Passing of digital mash notes erupts on Twitter. Here we are now, entertain us.

By Blurt Staff

It's almost as great a headline as "Beautiful Lingerie Model Makes Naked World Cup Pledge"! The ever-entertaining Huffington Post is weighing in on the latest and greatest girl-on-girl action - this time, tossing Nirvana widow (and Hole frontwoman) Courtney Love onto the mat with failed Presidential candidate John McCain's stacked daughter Meghan McCain. Watch that wide stance, Courtney - you're dealing with a G.O.P.-ite, after all.

In a report titled "Meghan McCain & Courtney Love Love Each Other" yesterday, the HuffPost detailed the blonde twosome's budding affair via Twitter which unfolded on the internet on Monday:

"I forgot how much I love Courtney Love until I watched her Vh1 Behind The Music, I totally used to put sparkles in my hair like her circa 98," Meghan tweeted.

Courtney retweeted that tweet and responded, "@McCainBlogette xoxoxoxo."

Meghan wrote back, "@CourtneyLoveUK I love twitter! :-) Big fan Courtney, you're Celebrity Skin album was the soundtrack to my teenage years! xoxoxo"

Courtney retweeted again and wrote, "I love her @McCainBlogette rocks! xoxoxo"

Meghan continued: "@CourtneyLoveUK You are truly a rock an roll icon. Your music really has meant a lot to me, especially growing up! Xoxo"

Whew. Now there's some celebrity skin for ya. There's something just right about a Republican blogger and an ex-junkie rocker passing mash notes back and forth, eh? Perhaps McCain spotted Love's nude Facebook pics and just couldn't help herself.

And it hits the web immediately after. Listen to it, below.

By Fred Mills

Subscribers to U2.com received a surprise gift in their email inboxes yesterday: a link to an exclusive non-album track. Titled "Soon," the short (two minutes), somewhat ethereal, gospel-flavored tune (which is perilously New Age-y in places, but boasts a decent percussion line and an intriguing violin motif) previously surfaced on the 7-inch single tht comes with the Super Deluxe Box Set of the recently issued DVD U2360 At The Rose Bowl (price from U2.com: $112.95). Some may also know the song by its earlier name, "Kingdom (Songs of Ascent)."

According to U2.com: "For two days only, take a listen to 'Soon', a track you may be familiar with if you saw the band on the 360° dates last year. It was the song playing as they arrived on stage. We're streaming it exclusively for Subscribers this week."

Worth noting is that there are myriad other audio and video goodies available for subscribers at U2.com. It's essentially a paid subscription site, however, so if you sign up for the free tier you'll miss out on a lot of the content. Sub sites tend to ebb and flow in terms of popularity (anybody remember that debacle involving the Prince pay site several years ago?) and credibility (often, they tout access to the best concert tickets only to have subscribers learn that the scalpers were the ones snagging ‘em), so it's clearly a matter of how devoted (or obsessed) you are as a fan of any given artist.

Anyhow, "Soon" is all over the web already - such as on YouTube, below, in two versions - so much of these points are moot.

Pre-emptive move comes after internet piracy kicks in, natch. To take on the world would indeed be something, lads.

By Fred Mills

Following news that the forthcoming Wavves album, King of the Beach, had been pushed up by the band's label Fat Possum (the record leaked to the internet weeks ago) and is now being released to iTunes today (July 1), the band has also decided to stream the record in its entirety at their Fat Possum artist page. Check out those Beach Boys harmonies!

It will subsequently arrived in stores as a physical CD (remember those?) on Aug. 3, which was the original release date for all formats. A US tour follows - see dates below.

Tracklisting:

1 King of the Beach
2 Super Soaker
3 Idiot
4 When Will You Come?
5 Post Acid
6 Take on the World
7 Baseball Cards
8 Convertible Balloon
9 Green Eyes
10 Mickey Mouse
11 Linus Spacehead
12 Baby Say Goodbye

Tour Dates:

7-15 Cologne, Germany - Sonic Ballroom
7-16 Berlin, Germany - White Trash
7-17 Münster, Germany - Gleis 22
7-18 Hamburg, Germany - Astratube
7-20 Ravenna, Italy - Beach Mini Festival
7-21 Paris, France - Fleche d'Or
7-23 London, England - Cargo
7-24 London, England - 1234 Festival
7-25 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
7-26 Leipzig, Germany - Sweat Club Leipzig
7-28 Copenhagen, Denmark - The Gun Club
7-29 Emmaboda, Sweden - Emmaboda Festival
7-31 Trondeim, Norway - Brukbar
8-06 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
8-07 Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza
8-12 San Diego, CA - Museum of Contemporary Art
8-13 Pomona, CA - The Glass House
8-14 Portland, OR - Berbati's Pan
8-16 Santa Barbara, CA - Soho
8-17 Santa Cruz, CA - Crepe Place
8-18 San Francisco, CA - Rickshaw Stop
8-25 Seattle, WA - Neumos
8-26 Vancouver, British Columbia - Biltmore
8-27 Victoria, British Columbia - Sugar
8-30 Sacramento, CA - Sol Collective
8-31 Visalia, CA - Howie and Sons Pizza

They look like a bunch of lost extras from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome: Australian band of "new traditionalist" indie rockers sets the Glasslands Gallery ears alight one fine night last week (June 25) in Brooklyn.

By Zachary Herrmann

Years from now, if and when Nuggets releases as box set detailing the new psychedelia wave of the Aughts, Tame Impala will probably stick out like a sore thumb. Not necessarily because the Australian quartet (on record, just a trio; they add a bassist for touring) is the best offering of shaggy music for shaggy people, though they are damn good live and in the studio.

What sets the group apart from the Animal Collectives,  Of Montreals and Neon Indians of the world is that at heart, Tame Impala is a group of traditionalists. Their debut LP stems from Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive" and vocally, Innerspeaker lead singer Kevin Parker is almost an exact mix between John Lennon and George Harrison, though Tame Impala very much has its own thing going on.

If you really had to group them with any one band, Dungen seems like the closest thing to a contemporary kindred spirit. Tame Impala gets a little more inventive in their arrangements. Ironically, it's when they get a little too inventive that the band runs into trouble.

By far the weakest trick in Tame Impala's back pocket is the almost standard indie rock trope, synths ‘n' loops and the like. And at Glasslands in Brooklyn last Friday, the application of such devices was really the group's only false note. Because it just doesn't fit.

Tame Impala is straight up stoner rock at its best, so it seems futile for the band to pretend to be anything else. No one wants to be limited, but guys please, Brooklyn has enough dime store Brian Wilsons to go around already.

The pop hooks are definitely there ("Desire Be, Desire Go" especially), but Tame Impala don't belong in the Pet Sounds camp of indie rock. As if it wasn't evident from their appearance - drummer Jay Watson and bass player Dominic Simper went shirtless, everyone played barefoot - these guys run a looser ship. They look like a bunch of lost extras from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and play like they came from "the before time".

Unlike so many of their contemporaries, Tame Impala likes to jam (gasp!). The guitar interplay between Parker and Nick Allbrook is melodic and never over-bearing - both men are very capable lead guitarists, though more times than not, the songs call for more rhythm, or groove, if you will. Both men know when to back off and when to really lay it on.

A mere few feet from the stage (Glasslands is a sweaty little hipster cubby hole, it's hard to be far from the action), it was all very face-melting.  Especially on the tail end of the hour-long set, "Solitude is Bliss" and the final "Half Full Glass of Wine" had the crowd in full sway, which in a Friday night summer sweat trap, is about as much as you can hope for.

"You guys are fucking famous for living in this humidity", Watson said before the band launched into the instrumental "Jeremy's Storm" (a.k.a. "Island Walking"). Vertigo-induced synth-crackling aside, the fierce jam was one of the set's highlights, although in terms of sound and energy, everything was in place from the outset.

As performers and songwriters, Tame Impala is a band confident beyond its years. The lyrics lean toward hippie-dippie introspection, but Parker and Co. take themselves just seriously enough: "There's a party in my head/ And no one is invited", Parker sang on "Solitude is Bliss", which could very well become a band mantra for years to come.

For the record, the contact high was plenty good below the stage, thanks.

Set list:

Intro/ It Is Not Meant To Be

Desire Be, Desire Go

Why Don't You Make Up Your Mind?

Alter Ego

Lucidity

Island Walking/ Jeremy's Storm

Sundown Sydrome

Solitude is Bliss/ Skeleton Tiger/ Half Full Glass of Wine

Blurt shutterbug Scott Dudelson attended the sprawling electronica/hip-hop fest Electric Daisy Carnival  last weekend, June 25 and 26, in Los Angeles. He was willing to share his photos with us, below. You can also check out his photoblog for BLURT here.

(above and below) Festival Festivities Galore!

12th Planet

Above & Beyond

Afrojack

Bart B More

Basement Jaxx

Christopher Lawrence

Chuckie

Congo Rock

Daedelus

Dirtyphonics

Evol Intent

Felix Cartel

Groove Armada

Huoratron

Infected Mushroom

James Zabiela

Lil Jon

Logistics

More Festival Festivities Galore!

 Moby

Rivers Cuomo of Weezer

Roger Sanchez

Sasha

Spank Rock

Steve Aoki

Subflo

Travis Barker of Blink-182

Wolfgang Gartner

DJ Z-Trip

UPDATE FROM NEWS ITEM EARLIER THIS WEEK (copied below): Robert Pollard has confirmed it is indeed the lineup mentioned below that will be playing: him, Tobin Sprout and Mitch Mitchell [guitars], Kevin Fennel [drums] and Greg Demos [bass]. Speaking to Spinner.com he added, "We'll be performing songs from the albums 'Propeller,' 'Bee Thousand,' 'Alien Lanes' and 'Under the Bushes Under the Stars' as well as from singles and EPs from that era."

Said to be the "classic era" lineup from the Matador salad years.

By Fred Mills

Matador Records dropped a bomb yesterday at the label's Matablog:

Matador will be celebrating the label's 21st anniversary this October and this much we can finally confirm : there will be 3 nights of shows starting Friday October 1, and concluding Sunday October 3 at the Palms Casino & Resort In Las Vegas, NV. We'll be dropping further hints about the amazing lineup in the days ahead, but a final announcement and information about how to purchase tickets will be made here at the trusty Matablog on July 5.

Fair enough. As you can see from the poster (below), it's a killer lineup, what with Pavement headlining, plus Sonic Youth, Belle & Sebastian, Spoon, Cat Power, Yo La Tengo, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the New Pornographers, Girls, Superchunk, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, Guitar Wolf, Fucked Up, Shearwater, Harlem, Cold Cave, Kurt Vile, Jeffrey Joe Jenson and more.

But what's really getting the indie world all in a dither is the Guided By Voices notation - specifically the "classic '93 to '96 lineup." That would roughly mean the Robert Pollard, guitarists Tobin Sprout and Mitch Mitchell, bassist Greg Demos and drummer Kevin Fennell incarnation and the Bee Thousand - Under the Bushes Under the Stars era, prior to the arrival of John Petkovic and Doug Gillard (it's unlikely those two would be getting back with Pollard anytime soon).

And Pollard himself posted on his website the photo at the top of the page along - just 4 of the 5, but perhaps not tellingly so - with a notation that the classic lineup would be getting back together without specifically naming names.

So - start booking those Vegas plane tickets, folks. We already know of at least one west-of-the-Missisissippi-based BLURT editor who's making his reservations right now...

Yet one more vestige of this year's troubled concert economy.

By Fred Mills

It's no secret the concert biz is having a tough time this summer, with promoters to big events having trouble moving tickets to such an extent that they're offering all sorts of deals ranging from 2-for-1 to blanket discounts for an entire season of events at key venues.

The estrogen-charged Lilith Fair tour, which organizers Terry McBride and Sarah McLachlan decided to revive this year, has had a particularly troubled trajectory, starting when, faced with sluggish ticket sales, they decided to essentially cut prices - which perhaps had the desired effect of bringing some people to the checkout queue that hadn't yet committed, but had the undesired effect of alienating fans who'd ponied up at the outset for full-price tickets. Fan message boards lit up, with McLachlan in particularly taking heat from that latter group of concertgoers, and she didn't do a very good job of crisis management either in the way she communicated what she and the tour were trying to do, further compounding the problem with the result being fans accusing her of outright arrogance.

Unrelatedly, but unfortunately, some of the artists originally booked for the tour also backed out (among them, superstar Norah Jones, and the Go-Go's), which further angered those fans who'd purchased tickets based on the specific roster of performers, which was to change on a city-by-city basis. Definitely relatedly, and also unfortunately, was the cancellation this week of two Lilith shows, Phoenix (July 8) and Nashville (Aug. 7) shortly after the June 27 tour opener in Calgary.

The chickens came home to roost yesterday when it was announced that ten of the scheduled Lilith concerts were being cancelled due to poor ticket sales. According to a report at Billboard.com, the following shows are now giving refunds:

Usana Amphitheater in Salt Lake City (July 12); Bell Centre in Montreal (July 23); Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion in Raleigh, N.C. (Aug. 4); Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Charlotte, N.C. (Aug. 6); Cruzan Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Aug. 10); 1-800 Ask-Gary Amphitheatre in Tampa, Fla. (Aug. 11); Verizon Wireless Center Birmingham in Pelham, Ala. (Aug. 12); Austin, Texas (Aug. 14); the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in the Woodlands, Texas (Aug. 15); and Superpages.com Center in Dallas (Aug. 16).

Organizer McBride said, in a carefully worded statement that still couldn't disguise the sting of imminent defeat:

 "We are in the midst of one of the most challenging summer concert seasons with many tours being cancelled outright. Everyone involved with the tour would like to apologize to the fans and artists scheduled to play in these markets, and express appreciation for all the support for the festival's return. Lilith remains the only tour of its kind, and we are confident that fans will be amazed by what each date has to offer."

Details: LilithFair.com.

Having weathered the departure of founding member Carlos Dengler and added new players Pajo and Curtis, the lads make a triumphant return to the stage for their first performance in "forever" on June 21 at Rochester's Water Street Music Hall.

Text & Photos by April S. Engram

A most sought after event occurred in lil' ol' Rochester, NY mid-June; the ever popular, oft-criticized-of-mimicry-by-naysayers, yet highly-laudable- in-their-own- right, Interpol played their first show in four years. The New York band has yet to release their eponymous fourth album - due in September - but the anticipation for the record is generating quite a stir. And while Interpol fans anxiously wait its arrival those in Rochester were treated to a revival show of sorts, reminding us why Interpol is so damn good.

With founding bassist Carlos Dengler departing after recording Interpol, a moment of sorrow loomed in the air. Yet talented music veterans David Pajo (Slint, Tortoise, Zwan), bass, and Brandon Curtis (Secret Machines), keyboards, join the lads on tour and they sounded flawless on that stage: all is right again.

The band wasted no time once onstage; Paul Banks waved to the audience and they all leapt into a new song as the crowd began jumping to the rhythms - then everyone roared once Pajo began the bass lines to "Evil" and gleefully sang with Banks.

And though Banks did note that this was the bands first performance "in forever," they sounded flawlessly well-practiced. Guitarist Daniel Kessler was entertaining as ever, the only highly animated member of the band, with his dancing, smiles and sheer exhilaration proving infectious. And as drummer Sam Fogarino pounded away on his set the audience danced, jumped and threw their hands in the air the entire night. Nothing could dampen the amorous mood on the fans this night, the rabid audience loving every minute of the performance.

Even when Banks took an extra moment to adjust his guitar someone shouted, "I love you, Interpol," he quietly returned, "I love you, too" to which the audience clapped even louder. The extra dose of "love" in the room did not go unnoticed by Banks. About halfway into their set Banks thanked the audience for their "warm welcome" before continuing.

With very little talking between songs, the evening did end sooner than hoped and the audience was not ready for the music to end. They fiercely cheered, clapped and roared loudly until Interpol returned for their three song encore. At the conclusion Banks put down his guitar once again, waved and blew a kiss to the crowd, then all members of the band lined up at the front of the stage and took a traditional bow. After a night of sweaty dancing, exceptional music and ecstatic singing, the fans rewarded Interpol with yet more vocal "love."

Setlist:

Success
Evil
Say Hello to the Angels
Summer Well
Narc
Lights
NYC
Mammoth
PDA
Take You on a Cruise
Slow Hands
Obstacle 1
(Encore)
Hands Away
C'mere
Not Even Jail

An expanded reissue of the band's sophomore effort from 1984 reveals it to be as timeless as masterpiece as the previous The Days of Wine and Roses. In stores now, courtesy Water/Runt.

By Fred Mills

By1984 the Amerindie underground had mostly lost its innocence, swapping many of its occasionally quaint notions of DIY for a more professional approach to music making (owning decent gear, recording in actual studios, networking among club owners and college radio deejay, etc.) to reflect the growing realization that, hey, we might actually be able to earn a living at this. The term "careerist" no longer carried the same whiff of disdain it might have a few years earlier, and it wasn't necessarily a crime to try to land a deal with a major label, either. The majors still controlled the means of distribution and promotion, so while signing with a major didn't automatically guarantee you'd wheel into town for a gig and find plenty copies of your new album in local stores, at this point in time it was still your best option, and there wasn't a band on the planet that wanted to not sell records. If nothing else, it was a matter of pride.

Arriving stage left: the Dream Syndicate. Two years earlier the Los Angeles foursome had issued their epochal long-playing debut The Days of Wine and Roses, a record that not only pushed the group to the forefront of the aforementioned underground in terms of dues-paying, punk-rocking credibility (that it came out on L.A. punk label Slash is no trivial factoid), but also brought a measure of cerebral musicality to the dialogue that would ultimately ensure the album "timeless" status. To this day, TDOWAR pops up on music critics' best-of lists, and when Rhino reissued it in expanded format a few years ago, the critical hosannas were pretty much unanimous in locating it alongside classic screeds by the likes of Television, Patti Smith, Pere Ubu, R.E.M., Gang of Four and others from the punk and post-punk era.

As the saying goes, the band had built up a reserve of rock ‘n' roll capital: now it was time to spend some of it. The Dream Syndicate - comprising founding members Steve Wynn (guitars, vocals and the chief songwriter), Karl Precoda (guitars) and Dennis Duck (drums), plus bassist Dave Provost on loan from fellow L.A. psych/"Paisley Underground" outfit The Droogs, who'd been drafted to replace original bassist Kendra Smith - signed with A&M Records and hooked up with noted producer Sandy Pearlman, who while having made his reputation back in the dinosaur-rock era by helming Blue Oyster Cult's early ‘70s releases had also produced proto-punks the Dictators and honest-to-god-punks The Clash. It seemed like a good marriage of what's suggested in the first paragraph above: taking advantage of a decent-sized budget in a decently-outfitted studio and tapping the experience of an industry veteran while not completely jettisoning those DIY values that helped get the band to this point in the first place. The album was to be called Medicine Show, after one of Wynn's greatest compositions, and it was supposed to be the record that would put them on the aboveground radar.

As Rolling Stone's David Fricke relates in his copious liner notes to a new, expanded/remastered Medicine Show, the recording regimen, spread across five months and three San Francisco studios, "was hell." But it produced a genuine masterpiece, one which didn't necessarily eclipse its 1982 predecessor but rather stood wholly apart as an entirely reinvented Dream Syndicate - an album that, according to Fricke, "confused underground purists... [but is] actually more seditious in its charge and hazy morality... Pearlman drilling down to the emotional fury inside Wynn's songs and the rock & roll classicism in [the group's] garage-band fundamentals."

Listened to now, track-by-track, Medicine Show has, if anything, grown stronger since its original release. It's long been my favorite Dream Syndicate album, a fact I'm hard-pressed to pinpoint exactly why. There's a balancing act going on between the old-school rock of my youth and the punk-powered music that galvanized me as a young adult, and there's a sonic ambiance that alternately baffles and delights me; the record's like a foreign film that I don't fully comprehend but which leaves me deeply haunted for weeks after seeing it. It's also a bit of a period piece thanks to Pearlman's reverb-heavy production - but that's not to mean it's dated in the same sense as, say, a Duran Duran album is. (Will Rigby of The dB's once told me, in response to an observation I made about the ‘80s-specific sound their Like This sported, how they were actually eager to take advantage of the most recent studio technology, with digital reverb in particular being one of up-to-date studios' popular new toys.) The production actually lends a striking measure of clarity to the proceedings, an overt crispness that, combined with a fat, booming bottom end and precisely positioned vocal tracks (both Wynn's echo-lined leads and the massed-choir style backing vocals), creates a credibly arena-worthy vibe. Sorry, all you underground purists out there.

The album also reveals the sound of a band pushed in the studio by their producer to excel and to play outside their collective comfort zone. The Duck-Provost rhythm section is taut and muscular, while session keyboardist Tom Zvoncheck brings a crucial array of new textures contributing to that big-venue feel. (Also guesting, on vocals, are Sid Griffin and Stephen McCarthy from the Long Ryders, Gavin Blair from True West and Paul Mandl.) Lead guitarist Precoda was never better than on Medicine Show, bringing an arsenal's worth of effects and fretboard flourishes that might've had those purists going "Oh my!" at the time but, with hindsight, now come across as powered by a deeply felt jazz and psychedelia sensibility. And with Wynn operating as an instrumental foil to Precoda, chopping and slashing and unleashing terse, brittle bursts, the album's guitar sound essentially finishes the job that Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd set out to accomplish years earlier in Television.

Wynn's songwriting hits an early peak on Medicine Show, too, serving up emotional confessions ("Still Holding On To You," "Daddy's Girl") alongside stream-of-consciousness Beats swagger (the lengthy, nine-minute "John Coltrane Stereo Blues" - the most Television-like, dueling-guitars tune on the album - which is so outrageously brash and horny that you're tempted to adopt the singer's titular come-on of "I got some John Coltrane on the stereo, baby, make it feel all right/ I got some fine wine in the freezer, mama, I know what you like" and try it out yourself on some sweet young thing down at the bar.

The album also delves deeply into the noirish character sketches that would continue to mark Wynn as a songwriter over the course of his long career (which has included, not surprisingly, a friendship and collaboration with hardboiled novelist George Pelecanos). The song "Burn," musically a blend of the edgy and the seductive (it suggests a cross between Patti Smith's "Because the Night" and Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper"), charts the darkness men find hidden within their souls - "just a few things that can't be told," sings Wynn - against a backdrop of short-story vignettes, one of them involving a guy who burned down a field one night and then, upon being questioned by the cops about his motivation, simply replied, "Guess I just don't know." Another track, the piano-fueled, Springsteenesque "Merrittville," finds the protagonist having to contend with the sorry fruits of his even sorrier labors, pursued by thugs and surrounded by shady types who may or may not have his worst interests at heart. And the bluesy, hypnotically pulsing "The Medicine Show" is even darker, lined with a bone-chilling, visceral malevolence so profound it screams to be turned into a David Fincher thriller:

"I got a Page One story buried in my yard

Got a troubled mind

Goin' down to the medicine show

If I've gotta choose between doin' penance

And doin' time

Goin' down to the medicine show...

It's hard to be a reasonable man

When you stop findin' reasons for everything

But tonight I'll get some answers, baby

Aw, at the medicine show."

Jeezus. Who is this guy? What's he hiding - who, or what, exactly, does he have buried? What's going on down at this medicine show he's talking about - drugs? sex? religion? Maybe we don't need to know.

That song, and the album as a whole, will leave you questioning yourself and your own motives. It's like a novel set to music - a white-knuckled page-turner at that, one which reveals additional layers and nuances, new pretexts and subtexts, with each successive read (listen).

The Medicine Show reissue arrives courtesy Water Records (part of Runt Distribution, specializing in key archival releases), and it corrects a long-standing sin of omission by putting the album back in the bins - A&M reissued on CD in 1989, but it's been out of print for ages - and plugging a glaring hole in the Dream Syndicate's back catalog. In addition to the 12 page booklet with Fricke's notes, it also includes as bonus material the five-song mini-album This Is Not the New Dream Syndicate Album... Live! that A&M issued in late '84 to further stoke the fires for the band, who had been making modest commercial inroads touring the U.S. (including a stint opening for R.E.M.).

Recorded at Chicago's Aragon Ballroom on July 7 for a live broadcast over WXRT-FM,  TINTNDSAL! features a proud version of Wine and Roses track "Tell Me When It's Over" (it opens with a delightfully faux-pompous piano intro courtesy Zvoncheck, who had joined the touring lineup), but the focus, for obvious marketing reasons, is on four key Medicine Show numbers, most notably the title track and "John Coltrane Stereo Blues." Both tunes are heard here en route to earning longterm tenure in Wynn setlists: "The Medicine Show" is all slash ‘n' burn, Wynn's unadorned-by-studio-effects voice taking on a trembly urgency that underscores the song's already established sense of creeping, heart-of-darkness dread. And "JCSB," with its heady swirls of organ, searing Wynn-Precoda guitars and relentless rhythm section throb (Mark Walton had recently replaced Provost as permanent bassist, and he and Duck are clearly simpatico), firmly establishes itself as a concert tour-de-force, equal parts hard-psych bop and Television-styled outré punk. As a live document of the band circa mid '84, the mini-album is absolutely essential. (The 1989 A&M CD for Medicine Show also contained several of the live tracks, but not all of them due to length restrictions for CDs at that point in time.)

"Medicine Show sounds unlike any of the other [albums]," writes Wynn, in his addendum to the reissue's liner notes. "The record is beautiful, unattainable, right and wrong in all the best ways. Karl wanted to make a big, panoramic rock record to justify our move to a major label and the plethora of attention we had received [since] The Days of Wine and Roses. I wanted to make a ‘beautiful loser,' button-pushing, over-the-top emotional catharsis in the tradition of most of my all-time favorite records. We both got our way."

That's for sure. The record IS panoramic, massive, yet it's also a soul-purger in the most primal, essential sense. And when Wynn cites as among his favorite LPs Big Star 3^rd, Tonight's The Night and Plastic Ono Band he's not succumbing to hubris by implicitly ranking Medicine Show alongside those, but getting at what a lot of us Dream Syndicate watchers have always known for more than a quarter-century.

Now it's time for the rest of you to catch up.

[Photo Credit: Laura Levine]

Announcing the latest installment in our "Play For Today" series of video game reviews. This time out we take on LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4, Ninety-Nine Nights II (N311) and Transformers War For Cybertron.

 By Blurt Staff

Head over to BLURT blogger Aaron Burgess' "Play For Today" blog - he's just posted some action-packed (term used relatively and literally) reviews of a slew of more top-rated games. Included are his own ratings plus screenshots - like the ones below - and trailers. Game on!

LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 (above)

Ninety-Nine Nights II (N311)

Transformers War For Cybertron.

"Anthem For a Doomed Youth" comes from San Fran band's acclaimed debut album.

By Blurt Staff

We've been tracking the progress of visionary San Francisco quintet Veil Veil Vanish throughout the year, starting with the release of their full-length debut Change in the Neon Light (reviewed here at BLURT). Our man on the ground, Gil Macias, also corralled the band during the making of their first music video, for the song "Anthem For a Doomed Youth," and over the course of a couple of lengthy interviews (read them here and also here) Macias was able to get the band to really open up and delve deeply into their influences, motivations and more.

The aforementioned video is done and ready for viewing, and we're pretty happy to present it to you, below. "Anthem For a Doomed Youth" is    and the film was directed by Justin Coloma (Smashing Pumpkins, Eagles of Death Metal, Boomkat, etc.; you can learn more about him at this link). Check it out - it's daunting stuff, and mesmerizing at that.

The band is clearly going places and you can way you were at ground zero when Veil Veil Vanish's star started its ascent. More details on the band at their MySpace page.

Veil Veil Vanish: Anthem for a Doomed Youth from Veil Veil Vanish on Vimeo.

Blurt shutterbug Scott Dudelson attended the June 27 Warped Tour show in Ventura, Callifornia, and we've got a selection of his photos, below. The tour runs through August 15 and you can get full details right here. (You can also check out Dudelson's photoblog for BLURT elsewhere on our site.)

(above) GBH

3oh!3

Alesana

Alkaline Trio

Andrew WK

Angry Samoans

Bouncing Souls

Call the Cops

Confide

Emmure

Face To Face

Fear

Ivy League

Mayday Parade

Mike P

Motion City Soundtrack

Of Mice & Men

Pierce the Veil

Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band

Riverboat Gamblers

Set Your Goals

Sum 41

The Cab

Adolescents

Casualties

The Dickies

We The Kings

White Chapel

Is there anybody alive out there? Judging from the evidence presented on the  London Calling Live From Hyde Park  DVD, issued recently by Columbia, quite a few are.

By John B. Moore

Just a couple of songs into his set at London's Hyde Park last summer, Bruce Springsteen responds to a fan about 30 feet away from the stage trying to get the singer to reach out and touch him:  "Are you fucking nuts? Get me an elevator... I'm fucking 60!"

Jesus, if that's Bruce at 60, he should start selling vials of his blood online. The amount of intensity and energy Springsteen expels in the three-plus hour set is enough to put the 20-something who played the venue earlier that day into a coma.

By far still the greatest rock showman performing today, (yes, the greatest! Who would you put up against him? U2? Pearl Jam?) whether he's playing songs off of Nebraska ("Johnny 99"), covers (a brilliant take on Jimmy Cliff's "Trapped") or something from his latest record ("Outlaw Pete"), there are simply no low points in this 26 song set. Even his by now easily quotable banter ("Is there anybody really alive out there") comes off sounding as fresh as the first time he said it (decades ago?). Yes, "Born to Run" and "Glory Days" are included, but its remarkable how some of his relatively new material - songs like "The Rising" and "Radio Nowhere" fit perfectly alongside iconic songs from the late 70's and have become concert staples themselves.

There is also a great moment towards the end of the first DVD when Springsteen invites fellow Jersey native and self-identifying Bruce acolyte Brian Fallon from the band Gaslight Anthem on stage to help him sing "No Surrender." Fallon, who sounds more than a little like his idol with his own signature raspy vocals, looks like every boyhood dream is coming true at that moment.

The two disc set is capped with a couple of bonus songs: the much talked music video for "Wrecking Ball" (Giant Stadium's swan song in 2009) and a beautifully eerie version of "The River" recorded at Glastonbury that same year. Nothing can ever capture the intensity of a Springsteen show, but London Calling does a damn fine job trying to do just that.    

Winner will be unveiled in September in Toronto. Complete list of nominees below.

By Blurt Staff

Head over to the official Polaris Music Prize website and you can get details on the 2010 shortlist of candidates for the annual honor, along with a look at some of the jury members (198 music journalists and broadcasters from Canada submitted ballots) and more. As of this writing we are exactly 75 days, 12 hours and 48 minutes away from the announcement of the winner, who will net a cool $20,000 bucks.

The ceremony will be held Sept. 20 at CTV Concert Hall studios in Toronto and will feature performances by the nominees. It will be broadcast internationally on CBC Radio 3, although if you have Sirius satellite radio here in North America you'll also be able to tune in. Meanwhile, MuchMusic.com will be webcasting the event as well.

Nominee/Album/Hometown

THE BESNARD LAKES,
The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night
(Montréal, QC)

OWEN PALLETT,
Heartland
(Toronto, ON)

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE,
Forgiveness Rock Record
(Toronto, ON)

RADIO RADIO,
Belmundo Regal
(Grosse Coque, NS, Moncton, NB, Pointe-à-l'église, NS)

CARIBOU,
Swim
(Dundas, ON)

THE SADIES,
Darker Circles
(Toronto, ON)

KARKWA,
Les Chemins De Verre
(Montréal, QC)

SHAD,
TSOL
(London, ON)

DAN MANGAN,
Nice, Nice, Very Nice
(Vancouver, BC)

TEGAN AND SARA,
Sainthood
(Vancouver, BC & Montréal, QC)

The Popster's classic post-Stooges screed, abetted by James Williamson, rears its tawdry head once again. Not your standard post-rehab album, that's for sure.

By Fred Mills

2010 is shaping up to be the year of the Stooges, what with the group's first and third albums getting deluxe reissues and Raw Power-era guitarist James Williamson rejoining Iggy Pop and the gang to tour. Now comes word that Alive Naturalsound/Bomp Records will be releasing a newly remixed and remastered edition of the classic 1975-recorded/1977-released Pop/Williamson Kill City album on Oct. 19.

It boasts a stellar remix job and the tapes have been remastered, natch, and will be available on LP, CD and digital formats.

Speaking to BLURT earlier this year, Williamson was enthusiastic about the project, saying, "I finished mixing Kill City and we're going to release that this year, as well. A friend of mine is a really, really good engineer, Ed Cherney. He went in and mixed the album with my help. This guy has done records for everybody and he just made this record sound, well, like it should have sounded all along. It has finally reached its full potential and that's exciting. We're now going to remaster that and do all the artwork and Pop is going to rerelease it, probably late summer early fall."

AllMusic.com had this to say about the record: "After the Stooges broke up for good in 1974, Iggy (who was depressed, suicidal, and addicted to hard drugs) checked himself into a mental hospital to straighten out. When he emerged sober, Iggy hooked up with ex-Stooges guitarist James Williamson and began collaborating on demos. The duo tried to land a record contract on the strength of the compositions, but failed to do so. Although it's not as jaw-dropping as the releases listed above, Kill City certainly has its moments."

Well, faint praise, but still true - and the album has more than its share of memorable moments, like the Stones-esque title track, the scorching "I Got Nothin'" and the eerie "Johanna." It was previously reissued in 1992 on CD by Bomp as part of the label's "Iguana Chronicles" series but to hear it remixed/remastered will undoubtedly be a treat for fans.

Read the BLURT interview with James Williamson here.

Album due in the fall; first leg of tour starts later this month.

By Blurt Staff

Punk legends Social Distortion have announced an extensive  headlining US tour beginning October 14 through Nov 23 in support of their forthcoming, as yet untitled, new album, which is due out later this fall on Epitaph.

Touring for the first time since 2009's memorable excursion of Europe and the US, which included dates with Pearl Jam, and the band's recent jaunt to Brazil and Argentina earlier this year, Social Distortion will be performing a few select warm-up shows before hitting the main stage at this summer's Lollapalooza and Outside Lands.  Following the festival dates, the band will take a month off before returning to the stage to unveil their first new album in six years, and their seventh studio album.

Previously:  Mommy's Little Monster, Prison Bound, Social Distortion, Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell, White Light, White Heat, White Trash and Sex, Love and Rock ‘n' Roll.  The latter came out in 2004.

Currently frontman Mike Ness and crew are wrapping up recording - watch for the fall print issue of BLURT for an exclusive interview with Ness.

Tour Dates:

July 17 - Quebec City, QC - Festival D'Ete International De Quebec
July 27 - Poughkeepsie, NY - The Chance (w/Dan Sartain & The Action Design)
July 28 - Hampton Beach, NH - Casino Ballroom (w/Dan Sartain & The Action Design)
July 30 - Providence, RI - Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (w/Dan Sartain & The Action Design)
July 31 - Hartford, CT - The Webster (w/Dan Sartain & The Action Design)
Aug 1 - Sayreville, NJ - Starland Ballroom (w/Dan Sartain & The Action Design)
Aug 3 - Wantagh, NY - Mulcahy's (w/Dan Sartain & The Action Design)
Aug 4 - Lancaster, PA - Chameleon Club (w/Dan Sartain & The Action Design)
Aug 5 - Rochester, NY - Nola's BBQ (w/Dan Sartain & The Action Design)
Aug 7 - Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza
Aug 8 - Green Bay, WI - Oneida Casino (w/Dan Sartain & The Action Design)
Aug 10 - Council Bluffs, IA - Stir Cove @ Harrah's (w/Wolfmother, Dan Sartain & The Action Design)
Aug 11 - Boulder, CO - Boulder Theater (w/Dan Sartain & The Action Design)
Aug 13 - Boise, ID - Knitting Factory (w/Dan Sartain & The Action Design)
Aug 14 - Medford, OR - Medford Armory (w/Dan Sartain & The Action Design)
Aug 15 - San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands

Oct 14 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Complex (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Oct 15 - Denver, CO - The Fillmore Auditorium (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Oct 19 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Oct 21 - Detroit, MI - The Fillmore (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Oct 23 - Toronto, ON - Kool Haus (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Oct 24 - Cleveland, OH - House of Blues (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Oct 26 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Oct 28 - Clifton Park, NY - Northern Lights (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Oct 29 - Philadelphia, PA - The Electric Factory (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Oct 30 - Atlantic City, NJ - House of Blues (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Nov 1 - Boston, MA - House of Blues (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Nov 4 - New York, NY - Roseland Ballroom (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Nov 6 - Baltimore, MD - Rams Head Live! (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Nov 8 - Asheville, NC - The Orange Peel (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Nov 9 - Knoxville, TN - Valarium (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Nov 10 - Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Nov 12 - St. Petersburg, FL - Jannus Live (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Nov 13 - Miami Beach, FL - Fillmore Miami Beach (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Nov 14 - Orlando, FL - House of Blues (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Nov 16 - New Orleans, LA - House of Blues (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Nov 18 - Austin, TX - Stubb's Waller Creek Amphitheatre (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Nov 19 - Houston, TX - House of Blues (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Nov 20 - Dallas, TX - House of Blues (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Nov 22 - Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)
Nov 23 - Tempe, AZ - Marquee Theatre (w/Lucero & Frank Turner)

"Paper Planes" a guaranteed fan-pleaser; band, meanwhile, does it with love ‘n' swagger.

By Blurt Staff

Street Sweeper Social Club - Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine/Audioslave/The Nightwatchman) and Boots Riley (The Coup) - return with The Ghetto Blaster EP, out August 10th on SSSC/ILG. It's the follow-up to their 2009 cself-titled debut. The lead single off the seven song EP is a cover of M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" - you can check out a live video clip of it below.

Tom Morello on the new EP: "On The Ghetto Blaster EP we were shooting for a combo of the first Clash record and the Ohio Players greatest hits, interwoven with tractor trailer size riffs of course. This record definitely has more of a 'band' feel than the first, and Boots' lyrics and delivery have never been sharper."

Boots Riley: "This EP is much more raw, rough, and rugged. We did it in a little studio and got a big sound. We had overflowing, musically violent and beautiful energy in that room - five dudes sweating and bouncing off the walls, and we captured it in the recording. Because of us touring together for the past year, it's a more organic meld of our styles and personalities. The music Tom wrote for this EP will make you go nuts. The covers we did are done with love and our own swagger. I like it better than our last album."

SSSC will be out on the road in support of the EP playing select Warped Tour dates and all of the Rock The Bells Festival in August with Snoop Dogg, A Tribe Called Quest & Wu-Tang Clan among others.

Track listing:

1. Ghetto Blaster
2. Everythang
3. Paper Planes (M.I.A. cover)
4. The New Fuck You
5. Scars
6. Mama Said Knock You Out (LL Cool J cover)
7. Promenade (Guitar Fury Remix)

Tour Dates:
8/10 - Vans Warped Tour - San Diego, CA    
8/21 - Rock The Bells  - NOS Events Center - Los Angeles, CA
8/22 - Rock The Bells - Shoreline Amphitheatre - San Francisco, CA
8/28 - Rock The Bells - Governors Island - New York, NY
8/29 - Rock The Bells - Merriweather Post Pavilion - Washington, DC

10/29-31 - Voodoo Festival - New Orleans, LA

[Photo Credit: Romy Suskin]

"Raw and unvarnished" White on a stripped down set of self-recorded material.

By Blurt Staff

The legendary baritone-throated Swamp Fox - Tony Joe White - gets raw and real on his new record, 'The Shine,' set for September 28 release on his own Swamp Records. It is a stripped-down collection of ten new White-penned songs markedly different from his last record, the critically acclaimed 'Uncovered,' which featured a slew of special guests including Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Michael McDonald and J.J. Cale.

The Shine is all about White. He produced and recorded the album himself in his home studio outside Nashville. From the first whispery notes of "Season Man," in which he recounts an ominous dream, to the record's closing track, "A Place to Watch the Sun Go Down," 'The Shine' is "an album of understated beauty and beguiling mystery," we are advised.

For those late to the game: Over the past five decades, White has scored major hits of his own, and seen some immortal artists turn his compositions into signature songs--from Elvis Presley's version of "Polk Salad Annie" to Ray Charles' take on "Rainy Night In Georgia." He has also written for Tina Turner, Joe Cocker, Kenny Chesney, Hank Williams Jr. and Dusty Springfield to name but a few.

White will tour extensively this fall (dates tba), and take it from BLURT: we've seen him several times, and you definitely do not want to miss the Americana, swamp-rock godfather.

Tracklisting:

Season Man
Ain't Doing Nobody No Good
Paintings on the Mountain
Tell Me Why
All
Long Way From the River
Strange Night
Something to Soften the Blow
Roll Train Roll
A Place to Watch the Sun Go Down

In the recently published Lips Unsealed the Go-Go's frontgal finds herself snowbound in her ivory tower and, despite the inevitable rehab scenes, never seems to come down out of that tower. Hey, why no mention of that Bugle Boy commercial the band did in the '90s where they stop "We Got The Beat" and ask the dude in seat 25G if that's what he's wearing?

By Mike Shanley

After the Go-Go's got their first taste of fame with the release of Beauty and the Beat, Belinda Carlisle realized she couldn't go home again to the ratty Los Angeles punk scene that gave birth to her band. "My old haunts and old friends weren't that accepting; no one wanted to have anything to do with me," she recalls in her memoir Lips Unsealed (Crown Publishers). "I didn't feel like I had changed, but everyone else did."

Yet a few pages earlier, she recounts a slot opening for the Rolling Stones - a major coup for any band on an independent label, let alone an all-female one in 1981 - by tossing off a mere two paragraphs about how great it was to be able to say they played that bill, and how she didn't get to meet Mick Jagger. And a few pages after that boo-hoo about no one wanting to see her, she talks about traveling back and forth between Japan and California to be with a boyfriend, as if it were a bus trip across town. If she hadn't changed, she had no sense of appreciation for the fame she received. 

Sometimes it's hard to step back and get a good perspective on the successes and spoils of your fame. But in order to win back fans, and complete the Behind the Music story arc, it's always a good idea to beat yourself up a little, not just for the excessive drug use but for the privilege afforded by the success. In other words, a musician looks a lot more sympathetic and forgivable if they piss everything away and hit the street before they finally wise up and get clean. That never comes across in Lips Unsealed. Of course, Carlisle spends years hooked on cocaine, jeopardizing her band's initial run and numerous reunions.  But it's hard to feel complete sympathy for her when her day-to-day life with her wealthy husband and their houses in France and the U.S. are always there for her, even when she gets too whacked out to appreciate them.

Carlisle grew up in turbulent household - abandoned by her father, abused by her step-father. During high school she stumbled across the first wave of the L.A. punk scene when she and her friend Theresa Ryan became Dottie Danger and Lorna Doom, respectively, in the first lineup of the Germs. She didn't last too long with that band and formed the Go-Go's who, she brags from the get-go, were going to be "rich and famous."

Her prediction was accurate, since the band became the first all-female act to write and play an album that reached Number One on the Billboard charts. But the way she tells the story makes all the difference. The band discovers their unprecedented Number One triumph right as they're mulling over the death of John Belushi, an acquaintance and cocaine user. Suddenly the comedian's overdose doesn't matter anymore and the girls are drinking champagne. She moans about old friends ignoring her, yet Carlisle never even mentions the death of Germs singer Darby Crash (and gets his birth name wrong in his introduction). She repeats ad nauseum how she can't understand why people would want to see her perform and how terrified she is of being discovered as a poser. Not to dispute those feelings of insecurity, but they get hard to take while she lives in her ivory tower.

The self-doubt continues throughout the Go-Go's three albums and into her hugely successful solo career.  Carlisle meets her wealthy husband Morgan Mason along the way, and they move from L.A. to Southern France - with their nanny in tow, of course - when she can't stand the U.S. anymore. A year or so later - time passes in vague, unidentifiable increments in the book - they try London instead.

On top of the cost of moving, which never seems to be an issue, Carlisle had what she describes as a $300-a-day cocaine habit (not adjusted for inflation). She always seems to find the money to buy more, even when her albums flop or her husband seems ready to divorce her.

Like all rock memoirs, there is of course the happy ending. It comes after so many tales of almost getting clean, or lying and saying she's clean, that it almost reads like a story whose punchline was known from the beginning. Surprisingly, Carlisle's post-detox portion of the book has more wisdom and sounds more genuine than the narrative up to that point, which was sorely lacking in a greater perspective.

Lips Unsealed can be a fun summer read, especially at the beach. Her habit of ending stories with rhetorical questions notwithstanding ("What was I doing here? Who was I?"), Carlisle knows how to put pen to paper coherently, unlike some musicians. But sometimes she seems to miss the big picture, much like the rich and famous type of person she set out to be.

The legendary Jesus Lizard/Scratch Acid frontman unveils a new persona: artist and designer.

By Blurt Staff

David Yow makes his art exhibition debut with "SOLO: the first ever one-man exhibition of paintings, collage and digital drawings by David Yow" running Aug. 14 to Sept. 11 at DIY Gallery in Echo Park, Calif.  The opening reception for SOLO, with Yow on hand as well as a celebratory evening featuring music and drinks, is Aug. 14 from 7:00 to 11:00 pm.

The works created for this show "are rooted in Yow's personal and psychological history, and feature a broad spectrum of mediums," which range from acrylic, pencil, charcoal, crayon, hair, bugs, collage, and tar on wood, to line drawings digitally combined with photographic textures.

In addition to original works for sale, DIY is offering signed prints of Yow's poster for an August 2010 Queens of the Stone Age / Eagles of Death Metal fundraising concert for bassist Brian O'Connor, who was recently diagnosed with cancer.  All proceeds from poster sales will go directly to Brian's medical fund.

Location

DIY Gallery

1549 West Sunset Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90026

Tues-Saturday 12pm-6pm

For more information regarding Yow Art: 

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1767782128

For more information about DIY Gallery go to:

http://www.facebook.com/diygallery

First time ever in remastered and downloadable form for the legendary Beatles-hosted record label. Among the releases: Badfinger, James Taylor, Mary Hopkin and Modern Jazz Quartet.

By Blurt Staff

Launched by The Beatles in 1968, as the new outlet for their own recordings as well as the music of an eclectic roster of artists - James Taylor, Badfinger, Billy Preston, Mary Hopkin, Doris Troy, and Jackie Lomax among them - who were all personally brought to the label by The Beatles (individually and/or collectively), Apple Records made popular music history from the very moment it opened its doors.

Four decades after the Beatles founded the Apple Records label in 1968, Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music will be offering remastered CD and digital download releases of 15 key albums from the Apple Records catalog.  All 15 titles will be released on October 26, 2010.  Most of the physical CDs will include bonus material.  Together, the 15 albums represent the first ever Apple Records releases to be available via digital download.

In the revolutionary spirit of 1968, The Beatles' explosive musical output (characterized by their double-LP White Album) was only exceeded by their fascination with what they saw and heard going on around them.  Five years into The Beatles' reign, Apple Records afforded them the unique opportunity to sign new (and established) artists who appealed to each of them.  In turn, the introduction of an artist on The Beatles' record label was an imprimatur taken very seriously by fans across the universe.

Apple Records' utopian artist-orientated mission immediately set it apart, as the first operation of its kind in the major-label sphere.  Diversity was celebrated, and artists were encouraged to record and release their music in a friendly creative environment.  Apple developed a distinctive graphic aesthetic, from its legendary 'apple-core' logo to its advertising and merchandising, in the process setting a subtle new benchmark for the industry to follow.

From 1968 to 1973, Apple Records bedazzled the world with a rainbow spectrum of releases - and fans were unusually well-informed about individual involvements of The Beatles with nearly every project.  1968's self-titled debut album by Boston-based singer-songwriter James Taylor, for example, features Paul McCartney and George Harrison on "Carolina In My Mind."  Paul was instrumental in bringing the Welsh chanteuse Mary Hopkin to Apple, and produced her debut single, "Those Were The Days."  Badfinger, also from Wales, was still known as The Iveys when they recorded "Come And Get It," written and produced by Paul (for The Magic Christian movie soundtrack).  

The Beatles had been fans of Billy Preston ever since seeing him in Little Richard's band in Hamburg in 1962.  George went on to produce and play on Preston's Apple debut, That's the Way God Planned It.  Harrison was one of the producers and played (along with Ringo Starr) on Doris Troy's self-titled Apple album.  And George also produced and played (with Paul and Ringo) on Jackie Lomax's debut album, Is This What You Want? featuring the Harrison composition, "Sour Milk Sea."

John was much taken with the music of The Modern Jazz Quartet, who released the only two jazz albums in the Apple catalogue.  Ringo was intrigued by the music of contemporary British classical composer John Tavener, and his Apple album, The Whale has become one of the most sought-after Apple collectibles of all time.  

Each of the 15 albums in this bumper batch of Apple Records releases has been digitally remastered at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London by the same dedicated team of engineers behind The Beatles' recent remastered catalogue releases of 2009.

The Apple Records albums reissued in the campaign are:

JAMES TAYLOR (1968) by James Taylor

James' debut album was recorded in London in 1968 and remains the hidden gem in his extensive catalogue. A distinctive English sensibility informs this beautiful early work, notable for its original versions of James' signature tunes "Something In The Way She Moves" and "Carolina In My Mind."

MAGIC CHRISTIAN MUSIC (1970) by Badfinger

Magic Christian Music rejoices in sweet, colourful pop and prefigures the songwriting powerhouse that Badfinger would become. Featuring the worldwide smash hit "Come And Get It," written and produced by Paul McCartney, alongside two other songs created for the 1969 Peter Sellers / Ringo Starr movie The Magic Christian, based on the satirical novel by Terry Southern.

NO DICE (1970) by Badfinger

The first album with guitarist Joey Molland, No Dice is a watershed collection of power pop that bridges the band's commercial instincts with the classic, no-frills rock that became their trademark. Includes the Top 10 single, "No Matter What," and the original version of the Ivor Novello and Grammy Award winning "Without You," made famous by Harry Nilsson, and later Mariah Carey.

STRAIGHT UP (1972) by Badfinger

Long considered to be the group's finest album, Straight Up is a glorious collection of strong melodies, insightful lyrics and deep emotion. Produced in part by George Harrison and containing the U.S. hit, "Baby Blue," plus the worldwide smash "Day After Day" - featuring George and the group's Pete Ham joining forces on the superb synchronized slide guitar solo.

ASS (1974)

Joey Molland assumes half the songwriting on this, the group's heaviest and most serious album. Ass is solid gold Badfinger, partly recorded at the then state-of-the-art Apple Studios at 3 Savile Row, London, and contains the group's valedictory "Apple Of My Eye," written by Pete Ham.

POST CARD (1969) by Mary Hopkin

Mary Hopkin's debut is a treasury of popular song. Produced by Paul McCartney and featuring especially-written numbers from Donovan, Harry Nilsson and, in rare songwriting mode, George Martin; plus classics from the Gershwins and Irving Berlin. Mary's pure, folk-inspired vocals make for a beguiling, dreamy album. Also includes her global smash hit "Those Were The Days."

EARTH SONG, OCEAN SONG (1971) by Mary Hopkin

Issued in 1971, this is Mary Hopkin's coming-of-age collection, packed with socially-conscious, lyrically-aware anthems from the cream of the era's folk protagonists: Ralph McTell, Gallagher & Lyle, Tom Paxton and Cat Stevens. Mary defines her art on this album, coordinated by legendary producer and Mary's husband-to-be at the time, Tony Visconti.

THAT'S THE WAY GOD PLANNED IT (1969) by Billy Preston

Billy's Apple debut, on which he expanded his palette of gospel and R&B to embrace rock themes, features guest players Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Keith Richards. Produced by George Harrison, after Billy was invited to The Beatles' Get Back sessions, That's The Way... is a cross-over masterwork that includes Billy's breakthrough chart hit, for which this album is named.

ENCOURAGING WORDS (1970) by Billy Preston

Encouraging Words is steeped in exemplary playing and songwriting... and pure soul. Produced by George Harrison and packed with originals and inspired covers, including "My Sweet Lord" and "All Things (Must) Pass" - donated by George before he released them himself - and the little-heard Harrison-Preston gospel hymn "Sing One For The Lord." This is Billy on the launch pad just before he rocketed to U.S. No. 2 success with "Outta Space" for A&M Records.

DORIS TROY (1970) by Doris Troy

The self-titled Apple album from the legendary Doris Troy, nicknamed ‘Mama Soul' by her British fans, is an exciting union of R&B, gospel and rock. It showcases four little-known songs Doris co-wrote with George Harrison, two of which also credit Stephen Stills and Ringo Starr. Other guests include Billy Preston, Peter Frampton and Eric Clapton.

IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT? (1968) by Jackie Lomax

Yes! This is a cracking album of powerful late-Sixties rock and blue-eyed soul by Liverpool vocalist Jackie Lomax. Among the many highlights is George Harrison's White Album-era song "Sour Milk Sea," given to Jackie and featuring guest players including George, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Keith Richards and Eric Clapton.

UNDER THE JASMIN TREE (1968) & SPACE (1969) by the Modern Jazz Quartet (a 2-on-1 CD)

Two albums of high-class improvisational bebop recorded by Atlantic Records legends the MJQ while on secondment to Apple. With their unique line-up of piano, vibes, bass and drums, the Quartet brought old-style tuxedo excellence and cool organic jazz to the Apple catalogue.

THE WHALE (1970) & CELTIC REQUIEM (1971) by John Tavener (a 2-on-1 CD)

Sir John Tavener was knighted by The Queen in 2000 for his services to music, and he remains one of Britain's most popular classical composers. Apple's recordings of ‘The Whale,' his avant-garde oratorio, and ‘Celtic Requiem,' written for soprano, orchestra and children's choir, were his first ever full-length releases. He was championed by John & Yoko, and befriended by Ringo Starr.

Big chunk of the upcoming The Suburbs album gets unveiled for U.K. audience.

By Blurt Staff

With the August 3 release date for The Suburbs (details and tracklisting here) rapidly approaching, the Arcade Fire isn't being stingy with fans eager to hear the new material. Yesterday (July 7) in London the band performed a concert at Hackney Empire in London - their first appearance there in three years - and over the course of the 18-song set they aired no less than eight new tracks.

According to NME.com, an unusually talkative Win Butler led his bandmates through a pair of new tunes right from the outset, "Ready to Start" and "Modern Man," and subsequently played six more before the evening was over: "Empty Room," "Rococo," "Suburban War," "We Used to Wait," "Month of May" and "The Suburbs."

The full setlist:

"Ready To Start"
"Modern Man"
"Neighborhood #2 (Laika)"
"No Cars Go"
"Haiti"
"Empty Room"
"Rococo"
"The Suburbs"
"Suburban War"
"Intervention"
"We Used To Wait"
"Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)"
"Rebellion (Lies)"
"Month Of May"
"Crown Of Love"
"Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)"
"Keep The Car Running"
"Wake Up"

Today the always classy, stunning and sophisticated Courtney Love turns 46. When converted into Rock Star Years, she's actually 104. And she's never looked better. Birthday kisses Courtney!

Sorry purists, and Industry Of Cool merchants, but it's called rock ‘n' roll populism, and beating the odds. And with high-profile, indie-approved fans like Billy Corgan, Trent Reznor and Jack Black squarely in their camp, the Canadian legends, on a 2-DVD documentary reveal themselves to be as down to earth and accessible as a prog-rock version of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

By John Dworkin

Sure... Rush has often been accused of having pretentious lyrics. Drummer Neil Peart has weathered that criticism so often throughout the years that he refers to it as the "P" word. But there's no other rock band whose members are less pretentious as people than Rush - "The world's most popular cult band." With four decades of success and obvious musical talents, they easily could've been otherwise.

There are plenty of great moments for Rush fans (and rock music fans in general) to walk away with from the documentary Rush - Beyond The Lighted Stage (Zoe). But the most lasting impression, and perhaps the most fulfilling, is of how good-natured, straight forward, egoless, and approachable these three rock stars are. As blown up as they can be on stage or in a fan's mind while listening, they each come off as a seemingly contradictory Rockstar Everyman. But it seems they've always been that way, and they're that way today. They'd fit in with any group of friends - so long as those friends aren't a stuffy bunch. In that way they're like the Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers of the progressive rock world. Lighted Stage shows the band as they are: three hard working guys who were talented from the start, fortunate early on, and smart enough to follow that fortune while never looking back.

 
Rush gets the talking head treatment from, among many, the likes of Jack Black, Les Claypool, Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Tim Commerford (Rage Against The Machine), Gene Simmons (Kiss), and Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails). Within the rock genre, that's quite a stylistically diverse group which speaks to the relative depth of Rush's musicality and range of influence. Corgan is particularly well spoken and illuminating in his praise of the band. In one excerpt he tells a poignant story of his relationship with a song from Permanent Waves - "Entre Nous" - and how he used it to bond with his mother (handing her the lyrics while they listened) because he had difficulty as a kid relating through other means. This real-life event mirrors Cameron Crowe's fictional exchange between Frances McDormand and Zooey Deschanel's mother/daughter characters in his classic Almost Famous:

 
Daughter: "I want to play you a song that explains why I'm leaving, and try to listen."
Mother: "We can't talk? We have to listen to rock music?"

Rock music: The Great Communicator?!

And Jack Black is great to have commenting on the band because, of course, he's funny as hell. But that being the case works on two levels here because it's also a reflection of one of the major revelations of the film: Vocalist/Bassist Geddy Lee and Guitarist Alex Lifeson are hilarious! They're naturally funny guys who come off as innately and comfortably self-deprecating. To wit: Lee referring to the band's early kimono wearing stint as "the period of the absurdly prophetic robes." Or Simmons relating a story of touring in the early days when, back at the hotel post-concert, the guys from Kiss would be partying and getting busy working the readily available groupies to get laid while the Rush guys would already be in their rooms watching TV and getting ready for bed. Or, relatedly, when a present day Lifeson is asked by the filmmakers about what's kept them moving forward through the decades, he ironically jokes "chicks."

 
Aside from the hijinx, there's plenty of chronological, blow-by-blow information about the band's history and development, their not-so-chummy relationships with the press and record labels, and the tragedies befallen Peart's family. Particularly revelatory is footage of the band (pre-Peart) playing while still in high school. Stories of their childhood in Canada and how they were already quite driven in their musical pursuits while still in their mid-to-late teens is accompanied by amazing home-movies of Lifeson playing guitar (wildly!) or hanging with his family around the dinner table. In an amazingly private piece of film to have shared, "2010 Lifeson" watches "high school Lifeson" argue with his parents over whether he needs to finish high school before pursuing his music career. It's a fascinatingly post-modern, voyeuristic moment: audience watching film of rockstar watching home-movie of himself. But, typically, Lifeson brings it all right back down to earth in humble deference by saying of his parents, "They were right." That's a nice thing for him to say, considering he obviously did not need to finish.

 
While a million miles away stylistically, Rush seems to generally have much more in common with the iconoclastic The Grateful Dead than any other rock band that sounds even remotely like them. Like The Dead: they've stuck it out with the same band members for nearly four decades (close enough for The Dead) - they've stayed true to themselves as artists the whole way - they have more of an "everyman" or "music geek" image than any Prog-Rock or Led Zeppelin type hard rock band - their lyrics regularly deal with ideas well beyond the typical rock band's sex 'n drugs topics - regular attention (forget praise) from the mainstream rock press during their "long, strange trip" was generally lacking - they tour to a rabid fan base - fine musicianship and songwriting are trademarks - and stylistically they're mainly rather idiosyncratic, virtually comparable to no one.

Nostalgia will likely figure into most viewers' experience of Lighted Stage for sure. And that's only natural. But even for those who stopped listening to Rush regularly many years ago (this writer included), if you went through any kind of earlier Rush "period," Lighted Stage is magic. It's an emotional and often hilarious tour of the band's spectacular career at beating the odds. But more than that, it ends up being a portrait of three friends who never succumbed to the music scene's "Industry of Cool" (to quote Crowe's Almost Famous again). This documentary should be considered a long overdue "glittering prize" for, in part, Rush's utter lack of "endless compromises." Their integrity is no illusion.

Special Features:

Full-length, never-before-seen performances of:
-Working Man and Best I Can with original drummer John Rutsey from 1974
-La Villa Strangiato from the 1979 Pinkpop Festival in Holland
-Between the Sun and Moon from the band's first show back after hiatus in Hartford, CT in 2002
Live performances of Far Cry and Entre Nous from the Snakes and Arrows tour & Bravado and YYZ from the R30 tour
Pre-gig warmup
Reflections from the band on Hemispheres
Dinner with the band at a hunting lodge

Erstwhile Thee Hypnotics/Black Moses frontman sets out on a latterday British invasion to plunder America's rock ‘n' roll past with his band's self-titled debut, out tomorrow on the aptly named Punk Rock Blues label.

By Fred Mills

Putting the "puh" back into "punk" and the "raw" back into "rawk" is Monsieur Jim Jones, a reprobate par excellence who proved his mettle ages ago with the late, great Thee Hypnotics. Anyone who experienced those Stooges/MC5-worshiping Brits during their early ‘90s heyday - in the U.S. they released records on both Sub Pop and Beggars Banquet - knows what a footstomping wildman Jones could be. His subsequent stint fronting the hard-rocking, R&B-tinged Black Moses was no less energized, although compared to the notoriously drug- and booze-fueled Hypnotics, the latter trio operated in relatively under-the-radar fashion.

More recently, though, the singer resurfaced with the Jim Jones Revue, a quintet that incorporates elements of Jones' prior outfits but distills things down to the most primal basics and inhabits a parallel a universe where Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis never got old but rather just kept at it until the New York Dolls and the Ramones came along to join the party. The front sleeve of The Jim Jones Revue, in fact, depicts an upright piano that looks like it's either been through a hurricane and flood or suffered extended abuse at the hands of both Mr. Penniman and The Killer. The sonic damage inflicted by the actual tunes isn't too far removed from that notion, either. Point of fact, after kicking things off with the ivories-pounding, "Good Golly Miss Molly"-worshiping  whomp of "Princess & The Frog," the band catapults full tilt into a positively crazed version Little Richard's "Hey Hey Hey Hey," effortlessly collapsing the distance between London and Macon, Ga., in just 2:02. So much for cultural appropriation; these boys know their fish from their chips.

From there it's a rock ‘n' roll travelogue that you just ain't gonna get from any of the indie-rock grovelers currently enjoying blog-buzz status. "Rock n Roll Psychosis" is a synapse-poppin' riot of manic piano and distorto-guitar sizzle, with Jones barking and shrieking like Iggy commanding a full legion of the grandchildren of the damn - "we don't monkey around!" he gurgles at one point, and you goddam sure believe him. The Revue subsequently exhumes the fetid, twitching hips of Elvis ("Fish 2 Fry," which revs up "Baby, Let's Play House" until things achieve takeoff, Sonic Youth style); figures out yet an altogether new way to walk the friggin' dog ("Another Daze," coming to a New Orleans-centric film soon if there's any justice... Treme camp, are ya listening?); and serves up the most twisted brand of R&B this side of Screamin' Jay Hawkins ("Cement Mixer," which is as heavy and dense as the title telegraphs and, with its stripper-grind rhythm, chain-gang chorus and altogether filthy vibe, will leave you needing to take a shower after is spins. (You're in luck: it's the last cut.)

The Jim Jones Revue was actually cut a couple of years ago and has been available in England for a good while; in 2009 a mini-album, the aptly-titled Here To Save Your Soul, was released containing a couple of album cuts plus the band's subsequent singles (see our review here). Meanwhile the band has also completed a new record, produced by Jim Sclavunos of Bad Seeds/Grinderman fame and will have that in the bins before the year is out, so nobody involved is planning on wasting any time getting' on with the gettin' on.

As the saying goes, get behind the Revue before the Revue gets past YOU. Amen.

The Jim Jones Revue plays NYC, Hoboken and Brooklyn next week, July 22-24. Details, song samples and more at their MySpace page.

UPDATE: late yesterday the band sent out a press release indicating that they got their stuff back and are "speechless." Here's the message:

this is insane!
the police have recovered the van
and
all of our gear is in there
and appears to be un-damaged

speechless right now,
more soon, love phos    

note from label/management: we will of course return everyone's generous donations. thanks so much for your love and support!

See below for details on what was ripped off - band is also soliciting donations so they can continue with their tour.

By Blurt Staff

A message from Phosphorescent and Vector Management:

Thursday night after an amazing show at Pier 54 in New York City, Phosphorescent's rental van -along with all of their equipment - was stolen from outside a residence in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Last night's show was the first night of their scheduled six-weeks US Tour.  Among the stolen items was Matthew Houck's custom, irreplaceable 1955 Gibson ES-125 guitar, vintage amplifiers, and a vintage pedal steel with losses totaling around $40,000.  If anyone has ANY information or leads on what might have happened, or if you see any of this gear in pawn shops, on Craigslist, etc, please call the NY Police Department, Vector Management, or anyone you think might be able to help recover this gear. 

The van rental company is insured - they are covered for their van and are therefore not greatly concerned with recovering it.  Phosphorescent DOES care though, greatly, about recovering any of this gear possible, and about right now figuring out how to rally up and make this US Tour happen.  Anything anyone can do to help would be simply amazing.  We have set up a Paypal account for anyone wishing to donate funds to help replace gear - anything helps.  We will be sending updates about the upcoming tour dates ASAP.  Thanks in advance for any goodwill and assistance and thank you for your support over the years.

PAYPAL DONATIONS CAN BE MADE HERE.
 

Vector Management:
Nick Stern
p: 212.317.2323
nick@vectormgmt.com

STOLEN EQUIPMENT LIST:
MOST OF THIS GEAR IS IN STANDARD BLACK ROADCASES
STENCILED WITH "PHOSPHORESCENT" OR "PHOS"
IN LARGE WHITE LETTERS

GUITARS:
1955 Gibson ES-125 Hollow-body Electric
1968 Gibson EB-3 Bass with slotted headstock (brown)
197? Fender Stratocaster - Custom, Blonde wood finish. No brand names or markings anywhere.
197? Emmons Pedal Steel Guitar - Push-Pull Model

AMPS:
1973 Fender Twin Reverb (Silverface) w/ Indian Sun Worshipper Tapestry affixed to grillplate
1978 Music Man 112 RD500 Custom Amp w/ 10" Speaker
SWR Workingman's Bass Amp
196? Fender Deluxe Reverb

PEDALS:
(1) Line 6 DL4 Delay Pedal
(2) Fulltone Full-Drive 2 Mosfet
(1) Electro Harmonix Holy Grail Plus
(1) Electro Harmonix Little Big Muff
(2) Electro Harmonix 80's Memory Man Deluxe
(1) MXR Power Amp Pedal
(2) Boss TU-2 Tuner
(1) MXR Phase 90, CSP-026
(1) Fender Tuning Pedal

DRUMS:
DW "Collectors Series" Drum Kit - Black Matte finish
22" kick drum
16" floor tom
12" rack tom
14" Yamaha, Anton Fig snare drum, with maple hoops
(1) Ludwig boom cymbal stand
(2) yamaha boom cymbal stands
(1) DW9000 Hi-Hat pedal, DW7000 kick pedal
(1) Yamaha, double braced snare stand
(1) Ludwig double braced snare stand
(1) Ludwig drum throne/stool.
(1) 20" Zyldjian Constantinople ride cymbal
(1) 17in Zildjian A Custom crash cymbal
(2) Zildjian Constantinople Hi-Hats (paired)


OTHER ITEMS:
Black Arai Profile Full-face Motorcycle Helmet
Durango Boots - Brown Harness Boots

MERCHANDISE:
Approximately:
150 Vinyl (To WIlle/Pride/Here's to Taking it Easy)
150 CD's (To WIlle/Pride/Here's to Taking it Easy)
100 PHOSPORESCENT "LION" T-shirts

[Photo Credit: Martha Jewelle]

"Anthem For a Doomed Youth" comes from San Fran band's acclaimed debut album.

By Blurt Staff

We've been tracking the progress of visionary San Francisco quintet Veil Veil Vanish throughout the year, starting with the release of their full-length debut Change in the Neon Light (reviewed here at BLURT). Our man on the ground, Gil Macias, also corralled the band during the making of their first music video, for the song "Anthem For a Doomed Youth," and over the course of a couple of lengthy interviews (read them here and also here) Macias was able to get the band to really open up and delve deeply into their influences, motivations and more.

The aforementioned video is done and ready for viewing, and we're pretty happy to present it to you, below. "Anthem For a Doomed Youth" is    and the film was directed by Justin Coloma (Smashing Pumpkins, Eagles of Death Metal, Boomkat, etc.; you can learn more about him at this link). Check it out - it's daunting stuff, and mesmerizing at that.

The band is clearly going places and you can way you were at ground zero when Veil Veil Vanish's star started its ascent. More details on the band at their MySpace page.

Veil Veil Vanish: Anthem for a Doomed Youth from Veil Veil Vanish on Vimeo.

Smith and Hyde enlist a cast of "co-conspirators" for September release.

By Blurt Staff

Barking is the title of Underworld's first album in three years, their sixth studio album to date, and their first to be constructed with a cast of co-conspirators. All the tracks were written by the band in their Essex studio before being given to handpicked studio heads from across the whole spectrum of dance music to add some of their style and creativity to the band's raw material. The result is a pimped-up Underworld record and their finest collection of songs in over a decade. It's due out on September 13.

From the first undulating pulses of submariner bass, the first vocals - soft like a whisper in the ear - and the first fizz of hi-hats that force along the pace, the sound is unmistakably Underworld. Electronics wrapped effortlessly around songs; streams of consciousness lyrics that form indelible images; a perfectly balanced mix of melody and rhythm.

Tracklist:

Bird 1 (additional production by Dubfire)

Always Loved A Film (a/p Mark Knight & D. Ramirez)

Scribble (a/p High Contrast)

Hamburg Hotel (a/p Appleblim & Al Tourettes)

Grace (a/p Dubfire)

Between Stars (a/p Mark K & D. Ramirez)

Diamond Jigsaw (a/p Paul van Dyk)

Moon In Water (a/p High Contrast)

Louisiana

Backstory and Updates:

Underworld are Rick Smith and Karl Hyde. They have been working together in music for thirty years since meeting in Cardiff University in the late '70s. Following time working in various bands with luminaries like Conny Plank, Iggy Pop and Debbie Harry, Smith and Hyde (with help from DJ Darren Emerson) began experimenting with making club music in the early '90s, first as Lemon Interupt then reactivating one of their old band names - Underworld - releasing their first single proper, Mmm... Skyscraper, I Love You, in 1993. As well as becoming the first band from the nascent ‘dance' scene to grace the cover of a weekly music paper, they scored massive critical hits with each of their album releases (Dubnobasswithmyheadman, Second Toughest In The Infants,Beaucoup Fish, One Hundred Days Off and Oblivion With Bells).

In 2005, Underworld released the Riverrun series, a trio of downloadable mixes of new material and works-in-progress, making them one of the first acts of their scale to attempt to directly sell their own records. The band continue to release alternate versions and curios through www.underworldlive.com. 

Underworld's continuing relationship with director Danny Boyle has seen their music used in many of his movies. In 1996 a former B-side track, Born Slippy (Nuxx), soundtracked an entire summer, selling close to a million copies when released as a single. They recently scored Boyle's sci-fi movie Sunshine.

In the early '90s Smith and Hyde helped co-found the design company tomato. Karl has recently worked extensively with Brian Eno on the collaborative Pure Scenius project, playing largely improvised gigs at Sydney's Opera House and at the Brighton Festival.

Underworld remain one of the most innovative and dynamic live bands on the planet - after a series of already announced Australian dates this June, they will be touring the album extensively towards the end of the year.

"Scribble", the first new material from the new album to see the light of day, is available now from underworldlive.com and will be commercially released on June 28, including a remix by Hospital recording artist, Netsky. The band will also headline the iTunes Festival at London's Roundhouse on 17th July.

Prelude to extensive tour, including dates at MSG with former bandmates in Arcade Fire.

By Blurt Staff

Erstwhile Final Fantasy string man Owen Pallet has a new 12" EP titled Lewis Takes off His Shirt - it comprises the title track plus remixes courtesy Dan Deacon, Benoit Pioulard, and CFCF, as well as "Keep the Dog Quiet" (Simon Bookish remix) and "Midnight Directives" (Max Tundra remix). This serves as a lead-up to a tour as well as high profile shows with the National, Dirty Projectors and Arcade Fire (dates below).

He's also offering the EP up for free download - follows this link and the instructions. Enjoy!

Tour dates:

7-31 Montreal, Quebec - Osheaga Festival
8-04 New York, NY - Madison Square Garden ^
8-05 New York, NY - Madison Square Garden ^
8-12 Oslo, Norway - Oya Festival
8-13 Saint-Malo, France - La Route du Rock
8-14 Helsinki, Finland - Flow Festival
9-07 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club *
9-08 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero *
9-11 New York, NY - Terminal 5 *
9-13 Boston, MA - Wilbur *
9-24 Montclair, NJ - Wellmont Theater #
9-25 Munhall, PA - Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead #
9-27 Louisville, KY - W. L. Lyons Brown Theatre #
9-29 Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theatre #
9-30 St. Louis, MO - The Pageant #
10-02 Indianapolis, IN - Egyptian Room #
10-03 Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium #
10-04 Raleigh, NC - Raleigh Memorial Auditorium #
10-05 Atlanta, GA - Fox Theater #
10-06 Lake Buena Vista, FL - House of Blues #
10-08 Houston, TX - House of Blues #
10-09 Dallas, TX - House of Blues #
10-13 Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre #
10-14 Tempe, AZ - The Marquee #
10-16 Pomona, CA - Fox Theater #
10-18 Denver, CO - Fillmore Auditorium #

^ with Arcade Fire & Spoon
* with Dirty Projectors
# with the National

Grandaddy-Earlimart summit yields a combination of reverb and playful shoegaze alongside outright slapstick moments. I Heat California is out today on Aaron Espinoza's The Ship label. Check out the video, below.

By Annamarya Scaccia

Admiral Radley's story starts off like this: The mates in Earlimart and the now-defunct Grandaddy were friends for well over ten years. The two acts would tour together, hang out, visit each other's respected headquarters - all those things that close friends in bands do. And one day, some of members -  Jason Lytle & Aaron Burtch of Grandaddy and Aaron Espinoza & Ariana Murray of Earlimart, to be exact - decided to work on an Earlimart/Grandaddy album with various members of each band collaborating, writing and recording in a "loose, enjoyable atmosphere."

What came out of that is Admiral Radley's witty, jocular and warily poppy debut, I Heart California, which arrives via Espinoza's record label, The Ship. It's a droll and mesmeric assortment of quirky and wispy tracks that fluctuates between forlorn epistles ("Ending of Me," "Ghosts of Syllables"), maudlin thoughts ("The Thread"), sardonic exclamations ("I'm All Fucked On Beer"), curiously jokey ("Sunburn Kids") and the devotedly complicated (title track and opener "I Heart California"). But while I Heart California may sound like a light-hearted expedition (due in part to its more comical numbers, like "I'm All Fucked on Beer" and "Sunburn Kids"), it's only on the surface. Go past the fuzz, the reverb and the playful shoegaze and you'll find flawlessly executed moments of bittersweet fragility (like the tear-inducing "Lonesome Co." or the gracefully mournful "Chingas in the West," which opens with "Please take care of my little one / And I've been gone for far too long / She don't bother anyone / So please care for me little one.") Those are the tracks that make I Heart California truly standout as a first-time effort.

Unfortunately, though, it's those slapstick songs that hinder the California quartet's debut from being an absolutely perfect listen. Instead of breaking up the melancholy, they play out like random bouts of nervous laughter - unnecessary awkwardness that keeps the listener from feeling something that's very real.

European tour still on for next month. U.S. tour will start in May 2011 and previously issued tickets will still be good. Here ya go, kids...

By Blurt Staff

8-06 Turin, Italy - Stadio Olimpico !
8-10 Frankfurt, Germany - Commerzbank Arena !
8-12 Hanover, Germany - AWD Stadium !
8-15 Horsens, Denmark - Casa Arena $
8-16 Horsens, Denmark - Casa Arena $
8-20 Helsinki, Finland - Olympic Stadium %
8-21 Helsinki, Finland - Olympic Stadium %
8-25 Moscow, Russia - Luzhniki $
8-30 Vienna, Austria - Ernst Happel Stadium &
9-03 Athens, Greece - Olympic Stadium $
9-06 Istanbul, Turkey - Ataturk Olympic Stadium $
9-11 Zurich, Switzerland - Letzigrund Stadium &
9-12 Zurich, Switzerland - Letzigrund Stadium &
9-15 Munich, Germany - Olympic Stadium *
9-18 Paris, France - Stade de France *
9-22 Brussels, Belgium - Stade Roi Boudoin *
9-23 Brussels, Belgium - Stade Roi Boudoin *
9-26 San Sebastian, Spain - Anoeta Stadium *
9-29 Seville, Spain - Olympic Stadium *
10-02 Coimbra, Portugal - Estadio Cidade Coimbra *
10-03 Coimbra, Portugal - Estadio Cidade Coimbra *
10-08 Rome, Italy - Olympic Stadium *
5-21 Denver, CO - Invesco Field
5-24 Salt Lake City, UT - Rice Eccles Stadium
6-01 Edmonton, Alberta - Commonwealth Stadium
6-04 Seattle, WA - Qwest Field
6-07 Oakland, CA - McAfee Coliseum
6-17 &18 Anaheim, CA - Angels Stadium
6-26 East Lansing, MI - Spartan Stadium at MSU
6-29 Miami, FL - Sun Life Stadium
7-05 Chicago, IL - Soldier Field
7-08-09 Montreal, Quebec - Hippodrome
7-11 Toronto, Ontario - Rogers Centre
7-14 Philadelphia, PA - Lincoln Financial Field
7-20 East Rutherford, NJ - New Meadowlands Stadium
7-23 Minneapolis, MN - TCF Bank Stadium

! with Kasabian
$ with Snow Patrol
% with Razorlight
& with One Republic
* with Interpol

Swedish actress Ewa Aulin, when she's not appearing in movies with Ringo Starr and leaving record collectors all a-drool, reads Blurt!

By Blurt Staff

You like? Better check out our resident crate digger Carl Hanni's blog "Sonic Reducer" elsewhere on this site. He'll let you know about the "Candy" he recently unearthed....

Next album Warp Riders arrives in August. Check link below for free MP3 of new single.

By Blurt Staff

With merely six weeks away from the release of their third full-length, Warp Riders (August 24^th; Kemado), The Sword are finally ready to give a taste of their eagerly awaited new material. 

Click HERE to hear the album's first single "Tres Brujas" for free (all you'll have to do is enter an email address).

The scorching, groove-heavy number is proof that the band has successfully expanded into new territory while maintaining their cherished heaviness.  As the second track on the album, and the first with lyrics, "Tres Brujas" is also the first chapter in the epic sci-fi narrative that spans Warp Riders. The song encapsulates the "space opera meets post-apocalyptic western" tableau of the record, where dualistic themes such as "light vs dark" and "organic vs artificial" are explored.  The metal stalwarts will reveal the plot in more detail through a three-part video saga beginning with the "Tres Brujas" video, followed by clips for "Lawless Lands" and "Night City."

The mighty Wire has announced a flurry of activity. First up is a remake/remodel of 2002's 'Send'. Details and many links below.

By Blurt Staff

WIRE - SEND Ultimate (PF60)  (2 CD) JULY 2010

‘Send' was Wire's first new album for 13 years and on release basked in an aura of phenomenal critical acclaim and healthy retail action. However, the album itself was a distillation of a series of releases that preceded it, and with 'Send' having been out of stock for over a year (and its predecessors being out of print for even longer), it was felt that a re-appraisal was due. Consequently, 'Send: Ultimate' was born:

Send Ultimate is an archaeology of Wire in the studio between 2000 and 2003, as the band worked on new music for the first time in a decade. This retooled edition of Send gives fresh insight into an exciting chapter for Wire, by expanding the frame around the album and providing a larger context with rare and previously unheard material.

This includes both sides of the "12 Times U" vinyl-only collectors' item (the "12XU" remixes that catalysed Wire's Send-era burst of creativity); unreleased curiosities such as "DJ Fuckoff," an exercise in hyperkinetic dancefloor lunacy; alternate versions of numbers originating in this period that subsequently appeared on 2007's Read & Burn 03; and the tracks from the first two (out-of-print) Read & Burn EP's that were omitted from the original Send.

The double album features a booklet of sleeve notes by Pink Flag author (and BLURT contributor) Wilson Neate and a track-by-track commentary by all the main participants.

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1 (the original "Send") - 1. In The Art Of Stopping // 2. Mr Marx's Table // 3. Being Watched // 4. Comet // 5. The Agfers Of Kodack // 6. Nice Streets Above // 7. Spent // 8. Read & Burn // 9. You Can't Leave Now // 10. Half Eaten //11. 99.9

DISC 2 - 1. I Don't Understand // 2. Trash/Treasure //3. Raft Ants // 4. Germ Ship //5. 1st Fast //6. Artificial Gravity //7. DJ Fuckoff //8. 12 Times U //
9. Our Time (minimal mix) //10. Desert Diving (alt mix) //11. 12 Times X

For more information, go to http://www.pinkflag.com/sendultimate/ (On that page, you can also find information about a special deal to get a digital copy of WIRE - 14 Sept 2002 Metro, Chicago (pfb 002), the live album that came with original mail order sales of 'Send.'.)

***

And on to the Legal Bootleg Series! Over the years, many Wire concerts have been recorded, circulated and traded by ardent fans. But with the unexpected success of the 1979 Rockpalast concert (released as Wire: On The Box 1979), and subsequent requests from Wire fans for the band to release more from the archives, Pinkflag has been hard at work on a project to make available live material, from the highest possible quality source material, remastered and sympathetically presented...

Hence, the The Wire Legal Bootleg series. Curated by long-time Wire fan Mark Bursa, the series aims to make available the very best Wire gigs, for an affordable price, and with both new fans and avid collectors in mind.

The series is available by subscription at http://pinkflag.greedbag.com/buy/the-wire-legal-bootleg-series-su/  

It is also possible to buy the albums ‘batches' of three (the first of which is now on sale) or as individual gigs, but the better value lies in the series subscription which exclusively contains a DVD of Wire's second gig of the 1980s, 21 Jul 1985 Bloomsbury Theatre (pfb 802)

The first three releases are:

WIRE - 25 October 1978 Bradford University (pfb 701)

Chairs Missing meets proto-154. Raw versions of familiar songs

Indirect Enquiries //Men 2nd //Lowdown //On Returning// Being Sucked In // I Feel Mysterious Today // The Other Window //A Mutual Friend//
Former Airline //Mercy //Stepping Off Too Quick //Strange //Another The Letter //Sand In My Joints //French Film Blurred //I Should Have Known Better//
Practice Makes Perfect //Reuters //106 Beats That

WIRE - 21 July 1988 Astoria, London (pfb 801)

Wire in full 80s pomp!

The Queen Of Ur //In Vivo //Kidney Bingos //The Finest Drops //Silk Skin Paws //German Shepherds //A Public Place //It's A Boy //The Offer//
Eardrum Buzz //Boiling Boy //Drill //Ahead //Over Theirs

WIRE - 08 Dec 2000 Queen's Hall, Edinburgh (pfb 001)

The crucial 00s gig, with the first airing of new material and re-workings of old classics

Zoom //Heartbeat //Ally In Exile //Germ Ship //Boiling Boy //He Knows //Advantage In Height //Lowdown //Another The Letter //12XU// Pink Flag //Drill

For more information, visit http://www.pinkflag.com/legalbootleg/

***

A message from Wire:

This year, Wire has been hard at work on a set of recorded material that will become the band's 12th studio album. The band is aiming to release the (as yet unnamed) album in January 2011, with the digital version perhaps appearing slightly earlier. The work has gone through various stages which have included taking some of it on the road in a series of dates during May and June this year, and so some people may already be familiar with titles such as "Spuds", "Up From Above" and "Moreover" through the shows themselves and also through the live streaming of the set from this year's Primavera Festival in Barcelona. Some will also know that Wire have bid a fond farewell to Margaret Fiedler-McGinnis as their live ‘extra' guitarist and are now augmented by Matt Simms who will stay with the band for the duration of this cycle.

There seems to be a general opinion that we have already built up a head of steam with this line-up and set; however, in spite of the fact that we will have some exciting announcements to make about dates later this year and into 2011, the focus of creative attention this summer will remain with the album.

Well, at least she knows her true calling.

By Blurt Staff

Here's some breaking news you shouldn't be without: Billboard.com is reporting that singer-actress Jewel recently turned up at Los Angeles karaoke bar the Gas Lite - and started singing her own songs!

Well, technically, she was in what's described as heavy disguise, "meek looking" and in  "a business suit and glasses." Reports Billboard, as the woman who identified herself as "Karen" "belted out exquisite, pitch-perfect renditions of "Who Will Save Your Soul" and "Foolish Games." Astonished crowd members picked their jaws off the floor and cheered wildly. One person was heard comparing Karen to ‘an American Susan Boyle.'"

We need more Susan Boyles, of course. (But as it turns out, it was all a hoax being filmed for comedy web video channel FunnyOrDie.com and hatched by writer-director Eric Appel, who outfitted Jewel in "a prosthetic nose, wig and glasses, and butt padding... Only after performing as Karen did Jewel return to the stage of the karaoke joint as herself." You can view the clip from the performance at the Funny Or Die site. And no, she doesn't look like Susan Boyle at all; more like a secretarial Sarah Palin.

Funny, however - all along we've been describing what Jewel does (and has done, since she appeared in the early ‘90s at the dawn of the Lilith Fair era), as borderline karaoke anyway!

Big synth bash to be held Halloween Weekend in North Carolina.

By Blurt Staff

Okay, synthesizer fans, salute! Just announced yesterday: MoogFest 2010, a three-day festival celebrating the innovative vision of sonic pioneer, Robert Moog, to be held Halloween weekend, October 29-31, in Asheville, NC. Confirmed artists Massive Attack, MGMT, and Thievery Corporation will be joined by over 25 additional internationally renowned artists performing in multiple venues throughout downtown Asheville, including the Asheville Civic Center Arena, the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, and the Orange Peel.

Hey, it's almost as cool as Moog Beer!

In addition to the festival's music attendees will have the opportunity to participate in workshops, engage with artists in panel discussions, enjoy visual art exhibitions, installations and film screenings, and explore their own musical creativity with a variety of Moog instruments.

The complete schedule of artists and events for MoogFest 2010 will be announced on July 27^th and tickets will go on sale July 30^th.

Asheville, the adopted hometown of the late Bob Moog, is the headquarters of Moog Music, the company he formed in 1963.  Moog's push for continual innovation permeates the company's culture to this day.  In 2008, they produced the groundbreaking Moog Guitar and more projects are currently in development.  2010 marks a landmark in the company's history as the 40^th anniversary of the Voyager, one of the most popular of the Moog synthesizers.

"Bob Moog changed the course of music as we know it," says the promoter of MoogFest, AC Entertainment's founder, Ashley Capps. "He put new worlds of sound literally at the fingertips of musicians, unleashing a creative revolution.  We're thrilled and honored to be able to celebrate his extraordinary legacy in the place that he called home and we hope to do so for many years to come." 

Foo Fighters / Me First and the Gimme Gimmes dude steps up with yet another project.

By Blurt Staff

We've got an exclusive interview with Chris Shiflett today at Blurt. Hop over to blogger John Moore's "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" blog to read the interview in which Shiflett talks about his many musical projects, which include of course the Foo Fighters, plus Me First and the Gimme Gimmes and and Jackson United - and now the Americana Group Chris Shiflett and the Dead Peasants.

Go here to read Moore's blog.

Although the media both mainstream and otherwise have been forecasting the imminent demise of this year's Lilith Fair traveling festival (which recently cancelled about a third of the scheduled dates due to poor ticket sales), Blurt shutterbug Scott Dudelson attended the July 10 show in Los Angeles and reported back that all appeared to be healthy and happy. He was willing to share his photos with us. For more of Dudelson's work, check out his photoblog for BLURT here.

(above and below) Lilith founder Sarah McLachlan

Brandi Carlile

Emmylou Harris

Jenni Rivera

Jes Hudek

Lilith Crowd

Nice Touch #1: Sponsored Women's Restrooms

Nice Touch #2: Reclining Massage Chairs

Nice Touch #3: Free Water

Lilith Stage

Marina & the Diamonds

Miranda Lambert & Brandi Carlile

Miranda Lambert

Molly Jensen

Susan Justice

Weepies

No Explanation Needed

Let's follow the story line very closely... not necessarily about panty-droppers...

By Blurt Staff

The ever-effervescent Peaches has a new video out for the tune "Show Stopper." It's off the singer/performance artist's I Feel Cream album, although don't expect a straightforward dance-and-music type clip! (Above photo by Angel Cebellos.)

A film has been produced for every song featured on the album.  "Show Stopper" was directed by Caroline Sascha Cogez, and stars Danish film actress Charlotte Munck. 

Video for "MmmHmm" comes from the album Cosmogramma.


By Blurt Staff


A second cut from his self-proclaimed "space opera" Cosmogramma, "MmmHmm" features renowned bassist Thundercat (Sa-Ra Collective, Erykah Badu, Suicidal Tendencies), who contributes vocals and bass to the track and stars in the video, Directed by Special Problems and produced by Warp Films. Watch it, below.



Meanwhile, Flying Lotus is also curating the Brainfeeder fest in London on August 14:

Flying Lotus presents BRAINFEEDER

@ Hearn St Car Park, 9-5am

Flying Lotus
Kutmah (first ever UK show)

Lorn

Actress (live)

Kode9

Teebs

Dr Strangeloop

+ special guests

This comes on the heels of two other London shows on August 16 and 17 having already sold out...

The Kinsellas take the acclaimed emo godfathers out on the road this weekend for a short reunion tour that takes them from their Chicago homebase to DC, Philly, San Francisco and L.A. Meanwhile, Jade Tree recently reissued their classic career overview on vinyl.

By Barry St. Vitus

It's been 21 years since the inception of Cap'n Jazz, 14 years since their break-up and nearly as long since the original 1998 release of the 2-CD Analphabetapolothology. Jade Tree decided it was time to pay tribute to the band by releasing that retrospective of their complete recorded works on double vinyl LP with gatefold cover, complete with an 8 page booklet, photos and MP3 downloads of all 34 songs (24 of which are on the actual vinyl).

Cap'n Jazz was formed while Chicagoan brothers Tim and Mike Kinsella were still in high school, and like a lot of kids, thought it would be a kick to get a couple of pals and start their own band.  Along with Victor Villareal on guitar and Sam Zurich on bass, they created their own little niche by creatively blending such genres as emo and post-hardcore into an artier, poppy punk sound. As their bio so succinctly phrases it, ‘complicated and sloppily enthusiastic' music. Tim's idiosyncratic, off-kilter vocals were pure old-school punk screaming, often in duet or chorus with the others.

But it was what lay underneath the vocals that set the band apart from the punk pack. When listening to their music, it's obvious that there's exceedingly creative songwriting and playing going on that is almost startling. That juxtaposition is quite the head-turner. While most songs are pretty fast, they occasionally slow down the pace with D. Boon- like spoken word vocalizations like on "Tokyo". "Bluegrassish" is a "Black Mountain Side" type of number (minus sitar) that surprises almost as much as "BMS" did in the middle of Led Zeppelin 1. In other numbers there's the occasional, discordant horn bleating or harmonica. I was constantly reminded of The Minutemen and Husker Du flavorings in the music. A pair of live inclusions, "Olerud" and "Forget Who Are' showcase their excellent skill on stage.

Pretty talented stuff overall for a bunch of kids, I'd say. They've since devoted themselves to many other projects like Joan of Arc, Owls, Owen and the Beefheartian Make Believe. Cap'n Jazz have reformed and are crossing the country to support this re-issue starting in July. Catch'em if you can.

Cap'n Jazz 2010 Reunion Tour

07/10 Louisville, KY Forecastle Fest / The Riverfront Belvedere - TICKETS
07/17 Chicago, IL Bottom Lounge - Sold Out
07/18 Chicago, IL Bottom Lounge - Sold Out
07/23 Washington DC The Black Cat - TICKETS
07/24 Philadelphia, PA Starlight Ballroom - TICKETS
08/27 San Francisco, CA Bimbo's 365 Club - TICKETS
08/28 Los Angeles, CA Echoplex - TICKETS

July 23 at the Hollywood Palladium will be the site of the two bands' performances.

By Fred Mills

In a press release issued yesterday by The Sound Strike (the Zack De La Rocha-organized collective of musicians who oppose Arizona's controversial immigration law), Rage Against the Machine and Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band announced they would be doing a concert in Los Angeles next week as a combined protest and benefit. According to the release:

In their first concert in their hometown of Los Angeles in 10 years, Rage Against the Machine will take the stage at the Hollywood Palladium on July 23rd, 2010 to support organizations combating SB 1070, law set to go into effect July 29th. Projected proceeds from the concert along with donations raised by The Sound Strike Fund are expected to exceed over $300,000. This will provide much needed resources to community organizations, student groups, legal defense funds and assist activists targeting key voting districts for voter registration. These two organizations need immediate assistance to fight SB1070 on the ground: Puente, Arizona, and The Florence Project.

The concert is part of a week of national actions culminating in the July 29th day of noncompliance in resistance to the law which is set to be enacted that same day. For more information about the week of national action go to www.altoarizona.com.

Go to the Sound Strike site (www.thesoundstrike.net) for full details.

Previous Blurt coverage of the Sound Strike:  http://blurt-online.com/news/view/3769/

Blurt coverage of Conor Oberst's reactions to the AZ law: http://blurt-online.com/news/view/3861/

Invite fellow artists to speak up and make noise, spread awareness of Arizona's controversial immigration law.

By Blurt Staff

In response to Arizona's recently passed "immigration" law, SB 1070 and HB 2281, which effectively bans ethnic studies in public schools, Artists for Action is asking the world's artists to flock to Arizona to encourage dialog around these divisive issues.  "We're asking artists to take a stand, make their voices heard, and inspire fans to get involved," said Joey Burns of Tucson-based Calexico. "Now is the time when art can make a difference. Now is the time for action."

Initiated by Arizona musicians, Artists for Action/VivaArizona.org is a growing coalition of artists - from fine artists to musicians from every genre - united in their belief that SB 1070, HB 2281, and other discriminatory laws will infringe on civil rights. The organization's mission is to offer support and resources for artists who want to mobilize their fans and promote civic activism, including helping artists connect with non-partisan voter registration, legal defense funds, and organizations that promote education and the protection of protection of civil rights. In addition to connecting artists with non-profit organizations at scheduled performances, Artists for Action/VivaArizona.org will also work with artists to coordinate rallies, speaking engagements, and benefit performances. "We're offering all kinds of methods for artists to get their fan base motivated," said John Convertino of Calexico.

In a press conference Thursday, July 8th, U.S Representative Raúl Grijalva stated, "I am supporting the efforts of Artists for Action because they are providing a positive outlet in the struggle against SB 1070 and the ethnic studies ban. Artists have a long history of activism for social justice, and Arizona is no different."

"What Arizona needs now is support," explained Jim Adkins of Phoenix-based Jimmy Eat World. "I have the utmost respect for musicians, artists, and small business owners who are killing themselves to make something on their own terms. I hope Artists for Action can be the bridge to help inform interested locals. And to help bring like-minded progressive voices back to Arizona."

La misión de ARTISTAS POR LA ACCIÓN es de ofrecer apoyo y recursos a los artistas que quieren movilizar a sus seguidores y fomentar el activismo cívico en la comunidad.

Letters to artists are available online at: http://www.vivaarizona.org/letter.php (English version) http://www.vivaarizona.org/letterESP.php (Spanish version)

One of a kind, super limited edition will also have the obligatory download code for all you digital headz. Check the free digital sampler, below.

By Blurt Staff

It was just a few weeks ago when ye olde editor issued a directive to his hive of staffers: "Go out and get me a story on this newfangled audio format called cassette that bands are starting to release their music on." He subsequently cited a slew of artists - among them, The Pack A.D. and Marah - who'd just dropped new records via cassette. We didn't bother to tell him that it was a decidedly old school format (editors don't like it when lowly contributors correct them...) and got to work on the research.

Now word arrives that yet another group is retrospectively diving headlong into the world of cassettes, Chicago's Joan of Arc, who during their 14 year existence jumpbed between mathy ballads, acoustic meanderings, minimalist experimentation, and post-rock-indie-epics.

Joyful Noise Recordings will be releasing a limited-edition Cassette Box Set - with digital downloads- of the entire JOA catalog. The collection is housed in a custom-built wooden box, elaborately screen-printed, hand-numbered and limited to 100 copies. Each cassette, individually wrapped and featuring the original album art, will also be available for individual purchase and includes high-quality MP3s and lossless audio. This is the first time any JOA albums have been available on cassette.

According to the label, "In 2010 it seems that any vehicle which can transport a digital download code is suddenly a candidate for an album format - be it a piece of art, a prophylactic, or our personal favorite, a home-crafted beer with a download code on the back of the label. The point is: anything can do the job of transporting a digital download code. Even a Cassette Tape. For us, digital music offers practicality and physical releases offer something for the committed. But in order for physical media to continue warranting an existence it must be ever more unique, noteworthy, and just plain badass. Hopefully we have accomplished such a balance with this release."

It will include these albums:

Portable Model Of (1997, Jade Tree)

How Memory Works (1998, Jade Tree)

Live in Chicago, 1999 (1999, Jade Tree)

The Gap (2000, Jade Tree)

So Much Staying Alive and Lovelessness (2003, Jade Tree)

In Rape Fantasy and Terror Sex We Trust  (2003, Perishable Records)

Joan of Arc, Dick Cheney, Mark Twain (2004, Polyvinyl)

Eventually, All at Once (2006, Record Label)

Boo! Human (2008, Polyvinyl)

Flowers (2009, Polyvinyl)

Official release date for this behemoth is September 14. You'll be able to get it on iTunes, but it makes more sense to spring for the cassette box as that also gets you lossless audio files, 320kbps mp3s, and by the way, an amazing one of a kind, hand-numbered box set.

The release will also be marked by the label with a pair of shows:

*August 20th in Indianapolis at the Melody Inn (w/ Marmoset, Jookabox, Abner Trio)

*August 21st in Chicago at Ronny's (w/ Abner Trio, Maximum Wage)

Meanwhile, the label is offering a free digital sampler which you can download in a zip file right here. The tracks on it are:

01. Questioning Benjamin Franklin's Ghost (from Joan of Arc, Dick Cheney, Mark Twain)

02. The Hands (from A Portable Model Of)

03. A Tell-Tale Penis (from Boo! Human)

04. The Infinite Blessed Yes (from So Much Staying Alive And Lovelessness)

05. Me And America (or) The United Colors Of The Gap (from The Gap)

06. Explain Yourselves #2 (from Flowers)

07. Eventually, All At Once (from uh, Eventually, All At Once)

08. White Out (from How Memory Works)

09. (I'm 5 Senses) None of Them Common (from Live In Chicago, 1999)

10. Happy 1984 and 2001 (from In Rape Fantasy and Terror Sex We Trust)

First tour for this incarnation of GBV in over 14 years. Meanwhile: Bob, the lawyers for Coca-Cola are calling...

By Fred Mills

Exactly two weeks ago it was announced that Robert Pollard was reconvening his "classic-era" Guided By Voices lineup - him, Tobin Sprout and Mitch Mitchell [guitars], Kevin Fennel [drums] and Greg Demos [bass] - to play the Matador Records' 21^st anniversary bash in Las Vegas the weekend of Oct. 1-3.

Now comes word, via an announcement on Pollard's official website, of a slew of additional dates that will commence with a warm-up gig in Austin on Sept. 30, head over to the Matador bash, then hit the west coast and commence an eastward crawl to conclude Nov. 7 in NYC. (Nov. 4 will see the band doing the Jimmy Fallon show as well.)

Full list of dates below; note that the Matador show is sold out already and that quite a few shows go on sale TOMORROW and SATURDAY, June 16 and 17 (including the first concert in Austin), with others having June 23-24 on-sale dates. Needless to say, most if not all of the GBV shows will be sellouts, so check local listings pronto for the events and ticketing info.

Tour Dates:

9-30 Austin, TX - East Side Drive *
10-03 Las Vegas, NV - Matador 21
10-04 Los Angeles, CA - Wiltern *
10-05 San Francisco, CA - Warfield *
10-07 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom *
10-09 Seattle, WA - Showbox SoDo *
10-12 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue *
10-13 Chicago, IL - The Vic *
10-15 Newport, KY - Southgate House
10-16 Columbus, OH - Outlands Live
10-21 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
10-22 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
10-23 Atlanta, GA - Buckhead Theater
11-05 Boston, MA - Paradise ^
11-06 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero ^
11-07 New York, NY - Terminal 5 ^

* with Times New Viking
^ with Blitzen Trapper

Followup to last year's acclaimed Doris Day tribute.

By Blurt Staff

Singer-songwriter Nellie McKay's fifth album, 'Home Sweet Mobile Home,' will be released on Verve Records this September. Her second album for the label follows her 2009 release 'Normal As Blueberry Pie - A Tribute to Doris Day,' which was selected by The New York Times, Huffington Post and The Village Voice as one of the best of the year.

'Home Sweet Mobile Home' is McKay's first album of all-original material since 2007's 'Obligatory Villagers,' and has the musical wanderlust, lyrical playfulness and sharp point of view that has characterized her music since her breakthrough debut 'Get Away From Me.' Songs from the new project were recently debuted during her NYC engagement at Feinstein's, and the New York Post noted that "songs like "Bodega" and "Caribbean Time" feature whimsical humor and social commentary that blended in beautifully alongside the standards from the Blueberry Pie album."

The new album, produced by McKay and Robin Pappas, was recorded in Los Angeles, New York, Jamaica and the Pocono Mountains and, even more than her previous albums, combines diverse musical moods and cultures.

"I have no idea how this album happened," says Nellie. "I guess I was looking for a sound to reflect our shrinking world and the bleed of culture crossing all kinds of borders."  Reviewing a recent McKay show, Stephen Holden from The New York Times described her as a "vocal chameleon," and that varied musical palette is used to great effect on the 13 songs on 'Home Sweet Mobile Home.'

 McKay has released four critically acclaimed records and appeared on Broadway (winning a Theatre World Award for her role in the revival of 'The Threepenny Opera') and on film (acting and singing in 'P.S. I Love You'). She also wrote and performed the song score for the Rob Reiner film 'Rumor Has It.'

The Chase Brock Experience recently produced a ballet of her third album, 'Obligatory Villagers,' while Nellie is currently playing opposite violin prodigy Philippe Quint in the independent film 'Downtown Express' and contributing to the soundtrack for the upcoming Martin Scorsese HBO series 'Boardwalk Empire.'

First new studio album since 2005's Every Kind of Light is due in September.

By Blurt Staff

The Posies have a new album, Blood/Candy (Ryko) and international tour both kicking off on September 28. The record is currently in heavy rotation around the BLURT office and we don't expect it to be coming off the player anytime soon - most likely, not until well after the release date.

 
Fresh off the Frosting On The Beater full-album shows and their work with Big Star, The Posies chart unforeseen territory on Blood/Candy while holding onto their well-known signature sound.  The almost entirely self-produced record boasts melodic hooks, provocative lyrics and intricate layers of instrumentation that blend far-out, spacey sounds with sophisticated hues. The bulk of the album was recorded and mixed in Spain and their hometown of Seattle, with stops in Ecuador, Canada, Paris and Los Angeles.

Says co-founder Ken Stringfellow, "After the eclecticism of our last album, we thought it would be a good idea to make a kind of classic, back to our roots album, guitar pop with lots of harmonies, etc. We didn't end up doing that--however, what stands in place of that, is an album even more adventurous, more playful and more heartfelt than I think we've ever done. If I had to pick one album for us to be remembered by and delete all the others, no doubt that I would choose this one."

Jon Auer, also original co-founder, adds, "With Blood/Candy, we definitely sound like us, but some of these songs are completely from an alternate Posies universe. We subscribe to the "evolve or perish" philosophy. We directed ourselves to new places with this recording and tried not to travel down familiar paths when it could be avoided. Expect the unexpected."

The Posies will tour extensively this fall. The Europe tour schedule is below, and U.S. dates will be announced soon.

Tracklist:

Plastic Paperbacks

The Glitter Prize

Licenses To Hide

So Caroline

Take Care Of Yourself

Cleopatra Street

For The Ashes

Accidental Architecture

She's Coming Down Again!

Notion 99

Holiday Hours

Enewetak

Europe Tour Dates:

Sept. 28,  Sala Stereo (Murcia, Spain)
Sept. 30, Heineken (Madrid, Spain)
Oct. 1,Wah Wah (Valencia, Spain)
Oct. 2, Apolo 2 (Barcelona, Spain)
Oct. 4, Divan du Monde (Paris, France)
Oct. 5, Garage (London, UK)
Oct. 6, Trix (Antwerp, Belgium)
Oct. 7, Botanique Orangerie (Brussels, Belgium)
Oct. 8, Kazerne Fonck (Liege, Belgium)
Oct. 9,Melkweg Sugar Factory (Amsterdam, Holland)
Oct. 10, Vera (Groningen, Holland)
Oct. 12, Tivoli de Helling, (Utrecht, Holland)
Oct. 13, Gleis 22 (Munster, Germany)
Oct. 14, Comet Club (Berlin, Germany)
Oct. 15, Silber Club (Hamburg, Germany)
Oct. 17, Inkonst (Malmo, Sweden)
Oct. 19, Debaser Slussen (Stockholm, Sweden)
Oct. 20, Sticky Fingers (Gothenburg, Sweden)
Oct. 21, John Dee (Oslo, Norway)
Oct. 22, Kvarteret (Bergen, Norway)
Oct. 23, Blaest (Trondheim, Norway)
Oct. 25, Tavastia (Helsinki, Finland)
Oct. 26, Klubi (Turku, Finland)

[Photo Credit: Christine Taylor]

Girl depicted on latest VW album sleeve sues because band didn't determine appropriate release of image. Somewhere, some place, a NW grunge band (and Sub Pop) is smiling.

By Fred Mills

Jesus Christ, while we're out getting booze for the annual Blurt-sponsored Nude Slip ‘N Slide Olympics, all hell breaks loose in the music world. To wit:

According to Pitchfork and TMZ, the so-called "hot chick"* who appears on the front sleeve of Vampire Weekend's underwhelming recent album Contra just filed a lawsuit yesterday in Los Angeles' Superior Court against the band. The "chick" - Kirsten Kennis, apparently photographed in 1983 - says that any release the band or the original photographer may have obtained is a forgery.

Ergo, Vampire is on the hook for not vetting matters completely, and she wants $2 million dollars for that particular revelation. Who wants to bet that TMZ comes up with a current photo of Kennis like, by tomorrow morning, and that somebody (maybe Kennis herself) nabs a nice paycheck?

More (or less) to the point, who remembers that great controversy surrounding grunge band Tad's 1991 album 8-Way Santa and the lawsuit surrounding the "found" cover photo? In that instance the hippie whose old Polaroid snapshot was snagged for recycling, record sleeve style, decided to sue because he'd become a born again Christian and just didn't like the image that his earlier self was projecting.

Now THAT was entertainment; this is just business as usual circa 2010. Who else wants to be a celebrity for 15 minutes?

By the way, everybody hold on to their VW records. If memory serves, those Tad albums skyrocketed in price a few years after the lawsuit. We, in fact, netted an extra 50 cents above the usual trade-in price of four bucks on eBay.

* "hot" if your idea of hot is a 13-year old aspiring tennis player... come to think of it, that's about the right demographic for Vampire Weekend!

Another mostly self-recorded effort from the San Francisco raconteur.

By Blurt Staff

San Francisco singer-songwriter Kelley Stoltz hasn't exactly been invisible of late; he's done a fair amount of production and recently turned up on the "Company Men" project mounted by Stephanie Finch and Chuck Prophet. Still, it has been over two years since his last album, 2008's Circular Sounds, so we're happy to report the incoming status of his new Sub Pop release, To Dreamers, due Oct. 12.

While Stoltz's nigh-religious reverence for all things Beatles, Beach Boys and Kinks has been at the fore in the past, To Dreamers blends a bit more post-punk abandon into its layered everyman pop. Tasteful horn adornments blow against tom-tom beats and 12-string guitars meet reverbed mellotrons, under Stoltz's warm vocals.

As on prior albums, he plays most of the instruments heard on To Dreamers himself, though two of the songs here were recorded by Kelley and his band live in the studio. One of these is a cover version of the ‘60s nugget "Baby I Got News for You," by "Big Boy" Pete Miller, who performs on the recording, dusting off the very valve amps and guitar used on the 1965 original, to add vocals and fuzz.

Stoltz, now a veritable godfather to the burgeoning San Francisco under/over-ground (folks like Thee Oh Sees, Sonny & the Sunsets, The Fresh & Onlys), has blazed a path since the late ‘90s as a home-recording guru and multi-instrumentalist.No slouch on the live front, he was asked to open the Raconteurs first US tour in 2006, toured the USA and Europe with the Dirtbombs in 2008, and through a twist of volcano ash-cloud karma, was the support act to childhood heroes Echo and the Bunnymen, in 2010. His songs have been used for international ad campaigns for Volvo and Marriott Hotels, as well as in television and movies.

Our reporter stepped into the decidedly Lynch-ian visual world - part of the Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse musical milieu - on July 15 at the Morrison Hotel Gallery in NYC.

By A.D. Amorosi

Dark Night of the Soul, the audio/visual collaboration from Danger Mouse, David Lynch and the late Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse has had one tough mean labor before its eventual birth: legal wrangling with the Mouse and EMI; a subsequent DNOTS book of Lynch images with a blank CD-R and a download code; the suicides of Linkous and another of its vocal participants, Vic Chesnutt.

Not only did you never think Dark Night of the Soul would ever come out. You weren't so sure it should get released.

Yet when the Mouse/Lynch/Linkous project came out on July 13 (reviewed here) - a noirish synthetic set of dreamy melodies with singers such as Gruff Rhys, Julian Casablancas, Black Francis, Iggy Pop, Suzanne Vega and Flaming Lips - its most auspicious element, Lynch's images, got their own unveiling with a private exhibit of photography at the Morrison Hotel Gallery at Bowery and Bleecker in Manhattan. 50+ original images were displayed as DNOTS played in the background.

The Morrison Hotel - the neighboring gallery of John Varvatos' clothing store takeover of CBGB  - is not usually regarded as a high, fine art space per se. Instead, it usually lends itself to album cover art exhibitions or rare rock photo events. "That's exactly why we wanted to do this," says Peter Blachley, one of the Morrison Hotel gallery's owners and founders. "Certainly, it's tied in to the music. (EMI, the project's label, involved the gallery rather than David Lynch.) But this is not our usual show. We want to prove to audiences that we're not just classic rock; not just Rolling Stone cover art or lost photos of Jimi Hendrix as great as those things are. Showing a David Lynch project is perfect for what we hope to achieve in the future"

Lynch's photographs for the DNOTS project were decidedly Lynchian. Grouped in sets of four (and three in some cases), each is supposed to correspond to tracks throughout the album. Backgrounds of evergreen-ing lawns, rugs and Astro-turf hold the evidence of blood lust and dice-filled vice. Kitsch beach-combing photos of early-‘60s crinoline-wearing bouffant-having lovelies at a barbecue include a stranger in their midst; a flame-headed reveler. Sepia-toned photos of Munch-like screams, unmade bedrooms, solitary guns and toy baby lambs at attention are amongst the most unsettling shadow images.

As you pass each set, the other thing more disquieting than the images is the softly elegiac music that blows like a hot wind through the exhibition.

 The Dark Night Of The Soul exhibition is currently showing at the Morrison Hotel Gallery. Go to the gallery's official website for details, where you can also view a number of the Lynch photographs.

Popular music magazine announces its coverage shift in order to chase the Bagpipe Music fan demographic.

By Fred Mills

Here's some news guaranteed to set you off merrily down the weekend rabbit hole: your friendly neighborhood BLURT, that bastion of rock ‘n' roll irreverence and lucidity, is officially schizophrenic.

Well, maybe. But that's the message we're getting from our readership at least. In our just-completed BLURT poll - you can always view the current one in the left-hand margin of the home page; the latest one involves the just announced Guided By Voices reunion and what other classic reunions you might want to see - we asked you what musical genres should we concentrate on if we decided to fine-tune our journalistic focus. And the response was pretty amazing, with over 150 readers casting ballots (by comparison, most of our polls get in the neighborhood of 60-90 responses).

However, as the diagram below clearly shows, there was about as much consensus over what you want to read in BLURT as there is among Tea Party members over what specific reforms they are looking for. Just looking at raw numbers and percentages, Americana is the technical "winner," with 18 votes and 11% of the total. But with several others netting in the 8%, 9% and 10% ranges - Power Pop, Punk, Post-Punk, Post-rock and, er, Bagpipe Music were clear favorites too - that 11% seems pretty meaningless.

The fact that Jamband and Queercore tied, at 4% each, is kinda intriguing, however.

So we'll just keep on doing whatever the fuck we feel like doing. We might even decide to invert the results and start covering the stuff that got the fewest votes - hello, fans of Hip-hop and Rap, Hair Metal, Mainstream Country and Pop! We'll have to change our name to USA Today or something to reflect our kinder, gentler, blander approach, but hey, that's music journalism in the 21^st century for you, no longer merely irreverent but borderline irrelevant, too.

But wait - maybe it's YOU who's schizoid, not us. After all, you're the folks who actually bothered to answer the poll...

Something about a beaver hunt? Or squid fishing?

By Blurt Staff

Will Oldham (playing a cartoon beaver), the Drive-By Truckers (playing cartoon themselves) and several other Americana icons (as assorted ‘toons) are set to appear in this season's final episode of Adult Swim program Squidbillies. Yes, the cartoon show is exactly what the title sounds like it's about. The episode is titled, fittingly, "America: Why I Love Her."

You may spot among the players or voices Jackyl (yes, THAT Jackyl - the sets-chainsaw-to-barstools Southern rockers, Lucinda Williams, Rhett Miller, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Hayes Carll, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Split Lip Rayfield and Todd Snider. (Thanks to Pitchfork for the tip.)

New band includes members from Unwound and Golden Bears; album due in October.

By Blurt Staff

Corin Tucker from Sleater-Kinney is set to unveil the Corin Tucker Band, featuring Sara Lund (Unwound) and Seth Lorinczi (Golden Bears). Their debut album 1,000 Years drops October 5 on Kill Rock Stars.

The new record reportedly picks up where Sleater-Kinney left off after breaking up in 2006 following an 11-year year run. In the meantime, Tucker became a stay-at-home mom. Then in early 2009 shewas performing at a benefit show in her hometown of Portland, Ore., airing out a couple of new songs. Another benefit -- and another pair of unheard tunes -- followed a few weeks later. The reaction from friends, fans and perfect strangers was unanimous.

"Everyone was saying, 'Oh, it'd be cool if you made a record'," Tucker recalls. "So I thought, Yeah! I should!"

A year later 1,000 Years reveals, in the words of Tuckers label, "the one-time Riot Grrrl as she is nearly 20 years after she began her career: as a full-grown Riot Woman. Old enough to trace the complexities of adult life, love and family, but still young enough to know better."

Ergo: "wrenching rhythms and hard-angle melodies, the slashing guitars and wildly passionate vocals. Only now the hard edges come nestled in lush weaves of acoustic guitars, keyboards, interlocking percussion, even cellos and violins... restless songs for restless spirits."

"That's the artistic, itchy personality," Tucker says. "You're constantly trying to do something different."

Her band will tour to support the album but it won't be the crushing regimen of years previous.

"It's a challenge to have a musical career and to be a mom," she notes, "but it's awkward for every working mom, so the story continues. I can't do a crazy 3-month tour now. We're definitely playing shows, but it's more like a week here, a week there. I don't have the mentality that I'm going to change the world. I've enjoyed the movements I've been a part of - I think I did something for them, too. But now I'm more moderate in my career goals. I want to enjoy my life. I don't have to turn it over to the machine."

Track Listing:

1. 1,000 Years

2. Half A World Away

3. It's Aways Summer

4. Handed Love

5. Doubt

6. Dragon

7. Riley

8. Pulling Pieces

9. Thrift Store Coats

10. Big Goodbye

11. Miles Away

A brand new book on the late vocalist, Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter (Chicago Review Press), makes for a fascinating, and at times harrowing,  read.

By Stephen M. Deusner

What makes Karen Carpenter such a fascinating biographical subject is the very thing that has made most previous attempts to document her short, sad life so lacking. As they did while she was alive, her family has kept close guard over her and her image following her 1983 death of complications from anorexia nervosa, notoriously whitewashing some of the thornier conflicts between Karen, her brother Richard, and her mother Agnes. Richard in particular has been fastidious in discouraging any depictions that might reflect poorly on the rest of the Carpenters. When CBS commissioned Barry Morrow and later Cynthia Cherbak to write a TV movie about the late singer, they found themselves continually blocked and censored by her brother, who made changes to scenes even as they were filming them.

Randy L. Schmidt's new biography, "Little Girl Blue," begins with the story of that ill-fated TV production, detailing the writers' frustrations and Richard's manipulations in what is a revealing and startling introduction. What he does not make explicit-nor does he need to-is that this strict control over image and substance did not arise after Karen's death, but informed every single aspect of her life. She was born the second of two children to Harold and Agnes Carpenter in 1950; her father is barely a presence in "Little Girl Blue," ostensibly silenced by his overbearing wife, who loudly favored her son and promoted his career aggressively. When the family moved from Connecticut to Los Angeles, the primary reason was professional: the then-teenaged Richard would have many more opportunities in California than on the East Coast.

Even as the Carpenters became quickly successful as a musical act, notching whitebread hits like "We've Only Just Begun" and "(They Long to Be) Close To You" in the early 1970s, Agnes seems to have viewed Karen as a supporting player to Richard, who co-wrote, arranged, recorded, and produced all the hits. Karen was just the singer, the complement to her bother. But she possessed a deep, smoky voice and an intuitive talent for interpretation, which made her the face of the sibling act. In her mother's eyes, however, she became an active obstacle to Richard's success. And herein lies the strange contradiction that created so much conflict in the family: Karen was beloved by millions of fans but most wanted the love of her mother, while her brother received Agnes' undistracted affection but never got the popular recognition he felt he deserved.

As Schmidt claims in the introduction, "Little Girl Blue" is promisingly unauthorized. He writes that Richard had agreed not to "discourage others from contributing" to this book, "which is as close to an endorsement as anyone could hope for." With that implicit, hands-off authorization, Schmidt has written the fullest biography of Karen to date, one that draws on and greatly expands Ray Coleman's 1994 authorized "The Carpenters: The Untold Story." Schmidt has obviously researched his book deeply, drawing from previously available source material as well as from new, extensive interviews with friends from every stage of her life-pre- and post-fame, pre- and post-eating disorder-to get fuller, occasionally conflicting accounts of her career: the early success, endless touring, doomed romances, drop-off in popularity, shelved solo album, and ultimately her death.

"Little Girl Blue" doesn't change the sad shape of Karen's story, but fills in some of the holes and adds vital new information to our understanding of this contradictory and conflicted artist. More than that, Schmidt recognizes that Karen often gets lost in that story, remembered more as a pop-culture cautionary tale than a flesh-and-bone human. We know how her story ends, but Schmidt has made it as absorbing as it is deeply humane.

The recent When You're Strange  - A Film about The Doors (written and directed by Tom DiCillo, with narration by Johnny Depp)  is a mixed bag, but for Lizard King neophytes and even the stray acolyte, many of its charms prove irresistible. See the trailer, below.

By Mary Leary

Familiar to many, the saga of Jim Morrison and The Doors parallels the Icarus myth neatly enough for any ancient dramatist. Is anyone still anxious to replay its more depressing aspects? Hey, millions must crave footage of skyscrapers crumbling and California shredding into the ocean, or Hollywood wouldn't keep upchucking them (leaving aside propagandist theories). And apparently there are people who can watch Unexplained Mysteries or tune into Art Bell without laughing until tears mar their shirt collars.

During some of the segments, When You're Strange mirrors Unexplained Mysteries' cheesiness. And jarring imagery of Vietnam, MLK, RFK, and Charles Manson underscores the Doors' role as Greek chorus and participant(s) in the ‘60s' chaotic trajectory. Viewers already familiar with the band may feel the question's over-begged. On the other hand, despite Morrison's glances at the camera, he dove into the fray more whole-heartedly, with less concern for his well-being, than just about anyone; bringing in aspects of gospel ecstasy he may have gleaned from Elvis worship and foreshadowing mosh pit abandon. DiCillo apparently felt a heavy hand best matched Jim's rise and fall.

In a gentler world, a biopic might cobble Jim's scribbling and filmmaking from an earlier age. For one thing, given his father's disapprobation, and his own insecurities about singing, when - and how - did he first let out a roar? But Morrison's muses sang with less engaging brilliance than those of, say, John Lennon. His most consistent, best-realized output sprang from collaboration with Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore. For the creatively inquisitive, the egalitarianism the Doors maintained until Morrison's addled ego muddied the idyll is one of When You're Strange‘s big draws and inspirations.

The film reveals an abundance of performance footage, along with previously private archival film of the band. There's even an intriguing glimpse at one of Morrison's film school efforts, which looks to have been influenced by Un Chien Andalou.

Sitting through the whole spectacle reveals the dedication, and occasional prophecy, at the core of the carnival barker.  It shows the strangely inevitable similarity of his fate with that of rebellious victims like Lenny Bruce. It makes you wonder if Patti Smith, Lux Interior, and Kurt Cobain could have channeled such free fire without his example ("You're all a bunch of fuckin' idiots! You're all a bunch of slaves!" screams Morrison in '69 at a frustrated Miami crowd, before all hell breaks loose).  "Smell(s) like teen spirit," anyone?

The roar falls to a near-whisper for conversations with Morrison's father and sister. These indicate the poet and probable alcoholic's isolation within his family, and the gulf between himself and his father. The concern of Morrison's insightful sister, along with the expressions on Admiral Morrison's face, penetrate more deeply than the most  strident footage. Even snaps of young Jim -- that could pass for a teenaged Mark Wahlberg -- aren't enough to make me crack wise.

Special Features: Theatrical Trailer, "Conversations With..."

A new book, The Unlikely Disciple, finds author Kevin Roose going undercover at the "holiest" and most conservative university in the country.

By John B. Moore

The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinners Semester at America's Holiest University (Grand Central Publishing) could not possibly have been written by anyone else.

Sure, the journalist/author Kevin Roose is a novice (he was still in college when he researched and started writing this book), but that's exactly what makes this expose on college life at an evangelical university come off genuine: Roose has none of the cynicism and practiced story-telling clichés of a longtime reporter.

The premise is so obvious, it's a wonder no one has attempted before. Surprisingly, he manages to turn out a book that's refreshingly original. Roose, a sometime Quaker from a family of Liberals is your average Left-wing kid at Brown University. A journalism student, he decides to spend a semester imbedded as a student at Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University - one of the most conservative evangelical colleges in the country. Roose didn't exactly lie about who he was, but wasn't exactly forthcoming either, saying little more than he was a transfer student from Rhode Island.

Some of the findings are predictable: Homophobia? Check. Plenty of prayer circles? You bet. Irrational understanding of how the real world works?  Is the Pope... never mind. But he also found kids who are questioning the rules they are living under. Like his hall mate from Jersey who thinks about sex 24/7, knows he will likely lose his virginity over the summer and feels immense guilt over it. Liberty even has a few Democrats (gasp).

Roose does a phenomenal job of taking a potentially one-dimensional study and adding in all the details, highlighting not only the expected, but the unforeseen as well. Roose even managed to get one of the last interviews with Falwell before the one-time Conservative kingmaker died.

We suggest you take the "parties and special events" option...

By Blurt Staff

After making a "splash" two years ago with his Internet program, Brownie Troop Fishing Show (www.brownietroopfs.com), Dean Ween (of Ween, duh) got his formal certification as a Captain from the Federal authorities and has been offering his services as a fishing guide. While Brownie Troop Fishing Show mainly followed his exploits on the Delaware River, his Guide Service is also very active in the Atlantic Ocean, operating out of Belmar, NJ.

Advises Captain Ween, "I am fortunate enough to live in a very productive area for both freshwater and saltwater fishing. I have been obsessed with fishing since I was a kid and have spent a good deal of my life fishing my local waters exhaustively. I am also lucky enough to be surrounded by some of the area's finest and most experienced anglers, giving me accurate reports and information that will help us get the most out of our time on the water."

Ween's stats:

*Captain Mickey Melchiondo

*USCG #2863698

*Red Cross Certified in First Aid and CPR

*Pennsylvania licensed fishing guide

*Pretty good conversationalist

*Fully insured

Dean, you had us with "good conversationalist."

For complete details, including a killer gallery of Ween and his myriad fishy conquests, go to the website of Mickey's Guide Service. You can find out the types of fishing trips he currently offers.

Coming up for July - September: summer bottom fishing, which Ween describes as "fishing for the dinner table" in a concerted hunt for Summer Flounder and Black Sea Bass. "My 2 favorite eating fish can be caught in abundance during the dog days of summer," says Ween. "We will be fishing abnormal bottom structure for doormat Summer Flounder and Black Sea Bass and keeping everything within the legal limits for the grill! Expect a relaxing day on the water and a lot of fish!"

Worth noting too, is that Ween is also happy to play host to parties and special events. To wit:

"Someone you know getting married? Has a special birthday? Whatever? These trips are the kind we dig the most. We can arrange any kind of fishing outing you like, including chartering 100 foot fishing boats for all night deep sea fishing trips and heavy drinking and eating for up to 50 people. A fishing trip is the best gift one can receive in my opinion, whether it's for one person or a huge gathering. Drop me a line or give me a call and we can discuss your options, and there are many."

Here's hoping those options including blasting out Ween live bootlegs from decktop during the aforementioned "heavy drinking"...

Union Park, Chicago, July 16 - among the performers: Broken Social Scene, Modest Mouse, Liars, Robyn, El-P, Tallest Man On Earth.

Text by Valerie Paschall; photos by Kyle Gustafson

For the past several years, the Pitchfork Festival has held some sort of retrospective event to kick things off. The "Don't Look Back" series enticed music lovers from all over the country to see bands like Mission of Burma, Sonic Youth and Public Enemy play their classic albums (from the 1980s) in their entirety. Last year's "Write the Night" event allowed fans to pick the set list for Yo La Tengo and Flaming Lips who have over twenty years of material in their pocket. This year, Pitchfork added a comedy stage and desisted with the retrospective element that had always highlighted night number one. It showed: the audience seemed noticeably younger than in past years. The college radio crowd that has always made up a sizable chunk of the Pitchfork Festival audience utterly overwhelmed the grounds of Chicago's Union Park.

Tallest Man On Earth:

For the most part, the age disparity between Pitchfork's target audience and their actual writers did not appear to matter. The audience generally gave warm receptions to both new artists (like Dylanesque songwriter Tallest Man on Earth) and old (since the biggest crowds were for Broken Social Scene and Modest Mouse), but then there were moments like the Liars set. Pitchfork has been heaping accolades on L.A.'s noisy rockers for the past ten years, including a "Best New Music" nod for this year's Sisterworld, but aside from a small mosh pit and a few isolated dancing kids, the audience primarily stared with confusion at Liars' gyrating frontman, Angus Andrews.

Liars:

Robyn:

But where Liars failed to collectively move feet and El-P had to slowly but surely convince people to get their hands in the air, Swedish pop wunderkind Robyn lit up the park with ease. One concertgoer referred to her as "Pitchfork's Lady Gaga" and the way she danced around the stage to her dance club ready beats, mugging for photographers and flirting with the audience, she proved that she deserves to be at least that ubiquitous if not more so.

Broken Social Scene:

The two biggest crowds of the evening were, predictably, for Broken Social Scene and Modest Mouse. The two performances could not have been more different. Broken Social Scene's Forgiveness Rock Record-heavy set was overwhelmingly joyful. Ten or so members of the giant Canadian collective cycled on and off the stage, as needed while Kevin Drew spouted happy hippie comments like, "We love this city and we love this country" and "Hope isn't a word, it's a responsibility." Every song they played sounded full of energy and fantastic with only female vocalist Lori Little seemed to be sleeping on her feet as she crooned. This contrasted mightily with the Modest Mouse set. Amidst a set of slower numbers, punctuated by more spastic tunes like "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes," "Dashboard" and "The View," Isaac Brock put in his bid for curmudgeon of the festival. "How is everybody doing?" asked Brock, and upon hearing the applause answered, "Oh. Well that's not very good at all." Whether this was his impetus for saving most of his energy for the set bookends was unclear, but his disdain for everything from audience requests to the airborne glowsticks was unmistakable and the set reflected that vitriol.

Union Park, Chicago, July 17 - among the performers: Raekwon (above), Wolf Parade, Delorean, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Kurt Vile, LCD Soundsystem, Titus Andronicus.

Text by Valerie Paschall; photos by Kyle Gustafson

It's easy to associate intense heat with festivals located in the desert or on a farm in the deep south, but nobody expects 90+ degrees in Chicago. Still, the Pitchfork organizers did every honorable move in the book: knocking down concert prices, handing out free bottles during sets and rolling in a Greyhound so that people could step into the air conditioning if need be.

Concertgoers find ways to cool off...

Delorean:

Titus Andronicus:

Of course, the organizers couldn't have predicted this heat wave months in advance but Saturday's sets mirrored the high temperatures with a lot of high-energy bands and almost no reprieve. Free Energy started the day off with a bounce (or a "Bang Pop") and although New Jersey's Real Estate allowed people to cool down to their beautifully hazy tunes, they were followed by the dance-inducing electro-pop of Delorean and the punk-meets-classic rock stomp of Titus Andronicus. More so than any of Friday's acts, Titus Andronicus inspired crowd-wide sing-a-longs and extraordinarily impassioned dancing. Never have lines like "You will always be a loser" and "Your life is over" been delivered or received with such joy. Every person on stage (including three of the members of their friends in Hallelujah the Hills) appeared to be having the time of their life playing for the sweaty mass in front of them.

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion:

Kurt Vile:

This was also the first day of music on the Balance stage. This side stage allows concertgoers to see bands that are off the beaten path or haven't picked up quite the following that the bands on the other two stages have. Among the gems: WHY? followed up Raekwon's spitfire delivery of Wu-Tang standards and solo material on the Aluminum stage with loping delivery of his wickedly clever lyrics. Dam-Funk coupled an old soulful voice with electronic instruments for an intriguing listen. Then there was Kurt Vile, who revealed new shining layers to his muddy rock songs while sounding even more thunderous. Never has a harp rocked so much as during his opener, "Hunchback," and the set just got better from there.

Panda Bear will probably receive the "disappointment of the festival" nod from everyone who was expecting too much. Watching Lennox stand behind his samplers, immobile, works well in a small club where his jaw-droppingly gorgeous voice can overwhelm a room and his psychedelic visual projections can do the heavy lifting. In front of several thousand people, singing untested and decidedly more experimental material, this approach doesn't quite fly.

Wolf Parade:

LCD Soundsystem:

But his set was quickly forgotten as soon as LCD Soundsystem took the stage. Unlike the previous night's headlining curmudgeon (Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse), James Murphy didn't take his sarcasm out on the crowd. When he forgot the words to "Pow Pow," he turned "And we have these twelve minute songs and they get kind of repetitive" into lyrics before blasting back into the chorus. Everyone approved. Every single song was a crowd pleaser and the energy onstage and off was electric until slowed everything down with "New York I Love You," including a little bit of "Empire State of Mind" at the end. If this truly is James Murphy's final album and tour, everyone in the crowd, in the style of "Losing My Edge," can cite seeing LCD Soundsystem at Pitchfork and say, "I was there."

(festival crowd)

Union Park, Chicago, July 18 - among the performers: Pavement (Stephen Malkmus, above), Surfer Blood, St. Vincent, Major Lazer, Local Natives, Beach House, Here We Go Magic, Best Coast, Big Boi, Here We Go Magic, Girls.

Text by Valerie Paschall; photos by Kyle Gustafson

Unmistakably, the story of Pitchfork Day Three is the Pavement Reunion. The older crowd that had been invisible on days one and two came out of the woodwork to see Pavement for the first time in ten years to join the people seeing Pavement for the first time. Unfortunately, all of the above had to first sit through an intro from former Chicago shock jock "Rockin'" Ryan Murphy who was brought in, seemingly by Pavement, for the express purpose of ruffling the crowd's feathers. The crowd booed him mercilessly as he referred to Pitchfork as "The Minor Leagues," and spouted some outdated early-‘90s philosophies on what constitutes "making it" in music, bemoaning that he could never "break" Pavement. 

Pavement (Stephen Malkmus, above; Spiral Stairs, below):

 Murphy must have known full well that Pavement's opening sing-a-long to almost-hit "Cut Your Hair" would rank in magnitude with any stadium anthem from the 90s radio successes. Everyone had been waiting for this moment and Pavement then turned in a set as rife with deep cuts as with hits. The set was decidedly heavy on Slanted & Enchanted tracks (one of which included a cameo by Broken Social Scene's Brendan Canning), but every Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain song (and there were five) sparked the most impassioned sing-a-longs. Still, the most fun moments of the set came courtesy of Bob Nastanovich. The auxiliary percussionist and occasional vocalist reveled in getting to shout along during tracks like "Kennel District" and "Conduit for Sale!" before Stephen Malkmus finally calmed the crowd down with the depressing failure anthem "Here" and the low-key "Hexx." No matter what anyone else did that day, nothing was going to pack the emotional punch of that Pavement reunion.

Here We Go Magic:

Local Natives:

Big Boi:

Major Lazer:

Few other acts that day even tried, although after 4pm, the sets got exponentially better.  Late sets from Big Boi and Major Lazer turned Union Park into a giant party. Big Boi proclaimed that the energy was "incredible" and gave the audience a fun set which included both Outkast hits and his own solo material. Major Lazer turned in a graphic overwhelming stage show that included Chinese dragons, female dancers, mimed sex acts on a ladder and Diplo steering the whole crazy boat. It's unclear that there were actual songs, but everyone was having too much fun to care. Percussion-heavy noise duo Lightning Bolt sparked a wild mosh pit as Bryan Chippendale's obscenely fast drumming and eerily distorted vocals moved the previously serene concertgoers to madmen. 

St. Vincent:

Surfer Blood:

Best Coast:

Beach House:

Girls:

Granted, the concertgoers could not be anything but serene considering the sets that preceded Lightning Bolt. The sets ranged from pleasant (Best Coast) and woozy (Beach House) to outright boring (Girls.) But the worst moment of the morning came from singer-songwriter Cass McCombs. McCombs already looked strung out, but managed to sound relatively enjoyable. Then, he introduced a song that one can only hope is either a cover or a brand new song because he pulled out a lyrics sheet and read the words from the sheet. Nobody should be coming into a festival show with that sort of unprofessionalism. 

***

More of Valerie Paschall's writing can be found on the web at:  http://www.dcist.com and  http://www.theyellowstereo.com

More of Kyle Gustafson's photography can be found on the web at: http://www.photokyle.com/ and http://kylegustafson.com/ . Twitter him too: @kgustafson

Bassist (above, 2^nd from right) for the legendary power pop icons passes away at the age of 59.

By Fred Mills

It can be a cold, cruel world out there sometimes, and today that world just got a little bit colder with the cruel news of the passing of Big Star bassist Andy Hummel. In the wake of a Twitter post two hours ago from the Posies Ken Stringfellow announcing the death, the LA Weekly and DFW.com are confirming that Hummel, 59, died following a two-year battle with cancer.

The latter outlet's Preston Jones reported that he "just got off the phone with Ardent Studios founder John Fry," and that the Big Star friend and producer added that funeral services will take place on Wednesday.

Writes Jones:

Hummel's death comes just four months -- almost to the day -- after [Alex] Chilton's sudden passing on March 17, as this year's South by Southwest music festival got going. An impromptu tribute to Big Star was pulled together and Hummel traveled to Austin to perform during the event. Fry said Hummel was also slated to play a Big Star reunion [in Memphis] gig in May, but was too ill to make the trip.

No other details have been disclosed, but the confirmation appears to have come from several additional corners, including via Entertainment Weekly's Music Mix blog, which reports that Rhino Records, which released the recent Big Stat boxed set, also confirmed Hummel's death. We'll report more information as we learn it.

UPDATE: A few more details have emerged since last night. According to Bob Mehr of the Memphis Commercial-Appeal, Hummel passed away at his Fort Worth, TX, home, and had been receiving treatment for the cancer since learning about it a couple of years ago, but following a reccent hip operation it was determined that the cancer had spread and advanced to the terminal stage.

John Fry told Mehr, At that point Andy elected to accept hospice care and spent the last couple weeks at home with his family." Added Big Star drummer Jody Stephens, "He was such an inspiration. I'd known Andy since the 7th grade. What an impact he had on my life. He will be sorely missed."

The Commercial-Appeal report indicates that Hummel is survived by awife, two sons, a daughter, a granddaughter, and a sister and a brother. Services are Wednesday at the First United Methodist Church in Weatherford Texas, , and in lieu of flowers the family suggests donations be made in Hummel's name to the American Cancer Society or the American Liver Foundation.

Big Star at BLURT:

"#1 Band" feature

"However They Got There" feature

Keep an Eye on the Sky boxed set review

Alex Chilton obituary

Alex Chilton SXSW tribute concert

"December Boys Got It Bad" feature

"The Most Delicious Hours" is aptly titled...

By Blurt Staff

Check out the awesome new video from songstress Shannon Stephens - titled "The Most Delicious Hours" it comes from her new album The Breadwinner (Asthmatic Kitty Records). It's directed by Glan Hwang and in addition to Stephens it features Jesse James Pattison and Elena Hansen.

Shannon Stephens - The Most Delicious Hours from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.

Statements - technically, non-statements - issued by both label and band. Meanwhile, TMZ still has not posted a current photo of the gal.

By Fred Mills

A couple of days ago we posted the news of a lawsuit filed in L.A. against Vampire Weekend by a lady called Kirsten Kennis - she's the circa-1983 gal who appears on the front sleeve of the band's recent Contra album, and among her $2 million claim is that the band did not secure the necessary legal releases to use the photo.

Read the details on all that, plus how it's an uncanny flashback to that kick-ass lawsuit in the early ‘90s involving grunge band Tad and Sub Pop Records, right here.

This morning Pitchfork is reporting that the band's label, XL, has issued a statement about the lawsuit:

"As is standard practice, Vampire Weekend and XL Recordings licensed the rights to use the photo on the cover of Contra pursuant to a license agreement that contains representations and warranties authorizing this use of the photo. Now that a lawsuit has been filed, we look forward to having the matter resolved in Court. We will be filing our response after we have had an opportunity to review the allegations. Consistent with our practice, we will not be commenting further about the pending litigation at this time."

Everyone "looks forward" to resolving things in Court, yes. Meanwhile, over in England, VW frontman Ezra Koenig offered a somewhat guarded statement to the NME, saying:

"I think I can speak for all of us and say this is the first time any of us have ever been sued, so we're still learning how it works. There's so many things we could say about it but given we have no experience of it we're just keeping conversations to a journal for now, which is a little frustrating....There's nothing we can say about it. We're not trying to be mysterious. I imagine in the next few months there'll be plenty to talk about. Given it's our first time we just want to do it properly."

Getting sued for two million bucks for the first time can be tough, Ezra, indeed. It'll be easier next time around, however.

By Blurt Staff

Dizzee Rascal, The xx, Wild Beasts, Laura Marling, Paul Weller and more.

Er, technically that's the BARCLAYCARD Mercury Prize. (Personally we'd vote for calling it the Jiffy Lube Verizon Dominos Mercury Prize, but hey...) Anyway, the usual cadre of UK critics and industry tastemakers have announced this year's raft of nominees and you can see the full list below. Isn't it interesting that Speech Debelle won last year and then was promptly never heard from again? Follow the above link for more details on the annual award.

Biffy Clyro: Only Revolutions
Corinne Bailey Rae: The Sea
Dizzee Rascal: Tongue N' Cheek
Foals: Total Life Forever
I Am Kloot: Sky at Night
Kit Downes Trio: Golden
Laura Marling: I Speak Because I Can
Mumford & Sons: Sigh No More
Paul Weller: Wake Up the Nation
The xx: The xx
Villagers: Becoming a Jackal
Wild Beasts: Two Dancers

Happening Wednesday at 11 am. RATM and Oberst concert to follow on Friday night.

By Blurt Staff

Following up on our previous coverage of The Sound Strike - the collective spearheaded by Rage Against The Machine's Zack de la Rocha to raise awareness about, and prompt boycotts agains, Arizona and ita looming immigration law - we've gotten word that tomorrow, Wednesday July 21^st, at 11am PST, Sound Strike will be holding a press conference about the issue as well as the July 23 benefit concert featuring Rage and Conor Oberst. On hand will be de la Rocha, Tom Morello and Oberst. Here are the details, courtesy Sound Strike:

What:
The Sound Strike Press Conference

When: Wednesday July 21st 11am

Where: Hollywood Palladium
6215 W. Sunset Blvd. Hollywood, CA

Who:
Zack de la Rocha, Vocalist Rage Against the Machine
Tom Morello, Guitarist Rage Against the Machine
Conor Oberst, Vocalist Mystic Valley Band
Dolores Huerta, Co-Founder United Farm Workers of America


SOUNDSTRIKE ARTISTS RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, CONOR OBERST AND THE MYSTIC VALLEY BAND HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE REGARDING BENEFIT CONCERT TO SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS FIGHTING ARIZONA ANTI-IMMIGRANT LAW SB 1070.  

LOS ANGELES, CA July 21: Rage Against the Machine will play their first concert in Los Angeles in 10 years at the Hollywood Palladium Friday with all proceeds going to benefit Arizona organizations fighting SB 1070. Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band will also perform.

Benefit concert performers will be joined by long time civil and immigrant rights activists Tom Seanz, President of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), Dolores Huerta, Co-Founder of the United Farm Workers (UFW), Arizona grass roots leader Sal Reza of Puente, and other community leaders.

This will be the Sound Strike's first official press conference.

The Sound Strike artist boycott of Arizona has gained international attention and support. Hundreds of artists have committed to exercise their conscious and their collective power to both reverse the punitive, discriminatory and misguided Arizona law as well as to help lead a more productive national debate on diversity and unity.

Sound Strike participant and Rage vocalist Zack de la Rocha said, "SB 1070 if enacted would legalize racial profiling in Arizona. This law runs counter to music's essential purpose, which is to unite people and not divide them. We want to thank the artists of conscious that have joined the Sound Strike throughout the world who use their role as artists to stand for civil and human rights."

About The Sound Strike:
The mission of The Sound Strike is a call for Artist's to Boycott Arizona due to the passage the Sb1070 law. For more information please visit our website www.thesoundstrike.net

ARTISTS THAT HAVE JOINED THE SOUND STRIKE (PARTIAL LIST).

Nine Inch Nails · Chris Rock · Maroon 5 · Gogol Bordello · My Morning Jacket · Ben Harper · Ry Cooder · Pitbull · Steve Earle · Billy Bragg · Mia · Sweet Honey And The Rock · Anti-Flag · Throwing Muses · State Radio · Aztlan Underground · Dj Spooky...And Have Joined:
Cypress Hill · Juanes · Conor Oberst · Los Tigres Del Norte · Rage Against The Machine · Cafe Tacvba · Michael Moore · Kanye West · Calle 13 · Joe Satriani · Serj Tankian · Rise Against · Ozomatli · Sabertooth Tiger · Massive Attack · One Day As A Lion · Street Sweeper Social Club · Spank Rock · Sonic Youth · Tenacious D · The Coup

By Blurt Staff

Hey ladies - Grace Potter (above), Danielle Wald, Juliette Commagere and Sasha Grey all know how to rock a Blurt shurt - how about you? Send us a pic of you kitted out in one of our fine tees and we'll run 'em! And guys, don't be shy - we might even run your pics too...

M.I.A., LCD Soundsystem, Pavement, Ludacris, T.I., Joan Jett, Thievery Corporation, Chromeo, Jimmy Eat World, Yeasayer, Matt and Kim, Sleigh Bells, Neon Indian, Modeselektor, Die Antwoord - Sept. 25, be there.

By Blurt Staff

The annual Virgin Mobile Festival has been a fave of ours for some time now, not the least of the reasons being its proximity to the BLURT penthouse suite in Silver Spring, MD. A couple of years ago it was held at Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course, just a short limo ride away, featuring Nine Inch Nails, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Gogol Bordello, Cat Power, Iggy & the Stooges and more (you can read our review, w/exclusive photos, here).

Then last year for the fourth installment it was moved even closer, to Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, and just to mess with everybody's head, founder Richard Branson made it a free event, rechristening it the Virgin Mobile FreeFest and distributing over 35,000 tickets. Revelers took in Blink-198, Weezer, Franz Ferdinand, Public Enemy and others (check our review of the 2009 festival here).

So once again, the Virgin festival is back, taking place Sept. 25 at the Post Pavilion again, and yes, it's free again. The Baltimore Sun reports that among the acts performing on two stages and a dance area will be M.I.A., LCD Soundsystem, Pavement, Ludacris, T.I., Joan Jett, Thievery Corporation, Chromeo, Jimmy Eat World, Yeasayer, Matt and Kim, Sleigh Bells, Neon Indian, Modeselektor and Die Antwoord.

More than 30,000 tickets will be given away starting 10 a.m. Saturday (July 24) at Ticketfly. Don't shuffle around thinking about it; last year's free passes apparently were gone in a half hour. If you're a previous attendee you can plan on getting an email or text invite that will allow you to apply for a ticket early, on Friday.

Intriguingly, however, a "limited number" of reserved seats located on the pavilion will be sold - those will be priced at $125, and part of the proceeds will go to an unspecified charity.

Tony Palmer's 1972 European tour film finally available to consumers in August. Watch a preview clip, below.

By Blurt Staff

MVD Visual is bringing a rare concert film to DVD on August 31. Originally made in 1972 and directed by celebrated British filmmaker Tony Palmer, "Bird On A Wire" follows Leonard Cohen on his 1972 European tour and contains 17 classic performances, 4 poems and tour footage. As part of the deal, the digipak includes a reproduction of the '72 film poster, pictured below.

After massive re-editing, although not by Palmer, it was released in 1974, had a very limited run and then 'disappeared'. Like many films from the era it was thought that the original version had been lost, but in 2009, 294 rolls of film were discovered containing much of the original rushes and soundtrack of the 1972 film. Palmer was able to restore much of this footage and it is now available on DVD for the first time.

Palmer, a veteran of films on the Beatles, Cream, Hendrix and Zappa, picks up the story:

"When, in 2009, 294 cans of film were discovered in a warehouse in Hollywood, in rusted up cans that sometimes had to be hammered open, and these cans were shipped to me by, of all people, Frank Zappa's manager, I believed at first that nothing could be salvaged. The cans did not contain the negative (still lost); some of the prints were in black & white; and much of it had been cut to pieces and/or scratched beyond use. But when I finally opened one box and found most of the original sound dubbing tracks, I knew we had a hope of putting the jigsaw back together.

"So now, taking full advantage of the latest digital technology, this is what we have done, piece by piece, slowly and painstakingly. It has taken months and months, and probably has cost more than the original filming, and although it's by no means perfect, it's very close now to the original.

"Now, looking back after 38 years, my admiration for Cohen as a poet, a singer and as a man, remains undiminished. The original film was made with love, and I hope that quality once again shines through the restored film."

A brand new DVD goldmine for all you cracked-out late-night and Adult Swim TV addicts. BBC import? Check. Grand farce? Check. Shoestring budget? Check. South Park  endorsed? Check. This is your brain on Look Around You. Any questions? Watch video, below.

By Zachary Herrmann

If a child were to really be raised and educated on the faux educational videos of Look Around You, how would he or she turn out? Good Lord, perish the thought.

The BBC import's first season (aired in 2002, and now available as BBC Worldwide DVD Look Around You: Season One) is a goldmine for the cracked-out late-night TV set. Not shockingly, the show had a syndicated run on Adult Swim in early 2009, which would be about par-for-course for Cartoon Network's increasingly surreal, iconoclastic programming block. This adopted home on American television (the show also played on BBC-America) couldn't be any more appropriate - since its inception, Adult Swim has fostered anti-narrative and experimental, to great success, and yes, detriment as well.

Co-creators and co-starrers Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz (both f familiar faces for Edgar Wright enthusiasts) completely run amuck within the frame work of a 1970s or early '80s-style science program for the classroom. It's this incredible discipline and dedication to concept that really separates Look Around from the rest of Adult Swim's offerings, or most TV shows of any sort.

OK, and it's also pretty damn hilarious.

There's a grand farce of the Emperor's New Clothes kind to Look Around You, as if the players openly defy the audience and insists that it is everything it jokingly purports to be. No winking or elbow jabs needed. At a passing glance, the show could easily have been from a period artifact that slipped through the cracks.

As South Park co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone observe on a guest commentary track, it is this authenticity that proves to be the show's best (and funniest) weapon. There are plenty of enjoyable Nonsequiturs and just plain silly asides packed into each episode (they call them "modules"), but Popper and Sefinowicz get so much more mileage out of production design and structure.

The shoestring budget (which both creators attest to in the commentary) never causes the seams to unravel, as Look Around You perfectly replicates that which its parodies. With the exception of "Ghosts", and the zanier moments of the wonderful finale, "The Brain", you could blink at a few key moments and still believe little British children scribbled down the nonsensical lessons in a copybook some 30 years ago.

Narrator Nigel Lambert is the perfect guide throughout, and he carries the brunt of the performance remarkably. His soothing, trustworthy instruction is key to some of the best bits - the made up terms, which Lambert passes off without a second thought. Examples: An egg "metripulates" in boiling water, or a piece of lab equipment referred to as the "Jane Grey."

Popper and Serafinowicz thrive in the details of Look Around You: the alluded to next lessons, which of course, we never see; barely visible beaker labels; wonderfully faked stock footage. If there's any real failure in the show, it's that occasionally, you end up admiring it more than outright enjoying it. 

At around nine-minutes a-piece (barely), the episodes, excuse me, modules can feel glacial, which becomes an explicit time-element gag at one point in "Water". And yet, somehow Look Around You never lapses into the "joke is on the audience" sort of humor Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" favors (Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim are vocal fans of the show, and appear on the guest commentary).

Look Around You gradually expands and grows more comfortable in its skin, allowing for more daring, and bizarre, experiments, though few top the pilot's Q&A with Intelligent Calcium, the self-aware element. Spaced and Shaun of the Dead alums Wright (who is basically a series regular), Simon Pegg and Nick Frost all make unobtrusive appearances, only slightly breaking the illusion of Look Around You.

It's exactly the sort of show you would want to stumble on at 3 a.m. in, well, the right state of mind needed to properly digest something this bug-nuts crazy. In the spirit of the best Adult Swim offerings, Look Around You is a fine fuck-you to conventional television. Endlessly quotable, even if nothing you could quote from it would make a lick of sense.

Now write that down in your copybook.

 Special Features:

For a little one-disc season, you can't really argue with the production value. The visuals are intentionally grainy and pale, with intentional hairlines. Thankfully, for relative sanity, the effects aren't overdone and the soundtrack meets 21^st century standards.

        The DVD menu screen is itself, a little work of art, very much period appropriate in its graphic design.  Of the bonus materials, the pilot module, "Calcium", clearly takes the cake, though you can see why the rest of the modules were kept under 10-minutes.

        Commentary tracks sort of vary in quality. Look Around You doesn't exactly beg to be explained and there isn't a whole lot of that anyway. Most of the time, everyone is just bullshitting around, for better or worse. Wright joins in with Popper and Sefinowicz for one of the better tracks, but it's Pegg and Frost who are really worth your time. Michael Cera and Jonah Hill wear the "why are we even here?" joke awful thin. Heidecker and Wareheim - either you love ‘em or you can't stand ‘em, and Parker and Stone actually offer the most insight into the show.

        Considering South Park's best years and its humble cardboard beginnings, that makes a lot of sense. Both shows benefit from strong writing, but neither South Park or Look Around You would work without their respective visual approaches.

Just say yes to the classic punk and proto-Americana the label championed

By Blurt Staff

This year marks the 30^th anniversary of Frontier Records, which was founded in Los Angeles in 1980 by Lisa Fancher. Frontier was one of the first independent labels to document the nascent L.A. and O.C. hard-core punk rock scene before branching out into other scenes and sounds such as the so-called "Paisley Underground" and (always) guitar-based bands along with genres such as goth, alternative country (proto-Americana at that), pop and more. Bands releasing records on Frontier include: Circle Jerks, Adolescents, The Weirdos, TSOL, China White, Redd Kross, Thin White Rope, Heatmiser, Young Fresh Fellows, Christian Death, Dharma Bums, American Music Club, The Long Ryders, The Three O'Clock, The Pontiac Brothers, Naked Prey, Flop and many more.

To celebrate the milestone, Fancher will be reissuing the classic 1979 punk compilation Yes L.A. (originally a one-sided picture disc LP from the Dangerhouse label containing tracks by X, the Germs, Black Randy, the Alley Cats, the Eyes and the Bags; the title was a play on the previously released No New York no-wave compilation). This will be Frontier's official 100^th release - a milestone in itself.

"When I founded Frontier Records in 1980, I had no idea what running a record label entailed, I just wanted to turn other people onto the local bands I loved," said Fancher, in a press release. "It's pretty cool to have outlasted so many independent - and major - labels thirty years later but what really still makes me want to continue is to continue to release great music that still needs to be heard. Especially now!"

In late 2010, Frontier will re-release the digitally remastered Christian Death classic Only Theater of Pain with Rozz Williams' original artwork as well as Dangerhouse's Yes L.A. compilation and other nuggets soon to be announced. Additionally, Frontier has always been a vinyl-oriented label, which considers the limited edition colored vinyl LP their calling card - so expect more colored wax reissues in the coming months.

A 30^th anniversary event honoring Frontier Records is in the works and will be announced shortly.

The back story...

Among the first to tap into the Los Angeles punk scene, Frontier Records' initial success was releasing the classic Circle Jerks record Group Sex. This was later followed by Orange County's Adolescents' debut known as the Blue Album TSOL's Dance with Me and Christian Death's Only Theatre of Pain. However, it was the eponymous debut LP from Suicidal Tendencies that spawned the unexpected MTV smash "Institutionalized" that put Frontier on the map. If you caught the Don Johnson vehicle Miami Vice episode featuring Suicidal, you'd know the mainstream finally caught up with the underground.

In light of these early successes in punk rock, it is easy to overlook the fact that Frontier has also released well-known records from bands from a variety of genres:  The Long Ryders, Thin White Rope, The Three O'Clock, Young Fresh Fellows, American Music Club and Heatmiser, Elliott Smith's first band. All of these groups and more released full-length-albums on Frontier Records that were as important to the labels evolution as any punk rock angst the label is best known for.

Perhaps most importantly, a woman starting her own independent record label in an overwhelmingly male dominated music industry in 1980 was key in shattering the notion that ‘chicks can't rock'.  Simply put, women didn't start their own record labels then, especially in the testosterone-drenched L.A. punk rock scene. For founder Lisa Fancher to have survived as an indie label for thirty solid years on, having seen her fair share of record distributors go belly up and put her label in financial jeopardy, makes its survival almost as impressive as its inception.

Having begun her music career as a teenage clerk at the Bomp Records store on Magnolia Blvd in North Hollywood- concurrently fan club president for L.A.'s The Dickies and publisher of Biff!Bang!Pow! fanzine-  Lisa learned the ropes on how to jumpstart an indie label from the best possible mentors a person could have, Greg and Suzy Shaw at Bomp Records. While her first success came from releasing soon-to-be classic punk titles by new bands, Fancher gradually delved into the world of reissuing out-of-print catalog as well, including Born Innocent from Redd Kross, two legendary slabs of punk vinyl from The Weirdos: Weird World Vol. 1 & 2, Dangerhouse Vols 1 & 2 featuring crucial 45s by X, The Avengers, Weirdos, Black Randy, et al.), the Adolescents' Complete Demos 1980 - 1996 and The Middle Class' compilation Out of Vogue.

First two albums expanded as double discs featuring a wealth of BBC material.

By Blurt Staff

On August 17 Chemikal Underground will reissue Arab Strap's seminal first two albums "The Week Never Starts Round Here" and "Philophobia". Not only do both albums include a bonus disk of previously unreleased BBC material, but the reissues also mark the first time Chemikal Underground have been able to offer these albums together digitally.  

Full details on them, courtesy the label, appears below. Meanwhile, check out a couple of free MP3s from the Strap:

The First Big Weekend from "The Week Never Starts Round Here"

Packs Of Three from "Philophobia"

But wait, there's more - how about an MP3 of an unreleased song too! This track is not on the reissues and has only appeared before on the Chemikal Underground box set:

Daughters of Darkness

Release details:

After gate-crashing the Britpop party in 1996 with ‘The First Big Weekend', Arab Strap went on to produce eight albums (six of them on Chemikal Underground) over a period of 10 years.  Reflecting now, over a dozen years after these first two albums were released, we can start to appreciate just how influential Moffat and Middleton's output actually was.  Favourites of Conor Oberst, Underworld and Helena Christiansen; they are regularly cited as primary influences for bands like The Twilight Sad and, in Aidan Moffat's lyrics, they shone a light under the rock of sexual politics with so much truth, honesty and insight that, had it not been for the fact they were so funny and, well...accurate all the time, we would have been barely able to look.

Acquaintances on the Falkirk scene, Aidan and Malcolm became friends in 1995. They soon began making music together, telling twisted tales of messy sexual encounters, shit jobs, titanic drinking sessions and the twisted chemistries of human relationships. They called themselves Arab Strap after a sex toy Aidan spotted in a porn mag.  Signing to Chemikal Underground, their debut single, The First Big Weekend, would become a cult classic: a tale of Aidan and Malcolm's adventures on the weekend Scotland were knocked out of Euro '96, in September of that year.  In the years that followed, we were given countless glimpses into the intimately private lives of our two protagonists, whether they were pondering the risk of STDs (on Philophobia's Packs Of Three) or wondering if they'd get to shag that friend of the cellist from Belle & Sebastian (the Peel Session of I Saw You on The Week Never Starts Round Here's bonus disc).

These CD reissues come on the back of Arab Strap's luxuriously packaged box set, ‘Scenes of a Sexual Nature', which celebrated in exhaustive detail the band's recorded output from 1996 - 1998 and in particular their first two groundbreaking albums: their debut ‘The Week Never Starts Round Here' (1996) and its spectacular follow-up ‘Philophobia' (1998).  The CD reissues of these albums now find them respectively bolstered to a double CD format, with each album including a BBC Peel Session and BBC recording of two landmark live performances.  Revisiting these albums now reminds us why Arab Strap were one of music's most precious commodities: a fearlessly original band who were strangers to compromise.

"No one really writes honest, hateful love songs. The kids never hear it like they should hear it - they should know about the farting, the fighting and the fucking, the pain and the pleasure." - AIDAN MOFFAT

• 1996 debut ‘The Week Never Starts Round Here' with updated artwork.
• 1998 album ‘Philophobia' with enhanced lyric artwork.
• Each CD now has a bonus CD of BBC material featuring:
  • Arab Strap's first two Peel Sessions (from March 1997 & March 1998) the first of which features guest appearances from members of Belle & Sebastian.
  • Arab Strap's first ever gig in its entirety, recorded for the Peel Show at King Tuts Wah Wah Hut (October 1996).
  • Arab Strap's six track live set from T in the Park 1998

Track Listing

"The Week Never Starts Round Here" (Original)

CD1                                                                                               CD2

"Philophobia (Original Double Album)

CD1                                                                                              CD2

With a songtitle like "Rendering the Juggalos" you know it's gotta be a good record...

By Blurt Staff

Blue Water White Death is the brainchild of Jamie Stewart of (Xiu Xiu) and Jonathan Meiburg (Shearwater; ex-Okkervil River). For their first collaboration Stewart and Meiburg, longtime fans of each other's music, adopted the name of a 1971 documentary that follows a team of increasingly reckless explorers on a shark-finding quest to Australia's aptly-named Dangerous Reef. As Blue Water White Death, the two conjure music that is dually ominous and serene, like the underwater world of the ocean, which is fitting considering the band's namesake plunges boldly into new sonic territories.

On first listen Blue Water White Death may sound like a pair of reclusive eccentrics making music in a derelict mansion, perilously balancing beauty and horror with the absurd. Soon, it becomes apparent that there are three distinct modes at play - clean, even tones and the nonchalant picking of acoustic guitars that recall life on the open sea, notes and words paced like breaststrokes on the journey to the depths and finally, jarring mysterious noises meshed with vocals that echo the isolated, garbled quantities of the inside of a diver's mask.

Despite Blue Water White Death's complex, cohesive feel, Meiburg and Stewart came to its recording sessions empty handed, writing and recording the entire album in a week's time. The production, handled by John Congleton (St. Vincent, Modest Mouse, The Roots, Black Mountain) is pristine and crisp, keeping the album accessible even in its darkest moments.

Blue Water White Death is due out October 12^th on Graveface Records.

Tracklisting:

1. This is the Scrunchyface of My Dreams

2. Song for the Greater Jihad

3. Grunt Tube

4. Nerd Future

5. The End of Sex

6. Death for Christmas

7. Gall

8. Rendering the Juggalos

Check ‘em out online already at http://bluewaterwhitedeath.com

Self-titled album due Oct. 5 on Kill Rock Stars.

By Blurt Staff

Marnie Stern the album mirrors Marnie Stern, the woman. Birthed during a challenging period in her life, the self-titled Marnie Stern is a compendium of life stories both bitter and sweet.

From ballads to her signature pop guitar-tapping style, Stern and long-time co-conspirator Zach Hill have churned out (for lack of a better word) an enormous album that will further cement Stern as a rising star in today's progressive music landscape. Stern also enlists the bass talents of psych-rock Canadian musician Matthew Flegel (of the band Women & boyfriend of Stern) and up-and-coming mixer Lars Stalfors (Mars Volta, Funeral Party) resulting in Stern stepping up her sonic game and revealing a mature and more focused side of herself. "I wanted to pay more attention to the delicate and subtly layered spaces in between sound and just make things louder and fuller where I didn't on my last 2 records." When asked to sum her album up she maintains, "It's direct and honest and real. I'm no longer taking cover under guitar lines or yelping vocals."

Marnie's third and latest LP for Kill Rock Stars, while clearly containing her strongest songs ever, had its fumbles on the way to the finish line. She laughs when describing how the initial recording files were lost and ultimately retrieved through a series of trials-by-fire (upon which many a cigarette was lit) and in one complete statement, she quips:  "Holy Doodle!"

Clearly, Marnie Stern's life and music are not easily separated; which is why Marnie Stern the record and Marnie Stern the person have REAL personality. Upon hearing her last two albums, In Advance of the Broken Arm (2007) and This Is It And I Am It And You Are It And So Is That And He Is It And She Is It And It Is It And That Is That (2008), it's quite evident that Stern lives in between the lines of chaos and harmony. While Stern's previous efforts garnered much critical acclaim, highlighting Stern's dexterity with both guitar playing and songwriting, she still remains the underdog of contemporary celebrated female musicians.

Three albums into her career, this certainly leaves her exposed. Yet, within that exposure, we find something more relatable and familiar to us all; vulnerability and resilience.

Tracklisting:

01.  For Ash

02.  Nothing Left

03.  Transparency is the New Mystery

04.  Risky Biz

05.  Female Guitar Players are the New Black

06.  Gimme

07.  Cinco De Mayo

08.  Building a Body

09.  Her Confidence

10.  The Things You Notice

The erstwhile Police-man takes his greatest hits out for a ride and brings the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra with him. Spotted July 20 at Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati.

By Steven Rosen

While Sting certainly has no problem writing an ebullient pop song whenever he wants, there's a strong ruminative streak to his solo material. Sometimes, he so painstakingly works at trying to find the right lyric for the melody, the right instrumentation and tempos for the mood, the right imagery for the idea, that the songs themselves don't come alive beyond their arresting titles. His voice, strong and plaintive, can only move them so far.

That's why it was encouraging to hear he was going on tour with the 45-piece Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, conducted by Steven Mercurio. (He also recently released Symphonicities, featuring orchestral arrangements.) Unlike pop, classical doesn't have to worry so much about a song's overall momentum or even sense of whole. It can highlight and punctuate individual passages, and build satisfying bridges between them, through the endless ways that string, woodwind and brass sections can add coloration. Add rhythm and percussion to that - a cinch for anyone schooled in rock ‘n' roll - and Sting with orchestra should lead to some very sophisticated pop - make that Pops - music.

I tried to remember that when he closed the first half of his show at Cincinnati's packed Riverbend Music Center - an outdoor venue with a roof - with the punkishly frenetic Police nugget, "Next to You." The orchestra was wailing away at top volume like ELO tackling "Roll Over Beethoven," complete with a fooler time change right in the song's middle. 

Who doesn't love stuff like this - big orchestras playing straightforward rock ‘n' roll really, really loud. But do we need them to? Don't rock bands already do that well enough? At what point does this become bombast? To Sting's credit, he really only used this gimmick twice - the other time was with "She's Too Good For Me," a good-natured, revved-up excuse to let the different orchestra sections stand up and swivel some hips.  (Mercurio, moving quickly to keep up with the beat, got the best workout of anyone.)

Otherwise, Mercurio wisely kept the orchestra subdued on Sting's most melodic ballads, like "When We Dance" and "Fields of Gold," to avoid overkill. The orchestra sweetened them a bit, especially the opener "If I Ever Lose My Faith," whose slow build to rousing chorus is the perfect vehicle for an orchestra to methodically layer on sound to reach a flourish.

The arrangements really helped his more melodically complex and even theatrical songs, adding drama. The best example was the 1980s warhorse "Russians," which Mercurio prefaced with a reading from Mussorgsky's forebodingly powerful Boris Godunov. This added apprehension and intrigue to Sting's more introspective, quieter song (and performance). There was also a mournful trumpet solo midway through, which gave this song about the Cold War a nostalgic tone. Sting added to that, probably, by recalling how the threat of ruinous nuclear war probably kept the Russians (and President Reagan) in check. "Our current ideological adversaries don't seem to have that ethic," he said. "I kind of miss the Russians in that regard."

Sting donned a black coat with blood-red cuffs for the vampyric "Moon Over Bourbon Street." Here, the string section provided a tense, biting accompaniment. At one point, Sting played a theremin while the three overhead video screens showed images of Nosferatu. The orchestra worked well for this showy tune, helping it transcend its inherent artificiality. (It even ends with Sting giving a werewolfian howl.). The fact there was a hard rain during it, with lightning streaking the sky, helped.)

But there were weaknesses. Sting introduced "I Hung My Head," his murder ballad from Mercury Falling, by recalling how much he liked American Western TV series as a boy. Sure enough, the arrangement sounded like a theme from Bonanza or The Big Valley, a borderline-soundtrack-y overture that drained all the sorrow right out the song. And Sting's harmonica playing couldn't restore it. Comparing this to Johnny Cash's stark version of the song underscores that sometimes less is more in pop music.

Sting's own group included longtime guitarist Dominic Miller, stand-up bassist Ira Coleman, and back-up singer Jo Lawry. Her presence, by the way, was problematic. A willowy blonde, she was placed upfront to Sting's right where she couldn't hide. So she tried to maintain a constant stage presence, swaying and smiling to the music. But the attention she garnered was out of proportion to her role in the concert, even though her voice sweetened his on numerous songs, especially the lilting "When We Dance." (On their one true duet, "Whenever I Say Your Name," her singing was too strong - it felt like a dated power ballad.)

Too many older rock acts go the symphonic-accompaniment route to extend the shelf life of their material by sanding the rough spots off it. They're out to make it palatable to a non-rock crowd, not make it art. But there are younger acts - the Decemberists, Belle & Sebastian, Airborne Toxic Event - doing some interesting experiments with orchestras. At 58, Sting is old enough to take the safe route, but seems to really want to use an  orchestra to reveal detail and enrich the musicality of his older material. He's not consistently there yet, but one hopes he stays with the effort.

First album in over a decade, The Inevitable Past Is The Future Forgotten is out Sept. 28 on Temporary Residence Ltd.

By Blurt Staff

The rumor of a new Three Mile Pilot album has been circulating for over a decade, further fueling the mystery and mythology that has swirled around the San Diego trio since the 1997 release of what was thought to be their swan song, the enormously influential Another Desert, Another Sea.

Formed in the early '90s, the group released a debut album to a fair amount of acclaim, followed by Chief Assassin To The Sinister, an album that garnered the attention of Geffen Records, with whom they signed for all of one album. After enduring the major label wringer, the group released Another Desert, their most emotionally resonant and commercially successful record to date. Shortly after, bassist Zach Smith formed Pinback with Rob Crow, and singer-guitarist Pall Jenkins began a new project with Three Mile Pilot keyboardist Tobias Nathaniel. Both projects were meant to coexist with 3MP; however, both Pinback and The Black Heart Procession became unexpectedly popular.

Cut to 2010 and The Inevitable Past Is The Future Forgotten, the first Three Mile Pilot album in 13 years, and the first to be written, performed, recorded and produced entirely by the original three members in their own home studios. As such it is the most uncompromising album since their inception - it also just happens to be their most accessible. While Pinback and The Black Heart Procession were obviously influenced by 3MP in their early days, the inverse can now be heard, with many of the songs on The Inevitable Past bearing the unmistakable and inevitable stamps of Pinback and The Black Heart Procession. This circular influence is what makes the album so brilliant; instead of a proper hiatus, 3MP's progression was charted vicariously through its members' other groups. As such, The Inevitable Past makes good on the promising glimpses heard through a long but breathless wait. 

Tracklisting:

1. Battle

2. Still Alive

3. Grey Clouds

4. Same Mistake

5. What I Lose

6. Left in Vain

7. The Threshold

8. One Falls Away

9. Days Of Wrath

10. Planets

 11. What's In The Air

12. The Premonition

Short film by Exene Cervenka (X, Knitters) and Modi Frank stars Dave Alvin, Michael Blake, Kevin Costne, John Doe, Chris D, Julie Christensen and others. Made in 1986, the film has never been seen by the public - until now. Available on a "pay what you want" basis, with all proceeds going to Gulf Coast aid organizations. See the awesome trailer, below.

By Blurt Staff

The film is called Bad Day and it's the brainchild of Exene Cervenka and Modi Frank. Go to the official website (http://www.baddaymovie.com/) for details on how to watch it. Here's how it all came to pass:

Over dinner one night in the good ol' days, Exene Cervenka, writer/singer for the celebrated Los Angeles band X, and independent filmmaker Modi Frank brainstormed a shoot-'em-up starring their talented and twisted circle of friends, of which every member was headed for a full-size future in music, movies, and more.

This was the mid-80s: a time when there were no prepackaged labels like "alternative" or "indie." There was only punk rock, and you either were or you weren't. For a very short time, punk music and its fans symbolized anything and everything that wasn't buttoned down, bar-coded, or flag-waving. There were still some strings attached to our modern "do it yourself" attitude for women, though, so when two music scene chicks wrote, cast, produced, directed, and shot their own film, our being impressed didn't come off as patronizing.

Exene and Modi wrote Bad Day together as a salute to the roots-rock and cow-punk scenes that were flourishing in Southern California at the time, and also because they were surrounded by artists and musicians who were eager to work together. They wrote the script to capture a moment, to protect an important picture with a frame.

"Exene was always running around back then with her Super 8 cameras, shooting X's tour footage and more. She was a natural cinematographer: perfect to shoot our film," remembers Modi, who served as the film's director. As co-producers, Modi and Exene cobbled together a crew, costumes, funds where possible, and of course, the players.

Casting began with the role of "Tripped-out Cowboy Priest" being filled by X front man John Doe, inaugurating his enduring push into professional acting. Joining Doe is prominent Los Angeles writer-poet Doug Knott, as well as Chris Desjardins, author, producer, and creator of those L.A. punk pioneers, The Flesheaters. Also coming aboard was Chris D.'s then-wife, folk-jazz singer/songwriter Julie Christensen.

Grammy Award winning American roots-rock scholar and former Blasters lead guitarist Dave Alvin narrates the story and plays the film's wandering, dusty troubadour. Fittingly, Bad Day's acoustic soundtrack comes courtesy of Dave Alvin and X's D.J. Bonebrake and is infused with their love of all things California.

The role of "Little Mae" is played by Jenny Aust, daughter of rock critic Chris Morris, whereas "Town Sheriff" features author Michael Blake, who a few years after the making of Bad Day would be best known for his Academy Award-winning adaptation of his novel, Dances with Wolves. Blake's buddy, Academy Award-winning director and actor Kevin Costner also signed on as a lovable guy whose sudden inheritance turns him into the nevertheless-still-charming town drunk.

The late and dearly missed Peter Haskell, an artist-photographer whom Bedlam Magazine described as a "generous, talented, larger-than-life guy who led a determinedly bohemian lifestyle," approached his own role (as the villain) the only way he knew how - with passionate dedication to Modi & Exene's vision of the story's notorious gunslinger, Johnny R Walker.

Shot in 1986 at a secret location near Chatsworth, California, the short film features an inspired cast of irregulars playing the residents of a small town on a bad day. Call it what you will: a cow-punk time capsule, a mock-Western, a guerrilla film forerunner - or just plain proof of a time when everyone didn't take themselves so seriously. 

"Everyone came through, it's a great cast," observes Exene today. "I'm glad we captured our friends on film.  We all just jumped off the cliff, artistically. We were fearless. While the torrential rain and mud helped make the story, it was crazy to shoot through such heavy weather.  Modi and I had so much fun writing and making Bad Day.  It was one of the best times I ever had."

Photographed on black and white film by Exene Cervenka, directed by Modi Frank, and written by Modi and Exene in 1986, Bad Day is a wayward tribute to the early silent film days of one-reel Westerns. It's a short film that throws a saddle over the back of mid-80s punk, yanks the reins of shoot ‘em up satire, and smacks this horse's ass with the anything-goes spirit of its two gifted creators. Not bad for a film only rumored to exist until now.

British singer-songwriter passed away in January of 2009.

By Fred Mills

The terms "legend" and "influential" tend to become meaningless with overuse, and when combined with the term "tribute album" one typically shudders in horror. In the case of the late UK folk pioneer John Martyn, however, we've got the proverbial exception proving the rule. He died on Jan. 29, 2009 at the age of 60 and you can read our obituary along with a personal remembrance from yours truly right here.

Word now arrives from Martyn's official website (via Pitchfork) that a tribute album is "well underway" featuring an intriguing roster of artists - among them are Beck, Devendra Banhart, Beth Orton, the Cure's Robert Smith, Vashti Bunyan, Vetiver, the Swell Season and two genuine left-field entries, the Blind Boys of Alabama and Sonia Dada (who even knew the latter were still around?). No label or release date has been announced yet bu "further details as they become available," says Martyn's site. Here's the lineup so far:

Stormbringer - Beck
May You Never - Snow Patrol
Small Hours - Robert Smith (From The Cure)
Rope Soul'd or Sapphire - The Blackships (Nick McCabe and Simon Jones from The Verve)
Go Down Easy - Beth Orton
Let The Good Things Come - David Gray
Couldn't Love You More - Lisa Hannigan
I Don't Want to Know - The Swell Season
One World - Paolo Nutini
Sweet Little Mystery -Devendra Banhart
Go Easy - Vetiver
Head & Heart - Vashti Bunyan
Solid Air - Skye Edwards (Morcheeba)
Over The Hill -Ted Barnes featuring Gavin Clark (from Clayhill and Unkle)
Glorious Fool -The Blind boy's Of Alabama
Anna - Brendan Campbell
Dancing - Sonia Dada
Certain Surprise - Sabrina Dinan
John Wayne - Oh My God
Clutches - Foley (Miles Davis Bass Player)
Angeline - Nicholas Barron
You Can Discover - Cheryl Wilson

"A visionary collaboration between Mogwai and La Blogotheque directors Vincent Moon and Nathanael Le Scouarnac": on your computer screen July 27 for one showing only.

By Blurt Staff

Awhile back we filled you in on the upcoming Mogwai concert documentary Burning, due on DVD Aug. 24 and to be accompanied by a slew of screenings in August and September. Before it hits the big screen, it will be available for fans to watch on a smaller screen - directly on your computer, world-wide. On July 27^th, Burning will be streaming live on websites and blogs via Ustream in real time.

 
This special screening will happen just once, at 12pm PST/3pm EST, on July 27 - that's this coming Tuesday.

Directly following the screening, Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite and director Vincent Moon will be answering fan submitted questions about the film offering fans an opportunity to interact directly with the masterminds behind this creative project.

 
A full list of current 40+ participating websites are available on Mogwai.co.uk and also listed below.

Meanwhile, watch for the next print issue of BLURT, due in September. We'll have a story about the film along with an interview with Moon.

Screening Websites

See the teaser trailer, below, featuring Iggy and Handsome Dick Manitoba. You, too, can be the next great concert documentarian...

By Blurt Staff

On Friday, September 3^rd,  Iggy and the Stooges will be performing Raw Power  at the All Tomorrow's Parties bash, so in conjunction with this MVD Entertainment Group has launched the In The Hands of the Fans  site (www.InTheHandsOfTheFans.com) to offer fans a once in a lifetime opportunity to film and interview the band.

Six aspiring filmmakers will be chosen by way of a video submission contest to join director Joey Carey on location at the Stardust Theater at Kutchers' Country Club in Monticello, NY, for the Stooges show. The contest is based on fans submitting short high definition video segments asking Iggy and the Stooges interview questions, or demonstrating why they should win the contest. Winners of the contest will film and interview Iggy and the Stooges at All Tomorrow's Parties. This fan shot footage, along with the contestant video submissions, will be crafted into a high definition longform program, which will be part concert film and part reality TV show about the journey of the fans.

It's slated to be released on DVD in early 2011. Look for a broadcast as well. And MVD is already talking to other artists about mounting more In The Hands of the Fans shows. Go to the website link above for submission rules and more details.

They're more than a band, they're a mutha fuckin' social club: brand new The Ghetto Blaster EP drops August 10 on SSSC/ILG.

By Jose Martinez

The militant brainchild of Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello and The Coup's Boots Riley, Street Sweeper Social Club isn't as incendiary as Rage but it's definitely a proud middle-finger in the air amongst the current rock pack. Aptly mixing rock and hip-hop, this isn't the frat boy, date rape fare we've come to associate with the rock ‘n' rap moniker. Aiming for a Clash meets Ohio Players vibe, the seven-song EP includes raw covers of M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" and LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out." While the EP's title track continues in the same vein as the band's relentless debut, "The New Fuck You" finds them in rough and ready mode creating music that would be proudly blaring at a Panthers party back in the day. In the ‘70s they said the revolution will be televised; well, it definitely now has a soundtrack. And as Boots declares on the LL Cool J cover, "We're more than a band, we're a mutha fuckin' social club."

Fans can make their contributions to the late Beatle's official time capsule starting today at the project's website.

By Blurt Staff

What would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday takes place on Saturday October 9 and there are plenty of celebrations in store. To that end, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and BoxofVision LLC are putting together three authorized time capsules of Lennon's post-Beatles recordings and fan contributions. Lennon's widow Yoko Ono has given the project her full blessings.

The time capsules will ultimately be preserved and stored until they are opened in a ceremonial presentation on October 9, 2040. They will be stored at the Rock Hall in Ohio, and at two additional worldwide locations that have significance to John Lennon's legacy.

Ono said, in a statement, "I am delighted to support this effort to help share John's music and messages of peace and love with the children of today and tomorrow, I know that John's work, life and dreams will help inspire them to bring a better world for everyone. Children Power!"

Fans can share thoughts, birthday wishes, commentary, musical performances and more beginning today up until September 15 at www.BoxOfVision.com/TimeCapsule. Those who visit the site can also make recommendations about what the time capsules should include to best preserve the Lennon legacy over the next 30 years.

Along with fan contributions the capsules will include John Lennon's post-Beatles recordings, newly restored art prints of his LP artwork, a newly commissioned essay on his career and other related items.

The John Lennon Time Capsule project is being overseen by Jonathan Polk, of BoxofVision LLC, who last year created The Beatles' Box of Vision (it's reviewed here at BLURT). "John Lennon's body of work IS our time capsule," said Polk. "It embodies the ideals that once fuelled our absolute belief we could change the world...then led to cynical backlash... but now represent how we wish to be remembered."

With the second leg of their summer tour about to kick off next week what better summer reading than the recent authorized biography, penned by respected Rolling Stone contributor Parke Puterbaugh.

By Jedd Ferris

After Phish reunited last year after two break-ups (the first deemed a hiatus in 2002, the second supposedly final in 2004, longtime fans were hoping this authorized biography from former band in-house writer Parke Puterbaugh would answer a lot of questions. The jam kings spent two decades building one of the most loyal underground followings rock ‘n' roll has ever seen, but their abrupt crash-and-burn ending in 2004 - concluding with two of the sloppiest shows the group ever played at their own festival in Coventry, Vermont - left many loyal Phishheads with puzzled emotions.

Author Parke Puterbaugh, too, is an admitted fan. He came to the band through a 1995 Rolling Stone assignment and ended up becoming the group's staff writer. Along the way, he not only compiled plenty of interviews with each member of the quartet - guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, keyboardist Page McConnell and drummer Jon Fishman - he also tasted the magic of their adventurous live shows and stayed along for the ride for pleasure as much as profession. As he plainly states in the book's intro: "I firmly believe they are one of the great American bands - and not just jam bands."

The author's personal fascination both helps and hurts the authorized Phish: The Biography. He clearly understands the geeky minutiae of the Phish experience - tracking every show set list and distinctly defining the band's different musical eras. The book is a solid overview of the group's gradual rise from crunchy college kids in Vermont playing dance halls and local bars to regional New England grassroots favorites to theatre-level mainstays to arena rock heroes.

Along the way, Puterbaugh covers all of the band's notable highlights. He looks into the early years when they created many of their compositionally driven rock epics like "You Enjoy Myself." He also discusses much of the band's underground lore, like an onstage secret language and the fictional back-story of Gamehendge, Anastasio's college thesis turned never fully realized rock opera. With these quirky elements and boundless sonic exploration, the band was able to earn fans one at a time with little mainstream recognition. With persistence they eventually lured the multiplying herd to big arenas and their own massive festivals, including the all-night millennium marathon at Florida's Big Cypress Indian Reservation. For the outsider, this is a comprehensive read through Phish's unconventional and intriguing story of success.

On the downside, hardcore fans have little to learn here. Besides briefly discussing Anastasio's upbringing in New Jersey, Puterbaugh doesn't offer too much background on the individual band members before their formation. He also doesn't offer much more than what's already known about the break-up. In initially calling it quits, Anastasio admitted fatigue and insecurity about the band's ballooning, self-sustained organization. It also became apparent that drug use was a factor - fully revealed with the guitarist's 2006 arrest. Limited details surface at the book's conclusion. Even in an epilogue Q&A interview with Anastasio, it feels like Puterbaugh's relationship with the band made him skittish about asking the tough questions about what went wrong. Not that the band owes anyone any juicy tales of debauchery, but a deeper explanation would have been appropriate, especially as the band seems fully invested in their third chapter.

Phish starts the second leg of their extensive summer tour on August 5 at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California. Dates at Phish.com - sorry kids, but most of the shows are already sold out.

Coming to 45 Space in late August.

By Blurt Staff

Robert Pollard will have an exhibit of his collages on display at NYC's The 45 Space on August 27 and 28 - it's dubbed "The Public Hi-Fi Balloon: Robert Pollard, Scrap-Builder of Imagery."

The artist and Guided By Voices frontman created most of the works for this show in the past six months. "I've been working long hours daily getting ready for this show, he says. "It's going to be insane."

Among the works on display will be more than 60 imaginary record sleeves, as well as dreamed-up magazines and coffee table books. "You can see Duchamp in Pollard"s collages, as well as the influence of the painterly spaces of De Chirico and Yves Tanguy," the novelist Rick Moody wrote in the introduction to Town of Mirrors: The Reassembled Imagery of Robert Pollard, a 2008 collection of Pollard's collages published by Fantagraphics Books. Moody also noted "a residual pulse in the images of the swinging sixties, not the flowers-in-their-hair iteration, but the dark bad-acid psychedelia of that low, dishonest decade."

Most people know that Pollard created the cover art for the majority of Guided by Voices releases, not to mention those of his many other musical projects. The cover collage for Guided by Voices' 1997 album Mag Earwhig was displayed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

Pollard's music and his visual art are unified at a fundamental level. "They both have to do with re-assembling familiar imagery to create interesting landscapes," he says. "One with sight, the other with sound."

Pollard was introduced to the New York art world in 2007, when visual artist Todd DiCiurcio and actor Michael Imperioli co-hosted "Do the Collage," a show that included the original art for several classic Guided by Voices album covers. DiCiurcio will co-host "The Public Hi-Fi Balloon" with Vanity Fair executive online editor Michael Hogan.

The 45 Space is located at 45 Bond Street (between Lafayette Street and the Bowery) in Manhattan. Opening night is Friday, August 27, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. The exhibit will also be open to visitors on Saturday, August 28, from 2 p.m. until 11 p.m.

And you thought the Middle East was just about guns and jihad... Concert was performed earlier this week by the ‘toon'd in superstars.

By Blurt Staff

Last Sunday, July 25, Damon Albarn's Gorillaz project gave a special performance in the Syrian capital of Damascus. NPR Music documented this historic spectacle that took place within a 1,000-year-old walled palace through a specially edited version of the show now streaming at the NPR site.

In an introduction taped just for NPR Music, animated Gorillaz bassist Murdoc Niccals (in his rambling fashion) thanks the NPR audience for naming their album the best of the year so far and eventually also goes on to call their trip to the Middle East "the pinnacle of our exploits so far."

Murdoc certainly isn't joking about that, as joining him (well, as much as he can really be there) and Brit-pop icon Albarn onstage for the occasion are Syria's National Orchestra and an all-star cast of musicians, including Bobby Womack, De La Soul, Paul Simonon and Mick Jones of the Clash, and Syrian rapper Eslam Jawaad (the latter gets an immense crowd reaction by rapping a verse of the hit "Clint Eastwood" in Arabic).

Free show intended to boost voter registration in addition to continuing to aim the spotlight on the controversial AZ immigration law.

By Blurt Staff

Artists for Action and Viva Arizona.org is has announced a Phoenix Voter Registration Concert and Rally for August 27 at the Marquee Theatre in Phoenix with performances by Calexico (above), Miniature Tigers, Sergio Mendoza Y La Orkesta, Big Son featuring Sam Means of The Format and Jeff and Chris of Reubens Accomplice, Sand Rubies (shown below), Salvador Duran, Kinch, and more.

The event is FREE for anyone that pledges to vote on November 2nd. Voter registration will be available for first time voters and those who need to update their registration. In addition, representatives from local non-profit human rights and immigration organizations will be there to provide information about SB 1070, immigration, and related human rights issues.

Artists for Action member Joey Burns, of Calexico, explains, "This will be a great way to get people in the Phoenix area excited about voting this fall and educated about the immigration issues facing Arizona today."

Artists for Action/VivaArizona.org's mission is to offer support and resources for artists who want to mobilize their fans and promote civic activism, including helping artists connect with non-partisan voter registration, legal defense funds, and organizations that promote education and the protection of civil rights. In addition to connecting artists with non-profit organizations at scheduled performances, Artists for Action/VivaArizona.org will also work with artists to coordinate rallies, speaking engagements, and benefit performances.

 
 
Free Voter Registration Concert and Rally Details:

When: August 27, 2010 at 7:30pm (6:30 doors open)

Where: Marquee Theatre, 730 North Mill Avenue, Tempe, Arizona

Who: Calexico, Miniature Tigers, Sergio Mendoza Y La Orkesta, Big Son featuring Sam Means of The Format and Jeff and Chris of Reubens Accomplice, Sand Rubies, Salvador Duran, Kinch, and more...

What: Free concert and rally, open to all ages, music, voter registration, voter pledge drive, immigration information tables

 
For more information, please send an email to info@vivaarizona.org or charlie@statesidepresents.com

"Black Oil" turns out to be eerily appropriate in the wake of the BP oil spill disaster.

By Blurt Staff

In the midst of the ongoing disaster of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, local TV and radio stations along the Gulf coastline have been airing "Black Oil," a song from The Quickening the latest album from Liverpool-born songwriter Kathryn Williams. (You can read the BLURT review of the album here.) In response, Ms. Williams, along with her record label, One Little Indian, her distributor, MRI/Sony, and her publishers, Cooking Vinyl Music and Downtown Music are all donating 100% of their proceeds from the sale of "Black Oil" to the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) - you can find it on iTunes here.

Her lyrics make their point:

Thought it was a trick of the light,

how the fields shone yellow,

When it was so close to night.

There must be some fire in those flowers,

because they get crushed up and turned into black oil. 

Black oil. 

"Thought it was the night

but the birds were head to toe in black oil.

"Black Oil" was written and recorded before the explosion of British Petroleum's Transocean Deepwater Horizon rig back in early April, drawing on Kathryn's childhood memories and her husband's experiences with the effects of previous environmental catastrophes caused by the oil industry.

Observes the songwriter, "I had memories as a child of birds covered in black oil; of remembering that it took a whole day to clean a bird; that there were not enough days or volunteers. I remember hearing and seeing it on Blue Peter and Newsround (children television shows in the U.K.) and crying and crying.

"I talked to my husband about it and he told me about the Amoco Cadiz disaster where the boat had broken in two. That had happened off the coast of Brittany and covered the coast and beaches of Jersey (the small island between France and England where he'd grown up). He remembers as a child seeing sea birds head to toe in oil, and how it seemed that the beach and nature itself had been broken by the disaster."

The initial inspiration for "Black Oil" stemmed from an entirely different experience. Williams was driving through rapeseed fields, explained to her son that oil was extracted from the seeds and later made notes about their conversation. When she began to write about this experience it reminded her about the impact of past oil spills.

BP's deep sea well spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico per day.  While the cap is now on the tank, the problems from the spill will live on for years. Williams hopes that  "Black Oil" helps keep the American people aware that the situation will not be remedied quickly, and the long-term lethal impact on the people, fish, birds and other wildlife throughout the region deserve continued attention. 

Kathryn Williams, MRI/Sony, One Little Indian, Downtown Music and Cooking Vinyl are not directly affiliated with the Natural Resources Defense Council or any of its programs, projects or websites. For more information about specific environmental protection issues: www.nrdc.org.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice never saw this one coming... show bows in December in NYC.

By Blurt Staff

Peaches has confirmed the anticipated American debut of her critically acclaimed production of Peaches Christ Superstar for December 11^th at The Concert Hall at The New York Society for Ethical Culture in Manhattan.  Peaches' performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sir Tim Rice's musical, Jesus Christ Superstar made its worldwide debut in March in Berlin and Hamburg.  Peaches will sing all roles including Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the disciples.  As a continuation of her original sold out runs, she will be accompanied musically by piano virtuoso and rap entertainer, Chilly Gonzales.  ARTFORUM stated in their review, "Not only did Peaches set it off, she managed to surprise us all by showing off an expansive vocal range, a musician's natural sensitivity to the dynamics of Andrew Lloyd Webber's score, and an emotive prowess that is rarely if ever displayed in her own, less holy, music."

The European debut of Peaches Christ Superstar was not without controversy.  A month before the scheduled premiere, the German rights holders denied permission to Peaches due to her "unconventional production." Peaches posted a message, via Twitter, apologizing to her fans about the cancellation, concluding with "Peaches Christ Superstar Crucified Before Opening Night."  The cancellation was widely covered by major media, resulting in permission ultimately being granted.  The performances were an overwhelming success. Sir Tim Rice traveled to Berlin to attend the production and visited Peaches backstage offering his praise and approval.

Peaches stated "To perform Jesus Christ Superstar as a one-woman-song is a crazy enterprise.  It is very demanding and very difficult.  When I was sixteen I often sang the whole musical to myself all alone in my room.  It tells an entire story without spoken text, only with vocals, in the style of a rock opera.  I'm a performer, my concerts are extravagant and play with exaggerations.  This project allows me to do without all this.  I wanted to confront this task totally exposed, because it is a possibility.  It's a question of stamina."  Peaches added, "Performing Peaches Christ Superstar is the most intense and powerful stage experience I have ever had." 

Tickets for Peaches Christ Superstar are available via Ticketmaster.

Announcing the latest installment in our "Play For Today" series of video game reviews. This time out we take on Singularity, Crackdown 2, The Cages: Pro-Style Batting Practice, APB: All Points Bulletin, Sniper: Ghost Warrior.

 By Blurt Staff

Head over to BLURT blogger Aaron Burgess' "Play For Today" blog - he's just posted some action-packed (term used relatively and literally) reviews of a slew of more top-rated games. Included are his own ratings plus screenshots - like the ones below - and trailers. Game on!

Singularity

Crackdown 2

The Cages: Pro-Style Batting Practice

APB: All Points Bulletin

Sniper: Ghost Warrior