Two maverick bands team up to go out on a maverick tour... no Sarah Palins allowed... what's not to like?

By Blurt Staff

King Khan & BBQ Show are about to hit the road with their distaff pals Those Darlins, and you know that's gonna be a good thing. If you ain't up on all this yet, be prepared for some serious garage-rockin', roots-twangin' chaos. See below for tour dates, and meanwhile, here are some testimonials:

Those Darlins', out of Tennessee, crank a sound as raw and sassy as Wanda Jackson in her prime. These three 20-something ladies - Kelley, Jessi and Nikki Darlin' - hitch down-home gospel harmonies to uptempo punk beats, honky tonk guitar riffs to acerbic lyrics. Trad country subject matter, loving, losing and, especially, drinking, takes on a willful female streak in these songs. How many guys come home loaded and eat a whole chicken ("The Whole Damned Thing")? And only a girl, grounded by a DUI, would urge her sisters, "Remember if you want to drink and drive/Better find a boy to take you home at night." This spring's Wild One EP previewed the self-titled album's three best songs: "Wild One," "The Whole Damned Thing" and "Snaggle Toothed Mama." Since then, the band and producer Jeff Curtin (Vampire Weekend) have fleshed out the songs nicely - without sacrificing any of their bite. - Blurt Magazine (Jennifer Kelly)

King Khan must have thought Blurt was stalking him at this year's SXSW in Austin, for not only did we catch him perform multiple times, we somehow wound up in his proximity at a slew of other shows (that Sonics gig was awesome). Coincidence, honest! Meanwhile, though, we're definitely obsessed by his latest waxings. Invisible Girl finds KK and his pal BBQ (aka Mark Sultan) dancing across a lo-fi minefield with a light-footed, guitar-and-drums glee. Everything from messy-but-sexy doo-wop ("Anala") and jangly neo-British Invasion ("Invisible Girl") to Nuggets-approved garage stomp ("Truth or Dare") and ‘60s soul ("I'll Be Lovin' You," which sounds like Sam Cooke fronting the White Stripes) comes under their purview-in short, exactly what you've come to expect from the duo. - Blurt Magazine (Fred Mills)

"The first time I heard Khan and BBQ was in the passenger seat of a Mustang convertible, driving too fast with the top down. I'm sure I was standing and screaming, and I may have been waving my shirt around my head. This is the music of rumpus and puberty, a sweaty hug from an old friend, crystallized for anytime ingestion." - Atlanta Music Guide (Bryan Aiken)

"I thought I'd knew what to expect from Those Darlins on stage-quirky, Carter Family-influenced country-pop. Nope. These girls blew their audience away...Straight outta Appalachia, these girls are brazen and bewitching, and bring a straight-up rock ‘n' roll spontaneity and excitement to the stage like I haven't seen in quite some time. I hope they move to San Francisco and become my friends, but no matter where they end up, Those Darlins are going places."- Crawdaddy (Angela Zimmerman)

TOUR DATES:

11/4 Atlanta, GA @ Star Bar
11/5 Birmingham, AL @ Bottletree
FRI 11/6 NEW ORLEANS, LA - Spellcaster Lodge
SAT 11/7 Batton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon
TUE 11/10 MEMPHIS, TN Hi Tone
WED 11/11 NASHVILLE, TN Exit/In
THUR 11/12 ST. LOUIS, MO Off Broadway
11/13 Lawrence, KS @ Jackpot Music Hall
SAT 11/14 DENVER, CO Bluebird
MON 11/16 PHOENIX, AZ Rhythm Room
TUE 11/17 LOS ANGELES, CA Troubadour
WED 11/18 SAN FRANCISCO, CA The Independent
FRI 11/20 PORTLAND, OR Dante's
SAT 11/21 SEATTLE, WA Chop Suey
SUN 11/22 BELLINGHAM, WA The Nightlight
MON 11/23 VANCOUVER, BC The Red Room
WED 11/25 CALGARY, AB Warehouse 
THUR 11/26 EDMONTON, AB Pawn Shop
FRI 11/27 SASKATOON, SK Amigos 
SAT 11/28 WINNIPEG, MB Royal Albert
SUN 11/29 MINNEAPOLIS, MN Triple Rock
TUE 12/1 MILWAUKE, WI Mad Planet
WED 12/2 CHICAGO, IL Logan Square
THUR 12/3 CINCINNATI, OH Northside Tavern

Sophomore album due in February from VICE.

By Blurt Staff

Pierced Arrows, the Portland-based trio featuring Fred and Toody Cole of the seminal punk band Dead Moon have announced their signing to VICE Records for the release of their sophomore LP Descending Shadows on February 2nd.  It's the followup to their 2008 debut Straight To the Heart (reviewed at BLURT here).
 
 
Descending Shadows expands on their fervently rough signature sound, recorded at Portland's Buzz or Howl Studios and mastered to vinyl lacquer per tradition at Fred and Toody's home.  Promising to herald a new generation of fans steeped in the progeny which Dead Moon influenced, Descending Shadows will provide longtime followers of the Cole's work with a new vital installment of what Fred once described as "rock'n'roll that's rough, ragged, and honest", a sincere answer to the void of emotion lacking in today's era.
 
 
During their defiant career, Dead Moon released a staggering 16 albums.  Many of which were engineered and mastered direct to vinyl lacquers by Fred Cole on his 40-year old home lathe, the likes of which being infamous for cutting the original version of The Kingsmen's "Louie Louie".  Since the late 1960s Fred and Toody also ran seminal music equipment stores and their own general store in their hometown of Clackamas, OR (Freedom Guitar, Captain Whizeagles, Tombstone Music), well known for outfitting generations of Portland musicians.  Influencing many garage punk bands, Dead Moon are cited as a vital inspiration for the DIY movement, Dead Moon in part spawned an international phenomenon of focus on the Pacific Northwest music scene throughout the 90's.
 
 
Following the disbandment of Dead Moon in 2006, Fred and Toody continued their endeavors, eventually tapping veteran Portland-based Kelly Halliburton (Severed Head of State, Defiance) to play drums for their next incarnation as Pierced Arrows.  Coincidentally, Kelly's father happened to play with Fred in his first band Albatross in 1972.  In line with Fred and Toody's ethical and cultural ideals, Kelly's role in the band was set. Debut Straight To The Heart  was released on Tombstone Records, echoing the raw murky blues and country influence of Dead Moon as well as their first punk incarnation in the early 1980s as The Rats, the veterans (now in their 50's) continued their tradition of powerful raucous live performances, touring heavily through the US and Europe for legions of Dead Moon fans eager to revisit the band's new direction.

Stream "Paranoia" from Descending Shadows HERE.

[Photo Credit: Simone Muller]

Hard to find early albums to be remixed and remastered as a double CD.

By Blurt Staff

Not long ago we filled you in on the unusual documentary about Minnesota band Cloud Cult, titled No One Said It Would Be Easy: A Film About Cloud Cult and directed by John Paul Burgess. Now word comes that on December 8^th Cloud Cult will release a double-disc reissue of They Live on the Sun (2003) and Aurora Borealis (2004) - two of their earliest albums.  These two home recorded releases have been re-envisioned, remixed and remastered for the first time by Cloud Cult's Craig Minowa and this special double-disc release will contain previously unreleased bonus tracks.   The albums, which are now out of print and could only be purchased at live gigs and select Independent record stores, will be available for the first time nationwide and fans can take advantage of a presale on the band's web site in late November (www.cloudcult.com).

Minowa created these albums during 18 months of seclusion at his Northern Minnesota organic farm after his two-year-old son passed away unexpectedly in 2002.   Originally released on the band's own Earthology Records, they were mainly available on a local level due to a shoe-string credit card budget.  Despite the limited distribution, They Live on the Sun landed on Pitchfork's 2004 Year-End "Found Sound column" and was put into rotation at KEXP, while Aurora Borealis climbed to the Top 5 on KEXP.  In addition, both albums found fans at college radio across the US.

All of the attention these early albums received helped this Minneapolis band break out onto the national scene and it only seems fitting that they reissue these releases as the band is gearing up to hit the road in Spring of 2010 after taking their longest break from touring in 6 years.  A self -imposed hiatus, the break gave Craig and his wife Connie time to adjust to being parents again as they welcomed a new addition to their family this October. 

Cloud Cult has gone on to sell more than 30,000 copies of its follow-up releases, despite turning down major label offers along the way.   In addition, they've just ended a very busy year where they played Coachella for the first time, made their late night TV debut on Last Call with Carson Daly and co-headlined a nationwide tour with Margot and The Nuclear So and So's.   Following the reissue this Winter and the Spring 2010 tour, the band is gearing up for a new album release in the Fall of 2010

Yet more limited editions... will the madness never end?!?

By Fred Mills

Billboard is reporting that on December 8, Apple and EMI will finally be issuing the Beatles back catalog digitally, and as Fab Four watchers know all too well, this essentially breaks a long-standing logjam in terms of bringing that catalog into the modern era since to date Apple has resisted selling the group's songs separate from CD or LP. But before all you iTunes fans get all hot and bothered, you need to know one thing: the songs aren't going to be sold through iTunes - yet - but rather on a single, limited edition USB drive, shaped like a green apple, natch.

According to Billboard, "The 16MB USB is available for pre-order at the online Beatles store, priced $279.99. A specially designed Flash interface has been installed, and audio and visual contents will be provided in FLAC 44.1 Khz 24 bit and MP3 320 Kbps formats. The content is fully compatible with Mac and PC."

The limited edition (only 30,000 units will be sold) contains the fourteen Beatles stereo remasters along with associated liner notes and visual elements that were included with the remastered CDs released on Sept. 9.

Meanwhile, if you are wondering what to do this Saturday (Nov.7), maybe hop over to your local indie record shop because it will be another Record Store Day. Maybe consider doing that EARLY, as the RecordStoreDay.com site advises us:

Record Store Day is proud to celebrate this connection with a special 40th Anniversary edition of Abbey Road that includes the vinyl album, and a t-shirt that featuring the original artwork for the "Come Together"/"Something" 7" single, along with a corresponding poster. This limited edition deluxe package will be release on Vinyl Saturday, November 7th in the United States and will be limited to 5000 in the world. Check with your local store for availability.

Go to the Record Store Day site for details on this and other goodies that will be featured at selected shops.

Featuring Greg Dulli, Drive-By Truckers, Wussy, Heartless Bastards, Buffalo Killer, Donnie Fritts and more.

By Fred Mills

They're calling ‘em "Very Extremely Dangerous Singles," and if you are familiar with the visceral power of the late Eddie Hinton's music, you'll know right off it's an apt label.

Cincinatt's Shake It Records, a combined label and record store operation, has just launched a tribute series to the great Southern rock/soul songwriter, who was a mainstay of the Muscle Shoals scene in Alabama and played with everyone from Wilson Picket to Aretha Franklin to the Box Tops while also issuing a few now-rare solo records. He died in 1995 from a heart attack at the age of 55.

Shake It's Darren Blase decided he wanted to create limited edition 45s of artists covering Hinton, and he subsequently lined up Greg Dulli, the Drive-By Truckers, Heartless Bastards and Wussy to pitch in thus far, with plans to do 10 singles total. The Dulli and Truckers singles are just now coming out in Cincinnati and will have an official national release date of Nov. 24, but only 2000 copies of each are being pressed.

According to an interview with Blase done by BLURT contributor Steven Rosen for Cincinnati's City Beat, "After the Wussy and Bastards singles early next year, there will be 45s from Cincinnati's Buffalo Killers and Southern Soul singer/songwriter Donnie Fritts. Blase is working with other national and international acts, too."

Blase, quoted in the article, added, "My introduction to Eddie Hinton was in the backroom of Mole's Records in Clifton in about 1987 or 1988, when I found a copy of [1978 album] Very Extremely Dangerous for about 99 cents and thought that it looked cool. So I took it home and thought it was great... The reason for doing it as a series of 45s is he's a great singles songwriter and never had hits on his own. And it's my favorite format. If you can't do it in three minutes, do not do it. I like the aesthetic of it."

Read Rosen's entire story here. For details on the Hinton project and how to order the records, go to the Shake It site. 

Blurt blogger spills the legal and moral beans in her latest entry. Make sure you read between the lines.

By Fred Mills

"Most of you are aware of my sublime, decadent Libertine indulgences that have made me somewhat of an outlaw in the Los Angeles social scene. I've never denied it."

Thus writes metal mistress and activist Otep Shamaya in her latest BLURT blog as she drops the bombshell: she's getting married - to a woman. "Why," she continues, "should I say no when an A-list actress decides she wants to walk on the dyke-side and engage in the dark Sapphic arts? I am madly in love and there is no going back."

However, there's one little hitch: the legalities involved.

"In order to legally (and morally) marry the woman I love - I have no other choice but to ...become A MAN. Yes, sexual-reassignment surgery. No, I am not kidding. I am buying a penis. A real one. Oh, how I will miss my magnificent breasts and elegant vagina! But say good-bye, I must. The doctor assures me that my metamorphosis will be a masterpiece that will shame Michelangelo! I will be fitted with two perfectly plump and proportioned testicles and (as the centerpiece) a beautiful, robust and veiny, 8-inch peen."

Read Otep's full blog HERE - comments are encouraged, incidentally. Her previous installment generated more reader commentary than any blog or story we've ever published at BLURT.

Otep on the web: http://www.myspace.com/otep . Essential listening: her new album Smash the Control Machine.

***

In other news, the bigoted voters of Maine yesterday rejected gay marriage, thereby repealing a 6-month old law in Maine that allowed same-sex marriages and joining California as yet one more bastion of Amerikan hypocrisy.

So kids - what IS your fave Merge release to date? The Blurt Managing Editor has already picked his out...

By Blurt Staff

In celebration of the limited-edition release of the Merge Records Companion, Merge is holding a contest. To enter, visit the Merge message board and post a photograph of you and your favorite Merge album in the "Make Your Own Companion" forum for a chance to win an XX Merge prize pack.

The CD-sized Merge Records Companion contains photographs of every 7-inch, album, EP, and DVD (plus two cassettes!) Merge put out during our first 20 years. All proceeds from this limited-edition book will benefit the charities chosen by the fourteen SCORE! curators.

Just to help kick start the process, Blurt Managing Editor Fred Mills posed with his favorite Merge album, above... watch out, we think he's going viral, and he's rumored to have contracted the swine flu recently from Billy Corgan.

Freaky new line of teeshirts will also have No Age, Dinosaur Jr, the Kills and more doing designs for charity auctions.

By Blurt Staff

Remember  mixtapes? Insound has taken the classic mixtape concept, taken out the audio, blown up the personalized design and made it wearable - the mixtape t-shirt.

Designed by Andy Dixon of The Chemistry Designs, they've got three mixtape t-shirts on American Apparel: (1)"Best Love Songs," (2) "Best Break-Up Songs," and (3) a "Blank" mixtape design. The back of each mixtape shirt includes lines for you to write in your favorite song titles.

Insound also asked some of their favorite bands to customize their own mixtape shirts for us to auction offer for charity. Participating bands include The Hold Steady, No Age, Dinosaur Jr, Of Montreal, The Kills and more! These special, hand signed band mixtape shirts will be auctioned off via eBay, with all of the proceeds going to benefit the nonprofit 826NYC.ORG.  

The first two auctions (Of Montreal & The Hold Steady) begin today with more auctions scheduled to begin soon! Keep checking the Flickr feed (http://www.flickr.com/photos/insoundflickr/) for new shirts and auctions. Go here to order shirts:  http://www.insound.com/search/searchmain.jsp?query=mixtape+shirt.

Both current auctions can be viewed here:

Of Montreal: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260501294879

The Hold Steady: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260501296446

Fifth studio album to be issued by Mute early next year.

By Blurt Staff

The Liars' Sisterworld, the follow up to 2007's Liars, is slated for an early 2010 release. It was written and recorded in Los Angeles by Liars and Tom Biller (Kanye West, Beck, Where The Wild Things Are / Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind soundtracks)

This is the first Liars album to be recorded entirely in the USA since 2004's They Were Wrong, So We Drowned. Angus Andrew, Aaron Hemphill and Julian Gross reportedly took "inspiration from fringe characters lured to LA and the resulting subcultures and alternate spaces that they generate."

They add, a bit more ethereally, that the album represents their "own space, completely devoid of influence, somewhere remote from the false promises and discarded dreams amassed in LA... underground support systems created to deal with loss of self to society.

"We're interested in the alternate spaces people create in order to maintain identity in a city like LA. Environments where outcasts and loners celebrate a skewered relationship to society".

So there ya go. Makes sense to us. Sorta. Go to http://www.thesisterworld.com/ for more fun.

Will test the waters initially with a gig in Brazil this week.

By Fred Mills

Two months ago word began circulating that Stooges frontman Iggy Pop had been in conversations with Raw Power-era guitarist James Williamson about the possibility of resuming operations as the Stooges. Williamson, bassist Mike Watt, drummer Scott Asheton and saxman Steve Mackay subsequently did some rehearsing together in L.A. to see if they could generate chemistry on par with what the Stooges had with the late Ron Asheton.

Now, speaking to the BBC yesterday, Iggy Pop has confirmed that the new Williamson incarnation of the band will indeed be mounting a full tour next year.

Said the singer, "We're bringing The Stooges back next year. They've been rehearsing more without me than with me because I've been doing other things this year. But we have been rehearsing all together more recently and they kept going without me again last week. We're going to be doing a one off show in Brazil in a few weeks but the real touring starts next year."

The Stooges are doing the Planeta Terra Festival in Brazil this week (Nov. 7) and have already scheduled a UK appearance next May 2-3 at the All Tomorrow's Parties fest. Full tour dates have yet to be announced.

Iggy added that Asheton won't be soon forgotten, however: "We're all very sorry about Ron. His spirit within the group remains with the rest of us and he is still a presence within the group without being on the physical plain."