Sprawling 19-track album covering 1966-69 performances, plus exclusive Record Store Day single with non-album track.

By Blurt Staff

Sundazed is billing it as the first official concert collection from the legendary San Fran sixties outfit: Live by Moby Grape, originally comprising Jerry Miller, Skip Spence, Bob Mosley, Peter Lewis and Don Stevenson. Their Columbia debut LP, Moby Grape, issued in June 1967, is still acclaimed as one of the greatest rock albums ever - a union of blues, soul, country, surf twang and day-glo garage rock, packed into original killer-pop songwriting. Extreme Columbia hype, devastating business hassles and Spence's tragic mental collapse threatened to blow up the band, although the Grape continued to make a string of great albums, 1968's Wow and Moby Grape '69.

Meanwhile, though, Moby Grape, in their prime, were also one of the Bay Area's - and America's - best stage bands, like the Beatles and Rolling Stones in one, with a breathtaking triple-guitar attack and stunning vocal harmonies. Live is the long-awaited proof. It features more than an hour of dynamite performances from soundboard and broadcast tapes, including tracks from the Avalon Ballroom in 1967 and the band's complete long-lost set at the Monterey Pop Festival, just a week after Moby Grape came out. There are live versions of the great rare Grape songs "Rounder" and "Looper" and five tracks from a famous Dutch radio show featuring the hard-charging '69 lineup of Miller, Mosley, Lewis and Stevenson.

And Live climaxes with the historic first-ever release of Spence's acid-guitar masterpiece "Dark Magic" - never recorded in the studio by the original band but presented here in an epic 17-minute performance at the Avalon, on New Year's Eve 1966. These recordings boast you-are-there fidelity, and the album comes with sumptuous packaging and rare photos plus liner notes by Rolling Stone writer and Moby Grape authority David Fricke.

The album's due in April from Sundazed.

Track Listing:

Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, 1967*
1.    Ain't No Use
2.    Rounder
3.    Looper
4.    Bitter Wind
5.    Changes
6.    Indifference
7.    Someday
       
Monterey International Pop Festival, 1967
8.    Introduction
9.    Indifference
10.    Mr. Blues
11.    Sitting by the Window
12.    Omaha
       
San Francisco, 1967
13.    Sweet Little Angel
       
RAI, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1969
14.    Murder in My Heart for the Judge
15.    I Am Not Willing
16.    Trucking Man
17.    Fall on You
18.    Omaha
       
Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, 1966
19.    Dark Magic
       

Plus a special Record Store Day Exclusive:

Moby Grape Live: Historic Live Moby Grape Performances 1967 & 1969 7" single with exclusive non-album track.

1.    "Rounder"
    Recorded live at the Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, 1967
    From the Sundazed release Moby Grape Live, available on CD & LP.

2.    "Sitting by the Window"
    Recorded live at RAI, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1969
    Previously unissued, available here only.

Though no longer squeezing out sparks, he's smoldering quite credibly on Imaginary Television, out this week on Bloodshot.

By Lee Zimmerman

For the better part of the last 35 years, Graham Parker's been known as an irascible agitator, an artist whose considerable talents have always found him toiling in the shadow of contemporaries like Elvis Costello and Tom Petty. Despite an enviable career and a prodigious output, he never quite achieved the wider acclaim he so clearly deserved.  To his credit, however, he's never faltered; every Parker album has maintained quality control, and happily, Imaginary Television (Bloodshot) is no exception.

If there is any change in Parker's MO, it owes to the fact that these days there's a little less grit, owing to a realization, perhaps, that he can gracefully age without appearing to retreat. "We're all downsizing what we're doing with our lives," he concedes on "Broken Skin," a song that sounds soothing when compared to his once walloping delivery.  Yet, he can still cajole, as "See My Way" clearly suggests, although he emulates more a friendly folkie than the upstart insurgent.  "It's my party and I won't cry/It's my funeral but I won't die," he asserts on "It's My Party (But I Won't Cry)," a song that makes a stab for defiance but delivers it with irony rather than arrogance.

A mellow Parker seems a stunning reversal, especially considering the fact that there's little here that rocks more furiously than a shuffle or a sway. And yet, if Parker's not exactly squeezing out sparks, he's still smoldering quite credibly.

[Photo Credit: Jeff Fasano]

Virtuoso musician, beloved by rock fans everywhere, could make the guitar talk.

By Fred Mills

Guitarist Micky Jones of the legendary Welsh psychedelic band Man, passed away late last week (reportedly on Wednesday, March 10, or Thursday, March 11) following a lengthy battle with brain cancer. He was 63.

Here in the States, Man's profile was relatively low, although anyone who came up during the ‘70s reading rock mags like Trouser Press, Phonograph Record Magazine, BAM and even the occasional imported copy of Melody Maker  or NME surely knew the band - and possibly, like myself, pledged eternal allegiance as well. A string of classic albums on the UA label yielded endless pleasure for fans of full-on hemp-fueled guitar rock; not for nothing was Man consider the Grateful Dead of the British Isles, and it's significant that no less a West Coast psychedelic avatar than Quicksilver Messenger Service's John Cipollina not only gave Man his blessing, he embraced them wholeheartedly as musical brethren by sitting in with them in 1975 for the great live Man album Maximum Darkness.

To those in the know, Man was the quintessential jamband decades before the term "jamband" was even coined. Their 10, 15, 20-minute and even longer excursions into cosmic freefall remain the stuff that old-timers love to tell their grandkids about, and anybody who saw them in the early/mid ‘70s during their initial artistic peak can count themselves among the lucky ones.

A solid, concise history of the band penned by ultimate Manfan (and latterday producer of the band) Ron Sanchez can be found at Jones' MySpace page, while a more detailed history of Jones himself and his career can be found at Jones' official website. Additionally, BLURT's own Rev. Keith Gordon has an outstanding review of a 2008 concert DVD that was released chronicling a '76 Man performance - check it out here.

 Obviously, this isn't the kind of passing that will be marked by all the hipster media - Pitchfork, Brooklyn Vegan, Pop Matters, et al - since hirsute, jammy outfits from the ‘60s and ‘70s never pass into hipster "cool" unless they get the belated blessings of, I dunno, Beck, Devendra Banhart or Animal Collective. Which is sad, but understandable. I'd hope that anyone reading this will follow some of the links and discover the band anew: seriously, they could rock like motherfuckers, and Jones in particular was a guiding light for guitar fans everywhere.

Jones was right there in the middle of the rawk  scene back in the day. He initially formed the beat combo The Bystanders in the mid ‘60s, which evolved into Man circa 1968 in response to the growing psychedelic movement. It was good timing, for while the group's early recordings didn't set the world on fire, within a few years Man was at the forefront of the UK freak scene; to this day, perennial Man band anthem "Spunk Rock" has the capacity to transport listeners to alternate dimensions. According to Sanchez:

"Right from the start it was clear Mick was a guitarist of amazing skills and originality. He also possessed a distinctive soulful voice. Micky's father had played Hawaiian lap steel guitar and had inspired the young George Jones to pick up the guitar himself. Like most of his generation, Micky was well schooled in American rock and roll. The mid 60's saw a growing interest in West Coast sounds. From talking to Mick, it was clear people like Jerry Garcia, Steve Miller, Cipollina, Zappa, and Zoot Horn Rollo were the big influences. The resulting sound that Micky produced was highly original, fluid, and sometimes aggressive. You could always expect some serious fretboard explorations when he stepped up to solo. The version of ‘Spunk Rock' from the Greasy Truckers live album is often cited as one of his landmark performances."

Man had its ups and downs, including periods of break-up and reunions, but by the mid ‘90s they were back in full force, recording and touring regularly. Around 2002, however, Jones was diagnosed with brain cancer, so his son George took his place in the band - later, Jones returned to make it a father-son team! Sadly, it was not to last, and the illness returned. Jones spent the last few years of his life in a nursing home.

In a report about Jones' death by the BBC, veteran journalist Michael Heatley is quoted as saying, "Man were a live band. People would go and see them because they knew that the live performance was going to be much better than the record. Micky was a fantastic improvisational guitarist. Deke [Leonard, the band's other guitarist] would create the outline and Micky would "fill in the bits". The thing that kept people coming back was the he could make the guitar talk."

Amen to that. He will be deeply missed.

Long-in-the-gestation stages Mondo Cane will arrive on May 4. Something about Faith No More is happening too...

By Blurt Staff

Nearly two years ago we interviewed Mike Patton, and in the story he disclosed that he had a new project he was working on, Mondo Cane.

"It's a big, complicated project," said Patton. citing a 10-piece band plus a full symphony orchestra and choir. The project was inspired by Italian pop crooners from the '50s and '60s who enlisted top arrangers and composers for backing. "It's my version of that music, so it's a little bit twisted and I definitely rearranged some things. But it's me in that environment."

Incoming, then, finally, is Mike Patton's Mondo Cane, the Faith No More/Peeping Tom/Tomahawk/Mr. Bungle/Fantomas mainman's Italian language rock-meets-orchestra hybrid. It's due May 4 via Patton's Ipecac Recordings label.

Recorded at a series of European performances including an outdoor concert in a Northern Italian piazza, the album features traditional Italian pop songs as well as a rendition of Ennio Morricone's "Deep Down."   Patton worked with a 30-piece orchestra and choir on the album.

Meanwhile, of course, there's that none-too-minor detail about the Faith No More reunion this year. The Australian/New Zealand leg finished up last month, and a string of US April dates are already sold out. Dates and details here.

Tracklisting:

1. Il Cielo In Una Stanza

2. Che Notte!

3. Ore D'Amore

4. Deep Down

5. Quello Che Conta

6. Urlo Negro

7. Scalinatella

8. L'Uomo Che Non Sapeva Amare

9. 20 KM Al Giorno

10.   Ti Offro Da Bere

11.   Senza Fine

Check out the live video clip, below.

By Fred Mills

Well, you could certainly call this going above and beyond the call of duty. Most bands do a special 7" single or a vinyl edition of an already existing album in order to support Record Store Day (this year, April 20 at fine indie retailers across the country). Which is great! But the Mountain Goats are apparently going all out by issuing a live DVD.

According to the band's label, 4AD, 1500 copies of the film will be made available on DVD, titled The Life of the World to Come: A film by Rian Johnson and a song-by-song performance of the album of the same name.  As 4AD notes, "Shot with minimal cameras and with no allowance for retakes, John Darnielle plays through the whole album, switching between piano and guitar, resequencing the album's running order in the process while joined by a special guest for two songs."

Filmmaker Johnson's previous credits include 2008's The Brothers Bloom and 2005's Brick, and he also did the Mountain Goats' 2006 video for "Woke Up New."

The DVD will come with a "custom-designed" 12 page book featuring liner notes from Darnielle, who comments on the film below:

"Rian and I met when he shot the 'Woke Up New' video at his Little Italy apartment; I'd spotted a credit to a band called "the Hospital Bombers Experience" in the end-credits to his film Brick and recognized a reference to a song of mine, and I looked him up, and we hit it off. He's been listening to my stuff since very early on, and I think he really gets the kind of axis I try to ride when I write: a kind of meeting point between a primitive formal style & a naked, raw feel. So when I listened to the demos to this album, I thought, I'd like to play them that way, too, and have that playing captured somehow. And then there was a line "I saw some old friends as I came to the city gate" in a song that didn't end up on the final album, which made me think of going back home to Claremont and working with friends, and playing the songs in the building where I took the state exam for young pianists when I was eight years old, not long after we'd moved to Claremont from Milpitas. So I wrote to Rian & sent him the album & we bumped ideas back and forth until we settled on the idea of a single live performance with a few cameras in a private space and we got really excited about it, and in early August I went out there and we did this thing that I think captures a face of the songs that I'm unlikely to catch elsewhere: before anybody else has heard them outside of the people making the record, almost all of them being played in a non-studio-or-living-room space for the first time ever, no re-dos for mistakes, only a few cameras on us & circling us as we sing and play."

There will also be national film screenings starting later this month, while concurrently the Mountain Goats will be touring (the tour kicked off Saturday, in fact).

Screenings:

26th March New Brunwick, NJ - New Jersey Film Fest
26th March Bloomington, IN - Bishop Bar
27th March New Brunswick, NJ - New Jersey Film Fest
27th March Brookline, MA - The Coolidge Corner Theatre
1st April Bellingham, WA - Pickford Film Center
1st April Asheville, NC - Fine Arts Theatre (Presented by Harvest Records)
2nd April Tucson, AZ - The Screening Room
3rd April Washington DC -- The Black Cat - the Backstage
10th April Athens, GA - Aux Festival at Athens Cine
16th April San Francisco, CA - ATA Theatre
17th April Seattle, WA - Northwest Film Forum

Tour Dates:

13th March St. Augustine, Harvest of Hope Festival, US
14th March Orlando, The Social, US
8th April Auckland, The King's Arms Tavern, NZ
9th April Wellington, San Francisco Bath House, NZ
11th April Brisbane, The Zoo, AUS
13th April Sydney, Manning Bar, AUS
14th April Melbourne, The Corner Hotel, AUS
16th April Adelaide, Fowler's Live, AUS
18th April Perth, The Rosemount, AUS
31st May Sasquatch Music Festival, US
8th September Leeds, Brudenell Social Club, UK
9th September London, KOKO, UK
10th September End of the Road Festival, UK

Almost as cool as CSN&Y! That would be folks from Deer Tick, Dawes and Delta Spirit... debuting at SXSW. So new there's not even a promotional photo!

By Blurt Staff

MG&V stands for McCauley, Goldsmith, and Vasquez...More specifically, John McCauley - frontman of Deer Tick, Taylor Goldsmith - frontman of Dawes and Matt Vasquez - frontman of Delta Spirit.

 
Notoriously adverse to sitting still, John McCauley felt the urge to write and record during some of Deer Tick's recent downtime. Deer Tick chose Dawes to support a leg of their summer 2009 tour, during which McCauley and Goldsmith developed an affinity for each other's songwriting. McCauley decided that Nashville would be the perfect location to write some new songs, and invited Goldsmith to join him. As the project began to take shape, McCauley and Goldsmith decided Matt Vasquez was the man to complete their vision for the project. A few days after tape started rolling, Vasquez arrived in Nashville - never having met McCauley. The three songwriters immediately bonded and proceeded to make a timeless masterpiece. Dawes drummer Griffin Goldsmith also joined the group to contribute percussion.

 
MG&V will make their world debut at the Coda Agency SXSW Showcase at the Ale House on March 19th at 1 AM.

At the Music Hall of Williamsburg Wednesday night (March 10), Danger Mouse and James Mercer cover Neil Young, Tommy James, and themselves. Rising above the potential hype-spawned critical backlash, they do the latter proud, paving the way for a bright future as a "real" group.

By Zachary Herrmann

Debuts rarely come with such lofty expectations as those attached to the self-titled Broken Bells release. Given the pedigree of the group's two collaborators - Brian Burton (Danger Mouse) and James Mercer (of The Shins) - it's understandable.  In the world of indie music, those two names are Dirk Diggler-in-bursting-light-bulbs big.

With the album's March 9 street date come and gone, it's not the least bit surprising to see in critical circles, at least, a good deal of backlash to Broken Bells. The whole scenario sort of feels like déjà vu all over again - there was the same degree of acceptance/disappointment with the Burton-produced Beck LP, Modern Guilt.

And maybe, at first, both of these albums do not quite reach the impossible bar set by the star billings. But great pop can be deceptively simple and, too often, easy to dismiss. This story of expectations and knee-jerk reactions is going to be Burton's cross to bear for his career - because of the caliber of people he chooses to work with, as well as his post-modern approach.

Plain and simple, the guy loves music and if he wears his influences on his sleeve, maybe it's because Burton is creating the sort of music he would want to listen to.  In this spirit, at the second Broken Bells show ever (following a pre-release night in L.A.), the best moments of the night were the set closing covers, performed with reverence and met with delight.

After playing through the album in sequence (more on that in a bit), the Mercer/Burton duo returned to the stage sans backing for an absolutely mesmerizing take on Neil Young's "Don't Let It Bring You Down." With the band returning for one final go, Tommy James and the Shondells' "Crimson & Clover" ended the night in rousing fashion, getting the biggest response out of the night from the sold-out crowd.

When the seven-piece band first took the stage less than an hour earlier, it was hard to gauge just how far Broken Bells the live band would be willing to divert from Broken Bells the studio group.

Perhaps faring slightly better than Gnarls Barkley (Burton's "day job"... sort of) as a live band, Broken Bells gave an impassioned reading of the 10-track, 36-minute debut, stretching out guitar solos here and there, laying a thicker groove when appropriate. Given the fairly close adherence to the script, the album standouts ("Vaporize", "The Ghost Inside", "October") saw Broken Bells at its best, until the two-song encore, of course.

Ever the elusive figure, Burton mostly kept to his drum kit, shrinking into a corner any time he picked up a guitar. However much he tried to recede into the background, his stamp was all over the arrangements, pure psychedelic-soul, both familiar and fresh. So much for remaining inconspicuous.   

Mercer - who, based on appearance, could have easily disappeared into the hipster throngs outside the venue around Bedford Avenue - was only slightly chattier, speaking up on occasion. If any huge criticism could be levied against Broken Bells (the live band), it'd have to be for drowning out Mercer's voice, which apparently, has far more range than evident in The Shins discography. Recreating just about every reverberating vocal effect from the album was wholly unnecessary. As a result, though, Mercer's naked vocals on "Don't Let It Bring You Down" were that much more awe-inspiring by comparison.

The little kinks though, the shorter set length and the lack of audience interaction are all smaller growing pains in the scheme of things, and will dissipate with time (OK, maybe not the audience interaction). Bonus points awarded for the trippy projections though (based off the album's cover art), giving the whole show a sort of Warhol Factory feel (also due to the industrial look of Music Hall of Williamsburg's interiors). With rumblings of a follow-up album already starting, Broken Bells is going to be band worth watching developing on its own merits, live and in the studio, much in the way The Raconteurs have become almost as fascinating as Jack White's main act.

Burton may not come out and say what Broken Bells is to him (for Mercer, it looks like priority number one while on hiatus from The Shins), but there is some tangible evidence out there. At the close of "The Mall & Misery", Burton walked right up behind his co-star, Mercer, pausing for a moment before he placed his hands on Mercer's shoulders.

As if suddenly aware of his actions, he removed his hands and then waved goodnight to the crowd. Whether or not everyone else sees it, there's clearly something more to Broken Bells than just another all star side project. This time, it's definitely personal.

[Photos taken from the Letterman show appearance Tuesday night - if anyone has any photos from Brooklyn, send ‘em over and we'll publish ‘em!]

Who stole the soul indeed! Rumored to be running guns on the Ivory Coast with Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Elvis.

By Fred Mills

Some days we write the news, some days the news writes... you know. The UK media salivating heavily on this day, an otherwise slow news day, thanks to a report in the Daily Mail concerning the late James Brown's body - or the lack thereof.

Hi daughter, LaRhonda Pettit, is claiming that the corpse is missing from its crypt, which has been stored since the Godfather of Soul's death in 2006 at the S.C. home of another daughter, Deanna, until an official mausoleum can be completed. Pettit has been seeking an exhumation and autopsy of the body in order to prove that the official cause of death was not heart failure in conjunction with pneumonia.

Petit told reporters, "My daddy's body has disappeared. I have no clue where it was taken, but I need to know where. I'm convinced his death was suspicious and I want the people responsible brought to justice. The only way to do that is to exhume his body and have an autopsy. I cannot understand why one was never conducted."

She's suggested that perhaps an overdose of prescription painkillers, facilitated by "enablers," was the real cause of death.

Shades of Elvis and Michael Jackson.

Not only is the new Ted Leon & the Pharmacists album Leon's best to date,  it's a strong candidate for one of the finest full-lengths of 2010. Released this week on Matador.

By Ron Hart

"What about the voice of Geddy Lee?" once pondered an indie rock wise man. Well, from the sound of "The Mighty Sparrow", the opening track off The Brutalist Bricks (Matador), the outstanding new album from Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, it seems as though the Washington DC-by-way-of-Brooklyn-by-way-of-North Jersey punk great swallowed it whole (significantly when he hits that high note at the end). But don't think PhX has gone all Rush on us here, kids.

In fact, this taut, tight collection of 13 songs that make up the DNA of The Brutalist Bricks find Leo's trademark indie punk sound getting the major kick in the ass it so desperately needed, especially after 2004's underwhelming Shake The Sheets and 2007's disappointing Living Among The Living left a sour taste in the mouths of fans pining for the glory days of Hearts of Oak.  Elements of folk, only previously touched upon by Leo in the past, are more prominent on several of these tracks, particularly on "Bottled in Cork", a song that laments being an American overseas during the Bush presidency, and the vaguely psychedelic "Tuberculoids Arrive in Hop". Elsewhere, "Mourning In America" employs the faux-electro throb that confirms Leo's recent admittance to being a big Daft Punk fan, while "One Polaroid A Day" offers up the romantic white funk of vintage Orange Juice.  Then, of course, you have your classic PhX rave-ups like "Woke Up Near Chelsea" and "Gimme The Wire", jam-packed with crunchy, four-to-the-floor riffs and Leo's indelible, sentence-busting lyrical agenda tying it all together (albeit glistened with a power pop sheen that is far more Stiff  Records than Dischord).

It sounds as though Teddy boy is out to take over what's left of the rock radio airwaves with The Brutalist Bricks. And, in a perfect world, we'd be hearing songs like "Even Heroes Have To Die" and "Last Days" ad nauseum on the FM dial than Nickelback and the Foo Fighters. Because not only is this his best album to date, it's a strong candidate for one of the finest full-lengths of 2010.  Needless to say, this man is ready for the big time.

[Photo Credit: Ellisa Keller]

Fuerza Chile features 11 Chilean artists from the Nacional roster.

By Blurt Staff

In the wake of the Haiti disaster zillions of people stepped up to donate to Haitian relief programs, but the whole thing was so overwhelming and the media coverage so relentless at times that for many, "Haitian exhaustion" kicked in. As a result, in comparison the Chile earthquake, though admittedly not causing the same amount of damage and suffering, tended to be downplayed. It's a sad but true state of affairs.

So in an effort to revive the spirit of giving in the minds of the music community specific to Chile, the good folks at Alternative Latin label Nacional Records have put together a digital-only benefit album to raise funds. Titled Fuerza Chile, it cherrypicks 11 tracks from Chilean artists across Nacional's catalog. All proceeds will be donated.

Nacional founder Tomas Cookman was in Chile with management and label artist Los Fabulosos Cadillacs for the Vina del Mar Festival when the earthquake occurred. Fortunately no one in the band was injured but Cookman suffered a bruised leg. The group ended up taking a van across the Andes Mountains back to Argentina and were able to witness the devastation firsthand.

Chilean mixmaster Latin Bitman was DJing a massive party when the earthquake occurred. He escaped but within minutes, Bitman noticed that the ceiling had caved exactly where he had been spinning.

‘FUERZA CHILE' TRACK-LISTING

1. Francisca Valenzuela - Run Run Se Fue Pa'l Norte
2. Ana Tijoux - Mar Adentro
3. Gonzalo Yañez - Maldigo De Alto Cielo
4. Primavera De Praga - Pajaro Muerto
5. Los Tres - Cerrar Y Abrir
6. Latin Bitman - Shine
7. Javiera Mena & Diego Morales - Ausencia
8. Los Bunkers - Llueve Sobre La Cuidad
9. RH+ - Curb
10. Señor Coconut - La Vida Es Llena De Cables
11. Angel Parra Trio - La Jardinera

The album is available For Only $5.99 at iTunes and had already topped the iTunes Latino charts. That's a damn bargain, so step up to the plate, folks, and open up those wallets.