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)

8:30 AM & 2:30 PM MOJO: London Live!: Franz Ferdinand , Will Young , Killa Kela

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

11:30 AM NICK: Yo Gabba Gabba!: Jimmy Eat World

1:00 PM ETV: Saturday Night Live (E!): Seann William Scott / Sum 41

3:40 PM Encore Drama: Dancer in the Dark (2000)  w/Bjork

4:00 PM VH1C: BBC Crown Jewels: Sight & Sound in Concert: Thin Lizzy

6:00 PM Ovation: Grateful Dawg (2000)  w/Grateful Dead, David Grisman, Bela Fleck, etc.

8:00 PM Ovation: Round Midnight (1986) w/Herbie Handock, Dexter Gordon, etc.

8:00 PM VH1 Classic in Concert: AC/DC Live at Donnington

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

9:00 PM MOJO: London Live!: Placebo , Jenny Lewis , The Watson Twins , Matt Willis , Feeder

9:00 PM RAVE HD: Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison

10:00 PM Sundance: loudQUIETloud: A Film About the Pixies

10:30 PM & 1:30 AM IFC: Henry Rollins Uncut: New Orleans

11:30 PM PBS: Tavis Smiley: The Smothers Brothers

11:35 PM NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: TV On The Radio , Lance Bass

12:00 AM FUEL: The Daily Habit: Hank III

12:05 AM ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Robin Thicke

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

1:35 AM NBC: Last Call with Carson Daly: Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip

2:00 AM Sundance: Live from Abbey Road: The Kills, Sara Bareilles, The Fratellis

In which we open up our mailbag and let you peek inside. Don't throw up, please.

By Fred Mills

In between strategy and planning sessions (held down at the local Hooters, natch) and trips to the john every 15 minutes for a "jolt" (you know what we're sayin'...), we here at BLURT central actually devote some time going through our in-boxes and spam folders to make sure that nothing currently going on within the music industry escapes our steely gaze. We pride ourselves at being way ahead of the fucking curve.

Of necessity, as a major media player we also have to field a lot of correspondence that is, shall we say, somewhat misdirected. (Memo to the person that keeps sending us Buckcherry updates: thanks!) We're not sure if these are acts of p.r. desperation, inexperience-bred naivete, or a willful ignorance of what BLURT is all about.

On the latter point, an occasional glance out our website and digital magazine might be helpful in terms of how labels and publicity firms target their pitches. But that's out of our control. What we CAN control, however, is what we do with the dang emails, which is where you, gentle readers, come in. Presenting the first in an occasional series: Dumb PR Pitch O' Week. Guarantee: all dialogue repeated verbatim. Some names may be changed/deleted to protect the clueless. Void where prohibited by law. Caveat emptor. Enjoy!

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Hi There

I want to pitch you Colin Armstrong for feature or profile or guest on your show. 

He found his passion for music in his early years. Though it's not uncommon for independent singer/songwriters to play the guitar and piano, Colin's love of music evolved into learning how to play the bagpipes at just twelve years of age. He knew then that music was his calling. By the time he was fifteen, he was touring Europe and competing with bagpipes internationally, which lead to an invitation to play shows with the infamous band KORN. That's when Colin got a glimpse of the rock lifestyle-while meeting and hanging out with Billy Idol and Robbie Krieger of the Doors.

Today, he is a world-class bagpiper.

Colin's first break came when he won the "BE A STAR" contest on Los Angeles' leading rock radio station STAR 98.7. The victory landed him a demo deal with Hollywood Records.  Although he was excited to garner a development deal with a prominent label, he didn't feel like the time was right-- he wanted to work on his material. Good wouldn't suffice, it had to be great.

In order to reach his musical goals, Colin knew he had to continue to write, record and hone his skills, gathering the best material possible for his future debut album. In the meantime, Colin's song "Lonely Fall" won "Best Male Vocal" and "Best Song" at the San Diego Music Awards followed by a "Best Pop Vocal" nomination for his song "Hey Yoko" at the Los Angeles Music Awards. His song "In Your Eyes" was also chosen for the top ten finals of the 2007 American Idol songwriter contest. It didn't end here, early 2008 brought Colin a worldwide publishing agreement with NorthStar Media who placed one of his songs, "Nothing More to Say" on the hit Lifetime network show "Army Wives."

Colin and his team have been busy in the second half of 2008 finishing up his record, forming his band and getting ready to hit the road in support of the January 2009 release of his full length debut album, "Lost and Anonymous." Produced and mixed by Mikal Reid (Mick Jagger, Ben Harper, Aerosmith, Wang Chung), Colin has also collaborated with several A-List songwriters.

Colin Armstrong's debut album "Lost and Anonymous" will be available in January 2009 and I'd love for you to consider a review or feature with Colin.

Please let me know of your interest in this unique artist!

Album en route from sometime in 2009.

By Fred Mills

According to a blog posting yesterday afternoon at the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' official MySpace page the NYC band is polishing off its next album. The followup to 2006's Show Your Bones is projected for a 2009 release (no month listed yet) and is described as "very different from last year's EP" (Is Is, issued by Fontana in July 2007).

"What does it sound like?" continues the band, in the posting. "Not much like anything you've heard from us before. Does it sound like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs? You bet you're [sic] sweet ass it does."

And you know we love the Yeah Yeah Yeahs - grammar-challenged or otherwise - so we'll be banging on the YYY mainline when the time comes. You can bet you're [sic] sweet ass on that. See below for the entire blog posting.

[Photo credit: Josh Wildman]

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Thursday, November 06, 2008

By Blurt Staff

You've read our review of his New West album A Love Extreme. You've read our feature on the man and his music. You've probably even spotted some of his videos playing on our BLURT TV. You know you dig the cat - Hughes, Benji Hughes, the Tarheel sensation.

So if you're really nimble with your mouse clicking, surf over to WNCW-FM in North Carolina. Hughes is at the radio station, about to do an interview and play some tunes. Here's the link: www.wncw.org . That's BLURT pal DJ Joe Kendrick doing the honors, by the way.

So, sure, this is a gratuitous plug for friends of ours - get you own web site if you don't dig it!

By Fred Mills

Record shows. Record flea markets. Record swap meets. Whatever you call ‘em, if you've ever been to one you know they're a gas-gas-gas, as Jumpin' Jack Flash might put it. And if you're in the vicinity of North Carolina - you know, that formerly red state that flipped this past election for Obama and turned blue, yo! -this weekend, head over to Asheville, NC, and check out the Second Semi-Annual Asheville Sound Swap. It takes place Sunday from 11 a.m. onward at the Grey Eagle Club. Full details below.

The southern bureau of BLURT will be on hand, hanging out and trying to talk dealers out of some rare vinyl, and a bunch of local deejays from low-power station WPVM-FM will be in the house spinning tunes. Meanwhile, over at the bar you'll be able to purchase adult beverages (but bring the kids - they got apple juice and cokes, too) as well as some tasty Cajun cooking. How do we know all this? Because we were at the first Sound Swap that was held earlier this year. I quote myself from a port-mortem I penned awhile back:

Not long ago I was at a local record swap meet, and the organizers did a bang-up job. They brought in tables on a Sunday morning to a local music venue, had a DJ set up on the stage to entertain us with tunes (spinning albums, natch), and over at the bar refreshments and food could be purchased. Hell, soft drinks and coffee were free until noon. Then you could even buy beer. And while the thought of being crowded into a room with several hundred anal-retentive music obsessives might not sound all that appealing on paper, in execution it's a whale of a lot of fun, whether waxing (pun intended) nostalgically about some platter from your teenage years that you've just tugged from a vendor's crate, or marveling at how many brand new vinyl releases are cropping up nowadays (many of them on indies that really go the extra yard in terms of design and packaging), or simply going off on the myriad tangents that anal-retentive music obsessives tend to go off on when crowded into a room with one another.

So anyway, here's the scoop, straight from the organizers, the mighty cool dudes at Harvest Records and Tomentosa Records. Make sure you track down BLURT and say howdy. Please, no p.r. schmoozing... it's a Sunday, after all. And shouldn't you really be in church?

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SECOND SEMI-ANNUAL ASHEVILLE SOUND SWAP

The show is FREE to the public, and will run from 11am-5pm on Sunday, November 9th 2008 at the GREY EAGLE in Asheville, The Grey Eagle is at 185 Clingman Ave in Asheville's River Arts District.  (Google Map here.)

This show, as you know, is sponsored by us (Harvest Records, www.harvest-records.com) and our friends Tomentosa Records. Harvest is a physical shop located up the road from the Grey Eagle (Google Map here); we will actually be closed the day of the show, but open 11am-9pm on Saturday & Monday. Please stop by if you're around! Tomentosa Records (www.tomentosarecords.com) is an online mailorder site specializing in the obscure. Check it out!!

What, another goddam Christmas album?

By Fred Mills

Here at BLURT we typically take a dim view towards Christmas records. (Why is everyone compelled to record their version of "Rudolph"? Why doesn't anyone film amateur home Christmas porn tapes instead?) But this one's a righteous release, we think.... Here's the scoop on the Wee Hairy Beasties.

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Led by head Mekons Jon Langford (aka "Cyril the Karaoke Squirrel") and Sally Tims ("Monkey Double Dippey") along with singer Kelly Hogan ("Marjorie the Singing Bee," who's worked with Neko Case, Pine Valley Cosmonauts, The Rock*A*Teens) and the mighty jug band talents of front porch settin', old-timey blues band Devil In A Woodpile, the Wee Hairy Beasties releases Holidays Gone Crazy on November 4, 2008, through their new label Wee Beatz, a subsidiary of Carrot Top Records.

Chicago's motley kiddie band crew come to your house with a covered hot dish of brand new songs for the holidays, stewing up a diverse bunch of new tales: creepy lullabies, nighttime stories about lonely vampires, and sunny day action tunes about playing in the sand.

Check ‘em out on the web:

www.greenlightgopublicity.com/clients/?client=weehairybeasties

The Angry Young Man's autobiographical song resonates post-election.

By Randy Harward

Graham Parker wasn't thinking of Barack Obama when he wrote "I Discovered America" from his 2007 album Don't Tell Columbus (Bloodshot Records), but the song sure suits how I felt last night when Obama won the presidency.

I was one of the politically apathetic guys energized by George W. Bush and the Republicans' theft of the 2000 election and subsequent squandering of the post-9/11 international goodwill in the form of a war for oil. I bitched about Bush and evangelized about Kerry, then voted, and watched a majority of the country vote for another Bush term. Then came Katrina, and the Iraq War lingered. The country had gone batshit. 

But finally, the tide began to turn when the Dems kicked some booty in the 2006 election--and proceeded to accomplish nothing. Hope, as I knew it, was lost.

But last night, that was magical. If I sound like an erstwhile virgin in love, it's because I am. The United States of America, having elected Barack Obama, appears to be back on her meds and looking forward to four years of badly needed change. Last night, I feel like I rediscovered America. Parker's song---in which flat-earthers tell him to quit, but he still finds hope and fends off a "milquetoast rearguard" of Christian soldiers selling ice cream, and feels that the "might chains of darkness" have lifted---has been running through my head since 11 p.m. EST last night.

I have a feeling it'll be on repeat for a while.

"I Discovered America" - Graham Parker

Lyrics:

THERE WAS SMOKE UP TO MY EYEBALLS

POISON BURNED MY THROAT

BUT I SAID I'D KEEP ON GOING

WHEN EVERYONE SAID DON'T

WITH MY BONY-CHESTED T-SHIRT

SOME STOLEN GUITAR LICKS

NAVIGATING BY DEAD RECKONING

IN 1976

AND WHEN THE MIGHTY CHAINS OF DARKNESS

HAD ME ON THE ROPES

EVERYONE SAID QUIT NOW

THAT'S WHEN I FOUND HOPE

SO PLEASE DON'T TELL COLUMBUS

DON'T TELL HIS QUEEN FOR SURE

THAT I HAD THE ACCURATE COMPASS

AND I DISCOVERED AMERICA

WELL THE GUY IN THE FIVE AND DIME STORE

SAID IT AIN'T ANYWHERE AROUND HERE

TAKE YOUR BUSINESS ELSEWHERE

ALONG WITH YOUR MAD IDEA

SO I LOOKED INSIDE YOUR CLOSET

AND YOUR BROKEN TV SET

YOU SAID THAT YOU WERE BORN HERE

BUT YOU HADN'T FOUND IT YET

WELL I KNEW ONE DAY SHE'D LET ME IN

I KNEW I'D GET THE GIRL

AND LIVE IN A TOWN CALLED VETERAN

PORK CAPITOL OF THE WORLD

WELL THEY'VE DAMMED THE YANGTSE RIVER DAMN IT

THERE'LL BE HELL TO PAY

BUT I GUESS THAT'S WHAT YOU DO

WHEN THE YANGTSE RIVER GETS IN YOUR WAY

BUT I HAD THAT POSITIVE FEELING

I KNEW I WAS ON THE RIGHT TRACK

WHEN A FLAT EARTH SOCIETY MEMBER

TOLD ME I MUST TURN BACK

HE SAID I'D REACH THE ABYSS

AND KEEP ON GOING DOWN

SO I GAVE HIM MY LAST PENCIL

AND I FLATTENED HIM TO THE GROUND

THEN AN ARMY OF CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

BROKE THROUGH THE RANKS AND CHARGED

WITH THEIR ICE CREAM VENDOR BUDDIES

AND THEIR MILQUETOAST REARGUARD

THEY HAD WHEELBARROWS FULL OF ELASTIC

AND PAPER MACHE HEARTS

AND THINGS I DID NOT RECOGNIZE

IMPALED UPON THEIR DARTS

AND WHEN THE MIGHTY CHAINS OF DARKNESS

HAD ME ON THE ROPES

EVERYONE SAID QUIT NOW

THAT'S WHEN I FOUND HOPE

YEAH THAT'S WHEN I FOUND HOPE

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 NBC: Today: Elvis Costello

8:00 AM TVONE: Tom Joyner Sky Show: The O'Jays

11:30 AM NICK: Yo Gabba Gabba!: Hot Hot Heat , Mix Master Mike

2:00 PM MOJO: London Live!: Sugababes , The Rifles , Delays , Editors

3:00 & 6:00 PM Ovation: Profile: John Cale

4:00 PM VH1C: BBC Crown Jewels: In Concert: Neil Young

5:00 PM VH1C: BBC Crown Jewels: Sounds For Saturday: The Music of The Faces

6:00 PM VH1C: BBC Crown Jewels: Old Grey Whistle Test: Lynyrd Skynyrd

7:30 PM Ovation: Music Express: Metallica

9:00 PM Biography: The Monkees

10:00 PM Biography: Davy Jones

10:00 PM Ovation: Live from the Artists Den: Aimee Mann

10:00 PM Sundance: Iconoclasts: Bill Maher and Clive Davis

11:00 PM Sundance: Live from Abbey Road: The Kills, Sara Bareilles, The Fratellis

11:35 PM CBS: The Late Show With David Letterman: Q-Tip

12:05 AM ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Hinder

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

1:35 AM NBC: Last Call with Carson Daly: T.I.

2:30 AM Comedy Central: Chappelle's Show: De La Soul, Black Star

George McConnell debuting new material on web

By Mandy Rodgers

After starting guitar at age 15, George McConnell has made a career of being a lead guitarist in bands Beanland, Kudzu Kings and Widespread Panic. When he had spare time, he ran a vintage guitar store in Oxford. Now, McConnell is releasing his new music as a tribute to past music conventions.

These new songs will be only available for download on his Web site, www.georgemcconnell.com.

The songs will be released in twos in a "Virtual 45" format, like the "A-Side" and "B-Side" of music long ago. McConnell said he remembers the days of buying one song, only to find a song you liked better on the other side, and that's the kind of music he wants to get back to. The first two 45s are debuting this week with the first pairing, "In Walked You" and "Goodbye So Long" and the second, "Hollywood Babylon" and "Feel No Pain."

[Photo Credit: Eric Drew]

Domino drops latest album on Jan. 20

By Blurt Staff

With a new album en route via Domino on Jan. 20, Animal Collective has announced a trifecta of promotional dates to coincide with the release of Merriweather Post Pavilion. The ever-engaging outfit plays NYC, Chicago and L.A. on Jan. 20, 22 and 23, with more dates no doubt being scheduled right now.

Prior to that there will be Jan. shows in the UK and England, while at this very moment they're headed to Santiago, Chile, as part of a short South American tour.

Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming BLURT coverage of the band.

Incidentally, if you had been savvy enough to go to the band's website and track down a certain hidden link, you could have attended a special private listening party for the new album. Click it and weep: www.myanimalhome.net/images/invite.jpg

Animal Collective Tour Dates:

11-06 Santiago, Chile - Industria Cultural
11-08 São Paulo, Brazil - Planeta Terra Festival
11-09 Buenos Aires, Argentina - La Trastienda
11-13 Lima, Peru - Centro Fundación Telefónica
1-12 London, England - Koko
1-13 Glasgow, Scotland - Glasgow School of Arts
1-14 Manchester, England - Club Academy
1-15 Brighton, England - Concorde 2
1-16 Paris, France - Bataclan
1-17 Leuven, Belgium - Stuk
1-18 Berlin, Germany - Postbanhof
1-20 New York, NY - Grand Ballroom
1-22 Chicago, IL - Metro
1-23 Los Angeles, CA - Fonda