Band also issues a special "thank-you" to the folks who didn't toss the master tapes in the trash!

By Blurt Staff

A few months ago it was announced that legendary Ohio/North Carolina post-punkers Bitch Magnet was getting back together for the first time since 1989 in order to play All Tomorrow's Parties' "Nightmare Before Christmas" festival in London this coming December 10. Now word arrives that Temporary Residence Limited will re-release the complete studio recordings from the band.

November 15 will see Star Booty, Umber, and Ben Hur  repackaged as as a deluxe, limited edition triple-LP set and as a triple CD. The reissues will also include songs that have never appeared on CD or LP, and a collection of previously unreleased studio recordings newly mixed in October 2010 with John Congleton (Explosions In The Sky, The Walkmen). The albums are remastered from the original analog master tapes.

"Bitch Magnet was a watershed band, both for me and for underground music of the ‘80s and '90s. They had a big hand in challenging and redefining punk rock at a very pivotal time, and laid the groundwork for a template that seems downright institutional at this point," said Jeremy deVine, owner of Temporary Residence Ltd. "It is an enormous honor to be a part of re-introducing these vital recordings to longtime fans and to the uninitiated."

"Were it not for the endless patience of Temporary Residence, which first approached us sometime during the Bush administration, this would not be happening," added Bitch Magnet guitarist Jon Fine. "Also, we owe a big debt to our friends and family across the US, whose residences housed Bitch Magnet master tapes for all these years. We're totally grateful they never quite got around to throwing them out."

That's good enough for us, too...


By Blurt Staff


Okay, okay, so we're a bit slow in posting this news item. It's summer - vacations, computer crashes, etc.


This was posted awhile back at the blog by Waits' label, Anit-, under the heading "peek at a lyric from new Tom Waits' album." We can hardly, er, wait! BTW, the fan comments at the blog are worth reading....

The legendary band's "L.A. Rising" show this past weekend, July 30, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum drew nearly 60,000 punters.

By Jose Martinez

In only its second Los Angeles show in the last ten years, Rage Against the Machine leapt onto the local scene with the weight of Godzilla behind it Saturday night. In classic Rage fashion, its last two L.A. specific performances (not including a 2007 concert at Coachella two hours away from the city) were protest shows; in 2000 at the Democratic National Convention and recently in protest of Arizona's controversial immigration law.

With close to 60,000 on hand at the Coliseum, it was a safe bet something unruly would occur. Dare we say ‘riot'? Hell, a riot broke out days before on Hollywood Boulevard, as ravers were annoyed an outdoor DJ set was shut down before a movie premiere. Maybe the $100 ticket price kept revelers from causing too much havoc, fearing they'd miss the band's long-awaited L.A. reunion.

Twenty years ago, when Rage delivered its unrelenting debut, they were fresh faces in the wake of the 1992 Rodney King riots. And the band's militant passion only grew from there. Saturday night, as mosh pit after mosh pit broke out on the general admission football field ‘dancefloor,' it was evident that there is not a hard rock band as intense and radical as Rage Against the Machine. Now a bonafide stadium act, the show, dubbed L.A. Rising, was the band's attempt to create it own annual rock festival. The inaugural lineup included Muse, Rise Against, Lauryn Hill, Immortal Technique, and El Gran Silencio.

"It's a much broader endeavor than sort of a normal rock gig would be," guitarist Tom Morello explained. "Our hope is that we're able to establish a festival in Los Angeles that people look forward to seeing every year."

Kicking things off with a fiery version of "Testify," the sound gave out and continued to drop but that didn't slow down the pit or the band's nuclear onstage assault. Fan favorite after fan favorite followed and the band, singer Zach de la Rocha, guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk, were just as intense and immediate as ever.

Warning that there's a "tension in the air" in Los Angeles, de la Rocha railed against the slew of foreclosures around the city as new hotels, filled with empty rooms, open in downtown. He recalled how the city got it right with the Watts Riots and the '92 riots. Whether he was attempting to insight a riot, there is a fine line between civil disobedience and rallying for violence, the audience seemed too busy relishing the return of one of its rock favorites to take notice.

Revolution was the theme of the day, from rapper Immortal Technique getting the audience to chant "Viva La Revolution" to Lauren Hill hearkening back to her Fugees days, to Chicago punks Rise Above getting the mosh pits going. Muse added a great sense of high power arena rock to the night. Delivering an impressive and rousing performance, Muse picked up its rock quotient, offering popular rock jams like "Back in Black," "Heartbreaker" and "House of the Rising Sun" into its songs.

Yet the night belonged to Rage. Under the cool, beautiful summer L.A. sky, the band proved it is still as mighty and incendiary as ever. While fires burned in the mosh pits, there was no looting, an L.A. pastime, and the first ever L.A. Rising concert went off without a hitch. It will be interesting to see if the daylong festival becomes an annual event and what Rage's involvement will be. Maybe at the very least it will mean the band will perform yearly instead of once every decade.

[Photo credit of band: Penner, via Wikimedia Commons; other photos by Jose Martinez]

July 22 at the Mississippi Studios, the indie poster charmed a small but appreciative crowd.

By Tim Hinely

I was bummed that I had missed Messersmith last year so I wanted to make sure I caught him this time. The crowd was a bit sparse (but appreciative) probably due to the PDX Pop Now! Festival going on on the other side of town.  Messersmith didn't seem to mind, he seems to be happy-go-lucky and is a well-dressed guy and has a bit of an Elvis Costello look about him (ok, so it's the glasses). He is supremely talented individual and his backing back, comprised of a lead guitarist, drummer and a gent who played some bass as well as bit of cello were all ace players as well. They played a good chunk of material off his latest (3^rd) record , the terrific  The Reluctant Graveyard, as well as some earlier stuff. 

Not one to miss a joke either, Messersmith joked that "I've only been in Portland for a few hours but am impressed by both the quality and the quantity of the beards here"; and, at the end of the set, "OK, this is usually the part when I walk off stage and you guys cheer wildly then I come back out and play a few more songs, but let's just act like I left the stage but I will stay here....cool?"  The guy has the talent and deserves a bigger audience so we will see if he will go the way of Matthew Sweet (who he reminds me of a bit) and stay a cult favorite or break out. Stay tuned.

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

By Blurt Staff

A couple of the guys from Asheville's RBTS WIN sat down with Lingua Musica host Joe Kendrick for a chat in advance of their appearance at the upcoming Bele Chere Festival on Saturday 7-30-11. They talked about their synth-heavy sound and their ongoing relationship with Moog Music, their numerous releases (well-worth checking out, incidentally - most of them you can download for free) and upcoming plans, as well as life as an independent artist on a local music scene. Videographer Jesse Hamm also edited this video. 

You can visit RBTS WIN and check out song samples at their official website.

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.

[Photo Credit: Eric Graham Photography]

On the limp musical  evidence presented July 22 at Portland's Doug Fir Lounge, perhaps it's time to go back to the drawing board for the over-hyped British band.

By Tim Hinely

Opening act Unknown Mortal Orchestra is a trio of New Zealanders who now live in Portland, At least one, leader Ruban Neilson, used to be in the Mint Chicks. They came out and had a big Yuck banner behind them leading me to wonder if the headliners were indeed playing first. They weren't.  U.M.O. played in total darkness and only ever uttered "Thanks" a few times. Mysterious figures shrouded in mystery on the Doug Fir stage. The rhythm section rumbled along, wanting to bowl over anyone in its path while Neilson, on guitar and vocals, mumbled out words and scraped and clawed away at his guitar. At times he sounded like Tony Iommi while at others like Steve Howe (from Yes) and while the rest of the crowd was cheering wildly I wasn't as impressed. Updated Pink Floyd isn't my idea of a good time.

Speaking of not impressing: Yuck came on next and while I appreciated the drummer's amazing afro, musically it was all a bit limp. They played songs from their self-titled debut, a record that I really enjoyed, but live it seemed like there was no passion or inspiration, just four British youngster politely playing songs from a heavily hyped record.

Songs like "The Wall" and "Get Away", a few favorites from said debut, sounded just like they do on record, which is fine, but the band seemed to be going through the motions. Both guitarists, Daniel Blumberg and Max Bloom had enough pedals to make J Mascis jealous, so they've got that going for ‘em, and honestly, I'm not 100% sure what I was hoping for (the set certainly wasn't awful or anything). But whatever it was, I didn't receive it.

The best part of the evening was Bloom's rendition of happy birthday on his guitar since it was the female bassist's birthday (lots of balloons all over the stage). Back to the drawing board?

Authored by Daniel Beaumont, the excellent Preachin' The Blues: The Life & Times of Son House is published this month by Oxford University Press.

By Sam Baltes

Of the myriad legendary musicians to emerge from the Mississippi Delta during the early 20^th century, Son House ranks among the most important. Successor to Charlie Patton, mentor to Robert Johnson, and inspirational figure to Muddy Waters, House played a pivotal role in forging the blues aesthetic. In this first full-scale biography devoted to House, Daniel Beaumont does a commendable job of capturing the essence of the man and his music.

It seems to be axiomatic that dismal locales produce compelling artists, and the Mississippi Delta bears testament to this. During the early 1900s the region was epitomized by lynch mobs, torrential flooding, and widespread poverty. In spite (or because) of these soul-crushing factors, the region also harbored some of the most significant musicians of the 20^th century, among these, Son House. House, born into a sharecropping system that was "at best, a break-even proposition," early on looked for a way to circumvent the vacuous hardships that the occupation entailed. As a youth he disdained the blues and maintained an abstemious lifestyle -- he channeled his stentorian vocals toward preaching, which provided a respite from hard labor. This was ephemeral though, and after developing a taste for whiskey, women, and bottleneck guitar, he underwent an apostasy and became determined to "play one of them things." This decision irrevocably altered House's life, and the cognitive dissonance that resulted from it leant his songs a unique fervor.

The most engrossing section of the book deals with House's early career. Shortly after his commencement as a bluesman, House was incarcerated for killing a man (allegedly in self defense). He was sentenced to the infamous Parchman Farm, where under the aegis of sadistic guards he served two years of intensive labor. Following his release, House was "ramblified," and upon drifting into the town of Lulu, he caught the eye of Charlie Patton and the two became compatriots. While the relationship between House and Patton has been touched upon in other books, the breadth of Beaumont's depiction is unrivaled.  House's feelings toward Patton are made clear -- he harbored an undying respect for him, but was irked by the man's flippancy. New information is also dispensed concerning House's relationships with other bluesmen such as Willie Brown and Howlin' Wolf. Beaumont is passionate about showing the importance of House's music and provides a detailed breakdown that illustrates its impact on subsequent musicians like Robert Johnson.

Unfortunately, the period between House's retirement and "rediscovery" was uneventful, and the book drags when chronicling these years. House moved to New York, quit performing, and besides boozing and terminating another man (allegedly in self defense), didn't get up to much. This part of House's life was haphazardly documented, and often his word (which is frequently contradictory) is all you have to go by. The monotony of this chapter is less the fault of Beaumont than the subject, but it's a bummer regardless.

The book picks back up after House's return to music. In an unusual turn of events, the folk revivalism of the early ‘60s led suburbanite college students to seek out bluesmen who had drifted into obscurity. As a result, House received the recognition he never obtained during his youth and it's interesting seeing how he responded to the adulation laid upon him by affluent white kids. Despite being a hopeless alcoholic during his last years, House filled concert halls, moved vinyl, and outlived virtually all of his delta contemporaries before finally succumbing to lung cancer at the age of 86.

An "ex-preacher, an alcoholic, a convicted killer, and a bluesman," Son House was a troubled man with an indomitable constitution. While Beaumont's prose isn't the flashiest, he does House justice with an illuminating, well-researched biography.  Preachin' The Blues is a must for House fans, and an enthralling read for anyone interested in the blues.

Band also announces next round of tour dates.

By Blurt Staff

Britain's Wild Beasts just wrapped up a brief but successful tour of the east coast, with stops in New York (where they sold out two shows at Le Poisson Rouge and popped into WNYC for a Soundcheck session), Washington DC, and Philadelphia. Now they've released a video for their new single "Bed Of Nails," culled from their acclaimed album Smother (read the BLURT review here).

The single will also be available as a limited edition postcard, featuring artwork by noted photographer Jason Evans, and signed by the band. Each postcard (limited to 500) will include a download code for both "Bed of Nails" and B-side "Catherine Wheel." Meanwhile, in September they return to North America for another round of touring. Joining them on select dates will be Twin Sister and EMA.

Tour Dates:

Friday, Sep. 16 -- Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits

Tue. Sep. 20 - Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse

Wed. Sep. 21 - Chapel Hill, NC @ Cat's Cradle

Thu. Sep. 22 - Baltimore, MD @ Sonar

Fri. Sep. 23 - Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

Sat. Sep. 24 - Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

Tue. Sep. 27 - Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club

Wed. Sep. 28 - Montreal, QC @ Cabaret Mile-End

Thu. Sep. 29 - Toronto, ON @ Mod Club

Fri. Sep. 30 - Detroit, MI @ Magic Bag

Sat. Oct. 1 - Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall w/ Twin Sister

Sun. Oct. 2 - Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall w/ Twin Sister

Tue. Oct. 4 - Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater w/ Twin Sister

Fri. Oct. 7 - Seattle, WA @ Neptune w/ EMA

Sat. Oct. 8 - Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret w/ EMA

Sun. Oct. 9 - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir w/ EMA

Tue. Oct. 11 - Santa Cruz, CA @ Rio Theatre w/ EMA

Thu. Oct. 13 - Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex w/ EMA

Sat. Oct. 15 - Mexico City, Mexico @ Corona Capital Festival

Sun. Oct. 16 - San Francisco, CA @ Treasure Island Music Festival

Officially voted "most chaotic live act" since the last one!

By Blurt Staff

Jennifer Herrema and her RTX gang will be playing 2 weeks of West coast shows starting September 2nd in San Diego, CA and ending September 15th  in Long Beach, CA. They will be taking the Nashville garage band Heavy Cream on the road with them in celebration of their "Killer Weed" / "Deadbeat" split 7" that will be out Sept. on Volcom's vinyl club. RTX will be previewing plenty of new songs off of their forthcoming album Rad Times IV, slated for a Jan. release by longtime label Drag City.

Here's what the label has to say about that: "Jennifer's wide-angle lens has captured a universe of images over the course of the Royal Trux and RTX discographies and the universe just gets bigger with every record. The west wasn't rolled over without a few ritual sacrifices down the road. Our survival still depends on it and in the sun-drenched new frontier, RTX have your back. RTX runs the rock up the flagpole and rolls it around in strong winds. Put it this way if you don't know what RTX stands for, it's "Rad Times Xpress." So get on board!"

Yup. We're on board.

Tour dates:

9/2/11 San Diego, CA - Tin Can Alehouse w/ Heavy Cream

9/3/11 San Francisco, CA - Parkside Lounge w/ Heavy Cream

9/4/11 Eureka, CA - The Alibi w/ Heavy Cream

9/6/11 Olympia, WA - The Brotherhood w/ Heavy Cream

9/7/11 Vancouver, BC - The Warldorf Hotel w/ Heavy Cream

9/8/11 Victoria, BC - Logan's Pub w/ Heavy Cream

9/9/11 Seattle, WA - Funhouse w/ Heavy Cream

9/10/11 Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios w/ Heavy Cream, Ty Segall

9/12/11 Oakland, CA - The New Parish w/ Heavy Cream

9/13/11 Fullerton, CA - Continental w/ Heavy Cream

9/14/11 Los Angeles, CA - Freak City w/ Heavy Cream

9/15/11 Long Beach, CA - Alex's Bar w/ Heavy Cream

July 9, at the Old Field Beach State Park, the beloved family combo toast their song-titling namesake.

Text/Photos by Steven Rosen

"Well, that was a first. We've never performed that song looking directly at Indian Lake before."

Bob Cowsill said that as the crowd, in summer wear and bathing suits, surged and cheered on the open field at Old Field Beach State Park at Indian Lake, on the western side of Ohio. Quite a few had arrived by boat, having anchored at the beach. The hot sun was bearing down on them, which somehow seemed to improve their mood. This was a perfect summer day, a perfect summer event.

The Cowsills had just opened their concert with a rousing version of "Indian Lake," a Top Ten hit in 1968. For the locals at the Chamber of Commerce's annual Party at the Beach, it was an acknowledgement of past glories - not just of a time when the clean-cut Cowsills were America's favorite family band, but also when Indian Lake (and the nearby town of Russell's Point) was a Midwest tourist resort, famous for its Sandy Beach Amusement Park with its dance pavilion and 2,000-foot-long roller coaster. (It was demolished in 1982 after decades of decline.) It was hard to judge crowd size, given the spread-out nature, but it could have been around 1,000. An anonymous local donor had paid to bring the Cowsills there for the event.

The Cowsills at Indian Lake were two brothers - Bob, 61, and Paul, 59 - and 52-year-old sister Susan, who has her own budding career as an Americana-oriented singer-songwriter. But at their peak, back in the day, they consisted of those three plus brothers Bill, Barry and John and their mother, Barbara. They were just kids - Boomer teens and younger - on tour with mom and managed by their dad, a Navy careerist.

It is far from certain the song "Indian Lake" was named for the lake. It was written by Tony Romeo, a pop songsmith who also wrote "I Think I Love You" for the Partridge Family (more about them later) and had a thing for forced rhyming ("Indian Lake is a scene you should make with your little one") and catchy melodies. But the Cowsills began their career in Canton, Ohio, around the start of the 1960s. And though they were living in Newport, R.I., when their hits started, Ohio can claim them.

Summertime, USA, is filled with small-town outdoor fairs and parties that proudly book 1960s or 1970s oldies acts to play hits (often without any original members) and meet and greet the locals. Such shows are often slick, kitschy and soulless.

But the Cowsills show was different. First, because they were (and still are) family, there's meaning and feeling in the performance and the interaction between the three singers. (The back-up band, too, is family - Paul's two sons Brendan and Ryan on guitar and keyboards, Susan's husband Russ Broussard on drums. The bass player, Mary Lasseigne, is introduced by Bob as "sister" so she doesn't feel out of place.)

There's also poignancy and currency to being on the road now. A new documentary, Family Band: The Cowsills Story, is just beginning to make the rounds of film festivals this summer and advance word is that it uncovers some raw truths below the family-friendly image, especially about the way their now-deceased dad, William "Bud," treated them, and how difficult adulthood turned out to be for some of the siblings. But it also shows the bond existing among the three still active in the band, and in a way their limited concerts are a way to reinforce that relationship. It's the oldies-rock version of The Tree of Life.

The show was well-rehearsed (the sound check took 40 minutes) and musically professional, but not "produced" in the way a current Turtles or Monkees concert might be, to mention two other AM-friendly pop vocal acts of the era. The three original Cowsills dress casually, banter about and in general act like it's just a bigger-than-usual family gathering.

In the concert, Bob and Paul do quite a few covers of folk-rock tunes - just as the oldest brothers used to do in the beginning, before the Cowsills became a Top-40 act. Simon & Garfunkel's "Homeward Bound" and Peter, Paul & Mary's "Puff the Magic Dragon," "If I Had My Way" and "If I Had a Hammer" all got played here - the last gaining credibility when three sang out about "the love between my brothers and my sisters."

Susan does several songs from her fine Lighthouse album of 2011, and the group performs material from the generally overlooked Americana-leaning solo catalogue of their two deceased brothers, Bill and Barry. To give the departed their due is one mission of the show.

The three siblings on stage at Indian Lake were pretty matter-of-fact about addressing Barry's shocking death. "We lost Barry during Hurricane Katrina," Bob told the crowd. "(He) did not evacuate when he should have." (Barry's body was not found for some four months after the 2005 flooding of New Orleans. And Bill, who lived in Canada and had health problems, died the same day as Barry's memorial service.) Susan took the lead on a rousing, emotional version of Barry's cathartic, Petty-like "River of Love," a song filled with dark irony now. (She also lived in New Orleans when Katrina hit, but had left in time, and recorded "River of Love" for Lighthouse.)

I'm not sure if the fans, who mostly were there for some pop nostalgia, were prepared for the way the song - or the back story - darkened their sunshine pop, but they did seem to respect it. And "River of Love" rocked them.

The Cowsills did honor their Top 40 past - sometimes with sweet good humor, other times with sly wit. And the hits hold up well. In particular, the expansive melodic rush of "The Rain, The Park & Other Things" - a chart topper from 1967 - fits in well with the era of "Good Vibrations," "Happy Together" and "Up, Up and Away" - pop-rock optimism at most beautiful. It sounded fantastic, echoing throughout the park, as did "We Can Fly" - a 1968 hit in a similar vein.

When one man in the crowd hollered out for "the milk song," they complied - saying they hadn't done it live before. Bob and Paul sang out "milk is the lift that will last." The Cowsills also invited people on stage, and so many came up (while others danced about in a sandy area in front) you wondered if the stage would collapse.

Bob and Paul used the song selection to tell stories about their career - explaining both how they felt at the time and how they feel now about having been a family pop group with an image safe as milk at a time of teenage revolution. For instance, Paul prefaced their theme to the TV series "Love American Style" - a program on the square side of pop culture in the late 1960s/early 1970s - this way: "When we were kids, we didn't care that we did the theme for a TV show. Now that we're older, we think it's really cool. That's one of the ways you change through the years."

That performance led to another TV-related one, a somewhat in-jest version of Partridge Family's goofy "I Think I Love You," an awkwardly constructed ditty somehow too friendly to fight. But while "Indian Lake's" Romeo wrote it, it isn't really a Cowsills song. Or is it? It turns out the producers of "The Partridge Family," a comedy about a family that plays music together, originally wanted the Cowsills for their early-1970s show, but the family turned it down. So actors were put together for it. Million-selling success followed.

"Since the Partridge Family didn't tour, couldn't perform or sing ‘I Think I Love You,' we've declared it our hit," Bob told the crowd.

The oddest story - and one that cries out for more details - concerned "Hair," the Cowsills' last and biggest hit, from the "American tribal rock" musical of the same name. The Cowsills saved it for (almost) last at Indian Lake, enduring lots of shouts for "Hair" in the meantime and making jokes about the lack of it on the two brothers' heads now.

By the time the Cowsills' recorded version came out in early 1969, it seemed they were jumping on a bandwagon - Hair was a sensation. Still, it was shocking to hear the clean-cut Cowsills record an ode to long hair, one that even mentioned the Grateful Dead and came from a Broadway musical with nudity.

But as they explained it from the stage at Indian Lake, Carl Reiner - the television/film producer/director - had been given an advance copy of the soundtrack album and, thinking the Cowsills were perfect for covering "Hair" (maybe because they had strong harmonies), urged them into the studio to record it. They did so, but their record company - the notoriously tin-eared MGM - hated it. So it sat unreleased.

Finally, the Cowsills gave a copy to a Chicago Top 40 station of the day, WLS-AM, which played it and got huge, instant reaction. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Cowsills finished the show by reprising "Indian Lake."

At the concert, it was announced the donor had agreed to bring them back next year for the same event. If that's the case, Indian Lake will definitely be a scene you should make. And if you can't bring your little one, bring your favorite college professor. There's a lot of American cultural history on that stage.

(Top photo: Susan and Paul, with microphones, with invited crowd on stage; second photo also has Bob at right.)