Sure, Palin's a barracuda... and a shark... and a moray eel... and a slimy squid...

By Fred Mills

It may have been one of the more descriptive and accurate appropriations of a rock song for use in a political campaign: Heart's classic hard-rock cruncher "Barracuda" was tapped by the Republicans for usage as the so-called "congratulatory theme" for V.P. hopeful Sarah Palin at the RNC this week.

Unfortunately for the McSame campaign, the writers of that song, Ann and Nancy Wilson, took exception and they have informed the campaign that Universal Music Publishing and Sony BMG have sent a cease-and-desist notice to not use the tune.

In a statement, the Wilsons indicated that the Republican campaign did not ask for permission to use the song, nor would they have been granted that permission.

"We have asked the Republican campaign publicly not to use our music.  We hope our wishes will be honored," said the Wilsons.

Well, it was a better choice than Obama's bone-headed use of that Brooks & Dunn redneck anthem at the conclusion of his speech at the DNC. But yeah, we're with Heart on this one - Palin may be a barracuda in her own right, but she wouldn't know a rock ‘n' roll riff from the point of conception.

No word yet whether the McSame-VanPalen campaign is planning to borrow the song…

By Fred Mills

John Mellencamp, still riding high on his T Bone Burnettt-produced album Life Death Love and Freedom, just polished off a home recording of Dylan classic “The Times They Are A-Changin’” that has been posted on www.mellencamp.com  exclusively.

When you go to his site, scroll down to the video box displaying Mellencamp with his guitar and specs – it’s on the right side of the page, just click on “play.” (Disable the streaming audio player at the very top of the page first, however, as that’s set to trigger album track “Longest Days” when you arrive at the page.)

Writes Jim Bessman about the recording:

One of the resounding themes of this election year is change.

“Change we can believe in” is Barack Obama’s key campaign slogan, and as this is written, the Republicans are hailing John McCain’s vice presidential choice Sarah Palin as a “change agent.”

Be that as it may, this remarkable moment in our nation’s history has for very many evoked the sense of hope from 40 years ago, when for a brief moment leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy truly embodied change.

That moment was musically foreshadowed in 1964 by the titletrack of Bob Dylan’s third album, “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” But this veritable battle-cry for a generation (“Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call”) has never seemed more timely than now. And now John Mellencamp, with this homemade, Web site-only performance, offers it to a new generation at a time of renewed hope.

Dylan, of course, was one of Mellencamp’s biggest influences.

Mellencamp performed “Like A Rolling Stone” during 1988 “Lonesome Jubilee” tour stops (a live version of the song was included as a B-side) and also sang it and “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat” for “The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration” at Madison Square Garden in 1992 (both songs are included in the commemorative album). Also that year he performed “All Along the Watchtower” on “MTV Unplugged” and in 2003 he did “Highway 61 Revisited” at shows and for “Sessions @ AOL.”

He covered Dylan’s “Farewell Angelina” on his “Rough Harvest” album, and even directed the video for Dylan’s “Political World” track from his 1989 album “Oh Mercy” (if you look closely you can spot Mellencamp’s guitarist Mike Wanchic playing in Dylan’s band). Both artists also appeared in “A Vision Shared: A Tribute To Woody Guthrie & Leadbelly,” a 1991 documentary including performances by artists influenced by the two folk music legends (Mellencamp, like Dylan before him, was hugely influenced by Guthrie).

As for “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” Mellencamp’s “Peaceful World,” which addressed racism and saluted the words of Dr. King, echoed the Dylan song’s most powerful line (“Please get out of the new [road] if you can’t lend your hand”) with “if you’re not part of the future then get out of the way.” Here, on this new Web site exclusive, he goes directly to the source in reliving the once-again relevant ideals of the past.

UPDATE ON OUR PREVIOUS NEWS ABOUT HEART'S ANNOYANCE AT USE OF THEIR SONG "BARRACUDA" AT THE RNC WEDNESDAY NIGHT:

The song was used again after McSame's speech last night, prompting a frustrated and pissed-off Nancy Wilson to say in a phone call to EW.com., "I feel completely fucked over."

The Heart camp followed that up with an official statement:

"Sarah Palin's views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song 'Barracuda' no longer be used to promote her image. The song 'Barracuda' was written in the late 70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. (The 'barracuda' represented the business.) While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it there."

"Soulless corporate nature," eh? Sounds like the G.O.P. to us....

Previously unseen footage from 1971 polished and put together  by the Oxford American.

By Fred Mills

Go on YouTube and you can find a sampling of Big Star videos, but there's a catch: they're all either audio dubbed over still images (e.g., not actual performances), or clips of the latterday ‘90s incarnation featuring members of the Posies joining Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens. It seemed that nobody but hardcore collectors would own any real footage of the band in its heyday - if they had any at all.

That's why a palpaple shudder of delight rippled through the musical community recently when the venerable Oxford American, in the July 2008 issue, included a DVD with the third annual "Best Of The South" issue.

From the OA description:

"Get ready to be blown away by some rare and never-before-seen clips. See Elvis warming up the mike in preparation for his greatest performance ever. See lost footage of one of the most influential rock bands in music history: Big Star. (Gathering dust on the shelf until we polished it up for this DVD, these beautiful images were shot by Big Star guitarist Chris Bell and bassist Andy Hummel.)"

Blown away is an understatement. You can see the results below, 1971 images set to the tune "Thank You Friends," from the DVD and recently posted to YouTube. All I'll add is that just to see the late Chris Bell smile semi-selfconsciously as the camera points at him, but still beautifully, is worth its weight in gold. (Purists may quibble over the fact that "Thank You Friends" was recorded long after Bell and Andy Hummel had left the band - Chilton and Stephens cut it for Sister Lovers - but as a tribute to the four men and comradeship, the lyrical and musical sentiments hold up nicely, thank you very much.)

Hell, as long as we're at it, below the Big Star vid is a cool clip we found of the Bangles doing - sort of (you'll see what we mean when you view it) - Big Star's "September Gurls."

Enjoy the weekend, kids, from your friendly neighborhood Blurt.

New super-supergroup to release Dark Developments on Oct. 14.

By Blurt Staff

Songwriter's songwriter Vic Chesnutt has teamed with fellow Athens, Georgians Elf Power and The Amorphous Strums on Dark Developments, due Oct. 14 on Orange Twin Records. The album was recorded over winter by Chesnutt and Elf Power's Derek Almstead in the former's attic studio. From the publicist:

"Dark Developments revels in the intimate, home-recorded atmosphere you'd expect from an Athenian union like this... It's that friction extant between Chesnutt's shadowy worldview and the inventive bounce and bray of Elf Power's euphonious intraband chemistry that buoys Dark Developments, provides its freshness, and makes for rewarding repeated listening."

Halloween-themed collection of tunes from his Wicked Cool label.

By Fred Mills

Little Steven Van Zandt's garage-shock label Wicked Cool has a spooky treat for ya in a couple of weeks: Halloween A Go-Go, a collection of scary, creepy, goony and loony tunes handpicked by Silvio himself. It's due September 16.

Little Steven filled us in: "Our first Halloween collection finds us probing the subconscious to confront our most persistent demons on Garage Rock's favorite holiday. We are visited by some of the usual cast of characters one would expect - Dracula, the Wolfman, Ghosts, Zombies and Witches - but are far more horrified by that which cannot be touched, controlled, bargained with, or avoided - our own dreams. 

"During the course of these proceedings you will find yourself dancing with the devil, laughing in the face of the apocalypse, transported to the mystic forests of your deepest darkest secrets and insatiable lusts, and shocked by the helplessness of your own confessions of the sacred and the profane.  But afterward, if you live, one fact above all with remain clear - now you will learn why you fear the night!"

And dig it, fans and collectors: "Restless Nights," performed Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (which Steven is, uh, a member of), is one of those obscure gems previously only available on the Springsteen rarities box Tracks.

Halloween A Go-Go Track List:

01. The Electric Prunes ­ I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night

02. Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band - Restless Nights

03. The Chesterfield Kings - Running Through My Nightmares

04. The Fuzztones - I'm the Wolfman

05. Howlin' Wolf ­ Howlin' For My Darlin'

06. Minus 5 - Lies of the Living Dead

07. Roky Erickson and The Aliens - I Walked With a Zombie

08. Jarvis Humby -­ Man with the X-Ray Eyes

09. Sweatmaster - I Am A Demon and I Love Rock and Roll

10. Tegan And Sara - Walking With A Ghost

11. The Stems - She's a Monster

12. Carl Perkins - Put Your Cat Clothes On

13. John Zacherle "The Cool Ghoul" - Dinner with Drac

14. The Pretty Things - Walking Through My Dreams

15. Donovan - Season of the Witch

Reading his own short story for a new compilation.

By Fred Mills

With the RNC over with it's gonna be a slow news weekend. To wit: here's the most underwhelming news we've heard all day. Britain's NME is reporting that Alex Turner, frontman for the Arctic Monkeys, had made a spoken word recording that will be released on October 13. It's of him reading a Turner-penned short story titled "The Choice of Three" and it will appear on a compilation that fellow Monkey Matt Helders is putting together for the Late Night Tales series.

Also on the compilation: songs from Roots Manuva, the Rapture and the Coral.

The NME offered the story's opening lines:

"In the tunnel I noticed I had a choice of three. While I thought it very kind of them to offer me this I do wonder if they realised what a dilemma they were sending to face me.

"The trouble was if I looked at your reflection in the left window I missed the actual image of you and your reflection in the right, and if I looked at the right I had the same problem the other way around."

Don't read in bed kids, you'll just fall asleep, and.... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz............

Beloved indiepop band gets down with bombastic style.

By Blurt Staff

A picture is worth a zillion words, and so it is with the one above. You say you don't know Dressy Bessy? BLURT faves, they return with a new album Sept. 30 on Transdreamer recs. Titled Holler And Stomp, it's the followup to the well-received Electrified and it looks to be the one to put the Denver band over the top. The label sez it combines "uber-indie sensibilities mixed with bombastic style, the band remains inspirational, hook-laden and upbeat...13 songs will have you dancing and singing in seconds."

Hey, we are all about uber-indie sensibilities and bombastic style!

Adds sexy-cute vocalist Tammy Ealom, "Personal, as well as impersonal experiences over the past few years have helped inspire my urge to HOLLER and STOMP!"

Well, all right then. Ealom is joined by guitarist John Hill (who also moonlights in Apples In Stereo), along with Rob Greene on bass and Craig Gilbert on drums. A monster tour kicks off next week....

Dressy Bessy Tour Dates:

September:
9/13- Monolith Music Festival, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO
9/19- Replay Lounge, Lawrence, KS
9/20- Vaudeville Mews, Des Moines, IA   NOTE: 2 Shows, All Ages and 21+
9/21-  The Picador, Iowa City, IA
9/22- Bottom Lounge, Chicago, IL
9/23- Grog Shop, Cleveland, OH
9/24- Club Cafe, Pittsburgh, PA
9/25- Arlene's Grocery, NY, NY
9/26- Union Hall, Brooklyn, NY
9/27- Talking Head, Baltimore, MD
9/28- T.T. The Bear's Place, Cambridge, MA
9/30- Black Cat (Backstage), Washington, DC

October:
10/1-  The Saint, Asbury Park. NJ
10/2-  941 Theater, Philadelphia, PA
10/3-  Charlottesville, VA
10/4-  Tin Roof, Charleston, SC
10/5-  Pirate's Cove, Myrtle Beach, SC
10/7-  Smith's Olde Bar, Atlanta, GA
10/9-  40 Watt Club, Athens, GA
10/10- The Nick, Birmingham, AL
10/11- The End, Nashville, TN (NOT w/Casper & The Cookies- supporting The Evangelicas)
10/12- Young Avenue Deli, Memphis, TN
10/14 - Sticky Fingerz, Little Rock, AR
10/15- Hailey's, Denton, TX
10/16- Emo's Lounge, Austin, TX
10/17- Opolis, Norman, OK
10/18- Bluebird Theater, Denver, CO  CD Release Show
 10/24- The Whole Music Club, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
10/25- The Cave, Carleton College, Northfield, MN
10/26- Draught Haus, Winona, MN
10/28- The Aquarium, Fargo, ND (supporting Blitzen Trapper)
10/29- The Turf Club, St. Paul, MN
10/30- Blue Devil Lounge, University of Wisconsin, Stout, Menomonie, WI
10/31- The Duck Room, St. Louis, MO

November:
11/1- The DuKum Inn, Kirksville, MO
11/2- Abbey Pub, Chicago, IL
11/5- Frankie's Inner-City, Toledo, OH
11/6- Bernie's, Columbus, OH
11/7- The Belmont, Detroit, MI

Notes from the bowels of the RNC, day 4.

By Ben Westhoff

What do John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen and Heart have in common? They all want the Republicans to stop using their goddamn songs at rallies. Ann and Nancy Wilson reportedly sent a cease and desist letter to the McCain campaign after the RNC rocked "Barracuda" at the Xcel center last night. Depriving the candidate of this associate will hurt; after all, like your typical barracuda McCain is a little less than six feet long, not very nimble, hunts via ambush and possesses powerful jaws. (Another problem is that "All I Want To Do Is Make Love To You," while a powerful pro-life statement, just doesn't get folks fired up.)

So, ‘70s and ‘80s rockers don't like McCain, but does anyone else? No one hanging around the Minnesota State Capitol for the RNC final-day protests, that's for sure. Lacking the numbers of earlier rallies, they nonetheless gamely fired themselves up around mid-afternoon, using songs, factually-inaccurate diatribes, and free crumbly cookies and bananas, the latter of which came in small, gooey segments. I ate one, and then twenty minutes later became convinced I'd been dosed with LSD. Briefly I contemplated an alternate universe tea party featuring Michele Bachman and that female protester over there (the one calling the surrounding riot cops "cowards"); the ladies ate cucumber sandwiches and discussed clean coal and wind power. (Matter of fact T. Boone Pickens was there too!)

I soon realized my dizziness was probably due to lingering tear gas in the atmosphere and not acid, and followed the now-moving protesters towards downtown. The group was redirected almost immediately, however, by a line of police aiming (tear gas?) guns directly at our brains. The mass swung west and walked along St. Anthony Avenue, before being cut off again by a dozen or so cops on horses. The now-flummoxed protesters decided to plant their rear ends in the road and wait the situation out. I wasn't exactly clear to their aims; perhaps this was a sit-in to protest Piper Palin's spit-shining her little brother's hair?

Eventually the tear gas and concussion bombs came out again, and everyone scattered. (You can read a more detailed account of the clash here, which also reports on the assault of a pair of City Pages reporters.) That meant it was time those of us with press passes -- approximately 1/3 of the crowd -- to head back to the convention center, where Cindy McCain was holding court. She made it clear why so many people are in awe of her husband; not because he was able to withstand torture in a Vietnamese prison camp for five and a half years, but because he was able to trade his old wife in for a new one who was not only much younger and blonder, but whose pops hooked him up with a VP job at his mammoth beer distributorship to boot.

I really dug the video montage introducing McCain, which detailed his time spent in the camp and included a black and white video of him smoking a cigarette with one of his broken arms. One of the main themes of the intro and his speech was how his time in capture made him a less selfish person. When Victor Charlie offered him early release because his father was an admiral he said, "Hell no. I want four more years of torture!"

Although this, like many aspects of his story, is hard to believe, it's fair to say his reputation as a political iconoclast is well deserved. He has succeeded in politics not despite, but because of, his ability to piss off people in his own party and occasionally buck popular opinion. In 2000 he nearly captured the Republican nomination by dissing Christian conservatives and championing campaign finance reform. In 2008 he won despite being against drilling in ANWR. Once sympathetic to him, Democrats now complain he's fallen in line with the Bush tax cuts and taken on a real barracuda, I mean pit bull, of a right-wing running mate, but it seems unlikely a McCain presidency would resemble a Bush presidency. Schwarzenegger's terms as governor come more to mind; like Arnold, McCain would inherit a Democrat-controlled congress, and, with his desire to be remembered trumping an already nebulous party affiliation, would likely set his sites on historic change.

Ah, "change." The key word in this election cycle, espoused by everyone from dogmatic leftists (Barack Obama) to reactionary Mormons (Mitt Romney) to members of the most powerful political families in America (Hillary Clinton). McCain used the word repeatedly in his acceptance speech, though since he was attempting to play to the crowd his proposed policies sounded like Republican business as usual - school choice, loosening trade restrictions and strengthening private health care. On the last issue McCain is surely on the wrong side of history; Americans think the current system sucks, and unless you're planning to blow it up, no one really cares about your plans to tweak it.

Only when he looked the right-wing faithful in the eye and told them things they didn't want to hear - about campaign finance reform, about environmentalism, about how the "Contract for America" Republicans lost their way ("We let Washington change us") -- did he give hints as to why he's been so successful. But it was too little, too late. John McCain's shtick plays best when he's ruffling feathers, but this speech felt like a Heart concert. Not like an ass-kicking 1977 show where the Wilson sisters get all "Crazy on You" at a small club, but like a sell-out, cash-in comeback show decades later, where they play "Barracuda" for the thousandth time, before a crowd that knows all the words.

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: New Kids on the Block , Ne-Yo

9:00 AM Syndicated: Live with Regis and Kelly: LeAnn Rimes

10:00 AM Biography: Beatles' Women

11:00 AM ABC: The View: Terrence Howard

12:00 PM VH1C: Brian Wilson: That Lucky Old Sun

3:00 PM PLD HD: Genesis - When in Rome

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

6:00 PM Ovation: Live from the Artists Den: Crowded House

9:00 PM HBOS: Almost Famous (2000)

10:00 PM Biography:: The Barry White Story

10:00 PM Sundance: Live from Abbey Road: Brian Wilson, Martha Wainwright, Teddy Thompson

11:35 PM CBS: The Late Show With David Letterman: Duffy

11:35 PM NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: The Game

12:00 AM RAVE HD: From The Basement: Sonic Youth , Jose Gonzalez , Laura Marling

12:37 AM CBS: The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Amy Macdonald

1:00 AM ETV: Saturday Night Live (E!): Scarlett Johansson / Death Cab for Cutie

1:00 AM Ovation: Lou Reed: Live at Montreux

1:35 AM NBC: Last Call with Carson Daly: Ben Harper