Feature film The Sentimental Engine Slayer will premiere Feb. 4 at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. View the freaky trailer below.

By Blurt Staff

While The Sentimental Engine Slayer is not the first venture as a director for the Mars Volta's Omar Rodriguez-Lopez -- he also created two unreleased films, 2001's A Manual Dexterity and 2003's Letters from Dystopia -- it is his first feature released to the public. Made on a relatively small budget using money borrowed from a close friend and Rodriguez Lopez's parents, the cast and crew worked diligently on location in El Paso, TX to bring the project to fruition.

The Sentimental Engine Slayer tells the tale of the overdue coming of age of a 20-something misfit named Barlam (played by Rodriguez-Lopez). Set against the backdrop of drug-addled suburban El Paso sometime in the not-too-distant future, Barlam's awkward transition from boy to man is as much the story of struggling to find one's essence in a world of stereotypes as it is an indictment of the distorted reality of family life in the disengaged 21st Century. For a more detailed plot synopsis, check out the film's IMDB page.

In between his work with the Mars Volta, producing Juliette Lewis and collaborating with the likes of Hans Zimmer, John Frusciante and Erykah Badu, Rodriguez-Lopez also found time to learn the craft of filmmaking, familiarizing himself with the process by way of producing two unreleased films (2001's A Manual Dexterity and 2003's Letters from Dystopia) in lieu of any formal training. The Sentimental Engine Slayer, is the director's debut feature release. Despite a virtually continuous commitment to the process of recording and touring with his various bands, Rodriguez-Lopez has managed to complete two more films since principal production on The Sentimental Engine Slayer wrapped in 2007; El Divino Influjo De Los Secretos (2008) and Boiling Death Request (2009) are both currently in post-production.

Found early this morning in the bed of his Memphis home.

By Fred Mills

Word is getting out that the body of Memphis garage-rock maverick Jay Reatard (real name: Jimmy Lee Lindsey) was discovered in his bed at his Midtown home early this morning, Jan. 13.  The Memphis Commercial Appeal reports that "family and friends" disclosed this information, and that the cause of death has not been announced pending an autopsy and a police investigation. The musician was 29.

Reatard's early label, Goner Records, posted a statement, saying "It is with great sadness that we report the passing of our good friend Jay Reatard. Jay died in his sleep last night. We will pass along information about funeral arrangements when they are made public."

Meanwhile, his most recent label, Matador, also expressed their sorrow in a statement that read "We are devastated by the death of Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr., aka Jay Reatard. Jay was as full of life as anyone we've ever met, and responsible for so many memorable moments as a person and artist. We're honored to have known and worked with him, and we will miss him terribly."

At this point any speculation is questionable, although the obvious thing to note is that Reatard had demonstrated some mildly erratic behavior in the recent past leading up to and following the release of his Matador album Watch Me Fall, so questions of a substance-induced death will certainly be raised. Back in October there was that incident when, following the conclusion of one leg of a fall tour supporting the record, Reatard's band quit on him, leading to some bizarre Twitters and his former bandmembers hooking up with Wavves.

Last month an Austin performance ended on a violent note when a pair of audience members jumped onstage to attack Reatard, although this wasn't specifically of Reatard's doing (although it should be said that he'd been known to deliberately provoke the audience). And then just two days ago there was that so-called beef he was havaing with Jersey band Liquor Store, which he alleged had slashed the tires of his tour van, leading him to post to Twitter, "I will give anyone a hundred bucks per tire that they pop on the band Liquor Store's van! Yes I'm serious." So again, speculation as to Reatard's mental and physical condition prior to his death will no doubt run rampant during this upcoming news cycle.

At any rate, it's a tragic loss of one of our most engaging and stimulating indie rockers. We recently featured an exclusive interview with Reatard in the print edition of BLURT and will be revisiting that tomorrow on the website in tribute to the musician. We'd also like to express our condolences to his family and circle of Memphis friends.

 UPDATE:

Numerous media outlets are now reporting, based on a note originally posted to the web by CMJ, that Reatard's death has been attributed to an overdose. CMJ wrote, "CMJ was told by an undisclosed source close to Reatard that he died of an overdose although according to a Matador Records representative an autopsy has yet to be conducted nor the cause of death determined." However, nothing has been confirmed as of yet.

Star studded event takes place Feb. 16 at Brooklyn Academy of Music.

By Blurt Staff

Details:

February 16, 2010
Gilman Opera House
Brooklyn Academy of Music
30 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn NY 11217
Tickets on sale January 12, 10am
For Tickets: 718-636-4100 or www.BAM.com

Radiohead's Phil Selway, the Police's Stewart Copeland, Pink Floyd's Nick Mason, Snow Patrol's Jonny Quinn, the Corrs' Caroline Corr, Elbow's Richard Jupp, Egyptian musicians Yehia Khalil and Mohamed Mounir, and Ghanaian drummer Mustapha Tettey Addy.

By Blurt Staff

Sudan365.org is a recently-established political action collective comprising "thousands of activists and supporters who are drumming for a brighter future for the people of Sudan," according to the organization's official website.

"Sudan is at a critical moment in its history. On 9 January 2010, Sudanese communities and activists around the world are joining together to call on international leaders to take urgent diplomatic action to prevent an escalation of conflict in Sudan that could lead to massive human rights violations."

In order to draw attention to the cause, the drummers of Radiohead, Pink Floyd, the Police, Elbow, the Corrs and Snow Patrol, along with Egypt's Mohammed Munir, Yehia Khalil and Ghana's Mustaffa Teffey Addy have set out to "beat for peace." You can view the video results below.

According to Britain's Guardian, "The initiative was conceived by Jamie Catto, a founder of One Giant Leap and Faithless. Catto worked with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Save Darfur Coalition to organise drumming events in 15 cities worldwide, including a demonstration in London opposite 10 Downing Street on Saturday.

"‘My personal connection with Sudan is my personal connection with humanity,' Catto told the BBC. ‘[Drums are] something anyone can join in with. Anyone can add a beat to show that everybody feels that making sure horrific atrocities and millions of murders don't kick off again in Sudan.'"

Celebrated Philly band turns to outside producer to craft autobiographical release.

By Blurt Staff

Dr. Dog has inked in an April 6th release of their Anti- Records debut, Shame, Shame. As a band that has traditionally built their spirited albums layer by layer in the undisturbed seclusion of their Philadelphia home studio, Dr. Dog realized that they would need to face the challenge of working in a professional studio and enlist the help of an outside producer (Rob Schnapf) if they were to continue their album-by-album evolutionary growth. The end result, as the label describes the new record, is the band's "most openly autobiographical release to date and peels back the layers of strings and horns of past albums to emphasize the raw immediacy of a tight unit honing their craft."

 Beginning January 27th in Troy NY, Dr. Dog will embark on a 10-week national headlining tour to premiere songs from Shame, Shame. Dates below.

The stylistic reference points of Dr. Dog remain on Shame, Shame but with a darker tone. "It's an album whose themes of doubt, confusion and unanswered questions are soothed by bright harmonies, taut guitar riffs and soaring melodies," says the band. "From beginning to end, Shame, Shame is a record destined to claim its place on the timeless margins, untouched by modern tastes and content to exist on its own terms."

Hey, we are all about timeless margins! Do the dawg, dudes.

Tour Dates:

January 27        Revolution Hall                    Troy, NY  *
January 28        Higher Ground                     Burlington, VT  *
January 29        Lupo's                                  Providence, RI  *
January 30        Westcott Theatre                 Syracuse, NY  *
February 1        Mohawk Place                     Buffalo, NY  *
February 3        The Pike Room                    Pontiac, MI  *
February 4        Turner Hall                           Milwaukee, WI  *
February 5        High Noon Saloon                Madison, WI  *
February 6        The Mill                                 Iowa City, IA  *
February 8        Waiting Room                       Omaha, NE  *
February 9        Rock Island Brewing Co.      Rock Island, IL  *
February 10      Case Western University      Cleveland, OH  *
February 11       Video Saloon                        Bloomington, IN  *
February 12       Newport Music Hall              Columbus, OH  *
February 13       State Theatre                       State College, PA  *
April 14               Lee's Place                           Toronto, ON
April 15             Blind Pig                               Ann Arbor, MI
April 16             Metro                                    Chicago, IL
April 17             Fine Line                               Minneapolis, MN
April 19             Belly Up                                Aspen, CO
April 20             Gothic Theatre                      Denver, CO
April 22             Neuroluz                               Boise, ID
April 23             Wonder Ballroom                  Portland, OR
April 24             Great American Music Hall   San Francisco, CA
April 25            Great American Music Hall    San Francisco, CA  **
April 27             Henry Fonda                          Los Angeles, CA  **
April 29             Santa Fe Brewing Company    Santa Fe, NM  **
April 30             The Loft                                   Dallas, TX  **
May 1               Emo's Outside                         Austin, TX  **
May 2               Warehouse Live Studio           Houston, TX  **
May 3               Majestic                                   Fayetteville, AR  **
May 5               Workplay                                 Birmingham, AL  **
May 6               Cannery Ballroom                   Nashville, TN  **
May 7               Headliners                              Louisville, KY  **
May 11             Paradise                                 Boston, MA  **
May 12             Paradise                                 Boston, MA  **
May 13             Electric Factory                       Philadelphia, PA **
May 14             9:30 Club                                Washington, DC  **
May 15            Terminal 5                               New York, NY  **

* With The Growlers
** With Deertick

Sri Lanka-born rapper/singer takes exception to NYC paper's purported stance on, er, Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, new album incoming.

By Fred Mills

Sometimes a travel feature is just a travel feature, Dr. Freud - but that isn't stopping the mighty M.I.A. from pulling the lens back way beyond its intended context.

In an article published in Sunday's New York Times, M.I.A.'s country of origin, Sri Lanka, is one among "The 31 Places to Go in 2010," tourist/travel-wise. Wrote the Times:

For a quarter century, Sri Lanka seems to have been plagued by misfortune, including a brutal civil war between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil minority. But the conflict finally ended last May, ushering in a more peaceful era for this teardrop-shaped island off India's coast, rich in natural beauty and cultural splendors.

As most folks who have followed M.I.A.'s career know, her father was a political activist for the opposition in Sri Lanka, and she named her debut album after him. Over the past few years she's also gone on record with sundry anti-Sri Lankan government statements.

So with a head full of steam, M.I.A. took to the celebrity tool du jour, Twitter, to voice her indignity at the Times travel piece - repeat, travel piece, and not an op-ed or politically themed article. Among the choice Tweets, accompanied by relevant (and admittedly gruesome) Twitpic images showing dead (presumably murdered) Sri Lankans:

http://twitpic.com/xqb4y - FUCK NEW YORK TIMES! DO YOU THINK YOU NEED TO GO HERE ON VACATION?

http://twitpic.com/xqcrl - HERE IS THE LUSH COASTLINE THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT

http://twitpic.com/xqarp - FUCK NEW YORK TIMES!!! http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/travel/10places.html

Mmm.... overkill. Repeat after me: T.R.A.V.E.L. P.I.E.C.E

Celebrities making asses of themselves isn't anything new, of course, and they do sometimes manage to direct people's attentions in directions they might not otherwise condider. So M.I.A. can comfort herself with the knowledge that even though, journalistically, she's a lightweight, at least with her Twitter screeds she's generated some additional food for thought on what's a pretty slow news day.

Looking forward to that new album, doll - don't worry, we still love ya - which, in a totally unrelated stroke of marketing, was announced just a few days ago and is slated for a summer release!

Sad news today from These Arms Are Snakes, who announced via Facebook (see their statement below) that they're calling it quits.

From The Band:
"It's with a heavy heart we tell you that These Arms Are Snakes is no more. It's been a great run and we'd like to send out a very hearty "Thank You" to everyone that we've worked with or anyone that we've toured with; anyone that lent us a floor, towed our van and/or trailer, lent a van, given us a listen, downloaded our records prior to their coming out, bought our shit, or asked us where our band name came from; everyone who cooked us food, made habanero-infused tequila, had a safety meeting with us, let Steve gyrate all over you, had to live with any of us, made us pay shitloads of money to get off your punk label, got us into LOST, found Steve drunkenly wandering the streets of Tokyo alone, played Madlibs in the van (plural nouns), lost money promoting one of our shows, took Chris to the hospital, put up with our drunken sorry asses, got into a fight with us, etc. etc."

This band could not have been possible without all of you. We sincerely thank you.

Much love,

TAAS

More cerebral bounce to the ounce than a barrelful of Tim Learys. Meanwhile, check out the zombie video below.

By Blurt Staff

American's greatest roving band of psychedelic lunatics the Brian Jonestown Massacre is back and set to release their tenth studio album, Who Killed Sgt. Pepper? on February 23^rd. The 13-track album was recorded throughout 2009 in Iceland and Berlin and features (speaking of psychedelia) Spaceman 3 legend Will Carruthers on bass, vocalist Unnur Andrea Einarsdottir and others pitching in to bring frontman Anton Newcombe's singularly unhinged vision to fruition.

Who, indeed, killed the good Sergeant? Only their hairdressers know for sure, but we're advised that this will feature "textures not previously heard on a BJM album... the band's most multi-cultured release to date -- featuring ambient Bhangra beats and gypsy influences of Eastern Europe music - while retaining much of the trademark style that The Brian Jonestown Massacre has honed since their inception in 1994."

Newcombe's own label, "a recordings LTD", distributed though Red Eye, will release the record.

The album also marks the return of guitarist/vocalist Matt Hollywood, an original member/co-founder of the band who helped write some of the BJM's classic material from their early albums (Strung Out In Heaven, Their Satanic Majesties Second Request, Take It From The Man, Spacegirl & Other Oddities, Give It Back) as well as penning the infamous dig at the Dandy Warhols, "Not If You Were The Last Dandy on Earth". Tour dates in support of the release will be announced soon.

Tracklisting:

Tempo 116.7 (Reaching For Dangerous Levels Of Sobriety)

Tunger Hnifur

Lets Go Fucking Mental

White Music

This Is The First Of Your Last Warning (Icelandic)

This Is The One Thing We Did Not Want To Have Happen

The One

Someplace Else Unknown

Dekta! Dekta! Dekta!

 Super Fucked

 Our Time

 Feel It

 Felt Tipped Pictures Of Ufos

Meanwhile, you gotta see this BJM video for "Lets Go Fucking Mental," retitled for obvious reasons, "Lego Fucking Mental". It was originally created by TomJoeTwins and Newcombe subsequently added music to it to give it, er, a completely new level of meaning.

Saving the world one record at a time: rock complacency marked for death.

By Fred Mills, Blurt Managing Editor

After Greg Shaw died in 2004, his former wife Suzy Shaw decided it was time to resume work on a project that had been back-burnered for two decades: to assemble a book chronicling her ex-husband's journalistic legacy and resurrecting crucial early writings of some of rock writing's greatest voices-among them, Lester Bangs, whose notorious Troggs screed "James Taylor Marked For Death" originally consumed a whopping 24 pages of Shaw's seminal publication Who Put the Bomp.

WPTB was one of the premiere rock fanzines of the ‘70s, aesthetic sibling to the likes of Crawdaddy!, Fusion and CREEM, and an oasis for kick-out-the-jams-minded fanboys and collectors who had little truck with corporate-hyped swill. Early issues featured the Bangs classic, stories on the Seeds, Flamin' Groovies and the rockabilly revival, and all manner of left-field minutiae (take the 26-point test to learn if you are a "rock and roll trufan"[sic]; point 13 inquires if "you squeezed Robert Plant's lemon"). When punk and new wave dawned, Shaw eagerly dived right in, doing cover stories on the UK punk explosion ("England's Screaming" blared the headline, over an image of a leering Johnny Rotten), power pop, the Ramones, etc., and foreshortening the mag's name to just Bomp!. Regardless of the coverage-Shaw's late-‘60s pre-WPTB zine Mojo-Navigator Rock & Roll News included-there was never any whiff of complacency. This was rock criticism as activism.

In the fall of 2007, Suzy Shaw, along with author/Deviants frontman Mick Farren finally completed the first phase of anthologizing the Greg Shaw oeuvre with the book Bomp!: Saving the World One Record at a Time. For the handsome, hardcover coffee table volume they culled the best features as direct reproductions so one could see exactly what the magazine's pages looked like, right down to the typos, the quirky layouts and the close-ups of Joey Ramone's ripped jeans. The editors also penned fresh essays and added unpublished photos to contextualize Shaw and his magazine as both evolved with the times.

Now Shaw has returned to the Bomp! well with a second volume, Bomp! 2 - Born in the Garage, this time assisted by Mike Stax of Ugly Things zine fame. Elsewhere on the BLURT site today our right Rev. Keith A. Gordon flips through the Bomp! pages and offers his reflections on what the magazine and Greg Shaw represented - "unbridled passion," for starters, something we could use a helluva lot more these days as the print milieu continues its decline and snarky celebrity-centric navel gazing tries to pass for music journalism.

By way of my own tribute, let me add this anecdote. In 1974 Shaw also launched Bomp! Records and along the way he had a hand in the careers of Stiv Bators, Flamin' Groovies, Plimsouls, Warlocks, Black Keys and others. I eagerly snapped up anything that bore the Bomp! imprint. But whether he was writing about music or releasing it, his overriding manifesto was saving the world one record at a time, and that was the type of approach that a lot of us who started our own zines or our own labels back in the ‘70s and ‘80s took too.

I'll never forget the time I wrote Bomp! for back issues and included a note to Shaw telling him that I had started working on a punk fanzine and asking if he had any advice. Boy, did he ever - most significantly, he said that you have to do it because you love the music and not because you want to get rich or famous. (Getting free stuff in the mail, however, he added, was a nice perk.) That's been a guiding principle for me ever since.

Later, around 1984 I devoted an issue of my zine to the world of underground music magazines and the people who published them, and Shaw was one of the first people I contacted. At the end of the interview he reaffirmed all the forgoing, observing, "I don't find much essential difference in producing a magazine or producing an album. It's our shared opinions, expressed through records or writing, that it boils down to."

Of course, we STILL haven't gotten a new album, despite the reunion and word the band has done some subsequent recordings. Early video posted below.

By Jose Martinez

Catalysts of the emerging ‘70s era glam scene, England's Roxy Music influenced an entire generation of musicians. Some devotees that sing the band's praise in this documentary include U2's Bono, Duran Duran's John Taylor, Siouxsie Sioux, Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols, Goldfrapp, and Nile Rogers.

Steve Jones even dares states that he likes them better than The Beatles seeing they were a band of his generation.

One word they all use to describe the daring sound of Roxy Music, the brainchild of fashion conscious performer Bryan Ferry, is "glamour." From first seeing the band on Top of the Pops, a young Paul Hewson (who would eventually become Bono) was struck by the band's provocative look and sound.

Emerging to instant acclaim in 1972, Roxy Music effortlessly mixed a dazzling fusion of musical styles with fashion. This 50-minute documentary (along with nearly 40-minutes of bonus footage) that originally aired on BBC4 in September 2008 tells the story of the band's extraordinary career via new and rare interviews with band members Bryan Ferry, Andy Mackay, Phil Manzanera, Paul Thompson, famed producer Brian Eno, and Eddie Jobson, along with contemporaries and artists inspired by Roxy Music.

Essentially a five-piece band with ever-changing guest bass players, Roxy was recently chronicled on the DVD More Than This: The Story of Roxy Music (Eagle Vision/Eagle Rock Entertainment). It follows the group from its early days with Eno, who was a member for the first two records (funny enough his favorite Roxy Music release is Stranded, the band's third effort).

The documentary examines the group's groundbreaking and influential album covers (works of art that never included band members), as well as the story behind their wonderful cover of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy," to 2001's reunion; 18 years after the band ceased recording and touring.

An art-minded group that covered the gamut of styles and genres, from cutting edge to disco to lush and borderline adult contemporary, Roxy Music still has a legion of fans today that are passionate about the avant-garde sound of tracks like "Re-make/Re-model" and "Virginia Plain" to the simple and elegant sound of "Avalon" from the band's final 1982 studio release.