Album arrives Dec. 1 via Heyday label.

By Blurt Staff

Marty Willson-Piper (of Australian legends The Church, of course) and Dare Mason - duo-wise, aka Noctorum - are set to release their third collaboration. Honey Mink Forever, recorded at the VIP Lounge in Penzance, Cornwall. It drops Dec. 1 via Heyday Records

The pair grew up together in the North West of England close to Manchester and Liverpool spending their teenage years on the Wirral Peninsula between Liverpool and North Wales. The former's tenure with The Church is augmented by work with England's All About Eve and Aussie punk legends The Saints, while Mason has an extensive CV as a producer/ engineer working with Queen, Prince, David Sylvian, Ravi Shankar, Paul McCartney and a whole host of different kinds of artists. He has also recorded and released two ambient albums.

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As the label informs us, "Together they make a musical stew of diverse ingredients, happily genre-hopping from Pink Floyd-esque epics, to rock, folk and pop, even jazz rock. The ten tracks are invariably richly harmonic and melodic but can also be dark and aggressive. Always lyrically intriguing with stories of woe, love, fantasy and down to earth songs of reality, Noctorum will take you on a journey outside of yourself, inside of yourself and everywhere in between."

Amen to that. Here are some links to keep you busy:

Heyday Records: www.heyday.com  
Noctorum Reverb Nation www.reverbnation.com/noctorum

Noctorum Facebook www.facebook.com/Noctorum

Noctorum MySpace www.myspace.com/noctorummusic

Jamaican-born musician was a hugely influential figure on the late ‘80s and early ‘90s rap scene.

By Fred Mills

Rapper Heavy D - born Dwight Arrington Myers - passed away yesterday, Nov. 8, in a Los Angeles hospital emergency room. He was 44. He had collapsed on a walkway at his Beverly Hills home following a shopping trip; complaining of being unable to breathe, he  was rushed to the hospital after paramedics arrive. No official cause of death has been announced yet, although some media sources have indicated it was from a heart attack.

As the larger-than-life, 300-pound frontman for late ‘80s outfit Heavy D and the Boys, Myers was at the forefront of the pre-gangsta rap hip-scene, notching numerous hits including 1989's huge-selling Big Tyme. He subsequently embarked upon a solo career as well as forays into film and theater (he has a small role in the current Ben Stiller-Eddie Murphy vehicle Tower Heist. He also worked as a record label executive.

In 2009 his album Vibes was nominated for a Grammy. Most recently, last month he appeared at the BET Hip Hop Awards.

Read an excellent 2009 interview with Heavy D here.

"White Light White Heat" takes the UK by storm...

By Fred Mills

While it's true that the Lou Reed/Metallica collaboration  Lulu  isn't exactly charming the critics out of their trees - our own reviewer awarded it 2 out of 10 stars in his in-depth review - if the point of any p.r. campaign is to draw attention to a project, one could call Lulu a raging success. There's been more print and online commentary about the summit that pretty much any other entertainment event this year, including the Kardashian wedding and aftermath. (See the new print issue of BLURT, now on newsstands, for our interview with Reed and Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich.)

Anyhow, last night the rockers appeared on the UK television show Later with Jools Holland, performing "Iced Honey" from Lulu and, drum roll please, the Velvet Underground skronk/punk classic "White Light White Heat." Regardless of what people think of the album itself, it's pretty hard to take issue with the in-your-face physicality of the two musical camp's mind-meld...

Prepare to be rick-rolled...

By The Grinch

While we can't exactly say that we are anxiously awaiting Disney's The Muppets arrival in theaters Nov. 23 - the notion of otherwise enjoyable chanteuses like Feist and Joanna Newsom contributing to the soundtrack hasn't been a source of thrills, cheap or otherwise, either - it's hard not to be intrigued by the news that the movie will feature a cover of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

The track hit the internet yesterday, with entertainment blogs like Stereogum and Idolator posting the YouTube-sourced audio clip. Sadly, before too many could get to hear the tune it had received a takedown order and it now displays a "this video has been removed by the user" notice.

Presumably all of you reading this will now be flocking to the theaters in a couple of weeks to get your Nirvana fix, but in the meantime we found a semi-fun clip on YouTube that some enterprising soul posted awhile ago. It's not the new version of the song, but rather Nirvana's original music with some Muppets "concert action" clips flown in. As a bonus, you can also check out the classic Rick Astley varshon....

Initial release arrives next week from Jeremy Dubs.

By Fred Mills

In search of "the next big new sexy thing," Frank Black (of the Pixies) is starting up his own record label, The Bureau, with initial releases slated to come from Eric Drew Feldman (Captain Beefheart) and Jeremy Dubs - plus, presumably, some of Black's side projects.  (He's currently signed to Cooking Vinyl.)

Speaking to Britain's The Guardian, Black explained, "I wasn't planning to start up my own record label. I hope I get invited to some really intense high-end parties... "It started out as just a website [to sell merch from],  an office for my assistant. For fun, we called the office The Bureau. In the most rudimentary way, it started turning into a record company. It was just a gradual making it up as we go along."

He added that he envisions the label as an additional outlet for him and not a replacement for Cooking Vinyl. "More traditional record companies find it a little overwhelming that I come up with another record every nine months... Running a label today isn't that different than at any other time. There's less money floating around, but I think it's a good thing. I think it's more honest ... It just puts the pressure on everybody to be good. "We're really open to hearing demos from bands or performers, wherever they are and whoever they are ... I'm scouring the landscape, just like Columbia and Sony."

Coming up first on Nov. 18: an album of Nilsson covers from Dubs, followed by a record from Knife and Fork (Feldman plus Laurie Hall), and then next year a live album by Frank Black and the Catholics recorded in Europe in 2000.

The Good, The Bad and the Slayer: the final day, Nov. 5, 2011

Photos/Text by Michael Passman

There were afterparties on Saturday night, but mostly for bands that were playing the next day.  Luckily, it rained a little bit overnight, so the dust was minimal, and the sky was grey and the temp was in the low ‘70s, so it was a nice T-shirt day. [Go here to see our coverage and photos of day one, and here for day two.]

The last day of FFFF opened with Austin's OBN III's on The Black Stage.  If you wanted raunchy, Stooges based punk, you had to get up early and get your tired ass down to Auditorium Shores and get your rock on!   These guys have been around about a year and are a really tough act to follow that have gained a lot of attention lately, so it would be no surprise to see them playing a later slot next year if they play again.

Orville Bateman Neeley III of The OBN III's

The followup had to be something noticeable.  San Juan, Puerto Rico's Davila 666, current darlings of In The Red Records came next.  With seven members and names like Miss Davila (a dude who looks like a dude and just has the name), AJ, Sir Charles, San Pablo, Johnny Oitis, Gigi, and Panda, the self described Menudo On Drugs invented a punk rock stage party with a sound that's loud, dirty, but also super catchy garage rock that can't be missed.

Panda of Davila 666

AJ and Gigi of Davila 666

The driven, intense hardcore and thrash of the previous day on The Black Stage was replaced by all things garage, at least for part of the day.  After a brief set from San Francisco hardcore act Ceremony, their local cohorts, performance garage pop/punk act No Bunny followed in a celebration of all things rock ‘n' roll.  Fun, loud, silly, definitely ugly, and a little Chuck Berry thrown in, too.

Nobunny

Jason "Elvis Christ" Testasecca, Nobunny, Danimal, and Touchy Tony of Nobunny

The Zero Boys followed up Nobunny with a no frills, straight ahead, three chord set that was probably the most basic and simple form of 80's punk.  In nearly 30 years, it seemed the Indianapolis quartet best known for surprising everyone with a sound so well polished and focused that epitomized Reagan era punk themes like social alienation and the bomb.  This was a "We're gonna show you how it's done" moment.  The punks got schooled!

Paul Mahern of The Zero Boys

Terry Hollywood of The Zero Boys

In between all the mayhem of music on four stages that lasted 10 hours for three days, there was an assortment of trailer food ranging from Aussie pies to shakes to Thai BBQ on a stick, Smart Cars, Sony Playstations, some larger corporate sponsors, and El Camino park, and wrestling matches!?  Ah.  Then there was the wedding of FFFF regulars Page King and Stephen Hart, officiated by Henry Rollins, then serenaded off in a golf cart festooned with strings of empty Tecate cans by The Sexy Sax Man, Sergio Flores.  Cangrats, you two!

The Happy Couple

Then this - Ted Leo - happened:

Next up was Melbourne, AU act Architecture in Helsinki that came ready to light up the surprisingly early night sky since the clock was set back an hour that morning, both musically and visually. 

Architecture in Helsinki

It was back over to The Black Stage for Boris.  Imagine an artsy version of Guitar Wolf with a female singer/guitarist and lots of dry ice.  Oh, yeah.  A gong!

Boris

The Black Lips were up next.  They're loud and fun, very psych, but still mostly fun.  People have a tendency to get naked at they're shows.  I'm glad I missed that. 

The Black Lips

I really wanted to stay for the whole Black Lips set, but I couldn't.  Slayer was getting ready to come on in 15 minutes and half a mile away.  I'm not a metal fan.  I wanted to see it, but I had no expectations.  A huge white curtain was up in front of The Orange Stage.  The Lords of Darkness have secrets, you know.  The curtain fell to an obscene flood of fog, lights, and the blistering sound that can only be Slayer

Slayer

It was only South of Heaven.  The scene was a huge mass almost overpowering The Hell Hounds and breaking open The Gates of Hell.  A few lucky souls got through, only to be pushed far back into Purgatory for their transgressions.  For one and a half hours, everyone came over to The Dark Side and worshipped in The Fires of Metal.  The Overseers smiled.

That was nearly it, but a little trek over to The Black Stage had Blonde Redhead.  The calm, shimmering dreampop was a lush nightcap to an amazing weekend.

Bah. Humbug.

By The Grinch

No, believe it or not, some of us do NOT adore the Muppets. Or Sesame Street. Or friggin' hairy little puppets, for that matter. Especially when paired up with otherwise sentient musicians who should know better, and instead bear down on their own music.

But there you have it... not everyone has good taste. Not even Joanna Newsom and Feist, who have contributed to the soundtrack of The Muppets film. You can listen "Muppet Show Theme" featuring vocals from Newsom at Stereogum, or "Life's A Happy Song," with Feist, below:

Oh, and btw, in case you were wondering - nope, we have not reserved our tickets for the film via Fandango. Yet. Also contributing to the soundtrack will be Andrew Bird and Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords. (Thanks to Pitchfork and Stereogum for the, uh, tips.)

The Good, The Bad and the Dirty: opening day, Nov. 4, 2011

Photos/Text by Michael Passman

Fun Fun Fun Fest (FFFF) is like the early Lollapalooza.  It's big, and there's all sorts of weirdness going on.  Lollapalooza captured mainly alternative college rock.  Now, almost every genre of music is alternative!  FFFF mixes puts everyone from techno to hip hop to punk, death metal, comedy, and back again into four stages that run from noon to 10.  The organizers have had so much fun the past five years with acts like The Cynics, The Gories, Dead Milkmen, Weird Al, and other assortments of happy mayhem that they couldn't leave well enough alone, so they moved to a bigger outdoor area and added an extra day this year just in case you couldn't get enough in two days of tacos and beer.

Starting Friday afternoon, people descended upon Austin's Auditorium Shores, gathered together, and witnessed great afternoon shows.  Everywhere one's ears pointed, one heard music.  Americana rockers The Heartless Bastards gave a great performance in the afternoon sun to a large crowd for a Friday Afternoon. (Go here to see our report from Day 2.)

1 PIC: Heartless Bastards, 11/4/11, Orange Stage

A slight trip over to The Blue Stage caught me with YACHT doing a pretty impressive cover of The B-52's Mesopotamia.  It was a nice little treat, but a good illustration of what one finds at FFFF.

2: PIC  YACHT

Poppy alt. rock darlings The Thermals followed up and gave a performance that encapsulated Austin's Live Music Capitol of The World Title with the looming high rises and the late afternoon sun behind them. 

3 PIC: The Thermals, 11/4/11, Orange Stage

But let's face it: Rock ‘n' roll is not only a dirty sound, but a dirty business.  It was only fitting that the first two days of FFFF take place in a dust storm.  I switched from the more open, breezy sounds and the skyline view of The Orange Stage to head over and check out the raunchier sounds of The Black Stage, which was all the way across the park.  The Black Stage?  You get the picture.  This is what I encountered:

4 PIC:  Security in dust, 11/4/11 the Black Stage

The raunchy, low fi garage rock of Ty Segall, Followed by the similar but heavier psych leanings of The Oh Sees were loud enough to pierce through the ever growing dust rising up from the pit and going in every direction.  The Oh Sees front man John Dwyer gave an always amazing performance with his green Burns 12 string sitting just below his neck.

5 Pics: John Dwyer

The sunset came later on the orange stage with the soft light fading while the stage lights slowly came up During Okkervill River's uptempo folk/rock.  It seemed like they took the honor of opening the evening and FFFF itself for the growing number of people just entering the festival gates.

6 Pics: Okkervill River

I wandered then back to The Black Stage to catch Seattle punk legends Murder City Devils, who never disappoint both in quality and volume.  They had a fabulous, loud, raucous, and crowd pleasing set.  It was especially surprising to see vocalist Spencer Moody have such a powerful presence as a punk frontman given his ginger beard and lumberjack wardrobe.  They were really, really tight.  The whole band seemed more in sync with each other than most bands I've seen.

7 PIC:  Murder City Devils

The evening was to end with Passion Pit, Danzig Legacy, and Public Enemy on three of the four stages.  Neither Danzig nor Public Enemy allowed photos.  Public Enemy started off a little shaky, but got better as the evening progressed.  It was a good thing they did.  Many people wandered over to see them from the pathetic performance and now legendary drama of Danzig and found out what punk was all about.  In case you're wondering, Danzig's prima donna antics from the onion soup to the heaters to the deathbug whining can be read in many other places by now.  I'm not giving him any more mention, or press.

The sound at Auditorium Shores ends at 10pm sharp, but the night was young.  I caught a stellar performance from Austin natives Spoon at Club 501, where they performed a nice chunk of their more rocking, older material.

8 PIC: Spoon.

It's hard to catch Spoon at a small venue anymore, so the moody lighting and feel of the  place made the performance special, and the band felt it.

9 Pic: Spoon

It was midnight.  I headed over to The Beauty Bar to catch the legendary Mister Rhythm himself, André Williams.  He took the stage with his touring act and a few burlesque dancers.  When we heard "Hey Mother Fuckers!" and shouted it back, we knew we were in for a treat. 

10 PIC: Andre

André and his band were tight, fierce, and dripping with hot soul stinking nastiness.  After all, that IS André Williams!  It was a much younger crowd than usual for him, but as expected, he made converts right and left.  It was a sight to see and hear the whole crowd, mostly of twenty something girls singing the chorus "Pussy stank, but so does marijuana!" like the knew it!

11 Pic: Andre 2

The Good, The Bad and the Damned: day 2 in Austin, Nov. 5, 2011

Photos/Text by Michael Passman

Fun Fun Fun Fest '11 opened up with a blast.  The dust didn't settle for Day Two.  It kicked up.  Luckily, sponsors both large and small gave out bandanas to make a scene somewhere between Straight To Hell and Sandanista.  Unfortunately, no such thing exists for cameras. 

For those who skipped the late night festivities from Friday or were able to get up and nurse themselves to life with Topo Chico and tacos, they were treated to the likes of Shapes Have Fangs, Blackie, and Future Islands.  T-Bird and The Breaks hit The Blue Stage at Two with a rousing, high energy, set of swingin' soul that got the crowd moving. (Go here to see our report from Day 1.)

1.  T Bird and The Breaks: Blue Stage

Later that afternoon on The Black Stage, ‘80s death metal men Dead Horse reminded everyone it's never too early to put in earplugs with a furious set of guitar thrash and pounding drums.

2:  Dead Horse: Black Stage

Chamber pop darlings Ra Ra Riot took the Orange Stage a half mile or so away shortly afterwards and wowed the now almost awake afternoon crowd.

3:  Ra Ra Riot: Orange Stage

Going on simultaneously was Cold Cave on the Blue Stage and Johnny Pemberton on The Blue Stage.  With things in full swing Saturday and a much larger crowd, it was harder to navigate as easily, but I got back over to The Black Stage to catch Paint It Black, which felt like an ‘80s hardcore punk show, despite the large stage, the growing dust, and the lingering aroma from Danzig's prima donna antics the night before with Den Yernin's intensity and readiness to bring the wall down between the stage and the devoted crowd. 

4: Paint It Black: The Black Stage

5: Dan Yernin uniting with the crowd, Paint It Black: The Black Stage

A hurried jaunt back over to The Orange Stage brought Girls, a slower tempo Cali act known for songs of love, heartbreak, and pizza.  The mic stands and organ were fully adorned with fresh flowers, the back up singers grooved, and I'm always a sucker for a Rickenbacker guitar.  Co-lead Christopher Owens strumming on his Maple Glo was a little personal treat for the weekend.

6:  Girls

7. Christopher Owens, Girls

Before I knew it, it got late.  It was time for '77 UK punk legends The Damned!  They took The Black Stage at nine and owned it and the crowd from start to finish.  The Damned have gone back and forth over the past 15 years from small to mid size clubs.  I've seen them in both in the late ‘90s.  Despite their always semi goth leanings, they felt like a punk band stuck in a goth club, and looked that way, too.  The addition of an keyboard player and Dave Vanian's return to his true inner showman brought the crowd to life.  There was a home for everyone during songs like New Rose, Neat Neat Neat, their wailing cover of The Stooges "I Feel Alright", a song from the seminal ‘80s Black Album, and the closing "Smash It Up".  The crowd was completely mixed and elated.  In legendary punk rock fashion, the crowd became one.  Phenomenal.

8: Damned One: Dave Vanian

9.  Damned Two:  Captain Sensible

10.   Damned Three: The Damned (1 + 1 + 1= Damned, Damned, Damned!)

Fourth album in two years for the prolific experimentalist. Listen to first single, below.

By Blurt Staff

Canadian electronica/dance/pop artist Grimes - Claire Boucher to her friends - is set to release her fourth album. Titled Visions, it drops Jan. 31 on Arbutus and follows debut album, Geidi Primes (2010), Halfaxa (2010;  arguably one of the first witch-house or lo-fi R&B releases), and  Darkbloom (2011), where she began taking her first steps as a producer, bringing together the experimentation behind her early work and a cutting edge pop aesthetic.

Each album incorporates a different set of influences and styles. Visions is inspired by artists ranging from Enya and TLC to Aphex Twin, drawing from genres like New Jack Swing, IDM, New Age, K-pop, Industrial and glitch. This approach has marked Grimes as a curator of culture, and allowed the project to remain flexible and evolving.

You can check out the first single from the new album right here:

MP3: "Oblivion"

Boucher was born in Vancouver and came to Montreal in 2006. Her experience as a performer is deeply embedded in the DIY loft culture of Montreal, where Grimes was one of the prominent figures in the scene surrounding Lab Synthèse - a 4600 square foot re-appropriated textile factory. She developed in a scene where punk ethos and pop music collide, resulting in a distinct sense of community, religiosity and psychedelic revelry.

Boucher describes her art as "the only means through which I can be fully expressive. It is both an ethereal escape from, and a violent embrace of my experience. The creative process is a quest for the ultimate sensual, mystical and cathartic experience and the vehicle for my psychic purging.  Visions was conceived in a period of self-imposed cloistering during which time I did not see daylight."

Tracklisting:

1. Infinite â�¡ Without Fulfillment
2. Genesis
3. Oblivion
4. Eight
5. Circumambient
6. Vowels = Space and Time
7. Visiting Statue
8. Be A Body (ä¾ï¿½å¯ï¿½)
9. Colour of Moonlight (Antiochus) (feat. Doldrums)
10. Symphonia IX (My Wait Is U)
11. Nightmusic (feat. Majical Cloudz)
12. Skin
13. Know The Way (Outro)