Legendary drummer is vying for the title of "Hardest Working Man in Showbiz"...

By Blurt Staff

Tony Allen-best known for his work as drummer and musical director for Afrobeat kingpin Fela Kuti-makes his World Circuit/Nonesuch debut with Secret Agent, on April 13. Following its European release earlier this year, Secret Agent has received generous critical praise. The Guardian proclaimed, "There is no question that Tony Allen is a genius, one of the greatest percussionists in the history of popular music," while Observer Music Monthly said, "If you're wondering why Afrobeat is hip, start here."

Allen's been pretty busy of late, having teamed with Jimi Tenor for the album Inspiration Information soon. Go here for details, along with a promo video clip on the project, and here for the BLURT review we recently published.

Together with Fela Kuti, with whom he played for 15 years, Allen co-created Afrobeat-the hard-driving, horns-rich, funk-infused, politically insurrectionary style that became such a dominant force in African music and is now one of Africa's most popular styles among international listeners.

Allen produced Secret Agent, which was recorded with his touring band of musicians from Nigeria, Cameroon, Martinique and France. The music is four-square in the Afrobeat tradition-rhythmic tenor guitar, funky keyboards, call and response vocals, and full-throated horns-with a few twists (including keyboard player and arranger Fixi's accordion on some tracks). Allen's playing meanwhile draws on four different styles-highlife, soul/funk, jazz and traditional Nigerian drumming. At Afrobeat's heart is the beat, even more prominent now than it was in Fela Kuti's legendary Afrika ‘70 band.

Secret Agent is Allen's first solo release since he became a founding member of The Good, The Bad and The Queen (alongside Damon Albarn, Paul Simenon and Simon Tong). This association has helped encourage a recent upsurge of interest in Afrobeat. Over the years Allen has appeared on dozens of albums and his continued relevance in 2009-fans of hip-hop, funk and jazz clamor for his recordings-speaks to the staying power of the Afrobeat music that he helped create in the 1960s.

Chris Cornell tweets the news, somewhat cryptically, of a reunion underway by the grunge granddaddies.

By Fred Mills

Hey, all you laimstains! Ready for the grunge revival? Harboring a lurking suspicion that the recent Target-retailed Pearl Jam album was, like, a seriously harsh realm? It's been some time since you've been swingin' on the flippity-flop in your kickers and wack slacks. How would a Soundgarden reunion sound to you?

It's been 15 years since the release of 1994's mega-selling Superunknown, after which the band split up, in 1997. Aside from a few sorta-but-not-quite one-off deals, including a Matt Cameron-Kim Thayil-Ben Shepherd performance last March in Seattle and Chris Cornell coming onstage at a Pearl Jam gig to do Temple of the Dog's "Hunger Strike," there hasn't been a peep outta the S-garden camp. What there HAS been is the underperforming Audioslave, featuring Cornell fronting ¾ of Rage Against the Machine, in which guitarist Tom Morello barely got out of with his dignity intact; and a string of underwhelming Cornell solo albums, including 2009's Timbaland-produced Scream, which spawned a raft of Cornell-Timbaland-related one-liners as well as more than a few withering Trent Reznor web postings and tweets.

But at exactly 9pm on December 31, Chris Cornell himself, who has over a million Twitter followers, tweeted the following news:

The 12 year break is over & school is back in session. Sign up now. Knights of the Soundtable ride again! www.soundgardenworld.com

There's not much at the Soundgarden site at the moment other than a form where you can sign up to get email updates from the band. Billboard is citing "sources" who advise that "the group is weighing offers from several major U.S. and international festivals. But a tour routing is still a work in progress, due to [drummer Matt] Cameron's prior commitments to play with Pearl Jam in the spring and summer of next year."

Billboard adds that it was at the Pearl Jam show Cornell turned up at that may have sparked the reunion, as Shepherd and Thayil were also present at the show, and the latter two have also been planning to put together a Soundgarden boxed set.

All aboard, ladies and germs, the nostalgia train is boarding. First stop: Pavementville. Score!

As a public service, we reintroduce the Lexicon Of Grunge, so bone up on it if you don't want to be a total cob nobbler.

• bloated, big bag of bloatation - drunk
• bound-and-hagged - staying home on Friday or Saturday night
• cob nobbler - loser
• dish - desirable guy
• fuzz - heavy wool sweaters
• harsh realm - bummer
• kickers - heavy boots
• lamestain - uncool person
• plats - platform shoes
• rock on - a happy goodbye
• score - great
• swingin' on the flippity-flop - hanging out
• tom-tom club - uncool outsiders
• wack slacks - old ripped jeans

Much admired guitarist for one of the original Native American rock band and crossover acts.

By Blurt Staff

Anthony Bellamy, guitarist and singer for the groundbreaking Native American ‘70s rock band Redbone, passed away on Christmas morning in Las Vegas.  The cause of his death was reportedly liver failure. Born Anthony Avila, he was 69.

In a statement, the Native American Music Awards (N.A.M.A.) organization said it was "deeply saddened to learn of the passing. Anthony, or Tony "T-Bone" Bellamy, who attended the 10th Annual Native American Music Awards and was inducted into the N.A.M.A. Hall of Fame with Redbone in 2008, was a Mexican-American Yaqui Indian who became the lead guitarist, pianist and vocalist for Redbone. He was a beloved and endearing friend of the "Nammys" since its inception, and will be greatly missed."

Along with Albuquerque's XIT, which recorded for Motown, Redbone was considered among the first Native American rock bands to achieve any sort of crossover success during the early ‘70s - this was at a time when the image was still strictly one of drums, flutes and dancing. (Thanks a lot, Hollywood.) Redbone formed in 1969 with Bellamy, Pete DePoe and brothers Patrick Vasquez and Lolly Vasquez in Los Angeles, reportedly at the urging of Jimi Hendrix, who convinced them that a Native American rock band might have a shot during the then-thriving countercultural milieu. Indeed, Redbone hit it big in 1974 with the Top 5 song "Come and Get Your Love," from the album Wovoka. The band's self-titled debut LP had been released four years earlier on Epic and they tasted early success with the singles "Maggie" and "The Witch Queen of New Orleans"; to this day, though, "Come and Get Your Love" remains a staple of oldies radio, and the tune has been covered by numerous other artists. The band's music was a compelling hybrid of blues, rock, soul, tribal, Latin and Cajun - a veritable melting pot that reflected the members' mixed-blood ancestry.

Prior to Redbone, Bellamy worked as a musician in the Bay Area, including with Dobie Gray and rock band Peter and The Wolves (the latter would morph into Moby Grape).

Redbone on MySpace (song samples, photos and more):

http://www.myspace.com/redbonemyspace

Just because you can't go on Celebrity Big Brother doesn't mean you couldn't clean houses for a living.

By Fred Mills

How did YOU spend your Christmas holidays? If you were Boy George - who has had what may be charitably described as "a shitty year" - you were busy petitioning a British judge to let you appear on the tenth and final season of Celebrity Big Brother, but to no avail.

Everybody say, "Awwwwww....."

A court had squelched BG's plans to appear on the reality show (which would have paid him some serious dough, something he, er, needs to help pay off legal bills) on the grounds that he is still on probation for assault and false imprisonment - you know, that little deal that went down with the male escort awhile back. According to MTV News "Court officials worried that allowing George to appear on the show would undermine the probation system and would cause people to lose faith in the courts."

BG appealed the ban, suggesting that the court's elaborating, after the fact, upon the terms of his probation were unnecessarily cruel. But a couple of days before Christmas a High Court judge dismissed the appeal.

Britain's The Sun reports, however, that BG is "refusing to let his Celebrity Big Brother dream die - telling fans he still hopes to be part of the show despite a judge banning him from entering the [Big Brother] house.... He hinted to fans on his Twitter page: ‘I still may do something on CBB, I just won't be in it!'"

 Fun fact: Boy George only has 29,000 Twitter followers. By contrast Ashton Kutcher and Britney Spears each have over 4 million while Kim Kardashian and John Mayer each have almost 3 mil. Everybody say once again.... "Awwwwww......."

Massive 10 CD boxed set runs some serious voudo down... see video clip, below.

By A.D. Amorosi

Best known for essaying the indigenous sounds and habits of the rural South and the Appalachians Alan Lomax (1915 - 2002) was a preservationist, curator, and conservationist. Mostly though, as heard throughout the 10 CDs of Alan Lomax in Haiti (Hart Recordings; www.harterecordings.com), he was an ethnomusicological spirit catcher whose revelations captured Afro-Caribbean and African nuances decades before David Byrne and Moby set their samplers to warp speed.

We can now listen in to a pivotal era in Haiti's cultural history, when the country was throwing off U.S. imperialism and embracing both its African roots and the coming influence of jazz and African-American/Afro-Caribbean popular music and dance," states the producer's daughter Anna Lomax Wood in Haiti's formidable books of notes. Like a sonic version of Wade Davis's The Serpent and the Rainbow, these 1936-37 recordings maintain the raw sound of oppression, rage, freedom and sexuality that is the 287 song package. These are politicized meringues, religious mambos, vodou parade tunes and priestly jazz dances. These are private moments captured in tiny clubs, yards, and tribal rituals. They are pop songs.

In reality the entirety of Haiti is one long treasure map with Lomax as the guy with the map and the mic - each worth their weight in gold. It might be hard to get through the box - it's distant and foreign in every way. But like every treasure hunt, the adventure is the key to its wealth.

Juno-winning multi-lingual singer-songwriter also worked with Tindersticks, Patrick Watson and others.

By Fred Mills

Canadian singer-songwriter Lhasa de Sela - known simply as Lhasa to her many fans across the globe - died Jan. 1 at her Montreal home following a 21-month long battle with breast cancer. She was only 37.

She released her latest album, simply titled Lhasa, in 2009 and had continued to work during much of her illness, although her last public performances were in Iceland last May. She was forced to cancel a long international tour scheduled for autumn 2009 and a projected album of the songs of Victor Jara and Violeta Parra was never completed.

In a statement from her manager, David-Etienne Savoie, "She faced [the illness] with courage and determination. Throughout this difficult period, she continued to touch the lives of those around her with her characteristic grace, beauty and humor."

Born in 1972 in Big Indian, NY (in the Catskill mountains) to a Mexican father and American mother, Lhasa moved around for much of her life, eventually settling in Montreal in the early ‘90s. She debuted in 1997 with the Spanish-language La Llorona, which earned her a Juno award for Best Global Album. She toured heavily behind it and was a featured performer on the Lilith Fair festival. 2003 brought The Living Road, and along with the 2009 album she has sold, to date, over a million copies internationally.

In addition to many other awards, Lhasa was named Best Artist of the Americas in 2005 at the BBC's World Music Awards. She also sang with Britain's Tindersticks, France's Arthur H and Montreal's Patrick Watson.

Commented manager Savoie, "It is difficult to describe her unique voice and stage presence, which earned her iconic status in many countries throughout the world, but

some   Journalists have  described it as passionate, sensual, untameable, tender, profound, troubling, enchanting, hypnotic, hushed, powerful, intense, a voice for all time.

"Lhasa had a unique way of communicating with her public.  She dared to open her heart on stage, allowing her audience to experience an intimate connection and communion with her.   She profoundly affected and inspired many people throughout the cities and countries she visited."

Lhasa at MySpace (songs, and more): http://www.myspace.com/lhasadeselamusic

And KCRW-FM's got the details.

By Blurt Staff

Santa Monica's influential public radio station KCRW gets bragging rights this week to be the first to broadcast a stream of Vampire Weekend's sophomore release Contra in its entirety. It's to be part of KCRW's Album Preview series and will be available starting tomorrow, Jan. 5, at www.KCRW.com/albumpreview , through January 18. Also, KCRW's all music, online-only stream Eclectic24 will air the full album on January 11 at 8pm PST. (XL Recordings will release "Contra" on January 12.)

But wait, Weekend fans - there's more. Morning Becomes Eclectic host Jason Bentley will present a special live performance by the band, featuring a horn and a string section  -- next Monday, January 11. If you're in range you can hear it at 89.9 FM or, like most of us, online at KCRW.com. The show should start that morning about 11:15 am PST.

Just in time for you to spend the last of that dough you got for Christmas...

By Fred Mills

Hey kids, tired of buying those favorite albums of yours a third, fourth and in some instances a fifth time when an expanded "deluxe edition" is released containing all the shit you already own plus bonus material and/or an extra disc (or two) containing shit the record label wants to convince you that you need to own?

UMe has a deal for YOU!

The Universal Music Group, along with several of its imprints including Motown, A&M, Island and Geffen, is releasing today, January 5, the somewhat-newly-christened "Rarities Editions" of a slew of much-loved artists that include Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Steve Earle, Motorhead, Gin Blossoms and Weezer.

What, you ask, are these, and do you need to fork over the $11 to $14 per disc it'll take to own them? Well, for starters, you may already own them: if for example you snapped up Steve Earle's Copperhead Road: Deluxe Edition in 2008, the one that contained a second disc of songs not on the original 1988 album, then you don't need Rarities Edition, as it comprises, specifically, Disc 2 of Deluxe Edition. But if you didn't buy that, and you already have Copperhead Road proper, then this disc's for you, bubba!

Likewise with the Gin Blossoms' New Miserable Experience, Weezer's Weezer (aka The Blue Album), Eric B. & Rakim's Paid In Full, Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, Howlin' Wolf's The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions, Rick James' Street Songs, Lynyrd Skynyrd's Street Survivors, Diana Ross' Diana and Motorhead's Ace of Spades.

Those first 10 installments in the series will presumably be followed by many more (Bob Marley and Saint Etienne, for example), because who are we kidding here? Labels' back catalogs are what are keeping them afloat these days. And sure, these are retreads, but unless you're an unreconstructed collector you don't even need to consider buying them. For folks who balked at the cost of the two-disc reissues, this will give them a chance to have all the extra content. And while on occasion the bonus material has been of dubious quality and worth, most of the time (such as with the live concert on the second disc of the Earle set) it holds up.

For a look at the 10 titles along with an interesting forum discussion about the UMe series, go to the Imwan.com board.

Stump the chumps, er, the celebrity panel, and win fabulous prizes! Or at least some snog time with Kitty Carlisle...

By Fred Mills

Now THIS is one of those unusual blasts from the past that makes YouTube a true national (international?) treasure - why they can't monetize that sucker fully yet just boggles the mind.

Over the holidays some enterprising blues fanatic tracked down an episode of TV panel show To Tell the Truth, presumably dating to the mid ‘60s, featuring harmonica legend and bandleader Paul Butterfield as the guest. It's worth watching just for the part at the end when Butterfield gets up and jams with the house band, and the video quality is surprisingly good for its vintage.

The main segment, though, is priceless. For those not familiar with To Tell the Truth - Wikipedia entry here - the format involved a four-person celebrity panel attempting to figure out which of the guests is actually who he/she claims to be. That actual "person" is pledged to answer the panel's questions truthfully, but the impostors are allowed to lie through their teeth. In its initial incarnation the show ran on CBS from 1956 to 1968, later going into syndication and ultimately going through a series of revivals as well. For this episode the panel was made up of what a lot of viewers considered to be the "classic" lineup of Orson Bean, Peggy Cass, Kitty Carlisle (hot, very hot), and Tom Poston (yes, that Tom Poston, later of Newhart fame).

Here, Butterfield (as Number One) along with a college student (Number Two) and a salesman (Number Three) attempt to stump the panel; the salesman doesn't really fool anyone, but the four votes get split evenly between Butterfield and the student, and it's a whale of a lot of fun watching the panelists demonstrate varying degrees of knowledge and ignorance of the blues and the then-contemporary music scene.

Through it all, Butterfield has a kind of semi-bemused look on his face. This is a guy, after all, that has played with the likes of Bob Dylan, Muddy Waters, Mike Bloomfield and Howlin' Wolf. You can practically see the thought bubble over his head going, "Please God, don't let Orson, Peggy, Kitty or Tom hit me up for a backstage pass at tonight's show down at the Café Wha?..."

Fairly uninspired mashup of Nirvana and Gaga making the rounds of the Internet. Meanwhile, what about that "Best of Bootie 2009" mashup album?

By Blurt Staff

We're not quite sure why some bloggers are going ga-ga over the recent Nirvana-Lady Gaga mashup. As you can hear below, DJ Lobsterdust hasn't exactly pushed the envelope with his remake/remodel. For starters, why does everyone feel compelled to use "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in their mashups. And GaGa's "Poker Face" isn't exactly the standout track in her oeuvre.

But hey, anytime a DJ can combine those two hot-button names and get the press (like us) to report on it, it's a guaranteed elevated profile, at least for a short while. Check it out, below.

 Meanwhile, the New York Post recently, er, posted its list of the so-called best mashups of '09. In addition to the Nirvana-Gaga track, some of the fave raves were "I Got More Than A Feeling" by Mad Mix Mustang (Boston and the Black Eyed Peas), "Chasing Cars That Way" by Dan Mel & Marc Johnce (Backstreet Boys and Snow Patrol), a positively inspired "My Life on the Crazy Train Sucks," also by Mel and Johnce (listed as Kelly Clarkson vs. Ozzy Osbourne vs. Pink vs. Daft Punk, no less) and several other Gaga entries, including mashups of her with Human League and Journey. The entire list can be found here, and they've even provided a download link so you can get the entire "album" - titled, somewhat alarmingly, "Best of Bootie 2009," free of charge.

Latest pick of cool emerging artist in our ongoing collaboration with Sonicbids.

By Fred Mills

The BLURT staff put our heads (and ears) together and we have the latest (December 2009) pick for our Blurt/Sonicbids "Best Kept Secret": it's Washington, DC-based the Public Good.

The band was formed a couple of years ago by John Elderkin and Steve Ruppenthal, a songwriting team that had previously garnered national acclaim back in the early ‘90s as members of Chapel Hill's The Popes (a big college radio fave). After the demise of that band Ruppenthal and Elderkin worked together in Stumble, followed by the Lovely Lads, eventually going their own separate ways to pursue work and academic careers.

After they both wound up in DC they resumed the partnership and by the summer of 2009 had released their debut album No. 1. The record's stuffed to the gills with hi-nrg pop, from the Husker Du/Replacements-worthy "F-105" and the irrepressibly jangly, Kinksian "(Imagine the Girlfriends I'd Have) If I Still Had Hair" to the chiming/humming, buoyantly harmonious "Cigarette". Suffice to say that the Public Good lives up to, and in many ways surpasses, the early musical promise demonstrated two decades ago by the mighty Popes.

The lineup:

John Elderkin - guitar, vocals

Steve Ruppenthal - bass, vocals

Sam Esquith - guitar, keyboards

Chris Garges - drums

We'll have an interview with the band posted to the site shortly. Check out the band's MySpace page for song samples, tour dates and more, as well as their official website.  And congratulations to the Public Good. They're one of the, ahem, good ‘uns, trust us.

***

Bands, go to www.sonicbids.com/blurtonline to submit and have us review your materials for feature consideration.

>Our November ‘08 Best Kept Secret: The Handcuffs, from Chicago.

>Our December Best Kept Secret: Black Swan Green, from Brooklyn

>Our January Best Kept Secret: stephaniesÄ­d, from Asheville

>Our March Best Kept Secret: Polly Mackey & the Pleasure Principle, from England

>Our June Best Kept Secret: Wiretree, from Austin

>Our August Best Kept Secret: Bulletproof Vests, from Memphis

>Our November Best Kept Secret: The Vivs, from Boston

The Latino-rockin' musical polyglots captured in full flight on December 9 at Los Angeles' Nokia Theatre.

By Jose Martinez

Wrapping up its world tour in support of the 2007 release Don't Mess With The Dragon, L.A. favorite sons Ozomatli went out in style with two sold out shows at Nokia Theatre.

Known for its dance-friendly blend of urban-Latino meets hip-hop and salsa, dancehall and cumbia, samba and funk, merengue and comparsa, East L.A. R&B and New Orleans second line, Ozomatli has long followed one key mantra: it will take you around the world by taking you around the City of Angels.

Originally formed to play at local area labor protests 14 years ago, Ozomatli spent some of its early days participating in everything from earthquake prep "hip-hop ghetto plays" at inner-city elementary schools to community activist events, protests, and city fundraisers.

"This band could not have happened anywhere else but L.A.," saxophonist and clarinetist Ulises Bella has said. "Man, the tension of it, the multiculturalism of it. L.A. is like, we're bonded by bridges."

At these Club Nokia shows, Ozomatli brought up past members like rapper Chali 2na, as well as turntablist Cut Chemist, and MC Jabu offering a sense of nostalgia among the good times. Playing a little bit of everything, Ozo delighted its fans that couldn't stop dancing to the band's catchy beats.

Playing in the same location that once sparked a riot during an Ozomatli performance outside the 1999 Democratic National Convention (see related Blurt-online exclusive story), the band even played new songs from its upcoming April release that will mark the band's 15^th anniversary together as an explosive, dynamic force.

From hometown do-gooders to being named U.S. State Department Cultural Ambassadors, Ozomatli proudly wears its heart on its sleeve and relishes in throwing the ultimate house party. Ending the show by performing in the crowd, as is Ozomatli tradition, they are a band of the people ("raza" as Spanish speakers like to say) and play for the people (or "gente").

With a handful of 2010 California dates scheduled (Jan 22 and 23 in Solana Beach near San Diego, and Feb 4 in Agoura Hills outside L.A., and Feb 6 in San Luis Obispo), lookout for the band's upcoming release this spring followed by another world tour no doubt.

Let the good times roll!

It's a rock opera, but don't expect any deaf, dumb and blind pinball players...

By Blurt Staff

The Knife, in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock, are to release the studio version of the opera ‘Tomorrow, In A Year', will be in stores March 9. The album will be released on digital download sites February 2, 2010.

Commissioned by Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma to write the music for their opera based on Charles Darwin and his book ‘On the Origin of the Species', The Knife decided to make this a collaborative process, working with artists Mt. Sims and Planningtorock for the first time, to capture the huge width of the Darwin and evolution theme. They extensively researched Darwin related literature and articles, with Olof attending a field recording workshop in the Amazon to find inspiration and to record sounds.

‘Tomorrow, In A Year' is a unique musical project. Richard Dawkins' gene trees have formed the basis of some of the musical composition, artificial sounds have been mixed with field recordings, with the music inspired by everything from the different stages of a bird learning its melody, to a song based on Darwin's loving letters about his daughter Anne. These are compositions that challenge the conventional conception of opera music.

Pushing the experimental process further still, composer, choreographer, costume designer and set designer worked separately, only coming together 3 and a half months before the first performance of ‘Tomorrow, In A Year' in Copenhagen on the 2nd September 2009. Described as "shifting the position of operartic art in a single leap", further performances of ‘Tomorrow, In A Year' are confirmed to take place in Athens (8-9 Jan), Stockholm (29 Jan-1 Feb), and Munster (5 June), with further dates to be announced.

Olof Dreijer says: "At first it was very difficult as we really didn't know anything about opera.  We'd never been to one. I didn't even know what the word libretto meant. But after some studying, and just getting used to opera's essence of pretentious and dramatic gestures, I found that there is a lot to learn and play with. In fact, our ignorance gave us a positive respectless approach to making opera. It took me about a year to become emotionally moved by an opera singer and now I really do. I really like the basic theatrical values of opera and the easy way it brings forward a narrative. We've approached this before in The Knife but never in such a clear way."


Tracklist:

CD 1
01. Intro
02. Epochs
03. Geology
04. Upheaved
05. Minerals
06. Ebb Tide Explorer
07. Variation of Birds
08. Letter to Henslow
09. Schoal Swarm Orchestra

CD 2
01. Annie's Box
02. Tumult
03. Colouring of Pigeons
04. Seeds
05. Tomorrow in a Year
06. The Height of Summer

Bonus track
07. Annie's Box (alt. vocal)

Kate Bush, Dwight Twilley, Go-Betweens, Bill Fox, Mecromina, Depeche Mode, Soft Pack, Arthur Russell and... the Moody Blues?!? But what about CSN?

By Blurt Staff

Nada Surf bring their trademark sense of harmony and musical craftsmanship to 12 of their favorite songs with their latest release, if i had a hi-fi, their first album of covers. Only a group with their wide-ranging and eclectic taste could bring songs from such artists as Kate Bush, Dwight Twilley and the Go-Betweens together into a coherent, intelligent record. hi-fi also includes some intriguingly obscure numbers like Spanish band Mecromina's "Evolution" and Bill Fox's power-pop "Electrocution."

Although a great deal of thought went into the song selections, the band's intent is not to make an overarching musical statement. Singer-guitarist Matthew Caws says, "We really just wanted to do it organically, whatever we felt like covering in the moment, rather than trying to sum up our influences or something. It's whatever we were excited about in the months before making it. And I think we got to everything we wanted to." The result is both inspired and casual, like a conversation with a friend who shares your taste but also pushes your musical boundaries. A vintage Moody Blues tune, the proto-prog tempo-shifting "Question," shares space with The Soft Pack's blissfully rudimentary "Bright Side," Depeche Mode's grand "Enjoy the Silence," and experimental music icon Arthur Russell's terse but sweet "Janine."

Although the band had just returned from a worldwide tour in support of their 2008 release Lucky, and had looked forward to some time off, if i had a hi-fi mysteriously reenergized them. "The material came together spontaneously," says Caws. "We'd get together and kick ideas around and soon we had an A list, a B list, a C list.... ."  They're particularly proud of the title, which is both a callback to the musical platform of their youth and a palindrome.

if i had a hi-fi was recorded over three weeks in September at Resonate Studios in Austin, TX with long-time collaborator and part-time keyboardist Louie Lino. Fans who attend shows during the spring tour will be able to get their hands on the record before it's in stores, offering true believers the opportunity for a double-first: hearing the songs for the first time and being able to take them home.

The tour begins March 25th with three "Album Shows" in NYC. On consecutive nights, Nada Surf will perform their three most recent albums: Let Go, The Weight Is A Gift, and Lucky in full, along with songs from if i had a hi-fi, fan favorites and b-sides. The band will then continue on to cover both the East and West coasts.

There is a Fan pre-sale for most US shows on Wednesday, January 6^th at 10 am Local Time at http://nadasurf.musictoday.com

Tour Dates:

MARCH

25 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom ("Let Go")

26 - Brooklyn, NY - Bell House ("The Weight is a Gift")

27 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg ("Lucky")

29 - Toronto, ON - Lee's Palace

30 - Montreal, QC - Cabaret du Musee Juste Pour

31 - Northampton, MA - Pearl Street

APRIL

01 - Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church

02 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club

03 - Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club

13 - London, UK - ICA

15 - France - Printemps de Bourges Festival

17 - France - Strasbourg Artefact Festival

18 - Utrecht, Holland - Tivoli De Helling

19 - Brussels, Belgium - Botanique

20 - Cologne, Germany - Gloria

21 - Lausanne, Switzerland - D! Club

23 - Zurich, Switzerland - Abart

24 - Vienna, Austria - WUK

25 - Prague, Czech Republic - Lucerna Music Bar

26 - Berlin, Germany - Lido

27 - Hamburg, Germany - Knust

28 - Paris, France - Trabendo

29 - Madrid, Spain - Joy Eslava

30 - Murcia, Spain - Estrella Levante SOS 4.8 Festival

MAY

01 - Galicia, Spain - Villagarcia de arosa

15 - Longirod, Switzerland - Long'l'rock Festival

24 - Solana Beach, CA - Belly Up Tavern

25 - West Hollywood, CA - Troubadour

27 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall

29 - Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom

Members of the Stooges (but no Iggy), Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers and others will be part of the closing jam session.

By Blurt Staff

To commemorate the one-year anniversary of Ron Asheton's passing, friends, family and fans will gather on Wednesday, January 13 at The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles for the 'Jam For Ron Asheton-A Tribute to the Late Guitarist of The Stooges.'

 Organized by Leanna Asheton, Ron's 18 year-old niece, the evening will feature performances by Clem Burke, Derek Stanton, Circus Boy and Night Horse.  A massive jam session with Scott Asheton, Mike Watt and Steve Mackay of The Stooges, Stephen Perkins (Jane's Addiction), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Jesse Hughes (Eagles of Death Metal) and others will close out the night.

 Tickets for the 'Jam For Ron Asheton' now are available for $20.00 via The Roxy box office or at www.theroxyonsunset.com.  As Ron Asheton was an avid animal lover, proceeds from the evening will go to the Los Angeles Animal Welfare Trust Fund.

Read BLURT's tribute to Ron Asheton, "Making the Marshall Stack Swear," here.

 [Photo Credit: Robert Matheu]

Legendary Hi Records producer oversaw the cream of Memphis soul and many more.

By Fred Mills

It's not just Memphis music buffs who are mourning the news of producer Willie Mitchell's death - the man had a hand in so many classic recordings, you could say he was part of our collective musical DNA.

Or as Bob Mehr of the Memphis Commercial-Appeal writes in his Mitchell obituary today:

They called him "Poppa." In the end, he was exactly that: patriarch to an extended family of musicians, big daddy to a large brood of blood kin and progenitor of a soul sound known the world over.

Mitchell passed away yesterday, January 5, at the age of 81, at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis. In September he'd broken his hip, and then last month he'd also gone into cardiac arrest.

Mitchell had held musical court a Memphis' Royal Studios and, of course, Hi Records, which released Mitchell-produced records by Al Green, Syl Johnson, Ann Peebles and many others. The award-winning producer also worked with Green in 2003 and 2005 when Green made a critically acclaimed comeback with I Can't Stop and Everything's OK.

Over the years he also worked with rock artists including Rod Stewart, Keith Richards, Boz Scaggs and John Mayer.

Read Mehr's full appreciation and career overview of Mitchell here.

"Headphones music in many ways": Shudder to Think savant revisits long-lost solo album from mid/early ‘90s.

By Blurt Staff

One of Craig Wedren's favorite albums, ‘The Spanish Amnesian' - a fully-realized collection of songs directly relating to his more ambient and experimental movie and television music (‘High Art,' ‘Laurel Canyon,' ‘United States of Tara') - was originally planned as a solo release following Shudder To Think's ‘Pony Express Record.'  The album, previously stored on cassette (!), is currently available through iTunes.  

"This was my first collection of homespun weirdness...sound and music for its own sake and on its own terms, with no one and nothing else in mind," says Craig, who recorded the album from 1993-1995 in various closets and bedrooms throughout D.C and New York City with nothing more than a Radio Shack microphone, Akai sampler, toy instruments and, "a Tascam 7-track cassette recorder (the 8th track was busted), now used at the Dischord House." The guitar duet with Nathan Larson ("Schtonk!") was recorded in the basement warehouse of a D.C. hamburger chain then owned by his dad.

"One other thing that I love about this record:  it's scary.  I've always been attracted to unsettling, unique, disorienting art, and that was my goal, conscious and otherwise, for a lot of this material.  That, and it had to be beautiful," adds Wedren.

Craig describes the album as "headphones music in many ways, with whispery bits giving way to big sheets of noise.   Give it a close listen all the way through if you can.  I'm incredibly happy to finally be sharing and airing this record, and I hope you love it."

Wanda Jackson covers Winehouse and Johnny Kidd, while Nashville newcomers the Black Belles look pretty good in hats!

By Blurt Staff

As previously announced, Jack White went into the studio not long ago to produce rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson, and now the fruits of that collaboration are coming to bear. White's grassroots label Third Man Records is set to release Jackson's putting her own distinctive spin on two cover songs, Amy Winehouse's  "You Know I'm No Good" and Johnny Kidd and the Pirates classic rocker "Shakin' All Over." It arrives on vinyl and iTunes Jan. 26.

Concurrently, a single from a new band from Nashville called The Black Belles also is dropping on Third Man. The release captures a modern twist to a sound heavily rooted in the soul and garage rock of the 60's. Discovered by Jack White and brought to Third Man Studios for their first recordings, "What Can I Do" and "Lies" are the band's inaugural release and showcase their unique ability to pay homage to their roots while also pushing their music into new territories.

Intriguingly, seeking out the Belles on the web reveals virtually nothing; their site (TheBlackBelles.com) is under construction, while their MySpace page (MySpace.com/theblackbelles) has no music, info or blog entries - just a cryptic blue and black photo, although we did eventually find this photo of the band that suggests White's track record of working with attractive women will remain unbroken:

Lastly, Third Man Records has unveiled the next package for their subscription service The Vault. In addition to pre-sale tickets, video exclusives, forums, contests, concert footage, direct contact with Third Man bands and more, every three months members receive a physical package from Third Man containing records, releases and novelties that are exclusive and available only to the members of The Vault.

This time around you get a set of three Third Man postcards; a new 7" from the Dead Weather, "No Horse" b/w "Jawbreaker", billed as "an exclusive first listen into the sessions for the new Dead Weather album [and] a rare opportunity for fans to be the first to hear how the new album is progression; and a double LP on colored vinyl compiling all the previous and new Third Man 45s. Details:

http://www.thirdmanrecords.com

http://modlife.com/thevault

Hal Willner, Lou Reed, the Fugs, Sonic Youth and more will pitch in for the legendary, influential musician, author, rabble-rouser and Pentagon-exorciser, so step up yourselves, kids.

By Blurt Staff

Just announced: NOTHING, A BENEFIT FOR TULI KUPFERBERG, to be held Friday, Jan. 22, at St. Anne's Warehouse in NYC. Proceeds from the concert, produced by Hal Willner and featuring The Fugs, John Kruth, Lou Reed, Sonic Youth, Elliott Sharp, Pete Stampfel, John Zorn and others, will go to covering medical expenses for the Fugs co-founder, who suffered two strokes, in April and September, last year that have left him blind and in need of 24-hour care.

The Fugs legend is reportedly "recovering well [and] is able to speak clearly," according to a press release announcing the benefit, but has "overwhelming medical expenses not covered by Medicare or the very modest publishing/royalties income he earns at the age of 86."

Ticketing details are below.

The back story, for those not in the know:

Tuli Kupferberg has been widely celebrated for writing songs such as "Nothing," "Morning Morning," "Carpe Diem," "Kill for Peace," "The Ten Commandments," "When the Mode of the Music Changes" and "CIA Man" (the latter was featured in the Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading. In 1965, he co-founded the Fugs with Ed Sanders; the band released a number of albums now considered classics before breaking up in 1969, and when they re-formed in 1984.

Beginning in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Kupferberg became a leading Beat poet and underground publisher, with periodicals such as Birth, Swing, and the magazine Yeah. His famous 1001 Ways to Beat the Draft was published by Grove Press in 1967; and his 1001 Ways to Make Love was published by Grove in ¹69. He was arrested at the historic Exorcism of the Pentagon in October of 1967. Along with his songs, his poems made him an integral part of the social revolutions of the 1960s and ¹70s. He became a noted political cartoonist beginning around the late 1970s, and has a long running bi-weekly television show on public access in New York City. At the time of his stroke, the Fugs were completing a new album, Be Free, which the band plans to release this year. As he convalesces at his home in New York City, Kupferberg continues to write songs.

Blurt writer Jason Gross interviewed Kupferberg a number of years ago for Perfect Sound Forever - you can read the fascinating conversation here.

His old friend, the author Larry "Ratso" Sloman, offered the following testimonial:

"Tuli Kupferberg was a mentor to all of us who grew up in the ‘60s and sensed there was more to life than shuffling off to Vietnam and, if you returned, getting a job as an accountant and paying off a white picket fenced home in Levitttown. Like a Colossus he bridged the worlds of the literary Beats and the hedonistic hippies and infused his gentile, pacifist worldview into everything he did. His work would make you laugh out loud and cry inside.

"Watching him perform his incredible songs like "Nothing," "Morning Morning," and "Kill for Peace" with The Fugs was a cultural revelation and more mind-altering than any psychedelic. The fact that Tuli continues to make his voice heard, via You Tube, at 86, and after two debilitating strokes, makes him an American treasure and puts all of us who can still feel greatly in his debt."

***

Tickets: proceeds will contribute to Kupferberg¹s medical expenses, are $75 and $125 and are available online at www.stannswarehouse.org and by phone at 718.254.8779 (Tuesday-Saturday, 1:00 P.M.-7:00 P.M.) or 866.811.4111 (extended hours Monday-Friday, 9:00 A.M.-9:00 P.M.; Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 A.M.-6:00 P.M.). Tickets can also be purchased at the St. Ann¹s Warehouse Box Office at 38 Water Street Tuesday‹Saturday, 1:00 P.M.-7:00 P.M.

Much-loved (and -missed) music mag rears its digital head one last time, and in fine style, to boot.

By Ian Mathers

I first started writing for Stylus Magazine (in the fall of ought-three, as we called it in those days) because I liked one of their big lists.  How banal is that? But the list (whatever it was about is lost to the fogbanks of my memory) led me to the publication's website, and reading the site started opening up my idea of what music criticism could and ought to be, and a few years later I somehow finagled a post on the staff there.

To say it changed my life would be an understatement; boasting (if I do say so myself) a murderer's row of writers who have gone on to work everywhere from Pitchfork to LA Weekly to the Village Voice to the New York Times to just about every other music website worth mentioning (including, of course, this one!), Stylus was as much workshop as website.  Every time I get together with fellow alums talk invariably turns at some point to how we'd all rather write for Stylus than anywhere else (and considering most of us have at various points written for money and Stylus was always a labour of love, that's saying something).

Sure, part of the appeal is that the site was a formative place for most of us, but freed from the constraints of having any institutional taste or bias and charged by mastermind/mad genius Todd Burns (now running the fine electronic music website Resident Advisor) with no responsibilities other than to write well, the quality of material at Stylus started strong and only increased. Hell, once Todd told us we were closing the doors circa Hallowe'en 2007, it only spurred us on to try and make the last months the best ones.

If we were known for anything, for better or worse, it was probably for embracing pop back when only sites like Freaky Trigger had taken the plunge, and allowing reader comments on reviews (I miss our trolls a little, sometimes) and probably for being contrarians. But I can honestly say that any given review was always a sincere effort by the writer to tell the truth about what they were hearing, and if that meant some bands had A minuses and D plusses, that we loved some albums everyone else hated or hated some everyone else loved, well, as long as it made for an interesting or edifying read it was going through.

This isn't much of a news story so far, I know, but pardon the nostalgia; I miss that place like crazy (and still keep in contact with a lot of my fellow writers - how many defunct music webzines can say that, eh?). But the reason to be talking about Stylus now (other than urging interested parties to check out the site, now an archive of everything we did) is that after some idle chatter in various corners of the internet most of the old crew got back together for one last hurrah: The Stylus Decade.

Like all critics we can't resist a good list and so over months we painstakingly assembled our favourite 100 singles and albums of the decade we just got through, and all this week those lists and some great essays are being unleashed into the wild, one last time. Stylus isn't coming back; no-one wants to run the risk of tarnishing a legacy we're all pretty proud of.

But these lists were a hell of a lot of fun to do (I can honestly say my blurbs are some of the best writing I've done in a while, and looking at what's up now I'd say that goes for most of us), and a fitting capstone/tribute to a music webzine that, love it or hate it, was always true to itself.

[Ed. note: You're damn right, Ian. Blurt readers, check out The Stylus Decade - it really is top-notch critical writing, and more fun to read than a barrelful of Meltzers, Bangses and Christgaus.]

Today only you can get "special presentation pack"featuring Clash, Rolling Stones, New Order, Bowie, Pink Floyd, Coldplay, etc.

By Blurt Staff

Britain's Royal Mail today unveiled a range of postage stamps that feature album covers that are "as culturally significant as the music they represent." Most notably, the iconic artwork of The Clash's London Calling appears alongside nine other classic covers.

The album sleeve has been the canvas for some of the most imaginative artists in the world,' said Royal Mail's Julietta Edgar.

The titles:

Pink Floyd - Division Bell

Clash - London Calling

Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head

Blur - Parklife

New Order - Power, Corruption and Lies

Rolling Stones - Beggar's Banquet

Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells

Led Zeppelin - IV

Primal Scream - Screamadelica

David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust

The first class stamps are available to buy from 7th January 2010 and are available to both UK & Non-UK customers. A special presentation pack is available, for today only, including a First Day Cover and a set of stamp cards.

Go here to place your order, collector geeks!

"Some of the coldest music you ain't never heard": My Morning Jacket dudes forge new online label: Removador Recordings and Solutions. Print those veggies and auto parts out in the privacy of your own home!

By Blurt Staff

Whether it's collaborating with his band mates, recording guest vocals, or hand-picking opening acts, My Morning Jacket's Yim Yames - that's Jim James to his pals and family - has always radiated a spirit of camaraderie with his fellow musicians.  Now Yames, along with his cousin and collaborator (and former MMJ member) Johnny Quaid, are launching Removador Recordings and Solutions - an online platform to shine a light on some of the musicians that he admires and would like to share with the world.  The label will also help connect the dots between an ever-growing artistic community that Yames is apart of, reflecting his eclectic taste and steadfast passion for music.  Below are the details for Removador's first three releases.

Jan 19 - Cortney Tidwell -"Boys" - Cortney Tidwell blends her boundless imagination and voice to create "Boys."  Her second full-length record, "Boys" leaps triumphantly from style to style, with her voice being the silken thread that holds the album together

www.removador.com/cortney-tidwell

February 16 - The Ravenna Colt - "Slight Spell" - The Ravenna Colt's "Slight Spell" is a debut album bursting with an impassioned and dreamlike sentiment.  The band, which is helmed by former My Morning Jacket guitarist Johnny Quaid, combines its myriad influences into a dark, spacious plane, highlighting its cosmic yet truly American style.

www.removador.com/the-ravenna-colt

March 16 - Follow The Train - "Mercury" - "Mercury" is a nine-song psychedelic journey into musical space.  A potent and volatile mixture that pays tribute to the shoe-gazers of the late 1980's and early 1990's, "Mercury" proves itself to be a compelling attraction to the ears. 

www.removador.com/follow-the-train

***

Here is an official statement from the company:

The Removador Recordings and Solutions web venture will offer

consumers a rich new way of web-based living; specializing in music

purchase, production, and facilitation, as well as problem solving,

sports, rehab, recreation, vacation planning, vaccinations, ghosts,

and social networking.  Coming this fall, Removador will also debut

our much talked about new 3-D printer technology, enabling consumers

to purchase food and auto parts online, and simply print them out in

the comfort of their own home with our new carbon and silicone based

3-D printer.  Imagine ordering a few sprigs of broccoli, or needing a

new carburetor, and being able to print them out in edible 3-D- all in

the comfort of your own home! Anyone who comes to invest in or own a

share of the Removador name will not only find some of the coldest

music they ain't never heard, they will be provided with a richness of

living, and sharply increasing aural dividends for years to come.

Removador Recordings and Solutions- some of the coldest music you

ain't never heard!

BLURT says - boy howdy to that. Especially the part about getting auto parts online and printing them out.

Germs, YaHoWha 13, Electric Prunes, Strawberry Alarm Clock and others among the first proposed signings.

By Fred Mills

The music industry wreckage of the past decade is still smoldering but that isn't stopping some budding entrepreneurs from starting up new record labels. Barely 5 minutes after we posted news of My Morning Jacket's Jim James launching an imprint we learned of Smashing Pumpkins majordomo Billy Corgan going into startup mode as well.

This may seem surprising, but Corgan has been on a tear the past several months in terms of his ability to get into the news - not the least of which was that deal about him and Jessica Simpson  canoodling (news here - potentially NSFW image, though), plus working on a new Pumpkins album and trying to convince folks not to get their flu shots.

At any rate, according to the LA Weekly (thanks for the tip, Pitchfork), Corgan and producer Kerry "Studio Dog" Brown will soon announce the name of their label and have plans to release records "rom the psychedelic garage rock of the 60's and the punk rock insanity of the 70's and 80's to the post-punk Pleiadian power-pop that is now." This will include, the report continues, The Germs, the Electric Prunes, YaHoWa 13, and the Strawberry Alarm Clock.

Brown elaborated in a posting on his blog, which we are reprinting below. Say what you will about Corgan, the young man has some excellent taste in rock ‘n' roll, and we'll be looking forward to hearing the label's output.

***

From Kerry Brown:

Happy New Year.... A quick update on the Pumpkins recordings for Teargarden By Kaleidyscope: We have 5 songs mixed and another song is tracked and ready to be mixed. Song number 2 should be ready for download within the next 2 weeks. I will let you know when we have a solid date.

Billy and I are happy to announce the birth of our record label! The name of the label will be made public soon. (We need to make sure that we have the name rights before we can announce it.)

We are very excited to be collaborating with amazing artists that have made a huge impact on the underground music world... From the psychedelic garage rock of the 60's and the punk rock insanity of the 70's and 80's to the post-punk Pleiadian power-pop that is now.

This year we plan on releasing new songs from the following bands:

Fancy Space People- We are currently in the studio recording 3 songs... These songs are slated to be our first release, also keep an eye open for the upcoming Fancy Space People film.

The Germs - In the very near future we plan on recording two songs that Darby Crash wrote with Pat Smear. "Out of Time" and "Beyond Hurt - Beyond Help" Darby committed suicide and the songs were never recorded. The original line up will be recording these "new" songs: Pat Smear (guitar), Lorna Doom (bass), Don Bolles (drums) and Shane West will be singing.

The Electric Prunes- Get the Visine ready for your third eye! Two new songs are in works with an E.P. to follow.

The Strawberry Alarm Clock- We are in the writing/demo stage right now and hope to be in the studio soon.

YaHoWha 13- Music channeled from the Divine...Looking forward to getting the family back in the studio.

Starchildren- Get ready for something new?

I will be getting back to you soon with more updates on all the sonic goodness. Hope the new year is treating you well.
KB

A whopping 124 tracks of original album cuts plus demos, singles, live versions and Peel sessions makes this punk trifecta one of 2010's  must-own reissue series.

By Blurt Staff

Buzzcocks and Mute will release the original Buzzcocks' albums, Another Music in a Different Kitchen, Love Bites, and A Different Kind of Tension from 1978 and 1979 February 9, 2010.  The reissues will also feature previously unreleased tracks, John Peel sessions, associated singles, demos, backing tracks, and live versions.

Buzzcocks' first album, Another Music in a Different Kitchen, was released almost exactly thirty years ago, and 1978 was an extraordinary year for the group. They released two albums, five singles - with two in the UK top twenty - and toured relentlessly. This new edition of their debut contains the full Another Music in a Different Kitchen album with the relevant John Peel session and another disc of various outtakes and the full live show recorded at the Electric Circus in October 1977: the venue's last night and the moment when Buzzcocks began to go national.

Love Bites' second disc covers the associated singles: "Love You More" and "Promises", and two Peel sessions as well as thirteen demos from summer 1978. As an added bonus, there is the full concert from the Lesser Free Trade Hall in June 1978, an exercise in instant nostalgia filmed by Granada TV under the guidance of Tony Wilson.

The overhauled A Different Kind of Tension, from '79, pulls together all the associated singles - five of them, including Parts 1-3 recorded with Martin Hannett and later collected on an American mini-album - as well as the last track the group recorded in their first incarnation: "I Look Alone". As an added bonus, there is a whole disc of demos from the period, including several hard to find songs like "The Drive System", "Jesus Made Me Feel Guilty", and Paddy Garvey's heart-rending "Run Away From Home". The set is rounded off with four BBC recordings from the period, including an early outing for "Everybody's Happy Nowadays". 

FULL TRACK LISTINGS:

A Different Kind Of Tension

CD 1

1-Paradise

2-Sitting ‘round At Home

3-You Say You Don't Love Me

4-You Know You Can't Help It

5-Mad Mad Judy

6-Raison D'Etre

7-I Don't Know What To Do With My Life

8-Money

9-Hollow Inside

10- A Different Kind Of Tension

11-I Believe

12-Radio Nine

Associated Singles

13-Everybody's Happy Nowadays

14-Why Can't I Touch It

15-Harmony In My Head

16-Something's Gone Wrong Again

CD 2

Associated Singles

1-Are Everything

2-Why She's A Girl From The Chainstore

3-Airwaves Dream

4-Strange Thing

5-What Do You Know?

6-Running Free

7-I Look Alone

Demos

8-You Say You Don't Love Me (Demo)

9-I Don't Know What To Do With My Life (Demo)

10-Harmony In My Head (Demo)*

11-I Don't Know (Demo)

12-Run Away From Home (Demo)

13-The Drive System (Demo)

14-Mad Mad Judy (Demo)*

15-Jesus Made Me Feel Guilty (Demo)

16-Something's Gone Wrong Again (backing track) *

17-You Know You Can't Help It

18-I Believe July 1979 Indigo Arrow-Chronology

BBC Sessions

John Peel Show 18/10/78 TX 23/10/78

19-Everybody's Happy Nowadays

John Peel Show 5/21/79 TX 5/28/79

20-I Don't Know What To Do With My Life

21-Mad Mad Judy

22-Hollow Inside

* previously unreleased

 Another Music In A Different Kitchen

CD 1

1-Fast Cars

2-No Reply

3-You Tear Me Up

4-Get On Our Own

5-Love Battery

6-Sixteen

7-I Don't Mind

8-Fiction Romance

9-Autonomy

10-I Need

11-Moving Away From The Pulsebeat

Associated Singles

12-Orgasm Addict

13-Whatever Happened To...?

14-What Do I Get

15-Oh Shit

BBC Session

John Peel Show 9/7/77 TX 9/19/77

16-Fast Cars (2.15)

17-(Moving Away From The) Pulsebeat (4.40)

18-What Do I Get (2.50)

CD 2

1-Boredom (demo)

2-Fast Cars (demo)

3-No Reply (demo)

4-You Tear Me Up (demo)*

5-Get On Our Own (demo) *

6-Sixteen (demo)

7-I Don't Mind (demo) *

8-Fiction Romance (demo)

9-Autonomy (demo)

10-I Need (demo)

11-Orgasm Addict (demo)*

12-What Do I Get (demo)*

13-Whatever Happened To...? (demo)

14-Oh Shit (demo)

LIVE AT THE ELECTRIC CIRCUS

15-Fast Cars (live)*

16-Fiction Romance (live)*

17-Boredom (live)*

18-Sixteen (live)*

19-You Tear Me Up (live)*

20-Orgasm Addict (live)*

21-Moving Away From The Pulsebeat (live)*

22-Love Battery*

23-Time's Up

*previously unreleased

 Love Bites

CD 1

1-Real World

2-Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't‘ve)

3-Operators Manual

4-Nostalgia

5-Just Lust

6-Sixteen Again

7-Walking Distance

8-Love is Lies

9-Nothing Left

10-E.S.P.

11-Late For The Train

Associated singles

12-Love You More

13-Noise Annoys

14-Promises

15-Lipstick

BBC Sessions

John Peel Show 4/10/78 TX 4/17/78

16-Noise Annoys (2.55)

17-Walking Distance (2.00)

18-Late For The Train (5.10)

John Peel Show 10/18/78 TX 10/23/78

19-Promises (2.29)

20-Lipstick (2.40)

21-Sixteen Again (3.14)

John Peel Show 5/21/79 TX 5/28/79

22- E.S.P.

CD 2

1-Love Is Life (Lies) (demo)*

2-Just Lust (demo)

3-Operatoros Manual (demo)*

4-Ever Fallen In Love (demo)*

5-Nothing Left (demo)*

6-Sixteen Again (demo)*

7-Raison D'etre (demo)*

8-Real World *

9-Nostalgia (demo)*

10-E.S.P (demo)

11-Lipstick (demo)

12-Children (Promises) (demo)

13-Mother Of Turds (demo)

LIVE AT LESSER FREE TRADE HALL 7/21/1978 (previously unreleased)

14-Breakdown*

15-What Do I Get*

16-I Don't Mind*

17-Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't ‘ve)*

18-Noise Annoys*

19-Nothing Left*

20-Get On Our Own*

21-Love You More*

22-Fiction Romance*

23-Autonomy*

*previously unreleased

Intriguing promotion for new album, due on Jan. 26,  will be followed by extensive spring tour.

By Blurt Staff

A missive from Citay:

We've all done it. Over a few drinks, or a few records, among close friends, we've conspired to create the ultimate "best of" list, arguing over the greatest guitarist, the sickest solo, the most epic song, or the sweetest vocals. Cliché or not, it is a conversation we've all had.

Well, Citay is no different. Citay not only rounds up some of the finest musicians in San Francisco to fill their ranks, but are also huge music fans, and great students of rock history. Thus, when it came time to pick a name for their new album they picked Dream Get Together which alludes to the concept of an ideal musical pairing, or the ultimate joining of musical forces.

We were inspired by this and decided it was time to ask some of our friends in the music community what their "dream get together" would be. The response has been wonderful with contributions from Jens Lekman, The Antlers, Suckers, Steve McBean of Black Mountain and Pink Mountaintops, Nicole Atkins, Bishop Allen, Akron/Family, Excepter, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Foreign Born, tUnE-YarDs, Parts & Labor, Welcome Wagon, and more. We'll be unraveling one "Dream Get Together" on Citay's website every day from here on through the release of Citay's new album by the same name on January 26. You can stay up-to-date on this project either by checking back daily on Citay's website, or by following Dead Oceans on Twitter. Both are linked below.

Citay's Website

Dead Oceans Twitter

We kick off the project with a "dream get together" from Merrill Garbus of tUnE-YarDs:

Dream Get Together #1:

Hildegard von Bingen, Lhasa, and Patsy Cline come down from heaven.  They choose a glorious chapel with sunlight streaming in and we sing for hours, a cappella style. Meanwhile Charlie Chaplin does stunts with the Catholic paraphenalia (wafers, candlesticks, crosses.)  Rokia Traore comes in to sing and play guitar, Barrington Levy calls from outside--he's brought the Barrett brothers as rhythm section.  Fela brings his sax.  We dance. - MERRILL GARBUS, tUnE-YarDs

We are also happy to release "Mirror Kisses" the second MP3 from Citay's new album. Featuring tUnE-YarDs' Merrill Garbus guesting on lead vocals, "Mirror Kisses" was written specifically with her elastic singing voice in mind. 

 Citay "Mirror Kisses"

TOUR DATES:

1/28/10 Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex w/ The Fruit Bats

1/29/10 San Francisco, CA @ Slim's w/ The Fruit Bats

2/26/10 San Luis Obipso, CA @ SLO Art Center

2/27/10 Brookdale, CA @ Brookdale Lodge

3/24/10 Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive

3/25/10 Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room

3/26/10 Chicago, IL @ Schuba's

3/27/10 Bloomington, IN @ The Bishop

3/28/10 Newport, KY @ Southgate House

3/29/10 Pittsburgh, PA @ The Nerve

3/30/10 Ithaca, NY @ Wildfire Refuge

4/02/10 Brooklyn, NY @ Knitting Factory w/ Oakley Hall

4/06/10 Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506

4/07/10 Knoxville, TN @ Pilot Light

4/08/10 Birmingham, AL @ The Bottletree

4/10/10 Austin, TX @ Mohawk

Raw power, rhythmic swagger, moaning soalfulness and melodic command - all right, then!

By Fred Mills

May 4 is a ways off, but that's the date Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings will release I Learned the Hard Way, their fourth full-length on Brooklyn's independent Daptone Records. It was produced by Bosco Mann and recorded on an Ampex eight-track tape machine by Gabriel Roth in Daptone Records' House of Soul studios.

According to the label:

The record drips with a warmth and spontaneity rarely found since the golden days of Muscle Shoals and Stax. Sharon's raw power, rhythmic swagger, moaning soulfulness, and melodic command set her firmly alongside Tina Turner, James Brown, Mavis Staples, and Aretha as a fixture in the canon of soul music. From the lush Philly-Soul fanfare that ushers in "The Game Gets Old" at the top of the record, to the stripped down Sam Cooke-style "Mama Don't Like My Man" at the tail, the Dap-Kings dance seamlessly through both the most crafted and simple arrangements with subtlety and discipline.  

And anyone who's ever seen the band perform can testify that all the forgoing is dead-on accurate. From 2002's Dap-Dippin' with the Dap-Kings and 2005's Naturally to the group's last album, 2007's 100 Days, 100Nights, they've consistently delivered the goods on wax, too. Need we add that this will be one of the most hotly anticipated platters of the year around the BLURT penthouse?

Track Listing:

1.     The Game Gets Old

2.     I Learned The Hard Way

3.     Better Things

4.     Give It Back

5.     Money

6.     The Reason

7.     Window Shopping

8.     She Ain't A Child No More

9.     I'll Still Be True

10.  Without A Heart

11.  If You Call

12.  Mama Don't Like My Man

More cerebral bounce to the ounce than a barrelful of Tim Learys. Meanwhile, check out the zombie video below.

By Blurt Staff

American's greatest roving band of psychedelic lunatics the Brian Jonestown Massacre is back and set to release their tenth studio album, Who Killed Sgt. Pepper? on February 23^rd. The 13-track album was recorded throughout 2009 in Iceland and Berlin and features (speaking of psychedelia) Spaceman 3 legend Will Carruthers on bass, vocalist Unnur Andrea Einarsdottir and others pitching in to bring frontman Anton Newcombe's singularly unhinged vision to fruition.

Who, indeed, killed the good Sergeant? Only their hairdressers know for sure, but we're advised that this will feature "textures not previously heard on a BJM album... the band's most multi-cultured release to date -- featuring ambient Bhangra beats and gypsy influences of Eastern Europe music - while retaining much of the trademark style that The Brian Jonestown Massacre has honed since their inception in 1994."

Newcombe's own label, "a recordings LTD", distributed though Red Eye, will release the record.

The album also marks the return of guitarist/vocalist Matt Hollywood, an original member/co-founder of the band who helped write some of the BJM's classic material from their early albums (Strung Out In Heaven, Their Satanic Majesties Second Request, Take It From The Man, Spacegirl & Other Oddities, Give It Back) as well as penning the infamous dig at the Dandy Warhols, "Not If You Were The Last Dandy on Earth". Tour dates in support of the release will be announced soon.

Tracklisting:

Tempo 116.7 (Reaching For Dangerous Levels Of Sobriety)

Tunger Hnifur

Lets Go Fucking Mental

White Music

This Is The First Of Your Last Warning (Icelandic)

This Is The One Thing We Did Not Want To Have Happen

The One

Someplace Else Unknown

Dekta! Dekta! Dekta!

 Super Fucked

 Our Time

 Feel It

 Felt Tipped Pictures Of Ufos

Meanwhile, you gotta see this BJM video for "Lets Go Fucking Mental," retitled for obvious reasons, "Lego Fucking Mental". It was originally created by TomJoeTwins and Newcombe subsequently added music to it to give it, er, a completely new level of meaning.

Saving the world one record at a time: rock complacency marked for death.

By Fred Mills, Blurt Managing Editor

After Greg Shaw died in 2004, his former wife Suzy Shaw decided it was time to resume work on a project that had been back-burnered for two decades: to assemble a book chronicling her ex-husband's journalistic legacy and resurrecting crucial early writings of some of rock writing's greatest voices-among them, Lester Bangs, whose notorious Troggs screed "James Taylor Marked For Death" originally consumed a whopping 24 pages of Shaw's seminal publication Who Put the Bomp.

WPTB was one of the premiere rock fanzines of the ‘70s, aesthetic sibling to the likes of Crawdaddy!, Fusion and CREEM, and an oasis for kick-out-the-jams-minded fanboys and collectors who had little truck with corporate-hyped swill. Early issues featured the Bangs classic, stories on the Seeds, Flamin' Groovies and the rockabilly revival, and all manner of left-field minutiae (take the 26-point test to learn if you are a "rock and roll trufan"[sic]; point 13 inquires if "you squeezed Robert Plant's lemon"). When punk and new wave dawned, Shaw eagerly dived right in, doing cover stories on the UK punk explosion ("England's Screaming" blared the headline, over an image of a leering Johnny Rotten), power pop, the Ramones, etc., and foreshortening the mag's name to just Bomp!. Regardless of the coverage-Shaw's late-‘60s pre-WPTB zine Mojo-Navigator Rock & Roll News included-there was never any whiff of complacency. This was rock criticism as activism.

In the fall of 2007, Suzy Shaw, along with author/Deviants frontman Mick Farren finally completed the first phase of anthologizing the Greg Shaw oeuvre with the book Bomp!: Saving the World One Record at a Time. For the handsome, hardcover coffee table volume they culled the best features as direct reproductions so one could see exactly what the magazine's pages looked like, right down to the typos, the quirky layouts and the close-ups of Joey Ramone's ripped jeans. The editors also penned fresh essays and added unpublished photos to contextualize Shaw and his magazine as both evolved with the times.

Now Shaw has returned to the Bomp! well with a second volume, Bomp! 2 - Born in the Garage, this time assisted by Mike Stax of Ugly Things zine fame. Elsewhere on the BLURT site today our right Rev. Keith A. Gordon flips through the Bomp! pages and offers his reflections on what the magazine and Greg Shaw represented - "unbridled passion," for starters, something we could use a helluva lot more these days as the print milieu continues its decline and snarky celebrity-centric navel gazing tries to pass for music journalism.

By way of my own tribute, let me add this anecdote. In 1974 Shaw also launched Bomp! Records and along the way he had a hand in the careers of Stiv Bators, Flamin' Groovies, Plimsouls, Warlocks, Black Keys and others. I eagerly snapped up anything that bore the Bomp! imprint. But whether he was writing about music or releasing it, his overriding manifesto was saving the world one record at a time, and that was the type of approach that a lot of us who started our own zines or our own labels back in the ‘70s and ‘80s took too.

I'll never forget the time I wrote Bomp! for back issues and included a note to Shaw telling him that I had started working on a punk fanzine and asking if he had any advice. Boy, did he ever - most significantly, he said that you have to do it because you love the music and not because you want to get rich or famous. (Getting free stuff in the mail, however, he added, was a nice perk.) That's been a guiding principle for me ever since.

Later, around 1984 I devoted an issue of my zine to the world of underground music magazines and the people who published them, and Shaw was one of the first people I contacted. At the end of the interview he reaffirmed all the forgoing, observing, "I don't find much essential difference in producing a magazine or producing an album. It's our shared opinions, expressed through records or writing, that it boils down to."

Of course, we STILL haven't gotten a new album, despite the reunion and word the band has done some subsequent recordings. Early video posted below.

By Jose Martinez

Catalysts of the emerging ‘70s era glam scene, England's Roxy Music influenced an entire generation of musicians. Some devotees that sing the band's praise in this documentary include U2's Bono, Duran Duran's John Taylor, Siouxsie Sioux, Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols, Goldfrapp, and Nile Rogers.

Steve Jones even dares states that he likes them better than The Beatles seeing they were a band of his generation.

One word they all use to describe the daring sound of Roxy Music, the brainchild of fashion conscious performer Bryan Ferry, is "glamour." From first seeing the band on Top of the Pops, a young Paul Hewson (who would eventually become Bono) was struck by the band's provocative look and sound.

Emerging to instant acclaim in 1972, Roxy Music effortlessly mixed a dazzling fusion of musical styles with fashion. This 50-minute documentary (along with nearly 40-minutes of bonus footage) that originally aired on BBC4 in September 2008 tells the story of the band's extraordinary career via new and rare interviews with band members Bryan Ferry, Andy Mackay, Phil Manzanera, Paul Thompson, famed producer Brian Eno, and Eddie Jobson, along with contemporaries and artists inspired by Roxy Music.

Essentially a five-piece band with ever-changing guest bass players, Roxy was recently chronicled on the DVD More Than This: The Story of Roxy Music (Eagle Vision/Eagle Rock Entertainment). It follows the group from its early days with Eno, who was a member for the first two records (funny enough his favorite Roxy Music release is Stranded, the band's third effort).

The documentary examines the group's groundbreaking and influential album covers (works of art that never included band members), as well as the story behind their wonderful cover of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy," to 2001's reunion; 18 years after the band ceased recording and touring.

An art-minded group that covered the gamut of styles and genres, from cutting edge to disco to lush and borderline adult contemporary, Roxy Music still has a legion of fans today that are passionate about the avant-garde sound of tracks like "Re-make/Re-model" and "Virginia Plain" to the simple and elegant sound of "Avalon" from the band's final 1982 studio release.

Latest installment in a tradition that for the past couple of years has featured, the Decemberists, R.E.M., Avett Brothers and others.

By Blurt Staff

 NPR Music announced this morning its plans to present, broadcast and webcast the opening night showcase of this year's SXSW Music & Media Conference, which takes place in Austin (duh) March 17-20. NPR has the mighty Spoon set to headline at Stubbs' amphitheatre on Wednesday, March 17 - and this will be the official kickoff of Spoon's U.S. concert tour in support of its forthcoming album, Transference, which drops next week, on Jan. 19, courtesy Merge. At SXSW, the four-member band will have just returned to its native Austin, following a European tour. The concert at Stubbs will mark the first U.S. performance of material from Spoon's new album.

The other bands on the bill are to be announced shortly.

NPR Music is offering an advance stream of Transference, one week before its release, now through January 18 as part of the "Exclusive First Listen" series. Hear the entire album for free at www.npr.org/firstlisten.

"The music of Spoon has always been an exercise in careful restraint," says NPR Music producer Robin Hilton. "And Transference is the band's tightest, most flawlessly executed album to date."

As with the last couple of years, NPR Music will live webcast and broadcast the entire showcase from Stubbs. The concert will be streamed live, podcast and archived at www.npr.org/sxsw, and will be available for broadcast on NPR Member stations across the country, including live on KUT in Austin.  NPR Music's broadcast and webcast of the concert will be anchored by Bob Boilen, host and creator of All Songs Considered and its Live in Concert series; NPR Music "Monitor Mix" blogger Carrie Brownstein; and David Brown, host of Texas Music Matters on KUT.

NPR Music is also partnering with five NPR Member stations - KUT Austin, WFUV New York, WXPN Philadelphia, KEXP Seattle and The Current from Minnesota Public Radio - to offer extensive coverage of the festival on-air and online.

Tour Dates:

17-Mar  Stubbs                          Austin, TX
18-Mar  Republic                        New Orleans, LA
19-Mar  Workplay Soundstage     Birmingham, AL
20-Mar  Tabernacle                     Atlanta, GA
22-Mar  9:30 Club                      Washington, DC
23-Mar  9:30 Club                      Washington, DC
24-Mar  The National                  Richmond, VA
26-Mar  Radio City Music Hall    New York, NY
27-Mar  House of Blues               Boston, MA, USA
29-Mar  Sound Academy             Toronto, ON
30-Mar  Royal Oak Music TheatreRoyal Oak, MI
1-Apr    Aragon Ballroom           Chicago, IL
2-Apr    First Avenue                  Minneapolis, MN
3-Apr    First Avenue                  Minneapolis, MN
5-Apr    Ogden Theatre               Denver, CO
6-Apr    Ogden Theatre               Denver, CO
7-Apr    In the Venue                  Salt Lake City, UT
9-Apr    Moore Theatre               Seattle, WA
10-Apr  Moore Theatre               Seattle, WA
11-Apr  Orpheum Theatre           Vancouver, BC
13-Apr  Fox Theater                   Oakland, CA
 
*Deerhunter direct support on all dates.
*New Orleans - Royal Oak w/ The Strange Boys
*Chicago - Oakland w/ Micachu & the Shape

[Photo Credit: Autumn DeWilde]

Much-loved indie label decides to resume operations after a ten-year hiatus.

By Blurt Staff

Back at the dawn of time - 2000; ten years in the current music biz climate amounts to an eon - a northeast-based music fanatic named Al Crisafulli decided, with heavy heart, that it was time to fold his micro-indie label Dromedary Records. He'd run it for much of the previous decade, since 1992, issuing well-received titles from the likes of the Mommyheads, cuppa joe, Footstone, Godspeed and others. But the vicissitudes of the industry, and assorted personal and career callings, eventually made it impossible for him to continue.

Intriguingly, though, Dromedary remained very much on Crisafulli's mind, and a year ago, in January of 2009, he started a blog where he proceeded to tell the story of his little label that could (and did) in installments. Wrote Crisafulli in his first entry:

"there are things that happened during the dromedary days that i never really passed along to anyone - things people did, things people said, things that deserve to be out there. 

"there are also people who talk about starting indie labels - like i did - who have no idea what they're doing - like i did.  and there's not really a resource for this (except the mechanic's guide), and there's not really a memoir of this kind of thing documented anywhere.  that i'm aware of, at least.

"so for all these reasons, i've decided to tell the story, bit by bit, online.  while i'm telling the story, i'll also be building out a website for dromedary records.  i'll post mp3s of songs we released, demos we received, songs from our friends.  i'll post scans of album art, photos, and letters i received.  i've got some other surprises i'll throw in as well."

The blog features thoughts, opinions and anecdotes, memories of triumphs and failures, peaks and valleys, complete with a cast of illustrious and colorful music-making characters, some of whom are still around and some who have long since passed from his life, music-making and sadly, the world. And  apparently the response to the blog was significant: Crisafulli has now re-launched the label itself at www.dromedary-records.com.

"Over the past year, writing the blog and seeing the response it's gotten, my passion for doing it has been rekindled," says Crisafulli.  "and even though the music industry has taken a hit over the years, there's still a thriving underground.  So after some prodding from our friends, and some real soul-searching, we're going to get some good old, guitar-based indie rock back out there for people to hear."


To that end, Dromedary intends to start by re-releasing many of the titles it initially released when it was an active label in the ‘90s.  "We'll make them available digitally, so the people who loved the music then can get their hands on it again."  The label also plans to issue other, previously-unreleased material from its heyday, as well as new music from current indie rock artists.

So with that, Dromedary's initial release is a digital copy of NJ's now-defunct power punk luminaries' Footstone's 1994 single, "Wobbles From Side To Side," plus one additional, previously-unreleased track. The recording will be made available for a limited time for free download from the label's site. Dromedary will then follow on February 2 with a digital-only release of Footstone's acclaimed, Lippy CD  (originally released in 1995). The album will be available in all the leading internet retail stores, including iTunes.

And a rare and special treat for those in and around NYC/NJ: on Saturday, February 6th, Maxwell's in Hoboken will play host to a Dromedary relaunch show which will include a reunion set from Footstone, along with sets from The Dark Brothers and a reunited Friends, Romans, Countrymen.

"We're back," the Dromedary blog announces at the most recent post. "I finally decided to get back on the horse.  When I began this blog, re-starting Dromedary was the furthest thing from my mind.  I was looking for closure.  But some doors, they just won't stay closed."

And out here in indie land, a lot of us are happy that they didn't stay closed. Welcome back, Al, and Dromedary.

First shot across the bow of the latest round of Hendrix repackagings reveals Hendrix at a transitional point in 1969 following the release of Electric Ladyland (sleeve pictured above).

By Blurt Staff

Valleys of Neptune is the name of a newly compiled album of 12 fully realized studio recordings, more than 60 minutes of music never commercially available on a Jimi Hendrix album. It's due March 9 from Experience Hendrix and Legacy Records as part of the new Jimi Hendrix Catalog Project, which will involve reissuing (yet again) the guitarist's back catalog in expanded form.

Centered around tracks recorded during a pivotal and turbulent four-month period in 1969, Valleys of Neptune unveils the original Jimi Hendrix Experience's final studio recordings, as the group lays down the foundation for what would have been the follow-up to Electric Ladyland, alongside Hendrix's first sessions with bassist Billy Cox, an old army buddy he'd recruited into his new ensemble.

Valleys of Neptune provides an up-til-now largely unseen view of what Jimi Hendrix was up to musically in the critical period between the release of Electric Ladyland in October 1968 and the 1970 opening of his own Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village, the state of the art facility where he would begin his final project, the ambitious double album First Rays of the New Rising Sun.

Janie Hendrix, CEO of Experience Hendrix LLC, the Hendrix family-owned company entrusted with preserving and protecting the legacy of Jimi Hendrix, noted, "My brother Jimi was at home in the studio. Valleys of Neptune offers deep insight into his mastery of the recording process and demonstrates the fact that he was as unparalleled a recording innovator as he was a guitarist. His brilliance shines  through on every one of these precious tracks."

Valleys of Neptune contains more than 60 minutes of previously unreleased Jimi Hendrix music - see track details below - originally recorded, and newly mixed for this release, by Hendrix's longtime engineer Eddie Kramer, who first worked with the guitarist on Are You Experienced? in 1967.  Valleys of Neptune is produced by Janie Hendrix, John McDermott (who contributes detailed liner notes to the album) and Eddie Kramer.

The title track "Valleys of Neptune" has long been one of the most sought after of any commercially unavailable Jimi Hendrix recording.  The song will be released as a single globally on February 2. nearly forty years after Jimi finished recording the track at New York's Record Plant in May of 1970.

Other highlights on Valleys of Neptune include covers of Elmore James' classic "Bleeding Heart" and Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" as well as premier performances of original Hendrix compositions like "Ships Passing Through The Night," "Lullaby For The Summer" and the original un-dubbed Jimi Hendrix Experience rendition of "Hear My Train A Comin'."   Also included is "Mr. Bad Luck," a Jimi Hendrix Experience track, produced by Chas Chandler during the 1967 Axis: Bold as Love sessions.

***

As part of the opening wave of releases for the Jimi Hendrix Catalog Project, Legacy Recordings will also be releasing new deluxe CD/DVD editions of Are You Experienced?, Axis: Bold As Love, Electric Ladyland, and First Rays of the New Rising Sun, also available on vinyl, on March 9.

Each of the essential titles in the Jimi Hendrix catalog to be reissued on Legacy will feature a bonus DVD featuring newly created documentaries directed by the Grammy award winning Bob Smeaton [Beatles Anthology, Festival Express, Beatles: The Studio Recordings] and featuring interviews with Experience members Noel Redding, Mitch Mitchell, Billy Cox, original producer Chas Chandler and engineer Eddie Kramer.  In addition, Smash Hits, Jimi's original compilation, will be reintroduced. The critically acclaimed Live At Woodstock will be available as a standard DVD as well as a Blu-ray Disc.

Valleys of Neptune tracklisting:

Stone Free

Recorded: Record Plant, New York,  April 7, 9, 14, May 17,1969

Producer: Jimi Hendrix

Vocal, Guitar: Jimi Hendrix

Bass: Billy Cox

Drums: Mitch Mitchell

Backing Vocals: Roger Chapman, Andy Fairweather Low

Valleys Of Neptune

Recorded: Record Plant, New York, September 23, 1969, May 15, 1970

Producer: Jimi Hendrix

Vocal, Guitar: Jimi Hendrix

Drums: Mitch Mitchell

Bass: Billy Cox

Percussion: Juma Sultan

Bleeding Heart   

Recorded: Record Plant, New York, April 24, 1969

Producer: Jimi Hendrix

Vocal, Guitar: Jimi Hendrix

Bass: Billy Cox

Drums: Rocky Isaac

Tambourine: Chris Grimes

Maracas: Al Marks

Hear My Train A Comin'  

Recorded: Record Plant, New York,  April 7, 1969

Producer: Jimi Hendrix

Vocal, Guitar: Jimi Hendrix

Bass: Noel Redding

Drums: Mitch Mitchell

Mr. Bad Luck     

Recorded: Olympic Studios, London, May 5, 1967

Producer: Chas Chandler

Additional bass and drum recording, Air Studios, London, June 5, 1987

Vocal, Guitar: Jimi Hendrix

Bass: Noel Redding

Drums: Mitch Mitchell

Sunshine Of Your Love   

Recorded: Olympic Studios, London, February 16, 1969

Producer: Jimi Hendrix

Guitar: Jimi Hendrix

Bass: Noel Redding

Drums: Mitch Mitchell

Percussion: Rocki Dzidzornu

Lover Man  

Recorded: Olympic Studios, London, February 16, 1969

Producer: Jimi Hendrix

Vocal, Guitar: Jimi Hendrix

Bass: Noel Redding

Drums: Mitch Mitchell

Ships Passing Through The Night

Recorded: Record Plant, New York, April 14, 1969

Producer: Jimi Hendrix

Guitar, Vocals: Jimi Hendrix

Bass: Noel Redding

Drums: Mitch Mitchell

Fire  

Recorded: Olympic Studios, London, February 17, 1969

Producer: Jimi Hendrix

Vocal, Guitar: Jimi Hendrix

Bass, Backing Vocal: Noel Redding

Drums: Mitch Mitchell

Red House  

Recorded: Olympic Studios, London, February 17, 1969

Producer: Jimi Hendrix

Vocal, Guitar: Jimi Hendrix

Bass: Noel Redding

Drums: Mitch Mitchell

Lullaby For The Summer

Recorded: Record Plant, New York, April 7, 1969

Producer: Jimi Hendrix

Mixed By Eddie Kramer

Guitar: Jimi Hendrix

Bass: Noel Redding

Drums: Mitch Mitchell 

Crying Blue Rain    

Recorded: Olympic Studios, London, February 16, 1969

Producer: Jimi Hendrix

Additional bass and drum recording, Air Studios, London, June 5, 1987

Vocal, Guitar: Jimi Hendrix

Percussion: Rocki Dzidzornu

Bass: Noel Redding

Drums: Mitch Mitchell

While it was widely reported that the DC punk rock legends Scream recently reunited for a benefit show at DC's The Black Cat just a few short weeks ago, frontman Pete Stahl also confirmed to BLURT that the band is not only back together (with new rhythm guitarist Clint Walsh joining the all original lineup of vocalist Pete Stahl, guitarist Franz Stahl, bassist Skeeter Thompson and drummer Kent Stax) but plan on remixing their long out of print swansong "No More Censorship" at Dave Grohl's Studio 606. It will be a longtime coming treat for Scream fans (it's the band's only full release on reggae label RAS and has never been reissued) and for Nirvana/Foo Fighters completists who never got a chance to hear Grohl's contribution to the group before moving to Seattle in the early 90s and well, the rest is history.

No word yet on what label will release "No More Censorship".

Star studded event takes place Feb. 16 at Brooklyn Academy of Music.

By Blurt Staff

Details:

February 16, 2010
Gilman Opera House
Brooklyn Academy of Music
30 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn NY 11217
Tickets on sale January 12, 10am
For Tickets: 718-636-4100 or www.BAM.com

Radiohead's Phil Selway, the Police's Stewart Copeland, Pink Floyd's Nick Mason, Snow Patrol's Jonny Quinn, the Corrs' Caroline Corr, Elbow's Richard Jupp, Egyptian musicians Yehia Khalil and Mohamed Mounir, and Ghanaian drummer Mustapha Tettey Addy.

By Blurt Staff

Sudan365.org is a recently-established political action collective comprising "thousands of activists and supporters who are drumming for a brighter future for the people of Sudan," according to the organization's official website.

"Sudan is at a critical moment in its history. On 9 January 2010, Sudanese communities and activists around the world are joining together to call on international leaders to take urgent diplomatic action to prevent an escalation of conflict in Sudan that could lead to massive human rights violations."

In order to draw attention to the cause, the drummers of Radiohead, Pink Floyd, the Police, Elbow, the Corrs and Snow Patrol, along with Egypt's Mohammed Munir, Yehia Khalil and Ghana's Mustaffa Teffey Addy have set out to "beat for peace." You can view the video results below.

According to Britain's Guardian, "The initiative was conceived by Jamie Catto, a founder of One Giant Leap and Faithless. Catto worked with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Save Darfur Coalition to organise drumming events in 15 cities worldwide, including a demonstration in London opposite 10 Downing Street on Saturday.

"‘My personal connection with Sudan is my personal connection with humanity,' Catto told the BBC. ‘[Drums are] something anyone can join in with. Anyone can add a beat to show that everybody feels that making sure horrific atrocities and millions of murders don't kick off again in Sudan.'"

Celebrated Philly band turns to outside producer to craft autobiographical release.

By Blurt Staff

Dr. Dog has inked in an April 6th release of their Anti- Records debut, Shame, Shame. As a band that has traditionally built their spirited albums layer by layer in the undisturbed seclusion of their Philadelphia home studio, Dr. Dog realized that they would need to face the challenge of working in a professional studio and enlist the help of an outside producer (Rob Schnapf) if they were to continue their album-by-album evolutionary growth. The end result, as the label describes the new record, is the band's "most openly autobiographical release to date and peels back the layers of strings and horns of past albums to emphasize the raw immediacy of a tight unit honing their craft."

 Beginning January 27th in Troy NY, Dr. Dog will embark on a 10-week national headlining tour to premiere songs from Shame, Shame. Dates below.

The stylistic reference points of Dr. Dog remain on Shame, Shame but with a darker tone. "It's an album whose themes of doubt, confusion and unanswered questions are soothed by bright harmonies, taut guitar riffs and soaring melodies," says the band. "From beginning to end, Shame, Shame is a record destined to claim its place on the timeless margins, untouched by modern tastes and content to exist on its own terms."

Hey, we are all about timeless margins! Do the dawg, dudes.

Tour Dates:

January 27        Revolution Hall                    Troy, NY  *
January 28        Higher Ground                     Burlington, VT  *
January 29        Lupo's                                  Providence, RI  *
January 30        Westcott Theatre                 Syracuse, NY  *
February 1        Mohawk Place                     Buffalo, NY  *
February 3        The Pike Room                    Pontiac, MI  *
February 4        Turner Hall                           Milwaukee, WI  *
February 5        High Noon Saloon                Madison, WI  *
February 6        The Mill                                 Iowa City, IA  *
February 8        Waiting Room                       Omaha, NE  *
February 9        Rock Island Brewing Co.      Rock Island, IL  *
February 10      Case Western University      Cleveland, OH  *
February 11       Video Saloon                        Bloomington, IN  *
February 12       Newport Music Hall              Columbus, OH  *
February 13       State Theatre                       State College, PA  *
April 14               Lee's Place                           Toronto, ON
April 15             Blind Pig                               Ann Arbor, MI
April 16             Metro                                    Chicago, IL
April 17             Fine Line                               Minneapolis, MN
April 19             Belly Up                                Aspen, CO
April 20             Gothic Theatre                      Denver, CO
April 22             Neuroluz                               Boise, ID
April 23             Wonder Ballroom                  Portland, OR
April 24             Great American Music Hall   San Francisco, CA
April 25            Great American Music Hall    San Francisco, CA  **
April 27             Henry Fonda                          Los Angeles, CA  **
April 29             Santa Fe Brewing Company    Santa Fe, NM  **
April 30             The Loft                                   Dallas, TX  **
May 1               Emo's Outside                         Austin, TX  **
May 2               Warehouse Live Studio           Houston, TX  **
May 3               Majestic                                   Fayetteville, AR  **
May 5               Workplay                                 Birmingham, AL  **
May 6               Cannery Ballroom                   Nashville, TN  **
May 7               Headliners                              Louisville, KY  **
May 11             Paradise                                 Boston, MA  **
May 12             Paradise                                 Boston, MA  **
May 13             Electric Factory                       Philadelphia, PA **
May 14             9:30 Club                                Washington, DC  **
May 15            Terminal 5                               New York, NY  **

* With The Growlers
** With Deertick

Sri Lanka-born rapper/singer takes exception to NYC paper's purported stance on, er, Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, new album incoming.

By Fred Mills

Sometimes a travel feature is just a travel feature, Dr. Freud - but that isn't stopping the mighty M.I.A. from pulling the lens back way beyond its intended context.

In an article published in Sunday's New York Times, M.I.A.'s country of origin, Sri Lanka, is one among "The 31 Places to Go in 2010," tourist/travel-wise. Wrote the Times:

For a quarter century, Sri Lanka seems to have been plagued by misfortune, including a brutal civil war between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil minority. But the conflict finally ended last May, ushering in a more peaceful era for this teardrop-shaped island off India's coast, rich in natural beauty and cultural splendors.

As most folks who have followed M.I.A.'s career know, her father was a political activist for the opposition in Sri Lanka, and she named her debut album after him. Over the past few years she's also gone on record with sundry anti-Sri Lankan government statements.

So with a head full of steam, M.I.A. took to the celebrity tool du jour, Twitter, to voice her indignity at the Times travel piece - repeat, travel piece, and not an op-ed or politically themed article. Among the choice Tweets, accompanied by relevant (and admittedly gruesome) Twitpic images showing dead (presumably murdered) Sri Lankans:

http://twitpic.com/xqb4y - FUCK NEW YORK TIMES! DO YOU THINK YOU NEED TO GO HERE ON VACATION?

http://twitpic.com/xqcrl - HERE IS THE LUSH COASTLINE THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT

http://twitpic.com/xqarp - FUCK NEW YORK TIMES!!! http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/travel/10places.html

Mmm.... overkill. Repeat after me: T.R.A.V.E.L. P.I.E.C.E

Celebrities making asses of themselves isn't anything new, of course, and they do sometimes manage to direct people's attentions in directions they might not otherwise condider. So M.I.A. can comfort herself with the knowledge that even though, journalistically, she's a lightweight, at least with her Twitter screeds she's generated some additional food for thought on what's a pretty slow news day.

Looking forward to that new album, doll - don't worry, we still love ya - which, in a totally unrelated stroke of marketing, was announced just a few days ago and is slated for a summer release!

Sad news today from These Arms Are Snakes, who announced via Facebook (see their statement below) that they're calling it quits.

From The Band:
"It's with a heavy heart we tell you that These Arms Are Snakes is no more. It's been a great run and we'd like to send out a very hearty "Thank You" to everyone that we've worked with or anyone that we've toured with; anyone that lent us a floor, towed our van and/or trailer, lent a van, given us a listen, downloaded our records prior to their coming out, bought our shit, or asked us where our band name came from; everyone who cooked us food, made habanero-infused tequila, had a safety meeting with us, let Steve gyrate all over you, had to live with any of us, made us pay shitloads of money to get off your punk label, got us into LOST, found Steve drunkenly wandering the streets of Tokyo alone, played Madlibs in the van (plural nouns), lost money promoting one of our shows, took Chris to the hospital, put up with our drunken sorry asses, got into a fight with us, etc. etc."

This band could not have been possible without all of you. We sincerely thank you.

Much love,

TAAS

Famed electronic musician-producer (and shoegaze scene celebrant) lines up a who's-who of cutting edge artists and then has his way with ‘em: Asobi Seksu, Mojave 3, Mark Gardener, Rachel Goswell, High Violets, Mahogany and Howling Bells, among others.

By Blurt Staff

Although strictly speaking a remix album, Missing Deadlines sees Ulrich Schnauss adopt the role of a master orchestrator or alchemist, rearranging and restructuring the songs of his contemporaries, as opposed to simply adorning each with throwaway beats-by-numbers. The record is a testament to Schnauss's unique aural vision, showcasing his undeniable grasp of heart-warming, heart-wrenching melody. Schnauss's telltale signature sounds are present in each track - whether it be the ever-oscillating synth patterns, the rich, reverb-laden voices, or the euphoric beats - yet still manage to reemain true to the spirit of the originals.

Says Schnauss, "Essentially what makes me really happy about this album is the fact that it's a selection of the - in my opinion - best mixes from a musical point of view, rather than a compilation of the commercially most successful ones, or the tracks that have the biggest names associated with them. In all cases, the original songs are already great in their own right - which made it really inspiring to work with them."

It's due March 15 from Britain's ever-eclectic Rocket Girl label.

Tracklisting:

1 Howling Bells: Setting Sun

2 A Sunny Day In Glasgow: Ghost In The Graveyard

3 Katharina Franck: Faithful Friend

4 Madrid: Out To Sea

5 Asobi Seksu: Strawberries

6 Dragons: Remembrance

7 Aus: Halo

8 Mahogany: Supervitesse

9 Lunz (Roedelius & Tim Story): Lunz

10 Rachel Goswell: Coastline

11 High Violets: Chinese Letter

12 Mark Gardener: Story Of The Eye

13 I'm Not A Gun: Make Sense And Loose

14 Mojave 3: Bluebird Of Happiness

[Photo Credit: Troy Stains (note the Omnichord)]

On the web: www.myspace.com/ulrichschnauss

Distaff pop/punk-garage rawk summit galore! Check the video, below.

By Blurt Staff

As the story goes, Nikki Corvette - frontwoman for legendary pop/punk combo Nikki & the Corvettes - turned up at a Gore Gore Girls show in Los Angeles and, upon being introduced to Amy Gore by a mutual friend (critic/photog Robert Matheu), hit it off immediately with the other frontwoman. Later, Corvette relocated to her native Detroit for family reasons and she and Gore began to spend time together, spending hours talking about music while hanging out by the record player. 

With members of each woman's bands in different cities, they originally conceived the idea of doing a punk cover band, playing their favorite songs from bands like the Buzzcocks and the Damned. Gorevette was born.

That initial m.o. soon changed, however, when Nikki brought her tune "Lustfully Yours" to the table. Amy began writing songs specifically for Nikki that carry on the ‘Shangri-Las meets Ramones' sound she is famous for while incorporating lyrics rejecting the artificiality of current feminine ideals ("Fake It") and making stand for the hedonistic fun of dancing, cars and staying up all night. They recorded at studios in Ann Arbor in Detroit, tapping the talents of ace producer-engineers Jim Diamond and Pete Bankert, while the great guitarist Deniz Tek from Radio Birdman was on hand for a couple of tracks.

"Rock n' roll, above all else, should be fun," said Gore.

The new tracks are compiled for The Lustfully Yours EP on Strange Girl Recordings, out January 26. Check out the video for "Lustfully Yours" below.

The backstories:

1978 saw the birth of Nikki Corvette's career with the release of the Nikki Corvette and the Convertibles single "Young and Crazy" b/w "Backseat Love" and "Criminal Element". This was all happening in Detroit during the punk rock explosion where Nikki would see herself sharing the stage with The Ramones, Johnny Thunders, The Romantics and many more. By 1980 the band name was changed to Nikki and the Corvettes. They would release their legendary debut album on BOMP! Records, an incredible mixture of 60's style girl group vocals, twangy guitars and teenage pop with plenty of punk rock attitude, with songs about cruisin for boys and fun in the sun. The album and band would influence everyone from The Go-go's (to go for more of a "pop" sound) all the way to The Donnas (see the lyric "I wanna be like Nikki Corvette" from Gimmie My Radio), and around the world to Japan with The 5678's.

Meanwhile, Amy Gore was born in Detroit, Michigan and in 1997 she founded the Gore Gore Girls, the first of a few contemporary all-female garage band. Along with other bands such as The White Stripes, The Dirtbombs, The Detroit Cobras and others, the Gore Gore Girls helped establish the modern American garage rock scene of the 1990s in Detroit. Gore's talents are myriad: she is a ferocious guitarist who has helped bring Gretsch hollowbody guitars their due, a songwriter who distills the perfect pop gem and a studio pro whose unerring ear brought Gorevette to light.

Tracklisting:

1. Nothings Gonna Stop Me*

2. Lustfully Yours

3. Baby Let's Rock

4. Fake It

5. Honey Don't You Know?

6. Brand New Lover*

7. Candy Man

* Featuring Deniz Tek on lead guitar

On the web: http://www.myspace.com/gorevette 

[Photo Credit: http://www.dianaprice.com]

New album followed shortly by a U.S. tour.

By Blurt Staff

Late yesterday Australian label Spunk posted the following news on its website (thanks to Pitchfork for the tip):

Spunk is thrilled to announce the forthcoming Joanna Newsom album ‘Have One On Me', due for release February 19.

This is Joanna's third full length album. Her last record ‘Ys' was a conceptual masterpiece of ethereal harp, lush vocals and expansive, complex orchestrations arranged by Van Dyke Parks, and was recently voted one of the Albums of the Decade by Pitchfork and Mojo Magazine.

‘Have On One Me' is released in Australia via Spunk February 19, and released the rest of the world February 23 on Drag City.

Well that sounds like good news to us! As of yet Drag City hasn't pulled the trigger, news-wise, but it's probably forthcoming. Meanwhile, as previously announced here, Newsom will be wrapping up her tour of Australia, New Zealand and Japan early next month then will kick off a short U.S. trek in mid-March that will include an appearance at the Big Ears festival in Knoxville. Tour dates are here.

[Photo Credit: Paul O'Valle]

Feature film The Sentimental Engine Slayer will premiere Feb. 4 at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. View the freaky trailer below.

By Blurt Staff

While The Sentimental Engine Slayer is not the first venture as a director for the Mars Volta's Omar Rodriguez-Lopez -- he also created two unreleased films, 2001's A Manual Dexterity and 2003's Letters from Dystopia -- it is his first feature released to the public. Made on a relatively small budget using money borrowed from a close friend and Rodriguez Lopez's parents, the cast and crew worked diligently on location in El Paso, TX to bring the project to fruition.

The Sentimental Engine Slayer tells the tale of the overdue coming of age of a 20-something misfit named Barlam (played by Rodriguez-Lopez). Set against the backdrop of drug-addled suburban El Paso sometime in the not-too-distant future, Barlam's awkward transition from boy to man is as much the story of struggling to find one's essence in a world of stereotypes as it is an indictment of the distorted reality of family life in the disengaged 21st Century. For a more detailed plot synopsis, check out the film's IMDB page.

In between his work with the Mars Volta, producing Juliette Lewis and collaborating with the likes of Hans Zimmer, John Frusciante and Erykah Badu, Rodriguez-Lopez also found time to learn the craft of filmmaking, familiarizing himself with the process by way of producing two unreleased films (2001's A Manual Dexterity and 2003's Letters from Dystopia) in lieu of any formal training. The Sentimental Engine Slayer, is the director's debut feature release. Despite a virtually continuous commitment to the process of recording and touring with his various bands, Rodriguez-Lopez has managed to complete two more films since principal production on The Sentimental Engine Slayer wrapped in 2007; El Divino Influjo De Los Secretos (2008) and Boiling Death Request (2009) are both currently in post-production.

Found early this morning in the bed of his Memphis home.

By Fred Mills

Word is getting out that the body of Memphis garage-rock maverick Jay Reatard (real name: Jimmy Lee Lindsey) was discovered in his bed at his Midtown home early this morning, Jan. 13.  The Memphis Commercial Appeal reports that "family and friends" disclosed this information, and that the cause of death has not been announced pending an autopsy and a police investigation. The musician was 29.

Reatard's early label, Goner Records, posted a statement, saying "It is with great sadness that we report the passing of our good friend Jay Reatard. Jay died in his sleep last night. We will pass along information about funeral arrangements when they are made public."

Meanwhile, his most recent label, Matador, also expressed their sorrow in a statement that read "We are devastated by the death of Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr., aka Jay Reatard. Jay was as full of life as anyone we've ever met, and responsible for so many memorable moments as a person and artist. We're honored to have known and worked with him, and we will miss him terribly."

At this point any speculation is questionable, although the obvious thing to note is that Reatard had demonstrated some mildly erratic behavior in the recent past leading up to and following the release of his Matador album Watch Me Fall, so questions of a substance-induced death will certainly be raised. Back in October there was that incident when, following the conclusion of one leg of a fall tour supporting the record, Reatard's band quit on him, leading to some bizarre Twitters and his former bandmembers hooking up with Wavves.

Last month an Austin performance ended on a violent note when a pair of audience members jumped onstage to attack Reatard, although this wasn't specifically of Reatard's doing (although it should be said that he'd been known to deliberately provoke the audience). And then just two days ago there was that so-called beef he was havaing with Jersey band Liquor Store, which he alleged had slashed the tires of his tour van, leading him to post to Twitter, "I will give anyone a hundred bucks per tire that they pop on the band Liquor Store's van! Yes I'm serious." So again, speculation as to Reatard's mental and physical condition prior to his death will no doubt run rampant during this upcoming news cycle.

At any rate, it's a tragic loss of one of our most engaging and stimulating indie rockers. We recently featured an exclusive interview with Reatard in the print edition of BLURT and will be revisiting that tomorrow on the website in tribute to the musician. We'd also like to express our condolences to his family and circle of Memphis friends.

 UPDATE:

Numerous media outlets are now reporting, based on a note originally posted to the web by CMJ, that Reatard's death has been attributed to an overdose. CMJ wrote, "CMJ was told by an undisclosed source close to Reatard that he died of an overdose although according to a Matador Records representative an autopsy has yet to be conducted nor the cause of death determined." However, nothing has been confirmed as of yet.

Soulful icon had continued to perform despite becoming paralyzed from a car accident.

By Fred Mills

Smooth-singing soul superstar Teddy Pendergrass died yesterday, Jan. 13, in the aftermath of colon cancer surgery some 8 months ago followed by what his son said was "a difficult recovery," according to media reports. His son, Teddy Pendergrass II, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the senior Pendergrass died in Philadelphia's Bryn Mawr Hospital.

Pendergrass, originally a drummer, hit the charts in a big way in the ‘70s when he became lead vocalist for Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes ("If You Don't Know Me By Now"), later going on to a hugely successful solo career with hits such as "I Don't Love You Anymore," "Close the Door," "Turn off the Lights" and "Love TKO," many of them penned by the legendary Philly-based songwriting team of Gamble and Huff.

In 1982 he was in a car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down, but though wheelchair-bound he continued to perform. Throughout his career he scores of singles and received 5 Grammy nominations. He also established the Teddy Pendergrass Alliance, an organization that worked with individuals who had spinal cord injuries.

"To all his fans who loved his music, thank you," his son said. "He will live on through his music."

Streaming Reatard's Beck cover at his website.

By Blurt Staff

In the wake of news of Jay Reatard's death, testimonials and words of condolence have been coming forth from the music community - among that community,the Pixies and respected NPR Music commentator Bob Boilen (who posted a Reatard video as Song of the Day).

Also there's Beck, who at his Beck.com website is streaming Reatard's cover of "Gamma Ray".

Originally a song on Beck's Modern Guilt album, this version was cut in 2008 by Reatard at the behest of Beck to be the B-side of his "Gamma Ray" single.

T Bone Burnett-produced record announced last Spring gets shelved by record label and Potter & the Nocturnals turn to a different producer for their latest album.

By Fred Mills

Just announced: Grace Potter and The Nocturnals make their debut appearance at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 28 and 29 performing at the Sundance ASCAP Music Café.  The band will preview select songs from their self-titled album due this spring.

The record will be the band's third album for Hollywood Records and was produced by Mark Batson (Dr. Dre, Dave Matthews Band, Eminem, Alicia Keys, Jay-Z,).

Making it must have come at a cost, however.

Sharp-eyed BLURT readers will recall that it was announced last May that Potter hand been in an L.A. studio with produce T Bone Burnett, going through the band's material for a proposed Fall '09 release. "It's such a huge relief to find a producer of T Bone's caliber we can totally put our trust in," Potter said at the time, "not just because of the records he's made, but because of the person he is. Now it's happening, and we're excited and ready!"

Subsequent to that, Potter sat down for a BLURT interview with contributor Hal Bienstock, telling us the Burnett-produced sessions would tentatively come out on Hollywood under the name Medicine. In the interview - which appears in the latest print issue of BLURT - she enthusiastically described the album as "very different. There's a dark undertone to this one. I tend to be a bright shiny person but there's always a level of heavy heartedness to my songs. With T Bone, it's been captured sonically in ways I never expected. This one has more emotions and is more raw. It's very cinematic. Whenever I listen to these songs I want to write a movie."

She added that Burnett is "the king of cinematic songs. He treats them like they're spiritual experiences. It rattled me at first. Everything is very in the moment. It's the Dylan approach. Learn the song, then go play it."

Potter also elaborated on some of the material: "'That Phone' is a very soul/R&B attitude-y song about a woman refusing to pick up her ex-lover's phone calls. At the beginning of the project, it seemed like a possible hit, so T Bone decided to make it a 7½- minute jungle thing. That was the clincher in terms of what kind of record we were making....  I wrote the song ‘Colors' right before Obama was elected. There were lots of expectations, but also a sense of not knowing. I wanted to capture that moment because I wasn't sure anyone else would. I debuted it at a homecoming show in Vermont and got so choked up that I could barely make it through."

However, the Burlington Free Press is reporting that Hollywood "deemed [the Burnett album] too tame and has put on the shelf for now." Rumors along the lines of the album being "heavy on Grace but light on Nocturnals" have been floating around the media lately too, but neither Potter nor Hollywood has made an official comment on the matter yet. It will be a shame if the Burnett sessions never see the light of day.

At any rate, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals  also unveils the Vermont-based band's new five-piece configuration, in which Potter, lead guitarist Scott Tournet and drummer Matt Burr are joined by new bassist Catherine Popper (Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, Hem) and rhythm guitarist Benny Yurco, who also plays with Tournet and Burr in the GPN side project Blues & Lasers.

"This record is the first time it's really been us - the first time we've all found each other and ourselves," says Potter, in a statement. "The whole thing was fluid and effortless. In my mind, an album shouldn't be self-titled unless it feels that way."

Tour Dates:

Wed. Jan. 20              Norfolk, CT                Infinity Hall

Thurs., Jan. 21            Syracuse, NY              The Westcott Theatre

Fri., Jan. 22                Woodstock, NY          Bearsville Theatre

Thurs., Jan. 28            Park City, UT              Sundance - ASCAP Music Café - 5:20pm

Fri., Jan. 29                Park City, UT              Sundance - ASCAP Music Café - 4pm

Thurs., March 11        North Adams, MA      MASS MoCA

Fri., March 12            Ridgefield, CT            Ridgefield Playhouse

Austin rocker's current road trek through the South intended to wind its way to Lexington, KY, where he'll record a new album, due out in June.

By Fred Mills

BLURT hero Alejandro Escovedo is currently in the middle of a short tour that will bring him to Asheville, NC, showcase venue the Orange Peel tomorrow night, Jan. 15. After that he'll have dates (as listed at his official website) in Virginia Beach, Charlottesville, Knoxville, Birmingham, Memphis and Louisville, then he'll take about three weeks off before resuming his road trek Feb. 11 in Santa Fe.

Escovedo and his band won't be cooling their heels during the break, however: following the Louisville gig they'll scoot over to Lexington, KY, home to St. Claire studios, where Escovedo recorded his last album, 2008's acclaimed Real Animal, with producer Tony Vicsonti.

In an interview published this week in Asheville's Mountain Xpress weekly, Escovedo explaied, "This tour is the beginning of the process of recording a new album... The record, as I see it, is a rock album along the lines of Real Animal only not autobiographical."

The Xpress article adds that "the new material has been developed over the course of Escovedo's residency at the Continental Club in Austin, Texas, where he's been presenting three new songs each week." He's also been unveiling selected tunes in concert on the current tour.

Escovedo's management indicated in an email to BLURT that a projected release date of June has been penciled in for the new album. It's slated to come out on Back Porch/Manhattan but no title has been determined yet.

***

Read our 2008 interview with Escovedo, producer Visconti and Chuck Prophet, who co-wrote the songs on Real Animal with Escovedo: http://blurt-online.com/features/view/105/

More Al:

CD review: http://blurt-online.com/reviews/view/98/
Live review: http://blurt-online.com/concert_reviews/view/39/
Video filmed especially for BLURT: http://blurt-online.com/video/view/62/

[Photo Credit: Todd V. Wolfson]

With frontwoman Regine Chassagne's family roots extending to Haiti, this makes it personal for them. Time to step up and make a donation, folks. It's as simple as that.

By Blurt Staff

A message from the Arcade Fire, posted to their site this morning:

Friends,

Haiti needs your help in her darkest hour.

We just got off the phone with our friends at Partners in Health.

Most of the medical infrastructure in Port-au-Prince is down.

Since Partners in Health's clinics are in situated the surrounding areas and haven't been damaged, they are mobilizing their resources towards the capital, setting-up field hospitals to treat the injured on the ground. Also, Paul Farmer (the founder of PIH) is at the UN and has access to the best information on where to direct the money... so for the moment if you want to help, we suggest sending funds to:

www.pih.org

+

donate.pih.org/page/contribute/haiti_earthquake?source=earthquake&subsource=homepage

Canadian residents with Roger cell phones can text HELP to 1291. 5 $ will be directed to Partners In Health's Haiti emergency fund.

Please be generous as time is of the essence.

love,
Win and Regine

p.s.
these photos convey some of what is going on:

+ www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/01/earthquake_in_haiti.html

Master wax-spinner defends his unalienable right to marry Mozart to Grandmaster Flash; classical music fans storm his compound in response. Free MP3 below.

By Blurt Staff

Turntablist Rob Swift (X-Men/X-ecutioners) is about to drop a boundary-pushing new release, The Architect, due Feb. 23 from Mike Patton's Ipecac label. We're advised the record reflects "his newfound love of classical music... as much in common with Mozart as it does with Grandmaster Flash. 

Wait - didn't we go through this back in the ‘80s already, with disco beats applied to classical music ("Hooked on Classics," "Classics on 45," etc.)?

At any rate, a quick glance at The Architect's track listing, below, reveals that Swift has created a conceptual piece of work.  Though mostly instrumental, the album is not a "concept album" but rather a series of compositions deliberately sequenced to form a greater, unified whole.  On "Principio," the album's lone MC, Breez Evahflowin, breaks it down when he spits "The way it's layed down, don't shuffle this LP / the truth is you'd miss something that's healthy / something like progress, the artform elevated / the next level of turntablism and innovators."

Though only two tracks contain vocals, The Architect is ripe with emotion and abstract narrative.  Orchestral strings and organs mingle with fierce breakbeats and expert scratching. Swift's exploration of manipulating pitch and tempo are executed and organized with the mindset of a virtuosic composer. 

Free MP3: "Rabia - 2^nd Movement"

Tracklisting:

01.    Overture
02.    Introduction
03.    The Architect
04.    Principio
05.    Story Of A Man
06.    Sound The Horn
07.    Prelude To The 1st Movement
08.    Rabia - 1st Movement
09.    Rabia - 2nd Movement
10.    Rabia - 3rd Movement
11.    D.R.E.W.
12.    Intermission
13.    Lower Level - 1st Movement
14.    Lower Level - 2nd Movement
15.    Lower Level - 3rd Movement
16.    Spartacus
17.    Sound The Horn (reprise)
18.    Ultimo

And a fine way to officially kick off the 2010 festival season. Among the performers: Billy Bragg, Dr Dog, The Mountain Goats, Leatherface, Rogue Wave, Delta Spirit, Senses Fail, Anti-Flag, Dead Prez, Kimya Dawson, Samiam, Torche, Strike Anywhere, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Dr. Octagon AKA Kool Keith, Small Brown Bike, Portugal. the Man, Black Sheep, Danielson, Coalesce, Man Man.

By Blurt Staff

The second annual Harvest of Hope Fest (HOH Fest) has announced the initial lineup for their multiple-stage music festival that will take place March 12th - 14th in sunny St. Augustine, FL. The festival serves to raise awareness and provide financial support for the Harvest of Hope Foundation, a charity organization that aids migrant farm workers across the country.

HOH Fest is the first multi-day concert of the 2010 festival season and uniquely different than many other festivals that will be happening this year. Last year, over 17,000 attendees took in over 100 punk, indie-rock, hip-hop, alt-country, folk, and blues bands.

This year's line up showcases a diverse roster once again with national and international acts including Billy Bragg, Dr Dog, The Mountain Goats, Leatherface, Rogue Wave, Delta Spirit, Senses Fail, Anti-Flag, Dead Prez, Kimya Dawson, Samiam, Torche, Strike Anywhere, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Dr. Octagon AKA Kool Keith, Small Brown Bike, Portugal. the Man, Black Sheep, Danielson, Coalesce, Man Man, forgetters (Ex-Jawbreaker/ Against Me!), plus over 150 more artists joining together to raise awareness to the plight of migrant farm workers! Harvest of Hope Fest is the only festival of its kind that has such a large group of musicians donating their time and performances to charity.

Harvest of Hope Fest is located on the 90-acre St. John's County Fairgrounds, just a short distance from historic St. Augustine and its beaches, and is within an easy drive of Daytona Beach, Jacksonville, Orlando, and Gainesville. Ticket information, camping info, etc. at www.harvestofhopefest.com.

Three-day tickets are on sale now and will rise in price as the festival draws closer. From January 14th through February 11th, tickets will be available at the early-bird price of $39.50. From February 12th to March 11th, they will jump to $49.50. Walk-up 3-day tickets will be $60.00. Single day tickets will be available for $25.00/day in advance and $35.00/day weekend of. Three-day camping passes are also now available at $19.50/person. A small number of VIP passes are available at $99.50 per person. The VIP pass includes access to the VIP camping area, a three-day festival pass, and extra goodies to be revealed at a later date.

Proceeds from the charity fundraiser festival will benefit the Harvest of Hope Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides emergency and educational aid to some of the hardest working and often overlooked people keeping our agricultural economy moving - migrant farm workers. Harvest of Hope distributes funds to migrant farm workers and their families to help pay for food, medical services, clothing, rent, educational scholarships, and more. For more information on what Harvest of Hope Foundation does to aid migrant farm workers and how this grass roots foundation gained the support of a vibrant and diverse music community, please visit www.harvestofhope.net.



Confirmed Harvest of Hope Fest 2010 lineup as of 1/14/10:

Billy Bragg, Dr. Dog, The Mountain Goats, Rogue Wave, Delta Spirit, Senses Fail, Anti-Flag, Man Man, Dead Prez, Kimya Dawson, Torche, Strike Anywhere, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Sea Wolf, Dr. Octagon aka Kool Keith, Dead Confederate, A Wilhelm Scream, Portugal. the Man, Samiam, Leatherface, Dead to Me, Fruit Bats, Bear in Heaven, Freelance Whales, Cobra Skulls, Small Brown Bike, Glint, Danielson, Twin Tigers, Black Sheep, Coalesce, Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band, James Husband (of Of Montreal), Signals (ex-The Mae Shi), Ortolan, Mercury Program, Off With Their Heads, The Loved Ones, Past Lives, forgetters (ex-Jawbreaker & Against Me!), Andrew Jackson Jihad, Assholeparade, Defiance Ohio, Chris Wollard & the Ship Thieves, Bomb the Music Industry!, Dear Landlord, Young Livers, David Rovics, The Riot Before, This Bike is a Pipebomb, Des Ark, Ben Davis & The Jett$, Shellshag, Weatherbox, Holopaw, Hawks & Doves, Angelo Spencer, The Blacklist Royals, Lemuria, The Measure [sa], Paul Baribeau, Algernon Cadwallader, Your Heart Breaks, Fin Fang Foom, Yula Beeri, The Future Virgins, Good Luck, The Mezingers, Capsule, Ben + Vesper, Jon Snodgrass, Austin Lucas, Mike Hale, Street Eaters, O Pioneers!, Army of Ponch, Virgins, Gatorface, Protagonist, American Cheeseburger, Savage Brewtality, Brainworms, New Bruises, Tubers, Cory Branan, Look Mexico, Whiskey & Co., Worn in Red, Ninja Gun, Grabass Charlestons, FIYA, Spanish Gamble, Anchor Arms, How Dare You, Slow Claw, Heads Held High, The Casting Out, Low Red Land, The Itchy Hearts, Yardwork, Panthro UK United 13, Mumpsy, The Beauvilles, The Tim Version, Tiltwheel, Dan Padilla, The Future Now, D.P., City of Ships, Only Thunder, Sloane Peterson, Too Many Daves, Pretty Boy Thorson, Lost Hands Found Fingers, Nut Nut, Ornate Escape, and Mike Bernos.

It's simple: Put down the guitars and pull out the credit cards instead.

By Fred Mills

First things first: here's what you CAN do, just in case you don't feel like wading through the op-ed portion of this news item (which I've conveniently included below, following the break). These are reputable, professional organizations with extensive experience in planning and mobilizing humanitarian aid and you can feel secure in donating to them:

The Red Cross

Go to the official site to donate and meanwhile follow them on Twitter for updates on disaster relief progress along with details on their current fundraising. You may have heard that can you make direct $10 donations via your telephone by simply texting haiti to 90999 -  you'll get a reply text telling you to confirm by replying YES, and then there will be a subsequent thank-you confirmation. What's very cool about this is that no fees will be diverted to your cellphone carrier, and to date they've raised about $5 million; this has proven an immensely popular and easy method, needless to say.  It also appears that MasterCard (and hopefully other credit card companies) are waiving their usual transaction processing fees for donations to Haitian Aid Efforts.

AmeriCares

At their official site they indicate they've amassed about $3 million worth of medical aid and have already deployed about $2 million worth of supplies from their Amsterdam warehouse.

Oxfam International

Oxfam International is a confederation of 14 like-minded organizations working together and with partners and allies around the world to bring about lasting change by working directly with the impoverished and victims of injustice, and part of their efforts involve responding to emergencies such as this.

Partners In Health

This is the group that, as we reported yesterday, the Arcade Fire is familiar with and is urging people to send in their donations. According to the Fire's Win Butler, "Partners in Health's clinics are in situated the surrounding areas and haven't been damaged, they are mobilizing their resources towards the capital, setting-up field hospitals to treat the injured on the ground. Also, Paul Farmer (the founder of PIH) is at the UN and has access to the best information on where to direct the money."

UNICEF

The United Nations Children's Fund is one of the longest-running advocacy and relief organization for impoverished kids around the entire globe. According to UNICEF, "Expert estimates suggest that 46 per cent of Haiti's nearly 10 million people are under 18 years of age," so that should tell you something important right there.

Doctors Without Borders

This is an international medical humanitarian group and they've been on the ground from the outset in Haiti, dealing with the massive surgical needs of the earthquake's aftermath. While one might think what the organization needs right now is more doctors, there's a note on their website indicating they aren't equipped to immediately send new volunteers to the country as their thing is to respond swiftly using their immediate, existing pool of medical workers. So obviously what they need from us are donations.

The bottom line is, you can choose one or more of these or any designated organization of your choice, but the important thing is to donate, and now. Click on the links above to access their websites. On to the op-ed...

**********************************

Yesterday I was talking to a couple of musician friends about the Haiti earthquake and one of them said, "We should put together a benefit concert. What do you think?"

No, I replied. Instead, just make a direct donation.

Whenever there's a natural (or even man-inflicted) disaster that calls for humanitarian efforts, the music community instinctively tends to respond, as it has been responding ever since George Harrison organized the concert for Bangladesh, through the Band Aid/Live Aid era, and as recently as 9/11 and Katrina. Benefit concerts, benefit recording projects, etc. are and in many cases should be the norm, and I've been involved in a number of them over the years. What's sometimes lost in the glow of good deed-doing, however, is the lack of immediacy these events and projects have unless they can be mounted on a fairly substantial scale - we're talking bringing in the U2s, the Springsteens, the McCartneys, the larger than life personalities who can get the general public caught up in the spirit of giving.

Today it was announced that George Clooney is getting a telethon together to air on MTV networks, and of course he's got the kind of star wattage that can make a difference. Other celebrities are using their influence to also make a difference.

Most of us are not celebrities however, and while fundraisers on a local level are appropriate precisely on that count, e.g. a tragedy or an issue that has to be addressed locally, by all means, musicians, promoters, clubs, journalists, etc. should get involved. But when there's something like what's happened in Haiti, a local benefit concert can't possibly address the immediate needs in any meaningful way, other than to make the participants feel good about themselves and possibly spur others into more extensive action. In this instance, "think global/act local" isn't sufficient - the scale is just too immense.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not blind to the fact that if it were possible to coordinate hundreds or thousands of local benefits specifically for Haitian relief, a good deal of money might be raised. People tend to get "benefit fatigue," however, and such local efforts generally fall far short of being more than panacea-effective.

So in this situation, what charities such as the Red Cross, Oxfam International, Doctors Without Borders and Partners in Health really need IS. YOUR. DONATION. NOW.

That's right now. Not later, after door receipts from the fundraiser down at the local club are tallied. In fact, if every penny that would otherwise be used on printing, advertising, overhead, gasoline... hell, beer and booze and bar tips, too!... was simply diverted to an individual donation, you'd bring in tons more money for the relief effort.

Does a public show of compassion do any good? Of course it does. And consciousness raising is important too. But seriously, to all of you out there right now trying to think of what you can do, why not just keep things simple: open up your wallet, pull out a credit card or write a check directly to the pertinent relief agencies. Then call or email and otherwise browbeat your friends and neighbors into doing the same thing. Put links out on Twitter and on your Facebook pages. Make people feel guilty they haven't done something.

And obviously, there are local relief agencies getting involved, by all means donate to them whatever they are calling for - money, water, canned food, blankets - because they are professionals and they know how this kind of thing is done. But make a direct donation, and to do it NOW.

Again, none of this is to make musicians and the music community feel like they shouldn't get involved. But it all has to be taken into perspective in terms of what the priorities at hand are, and to be honest right now the people in Haiti don't need your guitars, your songs, your on-stage platitudes, your recording studio efforts, etc. They need food, water and medical care, and that's something only the professionals can do at the moment. Those professionals don't need the guitars ‘n' tunes either - they need your dough.

New rec due in March from London loonies.

By Blurt Staff

Okay hepcats, Archie Bronson Outfit return with a new album, Coconut, on March 23. Coconut is the London based three-piece's first LP in almost four years and their third album for Domino. 2006's Derdang Derdang made our best-of list that year (back when we were known as Harp) so we expect nothing less than greatness this time around.

It's described as "switching between full on deep-end rock and more reflective, beat-driven numbers... a modern psychedelic testament delivering a visceral shot of pleasure."

Hey, we are all about visceral shots of pleasure.

Recording sessions took place in London and Benton Harbour, Michigan, with production from DFA's Tim Goldsworthy (LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture, Hercules & Love Affair).

Tracklisting:

1. Magnetic Warrior
2. Shark's Tooth
3. Hoola
4. Wild Strawberries
5. Chunk
6.1 You Have A Right To A Mountain Life / 6.2 One Up On Yourself
7. Bite It & Believe It
8. Hunt You Down
9. Harness (Bliss)
10. Run Gospel Singer

The band will tour the UK in March followed by North America in May.

Finally getting down to promoting the Curse Your Branches album. A must-see tour.

By Blurt Staff

Ex-Pedron the Lion mainman David Bazan, who released Curse Your Branches this year as his first solo album, has just announced an extensive U.S. tour that kicks off March 4 and runs through mid April. It's sure to be a must-see tour, considering how rabid Bazan's fan base - both in the Christian and the secular music communities - tends to be.

The record is the deepest and most explicit exploration of his struggles with faith and the Evangelical world in which he was raised to date, and a meditation on all things passed between the generations. Since its release Curse Your Branches notched scores of "Best of 2009" nods.

As BLURT put it in our review, "He's voicing the doubts and dichotomies that comprise any thinking person's faith. He's got a knack for ironic wordplay, graceful dirges and understated pop hooks, too, and that's translated into good drama and songs."

Bazan was featured in an in-depth profile in the latest issue of our print magazine, and we'll be publishing the entire, expanded version of that article on the website shortly, so keep your eyes peeled.

DAVID BAZAN ON TOUR:

March:

04 EUGENE, OR - Sam Bond's !@
05 SACRAMENTO, CA - Blue Lamp !@
06 VISALIA, CA - Cellar Door !@
07 SANTA BARBARA, CA - SOhO Restaurant and Music Club !#
08 LONG BEACH, CA - Alex's Bar !@
09 LAS VEGAS, NV - Beauty Bar !@
10 TEMPE, AZ - Sail Inn !@
12 NORMAN, OK - Opolis !@
13 SPRINGFIELD, MO - Gallery Sounds !#
14 ST. LOUIS, MO - Old Rock House !@
15 NEWPORT, KY - Southgate House !#
17 NASHVILLE, TN - Exit In !@
18 ASHEVILLE, NC - Grey Eagle Tavern and Music Hall !#
19 COLUMBIA, SC - New Brookland !@
20 RICHMOND, VA - Alley Katz !$
21 BALTIMORE, MD - Ottobar !#
22 PHILADELPHIA, PA - First Unitarian !#
23 BROOKLYN, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg !$
27 GRANTHAM, PA - Larsen Student Union at Messiah College !@
28 COLUMBUS, OH - Summit !$
29 BLOOMINGTON, IN - Bishop !$
30 GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Ladies Literary Club !#

April:

03 DEKALB, IL - House Café !#
04 MILWAUKEE, WI - Pabst Theater !@
05 ST. PAUL, MN - Turf Club !@
06 FARGO, ND - Aquarium !@
08 MISSOULA, MT - Palace $
09 SPOKANE, WA - Empyrean #
10 BELLINGHAM, WA - WWU Viking Union Multi-Purpose Room #


! with Headlights

@ 21+
# all-ages
$ 18+

Godfather of swamp-pop wrote hits for, and hobnobbed with, the legends, while forging his own distinct musical legacy.

By Blurt Staff

Another classic American voice was silenced this week: Bobby Charles Guidry, known internationally as Bobby Charles, passed away on January 14. He reportedly collapsed at his home in Abbeville, Louisiana, for as-yet-undisclosed reasons, although he had diabetes and had previously suffered from kidney cancer. He was 71.

Charles helped launch the "swamp-pop" movement - the style, geographically identified with south Louisiana and southeast Texas, was characterized by bluesy bass, twitchy guitar, honky tonk piano and, frequently, robust horns. In addition to penning huge hits for other performers (such as "See You Later, Alligator" for Billy Haley; "Walking To New Orleans" for Fats Domino and "(I Don't Know Why I Love You) But I Do" for Clarence "Frogman" Henry), he signed with Chess Records and joined several of that label's package tours - with Chuck Berry, Frankie Lymon and others - as the only white man on the bus.

Charles wound up moving to Woodstock in the early ‘70s where he cut the cult-classic album Bobby Charles with The Band's Rick Danko producing; he subsequently appeared with the Band at the legendary Last Waltz in 1976. In general, though, he shunned the spotlight and was often referred to as reclusive, although his profile was certainly high enough to merit induction into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2007.

2004 saw him release the acclaimed Last Train to Memphis, which was followed in 2008 by Homemade Songs. At the time of his death he'd recently finished a new album, Timeless, produced by Dr. John; it's reportedly due for release in February.

BLURT profiled Charles in our third issue (September 2008) and we'll have a full tribute to the man at the BLURT site on Monday.

Please, no jokes about him curing her melancolie infinite sadness yet. Save your pity for John Mayer.

By Perez Mills

Everybody recovered from the hangover that was the ‘00s? Make your New Year's resolutions yet? Good - this year/century's first, er, noteworthy musical news (aside from those skin disease-like tattoos Courtney Love recently got, of course) comes courtesy of Billy Corgan and Jessica Simpson.

You knew it was coming. No, silly, not the rumors about them getting married (which, if you parse the terminology of this press release, hardly justified the headline "Jessica Simpson to Marry Billy Corgan"). Plus, we already told you some time ago that the pair was, at least for the moment, a dating item. We're talking the news that the Smashing Pumpkins frontman and the former Mrs. Nick Lachey have been working together in the recording studio.

MTV News reports:

Jessica and Billy are working in the studio together. And this isn't news from friends of sources, but instead from Jessica's Twitter, Our favorite tweet appeared just the other day, when she tweeted a photo of herself and Corgan in the studio working on music that has since been removed. She has apparently been in the studio with him and producer Kerry Brown.

Indeed, if you head over to Jessica Simpson's Twitter feed, it's loaded with references to being into the studio with Corgan and Brown (@studiodog): "I am blessed - going over a song w/billy and the boxer"; etc.), while Brown's Twitter similarly references the sessions in spots. And the pair's photographer friend Kristin Burns took the above photo that's been making the rounds of the web.

No details yet on whether they're working on material for Simpson herself, or if she's doing vocals for the forthcoming Pumpkins projects. Here's hoping, however, that she's up on her flu shots, since sharing spit at a microphone can transmit many a contagious disease.

Plans to perform the entire classic album from '89.

By Blurt Staff

It's opposite day at BLURT, which means what better way to celebrate than by taking a trip to Bizarro World. Bizarro #1 - aka the Wedding Present's David Gedge - will be your tour guide. He's been keeping an eye on all those other bands who have been thrilling fans (and raking in the box office receipts) by performing classic albums in concert in their entirety - not the least of whom was Bruce Springsteen, who pulled out all the stops last year by doing several different complete albums at different tour stops.

So in honor of the forgoing plus the 21^st anniversary of the Wedding Present's classic '89 album Bizarro, Gedge has announced his intention to bring it all to you, the discriminating music fans.

Released in 1989, Bizarro remains a fan favorite and its notable tracks are "Brassneck" and "Kennedy."  The album marked the first official release for the band in North America and its major label debut (RCA).  The forthcoming April 2010 tour, much anticipated after the successful George Best 20th Anniversary Tour in 2007, will feature the album in full plus a few other new and old favorites. 

This ain't no April Fool's.... Incidentally, one of BLURT's fave bands The Jet Age will be opening on selected East Coast shows, so check 'em out.

April Tour Dates

1 : San Diego CA, USA - Casbah
2 : Los Angeles CA, USA - Troubadour
5 : Austin TX, USA - Emo's
7 : Atlanta GA - Earl with The Jet Age
9 : Washington DC, USA - Black Cat with The Jet Age
10 : Hoboken NJ, USA - Maxwell's with The Jet Age
11 : New York City NY, USA - Bowery Ballroom
12 : Cambridge MA, USA - Middle East Downstairs
14 : Toronto ON, Canada - Horseshoe Tavern
15 : Pontiac MI, USA - The Pike Room at The Crofoot
16 : Chicago IL, USA - Double Door
17 : Minneapolis MN, USA - 400 Bar
20 : Vancouver BC, Canada - To be confirmed
21 : Seattle WA, USA - Crocodile
22 : Portland OR, USA - Doug Fir Lounge
24 : San Francisco CA, USA - Independent

More than just a fun way to score a free bottle of Oxycontin...

By Fred Mills

Now HERE's a couple of eBay offerings you can sink yer teeth into, er, stick some sharp objects in. First up: a Pat Robertson Voodoo Doll, which is being auctioned off by some clever lad or lassie from L.A. in order to raise funds for Haitian relief. (Thanks to Blurt contributor Jason Gross for the tip.)

Recall that the right Rev. Pat said on a 700 Club broadcast last week that the earthquake and ensuing devastation in Haiti was the product of God's wrath: "They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon the third, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil."

Beyond the pale, yes, so here's your opportunity to own your very own voodoo doll that'll let you take a poke at the old blowhard anytime you feel like it.

According to the listing for item #190365539998, from vendor JohnnyVoodoo99

Finally!  What you've all been asking for!  A one of a kind, handmade PAT ROBERSTON VOODOO DOLL.

After an exclusive deal with devil, we are finally able to bring black magic into your very own home!  The lucky winner of this auction will attain the soul of Televangelist PAT ROBERTSON in a handheld figurine comprised of the finest straw, cloth, and other organic natural materials! 

Ever wanted to cause Pat Robertson a massive headache?  give him back pain?  jab him in the crotch?   Of course you have!  Well then BID NOW to own your very own pysical representation of the dark, dark soul of Pat Robertson.

Accessories included with the doll are Pat's very own "HOLY" BIBLE and BAG OF MONEY taken from real Americans!  WOW!

We'll take "jab him in the crotch" for 50 dollars, Alex!

Incidentally, the eBay auction pledges tht 100% of the profits from the sale will go to the American Red Cross.  As of this writing there have been 67 bids, and the current bid is $910, with 7 days left in the auction.

***

But wait, as the saying goes - there's more! JohnnyVoodoo99 is also auctioning off a Rush Limbaugh Voodoo Doll. Same deal, except that proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders.

According to the listing:

 Because you demanded it!!  A RUSH LIMBAUGH VOODOO DOLL!!

We've made another deal with the devil (He makes great deals!) and this time captured the soul of popular radio personality and convicted felon RUSH LIMBAUGH, putting it into a voodoo doll that fits right in your pocket!

Ever wanted to cause Rush Limbaugh to lose his voice?  Have him sprain an ankle?  Come down with a rash in his bathing suit area?  Of course you have!!!  Well then BID NOW to own your very own physical representation of the cold, empty soul of Rush Limbaugh.

Accessories included with the doll are Rush's very own MICROPHONE and PRESCRIPTION BOTTLE OF OXYCONTIN!  WOW!!!

Well, of course we'll take the "lose his voice" option.

19 bids thus far, currently at $218.50, with 9 days left in the auction. C'mon America, step up to the plate, and let's bid these suckers up into the stratosphere. And seriously, donate to both of the organizations if yours is not the winning bid.

Set to drop new album in April.

By Blurt Staff

Murder By Death - Adam Turla- vocals, guitars, keys, Sarah Balliet- cello and keys, Matt Armstrong- bass and noises, and Dagan Thogerson- drums and percussion.- will release their fifth studio album, Good Morning, Magpie, on April 6 via Vagrant. The quartet self-produced the album which was recorded at Bloomington-based Farm Fresh Studios and the resulting ten tracks were mixed by Trina Shoemaker.

"Good Morning, Magpie is some of the darkest and brightest material we have ever written," said Turla, in a statement. "While it's not a concept album, it embodies the struggle between light and dark that has defined our previous work."

Turla wrote most of the new material during two weeks he spent alone deep in the woods of Appalachia with just "a tent, a fishing pole, a guitar, and a lot of paper."

Good Morning, Magpie follows 2008's Red of Tooth and Claw. A US tour is being planned and dates will be announced in the coming weeks.

Thurston Moore and others to pay tribute Feb. 13 in Philly; MP3 teaser of new album below.

By Fred Mills

Among the most unexpected passings of 2009 was Jack Rose, who died suddenly at his home in Philadelphia on December 5. At the time he was readying his next album for Thrill Jockey, Luck in the Valley, which is due out Feb. 23. Now comes word of a memorial/tribute concert for the acclaimed finger-style and wonderfully experimental guitarist.

MP3: "Woodpiles on the Side of the Road"

On Feb. 13 at the Latvian Society of Philadelphia, a who's-who of indie icons will turn out to remember Rose. Among them: Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore (along with Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano), Cul de Sac's Glenn Jones, Dr. Charles Speer and Rose's old band Pelt.

According to the event's official press release, "Rose grew to be loved and admired by a great many people through his live performances, electric personality, profound cooking skills and a general mastery in the art of friendship. This concert is a release party for his new album "Luck In The Valley" and an occasion to celebrate and remember the good Dr. Ragtime. The artists performing were all dear friends of Jack's and admired by him musically."

Details:

Saturday, February 13 - 7:00 PM

Latvian Society of Philadelphia

531 N. 7th Street, Philadelphia

Tickets are $18 via Ticketfly: http://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/4067

Performers:

D. Charles Speer & The Helix

Thurston Moore | Paul Flaherty | Chris Corsano

Michael Chapman

Canadian singer (and mother of Rufus and Martha Wainwright) was acclaimed in the folk community since the ‘70s.

By Fred Mills

Beloved folks/roots singer and songwriter Kate McGarrigle (above, left) died yesterday, Jan. 18, following a battle with a rare form of cancer. She was 63.

Along with her sister Anna, Kate McGarrigle was one-half of the Canadian-based McGarrigle Sisters. The Quebec duo, who recorded albums in both French and English, got their start in the ‘60s and went on to acclaim starting in the ‘70s; their '76 debut Kate & Anna McGarrigle was hailed by the likes of Melody Maker and the New York Times as one of the best albums of that year. Over the years their songs were covered by everyone from Billy Bragg and Linda Ronstadt ("Heart Like A Wheel" became a huge hit for Ronstadt) to Emmylou Harris and Nick Cave (who famously had them join him on his 2001 album No More Shall We Part).

Kate was also the mother of Rufus and Martha Wainwright from her previous marriage to Loudon Wainwright III.

According to Canada's CBC, "Reports that McGarrigle was critically ill surfaced over the weekend after her son, Rufus, cancelled his tour of Australia and New Zealand, scheduled to begin in February, to be with her."

We're not quite sure what the question marks after Thom Yorke's name are intended to suggest, but he's headlining along with Pavement, Gorillaz, Jay-Z, LCD Soundsystem, Them Crooked Vultures, Muse, Faith No More and Tiesto. Tix go on sale this Friday Jan. 22 for the April 16-18 event.

By Blurt Staff

It's easily the weakest Coachella roster of acts to date, and it's also the long-in-coming "mainstreaming of Coachella" that marks the end of its status as the premiere alternative music event of the year. Why not add the Jonas Brothers and Carrie Underwood to the bill while they're at it? At any rate, here's the official announcement, along with ticketing info:

***

The 11^th installment of the Coachella festival will feature a mix of artists ranging from Pavement, Thom Yorke????, Vampire Weekend, Them Crooked Vultures, LCD Soundsystem, Phoenix, Tiësto, Faith No More, Deadmau5, David Guetta, MGMT and Public Image Limited.  Set for Friday, April 16, Saturday, April 17 and Sunday, April 18 at the beautiful Empire Polo Club in Indio, CA--the same grounds where COACHELLA debuted in 1999--the COACHELLA 2010 line-up will feature more than 130 acts.

This year's COACHELLA will feature a variety of options to make the concert experience an enjoyable one.  In addition to expanded camping options--including car, RV and traditional tent camping-- COACHELLA will allow, for the first time, in-and-out privileges for all attendees.   Festival goers will once again have the ability to purchase 3-day festival tickets and various onsite camping options via an easy layaway payment plan.

For those looking to streamline the weekend's experience, COACHELLA has teamed with Valley Music Travel to provide exclusive travel packages, local hotel shuttle transportation and private home rentals with VIP COACHELLA access.  For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit www.valleymusictravel.com/coachella.php.

FRIDAY APRIL 16:  Jay-Z, LCD Soundsystem, Them Crooked Vultures, Vampire Weekend, Deadmau5, Public Image Limited, The Specials, Grizzly Bear, Passion Pit, Echo and the Bunnymen, Benny Benassi, Fever Ray, Grace Jones, She & Him, Erol Alkan, The Avett Brothers, Calle 13, The Whitest Boy Alive, The Cribs, La Roux, Yeasayer, Lucero, DJ Lance Rock, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Proxy, Ra Ra Riot, Deer Tick, Wolfgang Gartner, Aeroplane, Iglu & Hartly, Sleigh Bells, P.O.S., Baroness, Hockey, Little Dragon, White Rabbits, Wale, Kate Miller-Heidke, As Tall as Lions, Jets Overhead, Alana Grace, Pablo Hassan.

SATURDAY, APRIL 17:  Muse, Faith No More, Tiësto, MGMT, David Guetta, The Dead Weather, Hot Chip, Devo, Coheed and Cambria, Kaskade, 2Many DJ's, Major Lazer, Dirty Projectors, Gossip, Z-Trip, The xx, John Waters, Les Claypool, The Raveonettes, Mew, Sia, Camera Obscura, Tokyo Police Club, Porcupine Tree, Old Crow Medicine Show, Aterciopalados, Bassnectar, Frightened Rabbit, Dirty South, Flying Lotus, Corinne Bailey Rae, Pretty Lights, Shooter Jennings, RX Bandits, The Almighty Defenders, Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros, Craze & Klever, Zoe, The Temper Trap, Portugal. The Man, Band of Skulls, Girls, Beach House, Steel Train, Frank Turner.

SUNDAY, APRIL 18:  Gorillaz, Pavement, Thom Yorke????, Phoenix, Orbital, Spoon, Sly and the Family Stone, De La Soul, Julian Casablancas, Plastikman, Gary Numan, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Sunny Day Real Estate, Yo La Tengo, MUTEMATH, Deerhunter, Infected Mushroom, Club 75, Matt & Kim, The Big Pink, Gil Scott-Heron, King Khan and the Shrines, Florence and the Machine, Yann Tiersen, Little Boots, Miike Snow, Talvin Singh, Ceu, B.o.B., Babasonicos, Owen Pallett, The Glitch Mob, Mayer Hawthorne, Local Natives, Rusko, The Middle East, Hadouken!, The Soft Pack, Kevin Devine, Paparazzi, Delphic, One EskimO.

Tickets for COACHELLA go on sale Friday, January 22 at 10:00 AM at all Ticketmaster locations and www.coachella.com. Three-day weekend passes are $269.00, plus surcharges.  More details on layaway, camping options and up-to-the minute information, can be found at www.coachella.com.  COACHELLA 2010 sponsors include Heineken and PlayStation.

Part Boss, Part Stooge: the Austin songwriter previews new material and hints at more "guitar-driven" sound Jan. 15. He also tells BLURT about the album he's about to record.

By Jason Bugg

            On Friday, January 15^th at Asheville NC's The Orange Peel Texas rocker Alejandro Escovedo took the stage to the mournful sounds of George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and proceeded to shake the room, the crowd, and even himself out of the cold gray abscess of this already harsh and short winter- all while looking like a million bucks.

            The singer, decked out in a blue faux snakeskin suit and black and white polka dot ascot, effortlessly plowed through songs from his last album (2008's excellent Real Animal), a few covers (including a spot-on rendition of Mott the Hoople's "All the Young Dudes") and even managed to keep the audience interested while showcasing material for Real Animal's soon-to-be-recorded follow-up. (The current leg of his tour wraps Jan. 23 in Louisville, at which point he and his band will head over to Lexington's Saint Claire studios, the same facility where Real Animal was recorded.)

            Of the four new songs previewed, the most rollicking of which made its live debut at the show; the song, a spot-on concoction that smashes together Darkness on the Edge of Town-era Springsteen and Tim-era Westerberg entitled "The Anchor" handily showcased Escovedo's mastery of the rock and roll song: three minutes, three choruses, a blazing guitar solo courtesy of guitarist David Pulkingham and a rousing ending. The formula may sound banal, but the result is a song that garnered fist pumping and even a few audience members shouting the chorus ("I'm in love with love and it broke me in two") back at the singer by the end of the song.

            "I wrote that song while in Mexico surfing," said Escovedo in a quick chat after the show, "This entire new album is all about love, death and surfing."

            But the new tunes didn't stop there. The singer also showcased "Down in the Bowery", a tender song that Escovedo wrote for his son.  If that description alone makes you worry about the singer drifting into schmaltzy Rod Stewart territory, fear not - the song's country feel and lyrics about finding one's own way owes more to Gram Parsons and Keith Richards than it ever could to AOR tripe.

            "I asked my son what he thought about my music and he told me it was ‘old man's music', so I wrote this song about how I want him to find his path in life," said Escovedo with a laugh.

            If there was only a casual hint of the Stones in "Down in the Bowery", then "This Bed is Getting Crowded" was a full blown hero worship for the Mick Taylor era of the Stones. Set atop a garage-y and repetitive guitar riff and leading to a very Iggy Pop-feeling climax, the song encapsulates a rather ominous feeling that came over Escovedo during the writing process that he describes as when "romance is futile and death is impending".  If that feeling creates as joyous a noise as on "This Bed is Getting Crowded", then more people need to latch onto it- the song cooks.

            The final new song played that night was a slow burning and very Velvet Underground sounding "After the Meteor Shower", a slow and simple song punctuated by a vibrato-laden guitar that Escovedo describes as "my attempt to write a ‘Pale Blue Eyes'-type of song".

            The songs managed to fit right into Escovedo and company's show and not feel out of place. The singer is also taking the time on this tour to showcase his smaller backing band, consisting of Pulkingham, bassist Bobby Daniel and drummer Hector Muñoz.  Gone are the strings of past tours and in its place a muscular, guitar-centric band.

            "I wanted to play guitar-driven rock this time out," said Escovedo. "It was hard to convince people that that's what I do, so hopefully this record will show that."

            If the live material is any indicator, there will be no doubt about that when the new album is finally released.  Escovedo is showing his inner Boss, but hinting at his inner Stooge.

[Photo Credit: Jason Bugg]

That treadmill-walkin' band gets a rude awakening from its major label patrons and decides to do something about it.

By Fred Mills

With OK Go's new EMI album Of the Blue Colour of the Sky issued this week, the band also has dropped a new single, "This Too Shall Pass," and posted the accompanying video to YouTube. It's a pretty interesting video - view it at YouTube here - but that's almost beside the point now, because it has sparked a minor feud between the band and it's label.

Basically, after the video was posted, EMI demanded that the embedding be disabled so that nobody else could post it to their music site, blog or news aggregator. This despite the fact that the label owes its charges' success (and therefore any resultant profits) almost exclusively to an earlier OK Go video... let's see, something about treadmills, hmmm, what was that... that went viral. But as everyone knows, "going viral" these days doesn't necessarily mean being located exclusively on YouTube - the idea is to get everyone posting the clip and creating a multi-platform buzz.

It's too early in the flap to determine if things will escalate to Leno-Conan-NBC levels, and that's more of a Mexican standoff anyway; as OK Go probably needs EMI far more than EMI needs OK Go, my bet is that the band will just lick its wounds and move on to the next project. It's unlikely this will become a "feud" on the order of, say, Trent Reznor Vs. Interscope.

That doesn't mean the band's going to crawl away quietly, at least not before it gets its point of view out there. Band member Damian Kulash took to the okgo.net forums on Monday night to post a lengthy screed that, while more or less respectful to EMI - his employer - and the label's obvious rationale in the matter (it wants to, uh, get paid for YouTube viewings, and it apparently won't derive any income from viewings at other sites), he clearly takes issue with the corporation.

Writes Kulash:

We've been flooded with complaints recently because our YouTube videos can't be embedded on websites, and in certain countries can't be seen at all. And we want you to know: we hear you, and we're sorry. We wish there was something we could do. Believe us, we want you to pass our videos around more than you do, but, crazy as it may seem, it's now far harder for bands to make videos accessible online than it was four years ago.

Four years after we posted our first homemade videos to YouTube and they spread across the globe faster than swine flu, making our bassist's glasses recognizable to 70-year-olds in Wichita and 5-year-olds in Seoul and eventually turning a tidy little profit for EMI, we're - unbelievably - stuck in the position of arguing with our own label about the merits of having our videos be easily shared. It's like the world has gone backwards.

So, for now, here's the bottom line: EMI won't let us let you embed our YouTube videos. It's a decision that bums us out. We've argued with them a lot about it, but we also understand why they're doing it. They're aware that their rules make it harder for people to watch and share our videos, but, while our duty is to our music and our fans, theirs is to their shareholders, and they believe they're doing the right thing.

There's a lot more to Kulash's editorial and it's a pretty fascinating read, as he's got a clear-eyed perspective on what goes on behind the scenes in terms of marketing an act these days by a major label. Read the whole thing here.

Oh, one last thing - for his parting shot, Kulash provides the video's embed code for Vimeo and then tells folks, "Go forth and put it everywhere, please. And buy our album. It's great."

I'd reckon that kind of attitude counts for a lot. Go buy the band's album and support the group. Even if you're not a huge fan of OK Go, they're clearly among the good guys.

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

Knitting Factory label spearheads massive project

By Dan Weiss

45 albums. Afrobeat pioneer, provocative bandleader and all-around African music legend Fela Kuti died at 58 but Bob Dylan's still catching up to that total at 68. Paul McCartney's not even close. Needless to say, that's a legendary amount of tape, and in light of the recent success of loosely biographical off- (and soon to be on-) Broadway musical <i>Fela!</i>, Knitting Factory Records has taken up the heavy task of reissuing every damn thing in the late Black President's catalogue-all of which expected to see the light of day in North American record stores by 2011.

"The musical has increased demand quite a bit, as would be expected, but really even before the musical hit the press it seems like there's been this sort of organic magnetism towards Fela," says Knitting Factory's Ian Wheeler.

We got the first taste of these-many of which seeing North American release on vinyl for the first time ever-last October with the self-explanatory <i>Best of the Black President</i>, a 2xCD-plus-DVD treasure chest that collects some of the best (and funkiest) music ever made.

Besides the obvious revival of African guitar styles that's swept recent indie from Dirty Projectors to Vampire Weekend (and an actually pretty-great record of Kuti's Egypt 80 ensemble last year with son Seun at the helm), Wheeler says of the renewed interest, "A lot of folks just seem to be finding Fela moreso than in the past. It's odd and feels almost spiritual in light of the musical especially-It feels like some external force is drawing everyone towards Fela at once."

Mothership lands in the middle of a corn field in Iowa, leaves crop circle in shape of a bong.

By Fred Mills

Now HERE's the kind of frammin' on th' jim-jam all us hemp farmers at BLURT can get behind: Iowa-raised garage, psych, space, sludge and stoner rock. The name is Mondo Drag and the game is, in the parlance, "extended psychedelic blues guitar jams and haunting vocals over heavy, steady bass lines and thumping percussion." Or so they tell us. When was the last time you set the controls for the heart of friggin' Iowa?!?

But the band is signed to Alive Naturalsound Records, to that's a pretty good barometer of their ability to grok the musical fullness. New Rituals is the album title and it's due out next week, Jan. 26, at fine CD emporiums and online digital retailers everywhere. There will also be a limited-to-500-copies red vinyl edition.

Free MP3: "Love Me (Like a Stranger)"

The band: Johnnie Cluney (drums/vocals), Nolan Girard (rhythm guitar/vocals), John Gomino (keyboards/saxophone), Dennis Hockaday (bass), and Jake Sheley (lead guitar). They further pledge allegiance to Pink Floyd, Pentagram, Blue Cheer, Hendrix and, just for a contemporary reference, Sonic Youth, so you know they've got their heads screwed on just right.

Catch ‘em on tour:

Feb 26 @ Vaudeville Mews w/ PENTAGRAM
Feb 6 @ White Lightning Warehouse - Iowa City, IA
Feb 9 @ Off Broadway - St Louis, MO
Feb 10 TAB - Carbondale, IL
Feb 11 @ Al's Bar - Lexington, KY
Feb 12 @ Springwater - Nashville, TN
Feb 13 @ Wall Street - Murfreesboro, TN
Feb 14 @ Loudhouse Coffee - Greenbrier, TN
Feb 15 @ Blue Rock Tavern - Cincinnati, OH
Feb 16 TAB - Indianapolis, IN
Feb 17 @ The Mopery - Chicago, IL
Feb 18 TBA - DeKalb, IL

Feb 20 @ RME Hall - CD RELEASE SHOW

Bobby McGee's best friend, somewhat weathered but still unbowed, pack ‘em in at Cambell, Ca. venue the Heritage Theatre on Jan. 13.

By Jud Cost

Watching Jeff Bridges play down-and-out country singer Bad Blake in Crazy Heart one day, then going to see Country Music Hall of Fame member Kris Kristofferson the next night wasn't really that much of a stretch. While the hard-drinking, chain-smoking, skirt-chasing Blake was pretty much the author of his own misfortune, Kristofferson's problem seems to be one we'll all face one day, if we're lucky: He's just getting old.

The visibly nervous, silver-thatched former Rhodes scholar, Army captain and helicopter pilot, now 73, had vocal problems right out of the chute that must have caused the audience to blink hard. Was that really Kris Kristofferson up there, the same guy who played opposite Barbra Streisand in 1976 film A Star Is Born? His haunting baritone pipes have morphed over the years into a senior citizen's reedy tenor. The intonation these days sounds closer to Gabby Hayes than Isaac Hayes. But, with an overflow crowd of 600 at Campbell's Heritage Theatre firmly in his corner, Kristofferson loosened up considerably as the night wore on. His guitar playing, unfortunately, was another matter, entirely. While finger-picking simple patterns on an acoustic, he frequently muffed endings or lost the thread completely, sometimes abandoning a song as soon as he ran into trouble.

Of course, the one thing Kristofferson will never lose is an armload of some of the 20th century's finest songs, and he played them all tonight. "Me And Bobby McGee," a posthumous hit for former girlfriend Janis Joplin in 1971, sounded particularly fine with Kristofferson blowing away on a harmonica strapped to a rack. He also regaled the crowd with the time he and Dylan accomplice Bob Neuwirth visited Byrds founder Roger McGuinn in southern California. "McGuinn had an entire wall of television sets, and one of them even monitored his driveway." Kristofferson proceeded to write a tune about McGuinn's neighbors putting on an impromptu talent show/audition in front of his driveway camera. "One guy even played 'Temptation' on kazoo," he chuckled.

The crowd got an unexpected hearty laugh when Kristofferson dedicated a number to a list of deceased performers that included Hank Williams, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and John Lennon. Someone who didn't get it shouted out "George Jones!" to which Kristofferson replied, "George Jones isn't dead. He's just old! There's a difference between being old and dead."

The venerated career signposts-"Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)," "Beat The Devil" and "Help Me Make It Through The Night"-sprinkled judiciously throughout the two short sets, were like lifebuoys that Kristofferson clung to in choppy waters. At the conclusion of the latter song, he got a rousing response by blurting out: "George Bush and Dick Cheney were singing that song in the shower together this morning!" Nobody, it should be noted, got up and left. And Joan Baez, reportedly in attendance up in the balcony, must have loved it.

Campbell, Calif., a tight-assed little town on the western border of sprawling metropolis San Jose, seems an odd place for a music venue these days. But there was a time 30 years ago when the burg seethed with tiny joints like Smokey Mountain and the Bodega. The latter club hosted a pair of splendid nights that featured the Ramones in early 1977, then the Talking Heads later that year accompanied by Eddie & the Hot Rods. My brother, the Campbell police chief at the time, put an end to all that in the late-‘80s, shutting them all down. More recently, John Padilla has presented a handful of intimate living-room shows in Campbell by the Posies, John Doe and Paul Collins.

The Kristofferson song that made everything right in Campbell tonight (and signaled the beginning of the end of the evening) was his ace in the hole, "Sunday Morning Coming Down." His original version, cut almost 40 years ago, was so perfectly rendered it even topped a fine cover by Johnny Cash: "Well I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn't hurt/And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad so I had one more for dessert/Then I fumbled through my closet for my cleanest dirty shirt/And I shaved my face and I combed my hair and stumbled down the stairs to meet the day."

The best songs of the Nashville-based songwriter who once penned country hits for Dave Dudley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Faron Young and Roger Miller are full of finely-crafted lyrics that light up the night sky, they're so good. Lines like "just enough silence to breathe" stay with you long after the show has ended. A short version of "For The Good Times"-a career-defining 1970 smash Kristofferson wrote for Ray Price-ended the night on a high note.

As I stumbled back to the car I noticed a tin can lying in the gutter outside the theatre. I thought about kicking it, but I cussed it instead, left it for the next kid who comes along and went home and fried some chicken. 

Gearing up once again to bring you yesterday's technology tomorrow...

By Fred Mills

Did Man or Astro-Man? tour in the 1990s more than any other band? Some say yes, while others contend that the group cloned itself and sent those faux-MOAM outfits on the road - kinda like that early ‘70s pre-Buckingham/Nicks touring iteration of Fleetwood Mac that bamboozled American audiences, only in this instance way cooler and more underground. At any rate, the stats speak for themselves: 49 states and over 30 countries, 10 years of nonstop journeying in some form or another.

However, today the band has announced its return:

"After 10 years of relentlessly exploring the earth, it became obvious that their research on humanity was complete and they could finally take a long-need cellular rejuvenation in their underground cryogenic center, deep in the lower levels of the Alabama bedrock.

"Now the slumber is over and Man or Astro-Man? must see what has become of earth in the wake of their absence. So indeed, for all of humanity, 2010 will be the year of contact, or, at least re-contact with the original space cadets themselves: Starcrunch, Birdstuff, and Coco. In addition to all the scientific experiments and live music demonstrations, MOAM? will host a variety of benefits and charities for earth specimens, predominantly in the human or animal form."

First stop: Birmingham, Ala. Then it's off to Austin and SXSW, which takes place March 17 - 21. Be there or be Astro-square.

Photos, sound samples, and some highly entertaining (though somewhat old) blog entries at the band's MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/manorastroman

Now that's what they call marketing! Acclaimed band has a new video, a new EP and some new shows.

By Blurt Staff

Cold War Kids have their new video "Audience" currently premiering at Aol/Spinner. It's part of the promotion for the new EP Behave Yourself released this week in stores. Watch BLURT very soon for an exclusive interview with the band.

They've also announced a handful of tour dates:

1/22 The Wiltern, Los Angeles
1/23 The Fillmore, San Francisco
1/28 BK Music Hall, NY
1/29 Terminal 5, NY (sold out)
1/30 Vic Theatre, Chicago

Well, it's only the middle of January... but we're just sayin'...  "This is gonna be 2010's Shins or Band of Horses, so mark these words."

By Jonah Flicker

Straight out of Palm Beach, Florida shoots the sure-as-shit contender for best album of this nascent new year, Surfer Blood's Astro Coast (Kanine). This is gonna be 2010's Shins or Band of Horses, so mark these words. Yes, it may be a little early for such proclamations, but these boys make lofty postulations like this easy. It's safe to assume the members of the band were raised on a steady diet of Weezer, The Pixies, Built To Spill, as well as various influences in the outer regions of indie rock. But they've managed to absorb all of this and more and regurgitate something all their own.

From the beginning chords of the album's opening tune, "Floating Vibes," the band makes its intent clear. Simple guitar lines augmented by bright and thick production will be employed, melodious and mellifluous vocals will ensue, and breezy themes of California dreams will occur. No tricks, no gimmicks will obscure the music (well, for the most part - "Take it Easy" tips its hat to Vampire Weekend, but only fleetingly). The song you've probably heard from this album already, "Swim," a barrage of power chords and reverb-coated vocals ecstatically urging you to "Swim to reach the end," is a great track, but it's really not all that representative of the magic found on the rest of the record. "Harmonix," after a brief guitar intro, builds into a restive number constructed sparingly of strummed harmonics (get it?) and yet another insanely catchy vocal refrain. "Twin Peaks," as lush and expansive as anything else on Astro Coast, sports a nifty chorus of matching guitar chords and vocal melody before launching into a syncopated chorus that sounds more like a party than a songwriting convention. The record's themes seem to revolve around personal experiences, references to band members' relationships, and exploring the farther reaches of the United States. Yet the appeal of Surfer Blood's music transports you right along, not an easy task for any band.

So how does this young band do it? Take a listen to "Anchorage" to fully understand what they are up to. A simple idea is made interesting through excellent recording and production - no shitgaze, this - and executed by an effusive bunch of rock musicians more concerned with quality than scoring scene points. They've got the chops to back up the hype, now let's see how they handle their first year in the spotlight.

In a manner of speaking, at least...

By Blurt Staff

One thing we've been diggin' a LOT lately is this recent Jerry Lee Lewis biography by author Joe Bonomo (who did a pretty swell Fleshtones bio awhile back too). Titled Jerry Lee Lewis: Lost and Found and published by the good folks at Continuum, it's reviewed by BLURT contributor David Greenberger here.

Meanwhile, though, since it's always a good day at BLURT  when we can drop the name of the mighty Jon Langford, we'd just like to point out that the Bonomo book front cover art for the Killer is derived from the above Langford rendering, which is swell all by itself. Check the book review link to compare 'em.

And for all you SXSW attendees, don't forget you can own a piece of Langford yourself if you pop into the Yard Dog Gallery down on South Congress in Austin: he's always got original pieces of art displayed and available for sale to the discriminating art aficionado....

Also on the bill: Heartless Bastards.

By Fred Mills

Yeah, that's BLURT cover boys the Avett Brothers above, appearing on the front of our most recent issue for an in-depth profile by staffer A.D. Amorosi. Shameless plug, we know, but still... We dig the band, period.

Anyway, this Saturday, Jan. 23, on PBS series Austin City Limits the Avetts will be the main act, doing songs from I and Love and You.

"One of the most popular acts to play the 2009 ACL Festival, the Avetts are on a fast track right now, but without losing their honesty or spontaneity," said series executive producer Terry Lickona. "Their songs are very modern but authentic at the same time, and their lyrics can deliver an emotional punch but in the most gentle way. One of my favorite shows of the year!"

Also on the same show will be another BLURT fave, the Heartless Bastards, fronted by guitarist/vocalist/pianist Erika Wennerstrom. We profiled that group awhile back at BLURT as well. "They may be transplants from Ohio, but Heartless Bastards are now one of the shining lights of the Austin music scene...and beyond," said Lickona. "I love Erika's one-of-a-kind voice - she covers all the bases!"

Below see the entire lineup for this, the 35^th season of ACL. Coming up are Steve Earle and Them Crooked Vultures, while shows already aired will start to repeat in the spring.

October 3, 2009 Dave Matthews Band
October 10, 2009 Ben Harper and Relentless7
October 17, 2009 Kenny Chesney
October 24, 2009 Andrew Bird / St. Vincent
October 31, 2009 M. Ward / Okkervil River
November 7, 2009 Elvis Costello / Band of Heathens
November 14, 2009 Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel
November 21, 2009 Pearl Jam
January 9, 2010 Allen Toussaint
January 16, 2010 K'NAAN / Mos Def
January 23, 2010 The Avett Brothers / Heartless Bastards
January 30, 2010 Steve Earle / Kris Kristofferson
February 6, 2010 Esperanza Spalding / Madeleine Peyroux
February 13, 2010 Them Crooked Vultures

New album due May 4 on Matador.

By Fred Mills

"You don't need us to tell you the album is great... but we'll say it anyway. It's amazing, more varied, deeper, and broader than its predecessors. Please just look forward to extreme enjoyment."

Whoah - a record label telling us a forthcoming release is great? Get outta here! At any rate, that's exactly what Matador is floating, and since they're talking The New Pornographers, we might be inclined to take the bait.

According to Matador:

"Coming on May 4: the new album from The New Pornographers, entitled Together. Their fifth full-length was produced by the band and Phil Palazzolo, and recorded in Vancouver, Brooklyn, Woodstock, and Catskill, NY. The album is comprised of 9 A.C. Newman songs and 3 Dan Bejar numbers, and features the full eight-person lineup of Carl, Dan, John Collins, Neko Case, Kurt Dahle, Kathryn Calder, Todd Fancey and Blaine Thurier. Additional musicians include Annie Clark (St. Vincent), Zach Condon (Beirut), Will Sheff (Okkervil River), and the Dap-Kings Horns, among other talents."

Well, all right then! Full details incoming on the album, which will be the long-overdue followup to 2007's Challengers. Meanwhile, over at the band's official website they apparently have posted a slew of photos about the album and the sessions (like the one above) so you may want to bide your time thumbing through those.

Record due April 27 on Saddle Creek; features guests on loan from Bright Eyes, Cursive, Azure Ray and These United States.

By Blurt Staff

One of the most lamented breakups of the past few years must have been DC's Georgie James, an indie pop combo based around the nucleus of partners John Davis (ex Q and Not U) and Laura Burhenn. They split in 2008 and Burhenn started working on her own material, several examples of which can be found at her somewhat-inactive MySpace page.

Now, drawing upon the gospel, old soul, and rock n roll records that she grew up with, Burhenn will unveil What We Lose In The Fire We Gain In The Flood (April 27, Saddle Creek), her debut album as The Mynabirds. 

In the spring of 2009, she crafted a new batch of songs and enlisted singer-songwriter/producer Richard Swift to help the material come to life in the studio.  The Mynabirds, inspired by the name of a forgotten Motown Records band that included Rick James and Neil Young, is the project that emerged from these sessions.

Free MP3 of "Numbers Don't Lie"

Burhenn shells out an enormously rich and husky voice on her new album.  Her vocals color the vivid imagery of her lyrics, many of which were inspired by a Zen look at ideas of loss and recovery.  Whether upbeat or introspective, Burhenn remains soulful and honest at her core.  She simultaneously harnesses the charm of contemporaries Cat Power and  Feist, as well as the fervor and magnitude of iconic influences Nina Simone and Grace Slick.

The album also includes some notable guest artists.  Tom Hnatow (These United States) played pedal steel, Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes) arranged the horns on the album and backing vocals were provided by Orenda Fink (Azure Ray) and engineer/producer AJ Mogis (Monsters of Folk, Cursive, Tilly and The Wall).

[Photo Credit - from Burhenn's MySpace page, by Shervinfoto]

Mega-telethon tonight to be followed by auction-only Radiohead event Sunday in L.A., wherein even Ticketmaster gets into the spirit of giving.

By Fred Mills

Tonight's the night, and we're not talking Rod Stewart, either, so how about tearing yourself away from that new episode of iCarly or that scheduled Xbox Live session and tuning in to more than a dozen network and cable channels starting at 8 pm EST for the "Hope For Haiti" telethon.

Unless you've been living in a cave for the past week you may have heard about it. "Hope For Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief" was put into motion by George Clooney two days after the Haitian earthquake; the actor lined up Springsteen, Bono, Sting and Wyclef Jean and partnered with MTV Networks, and from there it snowballed. Set to perform during the course of the two-hour telethon are those artists along with Beyoncé, Madonna, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Shakira, Kid Rock, Keith Urban, Coldplay, Alicia Keys, Dave Matthews, Justin Timberlake, Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, Rihanna and Taylor Swift, from stages in New York, Los Angeles and London.

In fact, pretty much everyone but Kanye West will be playing - as announced yesterday, West was pointedly NOT invited. According to a report at Popeater.com, a source disclosed that the general consensus was that "after what [West] said on the Katrina telethon and the way he behaved at the MTV Video Music Awards, everyone agrees it's just best that he does not participate. Kayne has to make everything about himself. He will do anything to steal the spotlight and, well, this night it's just not about him."

Heck, folks should thrown in some extra cash with their donations by way of saying "Thanks!" for the non-inclusion of West!

Funds raised during the telethon will go to Oxfam America, Partners in Health, the Red Cross, UNICEF, United Nations World Food Programme, Yele Haiti Foundation and the Clinton Bush Haiti Foundation, so come on, folks, and open up your wallets.

Don't forget that money is the most important thing you can donate, and you should do it as directly and as immediately as possible. As we noted last week, organizing your own benefit concert and doing other things on a local level is all well and good - and it gives you a feel-good glow too, of course - such efforts, in the face of the sheer scale of destruction and misery in Haiti, don't really do much good compared to the direct donation strategy.

You can tune in tonight to CNN, BET, HBO, MTV, VH1, CMT, TNT, Showtime, Comedy Central and other stations. Meanwhile, you can make direct donations to:

www.hopeforhaitinow.com

877-99-HAITI (or text RGIVES to 50555)

At some point after the telethon, recordings of performances themselves will be available to purchase as downloads from iTunes, with proceeds going to the relief organizations.

***

Meanwhile, announced yesterday at the Radiohead website: the band will be performing at a special Haiti benefit Sunday night at The Fonda in L.A. The twist is that they are auctioning off the tickets via Ticketmaster, and as the current minimum bid (as of this writing) is clocking in at $250.00 per ticket, better check your credit card balances before bidding, and the auction closes tomorrow, Saturday morning at 11 am PST

According to the Radiohead site:

Radiohead for Haiti

We're doing a show this Sunday (24th January) to raise funds for the relief effort in Haiti. The venue is The Music Box Theatre at The Fonda in Los Angeles, doors at 7pm. All proceeds are going to the Oxfam Haiti relief fund. We're trying to raise as much money as possible, so tickets will be sold by auction at this site from 8pm tonight until 11am Saturday (PST):

http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/09004434FC1C86AC

We're in the middle of recording at the moment, so you'll be catching us on the fly.... but if you're up for it, then we are too.

Just to clarify times for ticket sales

Auction starts Thursday 21st January 08.00 pm PST
Auction ends Saturday 23rd January 11.00 am PST

Well, that's all clear now....

Worth noting: a message on the Ticketmaster page indicates that all proceeds including ticket fees will be donated. So for once, just this time, we won't refer to the organization by its preferred nickname, Ticketbastard.

Was he the REAL fifth Beatle? We say yeah, just maybe...

By Fred Mills

Sure, this news item is just an excuse to run the way-cool photo above. But we're also gonna go out on a limb and say that one of the most criminally overlooked recent releases has to be Voormann & Friends: A Sideman's Journey, an all-star session put together by bassist/graphic designer/producer Klaus Voormann. Yeah: THAT Klaus Voormann, best pal to the Beatles. You may have heard of him.

At any rate, the Journey album is a real delight, featuring a wealth of rock oldies, among them songs penned by members of the Beatles, and additionally boasting guest spots from Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and Cat Stevens, among others. Our resident Voormann expert A.D. Amorosi serves up his thoughts on the album and the man's career to date, suggesting that rather than George Martin or Billy Preston (or even Pete Best), perhaps Voormann deserves the honor of being known as "the fifth Beatle." You can see what Amorosi has to say here.

The estimable Mr. Starr performs and takes questions at the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles this past week, Jan. 19.

By Jose Martinez / Photos by Becky Sapp, Wire Image

Time spent with a Beatle is as close as us mere mortals on this side of the Atlantic can get to royalty or a true rock & roll deity. There are rock & roll stars and then there are Beatles, and now there are only two of them left. It just doesn't get any bigger that that.

So imagine the electricity in the air as the GRAMMY Museum was preparing to host its Evening With Ringo Starr last night. Having hosted many of these intimate sessions with some of the world's most famous and popular musicians and icons (think Brian Wilson, Annie Lennox, Clive Davis) there was a buzz about the place as a record-setting sold out crowd of 200, tickets for the evening's event were gone in less than eight minutes, anxiously awaited Ringo.

Celebrating the release of his most recent effort, Y Not, Starr was in fine form during a Q&A session with GRAMMY Museum executive director Robert Santelli. Phrases like "big night" and "historic evening" were bantered about during the artist introduction. When talking about Y Not, the first solo record that Starr produced himself, he quipped, "It was the first time I could tell a guitarist what to do. I haven't had so much fun making a record."

Teaming up with former Beatle Paul McCartney on two tracks ("Peace Dream" and "Walk With You"), Starr shared stories of "that band I was in during the ‘60s." Talking about his All Star Band that includes the likes of Joe Walsh, Dave Stewart, Edgar Winter (in attendance, along with Max Weinberg), Starr joked, "They're great, but I'm the greatest."

A fan of "only American music" growing up in Liverpool, Starr, who has been a solo artist now for 40 years, confessed to being a musical "thief" always tempted to steal from his own material.

Joined onstage by Ben Harper, the discussion continued about the pair's collaboration on Y Not. "I keep saying don't wake me up," a very humble Harper gushed about his time working with Starr.

Then it was time to play and Starr and Harper and the Relentless 7 took on "Photograph," an early Starr solo hit, followed by the new track "Walk With You." Then Harper and his band played "I Will Not Be Broken" and "Up To You Now" with such powerful emotion it was mesmerizing.

Rejoined by Starr they played another new track, "The Other Side of Liverpool" which the affable singer/drummer had to stop and restart after singing the wrong line. "That's why [playing] live is great," he declared.

Finishing off with "A Little Help From My Friends" and a jam version of "Boys" the audience knew they had just witnessed something extremely special. Every once in a while you get that feeling that we're lucky to live in L.A., besides when the rest of the country is buried in snow and we're playing at the beach, and this was definitely one of those moments.

Blurt pays tribute to Joe Cocker's backing group - who weren't so bad on their own, either.

By Carl Hanni

The Grease Band: you've probably heard them, whether you know it or not. At least, if you listened to any British rock & roll in the 1970s. 

The Grease Band's self-titled debut was released in 1971, on Leon Russell's Shelter Records imprint, home to Freddie King and JJ Cale among others. A second one came out in 1975; I've never heard it, or even seen a copy. They were five Brits, vocalist and guitar ace Henry McCullough, guitar player Neil Hubbard, bass player Alan Spenner, drummer Bruce Rowlands and keyboard player/arranger/producer Chris Stainton, for some 70s reason listed as "Phil Harmonious Plunk" on the credits. Stainton also shares production credits on the record, along with the band and Nigel Thomas. 

By the time of this release The Grease Band had been working as Joe Cocker's back up band, appearing piecemeal on his debut With A Little Help From My Friends, wholly on his classic second release Joe Cocker!" and backing him up at his famous Woodstock appearance. Stainton was also a key member of Cocker's legendary mega band/traveling circus Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour and album in 1970. Furthermore, the band, minus Stainton, were the principal players on the original release of Jesus Christ Superstar, a musical footnote that seems mysteriously lost in the mists of time (no mention in All Music, etc.). 

Like many records of the time, The Grease Band is an uneven release, with at least one more or less forgettable number, a few mid-range ones and a few killer tracks. Why should you care, or why should I spend any time trying to make you care? Because on at least four or five of these tracks The Grease Band shows How It's Supposed To Be Done, and because The Grease Band had Henry McCullough and Chris Stainton, a pair of true adepts.   

And because The Grease Band fully embody That Sound: that early ‘70s, warm, fabulously rich (here it comes...) ANALOG sound that folks are still trying to get back to. That sound is evident on the first track, a funky vamp on Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup's "My Baby Left Me" that sidles in and stands around for a few moments before suddenly picking up speed and wrapping itself around McCullough's ragged voice. But what you want out of this track is McCullough's knotty solo, a few short moments of biting, swooping blues-rock guitar candy with a brutal tone to turn others to stone. This little bit of guitar grease puts McCullough right in there with the other British blues-rock guitarists of the time, at least the likes of Rory Gallagher, Kim Simmons, Peter Green and Alvin Lee, if not quite Jeff Beck or Jimmy Page. 

McCullough's acoustic-based numbers like "Mistake No Doubt," "Let it be Gone" and "All I Wanna Do" are solid and well worth repeat listens, especially the ghostly chorus on "Mistake No Doubt." And the lovely gospel-folk "To The Lord" should have/could have run in the end credits to an episode of "Deadwood." But what The Grease Band really excel at is an original take on methodical, mid-tempo rocking, and  "Willie and the Pig"  "Laugh at the Judge" and "Jessie James" nail it to the barn door. "Willie and the Pig" is all snaky, buzzing guitars, multi-tracked keyboards and McCullough's nasally voice married to a sexy, flat beat.  "Jessie James" is a blues rocker w/a country undercurrent that sounds something like a kissing cousin to Fleetwood Mac's "Hi Ho Silver" that came out the year before on Kiln House. But "Laugh at the Judge" is the real ringer, a truly funky rocker that takes the famous Chuck Berry guitar riff, spins it on its ear and puts a funky groove and Stainton's rhythm organ underneath. By the end Stainton's top shelf/lead organ steals the show, hitting notes on the outro as high as any I've ever heard. The album ends w/the beautiful acoustic lament "The Visitor," with Stainton's organ (or maybe harmonium) again taking the lead.

Throughout the record Spenner and Rowlands' rhythm section is flexible, providing intuitive accompaniment to whatever comes their way. There's a cohesiveness evident from the time spent touring and recording together that really shows in how generally relaxed and together the band sounds. There's real joy in how they play together, also evident in the cover photos; these guys are obviously loose and having a good time.

McCullough went on to play in Wings w/Paul McCartney and record with Spooky Tooth, Roy Harper, Marianne Faithful and others. Spenner and Hubbard later played on records by Roxy Music; Stainton is a widely travelled player, playing on numerous releases by Eric Clapton + more by Cocker, Pete Townsend and many more. 

The Grease Band. Yes, they were. 

[Carl Hanni blogs for Blurt. Read his column "Sonic Reducer" here.]

Fifth time around's definitely the charm.

By Blurt Staff

MusicNOW Festival celebrates its 5th year of presenting exciting contemporary music in Cincinnati, Ohio, with three evenings of performances in the intimate 600-seat venue, Memorial Hall (1225 Elm Street)

The festival opens Tuesday, March 30^th with arresting harpist and songwriter Joanna Newsom (pictured). She will perform a handful of US concerts to celebrate the release of Have One on Me, her first release in four years.  Wednesday, March 31^st, St Vincent, led by composer, singer and guitar virtuoso Annie Clark, will present works from their widely acclaimed latest release, Actor, as well as new works venturing deeper into chamber arranging and composition. The same evening dynamic and engaging new music ensemble, Ymusic, will premiere the festival commission written by Clark. Inventive vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Justin Vernon, best known for his work with Bon Iver, presents a rare solo concert which is to be one of his few 2010 dates, to close the festival on April 1^st.

MusicNOW began in 2006 and was founded by Cincinnati native, Bryce Dessner (the National and Clogs) who continues to serve as the festivals' artistic director.

Festival Schedule:

Tuesday, March 30, 2010, 8pm: Joanna Newsom

Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 8pm: St. Vincent

Thursday, April 1, 2010, 8pm:  Justin Vernon            

Tickets are $20 for each concert. A $50 festival pass is available for all three evenings.

Tickets are available at the MusicNOW Festival website or by phone at 800-838-3006

[Photo Credit: Paul O'Valle]

Comedians and musicians including Zach Galifianakis, Janeane Garofalo, Britt Daniel and Justin Vernon.

By Blurt Staff

In addition to that Haiti fundraising telethon tonight and the Radiohead benefit we already told you about, word now arrives via Brooklyn Vegan that another rapidly-assembled benefit will be taking place this weekend. The Brooklyn-based music blog, in conjunction with Bowery Presents, is putting on "A Night of Comedy and Music to Benefit Haiti."

It takes place Saturday night (that's tomorrow, Jan. 23) at the Music Hall of Williamsburg starting at 8 pm. It will feature performances by Zach Galifianakis, Britt Daniel (of Spoon), Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), St. Vincent, Janeane Garofalo, Wyatt Cenac (of the Daily Show), the live debut of John Shade (ex Dave Godowsky) and "possibly more TBA."

Go to the Brooklyn Vegan site for more details, including ticketing info; tickets went on sale today at noon. According to the site, "100% of the proceeds will be split between an orphanage in Haiti (that Zach chose) and the Red Cross."

Incidentally, Pitchfork has a nice roundup of other goings-on around the world in relation to Haitian benefits. You can check out their report here.

"The Poor Boy Can't Dance" taken from excellent new album.

By Blurt Staff

Portland singer-songwriter Barton Carroll became a mainstay of AAA radio with his album The Lost One, issued in January '08 by Skybucket Records. He's just released his second Skybucket album (and fourth overall) titled Together You and I, and the first video from the record, for the song "The Poor Boy Can't Dance," has just arrived. Check it out, below.

Of the album, a cynical narrative runs through it, but Carroll's sardonic wit is coupled with lightly shuffling horns, making for happy sounding songs instead of a somber ones. His tone and sleight-of-hand songwriting skill gained him critical acclaim for The Lost One, from BLURT predecessor Harp, Pitchfork, American Songwriter and more.

A North Carolina native who now lives in Seattle, Carroll's songs are structured in folk traditions he grew up with, but he trades in standard instrumentation for the west coast horn sound of Craig Flory, and the production of jazz bassist, Matt Weiner. The three bonded over a love of the Gerry Mulligan and Paul Desmond records of the 1960's, and the influence comes through. He also sings his first duets with Seattle singer Anna Lisa Notter.

Kieran Hebden's latest entry, There Is Love In You, arrives as an early candidate for year-end best-of lists.

By Dominic Umile

Before he swapped sound files with dubstep heavyweight Burial for their early 2009 Wolf/Moth Club single, London's Kieran Hebden had been a member of revered post-rock project Fridge, he'd collaborated on a number of occasions with jazz drummer Steve Reid, remixed everyone from Madvillain to Black Sabbath, issued a monstrous DJ Kicks contribution, and took on an opener slot for a Radiohead tour. Not unlike his rapidly accelerating eleven-year career, Hebden's output as Four Tet has splintered across the horizon in a dizzying multitude of musical directions.

The productions bearing Kieran Hebden's name have run the gamut from meditative, acoustic/laptop blends to dayglo-flecked dance music, and have included all of the eclectic and drum-heavy styles in between. On his fifth full-length solo album, Hebden explores more of the refined and understated house and techno that characterizes his 2008 Ringer EP, with a generous bundling of the organic elements that have so often enriched his work.

Crackling atmospherics, unrelenting locked grooves, and layers of immaculately organized, cascading accompaniment - There Is Love In You (out this week on Domino) stirs and sweeps, its loop-centric tapestries as lively and as affecting as its uncoiling electronic flourishes. Like much of Ringer, the sensual pre-There Is Love single "Love Cry" holds fast to Hebden's affinity for a slow build. Everything repeats ad nauseum here, but not in the manner that wallpaper-styled minimal techno does. "Love Cry" springs from a solemn percussive place of dry snares and zipped-tight hi hats, but it opens up eventually, with the producer pushing synth bass and a wondrous, disconnected pattern of reverse dial tones just ahead of its mystifyingly live-sounding drum set. "Circling" is a less frantic nod at Ringer's "Ribbons", with arpeggios trickling out of every source possible. It gets even better toward the end; when stuttering guitar lines curl around "She Just Likes To Fight", the track falls thankfully far short of embodying the aggression intended, even amid all of that kitchen-sink percussion.

When the Four Tet-Burial partnership yielded a striking, much-discussed twelve inch, the potential for an ongoing project between the two audiofiles garnered ample speculation. In the meantime, Kieran Hebden serves up melodies and ideas again on his own that captivate just as easily via There Is Love In You, be those far more decorative and high-spirited compared to his work alongside Burial. And if there's a Wolf/Moth Club follow-up in the cards, it's likely Hebden will find the time to make it happen. He tends to do that.

Blurt fave van Etten will open shows for two of her biggest fan. Read exclusive interview excerpts, below.

By Jennifer Kelly

Ed. note: we're sending longtime contributor Jennifer Kelly to see the Sharon van Etten-Damon & Naomi show in Cambridge this weekend. As a lead-in, she interviewed van Etten by phone, and we'll be publishing the full interview along with a firsthand report from the concert in the very near future. - FM

Match.com look out. It was only a couple of weeks ago that Galaxie 500 founders Damon & Naomi were lauding newcomer Sharon van Etten right here on this site.  Now the two artists have hooked up for a two-show, two-city stand, at NYC's 92Y Tribeca on January 30 and Cambridge's Brattle Theater  on January 31^th.

Van Etten's Because I Was In Love, released late last spring on Greg Weeks' Language of Stone imprint, was one of last year's surprise favorites at Blurt, garnering the songwriter comparisons to Cat Power and a very respectable 36 ranking, just ahead of Tom Waits.

What's so special about Because I Was In Love? Well, for one thing, Van Etten's voice is pure and extremely beautiful, with a little of Joni Mitchell's dreamy clarity, a bit of Kath Bloom's tremulous slides. She's sung in choirs nearly all her life, starting in elementary school, but her voice has a simplicity that belies formal training. That makes sense since she says PJ Harvey, another very capable singer who sometimes throws formal technique to the winds, was one of our her primary inspirations. She particularly likes the demos where Harvey is at her bluntest and least premeditated. "She just lets go and doesn't add too much," said Van Etten in a recent phone interview. "It's raw and real. It made me realize that you can know how to sing and know how to play and still be yourself. "

On her first record, Van Etten performs nearly the all the parts (producer Greg Weeks added a few synths, one woodblock and a bit of guitar on "It's Not Like"), including the lush, eerie harmonies that embellish songs like "Some Dream" and "Keep." Her lyrics are mostly couched in ordinary, day-to-day language, without much reliance on metaphors or flowery description. "I know that my lyrics are not overly poetic," said Van Etten. "That's on purpose. I want to have a regular conversation, being really direct without having to go overboard on imagery. "

Van Etten wrote her songs over a six-year period dominated by one difficult romantic relationship, so there's a fair amount of heartbreak in these achingly beautiful songs. Even "Consolation Song," written after she'd moved back East from college (and her unsupportive, emo-kid boyfriend), reflects a wary frustration with social life in Brooklyn, where she now lives.   "That song is about going back into the dating world and meeting real New Yorkers that just have no attention span," she said. "You know, people that are always waiting for someone better to come around. It was me learning how to deal with that after a six-year relationship."

Van Etten has been touring lately - she was getting ready for a show in Milwaukee when we spoke - so she hasn't had much time to write. She's got lots of ideas, though, she says, and plans to concentrate on new material after her tour.  She's thinking about old-time country music she says, and maybe even some pedal steel.

In the meantime, there are those dates with Damon & Naomi (and also Michio Kurihari from Ghost). Asked if she sees any similarly between Damon & Naomi's music and her own, Van Etten says, "Not now - they're more polished than I am - but I would one day like to be more like them. I really like the love that they have for each other and for the people that come to their shows. I like the really subtle instrumentation that they do and the focus on the lyrics."

[Photo credit:  Dusdin Condren  www.dusdin.com]

New album will arrive via 4AD some time in May. Tix onsale tomorrow.

By Blurt Staff

The National have confirmed their first shows of the new decade. Highlights include their biggest headlining shows to date in NYC and London at Radio City Music Hall and Royal Albert Hall respectively, a performance with Pavement in Paris, and additional US dates on both coasts with more to be announced soon.

Prior to the kick off of the tour the band will make a special appearance at the Big Ears festival in Knoxville, TN on March 26-28. The festival is being co-curated by The National guitarist Bryce Dessner, who is also curating the MusicNow festival in his hometown of Cincinnati, OH, set for March 30- April 1.

On all the dates below, The National will perform songs from their as yet untitled new album to be released in May on 4AD.

Pre-sale for the tour starts tomorrow, Jan. 26. Go to this website for details, including the password (hint: it's BloodBuzz).

Tour Dates:

MAR 26-28: Knoxville, TN @ Big Ears Festival

APR 22-23: Richmond, VA @ The National Theater
MAY 6: London, England @ Royal Albert Hall
MAY 7: Paris, France @ Le Zenith (w/Pavement)
MAY 9: Berlin, Germany @ Astra
MAY 22: Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern
MAY 23: San Diego, CA @ Spreckels Theater
MAY 27: Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
JUN 02: Boston, MA @ House of Blues
JUN 5: Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory
JUN 6: Washington DC @ DAR Constitution Hall
JUN 8: Toronto, Ont. @ Massey Hall
JUN 16: New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall

Debut album arrives next month along with a national tour with Pretty And Nice plus Ted Leo & the Pharmacists.

By Blurt Staff

Just a few days ago we brought you word of how ex-Georgie James member Laura Burhenn was resuming performing and recording under the name Mynabirds, with a debut album due in April. Not to be outdone, Burhenn's former partner in Georgie James, John Davis (also late of Q And Not U) has just announced his return to the boards. He's calling the project Title Tracks, and in a preemptive move the debut full-length It Was Easy arrives Feb. 23 via Ernest Jenning, two months before Burhenn's.

We'll eschew speculation over the respective timings of these new releases, and anyway, Davis had apparently started writing for the project way back in early 2008, a number of months prior to the Georgie James breakup. It contains nine original songs and two covers (Bruce Springsteen's "Tougher Than The Rest" and The Byrds' "She Don't Care About Time"). The originals run the spectrum from the taut, angry "Every Little Bit Hurts," "Found Out" (both of which, in different recordings, were released as a single on Dischord Records in April 2009) and "Piles Of Paper" to the sunnier "Hello There" and "Steady Love" to the melancholy "At Fifteen," "No, Girl" and the title track.

Other than a turn from guest saxophonist Kriston Capps on "No, Girl," Davis plays all of the instruments on the record, a skill gained from his years as a drummer in Q And Not U and a guitarist/singer in Georgie James. Tracyanne Campbell of Camera Obscura guests on two songs as well, "No, Girl" and "Tougher Than The Rest."

It was recorded and produced by Nick Anderson along with Davis and Chad Clark at Brookland Studios and Silver Sonya Studios in the early months of 2009. Touring will follow throughout the spring of 2009 and on into the year, including stops in Austin for SXSW. For live shows, John is joined by his friends Nick Anderson on guitar, Michael Cotterman on bass and Andrew Black on drums.

Tour Dates:

2.11.10 Washington DC Black Cat w/ Pretty & Nice
2.14.10 Pittsburgh, PA Brillobox w/ Pretty & Nice
2.15.09 Dayton, OH South Park Tavern w/ Pretty & Nice
2.16.10 Pontiac, MI The Pike Room w/ Pretty & Nice
2.18.10 Chicago, IL The Hideout w/ Pretty & Nice
2.19.10 Madison, WI Der Rathskellar at Wisconsin Union w/ Pretty & Nice
2.20.10 St. Louis, MO The Firebird w/ Pretty & Nice
2.21.10 Memphis, TN Hi Tone Cafe w/ Pretty & Nice
2.23.10 Denton, TX Rubber Gloves w/ Pretty & Nice
2.24.10 Austin, TX The Mohawk w/ Pretty & Nice
2.26.10 Tallahassee, FL Club Downunder w/ Pretty & Nice
2.27.10 Orlando, FL Will's Pub w/ Pretty & Nice
2.28.10 Atlanta, GA Drunken Unicorn w/ Pretty & Nice
3.1.10 Chapel Hill, NC Local 506 w/ Pretty & Nice
3.2.10 Richmond, VA Gallery 5 w/ Pretty & Nice
3.3.10 Baltimore, MD Golden West Cafe w/ Gary B & The Notions, Pretty & Nice
3.4.10 Philadelphia, PA Kung Fu Knecktie w/ Pretty & Nice
3.5.10 Cambridge, MA Middle East Upstairs w/ Pretty & Nice, Gary B & The Notions
3.6.10 Brooklyn, NY Union Hall w/ Pretty & Nice, Gary B & The Notions
3.7.10 NY, NY Cake Shop w/ Pretty & Nice
3.11.10 Cleveland, OH Grog Shop w/ Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
3.12.10 Pontiac, MI The Crofoot w/ Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
3.13.10 Chicago, IL The Bottom Lounge w/ Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
3.14.10 Madison, WI High Noon Saloon w/ Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
3.15.10 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue w/ Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
3.17-20.10 Austin, TX SXSW

As we await the long-playing followup to Merriweather Post Pavilion, let's dip back to the point where the Baltimore/Brooklyn band started to get our attention.

By Ron Hart

With the success of their universally creamed-upon 2009 release Merriweather Post Pavilion and its subsequent Grateful Dead-sampling EP Fall Be Kind, Animal Collective bid farewell to the ‘00s in a hailstorm of happy hype.  So what better time than now to revisit one of the great lost gems of the group's catalog.

Originally released in 2003 on their own Catsup Plate vanity imprint, Campfire Songs, newly reissued on Paw Tracks, serves as the turning point in the Animal Collective story where Panda Bear, Avey Tare and co. transcended the electronically enhanced squalls of noise that overpowered much of their early material like 2001's Danse Manatee in favor of a stoned soul picnic of mellow modality. Recorded on a porch in the band's native Maryland utilizing nothing more than some acoustic guitars and mini-disc players (remember those??) capturing the atmospherics of their surroundings like chirping birds, insects and trees blowing in the wind, the five tracks here meditative in nature and Holy Modal Rounders-esque in their chant-like, devotional tone as the group is captured aiming to become one with the environment that envelops them.

Campfire Songs is one of the great products of the early ‘00s "freak-folk" movement and a telltale precursor to the Collective's true masterpiece, 2004's Sung Tongs. It's great to see it back in print.

[Photo Credit: Benjamin Corrigan]

Studio-obsessed indie rockers celebrating the start of a new decade with the release of their seventh studio album.

Travellers in Space and Time just may be Apples In Stereo's most hi-fi and hook-laden production to date. Described by frontman Robert Schneider as "retro-futuristic super-pop," the album is the official follow-up to 2007's New Magnetic Wonder, and the band's second release for Elijah Wood's Simian Records. The album will be released on April 20 via Yep Roc/Simian/Elephant 6.

Travellers contains sixteen piano-driven tracks, bubbling over with vocoder harmonies and sci-fi sound effects, like 70's AM radio filtered through a UFO; including the robotic first single "Dance Floor", the four-on-the-floor dream-scape "Hey Elevator", the Hall and Oates-tinged "Told You Once", and the epic, yearning "Dream About The Future," among many instant hits. The musical theme heard in these songs is strung throughout Travellers: intense pop hooks and electronic sounds, mixed with a pumping, get-up-and-moonwalk beat.

"I wanted to make a futuristic pop record, to reach out to the kids of the future," Schneider relates. "It is what I imagine their more highly-evolved pop might sound like: shiny soul music with robots and humans singing together, yet informed by the music of our time. So we are sending a pop music message through time, hoping they will decode it and be into it."

It is the first studio album from The Apples in stereo to feature new drummer John Dufilho, lead singer of Dallas indie rockers The Deathray Davies; and sees Bill Doss (Olivia Tremor Control, Elephant 6) and John Ferguson (Ulysses, Big Fresh), longtime Schneider collaborators, as full-time keyboardists in the band, alongside veteran members John Hill (guitar) and Eric Allen (bass). Original drummer Hilarie Sidney left the band in 2006.

Anyone familiar with The Apples in stereo's career will know Schneider's ever-evolving production process is as intricate as the recordings he generates. Engaging the same primary engineering team used to record New Magnetic Wonder, most notably Bryce Goggin (Trout Studio's vintage recording wizard), as well as many studio-savvy friends and cohorts, the band spent well over a year in the studio recasting their signature pop sounds in chrome-plated futurism, all while adding a dance-driven vibe channeling ELO, Barry Gibb, Wild Honey-era Beach Boys and Off The Wall-era Michael Jackson.

With Travellers in Space and Time, Schneider continues experimenting with his recent invention, the Non-Pythagorean musical scale based on the logarithm, a mathematical function. Schneider is a passionate student of mathematics, and recently composed music based on prime numbers for a play written by world-class mathematician Andrew Granville, performed at the hallowed Institute for Advanced Study (home of Albert Einstein) in Princeton, New Jersey. Travellers includes "C.P.U.," the first pop song ever to incorporate this novel scale.

In addition, the album features songwriting contributions from all of the other Apples, including "Wings Away" (Bill Doss/John Ferguson), "Next Year At About The Same Time" (Eric Allen), "No Vacation" (John Ferguson/Robert Schneider), "Floating Away" (John Dufilho), and "Dignified Dignitary" (Robert Schneider/Bill Doss/John Hill).

The 2007 hit album, New Magnetic Wonder, spawned late night performances on Conan and Colbert, commercial placements for The Apples' music (Pepsi, New Balance, Samsung, and numerous others), invitations to perform at many prestigious festivals and venues (All Tomorrows Parties, Pitchfork, Primavera Sound, R.E.M. Charity Tribute Concert at Carnegie Hall), and a world tour that took the band as far away as Taiwan - not to mention a polished performance of their hit song "Energy" by the contestants on American Idol.

Since then, the band has been increasingly busy, gaining ownership of their spinART Records back catalog and readying the albums for re-release, compiling the best-of #1 Hits Explosion, and releasing Electronic Projects for Musicians, an album of rarities. Schneider also made his children's music debut with 2009's Robbert Bobbert and the Bubble Machine (Little Monster Records), which made it to many Year-End Best Of lists; made numerous mathematics convention appearances; released Buddha Electrostorm (Garden Gate Records), an album of lo-fi garage-psych recorded with his brother-in-law Craig Morris (who played and engineered on Travellers) under the name Thee American Revolution; and topped it all off with his featured keynote talk and Australian debut performance at the Big Sound Music Conference, where he was featured alongside many musical luminaries, including noted Brian Wilson collaborator (and one of Schneider's heroes), Van Dyke Parks... and all of this while hard at work on The Apples' most ambitious studio production yet.

[Photo Credit: Adam Cantor]

But what exactly are "modern day versions" of Madonna, the Ramones and Talking Heads? Lady Gaga, Green Day and Arcade Fire already have record deals!

By Blurt Staff

Founders of legendary Sire Records, Richard Gottehrer and Seymour Stein (pictured),just announced the relaunch of the equally legendary record label Blue Horizon, intended, in their words, as "a venture that aims to introduce the world to emerging artists across a wide spectrum of genres" and utilizing "their unparalleled talents for discovering new and compelling music to incubate the careers of budding musicians."

Blue Horizon will leverage the global reach and innovative marketing of The Orchard (Gottehrer's company), while upstreaming select releases to Warner Bros. Records (Stein's company). Blue Horizon will be run from The Orchard's offices and be home to modern day versions of Madonna, The Ramones, Talking Heads (all artists previously signed to Sire Records), etc.

You can view a video of the MIDEM press conference announcing the new venture here.

Getting' ready to take care of the fucking job, yo.

By Blurt Staff

As previously announced, the new Drive-By Truckers album, The Big To-Do, arrives March 16 via ATO. As a teaser we've got a free MP3 from the album for ya:

MP3: "This Fucking Job"

This is the seventh DBT album that has featured original artwork by Wes Freed. The band has a very special relationship with Wes, they never tell him what to draw and often give him no input at all, yet he always seems to find some subtext, often one they didn't know was there, that he brings out and runs with. That relationship has hit a new level on this album, as he basically illustrated every song. He honed in on the circus allusions of The Rock Show and how it all could be tied together in The Big To-Do. Look for more pieces to be unveiled in the weeks prior to release date.

In other DBT news, the premiere screening of the new band documentary, The Secret To A Happy Ending, is scheduled for February 5 at AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, MD. Director Barr Weissman, Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley and Brad Morgan will be on hand for a Q&A after the screening. An additional midnight screening has just been announced, and then on Feb. 28 it will have its West Coast premiere at Noise Pop. Meanwhile, the band's set to embark upon a string of dates this week, followed by a full tour starting Feb. 11.

Screenings:

Fri Feb 5      Silver Spring, MD     AFI Silver Theatre sold out

*Sat Feb 6     Silver Spring, MD     AFI Silver Theatre

*This is a midnight screening after the screening on Feb 5.

Sun Feb 28   San Francisco, CA    Noise Pop Film Festival

Tour Dates:

Thu Jan 28            Huntsville, AL             Crossroads Music Hall
Fri Jan 29            Mobile, AL                        Soul Kitchen
Sat Jan 30            Tuscaloosa, AL            Jupiter Bar & Grill
Thu Feb 11            Greenville, SC            Handlebar
Fri Feb 12            Raleigh, NC                        Lincoln Theatre
Sat Feb 13            Raleigh, NC                        Lincoln Theatre
Sun Feb 14            Knoxville, TN                        Bijou Theatre
Thu Feb 25            Charlotte, NC                        Neighborhood Theatre
Fri Feb 26            Charlottesville, VA            Jefferson Theatre
Sat Feb 27            Charlottesville, VA            Jefferson Theatre

Thu Mar 04            Wilmington NC            Rox Nightclub

Sat Mar 06            Augusta GA                        Sky City

Fri Mar 12            Atlanta GA                        Variety Playhouse

Sat Mar 13            Atlanta GA                        Variety Playhouse

Thu Mar 18            Austin, TX                        SXSW

Fri Mar 19            New Orleans LA            Tipitinas

Sat Mar 20            New Orleans LA            Tipitinas

Thu Apr 01            New York NY                        Webster Hall

Fri Apr 02            Boston MA                        House of Blues

Sat Apr 03            Philadelphia PA            Electric Factory

Tue Apr 06            Toronto Canada            Lee's Palace

Wed Apr 07            Toronto Canada            Lee's Palace

Thu Apr 08            Detroit MI                        St. Andrews Hall

Fri Apr 09            Chicago IL                        The Vic Theatre

Sat Apr 10            Lexington KY                        Buster's Billiards and Backroom

Sun Apr 11            Cleveland OH                        Beachland Ballroom and Tavern

Wed Apr 14            Towson MD                        Recher Theatre

Thu Apr 15            Norfolk VA                        The Norva

Fri Apr 16            Asheville NC                        The Orange Peel

Sat Apr 17            Asheville NC                        The Orange Peel

Fri Apr 30            Nashville TN                        Cannery Ballroom

Fri May 07            Los Angeles CA            Avalon

Sat May 08            San Francisco CA            The Fillmore Auditorium

3/6 , 3/12, 3/13 David Barbe and the Quick Hooks support

4/1 - 4/17 Langhorne Slim supports

4/2 & 4/3 with Lucero

"Not all records made in the golden era of tape sounded great." Words to live by.

By Blurt Staff

Okay, all you analog heads, you think you're holding all the cards? Maybe, maybe not. But as BLURT blogger - and esteemed NYC producer - suggests, the digital and tape divide may be more illusory than you want to admit. He challenges some of the common wisdom in the latest installment of his "The End Credits" blog, going all the way back to the dawn of the digital era.

In "The Tape Fetish" Bisi writes, "There's a natural fear in people that ‘something is being lost' with changing technologies, lifestyles etc. It's human nature that someone's gonna be paranoid. So it makes sense that at the onset of digital in the 80's, some people asked, ‘Is the soul of music being lost, because it's being turned into digital 1's and 0's ?'"

Read Bisi's entire blog here - it just may give you food for thought. Remember, "not all records made in the golden era of tape sounded great."

And we've got plenty of shitty-sounding indie rock albums from the ‘80s to prove it...

This is what Lady Gaga has wrought...

By Blurt Staff

With a photo like the above, making the internet rounds, you just knew there was gonna be more.... It's Karin Dreijer Andersson, aka Fever Ray, aka ½ of The Knife - the latter, just to remind you, looks like this, and they have a new rec due soon too:

Of course, lately she's been looking more, er, feverish, posing for promo photos like this:

At any rate, Fever Ray won an award last week at Sweden's P3 Guld, an annual public radio awards show, nabbing one for "Best Dance." Now the actual footage of her acceptance "speech" (term used loosely - you'll see what we mean) has surfaced on YouTube (thanks for the tip, Pitchfork), and it's pretty, er, face melting shit. Enjoy! Incidentally, she'll be playing Coachella on April 16, and it just may be hot enough to make everyone else's faces melt that day....

Key reissues from Cluster plus members Roedelius and Moebius guaranteed to tickle your inner krautrocker.

By Ron Hart

Much ado is made about the ‘70s output of German electronic music pioneers Cluster. And as it should, given the wealth of adventure and innovation Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius presented to avant-garde music fans over the course of that entire decade, both on their own and in collaboration with the likes of Brian Eno and Can's Holger Cuzkay as well as Michael Rother from Neu! as part of the Krautrock supergroup Harmonia.

However, as the excellent Bureau B label continues to deliver the goods with their reissue series of the Cluster family's Sky Records catalog, it should be well noted that the dynamic duo's ‘80s output is well worth one's attention, too. We've got a look at four of those key reissues today in our CD review section, so check it out and dig deep.

Cluster pictured above in a recent picture; below, in the ‘70s.

Nick Jonas & the Administration tie with Lil Wayne, with Vampire Weekend a relatively close second place.

By Fred Mills

The BLURT readers have spoken: for our most recent poll we asked you to select, from a list of a dozen first-quarter '09 new releases currently being hotly hyped by record labels and trendy/tastemaker bloggers alike, which titles were the least anticipated.

As you can see from the stats tally below, Nick Jonas & the Administration's Who I Am and Lil Wayne's Rebirth, both of which arrive in stores next week, Feb. 2, were the clear frontrunners, and it's interesting that they were tied for first place with 26% of the total vote apiece. (Given Lil Wayne's token status as a Pitchforkian hipster, maybe this represents a reactionary vote aimed at Pitchfork - the Jonas nod was kind of a no-brainer, after all, and we have to admit that record's inclusion in the poll was kind of a setup. Hey, go take your OWN poll if ya don't like it!)

Band du jour Vampire Weekend is currently ripping up the Billboard charts with 100k-plus first week sales and counting (must have been a slow first week - apparently every person on the planet has already bought Susan Boyne and Taylor Swift, and the only thing that's left to do, marketing wise, is airlift copies of those two monster sellers to Haitian refugees). So it's not surprising a backlash has already started, and we're chuffed to report that V.W.'s Contra officially comes in at second (or third) place. Natalie Merchant's Leave Your Sleep, due March 2, comes in next. Sorry Vampire Weekend and Ms. Merchant, it's not us, it's you.

Everything else is pretty well evenly spread out, although since Liars' Sisterworld, due March 9, received zero votes, that makes the band technically the winners here. We're eager to hear that one too, to be perfectly honest, so congrats to Liars, who have won an all-expenses paid trip to Orlando to see Nick Jonas & the Administration open their world tour - don't forget to cover up first, boys.

Poll Results (54 votes total)

15% w/8 votes Vampire Weekend - Contra (1-12)

4% w/2 votes OK Go - Of The Blue Colour of the Sky (1-12)

2% w/1 vote Editors - In This Light and On This Evening (1-19)

6% w/3 votes Spoon - Transference (1-19)

26% w/14 votes Nick Jonas & the Administration - Who I Am (2-2)

26% w/14 votes Lil Wayne - Rebirth (2-2)

2% w/1 vote Hot Chip - One Life Stand (2-9)

2% w/1 vote TobyMac - Tonight (2-9)

4% w/2 vote The Game - The R.E.D. Album (2-16)

9% w/5 votes Natalie Merchant - Leave Your Sleep (3-2)

6% w/3 votes Butch Walker - I Liked it Better When You Had No Heart (2-23)

0% w/0 votes Liars - Sisterworld (3-9)

Marketers' heads abuzz with possibilities. Meanwhile, Holly Golightly, Gemma Ray, Spinnerette and State Radio get to share column space with Tom Waits, She & Him, Black Keys and Aimee Mann, so it's all good!

By Blurt Staff

The New Jersey-based Independent Music Awards announced last night the winners of the 9^th annual IMAs.  Among the top winners: All That Remains, Spinnerette, Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs (pictured above; see our recent live review of Holly here), The So So Glos, Alaska In Winter, Beat Circus, Gemma Ray, Illa J and State Radio.

There are tons of winners who you've most likely never heard of too, but hey, that's why they're called "independent," so obscure or not, congrats to everyone. You've got a brand spanking new marketing opp staring you in the face now.

More than 50 categories for albums, songs, music videos and design comprised this year's competition, and winners were determined by the votes of a panel of "80 influential artists and industry pros." Those artists and pros included Tom Waits, The Black Keys, Ricky Skaggs, Pete Wentz, Mark Hoppus, Aimee Mann, The Apples in Stereo, David Garrett, Suzanne Vega, Bettye LaVette, Judy Collins, Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward.

"The IMAs celebrate artists who follow their own muse and the true music fans who support them," IMA Executive Director Martin Folkman, in a statement. "The artists who've been honored by The IMAs create some of the best music you may never have heard, and we're delighted to promote them at the world's largest music retailer," he added, noting that iTunes has set up a section for releases from the winters at the iTunes store "Indie Spotlight" page.

Additionally, regular every day music fans can vote on their fave nominees for the IMA People's Voice competition. Deadline is June 25 and you can register at IMA and vote here.

Complete List of Winners:

ALT. COUNTRY - ALBUM

Artist: Beat Circus
Album: Boy From Black Mountain
Label: Cuneiform

AMERICANA - ALBUM
Artist: Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Album: Dirt Don't Hurt
Label: Transdreamer

BLUES - ALBUM
Artist: Joe & Vicki Price
Album: Rain or Shine

CHILDREN'S - ALBUM
Artist: Charlie Hope
Album: I'm Me! A Collection Of Songs For Children
Label: Little Maple Leaf Productions

COLLEGE LABEL RELEASE - ALBUM
Album: AEMMP Records Chompilation
Label: AEMMP Records, Columbia College Chicago

CONCEPT - ALBUM
Artist: Phil Roy
Album: In The Weird Small Hours
Label: Ear Pictures

CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN - ALBUM
Artist: John Mandeville
Album: We Belong To Heaven
Label: I.P.O. Records

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL - ALBUM
Artist: Heritage Orchestra feat. DJ Yoda
Album: G. Prokofiev Concerto for Turntables
Label: Nonclassical Recordings

COUNTRY - ALBUM
Artist: Dale Watson
Album: The Truckin' Sessions, Vol. 2
Label: Hyena Records

DANCE/ELECTRONICA - ALBUM
Artist: Alaska in Winter
Album: Holiday
Label: Milan Records

ECLECTIC - ALBUM
Artist: Gemma Ray
Album: Lights Out Zoltar!
Label: Bronzerat Records

FOLK/SINGER-SONGWRITER - ALBUM
Artist: Michael Zapruder
Album: Dragon Chinese C0cktail Horoscope
Label: Side Cho

GOSPEL - ALBUM
Artist: Russell Leonce
Album: Culture of Love

HARD ROCK/METAL - ALBUM
Artist: All That Remains
Album: Overcome
Label: Razor & Tie Entertainment

INDIE LABEL PROMO COMPILATION - ALBUM
Album: Cedille On The Move
Label: Cedille Records

JAZZ - ALBUM
Artist: Derrick Gardner & The Jazz Prophets
Album: Echoes Of Ethnicity
Label: Owl Studios

LATIN - ALBUM
Artist: Maestros del Joropo Oriental
Album: ¡Y Que Viva Venezuela!
Label: Smithsonian Folkways

LIVE PERFORMANCE - ALBUM
Artist: Danielia Cotton
Album: Live Child
Label: Cottontown Records

NEW AGE - ALBUM
Artist: Rocky Fretz
Album: The Path Ahead...And Steps Then Taken

POP/ROCK - ALBUM
Artist: Spinnerette
Album: Spinnerette
Label: Anthem

PUNK - ALBUM
Artist: The So So Glos
Album: Tourism / Terrorism
Label: Green Owl

R&B - ALBUM
Artist: Michael Olatuja
Album: Speak
Label: Backdrop/ObliqSound

RAP/HIP-HOP - ALBUM
Artist: Illa J
Album: Yancey Boys
Label: Delicious Vinyl

WORLD BEAT - ALBUM
Artist: Oran Etkin
Album: Kelenia
Label: Motema Music

WORLD TRADITIONAL - ALBUM
Album: Blodeugerdd Song Of The Flowers: An Anthology Of Welsh Music And Song
Label: Smithsonian Folkways

[IMA SONG CATEGORY WINNERS]

ACOUSTIC - SONG
Artist: Joanna Chapman-Smith
Song: "Melodies"

ALT. COUNTRY - SONG
Artist: My Cousin, The Emperor
Song: "A Long Way From Home"

AMERICANA - SONG
Artist: Tim Easton
Song: "Burgundy Red"
Label: New West Records

BLUES - SONG
Artist: Used Blues Band
Song: "Palm Reader Blues"

CHILDREN'S - SONG
Artist: Charlie Hope
Song: "I'm Me!"
Label: Little Maple Leaf Productions

CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN - SONG
Artist:Christopher Williams
Song: "Anything But Fail"
Label: BiG ReD VaN Music

COUNTRY - SONG
Artist: Codie Prevost
Song: "Spin"
Label: Goos Spirit Records

COVER - SONG
Artist: Daisy Chapman
Song: "Umbrella" Orig. by Rihanna
Label: Dandyland

DANCE/ELECTRONICA - SONG
Artist: Codebreaker
Song: "Follow Me"
Label: Disco Demolition Records

FILM/TV/GAMING & MULTIMEDIA - SONG
Artist: The Submarines
Song: "You, Me and the Bourgeoisie" from the Apple iPhone 3GS ad
Label: Nettwerk

FOLK/SINGER-SONGWRITER - SONG
Artist: Wolf In the Fold
Song: "Death"

GOSPEL - SONG
Artist: Noreen Crayton
Song: "Walking in the Faith"
Label: Angelic Star Records

HARD ROCK/METAL - SONG
Artist: Moving Atlas
Song: "Becoming Blue"

JAZZ - SONG
Artist: Austin McMahon
Song: "Platone"
Label: Fractamodi

LATIN - SONG
Artist: Jimmy Fontanez
Song: "Mi Salsa Vocal"

LOVE - SONG
Artist: Emma-Lee
Song: "Until We Meet Again"
Label: Bumstead Productions

NEW AGE - SONG
Artist: Tom Yoder
Song: "Locked In"

POP/ROCK - SONG
Artist: fun.
Song: "All The Pretty Girls"
Label: Nettwerk

PUNK - SONG
Artist: The So So Glos
Song: "My Block"
Label: Green Owl

R&B - SONG
Artist: Shoshana Bean
Song: "Superhero"
Label: Shotime Records

RAP/HIP-HOP - SONG
Artist: Miles Jones
Song: "Coast to Coast"

SING OUT FOR SOCIAL ACTION - SONG
Artist: State Radio
Song: "Calling All Crows"
Label: Nettwerk

STORY - SONG
Artist: Lisa Carver
Song: "Bullets"
Label: Adroit Records

WORLD BEAT - SONG
Artist: The Very Best
Song: "Warm Heart of Africa" feat. Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig
Label: Green Owl

WORLD TRADITIONAL - SONG
Artist: Roman Miroshnichenko
Song: "Unforgiven"
Label: Raritet

[IMA MUSIC VIDEO CATEGORY WINNERS]

SHORT FORM
Artist: Anj
Video: "Gorbachev"

LONG FORM

Artist: The Jimmies
Video: Trying Funny Stuff DVD

[IMA DESIGN CATEGORY WINNERS]

ALBUM PACKAGING
Designer: Tri-Plex Packaging Corp. of New York
Package: Pete Seeger - American Favorite Ballads: Vol. 1-5

ALBUM PHOTOGRAPHY
Photographer: Michael Aghajanian
Photo: Sholi

ARTIST/BAND PUBLICITY PHOTO
Photographer: Jason Grover
Photo: Blake Berglund

CONCERT/PERFORMANCE PHOTO
Photographer: Killshot Photography * Brooks Institute
Photo: GWAR

BAND/VENUE POSTER
Designer: Matt Kelley - One Lucky Guitar
Poster: Lead Belly

BAND WEBSITE
New Rhodes

INDIE LABEL WEB SITE
Razor & Tie

MUSIC BUSINESS WEBSITE
Music2 Management

SWAG
Blame Sally

Album due April 13 on Hawk Race Records; March tour opening for Coheed and Cambria is locked in.

By Blurt Staff

Tracklisting:

1. The Eyes Of Cassandra (Part 1)
2. The Eyes Of Cassandra (Part 2)
3. Oye Vaya
4. Ghost And The Witness
5. Shotgun
6. Holy Immortality
7. Sea Of Japan
8. Black Sea Vacation
9. Bill Evans
10. Out Of Air
11. Misty Morning




Tour Dates:

Jan 30 - Brooklyn Bowl - Brooklyn, NY
Mar 23 - Harro East Theatre & Ballroom w/ Coheed and Cambrial - Rochester, NY
Mar 24 - The Westcott Theater w/ Coheed and Cambria - Syracuse, NY
Mar 25 - Northern Lights w/ Cohee d and Cambria - Clifton Park, NY
Mar 26 - Higher Ground w/ Coheed and Cambria - South Burlington, VT
Mar 28 - Port City Music Hall w/ Coheed and Cambria - Portland, ME
Mar 29 Webster Theater w/ Cohee d and Cambria - Hartford, CT
Mar 30 Hardware Bar w/ Coheed a nd Cambria - Scranton, PA
Mar 31 - Music Hall of Williamsbu rg w/ Coheed and Cambria - Brooklyn, New York
Jun 4 - Wakarusa Festival - Ozark, Arkansas
Jun 5 - Wakarusa Festival - Ozark, Arkansas

"A night of deep noise" for European audiences; plus, the original album gets remastered and reissued on high-end audio.

By Blurt Staff

Lou Reed's Metal Machine Trio will embark on a UK and European tour on April 17th, when they perform what is described as "A Night of Deep Noise."

Featuring Lou Reed (processed & unprocessed guitars & mini continuum), Ulrich Krieger (tenor sax & live-electronics), and Sarth Calhoun (live processing & continuum fingerboard), the Metal Machine Trio concerts, although influenced and inspired by Reed's 1975 album Metal Machine Music, won't duplicate the original album, but will instead opt for entirely new unique music, noise and soundscapes.

The band initially debuted in October 2008 at the Redcat Theatre in Los Angeles, and they perform with "no songs and no vocals" - instead, they use their instruments and electronics "to venture into deep acoustic space... new music, free jazz, avant-rock, noise and ambient in a set of intense conceptual pieces and intuitive improvisations."

To coincide with the tour, Reed will release a newly re-mastered edition of Metal Machine Music on 180 gram double gatefold vinyl, Audio DVD & Blu-ray. Each format features a stereo reproduction of the original quadraphonic master, playable on home theatre systems. The album was previously reissued as a remastered CD in 2000 as a specially-packaged edition, and before that on regular CD in 1998; and 2007 brought the re-creation of MMM (or at least three parts of it), by Zeitkratzer. Reed subsequently performed with Zeitkratzer live in Berlin. But this will represent Reed's newly tinkering with the material for vinyl and high-end audio.

Lou Reed on the re-mastered edition of Metal Machine Music:

"The original. The one that started it all. Noise Rock. Industrial Road. Underground for years, it survived on the power of the idea. No key. No Vocals. No set rhythm. Feedback forever. Supervised by Lou Reed and faithfully re-mastered to the last squeal. The out of print "Quad" has been replicated for all formats including a perfect vinyl version playable on your stereo turntable with the original rear sections moved to the centre of the front left speakers. It's worth getting a turntable to hear this. I myself bought a Linn to celebrate the great sound and am playing it through Wilson Watts and Puppies. Here it as we did on Scott Hull's Duntechs. Straight from the original Bob Ludwig tapes. An act of love for an act of sound."

The MM3 European tour dates:

 Cambridge Junction (April 17)

Oxford O2 Academy (April 18),

Ether Festival - Royal Festival Hall, London (April 19),

La Cigale, Paris (April 21),

Domino Festival - Ancienne Belgique, Brussels (April 22),

DR Koncerthuset, Copenhagen (April 24),

Sentrum Scene, Oslo (April 26),

Ole Bull Scene, Bergen (April 27),

Festival Alternatilla - Teatre Principal de Palma, Mallorca (April 30).

[Photo credit: copyright Amy-Beth McNeely; courtesy Noble PR]

Oz mainstay from the Scientists/Beasts of Bourbon revs up his other classic outfit for March album; Scientists will be doing ATP as well.

By Fred Mills

A little over a year ago we sat down with Australian guitar god Kim Salmon, of the legendary Scientists (an influence on Mudhoney, Sonic Youth and scores more) and Beasts of Bourbon. For that "Blurting With..." interview he talked primarily about his then-current project, the Darling Downs, a collaboration with Died Pretty vocalist Ron Peno. However he also brought us up to date on the Scientists, who'd gotten back together briefly in 2007 for a European reunion tour. And he added that the band he formed following the Scientists' initial split, the Surrealists, had a new lease on life as well, following some dates they'd done in 2006. Offered Salmon:

"It has been great revisiting what the Scientists did, and it has rekindled something that I can pursue with the Surrealists, who never actually broke up and are, I believe, able to grow and evolve. For me, Blood Red River [Scientists, 1983], The Human Jukebox [Scientists, 1987] and Hit Me with the Surreal Feel [Surrealists, 1988] follow a natural path that I got diverted from throughout the nineties. Anyway, it put me back in touch with what I was trying to do back then, and a lot of ideas that have been mulling over in my head for a decade and a half have just fallen into place since doing the Scientists tours. I'd never get any of it past some of the Scientists members and they're just not the right people for it now - and I'm not knocking them either, just saying it like it is.

 "The Surrealists, on the other hand, have just picked up all the ideas and run with them. It's amazing. We're definitely going to do another album and it's going to follow on seamlessly from Hit Me With The Surreal Feel, which was so far ahead in time compared with anything I've done subsequently that it won't be a step back in time." 

The Surrealists essentially had picked up the ball from the Scientists, although the Surrealists were a bit jazzier and more freeform than their decidedly skronky, swampy predecessor, and in a very real sense, the Surrealists were able to make greater commercial inroads too, touring Europe and America with bands like the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and the Cramps. Key release: 1993's Sin Factory, which did quite respectably at college radio.

So today news arrive that, indeed, the Surrealists are back on the boards: due March 6 in Australia (early May in the US) is Grand Unifying Theory, on the Low Transit Industries label. According to the Salmon camp:

With the 2006 reunion of the Surrealists, for the Spanish Azkena Festival, Kim was re-acquainted with the free jazz/noise/ fusion bug and resolved to get the band back together for at least long enough to work through what it started back in the late 1980s. Recorded throughout 2008 and 2009 over a series of live sessions, ‘Grand Unifying Theory' has the band given some framework compositions by Kim. The band - Kim, Stu Thomas and Phil Collings - then takes these ideas to the outer limits of punk/jazz/ thrash freakout!. The results are taken by Kim and producer Mike Stranges and assembled into the most far out music Kim Salmon has been responsible for to date! ‘Grand Unifying Theory' with its polyrhythmic beats, its atonal keys, its heavy funk/punk grooves, its spaced out use of equipment buzz and Dictaphone is coming on Low Transit Industries.

The album also will features appearances by Dave Graney and Clare Moore (from the late, great Oz band The Moodists), both of whom had pitched in on Darling Downs records.

 Incidentally, sharp-eyed readers will recall that Salmon and the Scientists will be performing at All Tomorrow's Parties New York series with The Stooges & Mudhoney later this year - and now, apparently, a special U.S. Surrealists show is also in the works, so stay tuned for details on that.

Track listing:

Turn Turn

Order Of Things

RQ1  

Grand Unifying Theory I

Grand Unifying Theory II

Pathological

Predate  

Childhood Living

Kneel Down At The Altar Of Pop

First studio album in 7 years due in April; tour, including dates with Eric Clapton, begins in March.

By Blurt Staff

Jeff Beck, has announced plans for a worldwide tour beginning in Seoul, South Korea on March 20^th before heading onwards to Hong Kong, Australia, Japan and the United States.  The two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee will be showcasing songs from his latest studio album, Emotion & Commotion, his first in seven years.  The first leg of the U.S. tour will begin on April 16^th in San Francisco and wrap up at the world famous New Orleans Jazz Festival on May 1^st, with more dates for the second U.S. leg to be announced soon.

Just prior to the start of his world tour, Beck will unite with fellow Hall of Fame guitarist, Eric Clapton, in February for a series of exclusive shows in London, New York City, Toronto, and Montreal. The guitarists - both former members of the Yardbirds - will each play separately before taking the stage to perform together.

Accompanying Beck at these special engagements, as well as the World Tour, will be a brand new touring band, including the Grammy award winning producer and songwriter, Narada Michael Walden on drums, Rhonda Smith on bass and Jason Rebello on keyboards.  Walden has collaborated with Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Tom Jones.  (He was also featured on and composed four tracks for Beck's classic 1976 album Wired.)  Smith has played bass for Beyonce, Justin Timberlake and Prince, while Rebello has performed previously with Beck, as well as Sting and Chaka Khan.

"I'm thrilled to be working with Narada Michael Walden, he's an inspiration to me," Beck said, in a statement. "I've been lucky enough to have been working with Jason since 2006 and Rhonda came highly recommended by Narada; I was blown away when I heard her play."

Jeff Beck Tour Dates (with Eric Clapton)

February

13        London                  O2 Arena

14        London                  O2 Arena

18        New York City      Madison Square Garden

19        New York City      Madison Square Garden

21        Toronto                 Air Canada Center

22        Montreal                Bell Centre

Jeff Beck's Emotion & Commotion Tour (First Leg of U.S. Tour):

April

16        San Francisco         Nob Hill Masonic Centre

17        Los Angeles            Nokia Theatre LA Live

18        Temecula                Pechanga Resort & Casino

19        San Diego               4^th & B

24        Houston                  Verizon Wireless Theatre

25        Dallas                     Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie

27        Tulsa                       Brady Theatre

28        Kansas City             Starlight Theatre

29        St. Louis                  Fox Theatre

30        Memphis                 Beale Street Music Festival

May

1          New Orleans            Jazz Festival (Gentilly Stage)

Song nabbed from forthcoming album due in April.

By Blurt Staff

London's Tunng is set to drop their fourth album in April via Thrill Jockey. Titled ...And Then We Saw Land it's described by bandmember Mike Lindsay as "full of adventurous spirit. We wanted to make a record that would be a great live set. My friend described it as ‘Epic Folk Disco Brass Magnificent,' and I'm not sure you could call any other Tunng record that."

Free MP3: "Don't Look Down Or Back"

The  band have been on adventures both personal (Mike went to India, Ashley moved to Somerset) and shared - such as their ten-day voyage of discovery with Malian desert bluesmen Tinariwen, a unique collaboration that aimed to fuse the sounds of the two bands together.  An experience that helped shape Tunng's approach to the new album, "We learned that you don't always need structure!" added Mike. "As long as there is presence, emotion and groove. It taught us that everything is open and adaptable..."

Three songs contain what the band describe as The Mega Chorus - a 15-strong group of collaborators and drinking buddies who lent their voices to the album one rainy night in an abandoned school hall in Old Street.  The same blend of rustic acoustic based folk, kitchen sink experimentalism, delicate electronics, and pop melodies that don't let go still pervade and remain the core of Tunng's musical approach.

Guitar god goes back to high school for inspiration!

By Blurt Staff

With the recently-announced news of a previously unreleased Jimi Hendrix Experience album due soon still fresh - March 9 brings Valleys of Neptune; details here - we now learn that the sleeve art combines a 1968 photo of the guitar god taken by Linda McCartney (at the time, Linda Eastman) and an original watercolor drawing that Hendrix did back in 1957 when he was in school.

According to the Hendrix camp, Experience Hendrix CEO Janie Hendrix commented, "Before he became a musician, Jimi wanted to be an artist.  He went through a phase doing watercolors at school and this was one of the 110 drawings of his that our father kept. When I saw this one from 1957, it screamed 'Valleys of Neptune' so we just knew we'd use it for this project."

MSN "Reverb" blogger Mark Brown elaborated in a recent posting, noting that sleeve art to the first single (the title track) from the album, released this week, resembled a known Hendrix painting. He checked with Janie Hendrix, and she indicated it is in fact "a new, unseen" painting he did in high school, adding that the Valleys of Neptune CD art will incorporate the painting and the McCartney photo. The full-length art is above; the other two images are reproduced below:

Acclaimed Canadian oddballs release their album next week and we are all the better for it.

By Blurt Staff

Montreal's We Are Wolves drop their third album next week, Feb. 2, via Dare To Care. Titled Invisible Violence, it's produced by Radwan Moumneh (Three Silver Mt. Zion, Pas Chic Chic) and Hadji Bakara (Wolf Parade, Megasoid and is being described as "a punch of raw, danceable, electro post-punk rock."

Hey, we are all about danceable post-punk! We have a teaser track for you to check out:

Free MP3: "Blue"

The band offers this self-description: "Un gang de trois, quatre avec le rock. Nous sommes Loups impose une musique honnête et libre comme la foudre céleste sur la montagne mystique. C'est un paysage post-punk avec des arbres analogues. C'est comme le rock après l'explosion post-moderne."

Er, let's try that again:

"A gang of three, four including rock. We are Wolves imposes a music that's both free and honest, like the celestial lightning on the mystic mountain. It's a post-punk landscape filled with analogue trees. It's like rock after the post-modern explosion."

That's more like it. Incidentally, the band has three shows next week, in Boston, Brooklyn and NYC then will be doing selected dates in March and April. Details at their MySpace page.

Riding high on across-the-board praise for just-released album, bookers lining up to get ‘em before their fees escalate.

By Blurt Staff

Twee-rockers Vampire Weekend may be getting all the attention and the hype over topping the Billboard charts (which ain't hard to do depending on how you time a new release), but Florida's Surfer Blood is getting the real press kudos. New album Astro Coast, which arrived in stores last week, has critics utterly smitten - including our own, who enthused thusly in the BLURT review:

This is gonna be 2010's Shins or Band of Horses, so mark these words. Yes, it may be a little early for such proclamations, but these boys make lofty postulations like this easy. It's safe to assume the members of the band were raised on a steady diet of Weezer, The Pixies, Built To Spill, as well as various influences in the outer regions of indie rock. But they've managed to absorb all of this and more and regurgitate something all their own.

Other, er, tastemakers like BLURT were similarly chuffed. A sampling:

"But even after so many listens, its snowblind-ish reverb is still disorienting-- especially contrasted with its crisp, power-chord hook. It may sound like they're hitting you with their best shot, but after an impassioned "oh oh oh!" from singer John Paul Pitts, Surfer Blood explodes into an even bigger chorus and "Swim" becomes almost overpoweringly fist-pumping." - Pitchfork [Best New Music]

"Crunchy riffs, sunny harmonies, inscrutable humor, occasional strings, and Afropop touches. Adolescent anthems like "Swim (to Reach the End)" and "Catholic Pagans" show latter-day Rivers Cuomo who's daddy." - Spin

"They dress up their guitar-mad escapades in a stadium-echo kick that Nineties indie kids were too grumpy to try. " - Rolling Stone

"They're young, and so is their music, but we all could use a little Vitamin D this time of year." - Vanity Fair

"The way Surfer Blood balances escapism and grit is a neat trick, and one that never really loses its sense of wonder."- The Onion

So anyhow, the band already had a tour set to kick off next week with a handful of UK dates, followed by a U.S. trek starting Feb. 16 that would steer towards SXSW in March. They've now expanded the tour so it's effectively doubled in duration and stretches well into April. Here are the dates:

02-03 London - Hoxton Bar and Kitchen

02-04 Kingston - Hippodrome 

02-05 London - KOKO

02-09 London - Scala 

02-16 Orlando, FL  - Backbooth  %

02-17 Deland, FL - DaVinci %

02-18 Tallahassee, FL - Engine Room %

02-19 Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn %

02-20 Nashville , TN - The End  %

02-22  Charlotte, NC - Snug Harbor - %

02-23 Morgantown, WV -123 Pleasant Street %

02-24  Washington DC - Dc 9 %

02-26 Hanover, NH - Dartmouth College  !

02-27 Brooklyn, NY - Market Hotel *

02-28 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge *

03-01 Philadelphia, PA - The Barbary *

03-02 Allston, MA  - Great Scott *

03-03 Providence, RI  - AS220 *

03-05 Montreal - Il Motore *

03-06 Toronto - Sneaky Dees *

03-07 Geneseo, NY - Suny Geneseo College *

03-08 Meadville, PA - Allegheny *

03-09 Detroit MI - Magic Stick  *

03-11 Bloomington, IN - the Bishop  *

03-12 Columbia, MO - Mojos *

03-13 Lawrence, KS - Replay Lounge  *

03-14 Oklahoma City - The Conservatory *

03-17 Austin, TX - SXSW

03-18 Austin, TX - SXSW

03-19 Austin, TX - SXSW

03-20 Austin, TX - Mohawk  [ Panache Booking SXSW Showcase ] *!

03-24 Phoenix, AZ - Trunk Space *
03-25 Claremont, CA - Pitzer College @

03-26 San Diego, CA - Bar Pink Elephant @

03-27 Los Angeles, CA - Echoplex @

03-28 Las Vegas, NV - The Beauty Bar *

03-29 Isla Vista, CA - Biko Garage *

03-30 Visalia, CA - Howie and Sons *

04-01 Santa Cruz, CA - Metamusic *

04-02 San Francisco, CA Bottom of the Hill * $

04-02 Portland, OR - Doug Fir *

04-04 Seattle, WA - Vera Project *

04-05 Vancouver, BC - Bitmore Cabaret *

04-06 Missoula, MT - The Palace *

04-08 Minneapolis, MN - 7^th Street Entry *

04-09 Madison, WI - Der Rathskeller *

04-11 Columbus, OH - The Summit *

04-12 Ithaca, NY - The Shop (Ithaca College) *

04-13 Buffalo, NY - Big Orbit Soundlab *

04-15 Princeton, NJ - Terrace Club @ Princeton *

* w/ Turbo Fruits

^ w/ Holiday Shores

& w/ Monotonix

# w/ Drums

! w/ Small Black

% w/ Turbo Fruits & Holiday Shores

@ w/ Best Coast

$ w/ Ganglians

Deluxe editions of Tiger Bay and Finisterre announced, plus new Twitter presence, a fun remix, and a rarities auction to benefit Haiti.

By Fred Mills

And the Saint Etienne world takeover via achival releases continues apace. A year or so ago the band started issuing remastered/expanded 2CD deluxe editions of titles from its back catalog, a project that extended throughout 2009. There was the Foxbase Beta album, comprising a complete remix/overhaul of their classic debut album from the early ‘90s Foxbase Alpha; deluxe editions of both Alpha and 1997's Continental; even a fanclub-only freebie of vintage live material, the Trumpton Comes Alive EP.

Now comes word they're putting the finishes on deluxe editions for 1994's Tiger Bay and 2002's Finisterre, and plans at the moment are to release them at the end of March. According to the band,  "We've spent most of January digging through tape boxes and orange crates from the Tiger Bay and Finisterre eras which will be coming out soon. It's unbelievable how much we started and discarded.

"[There is] a 'sequel' of sorts to ‘Mario's Café' called ‘Drinking At The Black Horse.' It switches the locale and the time of day, and features some 'tight axework' from Mr Ian Catt. It was (half) recorded before we decided on the direction for Tiger Bay. Some of the most intreeging outtakes yet. Plus the usual glut of b-sides, and - for digital completists - the first CD appearance for ‘Highgate Road Incident,' ‘You Know I'll Miss You When You're Gone,' ‘Sushi Rider' and ‘Gimp Crisis.' My favourite demo so far is ‘The Wedding Of Stacy Dorning,' a tribute to the legendary Black Beauty actress. What were we thinking?"

In other Etienne news, they how have established a Twitter feed here and promise "music, competitions and up-to-the-minute(ish) news."

The band also remixed Pains Of Being Pure At Heart not long ago and the track can be heard at their MySpace page.

Lastly, they want folks to know the following:

"We're helping raise some cash for Oxfam's Haiti Earthquake Appeal by auctioning off a selection of rarities and memorabilia - click this link to see what's on offer and get bidding, all in a very good cause."

Here's some of the swag you can get (current bid, with 3 so far and 5 days left, is £421.00):

Sarah Cracknell's Feather Boa
1 x signed copy of the the bands legendary 'I Love To Paint" fanclub CD from 1994 - long deleted and highly sort after
1 x rare limited edition Saint Etienne 6" Subbeteo player and Foxbase Alpha deluxe set - rare and deleted
1 x copy of Boxette - fanclub only 4 disc set - rare and deleted
1 x copy of Foxbase Beta numbered double disc CD - rare and deleted
2 x fanclub EP's - rare and deleted
1 x signed triple disc Best of CD and DVD.
Plus assorted badges, posters and signed pictures.

Indeed, get clicking, and get bidding, fans.