Labels: maps, music, ohio

Back in the days when Under the Boardwalk, Back Stabbers and Yakety Yak hit the airwaves, the groups who sang them -- the Drifters, the O'Jays and the Coasters -- were faceless voices spilling out of the radio.

But when the nostalgia craze for '50s, '60s and '70s music developed in recent years, hundreds of musical groups hit the concert, festival and fair circuit. Some of today's touring groups contain original band members, but many don't.

Most concertgoers don't know the difference. But many of the original artists sit idle at home, or have gone broke pursuing lawsuits against knock-off bands that profit from their hard-earned musical reputations.

...The Ohio General Assembly stepped into the spotlight yesterday, as the Senate unanimously passed the "Truth in Music Act." The legislation, which has been approved in two dozen other states, would require performing musical acts to have at least one original band member in order to use the original band's name.

In other words, there must be at least one original Drifter on stage, or the group can't be called the Drifters.

"False, deceptive or misleading" advertising and performances could constitute separate violations, each punishable by a civil penalty of $5,000 up to $15,000.

Several groups used the name in the 1970s, touring throughout the country, though Carl Gardner, one of the original Coasters, held the legal rights to it. Gardner continued to tour with the Coasters and has made many attempts to stop bogus groups with no connection to the original group from using the name. In late 2005 Carl's son Carl Gardner, Jr. took over as lead with the group, when his father retired. The Coasters of 2008: Carl Gardner Jr, Ronnie Bright, Alvin Morse, J.W. Lance, and Thomas Palmer (gtr), with Gardner Sr as coach. [[1]]

As of 2007, all of the other original group members, except Leon Hughes, have either died or retired. Some of the former members suffered tragic ends. Saxophonist and "fifth Coaster" King Curtis was stabbed to death by two junkies outside his apartment building in 1971. Cornelius Gunter was shot to death while sitting in a Las Vegas parking garage in 1990. Nate Wilson, a member of one of Gunter's offshoot Coasters groups, was shot and his body dismembered in 1980. ^[2]

Labels: legislation, music, ohio

Labels: mashup, music, politics

Labels: carl, funny, music, song of the day

Wilco at the Wex 2007
Originally uploaded by Gus Dahlberg

Labels: columbus, concerts, music

Labels: love, music, val

From: Ticketmaster
To: GDAHLBERG
Subject: Collective Soul Offers You a Free Exclusive Video to Download

Labels: email, funny, music

• Fraction wrote a pretty scathing take on the White Stripes' new album a few days back. I've had it for something like two or three weeks now and only got around to actually listening to it today. For the most part, he's spot-on, but I tend to think that Jack White's actually found a new model for their stuff: early David Lee Roth-era Van Halen. Compare and contrast the Stripes' "Rag and Bone" with 1978's "Ice Cream Man" and tell me I'm insane. Otherwise? This will likely not be getting lot of repeat play on Ye Olde iPod.
• Wilco's SKY BLUE SKY, on the other hand, is like my perfect summer album right now. It's very mellow; it's the "sitting on the porch with a glass of lemonade watching the kids run around on the lawn" album the Eagles never made. I fear that means I'm getting too old to really ROCK, y'know? Saw Columbus's Evil Queens with Casey at Comfest a few weeks back (hey, here's a video of the show!), but that's the extent of my ROCK-ness of late.
  
• Vote for Springfield, Ohio! Whoops, it's over. We couldn't even muster 10,000 votes? There's more people in the TOWN than that.
• Vanilla Coke Zero is awesome.
• So is Jon J. Muth's ZEN SHORTS, which has become my favorite bedtime story for the kids for many reasons, not the least of which is the opportunity it has given me to perfect my Panda Accent. Muth's work is just so damned pretty.
• In light of recent events, spent some of last week's vacation beginning to re-read Hunter S. Thompson's FEAR AND LOATHING ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL '72, for about the third or fourth time. I always get to "June" and quit. It's amazing to me how many parallels you could find between the current political campaign atmosphere and the Democrats' scramble in '72 -- though they weren't exactly jockeying for position sixteen months before the actual election took place...
• I got a new grill. It has four large burners and a side burner. Also, today Val accidentally dropped an earring down the drain in the bathroom and between the two of us, we managed to get the u-bend pipe off, retrieved the earring, and replaced the pipe, all without the aid of a monkey wrench -- and there's no water spraying in the bathroom, so I'd say the home repair was a success. Domestication, if not complete, is nearly there.

Labels: braindump, music, random

Here's an e-mail from Dan Dougan, owner of Little Brother's..

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To friends, family, fans, musicians and community,

There are rumors flying that Little Brother's is being "taken over" or replaced by new ownership, so I thought it was important to clarify our current situation.

Just as we are hitting Little Brother's ten-year anniversary in the Short North this May, I have apparently reached an impasse with the landlord of the building, who has informed me, through his lawyers, that the only new lease he will offer me includes, among other stipulations, an immediate increase in rent of over 40 percent, and annual increases. It has been clearly implied that someone else has offered this amount for the space and that I could be asked to vacate the premises before summer begins.

This came as a surprise, because I had negotiated terms face-to-face with my landlord earlier this year and we verbally agreed upon incremental increases over the next five years that would have been difficult, but not impossible, for us to accommodate over that time. He promised to send the new terms of the lease in writing. Soon after, he stopped responding to my calls and recently began communicating with me only via his attorney.

While business has been good this year, this increase is more than I can afford. The entertainment business goes through so many highs and lows, an agreement of this nature could crush us the next time we hit a slow period. Clearly, if I am asked to leave by summertime, that gives me little time to relocate the club, which is not something I am sure I can endure again anyway.

Labels: columbus, little brothers, music, short north

Labels: die hard, music, video, youtube

Labels: music, video

Labels: awesome, flaming lips, music, noggin

Labels: music, pals

Labels: music, weddings

Labels: comedy, music, video

Labels: comedy, decemberists, music, steven colbert, video