words & photos by Chris La Putt

Butch Walkter in Brooklyn

"Well, I left the town of sinners, redneck priests and meth lab stalls
To find myself a few more just like me
The option's pretty skinny and the order's pretty tall
To swim the hippest waters in the sea

Somewhere in the sticky city, driving back and forth
I found myself a squat in Williamsburg
Nobody seemed the same sincerely this could be a curse
But everyone's the same with different shirts"

Former Marvelous 3 lead singer Butch Walker peformed at Music Hall of Williamsburg last month (10/25), "3 Kids in Brooklyn" included (the song quoted above)., in support of his recent album The Spade. Butch is known for his many pop star connections, so I guess it wasn't a complete surprise that Pink showed up and did a duet with him at his Williamsburg show (like she has done in the past). Not as cool as Mastodon's Brent Hinds jamming with him on 10/7 in Atlanta, but much crazier considering the size and location of the venue and the size of the special guest's fame. Videos of both are below.

Members of Butch's backing band, the Black Widows, opened the Brooklyn show, as did Shovels and Rope (who have shared bills with Jason Isbell and the Felice Brothers in NYC over the past year). Pictures of the whole Brooklyn show are in this post.

Earlier that day Butch was on Leonard Lopate's show on WNYC discussing his new book Drinking with Strangers: Music Lessons from a Teenage Bullet Belt which is about his life as a musician and record producer. You can listen to the segment below. Want to ask Butch a question about it? The Daily Swarm is collecting questions for an upcoming Butch interview.

Pictures, videos, and Butch's WNYC interview, below...

Continue reading "Butch Walker wrote a book, jams w/ Brett Hinds of Mastodon (video), and.... Pink in Brooklyn (pics from MHOW)"

Meat Puppets

Meat Puppets recently finished up a tour in support of their most recent LP Lollipop which came out this past April. After a couple dates with Soundgarden at the end of the month, the Meat Puppets will take a short break before playing a few more dates this fall. Their last string of dates never came through NYC, but this one will on November 4 at Le Poisson Rouge. Tickets are on sale now. All tour dates are listed below.

Meat Puppet Curt Kirkwood recently spoke to JSOnline about their tour and Nirvana, who they played with at Nirvana's MTV Unplugged performance, and whose seminal album Nevermind celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The Meat Puppets recorded a cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" for Spin's new Nevermind tribute album, Newermind. The album also features contributions by EMA (who has shows coming up soon), The Vaselines, JEFF the Brotherhood, Amanda Palmer, Titus Andronicus, Surfer Blood and others. The album will be available for free download on Spin's website starting July 26. Tracklist below.

In honor of the 20th anniversary of Nevermind, Universal is also releasing a deluxe edition of the album on September 19. The reissue includes a 4 CD/1 DVD boxset with rarities, B-sides, unreleased recordings, BBC radio appearances, and an unreleased concert on DVD.

Universal will also reissue 1991: The Year Punk Broke on DVD on September 6. The film documents a Sonic Youth tour with Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr., Ramones, Babes in Toyland, and Gumball. The reissue includes a bonus film titled (This Is Known As) The Blues Scale, which features live footage of Sonic Youth and Nirvana.

Meat Puppets dates and video of them with Nirvana at MTV Unplugged in 1993, below...

Continue reading "Meat Puppets announce dates, appear on SPIN Nirvana tribute, 'Nevermind' is turning 20"

photos by Chris La Putt

Happy Holidays! I take on more than I can handle. That results in a lot of unposted content. In the name of catching up, while also taking it easy during this final/first week of the year, here's some of that lost material.

Butch Walker played Joe's Pub in NYC on December 4th, 2009. More pictures from his set below...

Continue reading "Butch Walker @ Joe's Pub in NYC - pics "

Tickets go on Am Ex presale (@ noon) for the recently announced Mates of State / Black Kids shows at Webster Hall and Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Tickets are on Am EX presale (@ noon) for the recently added Cursive show at Bowery Ballroom.

Clem Snide is playing Bowery Ballroom on March 18th. Tickets are on Am Ex presale (@ noon).

Tickets are on Am Ex presale (@ noon) for the 2nd Bloc Party show at Terminal 5.

Butch Walker is playing Webster Hall on March 14th. Tickets are on Am Ex presale (@ noon)

Tickets are on Am Ex presale (@ noon) for the Elvis Perkins show at Bowery Ballroom.

The Leonard Cohen presale has been pushed back to 2PM started.

Butch Walker @ Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ - Nov 23, 2007 (CRED)

Butch Walker and his family have fallen victim to the wildfires spread by the Santa Ana winds across Malibu, CA. On November 24th a family friend was forced to evacuate the singer, songwriter and producer's Malibu home, which was being rented from Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Flea, due to the rapidly spreading fire. Walker was in New York City at the time on tour.

Says Walker "I had just consolidated my entire recording studio and house from Atlanta into the one house In Malibu. I lost everything I've ever owned. Every master of every song I've ever recorded, every piece of recording equipment, guitars, drums and things I've collected over the years, cars, motorcycles, every family memorial, heirloom, picture, and document we ever had.... Gone. I feel like I finally know the difference between 'going back' and 'going home'."

Many pets have also been displaced by the wildfires which are now near full containment. Butch played sold-out shows at Maxwell's on the 23rd & 24th.