AP is reporting that Kevin DuBrow, lead singer for 80's pop-metal band Quiet Riot has died in his home.
An autopsy was pending to determine the cause of death.

Per the story:
"I'm at a loss for words. I've just lost my best friend," Quiet Riot drummer Frankie Banali told CNN. "Out of respect for both Kevin and his family, I won't comment further. There's going to be a lot of speculation out there, and I won't add to that. I love him too much."

The statement on Banali's official Web Site is as follows:

I can't even find words to say. Please respect my privacy as I mourn the passing and honor the memory of my dearest friend Kevin DuBrow. "

Quiet Riot is best known for counting future Ozzy Osbourne guitar-whiz Randy Rhoads as an original member and for being a two and half hit wonder with Metal Health (Bang Your Head) and introducing the music of Slade to many young metalheads with their hit version of the English 1970's glam rock band's Cum on Feel the Noize," and their less sucessful version of Mama Weer All Crazee Now.

The album Metal Health released in 1983 shot to number one helping hair/pop-metal rule the 80s. The album's follow-up 1984 Condition Critical went platinum selling a million copies, but was considered a failure a year later compared to their debut's 6 million.

Quiet Riot also provided fans and detractors with many wonderfully entertaining examples of ugly rock n roll excess. If the folks at MTV cared about music or music history (or even MTV's history), they could dig in the vaults and find plenty of video clips showing the band (and DuBrow in particular) behaving like obnoxious, ego-inflated, inebriated rock star jerks.
Those clips and many other incidents outside and inside the band (DuBrow's behavior eventually got him) helped bring Quiet Riot down quickly.

Eventually, enough water passed under the proverbial bridge and the rise of 80's nostalgia
made it possible for a 21st century version of Quiet Riot to reform and begin touring and recording again including a 2006 album Rehab.

R.I.P.

First am I the only person who hadn't seen one single promo about The American Music Awards Sunday night broadcast?

It completely flew under my radar, which frankly, is kind of embarrassing.
Anyway while flipping channels between Patriots touchdowns (Pats 56-Bills 10) I tried to check out some of the goings on at the AMAs including (Usher Jr.) Chris Brown's highly aerobic black light workout with a (rare vocoderless) T-Pain (is he trying to take up the "vocoder singer" mantle left by the late Roger Troutman?).
I also caught Sugarland and Beyonce's twang-pop take on the latter's Irreplaceable and besides the rare opportunity to see Beyonce in tight blue jeans (mmmm….tight blue jeans) it was fun to listen to Miss B clip her phrases and reign in her usually raging melisma to stay in time with the bouncy, back porch beat.

Ne-yo and Rihanna gave a nice performance of her ubiquitous single Umbrella (ella! ella! ella!) and duet of Hate That I Love You backed by a strings and a band.

They could be among the crop of young R&B artists who may have a future beyond the three hot singles and two albums cycle that seems to be about the average these days for "blazing hip hop and R&B" artists.

Anybody else notice how much better both the songs and the singers sounded with a live band (with strings and horns and everything!) and fleshed out arrangments?

But for me the most interesting performance I saw was Alicia Keys working her latest single No One.

The performance (probably still available somewhere online, though Dick Clark Prod. cease & desists warnings were all over Youtube, Monday) featured the cat-suited Keys (mmmmmmm…….cat suit) performing the bulk of the tune before giving way to Michael Rose who ripped off a verse of his 1990 Dancehall hit One Blood (recently sampled by The Game) before giving way to Chaka Demus and Pliers who performed their 1992 dancehall hit Murder She Wrote which then gave way to Beenie Man who performed a snatch of his 1996 hit Who Am I
Whew, that's a lot of folks and a lot of songs in a little over 4 minutes.

None of those artist or their songs on the surface would appear to have anything thematically to do with Keys love song and I'm guessing there were a fair amount of viewers/fans (assuming they knew the show was one at all) who were quite confused by the whole combination. The offical AMA/ABC web site has two other dancehall stars Shabba Ranks (1980s/90s) and Sean Paul (now) listed as her special guests, so obviously Keys was already thinking dancehall tribute when she took the gig.

Whatever the reason, for an old dancehall head like me (and apparently Ms. Keys) it was pretty damn cool to see those older artists get a little 21st Century shine and Murder She Wrote (built on the classic 1970's Bam Bam riddim) is still one of the best dancehall singles ever to crossover into the US mainstream.

Kudos to Keys.

(did I mention the catsuit?)

Oh yeah, Shaggy still sucks.

AAA singer/songwriter Matt White's scheduled appearance tonight at the Cambridge Room at the House of Blues Cleveland has been postponed.
No reason was given but keep your tickets because they will be honored when the show is rescheduled.