Colin Comes Alive!

By Blurt Staff

The Decemberists have announced the March 13 release of We All Raise Our Voices To The Air (Live Songs 04.11-08.11), a 20-track live double-album (and triple-vinyl set) culled from the band's 2011 tour supporting their The King Is Dead album. With songs spanning their entire first decade as a band-from their debut EP 5 Songs through each of their six LP's-We All Raise Our Voices To The Air is their first-ever live album.

It includes recent hits "Down By the Water," "This Is Why We Fight" and "Calamity Song" as well as catalog faves that include gorgeous fok-rock gems ("Rise To Me"), murderously driving rockers ("The Rake's Song"), expansive suites ("The Crane Wife 1, 2, and 3"), the worst song Meloy ever wrote ("Dracula's Daughter"), or epic sea shanties that inspire enthusiastic crowd participation ("The Mariner's Revenge Song").

In concert, The Decemberists are  lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Colin Meloy, keyboardist & accordionist Jenny Conlee, guitarist Chris Funk, bassist Nate Query, and drummer John Moen, with additional member Sara Watkins on fiddle, guitar and vocals. The performances on We All Raise Our Voices To The Air are drawn from 12 different shows at venues including the legendary Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Stubb's BBQ in Austin, Marymoor Amphitheatre in Seattle, and their final two shows at McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheatre in their hometown of Portland, which featured the addition of a horn section that can be heard on several songs.

Tracklisting:

Disc 1

The Infanta (5:15)

Calamity Song (3:57)

Rise To Me (4:55)

The Soldiering Life (3:58)

We Both Go Down Together (4:30)

The Bagman's Gambit (8:05)

Down By The Water (3:59)

Leslie Ann Levine(4:15)

The Rake's Song (3:34)

The Crane Wife 1, 2, and 3 (16:20)

Disc 2

Oceanside (3:15)

Billy Liar (6:33)

Grace Cathedral Hill (4:35)

All Arise! (4:30)

Rox In The Box (3:15)

June Hymn (4:20)

Dracula's Daughter > O Valencia! (5:49)

This Is Why We Fight (4:35)

The Mariner's Revenge Song (10:20)

I Was Meant For The Stage (10:00)

From the world's news leader, natch. We're just hoping that Wolf Blitzer gets his own Andy Rooney-styled segment.


By Blurt Staff


In the "bizarre news of the day" category, we have learned that CNN is launching a new half hour music show this weekend. It's called SOUNDCHECK and will be anchored by Brooke Baldwin - no, we have no idea who she is either. The first episode will be on CNN Saturday, Jan. 14 at 2:30pm est.

That installment features, admittedly, some solid acts: Wilco, Mavis Staples, Mumford & Sons, Ben Sollee, and Janelle Monae (among others). CNN advises, "This show is for music lovers and aficionados to hear from their favorite acts, or up-and-coming talents they would love."


So yeah, while CNN isn't the most obvious place one things to turn to when seeking out a music fix, but hey, it's bound to be better than Music Television itself, that reality show wasteland MTV...

More to come after Coachella?

bY fRED mILLS

And... we're off! Hot on the heels of the announcement that they would be reuniting to play the 2012 Coachella festival, the torrid trio of Mike Watt, George Hurley and Ed Crawford - aka fIREHOSE - today dropped the bomb that they would lead up to the event with a monthlong April tour of the West Coast. The band, which formed in ‘86 after Watt and Hurley's previous band, the Minutemen, dissolved in the wake of D. Boon's tragic death in 1985, and lasted through 1994, is considered one of the lynchpins of the alterna-rock explosion. The stats: 980 gigs, five albums, two EP, one million minds blown.

You know there is more to come...

tOUR dATES:

4-05 Sacramento, CA - Harlow's
4-06  Portland, OR - Doug Fir
4-07  Seattle, WA - Neumos
4-09  Bellingham, WA - Wild Buffalo House of Music
4-10  Eugene, OR - WOW Hall
4-11  San Francisco, CA - Slim's
4-12  Santa Cruz, CA - Historic Coconut Grove Ballroom
4-13  Fresno, CA - Fulton 55
4-14  Indio, CA - Coachella Music Festival
4-17  Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom
4-18  Flagstaff, AZ - Orpheum Theatre
4-19  Tucson, AZ - Plush
4-21  Indio, CA - Coachella Music Festival

128 Beats Per Minute: Diplo's Visual Guide To Music, Culture, And Everything In Between, with foreword by Alexander Wang, photos by Shane Mccauley, arrives in April.

By Blurt Staff

From private beaches in Barcelona to a music studio in Jamaica, 128 Beats Per Minute is a photographic journey through the life of DJ/producer Diplo (also ½ of Major Lazer). The photography by former assistant to assistant to Annie Leibowitz, Shane McCauley, captures the excitement and vibrant mood as they travel from country to country and party to party, complete with a foreword by the CFDA/Vogue award winning fashion designer, Alexander Wang.

Chapters are divided by country, from Israel to Trinidad, and Russia to Asia - complete with a playlist as well as Diplo's impressions of the culture and people: "Every city has its own cultural movement, history, fashion, and art-all of which is constantly evolving into something different."  Not only a DJ and producer, Diplo also founded the label Mad Decent, which has brought Brazilian baile funk, Angolan Kuduro, and other unknown music to clubs around the world and has been honing his literary chops while writing a column for Vanity Fair online. 128 Beats Per Minute is Diplo's tour of the world and offers a glimpse into the people, places, and music that inspires him.   

The book is set to drop April 2012 via Universe Publishing, an imprint of Rizzoli New York,

Diplo details: http://www.facebook.com/diplo

Best reason to storm the Grammys that we can think of!

In February the Numero Group heads to L.A. to celebrate the label's multiple Grammy nominations. "Sporting shorts, sandals, t-shirts and, yes, tuxedos, we ease the Grammy jitters with a weekend-long marathon of Numerology," quoth the label. Here are the details:

Friday Evening 2/10/12 

Cinefamily presents An Evening with The Numero Group

A very rare screening of Andy Davis' cult Chicago film Stony Island, starring Gene Barge, Rae Dawn Chong, Susanna Hoffs, Dennis Franz and Billy Preston, with director Q&A and Numero DJ set to follow. 

View the original 1978 trailer here: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nIo671qmk8

The details:

Stony Island

Silent Movie Theater

611 North Fairfax 

Los Angeles, CA 90036

Show time: 8PM

$10

Saturday Evening 2/11/12

As the sun sets, hit Echo on Sunset, where Syl Johnson, recently disembarked from a Southwest jet will play his first show in California since the late '70s. With two Grammy nominations on the verge of bearing fruit the following night at the Staples Center and expert backup from LA's own Breakestra, Syl is sure to be in rare form. 

The details:

Syl Johnson (backed by the Breakestra )

The Echo

1822 Sunset Blvd. 

Los Angeles, CA 90026

Doors: 9PM. Set: 10PM.

$15

Following Syl's set, Numero will share decks with Miles Tackett from Funky Sole for a three hour dance party.

 FOR MORE INFORMATION

http://www.numerogroup.com/

Check out the guest drummer too!


By Fred Mills


Last night the War On Drugs - one of BLURT's top ten artists of 2011 - appeared on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon," doing "Baby Missiles" from the Slave Ambient album. Check it out, below. And yes, that is ?uestlove of the Roots sitting in on drums....

Click here to listen to your favorite feedtime songs according to Mark Arm.  

By Fred Mills

Oz rock fans - hell, rock fans of any geographical stripe - awoke this morning to the news that the mighty feedtime is slated to be the subject of a limited edition 4-CD and LP box set courtesy Sub Pop. Titled the Aberrant years, it's due March 13. And yes, that double pun of the title is intentional.

your favorite feedtime songs according to mark arm by subpop

The group - Rick, Al, and Tom - formed in Sydney circa '79 and went on to cut four hugely influential albums in the ‘80s before splitting at the end of the decade: feedtime, Shovel, Cooper-S and Suction, all released in Australia via Bruce Griffiths' iconoclastic label Aberrant (Rough Trade released the latter 3 in the US). There was also a brief reunion in the mid ‘90s that resulted in the Billy album for Amphetamine Reptile, and then they were no longer once again.

Though feedtime never toured the US during its initial heyday, American fans of pure, primal, skronky blooze-noise eagerly embraced the band, and they became a mainstay of the fanzine underground. Yours truly can testify to the trio's prowess; during the ‘80s I authored an Australian music column for east coast rock zine The Bob, and feedtime was a fixture in the column. I also oversaw the release of an Australian flexidisc for The Bob, and feedtime had one of the key tracks. The accompanying interview I did with the band remains one of my fondest memories of that period: far from being the thuggish neanderthals that their heavier-than-heaven sound might have conveyed, they were funny and engaging, humble to a fault, and eager to reach out to their fanbase while clear-eyed about their overall position in the music world.

Well, time has a way of rescuing the notion of "obscurity" every now and then, and the Sub Pop box will be received with great joy, I have no doubt. As the label puts it:

This burning energy existed for some ten years and produced some of the most powerful, creative and personal rock and roll music we are ever likely to hear.The songs are out there to discover and relate to and when they hit they explode and you're never the same again, but you're grateful for the experience. This isn't "noise rock," this is a groundbreaking FORM of music that knows its roots but applies the lessons to a wider scope than their peers.

      It's heavy but life is too and some of us know this and we channel that power into art and sometimes beautiful things are created. Sometimes it's too heavy and nothing seems to work out. Sometimes you just need to laugh it off and stand at the back of the room for a while.

      This is perfect sound and pure art. Avant-garde pub-rock. All hail the concrete urban blues.

[Photo Credit: Caroline Birkett]

Frontman Parker Griggs after receiving 14 stitches to the forehead last Saturday night.

By Blurt Staff

Last month we reviewed the mighty Radio Moscow's recent album The Great Escape of Leslie Magnafuzz (Alive), noting that it "feeds from the teat of late sixties and seventies Nuggets comp forefathers, vocal effects and hallucinogens dripping from the speakers and the psychedelic, heavy, effects-driven guitar of Parker Griggs."

Apparently all that heaviness and aggression went into overdrive Saturday night at the start of the band's North American tour when the members had, in the label's words, "a physical meltdown onstage during their hometown record release show in Ames, IA. With internal friction between the threesome apparently boiling over, the band made it to the final song of their setlist before things came to a head. Literally. The drummer grabbed Griggs' guitar and, according to Griggs, hurled it as hard as he could at the guitarist, leaving a gaping wound in his forehead and blood everywhere. Griggs was then rushed to the local emergency room, where he received 14 stitches."

Watch the implosion, below:

Interestingly, if you check the viewer comments below the video at YouTube, some of the notes were apparently penned by fans who were in attendance and saw the events go down. For example, "BluesPills" wrote, "Nice editing... you left out all the parts where parker was bashing his band on stage on the mic to all the friends and family in the audience. You also left out the the guitar actually hit Cory in the neck, Cory just reacted, there was no time for aim are you serious... oh one more thing... just so its clarified. The night before Parker threw a beer can at a womans face. That woman being The bassists girlfriend. That woman being the singer of Blues Pills."

Another commenter, "somewhere646," added, "I think you should post the uncut version from Saturdays second set. Let people hear all the shit parker was saying about the bassist and drummer before he threw the guitar at the drummer. Can tell your friends with Parker. Because everyone else who was there thought Parker was the ass."

So clearly there is a divergence of opinion here. But that's none of our business, and besides, Griggs has already put together a new version of the band. According to the record label:

"Needless to say that was the end of this particular incarnation of Radio Moscow (but then Parker always has toured with an ever-changing set of guitarists and drummers in the past, not to mention that he plays all of the instruments on Radio Moscow's albums).  With only one day before their Chicago show, Griggs enlisted two new musicians into the band - bassist Billy Ellsworth from San Diego and drummer Lonnie Blanton from Salt Lake City, who flew into Chicago yesterday and arrived at the venue just hours before their gig. Radio Moscow is reborn and once again ready to rock the nation... hopefully now with a lot less bloodshed."

As the tour will continue, Alive is also offering a previously unreleased Radio Moscow track, "The Stranger," which is featured on Alive's new various artists sampler Where Is Parker Griggs. Good luck to Radio Moscow, and here's hoping they make it through the tour. Dates are below.

RADIO MOSCOW / GRAVEYARD 2012 TOUR DATES
01/10/12 Ace of Cups, Columbus OH (without Graveyard)
01/12/12 Bowery Ballroom, New York NY
01/13/12 Middle East, Cambridge MA
01/14/12 North Star Bar, Philadelphia PA
01/15/12 Golden West, Baltimore MD
01/16/12 DC9, Washington DC
01/17/12 Strange Matter, Richmond VA
01/18/12 Casbah @ Tremont Music Hall, Charlotte NC
01/19/12 Asheville Music Hall, Asheville NC
01/20/12 Exit / In, Nashville TN
01/21/12 The Masquerade, Atlanta GA
01/22/12 Hi-Tone Café, Memphis TN
01/23/12 Dave's Skate Park, Texarkana, TX (without Graveyard)
01/24/12 Fitzgerald's, Houston TX
01/25/12 Mohawk, Austin TX
01/27/12 Yucca Tap Room, Tempe AZ
01/28/12 Bootleg Bar, Los Angeles CA
01/29/12 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz (without Graveyard)
01/30/12 Café Du Nord, San Francisco CA
01/31/12 Doug Fir Lounge, Portland OR
02/01/12 The Tractor, Seattle WA
02/21/12 Humboldt Brews, Arcata, CA (without Graveyard)

Also making Living Room Songs available on CD.

By Blurt Staff

Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds made his Hollywood debut last year after scoring Sam Levinson's Another Happy Day, the award-winning feature film starring Ellen Barkin, Demi Moore, Kate Bosworth, Ezra Miller and more. Erased Tapes is now set to release the film's soundtrack due out on February 28th.

According to Arnalds, "In mid-December 2010 I was on a holiday in China when I received an email from Sam Levinson about the film. We got on the phone at like 4 in the morning Beijing time and ended up talking all through the night, instantly connecting. He told me that they had been listening to my music while making the film, so the film was already very influenced by my music.  

"However, it was not until Ellen Barkin - the beautiful force that she is - had pestered the producers for a week, calling them every day about how I am the right one for this film, that they finally gave in. The only catch was that it had to be done two weeks later, in the first week of January. So I ended up scoring nonstop all throughout Christmas, making my mother mad in the process."

In related news, Arnalds has also released Living Room Songs, a series in October where he created and released one new song per day, for one whole week. Inviting the audience into the comfort of his Reykjavik apartment, he recorded the songs live and filmed the whole process. In December a full-length version of the series aired followed by a live interactive chat with Ólafur and his fans. Living Room Songs is out now on CD, vinyl, ltd. special edition CD & DVD). 

Songwriter follows up his acclaimed Harlem River Blues.

By Blurt Staff

Set for a March 27 release on Bloodshot: Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now, by Justin Townes Earle. This is Earle's fourth release and follows his critically acclaimed 2010 album, Harlem River Blues - which, you may remember was BLURT's #2 Album Of 2011, right behind Arcade Fire's The Suburbs.

The title track from the record is available for download over at Rolling Stone:

MP3: "Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now"

Produced by Earle alongside longtime collaborator Skylar Wilson, the 10-track album was recorded completely live with no overdubs over a 4-day period at Echo Mountain, the acclaimed old converted church recording studio in Asheville, NC. Of the new record, Earle comments, "I think that it's the job of the artist to be in transition and constantly learn more. The new record is completely different than my last one, Harlem River Blues. This time I've gone in a Memphis-soul direction."

[Photo Credit: Joshua Black Wilkins]