Gearing up for that gouge-the-fans 2CD deluxe edition reissue...

By Fred Mills

As Idolator put it in their news clip this morning - Lady GaGa is representing "her fear of not putting out music that's as glitzy as possible."

This morning the track "Bad Romance," from LG's upcoming deluxe reissue of 2008's The Fame, a/k/a The Fame Monster (due November 23) was released, and the sultry slice of Eurodisco is already sweeping the internet. Check it out below. Glitzy, no? The tune, in unfinished form, leaked earlier this month, likewise setting off rainbow colored firestorms across the blogosphere.

The album will be a 25-song double-disc, with 8 of those tracks being newly-recorded material and three of them previously appearing as bonus tracks on overseas editions. Once again, our hat is off to the music industry for trying to plug its leaky boat by making  fans buy the same music twice. Hey, why not issue it on 8-track while yer at it! See the full tracklisting below.

Disc 1:

1. "Bad Romance"
2. "Alejandro"
3. "Monster"
4. "So Happy I Could Die"
5. "Speechless"
6. "Dance in the Dark"
7. "Telephone"
8. "Teeth"

Disc 2:

1. "Just Dance" featuring Colby O'Donis
2. "LoveGame"
3. "Paparazzi"
4. "Poker Face"
5. "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)"
6. "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich"
7. "The Fame"
8. "Money Honey"
9. "Starstruck" featuring Space Cowboy and Flo Rida
10. "Boys Boys Boys"
11. "Paper Gangsta"
12. "Brown Eyes"
13. "I Like It Rough"
14. "Summerboy"
15. "Disco Heaven" (international bonus track)
16. "Again Again" (U.K. bonus track)
17. "Retro, Dance, Freak" (Japanese bonus track)

YouTube (audio-only) clips of the new, final version, followed by the previous leaked/unfinished version:

Featuring Nick Cave, Debbie Harry, Lydia Lunch, Mick Harvey, Mark Lanegan, Isobel Campbell, Barry Adamson, Johnny Dowd, Dave Alvin, The Sadies, The Raveonettes, Kid Congo Powers and Wovenhand/16 Horsepower's David Eugene Edwards.

By Fred Mills

Germany's long-running Glitterhouse label will be releasing a tribute to the late Gun Club mainman Jeffrey Lee Pierce on January 11. Titled We Are Only Riders - The JLP Sessions Project, it features the above-listed all-star cast of musicians, many of whom were friends of or collaborators with Pierce in his lifetime. (Thanks to Bucketfull of Brains for the heads-up on this.)

Apparently Britain's Cypress Grove (a longtime Pierce fan and friend who had worked with the vocalist on the 1994 album Ramblin' Jeffrey Lee; he subsequently appeared in the Hard Times Killin' Floor Blues JLP documentary) came across a trove of nearly-forgotten tapes he and Pierce had recorded in the early ‘90s, and while the sound quality was deemed too poor to release, the idea arose to approach other artists about recording their versions of some of the material. Once word got out in the music community about the project, folks quickly lined up to volunteer their services, resulting in an extraordinary 16-song album that includes not only artists' solo tracks but some tantalizing duets and collaborations as well - Nick Cave and Debby Harry, anyone? (Fun fact: in his pre-Gun Club days, Pierce operated a Los Angeles-based Blondie fan club.)

Here are the details and tracklisting, courtesy Glitterhouse:

We Are Only Riders is more than just a 'various artists' compilation. It's a musical collective of artists who have come together to interpret (and in some cases, complete) unfinished skeletal works by Jeffrey Lee Pierce, an artist they were friends with or whose work they admired. Artists featured on the album include Nick Cave, who has done his own solo track, as well as duetting with Debbie Harry, and playing piano on Debbie's solo track, and added backing vocals on the Cypress Grove track. Mick Harvey contributed to two of the Nick Cave tracks and has recorded a solo track. Barry Adamson plays bass on the Nick Cave solo track and also on the Mark Lanegan solo track, who has also recorded a duet with Isobel Campbell. Dave Alvin is the driving force behind 'Walkin' The Streets' together with Lydia Lunch, a song which The Blasters and The Gun Club jammed on together in the studio after a drunken night many years ago.

About three years ago while clearing out his attic, Cypress Grove came across a bag of dusty old cassettes. He started to sort through them and found one marked 'JLP Songs'. As soon as he put it on he remembered what it was; Cypress Grove & Jeffrey rehearsing material for the album they made together in the early 90's. (Ramblin' Jeffrey Lee and Cypress Grove with Willie love'). The album was initially going to contain country songs, but it gradually evolved into a full blown blues album. It was recorded on an old boombox in Cypress Grove's bedroom, just the two of them on acoustic guitars. The sound quality was terrible, but was good enough to make out the songs, which were excellent. The three country songs were ‘Ramblin' Mind', ‘Constant Waiting' and ‘Free To Walk'. In addition to the terrible audio quality, there was also no level of performance on these recordings, as Jeffrey was merely showing Cypress Grove the material. Releasing these songs from the cassette was therefore out of the question. But if Cypress Grove could get them properly recorded, that would be different. Also, because there were no definitive versions of these songs, and there was no idea how Jeffrey himself would have envisaged the completed work, then why stop at one version? It would be fascinating to hear how different artists might interpret these songs from this most basic and crude of templates - the cassette!

Cypress Grove initially started to contact musicians through their myspace pages. Mark Lanegan was totally into it and was in the studio at the time, so was able to record his stuff quite quickly. Cypress Grove then asked if Isobel Campbell would duet on 'Free to Walk' with Mark, which of course she did. She was so please with it that she added the song to their live shows. Cypress Grove then e-mailed Jim Sclavunos and asked if he thought Nick Cave would be interested, who also agreed. This would have been impossible without Digital technology, with artists adding their parts all over the world - London, Melbourne, Glasgow, Barcelona, Los Angeles etc. Once word of the Project started to get out, more material became available through family and friends. Jeffrey's old friend Phast Phreddie Patterson provided a copy of a home made cassette recording he made of Jeffrey doing ‘My Cadillac' and ‘St. Mark's Place', which were actually pre - Gun Club recordings. Also, Cypress Grove was able to obtain the two inch master tapes of some song ideas they had recorded at the end of the 'Ramblin' Jeffrey Lee' sessions One of these was 'The Snow Country'. All they had was Jeffrey's guitar part and the drums; but no vocals. Cypress Grove had no idea what Jeffrey had in mind for this song but he had acquired some hand written lyrics that Jeffrey had never used, so they matched ‘The Snow Country' lyrics to the track. Gene Temesy and Mick Harvey came up with the vocal melody and they had a brand new Jeffrey composition from beyond the grave! With the exception of 'Lucky Jim', all the songs on the album are brand new Jeffrey songs.

'Lucky Jim' was on the end of the 'Ramblin' Jeffrey Lee' tapes and was the very first time Jeffrey recorded this song. In Cypress Grove's opinion, this version is better that the one that ended up on the ‘Lucky Jim' album. So although Cypress Grove had a policy of 'no previously released songs - only new material', he felt he had to make an exception for this one. The only problem was the tape ran out after about one and a half minutes. But thanks to digital technology, Cypress Grove was able to 'stitch' an entire song together and then add bass and guitar parts. Debbie Harry added vocals and Chris Stein played Guitar, with Nick Cave's piano to top of it all.

Tracklisting:

1 Nick Cave - 'Ramblin' Mind'
2 Mark Lanegan - 'Constant Waiting'
3 The Raveonettes - 'Free To Walk'
4 Debbie Harry - 'Lucky Jim'
5 Lydia Lunch - 'My Cadillac'
6 David Eugene Edwards - 'Ramblin' Mind'
7 The Sadies - 'Constant Waiting'
8 Mark Lanegan & Isobel Campbell - 'Free To Walk'
9 Lydia Lunch - 'St. Marks Place'
10.Crippled Black Phoenix - 'Bells On The River'
11.Cypress Grove - 'Ramblin' Mind'
12.Johnny Dowd - 'Constant Waiting'
13.Nick Cave & Debbie Harry - 'Free To Walk'
14.Mick Harvey - 'The Snow Country'
15.David Eugene Edwards & Crippled Black Phoenix - 'Just Like A Mexican Love'
16.Lydia Lunch, Dave Alvin, And The JLP Sessions Project - 'Walkin' Down The Street (Doin' My Thing)'

JLP doing "Alabama Blues":

Lifted from upcoming remix album, in fact...

By Blurt Staff

NYC collective The Phenomenal Handclap Band are releasing a sizeable remix album for "15 to 20"/"You'll Disappear," out Oct. 20th on Friendly Fire Recordings. The band has enlisted the help of some of the finest electronic artists around the world for this digital-only release, including Prins Thomas, Montee, Horse Meat Disco, Ilya Sanatana and more. 

You can nab a free MP3 of Prins Thomas' remix here (note, keep trying, as it was glitchy first time we tried to access it):

"You'll Disappear"

The band  has been playing select dates with Simian Mobile Disco, Chromeo and Bajofondo among others, and have announced a special headlining show at the Bowery Ballroom, Friday 12/11 with Javelin. Members of PHB will also be DJing at select events and parties during the CMJ Music Marathon. Led by Daniel Collás and Sean Marquand, (producers/musicians/pals/DJs), The Phenomenal Handclap Band has been touring behind their self-titled album, out now on Friendly Fire Recordings. The album features contributions from their friends in TV on the Radio, Antibalas, The Dap Kings, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, L'Trimm, Calla, The Mooney Suzuki, Sí Se, and Honeycut among others. Live they are an 8-piece band, with a variety of special guests.

Tracklisting:

15 to 20 (Radio Version)
15 to 20 (Den Haan Remix)
15 to 20 (Telonius Remix)
15 to 20 (David E Sugar 5 10 Replay)  
15 to 20 (Anthony Mansfield Punk Funk Remix)  
15 to 20 (Glimmers Remix)
15 to 20 (Bim Marx Remix Dub)
15 to 20 (Anthony Mansfield Disco Remix)  
15 to 20 (Montee Remix) )
15 to 20 (Skull Juice Remix)
You'll Disappear (King of Town Remix)
You'll Disappear (Ilya Santana Remix)
You'll Disappear (Prins Thomas Diskomiks)
You'll Disappear (Horse Meat Disco Remix)
You'll Disappear (Munk Remix)
Pretty Mask

Tour Dates:

Oct 16 New York, NY- Irving Plaza w/ Chromeo  [SOLD OUT]
Oct 20 New York, NY - CMJ LimeWire Space, 45 Howard St. (Corner of Broadway) 5:00 - 7:30PM
Nov 1 Washington DC - 9:30 Club w/ Simian Mobile Disco   
Nov 4 Chicago, IL - Metro w/ Simian Mobile Disco   
Nov 6 Toronto, Ontario - The Mod Club w/ Simian Mobile Disco   
Nov 7 Montreal, Quebec - SAT w/ Simian Mobile Disco  
Nov 13 Philadelphia, PA - Making Time At Pure w/ The xx
Dec 11 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom w/ Javelin
Dec 12 Washington, DC - Rock n Roll Hotel w/ Javelin

Warren Haynes gives the lowdown on the new album too....

By Blurt Staff

Gov't Mule's By A Thread is due out Oct. 27 on guitarist Warren Haynes' own Evil Teen label, and if you need any convincing this'll be one of the year's heavy-hitters, you can check out a couple of sneak previews via digital stream:

Stream "Broke Down On The Brazos" and "Frozen Fear"

For Haynes, creating a new album is akin to walking a tightrope: Write new songs that please old fans, while hopefully garnering new ones. Develop that material in the studio rather than on the road, to prevent premature leaks via the internet. Celebrate the roots of American music, yet take sonic forays into the future. Honor the memory of the late Allen Woody, while simultaneously welcoming new bassist Jorgen Carlsson into the fold.

With By A Thread, Gov't Mule's first studio album in three years, recorded at Willie Nelson's Pedernales Studio in the Texas Hill Country, the band -which also features drummer Matt Abts and multi-instrumentalist Danny Louis - meets those challenges and more.

"It feels like we're moving forward and backward at the same time," Haynes notes. "Hardcore fans tend to not want us to move too far away from where we started, but the band never wants to stay in one place for very long.

"While Jorgen brings his distinctive musical personality to the table, he also uncannily evokes some of (Allen) Woody's spirit which inspired us to revisit our past. I don't know if we were willing to travel that road right after Allen died, but this far down the line, it seems liberating and exciting.

"There was this groove that Matt and Jorgen were playing the first day in the studio. We taped it, and when the occasion came up for us to start writing something new, we pulled it out, and it became the catalyst for that tune. Danny and I started attacking it, Gordie Johnson [the album's producer] got involved, and during a break I went next door and began writing the lyrics. Writing in the studio was a lot of pressure, but it worked out great. For whatever reason, the time seemed right. The door was kicked open, and now we're moving full steam ahead."

"These songs didn't exist until we got to Pedernales," Abts says. "No one's heard ‘em yet, which is kind of frustrating."

Haynes explains, "We want By A Thread to be a surprise, so we've made a point not to play any of them live until our fans can get the full impact of the new material."

"The studio is a kind of science lab, where you're performing experiments that you don't have to let anybody hear," Louis adds. "There's an interaction with our fanbase, but it takes time for it to happen. In a live situation, we're in that lab atmosphere, but we've added the energy of the audience, so we get instant feedback. The anticipation is just building and building. These songs are like a Thorazine shuffle, alive in my head. They have yet to get out of the barn, so to speak."

Our latest pick in the series: Lone Star tunesmith and political rabble-rouser James McMurtry.

By Fred Mills

James McMurtry is our Band O' The Week, the fifth selection in our increasingly popular and prestigious series. Okay, so technically he's ARTIST of the week. Work with us here. Previous artists we picked - the Clean, Os Mutantes, Avett Brothers, Panther - have all gained massive fame and reaped amazing riches in the BLURT afterglow, natch, and McMurtry's been glowing with us along. You knew, for example, that he's a BLURT blogger, right? If not, check out his political and pop-culture screeds at "Wasteland Bait & Tackle"...

So anyway, JM's got a new album out this week, Live in Europe, a combined CD/DVD release. As our reviewer put things, "It's another chance to notice how in and around the anger about macroscopic events, McMurtry is capable of extraordinary nuance in describing the lives of ordinary people on a microscopic level... Apart from refocusing songs away from the glare of diatribes against Dick Cheney, Live in Europe offers the distinctive pleasures of a typical James McMurtry show, with his thousand and one guitars of perfect tone, and that impeccable rhythm section of bassist Ronnie Johnson and drummer Darren Hess."

McMurtry also debuted a new video at BLURT this week, "You'd a Thought (Leonard Cohen Must Die)". It's from the new album of course, and you can check it out in our video kiosk.

And check back each Friday for the latest BLURT Band O' The Week.

Some serious hallelujah hollabackin' going on again...

By Blurt Staff

Awesome, yes. Remember the "Complex Soundboard" that surfaced on Complex.com back in August? The one that played off the Sgt. Pepper's album sleeve and featured assorted hip-hop, reggae and assorted personalities - everyone from Bill O'Reilly and Bizzy Bone to Spike Lee and President Obama - and you'd click on their faces to trigger a sound sample and corresponding word bubble? (Obama's "Hallelujah hollaback" wasn't too shabby.) If you click on a bunch of them in succession you get a whole chorus of hollabackin'!

        At the bottom is the image of the original ‘board (go here to try out the actual soundbytes). So now they are showcasing "Complex Soundboard 2," and while it's not as visually elaborate (it's pictured at the top of the page), it's still pretty ace. Go here to hear the soundbyes; the Joker's "Why so serious?" is always welcome, while Kim Kardashian may or may not be having an orgasm, and it goes without saying that you definitely need to hear Raekwon intoning "I'll fuckin' lay your nuts on a fuckin' dresser" at least once or twice a day.

        The rogues gallery for CP2 is as follows:

ROW 1: (Left to right) President Obama, Olivia Munn, Ras Kass [Ed.-it's his boy in the clip], Ras Trent, Rick Ross, Eric Cartman, Kanye West (South Park version)

ROW 2: The Joker, Larry David, Lil Wayne, Kim Kardashian, Mooj (from The 40-Year-Old Virgin), Latarian Milton, Jonah Hill

ROW 3: Randy (Aziz Ansari in Funny People), Red (Danny McBride in Pineapple Express), Clay Davis (The Wire), Smokey (Friday), Kanye West, Tommy Buns (DMX in Belly), Howard Dean

ROW 4: Bow Wow, 50 Cent, Brick Tamland (Anchorman), Cam'ron, Kenny Powers, Leon Black (J.B. Smoove in Curb Your Enthusiasm), Super Craka

ROW 5: Brian Collins, Leroy Jenkins, 2Pac, Mike Tyson, Superhead, Craig Robinson (as club bouncer in Knocked Up), Christian Bale

ROW 6: Kim Kardashian, David Letterman, Raekwon, R. Kelly, Super Craka, Jay-Z, O-Dog (Menace II Society)

And if you are digging all that, don't forget to check out the David Lee Roth soundboard we told you about almost a year ago, that came courtesy TheTyser.com. A day without Diamond Dave is... you know...

It's just like being a member of the band!

By Blurt Staff

Jamband kingpins Umphrey's McGee recently unveiled their "Stew Art Series" where fans essentially help "conduct" the band's live improvisations. Umphrey's debuted the deal earlier this month and it was a raging success: the first in a series of S2 events was held in Milwaukee's Eagle's Ballroom on October 3rd, 2009, and as you'll be able to see in the 4-minute video below, band and fans alike had one whale of a time. Wait'll you see the whole place turn into a Metallica concert, yo!

The Eagles Ballroom show was received with overwhelming enthusiasm and to rave reviews. The sold-out crowd of 50 fans submitted their ideas by texting descriptive words, phrases, and pop culture references (pretty much whatever came to mind), to the Umphrey's Mozes mobile interface.  The suggestions were then filtered by the band's long time Sound Caresser Kevin Browning and projected on a screen for the band to digest and turn into the next phase of the jam.  The band's music varied stylistically with suggestions ranging from "an afternoon bus ride in Jamaica" to "drinking pina coladas...in a hurricane". As one elated fan commented after the show, "S2 was the coolest thing I have ever been a part of. It's always been a dream of mine to meet the band, and the opportunity to participate in leading the Jam for the band was a dream come true as well."

As highly skilled improvisational musicians known for using a complex set of signals on stage to prompt spontaneous musical changes, S² is proving to keep the band on their toes as they navigate through the audience's prompts. S² events also include a Q&A session providing an opportunity for fans to ask about what they're witnessing (or ask anything else for that matter). As part of the ticket (which will actually be a custom laminate that will be different for each S² event), every attendee will receive an autographed CD of the Stew Art Series they attend - minutes after the event has concluded. To be clear, each S² show is a TOTALLY separate event than the scheduled concert date and will be sold as a separate ticket - getting a ticket to S² does not get you into the show later that night (and vice versa). The S² experiment is just that, an experiment. Keyboardist Joel Cummins explains, "The improvisational elements of our show have always been one of our favorite parts about playing together - and we think the audience feels that way, too. That's our inspiration for the S² series. It's also a great way to stay on top of our chops." S²events take place in the early evening before the respective show start times. Prices and ages vary from show to show - which should last one hour (with Q&A).

The next S² event is slated for Oct. 24 in Portland - see below for details on that and the band's "regular" tour as well.

Tour Dates:

October 21 Knitting Factory Spokane WA
October 22 Showbox Seattle WA
October 23 McDonald Theatre Eugene OR
October 24 Crystal Ballroom Portland OR*** [S² show that day]
October 25 Eureka Theatre Eureka CA
October 27 Crystal Bay Club Crystal Bay NV
October 28 McNears Mystic Theatre Petaluma CA
October 29 House of Blues West Hollywood CA
October 30-31 Las Tortugas - Dance of the Dead IV Groveland (Yosemite) CA
November 11 The Opera House Toronto, Canada
November 12-14 Higher Ground Ballroom South Burlington VT
November 15 Port City Music Hall Portland ME
November 17 Northern Lights Clifton Park NY
November 18 Water Street Music Hall Rochester NY
November 19 Mr. Small's Theatre Millvale PA
November 20-21 9:30 Club Washington D.C.
December 10-14 Caribbean Holidaze Runaway Bay
December 29 Vic Theatre Chicago IL
December 30-31 Aragon Ballroom Chicago IL
March 21-23 Jam in the 'Dam, The Melkweg Amsterdam 

Talented guitarist worked with the greats and even mentored Jimi Hendrix.

By Blurt Staff

Blues guitarist Johnny Jones passed away on Wednesday (Oct. 14) at the age of 73. According to media reports no cause of death was immediately known; he was found dead in his Nashville apartment by exterminators. An autopsy is pending.

BLURT contributor Rev. Keith A. Gordon pays tribute to Johnson at his Blues.about.com blog. It is reprinted, in part, below.

***

By Rev. Keith A. Gordon

Born in 1936, Jones had living in Memphis as a teen before moving with his mother to Chicago during the early-1950s. A self-taught guitarist, Jones was in a small blues group that played with both harp legend Junior Wells and guitarist Freddie King. Unaccustomed to the cold Chicago winters, however, Jones moved back to the south, landing in Nashville.

In the "Music City" during the early-1960s, Jones found a thriving blues and R&B scene, mostly centered on the city's Jefferson Street and anchored by the famous New Era Club. Jones formed the Imperial 7, playing often at the New Era, where a young soldier from Fort Campbell, Kentucky named Jimi Hendrix would come and sit in on guitar. Jones mentored Hendrix for a couple of years before the guitarist left for New York City, fame and fortune. One of Nashville blues community's favorite stories is that Hendrix challenged his teacher to a six-string duel at Club Baron during the early-1960s, with Jones coming out the winner based on the audience's applause.

Jones would stay busy throughout the 1960s. He played guitar behind Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown on the Nashville-produced R&B music TV show The!!!!Beat and was a member of the house band for the Night Train TV show. For a short while, Jones fronted the King Casuals, a band formed by Hendrix in the early-60s as the King Kasuals. Jones also toured with soul-blues giant Bobby "Blue" Bland. But by the 1970s, the guitarist had tired of the musician's daily struggle for dollars-and-cents, and Jones retired from performing.

During the late-1990s, though, Jones got back into the music business, backing R&B singers like Charles Walker and Roscoe Shelton in local Nashville nightclubs. In 1999, Jones released his first solo album, I Was Raised On The Blues, a long overdue showcase for his underrated guitar skills. A couple of years later, he recorded Blues Is In The House for the Northern Blues label, earning Jones widespread critical acclaim. Later that year, In The House, a live album of Jones backing the dynamic soul singer Charles Walker (now with the Dynamites) was released.

Jones and his colleagues were recognized for their musical contributions by Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues, 1945-1970, an exhibit that ran at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum from March 2004 through December 2005. Jones (with the Imperial 7) also had a song placed on the Night Train To Nashville double-CD that was produced by Daniel Cooper and Michael Gray to accompany the exhibit.

The talented guitarist continued to perform, appearing at the ninth annual Jefferson Street Jazz & Blues Festival in June 2009.

Doing a song-by-song remake of Dark Side Of The Moon... wait, didn't Phish already do that?!?

By Blurt Staff

Geez, we'd barely finished posting our exclusive Wayne Coyne "Words of Wisdom" interview at the site today along with our, ahem, glowing 9-stars-out-of-10 review of the Flaming Lips' new album Embryonic, when word came down the newswire (okay, technically over the Internet) that the band's on to the followup!

According to the Los Angeles Times, in a story about last night's special mini-concert by the Lips at Hollywood's Ricardo Montalban Theater to promote Embryonic, Coyne & Co. "have already recorded a follow-up to Embryonic. The band will release a track-by-track interpretation of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon in the near future, which it recorded with Stardeath and the White Dwarfs, a band that features Coyne's nephew Dennis."

The Times added that guesting on the album are Henry Rollins and Peaches (apparently in the MGMT and Karen O roles of Embryonic... or maybe it's the other way around!), and that at the moment plans are for the remake to be an iTunes-only release.

Read the entire story here.

Blue Cheer bassist had carried the torch for uncompromising skronk, biker metal and "ultra blues" since the ‘60s...

By Blurt Staff

We got back from a road trip to learn the sad news that Dickie Peterson of Blue Cheer had passed away on Monday. The band had recently issued a live concert DVD, Blue Cheer Rocks Europe and was additionally planning a tour to support it when the bassist was diagnosed with cancer.

BLURT's Rev. Keith paid tribute to Peterson at his About.com Blues blog (follow the link, as he has also posted video clips of the band), and we are reprinting it below. Peterson will be missed....

***

By Rev. Keith A. Gordon

Founding Blue Cheer bassist and vocalist Dickie Peterson passed away on Monday, October 12, 2009 in Germany. Although no cause of death has been released, Peterson had been fighting a long battle with prostrate and liver cancer. He was thought to be 61 years old at the time of his death, although the artist's MySpace page lists his age as 63.

Peterson formed Blue Cheer in San Francisco in 1966 with guitarist Leigh Stephens and drummer Paul Whaley. Taking amplified blues-rock to its logical extremes, the band was one of rock's original "power trios," and they played louder and heavier than any of their contemporaries. Blue Cheer scored a hit with a cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" from its 1968 debut album, Vincebus Eruptum. Subsequent Blue Cheer albums, which combined psychedelic rock with a healthy dose of electric blues, would help write the blueprint for heavy metal during the 1970s and grunge during the '90s.

Blue Cheer broke up during the early-1970s, although Peterson would put together new versions of the band in 1979 and again in 1985. In 2007, Peterson reunited with drummer Whaley in a revived Blue Cheer, recording the band's final album, What Doesn't Kill You with guitarist Duck McDonald. During the years in between, Peterson recorded two solo albums, including the 1999 blues-rock barn-burner Tramp, which was only released in Japan.

In a 2005 interview with StonerRock.com, Peterson is quoted saying, "people keep trying to say that we're heavy metal or grunge or punk, or we're this or that. The reality is we're just a power trio and we play ultra-blues, and it's rock 'n' roll. It's really simple what we do."