More classic AC/DC riffs than you can shake a Catholic schoolboy's uniform at.

By Fred Mills

Though California's hard-rocking Rhino Bucket typically gets dismissed by indier-than-thou mooks as just a low-rent band of AC/DC wannabes, in truth the group was a breath of fresh air when it first appeared in the late ‘80s at the height of Aquanet-and-spandex metal. Rhino Bucket navigated the perilous alterna-waters of the ‘90s, broke up, got back together, played musical chairs with the lineup, and eventually resurfaced for good in 2006 with the quite-excellent And Then It Got Lucky. Rhino Bucket's got six albums in the discography and plans to release a new disc in 2009. Rhino Bucket 2008: Georg Dolivo (vocals, guitar), Brian "Damage" Forsythe (guitar), Reeve Downes (bass) and Simon Wright (drums).  

You gotta love a band whose guitarist calls himself Damage.

"Blue collar. Black leather. Hard times." - that's how the band describes itself, and hey, if you're not down with a tried-and-true AC/DC kinda riff, then you're probably not even reading this news item in the first place.

So here's a few things you need to do:

First, go to their MySpace page and cue up pretty much any song on the music player, and tell me it don't rock your fucking socks off.

Next, head over to eBay and pick up a coupla their old discs for cheep. Or, if you're actually in the mood to put some coin directly in the band's pocket, buy some tracks from ‘em via download.

Lastly, keep checking the MS page for tour dates - they have couple coming up in November, and word just arrived that for all you forward-looking types, you can start prepping for the first Rock Gone Wild festival next August (Aug. 20-23, 2009) in Algona, Iowa, where the band will be one of the main acts among 50 + slated to perform.

Also headlining: Helix, Junkyard, Dangerous Toys and Saigon Kick. And don't you even try to retroactively lump any of those bands in the cheesemetal category; as with Rhino Bucket, they were the good guys, and it wasn't their fault that grunge came in to kick ‘em off the stage because they were true rock ‘n' roll populists. You think I'm kiddin'?

Tickets will be available to the general public in the coming weeks. To get more info and receive updates, please join www.fevertalk.net. Additionally, Rock Gone Wild fans can receive unprecedented "behind-the-scenes" updates by reading Anatomy of a Festival at www.anatomyofafestival.wordpress.com. This blog promises to chronicle the ups - and downs - of planning a major music event.

Got all that? Good. Now sing along with "One Night Stand" by Rhino Bucket. You'll feel good that you did.

Don't need no sympathy

Don't need no charity

Don't need no helping hand

All I need is a

Rock N' Roll band


Didn't light your fire baby

Didn't tell you lies

Didn't say I wanted you

But you never said goodbye


One more, one night stand

One more, one night stand


Don't see your point of view

Don't see much point in you

Don't like the games you play

All I want to do is get away


Bridge


One more, one night stand

One more, one night stand


I didn't light your fire

I didn't tell you to stay

Didn't say I wanted you

So stay the fuck away

Don't need sympathy

Don't need charity

Just one more

One night stand


One more, just give me one more

One night stand

One more, I just want one more

One night stand


Don't need sympathy

One night stand

Don't need no charity

One night stand

Just give me one more

One night stand


One more, one night stand

One more, one night stand

Two man Ween extravaganza, life without a net, in Chapel Hill in 1992.

By Fred Mills

This ain't your mama's Ween. Or, perhaps more accurately, maybe this WAS your mama's Ween: just Dean and Gene, armed with samples, tapes, guitars and a drum machine, making with the rude, crude live show all by their lonesomes. The personnel:

Gene Ween-Vocals and Guitar

Dean Ween- Vocals and Guitar

Bass and Drums-

Yamaha Digital Audio Tape Deck

Kirk Miller- Live Sound Engineer

 Now Music Video Distributors is set to drop a document of just that. Due Nov. 11, the CD/DVD captures Ween in full, uh, flight live at the Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, recorded Dec. 9, 1992.

It will also include a bonus DVD containing footage from the same general time frame, filmed in the Netherlands (Vera Groningen 10-31-91), Columbus OH (Staches 3-6-92) and WTSR radio in Trenton, New Jersey (1-10-92).

See below for Dean Ween's liner notes about the Chapel Hill show and a full tracklisting for the DVD.

***

"From our first "real" concert in 1987 until the release of Chocolate and Cheese in 1994 we played concerts as a duo--Aaron on vocals and acoustic guitar and me on electric guitar with the bass and drums played from a cassette deck. Later on we purchased a DAT machine for the backing tracks and this speeded up our show a little. A typical Ween set was no more than an hour long, and we'd play about 24 songs in that amount of time. There was no jamming at all whatsoever. Things are a lot different now. Every night we had to face the crowd pretty much naked, there was nowhere to hide, no room for an off night. We did a lot of talking to the crowd and one another between songs, we pretty much had to. We faced a lot of hostile audiences when we were the opening act on a show. There was a lot to hate about us but we won over a lot of people in the process because of our sheer nerve. A lot of our closest friends feel that Ween live pretty much ended when we switched to a traditional band format with a bass player and drummer; I dunno about that but by the release of Pure Guava our show was no longer interesting to us. We were doing a lot more touring and playing the same songs with no room for improvising had gotten boring for us. Once we started releasing records and touring more as a duo we got a lot better at it, we stopped caring about what the audience thought of us and just focused on having fun onstage. This was when we maximized our brownness. I don't remember too much about this concert other than the fact that we played the Cat's Cradle a lot of times and in a few different locations. Public Enemy had played the club a few nights before and blown up the P.A. and our sound man Kirk Miller was pissed. I thought it was great because Public Enemy are one of my favorite bands of all time and I was just happy to be playing on the same stage. Our touring party consisted of Me, Aaron, and Kirk Miller, our soundman and driver. Once we signed to Elektra we added a tour manager, Paul Monahan, who would stay with us for many years. Anyway, this is pretty typical of what we sounded like on a good night those first few tours."

DVD track list:

1. Captain Fantasy (Vera)

2. You Fucked Up (Vera)

3. Tick (Vera)

4. Boing (Vera)

5. Listen To The Music (WTSR)

6. Don't Get 2 Close (2 My Fantasy) (Vera/Staches)

7. Cover It With Gas And Set It On Fire (Vera)

8. Seconds (Vera)

9. Marble Tulip Juicy Tree (Staches)

10. Gladiola Heartbreaker (Vera)

11. Common Bitch (Staches)

12. The Goin' Gets Tough From The Getgo (Vera/WTSR)

13. Reggaejunkiejew (Staches)

14. Old Queen Cole (Vera)

15. Shalom Absalom (WTSR)

16. Don't Laugh (I Love You) (Vera)

17. Mountain Dew (Vera)

Beats out Black Mountain, Stars, Kathleen Edwards and others...

By Fred Mills

As previously announced, Canada's annual Polaris Prize - that country's equivalent of Britain's Mercury Prize - had some strong contenders this year. Whittled down from about 40 deserving artists, this year's finalists were:

• Black Mountain - In The Future
• Plants And Animals - Parc Avenue
• Basia Bulat - Oh, My Darling
• Stars - In Our Bedroom After The War
• Caribou - Andorra
• Shad - The Old Prince
• Kathleen Edwards - Asking For Flowers
• Two Hours Traffic - Little Jabs
• Holy Fuck - LP
• The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour
• 
  

Yesterday an 11-judge panel made its final determination and the winner is to receive $20,000. Previous winners included Patrick Watson and Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett, and for 2008 it is.... Caribou, a/k/a Dan Snaith, whose brilliant Andorra (Merge) was one of the highlights of 2007.

Check out the video below of Patrick Watson announcing the winner on MySpace TV.

Patrick Watson (2007 winner) announces 2008 Polaris Music Prize!

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)

SATURDAY, SEPT. 27:

7:00 AM CBS: The Early Show: Jewel

8:00 AM TVONE: Tom Joyner Sky Show: The Gap Band

9:00 AM PLD HD: Aftermath: The Station Fire Five Years Later w/Twisted Sister , Tesla , Aaron Lewis ,

Winger , Eric Martin , John Rich

9:00 AM Syndicated: The Ellen DeGeneres Show: Lance Bass

12:45 PM Sundance: We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen

2:00 PM Ovation: Taj Mahal: Live in St. Lucia

2:30 PM FUEL: The Daily Habit: Pop Levi

4:00 PM Sundance: Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul

7:00 PM VH1: Behind The Music: New Kids on the Block: A Behind the Music Special Event

7:00 PM VH1 Classic in Concert: Rush in Rio

8:30 PM PLD HD: Nissan Live Set: Ne-Yo

9:00 PM RAVE HD: Soundstage: Lindsey Buckingham

10:00 PM VH1C: Hangin' With Rush

10:30 PM VH1 Classic in Concert: Rush - R30 Anniversary

11:00 PM FUSE: Welcome to Timbaland

11:35 PM CBS: The Late Show With David Letterman: Pete Seeger

12:05 AM ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Solange

12:35 AM NBC: Late Night with Conan O'Brien: The Watson Twins

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

2:00 AM Encore Action: Going To Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film w/Rob Zombie

Savvy marketing or serving the public good? Only Zimmy knows for sure...

By Fred Mills

Bob Dylan previews his forthcoming album Tell Tale Signs - a 2-CD set of rarities, an the latest installment in his "Bootleg" series - this week on the  National Public Radio Music website. Starting at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday evening (Sept. 30), fans can log on to the NPR site (www.npr.org/music) where the album will be streamed in its entirety.

NPR has featured live music podcasts for some time but this will mark a new foray into the music biz for the venerable radio outlet that some are saying steps over into a grey area that smacks more of savvy marketing by an artist than actually serving the public good (as is NPR's mandate).

Regardless, it's sure to be a hit among listeners. The album's due to hit stores Oct. 7.

Dylan kicks off his fall '08 tour on Oct. 23 in Victoria, BC, for a monthlong trek that will focus primarily on Canada with the exception of a few dates in Minnesota and Wisconsin. For a full list of tour dates, go to his official website.

Sure won't be playing "Born In The U.S.A." unless he wants his head handed to him by all those drunk flag-hugging football fans...

By Fred Mills

Selling out or buying in? While being tapped to play the halftime show at the Super Bowl is certainly considered prestigious, over the years it's also become a source of snarky derision for a lot of music fans.

Quick, give yourself this little test: what songs, and/or what particular staging spectacle, did Tom Petty (who performed the honors this year in front of 148 million couch potatos), the Stones, Sir Paul, Prince, Janet Jackson and U2 do at their Super Bowl slots? If the only one you can reliably recall is Janet Jackson ("Bob, I'll take ‘Janet Jackson's tit' for $100...") from 2004, then you probably understand what we're saying.

At any rate Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will be the 2009 Super Bowl entertainment. He'll hit the stage sometime during the evening of Feb. 1 in Tampa, and depending on who the match-up comes down to, he'll probably play "Promised Land," "Born to Run" or "You Can Look But You Better Not Touch." Or maybe not....

Can we have a Boss bobblehead?

Nothing like waking up on a Monday morning to this, eh?

By Fred Mills

For some reason Devendra Banhart has come under the ever-tasteful microscope of Perez Hilton (something about the recently-terminated relationshipe between Banhart and actress Natalie Portman), which means, apparently, anything is fair game.

Including posting nekked pics of Banhart. Well, technically they are photos taken by Dev's good friend Lauren Dukoff as part of the cover art for his upcoming Megapuss album Surfing, due Oct.7. But still....

For the full frontal uncensored views, go HERE.

Presenting entire new album via guest-directed videos too.

By Fred Mills

Blazing Swedish garagepunks Division of Laura Lee hits American shores next week for short string of dates intended to lay the groundwork for the launch of their new album Violence is Timeless, due in Europe on Oct. 29 (the U.S. released date is t.b.a.). Material from that album will be showcased, and meanwhile, fans who can't make it to the shows can check out a series of videos the band has been posting to its website every Monday.

Thus far, since mid August, vids directed by Kristoffer Astrom (of Fireside), Joe Lally (Fugazi), Alexander Skinner and several others have been posted - one special guest director incoming: Jose Gonzalez - and this will continue through Oct. 27 with ultimately every song on the album getting a visual treatment.

We've even got a little taste below, the video for the first single, "Central Park."

The album, incidentally, is already available to order in its limited edition/hand numbered vinyl version - check the above website link for details.

Those tour dates:

10/1- Philadelphia/ Khyber
10/2- Baltimore/ Fletcher's
10/4- Brooklyn/ Union Pool  
10/5- NYC / Mercury Lounge
10/7- LA/ Spaceland

Tickets go on sale this week via, you guessed it, Ticketbastard.

By Blurt Staff

Oasis just announced the American leg of their Dig Out Your Soul world tour. The album drops Oct. 7. The tour, the band's first US tour in 3 years, kicks off on December 3 in Oakland, CA. This US tour follows Oasis' biggest ever UK arena tour which sold over 180,000 tickets within an hour of going on sale. Ryan Adams & The Cardinals will be Special Guests on all dates.


For a limited time, every Oasis ticket order made through Ticketbastard comes with the option to upgrade to a special package containing your concert ticket, the brand new "Dig Out Your Soul" cd, and an exclusive Oasis t-shirt available ONLY in this promotion.

Tickets for the shows go on sale October 3 at 10am. For the Chicago
show, tickets go on sale Oct. 4 at 10am. All times are local.

This time, let's not bum-rush the stage, okay fans? Read our eyewitness account of the Sept. 7 assault on Noel Gallagher in Toronto HERE.

Dec. 3                      Oakland, CA                          Oracle Arena          
Dec. 4                      Los Angeles, CA                    Staples Center              
Dec. 6                      Las Vegas, NV                       The Pearl          
Dec. 8                      Denver, CO Broomfield Events Ctr.  
Dec. 10                    Minneapolis, MN                    Target Center          
Dec. 12                    Chicago, IL Allstate Arena          
Dec. 13                    Detroit, MI Palace of Auburn Hills  
Dec. 15                        London, ON                John LaBatt Centre        
 (rescheduled 9/9 date)

Dec. 17                    New York, NY                        Madison Sq. Garden      
Dec. 19                    Camden, NJ Susquehanna Center      
Dec. 20                    Washington, DC                     GMU


For further ticket information go to: www.oasisinet.com

"No intention whatsoever" of touring his old band.

By Fred Mills

Gee, nobody saw this coming: with the UK press hyperventilating over a presumed Led Zep reunion and tour this year, Robert Plant felt compelled to step in and issue an "official statement" on his website setting the record straight. He makes it clear that after he completes the current Raising Sand tour with Alison Krauss on Oct. 5 he has "no intention whatsoever  of touring with anyone for at least the next two years."

The statement reads, in part:

Contrary to a spate of recent reports, Robert Plant will not be touring or recording with Led Zeppelin. Anyone buying tickets online to any such event will be buying bogus tickets.

"It‘s both frustrating and ridiculous for this story to continue to
rear its head when all the musicians that surround the story are keen to get on with their individual projects and move forward," Robert Plant said.

"I wish Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham nothing but success with any future projects," he added.

So there ya go. Guess those "sources close to the band" in London that the British media was relying on for their info didn't bother to check in directly with Percy, eh?

Of course, AFTER that two years that Plant mentions has elapsed, the sky's the limit....