Check out the guest drummer too!


By Fred Mills


Last night the War On Drugs - one of BLURT's top ten artists of 2011 - appeared on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon," doing "Baby Missiles" from the Slave Ambient album. Check it out, below. And yes, that is ?uestlove of the Roots sitting in on drums....

Click here to listen to your favorite feedtime songs according to Mark Arm.  

By Fred Mills

Oz rock fans - hell, rock fans of any geographical stripe - awoke this morning to the news that the mighty feedtime is slated to be the subject of a limited edition 4-CD and LP box set courtesy Sub Pop. Titled the Aberrant years, it's due March 13. And yes, that double pun of the title is intentional.

your favorite feedtime songs according to mark arm by subpop

The group - Rick, Al, and Tom - formed in Sydney circa '79 and went on to cut four hugely influential albums in the ‘80s before splitting at the end of the decade: feedtime, Shovel, Cooper-S and Suction, all released in Australia via Bruce Griffiths' iconoclastic label Aberrant (Rough Trade released the latter 3 in the US). There was also a brief reunion in the mid ‘90s that resulted in the Billy album for Amphetamine Reptile, and then they were no longer once again.

Though feedtime never toured the US during its initial heyday, American fans of pure, primal, skronky blooze-noise eagerly embraced the band, and they became a mainstay of the fanzine underground. Yours truly can testify to the trio's prowess; during the ‘80s I authored an Australian music column for east coast rock zine The Bob, and feedtime was a fixture in the column. I also oversaw the release of an Australian flexidisc for The Bob, and feedtime had one of the key tracks. The accompanying interview I did with the band remains one of my fondest memories of that period: far from being the thuggish neanderthals that their heavier-than-heaven sound might have conveyed, they were funny and engaging, humble to a fault, and eager to reach out to their fanbase while clear-eyed about their overall position in the music world.

Well, time has a way of rescuing the notion of "obscurity" every now and then, and the Sub Pop box will be received with great joy, I have no doubt. As the label puts it:

This burning energy existed for some ten years and produced some of the most powerful, creative and personal rock and roll music we are ever likely to hear.The songs are out there to discover and relate to and when they hit they explode and you're never the same again, but you're grateful for the experience. This isn't "noise rock," this is a groundbreaking FORM of music that knows its roots but applies the lessons to a wider scope than their peers.

      It's heavy but life is too and some of us know this and we channel that power into art and sometimes beautiful things are created. Sometimes it's too heavy and nothing seems to work out. Sometimes you just need to laugh it off and stand at the back of the room for a while.

      This is perfect sound and pure art. Avant-garde pub-rock. All hail the concrete urban blues.

[Photo Credit: Caroline Birkett]

Frontman Parker Griggs after receiving 14 stitches to the forehead last Saturday night.

By Blurt Staff

Last month we reviewed the mighty Radio Moscow's recent album The Great Escape of Leslie Magnafuzz (Alive), noting that it "feeds from the teat of late sixties and seventies Nuggets comp forefathers, vocal effects and hallucinogens dripping from the speakers and the psychedelic, heavy, effects-driven guitar of Parker Griggs."

Apparently all that heaviness and aggression went into overdrive Saturday night at the start of the band's North American tour when the members had, in the label's words, "a physical meltdown onstage during their hometown record release show in Ames, IA. With internal friction between the threesome apparently boiling over, the band made it to the final song of their setlist before things came to a head. Literally. The drummer grabbed Griggs' guitar and, according to Griggs, hurled it as hard as he could at the guitarist, leaving a gaping wound in his forehead and blood everywhere. Griggs was then rushed to the local emergency room, where he received 14 stitches."

Watch the implosion, below:

Interestingly, if you check the viewer comments below the video at YouTube, some of the notes were apparently penned by fans who were in attendance and saw the events go down. For example, "BluesPills" wrote, "Nice editing... you left out all the parts where parker was bashing his band on stage on the mic to all the friends and family in the audience. You also left out the the guitar actually hit Cory in the neck, Cory just reacted, there was no time for aim are you serious... oh one more thing... just so its clarified. The night before Parker threw a beer can at a womans face. That woman being The bassists girlfriend. That woman being the singer of Blues Pills."

Another commenter, "somewhere646," added, "I think you should post the uncut version from Saturdays second set. Let people hear all the shit parker was saying about the bassist and drummer before he threw the guitar at the drummer. Can tell your friends with Parker. Because everyone else who was there thought Parker was the ass."

So clearly there is a divergence of opinion here. But that's none of our business, and besides, Griggs has already put together a new version of the band. According to the record label:

"Needless to say that was the end of this particular incarnation of Radio Moscow (but then Parker always has toured with an ever-changing set of guitarists and drummers in the past, not to mention that he plays all of the instruments on Radio Moscow's albums).  With only one day before their Chicago show, Griggs enlisted two new musicians into the band - bassist Billy Ellsworth from San Diego and drummer Lonnie Blanton from Salt Lake City, who flew into Chicago yesterday and arrived at the venue just hours before their gig. Radio Moscow is reborn and once again ready to rock the nation... hopefully now with a lot less bloodshed."

As the tour will continue, Alive is also offering a previously unreleased Radio Moscow track, "The Stranger," which is featured on Alive's new various artists sampler Where Is Parker Griggs. Good luck to Radio Moscow, and here's hoping they make it through the tour. Dates are below.

RADIO MOSCOW / GRAVEYARD 2012 TOUR DATES
01/10/12 Ace of Cups, Columbus OH (without Graveyard)
01/12/12 Bowery Ballroom, New York NY
01/13/12 Middle East, Cambridge MA
01/14/12 North Star Bar, Philadelphia PA
01/15/12 Golden West, Baltimore MD
01/16/12 DC9, Washington DC
01/17/12 Strange Matter, Richmond VA
01/18/12 Casbah @ Tremont Music Hall, Charlotte NC
01/19/12 Asheville Music Hall, Asheville NC
01/20/12 Exit / In, Nashville TN
01/21/12 The Masquerade, Atlanta GA
01/22/12 Hi-Tone Café, Memphis TN
01/23/12 Dave's Skate Park, Texarkana, TX (without Graveyard)
01/24/12 Fitzgerald's, Houston TX
01/25/12 Mohawk, Austin TX
01/27/12 Yucca Tap Room, Tempe AZ
01/28/12 Bootleg Bar, Los Angeles CA
01/29/12 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz (without Graveyard)
01/30/12 Café Du Nord, San Francisco CA
01/31/12 Doug Fir Lounge, Portland OR
02/01/12 The Tractor, Seattle WA
02/21/12 Humboldt Brews, Arcata, CA (without Graveyard)

Also making Living Room Songs available on CD.

By Blurt Staff

Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds made his Hollywood debut last year after scoring Sam Levinson's Another Happy Day, the award-winning feature film starring Ellen Barkin, Demi Moore, Kate Bosworth, Ezra Miller and more. Erased Tapes is now set to release the film's soundtrack due out on February 28th.

According to Arnalds, "In mid-December 2010 I was on a holiday in China when I received an email from Sam Levinson about the film. We got on the phone at like 4 in the morning Beijing time and ended up talking all through the night, instantly connecting. He told me that they had been listening to my music while making the film, so the film was already very influenced by my music.  

"However, it was not until Ellen Barkin - the beautiful force that she is - had pestered the producers for a week, calling them every day about how I am the right one for this film, that they finally gave in. The only catch was that it had to be done two weeks later, in the first week of January. So I ended up scoring nonstop all throughout Christmas, making my mother mad in the process."

In related news, Arnalds has also released Living Room Songs, a series in October where he created and released one new song per day, for one whole week. Inviting the audience into the comfort of his Reykjavik apartment, he recorded the songs live and filmed the whole process. In December a full-length version of the series aired followed by a live interactive chat with Ólafur and his fans. Living Room Songs is out now on CD, vinyl, ltd. special edition CD & DVD). 

Songwriter follows up his acclaimed Harlem River Blues.

By Blurt Staff

Set for a March 27 release on Bloodshot: Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now, by Justin Townes Earle. This is Earle's fourth release and follows his critically acclaimed 2010 album, Harlem River Blues - which, you may remember was BLURT's #2 Album Of 2011, right behind Arcade Fire's The Suburbs.

The title track from the record is available for download over at Rolling Stone:

MP3: "Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now"

Produced by Earle alongside longtime collaborator Skylar Wilson, the 10-track album was recorded completely live with no overdubs over a 4-day period at Echo Mountain, the acclaimed old converted church recording studio in Asheville, NC. Of the new record, Earle comments, "I think that it's the job of the artist to be in transition and constantly learn more. The new record is completely different than my last one, Harlem River Blues. This time I've gone in a Memphis-soul direction."

[Photo Credit: Joshua Black Wilkins]

Photos don't lie - dude's a dead ringer for his pop. Check the photos above and at the bottom.

By Blurt Staff

March 20 brings Son of the Seventh Son, the Severn label debut from Chicago's Larry "Mud" Morganfield, son of the legendary Muddy Waters, aka McKinley Morganfield. Recorded in Chicago and produced by Bob Corritore, Son of the Seventh Son features Mud Morganfield's earthy, soulful vocals backed by a cadre of blues all-stars, including Kenny Smith on drums, Rick Kreher and Billy Flynn on guitar, Barrelhouse Chuck on keyboards, E.G. McDaniel on bass, and Harmonica Hines and Bob Corritore on harp.

Son of the Seventh Son includes seven Mud Morganfield originals, as well several other new tunes and a couple songs associated with his famous dad, such as "You Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had." Producer Bob Corritore calls his sound "a contemporary version of traditional Chicago blues."

"There's two songs of pop's on there and with anything I do, I'm gonna add pop," Morganfield told reporters. "But the rest of the disc is made up of several songs that I wrote, along with a song that Bob Corritore wrote and one my good friend Studebaker John wrote. But it's all got that Muddy style to it, because that's who I am. Without me even trying, I come off like the son of Muddy Waters and I'm proud that it's like that."

Mud Morganfield on the web: http://www.mudmorganfieldsite.com/ and www.severnrecords.com.

Intrigued by the recent report of 700+ Lizzy/Phil Lynott tracks that have been unearthed and are headed to a box set near you? Then you just might dig Fighting My Way Back: Thin Lizzy 69-76, penned by hard rock scholar Martin Popoff.

By Rev. Keith A. Gordon

Canadian music journalist Martin Popoff has been writing about hard rock and heavy metal music for almost as long as the Reverend has been listening to the stuff, which is to say a long, loooong time. Popoff shows a commitment to the genre that's impressive even to a confirmed lifer such as yours truly, co-founding the respected metal magazine Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles in 1994 and penning nearly 8,000 album reviews, most of which have been compiled into four volumes of Popoff's The Collectors Guide to Heavy Metal series of books.

Often overlooked are Popoff's contributions in documenting rock 'n' roll history, which he has achieved with the five books in his Ye Olde Metal series as well as around two-dozen band biographies covering everybody from Black Sabbath and Deep Purple to Rush and Blue Oyster Cult, among others. Admittedly, few of these tomes published by Popoff's Power Chord Press sell on the level of, say, some sordid celebrity sleaze tell-all or that new Steve Jobs bio that lucked its way onto the top of the best-seller list when, by happenstance and circumstance, the author benefited from the Apple CEO's untimely death. No, Popoff writes these things 'cause he wants to, not because he thinks he's going to find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. 

Popoff's latest labor of love is his in-depth biography of classic rock titans Thin Lizzy, titled Fighting My Way Back: Thin Lizzy 69-76 (Power Chord Press; www.martinpopoff.com). The first of a pair of books covering every aspect of the band's too-brief, albeit influential lifespan, it has been compiled from numerous interviews Popoff conducted with former Lizzy guitarists Scott Gorham, Eric Bell, Gary Moore, and Brian Robertson, as well as drummer and original member Brian Downey. Interviews with associates like artist Jim Fitzpatrick, who created a number of the band's memorable album covers, or Brendan "Brush" Shiels, who played with Lizzy's Phil Lynott in the band Skid Row, bring additional perspective to the band's history. Since he never had the opportunity to speak with Lynott, the late, great creative force behind Thin Lizzy, here Popoff draws upon previously-published articles and interviews to flesh out the story...

And what a story it is, a trio of young Irish lads making a name for themselves (originally as "Tin Lizzy") in the band's hometown of Dublin, the band formed by Lynott and Downey with guitarist Eric Bell and keyboardist Erix Wrixon, who would leave after recording the band's first single. Actually, Popoff delves deeper than that, coaxing memories from Brush Shiels about Lynott's time in Skid Row with him and guitarist Gary Moore, setting the stage and defining the important relationships that would be threaded throughout Lizzy's timeline. The band's signing with Decca Records, its re-location to London, the recording of their self-titled 1971 debut album, and Lizzy's subsequent struggles, both artistically and commercially, are all covered in depth.

Popoff follows the band through the making of its sophomore effort, 1972's Shades of a Blue Orphanage and even delves into the story behind the long-lost album of Deep Purple cover songs recorded by Lynott and crew for quick cash that year. He outlines the band's reaction to their unexpected hit single "Whiskey In The Jar" and the subsequent fall-out when their third album, 1973's Vagabonds of the Western World failed to chart, or even produce a minor hit. When Bell left the band in 1973, to be temporarily replaced by Gary Moore, Lynott chose to reboot the band's sound with the addition of twin lead guitarists. After a failed experiment with guitarists Andy Gee and former Atomic Rooster member John Cann, what is now known as the classic Thin Lizzy line-up formed with guitarists Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham joining Lynott and Downey.

A new label deal with Phonogram was nearly scuttled by the lackluster performance of Lizzy's first albums for the label, 1974's Nightlife and the following year's Fighting failing to produce much in the way of sales, although the latter album's development of the twin-guitar sound would set the stage for Thin Lizzy's breakthrough album, 1976's Jailbreak and the monster hit "The Boys Are Back In Town." Success breeds its own problems, and Popoff's chapter on the album looks deep inside the band's ups-and-downs in the wake of their sudden worldwide fame. It's here that Popoff ends the first part of the story, setting up the reader for the forthcoming second book.

While Popoff's engaging manner of storytelling should appeal to both Thin Lizzy fanatics as well as classic rock fans, Fighting My Way Back is also profusely illustrated with B&W artwork, from band photos and miscellaneous memorabilia to album covers, photos of rare singles, gig flyers, and much more. The resulting effort provides a solid literary and visual document of the band's early career, as important a slice of rock 'n' roll history as exists and a tale well-told by Popoff.

Among the big news: several key reunions for the 2-weekend event, April 13-15 and 20-22.


By Blurt Staff


The poster, above, pretty mush says it all. Coachella 2012's lineup was announced ystereday at the event's Facebook page and it's a doozy as always. Headliners include Black Keys, Radiohead and Dr. Dre/Snoop Dog, while reunions will include fIREHOSE, At The Rive-In and Refused as well as the re-formed Mazzy Star and Pulp. Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum will round out the '90s nostalgia brigade.


Among the other key acts: M83, Bon Iver, the Weeknd, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Azealia Banks, Frank Ocean, Girls, Cat Power, Neon Indian, Justice, Florence and the Machine, Beirut, WU LYF, AraabMuzik, the Shins, Feist, A$AP Rocky, Andrew Bird, Explosions in the Sky, EMA, DJ Shadow, Girl Talk, The Weeknd, Wild Flag and Arctic Monkeys.


Check that full lineup at the Facebook link.

"Hi," taken from Always, due March 6 from Polyvinyl.

By Blurt Staff

Subhead says it all - you can start getting psyched for the new Xiu Xiu album here:

Xiu Xiu - Hi by Xiu Xiu

For Always, the band - Jamie Stewart, Angela Seo, Bettina Escauriza, Marc Riordan, and returning member Devin Hoff - worked with producer Deerhoof''s Greg Saunier (who also contributes drums and vocals to the album). It was mixed by John Congleton (Antony and the Johnsons, Marilyn Manson, the Roots). They advise us thusly:

"At its core, Always symbolizes the mutual camaraderie with and deep dedication to each person who has internalized Xiu Xiu's work, tattooed its name on their skin or soul, and throughout the past ten years made the band a part of their lives.

"The origin of these intense, everlasting bonds is Stewart. His fearless lyrics have given voice to life's most untouchable and taboo subjects, while his distinctively committed but hushed vocals crystallize and medicate their unsettling impact."

Track List:

1. Hi

2. Joey's Song

3. Beauty Towne

4. Honeysuckle

5. I Luv Abortion

6. The Oldness

7. Chimneys Afire

8. Gul Mudin

9. Born to Suffer

10. Factory Girls

11. Smear the Queen

12. Black Drum Machine

"Pigs" comes from Mr. Impossible, due on the Ribbon label.

By Blurt Staff

Ribbon Music is doing the Black Dice, Mr. Impossible, due April 10 in the U.S. and on April 9 worldwide. It's the NYC trio's sixth album overall and first album for the label, and is described as "the soundtrack to a substance-fueled teen basement show on Mars."

Uh huh. Who writes this stuff? Anyhow, we are also advised that the record "explores the uncommon ground between The Seeds punk primitivism, extra-terrestrial throbbing of Funkadelic, and discordant rebelliousness of Royal Trux."

Now yer talking. Let's listen to first single "Pigs." The video is below.

Black Dice - Pigs by Ribbon Music

For over fifteen years Black Dice have continuously reinvented and mutated punk music into new sonic stews.  Eric Copeland, Bjorn Copeland, and Aaron Warren have released scores of albums, EPs, and singles on iconic labels (Gravity, 31g,Troubleman, DFA, Paw Tracks), that document their musical travels, from raw brutal thrash to inside-out pop anthems from way out. A decade and half of evolution has seen the amplification get larger, and the instruments more enigmatic. Drums and bass guitars have been replaced with mixer feedback, processed vocals, and alien sounds that seek to seduce and repulse impressionable ears. Using videos, live projections, and printed ephemera, the band has developed an over the top psychoactive audio-visual aesthetic that twists the useless pop sights and sounds we are bombarded with into infectious new strains of music and imagery that ooze a rock and roll spirit. 

Track List:

01. Pinball Wizard

02. Rodriguez

03. The Jacker

04. Pigs

05. Spy Vs. Spy

06. Out Body Drifter

07. Shithouse Drifter

08. Carnitas

09. Brunswick Sludge