Compiler wisely opts to get into "assemblage stage"...


By Fred Mills


Sharp-eyed readers will recall that news item we ran a couple of weeks ago about a massive 14-CD Sun Ra boxed set that was due soon as a joint effort between the Transparency record label and the Sun Ra Music Archive. Today word arrives from the Archive's Michael D. Anderson, who's been spearheading the project, that the box has now expanced to encompass a whopping thirty - count 'em, 30 - discs.


"I had to stop adding things," writes Anderson, in an email, "so I could finally get to the assemblage stage of this micro-detailed presentation."


We are sure all fellow Ra fans are in a combined state of shock and bliss right about now.... We'll keep you posted on update. Go here to read the original news item with details about the box and to view a video EPK about it.

The ladies who beat the Runaways to the distaff-rocking table also plan to tour.

By Blurt Staff

Way back when BLURT was known as Harp magazine we featured a story on the great ‘70s female rock band Fanny (see below), founded by sisters Jean and June Millington, pictured above. From 1969 until1974, Fanny released albums and toured internationally, sharing stages with Chicago, Dr John, the Staple Singers, Jethro Tull and many others.  David Bowie said of the group: "They were one of the finest fucking rock bands of their time ...  They were extraordinary:  They wrote everything, they played like motherfuckers ... They are as important as anyone else who's ever been, ever ..."

Hype, sure - but pretty damn close to the truth. Now the Millingtons are set to return with a new album, Play Like A Girl, due August 23 on the Fabulous label. They are joined by Jean's son Lee Madeloni, who  picked up his first album credit when he was fourteen, playing drums on the song "Welcome (to the Real World)" on June and Jean's Melting Pot. (Lee also recently released his debut recording project, Everything on Fire.) He will be touring with his mother and aunt on the promotional tour for the new album.

To backtrack: the Millington sisters had been making music together since they were children playing ukuleles in the Philippines. Within a few years of coming to the U.S. in 1961 the pair traded in their ukes for acoustic and then electric guitars and formed a succession of all-girl bands in Sacramento: the culmination was "Fanny," one of the first all-female rock bands to sign to a major label ,Warner Brothers.

This was well before the Runaways.

While recording with engineers like Geoff Emerick at the Beatles' Apple Studios, the Millingtons learned the art of recording and producing. When June left Fanny in 1974, Jean continued with the group for one more album, Rock ‘n Roll Survivors, which yielded the Top 40 hit "Butterboy." At the same time June became a key contributor to the early Women's Music movement, playing on and touring behind Cris Williamson's The Changer and the Changed, the definitive album in the genre.  Jean married David Bowie's guitarist Earl Slick in 1978 (having sung on Bowie's "Fame") and raised two children. June went on to pursue a solo performing career and began producing. She and Jean began playing together again in 1984.

In 1987, June co-founded the non-profit Institute for the Musical Arts with her partner Ann Hackler, as a means of nurturing a new generation of female musicians.  In 2001 IMA bought a site outside of Northampton, MA, and a year later inaugurated the "Girl's Rock Camp" pilot program. Yurts were built, a bunkhouse installed and finally their state-of-the-art recording studios were completed. Studio designer John Storyck (Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland) and his wife Beth Walters contributed the designs of the studios and control rooms. The studios play host to a Recording Camp each August headed by Grammy-award-winning engineers Leslie Ann Jones and Roma Baran. The Institute for the Musical Arts is now a fully functioning teaching, performing, and recording facility dedicated to supporting women and girls in music and music-related business.

According to the Millingtons,, "Play Like a Girl  is a direct result of experiences of over 45 years since starting an all-girl band themselves - and helping other girls learn music today; mentoring, supporting, teaching, and helping them organize themselves in the world of music."

More details: www.junemillington.com

You, too, can be the next Dave Markey...

By Blurt Staff

On Saturday, June 25, Dinosaur Jr. are putting themselves "in the hands of the fans." Just like Iggy and the Stooges did with "Raw Power" last September, the band is offering fans a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to film and interview their performance of the classic album "Bug" at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. on June 25.

Six lucky fans will be chosen by way of a video submission contest to join director Dave Markey (1991: The Year Punk Broke, Desperate Teenage Lovedolls) on location. The contest is based on fans submitting short high definition video segments through www.InTheHandsOfTheFans.com asking Dinosaur Jr. interview questions, or demonstrating why they should win the contest. Winners of the contest will film and interview Dinosaur Jr. at the 9:30 Club. This fan shot footage, along with the contestant video submissions, will be crafted into a high definition longform program, which will be part concert film and part reality TV show about the journey of the fans.

It's being  done in conjunction with the MVD Entertainment group, whose CEO, Ed Seamon, said in a statement, "MVD is honored to work with an act of such high integrity and esteem. We made dreams come true for six fans when we did RAW POWER, and are thrilled to do this with Dinosaur Jr. doing BUG." MVD plans to release the project on DVD, Blu-ray and download later this year.

Following the announcement that Dinosaur Jr. was to perform the classic album BUG in its entirety in London in July, the band announced a short tour in the US in June. The US dates kick off in Northampton, MA with a concert benefiting Whole Children, including Henry Rollins, Thurston Moore, and The Warblers and continues throughout the East Coast featuring Dinosaur Jr. performing Bug in its entirety, Henry Rollins interviewing Dinosaur Jr. live and special guests OFF!, with Fucked Up also performing in New York City.   

"I hate bugs," said J Mascis. "If you do too, come see us perform the whole album at the 9:30 Club, even if you LuvBugs. You can videotape our performance cause we're putting it In the Hands of the Fans."

"Tighten up" those wallets, no doubt.

By Fred Mills

Just the other day we got word about Eminem suing Audi for a European car commercial that reportedly used his music without permission. Litigation (prompted, perhaps, by ballsiness) is in the air: yesterday, Billboard.com reported that the Black Keys are suing over the unauthorized usage of their song "Tighten Up" in an ad for New Jersey's Valley National Bank. You can see the band's original video for the song, below.

The suit claims, "For at least a two-week period in February 2011 coinciding with the period leading up to and the aftermath of the 2011 Grammy Awards, the [Della Femina] Agency and VNB knowingly created and ran a television commercial incorporating significant portions of [Tighten Up] without having sought or obtained a license from Nonesuch to do so."

Nonesuch is the band's record label, which additionally told Billboard that they had sent out cease and desist letters to the ad agency "but their requests were ignored."

Taped Saturday, June 4, at the Emerald Lounge in Asheville, NC.

By Fred Mills

Here's a good ‘un you should check out: Kelly Denson of the Lingua Musica web show crew (and also music and entertainment blog Lush Life Today) interviewing electronica/dance maestros DJ Sunshine and Moonbeam of San Francisco's Dubtribe (aka Dubtribe Sound System) - with terrific performance clips included. The videography and editing was by Jackson Stahl of Jax House Productions.

You can visit Dubtribe at their official website for more details on the band, including the live itinerary.

The videotaped conversation marks the latest in the new Lingua Musica Interviews series and we're looking forward to many more in the very near future. (Previous installments include Dehlia Low, Ryan Montbleau, Brian McGee and Jon Dee Graham.) BLURT is a proud co-sponsor of Lingua Musica and you can expect to see our on-camera participation at various points to boot (you have been warned). Please visit the LinguaMusicaAlive.com website, and meanwhile, check out the video!

Don't forget to RSVP to the party, kids!

By Perez Mills

It's not everyday you get an invitation to a celebrity wedding - and invites to celebrity divorces are even rarer! But as every entertainment blog on the planet is posting right about now, Jack White and Karen Elson have issued a press release announcing their impending divorce:

To whom it may concern:

 karen elson and jack white announce today that they are getting divorced. 

 "we remain dear and trusted friends and co-parents to our wonderful children Scarlett and Henry Lee. We feel so fortunate for the time we have shared and the time we will continue to spend both separately and together watching our children grow.

In honor of that time shared, we are throwing a divorce party.  an evening together in Nashville to re-affirm our friendship and celebrate the past and future with close friends and family." 

 with love

Karen Elson and Jack White

What's more, if you are among the lucky punters (i.e., "close personal friends and family") who received your news via official mail and not as a press release, you are probably picking out your duds to attend the big divorce party that the pair is throwing tonight in Nashville. Now THAT is a modern approach to handling life's vicissitudes!

See the invite, below - note how the actual location and means of RSVP are handily obscured, however, courtesy of Jack's press agent.

Band Will Play at Tuscaloosa Amphitheater on Friday, August 19th; Proceeds go to United Way of West Alabama. Tickets onsale June 17 via Ticketmaster and the box office.

By Blurt Staff

On Friday, August 19^th My Morning Jacket, Neko Case, and Phosphorescent will play a fundraiser at the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater to benefit United Way of West Alabama.  The money raised will go towards tornado relief in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, which is still in recovery after being struck by a devastating twister less than two months ago. 

 
 
Statement from My Morning Jacket's Jim James:
 
"My Morning Jacket is honored to be given an opportunity to do our part in
helping the folks of Tuscaloosa cope with this tragedy and for us, it is a
reminder of just how close we all are as people and how important it is
for us to come together in times of trouble.  Life is a crazy journey and
you never know what the next day may bring.  We all need each other to
help make it thru.'

 
Statement from Neko Case:
 
"When I saw footage of the tornado destruction my heart broke. But I'm also SO inspired by all the coverage of people helping each other though the tragedy, be it selfless acts of bravery or just sending what little they can. I want to help too. Humans are amazing creatures when we stick together! I love us! "

 
Statement from Phosphorescent:
 
Phosphorescent was on tour when the news reached me about the Alabama tornados. Alabama is my home state and we were in San Francisco and it was two full days of worry before I could get through on the phone lines and reach my family. I am very lucky to have found out that they were all ok and it is devastating to think of all the people who weren't as lucky. Since then I have been racking my brain to find a way to help or to set up a benefit or figure out anything we could do. It means the world to me that the My Morning Jacket boys were thinking along the same lines and that they reached out to Phosphorescent and that we can get down there to Tuscaloosa and lend a hand. Alabama, this one's for you. Love, Phos 
 

Coming in August via Bloodshot.

By Blurt Staff

The legendary Bottle Rockets, hailing from St. Louis and extant since 1992, are still going strong and set to release Not So Loud: An Acoustic Evening With the Bottle Rockets on Bloodshot on Aug. 16. The record was cut live in a 19^th century schoolhouse in St. Louis and aims to spotlight "a dimension of the band easily overlooked" amid the usual cacophony of blazing amps and twanging guitars.

According to the band, "Choosing the right venue is important to the success of any show, and the Lucas School House in St. Louis was our correct choice for two sold out shows. Located on the edge of the historic Soulard neighborhood, the venue was formerly a one-room school built in 1898. The small, second floor gymnasium had been renovated into a concert hall with a beautiful wooden interior, stained glass, plush leather seating and state-of-the-art sound system. Serving as an ideal listening room during its short life, any performance in that space was an intimate music experience."

As Bloodshot puts it, "The Bottle Rockets have been making some of the most incisive, literate and lighter-raising American music for going on eighteen years now.  And some of the loudest, with a reputation built on a rough and tumble snarl honed by a thousand nights on stages around the world.  But that only speaks to part of the story of the Bottle Rockets. So many bands, when you unplug the amps, you find that the emperor has no clothes, that the songs collapse in the quiet; it was the thrill of the tables rattling and ears ringing that sold the goods; the cold of the beer, the heat of the moment."

Pulling from all eras of their catalog, including classics from seminal albums long out of print, Not So Loud "re-casts Bottle Rockets' songs with lyrical and rhythmic nuances that will surprise both longtime fans and those who might have dismissed them as ‘just another bar band.'"

Published recently by Backbeat Books and edited by Michael Molenda, it'll satisfy the gearhead in ya while helping you improve your guitar face...

By Rev. Keith A. Gordon

While the guitar has always had an invaluable role to play in the creation of rock 'n' roll music, and the 1960s certainly deified its share of guitarists the likes of Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, it wasn't until the "classic rock" era of the 1970s that the "guitar hero" really came of age. During the decade, no band was considered hot shit unless they had a hot-shot axeman pulling off monster riffs and screaming solos.

For as long as there've been guitar heroes, there's been Guitar Player magazine, the six-string bible of veteran and wanna-be fretburners alike. The publication has played its own role through the years, championing the instrument and its premiere players while offering plenty of advice, playing tips, and the goods on new gear for the curious amateur guitarist. One of the things that Guitar Player has done best, and done it for decades, is chronicle the lives and careers of the guitarists we care about, and some that we didn't know we cared about yet, through insightful articles and interviews.

With an archive as deep and rich as any music-oriented publication, including long-running zines like Rolling Stone, it's only natural that somebody, sooner or later, would get the bright idea to mine some gold out of those old interviews. Thus Guitar Player Presents Guitar Heroes of the '70s, a "must have" tome for any fan of rock guitar that collects articles and interviews on 40 of the decade's best and brightest instrumentalists. The range and diversity of players covered may surprise some, but it reflects the magazine's comprehensive coverage; thus we get conversations and articles with blues-rock legends like Johnny Winter, Michael Bloomfield, and Bonnie Raitt as well as jazz and fusion players like Al Di Meola, Larry Coryell, and John McLaughlin.

No discussion of "guitar heroes" would be complete without Clapton and Hendrix, and Guitar Player Presents Guitar Heroes of the '70s includes rare interviews with both that shed new light on each artist's work. It's with the relatively lesser-known artists of the era, however, like Roy Buchanan, June Millington (Fanny), and Mick Ronson (Bowie, Ian Hunter) that the book really shines, providing equal time for these well-deserved talents.

Prog-rockers are also represented, and folks like Robert Fripp (who seems to have nothing but disdain for his instrument), Steve Howe, and Steve Hackett have certainly help expand the guitar's sonic palette. Some artists here, like John Fogerty and Neal Schon (Santana, Journey) might not seem to be bona fide "guitar heroes," but go back and listen to some of their work at the time and you'll see that the editors did not err in their choices. Throw in Eddie Van Halen, Robin Trower, Ry Cooder, and all the others and you have as good an overview of the decade as you'll find.

True, there's a lot of talk about equipment, string sizes, and plectrums (guitar picks) among the words about music in Guitar Player Presents Guitar Heroes of the '70s, but the magazine has always been oriented towards the gearhead audience. Each interview also includes a sidebar listing three recommended "Dy-No-Mite Discs!" (okay, so this reference is painfully dated), but the album choices are pretty much on the nose, so we'll overlook the format in which they offer them. Overall, Guitar Player Presents Guitar Heroes of the '70s is a fine collection, entertaining and informative even as it documents an influential and important decade of music that helped set the stage for much of what would follow in the rock, blues, and jazz genres. Highly recommended.

Bonus treat in conjunction with Adult Swim Kia Singles Program.


By Blurt Staff


Below you can watch the new Best Coast video for the song "Gone Again" - it premiered at Adult Swim and was directed by Daniel Garcia. You'll also want to check out the channel's Kia Singles Program website because starting Tuesday the song will be available for free download, with more tracks due soon from Mastodon, The Rapture, Tallest Man on Earth, El-P and others.