Beautiful, gripping, and much more.

By Blurt Staff

Norwegian duo Kings of Convenience are back after four years with their third studio album, Declaration of Dependence set for release on October 20 via Astralwerks.

Declaration of Dependence,is a wonderful record for a lot of reasons. For one, Eirik Bøe is equally comfortable talking about the record's "serious ideas" and laughing about its'  "hi-brow Bossa Nova" moments while his partner Erlend Øye is clearly thrilled by making, "the most rhythmical pop record ever that features no percussion or drums." For another, there is no one who makes records like they do. "When we started out we were afraid of sounding like other artists," Erlend says. "But now we feel pretty much alone." But the most striking thing about this album is how powerfully it reminds you that making music together is not a game, it's not something to be undertaken lightly, this record is part of a much larger picture, a long and involved relationship that has had its good and bad times.

As beautiful as you would expect - and songs like "Second to Numb", "Rule My World" and "24-25" are as perfectly realized as anything they've ever written - Declaration of Dependence also marks the beginning of a new era for the duo. The record began to take shape in February 2007 when they met up on the same beach in Mexico that is pictured on the album's cover. The pair came together to play a concert in the city the following month, the first time they had appeared together in more than two years. They shared a feeling that there was another record to be made. "Really," says Eirik "We had no choice."

Declaration of Dependence is the story of two people living two very different lives sensing that they are immensely more powerful together than apart. In that sense it is the most adult, the most mature record Kings of Convenience have ever made. That it is their most gripping, their most revealing is, if anything, just a by-product of that honesty and their endeavor.

To be the first-ever festival webcast on the YouTube site. Dig those trademarks!

By Blurt Staff


Another Planet Entertainment, Superfly Productions and Starr Hill Presents, in a partnership with the San Francisco Recreation & Park Department, today announced that YouTube^TM will stream live the Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival to viewers in the US. The live webcast will be featured on youtube.com/outsidelands beginning Friday, August 28th - Sunday, August 30th. The festival coverage will include performances from Dave Matthews Band, Jason Mraz, Thievery Corporation, The Dead Weather, Silversun Pickups, Raphael Saadiq, Cage the Elephant, Atmosphere, among others.


The tradition of marrying music and technology continues to be a foundation of the Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival. "We are proud to feature Outside Lands as the first-ever live streamed festival on such a powerful and recognizable platform as YouTube," said Richard Goodstone of Superfly Productions. Created by Superfly Marketing Group in partnership with YouTube and The T-Mobile® myTouch^TM 3G, the webcast will mark the first time YouTube has streamed a major event live on its website.


"Music and many of the artists performing at Outside Lands have always found a home and audience on YouTube," said Ross Hoffman of YouTube Strategic Partnerships.  "We're thrilled to bring this incredible live music festival to everyone in our community who won't be there in-person to experience the show". In addition to live streaming directly from the festival, fans will be able to access an archive of selected performances and highlights on Youtube's Outside Lands channel.

South Carolina songwriter offers full album of ace tracks absolutely free.

By Fred Mills

Without a doubt, one of our favorite singer-songwriters to come down the pike of late is Greenville, SC (by way of Brooklyn, NY) rocker Aaron Berg. That we like him personally as a solid human being doesn't hurt, either. Over the past year or so he's been handing out sundry digital servings of his Love & Coffee Tapes - prior to that came his 2007 EP Songs For Madame X, billed to Aaron Berg & the Heavy Love - and to say that he's a gifted multiinstrumentalist and tunesmith would be an understatement akin to saying that the late Ted Kennedy was a U.S. Senator.

He's got a little Dylan in him, maybe a little Tom Waits  and Tom Petty too, with a deep, resonant voice that'll click with all the Leonard Cohen and Chuck Prophet fans out there - ladies, were are talkin' deep ‘n' sexy - plus a lyrical outlook that probes the grey edges of life while somehow reasons (as Springsteen or Hardin might put it) to believe. He's playing the blues, in essence, but they're distinctly postmodern blues.

So to convince you, the discerning-but-harried music consuming public that he's the real deal, Berg is offering the compiled L&CT into one big digital download, gratis. (Yes, it is FREE of charge, but don't be afraid to use the tip jar, if you're inclined to go by the Radiohead model of pay-what-you-like.) Here's the link:

Download 'Love & Coffee Tapes' FREE 14 Song Bootleg EP

According to Berg, "Love & Coffee is my collected bootlegs, demos, rap remixes, and live road tapes. These songs were written in a thousand different places and recorded in garden sheds and motel rooms, on coffee tables and live on stage.  These are frozen accidents of sound drawn together as some kind of record.  Most of these songs were either written or recorded while traveling to California and back. No attempt was made to obscure the creaking chairs, ambient summer garden crickets, open window rain above folk rap freestyle, hazy century old upright pianos...who knows..."

He played most of the parts himself, with a few assists here and there by Mike Bagwell, John Byce and Ira Rosoff.

Tracklisting:

1* The Wheel  (4:10)
2* Electric Mike's Coffee Table Acid Demo No. 1  (5:49)
3* Madonna Of The Evening Rose  (6:25)
4* Fellowman Blues  (3:06)
5* Honey For You  (5:08)
6* Where The River Meets The Sea  (4:18)
7* The Darkness  (5:57)
8* Until I See Her Again (2:35)
9* House Of Light  (3:26)
10* Darkest Before The Dawn  (3:39)
11* Behind Closed Doors  (4:58)
12* The Blue Room  (4:57)
13* Chains  (3:47)
14* Freestyle demo of 'Bluest of Blue'  (7:36)

Berg additionally plans to record a new album in Chicago this November for Tight Ship Records, and you can keep track of him (sound samples, tour dates, etc.) via his MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/theheavylove

Check him out, and tell him that BLURT sent ya. And have, er, "fun."

Also deploy intriguing marketing gimmick to get you to buy the whole package. Sadly, no bonus tracks.

By Blurt Staff

Kraftwerk celebrate the 35th anniversary of their landmark 1974 hit ‘Autobahn' by releasing a special collector's CD boxset featuring remastered versions of eight albums on October 6^th. It's titled 12345678 The Catalogue.

They have upgraded their Kling Klang masters with the latest studio technology and these eight recordings - alliteratively billed as "streamlined synthetic symphonies standing outside time, as fresh as tomorrow, transcendent and sublime" - remain across the board classics.

12345678 The Catalogue will be released across the following formats:

*CD Boxset containing 8 x CDs in ‘mini-vinyl' card wallet packaging, plus individual large format booklets. (Due to licensing restrictions in the U.S., only five of the eight albums will be released as separate CD editions: Autobahn, Radio-Activity, Trans Europe Express, The Man Machine and Tour De France (2003). As a result, the only way for fans to own the entire catalogue on CD is to purchase the Box Set.)

*5 x individual CDs in special O-card slipcases featuring newly expanded artwork, including many previously unseen images, all of which have been reproduced to the highest technical standards

*5 x individual heavyweight vinyl LPs with large format booklets

*Digital downloads

The band has kindly provided descriptions of its back catalogue for those of you who walked in late...

AUTOBAHN (1974)

With its iconic Emil Schult sleeve, Kraftwerk release their international breakthrough album. The symphonic title track, an epic ode to the joys of motorway travel, wraps a mesmerising motorik rhythm around a sampled collage of car horns, engine noise, whirring tyres and radio crackle. In edited form, it becomes a revolutionary hit single around the world.

Elsewhere, in wordless industrial folk music, the band reveal both their light and dark sides - ‘Mitternacht' is all creeping midnight shadows, while ‘Morgenspaziergang' is fresh with morning dew and birdsong. Two versions of ‘Kometenmelodie', one a starkly gothic prowl, the other a sunny electro boogie, provide further instrumental sound paintings. Pure and strong and bold, Kraftwerk compose cinema for the ears. The pop world falls in love with them.

RADIO-ACTIVITY (1975)

Kraftwerk embrace the atomic age with mixed emotions. Surfing on sine waves, scanning the stratosphere for stray radio signals, they plug themselves into a buzzing grid of energy and communication. From the stately eco-angst anthem ‘Radioactivity' to the synthetic Gregorian chants of ‘Radio Stars' and the melancholy machine processional of ‘Ohm Sweet Ohm', a sombre but engrossing monumentalism dominates. With heavily processed vocals in both German and English, Kraftwerk go global with depth and majesty. If factories and power stations are the new cathedrals, they write liturgies for a new industrial epoch.

TRANS EUROPE EXPRESS (1977)

Kraftwerk celebrate Europe's romantic past and shimmering future with a glistening panorama of elegance and decadence, travel and technology. The infinite vistas of ‘Europe Endless' and ‘Endless Endless' bookend the album, which includes the unsettling Kafka-esque fable ‘The Hall Of Mirrors' and the hilarious ‘Showroom Dummies' - Kraftwerk's elegantly ironic reply to critiques of their deadpan manner. But it is the streamlined rhythmic locomotive of ‘Trans Europe Express' which dominates with its doppler-effect melodic swerves and hypnotic, pneumatic, piston-pumping rhythm. Along with its sister track, ‘Metal On Metal' which New York DJ Afrika Bambaataa would re-construct five years later for his own seminal ‘Planet Rock', this milestone in avant-pop modernism later becomes a crucial influence on the early pioneers of hip-hop & sampling, electro and industrial music. Poetry in motion.

THE MAN MACHINE (1978)

A bold new look, sound and concept for Kraftwerk. Over supple processed rhythms which predate the rise of European techno and trance, they address automation and alienation, space travel and engineering, the seductive allure of urban landscapes and the vacant glamour of celebrity. Clipped and funky, ‘The Robots' adds another dimension to Kraftwerk's ultra-dry sense of humour. Behind its intoxicating melodic pulse, ‘The Model' is a highly prophetic satire on the beauty industry, so ahead of its time that it only becomes a UK chart-topper by accident three years later. And ‘Neon Lights' is Kraftwerk's most achingly romantic song to date, a sci-fi lullaby for cities at twilight. Pure magic.

COMPUTER WORLD (1981)

Kraftwerk beam themselves into the future by writing about home computers, online dating and globalised electronic surveillance years before these phenomena truly come into being. A journey into the bright hopes and dark fears of the booming microchip revolution, ‘Computer World' is a serenely beautiful and almost seamless collage of sensual melodies and liquid beatscapes. Tracks like ‘Numbers' and ‘Pocket Calculator', with their weightless bleeps and elastic beats, predict the silky rhythms of Chicago house and inspire a generation of Detroit techno artists. Kraftwerk's fanfare for the silicon age still sounds ageless, timeless and throbbing with invention.

TECHNO POP (1986)

Kraftwerk return from five years of silence to reclaim their throne as leaders of a machine-pop revolution that they themselves began over a decade before. Their ‘Techno Pop' album, first released under the name ‘Electric Café' but now restored to its originally intended title, provides a 360-degree overview of a multi-lingual, multi-channel, musically diverse global village.

From the block-rocking beats of ‘Boing Boom Tschack' to the electronic funk and computer animation of ‘Musique Non Stop', Kraftwerk soar into the digital age. Their first excursion into digital recording finds both beauty and unease in a polyglot world of permanent media overload. Once again, Dusseldorf's test pilots of the musical future effortlessly break new ground.

THE MIX (1991)

Kraftwerk's first fully digital album confirmed their clubland credentials and reworked 11 of their best-loved tunes for a new generation. Painstakingly reconstructed and sequenced in the band's Kling Klang studio, new versions of tracks like ‘The Robots', ‘Trans Europe Express' and ‘Home Computer' now feature more funky rhythms and cleaned-up, liquid-crystal sounds. A stark warning about pollution at Sellafield is added to the glistening overhaul of ‘Radioactivity', sparking a war of words with British Nuclear Fuels. But most of all, ‘The Mix' is a career-spanning collection of legendary electro anthems and a classy acknowledgment of the two-way traffic between Kraftwerk and club culture.

TOUR DE FRANCE (2003)

The year 2003 marked the centenary of the Tour de France, the conceptual starting line for Kraftwerk's first album for over a decade. Although it features an immaculate new version of a 20-year-old former single, the exquisitely graceful ‘Tour de France', pop nostalgia is not on the menu. From the chunky cyber-funk of ‘Vitamin' to the restless metallic shimmers of ‘Aéro Dynamik', this is emphatically the sound of 21st century techno visionaries.

Because they have a re-recorded/recyled greatest hits set due soon that includes two new cuts.

By Blurt Staff

429 Records (part of the Savoy Label Group, today announced the signing of Portland-based alt-rock mainstays Everclear to the label. First up from the marriage: In A Different Light, a collection of newly interpreted recordings of some of their greatest hits. 

The album also includes two new Art Alexakis-penned songs, "Here Comes the Darkness" and "At the End of the Day." The record drops Oct. 6 and will be supported by a U.S. tour that kicks off Oct. 5, dates tba. Also, fans can expect a collection of all new songs in the spring of 2010 courtesy of 429 Records.  The band will embark on an extensive spring/summer tour around its release. 

The record is described as "a fresh and intimate take on multi-platinum selling Everclear's most popular songs." To wit: 

Learning How To Smile

Santa Monica

I Will Buy You A New Life

Summerland

Everything To Everyone

Wonderful

Here Comes The Darkness

Father Of Mine

Rock Star

Fire Maple Song

At The End Of The Day

Announces all royalties will go to the Feeding America organization. That's some Santa Claus.

By Blurt Staff

As previously announced, Bob Dylan will release a brand new album of holiday songs, Christmas In The Heart, on October 13 via his longtime label Columbia Records.  All of the artist's U.S. royalties from sales of these recordings will be donated to Feeding America (http://feedingamerica.org), guaranteeing that more than four million meals will be provided to more than 1.4 million people in need in this country during this year's holiday season.   Bob Dylan is also donating all of his future U.S. royalties from this album to Feeding America in perpetuity.

     Additionally, the artist is partnering with two international charities to provide meals during the holidays for millions in need in the United Kingdom and the developing world, and will be donating all of his future international royalties from Christmas In The Heart to those organizations in perpetuity.  Details regarding the international partnerships will be announced next week.

     "When we reached out to Bob Dylan about becoming involved with our organization, we could never have anticipated that he would so generously donate all royalties from his forthcoming album to our cause," said Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of Feeding America. "This major initiative from such a world renowned artist and cultural icon will directly benefit so many people and have a major impact on spreading awareness of the epidemic of hunger in this country and around the world."

     Bob Dylan commented, "It's a tragedy that more than 35 million people in this country alone -- 12 million of those children - often go to bed hungry and wake up each morning unsure of where their next meal is coming from.  I join the good people of Feeding America in the hope that our efforts can bring some food security to people in need during this holiday season."

     Christmas In The Heart will be the 47^th album from Bob Dylan, and follows his worldwide chart-topping Together Through Life, released earlier this year.  Songs performed by Dylan on this new album include, "Here Comes Santa Claus," "Winter Wonderland," "Little Drummer Boy" and "Must Be Santa."

A message from Feeding America:

"Feeding America provides low-income individuals and families with the fuel to survive and even thrive.  As the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief charity, our network members supply food to more than 25 million Americans each year, including 9 million children and 3 million seniors.  Serving the entire United States, more than 200 member food banks supports 63,000 agencies that address hunger in all of its forms.  For more information how you can fight hunger in your community and across the country, visit www.feedingamerica.org ."

[Ang Lee's latest film, Taking Woodstock, hits theaters nationwide this week. Herein we offer you an advance opinion, BLURT-style. See the official trailer, below. No spoiler alerts necessary, however - everybody knows what went down at the 1969 rock festival anyway! - Ed.]

BY JONAH FLICKER

Taking Woodstock, directed by Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Hulk, The Ice Storm), is disappointing on many levels. Granted, I wasn't even born until almost a decade after the famed three days of peace, love, and music took place. But I never thought I missed anything; mud, hippies, and jam bands are just not my cup of tea. Lee's whimsical recreation of the events leading up to the festival, however, would have me believe otherwise. It might have worked, too, except for a storyline that feels trite and piecemeal, and some sub-par acting jobs from the film's principals.

 (Jonathan Groff, Demetri Martin)

Comedian Demetri Martin, known to many for his Trendspotting segments on The Daily Show, plays the lead, the semi-closeted, soft-spoken, go-getter Elliot. He has returned home to his overbearing parents' failing motel in the Catskills, when he discovers that the planners of the Woodstock festival are looking for a new venue. After meeting with the annoyingly laid back Michael (Jonathan Groff), Elliot maneuvers the festival onto a neighbor's farm (the always amusing Eugene Levy), much to the town's chagrin. From there, the story details Elliot's trials and travails and sexual awakening, all against the backdrop of the planning and execution of Woodstock. The film doesn't really focus on the festival itself -director Lee never set out to make a concert film - instead detailing the planning of the event and the personal lives of its key players.

 (Eugene Levy, Demetri Martin)

There are some good performances peppered throughout the film. Liev Schreiber plays a burly transvestite with a little bit of camp and a lot of heart, and Elliot's parents, Imelda Staunton and Henry Goodman, tackle their assimilated Jewish immigrant characters with vigor and zest. But the missteps are glaring. Emile Hirsch has a hard time grasping the nuances of his character, the recently-returned Vietnam vet, Billy, using wild eyes as his main prop. But the worst offender, unfortunately, is Martin. His monotone and cloying innocence blend very poorly with an attempt at acting and emoting. His performance is certainly not the worst you will see this year, but he has no business playing a lead role.

 (Kelli Gardner, Paul Dano, Demetri Martin)

Taking Woodstock may appeal more to those who experienced the festival firsthand and are pining for a sentimental, nostalgic trip to the past. And that's really what the film is, a saccharine revisit to a lionized moment in history. Others, however, may not be as impressed - I overheard a middle-aged woman leaving the screening complaining that she wasn't sure which was represented as more middlebrow, Woodstock itself or being gay.

R.E.M. will release a brand-new double live album, entitled R.E.M. Live At The Olympia on October 27th, 2009 on Warner Bros. Records. The two-CD set, produced by Jacknife Lee, features 39 songs that capture the best moments from the band's "working rehearsals" at Dublin's Olympia club during which the band tried out new songs for their 2008 studio album Accelerate.
 
The double live album will also include a number of catalog hits from Life's Rich Pageant and others. 

Live At The Olympia will be released in several configurations including a standard double CD, featuring 39 tracks and liner notes by author and music critic Andy Gill, as well as a CD + DVD, which includes concert and backstage footage shot by noted French filmmakers Vincent Moon and Jeremiah.

Fans will be able to purchase Live At The Olympia digitally from all online service providers beginning October 27th.
 
The track-listing for R.E.M. Live At The Olympia is as follows:
 
Disc 1:
Living Well Is The Best Revenge / Second Guessing / Letter Never Sent / Staring Down The Barrel of the Middle Distance / Disturbance At The Heron House / Mr. Richards / New Test Leper / Cuyahoga / Electrolite / Man-Sized Wreath /  So. Central Rain / On The Fly / Maps And Legends / Sitting Still / Driver 8 / Horse To Water / I'm Gonna DJ / Circus Envy / These Days
 
Disc 2:
Drive / Feeling Gravity's Pull / Until The Day Is Done / Accelerate / Auctioneer / Little America / 1,000 / Disguised / Worst Joke Ever / Welcome To the Occupation / Carnival of Sorts / Harbor Coat / Wolves Lower / I've Been High / Kohoutek / West of the Fields / Pretty Persuasion / Romance / Gardening At Night

Apparently Johnston's latest opus Is And Always Was is a departure from the lo-fi homemade recordings for which he's most notorious for.  According  to Daniel, "Everyone needs to take their demos and go back to the studio."

And with the pairing of producer Jason Falkner, it appears that this album will be as far from lo-fi as you can get, considering Faulkner's production credits include Beck, Air, and Paul McCartney. Falkner says of Daniel Johnston. "It was challenging to make our minds work together but I really found myself immersed in his musical world. It's a unique place to live, that's for sure!"

Johnston's unique guitar/piano and vocal melodies are backed by Falkner on guitar, bass, and keyboards with help from studio veteran Joey Waronker (REM, Beck, Smashing Pumpkins) on drums. 

And now for this latest bit of Johnston news: you can now buy an iPhone game that features his art characters and music. Yip-eee!

Daniel Johnston is currently on a North American and European tour that will go through the end of the year.

Is And Always Was is scheduled for an October 6, 2009 release on Daniel's own Eternal Yip Eye Music imprint.


DANIEL JOHNSTON ON TOUR:

09/03/09 - Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
09/04/09 - Seattle, WA @ Neumos
09/05/09 - Vancouver, BC @ The Venue
09/07/09 - Calgary, AB @ Knox United Church
09/08/09 - Edmonton, AB @ Meyer Horowitz Theatre
10/02/09 - Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits Festival
10/13/09 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
10/14/09 - New York, NY @ Highline Ballroom
10/15/09 - Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
10/16/09 - Montreal, PQ @ UK Fed
10/17/09 - Toronto, ON @ Mod Club
10/22/09 - San Francisco, CA @ Regency Ballroom
10/23/09 - San Diego, CA @ Caines
10/24/09 - Los Angeles, CA @ Henry Fonda Theatre

Is And Always Was Track Listing:

Mind Movies
Fake Records Of Rock And Roll
Queenie The Doggie
High Horse
Without You
I Had Lost My Mind
Freedom
Tears
Is And Always Was
Lost In My Infinite Memory
Light Of Day