Dropkick Murphys are as magically delicious as ever. And don't forget The Claddagh Fund which they recently established. Happy Saint Paddy's Day, everybody!

Bu John B. Moore

Aside from maybe The Pogues and The Chieftans, no other band is more closely associated with St. Patrick's Day in the U.S. than Boston's Dropkick Murphys.

According to singer and bassist Ken Casey, the Celtic punk rock band was never really supposed to leave the basement of the barbershop where they screwed around blending bagpipes with distorted guitars.  So it's as much a surprise to the band as anyone else that 15 years later they are spending the week leading up to St. Patty's Day playing night after night to sold out crowds (seven night in all) at Boston's House of Blues.

For those not able to make the pilgrimage this year to Mecca for the Guinness crowd, The Dropkick Murphys are releasing a live record (culled from last year's shows) and DVD this week.

Casey, quite possibly the nicest guy in punk rock, spoke recently about the band, jamming with the hippies at Bonnaroo and the group's newly minted charity.   

***

Congratulations on the new record and DVD. I'm interested in why you wanted to put out another live record.

I think the main reason is because we did the first live album after we had three studio releases and we have since done three more studio albums and occasionally we would look at the track list of the live album and go "Wow,  there's a lot of songs that we play now that aren't on here." And what I'm most proud of about the whole new album is that it's a completely different track listing than the first one. One song, "Forever", is on both, but it's a completely different version. I know some of my favorite bands growing up, I bought every single live album they put out - Live in London, Live in Belfast, Live in Germany - but it was the same songs over and over again. I thought it was pretty cool that we had enough material to span two live records.

Because you guys have so many songs you've done as a band, do you ever have a problem putting together a set list every night?

Yeah, absolutely. You want to make it different, but you want to give people the songs they definitely want to hear and some times, between playing the standards and wanting to change it up from the last time you were in town, we end up playing 28 songs a night. There are only 20 on the album, because that's all that would fit on the CD. It also goes to show that our songs are getting longer... We go to a great deal of effort in changing it up. We save our set lists, so we can see what we played last time we were in town and make sure they get a different set the next time. I'd say that's probably one of the most burdensome things with this band. I spend hours every day looking over the set list a thousand times and trying to write it so it gives people their money's worth.

So have you come to the acceptance yet that you're pretty much going to be playing a show every single St. Patrick's Day for the rest of your life?

Well I guess if you don't want to do that you should start a different type of band then what we started. The whole Boston thing has become a little tradition. When you're in a touring band, you're away a lot of the year and you don't get to catch up with as many people as you like. Honestly, over St. Patrick's Day there are so many people in town it's like a convention almost. Backstage we get to catch up with all our friends and family. It's something we look forward to every year, so it's not like a burden to us.

You guys are playing Bonnaroo later this year. Do you know what you're in for, what to expect?

I looked at the line up and it's pretty diverse. But we play that stuff in Europe in the summer time - just massively diverse festivals - so I think even though we haven't done the Coachellas and Bonnaroos in America, we're very much accustomed to doing those types of shows and I think our music is suited for festivals and just being party music to a degree. We do very well in that setting in Europe and I imagine it will be a good time. I don't know if I'm supposed to say because they haven't announced it yet, but they're putting some other punk rock bands on the bill on that day with us.

It certainly had that reputation of being just for hippie jam bands, but I know they've been broadening the line up a bit with Bruce Springsteen playing last year.

If it's good enough for Bruce, it's good enough for us.

You guys got to play with him recently didn't you?

Yeah, twice last year. That all came about because we've become friendly with Bruce through his son turning Bruce on to the music. We've been backstage when he was doing two nights at the Garden and on the first night he said "When are you going to do a song with me?" and I said. "Whenever you want." He said, "How about tomorrow night?" So obviously we were there the next night and this past summer, he came back and was down at Great Woods (in Massachusetts) and me and my wife were in the audience just watching the show and all of a sudden during the show I get a text from the tour manager "Bruce just told me he wants you up here for the encore." Honestly, talk about inspirational, I've met a lot of musicians that I look up to and 90 percent of them have kind of somewhat let me down with their personality or how they've carried themselves in a business way, but he's just a class act through and through. Here you are up on stage singing with, in my opinion,  the greatest rock band in the world and you feel like you're singing with your buddy's band in a bar because they make you feel that comfortable and at home.

It's seems like it would be tough for guys in bands who spend a lot of time on the road, being away from family and friends. But you have a few kids and a wife and you guys spend a ton of time touring the globe. How difficult is that?

Yeah, it's very, very hard and it's probably the toughest on me because when it's the day to go to the airport I always feel like it's the first day of school. You just don't want to leave. "My wife will call me from the car and say "(the kids) started bawling, but 30 seconds down the road they stopped." You just got to make the most of the time you're together. Right now we're on a ski trip up in New Hampshire. I just have to make sure that when I am home I make up for it. If it all came out in the wash, I probably have more time at home with my kids then the guys on my street that are leaving for work at 7 in the morning to beat rush hour and are not going to be home until 6 o' clock at night. When I am home, I'm taking them to school and all the sports and stuff like that, so I get to be around to catch a lot of the stuff other dads miss. I get to take the good with the bad and realize that I'm very fortunate to have had the opportunities that I've had in this band and to be able to provide for my family. If going away for a bit is what it takes, I always say I could be going to Iraq or Afghanistan, so I'm very fortunate. We've also brought the kids on some of the trips, so they've seen the world, so it's just very cool.

It's also got to be pretty cool for the kids on career day to say "My dad is a rock star."

My eight year old is just now getting that, cause she's on the new DVD step dancing. There's just a little clip of her, but she understands. Before I had three kids, she used to come on tour a lot with my wife and I. My wife would take her to bed in the back (of the tour bus) when we were on stage and after the show when we all came back to the front of the bus, my wife would be asleep and my two-year-old daughter would wake up and come up to see us. On the same token, I really don't think they think I'm cooler than anybody.

Another thing I wanted to ask you about is the foundation you started, the Claddagh Fund.

We've had some great opportunities through the success of the band to be able to help different people, whether it's sending out tickets to shows or signed CDs for auction items to lending the band's name and sometimes playing at charity events. It's just become something that over the years we've become more and more involved in over the years. As we did things for other causes, I always felt as great as this was we were missing the potential to tap into our fan base - who are the most generous fans in the world. The few times we have gone to them in a public way or via the Web site to help a cause, the response has been overwhelming. It makes me very proud to say that. As we started the Claddagh Fund we've done several events. We did a skate at Fenway Park when the Winter Classic ice was down; We just did a celebrity bartending night at McGreevy's and what we're getting ready to launch - which is kind of the end goal of The Claddagh Fund - is the Friends of the Claddagh Fund, where basically people can pledge their help to raise funds in other cities. Kind of almost satellite chapters of the fund. When you think about the potential, if a kid takes on that role in Seattle or Sydney, Australia, you have an army of people raising money and at that point, you're talking raising millions of dollars for good causes rather than $100,000. I'm really excited about this and to see the response of fans.

When did you start the Fund?

We started in late November and did our first event in mid December, so who needs six months to plan an event?   

Are there specific criteria for where the money goes?

Yeah, the mission statement is obviously about community and friendship and helping each other out and those are the attributes of the Claddagh: Friendship, Love and Loyalty. As far as who we directly help, the three causes we mainly focus on, are children's issues - whether its financial or medical or just things like a Boys and Girls Club, Anything that aids in easing their hardship in any way. The second was veteran's issue s and third was alcohol and substance abuse, because unfortunately that has affected many people in my life. As of right now, with the first event we gave to eight local charities, from Boys and Girls Club to the Franciscan Children's Hospital to Boston Family Services to the Fisher House, which is a place where family of veterans can stay when the veterans are receiving treatment in Boston. The last event we did, the celebrity bartending, was for Haitian orphans. At the moment it seems bizarre to not be doing something to help out when there is such a tragedy so close to home. We'll always try to focus on things close to home and pick some national charities as well.

Have you guys started working on any new songs yet for the next album?

Yeah, we're about six, seven songs into it and the goal, depending on what the touring schedule does to us, is to be in the studio by the end of the summer. We're excited about that prospect. By the time an album does come out this will probably be the longest time between records... It seems like maybe waiting a bit will get people excited. Either that or they'll forget about us and move on to someone else. I guess we'll see.

Photo Credit: Kerry Brett. The new Dropkick Murphys album, Live on Lansdowne, is released today, March 16, on the band's own Born & Bred label. Details on it, tour dates, and more at their MySpace page.

... for those of you heading to Austin next couple of days:

1. For some reason all of the stores at the Austin airport have bankers hours and seem to be closed after dark. So forget grabbing a quick cup of coffee or a snack (if you're the type who likes to head straight from the plane to the party).

2. It's about $25 to take a cab from the airport to downtown. It's a one dollar to take the Austin Flyer (the local bus). The express bus picks up on the baggage level, one-stop the entire way until downtown. From the taxicab area, walk 25 yards directly to the right, you'll see the sign. Plus it's not even really a bus... it's more like a pretty trolley.

3. If you're unlucky enough to be staying at a hotel near the airport, make sure you get the cell phone of the taxi driver who brings you there. Taxicabs are nearly impossible to hail during SxSW. But if you have the celly of your guy, you can make him your bitch all week [...]

A Triple-A radio programming veteran, Kate has served as Music Director of the Loft at XM, Midday Host at WYEP, Evening Host at both WNCS and WUIN, as well as Content Supervisor for Pump Audio. Currently, she's the CEO of Outlandos Music, a new-music discovery service for grown-ups. Kate has been nationally recognized for her ardent presentation of music and her ability to champion talented, compelling artists.

Jimmy McGriff at the Hammond B-3

By Carl Hanni

Let us now praise Jimmy McGriff. 

The roll call of great jazz organists is finite but full of very large characters with very large talents; Richard "Groove" Holmes, "Brother" Jack McDuff, Johnny Hammond, Charles Earland and of course Jimmy Smith come immediately to mind. But for my $, Jimmy McGriff is top cat, the baddest of the bad, soul brother #1 of the jazz organ.

Jimmy McGriff's reputation and standard tag line posit him being the bluesiest of the great soul-jazz organists of the golden era of the 1960s and ‘70s, and that's a fair assessment. He's definitely brings a hard blues edge to his work that the others all took turns swinging at, but that in no way equals any sort of a narrow focus in McGriff's playing; in truth he was as, or more, diverse than the rest of the Hammond B-3 pack. 

I've only heard a relatively modest amount of McGriff's quite extensive catalogue that dates back to 1963, but have heard enough to know that it's a very great thing indeed. McGriff, who died in 2008, extruded a sense of positivity and flair in his playing that might seems at odds as his status as a blues player unless we've forgotten that playing the blues was/is, after all, about banishing the blues and trying to have a good time doing it. That is, while we're not dragging the line through the harsh, painful bottom end of the blues pond. Like all great bluesmen McGriff could play both sides of the coin, the upside and the downside. If he spent more time on the up, joyful side, well, that's just who he was. His fusion of blues, R&B, soul and jazz remains one of the most refreshing and enjoyable in modern music, sounding vital and very alive several decades after his cut his most famous sides. 

McGriff benefitted from long associations with some cool labels in the ‘60s and ‘70s like Groove Merchant and Solid State, and, later in his career (he died in 2008) with Milestone Records. He also benefitted hugely from his collaborators, especially the producer Sonny Lester who he cut numerous records with. Lester was obviously key to McGriff's polished, inviting sound and overall sonic stylishness. All artists should be so lucky as to have such a solid collaborator; one can only imagine the confidence it would engender, knowing that the guy in the control room has your back.

McGriff cut hot sides with soul-blues belter Junior Parker, with gospel singer Tramaine Hawkins, some cutting sessions with his mentor Groove Holmes and a series of records later in his career with the great sax player Hank Crawford. He also worked with fellow soul-jazz legends David "Fathead" Newman and Bernard "Pretty" Purdie as The Dream Team towards the end of his career. He had hit singles like the early "I Got A Woman," "Kiko" and the super funky "The Worm," and several albums did quite well on the R&B and jazz charts. He played in Buddy Rich's band off and on for a couple of years, fronted some mid-sized big bands and experimented with smoother jazz fusion in the dreaded late ‘70s (the Sargasso Sea of jazz) before dropping that crap and getting funky again. The man had a full, satisfying career. 

When discussing Jimmy McGriff it all eventually circles back to the one thing, the key thing, the thing that lives on; that SOUND, McGriff behind the Hammond B-3, the Jaguar/monster-truck hybrid of organs. One of the greatest sonic contraptions of the 20th century, the B-3 is to organs as the V-8 was to earlier engines; an advanced specimen, capable of great and sometimes terrifying things, dangerous and thrilling in the hands of a master like Jimmy McGriff or others like the afore mentioned Jack McDuff, Jimmy Smith, etc.  Although McGriff came to the organ after playing several other instruments, he was clearly a natural. His playing seems effortless and totally unaffected; he has flow, soul and an endless supply of groove. His mix of soul, blues, jazz, R&B and funk covered a good portion of the bases of what was worth listening to in popular music in the 1960s and ‘70s and on into the ‘90s. McGriff was a man of his times, reflecting back the best of what was in the air and on the street.

Some of own favorite Jimmy McGriff records include A Bag Full of Blues, A Thing to Come By, Jimmy McGriff at the Organ, The Main Squeeze and Soul Organ.

***

You can leave comments below or e-mail them to me directly at modmedia@theriver.com .

Carl Hanni is a music writer, music publicist, disc jockey, book hound and vinyl archivist living in Tucson, AZ. He hosts a monthly concert and film series at The Screening Room in downtown Tucson, and spins records wherever and whenever he can. He believes that in a better (all analog) world all records would be released on vinyl, but takes good music from wherever he finds it--even on CD. He currently writes for Blurt, Tucson Weekly, Goldmine, Examiner.com and (occasionally) Signal To Noise.

Announcing the first installment in our "Play For Today" series of video game reviews. This time out we take on Heavy Rain, Aliens Vs. Predator, Major League Baseball 2K10 and Halo Legends. Watch out for those screen shots and trailers - some of ‘em will bite (or bean) ya.

By Aaron Burgess

Game of the Minute: Heavy Rain

Platform: PlayStation 3

Developer: Quantic Dream / Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

ESRB Rating: M

A hard rain's a-gonna fall. Every game has a storyline, but until Heavy Rain, no game did so much to be a storyline. While it's oversimplifying to call the PS3-exclusive title a digital Choose Your Own Adventure, the idea that you control the story's outcome is central to Heavy Rain's development. This idea, of course, prompted some fair questions leading up to the game's release: Would the serial-killer thriller simply be one big Quick Time Event (a sort of Dragon's Lair-meets-CSI in 1080p, if you will), or would developer Quantic Dream  - also responsible for the similarly boundary-pushing 2005 title Indigo Prophecy - rise to the challenge? Well, rise they have, and if you have a PS3, this is one game you can't miss.

You experience Heavy Rain through the eyes of four characters, each on a mission to stop the Origami Killer - so named for his calling card of leaving folded paper shapes at his crime scenes. However, the game doesn't simply throw you into action: You'll need a few hours just to get used to Heavy Rain's control system, in which onscreen prompts force you to make quick, instinctive choices and familiar button schemes turn on their heads. At first, it'll seem as though literally nothing's happening, but as you soon learn, even the most mundane events in Heavy Rain (e.g., taking a drink, choosing whether to play with your kids, forgetting to take your asthma medication) have butterfly effects that influence the story's outcome - and your character's fate.

Visually, the game is just as stunning to experience. Though a depressive, rain-sodden pallor colors the scenery, the level of character detail takes you past the uncanny valley and gives you a true sense of immersion (down to pervy skin-on-skin level, if you so choose) in Heavy Rain's key players. Though there's no "game over," your choices for each character can have fatal, game-changing consequences - and as the days play out and the Origami Killer continues to evade capture, you'll find yourself wondering how things could've been different had you just, say, stopped that robbery in the convenience store. As the story picks up, so do such moments of action - and indeed, you'll experience enough tension, fear and uncertainty during Heavy Rain that you may need to hit pause just to keep your bearings. And that, of course, is the one way in which Heavy Rain will always differ from real life.

Rating: 9/10

Aliens Vs. Predator

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC

Developer: Rebellion / Publisher: Sega

ESRB Rating: M

How I could just kill a man. Despite the myriad shortcomings in the celluloid collisions of Aliens and Predator, the Aliens Vs. Predator game series gave us a chance to avenge both franchises in cold blood. With the latest AVP title, developer Rebellion reprises the three campaigns from its 1999 PC hit, letting us spill blood as an Alien, a Predator or a Colonial Marine. Each campaign draws on the key abilities of its titular (anti)hero, with the Marine challenge being easiest to grasp due to its basic survival-horror, first-person-shooter experience. Things get trickier as you have to adjust to the unique biology and hunting tactics of Aliens and Predators, but the payoff is delightful in some truly sick kills.

Seasoned gamers should have no problem tearing through single-player campaigns in less time than it takes to watch both Alien(s) Vs. Predator films back to back, but the high-tension multiplayer modes (oh, how those alien life forms love to multiply...) allow for extended playability and fierce co-op play. Unfortunately, the graphics and lighting aren't quite on par with the action, but kudos to Rebellion for its immersive sound design. Tearing your enemies limb from limb never sounded so good.

Rating: 6/10

Major League Baseball 2K10

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Wii, PSP, Nintendo DS, PC

Developer: Visual Concepts

Publisher: 2K Sports

ESRB Rating: E

Put me in, coach. Last year's MLB 2K entry found 2K's dedicated sports developer Visual Concepts taking a beating from armchair pitchers and hardcore sports gamers alike, but with Major League Baseball 2K10, things appear to be turning around. Not only have the pitching and batting mechanics (as well as the AI) been raised to similarly high levels, but the graphics have pushed the game miles beyond the jagged, buggy punch line that was 2009's entry.

These, of course, are just the most obvious upsides to MLB 2K10: It's when you get into the "My Player" career mode that you truly see the game's pluses. The new addition lets you create a player, choose a franchise and play your way from the minor leagues up to the Hall of Fame. Sports-gaming sticklers will dig the concept that you earn skill points that actually complement your player's position - meaning that you don't necessarily need to stress over your star pitcher's batting average. Although if you decide to start a new career by dubbing yourself "Orel Hershiser," you already know what you're getting into.

Rating: 7/10

File Under "Extras"

Halo Legends (Warner Home Video)

I can see your Halo. If your knowledge of the Halo franchise goes as far as "space games where I like to kill stuff," that's totally fine-but for those of us who aspire to be the Master Chief of our own worlds, Halo Legends is a seven-story, eight-episode treasure trove.

Admittedly, the package - available on both DVD and Blu-ray Disc - drags a little with the slower-paced, dialogue-heavy "Origins" episodes that open it. But from the Ralph Bakshi-reminiscent "The Duel" (a Covenant storyline that explodes with graceful brutality) to the Spartan-driven episodes that close the anthology, Halo Legends takes us on an expansive, beautifully animated journey beyond the game. Of course, for those of us who can't wait to get back in the game, you'll want to stick around for the extras, where a trailer for the upcoming Halo Reach awaits.

Rating: 8/10

Our game guru, Aaron Burgess, lives digitally but dreams in analog down in Round Rock, Texas. Contact him at first2letters@gmail.com / AIM: First2Letters.

Motion City Soundtrack leaves venerable punk label and winds up making its punkest album ever.

By John B. Moore

There are a lot of assumptions when it comes to Motion City Soundtrack.

The Minneapolis band started churning out records during emo rock's peak so they were lumped in with the eyeliner and skinny jeans crowd, despite having more in common with bands like Cheap Trick and Superchunk; they signed to the indie punk rock label Epitaph, but they were certainly not a punk rock band. While the scene kids were busy trying to figure out just where these guys fit in, the band was diligently putting out some of the best synth-backed pop albums since The Cars.

Their latest effort - and first for Columbia Records - My Dinosaur Life is probably their best to date. Ironically, it wasn't until they left Epitaph that they put out their most punk-inspired album.

Justin Pierre (vocals/guitar) talked recently about the new album and the band's contradictions.    

***

Lyrically, the new album seems a little more personal than some of your pervious ones. Were you worried at all that you were sharing too much?

Nope. I tend to write what I know. And being as self obsessed as I am, that is not difficult. I don't think it's that much different from any of the previous endeavors, but I'm not the best one to ask as I am in the middle of the thing being created and not able to look at it from any other angle.

This record also seemed a little more rock focused than past efforts. Was there a conscious decision to change the sound or was that simply an evolution?

That was the only thing we consciously talked about doing; making a rock record.  As far as how we went about doing it, that part was no different than previous efforts.  We just wrote whatever came to mind and worked out as many ideas as we could, finally coming up with around 25-30 ideas/songs.  Then once we got together with Mark (Hoppus. The Blink 182 co-founder produced the record), he helped us choose the final 18-20, of which we recorded 15.  Twelve made the album.

Were you guys listening to anything in particular while writing or recording that had a strong influence on the songs?

For the first time I can say that there was nothing in particular I was listening to while writing this record.

So what else can you tell me about the record?

I am always excited about each of our records when they come out, but this one is by far my favorite.  Everything from the artwork to the order of the songs to the songs themselves to the Producer, Engineer and Mixer is straight up solid gold.  I think of all our records, we came really close to hitting the mark with this one.

You mentioned that you recorded with Mark Hoppus, who you've worked with in the past. What is he like to record with?

He creates a truly relaxed environment within which you are not afraid to try things and fail. Not only is he a musical genius, but he's a patient man and knows how to get great performances out of the bands he works with. I feel that if you listen to the bands he's produced, they tend to sound much more like themselves on that particular endeavor than on any other outing.

Was it a tough decision to leave Epitaph? 

Yes and No.  Our deal was up and Brett (Gurewitz, label founder and Bad Religion guitarist) gave us his blessing, but it was still hard. I hate goodbyes. Luckily for us Columbia has been amazingly into everything that we've wanted to do. It doesn't feel that different from an artist friendly perspective, which is the most important thing to me.

Epitaph is obviously known more for punk bands. Did you ever feel out of place with them?

I think we were one of the first signings that was a little left of the dial and I think there was some backlash from fans of the label, but Brett started signing country acts, hip hop acts, Tom Waits and many truly diverse bands (on his sister label Anti- Records).  That, in my opinion, is the most punk rock thing you could do; something that no one is expecting.

How is the current headlining tour going? Any interesting tour stories yet?

The tour with The Swellers, This Providence and Set Your Goals was amazing. All the bands were completely wonderful humans and a pleasure to watch. I tend to hibernate between shows, so I have no good stories from the road. We did brave the worst snowstorm of the year on the east coast. Unfortunately This Providence and The Swellers did not make it through the snowy cloud of chaos.

What is the thing that has surprised you the most about the music business?

I am surprised that CD sales are going extinct and vinyl sales are rising. This is very interesting to me.  Most people listen to music on an mp3 device of some sort, which is easier than carrying a case of CD's around.

What's next for the band?

Tour, tour, tour.

I'm out of questions, anything else you want to add?

I am currently full of caffeine.

[Photo Credit: Peter Yang]

Out ‘n' about in the City of Angels with Blurt's roving shutterbug (2/15 - 2/28).

By Scott Dudelson

(above) Rosie Ledet - Live @ The Mint (www.themintla.com) - 2/15

(below) Carrie Rodriguez - Live @ House of Blues (www.houseofblues.com) - 2/16

Alejandro Escovedo & Carrie Rodriguez - Live @ House of Blues (www.houseofblues.com)  - 2/16

Los Lonely Boys - Live @ House of Blues (www.houseofblues.com) - 2/16

Alkaline Trio (singer Matt Skiba) - Live @ House of Blues (www.houseofblues.com) - 2/17

Cursive - Live @ House of Blues (www.houseofblues.com) - 2/17

Imaad Wasif - Live @ Spaceland (www.clubspaceland.com) - 2/18

Tinariwen - UCLA Live @ Royce Hall  (www.uclalive.org) - 2/20

Dinosaur Jr. (J. Mascis)  - Live @ The Troubadour (www.troubadour.com) - 2/23

Strange Boys (singer Ryan Sambol) - Live @ The Echo (www.attheecho.com) - 2/26

***

Scott Dudelson is a music journalist and concert photographer based in Los Angeles.  Scott is also the Chief Operating Officer of Prodege, LLC, the company behind www.swagbucks.com.

Notes from the road while on tour in Europe: why the Ettes frontwoman's not eating the bratwurst in Germany this time around.

By Coco Hames

I dropped out of college after my first semester because it was horrible and I hated it, and when you do that, not only is it complicated to go back, but you lose your right to live in the dorms.  Yes, it is a privilege to live in meningitis and crabs infested hellholes with Stachybotrys being pumped through the filthy air vents so you constantly have bronchitis and insulation so poor that your bed sheets are always damp and there's a film of cold, dirty water on top of everything, AND your roommate climbs uninvited into bed with you so you punch a window and face disciplinary action from the university OR your roommate is in ROTC and needs wakeup calls from her fellows every morning at 4am, right after you've gotten home from drowning your loneliness at a bar called BALLS...

When I came back to Gainesville -- after a few months back at home, working at a boutique where, when I go back there with my mom, the shopgirls stare at me and whisper audibly "SHE'S the nastiest one", meaning, evidently, both my sisters are mean and nasty, but I'M the worst, and mind you, these are people who don't know me or my family to begin with -- I found a room open in a big brick house near campus (it's here: http://maps.google.de/maps?hl=de&tab=wl).  It had 6 bedrooms and was occupied by an art student, a library sciences student, a really strange older student whose bedroom was actually a closet, and two Cuban cousins whose nicknames were Kiki and Pipa.  Pipa was a nursing student, and Kiki was studying film.  She made a student film and my boobs are in it.  Fact.

Kiki has always been a major lover of animals (I've mentioned her before, we used to foster dogs together) and has been vegetarian for as long as I've known her.  Except when we got Jennie-O turkey corn dogs, but that was a long time ago.  My older sister was vegetarian for a long time, refusing to "eat anything that had a face" and rocking her Greenpeace AND Depeche Mode t-shirts.  And world... I have now joined their ranks.  It's been a couple of months.  I am a vegetarian.

You can read my blog a couple posts back about my issues with the factory farming of animals, and while I really don't think investigating and becoming cognizant of that terrible system pushes to change you from meat eater to veggieoid, it did heighten my awareness of my own concept and process of meat eating.  And I thought to myself, self, do you like eating meat?  And myself said "Shit yeah I do!"  I love an obscenely rare, bloody steak, I love Chick-Fil-A (who I imagine are major supporters of factory farms/CAFOs, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, their term, though I do hate birds, and don't care very much about chickens) and I'm Southern, so how in the hell can I possibly exist without pork? 

So I thought about it.  And I thought about how I don't cook or eat that much meat anyway, because as a wary consumer and vaguely compassionate person I am uncomfortable with the unanswered question of how the animal was treated when it was alive.  And I wondered whether my body needed meat or did not need it.  So I kind of thought, okay maybe I'll try not eating meat and see if I care, see how I feel.  So I did that, and I told my friends and fam I was doing so, and everything was fine.  And then my brother-in-law gave me Alicia Silverstone's new book for Christmas, which is a cookbook/manifesto suggesting "The Kind Diet" which would of course be totally free of animal products (that's eggs and dairy, too).  And honestly, I was totally offended, I was like, Alicia Silverstone seems like a very nice girl as far as actresses go, but she is also most likely a BOOB and has her head up her Hollywood ass, and her advice could not possibly apply to me, UMEBOSHI PLUMS ARE $18 FOR ABOUT AN OUNCE.  But check it yo, it did.

I'm pretty sure Alicia Silverstone the person is exactly like she is in Clueless, which seems very pleasant to me actually, because I love Clueless and love her in it.  But she very passionately and enthusiastically suggests, politely, that you might try a diet free of animal products, just for a few weeks, and see how you feel.  Alicia Silverstone notwithstanding, if you asked me (I won't come at you unsolicited, not my style) I'd suggest the same.  I don't really feel like going into it, all the statistics, not just about the animals but the way animal products generally adversely affect us humans and our planet, links to cancer, diabetes, heart disease, pollution, poisoning epidemics that kill children, global warming, you name it.  I'll just tell you a vegetarian diet suits me, I feel better, the personal is the political, and there you have it.

So anyway, not like you care, but I no longer eat meat, taking it day by day.  If Poni gets that rare steak, I look at it, and it neither offends me or turns me on.  Not like it used to.  I just don't want it.  So that's me, I shant devolve into a postulating preacher man about how much better I feel bodily or how my head is clearer, my moods better, my bod a bit foxier, whatever.  Though I will tell you that I understand why people are preachy about it, just like people are (annoyingly) preachy about anything they're passionate about, religion, rock climbing, etc. 

I've never been rock climbing, though I did just stupidly (and soberly!) risk my life climbing up a giant tree on Dog Island (http://wikimapia.org/165081/Dog-Island) because my little sister's childhood friend dared me to.  What an idiot.  I was not safe.  In Phillip Pullman's epic and glorious trilogy His Dark Materials he speaks of the "grace" children have, that innocence that protects them and informs them their beautiful, poetic, prescient knowledge, the elegance of their sensitivity to the spiritual and magical world around us all.  Yeah, I do NOT have grace anymore, that shit was scary and MAD dangerous.

Off to Stuttgart tomorrow, you never know what the future might bring.

Jarvis Cocker and Air wrote that Charlotte Gainsbourg album everyone's been talking about??

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Blurt "co-co-editor" Coco Hames fronts The Ettes - Hames on guitar, Jem Cohen on bass and Poni Silver on drums. Their Greg Cartwright-produced album Do You Want Power arrived in stores last fall, their music was featured in the Drew Barrymore-directed film Whip It, and you bet we've got a big feature on the band in the latest issue of BLURT.

The band is on a European tour currently then upon returning to the states will be headed to Austin for SXSW. After that they'll be opening for the Dead Weather throughout April. Check out the band's MySpace page for music and tour dates.

Serving up another edition of LETTERS FROM THE ROAD, our guest post series where we invite musicians we are utterly nuts about to take over and write whatever they like. 2 rules: it has to be in the form of a letter, it has to have something to do with music. This week's LETTERS FROM THE ROAD guest author is a friend and brilliant singer-songwriter who we adore, Jim Boggia:

Dear Taylor Swift,

We need to talk.

I want you to know up front that I really tried to find someone else to write to - someone else who could ease my pain, someone else who might not make me feel so bitter. But I am bitter, Taylor - bitter about things you're probably too young to understand and that you probably, to be fair, are not so much responsible for as you are representative of.

You know where this is going. Yes, it's the Grammy thing. That performance. You can't sing. You took home four Grammys . . . . and you can't sing. There's a moment in the first chorus of 'Rhiannon' where you can see Stevie Nicks is visibly cringing at how flat you are singing. Let me make sure you understand this, because you're young and this might be lost on you. This is not Stevie WONDER we're talking about cringing at your performance, but Stevie NICKS, a woman who owes her career to sleeping with a genius guitar freak/audio architect. Because you see, that's how it was done in the old days and we didn't necessarily approve of it, but it got us laid, so ok - let the girl who likes to pretend she's a witch sing a couple of songs. But even she still had to hit the notes.

How can I make you understand?

A long time ago, we had a group called the Beatles. You might have heard of them as they are now a video game. Anyway, we loved them so much that we even liked to hear their drummer, Ringo, sing one song an album, even though he couldn't really quite hit the notes. But, the thing is Taylor, he was the DRUMMER. And we really loved the Beatles. And everything else they did was so groundbreakingly amazing. And it was only one song an album.

When you don't hit the notes it's different, and not in a good way. I know, I know, on your records, it sounds like you CAN hit the notes [...]

A Triple-A radio programming veteran, Kate has served as Music Director of the Loft at XM, Midday Host at WYEP, Evening Host at both WNCS and WUIN, as well as Content Supervisor for Pump Audio. Currently, she's the CEO of Outlandos Music, a new-music discovery service for grown-ups. Kate has been nationally recognized for her ardent presentation of music and her ability to champion talented, compelling artists.

You know the drill. IN SHORT is our monthly hodgepodge selection of stuff we think's worth mentioning... sometimes it's about music, sometimes not. This month, it's about live music (what's that? We kid, we kid), the interwebs, sort of:

SxSW Interactive, Film & Music Festival
Every year it seems someone is always questioning the validity of music conferences. And for good reason. Mostly they suck. The music panels especially. A bunch of know-it-alls who live at 30,000 feet and just like to hear the sound of their own voices --- seemingly never doling out any practical, useful advice. Sadly, the music panels at SxSW are generally no exception. But now that I've started going to the Interactive portion of the festival beforehand, I could care less.

SxSW Interactive, that's where you actually learn things. And generally, there's less drinking (then during SxSW Music) which makes for better brainwork. You remember people's names. Business cards actually find their way into your suitcase. You take notes. You have ideas.

Then, a funny sort of phenomenon starts to happen as the week wears on and Interactive flows into Music (Film is supposed to be the bridge but really, who goes?). Less green vegetables. Less sleep. Longer nights. The hotel staff now knows you by first name. Instead of sitting at panels you're standing all day shows. But your attention span is shot and your smart phone is blowing up. Plus, your feet hurt [...]

A Triple-A radio programming veteran, Kate has served as Music Director of the Loft at XM, Midday Host at WYEP, Evening Host at both WNCS and WUIN, as well as Content Supervisor for Pump Audio. Currently, she's the CEO of Outlandos Music, a new-music discovery service for grown-ups. Kate has been nationally recognized for her ardent presentation of music and her ability to champion talented, compelling artists.

Out ‘n' about in the City of Angels with Blurt's roving shutterbug (2/1 - 2/14).

By Scott Dudelson

(above) Audible Mainframe - Live @ The Mint (www.theroxyonsunset.com) - 2/3

 David 55- Live @ The Mint (www.theroxyonsunset.com) - 2/3

Megan Slankard - Live @ The Mint (www.themintla.com) - 2/3

Dave Rawlings Machine (Dave Rawlings & Gillian Welch) - Live @ Troubadour (www.troubadour.com) - 2/4

Dave Rawlings Machine (Dave Rawlings & Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show) - Live @ Troubadour (www.troubadour.com) - 2/4

Dave Rawlings Machine - Live @ Troubadour (www.troubadour.com) - 2/4

Zigaboo Modeliste (of The Meters)  - Live @ The Mint (www.themintla.com) - 2/5

Jacob Jazz Fred Odyssey (Brian Haas) - Live @ The Mint (www.themintla.com) - 2/6

James McMurtry - Live @ The Mint (www.themintla.com) - 2/11

Dirty Dozen Brass Band (soprano saxophonist Roger Lewis) - Live @ The Mint (www.themintla.com) - 2/13

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Scott Dudelson is a music journalist and concert photographer based in Los Angeles.  Scott is also the Chief Operating Officer of Prodege, LLC, the company behind www.swagbucks.com.