December 1 at the Doug Fir Lounge, along with opening act Total Control, the noisy quintet raised a righteous racket.

By Tim Hinely

I wanted to get there early enough to catch Portland's Mean Jeans (Dirtnap Records) but did not make it. Arrived a bit after Total Control had hit the stage. This punishing 5-piece, who hail from Australia and feature members of UV Race and Eddy Current Suppression Ring, hit hard with a 2-guitar attack, a rock-solid rhythm section and a vocalist who actually emotes. At different points in their set I turned to my pal and stated "This song sounds like Mission of Burma!" or "This one sounds like Wire!" so you know they've got good taste.

After missing Thee Oh Sees last year as part of the Scion Garage Fest, I was hungry, starving even, to see them. They delivered the goods and quite mightily. The guitarists both wear their guitars up high (and probably have skirmishes in the van over who has more tattoos) and put their fingers in places on the fretboard that others have never dared to go. Meanwhile the two drummers gleefully whack away with broad smiles and the female keyboardist standing behind them holds it all together.  As far as I could tell they played songs mostly off of their two 2011 releases (Castlemania and Carrion Crawler/The Dream) and it all sounded superbly righteous. These five looked like they could've played ‘til sun up if the club allowed it, but alas, as the clock struck 12 it all had to come to an end. Catch ‘em before you (or they) die.

Released this week by Temporary Residence, the post-rock legend's entire oeuvre is ripe for rediscovery.

By Ron Hart

When Oberlin College students Jon Fine, Orestes Morfin and Sooyoung Park put their shared affinities for the likes of Scratch Acid, Big Black and Squirrel Bait in action back in 1986, little did they know the noise they would create as Bitch Magnet would not only inspire two generations of musicians but help provide the DNA for the supersonic sub-genre known as "post-rock" (even though the band scratches their head at the kooky term).

Shortly after relocating to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, joining the likes of Flat Duo Jets and The Connells in the Triangle region's burgeoning underground rock movement, the trio quickly set themselves apart from the scene at the time with their high wire act. They deftly balanced the rhythmic complexity of the post-hardcore they were devouring vicariously through such labels as SST and Touch & Go with a keen sense of melodic density that was all their own. The group even piqued the interest of one of their heroes, David Grubbs of Squirrel Bait/Bastro/Gastr del Sol fame, who joined them on tour in 1989 and performed on their 1990 swan song LP, Ben Hur before the band split up and moved on to form such acclaimed nineties acts as Seam, Vineland, Coptic Light and Walt Mink.

However, the influence the group has had on the last 20 years of modern rock is undeniable, inspiring such a wide swath of groups ranging from Superchunk to Sunn O))) with their unique brand of math-y aggression. "Probably more than any other band, Bitch Magnet sent me in the direction I took with the music I have tried to make," said Battles guitarist Ian Williams, who played with Magnet guitarist Jon Fine when he briefly joined Williams as a temporary member of Don Caballero in the late ‘90s.

Finally, after years of being out of print following the shuttering of their record label Communion (which also put out records by Jawbreaker, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 and Thrones, among others), the scholarly staff at Brooklyn Temporary Residence, Ltd. scored the rights to Bitch Magnet's back catalog. Just in time for their hotly anticipated reunion gig at All Tomorrow's Parties' Nightmare Before Christmas extravaganza in the UK the weekend of December 9^th (marking the first time the original lineup of the band has been on stage together since 1989), this eponymous three-disc anthology features remastered editions of the group's original three LPs: 1988 debut Star Booty, 1989's Umber and the aforementioned Hur. You also get more than a half dozen bonus tracks as well, primarily alternate versions of such key Bitch bangers as "Motor," "Joan of Arc" and "Sadie" among others. The packaging for this set is pretty damn cool as well, particularly the snatches of homemade concert flyers, bootleg cassette covers and live action shots that exist in lieu of predictable essays and liner notes from indie blowhards who think they know better.

Bitch Magnet - Mesentery by Big Hassle Media

Come, Polvo, Silkworm, Unwound, Chavez, Shipping News, June of 44, Tortoise, Mogwai, Rodan and Russian Circles are just a small smattering of the acts with whom the shadow of influence cast upon them by Bitch Magnet has loomed large over the course of the last quarter century. And this collection should be as essential to your listening rotation as your favorite album from any of the bands who continually drank from the unique brand of introspective intensity pioneered by these unsung heroes of indie rock's mean season.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Bitch is back.

Was a key member of John Mayall's group as well as a bandleader in his own right.

By Fred Mills and Rev. Keith Gordon

Longtime aficionados of the mid ‘60s British blues boom received sad news last week: drummer Keef Hartley died on Saturday, Nov. 26, from causes not yet disclosed. He was 67. Hartley had been a key player on the London scene as a member of the Artwords and later the massively influential John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, later going on to for his own Keef Hartley Band which over the years released five albums and also performed at Woodstock in 1969.

BLURT contributor Rev. Keith Gordon, of the popular Blues.About.Com blog, picks up the story in his obituary of Hartley:

"After the Keef Hartley Band, the drummer put in a brief stint with British rock 'n' soul band Vinegar Joe, appearing on their 1972 album Rock 'n' Roll Gypsies alongside singers Elkie Brooks and Robert Palmer. In 1973, Hartley would release his lone solo effort, Lancashire Hustler, with Palmer and Brooks providing backing vocals behind singer Roden, and the drummer would reunite with Anderson and former Artwoods bassist Derek Griffiths in the ill-fated hard rock band Dog Soldier, which released a single eponymous album in 1975. Hartley recorded and toured with Michael Chapman, and reportedly made a nice chunk of change for his (uncredited) playing on the soundtrack to the blockbuster movie Grease.

"Hartley disappeared from music in the 1980s, working as a cabinet maker and refurbishing recording studios. He released a biography titled Halfbreed (A Rock and Roll Journey That Happened Against All the Odds) in 2007, writing about his youth and career. In recent years, young blues-rock fans in both the U.S. and the U.K. have re-discovered the Keef Hartley Band, and virtually all of the band's albums have been re-issued. As both a bandleader and as part of Mayall's seminal Bluesbreakers, Keef Hartley's influence is inestimable."

Howlin' Wolf's guitarist was revered by several generations' worth of music lovers and innovators.

By Fred Mills and Rev. Keith Gordon

One of the great blues guitarists - and one of the last remaining links to the golden era of Chicago and Mississippi blues - has died. Hubert Sumlin, whose supple yet stinging licks powered scores of Howlin' Wolf's best-known songs, passed away yesterday, Dec. 4, at the age of 80. According to news reports, his death was from heart failure and he had been in a Wayne, NJ, hospital. It's also said that the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards had helped Sumlin out with some of his medical bills this year.

BLURT contributor Rev. Keith Gordon, of the Blues.About.Com blues blog, writes:

"Born in Mississippi, but raised in Arkansas, Sumlin taught himself to play guitar. At the age of 10, he fell through the window of a local juke-joint while trying to catch a glimpse of Howlin' Wolf's performance. The mighty Wolf allowed the young Sumlin to stay and watch the show, beginning a life-long friendship. Sumlin would form his first band with school friend James Cotton and guitarist Pat Hare, and they would perform on Howlin' Wolf's radio program out of West Memphis, Arkansas.

"When Wolf moved north to Chicago in 1954, he took Sumlin with him. After a couple of years of performing under Wolf's stern hand, however, Sumlin jumped ship to Muddy Waters' band, but after a year of heavy touring, he returned to back up Howlin' Wolf, which he would continue to do until Wolf's death in 1976. By that time, Sumlin had already recorded several solo albums, so he just continued in that direction, recording infrequently but touring constantly, appearing at blues festivals around the world.

"Sumlin won a Blues Music Award for his 2004 album About Them Shoes, which included guest appearances from friends and admirers like Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Levon Helm, Bob Margolin, and others. The guitarist was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2008. Diagnosed with lung cancer in 2002, Sumlin had a lung removed, gave up smoking and drinking, and went back on the road with renewed energy. A one of a kind talent, Sumlin's contributions to the blues are legend. He will be missed by family, friends, and his many fans around the world."

***

To add a brief personal note: yours truly was privileged to spend part of an afternoon with Sumlin in Charlotte, NC, in 1986. Local musician Sumner Burgwyn, along with Jim Kent, had made a 72-minute documentary on Sumlin titled Living the Blues (Juke Joint Productions), and the filmmakers were able to bring Sumlin to town for the film premiere. As music editor for the local alternative weekly in Charlotte at the time, I previewed the film and talked to Sumlin. Impeccably attired in a powder-blue suit and matching fedora, he was a gentle and gracious a subject as I'd ever had, casually fielding my fanboy questions about Wolf and other blues legends he'd worked with over the years. He was also happy to autograph some of my records, and even offered me a swig from the silver hip flask he would occasionally pull out from his jacket pocket and take a nip from.

I declined the whiskey, but now I wish I had accepted it. I mean, how many kids would be able to say they passed a flask back and forth with Hubert Sumlin? Rest in peace, sir.

Jam By Day concerts announced.

By Fred Mills

With BLURT being based in North Carolina - despite our extremely decentralized office structure, two of the editors as well as the publisher/CEO currently call themselves Tarheels - it's no understatement when we say that the annual Warren Haynes Christmas Jam, about to hit the #23 mark in Haynes' hometown of Asheville, NC, and as always a benefit for the regional chapter of Habitat For Humanity, is on of our must-attend yearly events alongside SXSW and Bonnaroo. The Jam happens this coming weekend, December 10, at the Asheville Civic Center, along with the invite-only pre-Jam Jam held the night before at local club the Orange Peel (which will be broadcast over the airwaves and internet, as usual, by our friends at WNCW-FM, starting Friday evening, Dec. 9, at about 6pm).

Joining the previously announced heavy-hitters (Haynes' band Gov't Mule, plus Phil Lesh & Friends, Los Lobos and Bela Fleck) at the Jam proper will be guests Mike Barnes, Jeff Chimenti, Bill Evans, Audley Freed, Jackie Greene, Jimmy Herring, Robert Kearns, Kevn Kinney, Brad Pemberton, Joe Russo and Jeff Sipe. Many of them will no doubt turn up at the pre-Jam Jam as well. The event, incidentally, sold out this year in record time, quickly surpassing ticket sales for all of its 22 predecessors.

In a recent story about the Jam, local daily paper the Asheville Citizen-Times cited a few choice numbers:

1988 - first year of the Haynes Jam

$5 - cost of ticket to 1^st Jam

$56 - cost of ticket to this year's Jam

$100 - asking price for ticket on Craigslist (eBay average is also about $100)

$950,000 - donated by the Jam to Asheville Area Habitat For Humanity

17 - number of Habitat homes built with Jam donations

Meanwhile, the organizers recently announced a slew of daytime events that Jam attendees and folks who weren't lucky enough to score tickets alike can check out. Those are listed below - to all our friends coming in from out of town, welcome to Asheville, and we'll see you at the Jam.

***

CHRISTMAS JAM ART SHOW @ THE SATELLITE GALLERY

55 Broadway Street, Asheville, NC

Photos & Art from Stewart O'Sheilds, Dino Perrucci, Allison Murphy, David Oppenheimer, Gary Houston, Steve Johannsen, Jeff Wood & Many More.

***

KEVN KINNEY'S ALL STAR ACOUSTIC JAM @ THE L.A.B.

39 North Lexington Avenue (music at noon each day)

Friday December 9th

Kevn Kinney

Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion

Granpappy

The Nova Echo

Velvet Truckstop

Ray Sisk

American Babies

Tall Tall Trees

Saturday December 10th

Kevn Kinney

Edwin McCain

Ray Sisk

The XL's

Thomas Wynn & The Believers

Jabe

Keith Gattis

***

THE EMERALD LOUNGE

112 North Lexington Avenue

Saturday December 10th

Doors: 12pm

Jeff Santiago: 1pm

The XL's: 2pm

Leroy Justice: 3pm

Velvet Truckstop: 4pm

***

THE ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL

31 Patton Avenue

Saturday December 10th

Tall Tall Trees: 1pm

Jackie Greene & Friends* : 2pm

The Nova Echo: 3pm

American Babies: 4pm

* Jackie Greene, Audley Freed, Jabe, Brad Pemberton, Robert Kearns & More

 Additional reading:

"20 Years of Xmas Jams" (from 2008)

"Warren Haynes Christmas Jam 2009 (from 2009)

"Feel Good Hit of Winter: 22^nd Haynes Jam" (from 2010)

Did he say, "urine-filled"?

By Blurt Staff

On the heels of completing their US tour in support of their fourth album, Deer Tick shares the "Main Street" music video, the first music video from Divine Providence. Having premiered the censored version of the video with MTV last Friday, the band now debuts the unedited, urine-filled, NSFW version.  Watch as the band rocks through "Main Street" while avoiding exploding fireworks, flying pieces of shattered instruments, and a burning music video set, directed by Colin Devin Moore.

As the BLURT reviewer put it, about the album, "Divine Providence apparently isn't a realm for the faint of heart, but those with the verve to vent their all may find it a welcome retreat."

Doing material from new album, natch.

By Blurt Staff

With El Camino due for release this week, the Black Keys got things started off with a pair of performances last night on Saturday Night Live. Yes, that's Steve "Nucky" Buscemi introducing "Lonely Boy" and "Gold On The Ceiling." Raise your hand if you can spot the T. Rex riffs... meanwhile, watch BLURT this week for Contributing Editor A.D. Amorosi's review of the Keys album.

New album Arrow will be accompanied by spring tour.

By Blurt Staff

Blurt faves the Heartless Bastards are giving away the lead single off their Partisan Records debut, Arrow, due out on Valentine's Day, 2012. They have also announced a national tour, which kicks off February 7, 2012 in Little Rock, AR, and ends in Austin, TX where the band will be performing at SXSW; spring West Coast tour dates will be announced soon. The single, entitled "Parted Ways" is available as a free download at www.theheartlessbastards.com , and meanwhile, you can listen to it, below.

Parted Ways by Heartless Bastards

Arrow, the followup to 2009's The Mountain, was produced by Spoon drummer Jim Eno at his Public Hi-Fi home studio in Austin. It features frontwoman Erika Wennerstrom plus drummer Dave Colvin and bassist Jesse Ebagh, plus latest recruit Mark Nathan on guitar.

Tour Dates:

February 2012:

7     Little Rock, AR @ Juanitas

8      St. Louis, MO @ Firebird

9      Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall

10    Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry

11    Madison, WI @ High Noon

13    Louisville, KY @ Headliners

14     Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall

16     Columbus, OH @ The Basement

17      Cincinnati, OH @ Madison

18      Indianapolis, IN @ Radio Radio

19      Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe

20      Toronto, ONT @  Horseshoe Tavern

23       Boston, MA  @ Middle East - Downstairs

24       New York, NY @ Webster Hall

25      Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer

27       Baltimore, MD @ Otto Bar

29       Charlottesville, VA @ The Southern

 

March

1          Chapel Hill, NC @ Cat's Cradle

2          Atlanta, GA @ The Earl

3           Nashville, TN @ Mercy Lounge

6           Birmingham, AL @ Bottletree

8            Fayetteville, AR @ George's Majestic

9            Fort Worth, TX @ Lola's

10          Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live

LP will come with bonus material on 7" single.

By Fred Mills

Back in the fall of 2000, one of the key indie releases was Sub Pop's Damon & Naomi with Ghost album - a hotly anticipated summit between the beloved pop/folk duo and the interstellar pharmacists of Japan's Ghost. Long out of print, it's now slated for an expanded reissue from Drag City on Jan. 31. It will be available on CD and LP, with the vinyl edition containing a 7" single of bonus material.

Explains D&N, of the project, "We first met the Japanese band Ghost in 1995; despite any language barriers, we understood one another immediately and soon became friends. We have since toured together in both the U.S. and Japan, and on occasion Ghost has joined us on stage to play our songs. After a show like this in Tokyo in the fall of 1998, we decided to record an album together.

"Over the course of the following year, we sent our new songs to Japan, and Ghost sent back ideas for production and arrangements. They also sent music for a new song of theirs, to which we added lyrics. Then, in the last days of 1999 and the first of 2000, Ghost came to our studio to record this album and celebrate the New Year, together."

While you look forward to that, check out a live-in-1998 cover of "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" by Damon & Naomi plus Ghost members Masaki Batoh and Michio Kurihawa.

"Paradise and So Many Colors" comes from forthcoming album Soul Retrieval.

By Fred Mills

Avant-songstress Larkin Grimm is prepping her fourth longplayer for a Feb. 7 release. Titled Soul Retrieval, helmed by legendary producer Tony Visconti and to be released on the delightfully-named Bad Bitch label, it's already yielded an advance single by way of "Paradise and So Many Colors." Very honored to be able to present it to ya right here at BLURT as a free pre-Christmas goodie:

01ParadiseandSoManyColors by Howlin' Wuelf Media

Without further delay, then, while you spin the tune, we'll let Grimm take over the narrative and outline the origins of the new record as well as explain some of the biological, geographical and cultural imperatives that inform her as a music-maker:

Larkin Grimm: "It began in a Moroccan hamam in cloudy Belgium. Muslim women came in from the cold, covered from head to toe in hijab, the curtains hiding the beauty of their bodies, the veil separating man from God.  I watched as they removed layer after layer, until naked they sang in the steamy room, washing one another and singing a song for a girl who was preparing her body for marriage.  I was reminded of the poems of Hafiz and Rumi, poems about secret gardens and transcendent thoughts.  Love poems to God, like the Songs of Solomon in the Bible.  Mysterious puzzles like the Zen koans of Japan.  These women were absolutely magical.  Then they finished bathing, and wrapped themselves up in layers of black cloth until they were invisible to the cold world outside.  Then they disappeared.

"I play music that grows out of the Appalachian folk tradition of my father.  This music is a form of storytelling.  I am young, but I was born before the internet, before Google and Wikipedia made all knowledge accessible at my fingertips.  In that time, there was a thing called World Music.  There were individual cultures making the music of their villages, their people, all separate, all around the world.  My father played the fiddle in the American South, in an idealistic commune isolated from all the rest, and that was all I knew.

"My story is a tragedy of broken ideals.  The hippie commune that I lived in was infiltrated by C.I.A. disguised as Russian Orthodox monks and it was destroyed from the inside amidst rumors of pedophilia and cult behavior.  I struggled to find community for the rest of my life.  I got into Yale, one of America's best schools, but found that it was rotten on the inside, an academic playground for the country's rich and powerful.  I railed against them.  I protested, got gassed and shot by rubber bullets in Quebec City, clung to trees in the Northwest, and looked for death in Alaska.  I struggled to communicate, and found my voice by singing.  I traveled, hoping to know the world.  I shook off my anger, embraced adventure, and picked up pieces of music from everywhere.

"The next time I was in a room filled with women, I was drinking a special rare tea from Peru which a gentle American herbalist had collected from a female shaman and a dying religion.  This was a ceremony called Soul Retrieval, gathering pieces of our soul that were lost when we betrayed our ideals.  There were no extreme hallucinations, no mind-blowing insights into the world, just an introduction to myself, and a conversation getting to know that inner voice some call the conscience.  After talking to myself for hours in a fascinating conversation, I drove home listening to Yma Sumac's Legend of the Sun Virgin.  I said to myself, ‘I would love this if it weren't so damn camp and cheeseball.'

"I got stranded in New York City when my Honda Civic broke down carrying five artists, two dogs, and several hundred pounds of sculpture headed for a gallery in Brooklyn.  I had always hated New York, but it is the greatest place to be without a car, so I gave my broken car to a Haitian immigrant and I moved in with a queer genius hoarder and his three cats in Spanish Harlem.  I sat down in a movie theater next to my hero, Lou Reed.  I got married to a fire-breathing, sword brandishing street performer.   I committed myself to the world by giving birth to a beautiful son, and I finally recorded my new album, Soul Retrieval, with the help of a man named Tony Visconti, who had previously helped David Bowie and Marc Bolan realize their musical visions.  Here it is."