Moved from the original venue to a larger one... but still guaranteed to be a sellout...

By Blurt Staff

You'd think by now that we here at BLURT are sick of the Avett Brothers - they're currently gracing the cover of the latest issue of our magazine (order copies here, hint hint...); we reviewed their I And Love And You album and named ‘em one of our Blurt Bands Of The Week; and we've been seeing ‘em on late night television with such regularity we're beginning to suspect they're in line to take over David Letterman's seat when Dave finally retires.

(Check out the video of them on Jimmy Fallon, below, doing "Slight Figure Of Speech.")

But you'd be wrong. We ain't sick of ‘em, which is why it's our civic duty (okay, fanboy duty...) to let you know that their annual New Year's Eve show, set for the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville, NC, has been moved to the considerably larger Asheville Civic Center, and tickets go on sale TOMORROW, Nov. 21, at Ticketbastard.

Turns out the show sold out literally in minutes, leaving thousands of Avetts fans from within and without the NC region wailing, so the decision was made to move it next door to the Civic Center. A wise decision, we think. But here's a prediction: this will also sell out, so if you're planning your New Year's Eve for a Tarheel soirree, best log on tomorrow morning at 10 am if you want to see the show. (Tickets for the Thomas Wolfe show will obviously be honored, by the way.)

New full-length reportedly in the works for early next year.

By Blurt Staff

The Alkaline Trio has announced the birth of Heart & Skull, the band's own label formed in partnership with Epitaph Records. The band will release its seventh album through Epitaph/Heart & Skull in early 2010.

Commenting on the formation of the new imprint, named for the band's longstanding logo, Alkaline Trio singer/guitarist Matt Skiba said, "We made the decision to form Heart & Skull to put out our own records after having been through every kind of label deal in the industry, big indies, small indies, majors. We knew it was time to adapt to the shifting tides of the music industry and we could not be more thrilled about doing that in conjunction with the team at Epitaph. Taking control of our own label situation was something we always wanted to do but never thought was possible, but now thanks to Brett Gurewitz and the fine folks at Epitaph, it is. All three of us in Alkaline Trio have always had the utmost respect for the music and the work ethic of the Epitaph, Anti- and Hellcat family and now we're honored to be working together under one big happy roof. Heart & Skull/Epitaph is truly a dream come true for us."

Alkaline Trio bassist/vocalist Dan Andriano added, "For our band at this time it really makes sense to release our own records, but we wanted to make sure we could partner up with good people who we would want to share in something very special to us.  When Brett called and said he wanted to be involved, that was it. Epitaph is a label I've admired and supported for more than half of my life! I couldn't be more excited for how this is turning out!"

Alkaline Trio first emerged from Chicago in 1996 and has since released the full length studio albums Goddamnit, Maybe I'll Catch Fire, From Here To Infirmary, Good Mourning, Crimson and last year's Agony & Irony, which was the highest charting record of the band's career to date. The band: Skiba, Andriano and drummer Derek Grant, all of whom are partners in Heart & Skull.

One of New Orlean's musical ambassadors now a genuine cultural ambassador.

By Blurt Staff

Cyril Neville of the Neville Brothers was formally introduced as the new ambassador of  the Chahta Indian tribe.  All his life, his mother, father and uncle taught him that he was a Choctaw Indian, which he said is correctly pronounced "Chahta." But he only recently found the historical records that document his ancestry. 

Check out this clip via the the Times-Picayune as Cyril Neville sings 'Indian Red,' during his reception as the new ambassador of the Chahta Indians at Bonfouca near Slidell LA.

"I feel humbled and empowered at the same time," Neville said, in a statement. Neville's new role as ambassador will be to speak for the tribes that are centered in St. Tammany and include descendents of the 125 Chahta, Creek and Cherokee who did not leave during the forced relocation under Andrew Jackson, called the Trail of Tears. Members are spread throughout the Florida Parishes, and since Hurricane Katrina, are scattered in 29 states.

Brand New Blues, Neville's first release in eight years, was released in April on MC Records. 

Pre-sale starts next week... oh, and you can buy lots of swag too...

By Blurt Staff

It was just announced that the 2010 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival is confirmed for June 10-13. The four-day music and camping festival will once again be held on the 700-acre farm in Manchester, TN, 60 miles southeast of Nashville. 

The 2010 line up and more will be announced in late January/early February. Stay tuned to www.bonnaroo.com or follow the event on Twitter (bonnaroo.com/twitter) for special announcements in the coming months.


2010 Tickets - Holiday Pre-Sale Details: Beginning next Friday, November 27th at 12:00 PM eastern, the event organizers will offer a festive holiday pre-sale for all 2010 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival tickets. With each ticket purchase they will include a Bonnaroo holiday greeting card featuring a unique, iconic photo from Bonnaroo's colorful past. All persons who place their order by December 16th will receive their complimentary card in time for Christmas. In addition, Bonnaroo is once again offering general admission tickets for 5 easy payments of $50.00 plus applicable fees or a pair of VIP tickets for 5 payments of $285.00 plus applicable fees through our holiday pre-sale.

Pre-sale ends at 11:59 PM eastern on Thursday, December 31s - go to www.bonnaroo.com for more information.

But wait, there's more....

Discounted Holiday Merch Packages & Limited Edition Calendar: A limited edition 2010 Bonnaroo calendar is available as well as heavily discounted merch packages during the holiday pre-sale period. The calendar will feature an eclectic mix of artist photos from previous years, while you'll also be able to purchase vintage tees and posters. Just in time for the gift-giving season, yo.

Ladies and germs, start your wallets!

Label offering stems of all the tracks on new Kilbey-Martin Kennedy album for fans to remix.

By Blurt Staff

Due out Jan. 26 from Second Motion is Unseen Music/Unheard Words, a joint project from the Church's Steve Kilbey and All India Radio's Martin Kennedy. The record's been out digitally for some time already, notching up enthusiastic reviews. Check some of the fan comments posted at Amazon.com:

"If you're a fan of the Church, All India Radio, or Steve Kilbey solo projects, this is a must buy. Every song is a masterpiece! Blending swirling atmospherics and acoustic guitar with Kilbey's baritone makes for a winning formula."

"Any fan of Steve Kilbey would know right away that this is one of his finest lyrical works. No matter how long it took to write the words. A brilliant mix of Kennedy's music and Steve's voice. The two seem to be made for each other. A wonderful piece of music indeed. This one will go down in history as a masterpiece. Slow....and....easy."

The label's also sweetening the deal by offering to folks who order the limited edition "digital deluxe version" an Ambient/Remix album along with 8 digital illustrations from Kennedy. The remix record includes 4 previously unreleased tracks:

all is one - black satin mix

piano 4.9 (friends are gone original piano)

stretch into the stars - raw mix

maybe soon - all india radio mix

Plus the rare track "Eyes Head," originally done for the good folks over at Magnet magazine.

More intriguingly, the band and label are putting on a Fan Remix Project. According to Second Motion, "We are offering the stems for every song on the album available for free for each of you to download to your hearts content.  With these stems you can work on your own remixes of the songs and submit them back to us no later than Dec 31st, 2009.  We will share every remix with both Steve & Martin and narrow down the songs to our favorites.  The plan is to sometime next year release a digital only 'fan remix' album."

Full details from the label follow below. Have fun, fans, and go to the Second Motion site for more info: www.secondmotionrecords.com/

***

1. Deadline: Contest is open worldwide, you do not have to be a US or Canadian citizen to enter.  All submissions are due no later than Dec 31st, 2009 and must be emailed to: stephen (at) secondmotionrecords.com.  Please do NOT email more than one track per email, if you are working on multiple tracks please use your own .mac public folder, a delivery method such as yousendit.com or email us for specific directions on how to submit before submitting.  We are not responsible for lost files via spam folders or cyberspace issues.  We will email you back acknowledgement of receipt. 

Please note: we will ONLY accept Mp3 copies of the remixes initially.  If you are selected as a finalist we will ask you for higher quality .wav or .aiff files at that time.

2. Snail Mail:

in lieu of email, you may also submit by mail to:

Second Motion Records

PO BOX 862

East Lansing, MI 48826

attn: KK Remix Contest

be sure to include your name, email address, and phone number to contact you.  You must supply your own CDR and postage and we cannot return the disc. 

3. Waiver: Very Important Note: by downloading the stems and submitting your tracks for submission, you hereby acknowledge that you will not receive any royalties for potential sales of these remixes (we have not decided on what we will do with them we just want to see what you guys can come up with!) but we will give you full credit for your remix if chosen and do some other special things in the future as a thank you.   We want all of you fans to feel like you are a part of this album and feel like this is a great way for you to participate in helping us promote this for more and more people to discover.  This is for promotional purposes only but we do reserve the right to full ownership of the copyright, publishing and royalties of these songs regardless of your participation.  

4. Download: All tracks are at the links below, and are in .zip formats and are all .wav files.  If you have any trouble downloading them there would be high traffic problems due to popularity.  First, wait 30 minutes and try again, if the problem continues please email us and we will investigate the issues.  Please only download one track/zip file at a time!

Please note, these tracks are large, each zip file is a minimum of 200MB to 450MB in size.  Please ONLY download one track zip file at a time. If you are unfamiliar with the use of .wav files, remixes, or don't have the bandwidth to handle downloading files of this size please do not participate in this contest. These files are 100% virus free and we are not responsible for any problems they may cause to your computer, so download at your own risk.  

4. Copyright: These tracks may not be redistributed, sold, streamed or used in any way without written approval from Second Motion Records, the composers and publishers of these tracks.   All tracks are copyright control 2009-2010 licensed to Second Motion Records and any violation of these rights will result in punishment to the full extent of the law. By clicking these links you hereby acknowledge this agreement.

All of these things aside, let's have some fun with this!  We cannot wait to hear what you guys have in mind!

STEMS: (Please for bandwidth reasons only download one at a time)

1. Eyes Ahead

2. My Will Be Yours

3. Stretch Into The Stars

4. Maybe Soon

5. Uh I Dunno

6. Thought of Leaving

7. Another Place

8. All Is One

9. Love Increased

10. The Other Place

11. Naked As A Star

12. Friends Are Gone 

View trailer below. Lambchop Live at XX Merge audio + concert film released digitally this week.

By Blurt Staff

Lambchop has been on Merge since 1993, releasing a string of widely varied but consistently brilliant records. But the live Lambchop experience has been somewhat elusive in the U.S.  While the band has toured Europe and elsewhere for nearly two decades, the Nashville group has seldom toured their home country. Kurt Wagner has performed solo on a recent Yo La Tengo tour, and Lambchop supported their recent album, (OH) Ohio, as an intimately stripped-down quintet in a couple of short bursts over the last year. 

To help celebrate Merge's 20th Anniversary the band showed up in one of their largest lineups in recent memory - 11-strong, including multiple guitars, keyboards, piano, and a horn section. Lambchop performing live is always a powerful proposition, but on this night they started quietly with "I Will Drive Slowly" from their first album (I Hope You're Sitting Down) and accelerated from there, each song seemingly faster and more intensely played than the last, building to a furious finale of "Up With People" and an epic "Give It."

Lambchop's set at XX Merge was professionally recorded and filmed and is available at the Merge site: www.mergerecords.com.

Lambchop - Live at XX Merge tracklisting:

1. Introduction (Jon Wurster)
2. I Will Drive Slowly
3. The New Cobweb Summer
4. Grumpus
5. Sharing a Gibson with Martin Luther King Jr.
6. What Else Could It Be?
7. Joke (Tony Crow)
8. National Talk Like a Pirate Day
9. Hey, Where's Your Girl?
10. Your Fucking Sunny Day
11. Up With People
12. Give It

Lambchop - Live at XX Merge
Recorded by Nick Peterson
Mixed by Mac McCaughan
FOH Engineer: Mark Luecke

A Show Cobra Film
Directed by Matt Boyd
Produced by Jason Ross

Lambchop - Give It from Merge Records on Vimeo.

Legendary, influential composer to serve as Artist In Residence at the festival and will do several performances.

By Blurt Staff

Set your calendars for March 26-28: that's when the next annual Big Ears Festival will invade downtown Knoxville, Tenn., for the express purpose of putting on "visionary
music, exploratory art, and southern hospitality.

We are all about southern hospitality at BLURT. Go to the official festival website - www.bigearsfestival.com - for info and updates, and meanwhile, here are the Riley details:

Legendary American composer Terry Riley will be theArtist in Residence for the  weekend with a series of concerts throughout the weekend celebrating Riley's 75th Birthday year.  In addition, the weekend will feature an exciting array of artists and performers from the worlds of rock, jazz, classical, and avant-garde music along with installations, exhibitions, interactive experiences, talks, and workshops.  

One of the most influential musicians and composers of the past century, Riley's impact and influence on contemporary music and art cannot be overstated.  In 1964, his revolutionary composition, In C, launched the Minimalist movement in music and his influence  is still heard today in the work of Philip Glass, Steve Reich, John Adams and other classical composers.  His subsequent early works, A Rainbow in Curved Air and Poppy Nogood, with their kaleidoscopic, psychedelic atmospheres, sent waves across the musical worlds of the 1960s, strongly reflected in the music of The Who, Pink Floyd, and other rock bands of the time.  That influence continues today in the music of Radiohead and Animal Collective and Riley was recently selected by the London Times as one of the "1000 Makers of the 20th Century."

"It's a tremendous honor to have Terry Riley participate in our festival this year. It's a dream come true." says Big Ears founder, Ashley Capps, also a creator and producer of the renown Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.  

Riley himself will perform in several different concerts of his work during the weekend, with a variety of musicians.  Also, the Calder String Quartet will present a program of his work.  And a sure highlight of the weekend will come when many of the artists performing during the weekend join together for an unforgettable performance of In C, "one of the definitive masterpieces of the 20th Century."  

 Additions to the Big Ears lineup along with ticketing information will be released in early December.  

Listen to "A Rainbow In Curved Air": 

"Bamboo You" not officially available in stores until January 19; to be released on Skybucket.

By Blurt Staff

You want it? You got it: Alabama indie upstarts Vulture Whale have a free digital EP for YOU. Go to the official band site - www.vulturewhale.com - and get clicking. The shit's free, jeez, so how can you pass that up? Meanwhile, the details:

After playing together in Wes McDonald & the Fizz, Lester Nuby (of Verbena), Keelan Parrish, Jake Waitzman, and the band's fearless leader, Wes McDonald, decided to convert the power structure of the group from a monarchy into a true democracy. Legend has it the band settled on its new name after guitarist Nuby dreamed of a vulture sitting on top of a guitar, eating a whale. Out of such fevered visions, Vulture Whale was born. The group hails from Birmingham, Alabama, where in 2007 it released its first self-titled album. So pleased was the band with its debut statement, it decided to release another self-titled album in 2009. "Sugar," a single from the later self-titled album, was featured in an issue of Spin Magazine, and both albums were acclaimed both in America and abroad.

For its current release, an EP entitled "Bamboo You," Vulture Whale has risen like a phoenix from its own ashes and-through a complex ritual involving consumption of Golden Flake potato chips and Vegemite-morphed into the best American band pretending to be a British band influenced by American music since Guided By Voices. The concept for the project is not exactly new: Mick Jagger sang in an American accent on numerous Rolling Stones albums, and The Kinks interpreted Americana on their classic "Muswell Hillbillies" album. On "Bamboo You," Vulture Whale combines its unique brand of eccentric rock with its love of British music. The result is six songs that are among some of the best and most inspired of any in the Vulture Whale catalog. Throughout "Bamboo You," McDonald-whose lyrics are always somehow both humorous and casually profound-sings with a playful, faux British accent that is as entertaining as it is inauthentic. When McDonald sings, "She went on and just stripped me for parts / at least she let me keep my guitar," the combination of redneck philosophy with a quasi-Cockney accent is (surprisingly) nothing short of a revelation.

But despite the role playing and subtle musical allusions to classic rock and Brit pop bands, Vulture Whale's personality shines through, and the band's charm congeals all of its influences into one solid and original artistic offering that is just plain fun to listen to. "Bamboo You" is much greater than the marginally interesting story behind its concept.

Lydon promises to cut a new album "if I raise the money" from the upcoming tour. Meanwhile, let's watch that butter commercial again...

By Fred Mills

Following up on the news, reported back in September, that John Lydon was reforming Public Image Limited for a five-date December run of concerts in England: Lydon told the BBC yesterday that an album of original material is a strong possibility if the band banks enough dough from the shows - which would be their first in 17 years.

Yes, if I raise the money from this, I most definitely will," Lydon told the BBC. "But what you've got to understand with Public Image Ltd is that every single time we recorded we only had one take, no money."

Lydon also indicated that the tour - which, incidentally, will not feature any of the original band members other than himself - wasn't being underwritten by a record company, and that he was funding the trek largely from the income he got for taping a series of commercials for a British butter/dairy company Country Life ("that's the only way I can get to perform live").

This is what you want, this is what you get, however: not specifically a greatest hits set on the tour.

Snorted Lydon, "Don't be ridiculous! What do you think this is? The Beatles? She loves you yeah yeah yeah? No no no! You get what you're given and it'll be even better then."

Seventies British outfit was acclaimed but never fulfilled its Stateside potential.

By Blurt Staff

Along the lines of 10cc, Be-Bop Deluxe, Roxy Music, Alex Harvey and countless other bands of the UK Art-Rock movement in the '70s and early '80s comes City Boy, who also garnered much attention. In the course of their history, City Boy released several albums to much critical praise from fans and music press across both sides of the Atlantic. On November 10th foremost US reissue label Renaissance Records in conjunction with ItsAboutMusic.com (who have released all of the City Boy catalog) issued the band's unreleased album from 1982 called 'It's Personal'.

Formed in the UK in the early 1970s, Lol Mason, Steve Broughton, Max Thomas and Mike Slamer were playing folk music in the Birmingham area. Towards the end of 1975 they were offered a contract by Phonogram records on the condition that they add drums and a bass. So Roger Kent and Chris Dunn were recruited. Although some critics wrote quite favorable reviews for 'City Boy' (1975) and 'Dinner At The Ritz' (1976), it was not until 1978 and their hit song "5-7-0-5" on the subsequent album 'Book Early' that the public began to take notice. The single went right into the Top 10 of the British charts, and the album entered the Top 30 in the album charts.

"We were on tour in Germany at the time, and I remember one of our managers talking to Steve and Lol for ages on the phone as we were lying around in this hotel room in Munich," Max Thomas recalled "Lol said 'Right, I've got an idea...we'll give them a telephone love-song - '5-7-0-5' (or something like that anyway!) So the vocal was re-recorded, the record company expressed delight, and promised to really plug the song, and lo and behold, out of the blue - because it seemed like that at the time - we had a hit single on our hands in the UK, two months before we were committed to a four month tour in America! Fine, we thought, with a bit of luck, we'll carry our success to the States and will become extremely rich and famous."

They were able to repeat their success with their 1979 album 'The Day The Earth Caught Fire' and its title song as a single release. City Boy had one more successful album with 'Heads Are Rolling' in 1980, which many critics believe to be their best, before their recording contract with Atlantic expired. "Atlantic had already written us off," said Thomas. "They responded to 'Heads' very lukewarmly, and delivered the last part of the advance most reluctantly for us to record 'It's Personal', which they never released. I think it was only released in Scandinavia because we were still signed to Polygram in certain territories. Zomba half-heartedly tried to sell 'It's Personal', but by 1982, all the contracts, including our management contract expired...and then the money ran out, and suddenly there were no more wages. And we were all out of a job, and out of a career."

Unable to secure a contract with a major label, the band released a single on their own City Boy label in 1982. After this failed completely to attract anyone's attention, the group split. Now much to the elation of City Boy fans worldwide, the band's final album 'It's Personal' has been reissued on CD from the master tapes.