Contains the earliest known footage of the Beatles from Feb '62 - home movies, personal photographs, private memorabilia and recently discovered film.

By Blurt Staff

Rare And Unseen is an all new documentary DVD tells the true story of The Beatles from humble beginnings in Liverpool, to the break-up of the biggest band in the world. Their story is told for the very first time using original rare film and video of the band, including home-movies, concert footage, newsreels and photographs from private collections. Obviously not authorized by Apple or the surviving band members - the DVD's subtitle is Unofficial Account Of The Biggest Band In The World - it's still guaranteed to cause a stir in the cliquish, territorial world of Beatles collectors. The Wienerworld label will be issuing it on August 11 via MVD Video.

Included are  interviews with those who surrounded the band, and those who were there from the very start. Also included is an exclusive interview with Phil Collins, and say what you will about the Philster, he's long been known as one of the world's biggest Beatles vans. According to the label, "This documentary is an honest account of what really happened. For the first time we can see The Beatles relaxed, at play, on and off stage, on film, and is a rare glimpse inside the lives of the most famous band in the world."

With additional contributions from: Phil Collins, Steve Harley, Norman Hurricane Smith Colin Hanton (their first drummer) Sam Leach (tour manager) Tony Barrow (press officer 1962-1968), Tony Bramwell (friend and roadie), Ken Dodd, Tony Booth, Gerry Marsden, Len Goodman Sylvie Varten.

Features:

    * Earliest known footage of the Beatles on stage in Liverpool February 1962.
    * Only existing film on tour in Scotland - Caird Hall, Dundee October 1964.
    * Bahamas, February 1965 during the filming of Help!
    * September 1967 in Newquay whilst filming Magical Mystery Tour.
    * Home movie footage from Paris Olympia Theatre Januar y1964
    * Highlights of interview with John Lennon recorded in New York for French TV.

Let's hear it for the monkey!

By Fred Mills

Word is arriving today that NYC buzzband Cymbals Eat Guitars will be unleashing their album Why There Are Mountains with new cover art on Sept. 22 via Sister's Den Records. This will be the official national roll-out, following a blogger-approved "soft" (read: self-released) issuing awhile back. The band gets compared to folks like Built to Spill and Modest Mouse, so you know they must be a big deal, and they'll be touring a little bit in the lead up to the release. Dates below.

However, for some reason that word "guitar" kept sticking in our minds... that's spelled GUITAR... and all of a sudden we had the urge to hear the Ray Stevens classic "Gitarzan". You gotta love YouTube: the tune's all over the place, in both original and tribute form. See below for a kinda crate-digger's video take on the song - it has lost none of its musical pulchritude even with the passing of decades - along with another coupla nuggets we spotted. This should tide you over nicely until Sept. 22. Why are we showing you this? Because it's Friday fool! We're outta here for the weekend.

And git down!

Tour Dates

6/13 - Music Hall of Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY
7/2 - Vollrath Tavern - Indianapolis, TN
7/4 - 80/35 Festival @ Western Gateway Park - Des Moines, IA
7/18 - Pitchfork Music Festival @ Union Park - Chicago, IL
9/12 - Monolith Festival @ Red Rocks Ampitheatre - Morrison, CO

Hip hop luminaries to release long-awaited reunion record October 13th on Big Dada.

By Blurt Staff

Six years after they parted ways to pursue separate projects, Anti-Pop Consortium have reunited and recorded their fourth album Fluorescent Black, slated for release October 13th on Big Dada Recordings.  APC, who took hip-hop by surprise with their 2000 debut, Tragic Epilogue, proceeded to make a name for themselves as one of the genre's premiere boundary-pushers with Shopping Carts Crashing (2000) and cemented their status as luminaries with Arrhythmia (2002), say they reunite enriched by the time apart.   "We're grown men," says Anti-Pop's Beans.  "So our acceptance of our differences has allowed to bring all that more magic to the table. We're stronger now and the music is better for it."

When Anti-Pop Consortium's Beans, M. Sayyid, Earl Blaze, and High Priest parted ways in 2002 to pursue other projects, they left a gap in hip-hop no other group was entirely prepared to fill.  2002's Arrhythmia was proof enough that if any other group of MCs could match the collective's left-field adventurousness or their lit-caliber lyrical dexterity, none had produced a record that both pushed the envelope with experimentation and made heads nod.  As Dusted Magazine put it, Arrhythmia "throws down the gauntlet to the rest of indie hip-hop - yeah, it's one thing to spit complex vocabulary like a thesaurus, but how about you make your music move?"  Anti-Pop Consortium disbanded shortly after the record was released and nearly seven years later the challenge posed to hip-hop by Arrhythmia remains largely untouched. With Fluorescent Black, APC will finish the job.

[Photo credit: www.sarahafriedman.com]

In life, there are only four sure things: birth, death, taxes, and....

By Fred Mills

With Courtney Love laying relatively low (she hasn't even been Twittering the past week or so) we're forced to turn our gaze overseas for our music trainwreck news fix, and sure enough, there slouches Pete Doherty, amiable and willing to deliver. To wit:

Britain's Guardian is reporting that the Babyshambles frontman was picked up early this a.m. on "suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and possession of drugs." As opposed to "suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs," we suppose - not that anyone would imagine Doherty would simultaneously be possessing AND taking the dope, eh?

Apparently Doherty was spotted "driving erratically" after a gig in Gloucester, whose police spokesman told reporters, "At approximately 12.30am officers on patrol in Eastgate Street saw a car being driven erratically, it continued down Barton Street and was stopped in Derby Road. A 30-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of drink driving, possession of drugs and failure to stop for police, he remains in custody at this time."

Well, all right then! Doherty could have avoided all this, of course, had he simply allowed himself to remain in custody by Geneva police after that little syringe-in-the-airplane-toilet incident earlier this week....

First full-length in 25 years from the dub-punk legends.

By Blurt Staff

Narnack Records will be releasing Trapped Animal, the first full-length release from The Slits in over 25 years. (2009 also marks the 30th anniversary of The Slits debut album Cut.) It's due on October 6.

The Slits became a part of the punk pantheon with songs that even today continue to be meditations on alienation and angst. With Trapped Animal , The Slits remain the same genre bending band they were in their inception, still standing out from the rest of the pack. In the title track they examine how the conveniences that surround us in today's modern world have also trapped us. Other tracks include "Pay Rent" which focuses on the everyday struggle artists face trying to pay the bills through their art along with the sexually charged "Lazy Slam". "Ask Ma" will be out as a single in August and will be your first taste of Trapped Animal 

The current lineup features original members Ari Up and Tessa Pollitt along with Hollie Cook (daughter of Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook), Anna Schlute and Adele Wilson.

 In addition to the new album, a book about the band, Typical Girls? The Story Of The Slits written by Zoe Street Howe, is scheduled to be published in the Fall. Meanwhile go HERE for the band's backstory.

Track Listing

1. Ask Ma
2. Lazy Slam
3. Pay Rent
4. Reject
5. Trapped Animals
6. Issues
7. Peer Pressure
8. Partner From Hell
9. Babylon
10. Cry Baby
11. Reggae Gypsy
12. Be It
13. Cant Relate
14. Had A Day

Will feature profiles of Arcade Fire, Spoon, Magnetic Fields, Superchunk, Neutral Milk Hotel, Lambchop, Butterglory and others.

By Blurt Staff

This fall, to celebrate Merge Records' 20^th anniversary, Algonquin Books chronicles their achievements by releasing Our Noise: The Story Of Merge Records, The Indie Label That Got Big And Stayed Small. Written by  John Cook (with Superchunk/Merge founders Mac McCaughan and Laura Balance) and featuring an introduction penned by Ryan Adams, the 304-page book is due in stores September 15.

Here's the scoop, courtesy Merge and the publisher:

Launched by two 20-year-olds, Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance, in a rented home in the late 1980s, Merge Records had the humble beginnings of a great success story. Hand-labeling and shipping each record themselves, Mac and Laura started to make their mark on the independent music scene. They gained popularity by fronting the popular pop-punk band Superchunk, one of Merge's first bands, in the mid-90s. Over time, the label has become known for discovering some of the best indie bands in the country.

Twenty years later, with just thirteen employees-and a real office-the label boasts some of the biggest bands on the independent music scene, including Arcade Fire, Spoon, Magnetic Fields, M. Ward, Neutral Milk Hotel, She & Him, and more. But Merge still maintains its small-label mindset by producing good music they have faith in-not only what they think will sell the most copies.

Author John Cook traces the growth of Merge along the bumpy roads that led to its success and importance today, through first-hand interviews with Mac, Laura, their friends, and band mates, and other key players in the formation and growth of the label. Featuring photographs the life and times of the label and its bands, as well as concert memorabilia, record label art, and a link to a streaming Internet soundtrack for the book, Our Noise tells Merge's story in an intimate and entertaining package. 

[Photo nicked from Schoolkids' Records' MySpace page - couldn't resist, as it's such a perfect tribute.  www.myspace.com/schoolkidsrecords ] 

Black vinyl is limited? WTF?!? Oh, you mean the quantity pressed, now we get it...

By Blurt Staff

Modest Mouse has announced they will release their ‘Autumn Beds' 7" single on June 23rd. This special 7" will be on limited edition black vinyl with an embossed sleeve and individually numbered to 4000. This new single includes never before released tracks: ‘Autumn Beds' backed with ‘Whale Song.' Modest Mouse fans will be familiar with the band's new tune ‘Whale Song' as it became a recent staple in the band's live shows. This special vinyl will be available nationally at retail, with the songs also offered on iTunes.

On June 16, ‘Autumn Beds' will make its audio premiere on AOL Spinner - www.spinner.com - and on June 18 fans will get the first listen to ‘Whale Song' on The Tripwire - www.thetripwire.com

Followup to critical fave album Disco Romance.

By Blurt Staff

Report in from Pitchfork today and Paper Bag Records that Swedish thrush Sally Shapiro's second album will be released on August 25 by Paper Bag. Titled My Guilty Pleasure, it's the followup to her acclaimed 2007 album Disco Romance (which, sharp-minded BLURT readers will recall, topped scores of critics' lists that year, including the staff list for our predecessor Harp magazine).

We profiled Shapiro - and even speculated whether or not she was a real person - at the BLURT site - a little under a year ago. Go HERE to read the interview.

The new album is produced by Johan Agebjorn and includes the single "Miracle", currently offered at the Paper Bag site.

Tracklisting:

01 Swimming Through the Blue Lagoon
02 Looking at the Stars
03 Love in July
04 My Fantasy
05 Let It Show
06 Moonlight Dance
07 Save Your Love
08 Dying in Africa
09 Miracle

And yes, BLURT will be there, Twittering from the site and filing updates...

By Blurt Staff

And this year's Bonnaroo festival is officially underway in Manchester, TN. At present the weather conditions are good, although it's looking somewhat ominous for the weekend: scattered thunderstorms are forecasted for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Hello, Woodstock experience! (Or is that Glastonbury...) Hello, people dressed like lunatics!

At any rate, bands are getting started right about now in the tents, with sets in a couple of hours from White Rabbits, MURS, Delta Spirit, Portugal the Man, the Low Anthem and more. Then tomorrow things kick into high gear at noon en route to some hotly anticipated mainstage (What Stage) sets from the Beastie Boys - who rocked Asheville, NC, mightily last night and BLURT was present to bear witness - and Phish, along with Public Enemy, Femi Kuti, Paul Oakenfold and Girl Talk going late into the night in the tents. You can go to the Bonnaroo schedule HERE for details on all three days.

Meanwhile, BLURT's man on the ground, Andy Tennille, will be Twittering from the ‘roo site all weekend long, so sign up to follow us on Twitter if you are so inclined. Tennille will also be filing postmortems along with exclusive photo essays after each day (read: after he recovers from each previous day).

As in years past, live webcasts of selected sets will be streamed from Bonnaroo, this year courtesy AT&T Music, starting tomorrow at 12:45 with Gomez, People Under the Stairs and Animal Collective. Wonder if they'll have all those disclaimers about some content not being suitable for kids? And Fuse TV will be airing a lot of Bonnaroo-related content as well. So in between all the inevitable blogging and Twittering and assorted media coverage, it's going to be wall to wall Bonnaroo this weekend. We're already feeling overwhelmed....

We KNEW it!

By Randy Harward

Okay, so it was no secret that producer/convicted killer Phil Spector's poofy hair-sphere was fake. But thanks to The Smoking Gun we have proof. Enjoy the wigless mugshot, guys. We're certainly getting our kicks.