No more trips to Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, eh?


By Blurt Staff


This weekend Brooklyn hip-hop duo Das Racist dropped the video for "Brand New Dance". It's the second single off Relax (which you'll find on a number of year-end list, no doubt, given the buzz and hype surrounding the band).


It's a pretty awesome track, indeed.

Taken from concurrently released live album.


By Blurt Staff


Radiohead drops a new single next week, Dec. 19, titled "The Daily Mail" b/w "Staircase". The same day a digital edition of The King of Limbs: Live From the Basement arrives - the DVD/Blu-ray physical version will not be in stores in time for Christmas, sadly. Look for that on Jan. 31.


A couple of months ago Radiohead performed "Staircase" on Saturday Night Live, incidentally.

Charting the "history and weirdness" of his adopted home town, San Francisco.

By Blurt Staff

Chuck Prophet pays homage to the city he calls home for his twelfth studio album, Temple Beautiful. Set for February 7 release on Yep Roc Records, the album is named for the ill-fated San Francisco club of the same name, "Temple Beautiful is a long closed punk rock club located in the old Reverend Jim Jones' People's Temple. Where I saw my first gigs," says Prophet, who co-produced the album with Brad Jones. "This record was made in San Francisco, by San Franciscans about San Francisco." 

Co-written with klipschutz at Prophet's "non-internet-having office space," the 12-track album's odes include  "Castro Halloween," "Willie Mays Is Up At Bat," "Emperor Norton in the Last Year of His Life (1880)," and the title track which boasts Roy Loney on of the original members of The Flamin' Groovies, on guest vocals.

Compelled to pay tribute to the history and weirdness that brought him to the city nearly 30 years ago and inspired by current San Francisco artists, Prophet entered the studio with James DePrato (guitars), Rusty Miller (bass, vocals) and Prairie Prince (drums, percussion) to record  "an unsentimental (though loving) tour of San Francisco," says Prophet. "My effort to tap into the history, the weirdness, the energy and spontaneity that brought me here in the first place. All the songs are San Francisco related somehow." The album also features Stephanie Finch (vocals); Chris Carmichael (cello, violin); Jim Hoke (woodwinds, flute).

The album is the followup to 2009's neo-political rocker, ¡Let Freedom Ring! (Yep Roc).


Track List:

1. Play That Song Again
2. Castro Halloween
3. Temple Beautiful
4. Museum Of Broken Hearts
5. Willie Mays is Up at Bat
6. The Left Hand and the Right Hand
7. I Felt Like Jesus
8. Who Shot John
9. He Came From So Far Away (Red Man Speaks)
10. Little Girl, Little Boy
11. White Night, Big City
12. Emperor Norton in the Last Year of His Life (1880)

Girl With the Dragon Tattoo theme song gets a bonus Fincher treatment.

By Blurt Staff

If you've been anywhere near a movie theatre in the past 6 months there's a good chance you saw the official trailer for the David Fincher-directed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - on the trailer soundtrack was Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O shrieking/moaning her way through the Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross treatment of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song." With the movie due in theatres Dec. 21, the duo's soundtrack album has just dropped digitally and will be out on CD Dec. 27.

Yesterday Pitchfork posted a new video for the song, a surreal/unsettling collage created by Fincher himself. Check it out:

The Jigsaw Seen and Allen Clapp & His Orchestra enthrall a small mob with uncommon tales of California at the Hotel Utah on December 2.

By JUD COST

You may think California's all about swaying palm trees and endless summer. But the Jigsaw Seen, representing greater Los Angeles, and Allen Clapp & His Orchestra, wearing the colors of the San Francisco Bay Area, are here to tell you to think again, pal. Both aggregations have new albums (Jigsaw's Winterland on Vibro-phonic and Clapp's Mixed Greens on Minty Fresh) that rank among the best material they've ever recorded. And there's not a surfboard, go-kart or pair of in-line roller skates anywhere in sight. Their music is more about taking a long walk in foul weather with your hands jammed into your windbreaker to keep warm. And you've probably just lost your girlfriend, too.

Because they have a grinding drive ahead of them before tomorrow night's pit stop in San Diego, the Jigsaw Seen are slotted as the evening's opener. With their longtime rhythm section of bassist Tom Currier and drummer Teddy Freese back in harness, singer Dennis Davison and guitarist Jonathan Lea, the perennial core of the group, have never played a better set. And, believe me, I've seen plenty of their live performances over the past 20 years. "This is our career retrospective," Davison says only half-kidding over a beer upstairs in the tiny minstrel's gallery of the Hotel Utah. "You know, that means the only big musical event left is your memorial," I tell him. "Hopefully, not for a while yet," he smirks.

The set is composed mostly of material from their last three albums-Zenith, Bananas Foster and Winterland-the stunning trilogy that's put the band back on the map just when it seemed it might be time to play out the string. "We just finished a short east coast tour," says Lea, "and we had large crowds of young kids everywhere we played. Totally unexpected."

Jigsaw jumps right into the fire with "Where The Action Isn't," one of their rockers that everybody loves whose title is a play on a ubiquitous Dick Clark TV show from the '60s. "What About Christmas?" replaces traditional Yuletide icons like Santa Claus, sleigh rides and Frosty the Snowman with loneliness, isolation and depression. The cryptically titled "Snow Angels Of Pigtown" is Davison's mythologizing of a working-class district of Baltimore, his hometown. "Fiddlesticks" once again exhumes the story of mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer, a man who, unfortunately, was not a vegetarian.

They wind things up with a devastating one-two punch to the jaw and you're down for a mandatory eight count. "My Name Is Tom" is the manic tale of a sinister peeping tom making his midnight creep, done up in a bone-rattling raga-rock style that's never been topped. It's such a great vehicle, you can close your eyes and hear John Coltrane wailing away on it with his soprano sax for at least half an hour. Freese on drums is a revelation all night long. He's not Elvin Jones, but he may be the closest thing I've seen to Keith Moon since I first witnessed the real item back in 1969 at Fillmore West.

Keeping the holiday season in mind, "Tom," the usual set-closer, is followed by a rousing, yet accurate, reading of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," featuring Davison's patented, slightly evil choirboy vocals and Lea's ripping sitar-like fretboard work.

Kudos are due to the Hotel Utah, who apparently have upgraded their sound system recently. But the curb appeal of the joint, not so much. As the boys are loading their gear into the van on the Bryant St. side of the club, the garbage from six large refuse cans, stuffed to the brim and lined up on the sidewalk like giant tin soldiers, is blowing over our heads. "Hope you enjoyed your trip to San Francisco, and have a safe drive home," I tell Davison and Lea after a stiff gust pelts us all with an oil-stained paper bag full of styrofoam peanuts. "Hey, don't feed the monkeys!" says Davison in a parting shot.

I get back inside the Utah just as Allen Clapp, dressed in a festive orange, brown and white-striped bulky sweater, is trying to get a decent soundcheck for his new, seven-member combo, now re-christened Allen Clapp & His Orchestra. This is where I came in with Clapp, 17 years ago at an off-the-map S.F. venue called 21 Bernice, a place that hasn't been heard from since.

The soundcheck, as Clapp is finding out tonight in the new band's debut Bay Area performance, is easier said than done. Large chunks of what sounds so good on the band's new LP, Mixed Greens, are not making it into the mix. Clapp looks nervous most of the night, making uncharacteristic onstage remarks that aren't quite up to his usually buttoned-down Bob Newhart stand-up style. Perhaps he's expecting too much from a live show that still has to shake a few kinks out of the garden hose.

In addition to Clapp and his wife, rock-solid bassist Jill Pries (the only Orange Peels holdovers) the Orchestra features co-front person/ukulele-wielder Karla Kane, lead guitarist Khoi Huynh, baritone guitarist KC Bowman, William Cleere on piano and Charlie Crabtree on drums. All but Clapp and Pries also serve time in squeaky clean rockers the Corner Laughers and its psychedelic alter-ego the Agony Aunts. They do not throw TV sets out hotel windows when they are on tour. Which they may be doing shortly if Clapp's plans to buy an old school bus for cross-country jaunts pan out. All they'll need to complete the plan is a few snapshots of "Furthur," Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters bus, and a battered old copy of the Who's Magic Bus LP for inspiration, along with a few cans of dayglo paint.

To ease into uncharted waters, Clapp opens with the familiar. "Mystery Lawn," one of his earliest numbers, was a staple of the Orange Peels, the outfit that's flown his autumnal flag for years. But then he's off and running into the lovely new stuff: "Downfall No. 3," "All Or Nothing" and "Treeline." They're representative of Clapp's daring venture into a bold new world of soulful sound dominated not by guitars but by keyboards, with most of the set finding him perched behind a bank of ivories that includes a Fender Rhodes electric piano, an organ and an iPad Mellotron.

Clapp's added a good half octave to the top end of his vocal range, and the total effect is something like Brian Wilson wailing away late at night, hunkered down in front of his piano, pouring out his heart a la Stevie Wonder. Or Todd Rundgren from his "Hello It's Me" days with the Nazz and later solo ventures like Something/Anything? It feels like a direction he's always meant to take: walking through virgin forests, half-blinded by New World sunsets of uncommon beauty. 

Mark your calendars for Feb. 28, fans: Toward The Low Sun, due from Drag City.

By Blurt Staff

The gentlemen of the Dirty Three have an announcement:

"Dirty what then? Ohh...Dirty Three. Right! Jesus fucking God- ­it's been seven years since the last Dirty Three album. Warren's always sawing away at something that kind of tightens our chest and gives us that ol' thousand-yard stare; Mick wanders hollow-bodied from abstract and dreamy to punishing hard chord rock in the space of a breath, and then there's Jim White. He's doing something that no one else does back there. Plus, he's drumming! The crusty troika are back, for the first time ever on Drag City Records Feb 28th 2012!"

Oh yeah. We are there! Meanwhile, let's review....

Offers tons of visual - and video - plus sonic features.

By Blurt Staff

It's one of the most fan-friendly Apple-meets-Apple summit to date. An exclusive new Beatles 'Yellow Submarine' book for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch offering up the Fab Four's psychedelic sights and sounds is available for free download on Apple's iBookstore worldwide starting today. The iBookstore is available via the free iBooks App for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, and at www.iTunes.com/iBookstore.

According to EMI, this exclusive "takes the reader on a kaleidoscopic, music-filled journey with The Beatles to an underwater dreamland." Among the goodies:

-animated illustrations and text from the 2004 book

-14 full-color video clips from the original 1968 film

-audio clips of classic Beatles hits and Sir George Martin's original score

-original dialogue from the film

-"read aloud" functionality to follow along as actor Dean Lennox Kelly narrates

-interactive features that let you tap the story's array of butterflies, starfish and sea monsters to make them come alive. 

A video trailer for the book is available for free streaming starting today at www.iTunes.com/TheBeatles. The book was designed by Fiona Andreanelli using Heinz Edelmann's original artwork from the film, and its story has been adapted by Charlie Gardner from the film's original screenplay, co-written by Lee Minoff, Al Brodax, Jack Mendelsohn and Eric Segal.  

"Duluth" taken from acclaimed album These Open Roads.

By Blurt Staff

Singer-songwriter Haroula Rose, who first pinged the indie radar in 2009 with her debut EP Someday and subsequently wowed critics earlier this year with her Andy Lemaster-produced These Open Roads, has just unveiled a video for the luminous album track "Duluth." It's got a take-your-breath away quality that's as powerful as it is haunting, and if you spotted it as being a Mason Jennings cover, bingo. Check it out:

As noted, the album was produced by Andy Lemaster (Bright Eyes, The Good Life, Now It's Overhead, REM, Azure Ray, Conor Oberst), who recorded it in Athens, GA at Chase Park Transduction Studio as well as his living room. Its  twelve tracks feature contributions from John Neff (Drive By Truckers, Japancakes) on pedal steel, Heather Macintosh (Elf Power, Neutral Milk Hotel), Brian Wright (Waco Tragedies), Blair Sinta (Damien Rice, Stevie Nicks, My Brightest Diamond, Annie Lennox) Jason Kanakis (Rachael Yamagata, Brett Dennen, Joshua Radin) Sad Brad Smith, Joseph Karnes (Jesca Hoop, John Cale), and Zac Rae (Pedestrian, Sara Lov, My Brightest Diamond) who co-produced and played on "Duluth." In addition her friend Orenda Fink (Azure Ray, O+S, Art In Manila) appears providing additional vocals.   Fink also connected her with Lemaster.

Says Rose, of working with Lemaster, "At Andy's house we could hear birds chirping and trains passing by, and Athens has such an atmosphere that it was easy to find inspiration.   Most of the time we would just stay up all night writing, trying out ideas or hanging out and recording different sounds.  At the studio I was stoked to be in a space where so many other bands and artists that have inspired me got to work and had made amazing records." 

Rose performs this Sunday, Dec. 11, in Los Angeles. Dates, etc.: www.myspace.com/haroularose

The Grand Rapids, MI-based punk band gets on the couch for blogger John B. Moore.

Hustle over to John B. Moore's latest "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" blog charting punk pulchritude (and just plain ‘tude) - this month he interviews La Dispute about their latest album Wildlife and the challenges of growing up within a milieu often celebrated for it's eternal teenager-dom.

Explains vocalist Jordan Dreyer, "We were at a different point in our lives; three years older and being confronted by a different set of questions and challenges. In a way I think the older you get the more complex things become, and the record is indicative of that.... Essentially, we had all these stories and we needed a vessel to house them. The book/annotations idea gave us that and gave us the thematic diversity to accomplish all the things we wanted to musically, which was quite a bit. Three years time didn't just give us new experiences and stories; it gave us a whole new understanding of who we are as individual musicians and as a group."

Premature announcement from ATP followed by quick denial from the band.

By Fred Mills

That itching in your hairy palms you felt yesterday? Word that Guided By Voices had split up again, and on the near-eve of its new album Let's Go Eat The Factory (Jan. 1), no less. An email sent out by organizers of the All Tomorrow's Parties announcing that the Afghan Whigs were reuniting to play the Mogwai/ATP-curated May 27 "I'll Be Your Mirror" concert in London also included this notation:

"We're very sad to announce the disappointing news that Guided By Voices will no longer play on the Sunday of the event. The band are breaking up and have cancelled all 2012 live appearances. Those of you who bought Sunday Day tickets for this event are invited to claim a refund if you no longer want to attend. Please contact your ticket agency before the end of January to do so. Once again we're very sorry to be the bearers of this bad news and sorry to those of you who it has inconvenienced."

Hold on, not so fast, whizz kids: GBV quickly stepped in to issue their own counter-statement:

"Guided by Voices have not split up and continue to work on new material together. In addition to the album release of Let's Go Eat the Factory for January, the band are at work on another album, Class Clown Spots A UFO. Robert Pollard will also be releasing a solo record in March called Mouseman Cloud.Unfortunately Guided By Voices are canceling their appearances at Primavera and ATP/I'll Be Your Mirror, due to personal reasons. The band apologizes for any inconvenience and disappointment, and thanks Primavera, ATP and the fans for their longterm support. including the plans to have played at next year's I'll Be Your Mirror event in the UK."

What's next? Is this all some insidious promotional strategy? Stay tuned!