Yeah, he's talking to YOU, New Jerseyites. As the saying goes - right on, Boss.

By Blurt Staff

Bruce Springsteen, fresh off being honored at the Kennedy Center this weekend (not to mention notching four Grammy nominations last week), issued a statement at his website this morning about marriage-equality legislation. We think it speaks for itself:

A BRIEF STATEMENT FROM BRUCE

Like many of you who live in New Jersey, I've been following the progress of the marriage-equality legislation currently being considered in Trenton. I've long believed in and have always spoken out for the rights of same sex couples and fully agree with Governor Corzine when he writes that, "The marriage-equality issue should be recognized for what it truly is -- a civil rights issue that must be approved to assure that every citizen is treated equally under the law." I couldn't agree more with that statement and urge those who support equal treatment for our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters to let their v

Jam By Day, Comedy Jam, Film Screenings and more...

By Fred Mills

Following up on our announcement of the 21^st Annual Warren Haynes Christmas Jam that takes place this Saturday, Dec. 12, in Asheville NC, some updates.

First of all, the Pre-Jam jam will take place the previous evening at Asheville's Orange Peel and it will be broadcast live by our good friends at WNCW-FM - you can tune in over the web at www.wncw.org starting around 6 pm EST. The Pre-Jam features many of the artists who appear at the Jam proper, but often it's the uncertainty of who actually arrives in town by Friday that helps make the Pre-Jam such a great musical wild card.

As things stand now, the performers list has been expanded somewhat recently, and there are always rumors of late adds to the lineup too (we've heard one particularly enticing rumor of a certain legendary guitarist who may turn up, but nothing confirmed as of yet). You can get full details at the official Xmas Jam website, but among those locked in to play are Counting Crows, Ani DiFranco, Gov't Mule,moe. and George Porter Jr., Eric Krasno, Nigel Hall & Adam Deitch with a "Very Special Performance"from William Bell of Stax Records fame.

Special guests slated to appear are Aerosmith's Brad Whitford, Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, Jeff Austin, Mike Barnes, DJ Logic, Jackie Greene, Col. Bruce Hampton, Jimmy Herring and Kevn Kinney.

"The Jam and collaboration possibilities are endless this year. Diversity and eclecticism is what helps make such a long show work," Haynes told WNCW. Anybody who's ever attended a Christmas Jam know that the former two terms remain operative - and that "long show" is, technically, an action verb.

This year Haynes has also put together an official "Xmas Jam Band" that will feature  Fred Eltringham, Audley Freed, Ron Holloway, Robert Kearns and Collective Soul's Ed Roland. In a recent interview with WNCW-FM, Haynes noted that they'd been tossing around the idea for a few years about having such an ensemble on hand to back up some of the artists who arrive solo in order to make the stage transitions smoother. In the past, for example, you'd typically have members of Gov't Mule plus a few other players pitching in for the likes of Steve Earle, Joan Osborne or Peter Frampton. So the Xmas Jam Band will now be a formal segment of the show.

As usual, the Jam is to benefit the local chapter of Habitat For Humanity, and this year they've come up with an official beer of the Jam - the Asheville Brewing Company created a special "Christmas Jam Ale" and profits from the sale of that will also go to Habitat.

Another recent tradition of the Jam has been the "Jam By Day" events going on around Asheville on Friday and Saturday. These are all individually ticketed so consult the Xmas Jam site for more info - you can make it an entire musical weekend, in other words. Here are the basic details:

Stella Blue
31 Patton Street
Fri December 11th
1:00pm - Sol Driven Train
2:00pm - Caleb Claude & The Bayonets
3:00pm - Moon Taxi
4:00pm - DJ Logic vs. Thunderdrums
Sat December 12th
1:00pm - Bloodkin
2:00pm - Cornmeal
3:00pm - Jennie Arnau
4:00pm - Eric Krasno, George Porter Jr., Adam Deitch & Nigel Hall

The Emerald Lounge
112 North Lexington Ave
Fri December 11th
1:00pm - Velvet Truckstop
2:00pm - Sons of Bill
3:00pm - Livingston Leo
4:00pm - The David Fiuczynski Group
Sat December 12th
1:00pm - Dangermuffin
2:00pm - Backyard Tire Fire
3:00pm - Col. Bruce Hampton & The Quark Alliance
4:00pm - The Jamie McLean Band

Jack of The Wood
95 Patton Street

A Very Special All-Star Acoustic Jam Hosted By Kevn Kinney
Featuring Performances By Anders Edison (Ed Anderson From Back Yard Tire Fire), Jennie Arnau, Back Row Baptists, Connor Christian & Southern Gothic, Col. Bruce Hampton, Ray Sisk, Aaron Lee Tasjan & Many More guests & surprises. These performers will be backed by a band featuring Rob Heath, Mark Stepro & Aaron Lee Tasjan.


THE COMEDY JAM
Funny Business Comedy Club
56 Patton Street


CHRISTMAS JAM BY DAY ART SHOW
The Satellite Gallery
55 Broadway Street
Open Friday & Saturday Noon-7pm (An Opening Reception Friday From 4-6pm)
The gallery will feature photos from Jay Blakesberg, Danny Clinch, Allison Murphy, Dino Perrucci & The Incredible Xmas Jam Portrait Photography of Stewart O'Shields. Art & Posters will be featured from Gary Houston, Steve Johannsen, Eugene Serebrennikov, Jeff Troldahl, Jeff Wood, & Many More.


CHRISTMAS JAM BY DAY FILM SCREENINGS
The Fine Arts Theatre
39 Biltmore Avenue
Friday December 11th
1:00 pm - REM: Live @ The Olympia | An REM Concert Film
4:00 pm - Icons Among Us: Jazz In The Present Tense
7:00 pm - Stark Raving Black | An Unreleased Lewis Black Concert Film
Saturday December 12th
1:00 pm - Please Call Home (Allman Brothers) - w/ a Q&A w/ Kirk West
4:30 pm - Captured

Teams w/Marvin Ayres for second album; has also been touring with reunited Curved Air.

By Blurt Staff

MASK are actress/singer Sonja Kristina, who initially came to fame with ‘70s prog legends Curved Air, and modern classical composer/producer/Cellist Marvin Ayres . Both are established innovators in music and performance; Ayres's album Cellosphere (Mille Plateaux) established him as a groundbreaking composer/producer. They are releasing their second album 'Technopia on r.a.r.e (Repertoire) Jan 2010 and will be performing in UK and Europe in April - May 2010. This is MASK's first release since their UK Top 20 Club hit single 'Waking The Dream'.

Sonja Kristina has been touring with the reformed Curved Air in support of the band's recent CD release Reborn (featuring two of Marvin's productions) and incorporating music from the first three classic Warner Bros Curved Air Top 20 albums, Air Conditioning, Second Album and Phantasmagoria.

In the summer of 2010 Ayres will be performing/touring his latest composition 'Harmogram' using 3D sound design, in association with Martyn Ware (Heaven 17/Human League), at major international festivals.

Accompanied by their band, this will be a rare opportunity for audiences to enjoy MASK's Technopia tour on their first European dates since 2005, playing London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm and Moscow along with other towns in the UK, France, Germany and Italy.

Imagine a post apocalyptic futurustic barren terrain, in which the MASK protaganists Jack and Virginia (from MASK's 1st album 'Heavy Petal') are ghostly lovers who reunite to revisit their darkly passionate relationship from the last volatile years of their past lives. Combining a musical sensibility of Bjork/Elbow/Sigur Ros/Bat For Lashes/Massive Attack, with the macabre darkness of Tim Burton, this theatrical and dramatic performance of MASK's music laced with stunning visual (Quadratura) and sonic effects will bring to life the album.

On the web:

www.myspace.com/maskuk
www.sonjakristina.com
www.myspace.com/marvinayres

No big surprises here... one list is hip and cool, while the other is, um, how the other half lives.

By Fred Mills

This morning NPR Music and online music retailer announced - separately - their best-of 2009 lists.

For NPR's "All Songs Considered" the venerable media outlet conducted a poll that yielded albums by Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective, Phoenix, Neko Case and Andrew Bird representing the five best of the year. That's pretty encouraging overall, but it should be noted that popularity polls frequently represent the tastes of a highly selective sampling.

Still, most of the NPR titles are on ours, too. Here's the top 25. The entire list, song samples, commentary and more can be found at www.npr.org/allsongs.

1.  Grizzly Bear:  Veckatimest

2.  Animal Collective:  Merriweather Post Pavilion

3.  Phoenix:  Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

4.  Neko Case:  Middle Cyclone

5.  Andrew Bird:  Noble Beast

6.  The Decemberists:  Hazzards of Love

7.  Wilco:  Wilco (The Album)

8.  Bon Iver:  Blood Bank

9.  The Avett Brothers:  I And Love And You

10.  St. Vincent:  Actor

11.  Yeah Yeah Yeahs:  It's Blitz!

12.  Regina Spektor:  Far

13.  M. Ward:  Hold Time

14.  The Swell Season:  Strict Joy

15.  Monsters of Folk:  Monsters of Folk

16.  The Dirty Projectors:  Bitte Orca

17.  Passion Pit:  Manners

18.  Various:  Dark Was The Night

19.  Camera Obscura:  My Maudlin Career

20.  Metric:  Fantasies

21.  Beirut:  March of the Zapotec

22.  The xx:  XX

23.  Bat For Lashes:  Two Suns

24.  Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros:  Up From Below

25.  Modest Mouse:  No One's First, And You're Next

Meanwhile, iTunes' "Rewind 2009" pretty much sums up the ACTUAL state of pop music, via consumers voting with their wallets, in America right now - predictable, safe, and boring. Seriously - Michael Jackson as Artist of the Year? And the Kings of Leon as the best selling album? We're in serious trouble folks.

Someone you know may have downloaded more than one item on the lists below, so blame them. The full list can be found at www.itunes.com/rewind2009

TOP-SELLING SONGS

1. "Boom Boom Pow," Black Eyed Peas

2. "Right Round," Flo Rida

3. "Poker Face," Lady GaGa

4. "I Gotta Feeling," Black Eyed Peas

5. "Gives You Hell," The All-American Rejects 6. "Just Dance," Lady GaGa & Colby O'Donis 7. "Party in the U.S.A.," Miley Cyrus 8. "The Climb," Miley Cyrus 9. "Dead and Gone (feat. Justin Timberlake)," T.I.

10. "Use Somebody," KIngs of Leon

TOP-SELLING ALBUMS

1. Kings of Leon, "Only By the Night"

2. Various Artists, "Twilight (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)"

3. Lady GaGa, "The Fame"

4. Taylor Swift, "Fearless"

5. Dave Matthews Band, "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King"

6. Michael Jackson, "The Essential Michael Jackson"

7. The Fray, "The Fray"

8. Jay-Z, "The Blueprint 3"

9. Eminem, "Relapse"

10. Black Eyed Peas, "The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies)"

EDITOR'S PICKS:

ARTIST OF THE YEAR - Michael Jackson

ALBUM OF THE YEAR - Kings of Leon, "Only By the Night"

BEST NEW ARTIST - Lady GaGa

BEST ROCK ALBUM - The Dead Weather, "Horehound"

BEST HIP-HOP ALBUM - Raekwon, "Only Built for Cuban Linx, Pt. 2"

BEST ELECTRONIC ALBUM - Fever Ray, "Fever Ray"

BEST ALTERNATIVE ALBUM - The Boxer Rebellion, "Union"

BEST POP ALBUM - Angel Taylor, "Love Travels"

BEST COUNTRY ALBUM - Taylor Swift, "Fearless (Platinum Edition)"

BEST R&B/SOUL ALBUM - Joe, "Signature"

BEST SINGER/SONGWRITER ALBUM - Grant Lee Phillips, "Little Moon"

BEST CLASSICAL ALBUM - Stile Antico, "Song of Songs"

BEST LATIN ALBUM - Zoe, "Reptilectric"

BEST JAZZ ALBUM (VOCAL) - Melody Gardot, "My One And Only Thrill"

BEST JAZZ ALBUM (INSTRUMENTAL) - Christian McBride, "Kind of Brown"

BEST SOUNDTRACK - Various Artists, "(500) Days of Summer - Music From the Motion Picture"

BEST CHRISTIAN & GOSPEL ALBUM - Hillsong United, "A_CROSS // The EARTH: Tear Down the Walls"

Now that's one roots super group... move over, Monsters of Folk!

By Blurt Staff

When Luther Dickinson, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Jimbo Mathus got together to make music, it certainly wasn't out of commercial consideration.  This troika of roots-imbued musical pros coalesced through a shared vision and consuming passion for the music of their forebears, most notably the Mississippi Sheiks, Memphis Jug Band, Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers and other practitioners of pre-blues era roots sounds. They dubbed themselves the South Memphis String Band. 

Home Sweet Home, their first album, out on Memphis International January 19^th, showcases their passion for the old timey tradition that is underscored by the group's name: South Memphis String Band.  South Memphis, of course, is that rough and tumble area of the Bluff City extending from downtown to the Mississippi border, and beyond.  It's where Stax Records as well as, literally, hundreds of churches thrived.  The sacred and profane, holy rolling and dice rolling, were cheek by jowl in old South Memphis and its modern day namesake reflects that ecumenicism quite brilliantly.  For Luther, Alvin and Jimbo, South Memphis is more of a musical state of mind than a specific geographical location.

They've been called a "regional roots music supergroup" but the alliance of Dickinson (from the North Mississippi Allstars and, of late, the Black Crowes), Hart (the Grammy winner who is as equally adept at thrash rock as he is at country blues) and Mathus (of the Squirrel Nut Zippers) is more like three good friends just putting it down in a very traditional way. Mathus explained, "Luther, Youngblood Hart and myself have been musical co-conspirators for over a decade. It is only fitting that we should come together with acoustic instruments and perform Mississippi music." 

Michael Hoinski, writing in the Austin American-Statesman witnessed what's so special about SMSB at a recent performance noting, "The American experience is the main unifier of this slap happy yet sureshot trio... Each player is principally a bluesman but also well-schooled in country, folk and gospel."

When asked about the subject matter of SMSB's repertoire, Alvin responds without hesitation, "Natural disasters, bushwackers, train songs..." Home Sweet Home's tune stack with songs identified with Gus Cannon, Blind Willie Johnson, The Mississippi Sheiks, Carter Family underscores that thought with titles like "Jesse James," "Bootlegger's Blues," and "Bloody Bill." The latter song, along with  "Worry  'bout Your Own Backyard" is an original but is reflective of the old timey ethos that, thanks to the Luther, Alvin and Jimbo, continues. Whether you hold a degree in ethnomusicologist or are just a person who is moved by authentic acoustic American music, Home Sweet Home speaks your language, in beautifully measured tones.  As Jimbo notes, "We decided the South Memphis String Band will never be in a hurry."

Home Sweet Home tracklisting

1.     Jesse James

2.     Deep Blue Sea

3.     Old Hen (3:23)  - Gus Cannon

4.     Worry  'bout Your Own Backyard 

5.     Things Is ‘bout Coming My Way

6.     Let Your Light Shine On Me

7.     The Carrier Line

8.     Bloody Bill 

9.     Eighteen Hammers

10.  Bootlegger's Blues

11.  Dixie Darling

12.  Home Sweet Home

In a new coffeetable book, that is, complete with collectible  tchotchkes and gee-gaws. Oh yeah, the text is pretty good.

By Fred Mills

You'd be forgiven for squinting a few extra times at the recently published Led Zeppelin: Shadows Taller Than Our Souls (It Books/Harper Collins) and its $50 price tag. With its deluxe, boxed set-styled packaging and gimmicky design - numerous fold-out pages; several "pockets" that house reproductions of concert tickets, programs, press releases, even a 2-sided repro of a 1975 issue of Melody Maker; not to mention the inclusion of an audio CD featuring a 1977 Jimmy Page interview for Trouser Press - one might imagine that Led Zeppelin: Shadows Taller Than Our Souls, written by veteran Seattle scribe Charles R. Cross, would turn out to be long on style, short on substance, just another instance of collector catnip published in time for the holiday shopping season.

Well, sure; there's definitely some of that going on here. Publishing houses aren't stupid, and music bios rarely hit the New York Times bestsellers' list anyway, so if there's a unique angle that can be exploited to drive sales - particularly when it's an artist or band like Led Zeppelin about whom, let's face it, there's not really anything new to say - why not?

Still, I initially looked somewhat askance at LZ:STTOS when it arrived. The last few years we've seen equally gimmicky, and pricey, volumes dedicated to the Velvet Underground (the recent The Velvet Underground: New York Art is, like the Led Zeppelin book, $50 - and if you spring for the "Deluxe Edition" it'll you back 300 bucks); John Lennon, Grateful Dead and Jim Morrison (The Bob Dylan Scrapbook, The Grateful Dead Scrapbook and The Jim Morrison Scrapbook, featuring Bob-, Jerry- and Lizard King-related facsimiles and interview CDs) and Kurt Cobain (Cobain Unseen, likewise, includes sundry artifact repros). The latter four, incidentally, have in common the design company Becker & Mayer whose specialty is "innovative, high-quality, illustrated books."

Book publishers have taken to calling the addition of memorabilia and tchotchkes to books "interactive features," a term which to most consumers would suggest something a bit more digital in nature than the overtly analog experience a book provides. But again, as with my comments in the second paragraph, above, why not? Your appreciation for these undertakings, and indeed, your willingness to go into hock to own them, is directly proportional to your obsession with the artist in question; the more casual - fiscally prudent; "sane" - fan is usually happy with a straightforward, well-researched and -written biography.

At any rate, LZ:STTOS is a handsome affair no matter how you pilot it, dotted with photos, record sleeves and posters that even many of the staunchest Zep fans probably haven't seen before. For example, one particularly candid B&W photo shows Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones in Boston 1969, standing in what appears to be a filthy tiled-floor corridor; they look... puzzled, or at least waiting for something to happen, with Jones holding a small zeppelin-shaped helium balloon. (Perhaps they were about to do a photo shoot?) Elsewhere, a 1980 European tour poster depicts a man in a military-styled jacket and flat-brimmed helmet gazing skyward: the explanatory text calls the iconic image "one of many never explained by the band," adding that it's one of the most collectible Zep posters. And of course there are tons of live photos, among them, a long shot of the band at Oakland 1977 on the outdoors Stonehenge-themed stage that the Bill Graham organization had built - no minor source of inspiration some years later to the mockumentary-minded folks behind This Is Spinal Tap.

Text-wise the book has heft, too. Cross' bonafides as a journalist and a writer are long-established - in fact, he previously co-authored the 1991 Zep book Heaven and Hell, and he's although got a couple of Kurt Cobain/Nirvana books on his CV - and here, true to his stated intention not to just rehash old, well-worn war stories about Led Zeppelin, he achieves, as he puts it, "a songs first" treatment of the band. Each chapter roughly concerns the making of and events proximate to a specific Zep album, with the first chapter detailing how the band initially came together and the final one covering the last tour and John Bonham's death through the subsequent reunions (Live Aid, the Atlantic Records' 40^th Anniversary bash, the December 2007 concert at London's O2 Arena).

At 98 pages and liberally decorated with visuals, LZ:STTOS isn't an exhaustive or definitive narrative and it doesn't pretend to be. Rather, it's an entertaining read that recaps the basic tale alongside a skillful and contextual appreciation of the music itself - while, of course, offering up a liberal dose of the aforementioned collector catnip.

Now available as a download from Merge, with physical CD coming in February. Open up those wallets, people - this is one that's important.

By Blurt Staff

If you've picked up the latest issue of BLURT you've seen our tribute to New Zealand legend Chris Knox, he of the mighty Tall Dwarfs, in which members of the Bats, the Clean and others offer their anecdotes and observations on Knox, felled earlier this year by a stroke. It's also got commentary provided by Knox himself to writer Jud Cost, who interviewed the man a few years ago. Cost also disclosed some of the details behind the forthcoming Knox tribute album, titled Stroke - Songs For Chris Knox that came out last month in New Zealand and arrives Stateside in February via the Merge label.

Merge, in fact, is already offering the album in download form at their website, where you can also pre-order it.

Fans can cheer the news, posted recently at Knox's blog, of his gradual-but-steady recovery along with a tracklisting for the 2-CD album, which is stuffed to the gills with a who's who of NZ and American indie rockers ranging from the Verlaines, the Chills and David Kilgour to Portastatic, Jay Reatard and Yo La Tengo. Full tracklisting is below.

And if the tracklisting don't sway ya - at Knox's official blog you can hear samples of most of the songs currently streaming. Go here and prepare to have the socks charmed off ya. (There's also a link you can use to order it from NZ in case you can't wait until Feb.) This is a tribute with meat on its bones, and it's for a good cause too, kids. Stroke, like the Sweet Relief (Victoria Williams) and Inner Flame (Rainer Ptacek) tributes before it, represents the music community rallying together for one of their own.

Tracklisting:

CD1 (Yellow Disc):

01 Jay Reatard: "Pull Down the Shades"
02 The Checks: "Rebel"
03 The Bleeding Allstars: "Ain't It Nice"
04 Peter Gutteridge: "Don't Catch Fire"
05 The Chills: "Luck or Loveliness"
06 David Kilgour: "Nothing's Going to Happen"
07 The Crying Wolfs: "All My Hollowness to You"
08 Stephin Merritt: "Beauty"
09 Portastatic: "Nostalgia's No Excuse"
10 The Mint Chicks: "Crush"
11 Jay & Sam Clarkson: "I've Left Memories Behind"
12 Sky Green Leopards: "Burning Blue"
13 Shayne Carter: "The Slide"
14 Pumice: "Grand Mal"
15 Hamish Kilgour: "Knoxed Out" *

CD2 (Black Disc):

01 Boh Runga: "Not Given Lightly"
02 Red&Zeke ft. Bill Doss and Neil Cleary: "Bodies"
03 Bill Callahan: "Lapse"
04 Genghis Smith: "Growth Spurt"
05 Yo La Tengo: "Coloured"
06 A.C. Newman: "Dunno Much About Life But I Know How to Breathe"
07 Alec Bathgate: "Glide"
08 Don McGlashan: "Inside Story
10 Lambchop: "What Goes Up"
11 The Mountain Goats: "Brave"
12 The Tokey Tones (and Friends): "Round These Walls"
13 The Bats: "Just Do It"
14 Will Oldham: "My Only Friend"
15 The Finn Family: "It's Love"
16 Jordan Luck: "Becoming Something Other"
17 The Verlaines: "Driftwood"
18 Lou Barlow: "Song of the Tall Poppy"
19 The Nothing: "Napping in Lapland" *
20 Tall Dwarfs: "Sunday Song" *

* bonus tracks

Free MP3 of the song available too - from Chomp album, reissued.

By Blurt Staff

Fresh off the DFA re-release of their legendary sophomore record Chomp - reviewed here at the BLURT site - PYLON has unearthed the original video for their single "Beep." Shot by the band and their crew on Super-8 and VHS in the early '80s, the video is a trippy is a glimpse into the Chomp-era Pylon on the road. 

"It captures pretty much what we were about at that point in time," said frontwoman Vanessa Hay. "We were a playful, irreverent bunch of artists who also happened to be musicians."  

Check out the video below, and nab an MP3 of the song while you're at it: "Beep"

Originally conceived as "video postcards" from Pylon's travels around the country, the music video for "Beep" documents the band as they traveled the US in the early '80s, stopping at skeevy hotels between shows, performing at venues large and small (including a Manhattan rooftop), and even paying a visit to the Reagan-era White House. Edited together by Pylon's Michael Lachowski, the video saw the light of day exactly once, when it aired on MTV's "120 Minutes." After showing up on MTV, the video was forgotten until it was re-discovered earlier this year, and is now available for public consumption. 

You can read a Pylon feature, "Everything Is Cool," featuring an exclusive interview with vocalist Hay at BLURT here.

[Photo Credit: Laura Levine]

Pylon - Beep from DFA Records on Vimeo.

Deluxe edition of Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space isn't available in the US but we still have a sneak peek at it for you.

By Fred Mills

While yours truly previously declared, in a review of Spiritualized's 2008 album Songs In A&E, that "the 21^st century hasn't been especially kind to Jason Pierce thus far" - citing myriad illnesses, band woes and creativity blockages the band's frontman had been going through, that album still signaled a clear, welcome return to form for the songwriter. I also noted that A&E, in all its sonic majesty juxtaposed with sinewy rawk, represented the studio effort that should have followed 1997's masterwork Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space.

Now fans get an opportunity for a reappraisal of that earlier record via a choice deluxe reissue, which as previously announced in this space comes in three formats: a super-limited Collector's Edition featuring twelve 3-inch mini CDs and two bonus discs; a Special Edition featuring the original album on one CD plus the two bonus discs (that is not as limited but will still be deleted eventually); and a standard, unlimited one-CD version. You can read more about the details, along with the complete tracklistings, here.

At the moment there does not appear to be a U.S. release scheduled, but in the UK it hit stores on November 30 and BLURT is lucky enough to have obtained a copy of the Special Edition. Watch our website for a full review later this week, but in the meantime, we thought we'd offer up a few initial impressions, preview-wise. View the artwork below as well.

Ø      The three discs and liner notes come housed in an outer 6" x 6" x ¾" box decorated with black and silver art that roughly corresponds with the white and blue art of the original release (instead of the front legend reading "1 tablet 70 min" it now says "3 tablets 180 min").

Ø      The album proper - presumably remastered from the original tapes, although no notations in the liner notes specifically say this - is additionally housed in a foil/blister packet similar to how the 1997 UK release was packaged. This means, of course, that if you're a totally obsessed collector, you'll automatically devalue the album if you crack open the packet. Sob! No bonus tracks on the album, but...

Ø      Discs 2 and 3 amount to a full 110 minutes' worth of bonus material, 18 tracks on Disc 2 (a/k/a Spiritualized SP 50) and 17 tracks on Disc 3 (Spiritualized SP 60). There range from a 7-song "suite" of sorts composed of the title track (including a gorgeous a cappella rendering of the "Can't Help Falling In Love" theme, the band sounding like a gospel choir backing Pierce's fragile lead vocal) and a pair of wild demo takes of "Come Together" (in different keys, no less); to a tingly recording of just the strings arrangement for "Broken Heart" that segues into the "vocal harmony/Angel Corpus Christi" version of the song and a spooky demo for "Cop Shoot Cop" that's immediately followed by a track labeled "Dr. John ‘The National Anthem'" (which is indeed The Night Tripper himself tinkling the ivories against the backdrop of noise that, on the original album, eventually grew so fearsome that it obscured his contribution to the track). Via the assorted demos and isolated backing tracks you begin to get a fly-on-wall perspective of what exactly went into the making of the whole record.

Ø      Those two bonus discs, incidentally, are pressed on solid black CDs, and they are housed in their own mini-LP styled gatefold jacket with track annotations.

Ø      The liner notes come as a fold-out insert and more or less duplicate the liners from the '97 release, although added to the myriad "instructions" and "precautions" related to taking a "dose" of Spiritualized is a short section outlining how the three "tablets" should be "stored." Hint: in a dry, safe place "where children cannot see or reach them." Pay attention, parents!

To be... continued...

Iconic indie guitarist had been praised as this generation's John Fahey and much more.

By Fred Mills

Philly-based guitarist Jack Rose, who came to fame in the ‘90s on the Amerindie underground via his work with ambient/drone/noise outfit Pelt, passed away on Saturday, Dec. 5. The apparent cause of his death was a heart attack, according to the Philadelphia Daily News. He was 38.

Word quickly spread over the weekend of Rose's passing, with music websites such as Arthur and Pitchfork.com singing his praises (Arthur posted a number of videos as well). Pitchfork additionally reported that Cory Rayborn of the Three Lobed label, for whom Rose recorded a number of solo records, issued a statement, saying, "Jack was a warm, caring person and was always a pleasure to be around. His larger than life spirit will truly, truly be missed even moreso than his inspired musical ability. Our deepest sorrow goes out to his wife."

In the 2000s Rose further elevated his profile and reputation as a steel string auteur via albums for Three Lobed, Eclipse, VHF, Tequila Sunrise and others, typically issuing records on vinyl and limited-edition CDRs. He frequently garnered glowing comparisons to guitarists such as John Fahey, Peter Walker and Robbie Basho, excelling in everything from folk, ragas, ragtime and country blues while demonstrating a strong maverick, experimental streak. He also worked with a who's-who of indiedom, including members of Charlambides, Cul de Sac and Borbetomagus. Rose was sometimes lumped in with the freak-folk movement - due, no doubt, to his appearance on Devendra Banhart's 2004 f-f compilation Golden Apples of the Sun - but as anyone who owns one of his records or saw him play can attest, Rose was a true American classicist for whom labels or strict genre was meaningless.

At the time of his death the Thrill Jockey label had already announced his signing to the label and plans to release Luck in the Valley on Feb. 23.

Rose will be greatly missed and we extend our condolences to his friends and family.