Also planning extensive tour.

By Blurt Staff

Songbird (and Blurt fave; check photo above) Rachael Yamagata will release Chesapeake, her first studio album in three years on October 11th, through her own Frankenfish Records. She's already posted a song from the album, "Starlight," for fans to download.

This album sees a slight departure from her previous darker piano ballad days, taking a brighter and poppier approach, with production handled by John Alagia (John Mayer, Jasaon Mraz, Mandy Moore) Yamagata recruited her "dream team" consisting of Victor Indrizzo (Sheryl Crow) on drums, guitarists Mike Viola (Candy Butchers), Michael Chaves (John Mayer), and Kevin Salem (Dump Truck, Yo La Tengo), cellist Oli Kraus (Sia, Duffy) and Tom Freund on the upright bass.

MP3: "Starlight"

Twelve days following the release of Chesapeake, Yamagata will hit the road on an extensive tour of the United States starting on October 24th in Portland, Maine at the Port City Music Hall and wind down on December 22nd in New York City at City Winery (Dates Below).

OCTOBER
24th Portland, ME Port City Music Hall
25th Burlington, VT Higher Ground Lodge
27th Ithaca, NY Deliah's
28th Northampton, MA Iron Horse
30th Boston, MA Brighton Music Hall
31st Philadelphia, PA World Café Live

NOVEMBER
1st Washington, DC Birchmere
2nd Baltimore, MD Sound Stage
4th Brooklyn, NY Knitting Factory
5th Pittsburgh, PA Club Café
7th Detroit, MI St Andrews Hall
8th Chicago, IL Logan Square
10th Milwaukee, WI Turner Ballroom
11th Minneapolis, MN Fine Line
12th Davenport, IA Redstone Room
14th Kansas City, KS Record Bar
16th Denver, CO Larimer Lounge
18th Salt Lake City, UT State Room
20th Spokane, WA A Club
21st Vancouver, BC Media Club
22nd Seattle, WA Crocodile
23rd Portland, OR Doug Fir
25th San Francisco, CA Slim's
26th Santa Barbara, CA Soho Restaurant & Music Club
28th San Diego, CA Casbah
29th Los Angeles, CA Troubadour
30th Tuscon, AZ Crescent Ballroom

DECEMBER
2nd Austin, TX Parish
3rd Houston, TX Fitzgerald's Upstairs
4th Dallas, TX The Loft
5th Tulsa, OK Cain's Ballroom - 2nd Stage
7th St. Louis, MO Blueberry Hill
8th Nashville, TN 12th and Porter
9th Birmingham, AL Work Play
10th Atlanta, GA Vinyl
12th Knoxville, TN Relix Theatre
13th Charlotte, NC Visulite Theatre
15th Chapel Hill, NC Local 506
16th Charlottesville, VA The Southern
17th Louisville, KY Headliners
18th Columbus, OH The Basement
20th Hoboken, NJ Maxwell's
21st New York, NY City Winery
22nd New York, NY City Winery

"Warning Signs," from her killer new album. Tour dates below.

By Blurt Staff

Eilen Jewell is currently on the road supporting her new album Queen of the Minor Key, which arrived in June via Signature Sound Recordings. On it, Jewell and her ace band conjure up songs depicting broken bottles as protection, bad voodoo and Cupid using a sawed-off shotgun instead of a bow and arrow. The dark, often times haunted tales on the album, are fleshed out at points by surf guitar, pedal steel and upright bass, but always hold Jewell's smoldering voice and unforgettable lyrics center stage.

In the BLURT review, writer Steve Pick enthused, "Jewell has a jazz singer's phrasing, if not quite the range. Make no mistake about her singing; she never hits a wrong note, and she never sounds out of place.  She crafts simple, insistent melodies out of the few notes at her disposal, and then makes sure we understand the words are what's important while the band keeps our feet busy... There's a real intimacy about the simple way Jewell and her band play these songs. Queen of the Minor Key charms and beguiles with a minimum of obvious effort and a maximum of obvious taste."

So call us fans. And we're honored to present the brand new video for one of the key tracks on the album, "Warning Signs." Check it out:

Jewell is on tour well into the fall - tonight and this weekend, she's in the Northwest, and you can find the full itinerary at her official website.

[Photo Credit: Liz Linder]

August 2 at the Bunk Bar, Those Darlins, along with Motopony and White Arrows, packed ‘em in.

By Tim Hinely

A very odd Tuesday night at Bunk Bar for one, because the place was absolutely packed and an odd crowd as well. My buddies and I were picking out the high school cliques, we saw plenty of bros/meatheads, some barbies, several indie kids, a few metalheads, a couple of milfs, and, of course, some washed out hippies (with Jesus beards) as well. It seemed like all of the social groups were represented. Seattle‘s Motopony have a bad name but that can be changed and they also seem to have a bit of a Jane's Addiction fixation but that can be changed also. Of the songs that weren't Jane's influenced, they seemed to slip into a deep n' heavy rhythmic groove while vocalist Daniel Blue showed his worth with a serious set of pipes. Why isn't this guy doing opera? Motopony are definitely worth some of your precious time.

L.A.'s White Arrows hopped up on stage next and continued Motopony's mastery over this motley bunch by blowing through a 40 or so minutes of  pop music with a fairly nifty mix of pop riffs, dance beats and some occasional forays into a realm that can only be described as psychedelic.  I hear the 1980's all over their music and the electro-ish cover of The Boss's "I'm On Fire" was ace. The signer Mickey Schiff, was apparently born blind but can now see and studied Ritualistic Shamanism at NYU, so think about that for awhile.

Nashville's Those Darlins seem to be still going on that big breath they took in on their last tour (last Portland stop was just a few months ago) and hey, why not. The latest (terrific) record, Screws Get Loose, is topping the indie charts (if it's not, it should be) and these three-ladies-and-a-dude-on-drums hit the stage near midnight (why oh why so late on a freakin' Tuesday night?!), slipped right into their murky/twangy girl group goodness and had the crowd, sloshed on somethin' by this point, mesmerized and eatin' out of their hands. Enter, approach and bow mightily (and make sure you have your dance shoes on).

Also announces fall tour.

By Fred Mills

Chunklet ‘zine/blog announced this morning that they were prepping to reissue indie legend Olivia Tremor Control's 1996 album Music From the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle and 1999's Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol 1. as expanded/deluxe vinyl editions. They will be available in editions of 1000 copies, with 200 of them pressed on green vinyl. According to the Chunklet folks:

Chunklet is reissuing Dusk At Cubist Castle and Black Foliage on deluxe vinyl gatefold for the first time since their original release. Super sturdy Stoughton tip-on jackets, tons of great artwork and Black Foliage was completely remastered from the original tapes (and sounds 100x better).  There's also a special Dusk/Foliage/t-shirt bundle available until the record's actual release.

The band has also been generous in opening their tape vaults to give fans over 3 hours of rare/unreleased/live material between the two releases via download card. I'm beyond excited to be working with the Olivias again, and I hope you enjoy all the hard work we've put into making this something special for old and new fans alike.

Three hours of rare/unreleased stuff - wow. You can check out the respective tracklists, below, along with tour dates coming up for the band.

-------------------------------------------

Music From the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle:

1 The Opera House
2 Frosted Ambassador
3 Jumping Fences
4 Define a Transparent Dream
5 No Growing (Exegesis)
6 Holiday Surprise 1, 2, 3
7 Courtyard
8 Memories of Jacqueline 1906
9 Tropical Bells
10 Can You Come Down With Us?
11 Marking Time
12-21 Green Typewriters Suite
22 Spring Succeeds
23 Theme for a Very Delicious Grand Piano
24 I Can Smell the Leaves
25 Dusk at Cubist Castle
26 The Gravity Car
27 NYC-25

Download card:

1-9 Explanation II: Instrumental Themes and Dream Sequences (Bonus disc originally included with the CD version of this album. All nine cycles include environmental sounds [crickets, rain, dogs, etc.] recorded on a four-track recorder over two evenings outside the band's house.)

B-sides to the 1996 UK single "The Opera House", meant to be played simultaneously on two different sound systems for quadraphonic effect:

10 Black Swan Network (with Capillary Radar)
11 Black Swan Network (with Enveloping Bicycle Folds)

B-sides to the 1997 UK single "Jumping Fences":

12 Optical Atlas
13 Language of Stationary Travelers
14 Green Typewriters

Tracks from the 1998 compilation Smiling Pets in Japan:

15 Do You Like Worms? (Do You Dig Worms?)
16 Little Pad

------------------------------------------

Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1:

1 Opening
2 A Peculiar Noise Called 'Train Director'
3 Combinations
4 Hideaway
5 Black Foliage (Animation 1)
6 Combinations
7 The Sky Is a Harpsichord Canvas
8 A Sleepy Company
9 Grass Canons
10 A New Day
11 Combinations
12 Black Foliage (Animation 2)
13 I Have Been Floated
14 Paranormal Echoes
15 Black Foliage (Animation 3)
16 A Place We Have Been To
17 Black Foliage (Itself)
18 The Sylvan Screen
19 The Bark and Below It
20 Black Foliage (Animation 4)
21 California Demise (3)
22 Looking for Quiet Seeds
23 Combinations
24 Mystery
25 Another Set of Bees in the Museum
26 Black Foliage (Animation 5)
27 Hilltop Procession (Momentum Gaining)

Download card:

Outtakes:

1 The Sky Is a Harpsichord Canvas [full version] 
2 Beaker and Avalanche, Part 1
3 Beaker and Avalanche, Part 2

B-sides to the 1988 UK single "Hideaway":

4 Combinations (live at GLR Radio) 
5 Can You Come Down With Us? (live at GLR Radio)

Unreleased live session:

6 A Sleepy Company (live at GLR Radio 1998)

Track from the 2000 compilation More Music, Less Parking: WFMU Live from New Jersey:

7 Outside Explorations, Pt. 3

Track from the 2000 compilation Rabid Chords 002: Tribute to the Velvet Underground:

8 European Son

Track from the 2000 compilation Keep Left: David Barsamian (Alternative Radio), Vol. 1:

9 Glass Beard

Live on NPR:

10 California Demise
11 Grass Canons
12 Can You Come Down With Us?
13 Hideaway
14 A Peculiar Noise Called 'Train Director'

Tracks from the 2000 7" Black Swan Network:

15 Grains and Sauces/Ice and Rings/Aqua Waters (and a Pear Shaped Thought) 
16 The Present Time/Seven Thousand Luminous Aches and Pains/The Dinner Plate

----------------------------------------

Tour Dates:

8-29 New Orleans, LA - One Eyed Jacks
8-31 Austin, TX - Mohawk *
9-03 Los Angeles, CA - FYF Fest
9-05 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall *
9-08 Seattle, WA - Vera Project *
9-09 Portland, OR - The Someday Lounge *
9-12 Minneapolis, MN - Varsity Theatre *
9-13 Chicago, IL - Bottom Lounge *
9-14 Columbus, OH - Wexner Center *
9-15 Pittsburgh, PA - The Warhol at New Hazlett Theatre *
9-16 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace *
9-17 Montreal, Quebec - Il Motore *
9-19 Allston, MA - Brighton Music Hall
9-21 New York - Le Poisson Rouge *
9-23 Philadelphia, PA - UPENN Rotunda *
9-24 Durham, NC - The Casbah *
10-11-15 Athens, GA - Athens PopFest
12-02-04 Minehead, England - ATP Festival

* with The Music Tapes

Listen to MP3 of title track, below.

By Blurt Staff

When you come to the Jack Oblivian party, you are going to expect some pawn shops, bad intentions and low-down sleaze and on his new album Rat City (due Sept. 13 from Big Legal Mess/Fat Possum), he delivers. From the feral existentialism of songs like "Rat City" and "Mass Confusion" to the unhinged love songs with underlying sweetness like "Girl on the Beach" to vignette-heavy songs like "Girl with the Bruises", Jack disembowels American roots music and the resulting deconstructed songs are tied together with an undeniable groove that only a drummer could muster. He plays much of the album's instruments himself with a little help from some of his friends and his storytelling skills have never been better.  Jack will celebrate the album's release with a performance at Goner Fest's kickoff Thursday, September 22nd. A U.S. tour will be announced shortly.

MP3: "Rat City"

The backstory: Memphis based Jack Oblivian (aka Jack Yarber) was a founding member of the garage-bands The Compulsive Gamblers and The Oblivans but he has contributed to a dizzying array of projects over the years, including Andre Williams, Jack Oblivian & the Tennessee Tearjerkers, The Cool Jerks, '68 Comeback, King Louie & His Loose Diamonds, Greg Oblivian & the Tip Tops, Jack Oblivian & The Cigarillos, The Natural Kicks and Tav Falco's Panther Burns.

Jack Yarber grew up in Mississippi and after moving to Memphis, he met Greg Cartwright and they formed the Compulsive Gamblers. The Oblivians formed in 1993 as a side project to the Compulsive Gamblers - the members of the Oblivians shared songwriting and each member supplied vocals, guitar work, and percussion on albums, switching instruments during live shows. The Oblivians lasted from 1993 until 1998, at which time Yarber and Cartwright left the band to reform the Compulsive Gamblers. The second incarnation of the Gamblers lasted from 1998 to 2003. Post-Oblivians, Yarber formed the Tennessee Tearjerkers and recorded critically praised releases for Goner and Big Legal Mess/Fat Possum. 

Taped recently in Asheville, NC.

By Blurt Staff

This is an interview that was conducted by Kelly Denson of Lush Life Today on the behalf of Lingua Musica. The New Mexico ex-pats talk about their decision to relocate to the fertile musical turf of Asheville, NC, as well as some of their musical influences and none-too-shabby musical friends. Call ‘em - psychedelic Americana! The production was created by Jackson Stahl of Jax House Productions.

You can visit the band and find out more details at their Facebook page.

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 Secret B-Sides, RBTS WIN, Dex Romweber Duo, Paper Tiger, Kellin Watson, Dubtribe, Dehlia Low, Ryan Montbleau, Brian McGee, Jon Dee Graham, and more.) BLURT is a proud co-sponsor of Lingua Musica. Please visit the LinguaMusicaAlive.com website, and meanwhile, check out the video.

How does 6 CDs and 4 DVDs plus other goodies all in one box strike ya for a 20^th anniversary gift? NSFW alert, below.

By Blurt Staff

A 20th anniversary edition of U2's landmark 1991 album Achtung Baby is due on November 1, and it will be available in so many formats and with so much bonus material that it will make the heads spin even of those of us who still cling devotedly to our 3-CD Salome bootlegs.

The Achtung Baby archives have unearthed some previously unreleased songs from the recording sessions.  With a raft of unreleased material, video, remixes, b-sides and documentary footage discovered, a full album of demo and early versions of the final 1991 tracklisting has also been revealed.  Five physical editions including vinyl, CD, DVD and digital options will be made available.  (Full details of all formats are at achtungbaby.u2.com; also see the notes below.) Bizarrely, no one has mentioned whether, among all the bonus material, there will be outtakes from the photo session that yielded the nude Adam Clayton photo - which appeared on the back cover of the original LP edition but was censored (by the band? Island Records? Wal-Mart?) for the mass-marketed CD...

Earlier this year U2 returned to Hansa Studio in Berlin to discuss Achtung Baby in From The Sky Down, directed by Academy Award®-winning director Davis Guggenheim (Waiting for Superman, An Inconvenient Truth).  The film has been selected to open the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8 and will be included in the anniversary edition.

About those formats:

1. A limited, numbered Uber Deluxe Edition is a magnetic puzzle tiled box which will contain: 6 CDs including the original Achtung Baby album, the follow-up album, Zooropa, B-sides and re-workings of previously unheard material recorded during the Achtung Baby sessions. 4 DVDs including 'From The Sky Down', 'Zoo TV:Live From Sydney', all the videos from Achtung Baby plus bonus material. There will also be 5 clear 7" vinyl singles in their original sleeves, 16 art prints taken from the original album sleeve, an 84-page hardback book, a copy of Propaganda magazine, 4 badges, a sticker sheet, and a pair of Bono's trademark 'The Fly' sunglasses.

2. The Super Deluxe Edition will contain the 6CDs and 4 DVDs, in addition to a 92 page hardback book and 16 art prints in a wallet.

3. The Vinyl Box Set is a limited release containing 4 LPs, two of which are pressed on translucent blue vinyl containing remixes and B-sides. The box includes a 16 page booklet.

4. The Deluxe Edition is a 2xCD set containing the reissue of the original album plus B-sides and rarities.


5. The Standard CD is the original album.

More tattoos than a season's worth of LA Ink...

By Blurt Staff

Venerable LA-area gear shop the Guitar Center recently started up their Guitar Center Sessions program on DIRECTV, and they've had some pretty cool artists to date - among them, Peter Gabriel, Jane's Addiction and Weezer, and upcoming are Bad Religion, Peter Frampton and Rodrigo y Gabriela. (Yeah, yeah, we know only a few of you actually get DIRECTV, but if you sniff around the web you can eventually find the content; try your favorite torrent site for starters.)

Add our heroes Social Distortion to the GCS mix: the veteran Cali punks' episode will premiere this weekend, Saturday Aug. 6. Full details and a video clip of the band doing "California (Husle and Flow)" can be found at the official website.

In the episode, founder Mike Ness talks about his career with host Nic Harcourt, and there will be performance clips from recent album Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes plus assorted classics. Ness holds forth on the genesis of the band and hitting the clubs to see early LA punk bands like Fear, The Cramps and X, how his influences were shaped by his mother's folk rock and his father's country leanings, how the first time he heard the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, the Clash and how he thought "this is it, I'm gonna cut my hair and get rid of these fuckin' bellbottoms," how sex, drugs and rock & roll became just drugs, hitting bottom as a 23-years-old addict before his music career took off and how rock & roll saved his life.

"Mike Ness is a rock and roll lifer--a true artist who works tirelessly at his craft and fully dedicates himself to the job," says Harcourt. "To keep a band and a career alive and vital for 30-plus years is no easy feat, and that element of what it means to be a hard working artist is one that we're trying to give viewers a glimpse of on Guitar Center Sessions. It's also fascinating how the band's sound stays so fiercely original while its influences are so deeply woven into the DNA of the band."

Happening this year - the 11^th to date - on Sept. 7-11 at a slew of venues spread across one of our favorite cities..

By Tim Hinely

What forever seemed like the newbie on the festival circuit now seems like that old comfortable sweater that is in the back of the closet. One that you want to wear every chance you get. OK, so I'm not sure where I was going with the analogy but you get the picture (and if not, too bad).

Now in its 11^th year, Portland's Musicfest Northwest (MFNW) has bloomed this year to nearly 200 bands playing in 21 venues. The Festival's Executive Director Trevor Solomon stated that they have tried to add as many all-age shows as they could and having more day parties.

When asked how MFNW stands out from the several other music festivals sweeping the country these days, Solomon was succinct, "First off, we are a club festival instead of taking place at one venue. Next we try to tap into a wider variety of musical genres then most festivals from Grindcore Metal, to Indie Rock, to Hip-Hop. We work to have some type or types of music that will attract absolutely every type of music fan."

A few bands playing the festival this year include Blitzen Trapper, Iron and Wine, The Kills, Neurosis, Bands of Horses as well ‘90s come agains Butthole Surfers and Archers of Loaf and many, many more. When asked a couple of current and defunct bands that would also be on his wish list, Solomon stated, "Wilco and Husker Du."

For more information go to www.musicfestnw.com

Taped recently in Asheville, NC.

By Blurt Staff

This is an interview that was conducted prior to the 2011 Bele Chere music festival. The interview was conducted by Kelly Denson of Lush Life Today on the behalf of Lingua Musica. The "sexy soul" musicians talk about their recently-released album Flowers & Chocolate, which is already making waves on the regional music scene. The production was created by Jackson Stahl of Jax House Productions.

You can visit the band and find out more details at their official website.

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 Dex Romweber Duo, Paper Tiger, Kellin Watson, Dubtribe, Dehlia Low, Ryan Montbleau, Brian McGee, Jon Dee Graham, and more.) BLURT is a proud co-sponsor of Lingua Musica. Please visit the LinguaMusicaAlive.com website, and meanwhile, check out the video.