Asks the rhetorical question "Where Do All The Good Girls Go" in fine ruminative fashion! From forthcoming album with the awesome name.

By Blurt Staff

Belle & Sebastian guitarist Stevie Jackson releases his debut solo album, the delightfully titled (I Can't Get No) Stevie Jackson on July 3 via Belle & Sebastian's Banchory Recordings label. He's been working on the record for a number of years around his touring and recording commitments, not only with B&S, but notably The Vaselines, Russian Red, Bill Wells Trio and God Help The Girl.  Here's an advance listen to onoe of the key tracks, "Where Do All The Good Girls Go":

Stevie Jackson "Where Do All The Good Girls Go" by Howlin' Wuelf Media

The album's twelve songs, were written and recorded with a range of collaborators in Glasgow and Vancouver in the period since Belle & Sebastian's 2006 album The Life Pursuit. In addition to featuring various members of Belle & Sebastian, the tracks recorded in Glasgow include contributions from long-term associates and collaborators of Stevie's including Roy Moller and Gary Thom (The Company), Bill Wells, Alex Neilson (Trembling Bells) and Katrina Mitchell (The Pastels), while the Vancouver recordings feature the New Pornographers' rhythm section, Kurt Dahle and John Collins.

At the end of 2011, Stevie took a compact quartet on the road to showcase the songs comprising (I Can't Get No) Stevie Jackson. The tour culminated in a sold-out homecoming at King Tut's in Glasgow, which a five-star Herald review described as "a masterclass in the art of pop craftsmanship" and "one of the gigs of the year".

Title of the month: The Wild The Innocent The TV Shuffle. Somebody tell the Boss!

By Blurt Staff

Here's the free "mixtape" from San Diego throwback TV Girl. Really catchy twee soul/pop on the Greedhead label. You can download it at this link, and meanwhile, enjoy a couple of earlier tracks, below.

Sorry, grad students, but the University's Wilson Library will officially be "rocking out" regardless of your work load...

By Fred Mills

Chapel Hill's Merge Records, around since '89 and responsible for some of the greatest music released in both the last century and the current on, have announced they will be housing their archives at the University of North Carolina, Pitchfork reports. The Southern Folklife Collection has materials ranging from 45s and LPs to 78s, acetates and cylinders "documenting the emergence of old-time, country-western, hillbilly, bluegrass, blues, gospel, Cajun and zydeco musics" as well as the post-1950s folk revival," but with the addition of Merge to the mix, it looks like the post-1980s alterna-rock explosion will be prominently featured, too.

According to the Merge website:

Merge Records is excited to announce that we are partnering with the Southern Folklife Collection (SFC) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Wilson Library to archive music, art, and ephemera from 23 years of releasing music we love. Beginning in 2013, the entire Merge archives will be catalogued and opened to the public courtesy of the SFC.

"We're deeply honored to work with Merge to preserve and provide access to their archives. The Merge Records Collection is an invaluable resource for the study of music, art, and culture of our region," says Steve Weiss, Curator of UNC's Southern Folklife Collection.

The Southern Folklife Collection ranks as one of the nation's foremost archival resources for the study of American folk music and popular culture. SFC holdings extensively document all forms of southern musical and oral traditions across the entire spectrum of individual and community expressive arts, as well as mainstream media production.

That's not a barnyard cock gracing the album sleeve...


By Perez Mills


We are loving a current headline over at Billboard.com: "Tenacious D Without F-Bombs? Salty Duo Clean Up 'Fenix'"


The accompanying interview with Jack Black and Kyle Gass talks about the duo's new album Rize of the Fenix, which drops next week. Among the choice quotes:


"That title was just so strong, very ballsy. It felt like an erect penis of a title," Black says. "We just thought, 'Is it really dead?' Well, no, but it's very, very ill." Gass chimes in: "It has pneumonia."


Eh, the title's not the only thing that's ballsy and erect, if you hadn't noticed from the album sleeve, above. You can compare it to the version being displayed at Amazon.com, below; note that if you go into a record store you will encounter a medium-sized sticker and band-created parental warning ("not for children or religious people") covering up the offending member. But if you are of a vinyl disposition, never fear: that big 12" x 12" LP proudly boasts a nearly foot-long beast on the cover, with no sticker.

Appearance was recorded live in Athens at the Unversity of Georgia.


By Blurt Staff


Surf over to the NPR Music site where you can listen to a stream of the recently-broadcast "Mountain Stage" segment featuring Van Dyke Parks. Writes the NPR blogger, "Sitting behind the piano, Parks plays an assortment of baroque Americana from throughout his career, including "Come Along" (a retelling of the story of Br'er Rabbit) and "Orange Crate Art," one of many songs he wrote for Brian Wilson."


The 43-minute setlist:

• "Jump"
• "Opportunity"
• "Come Along"
• "I'm History"
• "The All Golden"
• "Orange Crate Art"
• "Sail Away"
• "Saving All My Love For You"

It's one rare instance of the polls being correct!


By Blurt Staff


The votes are in and the victor has been announced: "Surf's Up," the elegiac, complex Beach Boys song that graced the 1971 album of the same name (and had also been originally mooted for the ill-fated Smile), is the greatest BB song of all time. That's according to Mojo magazine, which has the band gracing the cover of the latest (June) issue. The accompanying feature includes testimonials from journalists, former bandmembers and even musicians such as Todd Rundgren and Wayne Coyne, and there's a CD, Pet Sounds Revisited, boasting some surprisingly good renditions of Pet Sounds compositions - among them, the Flaming Lips' "God Only Knows," "Gaz Coombes' "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" and Saint Etienne's "Wouldn't It Be Nice."


Listen to a couple of versions of "Surf's Up" below. The other tracks in the top ten: Good Vibrations, God Only Knows, California Girls, 'Til I Die, Caroline No, Heroes and Villains, Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder," Wouldn't It be Nice, I Get Around.

Hunger Games meets The Road as envisioned by the Brothers Grimm.


By Fred Mills


We've got Grimes - Claire Boucher - featured in the new print edition of BLURT (on newsstands in a couple of weeks), and below we've got a new video from her as well. It's for the Visions track "Nightmusic" and was directed by John Londono. There's a lot of nudity but it's not really of the NSFW variety, unless your workplace is at a church or elementary school. Feel free to check out our earlier interview with Boucher, elsewhere on this website.

Broadcast starts 9pm ET at NPR Music.

By Fred Mills

We've got J. Spaceman - that's Jason Pierce to his mom - on the cover of the new BLURT, hitting newsstands shortly. So you can bet we'll be glued to our browsers tonight (May 10), courtesy NPR Music, when Spiritualized takes the stage at D.C.'s 9:30 Club for a live webcast.

They'll have audio and video of the concert streaming. Meanwhile, check out the band's recent appearance on the Letterman show, or simply cue up a classic live video, below.

[Photo Exclusive for BLURT / copyright 2012 Steve Gullick]

Hilly Kristal reportedly rolling in his grave...


By Perez Mills


The legendary name CBGB got tarnished down a few grades in terms of legacy shine this week when it was announced that the punk club's assets have been purchased once again and that the new investors are planning on opening a new CBGB somewhere in downtown NYC. A music fstival is also being planned for July 5-8, spread across 30 stages of varying sizes, both indoor and outdoor; among the band names mentioned are the Cro-Mags, Sick Of It All, the Pains of Bing Pure at Heart, Guided by Voices, David Johansen and the Baseball Project.


According to the New York Times, "The new owners of the club's assets - some with ties to the original Bowery establishment - say they hope that the festival will revive the wide-open artistic aesthetic associated with CBGB."


Investor Tim Hayes is quoted as saying, "We're never going to recreate that moment in time," said Tim Hayes, one of the investors. "We're trying to continue the idea of supporting live music, making a lot of noise and being a part of New York City. The festival is one way we can do it. Eventually the club will be another way we can do it."




CBGB closed in 2006, setting off a series of legal upheavals that have included bankruptcies and lawsuits, ultimately leaving a bad taste in the mouths of anyone associated with the club.

Discusses transitioning to a woman and history of gender dysphoria.

By Fred Mills

Striking a fresh blow for mainstream acceptance of  the LGBT community, Against Me! frontman Tom Gabel has announced he is transgender and will be taking hormones and electrolysis treatments in order to begin living as a woman. A profile of the musician is in the current issue of Rolling Stone, which quotes Gabel as saying "I'm going to have embarrassing moments," says Gabel, "and that won't be fun. But that's part of what talking to you is about - is hoping people will understand, and hoping they'll be fairly kind."

Gabel will adopt the name Laura Jane Grace and will still be married to wife Heather, who has been supportive. As the RS article rightly points out, this is "the first time a major rock star has come out as transgender."

Just the same, we've come a long way from the days when a kid could get beaten up by rednecks just for wearing a David Bowie teeshirt. We wish all the best to Gabel for having the courage to speak out publicly.

(below photo from Rolling Stone/Cass Bird)