Also readying 8-LP vinyl box set for release this fall.

By Fred Mills

Tucson's Calexico continues its foray into the world of cinema with a new soundtrack - it's for indie film The Guard. The 23-track album comes on the heels' of last year's acclaimed soundtrack to Circo and is currently available in digital format at iTunes. Love those songtitles: "Bourbon in the Jar," "Boot Full of Guns," "Beautiful Fucking Day," etc. View the official trailer, which features some of the band's music, below.

The Guard - which hit selected cinemas late last month - was directed by John Michael McDonagh and stars Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle and is described thusly:

Sergeant Gerry Boyle is a small-town Irish cop with a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humour, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes and absolutely no interest whatsoever in the international drug-smuggling ring that has brought FBI agent Wendell Everett to his door. Boyle drifts through life, not much concerned about anything, not even the mysterious murder of a man in one of the town's holiday cottages. But when Everett shows Boyle the mugshots of four drug traffickers, he recognises one of them as the dead man. And so the two cases converge, with a bemused Everett finding himself adrift in the decidedly original and sometimes surreal world of Sergeant Gerry Boyle, the last of the independents!

Tracklisting:

1: Boyle Gets Dressed
2: Boyle and McBride Discuss Motives
3: Eugene Wheels Past
4: Bourbon In the Jar
5: Black Car, Black Night
6: Tap At Cornell's Window
7: Into the West
8: Boyle Swims Ashore
9: All In a Day's Work
10: McBride's Car Abandoned

11: Malice Aforethought
12: Hanley's Bar
13: Meeting By the Sea
14: From Beyond
15: I Like Sharks
16: Boot Full of Guns
17: Good to Go
18: Everett's Goodbye
19: Boyle Ready for Action
20: Leaving Gabriela
21: Down to Two
22: Firestorm of Impossible Odds
23: Beautiful Fucking Day

Three disc set arrives next month.

By Fred Mills

Among Bruce Springsteen fans, the '78 Darkness On the Edge Of Town tour has earned genuine godhead status, and there are plenty of live bootleg albums, both audience-sourced and taken from FM broadcasts, to back that up. On Sept. 30 of that year the E Street Band rolled into Atlanta's Fox Theatre and proceeded to blow the roof off, starting with an opening salvo of "Good Rocking Tonight"/"Badlands"/"Spirit In The Night" and proceeding through the bulk of Darkness plus selected other goodies, including the only known performance of the old R&B instrumental "Night Train."

The show has long been prized by collectors because it was originally broadcast live over 20 FM stations throughout the Southeast and subsequently was bootlegged a number of times over the years. Those bootlegs, however, such as Same Old Played Out Scenes, Here's To Ya and Fox Theatre Presents The Boss, typically bore significant flaws in the audio, and as a result a number of other '78 broadcasts, also booted, wound up being more desirable and of course better known, including concerts recorded in San Francisco, Cleveland and Passaic. (As the story, possibly apocryphal goes, there was bad weather in the region at the time of the Atlanta show, which affected the quality of the radio broadcast, and it's also been reported that a lot of potential tapers that night simply failed to switch their decks on.)

(No video appears to exist from the Atlanta show, but here's a clip from Passaic, featuring so-so vidoe but stunning audio, a version of "Prove It All Night" that typifies the '78 tour. Watch for Clarence Clemons to come in at about the 5 1/2 minute mark. RIP.)

Recently, though, a new version of the Fox tape surface, reportedly sourced directly from a first generation recording, and it quickly began making the rounds of the torrent download sites. According to SpringsteenCorner.com:

"Earlier this year [the JEMS Archive] acquired several tapes from a kind and generous soul who, while not a collector, had a number of interesting recordings land in his lap back in the day. The tapes had not been played in more than three decades. In the box were two cassettes of the Atlanta show. As luck would have it, they weren't merely an upgrade of the broadcast but a pre-FM recording of the show dubbed from 15 IPS reels. The sound quality of the pre-FM source is truly first rate, lacking the heavy compression of the over-the-air broadcast and boasting much wider stereo separation than any extant FM source. The pre-FM also corrects most of the speed issues with the previous bootlegs. And we do pick up some previously missing audio bits. These includes a few sentences spoken by Bruce before "Santa Claus" and, more significantly, the 40 or so seconds that were missing from the start of "Backstreets" plus some band member intros after that song. That being said, the cassettes were in less-than-ideal condition and required re-shelling and baking for playback. Experienced ears might pick up on very minor fluctuations (e.g. on the tape flips) that couldn't be corrected.

"In short, what we do have sounds awesome. However, because it is Atlanta, we're still snake bit. The pre-FM source is missing the entire encore (presumably a lost third cassette, and yes, we've asked if it might be hiding behind dresser or something), needs a long patch (6+ minutes) from halfway through "Prove It All Night" through the start of "Racing in the Street" (we had hoped tape baking would fix this damaged part but it didn't), plus a tiny patch at the very end of "Because the Night." But even that bad news has a silver lining, as JEMS also found--gathering dust in its own archive--a 7-1/2 IPS reel to reel of the full broadcast from WINZ-FM Miami that we feel is superior to what's found on Same Old Played Out Scenes, having a more natural, less processed and compressed sound. This new reel was used to patch the longer missing bits (e.g. the "Prove It" to "Racing" chunk noted above) in the pre-FM and provide the encore.

"The only material flaw in the WINZ source are a few short (one second or less) dropouts in "Raise Your Hand" that, while unfortunate, aren't particularly annoying, they're just there. After experimenting with using SOPOS to patch the dropouts, we decided that the "repaired" version sounded worse than the original as the gaps are so short, the change in sources is jarring. So we've left "Raise Your Hand" from the WINZ tape intact, with dropouts, but also included an extra file of "Raise Your Hand" with no dropouts from Same Old Played Out Scenes. The end result is not perfect, but it is 100% complete, for the first time ever, and it is the best-sounding Fox Theater recording by a wide margin, especially the 85% of the show that's now pre-FM."

Now stepping into the mix is venerable Italian label Anubis with another one of its custom-designed, limited edition CDR releases. Titled Night Train, appropriately enough, it's taken from this newly discovered master. Our source at Anubis confirms that they used that pre-FM version and that the results are "incredible - one of the best Bruce boots from the best Bruce era."

Anubis, per tradition, did its own audio tweaking of the tape but didn't find it necessary to do a wholesale overhauled. Says our source, "We cleaned the tape, made a very light equalization and a final master to extract the full potential of the tape, but without saturating it."

Night Train will be available as a three-disc set next month. It will come with full artwork and an extensive booklet. See the track listing, below:

1 Good Rockin' Tonight
2 Badlands
3 Spirit in the Night
4 Darkness on the Edge of Town
5 Independence Day
6 The Promised Land
7 Prove It All Night
8 Racing in the Street
9 Thunder Road
10 Jungleland
11 Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town
12 Night Train
13 Fire
14 Candy's Room
15 Because the Night
16 Point Blank
17 Not Fade Away > Gloria > She's the One
18 Backstreets > Sad Eyes
19 Rosalita
20 Born to Run
21 Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
22 Detroit Medley
23 Raise Your Hand

Fans are in the Mangum and over the moon!

By Blurt Staff

Fancy some unreleased Neutral Milk Hotel, fanboys? You've gotten your wish: head over to band mainman Jeff Mangum's NMH website, WalkingWallOfWords.com, and in addition to assorted ephemera, Mangum solo tour dates, etc., there's "Oh Sister" and "Ferris Wheel," from 1995 and 1993, respectively, posted for your listening pleasure. And it's not an exercise in randomness, either. On Nov. 22 Mangum plans to issue a vinyl box (it will also be available digitally) featuring all of the band's albums plus a brace of 15 unreleased cuts:

*1996's On Avery Island LP

*1998's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea LP

*Everything Is EP 10"

 *unreleased Ferris Wheel on Fire EP 10"

*"Holland, 1945" 7-inch pic disc

*"Little Birds" 7-inch

*"You've Passed" 7-inch

*two 24" by 24" posters.

A portion of the proceeds of the box sales will go to the Children of the Blue Sky chaity, as will portions of ticket sales for to Mangum's upcoming tour.

Some events postponed until later, others cancelled outright.

By Fred Mills

From as far south as Wilmington, NC, to as far north (and possibly farther) as Cohasset, MA, outdoor music concerts, festivals and related events have been dropping like flies in the anticipated wake of Hurricane Irene, which as of this writing (Sat. 10 am) continues to track up the east coast and prompt millions of people to evacuate. Some of the cancellations were due to concert promoters' preemptive decisions, due in no small part to the recent spate of outdoor concert tragedies. Others were dictated from on high: on Friday New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg revoked all outdoor-event permits in the city for the weekend.

Among the cancellations:

*Gillian Welch was to play the Winoca Festival in Wilmington tonight; with that event cancelled, she moved her show a couple hundred miles inland to Saxapahaw, also tonight. (One imagines most ticketholders were already on the move westward from the NC coast so it might not be such a burden after all.)

*Mary Chapin Carpenter postponed her show at the Sandler Center in Virginia Beach until Oct. 6.

*The Afro-Punk Festival in Brooklyn this weekend - possibly one of the most hotly anticipated shows as it featured Cee-Lo Green, Santigold, Janelle Monáe, Das Racist, Toro Y Moi, Ninjasonik, Gordon Voidwell, Reggie Watts and others - is cancelled. No replacement date has been set. Scores of other NYC area shows, including indoor club events, have also been cancelled or postponed.

*The Silopanna Music Festival in Crownsville, MD, is cancelled and has not been rescheduled. Slated to appear were Matt & Kim, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Fitz & the Tantrums and more.

*Styx (yep, Styx...) had a show at the South Shore Music Circus in Cohasset, MA, that is cancelled.

Here are some links that will list more cancellations and postponements. While we are also advised that much of Brooklyn, in particular the music mecca enclave of Williamsburg, is being evacuated, there is no truth to the rumors that hipster-aspiring squatters have been descending upon the area en masse...

Billboard.com

RollingStone.com

Pitchfork

Fan-sourced anthology powered by the Facebook "Like" buttons. Miles Davis' label also announces first installment in a new "Bootleg Series" archival project.

By Blurt Staff

On August 1 Sony-Legacy launched "The Miles Davis Fan Project," an online initiative designed to introduce the music of the American jazz composer-trumpeter-bandleader to a digital audience via Facebook (www.facebook.com/MilesDavis) and the late legend's website (www.milesdavis.com). Throughout the month Legacy has featured 40 classic Miles Davis tracks -- representing multiple aspects and phases of the iconic Davis canon from the post-bop cool of Kind of Blue through the ferocious fusion of Bitches Brew to the meditative Möbius cosmos of In a Silent Way --  via SoundCloud and powered by RootMusic's BandPage application.  The tracks feature an active "Like" button which prompts fans to 'vote'.  By mid-August, more than twenty thousand "Likes" had been cast on Facebook with some songs grabbing more than twenty-five hundred "Likes." 

The ten recordings accruing the Most "Likes" from fans online will be assembled for Blue Flame, a fan-christened digital-only album to be released on September 26, in time for the 20^th anniversary of Davis's death on Sept. 28, 1991. (The album title was suggested by Jennifer Sammons of L.A., who noted, "I was introduced to Miles Davis' music by my Dad (D. J.) who was a huge fan. I became further intrigued with Miles after seeing the actor Michael Wright portraying him!  Upon reading Miles' bio, I realized that listening to his music is like taking an amazing journey through this musical genius' incredible life that began with that mystical magical ‘blue flame'!")

In addition to A&R-ing the tracklist for "The Miles Davis Fan Project" album, online fans are being invited to name the album, create the art, and describe what Miles and his music means to them in personal testimonials to be featured in a digital booklet coming with the online release. The final tracklisting, sequencing and artwork for Blue Flame will be revealed on September 26.

Meanwhile, on September 20, Legacy will release Miles Davis Quintet - Live In Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series Vol.1, the first offering in a series of rare and previously unreleased live recordings from around the world from the legendary artist.

Two-disc package includes The Trax Records 25^th Anniversary Album + The House That Trax Built DVD Documentary.

To celebrate 25 years in the business, on October 18, pioneering house music label Trax Records will release a special two-disc collection showcasing some of the label's more underground and avant-garde tracks plus some new material. In addition to a musical collection, the package includes a special DVD documentary entitled The House That Trax Built, which tells the story of Trax Records and explores the relationship (and growth) between house music, the city of Chicago, and the international music community and fans.

Trax Records: The 25th Anniversary Collection from Jorge Cruz on Vimeo.

The backstory:

One of house music's pivotal moments can be traced to the year 1977, when legendary DJ Larry Levan was preparing to open The Paradise Garage in New York City, a club that would go on to be one of the most influential of all time. Busy with details for the Garage, Levan had turned down an offer he received to open a new club in Chicago. He suggested to his friend Frankie Knuckles that he take the offer and move to Chicago to become resident DJ of The Warehouse. Knuckles' style of DJing wasn't about merely playing records consecutively; he brought New York's beat mixing style to Chicago for the first time and made older soul tracks danceable by adding percussion into the mix from a separate turntable. Some say that the term "house music" was coined at the Warehouse to describe the unique style of music that Frankie Knuckles played at the club. And so - house music was born in Chicago.

As house music grew in popularity and young artists started producing tracks, there was a need for a label to cater to this new sound. Enter Trax Records. Launched in December 1984 by Larry Sherman with Rachael Cain (a.k.a Screamin' Rachael), Jesse Saunders, and Vince Lawrence, when they convinced Sherman to press their vinyl records on credit, and quickly returned with stacks of cash. It was on Trax that the first house and acid house records were pressed and it was the influence of these very records that changed the course of music history.

Since its inception Trax Records has released over 2,000 titles (and counting), and first put iconic names such as Frankie Knuckles; Marshall Jefferson; Mr. Fingers; Farley "Jackmaster" Funk; Adonis; Ralphie Rosario and Screamin' Rachael on the map. The label has also released tracks from a who's who of the industry including DJ Rush, Armando, Joey Beltram, Ron Hardy, Robert Owens, Maurice Joshua, Fast Eddie and many more. In 2011, with the resurgence of the hip-house sound, Cain is working with emerging artists DJ Fade, MFTD feat DJ Swank & vocalist Alyze, Professor Kliq & Ramova, and Tomiko Dixon, granddaughter of Blues legend Willie Dixon, which are all leading up to Cain's retrospective album.

 TRACKLISTING

1. Chuck Roberts - "In the Beginning"

2. Two Of A Kind - "Happiness"

3. Jamie Principle & Frankie Knuckles - "It's A Cold World"

4. Mr. Lee - "I Can't Forget"

5. Jungle Wonz - "Time Marches On"

6. Housemaster Boyz - "Trax You Lost"

7. Virgo - "Do You Know Who You Are?"

8. Hula - "Hot Hands"

9. Hercules - "Lost In The Groove"

10. DJ Rush - "Help"

11. Ralphi Rosario - "You Used to Hold Me 2011"
 vocal by Screamin' Rachael, Remix by DJ Gem

Bonus Tracks:

12. George Clinton & Screamin' Rachael - "Our House Is Funkatified"

13. ‘Hip That House' featuring Bloodties

... in a conversation, natch! Will conduct Q&A with the surviving members and producer on Sept. 24.

By Fred Mills

Nirvana- and Kurt Cobain-centric blogs are abuzz with the news that on Sept. 24, the date of the 20^th anniversary of Nevermind, raconteur Jon Stewart will conduct a 2-hour interview session on SiriusXM Radio with erstwhile Nirvana members Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl. Also present: producer Butch Vig. (via Pitchfork) Dubbed "SiriusXM Town Hall With Nirvana," it will be on the satellite radio channel 34 and will air at 8pm ET.

If you subscribe to SiriusXM you can also enter a drawing to receive tickets to the session.

Channel 34 (aka the "Lithium" channel or "Nevermind Radio") will also program nearly a week's worth of Nirvana running from Sept. 23 through the 28^th. This all coincides, of course, with the previously announced Nevermind box set and assorted other festivities marking the anniversary.

Novoselic, Grohl and Vig pictured below, from the Foo Fighters' Twitter account:

Pump Friction,American Booty, The Devil Wears Nada, The Bangover, The Hills Have Thighs and more...

By Uncle Blurt

If Sept. 20 isn't on your calendar, it will be now: that's when the new Boots Electric album, Honkey Kong, arrives via Dangerbird. Boots, of course, is otherwise known as Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes, and to get you "in the mood" for the release he's filmed a suitably NSFW video for the track "Boots Electric Theme." Check it out, below - it's a hoot, and self-explanatory once you start watching it.

You can also nab a free download of the song.

The label describes the album as Hughes "coming out of the closet," although we think they mean musically:  "A mix of glam-pop, keyboard-heavy dance grooves, and Hughes' signature brand of rock ‘n roll grit that drips with swagger."

That's not just swagger he's dripping in the video.

Album released next week. Do not miss.

By Blurt Staff

The new Ry Cooder album Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down (out Aug 30 on Nonesuch/Perro Verde) has been in heavy rotation around the BLURT security compound for some time now. It strikes a chord, as this label description may suggest: "The album confronts our country's corrupt financial system, its treatment of immigrants and the working class, and more - and the sentiments are resonating on both sides of the Atlantic."

Boy howdy to that. We should have a review of it next week, and meanwhile, Slate.com has the entire album available for stream now. Check it out.

[Photo Credit: Vincent Valdez]

August 18 at the Bunk Bar, along with Richard Buckner no less.

By Tim Hinely

It's always a special occasion when David Kilgour, of New Zealand legends The Clean, comes to our fair country and when he does, you'd better have your calendar clear.  This time Mr. Kilgour came over with a pal Tony de Raad (of Kilgour's band The Heavy Eights, who sat down and played acoustic guitar the whole time) and his gorgeous-sounding 12-string guitar and wooed and wowed the packed house at Bunk Bar. Kilgour played "In the Dreamlife You Need a Rubber Soul" (off The Clean's latest record, Mister Pop) as well as some old chestnuts like "Spins You Round", "Diamond Mine" and "Anything Can Happen"  (a 3-decade old Clean classic).

On the final three songs of the set Kilgour and de Raad brought on former Chills/current Black Watch guitarist Steven Schayer to add his 6-string elegance to the tunes and elegance was certainly added as they (the tunes) were spellbinding. Apparently Kilgour asked Schayer to play a few tunes at the L.A. gig and then asked him if he wanted to do a handful more shows up the coast and Schayer happily obliged.

Again, if Kilgour ever comes to your town roll out the red carpet for the guy, he plainly deserves it.  He's in Arlington, VA, tonight (Aug. 25), then in Brooklyn on the 27^th and Boston the 28^th.

It had been a number of years since I last saw Richard Buckner and he now resembles a cross between a crazed, Native American drifter and a middle linebacker. The guy is large and his long hair and dark tan make him look even more menacing. He played several cuts off his latest record (Our Blood, on Merge Records) and had the still-packed house captivated. A true American talent who has been pouring his heart out for two decades now.