First studio album since 2007. With Chris Goss in the mix, our 8-ball says "prognosis is good."

By Blurt Staff

Groundhog Day looms, and look who just popped their heads up to see their collective shadow: The Cult, with Choice of Weapon, the group's first studio album in five years. It was produced by Bob Rock and Chris Goss. It's the followup to 2007's Born Into This. The album is set for a May 22 release on the band's new label Cooking Vinyl, At the band's website - www.thecult.us  - the track "Lucifer" is now available as a free download teaser.

The album was written by Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy, recorded in New York City, Los Angeles, the California high desert, and the band's Witch Mountain studio between July and December 2011. The new release features founding members Astbury on vocals and Duffy on guitars, with drummer John Tempesta and bassist Chris Wyse. "We have had the opportunity to work with two of the most influential and talented producers in the world today," said Astbury, in a statement. "They pushed us beyond our comfort zone."

Jan. 29 in Mississippi Studios, the Bard O' Pop delivered, in spades.

By Tim Hinely /Photo by Martin Winch

Was excited to see Keene's touring partner, Austin's  Sally Crewe and the Sudden Moves but alas, they cancelled their tour due to bass player issues and then for some odd reason they had Keene, on the scene for nearly three decades with an armful of terrific records, open for Portland newbies Parson's Red Heads. Now, admittedly an early bird like me didn't mind but geez, give the guy some respect (not that the Parsons Red Heads aren't any good ‘cos they certainly are, but still).

Keene and crew hit the state at 9:15 PM and he has one helluva backing band, both the younger lead guitarist and drummer are shit hot and the bassist certainly was no slouch either, just more low-key (and according to Arena Rock Recording Co's Greg Glover the bassist played in ‘bama band Carnival Season nearly two decades ago and currently lives in Japan and heads to America to tour with Tommy).  Keene, no slouch on guitar either, can certainly bend some strings as well and he's not afraid to rock the hell out, either. He opened with a scorching version of "Call On Me" from his 1986 record Songs from the Film and played a few other from that record as well, namely "Places That Are Gone" as well as a few from, his latest release, the solid Behind the Parade (Second Motion Records) including the title track, and "Nowhere Drag" He also tossed in the terrific "Long Time Missing" from 1998's Isolation Party).  The guy (and his band) is a real pro who still s pours his heart out every night whether he's playing to 5 or 500 folks.  He still genuinely enjoys doing it, that much you can tell.

1987 classic gets a new airing.

By Blurt Staff

On May 4 erstwhile Bongos leader Richard Barone will reassemble his ‘80s solo band and recreate his classic 1987 album Cool Blue Halo album in its entirety, along with very special guests and added songs, at City Winery nearly 25 years to the day of the release of the original album. This performance will be recorded and filmed for CD and DVD release due out fall of 2012.

Heralded as introducing "chamber rock," the all-acoustic performances captured on the original Cool Blue Halo blended classical, jazz, and art-rock elements. It was recorded live at New York's Bottom Line on a single evening in May 1987 - the original album featured singer, songwriter and guitarist Barone leading an acoustic ensemble of cellist Jane Scarpantoni, acoustic guitarist Nick Celeste and percussionist/keyboardist Valerie Naranjo.

Barone has established a PledgeMusic program to help fund the whole project from start to finish, and grassroots contributors will be eligible for downloads of the concert, deluxe editions of the physical release, bonus footage, even a VIP Access package for the actual event. Go here to find out more details and to watch Barone's intriguing pitch video.

Barone's recent solo album, Glow (Bar/None Records), was produced by Tony Visconti and others. His latest, Collection 2: Before & Afterglow, was released in December 2011.

Are ya sure Hank, er, Waylon & Willie would've done it this way? Yup.

By Blurt Staff

Sara Radle and Mary Lou Lord have covered the country classic "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys."  It appears on Radle's new record Same Sun Shines, to be released on February 21^st on her Jeez Louise label.

Singer/songwriter Radle is a former member of Lucy Loves Schroeder & The Rentals and is a current member of LA's Walking Sleep.  This will be her 4th solo record. East coast troubadour Lord, of course, needs no introduction. Together, the two harmonize like a distaff version of Waylon & Willie, no lie!

MP3: "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys."

Tour Dates 

Saturday,  2/18 @ PEHRSPACE // Los Angeles,  CA, w/ Kissing Cousins

Friday,  3/9 @ THE JAVA LOUNGE // Sacramento,  CA, w/ Sex Tape Scandal,  PETS

Saturday,  3/10 @ THE BLUE LAGOON // Santa Cruz,  CA

Thursday,  3/22 @ LA GRANGE // Dallas,  TX

Friday,  3/23 @ SKINNY'S BALLROOM // Austin,  TX

Thursday. 3/29 @ P.A.'s LOUNGE // Boston,  MA

Friday,  3/30 @ THE LIVING ROOM // NYC

Saturday,  4/7 @ ART BAR // Milwaukee

Today, You Shall Inherit the Earth! Let's listen to that entire 20-minute epic, below.

By Sarah Grant

Thousands of Rush fans, possibly including the New York Times' own Gail Collins, are rolling out the prayer rugs today, in deference to the Holy Trinity of progressive rock, Rush.

2112 is the name of, quite simply, the best concept album ever created. Recorded in 1976, the album was Rush's fourth studio album and arguably, best work. The 20-minute epic song "2112" is rife with tonal nuances, texture, and surprising combinations of hard rock and heavy metal elements. The lyrics, written by sci-fi obsessed drummer/philosopher, Neil Peart, were based heavily on Ayn Rand's 1938 novella, Anthem. The song is a like a libertarian future-fable set to music, about the pitfalls of individualism in a conformist society.

The year 2112 is revealed as a dystopian universe, governed by a totalitarian, Death Star-type assembly called the "Priests of Syrinx," who dictate what kinds of music can be heard, literature read, and art viewed (not like the SOPA bill, or anything...)

A young, unnamed hero ("The Starman" in Rush discourse) finds an "ancient miracle" object: a guitar. He stumbles through soft, melodic figurations, until he confidently comes to play major chords. Once adept, he expresses himself exclusively through his own "invented" musical tones. During a section called "Presentation," he stands before a court of stalwart priests, trying to convey the beauty of individual expression through Alex Lifeson's lilting rhythm and blues guitar solo. But the priests, identified by Geddy's Lee's feral shrieks and intense riffs, don't budge. They dismiss the guitar as "a waste of time and a silly whim."

Our failed Orpheus reflects on his "cold and empty life," as his/Lifeson's once major chords wither into smoky minor notes. At the end of his "Soliloquy," he commits suicide. The instrumental transition reprises the heavy metal priests and the song ends in violent distortion. Lee's deadpan repetitions reinforce the consuming chaos of the oppressive regime, like an empire of Kubrick's droogs, cackling through the demonic swells of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. 

Celebrating "2112" on 2/1/12 is a little like showing up to a party 100 years early. But the themes of this prog rock powerhouse are prescient today, as they were thirty-five years ago. Our society is facing rapid changes in the way we share information, which will impact our means and modes of expression in the future. Rush and their compassionate, unyielding fans may be the best equipped to confront the threat of oppression, devastation and tyranny. After all, they face all those things year after year with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame committee.

Make sure to catch Rush on tour in 2012...

Soul Train legend dead from apparent suicide. Let's pay tribute via the video clips, below.

By Fred Mills

Early news reports from Los Angeles today have confirmed that Soul Train founder and announcer Don Cornelius has died at the age of 75. His body was found this morning at his Sherman Oaks home with a gunshot wound to the head; suicide is presumed.

Cornelius is a music world legend, having launched the long-running program in 1971 and featuring a who's-who of African-American acts during its 4-decade tenure. Over the years such equally legendary artists as James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson performed, and the theme music "TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)" became a huge chart hit as well.

A must-own 3-disc DVD box, The Best of Soul Train, was issued in 2010 featuring those artists as well as Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, Lou Rawls, Curtis Mayfield, the Commodores, Isley Brothers and more, along with several key Cornelius-conducted interviews.

Cornelius was the host through 1993 (it ultimately lasted until 2006). We wish you love, peace and soul, sir.

African bluesman continues to generate international acclaim.

By Blurt Staff

A new Sidi Touré record, Koïma, will be out April 17th on Thrill Jockey. It's the followup to last year's acclaimed Sahel Folk, wherein our reviewer hailed the bluesman's slotting into the same classic North Malian tradition as Salif Keita and Ali Farka Toure. "[The record's] contours are geometrically precise and sharply delineated against deep silence," wrote contributing editor Jen Kelly. "Yet listen harder and the contours begin to bend and shimmer in the desert heat. Open spaces appear amid carefully plotted phrases, and antic falsetto runs skitter across the free spaces. Touré's voice, quietly resonant and full of shadows, booms up out of the picking, a counterpart that rises where the guitar riff falls.  The music is full of taut contradictions, disciplined rhythms and wild flights of fancy, deep serenity and palpable longing, the heat of rapid picking alongside unhurried, contemplative cool."

According to the label, "Koïma is the natural progression from Sahel Folk, as Sidi has moved from an album of duets, recorded all in one take in his sister's home in Gao, to a quintet recorded in a studio in Bamako. With Koïma, the intent is to record a different side of Songhaï music from the sparse style captured on Sahel Folk. The music is still distinctly Gao, but represented this time in a much richer and luxuriant way. We move from the intimacy of a quiet meeting between friends to the celebration of an evening of dance.

"The album title Koïma literally means "go hear." Koïma is an emblematic place of Gao, "a Dune with his feet in the waters of the river Niger, and with his head touching the sky," says Sidi. In Malian folklore, Koïma is the meeting place for the most powerful wizards of the world. This album is an offering to the mystical power of that place."

 Listen to/Download "Tondi Karaa (The White Stone)" off Koïma here: http://soundcloud.com/thrilljockey/sidi-toure-tondi-karaa This song refers to a legendary stone that sat in the center of Gao for 500 years, a symbol of purity and prosperity, that, in the 1970s, went missing. Sidi sings of how misfortunate has befallen Gao ever since, and the missing stone represents how individuality and money have damaged the unity of the Songhaï culture.

Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull decides to take a look at th 50-year old Gerald Bostock's life to date...

By Blurt Staff

It's Groundhog Day today, and - no, that's not Bill Murray you see popping his head out of the ground, it's Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull! Following the recent announcement of a 19-date tour to commemorate the 40th anniversary of 1972's Thick As A Brick, on April 2nd Anderson will release a sequel to the original album, Thick As A Brick 2. It'll be available as a regular CD and a 2-disc package with DVD featuring 5.1 stereo mixes, 24-bit stereo mix, video of the making of the album, interviews with the musicians and Ian Anderson reading the lyrics in various locations.

There's already a digital "newspaper" with sundry details about the project...

This is news that we suspect will not be picked up by hipster blogs. But far be it from us, dear BLURT readers, to deprive you of your occasional Prog and blues-rock fix. Read on...

From the Anderson camp:

In 1972, Ian Anderson wrote and recorded Tull's album 'Thick As A Brick.' The lyrics were credited at the time to the fictitious child character, Gerald Bostock, whose parents supposedly lied about his age.  The record instantly became a number one Billboard Chart album and enjoyed considerable success in many countries of the world.

So, forty years on, what would Gerald Bostock - aged fifty in 2012 - be doing today? What might have befallen him? The anniversary "part two" album will examine the possible different paths that the precocious young schoolboy, Gerald Bostock, might have taken later in life through alter-ego characters with song-section identities illustrating the hugely varied potential twists and turns of fate and opportunity. Not just for Gerald but to echo how our own lives develop, change direction and ultimately conclude through chance encounters and interventions, however tiny and insignificant they might seem at the time.

Ian Anderson says of the album, "As we baby-boomers look back on our own lives, we must often feel an occasional 'what-if' moment. Might we, like Gerald, have become instead preacher, soldier, down-and-out, shopkeeper or finance tycoon?"  Adding, "And those of more tender years - the social media and internet generation - may choose to ponder well the myriad of chance possibilities ahead of them at every turn....."

This spring Anderson and band - John O'Hara (keyboards), David Goodier (bass), Florian Opahle (guitar) and Scott Hammond (drums) - will take to the road to perform the original album in its entirety. There will be a second part to the show where Anderson and the band will also perform the sequel.

Thick As A Brick 2 tracklisting:

1. From A Pebble Thrown
2. Pebbles Instrumental
3. Might-have-beens
4. Upper Sixth Loan Shark
5. Banker Bets, Banker Wins
6. Swing It Far
7. Adrift And Dumfounded
8. Old School Song
9. Wootton Bassett Town
10. Power And Spirit
11. Give Till It Hurts
12. Cosy Corner
13. Shunt And Shuffle
14. A Change Of Horses
15. Confessional
16. Kismet In Suburbia
17. What-ifs, Maybes And Might-have-beens

Man with the plan, and no shortage of bright lights...

By Blurt Staff

Hi-nrg Austin bluesman Gary Clark Jr. unveiled a brand new video clip this for the song, "Don't Owe You A Thang," from his acclaimed The Bright Lights EP to coincide with the previously announced tour dates beginning this month. The clip was directed by Keith Megna (Beck, Jamie Lidell, Feist).

Clark's working on his Warner Bros. debut album to be recorded immediately following a string of spring tour dates (including a stop at SXSW), with a view to release the record later in the year

            Feb 13              Crocodile                                  Seattle, WA 

            Feb 14              Doug Fir Lounge                     Portland, OR

            Feb 15              Great American Music Hall       San Francisco, CA

            Mar 9                Warehouse Live                        Houston, TX

            Mar 10              Sam's Burger Joint                   San Antonio, TX

            Mar 11              Lola's                                        Ft. Worth, TX

            Mar 14              La Zona Rosa                             Austin, TX

Marking upcoming classic reissue.

By Blurt Staff

To celebrate the deluxe re-release of Vee Vee on February 21 as well as the reissue of All the Nation's Airports and White Trash Heroes which will follow later this year, Archers of Loaf have added new tour dates and will perform songs from all four albums.

Listen to "Harnessed in Slums" from Vee Vee, or watch Eric Bachmann's "One Track Mind" episode on The AV Club to hear the story behind "Web in Front."

Vee Vee will be released on dbl-CD or limited-edition mossy green LP we are even "reissuing" a limited number of "Team Loaf" pennants re-created from the original design!

Archers of Loaf on tour:

Feb 25 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall - Noise Pop w/ Hospitality
Feb 26 West Hollywood, CA Troubadour w/ Hospitality
Apr 26 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
Apr 27 Cambridge, MA Middle East
Apr 28 Cambridge, MA Middle East
Apr 29 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg
May 10 Asheville, NC Grey Eagle
May 11 Saxapahaw, NC Haw River Ballroom
May 12 Raleigh, NC King's Royal Barcade
May 30-June 3 Barcelona, Spain Primavera Sound

Feisty frontman announces his retirement from performing. Band has been a key influence on everyone from Jimi Hendrix to the MC5 to Spiritualized.

By Fred Mills

Sad news arrived today for fans of seminal Brit Invasion (and proto-punk) combo The Troggs: longtime singer Reg Presley announced on the band's official site that was retiring in the wake of a lung cancer diagnosis he received in December after becoming ill at a concernt.

Wrote Presley, "I am receiving chemotherapy treatment and at the moment not feeling too bad. However I've had to call time on The Troggs and retire. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the cards and calls and for your love, loyalty and support over the years."

It's been quite a run for the band, which formed in 1964, starting with a string of mid ‘60s hits including classic thug-rocker "Wild Thing" as well as "With A Girl Like You" and "I Can't Control Myself," all million sellers. Over the years the group broke up and reunited several times, with Presley remaining a constant presence at the helm, touring steadily, primarily in Europe. Among the bands that have covered The Troggs: Jimi Hendrix Experience, Buzzcocks, MC5, Wet Wet Wet and Spiritualized.

Was a member of Destroy All Monsters as well as the visual force behind Sonic Youth's Dirty album sleeve.

By Fred Mills

Mike Kelley, artist, musician and provocateur, passed away yesterday in Los Angeles, ArtInfo.com news reports have indicated. It was an apparent suicide. Kelley was 57.

Early on the Michigan native found himself caught up in the early ‘70s art-rock/proto-punk scene and was a founding member of the legendary Destroy All Monsters. He later became active on the L.A. art scene where he attended the California Institute of the Arts. He also became friends with Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, collaborating with the band and eventually creating the iconic sleeve for their Dirty album.

At Kelley's official website you can view his full discography and a list of exhibitions, writings, and other projects.

Photo credit: Cameron Wittig/Walker Art Center (via Wikipedia)

"Sex and the City" star provides fuel for the anti-gay marriage forces with her ill-timed and ill-advised comments about choice; our blogger responds.

By Blurt Staff

Otep band frontwoman and BLURT's resident "Cultural Arsonist" Otep Shamaya, recently spotted in our latest issue with her pro-99% "Happiness as Defiance" essay, has just posted a new entry at her "Battle Ready" blog. In it, she take on actress Cynthia Nixon, whose recent comments about sexuality and choice caused a firestorm in both the gay and straight media.

There's a lot more to the discussion than a simple pro-/anti-choice debate, however. In the essay, Shamaya brings up related issues about religion and race, along with the basic proposition regarding "equal rights under the law" for every American. As she argues, "If we use racial heritage as an example, during the deplorable systematic scourge of Apartheid in South Africa, it was easier if a black African looked like a white African and could blend in with the reigning minority, but it did not stop them from being who they were. It was the result of existing in and being confined to an abominable social construct and social engineering of extreme discrimination. For a large portion of the gay and bisexual population, this is exactly how they survive. They pretend to be something they are not until, hopefully, they can find the courage to come out. Some never do. Some will remain pretending for the rest of their lives."

Ultimately, Shamaya's call for compassion and equality are what come through the loudest. "Let love permeate your soul and toughen your resolve," she writes, addressing her readership at large, gay or straight. "It gets better and better. I promise."

Read the entire essay at Otep's "Battle Ready" blog.

Among the musicians of the Downtown 13: members of Drive-By Truckers and Widespread Panic, plus REM's Mike Mills

By Blurt Staff

 "After it's Gone", a new single just released by Patterson Hood and the Downtown 13, was inspired by the threat of a Walmart in the heart of the downtown Athens, GA, that nurtured the musicians. Hood, singer, writer and guitarist for the band Drive-By Truckers assembled The Downtown 13, a musical collective made up of some of Athens' finest musicians to celebrate Athens, GA's beauty and vibrant musical heritage and to protest a developer's proposed building of a massive mixed use development in downtown Athens, anchored by a 94,000 sq. foot Walmart.

The small and eclectic university town of Athens is a hotbed for national musical acts and many of these local luminaries, including R.E.M.'s Mike Mills and Widespread Panic's John Bell and Todd Nance came together on the new track to express their opposition to a proposed development by Atlanta-based Selig Enterprises. The back wall of the anchor tenant, Walmart, would be within stone's throw of Hood's home and it would tower over the greenway trail along the Oconee River-- it is the very embodiment of inappropriate development.

 "This Atlanta developer wants to clog our cultural heart and build a bunker the size of three city blocks next to the vibrant downtown scene," says Hood. "They hit The Easy Button:  a big box store in our downtown district is clearly misguided and a somewhat ridiculous notion. Downtown Athens is a dynamic network of local businesses--Athens already has a meaningful brand and we are extremely protective of it."

Taking a very vocal turn away from the proposed lifestyle-shopping center currently under contract, Hood is the most recent performer to take the role of front man as an Athens community that has long spoken to national and international audiences.

"We have a vibrant downtown with plans for the future that involve planned development along the river and hopefully a high speed rail to Atlanta," says Hood. "We don't need a big box retailer, the very definition of the past, to once again bring us back through that dark episode of closed down storefronts and empty parking lots. Protect Downtown Athens-- that's what this is all about."

You can download the song, view the video and read more about Protect Downtown Athens at the website: www.protectdowntownathens.com

"After It's Gone", performed by Patterson Hood and the Downtown 13, features members of Drive-By Truckers, Widespread Panic, R.E.M., Futurebirds, Hope For Agoldensummer, Lera Lynn, Justified True Belief and The Quick Hooks:

Patterson Hood - Lead Vocals, Guitar

Mike Mills - Harmonies and Piano

John Bell - Lead Vocals

John Neff - Pedal Steel

David Barbe - Bass

Jay Gonzalez - Wurlitzer Electric Piano

Brad Morgan - Drums

Todd Nance - Percussion

Claire Campbell - Banjo and Harmonies

Lera Lynn - Harmonies

Brannen Miles, Carter King and Payton Bradford - Backing Vocals

Henry Barbe - Electric Guitar

Basic track recorded live on stage at Fabulous 40 Watt Club in Athens, GA. The video was produced and directed by Jason Thrasher. Edited by Eddie Whalen.

UPDATE Feb. 3: Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler are telling Ward to stuff it. "We were saddened to hear yesterday via Facebook that Bill declined publicly to participate in our current Black Sabbath plans," they wrote. "We have no choice but to continue recording without him although our door is always open...We are still in the UK with Tony. Writing and recording the new album and on a roll...See you at Download!!!"

Drummer Ward unable to continue unless he gets "signable" contract.


By Blurt Staff / Photo by Marcus Blake


Things are not rosy in the Black Sabbath camp - and no, we're not talking about the genuinely distressing news of guitarist Tony Iommi's recent diagnosis of lymphoma. Today drummer Bill Ward issued a statement indicating that, due to business and managerial issues, he may be pulling out of the proposed reunion.

Read our coverage of the November press conference and reunion announcement, then have a look at what Ward has to say, below.

Dear Sabbath Fans, Fellow Musicians and Interested Parties,

At this time, I would love nothing more than to be able to proceed with the Black Sabbath album and tour. However, I am unable to continue unless a "signable" contract is drawn up; a contract that reflects some dignity and respect toward me as an original member of the band. Last year, I worked diligently in good faith with Tony, Ozzy and Geezer. And on 11/11/11, again in good faith, I participated in the L.A. press conference. Several days ago, after nearly a year of trying to negotiate, another "unsignable" contract was handed to me. 

Let me say that although this has put me in some kind of holding pattern, I am packed and ready to leave the U.S. for England.  More importantly, I definitely want to play on the album, and I definitely want to tour with Black Sabbath.

Since the news of Tony's illness, and the understanding that the band would move production to the U.K., I've spent every day getting to or living in a place of readiness to leave. That involves something of a task, and as I've tried to find out what's going on with the U.K. sessions, I've realized that I've been getting "the cold shoulder" (and, I might add, not for the first time). Feeling somewhat ostracized, my guess is as of today, I will know nothing of what's happening unless I sign "the unsignable contract."

The place I'm in feels lousy and lonely because as much as I want to play and participate, I also have to stand for something and not sign on. If I sign as-is, I stand to lose my rights, dignity and respectability as a rock musician. I believe in freedom and freedom of speech. I grew up in a hard rock/metal band. We stood for something then, and we played from the heart with honesty and sincerity. I am in the spirit of integrity, far from the corporate malady, I am real and honest, fair and compassionate.

If I'm replaced, I have to face you, the beloved Sabbath fans. I hope you will not hold me responsible for the failure of an original Black Sabbath lineup as promoted.  Without fault finding, I want to assure everyone that my loyalty to Sabbath is intact.

So here I am. I lay my truth down before you. I'm good to go IF I get a "signable" contract. I don't want to let anyone down, especially Black Sabbath and all the Sabbath fans. You know I love you. It would be a sad day in Rock if this current situation fell to the desires of a few.

My position is not greed-driven.  I'm not holding out for a "big piece" of the action (money) like some kind of blackmail deal. I'd like something that recognizes and is reflective of my contributions to the band, including the reunions that started fourteen years ago. After the last tour I vowed to never again sign on to an unreasonable contract.  I want a contract that shows some respect to me and my family, a contract that will honor all that I've brought to Black Sabbath since its beginning.

That's the story so far.

Stay safe and stay strong.

I love every single one of you.

- Bill Ward

Complaint stems from cancer organization's tussle with Planned Parenthood.


By Blurt Staff


On their website today the Decemberists issued a statement indicating they would no longer donate to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation. Previously the band had been selling teeshirts labeled "Team Jenny" after member Jenny Conlee received a diagnosis of breast cancer and the proceeds had been going to the Komen group. However, Komen subsequently announced that it would be withholding its financial support of Planned Parenthood, a decision that rankled the Decemberists camp.


The band has issued a statement:

The Decemberists are deeply troubled by Komen for the Cure's recent decision to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood, a vital resource in the battle against breast cancer. Providing cancer screenings to low income women is integral to the prevention and defeat of breast cancer and it is unconscionable that Komen should politicize this very important issue by bowing to the fear campaign being waged against PP by the right. We've decided to redirect the proceeds of the Team Jenny t-shirts and buttons away from Komen for the Cure. 100% of the net profits of these items will be instead donated to Planned Parenthood's Breast Health Emergency Fund.

Please help to support this essential institution. And, if you've supported the Team Jenny effort in the past, please write to Komen for the Cure via their site or via twitter (@komenforthecure) and let them know that undermining women's health for political reasons is unacceptable.

Photo Credit: Autumn DeDwilde

By Blurt Staff

Performing "Holocene" and "Beth/Rest" this weekend on Saturday Night Live was Bon Iver, the latest in the long-running NBC show's musical coups. Check out the clips, below. (Bon Iver, you may recall, had been nominated for a slew of Grammys this year; the Grammy Awards happen next Sunday night.)

There was also a priceless sendup of Lana Del Rey, courtesy Kristin Wiig, whose resemblance to the luscious-lipped one is remarkable. (Del Rey, you may recall, has not been nominated for any Grammys yet, but she did make a memorable appearance on SNL recently.)

Casal embraces the "New Cosmic California" aesthetic: "Need Shelter" from forthcoming album Sweeten The Distance.

By Blurt Staff

Songwriter and guitarist Neal Casal, known both as a solo artist and as a member of both Ryan Adams & The Cardinals and the Chris Robinson Brotherhood, will release his tenth studio album Sweeten The Distance on April 10 via The Royal Potato Family. Check out new song "Need Shelter" - a solo video performance of it can be found below as well.

Need Shelter | Neal Casal by Royal Potato Family

Produced by Thom Monahan (Fruit Bats, Devendra Banhart, Vetiver), Sweeten The Distance includes rich acoustic textures and sophisticated melodies ("Bird With No Name," "Need Shelter" and "Gyrls of Wynter") contrasting with psych folk ambiance ("White Fence Round House," "Feathers for Bakersfield" and "How Quiet It Got").

Casal first made a name for himself with a series of highly praised solo albums, beginning in 1995 with Fade Away Diamond Time and followed by recordings like Basement Dreams, No Wish To Reminisce and the retrospective collection Leaving Traces. In 2006, he joined Ryan Adams & The Cardinals with whom he recorded four albums: Easy Tiger (which reached #7 on the Billboard chart), Follow the Lights, Cardinology and III/IV. Currently, he serves as a central component of the Chris Robinson Brotherhood. The band toured throughout 2011 and is working on their debut studio recording. Over the last year, Casal has also added guitar and vocals to Ryan Adams Ashes & Fire, Fruit Bats Tripper, The Jayhawks Mockingbird Time, Vetiver The Errant Charm and a forthcoming recording by Beachwood Sparks.
 
Tracklisting:

1. Sweeten The Distance
2. Bird With No Name
3. Need Shelter
4. Let It All Begin
5. White Fence Round House
6. So Many Enemies
7. Feathers For Bakersfield
8. Time & Trouble
9. How Quiet It Got
10. The Gyrls of Wynter
11. Angel and You're Mine

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One good bitch-slap deserves another...

By Perez Mills

Meow! Over the weekend the tastemakers at Rolling Stone had a hissy fit over the fact that one-time RS darling Liz Phair snubbed them in regards to a commentary they were putting together on "controversial femme-popster" (read: "new Liz Phair") Lana Del Rey. Phair also pointedly made it clear that she wasn't interested in participating in a hit-piece on the singer, as she feels a kinship with her.

Offered RS: "[We] reached out to the singer-songwriter/provocateur to share her thoughts on Lana Del Rey, who has been as intensely loved and loathed by fans and media in recent weeks as Phair herself was in the Nineties. Unfortunately for us, Phair said she wasn't interested in sharing her perspective on Del Rey. But she then penned an op-ed on the subject for the Wall Street Journal."

Yup. Phair made her stance clear at the WSJ, writing at the conservative-leaning paper's Speakeasy blog, "Rolling Stone asked me to speak about Lana Del Rey. I wanted to know how big my participation in the piece would be-was it substantial or just a quote? Just a quote, they said, to which I replied that I wasn't super interested. Which was a lie. I have a lot to say about her, but no sound bites. You see, Lana Del Rey is exactly what I was hoping to inspire when I took on the male rock establishment almost twenty years ago with my debut record, Exile In Guyville."

Wow - this is already more than we can process. Is there more going on that we detect, like a left (Rolling Stone) versus right (Wall Street Journal) thing? Will Liz Phair turn out to be the next Meghan McCain and pen op-eds during the Republican National Convention while Jann Wenner & Co. attempt to take her down? Stay tuned!

Founder and co-lead vocalist of Bay Area legends the Hot Knives - who were recently profiled at BLURT - succumbed to cancer at the end of 2011.

By Jud Cost

About a week or so into 2012, I got a message from Michael Houpt's wife Ellen that Michael had died on December 29, after a battle with cancer. Anyone with a shred of intelligence knows that life is basically unfair. But this seemed an extremely cruel blow to a sweet guy who was so excited that his cherished baby, the Hot Knives, was about to get some long-delayed recognition with the release of the band's only album. It's a brilliant work that now sounds so right, almost like a long-delayed, full-stop punctuation mark to the San Francisco scene of so long ago.

While putting together the liner notes that accompanied this labor of love for longtime pal Dave Laing of Australia's Grown Up Wrong! label, I had the chance to meet the entire band in person at co-lead vocalist Michael Houpt's San Francisco home. We lounged around the basement - Michael, his wife Ellen, drummer Danny Mihm, guitarist Timmy Lynch, bassist Ed Wilson and I, while Michael hooked up his sister Debra, now living in Washington, D.C., by Skype. The great anecdotes flowed like the cheap beer and wine that accompanied it. I shot questions at the guys, while they did the same with Deb.

The backbone of the notes, however, would come weeks later when I spent another hour on the phone with the man who assembled the group, one piece at a time, Michael Houpt. I had purchased both the Hot Knives' singles as they were released during the first blush of S.F.'s punk revolution in the mid-'70s. It was easy to see, even then as a longtime Flamin' Groovies fanatic, that here was a band trying to get some traction in the wrong time slot. The Hot Knives were pretty obviously too late for the hippie trip and too hippie for the current crash 'n' burn rebels. At a time when I saw almost everybody who played San Francisco, I never caught the Hot Knives live. Michael insisted we would rectify that by having the entire band - including his sister and co-lead vocalist, Debbie, flown out from the east coast - play a record-release party when the album came out, possibly at the Cedar Alley coffee house it once called home base, if it still existed.

Of course, the gigs, great as they are at the time, don't last. What will outlive us all is the Hot Knives' brilliant album. The simple description is that it's an alchemical blend of the folk-rock of the pre-Grace Slick Jefferson Airplane and the "mow 'em down," Rolling Stones-influenced, hi-octane rock of the Roy Loney-led Flamin' Groovies. But it's more than that. It also has its garage-rock and country-rock moments.

If I can't ever again experience Michael Houpt's unique laughter, coming from the bottom of his shoes, I can still spin the life's work of the Hot Knives. And that should be enough.

In September of 2010, Jud Cost also reported on a contemporary outfit helmed by Houpt, Keymonium. Read his review here.

Americana mavens serve up a second helping of quality tuneage on February release.

By Blurt Staff

Indie-folk band Leland Sundries served up one of our favorite releases in 2010 with The Apothecary EP. As our reviewer enthused, "The dusty, Americana noir vibe of the music itself, primarily wrought by resonator guitar, banjo, harmonica and spare rhythm section, plus vocalist/songwriter Nick Loss-Eaton's dry, Lou Reed-meets-James-McMurtry warble, conjures images of hazy, humid summer afternoons in the South of the almost-vanished past." Loss-Eaton has been compared to Nick Cave, Silver Jews, Lou Reed, Elvis Perkins, Stephen Malkmus, and AA Bondy.

The band is set to release second re cord The Foundry EP on February 21 on L'Echiquier Records. It was recorded at an old creamery building in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and has banjo, resonator guitar, harmonium, and trombone, along with the usual suspects.

Check out an MP3 of the new track "Apparition":

Apparition by Nick Loss-Eaton

The band has upcoming shows in NY, VA, NC, GA, & MA and is a not-to-be-missed attraction. Details and dates: http://www.lelandsundries.com/shows/

Soul Coughing frontman dishes on former bandmates while spilling the beans on his own shortcomings. Also in the crosshairs: assorted alt-rock era personalities such as the dude from Everclear. Published recently by Da Capo Press.

By John B. Moore

Though not necessarily a love letter to drugs The Book of Drugs is hardly an angry recovering addict's manifesto railing against all that they have taken away from him; To the contrary, even though musician Mike Doughty regularly attends meetings for addicts nowadays, he states early on in his memoir that he can't renounce drugs. "I love drugs. I'd never trade that part of my life when the drugs worked, though the bulk of the time I spent getting high, they weren't doing shit for me."

It's surprisingly refreshing to hear a full-time rocker relay that sentiment in a autobiography, as most use that as the main excuse for why the band broke up; why they are broke; and/or why they are no longer packing stadiums (see Guns N' Roses, Aerosmith, Motley Crue or any number of recent "if not for the drugs, I'd still be huge" bios lining the shelves over the past 12 months). The Book of Drugs, thankfully, is not your standard memoir in other ways, as well.

Written in more of a conversational collection of anecdotes, remembrances and one-off stories, though largely chronologically, Doughty eschews the traditional chapter by chapter story in the life of, opting for a more original take on the standard rock memoir. The Book of Drugs obviously devotes a great deal of ink to Doughty's time as frontman and founder of the ‘90s alt rock band Soul Coughing, a group he doesn't exactly look back on with fond memories. Unlike most bands, the group didn't grow out of teenage friendships, nor did they jam together on a regular basis, rather Doughty cold called his three former band members having seen them perform around NY, when he needed to put together a quickie band.

As he tells it, the three musicians, all older and more experienced, looked at Soul Coughing as little more than a side project not worth putting much time into until the labels started sniffing around. They convinced Doughty, the primary songwriter, to split royalties equally, all while mocking his level of talent. Granted the memoir (as is the nature of memoirs), is largely one-sided, but you can't help but feel for Doughty as he recounts story after story of slights by his band mates.

The book is also filled with famous cameos by musicians as varied as Redman, Dave Matthews, Ani DiFranco and Jeff Buckley (a musician it seems Doughty both admired and was annoyed with in equal measure). Though he has no problem mentioning many of these musicians by name, he inexplicably thinly tries to hide the identity of others he had problems with (for some reason he never mentions Everclear frontman Art Alexakis by name, though it doesn't take more than five seconds on Google to realize this is who he slams in talking about his groupie behavior).

More than a decade after breaking up Soul Coughing and several years of being sober have certainly given Doughty plenty of perspective on how things were being part of an up-and-coming alt rocker in the mid to late ‘90s. Despite the fact that he swears we will never hear from that band again, his time in Soul Coughing and his relationship with drugs clearly made for some fascinating stories.   

Photo Credit: Deborah Lopez

"An experience of a lifetime" comes to an end.

By Blurt Staff

As PC World and other tech sites are reporting this morning, BTjunkie closed its virtual doors this weekend. The popular torrent file-sharing site's voluntary move comes in the wake of the recent legal action against MegaUpload, and BTjunkie indicated to TorrentFreak that this, along with the high profile 2010 moves against Pirate Bay also "played an important role" in the decision to close.

"This is the end of the line my friends. The decision does not come easy, but we've decided to voluntarily shut down. We've been fighting for years for your right to communicate, but it's time to move on. It's been an experience of a lifetime, we wish you all the best," reads a short message from BTjunkie.

Most cynical ploy by an artist to date of the new year. Watch the video clip, below.

By Perez Mills

As you may have heard, during the Super Bowl's halftime show in which Madonna shook some serious ass, guest vocalist M.I.A. showed her ass for flipping the bird during prime time TV. Some media outlets are suggesting she uttered one or more obscenities, too, although TMZ, which is reporting that M.I.A. may be "left holding the bag if [Super Bowl broadcaster] NBC gets fined" (read: will be liable for any attributable fines, based on the contract she signed before the performance) had not indicated that's the case.

Reports TMZ, "Sources tell us ... aside from the fact that the NFL doesn't want to pay a huge fine, the organization wants to send a message to performers -- don't you dare screw with us. We don't know if the NFL got a similar indemnity clause from Madonna."

We would be inclined to say, hey, who cares about M.I.A. anymore anyway... and hey, if you looked close, you'd swear that the other guest singer, Nicki Minaj, almost flashed her coochie at one point. Still, M.I.A. obviously gives a fuck about M.I.A., which means she realizes that here star has dimmed considerably in the past couple of years thanks to a series of lunkheaded political statements and the tepid response to 2010's Maya album. This clearly was a calculated move on the part of M.I.A. and her handlers because - drum roll, please - she has a new album due out in a few months.

She's getting more advance publicity from the half-time stunt than money (read: potential fines) can buy, period.

Here's that Madonna halftime show, feat. M.I.A. It's like a Pokémon episode come to life or something. Following that is the excerpted M.I.A. clip in case you missed it at around the 8-minute mark in the whole thing.

Temple Beautiful, out this week on Yep Roc, finds the San Fran rocker paying literal and metaphysical tribute to his adopted hometown, with striking results.

By Barry St. Vitus

So-Cal boy Chuck Prophet has long embraced San Francisco as his home, and Temple Beautiful is his ambitious paean to the little city by the bay.  Each song is based on a bit of San Fran history, some events more notorious or infamous than others. Prophet comments, "this record was made in San Francisco, by San Franciscans about San Francisco!" Cheeky Chuck also refers to the residents as "San Francentrics." This fact shouldn't deter potential listeners from hither and yon, afraid they won't get the insider insights, as the songs are just stories about things, like most songs. The title refers to the short-lived, early ‘80's punk venue that was like a little auditorium in the old Jim Jones' People Temple building, where Chuck saw his first punker shows after moving here. (I have fuzzy memories of the place and catching a show with Young Marble Giants in their only stateside tour.) His band gathers together players like Tubes and Journey drummer Prairie Prince, bassist and performer Rusty Miller, and guitarist James DePrato. Wife and singer Stephanie Finch provides vocal backup and Flamin' Groovies legend Roy Loney lends his voice to the title song. Additional cello, flute, violin, woodwinds and piano embellish several numbers. Long-time collaborator Klipschutz is co-writer on this project with him, the jelly to his peanut butter, one could say. Chuck himself is a pretty down-to-earth guy with a down-home touch to his music.

The "Temple Beautiful" song takes a page from the Groovies' playbook, as more of a late ‘50s rocker than a punk flavor. Likewise, "Little Girl, Little Boy" delves into some greaser rock and Jerry Lee piano pounding.  The tunes rocks nicely, but doesn't go much farther lyrically than the title, but this duet with Stephanie commemorates their first meeting. A real puzzler for me is what's happening in "Who Shot John."  City streets like Montgomery, Jackson and Eddy are referenced like characters, and ‘Fatty walked the plank,' who I'm guessing is Fatty Arbuckle, who got tangled up in a career-wrecking episode at the St. Francis Hotel over the death of a girl he was partying with (but was later acquitted). No matter, it's a nice, buzzy ballad. "The Museum of Broken Hearts" is a touching ballad of the terrible AIDS epidemic that swept the City, as well as all the lost and lonely souls that end their grief with a dive from the Golden Gate Bridge to the cold Bay waters below. A song that is a true personal homage for Chuck is "I Felt Like Jesus," looking back at his favorite dive bar he and many friends would gig at on the weekends, near the end of his Green On Red days. The energy displays the obvious sweet memories of bygone times, punctuated with some nice Long Ryders-type guitar runs, a rolling piano and chimes.

More local lore is exposed on "White Night, Big City," when the town exploded after disgruntled ex-City Supervisor Dan White was acquitted for shooting Mayor George Moscone and gay rights champion City Supervisor Harvey Milk. Eating Twinkies made him do it.  Other songs spotlight local luminaries, such as in "Willie Mays Up at Bat," (name-dropping blimp-breasted North Beach stripper Carol Doda) bolstered by some prog-rock guitar wailing, and "Emperor Norton in the Last Year of His Life." You MUST research him on Wikipedia. He was a much beloved local loon who proclaimed himself emperor of the United States and was treated as such by the population. "The Left Hand and the Right Hand' touches on the goings-on at the infamous Mitchell Brothers' X-rated porno theater, between brothers Jim and Artie Mitchell, with the former later fatally shooting the latter.

The standout track on the album is "Castro Halloween," celebrating the extravagant and outrageous street parties that used to go on, before some unfortunate shootings a few years back. Being that there are 3 guitars played on this, I don't know whom to credit for the gorgeous George Harrison-esque guitar solo gliding throughout, but it's a dazzler. Speaking of Harrison, who once visited the Haight-Ashbury in its hippie heyday, it seemed a glaring omission to not touch on those love and drug-fueled days, which San Francisco is perhaps best known for, and the famous Dance-Concert ballroom music scene sprang from.

Temple Beautiful is the product you expect from this highly original and creative artist. It succeeds in its goal of telling some stories of this unique and singular city, as well as rolling out a dozen solid songs. Chuck takes this act on the road for a West coast tour, then to Europe later this month, stateside again for a short tour, then back to Europe. He'll be our cultural missionary abroad, bringing with him some rockin,' racy stories for the natives, about how it all went down in the foggy Baghdad By the Bay. Just don't call it Frisco!

[Photo Credit: Charlie Homo]

We can't (and don't) make it here.

By Blurt Staff

One of our favorite bloggers (and musicians) is definitely James McMurtry, and he's just posted a new entry in his long-running "Wasteland Bait & Tackle" BLURT blog. This time around he takes a look at the erosion of American competitiveness through the lens of outsourced international slavery - and through the lens of his classic tune "We Can't Make It."

"People love to talk about fixing our country," writes McMurtry. "The Tea Party wants to ‘take our country back,' from whom, or to what, I'm not sure. Such talk is as naive as my song. The manufacturing jobs aren't coming back here as long as, elsewhere, there are people willing to enslave and masses of people desperate enough to be willing to be enslaved. Fixing the country would not be enough anymore. We'll have to fix the world. It could take a while."

Read the entire blog right here.

Doing songs from The Whole Love, plus special guest Nick Lowe.

By Blurt Staff

As previously announced, Wilco's November taping for the 37^th season of Austin City Limits was aired Saturday, Feb. 4. Watch most of the show, below.

Watch Wilco on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

From ACL:

When people ask what kind of music Austin City Limits stands for," executive producer Terry Lickona says, " there's one band that sums it up better than any other - Wilco!" Airing this Saturday, February 4, our fourth episode featuring this veteran modern rock band shows exactly why ACL holds Jeff Tweedy and company in such high esteem. Concentrating on its latest release The Whole Love, the Chicago sextet puts such stellar tracks as "Art of Almost," "Open Mind" and "Dawned On Me" through their paces with near-perfect poise. It's not all the new album, of course, as the band also drops a few deep cuts like "Bull Black Nova" and "War On War" into the set. And as the icing on an already delicious cake, Wilco tourmate Nick Lowe drops by with his classic "Cruel to Be Kind," backed by the boys themselves.

Setlist:

• Art of Almost
• Poor Places
• Bull Black Nova
• Open Mind
• Born Alone
• One Wing
• Black Moon
• War on War
• Far, Far Away
• Dawned on Me
• Cruel to be Kind (with Nick Lowe)

[Photo Credit: Scott Newton, via ACL]

Band documentary directed by Davis Guggenheim.

By Blurt Staff

U2 officially released the documentary From The Sky Down on DVD, Blu-Ray and video download on January 24th, 2012 with bonus performances and interviews. The film documents the making of the band's landmark 1991 album Achtung Baby.

Enter HERE to win a copy of the film from your friends (and U2 fans) at BLURT.  Check out the trailer:

About the film: Early in 2011, the band returned to Hansa Studio in Berlin to discuss the making of Achtung Baby with Academy Award winning director Davis Guggenheim (It Might Get Loud, Waiting for Superman, An Inconvenient Truth). Originally screened as part of BBC's Imagine Series across the UK last October, the film was also the first ever documentary to open the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival. Twenty Years after the release of U2's Achtung Baby, Guggenheim charts the path toward this groundbreaking album. Guggenheim uses animation and unseen footage from Berlin and Dublin alongside conversation to reveal what is now a key chapter in U2's career. "In the terrain of rock bands - implosion or explosion is seemingly inevitable. U2 has defied the gravitational pull towards destruction...this band has endured and thrived. From The Sky Down asks the question why," says Guggenheim

Can't wait to see what she could do with the "Born To Die" video and a slasher flick...

By Fred Mills

Betcha this goes viral by tomorrow. Second City comedian, writer and actor Holly Laurent has created a so dumb-it's-Spinal-Tap-worth-clever video that mashes up Lana Del Rey and The Hunger Games.

Titled "Lana Del Rey's ‘Hunger Games'," the 2 ½ minute clip utilizes material from the official trailer for the upcoming Hunger Games film, assorted grainy/scratchy clips intended to bring to mind the grainy/scratchy home-movie quality of Del Rey's original "Video Games" video - and Laurent herself, dolled up to look remarkably like Del Rey in that video, singing new Hunger Games-centric lyrics to the "Video Games" backing music. You've got to be a fan of the book trilogy (we are), and at least have a passing familiarity with the Del Rey video (we do), in order to "get it." But if you do, the payoff is pretty sweet.

Can't wait for the movie, by the way....

The smell of money always lingers... high profile SXSW gig is included in brief itinerary. Check the classic riot video clip, below, and see if you can supply us some subtitles.

By Blurt Staff

The Jesus and Mary Chain have confirmed four dates in the US this March including an appearance at SXSW in Austin, Texas. This will be the first time since 2008 that the band has performed in North America.  After playing their last gig in 1998 and breaking up in 1999, The Jesus & Mary Chain reunited in 2007 for a handful of high-profile club and festival dates in the US and Europe which began with a main stage performance in front of an estimated 10,000 fans at Coachella.

Some hype from the band:

Early Mary Chain gigs were a maelstrom of brilliance, violence and unbelievable arrogance. The band could hardly play, which hardly mattered, as the gigs never lasted more than fifteen minutes. Later gigs saw them as a great live band - still unpredictable, but able to play properly as well - if they felt like it. Then they got bored. Jim and William Reid - never the closest of siblings, decided they hated each other, had a massive punch-up before a paying audience then took early retirement to spend more time with their alcohol and television sets.

Wow, that's actually pretty accurate. And since several of us at BLURT have seen the band live in years long past, we can testify to the JAMC's concert prowess, so this should be a must-see this spring, regardless of whatever cash-in value it holds for the group.

At any rate, augmenting the Reid brothers' three-chord assault on these 2012 dates will be (sometimes drummer and guitarist from Pyschocandy line up) John Moore on guitar, Phil King on bass and a drummer to be announced.

Tour Dates:

Killer sneak peek of new Hoods and Shades album, featuring Don Was, Dirty Three's Jim White, Funk Brother Dennis Coffey and more.

By Blurt Staff

Andre Williams will release his new album, Hoods and Shades, on February 28 on Bloodshot Records. This will be the Detroit/Chicago-based Williams' fourth full-length album released on the label, and first since 2010's That's All I Need. Watch for the full BLURT review soon.

Okay, let's launch the first single from the album:

MP3 - "Dirt"

"Dirt" is a good representation of the new record, which has been self-dubbed the "Andre Williams folk album," and had been received extremely well in recent live performances. The song features contributions for an all-star cast including Funk Brother Dennis Coffey on guitar, Grammy-winning producer Don Was on bass, Jim White of Dirty Three on drums, and members of the Dirtbombs, and others.

[Photo Credit: Doug Coombe]

Out this week on Interscope, A Different Kind of Truth is an old kind of Eddie & Dave. And that's a good thing. Listen to samples of all the songs, below.

By A.D. Amorosi

Tempers calmed. Egos balmed. Surely, there were a handful of revisionist machinations and soothing soliloquies made on the behest of all involved so to get revolutionary guitarist Eddie Van Halen and schmaltzy libidinal vocalist David Lee Roth into the same studio. All that, and for its twelfth album - its first of completely new material since 1998, its first since 1984 to feature David Lee Roth, its first to feature Wolfgang Van Halen on bass, its first for their new label Interscope - Van Halen have found their dazzle without a hassle.

Van Halen - A Different Kind Of Truth by Interscope Records

They bid, upped their own ante and beat the dealer at the same big swinging raunchy rock game they invented in the first place. And they did so, on occasion, by basing several of Different Kind's new songs on old demo tracks and unrecorded lyrical bits from their pre-signing days with Warners in the ‘70s. That trick of memory makes it so that "She's the Woman" - a tune on the 1976 demo that snagged VH its deal with WB - has the feel of vintage Eddie-n-Dave pairings only with some new melodic blips, a punchy middle section and a crackling guitar solo that conjures the quartet's raging hormonal best.

Harder, speedier, riff-ier and more rugged than anything Eddie Van has done since Diamond Dave split the ranks, the frenemies seem to push each other through all its usual suspicions. The blistering big backbeats of Alex Van is given a pliable rhythmic lift courtesy Wolfgang (Michael Anthony's knuckle dragging eighth-note groove isn't missed; his high background vocals are but not enough to panic). Eddie's raffish riffing on the likes of the short-n-sharp likes of "Honeybabysweetiedoll" and "Outta Space" is the stuff of carnal meth-head metal joy. The melodies are only made sexier by Eddie's blustery swelling solos.

Added to all this is the rude crude and bluesy growls of Lee Roth. He doesn't sound as if he can hit the power highs of "Jamie's Crying" anymore but the basso profundo talking blues of "Tattoo" is Roth in the pocket corner, winking lascivious and cocksure. Here, his signature ass-grabby saltiness ("mousewife to momshell in the time it took to get that new tattoo") and gusto-coughing vocals are matched perfectly to the groovy. I said the word "pocket" before - that's the place where Roth resides best - on "Beats Working," on "As Is," on every thing that's fine about A Different Kind of Truth. Few rock singers can find the pocket and swing within as Roth does. Sorry haters. It's just the facts. That's even clearer on "Stay Frosty," the lone blowsy acoustic-intro-ed slow song that's reminiscent of VH's ye olde "Ice Cream Man." It's a honey of a chatty ballad through which Roth provides the vinegar.

I'm not trying to get you to spend more money but the deluxe version of this new album is worth investing in for its bonus DVD called The Downtown Sessions, which features acoustic versions of "Panama", "You and Your Blues (Intro)", "You and Your Blues" and "Beautiful Girls." Even their stripped down versions swing.

[Band photo via Van Halen Facebook page]

Also available as a pay-what-you-want download single.

By Blurt Staff

Amanda Palmer recorded a cover of  Nirvana's "Polly" for SPIN Magazine's tribute issue & compilation to Nirvana's "Nevermind" last year. Palmer saw "Polly" as the perfect opportunity to get in the studio together with two members of her live touring band, Chad Raines and Michael McQuilken, with McQuilken also on engineering duty. The record was cut at Yale University (using many of the theater department's special effects instruments and toys) where Raines and McQuilken just completed the three-year graduate Yale School of Drama program. McQuilken and Raines will be joined by bassist Jherek Bischoff (and many others) this spring to break ground on Palmer's new recording and touring project, entitled "Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra". 

True to her typical "pay what you will" business model, the "Polly" single is available via Amanda's website as well for a minimum donation of $.50, which will go toward PayPal transaction fees and royalties. Meanwhile, the video for "Polly", directed by McQuilken and featuring actors Christopher M. McFarland and Jillian Taylor with a special guest appearance by Blake Brasher, is below.

"Rubber Rat" comes from forthcoming platter Ain't No Lies in Blood.

By Uncle Blurt

Okay, lissen up, pudz. We already filled you in on the upcoming Chrome Cranks album, Ain't No Lies In Blood, the NYC punk/noise-mongers' first collection of new material since 1997. If you need further updating of your mental hard drives, check out this review of their 2009 retrospective, The Murder Of Time (1993-1996), in which Contributing Editor Jen Kelly accurately pegged the band's sound as "feral and primitive, all howled out vocals and chainsaw bass and anarchic blues-derived guitar licks."

So we're dead chuffed, as our UK brethren might put it, to serve up a teaser from the new rec, which drops Feb. 28, and was produced by Kevin McMahon of Walkmen, Swans and Titus Andronicus infamy. The band? That would be singer/guitarist Peter Aaron, guitarist William G. Weber, drummer Bob Bert, and bassist Jerry Teel itchin' to make your cranium throb...

THECHROMECRANKS "RubberRat" by Howlin' Wuelf Media

[Photo Credit: Keith Marlowe]

Pioneering electronica artist - and Mute Records' first signing -  gets his proper due in America via March-April series to commemorate the 10^th anniversary of his death.

By Blurt Staff

Envoy enterprises, in collaboration with NP Contemporary Art Center and Mute, will present FGFt, a three-part project series in homage to Frank Tovey - founder of the 1970s/1980s British electronic group Fad Gadget, marking the 10 year anniversary of the pioneer's death. Summoning a diverse group of artists and musicians who have been both directly and indirectly influenced by Tovey, the series will take place from March 1st through to April 8th, featuring a group exhibition, live music performances, and a film screening.  All events are free and open to the public.

FGFt was inspired in 2010 by the film Fad Gadget by Frank Tovey, a documentary produced by the Frank Tovey Estate and Mute, and directed by Morgan Tovey Frost. The documentary incited the possibility of paying tribute to a pioneer of the underground and post-punk music scenes who incorporated innovative electronic textures, Kafka-esque lyrics, and elaborately visceral performances. Known to perform tarred and feathered while hitting drum pads with his head, Tovey's most influential tracks include "Ricky's Hand", "Collapsing New People" and "Life On The Line". The exhibitions taking place this March mark the 10 year anniversary of Frank Tovey's passing and commemorates his work and influence as an artist.

The group exhibition, on view at Envoy enterprises from March 1st through April 8th, will feature new work inspired by Frank Tovey and specifically made for FGFt, including works by Olaf Breuning, Kelsey Henderson, Erika Keck, Robert Knoke, Terence Koh, Alex Rose, Desi Santiago, Matt Sims, Liz Wendelbo, Granth Worth, Una Szeemann, and Fischerspooner.  The opening reception is on March 1st from 6-8pm. On March 3 at 10:30pm, Xeno & Oaklander and Ike Yard will each give live performances at Dixon Place as part of the music program. Additionally, Fad Gadget by Frank Tovey will make it's US premiere at Anthology Film Archives on March 10th at 8:00pm, alongside short films from artists in the exhibition. All events are free and open to the public on a first come, first serve basis.

Fad Gadget was Mute's first signing in 1979, and an enormous influence on a whole host of electronic artists. Featuring the ground-breaking debut single, 'Back To Nature' (originally released in October 1979) plus the classic single 'Ricky's Hand',and live favourite ‘Lady Shave'. Mute will release An Introduction To... Fad Gadget this Spring.

Please visit www.envoyenterprises.com for a complete program schedule.

Participating Artist Roster: FGFt

March 1st 2012

----------------------------

Matthew Sims

Martynka Wawrzyniak

Erik Hanson

Slava Mogutin

Una Szeemann

Olaf Breuning

Stephanie Snider

David Flinn

Kelsey Henderson

Grant Worth

Nathan Cash Davidson

Alex Rose

Liz Wendelbo

Brian Kenny

Terence Koh

Nick Cash

Gail Stoicheff

Desi Santiago

Robert Knoke

Erika Keck

Micky Pellerano

Thomas Dozol

Conrad Ventur

Edwin Pouncey

Lovett/Codagnone

Fischerspooner

----------------------------

Morgan Tovey Frost

----------------------------

Xeno & Oaklander

Ike Yard

Finally righting a wrong that agitated music fans.


By Blurt Staff


In addition to the previously announced inductees at this year's upcoming Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony - Beastie Boys, Donovan, Guns N' Roses, Laura Nyro, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Small Faces/The Faces, Freddie King, Don Kirshner, Cosimo Matassa, Tom Dowd and Glyn Johns- i't now been announced that some early rock and soul legends will also get their due on April 14. Rolling Stone reports:


"The backing groups of six first-generation rock stars. The honored groups include the Blue Caps (Gene Vincent), The Comets (Bill Haley), the Crickets (Buddy Holly), the Famous Flames (James Brown), the Midnighters (Hank Ballard) and the Miracles (Smokey Robinson). In each of these cases, the backing group failed to get into the Hall of Fame at the same time as their frontman - sometimes causing a great deal of controversy."


Rock Hall president Joel Peresman commented, "These Inductees are pioneers in the development of the music we call rock and roll. As part of our mission to recognize the most impactful, innovative and influential artists in rock, the committee brought forth these six groups that belong in the Hall of Fame."

Windy City purveyors of supercharged power pop, but with an edgy, unsettling dark undercurrent that's drawn comparisons to the likes of the Replacements and Elvis Costello.

By Blurt Staff

Chicago's Archie Powell & the Exports released their second album this week, Great Ideas In Action, and we've been listening nonstop to key track "Metronome." Check it out below, and also visit their Bandcamp page for more details.

Metronome by archiepowellandtheexports

The album was produced, engineered and mixed by Justin Perkins (formerly of Yesterday's Kids, The Obsoletes and Screeching Weasel) at Howl Street Studios and The Mystery Room in Milwaukee last fall. The band recorded 14 songs before paring it down to the essential 11, closing the album out with the title track, which Powell says is a Calvin & Hobbes reference (anyone who can describe the strip in question is entitled to free admission to Exports shows for life.)  They'll kick off the preamble to release with a spring tour and a show in Austin during SXSW.

Powell, incidentally, is the son of a violin prodigy who played in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra before landing as a permanent member of Milwaukee's orchestra. He started playing guitar at 11 and writing "awful" songs at around 15.  Immediately following college, he and keyboardist Ryan started the Exports, bassist Adam joined after they recorded their first EP and they rounded out the permanent line-up with drummer RJ. The band's first recorded effort was a digital EP that expanded their audience to a national level. It was followed by Skip Work, their debut full length, which drew praise from Boston Phoenix, Powerpopaholic, Radio Free Chicago and My Old Kentucky Blog among others.

As the saying goes... "Your Move," Chris.

By Blurt Staff

Original YES vocalist Jon Anderson recently issued a couple of albums: solo record Survival & Other Stories plus The Living Tree In Concert Part One, a live collaboration with former YES keyboardist Rick Wakeman. He's currently on an extensive North American tour supporting the former (details/dates at www.jonanderson.com/tour.html ).

Meanwhile, though, a bit of a controversy got stirred up this week. In response to recent rumors circulating about Anderson being asked to re-join YES (which continues to tour, helmed by bassist Chris Squire and guitarist Steve Howe. Anderson has put the word out that "these rumors are unfounded and false." He also had this response to recent quotes in the news by Chris Squire that he is in regular communication with Jon: "I haven't spoken with Chris in four years, and the only e-mail I have received from him in the last 3 years was him asking for free tickets to my show in Mesa, AZ last week - very sad, but true." 

Meow! No word yet from Squire or the YES camp, although the Anderson comments have been posted to the YES Facebook page, so the world awaits...

Photo Credit: Tami Freed

Finishig work on followup to unpronounceable 2008 album as well as Jonsi's solo album Go.

By Blurt Staff

Icelandic ethereal rockers Sigur Rós are eyeing a tour for this year, to be preceded by a new album this spring which they describe as "introverted," "floaty and minimal," "ambient," and "a slow takeoff toward something." At their website they write:

after a break of over three years, sigur rós are going to be touring again in 2012.

this morning we're delighted to announce that on the 9th of september, sigur rós will play at bestival festival on the isle of wight in england. it'll be their only show in the uk in 2012. information about the festival and tickets are available via our tour page.

we'll be announcing more tour dates soon - sign up to our mailing list below to get the news first.

The Bestival fest will include Spiritualized, Hot Chip, Justice, the xx, Orbital, Caribou and tons more.

The more self-serving for the originating website, the better...

By Uncle Blurt

Here they are, kids. Seek out the sources via Google.  All headlines bastardized and recontextualized from yesterday's Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Billboard and Blurt stories.Blog this.

***

"Listen to a New Solo Track From Jack White: "Niggas in Paris"

"Earl Sweatshirt Returns, to Remain on Supervised Probation"

"Chocolate Industries to Issue Paul McCartney Tribute Album"

"Fad Gadget/Frank Tovey Gets Walk of Fame Star"

"Katy Perry Signs Off on Bret Michaels New Album With A Smile"

"Stones Throw Will Release an Album From Geoff Barrow's Loretta Lynn, Jimmy Buffett Hip-Hop Project"

"Chris Brown Had Bloody Good Time Making Paul McCartney Tribute Album"

"Lana Del Rey, Skylar Grey Perform in L.A. To Honor 6 Backing Groups For Rock Hall"

Film details forthcoming album The Clearing and more.

By Blurt Staff

NC's Bowerbirds' The Clearing is out March 6 on Dead Oceans, and the band will be touring as a five-piece all over the country this spring. (Full list of dates is below.) After sharing album tracks, "Tuck the Darkness In," and "In the Yard," Bowerbirds are giving a further look into what The Clearing is all about with this six-minute mini documentary about the making of the album. Produced by Creato Destructo, this video shows Bowerbirds' in their natural element, talking about their life, the home they are building, their music and more.

Keep your eyes peeled for a Bowerbirds feature in the next issue of BLURT...

About "The Clearing" by Bowerbirds from Secretly Jag on Vimeo.

Tour Dates:

Sat. March 17 -- Carrboro, NC @ Cat's Cradle

Sun. March 18 -- Asheville, NC @ Grey Eagle w/ Mandolin Orange

Mon. March 19 -- Charlottesville, VA @ The Southern w/ Dry the River

Wed. March 21 -- Washington, DC @ Black Cat w/ Dry the River

Thu. March 22 -- Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's w/ Dry the River

Fri. March 23 -- New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom w/ Dry the River

Sat. March 24 -- Boston, MA @ Paradise w/ Dry the River

Mon. March 26 -- Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa w/ Dry the River

Tue. March 27 -- Toronto, ON @ The Garrison w/ Dry the River

Thu. March 29 -- Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall w/ Dry the River

Fri. March 30 - Iowa City, IA @ The Mill (Mission Creek Festival) w/ Sharon Van Etten

Sat. March 31 -- Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Centre w/ Dry the River

Tue. April 3 -- Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile w/ Dry the River

Wed. April 4 -- Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge w/ Dry the River

Fri. April 6 -- San Francisco, CA @ The Independent w/ Dry the River

Sat. April 7 -- Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour w/ Dry the River

Sun. April 8 -- San Diego, CA @ Casbah w/ Dry the River

Wed. April 11 -- Austin, TX @ The Parish w/ Dry the River

Thu. April 12 -- Dallas, TX @ The Loft w/ Dry the River

Sat. April 14 -- Birmingham, AL @ The Bottletree w/ Mandolin Orange

Sun. April 15 -- Atlanta, GA @ The Earl w/ Mandolin Orange

Fri. April 20 - Rotterdam, NL @ Motel Mozaique Festival

Sun. April 22 - Copenhagen, DK @ Vega

Mon. April 23 - Stockholm, SE @ Debaser Slussen

Tue. April 24 - Goteborg, SE @Pusterviksbaren

Wed. April 25 - Hamburg, DE @ Uebel & Gefahrlich

Thu. April 26 - Berlin, DE @ Lido

Fri. April 27 - Munich, DE @ Feierwerk

Sat. April 28 - Zurich, CH @ El Lokal

Mon. April 30 - Paris, FR @ Café De La Danse

Tue. May 1 Antwerp, BE @ Trix

Thu. May 3 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club

Fri. May 4 - Manchester, UK @ Deaf Institute

Sat. May 5 - Brighton, UK @ The Haunt

Mon. May 7 - London, UK @ Cargo

Tue. May 8 - Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique

Wed. May 9 - Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso

Listen to Latin boogaloo classic "Bang Bang," below.

By Fred Mills

The "velvet voice" of Latin soul and pioneer of mid/late ‘60s Latin boogaloo craze Jimmy Sabater passed away Wednesday (Feb. 8) at the age of 75 in NYC. According to an NPR report his son Jimmy Sabater Jr. indicated it was from natural causes. A gifted vocalist and percussionist, Sabater, the son of Puerto Rican immigrants, grew up in Harlen and, after joining fellow Latin musician Joe Cuba's band in the mid-fifties, became a star on the local music scene.

Among Sabater's hits with the Joe Cuba Sextet: 1962 ballad "To Be With You" and 1967's "Bang Bang" - the latter's hi-nrg R&B/Afro-Cuban blast becoming a huge hit internationally and a key track for the emerging Latin boogaloo movement. Sabater late worked as a solo performer as well as with  salsa artists such as Ray Barretto, Eddie Palmieri and Charlie Palmieri.

"We Take Care of Our Own: The Boss meets the Clash.

By Fred Mills

Just in time for this weekend's performance at the Grammys - a new Bruce Springsteen video. It's "We Take Care of Our Own," from the upcoming Wrecking Ball album, natch, due out March 6.

It's an intriguing video that not only underscores its subtly patriotic message (which was only hinted at when the song was just available as an audio track) but finds The Boss in none-too-subtle Joe Strummer mode. Which ain't a bad thing!

"Candy Girl" serves up a sweet taste-fest...

By Blurt Staff

Britain's Trailer Trash Tracys recently released their debut LP Ester on Double Six/Domino, which saw them collecting raves from the likes of the Guardian, Dazed and Confused, Uncut and many more. Including BLURT:

There's nothing remotely "alt" or "country" or "twangy" here, but instead a deliciously disorienting thicket of experimental synths and distorted beats with familiar classic pop melodies serving like breadcrumb-trails through the fantastical processed forest. Led by the sensuous late-night vocals of Suzanne Aztoria, a host of contemporaries come to mind with the TTTs, from Blonde Redhead and Warpaint to School of Seven Bells and Holly Miranda. But the band's real progenitors span eras, from the Jesus & Mary Chain's bubble gum-and-heroin noir and Cocteau Twins' hazy textures to Kiernan Hebden's chop shop and the Dum Dum Girls' girl group-meets-the-Ramones' echoes.

In addition, they cast their eerily gorgeous spell over London audiences when they played their sold-out headline show at the Lexington in January, and also headed out on high profile support slots with the likes of The Vaccines and the Maccabees, playing to maximum capacity crowds at venues such as Brixton Academy.

The band has gone ahead and recorded a very special live session, with album highlights such as "Candy Girl" and "Strangling Good Guys" aired in a very intimate yet oddly fitting environment for the band. Watch the videos below, and also check out an MP3 of the Black Dice remix for "Candy Girl."

Trailer Trash Tracys - Candy Girl (Black Dice Remix) by Double Six

Film caught Reatard just before his untimely passing. Watch the trailer, below.

By Fred Mills

Better Than Something is the name of the Alex Hammond/Ian Markiewicz-directed Jay Reatard documentary that saw it's initial screenings at film festivals last year. Now it's set for a wider U.S. release, starting in Montana on Feb. 18 and Asheville & Atlanta on Feb. 28, then hitting a number of cities for multiple-night runs, wrapping up April 11 & 12 in San Francisco. The Asheville showing is additionally noteworthy in that it will feature live performances from Greg Cartwright's new band The Report Cards (Cartwright, of the Reigning Sound and the Oblivions, had played with Reatard frequently in the past), plus The Hooten Hallers and Viva Le Vox.

See below for the screenings announced thus far; you can keep up on additional bookings and info at the film's Facebook and Twitter.

The directors filmed the mighty Reatard in Memphis prior to his tragic death in 2009 and interspersed interview material with live footage. You can read the BLURT interview with Reatard here. Meanwhile, below you can view the trailer:

2-18  Missoula, MT - Crystal Theater

2-28   Asheville, NC - Jack of the Wood (w/live bands including Greg Cartwright)

2-28   Atlanta, GA - The Earl

3-02 - 3-08 Brooklyn, NY - Nitehawk Cinema
3-02 - 3-08 Memphis, TN - Malco Studio on the Square
3-02 - 3-08 Seattle, WA - Grand Illusion Cinema
3-02 - 3-08 Portland, OR - Clinton Street Theater
3-03 - 3-05 Phoenix, AZ - FilmBar
3-08 - 3-11 Los Angeles, CA - Egyptian Theatre at the American Cinematheque
3-09-  3-10 Bellingham, WA - Pickford Film Center
3-15 Columbus, OH - Wexner Center for the Arts
3-26 Austin, TX - Alamo Drafthouse Ritz
4-11 - 4-12 San Francisco, CA - Roxie Theater

Arrow, out this week on the Partisan label, draws a bead on your heart even as it moves the Cincy band to the next level. Listen to the SoundCloud stream, below.

By Selena Fragassi

It's true: this week Heartless Bastards are releasing an album called Arrow on Valentine's Day. Somewhere there is a yarn about cupid walking into a bar or an Alanis Morissette song perfect for a moment just like this - but we think the joke is on anyone who dares not take a chance on getting to know the Cincinnati quartet's fourth album.

In fact the best implication for Arrow is perhaps the upward direction in which Heartless Bastards are headed: from a dusty bar band that, as legend goes it, was discovered by the Black Keys' Patrick Carney, to playing the very same stadiums as their first supporter. "I'm on my way/ I'm on my way/ I'm on my way," vocalist du jour Erika Wennerstrom repeats on the opener "Marathon" almost as if trying to convince herself, yet that humility is the classic cornerstone of the band who were just as content to spiffy up the garage they started in while bands like, well, the Black Keys were tempted to moved into pearly, gated communities.

Arrow by Heartless Bastards

The best part of Arrow is that it aims to please no one while at the same time charming the pants off of everyone. Winded jams blow about on "Parted Ways" and "Down in the Canyon," while "Got to Have Rock and Roll" fractionalizes the form into a simple beginner's lesson. The band, for its part, seems to have picked up on a few lessons too: Wennerstrom, lauded for her husky, coffee-rich vocals, digs a little deeper into her range on "Only for You," that becomes (for her) downright flirty, as her bandmates (bassist Jesse Ebaugh, guitarist Mark Nathan, and drummer Dave Colvin) channel their vigor to move into more progressive musical arrangements. The interplay best comes across on "The Arrow Killed the Beast," a song so buttery and rich, we're sure there are cave drawings in homage to it.

While it's hard to shake Heartless Bastards' unforgettable prior release The Mountain (2009),  Arrow is indeed pointed in the right direction with a fresh sound, a newly minted label (previously the band was signed to Fat Possum) and a fortified passion that once again proves that Wennerstrom and Co. really do have heart.

New album The Something Rain arrives next week. Check out the video for "Medicine" below as well.

By Blurt Staff

With band leader Stuart A. Staples and co-founders David Boulter and Neil Fraser forming a core trio of original members, Tindersticks definitively returned to form in 2008 following a 5-year hiatus. Two critically acclaimed albums later, the band has a new record, The Something Rain, out Feb. 21 on Constellation.

The Something Rain - TINDERSTICKS by Constellation Records

Details from the label: The new album brims and bristles with canny narrative thrust. Slinky, supple compositions are spiked with plenty of barbed edges and sparkling fizz. Right out of the gate, album opener "Chocolate" features David Boulter's sequel to the spoken-word classic "My Sister" from Tindersticks' 1995 eponymous release. Boulter narrates the story while the band works up a brilliant, brewing crescendo, abetted by the swirling horns of long-time collaborator Terry Edwards. This is indeed a new Tindersticks classic - edgier, more exuberant and more expansive - that spurs The Something Rain into a song cycle of rolling, at times rollicking, and always inimitably Tinderstickian takes on smoky Northern Soul.

Tracklist:

1. Chocolate

2. Show Me Everything

3. This Fire of Autumn

4. A Night So Still

5. Slippin' Shoes

6. Medicine

7. Frozen

8. Come Inside

9. Goodbye Joe

Tindersticks "Medicine" from Constellation Records on Vimeo.

Visions arrives next week.

By Blurt Staff

Over at NPR Music they are streaming the new Grimes album, Visions, in its entirety this week, in advance of the Feb. 21 release via Arbutus/4AD. Many industry observers predict that it's poised to be one of the year's most rabidly-consumed platters, including BLURT's own reviewer, who writes:

Grimes is frequently given to ethereal wordless coos, giddy squeaks and wounded gasps, deploying them as rhythmic depth charges, and while some of the sonics also tilt towards the abstract, almost glitchy or Aphex Twin-like in places, because the melodies stay foregrounded  the accessibility factor is high enough to give a casual listener the sense of confronting a more mainstream pop album than might be expected. From the Lykke Li-meets-St. Etienne "Genesis" to the hypnotic, motorik "Oblivion" to the lush, gospellish "Vowels = Space and Time," Boucher's blossoming star quality shines, her multitracked, soaring/swooning vocals carrying uncanny echoes of such legendary ‘60s girl groups as the Crystals and Ronettes. Ultimately, Visions is an album that weaves its magic precisely because of all the inherent contradictions enumerated above.

Check out the full album stream at the link above, and be watching for our interview with the lovely young lady around the time of the release.

Tour Dates:

February
18th  Vancouver, BC - Fortune Sound Club
19th  Victoria, BC - Lucky Bar
20th  Seattle, WA - Sunset Tavern
21st  Portland, OR - Holocene
22nd  San Francisco, CA - Rickshaw Stop
24th  Los Angeles, CA - Echo
25th  San Diego, CA - Soda Bar
27th  Phoenix, AZ - Rhythm Room
29th  Austin, TX - Lamberts

March
1st  Denton, TX - Dan's Silverleaf
2nd  New Orleans, LA - LBC Quad (Tulane Univ)
3rd  Oxford, MS - Cats Purring Dude Ranch
5th  Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn
6th  Tampa, FL - The Orpheum
7th  Orlando, FL - Backbooth
8th  Miami, FL - Bardot Miami
9th  Savannah, GA - Savannah Stopover Festival
13th  Minneapolis, MN - 7th St Entry
14th  Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
19th  Toronto, ON - Legendary Horseshoe Tavern
20th  Pittsburgh, PA - Brillobox
21st  Baltimore, MD - Str8 Cavin
22nd  Philadelphia, PA - Kung Fu Necktie
23rd  New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
24th  Brooklyn, NY - Glasslands
26th  Boston, MA - Great Scott
31st  Montreal, QB - Cabaret Mile End

An astonishing, and altogether memorable, Americana entry this week, the self-released Gloryland marks Southern singer-songwriter Gordon as a major new talent.

By Steve Pick

It was the 1970s, growing up in Louisiana. Civil rights had progressed to the point that an almost all-white junior high could have an African-American band teacher. But the Ku Klux Klan was ever-present, setting up pickets when that band performed, or remaining a family member's secret, connected to the ownership of a gun that saved a friend's life. Almost everybody has lived in this town their whole lives, and figures they will die in this town sometime in the future, which will always come after the past. As they do everywhere and everytime, parents wonder when their children will abandon the dream of a creative life, and figure out how they're going to make a living. There is love, raw, sexual, connected in all aspects of life; there is adultery, betrayal, loss. This is the world of Kevin Gordon's Gloryland (www.kevingordon.net).

Except that the title track and "Side of the Road" are taking place in the present day, and scan the globe for their settings. And it would not be fair to dismiss these songs. "Gloryland" lets Gordon's guitar rage against the matter-of-fact tone of his vocals, here clearly modeled after Bob Dylan's cadence on "You've Gotta Serve Somebody." Comparing the manipulations of a self-serving preacher to the political decisions to carry war to the Middle East and the thought processes which lead to suicide bombings as a reaction, Gordon sets up the expectation that this new record, his first since 2006, is going to comment explicitly on contemporary problems. Drums, guitar, and vocals explode on the chorus of this song, as his anger and his judgment come down hard on the side of finding truth in a world filled with lies. But only "Side of the Road," with a verse about American soldiers in Basra, touches again on anything like this, and there he is more interested in spiritual matters than political.

Still, there is a connection between these songs and the bulk of the album set in times past. Presumably autobiographical, "Colfax / Step in Time," tells the tale of Gordon's 7^th grade marching band and the KKK passing out leaflets opposed to his African-American teacher. Gordon gives this song 10 and one half minutes to unfold, weaving constantly shifting musical details underneath his poetically intoned vocals. He reels off specific names of fellow students and the teacher,  erotic daydreams of a 12-year-old boy, the songs which formed the band's repertoire, and pitch-perfect descriptions of the KKK in their "white dunce caps / And robes with red crosses / Embroidered on / Like gilded leaves on an automatic rifle." Somehow, all this leads to a simple and irrevocable triumph of truth over lies, through simple perseverance. It's one way to get past the dreams of an imaginary Gloryland, and achieve at least something good enough for one day in the long path to a better world for all.

Kevin Gordon's music exists somewhere in between the raw guitar-filled storytelling of James McMurtry and the more skewed and melodically subtle approach of Joe Henry. He knows exactly how to build and sustain interest in a song, even the ones that don't hit you over the head with obvious hooks. Gordon's guitar and vocals are compelling themselves. The guitar crackles with electricity, the voice manipulates supple rhythmic shifts to make the words fit the spaces they are given. Here we are reminded that Gordon went to graduate school as a poet. He's learned a lot from other singers, but his poetry skills are stronger than most in the songwriting game.

Gloryland twists and turns through tales of Gordon's childhood, the people he knew and saw, the loves he's had and lost, the ties that bind both good and bad. But the album may just center on "Trying to Get to Memphis," a quiet, formally elastic little song about a man answering his door to a another man begging for money. It hinges on truth and lies and the question of what is owed to our fellow humans vs. how much we can possibly do in the face of so many who need help. It is far removed from Gloryland, from an imaginary Heaven where every competing faction can get along swimmingly. Instead, it is the ache in the heart of a well-meaning human being who can't quite do the helpful thing in a situation where the truth is not as certain as some would like it to be. This is the world in which we move, taking steps in time towards something else, which may turn out to be better, but probably not for everybody.

[Photo Credit: Jim Herrington)]

In rock ‘n' roll, Chuck's the contemporary Say Hey Kid, no lie...

By Blurt Staff

No secret that around the BLURT hi-security enclave, rocker Chuck Prophet has a permanent key to the compound - nonstop action of late, on the corporate jukebox, from his Temple Beautiful album (Yep Roc; read the review here).

So check out this mini-documentary on the album, produced and directed by Darrell Flowers. Need we say more?

Here we go.... well, after that Grammys Beach Boys debacle... but we still have high hopes.  - Ed.

BONNAROO MUSIC AND ARTS FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2012 LINEUP FEATURING RADIOHEAD, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, PHISH, BON IVER, THE BEACH BOYS 50TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR, THE SHINS, THE AVETT BROTHERS, SKRILLEX, AZIZ ANSARI, ALICE COOPER, FEIST, CHILDISH GAMBINO, BLACK STAR, tUnE-yArDs, BAD BRAINS...

For a preview of this year's lineup, fans can checkout the Bonnaroo's 2012 lineup playlist on Spotify via this link: http://spoti.fi/b0nnar00-2012

Official festival website is www.bonnaroo.com

2012 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival Confirmed Artists:

Radiohead

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Phish

The Beach Boys

Bon Iver

The Avett Brothers

The Shins

Foster The People

Skrillex

Aziz Ansari

Dispatch

Feist

The Roots

Alice Cooper

SuperJam

Black Star

The Word featuring John Medeski, Robert Randolph and North Mississippi Allstars

Ludacris

Ben Folds Five

Flogging Molly

Spectrum Road featuring Cindy Blackman Santana, Jack Bruce, John Medeski, and Vernon Reid

Mac Miller

Childish Gambino

Major Lazer

tUnE-yArDs

Afrocubism

Flying Lotus

Umphrey's McGee

Little Dragon

St. Vincent

City and Colour

The Civil Wars

Young The Giant

Two Door Cinema Club

Punch Brothers

NEEDTOBREATHE

Fitz & The Tantrums

Bad Brains

Yelawolf

Dawes

Battles

Danny Brown

The Black Lips

SBTRKT

Phantogram

Kendrick Lamar

Charles Bradley and his Extraordinaires

The Kooks

The Joy Formidable

The Antlers

Kathleen Edwards

Mimosa

Kurt Vile & The Violators

Alabama Shakes

Das Racist

Delta Spirit

Gary Clark Jr.

Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk

Laura Marling

Trampled by Turtles

Mogwai

The War On Drugs

Ben Howard

Grouplove

Blind Pilot

ALO

The Devil Makes Three

White Denim

EMA

Here We Go Magic

K-Flay

The Lonely Forest

Mariachi El Bronx

Big Freedia

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.

The Soul Rebels

Kvelertak

SOJA

Steven Bernstein's MTO Allstars Plays Sly

Big Gigantic

Sarah Jarosz

Orgone

Darondo

Fruit Bats

Moon Taxi

More artists to be announced soon.

Follows on the heels of 2011's widely-acclaimed West LP; due Feb. 21 on Thrill Jockey.


By Blurt Staff

Psych maeastros have a brand new Remixes 12" that  features two remixes, one by Andrew Weatherall, and one by Sonic Boom, and a collaboration with kandodo. Check out this advance stream of theWeatherall mix:

Wooden Shjips - Crossing Remix [Andrew Weatherall] by Thrill Jockey Records

Andrew Weatherall, long time producer and remixer who has worked with the likes of Primal Scream, New Order, My Bloody Valentine, and Bjork, remixed "Crossing". Pete Kember, also known as Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3/Spectrum fame contributed "Wiking Stew (aka Red Krayola-ing)". When Pete was called in to help master the record he was inspired by the album and made this mash up from West on his own. Last but not least is the track "Ursus Maritimus (Last Bear's Lament)", a long distance collaboration with kandodo (otherwise known as Simon Price from The Heads). Ripley created the bed of the track in Colorado in between tours and sent if off to Simon, in London. Simon added all the additional instrumentation at his home studio.



TRACK LIST:

01. Crossing Remix [Andrew Weatherall]

02. Wiking Stew (aka Red Krayola-ing) [Sonic Boom]

03. Ursus Maritimus (Last Bear's Lament) [kandodo w/Ripley]

Announces tour that includes multiple shows at SXSW.

By Blurt Staff

Fire Records are releasing a double disc edition of Wooden Wand's critically acclaimed "Briarwood" album, including 8 stripped down demo versions of the James Jackson Toths penned album tracks. Below, check out album tracks "Motel Stationary" and "Winter in Kentucky" plus a demo of the latter track.

Wooden Wand - Motel Stationary by FIRE RECORDS

Wooden Wand - Briarwood by FIRE RECORDS

Here's what WW mainmain James Jackson Toth says about the recordings:

The demos are the grimoire -- there is a corresponding demo for every song I have ever released. I've been cursed with a bad memory, so if I do not make a demo of a song, I will forget it. I rarely remember the chords, and I usually require a little help from more musicianly band members to jog my memory.

Demos are likewise invaluable before recording any new Wooden Wand album; I will listen to them constantly so as to exactly replicate - or dramatically change - my phrasing on any given song. I like to remember every nuance of my vocal performance because singing is my most important job. I rarely double vocals, but when I do, I'm the double-vocal king. This may seem somewhat at odds with the raucous, off-the-cuff nature of a good deal of my work (and my reputation), but it is this very idea of a single 'control' within the chaos that allows me to truly improvise.

These demos were recorded at various times leading up to the recording of Briarwood. It is one of very few WW albums to contain almost all 'newer' material, that is, material written for this specific album and not drawn from the archives. The album versions are only faithful to the demos in terms of vocals. Everything else was up for discussion, and as you will hear, many things were changed and improved upon.

These were all recorded solo, at home in Lexington, KY, on a Roland BR1600 digital 8 track.

Tour Dates:

03.06.12 - Nashville @ Foobar
03.07.12 - Atlanta @ The Earl 
03.08.12 - Huntsville @ Flying Monkey Theater 
03.10.12 - Shreveport @ The Collective 
03.11.12 - Denton @ 35 Denton
03.13.12 - Austin @ SXSW
03.15.12 - Austin @ SXSW
03.16.12 - Austin @ SXSW
03.17.12 - Austin @ SXSW
03.17.12 - Oklahoma City @ The Conservatory
03.18.12 - Little Rock @ Dedicated
03.19.12 - Hot Springs @ Valley Of The Vapors 
03.21.12 - Chattanooga @ Sluggo's North 
03.22.12 - Cincinnati @ Mayday 
03.23.12 - Louisville @ Zanzabar 
03.24.12 - Pittsburgh @ Club Cafe

"Ahoy there, fuckwads and gobshites."

By Blurt Staff

Hot on the heels of yesterday's announcement on the lineup of this year's Bonnaroo, the metal community counters with an offer ya can't refuse: the 2012 installment of PaganFest America - what some are already calling "the most raucous tour package of the year. Headeliners Turisas (from Finland) will be joined by Scotland's Alestorm, Russia's Arkona and America's Huntress for a slash-and-burn sojourn across the country of epic international proportions. See full list of dates, below.

ALESTORM frontman Christopher Bowes had the following to say about PaganFest America Part III: "Ahoy there, fuckwads and gobshites. Am I allowed to say 'fuckwad'? Who cares... Anyway, just giving all you North American types a reminder to get your shit-proof pants on, 'cos I'm confident that the upcoming PaganFest America tour is gonna make you all crap yourselves with joy. ALESTORM are gonna be onstage every night out-partying and out-drinking everyone there, especially all you Viking lightweights! You wanna take that challenge? Then get your asses down to a show and show us you're better!" Adds ARKONA vocalist Masha "Scream" Arhipova, "We saw that you, our North American fans, know and support us; we saw that you know and love our songs; we saw that you want us to come again. That's why we decided to come back to North America, after our amazing tour with Korpiklaaini, to play again for you!" Adds HUNTRESS vocalist Jill Janus, "HUNTRESS is thrilled to join the PaganFest America tour this year! We're honored to share the stage with Turisas, ALESTORM, and ARKONA. This is our first festival tour before our debut album is released Spring/Summer 2012 on NAPALM RECORDS. Being true pagans ourselves, we shall enjoy all the hedonistic revelry PaganFest brings!"

3/29 - Baltimore, MD @ Sonar
3/30 - Worcester, MA @ Palladium
3/31 - New York, NY @ Gramercy Theatre
4/1 - Montreal, QC @ Club Soda **PaganFest with EX DEO**
4/2 - Toronto, ON @ The Opera House **PaganFest with EX DEO**
4/3 - Cleveland, OH @ Peabody's
4/4 - Detroit, MI @ Blondie's
4/5 - Chicago, IL @ Reggie's Rock Club
4/6 - Saint Paul, MN @ Station 4
4/7 - Louisville, KY @ Vernon Club
4/8 - Charlotte, NC @ Tremont Music Hall
4/9 - Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
4/11 - Dallas, TX @ Trees
4/12 - Lubbock, TX @ Jake's
4/13 - Denver, CO @ The Marquis
4/15 - Seattle, WA @ Studio Seven
4/16 - Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
4/17 - San Francisco, CA @ DNA Lounge
4/18 - West Hollywood, CA @ Key Club
4/19 - Tempe, AZ @ 910 Live

Record Store Day EP yields advance digital taste.


By Fred Mills


Public Image Ltd. has a new album due in May or June, This Is PiL, and as Slicing Up Eyeballs is reporting, John Lydon unveiled a new song this week at the BBC. Titled "One Drop" it is described by the '80s-centric blog as "a lilting, almost dub-ska track," which is being somewhat charitable; it's pretty inconsequential as a piece of music. But hey, it's been 20 years since new PiL music, so that counts for something! The tune will be on a vinyl-only Record Store Day EP in April.


You can listen to a stream of the tune at the SUE site, and meanwhile, check out a couple of live tracks the band recently posted online, a 2009 version of "Flowers of Romance" and a 2011 recording of "Warrior."

Warrior Live at Isle Of Wight 2011 by Public Image Ltd (PiL) Flowers of Romance Live at Brixton 2009 by Public Image Ltd (PiL)

Band will also be doing selected concert dates this spring.


By Blurt Staff


The Rapture has released a new music video for "In The Grace Of Your Love," the title track found on the band's a2011 studio album. The video, produced by Dream The End, features The Raptures' own Gabriel Andruzzi showcasing some interpretive dance moves along with the track. Check it out here.

Of the making of the music video, Melissa Jones of Dream The End says, "After meeting the band I was inspired to create a music video for ‘In The Grace of Your Love' that played with color and light and space. We all love the artist James Turrell, whose work was part of Dream The Ends first edition, so this was a big inspiration for the video, and I also wanted to bring in a sort of 60s French film look to the piece. For the shoot we worked with a laser artist based in Germany and then shot in a studio space in Chelsea in NYC with the band for the performance parts."

Upcoming US Tour Dates 
4/13 - Indio, CA - Coachella
4/17 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theater *
4/19 - Las Vegas, NV - Boulevard Pool at The Cosmopolitan *
4/20 - Indio, CA - Coachella
* = w/ Justice

Sandy Bull & the Rhythm Ace, Live 1976 arrives March 27. Check out some choice Bull audio samples below as well.

By Blurt Staff

When the name Sandy Bull is uttered, it's in hushed tones of reverie, and for good reason. We're just the latest name-droppers on a list that started with legends like The Beatles and Hunter S. Thompson, and today, his records have a resurgent influence that probably exceeds the cachet Sandy had with listeners during his sadly truncated time on the planet. Just listen to one of his four classic Vanguard albums to know that Sandy was the real deal; categorizing his musical contributions to the world or his influence on others is kind of impossible. But really, who else was trying to play ragas and classical pieces on banjo in 1963? What other honky musicians were adding exotic instruments and teaming up with respected jazz drummers like Billy Higgins to expand their multidimensional sound? Through his signature "blends" of folk, pre-war blues, eastern music, acid rock, and everything else he threw into the drugged mix, Sandy Bull gave the world a great gift-while leaving only four proper albums in his wake.

Well, further gifts abound, as this 1976 concert on Galactic Zoo Disk/Drag City will attest. Almost a follow-up to 1972's Demolition Derby (a candidate for President of unhinged, bottom-of-the-barrel brilliance), this historical nugget shows that Sandy had expanded his sound even further than anyone could have imagined in the lost post-Vanguard quietude. Rocking the then-pretty-new Rhythm Ace drum machine and utilizing pre-recorded tracks of bass and fuzz guitar (simulating how he'd do mad overdubs in the studio really) and adding some pedal steel at one point, Sandy conjures whole new inflections over his classic sound. Of course, the performance is book-ended by classic electric oud workouts in pure, golden Sandy Bull form. Sandy runs through his entire instrumental palette while performing a set of songs that never made it to vinyl, but recall some of his classic themes. The show, captured warmly on tape, is a vital performance and a rare glimpse into the previously unheard 1970's progressions of Sandy's music.

If you are even a casual fan of guitar music or artists like John Fahey, Jack Rose or Robbie Basho, you owe it to yourself to delve into the Bull oeuvre via Sandy Bull & the Rhythm Ace, Live 1976.

Co-founders Dave Smalley and Jonathan Anastas talk about their tenure as Boston hardcore legends and the band's reunion.

By Blurt Staff

Mosh over to BLURT blogger John B. Moore's "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" blog on all things punk: his latest entry is an exclusive interview with members of the D.Y.S., who recently launched a single-a-month series for Boston's Bridge 9 label.

"It's going to be something that continues to grow," says the band's co-founder Dave Smalley, to Moore. "The future is unwritten for everyone in life, but it should always include an electric guitar, raging drums, thundering bass and a heartfelt scream."

Amen to that, brutha Dave.

Doing the cover-complete-album thing for a week in April...

By Blurt Staff

Hop the autobahn nearest you in mid April and head down to NYC's Museum of Modern Art: Kraftwerk will be doing a residency they're calling "Kraftwerk-Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8" in which they perform one key album per night, April 10-17, starting with 1974's Autobahn and concluding with 2003's Tour de France.

According to the band's handlers, Kraftwerk will do "original compositions from their catalogue adapted specifically for this exhibition's format, to showcase both Kraftwerk's historical contributions and contemporary influences on sound and image culture."

There's also to be an accompanying audio-visual display of all things Kraftwerk from April 10 to May 14 at the Performance Dome at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City.

Shows:

4-10 Autobahn (1974)
4-11 Radio-Activity (1975)
4-12 Trans Europe Express (1977)
4-13 The Man-Machine (1978)
4-14 Computer World (1981)
4-15 Techno Pop (1986)
4-16 The Mix (1991)
4-17 Tour de France (2003)

Watch a live clip of the band, below.

By Fred Mills

Okay, all you garage-skronk fiends, this note's for YOU: late yesterday the mighty In The Red Records label announced that they've inked a deal with erstwhile Memphis legends The Oblivians. Above you can see founding member Greg Cartwright (also of Reigning Sound and the Report Cards) shaking hands with ITR's Larry Hardy.

According to posts at the ITR Facebook page and the corresponding Oblivians page, the following news was disclosed:

"It's official; The Oblivians will be recording their first studio album since 1997 next month and In The Red is putting it out! Here's Larry Hardy and Greg Cartwright shaking on the deal."

Kick ass. No additional details have been disclosed yet, but they're sure to come. Cartwright, along with fellow members Jack Yarber and Eric Friedl, have done several short reunion tours in the last few years, and you can check out a clip of them performing last August at Goner Records. (21 additional clips can be pulled up if you follow the video to its YouTube page.)

Tortured artist effect...

By Blurt Staff

Producer Ben Vaughn half-jokingly captioned the above photo of Aaron Freeman (aka Gene Ween) "tortured artist."

Vaughn took it as he recorded Freeman's forthcoming solo album 'Marvelous Clouds' (May 8, Partisan), a heartfelt appreciation for the music of Rod McKuen. There's blood, sweat and tears in those clouds. Check out a preview:

Also cover Dean & Britta. Pictured above: Randall Nieman and Ryan Anderson in 1997.

By Blurt Staff

Shoegaze/krautrock fiends Füxa  have  returned after almost a decade away with the unexpected but beautifully haunting cover of the Go-Go's classic "Our Lips Are Sealed". Sarah Peacock of Seefeel fame takes up vocal duties. Check it out, below.

The flip side of this limited edition, colored wax 7" is a remix of the gorgeous Dean Wareham / Britta Phillips track "Crystal Blue". The single will be out on April 16. This single precedes the full-length 'Electric Sound of Summer' due out in May.

Early contender for a best-of-2012 album release, Visions (Arbutus/4AC), out next week,  weaves its own singular magic. Video and audio clips provided, below.

By Fred Mills

Vancouver's Grimes, a/k/a Claire Boucher, is an intriguing mixture of bravado and naïveté, twinned qualities that have endeared her to both the club crowd and the bedsit brigades. A one-woman collision of laptop-powered IDM, chirpy/chant-y singing, performance art, and a healthy dose of face paint, Grimes manages to come across as impossibly young (she's barely into her twenties) and wise beyond her years at the same time. This writer saw the songwriter play at Moogfest last fall, and her set started off promisingly enough, awash in pulsing rhythms and catchy Depeche Mode-like melodies plus her signature cutie-pie vocals. But after a series of gear malfunctions her outgoing demeanor crumbled and she bolted from the stage after barely 20 minutes, on the verge of tears. Some of those in attendance no doubt wanted to offer her a reassuring hug, while the hipsters in attendance probably smirked at seeing this heavily-hyped act fall flat.

Visions is her fourth album in less than two years; 2010 saw her break through with the delightful Halfaxa, while last year's Darkbloom, a collaboration with D'eon, contained the YouTube hit "Vanessa," a mesmerizing foray into Madonna-inspired electropop with arty visuals.

 Visions expands upon the part-lush, part-minimalist vibe of "Vanessa" - a compelling track that was also one of 2011's most compelling videos, period:

 its collection of discrete miniatures managing to be expansive and intimate all at once. The record's a showcase both for Boucher's limber, acrobatic voice and her otherworldly arrangements - prismic, widescreen assaults of psychedelia and dancey ‘80s synth-rock that frame those operatic pipes.

She's frequently given to ethereal wordless coos, giddy squeaks and wounded gasps, deploying them as rhythmic depth charges, and while some of the sonics also tilt towards the abstract, almost glitchy or Aphex Twin-like in places, because the melodies stay foregrounded  the accessibility factor is high enough to give a casual listener the sense of confronting a more mainstream pop album than might be expected. From the Lykke Li-meets-St. Etienne "Genesis" to the hypnotic, motorik "Oblivion" (listen below) to the lush, gospellish "Vowels = Space and Time," Boucher's blossoming star quality shines, her multitracked, soaring/swooning vocals carrying uncanny echoes of such legendary ‘60s girl groups as the Crystals and Ronettes.

Grimes - Oblivion by Arbutus Records

Visions is ultimately an album that weaves its magic precisely because of all the inherent contradictions enumerated above. Methinks come the end of the year, a lot of people will have adjudged it a keeper.

Up next: cooking with Ian Curtis.


By Fred Mills


UK media outlets are reporting that Food Network's resident Brit, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, was renovating a building for a new restaurant in Manchester, England, when he discovered a trove of goodies and valuable in the basement - including what are being described as "rare Joy Division and New Order master tapes."


Admittedly, this probably isn't as exciting news as that Disney Corporation-bootlegs-Joy Division teeshirt deal a short while ago, but still... Oliver's crew was digging up the basement of the building, which was a former Midland bank branch, and in addition to the tapes there were guns, gold and jewelry, all valued at about £1.1 million. Oliver turned over the discovery to British treasury officials.


No word yet on the actual contents of the tapes themselves, however... or who would be the original source of all the loot.

Chris Cornell does Whitney Houston-identified song "I Will Always Love You"at Obama 2012 rally in San Francisco Feb. 16.


By Fred Mills


Don't get us wrong; here at BLURT, we are huge Obama supporters. But this ghastly performance last night in San Fran is almost enough to send us running into the squid-like embrace of Michelle Bachmann.... or even Ron Paul... brrrrr.

"Tonight" comes from their forthcoming album. Tour details below, too.

By Blurt Staff

British dream/dance-pop maestros Saint Etienne premiered their new March 6 single "Tonight" last month as an early taste of their next album (as yet untitled or assigned a release date). Now they've unveiled the clubby, neon-hued video for the track, along with a handful of spring tour dates. Check it all out:

May Tour Dates:

Tuesday 22nd - Sheffield, Leadmill  

Wednesday 23rd - Glasgow, Oran Mor

Thursday 24th - Liverpool, Kazemier

Friday 25th - Cardiff, Gate Theatre

Saturday 26th - Leamington, Assembly Rooms  

Monday 28th - London, Palladium

Bass player of legendary band succumbs to liver failure.

By Brian J. Bowe

Michael Davis, who played bass in the extrordaniarly influential Detroit proto-punk outfit The MC5, died Friday at the age of 68.

Davis died of liver failure after a month-long hospitalization at Enloe Medical Center near his home in Chico, Calif., according to media reports. He is the third member of the MC5 to pass away, following the deaths of singer Rob Tyner in 1991 and Fred "Sonic" Smith in 1994.

Go here on the BLURT site for our full obituary and appreciation of Davis.

"On the Bleed" from forthcoming new solo album Kin.

By Fred Mills

N.C. music devotees have long prized Chapel Hill's hi-nrg trash ‘n' twang rockers Snatches of Pink, and now frontman Michael Rank has a new solo album, Kin set to drop in early March. (It's already available at CDBaby and digital outlets.) Below you can check out the music video for the first single "On the Bleed":

Rank dubs his new band Stag, and the video features Marc E. Smith, John Howie Jr. and Alex Iglehart. The clip was directed by Daniel Andrews of Trickledown Productions. More details plus audio and video at Rank's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/michaelrankmusic. And keep your eyes peeled for a full review of the album soon.

Performances from Saturday, Feb. 18.


By Blurt Staff


As previously announced, noise-pop terrorists Sleigh Bells were the musical guests on this weekend's Saturday Night Live. The clips for "Comeback Kid" and "End of the Line" (both from new album Reign of Terror) are below.

Headliners will be Jane's Addiction, Weezer and Death Cab for Cutie.

By Blurt Staff

The Bunbury Music Festival has announced its headliner acts for the inaugural event to be held July 13-15, 2012 along Cincinnati's riverfront, and they include Jane's Addiction (set to play July 13), Weezer (July 14) and Death Cab for Cutie (July 15). Founded by veteran music and event promoter Bill Donabedian, Bunbury Music Festival will feature 100 live performances on six stages throughout Sawyer Point and Yeatman's Cove. There will also be a Tech Trade Show. (The name of the event comes from an Oscar Wilde play, "The Importance of Being Ernest" and means "to have a made up excuse to get out of doing something boring.")

"The Bunbury Music Festival will feature the best of our local Indie bands with national and regional bands that fans may have seen at other great festivals and concert venues," said Donabedian, in a press release."Fans should think of this as an authentic music experience."

Info: www.bunburyfestival.com

Watch video of him below with the Berklee P-Funk Ensemble.

By Blurt Staff

Thursday night in Boston, Berklee College of Music awarded funk icon George Clinton an honorary doctor of music degree and celebrated his music with a performance from the college's P-Funk Ensemble. He's pictured above receiving the award.

After the presentation, Clinton traded his doctoral robes for a silver suit to perform with student musicians on "Testify," "Give Up the Funk," and "One Nation Under a Groove," among other P-Funk hits. Clinton's longtime horn players Bennie Cowan and Greg Thomas, and many other members of his current band, joined him on stage for the career-spanning, sold-out show. The concert was the culmination of Clinton's four-day residency at Berklee this week. Check out the video clip:

An unfolding progression of songs in the running for the best work of Steve (The Church) Kilbey's career - not to mention the exquisite and innovative Jeffrey (Remy Zero) Cain's arrangements. Life Somewhere Else is out this week on the Communicating Vessels label.

By Robert Dean Lurie

"When someone asks me to what extent my work is autobiographical, I say, 'Every word is autobiographical, and every word is fiction.'" - William S. Burroughs, in conversation with Tennessee Williams, 1977.

Steve Kilbey - musician, painter, longtime bassist, singer, and lyricist for the Church, and, in recent years, compulsive blogger, has been cranking out a lot of words over the years that could be considered simultaneously autobiographical and fictitious. His songs are typically populated with kings, pharaohs, ancient armies, reincarnated lovers, and all other manner of creative anachronism, and yet nearly every verse contains a bit of personal revelation buried amidst the verbal ornamentation. It doesn't always work; the label "pretentious" has frequently, and with some justification, been levied. But when it does work (which is surprisingly often considering all of the moving pieces at play), the combination of his words and music stand in pretty effectively for just about any recreational drug you would want to take.

Isidore, Kilbey's ongoing collaborative project with Jeffrey Cain of the band Remy Zero, poses a potential problem here: with Kilbey relinquishing all musical composition duties to Cain and focusing exclusively on the lyrics, can that crucial, alchemic mix of words and music still be attained? In this case, the answer is an unequivocal yes, as Cain proves himself a talented composer deeply sympathetic to Kilbey's muse. He is so good, in fact, that when Kilbey's lyrics meander toward the ridiculous, as they sometimes do in Isidore's more aggressive numbers, Cain's music always keeps the songs driving forward.

Life Somewhere Else (Communicating Vessels), the second full-length Isidore album, improves on its eponymous predecessor in a number of ways: bigger, more ambitious arrangements; tighter songwriting; more focused singing; and, crucially, the use of live drums on many key tracks. Kilbey is still in need of an editor, or at least a "second opinion," on some of his material, but overall the album maintains a base level of "very good" and soars in many places to "superb." Stylistically it runs the gamut from delicate ballads to harsh Iggy and the Stooges-style rockers. The highlight is a remarkable song cycle beginning with track #2, "Life Somewhere Else," and culminating in track 6: "Some Reverse Magic." The lyrics to these songs are the most nakedly personal Kilbey has ever penned, shorn of all but the most necessary poetic language. These mini-narratives address some difficult subjects: domestic discord, alcohol abuse, self-recrimination, anger at God ("Someone up there trying to dislocate me / Someone up there must really fucking hate me" he sings on "Recoil"), all culminating in perhaps the most surprising song of all, "Some Reverse Magic," in which Kilbey addresses Jesus Christ and makes a startling admission: "I never noticed it before / You've walked beside me all the way." Taken as a single statement, this unfolding progression of songs is in the running for the best work of Kilbey's career and, as previously noted, Kilbey is only half of it. Cain's arrangements feature exquisitely blended electric and acoustic guitars, supple yet unobtrusive bass, a mixture of electronic and organic percussion (my one criticism here: I feel that the music would be even stronger if the entire album featured live drums), and keyboard textures that perfectly cast the other instruments in relief. He values melody above all other considerations, and as a result the album is crammed full of hooks - offsetting the sometimes bleak nature of the lyrics.

There's something about this music, some hard-to-define quality - the way particular chords go together, perhaps, or the soulful manner in which individual notes are wrung from their instruments - that feels deeper, more poignant than anything on the previous Isidore album. A clue comes from the liner notes, which reveal that Cain's former bandmate (and childhood friend) Gregory Slay passed away shortly before the bulk of the album was recorded. Perhaps, then, Cain's music here is partly born of grief. Whatever the cause, Jeffrey Cain is the true star of Isidore II - and considering how strong Kilbey's contribution is, that's really saying something.

Any Remy Zero or Church fan would be well-advised to pick this up. And, for those listeners of the church who may have previously felt intimidated by the avalanche of solo/side projects on offer from Kilbey and co., this is a good place to start. Isidore doesn't really feel like a "side" anything. It's a main event.

Robert Dean Lurie is author of the 2009 Steve Kilbey/Church biography No Certainty Attached.

View the film trailer below as well.

By Blurt Staff

Black Mountain's Year Zero soundtrack is nothing less than the band's full, powerful glory distilled down to one dense, 45-minute acid tab of music. Featuring five new songs and five previously released songs, the Year Zero soundtrack weaves crunching, analog psych metal; futuristic droneouts; and, somehow, a twisted saxophone ditty. Here's the song "Mary Lou" for your downloading and streaming convenience:

Black Mountain - "Mary Lou" by Jagjaguwar

The Year Zero Original Soundtrack will be released on vinyl and digital formats on April 3rd, 2012.

About the film: Year Zero is nothing like your ordinary bro-time surfer flick. Shot around the world on 16mm film, Year Zero is set in a near-ish future where the world as we know it has ended.Director Joe G. places the survivors in a damaged but stunningly beautiful place, a world where the reset button has been hit, where we hold onto the vestiges of the things we love, but those things become weightless, and the ensuing freedom is as exhilarating as it is scary. To simply call it postapocalyptic is to undermine the imagination that Joe G. brings to the world's remains, and Year Zero is ultimately as much a "surf movie" as it is a movie about Earth illustrated through surfing.

YEAR ZERO TRAILER from GLOBE on Vimeo.

It's the most magical, er, wonderful, er, noisiest, er, drunken... time of the year!

By Blurt Staff

Blurt Magazine will of course once again be front and center and attending the SXSW Music Festival in Austin Texas, from March 14-17, 2012.  Our editors and writers will be running around town during the week to keep you informed of all things happening in Austin during the week.

We are extremely excited to announce our annual Day Party along with our partner, Dogfish Head IPA.  This year's lineup is completely insane, we are extremely excited to have all of these bands participating and expect this to be the best year ever. We cannot stress enough the important of getting to the venue early, as last year we had a line out the door for over an hour all day long.  It will be difficult to get in so if you push it and come too soon to your favorite bands performance we cannot guarantee entry.

***

Here is the schedule for our Day Party:

DOG FISH HEAD IPA / BLURT MAGAZINE Present:

Our Annual Austin, TX Day Party

Location: The Ginger Man Pub

Address: 301 Lavaca St (at 4th)

Austin, TX 78701

This event is FREE!

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14th

 1pm: LA
2pm: Kevin Devine
3pm: The Ettes
4pm: JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound
5pm: David Garza
6pm: Cotton Mather  

THURSDAY, MARCH 15th

*Curated by Jon Langford (Mekons, Waco Bros)

 1.15 - Jon & Randy (intro - couple of songs - praise to all involved) 20 minutes

1.20 - The Upsets (featuring Tamineh Geuramy from The Deadstring Brothers, Whitey Morgan, Mekons, plus member of Junior Brown & Dale Watson's bands)
2.15 Paul Burch
3.00 White Mystery
3.50 Joe Pug
4.40 Jon Langford & Skull Orchard
5.30 Garland Jeffreys
6.20 Rosies Flores
7.15 Deano & The Purvs

8:30 - Greg Humphreys (Hobex, Dillon Fence)
9:30 - The Record Company
10:30 - The Jigsaw Seen
11:30 - Loretta Billieux & The Dive Bar Pretties

FRIDAY, MARCH 16th

 1pm: Parson Red Heads
2pm: Chuck Prophet

Modern Recording and Arbor Ridge Studios present:

New Sounds from North Carolina (and friends!)
3 p.m.: The dB's
4 p.m.: Django Haskins (The Old Ceremony), Brett Harris, Matt McMichaels (Mayflies USA), Jeff Crawford, and Skylar Gudasz
5:45-6:15-Lost In The Trees
6:30 Peter Case/Paul Collins (performing The Nerves, The Plimsouls and The Beat!)
7:30 Ken Stringfellow
8:30 Fan Modine
9:30 Onward, Soldiers
10: 30 Jon Auer
11:30 Very Special Guests!

SATURDAY, MARCH 17th

 1pm: Milagres
2pm: Jim White
3pm: Hobart Bros. & Lil' Sis (Freedy Johnston, Susan Cowsill)
4pm: The Wedding Present
5pm: Tommy Stinson
6pm: John Doe
7pm: The Bluebonnets (Kathy from the Go Gos)
8pm: The Defibulators
9-9:30: Ricky Stein & Warm Guns
9:45-10:30: So Long, Problems
11:00: Special Guests!
12:00: Allen Oldies Band

***

We also would like to help sponsor/promote our fine friends at Bloodshot Records and their annual SXSW Showcase and Day Parties:

Bloodshot Records SXSW 2012 official showcase
Red Eyed Fly  (715 Red River)
Saturday March 17th
7:30-8:00   Deadstring Brother
8:20-9:05   Maggie Bjorklund
9:25-10:10   Cory Branan
10:30-11:30   Waco Brothers with Paul Burch
11:50-12:40   Lydia Loveless
1:00-1:50   JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound

Bloodshot Records SXSW annual Yard Dog party (1510 S. Congress)

Friday March 16th, 2012 -- starts crack-o-NOON

Sponsored by: Lagunitas, Blurt/Second Motion

 12:15-12:40  Southeast Engine (Misra artist, Bloodshot distributed)
12:55-1:20    Valerie June  (Bloodshot friendly artist)
1:35-2:00      Deadstring Brother
2:15-2:40      Maggie Bjorklund
2:55-3:20      Cory Branan
3:35-4:00      Lydia Loveless
4:15-4:40      Rosie Flores
4:55-5:20      JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound
5:35-6:15      Waco Brothers & Paul Burch

Track comes from her upcoming album.


By Blurt Staff


Last month Santigold released a video for "Big Mouth," from her forthcoming album Master of My Make Believe, due out May 1 on Downtown/Atlantic. Now, picking up even more steam, she's about to drop a new single titled "Disparate Youth" via iTunes tomorrow (Feb. 22). You can check out the video (of a sort... it's mainly just some minimalist animation applied to the photo of the sleeve) for it, below.

Produced by Santigold and Ricky Blaze, the track is a contemporary rebel song with a new spin on punk & reggae that underscores its message of pushing through all roadblocks and claim “a life worth fighting for.” On April 8 there's also go be a remix EP of the song featuring Switch, Amateur Best and 2 Bears.

Words and Music by Saint Etienne set to drop May 21.

By Blurt Staff

UPDATE: Here's the track listing.

'Over the Border'
'I've Got Your Music'
'Heading For the Fair'
'Last Days of Disco'
'Tonight'
'Answer Song'
'Record Doctor'
'Popular'
'25 Years'
'DJ'
'When I Was Seventeen'
'I Threw it All Away'
'Haunted Jukebox'

Saint Etienne premiered their new March 6 single "Tonight" last month then they followed it up last week with the video of the single (which will include remixes by Richard X, Club Clique and 2 Bears). Now they've announced the details on their forthcoming album. Titled Words and Music by Saint Etienne, it arrives May 21 via Universal.

According to S.E. co-founder Bob Stanley, it is an album about "how music affects your life. How it defines the way you see the world as a child, how it can get you through bad times in unexpected ways, and how songs you've known all your life can suddenly develop a new attachment, and hurt every time you hear them. More than how it affects and reflects your life though, the album is about believing in music, living your life by its rules".

To that end, the album opens with "Over the Border", a wry, moving spoken-word reflection with singer Sarah Cracknell ruminating on her first, tentative steps into a lifelong love affair with pop, beginning with her using "Top of the Pops as my world atlas" as a child, before mixtapes from first loves soundtrack her teenage years; finally she asks "when I was married, and when I had kids, would Marc Bolan still be so important?" It's a powerful, emblematic introduction to the album, one that sees the unabashed, glitter strewn, delirious disco highs of "I've Got Your Music" and "DJ" sit comfortably alongside the gorgeous, plaintive laments of "I Threw it All Away" and "25 Years". But from Cracknell calling for salvation through song in the gospel-tinged "Record Doctor" right through to her chanting "tonight when the lights are going down/ I will surrender to the sound" on the "Tonight" single.

Stanley adds that with the album, the group aims to capture "the strange magic" of pop - which has always been Saint Etienne's mandate, we presume. The group's biographer, Jude Rogers, offered this bit of background as well:

"In 2011, Saint Etienne went into the studio. They spent three months playing and recording with people they had worked with over the years: long-time collaborator Ian Catt, KLF & Sugababes producer (and one time Rubette) Nick Coler, Girls Aloud lynchpin Tim Powell, and their newest firm friend and partner in crime, Richard X. They took the spirits of high disco, metallic house, Brill Building pop. They took the preset rhythm, the sampler, the fireside warmth of a string quartet, the strange and important sound of the synthesiser. They took song titles that said much about pop things they have loved: ‘Popular,' ‘Answer Song,' ‘I Threw It All Away.' They jumped, faster than before, into that racing green MG, put their foot on the accelerator, and took to the streets."

Saint Etienne - Tonight by Saint Etienne

Guitarist joined the band in 1987 for Pleased to Meet Me and was a mainstay until the 'mats split in '91.


By Fred Mills


Minneapolis paper the Star Tribune is reporting that Slim Dunlap, late of the Replacements and still a musician on the Twin Cities scene, suffered a stroke this week and is intensive care. Wife Chrissie posted the details at Facebook:

"Bob is in the SICU at HCMC. I am not going to sugarcoat this -- this morning he suffered a right middle cerebral artery stroke. He then fell and hit his head, resulting in a left vertebral artery dissection and a right subarachnoid hemorrhage.

"The good news is that he is sharp and aware, his speech is fine, and all of the nurses and doctors have commented on his unique sense of humor. The bad news is that he cannot move the right side of his body and will be in for some serious rehab. They will be giving him more tests tomorrow to determine the extent of the damage. I will try to post updates as we learn more. Louie will be with him all night and I will be back there tomorrow. We don't need a thing but your good wishes for his full recovery."

Godspeed with that recovery, Slim.

Listen to the new single "Generals" HERE. Album is due Jun 6 on Saddle Creek.

By Blurt Staff

Following 2010's critically acclaimed debut What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood and a year on the road touring as part of Bright Eyes, singer-songwriter Laura Burhenn teamed up with producer Richard Swift again and emerged with GENERALS, a sophomore album fully armed. In place of the Zen meditations found on the Mynabirds' first album, GENERALS is filled with armies of stomps and claps, sweeping full spectrum orchestrations, and moments that range from intensely personal pleas to shout-out-loud protests with teeth.

[Read the 2010 BLURT interview with Burhenn right here.)

GENERALS is both a protest record and concept album. It's fueled by a full decade of Burhenn's political frustration and aimed at finding a revolutionary yet pacifist way in a world where, these days, it seems warring comes quick. Musically you can hear echoes of early PJ Harvey, politically-charged Nina Simone and Low-era David Bowie. It gets down and hip hop dirty, flirts with African melodies and rhythms, goes four-on-the-floor for all out dance jams and has plenty of percussion. Burhenn even plays drums herself on a couple of songs, and a 5-gallon bucket in homage to DC street Go-Go on another.

Lyrically, GENERALS sings the voice of the collective frustration, then moves beyond that. "It was important for me that this record made sense of my own anger and turned it into positive energy," Burhenn says. "I needed it to be transformative - of both the individual and the body politic. It's as much a meditation on Walt Whitman's hope for America as Gandhi's directive to 'be the change you want to see in the world.'"

The album's name comes from a Richard Avedon photo entitled "Generals of the Daughters of the American Revolution." Looking at the portrait of upper class ladies in their pristine satin gowns, Burhenn considered her own supposed eligibility to be a member of DAR and thought about what true revolutionary American women look like. The lineage of women that have stood up to injustice for well over a hundred years - women like Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, Gloria Steinem, Naomi Wolf - they get their hands dirty. And Burhenn wanted to pay tribute to that.

In conjunction with the release of the album, Burhenn is launching a portrait project called The New Revolutionists (www.thenewrevolutionists.org). In an election year when so much time, energy and money will be spent on political contests, Burhenn wanted to shine a light on women making a difference - often on shoestring or even nonexistent budgets - in their own communities all over America, whether they're making headlines or not.

The Mynabirds will tour the US in advance of their album release this March, including dates in the midwest, on the west coast, and down south at SXSW.

The First Bro sits in with the King Of The Blues...


By Fred Mills


It's steadily headed to "viral" status this morning (and has also been uploaded to YouTube by multiple users already): President Obama caught last night on video singing a snatch of blues standard "Sweet Home Chicago."


At a big blues bash filmed by PBS last night at the White House, a star-studded band that included BB King, Buddy Guy, Booker T, Mick Jagger and members of the Derek Trucks Band serenaded the assembly, and then at the end Guy calls Obama up to the stage. Upon taking the mic, he launches into the beginning of the song, swaps a line or two with King, then departs the stage. Shades of the President's Al Green serenade.

PBS.org indicates that "In Performance at the White House: Red, White and Blues" will be aired on this coming Monday, Feb. 27, on PBS.

Guitarist for much-admired Canadian band was also touring member of the Dodos.


By Fred Mills


Sad news for indie rock fans: Christopher Reimer of Calvary-based band Women passed away in his sleep yesterday (Feb. 21), reports Pitchfork (via The Calgary Herald ).

No cause of death has been announced yet. The guitarist was only 26 years old. Women reportedly broke up in the fall of 2010 in the wake of an onstage fight, but were later said to have simply gone on hiatus. Since then, however, the members have worked with other groups.

Strictly a "nostalgia thing." Oh, and the paycheck will be nice, too.

By Blurt Staff

Reports out of England yesterday suggest that the previously announced At The Drive-in reunion not planning to yield a new album, despite a swathe of rumors that accompanied the initial news of the reunion. Guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez told Kerrang! firmly, "Will there be a new album? No, no, no. At The Drive-In is more of a nostalgia thing - it's songs we wrote when we were all in our 20s and we're doing a couple of shows."

So that's that. There is a new album incoming on March 27 from Mars Volta, however, and we'll be featuring that other band Rodriguez-Lopez operates soon.

They're magically delicious! Melt in your mouth, not in your etc. etc.....

By Blurt Staff

You can tell it's a slow newsday when cereal is topping the headlines, but what the heck... Rolling Stone is reporting that Kellogg's cereal company in England "has produced a limited-edition box of cereal called Totes Amazeballs based on a Twitter suggestion by Tim Burgess."

Burgess, of course, is the lead singer for the Charlatans. His cereal junk food of choice: a mashup of Rocky Road cake, Coco Pops Coco Rocks, marshmallows, shortbread pieces and raisins. Wow, that's pretty repulsive. At any rate, we learn that only one box was actually produced for Burgess, who told reporters, "I heard someone use the expression 'totes amazeballs,' and it sounded like something from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I sent a cheeky tweet saying I'd invented a new cereal and that Kellogg's were interested. But within an hour they'd got in touch."

Yo, Kellogg's - we've got a few under-12 kids in the extended BLURT family, and we're pretty sure we can come up with even tastier ideas. Get in touch.

Not every day you get some Clean in your backyard, kids.

By Blurt Staff

Merge Records just announced that legendary New Zealand band The Clean - which features Merge recording artist David Kilgour, natch - will be undertaking a brief American tour this summer with labelmates Times New Viking. See the dates below. And check out some tunes as well...

The Clean - Tally Ho by MergeRecords

The Clean - In the Dreamlife U Need a Rubber Soul by MergeRecords

The Clean on tour

* = w/ Times New Viking
May 30 Los Angeles, CA The Echo
June 2 Austin, TX Club De Ville Chaos in Tejas Festival
June 4 Allston, MA Brighton Music *
June 5 New York, NY Le Poisson Rouge *
June 6 Philadelphia, PA Johnny Brenda's *
June 7 Washington, DC Rock & Roll Hotel *
June 8 Chapel Hill, NC Local 506 *

But he hasn't lost his dark sense of humor... as the video below demonstrates.

By Fred Mills

Say the name "Kim Fowley" to any longtime music scenester and you'll provoke a knowing grin - the guy who discovered/formed the Runaways and was a close to rock ‘n' roll's version of a real-life Zelig has always gotten reactions. Sometimes negative, sometimes positive, but never with compromise.

So the rock impresario and provocateur is, as a number of people suspected, very ill these days. Awhile back it was rumored that he was on death's door, and that may or may not be true. What is true, however, is that he posted a video clip two days ago to YouTube that shows him in the hospital preparing to have surgery for bladder cancer recall. It's grim, but funny, with Fowley pledging not to be defeated.

Godspeed, Kim.

Ace material from upcoming album...

By Blurt Staff

Steeped in the eclectic tradition of the Constellation Records family, Elfin Saddle is set to release Devastates, their third full-length, on March 6. The multidisciplinary art ensemble offer, in the label's words, "a dynamic and affecting cycle of passionately-engaged protest song... Jordan and Emi, the group's founding core, give us this self-produced video for ‘The Wind Come Carry' - the elegant and reverent rallying call that closes this utterly unique album of unsettling yet deeply hopeful DIY folk music."

Elfin Saddle "The Wind Come Carry" from Constellation Records on Vimeo.

You can also nab a free MP3 of the equally sublime Elfin Saddle track "The Changing Wind":

MP3: "The Changing Wind"

Hyped, but heavy.

By Blurt Staff

In heavy rotation at the BLURT yacht of late: Rufus Wainwright's forthcoming Out of the Game, the Mark Ronson-produced platter due May 1 from Decca. Wait'll you see what happens when we put the good Mr. Wainwright on the couch with Contributing Editor A.D. Amorosi. Meanwhile, here's a teaser for the album and first single "Out Of The Game":

Wainwright, whose long-awaited opera Prima Donna opened in Brooklyn at the BAM on February 19^th, calls his new album, "the most pop album I've ever made." Collaborator/producer Ronson added, "It's the best work of my career."  Uh-huh. Actually, we're inclined to believe both of them, based on the music in hand. Recorded in Brooklyn, New York in the fall of 2011, the twelve songs are hook-laden, memorably arranged tracks reminiscent of Rufus' early work.   And in true diva-like fashion, the spring tour itinerary is perilously restricted, so better jump on those ticket websites pronto, kids.

Tour Dates:

5/9/2012 - Brooklyn, NY - BAM
5/11/2012 - Oakland, CA - FOX THEATER

5/12/2012 - Los Angeles, CA - ORPHEUM THEATER

5/13/2012 - San Diego, CA - HUMPHREY'S  

Available now on the Fell City label (www.gabrielsullivanmusic.com) None of This is Mine is a windswept, twanging, Latino-rocking masterpiece from the young Old Pueblo musician (and his big band Taraf de Tucson), a frequent collaborator with Calexico, Giant Sand and Marianne Dissard.

By Fred Mills

In 2009, songwriter and multiinstrumentalist Gabriel Sullivan released his debut album By the Dirt and instantly established himself as one of the most promising artists to emerge from the fertile Tucson music scene since Calexico. That he frequently collaborated with members of that band and its extended family - and more recently, with Marianne Dissard and Howe Gelb/Giant Sand - was no coincidence. In his skillful and oftentimes provocative marriage of blues, gospel, country and indie-rock to the indigenous Latin and border culture flavors of the Southwest, Sullivan was clearly simpatico with his fellow Old Pueblo sonic adventurers. (Read the review of By the Dirt here.)

As Sullivan himself told this writer in a subsequent interview, his musical restlessness and willingness to stir the melting pot is undoubtedly the product of being exposed to multiple styles of music while growing up in Tucson. "It's got something for everyone," he said, of his hometown. "I think anyone who plays music here, whether they're conscious of it or not, reflects Tucson in a lot of ways. On top of the unbelievably inspiring landscape, the simple life that comes with Tucson makes playing music something you can do very easily, and truly enjoy. The musicians are tight knit, the bands are incestuous, we all share underwear. There's nowhere like it in the world."

Now comes None of This is Mine, a wildly inventive project boasting a huge, 20+ cast of characters, aka Taraf de Tucson (which shrinks down to a manageable 8 members when performing live). The album's drenched in Latino rhythms and flourishes, yet true to Sullivan's nature, those are rendered with a delightfully perverse sense of impurity: the track "Cumbia Del Torero" is instructive, a hybrid melange of mariachi horns and Balkan beats with hints of Caribbean and ska rhythms slipping in and out of the mix as Sullivan leads the fray, singing in Spanish. Likewise, "Que Dolor" is a multihued riot of sound, suggesting a group of Kodo drummers unceremoniously swept up, deposited in the middle of a drunken Mexican Day of the Dead celebration, and commencing to jam lustily with the assembled guitarists, percussionists and horn players. It's the recording studio equivalent of Sullivan leading a motley gypsy crew from city to city, performing for their meals - and perhaps indulging in some surreptitious larceny behind the scenes to boot.

Gabriel Sullivan & Taraf de Tucson - The Rust, The Knife (Audio Sample) by Le Pop Musik

Two tracks in particular offer insight into the Sullivan heart and the Taraf soul. "None of This is Mine" is a bluesy, Spaghetti Western-flavored dirge for nylon-string guitar, weeping pedal steel, strings and horns. "I'm the right face in the wrong place, and now I've got no right to return," sings Sullivan, in his signature Tom Waits-esque bawl, with a mixture of dread and regret, adding, "these are not the kind of bones you fall asleep in - and none of this is mine." Then there's magnificent closing number "The Rust, The Knife": tearing a page or two directly from the Ennio Morricone songbook, in particular the whistling, chanted background vocals and brisk, low-twanging baritone guitar, it's the windswept soundtrack to an imagined slice of film noir (including guest Billy Sedlmayr's spoken-word interlude providing narrative) wherein Sullivan offers ominously, fairly smacking his lips, "It takes a steady hand to take a life... the blood beneath the foot of thee... the blood, the sweat, the tears, the rust, the knife." Pure sonic cinema, the song is at once reverential and subversive, further evidence of Sullivan's skill at incorporating his influences into a wholly unique musical identity.

Incidentally, Sullivan has also released a companion album, Where the Bad Ones Go, a mostly solo set recorded at home in two days, featuring everything from guitar and piano instrumentals to country-esque blues and norteño ballads. It's also available from Sullivan's Fell City Records label - check the link above.

Bands with tracks include Dirty Projectors, Real Estate, Cass McCombs, John Maus, and Villagers.

By Blurt Staff

Domino and Ribbon are teaming up for Smugglers Way, a fanzine featuring FIVE (count ‘em, 5) individual, multi-colored flexi discs of unreleased, exclusive songs from Dirty Projectors, Real Estate, Cass McCombs, John Maus, and Villagers. It's being produced for the upcoming Record Store Day in April.

The zine comprises 24 pages of original art and prose from Domino and Ribbon artists.  Highlights include a short story penned by James Yorkston; a long form poem by Laura Marling; short form pieces by Alex Bleeker (Real Estate), Ade Blackburn (Clinic), and Tom Fleming (Wild Beasts); illustrations from Alison Mosshart (The Kills), Andrea Estella (Twin Sister) and Jon Hopkins; photography from Jana Hunter (Lower Dens), and an original arranged score of music by Owen Pallett.  Bjorn Copeland of Black Dice designed the cover and Rob Carmichael at SEEN is responsible for the art direction and layout.  

Listen to the previously unreleased Real Estate track "In My Car":

Real Estate - In My Car (Smugglers Way FlexiZine) by DominoRecordCo

The full track list is as follows:

Dirty Projectors - "You Against The Larger World"

Real Estate - "In My Car"

Cass McCombs - "Teachers"

John Maus - "No Title (Molly)"

Villagers - "Shards"

It's the most magical time of the year, natch...

By Blurt Staff

Blurt Magazine will of course once again be front and center and attending the SXSW Music Festival in Austin Texas, from March 14-17, 2012.  Our editors and writers will be running around town during the week to keep you informed of all things happening in Austin during the week.

We are extremely excited to announce our annual Day Party along with our partner, Dogfish Head.  This year's lineup is completely insane, we are extremely excited to have all of these bands participating and expect this to be the best year ever. We cannot stress enough the important of getting to the venue early, as last year we had a line out the door for over an hour all day long.  It will be difficult to get in so if you push it and come too soon to your favorite bands performance we cannot guarantee entry.

***

Here is the schedule for our Day Party:

DOG FISH HEAD / BLURT MAGAZINE Present:

Our Annual Austin, TX Day Party

Location: The Ginger Man Pub

Address: 301 Lavaca St (at 4th)

Austin, TX 78701

This event is FREE!

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14th

 1pm: LA
2pm: Kevin Devine
3pm: The Ettes
4pm: JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound
5pm: David Garza
6pm: Cotton Mather  

THURSDAY, MARCH 15th

*Curated by Jon Langford (Mekons, Waco Bros)

 1.15 - Jon & Randy (intro - couple of songs - praise to all involved) 20 minutes

1.20 - The Upsets (featuring Tamineh Geuramy from The Deadstring Brothers, Whitey Morgan, Mekons, plus member of Junior Brown & Dale Watson's bands)
2.15 Paul Burch
3.00 White Mystery
3.50 Joe Pug
4.40 Jon Langford & Skull Orchard
5.30 Garland Jeffreys
6.20 Rosie Flores
7.15 Deano & The Purvs

8:30 - Greg Humphreys (Hobex, Dillon Fence)
9:30 - The Record Company
10:30 - The Jigsaw Seen
11:30 - Loretta Billieux & The Dive Bar Pretties

FRIDAY, MARCH 16th

 1pm: Parson Red Heads
2pm: Chuck Prophet

Modern Recording and Arbor Ridge Studios present:

New Sounds from North Carolina (and friends!)
3 p.m.: The dB's
4 p.m.: Django Haskins (The Old Ceremony), Brett Harris, Matt McMichaels (Mayflies USA), Jeff Crawford, and Skylar Gudasz
5:45-6:15 Amy Ray
6:30 Peter Case/Paul Collins (performing The Nerves, The Plimsouls and The Beat!)
7:30 Ken Stringfellow
8:30 Fan Modine
9:30 Onward, Soldiers
10: 30 Jon Auer
11:30 Very Special Guests!

SATURDAY, MARCH 17th

 1pm: Milagres
2pm: Jim White
3pm: Hobart Bros. & Lil' Sis (Freedy Johnston, Susan Cowsill)
4pm: The Wedding Present
5pm: Tommy Stinson
6pm: John Doe
7pm: The Bluebonnets (Kathy from the Go Gos)
8pm: The Defibulators
9-9:30: Ricky Stein & Warm Guns
9:45-10:30: So Long, Problems
11:00: Special Guests!
12:00: Allen Oldies Band

***

We also would like to help sponsor/promote our fine friends at Bloodshot Records and their annual SXSW Showcase and Day Parties:

Bloodshot Records SXSW 2012 official showcase
Red Eyed Fly  (715 Red River)
Saturday March 17th
7:30-8:00   Deadstring Brother
8:20-9:05   Maggie Bjorklund
9:25-10:10   Cory Branan
10:30-11:30   Waco Brothers with Paul Burch
11:50-12:40   Lydia Loveless
1:00-1:50   JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound

Bloodshot Records SXSW annual Yard Dog party (1510 S. Congress)

Friday March 16th, 2012 -- starts crack-o-NOON

Sponsored by: Lagunitas, Blurt/Second Motion

 12:15-12:40  Southeast Engine (Misra artist, Bloodshot distributed)
12:55-1:20    Valerie June  (Bloodshot friendly artist)
1:35-2:00      Deadstring Brother
2:15-2:40      Maggie Bjorklund
2:55-3:20      Cory Branan
3:35-4:00      Lydia Loveless
4:15-4:40      Rosie Flores
4:55-5:20      JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound
5:35-6:15      Waco Brothers & Paul Burch

Don't expect a reprise of "Whip My Hair," however... which you can see, below.

By Blurt Staff

The Boss is back - with a new album, natch, plus a high profile keynote appearance at SXSW followed by the kickoff of a tour (in Atlanta, March 18). Prior to all that, however, he'll be a weeklong fixture (of sorts) on the Late Night With Jimmy Fallon show next week. Rolling Stone reports that on Monday (Feb. 27) the E Street Band will do a pair of songs, and then on Friday (March 2) Springsteen will perform and sit for an interview as that night's only guest.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday Kenny Chesney will do a live version of Springsteen's "I'm On Fire" and on Thursday Elvis Costello will drop in to do "Brilliant Disguise" with the Roots. Keep watching the Fallon show website find out what they are cooking up for Wednesday.

In November of 2010 The Boss appeared on the program for an interview and several songs, including the infamous Bruce-Fallon (as "Neil Young") cover of "Whip My Hair." Unfortunately NBC-Universal has forced most of the sites that posted the clips to take ‘em down (such as at The Audio Perv) - but if you are diligent and know where to look, you'll be able to find ‘em. Like here:

The road to recovery has been fraught, to say the least. Check tour dates, below. And yes, that is the new album sleeve, above.

By Blurt Staff

As previously announced, Spiritualized's Jason Spaceman has his 7th studio album Sweet Heart Sweet Light will be released on Fat Possum on April 17^th. The three years since the release of 2008's acclaimed Songs In A&E were some of the roughest imaginable for Jason.

After a near death from double pneumonia in 2005 it was a slow road to recovery, a process he touched upon on with great grace on the last album. His return to full health saw him release Songs In A&E and mount critically lauded performances of his 1997 game-changer Ladies And Gentlemen....We Are Floating In Space on both sides of the Atlantic. However, shortly after recording Sweet Heart Sweet Light - in far flung locales such as Los Angeles, Reykavik and Wales - Jason found himself weakened by a degenerative liver disease and was subjected to six months of chemo treatment, a procedure that left him virtually housebound while he mixed the album. 

 In a classic case of triumph over tribulation, the resulting album is Spiritualized at their most vibrant. First track available from the album is the impressive opener "Hey Jane", an energetic 8+ minutes of rousing organ, glittering guitar fuzz and swirling choirs:

Spiritualized 'Hey Jane' by Spiritualized

The album also features a first for Spiritualized: Jason is joined by his 11 year old daughter Poppy Spaceman on the starkly beautiful closer "So Long You Pretty Thing" for which she also has a writing credit for the opening couplet. Elsewhere on the album is "I Am What I Am" which was co-written by Jason and "Mac" Rebennack, aka Dr John. 

Spiritualized North American Tour Dates:

05/02/12 Wed - Minneapolis MN @ First Avenue

05/03/12 Thu - Chicago, IL @ Metro

05/04/12 Fri - Detroit, MI @ The Majestic Theatre

05/05/12 Sat - Toronto, ON @ The Phoenix

05/07/12 Mon - New York, NY @ Terminal 5

05/09/12 Wed - Boston, MA @ Paradise

05/10/12 Thu - Washington, DC @ The 9:30 Club

05/11/12 Fri - Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre Of Living Arts

05/12/12 Sat - Carrboro, NC @ Cat's Cradle

05/13/12 Sun - Atlanta, GA @ The Variety Playhouse

05/15/12 Tue - Dallas, TX @ The Granada Theatre

05/16/12 Wed - Austin, TX @ Emo's East

05/18/12 Fri - Tucson AZ @ The Rialto Theatre

05/19/12 Sat - Phoenix AZ @ The Crescent Ballroom

05/20/12 Sun - San Diego CA @ Belly Up Tavern

05/22/12 Tue - Los Angeles CA @ The Wiltern

05/23/12 Wed - San Francisco CA @ The Fillmore

05/25/12 Fri - Portland OR @ The Wonder Ballroom

05/26/12 Sat - Vancouver BC @ The Rickshaw Theatre

Sweet Heart Sweet Light Tracklist:

1. Hey Jane                                                    6. Freedom

2. Little Girl                                                      7. I Am What I Am

3. Get What You                                             8. Mary

4. Too Late                                                      9. Life Is A Problem

5. Heading For The Top                                  10. So Long You Pretty Things       

With the Afghan Whigs headlining, natch.

By Blurt Staff

ATP returns to Asbury Park, New Jersey, on Sept. 21-23 with a new I'll Be Your Mirror event, the Saturday night of which will be headlined by The Afghan Whigs (who have reunited after a 13 year hiatus) and curated by their frontman Greg Dulli.

Also on the bill: Louis C.K. The Roots, Jose Gonzalez and the reunited The Make-Up. See below for the lineup.

After previous years in upstate New York, ATP moved to the iconic Asbury Park waterfront in 2011 for a hugely successful I'll Be Your Mirror event co-curated & headlined by Portishead. Once again the ATP experience will be taking over the boardwalk, with the main shows taking place at the Convention Hall and Paramount Theatre, and other events happening at the Berkeley hotel.

Friday will feature a Comedy stage, and The Criterion Collection will return to run the Cinema across the weekend. All three days feature DJs and other activities to be confirmed in the months ahead.

Chosen by Greg Dulli (The Afghan Whigs):

THE AFGHAN WHIGS
LOUIS C.K.
THE ROOTS
JOSÉ GONZÁLEZ
MARK LANEGAN BAND
DIRTY THREE
THE ANTLERS
THE DIRTBOMBS performing Ultraglide In Black
SCRAWL
SHARON VAN ETTEN
EMERALDS
VETIVER
QUINTRON AND MISS PUSSYCAT
CHARLES BRADLEY AND THE EXTRAORDINAIRES
DJ QUESTLOVE
REIGNING SOUND

+ more to be confirmed

Chosen by ATP:

THE MAKE-UP
(reforming for IBYM)
HOT SNAKES
THE MAGIC BAND
AUTOLUX
THEE OH SEES
FACTORY FLOOR
DEATH GRIPS
I BREAK HORSES

+ more to be confirmed

Tickets go on sale this Monday 27 February at 10am EST via ATPfestival.com.

Not just another pop video...


By Blurt Staff


Singer-songwriter Madi Diaz new full-length album, Plastic Moon, recently came out - check out the BLURT review. And she's about to hit the road with Rachael Yamagata. This weekend she unveiled a new video for the song "Gimme A Kiss."

The story is that Madi didn't want to do another singer-songwriter/pop video.  She wanted to do the exact opposite.  And her brother, Max, is in a speed metal band. So they teamed up with director, Erich Weiss, who had directed a film about the history of tattoos and asked him to help make a speed metal video.  

Toward the Sun is out this week on Drag City. Any questions?

BY  MIKE SHANLEY

It's been seven years since the members of the Dirty Three have produced an album, and they began sounding like a different band. "Furnace Skies" boisterously kicks things off with rugged free improv, pinned together by an arhythmical loop of fuzz guitar. Jim White gets the chance to splatter all over his drums, while a live Mick Turner drones and strums. Warren Ellis' violin almost gets buried under the melee, but he makes his presence known. In fact by the end of the track, he and Turner have double-tracked their instruments and some droning organ also gets thrown in for good measure. "Furnace Skies" sounds like Dirty Three's attempt to blow off the after the seven year absence, and once they do that, they return to business as usual.

Not that the rest of Toward the Sun lacks the excitement of the first track. The trio's stark sound and loose, repetitious delivery have always featured more momentum than most rock bands that specialize in the play-two-chords-soft-play-them-loud-call-it-a-song formula. Most of this can be attributed to their unusual guitar/violin/drums lineup, and the way Ellis plays haunting melodies instead of riffing. Furthermore, you can feel the enthusiasm as they play, even when a song might be a little sloppy. White always plays like a creative jazz drummer, not just a time keeper.

Dirty Three - Rising Below by Bella Union

In addition to following their opening salvo with a tender piano ballad ("Sometimes I Forget You've Gone"), the group tinkers with their sound by having Turner and Ellis overdub extra guitars and violins in several tracks. It beefs up the sound while also challenging the ears to figure out who's playing what. "Rain Song," which sounds like a variation on the changes to "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone," has Ellis playing a "lead" violin and gently plucking another, the latter blending together with Turner. On "That Was Was" they kick out the jams again and over those power chords, it's hard to tell at first if Ellis stomped on a distortion pedal or Turner did. Ever the smart ones when it comes to programming, they follow this with "Ashen Snow," a meditation with piano and mellotron.

The time apart from one another has given the band a more expansive sound and Dirty Three have pushed themselves to create one of the most dynamic releases in the catalog.

"Towers" also being released as 12".


By Blurt Staff

Nabil Elderkin, the filmmaker responsible for Bon Iver's epic "Holocene" video, directed the third video for Bon Iver, Bon Iver, "Towers":

Bon Iver - Towers (Official Music Video) from Bon Iver on Vimeo.

When Justin sent me a breakdown of what certain parts/lines of the song meant to him I did my best to decode it and curate into something simple, and hopefully the viewer can take from it their own feeling of what the towers represent. It was shot up in Washington state, mostly on Indian-preserved land, and our actor's name was Mystic. He seemed to be very tuned into the land, and when he said he was also willing to fall into the freezing cold ocean up there (seems a bit sharky too), I knew he was my guy.

A "Towers" 12" and digital single will be out on March 6th with John Prine cover "Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)" as the b-side. The cover was originally recorded for the John Prine tribute album Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows.


Tour Dates:

03/03/12 Perth, AU - Perth International Arts Festival @ Red Hill Auditorium
03/06/12 Adelaide, AU - Thebarton Theatre
03/08/12 Melbourne, AU - Sidney Myer Music Bowl
03/10/12 Victoria, AU - Golden Plains Sixxx @ Meredith Supernatural Ampitheatre
03/11/12 Sydney, AU - Sydney Opera House
03/12/12 Sydney, AU - Sydney Opera House
03/13/12 Sydney, Au - Sydney Opera House
03/15/12 Brisbane, AU - Tivoli Theatre - SOLD OUT
03/16/12 Brisbane, AU - Tivoli Theatre - SOLD OUT
03/17/12 Brisbane, AU - Tivoli Theatre - SOLD OUT
04/12/12 Las Vegas, NV - The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas w/All Tiny Creatures
04/14/12 Indio, CA - Coachella Festival
04/17/12 Davis, CA - Freedom Hall at UC Davis w/All Tiny Creatures SOLD OUT
04/19/12 San Francisco, CA - Bill Graham Civic Auditorium w/All Tiny Creatures
04/21/12 Indio, CA - Coachella Festival
04/22/12 Santa Barbara, CA - Santa Barbara Bowl SOLD OUT
04/23/12 Tucson, AZ - TCC Arena w/Feist
04/27/12 New Orleans, LA - New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
05/21/12 Edmonton, AB - Northern Alberta Jubilee
05/22/12 Calgary, AB - MacEwan Hall
05/25/12 Burnaby, BC - Deer Lake Park
05/27/12 George, WA - Sasquatch Music Festival
05/29/12 Salt Lake City, UT - Red Butte Garden Ampitheater
05/31/12 Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Ampitheatre w/Feist
06/07-10/12 Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo Music Festival
07/07/12 Roskilde, DK - Roskilde Festival
08/08/12 Helsinki, FI - Flow Festival
08/10/12 Goteborg, SE - Way Out West Festival
08/11/12 Oslo, NO - Oya Festival 

Soul dynamo will have doc unveiling at SXSW in Austin; watch trailer, below.A full spring tour will concurrently unfold.

By Blurt Staff

Charles Bradley will be turning up at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, the Sasquatch Music Festival, Mountain Jam, and more this year. The 63-year old "Screaming Eagle of Soul" is currently on tour in the US and will soon head to Australia and Europe. See full tour itinerary below.

Meanwhile, the new documentary Charles Bradley: Soul of America follows Bradley's journey during the months leading up to the release of his January 2011 debut album, the critically acclaimed No Time for Dreaming. (It's reviewed here at BLURT.) The 74-minute documentary directed by Poull Brien will have its world premiere at SXSW this year. Visit www.charlesbradleyfilm.com for the trailer and more, and see details on screenings below.

CHARLES BRADLEY: SOUL OF AMERICA - SXSW Screenings

Mar 09 - Alamo Ritz 2 (World Premiere) - 9:00PM -10:14PM

Mar 10 - Violet Crown 2 - 1:45PM - 2:59PM

Mar 16 - Alamo Ritz 2 - 2:15PM - 3:29PM

Mar 17 - Alamo Lamar C - 7:00PM - 8:14PM

CHARLES BRADLEY Tour Dates

Mar 09 Adelaide, AU - Adelaide Festival

Mar 10 Melbourne, AU - The HiFi

Mar 11 Victoria, AU - Golden Plains Festival

Mar 12 Brisbane, AU - Powerhouse

Mar 14 Perth, AU - The Bakery

Mar 16 Sydney, AU - Factory Theatre

Mar 17 Victoria, AU - Mossvale Festival

Mar 18 Melbourne, AU - Corner Hotel

Apr 05 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club  +

Apr 06 Charlottesville, VA - Jefferson Theater  +

Apr 07 Virginia Beach, VA - The Jewish Mother +

Apr 09 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle +

Apr 10 Asheville, NC - The Orange Peel +

Apr 11 Charleston, SC - The Pour House +

Apr 12 Athens, GA - Georgia Theatre +

Apr 14 Ft. Lauderdale, FL - Revolution +

Apr 15 St. Petersburg, FL - Tampa Bay Blues Festival

Apr 17 New Orleans, LA - Tipitina's

Apr 18 Nashville, TN - Exit/IN

Apr 19 Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade

Apr 20 Birmingham, AL - WorkPlay Theatre

Apr 25 Casablanca, Morocco - Royal Golf d'Anfa

Apr 26 Paris, France - La Cigale

Apr 27 Brussels, Belgium - Botanique Orangerie

Apr 28 Groningen, Holland - Rhythm and Blues Night

Apr 29 Copenhagen, Denmark - Vega

May 01 Hamburg, Germany - Gruenspan

May 25-May 28 - George, WA - Sasquatch Music Festival

May 31-June 3 - Woodstock, NY - Mountain Jam

Jun 07 - Jun 10 - Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival

Aug 10 - Helsinki, Finland - Flow Festival

# with Little Barrie

+ with The Budos Band

Both bluesmen contributed hugely to the musical landscape.

By Rev. Keith Gordon

Ed. Note: Gordon writes about the blues at his About.com blues blog. Go there to read the full text of these obituaries.

Louisiana Red (a/k/a Iverson Minter) passed away on Saturday, February 25, 2012 in a German hospital after a brief illness. Red was 79 years old.While there is plenty of confusion about the specifics of Red's life, there can be no debate over the great music that the talented singer, songwriter, guitarist, and harmonica player made throughout a lengthy career that spanned eight decades. Red recorded his first sides in 1949 as "Rocky Fuller" with producer Joe Von Battle; a couple of the songs would later be licensed by Chess and released on their Checkers Records subsidiary.

Red toured the U.S. frequently until his death.

Red hooked up with Norwegian producer and musician Little Victor to record Back To The Black Bayou in 2008 for Victor's Bluestown label; the album would be reissued worldwide by Germany's Ruf Records a year later. Back To The Black Bayou would earn Red a slew of Blues Music Award nominations, and would lead to his award as "Acoustic Blues Artist of the Year" in 2010. A collaboration with pianist David Maxwell resulted in the 2009 album You Got To Move, which won the duo a 2010 Blues Music Award for "Acoustic Album of the Year." Red teamed up again with Little Victor for his critically-acclaimed 2011 album, Memphis Mojo.

***

Word also comes of the death of Piedmont bluesman "Fiddler" Joe Thompson at the age of 93 in his Mebane, North Carolina home. A long-time staple of the thriving North Carolina folk and blues music scene, Thompson was best-known as a mentor to the popular Carolina Chocolate Drops, the elderly bluesman teaching them much of their early repertoire of traditional songs.

Thompson also performed frequently with the Carolina Chocolate Drops at regional festivals, and he recorded a live album with the band, later released by Music Maker, at the 2008 Merlefest. While that seems to be the only album that the revered fiddle player recorded during his lifetime, Thompson was awarded a North Carolina Heritage Award in 1991 for his musical contributions, and he earned an NEA National Heritage Fellowship in 2007.

Briefly reunites Hole (part of it) for publicity events.

By Blurt Staff

On April 8 Akashic Books will publish Letters to Kurt by Eric Erlandson, guitarist, songwriter, and cofounder (with Courtney Love) of the band Hole. Written as an elegy for his friend Kurt Cobain, the book takes the form of 52 letters, and is an anguished, angry, and bleeding-heart meditation on rock 'n' roll, sex, suicide, and the questions that follow.

"I see these letters as songs; a fifty-two-card pick-up," said Erlandson, who studied writing in the years following Hole and found inspiration in the work of Jim Harrison, Patti Smith, and Charles Bukowski. "In no way do I intend to glorify or romanticize Kurt's chosen way out, nor make light of it . . . I thought if I could sort out my struggles and disappointments, face my demons, maybe I would be in a position to help others."

Erlandson also has events scheduled in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco which will involve readings and, in some instances, musical performances with some of his old Hole bandmates:

March 29 / Los Angeles, CA - Skylight Books, 7pm

April 5 / New York, NY - Barnes & Noble Union Square, 7pm 

Upstairs at the Square presents a conversation with Eric Erlandson, followed by musical performances by Eric Erlandson & Melissa Auf der Maur

April 8 / Hudson, NY - Basilica, 6pm 

Reading by Eric Erlandson, music by Melissa Auf der Maur, Eric Erlandson, and Patty Schemel, and a screening of Hit So Hard.

April 23 / Los Angeles, CA - Largo, 8pm  

Special guests TBA

April 26 / San Francisco, CA -  City Lights, 261 Columbus Ave., 7pm

Follows last year's tour with Wilco.

By Blurt Staff

Nick Lowe has confirmed his first headlining US tour since the release of his critically acclaimed new album 'The Old Magic' (Yep Roc). He will be backed on all dates by his longtime band of Geraint Watkins (keyboards), Robert Trehern (drums), Johnny Scott (guitar), and Matt Radford (bass). Dates include an April 25 show at NYC's Town Hall, with additional shows to be announced soon. See below for a full list of confirmed dates.

The tour follows Lowe's extensive run of US dates with Wilco in Fall 2011. Check out the BLURT review of the album - which garnered 10 out of 10 stars -  right here.

4/18 - First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
4/19 - Turner Hall, Milwaukee, WI
4/20 - Park West, Chicago, IL
4/21 - Lafayette Brewing Co, Lafayette IN
4/23 - Phoenix Theater, Toronto, Canada
4/25 - Town Hall, New York, NY
4/26 - Wilbur Theater, Boston, MA
4/27 - Tarrytown Music Hall, Tarrytown, NY
4/29 - Keswick Theater, Glenside PA
4/30 - Birchmere, Alexandria, VA
5/2 - Fletcher Opera House, Raleigh, NC
5/3 - Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA

Legendary post-post-hardcore group sets May concert.


By Blurt Staff


Straight outta the '80s: Milwaukee's Die Kreuzen, a mainstay of the Touch & Go label back in the day before breaking up in '92. Now we learn (via Brooklyn Vegan) that 3/4 of the original band, plus a new recruit, will be getting back together for the 'Lest We Forget' show taking place in Milwaukee on May 26.


 "OKAY MOTHER FUCKERS - DIE KREUZEN PLAYING MAY 26 TURNER HALL. BE THERE." - that's bassist Keith Brammer, who also writes on his Facebook page, "This reunion is not just us, it's part of the 'Lest We Forget' show with a whole bunch of other great bands...We will, however, be playing an interesting assortment of songs from early stuff to later stuff, and it's highly unlikely you'll ever see this again."

All Photos by Tony Landa


Ed. note: Photographer Landa attended the opening date of Radiohead's North American tour, at American Airlines Arena in Miami,Florida, on Monday night (2/27/2012). The show heavily featured material from The King of Limbs and In Rainbows, along with a sprinkling of hits, mainly during the encores. In addition, two new songs were debuted, "Identikit" and "Cut a Hole." See the full setlist following the photos.


(above and below) Thom Yorke





Jonny Greenwood




Ed O'Brien




Colin Greenwood




Thom Yorke




Jonny Greenwood




Thom Yorke




Radiohead






Set List:

"Bloom"
"Daily Mail"
"Morning Mr. Magpie"
"Staircase"
"National Anthem"
"Meeting in the Aisle"
"Kid A"
"The Gloaming"
"Codex"
"You and Whose Army?"
"Nude"
"Identikit"
"Lotus Flower"
"There There"
"Feral"
"Idioteque"
"Separator"


First Encore
"Airbag"
"Bodysnatchers"
"Cut a Hole"
"Arpeggi"


Second Encore
"Give Up the Ghost"
"Reckoner"
"Karma Police"

A Prophet, honored in his own town, returns the favor: On February 7, a gaggle of journalists and hardcore Prophet fans toured the Bay area by bus, then were treated to a smokin' live set from the Prophet band, abetted by musical guests Roy Loney, John Doe and Kelley Stoltz.

Text and photos by Barry St. Vitus

We were somewhere around Broderick on the edge of the Haight when the drugs began to take hold. Actually, it was just a communal bottle of Southern Comfort and some cookies, but more about that later. It was almost 7:30, and a cheerful, anticipatory group gathered outside the bus at the corner of 18^th and Capp Street, wondering what the evening held in store. We were the 60 odd, and not-so-odd souls lucky enough to score a seat on Yep Roc's big promo tour launching Chuck Prophet's new release, Temple Beautiful, based entirely on San Francisco and places special to him. The ‘temple' was a short-lived punk venue located in the old Reverend Jim Jones' People's Temple building where Chuck saw his first underground music shows after moving here in the early ‘80's.

Yep Roc Records Project Manager and event organizer, Martin Hall, clipboard in hand, checked off names as we piled aboard. He had to make some tough calls about who would actually be among the fortunate to get a seat, and said later he was probably the most hated man in the city that night. Most guests were fans that entered online, with a couple of press flunky's and a cameraman. After the passengers got settled, he introduced our tour guide for this musical mystery tour, KFOG personality, Peter Finch who took over the mic. As our merry group pulled off into the warmish San Francisco night, he highlighted what lay in store, and apologized that Chuck himself couldn't join us. We were then greeted by the disembodied voice of Chuck on the little monitors above our heads, welcoming us aboard, then presenting a video he narrated about the album, with shots of various locations and snippets of each song accompanying them. His inspirations covered everything from his years living in and loving the City, to historical characters and events going back to Barbary Coast days. It entered my mind that in those days, we would have probably been slipped a ‘Mickey Finn' and woke up on a ship the next morning, far from land and being handed a mop to swab the deck or manning a bilge pump below.

The beauty of San Francisco and the Bay area has long been an inspiration to the romantic and poetic, as well as boasting a reputation for its weirdness, pure outrageousness and individualism, dating back to early Spanish settlers and the original ‘49'ers. It's also a place where social outcasts, eccentrics, musicians and artists have long flocked to feel ‘normal.' Some are lodged in the national consciousness, others only in local legend. Although, in recent years, due to sky-high rents, many have been driven across the Bay to Oakland, where a vibrant new scene has grown. That said, we're not like the rest of the country and damn proud of it!

As the video rolled on, we realized we were on the Bay Bridge, heading out of the City. No one could guess where we were headed, but minutes later we exited onto Treasure Island. We were paying a visit to the inner-illuminated, 40 ft. light sculpture from Burning Man, called Bliss Dancer, standing there with an eye-popping view of the City behind it. We disembarked and gathered around the statue, watching it slowly change colors - red, to blue, to green or purple. Someone downloaded an app to control the colors and gave it a test drive, to the delight of the crowd. No one knew that the art piece was even there. Chuck just wanted us to see it. After clambering aboard, we headed back into town. Peter told us an anecdote while on the bridge of how, years ago, Chuck, kayaking under said bridge, came upon a floating bale of weed, which he later turned over to friends and was able to finance his first record. Peter also mentioned that even though the album has its San Francisco theme, the city's name is never used in any of the songs. Interestingly, Chuck still plays his old Fender Squire Telecaster that he was given when he joined Green On Red back in 1984 at the age of 18. 

Soon, we were cruising down Haight Street, where we viewed a mural at the intersection of Octavia, and then we pulled up across from the Central Haight Market, where we were told Janis Joplin bought her Southern Comfort when she lived nearby. Peter told the driver to pull over, jumped out, and ran across the street, returning soon with a bag and someone in tow. He held up a big bottle of the syrupy liquor and presented to us famous music writer and critic, Joel Selvin! The bottle was opened and passed back for us to all have a symbolic slug from.

Selvin took over the tour duties, regaling us with stories from those halcyon music-scene days; pointing out a tiny park Jimi Hendrix once played in, and about Paul McCartney's visit to the Airplane house, where he turned them onto Sgt. Pepper, and they turned him on to DMT. He had borrowed Frank Sinatra's jet to fly up from L.A. Selvin related the story of how he was actually on the scene that fateful night the Temple Beautiful caught fire and burned down.

Next, we wound up the torturous, winding road to the top of Twin Peaks, where, we were told, the album cover shot was taken. Like tourists, we filed out to the overview, taking in the city lights splaying out far below. Suddenly, guitars started strumming from behind us, and, as we turned, there was Chuck, wife Stephanie and James DePrato serenading us with "Temple Beautiful" from on top of a rock wall! This was very unexpected, and our little troupe was dee-lighted to say the least. Afterwards, Chuck and Stephanie joined us on the bus, James driving their car back down.

The mic was handed over to San Francisco's punk sweetheart, of Avengers fame, Penelope Houston, who presented a Top 10 List of what Chuck was most fearful of going wrong with the evening. The Southern Comfort helped the laughs come easier on a few of those. Soon we were rolling down 16^th Street, to the ‘heart of the heart of the city," where Chuck pointed out where the Albion Bar used to exist, and the basis for his "I Felt Like Jesus" song, which played over the system next. The bus ambled on down 16^th to China Basin, where the old Seal Stadium once stood, and Willie Mays played his first local baseball games. We ended up by AT&T Park, at Willie Mays Plaza at King and 3^rd, where we tumbled out and gathered around Willie's statue near a stand of giant palm trees, to hear Chuck and duo play "Willie Mays Is Up At Bat."

 Reboarding, we hit the freeway enjoying some musical selections that Chuck had been inspired by over the years; The Flamin' Groovies "Shake Some Action," Bobby Freeman's "Do You Want To Dance,' Garland Jeffreys "Wild In the Streets" and Fast Floyd's "Frog Legs Man." Before we knew it, we were back where we departed from and told that it was finally party time, to large hoots from the passengers!

We were led down the street and into a small building, with a funky, arty anti-room, with a half a dozen battered bikes sticking out of the wall, reminding me of the Ant Farm's Cadillac Ranch on old Route 66.  The next room offered a table of food, (mostly hotdog things) and a keg of San Fran's finest beer, Liberty ale. Very cool autographed posters from Mission of Burma, Joe Strummer's Mescaleros and others lined the walls. The building was a band rehearsal spot, also rented out for parties. The spacious back room was already pretty packed from those denied a bus seat, but welcomed to the party.

On the small stage, Chuck and Stephanie joined the rest of the band and lit into a scorching rendering of "Castro Halloween," lighting up the audience. Being that this was the release day for the album, most attendees were hearing it for the first time. After a few more songs, he brought up ex-Flamin' Groovies vocalist Roy Loney to join in on "Temple Beautiful" and then, to the delight of the crowd, launched into "Teenage Head," "People People" and "Slow Death."

After a break, Kelly Stoltz joined the band for a few numbers, then Stephanie Finch strapped on her guitar and sang a couple she and Chuck wrote for her album, Cry Tomorrow, "Don't Back Out Now," and "Tina Goodbye."  Finally, John Doe stepped forward and played. It was closing in on the midnight hour after a couple more from Chuck, but the crowd demanded an encore, so Chuck and company complied, rolling out a personal favorite from his youthful days down South in Nixon country (Whittier), Iggy's "I'm Bored," for the finale.

Not one sated soul stumbling out onto the littered South of Mission street that night was feeling anywhere near bored, as the music was great and the band (and guest members) was flying high. Temple Beautiful is certainly a fine recording, but I was really struck by how damn dynamic the songs were live. Chuck and James, both stunning guitarists, were on fire that night. I'm pretty sure that most of the attendees felt smugly self-assured that they had just had the privilege of participating in a bit of San Francisco history themselves. An event that scenesters who heard about it afterwards would be saying to themselves, "Dag! I wish I could have gone to that!"

The whole thing had come to fruition slowly as Chuck discussed with the label something to do on the release date. The usual, pedestrian, release party was trotted out, but Chuck said "Naw, this isn't my first record,' and ideas were floated and finally, the guided bus tour idea was hatched, then fleshed out, involving many friends and colleagues to pull it off. After all, this was Chuck's love letter to his adopted hometown, and as he put it, "this record was made in San Francisco, by San Franciscans about San Francisco!"

 Probably the only thing more they could have done to put a fine point on it, the proverbial cherry on top, was to have waited one more week and held it on Valentine's Day.