It was an indiepop love fest at Portland, Ore., venue the Holocene on Jan. 26.

By Tim Hinely

Seattle's Seapony released one of my favorite records last year with the jangly Go With Me on the Hardly Art label. They brought back the jangle pop goodness of labels like Sarah and Sunday (and they even covered the former's Field Mice, turning in a sparkling version of "Emma's House").  Live, they expand to a quartet adding a very tall bassist and a 2-drum, stand up drummer (ala Bobby Gillespie in the early days of the Jesus and Mary Chain).  

They delivered the jangly goods in a most righteous manner.  I think the signature of their sound has to be Jen's sweet, vocals mixed with Danny's twinkling guitar, together these two instruments made beautiful music together. They played everything, or nearly everything, off said record including favorites like ‘Dreaming", "Blue Star", "Into the Sea" and plenty more but alas, no Field Mice cover (after the set Danny said they would've played it had I, or anyone, yelled out for it...drats). Aw well, their originals are good enough.

K Records suavester Jeremy Jay, who is much taller than I had imagined, hails from L.A., called Olympia home for a while and now lives in London. Jay said that they had just flown in and that this was the first gig of the tour. The first few songs were a bit rusty but by song 4 or so Jay and his cohorts (solemn bassist and a petite, smiling gal on keyboards) were hitting their stride dealing out cool pop tunes like "Just Dial My Number' and  "This is Our Time" (both off 2010's Splash).  Jay also had more of a stage presence than I imagined he would, laughing (a bit, anyway), dancing and interacting a bit with the keyboardist (girlfriend?). 

It seems to me that this guy could go one of two ways, get huge or fade off into obscurity (ok, the third option is stay in the indie middle ground which is probably what will happen). He has several records out and each one has a handful of very good songs and while the live set was mostly enjoyable, I think I prefer his records.

Not Your Kind of People is first new album since 2005. Watch video announcement, below.

By Blurt Staff

Back in October word got out that Garbage was in the studio putting finishing touches on the long-overdue followup to 2005's Bleed Like Me, and today the official announcement arrived that their fifth studio album, Not Your Kind Of People, will be released on May 15, on the band's label STUNVOLUME.  

"Working with Garbage again was very instinctual," said member Duke Erikson, in a statement.  "Like getting on a bicycle...with three other people."   He added,"We haven't felt this good about a Garbage record since the last one!"

Garbage - Shirley Manson (vocals), Steve Marker (guitars, keyboards), Erikson (guitars, keyboards) and Butch Vig (drums, loops) - will hit the road this spring in support of the album by performing several headlining shows as well as various festivals throughout Europe and the U.S. with more dates to be confirmed.  

"Thinking about going back on the road is both thrilling and terrifying in equal measure," said Shirley Manson. ".........but we've always enjoyed a little pain mixed in with our pleasure." 

Garbage 2012 Tour Dates (so far):

Headlining Tour Dates

MAY

9th                    London, England                          Troxy

11th                  St. Petersburg, Russia                 Jubilenyi Hall

12th                  Moscow, Russia                           Crocus City Hall

16th                  Paris, France                                Olympia

Festival Tour Dates

JUNE

16th                  Hultsfred, Sweden                      Hultsfred Festival

17th                  Aarhus, Denmark                       Northside Festival

22nd                 Neuhausen ob Eck, Germany   Southside Festival

23rd                  Scheessel, Germany                  Hurricane Festival, Red Stage

28th                  Werchter, Belgium                    Rock Werchter, Pyramid Marquee

First new recordings since 1997.

NYC scum-rockers the Chrome Cranks terrorized the alterna-world during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s but eventually burned out, only to get back together more than a decade later in 2009. It's been a wait, but now Ain't No Lies in Blood, the first album of new Chrome Cranks material since 1997, will be released on Feb. 28 via Thick Syrup Records (CD) and Bang! Records (LP).

In these chokingly bleak, post-ironic times there simply aren't any other acts out there like the Cranks, who play unapologetically confrontational, utterly incendiary rock 'n' roll like they mean it with every poisoned pore. Like few bands before or since, the foursome - singer/guitarist Peter Aaron, guitarist William G. Weber, drummer Bob Bert, and bassist Jerry Teel - simultaneously embraces and destroys rock's very traditions.

Cut and mixed in three blistering days with producer Kevin McMahon (Walkmen, Swans, Titus Andronicus) in Upstate New York, Ain't No Lies in Blood is the eighth album in the Cranks' nearly 25-year history - and their hardest, noisiest, heaviest, and nastiest by far. In keeping with the band's earlier oeuvre, it's another swirling hell of dark, raw, distorted blues-based squalls; hypnotic, labyrinthine detours through primordial swampland; and searing flashes of deep, torchy drama. This release, however, strips the outfit's minimal, no-bullshit M.O. even farther down, to its most savage and primal essence. There's the locomotive, open-wounded wail of "I'm Trash," which flattens all in its path and hints at early '80s hardcore angst, and "Rubber Rat," a screaming, stomping mess of bony, cartilage-cracking fists. Three radically remade covers include an epic trawl through the Byrds' "Lover of the Bayou," and of course the Cranks' trademark murky 'n' moody side is present in all its black, jagged glory: Check the swaggering decadence of "Let it Ring" and "Star to Star."

"[The Chrome Cranks] had me screaming with joy," says Swans/Angels of Light front man Michael Gira, who witnessed the reunited band's return show in 2009 and later drew the demonic cover art for Ain't No Lies in Blood. "I almost threw my beer at them, I was so happy."

Out this week on Interscope, Born to Die neither justifies the hype nor the hipster "authenticity" backlash. Instead, it's a moderately entertaining album with more hits than misses and more solidly strange fabulously femme fatale interludes than naff ones. (Stay tuned to BLURT later this week when we publish our Del Rey interview/feature.)

By A.D. Amorosi

Joan of Arc. Lana Del Rey. That's two women I can think of off the top of my head who've been burned at the stake before they got a flying chance to get their point across. Seriously, has anybody really taken Saturday Night Live appearances so seriously that a bum one signaled total meltdown and career immolation? (The Replacements' lousy performance comes to mind.) Have you never been taken down by Brian Williams as a has-been unprepared for your moment of infamy?

Such an hermetically sealed audience you are.

The early criticisms weighed upon Ms. Del Rey are based upon hype - the supposition that she should jump bolt upright from the cold, gray but entrancing "gangsta Nancy Sinatra" vibe of last year's "Video Games" to become a hyperactive Katy Perry sort. Or worse, a soberer Lady Gaga. That's the internet's fault, this hot hype. It left audiences unprepared for the possibility that Del Rey, like Mabel Mercer, Marlene Dietrich, Grace Jones and Beth Gibbons was downright languid; that the "dead-behind-the-eyes" critique, while a barb to some, is a blessing to others in love with the louche.

Then again, I'm the one man in America who loved David Lynch (with whom Del Rey shares a cultural coolness) when he slurred through Lost Highway (read if you dare: http://archives.citypaper.net/articles/022797/article005.shtml). Like the Slow Club-singing heroine of Lynch's Blue Velvet, "Dorothy Vallens," Del Rey presents a Terpsichore vision of death and troubles-she's-seen. It's a plastic pose as pumped up (or down) as those full new lips of hers - but a good act none-the-less.

Produced with weirdly atmospheric hip hop warmth by Emile Haynie (of Kid Cudi fame), Del Rey can play the role of R&B floozy ("Off to the Races") with a moll's aplomb and prove that cowgirls really do get the blahs on the tortured "Blue Jeans." There's even the delectable summer's shine of "Diet Mountain Dew" where being a pretty girl in New York City seems as op-to-Pop-timistic as Edie Sedgwick driving with the top down.

But mostly this Bryan Ferry in a smart dress sticks to a deathly lounge lizard display of emotionalism and musicality, a smoky girl with a smoking gun's lyrical flourish fond of lines like "he loves me with every beat of his cocaine heart." The title tune features her chilled martini snarl atop a spy's guitar lines and a gurgled trip hop feel. "National Anthem" and its military drum riff is all drugs-in-da-Hamptons but it's the kind of diamonds-are-a-girl's-best-friend contagion that's a pleasure to live with. Her jewels get heavy and the gems dry up a bit after this: "Million Dollar Man," "Without You" and "This is What Makes Us Girls" are trite and precious despite occasional edgy production flips. The line about drinking "Pabst Blue Ribbon on ice" will annoy her hipster legion. Good.

By my count, Born to Die has more hits than misses and more solidly strange fabulously femme fatale interludes than naff ones. It might not be the perfect album that those heaped-upon-with-hype hoped for. Maybe if they traded in their warm PBRs for a cold bracing vodka martini, they'd get it.    

Photo Credit: Nicole Nodland   

Blunderbuss to be released April 24 via Third Man/Columbia.

By Blurt Staff

Yes indeed, erstwhile White Stripes mainman Jack White has a solo rec en route. Produced by White and recorded at his own Third Man Studio in Nashville, Blunderbuss has been described by White as "an album I couldn't have released until now. I've put off making records under my own name for a long time but these songs feel like they could only be presented under my name. These songs were written from scratch, had nothing to do with anyone or anything else but my own expression, my own colors on my own canvas."

Meanwhile, the first single is called "Love Interruption" and you can hear a stream of it at White's website: www.jackwhiteIII.com. It goes on sale officially tonight as a digital download,  while a vinyl version featuring exclusive non-LP B-side "Machine Gun Silhouette" will be released February 7 on Third Man.

Also on the bill last weekend: Florence and the Machine.

By Blurt Staff

Austin City Limits is currently on a roll during its 37^th season, with recent episodes aired including Arcade Fire, Fleet Foxes/Joanna Newsom and The Head and the Heart/Gomez. Coming up the weekend of Feb. 4 will be Wilco.

The ACL crew announced the other day that arriving for a taping at  ACL Live at The Moody on March 6 will be none other than Radiohead, which will be mooted for season 38. Meanwhile, though, this past weekend brought a fiery performance by Lykke Li. You can watch the entire 30-minute segment, below - it starts at approximately the 26-minute mark. (Also in the same hour-long broadcast was a rather underwhelming Florence and the Machine.)

Watch Florence + The Machine / Lykke Li on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

The veteran rocker who once decried the power-pop label as "wearing a bull's eye painted on your t-shirt" dazzles S.F.'s Rickshaw Stop on January 25. (Go here to read the recent BLURT interview with Keene.)

By Jud Cost

Tommy Keene may have been playing what some people call "power pop" for about 30 years now, but there is no sign whatsoever of coasting, of taking his foot off the gas after all these years. On a Wednesday night, he's drawn 85 people to the Rickshaw Stop, a bottom-rung San Francisco club hidden near the corner of Market and Van Ness. Maybe to discourage an overflow of patrons, the joint has no visible sign outside to identify itself. But Keene couldn't have put on a more energetic show if he'd been booked into Davies Symphony Hall or Herbst Theatre, two blocks away.

Keene's songs, as the dreaded (by him, anyway) power pop label would suggest, have the kinetic energy of a city bus without brakes, as well as ear-catching bits of melody scattered in all the right places. The Washington D.C. native takes great care with a set list that makes each song sound new, fresh and different. It doesn't take long for Keene's fine ear to evoke the prolific muse of Robert Pollard (Keene and Pollard have apparently recorded under the name the Keene Brothers).

Dressed in an old blue shirt, a plain black T and black pants, Keene looks like he's been sent by central casting for a commercial shoot looking for "a workingman's rock 'n' roller." His guitar playing is energetic, a perfect foil to the man on his left, an effective if less spectacular player. At one point during their 55-minute set, the two are trading riffs like the glory days of Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd. The drummer is very busy, slamming away at powerful fills like he's playing Whack-a-Mole with his kit. He's just what Keene's vigorous songs demand.

By the end of the night, the comparisons to great rock bands from the past are inescapable: the Velvet Underground, Dream Syndicate, Television, the Mumps, True West, Guided By Voices and the Raspberries.

When some small detail goes awry, Keene is quick to apologize, "Sorry, we just woke up." The cry of an infant at the back of the house startles the singer who chuckles, "Is that a baby? I'm attracting younger fans all the time," then launches into a song that summons the ghosts of the Byrds covering Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom." Best of all, Tommy Keene knows exactly when to get off stage, playing a Lou Reed finale that could have been one of his own. Thou shalt leave 'em wanting more is a commandment all but forgotten in the day of instant, nonstop digital gratification.

The Bye Bye Blackbirds from Oakland, playing tonight as a quartet, were just what Keene's doctor might have ordered to warm the slim house. Lead singer Bradley Skaught apologizes for the band using an electric 12-string, "generally known as a psychedelic instrument, except when you're on psychedelics and trying to tune it." It brought a momentary flashback to the endless between-song delays when S.F.'s Flamin' Groovies used no fewer than three of the infernal things onstage, back in the '80s. All's forgiven, of course, when it coaxes goose bumps with its magic jingle-jangle. 

The Blackbirds (perhaps named after a favorite standard of Miles Davis' early quintet with John Coltrane), characterized themselves before their set as "power pop with a little bit of country." Tonight, the honky tonk was all but invisible, unless a few fumes from the tour bus of Beachwood Sparks might have invaded the premises. "This song is a mean one, meant to be enjoyed, but it's not about you," warns Skaught. "Tommy Keene is one of very few guys we'd open for, even at 3:00 am during a snowstorm," he adds. An intrepid lot, Keene's devotees, no doubt, feel exactly the same way.     

Photo Credit: Chris Rady

Jump of 490%...


By Fred Mills


By now everyone's seen the viral video of President Obama singing a snatch of Al Green classic "Let's Staty Together" Jan. 19 at a fundreaiser at NYC's Apollo Theater. The Rev. Green himself was in the audience, no doubt prompting the bit. If for some reason you haven't seen it, check it out, below.


Meanwhile, Billbaord reports that in the aftermath, the original recording of the song experienced a massive sales surge - 16,000 downloads in the week ending Jan. 22, a 490% increase. That represents "the best sales week for the song since SoundScan began tracking downloads in 2003."


Coming soon to a political event near you: heritage artist's handlers lobbying with major polititicians to have their clients' songs pop up in speeches...

Massive box set replaces and elaborates upon previous 1995 box.

By Blurt Staff

Roxy Music fansite Roxyrama reported this week that Roxy Music will release a deluxe box-set entitled 'Roxy Music: The Complete Studio Recordings 1972-1982' on April 2 in the UK. It's to celebrate 40 years since the release of the band's eponymous debut album in 1972 and is the first of a major reissue campaign with Virgin Records. Included is a selection of non-album singles, B-sides and remixes, some of which are available on CD for the first time ever will also be included. Artwork for the box has not yet been revealed.

Recall that in 1995 Virgin issued, in England, a 4CD box, The Thrill of It All. Now out of print and fetching upwards of $250, it included key tracks from the group's back catalogue spread across the first three discs and, on the 4^th, 17 remixes and rarities:

1. Virginia Plain         

2. The Numberer        

3. Pyjamarama            

4. The Pride And The Pain    

5. Manifesto (Remake)

6. Hula Kula   

7. Trash          

8. Your Application's Failed

9. Lover          

10. Sultanesque           n

11. Dance Away (Ext. Remix)          

12. South Downs       

13. Angel Eyes (Ext. Remix)

14. Always Unknowing         

15. The Main Thing (Ext. Remix)      

16. India         

17. Jealous Guy

Those songs appear to be included on this new box but sprinkled across the 8 discs. More details on the new box:

'Roxy Music: The Complete Studio Recordings 1972-1982', an 8 CD + 4 DVD deluxe box set, will feature all eight Roxy Music studio albums - Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure, Stranded, Country Life, Siren, Manifesto, Flesh And Blood, Avalon. In addition, a (Each album will also be represented on DVD format as high-resolution audio, transferred digitally from the original analogue masters.)

Among the tracks previously never released before on CD: the USA 7" mixes of 'Do The Strand' 'Love Is The Drug' and ‘Take A Chance With Me', two edits of Country Life opening track 'The Thrill Of It All', plus its B-Side 'Your Application's Failed' (the only track to date written by Thompson), 7" and the 7" single versions of 'Oh Yeah' (from Flesh And Blood) and ‘Avalon'.

TRACKLISTING

CD1: Roxy Music

1. Re-make/Re-model

2. Ladytron

3. If There Is Something

4. 2HB

5. The Bob (Medley)

6. Chance Meeting

7. Would You Believe?

8. Sea Breezes

9. Bitters End

Bonus Tracks:

10. Virginia Plain

11. The Numberer

CD2: For Your Pleasure

1. Do The Strand

2. Beauty Queen

3. Strictly Confidential

4. Editions Of You

5. In Every Dream Home A Heartache

6. The Bogus Man

7. Grey Lagoons

8. For Your Pleasure

Bonus Tracks:

9. Pyjamarama (Island Mix)

10. Pyjamarama (Polydor Mix)

11. The Pride And The Pain

12. Do The Strand (USA 7" Mix 3:19) **never been available on CD before**

CD3: Stranded

1. Street Life

2. Just Like You

3. Amazona

4. Psalm

5. Serenade

6. A Song For Europe

7. Mother Of Pearl

8. Sunset

Bonus Track:

9. Hula Kula

CD4: Country Life

1. The Thrill Of It All

2. Three And Nine

3. All I Want Is You

4. Out Of The Blue

5. If It Takes All Night

6. Bitter Sweet

7. Triptych

8. Casanova

9. A Really Good Time

10. Prairie Rose

Bonus Tracks:

11. The Thrill Of It All - 1977 Greatest Hits Edit (4'20) ) **never been available on CD before**

12. Your Application's Failed

13. The Thrill Of It All (USA 7" Mix 3:20) **never been available on CD before**

CD5: Siren

1. Love Is The Drug

2. End Of The Line

3. Sentimental Fool

4. Whirlwind

5. She Sells

6. Could It Happen To Me?

7. Both Ends Burning

8. Nightingale

9. Just Another High

Bonus Tracks:

10. Love Is The Drug (USA 7" Mix 3:00) **never been available on CD before**

11. Sultanesque

12. Both Ends Burning (7" Mix 3:58) **never been available on CD before**

13. For Your Pleasure - Live **never been available on CD before**

CD6: Manifesto

1. Manifesto

2. Trash

3. Angel Eyes (***rock version***)

4. Still Falls The Rain

5. Stronger Through The Years

6. Ain't That So

7. My Little Girl

8. Dance Away (***ballad Version***)

9. Cry, Cry, Cry

10. Spin Me Round

Bonus Tracks:

11. Trash 2

12. Dance Away (Single Version)

13. Dance Away (Canadian Extended 12" Mix)

14. Angel Eyes (Single Version)

15. Angel Eyes (12" Single Version)

CD7: Flesh And Blood

1. The Midnight Hour

2. Oh Yeah

3. Same Old Scene

4. Flesh And Blood

5. My Only Love

6. Over You

7. Eight Miles High

8. Rain Rain Rain

9. No Strange Delight

10. Running Wild

Bonus Tracks:

11. Oh Yeah (7" Version) **never been available on CD before**

12. Manifesto (Remake)

13. South Downs

14. Lover

15. Jealous Guy

16. To Turn On You (1981 B-Side Version) **never been available on CD before**

CD8: Avalon

1. More Than This

2. The Space Between

3. Avalon

4. India

5. While My Heart Is Still Beating

6. The Main Thing

7. Take A Chance With Me

8. To Turn You On

9. True To Life

10. Tara

Bonus Tracks:

11. Avalon (7" Single Version) **never been available on CD before**

12. Always Unknowing

13. Take A Chance With Me (7" Single Version) **never been available on CD before**

14. Take A Chance With Me (USA 7" Mix) **never been available on CD before**

15. The Main Thing (12" Single Version)

16. The Main Thing - Remix **never been available on CD before**

Also news of Future Clouds & Radar's return.

By Fred Mills

Among aficionados of ‘90s pop - the type cut from classic ‘60s cloth but filtered through an ‘80s college rock and DIY sensibility - one of the brightest lights of the era was Austin's Cotton Mather, who issued three full-lengths and a pair of EPs, all highly regarded, before the music industry's crush on corporate alt-rock and nü-metal eventually doomed them and other likeminded outfits. Bandleader Robert Harrison enjoyed considerable fame during the next decade fronting Future Clouds &Radar (profiled here at BLURT), and while that band has been relatively dormant the past couple of years, he's been working on new material and promises a re-emergence sometime this year.

Meanwhile, though, he's also been busy assembling a 2CD Deluxe Edition of Cotton Mather's classic 1997 album Kontiki, which, with its wash of Beatlesque harmonies, jangly-but-scorching guitars that wouldn't be out of place on Big Star or Superdrag records, and the kind of dense, headphone-beckoning arrangements that'd make Todd Rundgren and Andy Partridge blush, earned the accolades of such diverse tastemakers as Britt Daniels of Spoon and the Gallagher brothers of Oasis (who took the band out on tour in England that same year. For the reissue, Harrison presented the original album along with a bonus disc of outtakes and early demos, plus a thick booklet containing the entire story of the making of the album and the history of the band.

Keep your eyes peeled for our review of Kontiki soon. A wildly successful Kickstarter campaign funded the reissue - check out the awesome, and hilarious, video (watch for the celeb cameos) that was created for the campaign right here. Then check this trailer that was made for the reissue:

To further seal the deal, Harrison and fellow C.M. alumnus Whit Williams have been, Harrison tells BLURT, "hanging out a lot and at the guitars again - we want to give Kontiki a proper American release." A special Cotton Mather reunion concert is being planned for March at SXSW in which the entire album is performed. Says Harrison, ‘Most if not all of the people who played on Kontiki will be there and it will be the first C.M. show since Lyon 10 years ago this May!"

You can bet yours truly will be at the show, front and center.

Harrison adds that Future Clouds & Radar along with his Star Apple Kingdom label are officially reactivated. "I had to shut the label down and sell the studio house back in 2009 because our funding didn't survive the economic ‘down-turn'... But slowly I've put it all back together - built a new studio space and label HQ in the woods, behind my house in the country.

"The Kontiki project seemed like a good place to start a new creative chapter and draw energy back into the label."