Mic drop: The 2024 RIP thread for musicians

That's ridiculous.

 

All due respect to Melanie. But I LOATHE that song.

ADD: Found the "Lay Down" video and that wasn't bad at all. Heard it all again in 1990 with Primal Scream and the like, but OK.

 

She kinda was actually. A couple years of flash off her debut, even got a No. 1 (which I don't think Alanis got other than alternative charts) and then slid slowly from view.

 

In the summer of 1970, legal snafus canceled a planned three-day rock festival at Powder Ridge Ski Area in Connecticut. Melanie was the only performer to show up and play.

Here she is performing a set powered by electricity from Mister Softee trucks. RIP.

 

Melanie could still bring it not all that long ago.

 

Brian Wilson is still alive (amazingly). Brian Wilson's second wife, RIP.

Beach Boys' Brian Wilson Announces Death of 'Savior' Wife Melinda: 'She Was My Anchor'

 

Chita Rivera, Anita from "West Side Story" movie, dies at 91. Great singer and amazing dancer on Broadway.

Chita Rivera, Broadway legend and trailblazing Latina actress, dies at 91

 

Wayne Kramer, co-founder of rock band MC5, dies aged 75

 

I saw Wayne play about a dozen years ago as the headliner for a show a Detroit-area nonprofit sponsors annually that features a variety of music styles. When he hit the stage, the place went crazy, and he was awesome.

I was too young to know about the MC5 in its prime and waaaay too young to see the band at the famed Grande Ballroom in Detroit. But, I really enjoy its music now and appreciate what the band was trying to do at the time. The Grande Ballroom still exists, but it's been closed for years and the building is in bad shape. There's an MC5 mural on the wall, though.

I have two documentaries - "MC5: A True Testimonial" and "Louder Than Love" (about the Grande) - in which Wayne came across as a really cool guy who overcame his demons. The Clash's song "Jail Guitar Doors" is about him.

With his death, only drummer Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson remains from the MC5. The MC5, despite its short history, deserves to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because of how many acts it influenced.

 

The MC5, Pylon and Jason & The Nashville Scorchers deserve Hall recognition for being extraordinarily influential rock bands for the flyover states. Not all the legends came from the coasts.

 

I went through an entire summer in the aughts where all I listened to were proto-punk bands from Detroit.

No matter how deep you dig into Detroit music, there’s more to discover.

11 bands that shaped Detroit punk, from MC5 to the White Stripes

 

Calling them Jason and the Nashville Scorchers establishes your cred. Cowpunk. Loved those guys.