Dance-pop darling helps out on slow news day.

By Fred Mills

It's probably not the smartest thing to do first thing in the morning when you log on to check the headlines in the British media, but there ya go: Kylie Minogue was quoted in this morning's The Sun as saying she's decided to become a lesbian.

Er, well, hold on there, all you hairy palmed fanboys. Before you break out the vegetable oil, that's not exactly what the singer said. Minogue, who in the article is characterized as "lonely Kylie Minogue" who just can't find a good man to give her what she's needin', reflects on film actress Tallulah Bankhead, who was bisexual but is very much deceased.

"I'd go gay for her," Minogue is quoted. "She was a fascinating and exotic woman. There was so much to admire about her. She lived life to the full, maybe a little too fully. I can't get a man so maybe I should cross over."

Well. That settles that. Quite. Glad we're keeping our quotes in context.

Funny how they are reporting this across the pond. The headlines don't even bother to accurately phrase the quote, reading, variously, "I'm considering going gay," "I might go gay," and "wants to turn lesbian." A fourth headline bears the very tantalizing phrase "triggers 20-year stampede," but apparently that refers to some ticket sales, not a libido rampage.

This has been a public announcement - with disco balls.

Justin Broadrick serves up his latest...

By Fred Mills

Justin Broadrick's mighty Jesu - extant since 2003 since Godflesh broke up - has been incredibly busy the past few months, issuing two split EPs, Jesu/Envy (in July) and Jesu/Battle of Mice (August). Prior to that were the vinyl editions of Heart Ache and Pale Sketches, and just this week, the Why Are We Not Perfect? EP arrived courtesy Hydra Head.

It's a bit more electronica-oriented than some of Jesu's previous guitar-thunder (there are some moments one could arguably describe as "pop," in fact), it's but no less intense and teeth-rattling. You can find out for yourself, in fact: Jesu is streaming the record in its entirety right now.

Just go HERE and check it out.

What's that about My Bloody Valentine, you say?

By Fred Mills

Here's the finalized sked for All Tomorrow's Parties New York, which as you probably know by now takes place next weekend, Sept. 19-21, in Monticello, NY (about 90 mins from the City).

As you probably also know this will markd the first time My Bloody Valentine has played the U.S. in 16 years - BLURT can personally testify that when we saw MBV perform with Dinosaur Jr and Superchunk in Chapel Hill back in the early ‘90s, it was the most mind-expanding aural assault we'd experienced since Black Sabbath and Deep Purple sharing a bill a couple of decades prior. And our ears rang for days afterward. So be forewarned, punters.

There are still 3-day passes available for the event: go to www.atpfestival.com for details.

FRIDAY 19TH SEPT - DON'T LOOK BACK

STAGE 1

BUILT TO SPILL - 11.20PM - 12.50AM

THURSTON MOORE - 9.15PM - 10.30PM

TORTOISE - 7.45PM - 8.45PM

MEAT PUPPETS - 6.00PM - 7.00PM

BARDO POND - 4.30PM - 5.30PM

STAGE 2

PATTON OSWALT - 10.30pm - 11.15pm

EUGENE MIRMAN - 10pm 10.25pm

MARIA BAMFORD - 9.30pm -9.55pm

JOE DeROSA - 9.00pm - 9.25pm

SATURDAY 20TH SEPT - CURATED BY ATP

STAGE 1

LIGHTING BOLT - 12.45am - 1.30am

SHELLAC 11.30PM - 12.30AM

LES SAVY FAV 10PM - 11PM

POLVO 8.45PM - 9.30PM

AUTOLUX 7.30PM - 8.15PM

EDAN with Guest Dagha 6.05PM - 7PM

FUCK BUTTONS 4.45PM - 5.35PM

THE DRONES 3.30PM - 4.15PM

APSE 2.15PM - 3PM

STAGE 2

THEE SILVER MOUNT ZION 9.45PM - 11.15PM

LOW 8.00PM - 9.00PM

OM 6.45PM - 7.30PM

HARMONIA 5.30PM - 6.15PM

WOODEN SHJIPS 4.15PM - 5.00PM

GROWING 3.00PM - 3.45PM

ALEXANDER TUCKER 1.30PM - 2.15PM

SUNDAY 21ST SEPT - CURATED BY MY BLOODY VALENTINE

STAGE 1

MY BLOODY VALENTINE - 12am - 1.30am

DINOSAUR JR - 10.00pm - 11.00pm

MOGWAI - 8.15pm - 9.15pm

YO LA TENGO - 6.45pm - 7.30pm

MERCURY REV - 5.30pm - 6.15pm

EPMD - 4.15pm - 5.00pm

ROBIN GUTHRIE - 3.00pm - 3.45pm

STAGE 2

BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE - 10.45pm - 11.45pm

BOB MOULD - 9.15pm - 10.00pm

TRAIL OF DEAD - 7.30pm - 8.15pm

SPECTRUM - 6.00pm - 6.45pm

GEMMA HAYES - 4.45pm - 5.30pm

LILYS - 3.30pm - 4.15pm

WOUNDED KNEES - 2.15pm - 3.00pm

LE VOLUME COURBE - 1.00pm - 1.45pm

And BLURT reviews their latest record, too!

By Fred Mills

Matador Records has announced that Sonic Youth has signed with the label for their next studio album due "sometime in 2009." The band had completed their long-running relationship with Geffen Records but, for reasons known only to the band and Geffen, the two decided to part company. (Pundits speculate, quite naturally, that the changing face of the record industry and at the Universal label group in particular meant that it wasn't the same Geffen that the band signed with in the early ‘90s.)

In a posting to Matador's matablog this morning, label head honcho Gerard Cosloy confirmed what had previously been rumored (partly thanks to guitarist Thurston Moore alluding to the matter in interviews).

Here's what Cosloy had to say:

After rampant speculation, Matador Records can confirm the label will be releasing a new studio album from Sonic Youth sometime in 2009. Having fulfilled their contractual obligations to the Universal Music Group, Sonic Youth recently reached an agreement with Matador to release the band's 16th album of new material in all worldwide territories, save for Japan.

While Sonic Youth's status as one of the more innovative and influential bands of the past 30 years needs little explanation, the group's most recent recordings for Geffen - 2006's ‘Rather Ripped' being their final for the label - rank amongst the current decade's best.

For Matador, the opportunity to work in partnership with a group who've made such an profound impact on our roster/hometown/collective consciousness was one to jump at.   Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley will commence recording the new Sonic Youth LP/CD this autumn and we look forward to sharing further details in the very near future.

Meanwhile, check out BLURT's review of the new Sonic Youth EP, self-released by the band, HERE.

Or, if you are so inclined, you can read BLURT's reviews of the last two Sonic Youth EPs HERE.

So what the hell is on Sarah Barracuda's iPod these days, anyhow? Oh yeah, that's right - Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher."

By Fred Mills

As we told you last week in this space, the John McSame-Sarah Van Palen campaign tapped rock band Heart's song "Barracuda" for, apparently, the aspiring Veep's theme music - word has it that the Alaska governor had  nickname of "Sarah Barracuda" when she was a hotshot basketball player in high school.

Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson were neither flattered nor amused and requested that the G.O.P. not use their song again.

Not long afterwards, Heart guitarist Roger Fisher also weighed in on the matter with a statement via his official mailing list:

As many of you have heard, there is a controversy regarding the use of the Heart song Barracuda by the McCain/Palin campaign.

I want it to be clear that, while I think using Barracuda was a feather in the cap for the McCain/Palin campaign, I STRONGLY ENDORSE OBAMA/BIDEN, and will donate a portion of royalties received from the Rebublican Convention Broadcast playing of Barracuda to the BARACK OBAMA campaign.

It is indicative of a gross lack of discretion on the Republican Party's part to make it appear that the musicians involved with Barracuda support McCain/Palin. This is wrong and Heart deserves a public apology from the McCain/Palin campaign.

I applaud you, Ann and Nancy Wilson!

Roger Fisher

Needless to say, there was no apology forthcoming. And now, to add insult to injury, it turns out that the song was used yet AGAIN at a campaign rally this morning in Lebanon, Ohio.

Meanwhile, the message boards at CNN.com lit up after the news portal posted the story this morning. Read it HERE and then scroll down to view the comments, which range from "you go, Sarah Barracuda!" to "she should be called Sarah Pirahana" [sic] to "With something as simple as a song, if they cannot respect Heart's wishes what would make the American people think that they would respect their wishes." to "Dear McCain / Palin, Please stop playing Barracuda. It was, and is, a terrible song."

Whoops! Sorry about that last one, Wilsons.

Believe it or not, Republicans masturbate too.

By Fred Mills

Whoops! Sorry about that headline. It's a misprint. We meant EDDIE VAN HALEN!!!

But hey, each time we hear the aspiring Veep's name mentioned on the radio or TV, we can't help thinking about our fave rock group Van Halen. And each time we see yet another photo of Sarah Barracuda rockin' that prim-but-sexy-teacher image, we can't help but thinking of our fave Van Halen video, "Hot For Teacher."

Ergo, see below. Apologies for the poor dubbing.

Meanwhile, we also think you should read what the great Gloria Steinem had to say about John McSame's choice of running mate last week. Check out her editorial in the Los Angeles. Times HERE. In all seriousness, this campaign's no laughing matter.

Famed actor-director gets his musical mojo working once more.

By Fred Mills

Actor/director/artist/musician Vincent Gallo is taking hit band RRIICCEE on the road again for a couple of weeks, starting Sept. 24 in New York. Who or what is RRIICCEE, you ask? For starters, you can consult the group's official website or its MySpace page to get the scoop on Gallo and co-conspirators Nikolai and Simon Haas.

Not that Gallo needs any introduction: he's behind the films Buffalo 66 and The Brown Bunny and has released two solo albums on Warp Records, and at one point he also collaborated with the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in the New York no-wave musical group Gray. 

According to the RRIICCEE camp, the group conceives itself as "a spontaneous collective between the musicians and exhibit's the creation of composition within a live performance.  For all appearances, the outfit does not perform pre-written music and is not limited to the boundaries of one specific musical genre." You may recall that BLURT's immediate predecessor, Harp magazine, ran a story on RRIICCEE back in our Jan/Feb issue. In it, Gallo was asked the significance of the band name, to which he replied, succinctly, "RRIICCEE doesn't stand for anything. The whole concept was to make something that was free of something so small minded as standing for something. I mean, how much profound vision can one person have that they can actually name themselves something that would carry out half their small experience at that time?"

So there you have it.

Perversely, the group has neither any extant recordings nor plans do a commercial release, so your only way to experience it is in the live setting.   At the present time, RRIICCEE has no recorded music and has no plans on recording a commercial release. 

Tour Dates:

September 24^th New York, NY Hiro Ballroom

September 25^th Buffalo, NY Soundlab

September 26^th Pittsburgh, PA Garfield Artworks

September 27^th Pontiac, MI The Crofoot Ballroom

September 28^th Cleveland, OH Beachland Ballroom

September 29^th Milwaukee, WI Shank Hall

September 30^th St. Paul, MN Turf Club

October 3^rd Portland, OR Mission Theater

October 5^th Santa Barbara, CA SOHO

McCain campaign undecided on whether to tap Snoop anthem "Bitch Please" for new Sarah Palin theme music...

By Blurt Staff

Capitol/Priority will release N.W.A And Their Family Tree on September 30.  The new CD and digital collection features a cross-section of 18 key tracks by the pioneering gangsta rap group and its founders, plus Mack 10, Westside Connection, Snoop Dogg, and other N.W.A-inspired artists. Full tracklisting can be found below.

Then on October 3 at 11pm ET/PT, VH1 will premiere a new 90-minute Rock Doc, "N.W.A: The World's Most Dangerous Group." The documentary features new interviews with Ice Cube, DJ Yella, Eazy-E's widow Tomica Woods-Wright, former manager Jerry Heller, Ice-T, journalist Cheo Coker, and director John Singleton.  Supplemented by rarely-seen footage and interviews from the group's early days, photos, and music, the documentary illustrates how gangsta rap exploded from late ‘80s Los Angeles, a city torn by drugs and violence, and how America responded.

In case you need to be brought up to speed, here's a handy précis on the group, courtesy the record label. (What, did you sleep through the nineties?)

Two decades have passed since N.W.A rocketed Straight Outta Compton to multi-platinum success, worldwide acclaim and notoriety as rap music's most powerful force, redefining forever the boundaries of popular music. In the course of little more than three years, N.W.A's Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren and Yella reached unprecedented gangsta superstardom with their no-holds-barred missives from Los Angeles' toughest streets.

Defining the style that came to be known as gangsta rap, N.W.A propelled the genre into an expanded musical realm and topped the charts with their own challenging and illuminating style of rhymes, unprecedented in their brutal reality, over complex, funk-fueled tracks. "The World's Most Dangerous Group" played a key role in mapping rap music's trajectory and spawned three of the most important figures in gangsta rap's evolution: the late rapper and entrepreneur Eazy-E, street lyricist extraordinaire Ice Cube and mega-producer Dr. Dre.

1.   Straight Outta Compton - N.W.A

2.   Boyz-N-The Hood - N.W.A featuring Eazy-E

3.   Dopeman - N.W.A

4.   Fuck Tha Police - N.W.A

5.   We Want Eazy - Eazy-E

6.   Express Yourself - N.W.A

7.   It Was A Good Day - Ice Cube

8.   V.S.O.P. - Above The Law

9.   You Can't Play With My Yo-Yo - Yo-Yo featuring Ice Cube

10.  Foe Life - Mack 10

11.  It's Funky Enough - The D.O.C.

12.  Final Frontier - MC Ren

13.  Regulate - Warren G. & Nate Dogg

14.  Bow Down - Westside Connection

15.  Bitch Please - Snoop Dogg featuring Xzibit

16.  Gangstas Make The World Go ‘Round - Westside Connection

17.  Lay Low - Snoop Dogg featuring Master P, Nate Dogg, Butch Cassidy & The Eastsidaz

18.  We Be Puttin' It Down - Bad Azz featuring Snoop Dogg

Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys and John Lennon’s Imagine to join Radiohead, Coldplay, R.E.M. titles.

By Blurt Staff

Soon after Capitol/EMI’s initial “From the Capitol Vaults” salvo of limited-edition vinyl reissues by R.E.M., Radiohead, The Beach Boys, Coldplay, A Perfect Circle, and the Steve Miller Band comes a second shot: On September 30, the label will release John Lennon’s Imagine and Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys. Both titles will be on 180-gram vinyl with original artwork and packaging—“true to their original single or gatefold jacket LP releases”—but Hendrix is getting pressed on “fiery red” wax. Nice.

Capitol/EMI debuted the reissues campaign last week with 13 titles: A Perfect Circle’s Mer de Noms, The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, Coldplay’s Parachutes, A Rush Of Blood To The Head, and X&Y, Radiohead’s Pablo Honey, The Bends, OK Computer, Kid A (two 10” 140-gram LPs), Amnesiac (two 10” 140-gram LPs), and Hail To The Thief, R.E.M.’s Document, and Steve Miller Band’s Greatest Hits 1974-78. Capitol/EMI promises more releases in the near future. For more information, visit http://fromthecapitolvaults.com.

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 CBS: The Early Show: Bryan Adams

9:00 AM Syndicated: The Ellen DeGeneres Show: Jonas Brothers

10:00 AM PBS: Sesame Street: Sugarland

12:00 PM BET: 106 & Park: Terrence Howard , Alicia Keys

4:00 PM Sundance: Follow My Voice: With the Music of Hedwig (2006)

4:30 PM Comedy Central: A Mighty Wind (2003)

9:00 PM ABC: CMA Music Festival: Country's Night to Rock

 10:00 PM VH1C: Led Zeppelin: Live

11:30 PM Great American Country: Jerry Reed Tribute

11:30 PM PBS: Tavis Smiley: Ne-Yo

11:35 PM NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Kardinal Offishall , Akon

12:05 AM ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Lady Antebellum

12:35 AM NBC: Late Night with Conan O'Brien: Bon Iver

1:35 AM NBC: Last Call with Carson Daly: Katy Perry

3:00 AM BBCA: The Graham Norton Show: The Kooks