Blurt-approved outfit just tears the roof off the sucker...

By Blurt Staff

Back in August, Syracuse's Ra Ra Riot issued The Rhumb Line (Barsuk) and sold nearly 6000 units in its first week of release - not bad for a debut full length. The record and the band's live performances have racked up critical kudos, too, including at BLURT:

Album: www.blurt-online.com/reviews/view/310/

Sept. 6 concert: www.blurt-online.com/concert_reviews/view/64/

March 3 concert: www.blurt-online.com/concert_reviews/view/5/

So you could kinda say that BLURT loves ‘em. Catch ‘em on tour as they wrap up their current US trek this week, head over to England, and then swing back to the States for a final leg leading up to Christmas.

NPR LIVE CONCERT SERIES PERFORMANCE STREAMING AT:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95519776

 Ra Ra Riot Tour Dates:

10.15.08: Philadelphia, PA // Johnny Brenda's
10.16.08: New York, NY // Bowery Ballroom // SOLD OUT
10.17.08: Brooklyn, NY // Music Hall of Williamsburg // SOLD OUT
10.18.08: Cambridge, MA // The Middle East Downstairs
10.25.08: London // Push @ Astoria 2
10.26.08: London // London Forum // SOLD OUT
10.28.08: Newcastle  // Newcastle Academy // SOLD OUT
10.29.08: Glasgow// Glasgow Barrowlands // SOLD OUT
10.30.08: Liverpool // Liverpool Academy // SOLD OUT
10.31.08: Bristol // Bristol Academy // SOLD OUT
11.01.08: Leeds//Cockpit
11.03.08: London // Hoxton Bar
12.03.08: Burlington, VT // Higher Ground
12.04.08: Albany, NY // Valentines
12.06.08: Swarthmore, PA // Swarthmore College
12.05.08: Northampton, MA // Iron Horse Music Hall
12.09.08: Newport, KY // Southgate House
12.11.08: Louisville, KY // 930 Listening Room
12.12.08: Nashville, TN // Exit/In
12.13.08: Athens, GA // 40 Watt Club
12.14.08: Asheville, NC // Grey Eagle
12.16.08: Baltimore, MD // Ottobar

Doing Little Honey in its entirety in Minneapolis.

By Fred Mills

Mark your calendars and prime your web browsers for next week, Oct. 23: that's when Lucinda Williams will be playing at First Avenue in Minneapolis and streaming it as a free audio webcast. She'll do the just-released Little Honey album (Lost Highway) all the way through followed by a second set of old faves and prime nuggets.

Fans can chat live while listening to the show by going  to www.lucindawilliams.com and at the website, listeners can download the Microsoft Silverlight Player that will allow them to hear the music.

Want an advance peek at what the current Luce show might be like? Check out our review of the tour's opening night concert HERE.

[Photo Credit: Derrick Santini]

Likens recent events to shouting "fire" in a crowded theater.

By Fred Mills

MSNBC's "Countdown" commentator Keith Olbermann has called for John McCain to suspend his campaign because it represents "a clear and present danger" to America.

Referring to recent incidents at McCain and Palin rallies during which audience members have hurled epithets at Obama and, at a Palin appearance in Pennsylvania, when someone shouted out "Kill him!" when Obama's name was mentioned, Olbermann accused the candidate of doing nothing about the pinheads - and thereby tacitly endorsing and encouraging them.

Says Olbermann, "Sen. McCain, your supporters, at your events, are calling Obama a terrorist and traitor and are calling for him to be killed. And yet you keep bringing back these same rabid Right Wing nuts to deliberately stir these crowds into frenzies. And then you take offense when somebody who remembers the violence in our political past, calls you on it. You, sir, are responsible for a phalanx of individuals who are shouting fire in a crowded theatre. There are some things to respect and honor about you, Sen. McCain.

"But on this, you're not only a fraud, Senator but you are tacitly inciting lunatics to violence. If you want to again grand-stand and suspend your campaign here's your big chance. Suspend your campaign now, until you, or somebody else, gets some control over it and it ceases to be a clear and present danger to the peace of this nation."

You got that right. Read the entire article and view the video HERE.

Smoke cigarettes, vote for John McCain, and don't wear a seatbelt - what's not to like?

By Fred Mills

"You'll get fucked, and he'll get fucked. Everybody wins!"

‘Nuf said. You're our hero, Hayden. (You are too, FunnyOrDie.com!)

There's a fine line between a smear campaign and an incitement to violence.

By Fred Mills

Filmmaker Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films has put together a compilation video that presents in pretty stark terms the racist, violence-tinged nastiness that's been going on at McCain and Palin events. Concurrently, ColorOfChange.org has published an open letter to the campaign demanding that they do something about it.

The letter reads, in part:

In the last few weeks, Senator McCain and Governor Palin, rhetoric at your campaign events has taken an increasingly dangerous tone that seems to ignore the precarious state of our progress when it comes to race and ethnicity.

Supporters at your rallies and other events have used hateful language and called for violence against Sen. Obama yelling "kill him!" "off with his head!" and "bomb Obama."

For the most part, you have stood by in silence. In addition, you have also repeatedly made statements that somehow connect Senator Obama with terrorism. Your surrogates have emphasized his middle name. This is problematic and dangerous, and we believe helps create the conditions that have given rise to these incidents of violent rhetoric from some of your supporters.

Today, we're standing together as Americans of all political persuasions to express our deep concern that the decisions of your campaign are contributing to a dangerous atmosphere of paranoia, division, and hate that, as we have already seen, has the potential to seriously harm our country and its progress.

View the Greenwald video below.

December 21-28 at Maxwells in Hoboken.

By Fred Mills

It's as much a grand American tradition as filling a jack-o-lantern with dogshit, placing it on your neighbor's front stoop and setting it on fire: Yo La Tengo's annual string of Hanukkah concerts at Maxwell's in Hoboken.

In a post to their MySpace page blog today, YLT indicated that this year's events will take place Dec. 21-28 and tickets - which went on sale today at noon at www.ticketweb.com - will be $30. "Inflation may be rampant," writes YLT, "but not here."

Boy howdy to that. As usual there will be special guests rotating as the shows' opening acts, details tba. There will also be a special New Year's Eve concert at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, New Jersey ("home of Stephen Colbert and Don Fleming," we are advised) featuring the Feelies and the Vivian Girls also on the bill.

The band is additionally taking suggestions on what charitable organizations might be suitable candidates for them to donate proceeds too, per YLT's generous tradition. Here's the complete text of the blog post:

***

Holiday News Flash

Hey everybody,

Got a lot on my mind, so pull up a chair.

First off, let's make it official. We're going to play another series of Hanukkah shows this year at Maxwell's, The dates are December 21 - December 28. Inflation may be rampant, but not here: tickets will be $30, just like last year. Shows will begin at 9:00 on Friday and Saturday, and 8:30 every other night. There'll be a musical act in addition to Yo La Tengo, some comedy, and maybe something else. We'll see. But just like last year, we will be enforcing a strict "don't ask, don't tell" policy about the lineups. Mostly because we won't know until the last minute, but--we cannot tell a lie--also because we're ornery that way. Tickets will go on sale October 15 at 12 noon eastern time.

There is one thing we can tell you. The Feelies will not be playing with us during Hanukkah, scout's honor. But we will be doing a gala New Year's Eve show with the Feelies, merely New Jersey's greatest rock band ever, and Vivian Girls at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair NJ, home of Stephen Colbert and Don Fleming.

Tickets will be $35, or a mere $115 less than it costs to see Steely Dan. (To be fair, if you're paying per chord, Steely Dan is priced competitively.)

As Joan Rivers asked so poignantly: can we talk? With all the economic turmoil turmoiling about us these days, it's not that easy to suggest that you spend what's left of your money with us. But if you've ever attended these Hanukkah shows before, we hope you'll agree that they are unique evenings of entertainment (and if you haven't, there are lengthy descriptions of the 2005 and 2007 editions archived in the News section at yolatengo.com). We don't take a penny from these shows, and no performer receives anything beyond their expenses. The word benefit is an often abused one, but we promise you, the money you pay is being passed along to charity.

Which brings me to the next point. Over the years, from time to time people have offered unsolicited suggestions about where we could donate the proceeds from individual shows, suggestions we have frequently taken. So let's solicit them this year: If you work for a non-profit organization, don't hesitate to tell us about it. We can't guarantee that we'll select you as one of our recipients, but we will absolutely consider it.

Ira, Georgia and James

Performing the entire album start to finish as "director's cut" version...

By Blurt Staff

Robyn Hitchcock has announced U.S. dates for his ‘I Often Dream of Trains' Tour! It runs Nov. 12 - 22 and is set to be one of the most anticipated indie tours of the winter. The New York show is also to be filmed for a subsequent broadcast via the Sundance Channel.

Here are the details, direct from Robyn's camp:

***

Legendary songwriter Robyn Hitchcock announces much anticipated U.S. dates for his ‘I Often Dream of Trains' Tour in support of his recent boxed set reissues I Wanna Go Backwards (containing the Trains album) and Luminous Groove.

Following the rousing response of Londoners following the first ‘I Often Dream of Trains' gig there earlier this year, eight American cities have been tapped for this unique, once-in-a-lifetime concert experience. Robyn along with band mates Terry Edwards (keyboards, horns, vocals) and Tim ‘Captain' Keegan (guitar, vocals) will perform a ‘director's cut' of his classic 1983 album I Often Dream of Trains.

11/12 San Francisco, CA, The Fillmore

11/13 West Hollywood, CA, Coronet Theater

11/15 Chicago, IL, Old Town School of Music

11/17 Pittsburgh, PA, Hazlet Theater

11/18 Alexandria, VA, The Birchmere

11/19 Philadelphia, PA, World Café Live

11/21 Somerville, MA, Somerville Theater

11/22 New York City, NY, Symphony Space

Robyn says of Trains, "For 1983 I wanted to see what happened if I stopped playing gigs, making records, or having any attempt at a career whatsoever. Whatever music I made was purely for myself, without trying to speak the language of the day. The result was I Often Dream of Trains."

John Edgington (director of the recent Hitchcock documentary film Sex, Food, Death... and Insects) will be filming the NYC Symphony Space show for the Sundance Channel for the later release of a concert film document of this special evening.

The Trains Tour isn't the only thing keeping Mr. Hitchcock busy in late ‘O8. He also appears in the Jonathan Demme film Rachel Getting Married starring Anne Hathaway and Tunde Adebimpe (of TV on the Radio). The film recently competed at the Venice and Toronto film festivals and premiered earlier this month in New York. In the film, which debuted earlier this month, Robyn performs ‘America' and ‘Up to Our Nex,' which was written by Robyn especially for the project.

If that wasn't enough, Robyn has just returned from a trip to the Arctic with the Cape Farewell expedition, a sea voyage meant to expose artists, musicians, writers and scientists to the perils of climate change first hand in the hopes that they might help draw attention to one of the most significant environmental issues of the millennia. Other passengers on the voyage included KT Tunstall, Jarvis Cocker, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Martha Wainwright, Vanessa Carlton and Feist.

Five free concerts in three days.

By Fred Mills

It probably won't even register a blip on the radar of all you Obamarama-rocking, Pitchfork-centric hipsters out there, but you can bet it stands a better chance than any indie rock band of serving up some food for thought among the undecided voters of the electoral battleground of North Carolina. (Seriously - how many indie types do YOU know that are for McCain?)

Next week, former NC resident James Taylor is planning on playing five free concerts in the Tarheel State with the intention of helping to get the word out about Obama's message and to encourage citizens to vote ahead of time (early voting starts this Thursday in NC).

According to a report filed today by Raleigh News & Observer pop critic (and BLURT contributor) David Menconi, the five-show swing will take the soft-rock icon literally from mountains to coast, with shows in Asheville, Charlotte, Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Wilmington. And it won't be done at a leisurely clip - check the rough itinerary, below. Exact venues and times are still tba, but expectations are that the events will be held at outdoor locations.

Sunday, Oct. 19 -- Charlotte, Asheville
Monday, Oct. 20 -- Chapel Hill
Tuesday, Oct. 21 -- Raleigh, Wilmington

Fellow bandmate generously offers to fall on his sword, too....

By Fred Mills

Good morning. Don't you relish those over-coffee-and-bagels moments, hopefully with the soft light of the a.m. sun peeking gently through the curtains, when you can ponder the random dirt ‘n' sleaze that populates this fine institution we call the music industry?

Today's scumline in the music biz bathtub is, surprise, Britain's Pete Doherty, the erstwhile Libertines/sometime Babyshambles gent who's made it his personal mission to see that his surname and the word "drugs" align as often as possible in news headlines. According to reports in the U.K. media, Doherty appears in a video posted to YouTube and is preparing to "smoke something from a small glass container" only to have a bucket of water dumped on his head by a female friend (i.d.'d as "Mary the cleaning lady") who comments, "I thought you'd given up that shit!"

Astonishingly, Doherty - who is, what, on ten different probations at this point? - has claimed that he has not been up to his old tricks.

In other Doherty-related reports, fellow Babyshambles member Mick Whitnall was arrested last weekend in London "for suspected drug offenses." Police arrested Whitnall at a club for possession of crack and later found more drugs at his home. Speculation is running high that Whitnall was directed by his band's frontman to get busted and direct the media glare away from Doherty, and while there's absolutely no evidence to support that theory, it's exactly the kind of harebrained scheme someone like ol' Pete would come up with, dontcha think?

Bush administration's "lies" gets his motor running...

By Fred Mills

This year's election ain't no easy ride, and legendary actor Dennis Hopper apparently realizes just that. Long admired for his screen work - by most estimations, one of the original mavericks, too, the kind that makes John McSame look like Howdy Doody  - but long reviled for his Republican politics and unwavering (until now) support for George Bush, Hopper is in the news today for coming out in favor of Obama, citing the Bush administration's "lies" as his reason for switching from red to blue.

Speaking to journalists in France at a career overview Hopper said, "I voted for Bush, father and son, but this time I'll vote for Obama. I was the first person in my family to have been Republican. For most of my life I wasn't on the left.

"I pray God, Barack Obama is elected."

We do too, Billy. Captain America loves ya.