7 choice guitars, many of them vintage, lifted in the theft.


By Blurt Staff



By way of a public service announcement: Blurt buddy, veteran producer and erstwhile Let's Active frontman Mitch Easter recently had a slew of valuable guitars stolen. one of them, the Fender XII, has been his since childhood. Easter, who operates his recording studio in Kernersville, NC, is hoping someone will spot some or all of these and get in touch. Contact: Alex Maiolo, stablenet@gmail.com . And please circulate this list.


1. G&L L-2000 bass, natural, 1980-1 version (Fender headstock) (USA) 

2. Jerry Jones Longhorn Bass, aquaburst, ser. no. 046706 recent (USA) 

3. Fender pink paisley Stratocaster, 2004 (Japan) 

4. Fender rosewood- body Telecaster, rosewood fretboard, 2003 (Mexico) 

5. Fender Electric XII, Olympic White w/tortoise pickguard, 1966 (USA) 

6. Kay 6-string acoustic, 1962, rebuilt by Scott Baxendale, red sunburst (USA) 

7. Guild S-60, black, 1979 (USA) 

Watch video of the blaze, below.

By Fred Mills

Venerable British indie Rough Trade put out the following tweet early this morning:

@RoughTradeShop Our largest INDEPENDENT supplier Pias got burnt 2 the ground last night, best to all staff,labels that lost stock. no injuries @ least

Indeed, as Pitchfork and other media outlets are reporting, the riots in England - now three nights and counting - have claimed a significant commercial victim in the way of a 200,000-square foot North London SonyDADC distribution warehouse which included "the entire inventory of PIAS UK, the primary distribution hub for more than 150 independent labels," among them Sub Pop, Drag City, Thrill Jockey, Warp, 4AD, Domino, Mute and the Secretly Canadian family. See the full list, below.

In years past we've grown accustomed to distributors going bankrupt, leaving labels unpaid and in some cases sans inventory, but no other incident like this one comes to mind. A report in Britain's Guardian quoted industry analyst Paul Scaife as saying, "Physical retail is still absolutely crucial to many in the independent sector and if - as seems quite likely - several smaller labels aren't covered by insurers, this could be the difference between survival and going out of business."

A short while ago PIAS issued the following statement:


"There was a fire last night at the SonyDADC warehouse which services the physical distribution for PIAS in the UK and Ireland. PIAS is working closely with SonyDADC who are implementing their emergency plans. PIAS's UK offices in London and all other areas of our business are unaffected. More information will be communicated shortly to all our labels and partners"

Labels potentially affected by the fire:


1234
2020 Vision
Accidental
Ad Altiora
Adventures Close to home
Alberts
All City
Alt Delete
Ambush Reality
Angular
Ark
ATC
Atic
Atlantic Jaxx
Azuli
B Unique
Backyard
Bad Sneakers
Bandstock
Banquet
Beggars
Big Chill
Big Dada
Big Life / Nul / Sindy Stroker
Boombox
Border Community
Boysnoize
Brille
Bronzerat
Brownswood
Buzzin Fly
Can You Feel It
Catskills
ChannelFly
Chemikal Underground
City Rockers
Counter
D Cypher
Dance To The Radio
Deceptive
Def Jux
Dirtee Stank
Divine Comedy
Domino
Drag City
Drive Thru
Drowned in Sound
Duophonic
Eat Sleep / Sorepoint
Electric Toaster
Emfire
F. Comm
Fabric
Faith And Hope
Fantastic Plastic
Fargo
FatCat
Feraltone
Finders Keepers / Twisted Nerve
Fingerlickin'
Flock
Free Range
From The Basement
Full Time Hobby
Goldsoul
Gronland
Groove Attack
Halftime
Hassle
Heron
Hum&Haw
Independiente
Info UK
Join Us
Kartel
Kensaltown
Kitsune
Kompakt
Laughing Stock
Leftroom
Lex
Lo Max
Loose
Love Box
Lowlife
Lucky Number
Marquis Cha Cha
Memphis Industry
Merok
Metroline
Mute
Naïve
Nation
Navigator
New World
Ninja Tune
Nuclear Blast
One Little Indian
Output / People in the Sky / Process
Pale Blue
Palm
Peacefrog
PIAS Recordings
PIP 555 Productions
Play To Work
Powerhouse (T2)
Propaganda / Ho Hum
Raw Canvas
Red Grape
Red Telephone Box
Rekids
Renaissance
Respect Productions (PES digital)
Reveal Records
RMG
Rock Action
Roots
Rough Trade
Rough Trade Comps
Rubyworks
Ruffa Lane
Search And Destroy
Secret Sundaze
Secretly Canadian / Jagjaguwar / Dead Oceans
Sell Yourself
Setanta
Shatterproof
Sideone Dummy
Slam Dunk
Smalltown
Soma
Something In Construction
Sonar Kollectiv
Soul Jazz
Southern Fried
Stranded Soldier
Subliminal
Sunday Best
TARGO
Taste
Ten Worlds
Thrill Jockey
Total Fitness
Touch And Go
Track And Field
TriTone
Trouble
Try Harder
Turk
Turnstile
Twenty 20
Underworld
Union Square
Urban Torque
Vagrant
Vice
Victory
Wagram
Wall Of Sound
Warp
Wi45
Wonky Atlas
Word And Sound
Xtra Mile
You Are Here

To premiere them live in September.

By Blurt Staff

Mac McCaughan (Superchunk, Portastatic) has composed original scores for four films by noted experimental filmmaker Maya Deren, and he will perform them live on Thursday, September 29, at the world premiere of Transfigured Time: Music for the Films of Maya Deren, which opens the Westobou Festival in Augusta, Georgia. The premiere will begin at sunset at the Sacred Heart Cultural Center with McCaughan leading a small ensemble.

McCaughan, of course, has worked on film scores in the past, including for for Who Loves the Sun and Looking for Leonard. His live scores for silent films include the Seattle International Film Festival's presentation of Tod Browning's The Unknown and Teinosuke Kinugasa's A Page of Madness with Superchunk at the San Francisco Film Festival.

Maya Deren (1917-1961) is often referred to as "the mother of the American underground cinema." Her films are known for their startling and surrealistic imagery in which time and space are altered to create a world somewhere between dreams and reality. In 1946, Ms. Deren became the first filmmaker to receive a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and later that year she was the recipient of the Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix Internationale. From photographer Cindy Sherman to artist Matthew Barney to filmmaker David Lynch, Maya Deren's profound influence as a filmmaker and theorist resonates to this very day.

Fan-funded through PledgeMusic campaign.

By Blurt Staff

Hurricane Bells has inked Oct. 25 as the release date for sophomore album Tides and Tales, via band architect Steve Schiltz's own Invisible Brigades label. As with the debut Tonight Is The Ghost, the album was produced and mixed entirely by Schiltz (longtime front man of Longwave), at his Olé Recording studio in Queens, NY, last fall. This time, however, he recorded the tracks with the help of a few friends, including Ashen Keilyn (Scout), a Hurricane Bells touring mainstay; Justin Furstenfeld (Blue October); and Christian Bongers (bass) and Colin Brooks (drums), who round out the Hurricane Bells live band.

In early June, Hurricane Bells launched a PledgeMusic campaign to support the completion of Tides and Tales.  The campaign will remain underway for another three weeks and the funds raised will directly contribute to the manufacturing, touring and promotion of the album. Multiple incentives are being offered to fans for pledging, including exclusive vinyl, signed CDs and t-shirts, and a house concert by the band, among many others. Hurricane Bells will also donate a portion of all PledgeMusic campaign proceeds to the nonprofit Education Through Music (http://www.etmonline.org/). For more information and to view a full list of pledge incentives: http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/hurricane-bells.

Tracklisting:

I've Got A Second Chance

Possibilities

The Ghost Of Her

Blue Blue Moon

Hours Like Days

Piano Stunt

Let's Go

House On Fire

Before I'm Gone

 If This Night Is Over

 Flowers In The Dirt

 The Hunger Moon

Luckily no one was seriously injured.

By Fred Mills

Saturday at Tulsa's Brady District Block Party Music Festival a lighting rig collapsed just prior to the Flaming Lips' headlining set. It was caused by heavy winds that accompanied a rain storm that came through the area, and while there were apparently no injuries other than small cuts it's estimated that something in the neighborhood of $800,000 worth of gear may have been damaged.

Wayne Coyne, at the scene and working to clear the stage of equipment, was quoted as telling reporters, "The Oklahoma wind and rain was a little bit more unpredictable than we had hoped, and we had a bad gust. The whole thing is shambolic and a bit dangerous and we're working to get as much off of the stage before we get hit with the second wave."

He subsequently tweeted about the incident and posted a number of pictures, including the one above:

waynecoyne FUCK!!!! Wind and rain destroyed the stage !!!!! twitpic.com/626o8p twitpic.com/626o8n

waynecoyne Show is cancelled!!!! Devastation!!! twitpic.com/626owz twitpic.com/626ox1

waynecoyne Thought we were gonna die!!! The only injury that I saw twitpic.com/626qfi twitpic.com/626qfr twitpic.com/626qgl

At Club Café on August 2, Jenn and Andy celebrated happiness.

BY MIKE SHANLEY

Andy Stack must have the urge to rock out once in a while. During a Wye Oak performance, many opportunities arise that are ripe for a Keith Moon-style drum fill or #something# that matches the intensity of guitarist/vocalist Jenn Wasner's power chords.

Yet, Stack resists. He plays drums with his right hand, often alternating between the floor tom and the snare on the odd and even beats, respectively. His left hand is married to his keyboard, which fills out the chordal parts of the music and probably has something to do with the phantom bass notes. Most of the time, his hi-hat is dancing wildly too. So it's possible that Stack is so busy doing the work of a two-piece rhythm section, and maintaining a steady tempo for about an hour, that he's too occupied to think about rocking any harder.

On the first show of a tour jaunt that Wasner admitted will keep them on the road until around Christmas, Wye Oak played a set that put their instrumentation in a strong light. What played with a bit of atmospheric production on this spring's #Civilian# kicked hard and loud in person and didn't let up. If Stack and Wasner became a more standard live act by adding another guitar and a bass, they'd sound more like any other band. Perhaps that's oversimplifying it, but you get the idea. This presentation brings out the best in their songs. And the standing room only crowd at the intimate Club Café seemed to agree.

The 150-seat room, with its glass bar on one side of the room and black blanket of lights that cover the back of the stage, more often hosts singer-songwriters and draws more of the sit-down-with-cocktails clientele than Merge crowd. But it also employs empathetic soundmen and in the past has presented Mission of Burma, so it was a given that Wye Oak's work would come across clearly.

 "The Alter" started the set with strong statement of purpose. Wasner's blend of power chords and upper register riffing - another unique element that might get lost with more instruments - bit harder than the album version, complete with a delay pedal twittering that finished the solo right before she jumped back to the microphone. Her voice sounded a little deeper than expected, but she later admitted to being under the weather, and spoke with a rasp that otherwise wasn't there during the set.

"Holy Holy" blasted out with more of a Who-like intro and "Hot As Day" gave Stack a chance to put forth an urgency that felt like Sonic Youth, which was especially powerful since the song switched back and forth from 5/4 to standard 4/4. "Plains" also had a little more urgency when shifting from its two-chord groove to its near breakdown in the chorus. The rest of set leaned heavily on tracks from #Civilian# as well, although they did pull out a couple from its predecessor #The Knot# and premiered one new, as of yet unreleased song ("Pardon" according to the set list) full of staccato keyboards and jerky drumming.

To keep momentum going between songs, and during frequent guitar changes, a phantom keyboard droned away just below the surface.  Wasner bantered with the crowd throughout the set too. She sent out "Fish" to a couple who were recently engaged, saying, "We're dedicating a sad song to celebrate your happiness," she said. Later she apologized for the fact that she needed to rest her voice backstage instead of hanging out and talking to people at the end of the night. With such an immense touring schedule lined up, everyone understood. 

[Photo Credit: Scott Dudelson]

Tangerine Dream/Kluster electronic music pioneer and Krautrock avatar leaves behind a massive body of work.

By Fred Mills

Influential - and prolific - German electronic music pioneer Conrad Schnitzler passed away on August 4 following a battle with stomach cancer.

An early member of synth legends Tangerine Dream and a founding member (along with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius) of Kluster, aka Cluster, Schnitzler had studied under Karlheinz Stockhausen before embarking upon a long and fruitful career in electronic music. He's considered one of the pioneering personalities in Krautrock - admittedly a broad genre - and released scores upon scores of albums. Shortly before his death he issued 00/830.

Schnitzler was an influence on everyone from Brian Eno to Radiohead.

All 8 tour albums finally get a vinyl release. Check latest tour dates, below, along with the "Two Silver Trees" video.

By Fred Mills

Those border radio avatars and desert noir doctors of Tucson, Calexico, are assembling an 8-LP vinyl box set for a proposed fall release. Titled Road Atlas, it will appear on their own Our Soil, Our Strength imprint and comprise the band's 8 tour albums they have released starting with 1999's Road Map and running through last year's soundtrack to the indie film Circo. In addition to the albums - they were originally limited edition CDs the band sold at shows and via their website - there will be a deluxe book loaded with photos, artwork, personal commentary from the band members, and detailed album-by-album liner notes.

Calexico's tour albums have always stood somewhat apart from similar releases by other artists, who frequently just throw together a batch of home demos or offer live recordings from the current tour. Each title has differed sonically and thematically from the rest, with (for example) 2007's Toolbox (pictured above) consisting of straightforward songs that founding members Joey Burns and John Convertino recorded across a whirlwind 3-day recording session, while 2000's Travelall was an excursion into jazz, ambient and freeform featuring guest appearances from the likes of Jon Birdson, Rob Mazurek, Doug McCombs and Noel Kupersmith. And of course the series' pair of live albums, 2002's Scraping and 2008's Ancienne Belgique showcased the group at two key points in its live evolution - Mariachi horns included.

Fans who have collected the tour albums have long prized them as standing to the side of Calexico's so-called "official releases" from the Quarterstick and City Slang labels; call them an alternate history of the band.This deluxe box will mark the first time any of them have been available on vinyl. Those albums are:

98-99 Road Map (1999)

Travelall (2000)

Aerocalexico (2001)

Scraping (2002)

The Book and The Canal (2005)

Toolbox (2007)

Ancienne Belgique (Live in Brussels) (2008) - reviewed here at BLURT

Circo-A Soundtrack By Calexico (2010)

Calexico also hits the road this week, starting Aug. 10, for a short tour - check dates here.

Something about raccoons?!? Also, check video below.

By Blurt Staff

The Wilco-Deerhoof connection goes back a long way. They toured the midwest together in 2004. Wilco guitarist Nels Cline's "Suspended Head" from Instrumentals (2002) was the guitarist's raucous tribute to Deerhoof. Frontman Jeff Tweedy has been name-checking Deerhoof records in best-of lists for years. And when Deerhoof recently pointed to Wilco as the inspiration for their song "Behold A Marvel In The Darkness," the idea was hatched that Mr. Tweedy should actually have a go.

Which brings us to "Behold A Raccoon In The Darkness," the fourth installment of Deerhoof's collaborative 7" series in which guest vocalists perform over an instrumental track from the band's latest full-length, Deerhoof vs. Evil.

The instrumental track, the melody, and the lyrics for "Behold" are unchanged from the original. But in place of Deerhoof chanteuse Satomi Matsuzaki, we hear the immediately identifiable pipes of Jeff Tweedy, with harmonies by his son Spencer.

Side B features "Own It," an original song by The Raccoonists, a group comprising Tweedy and his two sons, Spencer and Sam. Although the band originally began as an instrumental duo (consisting of Jeff and Spencer), it has since evolved into a trio with Sam providing vocals. Recorded in Spencer and Sam's bedroom, "Own It" is the first Raccoonists song to be released. However, the group does have plans to record more tracks later this year.

The limited-edition (2000 copies) pink vinyl single is out Oct. 11 via Polyvinyl. Pitchfork is streaming it online, and you can check the fun video for the B-side below.

Good for what ails the grouchy Grinch in ya.

By Fred Mills

Around here we worship the Grinch more than Santa Claus, which is why we have a standing policy of not covering holiday albums, publishing holiday guides, hosting a holiday party for the contributors, etc. Christmas records in particular get on our nerves; we have a Rat Pack Xmas CD, the Charlie Brown Xmas CD, and a collection of traditional choir recordings and that's really all we need to get us through the season (we used to have a Chipmunks record too, but the children grew up and went off to college).

However, after perusing Pitchfork this morning, our interest was piqued: apparently Zooey Deschanel tweeted yesterday that she and M. Ward - aka She & Him - are planning to release a Christas album. Advised Deschanel: "Exciting news! @sheandhim will be releasing our first holiday record later this year! Been working on it a while! I'm super pumped about it!"

So maybe we'll let our hearts grow a few extra sizes this coming Christmas and make room for the She & Him record. If anybody can melt the ice on us, those two can...