All those classics you remember from your childhood, recast for the brainy set... not to mention 16 Yokos.

By Blurt Staff

As if there hasn't been enough fun Fab Four stuff going on in 2009 already (something about remastered CDs... must... try... to... remember...), on December 5^th and 6^th The Beatles Complete On Ukulele Marathon, A Benefit For Yoko Ono, will take place at N8 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The marathon consists of two days featuring 185 songs (the entire Beatles catalog) performed by 60 singers, 40 musicians and 16 Yokos all on ukuleles. 

Did they say "16 Yokos"?

Right they did, Blurt Staff. The project brainchild of producer Roger Greenawalt (Ben Kweller, Nils Lofgren, The Pierces) and David Barratt (Jimmy Page, David Bowie) also includes a 185 week project where various artists join Greenawalt and Barratt for the re-recording  of every Beatles song on ukulele.  Releasing a song every week alongside an essay on The Beatles Complete on Ukulele blog, a number of these artists will now be playing Beatles songs live while Greenawalt, a music producer by day, sits in with each artist providing the required ukulele accompaniment.

Both Golden Bloom and Alan Cohen Experience recorded Beatles songs for The Beatles Complete On Ukulele website.  On Saturday, December 5^th Alan Cohen Experience will be performing "Magical Mystery Tour", "Flying", "Blue Jay Way" and "Your Mother Should Know" at 7pm and Golden Bloom will be performing at 8pm, "I'll Get You", "Rain", "All My Loving", "I'm Only Sleeping" and "Your Bird Can Sing".

Downloads of both Alan Cohen Experience's version of "Your Mother Should Know" and Golden Bloom's take on "I'll Get You" are available at the aforementioned blog.

Now that's one meaty undertaking!

Concert broadcast from the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles.

By Fred Mills

As Twittered yesterday, couch potatoes this weekend - make that, desktop surfers - will be able to get a free, live dose of U2, courtesy YouTube. The announcement that the Irish superstars' Sunday night 360 Tour concert at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles would be webcast no doubt brought a thrill to punters across the US - mainly on the West Coast, since the show starts at 8:30 pm PST, which means that everyone else will have to stay up real late and go in to work Monday morning pretty bleary-eyed or simply miss it altogether.

But hey, that's what God made software to catch and burn live audio and video streams for!

Anyhow, you'll be able to see Bono & Co. at U2's official YouTube channel, where they also have a zillion individual live clips from the current tour along with sundry interview segments and more.

Meanwhile, check out our photog Colin Smith's photo essay of the band in Atlanta on Oct. 6 here.

Album to be released/is released; band plays around with the internet.

By Blurt Staff

Well, we have a couple of Editors headlines this morning. The band has a new album due out in January, but apparently you can already get it at iTunes as a digital "pre-release," which by our way of thinking means it's already released. But what do we know?

Then there's some tomfoolery going on over at Google with the group, which is obviously a publicity stunt but hey, fans like this stuff. Read on...

***

Editors Announce New Album For January 19 via the Fader Label; Pre-Release Available NOW on iTunes

As the old adage goes - If you're not growing, you're dying. Editors have decided that they'll do the former, thank you. In This Light And On This Evening, which debuted at #1 in the UK charts last week, is the follow-up to 2007's platinum selling record An End Has A Start, and was produced by Grammy Award winner Mark "Flood" Ellis (U2, Sigur Ros, Depeche Mode). The album finds Editors heading in a daring new direction where synths replace the soaring guitars and lead singer Tom Smith takes his vocals to haunting new places giving the album a dystopian, apocalyptic, mechanical ambience.

Lyrically, Smith drew heavily on his new-found appreciation of London - his ‘adopted home town' - for the stories that weave throughout the record. From the opening track (which is also the album's title) "In This Light and On This Evening" referencing a view from Primrose Hill at dusk, to ‘The Boxer' telling of the Friday night disturbances of London's pub culture, to the brutal imagery of a carnivorous House Of Commons on ‘Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool', the locations of London and its people are the very heart and soul of the record.

Some things are vintage Editors, make no mistake. The record is as bleak and as vivid as ever: "a record that sings of no God, a record of broken love songs, a record where the filthy city is so close you can smell it, taste it, a record of drunken violence, a record which has lost all trust in those in charge of our world," describes Smith. But those who focus on the gloom-and-doom in itself, he says, are missing the point. "Dark is interesting, dark is exciting, dark can be funny, there's real life in the dark, real life IS dark. When an album feels like this, the fragments of hope and love that do occasionally shine through, shine through ten times brighter than they would normally do so." Exhibit A: the album's stirring closer ‘Walk The Fleet Road.' It tells of a lost soul, cold and alone, consumed by vitriol. "Hate can turn to love," sings Smith, the gentle patriarch. Stark, life-affirming, gorgeous - it will move you.

Inevitably, as with any shift of this magnitude, fans of the band will be divided on their new sound. "Good," says Smith. Editors have had their critics. Listening to them never got them anywhere.

Editors Hack Google Maps

To celebrate this week's release of their third studio album, In This Light And On This Evening, Editors have created a unique listening experience for their new album by appearing to 'hack' Google Street View.

The experience allows fans to use a version of Google Maps on the Editors website to travel to certain areas of London where the band have hacked in their own custom locations. The new additions consist of some gloriously moody 360 degree images, shot at night. Within each location the user will hear a track from the new album, which was inspired by the mood and magic of London at night. The images feature the band and a group of their fans performing surreal activities, which reportedly have hidden meanings relating to the songs.

The locations are normally unavailable on the regular Street View. Editors modified version of Google Maps allows users to enter into these locations and make the transition from light to dark so fans can explore the band's atmospheric vision of London at night. To access the Map go to:

http://www.editorsofficial.com/streetview

It's the bizarre collaboration of the year!

By Blurt Staff

Simple Minds and OMD will appear on stage together for the very first time when they perform Kraftwerk's "Neon Lights" on their forthcoming UK tour which kicks off at the Newcastle Metro Arena on 30th November. 

The news follows OMD's recent appearance in the BBC 4 television documentary 'Synth Britannia' that chronicled the rise of electronic and industrial pop music in the mid 70s and early 80s. "Neon Lights," originally released on Kraftwerk's 1978 album The Man Machine, will be performed together by OMD and Simple Minds during Simple Minds' set on every date of their UK tour. Both bands have previously performed Neon Lights in their own right.

Says Jim Kerr of Simple Minds, "Kraftwerk were the link between a whole generation of kids in the UK that used synthesizers to define some of the 80's most glorious pop music. In our own way we want to honour their influence by performing ‘Neon Lights'."

"Kraftwerk's contribution to music is timeless," says OMD's Andy McCluskey. "Kraftwerk was the reason why we formed OMD. Simple Minds and OMD listened to Kraftwerk before we started making music, but eventually our individual styles of music ventured into different directions. Simple Minds' early electronic rock albums Empires and Dance and Reel To Reel Cacophony defined industrial electronic rock with 'I Travel', while OMD explored electronic soundscapes and minimalism with our early songs 'Electricity' and 'Messages'."

Longtime Blurt faves make long-awaited return; also do the Guggenheim next week.

By Fred Mills

Just announced: the second album from New York's Yeasayer. The album will be titled ODD BLOOD and is released February 9 via Secretly Canadian. See the track listing, below.

The scoop: "First brewed in the frosty hills of Woodstock, NY at the Marotta lair, then transferred to the steely sweeps of NYC, ODD BLOOD took many layers to finalize, but with all things Yeasayer the outcome is spectacular.  Filled with Yeasayer's own take on pop pleasures and experimentation, the band has once again carved its own path through that ice cold glacier that is modern pop/rock."

As you might imagine, we at BLURT are pretty excited about this. 2007's All Hour Cymbals was one of that year's best and it made it into our personal top ten. Anyone who's seen the band live knows how riveting they can be too - unlike other blog-hyped outfits (hello, Vampire Weekend!), this group delivers the goods.

Meanwhile, the group just wrapped up a UK tour with Bat For Lashes, and next Friday, October 30 Yeasayer will play the Guggenheim Museum in NYC and "promises an extravaganza of excitement" that includes expanding its lighting gear in the Frank Lloyd Wright rotunda "to create a more interactive affair."

Lotsa ancillary details to be had here:

http://www.yeasayer.net
www.twitter.com/OddBlood
www.myspace.com/yeasayer

Track Listing:

1. The Children
2. Ambling Alp
3. Madder Red
4. I Remember
5. O.N.E.
6. Love Me Girl
7. Rome
8. Strange Reunions
9. Mondegreen
10. Grizelda

Eclectic mixup includes exclusive Brian Eno / Karl Hyde collaboration.

By Blurt Staff

Underworld will temporarily ditch the electro and techno scenes in order to pay tribute to their art-school roots on their new compilation album, Athens, due Nov. 24 from !K7. Quirkily co-billed as "Underworld Vs The Misterons, it's the first in a series that serves up a mix packed with rare grooves and cult gems from the outer limits of dance music, jazz-rock, fusion and progressive pop. The nom du rawk album credit represents a collective alter ego which includes the group's core members Karl Hyde and Rick Smith, their regular studio and live collaborator Darren Price, plus creative mastermind Steven Hall. Ranging far and wide across musical genres and eras, this music will appeal equally to vinyl-loving connoisseurs and arty party hedonists. The grooves are still funky, but the vibes are warm and soulful, with more live instruments than sequencers or drum machines.

"The overall mood is jazz and improvisation," Underworld explain. "There is very little playing in a lot of people's records in the dance and DJ world these days, but one thing Underworld have always liked is musicianship. It doesn't stop us loving machine music and house music and everything that goes with it, but the idea with this album was to highlight records we liked that we thought had great live playing on them."

Athens is a study in range and contrast. From the immersive, cosmic tone poems of Alice Coltrane's "Journey In Satchidananda" to the seductive, snaking groove of "Space Odyssey" by techno titan Carl Craig's orchestral jazz offshoot Detroit Experiment. From the mystical psychedelic blues of Mahavishnu Orchestra's "You Know, You Know" to the spicy Afro-funk of Laurent Garnier's "Gnaumankoudji." And from the avant-garde mellowness of Squarepusher's "Theme From Sprite" to the bustling disco-funk crosstown traffic of "New York City" by Miroslav Vitous. The musical agenda is limitless, the rhythms infectious, the mood hypnotic.

Underworld themselves appear twice on the album, in slightly different guises. The first is their jazz-textured instrumental "Oh," originally heard on the soundtrack to Danny Boyle's 1997 film A Life Less Ordinary. "We are often painted as a techno act," the band explain, "but we like to think we've been much broader than that musically. You do become stereotyped, so for us it is nice to get pieces like this out and show that we can recontextualise our sound. We've never tried to make current, trendy techno records. We've always tried to make something more adventurous and timeless than that."

Karl also delivers one of his signature stream-of-consciousness raps on the album's climactic cut, "Beebop Hurry," a collaboration with the legendary polymath producer Brian Eno conceived during sessions for Eno's Luminous Festival of experimental music, which was held at the Sydney Opera House in May and June 2009. A vivid blast of liquid beats and jazzy electronica, this fantastic new work has never been released before.

"This was part of an exploration period of Karl and Brian trying some idea together," the band explain, "before they went off to Sydney, Underworld and Brian got together to do some pieces in the studio. This was a track from those sessions that we thought fitted the concept we had anyway. We've got a very broad definition of jazz."

A younger version of Eno can also be heard elsewhere on the album, in the Roxy Music classic "2HB," an achingly romantic torch song from the band's eponymous 1972 debut album. The vibrant British art-rock scene of the early 1970s, often overlooked by pop historians, was one of the key inspirations behind the musical selection and creative input on Athens. Indeed, Soft Machine's intoxicating jazz-rock instrumental "Penny Hitch" from 1973 was the original catalyst for the entire project and the cover artwork is a painting by Karl Hyde himself.

"The Soft Machine track was the starting point of the concept of the whole compilation," say Underworld. "A few years ago we wanted to try and mix a load of Soft Machine material, so we tried to get record companies interested, but nothing could ever be arranged. They are a band that people should listen to now because so much of what we now think of as techno appears in a lot of Soft Machine stuff. Their use of early synths was incredible."

Tracklisting:

01 Alice Coltrane                     Journey In Satchidananda feat. Pharoah Sanders
02 Mahavishnu Orchestra         You Know, You Know
03 Squarepusher                     Theme From Sprite
04 Soft Machine                       Penny Hitch
05 Roxy Music                         2HB
06 Detroit Experiment              Space Odyssey
07 Moodyman                          Rectify
08 Osunlade                            The Promise
09 Underworld                         Oh
10 Laurent Garnier                   Gnanmankoudji (Broken-Afro Mix)
11 Miroslav Vitous                    New York City
12 Brian Eno & Karl Hyde          Beebop Hurry (EXCLUSIVE UNRELEASED TRACK)

Hear a sample of the Eno / Hyde track on the official Underworld's Site ,

Remember this?

Double CD includes selections from both TV and cinema, including Wenders' Palermo Shooting.

By Blurt Staff

Can keyboardist Irmin Schmidt has just released Filmmusik Anthology Vol 4&5 on Mute / Spoon. Fans of the band will also know the virtuoso pianist's other gig, as a composer, conductor and film scorer.

This double CD release follows 1994's Anthology Soundtracks 1978 -1993 and contains a selection of Schmidt's works over the last 10 years for 20 different films for both the big screen and television. The anthology includes tracks from the critically acclaimed German TV series Bloch and Tatort and the award winning film Schneeland.

Filmmusik Anthology Vol. 4&5 also includes eight tracks from the original score of the latest Wim Wenders film, Palermo Shooting, which premiered in the Official Selection of the Cannes film festival 2008. The complete original film score is available digitally on Mute. (The photo above shows Wenders, left, with Schmidt.)

In other Schmidt news, he has been commissioned by the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele (Ludwigsburg Castle Festival) to present an evening of orchestrations of his work for film in summer 2010. A selection of pieces (some included on the album Filmmusik Anthology Vol 4&5) will be transcribed for orchestra and the concert will be conducted by the composer himself. The event is being organised in co-operation with the Baden-Würtemburg Film Academy. In addition Schmidt will be holding a series of workshops at the film school.

Massive 4-CD set chronicles "influential and trailblazing" ‘60s Chicano rock ‘n' roll outfit from East L.A.

By Blurt Staff

Thee Midniters are the subject of a new box set, the most comprehensive collection ever assembled on the group.  Thee Complete Midniters: Songs of Love, Rhythm & Psychedelia! is being released on November 3 on Micro Works.

Here's the scoop, from the label:

When the British Invasion took the world by storm in the 1960s, it went largely unnoticed in East Los Angeles, save for a band of young, Latino musicians.  Thee Midniters took to the new rock and soul sound with a fervor, mixing it with psychedelia, big band jazz and some of their own traditional Mexican folk and found themselves heralded as America's first Latino rock band, continuing to influence acts to this very day.  Their music, history and impact are the subject of a new 4-CD box set, Thee Complete Midniters: Songs of Love, Rhythm & Psychedelia! The collection features all full-length albums recorded by Thee Midniters, as well as singles that were never included on the LPs and rare tracks that have never been available on CD before.

Musicologists often refer to Thee Midniters as the archetype Latino rock band, but the group's musical eclecticism is as much a cross cultural affair as the dynamic era it grew out of.  "The '60s weren't segregated," Thee Midniters bassist Jimmy Espinoza said in an interview with writer Richie Unterberger. "The '60s were integrated. The whole 'peace, love, black, white, brown, we're all the same': that's who we were. We were a crossover group, and we really loved it. It's extremely frustrating for me to get put into the Latin bag, because Thee Midniters aren't." 

But their Latin roots were undeniable, surfacing in their garage rock flavored with R&B and soul in a way that no other bands of the era could do.  They twisted the Rolling Stones' "2120 South Michigan Avenue" into a localized "Whittier Blvd," recorded the Spanish-language "Tu Despedida," "Chicano Power" in 1969 and wrote the powerful "The Ballad of Cesar Chavez."  "We seem to have impacted a whole new generation with our music, and it's very gratifying," reflects frontman Willie Garcia (aka Little Willie G), who continues to be active as a performing and recording artist with the likes of Ry Cooder, Los Straitjackets, and Los Lobos, in an interview with journalist Unterberger.  "Thee Midniters were the best band around at the time," adds Los Lobos guitarist Louie Perez.  "They became our Beatles; all of the stuff that was going on in Beatlemania, we translated into Midnitermania. In this microcosm which is East Los Angeles, this is something that belongs to us. It gave young kids who would eventually become musicians like myself inspiration to pursue a career in music."

Thee Complete Midniters: Songs of Love, Rhythm & Psychedelia showcases the band's evolution in chronological order.  Beginning with their first two albums, Whitter Blvd. (1965) and Thee Midniters Bring You Love Special Delivery (1966), the band's adoration of British rock was clear as they chose to record cover versions of their favorite songs.  By the time their third album, Unlimited, was released in 1967, Thee Midniters had developed the confidence and stunning ability to write their own material and deepen their eclectic mix of styles.  By the time Giants  was released in 1969, the band had reached an altogether new era, but one without lead singer Willie Garcia (who has since gone on to work with Ry Cooder, Los Lobos and Los Straitjackets).  Each CD in the box includes bonus tracks such as singles that were not found on any of the LPs, rare b-sides and previously unreleased recordings such as "Baila Cinderella" and an instrumental version of "Walk On By."

Thee Midniters included in the box set are:

Larry Rendon (Saxes, Flute, Piano, Organ)

Roy Marquez (Rhythm Guitar, Vocals)

Romeo Prado (Trombone, Vocals)

Little Willie G. (Lead Vocals, Trombone, Piano, Harmonica, Guitar)

George Dominguez (Lead Guitar, Mandolin)

Jimmy Espinoza (Bass Guitar, Vocals)

Danny LaMont (Drums, Piano)  

Ronny Figueroa (Organ, Conga, Vocals, Hysterical Laughter)

Arty British rocker recommends "Cherry Picking Apple Blossom Time"‏ by David Greenberger & Paul Cebar.

By Blurt Staff

Hey, you could call this a shameless plug for a BLURT contributor (David Greenberger, who also happens to be a monologist, an author, a musician, an NPR commentator and a raconteur), or you could simply call it a friend offering up testimony for another friend. Plus, when Robyn Hitchcock speaks, we listen...

From Robyn Hitchcock:

David Greenberger meanders around America, lovingly collecting the life stories of old people like fireflies in a jar. On Cherry Picking Apple Blossom Time he visits Milwaukee which, as one elderly resident explains, has the same number of letters as Wisconsin.  Over a smoky grid of blues-funk and acoustic guitar played by Paul Cebar and his band,  David recites anecdotes and reflections from the Milwaukee senior citizens that he has interviewed on his recent visits there.
 

In an America that seems increasingly dominated by amnesia, and the erosion of its history, it's very heartening - and poignant - to hear these fragments of lives as they draw to a close. The rootsy tone of the music - Ry Cooder, Tom Waits, David Byrne and even Beefheart's Magic Band come to the mind's ear - adds Americana to these tales of vanishing Midwestern life. Here are the man who cheated at tomato-growing by hanging a purchased one on a vine; the man who made peace with his artificial arm and hung shopping bags from it; and the man in a red shirt who feels like a king. There are exuberant moments, but the most moving pieces are the elegies: people who gently mourn their vanished partners - one speaks of his wife as his co-pilot, another of how he's tried to replace his wife with crossword puzzles. The matter-of-fact tone that David uses in these vignettes is partly what makes them so emotional. In 'No Rooms Here' you can hear the life and memory of the elderly female narrator dissolving as she speaks. Just as certain as our death is the uncertainty of what follows - this ambiguity riddles the inhabitants of Cherry Picking Apple Blossom Time.

The fragments drift by in a meditational parade - the slow shuffle of people preparing to exit their lives, setting things down, and then picking them up a few minutes later, trying to weigh everything up while it's still theirs. Here, in this album, they can dwell a little longer, and we can hear them until our echoes fade with theirs. I recommend this record to anybody who cares about people.

 
 - Robyn Hitchcock, September 2009

 
For more details: http://duplexplanet.com/giftshop.html
 

Flaming Lips, Grizzly Bear, Beirut, Walkmen, Yo La Tengo ... what's not to like! And BLURT was on the scene.

Photos and Text by David Downs

The Flaming Lips closed out the second and final day of the 3^rd annual Treasure Island Music Festival in San Francisco after masterful sets from Yo La Tengo, Beirut, Grizzly Bear, and the Walkmen Sunday.

A cold wind blew through the scarved and hooded crowd of several thousand fans who had stayed for the 9 p.m. Sunday set, and The Lips rewarded them with an epileptic light show, buckets of confetti, dancing space girls, abominable snowmen, and a roaming set list featuring cuts from new album Embryonic as well as rarities like "Enthusiasm for Life Defeats Existential Fear".

The Oklahoma natives emerged from a strobing video vulva like true children of light, and frontman Wayne Coyne donned the band's widely-loved moon-ball suit before jumping off into the crowd in the big bubble. The intro literally caused one young female in the front row to pass out cold, either from an epileptic seizure or some other cause. After a short minute on the ground, she became lucid and a bit panicked as they carried her off amid the frenzy.

"Everyone ok out there?" Coyne double-checked before taking off into "Convinced of the Hex" and "Silver Trembling Hands" from Embryonic, the 12^th studio album, out this October.

Coyne called the show a homecoming of sorts. "San Francisco is the home of the freaks. I am one of you," he said. "San Francisco was the first place that ever invited us out. We're from Oklahoma, and nobody wanted to see us. So for the longest time, people thought that we were from San Francisco. So for tonight, it feels like a homecoming to me. Thank you."

Coyne later, quipped, "I was worried it was going to be too cold for people to fucking freak out," but the late crowd was going nuts for "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" and "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots", which was surprising, given the chilly 60-degree temperature and wind. The set capped a postcard-perfect day in the center of the Bay set against the backdrop of the setting sun, the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island and San Francisco's signature fingers of fog lapping at the skyline. Coyne called it "one of the best days we've had in a long time."

New Mexico's Beirut (below) echoed the sentiments, thanking the crowd for joining them in their final show for the year during a gorgeous sunset set. Flocks of pelicans glided in formation over Zach Condon's head, as if on cue, while the band played "Nantes", "Sunday Smile" and "Elephant Gun". Beirut's multi-instrumentalism far surpassed any other act, incorporating trumpet, tuba, ukulele, and accordion at one point in their journey through the junction of Eastern European folk and Western Pop.

Grizzly Bear (below) proved equally adept at reinterpreting classical styles while the Walkmen continue to blaze forward with their beery, boozehall dirges, and Yo La Tengo (also below) played an eclectic set in front of a wall of Fender amps that Ira Kaplan frequently squared off against, issuing forth walls of reverbey distortion.

Day 2 was easily the more rock and indie music-oriented part of the festival which included headliners MGMT and MSTKRFT the night prior. More than 12,000 attendees sold-out day one of the festival and Day 2 looked almost as packed. Indie promoters Noise Pop of San Francisco, and Another Planet of Berkeley proved adept at getting the throngs on and off the island via fleets of shuttles and buses as well as serving them cold beer and warm food at a reasonable cost. Shorter, smaller and better-curated than almost any festival, Treasure Island has solidified its position as a the Summer-ending Micr-oachella for elite aesthetes of modern music.