Check upcoming tour dates below as well.

By Blurt Staff

Singer-songwriter Jesse Payne just dropped his new album Buffalo (Capture Music), the followup to last year's Nesting. And we've got the most excellent track "Take Me" to share with ya on both MP3 and video.

MP3: "Take Me"

The video, meanwhile, is taken from the new DVD release of Jesse Payne, Kettle & Crow.  Payne stems from a soil deep in the Southeastern region of the United States. He nests in scenic views of trees and mountains blending into valleys of skyscrapers and barns. Canvas for his yellow shade of timeless polaroids transposing over lake and swing suggests an inheritance of owls and their nocturnal solitude. His sound and sight each born from a landscape of heavy cotton hands and autumn chairs.

Buffalo, incidentally, is a companion piece to the DVD and you can even sync the DVD to the vinyl.  You can find instructions here -- http://jessepayneonline.com/sync.html

Tour Dates:

10.15 • Kavarna (Atlanta, GA)

10.29 • Peaches & Scream (Birmingham, AL)

11.19 • Lunazoot (Tampa, FL)

He gave access to dreams...

By Fred Mills

For the past couple of days the noise has been deafening - the commentary on and tributes to the late Steve Jobs, that is. Much of it heartfelt and intended as sincere, certainly, but after a certain point, it can turn into overkill and white noise (in particular, all the self-important celebrity tweets).

Which is why the one below, penned by musical and visual artist Joseph Arthur, seems so refreshing. It came in from the Arthur camp last evening, and in its economy and simplicity, it seems to synch perfectly with the so-called Jobs "aesthetic." For that, Mr. Arthur, my and the BLURT staff's thanks. Jobs will be greatly missed, of course, but I suspect he would find infinite more inspiration in Arthur's words than all the obituaries and legacy-profiles combined...

for steve

by joseph arthur

you gave access 
to countless dreams 
to share our humanity 
thru machines
you turned lights on
in our minds
by lifting your own
beyond the signs
which said turn back
which said slow down
which said attack
the underground
you fought thru walls
your own and theirs
and lit a screen
of a thousand prayers
a thousand more
and more again
multiples
applied to sin
answered
in the hollow glare
where creation came
to find us there
you gave access
to countless dreams
to share humanity
with machines
and spread our voices
far and wide
and give us different
ways to hide
its not all good
but then what is ?
you were progress
idiot kid
genius soul
erupting light
a brother.
we now
say goodnight

Proceeds go to Amnesty International. Meanwhile, watch video clips, below.

By Blurt Staff

XL Recordings are set to release Portishead's ‘Chase The Tear' on vinyl for the first time. ‘Chase The Tear' - which Portishead performed live on the Jimmy Fallon Show last night (October 5th) - will be made available on limited edition 12" vinyl and comes backed with a version of the track by Toronto's Doldrums.

Fans' first chance to get hold of a copy of the limited edition 12" vinyl release will be on Saturday October 8. 200 signed copies will be available to buy at the XL Recordings stall at the Independent Label Market in New York. The inaugural Independent Label Market took place in London on May 21st when the UK's leading independent labels took over London's Berwick Street market to sell a combination of new, old and exclusive releases. Full details of the US Independent Label Market are at: http://independentlabelmarket.tumblr.com

‘Chase The Tear' will then get a full worldwide release on November 14. The vinyl will come with a download code to download the mp3 version and will also be available to buy at Portishead live shows.

All proceeds from the release will go to Amnesty International.

Portishead - Chase The Tear from Mintonfilm on Vimeo.

Yes, but can they make it do all that sitting in the record store bins?

By Blurt Staff

In the wake of the R.E.M. breakup and the subsequent announcement that a 2CD, career-spanning greatest hits collection would be arriving on November 15, the band has now premiered a video trailer for the album along with the animated sleeve art gif (pictured above). Watch the trailer, below.

Keep your eyes on BLURT as well - we have a feature on the band slated to appear in the new issue, due out the second week of November, and a companion online piece as well, in which the band's peers, friends and collaborators weigh in on R.E.M.'s legacy along with some of their personal remembrances of when they first heard the group's music.

Tracklisting:

Disc 1:
Gardening At Night
Radio Free Europe
Talk About The Passion
Sitting Still
So. Central Rain
(Don't Go Back To) Rockville
Driver 8
Life And How To Live It
Begin The Begin
Fall On Me
Finest Worksong
It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
The One I Love
Stand
Pop Song 89
Get Up
Orange Crush
Losing My Religion
Country Feedback
Shiny Happy People

Disc 2:
The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
Everybody Hurts
Man On The Moon
Nightswimming
What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
New Test Leper
Electrolite
At My Most Beautiful
The Great Beyond
Imitation Of Life
Bad Day
Leaving New York
Living Well Is The Best Revenge
Supernatural Superserious
ÜBerlin
Oh My Heart
Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter
A Month of Saturdays
We All Go Back To Where We Belong
Hallelujah

Miami producer grafts rare soul and jazz samples onto classic DLS vocal tracks.

By Blurt Staff

Being released this week, De La Soulviet is a hip-hop mashup album by the Miami-based producer and sound engineer TenDJiz. Check it out via the SoundCloud stream below - it uses classic a capellas of the needs-no-introduction band De La Soul and couples it with instrumentals created from Soviet Union soul and jazz samples. The album opens up the classic De La Soul sound to a whole new realm of interpretation...

De La Soulviet by DeLaSoulviet

Track listing:

1) Oooh
2) The Grind Date
3) Stakes Is High
4) Trouble  In The Water
5) Shoomp
6) Hold Tight
7) All Good
8) More Than You Know
9) Jenifa Taught Me
10) Much More
11) Itzsoweezee
12) Rock Co.Kane Flow

Contact: delasoulviet@gmail.com
Twitter: @DeLaSoulviet

May or may not be called (probably not...) Can I Borrow A Feeling.

By Fred Mills

It's been 6 years since the last Saint Etienne album of new material, 2005's Tales from Turnpike House. Although you could forgive the band for the lengthy delay, and it's not like they were exactly on hiatus anyway; since then here have been plenty of fanclub-only releases as well as deluxe editions of all the early albums, and the group continues to do occasional live and DJ dates.

This week the band officially broke the embargo-of-sorts, however, by announcing that they have signed a new record deal (label tba) and intend on releasing an album titled Can I Borrow A Feeling sometime in early 2012. Well, maybe; they may be joking about that title, and they apparently haven't finished the record yet.

Advises St. E, via email: "We've been plotting, hatching and other mysteriously creative verbs. We have been working with various different luminaries and are finally beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. A nice tunnel mind you, like a tunnel of love.... There are other plans afoot which we don't want to jinx by mentioning but we'll email you as soon as we can."

So there you have it. Stay tuned...

September 26 at the House of Blues the bard, along with The Duke and The Duchess (plus wife Allison Moorer), delivered the goods.

Text & Photos by Rebecca Carter

Touring in support of a recently released book and album, both titled I'll Never Get Out of this World Alive, Steve Earle has taken to the road this time with backing band The Duke and The Duchess.  In past years his tours have consisted mainly of solo appearances, and while that format has been quite powerful, the full band and traditional bluegrass approach showcased the old and new material with added dimension.

He opened the show with several cuts off the new album, "Waiting on the Sky", "Little Emperor" and "The Gulf of Mexico"; each song a perfect example of Earle's brand of political commentary steeped in the folk tradition. I'll Never Get Out of this World Alive itself covers the spectrum of satire, scathing commentary and apolitical ballads in the same fashion that his career has and Monday night's show brought a mix as well.

The Duke and the Duchess really accented the performance, and having a full backing band rounded out the popular songs like "Copperhead Road" and "Hardcore Troubadour".  The band was tight and versatile, switching between guitars, fiddle, steel slide, organ and banjos. Earle, always the musicologist live, explained the histories and traditions of the mandolin and bouzouki and how he fit into the themes of each song.

Between songs Earle used anecdotes from his own life to give insight into their meanings and personalize his political views. He encored with "Billy Austin", a song about a man on death row. Earle explained that a few nights prior someone had passed a note on stage that said "play something for Troy Davis" following his execution and that it had taken him some time to think about the appropriate response, and "Billy Austin" was it. You could have heard a pin drop during the song and it's those moments that make Steve Earle the kind of musician you have to see live.

Setlist:

Waiting on the Sky

Little Emperor

The Gulf of Mexico

Molly O

City of immigrants

Telephone Road

Every Part of Me

My Old Friend the Blues

Guitar Town

Days Aren't Long Enough

(Allison Moorer set)

 (Break)

Copperhead Road

Dixieland

Train A-Comin'

Galway Girl

The Mountain

Meet Me in the Alleyway

Heaven or Hell

This City

Taneytown

Hardcore Troubadour

The Revolutions Starts Now

Encore:

Billy Austin

Devil's Right Hand

Those tickets were going for $400 on eBay at one point...

By Blurt Staff

Retro pop tart Lana Del Rey unexpectedly cancelled her two US tour dates last month without explanation, although word has it that she was busy working on her debut album and had to bear down on that at the time. This left ticket scalpers across the nation (or at least in LA and NYC) pretty bummed out; Del Rey tickets listed on eBay at the time were already topping out at 400 bucks, if you can believe that for a novice/untested act.

(Meanwhile, promotional CD copies of her upcoming "Video Games" / "Blue Jeans" single, due out digitally and on 7" vinyl on Oct. 11 via Stranger Records, were furiously trading hands on eBay; the single reportedly will not be issued commercially on CD. Prices were spotted steadily creeping up at eBay and other auction sites, and at last glance they were well past the $100 mark.)

Anyhow, Del Rey has rescheduled her shows, so get cracking before the scalpers do. The North American dates will now take place a couple of weeks after her European and UK tour:

11/ 4 - Manchester, UK @ Ruby Lounge
11/5 - Glasgow, UK @ Oran Moir
11/7 - Paris, France @ Nouveau Casino
11/10 - Amsterdam, Holland @ Upstairs at Paradiso
11/12 - Cologne, Germany @ Gebauede 9
11/14 - Berlin, Germany @ Roter Salon
11/16 - London, UK @ Scala
11/17 - Birmingham, UK @ HMV Institute
11/30 - Toronto, Canada @ Mod Club
12/05 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
12/07 - Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour

For those who purchased tickets to her September shows at The Box and Hotel Cafe, Bowery Ballroom and Troubadour will be in contact directly to offer priority booking.

Tickets for the Toronto, Mod Club show will go on sale Friday, 10/7 at 10AM ET, at this link:
http://www.ticketweb.ca/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=3986895

Tickets for Bowery Ballroom will go on sale Friday, 10/7 at 10 AM ET, at this link:
http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/00004744B1969215?artistid=1646704&majorcatid=10001&minorcatid=1

Tickets for Troubadour will go on sale Oct. 7 at 1 PM PT, at this link:
http://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/69931?utm_medium=bks

Forward-looking music collective has album due in November.

By Blurt Staff

DRC Music (artists/producers Damon Albarn, Dan the Automator, Actress, Richard Russell, Kwes, TEED and more) flew to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo this summer to make a record with local Congolese musicians - with all proceeds from the project benefiting OXFAM and their work in the war-torn country. 

Today the first music video from the project is available - for the track "Hallo".  Check it out below:

The album is out digitally this week and will release on CD & limited edition vinyl Nov. 8. 

Tracklisting:

1. Hallo featuring Tout Puissant Mukalo and Nelly Liyemge
2. K-Town featuring N'Gotshima and Bebson
3. African Space Anthem (A.S.A) featuring Ewing Sima of Tout Puissant Mukalo
4. Love featuring Love
5. Lingala featuring Bokatola System and Evala Litongo
6. Lourds featuring Yende Bongongo of Okwess International
7. Respect Of The Rules featuring Loi X Liberal
8. We Come From The Forest featuring Bokatola System
9. Customs featuring Bokatola System
10. Virginia featuring Magakala Virginia Yollande and Yowa Hollande
11. Ah Congo featuring Jupiter Bokondji and Bokatola System
12. Three Piece Sweet part 1 &2 featuring Bebson
13. If You Wish to Stay Awake featuring Washiba
14. Departure featuring The Bokatola System

Avatar of the original British folk revival in the ‘60s, he was active up through 2010, including a high profile tour with Neil Young.

By Fred Mills

Scottish folk legend and Pentangle founding member Bert Jansch passed away earlier today at the age of 67. The cause of death was lung cancer, which he had been battling for two years. Britain's The Guardian reports that Jansch recently had to cancel live shows because of his health, and he subsequently went into hospice care in north London until the time of his death. He is survived by his wife and son.

It's a huge blow to the acoustic music community; Jansch had been called "the British Bob Dylan" and, as part of the ‘60s folk revival in Britain, was an influence on everyone from Neil Young - with whom he toured last year, on young's "Twisted Road" solo tour - to Jimmy Page, Nick Drake, Johnny Marr and Devendra Banhart. In 2006 he released the album The Black Swan, his 23^rd solo release, featuring contributions from Banhart and Beth Orton. His last live performance was at a Pentangle show in London on August 1, according to NPR Music.

A comprehensive overview of Jansch's career is posted at Wikipedia, and it's worth noting that during the past decade he had been showered with awards, from a BBC Lifetime Achievement Award to a MOJO Merit Award, and he additionally landed on the Rolling Stone "100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time" list. The gentleman will be greatly missed.

[Photo Credit: via Wikimedia Commons, taken in 2008 by Chris Barber]