New super-supergroup to release Dark Developments on Oct. 14.

By Blurt Staff

Songwriter's songwriter Vic Chesnutt has teamed with fellow Athens, Georgians Elf Power and The Amorphous Strums on Dark Developments, due Oct. 14 on Orange Twin Records. The album was recorded over winter by Chesnutt and Elf Power's Derek Almstead in the former's attic studio. From the publicist:

"Dark Developments revels in the intimate, home-recorded atmosphere you'd expect from an Athenian union like this... It's that friction extant between Chesnutt's shadowy worldview and the inventive bounce and bray of Elf Power's euphonious intraband chemistry that buoys Dark Developments, provides its freshness, and makes for rewarding repeated listening."

Halloween-themed collection of tunes from his Wicked Cool label.

By Fred Mills

Little Steven Van Zandt's garage-shock label Wicked Cool has a spooky treat for ya in a couple of weeks: Halloween A Go-Go, a collection of scary, creepy, goony and loony tunes handpicked by Silvio himself. It's due September 16.

Little Steven filled us in: "Our first Halloween collection finds us probing the subconscious to confront our most persistent demons on Garage Rock's favorite holiday. We are visited by some of the usual cast of characters one would expect - Dracula, the Wolfman, Ghosts, Zombies and Witches - but are far more horrified by that which cannot be touched, controlled, bargained with, or avoided - our own dreams. 

"During the course of these proceedings you will find yourself dancing with the devil, laughing in the face of the apocalypse, transported to the mystic forests of your deepest darkest secrets and insatiable lusts, and shocked by the helplessness of your own confessions of the sacred and the profane.  But afterward, if you live, one fact above all with remain clear - now you will learn why you fear the night!"

And dig it, fans and collectors: "Restless Nights," performed Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (which Steven is, uh, a member of), is one of those obscure gems previously only available on the Springsteen rarities box Tracks.

Halloween A Go-Go Track List:

01. The Electric Prunes ­ I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night

02. Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band - Restless Nights

03. The Chesterfield Kings - Running Through My Nightmares

04. The Fuzztones - I'm the Wolfman

05. Howlin' Wolf ­ Howlin' For My Darlin'

06. Minus 5 - Lies of the Living Dead

07. Roky Erickson and The Aliens - I Walked With a Zombie

08. Jarvis Humby -­ Man with the X-Ray Eyes

09. Sweatmaster - I Am A Demon and I Love Rock and Roll

10. Tegan And Sara - Walking With A Ghost

11. The Stems - She's a Monster

12. Carl Perkins - Put Your Cat Clothes On

13. John Zacherle "The Cool Ghoul" - Dinner with Drac

14. The Pretty Things - Walking Through My Dreams

15. Donovan - Season of the Witch

Reading his own short story for a new compilation.

By Fred Mills

With the RNC over with it's gonna be a slow news weekend. To wit: here's the most underwhelming news we've heard all day. Britain's NME is reporting that Alex Turner, frontman for the Arctic Monkeys, had made a spoken word recording that will be released on October 13. It's of him reading a Turner-penned short story titled "The Choice of Three" and it will appear on a compilation that fellow Monkey Matt Helders is putting together for the Late Night Tales series.

Also on the compilation: songs from Roots Manuva, the Rapture and the Coral.

The NME offered the story's opening lines:

"In the tunnel I noticed I had a choice of three. While I thought it very kind of them to offer me this I do wonder if they realised what a dilemma they were sending to face me.

"The trouble was if I looked at your reflection in the left window I missed the actual image of you and your reflection in the right, and if I looked at the right I had the same problem the other way around."

Don't read in bed kids, you'll just fall asleep, and.... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz............

Beloved indiepop band gets down with bombastic style.

By Blurt Staff

A picture is worth a zillion words, and so it is with the one above. You say you don't know Dressy Bessy? BLURT faves, they return with a new album Sept. 30 on Transdreamer recs. Titled Holler And Stomp, it's the followup to the well-received Electrified and it looks to be the one to put the Denver band over the top. The label sez it combines "uber-indie sensibilities mixed with bombastic style, the band remains inspirational, hook-laden and upbeat...13 songs will have you dancing and singing in seconds."

Hey, we are all about uber-indie sensibilities and bombastic style!

Adds sexy-cute vocalist Tammy Ealom, "Personal, as well as impersonal experiences over the past few years have helped inspire my urge to HOLLER and STOMP!"

Well, all right then. Ealom is joined by guitarist John Hill (who also moonlights in Apples In Stereo), along with Rob Greene on bass and Craig Gilbert on drums. A monster tour kicks off next week....

Dressy Bessy Tour Dates:

September:
9/13- Monolith Music Festival, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO
9/19- Replay Lounge, Lawrence, KS
9/20- Vaudeville Mews, Des Moines, IA   NOTE: 2 Shows, All Ages and 21+
9/21-  The Picador, Iowa City, IA
9/22- Bottom Lounge, Chicago, IL
9/23- Grog Shop, Cleveland, OH
9/24- Club Cafe, Pittsburgh, PA
9/25- Arlene's Grocery, NY, NY
9/26- Union Hall, Brooklyn, NY
9/27- Talking Head, Baltimore, MD
9/28- T.T. The Bear's Place, Cambridge, MA
9/30- Black Cat (Backstage), Washington, DC

October:
10/1-  The Saint, Asbury Park. NJ
10/2-  941 Theater, Philadelphia, PA
10/3-  Charlottesville, VA
10/4-  Tin Roof, Charleston, SC
10/5-  Pirate's Cove, Myrtle Beach, SC
10/7-  Smith's Olde Bar, Atlanta, GA
10/9-  40 Watt Club, Athens, GA
10/10- The Nick, Birmingham, AL
10/11- The End, Nashville, TN (NOT w/Casper & The Cookies- supporting The Evangelicas)
10/12- Young Avenue Deli, Memphis, TN
10/14 - Sticky Fingerz, Little Rock, AR
10/15- Hailey's, Denton, TX
10/16- Emo's Lounge, Austin, TX
10/17- Opolis, Norman, OK
10/18- Bluebird Theater, Denver, CO  CD Release Show
 10/24- The Whole Music Club, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
10/25- The Cave, Carleton College, Northfield, MN
10/26- Draught Haus, Winona, MN
10/28- The Aquarium, Fargo, ND (supporting Blitzen Trapper)
10/29- The Turf Club, St. Paul, MN
10/30- Blue Devil Lounge, University of Wisconsin, Stout, Menomonie, WI
10/31- The Duck Room, St. Louis, MO

November:
11/1- The DuKum Inn, Kirksville, MO
11/2- Abbey Pub, Chicago, IL
11/5- Frankie's Inner-City, Toledo, OH
11/6- Bernie's, Columbus, OH
11/7- The Belmont, Detroit, MI

Notes from the bowels of the RNC, day 4.

By Ben Westhoff

What do John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen and Heart have in common? They all want the Republicans to stop using their goddamn songs at rallies. Ann and Nancy Wilson reportedly sent a cease and desist letter to the McCain campaign after the RNC rocked "Barracuda" at the Xcel center last night. Depriving the candidate of this associate will hurt; after all, like your typical barracuda McCain is a little less than six feet long, not very nimble, hunts via ambush and possesses powerful jaws. (Another problem is that "All I Want To Do Is Make Love To You," while a powerful pro-life statement, just doesn't get folks fired up.)

So, ‘70s and ‘80s rockers don't like McCain, but does anyone else? No one hanging around the Minnesota State Capitol for the RNC final-day protests, that's for sure. Lacking the numbers of earlier rallies, they nonetheless gamely fired themselves up around mid-afternoon, using songs, factually-inaccurate diatribes, and free crumbly cookies and bananas, the latter of which came in small, gooey segments. I ate one, and then twenty minutes later became convinced I'd been dosed with LSD. Briefly I contemplated an alternate universe tea party featuring Michele Bachman and that female protester over there (the one calling the surrounding riot cops "cowards"); the ladies ate cucumber sandwiches and discussed clean coal and wind power. (Matter of fact T. Boone Pickens was there too!)

I soon realized my dizziness was probably due to lingering tear gas in the atmosphere and not acid, and followed the now-moving protesters towards downtown. The group was redirected almost immediately, however, by a line of police aiming (tear gas?) guns directly at our brains. The mass swung west and walked along St. Anthony Avenue, before being cut off again by a dozen or so cops on horses. The now-flummoxed protesters decided to plant their rear ends in the road and wait the situation out. I wasn't exactly clear to their aims; perhaps this was a sit-in to protest Piper Palin's spit-shining her little brother's hair?

Eventually the tear gas and concussion bombs came out again, and everyone scattered. (You can read a more detailed account of the clash here, which also reports on the assault of a pair of City Pages reporters.) That meant it was time those of us with press passes -- approximately 1/3 of the crowd -- to head back to the convention center, where Cindy McCain was holding court. She made it clear why so many people are in awe of her husband; not because he was able to withstand torture in a Vietnamese prison camp for five and a half years, but because he was able to trade his old wife in for a new one who was not only much younger and blonder, but whose pops hooked him up with a VP job at his mammoth beer distributorship to boot.

I really dug the video montage introducing McCain, which detailed his time spent in the camp and included a black and white video of him smoking a cigarette with one of his broken arms. One of the main themes of the intro and his speech was how his time in capture made him a less selfish person. When Victor Charlie offered him early release because his father was an admiral he said, "Hell no. I want four more years of torture!"

Although this, like many aspects of his story, is hard to believe, it's fair to say his reputation as a political iconoclast is well deserved. He has succeeded in politics not despite, but because of, his ability to piss off people in his own party and occasionally buck popular opinion. In 2000 he nearly captured the Republican nomination by dissing Christian conservatives and championing campaign finance reform. In 2008 he won despite being against drilling in ANWR. Once sympathetic to him, Democrats now complain he's fallen in line with the Bush tax cuts and taken on a real barracuda, I mean pit bull, of a right-wing running mate, but it seems unlikely a McCain presidency would resemble a Bush presidency. Schwarzenegger's terms as governor come more to mind; like Arnold, McCain would inherit a Democrat-controlled congress, and, with his desire to be remembered trumping an already nebulous party affiliation, would likely set his sites on historic change.

Ah, "change." The key word in this election cycle, espoused by everyone from dogmatic leftists (Barack Obama) to reactionary Mormons (Mitt Romney) to members of the most powerful political families in America (Hillary Clinton). McCain used the word repeatedly in his acceptance speech, though since he was attempting to play to the crowd his proposed policies sounded like Republican business as usual - school choice, loosening trade restrictions and strengthening private health care. On the last issue McCain is surely on the wrong side of history; Americans think the current system sucks, and unless you're planning to blow it up, no one really cares about your plans to tweak it.

Only when he looked the right-wing faithful in the eye and told them things they didn't want to hear - about campaign finance reform, about environmentalism, about how the "Contract for America" Republicans lost their way ("We let Washington change us") -- did he give hints as to why he's been so successful. But it was too little, too late. John McCain's shtick plays best when he's ruffling feathers, but this speech felt like a Heart concert. Not like an ass-kicking 1977 show where the Wilson sisters get all "Crazy on You" at a small club, but like a sell-out, cash-in comeback show decades later, where they play "Barracuda" for the thousandth time, before a crowd that knows all the words.

Compiled by Blurt Staff

206 digital, satellite and hi-def channels and nothin' on? Not likely. Here are BLURT's top music television picks of the day. The time is followed by the network/cable/satellite channel, then the name of the program and/or featured artist(s). All times are EST. For a comprehensive hour-by-hour listing, go to the VH1 Rock On TV site. Note that for certain channels, shows frequently repeat during the day on or subsequent days.

TIME (EST) / CHANNEL / PROGRAM / ARTIST(S)

7:00 AM NBC: Today: New Kids on the Block , Ne-Yo

9:00 AM Syndicated: Live with Regis and Kelly: LeAnn Rimes

10:00 AM Biography: Beatles' Women

11:00 AM ABC: The View: Terrence Howard

12:00 PM VH1C: Brian Wilson: That Lucky Old Sun

3:00 PM PLD HD: Genesis - When in Rome

4:00 PM VH1C: BBC Crown Jewels: In Concert: Neil Young

6:00 PM Ovation: Live from the Artists Den: Crowded House

9:00 PM HBOS: Almost Famous (2000)

10:00 PM Biography:: The Barry White Story

10:00 PM Sundance: Live from Abbey Road: Brian Wilson, Martha Wainwright, Teddy Thompson

11:35 PM CBS: The Late Show With David Letterman: Duffy

11:35 PM NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: The Game

12:00 AM RAVE HD: From The Basement: Sonic Youth , Jose Gonzalez , Laura Marling

12:37 AM CBS: The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Amy Macdonald

1:00 AM ETV: Saturday Night Live (E!): Scarlett Johansson / Death Cab for Cutie

1:00 AM Ovation: Lou Reed: Live at Montreux

1:35 AM NBC: Last Call with Carson Daly: Ben Harper

See if you can guess how many original songs the Boss has composed specifically for cinema.

By Fred Mills

It's long been a given that popular artists' songs find their way into movies (cinema buffs cannot live on symphonic scores alone). And it's often thrilling when one of your favorite artists actually composes material specifically for a film.

In the case of Bruce Springsteen, it might actually surprise you how frequently he's granted permission for his music to be used in films - check this tally at IMDB.com if you're curious - since he's also been known to dig in his heels pretty deep when it comes to anyone co-opting the "message," as it were, of his art; hence his steadfast refusal to allow his songs to be used in commercials, and then only sparingly letting songs be borrowed by politicians and various causes.

Nor has Springsteen been exactly a tunesmith for hire when it comes to Hollywood. You can count on one hand the films he's composed or earmarked previously unreleased material specifically for use in scenes, over credits, etc. John Sayles' gorgeously moody film Limbo (1999) featured the Springsteen song "Lift Me Up" to breathtaking effect, while, likewise, Sean Penn's harrowing 1995 Jack Nicholson vehicle The Crossing Guard included "Missing," and the Boss' friend Jonathan Demme commissioned the songwriter to do "Streets of Philadelphia" for his '93 Oscar-winning Philadelphia. Quality tunes, all, and perhaps it's partly due to Springsteen's selectivity in choosing those types of projects that the material is so strong and so memorable.

Now comes word - courtesy The Playlist - that filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, who recently finished up The Wrestler starring Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood, has convinced Springsteen to do a closing-credits tune titled, simply enough, "The Wrestler." The soundtrack itself apparently will be studded with a lot of has-been hair metal by the likes of Great White, Cinderella, Def Leppard and Motley Crue, but the Springsteen number was written specifically for the film.

According the The Playlist, quoting Aronofsky's blog, "Bruce Springsteen wrote a beautiful original song for the closing [of] the film. Called ‘The Wrestler' it is a wonderful acoustic piece. Makes me choke up every time I hear it. He really captured the spirit of the film and Mickey's character in the piece."

The film premieres this week at the Venice Film Festival and will also be screened at the Toronto and New York festivals. Reportedly, it features at the moment a rough or working version of the song and that Springsteen has pledged to get his final version to Aronofsky in time for its premiere.

Be afraid. Be very, very afraid...

By Fred Mills

Well, the Republicans wound up their robot last night and aimed her in the direction of the RNC podium, and she performed perfectly - too perfectly, in fact. In the time it took to deliver her I-got-good-Christian-maverick-cred/now-let's-go-get-that-scary-black-man speech, Sarah Palin went from MILF to maniac (and I'm not talking the pole-dancing "Maniac" sort, either). She was that scary, and if the Obama campaign underestimates her, we can, in the words of one of my esteemed colleagues, expect the Democrats to fumble the ball in the end zone once again.

Meanwhile, while the McSame campaign gets ready to ratchet up its New Improved Variation On The Southern Strategy - e.g., to bring soccer moms and disaffected Hillary voters under the same tent that's housing the closet racists and the Christian crazies - let us take a quick breather, come out of the trenches, and enjoy some of the wit, wit and more wit that the Palin ascendancy has prompted from pundits and funnymen alike.

In Tuesday's NYMag.com a feature titled "Sarah Palin Jokes: Is McCain's V.P. Making Politics Funny Again?" pointed out that a veritable deluge of Palin-themed humor has hit the media circus. A couple of our favorites that NYMag.com highlighted:

• "She's not bad-looking. She looks like one of those women in the Van Halen videos who takes off her glasses, shakes out her hair, and then all of a sudden, she's in high heels and a bikini. All of a sudden, I am FOR drilling in Alaska." -Jimmy Kimmel

• "John McCain's V.P. pick is the governor of Alaska, a unknown hockey mom named Sarah Palin that no one ever heard of. The only other job she had in politics was the mayor of a small town known as Wasilla, Alaska, and now she has the opportunity to be on a ticket opposite of Barack Obama, the first black man she's ever seen." -Bill Maher

• "She does know about international relations because she is right up there in Alaska, right next-door to Russia." - Fox News' Steve Doocy "When you think about it, Alaska is also near the North Pole, so she must also be friends with Santa." -Jon Stewart

Check ‘em out at the above link....

"Get a grip on reality!" says the rocker, on how high the stakes are this year.

By Fred Mills

For nearly 2000 words, Anti-Flag frontman Justin Sane - having appeared just yesterday at the Ripple Effect protest concert in St. Paul - weighs in on his latest BLURT blog about the 2008 election. "I'm voting against Godzilla-sized evil," announces Sane, going to outline in lucid detail both his reservations with and decision to vote for Obama, what a disaster the 2000 and 2004 elections turned out to be (he notes that he was "totally wrong" about presuming that Gore and Bush were essentially the same candidates and that he now regrets voting for Nader), the imminent threat that McCain (aka "McSame") poses to our country should he win the Presidency, and a laundry list of exactly what's at stake this year.

"Don't fuck up!" he concludes, urging everyone reading his blog to put some serious thought and research into the election and to get out and vote.

You can read Justin Sane's "Their System Doesn't Work For You" blog HERE. Feel free to leave your comments, too - it's a pretty lively interaction he has going with his readers.

Paleface and Mo be rockin' the roost...

By Blurt Staff

Last December, when Paleface and Mo charmed the bejeezus outta BLURT during an opening set for the Avett Brothers, we knew we would be fans for life. Now comes word that Paleface has inked a deal with North Carolina label Ramseur, longtime home of the Avetts, which plans to release his new album The Show Is On the Road early next year.

You can read our comments at the above link and also check out the goods directly at the official website: www.palefaceonline.com . Meanwhile, below is a capsule history of Paleface handily provided by the label. Enjoy!

***

1989 Paleface meets Daniel Johnston. Daniel teaches him how to write songs and Paleface begins to make home tapes, which in the following years will evolve into sought after underground bootlegs.

1990 Roommates and burgeoning songwriters, Paleface and Beck hang out in the Lower East Side, NYC. Danny Fields (Stooges,The Ramones, MC5, The Doors, etc.) discovers him at Lach's Antihoot and signs on as his manager.

1991 Polydor signs Paleface to a major label deal; he writes and records his first album Burn and Rob.

1992 Paleface is excited for his first album tour, but is mismatched with tourmates The Judybats and then The Crash Test Dummies. Not long after, he tours with Billy Bragg and gains his own following laying the foundation for his grass roots fan base. He appears in Rolling Stone and Spin Magazine.

1993 Paleface begins work on his second record, but A & R badgering keeps him awake at night and by the end of ‘93 he gets dropped because the record company doesn't understand the new songs.

1994 He records Generic America produced by Kramer for the indie label Shimmy Disc. With the touch of one finger, Kramer erases the masters. Consequently, the record doesn't come out.

1995 The New York Post does a feature article on Paleface in Lisa Robinson's column. Toward the end of ‘95 he signs to Sire Records. Hanging out behind the bar at Coney Island High, Paleface finds out he's been signed to Sire from Jesse Malin, (D-Generation), who had read it in the paper earlier that day.

1996 Sire releases PF's album, Get Off, about the same time as Beck's Odelay. Sire doesn't want to compete with the marketing and one month later Paleface is dropped.

1997 A bit disillusioned with the music industry, he begins a spring tour with The Breeders and Lutefisk. Rightfully pissed off, they all indulge in too much substance consumption.

While touring near Vegas Paleface gets shakes, Lutefisk breaks up soon after, and The Breeders album gets shelved.

1998 Paleface alters his lifestyle and starts the process of restoring his health and well-being. Paleface also begins a very prolific writing period; he produces and records some of his best songs as lo-fi underground bootlegs.

2000 Paleface meets and becomes friends with a new breed of artists which includes The Moldy Peaches, Langhorne Slim, and Regina Spektor at Lach's Antihoot in NYC and releases his famous underground classic The Multibean Bootleg.

2001 Jason Carmer (The Donnas, Run DMC,) and Arion Salazar (Third Eye Blind) invites Paleface out to San Francisco to make a new record, but the sessions are postponed after the events of September 11th. PF releases another one of his home recordings, The Couch Tape, and sells out his bootlegs at shows.

2002 Paleface forms a new band called "Paleface" with Monkeybone and they gig around New York. Monkeybone is a vehicle for Paleface to showcase the new songs that he's writing faster than the band can learn them. During this period, Paleface plays gigs with The Moldy Peaches and other New York emerging rock bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and is introduced to their audiences.

2003 Along with his re-emerging solo career, PF experiments with the Americana sound and forms a new side project called "Just About To Burn." They release their first record, Produced by Paul Kostabi ("Ena") and the band tours London. The crowds love the new songs and the new sound.

2004 Free Your Mellow is recorded and released as a new Paleface solo record.

2005 Paleface is invited by The Avett Brothers to their mountain recording hideaway to join in the making of Four Thieves Gone. 31 songs are recorded including 5 PF songs from which "Dancin Daze" is chosen for the final release. Later that year The Multi-bean Vol 2 is compiled and released.

2006 "I Just Wanna Play Guitar" is recorded with old friends Momotaro, Julian Summerhill, and Ena. It is released in Germany on the trash/punk rock label Wanker Records. Refurbished Just About To Burn begins recording anew. The band has grown to a four-piece.

2007 Paleface (and Mo)  hit the road and tour all over the US.  They are both featured on The Avett Brothers record Emotionalism (Ramseur), which sells close to 50,000 copies in its first year.

2008 Paleface releases "A Different Story" and continues to tour nationally.

[Photo Credit: Cheater Slick]