They still love records... vinyl... artwork... CDs, too.

By Blurt Staff

Despite Thom Yorke being widely quoted recently as saying that Radiohead "can't possibly dive into" the making of another full-length again ("It'll kill us"), guitarist Ed O'Brien is now saying that Yorke's declaration is probably premature.

Ateaseweb.com is reporting that O'Brien has been talking to UK media and indicates that winter recording sessions are being planned for a projected 2010 release. "WE WILL BE MAKING AN ALBUM!" said O'Brien, adding, "We're going into the studio in winter. It's always miserable! Are we at the whim of the seasons? We are! When you're in a studio in the countryside, the music you make is definitely affected by what season it is."

Well, all right then!

"And we all like vinyl," continued O'Brien. "That's not going to go away. I still like CDs as well. I got the Speech Debelle CD the other day - I nearly downloaded it from iTunes but I thought, ‘No. I want the physical thing.'"

So do we, Ed, so do we. Please tell all the record labels and p.r. flacks who insist on sending us downloads and streams of new releases that we're still fans and collectors and want to be able to review the physical thing...

Mark your calendars for Dec. 12... ticket and lineup details still to come.

By Fred Mills

With the release of the new Gov't Mule album By A Thread (Evil Teen) just around the corner - it's due Oct. 27 - word arrives this morning of additional Mule-related news: the date of the annual Warren Haynes Christmas Jam.

The 2009 installment of this star-laden benefit (for Habitat For Humanity) concert will be held at the Asheville (NC) Civic Center on December 12 - most likely there will also be the traditional pre-Jam jam the previous night at the Orange Peel club. The lineup for this year and on-sale date for tickets have not been announced yet, however, so watch this space for details.

The Asheville Citizen-Times is further reporting that in honor of the Haynes Jam a special "official beer" has been created by local brewers Asheville Brewing. Called "Christmas Jam White," it's a wheat beer described as "made in the Belgian wit style with a hint of orange and coriander in the taste."

Well, all right then!

"It's one of the most important beers that we've made," brewer Mike Rangel told the newspaper. "We had to make a great beer because this is a great event."

Boy howdy to that.

To read our 2008 interview with Haynes in which he discusses the history of the Christmas Jam and talks about the '08 edition which was a two-night 20^th anniversary blowout, go to "20 Years of Xmas Jams."

Not sure about that "most important band of the ‘90s" angle, but hey...

By Blurt Staff

This news just in from the All Tomorrows Parties site...

***

All Tomorrow's Parties is honoured to announce that the legendary Pavement will curate ATP in May 2010!!!

It would be fair to say, we at ATP get to present some very special bands. But we are beyond excited to announce that legendary US band Pavement will headline and curate the weekend of May 14th-16th in 2010!

After years of speculation, arguably the most important American band of the Nineties is returning to the stage with the line-up of Mark Ibold, Scott "Spiral Stairs" Kannberg, Stephen Malkmus, Bob Nastanovich and Steve West reuniting for dates around the world in 2010 including curating and performing at ATP Weekend 2 on May 14th - 16th.

Described in their own Wikipedia entry as having experienced "moderate commercial success," Pavement's catalogue for the Matador, Domino, Drag City and Treble Kicker imprints has come to define in the eyes of many, the blueprint for independent rock over the past generation and we are thrilled to have them join our illustrious list of curators.

Tickets are priced at £160pp for room only and £170pp for self catering and go on sale this Friday 9th October at www.atpfestival.com

A second ATP festival weekend featuring a different curator on May 7-9^th, 2010 will be announced next week!

Not Monsters of Folk, that is... check out the free MP3, below.

By Blurt Staff

They are calling this the Phantoms of Folk - "two lone wolves running together for one dark blissout of a night," says their label, Secretly Canadian, adding,  "two of the finest indie-folk songwriters of the last decade come together under the Texas sky to quietly lay to tape 14 crushing, haunting tunes, leaving space enough in each to match their surroundings."

Jason Molina and Will Johnson are familiar to you already if you're a fan of Magnolia Electric Col, Centro-matic Songs: Ohia and South San Gabriel. Now the pair have teamed up for the eponymous Molina and Johnson, due Nov. 3.

Advises the label, "Molina's documentarian, record-the-room ethos finds a home in Johnson's subtle atmospherics and production tweaks; and Molina's powerful tenor croon finds a fitting dance partner in Johnson's equally moving soft-gravel vox. While the individual performances from each are stunning in their own right, the musical mind meld that was captured is absolutely the occasion it should be."

Will Johnson gets a bit more succinct: "For ten days we wrote, co-wrote, workshopped, complimented, scrutinized, drank, invited friends to come play music, smoked, made lots of notes and drawings, drank a little more and shot the BB gun off the back porch when we just needed some time and space. In the throes of all this, our record was made in the late February sun."

The album features contributions from other musicians, such as Howard Draper, Bryan VanDivier, Scott Danbom, Magnolia Electric Co.'s Michael Kapinus and Texas songwriter Sarah Jaffe - the latter, in particular, adding plaintive vocals to "All Gone, All Gone" while  accompanied by the sound of a crying saw.

Euro tour dates below; a North American tour will be mounted in early 2010.

Molina and Johnson will be available on Secretly Canadian November 3 in the US, and November 2 in the UK. And check out the duo's European tour planned for late November and December. There will also be a North American tour coming in early 2010.

 MP3: Twenty Cycles to the Ground

TOUR DATES:

11/26 Deventer (NL), Burgerweeshuis
11/27 Ottersum (NL), Roepaen
11/28 Brussels (B), Botanique: 15 years Tout Partout
11/29 Utrecht (NL), Le Gues Who? Festival@Tivoli
11/30 Eindhoven (NL), MC Frits Philips
12/01 Winchester (UK), Railway Inn
12/02 London (UK), Garage
12/03 Manchester (UK), Deaf Institute
12/10 Barcelona (Spain), Primavera Club@Sala Be Cool
12/11 Barcelona (Spain), Primavera Club@Auditorio Montjuich
12/12 Madrid (Spain), Primavera Club@Teatro Alcazar
12/13 Lloseta-Mallorca (Spain), Teatro Lloseta
12/14 Puerto Real (Spain), Venue TBA

Exclusive report from Atlanta concert and book signing...

By Blurt Staff

You could smell the love in the air.  As you can tell from the above photo, author Michael Plumides (also BLURT's Social Networking Editor) had his first photo op since the release of his book, Kill The Music, with lead singer and ex-jailhouse roomie David Brockie, AKA Oderus Urungus of the shock-cock-rock group, GWAR.

Plumides and Brockie were both present for a book signing and performance at Masquerade in Atlanta, Georgia, Tuesday October 6, 2009.  Brockie and his Richmond based band are celebrating their 25th Anniversary, and the release of Lust In Space on Metal Blade Records, which debuted at #94 on Billboard in August.  GWAR recently is spawning not only loads of bodily fluids but also sponsorships from the likes of Jagermeister, and drew 1000-plus screaming, blood-soaked fans to the Masquerade. 

An amazing show but it was a bit too sultry in the room, almost enough to see steam coming off punks and metal heads, and on several occasions, BLURT staff members witnessed bouncers carrying out young slam-dancing nymphs suffering from heat exhaustion. Look for the new issue of BLURT on newsstands next week for an excerpt of Kill The Music, along with never before seen photos of the infamous GWAR show in North Carolina in September of 1990. 

Gwar Tour Dates

Kill the Music Facebook Page

Bono and the boys still make everyone go "aww..." in Atlanta last night (Oct. 6), even if that latest album was kind of a letdown...

Photos & Text by Colin Smith

(above) Bono Screams Into The Crowd During The Concert Opener, "Breathe," A Track Taken From Their Newest Album, No Line On The Horizon.

(below) Edge Moves To The Stage's Edge To Play A Signature Riff During The U2 Concert At Atlanta's Georgia Dome On October 6, 2009.

Adam Clayton Steps Into The Spotlight To Grind Out The Bassline For "Get On Your Boots"-The Second Song In The Set.

Bono Sprints To Stage Left During "Get On Your Boots."  The 360 Stage Design, Dubbed "The Claw" By Crew And Designers, Aims To Create The Feel Of Proximity For The Entire Crowd.

Bono Opens "Mysterious Ways," From U2's 1991 album, Achtung Baby.

Bono Wraps Up "Mysterious Ways" For The Sold Out Atlanta Crowd.

The Edge Moves To The Outer Circle Of The Stage For "Get On Your Boots"

For More Photos Visit Cms Digital At Http://Www.Cms-Digital.Com. All images copyright 2009 Colin Smith.

Hold your group together, with... Heinz Baked Beans! (You can use Rotosound Strings to pick your teeth.) A touring band's guide to good eats on the road: Blurt blogger Coco Hames of the Ettes tells you what to get and where.

By Blurt Staff

Dang, just reading this stuff makes us hungry, with a capital "O" - as in HONGRY!!

Glom onto the Ettes' Coco Hames' latest installment in her "Look At Life" blog (we also have a feature on the band in our new issue). Therein you'll find a guide to good eats for the discriminating touring band, with stops for Chinese food in NYC, cheese steak in Philly, seafood along the intercoastal waterway, a "special creepy pizza" in St. Louis, North Carolina versus Memphis barbeque, Mexican food throughout the southwest, and more. Plus stops at various rock-and-roll diners.

What is a rock-and-roll diner? You'll have that question answer, and more - with the exception of where to find the best baked beans bathhouse, which is a closely guarded secret among the Ettes and BLURT - by checking out Coco's blog. Urp!

Webcast of the group's show at the 9:30 Club starts at 12:30 am.

By Blurt Staff

Portland's the Gossip are launching a tour in support of their latest album at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC tonight (Wednesday, October 7). NPR Music will be webcasting the show live via www.npr.org/music (it will later be archived at the site). It's part of the broadcast system's "Live in Concert" series.

In honor of the occasion, NPR Music's Monitor Mix blogger and former Sleater-Kinney guitarist Carrie Brownstein will co-host the event. Hear the entire show beginning at approximately 12:30 AM ET (early Thursday) here.

The Gossip's Rick Rubin-produced album, Music for Men, was just released and features high-intensity, dramatic rock along with intermittent dance beats and balladic turns by vocalist Beth Ditto. Ditto, the group's front-person, is known for her versatility and aggressive performance style and the band has built its reputation on live performances. Tune in to BLURT tomorrow for a review of the album.

Almost 4 hours of music on 3 discs - undiluted, stripped-down gospel!

By Blurt Staff

Tompkins Square is set to drop Fire In My Bones, a three-CD collection of "raw, rare and otherworldly gospel" produced by music scribe Mike McGonigal. It stands to be one of the year's must-purchase archival sets, and a portion of proceeds will go to the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund. The compilation hits stores Oct. 27.

The majority of this music has never been reissued on CD, or in any other form (most tracks were originally released on regional independent labels). Most post-WWII compilations of African-American gospel music naturally concentrate on the astounding quartet and solo vocalist sounds made during the music's Golden Age. Fire In My Bones attempts to address and collect more neglected sounds from that era (and on to the present day).

Dozens of traditions are represented. Some go back hundreds of years while others seem to have been arrived at as soon as the tape began to roll. Field recordings and studio tracks are all mashed together, with solo performances next to congregational recordings, hellfire sermons next to afterlife laments. Leon Pinson, Elder & Sister Brinson & the  Brinson Brothers, Grant & Ella, Straight Street Holiness Group, Theotis Taylor, Brother & Sister W B Grate - these artists will now be just a little less obscure.

Fire In My Bones provides a small peek at the incredible diversity and power of post-war  black gospel. Much of this music is raw, distorted and might sound a bit strange. But it is  not presented as a novelty freak show or as "outsider music." This is gospel - which we must always remember translates as "the good news"-as it has been sung and performed in tiny churches and large programs, from rural Georgia to urban Los Angeles. It is clearly among the most vibrant, playful, beautiful and emotionally charged music in the world.

Henry Rollins' tree pulp + the blood of the working class - what's not to like?

By Fred Mills

The LA Times reports that Thurston Moore is launching Ecstatic Peace Library, described as "a boutique publisher of art books." Initial offerings are scheduled to arrive Jan. 1 via the EPL website (currently, just a logo; see above), with "art books [released] in tandem with recordings from the artist-authors" - longtime SY associates Raymond Pettibone and Dave Markey, plus Moore's wife Kim Gordon.

Distribution of the Sonic Youth guitarist's EPL books will be through Distributed Art Publishers.

We'd be remiss if we didn't add a couple of comments that appeared on the LA Times website following the announcement:

i heard directly from a source that the first printings were made directly from the pulp cultivated from the trees that once stood in Henry Rollins backyard. - Posted by: Simoon Star Force Ultra Core  

Also, I heard that the inks they use will be mixed with the blood of the working class. VERY avant-garde! - Posted by: Eve