Pop hitmaker, cult hero, and Memphis rock iconoclast Alex Chilton has died. The singer and guitarist, best known as a member of ’60s pop-soul act the Box Tops and the ’70s power-pop act Big Star, died today at a hospital in New Orleans. Chilton, 59, had been complaining of about his health earlier today. He was taken by paramedics to the emergency room where he was pronounced dead. The cause of death is believed to be a heart attack.(full story)

Dallas’s Party Boys add T-Pain and So Ice Entertainment’s Waka Flocka Flame,  to hit-em with that “Flex”. I may try to make this my theme song if I’m drunk enough at Get Right and they play it.

Here are some things you should know about This Moment in Black History:

They are playing Carabar tonight.

They just released a new record called “Public Square” on Smog Veil Records.

Said record rips.

They played the Donewaiting.com 5-year anniversary show.

Bim Thomas is from Columbus, used to work at Used Kids Records and plays with Gibson Brother, MarkDon Howland in The Bassholes, whose latest record is out on CDR.

This Moment in Black History is playing SXSW.

Sun God(Cleveland), New Creases(Columbus) and Beast in the Field (Loud) open the show.

Did I mention “Public Square” rips?

Video from the anniversary show and SXSW info after the jump.

Come out and buy me a shot!

from myspace

March, 18 2010 04:00 PM – Apparition Skateboards
119 E North Loop, Austin, Texas 78751 – free

w/ jail weddings, serious tracers, gospel truth

March, 19 2010 03:00 PM – Plush
617 Red River St, Austin, Texas 78701 – free

we play at 3pm & sun god plays @ 2pm

March, 19 2010 04:00 PM – (iN)Sect Records Shizzle Bizzle – The Parlor
100 West North Loop Boulevard, Austin, Texas 78751-1227 – Free

(iN)Sect Records Showcase w/ Zorch, FM Campers, The Horn of Africa, Atari Matt, TODD (UK), Butcher Bear and Charlie, This Moment In Black History We play @ 6:30

March, 20 2010 02:00 PM – Creekside Lounge
606 East 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701-3333 – free

Free SXSW Day Show – With: Turbofruits, Lost Controls, & Manikin. Sun God @ 2:10 & TMIBH @ 3:00.

Courtesy of orlosperry

Click here to view the embedded video.

Who isn’t a fan of some old-school Sci-Fi footage, chicken suits, Humpty-Dumpty and a giant drag queen? Enjoy this quirky video from Chicago-based Skybox. (You may recognize the song from a 2009 iPod commercial.) They’ll be playing a handful of times in Austin including an official showcase on 3/18 at the Wave Rooftop. More info after the jump.

Wednesday 3/17
Popmatters/AM to AM party
Paradise
401 E. 6th St
6th at Trinity
9pm
Free/public

Thursday 3/18
Official SXSW Showcase
Wave Rooftop
408 East 6th Street
8pm

Friday 3/19
No Door Agency Latenight Party
115 East 5th Street (@ Brazos), 3rd floor
1:30am
Invite Only/Complimentary Beer

Saturday 3/20
Do512 & Shiner present The Big One
American Youthworks Building
216 E. 4th St. (at San Jacinto)
12:00 noon
rsvp required/ free drinks

Rebirth motherfucker! Yeah, here we go again. A TON of cool shit has happened since we last got together in this official capacity and I’m not gonna tell you anything about it! I will tell you that Duffy made me take some online journalism and creative writing and photography courses while I was on hiatus and as you’re about to see it did absolutely no good!

I will also tell you I picked a good week to decide to start doing this crap again. Super Desserts, Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s, Guinea Worms, Warpaint, Don B, and of course, Mike O! If you are at all inclined to listen to a bitter, old, hateful, cynical and all around super cool and totally nice dude’s rant about, you know, stuff, you know what to do!

Pictured: Super Desserts@Circus

Thursday night found me at the venue formerly know as High Five, currently known as Circus for Super Desserts and Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s. Also some other band played. They seemed more suited for Frog, Bear and Wild Boar but whatever. Also I forget their name. Enough about the band that played in the middle. Let’s focus our attention on Super Desserts. Twee as Folk! (their words not mine unfortunately) If you are yet to see this gang, looks like you need to revise your to do lists. These guys are a venerable who’s who of Columbus music. Justin from Terribly Empty Pockets, Tyler from Couch Forts, Eve from Bird and Flower, Eric from Margot, Bobby from the local PBR rep, Ianna from Obviouslies, and likely others I’m leaving out.

Attttttttttttt any rate, my point is this band is fun as fuck and there are like 17 people on stage at any given time keeping it together. They have also been building blog buzz thanks in part to their super fun music videos that have been making the rounds on the web. Regardless of the type of music you prefer, these dudes are definitely worth going out for. If you don’t see this band you hate fun! Go see them on Friday at the Summit.

Pictured: Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s@Circus

O.K. so I’m not super hip to Margot, but I am hip to the fact that Eric Kang is from Columbus and used to be in Tiara. I’ve listened to a record or 2 and this is a band I’m more down to check out live than I am to jam it in my car on the way to work whatever that means. (dont’ have that kind of time to waste!) I went out to see Margot like 5 years ago at Skully’s and they basically St. Vincented on the show. All kidding aside (for now) Richard and company put on a really good show and I’m totally digging the pared down lineup and looking forward to hearing the new record. O.K. now more “kidding”. I mean I guess I’m old and out of touch, but I didn’t realize how much the kids like Margot, and these kids make poor fashion choices, get too drunk and are all around annoying but whatever, good set would see again.

O.k.,o.k. on Friday night Columbus weirdos Guinea Worms had a record release show for their double lp, “Sorcerers of Madness”, released on internationally known, locally respected label CDR. I attended the aforementioned show and admittedly, details of the evening are a bit foggy.

Pictured: The Mahoneys@Bourbon Street

The Mahoneys played first they are comprised of 2 of The Frustrations and play like 60-90 sec songs that are jokey but aren’t jokey. I dunno, I dug them, thought they were fun. I’m pretty sure The Frustrations followed, enjoyed them enough, didn’t pay super close attention. Par for the course Bourbon Street punk rock.

Pictured: The Unholy Two@Bourbon Street

The Unholy Two played next and I’m pretty sure I heard an actual song somewhere in the set! That really is them in the above picture and if you look reallll hard that is THE Mike O filling in for Bo Davis on drums. Antagonistic, loud, abrasive..you know the story, either this band is for you or it isn’t. Gnomesayin?

Pictured: Guinea Worms@Bourbon Street

I’m not even gonna front, I had consumed a fair amount of libations by the time Guinea Worms started and well, you know how that goes. IF YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF A FAN OF COLUMBUS MUSIC YOU MUST SEE THIS BAND!!!! I would also like to mention that Extreme Weiners has a delicious philly cheesesteak. Don’t sleep on this sandwich, you have until Tuesday!

You know how sometimes you see a band’s name here and there and then you keep seeing it over and over again? Sometimes that kind of thing makes me less inclined to check out a band. This was basically the case with Warpaint and after seeing them live, it definitely makes me reconsider this course of action. Oh man, they were super fucking cool and easy on the eyes to boot!

Pictured: The Jellyhearts@Summit

The Jellyhearts opened. As I approached the venue, from what I could here outside, I thought Warpaint had already started because I don’t remember The Jellyhearts not sucking! Seriously though, I remember them sounding like Cheater Slicks on a bad night or something and I guess they’ve been practicing and it was apparent. Seriously though, drummer Lauren is also in rosehips and some other band I can’t for the life of me think of the name of. She’s like the Mike O of girl drummers! Whatever, looks like there’s good things to come from these girls.

Pictured: Warpaint@Summit

So yeah, let’s talk about Warpaint. Totally rad for starters. I gave their EP a listen for the first time on Saturday morning and it has pretty much been on repeat ever since. No shit. I guess some actress chick used to play drums for them and the singer chick used to date former Red Hot Chili John Fruciante.(Fruciante’s solo stuff rules)Whatever, show was totally rad, these girls can jam. For some reason there were like 15 photographers at this show and it was like they had never seen pretty girls play instruments or some shit. I mean, I get it, Warpaint is quite photogenic, but for fuck’s sake, these cats were incessantly taking flash photos for literally the WHOLE SHOW. Super fucking obnoxious jesus christ. Our girl Rachael Barbash was there not using a flash, if you haven’t already check out here pics of the show here. I really can’t reiterate enough how cool the set was, and if you’re going to SXSW you have multiple opportunities to catch Warpaint. Don’t fuck it up!

Pictured: Warpaint and Don B@Summit

The legendary Don B made an appearance and performed an A capella version of Batman with the singer chick. She was very obliging and the reason it was A capella was because the stage was already torn down. Don B likes what he likes, myself not being one of them. I guess I should buy him a screwdriver and then maybe we can be friends.

I’m done for now. Tune in next week for Scion Rockfest “coverage”!!!!

from myspace

TRANSIT TRANSIT is going to be released on the following record labels:

U.S. & JAPAN —- tbd records (yes that is actually the name of the label) = tbdrecords.com
U.K. & THE REST —- ATP Recordings = atpfestival.com/recordings
RECORD RELEASE DATE —- (YOU DON’T ACTUALLY THINK WE’D HAVE THAT YET, DO YOU??)

but we do have this:

Transit Transit tracklist:

1. Transit Transit
2. Census
3. Highchair
4. Supertoys
5. Spots
6. The Bouncing Wall
7. Audience No. 2
8. Kissproof
9. Headless Sky
10. The Science Of Imaginary Solutions

“Audience No. 2″ live video after the jump

Click here to view the embedded video.

Linkous was one of the first musicians I ever spoke to for my old site, Swizzle-Stick, and I found him to be a very interesting and enjoyable person to talk to. You can read that interview, done back in 1999, over on AtomicNed.com.

So apparently James Mercer and Danger Mouse met each other few years ago while both playing the Roskilde Festival. (I’d like to imagine while watching Iggy and the Stooges.) Since then, they’ve been exchanging ideas, recording and Broken Bells was born from this amicable indie union. They’re a must see for me at SXSW this year, playing showcases for both NPR Music and Dickies Sounds. Their debut album will be released next Tuesday, March 9th, but you can listen to the album streaming in its entirety right now on NPR.

The Gothamist is reporting that Guru had a heart attack and is in a como. The 43 year-old rapper fronted Gangstar, who is easily one of the most important rap groups of all time.

The above video is for “Whose Gonna Take The Weight” which was on the 1991 classic Step in the Arena. This was in the midst of first Gulf War and the events leading up to the L.A. Riots. Hense the militant imagery.

Nashville-based Turbo Fruits (led by ex-Be Your Own Pet member Jonas Stein) are currently cruising all over the country opening for Surfer Blood. Turbo Fruits will be playing a handful of times at SXSW, including the Panache Showcase.

You can download three songs here and follow their shenanigans on their Turbo Blog.