Playing that single from Let's Go Eat the Factory.


By Blurt Staff


Last night on the Letterman show, Guided By Voices officially kicked their promotional cycle for their new album Let's Go Eat the Factory by performing "The Unsinkable Fats Domino." Check it out, below.

Meanwhile, read our review of the new record right here.

And another classic album sleeve from Williams as well...

By Blurt Staff

Due February 28, Hoods and Shades is soulman Andre Williams' fourth Bloodshot Records full-length release, and perhaps his most intriguing and thematically driven. Self-dubbed "the Andre Williams folk album", he recruited his Detroit boys (and then some) to put together a collection of nine songs that collectively play out like an afternoon hangout among musical roadmen, chatting of their experiences through their instruments.

Making contributions are: renowned Grammy Award-winning producer Don Was on upright bass, Motown legend/Funk Brother Dennis Coffey on acoustic and electric guitars, Dirty Three drummer Jim White, Greasy Carlisi (Robert Gordon, Chris Spedding) and Jim Diamond (Dirtbombs) on electric bass, and longtime producer Matthew Smith (Nathaniel Mayer, Outrageous Cherry, Volebeats).

Hoods and Shades brings together Andre Williams' signature low-end purr and suggestive come-ons ("Gimme", "I've Got Money on My Mind"), alongside clear-eyed cautionary tales ("A Good Day to Feel Bad", "Hoods and Shades") from someone who has been on the street long enough to know. In his past, the longtime R&B legend Williams most famously wrote "Shake A Tail Feather," and sang proto-punk cult classics like "Bacon Fat" (covered by the Cramps), "Greasy Chicken," and the epitome of songs about underage girls, "Jail Bait." Additionally, he once paid his dues and honed his unique musical outlook at seminal labels such as Motown, Chess, and Fortune. He also wrote and produced for artists Ike Turner, Parliament/Funkadelic, Edwin Starr and Stevie Wonder. In 2008, Andre was the subject of the gritty documentary, "Agile Mobile Hostile."

Influential punk singer had liver and breast cancer. Check video clips, below.

By Fred Mills

Word has been slowly getting out that Jen Miro, aka Jennifer Anderson, founding member of seminal San Francisco punk band The Nuns, passed away on Dec. 16 from complications of liver and breast cancer. She had been living in New York City and had most recently been at Bellevue Hospital for hospice care. The singer, writer and model was only 54 years old.

According to a lengthy obituary published today by the SF Weekly, Jill Lamar, a neighbor of Anderson's who'd been helping care for her, indicated that following her cancer diagnoses she'd opted not for standard treatments such as chemotherapy and painkillers, or hospitalization, prior to being admitted to hospice. "She really suffered," Lamar said. "She really had nobody around her when she was dying."

Students of punk have long revered The Nuns, which formed in '75 (and included a young Alejandro Escovedo in the lineup) and was a key player on the Bay Area scene centered around punk venue the Mabuhay Gardens. The Nuns and the Avengers opened for the Sex Pistols at the UK band's legendary Winterland swan song. Despite being hugely popular in California, the band only issued a handful of singles before breaking up in '79. After that there were several reunions that yielded a succession of albums and singles, with Miro being the one constant in the lineup; the last Nuns album was 2003's New York Vampires. Over the years Miro also recorded as a solo artist and played with other combos, additionally working as a model and screenwriter.

See the SF Weekly profile for Miro's full story, or read the Wikipedia entry for The Nuns.

"Know Me" from forthcoming full-length.

By Fred Mills

From her work with Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls and Crystal Stilts to her solo incarnation as Frankie Rose & the Outs, songstress Frankie Rose has steadily been racking up the critical kudos; her 2010 debut, with its classic, reberb-heavy girl group sound, wound up on many best-of lists for that year. She's prepping to release her sophomore platter, Interstellar, on Memphis Industries/Slumberland on Feb. 21 and has just unveiled the first single, "Know Me," which you can listen to right here:

Frankie Rose - Know Me by Slumberland Records

Some details on the album from the label:

 "On Interstellar Frankie takes the lessons learned with her debut album - like reverb as the holy route to pop-grandeur, scaling a wall of teenage tears - fully digests, and transfers those skills into the brave new world mapped out by ten new songs. Aided by production ace Le Chev, remixer supreme for Lemonade, Narcisse, Passion Pit, and Frankie's own "Candy," Frankie has replaced that reverbed-out classicism with the confident swagger of a singer and auteur fully aware of how to build the simplest of pop moves into aching, full-blown melodramas, how to grab hold of an emotion and ride its darker waves."

Tracklisting:

1. Interstellar

2. Know Me

3. Gospel/Grace

4. Daylight Sky

5. Pair Of Wings

6. Had We Had It

7. Night Swim

8. Apples For The Sun

9. Moon In My Mind

10. The Fall

Let's Go Eat The Factory, issued independently this week by GBV Inc. (full national rollout - Amazon, etc. - arrives Jan. 17) proves that the pioneers of lo-fi still do it best. Check some audio clips, below.

By Claire Ashton

When the classic line-up of Guided By Voices reunited in 2010 for a national tour it was a crapshoot as to whether their brand of lo-fi indie rock would still attract the masses or fall flat.   A string of sold-out performances coupled with newly resuscitated group chemistry convinced bandmaster Robert Pollard to eat his words - "No reunion, period." - and head into the garage (literally) to pound out Let's Go Eat The Factory.

The result is a perfect amalgam of past and present; the scratchy fidelity and lyrical whimsy that won hearts in GBV's Bee Thousand heyday punctuated with sonically forward tracks that pick up where the outfit left off in 2004 after Half Smiles Of The Decomposed.  The comeback kids intentionally set their sights on the land of college rock with Pollard and co-writer Tobin Sprout penning heady, humorous, and often extremely brief tracks aimed to entice modern youth as much as please longtime fans; those trendsetters of the ‘90s who now live and breathe the NPR mise en scène. (The album is streaming in its entirety at NPR, by the way.)

Let's Go Eat The Factory resonates with GBV's classic comicalness ("Donut For A Snowman"), bursts at the seams with head-bobbing pop ("The Unsinkable Fats Domino") and showcases sonic dissonance in the most unique manner ("We Won't Apologize For The Human Race" and "Hang Mr. Kite").  A fifteen-year hiatus has done nothing but give this line-up of GBV enough time out of the spotlight to be sorely missed.

Let's Go Eat The Factory proves that the pioneers of lo-fi still do it best.

[Photo Credit: Brian Staker]

Special event this Wednesday in Austin at Waterloo Records. See below for details.

By Blurt Staff

Townes Van Zandt, who passed away in '97, is the subject of a new book assembled by journalist Brian T. Atkinson. Titled I'll Be Here in the Morning: The Songwriting Legacy of Townes Van Zandt, it spotlights the elegant ("To Live's To Fly") and engaging ("For the Sake of the Song") lyricist's significant impact on songwriting peers and followers.

"‘Pancho and Lefty' changed-it unchained-my idea of what a song could be," folk icon John Gorka says midway through the new book, a tightly woven collection of more than 40 interviews with artists deeply impacted by Van Zandt's singular poetry. The book is part of the John and Robin Dickson Series in Texas Music, published in collaboration with the Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.

Several living legends - including Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell, Kris Kristofferson, Lyle Lovett and Lucinda Williams - analyze Van Zandt's lyrics throughout the book and share poignant stories of witnessing the troubled troubadour's rise and fall. Atkinson doubles down on these recollections with new insight from younger artists such as My Morning Jacket's Jim James, The Avett Brothers' Scott Avett, Grace Potter, Josh Ritter and Kasey Chambers to present a nuanced view of Van Zandt's body of work, his reckless lifestyle and his long-lasting influence.

Forewords by Van Zandt producer "Cowboy" Jack Clement and longtime road manager Harold F. Eggers, Jr. open the book. Each chapter begins with a carefully crafted introduction in which Atkinson provides context and background, linking each interviewee to Van Zandt's growing legacy as his generation's most influential songwriter. "Townes is a Christ-like figure in Texas," says country star Jack Ingram at the book's close. "He is the one. He was writing on another plane."

"Townes' reputation is awesome," echoes Outlaw country pioneer Ray Wylie Hubbard. "The word ‘poet' keeps coming to mind. I mean a real poet. When people discover Townes, they're just enlightened. They're instant fans. If it were a perfect world, Townes would be as well known as Bob Dylan."


AUSTIN EVENT:

Wednesday January 4, 2012

5:00pm

Waterloo Records

600 N. Lamar Blvd.

Austin, TX  78703

Author signing and songs performed by Hayes Carll, Ray Wylie Hubbard, James McMurtry and Vince Bell

The Heads' Chronology and Byrne's Ride Rise Roar (both Eagle Rock) serve up the talking goods that make you want more.

By A.D. Amorosi

Audiences today who never witnessed Talking Heads at their full force might miss the nuances yet there a huge differences between the David Byrne of today and the band he helped form despite the fact that Ride Rise Roar looks mostly at the Byrne/Eno/Heads period that made them infamous.

The Everything That Will Happen Will Happen Today tour of 2008/2009 (that album was a Byrne/Eno collaboration) was a spare, bright white re-enactment of the then-new recording along with their finest moments recorded before the 21^st Century's turn. Ride Rise Roar captures the movement focused spectacular as if looking at a Merce Cunningham modern dance production rather than a concert. It's not as if the Head-y music is secondary; it simply seems airier in this video re-production. The dense funk of T-Heads classics such as "Once in a Lifetime, "I Zimbra" and the oozing "Houses in Motion" come across as lighter and silken than in their original form. That's fine. But it's in no way a replacement for the spine-curving art-meddling murk of the Heads at their peak.

In its' deluxe version (with a 48-page hard-cover book with photographs and an essay by Lester Bangs) Chronology is the very best testament to pre-‘80s Byrne, Harrison, Frantz and Weymouth with nods to the days of CBGB and The Kitchen (grainy live clips of the squeaky twitching "With Our Love," "I'm Not In Love" and "Psycho Killer" from 1975), their hits, their finale and even the uncomfortable reunion performance of "Life During Wartime" when Talking Heads was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame in 2002.

If you're looking for something glossy, don't bother. There's found footage from an old fan (in a dressing room?) for the swiftly eerie "Found A Job" and its initial large-band forays into Caucasoid funk with "Crosseyed and Painless."  While bonus episodes feature a 35-minute 1979 British South Bank Show doc and a lengthy Byrne interview from 1978, the find really is the rough sound and raw vision of the entire package. Makes you want for more. That's a good sign.

Have fun with pronunciations! Jad Fair + Hifiklub + kptmichigan = Bird House

Half Japanese founder (and collaborator to everyone from Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo to Teenage Fanclub and Daniel Johnston) Jad Fair's upcoming album, Bird House, is out on January 24th on Joyful Noise Recordings. For it, he teamed up with prolific French artist Hifiklub and Germany's kptmichigan. Unlike the traditionally simple, playful style of Half Japanese  the new LP, features hypnotic, fluid musicianship alongside Jad Fair's psychologically imbalanced vocal style. Originally recorded for Jad Fair's art exhibition at Le Dojo - Nice in France, this record exemplifies Fair's signature childhood naivety alongside Hifiklub and kptmichigan's ethereal, jazz-leaning experimental indie rock.

Having collaborated themselves with the likes of Lee Ranaldo, Andrew W.K., and R Stevie Moore, Hifiklub and kptmichigan bring a level of sonic mastery to this album which balances the otherwise unruly Jad Fair. The end result is a strangely listenable blend of atmospherically tempered experimentalism.

 
Bird House is limited to a one-time pressing of just 300 hand-numbered 12" records. This single-sided LP features original Jad Fair artwork which is screen-printed directly on Side B of the record, and is packaged in a picture-disc sleeve. The first 45 copies are pressed on translucent gold vinyl with black ink, and 255 copies are pressed on translucent yellow vinyl with red ink. The album is set to be released on January 24^th. Visit the record label HERE. 

Formerly in Sweet 75 with a certain Nirvana dude.

The name Yva Las Vegass may be a dim memory until you cast back to the mid ‘90s when a post-Nirvana Krist Novoselic hooked up with her in Sweet 75. She had been playing around Seattle, and after a chance gig playing Novoselic's birthday party the bass player invited her to jam. Impromptu sessions led to a proper band - the name Sweet6 75 comes from a poem by Theodore Roethke - and, within months, a major-label record deal and opening slots for heavy-hitters like L7 and Dinosaur Jr. 

For whatever reason (take your pick: lackluster marketing, musical differences, the vagaries of the music industry, a listening public not ready for a queer woman of color), Sweet 75's debut album failed to find much success and the band fizzled out in the late ‘90s. The intervening years have found her continuing to create, albeit in distinctly under-the radar fashion. Yva Las Vegass currently resides in Brooklyn and is finally getting around to release a new album, I Was Born in a Place of Sunshine and the Smell of Ripe Mangoes, on the Moniker label. It's due March 13. (Moniker is helmed by Robert Manis, the record collector who brought Death ...For The Whole World To See to Drag City.)

Yva picked up a guitar in the early 90s and headed out to busk in the streets of Seattle. Over the last twenty years she's gotten beat up for her music, been homeless and a drug addict, suffered heart attacks mid-set, had her teeth stolen, starred in a full-length documentary film and played all over the world and she still rages harder than ever. That said, I Was Born in a Place Of Sunshine and the Smell of Ripe Mangoes is no blast of harsh noise. It's an often-gorgeous collection of tender ballads, raucous cuatro workouts, soul-purging epics like "Crack Whore" and traditional Venezuelan work-songs, a raw and astonishing distillation of Yva's vast and varied life-experiences. "There's not much catering to the English-speaker on this album," she notes. "The bulk is sung in Spanish, just as there's not much excuse for a 21st century American not to speak at least conversational Spanish."

Born in 1963 in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, to a musical, middle-class family, Yva earned a ticket to boarding school in the states as a result of teen rebelliousness-which suited her fine. "I'd just seen Porky's, so I really wanted to come to the US," she laughs. After a series of educational mishaps ("No school would hold me," she says), she ended up in Seattle and decided, with a friend, to try her hand at street performance. "We played for like five minutes and we had enough money to buy a Whopper," she remembers. "We were so excited." The rest is history.

Phil Lynott trove of tapes stuck away in the back of a cupboard for 26 years or something like that.

By Blurt Staff

Journalists are already pegging ‘em "The Lost Lizzy Tapes," as in, a trove of unreleased Phil Lynott material said to number in the range of 700 songs. Ireland's Independent reported yesterday (via Spinner) that in 1986, not long before his death, Lynott gave 150 tapes to an unnamed "third party" for "safekeeping," and now, the material has been obtained by Universal Music for a proposed box set.

"This is an absolutely stunning find," Steve Hammonds, project manager behind the new Thin Lizzy box set, told the Independent. In every group there's a member who lovingly collects their recordings and in Thin Lizzy that was Phil Lynott, because Lizzy was his baby and his band."

The recordings reportedly cover the years 1971-81 and comprise outtakes, alternate versions of hits and totally unreleased songs. Noted Hammonds, "Phil Lynott was such a prolific songwriter. He recorded 12 Thin Lizzy albums, two solo albums, along with his Grand Slam post-Lizzy project, and now we find he had even more songs in his drawer."

He added that erstwhile Lizzy musicians Scott Gorham and Brian Downey will have "final say" over track selection for the box. "The members of Thin Lizzy are fully involved with this project. We have been sending them tapes of what we've found and respecting their wishes as regards the material being issued and the art work."

Cryptically, however, Hammonds would not disclose details on how Universal got the tapes or from whom, only saying that the aforementioned (and anonymous) "third party" had been waiting for "the right people to come along" - three decades is a long time to wait. But after a box set of Lizzy BBC sessions was released in 2011, said third party decided that the "right people" had been found. "No money has changed hands, this person is a Thin Lizzy fan," said Hammond. Uh-huh.