 in my heart.

Grace Lee Whitney (better known as Yeoman Rand on the original "Star Trek")

Yeoman Janice Rand was only in a few episodes in the first season of Star Trek-but she made quite an impression on this young brain. I mean lets face it-If she was good enough for Captain Kirk....

Donna Michelle-1964 Playboy Playmate of the Year

Donna Michelle while mostly inconsequential to the world at large-will always remain very special to me as she was the female that "turned" my love from the puppy love variety to the physical dimension of impure thoughts . It was my dear Donna who was responsible for opening my floodgates and creating the conflict that every man wrestles with his whole life. If there is one thing that determines the human male character and makes for greatness and an inordinate amount of bad behavior it's the penis brain hookup-or as Philip Roth would say, "Portnoy's Complaint."

Lily St. Cyr

I used to wake up in the morning
I used to feel so bad
I got so sick of having sleepless nights
I went and told my dad

He said, "Son now here's some little something"
And stuck them on my wall
And now my nights ain't quite so lonely
In fact I, I don't feel bad at all

Pictures of Lily made my life so wonderful
Pictures of Lily helped me sleep at night
Pictures of Lily solved my childhood problems
Pictures of Lily helped me feel alright"
Pictures of Lily/The Who 1967

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BmkBroiw1s
Lily St.Cyr didn't have the fanatical fan base that Betty Page had, but her heyday was during the same time frame as Betty's. Truly dignified, she was a Sex Goddess that inspired worship. There is an interesting story behind this photo I published. A local artist filmmaker and comedic talent-Pat Carroll-best known for being part of the Langley Punks Film troupe-was in correspondence with Lily for the last 10 years of her life. Pat worshipped Lily and helped her in so many ways. He was responsible for getting me this signed photograph for which I will be eternally grateful. Last time I talked to Pat he was working on a book of her life-I do hope it sees the light of day. "Pictures of Lily did make my life so wonderful"

Kay Parker

What red-blooded man doesn't have an interest in pornography?. Kay Parker was a star from porn's "Golden Age." She was the first real "MILF". She stole my heart immediately-I'm not sure why... maybe it was the faint hint of that English accent?. But Kay made me realize and appreciate older women-or as is the case now-women my own age. An older woman with a sense of humor is a treasure and lord knows, certainly more forgiving. Who else would dress up as a Nun-allow you to put on your Tarzan suit, tolerate you swinging from the rafters, hollering, and not always on target? It's.. it's... it's... just what I've heard .

Ah my loves....and I'm sure all you out there have yours-a word of caution though-these loves of ours should best remain locked away in our minds and I'll tell you why. This episode occurred recently to me and I would not wish it on anyone.

"Darling (as my wife calls me-sometimes)... the mail is here." "Bills I'm sure-just put them on the table." "What's this? The Sasha Gray fan club-who's that?" "Oh its nothing-just give it to me (trying to grab it away from my wife).. What-a bra-its signed!! to my love! What?? Why?-these are yours?!! you sick... "Damn I ordered the panties"-No I ordered boxer shorts-for the summer-mine had holes-shorts-short pants-you remember I told you I was gonna take up tennis..they must have mixed up my mail with someone else's its a mistake. Its not mine!...I.. I... I....I'm innocent....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHQ-DvJgJbE

Our latest look at dusty instrumental hip-hop, techno and bass includes Alex Zavala (pictured, above), Paul White, Comma and TOKiMONSTA.

By Dominic Umile

In September, instrumental hip hop pioneer DJ Shadow will issue his first artist album since 2006, and we've only just seen the release of producer/turntablist J-Rocc's debut, after more than a decade in the game. A couple of months ago, people went understandably bat shit for a chunk of Twitter-dealt rare tracks from New Jersey beatmaker extraordinaire Clams Casino, and as rapper Prodigy finishes up a prison sentence, talk of his crew Mobb Deep's landmark The Infamous is more prevalent than it's been in years, with conversation focusing on the grim, impenetrable mood of the critically revered production as often as its confrontational lyric content. The enthusiasm for intelligent new beat records is palpable, even as producers are more often nostalgic than not — referencing the hard boom bap of '90s era hip hop classics while working in nuances that contemporary production methods and an increasingly available Web trove of sample-ready nuggets will allow.

Often menacing and deceptive as to which tack he'll take next, Chicago producer Alex Zavala spun a set of mesmerizing beats for Vessel, a guest-heavy 2010 album from Dark Time Sunshine, an experimental hip hop duo featuring Zavala and rapper Onry Ozzborn from Grayskul. The Dark Time Sunshine Vessel Instrumentals is a mind-blower; while critics near and far called attention to Vessel's blueprint when the original record first surfaced, the productions have far more room to breathe on this 2011 version without emcees crowding the tracks. Perhaps the release of the beat edition will help spotlight the original, especially since more attention is being given to lesser-known hip hop artists of late (even if it's to dutifully repost press releases for predictable and tedious Odd Future projects).

Zavala's productions are lively and lush, breezy powerhouses of secondhand analog keyboard textures and dusty drum loops. "Primor" is, like a lot of the Instrumentals entries, noticeably rooted in classic hip hop sounds. There’s a tambourine/snare roll-loaded break that Zavala could've snagged from any of those heralded Dusty Fingers collections, but its flourishes are many—a vocal snippet plays through, with brass bursts, scratches from Portland, Oregon's DJ Zone and various backward-flipped clicks peppered here and there. While Def Jux luminary Ace Rock unsurprisingly proves dizzying on the original, I'm going with the instrumental, specifically for the sinister choral textures that surface upon closer listens as well as for the spiraling spaceship tweets that are nearly impossible to detect in the record's previous format. "Defender" drives in a similar fashion, with familiar classic funk breakbeats tumbling beneath it. Zavala fleshes out a playful melody with worming moogs and glitzy synth accompaniment, just as he does for a somber "All Aboard," which seems to have been built with an entire bank of drum samples. The artist has evidently spent years digging for specific pieces to weave into this hyper-melodic project, and Zavala's work ethic proves enviably robust after seven consecutive rounds of it in the headphones.

Zavala The Dark Time Sunshine Vessel Instrumentals (Fake Four, Inc./Fieldwerk)

Zavala - Run (The Dark Time Sunshine Vessel Instrumentals) by fieldwerk

For a trip that showcases a similarly fickle sampling ear, psyche-mining (actual) sound librarian and beatmaking Londoner Paul White strung together a never-better-named debut for One Handed Music in 2009. The Strange Dreams of Paul White is a weird, adventurous record for anyone who's frequently revisiting their Madlib, early RJD2, or Onra Chinoiseries vinyl. Each White-penned nugget shamelessly bears its sewn-together blueprint in familiar cult cinema samples (Wild At Heart, The Warriors) or odd bits nicked from prog LPs, fitted with b-boy drum breaks or swirling Boards of Canada-type electronics. At the end of April, the last physical copy of The Strange Dreams... was sold, so the whole thing is available for free download now. Also check out White's 2010 guest mix for BTS Radio.

Paul White The Strange Dreams of Paul White (One-Handed Music)

Paul White - One Eye Open (Extended Version) by alexchase

Much farther west of the apartment studio that Alex Zavala toils in, an artful scene of producers and DJs in California has yielded fruit through a variety of beat music experiments. San Francisco-based Ryan Gilbert goes by "Comma," and turns out clinical, digital-sounding instrumentals on his EP Colortronics, where percussive techno chirps and glassy synths meet in the style of Shigeto's recent Full Circle or the Lorn album on Brainfeeder. In fact, Comma's tendency toward more electronic textures and hollowed bass tones (hunt down a garage-rooted club track called "Coyote" he cut last year for his debut on Frite Nite, producer Salva's label) render him a better candidate for my first Beats Working column, where I discussed releases that are more closely related to bass music.

Comma Colortronics (Frite Nite)

Mezcal Hologram by Comma

There is a lot of space on Comma's "Mezcal Hologram," which is a dubstep tune in the vein of Skream's work, with heady flourishes materializing halfway through in queasy pitch shifts and vintage synths. The remix of "Mexcal Hologram" from UK producer Om Unit is fascinating and busy. Its infrequent 808 clicks line up nicely against the deep, clapping primary pulse and comparably dark undertones, as if he pulled all light that might've been emanating the original. Because of how often my mind wanders to other artists during a spin of Colortronics, it's a challenge to pick Comma out of a lineup of the folks that are rolling out similar and more often stronger material. "Evil Snag" stands out on the EP for its smart balance of hip hop and elements more often associated with bass stuff, which is the sort of thing that Los Angeles-born Jennifer Lee does under her TOKiMONSTA pseudonym.

Wispy lullabies on Lee's Creature Dreams are nostalgic and quite bewitching — "Little Pleasures" and "Darkest (Dim)" find vocalist Gavin Turek's verses rolling atop a hazy mesh of live guitars and lethargic drum loops that would hardly sound out of place alongside Tricky's "Aftermath" on the next DJ KiCKS. The rest of Lee's debut for Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder imprint is wordless, populated only by micro bleep patterns, carefully chopped organic percussion snippets, and wayward violins. An unexpected pickup in tempo or glitchy drum stretch in "Stigmatizing Sex" proves spooky and welcome. It's a combination that Lee pulls off with finesse for the EP's 29 minutes, where a sultry array of knocking beats is as suitable before you leave the apartment Friday as it is when you shuffle out of subway home, in the streetlamp-illuminated early hours of Saturday morning.

TOKiMONSTA Creature Dreams EP (Brainfeeder)

Breathe on my Contacts by TOKiMONSTA

***

BLURT contributor and blogger Dominic Umile lives, writes, and drinks in Brooklyn, NY. Follow him on Twitter: @DominicUmile

The author taking a break from promotion.

From decades of dealing with bands and artists as a producer, one thing that has struck me is that there seems to be *less* aggressive promotion going on these days - and certainly less than all the commentary about new-media tools for artists would have one believe.

Could this be an illusion? I've been playing a lot more live shows and touring with my own band than I was in the 80's, so that might give me a different view. Here are some possible reasons, some of them contradictory:

There is simply now, more clear evidence of an artist's lax promotion, than in the old days - ie: an official website that hasn't been updated in a year.

So nothing has really changed, and the proportion of artists that actually hustle, is, and has always been a minority.

Record labels, small and large, used to do a lot of the promotion - providing a division of labor.

Hence, even artists without a personality inclined to promotion, or the social skills, would be promoted

There's a generational difference in attitudes between artists from my early era (the 80's), and now

Hustling/promoting was viewed as "being serious" and with the underdog status of independent music, had more social value. But once there was a possible payoff with independent music, there was a taboo, and suspicion of aggressive promotion.

All the new-media and networking tools are more difficult to use, and use skillfully, and with more quality than it would seem

This is nothing new under the sun. Regardless of the tools, promotion requires skill and instinct. We simply don't all have that - see my previous point about division of labor - but yet we all have to DIY it ..DO-IT-YOURSEL.F

Certain networking tools, like Facebook, work remarkably well

So either the artist thinks a little promotion is doing as much as can be hoped for, or they're easily getting the desired results. And either way they slack on the rest.

Not all artists LIKE the auxiliary expression at the core of new-media promotion - ie: photos, graphics, blogging, designing on-line flyers, maintaining a presence through frivolous postings.

So they quickly start slacking. And this is the stuff only the artist can do. Even if someone else is helping promote, they can't bring a horse to water.

There is LESS of a sense that music could be a life-long career.

Therefore, less carrot-on-a-stick incentive.

It's easier now to have a marginally functional band partly because of the new tools, so there are more musicians in the stew who wouldn't have pursued a career before anyway.

They're happy just to play, and aren't going to get too entangled with the endless job of promotion.

See my recently updated website: http://www.martinbisi.com/

The History of Rock'n'Roll

By Carl Hanni

Some years back Time-Life put together and released the ten part series "The History of Rock'n'Roll," since issued on five DVDs with two episodes per disc. I recently re-watched the entire series, and started editorializing its pros and cons as I was watching it. For what it's worth, here are some of my thoughts; quite a few of my thoughts, actually. This is pretty self indulgent and definitely the ramblings of an obsessive personality type; if you have no interest in rock'n'roll or fanish, obsessive music chatter, you'd probably be wasting your time reading this. 

Using a standard documentary format of talking-heads styled interviews with musicians, producers, disc jockeys, record execs and others, combined with archival footage and passable but hardly exceptional narration by Gary Busey, the series runs more or less chronologically and is divided into episodes like "Guitar Heroes," "Punk," "The Sounds of Soul," etc. Doing this strictly chronologically is impossible, of course: artists and scenes overlap and flow in and out of each other, and the work of some acts covers several decades. The narrative solution they settled on to get a workable framework for this monumentally unwieldy subject is simple and effective: they run the most important threads (The Beatles, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Motown, etc.) as clusters of affinities (say, other Merseybeat bands w/The Beatles) into a mini-sequence that might cover a few years or so, then double back and do it again with another crew or scene (say, The Rolling Stones, batched up w/The Kinks and The Who) who are in the same time-frame. This works well throughout the series and allows the narration to cut back and forth between the most important acts and scenes, some of who (Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, James Brown) surface in several different episodes. 

The first two episodes are "Rock'n'Roll Explodes" and "Good Rockin' Tonight," and are really two parts of the same story of the development of rock'n'roll out of blues, jazz, R&B, country, doo wop and gospel. It gets off to an inauspicious start with a few standard pontifications on what rock'n'roll is about by Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie and Bono, and a completely superfluous couple of minutes of U2 doing "With or Without You." Fortunately it's pretty much all candy from here, and they soon settle into a groove and work it for the next ten hours or so. 

Everyone you would expect is here in vintage black & white - Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Ray Charles, Roy Orbison, Fats Domino, Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Chubby Checker plus key labels like Chess and Sun Records - but the series archivists also take the time to show the development of rock'n'roll from it's component parts. It's good to see not only country music (Hank Williams in particular) and gospel get their due, but they also take the time to acknowledge the hopped-up R&B of Louis Jordan and Big Joe Turner that was the real foundation of R'n'R, and they get the narrative pretty much right. These two episodes feature some of the most mind-blowing footage you're ever likely to see, including Muddy Waters coming on like God himself at the Newport Folk Festival, indescribably entertaining, over-the-top performances from Jerry Lee Lewis, and mesmerizing footage of the young Elvis Presley. Anyone who ever wondered what all the hullabaloo was about over the young Elvis needs to see this. His outrageously lascivious take on "Hound Dog" is simply one of the greatest things of that era captured on film, and the footage of teenagers (boys and girls both) coming utterly unglued in adolescent sexual frenzy is the first footage I'm aware of of the nascent youth/pop culture tsunami waiting just around the corner in the 1960s. It's easy to see why parents were flustered, watching their children pulling away from their authority right before their very eyes. Score one for rock'n'roll.

A few random thoughts on these two shows: Sun Records head Sam Philips is one intense, grandiose mofo, but has the history to back up the bluster; bless them for getting Johnny Otis on camera, a personable cat who is as qualified to talk about rock'n'roll, R&B, soul and jazz as anyone; more kudos for getting Ruth Brown and Joe Strummer on camera; Tom Petty looks really stoned; boy can those kids cut a rug to "At The Hop" by Danny and The Juniors; and Hank Ballard is a card-carrying life of the party. Interesting oddities abound, including Tina Turner and Carl Perkins talking about picking cotton as kids, Perkins waxing about "God's divine plan" in regards to Elvis' preternatural talent, truly creepy footage of the KKK and redneck politicians talking about the evil of rock'n'roll and "degenerate nigger music," and a very young and comically almost-hip Pat Boone finger-popping his way through "Tutti Frutti." These episodes end with shout-outs to Alan Freed, payola and Brill Building pop, as well as the short, swift demise of early rock (Chuck Berry to jail, Elvis to the army, Jerry Lee Lewis in disgrace, Buddy Holly dead, the rise of safe, bland crooner pop ala Frankie Avalon, Fabian, ad nauseum). Score one for the squares. 

Disc two has the episodes "Britain Invades, America Fights Back" and "The Sounds of Soul." "Britain Invades" has pretty much what you would expect: all kinds of choice footage of The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Animals, The Who, The Kinks, The Searchers, Freddy & The Dreamers, Marianne Faithful, Cavern Club, etc. on one side, and Phil Spector, The Beach Boys, The Byrds, Mamas and Papas, Young Rascals, Lovin' Spoonful and Motown, etc. on the other. The footage from ‘swinging London' in the early to mid 60s is a great reminder about the magic that can occur when numerous forces (music, fashion, politics, film, etc.) all converge at the same point at the same time, creating a heady atmosphere that can still be felt on film 40 years later. And the argument that the world changed profoundly when John Lennon met Paul McCartney is hard to refute, if you believe that pop culture was one if the key culture drivers of revolutions of the 1960s. Beatles producer George Martin brings some gravitas to the proceedings, while Marianne Faithful turns out to be a delightful, direct tour guide into her own public image. But no Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels, the American band most capable of ‘fighting back' in the mid 60s?

"The Sounds of Soul" tries to take in a subject in an hour that would take several hours to do justice to, but does a respectable job of hitting the high points. Motown, Stax Records, Atlantic Records and Philly soul all get their due, although there's no mention of New Orleans soul, Muscle Shoals or  Memphis stalwarts like Hi Records and American Recordings. Again, you get what you would expect: James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Berry Gordy, Gamble & Huff, Diana Ross/Supremes, The Jackson 5, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, The O'Jays. This section benefits from interviews with a bunch of folks who were on the ground: Steve Cropper, Jerry Butler, Gamble & Huff, Gladys Knight, Hank Ballard, Jerry Lieber, Solmon Burke, Patti Labelle, the Righteous Brothers, Quincy Jones, Jerry Wexler, etc. The archival footage of Brown, Redding, Wilson Pickett, Jackie Wilson, The Supremes and more brings it all back, and the message that soul and R&B were an integral part of and partner with the civil rights movement is loud and clear. And after several hours of watching black performers playing in front of polite, well manicured white audiences it's nice to finally see some genuine soul power coming from the audience towards the stage. But no Ike & Tina Turner?

Disc three brings us "Plugging In" and "My Generation." "Plugging In" runs from Bob Dylan to Jimi Hendrix covering Bob Dylan, with stops along the way in the Greenwich Village folk scene, Dylan going electric at the Newport Folk Festival and the early to mid-60s Los Angeles sounds of the Beach Boys and The Byrds. A quick primer on the founding of FM radio gives way to footage from the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. This is some of the most exciting live footage ever shot in rock'n'roll: you can debate whether Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin or The Who are the most impressive, but of course they are all the most impressive. The Joplin footage is electrifying - as raw, deeply soulful and real as anything I can name-check.  

"My Generation" runs from the San Francisco/Height Asbury hippie explosion of 66' and 67' to Woodstock in 1969 and on to the notorious Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. This hour features some thrilling footage, including Cream, more killer Janis Joplin, the Rolling Stones (early Mick Taylor era) doing "Street Fighting Man," The Who kicking the snot out of "Baba O'Rielly" and truly brain altering footage of Santana doing "Soul Sacrifice" at Woodstock. It also includes Allen Ginsberg doing his happy hippie floppy dance, shots of the Trips Festival and Human Be-Ins in S.F., anti-war marches and of course more Jimi Hendrix. It also has footage of a dangerously sexy Jim Morrison and The Doors, and one of my favorite piece: outdoor footage of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young doing "Down by the River." Neil Young is so great here that even his own band member, Steve Stills, is looking on in awe. But where is Sly and the Family Stone, Simon & Garfunkel and "Abbey Road?"

Disc four has "Guitar Heroes" and "The 70's: Have a Nice Decade." "Guitar Heroes" pretty much speaks for itself and is full of Clapton, Hendrix, Page, Van Halen, Carlos Santana and all the usual suspects. Les Paul, T-Bone Walker and Chuck Berry get their due, and the footage of a feral, wolfish Chuck Berry duck-walking through "Johnny B. Goode" will pin your ears back. Jaw-dropping clips of Stevie Ray Vaughn, a riled up BB King and choice Yardbirds material flows around another stupendous, early 70s cut of The Who. Naturally all roads lead to Jimi Hendrix, and the footage of him drilling into the heart of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" at Woodstock is hard to argue with being the pinnacle of style, innovation, inspiration and raw soul. But where is Johnny Winter?

At this point in the series a sort of narrative fatigue starts to set in, as we spend way to much time looking at and listening to a few of the same guys (one in particular) talking over and over against bland backdrops, and I'm starting to think: why not ten minutes less of so-and-so and not ten more minutes of The Yardbirds or Cream and again, where the heck is Johnny Winter? Fortunately "The 70s: Have a Nice Decade" really gets back on track and is one of the best sequences of the series. It would be hard to go wrong with the embarrassment of riches that was the 70s, and the heavy hitters are all here: Elton John/Fleetwood/Frampton/Springsteen/Bowie/Kiss/Queen/Floyd/Aerosmith/Marley/Browne/Stevie Wonder. Funkadelic and Sly and the Family Stone get their due, as does Southern Rock, and a clip of vintage Allman Brothers brings back what a visionary act they were back then. For me, the real riches are the raw, early footage of Led Zeppelin before their first record release and first-album era Black Sabbath. I doubt if either band ever sounded better: Zep is a tightly coiled machine unspooling bulldozer blues, Sabbath a dark blast of what was to come. That future-is-now scenario meets its apotheosis in a montage of early Alice Cooper, rock'n'roll spectacle at its most inspired as well as being, in Cooper's own words, "The band that drove a stake through the heart of the love generation." This ends with an extended, almost embarrassing put-down of disco that seems a bit pissy. Love it or hate it, it would have been good to at least mention that disco was the most egalitarian music of the 70s, equally open to anyone regardless of race, class or sexual preference, which is more than can be said for most of the lily-white/long-haired/jeans-clad rock'n'rollers.  

Disc five features "Punk" and "Up From the Underground." "Punk" is one of the very best of the ten episodes for what it has in it, and one of the most vexing for what was left out. Starting w/some gritty b&w footage of Thatcher-era London and scene-setting interviews with Joe Strummer and John Lydon, the filmmakers convey the dead-end decay that spawned British punk rock. They then cut back to the States for a quick history of punk early birds the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, MC5 and The Stooges, all with amazing, visceral footage. Oddly, no mention is made of the true precursors of punk, the Pacific NW bands like The Sonics and The Wailers, and the ex-GI combo The Monks. 

From there we have the well-known story: CBGB's, The Ramones, Richard Hell, Talking Heads, Blondie, Patti Smith and Sire Records (but no Television or Suicide) in the U.S, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Buzzcocks, The Jam, Elvis Costello, Stiff Records, the importance of dub reggae on U.K. punk and Malcolm McLaren's SEX shop, etc. in the U.K. They then jump to a very brief West Coast punk scene, with hair raising footage of X blasting thru "Johnny Hit and Run Pauline" and some footage of some hard-core meatheads doing their brain-dead thing, but no Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, etc. It's great to hear Richard Hell, Joey Ramone, Don Letts and photographer Bob Gruen talk, but Malcolm McLaren comes off as an insufferable twit, simultaneously "amazed" and "surprised" at every little thing and taking credit for making much of it happen. This episode leap-frogs from The Clash to Green Day and Nirvana, and therein lies the rub: they had to leave out essentially the entirety of British post punk (PIL, Gang of Four, Joy Division, The Fall, Magazine, etc.) as well as everything that happened in the U.S. after about 1981. No Fugazi, Butthole Surfers, Mudhoney, Touch & Go, Dischord, Merge, on and on and on. They needed another hour, obviously - or perhaps it can roll over into the next one....

But no, you won't find any of that in "Up From The Underground," either. You will find the marquee names in the 80s (Madonna, Michael Jackson, R.E.M., The Police, Chili Peppers, but, oddly, no Prince) + Lollapalooza and wayyyy to much MTV. We have to give them props for a respectable primer on old school hip hop and b-boy culture, though. Given the cultural bias within pop music, they could have left a lot of this out, but didn't. Some of this stuff is pretty fun (Devo) and some of it is insipid (Dire Straits w/Sting, gag), but what it really is, is strangely selective. You can watch the entire hour and not get a single mention of: industrial, goth, ska, hair metal, reggae, rave/techno/house/dance culture/electronica and post punk, much less that massively huge swath of arena metal/rock that was the #1 selling genre of the 1980s. This includes everything from Guns & Roses and Motley Crue to Judas Priest and Iron Maiden and eventually onto Metallica, Megadeath, etc. That's a huge exclusion; but, again, to be fair they would have needed another hour to get that in; but even a brief mention of some or most all of these genres would have gone a long way towards filling the holes. 

Obviously, even at ten hours, the producers of "The History of Rock'n'Roll" had to make some pretty hard and frustrating choices about what to include and what to leave out, and I can't help but feel some sympathy for the decisions that the time constraints put on them. They opted for their version of the key players and movements, and did a respectable job, in a mainstream sort of way. They included interviews w/many artists who weren't otherwise included in the mix of archival footage, getting them into the story in a different fashion. They also opted to let the clips run for respectable lengths, not cutting everything up into tiny bits, and we can thank them for that, also that's obviously one of the reasons why so much other stuff was left out.

Nonetheless, some of the crucial music, movements and artists left out are worth noting, and here's a partial list of who and what else could have easily been included: Richie Valens, Link Wray, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Wanda Jackson, John Lee Hooker, Frank Zappa/Mothers of Invention, John McLaughlin/Mahavishnu Orchestra, T Rex, Roxy Music, Donna Summer, the Bee Gees, Issac Hayes and his "Theme From Shaft," Johnny Winter, Fela, The Staples Singers, Al Green, James Taylor, Carole King's "Tapestry," "Louie Louie," 60s garage rock, 70s psychedelic soul, British folk rock, Booker T & the MGs, Ike & Tina Turner, Mitch Ryder/Detroit Wheels, Television, The Damned, Nick Cave, Van Morrison, Donovan, Steppenwolf, "Easy Rider," Creedence Clearwater Revival, Simon & Garfunkel, Gram Parsons, 70s shlock rock ala Journey and Foreigner, prog rock, no wave, industrial, goth, glam, hair metal, 80s metal ala Judas Priest, techo/house music and rave culture, "Bitches Brew," "Abbey Road" and "The White Album," "Let it Bleed" and "Exile on Main Street," Altamont, "Rust Never Sleeps," Motorhead, Joy Division, Gang of Four, The Cramps, Butthole Surfers, Mudhoney, The Minutemen, PIL, Dead Kennedys, DC hardcore, Metallica.

Leonard Cohen, for heaven's sake. PRINCE, for god's sake!

The relative short changing of Sly & The Family Stone, The Kinks and David Bowie live can be chalked up to time constraints, but I'd gladly have traded in 20 minutes of Bono, Skunk Baxter, Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie talking for a look at Ike & Tina Turner, Van Morrison, Creedence, Gram Parsons, Joy Division and PIL. And I'd exchange Sting & Dire Straits, The Eurythmics, some truly atrocious Grateful Dead footage and 10 minutes less of MTV and the pissy disco dis for a little vintage Mothers of Invention, Television, "Gimmie Shelter," some Al Green and Simon and Garfunkel doing "Mrs. Robinson."

No Prince? Really?

But the really vexing omission is not-so-much-as-a-mention of the world-wide explosion of homemade garage rock that The Beatles ushered in that ran from 1963 or so until it merged into the psychedelic scene in 1966-67. The fact that there were 1000s of bands in every country in the world playing this stuff goes unmentioned, and the exclusion of "Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen is incomprehensible; how can you do 10 hours on rock'n'roll and not mention "Louie Louie?" The work of bands like The Count Five, The Sonics, Paul Revere and the Raiders, ? Mark and The Mysterians, The Standells, The Seeds and Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs was the very stuff of mid 60s American rock'n'roll; perhaps it was just to big of a subject for the producers to get their heads around. More likely they are acutely aware of it, and feel the omissions more painfully than I do. Putting this together must have been a fun but thankless task. 

Anyway, this comes highly recommended, for hardcore fans or casual listeners alike. It's a fun, enlightening and satisfying way to spend ten hours or so. 

 ***

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, book hound and vinyl archivist living in Tucson, AZ. He hosts an occasional concert and film series at The Screening Room in downtown Tucson, "The B-Side" program on KXCI (Tuesday nights midnight - 2 a.m.) and spins records wherever and whenever he can. He currently writes for Blurt, Tucson Weekly, and (occasionally) Goldmine and Signal To Noise.

New BLURT Column spotlighting "dusty instrumental hip-hop, techno and bass artists" kicks off.

By Dominic Umile

When I pitched a column idea to my patient editor at BLURT, it was with the intention of carving out a place for its readers to find an intimate discussion of electronic music, or records that are largely beats-driven, be it dusty instrumental hip hop, techno, or the subject of this first entry, happenings in various bass artist circles. My initial idea was in part informed by a reaction to the instantaneous one-offs and press release re-posts that are occurring these days with unhealthy frequency. I hope to offer what I consider a deep and more personal analysis of new (and maybe older) releases in lieu of the immediate, short-form album appraisals and so-called "criticism" of "leaked" MP3's that materialize within 15 minutes of their mass distribution. I'm calling this endeavor Beats Working because there will be a lot of talk of beats, and because consuming and thinking about music - whether it's on long subway commutes or sifting through records in my apartment - well, it beats working. I've spent a good deal of time lately thinking about the bass-oriented records that have come my way.

***

The turbulent third LP from Dave "2562" Huismans (pictured, above) rattles so much, it's unlikely that you'd ever detect one of the disco samples that allegedly stirs and stutters at its foundation. The Netherlands-born, Berlin-based producer has been exploring a haunting dubstep-minimal techno sound for years, and even though his source material was limited to loops from classic disco vinyl for Fever (no additional synths or drum programming), the new tracks are far closer to hard, cold techno than the releases in his recent catalog.

2562 - Aquatic Family Affair (doubt000 A) by 2562 / A Made Up Sound

The beats are deep and pugnacious for Fever, and the base of pre-album single "Aquatic Family Affair" as well as the title track treads closely to the rhythmic patterns on Dave Huismans' 2009 LP Unbalance, where percussive thrusts of kick drums and hi-hats drive an affable mix of dubby textures and hazy techno. Fever is fascinating and difficult to digest - at times it's similar to Claro Intelecto's dim Warehouse Sessions, devoid of the melody that so frequently underpins the last 2562 outing. "Juxtaposed" is rich with fluttering sci-fi sonics and long-echoing snare rolls, while Fever's mere chunks of bass and metallic clinks are weaved into track-length machine rumbles on "Flavour Park Jam" and on the blurting "Cheater." Huismans trims dizzying textures down to half-second bits and layers them on top of hard and jumbled beats for most of the record, while tangible instances of tightly packed 4/4 dance music occasionally bubble to the fore - micro-diced synth bits and backward swirls on "Brasil Deadwalker" and "Final Frenzy" are built for a thrilling club set, but certainly nothing here sounds like disco. Instead, Huismans expands his palette with a perpetually cryptic record that's really difficult to explain to your friends. I'll take that over disco any day of the week.

Drew "FaltyDL" Lustman doesn't stray noticeably far from the temperate analog sounds that we generally associate with disco records on his second proper full-length for Planet Mu. As much play as the more prominent UK garage and house-inspired dubstep offshoots are getting these days, New Yorker Lustman has remained ahead of the pack, loading his work with consistently provocative shifts in color and rhythm. On You Stand Uncertain, Lustman exhibits a refreshing and ever-steady intention to sweeten lush, late-night house-driven dance music with strong melodies and loads of atmospherics.

To London by FaltyDL

Often as shadowy and hypnotic as the jumbled headphone opus he dubbed Bravery in 2009, You Stand Uncertain is also bright and dramatic, lined with risky moves that make for the most complete-sounding statement Lustman has issued to date. The doses of breathy, unfinished garage diva samples and spirited hi-hat exercises that run through "Voyager" and "It's All Good" look back at his well-received debut album, as well as at his flashy Endeavor EP in 2010. Vocalist Anneka (you heard her on Starkey's "Stars") figures into the You Stand... opener's captivating swirl of vintage organ keys and jangly percussion - the collaboration, along with two others here, marks a new direction for Lustman, as he's previously relied on vocal samples to establish the intimate feel of his records, rather than invite another musician into the studio. Live, untreated vocals instead of the usual pitch-mangled snippets on "Gospel of Opal" are welcome, particularly in the spots where sparse harmonies fall into place just ahead of the audible acoustic guitar loops. The harder stuff is here too, in innumerable junglist drum sources that tumble through "Lucky Luciano," reminiscent of the streamlined, breakbeat-backed Phreqaflex and the absolutely nasty "Never" remix that Lustman did for West Coast beatmaker Eprom last year. [LISTEN TO MIX: FaltyDL for Dummy Mag]

Considerably less light slips into the straight 17 and a half minutes of whooshing, rubbery techno that newer UK bass producer Jamie "Blawan" Roberts laid down for his danceable Bohla EP, released on R&S. Drums play the biggest role on this percussively robust three-songer. Roberts' musical roots are said to have sprouted behind a drum kit, and it shows, perhaps in the barrage of rimshots on "Kaz" or in the deep tribal thwacks of the title track. While Roberts deals an innovative hybrid of alien bass music and tribal house on Bohla, the Round Black Ghosts compilation on Berlin's ~scape comes to mind after his "Lavender" takes off - the 2008 collection features a set of dub and techno crossovers from artists like Untold and 2562, whose ideas back then can be compared to the plans Roberts has now.

BR #47 Blawan by BOILER ROOM

I'm more likely to return to R&S releases from James Blake and Pariah ahead of Bohla, because they're overall more aesthetically diverse, with the emphasis on UK garage sounds that I find so appealing these days, as well as on abundant melodies. Hailing from a town in Worcestershire, England, a trio called Swarms invests a lot of energy into building melody. They're producing a psychedelic but quite polished blend of bass music and chirpy midtempo techno, with heavily coded guitar lines and frequent vocal samples worked into the mix.

Flikr of ur eyes by Swarms

Old Raves End, Swarms' debut full-length for LoDubs, sits snugly alongside the label's releases from dubstep well-known Clubroot, whose sophomore LP is loaded with similarly refined choral textures, field noise, and somber, ambient 2-step tunes. Clubroot's best work is in his understated tracks, and Swarms is also strongest when they're reining it in. "Roulette" boasts broad, sweeping synth chords that move along at a syrupy pace, clashing with the sped-up, indecipherable vocal churning the background. The same batch of elements work in a slow, massive-feeling cycle for "Sky Below Sea," which is equally stirring, but the text msg-friendly "Flikr of Ur Eyes" is the most comely of the lot. Tenderly strummed guitars match measured synth swells and whispered vocal cut-ups a la Lali Puna's "Faking the Books" on "Flikr..." The beats that eventually shuffle in barely disrupt this organic stretch, and close listens summon actual fretboard slides as well as the affecting soft patter of English countryside rain. [LISTEN TO MIX: Swarms And Geiom]

***

BLURT contributor and blogger Dominic Umile lives, writes, and drinks in Brooklyn, NY. Follow him on Twitter: @DominicUmile

DJ LENGUA

By Carl Hanni

As the world turntables...

Somewhere along the way ‘dance music' became a genre, much like ‘indie rock' has become a genre; these terms no longer indicate that music is just for dancing, or released by independent labels, but refer to wide but nonetheless finite set of parameters. We know know dance music when we hear it, like we know indie rock when we hear it.  

Dance music now generally refers to that constantly shape shifting and morphing world of electronic dance music, picking up and mixing and discarding sub genres (drum & bass, dubstep, jungle, whatever) that all originated, at one time or another, out of what we used to call house music then eventually, techno. 

Let us acknowledge and give a nod, then, to the makers of original music that subverts the norms of electronic-based but still danceable music. Especially because, for all of it's future-is-now aspects and embracing of new technology, much electronic dance music is pretty standardized and generic; huge swaths of it is tedious and unoriginal, actually. 

DJ Lengua is a cat who knows how to have it both ways. His two mix LPs that I've heard, 2008's DJ Lengua and 2010's Cruzando, (another, Dilo!, came out in 2001) are primers of original and unconventional mixing, but they are (for the most part) still danceable as long as your mind is open and not blindered by the Top 40 mentality of most dance clubs. More importantly, they are listenable, ingeniously constructed and about as much fun as you can have with a slice of vinyl with grooves cut into it. It was that sense of play and mischievousness that first struck me when I heard DJ Lengua for the first time a couple if years ago. It evidenced great musical wit and originality, but didn't neglect the booty, either. Lengua seemed like someone who approached his craft with a sense of play and humor, infinitely attractive qualities for those of us who are primarily interested in dance music that can be listened to and danced to in equal measure. 

DJ Lengua was born and raised for his first fifteen right here in Tucson, as Eamon Ore-Giron. Currently calling Los Angeles home, he's also lived Mexico City, Peru and San Francisco. Like lots of DJs, he's obviously a cultural and musical omnivore, picking up bits of this and that wherever he's lived and traveled. In his case this especially holds true for musics from Peru and Mexico, as well as other musics under the umbrella "Latin Music," a non-genre wide and wildly diverse enough to include everything from vintage Chicano garage rock to Tex Mex, Latin Jazz to Salsa, Tejano to Chicha, and pretty much anything produced in South and Central America and Mexico since the dawn of recording technology. 

It what he does with all of this that is singular and sets Lengua apart of the crowd around the turntables. Radically slowing down or speeding up bits and pieces of this and that, dropping all but a vocal line or a break, thinning it all out and cranking up the high end and mid ranges, while layering it all with his own beats and squeaks - that may sound exactly like what other adventurous mixologists do, but a DJ Lengua mix is a truly original and singular thing. There is something decidedly, delightfully off-kilter and off the wall about every track on DJ Lengua and Cruzando, from the flute twitters on "Cumbia Squares" and psychedelic dub swirl of "l Pacheco" to insistently straight ahead and sassy groove of "Perdido" and the ingeniously catchy "La Jungla." The man's a true stylist.

DJ Lengua is also the co-owner of Unicornio Records and a renowned visual artist (as Eamon Ore-Giron), working in acrylic, spray-paint, silk screening and multi-media. In addition to Lengua's releases, Unicornio has released titles by Chicano Batman and DJ Roger Mas, with more to come. 

To check out some of his stuff, see: 

Unicornio Records: www.unicorniorecords.com

Twitter: @SONIDOLENGUA

www.myspace.com/djlengua

Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/djlengua

DJ MIX: http://supersonido.net/2010/03/09/dj-lengua-rebajada-mota-mix/

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Here's a Q&A we did via e-mail recently:

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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, book hound and vinyl archivist living in Tucson, AZ. He hosts an occasional concert and film series at The Screening Room in downtown Tucson, "The B-Side" program on KXCI (Tuesday nights midnight - 2 a.m.) and spins records wherever and whenever he can. He currently writes for Blurt, Tucson Weekly, and (occasionally) Goldmine and Signal To Noise.

Steve Ignorant Interview (formerly with Crass)

By John B. Moore

Since this interview was conducted, Steve Ignorant and his band mates have had to reschedule their much-anticipated shows in the U.S. and Canada after failing to secure Visas to enter the countries. Originally slated for March, the tour now starts in April. According to a press statement: "As of  (March 7^th), the band had not been issued US entry visas, despite months of preparation and despite having delivered all of their documents to their visa agent well in advance of usual guidelines. With only 3 days to go to the first show and no hope left of getting the visas in time, the only decision that could be made was to let the fans know and move the shows."

***

British anarcho-punks Crass certainly never stressed out over skinny jeans and asymmetrical haircuts, nor did they go around comparing ironic tattoos like many of today's punk rockers.

Instead they spent the late 70's up to their inevitable implosion in 1984, creating in-your-face political rants set to abrasive sound collages and pretty much taunting Thatcher and her conservative minions. The highly influential, but often overlooked punk band set out a template for everyone from The Dead Kennedys to Anti-Flag.

Having vowed to never again reunite, band co-founder and front man Steve Ignorant has decided to give fans one last chance to hear the songs of Crass before he officially nails the coffin shut and encases it in cement. Just don't call it a reunion.  

Let's start off with The Last Supper Tour. Can you tell me a little bit about the concept behind it?

It all really started with the Feeding of 5000 shows in 2007. I got a lot of phone calls from people wanting me to repeat that show across the world. I had to explain to them that the whole idea of the Feeding 5000 was just a one-off show, never to be repeated and I couldn't go back on that. As time went on it became apparent that a lot of people couldn't get to those shows and were desperate to see them live. It took me a long time, but spoke to some people and thought long and hard about it and thought why not. Why shouldn't I for one last time perform Crass songs live and I won't just do Feeding 5000, because to repeat that would be just jumping on a bandwagon.  I asked people on the Web site what they'd want to hear and they sent in suggestions and that's how it sort of comes about really. I called it the Last Supper because I want to make it apparent because this will be the last time it happens. When I do the last show in England, I will never every perform these songs live again. That's a promise I have made to not only people, but myself.

And why is that? Obviously having been a part of this movement you have a strong identity to these songs. Do you just want to put them to rest?

Partly that. You see it so many times that someone will say "this is the last tour," and of course they come out again. The Sex Pistols have been guilty of this and so has Jimmy Pursey from Sham 69.

They realize there's still money left on the table?

Absolutely and I don't want to be seen like that. I've shot myself in the foot because there's no way I can do it now. I have to finish. I can't go back on my word and I won't. If it is going to be your last tour, make it your last tour. You know as well as I do that in three years time I could come out with The Last Supper: Second Sitting. What a sellout that would be on my part. My conscious just won't let me. It's a time for one last big celebration. It's also a chance for people who never got to hear those songs to hear them live. And after the show in November I'll take some time off and start work on the next project I want to do.

You seem to make a point on your web site and in all press materials of not calling this a reunion. It's you and other musicians playing Crass songs. At any point did you consider bringing in other Crass band members to make it a reunion?

No and for no other reason that if only I do it, it's Steve Ignorant playing Crass songs and not a reunion. I know there's been some stuff in the states over there saying "Steve Ignorant/Crass". If anyone is being duped by this thinking it's a Crass show, it's just wrong. Crass are not reforming and never will. This is just me. If anyone is out there buying tickets to see Crass, you won't. You'll just see me, so if you don't want that I suggest you take your ticket and get your money back because I wouldn't want anyone to come under false pretenses.  That (reunion) rumor is not being started by us. When I get to the states, I'm going to find out who's been starting this and there shall be a little discussion.

Does that seem to be an American phenomenon - show promoters trying to play this up as Crass, instead of you playing Crass songs?

There was one attempt somewhere in Germany where someone tried this and we had to put an end to it. I don't think it's just an American thing, I just think it's someone trying to make more money.

As an American punk fan, I was cognizant of the fact that you never got to play many shows ever here. Do you see this tour as a way to make up for it? You're playing more than just NY and LA.

Absolutely. Crass didn't really play in many countries and I think it's only right on this tour that I go where I can. Go wherever people are willing to come. It gives me an opportunity to meet people and gives them an opportunity to meet me...  The tour so far has been quite emotional, because they are getting to see me play these songs and are just happy that we're hitting so many different places. It's just really, really emotional. It's wonderful.

You're hitting some mid-size markets that a lot of bands from overseas tend to ignore like Atlanta and Baltimore.

Yeah, someone had to explain to me that America is a really big place. I thought fuck it. This is the last time it's going to happen, why not? If people are prepared to come out, we might add in another date here and there.

 A lot has been written over the years about the band being very thought out from the beginning, with a clear path of when the band would break up. Did you ever anticipate that three decades later people would still be talking about Crass and still be talking about punk in general?

No, not at all. I have to say I know that Penny has said that it was planned when we would break up, but I don't remember that being the case at all. I remember having the conversation about the (catalogue) numbers on the records and I remember saying "what happens when we get to 1984? And they said never mind, We'll sort that out." (Editor's note:  Many have speculated that the releases were numbered in such a way as to represent a countdown to the year 1984, when the band would split up. For the record, they did call it quits that year). So, no, I certainly didn't think we had plans to break up ahead of time.

The thing that really separated the Crass from others is that it always seemed like more than just a band. You certainly weren't shy about your politics and there was a lot of performance art as well, from the spray painting around London, to the faked taped conversations supposedly between Thatcher and Reagan. Did that stuff just happen or did you set out to more than just a punk band?

No, it was really just us wanting to start a band. We thought we'd just be playing pubs. We had no idea we would be doing so much. That just sort of came along. But we very quickly went from seeing ourselves as a band to seeing ourselves more as an information Center. We started handing out leaflets telling people what to do if you are arrested by the police; what you're rights are. A lot of other bands then started doing that as well. No, we didn't start out doing that, but change just came along and once she (Thatcher) came into power, we started thinking of way to get up her nose.

You may have had Thatcher, but we had Reagan at the same time...

You know I felt so sorry for you guys.     

The thing that surprises me is how he has become a hero to so many. It's as if everyone collectively agreed to forget about anything bad he ever did for this county.

I am shocked at younger kids who think the same thing about Thatcher. I'm completely beside myself... I've always told people that once she dies, the drinks are on me. If that woman achieved anything it's that she taught me how to hate.

Do you still listen to punk music? Do you listen to some of the newer punk bands?

No, I'm afraid I don't. Once I hit middle age I mellowed out. I listened to some Reggae, but now I listen to a lot of the classic Soul and Motown. And I've been getting into a lot of John Coltrane and Miles Davis. I'm cool man; I'm getting hip.

I know you've started re-releasing some of the Crass albums. Were the rest of the band members involved in that as well? Does everyone have to sign off on it?

No, no. Some of the ex-members of Crass didn't agree to it, so we did it the way we always agreed to do things: let's put it to a vote and it was 4-to3, so we released them. I won't mention names, but someone threatened us with court proceedings, so we sort of stuck our two fingers up and went ahead. So, who knows, maybe I'll see you in the Klink.

Out ‘n' about in the City of Angels with Blurt's roving shutterbug (February 2010)

By Scott Dudelson

(above) Hellride (Mike Watt) - Live @ The Central (www.centralsapc.com) - 2/12

(below) Hellride (feat: Mike Watt, Stephen Perkins and Wayne Kramer) - Live @ The Central (www.centralsapc.com) - 2/12

Hellride (Stephen Perkins) - Live @ The Central (www.centralsapc.com) - 2/12

Hellride (Wayne Kramer) - Live @ The Central (www.centralsapc.com) - 2/12

Linkin Park -  Live @ Staples Center - 2/23

Linkin Park (Chester Bennington) -  Live @ Staples Center - 2/23

Linkin Park (Brad Delson) -  Live @ Staples Center - 2/23

Linkin Park (Mike Shinoda) -  Live @ Staples Center - 2/23

Linkin Park (Phoenix) -  Live @ Staples Center - 2/23

Prodigy -  Live @ Staples Center - 2/23

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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.

Money for nothing, and MP3s for free.

By Johnny Mnemonic

I've been involved in music journalism one way or another for a good long while, but since moving to England a year or so ago to take a job in visual and online media and haven't been writing as much, the deluge of free records and CDs I used to take for granted has become more like a trickle. That's understandable; if you're not reviewing their product, record labels won't keep sending it to you. And I'm not complaining: in this life, most rational folks don't expect to get something for nothing.

Still, after I recently decided to get back into doing some occasional reviewing, I must admit I was more than a little taken aback to learn that the aforementioned records and CDs had been transformed, seemingly overnight, into digital ones and zeroes.

I'm not talking about something like the new Radiohead album, released last week and which at the moment only exists in digital form. I'm talking everyday, garden-variety bands on regular-joe independent labels who release albums in CD, vinyl LP and even (sometimes) cassette formats in addition to MP3 and FLAC downloads for iPod folks - but who for some reason feel that there's no reason to service rock critics with hard copy promotional items, despite the fact that we are giving them and their new records free publicity, and instead can trim budget costs (CD, packaging, postage) by simply sending out a digital stream or download.

In other words, they do expect something for nothing.

I quote a certain up-and-coming singer-songwriter's publicist's response to my request for a promotional CD to review: "I'd love to help but we don't actually have any CDs. I'll have the label send you a link and a password."

That's a bloody load of bollocks, to quote the British gentleman in the cubicle next to me. Here was my response to the aforementioned publicist:

"Okay, let's see, if I have this right. You want me to spend my valuable time listening to your client's latest brainstorm, sit down and take a few hours writing up a review that amounts to free publicity for the client, which upon publication will, in theory, result in eventual revenue for the client in the form of record sales and concert attendance (to say nothing of ancillary revenue streams - say, if my review attracts the attention of the gal choosing the music for Grey's Anatomy).

"In turn, I am to put in extra time and effort I would NOT have done in the past, i.e. to go through the trouble of logging on and downloading the music then organizing and burning the MP3s to disc, not to mention downloading and/or copying and pasting tracklistings and bio notes and printing all that out - oh, and ALSO in the process, spending my hard-earned 9-to-5 day job dough on blank CDRs, printer paper and printer ink in order to do all the foregoing.

"That is an AWESOME deal you are offering, Ms. Label Publicist! Will you throw in a free ass-kicking if I agree to the deal? Perhaps I could also have the client and his band crash in my guest bedroom, allow them all to perform anal sex on my lovely young bride, and then in the morning fix them breakfast the next time they come through town on tour!"

Needless to say, I didn't even bother to check out the link when it arrived in email as promised. Instead, I just went down the list of new titles that some of my editors had indicated they were interested in having reviewed, and I finally found a few artists who were in fact serious about having someone write about and assess their art - seriously.

I'm not the first person to call the record labels on their bullshit, incidentally. Right here on the BLURT magazine website, in a year-end essay regarding recent trends and annoyances in the music biz, contributor Lee Zimmerman listed his pet peeve:

"The continuing offering of streams and downloads to writers and reviewers... They may be a financially effective way of sharing new releases, but it's also a cumbersome waste of time for the reviewer who is churning out reviews every day and seeking only a disc in return. Publicists and labels, wake up! We are rarely paid for our efforts and usually doing what we are doing in addition to the full time day job which pays the bills. In other words, we're doing it for the love! Not to seem ungrateful, but really - if we can't get a lousy disc for our efforts, where's the motivation? And you want us to either sit and listen on our computer or take the time to burn and create our own CDs? What?  You want us to do your job for you by firing up our own enthusiasm? It ain't gonna work! Wise up - if you want our support in spreading the word about your clients, send a disc so we can listen at our leisure without the burden of detracting from our deadlines."

Well put, Mr. Zimmerman. Wish I'd said that. Wait, hold on - I bloody well just did.

***

 Johnny Mnemonic is the pseudonym of a "highly-regarded" national writer with, he advises us, over two decades' experience working as a music critic, reporter and editor. We've never met him face-to-face, and he further advises he will be delivering his blogs to us via the "double blind drop-box method," whatever that is, to ensure his anonymity.