First full-band effort in over a decade and a half.

By Blurt Staff

Mockingbird Time, the new album The Jayhawks, will be released September 20 on Rounder Records. The 12-track album is the first full-band studio release featuring both founding members Gary Louris and Mark Olson since 1995's Tomorrow the Green Grass. Of returning to the studio Louris tells Rolling Stone magazine, "Our goal is to make the best Jayhawks album that's ever been done. Mark and I both feel that there is some business left undone and we got together and wrote some great songs."

In addition to co-writing all the songs with Olson, Louris also produced the record. Mockingbird Time was recorded in Minneapolis at The Terrarium Recording Studios over a month's time during the winter of 2010. Other original band members featured on the record include Karen Grotberg (keyboards, vocals), Tim O'Reagan (drums, vocals) and Marc Perlman (bass). Of returning to the studio as The Jayhawks, Louris notes, "The difference from then and now is that Mark and I have both experienced different kinds of music and expanded our palates. So this record has moments of experimentation and a bit of worldliness. I like a well-crafted, in-and-out kind of song, but with Mark, the lyrics dictate the music, and he'll go off into interesting, asymmetrical compositions. So it's a nice balance. Certain things were meant to be-like peanut butter and jelly-and Mark and I just work well together. And having done a lot of co-writing during the last six or seven years, I'm more appreciative of the magic that we have together. That doesn't come along very often for anybody."

The new release comes on the heels of several pivotal and reinvigorating years for the band, whose first career-spanning anthology Music From The North Country was released in 2009 by American/Legacy. Additionally, in August 2010, for the first time on CD, the self-titled debut album from the band (often referred to by fans as The Bunkhouse album) was reissued by Lost Highway Records. Moreover, in January 2011 the band's first two albums for American Recordings-Hollywood Town Hall (1992) and Tomorrow The Green Grass (1995)-were re-released with a wealth of rare bonus tracks. In conjunction with these reissues the original Jayhawks line-up shared the stage for the first time in 15+ years in January 2011, performing special shows in Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Toronto. Of the band's performance as a reunited quintet, the Chicago Tribune heralded, "During a soaring two-hour set, the Jayhawks put on a clinic in the art of blended melodies and balanced songwriting. As always, Olson and fellow guitarist/singer Gary Louris' impeccable vocal harmonies held sway."

Also check out the recent video from the band, below.

By Blurt Staff

On September 13, Merge will reissue Superchunk's Foolish on CD, LP, and digital download. Foolish has been remastered for this reissue and will include some different album art, special bonus material, and extensive liner notes by drummer Jon Wurster.

The 1994 album was cut with producer Brian Paulson in Minneapolis then mixed at Steve Albini's Chicago studio and is considered by many fans the band's finest hour.

Meanwhile, the band also recently unveiled a new video for the song "Learned to Surf", off their Majesty Shredding album. The clip is made up of concert footage from the band's recent tour of Brazil from this past spring as well as 1998′s visit.

Superchunk - Learned to Surf from Merge Records on Vimeo.

Tour Dates:

Sep 08 Atlanta, GA - Buckhead Theatre w/ Times New Viking
Sep 10 Raleigh, NC - Hopscotch Festival - City Plaza Stage
Dec 01 London, UK - Scala
Dec 02 Minehead, UK - All Tomorrow's Parties curated by Jeff Mangum

Watch unusual new video below.

By Blurt Staff

Seminal electronic artists, film soundtrackers, former Björk band members and sonic craftsmen Plaid have announced the release of ‘Scintilli', their new album on the Warp label, for release on September 27^th - followed by a worldwide tour including a special album launch show in London.

Since the release of 2003's ‘Spokes', Plaid have scored two of Michael Arias' award-winning films, released ‘Greedy Baby', an ambitious audio-visual collaboration, continued to perform around the world (including a landmark performance at Warp Records' 20^th birthday celebrations) - and have now crafted a new album for release this Autumn. Hear the first music from it, "35 Summers," via a new video directed by Richie Burridge.

Latin in origin, the word ‘scintilli' can be translated as ‘I am many sparks'. A self-affirming mantra Plaid (aka Ed Handley and Andy Turner) claim to chant for two hours every morning, before starting work in their newly built studio shed in North London. Every beat of the work has been carefully crafted: they've calculated that each beat has taken approximately one day to construct - from the announcement of the laying down of the first foundation beat in early 2009, to the rendering of the final decay earlier this year. ‘This labor intensive process will guarantee long lasting pieces of music that can withstand the restless tensions placed upon them by modern playback devices', they insist.

The CD will be initially available in a ‘Muda na Mono' puzzle pack, the name taken from a Japanese phrase meaning ‘pointless object'. It contains two die-cut rings and a CD which can be assembled as per the diagram above. If correctly aligned, the sphere created allows the track titles to be read. The packaging reflects a desire to give the CD an ornamental function, beyond its one use as a basic storage device for music.

Australian release finally washes up on American shores, and on blood red vinyl. Check the live video clip below.

By Blurt Staff

Zombified, Southern Culture On The Skids' 1998 tribute to the horror and exploitation movies that populated Southern theaters and drive-ins during the ‘60s and ‘70s, is being reissued on Sept. 27 on the band's own Kudzu Records. Originally released in Australia as an eight song EP, the Zombified Extended Reissue is now a full-length album with the addition of five new tunes.

The new and improved Zombified has been re-mastered and re-packaged with cover art by Sean Starwars and design by Yee Haw industries. Rick Miller, guitarist and singer for the band said, "You know, the Zombified EP never had a proper U.S. release and the band is excited about it happening now as a full album." It will be on CD and download, and also on vinyl as a limited edition of 1000 on blood red vinyl complete with CD inside.

"I was always attracted to low budget DIY films," said Miller. "Maybe it was the lurid posters and newspaper ads that sucked me in as a kid. Later, I got into the directors, like Mario Bava, Hershell Gordon Lewis and George Romero, to name just a few. They made some entertaining and pretty disturbing movies from way outside the mainstream. A big influence on my approach to making music!"

The band's music is no stranger to horror/exploitation films. Previous SCOTS songs can be found in soundtracks like the Spanish psycho classic "Perdita Durango," directed by Alex de la Iglesia and starring future Academy Award winner Javier Bardem. In the teen screamer "I Know What You Did Last Summer" the band makes an on screen appearance playing "My Baby's Got The Strangest Ways." SCOTS also supplied the soundtrack to "Blood Feast II, Buffet of Blood," the sequel to HGL's original gore epic.

Read our previous interview with Rick Miller right here.

Track List:

Zombified

Undertaker

Swamp Thang

She's My Witch

Bloodsucker

Sinister Purpose

Torture

Devil's Stomping Ground

Bat's Are Sleeping

Idol With The Glowing Eyes

The Creeper

Eyeball You Later

Primitive

And Abbey - er, that would be Avril Lavigne - wonders why she has zero credibility in the rock ‘n' roll community. Can a  tour with Gwen Stefani and Courtney Love - who made the term "kinderwhore look" a piece of the vernacular - be far behind?

By Perez Mills

You just can't make this shit up. Plus, we are all about rayon blends, metallic foils, and of course Pretty Please Platform Booties. All content, below, taken verbatim from the musician-turned-designer's latest press blast outlining her upcoming fashion line. Don't worry: we're only wasting 12 seconds of your day (we timed it).

Avril Lavigne's Abbey Dawn is rocker chic with feminine attitude. In spring 2012, Abbey Dawn will introduce an even broader lifestyle collection, embracing dresses, denim, skirts, footwear, handbags, metallic foils, purses and eyewear, along with its first full men's collection.  The pieces, constructed in soft sheer cottons, poly/cotton burnouts, acid washes, garment washed fleece and rayon blends, are paired with bright colors, bold graphic, and metallic foils. Abbey Dawn is available on www.AbbeyDawn.com

[Pictured Above: After Dark Dress and Pretty Please Platform Bootie. Photo credit: Abbey Dawn]

"Emerging artist" sticks foot in mouth.

By Fred Mills

It's no secret that we here at BLURT are big fans of independent record stores. (Hell, yours truly worked as the indie/import buyer for one such shop from 1992-2001. Not that I am biased...) So when we got the latest newsletter from the Alliance of Independent Media Stores, dated August 3, the following blurb caught our attention:

Greetings, Everybody. When asked by Pitchfork to name his favorite record shop, an emerging artist had this to say:

"You don't know how happy it makes me that the days of the record store are coming to an end. $20 for an LP? Do you remember going to the record store and not getting what you want because there was no other place to get it? Now we can get it all for free, and I think that's wonderful. There was always something really depressing to me about record stores and music equipment stores. There's something oppressive about them, like the guy who looks you up and down and looks at what you're buying. You're bound up in exchange with the snobby clerk. So I'm glad they all have little 'closed' signs on their doors now."

I'm going to call him emerging, as I personally wasn't familiar with him and an AIMS member brought the above quote to my attention. I went to the floor of the store and found three copies in stock. I asked one of my staffers, "What's this all about?" He replied, "Pitchfork likes him, he played in town last month, we've sold some," and then promptly returned to his conversation with a customer.

The AIMS missive included some pertinent commentary, including the notation that, "When we speak to our customers in the aisles of our stores and over the counter, we will talk to them about what we love. We'll ignore what we don't. We all look forward to working with partners and artists that we want to celebrate and honor. We want to be tight with them."

And to their credit, they didn't mention by name the "emerging artist" who originally made the disparaging remarks in the Pitchfork interview, which was published today as part of the ‘fork's generally respected series "Guest List." Now that's classy on the part of AIMS.

We don't worry about being classy around here, though. The musician in question is John Maus, a nominal Ariel Pink associate who Wikipedia classifies as "experimental." He's been around since the early ‘90s, so one would imagine that if he's an "emerging artist" at this late stage in the game, maybe a position at Best Buy - that bastion of "emerging artists" - stocking DVDs and video games is a better career fit for this experimentalist.

Sorry John, it's not us - it's you. Feel free to keep biting the hands of the music lovers who feed your so-called career by tipping you to their record store customers and engaging with them on more than a superficial level than your average blogger. Enjoy the free publicity, too. Dickweed. Meanwhile, gentle BLURT readers, make up your own mind and choose your side, if you will:

AIMS: http://www.thealliancerocks.com/Home

Maus: http://www.myspace.com/johnmaus

 UPDATE:

Maus has already posted a mea culpa via a link from his Twitter feed. Too late, bro; it don't wash, but maybe Pitchfork will publish an audio transcript of the entire interview to back up your out-of-context claims. A lot of us - especially those of us who have put in a FUCK of a lot of sweat equity in indie stores - are deeply offended. So you already revealed your true colors - good luck finding your music at Target or Best Buy. Those "megastores" that you propose you were actually referencing in your screed haven't put "little 'closed' signs" on their doors lately, at least not that we've noticed. But a ton of the indie DIY shops sure have over the past few years. You got this much right: the damage HAS been done.


Maus wrote:



I wish everyone who is (rightfully) upset about my Pitchfork �guest list� would grant me the benefit of the doubt, but I suppose that is too much to ask seeing as how I did come off so incredibly mean. I can�t understand why anyone would think I was referring to the small DIY record shops of the world (the only type that would carry my records in the first place, and many of which I have played in) and not the Megastores of the world, but I guess I didn�t make that clear enough. For whatever it is worth now, the only reason I didn�t make that clear enough was because I foolishly supposed anyone reading the �guest list� would grant that I was referring to the latter and not the former. I mean, what could anyone possibly have against the small DIY record stores of the world (unless they worked for one of the big ones)? If anything, by saying �I�m glad to see [big] record stores closing down� I imagined I was speaking on behalf of small DIY record stores everywhere! What I�d ask anyone who is (rightfully) upset to remember is that the �guest list� was torn unrecognizably from its context as a telephone call. The interviewer asked me what my favorite record store was, and I jokingly responded �torrents.com� or something like that, laughing about how wonderful it is that music and movies are becoming easier and easier to get for free. I then explained to him that where I grew up we had none of these little DIY type stores but only the big chains, and that I once worked in a Megastore and it was very unpleasant. Finally, I began to go on about the experience, which I cannot imagine I am alone in having, of being looked up-and-down by a snobby clerk when purchasing a record, or of not having enough money to get all the records one wants. I thought all of this would get laughs of identification, not accusations of my wanting small record store owners to die penniless! (Why would anyone, especially a musician, want this?) I hope those little store owners would grant me that I wasn�t talking about them. But perhaps the damage is done. Finally, I just want anyone who is (rightfully) upset to know, that whenever I get up on the �platforms� offered in interviews and so on, I always try to imagine a world emancipated from interested exchange and the extortion of surplus. Even if it is a little too naive or too utopian of me, I don�t see what is wrong with trying imagine a world where we share everything with each other for free. I always joke with the promoters and the labels about the contradictions involved in doing this from our standpoint, and I guess I just thought I could do it with the record stores as well. If what I said came across as anything other than this desire then I can only assure you that that was not my intent. The fact that anyone would react to anything I say is still a novelty to me, and I�m afraid I�ve made a terrible use of that novelty.

UPDATE NO.2:


It's still not us; it's him. The ripples from Mausgate continue outward. Respected indie archival label Numero Group issued the following missive to its followers via Twitter a few minutes ago:


numerogroup Send in your @JOHNMAUS CD/LP to us (if you can still find a retailer willing to stock it) and we'll give you 30% off your next mail order.

Meanwhile, scores of music heads have reblogged Maus' record store quote and added their own observations on the matter. One recurring comment: "Douchebag."

Taped Friday, July 22 at the Mother & Son Bistro in Asheville.

By Blurt Staff

Three  of the guys from popular Asheville indie band Kovacs and the Polar Bear sat down with Lingua Musica host Joe Kendrick for a chat in advance of their appearance at the annual Bele Chere Festival. There's also a terrific exclusive performance clip included. Videographer Jesse Hamm also edited this video. 

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

The videotaped conversation marks the latest in the new 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.

Courtesy NPR Music, natch.

By Blurt Staff

Tonight NPR Music will be audio streaming a Bon Iver concert live from the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. The webcast will be available online and on the NPR Music iPhone app starting at 9:30 (ET).

We reviewed the new Bon Iver album recently - a nine-star review at that - and noted how the record "breaks the listener's heart. And to experience an album (an oft-dreaded sophomore album, no less) that evokes such deep emotion is a welcomed pain."

To listen live visit http://www.npr.org/2011/08/01/138890247/live-tuesday-bon-iver-in-concert

First shows in two years from beloved band; indicate that the album is scheduled for 2012.

By Blurt Staff

And you thought they'd broken up. Well, it's not the same Shins you knew at the outset of the Northwest indie rock icons' career, but it's still helmed by James Mercer, who took a bit of a sabbatical to work on other projects. Mercer, in fact, is the only musician listed or pictured at the Shins' official Facebook page.

So anyway, the Shins' first full band outing since May 2009 will be on August 8 at W.O.W. Hall in Eugene, OR. The tour could charitably be described as "intermittent" since there are only 4 shows this month and three next month. There will also be a final October 15 appearance at the DeLuna Festival in Pensacola, FL, but keep your eyes peeled as additional dates get announced.

For this tour James Mercer will lead a Shins lineup consisting of Yuuki Matthews (bass), Jessica Dobson (guitar), Richard Swift (keyboards) and Joe Plummer (drums). The setlist will likely feature material from the long awaited fourth Shins album, which Mercer will complete following the tour. Due out next year on Aural Apothecary/Columbia, the new album will be the band's first since 2007's Grammy-nominted gold-certified Wincing The Night Away.

Tour Dates:

08/08/11 - Eugene, OR - W.O.W. Hall

08/09/11 - Bend, OR - The Domino Room 

08/10/11 - Portland - The Doug Fir Lounge 

08/12/11 - San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands Festival 

09/22/11 - Toronto, ON - Phoenix Concert Theatre 

09/23/11 - Philadelphia, PA - Popped! Festival 

09/24/11 - Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club 

10/15/11 - Pensacola, FL - DeLuna Festival 

You gotta love a record that contains a track called "Clockwork Cockwork."

By Blurt Staff

Don Fleming 4 is the smartly-titled fourth solo release from Don Fleming; not coincidentally, it contains four songs. It's the legendary musician/producer's first solo release since 1998 and was recently released on his own Instant Mayhem imprint.

Fleming, of course, had been involved with some of the wildest outfits of the alterna-universers, among them Velvet Monkeys (recently reviewed here), Gumball and B.A.L.L. And of course he's manned the boards for key releases from the likes of Sonic Youth, Teenage Fanclub, Hole, Screaming Trees, Posies, Andrew W.K. and Alice Cooper.

The EP is being streamed all this week by AOL/Spinner.com.

Don Fleming 4 includes collaborations with Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth, Free Kitten), Julie Cafritz (Pussy Galore, Free Kitten) and R. Stevie Moore. "My Little Lamb" finds Don on vocals and R. Stevie Moore on all instruments with lyrics by Don. "Torn by the Hands That You Could Not See" is built around a guitar piece by Kim Gordon with vocals and all other instruments by Don, with lyrics by Kim Rancourt of When People Were Shorter. "Clockwork Cockwork" features a Julie Cafritz guitar composition with Don on vocals and all other instruments, with lyrics by Don. "Adam's Fall" is Don on vocals and all instruments, with lyrics excerpted from the writings of Irish playwright Brendan Behan.