A longtime musical partnership now bears solo fruit for vocalist/keyboardist Finch.

By Fred Mills

Longtime Chuck Prophet watchers will immediately recognize the name Stephanie Finch: she's been a mainstay of most of Prophet's combos, playing keyboards and lending her sexy vocals to the mix. Now she is stepping out on her own with a debut solo album on Prophet's own (((bellsound))) label. It's titled Cry Tomorrow, billed as Stephanie Finch and The Company Men, and due May 18.

Prophet describes it as "a delightful, melodic take on 'Loaded' era Velvets or Modern Lovers," and quite naturally he lent his production ear and songwriting hand to the project. Still, it's Finch's vehicle, and you can already hear a musical sampling at her MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/stephaniefinchmusic

Incidentally, at that same MS page she lists her influences as being "Velvet Underground, Modern Lovers, Stooges, Bob Dylan, Dan Penn, Beatles, Beach Boys, Alex Chilton, Chuck Prophet, Dusty Springfield, Bobbie Gentry, Shangri-las, Pretenders, David Bowie, Kinks, T Rex, Chuck Berry and Carole King." Not a bad roster.

The Company Men: Chuck Prophet, Kelley Stoltz and Rusty Miller. You may recognize some of those other names too - Stoltz has issued a slew of critically acclaimed albums over the past decade, including three for Sub Pop, and has been compared to Brian Wilson and Leonard Cohen, while Miller was spotted a few years ago playing with the band Jackpot, whose Moonbreath album came out  in 2007 on Jackpine Social Club.

With a newly revised/updated edition of Dance of Days in hand, it's time to set the record straight (-edged) once again. It's an essential read by any estimation, and it's also one of the best-ever rock books assembled.

By Roxana Hadadi

There is basically nothing wrong with the updated version of Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation's Capital. In fact, if you're looking for flaws, good luck.

A slightly tweaked version of Andersen's and Jenkins's original work, which came out in 2003, this edition now includes a new chapter, more photos and some extra original material about the nation's capital's viciously lively and undeniably impactful underground punk scene. Whether Andersen, a local activist who co-founded the activist collective Positive Force D.C. in 1985, or Jenkins, a music writer for The Washington Post, Blurt, Time Out New York and other publications, are turning their eyes to Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Fugazi, Bikini Kill or the one and only Henry Rollins, their musings and insights are offered up with eloquent depth and ease.

It's obvious that the two know the subject inside-and-out, and that kind of reassuring intimacy makes the book impossible to put down. There's so much packed in here, though, that you have to take a breather every now and then to process it all. There's 16 chapters, an introduction, a preface and an afterword, all of which not only put you closer to Andersen and Jenkins - who each describe their interest in and affection for the punk scene - but also to the book's countless characters, kids who became enamored with a fledgling underground scene that still continues to this day.

Whether the authors are touching on hardcore, riot grrrl or the political and social motives driving bands like Bad Brains and Minor Threat, the depth of research put into the subjects is somewhat staggering. There are lengthy conversations here with people like D.C. legend Ian MacKaye and Virginia's Dave Grohl, and detailed accounts of important events like Revolution Summer, which went down in 1985 and helped switch the city's original thrashy hardcore sound into a more melodic one that would later inspire bands like Fugazi and Jawbox. As the book notes, "‘Revolution Summer was a climax, the end of something,' Amy Pickering said in 1987. The innocence and isolation of the original hardcore scene was gone, a development that was both threatening and promising."

And, as any good book about punk should do, Dance of Days also covers the concept of selling-out, and how the decision by some bands to sign with major labels sent shockwaves through the community. The role of D.I.Y. legend Dischord Records, which is co-owned by MacKaye and Minor Threat bandmate Jeff Nelson, is closely looked at, but as Andersen and Jenkins note, "the growing division of labor between musicians and labels was a logical evolution... For the most successful, signing to major labels was the next step. This was a painful transition for idealists like MacKaye. In early 1987, he sadly noted that bands like Hüsker Dü were no longer ‘confederates in the same conspiracy.'"

In that sense, then, the book is awash with nostalgia, a kind of hard-edged sentimentality that's obvious in the plethora of bands named, people interviewed and overall care given to describing this scene as closely and accurately as possible. But while the book is unquestionably a labor of love for Andersen and Jenkins, it's still critical and graphic enough to work as a well-rounded narrative, one that - as Andersen writes in the book's afterword - should inspire you to "find your own ideals, your own dreams. ... Make it a story worthy of being told to others someday, a story worth having lived." Preach on, brother, preach.

[Minor Threat Photo Credit: Rebecca Hammel]

Somewhat awkwardly billed as "The Knife in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock," the double disc is twitchy, glitchy and witchy - dramatic stuff, but not necessarily what garden-variety Knife fans will be expecting.

By Jonah Flicker

At first blush, the concept appears to make perfect sense: The Knife, along with musicians Mt. Sims and Planningtorock and theater group Hotel Pro Forma, score an opera inspired by the life and times of Charles Darwin called Tomorrow, In A Year (Rabid/Mute). Upon listening to the soundtrack release, it soon becomes evident however that this is music most likely best enjoyed during the performance of the actual opera. In other words, some visuals would go a long way towards making these avant-garde, highly experimental, electronic arias and librettos slightly more palatable.

Tomorrow, In A Year's 90 or so minutes opens appropriately with "Intro," a series of blips and glitchy electronic twitches that are supposed to represent the earliest spasms of life. From there, "Epochs" provides a throbbing, ambient, bass-filled bottom-end over which vocalist Kristina Wahlin unintelligibly (in Swedish, perhaps?) warbles lyrics like, "The animal carcasses and skeletons would be entombed / A step formed terrace succession." Take that, intelligent designers! "Upheaved" is just as bizarre and radical, but it's given some form by the staccato stabbing of syllables sung by Wahlin and Laerke Winther: "Con-stant earth-quakes / The won-der-ful for-orce..." Throughout, the music is occasionally recognizable as the work of The Knife, one of the most innovative and appealing purveyors of dark electronic pop working today. "Variation of Birds," comprised of several minutes of shrieking feedback-style noise, may have more in common with a band like Wolf Eyes. But The Knife's fingerprints are all over "Colouring of Pigeons," a mid-tempo orchestral pop track that begins with dislocated vocal sounds and culminates in Karin Andersson's eerily effective singing. This could just have easily been on outtake from last year's Fever Ray album (or from Simon Le Bon's 1980s Arcadia project).

It might prove hard for anyone but the most diehard Knife fans to sit through an entire album of this music (besides the breezy, buoyant techno of a track like "Seeds"). But it's evident that those involved have succeeded in creating something unique and boldly experimental while still adhering to the basic tenants and form of opera. The technique and instrumentation differ wildly from the norm (if there is such a thing nowadays), but at its core Tomorrow, In A Year goes through all the paces of this form of dramatic storytelling.

[Photo Credit: Elin Berge]

For Thursday, Feb. 25, we rock and roll - literally, thanks to the rough seas - while rock ‘n' rolling with Stephen Kellogg, Buddy Miller, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Ben Taylor, Rachel Yamagata, Vienna Teng, Brandi Carlile... the list goes on forever, as does the road (ocean).

By Lee Zimmerman / Photos by Alisa Cherry

Ed. note: Last week BLURT contributor Lee Zimmerman was on the annual Cayamo Cruise, which as you'll read below boasts a who's-who of roots and Americana artists playing for (and mingling with) fans traveling on a five-day cruise through the Caribbean. Fittingly enough, the event's called Caribbean on Cayamo 2010: A Journey Through Song. Go here to read his report from Day 1,  here for Day 2, here for Day 3 and here for Day 4.  Incidentally, you can also read his report from last year's Cruise elsewhere at the BLURT site.

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things - Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax - Of cabbages--and kings..."

-Lewis Carroll

Sadly, the final full day of our cruising adventure has arrived, much to our dismay. The seas are rough this morning, in some cases reaching swells of 30 feet. The breakfast buffet, a kind of human pinball game under the best of circumstances, takes on an added frenzy this morning as people carrying trays piled high with morning treats, collide with one another due to both the urgency of getting that extra omelet and the fact that the boat is providing more teeter-totter than a carnival funhouse. I confess, I have little tolerance for those surrounding me; I have a good half-day of artist interviews, beginning at 10 AM, and there's precious time to grab the grub and devour it before the artist onslaught begins.

I needn't have worried though; Samantha Crain, the first musician in our gab session line-up is a no-show, reportedly due to the fact she's been inflicted with seasickness. There's no reason to doubt her excuse, given that "Do Not Disturb" signs litter the doors of various staterooms and barf bags have been conveniently placed at strategic locations throughout the ship. We're beginning to get concerned about Rachel Yamagata, but fortunately she shows up a mere ten minutes late, all cheery and girl-next-door-like in a way that belies the dark strains of her music.  "I don't live my life that way," she says referring to her doom and gloom stance, adding that due to the melancholy gaze on her album covers, "I never want to be on an album cover again." Overall, she's been delighted by the cruise thus far, likening it to a great big tour bus on the water. "I'm completely humbled," she allows.

Yamagata also reveals the reason for the overall giddiness that preoccupied her set the day before, attributing it to the fact that (A) she had a cocktail at 5 PM which managed to keep her loopy well through show time, (B) the ship's rocking kept her off balance, (C) she bungled the first verse of her first song and (D) she didn't realize Brandi Carlile was in the audience and it made her discombobulated.  Very well, then.

Katie Herzig was as charming in person as she was onstage, humble and shy but obviously exhilarated by her second stint onboard Cayamo. Like the others, her greatest thrill was meeting her favorite artists. Despite the fact that she's looking forward to a two-month break, she's already beginning to compile songs for her next album, which will be her fourth to date, but the first where, in her words, "all the songs go together."

Glen, Luke and Jerry from WPA hold court next, offering up an explanation as to why their seemingly disparate band of pop, rock, country and bluegrass works so well. "WPA doesn't replace anybody's day jobs," Glen Phillips states.  As for the band's ability to balance song contributions from their wealth of writing talent, he's equally adamant.  "It's like cage fighting," he jokes before turning serious.  "Everybody in this band has high standards as far as songwriting is concerned. We're all respectful of one another so it becomes quite democratic. In five years maybe it will get petty."

Luke Bula, who's seemingly played practically every gig on the ship, balances his role in Lyle Lovett's band and his place in WPA. "I've had ten hours of sleep total in the past three days," he confesses while expressing his enthusiasm for the seemingly non-stop cycle of jam sessions. 

"I thought I'd hate being on a cruise," Jerry the drummer confesses.  "But it's actually really comfortable, kind of like an outdoor festival with air conditioning."

Lyle Lovett and Steve Earle are holding court for World Café, but other than the fact that both originally hail from Houston and play a form of roots music, the differences between them couldn't be more striking. Lyle, his trademark pile of curly hair towering neatly over his forehead, is dressed impeccably in a black leather sports coat and his ever-present cowboy boots. Earle on the other hand looks like he just shuffled in off the street, dressed in shorts and flip-flops with his long stringy locks and overgrown beard doing little to conceal his balding up above. The two reminisce about their early days in the biz and the various venues they played in Southern Texas before each made his move to Nashville, and the cast of characters - Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark and Jerry Jeff Walker -- who more or less set the standard in terms of songwriting. 

"This is just music," Earle commented as the stories wound on.  "Nobody dies. I feel very fortunate to be able to make music at all." 

After the interview, Earle ambles over to the pressroom to further elaborate on his thoughts about life, politics and his art.  He speaks freely about the fact he was once an addict and inmate, but he now insists he's happy and content for the first time.  Though New York seems an odd environment for a rural renegade, he's looking forward to raising his child there.

His cell phone rings and he scrambles to answer it.  "Allison is due any moment," he remarks, speaking of pregnant wife Allison Moorer.  Curiously enough, for a man who boasts a reputation as a rowdy hell-raiser, Earle is quite personable and seemingly down to earth.  He asserts the fact that he's a socialist who's out of sync with mainstream politics ("I have to refrain from publicly supporting any candidate because that would be their kiss of death"), but also insists that though he's been in quite a few fights in his life, he's never won a single one.  Asked if people often seem intimidated by him, he says that in the past, it's hurt his feelings.  "I'm okay with it now," he maintains.  "I finally realized that if people have problems with me, that's something they have to deal with."

Stephen Kellogg, on the other hand, is simply a humble, affable guy who's genuinely appreciative when complements are offered for his music.  Now in their sixth year of making music, his band the Sixers have played nearly a thousand shows and gaining a committed following in the process.  I mention the fact that his band seems grounded in classic rock traditions.  "My wife tells me I was born at the wrong time," he comments, saying that after progressing through his various phases - heavy metal, the Dead, frat rock ‘n' roll - he finally went back to the music his parents played for him while he was growing up.  "Those artists were a different breed," he says.  "Singer/songwriters who still managed to convey pop appeal."

It's now nearly 2:00 PM and there's still a day of music to attend to. My wife Alisa's been felled by a form of seasickness, remedied by a double dose of Dramamine that's rendered her too woozy to get out of bed.  I venture out to catch the tail end of Samantha Crain's set and a subsequent songwriter workshop in the Spinnaker.  It's an impressive cast that's been assembled to offer their insights and play selected songs - Vienna Teng, Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland. Katie Herzig and Gregory Alan Isakov all sharing the same stage.  Every song is a gem and the musicians seem as awed as the rest of us.

I'm torn between my choices for the next show I want to see, those being encore performances of Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers playing on the pool deck and WPA, making a repeat appearance in the Spinnaker, as well as Edie Carey, who I've yet to catch, now appearing in the atrium.  This of course is the happy dilemma Cayamo commands.  I opt for WPA, knowing that Chuck, my gracious Canadian pal, has saved seats.  WPA are excellent as always, erasing all doubts about my decision.

Ben Taylor, another artist I've yet to experience, takes to Spinnaker next, offering up an array of songs, half sad, half funny.  Opening with a tune entitled "Your Boyfriend's a Really Nice Guy," he appears to be relating a tale of a sexual switch-over, although a later offering, "Wicked Way ("I just want to have my wicked way with you") suggests he's still hetero at heart.  Ben bears only a faint physical resemblance to his famous parents, James Taylor and Carly Simon, but his caressing vocals and swaying guitar play bring more than a faint reflection of his folks' soothing soft rock style.  A version of his dad's lullaby-like "You Can Close Your Eyes," featuring Shawn Colvin and Arnold McCuller -- who, along with drummer Hal Blaine, is introduced as men who were like uncles due to their association with both James and Carly -- makes the family ties complete. 

Buddy Miller's final show is billed as "Buddy Miller and Friends" and it doesn't disappoint, although as Buddy himself allows, "All my shows have featured my friends."  Emmylou and Sean and Sara Watkins are among the perfect pals this time around.

Speaking of famous friends, Brandi Carlile rolled out an impressive guest list for the final Starlight show of the cruise, including Arnold McCuller who joined her for an opening take on a Roy Orbison classic "Crying." Carlile herself is exhilarating and enthusiastic, and despite confessing to being a bit under the weather, she and her band put on a first rate, rock star-worthy performance, one that mixed poses, poise and polish.  Long a favorite of the Cayamo crowd, she ran through a set list that drew equally from her three albums and EP.  A version of "Caroline," a duet with Elton John featured on her latest effort , Give Up The Ghost, was terrific, particularly the story that preceded it in which she relayed how awe-struck she was to meet Elton, her all-time idol.  Longtime accompanists, twins Tim and Phil Hanseroth, kicked off the encore with a stunning version of "Sounds of Silence," before the entire ensemble raised the energy and amplitude to bring the final main stage show to a thunderous conclusion.

And so, the time had indeed come, as the Walrus once remarked.  The end of a Cayamo cruise inevitably brings a mix of joy and tears with bidding goodbye to day after day of euphoric musical indulgence.  So too, there's the bittersweet sadness of having to say farewell to new friends for yet another year, as well as having to accept the cold reality that a new workweek will soon be upon us.  While I've endeavored to describe Cayamo as best I can and in as much detail as possible for one who's weird and wacky, in reality the only way to truly appreciate all it has to offer is to experience it for yourself. We'll have to wait an entire year until the next Cayamo - John Prine has already been announced as one of the performers  - but hopefully these shared thoughts and the collective memory of what Cayamo is all about will provide ample sustenance until then.

We're giving away a free copy of his A Reality Tour album, personally inscribed by the Thin White Duke himself.

By Blurt Staff

Let's cut to the chase: scoot right over to the BLURT Kontest Kiosk where you've gone in the past to win fabulous prizes (and a year's supply of Eskimo pies to boot). This time around we got a really collectible for ya: an autographed copy of A Reality Tour, which was issued earlier this year by David Bowie via his ISO label (in conjunction with Columbia/Legacy).

Recorded in Dublin on La Bowie's 2003-04 world tour, it's a double CD career overview that also features a good chunk of the material from his then-current Reality album. The concert originally came out on DVD but for this new CD incarnation it includes three bonus tracks that did not appear on the earlier release. Plenty of details can be found at the official Bowie site and store.

BLURT reviewed the album, awarding it 8 out of 10 stars, with our writer enthusing, in part:

"Fans of Reality  and Heathan will enjoy some electrifying versions of such new Bowie classics as the Reality epic "Bring Me the Disco King" and the surprisingly top-notch cover of the Pixies' "Cactus" from Heathen, not to mention quality live renditions of such great tunes as "Sunday", "Heathen [The Rays]", "New Killer Star" and "Never Get Old"... [There's also] vintage Bowie nugget after vintage Bowie nugget. Everyone from the casual fan to the astute Ziggy scholar will find great joy in this set list, which takes the scenic route through the man's storied career to feature both smash hits like "Changes", "'Heroes'", "Fame" and "Ziggy Stardust" and deep album favorites like "Five Years" from the Ziggy LP, "Be My Wife" and "Breaking Glass" from his 1977 Berlin masterpiece Low and "Fantastic Voyage" from 1979's Lodger, not to mention his first MTV hit, Scary Monsters' "Ashes to Ashes". This is definitely some of the best live Bowie out there, and well worth a revisit in the CD format."

Click on the above link to enter the contest - all we need is your name and contact details. Good luck!

Like John Barry "playing with a rock 'n roll band"!

By Blurt Staff

Scotland's Codeine Velvet Club, which is a new project mounted by The Fratellis' Jon Lawler and singer/songwriter Lou Hickey, issued their self-titled debut back in December in the UK and it's headed for a North American release in April. The group's also headed TO North America in March with a short preemptive promotional tour, starting with five performances at SXSW followed by a west coast tour in support of Metric.  The tour kicks off March 21st in Seattle, WA and continues through March 26th in Los Angeles.

 
The collaboration began when Lawler, taking a break from touring and recording with The Fratellis, teamed up with Hickey to work on a track - the jazzy, big-band duet titled "Vanity Kills" - for her record. The song inspired the duo to embark on a full-fledged project together. The resulting album features an elegant orchestral score written by Mick Cooke of Belle & Sebastian, backing vocals by the Gospel Truth Choir and strings parts recorded by renowned classical musicians, including legendary trumpeter Derek Watkins. 

 
The group celebrates Lawler and Hickey's shared love of '60s boy-girl duets, dramatic orchestral pop and dark postwar Hollywood and Las Vegas romanticism. Lawler drew inspiration for the album's dark energy and vampish edge from his time spent in Hollywood. He described his vision for Codeine Velvet Club's album as sounding like '60s soundtrack composer (and James Bond theme-tune creator) John Barry "playing with a rock 'n roll band."
 

Codeine Velvet Club at SXSW 2010:
 
March 17 - The Parish - Scottish Arts Council Showcase
March 18 - Convention Center - KCMP Showcase
March 19 - Rusty Spurs - MuseBox Show
March 20 - Cedar Street - Filter Party
March 20 -Mellow Johnny's - Dangerbird/PABLOVE Benefit Showcase

 
Codeine Velvet Club with METRIC:
 
March 21 - Seattle, WA - Showbox SoDo
March 22 - Portland, OR - Roseland Theatre
March 24 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theatre
March 26 - Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Palladium

Ecological studies, tribal polyrhythms, elegant piano flourishes and even the ghost of Talk Talk infuse the Austin band's new masterpiece.

By John Schacht

The planet is in deep shit - if you don't believe the scientists or Al Gore, just listen to the omens coursing through Shearwater's latest release. The band's third record for Matador, The Golden Archipelago, is a lush, urgent portrait of island life based in part on leader Jonathan Meiburg's graduate student-travels as an ornithologist, and touching on themes as far-ranging as the plight of aborigines to the nuclear test site Bikini Atoll. (Meiburg and designer Mark Ohe assembled a full-color, 75-page, 8 x 10.5-inch visual guide and companion piece to the album - sold separately, and ingeniously funded via fan contributions through the Kickstarter.com site - that was composed primarily of photographs and documents Meiburg collected on his voyages.)

On 2008's Rook, Meiburg captured the grace of avian life in pastoral textures and melodies that soared like their subjects. The Golden Archipelago includes some of those sonic elements in a shimmering set-piece like the Spirit of Eden-modal rocker "An Insular Life," or the ethereal closer "Missing Islands." But this album's atmosphere is denser, its angles sharper, its tempos more urgent, and Meiburg's vocals more pleading and desperate than ever. Even the gentle piano-and-acoustic guitar opener "Meridian" and sweet orchestral flourishes of "Runners of the Sun" find ominous undercurrents running through their rhythms. The album's tone is really set by the portentous "Black Eyes," whose pulverizing drumbeat refracts in percussive piano lines, brash barre chords, and a Meiburg in full operatic voice warning that "a forever life/is an infinite lie." Yes, the clock is tick-tick-ticking throughout this record, and on "Black Eyes" the relentless pulse creates a precarious, storm-tossed drama to match the song's subject matter: The ancient buried Micronesian island city of Nan Madol. It's a safe bet those folks thought they'd last forever, too.

Those portents drift into everything here. The tribal polyrhythm of "Landscape at Speed" uses eerie guitar feedback and minor chords-piano to evoke the stubborn sense of distance and loss inherent in the song's title, and the repetitive nature of the circular glock-and-piano figures in "Hidden Lakes" eventually read like an insistent alarm. Rousing crescendos arrive like unexpected thunderbolts in both "God Made Me" and "Uniforms," the first built on guitar feedback and the latter on an explosion of clattering percussion. Meiburg may overplay the urgency card - and rather egregiously, too - on the noisy "Corridors," but it's the only misstep here and easy enough to overlook (and skip) because it still comes across as genuine.

Everything seems to come together on the anthemic "Castaways," however. Meiburg's classically trained tenor remains Shearwater's initial draw, an instrument as adept at heartrending falsetto as it is dramatic grandeur. Here, combined with Thor Harris' thumping drumbeat and leavened by guitar glissandos and sawed vibraphone chimes, Meiburg's ominous walk-off line -- "You are running from a rising tide" - is imbued with an after-the-fact nostalgia that is probably the most frightening thing on the record, and a reminder of exactly what is at stake. If each song represents an island (which Meiburg says is the case here), and no man exists alone as one, the message is urgent and obvious - though rarely is it delivered this beautifully.

Gorillaz, Broken Bells, Chieftains/Ry Cooder, White Stripes, She & Him, Sharon Jones, Jonsi...

By Blurt Staff

Plastic Beach by Gorillaz, Broken Bells' self-titled debut and The Chieftains's (w/Ry Cooder) San Patricio are all streaming now through March 9 for free, on-demand listening at www.npr.org/music as part of the site's "Exclusive First Listen" series. NPR Music ain't stopping there, however, as it will be streaming The White Stripes, She & Him, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings and Jonsi in the coming weeks.

The animated band Gorillaz, well-known for its multimedia approach to music, continues its winning collaborative style on its new album, Plastic Beach. Brit-pop star Damon Albarn (Blur), responsible for the sound, and artist Jamie Hewlett, creator of Gorillaz's signature look, have worked for more than a decade developing the band's groundbreaking direction. This album continues to expand its creative palette, featuring guest artists Snoop Dogg, Lou Reed and Mos Def. The full album can be heard now at NPR Music: www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124114812

Producer and musician Danger Mouse (a.k.a. Brian Burton) has worked with Gorillaz in the past, is a member of the hit-making duo Gnarls Barkley and now joins forces with The Shins' vocalist and guitarist, James Mercer, for another powerful combination. Though fans of each other's musical aesthetics, Broken Bells finds Burton and Mercer consciously moving out of their comfort zones and experimenting with new songwriting styles. All 10 tracks from the band's self-titled album are available to hear now - only at NPR Music: www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124018401 Broken Bells will also perform as part of NPR Music's opening night South by Southwest showcase on March 17.

After almost 50 years together and six Grammys, the members of the traditional Irish group The Chieftains mix things up on their new album by bringing in blues-rock guitarist Ry Cooder. Their collaboration, San Patricio, blends the musical heritage of Ireland and Mexico for a concept album about Irish-Americans who deserted the United States Army to join Mexican forces in the Mexican-American War. As if Cooder weren't enough, San Patricio also boasts contributions from Linda Ronstadt, Liam Neeson and Los Tigres del Norte. This eclectic mix of history and sound can be heard in its entirety now at NPR Music: www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124086957

Throughout March, NPR Music's "Exclusive First Listen" series continues with more full album previews of prominent releases: The White Stripes live on Under Great White Northern Lights, featuring performances from the band's 2007 Canadian Tour (Mar. 8-16); Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward re-team as She & Him on Volume Two (Mar. 15-23); Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings' latest soul excursion on I Learned the Hard Way  (Mar. 29-Apr. 6); and Sigur Ros' frontman Jonsi Birgillson on his first solo album Go (March. 29-April 6).

When it's a ploddingly-paced "memoir" of a hot rock chick-cum-adult actress mostly written by a celeb journalist-for-hire, that's when. Plenty of explicit photos in the book, however...

By Roxana Hadadi

In Tera Patrick's Sinner Takes All: A Memoir of Love and Porn (Gotham Books) she often reiterates how she, the sinner, "takes all." But what that "all" is, exactly, is never really described - and as a result, it ends up being her book's most crippling flaw.

If you ever wasted hours of your life by watching VH1's "SuperGroup," or hey, maybe you've seen Patrick directly in the dozens of pornographic films in which she's starred, then you're fully aware of her lifestyle. After spending her teenage years as a model abroad, Patrick (real name: Linda Ann Hopkins, of Great Falls Montana) returned home to the U.S., bored with the fashion world and ready to venture into something new. Soon, nude modeling turned into softcore porn, which then turned into hardcore - and over the years, Patrick expanded into other media, hosting shows, dancing internationally and eventually starting her own production company. But unless you want to read an embellished version of her resume, don't bother picking up "Sinner Takes All."

Instead of giving readers any intimate, revealing aspects of the reasons behind Patrick's decision to enter porn, relationship with her parents or the crumbling of her marriage to musician Evan Seinfeld (of mook-rock nu-metal band Biohazard), whom she spends much of the book describing favorably (it's only the book's afterward which discusses the break-up, since Patrick says most of the memoir was written before the couple started to fall apart), it all reads like somewhat expanded-upon diary entries. From the first half of the book, which breezes over Patrick's dysfunctional relationship with her mother, time partying and modeling abroad and her dependent relationship on sex, readers don't really get answers, you get simplistic stories that just seem strung together to fill the pages at hand.

For example, in the chapter "Homecoming Scream," you don't really learn anything about her relationship with ex-boyfriend Paul; you just find out that he taught her "how to fuck, how to have an orgasm, and how to master my blow-job technique." There shouldn't necessarily be a little how-to section regarding each of those topics, but Patrick adapts that technique later on in her book, so it seems weird not to use it here. Similarly, Patrick describes her first penetration scene on-film as being exciting and invigorating: "I knew that I was not like the average girl. Things like this turned me on. I wasn't ashamed. I wanted more," but that doesn't seem to jive with her earlier explanation of her first sexual experience, which was with a much older photographer and which she didn't truly enjoy. It doesn't really seem like you're getting the real Tera Patrick - more like the woman she thinks you would expect.

Nevertheless, that's not to say the book doesn't have its moments: It's interesting to read about Patrick's transition from softcore to hardcore and how that decision affected her relationship with her parents, but those truly emotionally intimate moments are few and far between. Instead, too much of the memoir is spent mentioning other interesting aspects of her life, but not giving enough detail to them - for example, she often touches on her lawsuit with Digital Playground, but can't divulge too much information on it, so readers are obviously left wanting more. And similarly, though she often gushes over Seinfeld and their sexual practices ("It was a passionate, crazy, emotional, sex-crazed time," she says of their first few months together"), it seems like lazy writing to not include more about the dissolution of their marriage. Also lazy is all the bashing of Jenna Jameson, which seems unnecessary and childish, and numerous excerpts from her diary regarding her time after being committed, instead of more in-depth reflection on how that period affected her life and relationship with Seinfeld. A lot of it seems like Patrick is cutting corners and not fully divulging all of her thoughts and emotions.

But maybe - just possibly - these really are all of Patrick's feelings, and this reviewer is just expecting too much from a woman who constantly argues that the only reason she entered porn was because she loves sex and isn't craving any other kind of societal acceptance. Too suspicious? Maybe. Simply put, though, "Sinner Takes All" just doesn't seem honest enough, and merely falls flat (unlike Patrick's chest, the size of which she brings up over and over again). If that shouldn't be enough to turn you off, maybe you should try thinking with one head and not the other. Just an idea. 

About Patrick's co-author: Celebrity journalist Carrie Borzillo got her start at Billboard before graduating to such dubious achievements as columnist "Dr. Love" for Gene Simmons' Tongue magazine and penning love/sex advice column for SuicideGirls.com. She later published the 2007 book CHERRY BOMB: The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Better Flirt, a Tougher Chick, a Hotter Girlfriend and Living Life Like a Rock Star. Which explains a lot. Patrick and Borzillo are shown below at KROQ's Loveline.

40 years of frammin' on the jim-jam?!? WTF! Here's what they say: "As we are not just a band, but a music commune, a social experiment, and a work of art, it's just natural to stay together, and of course: it must be love, or something close enough...." Check the video, below.

By Blurt Staff

Krautrock pioneers Amon Duul II are back - Krautrock fans are literally on edge here - with a new album, Bee As Such. Currently only available by download through the band's website, the CD marks the first new album by the legendary group in several years. They call it a "sound painting," however, and not a so-called extension of the underground/progressive aesthetic that marked the band's initial ascendency.

The band explains: "Recorded April 2009 at Dreamscape Studio, Amon Duul 2 celebrated a highly sensitive performance, of finding back to the roots - not in the past, but essentially - seeking the new sounds and contents at the same time. No 'kraut', no '70s', but the music of the new millennium. This sound painting is one more of our unique works, containing the spirit of our time."

According to guitarist John WeinzierlL "Amon Duul never used to present the same style on their albums. We like to develop our music into all kinds of directions and sometimes we don't even know where it´s gonna lead us. We don't follow a pattern only because it is successful. Since 2000 we´ve used lots of elements of world music, we had eastern influences, ethnological sounds, and of course we never forgot 'sound painting'."

When asked if there was a concept behind this new album, Weinzierl added,  "Avoiding industry music, heading for new frontiers."

For those who walked in late, the backstory:

Formed in Munich in 1968, Amon Duul 2 rapidly excelled to the forefront of German avant garde music along side notable peers Can, Faust and Tangerine Dream. Amon Duul 2 quickly distinguished themselves from these other ensembles with their use of pop elements interspersed with eclectic songwriting and arrangements along with deft musicianship and the sweet voice of female vocalist Renate Knaup-Krotenschwanz. The band's influences ranged from jazz and classical to Zappa and Syd's Pink Floyd, although the music has remained so original these past 30 years it's difficult to tell who the band's influences are! "That's because Germany culture-wise has no rhythm and blues influence," explains Renate. "We have classical music and traditional music, so we just experimented with what we had. To copy rhythm and blues or rock and roll would be silly because they are not our roots." By 1979 and many critically acclaimed, pioneering LPs later, Amon Duul 2 went their separate ways, only to reunite in the 1990s, and most recently in the mid-2000s. The current line-up includes original members: Chris Karrer (guitar, violin, vocals), John Weinzierl (guitars, synth, vocals), Renate Knaup-Krotenschwanz (vocals), Danny Fichelscher (drums), Lother Meid (bass, vocals) and neo-Duul Jan Kahlert (percussion, vocals).

"We didn't want to have an anglophonic name, because in those days everybody was called Rattles, or Beatles, or some other english name," adds Weinzierl. "We didn't wanna have a German name either, that's why we went into a long period of finding an appropriate name. At some point the band had a different name with every other concert that was played. Finally it was AMON DUUL. Amon refers to the Egypt sun god Amon-Re. Duul (with the "Umlaut" dots, that your computer can't print out) comes from a Canadian group's album called Tanjet, that we used to listen to a lot. On this album there was a self-constructed mythology with a part called Dyyl. This eventually was transformed into Duul and the Umlauts gave it this slight German touch. Since then many groups started having fantasy names, or even using Umlaut dots like in Motorhead. Understand? (of course you have to imagine the Umlaut dots, cause your computer can't...)  And I shall never answer this question any more now."

Amon Duul 2 - Bee As Such will be released on CD and DVD later this year. It is currently available for download at: www.amonduul.de

***

Ed. note: umlauts provided free of charge. Copy, cut, and paste!

Amon Düül 2

Motörhead

Blue Öyster Cult

Blürt Önlinë

Etc.....

Officially streeting in conjunction with the Metal Machine Tour in the UK...

By Blurt Staff

As the photo above - taken from the March '75 issue of Creem, which featured one of the classic all-time Lou Reed-Lester Bangs dust-ups - ever-so-subtly suggests, Uncle Lou will always have a lot to answer for. Not the least of which is his 1975 double LP, Metal Machine Music. If you don't know the story behind that magnum horribulus, give yourself 40 lashes and go listen to your Archies records.

At any rate, a month or so ago we brought you the news that Reed would be touring the UK and Europe with his Metal Machine Trio in April, and to coincide with the tour he was planning on releasing a remastered version of MMM. Now we have a date for it: April 19 is technically the street release, although as fans probably already know, Reed has been taking orders for it at his site since early January.

For $18 you can nab the audio DVD, while $23 will get you either the Blu-Ray edition or the 180-gram double LP vinyl version. There are also bundles for the Vinyl + Blu-Ray $43) and the vinyl + audio DVD ($39). The only thing missing is audio commentary by Lester Bangs himself!

Reed did the digital re-mastering from the original multi-tracks with the help of mastering specialist Scott Hull. This is a new and improved re-mastered version, and is different from all previous releases on the RCA, Buddha and Sony affiliated labels.

Says Reed, "The out of print "Quad" release has been replicated for all formats, including a perfect vinyl version playable on your stereo turntable with the original rear sections moved to the center of the front left/right speakers. It's worth getting a turntable to hear this. We worked from digital transfers (95k 24bit) made from the original analogue masters. The original label supplied us with these files and photo copies of the analog reels including copies of Bob Ludwig's mastering notes."

Incidentally, if you go to that link, above, to Reed's site a music player automatically starts warbling some of the signature MMM oscillating tones ‘n' drones. WWLD!?!

Still building on the momentum from their 2009 debut, the Kentucky combo blasts through the 9:30 Club like nobody's business - uncaged, even. Openers As Tall as Lions don't come off too shabby either.

By Roxana Hadadi / Photos by Adam Fried

For anyone who was attending the sold-out Cage the Elephant show at the 9:30 Club Feb. 25 and was only there to hear their hit single, "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked," they needed to wait through half the band's set to get there. But if you didn't enjoy that waiting game, then there probably is something wrong with you.

Although the bluesy, punky rock band from Kentucky is best known for that song, which has been featured in everything from commercials for the video game "Borderlands" to the TNT drama Leverage, they proved to be capable of so much more. Delivering an electric, thrash-heavy set of 11 tracks, plus an encore, lead singer Matt Shultz and Co. galvanized the audience into a distinct frenzy, a mass of frantic fans who were all too happy to cradle Shultz whenever he jumped into the crowd. Which, to put it mildly, was a lot.

Sure, there were prepubescent kids running around in Ed Hardy sneakers and Avril Lavigne-like accessories, but the audience also had a solid number of older fans, those in their late 20s or above, including a few federal-looking guys who could have been the Smoking Man's stunt double. Oh Mulder, where art thou?

But back to the topic at hand: Things started off with first opener Morning Teleportation, whose weird name underscores their strange - and almost unbearable - sound. A mix of psychedelic influences and dissonant sounds and static, the Portland group's sound wasn't aided by their high-energy performance. All you need to know is that they wore sequined jackets straight out of Golden Girls and had a friend who wandered through the crowd in a Mad Hatter-esque tophat. Not acceptable.

More enjoyable, though, was second opener As Tall as Lions, a New York band delivering a catchier, more alternative rock-influenced vibe. As photographer Adam Fried noted, many of their tracks sounded like "seagulls and crickets," but As Tall as Lions also displayed a juxtaposition of melodically thumping drums and guitars and grandiose, soaring vocals, almost like if the Gin Blossoms dropped the endearing-lover-boy act and got bitter and realistic. For example, "That's What You Get," has lyrics like "Darling, you look twisted/ Could you see yourself with a better man?/ Darling, it's sadistic/ I know I caught your eye, I'm optimistic," while "A Soft Hum" is similarly musing: "But no one gets what they really want/ We love only when it's convenient/ We act like we know more than we know/ We treat love like it's something you own."

And though their set dragged a bit during some of the ballads, like the tediously slow "Lost My Mind," As Tall as Lions was certainly a step up from Morning Teleportation, and helped hype the crowd up into a bouncier, more enthusiastic mood when it came time for Cage the Elephant. Only 10 minutes late to their 10 p.m. set time, the band burst onto the stage, giving the crowd a live reenactment of Rob Gordon's "High Fidelity" rule about mixtapes.

First, start off with a bang: The thrashing, screamo fury of "Tiny Little Robots," which involves Shultz demanding, "Are you scared?/ Are you scared?/ Are you scared?" as the album's chorus, then take it up a notch, which the band did with "Lotus." Though the track started off with a slower feel - with lots of discordant reverb - it soon developed into a swift kick in the face, with politically charged lyrics ("A billion faces running round my head/ All got opinions, but they don't mean shit/ Keep droppin' bombs until the whole world's dead"), accentuated by Shultz's no-holds-barred performing style. Climbing up on speakers and screaming into kids' faces? Yes, please!

And maybe because the group only performed about 10 other tracks - basically, they ripped through their self-titled debut album, which was released last May - Cage the Elephant was able to keep the energy up the whole time. Obviously, the show's highest points came during the group's singles, such as "Back Against the Wall," which was the night's first audience sing-along, and "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked," after which small pockets of the sold-out crowd left (jumping on that bandwagon sure is easy), but the galloping pace and jagged feel of the set was certainly a welcome surprise.

Case in point: The first song the group performed during their encore, "In One Ear," includes the line, "In one ear/ And right out the other" - but after such a thrilling set, that's certainly not the case. In fact, it's pretty much the opposite. Oh, and the numerous half-naked members of Morning Teleportation and As Tall as Lions who joined Cage the Elephant onstage for their encore? Definitely awkward, but not distracting enough to take away from the group's hesitation-free style - and that's a compliment.

Gifted singer songwriter tackles Gun Club, Lee Hazlewood, the Gershwins, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Mudhoney and more.

By Blurt Staff

One of BLURT's fave newcomers of the recent past is Britain's Gemma Ray, whose 2009 album Lights Out Zoltar! Earned comparisons as diverse at the Beach Boys and Neko Case - you can read our review here. Ray will be playing the Blurt/Second Motion Records Official SXSW Showcase in Austin on Saturday night, March 20, at the Taproom On Sixth, so if you're at SXSW this year, make sure you don't miss her.

Now comes word that on May 18 she's releasing It's A Shame About Gemma Ray (Bronzerat), an all-covers album that includes unusual selections by composers from George and Ira Gershwin to Lee Hazlewood to The Gun Club. Ray's versions often bear little resemblance to the originals. Instead, they're reinventions of songs, taken from her memory.

Explained Ray in a statement, "I deliberately avoided going back and listening to the original versions. I chose songs that, for better or worse, implanted themselves in my head at different periods in my life."

Comparisons to the Dirty Projectors' Rise Above' and its rethinking of Black Flag, It's A Shame About Gemma Ray,'recorded by Matt Verta-Ray (Heavy Trash) in a spontaneous, whirlwind three day session at his N.Y. Hed studios in New York City, takes on the different and more delicate task of filtering a wide range of styles through Ray's unique sensibilities.

"Rosemary's Baby vs. Drunken Butterfly," for instance, is a haunting one-woman mashup, in which Gemma takes the movie's theme and adds the lyrics from Sonic Youth's "Drunken Butterfly"; "Hey Big Spender" is a tribute to the signature song of Ray's late best friend (a "vivacious, tongue-in-cheek man-eater"), which "was played during her cremation, so it stuck in my head in a very odd way." And "Bei Mir Bistu Shein" is her take on a flirtatious Yiddish song (best known in the U.S. for its interpretation by the Andrews Sisters), which was endorsed by the Nazis in its German interpretation - until they realized it was originally in Yiddish.

Ray didn't original intend to make a covers record. She was actually in NYC to record for a different project with Verta-Ray, but after putting a few of the covers down, the pair determined that a Ray covers album needed to happen. "It was an accident!", says Ray. That's also a reason why Ray tried to recreate songs from her head, because a lot of the cover ideas came about on the spot. It's also why the inspiration behind the songs on the record aren't necessarily the originals, but the one's that made the biggest impression on her.

Trackslisting:

"Ghost on the Highway" - Gun Club

"Bei Mir Bistu Shein" ­ The Andrews Sisters

"Swamp Snake" - The Sensational Alex Harvey Band

"SUD" - Obits

"Only To Other People" - The Cookies

"Lock My Heart" - Jimmy Eaton and Terry Shand

"Rosemary's Baby vs. Drunken Butterfly" - Kryzstof Komeda & Sonic Youth

"Rather Be Your Enemy" - Lee Hazlewood

"Touch Me I'm Sick" ­- Mudhoney

"Just Because" - Lloyd Price

"Looking the World Over" - Memphis Minnie

"Everyday (Rollercoaster)" - Buddy Holly (Hardin/Petty)

"I'd Rather Go Blind" - Ellington Jordan, & lyrics by Etta James but credited to her partner Billy Foster (for tax reasons).

"Crush on You" - George and Ira Gershwin

"Bolt on the Door" - Gallon Drunk

"Hey Big Spender" - Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields

[Photo Credit: Simon Webb]

The former Delgados vocalist delivers her second solo album while returning to her old label Chemikal Underground.

By Fred Mills

Delgados co-guitarist/co-vocalist Emma Pollock went solo after the Scottish band's amicable split in 2005 and issued her debut, Watch the Fireworks, on 4AD in 2007. The album's blend of atmospheric, almost shoegazey textures and fizzy indiepop showed bundles of potential, and for the new Law of Large Numbers, she wonderfully fulfills that potential even as she thwarts easy expectations. Produced by another former Delgado, Paul Savage (who happens to be Pollock's husband), it's being billed as an "unconventional" recording, and that's not a bad way to characterize the dozen songs' mélange of baroque pop, vocal-heavy arrangements, Dixieland jazz and vintage Prog flourishes, and rhythmic changeups.

Aficionados of Britindie and art-rock will swoon for much of this material. Chief among the highlights: the thrumming, rippling "I Could Be A Saint," with its brittle guitar riffs, subtle Terry Riley-ish keyboard undercurrent, and yummy girl-group choruses; the angular, postpunk-flavored pop of "Red Orange Green," which cleverly utilizes a morphing lyric motif (the heart's "beat-beat-beat," a door's "creak-creak-creak," a clock's "tic-tock, tic-tock") to provide the tune with an insistent percussion theme; the hypnotic "The Loop," a minimalist, part-round, part-a capella number that instantly summons images of a certain traditional Christmas song (I won't spoil the surprise); and the carnivalesque "Chemistry Will Find Me," whose lurching/wheezing/menacing, almost Tom Waitsian arrangement contrasts delightfully with Pollock's eyelash-batting, precisely-yet-seductively delivered lines that make her sound she stepped right off the screen from Moulin Rouge. (Pollock's friend and Domino Records recording artist Adem guests on the latter track.) Unconventional, indeed, is the operative term here, because for such a wee gal she's certainly got a room-filling voice, and the big ambitions to go with it.

Less wieldy, perhaps, is the lyrical concept being pushed: Pollock wants to draw a parallel between the titular theorem (about predicting probability outcomes in, for example, gambling with dice) and how in life and love, humans are prone to calculate risk and expectation even in the face of the natural world's randomness. Thematic conceit alert! Nevertheless, the music and Pollock's clear-as-a-bell vocals more than make up for whatever potentially dubious topic she wants to sing about, so let's split the difference and say she's entitled.

This album, incidentally, marks a homecoming of sorts for Pollock: the record is released by Chemikal Underground, which the Delgados established in the early ‘90s to champion the then-burgeoning Scottish underground, issuing records by the likes of Mogwai, Arab Strap, Aereogramme and, uh, Magoo. I'll confess to being only an intermittent fan of the Delgados themselves, for during their decade-long run, although all the "right" indierock tastemakers (Pitchfork, Magnet, etc.) sang their praises, their penchant for trying on other band's hats - Sonic Youth on one album, Pavement the next, the Pixies another, and Flaming Lips yet another - suggested a group flailing around for an identity. That said, each album did contain kernels of brilliance, and had they continued they just might have broken through.

Law of Large Numbers, however, is just good enough to make me want to revisit Pollock's voice in its original context, and with that in mind I have no doubt that I may also eventually reassess my opinion of the band. After all, being a rock critic means never having to say you're certain.

From Cream to Tony Williams to West Bruce & Laing to Bruce Trower to Cream (slight return) AND all those collaborations and solo excursions... whew. Whole lotta low end goin' on, for the virtuoso bassist and iconic classic rocker.

By Lee Zimmerman

For an artist as proficient and as accomplished as the brilliant Jack Bruce, there's been a surprisingly scant number of volumes written about his extraordinary 50 year career. That makes the new biography Jack Bruce: Composing Himself (Jawbone Press) something of a revelation, being that it's the only tome in recent memory to trace Bruce's evolution from his beginnings as a 12-year old composing prodigy to his early involvement in Britain's sprawling music scene of the early sixties and on through his contentious stint with Cream and the experimental efforts he spawned well beyond. A weighty effort, its 300 plus pages go into exacting detail as it spans a life immersed in personal and professional challenges, in which practically every triumph exacted some toll.

Author Harry Shapiro elicits an extraordinary candid commentary from Bruce himself as well as from a stellar, if shifting, cast of collaborators - Eric Clapton, Carla Bley, Mick Taylor, Gary Moore and John McLaughlin among them. Clapton himself writes a special introduction in which he declares, "If I had to reluctantly commit to naming his most defining quality as an artist, it would be that he intuitively knows how to step into, and gather from, all of the genres that he has focused on." Therein lies an obvious hint that it wasn't a caustic relationship between Cream's two competing front men that caused the band's demise. Manfred Mann guitarist Tom McGuiness offers a somewhat backhanded tribute to his former colleague as he reflects on Bruce's reluctant stint with the Manfreds, allegedly done simply for the money. "(He) was quite impossible to play with at time," McGuiness admits. "We often literally couldn't follow him."  

So too, Bruce's efforts have often proved confounding not only for his fellow musicians, but for his audiences as well. Rarely does he find middle ground; an unfortunate pairing as West, Bruce and Laing seemed to many to be a lame attempt to reignite the power trio combo pioneered with Cream, while his more avant-garde excursions with Bley, McLaughlin and Billy Cobham also thwarted those hoping to hear him reprise the Cream catalogue. Shapiro notes one particularly intriguing performance he witnessed. "In front of hundreds of German rock fans, many on the edge of their seats waiting for ‘White Room' or ‘Sunshine of Your Love,' Jack walked out with a chair and a cello and for the first three minutes of the concert regaled the audience with a spirited dose of Bach's preludes."

Of course, as is the case with many musicians of Bruce's generation, the music he made is a backdrop to a much more dramatic tale, one shaped by drugs, health impediments, bad business deals and interpersonal squabbles. Bruce's legendary tempestuous personality is partly to blame, but the book doesn't spare the other principals, which isn't surprising considering its somewhat prickly cast of characters. In fact, if there's one criticism that could be cast on the book itself, it's the fact that Shapiro is so fastidious in his detailing of Bruce's evolving relationships. It's no easy task keeping track of the trajectory, especially given Bruce's prodigious output.  How prodigious? The extensive discography and performance history offered in the appendix offers all the evidence needed.

Nevertheless, obsessive fans will find this fascinating reading.   In Composing Himself, Jack Bruce successfully bares himself as well.

[Photo Credit: Jill Furmanovsky]

With a new album en route in a little over a week, the Truckers also have a revealing film about them that the word's getting out on, too.

By Fred Mills / Photos By Kevin Ruppenthal

March 16 is just around the corner, which means the new Drive-By Truckers album, The Big To-Do, is also just around the corner. We've been listening to it pretty much nonstop and trust us, the motherfucker smokes; watch for a review as well as an in-depth interview with the band to coincide with the release, which will be the band's first for the ATO label.

As we mentioned not long ago the band is also cooking up a very special DBTs goodie for Record Store Day, April 17 (read our report and comments from bandmembers Mike "Stroker Ace" Cooley and Patterson Hood here).

In the meantime, the Barr Weissman-directed DBTs documentary The Secret to a Happy Ending recently had its unveiling at a pair of screenings in Silver Spring, Maryland. The film is still looking for distribution, so here's hoping that the buzz generated in the DBTs community will find its way to the proper individuals so everyone can get a look at it this year.

Our correspondent and blogger pal Kevin Ruppenthal was on hand at one of those screenings in Silver Spring and he posted a lengthy review of the film at his most excellent blog "Playmixt = Playlist + Mix Tape," additionally posting subsequent comments about the Q&A session that took place after the screening with the director and bandmembers Hood, Cooley and Brad Morgan. Ruppenthal's been kind enough to let us publish some extracts, below, along with his photos, but make sure you follow those links to read his full account.

***

Text by Kevin Ruppenthal:

On the origins of the film:

In Barr Weissman's 2010 documentary, The Secret to a Happy Ending, there's great balance between live performance and revealing interview. The subject this time is not a blockbuster band that's topping the charts or selling out arenas and stadiums on their mammoth concert tour. The band is called Drive-by Truckers, and they've most likely played a blistering live show within a reasonable driving distance of wherever you are right now. This film about them is without a doubt a new addition to the pantheon of great rock and roll films. Six years in the making, the film documents a band that has slogged its way out of Alabama in the late 1990s out to clubs across the globe, finally breaking into the Billboard Top 40 Album charts in the late 2000s. What's great about the way the film is organized, though, is it's not just a travelogue or chronicle. It's divided into sections that let you get to know the people on stage, where they've come from both in terms of upbringing and family, as well as the stories behind a great catalog of songs. Drive-by Truckers tunes tend to be story songs.

On the film's content:

Rooted in the story songs of the DBT catalog are a whole lot of real-life people and adventures. You get to meet Patterson's great-uncle, George A., for whom they wrote the song The Sands of Iwo Jima: "I never saw John Wayne on the sands of Iwo Jima," as the song goes, when George talks about his actual experiences there. A lot of Patterson's family is in the film including briefly his mother, the subject of the song 18 Wheels of Love. There are stories about Gregory Dean Smalley, for whom the song The Living Bubba was written - a guitarist dying of AIDS, pushing himself to keep going: "I can't die now, ‘cause I got another show to do." Mike Cooley's tune Uncle Frank and Jason Isbell's song TVA are discussed with the background of a brief history of the Tennessee Valley Authority bringing electricity to some of the poorest parts of the south. These may seem unusual subjects for rock songs that have the power of Neil Young and Crazy Horse going at full tilt, but they make for great narrative songs.... It's not all rock and roll, though. There's the usual discussion about the tedium of the road, which - while a staple of rockumentaries - has got to be fair game for a band like this doing hundreds of dates a year. They're not doing it in airplanes or under giant stage sets or in glamorous accommodations either. The film shows how hard this band works doing so during the kick-ass, stomping live footage shot at various venues across the U.S. These guys and gal bust their asses getting it done, and there's some sense of what it's like to be an album-oriented band in the post-FM radio and post-CD age.

On the post-screening Q&A:

After the screening there was Q&A with director Barr Weissman, band members Brad Morgan, Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood, and some of the other folks who appear in the film. Some of the highlights:

-Barr indicated he was introduced to the band by a friend who'd told him to "RUN, DO NOT WALK" to go listen to this band now around the time Southern Rock Opera came out.

-While qualifying a comment, an audience member started their question by saying, "I didn't like your music the first time I heard it..." which made Patterson quip, "Nobody ever likes us the first time they hear us!"

-Another audience member commented that the band makes "album rock like I remember." Patterson said he still likes to go to record stores. Cooley talked about needing to find a way to get people to listen to an entire album, in this era of 1 or 2-track attention spans.

-In a discussion about album cover artwork, Patterson said he thought that London Calling was the greatest album cover ever and that you knew that whatever was inside was gonna be great.

Forty-track digital collection includes Grace Potter, Jack Johnson, Jackson Browne and others who donated their songs.

By Blurt Staff

1% for the Planet, a global network of 1,200 companies that donate 1% of annual sales to environmental causes, has released a digital music compilation: 1% for the Planet: The Music, Vol. 1, the world's first music compilation dedicated to supporting non-profit organizations working to create a healthy planet. The album aims to accelerate the 1% movement by engaging more people and inspiring more companies to join.

Featuring more than forty tracks, the album can be found on the 1% music web site, (http://music.onepercentfortheplanet.org/), and on all major music download sites. (And at only $9.99, forty tracks makes for one whale of a bargain, folks.)

More than 40 musicians have donated music to the album and are featured on the 1% music site. Leading artists, including Jack Johnson, Jackson Browne, and Grace Potter, gave rare and exclusive tracks. "The artists are amazing. They have been incredibly supportive of the project from the beginning, and their passion is infectious. Fans hear the artists' music and are inspired to get involved themselves" says Melody Grote, VP of Marketing and Acquisitions, 1%.

There's also a special video that Johnson created for the project. View it here: www.youtube.com/1percentfortheplanet

In the spirit of reducing waste generated from the distribution and disposal of traditional CDs, the album is an all-digital release. At the new 1% music web site, fans can sample and buy the music, see what the artists are saying about their involvement in the cause, and spread the word online. Supporters can visit the site to get a web badge to display on their site or blog, or use social media tools like Facebook and Twitter to spread the word.

Though the release is all-digital, the compilation is also available to offline purchasers. With a greater number of consumers buying CDs only to store them after they've saved the music digitally, 1% for the Planet offers consumers and retailers a more earth-friendly option in purchasing music.  Eco friendly download cards allow the music to be merchandised in retail stores alongside regular CDs. The download card evokes the look and feel of a CD but is made entirely of recycled paper. Consumers purchase the download card with an enclosed access code which allows them to download the music. The new format is available now to retailers worldwide.

"1% for the Planet: The Music, Vol. 1 is an easy way to make a difference for anyone who loves good music," says Grote. "Listeners can share the music online with their friends, family and colleagues in order to exponentially increase giving to the environment."

About 1% for the Planet:

Started in 2002 by Yvon Chouinard, founder and CEO of Patagonia, and Craig Mathews, owner of Blue Ribbon Flies, 1% for the Planet is a growing global movement of over 1,200 member companies, small and large, that donate 1% of their sales to environmental organizations worldwide. Each day, more than one new business joins the 1% for the Planet movement. As a network, the 1% community has become a global frontrunner in funding the work of environmental groups around the world.

Long-in-limbo album  Dark Night of the Soul should see release later this year.

By Fred Mills

Whew. That Danger Mouse/Sparklehorse/David Lynch project Dark Night of the Soul sure has had a twisted, tortured trajectory. You'll recall that the all-star studded album - in addition to DM and Mark Linkous, it featured contributions from Flaming Lips , Gruff Rhys , Iggy Pop , Suzanne Vega , Black Francis , Vic Chesnutt , Julian Casablancas , Jason Lytle , Nina Persson , James Mercer and David Lynch  - had been lined up as long ago as a year for a mid-2009 release via Chyrsalis/EMI. At one point, as we reported, it was streaming at the Chrysalis site, and then when that turned out to be problematic it got streamed at NPR Music. Meanwhile, review copies were sent out to journalists.

Then it got blocked in some kind of unspecified beef between Danger Mouse in EMI. As we reported on May 15, the NPR Stream was shut down (a message at NPR read, "The album was initially going to be released with a book of photos by director David Lynch in July. But a dispute with EMI records may delay or kill the project."), leading to this turn of events:

A dispute between EMI and Danger Mouse that for the moment has left the project in limbo. Or at least the musical portion of it. The limited-edition package was to include, obviously, the DM/SH album along with a book containing David Lynch photos. Now, however, the way things stand is that it the book will be accompanied by a blank CDR. According to a spokesperson for Danger Mouse, the package will "come with a blank, recordable CD-R. All copies will be clearly labeled: ‘For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.' Due to an ongoing dispute with EMI, Danger Mouse is unable to release the recorded music for Dark Night Of The Soul without fear of being sued by EMI. Danger Mouse remains hugely proud of Dark Night Of The Soul and hopes that people lucky enough to hear the music, by whatever means, are as excited by it as he is."

A lot of media outlets, including BLURT went on and reviewed the record - fairly enthusiastically, at that. But with fans essentially left to pursue underground means of getting the tunes, Dark Night of the Soul, for all intents and purposes, was a lost album.

Lost no longer, however: The BBC is reporting (thanks for the tip, Pitchfork) that EMI and DM have resolved their differences and the record should see the light of day this year. Speaking to the BBC, Danger Mouse (Brian Burton) said, "The problems of last year are last year, so hopefully it will be out soon in June or something like that," he said.

An EMI spokesman said: "We can confirm that EMI are working with Brian Burton AKA Danger Mouse again, and are delighted to be doing so. Further information on releases will follow shortly."

Meanwhile, as you await the official release, the Danger Mouse-James Mercer project Broken Bells hits stores next week. Keep your eyes peeled at BLURT for a look at that album soon.

So... with all that in mind, lets revisit what our reviewer, Aaron Kayce, had to say about the album in his 8-star (out of 10) review last August:

Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse

Dark Night of the Soul

(self-released; www.dnots.com)

Just by reading the credits - Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse, David Lynch, Flaming Lips, Iggy Pop, Frank Black, Julian Casablancas, James Mercer, Suzanne Vega - you know this is either gonna be really cool or a half-baked slapped together mix tape compilations. Pfhhh! Danger Mouse would never let that happen and his production (which is somehow both vintage and futuristic at the same time) is the silver thread that ties this somber beast together.

Although it rarely gets particularly heavy, even with the sympathetic strings, airy static bleeps and swells of orchestral harmony, this is a dark album about lonely people searching for connection. If Wayne Coyne singing about "bringing you fuckers down" or Vic Chesnutt talking about "cutting a baby out" doesn't do you in, David Lynch's creepy ass cinematic delivery surely will. And you have to dig how Danger Mouse makes you feel like you snorted an OxyContin during Jason Lytle's (Grandaddy) powerful performance on "Everytime I'm With You."

Unfortunately, at presstime EMI had blocked the release of the album for undisclosed reasons, leaving fans to seek out the music via underground avenues. Dark night indeed.   

Standout Tracks: "Revenge," "Dark Night of the Soul" AARON KAYCE

As yet untitled album arrives in May, to be preceded (and followed) by a tour.

By Blurt Staff

LCD Soundsystem hasn't named its new album, the third one, but a date has been set already: May 18, via DFA/Virgin. Written/produced, as usual, by James Murphy, it was recorded at The Manshun in Los Angeles and the DFA  studios in New York and mixed at DFA from April 2009 through February 2010. Full tracklisting below.

Some random stats for ya: The new album is LCD Soundsystem's  first full offering of new studio material since 2007's Sound Of  Silver, which was named best album of the last decade by NPR, ranked #1 in the 2007 Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll, landed at #12 and #17 respectively in Rolling Stone and Pitchfork's best albums of the decade, and like its predecessor 2005's  LCD Soundsystem received a Grammy nomination for Best Electronic/Dance  Album. Sound Of Silver also featured "All My Friends," ranked #4 by Time in its Best Songs of 2007 and named single of the year by Pitchfork, and Entertainment Weekly #8 song of 2007 "Someone Great." In 2008, LCD Soundsystem contributed the track "Big Ideas" to the soundtrack of the movie 21. The band has since released the 45:33: The Remixes EP and a cover of Alan Vega's "Bye Bye Bayou," issued to commemorate Record Store Day 2009 and earning LCD its fifth NME single of the week. The album will be preceded by the March 23 release of the soundtrack to Noah Baumbach's  Greenberg, which features both composition's from James Murphy's  original score for the film and the new LCD Soundsystem song "Oh You  (Christmas Blues)."

 
The record's release will be supported by a world tour beginning with an April 16 penultimate slot at the Coachella festival in Indio CA and continuing with a run  of UK/Europe headline  dates (several of which have sold out well in advance and necessitated added  dates) and further worldwide festival appearances. For a full itinerary, see below.

Tracklisting:

 Dance Yrself Clean
 Drunk Girls  
 One Touch
 All I Want
 Change
 Hit  
 Pow Pow
 Somebody's Calling Me
 What You  Need

Tour Dates:
 
 April 16    Indio CA     Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival
 April 20     Dublin       Tripod * SOLD OUT   
 April 21    Dublin        Tripod * SOLD OUT  
 April 23     London      Brixton Academy * SOLD  OUT
 April 24    London       Brixton Academy *SOLD OUT
 April 26     Birmingham  Academy
 April 27     Leeds   Academy * SOLD OUT
 April 28     Glasgow Barrowlands
 April 29     Glasgow Barrowlands * SOLD OUT
 May 1    Manchester  Academy * SOLD OUT
 May 2    Bristol  Academy * SOLD OUT
 May 4    Amsterdam   Paradiso * SOLD OUT
 May 5    Brussels    Ancienne Belgique * SOLD OUT  
 May 6   Berlin  WMF
 May 7    Luxembourg  Den Atelier
 May 8   Paris    Bataclan * SOLD OUT   
 May 9   Paris    Bataclan
 May 30  George WA   Sasquatch  Festival
 June 11 Manchester TN   Bonnaroo  Festival
 July 10 Lisbon  Alive Festival
 July 17 Chicago  IL  Pitchfork Music Festival
 September 12    Isle  of Wight   Bestival

Famed archival label gets bootlegged so plans to release a bootleg of the bootleg.

By Blurt Staff

From the mid ‘80s through the early ‘90s, the Street Beat label brought the world what would someday become the legendary Ultimate Breaks and Beats 25-volume collection.  Featuring tracks that were known for their breaks from 3 distinct decades, UBB highlighted some of the best R&B and soul groups of the time and paved the way for many modern DJs and hip-hop artists. 

More recently, over the course of the past 7 years, more than 70 releases have appeared on the acclaimed archival label Numero Group. Along the way, a dedicated fan created a 40 minute mega-mix and pressed up a white label breaks record.  This bootleg LP release found its way to the dance floor and into the hands of some of the most discerning tastemakers in the DJ community.  Word got back to Numero and instead of issuing the obvious cease and desist letter, Numero decided to bootleg their own bootleg.  On June 8th, the Numero Group will deliver a proper LP and CD release of the bootleg as an homage to the breaks and beats collections of yore.

June 8 brings Eccentric Breaks & Beats - truth in titling - on Numero imprint Numbero.

The creator of this collection is none other than the apocryphal label and production team, Shoes, who have previously re-worked Moodyman, Al Green, Miles Davis, and dozens more.  Featuring over 50 tracks from some of the best artists associated with the Numero Group, the mix set also has some eyebrow-raising artwork (see above) that will tweak the memories of headz and crate diggers alike.

1,000,001 Jimi Hendrix fans can't be wrong... new/unreleased collection guaranteed to pry open your wallets long enough to make you salivate for the back catalog deluxe editions, too! And you don't even have to be drinkin' bootleg Hendrix Electric Vodka to dig it!

By Hal Bienstock

Despite releasing just three studio albums while he was alive, Jimi Hendrix has one of the biggest catalogs in rock history, with dozens of live performances, outtakes and remasters appearing and disappearing from print. Often thrown together haphazardly, those albums didn't serve the Hendrix legacy well.

Now, his label and his family are hoping to change that by reissuing deluxe editions of his three original albums - Are You Experienced?, Axis: Bold As Love, Electric Ladyland -and the album he was working on at the time of his death (First Rays of the New Rising Sun). But the biggest news for Hendrix fans is a fifth CD, Valleys of Neptune, that includes never before released studio recordings. Most of the material on Neptune was recorded in 1969, as the original Jimi Hendrix Experience was breaking up (some of the later tracks on this album feature Billy Cox on bass, replacing Noel Redding) and Hendrix was beginning to add more funk and R&B to his blues-based sound, something that would come to full flower soon in his Band of Gypsys.

While the band may have been in the process of splitting apart, it's in fine form here, blazing through previously unreleased songs like the title track and "Ships Passing Through the Night," as well as versions of well-known songs like "Fire" and "Hear My Train A-Comin'" that serve as studio counterparts to the expansive renditions of these songs that Hendrix had worked up for the stage.

This is Hendrix in his prime - on fire technically and creatively. Anyone wondering why he's still considered the greatest guitarist of all time need look no further for proof. These aren't scraps dug up by people trying to make a buck off a legend. Many of these tracks are full-fledged songs that Hendrix simply hadn't decided what to do with. The others are rehearsals for a major concert at Royal Albert Hall that was meant to be a theatrical film.

As with most Legacy reissues, Neptune sounds great and comes with extensive photos and liner notes that give the stories behind the songs and the sessions that produced them. (All of the other Hendrix reissues also come with DVDs with newly-created documentaries that offer fans additional insight into the making of the album and include interviews with Experience band members. Neptune doesn't.)  

If there's one flaw with Valleys of Neptune it's that it doesn't hang together as an album as well as the rest of Hendrix's studio catalog. More than anything else that has to do with the inclusion of alternate versions of songs you've heard before. (It's hard to imagine Hendrix would have released another studio version of "Fire" - no matter how good - three years after releasing the first one). But that doesn't make it any less enjoyable or important, either as a document of a transitional period in Hendrix's short career or simply as some of the best music ever made. 

If Neptune is a must-have, the other reissues are more problematic. If you bought the last round of reissues, the DVD, remastering and liner notes probably aren't enough reason to open your wallet again. But if you're still holding on to earlier versions of the CDs - especially the horrible sounding ones from the ‘80s - or haven't yet replaced your old vinyl, you'll be very happy with these new editions.

Valleys of Neptune is released next Tuesday, March 9.

An impressionistic look at the new Jurado album, due May 25 from Secretly Canadian.

By Blurt Staff

Saint Bartlett opens up with a grandiosity yet unheard on a Damien Jurado album. It strips away the many layers of paint from the house down the street where we know Jurado has occupied for the last decade. The new coat is exhilarating. It makes the whole neighborhood shine. It's a modest grandiosity; still homegrown. The mellotron swells, heavenly handclaps ring in stereo and big drums create a sky for the songs to fly in. And the words. Words spring forth from within the volcano of Jurado, full of hope. There's so much hope, in fact, that album opener "Cloudy Shoes" turns into a call-and-response with himself, as though it were a dialogue between two halves of himself.ado and Swift as the performers.

"I wish that I could float up from the ground / I will never know what that's like"

Heavy stuff. Richard Swift's Spector-esque production is spot-on. He ferries Jurado across the river, where the metamorphosis occurs. He then ferries him back, and it is through Swift's lens that we see Jurado not as a folk singer, but as a mystic - somewhere between Van Morrison, Scott Walker and Wayne Coyne. Saint Bartlett was made entirely at Swift's National Freedom studio in Oregon, in just under a week with only Jurado and Swift as the performers.

Check out an MP3 - speaking of Phil Spector - for new track "Arkansas"

Commits suicide; gifted singer songwriter had battled depression for years.

By Fred Mills

News began getting out last night that Sparklehorse frontman Mark Linkous is dead. He committed suicide yesterday, March 6, although no other details have been disclosed as of this writing. He was reportedly in his forties, although no exact date of birth appears on his Wikipedia page. At the time of his death he was finishing up a new album for Anti- Records, and just this week it had been announced that the Danger Mouse-Sparklehorse collaboration Dark Night of the Soul would finally see release following the resolution of a dispute with EMI.

A statement from Linkous' family published by RollingStone.com read: "It is with great sadness that we share the news that our dear friend and family member, Mark Linkous, took his own life today. We are thankful for his time with us and will hold him forever in our hearts. May his journey be peaceful, happy and free. There's a heaven and there's a star for you."

Linkous had struggled with depression for years. There was that notorious incident in 1996 when Sparklehorse was on tour in England when he took an overdose (possibly accidental) of valium and antidepressants and he reportedly "died" for two minutes; he was unconscious for 14 hours, cutting off circulation to his legs (leading to multiple subsequent surgeries) and also suffering a heart attack.

According to BLURT contributor John Schacht, who interviewed Linkous last year, "I liked his [sense of] humor - nice guy, very damaged though. When I hung up the phone the last time, he was walking into a therapist's in Asheville, and [I sensed] I'd never speak to him again. You could feel the weight of his depression."

Just the same, Linkous' career yielded a number of impressive peaks over the years. He got his start in the ‘80s with Virginia-based band Dancing Hoods, then gained national acclaim in 1995 with the Sparklehorse debut Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. Several other albums followed, notably 2001's It's A Wonderful Life (featuring guests Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, Vic Chesnutt and others. The last Sparklehorse album appeared in 2006, Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain.

Along the way Linkous also became a producer, working with the Cardigans' Nina Persson, Daniel Johnston and others. (He helmed a Johnston tribute album, 2004's Discovered Covered, which included a collaboration between Linkous and the Flaming Lips.) In more recent years he'd settled in Hayesville, NC, several miles southwest of Asheville, and was spotted around town in Asheville on numerous occasions, sometimes checking out other bands in the local clubs. He will be greatly missed.

By way of tribute, BLURT will republish John Schacht's interview with Mark Linkous tomorrow.

‘Toon time in toyland once again, with Plastic Beach to be released this week by Virgin... but have these musical apes finally slipped on their banana peels?

By Jason Gross

Recently announced: that Gorillaz will be one of the headliners at this year's Coachella festival. But how important is Blur frontman Damon Albarn's futuristic cartoon-themed band?  Virgin parent company EMI actually blamed them and Coldplay for declining profits.  Maybe not surprisingly, since Gorillaz notched up multi-platinum sales when such a thing's become a rarity in the biz.

Keeping a relaxed release schedule, album #3 appears half a decade after Demon Days and maintains the theme of multi-styles (funk/rap/soul/rock) and as many guest appearances than your average rap album.  For anyone who found the first two albums too head-spinning, Plastic Beach is a relief as it's their most consistent release.  Unfortunately, that also makes it their most boring one, too, as their earlier wild highs (singles like "Clint Eastwood" & "Feel Good Inc.") and lows is what made them exciting and interesting.

Albarn keeps his guest list fascinating (including Lou Reed, Mark E. Smith, a mini-Clash reunion, Bobby Womack, and an Arabic orchestra) but except for Womack, they're mostly wasted, doing undistinguished cameos.  As before, the highlights come from the rappers - Snoop Dogg at his languid best introducing the record, and Mos Def near the end ("Sweepstakes").  As for Albarn himself, he sounds kind of tired, whether he's singing or trying rap.

All in all, not a terrible record per se, but not one you'll run to like the first two albums.  Maybe Albarn needs to let the next record gestate a while longer or try to stop being be an over-achiever with his other multi-star bands (Monkey; The Good, The Bad and The Queen).

The iconic British songstress kicks the collective ass of posh jazz club Yoshi's on March 3.

By Jud Cost

Raising her hands over her head like a triumphant prize fighter, Marianne Faithfull strides confidently onstage, then coughs into the mic. "Sorry," she says in a well-heeled British accent. "I've got a bit of a cold coming on. Just a little one," she reassures the devotees who have filled Yoshi's, the posh jazz club next to the railroad tracks that run through Oakland's Jack London Square. It's the perfect introduction to the legendary singer who somehow combines an air of nervous vulnerability with an attitude that lets you know she could probably kick your ass from here to the Bay Bridge just down the road.

"I loved Jack London," she says, referring to the namesake of the once upscale, now decidedly lifeless shopping center just across the tracks. "When I was a young girl, I wrote an essay on White Fang." It's opening night of a two-night stand, and a rare chance to catch this rags-to-riches, then rags-to-riches again chanteuse in a fairly intimate setting not much bigger than your living room-if you have a very large living room.

No amps onstage. It's evident tonight will bask in Faithfull's quieter side. "We won't be able to play the rockers," she says, nodding towards Doug Pettibone, the nimble acoustic guitarist seated next to her. "Saying that, could you please turn up the guitar in my monitor," she laughs, ended by a bit of a wheeze. Faithfull's fragile condition has her bundled up in a black sweater with what looks like white ostrich feathers protruding rakishly from the sleeves. She dedicates "Falling From Grace" to old pal Allen Ginsberg. "I really miss Allen," she says of the beat poet who helped her through some tough times. "I felt if Allen can do it, so can I," she says. "But I will not be doing 'Howl' tonight." Then she offers up the first line of the epic poem, anyway, once dragged through the U.S. legal system as obscene: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked..."

Faithfull now collaborates with the best minds of a much younger generation, including Colin Meloy of Portland's Decemberists, whose song "The Crane Wife," a highlight of her 2009 album, Easy Come, Easy Go (Decca) sounded even better tonight, stripped to the bone. "Crazy Love," a collaboration with Nick Cave, is simultaneously melancholy and hopeful. "I have to make you listen to my new songs," she smirks. "Then you get rewarded for your attention." The carrot she tosses the faithful is her diary of a mad housewife, "The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan," from her 1979 comeback LP, Broken English: "At the age of thirty-seven she realized she'd never/Ride through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair/So she let the phone keep ringing and she sat there softly singing/Little nursery rhymes she'd memorized in her daddy's easy chair." 

Equally as heartfelt was "Miss Otis Regrets,"  a Cole Porter chestnut she once warbled as a teenager in coffee bars in her Thames Valley hometown of Reading, about 40 miles west of London. "My god, I thought I was so grown-up at seventeen," she says of the days when she was about to receive "an education" only hinted at by the Carrie Mulligan character in the recent film of the same name.

Her long day's journey into night, which saw Faithfull fall all the way from pop royalty as consort to Mick Jagger to heroin addiction, anorexia and homelessness in the streets of London, was prophesied with deadly accuracy by "Sister Morphine," an eviscerating song she co-wrote in 1969 with Jagger and Keith Richards. "Come on, Sister Morphine, you better make up my bed/'Cause you know and I know in the morning I'll be dead/And you can sit around, and you can watch all the clean white sheets stained red." Faithfull now adds an eyes-wide-open postscript to her lost decade: "I wouldn't change a thing. It's been a long, strange journey, but we're all still here."

When she sings "As Tears Go By," her 1964 debut American hit (and the first song ever penned by Jagger and Richards), Faithfull is old enough now to give the tune a whole new depth of meaning. But nothing could have topped the set-closer to this exquisite evening, "Sing Me Back Home," a Merle Haggard death-row prison tune she learned from Richards and his former compadre, onetime Byrd and Flying Burrito Brother, Gram Parsons. Like her generational peer Van Morrison, and few others, Faithfull is living proof of the old adage: Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. In her case, life's crucible has turned Marianne Faithfull into the singer she was always meant to be.

Digital-only release will be recorded on tour that starts next week, then will arrive on May 18 for those who sign up in advance.

By Blurt Staff

Bad Religion is set to celebrate its 30^th anniversary this year and has announced plans to record a live album, 30 Years Live, during their upcoming spring 2010 House of Blues tour and offer it as a free "thank you" to loyal fans for a limited time only on May 18. 

Beginning today, fans are invited to sign up at www.badreligion.com for a free digital download of 30 Years Live that will be available for a limited time only. Meanwhile, check tour dates below - you just might find yourself attending a gig and becoming part of a live recording.

Bad Religion also plans to enter the studio to record their 15^th studio album which is expected for release this fall.  In a recent interview, prolific singer/professor/author Greg Graffin disclosed new information about Bad Religion's recording plans and the upcoming tour as well as his forthcoming book "Anarchy Evolution" which is due out this fall via HarperStudio. 

Tour Dates:

Mar 17 - Anaheim, CA - House of Blues
Mar 18 - Anaheim, CA - House of Blues
Mar 19 - San Diego, CA - House of Blues
Mar 20 - San Diego, CA - House of Blues
Mar 21 - San Diego, CA - House of Blues
Mar 24 - Los Angeles, CA - House of Blues
Mar 25 - Los Angeles, CA - House of Blues
Mar 26 - Las Vegas, CA - House of Blues
Mar 27 - Las Vegas, CA - House of Blues
Mar 31 - Anaheim, CA - House of Blues
Apr 1 - Anaheim, CA - House of Blues
Apr 2 - Anaheim, CA - House of Blues
Apr 3 - Los Angeles, CA - House of Blues

Album due May 18, Meanwhile, North American tour kicks off next week, too.

By Blurt Staff

As previously announced, Band of Horses third album is to be titled Infinite Arms - it's due May 18th through Brown Records/Fat Possum Records/Columbia Records - and today they revealed the sleeve art. It features the photography of the band's long time collaborator Christopher Wilson.
 

A tour kicks off next week in Colorado. Full itinerary below, including their two-night stand in Austin at SXSW.

Produced by Band of Horses with additional production from Phil Ek, mixed by Dave Sardy,  and recorded over a 16-month period, the songs on Infinite Arms project the essence of the different locales across America that became the setting for the recording and songwriting process behind the album.  The rich musical heritage of Muscle Shoals, AL, the sublime beauty of Asheville's Blue Ridge Mountains, the glamorous Hollywood Hills and the vast Mojave desert all influenced the sounds on Infinite Arms and helped yield the group's most focused and dynamic recordings to date. The serene woods of Northern Minnesota and the band's native Carolinas inspired the songwriting, lending the compositions an air of comfort and familiarity.

 
Band of Horses are Ben Bridwell, Creighton Barrett, Ryan Monroe, Tyler Ramsey and Bill Reynolds. Infinite Arms marks the recording debut of longtime touring members Ramsey and Reynolds, while Barrett and Monroe graced the last album, Cease to Begin. Through touring together in support of Cease to Begin and during breaks in the Infinite Arms recording process, the band have become a cohesive force with all members making invaluable contributions to the unmistakable sound that founder Bridwell has crafted since the band's inception. As Bridwell himself concedes, "In many ways, this is the first Band of Horses record."

 
Tour Dates:

 
March 15th - Boulder, CO - Fox Theater
March 16th - Denver, CO - Ogden Theater
March 18th - Austin, TX - Stubbs BBQ (SXSW)
March 19th - Austin, TX Central Presbyterian Church (SXSW)
April 8th - Paris, France - La Fleche D'or
April 9th - Brussels, Belgium - Orangerie
April 10th - Rotterdam, Netherlands- Motel Mozaique, Schouwburg
April 12th - London, UK - Koko
April 14th - Koln, Germany - Kulturkirche
April 16th - Oslo, Norway - Rockefeller
April 17th - Gothenburg, Sweden - Tradgarn
April 18th - Copenhagen, Denmark - Vega
April 23rd - Raleigh, NC - Walnut Creek Amphitheater (with Widespread Panic)
April 24th -  Raleigh, NC - Walnut Creek Amphitheater (with Widespread Panic)
April 27th - Gainesville, FL - Rion Ballroom
April 28th - Miami, FL - Fillmore
April 29th - Orlando, FL - House of Blues
May 1st - New Orleans, LA  - Jazzfest
May 2nd - Memphis, TN - Beale St. Music Festival
May 27th - Davis, CA - UC Davis Freeborn Hall
May 30th - Bend, OR - Les Schwab Amphitheater (with She & Him)
May 31st - George, WA - Sasquatch Festival
June 5th - Bangor, IE - Ward Park (with Snow Patrol)
June 9th - London, UK - Roundhouse
June 12th - Glasgow, Scotland - Bellahouston Park (with Snow Patrol)
June 19th - Toronto, ONT - Olympic Island Concert (with Pavement and Broken Social Scene)
September 25th - Los Angeles, CA - Greek Theater
 

New album, due May 18, was mostly cut down at Muscle Shoals.

By Blurt Staff

The Black Keys release their sixth full-length album, Brothers, May 18 on Nonesuch Records. It's the followup to 2008 album, Attack & Release, which received praise from pretty much every media outlook you can name. The band will support Brothers with a tour that includes a sold out performance at Central Park's SummerStage in New York City on July 27 (additional dates will be announced soon).

The album arrives on the heels of three other projects the band released in the past year: Dan Auerbach's solo effort, Keep It Hid, the debut LP from Patrick Carney's band Drummer, and Blakroc, a collaboration between The Black Keys and renowned MCs including RZA, Mos Def, Q-Tip, and Raekwon.

Carney says Brothers is the album they've always wanted to make and taps into their creative force as a duo. "Dan and I grew up a lot as individuals and musicians prior to making this album. Our relationship was tested in many ways but at the end of the day, we're brothers, and I think these songs reflect that."

Carney and Auerbach recorded the bulk of the album at the legendary Alabama studio Muscle Shoals with additional sessions at Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound System in Akron, OH and The Bunker in Brooklyn, NY.

Of the album, Auerbach says, "We like spooky sounds...like Alice Coltrane, where a dark groove is laid down. That's the headspace we tried to get into for this record."

The album includes the Danger Mouse-produced song "Tighten Up" and a cover of the Jerry Butler classic "Never Gonna Give You Up." The remaining songs on Brothers are written, performed and produced by The Black Keys. With the exception of a handful of tracks, co- production duties were handled by Mark Neill. The record was mixed by Tchad Blake.  

Carney explains the sound the band wanted for this record: "We are big fans of Tchad Blake. The way he approaches mixing is the same way we approach making music. Respecting the past while being in the present. The mixes he did for us on Blakroc impressed us so much we knew he had to mix Brothers."

Tracklisting:

1. "Everlasting Light"
2. "Next Girl"
3. "Tighten Up"
4. "Howlin' For You"

5. "She's Long Gone"
6. "Black Mud"
7. "The Only One"
8. "Too Afraid To Love You"
9. "Ten Cent Pistol"
10. "Sinister Kid"

11. "The Go Getter"

12. "I'm Not The One"

13. "Unknown Brother"

14. "Never Gonna Give You Up"

15. "These Days"

"Enormous in scale, absorbing, obliterating..." - and an early candidate for 2010 year-end best-of lists, too. The Montreal duo gives My Bloody Valentine a run for its money on Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night, issued this week by Jagjaguwar.

By Jennifer Kelly

The third album by Montrealean married duo Olga Goreas and Jace Lasek churns cathedral-sized anthems and clots them with MBV-ish miasmas of guitar murk.  It pits unstoppable melodic climaxes against paranoiac visions of espionage and betrayal.  Enormous in scale, absorbing, obliterating, this is an album that picks you up on a tidal wave of conjured emotion, sucks you under, tosses you about and finally leaves you beached and gasping.  It is an anti-war album that could rally an army, rousing powerful, untethered emotions to who knows what end.  It is inchoately persuasive, and you buy in without really knowing what the message is.  

Besnard Lakes come out of the same northerly scene that spawned Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade, but also Constellation bands like Godspeed and Silver Mount Zion.  Their aesthetic is somewhere in the sweet spot where damaged Dennis Wilson choruses meet squalls of feedbacked improvisations.  The giant two-parted cuts that frame the album, opener "Like the Ocean, Like the Innocent" and second side epic "Land of the Living Skies", proceed weightily, at a measured pace, from shadowy noise-scapes into soaring, solidarity-engendering melodies.  To listen, even without humming along, is to feel yourself swept up in a larger enterprise, a journey, a shared ethos, that ruthlessly incorporates all comers.  "Albatross," the single starts in a wavering flare of Loveless guitar distortion, picks up Goreas' angelic, dreamy vocals, then intensifies into a dream-march to the sea.  Even casual observations like "Chicago Train"'s repeated assurance that "This is the last train...to Chicago" gain heft and otherworldly significance when tethered to this slow-moving ritual music.  

Roaring Night pulls off the difficult feat of being nearly all crescendo, all finale, without becoming tedious or overblown.  Like 2007's Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse (and, if anything, even more so) this is music right at the edge of bombast but not over it, grand but not grandiose, ambitious but not overweening.  

They're bats! Cheetah Chrome and Sylvain Sylvain form Batusis - official debut at SXSW to be followed by an EP.

By Fred Mills

It's a punk rock supergroup that'll make your inner Tim Stegall weep tears of joy: Batusis is the brainchild of erstwhile Dead Boys guitarist Cheetah Chrome (spotted in recent years as part of the reunited Rocket From the Tombs) and New York Dolls founding member/guitarist Sylvain Sylvain. The band - which includes bassist Enzo Penizzotto and drummer Thommy Price, the rhythm section from Joan Jett's Blackhearts - will issue a colored wax 7" EP (and digital download) on the Smog Veil label on May 4. Prior to that Batusis will make its official debut at SXSW in Austin (featuring a different bassist and drummer tba).

"I've known Sylvain since 1975," explained Chrome, in a statement. "The Dolls were a huge influence on me." Sylvain adds "We're just nuts about rock ‘n' roll. We knew that's what we'd come up with, no matter what!"

"We really had no idea what we were gonna do until we got together and jammed," added Sylvain. "We're just nuts about rock and roll, and we knew that's what we'd come up with."

Producer Ken Coomer (late of Uncle Tupelo and Wilco) cut the EP with the band last November in Nashville, where Chrome had relocated not long ago.  "I asked Ken for a sound that would peel paint and piss people off, and I got it," said Chrome.

Songs on the EP: "What You Lack in Brains," billed as "a salacious, piano-spiced workout"; instrumental "Big Cat Stomp"; "Bury You Alive"; and a cover of Davie Allen and the Arrows' Wild Angels soundtrack classic "Blues' Theme."

Incidentally, sharp-eyed readers might note the curious choice of band name: it's derived from "The Batusi," the Watusi variation that Adam West, as Batman, danced in an episode of the ‘60s TV show Batman. "We kicked around a lot of names," said Chrome. "My favorite at that point was The Uncalled Four.  We were listening back to ‘Blues' Theme' and Syl started doing this dance where he drew his fingers across his eyes.  I immediately asked him ‘What is that?'"

"I said, ‘It's the dance Batman does!'" recalled Sylvain. "The next thing you know, Cheetah gets his laptop out and starts to Google it and then tells me the dance is called the Batusi. We immediately looked at each other and said, ‘Cheetah, that's the fuckin' name!'"  

Catch ‘em at SXSW March 18th at the Prague, followed by Cheapo Music at 5pm on March 19th. In May the band will be doing a tour of the UK.

More details here.

[Photo Credit: Anna O'Connor]

Fifth album from acclaimed Canadian combo.

By Blurt Staff

Stars return with their fifth full-length album, The Five Ghosts, available June 22 on the band's new label imprint Soft Revolution Records. It's the band's follow-up to their 2007 release, In Our Bedroom After The War and also sees Stars returning to producer Tom McFall, who recorded 2005's Set Yourself On Fire.

Recorded in Montreal, The Five Ghosts was written by all five members :Amy Millan, Evan Cranley, Torquil Campbell, Patty McGee and Chris Seligman.  The album features a guest appearance by Toronto singer-songwriter and Broken Social Scene member Andrew Whiteman. 

 
 "We have never written an album with this much cohesion and unity' said Millan, in a statement.  "It is the first time we've had the luxury of being together in a huge room writing songs off the floor.  The Five Ghosts is quintessential Stars."

The first single is "Fixed" featuring Millan on vocals and will be available on iTunes soon.

 
This summer, Stars will embark on a  U.S. tour where they will play The Five Ghosts in its entirety, along with fan chosen selections from their back catalog: Nightsongs (2001), Heart (2003), Set Yourself On Fire (2005), In Our Bedroom After The War (2007). Details on dates and tickets will be announced through the band's web site, www.youarestars.com.
 

Tracklisting:
 
1) Dead Hearts
2) Wasted Daylight
3) I Died So I Could Haunt You
4) Fixed
5) We Don't Want Your Body
6) He Dreams He's Awake
7) Never Been Good With Change
8) The Passenger
9) The Last Song Ever Written
10) How Much More
11) Winter Bones

No details other than the group plans to go into the studio in May.

By Fred Mills

It certainly wasn't a denial: back in December we ran an interview with Sunny Day Real Estate frontman Jeremy Enigk in which he talked about his band's 2009 reunion tour - the September concert in Portland is reviewed here - and he also left the door open for the possibility of new recording, as evidenced by this exchange:

Apparently a new song has already crept into the set? Tell me about that.

We didn't set out to write any new material when rehearsing for the reunion tours. It's just something that happened. It's impossible to stand in the room as SDRE and not try something new. It's like the music is just waiting there in the air for us to try it out. The new song (still untitled) was a basic jam I wrote one night after rehearsal and casually brought to the band the next day. What was a decent song idea the night before was instantly transformed into something much better...An SDRE song.

How has the tour made you feel about the chance that you'll overcome the various inertias and obstacles to produce a new album together?

It seems to get clearer every night we play that we have to record a new album. It's like someone wants to give you a free Ferrari with no strings attached and all you have to say is yes.

***

Well, now comes word via the good folks at EarCandyBeat.com that "yes" is now the operative term: the blog is reporting that SDRE will be entering the studio in May to record a new album.

Writes ECB: "That's what Marco Collins, former KNDD and current KEXP jock reported [via Twitter] late Monday night. Collins wrote that he received an e-mail from SDRE/Foo Fighter member Nate Mendel stating the band would be recording in May."

The tweet reads thusly:

Great news yesterday. Just got an email from Nate from Sunny Day Real Estate/Foo Fighters... SDRE is recording A NEW RECORD IN MAY!!

As of this writing there's no indication when the album might see release or who will release it. 1994's Diary and its followup LP2 were reissued by Sub Pop last year. You can read our review of them here.

The Bride Screamed Murder - title is self-explanatory, yo.

By Blurt Staff

The Melvins release The Bride Screamed Murder on June 1 via Ipecac Recordings - that same day they'll kick off a U.S. tour in San Diego. They'll also drop in at the Bonnaroo festival on June 12.   

The Bride Screamed Murder is the third release featuring Buzz Osborne, Dale Crover and Big Businesses' Coady Willis and Jared Warren.  While the Melvins recently celebrated their twenty-fifth anniversary, the latest incarnation debuted with the highly-praised (A) Senile Animal (2006) and continued with Nude With Boots (2008).

Joining the Melvins on tour for a half dozen shows will be label mates ISIS (who will also perform at Bonnaroo) while Totimoshi will be along for the full run of Melvins dates.

Tour dates:

June 1     San Diego, CA     Casbah

June 2     Tempe, AZ     The Clubhouse

June 3     Albuquerque, NM     The Launchpad

June 5     Austin, TX     Emo's

June 7     Houston, TX     Warehouse Live

June 8     Baton Rouge, LA     Spanish Moon

June 9     New Orleans, LA     One Eyed Jacks

June 10     Birmingham, AL     Bottle Tree

June 12     Manchester, TN     Bonnaroo Festival **

June 14     Athens, GA     40 Watt Club *

June 16     Washington, DC     9:30 Club *

June 17     Philadelphia, PA     TLA *

June 18     New York, NY     Webster Hall *

June 19     Brooklyn, NY     Music Hall of Williamsburg *

June 20     Boston, MA     Paradise *

June 21     Boston, MA     Paradise *

June 23     Cleveland, OH     Grog Shop

June 24     Detroit, MI     Small's

June 25     Chicago, IL     Double Door

June 26     Madison, WI     High Noon Saloon

June 27     Des Moines, IA     House of Bricks

June 29     Denver, CO     Ogden Theatre

July 2     Calgary, AB     Sled Island Festival +

July 3     Calgary, AB     Sled Island Festival +

July 5     Vancouver, BC     Rickshaw Theatre

July 6     Seattle, WA     Showbox at The Market

July 7     Eugene, OR     John Henry's

July 9     San Jose, CA     Blank Club

All dates feature Melvins (2 sets) w/Totimoshi except:

* = Melvins/ISIS/Totimoshi

** = Melvins/ISIS

+ = Melvins

The indie buzzband descended on the Great Scott venue (in Allston, Mass.) on March 2 and nearly justified the buzz. The potential's there, but the jury's still out.

By Wyndham Lewis

West Palm Beach is up there with Sedona or Provo on the list of cities likely to hatch the next hot indie rock band. In the case of Surfer Blood, the mix of sunshine, strip malls and nursing homes seems to have provided the surprisingly appropriate environs to create Astro Coast, a terrific, riff-driven debut album.

So what does a South Florida band, that counts its existence in months rather than years, do to distinguish itself as a live act worthy of multiple sold-out club gigs like the one recently played at Great Scott in Allston?

Having seen this recipe of young band, limited material and inexperience before, the possibility was there for anything from disaster to greatness. And, as is frequently the case, the crowd was treated to something in between. The set opener was the album's lead track Floating Vibes, a song that hints at the heavy riff, light vocal approach of Sonic Youth or Built to Spill's ‘90s output.

Despite the fact that they likely spent it in Huggies, the early ‘90s is obviously well plumbed territory for the band. In several ways they recall early Pavement. Surfer Blood's songs have a similar reliance on guitar, although the lyrics and structures are more conventional. Both bands would look equally at home getting out of the van with tennis racquet bags rather than guitar cases and both rely heavily on a percussionist/screamer to provide the animation and entertainment for the rest of the crew. Surfer Blood's resident wild man, Marcos Marchesani, looks like he was plucked from the evolutionary chain somewhere between Frank Zappa, Magic Dick, Jim Martin and Gallagher. More than Bob Nastanovich, his counterpart in Pavement, live Marchesani adds a significant dimension to the songs with his percussion work.

Take It Easy, which would sound at home on a Vampire Weekend or Shins set list, followed and the band's confidence and comfort was almost chart-able as the evening progressed. Lead singer JP Pitts' voice is slightly huskier live, but in most respects, Astro Coast lays out a true sound from which the band does not significantly deviate. Harmonix was given an extended feedback session at the end, but it seemed like more of a way to add time to a short set than anything.

Playing and singing his back-up vocals on Twin Peaks and Anchorage seemed to wake up guitarist Tom Fekete who spent much of the set's first few songs remarkably expressionless, as if he were bored with math class. When he playfully butted heads with Pitts mid song, he cemented the kid brother quality his looks portray. Playing the guitar intro from Weezer's Undone (The Sweater Song) drew enthusiastic hoots from the crowd that died quickly when the tune was aborted. It was a pretty amusing moment, that hinted at a sense of humor and engagement that will hopefully become more clearly articulated as the band's identity and experience grow.

By the time they played Swim, with its Boston-worthy power chords, the looked like they belonged on stage and were enjoying themselves, and the crowd was rapt.

So I guess the answer to the question raised above is - Surfer Blood definitely has the potential, and the road ahead looks good, but we'll see.

Surfer Blood is currently on tour - they'll be all over SXSW, doing at least 10 shows. Go to their MySpace page for dates.

[Photo Credit: Chris Jennings]

First album in nearly a decade; US tour being sketched out for later this year.

By Blurt Staff

Cornershop will release Judy Sucks A Lemon For Breakfast on April 20 in North America through their label, Ample Play.  Released in the UK and Europe this past summer to critics' delight, this is the follow up to 2002's critically acclaimed Handcream For A Generation.  North American tour dates are planned for this fall. 

Long before indie bands were mixing global influences, Tjinder Singh and Ben Ayres set up Cornershop and were releasing tracks from 1993 onward, giving the band cult status in the US.  By 1997, the band hit the top of the international charts with the lauded When I Was Born for the 7th Time featuring the evergreen hit, "Brimful of Asha."  Their music has been used in film, theatre, TV and adverts since.  Last year Nike licensed the funk-charged "Candyman" for one of their commercials featuring basketball superstar LeBron James (View it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SiQKxja79M)

Through the years, Cornershop have earned a worldwide fanbase counting the likes of Johnny Depp, Prince, David Byrne, Noel Gallagher, Jarvis Cocker, Morrissey, and Nelly Furtado.

The North American release of Judy Sucks A Lemon For Breakfast will include two bonus tracks.  Exclusive to iTunes, "Something Makes You Feel Like" features French songstress Soko. Originally recorded for John Peel, a cover of early Rock'n'Roll pioneer, Lonnie Donegan's "Battle of New Orleans" will be exclusive to Amazon.

"Like an awesome mythological beast...another fantastic hybrid creation." (Time Out New York) Riding the beast this time: Eugene Mirman, Lenny Kaye, Robbie Fulks, Buffalo Tom, Sondre Lerche, Nicole Atkins, Langhorne Slim, Freedy Johnston, Janeane Garofalo, Sarah Vowell, Rick Moody, Ben Greenman and Paul Muldoon.

By Fred Mills

BLURT fave John Wesley Harding brings his acclaimed Cabinet of Wonders back to New York's Le Poisson Rouge for a 3-show residency on March 25, April 15 and May 2. Per tradition it will feature a cross-section collaborators from the worlds of music, literature and comedy, Harding once again curating, hosting and performing, variety show format, with close friends and hand-picked icons.

Last year the Cabinet featured the likes of Rosanne Cash, Josh Ritter, A.C. Newman, Rhett Miller, Colson Whitehead, Graham Parker and Colum McCann, and when Harding took it on the road with co-host Eugene Mirman he added such stellar talents as Colin Meloy, Grant Hart, Jill Sobule, Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), Sherman Alexie, Lucy Wainwright Roche and many others. This time out Mirman will be in tow, naturally, along with Buffalo Tom, Sondre Lerche, Nicole Atkins, Lenny Kaye, Robby Fulks, Langhorne Slim and Freedy Johnston, comedienne Janeane Garofalo, authors Sarah Vowell, Rick Moody and Ben Greenman and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon. The roster of performers will change from show to show - see below for the details.

 "I wanted to bring together my novel writing friends (who mostly envy my musician friends) and my musician friends (who mostly envy my novel writing friends) under one flag," says Harding. "The fact is: I like everyone who's performing."

The Village Voice calls the Cabinet of Wonders "a brilliant evening of laid-back fun," while the Portland Tribune raves that it is "one of the most whip-smart variety shows on the market. Highly recommended."

Boy howdy to that.

JOHN WESLEY HARDING'S CABINET OF WONDERS:

March 25 at Le Poisson Rouge, New York, NY

Freedy Johnston

Sarah Vowell

Eugene Mirman

Errollyn Wallen

Jake Slichter

Langhorne Slim

April 15 at Le Poisson Rouge, New York, NY

Eugene Mirman

Sondre Lerche

Ben Greenman

Rick Moody

Nicole Atkins

Leona Naess

Daniel Felsenfeld

May 20 at Le Poisson Rouge, New York, NY

Paul Muldoon

Eugene Mirman

Janeane Garofalo

Robbie Fulks

Buffalo Tom (acoustic)

Lenny Kaye

[Photo Credit: Bill Wadman]

Prepping for Viper Room gig on Friday followed by high profile coming out party in Austin at SXSW, the erstwhile Hanoi Rocks frontman played an intimate party last night at the Finnish Consul General.

Text & Photos by Jose Martinez

So just before most people in the music biz head to Austin, TX for SXSW a few lucky L.A. invites headed to the Finnish Consul General's palatial estate in ritzy Bel Air to see an intimate performance from former Hanoi Rocks singer Michael Monroe.

Feasting on fancy treats and a bar loaded with free wine and Finnish vodka, Monroe and his "guys" played the living room which in a stroke of genius had all the furniture removed. The last time I remember seeing Monroe was in 1989, back when a slim & trim Axl Rose co-starred in the "Dead, Jail or Rock n' Roll" music video. And much to Monroe's credit, he has remained as fit and as vibrant and as energetic as ever. Wow, give me some of what he's got.

Ready to go into the studio soon, he has a sold out night at the Viper Room this Friday before playing showcases at SXSW next week. Tonight his set consisted of mostly older material, including Hanoi Rock's "Malibu Beach," the aforementioned "Dead, Jail or Rock n' Roll," and one new song. Climbing the furniture, Monroe's sophomore antics are refreshing as it's obvious he's living in the moment offering the most sincere performance possible.

"It's hard not to want more": Ultra-hyped indie summit between Danger Mouse and the Shins' Danger Mouse yields some promising moments, but nothing that will eclipse the principals' other projects. See ‘em live on Letterman in the video below.

By Hal Bienstock & Fred Mills

A two man "supergroup" of sorts, Broken Bells is a band featuring James Mercer of The Shins and uber-producer Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley, Black Keys). The result is Broken Bells (issued by Columbia this week), an album that has elements of blue-eyed soul, trip-hop, folk and new wave.

But what's most surprising is what the album doesn't have - the pure pop bliss that both of these guys are known for. There's not a "Crazy" or a "So Says I" in the bunch. Instead there are songs like "The Ghost Inside," which sounds like Hall & Oates meets The Postal Service (in a good way), the cinematic "Sailing to Nowhere," and "Mongrel Heart," which is reminiscent of Joy Division and The Cure.

When word first broke of the collaboration last fall, the collective panting from bloggers was heard from here to Saskatchewan - not without justification, given the duo's respective output. (The pair had originally met at a rock festival in 2004 and, upon comparing notes, declared themselves mutual fans; work began on the album at Danger Mouse's L.A. studio two years ago, in March of 2008.) Of course, pretty much any time either man combs his hair someone posts a news item about it; Mercer's firing of half his band was a headline for months, while the torturous trajectory of the Danger Mouse-helmed Dark Night of the Soul project seemed to ping the pop radar every couple of months. This only served to heighten the anticipation for Broken Bells, and in December, with the release of the (free digital) single "The High Road" (which they performed this week on the Letterman show), anticipation grew even greater.

What you'll get out Broken Bells depends on what you expect. As a debut album from a new band, it's promising. As a collaboration between people who gave us some of the catchiest songs of the aughties, it's hard not to want more.

Well, um... it's probably more fun to sit around listening to Kinks albums and yakking about that reunion that will probably never happen... hey, there's always the new documentary Do It Again: One Man's Quest to Reunite the Kinks which will be screening soon.

By Lee Zimmerman

Who could blame a Kinks Kultist for drooling in anticipation of a DVD chronicling Dave Davies' coming of age? After all, wasn't it Ray's younger brother who crafted the patented riffs that fueled the band's earliest entries and subsequently composed a series of solo outings that typified their innate English charms? 

Unfortunately, for purchasers of Dave Davies Kronikles: Mystical Journey (E1 Entertainment), those expecting a thorough history of Dave's musical trajectory will likely find themselves sorely disappointed after viewing Davies' overly long and deadly dry narrative describing his path to inner enlightenment. In fact, for all his endless musings about the meaning of life and the connection to the cosmic workings of the universe, Davies' philosophical offerings come across as so much intellectual pabulum, both tedious and tiresome. 

While the commentary becomes hopelessly mired in these paranormal possibilities, suffice it to say Davies makes no excuses about his beliefs in unexplained phenomenon, extraterrestrial and otherwise.  He claims his older sisters possessed a measure of psychic ability and that his extraordinary mental connection to his siblings, Ray included, took root early on. However, his urge to get metaphysical breaks down into a ponderous series of discussions with like-minded believers and cult practitioners and scenes of Davies walking aimlessly around his old childhood haunts, driving towards unknown destinations in the countryside and illuminating himself in reverse images of various landscapes that supposedly reflect mystical possibilities. 

Despite a precious few home movies of the fledgling Kinks, some scattered personal recollections and a soundtrack culled from Davies back catalogue, his fabled musical legacy takes a back seat to his philosophical discourse, which, by the way, sounds as if he's reading from some sage text.  A menu of bonus features provides no further respite, consisting mainly of fuller conversations with like-minded disciples -- save a performance of his classic "Creeping Jean" rendered recently with his Dave Davies Band. 

Davies does make a point when he speaks of the artist's obligation to serve his spirituality through his music.  In this case, all would have been better served by letting the music speak for itself.

Indie tastemaker (!) cohosting events with Second Motion, Bloodshot, Insiders Network, Mpress and Sonicbids. Much drinking of frothy beverages predicted to ensue.

By Blurt Staff

Everybody getting ready for Austin? We're headed there too next week for the annual South By Southwest music conference and festival. We're thrilled to be partnering with several labels and organizations this year for some seriously fun parties and showcases - our main deal is the Second Motion Records showcase featuring Adam Franklin, Grant Hart, Tommy Keene, Marty Willson-Piper, Gemma Ray and the Walls, but of course every event is crammed with some seriously fine artists. Full details are below.

A very special thanks to our hosts at each of these events, as we are damn proud to be a cosponsor. Please drop by for the festivities and refreshments, and make sure you come up and introduce yourselves to us.

SXSW LINEUP

Saturday, March 20:

Blurt/Second Motion Official SXSW Showcase

Taproom at Six, 311 Colorado Street, 8 - 1am

Confirm your attendance at our special Facebook page!

8pm - The Walls (from Ireland)

9pm - Gemma Ray

10pm - Marty Willson-Piper (of The Church)

11pm - Tommy Keene (full band)

12am - Grant Hart

1am - Adam Franklin (of Swervedriver) & Bolts of Melody

Thursday, March 18:

THE iNSIDERS NETWORK Showcase

BD Riley's, 204 E 6th Street, 12-5

Cosponsored by BLURT

12:00-12:35 Karl Mullen

12:50-1:25 Seth Glier

1:40-2:15 Robert Deeble

2:30-3:05 Michael Miller

3:20-3:55 Steve Poltz

4:10-4:45 Roman Candle

Friday, March 19:

15^th Annual Bloodshot Records Party

Yard Dog Gallery, 1510 South Congress Avenue, 12-7

Cosponsored by Rolling Rock and Blurt

12:15-12:45    The Silos
12:55-1:25    Whitey Morgan & the 78s
1:35-2:05    Ben Weaver
2:15-2:45    Ha Ha Tonka   
2:55-3:25    Rosie Flores
3:35-4:05    Justin Townes Earle
4:15-4:45    Exene Cervenka
4:55-5:25    Deadstring Brothers
5:35-6:05    Waco Brother

Sonicbids Official SXSW Party

Maggie Mae's, 323 E Sixth Street, 11:30-5:30

Cosponsored by BLURT

Twelve bands, two stages: The Law, Cassavettes, Bad Veins Obi Best, The Uglysuit, Cosmo Jarvis, Jets Overhead, The Broderick, Bear Hands, Kate Miller-Heidke, Francis, Family of the Year. Free drinks, free food, sweet giveaways and great music. RSVP for the Party here: http://www.sonicbids.com/SXSWParty/

Saturday, March 20:

MPress Records Showcase

Soho Lounge, 217 E. 6th Street, 12-5:30

Cosponsored by BLURT

Rachael Sage, Seth Glier, Katie Costello, The Mieka Canon, The Paper Raincoat,

Melissa Ferrick and The Kin.

Also - SXSW Panel Action: BLURT'S Kate Bradley will take part in the panel "From the Stage - An Artist's Perspective," discussing how artists are handling the transition from the physical to the digital world. The panel was put together by recording artist Samantha Murphy (who operates her own multimedia company The Highway Girl) and will feature Bradley (also of Outlandos Music and the Insider's Network), Michael Petricone (SVP Government Affairs of the Consumer Electronics Association), recording artist Rob Giles (of The Rescues) and recording artist Anais Mitchell. It all takes place, naturally, at SXSW ground zero, the Austin Convention Center, on Wednesday March 17, 3:30 - 4:30.

At the Music Hall of Williamsburg Wednesday night (March 10), Danger Mouse and James Mercer cover Neil Young, Tommy James, and themselves. Rising above the potential hype-spawned critical backlash, they do the latter proud, paving the way for a bright future as a "real" group.

By Zachary Herrmann

Debuts rarely come with such lofty expectations as those attached to the self-titled Broken Bells release. Given the pedigree of the group's two collaborators - Brian Burton (Danger Mouse) and James Mercer (of The Shins) - it's understandable.  In the world of indie music, those two names are Dirk Diggler-in-bursting-light-bulbs big.

With the album's March 9 street date come and gone, it's not the least bit surprising to see in critical circles, at least, a good deal of backlash to Broken Bells. The whole scenario sort of feels like déjà vu all over again - there was the same degree of acceptance/disappointment with the Burton-produced Beck LP, Modern Guilt.

And maybe, at first, both of these albums do not quite reach the impossible bar set by the star billings. But great pop can be deceptively simple and, too often, easy to dismiss. This story of expectations and knee-jerk reactions is going to be Burton's cross to bear for his career - because of the caliber of people he chooses to work with, as well as his post-modern approach.

Plain and simple, the guy loves music and if he wears his influences on his sleeve, maybe it's because Burton is creating the sort of music he would want to listen to.  In this spirit, at the second Broken Bells show ever (following a pre-release night in L.A.), the best moments of the night were the set closing covers, performed with reverence and met with delight.

After playing through the album in sequence (more on that in a bit), the Mercer/Burton duo returned to the stage sans backing for an absolutely mesmerizing take on Neil Young's "Don't Let It Bring You Down." With the band returning for one final go, Tommy James and the Shondells' "Crimson & Clover" ended the night in rousing fashion, getting the biggest response out of the night from the sold-out crowd.

When the seven-piece band first took the stage less than an hour earlier, it was hard to gauge just how far Broken Bells the live band would be willing to divert from Broken Bells the studio group.

Perhaps faring slightly better than Gnarls Barkley (Burton's "day job"... sort of) as a live band, Broken Bells gave an impassioned reading of the 10-track, 36-minute debut, stretching out guitar solos here and there, laying a thicker groove when appropriate. Given the fairly close adherence to the script, the album standouts ("Vaporize", "The Ghost Inside", "October") saw Broken Bells at its best, until the two-song encore, of course.

Ever the elusive figure, Burton mostly kept to his drum kit, shrinking into a corner any time he picked up a guitar. However much he tried to recede into the background, his stamp was all over the arrangements, pure psychedelic-soul, both familiar and fresh. So much for remaining inconspicuous.   

Mercer - who, based on appearance, could have easily disappeared into the hipster throngs outside the venue around Bedford Avenue - was only slightly chattier, speaking up on occasion. If any huge criticism could be levied against Broken Bells (the live band), it'd have to be for drowning out Mercer's voice, which apparently, has far more range than evident in The Shins discography. Recreating just about every reverberating vocal effect from the album was wholly unnecessary. As a result, though, Mercer's naked vocals on "Don't Let It Bring You Down" were that much more awe-inspiring by comparison.

The little kinks though, the shorter set length and the lack of audience interaction are all smaller growing pains in the scheme of things, and will dissipate with time (OK, maybe not the audience interaction). Bonus points awarded for the trippy projections though (based off the album's cover art), giving the whole show a sort of Warhol Factory feel (also due to the industrial look of Music Hall of Williamsburg's interiors). With rumblings of a follow-up album already starting, Broken Bells is going to be band worth watching developing on its own merits, live and in the studio, much in the way The Raconteurs have become almost as fascinating as Jack White's main act.

Burton may not come out and say what Broken Bells is to him (for Mercer, it looks like priority number one while on hiatus from The Shins), but there is some tangible evidence out there. At the close of "The Mall & Misery", Burton walked right up behind his co-star, Mercer, pausing for a moment before he placed his hands on Mercer's shoulders.

As if suddenly aware of his actions, he removed his hands and then waved goodnight to the crowd. Whether or not everyone else sees it, there's clearly something more to Broken Bells than just another all star side project. This time, it's definitely personal.

[Photos taken from the Letterman show appearance Tuesday night - if anyone has any photos from Brooklyn, send ‘em over and we'll publish ‘em!]

Who stole the soul indeed! Rumored to be running guns on the Ivory Coast with Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Elvis.

By Fred Mills

Some days we write the news, some days the news writes... you know. The UK media salivating heavily on this day, an otherwise slow news day, thanks to a report in the Daily Mail concerning the late James Brown's body - or the lack thereof.

Hi daughter, LaRhonda Pettit, is claiming that the corpse is missing from its crypt, which has been stored since the Godfather of Soul's death in 2006 at the S.C. home of another daughter, Deanna, until an official mausoleum can be completed. Pettit has been seeking an exhumation and autopsy of the body in order to prove that the official cause of death was not heart failure in conjunction with pneumonia.

Petit told reporters, "My daddy's body has disappeared. I have no clue where it was taken, but I need to know where. I'm convinced his death was suspicious and I want the people responsible brought to justice. The only way to do that is to exhume his body and have an autopsy. I cannot understand why one was never conducted."

She's suggested that perhaps an overdose of prescription painkillers, facilitated by "enablers," was the real cause of death.

Shades of Elvis and Michael Jackson.

Not only is the new Ted Leon & the Pharmacists album Leon's best to date,  it's a strong candidate for one of the finest full-lengths of 2010. Released this week on Matador.

By Ron Hart

"What about the voice of Geddy Lee?" once pondered an indie rock wise man. Well, from the sound of "The Mighty Sparrow", the opening track off The Brutalist Bricks (Matador), the outstanding new album from Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, it seems as though the Washington DC-by-way-of-Brooklyn-by-way-of-North Jersey punk great swallowed it whole (significantly when he hits that high note at the end). But don't think PhX has gone all Rush on us here, kids.

In fact, this taut, tight collection of 13 songs that make up the DNA of The Brutalist Bricks find Leo's trademark indie punk sound getting the major kick in the ass it so desperately needed, especially after 2004's underwhelming Shake The Sheets and 2007's disappointing Living Among The Living left a sour taste in the mouths of fans pining for the glory days of Hearts of Oak.  Elements of folk, only previously touched upon by Leo in the past, are more prominent on several of these tracks, particularly on "Bottled in Cork", a song that laments being an American overseas during the Bush presidency, and the vaguely psychedelic "Tuberculoids Arrive in Hop". Elsewhere, "Mourning In America" employs the faux-electro throb that confirms Leo's recent admittance to being a big Daft Punk fan, while "One Polaroid A Day" offers up the romantic white funk of vintage Orange Juice.  Then, of course, you have your classic PhX rave-ups like "Woke Up Near Chelsea" and "Gimme The Wire", jam-packed with crunchy, four-to-the-floor riffs and Leo's indelible, sentence-busting lyrical agenda tying it all together (albeit glistened with a power pop sheen that is far more Stiff  Records than Dischord).

It sounds as though Teddy boy is out to take over what's left of the rock radio airwaves with The Brutalist Bricks. And, in a perfect world, we'd be hearing songs like "Even Heroes Have To Die" and "Last Days" ad nauseum on the FM dial than Nickelback and the Foo Fighters. Because not only is this his best album to date, it's a strong candidate for one of the finest full-lengths of 2010.  Needless to say, this man is ready for the big time.

[Photo Credit: Ellisa Keller]

Fuerza Chile features 11 Chilean artists from the Nacional roster.

By Blurt Staff

In the wake of the Haiti disaster zillions of people stepped up to donate to Haitian relief programs, but the whole thing was so overwhelming and the media coverage so relentless at times that for many, "Haitian exhaustion" kicked in. As a result, in comparison the Chile earthquake, though admittedly not causing the same amount of damage and suffering, tended to be downplayed. It's a sad but true state of affairs.

So in an effort to revive the spirit of giving in the minds of the music community specific to Chile, the good folks at Alternative Latin label Nacional Records have put together a digital-only benefit album to raise funds. Titled Fuerza Chile, it cherrypicks 11 tracks from Chilean artists across Nacional's catalog. All proceeds will be donated.

Nacional founder Tomas Cookman was in Chile with management and label artist Los Fabulosos Cadillacs for the Vina del Mar Festival when the earthquake occurred. Fortunately no one in the band was injured but Cookman suffered a bruised leg. The group ended up taking a van across the Andes Mountains back to Argentina and were able to witness the devastation firsthand.

Chilean mixmaster Latin Bitman was DJing a massive party when the earthquake occurred. He escaped but within minutes, Bitman noticed that the ceiling had caved exactly where he had been spinning.

‘FUERZA CHILE' TRACK-LISTING

1. Francisca Valenzuela - Run Run Se Fue Pa'l Norte
2. Ana Tijoux - Mar Adentro
3. Gonzalo Yañez - Maldigo De Alto Cielo
4. Primavera De Praga - Pajaro Muerto
5. Los Tres - Cerrar Y Abrir
6. Latin Bitman - Shine
7. Javiera Mena & Diego Morales - Ausencia
8. Los Bunkers - Llueve Sobre La Cuidad
9. RH+ - Curb
10. Señor Coconut - La Vida Es Llena De Cables
11. Angel Parra Trio - La Jardinera

The album is available For Only $5.99 at iTunes and had already topped the iTunes Latino charts. That's a damn bargain, so step up to the plate, folks, and open up those wallets.

Blurt blogger published appreciation of the late organ wizard.

By Blurt Staff

We couldn't say it any better:

"The roll call of great jazz organists is finite but full of very large characters with very large talents; Richard "Groove" Holmes, "Brother" Jack McDuff, Johnny Hammond, Charles Earland and of course Jimmy Smith come immediately to mind. But for my $, Jimmy McGriff is top cat, the baddest of the bad, soul brother #1 of the jazz organ."

That's BLURT blogger Carl Hanni, deejay/archivist/crate digger deluxe, waxing enthusiastically about the late McGriff in his latest "Sonic Reducer" blog. Whether your bent is jazz, rock, blues, indiepop or some amalgam thereof, somewhere in your record collection is either an album featuring McGriff's keyboard talents, or some artist who's deeply indepted to the master musician.

Find out why McGriff's the top cat at Hanni's blog. Meanwhile, let's check out some of McGriff's classic LP sleeves, above, and below.

Do you ever think about how awesome it would be to make it big? Well, the U.S. Government wants to know about it!

By Fred Mills

It's 2010, and that means some underpaid schmuck canvassing for the U.S. census is going to be knocking on your door any day now, asking you personal questions about how many adults, children, illegal aliens and Republicans live in your household. You don't have to respond, of course, but hey, if the census taker happens to be pretty hot, consider inviting he or she in for a beer and then tell ‘em you'll answer all their questions if they'll have sex with you.

"Dear Penthouse, I always thought that the letters in your magazine were fake until last Friday afternoon when a blonde census taker with large breasts and dressed in Daisy Dukes knocked on my front door..."

Anyhow, we've just learned of another census going on right now too: The 2010 U.S. Rock and Roll Band Census. Our buddies over at hi-nrg D.C. pop band The Public Good have kindly transcribed the census questions at their blog, and we highly recommend you scoot over there and start answering those questions - they've kindly provided the webspace so you don't have to worry about wasting a postage stamp.

As the band explains, "This is how your government determines distribution of Rock and Roll Bands in the United States." So it must be important, right?

Among the key questions:

How many people do you think of as "in the band," at least most of the time?  Count all musicians regardless of whether or not they're any good.  Include managers, roadies, and hangers-on/groupies who dance on stage and/or play unamplified tambourine.  Do not count anyone in a jail, prison, nursing home, or other detention facility. 

Is this a real band, or are you just jamming?

o  We are as real as it gets.

o  We're just jamming.  But the other day I turned on the radio and I was like, man, we could do that.

Do you ever think about how awesome it would be to make it big?

o  Yes.  It would be totally awesome.

o  I try not to think about it.  But it would be totally awesome. 

Sprawling 19-track album covering 1966-69 performances, plus exclusive Record Store Day single with non-album track.

By Blurt Staff

Sundazed is billing it as the first official concert collection from the legendary San Fran sixties outfit: Live by Moby Grape, originally comprising Jerry Miller, Skip Spence, Bob Mosley, Peter Lewis and Don Stevenson. Their Columbia debut LP, Moby Grape, issued in June 1967, is still acclaimed as one of the greatest rock albums ever - a union of blues, soul, country, surf twang and day-glo garage rock, packed into original killer-pop songwriting. Extreme Columbia hype, devastating business hassles and Spence's tragic mental collapse threatened to blow up the band, although the Grape continued to make a string of great albums, 1968's Wow and Moby Grape '69.

Meanwhile, though, Moby Grape, in their prime, were also one of the Bay Area's - and America's - best stage bands, like the Beatles and Rolling Stones in one, with a breathtaking triple-guitar attack and stunning vocal harmonies. Live is the long-awaited proof. It features more than an hour of dynamite performances from soundboard and broadcast tapes, including tracks from the Avalon Ballroom in 1967 and the band's complete long-lost set at the Monterey Pop Festival, just a week after Moby Grape came out. There are live versions of the great rare Grape songs "Rounder" and "Looper" and five tracks from a famous Dutch radio show featuring the hard-charging '69 lineup of Miller, Mosley, Lewis and Stevenson.

And Live climaxes with the historic first-ever release of Spence's acid-guitar masterpiece "Dark Magic" - never recorded in the studio by the original band but presented here in an epic 17-minute performance at the Avalon, on New Year's Eve 1966. These recordings boast you-are-there fidelity, and the album comes with sumptuous packaging and rare photos plus liner notes by Rolling Stone writer and Moby Grape authority David Fricke.

The album's due in April from Sundazed.

Track Listing:

Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, 1967*
1.    Ain't No Use
2.    Rounder
3.    Looper
4.    Bitter Wind
5.    Changes
6.    Indifference
7.    Someday
       
Monterey International Pop Festival, 1967
8.    Introduction
9.    Indifference
10.    Mr. Blues
11.    Sitting by the Window
12.    Omaha
       
San Francisco, 1967
13.    Sweet Little Angel
       
RAI, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1969
14.    Murder in My Heart for the Judge
15.    I Am Not Willing
16.    Trucking Man
17.    Fall on You
18.    Omaha
       
Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, 1966
19.    Dark Magic
       

Plus a special Record Store Day Exclusive:

Moby Grape Live: Historic Live Moby Grape Performances 1967 & 1969 7" single with exclusive non-album track.

1.    "Rounder"
    Recorded live at the Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, 1967
    From the Sundazed release Moby Grape Live, available on CD & LP.

2.    "Sitting by the Window"
    Recorded live at RAI, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1969
    Previously unissued, available here only.

Though no longer squeezing out sparks, he's smoldering quite credibly on Imaginary Television, out this week on Bloodshot.

By Lee Zimmerman

For the better part of the last 35 years, Graham Parker's been known as an irascible agitator, an artist whose considerable talents have always found him toiling in the shadow of contemporaries like Elvis Costello and Tom Petty. Despite an enviable career and a prodigious output, he never quite achieved the wider acclaim he so clearly deserved.  To his credit, however, he's never faltered; every Parker album has maintained quality control, and happily, Imaginary Television (Bloodshot) is no exception.

If there is any change in Parker's MO, it owes to the fact that these days there's a little less grit, owing to a realization, perhaps, that he can gracefully age without appearing to retreat. "We're all downsizing what we're doing with our lives," he concedes on "Broken Skin," a song that sounds soothing when compared to his once walloping delivery.  Yet, he can still cajole, as "See My Way" clearly suggests, although he emulates more a friendly folkie than the upstart insurgent.  "It's my party and I won't cry/It's my funeral but I won't die," he asserts on "It's My Party (But I Won't Cry)," a song that makes a stab for defiance but delivers it with irony rather than arrogance.

A mellow Parker seems a stunning reversal, especially considering the fact that there's little here that rocks more furiously than a shuffle or a sway. And yet, if Parker's not exactly squeezing out sparks, he's still smoldering quite credibly.

[Photo Credit: Jeff Fasano]

Virtuoso musician, beloved by rock fans everywhere, could make the guitar talk.

By Fred Mills

Guitarist Micky Jones of the legendary Welsh psychedelic band Man, passed away late last week (reportedly on Wednesday, March 10, or Thursday, March 11) following a lengthy battle with brain cancer. He was 63.

Here in the States, Man's profile was relatively low, although anyone who came up during the ‘70s reading rock mags like Trouser Press, Phonograph Record Magazine, BAM and even the occasional imported copy of Melody Maker  or NME surely knew the band - and possibly, like myself, pledged eternal allegiance as well. A string of classic albums on the UA label yielded endless pleasure for fans of full-on hemp-fueled guitar rock; not for nothing was Man consider the Grateful Dead of the British Isles, and it's significant that no less a West Coast psychedelic avatar than Quicksilver Messenger Service's John Cipollina not only gave Man his blessing, he embraced them wholeheartedly as musical brethren by sitting in with them in 1975 for the great live Man album Maximum Darkness.

To those in the know, Man was the quintessential jamband decades before the term "jamband" was even coined. Their 10, 15, 20-minute and even longer excursions into cosmic freefall remain the stuff that old-timers love to tell their grandkids about, and anybody who saw them in the early/mid ‘70s during their initial artistic peak can count themselves among the lucky ones.

A solid, concise history of the band penned by ultimate Manfan (and latterday producer of the band) Ron Sanchez can be found at Jones' MySpace page, while a more detailed history of Jones himself and his career can be found at Jones' official website. Additionally, BLURT's own Rev. Keith Gordon has an outstanding review of a 2008 concert DVD that was released chronicling a '76 Man performance - check it out here.

 Obviously, this isn't the kind of passing that will be marked by all the hipster media - Pitchfork, Brooklyn Vegan, Pop Matters, et al - since hirsute, jammy outfits from the ‘60s and ‘70s never pass into hipster "cool" unless they get the belated blessings of, I dunno, Beck, Devendra Banhart or Animal Collective. Which is sad, but understandable. I'd hope that anyone reading this will follow some of the links and discover the band anew: seriously, they could rock like motherfuckers, and Jones in particular was a guiding light for guitar fans everywhere.

Jones was right there in the middle of the rawk  scene back in the day. He initially formed the beat combo The Bystanders in the mid ‘60s, which evolved into Man circa 1968 in response to the growing psychedelic movement. It was good timing, for while the group's early recordings didn't set the world on fire, within a few years Man was at the forefront of the UK freak scene; to this day, perennial Man band anthem "Spunk Rock" has the capacity to transport listeners to alternate dimensions. According to Sanchez:

"Right from the start it was clear Mick was a guitarist of amazing skills and originality. He also possessed a distinctive soulful voice. Micky's father had played Hawaiian lap steel guitar and had inspired the young George Jones to pick up the guitar himself. Like most of his generation, Micky was well schooled in American rock and roll. The mid 60's saw a growing interest in West Coast sounds. From talking to Mick, it was clear people like Jerry Garcia, Steve Miller, Cipollina, Zappa, and Zoot Horn Rollo were the big influences. The resulting sound that Micky produced was highly original, fluid, and sometimes aggressive. You could always expect some serious fretboard explorations when he stepped up to solo. The version of ‘Spunk Rock' from the Greasy Truckers live album is often cited as one of his landmark performances."

Man had its ups and downs, including periods of break-up and reunions, but by the mid ‘90s they were back in full force, recording and touring regularly. Around 2002, however, Jones was diagnosed with brain cancer, so his son George took his place in the band - later, Jones returned to make it a father-son team! Sadly, it was not to last, and the illness returned. Jones spent the last few years of his life in a nursing home.

In a report about Jones' death by the BBC, veteran journalist Michael Heatley is quoted as saying, "Man were a live band. People would go and see them because they knew that the live performance was going to be much better than the record. Micky was a fantastic improvisational guitarist. Deke [Leonard, the band's other guitarist] would create the outline and Micky would "fill in the bits". The thing that kept people coming back was the he could make the guitar talk."

Amen to that. He will be deeply missed.

Long-in-the-gestation stages Mondo Cane will arrive on May 4. Something about Faith No More is happening too...

By Blurt Staff

Nearly two years ago we interviewed Mike Patton, and in the story he disclosed that he had a new project he was working on, Mondo Cane.

"It's a big, complicated project," said Patton. citing a 10-piece band plus a full symphony orchestra and choir. The project was inspired by Italian pop crooners from the '50s and '60s who enlisted top arrangers and composers for backing. "It's my version of that music, so it's a little bit twisted and I definitely rearranged some things. But it's me in that environment."

Incoming, then, finally, is Mike Patton's Mondo Cane, the Faith No More/Peeping Tom/Tomahawk/Mr. Bungle/Fantomas mainman's Italian language rock-meets-orchestra hybrid. It's due May 4 via Patton's Ipecac Recordings label.

Recorded at a series of European performances including an outdoor concert in a Northern Italian piazza, the album features traditional Italian pop songs as well as a rendition of Ennio Morricone's "Deep Down."   Patton worked with a 30-piece orchestra and choir on the album.

Meanwhile, of course, there's that none-too-minor detail about the Faith No More reunion this year. The Australian/New Zealand leg finished up last month, and a string of US April dates are already sold out. Dates and details here.

Tracklisting:

1. Il Cielo In Una Stanza

2. Che Notte!

3. Ore D'Amore

4. Deep Down

5. Quello Che Conta

6. Urlo Negro

7. Scalinatella

8. L'Uomo Che Non Sapeva Amare

9. 20 KM Al Giorno

10.   Ti Offro Da Bere

11.   Senza Fine

Check out the live video clip, below.

By Fred Mills

Well, you could certainly call this going above and beyond the call of duty. Most bands do a special 7" single or a vinyl edition of an already existing album in order to support Record Store Day (this year, April 20 at fine indie retailers across the country). Which is great! But the Mountain Goats are apparently going all out by issuing a live DVD.

According to the band's label, 4AD, 1500 copies of the film will be made available on DVD, titled The Life of the World to Come: A film by Rian Johnson and a song-by-song performance of the album of the same name.  As 4AD notes, "Shot with minimal cameras and with no allowance for retakes, John Darnielle plays through the whole album, switching between piano and guitar, resequencing the album's running order in the process while joined by a special guest for two songs."

Filmmaker Johnson's previous credits include 2008's The Brothers Bloom and 2005's Brick, and he also did the Mountain Goats' 2006 video for "Woke Up New."

The DVD will come with a "custom-designed" 12 page book featuring liner notes from Darnielle, who comments on the film below:

"Rian and I met when he shot the 'Woke Up New' video at his Little Italy apartment; I'd spotted a credit to a band called "the Hospital Bombers Experience" in the end-credits to his film Brick and recognized a reference to a song of mine, and I looked him up, and we hit it off. He's been listening to my stuff since very early on, and I think he really gets the kind of axis I try to ride when I write: a kind of meeting point between a primitive formal style & a naked, raw feel. So when I listened to the demos to this album, I thought, I'd like to play them that way, too, and have that playing captured somehow. And then there was a line "I saw some old friends as I came to the city gate" in a song that didn't end up on the final album, which made me think of going back home to Claremont and working with friends, and playing the songs in the building where I took the state exam for young pianists when I was eight years old, not long after we'd moved to Claremont from Milpitas. So I wrote to Rian & sent him the album & we bumped ideas back and forth until we settled on the idea of a single live performance with a few cameras in a private space and we got really excited about it, and in early August I went out there and we did this thing that I think captures a face of the songs that I'm unlikely to catch elsewhere: before anybody else has heard them outside of the people making the record, almost all of them being played in a non-studio-or-living-room space for the first time ever, no re-dos for mistakes, only a few cameras on us & circling us as we sing and play."

There will also be national film screenings starting later this month, while concurrently the Mountain Goats will be touring (the tour kicked off Saturday, in fact).

Screenings:

26th March New Brunwick, NJ - New Jersey Film Fest
26th March Bloomington, IN - Bishop Bar
27th March New Brunswick, NJ - New Jersey Film Fest
27th March Brookline, MA - The Coolidge Corner Theatre
1st April Bellingham, WA - Pickford Film Center
1st April Asheville, NC - Fine Arts Theatre (Presented by Harvest Records)
2nd April Tucson, AZ - The Screening Room
3rd April Washington DC -- The Black Cat - the Backstage
10th April Athens, GA - Aux Festival at Athens Cine
16th April San Francisco, CA - ATA Theatre
17th April Seattle, WA - Northwest Film Forum

Tour Dates:

13th March St. Augustine, Harvest of Hope Festival, US
14th March Orlando, The Social, US
8th April Auckland, The King's Arms Tavern, NZ
9th April Wellington, San Francisco Bath House, NZ
11th April Brisbane, The Zoo, AUS
13th April Sydney, Manning Bar, AUS
14th April Melbourne, The Corner Hotel, AUS
16th April Adelaide, Fowler's Live, AUS
18th April Perth, The Rosemount, AUS
31st May Sasquatch Music Festival, US
8th September Leeds, Brudenell Social Club, UK
9th September London, KOKO, UK
10th September End of the Road Festival, UK

Almost as cool as CSN&Y! That would be folks from Deer Tick, Dawes and Delta Spirit... debuting at SXSW. So new there's not even a promotional photo!

By Blurt Staff

MG&V stands for McCauley, Goldsmith, and Vasquez...More specifically, John McCauley - frontman of Deer Tick, Taylor Goldsmith - frontman of Dawes and Matt Vasquez - frontman of Delta Spirit.

 
Notoriously adverse to sitting still, John McCauley felt the urge to write and record during some of Deer Tick's recent downtime. Deer Tick chose Dawes to support a leg of their summer 2009 tour, during which McCauley and Goldsmith developed an affinity for each other's songwriting. McCauley decided that Nashville would be the perfect location to write some new songs, and invited Goldsmith to join him. As the project began to take shape, McCauley and Goldsmith decided Matt Vasquez was the man to complete their vision for the project. A few days after tape started rolling, Vasquez arrived in Nashville - never having met McCauley. The three songwriters immediately bonded and proceeded to make a timeless masterpiece. Dawes drummer Griffin Goldsmith also joined the group to contribute percussion.

 
MG&V will make their world debut at the Coda Agency SXSW Showcase at the Ale House on March 19th at 1 AM.

Visionary percussionist has pair of early solo recordings newly available.

By Fred Mills

Longtime fans of seminal Krautrock outfit Can know the story: by 1979 the German visionaries were running out of steam, having issued the relatively lackluster albums Out Of Reach (1977) and Can (1978) - neither of which featured, significantly, founding member Holger Czukay. At this point the group went on hiatus (an official breakup was never announced) and the various members engaged themselves with sundry solo projects prior to a short-lived '86 reunion. (In the years since Can has operated in a somewhat free-style manner, the musicians recording and performing together in various incarnations and even communing to oversee the reissue of the group's back catalog, although guitarist Michael Karoli's death in 2001 ensured that the Can name would never be formally utilized again.)

Drummer Jaki Liebezeit (pictured with Can, above, on the far right) was out of the gate early with his solo work, unveiling his Phantom Band project in 1980. A collaboration with fellow German musicians Helmut Zerlett from Dunkelziffer and Dominik von Senger from Dunkelziffer/Damo Suzuki Band (among others), they quickly recorded a pair of relatively under the radar albums, 1980's Phantom Band and 1981's Freedom of Speech. Long out of print, the two records have now been reissued by the Hamburg-based Bureau B label, which specializes in electronic and avant garde titles.

According to the label, Phantom Band "mixes Can-style monotonic polyrhythms with afrobeat, funk, jazz, disco, reggae, and dub," and in addition to the three principals includes guests Rosko Gee (Traffic, plus the latter-day Can), Olek Gelba and Can's Czukay. Meanwhile, the second album "is a somewhat darker avant-garde rock manifesto, interspersed with individual dub or reggae pieces"; it also features spoken word performer Sheldon Ancel handling mic duties. "What both have in common are Jaki Liebezeit's inimitable monotone polyrhythmic drumming and the Phantom Band's predilection for hypnotic (Jamaican) grooves."

The remastered albums also feature interviews with Liebezeit, Zerlett and von Senger and will be available on both CD and vinyl.

In a new music book, hitmaking frontman for The Shondells dishes - sorta - on his mob-connected mentor Morris Levy while skimming the surface of his own creative inspirations. Dig the video below, btw.

By Bill Holmes

Tommy James and the Shondells were one of the most consistent hit making groups of the ‘60s, with iconic songs like "Hanky Panky", "Mony Mony", "Crimson and Clover" and "I Think We're Alone Now" peppering the charts in rapid succession. One would think that the story of their rise to success in that turbulent decade would be a fascinating recollection; a gratuitous name-dropping inside look at the greatest era of pop music and the whirlwind machinery that keeps the whole thing afloat. Instead, Me, The Mob, and The Music: One Helluva Ride with Tommy James and the Shondells, penned by James with the assistance of Martin Fitzpatrick is a quick, anecdotal treatment that more often skips across those topics like a stone on a pond rather than giving the deep dive that the title implies.

Like many celebrity biographies, the beginning stages of a career get a bit more focus than necessary, since the reader is fully aware that the gamble is going to pay off for the struggling beginner. The story behind The Shondells is interesting enough, showing how pure luck can catapult an artist from obscurity to a chance at fame. In James' case, a hastily pirated version of a bar band song failed more than once before exploding in Pittsburgh, providing a launching pad that would see the band and song break region by region until success was attained. Ironically, to satisfy those thousands of radio listeners in Pittsburgh, the record was widely pirated and James never saw a dime of the profits. It would be the first taste in a long career of financial infidelity. James never doubted his talent and appeal, and his ego and ability would prove to be equally valid and necessary.

But as interesting as Tommy James should be, he comes off like a supporting character in his own book, merely a pawn to the Machiavellian tactics of gangster and record mogul Morris Levy. The Roulette Records head is a fascinating story, presented as a cigar-chomping, bat-wielding tyrant who had a soft spot for James beyond his obvious services as a cash cow for the label. James does indict Levy for his mob connections, naming names and ultimately becoming fearful of being literally caught in the crossfire. But he also expresses a genuine fondness for the moments when he was able to connect with Levy on another, more humane level. James infers that Levy's methods were critical to his success but that the material was worthy, and in hindsight the music certainly holds up. Morris Levy, for all his faults, knew how to work the scene like a puppeteer and milk and scam every dollar for himself. Arrogant and ruthless, yet a visionary; his story has yet to be properly told.

By contrast, I didn't learn much about Tommy James that I didn't already know or suspect. He is candid; portraying himself as womanizing, driven and selfish, balancing the moral dipstick of his behavior and his relationships with others against what needed to be done to attain and maintain success. Despite being robbed blind, he justifies his own loyalty to Levy by accepting the lack of payment in exchange for fame (he had the ability to make a living from the touring dollars). Interestingly, James does not seem as apologetic for dragging others into the spider web, assuming that they should also be grateful for the association instead of understanding why a songwriter who is never seeing a dime might want to throw some of his work elsewhere. As with Levy, the story perked up whenever writers Bo Gentry and Ritchie Cordell were discussed; those recollections were among the most interesting parts of the story.

But I was also disappointed that I did not learn more about Tommy James the producer and writer. When singles like "Crimson and Clover" and "Crystal Blue Persuasion" and "Mirage" were released, their sound was unique and the songs jumped out of the speakers. What inspired them? How did they translate live? What were the other musicians thinking when these songs were presented? Too often the stories behind these major milestones are rushed through; a pill-popping writing session followed by the obligatory delivery to Levy's office. James had seven top ten hits plus several other charting singles and it would have been interesting to delve more into the details. Then again, if he truly was ingesting the vast amounts of alcohol and pills he claims while maintaining that inhuman and hectic schedule, it's possible that he just doesn't remember.

It's interesting that this story of corruption - far from an expose at this point - is coming out a full twenty years after Levy's death. It's not made clear whether the delay was from his respect for his mentor or the ongoing fear of reprisal, but after Fredric Dannen's book Hit Men and the Hesh storyline on The Sopranos, new ground is not being broken here. Perhaps the book is a tie-in with the upcoming re-issues of many of James' titles, but if so, that only underscores my wish that more attention was paid to the songs themselves.

Neither James nor collaborator Martin Fitzpatrick are skilled enough authors to make this a riveting classic, and the fabricated setting (James telling this tale in one sitting to a curious reporter) has all the earmarks of screenplay bait. But at two hundred forty pages it is a brisk read with enough charm to entice readers to gobble it down in one sitting. Fans of Tommy James will likely find enough titillation and gossip to satisfy their needs, but those looking for a true expose on the fascinating tale of corruption in the music industry will not have their appetites sufficiently sated.

Amazing animated video for "Coyote" from Growden's new Saint Judas album.

By Fred Mills

We've got an incredibly cool video to unveil for you today from veteran singer-songwriter Mark Growden. He returns with his first studio collection of his own material in 8 years, Saint Judas, issued today, March 16, on the Porto Franco label.

The song "Coyote" - viewable at BLURT here - is given a delightfully dark animated treatment by Christiane Cegavske that will have you laughing and crying at the same time - think "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" meets Dostoevsky (sorta).

Those creaks and clanks and touches of arcade noir that Growden conjures, equal parts Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Kurt Weill, will chill you to the bone too, yet as with the video, there's an odd undercurrent of redemption lurking. Accompanied by his backing band - guitarist Myles Boisen, bassist Seth Ford-Young, percussionist Jenya Chernoff, cellist Alex Kelly, trumpeter Chris Grady (several of them have played regularly with Tom Waits, incidentally) - the San Francisco-based Growden has crafted a tour de force full-length as well that sonically burrows under your skin and finds its way up the spine to lodge permanently in the cortex.

Check out Mark Growden at his official website. He's got free MP3s, more videos (including live clips), tour dates and more. He's got a CD release show tonight in L.A. at the Hotel Café and will be touring around the Southwest through April.

[Photo Credit: Eric Gillet]

Exclusive interview with the band only at BLURT - first person to click on the link gets a free case of green beer. Hey, would we lie to you?

By Blurt Staff

Tomorrow, March 17, is Saint Patrick's Day, and you know what that means in the music world (no, not a sermon from Bono): time to break out some Dropkick Murphys!

For the occasion, BLURT blogger John Moore did an extensive interview with singer/bassist Ken Casey in which the feisty musician talked about his band's new live album Live on Lansdowne, their upcoming appearance at Bonnaroo, hanging out with Bruce Springsteen (!), the charitable foundation the Claddagh Fund which they established, and of course what it's like to be a SPD mainstay each year in Boston.

"The whole Boston thing has become a little tradition," said Casey. "When you're in a touring band, you're away a lot of the year and you don't get to catch up with as many people as you like. Honestly, over St. Patrick's Day there are so many people in town it's like a convention almost. Backstage we get to catch up with all our friends and family. It's something we look forward to every year, so it's not like a burden to us."

Amen to that, sir. Read the entire interview at Moore's blog "I Don't Wanna Grow Up."

[Photo Credit: Tim Tronckoe]

Or "uncorked," depending on how you look at it. Most awesome piece of indie swag ever.

By Fred Mills

Well, if other labels can create promotional shot glasses, who's to say making a promotional bottle stopper's a bum idea? In fact, we think having Will Oldham perched atop our favorite bottle of spirits is a ding-dong dandy idea! (Thanks to Pitchfork for the news tip.)

Domino Records has created a limited edition (only 150 made) bottle stopper depicting Oldham-the-stopper in conjunction with the upcoming Bonnie ‘Prince" Billy and The Cairo Gang album The Wonder Show of the World, which is due from the label on March 29. According to domino, each stopper was hand carved by artist Scott Millar so they'll all be unique.

Wow, that's a scary looking army o' Oldhams. Folks who order the bottle stopper will also get a download code for the album, natch. They'll set you back 25 British pounds, but just imagine the eBay action in a few weeks, so better order it pronto.

Domino adds this about the album itself:

"For this new album of songs, Bonny Billy and The Cairo Gang together have built a bridge forward, assembled with riffs and bits from Emmett Kelly's guitar and the lyricism of Bonny's heart. But mostly, The Wonder Show of the World was, in its making, about trust. It's a record made eye-to-eye in a room, close and careful, by and for a few men who wanted to be together, who wanted to make music that sounds as good to listen to as it did to make, and who in doing so forged something new in space, the wonder of you and of them. The Cairo Gang belongs to Emmett Kelly, alternately him and his."

Different performers for different shows will make "diversity" the operative term. Oddly, Pavement was not invited, making it the only festival this year the indie avatars won't be playing.

By Blurt Staff

It's been almost 11 years since the demise of Lilith Fair, that estrogen-packed traveling summer festival co-founded by Sarah McLachlan, but as we noted several months ago, organizers decided 2010 was the right time to resurrect the event, what with summer festivals still going strong, shitty economy be damned.

Just announced, then, ticket onsale for the first 8 dates of the 2010 Lilith Tour - Saturday, March 27, via LilithFair.com and LiveNation.com. Those cities are listed below.

Much like the original Lilith Fair, there will be 11 artists on each date, with only two consistencies per show: the Lilith Local Talent Search Ourstage.com winner who starts the day and headliner Sarah McLachlan. The remaining acts on the line-up are constantly rotating from among more than 80 acts.

It's to be a 36-city run of the sheds: Atlanta, Austin, Birmingham, Boston, Calgary, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Edmonton, Hartford, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Las Vegas, London, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Montreal, Nashville, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Raleigh, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa, Toronto, Vancouver, DC and West Palm Beach.

Shows going on sale March 27:

Fri, Jul 2        Portland, OR       The Amphitheatre at Clark County
Sat, Jul 3      Seattle, WA        The Gorge Amphitheatre
Sat, Jul 17    Chicago, IL          First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
Tues, July 20 Indianapolis, IN   Verizon Wireless Music Center
Sat, Jul 24    Toronto, ON        Molson Canadian Amphitheatre
**Tues, July 27 Cleveland, OH  Blossom Music Center
Sun, Aug 8    Atlanta, GA        Aaron's Amphitheatre
Tues, Aug 10 W. Palm Beach, FL Cruzan Amphitheatre
(**Tickets go on-sale April 3)

Full list of artists announced so far (visit lilithfair.com to view artist pages):
A Fine Frenzy, Anjulie, Ann Atomic, Anya Marina, Ash Koley, The Bangles, Beth Orton, Brandi Carlile, Butterfly Boucher, Cat Power, Ceci Bastida, Chairlift, Chantal Kreviazuk, Colbie Caillat, Corinne Bailey Rae, Court Yard Hounds, Donna Delory, Elizaveta, Emmylou Harris, Erin McCarley, Erykah Badu, Frazey Ford, The Go-Go's, Gossip, Grace Potter and The Nocturnals, Heart, Ima, Indigo Girls, Ingrid Michaelson, Janelle Monae, Jennifer Knapp, Jesca Hoop, Jill Hennessy, Jill Scott, Julia Othmer, Kate Miller-Heidke, Kate Nash Katzenjammer, Kelly Clarkson, Ke$ha, La Roux, Lights, Lissie, Loretta Lynn, Lucy Schwartz, Marina & The Diamonds, Martina McBride, Mary J. Blige, Meaghan Smith, Melissa McClelland, Metric, Miranda Lambert, Miranda Lee Richards, Missy Higgins, Nikki Jean, Nneka, Norah Jones, Priscilla Renea, The Rescues, Rosie Thomas, Sara Bareilles, Sarah McLachlan, Serena Ryder, Sheryl Crow, Sia, Sugarland, Susan Justice, Suzanne Vega, Tara MacLean, Tegan and Sara, Toby Lightman, Vedera, Vita Chambers, The Submarines,  The Weepies, Ximena Sarinana, Zee Avi

Amazing vocalist graced classic albums by Pink Floyd, Elton John, Ringo Starr and others.

By Fred Mills

One of the most memorable, though relatively brief, vocals in rock history has to be British singer Lesley Duncan's contribution to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon; it's an indelible performance that sticks in the mind long after the album has spun. Word has arrived now via the NME that Duncan passed away on Friday, March 12, following a battle with cerebrovascular disease. She was 66.

The Dark Side appearance was hardly Duncan's only memorable performance, however, as she sang background vocals on scores of albums in the ‘60s and ‘70s, including Jesus Christ Superstar, Donovan's Cosmic Wheels, Ringo Starr's Goodnight Vienna, Long John Baldry's Welcome to the Club, , the Alan Parsons Project's Eve and numerous records by Elton John. Duncan also released several solo albums - her official website lists her many projects over the years, additionally providing a link to a tribute page where fans can leave their remembrances and condolences.

According to a message posted at the site on March 12 by Duncan's husband Tony Cox,

"This afternoon I drove to the hospital at about 2pm and on the way I got a call that Lesley's condition had deteriorated alarmingly. When I arrived at her bedside, the nurse had put on the Sing Children Sing album playing softly in the background. I held Lesley's hand and after about ten minutes ‘Love Song' started to play. During the song I felt one or two tremors pass through Lesley's body and, as her lovely song ended, she passed away. It was as peaceful, I think, as death can be and a relief after her years of struggle."

"Love Song," of course, is the Duncan-penned tune that Duncan and Elton John dueted on for his 1970 album Tumbleweed Connection; she cut the song herself on her 1971 album Sing Children Sing.

Duncan will be greatly missed. As one fan put it so eloquently on the tribute page, "Lesley was part of what I consider the world's greatest vocal backing choir of their time, in company with her friends Madeline Bell and the late, lovely Kay Garner. Their combined contribution to global music culture is inestimable, and singers like these warranted huge success which seemed to come so easily to far lesser talents. But as I can see from tributes, others recognized REAL talent."

Amen.

Boasts elaborate packaging plus a slew of material that didn't make it onto the previous reissue. Differences between the two discussed below.

By Blurt Staff

The Stooges, whose March 15 induction the other night into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was long overdue, have been in the news a lot lately - in particular, for the group's massively expanded reissue of Raw Power, due April 27, and of course the reunion tour that will bring guitarist James Williamson back into the fold.

Also getting into the act Rhino Handmade via a "Collector's Edition" of the Stooges self-titled 1969 debut, a two-disc version going for $49.98.

Sharp-eyed Stooges fans will now be scratching their heads and saying, "Waitaminnit - Rhino issued two-CD editions of The Stooges and Fun House back in August 2005. What gives?" Well, Rhino Handmade is essentially folding the 10 bonus tracks from that release into this one and adding 8 additional ones, for a total of 18 cuts not appearing on the original '69 LP, so this represents a substantial expansion/upgrade. Not to mention the elaborate packaging and a vinyl goodie that will be included, as you'll read below. You can compare the tracklistings of each edition at the bottom as well.

At any rate, scheduled to ship in late April, The Stooges is to be a 26-track collection issued in a 7" x 7" hardbound booklet that contains two CDs along with a 7" single that features the previously unreleased track "Asthma Attack." A staple of the group's early live shows, this is the first time a studio version of the song has been released.

The Collector's Edition's first disc combines the original album's eight songs with producer John Cale's original mixes, including unreleased versions of "We Will Fall" and "Ann." Also featured is the mono single version of "I Wanna Be Your Dog," a song Rolling Stone named #438 on its list of "500 Greatest Songs Of All Time"-right behind Elvis' "Love Me Tender."

The second disc opens with "Asthma Attack," written when The Stooges' 20-minute live sets were dominated by arty experiments in feedback and improvisation. The remainder of the disc presents an alternate version of the original album with alternate takes of every song, including full versions of "No Fun" and "Ann," plus unreleased versions of "We Will Fall," "Real Cool Time," and the album closer, "Little Doll."

 "The Stooges' influence is legion-to name all of the bands, singers, and would-be rock stars who drank from the well could fill 1,000 phone books," writes author (and BLURT contributor) Mike Edison in the collection's liner notes. "There is not a hard or heavy band anywhere on the planet that's not in earnest awe of The Stooges."

Track Listing:

Disc 1

1.      "1969"

2.      "I Wanna Be Your Dog"

3.      "We Will Fall"

4.      "No Fun"

5.      "Real Cool Time"

6.      "Ann"

7.      "Not Right"

8.      "Little Doll"

9.      "I Wanna Be Your Dog" - Mono Single Version

10.  "1969" - Original John Cale Mix

11.  "Not Right" - Original John Cale Mix

12.  "We Will Fall" - Original John Cale Mix*

13.  "No Fun" - Original John Cale Mix

14.  "Real Cool Time" - Original John Cale Mix

15.  "Ann" - Original John Cale Mix*

16.  "Little Doll" - Original John Cale Mix

17.  "I Wanna Be Your Dog" - Original John Cale Mix

Disc 2

1.      "Asthma Attack"*

2.      "1969" - Alternate Vocal

3.      "I Wanna Be Your Dog" - Alternate Vocal

4.      "We Will Fall"*

5.      "No Fun" - Full Version

6.      "Real Cool Time" - Takes 1 & 2*

7.      "Ann" - Full Version

8.      "Not Right" - Alternate Vocal

9.      "Little Doll" - Takes 1-5*

*Previously unreleased

Disc 2 of the 2005 reissue contained these tracks (Disc 1 was a remastered version of the original LP):

1. No Fun [Original John Cale Mix]
2. 1969 [Original John Cale Mix]
3. I Wanna Be Your Dog [Original John Cale Mix]
4. Little Doll [Original John Cale Mix]
5. 1969 [Alternate Vocal]
6. I Wanna Be Your Dog [Alternate Vocal]
7. Not Right [Alternate Vocal]
8. Real Cool Time [Alternate Mix][Alternate Take]
9. Ann [Full Version]
10. No Fun [Full Version]

If you're in a hurry, you can simply read the boldfaced text...

By Fred Mills

Although MySpace has been the go-to destination for bands and musicians for some time now - particularly independent artists without the web muscle of a big label or marketing firm - anybody who frequents MySpace knows what a ghastly user experience the site provides. First and foremost is the turtle-like pace of the pages loading; in the time it takes for all the front-page content - photos, videos, music player, blog section, etc. - to appear for a typical MySpace account, you could have investigated the band via its official website, its Wikipedia page, and a half-dozen fan sites. Factor in the general clunkiness of navigation for MySpace, which involves image-loading freezing up a page, the scroll bar operating as if it were an epileptic having intermittent seizures, and the standard music player which looks like it was designed by an unreconstructed fan of 8-tracks, and you've got the aforementioned user experience being akin to hopping in the Wayback machine to the years when 26k dial-up was the norm.

It's no wonder users have been leaving MySpace in droves and landing at Twitter and Facebook. Admittedly neither platform really provides what MySpace does, but Facebook at least comes close enough (it's hard to find what you want on Facebook pages, but the content is there if you look close enough, and FB is lightning fast), and Twitter's immediacy as a communication tool is nearly without peer.

Mindful of some but apparently not all of this, MySpace recently announced it was going to give itself an overhaul in order to remain relevant. In a story at USA Today titled "Once-fading MySpace focuses on youthful reincarnation," Co-president Jason Hirschhorn claimed that there is a "pulse of pop culture on MySpace. It is the place where 100 million people congregate, and hundreds of thousands sign up every day."

That may be, but the pulse has been getting weaker by the year, and even though MySpace remains pretty profitable, they realize a serious rebranding is in order and they have already released new user home pages while getting ready to move heavily into social networking by adopting some of the Facebook and Twitter conceits.

However, as the article also points out, according to market researcher Debra Aho Williamson, of eMarketer, "For months we've heard about the company's plan to refocus on its historic roots in music and entertainment. But the turnaround has been painfully slow, and this shakeup will only reinforce the perception that MySpace can't be fixed."

Into the breach steps YouTube. According to reports at both the Los Angeles Times and Wired, YouTube, which is owned by Google, is announcing a new program designed to merge the worlds of independent music marketing and social networking. They're calling it "Musicians Wanted," and as the LAT puts it, "The program targets independent artists, offering them an easy way to create their own home page, or channel, on YouTube and share in the ad revenues generated by their videos. Until now, YouTube has offered the revenue-sharing option only to artists who have contracts with record labels or who have special contracts with the video-sharing site."

Wired adds, "YouTube employees who decide which applicants get accepted to the YouTube Partners Program will now be on the lookout for indie bands. If they're accepted, they'll get to add tour dates and "buy" links for music and merchandise and exert further control over the design of their pages, in addition to receiving "a majority" of the advertising generated from pre-roll, text and overlay advertising on a monthly basis... To make participating bands easier to find on YouTube, which ingests over 20 hours of video every minute, the site will gather them into a browsable, searchable section dedicated to independent music."

Wow. Sounds a lot like what bands have been trying to do at MySpace for some time. And not without some success, either. But one imagines that YouTube, with the Google muscle behind it, might be able to make the deal work faster and more efficiently for all concerned - including the aforementioned users who, after all, are the folks bands are trying to reach. It must be annoying for a band to hear that someone got frustrated with their MySpace page and decided to navigate away from the page as a result.

There's a lot more too this of course (namely, a lot of monetization issues), so check out the above links to the two reports cited. The bottom line is that the cyber-wars (apologies for the Web 1.0 terminology) have begun anew, and with any luck, the bands and the fans will be the beneficiaries this time around instead of collateral damage.

Releases first album in 15 years.

By Blurt Staff

Darla Records will be releasing on May 24 the seventh album by iconic post-punk/new wave pop craftsmen Modern English. It's titled Soundtrack, and it's the long-overdue followup to 1996's Everything Is Mad.

The group of course best known for their hit song "I Melt with You". Their classic album After the Snow (4AD: 1982) featured what became a radio/club mega-hit and MTV staple, "I Melt with You", which was used in the film Valley Girl, in more than one TV advertisement and became the flagship track on the popular Nouvelle Vague covers album.

Now as then, Modern English is smart, modern pop, firmly rooted in post-punk yet undeniably Beatle-esque. Described by Robbie Grey as, "Some real music for real people with real emotions", Soundtrack marks the convincing return of a band with a solidly recognizable, signature sound and pop sensibility. The songs ranging from the uplifting, jangle-pop with infectious, sing-along chorus and dance-able beat of "It's Ok", the record's obvious single, and the equally inspired "Blister" and "Up Here in the Brain", to dark, downtempo grooves with somber keyboard washes in which Grey sings of never-far-off blackness and suicide, "Soundtrack", "Bomb", "The Lowdown", are all characteristically introspective and consistent with Modern English's best work.

Modern English now is Robbie Grey (vocals), Steven Walker (guitar), Nik Williams (bass), Matthew Shipley (keyboards) and Jon Solomon (drums). Modern English's George Martin, Producer Hugh Jones ("I Melt With You", After The Snow, Ricochet Days, plus Simple Minds, Echo & The Bunnymen, That Petrol Emotion, Pale Saints, The Charlatans, etc.) produced Soundtrack. The album was recorded residential style - living, eating and sleeping music at Chapel Studios in the English countryside over a two month period, then mixed at Pete Townsend's studio, The Barge, on the Thames in London and mastered at Metropolis Studios, London.

Album design is by Vaughan Oliver, 23 Envelope.

Tracklist:

1. It's Ok
2. Blister
3. Bomb
4. Soundtrack
5. Call Me
6. Here Comes the Failure
7. The Lowdown
8. Up Here in the Brain
9. Deep Sea Diver
10. Antique Future
11. Fin

Box Tops/Big Star Icon Dies Unexpectedly On Wednesday After Experiencing Heart Trouble.

By Fred Mills

The music world is reeling this morning from the news that Alex Chilton died yesterday, March 17, in a New Orleans hospital. The singer had apparently been complaining about his health, according to a report filed by the Memphis Commercial Appeal, and after paramedics were called to his home he was rushed to the emergency room. Doctors, however, were unable to revive the musician. Chilton was 59.

Ardent Studios (Memphis) owner John Fry was quoted in the Commercial Appeal report, saying, "I'm crushed. We're all just crushed. This sudden death experience is never something that you're prepared for. And yet it occurs."

The timing of Chilton's passing couldn't be more tragic: he and Big Star were scheduled to be the subject of a tribute panel discussion on Saturday afternoon in Austin at SXSW, and that was to be followed up by a band performance Saturday night at Antone's. Titled "I Never Travel Far Without a Little Big Star," the panel was not going to feature the notoriously press-shy Chilton, but Big Star founders Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel were set to play together for the first time in over 35 years via a couple of acoustic tunes; Posies and latterday Big Star members Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow, plus Chris Stamey of the dB's and Tommy Keene were going to be talking about the band and the 2009 box set  Keep An Eye on the Sky (the box is reviewed at Blurt here, while a discussion about the first two Big Star albums can be found here).

Commercial Appeal music writer Bob Mehr, who wrote some of the liners to the Big Star box, is the moderator of the SXSW panel - which will presumably still be held, while the Antone's gig status is now up in the air - and he sent out an email from Austin this morning saying, "Things are pretty chaotic as you might imagine as there was going to be a Big Star performance and panel on Saturday. It's all very sad and shocking. I'm sure there will be tributes in the coming days and more news to follow."

That's for certain.

Chilton's legacy looms large, from his hitmaking days with the Box Tops ("The Letter," "Cry Like A Baby") to his godfather-of-powerpop status with Big Star to his oftentimes erratic but never less than fascinating solo work. Although he had a reputation for being difficult, on the times I was fortunate enough to meet him he was never less than gracious - at one meeting, a few hours before he was to perform at a small club in Charlotte, NC, he invited me to join him at the booth he was relaxing in and we chatted for a little while about friends we had in common.

One mutual friend in particular was of interest to him: back in the mid ‘80s I had sold an acoustic Takamine guitar to a friend who had moved to New Orleans, where Chilton had relocated from Memphis some time earlier. Turns out he had met her through the Tav Falco/Panther Burns crowd, and not long after she bought the guitar from me he was approached by MTV to appear on a segment of their "Cutting Edge" program. Not having a decent acoustic guitar himself, Chilton asked her if he could borrow hers - mine - for the taping. When I told Chilton I got a kick out of seeing him play my guitar on national television, he shook his head and grinned. "I remember that!" he said, laughing. "That was a damn good guitar. I wanted to buy it from her."

Years later, in 2005,  I interviewed Jody Stephens about the band and also about their "comeback" album In Space. Invariably the legacy question cropped up, and Stephens thought about it for a few minutes before answering.

"Well... [long pause]... I don't remember the thought of getting past legends," said Stephens. "I do remember a thought about people's perception of Big Star pre-this record, and then what this record might do. At the end of the day, it was what the hell, let's do a new record. I mean, because in some people's eyes, in a very cult, private way, Big Star means a lot to a lot of people, or at least a certain group of people, and it's defined by those first three records. They've been living with those three records for 30 years. So how do you introduce - it's like introducing a new puppy to a dog that's 10 years old. It takes a while, you know? The puppy challenges the older dog, the older dog growls and snarls, but sooner or later you know there's an appreciation of it even though you don't want to let on.

"You know, music's always gotta connect with you emotionally. And it is emotional communication - it's music that sticks with you and moves you passionately enough to go out and turn somebody else on to it."

Perhaps that is Chilton's ultimate legacy - he connected with a lot of us emotionally, and I think he probably realized that, maybe was even secretly proud of the fact. He will be missed.

[We'll have a more extensive tribute to Chilton and Big Star next week at BLURT.]

Spot-on cover of the Big Star classic, by Jeffrey Dean Foster and Mitch Easter.

By Fred Mills

With the shocking news of Alex Chilton's passing yesterday (March 17) we naturally turned to our Big Star albums for comfort. Our good buddy Jeffrey Dean Foster, a longtime Winston-Salem musician whose music over the years has clearly been inspired by Chilton & Big Star (go here to read a Blurt story that includes some comments about Foster performing live in NC last year) sent us this MP3 of his version of Big Star's "Ballad of El Goodo" (written by Chilton and Chris Bell for #1 Record) and asked us to share it with Blurt readers.

We have the song posted here on the Blurt site for permanent archiving - just click on the link then hit the play button.

Foster sings and plays most of the instruments with the exception of drums and bass - those were handled by none other than Mitch Easter. It was recorded several years ago for a movie soundtrack, but by our way of thinking, it should have been included on that Big Star tribute album awhile back - it clearly would have been a highlight.

Enjoy.

[Photo Credit: Diana Greene]

Blurt blogger and shutterbug Scott Dudelson is roaming the highways and clubways of Austin this week and he's got the photos to prove it. Check out his regular photo blog too.

By Scott Dudelson

Wednesday, March 17

(above) Asteroids Galaxy Tour @ Emos Annex

(below) Doll & the Kicks @ Emos Annex

Leo Rondeau @ Club DeVille

Dawes @ Club DeVille

Broken Bells @ Spinner Party

Drake Bell @ St. Davids Hall

Freelance Whales @ Paste Party

Okkervil River @ Paste Party

Roky Erickson @ Paste Party

Suckers @ Paste Party

Henry Clay People @ Little Radio Party

Hollarado @ Canadian BBQ

Javelin @ Buffalo Billiards

Mando Diao @ Mohawk

Small Black @ Mohawk

Sharon Jones @ Stubbs

Visqueen @ Stubbs

Titus Andronicus @ Force Field PR Party

Trespassers William @ Hilton Gardens

***

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

Stones in Exile to be followed by the oft-bootlegged Ladies And Gentlemen.

By Blurt Staff

Eagle Rock Entertainment just announced its plans for a pair of Rolling Stones DVDS this year. The first of the releases Stones In Exile is the story of the making of the classic album Exile On Main Street, which was released in 1972 as a double LP and is considered by many to be their masterpiece.  This title is due to be released in June with substantial bonus material and follows the broadcast of the main show by the BBC in late May, and the deluxe reissue of the album at the same time.
 

The second of the releases is Ladies And Gentlemen...The Rolling Stones, the legendary Rolling Stones concert film from 1972.  Fully restored from the original film, it will be released nationally in cinemas and then receive its first ever authorized DVD release. (Collectors have long coveted the film, which has been bootleg numerous times over the years, most definitely on the 2006 Top Of The Line/4 Reel DVD featuring both full screen and widescreen versions, plus outtakes and a Dick Cavett show appearance from '72.) The title will also be released in high definition on Blu-ray in the Autumn of 2010.
 

The Rolling Stones line-up featured on both Stones In Exile and Ladies And Gentlemen... The Rolling Stones is the definitive live incarnation of the band: Mick Jagger - vocals; Keith Richards - guitars; Bill Wyman - bass; Charlie Watts - drums; Mick Taylor - guitars.

Massively influential journalist and author operated on the frontlines of the music industry.

By Fred Mills

Charlie Gillett, British journalist, archivist, artist manager, label operator and author of seminal rock tome The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll, passed away Wednesday, March 17, from a series of health complications. (He apparently had been diagnosed with Churg-Strauss syndrome a few years ago.) Gillett was 68; he is survived by his wife Buffy plus children Suzy, Jody and Ivan.

Commenting on Gillett's passing, noted UK music critic Barney Hoskyns noted, "Charlie's contributions to music are too numerous to be listed here. Briefly, he was the author of TSOTC (1970); he was the host of the wonderful "Honky Tonk" show on Radio London; he co-managed Ian Dury's Kilburn & the High Roads; and founded Oval Records, enjoying a No. 1 hit with Paul Hardcastle's '19'; and he played a massive role in introducing world music to the UK, on both radio and record."

During the ‘70s both English and American music fans were aware of Gillett's sparkling writing style, as he contributed regularly to both the NME over there and Rolling Stone on these shores. His influence spread even further when, as the host of the "Honky Tonk" show on Radio London, he helped break the likes of Dire Straits, Graham Parker and Elvis Costello.  He remained active in various capacities throughout the decades, most recently broadcasting his "Charlie Gillett's World of Music" on the BBC. A good overview of Gillett's backstory can be viewed at his Wikipedia page.

On a personal note: by 1970-72 I was a music-obsessed teenager steadily moving away from the AM radio mainstream but, as I was living in a small Southern textile town at the time, with limited avenues for discovering musical alternatives. Copies of Rolling Stone, Crawdaddy, Phonograph Record Magazine and even the very occasional Melody Maker and NME would find their way in to my hands like gifts from heaven. Among the greatest gift, however, was a battered copy of The Sound Of The City, which an older hippie friend bequeathed to me with the kind of conspiratorial wink generally reserved for drug transactions: "This will open your eyes, brother," he said.

And indeed it did - my ears, too, as I made it my mission to track down music by as many artists mentioned in the book as possible. Gillett brought to life a primal strand of rock ‘n' roll I'd only heard in passing or never even knew existed, and he helped set me down the road of discovery just as surely as any of the aforementioned music magazines all those years ago.

May he rest in peace.

Check out Charlie Gillett's personal website.

[Photo Credit: Philip Ryalls]

Look good, have fun, leave a little mystery: that, they most certainly did, as evidenced on the new archival set, due from KRS next week. Check out the video, below.

By Joe Warminsky

When Kill Rock Stars released Kleenex/LiLiPUT (The Complete Recordings) in 2001, the two-CD set truly was a gift: Until then, the Swiss band's music -- minimalist and womanly, odd but accessible -- was legendary to the Robert Christgaus and Greil Marcuses of the world, but it was virtually inaccessible to average record-shoppin' Americans. You either could hunt down the mega-rare late-'70s/early-'80s vinyl (good luck with that), or you could send $30 to an obscure mail-order label in Switzerland for an earlier version of the compilation CD. Anecdotal evidence suggests that most people waited for the Kill Rock Stars release.

A decade later, Kleenex/ LiLiPUT may be less of an enigma -- there are clips on YouTube, natch -- but the oft-changing, mostly female band is just as important: If it once was a riot-grrrl totem, it's now a valuable example of how to be, in the broadest sense, indie as hell. (They were big enough, however, that the tissue company pressured them to change their name in 1980.)  Live Recordings, TV-Clips & Roadmovie, a new self-explanatory DVD/CD combo from KRS, compiles two live shows, six great TV clips (three as Kleenex, three as LiLiPUT), and their 30-minute film, Roadmovie, which documents a 1982 European tour.

The CD's live shows, both remastered, are for die-hards and completists. The 1979 Kleenex show in Biel is scrappy and intimate, and the 1983 LiLiPUT show in Zurich confirms that the group had become an art-punk powerhouse by then. If the goal is a fresh look at things, however, then Roadmovie, is the real selling point here. There are no performances, and the Super 8 footage is typical band-on-the-run fare: rest stops, cigarette breaks, friendly dogs, highway signs, snacks, blurry headlights, tourist traps, people mugging for the camera, and so on. But it has an undeniable timelessness: The editing is snappy; the soundtrack is nothing but the band's songs; and everybody looks eternally cool, as if you could've dropped them comfortably into any watershed indie scene in the nearly 30 intervening years. It's slightly hypnotic.

And there's the lesson for any band with a van, an ever-present Flip camera and a documentary jones: Look good, have fun, leave a little mystery, and let your music do the talking.

Virtuoso bluegrass/roots/rock combo will make your head spin.

By Blurt Staff

Progressive twang-grass merchants Cornmeal, of Chicago, have a new live album, Live in Chicago, IL Vol. I, available, recorded live last year at Martyrs' in the Windy City, and this one is designed to pay tribute to the fans. Anyone who's ever seen the band in concert - the BLURT crew caught ‘em last December at the annual Warren Haynes Christmas pre-Jam Jam - knows what that means ‘cos this group positively smokes.

In the winter of 2000, a band stepped on stage for the first time and called themselves Cornmeal.  For the next six years, Cornmeal performed each and every Wednesday in Chicago to small yet loyal crowds.  Throughout the winters of 2007-2009, Cornmeal returned to Chicago to pay homage to that tradition.  This album is for the fans as a thank you for all the years of dedication, for believing in Cornmeal, and for creating a wonderful community for them to come home to. 

Unlike Cornmeal's three previous albums, Live in Chicago, IL Vol. I  captures the band in its raw, intense format, bouncing through song after song of fast paced, fierce originals and extensive improvised jams that showcase the immense talent and connectivity that have gained them so much fan appeal from coast to coast. Cornmeal is: Chris Gangi on upright bass, Dave Burlingame on Banjo, Allie Kral on fiddle, Kris Nowak on Acoustic Guitar, and John Paul Nowak on Drums. 

Heavily influenced by American roots and folk music, Cornmeal blends lightning fast tempos and impeccable harmonies into an unrivaled live performance that continues to expand upon the five-piece acoustic-electric groups' vast musical repertoire.  While steeped in the tradition of John Hartford and New Grass Revival, Cornmeal continues to forge their own path, pushing the boundaries of bluegrass, Americana and folk for a whole new generation of music lovers. With a rapidly growing fan base and ever-evolving sound, Cornmeal challenges the recipe of the bluegrass sound and live performance. 

In 2008, the band won its first Jammy award for New Groove of the Month.  The band has graced the stage at almost every major festival across the country including Bonaroo, Wakarusa, All Good, High Sierra, 10K Lakes, Del Fest, Summercamp, and Telluride Nightgrass just to name a few. They have also been fortunate enough to perform with many influential bands including Leftover Salmon, Sam Bush, John Hartford, Little Feat, The Del McCoury Band, Moe., and Dark Star Orchestra among others.

You can nab the album at Cornmeal shows or at www.cornmealinthekitchen.com and at all online outlets.

Blurt blogger and shutterbug Scott Dudelson is roaming the highways and clubways of Austin this week and he's got the photos to prove it. Check out his report from Wednesday, March 17, as well as his regular photo blog.

By Scott Dudelson

Thursday, March 18

(above) Band of Horses @ Stubbs

(below) Drive-By Truckers @ Stubbs

Broken Social Scene @ Stubbs

Athlete @ Billboard Bungalow

Sara Haze @ Billboard Bungalow

Bears In Heaven @ Mohawk

Besnard Lakes @ Emos Annex

The Lovely Feathers @ Emos Annex

Oh Mercy @ Emos Annex

Camper Van Beethoven @ Encore

Mother Hips @ Encore

Cocoon @ French Party

Dead Sexy Inc. @ French Party

The Bewitched Hands @ French Party

Damon Suomi @ Paste Party

Gringo Star @ Habana Calle

Quest For Fire @ Habana Calle

Jason Collett @ Little Radio Party

Local Natives @ Emos

Sondre Lerche @ SXSW Day Stage

The Walkman @ SXSW Day Stage

The Moondoggies @ Kayceman Party

Surfer Blood @ Club DeVille

Vivian Girls @ Club DeVille

***

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

Don't worry folks, that's not the Ku Klux Klan coming for ya - just some wacky new artwork from the Dead Weather

By Fred Mills

They're calling it Sea of Cowards and they're saying that it is "coming soon" - and not much else. Dead Weather (you may have heard of them) founder Jack White had previously been floating March as when the second album would drop, although March is about done, so unless he's got plans for a guerilla release, don't count on it. But at least they've settled on a title, and the graphic above may or may not be part of the sleeve artwork.

Meanwhile, a new digital single, "Die By The Drop" & "Old Mary" reportedly arrives next week, March 23, via White's Third Man label, although there's word that the March 23 date might not happen either. So who knows. At least the band is being consistent in its vagueness.

Anyhow, as previously announced, a US tour starts on April 15 in San Francisco, and opening for the Dead Weather will be none other than Blurt faves The Ettes (below). Yay!

So - what the are YOU gonna be doing on Saturday, April 17? Summary executions for all who patronize Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart that day.

By Blurt Staff

A missive from the good folks behind Record Store Day. Guarantee: all dialogue reported verbatim. This has been a public service announcement - with vinyl!

As 2009, the Year of the Ox, aka the Year We All Want Wiped From Our Memories finally came to a close ushering in the Year of the Tiger, many businesses across the board were left nearly decimated. The unemployment rate had soared to a staggering 10% (on record), underemployment was at 17%, while property foreclosures remain at an all time high, all this while incomes became increasingly less proportionate to the cost of health care, real estate and general cost of living.

The music biz, already beat up from the preceding years of abuse precipitated largely (and arguably), from the industry's quick-to-condemn/slow-to-adapt reaction to the digital age, was not immune. Whereas the great big chains, (Virgin, Tower Records, et al), had pretty much reached their demise before the great big freefall, indie music retailers worldwide, reliant on passionate niche clientele, were also really starting to feel the burn as disposable incomes became, well, less disposable.

Enter Record Store Day, a now global event set this year for Saturday, April 17th-a single day in celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 1,400 independently owned record stores worldwide-- one day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music.

Notable/platinum-selling artists have rallied for the cause by issuing everything from quotable shots in the arm to doing in-store appearances and performances to releasing exclusive/special product for indie retailers.

For example, this year, Billy Corgan's label, Rocket Science Ventures will be doing an early release of a new EP by The Smashing Pumpkins along with a performance to fans hosted by Amoeba Records and Urban Outfitters in Los Angeles on Record Store Day. Corgan says, "I used to work at an indie record shop so I'll always have a soft spot for the places where I still go to find the most vital music, whether new or still hidden."

Among other notable luminaries who have participated in Record Store Day in some significant way, shape or form, include Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Metallica, Radiohead, Eminem, Lil' Wayne, Jay Z, Bruce Springsteen, Wilco, Queens Of The Stone Age and Kanye West.

Last year's Record Store Day can take credit for an extraordinary spike in traffic to the stores on that specific day, largely due to the limited availability of more than a handful of exclusive releases. When RSD launched in 2008 there were approximately $10,000 products made and sold on the day. By 2009, this increased to over $250,000. According to Soundscan, overall indie retail sales on Record Store Day 2009 grew 21% from the prior year, and organizers expect this to be closer to $500,000 this year. Record Store Day is now the biggest retail sales day of many indie stores, surpassing Christmas.

Vinyl sales were remarkably high, with a growth spurt from RSD 2008 to 2009 by a whopping 225%. For example, 30% of all products sold at the Coachella Record Store Day store in 2009 were vinyl. In addition, DVD sales for the indie retail sector grew 13.8% on RSD from the prior year, as well.

However, getting folks into the record stores to buy product is just one part of the event's raison d'etre. As well, Record Store Day is about focus and support for a mere faction of an ailing industry, but one that can arguably be looked upon as its heart and soul. This, not only because the indie music stores, run by passionate music lovers, cater to the passionate record buyers, but also because, from a solely economic standpoint, the indie music stores are now responsible for 10% of all record sales in the United States, alone. In general, the percentage of sales that the indie retail community represents grew from about 7% in early 2009 to closer to 10% in early 2010, which indicates that the indie sector is now more focused and growing.

Perhaps the grandest example of that growth is the aforementioned Amoeba Records in California. Supporting 3 fantastically stocked and staffed stores (Los Angeles, San Francisco and Berkeley), Amoeba is one of the most trafficked outposts for independent music in the country.

On the other side of the world exists the longstanding, uber-influential, London-based retailer, Rough Trade Records. Not just a record store, but a viable "brand," Rough Trade also houses a record label and promotes shows around the city. Most notably, they recently opened another 5,000 square foot space in the East End complete with coffee shop, performance stage, exhibition space, and an internet center.

Indie retailer, Dimple has 6 thriving locations in the Sacramento area and in addition to music sales, regularly host in-store performances and contests.

The lasting success of Criminal Records in Atlanta, the city's largest and most popular indie music store, can be attributed to well, pure passion, engaging the local music community as much as possible. Store owner, Eric Levin adds, "We're heading towards our twentieth year better than ever. Sales are down somewhat, sure, this is America 2010, but we've never had more fun. We produce music, promote shows, throw parties, listen to music 24/7, read comics, play with toys and talk to pretty girls all day long."

Waterloo Records in Austin remains thee pilgrimage point for the throngs of music folk (over)attending the South by Southwest conference in March. Hosting regular in-store performances, Waterloo is one of the most successful music retailers in the country, with consistent yearly revenues above their profit margin.

Washington DC's CD Warehouse continues to thrive, benefited from a great location on M Street, where the foot traffic is especially heavy. The store also attributes their good clientele to fair pricing, a knowledgeable staff and an extensive stock of imported product.

Other noteworthy retailers include Boise, Idaho's Record Exchange, Seattle's Easy Street Records, New York City's J&R Music World, who, at last year's event, played host to a ceremony including Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Official Declaration of Record Store Day. There's also Denver's awesome, Twist & Shout, Rockaway Records in Los Angeles, Rasputin Music in the Bay Area, Boston's Newbury Comics and Minneapolis' Electric Fetus (the store who's shirt Ringo Starr sported at the Grammys).

The cold hard fact is that the past year did still see the closing of dozens of independent music stores, some of which had been in business for decades. Certain markets were more profoundly affected by the fiscal collapse than others and can cite factors such as location and state or city economics as culprits. That said, the ingenuity and staying power of the independent music retailer stands as a front-line barometer for the rest of industry- generally, those who stay in it are those labels, independent contractors, managers, booking agents and artists whose passion gives birth to the smartest, most innovative and adaptable and inclusive ideas.

A worthy example of this is Junketboy Distribution. Formed in 2002, Junketboy was launched to give indie record retailers a competitive edge within the retail music industry.

By providing indie retailers with special releases, including exclusives, rarities, tour items, live releases, merchandise, toys, books, etc., Junketboy gives the true music fan the opportunity to find quality,  collectible, hard-to-find pieces and to support their local, independent retail community.

Owned and operated by the Coalition of Independent Music Stores, Junketboy sells directly to over 400 customers, including direct indie store accounts, one-stops and importer/exporters and has over 2,000 titles in its catalog ranging from partnerships with Pearl Jam and The Black Keys/Damon Dash hip-hop project Blakroc, to special releases from John Mayer, Kings of  Leon, Phish, Beck, My Morning Jacket, Beastie Boys to hundreds of independent and developing artist releases.

Michael Bunnell, Executive Director of Junketboy Distribution and the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS), states, "Junketboy was created to service and partner with independent record  stores across the country. We are proud to continue our support of indie record store culture as a founding and active member of Record Store Day. By helping indie stores survive in today's ever-changing music retail world by providing quality special releases, Junketboy Distribution hopes to make every day Record Store Day."

Out with the ox, in with the tiger...

Record Store Day is managed by the Music Monitor Network and is organized in partnership with the Alliance of Independents Music Stores (AIMS), the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) and celebrates the culture of independent record stores by playing host to in-store events/performances, signings and special product releases on a global scale. It takes place on Saturday, April 17, 2010.

Record Store Day Sponsors:

Crosley Radio, EMI Distribution, Fontana Distribution, Gotta Groove, NARM, RED Distribution, Sony Music, Universal Music Distribution, Vivendi Entertainment, WEA Distribution, and Warner Bros. Records.

For more information on exclusive Record Store Day events, products and participants, visit http://www.recordstoreday.com

Offers version of "When My Baby's Beside Me" via his MySpace page.

By Fred Mills

Wow - cover songs don't get much better than this.

In the wake of Alex Chilton's sad, far-too-premature passing, the accolades and remembrances from the music community have been coming fast and furious - among them, musical tributes, such as the one by Jeffrey Dean Foster and Mitch Easter, a cover of "Ballad of El Goodo," that we posted to the Blurt site the other day.

Now comes a positively spot-on version of Big Star's "When My Baby's Beside Me" recorded by Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit and posted yesterday to Isbell's MySpace page. Seriously - it kicks ass, and any fan of Chilton and Big Star will not be disappointed. The band cut it last year during sessions for their self-titled album (reviewed here at Blurt). Thanks Jason - you went above and beyond.

***

In other Chilton/Big Star news, in Austin at SXSW there was some concern about the fate of the Big Star showcase tonight (Saturday) at Antone's. It's on, and is now being billed as "Big Star - A Tribute to Alex Chilton." Apparently the band's Jody Stephens, Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer talked with Chilton's widow and decided that turning it into a tribute was in order, and they've lined up a slew of guests to perform including Chuck Prophet, X's John Doe, R.E.M.'s Mike Mills, indie-folk singer M. Ward, the dB's Chris Stamey, and Doug Garrison and René Coman (pals of Chilton who had played with him many times over the years).

Fresh from multiple SXSW performances in Austin and ready to embark upon a string of sold-out US dates, M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel release the followup to their acclaimed 2008 debut this week. Check out the video for "In The Sun" below - high school musical, anyone?

By Lee Zimmerman

She & Him seemed like a mismatched pair from the start. M. Ward's nocturnal musings cohabitating with the chirpy designs of actress - actress - Zooey Deschanel suggested an unlikely prospect on paper, which certainly didn't bode well for what might transpire once the collaboration was put into practice. Regardless, the duo's Merge Records debut, aptly titled Volume One, was the dark horse hit of 2008, a frequent contender on many a critic's top picks for the year.

All of which provides a nice set-up for the sequel, appropriately named Volume Two. It's doubtful that Ward would ever give himself so willingly to such a perky pretext were it not for an obvious musical infatuation with Deschanel, who freely appropriates the opportunity to showcase her pure pop leanings. The results are as impressive as before, a collection that skillfully negotiates that difficult divide between commercial compatibility and alternative intentions.  Deschanel's vocals are lighter than helium, an ideal complement to her cushy melodies and Ward's Spector-esque arrangements.  "Ridin' In My Car" offers a fluffy soundtrack for summer romance, while the samba-like pulse of "Lingering Still" makes it innocuous enough for pure blithe delight. Likewise, the giddy shuffle of "Me and You" and the catchy call and response chorus of "In The Sun" make them ebullient and engaging -- featherweight songs conveying guiltless satisfaction. She & Him may seem one odd couple, but they make for one creative and compatible twosome.

[Photo Credit: Taea Thale]

"Those he touched, he touched immutably": On Saturday, March 20 at Antone's in Austin, the surviving Big Star members and a host of musicians who loved and were influenced by Alex Chilton demonstrated just how immutable that touch was. Among the guests: John Doe, Mike Mills, Chris Stamey, Evan Dando, Kirk Kirkwood and M. Ward.

By Rob Patterson / Photos by Randy Harward

It may seem contradictory for any number of reasons that the SXSW closing night tribute to Alex Chilton was both bittersweet and celebratory. Yet that fits what the music he made with Big Star was all about: reveling in the propulsive chime and harmonic pleasures of pure pop while singing about the double-edged sword of young love.

Earlier in the day at the Chilton panel, Ardent Studios owner John Fry mentioned (via webcam feed from Memphis) "Alex's reputation for being a curmudgeon." But it seems to this writer - who knew Chilton in his late 1970s New York City days - that such a rep was only the result of his being an idealist who had learned to live (very much in his own way) as a realist. As Big Star drummer Jody Stephens reported in a note from Paul Westerberg, "Alex was Alex all of his life." Chris Stamey of The dB's, who played bass in Chilton's first NYC band, echoed that by noting, "He didn't lie," though panelists did also discuss how he could often be circumspect and even quite cryptic.

"He let you figure him out," concluded Posies/latter day Big Star bassist Ken Stringfellow. But the appeal and almost incalculable influence of Chilton's Big Star legacy needed no figuring out as a number of his notable musical followers and admirers made clear in the 18-song salute to follow that night at Antone's. Performing numbers from the three 1970s Big Star albums, they all wonderfully locked into the openhearted emotionality of his lyrics and the eternal melodic pleasures of Big Star's rocked-up pop sound.

MVP honors were handily earned by the Big Star v.2 survivors Stringfellow, Stephens and guitarist Jon Auer (pictured above), who backed the guests and began the show with a faithful take on "Back of a Car" that channeled Chilton so effectively it was almost a bit hard to believe he wasn't there - but for the mike stand at center stage where he should have been. That rich evocation of the Big Star vibe continued as Meat Puppet Curt Kirkwood joined them on guitar for "Don't Lie To Me" and "In The Street" followed by Stamey on Chris Bell's "I Am The Cosmos" and "When My Baby's Beside Me." In those moments one certainly felt the "invisible man who can sing in a visible voice," as Westerberg termed Chilton in his Replacements song about him.

(Curt Kirkwood)

(Chris Stamey)

The entire set was a marvel, and surprisingly free of any notable bum notes or glitches, given how quickly it had to be assembled. Every number and singer was like yet another high point, though a few marvelous stunners stood out.

John Doe wrenched the deepest feelings of youthful amorousness and longing within "I'm in Love With a Girl," and was then followed by Norwegian popster Sondre Lerche for the night's most reinterpreted number, "The Ballad of El Goodo," within which his impassioned singing opened up delightful new facets. A midpoint reading of "Thirteen" with Auer singing lead provided a touching moment of repose and reflection on Chilton's crystallization of the very essence of being a teen. And with just his voice and an acoustic guitar on "Nighttime," Evan Dando nonetheless wowed the assembled with the impassioned tremors of his delivery.

(Sondre Lerche)

(Andy Hummel)

Original Big Star bassist Andy Hummel jumped up to harmonize as Stephens sang "Way Out West," and such others as M. Ward (doing a somber "Big Black Car"), R.E.M.'s Mike Mills ("Jesus Christ") and Chuck Prophet (who rocked "Thank You Friends" out of the park) underlined how vital the band's inspiration was to them and so many others. The show closed with harmonic bliss as Dando, Auer, Stringfellow and Amy Speace delivered "Try Again," and then Susan Cowsill, The Watson Twins, Hummel and Mills with the Big Star players roused "September Gurls" into a perfect grace note of celebration.

(M. Ward)

(Mike Mills)

At the daytime panel a letter from Chilton's Memphis scene compatriot Tav Falco was read where he noted of Alex, "Those he touched, he touched immutably." Everyone on stage that night showed just how eternally he affected them, and what they sang and played surely had its immutable impact on everyone listening. The musicians came not to bury Chilton and not merely to praise him either, but rather show just how life-enriching the music he created with Big Star was to them, and then prove that with spirit and love to all the souls in the room. Even without Chilton's human presence now on Earth, his music will no doubt resonate eternally.

As we all know, kicks just keep getting harder to find. A just-issued collection of the Raiders entire output on 45 should sustain you quite nicely, however.

By Steven Rosen

Paul Revere & the Raiders will return... will return... will return.

Well, maybe not - while Revere and the lead singer of the ebullient 1960s pop-rock band, Mark Lindsay, are still busy on the oldies circuit separately, they show no evidence of wanting to reunite.

But the band, who despite the cornball Revolutionary War attire and generally square, audience-friendly image really could make dynamic Top 40 singles with pop smarts and garage-rock edge, do get a much-deserved three-disc retrospective courtesy of Collectors' Choice Music. The Complete Columbia Singles collects the A and B sides of every Columbia single the band put out in the 1960s and early 1970s. That's a worthy return to vinyl - or whatever it is that CDs are made of.

Collectors' Choice has done this before with Gary Lewis & the Playboys, Jan & Dean and Jay & the Americans. This is probably the best so far, since the Raiders were more of a live band than the others, thus they weren't as dependent on studio wizardry to sound good or shape their sound. And Bob Irwin's mastering job makes the singles, be they mono or stereo, sound full-bodied and alive.

The Raiders weren't a garage band, exactly. Their instinct was to brighten rather than scuff up their songs. But they did have ones - like "Just Like Me," "Steppin' Out," "Kicks," "Hungry" - that any garage band would be proud to cover. At their best, they also had hits that the Rolling Stones would have been proud to cover - "Him or Me - What's It Gonna Be?" and "Ups and Downs."

As one of the first rock bands to be signed by Columbia Records (maybe the first), they also had the promotional clout to get consistent Top 40 airplay. And, while they got some great songs from Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil ("Kicks," "Hungry") at a critical moment, Lindsay turned out to be a pretty good writer, especially when working with producer Terry Melcher.

The group, which underwent all sorts of personnel changes but kept organist Revere and singer Lindsay as its focus, got its start in the same early-1960s Pacific Northwest teen scene that produced the Sonics and Kingsmen. In fact, the band's version of Richard Berry's "Louie Louie" - recorded in Portland in 1963 at virtually the same time as the Kingsmen's - is what brought them to Columbia's attention. One of their follow-ups was Berry's "Have Love Will Travel," also a Sonics' favorite. Disc One shows the early Raiders had the chops to win many a local battle of the bands.

The Raiders hit their stride in 1965, when the savvy guitarist Drake Levin and exciting bassist Phil "Fang" Volk joined Revere, Lindsay and drummer Mike "Smitty" Smith. They got a gig on a Dick Clark teen show called Where the Action Is. And the singles they put out - "Steppin' Out," "Just Like Me," "Hungry," "Kicks" - are everything you wanted a good Top 40 record to be back then. Superb hooks and guitar riffs; stomping rhythms; impassioned, attitudinal vocals that have clarity but also forcefulness and shout-out-loud defiance; lyrics that make you take notice. It sounded young. ("Kicks" is considered an anti-drug song, but the way Lindsay and band scream out "kicks just keep getting harder to find" seems a call for anti-establishment rebellion, a mate to Mann-Weil's "We Gotta Get Out of This Place.") And when Levin left, Jim "Harpo" Valley came in to keep the sound crisp and hard-edged, yet still pop.

This is the period that The Complete Columbia Singles is most valuable in spotlighting. Working with Melcher, who sometimes used session players for recording because of the band's touring schedule, the Raiders put out singles that maybe were a shade less dynamic than the 1965-1966 breakthroughs, but still had the muscularity to leap forth from transistor and car radios when played loud.

One, "The Great Airplane Strike," wasn't much of a hit - too weird a subject - but Lindsay's surly, seductive talk-sing vocal, very Jaggeresque, makes it a worthy companion to "Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown." And "Good Thing," which starts with what sounds like Lindsay taking a toke, marries raucousness with Beach Boys-worthy harmonies in a way that seems liberating for 1966.

Disc Two collects the singles from the Raiders' underappreciated late-1960s period, when - like Memphis' Box Tops or New Jersey's Rascals - they adventurously tried different approaches to pop-rock, not intent to clone their last hit. "I Had a Dream" has a simmering beat and Lindsay's voice is uncharacteristically soft, but it rises for a robust chorus. "Peace of Mind" starts with distorted, psychedelic guitar and has a gospel-rock feel, courtesy of back-up female singers. "Too Much Talk," which Lindsay produced and has a ballooning bass part and a teasing organ, is one of those late-1960s trippy hits, like "Judy in Disguise" or "Hot Smoke and Sassafras," that starts off sounding off-kilter but then erupts with energy as the parts fall into play.

Judging from some of the B sides and non-hits of this period - "Rain, Sleet, Snow," "Do Unto Others," "It's Happening" - the Raiders were trading ideas with all the other singles-oriented acts writing and recording in L.A., trying to keep up with the changes wrought by the Beatles and the San Francisco Sound. It was a great time to be a rock band, and it shows.

But the hits started to slow as the more conceptual acts - those who thought in terms of albums - started to pull away. And as guitarist Freddy Weller and bass player/songwriter Keith Allison joined the band, Columbia started to nudge the Raiders - who weren't destined to become art-rock album-sellers - toward the hard edge of bubble gum, as the label also did with Billy Joe Royal ("Cherry Hill Park") and as the Grass Roots were successfully doing elsewhere. These songs are OK and very catchy, but derivative and lyrically banal ("Let Me," "We Gotta All Get Together").

Their fortunes were going downhill until in 1971, out of the blue, the band had its biggest hit ever with a version of John D. Loudermilk's "Indian Reservation" - a song that had been recorded by others for more than a decade. There's no denying it's a kitschy choice, a novelty hit that has no connection with the band's legacy, but you can still admire the production values: Session player Hal Blaine's thunderous drums, the lightning-bolt use of strings, the ominous "will return" chant.

It was also the end of the band as a commercial force, especially as Lindsay started to have solo hits. Disc Three chronicles another couple year's worth of singles. Some are of little import, going for a watered-down country soul sound - including a cover of Joe South's "Birds of a Feather." And Lindsay's vocals started to get tinny and tiny amid diffident production, as on "Powder Blue Mercedes Queen." But there were still a few surprises - a peppy arrangement of Jimmy Webb's acerbic "Song Seller," and a roller-rink, sing-along take on Dylan's "(If I Had It to Do All Over Again, I'd Do It) All Over You." (There's also a cool party song called "The Turkey" - a B side - that's part Memphis-soul-stew instrumental and part deadpan comic vocal.)

Still, if you add up the good singles - A and B sides - that the Raiders made, the band has as good a case to make for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction as do the Hollies, Dave Clark Five or Rascals, who all are members. But if they ever do get in, everyone attending the ceremony should be made to wear those uniforms and tri-corner hats. Heck, it would a kick. And, as all know, kicks just keep getting harder to find.

[Photo Of Paul Revere courtesy Wikimedia Commons/Kepgeek]

Track comes from that recent  Twilight  film but don't hold it against her - the tune and the video are awesome.

By Blurt Staff

On March 9, much buzzed-about Swedish songstress Lykke Li filmed a new music video at Decibel Studios in Stockholm. It's for "Possibility," the LL track featured in the Twilight/New Moon film; the song was written, produced and recorded by the songwriter.

She's at work on the followup to 2008's Youth Novels and this new song is described as "a taste of what's next." Yum.

Appearing at D.C.'s 9:30 Club on March 9, Strung Out confronts an overtly hostile crowd, resulting in a truncated set. Headliners the Dropkick Murphys follow, but by then the evening was already a wash thanks to the boneheads in the audience.

By Roxana Hadadi / Photos by Adam Fried

When exactly did the Dropkick Murphys' fanbase turn into one populated by hyper-aggressive guys, their sadly submissive girlfriends and humorless people who can't take a joke? And if that's not the majority of the band's followers, then who the hell were all those people at the sold-out 9:30 Club on March 9 - imposters in droves?

After all, anything is possible. And the marked difference between the throngs of fans of the Irish hardcore band the Dropkick Murphys (recently interviewed at BLURT) and the few (and seriously, "few" here means less than 10, probably) there to see opening band Strung Out, proves that something was certainly amiss that night. Back in the day, it wasn't too much to expect that fans of the Dropkick Murphys would appreciate veteran punk band Strung Out for their decades of creativity, years of output that helped pave the way for groups like those Irish ragamuffins. But the inability of the sold-out crowd to give Strung Out any credit cast an uncomfortable air over some of the night, a sense of discord that had nothing to do with Ian MacKaye or Jeff Nelson.

The show started off with Larry and His Flask, an Oregon-based band who seems to have listened to a few too many O'Death songs, based on their eerie similarities to the Brooklyn-based, Americana-influenced punk band. Thankfully, Larry and His Flask's set (whose amateurish feel indicated their rookie status; they even admitted they don't have any recorded material yet) was over sooner rather than later, and it was time for Strung Out, the fivesome from Los Angeles.

Bringing their metal-influenced, head-bangingly enjoyable sound to the 9:30 Club, the group was frenzied and frenetic, adding a thrash-and-dash sense to the night that was largely championed by lead singer Jason Cruz (who also pens a blog for this very publication). As he stalked across the stage, occasionally striking a goofily flamboyant pose or hocking loogies toward the rafters, he was the whirlwind at the band's center. Whether spitting out yearning lines like "Show me a secret, tell me something no one else would know/ As we lose our minds and we're getting high to radio," from track "Carcrashradio," or more demanding ones, such as "How many times must we tell each other/ Lies, and separate our lives/ I wonder what went wrong/ I'm not asking for the world," from "Asking for the World," Cruz was the epicenter of the band's activity, an impressively energetic frontman who is obviously adept at pumping up crowds.

But they weren't about to let him. Instead, after Cruz started talking trash about cops, the heavily green crowd, in a sea of driver caps, kilts and shirts emblazoned with shamrocks and Boston-related motifs, turned their venom toward Strung Out.

It all began when Cruz commented that most members of the crowd looked like off-duty cops, and admonished them for not being more excited during the group's set - "Smile, motherfuckers, it ain't that bad," he declared. Then, as other members of the band further chimed in on their dislike for men in uniform and pointedly mocked the frosty demeanor of the audience, things got even uglier.

Was there loud, incessant booing? Yes. Were there middle fingers thrown up? Indeed. Did the atmosphere crackle with enough testosterone to get Robert Paulson excited? Yup, that was the case. Just imagine the feeling of a particularly toxic football crowd, and you'll get the idea: Drunken, overwhelmingly white and pathetically aggressive. That about sums it up.

So though Strung Out ended their set somewhat early, that manic sentiment lingered in the air, and only built more as the Dropkick Murphys took the stage. From when the group launched into the turbulent opener, "The State of Massachusetts," lead singer Al Barr (who, somewhat amusingly, isn't Irish) kept screaming his German-Scottish heart out, whether flanked by a trio of young female dancers jigging it up; during the group's tweaked version of traditional folk song "The Black Velvet Band"; or toward the end of crowd-favorite "Surrender."

While Barr growled, "But I just couldn't see that the blood that's in your veins/ Is the same that runs through me," the crowd ate it up - but didn't seem to think the song could have applied to how they just had treated Strung Out. Not some kind of preachy sermon, but just a thought. (Nope, this wasn't brought to you by the Latter Day Saints. In a review of a mostly Catholic Irish band's show? Please.)

First round of dates includes a weeklong swing through the South.

Fred Mills

Neil Young has announced he'll be performing his first shows in the South in nearly a decade as part of his Twisted Road Tour. Currently, the stops will include Louisville, Atlanta, Spartanburg and Nashville, commencing on May 26. Full details below.

It will feature Young playing solo acoustic guitar (plus, most likely, piano and/or pump organ) in intimate theater settings - typically in the 2000-3000 seat range. Anyone who's ever seen Young in this particular mode also knows that there's a good chance of hearing as-yet-unrecorded material.

British folk legend Bert Jansch will open the shows. Holy cow. As John Wesley Harding put it so eloquently in a Twitter post this morning - what a double bill.

Tickets go on sale this Saturday, March 27, at 10 a.m. local time. Get ready to check the balance on your credit card, however: prices will be $245, $125 and $85.

More dates are expected to be announced soon.

- May 26 - Louisville Palace Theatre, Louisville, KY (2,600 seats)
- May 29 - Atlanta's Fox Theatre
- May 30 - Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium, Spartanburg, SC (3,200 seats)
- June 1 - Nashville's Ryman Auditorium

Fannies' first in five years set for June 8 release on Merge. Free MP3, below.

By Blurt Staff

You saw the headline right - the Scottish popsters return on June 8 with a brand new album, Shadows, via Merge. UK tour dates have already been announced as well, and as things stand now, a US tour will probably happen in September. Let's get those visas in order, guys.

It has been 5 years since their last album, Man-Made. As Merge is quick to remind us, "It is no overstatement to say the new album is keenly anticipated. While most bands are lucky to have one great songwriter, Teenage Fanclub are blessed with three, hence Shadows is overflowing with the kind of gorgeous, harmony-driven classics you'd expect to find on a greatest hits album."

Here's an advance listen: free MP3 of "Baby Lee" from the album. Gee, it sounds just like early Big Star, who'd a thunk it!

Tracklisting:

1. Sometimes I Don't Need To Believe In Anything
2. Baby Lee
3. The Fall
4. Into The City
5. Dark Clouds
6. The Past
7. Shock And Awe
8. When I Still Have Thee
9. Live With The Seasons
10. Sweet Days Waiting
11. The Back Of My Mind
12. Today Never Ends

Tour dates:

May 1st - London Koko - Camden Crawl Headline
May 27th - Manchester Academy 2
May 28th - Sheffield Leadmill
May 30th - Dublin The Academy
June 1st - Aberdeen
June 2nd - Glasgow ABC
June 3rd - Edinburgh The Picture House
June 4th - Leeds The Cockpit
June 6th - Bristol Academy
June 7th - Birmingham Academy 2

On Head First, Alison Goldfrapp, plus longtime collaborator Will Gregory, steer back to the commercial safety of club anthems, and most fans will be happy, although they don't necessarily move the artistic bar forward.

By Steve Klinge

After the diversion into Cocteau Twins ethereality for Seventh Tree, Goldfrapp returns to reclaim her spot in the dance clubs with Head First (Mute). The fifth album from the titular Alison Goldfrapp, plus longtime collaborator Will Gregory, falls into the tradition of second and third records, 2003's Black Cherry and 2005's Supernature, rather than the eerie trip hop of the first, Felt Mountain (2000), or 2008's lovely pastoral Seventh Tree. It's back to club anthems, shiny choruses, and slick synths - subtlety and depth be damned.

Goldfrapp gives good singles, and "Rocket," "Believer" and "Alive" will end up on the playlists of lovers of well-crafted dance-pop (although one suspects that many Goldfrapp fans appreciate listening to dance-pop more than dancing to it). Not coincidentally, those three tracks open Head First, and its hit-me-with-your-best-shot sequencing: the rest of the album turns more subdued and indirect (and occasionally diffuse), as in the slinky strut of "Shiny and Warm" or the slow-burn abstraction of "Voicething" (the grabby chorus of "I Wanna Life" is the late-album exception).

Between the singer's crystalline vocals and Gregory's well-orchestrated synths, Goldfrapp - the duo - is an ersatz Eurythmics for the not-so-new millennium. That's fine, but on Head First the not insubstantial pleasures are ephemeral ones.

Goldfrapp has unfortunately disabled all embedding of her new videos (shame on you, Alison!) but we have links to these, just ‘cos we like her:

Video of "Rocket"

Audio of "Hunt"

Audio of "Head First"

1,000,001 Bruce Springsteen fans give their approval!

By Blurt Staff

The Gaslight Anthem have a new album: American Slang (SideOneDummy Records). It's set for release June 15, and is produced by Ted Hutt (who produced their second album, The '59 Sound).

 
Needless to say, we're big GA fans here - watch for a major feature on the band.

Tracklisting:

01. American Slang
02. Stay Lucky
03. Bring It On
04. The Diamond Church Street Choir
05. The Queen of Lower Chelsea
06. Orphans
07. Boxer
08. Old Haunts
09. The Spirit Of Jazz
10. We Did It When We Were Young

Longtime Blurt blogger goes to Austin, loads up on freebies, then decides to dump most of ‘em in the trash bins at the airport. Here's some of the stuff he hung onto, however.

By Carl Hanni

SXSW is a bounty of unasked-for (and sometimes unwanted) CDs, cassettes, download cards and more, pressed into our hands at shows, in the convention center and on the street by sometimes anxious, occasionally sweaty strangers. Some of them are treasure troves. Here's the scoop on a few of the best ones I received. 

Boom Pam: somebody handed me this at the Balkan Beat Box show, which is fully appropriate. From Tel Aviv, Boom Pam mash up twangy surf guitars, Middle Eastern/Mediterranean and Balkan beats, plenty of forward motion and a rocking tuba on "Malibu" and four other tracks on a delightful five song EP. www.boompam.org,  www.myspace.com/boompam.

Guadalupe Plata: I got this from a gent at the booth promoting new music from Spain in the  trade show in the convention center. Guadalupe Plata are a 3 piece playing big, heavy blues ala Black Keys, R.L. Burnside and John Lee Hooker, played w/drastic fire and amazing chops, especially on the slide guitar. In addition to these masters their MySpace mentions Hound Dog Taylor, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Skip James, Son House and Elmore James. Who knew the Spanish had the dirty blues gene? Amazing stuff.  www.myspace.com/guadalupeplata.

The China Invasion Tour 2010, Featuring Bands from Maybe Mars. From a showcase of new Chinese bands. This 16 song sampler features nine contemporary Chinese "rock" acts, several who record on the Maybe Mars label and many who come out of the D-22 Club scene in Beijing. I'd previously heard the electrified Carsick Cars and the terrific 3 piece Snapline, who played an eye-opening set on guitar, vocals and keyboard. P.K.14 were a SXSW buzz band this year, according to some sources. White seen to be drawing their energy from Philip Glass, while Xiao He from an avant garde re-casting of traditional Chinese folk music. Av Okubo, Gar, 24 Hours and Ourself Beside Me also represent. The energy from these bands is all experimental, fresh and genre-bending. The kids are alright in China, apparently. www.maybemars.com. 

I got to see the Berkeley-based Real Vocal String Quartet perform a beautifully played, lovely set, despite a feedback-jittery PA and a rolling tide of deep booty bass from the club next door. The four women add vocals to their violin, viola and cello line-up, presenting a modern chamber mash-up of music from around the world. I got the self-titled 14 song CD from cellist Jessica Ivy, who I also saw at terrific sets by Golden Arm Trio and Fishtank Ensemble. Their set was a welcome respite from the drunken hoo-raw outside the club, and proof that you can see just about anything you want at SXSW, if you bother to look for it. www.rvsq.com.

I also got a LED Artists sampler CD from a charming woman at the Balkan Beat Box show. A collection of artists that they represent? distribute? promote?, the sampler features 19 tracks by 15 international acts, including Kimi Djabate (Guinea-Bissau), Nguyen Le (Paris via Vietnam), Liu Fang (China), Boris Malkovsky (Israel), Ljova and the Kontraband (NYC via Russia)  and Mercedes Peon (Spain). This is the real world music--less on electronic beat/world groove, more on modern updates on traditional music that doesn't necessarily have one eye cocked towards the dance floor at all times. www.LEDartists.net.

Light In The Attic Records sampler. I spent some time--and some $--hanging out at the booth the Seattle-based Light In The Attic Records had at the SXSW record show. LITA are one of the the top-shelf re-isssue labels in the country, who also distribute other fabulous, European based re-issue labels like Vampisoul, Timmion Trikont. These are the folks that did such a great job re-issuing all four of funk goddess Betty Davis four releases, as well as key records by legendary folkie Karen Dalton, garage punk ground-breakers The Monks and more. Their catalogue is stuffed full of amazing soul, funk, reggae, R&B, Latin, psychedelic, rock and folk releases. The sampler CD has tracks by Davis, Dalton, Monks + Rodriguez, the Black Angels, Earth, Roots and Water, The Free Design and more. www.lightintheattic.net.

Funk Aid for Africa and Haiti, mixed and compiled by DJ Obah. Ok, I paid for this one (for a good cause) at a showcase put together by Wax Poetics magazine and Dubspot Records. This was one of best showcases I saw at SXSW, with sets by Ocote Soul Sounds, Chico Mann, Brownout, Jovi Rockwell and more, with killer DJ sets between acts. The sampler CD features a continuous groove mix by Ocote, Ticklah, Happy Mayfield, The Pimps of Joytime, El Pueblo and many more. www.dubspot.com, www.nextaid.org. 

Stone River Boys, Love On The Dial. Perhaps this isn't totally fair--I ride to and from SXSW w/SRB's manager and I know and have worked with one of them (Dave Gonzalez) off and on for years--but it WAS given to me at SXSW, and it/they are so darn good that it really shouldn't go unmentioned. Fronted by Texas country soul singer/songwriter legend Mike Barfield and featuring the awesome guitar, vocal and songwriting talents of Dave Gonzalez (Hacienda Brothers, The Paladins), the Stone River Boys pick up more or less where the Hacienda Brothers left off, producing an untouchable fusion of modern Texas soul and hard, precise honky tonk music. I saw the Boys wind a mid-afternoon crowd up into a spinning top with just four songs. The record is a monster. www.stoneriverboys.com.

Now you see it, now you don't! But don't consider the matter, uh, dead...

By Fred Mills

Dead Weather fans are currently experiencing what's known as "musical blue balls" in the wake of a new Dead Weather video surfacing on the internet today only to be summarily removed - presumably by Warner Music, who has a pretty unbroken track record of takedowns, but there's no actual word of explanation just yet.

Seems that late yesterday Stereogum posted the Metacafe link to the "Die By The Drop" video, from the forthcoming Dead Weather album Sea Of Cowards (due in May via Jack White's Third Man label, which is distributed by Warners). Stereogum describes the Floria Sigismondi (The Runaways) -directed video thusly:

"Jack White and Alison Mosshart echo each other's taunts over the song's lurching, massive guitar hook. Mosshart always sings as if she's ready to boil over, but White is singing at full, manic bluster. This video was meant to be equally menacing, but honestly, the video's stylist made Jack White resemble VH1's Mystery. White may be the ultimate pick-up artist though."

The news got picked up quickly by everybody from Rolling Stone to Pitchfork, and spread across the web, but by this morning the video was long gone, with the link simply taking you to this page at Metacafe with a message reading "the video you were looking for was removed."

Dang! Sniffing around on the web briefly doesn't appear to yield the video (this really isn't worth wasting a lot of time on, so it may be out there somewhere), but the audio of a live version of the song, accompanied by a nice live Dead Weather photo, has been posted to YouTube so you can get a taste.

So - was the vid posted prematurely, prompting a takedown? Or is this some cryptic marketing strategy intended to build up mystique? Who knows! But if it's the latter, the corollary conclusion must surely be this: the folks working as marketers for Dead Weather are assholes.

If anybody locates the embed code, please put it in a sealed container and mail it to BLURT...

1994's Tiger Bay and 2002's Finisterre are latest to get the remastered/expanded treatment. They come on the heels of the Foxbase Alpha, Continental, So Tough and The Sound Of Water 2CD reissues.

By Fred Mills

As announced here back in January, Britain's Saint Etienne resume their back catalog overhaul with two more Deluxe Editions. According to the band, 1994's Tiger Bay and 2002's Finisterre were originally slated to come out as 2CD sets in late March, but the remastered and vastly expanded albums have now been given a May 4 release date. They'll come out on Heavenly via Universal in the UK; at present no American release has been announced (which is why God created Amazon.co.uk, we imagine).

As an extra bonus for collectors, Finisterre will come in an additional limited edition configuration featuring a DVD of the film of the same name. A lot of St. E fans will already have the Paul Kelly/Kieran Evans film ("a film about London," read the subtitle), as it was originally released on DVD in 2005 by the Plexifilm company, but if not, here's hoping that this version also contains the assorted bonus features, among them additional Saint Etienne tour visual sequences, that came on the original DVD.

According to Heavenly:

Tiger Bay was Saint Etienne's second Top 10 album, and took the group into a new place by mixing traditional folk melodies with modern electronica. They worked with Underworld, Shara Nelson, Stephen Duffy, arranger David Whitaker, and Birmingham neo-dubsters Original Rockers to create a windblown but lush record, echoing its oil painting cover. Previously unheard bonus tracks on Disc Two include an abandoned sequel to Mario's Cafe called Black Horse Latitudes (set in the evening, in a Tufnell Park pub), and the perky Wedding Of Stacy Dorning which looked forward to the sunshine pop of 1998's Good Humor.

Finisterre was a love/hate letter to London, with its iconic image of the collapsed Ronan Point on the cover, recorded at a time of mass demonstrations against the government and just after folk hero Ken Livingstone had been elected Mayor. Alternately harsh and gentle, electronic and thrumming, it included the nu-disco call-to-arms single Action. Unreleased tracks on the second disc of the deluxe edition include the near-mythical Dr Who-sampling There There My Brigadier, and a tribute to the mysterious Aqualad who resides under the Thames, waiting for his moment to take the city back from the financiers and to open up the Post Office Tower's revolving restaurant once again.

Tracklisting:

TIGER BAY

CD 1 (original album)

1. Urban Clearway
2. Former Lover
3. Hug My Soul
4. Like A Motorway
5. On The Shore
6. Marble Lions
7. Pale Movie
8. Cool Kids Of Death
9. Western Wind / Tankerville
10. The Boy Scouts Of America

CD2
1. Urban Clearway (demo) *
2. Black Horse Latitude *
3. I Buy American Records
4. Hate Your Drug
5. You Know I'll Miss You When I'm Gone
6. Sushi Rider
7. Hug My Soul (demo) *
8. The Wedding Of Stacy Dorning *
9. Deborah's French Feast *
10. Western Wind (demo) *
11. Pale Movie (demo) *
12. La Poupee Qui Fait Non (no no no)
13. Highgate Road Incident
14. My Christmas Prayer
15. I Was Born On Christmas Day

*previously un-released. The non-demo tracks are brand new recordings.

FINISTERRE

CD1 (original album)
1. Action
2. Amateur
3. Language Lab
4. Soft Like Me
5. Summer Isle
6. Stop And Think It Over
7. Shower Scene
8. The Way We Live Now
9. New Thing
10. B92
11. The More You Know
12. Finisterre

CD2
1. Primrose Hill
2. Anderson Unbound
3. Seven Summers
4. Gimp Crisis
5. Abby, I Hardly Know You
6. So Mystified *
7. White Dress *
8. Time And Tide
9. Shock Corridor
10. Stop And Think It Over (Kid Loco mix) *
11. Mountain Rain
12. Queen Of Polythene
13. Ballade De Saint Etienne
14. Stevie
15. Get It Together Again
16. Fascination
17. There There My Brigadier *

* previously un-released. All tracks, except the Kid Loco mix, are brand new recordings.

Noted music industry mover and shaker does Austin and lives to tell (write) about it - sleep optional!

By Panos Panay, Founder and CEO of Sonicbids

You know, I'll admit it. There's hardly another event out there that I look more forward to than SXSW Music. Maybe it's the escape from the Northeast cold, or the fact that I can always count on seeing a killer line up, or just that the damn thing is so much fun. I love it.

Day one of Music did not disappoint. I started my day with the usual flurry of meetings and did a panel for the UK Trade & Investment office and AIM UK (the independent label group) called "Live Touring in the US".  Adam Lewis from the Planetary Group was on the panel with me which is always fun. More importantly, I thought that Phil Patterson from UKTI did a great job as a moderator, and the audience (which consisted of managers and bands from the UK) got some great info.

As far as music, the lines were already insane this year and it was only day 1. I couldn't get into the Broken Bells show at Stubbs which was a major disappointment and I missed Fanfarlo due to an admittedly prolonged fun dinner (that happens at SXSW)... You can read my blow-by-blow tweets about all the shows, but early favorites were Band of Skulls, and the Black and White Years whom I've seen several times, including at our showcase at MIDEM.

(Band of Skulls)

The one thing that's not changed in the 10 years that I've been going to SXSW: lack of sleep.

It's just impossible to have all the meetings, do the panels, the parties, the music, the tweets, the blogs and generally stay in touch with your emails while there and get more than 4 hours sleep. But like Christmas, it only happens once a year.

I saw some awesome music the last two days I was in Austin. I caught probably around 40 bands in all with some personal favorites being the Gin Riots, Fanfarlo, Delta Spirit and Band of Horses who were awesome at Stubbs. I also had the chance to catch the MySpace surprise show of Muse who as always, blew the roof off. Good old British rock and roll.

(Muse)

Our party at Maggie Mae's was a highlight for me - great venue, sunny day, about 3,000 of our closest friends drop by. Doesn't get better than that. Just about all the bands that played were outstanding and it's hard for me to pick one that I loved more than the others. If I had to, I would say The Uglysuit were awesome and would love to see them again soon.

(Uglysuit)

Lastly, I had a great panel Thursday with the bookers from Bumbershoot, Bonnaroo, Summerfest and Reeperbahn about booking bands at festivals. Good takeaways:

• Booking a festival is a balance of many interests: artistic philosophy, keeping powerful managers and agents happy, selling tickets, pleasing sponsors, and of course attracting fans and breaking new talent;
• It's a 365-day a year job. Talent scouting does not end;
• All festival bookers are committed to indie music. How many bands varies by festival size and number of stages;
• Focus on social media presence, it's a major influencer;
• Keep your Sonicbids EPK up-to-date. Nothing is more influential for a booker than a band's calendar history;
• Of course, the music has to be great.

You can see all the photos etc. at Sonicbids.com/sonicsx And while there, make sure that you upload a video of your experience at SXSW for the chance to get $4K in tour support. Deadline is March 24.

Austin vet and Blurt blogger fills ya in on what was hip and what was drip at SXSW this year, Interactive Vs. Music -wise. Hint: next year, steer clear of the khakis, gents, and ladies, hula hoops are so, like, Web 1.0.

By Kate Bradley, CEO, Outlandos Music

Some curious/humorous observations. Conclusions? All you...

SxSW Interactive

• Strictly on time
• Panel/keynote speakers wear wireless/clip-on mics (most often)
• Panel/keynote production appears flawless (ex: nametags/hash tags clearly visible, high-quality sound, SxSW staff on-hand and in control)
• Open-door policy (attendees enter and leave panels/keynotes as they please)
• Multitasking assumed and celebrated (ex: tweeting, hash tag strains broadcast simultaneously on stage screens, taking photos/videos, watching videos/accessing links speaker mentions as he/she continues talking)
• Panels/keynotes packed to capacity, one-in/one-out entry queues outside most doors, attendees (literally) battling for panel/keynote front row seats
• Panel/keynote attendee questions usually benefit everyone in the room
• Panel/keynote speakers revered as "rockstars" as attendees vehemently Twitter speeches as "gospels" and rush the stage post events
• Collective, impromptu crowd reactions are frequent (from applause to walkouts)
• Attendees share uber-alpha networking gene, introducing themselves to each other at nearly every possible opportunity, whether seated or in queue... most even managing a pitch
• Attendees have business cards
• Attendees display exuberance in helping each other, openly sharing newly observed/learned tips/ideas
• Panel/keynote speaker metaphors run rampant, assuming attendees will connect dots rapidly (which they do)
• Conversely, attendees express frustration/impatience when panels/keynotes move "slow"
• Overall celebration/mutual admiration between panel/keynote speakers and attendees, each easily vacillating between roles as "students" and "leaders"
• Overarching business-casual fashion, geeky yet hip
• Parties attended mostly by men in khakis

SxSW Music

• Late, a lot
• Panel/keynote speakers have handheld mics (most often)
• Panel/keynote production sloppy (ex: nametags/hash tags missing altogether, sound issues, SxSW staff MIA)
• Open-window policy (attendees can come late or leave but panel/keynote speakers appear visibly put out)
• Multitasking considered rude, especially at a show (ex: audience members reprimanded from stage by artists, while at panels/keynotes, hash tag strains completely MIA)
• Panels/keynotes sparsely attended
• Panel/keynote attendee questions are highly personalized
• The only "rockstars" are actual rockstars
• Collective, impromptu crowd reactions are also frequent but limited to applause and sing-alongs
• Attendees keep to themselves/cliques
• Attendees generally don't have business cards
• Attendees hoard newly observed/learned tips/ideas
• Panel/keynote speakers consistently refer to old, outdated ideas (ex: 1000 True Fans, DIY Fundraising); PowerPoint runs rampant
• Attendees yawn frequently but don't express displeasure
• Overall admiration of panel/keynote speakers by attendees; the opposite does not apply
• Black, black, black; everyone wears black
• Except for all the half naked girls with hula hoops and cowboy boots up and down 6th St.

Kate Bradley pens the "Cut Through the Noise" blog for BLURT, so check it out. In addition to an insane amount of multitasking, she's the CEO of Outlandos Music, a new-music discovery service for grown-ups.

Multitasking maestro hits the road in April, with the album dropping May 11.

By Fred Mills

Last year when we checked in on Brooklyn avant/jam/jazz pianist Marco Benevento he had recently hosted an acclaimed residency at prestigious Oakland venue Yoshi's, followed by a national tour supporting his 2009  album Me Not Me, which featured his unique interpretations of artists ranging from Deerhoof and Beck to My Morning Jacket and Led Zep. As we put it at the time in the BLURT review, "Although the album features other artists' material, Benevento opens up doors those others left untouched, taking each tune into a realm of its own with his special brand of dark funk and circuit bent madness. Sit back and get comfortable before pushing play."

More recently he was spotted serving as ¼ of the mighty Garage A Trois, featuring Stanton Moore on drums, Skerik on sax and Mike Dillon on vibes, and you can check out our review of their album Power Patriot here.

Benevento's got a new album, Between The Needles & Nightfall, due May 11 on The Royal Potato Family, so you can bet that's considered good news around the BLURT compound. We're already listening to advance track "It Came From You" which you can nab as a free MP3 at his official website, www.marcobenevento.com.

There's a tour in the works, natch, with a warmup date next weekend in Burlington followed by the full deal starting April 21 in Hattiesburg and running through the end of June. Be there, or be square, baby!

Tour Dates:

April 3 | Parima | Burlington, VT

April 21 | Bennie's Boom Boom Room | Hattiesburg, MS

April 24 | Tipitina's French Quarter | New Orleans, LA

April 28 | Howlin' Wolf | New Orleans, LA

May 2 | Hi Ho Lounge | New Orleans, LA

May 5 | The Space | Portland, ME

May 6 | The Stone Church | Newmarket, NH

May 7 | Main Pub | Manchester, CT

May 8 | RISD | Providence, RI

May 9 | Parima | Burlington, VT

May 12 | The Hideaway | Louisville, KY 

May 13 | Southgate House | Newport, KY 

May 14 | Martyr's | Chicago, IL

May 15 | Wilbert's | Cleveland, OH

May 16 | Club Cafe | PIttsburgh, PA 

May 19 | The Nightcat | Easton, MD

May 20 | 8x10 | Baltimore, MD

May 21 | North Star | Philadelphia, PA

May 22 | Bowery Ballroom | New York, NY

June 16 | Sellersville Theater | Sellersville, PA

June 17 | River Street Jazz Cafe | Plains, NY

June 18 | The Big Up Festival | Ghent, NY

June 24 | Tractor Tavern | Seattle, WA

June 25 | Doug Fir Lounge | Portland, OR

June 26 | Axe & Fiddle | Cottage Grove, OR

June 27 | Winnipeg Jazz Festival | Winnipeg, Canada

June 28 | Montreal Jazz Festival | Montreal, Canada

June 29 | Toronto Jazz Festival | Toronto, Canada

Was known at The Blues Queen Of New Orleans, and there never was a more accurate label. Video, below.

By Fred Mills

Marva Wright, "The Blues Queen Of New Orleans," passed away Tuesday, March 23, in New Orleans, reportedly due to complications arising from a pair of strokes she suffered last year. The acclaimed blues singer was 62.

Wright may have gotten her professional start relatively late - it wasn't 1987 when she got her start on the blues club circuit - but she certainly made up for lost time and made an impact on the blues scene. Mixing blues, gospel and jazz, and blessed with a room-filling voice that could simultaneously tickle the earlobes and rattle your spine, she was a favored performer (frequently with her band the BMWs) at roots festivals both in Europe and here in the States.

Two of her well known hits: "Heartbreakin' Woman"; "Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean."

As longtime New Orleans watcher (and BLURT contributor) Alex Rawls put it in a piece for Offbeat, "Though the venues changed size and location throughout her career, her warmth, passion and vocal power made every gig seem like a club gig - a little intimate, a little rowdy, and timeless."

Amen.

It's not a question of who is on the album; the lineup is impeccable. The question is: why on earth would anyone possibly be interested in hearing a remake of an INXS album?

By Blurt Staff

Liars joined Beck, Annie Clark and Daniel Hart from St. Vincent, Sergio Dias from Os Mutantes and Brian Lebarton for Beck's Record Club 4, covering the 1987 album, Kick by INXS.

Beck's Record Club is an "informal meeting of various musicians to record an album in a day". The results are posted, track by track at http://www.beck.com/recordclub/, with the first track Guns In The Sky already online now.

Liars' Angus Andres, talking about Beck's Record Club said in a statement, "It is a rare opportunity for completely selfless collaboration and an extremely interesting and unique project that was an absolute pleasure to participate in."

Explained Beck, of the album, "It was recorded in a little over 12 hours on March 3rd, 2010. It was an intense, hilarious, daunting and completely fun undertaking. Thanks to everybody for being there and putting so much into it. Many classic moments, inspired performances and occasional anarchy."

Here's hoping she taught them how to do The Who Sell Out... now THAT would be challenging!

By Blurt Staff

Blurt fave Petra Haden recently participated in one of the most unusual gigs of her life - vocal coach for a reality show. The show is called "The Sing Off" and will be broadcast on NBC-TV and features a capella vocal groups.

Initially Petra flew to Atlanta, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles to be there for uditions. Everyday she and the others judging heard 30 to 40 groups perform per day.  Petra then  worked on arrangements and vocal coaching for several of the finalists, flying to Baltimore to work with "Maxx Factor," an all-women barbershop quartet. Further coaching with a number of the groups went on for about a month in Burbank. "I was really there to help with people's pitch and dynamics of the songs.  It was challenging, but still a great experience," explains Petra

Haden currently lives in Los Angeles where she is working on her next solo a-cappella project - her favorite movie themes - recorded by Justin Burnett. She has been commuting between L.A. and NYC where her other main project has been recording with Yuka Honda under the name "If By Yes." Much of 2009 was given over to continued work on her album of a capella renderings of movie themes and crafting the If By Yes album. In addition she performed the music for several Prius commercials, the first being her a capella reading of the Bellamy Brothers' chestnut, "Let Your Love Flow" and others being Petra originals.

Her last proper solo effort 2005's Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out. In 2008 she released her second collaboration with Alicia Rose (Miss Murgatroid) called Hearts And Daggers as well as Ten Years, a duo album with Woody Jackson, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist (Friends of Dean Martinez).

The man of many names (and Pixies frontman) returns with yet another project, issued next week by Cooking Vinyl. The verdict? Though pleasantly chugging along on half a tank, it still sounds better than most bands gunning at full throttle.

By Jonah Flicker

The dust from the mid-2000s Pixies reunion has long since settled, but Black Francis/Frank Black/Charles Thompson keeps making records, deterred by neither nostalgia nor cash flow. This is mostly a good thing, as he recently proved with Grand Duchy, a dark, ‘80s-tinged project with his wife. NonStopErotik, however, while recorded with the charming, no-frills, one-take urgency of much of his late-‘90s work, pleasantly chugs along without gaining any real speed or traction.

Francis is joined by longtime collaborator Eric Drew Feldman, who laces tracks like the softer "O My Tidy Sum" and the floating "Rabbits" with a bed of ethereal keyboards that mark this is some of Francis' lightest work of the past few years. "Wild Son" is a straight-up Doors rip-off, an interesting but distracting song that feels out of pace with the rest of the album. But he flips the script in an unexpected and welcome move by infusing the Flying Burrito Brothers' "Wheels" with a driving rock beat and distorted guitars, making it more Ramones than lazy country rock. "Dead Man's Curve" finds Francis releasing cathartic, throaty howls over a trad-rock chord progression, further showcasing his love affair with the roots of rock and roll and his faith in the ability of a couple of layered guitars a drum kit to move the crowd. That's when the album reaches its simple peaks of pleasure, when it pogos minimally to power chords on songs like "Six Legged Man," one of the best tunes on the record.

Still, taken in the context of his lengthy and mostly admirable catalogue, NonStopErotik doesn't rank up there with Francis' best. "When I Go Down On You" may tinker with the cryptic Freudian psychosexual drama he repeatedly dealt with in the Pixies, but the album's visceral appeal lies in Stratocasters, not coitus. That being said, Black Francis running on half a tank still sounds better than most bands gunning at full throttle.

Legendary rock photographer shot everyone from the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Ray Charles to Johnny Cash (the infamous middle finger photo), Hendrix (torching his axe) and the musicians at Woodstock.

By Barry St. Vitus

Hard-living, tough talking, iconic rock photographer Jim Marshall passed away Wednesday (March 24) in his sleep, at his Castro Street apartment in San Francisco. He was 74.

Marshall, known for his legendary shots of rock legends in the prime, was a pioneer of shooting personal, candid shots and building trusting relationships with them. He recently mentioned in one of his last interviews that gaining his subject's trust was vital to seeing beyond the stage presence and gaining that insight into who the artist really was. Although you may not know his name, you probably grew up seeing his work: The Beatles at their last live concert at Candlestick Park, an angry Johnny Cash flipping off the camera, Jimi Hendrix playing pyro with his guitar onstage, Janis Joplin and her little bottle of Southern Comfort.

His camera captured personal moments with the Rolling Stones, John Coltrane, Ray Charles, The Grateful Dead, The Doors and behind the scenes at Woodstock. Marshall was also known for being a bit cantankerous, for his taste for whiskey and love of guns. He frequently carried a concealed sidearm with him. He was always generous with his time and advice to novice photographers and was deeply respected by all that knew and worked with him. He was considered by most to be the God of Rock Photography, his style and ability to share intimate impressions of the famous, was often copied, but never quite achieved. His vision through a camera lens was a unique and gifted one.

Quite a few years ago, we were invited to a house party by long-time friend Ken Light, a professor at U. C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, where we were introduced to Mr. Marshall. My wife and I brought along a friend, and we all later gravitated out to the front porch, so they could smoke, where we were soon joined by Jim, who also needed a smoke. We spent most of that evening hanging on his every word, sitting on the front steps, partly because he found my female companions attractive. I avoided asking about his work, as most people don't want to talk shop at social gatherings, so we mostly talked about political stuff. Marshall was very opinionated, especially about U.S. involvement in Iraq, and thought that we should be over there kicking their asses. He wasn't someone that you felt comfortable disagreeing with, so we got a real ear-full of his rather intense take on such matters. He wasn't what could be called "politically correct." My friend Ken later commented that we had latched onto the most famous person at his party.

Marshall recently published the 5^th collection of his work, Trust last year (reviewed here at BLURT) and just released Match Prints, which he did in conjunction with photographers Michael Zagaris and Timothy White. He had just been in New York celebrating the release of that book. Despite his gruff persona, he was known for his generosity, like donating his works for fund raising at charitable causes and taking in stray animals and giving them a home.

Who's-who of indiedom to perform; tickets will be made available via Kickstarter.com next Tuesday for the May concert.

By Blurt Staff

On May 6^th NYC venue Le Poisson Rouge, Wordless Music and WFMU will be hosting a benefit for New Zealand musician Chris Knox, who suffered a series of life-altering strokes last year. The show comes on the heels of Merge Records' release of Stroke, a double album compilation of artists covering Knox songs with the proceeds going to benefit him and his family. All money raised for this event, save for circa $2,500 base costs to cover direct club expenses, is going straight to the Knox family.

You can read about the Stroke album and Knox's long, illustrious career to date at BLURT - contributor Jud Cost interviewed a number of artists, including the Clean's Robert Scott, the Chills' Martin Phillipps,  Knox's Tall Dwarfs partner Alec Bathgate, and Knox himself (prior to the stroke).

Performers at Le Poisson Rouge will include Yo La Tengo, Portastatic, Kyp Malone (TV On The Radio), Claudia Gonson (The Magnetic Fields), comedian John Mulaney and Sharon Van Etten. Additionally, New Zealand will be represented by the Clean, solo sets by Clean members Robert Scott and David Kilgour, as well as Dimmer, whose leader Shayne Carter is best known on these shores from his years of fronting the seminal Straitjacket Fits. The night will also include a very short acoustic set by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, his first public performance in over a decade. The event will be partially recorded to broadcast on WFMU at a later date, as well as on New Zealand community radio stations like Radio 1 in Dunedin.

Tickets will be made available via Kickstarter.com next Tuesday, March 30^th. Thre will also be a separate fundraiser on Kickstarter to cover transport costs for the artists; people who donate will receive the Stroke comp.

Our scintillating shutterbug made the rounds of Austin - and she knows of what she clicks! Check our other SXSW photoblogs by Scott Dudelson and Randy Harward while you're at it.

By Susan Moll

(above and below) Les Savy Fav @ Galaxy Room Backyard 3-19

Drive-By Truckers @ Stubb's 3-18

A Sunny Day in Glasgow @ Lambert's 3-20

Band of Horses @ Stubb's 3-18

Besnard Lakes @ Brooklyn Vegan Party (Galaxy Room) 3-20

Antlers @ Galaxy Room Backyard 3-19

The Middle East @ Maggie Mae's 3-20

Man Or Astroman @ Club DeVille 3-18

Buddy Miller & Patty Griffin

Big Star Tribute @ Antone's 3-20

Mark your calendars for... December! From the good folks who bring you All Tomorrow's Parties, natch.

By Blurt Staff

In 1999 Belle & Sebastian curated The Bowlie Weekender, the event that became All Tomorrow's Parties, and this December they will return to headline and curate Bowlie 2. It's designed to cap a yearlong celebration of "10 Years of ATP".

The UK festival weekend will be held December 10-12 at Butlins Holiday Centre, Minehead featuring around 40 bands picked by Belle & Sebastian. The first exciting set of line-up additions will be confirmed on Monday at the general on-sale.

This will be the second of two festival weekends from ATP this December. The curators for the first weekend (Dec. 3-5) will be announced on April 9. Plans are also on to repeat last year's In Between Days event, which runs at Butlins between the two weekend festivals and features "intimate performances from a range of bands". Details of In Between Days will also be announced on April 9.

Artists picked by Belle & Sebastian will be announced soon. Keep checking the ATP Bowlie page for updates, and you can also get ticketing info. There's already a limited pre-sale going on now.

Album and tour to feature Buddy Miller, Darrell Scott and others.

By Fred Mills

Robert Plant, no stranger to collaborations with some of the best musicians on the planet - there was that Raising Sand album and tour with Alison Krauss back in 2006-07, and before that some guys named Page, Jones and Bonham -has announced he's recording and will be touring this summer with some real heavy hitters: guitarist/producer Buddy Miller, singer Patty Griffin, multiinstrumentalist Darrell Scott, bassist Byron House and drummer Marco Giovino.

Rounder will reportedly release the album in late summer (there's no title yet), but the tour kicks off July 13 in Memphis and runs through the end of the month to conclude July 31 in Miami. Dates below.

(The interesting part? He's calling the group Robert Plant & the Band Of Joy - which of course is the name of the band he fronted in the mid ‘60s prior to joining Led Zeppelin. Even more interesting is that two of his former bandmates reformed Band of Joy in the late ‘70s and recorded a couple of albums before splitting up again. Check out the BoJ Wikipedia page for full details.)

In a statement posted to Plant's website, the singer observed, of the recording sessions, "It's been a blast working on these new songs...and I'm enjoying such creativity and vitality. It's been a remarkable change of direction for all of us and as a group we all seem to have developed a new groove."

July Tour Dates:

13 - Memphis, Tenn. @ The Orpheum Theater
15 - Little Rock, Ark. @ Robinson Center Music Hall
16 - Tulsa, Okla. @ Brady Theater
18 - Albuquerque, N.M. @ Sandia Casion Amphitheater
20 - Phoenix, Ariz. @ Dodge Theater
21 - Tuscon, Ariz. @ Anselmo Valencia Amphitheater
23 - Dallas, Texas @ Meyerson Symphony Hall
24 - Houston, Texas @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion
26 - Austin, Texas @ Stubbs Waller Creek Amphitheater
28 - Mobile, Ala. @ The Saenger Theatre
30 - Clearwater, Fla. @ Ruth Eckerd Hall
31 - Miami, Fla. @ Bayfront Park Amphitheater

"Spirit-channeling" meets "messed up country, disco and dope-hop" - but of course!

By Fred Mills

Psychedelic pharmacist (that's "rock musician" in layman's terms) Brother JT has just published a book called Orange Journal, which he characterizes as "automatic writing and drawing." We're pretty big fans of JT here at BLURT and profiled him back in October of 2008 - you can read the story and interview here.

The description of the project, at his official website, where you order it directly, reads thusly:

"A 130-plus page, 8.5X11, glossy, full-color, spiral bound extravaganza. Started as lyric workbook, became spirit-channeling journal of automatic writing/drawing/collage weirdness. Includes Brother JT's latest solo effort, Any Stort In A Porm, which takes several songs' lyrics directly from the book. The hazy overall feel of the recording dovetails nicely with the freeform nature of the book. Musically, it's probably closest in spirit to 2007's Third Ear Candy, with drum machine, synth, and songcraft taking precedent over wah-wah noise and singing in tongues, but forays into equally messed-up country, disco, and dope-hop make it a fairly unique entry in [his] catalog. Numbered edition of 100."

Whew - that ain't many copies. Better order quick. Here's a sample page, plus the sleeve art to the CD:

Adds J, of Orange Journal, "I started it as a lyric workbook, "but before long I felt as if there were 'personalities' that wanted to have their say. In a way, it's more of a collaboration than anything, if only with my own subconcious."

Meanwhile, JT also recently found time to put together a 70-minute CD compilation of his early band The Original Sins. Titled Skeletons in the Garage Vol.2, it hearkens back to 1988 demo sessions while the group was planning out their second album The Hardest Way. The album, we are advised, "collects those rough gems, as well as more familiar Sins songs, all commited to tape with a barn-burning rawness often missing from 'official' recordings."

Sounds right up our alley, Bruh!
 

Tribute concert also scheduled for May 15 in Overton Park in Memphis.

By Fred Mills

Tuesday from 5 to 8pm in Memphis a memorial serviced dubbed "a remembrance" will be held for Alex Chilton, who passed away March 17, apparently from a heart attack. It's being arranged by Chilton's widow, Laura, and his sister, Cecelia Chilton and will take place at Minglewood Hall (1555 Madison). It will be open to the public.

News reports about the event quote Cecelia Chilton as saying, "We decided we didn't really want to close the service. It's really going to be more of a gathering and an open house, nothing really formal, and no live music." Adding that people are welcome to share photos and stories of Chilton, she said, "I would like to encourage people to write down their 'Alex tales.' We probably won't read them all aloud, but we'll make them available for others to read, and for Laura to keep."

Chilton's family is also suggesting that in lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Chilton's name to the New Orleans Musicians Clinic: www.neworleansmusiciansclinic.org, or 1525 Louisiana Ave., New Orleans, La. 70115; checks payable to New Orleans Musicians' Assistance FDN.

***

Meanwhile, Chilton's surviving Big Star bandmates have marked May 15 for a tribute concert in honor of the musician. (That was originally the date of a Big Star concert.) It's to be held at 7pm at the Levitt Shell in Memphis' Overton Park: general admission tickets $20, VIP tickets $65 - www.levittshell.org or 1-(888)-718-4253.

They show will feature Jody Stephens, Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow, plus special guests tba. It comes on the heels of the March 20 Chilton tribute show in Austin where assorted guitarists and vocalists performed Big Star songs with the trio. (Read the firsthand BLURT account here.)

***

Also at BLURT: a candid (though heartfelt) remembrance of Chilton penned by Barbara Mitchell, who worked with Chilton and Big Star from 2000-2005.

"A stream of conscious wallop of redneck beat poetry": The Truckers make high art on their Cooley-centric special single, available only at indie record shops for Record Store Day, April 17. Jeezus, look at that sleeve.

By Andy Tennille

April is already a month chock-full of holidays, what with April Fools Day kicking off the month, MerleFest and JazzFest winding it down and that Sunday in between when that bunny shits chocolate eggs on everyone's front lawn.

In the midst of all that revelry, vinyl geeks and rock stars will unite on April 17 for Record Store Day, the annual celebration in support of record stores around the world. Check here to see what some of your favorite artists are saying about Record Store Day, and here to see if your local shop is participating.

Drive-By Truckers are ardent supporters of record stores worldwide, so it would make sense - what with their new album, The Big To-Do, issued a couple of weeks ago - that the Athens, GA rockers might have something special up their sleeve for this year's festivities.

So what's it gonna be - a free acoustic performance at Schoolkids in Athens? Signing copies of their new album at Amoeba in San Francisco? A special screening of "The Secret to A Happy Ending," a documentary about the band being released this spring?

 How about the much-anticipated solo debut of The Stroker Ace, aka co-founding guitarist Mike Cooley!

"Coming soon," Cooley told BLURT in a recent sit down. "It's done."

Though at the time tight-lipped on the details, Cooley said the band will be issuing the special release on April 17 in time for Record Store Day. "It's not an album, it's not a full-length record. It's not even an EP," he added. "There's no way I can describe it. You'll think I'm fucking with you if I start describing it. You'll just have to see. The only thing I'll tell you is this - it's high art."

"It's definitely that," confirmed Truckers frontman Patterson Hood with a laugh. "It's so high art that John Neff plays the sitar."

True their word, the news arrived this weekend of the Truckers' special Record Store Day release, pictured above. Wow. That's some feather boa, Cooley. Hood sent out a missive to fans explaining the project:

From Patterson Hood:

We are proud to be a part of this year's Record Store Day. Like the Bald Eagle and Healthcare Reform we almost let it get away before pu