Never trust anyone under 30!

By Fred Mills

Longtime BLURT contributor Steven Rosen recently grabbed his cane, shook his fist at all the punk kids milling about on his front lawn, then assembled one of the year's more interesting "best-of" polls. In conjunction with esteemed music journalism archival site Rock's Back Pages (www.rocksbackpages.com), Rosen polled 50 international music critics to get their takes on the best releases of 2011 - created by artists 50 and older.

The resulting "Senior Moments" poll, while admittedly having a decided baby boomer tilt, is crammed with quality, to such a degree that it should give musicians now nudging 50 (or at least starting to be able to get a glimpse of it in the headlights ) reasons to cheer, if not feel outright relief. The top 10 of 2011: Tom Waits Paul Simon, Nick Lowe, Kate Bush (who knew Kate was over 50?!?), Ry Cooder, Greg Allman, Steve Cropper, Glen Campbell, Steve Earle, and (tied for 10^th) R.E.M. and Charles Bradley. (For us at BLURT, the inclusion of Glen Campbell, who is lovingly profiled by Contributing Editor A.D. Amorosi in our latest print issue, is particularly gratifying.)

Writes Rosen in his introductory essay, T"he prompt was that - though there are exceptions - our consumerist culture (especially commercial radio) sells and celebrates new work by younger artists but tends to treat the more senior ones as "oldies." That marketplace remembers and repackages their past glories, often in extravagant ways, but gives short shrift to their latest. As a result, one of the standing clichés of rock is that the portion of a concert where an older familiar musician plays his/her newest work is known as ‘bathroom break time.'

"The roots of rock 'n' roll are, true, all wrapped up in youth - it started as teenage dance-and-romance music and some would say it's best when it never forgets that... However, rock's own sources - blues, R&B, country, swing, world music - were not themselves solely youth-oriented, so there's no inherent reason rock (and related contemporary-hit music) has to stay that way. Especially not after the 1960s and the arrival of singer-songwriters, conceptualist artist/producers, and deep-from-the-soul singers."

Truer words were never penned. Check out the entire feature, poll results and individual critics' ballots, right here. It's a fun read, and portions of it are guaranteed to surprise you. You can also view it at the RBP website.

Sexy AND trippy - whoah.


By Blurt Staff


On the somewhat belated heels of Franz Ferdinand's Covers EP that came out back in April for Record Store day and featuring various bands covering material off 2009's Tonight: ESG's new video for "What She Came For" and LCD Soundsystem's clip for "Live Alone."

The former sorta nudges the latter just because it's so sexy, although the latter is pretty bizarre and just as fun to watch. See below and judge for yourself. Following those is the treatment for "Turn It On" that Peaches did a little while ago.

"Unified Tribes" aimed at offering a morale boost to the Occupiers.

By Blurt Staff

Thievery Corporation has released "Unified Tribes," their new single and video featuring Def Jux alum Mr. Lif.  In the spirit of their last collaboration, Culture of Fear, "Unified Tribes" is a dedicated to the Occupy Wall Street movement and its offshoots.

"This song, ‘Unified Tribes' is our attempt to offer inspiration, energy, & hopefully a morale boost to the Movement as it will take persistence and resilience to bring about change to the collective consciousness of our culture," explains Mr. Lif.

"We've been so fortunate to link up with Mr. Lif," says Thievery Corp's Eric Hilton. "He has a revolutionary spirit in the purest, most humane sense; and the world needs more of his conscious approach to hip-hop."

Adds Mr. Lif, "My music has largely been fueled by a desire for increased understanding of human nature and the world we live in. The Occupy movement is important to me because it is the people's massive response to the unsavory aspect of human nature known as greed. Occupiers have come together in an attempt to bring about better conditions for the many as opposed to the few."

Mr. Lif has also been in D.C. with the group working on his new material. His next full-length LP will be co-produced by Thievery Corporation and released on ESL Music in 2012.

First Kinney record in 7 years, and first Palominos offering since 1996.

By Blurt Staff

Born from numerous jam sessions in a smoke-filled, coffee-stained New York basement, a good country mile, is the latest collaboration between longtime friends and musical cronies KEVN KINNEY (Drivin N Cryin) and ANTON FIER (The Golden Palominos). a good country mile features new Kinney originals, covers of a couple much beloved tunes and a handful of fresh takes on vintage Kinney and Drivin N Cryin material. The basic tracks were recorded at Martin Bisi's BC Studio in Brooklyn, overdubs and mixing was done at One East Recording with Fier producing. The album arrives in stores on Yep Roc early next year but can already be ordered directly from Kinney's website, www.KevnKinney.com.

"Kevn and I wanted to make a record that had the feel, the looseness, the innocence and the spontaneity of some of the late 60's/early 70s records that we were both fascinated by: The James Gang Rides Again, Terry Reid's River, The Faces' The First Step, Marc Benno's Minnows...records made before the corporate rock rules had been established," said Fier, in a statement.

This is Kinney's first album since 2004, when he released Sun Tangled Angel Revival, and the first release to use the Golden Palominos name since 1996's Dead Inside. It's a guitar-heavy album, loaded with dirty riffs and powerful rhythms that would be at home on a Free or Faces album, a definite departure from Kinney's previous folk flavored solo work. Featured musicians include Anton Fier, Chris Masterson, Jim Campilongo, Andy Hess, Tony Scherr, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Jon Cowherd, Eleanor Masterson, Leslie Mendelson and Lianne Smith.

Incidentally, it's not the duo's first teamup. Their earliest collaboration was on Drivin N Cryin's classic album 1987  Whisper Tames The Lion which FIER produced and played drums on. Some 20 years later, they reestablished their musical connection when Fier produced Drivin N Cryin's 2009 album (Whatever Happened To The) Great American Bubble Factory.

Tracklisting:

1. never gonna change
2. gotta move on (again)
3. challenge
4. hurricane
5. wild dog moon pt.2
6. a good country mile
7. set in stone
8. bird
9. in the land (of things that used to be)
10. southwestern state

Legendary unreleased album, oft-bootlegged, arrives officially Jan. 15.

By Fred Mills

Our devotion to all things Don Van Vliet - that's Captain Beefheart to you, pal - is sincere, and well documented, and that includes some of the Beefheart-themed hoaxes we've pulled over the years, such as the one involving a supposed comeback tour and album that alternately amused and outraged various members of the BLURT (and before that, Harp) readership.

This apparently is no joke, however (or so we assume, since it was not announced on April 1 like, ahem, our own Beef-y blurbs): the oft-bootlegged Bat Chain Puller, which was slated for release in '76 but got shelved due to a legal tussle involving the artist, album producer Frank Zappa and erstwhile Zappa/Beefheart manager Herb Cohen, is finally going to surface officially next month, on January 15, which fittingly, marks Van Vliet's 70^th birthday. He died almost exactly a year ago, on December 17, 2010. (Read Contributing Editor A.D. Amorosi's tribute to the good Cap'n here.)

British magazine The Wire reports:

Wire contributor and Beefheart biographer Mike Barnes says "The tape is owned by the Zappa estate and although Don didn't want it released they've been true to the work. Not only that, its availability was announced on the anniversary of Don's death and will be released on his birthday."

This release has been mixed by Magic Band members Denny Walley and John French, who also provide liner notes. It contains the 12 original album tracks plus three bonus tracks and is expected to arrive around the 15 January.

The Zappa mail order website Barfko-Swill is already taking pre-orders for the CD, albeit with minimal information provided. Beef fans will recall that in addition to bootlegs, some of the material did get rerecorded for inclusion on 1978's Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) album. As tapes of the original version did make their rounds among journalists and the like, fairly high quality bootlegs eventually surfaced, among them the Ozit-Morpheus Dust Sucker which has a certain "semi-legit" cachet and has been a mainstay of the BLURT jukebox for nearly a decade.  (Thanks to archival site Radar Station for the following tracklistings and art.)

The Original Bat Chain Puller (1994)

1. Bat Chain Puller
2. Seam Crooked Sam
3. Harry Irene
4. Poop Hatch
5. A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond
6. Brickbats
7. Floppy Boot Stomp
8. Flavour Bud Living
9. Carson City (Owed T'Alex)
10. Odd Jobs
11. 1010th Day Of The Human Totem Pole
12. Apes Ma
13. Bass Solo
14. Alice In Blunderland
15. Abba Zabba
16. Click Clack
17. My Human Gets Me Blues
18. I'm Gonna Booglarize You Baby
19. Golden Birdies

Tracks 1 - 12: Original Bat Chain Puller 1976
Tracks 13 - 19: The Bataclan, Paris 15th April 1972 (incorrectly labelled as 1973 on the cover)

Bat Chain Puller - The 1976 Sessions (2000)

1. Bat Chain Puller
2. Seam Crooked Sam
3. Harry Irene
4. A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond
5. Brick Bats
6. Floppy Boot Stomp
7. Flavor Bud Living
8. Carson City (aka Owed T'Alex)
9. Odd Jobs
10. The 1010th Day Of The Human Totem Pole
11. The Witch Doctor Life
12. Candle Mambo #1
13. Candle Mambo #2
14. Run Paint Run Run (instrumental)
15. Suction Prints
16. When I See A Mommy I Feel Like A Mummy

Original Bat Chain Puller + Safe As Milk (mono) (2000)

Bat Chain Puller (1976)

1. Bat Chain Puller
2. Seam Crooked Sam
3. Harry Irene
4. '81 Poop Hatch
5. Flavor Bud Living
6. Brick Bats
7. Floppy Boot Stomp
8. A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond
9. Owed T'Alex
10. Odd Jobs
11. The 1010th Day Of The Human Totem Pole
12. Apes Ma

Safe As Milk (mono mix 1967)

1. Sure Nuff N Yes I Do
2. Zig Zag Wanderer
3. Call On Me
4. Dropout Boogie
5. I'm Glad
6. Electricity
7. Yellow Brick Road
8. Abba Zabba
9. Plastic Factory
10. Where There's Woman
11. Grown So Ugly
12. Autumn's Child

Dust Sucker (2002)

1. Bat Chain Puller
2. Seam Crooked Sam
3. Harry Irene
4. 81 Poop Hatch
5. Flavor Bud Living
6. Brickbats
7. Floppy Boot Stomp
8. A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond
9. Owed T'Alex
10. Odd Jobs
11. 1010th Day Of The Human Totem Pole
12. Apes-Ma
13. Bat Chain Puller
14. Harry Irene
15. Flavor Bud Living
16. Floppy Boot Stomp
17. Owed T'Alex
18. Well Well Well
19. My Human Gets Me Blues

Tracks 1 to 12: the original Bat Chain Puller
Tracks 13 - 17: taken from the My Fathers Place 1978 show
Track 18: a 'Decals' out-take.
Track 19: Amougies Festival 1969

Not every day we get a video this vintage...

By Fred Mills

Back in October we got the news that the mighty dB's had a new album, Falling Off the Sky, due early next year, their first in ages. They also unveiled a new Occupy-themed song and video titled "Revolution of the Mind," which you can check out right here.

Meanwhile, though, another video recently surfaced, this one hailing all the way back to 1980. Filmed at the Peppermint Lounge in NYC, it was captured by Maureen Nappi (camera) & Danny Cornyetz (camera & tape operations) and is a cover of the Beatles song "Tomorrow Never Knows." Parts of the lighting are a bit washed out, but the sound is pretty good, and overall it's a fascinating glimpse into the archives. Dig it. (Special thanks to dB's superfan Ron Faulkner for the tip.)

"Swallowing cum"?!? It is indeed a Christmas, single. Check the track and the video, below.

By Blurt Staff

The other day erstwhile Slits guitarist Viv Albertine unveiled here "new annual alternative Christmas single": it is  entitled, and quite sensibly, "It's a Christmas, Single".

Viv Albertine - It's A Christmas, Single by BAM!

It was recorded with US no-wave duo, Talk Normal, pictured above with Albertine, who she met while they were labelmates on Thurston Moore's (Sonic Youth) label Ecstatic Peace. In the song, Albertine weaves comments on society, conventional wisdom and her own personal life with humorous musings on Christmas. She wrote the lyrics on the tour bus while touring with The Damned this November. As soon as she arrived back in London she was off into the recording studio.

Says Albertine, "The single was made quick and rough, just how I like my music... and my men."

Albertine also has a new solo album slated for release next spring. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Traditional versus interactive - YOU be the judge.


By Blurt Staff


Among the big music news to break over the weekend: Arcade Fire releases a video for The Suburbs track "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)." You can view it below, along with a trailer-styled "instructional" that they also filmed; we can only take their word that it's actually THEM in those costumes and oversized masks. Vincent Morisset directed.

But wait, there's more. As Pitchfork reports, an "interactive" version has also been offered - check it out here - which allows you to use your computer's webcam to "control the ovement of the images on screen with your own movements" using your hands, your body or your mouse. Crazy!

By Blurt Staff

If you enjoyed our Southern Culture On the Skids feature recently - Senior Editor Randy Harward engaged in some pretty hilarious banter with frontman Rick Miller, talking about sundry Halloween and horror-related matters, including their recent album Zombified - then you will no doubt be psyched to nab this free MP3 the band is offering up in the spirit of the giving season.

It's a live version of Zombified standout "Eyeball You Later" the band recently recorded at their Kudzu Ranch Studios. Check it out, and as Miller himself adds, "Don't let Santo Claus catch ya on the naughty list

Acclaimed world music vocalist was 70.

From an official press release: Cesaria Evora, the Cape Verdean singer, also known as "the barefoot diva," passed away on Saturday, December 17th (at 11:45 am local time) at Baptista de Sousa hospital in Mindelo Cape Verde, as announced by Cape Verdean minister of culture Mario Lucio Sousa.

The world famous singer died at 70 on her native island of Sao Vicente about three months after retiring from the stage. She had been suffering health issues for a while and had had a few surgeries over the past few years, including an open-heart operation in May 2010.

"I don't have the strength, the energy anymore. I want you to tell my fans that I'm sorry but I have to rest now. I am sorry I have to retire because of health issues. I wish I could have given pleasure to those who follow me for much more time" she had told French newspaper Le Monde when she announced her retirement last September 23rd.

She was in good shape on stage at the Parisian venue Grand Rex in April 2011 but her unhealthy heart, which had failed several times, forced her to give up her main addiction, which was touring.

"Life goes on. I came to you, I tried my best and I had a career that many would dream of," she had told Véronique Mortaigne from Le Monde.

The Cape Verdean government declared 48 hours of national mourning to the singer. President Jorge Carlos Fonseca said she was "one of the main references of Cape Verdean culture." Cesaria Evora will be buried Tuesday in Mindelo.