The creator of the hit "Super Freak" RICK JAMES has died, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson confirmed to ET. No details regarding his death were immediately available and the investigation is ongoing. The 56-year-old funk star was best known for his 1981 hit "Super Freak." He later fell victim to a crack cocaine addiction that led to a conviction for assaulting and holding a woman against her will. In 1998, James suffered a stroke. Just two months ago, James took the stage to receive a special ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards in Beverly Hills.

Ow.

'Super Freak' RICK JAMES has died

The Music Recommendation System is an automated system that provides music recommendations specifically tailored to each user to find new music that they might like. This system, designed by students at the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana), operates by taking ratings from your own iTunes playlists and comparing them against other users who have used the recommendation system. Right now we have a very small number of users, and so the recommendations will most likely be laughable. However they will get better over time as more people enter into the system; meanwhile, enjoy while the numbers grow.

Also cool.

Music Recommendation System for iTunes

Really pretty cool. Type in a band, and a visual graph of similar groups appears with indicators for popularity.

musicplasma : the music visual search engine

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Ray Charles, who overcame childhood poverty, blindness and heroin addiction to help create soul music and become one of America's most beloved singers, died on Thursday at the age of 73 after a long fight with liver disease, his spokesman said.

Wired News | Music Icon Ray Charles Dies in California at Age 73 

LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK - Guitarist Robert Quine, one of punk rock’s most daring soloists, was found dead Saturday in his New York apartment. He was 61.

MSNBC - Punk rock guitarist Robert Quine found dead

After 21 years, Phish is breaking up.

At long last, the dead is dead.

Phish breakup 'bummer of a thing' for Maine fans

The original version of this program was derived from a Windows-only program called m4p2mp4. More information on this program can be found at the techfreaks website.

Seems like something to download while you can.

p l a y f a i r

] Holier Than The Holy Grail
]
] THE RESIDENTS THIRD REICH%u2019N%u2019ROLL COLLECTORS
] EDITION
]
] The Story:
]
] What started as just another idea in 1976 finally managed
] to grow into a bona fide nightmare of complexity.
]
] The concept was simple enough. The Residents wanted to
] market a record as a limited edition art project.
]
] First needed were records. Not the kind that just get
] stamped off by those automatic machines. No sireee. The
] Residents were intent on actually pressing the records
] themselves on manual presses using colored vinyl (color
] vinyl was a lot more special in 1976). The job of
] locating a pressing plant which would allow strangers to
] come in after-hours to press their own records%u2026and
] only 50 records at that%u2026was staggering. But the
] plant was found, and the Residents (in full costume) did
] manage to press the record found in this package.
]
] Then a cover was needed. Cardboard was out of question,
] as was mass printing. A wood-working shop was finally
] found that agreed to manufacture the basic wooden box.
] The Residents would then paint the box, glue the hand
] printed silk-screen graphics to the lid, and line the
] inside with red velvet. To make a long long story short,
] nothing worked. The lids on the boxes wouldn%u2019t slide
] with the screened prints glued to them. The glue made the
] prints wrinkle. The paint on the boxes was streaked and
] drippy. The specially printed and made inner-sleeve was
] too big to fit in the box. The red velvet was even the
] wrong shade of red and clashed with the cover. As the
] problems multiplied and other projects demanded time, THE
] THIRD REICH%u2019N%u2019ROLL collectors edition looked
] like it was about to be abandonded.

Hey, anyone want to get this for me?

eBay item 2597664857 (Ends Feb-29-04 12:05:49 PST) - The Residents THIRD REICH'N'ROLL wooden box

] I was 23-24 years old when I wrote these diaries. I
] certainly wasn't planning on publishing them when I wrote
] them; so reading them now either makes me laugh, cry or
] cringe. I will not make any claims to being a gifted
] writer or diarist, but the aim here is to give the reader
] some sense of what it was like to tour across the USA in
] a van with a punk rock band in the mid to late 1980's.
] Some say this was the heyday of independent rock music
] and the college radio scene. I would bet we worked harder
] and played many more shows than many of today's
] 'alternative' rock bands will play in their short-lived
] careers.

Dean Clean has put up a Moveable Type blog, and is posting commented entries from his journal covering the Milkmen's first tour. Other members of the band are also adding comments. You can follow the band on their tour, 18 years lagged.

Also, they have a number of music videos available for download from their main website.

The Dead Milkmen are required listening. Don't trust anyone who says they do not like The Dead Milkmen.

The Dead Milkmen: 18 years ago