The duo's third work slated for Feb. 17

By Mandy Rodgers

Brendan Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp were friends in middle school and continued their bond through time at the School of Art Institute of Chicago where they began some musical collaboration and formed the Apestaartje music label in 1999. Then, the duo decided to form Mountains and released two albums on Apestaartje. Thrill Jockey will release its third album, Choral on Feb. 17.

According to Thrill Jockey, "Mountains seamlessly blend pastoral electronic sounds with both field recordings and a plethora of acoustic instruments. The resulting sound scapes are broad in scope and rich in detail. The effect is incredibly sublime and hypnotic as the sounds slowly wrap themselves around each other and alter themselves in the mind of the listener."

Choral was recorded in Brooklyn during spring and winter of 2008 and was cut primarily live with minimal dubs. Mountains uses different methods of instrumentation, for instance with ice water and books in "Map Table." The six-track record will be available on CD and LP, but the vinyl version is limited to 1,000 copies and also has two exclusive bonus tracks.

Track Listing:

1Choral

2Map Table

3Telescope

4Add Infinity

5Melodica

6Sheets Two

Tickets go on sale Nov. 14 for erstwhile Christian rocker turned lez icon.

By Mandy Rodgers

So she kissed a girl, liked it and now gets to tour 50 cities in five months? Not a bad break, considering Lindsay Lohan did the same thing and only got a short spot on Ugly Betty.

Katy Perry, in case you've been under a rock lately. had a breakthrough hit with this year's catchy, yet isolating single "I Kissed a Girl." Blogs went nuts. "Is this girl a bisexual? Who is Katy Perry in the first place?" Those who look for controversy, found it. "How dare she discuss such things." And cherry chap stick lost its once innocent connotation to one of a different, more adult tone.

Perry's album One of the Boys contains songs like "Hot N Cold," "If You Can Afford Me" and the very peaceful, lacking uproar "Ur So Gay," which are all sure to be heard on the tour. For the North American dates, Alphabeat will join her, and for the European concerts, 3OH!3 will perform.

Yes, Perry has had a successful year full of tongues wagging about her lyrics and teens excited about listening to pop/rock their parents would staunchly disapprove of but thinking of Perry without kissing and sexuality is nearly impossible. Perhaps the First World Tour will give audiences a different perspective on the singer/songwriter. Maybe she'll even break out some tracks from her 2001 Christian album, Katy Hudson (her birth name changed after actress Kate Hudson's success) and really force everyone to rethink her career and its future.

KATY PERRY WORLD TOUR:

Jan 23          Seattle, WA @ Showbox at the Market
Jan 25          Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
Jan 26          Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
Jan 28          San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
Jan 29          Sacramento, CA @ Empire Events Centre
Jan 31          Los Angeles, CA @ Wiltern
Feb 2           Tuscon, AZ @ University of Arizona
Feb 3           Phoenix, AZ @ Marquee Theatre
Feb 5           San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
Feb 22          Stockholm @ Nalan
Feb 23          Copenhagen @ Vega
Feb 25          Manchester @ Academy
Feb 26          London @ Koko
Feb 27          London @ Koko
Mar 1           Amsterdam @ Melkweg the Max
Mar 2           Paris @ Elysee Montmarte
Mar 4           Munich @ Kesselhaus
Mar 5           Frankfurt @ Batschkapp
Mar 6           Hamburg @ Grynspan
Mar 7           Brussels @ Ancienne Belgique
Mar 20          Houston, TX @ House of Blues
Mar 21          Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
Mar 23          Kansas City, MO @ Beaumont
Mar 24          Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
Mar 26          Chicago, IL @ House of Blues
Mar 27          Detroit, MI @ Clutch Cargos
Mar 28          Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
Mar 30          Toronto, ONT @ Kool Haus
Apr 5           Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts
Apr 7           New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
Apr 10          Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Apr 11          Myrtle Beach, SC @ House of Blues
Apr 14          Nashville, TN @ Cannery
Apr 15          Atlanta, GA @ CenterStage
Apr 27          Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Revolution
Apr 28          St. Petersburg, FL @ Jannus Landing

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)

7:00 AM ABC: Good Morning America: Alicia Keys

7:00 AM CBS: The Early Show: The Four Tops

9:00 AM SYN: The Ellen DeGeneres Show: Taylor Swift , Justin Timberlake

9:00 AM SYN: Live with Regis and Kelly: Seal

11:00 AM ABC: The View: Elton John

4:00 PM RAVE HD: Soundstage: Tori Amos

6:00 PM Sundance: Iconoclasts: Bill Maher and Clive Davis

7:30 PM Starz Cinema: Dancer in the Dark (2000)  w/ Bjork

8:00 PM RAVE HD: From The Basement: Sonic Youth , Jose Gonzalez , Laura Marling

8:00 & 11:00 PM VH1C: Tom Petty: The Story of Mudcrutch

9:00 PM CMT Crossroads: Def Leppard and Taylor Swift

9:00 PM VH1C: Genesis - A History

11:35 PM CBS: The Late Show With David Letterman: Alicia Keys

11:35 PM NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Kaiser Chiefs

12:05 AM ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Low vs Diamond

12:35 AM NBC: Late Night with Conan O'Brien: Conor Oberst

1:35 AM NBC: Last Call with Carson Daly: The Sounds

Now you know why this one's considered "alternate" and, uh, "rare"...

By Fred Mills

In a sense, Elvis Costello grew up with MTV; you can still catch some of his early/mid ‘80s clips on VH1 Classic for proof - the good, the bad and the ugly.

This one's among the "ugly."

"The Only Flame In Town" hailed from EC's justly-maligned 1984 album Goodbye Cruel World, and aside from the fact that the song, uh, sucks, somebody at Columbia Records talked our hero into removing his trademark specs when filming the clip. Bad move. Indeed, a substitute clip was apparently also filmed, and that's the one that went into rotation on video channels. It was only marginally better, but that's beside the point - take a look at EC squinting at the camera and prepared to do some squinting yourself.

The ultra rare sans glasses video is below, followed by the more familiar one. Caveat: the audio is slightly out of synch in the former, but hey, it's all lipsynched anyway so who cares!

The Mars Volta's guitarist serves up another solo helping.

By Blurt Staff

Yesterday Stones Throw Records digitally released Mars Volta guitarist Omar Rodriguez Lopez's solo album, Old Money. Although it is his umpteenth solo release, it's the first for the label. Omar has intimated that the album may have been intended as The Mars Volta's follow-up to 2006's Amputechture until he veered in another musical direction. More details, ripped from the press release: 

The addictive melodies and passionate execution of each performance render Old Money perhaps the most accessible of his non-Volta recordings, and the perfect entry point to anyone not yet familiar with what this prolific artist has to offer.

The album fits comfortably between the guitarist's monumental work with The Mars Volta, and his prior rock-based solo releases such as 2007's The Apocalypse Inside Of An Orange. Loosely based on the concept of exploitative industrialists and, well, their old money, the album presents a 10-track collection of concise rock compositions, which range from progressive to psychedelic to downright funky. Many of these sounds could easily be at home on a Volta record proper had they meshed with Cedric Bixler-Zavala's vocals; Rodriguez Lopez has hinted that this record was a potential follow up to the 2006 Volta release Amputechture until he changed his musical direction.

Through the assistance of many of the players familiar to any fan of his "day gig", Rodriguez Lopez goes straight for the jugular with an unrelenting trio of opening tracks: the lead-in "The Power of Myth," the haunting, Middle Eastern-psych flavored "How to Bill the Bilderberg Group," and the blistering "Population Council's Wet Dream." The results are formidable and easily rank among the most exciting moments of Rodriguez Lopez's solo output. The remainder of the album is equally as memorable and certainly the product of acute inspiration on behalf of its creator. Though clear influences of popular ensembles such as Pink Floyd and Santana can be discerned, a deeper study reveals the cross-continental influence of Israeli garage psych heroes The Churchills, French proggers Ame Son and Magma and Turkish guitar-god Erkin Koray - amongst others.

THE OMAR RODRIGUEZ-LOPEZ GROUP (w/CEDRIC BIXLER) AT THE FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL 2007:

Guitarist stricken with unknown ailment, has been in London hospital since Nov. 3. Tour will continue.

By Blurt Staff

Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher is in a London hospital, reports the band’s label, Warner Brothers. No details were provided, except to say that the Atlanta-based band will continue their European Unholy Alliance Chapter 3 package tour with Slayer, Trivium and Amon Amarth. Doctors will continue to monitor Kelliher’s condition which, according to the press release, “is improving at press time. Doctors and Bill are hopeful that he will rejoin his bandmates in time for their headlining tour of Europe which begins Nov. 30, in Utrecht, Holland and will end on Dec 7, at the All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in Somerset, England. More details to follow as they develop.”

"MOTHER PUNCHER" Video:

Then they start prepping new LP...

By Fred Mills

Currently in the midst of a co-headling tour with the Hold Steady (and selling out venues across the land), the Drive-By Truckers have just announced a string of dates for January. These will be primarily in the South - including the band's annual DBT Nuci's Space Benefit in Athens on January 15 - and after that the group will break to work on their next studio album, the followup to this year's Brighter Than Creation's Dark.

In a missive penned for the DBTs website, main Trucker Patterson Hood commented on the Hold Steady trek, saying, "We are pleased to report that it has so far been even better than we had hoped or expected on every level, they are a great band and fantastic guys to hang out with. They bring it every single night and the bar seems to get raised with each show. It was announced yesterday that Chicago is sold out as are both nights in Minneapolis. This has truly been a great way to end our best year ever. Thanks very much to everyone who has come out and supported us this year."

A great year indeed - Brighter has wowed both critics and the public, as has the band's nonstop roadwork. Expect the album to figure prominently in BLURT's year-end best-of wrapup.

Drive-By Truckers Tour dates:

 
Thu Jan 15 Athens GA 40 WATT - NUCI'S SPACE BENEFIT
Fri Jan 16 Athens GA 40 WATT
Sat Jan 17 Athens GA 40 WATT Wed Jan 21 New Haven CT TOADS PLACE
Thu Jan 22 Sayreville NJ STARLAND BALLROOM
Fri Jan 23 Baltimore MD THE RECHER
Sat Jan 24 Richmond VA THE NATIONAL
Thu Jan 29 Knoxville TN VALARIUM
Fri Jan 30 Asheville NC ORANGE PEEL
Sat Jan 31 Asheville NC ORANGE PEEL

Stuff you can only get at BLURT - need we say more?

By Blurt Staff

We just added several new interviews with Tom Morello and comedian Tony Clifton (what about the babes!). Check 'em out here! And keep checking out our video section for interviews and performance segments filmed exclusively for BLURT.

Individual segment links:

Tony Clifton Pt.1: www.blurt-online.com/video/view/155/

Tony Clifton Pt.2: www.blurt-online.com/video/view/154/

Tom Morello "Bad Presidents": www.blurt-online.com/video/view/141/

Tom Morello "Guitar Hero": www.blurt-online.com/video/view/143/

Tom Morello "8 People and a Latte Machine": www.blurt-online.com/video/view/145/

Allie Goolrick queries Back Door Slam about their musical ménage a trios.

By Blurt Staff

Hey Blurters: Check out the second official Blurt Out Loud podcast. (It follows our debut Blurt Out Loud podcast, logically enough, which featured the Old 97s in Athens, GA.) This one's got our multimedia mistress Allie Goolrick getting the lowdown from killer UK power trio Back Door Slam - she talked to them at the Austin City Limits music fest earlier this year. Stay tuned for a track as well, "Come Home."

Keep your eyes peeled on BLURT for upcoming podcasts with Sharon Jones, Mason Jennings, Langhorne Slim, Dead Confederate and kid rocker Uncle Rock! We'll post ‘em to the video section below along with a host of other BLURT exclusives.

***

And meanwhile, catch BDS on tour currently with Gov't Mule:

Nov 11 2008  8:00P

            Royal Oak Music Theatre 'Kinder Revolution Tour' With Gov't Mule        Royal Oak, Michigan

Nov 12 2008   8:00P

            The Venue at Horseshoe Casino 'Kinder Revolution Tour' With Gov't Mule          Hammond, Indiana

Nov 13 2008   8:00P

            The Rave 'Kinder Revolution Tour' With Gov't Mule          Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Nov 14 2008   8:00P

            Pantages Theatre 'Kinder Revolution Tour' With Gov't Mule          Minneapolis, Minnesota

Nov 15 2008   8:00P

            Pantages Theatre 'Kinder Revolution Tour' With Gov't Mule          Minneapolis, Minnesota

Nov 16 2008   8:00P

            Harrah's N 'Kinder Revolution Tour' With Gov't Mule        Kansas city, Missouri

Nov 19 2008   8:00P

            Orpheum Theater 'Kinder Revolution Tour' With Gov't Mule         Flagstaff, Arizona

Nov 20 2008   8:00P

            House of Blues 'Kinder Revolution Tour' With Gov't Mule             Anaheim, California

Nov 21 2008   8:00P

            The Fillmore 'Kinder Revolution Tour' With Gov't Mule     San Francisco, California

Nov 22 2008   8:00P

            The Fillmore 'Kinder Revolution Tour' With Gov't Mule     San Francisco, California

On the eve of her release from an eating disorders treatment center, Juliana Hatfield shares.

By Blurt Staff

Music fans obsess over the minutiae behind their favorite songs, and often get a generic “I like to leave them open to interpretation” answer. If not that, then a longwinded, anticlimactic and unsatisfying, sometimes even pompous, explanation. Only rarely does a songwriter share something worthwhile. Last night, Juliana Hatfield laid down 1300 words of pure candor about “Universal Heartbeat” from her 1995 album Only Everything.

“What a trip; I'm better for it,” Hatfield says, starting the post with a quote from her song. “That will be me, when I get through this thing I am going through. This song is all about depression. When we make it to the other side we can feel triumphant (“landing on a crowded shore, high-fiving”) and so grateful for having survived. Also we can't help but develop an empathy for the suffering of others after going through something so painful.”

She wrote Sunday night from an eating disorders treatment center she checked into after “unraveling” and hitting a personal low weight of 100 pounds. “I wasn't fully conscious of it,” she wrote. “Others around me noticed it before I did. A good friend forced me to confront the fact that I was in serious trouble. ‘You need to get well’ were his words.”

Hatfield explains that anxiety led her to restrict food as a coping mechanism. “Sometimes I feel like a human pincushion. Every painful emotion hits me with ridiculously exaggerated force. And the anxiety feels like hands inside of me, squeezing my guts really hard.” She went to such extremes as limiting herself to a Clif Bar for breakfast or a handful of trail mix for lunch.

Much more if revealed in the post, which you can read below and, despite its subject, has a confident tone. Looking forward to her release today, Nov. 10, Hatfield declares, “I refuse to succumb; to accept that I can't fix this. I want desperately to be a better, happier, healthier, saner person and companion. My will to endure is, so far, unkillable.”

“I need to believe this. I need to try and manifest this, and to live it. If nothing else, I've already gotten some kickass songs out of this latest experience.”

Way to go.

Entire post:

UNIVERSAL HEARTBEAT

Sunday, November 9th, 2008

What a trip; I'm better for it": that will be me, when I get through this thing I am going through.

This song is all about depression. When we make it to the other side we can feel triumphant ("landing on a crowded shore, high-fiving") and so grateful for having survived. Also we can't help but develop an empathy for the suffering of others after going through something so painful.

Maybe those of us who feel and think deeply, who suffer a lot inside, who are kind of mental are not to be pitied for our frequent aches, but should be patted on the back for sticking it out when it hurts so much. We who don't ever give up and who continue to believe that things can -- that WE can -- be better. We are alive, we are not numb. We fight on and on and on. We fight our self-destructive urges. We refuse to close up our hearts and become bitter and dead inside in order not to experience the frequent hurts of an ultra-sensitive soul/mind/heart.

Sometimes I feel like a human pincushion. Every painful emotion hits me with ridiculously exaggerated force. And the anxiety feels like hands inside of me, squeezing my guts really hard.

For the most part I have not ever been inclined to escape with drugs and alcohol. In the drugs-and-alcohol sense I am and have always been very straight. My coping mechanism -- or one of them; the one that kicked into high gear again most recently -- has been restricting food.

We swim through the deep dark oceans to reach the crowded shore; lots of people have made it through the same sort of experiences. We are not alone. It just feels like we are when we are in the thick of it. And after one of us endures one of these things, she may be transformed into a more humble and compassionate person, "high-fiving" all the other freaks and mental defectives and addicts who have continued to survive and to try.

I am having to come to terms with the fact that at age 41, I found myself unraveling. Or, rather, I unraveled. I wasn't fully conscious of it. Others around me noticed it before I did. A good friend forced me to confront the fact that I was in serious trouble. "You need to get well" were his words.

He was there when I woke up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat -- pajamas soaked, hair wet, sheets wet, even the pillow with a head-sized wet spot on it (where my head was). He witnessed my fatigue; my falling asleep every time he put on a movie for us at night; I tried so hard to stay awake with him to watch "Sunshine" and "Network" (for about the fifth time -- I love that one. I never get sick of it) and "The Strangers" and the DVD with Robert Thurman talking with the Dalai Lama, but they are all blurry in my mind.

I was dehydrated and anemic -- anemia caused by malnutrition -- and I didn't even know it; I didn't realize the seriousness of my problem until I had already entered dangerous territory. My anxiety was so great and all-consuming (funny choice of words considering I was "consuming" so little) that at some point I lost my appetite completely and it was no more about restricting food but became an almost inability to eat. My weight went as low as it has ever been in my adult lifetime.

They tell me here at the E.D. treatment center that people have been hospitalized for being as low (at my height) as I was when I came here. (I found that kind of alarmist and hard to believe -- I was still skeptical and in a little bit of denial, like everyone is when they first come in for treatment for anything anywhere -- but it scared me anyway.) In this environment they shorten "eating disorders" -- the name of our problem -- to "E.D.," and say it like a man's name ("Ed"), like he is a bad man; an evil man whom we need to cast out of our lives, our psyches.

Before computers you never would have found me blabbing (blogging [blogging is blabbing]) so openly like this about this. This is me being modern. Damn these computers and this Interweb and the pressure on us musicians to update constantly and to communicate. It encourages, inspires oversharing. It's so easy to say too much and to feel safe giving away one's private secrets. But screw it. I have nothing to hide. I've been embarrassing myself publicly for over twenty years. Why should I stop now? A heart that hurts is a heart that works. I will shout it from the rooftop (as I contemplating jumping but then ultimately don't [jump, that is], and walk back indoors). I am not dead inside. I still care about right and wrong. I refuse to succumb; to accept that I can't fix this. I want desperately to be a better, happier, healthier, saner person and companion. My will to endure is, so far, unkillable.

They make us eat six times a day. Three meals and three snacks. We all sit in the kitchen together and there is a monitor at the head of the table making sure we eat everything on our plates and drink everything in our cups. This is called the refeeding process. It must be done slowly and steadily, with more food added on as time progresses so we don't shock our systems. So we are not in danger of ending up like Karen Carpenter -- she gained too much weight too fast after starving for a long time, and her heart couldn't take it.

The bathroom doors are locked so the bulimics can't go in and puke. (I myself have never been a purger.) When you need to go, you must ask a monitor to unlock the door for you and after she lets you in she stands just outside the door and then you must either count while you are on the toilet, loud enough so that she can hear you, right up until the moment you exit, or you must let her flush for you after you are done -- so that there is proof that you didn't vomit your food into the toilet.

Every morning they wake us up at seven and we all put on hospital johnnies, first thing, and go and have our vitals (temperature, blood pressure) checked and have ourselves weighed. I have gained five pounds so far. I'm doing well. I'm a model patient, weight gaining-wise. My mental/emo health is another story -- a longer story, a work in progress.

All I want is to be well and to have energy and to get back on track and to have my quiet little life back. It was a lonely and solitary life, but it was mine. And I was basically healthy-ish. And I was free, in a sense.

I'm going to be released on the 10th, maybe before you read this.

I will play all my currently scheduled gigs, barring unforeseen acts of God.

"When the damage is done, you're damaged goods." I am damaged goods. Truly. But I don't want to complain. I am what I am. Others have it worse than I do. In fact, "it could be worse" is my motto and my mantra.

"Dark and repulsive though it is, suffering has been revealed to us as a supremely active principle for the humanization and the divinization of the universe."

- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

I need to believe this. I need to try and manifest this, and to live it. If nothing else, I've already gotten some kickass songs out of this latest experience.