Bo Diddley, a founding father of rock 'n' roll whose distinctive "shave and a haircut, two bits" rhythm and innovative guitar effects inspired legions of other musicians, died Monday after months of ill health. He was 79.

Diddley died of heart failure at his home in Archer, Fla., spokeswoman Susan Clary said. He had suffered a heart attack in August, three months after suffering a stroke while touring in Iowa. Doctors said the stroke affected his ability to speak, and he had returned to Florida to continue rehabilitation.

R.I.P. Bo Diddley

That's right, the Black Clouds will be playing for thousands of pissed off hockey fans before the game tonight (April 9th).

Go Devils!

The Black Clouds to play before Rangers/Devils Playoff game at Newark Prudential Center

Other information:
Ghosts I-IV is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license.

An exciting partnership and experience regarding this release will be announced soon.

Trent is following through on his threats. I couldn't be happier.

Latest NIN Album released under a CC license

After Velvet Revolver wraps a spring tour in support of its second album, "Libertad," frontman Scott Weiland will rejoin his former bandmates in Stone Temple Pilots for a handful of summer reunion shows, guitarist Slash tells Billboard.com.

STP broke up in late 2002; the band's last album was the previous year's "Shangri-La Dee Da." No other details have yet been revealed about STP's plans.

Nice!

Weiland Playing With STP This Summer

On September 11th 2007, something happened that will change Rock n' Roll forever. A watershed moment of sorts occurred. Charles Thompson (aka Frank Black) resumed using his original pseudonym, Black Francis, and released what is likely the most important album of the past several years.

Bluefinger is just amazing. It's a return to the style Thompson made famous with The Pixies. It sounds like the album you'd expect Thompson to have made after The Pixies, more so than the work he did as Frank Black with The Catholics.

Thompson's solo work as Frank Black is straight up rock n' roll, with ventures into country and alternative. His new solo work as Black Francis is a return to a style more similar to that of The Pixies or Nirvana. It's raw, loose, driving, punk influenced alternative rock. It's not over-produced. It sports a sound that you can only get when you put away the polish and focus on the intensity. It's like a breath of fresh air.

Almost everyone I know has been listening to this album the past week. If you are not listening to it, you should be. Get on the band wagon. You can listen to the entire album from the website. Go go go..

Black Francis - Bluefinger

"A few months ago, Trent Reznor (frontman of the band Nine Inch Nails), was in Australia doing an interview when he commented on the outrageous prices of CDs there. Apparently now his label, Universal Media Group is angry at him for having said that. During a concert last night, he told fans, '...Has anyone seen the price come down? Okay, well, you know what that means — STEAL IT. Steal away. Steal and steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealin'. Because one way or another these mother****ers will get it through their head that they're ripping people off and that's not right.'"

There was a discussion on MemeStreams about Reznor's distaste for record prices a few months ago..

Slashdot | Trent Reznor Says 'Steal My Music'

Hilly Kristal, whose dank Bowery rock club CBGB served as the birthplace of the punk rock movement and a launching pad for bands like the Ramones, Blondie and the Talking Heads, has died. He was 75.

RIP Hilly.

CBGB founder dies at 75 - CNN.com

POP legend Sir Elton John wants the internet CLOSED DOWN.

Never one to keep his opinions to himself, the Rocket Man has waded into cyberspace with all guns blazing.

He claims it is destroying good music, saying: “The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff.

“Instead they sit at home and make their own records, which is sometimes OK but it doesn’t bode well for long-term artistic vision.

“We’re talking about things that are going to change the world and change the way people listen to music and that’s not going to happen with people blogging on the internet.

“Hopefully the next movement in music will tear down the internet.

“I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span.

“There’s too much technology available.

“I’m sure, as far as music goes, it would be much more interesting than it is today.”

The singer also announced earlier this year that his entire back catalogue of albums would be made available for digital download.

Because clearly the Internet was the reason his last album only sold 100,000 units...

The Sun Online - News: Why we must close the net

The eagerly awaited new album by Prince is being launched as a free CD with a national Sunday newspaper in a move that has drawn widespread criticism from music retailers.

"It's all about giving music for the masses and he believes in spreading the music he produces to as many people as possible," said Mail on Sunday managing director Stephen Miron. "This is the biggest innovation in newspaper promotions in recent times."

Prince is not stupid. Quite the contrary, actually. He knows where he makes his real money. For artists of his caliber, that's live performance and broadcast royalties.

One music store executive described the plan as "madness" while others said it was a huge insult to an industry battling fierce competition from supermarkets and online stores. Prince's label has cut its ties with the album in the UK to try to appease music stores.

The Entertainment Retailers Association said the giveaway "beggars belief". "It would be an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career," ERA co-chairman Paul Quirk told a music conference. "It would be yet another example of the damaging covermount culture which is destroying any perception of value around recorded music.

"The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores. And I say that to all the other artists who may be tempted to dally with the Mail on Sunday."

High street music giant HMV was similarly scathing about the plans. Speaking before rumours of a giveaway were confirmed, HMV chief executive Simon Fox said: "I think it would be absolutely nuts. I can't believe the music industry would do it to itself. I simply can't believe it would happen; it would be absolute madness."

The record industry is scared shitless. They are at the point where they have to try new things. Teaming up with newspapers is an interesting idea. When it comes to entertainment, the Sunday papers and the weekly papers are the ones that must out innovate each other.

All the players here are correct that the perception of the economic value of music is broken. Rather, it's just downright lost now. People place emotional value on music, and always will. As it stands right now, the only place people still place economic value is in the direct connection you get with the artist when seeing them perform live.

People used to have strong bonds with record labels, buying new releases off certain labels, just based on track record. Now, both average and non-average music consumers hold nothing but vile for the labels. If the retail stores manage to make the artists hate them, then it's game over for them that much faster.

The big retail music store is going to die. I don't see a way for it to continue existing. I think Starbucks is drilling down the right direction. The future environment in which people are going to share music is the coffee house..

Ponder the idea of a Starbucks/iTunes partnership for a moment.. When at a Starbucks, downloads are 20% cheaper. They make up the money in saving bandwidth costs by having cache boxen on site. Starbucks makes money from having more people around, who will obviously buy decaffeinated stuff. The possibility exists that neat environments would spring into existence, where people sit around talking about music and giving each other recommendations.

Music industry attacks Sunday newspaper's free Prince CD | Guardian Unlimited

Bill Haley was a small-time disc jockey and unsuccessful country and western singer when he took up a six-nights-a-week gig at the Twin Bar in this gritty industrial city.

Soon, he started messing around with rhythm and blues and the sound he created there in 1951 and 1952 made him one of the first stars of rock 'n' roll.

But do his appearances here qualify as the birth of the genre?

Officials in Gloucester City and Camden County think so. They also think claiming ownership of such historic trivia could help the city's redevelopment efforts and even attract a few tourists.

Wildwood, N.J.; Cleveland; Hattiesburg, Miss.; Galveston, Texas; and Memphis, Tenn. also claim the title as the birthplace. Until now, though, Gloucester City had not been part of the conversation.

Steve Martorano, who has lived all his 78 years in Gloucester City and remembers going to the Twin Bar at 16 or 17, doesn't remember a lot about the Haley or the other performers.

"I used to listen to the music sometimes," he said, "and we used to get into rowdy fights sometimes."

Now, that's rock 'n' roll.

South Jersey city wants to claim a birthright | Asbury Park Press