Now, about that White Chalk single coming....

By Fred Mills

As previously announced by BLURT, March 31 will bring a new PJ Harvey album titled A Woman A Man Walked By, due on Island. The John Parish collaboration was mixed by Flood. It's reportedly to be preceded by the single "The Devil" b/w "Liverpool," but confusingly, "The Devil comes from 2007's underwhelming White Chalk album (the b-side is unreleased)! We're betting that info turns out to be incorrect or premature and that something from AWAMWB will get the nod.

At any rate, here's the tracklisting for the new album:

Black Hearted Love
Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen
Leaving California
The Chair
April
A Woman A Man Walked By / The Crow Knows Where All The Little Children Go
The Soldier
Pig Will Not
Passionless, Pointless
Cracks In The Canvas

All the way from Memphis... to London... and onward.

By Fred Mills

So, American BLURT readers - what are YOU doing in October? How's that bank account looking? (Will there be anything in it by next fall for that matter?) Saving up to attend CMJ in New York? We say feh to that!

Smart money's on booking a flight to London on Oct. 2 and 3. That's when the late, great, Ian Hunter-fronted Mott the Hoople will be doing a pair of 40^th anniversary concerts at the Hammersmith Apollo. Tickets go on sale Jan. 22, so better snap ‘em up fast. The thing's bound to be a swift sellout - although let us not forget that similarly noteworthy events, such as the Pretty Things' S.F. Sorrow tour originally slated to take place at the end of this month, have been cancelled in the recent past due to poor ticket sales, so ya never know!

Plus, Mott/Hunter fan site Hunter-Mott.com is cautioning that the gigs are not 100% confirmed yet, so keep checking in with them. Apparently back in September keyboardist Verden Allen disclosed in a readio interview that all five members had been in talks about getting back together again; bassist Overend Watts had been a longtime holdout, while neither he nor drummer Dale Griffin had even performed live for years; but both Hunter and guitarist Mick Ralphs had indicated in the past that they'd be open to the notion.

And British promoter Rob Hallet recently told BBC news, in the wake of all the Led Zep reunion rumors, that there was another one hailing from the same era that was currently on the table. "If you were a teenage boy in the pre-punk 70's," said Hallet, "you're going to be very excited. Outside of Led Zeppelin, this is probably the biggest reformation that you could hope for."

Mott the Hoople started life in 1966 as the Doc Thomas group, eventually hooking up with legendary producer Guy Stevens (who suggested the name change) and issued a string of classic albums for Island and Columbia before calling it a day in 1974, at which point Hunter went solo and the other members soldiered on as simply "Mott" for a pair of somewhat uninspired albums. Since then, reunions have been rumored  but nothing has ever materialized, although tons of reissues and archival releases have continued to fuel the Mott fan fire - including for yours truly, who plans to drag his stack heels and glitter makeup out of mothballs for the reunion shows.

Meanwhile, Hunter-Mott.com indicates that an authorized DVD documentary on Mott will be released to commemorate the 40^th anniversary. It's being done by Start Productions, the same people who did last year's moderately received doc on Love titled Love Story. Start's website is, ominously, not working at the moment, but you can get details about the Love film at www.myspace.com/lovestorydocumentary.

Beach Boys legend also gives brief acoustic performance and drops clues about his next hard rock project.

By Jose Martinez

Last night, the brand spankin' new state-of-the-art GRAMMY Museum, housed in the megalopolis that is LA LIVE in downtown Los Angeles, hosted its first public program. Billed as "An Evening with Brian Wilson," 200 lucky fans were treated to an intimate discussion with the famed singer as well as a brief acoustic performance.

GRAMMY Museum Executive Director Robert Santelli, the evening's Q&A moderator, described the event as the opportunity to "hear history from the horse's mouth." And the horse, Southern California legend Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, was in an energetic mood much to the delight of his fans.

How appropriate that while the rest of the country was freezing it was a cool 75-degree winter night in Los Angeles as the definitive beach boy talked about his historic music career.

Listing Chuck Berry as the "most influential songwriter of my life," Wilson also pointed out that the works of lauded producer Phil Spector and the harmonious Four Freshmen were very monumental to his craft.

Arguably one of popular music's most deeply revered icons, the 66-year-old Wilson is a legendary songwriter, producer and performer that has created some of the most cherished songs in rock history.

Speaking in quick, excited bursts, Wilson confessed that he was "jealous" of the Beatles and described their music as "electrifying."

He also admitted that the Beach Boys' 1966 classic Pet Sounds was an "experiment in sound" made to "keep Phil Spector's sound alive."

Confessing that he's determined to "keep good music alive," Wilson described his first ever encounter with Elvis Presley. It seemed the King (Presley) was recording in the same studio as the Beach Boys, and Elvis, wearing a long, burgundy suede coat refused to listen to Wilson's new tracks.

Wilson, the architect of the smooth California sound, pointed out that he longs to make a hard rock record. In fact, he's already recorded versions of "Proud Mary" and "At the Hop."

"One day," he said, of the record's release. "I'm wondering if I should," he added.

Having penned so many classics, Wilson noted that the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" is his favorite song. "It's the best song I've ever written."

When asked to list the four artists he would choose to be stranded with on a desert island he quickly chose The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Bee Gees, and The Eagles.

After being asked what is left for him to accomplish, to which he answered, "nothing really," Wilson was joined by his 5-piece band and performed a brief but impressive six-song set. Singing with a serene expression, Wilson performed "Surfer Girl" (the first song he ever wrote), as well as tracks from his latest release That Lucky Old Sun such as "Midnight's Another Day" (very epic sounding), "Going Home" and the Beach Boys-inspired "Southern California." He also treated fans to favorites "God Only Knows" and "Surfin' U.S.A."

To the credit of the newly opened GRAMMY Museum, this wonderful evening, the first in a series of "Evening with" events (jazz great Charlie Haden will be the next guest on January 21) amazingly only cost members $18 and non-members $19.95. Talk about a bargain!

In the midst of a promotional tour to celebrate the release of That Lucky Old Sun DVD on January 27, fans can catch the following Brian Wilson events:

Jan 24 - Autograph signing at Guitar Center Hollywood (12pm) and Guitar Center Northridge (5pm)

Jan 25 - Autograph signing at Guitar Center La Mesa in San Diego (1pm)

Jan 28 - Brian Wilson concert at The Wiltern in Los Angeles

Jan 29 - Brian Wilson concert at House of Blues in San Diego

Jan 30 - World Premiere of Going Home documentary at Santa Barbara Film Festival

For more information on the GRAMMY Museum go to www.grammymuseum.org.

[Photo Credit: James Minchin III]

"There are things I would do differently if given the chance." - George W. Bush

"A fool despises good counsel, but a wise man takes it to heart." - Confucius 

By Fred Mills

That odd calming sensation you're experiencing? Assuming you haven't been dipping into Mommy's Xanax stash again (hint: six tabs and a shot of tequila can feel awesome), it must be the sense of psychic relief slowly coming on as we approach next Tuesday, Inauguration Day.

Change? We sure need it.

I know I need it - this past 8 years has made me feel bitter, angry and spiteful. I get angry over the fact that I've gotten angry, even! 8 years ago this month my first child was born (no, his first words weren't "Bush sucks" but I did teach him that mantra eventually), and while I'm terrified about what the future holds for him in the aftermath of the Bush administration, I'm just thankful that he now has a chance to grow up in what's potentially an era of tolerance and hope, and that he'll no longer have to see his Daddy red-faced and apoplectic at what I see on TV or read in the newspaper. Children need a chance to prolong their innocence for as long as possible, and I fear that despite our strongest efforts as parents, Bush & Co. have stolen a good chunk of that innocence and made the world a meaner, darker place.

***

A joke, from the early days of the Bush administration:

The heads of state of the US, England, France and Mexico are on an airplane flight when the pilot announces that they're experiencing difficulty and have been jettisoning cargo to lighten the plane but to no avail, and therefore one of the four men is going to have to bail in order to save the plane and the other three. The French president gets up, walks over to the hatch, nobly shouts "Viva la France!", and jumps out. The plane keeps losing altitude, however, and the pilot announces that a second man will have to bail. The British prime minister gets up, walks over to the hatch, nobly shouts, "God save the Queen!", and jumps out. But the plane still keeps losing altitude, and the pilot announces that yet a third man will have to bail. George Bush gets up, walks over to the hatch, shouts "Remember the Alamo!" and shoves the Mexican president out.

***

Not so funny anymore, is it folks?

Meanwhile, for a horrifying, if mercifully brief, period last night, the Criminal In Chief took center stage one again to remind us of where we are and how we got here. It was like a 13-minute migraine, a pounding blackness spreading from the front of the lobes all the way to the back of the neck. The subsequent cracking and moaning noises across America were the sounds of thousands of emergency massages being applied to the shoulder, neck and temple regions. President Bush delivered his farewell address, defending once again his astonishing 8-year record on the grounds of having to deploy "tough decisions" while giving mere lipservice to what those decisions led to when he noted he'd "experienced setbacks."

"There are things I would do differently if given the chance," Bush said, offhandedly, as if he were an athlete giving a locker-room recap of a game that had just been lost rather than a leader of the free world who almost singlehandedly brought our country to its knees in the eyes of the rest of the planet while wrecking our economy, shredding our constitution, and making us more than just a little more unsafe from threats both within and without.

"I have followed my conscience and done what I thought was right," added the commandante.

Fair enough, George. Too bad every goddam thing you did was wrong, you little silver spoon redneck cocksucker. There are only three people in history, in my lifetime, that I yearn to one day have a chance piss upon their graves: Richard Nixon, Jesse Helms (whom I previously, um, eulogized quite tenderly), and you. The day your obituary appears in the newspaper will be one of my happiest days. I will read it gleefully aloud to my son, and I will remind him of everything that happened during the first 8 years of his life, hopefully rejoice over much that has happened since those first 8 years, and if there is any justice I will then take him out for a beer to celebrate.

Oh, and a big honkin' p.s. to everybody out there who ever voted for Bush, who ever made half-hearted apologies for Bush, who ever gave Bush the benefit of the doubt - and as early as even Sept. 12, 2001, didn't bother to consult alternative media and look at the underlying motives of everything Bush was saying or doing and then ask questions of your own: kiss my ofay ass. You're just as complicit in the Bush crimes, and just as responsible for the mess we are in.

Change? Hell yeah, bring it on.

Forget? Never in your fucking life.

This has been a public service, with guitars, from BLURT. Opinions expressed herein are purely my own, but I have no doubt they are shared by many.

We just added the latest MP3s by Neko Case, Vetiver, and Heartless Bastards to our BLURT Radio player. Check 'em out!

Decemberists set to release new album The Hazards of Love March 24

On March 24th, Capitol Records will release The DecemberistsÂ� fifth album—entitled The Hazards Of Love, the follow-up to the groupÂ�s 2006 breakthrough,The Crane Wife. No Decemberists long player would be complete without some kind of theme or concept running throughout and it sounds like this won't be any different. According to the press release, "the 17-song suite, recorded with the bandÂ�s longtime producer, Tucker Martine, is rooted in ancient language and imagery, yet entirely modern and accessible." Wow.

The Decemberists are making Â�"The RakeÂ�s Song"Â� from The Hazards available as a free download starting today at www.decemberists.com.

For more on that concept, here's mainman Colin Meloy has to say: "There'�s an odd bond between the music of the British folk revival and classic metal. �A natural connection between, like, Fairport Convention and Black Sabbath � of course, Sandy Denny from Fairport even sang with Led Zeppelin on �The Battle of Evermore.� I think there�s a shared sense of narrative and ambience, of moving beyond the first person in your writing. And I thought it would be interesting to mess around with that.�"

Apparently The Hazards Of Love tells the story of a woman named Margaret who is ravaged by a shape-shifting beast; her lover, William; a forest queen; and a cold-blooded, lascivious rake.Â� Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark and My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden deliver the lead vocals for the female characters, while My Morning Jacket's Jim James, Robyn Hitchcock and the Spinanes' Rebecca Gates appear in supporting roles. 

The track listing for The Hazards Of Love is as follows:

1. Prelude

2. The Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles WonÂ�t Wrestle the Thistles Undone)

3. A Bower Scene

4. WonÂ�t Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)

5. The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All)

6. The QueenÂ�s Approach

7. IsnÂ�t it a Lovely Night?

8. The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid

9. An Interlude        

10. The RakeÂ�s Song

11. The Abduction of Margaret

12. The QueenÂ�s Rebuke / The Crossing

13. Annan Water

14. Margaret in Captivity

15. The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)

16. The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise)

17. The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)

Blurt’s sleuthy sources dish on Sundance 2009 buzz flicks.

By RANDY HARWARD

It’s January in Salt Lake City, Utah. Wafting off the Wasatch Mountains, from a crevice called Parley’s Canyon that leads to Park City, is an enticing bouquet of hope, desperation, delusion and pretension… or maybe it’s just Axe™ body spray and swag bag perfume samples. It’s time again for the Sundance Film Festival, a veritable three-ring circus of the stars, where films are made and broken, and stiff smiles and firm handshakes—in even firmer, newly purchased ski gloves—are exchanged. Here’s a peek at what Blurt’s shadowy sources say will be the talk of Park City next week.

Cobra Verde, Puta Madre

Quentin Tarantino presents this grindhouse-meets-arthouse film in which Klaus Kinski and Cheech Marin play an odd couple who run a temp staffing agency as a front for their private investigation business. When a tile setter goes rogue and starts taking side jobs, Kinski and Marin set out to teach the fucker a lesson, only to learn a little something themselves—from a Zen Dadaist who calls himself The Last Slice of Pizza. (R, 87 minutes, dir: Werner Jodorowsky)

Anything is Popsicle

A young music blogger with a Jew-fro (Napoleon Dynamite’s Jon Heder) gets a once-in-a-lifetime chance to write a cover story for a national magazine but clashes with his editor, who requests numerous rewrites and refuses to let the young scribe use his affliction—malapropism—as an excuse. A subplot follows a mother-daughter rock crit/groupie team that gets interviews via unscrupulous front-row slurping. (R, 101 minutes, dir: Charlie Kaufman)

Excreted

From the producers of An American Carol and Expelled comes a film about how we all came from Ben Stein’s droning anus. (PG-13, 61 minutes, dir: Alan Smithee)

Itty Bitty Titty Kumite

Loosely based on Joe R. Lansdale’s short story The Pit. Four flat-chested barely-legals and their chaperone (Kate Hudson) on a post-high school trip to Alabama take a wrong turn and are abducted by a snake-handling preacher who forces them to fight each other in underground, to-the-death cage matches. Hudson falls for a toothless Cajun with literary aspirations while the girls come to grips with their heterosexuality. (R, 89 minutes, dir: Harmony Korine)

Our Band Could Fuck Your Wife… If You Enroll In Our Super Special VIP Fan Club

Exploring the phenomenon of VIP fan clubs, in which fans pay money for the privilege to pay even more money for VIP ticket packages, worthless tchotchkes and maybe/maybe-not backstage meet-and-greets. It doesn’t stop there: Our Band…reveals that some artists—such as kabuki-rockers KISS—plan to take the fleecing to ridiculous levels. (NC-17, 78 minutes, dir: Miranda Azerrad-Meltzer)

Doll Farts: The Ringer 2

Penniless and even more desperate, Courtney Love (Courtney Love) blows an appellate court judge and wins the right to replace Kurt Cobain (played in flashbacks by Kurt Cobain’s exhumed skeleton) in Nirvana. Remaining members Dave Grohl (Aziz Ansari) and Krist Novoselic (Aaron Eckhart) figure “fuck it” and allow the hijinks to ensue, hoping that by the end of the band’s second meteoric rise to fame, Love will blow her head off, too. (R, 114 minutes, dir: Benjamin Silverman for Reveille Productions)

Pop Rocks

Popstar puppy mill Disney answers Before the Music Dies with an apologist documentary about the New Bubblegum, the cloying yet flavorless style of pop music where a pretty face is all you need. Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato argue for the fair use of Auto-Tune, with Cyrus paraphrasing the famous Elvis quote about her McMusic: “Like, 50 billion Cyrus fans can’t all be tone-deaf.”

Each screening to be preceded by the short film Hannah Mantegna, in which character actor Joe Mantegna plays a cross-dressing tribute performer with a stutter. (PG, 90 minutes, dir: Walt Disney’s frozen head)

Wigger

Melvin Van Peebles (Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song) directs this tale of a twenty-year-old, rail-thin, albino Jiffy Lube employee in suburban Utah that experiences a downward spiral when his rims are stolen from his Datsun B210 Wagon, his own mother calls him a wigger and kicks his ass, and Soulja Boy’s career tanks. (Unrated, 79 minutes, dir: Melvin Van Peebles)

Just a Juggalo

The tagline for this horror show is “They’re dumb… and they’ve come (for handouts).” Forget Jimmy Buffett’s “Parrotheads” and David Archuleta’s “Archies”: Insane Clown Posse’s “Juggalos” are most devoted (and retarded) fans of all—and they’re breeding. Juggalo Julz (The Sopranos’ Aida Turturro) is a heavyweight Juggalette [Editor’s Note: Redundancy?] whose favorite pastime, other than being a Juggalo—is washing down Xanax with beer. Julz discovers she’s pregnant on Valentine’s Day and delivers on Mother’s Day. When the baby—named Annabelle Lotus after ICP side project Dark Lotus—dies after only 13 minutes, she gives her “little Ninjette” an ICP-themed funeral… then blames the doctors and calls ICP’s WFuckOff Radio to announce the news—and use it as leverage when she complains about not receiving promised swag. Based on a true story. Seriously… we couldn’t make this shit up. (NC-17, 105 minutes, dir: Jorg Buttgereit)

Used to be in a little old band called Husker Du. You may have heard of ‘em.

By Blurt Staff

2009 marks the 20^th anniversary of the release of erstwhile Husker Du frontman Bob Mould's classic solo debut Workbook. Not so coincidentally, this year also sees the release of Bob Mould's latest solo work, Life and Times, set for an April 7^th street date.  It's the followup to 2008's District Line.

Produced and mixed by Mould in his new hometown of Washington D.C, the album is filled with Mould's experiences in relation to friends, lovers, the world at large and himself.  It is honest and personal, his voice breaking on "Bad Blood Better," the electronic twitches of earlier work reappearing under signature blazing guitars on"MM17."  Mould appraises the perils of easy self-distraction on "Wasted World" and is not afraid to get explicit on "Argos."  The emotional and musical centerpiece of the record, "I'm Sorry Baby, But You Can't Stand In My Light Anymore," is an unflinching look at the sorrow and regret that comes at the end of love.

Read this interview with Mould from 2005, conducted by BLURT's own Scott Crawford.

Then read this one from 2008, by our pal Doug Wallen.

Life and Times Track Listing:

Life and Times

The Breach

City Lights (Days Go By)

MM 17

Argos

Bad Blood Better

Wasted World

Spiraling Down

I'm Sorry, Baby, But You Can't Stand In My Light Any More

Lifetime

Bob Mould On Tour:

2/28 - San Francisco, CA @ Swedish American Hall (Noisepop Festival) 

3/02 - Los Angeles, CA @ Hotel Cafe

3/11 - New York, CA @ Carnegie Hall (R.E.M Tribute Show)

3/29 - Chicago, IL @ Old Town School of Folk

3/30 - Minneapolis, IL @ Varsity Theatre 

4/05 - Charlottesville, VA @ Gravity Lounge 

4/07 - Alexandria, VA @ Birchmere 

4/08 - New York, NY @ Joe's Pub 

4/09 - New York, NY @ Joe's Pub 

Get Lucky With Maria Taylor!

1-15-09

... and get your mind out of the gutters, all you hairy-palmed fanboys (and fangirls)... we're talking about getting lucky with a free MP3 and news of a  new album. C'mon, now.

By Blurt Staff

Maria Taylor is set to release her third solo album titled Ladyluck on April 7, via Nettwerk. Teaming up with producer friends Andy LeMaster (Bright Eyes, Azure Ray and a host of Saddle Creek label mates), Mike Mogis and Lukas Burton and featuring collaborations with Michael Stipe, Nate Walcott of Bright Eyes and Mckenzie Smith of Midlake, LadyLuck showcases Taylor's ability to pull at your heart strings while proving she's not a woman down on her luck.

Additionally, two tracks from the forthcoming album, "Time Lapse Lifeline" and "Orchids," are available digitally on prerelease as of January 13 (you can preview both at Taylor's MySpace page: www.myspace.com/mariataylor ). God, those sound good...  "Time Lapse Lifeline," with its orchestral strings and grand melody, tells the story about fast life moves and how everything can change in one moment. Appropriately, the song is punctuated by both a driving beat and lingering plaintive vocals, with breaks of near silence for poignant turns of phrase. "Oh we dreamed a life/ it was just like that was just like that/ and just like that and just like that it's done," Taylor sings as lone strings fade out.

"Orchids" will also air on the January 22 episode of Private Practice.

Some random past coverage from "us"  (or thereabouts) on Taylor:

Fun Facts!

Album review!

Tour dates for Taylor will be announced shortly.

 

DOWNLOAD "TIME LAPSE LIFELINE"

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)

Thursday, January 15:

2:00 VH1 Classic: Classic Albums: Nirvana - Nevermind; Metallica - Black Album; Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

4:00 Rave HD: From the Basement: PJ Harvey, Super Furry Animals, Free Blood, Operator Pleas

5:00 Rave HD: Beautiful Noise: My Morning Jacket

11:35 NBC Jay Leno: Mutemath

12:00 Sundance: Spectacle: Elvis Costello w/Rufus Wainwright

12:05 ABC Jimmy Kimmel: Crooked X

12:35 NBC Conan O'Brien: Fred Armison

12:35 ABC Craig Ferguson: Glasvegas

1:35 NBC Carson Daly: Puddle of Mudd

Friday, January 16:

3:00 VH1 Classic: Led Zeppelin The Song Remains The Same

4:00 Rave HD: Soundstage: Tori Amos

9:00 Sundance: Live From Abbey Road: Matchbox 20, The Script, Def Leppard

10:00 Rave HD: Amy Winehouse Live at the Porchster

11:30 CBS David Letterman: Airborne Toxic Event

12:05 ABC Jimmy Kimmel: Saah Silverman, Delta Spirit

12:35 NBC Conan O'Brien: Amos Lee

1:35 NBC Carson Daly: 3OH!3

[Photo Credit: Sara Cass]