August 20 found the streets blocked off and all things Crüe in effect, along with Public Enemy, Bush and others.

By Jose Martinez

This weekend saw the return of the fourth annual Sunset Strip Music Festival (SSMF), celebrating all things raunch ‘n' roll that takes place along the world famous Sunset Strip. This year, local legends Mötley Crüe received the "Elmer Valentine Award," named after the passing of original honoree Elmer Valentine, one of the founders and cornerstones of Sunset Strip venues The Roxy Theatre, Rainbow Bar & Grill, and Whisky A Go-Go.

It has been 30 years since the Crüe, singer Vince Neil, guitarist Mick Mars, bassist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee, burst onto the scene, laying waste to any band that dared rival them in excess and complete abandon. During a ceremony event at the House of Blues Thursday night, where Jack Daniels flowed like water, the band was honored by guest speakers Ray Manzarek of The Doors, who boasted of dropping acid to find the meaning of life; author and journalist Neil Strauss; comedian Dane Cook, who treated his speech as a roast, joking, "More people have heard Tommy [Lee] honk a horn with his dick than Theater of Pain; and The New York Dolls' David Johansen.

During the weekend festivities the band kept a low profile, opting to pass on an acceptance speech and then skipped a party held in their honor Friday night, leaving right after they walked the red carpet. But Saturday night, in front of 15,000 rapid fans, half of the audience that attended last year's outdoor festival along a shut down Sunset Boulevard when Slash was honored and Smashing Pumpkins headlined, the Crüe aptly let the music do the talking.

Earlier in the day, fans saw sets by a slew of bands, including She Wants Revenge, Matt & Kim, Mickey Avalon, Bush, and Public Enemy. While Bush delivered a powerful performance of mostly its older catalog to the delight of shrieking female fans, Public Enemy seemed to steal the show with its high-energy performance or unrelenting rap songs that still seemed as volatile and relevant as ever. Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian even joined the New York rappers on fan favorite "Bring the Noise."

Surprisingly, without any fanfare or special introduction, Mötley Crüe stormed onstage and jumped right into "Live Wire" and delivered a homerun performance in front of its boisterous hometown fans. While singer Vince Neil's vocals don't hold up as well 30 years later, and Mick Mars looks feeble and hampered, neither seem to let anything stop them from hammering home a solid and powerful set.

The Crüe's show featured drummer Tommy Lee's impressive "360" vertical drum roller coaster, where the wild man drummer took multiple vertical loops during his solo. Joining him for part of the ride was world famous DJ Deadmau5. The band's intense pyro even set off the fire alarm at the nearby Key Club, setting off wailing alarms and forced the club to shut down its light and restart its system, leaving festival attendees looking to dance after the Crüe's performance to stand idly by in the deafening darkness.

Sticking to a greatest hits set, the band tore through faves such as "Shout at the Devil," "Kickstart My Heart," "Home Sweet Home" and "Smokin' in the Boys Room." It was a pretty spectacular sight seeing the Mötley boys back on their original stomping grounds on Sunset Boulevard where they forever left their mark on the scene, city and world.

Taken from forthcoming album, natch.


By Blurt Staff


Couple of weeks ago the news arrived that Ryan Adams was returning to the record bins in October with the album Ashes & Fire. Now his label, PAX-AM, has unveiled the first track from the record, "Lucky Now." It's a mellow tune, but damn, it's a fine one too - a keeper, we say.

Lucky Now by ryanadams

Something about the space program and LSD, unsurprisingly....


By Blurt Staff


The Flaming Lips and Lightning Bolt recently teamed up on a four-song EP featuring such delightfully named tracks as "I'm Working AT Nasa On Acid," "Nasa's Final Acid Bath" (those might explain why the space shuttle program has been killed...), "I Want to Get High But I Don't Want Brain Damage" and "I Want to Get Damaged But I Won't Say Hi".

Now we've got the video, via Delo Creative, of the first song. It is, er, damaged in the best possible way...

Bad As Me: the album, the single, the aesthetic.

By Blurt Staff

Today, Tom Waits' official website has been hosting the not-so-private "TOM WAITS PRIVATE LISTENING PARTY" for his first studio album of all new material in seven years, Bad As Me. It's also on YouTube for the edification of the masses.

The new single, "Bad As Me," arrived today at digital retailers and it marks the return of the horns for Waits with the opening growl of baritone sax alongside a piano tango, Cuban electric guitar line, a fat and percussive drum beat and a rockabilly vocal.

Oct. 25 is the release date for the new album and features 13 all new tracks and a deluxe version that will include an additional 3 new songs and a 40 page book of lyrics and photos taken by Waits himself. It will also be available on 180 gram vinyl which will include the LP and CD, plus full-size 12-page book. Below is the official word from the Waits camp on the album. Enjoy!

Bad As Me is Tom Waits' first studio album of all new music in seven years. This pivotal work refines the music that has come before and signals a new direction. Waits, in possibly the finest voice of his career, worked with a veteran team of gifted musicians and longtime co-writer/producer Kathleen Brennan. From the opening horn-fueled chug of "Chicago," to the closing barroom chorale of "New Year's Eve," Bad As Me displays the full career range of Waits' songwriting, from beautiful ballads like "Last Leaf," to the avant cinematic soundscape of "Hell Broke Luce," a battlefront dispatch. On tracks like "Talking at the Same Time," Waits shows off a supple falsetto, while on blues burners like "Raised Right Men" and the gospel tinged "Satisfied" he spits, stutters and howls. Like a good boxer, these songs are lean and mean, with strong hooks and tight running times. A pervasive sense of players delighting in each other's musical company brings a feeling of loose joy even to the album's saddest songs.

Death toll currently stands at 5 for Belgian concertgoers.

By Fred Mills

Yesterday (Aug. 18) at the annual Pukkelpop music festival in Hasselt Belgium a massive metal stage scaffolding collapsed during a violent thunderstorm. Initial reports had the death toll at 3, but by this morning it had risen to 5, reports the Associated Press. At least 140 people were injured as well, "10 of them seriously," according to estimates.

Associated Press: "'There are still three patients in critical condition fighting for their lives,' Dr. Pascal Vranckx of Jessa Hospital in Hasselt told reporters. He said many of the injured were hit on the head by flying or falling debris."

The festival was scheduled to run Thursday, Friday and Saturday but the remaining events were canceled in the wake of the tragedy. Among th3 220 acts booked for the sold-out festival were Foo Fighters, Eminem, the Offspring, Explosions in the Sky and Panic! At The Disco.

Given that there have been three other serious stage- and severe weather-related incidents just in the past month - July 17, at the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest, the stage collapsed during Cheap Trick's set, although no serious injuries were reported; August 6, at Tulsa's Brady District Block Party festival, a lighting rig fell prior to the Flaming Lips' set, again with no serious injuries; August 13 at the Indiana State Fair the stage collapsed before a Sugarland concert (and just shortly after opening act Sara Bareilles had performed), and this time five people were killed and many injured - the call for more intense regulation of outdoor concert events will inevitably grow louder. As a compelling recent article at Billboard.biz pointed out, while "concert mayhem is neither new nor unique" (citing the 1979 Who concert were eleven people died during a stampede), "what's changed over time is the size of the events and pressures on promoters," with concertgoers and the artists themselves wanting shows to be "bigger and better and more elaborate."

Bob Romeo, CEO of the Academy of Country Music, was quoted as saying, "Any promoter you would talk to that's done outdoor shows probably saw the video of what happened [at the Sugarland concert] and said, 'That could be me. That could be any of my colleagues.' At one time or another, if you do enough outdoor shows, you are going to face those scenarios."

The Billboard report continued, "Safety regulations, experts say, haven't kept up the pace in part because they aren't standard. No single government agency oversees or sets rules for outdoor concerts, leaving a range of guidelines across events." Added Paul Wertheimer of Crowd Management Strategies, on an ominous note, "It's the Wild West when it comes to standards and guidance and consistency. People from place to place can do whatever they want."

Taped in July at The Musicians Workshop in Asheville, NC.

By Blurt Staff

Steel pan jam maestro Jonathan Scales, along with the members of his band the Jonathan Scales Fourchestra, talked with Erin Scholze of the Lingua Musica. Scales outlines his intriguing path to his instrument, discusses his recent album Character Farm & Other Short Stories (which features guest appearances form Jeff Coffin, Yonrico Scott, Kofi Burbridge and Casey Driessen), and more.Don't miss the exclusive performance clips in the video; the virtuosic Scales band is undoubtedly one of those outfits that has to be seen in concert to be fully believed. Daniel Judson filmed and edited this video. (Hey, what about those ukuleles!)

Scales' official website has plenty of additional info, music and videos for you to check out.

The videotaped conversation marks the latest in the ongoing Lingua Musica Interviews series and we're looking forward to many more in the very near future. (Previous installments have included Rosanne Cash, Railroad Earth, Clouds of Greer, Paper Tiger, Secret B-sides, Dex Romweber, Dubtribe, Dehlia Low, Ryan Montbleau, Brian McGee, Jon Dee Graham, David LaMotte, and more.) BLURT is a proud co-sponsor of Lingua Musica. Please visit the LinguaMusicaAlive.com website, and meanwhile, check out the video.

What if they gave a breakup and nobody cared?

By Perez Mills

Far be it from us to dispense advice to professional musicians; they're perfectly capable of fucking up and deep-sixing their careers by themselves and don't need any assistance from the peanut gallery. It does occur, however, that airing one's dirty laundry - and being pissy about it, to boot - under the guise of serving the fanbase is not the most salutary means by which to conduct oneself. It's transparently disingenuous, at best, and possibly smacks of blatant hubris. I mean, c'mon; the line about chemotherapy (see below) is enough to make even this jaded ol' cynic-critic's jaw drop.

In case you haven't heard: beloved (by some) heartland rockers the BoDeans have split up in the wake of some sort of spat between founders Sam Llanas and Kurt Neumann - who ARE, for all intents and purposes, The BoDeans. Undeterred, however, Neumann will apparently soldier on under the name BoDeans, and he's gonna make darn sure that everyone knows that he's not at fault here.

But don't believe us -the statement below was posted at the BoDeans' Facebook page. Make of it what you will. Maybe it will all turn out to be a belated April Fool's joke, or possibly something like that death hoax that The Dwarves pulled on Sub Pop years ago. Whatevs. Take it away, Kurt.

When Sam failed to show up at last week's promotional events in Colorado, we had to make quick decisions. Do we play? Do we leave? We decided it was best to try to do what we had gone there to do-to put on the best show we could. Once I knew he'd actually quit the band, I spent many sleepless nights, thinking. Is this it? Can I reconcile myself with this being the end of BoDeans? I thought about the fans. The people who'd danced at their weddings to 'Good Things' and 'If It Makes You'. The people who have credited this music with helping them get through chemotherapy. I realized then that BoDeans is not about me and Sam. It's about the music and the fans and the connection. I will go on with BoDeans because of that. I know there are some who won't agree with it, and I understand. Change is hard-for all of us. But for those of you that want to come out and see us play, we will be there. -Kurt Neumann

"TLASILA are what punk bands always proposed but never lived up to." - Thurston Moore, 2011

By Blurt Staff

Long-running experimental art/punk rockers To Live and Shave in L.A. is callig it quits after nearly two decades of terrorizing the underground (not to mention pissing off the hipster elite as often as possible). To that end, Tom Smith & Co. are delivering their final opus, The Cortège, this fall. Smith, Ben Wolcott, and Rat Bastard will be joined by an array of colorful characters including Don Fleming and Anderew W.K.. Let take a look at some bullet points, shall we?

*The Cortège is the closing installment to two decades of remarkable albums and riveting live performances. It's produced by Don Fleming and features liner notes from Ray Brassier.

*This collective of legendary music-makers has been around since the early 1990's when they crossed paths in the early Miami Beach punk/noise/experimental scene. The TLASILA collective for the new album includes Ben Wolcott (oscillator and treatments), Rat Bastard (violin), Tom Smith (lead vocals), Misty Martinez (lead vocal on "Flattering Circles of Hell," backing vocals, saxophone), Andrew W.K. (backing vocals), Nondor Nevai (backing vocals), Cherie Lily (backing vocals), Mark Morgan (guitar), Chris Grier (guitar), Don Fleming (guitar), Dimthingshine (percussion and voice), Mark Shellhaas (percussion), Kelly Jamison (percussion), Graham Moore (synth modules), Gaybomb (magnetic card readers), Patrick Spurlock (electronics).

*Don Fleming: "We recorded The Cortège at the Sonic Youth studio in Hoboken in 2007. There were sixteen musicians and we wanted to avoid the enormous cluster-fuck of everyone performing at once. Rat Bastard cleverly devised a system to record each song with only four musicians, plus Tom Smith singing. More players were added as it fit each song. We wanted the musicians to be reactive to Tom's lyrics and melodies and not overwhelm his performance. I knew how personal the lyrics were to Tom and that guided the tracking and my mixing. Ultimately, I wanted to let his words tell the story."

*Ray Brassier: "The Cortège is a heroically significant rock record in an era when rock has become terminally insignificant."

*Tom Smith: "My son, only in his early 20s, was dodging oblivion in Iraq; my father - always a portentous, begrudgingly waggish hulk - grew progressively gaunt as he succumbed to cancer and dementia; and, through Bush's odious machinations, America was befouled, perhaps irredeemably so. The Cortège was a gut response."

*Chris Grier: "There was nothing like TLASILA, and I can't see how there will be anything like it in the future. Tom Smith, Rat Bastard and Ben Wolcott leave us with an extensive oeuvre that illustrates their intellectual rigor, their wicked humor, and their fearless approach. Their smarts were obvious, but they were also total badasses. And it all came out in the art. The body of work doesn't merely stand out, it gives off the sort of coruscating blast you get when you dunk a highway flare into a bucket of kerosene." 

New album arrives September 27...


By Blurt Staff


Sorry, the intern got the headline wrong - it actually should read, "Bjork Unveils New Album Cover." The ever-provocative artist tweeted the image yesterday.


Biophilia is due out Sept. 27 on Nonesuch/One Little Indian.

The most beloved all-girl band from the Golden Age of Punk & New Wave blitzes San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium on August 16.

By Jud Cost

"'What a drag it is getting old.' And yet, here we are," chirped Go-Go's lead singer Belinda Carlisle, quoting a line from their sandpaper-tough cover of the pill-popping Rolling Stones classic "Mother's Little Helper" to an excited full house at San Francisco's storied Fillmore Auditorium.

On the 30th anniversary of Beauty And The Beat, the radiant debut album by the Go-Go's, all five originals - Carlisle, guitarists Charlotte Caffey and Jane Wiedlin, bassist/guitarist Kathy Valentine and drummer Gina Shock - have reunited to show their fans they've still got the beat. To be honest, having seen the girls three times back in their 1980-82 heyday, they sounded better than ever tonight. Plus, it was a chance to feel like you were 21 or 31 (or 11) again for just an hour and 15 minutes. The crowd seized the opportunity like a pit bull shaking a rag doll.

The Go-Go's kicked off a fun-filled evening with "Vacation," whose endless-summer boundaries seemed as welcome as that feeling a teenager had when June rolled around. Ninety days seemed like forever back then. Oddly enough, this show coincided with the opening of school in many Bay Area locales, right in the middle of August. A few Caffey-coiffed moms with their pre-teen daughters in tow were playing a dangerous game, allowing the kids out on a school night. Maybe they could justify the Fillmore show to school officials as a hands-on history lesson, showing the sprouts the headlands of feminist rock 'n' roll. After all, without the Go-Go's trailblazing efforts (and those of Patti Smith), the early-'90s blitz of the Riot Grrrl phenomenon that included Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill and the Breeders, might never have happened.

"We have our own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame now," said a snow-white thatched Wiedlin, reminiscing briefly about how the Go-Go's assembled in Hollywood from far-flung ports to start life anew as a punk band at famed L.A. basement club The Masque in 1978.  They cranked out "three chords and a cloud of dust" number "Fun With Ropes" just to prove it. But it was "This Town" that more accurately portrayed life on the Go-Go ("This town is our town, it is so glamorous/Bet you'd live here if you could and be one of us.") Its lyrics somehow blended a generous, egalitarian ethic with just a dusting of well earned "nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah."

A brilliant cover of "Cool Jerk," a 1966 smash by Detroit R&B outfit the Capitols, let the crowd swing its arms in an intentionally awkward fashion while a couple of scruffy Go-Go Boys flanked the band with the same kind of flailing moves. The biggest crowd response, of course, came from Go-Go's smashes "We Got The Beat," and "Skidmarks On My Heart," a cautionary tale about a grease-monkey boyfriend who spends too much time working on his car ("You're burning rubber like my heart"). The android-like "Automatic" may have inspired the similarly mechanical "Walk Like An Egyptian," the 1986 national smash by fellow Angelenas the Bangles.

The expanded CD reissue of Beauty And The Beat (Capitol/I.R.S.) sports a second disc full of live gems, including a ripsnorting version of "London Boys," a brisk instrumental medley ("Surfing And Spying'"/"Beatnik Beach") and a spine-tingling reading of the Shangri-Las' "(Remember) Walking In The Sand" with the girls soon abandoning the ultra-dramatic pace of the original to break ranks and go for broke.

A pair of sharp solo numbers by Carlisle ("Mad About You") and Wiedlin ("Cool Places," cut with the Mael brothers from Sparks) were a perfect fit tonight with the full-band material. Like a BLT sandwich, the Go-Go's sound has never been a mystery, just an excellent mix of basic elements. Add a solid base of Duane Eddy/James Bond soundtrack big-guitar moves, a few well chosen New Wave minor chords and a marvelously harmonic vocal blend to a stringent, Tinseltown band-admissions standard with extra points awarded for the "cutie pie" factor - exactly what the brand new MTV landscape needed 30 years ago - and you had a band that seemed like  it might go on forever.

Looking like they'd aged only 10 or 12 years in the interim, the Go-Go's, if they want to be, are one solid new album away from being a permanent fixture on the concert landscape for the next decade, at least. Scratch that. They don't even need the new album. But it would be nice.