Out ‘n' about in the City of Angels with Blurt's roving shutterbug (7-31 - 8/15).

By Scott Dudelson

(above) Frank Stallone - Live @ The Mint (www.themintla.com) -7/31

Dave Mason (of Traffic) - Live @ Valley Cultural Center - 8/1

Keesha Scott - Live @ Saint Rocke (www.saintrocke.com) - 8/2

Kinky Friedman - Live @ Saint Rocke (www.saintrocke.com) - 8/2

Benga - Live @ Hard LA 2010 (www.hardfest.com) - 8/8

Switch (DJ)- Live @ Hard LA 2010 (www.hardfest.com) - 8/8

The Twelves (DJ) - Live @ Hard LA 2010 (www.hardfest.com) - 8/8

Green Velvet & Erol Alkan (DJ) - Live @ Hard LA 2010 (www.hardfest.com) - 8/8

Rebirth Brass Band - Live @ The Mint (www.themintla.com) -8/11

Pearl - Live @ Gibson Amphitheatre - 8/12

Scott Ian (of Anthrax & Pearl) - Live @ Gibson Amphitheatre - 8/12

Meat Loaf - Live @ Gibson Amphitheatre - 8/12

***

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.

Yes, it's another edition of IN SHORT, our monthly cornucopia of stuff --- sometimes music stuff, sometimes not. This month's theme: The Good, the Bad, and the Badass.

1. The Devil's in the Quilt

Introducing "Quiltsrÿche: Heavy Metal Quilts, Made with Hate."



How can I put this on my wedding registry? Seriously. Thanks to Zed Equals Zee for the find.

2. Speechless. More Than a Drummer. Much, Much More.

From the Huffington Post:

Prepare to get your ass handed to you. While we're not sure what that actually means, we guarantee you that this guy is certainly capable of it [...]

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.

"Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence."

- Robert Fripp

We stand on the edge of national metamorphosis armed with hope and lengthy dreams, and the desire to leave the mistakes of the past far, far behind us.  Some wake to a blessed plague of amnesia hoping never to recover the damage that was done. Some keep marching forward feeling the heavy ache of everything they wish to change about themselves and our nation dragging behind them like a long, prolonged shadow. And still others shine above the sun, sparkling like raging cosmonauts, propelled by the strength and power of their pathological optimism.

I tend to slingshot between all 3 of these distinct planets with unruly fortitude. This is where art comes in. It helps me deal with my compulsive randomness, and allows me to abate life's repressions while exploring all possibilities of transformation and growth.

And for this, I am eternally grateful.

When I first began thinking of putting a band together it was out of sheer panic. I was almost homeless, jobless, a sadistic scribbler, my life had no direction, and I was headed negative north with a bullet. To top it off, the energies that had fed my hungry soul through illustration and poetry had all but dried up. I knew, without the magic of creativity, I would surely be lost. And then I rediscovered a band, The Velvet Underground, and was transformed. They were painting pictures on silence. They were writing poetry with sound. Then it hit me.  Whatever I could create in prose, whatever I could lay down on paper in the form of a sketch or rambling tirade would come alive if shaped and remodeled into something hallowed, into song.

Madness? Sure. But I am one of those insatiable heretics that still perceive art as sacred. For me, making music is not recreational. It is a powerful spiritual experience that permeates every atom of my being. Each note that we write, every syllable that slips from my lips, every riff change, bridge, intro, outro, chorus, and interlude is as important to me as transcribing sacred verses was to the prophets of old. Through song, I am attempting to speak with forgotten gods and heroes, to uncover the great mysteries of existence, to seduce a lover, slay a tyrant, write a wrong, or to unravel the hidden places of my being. In doing so, I can explore all of the spiritual, philosophical, sexual, and intellectual freedom that I secretly hunger for.

This is why plankton like Britney, Lindsey, and the rest of the Slack Pack sicken me.  Granted, collectively, they have sold more records worldwide than the number of Mormons in Utah, but that does little to sway my opinion of these swine or their music. These prefabricated plastic mammoths of industry (& their handlers) have learned the Lemming song and know just how to change it so it appears somewhat different on every lazy album that dribbles from their noses.

But I digress.

Music is the fluid in the spine of imagination. Its origin predates written history. Some believe the first songs were imitations of nature. Crude flutes and other wind instruments have been discovered at paleolithic dig sites. The earliest written records of musical expression have been found in India, China, and Mesopotamia. For me, music is the secret language of the soul. It transcends time. Empires may fall, but their art persists. Music is the grand uniter. People from all varieties of background, socioeconomic status, religion, race, sexual orientation can find solidarity in one piece of music. Throughout history, music has been used to strike the emotional chords needed to propagate revolutions, to celebrate victories, commemorate tragedies, motivate, seduce, destroy, and invigorate.

It seems, as a species, we have always needed music.

Many ask me for advice on how to write, how to start a band, how to kill the demon of writers block. I think the simplest and most powerful method is to begin a foundation of immovable principles. One of my literary heros, Charles Bukowski, wrote:

"if you're doing it for the money or fame, don't do it. if you're doing it because you want women in your bed, don't do it....when it is truly time, and if you have been chosen, it will do it by itself and it will keep doing it until you die or it dies in you. there is no other way. and there never was."

It's that time of year again (although I feel as though I'm still recovering from March)... prepping for SXSW 2011. And again, I'm asking for your help. Voting takes less than 30 seconds and while I realize it's a minor pain in the butt to create an account and sign in, I'm asking you to do just that. Your thumbs up = mega bragging rights for yours truly, and hopefully, increased client base, fingers crossed. After all, we've got a wedding to pay for around here!

Click HERE to vote.

I'm truly counting on you guys. Thank you from the bottom of my rock 'n roll heart,

--- Kate [...]

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.

By Carl Hanni

Digging in Tucson Pt. 2

Here are some more recent finds from crate, yard and estate sale digging in Tucson. Again, none of these cost more than a buck, and quite a few were a quarter. All of them play well. 

George Jones, George Jones Sings; Grand Ole Opry's New Star, Mercury/Starday Custom High Fidelity + The Hillbilly Hit Parade Volume 1, Starday Records. I believe these are Jones' first two LPs. Young George looks like an angel in a cowboy hat and sings with glorious, lung clearing abandon.  This is the good, raw, rocking honky tonk of the late 50s before the Nashville music machine fully took over and blanded everything into baby food and laxative.

Sabicas, Flamenco Variations on Three Guitars, Hi Fi Decca Records. The great Spanish Flamenco master triple-tracks himself to terrific effect on 10 Sabicas originals. Adapting various traditional forms into his originals, Sabicas presents a primer on soulful, passionate Flamenco playing. Perfect for seduction, deep thought, soul-searching and falling in love with. 

Bela Babai, Gypsy Love, Columbia Records. Subtitled King of the Gypsy Violin and His Orchestra. Although not gypsy himself, the Hungarian violinist and band leader Bela Babai is still the real deal, a virtuoso who helped keep the sounds of traditional European gypsy music alive during some pretty dark times. A child prodigy on the violin, Babai grew up to be one of the masters of the form, and Gypsy Love is full of his incredibly moving playing.

Nino Rota, Juliet of the Spirits original soundtrack, Lumiere Records, French import. I generally avoid the term, but Juliet of the Spirits is whimsical in the best sense of the term. The Nino Rota/Federico Fellini relationship was one of the most fruitful collaborations between a filmmaker and composer in cinema history, and it's difficult to imagine Fellini's films without Rota's music. Juliet of the Spirits is full of the kind of bittersweet, slightly cockeyed compositions that Rota pioneered decades before Danny Elfman came along and picked the shop clean. 

Dylan Thomas Reading Vol. 1, A Child's Christmas in Wales and Five Poems, Caedmon Records. Spoken word speciality label Caedmon's first recording finds Thomas in an expansive and musical mood. Indeed, the revelation here is the musicality in Thomas' readings, a rhythmic, sing-song cadence that brings the famous short story of the title and 5 of his poems into tight focus. Thomas' peerless diction, precise 4-4 timing and inviting brogue finds the tricky middle ground between the pub and the academy, perfectly animating these much loved and often quoted pieces.  The textured, wood-block print cover is also a classic. 

Red Simpson, Roll, Truck, Roll. Clean-as-new British import copy. A true trucker classic from 1966, and one of the original, genre-defining releases. This helped set the mold for clean, hard, Bakersfield/Buck Owens'-styled trucker music. Includes standards like "Truck Drivin' Man," "Give Me Forty Acres," "Six Days on the Road" and "Nitro Express." Owens co-wrote two numbers with Simpson. 

Truck and Country, Nashville Records. This compilation includes tracks by trucker country stars Red Sovine, the Willis Brothers, Merle Kilgore and others. Includes the classics "Big Wheel" by Ray King and the hot instrumental "Phoenix After Hours" by Glen Campbell. Ok, I'll admit it: what really makes this record is the four cowboy-hatted gals on the front, who look like they were all hired from a model agency specializing in corn-fed, cheerleaderrific all-American girls. The likeliood that they they were probably all Nixon-supporters diminishes their hubba hubba appeal a wee bit, but nothing serious.

Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction, High Priest of Love; 1986, Warp Records 1, British import. Thus is so great I played it thru 5 times right off. You remember Grebo, right? The uniquely British, greasy biker psychedelic/hard rock sub-genre briefly popularized in the mid 80s by...Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction. Like an even-more sex-obsessed Motorhead dosed with vast amounts of psychedelics and booze, Zodiac Mindwarp didn't catch on much here in the States, but had a brief fling w/the British rock press and public back in the day. From the cover: "Stars blazing behind mad eyes, we descended to Earth in a broken Cadillac drawn by swans. We crafted music from the air and scattered it across the teenage frequency. We were born in the fifth dimension. The twilight goddess pays our wages. Tell the government the Love Reaction wants the world." This is, most likely, the devil's music. 

***

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.

Out ‘n' about in the City of Angels with Blurt's roving shutterbug (7/15 - 7-31).

By Scott Dudelson

(above) Laura Marling  - Live @ The El Rey (www.theelrey.com) -7/29

Jeremy Messersmith - Live @ The Mint (www.themintla.com) -7/18

Dead Meadow - Live @ The Spaceland (www.clubspaceland.com) - 7/18

Train  - Live @ The Grammy Museum (www.grammymuseum.org) - 7/20

Ingrid Michaelson - Live @ The Greek Theatre (www.greektheatrela.com) - 7/21

Keane - Live @ The Greek Theatre (www.greektheatrela.com) - 7/21

The Dodos - Live @ The Music Box (www.themusicboxla.com) - 7/25

Imaad Wasif -  Live @ The Music Box (www.themusicboxla.com) - 7/25

New Pornographers (Neko Case) - Live @ The Music Box (www.themusicboxla.com) - 7/25

New Pornographers (AC Newman) - Live @ The Music Box (www.themusicboxla.com) - 7/25

New Pornographers (Dan Bejar) - Live @ The Music Box (www.themusicboxla.com) - 7/25

Sahara Smith - Live @ The Hotel Cafe (www.hotelcafe.com) - 7/27

The Villagers - Live @ The Hotel Cafe (www.hotelcafe.com) - 7/27



Dylan LeBlanc - Live @ The El Rey (www.theelrey.com) -7/29

***

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.

Welcome back to our guest post series, LETTERS FROM THE ROAD, where we invite artists we freak over to takeover. The deal is, they can write whatever they like, only 2 rules: it has to be in the form of a letter, it has to have something to do with music. This week, featuring the musings of Pablo Cubrale, the brains behind Contramano, easily one of our favorite new bands (or at least, new to us). Think Argentine Clash with a whole lot of cello. Weird? Perhaps. But also woooooooooonderful. Like the below.

I mean seriously, how brilliant is this? Buy every record Contramano has ever made.

LETTERS FROM THE ROAD: Pablo Cubrale/Contramano

Dear Lou and Laurie,

Did you ever get my e-mail about the BBQ at home?

Man it was a real Argentine asado! And you were the only ones that didn’t make it. I guess it’s because you don’t read e-mails? Or maybe just my e-mails.

I mean, I understand if you don’t like computers, Lou, but come on, Laurie, I know that you’re pretty good with the knobs…

I really wanted you to come and talk about your song we are playing. That’s right, Small Town. I couldn’t figure out the piano part so I replaced it with the drums. I know, you might think that’s weird but it really works. Trust me. Now the song sounds more like Argentine Punk :). Can’t wait to show you [...]

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.

Column #8: Singularity, Crackdown 2, The Cages: Pro-Style Batting Practice, APB: All Points Bulletin, Sniper: Ghost Warrior

By Aaron Burgess

 Singularity

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC

Developer: Raven Software / Publisher: Activision

ESRB Rating: M

The Cold War may be resigned to history, but in Singularity, developer Raven Software imagines a world where fallout from that era leads to grave consequences today. Set on the quarantined island of Katorga-12-a place where Soviet scientists inadvertently unleashed hell with the discovery of a new element, E99-the game throws time travel, zombie warfare and tongue-in-cheek dystopian drama into a blender and asks you to tear your way out of it.

Though the plot doesn't get much deeper than those few weird points, the action does-quite literally, as you (playing as modern-day soldier Nate Renko) descend into a BioShock-esque environment that covers time, space and other areas where mortals typically tread lightly. Armed with a gizmo, the TMD (Time Manipulation Device), retrieved from the Katorga-12 experiments, you can revert inanimate objects to previous states, solve puzzles strewn throughout the game, and generally jack up the course of history in your favor.

Weaponized, the TMD proves even handier: You can change enemies' physical properties to make them less of a threat, freeze or cause foes to move at a crawl, and catch and throw back objects à la the gravity gun in Half-Life 2. Along the way, you gain powers and weapons that prove even more effective in combat-and, as you near the game's conclusion (complete with three separate endings), you need all the heavy ammo you can get. Alternately, in Singularity's simple-but-fun multiplayer mode, characters from the game (the monster-sized tick being a personal favorite) also become weapons, so if the whole playing-on-the-side-of-good thing becomes too much, you can jump into the claws of a creature for some face-ripping fun.

Rating: 8/10

Crackdown 2

Platform: Xbox 360

Developer: Ruffian Games / Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios

ESRB Rating: M

Second verse, same as the first: At least that's the feeling fans of the 2007 smash Crackdown may have after spending a few hours in the zombie-ravaged, over-the-top world of Crackdown 2. The difference this time is that up to four of you can have the same reaction at once, as Crackdown 2 adds four-player co-op support to what's essentially the same experience of its predecessor. Beyond that, the game's updates-a few new weapons here, some different-colored Agent uniforms there-feel like nothing a little DLC couldn't have provided.

Despite a 10-year stretch (in game time, at least) since the original, Crackdown 2 takes place in a very familiar Pacific City where you, working as a heavily armored Agent of, well, the Agency, spend your time cleaning house: human enemies by day, vicious mutants by night. While combat is simplistic and level-ups again find you chasing orbs like Mario in a mech suit, the open-world game provides a fun, gritty sandbox, full of absurdly powerful weapons and dark corners to explore. Just make like the game's mutants and shut off your brain: With little in the way of story or enhancements to snare your imagination, it's your best chance for making it through this city.

Rating: 7/10

The Cages: Pro-Style Batting Practice

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

Developer: Alpha Unit / Publisher: Konami

ESRB Rating: E

Score one for truth in advertising: Though it's not much to look at, The Cages: Pro-Style Batting Practice delivers exactly the pro-style training experience you'd expect from its name. Using the Wii Remote either with or without the Wii Motion Plus accessory, you step into a virtual batting cage and face off against a pitching machine that makes its real-world counterparts seem positively Stone Age.

You start with the basics, taking swings at fastballs and targeting selected areas of the field to build accuracy. From there, though, you get over 40 challenges' worth of slugger training designed to sharpen everything from your distance to your technique. (Thanks to a multiplayer mode, you can even invite friends over for a game of home run derby.) Switch on the Wii Motion Plus accessory, and things get even more realistic as the game transforms from a simple hitting exercise into a challenge where nuance, stance and timing truly matter. Batter up!

Rating: 8/10

APB: All Points Bulletin

Platforms: PC

Developer: Realtime Worlds / Publisher: Electronic Arts

ESRB Rating: M

Good guys, bad guys-you've seen this formula before. But in the open-world- MMO third-person-shooter APB, the theme's meaning changes depending on which side you choose. Set in the fictional world of San Paro, APB pits two sides of the city-Criminals and Enforcers-against each other, with up to 80 players per side having a seat at the table.

After tricking out your player through an insanely deep customization menu (you can even edit your own vehicles and incidental music), you choose a side and brace yourself as the objectives start to flow. Admittedly, APB gets you off to a rocky start, with lopsided player matching sometimes dumping you into clashes where you can barely get your head around the action, let alone compete against your more seasoned competitors. But as you fine-tune your character through challenges and upgrades, APB's dynamic matching system makes for a much more balanced, and tight, game.

While San Paro itself isn't much to look at, there's a lot of room for action in the city's relatively lean maps-provided, of course, both sides of the law are packing equal muscle. Objectives can end quickly even across the best-prepared teams, so adrenaline junkies will find more replay value than will those looking to get lost in the city. It seems like a minor detail, but when you consider that APB comes with just 50 hours of play (with more available for purchase), you'll want to note it before you plunk down for a copy. Then again, depending on how far APB can expand, it might be worth it just to buy in, hang out and wait.

Rating: 7/10

Sniper: Ghost Warrior

Platforms: Xbox 360, PC

Publisher: City Interactive

ESRB Rating: M

Playing as a sniper in first-person shooters can significantly up the tension and drama of your game (not to mention its ability to strengthen your trigger finger), so the idea of playing Sniper: Ghost Warrior exclusively in the sniper role sounds appealing. In practice, however, the game is a different experience, even though most of the headaches aren't on your end of the sight. Erratic AI, frustrating levels plagued by invisible walls, and a plot (something about cleaning up a banana republic) with more holes than your last kill are all problems-and unfortunately, your sniper rifle won't take care of any of them.

Difficulty varies based on your challenge and settings-sometimes you'll be tasked with taking out multiple enemies in way-too-rapid succession; other times you'll be focused on a single kill, literally trying to hold your breath to keep from going off-target. This ballistics realism, however, can be dialed back to match your skill level-and if you're up for the challenge, it makes the game's "Bullet Cam" money shots that much rewarding. Unfortunately, even a stellar killing experience can't make up for the AI that makes your enemies as erratic as your allies are useless. Best just to turn to the game's more forgiving (and fun) multiplayer mode, where you can at least share the frustration with real people.

Rating: 6/10

***

Our game guru, Aaron Burgess, lives digitally but dreams in analog down in Round Rock, Texas. Contact him at first2letters@gmail.com  / AIM: First2Letters

  "Read" piece in Gowanus Broklyn - 1 block from my studio - by graffiti artist Read, aka The booker, aka Bookman

Read's socially conscious art slowly being overwhelmed by "criminal" art, as I call it

I've always related to crime more than rebellion - in the art and iconography sense. This is not really uncommon - like the Jesse James or Sopranos fetish. I also came from a 1980-ish high art concept, that relevant art had to be taboo. It had to be illegal in a sense - illegal in terms of civic law, like the street graffiti that I wrote, or morally illegal like the Richard Kern or Nick Zedd Cinema of Transgression.

I did say "high art". "Illegal" art as I'm calling it, can be, or better still can become high art. But my premise here is that movements start low, not just artistically, but morally and even politically. I'm tossing "political" into the moral pot, because no matter how violent or seemingly taboo, when it's political, it's justifiable to a higher purpose - just how at many extreme and violent demonstrations, the moral purpose becomes a powerful vehicle for the base violent instinct. It would be hard to imagine the same scale of destruction at the 1999 WTO demonstrations in Seattle, if the same action were conceived as crime for it's own self-satisfying sake. But honestly, it's indifferentiated anti-social confrontation, and only that, that ever got me out of bed as a young self-described anarchist.

My 1st-hand experiences in budding artistic/social movements are graffiti, Punk Rock and Hip Hop. I was somewhat "about town" in New York City in the late 70's and early 80's.

I know that aside from purely political graffiti, the first throws of graffiti were "base": self aggrandizement - "getting up", with no possible defense of  "social consciousness". Graffiti was as if the signature, normally at the bottom of piece of art, is all that really mattered - blown up to a gigantic size - glorified in color and executed with skill and with the risk of arrest. Showing off basically. But progressively this took on merit. And It could be justified. It was no longer fucking up public property for it's own sake. Late 70's graffiti rarely included any ostensibly important message.

Above is a photo of a recent street piece by Read (aka The Booker, aka Bookman) in Gowanus Brooklyn. This is an example of what graffiti has evolved into, not just for art galleries, but art that includes a social message. This is not the original context of hip graffiti. Bookman also does massive Open Your Eyes pieces on the sides of buildings. [I enjoy the 2nd photo where Read's rebel art is slowly encroached upon by more "lowly" criminal art]  

How about Punk Rock, or even just Rock, and Hip Hop ?

Many anthropologists have said that the taboo speech found in all cultures, finds it's only socially  acceptable venue in poetry or music - at least somewhat. Basically, if you want to fuck someone's brains out, you better put it in rhyme. So that brings us to Punk Rock, and Hip Hop. That's where they started.
THEN came the social consciousness - Bad Brains, The Clash, Public Enemy. Somehow early punks and rappers did seem a bit more dangerous. And they suddenly seem more responsible when they appear to care about humanity, when they take the "high" road in culture or politics

My final tangent: for those who support public funding for the arts - does that include the expression of the lowliest of the all-important primal expression about nothing more than fucking or breaking into cars?

Find Martin Bisi music and show dates on Myspace: https://www.myspace.com/theendcredits

Highlights of what's been running through the speakers here at OUTLANDOS HQ the last month or so:

1. The Kissaway Trail, Sleep Mountain

Danish outfit, very Death Cab for Cutie. Honestly, the jury is still out but so far, thumbs up; meaning, I didn't reach over to shut it off once through the first listen --- and that's saying something :-). I also did reach over to turn it up a couple of times, most notably for "New Lipstick" and the cover of Neil Young's "Philadelphia." Summary: take a risk.

2. David Chernis, Music for Super 8

Sure, sure... I might be biased. But this is beautiful. The guitar-balls behind the original Damnwells' lineup releases his first solo project, a complete 180. Instrumental. Restrained. Surprising. Eclectic. Enjoy [...]

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.