Knocks defending champ William Ocean’s dingdong in the dirt…

By Fred Mills

Looks like that dumbass feature in USA Today didn’t do much to help William Ocean hold on to his crown in the US Air Guitar Championships. While Defending Champion Ocean was busy having his knob polished by the daily rag’s staff of puff-piece profilers, the mighty Hot Lixx Hulahan was waxing his axe all the way to the finish line at the San Francisco finals. Hulanhan will be representing the good ol’ You Ess of Aye in Oulu, Finland, Aug. 20-22 when the World Air Guitar Championships take place.

Here’s the blow-by-blow wrap up of the US event, courtesy the good folks at the US Air Guitar Championship organization. You can also check out video highlights at the official site at www.usairguitar.com ….

***

It was the morning of AUGUST 8th, 2008. The city of SAN FRANCISCO was crisp but peaceful. In the Grand Ballroom, it was business as usual. Little did anyone know… All the buzz, all the hype, all the warnings surrounding the 2008 Cuervo Black US Air Guitar Championships, Presented By TouchTunes, could not have prepared the City by the Bay for what was about to transpire. All the while, US Air Guitar was getting ready to Stryke (sic).

The math is simple really: 10 returning Finalists, 3 former US Champions, 1 Air Guitar Hall of Famer – in addition to the best crop of Rated Rookies in Air Guitar history – set the stage for 1 Star-Spangled Air Guitar extrava-hemoth. In all, 25 contestants had waited 12 long months for their 60 seconds of rock and roll glory. 1,500 ticket holders, 3 judges, 2 mascots, 4 bars. Carry the 6, and this equation has only one correct answer: a million thrills, spills, and one Fair City plundered.

ROUND I

The first round was absolutely manic. Newcomer and San Francisco darling AWESOME electrified the hometown crowd to earn a bid into Round 2. Hall of Famer BIG RIG and twin brother STRYKER could not make it through, despite their veteran status and matching Air Guitar logo tattoos, which they unveiled at the pre-show press conference. McNALLICA did Boston proud with a soul-shaking performance. The progressive SF audience could not quite catch up with former US Champ THE ROCKNESS MONSTER’s slo-mo flow, which doomed his chances in this, his final Air Guitar competition, in the wake of his announcement that this marked the end of his illustrious competitive career. Defending US Champion WILLIAM OCEAN overcame a few first round missteps to get to the second round. The top score in the first round went to AIRISOL of Minneapolis. An ex-gymnast, she wowed the crowd and the judges with a series of flips and displayed the full capabilities of her seemingly rubber vertebrae. Fake blood, confetti, bike shorts, back flips, a literal stage dive… We saw it all. Or so we thought…

The much-ballyhooed HALFTIME show saw a showdown between the new (but no less grizzled) US Air Guitar mascot Air Bear and newfound friend of US Air Guitar, LOU SEAL, the official mascot for MLB’s San Francisco Giants. This one-on-one bout was judged purely based on crowd reaction, and Lou quite literally mopped the floor with poor Air Bear. The crowd was promptly rewarded with vouchers for ‘Friends Only’ Giants tickets.

ROUND II

The compulsory round is where the Top Five took things to a new level. Shreddy Mercury showed up bigger than the city lights in Times Square, and William Ocean pulled out his patented surf-board and literally crowd-‘surfed.’ Awesome brought the thunder (via his performance) and the lightning (shaved into his chest hair).

And then, air guitar as we know it changed forever.

Hometown hero (2006 San Francisco and US Air Guitar Champion) Hot Lixx Hulahan added another ornament to his already decorated Air Guitar oeuvre with a second-round performance that has to be seen to be believed.

Mid-song, the San Francisco native ran back into the wings (stage right), only to emerge at full-speed, jump off a monitor, and with no regard for human life (his or anyone else’s) careen into the crowd via front-flip somersault that landed him on an inflatable whale, which he rode back on stage. He finished his set in perfect sync, which would have mattered more if you could hear the music over the roar of the crowd, which was trying to gather their breath, whereabouts, druthers, and whatever else, about them. Judge Marc Hawthorne, music editor of the Onion, left his subversive headlines at the door to bestow Hott Lixx with a 7.0 out of a possible 6.0 and the crown of America’s greatest Air Guitarist.

Final Scores (Round 1 + Round 2):
Compulsory song Black Sabbath 'Crazy Train'

1. Hot Lixx Hulahan - DC, 35.3
2. Airosol - Minneapolis, 35.2
3. Awesome - San Francisco, 34.6
4. McNallica - Boson, 34.4
5. Shreddy Mercury - New York, 33.9
6. William Ocean - DEFENDING US CHAMP, 33.5

2008 AIR GUITAR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Like a polished diamond, the AGWC Network has grown and prospered to a world-wide realm of 18 official AGWC countries. The crème de la crème of Air Guitar competes in national championships before coming to Finland for the battle of the best. One person is annually hailed as the Air Guitar World Champion, the master of an invisible instrument. Countries registered to compete in the 2008 Air Guitar World Championships include UNITED STATES, CANADA, MEXICO, UNITED KINGDOM, NORWAY, GERMANY, NETHERLANDS, SWITZERLAND, FRANCE, AUSTRIA, ITALY, SLOVENIA, CROATIA, GREECE, JAPAN, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND.

For the first time ever, a non-Finn will MC the event. US Air Guitar is proud to announce that our very own BJORN TUROQUE is slotted as this year’s Master of Ceremonies. We are just glad that there is no King, Lord, or Emperor of Ceremonies to whom he could potentially come in second.

For More Information on the Air Guitar World Championships, Visit:

www.airguitarworldchampionships.com

By A.D. Amorosi

Also features contributions from Grinderman, Will Oldham and Irmin Schmidt.

You know, I’ve seen Lou Reed act. It ain’t pretty.  I only bring this up because Palermo Shooting, Wim Wenders’ road movie where a photographer (played by Andreas Frege from Die Toten Hosen) meets up with “Death” (played by Dennis Hopper) then Lou Reed. No matter what Reed’s thespian capabilities are, you’d think I’d put Reed before death. But if you’ve seen Wender’s1993 Faraway, So Close!, you’d know.

This is not the first time Wenders has put the rock stars in his movies - fond as he is, of Nick Cave and Bono, who‘ve done bits in Wenders films they’ve soundtracked. Cave’s Grinderman, Can's Irmin Schmidt and Will Oldham have new music in Palermo Shooting.

It is also not the first time that Reed has appeared in a film, even if you discount (and please do) Faraway, So Close! While none of us can forget his ads for Honda (is it Honda?) or his recent docu-Schnabel Lou Reed's Berlin, there was of course his bit part in Prozac Nation where he played “Lou Reed,” (how could you not), his role right before Harvey Keitel and Madonna started to dance (not together) in Blue in the Face (actually his best ever role with those silly glasses), and his role in Lulu on the Bridge as “Not Lou Reed.” Wow. NOT LOU REED.

But for me, he will always be – no, not the voice of Mok in Rock & Rule – that weird wired manager dude, “Steve Kunelian” in Paul Simon’s One Trick Pony of 1980. If you haven’t, you need to, then forget you did. We’ll be better off.

Fifth album features international cast of guest stars.

By Blurt Staff

Thievery Corporation’s new studio album entitled Radio Retaliation drops September 23. As usual it will be issued on the band’s ESL Music label; it’s the fifth from the mad-skillz production/DJ duo of Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, who mash up one of electronica’s more compelling blends of downtempo, hip-hop, dub/reggae, Latin and afro-funk coming out of America today. Plans are for an iTunes digital pre-release Sept. 9 featuring an exclusive non album track entitled “Philosopher’s Stone” available for the two weeks leading up to the CD hitting retail outlets.

According to the Corp squad, ^“The album was recorded in the band’s hometown of Washington DC and the vibe is decidedly political which is no surprise given the high profile presidential campaign happening this year.”

“Radio Retaliation is definitely a more overt political statement,” noted Garza, in a statement. “There’s no excuse for not speaking out at this point, with the suspension of habeas corpus, outsourced torture, illegal wars of aggression, fuel, food, and economic crises.  It’s hard to close your eyes and sleep while the world is burning around you.  If you are an artist, this is the most essential time to speak up.”

Added Hilton, “Apart from a few independent bastions, there is no musical or informational freedom on the US airwaves anymore.  They’ve been bought up, consolidated and homogenized.  Radio Retaliation is about an exodus of conscious people who are willing to acknowledge something is wrong with the ‘official version’ in news and culture.”

It’s an international thang, y’all, for the Thievery Corporation: this album’s guests include Nigeria’s afro-beat heir Femi Kuti, Brazilian star vocalist and guitarist Seu Jorge, Indian sitar virtuoso Anushka Shankar, Slovakian chanteuse and violinist Jana Andevska, and Washington DC’s own go-go originator Chuck Brown.  Also returning are long time collaborators Sleepy Wonder, LouLou, Notch, Zee, and Verny Varela.

The band plan to take their show on the road with an impressive 15 member live ensemble for select dates in the U.S. and Europe this fall and will also hit the festival circuit in the spring and summer of ’09. Announced dates include: October 10 & 11 in Greece, 10/16 in Romania, 10/24 in Houston, 10/25 at the Voodoo Festival in New Orleans, and 10/26 in Dallas.

[Photo Credit: Andrzej Liguz/moreimages.net]

Rockin’ in the free world, er, San Francisco next weekend.

By Blurt Staff

The schedules for the upcoming Outside Lands Music & Art Festival, which is being held August 22-24 in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, have been posted. Check ‘em out here.

As with so many multi-stage festivals, attendees will be forced to make some tough choices throughout the three-day affair:

-          old-school reggae (Steel Pulse) versus hometown rock 'n roll (Howlin’ Rain)

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-          vintage r&b and soul (The Dynamites) vs. psych-rock (Black Mountain) vs. indie rock it band (Cold War Kids)

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-          the “Mexican Beck” (Manu Chao) vs. jazz fusion duo (Benevento-Russo) vs. blues-rock duo (The Black Keys) vs. the real Beck (er, Beck)

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And that’s just Friday, kids — other artists featured include Tom Petty, Radiohead, Ben Harper, Wilco, Jack Johnson and Widespread Panic.

For more info on Outside Lands, visit: http://www.sfoutsidelands.com/.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

By Fred Mills

It’s looking to be a runaway rout, folks: in our latest BLURT reader’s poll, the American Idol tour ensemble is a clear favorite. Or anti-favorite, in this instance. We asked you:

You’ve been booted off the Jam Cruise liner for being too fucked up and have washed up on a desert island. Who would you most NOT want to be stuck there with?

Your choices included the AmIdols, who are currently leading the pack at 36%. The other stats, as of this writing, are: beloved singer-songwriter Dave Matthews (11%), dub reggae loon Lee Scratch Perry (4%), U2 vocalist/world savior Bono (11%), potty mouthed pop diva Katy Perry (2%), “that dude from Buckcherry” (5%), alt-country legend/Courtney Love pal Ryan Adams (7%), professional crackhead Amy Winehouse (coming in a distant second at 18%), the Sex Pistols’ ever-charming John Lydon (4% - if we’d called him Johnny Rotten probably more of you kids would have picked him, right?), and those girlicious Pussycat Dolls (4% - now, c’mon, admittedly, you’d like to START being stranded on the island WITH them, but after you’ve “finished your business” wouldn’t you want some serious peace and quiet for yourself?).

Never fear: there’s still time to cast your ballots. Comments are welcome too. Just go to the Blurt Poll on the lower right side of the homepage and follow the instructions. What do you win? Why, the chance to take part in our next poll, of course!

[Contest not open to the employees and relatives of employees of the Blurt Corporation LLC. Void where prohibited by law. Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.]

New iTunes exclusive EP arrives Sept. 23.

By Blurt Staff

En route from My Brightest Diamond — that’s Shara Worden to her parents — is a new EP she’s called From The Top of the World (Asthmatic Kitty). While the title track is pulled from her A Thousand Shark’s Teeth album that came out earlier this year, the remaining material is unreleased and is sung entirely in French.  

Included are two Edith Piaf tunes ("Hymne Á L'Amour" and "Adieu Mon Coeur") plus a Kurt Weil/Roger Fernay composition ("Youkali: Tango Habanera"). Worden is calling the EP "a love letter to 1930s French music in the form of an EP,” which sounds perfectly logical to us.

It will be available at iTunes on Sept. 23.

Meanwhile, check out BLURT’s in-depth MBD feature (“Shine On You Crazy Diamond”) that we published back in June HERE.

Track Listing:

 From the Top of the World
 Youkali: Tango Habanera
 Hymne Á L'Amour
 Adieu Mon Coeur

Shitkickin’ symphonies, subcultures and suicide – all in a day’s work for Hank III.

By Blurt Staff

Just slipped over the BLURT transom, this one’s fun enough to just reprint verbatim. Anybody that can put the words “Hank Williams” and “GG Allin” in the same sentence gets OUR respect. He's no Kid Rock. But he rocks. Read on….

***

Don’t look for any apologies on Damn Right Rebel Proud, the upcoming sixth album from Hank Williams Iii.  Filled with a self-described “Jekyll and Hyde” mix of disturbingly dark stuff and “good ol’ country,” the straight-talkin’ third-generation rebel’s new album is set for release October 21 via Sidewalk Records.

The first single is the mutated truckers’ tune “Long Hauls & Close Calls,” for which a video has been shot. III thinks of it as the album’s “crossover” track, explaining that “It’s got a little bit of the scream for the kids in black and a little bit of the banjo and dobro for the country folks.”

Damn Right Rebel Proud follows the fierce and edgy Straight to Hell (2006), which broke all the rules of country music while still managing to honor its traditions. “That was a big one for me, man,” III says of STH. “Rock kids that don’t listen to country understood it. That record really had an impact.”

The new album honors tradition here and there. “Wild & Free” has a rollicking, Buck Owens flavor; ”Me & My Friends” is “a standard, good ol’ country song;” the populist anthem “If You Can’t Help Your Own” addresses what’s goin’ on right now with the government;” and the closing “Workin’ Man,” a duet with the tune’s author, writer/artist/construction worker Bob Wayne, sounds like an Alan Lomax field recording from the 1930s.

Recorded in HIII’s east Tennessee home with friends over a two-week period, the album’s magnum opus is the 10-minute, shitkickin’ symphony in three movements “P.F.F.” (you can guess what it stands for), which he describes as “a high-energy, get-drunk singalong.” He dedicates it to archetypal shock rocker G.G. Allin (certainly a first on a Nashville album), who III understandably views as a spiritual brother in chaos. “The hobo kids, the train-hopping kids, they all love Hank Williams and G.G. Allin,” he points out. “And they’ve bled into our audience.” III’s crowd is a roiling mix of outsider subcultures, along with working folks and party-down college kids. “Most of the time everybody’s gettin’ along,” he says. “Most of the trouble we’ve had has been with the security, not the kids. I’m still tryin’ to keep one half happy and the other half satisfied by flip-floppin’ the shows” between stone country, punk and metal sets. “We’re just doin’ what we’re doin’, and people see the realness in that.”

There’s some disturbingly dark stuff on here, like “3 Shades of Black,” which climaxes with a bloodcurdling horror-core scream, and “Stoned & Alone,” III’s corrosive take on a cryin’-in-your-beer country ballad, aches like a hangover after a three-day bender. “My dad’s version of that song would be ‘The Pressure Is On,’” he says. “I still live for the road; I don’t live for a lady – I guess that’s part of the problem.” 

But if you want really dark, check out “Candidate for Suicide.” “All the things I’m talkin’ about in that song – the rape, the drug abuse and feelin’ on the outskirts of life, as G.G. would say – that’s all true,” he acknowledges. “But just because you’re a candidate doesn’t mean you’re gonna go through with it. I’ve got no respect for anyone who tries to take the easy way out. Unless you can’t take care of yourself or stuff like that, I’m always standin’ for you to hold onto life as much as you can. There’s a huge amount of depression out there, and that’s really what the song’s about. ‘Candidate for Suicide’ is dark, but it’s not sayin’ do it; it’s just talkin’ about how it crosses your mind a good bit.”

Late comedian posthumously releases third album, Do You Believe in Gosh?

By Randy Harward

Comedy Central Records will relase Do You Believe in Gosh?, the third album by the late, beloved comedian Mitch Hedberg on September 9.  Hedberg recorded the album two months before his death. It will include all-new, unreleased material as well as never-before-seen photos and unpublished excerpts from his private journals. Comedy Central says the show was intimate and loose, with "a large amount of audience interaction."

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. For a comprehensive hour-by-hour listing, go to the VH1 Rock On TV site. Note that for certain channels, shows frequently repeat during the day on or subsequent days.

TIME (EST) / CHANNEL / PROGRAM / ARTIST(S)

7:00 AM NICK: Yo Gabba Gabba!: Smoosh , Mark Mothersbaugh

9:00 AM RAVE HD: From The Basement: Damien Rice , Autolux , eels , Architecture In Helsinki

9:00 AM Syndicated: Live with Regis and Kelly: Jonas Brothers

11:00 AM RAVE HD: The Dave Fanning Interview: R.E.M.

2:00 PM FUSE: Steven's Untitled Rock Show: Underoath

3:00 PM Great American Country: Master Series: Emmylou Harris Hall of Fame Medallion

6:00 PM RAVE HD: From The Basement: Sonic Youth , Jose Gonzalez , Laura Marling

6:00 PM VH1C: The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story

9:00 PM Gospel Music Channel: Front Row Live: Jars of Clay

11:00 PM RAVE HD: Later With Jools Holland: Paul Weller , Carlos Santana , Anthony Hamilton , Bettye Lavette , John Cale , Sheryl Crow

11:30 PM PBS: Tavis Smiley: Isaac Hayes

11:35 PM CBS: The Late Show With David Letterman: The Hold Steady , Neil Young

12:05 AM ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Katharine McPhee

1:00 AM FUSE: Loaded: Smashing Pumpkins