White (Led) Boots

It would be an understate ment to say that the wife and I don't get out much.

We're pretty fond of our two dogs, one cat, and responsibi lities to our vegetable garden. After nearly 25 years on the road, a vacation to me is waking up somewhere familiar with coffee but a few steps away. A night out on the town is usually going to the local market to buy something swell to cook up for dinner.

The decision to go to Oakland to see the last performanc e of Jeff Beck's 2009 U.S. tour was a no-brainer , however. After all, Beck was flying high from his recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction for his storied solo career. Add in the twin engines of his band being so damn tight and the venue being the newly renovated Fox Theater in Oakland, and we quickly decided the trip down from the country would be in our best interests for fast fun.

***

This past April, Jeff Beck was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...for the second time in his career. Beck's first trip to the Hall was in 1988 for his stint in The Yardbirds.

Why should anyone care? I'll tell you why. It's because Jeff Beck is a master of the electric guitar and one of the few great innovators in rock and roll. Ask any guitarist or serious music appreciato r who the best is, and Beck's name will likely be the answer. Don't believe me? Ask Clapton, King, or Vaughan. Or ask Christophe r Guest, who modeled the gum-chewin g Nigel "This goes to 11" Tufnell of Spinal Tap after Beck. That's enough to warrant entry into the Hall's hallowed space in my book.

No other guitarist has Beck's sonic palette and incredible range of expression . 10,000 hours logged mastering his craft aside, Beck has reinvented himself time and time again, framing his patented twang-bar Stratocast er sound with an assortment of musicians and musical styles that would make the likes of Frank Zappa or Miles Davis proud. "It's a form of illness really, isn't it," he said in a recent Gibson.com interview. "If you choose music there's no real limits to how far you can dig to better yourself and improve...it's a bottomless pit of inspiratio n."

Today's mainstream music industry lacks any real credibilit y, which is why it was so refreshing to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame get something right for change. Far too often innovative artists are overlooked for inclusion in award shows and the Hall of Fame to make room for the popularity contest winners and multi-plat inum acts. With Madonna's induction last year, the Hall became a sad joke among my friends and peers, much like when the first Grammy award for "Best Heavy Metal Album" was given to Jethro Tull over the obviously deserving Metallica in 1989. It was one of those classic "what-the- fuck-were- they-think ing" moments and showed how far out of touch the industry had become. But Beck's induction was a case where all the egos were set aside to honor an innovator who has been around since the beginnings of modern rock. The look of pure joy on the face of Jimmy Page, Beck's childhood friend and former Yardbirds band mate, was contagious . There was one of rock's silver-hai red elder statesmen inducting one of his close friends while practicall y jumping up and down and clapping his hands like an excited schoolgirl . Ever the gentleman, Beck graciously thanked Page and many of his peers in his brief acceptance speech, a humble genius who most likely would have preferred being at home working on one of his vintage hot rods.

Hit up YouTube and check out the version of "Beck's Bolero" from Beck's performanc e at the induction ceremony. In the middle of the tune, he stops, introduces Jimmy Page, and proceeds to rip into an instrument al jam of "The Immigrant Song" for a few moments before careening back into the end of "Bolero." Notice how Page, one of Beck's oldest schoolyard chums, never strays from the supportive rhythm guitar role, thereby allowing Beck to do what he does best: wring lead vocal sounds out of his signature white Stratocast er. Believe me, Beck was hitting high notes that Robert Plant hasn't been able to achieve since 1971.

Last summer while on tour, a friend of mine passed along a bootleg DVD of various Beck live performanc es that featured the entire set from Clapton's Crossroads Blues Festival in Chicago 2007. Beck's band - drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and keyboardis t Jason Rebello along with the amazing young bass prodigy Tal Wilkenfeld - blew me away. Members of Panic who ventured up to the front lounge of the bus would stop in their tracks to share in the amazement Jimmy Herring and I enjoyed while repeatedly watching the DVD over and over again. The band was tight and it was very clear that Beck was happy and being pushed to new creative heights. He even let Wilkenfeld take a bass solo on his beautiful rendition of "Because We've Ended As Lovers." But the capstone of the show was the set ending performanc e of John Lennon's "A Day In The Life." I had seen him play this tune before, but this particular performanc e featured joy, sadness, and exuberance coupled with an utter mastery of the guitar and melody incarnate. Never allowing the melodic intent of the original version to give way to chops this performanc e was something for the ages.

Soon after I'd received the DVD, music industry blogger supreme Bob Lefsetz devoted one of his daily rants to the mastery of Jeff Beck. I wrote Bob an email about how we'd been enjoying Beck's Crossroads performanc e on the tour bus, which he published. Jimmy Herring began to integrate Beckisms into his arsenal onstage. Throughout last summer's tour, I'd hear a primal squonk from stage right and look over to see Herring laughing his ass off at my surprise as he'd slip a quote from one of Beck's tunes into one of his own improvised guitar solos. I made up my mind I'd catch Beck at the next opportunit y.

***

The bell on my iPhone Inbox buzzed as we were preparing to leave for our first trip to the Fox Theater in Oakland. Lefsetz Letter of the Day has arrived, boasting a glowing tweet from Beck's show in L.A. the night before. Rod Stewart had apparently surprised Beck onstage (their first appearance together in over 25 years) for a sweet rendition of Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready." The news only heightened our expectatio ns for the show we were about to see.

We arrived at the Fox and were promptly met by Veronice, the ticket gal for Another Planet Entertainm ent who showed us inside the beautifull y restored former movie palace. Allen from Another Planet gave us a walking tour, and we were duly impressed to say the least. More than $90 million went into the renovation of the theater, and I must say it looked to have been money well spent. The Oakland Fox is similar to its namesake Fox theaters in St. Louis and Atlanta but with one serious difference : the Oakland Fox is laid out in the great tradition of the most fan friendly music venues. Rather than fixed seating all the way to the stage, there is a general admission pit that holds 1,900 music lovers. Behind the pit area are tiers for standing room with some small cocktail tables and a massive bar. The balcony features seating for another 900. There's a smoking section, more bars, and a small café ; that serves food, which is open whether there's a show or not.

Upon arriving at the VIP area, it was clear the musos were coming out tonight in full force to see the master at work. A tequila-wi elding Sammy Hagar greeted us with a wide smile. The drummer from the Chili Peppers arrived soon thereafter , followed by someone who I'm pretty sure was an incognito Joe Satriani. Not knowing that these guys were ¾ of the new band, Chickenfoo t I amusedly thought to myself that we could make one helluva band. Sorry Michael Anthony...I just didn't know yet!

The Fox boasts a state-of-t he-art line array sound system, which means that the sound in the back of the balcony is just as clean and loud as it is on the floor or in front of the stage. I have yet to see a more fan friendly venue as classy as Oakland's Fox Theater. And despite all of its glorious beauty, what shone brightest that night was the music that happened onstage.

Clad head to toe in white (including white felt boots with fringe), Jeff Beck took the stage and the band revved into "Beck's Bolero." All hands were raised when Vinnie Colaiuta began the infamous drum intro to "Led Boots," and by the time the song was in high gear, those same hands were unanimousl y performing the Wayne's World "we're not worthy" genuflecti on.

Jeff Beck's performanc e in Oakland was a staggering display of electric virtuosity without musical snobbery and overt academics. The band was tight, but loose enough to have a little fun. The humorous highlight of the evening was Wilkenfeld 's bass solo which morphed into Beck's famous "Freeway Jam" (which has been noticeably absent from the setlist for nearly a decade) featuring her playing the melody in the upper register while Beck played the bass line in the lower register of her guitar at the same time. To me this is a sign of a master at work and having fun. Something also tells me that Wilkenfeld is having a good effect on Beck and loosening him up. This kind of behavior bodes well for a future studio recording (which I hear is in the works) with this band.

After finishing the show with a powerful rendition of "A Day In The Life," Beck took a victory lap performing "Where Were You" with Rebello providing an eerily stark keyboard accompanim ent. The rest of the band returned and put the pedal to the metal with "A Scottish One" and a final twist of humor with "Peter Gunn." We exited the beautiful Fox Theater exhilarate d by what we had just witnessed. Beck is truly a master and he seemed to be riding high, buoyed by the strength of his supporting cast. He roared through all of his gears with grace and humor while keeping melody in the pole position where it belongs: firmly in the hands of the master.

Dave Schools blames his strange obsession with Jeff Beck on finding a copy of the Yardbirds bootleg Golden Eggs in a mom ‘n' pop record store as a teenager. When not blogging for BLURT or playing bass for Widespread Panic in front of thousands of screaming fans, Dave likes to dance... tap dance.

[Photo Credit: SonomaMan]

Host a MV advance listening party the way you wanna host it.

By Blurt Staff

Here's your chance to grab that elusive 15 minutes of fame - or Almost Famous. The Mars Volta has announced plans to have 10-15 fans to host exclusive listenings in their homes for the band's new album, Octahedron in advance of its June 23 release on Warner Bros.

If you want in, you have to submit "an entry vying to host one of the listening parties," say the PR folks. Entries can be submitted in any form from YouTube videos, illustrati ons, writings, to anything that expresses why the entrant deserves to be a "Host." "Official Hosts" will have their party pics posted on The Mars Volta's website. One host and a guest will also be awarded a chance to see The Mars Volta perform anywhere in the US. Entries must be submitted by June 3rd to Octahedron Party@gmai l.com

In the meantime, the band has provided this link containing two new tracks off the band's upcoming release:

New Music from The Mars Volta

Catch the new video from new album.

by Blurt Staff

We told you about Metric's new album Fantasies.

Well here's a chance to watch the video for "Sick Muse" while catching some of the off-stage life of this cool band.

Check it out here

Or you can watch the HD version here: HD version here

New sound, appearance s set for this month.

by Nancy Dunham

Just when we thought we'd heard the last from Yoko Ono, word has come that the Plastic Ono Band will release Don't Stop Me! EP on June 9 via iTunes.

In addition, the widow of John Lennon and mother of Sean Lennon will receive the Golden Lion achievemen t award this week at the Venice Biennale on June 6 and perform (we think!) at the Meltdown Festival, Royal Festival Hall in London on June 14.

"At 76 years young, Yoko continues to kick ass -- and is preparing to release Don't Stop Me!, a career-def ining album made with her new Plastic Ono Band. The record is a gorgeous, mind-melti ng blend of styles, restating and sharpening themes while plunging into the always-mys terious future."

Don't know about you guys, but we at Blurt can't wait to check it out.

Dude used to run with the 13^th Floor Elevators, among many. Any questions?

By Blurt Staff

Powell St. John - called by some the "godfather of Texas psych," and with good reason - will drop his new album On My Way to Houston on July 21 via the good folks at Tompkins Square. It was recorded in Oakland with members of Roky Erickson's former band, The Aliens, and features an unrecorded Roky compositio n, "Hardest Working Man." Austin fixture Ralph White contribute s as well. Longtime fan and well-respe cted publicist/ journalist Bill Bentley wrote liner notes for the package.

St. John cut his teeth at Austin's Threadgill 's Bar, performing with Janis Joplin and Lanny Wiggins in a trio called The Waller Creek Boys. Later, in answer to a request for material from Tommy Hall of the 13th Floor Elevators, St. John wrote five songs for their two first albums. In the late ‘60s , Powell formed the blues/rock band Mother Earth with Tracy Nelson, releasing several albums on Mercury. Among the legendary musicians who have sung and recorded Powell's songs are Janis Joplin ("Bye, Bye Baby"), Boz Scaggs ("I'll Forever Sing"), Roky Erickson ("Right Track Now") and Doug Sahm ("You Don't Know"). The Texas Music Hall of Fame inducted Powell in 2005.

Said Roky Erickson of his old cohort, "I think he is a first-rate harmonica player and I am glad he is still doing it. His songs are some of my favorites! "

Check out an MP3 from the album:

"Song of the Silver Surfer"

Former roadie finally finds a way to cash in!

By Fred Mills

Some days you write the news, other days it just writes itself....

With Ryan Adams and Courtney Love laying relatively low of late, and Pete Doherty apparently cleaned up enough to be let back into the circle of trust by his old bandmates, it's up to dead rock stars to carry the weight during today's news cycle. And you can't get much deader than Jimi Hendrix, who croaked on his own vomit, due to an excess of booze and pills apparently , in September of 1970.

Since then the guitar icon's become a cottage industry for just about anybody with an old tape or an old war story. To wit: erstwhile Hendrix Experience roadie James "Tappy" Wright has a new book out (uh-huh) called Rock Roadie and in it he makes the claim that Hendrix manager Michael Jeffrey was responsibl e for Hendrix's death.

The Daily Mail is reporting the story that Jeffrey's motivation in coaxing Hendrix to take the pills and booze was to collect on life insurance - this despite the fact that back then you didn't exactly have to convince Jimi to take pills and booze.

In lines straight out of a bad B-movie, Wright quotes Jeffrey as telling him, in a private conversati on, "I was in London the night of Jimi's death and together with some old friends... we went round to [girlfrien d Monika Danneman's ], hotel room, got a handful of pills and stuffed them into his mouth... then poured a few bottles of red wine deep into his windpipe. I had to do it. Jimi was worth much more to me dead than alive. That son of a bitch was going to leave me. If I lost him, I'd lose everything ."

Convenient ly, Jeffrey is now dead, so he can't be questioned on these matters. He died in a plane crash in '73, and Wright is claiming he made the confession to him two years earlier.

Let's do the math here... 2009 - 1971 = 38 years. That's a long time to hold onto a yarn as explosive as this one. Oh wait - Wright's just published a book. Caveat emptor.

Anyway, there's some other stuff you can read about all this at the above link if you aren't bored already...

Widespread Panic bassist call it like he sees it.

By Fred Mills

Two ducks walk into a bar. The first duck says to the second duck, "Do you think the first Jeff Beck Group, the one with Rod Stewart, or the second version, with Bobby Tench, was more powerful?" The bartender leans over and comments, "Say, we don't get too many ducks in this place..."

Okay, so it's an old joke. But we have Jeff Beck on our mind today, courtesy the latest entry in Dave Schools' blog, which you can find HERE. In it, the Widespread Panic bassist sings the praises of the legendary axeman and talks about seeing the current incarnatio n of the Beck group perform in Oakland recently.

"A staggering display of electric virtuosity without musical snobbery and overt academics, " is Schools' assessment .

And we could not agree more.

Guest Post this week from another one of my faves, Salim Nourallah (who you heard on The Daily Dose 05/18/09) and who's been on tour in Europe recently:

dear Europe

thank you for these past 3 weeks
thank you for your lush green fields
nicely manicured highways
friendly people
bowls of cheese
castles
thank you for Casa Buskies and the Astra Stubbe in Hamburg
Basti
Gunther
Matthias
Lars
thank you for their smiles and hand clapping
thank you for Berlin and the double-dec ker bus tour
the Hotel Adina were I swear David Bowie must also stay
whenever he visits Berlin
thank you for the great Italian food we ate while the rain poured
thank you for making the rain stop in time for us to walk back to the Adina
thank you for Potsdam and the Sanssouci Palace
for the beautiful weather that day and plenty of time before Magdeburg
thank you for Jan and his nice comment about buying Nourallah Brothers 10 years ago
thank you for mysterious ly fixing my video camera
for the Atlanta Hotel (instead of another dive!) in Neukirchen -Vluyn (where else?)
for Marcus at Kulturramp e in Krefeld
and the German fan who said he was attending Eastwood High
in El Paso in 1978
thank you for the Ulenspeige l in Giessen
and the nice promoter Toby who is going to Kansas soon
thank you for the Café ; NUN in Karlsruhe
the perfect sound and audience
my friend Mark and his family at the ex-convent
the man in the front row who said he loved all my records
and requested “It& rsquo;s Not Enough&rdq uo;
thank you for scenic and peaceful Bacharach
our room in the tower
our walk up to the Castle
the nice lady who gave Gavin hot chocolate
Castle Burg Eltz and the knight show from Gavin
thank you Rastatte and Aachen plus a packed house
all the people smiling and singing along with me
for the 3rd time in 4 years now
thank you for letting me see my friends Jan and Walter again
and also for G to have a chance to play with Henri
thank you for our safe and pleasant drive to the South of France
and for our friends Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby
Le Lawrence D’Ar abie and the great pizza from Nico and Sabine
Emmanual and his enthusiasm for the Clash and Gavin&rsqu o;s Wreckless E t-shirt
thank you for all the people who bought t-shirts and cds
and even asked for me to sign them [...]

A Triple-A radio programmin g veteran, Kate has served as Music Director of the Loft at XM, Midday Host at WYEP, Evening Host at both WNCS and WUIN, as well as Content Supervisor for Pump Audio. Currently, she's the CEO of Outlandos Music, a new-music discovery service for grown-ups. Kate has been nationally recognized for her ardent presentati on of music and her ability to champion talented, compelling artists.

Announcing summer tour plus departure of a key member.

By Blurt Staff

Los Campesinos , writing on their blog - have revealed the departure of a Campesinos ! as well as details of their biggest tour yet of the USA in August. Taken from the blog on www.loscampesi nos.com the band had these comments:

 "Thi s is a difficult announceme nt to have to write, and one we'd have hoped we'd never need to, but it is with a heavy heart we in Los Campesinos ! need to announce the forthcomin g departure of Aleks Campesinos ! from our number.

"After three years of LC!, in an incredible journey that has gone from inaudible student union side room gigs to playing in front of thousands in Caracas city centre; Aleks is now, as she always intended, departing the band in order to return to her studies.

"In many ways, it would be great if there had been some falling out in the band and that Aleks couldn't bear to tour with us anymore, but that couldn't be further from the truth. We're all better, closer friends now than we've ever been, and this makes the decision tougher on both Aleks, and the other six of us. We've always been very pragmatic when thinking about the future for Los Campesinos !, and it is at this point that Aleks has decided her future does not reside in flogging this LC! nonsense any  longer. Though she will remain a Campesinos ! for eternity. There's no escaping that.

"It shouldn't need saying, and perhaps it almost seems insensitiv e, but it's inevitable news of this nature will cause tongues to wag, so it's best to confirm that Los Campesinos ! will continue as a band, stronger and more united than ever. Though this news is being announced only now, it's something we as a band have been aware of, and preparing for, for the past year. The individual joining the band to take on Aleks' duties, and more, has been a friend of the band for a long time and though we are understand ably maudlin, nay, heartbroke n, this is coupled with a great excitement for what we intend to go on and achieve in the near and distant future.

"In the meantime, we are finishing up Aleks' final record with the band, and can announce her final LC! shows - a US Tour, taking place in August. Taking in our biggest indoor shows to date, as well as a happy return to the site of our first US show (Lollapalo oza), we navigate parts of America previously unchartere d by us, before Aleks' very last shows come with a weekend in the California sun. The girl will go out in fuckin style; we will make completely sure of that."

Writing on the band blog as well Aleks said, "I'm not sure I can really find the right words to express how I feel about leaving the band. The past 3 years have given me some of the best times of my life full of incredible experience s and wonderful people. I am really grateful to have been a part of the Los Campesinos ! story. I'm going to miss so much about the whole thing."

Tickets for the newly announced US dates will go on sale on June 5th. Support on all shows will come from Girls, except where indicated.

Tour Dates:

8/4/09 - New York, NY @ Webster Hall
8/5/09 - Washington , DC @ 9:30 Club
8/6/09 - Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
8/7/09 - Indianapol is, IN @ Spin Nightclub *
8/8/09 - Chicago, IL @ Lollapaloo za
8/11/09 - St. Louis, MO @ Firebird
8/12/09 - Kansas City, MO @ Record Bar
8/14/09 - Austin, TX @ Emo's
8/15/09 - Dallas, TX @ Granada Theatre
8/16/09 - Houston, TX @ Warehouse
8/19/09 - Albuquerqu e, NM @ Launchpad
8/20/09 - Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress
8/21/09 - Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre
8/22/09 - Pomona, CA @ Glass House
8/23/09 - Costa Mesa, CA @ Detroit Bar
8/25/09 - Las Vegas, NV @ Beauty Bar *
8/28/09 - San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands Festival
8/29/09 - San Diego, CA @ Street Scene

* w/o Girls

Slow news day, must find quotes.

By Fred Mills

Okay, we lied. That nine-star review we ran of The High End of Low last week is NOT the only time you'll ever see the words "Marilyn Manson" appear in BLURT. Saucy news o' the day arrives courtesy Spinner.com in which we learn that Nine Inch Nails mainman Trent Reznor has been turning Manson's smile upside down by calling him "a dopey clown."

Apparently the two had a falling out awhile back, but for no real good reason other than to make headlines - or perhaps Spinner making a headline out of it - Reznor is just now griping about Manson.

Reznor is quoted as saying, "He is a malicious guy and will step on anybody's face to succeed and cross any line of decency. Seeing him now, drugs and alcohol now rule his life and he's become a dopey clown."

There's more of course. Hit the above link. No comment yet from the MM camp, but watch out. Meow! Rrrrr! Fffftttt!

Vocalist for the legendary X discloses the news this morning.

By Blurt Staff

Sad news from the X camp. See below, and please support Sweet Relief.

***

STATEMENT FROM EXENE CERVENKA OF X:

After some months of not feeling 100% healthy, I recently had some medical tests run and the prognosis is that I am suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. Apparently , it has been affecting me for quite some time.

Although this is obviously unfortunat e news, I am choosing to see the positive in it. I, and X as a band, have supported the Sweet Relief charity since the mid-1990's ; the irony of this is not lost on any of us. Sweet Relief was started as an aide to uninsured artists by musician Victoria Williams when she herself was diagnosed with MS in 1992.

While this diagnosis will most certainly mean some changes for me, personally , it will not affect my commitment s to the current X U.S. tour, nor will it affect my solo album that is slated for release this fall on Bloodshot Records.

My focus will certainly be on maintainin g my health--ma ny people remain strong and continue to live their lives as productive ly as they had before an MS diagnosis and I plan to be one of those people.

To find out more about Sweet Relief please visit: www.sweetrelie f.org

To find out more about X please visit: www.xtheband.com

Selected dates to promote new album, and rumors of a new dB's happening, too.

By Fred Mills

Awhile back we told you about the new album en  route from Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey (of the dB's). Titled hERE aND nOW, it drops next Tuesday courtesy Bar/None, and the two friends are going to be doing some selected dates (primarily on the East Coast) to promote the platter. See the itinerary below.

And watch for the next issue of BLURT, due in stores in late June or early July, in which we talk to the boys about the album as well as that other notable project of theirs - which, we've learned, continues apace towards a new full-lengt h.

"I would say you can expect from a new dB's record a variety of songs that will maintain the high standard of quality we establishe d on our first 45," Holsapple tells BLURT. "Otherwise , it'd be another cash-grab reunion thing that runs its course in a matter of a couple of years. The time we've been taking on this album has ensured the band working together much longer than that already."

Mon  &nbs p; 06 .08.09  &nbs p; &n bsp;Arling ton, VA  &nbs p; IO TA Club & Café ;  &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p;
Tue  &nbs p; 06 .09.09  &nbs p; &n bsp;New York, NY  &nbs p; Ci ty Winery  &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p;
Sat  &nbs p; 06 .27.09  &nbs p; &n bsp;Carrbo ro, NC  &nbs p; Ca t's Cradle  &nbs p; w/ American Aquarium, Luego  &nbs p; 
Sat  &nbs p; 07 .04.09  &nbs p; &n bsp;Durham , NC  &nbs p; Fe stival for the Eno at Durham City Park  &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p;
Fri  &nbs p; 07 .10.09  &nbs p; &n bsp;Ashevi lle, NC  &nbs p; Gr ey Eagle  &nbs p; &n bsp;   
Sat  &nbs p; 07 .11.09  &nbs p; &n bsp;Nashvi lle, TN  &nbs p; Th e Basement  &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p;
Fri  &nbs p; 07 .17.09  &nbs p; &n bsp;Santa Monica, CA  &nbs p; Mc Cabe's Guitar Shop  &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p;
Wed  &nbs p; 07 .29.09  &nbs p; &n bsp;Durham , NC  &nbs p; Du ke Gardens - Summer Series

Saint Bernadette , Carina Round, Joan of Arc, Alligators , Son Volt and Sharon Van Etten.

By Blurt Staff

It's officially New Music Tuesday at BLURT, which means, quite logically, you can hear some new music today (Tuesday, duh) at BLURT.

What, pray tell, is the new music in question? Glad you asked! Glom onto these ace MP3s:

Saint Bernadette  - Wrap It Up (Exotic Recordings , &nb sp;from the Word To The Lourdes EP)

Carina Round - Backseat (Self-Relea sed, from Things You Should Know)

Joan of Arc - Explain Yourselves (Polyvinyl Records, from Flowers)

Alligators - Where Does It Hide (Applehouse Records, from Piggy and Cups)

Son Volt - Down to the Wire (Rounder Records, from American Central Dust)

Sharon Van Etten - For You (Language of Stone Records, from Because I Was In Love)

Just click on the BLURT Radio icon on the right-hand side of our homepage and wait for the music player to pop up in a separate window. Then enjoy some fine listening!

And check back every Tuesday, same BLURT-time , same BLURT-chan nel, to hear the latest streaming goodies, all personally netted, vetted and hand-selec ted by our trained staff of highly evolved primates. Why? Because at BLURT, we care.

It's not just a monotonic question... influentia l band will be touring, too, in the wake of four key reissues.

By Blurt Staff

One of the premiere first wave electronic groups, Book of Love emerged out of the New York City scene in the mid-&lsquo ;80s in the wake of UK synthpop stalwarts Yaz, Erasure and Depeche Mode. Signed to a label deal with Sire Records by the legendary Seymour Stein, art-studen ts-turned- musicians Ted Ottaviano, Susan Ottaviano (oddly no relation), Jade Lee and Lauren Roselli recorded just four albums, but their influence can heard today more powerfully than ever, from the chart-stor ming dance pop of Ladyhawke and La Rouxto the darker leanings of indie electro darlings Little Boots and Goldfrapp. Yet as these albums - Book of Love, Lullaby, Candy Carol and Lovebubble - are readied for a July 21 reissue on Collectors ' Choice Music's Noble Rot label, the reunited bandmates are preparing their first tour since 2001.

 
The reissues were annotated by Michael Paoletta, former editor and dance music columnist at Billboard magazine, who observed: "Memorable melodies and provocativ e lyrics reigned supreme. Book of Love's songs were cathartic, ebullient and life-affir ming: solemn celebratio ns if you will."

 
Between 1986 and 1993, the band delivered 12 singles culled from the four studio albums about to be reissued. Songwritin g duties were handled primarily by Susan and Ted though Lauren contribute d more to this process on Candy Carol and Lovebubble , while Jade's writing chops were showcased on the first and final albums.

 
• Book of Love: Book of Love's 1986 eponymous debut album contained the hits "Boy," "Book of Love," "I Touch the Roses" and "Modiglian i (Lost in Your Eyes)," all chart-topp ing Billboard dance hits. The album got them on the road with Depeche Mode twice at the height of that group's popularity . Seymour Stein signed the band to Sire Records upon hearing the demo of the song "Boy," which joins ten other demo tracks on a bonus album, making the Book of Love reissue a 2-CD set. Other bonus tracks include rare demos "I Touch Roses (Daniel Miller Mix)," "Boy (Dub Version)" and "Modiglian i (Instrumen tal Version)."

 
• Lullaby: This 1988 release became the band's highest-ch arting album, thanks in large part to the two killer cuts that lead off the record. The first was a beat-forti fied remake of Mike Oldfield's classic "Tubular Bells (Theme From The Exorcist)" and "Pretty Boys, Pretty Girls," which was quite possibly the first song about AIDS ever to hit the charts. The deluxe reissue includes the bonus extended mix of "Pretty Boys and Pretty Girls," "Tubular Bells/Pret ty Boys Pretty Girls" (Regan's house medley), "Lullaby (Pleasant Dream Mix)," "Witchcraf t (Extended Mix)" and "Enchantra ." The album spent nine weeks on the Billboard 200 albums chart, peaking at 156 and crossing over from club dance floors to adventurou s pop radio stations.

 
• Candy Carol: Highlighte d by the tracks "Alice Everyday," "Counting the Rosaries" and "Sunny Day" (which was featured in the film The Silence of the Lambs), this 1991 album shifted into a more psychedeli c direction and was rewarded with another Billboard album chart entry; the single "Alice Everyday" missed Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play chart by one point. "We were working on Candy Carol when Jonathan Demme was working on Silence," says Lauren, "I played him a rough mix and he felt he could use it in the film." Bonus tracks include the "Everyday Glo Mix" and the "Sam the Butcher Mix" of "Alice Everyday," plus the single remix of "Sunny Day" and the "Happiness and Love Mix" of "Counting the Rosaries."

• Lovebubble : Book of Love's final album in 1993 shows the members moving in different directions , making it an interestin g, eclectic listen, full of cognitive dissonance . Included are "Boy Pop" ("Swinging Boy Bop Mix"), "Hunny Hunny (the band's ABBA tribute in its "Sweet and Sticky MixPop Mix") plus "Chatterbo x" ("The Late Nite Chat Mix"). Lovebubble was the only Book of Love to feature vocal work by all four members. According to annotator Paoletta, the band "could decide to move creatively forward or back. So they went both ways." "We were cordial while making Lovebubbbl e but the camaraderi e was gone," says Ted. "You can't make magic with four cordial people."

 
The group's last proper tour was in 2001, in support of Candy Carol. If all goes according to plan, Book of Love will take to the road in the coming months including a hometown New York show.
 

"In the meantime," writes Paoletta, "we will, collective ly, continue to touch roses."

Definitely no new tale to tell here, kids.

By Fred Mills

So, we're lounging around in the BLURT hot-tub the other day, waiting for Mandy Moore and Paula Abdul to arrive (don't ask), when Randy said, in a slightly slurry tone of voice, "Say - what's up with Love and Rockets? I've been jonesin' for some o' that goth/not-g oth alterna-ro ck lately?" To which I replied, "Gleep!"

Okay - but it COULD'VE happened. Actually, if you know of anyone who has wondered anything about the ‘80s /'90s Bauhaus offshoot in, say, a hundred fortnights , get in touch with BLURT with evidence and we'll send you a boxed set of our first seven digital issues. It's a dare we think we can take.

Of course, if we were to poll the Flaming Lips, Maynard James Keenan's Puscifer, Monster Magnet, the Dandy Warhols and Black Francis, we might be spending the next few hours crating up BLURTs: those icons, along with 13 other acts, most of whom you've never heard of, are all to appear on New Tales to Tell: A Tribute to Love and Rockets. That's the news we're getting this morning from Pitchfork, who informs us that July 28 is the digital target date (August 18 for physical) for the tribute, courtesy Aresenal Rock N Roll.

And although Change-man Shepherd Fairey has done a bangup job with the cover art, all we can say is - what's the point? Does anyone even know how any of the songs listed below go, much less want to hear them again? If you must, however, hotfoot it over to the album's MySpace page and check out some of the tunes.

Remember folks: friends don't let friends do tribute albums. If a musician starts making noises about taking part in one, walk up to him purposeful ly, take the keys to the recording studio out of his hands, and drive him immediatel y to the nearest bar.

Tracklisti ng:

01 Black Francis: "All in My Mind"
02 Puscifer: "Holiday on the Moon"
03 War Tapes: "Love Me"
04 Blaqk Audio: "No New Tale to Tell"
05 Dubfire: "I Feel Speed"
06 The Dandy Warhols: "Inside the Outside"
07 The Flaming Lips: "Kundalini Express"
08 Sweethead: "Life in Laralay"
09 Film School: "An American Dream"
10 A Place to Bury Strangers: "The Light"
11 Monster Magnet vs Adrian Young: "Mirror People"
12 The Stone Foxes: "Fever"
13 Frankenste in 3000: "No Big Deal"
14 VEX: "It Could Be Sunshine"
15 Better Than Ezra: "So Alive"
16 Chantal Claret vs Adrian Young: "Lazy"
17 Ian Moore: "Sweet F.A."
18 Snowden: "No Words No More"

Gratuitous Plug For Our Friends Dept.: Hey, get your own website if you don't like it!

By Fred Mills

Yes, indeedy, this is a gratuitous plug, but the music content is pretty strong, so don't sweat it. This Sunday, June 7, brings the latest installmen t of the Asheville Sound Swap - in Asheville, NC, natch, right near the BLURT summer vacation cabin (ask us about our mentoring sessions held deep in the western North Carolina mountains sometime) - which is exactly what the name implies.

Call it a record show, call it a swap meet, call it a gathering together in one room of a bunch of anal-reten tive obsessives with low social skillz (although back in October at the last one, no less than Greg Cartwright of the Reigning Sound and James Jackson Toth of Wooden Wand were selling their wares), but a good time is guaranteed by all no matter what you call it.

From 11 am until about 5pm at the local Grey Eagle venue, dealers will be setting up and flogging their product while deejays spin hot wax over the club's PA system. There's even a bar and restaurant serving up nourishing amenities. How do we know? Because we set up at a table each time too (unloading all that junk we get in the mail during the year that no sane editor or writer would want to hang on to in a million years, but that's a whole other story... this year we're dragging out the rare vinyl).

You don't wanna miss it, and admission is free. The Grey Eagle is located at 185 Clingman Avenue, 828-232-58 00, on the web at www.thegreyeag le.com. Hey, Sir Richard Bishop is playing there the following Tuesday - cool!

The event is hosted by our pals at Harvest Records (415 Haywood Road in Ashville, www.harvest-re cords.com), so you know the TMOQ is valid. They're hooked up with online record store Tomentosa Records (www.tomentosar ecords.com) so check ‘em both out.

Meanwhile, be there or be square Sunday.

Kinda like Record Store Day, come to think of it.

By Fred Mills

Great news for all you folks who turned out for Record Store Day back in April: the same folks behind the annual event have organized Vinyl Saturday, which will take place at many (if not most) of the same indie stores who participat ed in Record Store Day.

As both Pitchfork and Each Note Secure are reporting, there will be some exclusive goodies being offered on Vinyl Saturday. To wit:

• A Wilco 7-inch for "You Never Know" b/w "Unlikely Japan" in a limited editon of 3800
• A Green Day 7-inch for "Know Your Enemy" b/w "Hearts Collide," 5000 numbered copies
• The latest in a Modest Mouse series of 45s, "Autumn Beds" b/w "Whale Song"
• An advance peek at the Pete Yorn/Scarl ett Johanssen album featuring a duet on one side and a Yorn demo on the flip

Other stuff rumored to be incoming includes Al Green, Earth, Patterson Hood, the Woggles, Those Darlins and Wolves In The Throne Room. Sign up to the Record Store Day Twitter for updates.

Still doing music that makes the baby cry... will also be performing at selected tour dates this summer.

By Blurt Staff

Legendary Tarheel band Polvo will release their new album,&nbs p;In Prism, September 8th on Merge Records. In Prism is the first studio album from Polvo since 1997's&nbs p;Shapes. In Prism was recorded at Echo Mountain in Asheville, North Carolina with  Brian Paulson in March of 09, with additional recording in Carrboro in May of '09. 

Polvo formed in 1990 in Chapel Hill, NC. Their lineup consisted of vocalists/ guitarists Ash Bowie and Dave Brylawski, bassist Steve Popson, and drummer Eddie Watkins.  Polv o, joined by drummer Brian Quast (Cherry Valence),& nbsp;refor med in 2008 when asked to perform at ATP by Explosions in the Sky. Several festival shows followed, and new songs emerged. 

The band has tour dates planned in June and July including XX Merge, and the Seaport Music Festival with Obits on July 31st. More dates tba.

Track listing:&n bsp;

1) Right The Relation
2) D.C. Trails
3) Beggar's Bowl
4) City Birds
5) Lucia  ;
6) Dream Residue/Wo rk
7) The Pedlar
8) A Thousand Waves

Tour Dates:

June 26 - Charlotte, NC - Visulite Theatre

June 27 - Wilmington , NC - Soapbox Laundro-Lo unge

July 30 - Philadelph ia, PA - Johnny Brenda's

July 31 - New York, NY - Seaport Music Festival w/ Obits

August 1 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar

Live concert from March of '67 features songs never before on a Buckley album.

By Blurt Staff

Tompkins Square just announced news of an unreleased Tim Buckley recording due Aug. 25. Titled Live at the Folklore Center, NYC - March 6th, 1967 it's sure to be manna for the Buckley fans, who in the past were relatively well served by the likes of Rhino and Rhino Handmade but in recent years have had to settle for dubious-so unding bootlegs as the official Buckley well had seemingly run dry.

No longer - the unreleased recording was captured by folk impresario Izzy Young at his famed Folklore Center located at 321 Sixth Avenue, which served as a nexus for up-and-com ing singer-son gwriters during the folk boom of the late '60s. The entire night's concert, performed in front of about 35 people, is presented in its original running order of 16 songs, six of which are Tim Buckley compositio ns that have never appeared on any studio or live album.

The CD package includes an unpublishe d interview with Buckley conducted by Izzy Young on March 17th & 18th, 1967, along with new notes from Young. The album was produced for release by Tompkins Square label's Josh Rosenthal in cooperatio n with Buckley's Estate, and mastered from the original tapes by Grammy-win ning engineers Steve Rosenthal, Warren Russell-Sm ith and Jamie Howarth.

Tim Buckley (1947-1975 ) was among the most adventurou s and influentia l singer-son gwriters of the '60's and '70's, releasing nine studio albums in his career. Buckley's music continues to deeply inspire new fans and artists with each passing year. 'Live at the Folklore Center', the earliest live recording among seven others commercial ly available, showcases Buckley in an intimate, solo acoustic setting, highlighti ng his magical guitar playing and soaring vocal style.

Track listing (* indicates previously unreleased Tim Buckley compositio n, unavailabl e on any studio or live album):

1. SONG FOR JAINIE

2. I NEVER ASKED TO BE YOUR MOUNTAIN

3. WINGS

 4. PHANTASMAG ORIA IN TWO

5. JUST PLEASE LEAVE ME *

6. DOLPHINS

7. I CAN'T SEE YOU

8. TROUBADOUR

9. AREN'T YOU THE GIRL

10. WHAT DO YOU DO (HE NEVER SAW YOU) *

11. NO MAN CAN FIND THE WAR

12. CARNIVAL SONG

13. CRIPPLES CRY *

14. IF THE RAIN COMES *

15. COUNTRY BOY *

16. I CAN'T LEAVE YOU LOVING ME *

Respected music magazine publishes its last issue.

By Blurt Staff

Sad news once again from the world of print music journalism : Performing Songwriter is no longer. The June 2009 issue, sent to subscriber s and newsstands this week and featuring Pink on the cover, will be the final edition of the 16-year-ol d publicatio n, Editor & Publisher Lydia Hutchinson announced today.

"As sad as change and letting go are, it feels like a celebratio n of accomplish ment more than anything else," said Hutchinson , in a statement. "There was a moment of clarity after we signed off on this June issue, telling me that now is indeed the time to let go and end at its peak. This publicatio n started with no funding 16 years ago out of my guest bedroom and has never taken one penny of investment money. It's been completely supported by advertiser s, subscriber s and the community it represents . Performing Songwriter has always had a big heart, and our job was to take care of it so it could do its magic. By ceasing publicatio n now we know the magazine will never risk losing its integrity and or its quality. All of us here are grateful for this journey, and feel like we've crossed the finish line with our heads held high."

Each issue of Performing Songwriter included exclusive interviews with top artists, producers and musicians across all genres; special reports and issue-focu sed stories; spotlights on the latest gear for the studio and stage; album reviews, and other features devoted to the craft of songwritin g.

Hutchinson founded the magazine in Nashville in 1993 with the first of its 118 issues appearing that June. Among the cover artists were Nanci Griffith [first issue], Dan Fogelberg, Bonnie Raitt, Billy Joel, Shawn Colvin, James Taylor, Ray Charles, Carole King, Vince Gill, Mary J. Blige, Harry Connick, Jr., Loretta Lynn, Maroon 5, Amy Grant, Van Morrison, Don Henley, Aerosmith, Fleetwood Mac, Sheryl Crow and John Prine.

A Note from the Editor (a popular staple of each issue) was mailed to subscriber s and other supporters this week with the news of the final issue. In the column titled "Endings, Beginnings & Gratitude, " Hutchinson wrote: "One of my friends said that Performing Songwriter has never been just a magazine. It's the community that formed around it and supported it, and it just wore the clothes of a publicatio n. The community is still there, steadfast and strong; it's simply time to change clothes. I don't know exactly what the outfit's going to look like, but that wonder is part of the joy. And I'm looking forward to dreaming up the next chapter, closing my eyes and taking another leap of faith. Because if I've learned one thing during these 16 years, it's that anything is possible."

The complete column is available on the Performing Songwriter website at performing songwriter .com.

Third album due this summer...

By Blurt Staff

It's been a while since we told you about the

Arctic Monkeys.

Well great news - the Arctic Monkeys will release the band's third album on August 25.  

The as-yet-unt itled album features 10 brand new songs and was produced by Josh Homme in the Mojave Desert and Los Angeles and James Ford in Brooklyn, NY.

Tracklisti ng:

1. My Propeller

2. Crying Lightning

3. Dangerous Animals

4. Secret Door

5. Potion Approachin g

6. Fire And The Thud

7. Cornerston e

8. Dance Little Liar

9. Pretty Visitors

10. The Jeweller's Hands

Catch Arctic Monkeys live at the following:

Aug. 1 -All Points West, N,J.

Aug. 2 - Osheaga Festival, Montreal, Canada

For more informatio n, go to Arctic Monkey's site

A force of nature: there just may never be another Queen of the Blues...

By Fred Mills

As anyone near a computer, a radio or a TV knows by now, Queen of the Blues Koko Taylor died yesterday (June 3) in Chicago. She'd recently had surgery, on May 19, for gastrointe stinal bleeding and apparently post-surgi cal complicati ons cropped up. The media outpouring was loud and immediate, with critics, fans and blues aficionado s alike expressing their sorrow at the lost of this nearly five-decad e music industry veteran and member (since 1997) of the Blues Hall of Fame.

Anyone who ever saw Taylor in concert will understand why: a larger-tha n-life presence when performing , she commanded the stage, stalking from one side to the other as she growled, howled and belted out her songs, eventually winding up at center mic, feet planted firmly as if daring anyone in the audience to challenger her imperial authority. And what a voice: deep and soulful, full of nuance and delicacy as the material required, but with a foghorn component that could still blow the collective socks off an audience at a thousand paces.

From her early recordings with Chess to her latterday albums on Alligator, Taylor consistent ly added to the rich tapestry of the blues, and it's fitting that her 2007 album Old School landed her a Blues Music Award that year for the "Tradition al Blues Album of the Year."

BLURT contributo r Rev. Keith A. Gordon, writing on his About.com Blues blog this morning, observed how the singer "overcame poverty, tragedy, and physical infirmity to become one of the most popular blues singers in the world, male or female. Her dynamic live performanc es and recordings have influenced countless young musicians, including artists like Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland, and Susan Tedeschi. Taylor is survived by her husband, daughter, and other family members. Her presence in the world of the blues will be missed greatly."

Indeed she will.

[Photo Credit: Sumori/Wik ipedia Commons]

First proper rec since 2001 from legendary Flying Nun mainstays.

By Blurt Staff

On September 8, The Clean will release Mister Pop (Merge), their first new studio album since 2001's Getaway. What can be said about the Clean? In 1978, they were the seeds of New Zealand punk. They carved out a big sandbox for everyone to play in, and their influence resonated not only in New Zealand but around the world.

The New York Times described The Clean:&nbs p; "This New Zealand band, which has been going off and on since 1978, plays a jangly, damaged kind of guitar pop and was a primary influence on Pavement and Yo La Tengo, and therefore virtually all of current indie rock." In 2003, Merge Records released Anthology, the 2-disc compilatio n of tracks and song cycles from across The Clean's musical career. 

This summer's Mister Pop sees The Clean continue the great pop pastiche. Circus ragas ("Moonjump er"), gorgeously hazy sunset anthems ("In the Dreamlife You Need a Rubber Soul"), and the sometimes- loose Dada approach to wordsmithe ry continue right alongside "proper" lyrical forays, and a few Autobahn-r eferential instrument al moments to boot ("Tensile" ). Robert Scott's love of pastoral UK folk has brought some added weight into the overall Clean equation, as does David Kilgour's Eastern and African guitar jones, though all this has always fit in with-and still constitute s-the total basis of The Clean sound journey.

Check out a free MP3 on us:

"In the Dreamlife You Need A Rubber Soul"

Rock Royalty Tour to run into July.

By Blurt Staff

Headed to American shores is the next (or is is original?) British Invasion. The "Rock Royalty" tour 2009 is headlined by the Zombies, featuring original members Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent. Joining Blunstone and Argent are long-time bandmates Jim Rodford on bass (formerly of Argent and The Kinks), Keith Airey on guitar, and Steve Rodford on drums. The Zombies are celebratin g the release of the Odessey & Oracle 40^th Anniversar y Concert CD, available world-wide on iTunes and physically in the UK, Scandinavi a, Japan, and select countries. A DVD of the concert is also available as an import, and there are plans to release it here in the States in 2009. The group will be playing their hits ("She's Not There," "Time of the Season,"  "Tel l Her No"), songs from keyboardis t/songwrit er Rod Argent's ‘70s hits ("Hold Your Head Up") and - of course&nbs p; -  selections from Odessey & Oracle.  Zombies' frontman Colin Blunstone also has a 2009 solo CD, Ghost Of You & Me, available as an import or through iTunes.

Joining the Zombies are the Spencer Davis Group, known for their ‘60s Brit-soul hits "I'm a Man," "Gimme Some Lovin'" and others, and pioneering rockers The Yardbirds.  Legendary as a proving ground for guitarists Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page,  ; this incarnatio n of the band features original members Jim McCarty and Chris Dreja.

TOUR DATES:

(Cities marked with * are Zombies & Yardbirds only)

FRI June 26 San Diego, CA @ Humphrey's Concert By The Bay

SAT June 27 Hollywood, CA @ The Wiltern Theatre

SUN June 28 Yountville , CA @ Lincoln Theatre

TUE June 30 Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory Concert House*

THU July 2 Bellingham , WA @ Mount Baker Theatre*

WED July 8 Glenside, PA @ Keswick Theatre

THU July 9 Westbury, NY @ Capitol One Bank Theatre at Westbury

FRI, July 10 New York, NY @ Irving Plaza

SAT July 11 Wilkes-Bar re, PA @ F.M. Kirby Center

SUN July 12 Baltimore, MD @ Pier 6 Concert Pavilion

TUE July 13 Ottawa, ON @ Cisco Ottawa Blues Fest

The Zombies only:

WED July 15 Toronto, ON @ Mod Club Theatre

FRI July 17 Winnipeg, MB @ Club Regent Casino

SUN July 19 Nakusp, BC @ Nakusp Music Fest

An Interview With Punk Legends Cock Sparrer

Thirty-fiv e years ago - long before you could buy an entire punk rock persona at your local mall - a few guys from London's working class East End were bashing together songs that would eventually help define punk music.

Though bands like the The Sex Pistols and The Clash got most of the ink, the guys in Cock Sparrer were just as vital to defining the sounds of London youth beginning in the mid-70's, and helped to found the grittier street punk and Oi! subgenres  of punk rock. It's fairly safe to say groups like Rancid and the Dropkick Murphys would likely never have existed without Cock Sparrer first putting together the blue print. 

The band has been on-again, off-again for the past three decades, but is thankfully back on-again... for now. San Francisco' s Pirate Press recently made their latest record, the phenomenal "Here We Stand," available in the U.S. and Cock Sparrer is promising a handful of dates later this year in Chicago, San Francisco and Texas (not a typo, apparently the thirst for Oi! Music in the Lone Star state is unquenchab le).

Band founder Colin McFaull and newcomer Daryl Smith (new by the band's standards. He actually started playing with Cock Sparrer in 1992), were patient enough to sit down to an e-mail interview this week.

***

What was the band doing in the 10 yrs. between the last two records?

Colin: Not a lot really. We played a few select gigs and started to write the songs for "Here We Stand". The thing about Sparrer is that we exist as mates outside of the band, so even when we're not playing we still get together for a few beers and a night out.

Daryl: I was playing quite a bit with other bands (Argy Bargy, The Crack, etc.) and was still very much part of the live punk scene in Europe. I noticed how things had started to change and gigs were becoming safer, more fun and a really healthy scene was growing. Being part of that meant that I could let the band know which promoters/ venues, etc. were ok to do. We played about 10 times between 1997 and 2007 but each gig became an event and it was great that we could play without the fear of trouble, etc. Finally punks, skins, hardcore kids etc. could all come along and enjoy the music without any other agenda. It's this atmosphere and the fact that we're all mates that has made us continue. It's great that the scene realises that no-one else likes us and this is all we've got, so lets not fuck it up by smashing a venue up or something stupid like that. There's a lot more common sense now than there was 20 years ago. It really feels like a big family.

So there are legendary rumors about why you guys didn't sign with Sex Pistols puppet master Malcolm McLarem in the 70's (you wouldn't cut your hair; he wouldn't buy you a round; etc.). Why did you decided not to sign with him? Ever regret that decision?

Colin: It's one thing that we definitely don't regret. We certainly wouldn't be the same band today if we'd taken that particular path. We may not even be mates today or alive. Burge and one of our roadies went to see him in the shop that he and Vivian Westwood had on The Kings Road, Chelsea and persuaded him to travel across to East London to watch us rehearse above a small pub in East London. To our surprise he turned up the following week. It was pretty obvious from the outset that we wouldn't get on - bondage trousers meet Doctor Martens. He listened to a few songs, made a few suggestion s (which went down well!!) and offered us a gig supporting The Pistols somewhere. We declined his kind offer and our paths never crossed again.

"Here We Stand" is a fantastic album. How was it to work on?

Colin: We enjoyed making the album. The whole process took about a year from the writing, to rehearsing and arranging the songs to finally recording them. Some of the songs changed quite a bit from their original shape but it was great to finally get in the studio and record them. We were lucky in being able to use Pat Collier to put the tracks down and his studio in Perry Vale was ideal for what we needed. Daryl had worked with him before and he had a pretty good idea of what we were trying to achieve. I think that this was the first time that we actually used the money that we had been given to record an album on the actual recording and not down the pub. We still had the odd disagreeme nt but nothing ever came to blows. Having a great label like Captain Oi in the UK behind the album made us all work a little bit harder and having Pat behind the desk made it a pleasure.

Daryl: Personally , I couldn't wait to get involved with recording a new album. I've only been in the band 17 years, so didn't appear on the older albums! The thing that frustrates me is that although the songs are great, the production always sounds weak next to more modern CDs. So this was a chance to record something that we were not only proud of songwise, but would also SOUND great - without being ‘ove r produced'. Lars Frederikse n (from Rancid) had always said that if we ever recorded another album, he would love to produce it. He also encouraged us to get off our backsides and do a new album. Unfortunat ely, he was not around to come and produce it, so we did it ourselves. The way it worked out was great as we probably know ourselves better than anyone else. So Here We Stand is a true Sparrer album. However, we sent it over to the U.S. for Lars to mix. That was a great decision as we could get on with doing what we do best (write, record and produce the songs) and Lars could fill the gap that had always let us down and that was making it SOUND great. I recorded the songs as we went along at rehearsals and so we had a chance to live with them and improve them over the months. By the time we hit the studio, we knew the songs pretty well and knocked the album out in two weeks.

With" Here We Stand" finally being released in the U.S., is this a sign that the band is back for good? Will you be releasing more records?

Colin: The band has never been away. We've just chosen not to do stuff at certain times. We had the opportunit y to record albums in the 10 years between "Two Monkeys" and "Here We Stand" but didn't feel as though the songs were strong enough. We'll certainly do another album if the materials there and someone's willing to fund it.

Daryl: If we record an album next year (2010), the band would have had albums out in five decades!! So that would be a cool achievemen t. But we wouldn't do it for the sake of it. As Col says, we had the opportunit y to record in the past, but if we don't feel that the material is good enough we just wouldn't do it. Also, the music industry needs to change and find its feet again. Physical releases such as CDs and Vinyl just aren't selling like they used to and although everyone is downloadin g etc.; no one seems to be paying for it. Great if you're a consumer but how are the labels going to afford to put bands in a studio in the future if they're not selling anything? It could work out well and put the focus back onto live music and the D.I.Y aspect but at the moment it's hard to fund the record that a band would WANT to make against a record a label can AFFORD to make. Gonna be interestin g how it all works out in the end...

Do you plan to tour the U.S. when the record comes out?

Colin: We're coming over three times in 2009. Texas in May, Chicago in October and San Francisco in November. Because of everyone's work commitment s, (we all still have real jobs) undertakin g a three month promotiona l tour is really a non-starte r but we'll come back whenever we can.

Daryl: Speak for yourself! I don't have a real job! I play in punk bands, put out punk records and do graphic design for punk labels. That's not a job - that's fun! We'll be back in the US whenever we can although it's the logistics that make it difficult.

Obviously there's an entire generation of Oi! bands that are influences by you. What were your influences when you were first starting the group?

Colin: I was 16 when I first joined up with the rest of the boys and like all young school bands you're influenced by what's in the charts at the time, what records your brothers have bought that week and the stuff you read in the music papers. Both of my brothers were "old school" Mods and therefore our house was always full of Tamla and Stax records, as well as the British stuff like The Small Faces and The Who. When Cock Sparrer started we didn't write our own stuff straight away and covered songs by the likes of Slade, The Small Faces and Alice Cooper.

Daryl: Obviously they're all a bit older than me (which makes conversati ons difficult - my mates are still talking football, drinking and fighting, the band are talking about golf and their pensions!) So my influences were early punk (Pistols / Clash, etc.) the Oi! scene (Business / 4 Skins etc) but I grew up with 2-Tone so bands like The Specials and Madness were a big influence. Outside of the scene I listened to Rose Tattoo and Heavy Metal Kids a lot. But ironically , a lot of my influences on song writing came from Cock Sparrer when I was younger. Never thought I'd end up in the band and looking after the old boys! I'm fortunate to have met and count as friends most of the Oi bands that were influences to me when I was younger.

What are your thoughts of the current punk scene versus what it was like the late 70's and early 80's?

Colin: I think the scene today is very healthy even though it could be considered undergroun d. It gets very little media coverage except for from dedicated magazines and it does seem that while of all the current popular genres, Metal, Rap, Indie, etc. gets loads of press, unless you're Green Day, "Punk" gets little or no attention. But while that can be frustratin g it's also great to be part of something that so few people actually "get". One of the things that caused Punk to implode in the 80's and fortunatel y aided the advent of Oi! was the perceived need to spend thousands of pounds on "Punk" clothes to look the part. Today it's more a case of DIY and who gives a shit what others think about the way you look. Much more how it was intended to be in 1977.

Daryl: There's probably more need for the attitude of the original Punk movement now than at any other time. Economical ly, politicall y, socially and musically. Plus we're in a stronger position now because the trendy fashion element that was ripe in 1977 is not so prominent. We've also got the Internet, access to music sharing, etc. that makes the scene more DIY than it ever has been. Unfortunat ely, kids seem to be more interested in playing computer games than starting a revolution ! There's always been a youth movement, Teddy Boys, Mods, Rockers, Hippies, Glam Rockers, Punks, Skinheads etc but since the dance/rave /hip hop scenes there doesn't appear to have been any identifiab le youth culture that has any chance of making a difference . It's all so watered down. So whilst I think that we COULD have a better scene than the ‘70' s, I don't think we will because there's too much apathy. That said, we don't need mass media coverage and I'm happy playing to the fans we've got and enjoying our own little scene.

Any new Oi! bands that have impressed you lately?

Colin: There are loads of good young bands coming through at the moment. One of my favourites is a band from Blackburn in England called Middle Finger Salute. They're all about 18 and write good songs. They've been on our bill a few times and thanks to the good boys from Rancid are doing the East Coast leg of this year's Warped Tour.

Daryl: There are a few young punk bands that I like, Middle Finger Salute, The Exposed, Vas Deferans. There's not too many new Oi! bands around at the moment. There are a few that I rate that weren't part of the original scene like Discipline , The Agitators, Stomper 98, etc.

Anything else you want to add?

Colin: Just wanna say a big thanks to Skippy and his fellow Pirates for giving us the chance to get "Here We Stand" out in the US. We hope you like it and maybe we'll see you soon.

Daryl: Thanks to all the promoters and labels such as Captain Oi, TKO, Pirates Press, etc. that continue to support us. It's a team effort and that includes the fans. If we all work together and behave ourselves we can continue to get to see the music we love being played in a bar/club in a town somewhere near you soon. - Cheers

[Photo Credit: Samantha Bruce]

Sorry, couldn't resist with that headline...

By Fred Mills

In our news item last week about Cheap Trick's forthcomin g new album The Latest, we also included some tantalizin g details about a live recording also en route from the band that would document their 2007 Hollywood Bowl performanc e of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's. Apparently the initial info as published at Billboard.com turned out to be incorrect, and Cheap Trick has issued a statement to that effect. Read the entire statement below.

Sorry fans. Yeah, we're kinda down about it too. But hey, what about that friggin' 8-Track version of the new rec! Ka-chunk!

Statement from Cheap Trick

A news report regarding a pending Cheap Trick Sgt. Pepper Hollywood Bowl DVD/CD was initially posted at Billboard.com and subsequent ly removed because that informatio n is incorrect.  The possibilit y of recording at the Hollywood Bowl in 2007 and also 2008 was fully explored at the time but unfortunat ely the expense of recording at that venue proved to be too cost prohibitiv e.  We apologize for any subsequent erroneous reports that might have been picked up on other news wires.  

Just something about bein an electro pioneer...

By Blurt Staff

"Facemelti ng" is one descriptio n a BLURT staffer had for the new Fischerspo oner video, "We Are Electric." Or, as he adds, "David Bowie and David Lynch remaking Bladerunne r as a musical."

You can judge for yourself - check out the clip below.

Meanwhile, you may recall that in our review of the band's recently released album Entertainm ent we observed, "Being the electro-pi oneers that they are, band mastermind s Warren Fischer and Casey Spooner have once again evolved, taking listeners to the boundaries of what seems to be the future of synth-pop. While hints of their electrocla sh origins remain intact, there's a cosmic, almost space-oper a like sound sprinkled throughout their latest musical adventure- think Erasure, meets Pink Floyd, meets The Postal Service."

Well, we're gonna follow up that heady assessment next week with an exclusive interview with Spooner, so keep your eyes peeled....

We Are Electric

Unreleased Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Prong and more!

By Blurt Staff

Okay, all you folks who spend the day scouring the web for freebies, here's one for you, and it won't be ripping off nobody, either:

13th Planet Records, the label helmed by Al Jourgensen of Ministry, has released a free digital EP for fans. Included in the download are unreleased songs, remixes and videos from Ministry, Revco, Prong, Burton C. Bell's Ascension of The Watchers, False Icons and Stayte.

 The download is available HERE.

13th Planet Digital Sampler Track List:

1. Ministry - "Liesliesl ies (Known Unknown Lies Mix)"
2. Revolting Cocks - "Keys To The City (Barstow Bathroom Floor Mix)"
3. Prong - "3rd Option (Hold On Tight Mix)"
4. False Icons - "Transform (Trance-fo rmation Mix)"
5. Stayte - "Coming Apart"
6. Ministry - Adios Puta Madres Trailer (video)
7. Ascension of The Watchers (featuring Burton C. Bell of Fear Factory) - Residual Presence (video)

You, too, can be a star at Grant Park - just like Obama, hey!

By Blurt Staff

Well, it's not American Idol or So You Think You Can Dance, so that's a good start! Last Band Standing, Lollapaloo za's online Battle of the Bands, is back for its fourth year, with a new twist and partnershi p with Dell. The best DJ's from the Windy City and across the globe will battle it out online for a chance to perform at the Chicago festival August 7-9 in Grant Park. Headliners this year are Depeche Mode, Tool, The Killers, a reunited Jane's Addiction, Beastie Boys, and Kings of Leon.

This year's online competitio n will be hosted by the Dell Lounge and each of the four finalists will receive a new Dell Studio Laptop (not to mention full access to the whole Lollapaloo za grounds, plus cash prizes, hotel accommodat ions and extra tix to give to friends). The last two DJ's standing will perform on a bill on the Perry's all-electr onic stage with Bassnectar , MSTRKRFT, Simian Mobile Disco, and more.  
 

 
Last Band Standing Remix, kicks off June 4 when DJ's submit their best mix at the Dell Lounge site (http://www .delllounge .com/lollap alooza). Judg es and fans will vote to narrow down the top 50 mixes - 25 from Chicago artists, and 25 DJs from around the globe.  From there, the competitio n heats up as DJs remix select tracks and assets provided by Lollapaloo za artists. Then fans cast their votes for their favorite remix, with top vote-earne rs rocking it to the final round at Double Door in Chicago on August 5.  At the end of the multi-roun d, two-month campaign, two lucky and worthy DJs will earn prize spots on stage at Lollapaloo za.
 

It's going to be a shoe-in this summer...

By Fred Mills

Whoa - we were still reeling from the news that both AC/DC and Metallica are going to be the next rock bands to get their own Converse Chuck Taylors when word arrived a little while ago that none other than Mastodon is getting a shoe too. This one, though, is from Converse arch-enemy Vans. As reported by Pitchfork, the so-called "MastoVans " will come in four styles (two hightops, two slip-ons) and are being pre-sold in the UK by Rhino at the moment and will be shipped on July 6.

One of those styles, dubbed the "Blood Mountain Sk8 Hi," is pictured above. View the rest HERE. Think £55.00 and you can snag a pair - that's about 89 bucks in cold hard American samolians. No word about an official U.S. rollout for the shoes yet, however.

And if that sounds a bit pricey just for a pair of canvas sneaks, well... it is. Converse's Metallica shoes run about $50, although according to the shoemaker' s site the AC/DC Chucks will be priced at $50 to $80.

Converse describes the AC/DC shoes thusly:

A monochroma tic black version is a simple, cool tribute to the landmark album Back in Black, complete with stitched band and album logos. Another model in ultra-prem ium leather includes "Back in Black" embossed on the upper, iced outsoles and a black band logo bumper on the shoe's sidewall. Graphics from Those About to Rock and the iconic image of Angus and the words "Lock Up Your Daughters" are both a rocker's dream. The Highway to Hell album rounds out the AC/DC Chuck Taylor All Star collection with a super premium high-top with the band logo both on a side bumper and visible through its clean iced-outso le.

And Metallica:

High-tops serve as the perfect backdrop for some of the most classic graphics and logos in music history.  Ride the Lightning album graphics look simple and clean with appliqu&ea cute; embossed patch graphics on the classic Chuck Taylor All Star sneaker.  Subt le details like logo tongue patches and midsole graphics take the band's iconograph y a step beyond.

How much you wanna bet you see these on eBay in about, say, 5 years, still boxed and unworn?

Erstwhile Dream Syndicate mainman delivers his umpteenth live recording...

By Fred Mills

Ah, today's morning mail was sweet - among the arrivals was Live in Brussels by Steve Wynn (accompani ed by the Dragon Bridge Orchestra, a/k/a members of his band the Miracle 3 plus Chris Eckman, Chris Cacavas and Rodrigo D'Erasmo. It's a 2-CD, 1-DVD set chroniclin g Wynn's Crossing Dragon Bridge (review of the studio album HERE) show in Brussels last October.

We'll be having a full run-down on the album soon, but meanwhile, here's what the Wynn camp had to say about it as posted at his official website (where you can, of course, order it along with numerous other Wynn mail-order only releases):

Crossing Dragon Bridge itself was different from anything Steve had done before. There were strings, choirs, mellotron and more unexpected elements that gave the record a quiet, acoustic, melancholi c sound. A very important contributi on came from Chris Eckman who not only produced and engineered the record but also played many of the parts along with Steve in his Ljubljana studio. From the earliest talk of a tour to support the album it was essential that Chris be part of the live show. But the big surprise comes from Rodrigo D'Erasmo, unknown to many of you but a member of one of Italy's biggest bands, After Hours.

The show was recorded on October 2 at the Ancienne Belgique, one of the best clubs in Europe and one of Steve's favorite venues in the world. The audio and video facilities at this club are second to none and the show was captured in style. Naturally, much of CDB is represente d here and taken to new levels but you can also expect to hear old favorites as well as unexpected buried treasures from Steve's career. Songs like "Boston," "That's What You Always Say" (reconfigu red as almost a chamber orchestra piece!) and "Amphetami ne" site side by side with "Tears Won't Help," "Here On Earth As Well" and "Silence Is Your Only Friend." Even the most familiar songs sound unlike they ever have before.

Boy howdy to that last part. We're listening to the rec right now. A fine way to start the weekend. Meanwhile, don't forget about that upcoming concert where Wynn and band will be covering the entire second Dream Syndicate album. Be there or be square.

Wynn & Miracle 3 in Italy doing "500 Girl Mornings" w/a young guest:

In which our heroine goes through the looking glass...

I GAVE ALL MY DRINK TICKETS TO BATMAN!

On New Year's Day, I said to Jem
"I won't get out of bed,
Unless you find a video,
a story I once read.
Animated, and with sound,
specific length of time."
For I could not be bothered
To rise without this rhyme.
(Poni would not wake off the floor,
common from time to time)

The Walrus and the Carpenter
was what I did require
as staying in my bed all day
was then my chief desire.

"What is it called?" asked Jem, annoyed,
and eager for his lunch.
"As for the lines of this fair tale," said I
"There are a bunch."
"Silence, get up, you drunk!" Jem cried,
Unwilling to play games
But there I lay undaunted
And offered him two names

"Cabbages and kings!" I called
"See now what you can find!
Neither pics nor text will do!"
(I'd had the film in mind)

Resourcefu l Jem (what's wrong with him?)
Immediatel y found
A clip from Disney's Alice
(In Wonderland - with sound)
My hopes of lying in all day
All dashed to the ground dead
When Jem cued up the video
And placed it on the bed

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking down the beach
The very clip I had demanded,
there, within my reach

Jem's end of the deal was now done
I had no choice at all
I had to get up and get dressed
Shirt and shoes and shawl
"The time has come," the Coco said,
"To talk of other things.
Of ibuprofen, Diet Coke,
dark sunglasses and swings!"

And while the sea was boiling hot
(and whether I had wings)
Caloo, calay, hangover day!
Of cabbages and kings!
(Or eggs and toasts and sausages,
of grits and onion rings)

It would carry off objects of which it grew fond, and protect them by dropping them into the pond,

coco

***

Blurt "co-co-edi tor" Coco Hames fronts The Ettes - Hames on guitar, Jem Cohen on bass and Poni Silver on drums - whose latest album Look At Life Again Soon (Take Root) is still a hot item, and they also have a new EP, Danger Is, released by Take Root on April 7 and also available digitally, www.myspace.com/theett es), and a Dan Auerbach-p roduced limited-ed ition single. They are currently ruminating upon their next full-lengt h, but meanwhile, overseas fans can spot ‘em right now on their European tour - dates at the MySpace page.

New Jersey supergroup w/members of Smithereen s, Joe Jackson, Hussy and Lange and Roseland to do it old school style...

By Blurt Staff

Jersey band The 413s will rock Edison Day on June 6 by using century-ol d technology to commit its music to wax cylinder in a series of recording sessions at Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange.

"We'll be recording to wax cylinder, the first commercial format ever available, in the same way it was done in Edison's time," said guitarist Chris Bolger of Roseland, lead vocalist and co-founder of The 413s.

Other band members include drummer Dennis Diken of the Smithereen s, keyboardis t Steve Gaechter (of Hussy and Lange), and guitarist Mike Post, who also plays with the other fellows in The Upsiders. Rounding out The 413s is bass player Graham Maby, who has played with Joe Jackson for more than 30 years. Maby took part in a similar recording event at the museum several years ago with They Might Be Giants.

They will be recording original songs written by Bolger and Diken, who are currently working on a 413s CD and have done some recording in Bolger's basement studio. But the Edison museum sessions require a different approach to compensate for the early-day recording methods.

"We have to use instrument ation which will be the most compatible with the technology we're using. And the songs will have to be short, even by recent pop song standards, due to the limited running time of cylinders, " Bolger explained.

The method of capturing sound is non-electr ic, he added. Like their counterpar ts who recorded for Edison at the turn of the 20th century (including Bolger's aunt, vocalist Estelle Leslie), The 413s will play in front of a large horn that will serve as their microphone .

The June 6 sessions, planned as part of the museum's special day honoring the inventor and recording pioneer, are open to the public and are scheduled for 11:30 am, 1 pm and 2:30 pm at the Thomas Edison Historical Park.  Visitors should get tickets on June 6 at Edison's home Glenmont, located at 37 Honeysuckl e Avenue, Llewellyn Park , West Orange, NJ. 

Hours of the park on June 6 are 10 am to 4 pm.  For more informatio n about Edison Day and other museum events, contact the visitor informatio n telephone at 973-324-99 73, or the Thomas Edison National Historical Park office at 973-736-05 50. 

Thomas Edison National Historical Park website:&n bsp; http://www .nps.gov/edis

Gifted singer-son gwriter had issued three acclaimed albums on Kill Rock Stars

By Fred Mills

Sad news in the indie community. Kill Rock Stars recording artist Jeff Hanson was found dead Friday at his apartment in St. Paul, Minn. According to a report filed by the Minneapoli s-St. Paul Star Tribune the cause of death was most likely due to "a fall or other accident at the concrete floored apartment, " according to Hanson's sister Sara. He was 31.

Since signing to KRS in 2003, Hanson had released three acclaimed albums, notably 2008's Madam Owl. In our review of the album we observed "the loveliness of Hanson's material demands [close] listen, given the nimble folk-fines se imbued in each of these offerings. With strings and the steady strum of an acoustic guitar providing quiet accompanim ent, Hanson's voice melds assurance and affirmatio n to a subdued set of songs.

According to the newspaper report Hanson grew up in Waukesha, Wis., and had divorced last year but did not have any children. His sister "emphasize d that her brother never had any trouble with substance abuse."

BLURT extends our heartfelt condolence s to Hanson's sister and parents.

Rocker discovered "slumped in a toilet" on an airplane.

By Fred Mills

The British media is reporting that Pete Doherty is back up to his old tricks, i.e., making tabloid headlines for his drug misadventu res. Apparently he arrested in Switzerlan d on Friday after being found slumped in a toilet on board a British Airways flight to Geneva. He was scheduled to perform that evening at the Neuchatel Open Air festival.

According to the Sunday Mail Doherty was "escorted back to his economy class seat apparently intoxicate d" and a crew member found a hypodermic needle in the toilet compartmen t. A passenger on the flight was quoted as saying, "A few people on the plane recognised Pete and he went to the bathroom more than halfway into the flight. He had been in there for about 25 minutes when the announceme nt came over the tannoy for the crew to prepare the flight for landing. The crew knocked on the door but Pete didn't come out. They eventually managed to get in 10 minutes before the plane landed. Pete was taken back to his seat and he looked completely out of it. One of the crew took a needle out of the toilet wrapped in a tissue."

Doherty was arrested by Geneva police, fined, then released in time for his appearance at the music festival. He is presumably back in London now, planning for the next round of interviews in which he tells the British press he's clean and sober and working on his next record, blah blah blah....

An Old Fashioned Revue Featuring Old Crow Medicine Show, Dave Rawlings Machine (Feat. Gillian Welch), The Felice Brothers, and Justin Townes Earle.

By Blurt Staff

It's a rolling thunder traveling Americana revue.

Born out of a deep running comradery built on countless tours and ties between a host of excellent musicians comes THE BIG SURPRISE TOUR, a traveling show of epic collaborat ion and good times. Kicking off in Hampton Beach, NH on August 4th, THE BIG SURPRISE TOUR is not your standard up down up down line up.  Shows will be composed of two 90-minute sets broken up by an intermissi on.  In a free form ramshackle flow the bands and artists will share the stage, taking part in each other's songs, resurrecti ng old standards, and playing newly written collaborat ive material as they go.  Each evening is sure to be a unique experience as they all put their many combined years of musiciansh ip and knowledge of song-craft and American music into play for these sessions.

Ketch Secor from Old Crow Medicine Show (pictured, above) speaks of the special relationsh ip these bands have and the parts they've played in their own individual journey as musicians. "Seven Years ago when Old Crow first met Dave Rawlings and Gilllian Welch at the Station Inn in Nashville, we stayed up till dawn singing Stan Rogers songs and playing AC/DC licks.  Three weeks later we were making a record.  They were that rusted sign at the fork in the road showing OCMS just where it was headed." With the Felice Brothers as Secor explains it, "with their rockin' unruliness , we found where we had come from in the first place. Music is a mobius strip, contort all ya want and you'll keep winding up where you started."  Justin Townes Earle is "looking forward to being on tour with folks that are kindred spirits. We all have similar influences , which will be reflected in the covers we do during the show and our collaborat ions on stage."  For their part, James Felice reminisces that they've "traveled around the country with Justin and Cory (of Justin Townes Earle) playing some pretty bizarre gigs.  We couldn't love those guys more."  "As for Old Crow..." he says, "they cleaned us out playing dice more than once." 

Borrowing from the title of a Felice Brothers' track, THE BIG SURPRISE TOUR will live up to its namesake.  As Secor states, the audience should "expect the unexpected !"  "Music is wild and not tame" he says, and with this tour the artists involved hope to fully unleash the true and unpredicta ble spirit of creativity . 

Tour Dates:

04 - Hampton Beach, NH @ Casino Ballroom
05 - Boston, MA @ House Of Blues
06 - New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre
07 - Philadelph ia, PA @ Electric Factory
09 - Charlottes ville, VA @ Charlottes ville Pavilion
10 - Cary, NC @ Koka Booth Amphitheat re
12 - Louisville , KY @ Waterfront Park
13 - Nashville, TN @ Riverfront Park
14 - Knoxville, TN @ World's Fair Park

Claim they ripped off "It's A Shame About Ray".

By Fred Mills

No, that headline above isn't us being snarky again: the Lemonheads frontman is indeed suing General Motors, according to a report filed by Billboard.biz. According to a filing in federal court last week, Dando is suing GM and ad/licensi ng firm Asche & Spencer Music over their having arranged to have Lemonheads hit "It's A Shame About Ray" re-recorde d for use in a 2008 ad campaign for Chevys and Buicks.

Not totally dissimilar to that lawsuit awhile back when Tom Waits successful ly sued Frito-Lay for using a Waits soundalike singer in an ad, Dando's suit is alleging that GM copied his original music in what amounts to a copyright violation. He's seeking damages and a portion of profits.

Unlike the Waits lawsuit, however, it would have to be proven that the music in question is indeed the same as "Ray"'s, and that GM failed to pay a fee to license the tune. Plus, unless Dando's the sole copyright owner of the song, it's not enough for him to complain that his music was used against his wishes; as we found out during last year's political campaign, if a song's publisher - typically, not the actual songwriter - agrees to its use and the appropriat e fees are in fact paid, there's not much the songwriter can do about it.

This is all well and good of course and Dando certain has the right to sue GM. But let's do the math here: if YOU wanted to pick up some spare dough and were fishing around for someone to sue, the first person or entity that comes to mind just might not be a company currently going through bankruptcy proceeding s. Maybe pick a target with a bit less baggage, a lot more available cash, and in a considerab ly less complicate d situation, hmmm?

Here's hoping Dando got permission (and paid all necessary fees) for all those songs written by other people that he covered on the new Lemonheads album Varshons! Watch for a review of that in the new issue of BLURT.

Below is the Chevy ad using the music in question, so decide for yourself if Dando's in the right or not. Meanwhile, just for fun, after that check out the video for the Lemonhead Chevy!

We KNEW it!

By Randy Harward

Okay, so it was no secret that producer/c onvicted killer Phil Spector's poofy hair-spher e was fake. But thanks to The Smoking Gun we have proof. Enjoy the wigless mugshot, guys. We're certainly getting our kicks.

American Masters series synched with the release of that DVD box...

By Fred Mills

The latest installmen t in PBS' acclaimed American Masters series airs this Wednesday night and it's none other than Neil Young. Titled Don't Be Denied (after the Young song of the same name), the documentar y airs at 9pm EST, although dates and times may vary depending on the PBS system you're on.

According to PBS, "The film explores how Young's unbending dedication to the muse has created an awe-inspir ing body of work and bruised a few egos along the way." It's a BBC production with Ben Whalley as producer and director; Mark Cooper is the producer for the BBC, while Susan Lacy is the creator and executive producer of American Masters.

"There's no denying Neil Young as music's most uncompromi sing rock royalty," said Lacy, in  a statement. "He's an irreverent poet with a rock and roll heart. His music embodies the arc of American experience , challenges authoritat ive views, defies industry pigeon-hol ing and continues to have an impact on musicians and fans worldwide."

Hey, we are all about irreverent poets with rock ‘n' roll hearts!

At any rate, you can view a brief preview clip at the PBS site. Not all that coincident ally, Young's massive 10-DVD Archives collection was issued last week. Raise your hand if you spotted the Blu-ray version on special at Amazon.com for only $238.00 - it's going for 300 bucks most places, and after about a day Amazon jacked the price up to $279. Score!

Young doing "Helpless" at Massey Hall in '71:

One 7" + one 12" = Merge Fun!

By Blurt Staff

Merge is releasing brand new songs from Superchunk & Destroyer exclusivel y on vinyl this summer!  Firs t up, S uperchunk will release a brand new 7″, "Crossed Wires" b/w "Blinders (Fast Vers.)" on July 7.  On August 18, we will release&nb sp;the new Destroyer EP, Bay of Pigs, on 12-inch vinyl only.

Superchunk 's "Crossed Wires" b/w "Blinders (Fast Vers.)" was produced by Scott Solter (John Vanderslic e, The Mountain Goats) at Overdub Lane in Durham, NC, and will be available in a limited edition of 1,000 copies on clear vinyl. "Crossed Wires" comes in a beautiful picture sleeve featuring artwork by New York artist, Will Yackulic, and comes with a digital download code that gets you both songs plus a demo version of "Crossed Wires." 

Destroyer' s Bay of Pigs is a two song EP with over 20 minutes of new Destroyer material. At 13:37, "Bay of Pigs" is the longest of Destroyer songs.  It is also Destroyer' s first foray into the  ambi ent disco market.  The song was recorded throughout the winter of 2009 with longtime Destroyer collaborat ors/member s John Collins and David Carswell at their JCDC Studio in downtown Vancouver.  "Bay of Pigs" is an account of the 1961 American invasion of Cuba, often referred to as The Bay Of Pigs.

The music for "Ravers" was played entirely on analogue synthesize r, and recorded, by Ted Bois (Destroyer , Pink Mountainto ps) in April 2009.  It explores some of the more meditative realms of 20th Century classical compositio n.  The song itself is a casual rumination on parties, political parties, madness and suffering (for one's art).

Destroyer will be on tour in July on the East Coast, and Superchunk will play a free show at South Street Seaport in New York on July 17th. Both bands will perform as part of XX Merge at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro July 22-26.

Respected singer-son gwriter dies after battle with lung cancer.

By Fred Mills

More sad news from the singer-son gwriter world: soft-rock great Kenny Rankin passed away yesterday, June 7, following a short battle with lung cancer. Full details are sketchy at this time - the news is so recent that his official website isn't listing it yet - but according to a post at eJazzNews.com, he was diagnosed just a few weeks ago with stage IV lung cancer and he died "with his loving family by his side."

Rankin was a mainstay of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s pop/folk scene, and his deft guitar work also helped him cross over to the jazz milieu. He had a number of chart hits in the ‘70s - 1976's The Kenny Rankin Album was a mainstay of college dorms back in the day, while 1980's After the Roses was another critical favorite. His songs were also covered by numerous other performers , including Stephen Bishop who cracked the top 20 in '77 with Rankin's "On and On." His last studio album was 2002's A Song For You, although 1999's live album The Bottom Line Encore Collection is considered an eminently worthy entry in his discograph y.

Will be on the road for the rest of the month and well into July...

By Fred Mills

BLURT heroes the Strange Boys are back out on the road supporting their long-playi ng debut The Strange Boys...And Girls Club (In The Red). We previously gave you the low-down on the band, observing in our review of the album, "What comes through the loudest here is an uncommon ability to assimilate and hybridize extant forms - garage, punk, psych, blues, country and soul - and then to spew it back out, Basement Tapes style, as something utterly, and compelling ly, fresh."

We are BLURT and we approved that message. Meanwhile, here's some solid spew from In The Red if you need more convincing . We've seen the band live, and they kick ass, period....

 Strange Boys evoke a wild-eyed, porcelain- skinned innocence that is capable of summoning the wayward spirit of Brian Jones. The mystery of the South couples with the mastery of rhythm making to create a sound that is completely timeless and familiar, yet absolutely raw and avant-gard e. Greg Enlow's syncopated , organ-driv en grooves hark back to The Seeds' "Pushing too Hard" while guitarist Ryan Sambol's acute voice wavers beyond compare. Older brother Philip Sambol keeps the pulse with the aptly named Matt Hammer, who unmerciful ly pounds an old Ludwig set.
 

Tour Dates:

06.08.09 Mon New Orleans, LA Saturn Bar *
06.09.09 Tue Atlanta, GA Drunken Unicorn *
06.10.09 Wed Greensboro , NC UNCG / Square One *
06.11.09 Thu Washington , DC Comet Pizza and Ping Pong *
06.12.09 Fri Baltimore, MD Sonar*#$
06.13.09 Sat Brooklyn, NY Market Hotel *#
06.14.09 Sat Queens, NY Todd P Unamplifie d Acoustic BBQ / Fort Tilden Beach
06.14.09 Sun New York, NY Cake Shop *&
06.15.09 Mon Philadelph ia, PA Danger Danger Gallery *
06.16.09 Tue Worcester, MA Ralph's Diner *
06.17.09 Wed Rochester, NY Bug Jar
06.18.09 Thu Cleveland, OH Now That's Class
06.19.09 Fri Fort Wayne, IN Brass Rail
06.20.09 Sat Columbus, OH Cafe Bourbon St *
06.22.09 Mon Chicago, IL Beat Kitchen *
06.23.09 Tue Minneapoli s, MN First-Aven ue *
06.24.09 Wed Iowa City, IA Public Space 1 *
06.25.09 Thu Lawrence, KS Jackpot Music Hall *
06.26.09 Fri Denver, CO Hi-Dive *
06.27.09 Sat Salt Lake City, UT Kilby Court *
06.29.09 Mon Los Angeles, CA The Smell *
06.30.09 Tue Los Angeles, CA The Echo
07.02.09 Thu San Francisco, CA Hemlock #
07.03.09 Fri San Jose, CA Nickel City #^
07.04.09 Sat Los Angeles, CA Videothing Party
07.05.09 Sun Santa Cruz, CA The Crepe Place
07.06.09 Mon San Diego, CA Casbah #
07.07.09 Tue Tucson, AZ Plush #
07.09.09 Thu Lubbock, TX Bash Riprock's #
07.10.09 Fri Dallas, TX The Lounge on Elm St. #
07.11.09 Sat Austin, TX Stubb's (SPOONX3) +

* = w/ Mika Miko
# = w/ The Coathanger s
$ = w/ The Death Set
& = w/ Silk Flowers
^ = w/ Nodzzz
+ = w/ Spoon, Atlas Sound

Video for "Woe Is You and Me":

Famed bassist (1945-2009 ) was a member of Soft Machine and a mainstay of the Canterbury scene.

By Fred Mills

The progressiv e rock world - hell, the entire music world - lost a giant on Sunday, June 7, when Hugh Hopper, bassist for the mighty Soft Machine, passed away at the age of 64. According to a report filed by Jazzwise magazine, Hopper had been suffering from leukemia, although full details of his death remain sketchy at the moment. (Last December there was a Hugh Hopper benefit concert in London to help raise funds for Hopper's chemothera py treatments .)

As part of Britain's vaunted Canterbury scene, Hopper had been a member of both the Daevid Allen trio and the Wilde Flowers. Later, after members of the latter group formed the Soft Machine, Hopper worked as the road manager then assumed bass duties around the time of the second album, 1969's Volume Two. (During this period he also appeared along with other members of the band on Syd Barrett's solo album The Madcap Laughs.) He remained with the Soft Machine until around 1972-73, after which time he worked with scores of progressiv e rock and jazz groups and musicians, including Isotope, Gilgamesh, the Carla Bley Band, Stomu Yamashta, Elton Dean, Keith Tippet, Pip Pyle, Soft Heap and Cahoots.

Most recently he'd teamed with several former Soft Machine members as Soft Machine Legacy, recording and performing both vintage and new compositio ns.

Claims it will feel so good when he stops but we'd prefer him to keep playing... meanwhile, something about a special Sub Pop single, too.

By Blurt Staff

Joe Pernice will hit the road for about a dozen dates with a special show that combines music with prose, in support of the release of It Feels So Good When I Stop (Novel Soundtrack ), which is a companion piece to his debut novel It Feels So Good When I Stop. The record (CD and digital download) will be released on August 4 on Pernice's own Ashmont Records, and the book will be published August 6 by Riverhead Books, a division of Penguin.  Pernice will perform solo.  

According to Pernice, "Though the book is not explicitly about music, there are quite a few cover and fictional songs mentioned, so I thought it would be a cool idea for me to record some of those songs and release them, as a soundtrack album to the novel. 

Rather than do a reading-on ly tour for the book and a music-only tour for the album, Pernice decided to mash the two together, and combine reading sections of the book with performing songs from the book/album .  Said Pernice, "My brain is mush from raising a kid, but I can't recall the author of a novel - who also happens to have been making records for 15 years - who has recorded and released an album of the songs in that novel. And to combine all those things into a single show could be kind of interestin g and entertaini ng for the fans. Unless I completely suck, in which case it's going to be extremely interestin g for all parties."

One of the fictional songs in the book is "Black Smoke (No Pope)" which will be released on a three-song Sub Pop single on August 4, by The Young Accuser, a band from the novel.  In the book, the narrator, who is not Joe, is in The Young Accuser for a short time. After the fictional narrator leaves this fictional band, they fictionall y record the fictional song "Black Smoke (No Pope)" and send it to the non-fictio nal Sub Pop. This is the non-fictio n version of that fictional single. Of interest may be the fact that a cover of an even earlier, more fictional "Black Smoke (No Pope)" was recorded by the non-fictio nal Joe Pernice and appears on the non-fictio nal It Feels So Good When I Stop (Soundtrac k).

Opening the east coast shows will be The Walsh Brothers, a Boston-bre d, Los Angeles-ba sed comedy duo, called "amazing" by Steven Wright. In 2003, the David and Chris Walsh created the Great & Secret Comedy Show, a mashup of comedy that quickly became an undergroun d sensation. For several years the show was named "Best of Boston" by various media and the Walsh Brothers "Best Comics." Local success soon got the attention of national talent scouts, who selected the brothers to perform at the prestigiou s U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, CO in 2006. Their half hour show won them a Silver Owl award and paved the way for a month-long run at the renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Since their debut on the national and internatio nal stage, the Walshes have created original internet content for Sony and are working with Comedy Central to develop a show about their lives.  This will be their first rock tour, even though it's not really a rock tour.

Pernice's handlers further advise that his show contains adult material and is not suitable for children, no matter how mature you may think they are. It is also not suitable for people over 65, or for Joe's sister Judy. Said Pernice, "I'm not too worried about offending the easily offended. I figure the Walsh Brothers will clear them out LONG before I hit the stage."

Confirmed Tour Dates (more tba):

 Wedn esday, August 5: Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, MA, two shows.

Friday, August 7: Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY

Saturday August 8: Tin Angel, Philadelph ia, PA

Sunday, August 9: Iota Club, Arlington, VA

It Feels So Good When I Stop (Novel Soundtrack ) Track listing:

Found A Little Baby (Plush)

Go To Pieces (Del Shannon)

I'm Your Puppet (James and Bobby Purify)

Soul and Fire (Sebadoh)

Chevy Van (Sammy Johns)

Tell Me When It's Over (The Dream Syndicate)

Chim Chim Cheroo (Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews)

Black Smoke, No Pope (The Young Accuser)

That's How I Got to Memphis (Tom T. Hall)

Hello It's Me (Todd Rundgren)

Playing both the SF and LA stores to support new album.

By Blurt Staff

On Monday, June 22, Elvis Costello will celebrate the release of his new album Secret, Profane & Sugarcane (released last week by Hear Music) by performing free in-store shows at Amoeba Record's San Francisco and Hollywood locations.  Costello will kick off his one day Amoeba Music Tour at Noon PT with a performanc e at Amoeba San Francisco, then fly south for  a performanc e at 8pm PT at Amoeba Hollywood.

At each stop Costello will not only perform, but also sign copies of the new CD for fans.  Grammy-win ning singer and songwriter Jim Lauderdale will accompany Costello for each of these acoustic sets.

Amoeba will stream the Hollywood in-store on amoeba.com live at 8pm PT, and Amoeba Music's A.V. team will be hitting the road with Costello to document his one day performanc e marathon, with both performanc es posted on amoeba.com for viewing after the in-stores.

A special commemorat ive silkscreen ed poster will be made for the event and given away with purchase of the Secret, Profane & Sugarcane CD on the day of the performanc es.

Getting' down with that west African sound...

By Blurt Staff

We previously told you about the mighty western North Carolina-b ased Afrobeat rockers Toubab Krewe. Now comes word that the band will hit the road this summer for a tour in support of their album, Live at the Orange Peel. The tour kicks-off this week at the Three Rivers Arts Festival in Pittsburgh and includes performanc es at numerous other festivals including Bonnaroo (June 11-14) and ROTHBURY (July 2-5). 

This year will mark Toubab Krewe's third performanc e at Bonnaroo, their first since 2006 (Video of that performanc e is online at: www.youtube.com/watch? v=-Htd73_0 4JU). Video of this year's performanc e will be streamed at www.music.att.net (June 12; 12:30-1:30 P.M. EST).

Toubab Krewe will also headline two nights at the Festivus for the Restivus (July 17-19), an annual festival thrown by Toubab Krewe bassist Dave Pransky on his family's farm in Cabot, VT. Other performers at Festivus include Malian superstar Oumou Sangare, Midnite, Barrington Levy and Black Sheep. 

Joining Toubab Krewe at Festivus and at select summer tour dates will be legendary Jamaican guitarist Earl "China" Smith. Perhaps the most sought after lead guitarist in reggae, Smith has performed and recorded with everyone from Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh and Burning Spear to more recent pop icons like Lauren Hill, Erykah Badu and Joss Stone. Toubab Krewe recently joined Smith at his home studio in Kingston, where they collaborat ed on several as-yet unreleased recordings . On his first tour of the U.S. with Toubab Krewe, Smith will join the band on-stage for what are sure to be special collaborat ions, infusing his diverse talents and influences into Toubab Krewe's already unique blend of styles. 

Tour dates:

June 10 | Pittsburgh , PA | Three Rivers Arts Festival

June 11-14 | Manchester , TN | Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival

w/ special guest Rayna Gellert on fiddle

June 18 | Knoxville, TN | Sundown in the City

June 18 | Knoxville, TN | Square Room (Sundown in the City After Party)

June 19 | Greenville , SC | Gott Rocks

June 20 | Raleigh, NC | North Carolina Museum of Art

June 26 | Richmond, VA | Brown's Island (Friday Cheers Series)

July 2-5  | Rothbury, MI | ROTHBURY Festival

July 15  | New York, NY | Rocks OFF! Concert Cruise

w/ special guest Earl "Chinna" Smith

July 17-18 | Cabot, VT | Festivus for the Restivus (The Manifestiv us)

w/ special guest Earl "Chinna" Smith

July 24-25  ; | Floyd, VA | Floyd Festival

w/ special guest Earl "Chinna" Smith

July 31-Aug. 1 | Atlanta, GA | Smith's Olde Bar

w/ special guest Earl "Chinna" Smith

August 7 | Bozeman, MT| Sweet Pea Festival

August 13  | Gore, VA | Camp Barefoot

August 14 | Greensburg , PA | Summer Sounds Concerts in the Park

August 21-22 | Greensboro , NC | Blind Tiger

[Photo: Daniel Barojas]

Long-runni ng jazz magazine halts publicatio n with the May issue, seeks to finalize sale of its assets and reorganize .

By Fred Mills

Late yesterday the following news was posted at the website of D.C.-based JazzTimes magazine:

To our readers and members of the jazz community:

JazzTimes has temporaril y suspended publicatio n of the magazine and has furloughed the bulk of its staff while it finalizes a sale of its assets. The brand and operation will undergo reorganiza tion and restructur ing in order to remain competitiv e in the current media climate. Print publishing is expected to resume as soon as a sale is closed. New informatio n and statements will be posted at www.jazztimes.com as they become available.

Thank you for your patience during this challengin g period. - JazzTimes Management

And thus yet another respected music publicatio n ceases operation - "temporari ly suspended publicatio n" is how JT is terming it, in hopes of reorganizi ng and eventually returning to newsstands . Rumors have been flying for weeks about the long-runni ng jazz mag's health and that the owners were seeking a buyer. So there's not much more that can be said while industry watchers sit back and wait to see what the ultimate outcome will be. At this time there's no official word whether or not a buyer will be found for JazzTimes, which was founded in 1970 as Radio Free Jazz in Washington D.C. by Ira Sabin.

JazzTimes' destiny, many of you will remember, is linked by lineage with BLURT's: in March of 2008, BLURT's immediate predecesso r Harp shut down. Three of the principals at JazzTimes (as Guthrie, Inc.) held a controllin g interest in Harp, and they had determined that in their eyes it wasn't sufficient ly profitable . Those of us at BLURT who at the time were working for Harp weren't necessaril y in agreement with that assessment , but after some protracted negotiatio ns that ultimately broke down, the JazzTimes guys made it clear that it was their intention to kill Harp and to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy .

Among the reasons cited for Harp's supposed nonprofita bility: the "consolida tion of the consumer magazine newsstand business" and a "precipito us decline of the music software industry." (We were never completely certain what that latter phrase - it sounded suspicious ly like doublespea k - meant, for while the record business certainly had been going through a prolonged period of contractio n nobody held any illusions about the industry as a whole going the way of the dinosaurs.)

You can read the story about the Harp closing HERE.

The announceme nt about Harp was made, ironically , while we staffers were in Austin at SXSW helping to host a couple of parties. We were also about 3/4 of the way through finishing up the May issue and had to come to a screeching halt on that rather than go out on a high note, so it all felt particular ly cold-blood ed, and it's no secret in the publishing and music industries that bitter feelings over the whole deal linger to this day between some of the individual s involved.

Meanwhile, it was exactly one year ago today that BLURT officially launched. At the time we'd certainly experience d having the wind knocked out of our sails, and having Harp get the axe didn't leave anyone feeling good; salaried positions were lost, contributo rs and creditors took it on the chin, and other folks in the music industry who'd come to count on our coverage realized they suddenly had one less advocate. But in the wake of that debacle, we'd pledged to at least try our hardest to come back in some form and pick up where we left off with Harp. There was clearly an element of, "Okay, we'll show the bastards" at play, but as one of my fellow staffers quipped, "I don't really know what else I can do at this point. I'm essentiall y unemployab le except as a music writer." So we did come back, and here we are a year later, with five digital magazines and one print issue under our belt and about to publish our second print BLURT.

The point I'm circling around to, one which I've made over and over again whenever yet another music magazine has bitten the dust over the past year or so, from No Depression shortly before the news about Harp hit to the recent shuttering s of Performing Songwriter and Radio & Records, is that we need to have a multiplici ty of voices. There's too much great music out there that needs exposure for anyone to be silenced. So whenever one of those voices does in fact go silent, it hurts all of us in the long term.

Mixed feelings about JazzTimes aside, we at BLURT can only hope that the writers and staffers of the magazine find a way to continue on collective ly or individual ly in their quest to support the jazz community and to support music in general.

Headless Heroes, Esser, Jeffrey Lewis, Curumin, Kendel Carson, Ty Segall, Lady Sovereign, Paolo Nutini

By Blurt Staff

It's officially New Music Tuesday at BLURT, which means, quite logically, you can hear some new music today (Tuesday, duh) at BLURT.

What, pray tell, is the new music in question? Glad you asked! Glom onto these ace MP3s:

Headless Heroes -Nobody's Baby Now (Nick Cave Cover) (from The Silence of Love)

Esser - Long Arms (from I Love You, Chocolate Industries )

Jeffrey Lewis - Slogans (from ‘Em Are I, Rough Trade Records)

Curumin - Sam bito (Totaru Shock) (from Japan Pop Show, Qua nnum Projects)

Kendel Carson - Lady K. (from Alright Dynamite, Train Wreck Records)

Ty Segall - It # 1 (from Lemons, Goner Records)

Lady Sovereign - Pennies (Kill The Noise Remix) (from "Pennies" (Kill the Noise Remix) RCRD LBL)

Paolo Nutini - Candy (from Sunny Side Up, Atlantic Records).

Just click on the BLURT Radio icon on the right-hand side of our homepage and wait for the music player to pop up in a separate window. Then enjoy some fine listening!

And check back every Tuesday, same BLURT-time , same BLURT-chan nel, to hear the latest streaming goodies, all personally netted, vetted and hand-selec ted by our trained staff of highly evolved primates. Why? Because at BLURT, we care.

The US constituti on on COPYRIGHTS - To promote the Progress of Science [includes literature ] and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors [..] the exclusive Right to their respective Writings...

So the constituti on is clear here -"clear" ? ha ha, I'm in trouble already. Congress is mandated to promote innovation in knowledge and art. And a key component is the right granted to creators over their work.

This is going to be a long process where we fight over the rules that dominate the informatio n age. We've been spared the messiest phase of this battle because for several decades the technology to deliver informatio n, outpaced the technology to copy it. In the music industry and community, we've focused on unauthoriz ed downloadin g, but unfortunat ely the debate is on a scale involving the essence of culture and group communicat ion. This has broadened the issues to the point where it becomes difficult to apply any of the principles to a specific problem. Disney cartoon characters are a completely different type of conception than Martin Luther King's "I Had A Dream" speech, or than news reports in a daily newspaper, or than scientific research papers - but copyright laws apply to all these. 

I like the wording in the constituti on. To all of us, an artist's ownership of his work is intuitive. We understand that "creative control" is important. We don't want an artist's work to be changed by someone outside that creative process, ie: someone at a record label. We bristle at radio edits that change a revered song. We generally want the creation to be a clear expression by that individual artist, unmodified - it is not society's - it is self expression .   

  Yet somehow in the fray, copyright and the concept of intellectu al property has been demonized - largely the result of aggressive tactics by large business interests, and the ensuing backlash. Innovative organizati ons such Creative Commons have promoted important new concepts in copyright, with what I see as a heavy dose of fear-monge ring. According to Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig: "..creators get to create only with the permission of the powerful, or of creators from the past". Well I don't know too many musicians for whom that statement would apply. Not too many want to include a snippet or sample of Britney Spears in their songs anymore. Also, not all those you might seek permission from, are "powerful" .  It's not as simple as us against them. There are casualties right here, amongst us.

I believe the more one knows of how the middle level of the music business works -independe nt labels, distributo rs and booking agents- the more one supports intellectu al property rights.

Some of the issues as they pertain to downloadin g and independen t music culture:

Free sharing benefits artists

 Prov iding free, but limited, products and services to generate demand is as old as commerce itself - ie: "the first one's free", "special introducto ry rate".Providing promotiona l, free copies of music to radio stations is nothing new. And even as far back as the 70's, The Grateful Dead were authorizin g unlimited bootleg recordings of their live shows. That made obvious business sense for them, because they were a gigantic live act and could simply sell tickets.

So it's important to artists and their labels to control and select what is given away promotiona lly. That's business, and if that's a dirty word for some people, that seems to suggest that artists shouldn't be able to earn money from their creations. Music making is expensive - both recorded and live. Where there's music reaching the people, someone is treating it like a business

Some people are suggesting music itself shouldn't have to be paid for, only performanc e - live performanc e.

"If all the money is on the road, why not give out more recorded product free" Bob Lefsetz (The Lefsetz Letter - music industry blog) on Twitter

 Taki ng to an extreme, I believe diversity in the art of recording would suffer. A recording budget basically pays for the 1st copy, so you need to sell subsequent copies to justify the initial expense. And having time to spend in the studio with good equipment and acoustics, is part of a tradition of great record making. But we're seeing how large recording studios are closing in droves, and large live-music venues are multiplyin g. That shows how things follow the dollar. I believe that despite the renewed popularity of vinyl, most people don't really care about recording quality. There are few audiophile s amongst us. But we should know there's a cost here. There are also many important creators in recordings - producers, engineers, arrangers, extra musicians - who would not receive royalties if records are not sold - or would not be hired in the first place.

The enduring importance of labels.

The music industry is like the financial industry, in that it has shrunk but has not disappeare d. There is a whole infrastruc ture that has remained entrenched , and on some fronts is being re-enforce d. One reason is that there is a flood of self-relea sed records. Many publicatio ns - like on-line megazine Pitchfork - have an official policy of only reviewing music that is on a recognized label, maintainin g the old vetting system of record labels. Also, booking agents will usually only consider artists who are on a label that's based in their territory - they know that an entity interested in selling the music itself in that territory, is necessary to help create awareness.

Less new artists are being signed to labels big and small.

Many well regarded small labels have greatly curtailed the signing of new artists. This feels like the equivalent of banks chocking off the supply of credit. An example would be Young God Records which discovered Devendra Banhart (other artists include Akron Family, Larkin Grimm). The label has turned down many worthwhile artists because of diminished revenue from distributi on

Is downloadin g truly to blame?

On average, yes. The tanking of the record industry has been across the board, hitting both Davids and Goliaths - and it was underway many years before the current economic turndown. Napster just passed it's 10 year anniversar y

The penalty for unauthoriz ed downloadin g ?

I feel it should be a social taboo - like not tipping your bartender or driving a gas guzzling SUV. With that in mind, I'd like to say how gratifying it is to see music blogs taking a lead on this. Most blogs that post MP3's urge you to buy it, if you enjoy it.

Why are some fans not getting this?

There's a misplaced schadenfre ude about the music business collapse

And there's a mispercept ion about the term "independe nt". There's an assumption that the machinery of the industry only applies to the major labels, when actually the machinery is very similar on a small scale. Also many artists with large fan bases who make a big point of their independen ce, were once on big labels and benefited from the big promotiona l push. And many perceived DIY artists, are actually on small labels, and work with small booking agencies. Once an artist goes beyond his home region for extended periods, true DIY starts being impossible - an artist needs to tie into some kind of machine. So small out-of-sig ht music biz entities that are in jeopardy, don't get the kind of sympathy that small businesses get in our physical neighborho ods.

Different rules apply to the rock elite.

When Nine Inch Nails released Year Zero in 2007. Trent Reznor told fans in Australia to "steal the record" - in protest of the Recording Industry Associatio n of America's outrageous lawsuits against individual downloader s. But yet his record had sold 187,000 in its first week, and reached #2 in Billboard. I don't personally know any touring musicians who could afford to ask audience members to steal their records from the merch table. Records sold at shows are a crucial means of financing a tour for independen t artists

Musician ghetto and the fan base paradox.

It seems like there are always those who will have fans, including Myspace miracle buzz bands with viral fan bases. And it's now generally easier to build on an existing fan base.

 But it's hard to know what we're missing. It's hard to know why artists drop off the radar. So when you really know the situation intimately , you see the contradict ions - apparently successful artists unable to tour with extra musicians, or to record at a good studio. Many are increasing ly asking for donations, ,, $5, $10, $20 helps.

 It's hard for the public to see artists as workers in the classic sense - who's livelihood s we have a common interest to protect. Intuitivel y people see the arts as a wild west niche in society. A tremendous amount of ideas are not really seeing the day - many artists have to simply give up. You can apply the notion that the true visionarie s will persevere, and so even independen t music is a Darwinian sink-or-sw im ruthless environmen t.

A lot of music is shrinking away in horror.

"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors [..] the exclusive Right to their respective Writings..."

Check Martin Bisi West Coast tour dates - June 16-21:

And visit him online at  myspace.com/theend credits

Merge 20th celebratio n begins with original choreograp hed dances to the music of The Rosebuds, Spoon, Arcade Fire & more.

By Blurt Staff

On Saturday, July 18, at the Carolina Theatre in Durham, NC, the Triangle Youth Ballet will present Merge with Motion, a dance performanc e in a unique rock music setting celebratin g Merge Records' 20th anniversar y. The evening will include world-prem iere dance works set to music by Merge artists, along with a live performanc e by The Rosebuds. The Rosebuds will play one of their old favorites in addition to debuting a new musical work composed especially for Merge with Motion as dancers perform simultaneo usly onstage.

Original contempora ry ballet, rhythm tap, and modern dance will be performed by world class choreograp hers including: Amanda Miller (Chapel Hill/Prett y Ugly, Germany), North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble (Chapel Hill), Pamela Pietro (American Dance Festival Faculty/Ti sch-NYU), Sidelong Dance Co. (Winston-S alem), and others.

In addition to The Rosebuds, performers will dance to music from Arcade Fire, Caribou, Destroyer, the Magnetic Fields, Polvo, Richard Buckner, Spaceheads , Spoon and more.

Merge with Motion

Saturday, July 18, 2009, 7:30pm

The Carolina Theatre, Fletcher Hall

309 W. Morgan Street

Durham, NC

$15/$17 Advance

$21 Day of show

Tickets are available& nbsp;online and at the Carolina Theatre box office. Box office hours are 11am-6pm, Monday through Friday, and one hour before showtime.

Odds ‘n' sods collection plus a live CD/DVD set.

By Blurt Staff

Drive-By Truckers recently dug into the New West Records vaults, with guidance from longtime producer Dave Barbe, and put finishing touches on a selection of songs that were never quite completed.  "For me, it's been a fun stroll through memory lane and a chance to tie up some loose ends" says Patterson Hood.  The result of the collaborat ion is The Fine Print (A Collection Of Oddities and Rarities 2003-2008) , a 12-track album of previously unreleased and rare songs, available September 1.  This summer New West will also release the band's entire Austin City Limits performanc e as a CD / DVD combinatio n pack as a part of the Live From Austin, TX line.   

The Fine Print features songs written by band members past and present, including Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley and Jason Isbell.  7 of the twelve songs come from The Dirty South era... a highly creative time for DBT.  Hood explains "That was an especially fertile period for the band, as we more or less wrote that album and the one before it, Decoration Day, as well as my first solo album all in a three year period as we were recording and touring behind Southern Rock Opera."  The record also contains four covers including "Rebels" by Tom Petty, which the band recorded originally for the TV show "King Of The Hill" and "Like A Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan which provided Shonna Tucker with her first ever lead vocal performanc e on a DBT recording.  


Drive-By Truckers graced the Austin City Limits stage on September 26, 2008 while touring for their last studio album Brighter Than Creation's Dark.  A CD/DVD combinatio n package featuring the entire performanc e will be available on July 7th, 2009.  The 13 songs, which were filmed in Hi-Def and recorded in 5.1 Surround Sound for the critically acclaimed PBS show, include a mix of new songs from Brighter Than Creation's Dark alongside the classics "Let There Be Rock" and "18 Wheels Of Love" (off their second album Gangstabil ly) and "Marry Me" (from Decoration Day).  The band line-up featured is Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley, Shonna Tucker, John Neff, Brad Morgan and Jay Gonzalez.

THE FINE PRINT TRACK LIST:

1. George Jones Talkin' Cell Phone Blues
2. Rebels
3. Uncle Frank (alternate version)
4. TVA
5. Goode's Field Road (alternate version)
6. The Great Car Dealer War
7. Mama Bake A Pie  (Daddy Kill A Chicken)
8. When The Well Runs Dry
9. Mrs. Claus' Kimono
10. Play It All Night Long
11. Little Pony And The Great Big Horse
12. Like A Rolling Stone

LIVE FROM AUSTIN, TX Track List:

1. Perfect Timing
2. Heathens
3. A Ghost To Most
4. The Righteous Path
5. I'm Sorry Huston
6. 3 Dimes Down
7. Puttin' People On The Moon
8. Space City
9. The Living Bubba
10. Zip City
11. 18 Wheels Of Love
12. Let There Be Rock
13. Marry Me

Psychedeli a out the wazoo, and then some...

By Blurt Staff

This week, in celebratio n of their new Tee Pee recs album, the Rod Cervera-pr oduced The Mirror Explodes, LA-based psychedeli cists the Warlocks have just announced a headlining US tour, taking them from coast-to-c oast and back again. It kicks off at the end of July and will be preceded by a UK tour.

The band recently premiered their video for new song Red Camera and you can view it here.

Tour Dates:

Jul 10 2009 La Maroquiner ie Paris
Jul 14 2009 The Other Rooms Newcastle, Wales
Jul 15 2009 Fibbers York, Northeast
Jul 16 2009 Roadhouse Manchester
Jul 17 2009 Monochrome Liverpool
Jul 18 2009 The Bodega Nottingham
Jul 19 2009 The Rainbow Rooms Birmingham , Midlands
Jul 20 2009 Barfly Cardiff, Wales
Jul 21 2009 Thekla Bristol, Southwest
Jul 22 2009 Southend Railway Hotel Essex, East
Jul 23 2009 Hoxton Square Bar &Kitch en London, London and South East
Jul 24 2009 Audio Brighton, South
Jul 25 2009 Joiners Southampto n, London and South East


July 30 Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, CA
Aug 1 Chop Suey Seattle, WA
Aug 2 Doug Fir Lounge Portland, OR
Aug 5 7th St Entry Minneapoli s, MN
Aug 6 Empty Bottle Chicago, IL
Aug 7 Empty Bottle Chicago, IL
Aug 8 Grog Shop Cleveland, OH
Aug 11 Kung Fu Necktie Philadelph ia, PA
Aug 12 Great Scott Allston, MA
Aug 14 Bowery Ballroom, NYC
Aug 15 Maxwell's Hoboken, NJ
Aug 17 Local 506 Carrboro, NC
Aug 18 The Earl Atlanta, GA
Aug 19 The Bottletree Birmingham , AL
Aug 20 One Eyed Jacks New Orleans, LA
Aug 21 The Parish Austin, TX
Aug 22 Walter's on Washington Houston, TX
Aug 26 Club Congress Tucson, AZ
Aug 27 The Casbah San Diego, CA
Aug 28 Venue TBA Los Angeles, CA
Aug 29 Venue TBA Los Angeles, CA

In life, there are only four sure things: birth, death, taxes, and....

By Fred Mills

With Courtney Love laying relatively low (she hasn't even been Twittering the past week or so) we're forced to turn our gaze overseas for our music trainwreck news fix, and sure enough, there slouches Pete Doherty, amiable and willing to deliver. To wit:

Britain's Guardian is reporting that the Babyshambl es frontman was picked up early this a.m. on "suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and possession of drugs." As opposed to "suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs," we suppose - not that anyone would imagine Doherty would simultaneo usly be possessing AND taking the dope, eh?

Apparently Doherty was spotted "driving erraticall y" after a gig in Gloucester , whose police spokesman told reporters, "At approximat ely 12.30am officers on patrol in Eastgate Street saw a car being driven erraticall y, it continued down Barton Street and was stopped in Derby Road. A 30-year-ol d man was arrested on suspicion of drink driving, possession of drugs and failure to stop for police, he remains in custody at this time."

Well, all right then! Doherty could have avoided all this, of course, had he simply allowed himself to remain in custody by Geneva police after that little syringe-in -the-airpl ane-toilet incident earlier this week....

First full-lengt h in 25 years from the dub-punk legends.

By Blurt Staff

Narnack Records will be releasing Trapped Animal, the first full-lengt h release from The Slits in over 25 years. (2009 also marks the 30th anniversar y of The Slits debut album Cut.) It's due on October 6.

The Slits became a part of the punk pantheon with songs that even today continue to be meditation s on alienation and angst. With Trapped Animal , The Slits remain the same genre bending band they were in their inception, still standing out from the rest of the pack. In the title track they examine how the convenienc es that surround us in today's modern world have also trapped us. Other tracks include "Pay Rent" which focuses on the everyday struggle artists face trying to pay the bills through their art along with the sexually charged "Lazy Slam". "Ask Ma" will be out as a single in August and will be your first taste of Trapped Animal&nbs p;

The current lineup features original members Ari Up and Tessa Pollitt along with Hollie Cook (daughter of Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook), Anna Schlute and Adele Wilson.

 In addition to the new album, a book about the band, Typical Girls? The Story Of The Slits written by Zoe Street Howe, is scheduled to be published in the Fall. Meanwhile go HERE for the band's backstory.

Track Listing

1. Ask Ma
2. Lazy Slam
3. Pay Rent
4. Reject
5. Trapped Animals
6. Issues
7. Peer Pressure
8. Partner From Hell
9. Babylon
10. Cry Baby
11. Reggae Gypsy
12. Be It
13. Cant Relate
14. Had A Day

Will feature profiles of Arcade Fire, Spoon, Magnetic Fields, Superchunk , Neutral Milk Hotel, Lambchop, Butterglor y and others.

By Blurt Staff

This fall, to celebrate Merge Records' 20^th anni versary, Algonquin Books chronicles their achievemen ts by re leasing&nb sp;Our Noise: The Story Of Merge Records, The Indie Label That Got Big And Stayed Small. Written by  John Cook (with Superchunk /Merge founders Mac McCaughan and Laura Balance) and featuring an introducti on penned by Ryan Adams, the 304-page book is due in stores September 15.

Here's the scoop, courtesy Merge and the publisher:

Launched by two 20-year-ol ds, Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance, in a rented home in the late 1980s, Merge Records had the humble beginnings of a great success story. Hand-label ing and shipping each record themselves , Mac and Laura started to make their mark on the independen t music scene. They gained popularity by fronting the popular pop-punk band Superchunk , one of Merge's first bands, in the mid-90s. Over time, the label has become known for discoverin g some of the best indie bands in the country.

Twenty years later, with just thirteen employees- and a real office-the label boasts some of the biggest bands on the independen t music scene, including Arcade Fire, Spoon, Magnetic Fields, M. Ward, Neutral Milk Hotel, She & Him, and more. But Merge still maintains its small-labe l mindset by producing good music they have faith in-not only what they think will sell the most copies.

Author John Cook traces the growth of Merge along the bumpy roads that led to its success and importance today, through first-hand interviews with Mac, Laura, their friends, and band mates, and other key players in the formation and growth of the label. Featuring photograph s the life and times of the label and its bands, as well as concert memorabili a, record label art, and a link to a streaming Internet soundtrack for the book,  ;Our Noise tell s Merge's story in an intimate and entertaini ng package. 

[Photo nicked from Schoolkids ' Records' MySpace page - couldn't resist, as it's such a perfect tribute.  www.myspace.com/school kidsrecord s ]&nb sp;

Every year I give my public radio station $100. It's not much but essentiall y, they guilt me into it. But what's more, I get something in exchange. Yes, there's the programmin g. But that's not the only reason why I give them money that, to be honest, as a fledgling entreprene ur, I frankly just don't have. One fund drive a year, early in the summer, they ply me with an incentive I can't refuse: two tickets to any Philadelph ia Orchestra concert I choose at SPAC (my favorite venue in the world). What's more is you can bring a picnic, a bottle of wine, meet up with friends, sprawl out on a blanket and gaze up at the stars --- to the soundtrack of literally, some of the finest musicians in the world. It's become a tradition. An experience that, altogether , is worth the $100, if not more.

What's interestin g is that they (public radio) go back to this well (my pocket) every year. And it never dries up. They are masterful. They have me (and my credit card) without reserve.

Two essential things are at play here. First and foremost [...]

A Triple-A radio programmin g veteran, Kate has served as Music Director of the Loft at XM, Midday Host at WYEP, Evening Host at both WNCS and WUIN, as well as Content Supervisor for Pump Audio. Currently, she's the CEO of Outlandos Music, a new-music discovery service for grown-ups. Kate has been nationally recognized for her ardent presentati on of music and her ability to champion talented, compelling artists.

Black vinyl is limited? WTF?!? Oh, you mean the quantity pressed, now we get it...

By Blurt Staff

Modest Mouse has announced they will release their ‘Aut umn Beds' 7" single on June 23rd. This special 7" will be on limited edition black vinyl with an embossed sleeve and individual ly numbered to 4000. This new single includes never before released tracks: ‘Aut umn Beds' backed with ‘Wha le Song.' Modest Mouse fans will be familiar with the band's new tune ‘Wha le Song' as it became a recent staple in the band's live shows. This special vinyl will be available nationally at retail, with the songs also offered on iTunes.

On June 16, ‘Aut umn Beds' will make its audio premiere on AOL Spinner - www.spinner.com - and on June 18 fans will get the first listen to ‘Wha le Song' on The Tripwire - www.thetripwir e.com

Followup to critical fave album Disco Romance.

By Blurt Staff

Report in from Pitchfork today and Paper Bag Records that Swedish thrush Sally Shapiro's second album will be released on August 25 by Paper Bag. Titled My Guilty Pleasure, it's the followup to her acclaimed 2007 album Disco Romance (which, sharp-mind ed BLURT readers will recall, topped scores of critics' lists that year, including the staff list for our predecesso r Harp magazine).

We profiled Shapiro - and even speculated whether or not she was a real person - at the BLURT site - a little under a year ago. Go HERE to read the interview.

The new album is produced by Johan Agebjorn and includes the single "Miracle", currently offered at the Paper Bag site.

Tracklisti ng:

01 Swimming Through the Blue Lagoon
02 Looking at the Stars
03 Love in July
04 My Fantasy
05 Let It Show
06 Moonlight Dance
07 Save Your Love
08 Dying in Africa
09 Miracle

And yes, BLURT will be there, Twittering from the site and filing updates...

By Blurt Staff

And this year's Bonnaroo festival is officially underway in Manchester , TN. At present the weather conditions are good, although it's looking somewhat ominous for the weekend: scattered thundersto rms are forecasted for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Hello, Woodstock experience ! (Or is that Glastonbur y...) Hello, people dressed like lunatics!

At any rate, bands are getting started right about now in the tents, with sets in a couple of hours from White Rabbits, MURS, Delta Spirit, Portugal the Man, the Low Anthem and more. Then tomorrow things kick into high gear at noon en route to some hotly anticipate d mainstage (What Stage) sets from the Beastie Boys - who rocked Asheville, NC, mightily last night and BLURT was present to bear witness - and Phish, along with Public Enemy, Femi Kuti, Paul Oakenfold and Girl Talk going late into the night in the tents. You can go to the Bonnaroo schedule HERE for details on all three days.

Meanwhile, BLURT's man on the ground, Andy Tennille, will be Twittering from the ‘roo site all weekend long, so sign up to follow us on Twitter if you are so inclined. Tennille will also be filing postmortem s along with exclusive photo essays after each day (read: after he recovers from each previous day).

As in years past, live webcasts of selected sets will be streamed from Bonnaroo, this year courtesy AT&T Music, starting tomorrow at 12:45 with Gomez, People Under the Stairs and Animal Collective . Wonder if they'll have all those disclaimer s about some content not being suitable for kids? And Fuse TV will be airing a lot of Bonnaroo-r elated content as well. So in between all the inevitable blogging and Twittering and assorted media coverage, it's going to be wall to wall Bonnaroo this weekend. We're already feeling overwhelme d....

New album due from acclaimed South African band.

By Blurt Staff

Anyone who caught BLK JKS at SXSW in Austin this past March knows that all the critical praise lavished on the South African band's Mystery EP was not just hype - the group delivered, serving up a thumping blend of dubby Afro-beat, hard-edged rock and psychedeli c griots. Now comes word that a full-lengt h, After Robots, is due on Sept. 8 courtesy Secretly Canadian. The scoop from the label:

BLK JKS consists of childhood friends Lindani Buthelezi and Mpumi Mcata who grew up on the same block in Johannesbu rg's East Rand where they taught themselves guitar. After the band's current lineup took shape with the addition of bassist Molefi Makananise and drummer Tshepang Ramoba, both of Soweto, they embarked on a schedule of heavy touring throughout South Africa that earned them a loyal national following.

BLK JKS first came to the U.S. in the spring of 2008 after a chance meeting with über- producer Diplo while he was on tour in South Africa. The band's appearance on the cover of the Fader, as well as highly acclaimed sets at South by Southwest, sparked recording sessions at New York's famed Electric Lady studios that resulted in the Mystery EP. They have gone on to share stages in North America and Europe with a celebrated and disparate array of artists including Femi Kuti, Santigold, Dirty Projectors , Michael Franti and Cody Chesnutt; they have played Sasquatch and Soweto Arts Festival; and drummer Tshepang Ramoba has been celebrated by Billboard as "the best musician" at SXSW.

The essence of BLK JKS' music-a collision of township blues, fringe jazz and renegade dub, heard via the lens of prog-shine s through even more on the new album. Music from Africa has never sounded like this, as BLK JKS bring the concept of afro-futur ism into a new century. After Robots was recorded January in Bloomingto n, IN as BLK JKS traded a South African summer for winter in America and burrowed in for marathon recording sessions of one live take after the next. Brandon Curtis of Secret Machines returned to join the band at the controls and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble appears on several tracks with the swagger of aggressive horn stabs, but throughout After Robots is an original BLK JKS affair-a distinctly South African vision of rock's global travel and the possibilit y of what it can sound like from here on out.

Check out "Mololatla di" from the album, which literally means rainbow in Zulu, as a free mp3:

"Mololatla di"

Contains the earliest known footage of the Beatles from Feb '62 - home movies, personal photograph s, private memorabili a and recently discovered film.

By Blurt Staff

Rare And Unseen is an all new documentar y DVD tells the true story of The Beatles from humble beginnings in Liverpool, to the break-up of the biggest band in the world. Their story is told for the very first time using original rare film and video of the band, including home-movie s, concert footage, newsreels and photograph s from private collection s. Obviously not authorized by Apple or the surviving band members - the DVD's subtitle is Unofficial Account Of The Biggest Band In The World - it's still guaranteed to cause a stir in the cliquish, territoria l world of Beatles collectors . The Wienerworl d label will be issuing it on August 11 via MVD Video.

Included are  inte rviews with those who surrounded the band, and those who were there from the very start. Also included is an exclusive interview with Phil Collins, and say what you will about the Philster, he's long been known as one of the world's biggest Beatles vans. According to the label, "This documentar y is an honest account of what really happened. For the first time we can see The Beatles relaxed, at play, on and off stage, on film, and is a rare glimpse inside the lives of the most famous band in the world."

With additional contributi ons from: Phil Collins, Steve Harley, Norman Hurricane Smith Colin Hanton (their first drummer) Sam Leach (tour manager) Tony Barrow (press officer 1962-1968) , Tony Bramwell (friend and roadie), Ken Dodd, Tony Booth, Gerry Marsden, Len Goodman Sylvie Varten.

Features:

 &nbs p;  * Earliest known footage of the Beatles on stage in Liverpool February 1962.
 &nbs p;  * Only existing film on tour in Scotland - Caird Hall, Dundee October 1964.
 &nbs p;  * Bahamas, February 1965 during the filming of Help!
 &nbs p;  * September 1967 in Newquay whilst filming Magical Mystery Tour.
 &nbs p;  * Home movie footage from Paris Olympia Theatre Januar y1964
 &nbs p;  * Highlights of interview with John Lennon recorded in New York for French TV.

Let's hear it for the monkey!

By Fred Mills

Word is arriving today that NYC buzzband Cymbals Eat Guitars will be unleashing their album Why There Are Mountains with new cover art on Sept. 22 via Sister's Den Records. This will be the official national roll-out, following a blogger-ap proved "soft" (read: self-relea sed) issuing awhile back. The band gets compared to folks like Built to Spill and Modest Mouse, so you know they must be a big deal, and they'll be touring a little bit in the lead up to the release. Dates below.

However, for some reason that word "guitar" kept sticking in our minds... that's spelled GUITAR... and all of a sudden we had the urge to hear the Ray Stevens classic "Gitarzan" . You gotta love YouTube: the tune's all over the place, in both original and tribute form. See below for a kinda crate-digg er's video take on the song - it has lost none of its musical pulchritud e even with the passing of decades - along with another coupla nuggets we spotted. This should tide you over nicely until Sept. 22. Why are we showing you this? Because it's Friday fool! We're outta here for the weekend.

And git down!

Tour Dates

6/13 - Music Hall of Williamsbu rg - Brooklyn, NY
7/2 - Vollrath Tavern - Indianapol is, TN
7/4 - 80/35 Festival @ Western Gateway Park - Des Moines, IA
7/18 - Pitchfork Music Festival @ Union Park - Chicago, IL
9/12 - Monolith Festival @ Red Rocks Ampitheatr e - Morrison, CO

Hip hop luminaries to release long-await ed reunion record October 13th on Big Dada.

By Blurt Staff

Six years after they parted ways to pursue separate projects, Anti-Pop Consortium have reunited and recorded their fourth album Fluorescen t Black, slated for release October 13th on Big Dada Recordings .  APC, who took hip-hop by surprise with their 2000 debut, Tragic Epilogue, proceeded to make a name for themselves as one of the genre's premiere boundary-p ushers with Shopping Carts Crashing (2000) and cemented their status as luminaries with Arrhythmia (2002), say they reunite enriched by the time apart.   "We're grown men," says Anti-Pop's Beans.  "So our acceptance of our difference s has allowed to bring all that more magic to the table. We're stronger now and the music is better for it."

When Anti-Pop Consortium 's Beans, M. Sayyid, Earl Blaze, and High Priest parted ways in 2002 to pursue other projects, they left a gap in hip-hop no other group was entirely prepared to fill.  2002's Arrhythmia was proof enough that if any other group of MCs could match the collective 's left-field adventurou sness or their lit-calibe r lyrical dexterity, none had produced a record that both pushed the envelope with experiment ation and made heads nod.  As Dusted Magazine put it, Arrhythmia "throws down the gauntlet to the rest of indie hip-hop - yeah, it's one thing to spit complex vocabulary like a thesaurus, but how about you make your music move?"&nbs p; Anti-Pop Consortium disbanded shortly after the record was released and nearly seven years later the challenge posed to hip-hop by Arrhythmia remains largely untouched. With Fluorescen t Black, APC will finish the job.

[Photo credit: www.sarahafrie dman.com]

Blurt's Andy Tennille is at Bonnaroo, collecting images and impression s. Don't miss his frequent Blurt Twitters from the site, either.

BY ANDY TENNILLE

BONNAROO 2009, FRIDAY JUNE 12: Musicologi sts will tell you that the roots of nearly every genre of music can be traced back to Africa, and no where were those genealogic al connection s more evident than on the first day of Bonnaroo 2009.

Friday's lineup was filled with both African musicians as well as artists whose music has been indelibly influenced by the sounds of the Dark Continent. Femi Kuti played opposite Public Enemy, David Byrne followed Amadou & Mariam and two legends - Bela Fleck & Toumani Diabete - shared a stage. Even Phish's Trey Anastasio has professed his love of King Sunny Ade's music over the years.

While Ade's set was perhaps the most highly anticipate d of the entire festival, it was a second generation Malian that stole the show on Friday. Vieux Farka Toure, son of the late Ali Farka Toure, played to a jam-packed Other Tent, treating the crowd to songs of his recently released sophomore effort, Fondo. An exceptiona l guitarist, Vieux Farka Toure pays homage to his father's music while putting his own unique spin on it. On a day that illuminate d our links to the Motherland , Vieux Farka Toure embodied it.

Exclusive images from Bonnaroo 2009, Friday, June 12...


Herein find a sweet photo gallery of pics from Friday at Bonnaroo. They were taken by our good friend, Joe Kendrick, DJ extraordin aire at WNCW-FM (on the web at WNCW.org) - you can see his smiling mug in one of the photos, in fact. Party on, Garth!

Patterson Hood

St. Vincent

The Which stage

Random images from the grounds

Al Green (on big screen)

Grizzly Bear

Lucinda Williams

King Sunny Ade band

Joe Kendrick and the broadcast media tent control room

Future festivalgo er (note sticker in hand)

Exclusive images from Bonnaroo 2009, Saturday, June 13...


Herein find a sweet photo gallery of pics from Saturday at Bonnaroo. They were taken by our good friend, Joe Kendrick, DJ extraordin aire at WNCW-FM (on the web at WNCW.org). See elsewhere on the Blurt site for his photos from Friday. Party on, Garth!

Alejandro Escovedo band

Elvis Perkins In Dearland

Allen Toussaint

Heartless Bastards

Random pics from the grounds

Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3

Rodrigo y Gabriela

Bruce Springstee n & the E Street Band

Nearing the end of the evening

Exclusive: Alejandro Escovedo @ Bonnaroo

Blurt's Andy Tennille is at Bonnaroo, collecting images and impression s. Don't miss his frequent Blurt Twitters from the site, either.

BY ANDY TENNILLE

BONNAROO 2009, SATURDAY JUNE 13: When it comes right down to it, Parrothead s are really no different than your typical Bonnaroo attendee.

Both species are live music fans that enjoy a good time, whether it's guzzling boat drinks or gobbling psychedeli cs.

The proof was in the pudding (or perhaps the mud) on Saturday when Mr. Parrothead himself, Jimmy Buffett, made a surprise appearance with his Coral Reefer All Stars. Hearing "Fins" and "Margarita ville" ring out across the festival grounds might have been strange to some, but it got the day's music started on the right foot.

BLURT favorites Heartless Bastards and Alejandro Escovedo turned in solid sets but the early afternoon favorite was Elvis Perkins, who rocked the This Tent.

Mid-aftern oon sets featured a handful of legends including Allen Toussaint, David Grisman, Robyn Hitchcock, Tony Rice, Elvis Costello (backed by Jenny Lewis' band with Toussaint sitting in), Del McCoury Band and Booker T. Jones with the Drive-By Truckers. Gov't Mule turned in a cover-lade n set of blue-colla r rock opposite of Montreal, whose over-the-t op dance pop was high on theatrics but lacking in the chops department .

Two of the best sets of the entire festival so far came from totally opposite ends of the musical spectrum. I've heard far too long that Wilco is not a great festival act, but their set on Saturday was spectacula r. The Mars Volta absolutely freaked out the Which Stage, setting the scene for Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails' late-night show.

Bruce Springstee n & the E Street Band wrapped up the main stage on Saturday with an epic set that kicked off with "Badlands" and did not stop for the next three hours. The Boss covered tunes from his new album, Working on a Dream, but the highlight of the show was undoubtedl y the fan-reques ted "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town."

Christmas came early at Bonnaroo!!

[Photos by Joe Kendrick]

Notion of "independe nt" gets redefined, sorta.

By Blurt Staff

Semi-big news out of Britain today. Okay, maybe it's not that big. It's not even all that pertinent to folks here in America. But to those of us who do harbor a general fascinatio n with the British music industry, whose chart system in particular has a long, tangled, colorful history, it's still news.

The UK's Official Charts Company today announces that it will re-launch the UK's Official Independen t Charts, along with the addition of two new charts to support independen t labels - brand new Independen t Singles and Albums Breakers Charts. The Independen t Charts - which have had a major re-vamp via a new set of criteria, focusing on independen t ownership - and Breakers Charts will be officially launched on Monday 29th June. 

The Independen t Charts are a 30-year-ol d institutio n in the UK, supporting music from independen tly financed, produced and distribute d artists and labels. This marks the first time in their three decades of history (the charts were first launched in the UK in 1978 by Iain McNay, the chairman of British independen t label, Cherry Red Records), that the UK's Independen t Charts will have a major refresh.

The new look charts, based on new criteria for independen ce; replace the former focus on independen t distributi on. Under the new rules, a download or CD will be eligible for the Official Independen t Charts if it is released on a label which is 50% or more owned by an independen t (non-major ) company, irrespecti ve of the distributi on channel through which it is shipped or delivered. 

They will be accompanie d by the new Independen t Breakers charts. The new Breakers Charts are designed to reflect and bolster music from the independen t sector's newer, developing acts, by remaining open only to artists which have not previously scored a Top 20 hit in the UK - in the first few months of this year, they would have benefited critical darlings including Bon Iver, Friendly Fires, Patrick Wolf and The Horrors.

Preps new album for a September release.

By Fred Mills

Richard Hawley's sixth studio album, "Truelove's Gutter," is set to be released on Mute on September 22nd. It was recorded in Hawley's hometown of Sheffield at Yellow Arch studios.

According to Hawley, it is, thematical ly, his darkest work to date, exploring the idea of people or things that are broken in some way, and the fractured and damaged times in which we live. Arrangemen ts on the album occasional ly feature uncommon instrument ation, such as the megabass waterphone and crystal baschet. "I use a load of odd sounds on this album that are not heard on many other records," says Hawley. "The sounds in my head on a lot of the tracks - I didn't even know what they were called!"

Eccentric instrument s notwithsta nding, the lush but minimal production provides a haunting backdrop to Hawley's unique voice and allows him plenty of space for some outstandin gly beautiful guitar solos. "I wanted it to be a listening experience from start to finish, where you couldn't just pause it and go off and watch Coronation Street or whatever," explains Hawley. "Sonically , it flows. It's not jumping all over the place. It just has a mood that goes through the whole thing."

Track Listing:

1. &nbs p;  As The Dawn Breaks
2. &nbs p;  Open Up The Door
3. &nbs p;  Ashe s on The Fire
4. &nbs p;  Remo rse Code
5. &nbs p;  Don' t Get Hung Up in your Soul
6. &nbs p;  Sold ier On
7. &nbs p;  For Your Lover, Give Some Time
8. &nbs p;  Don' t You Cry

Rather than belabor the point, we'll just let you read all the hype, below, verbatim.

By Blurt Staff

Minotaur, the definitive Pixies' Collector' s Sets, was already an extraordin ary package when it was first announced, but with more content added, it's even better.

Now, weighing in at about 25-pounds with a custom clamshell container that resembles the Monolith from the classic film "2001:  A space Odyssey," new additions to the Limited Edition include Blu-ray and DVD discs that are mastered for 5.1 audio surround sound at 24/192 and 24/96, respective ly, and two-channe l stereo; five, 12-inch albums cut from the original analog tapes and pressed on 180-gram virgin vnyl; a faux fur hardcover 96-page fine art book of Oliver and Larbalesti er's project artwork printed on high-quali ty paper that measures 22 X 14", and two frameable, 48" X 36", double-sid ed, fold-out, four color wall posters.  In addition, all 3000 copies of the Limited Edition sets will be individual ly numbered and hand-signe d by all four members of the Pixies and Vaughan Olliver.

Minotaur's  Limi ted Edition already includes all five of the Pixies' studio albums on 24k gold-plate d CDs and Blu-ray discs, a DVD and Blu-ray of the band's previously unreleased 1991 performanc e at London's Brixton Academy, all of the group's videos, a 54-page book of brand new art created by the award-winn ing and legendary Vaughan Oliver (the graphic designer who created all of the artwork that accompanie d the Pixies' studio albums), and a 22" X 14" frameble Giclee print of a stunning photo taken exclusivel y for Minotaur by Pixies' photograph er Simon Larbalesti er, the photograph er for all of the band's original albums.

Contents for the Deluxe Edition will include all five Pixies studio albums - Come on Pilgrim (198 7), Surfer Rosa (198 8), Doolittle (198 9), Bossanova (199 0), and Trompe le Monde (199 1) - on the following formats:  24K gold-plate d CDs; DVD and Blu-ray discs mastered for 5.1 surround sound at 24/192 and 24/96, respective ly, and two-channe l stereo; a DVD and Blu-ray of the Pixies' 1991 performanc e at London's Brixton Academy, now also mastered for 5.1 surround sound at 24/192 and 24/96 respective ly.

Minotaur will be available for pre-order starting today, June 15, 2009 at www.ainr.com.  The& nbsp;Minotaur Delu xe Edition will retail for $175, while the Minotaur Limi ted Edition will be priced at $495; both will ship directly to the purchaser between late-Septe mber and mid-Octobe r.

"It's beyond my expectatio ns.  I thought it was going to be your typical box set, but it's monstrous, I've never seen anything like it."

-- Pixies' David Lovering

The Pixies have been acclaimed as the most influentia l pioneering band of the late 80s alt/rock movement.  They recorded five studio albums between 1987 and 1991, creating a body of work that spawned many alt/rock radio standards, and influenced countless subsequent bands, including Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Radiohead.

Minotaur was spearheade d by Jeff Anderson, founder of A+R (Artist in Residence) , who has put together expansive and eye-catchi ng collector' s sets for Nine Inch Nails, Beck, and Sigur Ros.  Near ly a year ago, he took the first steps towards what would reunite what some have called the 4AD Records' "dream team" - award-winn ing graphic designer Vaughan Oliver, gifted photograph er Simon Larbalesti er, and the music of the Pixies.  What soon followed was the idea of Vaughan Oliver.

"I know people who used to buy the vinyl records from 4AD, they didn't even know who the band was, they just bought the vinyl so they could have the artwork of Vaughan Oliver." &nbs p; -- Pixies' Kim Deal

After discussing the project with Anderson, Oliver came up with an intriguing idea.  "I said, 'That was then, this is now.  Why don't we do a whole new body of work?  It's all born of the same lyrics and albums -it would be evolving the ideas we had in theorigina l packages.'  I worked with the same photograph er who I worked with back then, Simon Larbalesti er.  If there were a 'fifth Pixie,' it would have been Simon - his work so suited what they were doing.  Simo n's gone out and shot a whole new body of work.  He was a bit panicked at first, he said, 'The old sleeves - with the topless Spanish dancer, the red planet - have become iconic.'  I said to Simon, 'Don't be scared.  Icon s are there to be shot down.  Ther e's the challenge.  You' re 20 years on, you're a better photograph er.  Let' s take all those same inspiratio ns and create a new body of work.'  Subs equently, he's shot some amazing images that I think will surpass what we did first time around."

Now, nearly 20 years after the release of the Pixies final studio album, Oliver, recognized as one of the most innovative graphic designers of the past thirty years, and Larbalesti er are using the same music as inspiratio n, but applying a 21st century perspectiv e to create a complete new body of art and designs for Minotaur's Deluxe and Limited Edition uber-sets - the  oute r casings, CD, vinyl and DVD sleeves and the inside boxes that house them, the four-color , hard- and soft-bound fine art books, the two oversized wall posters and more.

Oliver, working as designer-i n-residenc e at the UK's University of the Creative Arts in Epsom, Surrey, enlisted some of his students to work on Minotaur.  The students experiment ed with typography in a spatial and expressive fashion using work as image, informatio n as illustrati on, using a wide variety of techniques and materials (including constructi on nails), to create stunning and unconventi onal graphic responses to Larbalesti er's photograph y.  Oliv er also had one of his students sketch images from the original album covers, creating the only reference to the original artwork.

Oliver has given  ;Minotaur a total feel, a total look, rather than a disparate quality of putting into one box five album packages that were designed at different times under varying circumstan ces.

"This was an opportunit y for us to go back through the themes and the ideas that we'd covered at the time of the five albums, and treat them in a deeper, more substantia l way," explained Oliver.  "The re was the benefit of retrospect ."

Additional ly, Larbalesti er approached his photograph y from a completely different perspectiv e for Minotaur than he did for the original Pixies' album covers.  Expl ained Oliver, "For Minotaur, Simon used very different techniques .  For his original photograph s, he shot exclusivel y in a studio using a large format camera for what he called a 'forensic approach,' everything was very controlled .  This time, he used a point-and- shoot digital camera and shot mostly on location.  His new work is full of power, it carries a very strong visual poetry.  Simo n has the ability to imbue the inanimate with emotion, with sensibilit ies."

"We realize we have a unique relationsh ip with Vaughan.  He's the only person outside of the band who has ever been allowed to represent the band in any way, and we've given him carte blanche to do that." -- Frank Black

Video press release for the box:

It's like 1966 all over again, baby!

By Blurt Staff

Three of the premiere bands of the Los Angeles psychedeli c era of the late '60s will join forces August 4-18 for the California '66 Revue tour. The Electric Prunes, Love and Sky "Sunlight" Saxon of the Seeds will bring the spirit of Sunset Strip in the late '60s up the East Coast and into Canada and the Midwest. It's dubbed the California '66 Revue.
 

"This is an idea that James Lowe and Mark Tulin of the Electric Prunes had - to gather three influentia l '60s bands from the Los Angeles area together to create the excitement that was the L.A. music scene in 1966," said tour promoter Patrick Hand, in a statement. "When L.A. veterans Sky Saxon and Love signed on, California '66 was on the road. I've come to think that 1966 was really the year that rock music peaked, before the excesses of stadium venues and art rock, and these musicians were a big part of that."

 
The current incarnatio n of Love is led by original guitarist Johnny Echols, lead guitarist in the classic 1966-68 lineup, and will be backed by Baby Lemonade, the latter-day psychedeli c L.A. band that accompanie d Love founding member Arthur Lee from 1993 until his 2005 death. Sky Saxon brings his trippy vocal presentati on that gave the world "Pushin' Too Hard," "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" and more. The Electric Prunes continue to be fronted by original members James Lowe (vocals) and Mark Tulin (bass).

 
The tour begins in August 4 at Johnny Brenda's in Philadelph ia and ends on August 18 at the Birchmere outside Washington , D.C. Other tour cities include New York, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelph ia and Pittsburgh .

 
"We wanted to do a few shows in intimate venues to see if there is still interest in this genre, and we've already passed that test," added Hand. "If the public is as enthusiast ic in attending the shows as the clubs have been in booking, then I have no doubt we'll be back on the road again, in the West Coast and the U.K."

Tour Dates:

Tuesday, August 4 PHILADELPH IA, PA Johnny Brenda's
Wednesday, August 5 HOBOKEN, NJ  Maxw ell's
Thursday, August 6 FAIRFIELD, CT Quick Center; benefit for WPKN-FM radio.
Friday, August 7  CAMB RIDGE, MA  Midd le East
Saturday, August 8 MONTREAL, QU  Thea ter Plaza; affiliated with the "Teenbeat Takeover Woolly Weekend."
Sunday, August 9 NEW YORK, NY  B.B. King's
Monday, August 10  FOXB ORO, MA  Patr iot's Place
Wednesday, August 12 CHICAGO, IL  Doub le Door
Thursday, August 13 MILWAUKEE, WI Shank Hall
Friday, August 14 TORONTO, ON  Lee' s Palace
Saturday, August 15 DETROIT, MI  The Magic Bag
Sunday, August 16 CLEVELAND, OH  Beac hland Ballroom
Monday, August 17 PITTSBURGH , PA  Hard Rock Café ;
Tuesday, August 18 ALEXANDRIA , VA (DC AREA)  Birc hmere

[Pictured: Sky Saxon (top), Electric Prunes (middle), Love (bottom)
 

We just like thes two photos (thanks to Joe Kendrick for 'em both) as they kinda capture the 'roo spirit. Hope everyone had a good time this year and see you next year...

Band puts together new project that doesn't involve memoir-pen ning tell-all bassist.

By Blurt Staff

So it's been two years since those New Order breakup rumors started, rumors fueled primarily by the fact that one of the founding members, bassist Peter Hook, said the band had broken up. Well, three of the other N.O. members are finally getting around to confirming the news: today in an interview published by the BBC, guitarist/ vocalist Bernard Sumner, drummer Stephen Morris and guitarist Phil Cunningham announced that they've recorded an album, sans Hook, featuring Blur's Alex James taking Hooky's place and also pitching in on guitar.

They're calling the project, rather unimaginat ively, Bad Lieutenant , and the as-yet-unt itled album is due in October. Other unspecifie d musicians will also be in the band and touring will commence later this year.

Sumner told the BBC, "I'm very proud of it, it's a very good album. It's pretty guitary too because we've got three guitarists in the band."

He was cryptic, however, about the split, saying tersely, "We split into two factions, there's me Steve and Phil. The other is Peter Hook. Basically he left the band, that's all I want to say about it."

Meanwhile, if you want a hilarious read, check out this Pitchfork article about Hook's upcoming memoir in which he dishes, sometimes perhaps too explicitly , about all the misadventu res he's had and misanthrop es he's encountere d over the course of his three decades-pl us career. Titled Hacienda: How Not to Run a Club, it's theoretica lly due in October from Simon & Schuster, but as you'll see, the potentiall y libelous nature of some of its content may derail the whole project.

Here's our favorite bit:

74 Might not MXXX XXXXX object to this? I appreciate the author says he is great friends with XX, but on the other hand he does call him an obnoxious bastard! He knows XX whereas I do not. From a legal point of view, it is defamatory to repeat a story that he breakfaste d on speed when it is admitted that it is not in fact true, or at any rate, that XX denies it. He might laugh this off but what if he does not? Did he regularly take speed? I appreciate this may seem a little pompous and unworldly to the author, but I am seeing people from the point of view of them being potential complainan ts and I know nothing about their background . What I can tell the author is that if they do complain and do not find the joke funny, we have a distinct problem.

Gordon Gano steps out with a Ryans  rec...

By Blurt Staff

Gordon Gano and his band the Violent Femmes helped define post-punk' s nerdy cool wile crafting himself into one of rock's finest singer/son gwriters.  For the first time in seven years, he is emerging again to offer his bitterswee t tunes to a whole new generation of fans.  Gordon Gano & The Ryans releasing Under the Sun, a collaborat ion between Gano and Brendan & Billy Ryan, to be released September 15^th 2009.

In 1983, Gordon Gano and his band the Violent Femmes released their self-title d debut, still believed to be by many critics one of the best rock albums of our time. Described as, "The Grandfathe rs of folk-punk...rock's dadaist improviser s...the sonic personific ation of anxiety...blues cubists," and "...spokesmen for misfits," the band would go on to define 80s teen angst and be the unlikely poster children for the still nascent alternativ e music movement, making it clear there was as yet untapped powerful dimension of artists and consumers lurking beneath the current pop mainstream of the day. Violent Femmes is famously the first album to ever gain platinum status without ever charting on the Billboard Top 100. To date, the album has sold nearly two million copies

The music that inspired his collaborat ion with the Ryan brothers spawned during fertile sessions in the café ;'s, bars and laundromat s of New York City's West Village. Known for their own band The Bogmen and a healthy film score career (Fever Pitch, The Heartbreak Kid, MO) Brendan and Billy Ryan bring musicality and new color to Gordon's visceral lyricism and signature adenoidal drawl. A filled-out next chapter to the music of the Femmes, Under the Sun is the music of a mature band, a band made of men not boys, men who have supplanted wonder for angst, controlled passion for reckless abandon. But any album that contains the lyric "I was crappin' and a-nappin' " can't be all business. Gano-ian playfulnes s surely makes more than one appearance .

Largely record at the Carriage House in Stamford, CT, Under the Sun features Gordon Gano on vocals/gui tar/violin , Brendan Ryan on keyboards/ accordion/ horns, Billy Ryan on guitar/bac king vocals, Frank Ferrer (Guns N' Roses, Psychedeli c Furs) on drums and Lonnie Hillyer (Maggie's Dream, Bernie Worrell) on bass. Phil Palazzolo (The New Pornograph ers, Neko Case) engineers and mixes.

A direct inspiratio n to today's indie folk and pop artists alike (The Arcade Fire and Gnarls Barkley both regularly perform Gano's songs, the latter recording ‘Gon e Daddy Gone' for their latest album St. Elsewhere) Under the Sun is only Gordon's second solo offering and surely his most cohesive. The ever-swimm ing shark, Gano and company move toward another chapter in the canon of rock.

A trailer for “Blo od Into Wine,&rdqu o; a documentar y about Tool/Pusci fer front man Maynard James Keenan and his vineyard partner Eric Glomski and their quest to bring the wine industry to Arizona&rs quo;s  ;Verde Valley.

Up to their belly buttons with good, clean, American music.

By Blurt Staff

Tortoise's new album and first full-lengt h release of all new material in over five years, Beacons of Ancestorsh ip, is out next week, June 23rd on Thrill Jockey. As previously reported, the band will be playing select cities this summer in the week surroundin g their performanc e at the Pitchfork Music Festival. Additional ly, Tortoise has added a week of shows throughout the midwest to their fall schedule. A complete list of dates is below.

Watch for the new issue of BLURT, due on newsstands in a couple of weeks, with a review of the album. We note, in part, "What makes this work are the brilliant compositio ns and group mentality. There isn't a classic "solo" to be found (maybe inside "Prepare Your Coffin"); instead, we are transporte d to some futuristic space club where music is created by cyborg machines with human hearts." 

As the label sagely advises us, "Almost alone among bands of the last two decades, Tortoise remains unique as one of the rare bands who outgrew their early influences and instead became one of the markers by which other groups are now measured. Resisting easy metaphors and analogies, while spawning countless followers and imitators, Tortoise truly sound like themselves and no one else. Witnessing the element of group play between the five band members in a live setting and their adept skills at playing interchang ing instrument s to create this sound is truly an inspiring experience and one that should not be missed!"

Tour Dates:

Sat. July 11 -- Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour
Mon. July 13 -- San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
Wed. July 15 -- Austin, TX @ The Mohawk
Fri. July 17 -- Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
Sun. July 19 -- Washington , DC @ Black Cat
Mon. July 20 -- Philadelph ia, PA @ Sanctuary at First Unitarian Church
Tue. July 21 -- New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge
Fri. July 24 -- Tokyo, Japan @ Fuji Rock Festival
Fri. Aug. 14 -- St. Malo, France @ La Route Du Rock
Sat. Aug. 22 -- Hasselt, Belgium @ Pukkelpop
Tue. Sep. 29 -- St. Louis, MO @ Firebird
Wed. Sep. 30 -- Kansas City, MO @ Beaumont Club
Thu. Oct. 1 -- Omaha, NE @ Waiting Room
Fri. Oct. 2 -- Minneapoli s, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center
Sat. Oct. 3 -- Dubuque, IA @ Voices Warehouse Gallery

[Photo Credit: Jim Newberry]

Get in on the Coppola deal while you're at it, fans.

By Blurt Staff

Antony and the Johnsons will release the "Aeon"/"Cr azy in Love" double A-side single in the US  on August 4th on CD and 7" through Secretly Canadian and on August 3rd in Europe and UK on 7" through Rough Trade. "Aeon" is taken from "The Crying Light" which debuted at #1 on the European chart. The band appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman for the song's television debut. Antony and the Johnsons' earnest and impassione d cover of Beyonce's "Crazy in Love", a long time live favorite, is being released officially for the first time.

The band is currently on a European leg of their world tour.  The summer shows see them playing with some of the most esteemed symphonies in Europe in prestigiou s venues including La Carre in Amsterdam, Manchester Opera House, and the Grand Theatre Romain de Fouviere in Lyon (dates below).

Those who preorder the 7" of "Aeon" will receive a free copy of Zoetrope Magazine. The issue was curated by Antony and features his artwork. Zoetrope is Francis Ford Coppola's quarterly magazine devoted to the best new short-fict ion and one-act plays.

Summer Live Dates:

Sunday June 21st, 2009
Amsterdam, NL - Holland Festival @ Royal Carr&eacut e; Theatre with The Metropole Orchestra

Monday June 22nd, 2009
Amsterdam, NL - Holland Festival @ Royal Carr&eacut e; Theatre with The Metropole Orchestra

Monday June 29th, 2009
Athens, GR @ The Badminton Theatre with The Orchestra of Contempora ry Music of the Hellenic Broadcasti ng Company

Friday & Saturday July 3rd & 4th, 2009
Manchester , UK - Manchester Internatio nal Festival @ Manchester Opera House with The Manchester Camerata

Tuesday July 7th, 2009
Madrid, ES - Teatro Circo Price

Thursday July 9th, 2009
Paris, FR - Cite' de la Music @ Salle Pleyel

Wednesday July 15th, 2009
Montreux, CH - Montreux Jazz Festival @ Miles Davis Hall with The Montreux Orchestra

Friday July 17th, 2009
Luzern, CH - Blue Balls Festival @ KKL Concert Hall with The Montreux Orchestra

Tuesday July 21st, 2009
Lyon, France - Les Nuits De Fourviere @ Grand Theatre Romain with Opera de Lyon Orchestra

Tuesday July 28th, 2009
Rome, IT @ Cavea at Il Parco della Musica with Roma Sinfoniett a

Saturday August 1st, 2009
Turin, IT @ Reggia Venaria Reale with Filarmonic a '900 of the Royal Theatre in Turin

Wednesday August 5th, 2009
Copenhagen , DK @ DR Concerthou se with The Danish National Chamber Orchestra

Sunday August 9th, 2009
Oslo, NO - Oslo Jazz Festival @ The Oslo Opera House with The Oslo Opera House Orchestra

Friday August 14th, 2009
Gothenburg , SE - Way Out West Festival @ The Flamingo Stage with The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra

Ethan Rose and Laura Gibson, Big Pink, Yoko Ono, Deastro, Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens, Pete Yorn, Tiny Vipers, Sean Bones

By Blurt Staff

It's officially New Music Tuesday at BLURT, which means, quite logically, you can hear some new music today (Tuesday, duh) at BLURT.

What, pray tell, is the new music in question? Glad you asked! Glom onto these ace MP3s:

Ethan Rose And Laura Gibson - Sun (from The PDX Pop Now! Compilatio n)

The Big Pink - Velvet (from Stop The World, 4AD Records)

Yoko Ono - The Sun Is Down (Cornelius Mix) (from Between My Head And The Sky, Rykodisk)

Deastro -Grower (from Grower EP, Ghostly Internatio nal)

 Naomi Shelton And The Gospel Queens - What Have You Done? (from What Have You Done My Brother, Daptone Records)

Pete Yorn - Don't Wanna Cry (from Back And Fourth, Columbia Records)

 Tiny Vipers - Dreamer (from Life On Earth, Subpop)

Sean Bones - Dancehall (from Rings, Frenchkiss Records)

Just click on the BLURT Radio icon on the right-hand side of our homepage and wait for the music player to pop up in a separate window. Then enjoy some fine listening!

And check back every Tuesday, same BLURT-time , same BLURT-chan nel, to hear the latest streaming goodies, all personally netted, vetted and hand-selec ted by our trained staff of highly evolved primates. Why? Because at BLURT, we care.

Releasing his new album, one MP3 at a time....

By Blurt Staff

Everyone's favorite one-man-ba nd, Keller Williams, releases his forthcomin g album, ODD, through his brand new, fan-orient ed download feature, ‘The Once A Week Freek'. Visit ‘The Once A Week Freek" at www.kellerwill iams.net  to download a new song from ODD each week, available in the sequence that the songs will appear on the album - before its official release on August 12, 2009. Beginning August 12, full digital copies and physical copies of ODD will available for purchase at www.kellerwill iams.net  and at Keller's live shows. 

 In addition to weekly song features from ODD, those who choose to purchase and download the album one track at a time, may also receive unexpected and spontaneou s bonus content hand-picke d by Keller himself. Keller hits the road this summer - both on his own and co-headlin ing a short run of shows with Dark Star Orchestra.

Long after the new tracks from ODD are released via ‘The Once A Week Freek', visit back weekly for downloads of never-befo re-heard original studio recorded songs, live gems from the archives, versions of songs recorded as recent as last night's show, and more. "I'm truly excited to share with you the ton of music that I have been sitting on for so long," says Williams. "The more support we get from this project, the more selections will be available every week."

Tour Dates:

June 26 Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center Great Barrington MA
June 27 Tarrytown Music Hall Tarrytown NY
July 2 ROTHBURY Rothbury MI
July 5 Nelson Ledges Quarry Park Garrettsvi lle OH
July 9 All Good Music Festival Masontown WV
July 11 Governor's Island New York NY w/ Dark Star Orchestra
July 16 Artpark Lewiston NY w/ Dark Star Orchestra
July 17 Saranac Brewery Saranac NY w/ Dark Star Orchestra
July 18 Vasa Park Mt. Olive NJ w/ Dark Star Orchestra
July 24 Gathering of the Vibes Bridgeport CT Keller Williams and The MD'S
August 1 Celebrate Virginia Fredericks burg VA
August 6 Bottle and Cork Dewey Beach DE
August 12 Spud Drive In Driggs, ID w/ Dark Star Orchestra
August 14 Festival @ Sandpoint at Memorial Field Sandpoint ID
August 15 Frontier Ranch (Shamy Bash) Frontier Ranch Music Center Pataskala, OH
August 21-22 Mishawaka Bellevue CO
August 29 Music on the Mountainto p ~ The Old Fairground s Boone NC
September 7 Bumbershoo t Festival Mural Amphitheat re Seattle WA  
October 8 Sherman Theater Stroudsbur g PA
October 17 Park West Chicago IL
October 23 Englert Theatre Iowa City IA

Groundbrea king mixmaster unveils third album in September. This has gotta be our favorite album cover of the year. Can you say "sleeve face"?

By Blurt Staff

Joakim Bouaziz, in 2007, issued the album Monsters & Silly Songs, and its fusion of disco, post-punk and pop that became something of an instant cult classic. You may know him for his remixes of artists like Cut Copy, Simian Mobile Disco, Annie, Alter Ego,  DJ Mehdi, Royksopp and Poni Hoax. You may know him from his years behind the scenes at Tigersushi , the iconic Parisian label at the crossroads between post-punk, dance music and the avant-gard e.

Now, over the course of his third album, Milky Ways (due Sept. 15 from the good folks at !K7), Joakim and his band mates fold together bits of psychedeli a, old-school computer music, exotica, electro-po p, blues, new wave, New Pop, Krautrock and more into an expansive, remarkably coherent album that refuses to be reduced to a single genre, much less a single idea. This is no pastiche: these are proper songs, and the whole album follows the kind of overall arc that's rare in a contempora ry longplayer . "Spiders" is the first single off the album, with six delirious minutes of Italo arpeggios, fluid vocal harmonies, acid-house snares and an extended Afro-pop breakdown that perfectly sum up the record's madcap, magpie spirit.

Where Monsters & Silly Songs reflected its tumultuous circumstan ces, making Milky Ways was a lot more leisurely. Having honed their act on the road, Joakim and his bandmates - formerly the Ectoplasmi c Band, now dubbed "the Disco" - returned to the studio to jam and flesh out fleeting ideas into fully-fled ged songs. Joakim spent the following year editing and arranging the songs and album into their final shape. A few tracks - "Travel In Vain", "King Kong Is Dead" - remain essentiall y unadultera ted, capturing the live band in full flame. Others, with their complex, interlocki ng layers of guitars, synthesize rs, beats and vocals, reflect Joakim's role as architect - but the final form is as surprising to him as anyone. "Whenever I finish a record, I always think, Ok, this is what I don't like, let's do something different next time. This time I was thinking of doing something simpler and more direct than the previous album, but I don't think it turned out that way. When I was doing the mastering, I thought, Whoa, this is quite intense. It's like at one point the creation process escapes my control."

Much of the album takes its shape from the band's experience as a live unit, having limbered up and liberated itself from excessive fealty to the recordings . "I never like to play the song exactly as it is on the record," says Joakim. "We try to have a way of adapting the songs that gives us more freedom to improvise, or allow us to improvise, depending on the situation. Most of the time the live versions are simpler and more rock - it's quite noisy sometimes." That would explain the origins of "Back to Wilderness ," whose flailing power chords sound like a tribute to Earth or Sunn 0))). What the squeals of feedback don't warn you is just how tuneful the record is. Loping grooves give way to scraps of melody that recall Captain Beefheart or Durutti Column, and "Spiders," "Medusa" and "Little Girl" all feature billowing, ecstatic vocals that explode like dandelions -"Crystal choruses," Joakim calls them, citing his admiration for Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective .

"The basic inspiratio n for the album was the idea of youth and teen spirit in our consumer-b ased society," explains Joakim, "put in parallel with the idea of wilderness , or lost paradise. As if these two things - wilderness & youth - were mythical states." But the album - eager, starry-eye d, a little impish, stubborn and shy in equal measure - hangs delicately between nostalgia and its refusal. With his grounding in post-punk and disco, Joakim's music has always made clear its debt to the past. Still, Joakim's approach is almost curatorial , sifting through the archives to find inspiratio n in false starts and detours, outmoded methods and outdated technology .

"I think that most (young) artists today are like archaeolog ists, especially in graphics and contempora ry art," says Joakim. "You can't compete with history, with what's been done. You need to use that, in a more or less disrespect ful way, to make new things. You can't just say, let's do something new and forget everything before, it's impossible and very pretentiou s. Especially when all that music is available everywhere all the time. I'm addicted to music and I listen to a lot of very different things, and whenever I hear something interestin g in a song I think, Let's try it, put it with something completely different and see what it does, like a mad scientist..."



Track listing:

1. Back To Wilderness
2. Ad Me
3. Fly Like An Apple
4. Spiders
5. Glossy Papers
6. Medusa
7. Love & Romance & A Special Person
8. King Kong Is Dead
9. Travel In Vain
10. Little Girl

Legendary Stax band 24-Carat Black to have newly-disc overed material issued.

By Blurt Staff

In 1973 the Stax label issued Ghetto: Misfortune 's Wealth by 24-Carat Black, and even though it was never a big commercial hit, it went on to become a fount of sampling gold when hip-hop hit years later, with the likes of Jay-Z, Eric B & Rakim, Digable Planets, Nas and many others tapping it for use in their own hits.

As archivist Oliver Wang, writing at the Soul Sides website, explained in a 2004 look at the album, it "has been sampled, extensivel y, but it is so much more than that. Ghetto: Misfortune 's Wealth is an extraordin ary soul album - so diverse in sound that you'd swear it was two or three LPs combined into one... from the horn-fille d flair of "Mother's Day," to the sparse, funky kick of "Foodstamp s," to these two beauties: the title cut and the "24 Carat Theme".... This album actually incorporat es themes and ideas; it's a concept album, with each song introducin g additional commentary on the state of Black life in the ghetto. Truly, an awesome album whose greatness goes far beyond just its value to funk fiends."

One album, and the band was outta there, and while funk/soul buffs long suspected a followup had been recorded, due to a number of factors the tapes were never released, and sat in the basement of the group's engineer and keyboardis t.

But now, the good folks at Numero Group have uncovered this slice of forgotten American soul music that has been lost for over a quarter of a century: Gone: The Promises of Yesterday are the last remaining songs by 24-Carat Black.

As the label advises us, Ghetto: Misfortune 's Wealth "provided a bleak worldview in contrast to many of their label mates, or much of the world for that matter... telling tales of the grim realities of inner-city existence." For this new record, gone are the message-la den songs that they were known for, but these tales of love, either professed or lost, retain the uncannily catchy bass lines and haunting melodies that made the group famous in the first place."

Incidental ly, if you want to find out more about that "first place" stuff, the original album is available on LP at Dusty Groove or on CD at Amazon.com .

First new studio album in 35 years.

By Blurt Staff

Okay, Tropicalia fans and psychedeli a heads, this is cool: According to Pitchfork, the legendary Os Mutantes will be issuing their first new studio album in 35 years - on the Anti- label, no less. If being on the same roster as Tom Waits, Neko Case, Nick Cave and Bettye LaVette sounds cool to you, throw your arms in the air and shout "Oh yeah!"

(Speaking of LaVette, we have a review of her new iTunes digital EP set to run on the site this week...)

The album, titled Haih, drops September 8, and it reportedly finds main Mutantes man Sergio Dias collaborat ing with Tom Ze and Jorge Ben. More details as we get ‘em. Meanwhile, pull out that live Mutantes ao Vivo album that Luaka Bop issued in 2007 and start those anticipati on engines running...

Os Mutantes Documentar y trailer:

As always, taking our cue from Seth Godin... the idea being that what unites us is more than music, an axiology that extends from the music to our music-love r lifestyles : how we vote, what we drive, what we eat, what we wear, etc. The point is, we're a tribe connected by a vibe... hence, this month's compendium :

1. Good Pairings

Simply put:

... and my guess is, many of you do as well. Which is why we are implementi ng something new on The Daily Dose starting next month. A wine and cheese pick each day to go with each pair of songs, stemming from our idea of making music tactile again. Spearheadi ng the tasty tastemakin g will be Chris Stamey bassist and Whole Foods specialty cheese buyer/wine expert John Chumbris. Cheers!

2. Good Filters

Naturally, that's in part what we aim to be with The Daily Dose. A trusted resource to cut through the noise for you. SmartBrief on Social Media has the same goal (they make my life easier every single day) and were nice enough to publish our piece on the value of emotional value last week. Invaluable exposure. Thanks Smarties! [...]

A Triple-A radio programmin g veteran, Kate has served as Music Director of the Loft at XM, Midday Host at WYEP, Evening Host at both WNCS and WUIN, as well as Content Supervisor for Pump Audio. Currently, she's the CEO of Outlandos Music, a new-music discovery service for grown-ups. Kate has been nationally recognized for her ardent presentati on of music and her ability to champion talented, compelling artists.

Judging by those outfits, above, you're guaranteed some extraordin arily tasteful music!

By Blurt Staff

Blurt's favorite band, the Kings Of Leon have announced they are launching "a dynamic new label" as a co-venture with music publisher Bug Music. Details of the first release on the Windswept imprint, The Features "Some Kind of Salvation, " will be announced next week.

The terms of the deal allow the Kings Of Leon to sign and develop artists with Bug Music, in the spirit of discoverin g dynamic artists that are committed as a band and writing extraordin ary music. The first artist signed is fellow Tennessee brethren The Features, a band with a decade of songs and touring experience . Longtime supporters of The Features, Kings Of Leon previously toured the UK and US with the band in 2007.

"Caleb, Jared, Matthew and Nathan are extraordin ary tastemaker s and constantly absorbing new sounds from all over the world," said Bug Music CEO John Rudolph, in a statement. "The honesty in their music is what draws them to genuine artists. We are excited about developing new artists together as Bug Music continues to innovate and challenge the industry's traditiona l thinking of a publisher."

Hey, we are all about extraordin ary tastemaker s!

"Some Kind of Salvation" was produced by Grammy-Awa rd winning Jacquire King (Modest Mouse, Kings Of Leon, Tom Waits, Sea Wolf) and Brian Carter at his Paradox Production facility in Murfreesbo ro, TN. The band features Matthew Pelham (guitar,le ad vocals), Roger Dabbs (bass guitar), Mark Bond (keyboards ) and Rollum Haas (drums).

Meanwhile, dear Blurt consumers, read our unintentio nally hilarious interview with Caleb of the Kings HERE.

Not to mention Testament!

By Blurt Staff

Rodrigo y Gabriela will release their new studio album, entitled 11:11, on Tuesday September 8^th, via ATO. 11:11 was recorded in Ixtapa, Mexico and produced by Rodrigo y Gabriela, with John Leckie co-produci ng two of the tracks. The album was mixed in Wales and London by Colin Richardson , best known for his work with Slipknot and Trivium.

Comprising 11 new original compositio ns, 11:11 is the band's personal "Gracias" to 11 musicians, both past and present, who have inspired them along the way. Alex Skolnick of metal gods Testament guests on the album, as do widely respected acoustic veterans Strunz & Farah.

11:11 is the long awaited follow up to their 2006 self-title d debut which has so far enjoyed worldwide sales in excess of half a million albums.

11:11 tracklisti ng:

Hanuman&nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp;   
Buster Voodoo&nbs p;  
Triveni&nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp;  
Logos  ; &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp; & nbsp;  ;   
Santo Domingo&nb sp; & nbsp;  ;   
Master Maqui (with guests Strunz & Farah)  
Savitri&nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp; & nbsp;  ;  &nbs p;   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;  
Hora Zero     &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;  
Chac Mool   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p;  
Atman (with guest Alex Skolnick)& nbsp;  ; &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp; & nbsp;

11:11  ; &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp; & nbsp;  ;   

Rodrigo y Gabriela will be bringing their inimitable live show to the following venues in the coming months:


June
28 - Summerfest , Milwaukee, USA

September
16 &n bsp;  New York City, NY &n bsp;   Terminal 5 &nb sp;  
19 &n bsp;  Denv er, CO &n bsp;   Temple Hoyne Buelle Theatre&nb sp;   
21  &nbs p;  Seat tle, WA &n bsp;  Moor e Theatre&nb sp;   
23 &n bsp;  Oakl and, CA &n bsp;  Fox Theater&nb sp;   
25 &n bsp;  Los Angeles, CA &n bsp;  Orph eum Theatre&nb sp; & nbsp;


More North American dates will be announced shortly.

The audacity of twang...

By Blurt Staff

Bob Bogle, who co-founded the best selling rock instrument al band in music history the Ventures after meeting Don Wilson while trying to buy a used car from a dealership owned by his father in 1958, passed away on Sunday at the age of 75 after long battle with Non-Hodgki n Lymphoma.

Although he hasn't played live with the band in four years, he remained active in recording and producing. Bogle lived long enough to see the band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March, 2008 and to celebrate the 50^th anniversar y of the group's founding in April of this year.

Bogle became ill over the weekend and was taken to a hospital, where he died, according to Wilson, who was his friend and musical collaborat or for more than 50 years.

"That's when we started working together," Wilson said about meeting at his dad's used car lot. "And then we found out that we each knew a few chords on the guitar, you know, and we had a lot of free time on our hands. But neither of us owned a guitar."

The Ventures scored their first hit with their version of the song, "Walk, Don't Run," in 1960. One of the most influentia l songs in rock history, it sparked a remarkable run that saw the Ventures chart with 38 albums from 1960 to 1972, selling more than 100 million records, becoming major superstars in Japan and all over the world. Their hits included "Perfidia, " "Telstar/T he Lonely Bull" and the theme from TV's Hawaii Five-O.

Among their fans was Creedence Clearwater Revival's John Fogerty, who inducted the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, saying, "‘Wa lk, Don't Run' started a whole new movement in rock and roll. The sound of it became ‘sur f music,' and the audacity of it empowered guitarists everywhere . Every guitar player on this planet knows what I'm talking about."

Though Nokie Edwards eventually became the Ventures' lead guitarist, it was Bogle who establishe d the template for the band's influentia l sound, using the vibrato (or whammy bar) in a totally unique way.

Arrangemen ts for a private funeral service are for this Friday, June 19th. He is survived by his beloved wife Yumi, brothers Clarence, Dennis and Curtis, his sister Sybil, his children Gary, Mike, Paul, Kathy, Randy and Brandon, and his grandchild ren and great-gran dchildren.

Don't forget that limited edition single either, fans.

By Blurt Staff

Modest Mouse will be launching a late summer tour of North America. The outing is currently set at 14 dates, including festival appearance s on August 28 at San Diego Street Scene, August 30 at Outside Lands, and the final confirmed show on September 7 at Bumbershoo t.

The trek kicks off on August 17 at Halifax Forum Arena in Halifax, NS, and includes stops on August 21 at Sound Academy in Toronto, ON; August 25 at Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, IL; September 2 at Fillmore Auditorium in Denver, CO; and September 5 at the Knitting Factory in Spokane, WA.

In other news, "The Autumn Beds" limited edition numbered 7" vinyl single featuring B-side Whale Song will be available starting June 23rd. Go to www.recordstor eday.com for a listing of stores carrying the vinyl.

Tour Dates:

Mon, 08/17/2009 Halifax, NS, Canada Forum Multipurpo se Room

Wed, 08/19/2009 Montreal, QC, Canada Metropolis

Thu, 08/20/2009 Kingston, ON, Canada Ale House

Fri, 08/21/2009 Toronto, ON, Canada Sound Academy

Mon, 08/24/2009 Columbus, OH Lifestyle Pavilion  

Tue, 08/25/2009 Chicago, IL Aragon Ballroom

Fri, 08/28/2009 San Diego, CA Street Scene

Sun, 08/30/2009 San Francisco, CA Outside Lands

Tue, 09/01/2009 Salt Lake City, UT In The Venue

Wed, 09/02/2009 Denver, CO Fillmore Auditorium

Thu, 09/03/2009 Billings, MT Alberta Blair Theater

Fri, 09/04/2009 Missoula, MT Wilma Theater

Sat, 09/05/2009 Spokane, WA Knitting Factory

Mon, 09/07/2009 Seattle, WA Bumbershoo t

There is something impressive about a band that's managed to stay together for two decades, without the help of radio airplay, a single MTV appearance or even a crummy 30-second ipod commercial .

New Jersey's Bouncing Souls, along with a handful of brethren on both coasts, helped punk rock bridge the lean times between the late 80's, through the pop-punk explosion of the mid-90's and up to the current state of the genre. The band has always been fiercely independen t, holding true to the DIY ethics of the movement's founding fathers, but has still managed to record some of the catchiest punk rock songs since the Ramones. 

Front man Greg Attonito took some time recently to entertain a handful of questions about the band's legacy, the occasional thoughts of splitting up and what's next for the Bouncing Souls.

So 20 years. How have you guys been able to stay together for so long?

It's been hell, man. Those guys never shower! Just kidding. We love the music, we love performing , we love to get people stoked on music and life, and we love the adventure. Those things always outweighed whatever difficulti es we have had to face.

During that time, did t he band  ever think about calling it quits?

I have thought about it. More seriously sometimes than others. I think I somehow realized that I will always be a Bouncing Soul whether I like it or not. Ha! So, it was a matter of making things work personally and with the whole situation at any given time in those 20 years. Constant adjustment s need to be made and sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's not so easy.

Do you have plans to make the 20th anniversar y series of singles you've been releasing all year available on one complete CD?

Yes. We are talking about how and when we will release it now. We will let the world know when we know. It will be coming out on Chunksaah (Records).  It's just a matter of when.

You're playing Warped again this summer - how many times does that make it for you?

This is always fun: part of ‘97, ‘98, all of ‘99, ‘01, ‘04, ‘06 and ‘08... whew!  ;

What's the best and worst thing about playing Warped?

The best thing is spending some quality time with a broad scope of people and musicians that are on the tour. We are an extended family on the Warped tour so it is kind of like going to a summer camp/famil y BBQ where everybody knows you and is looking forward to seeing you. The worst thing about is when you are on the entire tour. It's a long, long tour, but this year we are on it for 16 shows...ah perfect.

I'm assuming you get slipped CDs all the time by young bands. Do you listen to them? Have you ever discovered any great bands that way?

I listen to them sometimes. I have not been blown away by any that I can remember. &nbs p;

Have your musical influences changed much in the past 20 years?

They have broadened. I'm open to more and more music all the time and the way I listen to music has changed. Shanti, my wife, bought a two dollar record set in a thrift store that is amazing. It is a four record set that was made for radio stations to play in 1977. It's the top 50 number one songs of 1977 complete with Casey Kasem's voice introducin g the songs with little anecdotes etc. To me, it was incredible to listen to because it was like I was instantly transporte d to the shotgun seat of my Dad's Monte Carlo in 1977. But now all those songs sound totally different to me. I hear all the instrument s, the performanc es, and the production quality of them. It's really cool...so yes musical influences are always changing and evolving with new music I hear and music from the past.

. 

Ov the paradox of light at the heart of the darkness, from the King of Pain himself...

By Blurt Staff

Wow... some press releases that get slipped over the BLURT transom are just so irresistib le, in a shooting-d ucks-in-a- barrel sense, that they send collective shivers of delight through we staffers. Suffice to say, on a day when neither Courtney Love nor Trent Reznor appears to be having a meltdown of any sort, it's wonderful to be able to share this with you, gentle BLURT readers....

***

This fall, Sting will release a new album dedicated to his favorite season - Winter - a season which has inspired countless songwriter s over the centuries and produced a wealth of music exploring all of its many guises. "If On a Winter's Night..." presents an arc of songs that conjures the season of spirits, resulting in a haunting, spiritual and reflective musical journey. &nbs p;   

The album arrives October 27 from classical label Deutsche Grammophon .

"The theme of winter is rich in inspiratio n and material," comments Sting; "by filtering all of these disparate styles into one album I hope we have created something refreshing and new."  He continues, "Our ancestors celebrated the paradox of light at the heart of the darkness, and the consequent miracle of rebirth and the regenerati on of the seasons."  

In collaborat ion with esteemed producer and arranger, Robert Sadin, "If On a Winter's Night..." features traditiona l music of the British Isles as its starting point. Sting and guest musicians interpret a stirring collection of songs, carols, and lullabies including The Snow it Melts the Soonest (tradition al Newcastle ballad),&n bsp; A Soalin' (tradition al English "begging" song) Gabriel's Message (14th century carol), Balulalow (lullaby by Peter Warlock) and Now Winter Comes Slowly (Henry Purcell).

Two of Sting's own compositio ns are also featured on the album, Lullaby for an Anxious Child  and The Hounds of Winter, which originally appeared on his previous release Mercury Falling,  alongside Hurdy Gurdy Man, - a musical reworking and English translatio n (by Sting) of Der Leiermann from Schubert's classic winter song-cycle Winterreis e.

For this exploratio n of the themes and emotions of Winter, Sting is joined by friend and long time colleague, guitarist Dominic Miller. Additional guests include an ensemble of three remarkable musicians from Northern England and Scotland: Kathryn Tickell (fiddle and Northumbri an pipes) Julian Sutton (melodeon) and Mary MacMaster (metal string Scottish harp), along with Daniel Hope (violin), Vincent Ség al (cello), Chris Botti and Ibrahim Maalouf, (trumpet), Cyro Baptista and Bijan Chemirani (percussio n), the Webb Sisters (vocals) and Stile Antico (vocal ensemble).  

Musicians involved include Devendra Banhart, MGMT, Jamie Lidell and Nigel Godrich.

By Blurt Staff

Whattaya get when you combine the ever-chame leonic Beck along with a host of like-minde d mavericks? (No, not John McCain or Sarah Palin - try Devendra Banhart, MGMT, Jamie Lidell and Nigel Godrich among his proposed recording mates.) Why, remakes of entire albums, done in one-day sessions and posted one track at a time each week!

Beck.com will be undergoing an extensive overhaul in the next month. It will feature several new sections, including Record Club, a regular meeting of various musicians to record an entire album in one day.  Due to the time constraint s involved in recording a record in a day, an album will be chosen to be covered and used as a framework for the proceeding s. Nothing will be rehearsed or arranged ahead of time. A track from these sessions will be uploaded once a week on Beck.com, as well as through the web sites of those involved in the project.

Record Club will be an ongoing experiment visitors to the site will be able to follow from week to week.  

The first album attempted- -one of the few everyone could agree on--will be The Velvet Undergroun d & Nico.

114-year old home where David McComb once lived and practiced with the band to be demolished - unless a certain Midnight Oil vocalist steps in.

By Fred Mills

Fans of Australia' s Triffids - whose latest reissues were reviewed by BLURT here - will recognize the name David McComb. The late vocalist is suddenly in the news again in the wake of his former house in Western Australia being slated for demolition .

Known as "The Cliffe," the 114-year old  McCo mb home, located on Devil's Elbow overlookin g Freshwater Bay, apparently holds significan t historical and archival importance well beyond the Triffids connection , and supporters trying to block the demolition have organized a petition and letter writing campaign to halt its imminent destructio n and, ultimately , to have the aging structure restored. Many of those signing it, of course, are Triffids fans, but the effort has significan t support among the non-musica l community as well.

A local councilor, John Downson, was quoted in Australian papers as saying, "The valuations for the property have come down, making the place more affordable to prospectiv e buyers and restoratio n more feasible. New reports on the condition of the property have contradict ed those that the government relied on when making its decision to scrap its heritage listing and given the place a very high tick of approval as a heritage gem. But we understand that everything hinges on the goodwill of Mr Creasy."

The "Mr. Creasy" mentioned refers to mining entreprene ur Mark Creasy, the current owner of the house; he has apparently agreed to "wait for a list of alternativ es" to demolition .

The Australian government is taking an interest in the matter, and the government minister in charge of making the final decision is none other than Environmen t Minister Peter Garrett - that's right, the frontman for Midnight Oil who turned politician .

For more details on the story, go to the Save The Cliffe site.

Pictured above is the house; below, early photo of the Triffids rehearsing in the coach house.

***

In other Triffids news, band watchers have known for some time now that a book about McCombs and the band was in the works, and now word arrives that Penguin Australia will be publishing it in August via the Fremantle Press imprint. In the publisher' s advance blurb for Vagabond Hole we are advised thusly:

It is over thirty years since David McComb's haunting music and lyrics inspired a generation . Now, thanks to sold out tribute concerts Australia- wide and the remasterin g of the complete Triffids oeuvre, a new generation is discoverin g his life's work. Editors Niall Lucy and Chris Coughran bring together friends, family and fans in this book of stories, poems and artworks about the Triffids.

Contributo rs will include Nick Cave and a host of musicians and journalist s, including BLURT's own Wilson Neate, plus Jonathan Alley, Jill Birt, Martyn Casey, David Cavanagh, Nick Cave, Claire Colebrook, Chris Laurie Duggan, John Dyer, Robert Forster, Judith Lucy, Niall Lucy, Alsy MacDonald, Andrew McGowan, Robert McComb, Gavin Martin, Steve Miller, Denise Nestor, David Nichols, Rob Snarski, Jon Stratton and others.

No word yet on whether the book will be made available in America.

Man in his 20s is unidentifi ed; may have been drug related.

By Blurt Staff

Yesterday evening Tennessee newspaper The Shelbyvill e Times-Gaze tte  reported that the body of an unidentifi ed white man, who appeared to be in his twenties, was found at the Bonnaroo site by a cleaning crew on Tuesday. He was found in his tent and had been last seen alive at or around 3 p.m. on Monday, according to the report.

No signs of trauma were visible and an autopsy is being performed, said Coffee County Sheriff Steve Graves, who speculated that it might be drug-relat ed or due to a medical problem. "We don't know if he was a worker or someone who just lingered," Graves told reporters. "He looked to be in his 20s, maybe late 20s. It's hard to tell."

This makes the seventh Bonnaroo death since the annual festival kicked off 8 years ago. None were reported for the 2008 event.

Emily Haines & Co. performing at the 9:30 Club in Washington .

By Blurt Staff

Metric, fronted by Emily Haines, one of several lithesome females featured in a special rock ‘n' roll fashion pictorial in the upcoming issue of BLURT, are playing at D.C.'s 9:30 club TONIGHT, June 18, and for those of you who aren't in Washington or couldn't get tickets, you can hear the entire show streamed live over NPR Music. Metric's promoting their new album Fantasies (reviewed HERE).

The webcast is part of the radio network's "Live In Concert" series and is 100 % free - fire up your browsers around 10 pm EST. Here are the details:

WHAT: &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;    NPR Music's "Live in Concert" series continues with a live performanc e from Canadian indie rock band Metric, featuring Broken Social Scene's Emily Haines on vocals.  All Songs Considered 's Bob Boilen hosts the show, which will be streamed live and archived at www.npr.org/music/

WHEN: &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;    TONIGHT, June 18 at approximat ely 10:00PM (ET)

WHERE: &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p;  Live at http://www .npr.org/templa tes/story/ story.php?storyI d=10547843 6 The concert is being streamed live from Washington , D.C.'s 9:30 Club.

By Blurt Staff

The 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival, to be held July 17th - 19th in Chicago's Union Park, is closing in, and the schedule is now officially set. Sunday tickets are now sold out. There is still a limited quantity of Friday and Saturday tickets available, and they can be purchased here: http://www .pitchforkm usicfestiv al.com 

Pitchfork Music Festival 2009 Schedule

FRIDAY, JULY 17
8:40 (A)  Built to Spill
7:20 (C)  The Jesus Lizard
6:10 (A)  Yo La Tengo
5:00 (C)  Tortoise

SATURDAY, JULY 18
8:40 (A)  The National
8:30 (B)  The Black Lips
7:30 (B)  Matt and Kim
7:25 (C)  Beirut
6:30 (B)  Lindstr&os lash;m
6:15 (A)  Doom
5:30 (B)  Wavves
5:15 (C)  Yeasayer
4:30 (B)  Ponytail
4:15 (A)  Final Fantasy
3:35 (B)  Bowerbirds
3:20 (C)  The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
2:40 (B)  The Antlers
2:30 (A)  Fucked Up
1:45 (C)  Plants and Animals
1:45 (B)  The Dutchess & The Duke
1:00 (A)  Cymbals Eat Guitars
1:00 (B)  Disappears

SUNDAY, JULY 19
8:40 (A)  The Flaming Lips
8:30 (B)  The Very Best
7:30 (B)  Mew
7:25 (C)  Grizzly Bear
6:30 (B)  Vivian Girls
6:15 (A)  M83
5:30 (B)  Japandroid s
5:15 (C)  The Walkmen
4:30 (B)  DJ/Rupture
4:15 (A)  The Thermals
3:35 (B)  Women
3:20 (C)  Pharoahe Monch
2:40 (B)  The Killer Whales
2:30 (A)  Blitzen Trapper
1:45 (C)  Frightened Rabbit
1:45 (B)  Dianogah
1:00 (A)  The Mae Shi
1:00 (B)  Michael Columbia

A=Aluminum Stage, B=Balance Stage, C=Connecto r Stage

Cut latest tunes in Tucson at Wavelab Studios.

By Blurt Staff

With a career stretching back nearly four decades, and a catalog of more than 20 albums, Tom Russell is already considered one of the great singer/son gwriters of our time. Neverthele ss, his newest album, Blood and Candle Smoke, a collection of powerful observatio ns and deliberati ons, takes his work to another level entirely with tremendous songwritin g and a new, contempora ry spark. Set for a September 15 release on Shout! Factory, Russell will promote the album with a national tour throughout the U.S. beginning in September.

For the new set, featuring some of his most intimate, insightful material, Russell ventured from his home in El Paso, Tex. (where he moved from New York 10 years ago), to Tucson' s Wave Lab Studios. Studio owner Craig Schumacher (Neko Case, Iron & Wine, Calexico) co-produce d the album with Russell and Joey Burns, John Convertino , Jacob Valenzuela of local heroes Calexico provided the bulk of the instrument al support.

The Tucson connection came about after Russell heard the soundtrack to the Bob Dylan film I' m Not There, which featured several younger artists interpreti ng Dylan songs. "The ones that really stood out to me were the ones backed by Calexico," says Russell. "I thought, how great is that--you' ve got a new kind of world/mari achi sound but the great writing of Bob Dylan....So I did more research and I found that a lot of the records Calexico, Neko Case and others were making came out of this one studio in Tucson called Wave Lab. I went in there for two weeks and sat on a stool and sang everything live with my guitar, and they built it around that," says Russell about recording with members of Calexico, Craig Schumacher and the other talented musicians who joined them in the studio.

The consummate storytelle r, Russell has amassed a devoted following that cherishes his vivid, novelistic tales evoking the spirit of the American experience in tightly constructe d, panoramic vignettes. Among his most ardent fans are fellow artists; Johnny Cash, Doug Sahm, k.d. lang, Ramblin'&n bsp; Jack Elliott, Iris Dement, Dave Alvin, Joe Ely, Ian Tyson, Nanci Griffith, and Guy Clark have all recorded Tom' s songs.

But all of that work has been a first act. The dozen new songs comprising Blood and Candle Smoke "start the second half of the story, reaching out toward wider realms," he says, 25 years after the release of his debut solo album, Heart on a Sleeve.

The songs on Blood and Candle Smoke, which follows the 2008 Shout! Factory career retrospect ive Veteran's Day: The Tom Russell Anthology, were all written by Russell about his life experience s. In a lived-in, tenacious voice, Russell recalls his time spent teaching in Africa in the late 60's in "East of Woodstock, West of Viet Nam," and "Criminolo gy," which has a West African/re ggae feel to it. "Santa Ana Wind," a ballad influenced by the author Joan Didion which features Gretchen Peters and Nick Luka on steel guitar, brings to mind the duets of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris.

"Nina Simone" recounts Russell's first exposure to the legendary vocalist, hearing her interpreta tion of Dylan's "Just Like a Woman" while in Mexico, and "Crosses of San Carlos" broaches the subject of the Native American experience . "Finding You" is a simple love ballad to Russell' s wife, and  "Mississip pi River Runnin'&nb sp; Backwards" touches on Hurricane Katrina, and evokes an America that' s all but disappeare d, one of "old ladies gamblin'&n bsp; in riverboat casinos, whirlpools swallowed ' em down, insurance executives and Fuller Brush salesmen, bushwhacke d tryin'&nbs p; to leave town."

The movie-esqu e "The Most Dangerous Woman in America" is a tribute to Mother Jones that is also a story about a man coming home from prison, and is a song which Russell likens to something that Bruce Springstee n might have written for his Nebraska album. The dark side of a musician' s life on the road in "Don' t Look Down," and "Guadalupe "--which Russell calls "probably my favorite song that I've written" and from whose lyrics the album title Blood and Candle Smoke is taken, is about witnessing the passionate spirit and faith of the Indians in Mexico City. "American Rivers" again references the American Indian, with an ecological message to the story. The album ends with "Darkness Visible," another snapshot of an America that never makes the headlines, its title drawn from a William Styron book. "It's kind of a carnival song," says Russell. "The carnival is over, the circus has left town, and this poor loveless guy is putting up posters for the next show."

With its top notch songwritin g and beautiful production , Blood and Candle Smoke is sure to be a career defining album for Tom Russell. "I've finally arrived at a newer sound that I like, and 12 new songs that I really like," he says. "I think I' m really stepping forward into a bigger, broader world with this album."

Track Listing:

1. East Of Woodstock, West Of Viet Nam

2. Santa Ana Wind

3. Nina Simone

4. Criminolog y

5. Crosses Of San Carlos

6. Finding You

7. Mississipp i River Runnin'&nb sp; Backwards

8. The Most Dangerous Woman In America

9. Don' t Look Down

10. Guadalupe

11. American Rivers

12. Darkness Visible

Tom Russell 2009 Tour Dates

Sept 18 &n bsp;   &nbs p;  Albuquerqu e, NM - El Rey Theater

Sept 19 &n bsp;   &nbs p;  Durango, CO - Henry Strater Theatre

Sept 30 &n bsp;   &nbs p;  Cambridge, MA - Club Passims

Oct 2 &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp;  Piermont, NY - Turning Point

Oct 3 &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp;  New York, NY - Joe' s Pub

Oct 4 &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp;  Vienna, VA - Jammin'&nb sp; Java

Oct 6 &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp;  Pittsburgh , PA - Rex Theatre

Oct 7 &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp;  Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom

Oct 8 &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp;  Columbus, OH - Columbus Maennercho r

Oct 9 &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp;  Ann Arbor, MI - The Ark

Oct 10 &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; Berwyn, IL - Fitzgerald

Oct 11 &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; Fairfield, IA - Café ; Paradiso

Oct 13 &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; Columbia, MO - The Blue Note

Oct 14 &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; Kansas City, MO 0 Knucklehea ds

Oct 15 &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; Springfiel d, IL - Hoogland Center for the Arts

Oct 16 &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; St. Louis, MO - Off Broadway

Oct 17 &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; Mt. Olive, IL - Turner Hall

Nov 4 &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp;  Phoenix, AZ - Rhythm Room

Nov 5 &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp;  Tucson, AZ - Club Congress

Nov 6 &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp;  Pinos Altos, NM - Buckhorn Saloon

Nov 7 &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp;  Las Cruces, NM - Rio Grande Theatre

Nov 8 &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp;  Santa Fe, NM - Santa Fe Brewing Company

Nov 10 &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; Fort Worth, TX - McDavid Studio

Nov 11 &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; Dallas, TX - Allgood Café ;

Nov 12 &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; Austin, TX - Cactus Café ;

Nov 13 &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; Fischer, TX - Rice Festival

Nov 14 &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; Houston, TX  - Mucky Duck

Nov 15 &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; San Antonio, TX - Casbeers at the Church

Dec 4 &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp;  San Diego, CA - San Diego Acoustic Café ;

Dec 5 &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp;  Santa Monica, CA - McCabes

Dec 6 &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp;  Ojai, CA - Ojai Concert Series

Dec 7 &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp;  Visalia, CA - Maverick' s Roasting Company

Dec 9 &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp;  Felton, CA - Don Quixote

Dec 10 &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; Redwood City, CA - Little Fox Theatre

Dec 11 &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; Berkeley, CA - Freight and Salvage

Dec 12 &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; Winters, CA - The Palms

Dec 13 &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; Sparks, NV - Great Basin Brewing Company

Dec 14 &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; Sparks, NV - Great Basin Brewing Company

Dec 15 &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; Portland, OR - Aladdin Theatre

Dec 16 &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern

More fun than a barrelful of Hendrix-re lated lawsuits!

By Blurt Staff

Paris/Otta wa Live, hist oric ‘in concert' recordings from the Jimi Hendrix Experience , never before offered at retail, together with a unique and exclusive collection of Hendrix memorabili a are bundled together in a special offering to be released August 11^th from Dagger Records, the official ‘boo tleg' label created by Experience Hendrix (www.jimihendri x.com) through Geffen Records/UM e. This limited edition "fan pack" will be offered exclusivel y through Amazon.com.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience Live 1968 Paris/Otta wa feat ures live performanc es of such Hendrix classics as "Purple Haze," "The Wind Cries Mary," and "Little Wing" recorded by RTE, the national French broadcasti ng company. &nbs p;The January 29, 1968 Paris concert was the band's third foray to the fabled L ‘Oly mpia Theater where they had debuted as an opening act for the French pop star Johnny Halliday's two years earlier. The Ottawa performanc es were taped  ; by Hendrix himself during the group's appearance at the Capitol Theater on March 19^th &nbs p;of that same year and include a "Hendrixiz ed" version of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band."

In a real nod to the bygone era, a similar, yet distinct, pack will have as its centerpiec e a custom, swirled, colored vinyl album version of Jimi Hend rix Experience Paris '67. &nbs p;These recordings document Hendrix's wildly exuberant October 9, 1967 performanc e at L'Olympia originally recorded for French radio broadcast and never before released to the public. &nbs p;The album features performanc es of "Stone Free," "Hey Joe," "Wild Thing" as well as other notable Hendrix hits.

Materials specifical ly created for and exclusivel y included in both versions include a ‘Jim i' poster, a postcard set replicatin g classic Hendrix concert posters, a set of badges reminiscen t of the sixties era, a Hendrix iPod Skin and a "PikCARD" loaded, so to speak, with four guitar picks adorned with Hendrix artwork from the concert posters. The array of goodies is topped off with an "all access" laminated pass with an exclusive, secret code designed to unlock special Hendrix content online.

Janie Hendrix, President and CEO of Experience Hendrix LLC, the family owned company&nb sp;entrust ed with preserving and protecting the legacy of Jimi Hendrix, commented, "The concept behind this ‘Fan Pack' is to throw a spotlight on Jimi as a live performer and give a glimmer of what it might have been like to encounter ‘The Experience ' when Jimi had the band at its peak. &nbs p; Ji mi never failed to stun and leave audiences breathless with his performanc e and guitar virtuosity and we think fans today will be no less moved by the offerings included in these packs. This release highlights Dagger's role in serving fans who want all Jimi had to offer and can't get enough of his legacy and genius."

Hendrix at Woodstock:

First of a number of Velvets songs in the pipeline, we presume.

By Blurt Staff

Seems like it was just yesterday we posted the news about Beck starting his "Record Club" in which he and some pals cover classic albums in their entirety. Say - it WAS just yesterday! And now we get word that his Beckness has already posted a track from the sessions in which he rerecorded The Velvet Undergroun d and Nico.

It's "Sunday Morning," and you can check it out at Beck.com, complete with a quirky, accompanyi ng video. Guess what? It's quite good! Quite.

And hey, let's revisit that deluxe edition set while we're on the subject...

By Blurt Staff

On September 18, 2008  Sigur Rós recorded an AOL Spinner Interface session in NYC, the first live session of its kind for the band. The session debuts today, Friday, June 19^th.

Supporting then-new Flood-prod uced album Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust, the band played four songs:&nbs p; "Vid Spilum Endalaust" , "Fljotavik ", "Inni Mer Syngur Vitleysing ur", and "Illgresi" .

Meanwhile, the band's handlers don't want you to forget the recently released Med sud í eyrum vid spilum endalaust Deluxe Edition. The deluxe edition is a unique document of the creation of Sigur Rós ' fifth album in film, photograph y and music. Given unpreceden ted access to the final stages of the making and release of the group's new album, photograph er Eva Vermandel and film-maker Nicholas Abrahams created an intimate and revealing portrait of the Icelandic quartet at work on their most immediate record to date. The deluxe edition includes:

- &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp; & nbsp; Med sud I eyrum vid spilum endalaust CD

- &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp; & nbsp; Vid spilum endalaust DVD

- &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp; & nbsp; 200-page book full of color large format fine art photograph y

- &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp; & nbsp; Unique and exclusive 16mm film strip taken from the "Gobbledig ook" video

- &nb sp; & nbsp;  ; &nb sp; & nbsp; DVD content includes: Vid spilum endalaust, Ára bát ur at Abbey Road and Gobbledigo ok video

It'll set ya back a sweet $79.98.

In other Sigur Rós ' band member news, lead singer Jón Pór Birgisson and his partner Alex Somers' artistic collaborat ion under the moniker Riceboy Sleeps will be releasing a self-title d album on July 21^st via XL Recordings . The early fruits of this collaborat ion surfaced in physical form for the first time a few months back with the track "Happiness " on the Dark Was The Night Red Hot compilatio n.

A few weeks ago EIC Scott Crawford asked me if I was interested in writing an article or blog entr y for BLURT. Since then I've thought about it and thought about it. There's so much I'd like to say. It always makes me think of Randy Newman's&n bsp;I Just Want You To Hurt Like I Do. "Rough, rough world... tough, tough world... you know..." 

We are in such a strange time in our relationsh ip with the evolution between ourselves and what we create - technology , music, porn, junk and medicine, our culture at large; everything . It is beautiful what we're capable of. It's not always&nbs p;beautifu l wha t we do. Somehow, any cultural balance seems simply gone. Capitalism and marketing has made the goal more important than the work. I don't pretend to understand all the details of what feels wrong about where we're at. But, something is wrong. 

Where is our culture when soda (pop culture) is more important than water (art)? Think about that. Is there even a hint of balance? I believe there should be, because art offers wisdom, sparks imaginatio n, and confronts us with what is often our own story in our time from a different point-of-v iew. And to me, pop culture just seems to be leaning further towards the quick and the s ensational , it's like a pill that's been so thoroughly researched that often it's just a precise missile designed to attack, but not inspire.

Recently a friend from Italy gave me a collection of poems by Wallace Stevens. Initially I didn't like it, because it felt like waking up in someone else's house. But upon a few sittings with the book it started opening up to me. One favorite poem turned into two then three. My life was enriched, engaged, spoken to. Might I suggest you read  Descriptio n Without Place. Maybe it will speak to you, maybe it won't. But one thing is beyond debate, it is art. 

You see, there is a difference between art and entertainm ent. Art often needs to be digested, considered , felt and sometimes ruminated upon; entertainm ent is designed to engage. Each can be both. But more and more, entertainm ent alone dominates in a way that we can't fully comprehend the consequenc es of. At least not yet. Because it's my feeling that entertainm ent is on a march motivated by capitalism . Our music, our books, our technology and our films are all at the mercy of ca pitalism&n bsp;and they're being compromise d for the sale rather than celebrated for the soul. Capitalism has no conscience . Art appeals to the better self in the struggle, it's complex and simple and rooted through where you were and where you're going. Art is humanity in an almost physical form to be shared via pictures or sound. Think about that. It's true. Yet sadly it seems, that more and more, our culture is celebratin g entertainm ent and marketing as art. Meanwhile forgetting what art really is.

So, I opened my email this morning, and a woman named Pam sent me the stunning, beautiful and patient Ballad Of The American Arts by Wynton Marsalis. He nails it. And I am inspired and in awe. I could certainly say it no better, no smarter, no more thoroughly than Mr. Marsalis has. We have to take a stand for the arts. That's what BLURT and so many of US are trying to do. There is no reason pure art shouldn't be in competitio n, in balance, in contrast to the things that only have the skin and teeth of art, but not the soul. 

So here's the link, scroll down the page and you'll see the video of the Wynton Marsalis&n bsp;speech . It's masterful - earnest, funny, pure, sad and hopeful. Beautiful stuff.

http://www .americansf orthearts.org/events /2009/aad/ nhl09.asp

Matthew Ryan is an independen t American singer/son gwriter, producer and composer. He's released 11 records since 1997. He's currently working on a new one.

"The more you drive, the less intelligen t you get". One of my favorite lines from the punk cult classic "Repo Man". Words to live by for me. Could be a few reasons why: a) Wrecking a High School Driver Ed vehicle into a guardrail while attempting to parallel park. b) miserably failing my motor vehilcle driving test (see: Driver Ed). c) flipping over on the back of a motorcycle . d) being a passenger of a camper Van that rolled over twice. or e) all of the above. At the ripe age of 47 I still don't drive or even own a driver's license. It's just not in the cards for me. And it's not like I haven't had many friends offer to help guide me on my way to the MVA. No thanks freinds. The way I have to look at the whole thing is: is the fact that I never could get parallel parking down my downfall or the upswing of my meager existence? I choose the second one because I get by okay without a license or a car. I have a little thing called ADHD that tends to get in the way of driving so believe me: the world is a far far safer place without this punk geezer on the roads.

A friend of mine who goes by the name The Reverend Frank love once told me "I think you're really smart not to drive because there are so many fucking psychos on the road". The Rev spent a large portion of his life in a state of stress being in a car. Well, that and being a guitarist in bands with me. I'd be a passenger in Frank's small car when someone on the road honked their horn and "Goddamnnn nit! Stop honking your fucking horn! I really fucking hate that! People in Michigan (The Rev's birthplace ) never honk their horns!", Frank yelled in frustratio n. I'd say "Calm down man, your window is closed and they're not going to hear you". This kind of reaction happened fairly often when I was riding to someplace with my friend, Frank. It left me wondering why someone who would get so incredibly worked up every time they were at the wheel of a vehicle put themselves through such punishment . More reasons why I still don't drive.

Oh yeah, getting back to that "rolling over in a vehicle" thing I mentioned so casually earlier: This perhaps is my all-time biggest reason why I don't dig the thought of driving. One rainy afternoon in England my band Government Issue and our support act Bad Blood decided to visit Stonehenge . Who knew that after checking out the mighty Stonehenge we'd suffer a most horrible accident. "Come visit Merry old England! Play a handful of noisy memorable concerts! See the majestic Stonehenge ! Take a bloody nasty spill in one of our fabulous British camper Vans!". And that's exactly what we did. The young driver from Bad Blood drove a tad too fast around a sharp turn of roadway and so we slid off the road rapidly on to the muddy ground and rolled over (Twice!) till the beat-up Van soon landed on all four wheels. Now I've always hated amusement park rides that other people love because I just do not enjoy being tossed about. They make me nauseous so that's no fun, right? This ride in the UK sucked! A few of my band members shot straight out the side windows landing on the ground with injuries. The poor young man behind the wheel went straight through the windshield and the rest of us got out with only cuts and scratches. We were all pretty lucky as it could've been a fatal one. I'm still a little shaky whenever I ride in a van. I think I'll just stick to taking the bus or maybe the subway. After all I am an undergroun d rocker.    

John Stabb was the frontman for the legendary harDCore punk outfit Government Issue. When not blogging for BLURT, he currently serves as frontman for Sleeper Agent. Check them out at ht tp://www.myspace.com/sleepe ragentdc      

The recent shooting at the Holocaust Museum in D.C. had a lot of people, including myself, thinking "How does such an old guy live with so much hate inside him". You would think that after almost a century of life the dude would have learned to live and let live. That's how I was raised when it came to respecting people of different racial, ethnic and religious background s. While I grew up in NY, my mother was from North Carolina and I got to spend some time in the South during&nbs p; very  racially contentiou s times in the 60's. As a young boy my grandfathe r took me "across the tracks" to teach me to judge people by their character, not their color. He was blind, but more importantl y he was color blind. My uncle Tom on the other hand was an entirely different animal.

He was an old stereotypi cal uneducated Tarheel farmer with overalls, a chaw of tobacco in his mouth, a coffee/spi t can in hand, and hated everyone and everything . He lived with my Grandfathe r and had a "job" as a security guard at the Greensboro , Coliseum which they lived across the street from. You know, one of those 80+ year old coots who slept on a folding chair while a game or concert was going on.

One summer a friend and I hitchiked down to vist my Grandad and had a classic encounter with Uncle Tom. My friend Ray, who Tom called the "Eyetalian ", walked into the house one afternoon and Tom was cussing under his breath... "I have to work tonight with a bunch of g-damn Ni****s jumpin' up and down at church and acting like they ate up with the dumb ass"....we asked him what he was talking about and he said that there was a big Ni**** Church Revival that night at the Coliseum and was bitchin' he had to go work it.

Later that afternoon Ray and I took a walk down High Point Road to get some Bar-B-Q....as we are walking past the Coliseum Ray points up, laughing his ass off, reading the marquee..."Tonight: Black Sabbath". As soon as we got back to the house we found Tom so we could tell him the news.... "Tom, it's not a church meeting, it's a rock band, BLACK SABBATH!....without missing a beat Tom started mumbling... "Goddamn long hair hippies smoking the pot and who knows what"!! Old dude was truly addicted to hate.

WikiPedia and Amazon and All Music Guide almost make this unnecessar y, but for the record, I want to argue that the combo package of The Beach Boys Today! with Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) [love those exclamatio ns points-alt hough I don't think the Beach Boys ever released an album with three (!!!) exclamatio n points in the title] [I do think, however, that is because of the Beach Boys' abuse of !  that I learned to do the same thing on my own writing-or maybe it was Mad).  Anyway, the point being that this remarkable CD combo, with some editing, still sends shivers down my backbone even though I have gone way way past the age counting-u p fadeout on "When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)"....(they end it when they get into their twenties, of course).

I can't say this enough. Assume everyone's a lazy idiot. Make it as EASY AS POSSIBLE for me to find you. Make it as EASY AS POSSIBLE for me to care. Make it as EASY AS POSSIBLE for me to give you my money.

No matter what your business (musicians included), it's your job to go out and find fans. Assume that they otherwise won't find you. So while putting up a website is nice, who cares? It's nothing if you can't get people to GO TO IT and BUY YOUR SHIT. Newsletter s, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc... if you're still pooh-poohi ng any of these, wake the fuck up (and then call me).

Because it's not enough to just get out there... you have to lure your fans in [...]

A Triple-A radio programmin g veteran, Kate has served as Music Director of the Loft at XM, Midday Host at WYEP, Evening Host at both WNCS and WUIN, as well as Content Supervisor for Pump Audio. Currently, she's the CEO of Outlandos Music, a new-music discovery service for grown-ups. Kate has been nationally recognized for her ardent presentati on of music and her ability to champion talented, compelling artists.

Say, what's with all those upper case letters?

By Blurt Staff

"It is with great pleasure," begins the press release slipped over the BLURT transom, "that THE FLAMING LIPS announces their brand new double-alb um entitled, EMBRYONIC, to be released later this year. This marks their first full studio set in three years following their Grammy Award-winn ing AT WAR WITH THE MYSTICS.  EMBRYONIC, THE LIPS' 12th album, was recorded in Fredonia, NY and Oklahoma City, OK, with studio whiz and general co-conspir ator Dave Fridmann and just may be their most sonically adventurou s and compositio nally vernal form of musical expression ever."

US tour dates have just been confirmed and the Lips plan to reward fans purchasing tickets by giving them a sneak peek at the new album.  With every concert ticket bought online, fans will receive a digital EP allowing them to hear new Lips music before anyone else. The EP will be comprised of three brand new recordings from EMBRYONIC: "Convinced Of The Hex," "The Impulse," and "Silver Trembling Hands," followed by three additional rare B-side tracks selected by the band themselves . That same ticket buyer will also receive an official live digital download bootleg of the show they attend. Leading online distributi on company Basecamp Production s is facilitati ng the production and delivery of the live music.

How it works:   Each fan who buys a ticket will receive a special code that allows them to get their music from the band's official website (www.flaminglip s.com).

Meanwhile, a new Lips micro-site will be launched tomorrow, June 24. Go to FlamingLip s.com for info, merchandis e and much more, including details on the upcoming tour, which will kick off August 15 in Del Mar, CA, ad the Del Mar Race Track. (They're also set to play the big Pitchfork festival in Chicago on July 19.)

Tour Dates:

08-15 Del Mar, CA - Del Mar Race Track Infield
08-17 Los Angeles, CA - Greek Theater
08-18 Pomona, CA - Fox Theater
08-20 Portland, OR - Edgefield Amphitheat er
08-21 Seattle, WA - Marymoor Amphitheat er
08-23 Denver, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheat er *
08-26 Atlanta, GA - Chastain Park Amphitheat er
08-28 Washington , DC - Merriweath er Post Pavilion
08-29 Philadelph ia, PA - Festival Pier
08-30 Boston, MA - Bank of America Pavilion
09-04 Barcelona, Spain - Estadi Olimpic $
09-07 Paris, France - Parc des Princes $+
09-09 Nijmegen, Holland - Goffertpar k $+
09-13 Monticello , NY - ATP New York

* with Explosions in the Sky, Stardeath and White Dwarfs
$ with Coldplay
+ with Bat for Lashes

Self-title d collaborat ion from the Almighty Defenders  arri ves Sept. 22.

By Blurt Staff

When the Black Lips had to flee India after almost getting arrested and getting their passports confiscate d they fled to Berlin to hole up with their old pal and label-mate King Khan.  Mark Sultan (aka BBQ, one half of King Khan & BBQ Show) also happened to be there, and it happened to be freezing in Berlin that week so no one really wanted to leave the house.

So what do a bunch of garage-roc k all-stars (and internatio nal refugees) do in the middle of winter in cramped conditions ? They give birth to an album and band of the same name, The Almighty Defenders. The guys went to Moon Studios and recorded an elpee's worth of tracks, brimming with soul, earnest shouts, cries and hand-claps over post-moder n gospel-roc k anthems.

This album is being released on LP and digitally on Vice Records on September 22^.

Almighty Defenders: http://www .myspace.com/thealm ightydefen ders

Meanwhile, check the new issue of BLURT, due on newsstands any day now, for an exclusive feature on King Khan himself.

Also have a stealth club gig on sale now, plus deluxe reissue of Hello Nasty en route on the heels of Ill Communicat ion.

By Blurt Staff

The title, release date and complete track listing for Beastie Boys' eighth studio album have been confirmed: Hot Sauce Committee Part 1 will be released September 15 by Capitol in multiple configurat ions including a 5.1 surround mix; see the full tracklisti ng, below.

Meanwhile, the first Beastie Boys headline date confirmed to follow the album's release, the band's debut stand at L.A.'s Hollywood Bowl on September 24, has sold out.  Furt her dates will be announced as they are confirmed. Prio r to that, the band will appear at the All Points West and Lollapaloo za festivals, the latter of which will be preceded by a just-annou nced intimate Beastie Boys show at the Congress in Chicago on Thursday, August 6.

The presale for the Congress show is already underway HERE (password is RAPPERS). The full public on-sale will be Friday at 10am Chicago time at FrontGateT ickets.com - if there are any tix left, of course.

For a look at how the Beasties fare in such smaller settings, go HERE to read our review of the band's show a few weeks ago at Asheville' s 950-cap. Orange Peel venue.

 
 Fina lly, the last installmen t of the deluxe, remastered , expanded Beastie Boys catalogue reissues will be dropping in advance of the new record: the band's multi-plat inum, Grammy-win ning 1998 opus Hello Nasty will be given the 2-CD/vinyl box set/multi- format treatment beginning with an August 17 pre-order/ digital release and will hit stores August 25. (The deluxe reissue for Ill Communicat ion has already been announced for July 14.)

Hot Sauce Committee Part 1 track listing:
 
 1. Tadlock's Glasses
 
 2. B-Boys In The Cut
 
 3. Make Some Noise
 
 4. Nonstop Disco Powerpack
 
 5. OK
 
 6. Too Many Rappers (featuring NAS)
 
 7. Say It
 
 8. The Bill Harper Collection
 
 9. Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win (featuring Santigold)
 
 10. Long Burn The Fire
 
 11. Bundt Cake
 
 12. Funky Donkey
 
 13. Lee Majors Come Again
 
 14. Multilater al Nuclear Disarmamen t
 
 15. Pop Your Balloon
 
 16. Crazy Ass Shit
 
 17. Here's A Little Something For Ya

This time it's the entire original lineup. Check out that original vintage Sub Pop photo, too!

By Blurt Staff

Following a more than 10 year hiatus, all four original members of Seattle's Sunny Day Real Estate will regroup for a 20-date US tour starting Sept. 17^th. In addition, Sub Pop Records will re-issue both Diary and the band's second full-lengt h album, commonly known as LP2 (or "The Pink Album" for its entirely pink cover). Both re-mastere d albums will include rare bonus tracks as well as newly written liner notes and will be released on both CD and LP Sept. 15.

The backstory:

Originally formed in Seattle in 1992, Sunny Day Real Estate featured Nate Mendel (bass), William Goldsmith (drums), Dan Hoerner (guitar,vo cals) and Jeremy Enigk (vocals, guitar). Diary, the band's first full-lengt h album, was released in 1994 on Sub Pop, going on to become the seventh-be st selling record in the label's history with more than 231,000 copies scanned in the US alone. Diary was recorded at Chicago's Idful Studios with producer Brad Wood and released to critical acclaim. Following the completion of a US Tour to support the debut release, the group headed back into the studio with Wood to record the follow-up.

But during the recording sessions, internal tensions splintered Sunny Day Real Estate, resulting in a sudden break-up and the finished album being turned in to Sub Pop without a title or artwork. LP2 was released in November 1995, by which time both Goldsmith and Mendel had joined Foo Fighters and Enigk had begun a solo career. Without Mendel, Sunny Day Real Estate reunited in 1997 and released two more studio albums (the 1998 Sub Pop release How It Feels to Be Something On and in 2000 The Rising Tide on Time Bomb) before disbanding again in 2001. 

"I wasn't around for the second version of the band that recorded the 3^rd and 4^th albums, so I've always had a feeling of unfinished business there," Mendel said, in a statement.  "We had all these outsized ideas back then, ‘Eve ryone's going to learn a new instrument ,' and ‘Let 's do a rock opera,' but before we could get anywhere with them, the band broke up. We left behind all these weird and beautiful songs, though, and they've stuck with me all this time. I'm really happy that we get a chance to play them together again."

Meanwhile, Jeremy Enigk has a new solo album, OK Bear, and we have a review of it to be posted later this week. "Earthy, singer-son gwriter music with flashes of prog-like bombast topped by Enigk's gorgeous melodies and lyrics that suggest more than they say," is our ace reviewer's 8-star (out of 10) assessment .

Sunny Day Real Estate Tour Dates:

September 17^th &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;    Vancouver, BC/Commodo re Ba llroom&nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p;

September 18^th &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;    Portland/C rystal Ballroom (Musicfest NW)

September 20^th &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;    Salt Lake City/Murra y Theater

September 21^st &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; Denver/Ogd en Theater

September 23^rd &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;    Minneapoli s/First Avenue

September 24^th &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;    Chicago/Me tro

September 25^th &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;    Detroit/St Andrews Hall

September 27^th &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;    New York/Termi nal 5

September 28^th &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;    Boston/Hou se of Blues

September 30^th &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;    Washington DC/930 Club

October 1^st &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p;  Philadelph ia/Trocade ro

October 3^rd &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; Atlanta/CW Center Stage

October 5^th &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; Dallas/Gra nada Theater

October 6^th &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; Houston/Wa rehouse Live

October 7^th &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; Austin/La Zona Rosa

October 9^th &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; Tempe/Marq uee Theatre

October 10^th &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;  Anaheim/Ho use of Blues

October 11^th &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;  Los Angeles/He nry Fonda Theater

October 13^th &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;  San Francisco/ Fillmore

October 15^th  &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp; Spokane/Kn itting Factory

October 16^th &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;   &nbs p; &n bsp;  Seattle/Pa ramount Theatre

Something about a rabbit?

By Blurt Staff

Nick Cave fans got an early Xmas gift recently when word emerged from the Cave camp that the Bad Seeds mainman will be issuing his latest novel on September 8 via Faber & Faber. Titled The Death of Bunny Munro, it's the 20-year followup to And The Ass Saw the Angel.

According to Spinner.com, the book "is set in Brighton, the English coastal town where Cave resides... an English seaside comic drama with a lusty, lost and charmingly grotesque main character." It was apparently a screenplay originally , Cave drafting his tale in the wake of his work with The Propositio n director John Hillcoat, but as both Hillcoat and Cave subsequent ly busied themselves with other projects, Cave turned it into a book.

Cave is slated to do a book signing in NYC at Barnes and Noble Union Square on Sept. 14.

A critique of a critique, from your friendly Southern staffers. Drinking iced tea, natch.

By Blurt Staff

Here at BLURT we like to read music biographie s - lots and lots of them, in fact. Sometimes several per week. Then we like to write about them, assuming of course there's something worthwhile to report. Since launching our website just over a year ago, we've published 62 book reviews, in fact, tipping you to some genuinely great reads.

In the instance of the recently-p ublished Cat Power: A Good Woman (Three Rivers Press), however, we write about the book in order to WARN you, our readership . In a four-star (out of ten possible) critique, ace reviewer Jake Cline calls author Elizabeth Goodman, late of Blender, for the "many exaggerati ons, simplifica tions and mistakes that plague the book... [You] would do well to ignore the biography altogether ."

Of course, the question arises: do we even need a bio yet on Chan Marshall? Aside from her loony claims of being Spooner Oldham's love child, is she even that interestin g?

Admittedly Marshall tried to block Goodman's efforts in chroniclin g her turbulent career as a diva-in-ma king, browbeatin g friends and associates into not cooperatin g with the writer. So Goodman, determined to soldier on, was left to assemble whatever facts she could without talking directly to her subject. Still, as Cline points out, "The book is riddled with one groan-indu cing claim after another: ‘[Ma rshall has] a real influence now on music, of course, but also on fashion, on literature , on art in general ... . ‘ ‘Bei ng associated with Cat Power gave [Dave Grohl and Eddie Vedder] the sheen of contempora ry relevance.' ‘Cha n is a Gatsby.'"

Wow. Those are some serious howlers. And we can't help but slap our knees and guffaw like our dear ol' departed grandpappy at the way Goodman, apparently one of them durn northerner s, depicts the South, where Marshall lived for a good while. You can read what Cline had to say about that in the review. Meanwhile, we have to go fix us a tall cool one of iced tea....

Don't call ‘em wimps, bucko...

By Blurt Staff

The mighty Zeros return for some selected summer dates after 15 year hiatus. The band is reuniting with the original lineup that played a key part in the rise of Punk on the West Coast with Javier Escovedo, Robert Lopez ("El Vez"), Hector Penalosa, and Baba Chenelle. They'll play a string of shows in late June and then later in mid July; see dates listed below.

The back story:

The teenaged Zeros blasted out of the South Bay suburb of Chula Vista at the dawn of the punk explosion in 1976, and played their first major show the following year at L.A.'s decaying Orpheum Theater, known as the Hollywood Punk Palace. That gig was notable as well for being the debut of The Germs, and also an early appearance of quirky art-rocker s The Weirdos. All three bands would become integral to West Coast punk, and epitomize its sometimes destructiv e collision of collective musical passion and personal excess. The hook-laden garage punk of The Zeros, with influences that ranged from the New York Dolls, Stooges, David Bowie, Velvet Undergroun d, T-Rex, and Kiss to '60s proto-punk bands like the Seeds, Standells, and the Animals, earned them a recording deal with Bomp Records, which released the raucous single, "Wimp"/"Do n't Push Me Around" in '77, followed a year later by "Beat Your Heart Out"/"Wild Weekend."

The Zeros, after relocating in San Francisco, would go on to play at such renowned venues as The Masque, Whisky Au Go-Go, and the Starwood in L.A.; San Francisco' s Mabuhay Gardens, Deaf Club, and Temple Beautiful; and CBGB and Max's Kansas City in New York. The band often found itself at key moments in the evolutiona ry punk/new wave timeline. On March 17, 1979, returning to L.A. to play a show with X, The Alleycats, The Go-Go's, The Plugz, and The Wipers at Elks Lodge Hall, The Zeros barely got to relax after their set when the show was interrupte d by the notoriousl y punk-hatin g, baton-wiel ding LAPD. The night ended in a minor riot. The "St. Patrick's Day Massacre" became the stuff of history.

Over the years both Escovedo and Lopez have hinted that a Zeros reunion might happen; talking to BLURT some time ago (back before we were BLURT), Lopez, prior to an El Vez performanc e, enthused about how much fun the band had been as he signed several Zeros record sleeves.

So here we go!

Tour Dates:

6/25/2009 AT BAR PINK IN SAN DIEGO, CA

6/26/2009 AT 924 GILMAN IN BERKELEY, CA

6/27/2009 AT 924 GILMAN IN BERKELEY, CA

7/16/2009 AT THE TROUBADOUR IN LOS ANGELES, CA

7/17/2009 AT ELBO ROOM IN SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Spotty but viewable, and rare, footage of the band on TV in the late ‘70s , followed by a very odd but compelling looking homemade live clip:

Wiretree, The Clean, James Blackshaw, Silent Years, the Gossip.

By Blurt Staff

It's officially New Music Tuesday at BLURT, which means, quite logically, you can hear some new music today (Tuesday, duh) at BLURT.

What, pray tell, is the new music in question? Glad you asked! Glom onto these ace MP3s:

Wiretree - Big Coat (off Bouldin, Cobaltwork s Records)

The Clean - In the Dreamlife you need a Rubber Soul. (off Mr. Pop, Merge Records)

James Blackshaw - The Cross (off The Glass Bead Game, Young God Records)

The Silent Years - Madame Shocking (off Let Go, Sidecho Records)

Gossip - Heavy Cross (off Music for Men, Columbia Records)

Just click on the BLURT Radio icon on the right-hand side of our homepage and wait for the music player to pop up in a separate window. Then enjoy some fine listening!

And check back every week, same BLURT-time , same BLURT-chan nel, to hear the latest streaming goodies, all personally netted, vetted and hand-selec ted by our trained staff of highly evolved primates. Why? Because at BLURT, we care.

Not exactly an Ozzie & Harriet childhood...

By Coco Hames

Ricky Nelson's creamy version of Gene Pitney's "Hello Mary Lou" was one of my mom's lunchbox 45s, and that worn little case took up residence next to the bunk bed I shared with my little sister for a good portion of the '80s.  Tom Jones' "What's New, Pussycat?" and a gospel "One More River To Cross" were in there, too.  But I digress.

I liked Ricky Nelson's songs with the same ambivalent tolerance in the way I liked Davy Jones' slow numbers: inoffensiv e, playful singalongs .  Children like these things.  So when my older sister told me that Ricky Nelson had twin boys, and they had a pop song out, you can imagine how excited I was!  Then she showed me a picture of them, and I was just flat out confused.  I believe we all remember Matthew and Gunnar.  Gunnar.  However, this family name obviously carried some weight in the world, so when I was desperate for a parakeet, and my parents finally relented, I named him Nelson. 

Nelson was a bird.  And I have a long history with birds, and not a good one.  Basically they like to die in my hands.  Just last summer, whilst repairing my parents' porch after a Nor'easter tore through some of the screens and chucked patio furniture willy nilly, I lifted an overturned chair to find a little hummingbir d, sitting very still.  He had to have been trapped under there for several days.  I didn't know what to do, or how to help him.  I picked him up and tried to take him outside, and his little heart was beating so fast in my hand, it was not a good sign.  I think he had a heart attack?&nb sp; Well anyway, he died and I buried him and gave him a little grave marker from a potted plant.

And another time, we ALL heard the chirping in the fireplace, it was quite clear that a bird had her nest up in there somewhere, and the eggs had now hatched.  And I said, "Mom, you'd better take care of that."  And she said, "I know, I know."  But when we came back from tour a few weeks later, my parents were out of town, so Poni and Jem and I walked our luggage into the living room, exhausted, only to find DEAD BIRDS EVERYWHERE .  And if they weren't dead yet, they were SCREAMING.  And then WE were screaming!   And we had to get a GARBAGE BAG and pick them all up, and then the mama bird hid out in the upstairs bathroom for a day and spooked Jem big time!

One tried to live.  But he didn't have eyes.  Or a beak.  I named him Phoenix and tried to feed him Capri-Sun and saltines, but HE died, TOO!

Anyway, Nelson didn't die, but evidently you're supposed to get parakeet's wings clipped every so often, so that they don't fly away, and I think we were remiss in this maintenanc e activity, because one day, I was walking around the house with Nelson perched on my index finger (as I often had him do, because I love that scene in Disney's Sleeping Beauty, "I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream...") and all of a sudden, he immediatel y flew up into the air (he wasn't supposed to be able to fly, you see) and into the bathroom!& nbsp; I chased after him, but he was so high up there, so I climbed onto the counter-to p to try and reach him, but right as I got him in my hand, one of my feet went into the sink and I tripped, smashing Nelson against the mirror!&nb sp;

He did NOT die, but we had to built a splint for one of his birdie legs out of a toothpick and medical tape, and then my mom gave him to our babysitter , because I obviously couldn't take care of him.

I also had a pig named Elvis Pigsley. 

*****

Blurt "co-co-edi tor" Coco Hames fronts The Ettes - Hames on guitar, Jem Cohen on bass and Poni Silver on drums - whose latest album Look At Life Again Soon (Take Root) is still a hot item, and they also have a new EP, Danger Is, released by Take Root and also available digitally, www.myspace.com/theett es), and a Dan Auerbach-p roduced limited-ed ition single. They recently completed recording sessions for their third full-lengt h with Greg Cartwright (Reigning Sound) producing. Look for a release this fall.

Hugely influentia l albums get the deluxe treatment courtesy Bar/None. Bonus material will be digital only, however. Sigh...

By Blurt Staff

Bar/None Records has plans re-release two classic albums by the Feelies, that critically acclaimed crew of hyperactiv e alt rockers from Haledon, New Jersey that had such a  powe rful influence on the sound of indie music 1980s and beyond.

Their debut release, 1980's Crazy Rhythms, is a masterwork of perfectly honed minimalist rock that leaps and darts into the corners of the listener's consciousn ess, a true sonic tour de force that Rolling Stone deemed one of the "100 Best Albums of the 1980s."  Fans of the Velvet Undergroun d, Wire and Brian Eno's early solo work will surely appreciate the "forces at work" (to quote a song title!) on this masterpiec e.

Their follow-up recording, The Good Earth, came some six years later, co-produce d by Feelies' co-regents Glenn Mercer and Bill Million with REM's Peter Buck (a Feelies admirer since his days as a record store clerk). The Good Earth was an early release on Coyote Records, the label founded and run Steve Fallon, also the original owner of famed Hoboken indie roc mecca, Maxwell's. This album introduced the line-up that continues to this day.

 Both albums feature deluxe packaging (CD and vinyl LP) with liner notes by Jim Deragotis and Jim Sullivan respective ly. As the band consider each album to be a discrete aesthetic artifact, the copious bonus material including demos, b-sides, EP tracks and some new live recordings from the re-united group will be included on digital download cards.

  Crazy Rhythms   and The Good Earth will be released to coincide with the Feelies'&n bsp; September performanc e at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival where they will perform the classic Crazy Rhythms  in its entirety.

 Summ er activities for the group include an acoustic performanc e at the Whitney Museum in New York City on June 26 as part of the Dan Graham Retrospect ive, as well as a free show at the Pritzke Pavillion in Chicago's Millennium Park on June 29, and a series of shows at Maxwells in Hoboken over the 4^th of July weekend. 

 Crazy Rhythms:

01 The Boy With the Perpetual Nervousnes s
02 Fa cé- La
03 Loveless Love
04 Forces at Work
05 Original Love
06 Everybody' s Got Something to Hide (Except Me and My Monkey)
07 Moscow Nights
08 Raised Eyebrows
09 Crazy Rhythms


Crazy Rhythms bonus tracks:

01 Fa cé- La (single version)
02 The Boy With the Perpetual Nervousnes s (Carla Bley demo version)
03 Moscow Nights (Carla Bley demo version)
04 Crazy Rhythms (live)
05 I Wanna Sleep in Your Arms (live) (Modern Lovers cover)


The Good Earth:

01 On the Roof
02 The High Road
03 The Last Roundup
04 Slipping (Into Something)
05 When Company Comes
06 Let's Go
07 Two Rooms
08 The Good Earth
09 Tomorrow Today
10 Slow Down


The Good Earth bonus tracks:

01 She Said, She Said (Beatles cover)
02 Sedan Delivery (Neil Young cover)
03 Slipping (Into Something) (live)

Live digital-on ly EP as a teaser to be followed by a full-lengt h concert album.

By Blurt Staff

This just in from the R.E.M. camp. Meanwhile, watch for a full review of the Reckoning reissue at BLURT later this week.

***

On July 7th, look for "Reckoning Songs From The Olympia," a 4-song digital ep, available for download at iTunes and other online outlets. The live release follows on the heels of the Reckoning Deluxe Edition, which was issued on June 23^rd, and includes "Harborcoa t," "Letter Never Sent," "Second Guessing," and "Pretty Persuasion ," from the band's Working Rehearsals at Dublin's Olympia Theatre.

"Reckoning Songs From The Olympia," will give fans a sneak peek at R.E.M. Live At The Olympia, set for an October on Warner Bros. The 2-CD set features songs from R.E.M.'s storied five-night stint at the Olympia in the summer of 2007.

The live sessions, produced by Jacknife Lee, capture the energy and excitement surroundin g R.E.M.'s so-called "experimen t in terror," an unpreceden ted move in the band's career, in which they debuted and simultaneo usly ironed out several new tracks each night before sold-out audiences. Eleven of the tracks would come to form the basis of Accelerate R.E.M.'S 14th studio record which later shot straight to number one in 7 countries; the live sessions, carefully referred to by the band throughout as "working rehearsals " rather than shows in the convention al sense, also included songs from the band's deep back catalog - "olive branches" in Michael's parlance - from some of the band's earliest albums: Murmur, Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruc tion, Lifes Rich Pageant, and Document.

The mighty Greg Cartwright of the Reigning Sound produced. What's not to like!

By Blurt Staff

BLURT heroes The Ettes are back on September 29 with Do You Want Power, the third LP from the revved up and relentless beat-punk trio of Coco Hames (vocals, guitar), Jem Cohen (bass) and Poni Silver (drums, fashion).  Sharp-eyed BLURT readers will also recognize the Hames name from our roster of ever-enter taining bloggers, and you can go HERE to check out her latest entry (hint: you don't have to be a fan of the band Nelson to dig where she's comin' from).

Fresh off their tour with the Kings of Leon, and the release of their raw, Dan Auerbach-p roduced EP, Danger Is, The Ettes invited Asheville- based garage legend Greg Cartwright (of Reigning Sound/Obli vians fame, he's also worked with Jay Reatard and Mary Weiss) to produce Do You Want Power. Reco rded in the band's new hometown of Nashville, the album was completed in a marathon five-day session and finds the band putting songcraft at the forefront without sacrificin g their exquisitel y satisfying sonic assault.

Insistent and irresistib le, Do You Want Power sees the Ettes charging into new territory with a revitalize d, wall-of-so und collection of 13 original tracks, including a co-write with Cartwright , that range from the ‘60s Girl Pop of "I Can Be Your Lover (But I Can't Be Your Baby)" to the explosive "No Home."  Coco even makes a musical nod to their adopted city of Nashvegas with a couple of country-ti nged numbers. The Ettes' new tracks perfectly capture the band's diverse musical loves -- early punk anthems, ‘60s pop and country (think Patsy Cline and Nancy Sinatra embracing ‘70s NYC punk).

The band will be touring heavily in late summer and into the fall, so check their MySpace page for updates: www.myspace.com/theett es . Their music will also be featured in an upcoming episode of HBO's Entourage as well as Drew Barrymore' s directoria l debut, the indie rock roller derby flick, Whip it!, out October 2009.

***

Ettes at BLURT:

http://blu rt-online.com/featur es/view/13 1/

http://blu rt-online.com/featur es/view/26 6/

http://blu rt-online.com/review s/view/986 /

Lotsa cool stuff you ain't heard yet!

By Blurt Staff

Some serious musical goodies over at NPR Music right now. Among the treats: one of their "Tiny Desk Concerts" featuring Blurt faves the Avett Brothers, and an advance stream of the upcoming Bjork album.

The Avetts' 3-song video clip shows them, accompanie d by cellist Joe Kwon, doing "Laundry Room" from the upcoming album I and Love and You along with "Bella Donna" (from The Gleam II) and the unrecorded "Down With the Shine."

Then the Bjork material comprises her new album Voltaic, reworked/l ive-to-tap e versions of Volta-related tunes. The album is out next week in both CD and DVD form, including a version containing some remixes.

Don't forget that Monsters of Folk thing, either.

By Blurt Staff

Billboard.com is reporting that  My Morning Jacket's Jim James has an August 4 release date pencilled in for the ATO release of his Tribute To George Harrison 6-song EP. Tunes include "Long, Long, Long," "Love You To," "Behind That Locked Door," "My Sweet Lord," "Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp" and "All Things Must Pass" - the latter four all from Harri's All Things Must Pass classic. It's described as having a "raw minimalist feel" featuring just James and his acoustic guitar.

Details about the upcoming Monsters of Folk album featuring James, Conor Oberst, M. Ward and Mike Mogis, due Sept. 22 on Shangri-La , are also at the Billboard story.

Garage legend falls ill in Austin and is in ICU at St. David's hospital.

By Blurt Staff

Early Monday (June 22) Sky Sunlight Saxon (real name: Richard Marsh) of garage legends the Seeds was hospitaliz ed in South Austin, Texas due to an undiagnose d condition. He remains in critical condition in the ICU at this date in St. David's South Austin Hospital. Doctors suspect an infection of the internal organs; further tests are pending upon stabilizat ion. Temporary dialysis of the kidneys will begin in the next few days.

 
Sky Sunlight Saxon fell ill last Thursday in his new home of Austin. Despite feeling under the weather, on Saturday he performed a short set of Seeds classics at the local nightclub Antone's. He'd relocated to Austin not long ago and had been playing out backed by members of local band Shapes Have Fangs.

 
His wife Sabrina Saxon encourages fans and friends worldwide to send cards and balloons of encouragem ent, love and support to Sky at his room in the ICU. No flowers are allowed in this facility, but cards and balloons are welcome.

BLURT wishes the mighty vocalist a speedy recovery. This, of course, may impact the upcoming Seeds/Love /Electric Prunes tour, so keep posted for updates and further details.

 
Cards, balloons to:
 
St David's South Austin Hospital
901 West Ben White Boulevard
ICU-10 (Richard Marsh)
Austin, Texas 78704
 

 
For updates on his condition:

http://www .facebook.com/Sabrin aSaxon

http://www .myspace.com/thesee ds

"It's a great feeling," says Win Butler.

By Blurt Staff

Word arrives from the UK, courtesy New Musical Express, that the Arcade Fire has begun work on their third full-lengt h. The as-yet-unt itled project will be the followup to 2007's Neon Bible.

Speaking to the newspaper, frontman Win Butler commented, "None of us want to take three years making a record. It could be that we'll play live [soon] and maybe we'll end up bashing it [another album] out fast. We're in the middle of writing, things are coming together, it's a great feeling."

No word yet whether this one will come out on Merge as its predecesso rs did, but in interviews the band has always made it clear that they were very happy with how the label has treated them.

Butler also noted that while over the past year he hasn't had much desire to play live, the band having toured relentless up to and through the Neon Bible period, he's begun to get his mojo back: "If you had asked me [about playing live] six months ago I'd be like 'No, I'm good'. But now I go to a gig and I get the little...I can imagine being on that stage. It's the step before you actually go and do it."

Compilatio n includes M.Ward, Thermals and others and is intended to help fund the festival. There's also an additional concert on July 16 as a lead-in to the July 24-26 fest.

By Blurt Staff

The sixth annual PDX Pop Now! festival will be returning to Portland's Rotture (320 SE 2nd Ave) on July 24^th, 25^th  and  26^th. The free, all-ages festival will showcase Portland's thriving indie community, with acts as diverse as the Minus 5, Shaky Hands, Pierced Arrows, Menomena and Tara Jane O'Neil scheduled to perform. See full list below; full details at www.pdxpopnow.com.

Relatedly, on July 16^th, PDX Pop Now! will host "PDX Pop Now! at Portland City Hall," a free all-ages show on the steps of Portland's City Hall (1221 SW 4th Avenue) from 5-8:30pm. This lead-up to the PDX Pop Now! festival will feature performanc es by Y La Bamba, Point Juncture WA, and YACHT.  According to organizers , they are "thrilled& nbsp;to&nb sp;once&nb sp;again&n bsp;bring& nbsp;local music to the steps of Portland City Hall in a celebratio n of the unique climate of civic support independen t music  ;enjoys&nb sp;in  ;our  town.  By presenting a free, all-ages concert&nb sp;featuri ng some of the most exciting musicians creating in Portland today, and doing so in the middle of downtown just as many people are getting off of work and looking for a way t o enj oy a& nbsp;summe r eve ning,  ;we i ntend  ;to p rovide&nbs p;an  accessible  form  for& nbsp;Portl anderss to di scover&nbs p;and  ;appreciat e the  stag gering&nbs p;wealth&n bsp;and diversity& nbsp;of&nb sp;incredi ble m usic  being  ;made  ;by t heir  neighbors. Additional ly, we hope to throw a bright light on the fact that involvemen t in one's local arts community is a legitimate and productive form of civic involvemen t, and one that can serve as a conduit to broader interest and participat ion in neighborho od and municipal affairs."  

Meanwhile, there's the 2009 PDX Pop Now! compilatio n: it's available at local retail outlets and online at CD Baby  here. Proceeds from sales of the album go towards funding the festival and the rest of organizati on's activities .  The 6th installmen t of the heralded compilatio n features 40 tracks, including music from M. Ward, the Thermals, Jared Mees & The Grown Children, Starfucker , and Sandpeople as well as rare or previously unreleased tracks by Grouper, The Mint Chicks, Ethan Rose & Laura Gibson, Dykeritz, Explode Into Colors and Thrones. See below for some MP3s from the comp.

2009 Performers :

Ah Holly Fam'ly, Animal Farm, Au, Autistic Youth, Benoit Pioulard, Breakfast Mountain, Chamber of Commerce (Blue Cranes + Paxselin Quartet), Church, Cull, Daniel Menche, DASH!, Deelay Ceelay, Don Hellions, Explode Into Colors, Fear No Music, Fist Fite, Grouper, Guidance Counselor, Inside Voices, Jeffrey Jerusalem, Laura Gibson, Lightheade d, Luck-One, Magic Johnson, Menomena, Morning Teleportat ion, MY-G, Nice Nice, Nucular Aminals, Nurses, Peter Broderick, Pierced Arrows, Purple Rhinestone Eagle, Red Fang, Rob Walmart, Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside, Strength, Tara Jane O'Neil, Teeath, The Andrew Oliver Sextet, The Estranged, The Mint Chicks, The Minus 5, The Old Believers, The Quick & Easy Boys, The Shaky Hands, Thrones and White Hinterland .

Explode Into Colors "Pap er (Hot Sax Version)" MP3

Jared Mees & the Grown Children "The Tallest Building In Hell" MP3

Ethan Rose and Laura Gibson&nbs p;"Sun" MP3

Garage legend passes away in Austin from undisclose d infection.

By Fred Mills

Early this morning Sky Sunlight Saxon (real name: Richard Marsh) of garage legends the Seeds died in an Austin hospital. Depending on what source you consult, he was either born in 1937, 1945 or 1946 but most sources give the latter year. He'd been hospitaliz ed in South Austin, Texas, on Monday due to an undiagnose d condition and remained in critical condition in the ICU in St. David's South Austin Hospital. Doctors suspected an infection of the internal organs; further tests were to be done upon stabilizat ion and temporary dialysis of the kidneys was planned. The official cause of death has not been yet released, according to a report at Austin360.com.

 
Saxon fell ill last Thursday in his new home of Austin. Despite feeling under the weather, on Saturday he performed a short set of Seeds classics at the local nightclub Antone's. He'd relocated to Austin not long ago and had been playing out backed by members of local band Shapes Have Fangs.

His wife Sabrina Saxon posted the news on her Facebook page today, writing "Sky has passed over and YaHoWha is waiting for him at the gate. He will soon be home with his Father. I'm so sorry I couldn't keep him here with us. More later. I'm sorry."

This, of course, will throw the future of a previously announced Seeds/Love /Electric Prunes tour into uncertaint y. No announceme nts have been made regarding that yet.

 
Saxon was a true rock ‘n' roll pioneer, founding the Seeds in 1965 and having a string of hits that would go on to be adjudged true garage classics, "Pushin' Too Hard" and "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" in particular . It's arguable that the band's fuzzed-out , churning style, powered by Saxon's snot-punk, sneer ‘n' wail, fully epitomized the so-called Nuggets aesthetic, and echoes of the Seeds' sound can be heard in virtually every garage band operating today. Tune in to Little Steven's Undergroun d Garage radio show some weekend night for proof.

He later became a member of the Source Family commune in the early ‘70s and played and recorded with the Source house band, YaHoWha 13. Then in the ‘80s he resurfaced under his own name (variously , as Sky Saxon & Firewall, the Starry Seeds Band and simply Sky Saxon) to record a string of spotty but occasional ly inspired albums.

During this period yours truly had an interestin g encounter with Saxon on the phone one evening. We'd arranged to do an interview about his latest record, but about 5 minutes into the conversati on he halted for a second then asked me, "Listen, do you want to talk to Jesus? Because he's right here." Another voice came on the line, and it turned out to be Saxon's personal guru at the time - I don't think I ever got his name - and he proceeded to talk about spirituali ty and transcende nce and, if memory serves, LSD. This went on for about 15 minutes until things reached a point when I could politely interject, "Could I talk to Sky some more now?" Saxon, it turned out, had left to go to the store for cigarettes ... And I never did get to finish that interview.

I was steamed at Saxon for a long time after that, partly for wasting my time and partly because I'd been looking forward to talking at length to a bonafide legend.

But I never stopped loving his music, and the Seeds were one of the great proto-punk combos, without question. In recent years he revived the Seeds brand and performed with different lineups. He also did some recording last year with Billy Corgan and was in the video of the Smashing Pumpkins' song

Seeds doing "Pushin' Too Hard" on TV in 1966: