Orange County Music Blog

​Captain Lou Albano passed away yesterday at the age of 76. Who's Captain Lou Albano, you ask? He was a former wrestler-turned manager best known for the rubber bands he wore in his facial hair. He was great at getting the crowd fired up and even made the leap to non-wrestling success.

Which leads me to my point. What's Albano's passing have to do with music? Click here, here and here. I'd post these videos, but Cyndi Lauper must have a killer team of lawyers because most versions of these have the embedding disabled.

Writer/musician Jim Carroll passed away Friday due to an apparent heart attack. He was 59 years old.

Most know Carroll as the man who wrote the book The Basketball Diaries, which was later turned into a shit film starring Leonardo DiCrappyo. But like every book-turned-movie, Carroll's tale was much better than Hollywood's. But in my humble opinion, 1987's Forced Entries was even better.

Carroll was a highly-respected poet and even dabbled in music. Maybe you remember this tune?

​

Les Paul, the man behind the signature guitar of the same died, passed away today at the age of 94.

I had already been playing guitar for a few years after I realized that not only was Les Paul a real guy, but he was still alive. Somehow I think Jimmy Page, Slash, Eric Clapton, Wes Montgomery, Keith Richards, Pete Townshend and seven zillion others players more famous than I already knew that.

Along with his massive influence on six stringers, Paul is credited as the man who pioneered multi-track recording, which basically gave way to an entirely new way of putting sound on tape.

There's a whole lot to be said about Paul, but the one thing I'll remember at him is how we kept a weekly Monday night residence at the Iridium in New York from 1996 until June 2009. The man literally played regularly until he died. That's an artist.

Rest in peace, Les. We'll see ya on the other side. 

The Queen of the Blues, Koko Taylor, passed away Wednesday in Chicago due to complications following a May 19 surgery to correct a gastrointestinal bleed. She was 80 years young.

The woman born Cora Walton was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1997, was nominated for eight Grammys and one won in 1985. Her final show was May 7 in Memphis. If you've got to have a last performance, Memphis is a pretty damn good spot for that sort of thing.

I saw Taylor once. It was at the Long Beach Blues Festival in 2001. For a woman in her 70s, she was fired up. I mean, she wasn't young Mick Jagger fired up, but you know what I mean.

I have this cryptic urge to write about the passing of blues men and women because we are literally seeing the final chapter of a once great and important style of music. Yes, there are others who are younger (and whiter) who do a damn fine job of keeping the blues alive, but any new player worth checking out would tell you it's just not the same.

Services will take place Thursday and Friday in Chicago and a funeral will be held at 6 p.m. Friday.

Hey Koko, if you're reading this, get Willie Dixon and start playing that "Wang Dang Doodle" one time for me, wouldya?

Gary Finneran, former lead singer of the HB-based Ex-Idols, passed away recently. I don't have all the details about his death, but I do have info on a memorial show in his honor.

The gig takes place Friday, June 5 at the 3 Clubs in Hollywood. Right now, the lineup includes Lit, Ex-Idols, Tuscarora, She Died, Motochrist, Charlie and the Valentine Killers, the Flash Express, Rodleen, Satiate, the Crazy Squeeze and Silver Needle.

Cover is $20. Profits go to Finneran's sons. Showtime is 8 p.m.

I met and played with Finneran once. My friend Alfunction called me and asked to play bass in a makeshift band with the singer. Mr. Function's friend Lauren (who sings in SiX) was having a birthday party and the Ex-Idols were one of his favorite bands. Well, the Ex-Idols weren't available because they broke up years earlier, but Al wanted to do something cool for Lauren. I had to learn four Ex-Idols songs in about a week. We didn't practice and I was pretty nervous considering how unprepared we were, but I think it went off well. At least that's what Finneran told me. We said a few words before we played and he seemed like a decent guy. I kept looking at him during the songs because he was guiding the three of us through the patchy spots. Afterwards, we spoke and he was grinning widely. He told me he had a lot of fun and that was good enough for me.

Freddie Hubbard died today at Sherman Oaks Hospital. He was 70.

I've always been a freak for the jazz trumpeter and still remember the first time I caught him live, in the early '80s at, of all places, Carnation Gardens at Disneyland--about as far as one can get from a smoke-filled gin joint. Back in those days, the Anaheim theme park drew some pretty righteous performers for jazz and blues festivals that had acts sprinkled all over the Magic Kingdom. I also recall seeing Leon Russell there only a few years after men with hair that long were not allowed through the gates.

Blocking an unrelenting sun with shades that had slid to the end of his nose, Freddie blew his horn with gusto alongside a tight group of sidemen for three or four shows that day, and I was there each time, watching this legend from mere yards away, with no more than 50 or 100 people around the makeshift stage.

Besides seeing him live at the Big D and at one of those jazz festivals in Long Beach that was either at Long Beach State, next to the Queen Mary or in the ocean-front park where they hold everything these days, I built up a collection of Hubbard vinyls that are still collecting dust in my garage. Most are solo albums, some shared efforts with another late, great jazzman, tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine.

It's time to break out the record player--and some gin.

Virgin Megastores, that is. Just got back from a lunch break to find out how true today's report on the Register's retail blog is, and the answer is . . . very. The Virgin Megastore at the Block in Orange will indeed be closing. The plug gets pulled January 4. In the meantime: bargains! I grabbed a yellow flier loaded with exclamation points:

"Prices slashed up to 40% off the lowest ticketed price! Everything must go! Save now! Makes a great gift! Super selection! Tremendous savings! Twenty percent off all new releases! Nothing held back! Save now while selection is best! This location only!"

All that's missing is "Sunday, SUNDAY, SUUUUUNNNDAAAAAY!!!!"

If this closeout is anything like the slow, sad shuttering of Tower Records three years ago, the discounts will get deeper the closer 01/04/09 draws near, so the best meat on this decaying aural corpse will be gone fast.

The Orange Virgin was the second Megastore to open in OC, following the early-'90s opening of the VM at Costa Mesa's Triangle Square, which departed this mortal sonic coil several years back (but then, what at Triangle Square hasn't closed?).

As for reasons why, well . . . you know the answers already: shitty economy, downloading, $18.99 for a copy of Metallica's Death Magnetic. (Not only that, but the Orange Virgin today had an $18.99 sticker on a CD copy of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, and not the 2004 remastered/reissued version with "Silver Springs" on it, either!)

If you still need your Virgin fix, though, the one at the Ontario Mills shopping center is still open . . . but I bet if you walk through the door, you can hear the sound of a clock ticking away the time it has left. May as well go straight to Amoeba, like everyone else . . .

Meanwhile, the Orange Virgin will live on forever at least in some fashion, having been immortalized in one of the final scenes in the Borat movie -- it's where Borat tried to put the sack over Pamela Anderson, and featured a foot chase out into the store's parking lot. Perhaps a plaque will be placed there someday, like the one outside Nixon's old La Habra law office. . . . 

Bo Diddley: One of rock's foundational figures has passed on.

Bo Diddley (a.k.a. Ellas McDaniel), the toughest of the original '50s rock and rollers (ain't a damn thing kitsch about him), the cat who made self-aggrandizing lyrics sound incredibly cool, the man with the square guitar who stroked some of the most vicious tones out of a six-string ever to singe your ear hairs, the dude who had a badass rhythm (paradoxically both rumbling and bouncy) named after him, the guy with the powerful life force who toured into his late 70s, the author of one of the most covered, witty and ominous songs ever (“Who Do You Love?”), the creator of a sound and propagator of an attitude that influenced hundreds of great bands, died today of heart failure at age 79.

What a tremendous body of work and rewarding legacy Bo Diddley left. Respect.

Bo tearing shit up

“Roadrunner” & “Mona”

“Bo Diddley”

Revered soul-jazz Hammond B-3 keyboardist Jimmy McGriff passed away May 24 due to complications from multiple sclerosis, age 72. Ben Ratliff of the NY Times has written a solid summary of McGriff's accomplishments and renowned producer Dante Ross chips in with a heartfelt tribute here. I will only add that the man's songs have been sampled plenty by hip-hop artists and his playing possesses a soulful girth and funky dexterity that will never sound exhausted. Every discerning record collector should possess at least a few of his albums.

Here are videos for “The Worm” and "Spear for Moondog, Pt. 1":

"The Worm"

"Spear for Moondog, Pt. 1"

For the many people who purchased music from the now-defunct MSN Music store, this summer would be a good time to clean out your files. You didn’t really want to keep all those songs you bought, did you?

After the launch of the company’s Zune Marketplace in late 2006, Microsoft decided to ditch the old store and as of August 31, 2008, they will be shutting off the MSN Music licence servers.

So what exactly does this mean for all those music files that were legally downloaded and paid for?
Well, if you FOREVER COMMIT to a computer by the aforementioned date, NEVER buy a new computer and NEVER upgrade your OS then you can keep all that music.

If you do decide to upgrade? Tough shit, the files wont transfer properly.

As quoted in an Ars Technica article:

“...this technicality is not rooted in reality — the authorizations will now expire when the computer does, for whatever reason.

Of course, MSN Music customers do have one other option: burning all of their music to audio CD and then re-ripping them back to the computer as MP3s, sans DRM. But that’s a lossy, lousy solution.”

Klaus Dinger—the drummer who generated the motorik rhythm for Kraftwerk (first album only), Neu!, La Düsseldorf and La! Neu?—died of heart failure March 21, although news of his passing only hit the media yesterday. He was 61.

Dinger had a reputation as a wild character and a punk before the term took on its most popular meaning in 1976, but his drumming was marked by a machine-like precision and fluid power. The German percussionist's style was emulated by many drummers, including those with the groups Stereolab, Broadcast, Fujiya & Miyagi, the Lilys, 120 Days, Th' Faith Healers and scores more—plus David Bowie. You could fill Coachella's lineup with all the bands that have used the motorik beat at some point in their existences. (Note that Dinger himself dubbed the beat “Apache,” and that Mo Tucker's metronomic style on the Velvet Underground's “Foggy Notion” kinda sorta foreshadows motorik.)

Neu!'s immortal first three albums—Neu!, Neu! 2 and Neu! '75—received the reissue treatment in 2001 by Grönland (Astralwerks in the US) and are crucial components in any savvy listener's collection. On these works' most archetypal songs (“Für Immer,” “Hallogallo,” "E-Musik,” “Isi”), Dinger's propulsive rhythms locked in with Michael Rother's pastoral, trance-inducing guitar motifs to create the feeling of blissful perpetual motion, the illusion of aerodynamic velocity that could inspire Olympian feats. By contrast, tracks like “Lila Engel,” “Hero,” "After Eight" and “Negativland” possess a foreboding heaviness that hinted at later avant-rockers like Pere Ubu, Chrome, Sonic Youth and Black Dice.

No less a personage than Brian Eno praised Dinger for conceiving one of the three greatest rhythms of the 1970s (a particularly strong decade for rhythm), along with Fela Kuti's Afrobeat and James Brown's funk. That's illustrious company, and for as long as people have legs and wheels, Dinger's motorik beat will continue to move humans onward and upward with utmost efficiency and grace.

Neu!- “Hero” (Klaus sings and plays guitar on this track)

Neu!- “Negativland”

This is a sad day for the Laguna Beach gay community. Any hopes of re-opening historical gay club Boom Boom Room have pretty much been smushed.

The Register explains in this article plans to renovate the club, which closed its fabulous doors last September. The Boom was the oldest gay bar in the Western United States.

What will take its place? A '40s-style hotel (just what Laguna needs, right?).

According to the article, there had been a chance to save it, though:

In the face of strong opposition from the gay community, Emerald Financial had put the land and two nearby parcels for sale after its April 2005 purchase with an asking price of more than $20 million.

Emerald Financial had entertained offers to sell the properties, but August’s subprime real estate crisis became a roadblock for interested buyers who couldn’t get loans or afford the down payment. When no good offers had surfaced by January, (owner Steven Udvar-Hazy) decided to move ahead preserving the inn.

What, nobody’s got 20 million laying around?

Although the situation looks bleak, Save The Boom activist Fred Karger isn’t giving up, he’s working to flood Hazy’s Los Angeles office with yellow “Save the Boom” protest cards.
Click here if you want to help fight the losing battle...

So sad. I'll always have the memories of falling in love with that go-go dancer...
(Hey, he told me has was straight.)

Just one of Teo Macero's indispensable contributions to musical awesomeness.

Teo Macero, the cunning producer/composer/saxophonist who helped to shape Miles Davis' recordings of the '50s through the '70s into some of the most important and sonically advanced albums ever, passed away Feb. 19 at age 82. For his production and editing work on Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew and On the Corner alone, Macero is assured immortality among people who value innovative jazz and fusion music. He also worked with Herbie Hancock, Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck, Thelonious Monk, Lounge Lizards and DJ Logic, among many others.

Macero was a master at finding the most compelling passages of music derived from hours and hours of studio sessions and splicing them into coherent pieces—a painstaking process of cutting tape with razor blades in the pre-digital era. Ambient-music pioneer Brian Eno, producer of Talking Heads and U2, cited Macero as a key influence on his working methods in the studio.

Macero's NY Times obit is here and an interview with the online zine Perfect Sound Forever is here. My take on what I think is both Miles and Macero's crowning achievement is here.

Below is a clip of Macero talking about his creative process with Miles Davis.

The Dec. 4 death of UGK rapper Pimp C (Chad Butler, 33) in Los Angeles' Mondrian Hotel has prompted much mourning and reminiscing. Our sister paper Houston Press has a substantial coverage of the much-respected H-town MC on its blog. Along with UGK partner Bun B, Pimp C helped to bring Southern rap to prominence and paved the way for several Houston hip-hop artists who've gone on to stardom. Butler's death is currently being investigated.

You can view a tribute video to C below.

On Saturday November 24, Hawthorne Heights guitarist Casey Calvert was found dead inside the band's tour bus just hours before a show in Washington D.C.

The cause of death has yet to be determined.

This message was posted on the band's website:

“Today is probably the worst day ever. Its with our deepest regrets that we have to write this. Casey Calvert passed away in his sleep last night. We found out this afternoon before sound-check. We’ve spent the entire day trying to come to grips with this and figure out as much as possible. At this time we’re not sure what exactly happened. Just last night he was joking around with everyone before he went to bed. We can say with absolute certainty that he was not doing anything illegal. Please, out of respect to Casey and his family, don’t contribute or succumb to any gossip you may hear. We don’t want his memory to be tainted in the least. Casey was our best friend. He was quirky and awesome and there will truly be no others like him! His loss is unexplainable. As soon as we know more we will let you know.

Sincerely,

Hawthorne Heights

Eron, JT, Micah and Matt”

One of the world's greatest songwriters passed away Aug. 4 after losing a battle with renal cancer. Lee Hazlewood was 78.

Possessing a deadpan baritone voice and a laconic wit, Hazlewood is best known for his kitsch-pop and country-esque collaborations with Nancy Sinatra, including "These Boots Are Made For Walking," "Sundown, Sundown," "Jackson," "Sand," and the gothadelic "Some Velvet Morning," one of the most hauntingly beautiful songs ever. Although it was covered often, the original was never surpassed.

But Hazlewood also cut several solo albums that have become cult classics, changing hands among collectors for large sums. My favorite is Hazlewoodism: Its Cause And Cure (1967). Since that one's very hard to track down, you might want to search for the intelligently curated compilation CD Polydor issued in 2001 titled Lee Hazlewood: Twenty Classic Recordings (it's part of the label's Lounge Legends series). "The Girls In Paris," "After Six," and "In Our Time" especially resonate with their sly lyrics and sprightly, timeless melodies.

One senses that Hazlewood was a calculating pop craftsman, yet also a true poet and natural-born storyteller—a rare combination, for sure. You can practically hear him winking during many of his best tunes, and he would sometimes comment on songs while they were in progress (e.g., “This is the part the producer says we should cut if we want it to get on the radio.”). He seemed to view making the charts with skepticism and a healthy sense of humor; he knew he had a gift, but he didn't appear to take himself too seriously and was genuinely bemused when he discovered late in his life that he had a rabid cult following among many hip musicians. And though he penned numerous hits (and produced some for guitarist Duane Eddy and others), he never came off as a hack. His clever, instantly accessible songs have a durability that belies their supposed ephemeral status as radio fodder. Hazlewood was also a deft arranger and he stands as one of the finest practitioners of orchestral pop.

You can join music geeks in mourning on the I Love Music discussion board and read one of the last interviews Hazlewood granted in this Sydney Morning Herald piece. And Nancy Sinatra pays her respects here.

This video of Lee and Donnie Owens performing “After Six” provides a glimpse into Hazlewood's winning charm and songwriting skill.