Well, Cherie Currie will be there at least...

By Blurt Staff

So it's a slightly misleading headline, sue us. The show posters are trumpeting the name "Runaways"  in pretty big letters. At any rate, queen of noise Cherie Currie, the erstwhile silver-and-glitter clad frontwoman for the mighty Runaways, is apparently performing a tribute concert to her old band next week, on March 13. It's  part of the "Pretty In Punk" charity event to benefit the Tianna Teegarden Memorial Fund and it'll be happening at the Roxy in L.A. Promoting the show are the good folks at Daisy Rock Girl Guitars, natch.

Also on the bill: The Bangles, Whispertown 2000 and more. Advance tickets can be snagged HERE.

So... while Sandy West passed away, what are the chances of Joan Jett, Lita Ford, Jackie Fox and Vicki Blue turning up to join Cherie for a few choruses of "Cherry Bomb"? Enquiring minds wanna know... You can bet, however, that Kim Fowley will be in attendance.

Digging out from under all that snow as well...

By Fred Mills

God bless YouTube and the Santa's elves that keep it hummin' 24-7. At our advanced age we're tucked away in our bunks long before 11:30 EST - that's when David Letterman comes on, and since most of the musical guests don't perform until the end of the show, staying up until almost 12:30 is a recipe for feeling like a real dog the next morning. (You say you're not an early riser? Wait'll you have kids, punk.)

So Monday night U2 began their week-long residency with Dave, and on the first show they performed "Breathe" from No Line on the Horizon. See below for the performance clip, along with an additional one in which the Letterman cameras caught the Irish rockers shoveling snow (and taking a smoke break). Literally.

Then last night they did "Magnificent," which is one of the stronger tracks on the admittedly flawed album - classic U2 territory. The clip of that is below as well.

Meanwhile, you  can check out our somewhat-cautionary, 6-out-of-10-stars review of the new album HERE. Raise your hand if you forked out the big bucks for the super-duper deluxe edition....

Presumably a No Line on the Horizon outtake... the one the band didn't want you to see....

By Fred Mills

The lyric sheet turned up too... obviously it was a smart move for them to delay releasing the album last fall as there were a few kinks that still needed working out...

Time + Ridiculous Idea = This

When you reach puberty your body changes everything
I never seen a bush like this can you see it too

Hairs growing everywhere people trying not to stare
Someone laughs and starts to point their finger at you

Hey, Sexy Pubes
Check out my pubes, yeah

Feel how curly they can be overflowing out my jeans
Oh it's like a forest in a fairy tale

Here's where I hide my weed no one will ever see
I can put a block of cheese right in there as well

You don't know how beautiful
You donl't know how beautiful they are

You don't know You don't get it do you
You don't know how beautiful they are

Some of them are falling out most of them are growing out
Women like to braid them after fornication

I got to keep them clean you like the waxing scene
Man you wanna talk about a burning sensation

Alright now Sexy Pubes
Oh yeah, check out my pubes

You don't know how beautiful
You donl't know how beautiful they are

You don't know You don't get it do you
You don't know how beautiful they are

Check out my pubes
Check out my pubes
Check out my pubes

Let me in the house Let me in the house
Let me in the house house Let me in the house house
Let me in the house...

Check out my pubes, Hey hey hey

Party like it's 1991, kids....

By Blurt Staff

The envelope, please: this year's Alterna-Era Nostalgia Award goes to.... Jane's Addiction and Nine Inch Nails, for their upcoming co-headlining tour just announced last night by Trent Reznor at the Nine Inch Nails message board.

Break out those Docs, flannels, eyeliner and black nail polish, kids, and get ready to party like it's, uh, 1991. Too bad most of these shows will be held at outdoor sheds, which may be good for maximizing ticket sales but absolutely suck from a concert experience point of view. Still, don't forget, this might be Trent's final hurrah for NiN, as he's mulling over some kind of retirement....

Tour Dates:

Fri-May-08 West Palm Beach, FL [Cruzan Amphitheatre]
Sat-May-09 Tampa, FL [Ford Amphitheatre]
Sun-May-10 Atlanta, GA [Lakewood Amphitheatre]
Thu-May-14 Albuquerque, NM [Journal Pavilion]
Fri-May-15 Phoenix, AZ [Cricket Wireless Pavilion]
Sat-May-16 Chula Vista, CA [Cricket Wireless Amphitheater]
Mon-May-18 Las Vegas, NV [The Pearl]
Wed-May-20 Irvine, CA [Verizon Wireless Amphitheater - Irvine Meadows]
Fri-May-22 Mountain View, CA [Shoreline Amphitheatre]
Tue-May-26 Englewood, CO [Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre]
Wed-May-27 Kansas City, MO [Starlight Theatre]
Fri-May-29 Chicago, IL [Charter One Pavilion] NINE INCH NAILS Only
Sat-May-30 Noblesville, IN [Verizon Wireless Music Center]
Sun-May-31 Clarkston, MI [DTE Energy Music Theatre]
Tue-Jun-02 Toronto, ON [Molson Amphitheatre]
Wed-Jun-03 Darien Lake, NY [Darien Lake Amphitheatre]
Fri-Jun-05 Camden, NJ [Tweeter Center At The Waterfront]
Sat-Jun-06 Holmdel, NJ [PNC Bank Arts Center]
Sun-Jun-07 Wantagh, NY [Nikon at Jones Beach Music Theater]
Tue-Jun-09 Columbia, MD [Merriweather Post Pavilion]
Wed-Jun-10 Burgettstown, PA [Post-Gazette Pavilion]
Fri-Jun-12 Charlotte, NC [Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre

From the Fairports to the present.

By Blurt Staff

It's not the first time Richard Thompson has been given the archival treatment. In 1993 Rykodisc/Hannibal put together a three-disc collection, Watching The Dark: The History of Richard Thompson, which dipped back to 1969 and the guitarist's Fairport Convention days then brought things up through his solo career, to 1988. And there have been assorted best-ofs and rarities collections (some of them mail order only) over the years as well. Just the same, on June 30 Shout! Factory will pay tribute to Thompson with a new 4-CD box Walking On A Wire: Richard Thompson (1968-2009), and while it doesn't necessarily go deep in terms of rarities (aside from a handful of motion picture soundtrack cuts), it does cover the man's entire career, dipping into his extensive back catalog.

See the full tracklisting below.

That aforementioned stretches back over 40 years. Songs from every Richard Thompson album are represented on Walking On A Wire, beginning with the trail-blazing folk-rock group Fairport Convention, of which he was a founding member as a teenager, to his duo albums with then-wife Linda Thompson, as well as his 20 plus years as a critically acclaimed solo artist. Thompson will tour the US and UK this spring and summer.

The songs chosen for this selection of his work were carefully assembled and aim to provide a real sense of Richard Thompson, as well as to celebrate the diversity of his music - rock 'n' roll with folk, jazz, rockabilly and the odd waltz thrown in - the scope of his songwriting, and the sheer virtuosity of his playing. Walking On A Wire impressively includes 71 tracks from albums released by 15 different labels, and includes a 60 page booklet with new notes by Patrick Humphries.

Early on in his career Thompson was singled out as a songwriter of distinction; as a guitarist, he was being compared by critics to more established "guitar heroes" such as Pete Townshend, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. He reached a new level of critical and commercial success in the 80's and 90's during his Capitol Records period, during which he recorded what is perhaps his signature song, "1952 Vincent Black Lightning."

Declared by Rolling Stone as one of the Top 20 Guitarists of all time, the iconic British folk-rock legend is one of the world's most critically acclaimed and prolific songwriters. Thompson's songs, of which he's written more than 400, have been covered by R.E.M., Elvis Costello, the Pointer Sisters, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, Los Lobos, and many more. Thompson has been received by rock royalty, such as Bruce Springsteen, and Elvis Costello, as well as by real royalty, Queen Elizabeth II. Thompson is also the recipient of an Ivor Novello Award for Songwriting, the Orville Gibson Award for guitarists, and the 2006 BBC Lifetime Achievement Award.

Richard Thompson has carefully chosen his projects over the years, including the score for Werner Herzog's film Grizzly Man, 2003's stripped-down The Old Kit Bag, which included the sombre " Gethsemane " and the atmospheric "A Love You Can't Survive," and 2007's Sweet Warrior (Shout! Factory), from which the final three tracks of this collection are taken, and which featured the provocative reflection of the Iraq War "Dad's Gonna Kill Me," the ballad "She Sang the Angels to Rest," and "Needle and Thread," which recalls prime Fairport. Walking On A Wire: Richard Thompson (1968-2009) finally provides fans a comprehensive collection of Thompson's work.

Walking On A Wire: Richard Thompson (1968-2009)

Disc One :

1. Time Will Show The Wiser - Fairport Convention Fairport Convention

2. Meet On The Ledge - Fairport Convention What We Did On Our Holidays ( U.K. ), Fairport

   Convention ( U.S. )

3. Genesis Hall - Fairport Convention Unhalfbricking

4. Crazy Man Michael - Fairport Convention Liege & Lief

5. Sloth - Fairport Convention Full House

6. Roll Over Vaughn Williams Starring As Henry The Human Fly

7. The Poor Ditching Boy Starring As Henry The Human Fly

8. The Angels Took My Racehorse Away Starring As Henry The Human Fly

9. The Great Valerio - Richard & Linda Thompson I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight

10. When I Get To The Border - Richard & Linda Thompson I Want To See

      The Bright Lights Tonight

11. Withered And Died - Richard & Linda Thompson I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight

12. I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight - Richard & Linda Thompson I Want To See

      The Bright Lights Tonight

13. Down Where The Drunkards Roll - Richard & Linda Thompson I Want To See The Bright Lights

     Tonight

14. The Calvary Cross - Richard & Linda Thompson I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight

15. I'll Regret It All In The Morning - Richard & Linda Thompson Hokey Pokey

16. Old Man Inside A Young Man - Richard & Linda Thompson Hokey Pokey

17. For Shame Of Doing Wrong - Richard & Linda Thompson Pour Down Like Silver

18. Night Comes In - Richard & Linda Thompson Pour Down Like Silver

Disc Two:

1. Dimming Of The Day/Dargai - Richard & Linda Thompson Pour Down Like Silver

2. A Heart Needs A Home - Richard & Linda Thompson (guitar, vocal) ( U.K. ), Live! (More Or Less)

    ( U.S. )

3. Don't Let A Thief Steal Into Your Heart - Richard & Linda Thompson First Light

4. Strange Affair - Richard & Linda Thompson First Light

5. Sunnyvista - Richard & Linda Thompson Sunnyvista

6. Sisters - Richard & Linda Thompson Sunnyvista

7. Rockin' In Rhythm Strict Tempo!

8. Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed - Richard & Linda Thompson Shoot Out The Lights

9. Man In Need - Richard & Linda Thompson Shoot Out The Lights

10. Shoot Out The Lights - Richard & Linda Thompson Shoot Out The Lights

11. Wall Of Death - Richard & Linda Thompson Shoot Out The Lights

12. Walking On A Wire - Richard & Linda Thompson Shoot Out The Lights

13. Tear Stained Letter Hand Of Kindness

14. How I Wanted To Hand Of Kindness

15. Hand Of Kindness Hand Of Kindness

16. Beat The Retreat (Live) Small Town Romance (Live/Solo In New York, 1982)

17. I Ain't Going To Drag My Feet No More Across A Crowded Room

Disc Three:

1. Little Blue Number Across A Crowded Room

2. She Twists The Knife Again Across A Crowded Room

3. Valerie Daring Adventures

4. Turning Of The Tide Amnesia

5. I Still Dream Amnesia

6. Waltzing's For Dreamers Amnesia

7. Read About Love Rumor And Sigh

8. I Feel So Good Rumor And Sigh

9. I Misunderstood Rumor And Sigh

10. 1952 Vincent Black Lightning Rumor And Sigh

11. Put Your Trust In Me Sweet Talker (Original Soundtrack)

12. From Galway To Graceland (Live) Watching The Dark

13. I Can't Wake Up To Save My Life Mirror Blue

14. MGB-GT Mirror Blue

15. Mingus Eyes Mirror Blue

16. Beeswing Mirror Blue

17. Taking My Business Elsewhere Mirror Blue

18. King Of Bohemia Mirror Blue

19. Don't Roll Those Bloodshot Eyes At Me (Live) - Richard Thompson with Danny Thompson Live

      At Crawley 1993 - Richard Thompson with Danny Thompson

20. Razor Dance (Voltage Enhanced) you? me? us?

Disc Four:

1. Hide It Away (Voltage Enhanced) you? me? us?

2. Last Shift - Richard Thompson & Danny Thompson Industry -

    Richard Thompson & Danny Thompson

3. Big Chimney - Richard Thompson & Danny Thompson Industry -

    Richard Thompson & Danny Thompson

4. Lotteryland - Richard Thompson & Danny Thompson Industry -

    Richard Thompson & Danny Thompson

5. Persuasion (Live) - Richard Thompson Celtschmerz (Live UK '98)

6. Cooksferry Queen Mock Tudor

7. Bathsheba Smiles Mock Tudor

8. Hard On Me (Live) Semi-Detached Mock Tudor

9. Gethsemane The Old Kit Bag

10. A Love You Can't Survive The Old Kit Bag

11. A Legal Matter (Live) 1000 Years Of Popular Music

12. Main Title From Grizzly Man Grizzly Man (Original Soundtrack)

13. Al Bowlly's In Heaven (Live) Live From Austin TX

14. I'll Never Give It Up Sweet Warrior

15. Dad's Gonna Kill Me Sweet Warrior

16. She Sang Angels To Rest Sweet Warrior

Hot on the heels of their recent album Sonic Portation.

By Fred Mills

Diligent BLURTers who were intrigued by our recent review of the psychedelic legends YaHoWha 13's Sonic Portation album are now going to get a chance to grok the fullness up close and personal as the band mounts a handful of east coast concerts near the end of this month.

Shows in Philly, Baltimore, D.C., NYC and New Haven have been announced at the official YaHoWha 13 website and they come highly BLURT-approved, so you know a good time is going to be had by all. Support for all gigs will be the equally cranium-uncorking Kohoutek, from D.C., with notable others depending on the city. (Kohoutek, incidentally, are longtime fans of Y13 and took their name from the title of the group's first album.)

The shows will be filmed for a possible future DVD release, so those of you in the audience, wear your best finery.

Tour Dates:

• March 25 / Philadelphia, PA: Johnny Brendas - with Kohoutek + Niagra Falls
• March 26 / Baltimore, MD: Talking Head Club - with Kohoutek + Mopar Mountain Daredevils (ex Acid Mothers Temple)
• March 27 / Washington, DC: / Velvet Lounge - with Kohoutek + more
• March 28 / NYC: The Old Knitting Factory Main Space - with Kohoutek & others
• March 29 / New Haven, CT: Free Show TBA - with Kohoutek and Gringo Star  

Conversation with the band's Ed Droste incoming....

By Blurt Staff

Now it can be revealed: Brooklyn's Grizzly Bear - or, technically, the band's resident blogger and bon vivant Edward Droste - is one of six musical leading lights who grace the cover of the debut print issue of BLURT. (Who are the other five? If you've signed up for the BLURT newsletter, you might find out tonight...)  In it, we've got a conversation with Droste about his band and their hotly-tipped sophomore album Veckatimest (due from Warp Records on May 26^th), as well with musings on how Grizzly Bear has slowly but surely moved to the forefront of the contemporary indie-rock scene.

"I think we're just a slow burn type of band," Droste tells BLURT. "I mean, we're not a pop band. All I can attribute it to, is time after time, we'd hear people say, ‘at first I thought it was boring and then a year later I revisited it and I love it'."

We'll late you wait for the issue to read the rest of the interview, but meanwhile, enjoy the sneak visual preview, above.

So here's the scoop on the album, along with details on the band's upcoming tour, direct from Grizzly Bear Ground Zero....

***

 
Upon releasing their acclaimed debut album, Yellow House in 2006, Grizzly Bear - comprising of singer/songwriter Ed Droste, drummer Christopher Bear, woodwinds player/bassist Chris Taylor and singer/songwriter/guitarist Daniel Rossen - have become one of independent music's most internationally-renowned talents. Tours opening for Radiohead, Feist and TV On The Radio, co-headlining a show with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, playing on David Letterman and Conan O'Brien, participating in a five-night tribute to Paul Simon at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and performing their own BAM show with the Brooklyn Philharmonic solidified their well-deserved reputation as one of the most exciting, unique and truly adventurous bands to come out of New York City in years.  Yellow House's twilight-lit charm and sleepy Sunday morning glow won the hearts of music fans all over the globe. Their ever growing fan base has given rise to an almost pathological thirst for new material, with websites and blogs speculating on the new songs and tracking every rumor or nugget of information throughout the recording process.

 
Produced by the band's own Chris Taylor, Veckatimest - named for a Massachusetts island the band visited during recording - is a stunning collection of twelve songs, featuring guest turns by composer Nico Muhly (whose string parts grace four of the tracks) and Beach House's Victoria LeGrand. It's an album of homespun elegance, bubbling with orchestral flourishes, haunted harmony vocals by all four band members, and a graceful, unrestrained beauty.  Splitting their time between recordings in Cape Cod and a church hall in their native Brooklyn, Grizzly Bear's attention to details in the studio is felt on every track. The songs and arrangements are more complex than any of their previous compositions, a result of the band writing together in solitude for months on end.  Despite their many layers, there remains a sparse, singular quality to these tracks that ultimately makes them so affecting - in between their fine lines are slow-burning emotions and dynamic melodies. Veckatimest is ultimately confident and delicate, sophisticated and alive; a line no one walks with quite as much panache as Grizzly Bear.

 
With opener "Southern Point," Veckatimest exudes a quiet strength, as drums roll, percussion sparkles, acoustic guitars pitter-patter and strings sweep in behind Droste's emotive vocal delivery.  "Two Weeks" - already known to fans from a 2008 David Letterman performance - is otherworldly pop complemented perfectly by Victoria LeGrand's swirling backing vocals, while "Fine For Now" lilts with choral castles of voices and gorgeous, reverb-bathed guitars.  "Ready, Able" radiates with tempo shifts, a psychedelic organ part, plucked guitars and swooping backing vocals, and "While You Wait For The Others" is heart-pounding pop encased in feathery harmonies whose deceptively simple chorus has one of the album's finest melodic hooks.  Closing song "Foreground" fills a plaintive piano line with an angelic choir, hollow drums and four-part singing to a dazzling effect. Truth told, though, this sort of dizzying high is what their legions of ardent fans have come to expect from Grizzly Bear, and on Veckatimest, they deliver it and then some.

 
Grizzly Bear Tour Dates:

5/24 Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theatre
5/25 George, WA @ Sasquatch Festival
5/26 Vancouver, BC @ Commodore
5/28 NYC @ Town Hall
5/29 NYC @ Town Hall
6/01 Washington DC @ 930 Club
6/02 Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero
6/03 Boston, MA @ Berkley Performance Center
6/04 Montreal, QUE @ Le National
6/05 Toronto ON @ Phoenix
6/07 Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center
6/08 Milwaukee, WI @ Pabst Theatre
6/09 Bloomington, IN @ Buskirk- Chumley
6/11 Carrboro, NC @ Cats Cradle
6/12 Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo
6/13 Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle (With TV On The Radio)
6/15 Dallas, TX @  Grenada
6/16 Austin, TX @ The Parish
6/19 Los Angeles, CA @ Wiltern
6/20- Los Angeles, CA @ Wiltern
6/21 San Francisco, CA @ Fillmore
6/22- San Francisco @ Fillmore

[Photo Taken Exclusively for Blurt by Dennis Kleiman]

Just like having the milk delivered straight to your doorstep each morning....

By Blurt Staff

In preparation for the release of the official mix album Infinity +1, DJ A-Trak is launching a special Infinity +1 countdown site which will feature one new piece of content released daily leading up to the album release on March 31st.

Leading off this digital onslaught is an 8 minute downloadable teaser minimix showcasing some of the many high points of Infinity +1 along with a personal video introduction to the site from A-Trak and his sidekick, Jonathan the Gorilla. Future content posts include interviews and exclusive downloads from artists and remixers featured on Infinity +1, tour video diaries, science lessons and possibly more ventriloquism.

An extremely active Twitter user, A-Trak will be utilizing a Twitter based campaign to keep people up to date about new content posts on the countdown site and his life in general as he ramps up to the album release with a nonstop month of touring and promotion. Be sure to check the Infinity +1 Countdown Site each day to stay up to date on new music, video, and blog content!


A-Trak's Infinity +1 Countdown Site: http://www.thrivemusic.com/infinityplusone/


Tour Dates:

3/13/09 TORONTO, ON CIRCA
3/14/09 BROOKLYN, NY STUDIO B (w/ DJ Mehdi)
3/17/09 BOSTON, MA THE ESTATE
3/19/09 AUSTIN, TX PALM DOOR (Fool's Gold)
3/20/09 LOS ANGELES, CA AVALON (w/ Sinden)
3/21/09 SAN FRANCISCO, CA PARADISE
3/22/09 LOS ANGELES, CA LAX
3/26/09 MIAMI, FL BEATPORT POOL PARTY
3/26/09 MIAMI, FL LOUIS CLUB
3/28/09 MIAMI, FL RALEIGH HOTEL
3/28/09 MIAMI, FL WHITE ROOM (Fool's Gold)

Compiled by Blurt Staff

206 digital, satellite and hi-def channels and nothin' on? Not likely. Here are BLURT's top music television picks of the day. The time is followed by the network/cable/satellite channel, then the name of the program and/or featured artist(s). All times are EST.

TIME (EST) / CHANNEL / PROGRAM / ARTIST(S)

Wednesday, March 4:

9:00 a.m. syndicated: Ellen Degeneres: The Fray

9:00 VH1 Classic: Rolling Stones "Let's Spend the Night Together"

9:00 Biography Channel: The Monkees

9:00 Sundance: Spectacle: Elvis Costello w/ Elton John

10:00 Biography Channel: Chris Isaak Hour: Trisha Yearwood

11:30 CBS David Letterman: U2

11:35 NBC Jay Leno: Neko Case

12:05 ABC Jimmy Kimmel: Oren Lavie

12:35 NBC Jimmy Fallon: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Thursday, March 5:

12:00 noon & 6:00 Biography: Billy Idol

1:00  & 7:00 Biography: ABBA

2:00 Biography: Private Sessions - Linsdsey Buckingham

4:30 VH1 Classic: Thin Lizzy Live Philadelphia 1977

8:00 Sundance: Spectacle: Elvis Costello w/ Elton John

9:00 VH1 Classic: Pink Floyd's The Wall

10:00 Biography: Chris Isaak Hour: Stevie Nicks

11:00 Biography: Chris Isaak Hour: Trisha Yearwood

11:30 CBS David Letterman: U2

11:35 NBC Jay Leno: Tom Jones

12:00 ABC Jimmy Kimmel: Raphael Saadiq

12:30 CBS Craig Ferguson: Andrew Bird

12:35 NBC Jimmy Fallon: Ludacris

Friday, March 6:

9:00 syndicated Bonnie Hunt: Plain White Ts

5:30 VH1 Classic: Classic Albums - Judas Priest's "British Steel"

11:30 CBS David Letterman: U2

11:35 CBS Jay Leno: Papa Roach

12:00 ABC Jimmy Kimmel: Crooked X

12:00 Sundance: Joe Strummer Let's Rock Again

12:30 CBS Craig Ferguson: M. Ward

1:15 Sundance: Live From Abbey Road: Rascal Flatts, Kate Nash, Herbie Hancock

1:35 NBC Carson Daly: NASA

Cool indie rockers cover McCartney classic for WFMU pledge drive.

By Fred Mills

In 1971 Paul McCartney issued his second solo album, Ram, and it was, in a word, pure genius. While his eponymous debut was great, and his Wings gem Band On The Run was awesome, for Macca lovers this was the album that was start-to-finish, top-to-bottom brilliant without a single weak or throwaway track. It's stood the test of time, too, and it's rarely strayed far from the BLURT mixing desk. Put another way: from the first time we listened to it on 8-track cartridge to the Ramtunes on MP3 currently lodged on our iPod, Ram has consistently brought a big wide grin to our face.

As with all classics, you can't top perfection. Which means that attempting a song-by-song recreation of a classic is not only risky, it's foolhardy. It insults the intelligence and memories of fans. Only a handful of such projects come to mind that ultimately justified the effort on the part of the recreator - as well as the listeners - come to mind, including Carla Bozulich's edgy-yet-atmospheric 2003 take on Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger, from 1975, and Petra Haden's astonishing 2005 a capella cover of The Who Sell Out, from '67. The reason why those two were successful is that they were the products of single artists' visions, a focused refraction, if you will, of how they viewed the original artists' own visions.

The same can never be true, of course, of multiple-artist takes on classic records; it's like having 11 coaches simultaneously trying to steer a football team downfield and score. (This is also why tribute albums, virtually across the board, blow chunks.) But here ya go: teaming up are the likes of Death Cab for Cutie, Ted Leo, Portastatic, Danielson, Aimee Mann, the Black Hollies, James McNew of Yo La Tengo (as Dump) and others with a track-by-track interpretation of Ram. Yes, this is a bad idea. But luckily it's for a good cause, so this time around, regardless of extant quality, it gets a pass.

According to Pitchfork, it's part of public radio powerhouse WFMU-FM's annual fundraiser, currently running now through March 15, and if you pledge at the $75 level during funnyman Tom Scharpling's frankly amazing "The Best Show" on March 3 or 10 during the hourse of 8-11 p.m. EST, you'll nab a copy of the Ram covers album - for the occasion, they're retitling it as Tom.

Pledge away, punters. And here's hoping that the so-called "bad idea" turns out to be a fun, listenable collection of tunes.

The Pitchfork article also has news of yet a second charity album in which indie rockers, most of them considerably lesser known, have covered the Ram album.