I can’t tell you how sad this makes me, but news today reached my ears that Alex Chilton, singer from personal favourites Big Star, passed away today at age 59 from a suspected heart attack.

To be honest, it’s been a really shitty last 4 months. First Chris “Spacewolf” Feinstein passed away. Scarcely a week later, Vic Chestnutt leaves us, highlighting issues in the US health care system. Then Mark Linkous tragically takes his own life.

And it’s just not f*cking fair.

It’s just not fair.

Big Star – Thirteen

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Another star blinks out…

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Chris “Spacewolf” Feinstein, bassist for Ryan Adams & The Cardinals has passed away, and I can’t tell you how sad it makes me that the post to bring me out of my “lack of posting” funk is this one.

Feinstein joined the band after Catherine Popper’s departure in 2006, and initially recorded with the band on the 2007 masterpiece, “Easy Tiger”. On a personal note, both times I was lucky enough to catch the Cardinals perform live, Spacewolf was a consistent highlight for me. The dude looked exactly how a rock star should look on stage: natural, chilled, and effortlessly cool. Together with drummer Brad Pemberton, Chris Feinstein laid one of the most solid rhythm sections I have ever heard. I know that many fans out there will be feeling the same loss that I’m feeling today.

“This is the saddest day of my life. I lost my best friend today…things will never be quite the same.”
-Brad Pemberton, Cardinals drummer

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Chris “Spacewolf” Feinstein, Ryan Adams & The Cardinals Bassist Dies

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1. Ryan Adams – A video “Best Of”…
2. Another “Best Albums of the Decade” (2000 – 2009) List…

Bugger. I missed posting this yesterday, but in the United States, it still is yesterday, if you know what I mean… so I thought I would post anyway.
Yesterday (or today, depending upon where you are when you read this), marked the 15th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death.

There’s a trifecta of musical deaths that shaped my life… Shannon Hoon, Bradley J Nowell… and Kurt. Even after all this time… Kurt still matters. Here’s to you, man.

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Kurt Cobain – It’s been 15 years…

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Well, now I’m really glad that I made the decision to get tickets to go see Ryan Adams & The Cardinals later this month. Ryan Adams yesterday posted on his blog that:

me- 34-a non smoker and happy, for the first time in my life.. i am excited to finish this wonderful time i have had with the cardinals and whatever new adventures may come after march. atlanta will be my last venture with the band and i am grateful for the time we have had and maybe someday we will have more stories to tell together[...]

well, i will walk away now and it will not matter what anyone say’s. there are other things i can do in this life, other ways to be creative and to try and help others and be expressive without being demonized for attempting to gain the same things any other human being desires- love- friendship- understanding- and being able to express yourself without constant fear of being mistreated for speaking up[...]

and you know, whatever this is- it’s not my dream. and it is a punishing thing to endure when you are getting worse and worse- it’s not my dream, my dream was to try and tap into that energy i saw watching Minutemen vcr tapes when i was just a little shit in NC of mike watt’s crazy shaking leg and his electric fingers- or how sonic youth droned into beautiful clouds those guitars shaking, kim and steve rattling the pulsing lines into feverish thudding imaginary subway cars racing through my heart- and how it felt to just let go and static up a riff and find the sweet spot- but getting yelled at for just being a songwriter- to be called so many horrid things because i chose to love music so much, and also to look for peace and balance in my life- that is not kindness and just not my thing. at least not now.

Click through to read the whole thing; although, if you’re a Ryan Adams fan, it might be a slightly depressing read (although I’m sure most of us saw this coming… eventually).

I’m seeing them perform at The Tivoli at the end of Jan. Lord knows it’s going to be bittersweet this time.

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Ryan Adams calling it quits?

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1. Chris “Spacewolf” Feinstein, Ryan Adams & The Cardinals Bassist Dies
2. Ryan Adams – A video “Best Of”…
3. Another “Best Albums of the Decade” (2000 – 2009) List…

So the music blogosphere is abuzz with the latest sad news: The Format, indie-pop darlings, have called it quits. A post made on their myspace blog reads:

“We have just put out word that we will not be making a new Format album. Please understand this was a tough decision and we’re both upset about it. While we accept there will be false speculation as to why, understand that Sam and I remain extremely close and in fact are still passing the twin peaks box set back and forth in an attempt to figure out who REALLY killed laura palmer.

We also want to thank everyone with and within the Format, particularly Mike, Don, and Marko, whom without, none of this would have ever even been fully realized. We both suggest you support their musical talents and whatever they decide to do. And lastly we want to thank the fans who made this the best 5 years of our lives.

- nate”

I can imagine quite more than a few scenesters shedding a tear after reading that post; but seriously, this really does suck. The Format always played to a slightly different tune, and that was needed in the seriously (and ironically) homogenised indie-pop scene.

The Format were the poster-child for fighting on against major record labels. After all, Sam Means and Nate Ruess, otherwise known as The Format, were dropped by their music label, not once, but twice. An interview with Nate after the event read:

“It sort of mockingly turned the whole major-label side of the music business into a dance,” explains Ruess about one of Dog Problems’ most telling songs, “The Compromise.” “There’s a line, ‘I can feel your feet touching mine,’ which pretty much explains it all in the sense of ‘if you’re not willing to play the game, we’ll just find someone else.’ And that’s quite alright with me.” Although the band was inundated with major-label offers after their split with Atlantic, they decided to release under their own Vanity Label imprint, distributed by Sony/BMGa move that allowed them to make the album they wanted to make.

It’s sad now to think that survivors like that are now calling it quits. I know that I, for one, will miss them.

So what song is appropriate to play, after all this, to commemorate this sad news? Well, if you know anything at all about The Format, there’s only one song it really could be, when you get right down to it.

Listen: The Format – On Your Porch

“whats left to lose,
you’ve done enough
and if you fail well then you fail,
but not to us
cause these last three years,
i know they’ve been hard
but now it’s time to get out of the desert and into the sun
even if it’s alone”

With lyrics like that, it’s certainly appropriate.

We’ll miss you boys.

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The Format break up. Sadness ensues.

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This is a completely unrelated-to-music post, and an extreme downer for the Christmas theme today; but I needed to post this.

One of my favourite authors of all time (along with Neil Gaiman, and Robert Rankin), the illustrious and incomparable Terry Pratchett, has officially announced that he has been diagnosed with a rare form of early onset Alzheimer’s.

In a post entitled “Embuggerance” on Paul Kidby’s site, Pratchett writes:

Folks,

I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news. I have been diagnosed with a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer’s, which lay behind this year’s phantom “stroke”.

We are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism [...] Frankly, I would prefer it if people kept things cheerful, because I think there’s time for at least a few more books yet )

PS I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as ‘I am not dead’. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else.

Along with Gaiman, Terry Pratchett has probably been the author (bugger it, never mind author… individual) most responsible for changing my life in ways that only a true writer can. He exposes human nature for what it really is, yet always – always - offers hope and redemption, in his own inimitable fashion; with a wit and humour that defies equals.

I know that he (to quote the words of Granny Weatherwax), “aten’t dead”… but I still feel an extreme sadness here. Best wishes, Terry. We’ll all be holding thumbs.

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Terry Pratchett diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. Buggrit.

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