Archival find stuns Harrison's son and producer.

By Blurt Staff

Britain's NME is reporting about a previously-lost guitar solo from George Harrison, originally intended to be in "Here Comes the Sun" but ultimately cut from 1969 Beatles album Abbey Road, has been unearthed. According to the report, the tape "was found by Harrison's son Dhani, Beatles' producer George Martin and his son Giles during a visit to the studio which gave its name to the album."

The video below shows the three men "at the mixing desk playing the original master tapes of 'Here Comes The Sun' when they stumble upon the solo, which Dhani Harrison admits he had no idea existed." The solo starts at approximately 1:05 into the video, and while it may seem like not a huge revelation, in the Beatles world, every little discovery is considered a big one...

Jefferson Airplane's hi-octane legacy fuels Paul Kantner's return to the San Francisco club scene at the Rrazz Room on January 28.

By Jud Cost

It's almost come full-circle. This is the way Jefferson Airplane got its start in 1965, playing a tiny sit-down San Francisco club called the Matrix in the Marina, a place partially owned by founding member and lead-singer Marty Balin. About twice the size of the Matrix, the Rrazz Room in the Hotel Nikko booked the Paul Kantner-led Jefferson Starship for a week, just the way the Matrix did with the Airplane, Big Brother & the Holding Co. and Quicksilver Messenger Service in the seminal days of the San Francisco scene. Kantner, it seems, has always felt comfortable around clubs. He was spotted frequently during the late-'70s heyday of San Fran's Mabuhay Gardens, at shows by local punks the Avengers and the Nuns.

Kantner, one of the Airplane's three principal songwriters and singers along with Balin and Grace Slick, sits fifteen feet away tonight, looking very relaxed. He's bookended by David Freiberg, the bassist/lead singer for Quicksilver while Dino Valenti was doing jail time. In between the two, singers Cathy Richardson and Darby Gould admirably carry the female-vocal load this music requires, surrounded by keyboards, guitar and drums.

It should be noted that Kantner's resurrection of the Jefferson Starship franchise has nothing to do with the Mickey Thomas-led Starship that was the final permutation of the original, post-Airplane Jefferson Starship. Kantner & crew do not play '80s chart-toppers like "We Built This City" and "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now."

"We're going to play some crazy songs tonight," says Kantner after dusting off the Airplane's ace in the hole, "White Rabbit," early in the set. Dressed in a Dentyne gum-colored knit frock that looked like a late-'60s Alvin Duskin creation, something that might have been worn by the fashion-forward Slick, Gould handles "Rabbit" flawlessly in a style that approaches but doesn't mimic Slick. She also excels at "Lather," a song from the Airplane's 1968 Crown Of Creation album that Slick wrote for Airplane drummer Spencer Dryden.

Gould and Richardson together handle lead vocals for "Good Shepherd" ("One for Paul/One for Silas... Oh good shepherd, feed my sheep") from the Airplane's Volunteers album, the last of their classic longplayers before things started to spin out of control. Kantner takes a short break, leaving the spotlight for Freiberg's energetic version of Quicksilver's "Fresh Air," originally sung by Valenti. It would have been nice to also hear Freiberg belt out Hamilton Camp's "Pride Of Man," one of the highlights from Quicksilver's 1967 debut LP.

The next few numbers are torpedoed visually by the woman seated next to me who decides she just has to "dance," moving in a spastic sea anemone way she might have seen online at vintage Grateful Dead shows. Eventually, she finds a fellow terpsichorean, and they wobble off together, away from my line-of-sight.

"We're not too loud, are we?" asks Kantner. "We don't want to ruin what's left of your hearing." The only sound problem is a distorted mix of Richardson's vocals, something gradually fixed by the sound guy. Everybody's on their feet for the double-barreled finale. "Volunteers" has the audience ready to enlist in the next "Occupy San Francisco" army, even if the demographic of the crowd tonight might muddy the song's lyrics: "One generation got old/One generation got soul."

The other shoe finally drops when they conclude an amazing night with the second song (in addition to "White Rabbit") that Grace Slick brought with her from the Great Society when she replaced the Airplane's original female vocalist, Signe Anderson, in October of 1966. "Somebody To Love" was penned by Great Society guitarist Darby Slick, and the Airplane's red-blooded version shot straight to the top of the U.S. charts in the spring of 1967, pulled from their groundbreaking second album, Surrealistic Pillow. It doesn't sound quite that good tonight (how could it?). But it's great to see Kantner and Freiberg still playing music that, at one time, looked like it might change the world.

This is your brain on drugs: For Rad Times Xpress IV, out this week on Drag City, Jennifer Herrema expands and expounds upon the Royal Trux/RTX glam-metal-trash-art aesthetic.

By Claire Ashton

It's only fitting that Black Bananas would waylay the world via Drag City; the same label that began with a Royal Trux release and remained loyal to sleaze-queen Jennifer Herrema post-split from bandmate beau Neil Hagerty as she ventured into RTX territory.  More than a simple rebranding, this new incarnation goes bananas with Herrema at the wheel and her long-time RTX skinny boys in tow, walloping you upside the head with an acid-induced mash-up of rollicking glam, gunky metal and ghetto-fabulous art rock.

Black Bananas "Rad Times" by goldminesacks

Rad Times Xpress IV (Drag City) is the dirty alley where The Make-up and Marc Bolan conceive a love child; two parts political agenda to one part smeared eyeliner and razor-sharp presence.  Herrema has seen it all, from heroin addiction to success as a Calvin Klein model and Volcom denim designer, so it's only logical that her first venture into Black Banana land is as diverse and outside of the box as faithful followers would expect.  There's minimal cohesion throughout the group's freshman release, save for heavy bass lines that rival even the slickest modern hip-hop and metal guitar riffs so smutty they could make any redneck blush.  Black Bananas cover pop sensibility ("Hot Stupid"), Slayer on psychotropics ("Killer Weed"), noodling in the basement ("It's Cool"), club-hopping ("Acid Song") and crazy keyboards that sound like the Millennium Falcon ("Do It").

Less concept album and more attack of the senses, Rad Times Xpress IV sounds like your brain on drugs.  Good drugs.

To coincide with release of long-overdue new album, natch.

By Fred Mills

One forthcoming new release we've been listening to a lot here on the BLURT yacht is Sweet Heart Sweet Light, by Spiritualized. As previously announced, it drops this spring via Fat Possum. Today the band disclosed that major tours of the UK and North America would unfold in March and May, respectively - see the dates, below. Sorry, all you SXSWers - the band will be onstage in England about the time you are starting to stagger in the crowded streets of Austin...

We'll have plenty of coverage of the band coming up. Meanwhile, check our 2010 feature on the band, "Post-Teenage Symphonies To God."

03-16 Nottingham, England - Rescue Rooms
03-17 Portsmouth, England - Wedgewood Rooms
03-19 London, England - Hackney Empire
03-20 Oxford, England - O2 Academy
03-21 Bristol, England - O2 Academy
03-22 Glasgow, Scotland - ABC
03-23 Belfast, Northern Ireland - Mandela Hall
03-24 Dublin, Ireland - Vicar Street
03-25 Manchester, England - Academy
05-02 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
05-03 Chicago, IL - Metro
05-04 Detroit, MI - The Majestic Theatre
05-05 Toronto, Ontario - The Phoenix
05-07 New York, NY - Terminal 5
05-09 Boston, MA - Paradise
05-10 Washington, DC - The 9:30 Club
05-11 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts
05-12 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
05-13 Atlanta, GA - The Variety Playhouse
05-15 Dallas, TX - The Granada Theatre
05-16 Austin, TX - Emo's East
05-18 Tucson AZ - The Rialto Theatre
05-19 Phoenix AZ - The Crescent Ballroom
05-20 San Diego CA - Belly Up Tavern
05-22 Los Angeles CA - The Wiltern
05-23 San Francisco CA - The Fillmore
05-25 Portland, OR - The Wonder Ballroom
05-26 Vancouver, British Columbia - The Rickshaw Theatre

Not quite ready to commit to a new album yet but - "maybe down the road." Watch a live video from 1991, below.

By Blurt Staff

The indie world was abuzz a couple of weeks ago when word got out that Mike Watt's post-Minutemen band fIREHOSE would be reuniting to play Coachella, and that eagerly anticipated performance would be preceded by a two-week west coast tour kicking off April 5. This week at RollingStone.com Watt offered some details about the reunion, include these notes:

*"Edward [Crawford, guitarist] asked me last year if we would do some gigs again. I have to kind of plan things in advance, because I have so much going on, and that third opera, Hyphenated-Man, was coming out, so I said, ‘Edward, can we wait until next year? I'm a little busy right now.' The time opened up, so I said, ‘OK, let's try and do some gigs.'

*"fIREHOSE in a way was a little Minutemen ambassador. fIREHOSE got much more exposure than the Minutemen, at the time. And that's why I think there are a lot of people thinking about this, because of from their younger days, they remember seeing us."

*"For these two weeks of gigs, we're just going to try and play some of the old ones. But he was talking about writing songs. So, I don't know - maybe down the road [ we'll record new material]."

Read the entire interview at RollingStone.com.

It's A Shame About Ray, performed in its entirety on Jan. 27 and the Granada Theater in Lawrence, was superb. Then Dando lost the plot, but the band managed to come back strong.

Text/Photos by Danny R. Phillips

The year of Our Lord 1992 was a solid one for Evan Dando and his oh-so-sweet power pop band The Lemonheads. That year, their breakthrough record It's A Shame About Ray, pushed by a speeded-up version of the Simon and Garfunkel classic "Mrs. Robinson" shot them into the alternative rock strata and into my life, forever to stay an important part of my record collection.

Fast forward twenty years: I, along with a reported 1,000 plus aging alt-rock fans all with memories of a long ago lost MTV that played videos instead of Snooki on a twenty-three hour loop, filed into The Granada Theater in lovely Lawrence, Kansas, to relive those few precious moments before responsibility, jobs, kids and grey hair took over our realities.

We had arrived to see The Lemonheads play It's A Shame About Ray in its complete, alt-country, rock and roll wonder. A great idea.... Somewhat.

After great sets from opening bands The Dead Girls and Meredith Sheldon, a droopy eyed Dando took the stage with an acoustic Gibson in hand to play "Being Around," "Outdoor Type" and Townes Van Zandt's "Fraulein" before summoning the rest of the band to plug in. The audience buzzed at the opening bars of "Rockin' Stroll," it surged with "Ceiling Fan in my Spoon" and the good vibrations continued throughout every single number on "Ray" from "Rudderless" to "Bit Part" to "Allison's Starting to Happen."

For those 45+ minutes, it was a celebration of a record that meant so much too so many people. Then the good ship Ferrara Pan began to sink.

Halfway through the evening‘s festivities, Evan went acoustic, solo and self-indulgent. At that point the set began to drag, people left, hipsters gabbing ironically on their iPhones, boredom setting in en masse. I could do nothing except watch and wait, quietly drinking my beer, hoping for the best.

At what seemed like the point of total loss, the band ventured back to the stage for some electric action, seemingly in a volume driven attempt to salvage the situation. It worked, as the ‘Heads started sprinkling in covers, among them Edie Brickell ("I Know What I Know"); "Frying Pan" from the Victoria Williams tribute record Sweet Relief; and Suzanne Vega‘s "My Name is Luca." Also in the mix were sporadic Lemonheads tracks like "No Backbone," "Divan," "Just Laugh," "If I Could Talk, I‘d Tell You," "Favorite T" and many others from the band's long career and many incarnations.

I cannot say it was a great show, I cannot say it was a bad show. It was a 50/50 shot. Moments shined, songs rocked, the band (especially the drummer) was killer. When it was on, it was topnotch. However, when it was off, it was way off. A colossal clusterfuck.

But it's like this: I'll take the bad to get to the good. The many, many plus sides were worth the down moments. I'm genuinely glad I ventured out on that cold January night and I'm sure that others who stuck it out through the lull were glad as well.

If for no other reason than to feel young again for just a little while more.

Loveletter to N'awlins no less.

By Blurt Staff

Swedish born, New Orleans based soul singer - and BLURT fave - Theresa Andersson is back with a new album, Street Parade, a loveletter to her adopted hometown of two decades. It drops April 24 on Basin Street.

 
Multi-instrumentalist Andersson is best known for her live shows, where she crafts complexly layered songs using bevy of drums, stringed instruments and looping pedals. She became an internet phenomenon in 2008, when Youtube featured a home-made video of her performing a song in her kitchen. The song, "Na Na Na," from her album Hummingbird, Go!, logged 750,000 views in three days, and has gone on to accumulate nearly 1.5 million views on YouTube. (Read the review of that classic 2008 album here.)
 

Street Parade, according to the Andersson camp, "reflects a dreamy Nordic pop sensibility firmly rooted and influenced by the warm gospel and soul sounds that drew the artist to New Orleans in the first place." Note that key track "What Comes Next" opens with a bright horn melody and mighty drum cadence leading into a powerful chorus on which Theresa is joined by Peter Moren of Peter Bjorn and John.

To celebrate the launch of Street Parade, the singer is partnering with the all female KREWE OF MUSES, one of the most entertaining and unique Mardi Gras krewes, to debut music from her album. Working with renowned puppeteer Arthur Mintz, creator of the award-winning theater version of Fantastic Mr. Fox, the Mardi Gras performance will feature a puppet-driven float with Andersson, The Muses, and a 40 piece band of singers, drummers and horn players performing songs from the album.

 
Concert Dates:

2/16: New Orleans @ MARDI GRAS
3/8: NYC @ Joe's Pub, 7:30 pm
4/14: Mobile, AL @ Callaghan's Irish Social Club
4/18: New Orleans @ Lafayette Square (Free Show), 5pm
5/4: New Orleans @ JAZZFEST

Annual fiesta features NOFX, Rancid, The Briefs, The Adicts and Pennywise. And beer.

By Randy Harward

Punk Rock Bowling. Insert lame Jerry Maguire joke.

It just sounds good. Loud, snotty rock ‘n’ roll + big balls + plus lubricated, passive lanes. Add beer. That’s a party.

Actually, it’s a music festival happening this Memorial Day weekend (May 25-28). Shawn and Mark Stern (founders of Youth Brigade and BYO Records) started it in 1999 and it’s now a three-day festival with five dozen bands. It starts outdoors in the late afternoon on Saturday, Sunday and Monday with eight bands each day and late-night club shows every night – with some surprises. And get this: There’ll be pool parties and Texas Hold ‘Em every day.

Oh, it’s also in Las Vegas.

And the first five bands announced? NOFX, Rancid, The Briefs, The Adicts and Pennywise.

The only thing that’d be cooler is if the initials were PBR.

More info: www.punkrockbowling.com

But overall the field is as spread out as the GOP primaries were two months ago.

By Fred Mills

You voted, we listened. Er, looked. At the results, that is. And frankly, while our initial polling query of, "Which of these upcoming new releases are getting you all hot n' bothered?" seemed promising, in the end the percentages simply added up to 100% and didn't mean much more than that.

We listed 20 new winter releases slated to hit stores between Jan. 24 and Feb. 21, and at 10% and 9% respectively, Kevn Kinney (A Good Country Mile) and Chuck Prophet (Temple Beautiful) were your fave raves. We already have reviews of the records set to run on the website, and we've also assigned featured on Kinney and Prophet, so keep your eyes peeled for those. In a big clusterfuck more-or-less tie for third place were Leonard Cohen, Grimes, Mark Lanegan, Ruthie Foster, Mitch Ryder, the Heartless Bastards and, er, Van Halen. We'll let that latter lapse in taste pass for now...

View the full results, below, then pop back over to the BLURT homepage and vote in our newest poll in which we ask, in the wake of Obama's Al Green success, what songs should other politicians (living and dead) sing?

Released via Eagle Vision/Reelin' in the Years Productions, Look Through Any Window 1963-1975 is an example of how to do a clip-heavy rock-history documentary right.

By Steven Rosen

The Hollies' Look Through Any Window 1963-1975 is the fifth volume in Reelin' in the Years' DVD series on the British Invasion - others have featured Dusty Springfield, Small Faces, Herman's Hermits and Gerry & the Pacemakers. Under director David Peck, this is a good example of how to do a clip-heavy rock-history documentary right: Don't rush it; include old footage of entire songs rather than excerpts, and find as many examples as possible where the group performed live rather than lip-synched their hits. And in the contemporaneous interviews with members, don't let them get bogged down in reliving every spat and disagreement (as last year's Ballad of Mott the Hoople did); have them talk a lot about what made their individual songs special.

The Hollies are an appropriate act for such an approach, because they first and foremost were a vocal-harmony group. Lead singer Allan Clarke's ebulliently crystalline enunciation had a sharpness that was cushioned by Graham Nash's and Tony Hicks' intuitively sympathetic support. When Nash took an occasional lead, as on the intro into "On a Carousel," his higher voice had an appealingly, slightly strained naturalism. This sound made their string of hits instantly - and permanently - memorable: "Look Through Any Window," "I Can't Let Go," "Bus Stop," "Carousel," "Carrie Anne" and more. (Hicks also was a fine guitarist.) Also helping immensely was their knack for finding or writing vivid songs that balanced minor and major chords effortlessly, capable of alternating between bittersweet melancholy and youthfully exuberant optimism. (Graham Gouldman's "Bus Stop" is perhaps the finest example.)

As the 22 performance clips here show, as well as excellent studio footage of them rehearsing "On a Carousel" at Abbey Road Studios, they could always sing in tune. The interviews with Clarke, Nash, Hicks and drummer Bobby Elliott offer some interesting tidbits. "Carrie Anne" was really about Marianne Faithfull, but the Hollies were too shy to state it lyrically; Clarke's and Nash's wives helped write "Jennifer Eccles," a cutesy tune that Nash hated.

When the group members do talk about their developing differences, they actually speak to something larger happening in late-1960s rock: Nash, having met David Crosby on an L.A. trip, realized there was a different kind of rock, more organic and confessional, emerging than the audience-friendly, Top-40 productions of the Hollies, and left for America to seek it. As he explains, he was also frustrated that his attempt to have the Hollies match the Beatles in art-rock production, "King Midas in Reverse," met with fan indifference. (The song here accompanies footage of the band in England and Japan.) When the Hollies tried to bounce back with the poppy drivel that was "Jennifer Eccles," their period of artistic relevance seemed over.

But they did soldier on with some big hits without Nash, and the documentary includes them - "Sorry Suzanne," "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother," "Long Cool Woman (in a Black Dress)," and "The Air That I Breathe."  Given a chance to sing out, Clarke could make the ballads transcend their sentimentality, but in reality the Hollies were now just British Invasion survivors trying to find an occasional Top 40 hit. The documentary doesn't cover their interesting post-Nash album of Dylan covers done in 1969. But it does close with their 2010 inclusion into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, although Hicks and Elliott didn't make the ceremonies because their current version of the band (without Clarke or Nash) had a prior booking.