May 14-16 festival expanded to include New Orleans concert; call goes out for volunteers and additional fundraising.

By Blurt Staff

To date, the response of the music community to the growing crisis on the gulf coast related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has been marginal, to say the least. Actually, let's just call a spade a spade: the response of the music community has been NONEXISTENT, which makes if more than marginal - that's shameful. Admittedly, for celebrities and musicians, talking about and possibly reacting to an environmental disaster isn't as "sexy" as a human tragedy, and to be fair to everyone, the scale of a tragedy and the ensuing human suffering such as in Haiti, and even in Chile after that, does dwarf that of the oil spill. But still...

So hats off to the Hangout Beach Music and Arts Festival (held this weekend May 14th - 16^th; more details here), which just announced they'll be donating all profits to regional coastal cleanup and preservation.  In an effort to expand awareness and increase donations, The Hangout, along with New Orleans producer Stephen Rehage, will expand the Concert for the Coast to New Orleans.  This two-city concert experience features The Hangout Music Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama and a one-day concert event on Sunday, May 16th in downtown New Orleans.  New Orleans' Jazz pioneers Preservation Hall Jazz Band will be on hand at both events. New Orleans' venerable WWOZ-FM will be broadcasting the concerts live.

Presently, the stages are being constructed upon pristine beach, but the oil slick in the gulf threatens to endanger the wildlife habitats and livelihoods of those that live in the region. "The Gulf Coast is what makes the Hangout Music Festival so unique," says Shal Zislin, investor and co-creator of the Hangout Music Festival.  "It is one of the most pristine coastlines in all of America, and we will donate every penny above our costs to keep it clean."

The Hangout Festival is expanding its three-pronged effort aimed at Gulf Coast recovery by organizing clean-up volunteers, raising public awareness, and fundraising for the families, businesses and habitats that have been devastated by this catastrophe.

Leading the The Hangout's mission for Gulf Coast awareness is national nonpartisan organization HeadCount. Festival attendees are encouraged to visit the HeadCount booth at The Hangout Gulf Shores to write their local senators and congressmen and to bring donations and supplies for Gulf Coast relief.  HeadCount will host a panel with leading environmental activists and musicians on Sunday, May 16th.  More information can be found in the About section at www.hangoutmusicfest.com

Upcoming concerts to promote recent album cancelled; a speedy recovery is wished for and expected.

By Blurt Staff

Legendary Cape Verde-based vocalist Cesaria Evora had open heart surgery last night (Monday, May 10) in a Paris hospital. The surgery was in response to a coronary problem that occurred this past weekend. She was admitted to the hospital Monday morning and the surgery, which started at 8:00 p.m., concluded early this morning at 2:00 a.m. The operating surgeon reported that things went as well as possible. The singer was then admitted into intensive care where she awoke around 11.00 this morning and is reportedly doing well.

Evora suffered a stroke two years ago, in April of 2008. However, following a lengthy recovery, she recorded and released a new album, Nha Sentimento, and was planning to promote it throughout 2010. The record explores the Middle Eastern and Arab influences of Cape Verdean music and culture and features collaborator and admirer Fathy Salama, a former conductor of the Cairo Orchestra known for his work with Youssou N'Dour, and who arranged three mornas on the album. Nha Sentimento will be re-released shortly featuring a bonus track of "Moda Bo," Cesaria's duet with Cape Verde's up-and-coming singer and starlet, Lura (considered by some to be Cesaria's heir apparent). The duet's live debut was to take place during the June North American tour, for which Lura was set to be the opening act.

Evora is suspending all activities until the end of the year. As a result, June 2010 concerts in Washington, DC, New York City, Boston, Toronto, and Montreal have been cancelled.

Hotly-tipped debut from noisy indierock duo drops digitally today, physically on June 1. Now streaming at NPR.

By Fred Mills

It's quite a day for Brooklyn duo Sleigh Bells - Derek Miller (guitars/production) and Alexis Krauss (vocals) - as they have their debut album, Treats, offered up digitally today exclusively through the iTunes Store. Meanwhile, across the land, journalists with the requisite hipster cred opened their email boxes this morning to discover a link to a free download of the record!

That rattling sound you hear? It's 5,000 music bloggers, all furiously tapping away at their keyboards, composing drafts of their Sleigh Bells reviews so they can be among the first to post the details to the web!

The rest of you out here in the real world, however, can simply relax and surf over to the NPR Music site where the album is being streamed for a week. You won't need any of us members of the fourth estate to tell you about Sleigh Bells.

Treats will be released physically by Mom + Pop Music in special partnership with M.I.A.'s NEET Recordings on June 1, incidentally.  

According to the band's label: "Sleigh Bells have become one of 2010's most exciting new discoveries, releasing what is already one of the year's most highly-anticipated debuts.  After incredible shows at SXSW, packing a tent to the gills at Coachella, and knocking people out night after night on tours with Major Lazer and Yeasayer, the band's live show is also making an indelible mark on music lovers.  With buzzing guitars, massive, head-nodding beats and sweet-as-sugar vocals on top, a Sleigh Bells song simply explodes from the speakers, sounding like nothing you've heard before."

Well, all right then! We are all about bands who sound like nothing we've heard before. And in truth, listening to that free download right now, we'd reckon that ain't just hype.

[Photo Credit: Will Deitz; via MySpace]

"Bloodbuzz Ohio"

By Fred Mills

With High Violet hitting the stores today, The National has also unveiled a new video. It's for "Bloodbuzz Ohio" and was directed by Hope Hall, Andreas Burgess, and Carin Besser.

We're thinking Modern English. "I Melt With You." Minimalism. Tuneful.

Check it out below (be patient; you might have to restart it a couple of times if it's glitchy).

The National - "Bloodbuzz Ohio" (official video) from The National on Vimeo.

Massive, and we do mean massive, tour about to kick off...

By Fred Mills

"Maybe we wave our flag a little too much about our collaborativeness, because really we're just a band. We just happen to have a little more ventilation than other bands in that we let people come and go. But I've said the same thing before, there really isn't any such thing as a band - you give yourself a name basically because you have to. We're just people making music together. The band is just so that you can talk about it, so you can sell it, so you can project it out there, and you can market it. But the name is pretty much bullshit. It's just people playing music because they love to play music together."

That's Charles Spearin, of Broken Social Scene, in a recent interview with BLURT talking about the free-sprawling musical collective and their modus operandi. The occasion of the interview, of course, is the new BSS album, Forgiveness Rock Record, which was released last week. You can read the whole story right here.

Meanwhile, announced this week is a massive international tour that kicks off this week in England, takes in a number of festivals, then pretty much winds all over North America until the third week of October, with the only time off being a spell in August. Check out those dates below:

05-13 London, England - Brixton Academy
05-14 Minehead, England - All Tomorrow's Parties
05-15 Brighton, England - The Great Escape
05-17 London, England - Heaven 
05-18 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Melkweg
05-19 Cologne, Germany - Burgerhaus Stollwerck
05-21 Paris, France - La Maroquinerie
05-23 Linz, Austria - LinzFest
05-24 Berlin, Germany - Kesselhaus
05-27 Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Festival
05-29 George, WA - Sasquatch
06-19 Toronto, Ontario - Toronto Island
06-22 Vienna, Austria - Flex Club
06-23 Zagreb, Croatia - T-Mobile INMusic Festival
06-24 Munich, Germany - Backstage Werk
06-26 Birmingham, England - O2 Academy
06-27 Pilton, England - Glastonbury Festival
06-28 Manchester, England - Academy
06-29 Nottingham, England - Rescue Rooms
06-30 London, England - HMV Forum
07-05 Frankfurt, Germany - Mousonturm
07-06 Hamburg, Germany - Uebel & Gefahrlich
07-08 Liege, Belgium - Les Ardentes Festival
07-09 Sheffield, England - Corporation
07-10 Kinross, Scotland - T in the Park
07-11 Punchestown, Ireland - Oxegen Festival
07-16 Chicago, IL - Pitchfork Music Festival
07-25 Taipei, Taiwan - The Wall
07-27 Singapore - Esplande Concert Hall
08-01 Woodford, Australia - Splendour in the Grass
08-28 St. Louis, MO - Lou Fest
09-08 Pittsburgh, PA - Byham Theater
09-09 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
09-10 Raleigh, NC - Hopscotch Festival 
09-11 Richmond, VA - The National
09-13 Washington, DC - The Warner Theatre
09-14 Philadelphia, PA - TLA
09-17 Boston, MA - House of Blues
09-18 New York, NY - Central Park, Rumsey Playfield
09-20 New Haven, CT - Toad's Place
09-21 Northampton, MA - Calvin Theater
09-22 Burlington, VT - Higher Ground
09-24 Ithaca, NY - State Theater
09-25 Buffalo, NY - Town Hall
10-01 Ann Arbor, MI - Michigan Theater 
10-03 Milwaukee, WI - Pabst  Theater
10-04 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
10-06 Winnipeg, Manitoba - Burton Cummings Theatre
10-07 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - Odeon 
10-08 Calgary, Alberta - MacEwan Hall
10-09 Edmonton, Alberta - Winspear Centre
10-10 Kelowna, British Columbia - Community Theatre
10-12 Victoria, British Columbia - Element
10-13 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore
10-15 Seattle, WA - Paramount 
10-16 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
10-19 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern

Despite having to navigate a sonic impasses thrown up by the venue's acoustics, the Welsh gang pulled out all the dance-pop stops at San Francisco's Regency Ballroom on May 7.

By Jud Cost

Los Campesinos!, an army of eight with enough raw energy for an entire company of royal marines, breezed into San Francisco as soon as the Icelandic behemoth subsided sufficiently to allow air travel to the States from their native Great Britain. There was a small mob of devotees at the half-full Regency Ballroom eager to salute the infectious octet's every move. And there were plenty of gyrations to go around, as the oddly named combo, based in Cardiff, Wales, at times resembled a performance art video about attention deficit hyperactive disorder. No steaming coffee urns from Starbucks or Peet's necessary in the dressing room, thanks all the same.

Unfortunately, the task of getting a proper balance for the jittery whirlwind of Los Campesinos! proved too much for the Regency's sound man. Admittedly, with two sets of drums, a pair of guitars, violin, bass, keyboards and up to four vocalists working hard on every song it must be tough to keep all the snakes in the same basket. Even the stage announcements of garrulous frontman Gareth Campesinos (everyone in the band follows the Ramones' tradition of using the band moniker as a surname) were barely decipherable. But this house is notorious for bad sound. At one show by the National a few years back all you could hear was the bass and kick-drum, no matter where you stood. Everything else was swallowed up by the magnificent rafters of this grand old hall.

Even with tonight's sonic handicap, however, it was fairly easy to mentally fill in the missing parts if you'd experienced Los Campesinos' three superb albums-Hold On Now, Youngster, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed and, most recently, Romance Is Boring (all on Arts & Crafts). Even though none of the band members appears to be Welsh, they are the most recent in a short list of excellent rock bands from Wales that includes Badfinger, Man, the Alarm, Manic Street Preachers, Super Furry Animals and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci.

As expected from the country known as "the land of song" (and home of pop warblers Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey), Los Campesinos! puts a premium on intricate vocal arrangements. Their frantic instrumental sound has the nervous facial tic and crazy rhythms of New Jersey new wavers the Feelies as well as the bounding exuberance of Kiwi pop-punk legends the Clean and Split Enz. With such a pedigree (and more cooperation from the sound booth) you got the feeling as they began to wind things up with signature song "You! Me! Dancing!" that Los Campesinos! can't miss.

[Photo Credit: Jon Bergman]

Biggest news of the day, apparently.

By Blurt Staff

Pitchfork and other music blogs are reporting that Carlos D has left Interpol following completion of the New York band's new album. A note on the band's website reads, in part, "The four of us poured our collective heart into this music and we are very proud and excited to share it... After the completion of the album, Carlos informed the rest of us that he would be leaving the band. He has decided to follow another path, and to pursue new goals. This separation is amicable, and we whole-heartedly wish him great happiness and success. We will remain, as always, deeply respectful fans of this blazingly talented individual."

What this means for the future of the band - who add that they have some "new recruits" to take his place on the upcoming tour - is all conjecture at this point, although the very future of indie rock is... wait a minute. Someone leaving a midlevel band isn't news. Bono leaving U2 would be news. Bob Dylan having gastric bypass surgery would be news. This isn't news.

Sorry.

Online bass guitar school called, naturally enough, Funk University - aka F.U. - is opening for bidness. Funk don't funk around for nobody. Watch the video below, for proof.

By Blurt Staff

On July 1 classes will commence at the Funk University, the online bass guitar school created and curated by Bootsy Collins - you may have heard of him. If not, pull out a random James Brown, Parliament or Funkadelic record and take a refresher course. Then sign up for the bass courses at TheFunkUniversity.com. "The best day of my life was when I graduated from P.U.," said Collins, in  a statement. "The next best day of my life will be to see students graduate from F.U." As for the motivation of launching The Funk University at this point in his career, Collins remarks, "Funk don't funk around for nobody, so get funked up while you can."

According to F.U. materials, the star child is lead professor and has designed "an intense curriculum tailored for intermediate to advanced bass players as well as anyone interested in a deeper understanding of funk, and has enlisted a dream team of bass legends to serve as guest professors [who will be] teaching the techniques that made them immortal."

It's a virtual university offering fresh lectures, lessons and exercises on a daily basis. The first semester starts on July 1 with enrollment based on a first-come, first-served basis. Some details:

*In Bootsy's Lecture Hall, Bootsy will provide extensive lectures on funk, the bass, and his body of work, while the other professors articulate Bootsy's lectures with lessons and exercises on bass and rhythm inside the classroom areas.

*The library will house a wealth of multimedia learning content, from video and audio to gear tutorials.

*Staff reviews of students' performance will be conducted periodically, and professors will also hold office hours to answer students' questions.

*Bootsy will also be judging student track submissions as part of a series of regular school competitions.

Incidentally, There's a not-all-that-unexpected promotional tie-in here as well. Collins is also planning to release a new album in the fall titled Boot-Z Class University that features an all-star cast, along with the release of Bootsy's Signature Bass by Warwick.

Latest album from the Mod Father heads in an old school direction. Wake Up The Nation is due out June 1 from Yep Roc.

By Lee Zimmerman

As the self-ordained Mod Father, Paul Weller has frequently reinvented himself over the course of his career, from a young manic Pete Townshend wannabe at the helm of the Jam to the cocktail jazz stylist of the Style Council and, in a spiraling and ever-prolific solo trajectory, a refined elder statesman whose muse parallels the whole of British Rock. With Wake Up The Nation, Weller looks back to his beginnings, revving up his rock ‘n' roll instincts with undiluted enthusiasm. Initial listens suggest Weller's ready to shed added embellishment, and old school entries such as "Moonshine," "Wake Up Nation: and "Up the Dosage" offer all indication that he's embarking on yet another new direction. Likewise "No Tears To Cry" and "Andromeda" find him crooning soulful ballads spun from a classic template, yet another hint that he's intent on retooling his retro technique.

Still, psychedelic influences weigh heavily here, especially as the album approaches its peak.  The added haze confuses matters to a certain extent, causing Wake Up The Nation to come across as more of a bewildering brew than a straight set of songs. Still, with 16 tracks in just over 40 minutes, Weller's as restless as ever, making this one of Weller's most kinetic sets yet.

Who says this ain't news? It's ALWAYS news when Courtney's in town!

By Blurt staff

Remember how we mentioned in our roundup of reviews for the new Hole album the other day that Courtney Love was back on Twitter, having taken a vacation from @courtneylover79 (see a Twitpic archive here) but now coming back to the fold as @courtneylove UK? Yeah, we know... be very, very afraid.

Turns out those recent slowdowns at Twitter have been traced directly back to Love's new tweet regimen... kidding! But as Radar Online helpfully pointed out this morning, Love did go on a Twitter binge starting early this morning, sending out 62 tweets apparently trying to strike up a dialogue - thus far, one-sided - with her estranged daughter Frances Bean Cobain.

[Aside: must insert obligatory Nirvana and Kurt Cobain meta-tags here to maximize web traffic. Hey, at least we didn't bring up those Kurt Cobain early demos again!]

As Radar notes, "The theme of Love's posts seemed to be an open mother-to-daughter letter with Courtney simultaneously expressing her frustration at Frances, while giving her relationship advice."

Wow, no comment, other than to say that this is certainly a novel approach for a mother to take to regain custody of her daughter. We'll let a few of the tweets, copied below (in reverse order of posting, w/errors left intact; this is a good example of why people should not use their smartphones for email or Twitter as they wind up coming across as illiterate imbeciles) speak for themselves - go over to Love's Twitter page if you are so compelled, as she is threatening to delete them after she finishing chanting.

***

# im going to chant now ill pribably delete half of these but the boy stuff you need to hear only from me, wendy is too boycrazy. about 5 hours ago

#     and if as a MAN he doesnt treat you like the GOddess you ARE.  cut it, lastly i miss you more than anyone has ever missed anyone.so much. about 5 hours ago 

#     dont take any shit from that boy, and dont have an assnt as a bf, have a peer, if hes not a prince and a MAN he doesnt deserve you, period. about 6 hours ago 

#     again my deepest apologies for using twitter for fucks sake, i dont even use it anymore but i cannot trust 18 year olds to be accurate w you about 6 hours ago 

#     so at the very least please clear my name i dont think you . i know you dont want other people to think things that arent true. about 6 hours ago 

#     i pray everyday you will chant again, & find your way back to the law of cause & affect and be wise enough to see our karma  &transform it about 6 hours ago

# and again im extremely sorry to use TWITTER but i saw you holding hands in Coachella wich was coach HELLA for me, and my stomach turned. about 6 hours ago 

#     you shouldnt have to vye for him, dont dont dont stay with him if hes a beta, you need to be challenged, kept in line just a little. about 6 hours ago 

#     dont get him presents and dont vye for him, dont overtext( im very guilty of that one i think its a letter and its NOT they hate it) allofem about 6 hours ago

#     how shallow is he? how much is about you making him cool? NOTHING? awesome! dont buy yourself jewelry EVER. ive told you that. about 6 hours ago 

#     i know what kind of boy youve always liked, and im afraid of you falling into the trap of simply being worshipped and not having an equal. about 6 hours ago

# i love you soprry to take to the world wide ethernet but i love you and i dont know how to tell you without telling one of the pack , madly. about 6 hours ago

#     lets try and use judy so i dont have to fucking go on TWITTER. i dont even use this thing and im sure this will be in some bs news feed about 6 hours ago 

#     the last thing i lpok forewArd to in this life is any trial but im a good mother and i wont allow you to believe such nonsense so suit up. about 6 hours ago

#     i love you and i will fight for you i though if i bore up and was sxtrong for six mos youd get over it but obviously its just inflamed you, about 6 hours ago

#     sorry to state this publically but i wont stand accused of such implications or tolerate making 3 on worst mothers list. thanks to this, no. about 6 hours ago 

#     i hope he takes care of you and you look beuatiful even thoiugh you have an angry furrow i think thats called your "lawyer lie" furrow! about 7 hours ago

#     last of my twitter relapse, bean i saw you at coachella with isaihia in a pic he looks sweet and like your dad actually.hope alls well about 7 hours ago