Live ‘70s album documents one of the band's shortlived lineups. Meanwhile, all those eBay auctions for the out-of-print boxed set will finally start to wind down...

By Blurt Staff

To celebrate the release of Fun House in the summer of 1970, The Stooges brought the uncompromising ferocity of their second album to New York City and unleashed it within the cramped confines of Ungano's, a hole-in-the-wall club on the Upper West Side. A reel-to-reel set up in the audience recorded the manic maelstrom as the band performed the entire album - except "L.A. Blues" - along with the until-now unreleased tracks "Have Some Fun" and "My Dream Is Dead."

The adrenalin-drenched set now gets released via Rhino Handmade on Nov. 16 as Have Some Fun: Live at Ungano's. It features a poster, two glossy photos taken that night, and new liner notes composed by Lenny Kaye.

In the band that night was singer Iggy Pop, guitarists Ron Asheton and Bill Cheatham, drummer Scott Asheton, bassist Zeke Zettner and saxophonist Steve Mackay. The band closes the show with a 10-minute-plus psychedelic, freak out jam featuring two unreleased tracks, "Have Some Fun" and "My Dream Is Dead." Kaye, in attendance, wrote, "The sound comes in sheets of earsplitting noise, dense and bleating, as if a sheep is being led to slaughter. You can literally hear the '60s gasping for breath, the totemic sacrifice of The Stooges."

Handmade will also rerelease 1970: The Complete Fun House Sessions. This seven-disc boxed set topped Rhino Handmade's poll earlier this year to determine which of the label's sold-out titles to put back in print. The reissued collection - which will not be individually numbered, preserving the collectability of the initial release - will be offered in its original packaging.

This Holy Grail among Handmade titles, the original 1999 pressing for The Complete Fun House Sessions was limited to 3,000 copies, contains 142 tracks (109 music and 33 studio dialogue) whose nearly eight hours document every take from every Fun House session, in order, exactly as The Stooges recorded them. The set includes six CDs packaged in standard jewel cases, each with an eight-page folder. The seventh is packaged in a die-cut cardboard sleeve as a replica of the original Elektra single for "Down On The Street" b/w "1970 (I Feel Alright)."

Have Some Fun: Live At Ungano's Track Listing:

1.       Going To Ungano's

2.       "Loose"

3.       "Down On The Street"

4.       "T.V. Eye"

5.       "Dirt"

6.       "1970"

7.       "Fun House"

8.   "Have Some Fun"/"My Dream Is Dead"

Released by Tompkins Square on October 26.

By Blurt Staff

Prefab Sprout return with the new 'Let's Change The World With Music', their first album in eight years.

Rising to fame in the 80's, Prefab Sprout are one of Britain's most beloved bands. Singer-songwriter Paddy McAloon is revered for his critically acclaimed, intelligent songwriting and is regularly lauded as one of the great British songwriters. The band's stature has risen steadily in recent years, due in part to the 2007 reissue of their classic album 'Steve McQueen.

'Let's Change The World With Music' was written and produced by Paddy McAloon at Andromeda Heights and mixed in Scotland by Calum Malcolm. The 11-tracks include the celestial 'Ride', the jazzy sway of 'I Love Music' and the melancholic 'Sweet Gospel Music'. The deluxe digipak contains artist photos and extensive notes by McAloon.

Shhh... don't ask, don't tell: published this week, the influential list includes BLURT blogger Otep, pictured above.

By Fred Mills

Wednesday afternoon the AfterEllen.com website published its list of "The 50 Most Important Queer Women in Music," a roster of "the lesbian and bisexual women [making] themselves known in the very straight, very male-driven music business." The intention writes managing editor Trish Bendix, is to "remember the ones that have paved ways, made definitive statements and maintained celebrated musical careers that make us happy, make us want to sing, make us think, make us want to do something."

The list was compiled based on awards and chart positions amassed by the performers, their relative influence, and "how their sexuality has fit into their career." Among those ranking near the top of the list are, as you might expect, pop crooner kd lang, Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls, the late Dusty Springfield, rocker Melissa Etheridge, the Gossip's Beth Ditto, needs-no-introduction Joan Jett, guitarist June Millington of the legendary ‘70s all-girl outfit Fanny, songwriter/song doctor Linda Perry and pre-WWII blues icon Ma Rainey.

Others ladies making the list who may be of interest to BLURT readers include ex-Sleater-Kinney member Carrie Brownstein, Tegan & Sara, Ani DiFranco, Kaia Wilson (Le Tigre, Team Dresch, the Butchies), Amanda Palmer, Brandi Carlile, Maja Ivarsson of The Sounds, Mary Gauthier, Donna Dresch - and Otep Shamaya, outspoken frontwoman (and provocateur extraordinaire) for metal band Otep. A big BLURT congratulations are in order to Otep as she's a regular blogger for our site as well as a contributor to our new print issue (read her "handcuffs and homophobia" story "Whippet, Good"). As the list rightly notes, "Otep has been at the forefront of LGBT and equality politics in the metal music community since 2000."

It's a wildly diverse list overall, with artists drawn from all areas of the music world, and all of them deserving of the attention and accolades. The complete list, including photos and capsule bios, can be read at the AfterEllen.com website.

Singer selects six cities in which he'll serenade fans from between the CD and LP bins.

By Fred Mills

Jónsi, of Sigur Rós, recently issued his solo album Go and his U.S. tour kicks off next week in San Diego, running through mid November. Among some of the more high-profile gigs will be the Voodoo Festival in New Orleans (Oct. 29) and MoogFest in Asheville (Oct. 30). The full itinerary is below.

Intriguingly, he's also planning a 6-stop series of record shop in-store acoustic performances (including one during his Asheville stop, at Harvest Records). Those are also noted below, and at the moment each show is scheduled to start about 5:30 pm, so make sure you get there in plenty of time to snag a good spot.

10-15 San Diego, CA - 4th and B
10-17 Los Angeles, CA - Origami Vinyl (in-store)
10-17 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern
10-18 Pomona, CA - Fox Theater
10-19 Oakland, CA - Fox Theater
10-21 Las Vegas, NV - House of Blues
10-22 Salt Lake City, UT - Slowtrain (in-store)
10-22 Salt Lake City, UT - The Complex
10-23 Tempe, AZ - The Marquee
10-25 Grand Prairie, TX - Verizon Theatre
10-26 Austin, TX - End of an Ear (in-store)
10-26 Austin, TX - Austin Music Hall
10-27 Houston, TX - Verizon Music Theater
10-29 New Orleans, LA - Voodoo Festival
10-30 Asheville, NC - Moogfest
10-30 Asheville, NC - Harvest Records (in-store)
10-31 Atlanta, GA - Criminal Records (in-store)
10-31 Atlanta, GA - The Tabernacle
11-02 St. Louis, MO - The Pageant
11-03 Chicago, IL - Reckless Records (Broadway) (in-store)
11-03 Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre
11-05 Detroit, MI - The Fillmore
11-06 Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall
11-08 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
11-09 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
11-10 New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom

Call the Bootleggers!

By Fred Mills

Blink, and you missed it! Last night Gorillaz performed a 45-minute concert at the Ed Sullivan Theater in conjunction with their appearance on Late Show With Letterman. In the band: Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon and Mick Jones from the Clash, Miho Hatori, De La Soul, Bootie Brown and Kano. They were joined by a string quartet. The Letterman show subsequently posted the set online at their Live On Letterman page, but now, if you attempt to view the segment, following a 30 second commercial you get a message that reads, "The video you have requested is unavailable or may have expired. Here are some related videos you may enjoy."

Hopefully this is just a temporary glitch; the same error message seems to occur for a number of other clips archived on the site. Update: it's been fixed.  In the meantime, what's a Gorillaz fan gonna do except call the bootleggers! See below for a few clips - the first one is the band doing "Rhinestone Eyes" taken from the actual on-air performance, complete with Dave introduction. That's followed by audience-shot clips (for more go to this YouTube user's page).

Latest pick of cool emerging artist in our ongoing collaboration with Sonicbids.

By Fred Mills

The BLURT staff put our heads (and ears) together and we have the latest pick for our Blurt/Sonicbids "Best Kept Secret": it's Doug McCurry, from Charlotte, NC.

McCurry's been active in the Tarheel music scene since the ‘80s, working as musician, producer and engineer - yours truly has great memories of seeing his early band Big Brick Building, who issued two full-lengths and was one of the most respected Charlotte outfits, back in the day. He's been on hiatus for a good while, but recently resurfaced with the album Seven Songs About Leaving, which he describes as pondering "the certainty of change, and the paradox of an unknown future that accompanies it - choices, consequences, impulses, and indecision are manifested in events that can haunt a person for a lifetime." Indeed, a track like the densely-layered but kinetic and pounding "Wake Up Call" has a sonically haunting/disturbing quality, while "Mama Said No. 2"'s psychedelic vortex and funky undercurrent makes for a distinctively headspinning experience. And the briskly strummed "21^st Century Car," with its bold blend of acoustic and electronic textures, smartly updates the classic Byrdsian cosmic cowboy ethos.

Nice to have the man back on the board again after all this time.

We'll have an interview with McCurry posted to the site shortly in which we fill you in on all this and more. Check out his official website as well as his MySpace page for additional details as well as song samples. He's one of the good ‘uns, trust us.

***

Bands, go to www.sonicbids.com/blurtonline to submit and have us review your materials for feature consideration.

>Our November ‘08 Best Kept Secret: The Handcuffs, from Chicago.

>Our December Best Kept Secret: Black Swan Green, from Brooklyn

>Our January Best Kept Secret: stephaniesI­d, from Asheville

>Our March Best Kept Secret: Polly Mackey & the Pleasure Principle, from England

>Our June Best Kept Secret: Wiretree, from Austin

>Our August Best Kept Secret: Bulletproof Vests, from Memphis

>Our November Best Kept Secret: The Vivs, from Boston

>Our January Best Kept Secret: The Public Good, from D.C.

>Our February Best Kept Secret: Dirty Dancing, from Austin

>Our April Best Kept Secret: Jenny Dee & the Deelinquents

>Our June Best Kept Secret: The Rebel Set

 >Our August Best Kept Secret: Alice Austin

The Woodstock veterans have all been here before - but in front of an appreciative crowd at Hard Rock Live on October 1, the sense of déjà vu was all the more relevant.

By Lee Zimmerman

Woodstock nation seems to be coming back strong of late, what with Neil Young making his rounds, Bob Dylan doing his national college tour and Young's sometime colleagues Crosby Stills & Nash making a return visit to the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood Florida a mere six months or so after their previous appearance. Indeed, the frequency of CSN jaunts these days is somewhat remarkable, especially considering the fact that after 42 years and several volumes of rock ‘n' roll lore, there's little left to prove. Likewise, there's something to be said about the dangers of overexposure, so that what once might have been seen as a singular experience now verges more on the commonplace. At last count, they've visited South Florida no less than four times in the past five years.

Fortunately then, familiarity doesn't breed contempt, especially as far as the peace, love and patchouli crowd is concerned. Certainly, the audience that duly made the pilgrimage to Hard Rock on Friday night hasn't lost any of its reverence for the well worn, yet still emotionally wrought ballads that were once virtual anthems for the Baby Boomer generation of old. Their hair may be graying and thinning and their paunches expanding - and we're talking about both the band and their devotees - but the connection between audience and performers remains undiminished.

Aptly opening with a fiery rendition of "Woodstock," the trio and their four piece backing band placed the emphasis on energy throughout, managing only the occasional acoustic spotlight (what they once quaintly dubbed as "wooden music") in lieu of feisty, up-tempo takes on such time-tested crowd pleasers as "Marrakesh Express," "Southern Cross," "Wooden Ships" and, naturally, "Love the One You're With." Even songs that normally favor a downcast disposition - "Military Madness," "Almost Cut My Hair," "Long Time Gone," Déjà Vu" and "Our House" - took on added urgency, the latter prompting a sing-along that found the audience eventually usurping the singers.

In fact, all was how it should be, and despite the fact that CS and N have performed these trademark tunes hundreds, if not thousands, of times before, and for repeated generations of fans, they still manage to instill a genuine sentimental involvement these many decades on. Crosby's read of the lovely "Guinevere" proved especially poignant - he noted, affectingly, that,  "... the girl that I wrote this song about died on this day." He was referring to former lover Christine Hinton who was involved in a car crash on September 30, 1969 not far from their new home in the San Francisco Bay area. Forty years later, he seemed so distracted, he stumbled over the lyric and had to start over, apparently taking his partner Nash by surprise.

Remarkably though, all three men retain their sturdy voices, especially Crosby whose wailing, soaring croon remains more powerful than ever. Once the band's weak link as far as his notorious drug abuse was concerned, he now emits a stoic visage, his stalwart stance and flowing white hair giving him, at age 69, a decidedly venerable profile. He was also the most talkative of the trio, and after concluding an abridged version of "What Are Their Names?" (from his unfortunately-titled first solo album If I Could Only Remember My Name...), he implored those who were shouting out their admiration to ask their sisters to do so instead. "It's a little scary to hear a husky biker voice shouting ‘I love you, Dave,'" he joked. "It kind of reminds me of prison."

For their parts, both Stills and Nash balanced out the equation admirably. Nash looks rather ruddy these days, and, it might be noted, with his white hair and weathered complexion, he's taken on a certain Clinton-esque image. His trademark high vocals are still a joy, particularly the way they weave around Crosby's and provide the reliable harmonies for Stills. Stills himself remains a searing guitar player, displaying both fluidity and finesse, the qualities that earned him the right to share the stage and studio time with Hendrix, Michael Bloomfield and the Stones. With talk of a Buffalo Springfield outing in the works, he previewed those possibilities by reprising two of his former band's most enduring chestnuts, "Bluebird" and an always-to-be-expected "For What It's Worth."

Oddly enough, like the last time they were here, covers played a prominent role in the set list. They reprised the Stones' "Ruby Tuesday," turning its chorus into sheer triumph and confidently making it their own. But the most surprising entry was a take on the Who's "Behind Blue Eyes" that worked remarkably well despite the obvious disparity in the MO between the two bands. Credit and kudos are due the supporting players - longtime drummer Joe Vitale, veteran bassist and -- as it was duly noted -- former Hollywood homeboy Bob Glaub, keyboardists Charles Caldwell and James Raymond, who also happens to be Crosby's son and band mate in the outfit CPR. Each of them contributed harmonies, boosting the front line's already formidable presence.

Ultimately then, when CSN sang the lines from "Déjà vu," "We have all been here before," those verses really rang true. We have all been here before, but happily, no matter how many times the return, the drama and desire are still there.

Why is this woman smiling?

By Perez Mills

One occurrence is an anomaly; but in our fast-paced word, two in less than six months makes it a Twitter trending topic! Following that high profile lawsuit involving Vampire Weekend, lawyers across the planet are now shuddering with delight at the recent news of a former NASA astronaut filing a lawsuit against pop singer Dido over the "unauthorized" use of a photo for the cover of her 2008 album Safe Trip Home.

As you can see from the album sleeve, above, it depicts... um... something that looks kinda like a speck hovering in space. Upon closer examination it is indeed an astronaut, and it turns out to be Bruce McCandless, who was photographed in "free flying" mode about 320 feet from the space shuttle Challenger on the Feb. 7, 1984 flight.

According to Bloomberg News, McCandless is alleging infringement of is persona in the lawsuit, saying in the Los Angeles court filing that the "flight remains the only occasion on which the manned maneuvering unit has been flown to such a significant distance from a shuttle and allowed such photographs to be taken."

McCandless is suing Dido, Sony Music and Getty Images. Spokespersons for the three defendants have not issued official comments yet.

"Prose so rich yet readable, so full of ideas and delightfully engaging that reading his work is like listening to the music": The New Yorker music critic's new volume of essays, Listen To This, published last week by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ranks among this year's most essential music books.

By Steve Pick

Alex Ross is probably the luckiest and most deserving music critic in the world. He has reasonably close to carte blanche to pursue whatever interests he has in a regular column in The New Yorker, which he has written since 1996, when he was 28 years old. Because it's The New Yorker, he has the space to explore the music in depth, to mix deeply informed musical understanding with a spectacular ability to capture the personalities of the people who make it. Ross seems to have heard everything in the history of Western music, and as he proved in 2007 with his first book The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, he can make even the most complex and difficult creations seem compelling and inviting.

Where the prior book was an original work spelling out the history of 20^th Century "classical" music, Listen To This (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux) is a collection of writings plucked mostly from The New Yorker in which Ross jumps around from place to place and time to time. There are chapters on Mozart, Radiohead, Schubert, Bjork, Verdi, and Bob Dylan, not too close looks at such subjects as the state of classical music in China, the decline of music education in the U.S., and the ways in which music has changed because of technology. Ross is that perfect sort of music critic - already carrying a huge amount of knowledge in his head, he's constantly re-thinking what he knows in light of new evidence and experience. If there's one thing that can be said about Alex Ross, it's that he understands there will never be a final word on any of the subjects he covers, but that there is always something new to be revealed.

As a result, whether you are a novice completely unfamiliar with any of the music which fascinates Ross, or a life-long fan, his writing is almost guaranteed to let you discover something fresh and intriguing. Ross takes great delight in ribbing those who think Mozart, for example, is merely something pleasurable, or worse, something capable of improving the IQ of babies. For Ross, the opera "Don Giovanni" should put the listener in a mental panic. It's an existential nightmare, a "crucifixion without resurrection," which makes Mozart a more profound experience than just a relaxing background for those looking to show off their good taste.

Almost alone among those who have written about Bob Dylan, Alex Ross is extremely well-versed in music qua music. While of course he understands the importance of Dylan as a lyricist, and even the ways his lyrics mesh with the music, Ross comes up with the following description of a live Dylan concert from 1997: "And he is musically in control. The band's pacing of each song - the unpredictable scampering to and fro over a loosely felt beat, the watch-and-wait atmosphere, the sudden knowing emphasis on one line or one note - is much the same as when Dylan plays solo. You can hear him thinking through the music bar by bar, tracing harmonies in winding figures. The basic structures of the songs remain unshakable. There may be wrong notes, but there is never a wrong chord."

Ross writes lovingly of the mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, who died at 52 of complications from breast cancer - it is impossible to read this chapter without feeling the inexorable loss in the world of a magnificent talent, even if you have never once in your life encountered her music. You will most likely immediately go to www.therestisnoise.com, where Ross has compiled an exhaustive selection of links to almost every piece of music mentioned in the book, where you will find that Lieberson's astounding voice really does have the power, passion, and extraordinary control that Ross argues convincingly was the "most remarkable" he ever heard.

There is one long piece completely original to this book. It's entitled "Chacona, Lamento, Walking Blues: Bass Lines of Music History" wherein he connects a particular rhythm, and a particular descending series of notes throughout the last 600 years of popular music. The chacona was a folk dance of 16^th Century Spain which got picked up and somewhat tamed by a wide variety of composers over the years, culminating in spectacular fashion in a work by Bach. The lamento is a particular four-note descending pattern which has steadily appeared, representing emotional sadness, in music from all over the world. Ross shows how the same pattern which invoked sorrow in Elizabethan court music turns up as the basis for Led Zeppelin's "Dazed and Confused." In the process, he even manages to describe a half-hour concert version of the song from the ‘70s in ways that make an old punk rocker rethink the knee-jerk rejection of that period as decadent.

Bjork and Radiohead are interview subjects in separate chapters, and Ross puts their music in contexts far different from the pop coverage we've seen so often. He also includes features on Esa-Pekka Salonen, long-time conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Mitsuko Uchida (along with many other teachers and students) of the annual Marlboro Music intensive study program. Ross is a master at finding telling anecdotes, delicious quotes, and scenes which capture the spirits of his subjects.

Even if you've read every issue of The New Yorker, Ross has rewritten, sometimes extensively, many of the pieces included in this book. His prose is so rich yet readable, so full of ideas and delightfully engaging that reading his work more than once is much like listening to the music he describes again and again. Just when you think you've noticed everything, there is some little detail capable of unraveling a whole new world of discovery. 

Well, if it was good enough for John McCain... no word on whether anti-gay organization will give up using folk and rock artists' music and switch to country and hip-hop....

By Blurt Staff

In an interesting report filed the other day at the Prop 8 Trial Tracker site and penned by Kathleen Perrin, we learn that the right-wing conservative, anti-gay organization National Organization for Marriage (NOM) had been using John Mellencamp's "Pink Houses" without authorization at its rallies. Perrin reports that Mellencamp's publicist Bob Merlis sent some pretty specific correspondence to NOM about this:

I am getting in touch with you on behalf of my client John Mellencamp who has become aware that his music ("Pink Houses") has been used at events sponsored by your organization. Please be aware that Mr. Mellencamp's views on same sex marriage and equal rights for people of all sexual orientations are at odds with NOM's stated agenda.

Back in 2008, we pointed out to the McCain-Palin campaign that their use of Mr. Mellencamp's music in campaign events was puzzling in light of Mellencamp's own political views which were, largely, in opposition to those of these candidates. Immediately after we sent notice to campaign manager Rick Davis, the McCain campaign had the good sense to stop the use of Mellencamp's music at their events. There's an article about this from the Washington Post that I've pasted below. [Perrin includes a link to that article here, and additionally posts a short video clip of a NOM rally using the Mellencamp music.]

We would encourage you to find music from a source more in harmony with your views than Mr. Mellencamp in the future.

NOM is already notorious for having attempted to appropriate Peter, Paul & Mary's version of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land," incidentally....