A few months after the final death of the legendary but long desolate punk rock mecca CBGB & OMFUG, it's proprietor Hilly Kristal died of long cancer at 75.
CBGB's closed last October after a string of great shows featuring old-timers such as Bad Brains, Blondie and Patti Smith who told the audience that Kristal was ‘‘our champion and in those days, there were very few.’’
Kristal who opened the club in 1973 wanted it to be some sort of Lowery Bowery mecca for the music he loved, namely the country, bluegrass and blues of the club's name. But he was smart enough to read the prevailing winds (and the many rock articles on the crazy new punk rock scene happening at a dirty, dingy club in the Bowery) and he rode the punk zeitgeist turning "CBGB's" into a recognizable logo whose shirts you can now buy at Target (CBGB's shirt = I like punk!).
After the club was finally shuttered, Kristal said he planned to take everything out of the original club including the legendary bathrooms and open a Vegas version of the club.
Let's be honest, that would have sucked.

I'd say it was the end of an era but the era actually ended nearly 30 years ago.
Frankly for several years, the club had been living off its reputation, seemingly booking any band that asked.

Nevertheless, I can proudly say I made my pilgrimage to the club a few years ago while in NYC for the The Pretenders induction into the Rock Hall (c'mon DEVO! Get me back to the big apple!)

It was a late monday (i.e. off) night, the club was near closing and there two screamo bands playing for their girlfriends.
They sucked.
The soundman was bored out of his mind and the bartender seemed mad at me for asking for a beer and making her work.
It was, of course, nothing like being there in the 70s when you might find Sid Vicious vomiting on somebody's daughter or Television sweating it out on stage as they tear through Marquee Moon, but it was strangely satisfying.
Just to stand in that tiny room with its better-than-I-expected sound, look around and see and smell the history all over the graffitti and poster covered walls.
Ya damn right I bought a t-shirt.
Yep, it's the exact same design anyone with $15 can pick up at Target, and there's no way to know, by looking, where it was purchased.
But I know where it came from.

R.I.P Hilly Kristal
You did a good thing.

I mentioned this in the paper a few weeks ago before everything was settled, but now it's in a press release so you know it's GOT to be true.
The Black Keys recently spent a few weeks at SUMA Studios recording tracks for their upcoming fourth album.
This will be the first time the West Akron duo has come outside their own basemen studio and the first time they have used an outside producer.
Danger Mouse, who has become a high profile producer with the massive global success of Gnarls Barkley and the Gorillaz after years of being an indie darling.
It's certainly a good thing that the Keys are reaching outside of their comfort zone for album four and a little rock n' roll bird told me, the initial sessions went very well producing the blueprint of several songs.
It'll be interesting to how the man who imaginatively meshed the Beatles White Album and Jay-Z together for the less than legal Grey Album will do with just Dan Auerbach's voice and guitar and Pat Carney's drums and what effect it will have on the duo's songwriting.
We won't find out until 2008.
Stay tuned.

Alright all you Sinners, get ready to Swing!

The press release makes it O-fficial!.

At 10 a.m. on Saturday! Saturday! Saturday!
Tickets go on sale for "what promises to be the most exciting live tour this year"
That's right it's VAN HALEN

No, for real! They mean it this time!

It's been 22 years since the big, big rock group VAN HALEN got to small to contain the awesome rock n' roll power and massive egos of both David Lee Roth and shredmaster Eddie Van Halen.

But this Saturday (Saturday! Saturday!) YOU can get your own ticket to the Wed. October 10 tour stop on what is "considered by fans and media alike as one of the most highly anticipated tours in rock and roll history"

That's right, Damnit!

It said rock and roll HISTORY!

Come see Eddie and Dave still pretending to like each other (it'll only be the fifth show of the 25 date tour, so they should still be in the honeymoon phase)!!!!

See young Wolfgang Van Halen not be Michael Anthony!!!

Come find out who the hell is going to sing those girly-high harmonies!!

Come see young 15 year-old "Wolfie" learn waaay to much about the adult world in just a few short months!

Hear Dave sing all your favorites (more or less) the way they were intended to be sung/spoken!

Find out if 52 year old DLR is still comfortable wearing nothing but leather chaps onstage!!

Empty your bank accounts, steal from your parents and/or guardians, mug an old woman for her social security check, if you must but gather $57.00, $77.00 or 149.50 for limited VIP seating and come see VAN HALEN!

That's

V-A-N H-A-L-E-N

editors note: A reader pointed out to me that I initially got my 80's hair bands mixed up in the following ramble and repeatedly referred to Great White as White Lion.
My apologies to both bands, and it's been fixed.
Also, thanks to the the same reader for the Elton John/John Holmes clarification. Apparently, I have been modeling my entire lifestyle after the wrong guy…that might explain why the $4000 hairpiece and tiny dog I bought aren't helping me much with the ladies.

AP reports that Alrosa Villa the Columbus concert club where Dimebag Darrell and four other people was shot and killed by a crazed fan will welcome Great White, the hair metal band whose onstage pyro set a Rhode Island club ablaze and killed 100 people.

No one is suggesting that Great White shouldn't work and fans shouldn't have the opportunity to place their lives in the hands of the band's roadies and go see G.W. perform.
Additionally, no one is suggestion that Alrosa Villa shouldn't book bands that folks want to see, but why voluntarily have your own deadly, tragic past intersect directly with someone else's deadly, tragic past.

When the chance came to book G.W. club manager Rick Cautela said he thought about all of the implications and inevitable attention and asked other folks' opinions. Many of those asked told him it was a bad idea. He didn't listen.

‘‘I booked them because I love the '80s people and those
bands,’’ he said. ‘‘And who doesn't love the (Great White) song
'Once Bitten, Twice Shy'?’’

(editors note: Oooh! Me! Me! Me!)

Great White front man Jack Russell said he understood why
some would want to blame the Alrosa Villa or Great White for
the tragedies.¶
The singer said his band would never fully get over the fire
and those who died, including Great White guitarist Ty Longley,
but they needed to keep going.¶
‘‘Hopefully my music will continue to enhance people's lives
and maybe in some small way contribute happiness in some
people's lives,’’ Russell said. ‘‘Unfortunately, this will be a
legacy that will live with the band forever.’’¶

That's for sure.
I talked to Jack Russell before they played some club in this general area (sorry I don't remember, I didn't go.) a year or two after the fire.
He seemed genuinely contrite (how could he not be) about the pain caused and experienced by everyone and talked a bit about the many sleepless nights and the ripple effect for friends and family of the deceased.

But life does have to keep movin on..

Still, I don't know.. it's just kinda creepy.

Another jazz innovator dies and another living link to the bebop era of jazz and the days when music and musicians were an active part of the civil rights movement fades.

Roach of course was THE bebop drummer pushing Bird and Diz and a very young Miles Davis with his speed and amazing polyrhythmic abilities. And of course, the records he made with the late Clifford Brown are quintessential hard bop and are still the basis for what conservatives such as Wynton Marsalis consider real jazz.

On a personal note, I attended to school in Atlanta with his lovely twin daughters Dara and Ayo.
I met him at once I remember that he seemed to be looking right through me when we shook hands and he had very hairy ears.
Also got to see him do his hi-hat solo thing at the Piedmont Jazz Festival. It's flashy yet fascinating show stopper where brings a hi-hat to the front of the stage and plays every inch of the damn from top to bottom pulling an amazing array of tones, polyrhythms and sounds out of it at lighting speed and with flair (between the legs behind the back the whole shebang).

He made it look soooo easy.

R.I.P.

OK kids, word is that today Monday August 13, Eddie, Alex, Wolfgang Van Halen and Diamond David Lee Roth will announce their late summer tour as VAN HALEN.

Can you say train wreck?

I kind of agree with Sammy Hagar who said that rather than sucking Wolfie into VH's vortex of dysfunction, and having the kid trying to replace original bassist Michael Anthony's high harmonies and general good vibes (and Jack Daniel's bass) that Ed should be encouraging the kid to do his own thing.

Oh well.
If this thing happens and it comes to Cleveland, I'll be there to see it, whether it be train wreck or transcendent.

Here's a few more tunes that folks keep hidden in their collections and hearts.

Undercover Angel (Alan O’Day)
Shannon Arvai, Cuyahoga Falls

There was an old pop song called Everything I've Got Belongs To You
Part of the lyrics was:
I've a powerful anesthesia in my fist
And how I'd love to give your neck a twist
There are hammerlock holds, I've mastered a few
And everything I've got belongs to you

-Dick Cotterman-Green, Ohio

editors note: YIKES! The Akron Beacon Journal does not condone the use of punches, neck twists or wrestling holds on spouses.

When I was a metalhead and also a new wave fan of the 70's and 80's I just loved Don't To Breaking My Heart by Elton John and Kiki Dee. It's a little corny and almost Disco!

-Lee House, Wooster

"Rosanna by Toto. Yeah, that's my song."
-Pat Carney (drummer, Black Keys), Akron

Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavor On the Bedpost Overnight, It's C&W (country & western), I think.
The Chipmunk's song, you know Alvin, Theodore. It's Christmas I think.

-Linda Pembrook, Akron

editors note: let us not forget Simon who wished for a hula hoop

So this is what's important in hip hop.

50 Cent who has made inventing irrelevant beef with…well anyone, to get folks to pay attention to his product has invented another promotional tool with this challenge/promise as reported by AP

50 Cent believes his new album will outsell
Kanye West's upcoming disc, and he's betting his solo career on
it.¶
Both 50 Cent and West have albums due out Sept. 11. 50 Cent,
who has sold better than West, has been riled by forecasts that
sales of West's ‘‘Graduation’’ could rival those for his
‘‘Curtis’’ CD.¶
‘‘Let's raise the stakes,’’ the 31-year-old rapper told
hip-hop Web site SOHH.com in an interview posted Friday. ‘‘If
Kanye West sells more records than 50 Cent on September 11,
I'll no longer write music. I'll write music and work with my
other artists, but I won't put out anymore solo albums.’’¶
An e-mail sent to West's publicist wasn't immediately
returned Friday.¶
50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis James Jackson, has been
publicly disparaging of West before. In 2005, he suggested the
29-year-old rapper's popularity was only possible because of
50's own success.¶
But they recently collaborated in the studio. Their work,
though, isn't scheduled to appear on either new album.¶
50 Cent's last full-length solo album, ‘‘The Massacre,’’ was
the best-selling disc of 2005 and sold more than 1.14 million
copies in its first week of release. The same year, West's
‘‘Late Registration’’ opened by selling more than 860,000
copies in its first week.¶

Are you kidding me?
This is what's important in hip hop?
This is what fans are supposed to get behind?
50 Cent sitting in his mansion in Connecticut "threatening" to "quit" if his record doesn't outsell somebody else's?

Who cares.

He didn't even bother to say that his album will be better be than Kanye's, just that it will sell more.
Well, if that's all that matters then MC hammer (who has moved about 17 million units) is a better rapper than both 50 and West.

Remember hip hop fans, it's QUANTITY not QUALITY

Ooh, that's gotta hurt.

107.9 was had very good deals on tickets for this show. you have to wonder what the "technical difficulties" were.

Here's the official announcent.

SCREAMFEST ’07 CONCERT

STARRING T.I. & CIARA

& FEATURING YUNG JOC, T-PAIN & LLOYD POSTPONED TONIGHT

CLEVELAND, OH –On behalf of the producer and promoter of SCREAMFEST '07, and all the artists-T.I., Ciara, Yung Joc, T-Pain & Lloyd, with deep regret, we were not able to perform tonight's SCREAMFEST '07 show. We greatly apologize to all concert goers and the City of Cleveland.

Due to last minute technical problems that couldn’t be overcome the SCREAMFEST '07 show tonight that was scheduled for 7 PM at CSU's Wolstein Center did not take place. Producers determined that in order to give fans the best possible show, the type of show that they have come to expect from the SCREAM TOUR, it was imperative to postpone the show.

The show has been moved to Wednesday, August 15, 2007 at 7 PM.

All customers and fans should hold their tickets and they will be honored for next Wednesday’s show.

If anyone is unable to attend next week, they will be able to get a refund at the Point of Purchase.

For all customer's and fan's inconvenience upon their return next week we will give them one free SCREAMFEST ’07 merchandise item.

The maverick country artist and songwriter who helped make Nancy Sinatra more than just Frank's wannabe singer daughter, and who worked with Duane Eddy and influenced Phil Spector's production style died from Liver cancer on Saturday.
Rather than pretend to be an expert on Hazlewood, here's a well rounded obit from the U.K.