10-song concert originally recorded in 2009 in Nuremberg, Germany.

By Fred Mills

Live in Nuremberg is the name, and giving away the entire album for free is the game, according to Calexico. As a thank-you to the band's fans, Calexico has partnered with Cash Music to offer up a 10-song live concert, recorded last year in Germany. It's a high-quality, 320kbps digital download, complete with cover art and digital booklet liner notes (see below).

You can visit the official Calexico site or go directly to Cash Music where you can stream or download the tracks. Totally free - nice.

The band:

John Convertino: drums
Joey Burns: acoustic and electric guitar, vocals
Paul Niehaus: pedal steel, electric guitar, backing vocals
Jacob Valenzuela: trumpet, keys, vibes, percussion, vocals
Volker Zander: upright and electric bass, backing vocals
Martin Wenk: trumpet, guitar, keys, vibes, accordion, backing vocals
Jairo Zavala: electric guitar, bouzouki, vocals

Tracklisting:

Roka

Bend To The Road

Inspiration

Crystal Frontier

Two Silver Trees

Red Blooms

Victor Jara's Hands

 Man Made Lake

 Fractured Air

 All Systems Red

(Photo Credit: I, Moneo via Wikimedia Commons)

Replacements/Guns N' Roses bassist busy doing some good work for Haitian kids.

By Fred Mills

Erstwhile Replacements bassist (and sometimes Guns N' Roses member) Tommy Stinson is apparently in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and pitching in on relief efforts. According to a report filed today in USA Today:

"Stinson attended Saturday's graduation ceremony for former street youth at the Timkatec school in Port-au-Prince. The three Timkatec schools educate students in mechanics, electricity, sewing and other forms of skilled labor; Stinson helps raise money for them."

Follow the USA Today link for photos of Stinson at the ceremony.

Meanwhile, word has reached BLURT that upon Stinson's return to the United States he intends to continue the good work by raising funds via a gear and memorabilia auction. A source tells us that Stinson will acution "a bunch of his stuff - basses (from Mats and GNR days), suits, records and memorabilia, etc."

Wow - what an opportunity for fans to score. We'll pass along full details when we get ‘em. Start transferring funds to those PayPal coffers, folks.

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

 By Blurt Staff

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

Singularity

Crackdown 2

The Cages: Pro-Style Batting Practice

APB: All Points Bulletin

Sniper: Ghost Warrior

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

By Jedd Ferris

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coming to 45 Space in late August.

By Blurt Staff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Blurt Staff

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

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

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

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

By Blurt Staff

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

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

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

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

 
 
Free Voter Registration Concert and Rally Details:

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Blurt Staff

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

Her lyrics make their point:

Thought it was a trick of the light,

how the fields shone yellow,

When it was so close to night.

There must be some fire in those flowers,

because they get crushed up and turned into black oil. 

Black oil. 

"Thought it was the night

but the birds were head to toe in black oil.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Blurt Staff

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

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

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

Tickets for Peaches Christ Superstar are available via Ticketmaster.

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

By Jose Martinez

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