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

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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

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Morgan Tovey Frost

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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 Chris Squire. 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 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]