The beginning of 2010 has been dark indeed.  With the losses continuing, our musical treasures are still leaving us too fast and too young.  Today, it is my sad duty to pay tribute to three more lost stars that include Teddy Pendergrass, Danny Flesher, and Jay Reatard.

We first fell in love with this champion of a voice when Pendergrass was a part of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, best known by more people as the band who delivered "If You Don't Know Me By Now".  Of course, that band delivered much to be proud of but Pendergrass didn't end there.  He embarked on a successful solo career, giving the world a new take from such a memorable and soulful voice.  Teddy Pendergrass was only 59 at his passing on January 13.  There are some voices that continually resonate within the historically rich rooms of our minds and souls.  Teddy Pendergrass possessed such a voice.

Teddy Pendergrass
1950-2010
RIP

I loved record shops!  Many of them; all of them.  And I visited as many of them as I could frequent for as long as my wife would tolerate, which was, thankfully, longer than many would.  One of them was Wax Trax! located on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago.  It had a wildly unconventional collection of music that was always a joy to peruse.  It was run, in part, by Danny Flesher, who died on Sunday, January 10, of pnuemonia at the young age of 58.  While I didn't know much of Flesher other than his label affiliation with the label that bore the name of his store, I feel a kinship with him by having been a visitor multiple times at his shop.  In fact, I still remember picking up Sabotage Live by John Cale at this store the first visit.  RIP Danny, and thanks for the memories!

Finally, at the age of 29, a young, and very prolific recording artist (he recorded 22 albums!), died of unknown causes.  Jay Reatard (Jimmy Lee Lindsay, Jr) was enjoyed by many.  His music flavour was, as it is referred to, garage punk, and yet his music touched nerves and lives. Apparently, there is news that his death is being investigated as a possible homicide, which makes this all the more tragic. As with the preceding two deaths recorded, his death is sad.

I recommend playing a track or five in memory of these people who gave us a part of themselves.

Warner, the film company, has a venture called Warner Archives.  It works like this:  there is absolutely no mass production of certain titles nor are any of these titles distributed.  In short, these titles are OoP (Out of Print), likely to not see the light of a sales day inside a Best Buy, Wal-Mart, or Target nor be distributed via Amazon.  And yet, you can acquire one from Warner Archives on a demand basis.  They'll burn you a copy and send it off to you.  Very economical because the film resides on a HD somewhere.  When someone requests it, it is replicated, packaged, and sent to the requester.  How much simpler can that get?

We live during a time of cheap, massive storage.  Obviously, labels aren't selling the kind of physical product that they'd like.  Digital tracks are doing better but still stressed, sales-wise.  Streaming appears to be a futuristic trend to music listening for the most part.  I think that the labels should adopt an operation much like Warner Archives.  All they need to do is to completely digitize everything, tie up all the ends, and make available every album that has been released at one point or another.

If I happen to want an album by a band who release a favorite album back in, say, 1973.  I'd go to the Internet site dedicated to the "Archives," get that album burned for me (or sent across as a Digital Download (DD), and I'd be much, much happier.  This wouldn't prevent labels from still releasing Deluxe Editions.  Remaster, expand, and create a new set and those of us who'd want the new reissue, can have it.

Just another idea that I'd float if I were part of Universal, or Warner, or EMI, or Sony, any of a hundred smaller labels with lots of catalogue titles.  Especially those that would not warrant a production run but might sell nicely enough if offered in the way that I just suggested.

Just another one of my random thoughts.

I have a review for you of last year's Never Cry Another Tear by Bad Lieutenant (from New Order). It was an oversight on my part as I meant to produce this review in November...and I didn't. Accept my apologies.

This is the final shot at getting a crack at the Elvis 75 single disc, 25-track distillation of the 100-track Box of the same name. Put your info down for a chance to win this single CD copy of Elvis 75: Good Rockin' Tonight. It's not as great as the 4CD Box but it has 25 Elvis greats skimmed from the 100-track Box. Want it? All you have to do is to click the email link and send me the pertinents. Simple. And good luck to everyone of you.

We'll be back here on Monday with the winner of the disc as well as more stuff.

I have a music-related app idea that I'm fleshing out but, surprise, I can't code for it. If anyone out there can write iPhone/iPod apps, and would like to do a collaboration for a 50/50 revenue split, let me know.

We just have a few titles for you today but just a few. I hope that they're something that you're looking for:

On April 27, Hip-O Records will release Thank You, Mr Churchill, the newest album from Peter Frampton since his Grammy-award winning instrumental album, Fingerprints (2006).

Island Records will release a Live album from Robert Cray called Authorized Bootleg: Austin, Texas 05/25/87 planning the album for May 4.

Island also plans the release of a 'best of' from Saliva called Moving Forward in Reverse: Greatest Hits. It is slated for release on March 23.

Rock Band Entertainment will release a Rock title from Sass Jordan called From Dusk til Dawn scheduled for March 16.

Rounder Records has a Willie Nelson title on tap called Country, which is planned for release on April 13.

Columbia Records will release a self-titled album from Broken Bells. Those will be released on CD, DD, and LP, scheduled for March 9.

Nettwerk Records plan the CD release of Heart As Wide As The World from Krishna Das. It is on the calendar for March 2.

The upcoming new Jimi Hendrix album, Valleys of Neptune will see LP release as well as the CD on March 9.