by Jon Lui

I met AM sometime in the late 90's. He was probably already hooked up with Crazy Town, but I knew him in the context of a straight up hip hop dj, looking to battle another local for the use of the moniker he was going by back then and homies with underground cats like the High & Mighty.

Down through the years, as his star & skills ascended, he maintained his core character (which was probably the catalyst & determinant for his success) and his passions, whether they were digging for the rarest vintage limited edition kicks, rocking any style of party with every style of sound, or using his hard-won wisdom to help out those still caught up in it.

On November 12th to 14th from 12 to 8 pm, at the Cobrashop (at Hollywood & Highland, 4th floor), AM's legacy will keep on serving the need & the needy. The DJ AM Memorial Foundation will be selling his record collection, all 12,000 or so pieces. All proceeds go to the DJ AM Memorial Foundation. Its mission statement:

Dramatically, his last contact with the world was on Twitter on Tuesday in which he tweeted the 1983 lyrics from Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, "New York, New York. BIg city of dreams. But everything in New York ain't always what it seems." 

127 Bands, 5 Stages, 3 Days and 1 Mean Sunburn.

"Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival - April 17-19th, 2009 or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Find 30 Reasons To Love a Weekend in the Desert."

- By Scott Butterworth

Artists 26-30: No Age, TRAV$DJ-AM, Throbbing Gristle, Mastodon and Shepard Fairey

Ladies and gentleman, we are on the eve of my favorite weekend of the year, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. If the past twenty five days of my Coachella blog and the following video hasn't convinced you to go to Coachella...then I'm not sure what will. But I hope you've at least found something you liked along the way. If you haven't read the last 25 band features, then you've got some homework to do, but for the last five band profiles of this 30 Coachella Bands in 30 Days blog, I'm going to throwback to an old college tradition...the "cram session." So grab a Redbull...and let's do this!


Artist #26 -  No Age:

No Age, another band from the Sup Pop mafia, the Seattle label that's throwing its weight (and talent) around this year's Coachella festival, is one my most anticipated performances of the weekend. Their debut album Nouns was, without a doubt, in my top three albums of 2008. No Age is a lo-fi fuzz/art rock duo, with one member on guitar, one on drums. But don't expect the White Stripes...They sound more like Sonic Youth. If you want to be able to say to the kids, "...I was there when (insert legendary band and time/place) happened....", buy this album now and go see them play live...anywhere!

According to an AP report this morning (Sept. 20), a plane crash in South Carolina carrying six people has left four of them -- two crew and two passengers, all unidentified in the report, dead and two passengers, drummer Travis Barker (Blink 182/Transplants) and DJ AM, "critically injured" in the Learjet crash late last night. The plane, just about to take off, went off the runway and crashed on a nearby road.

According to the AP report, "Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen says the plane carrying six people was departing shortly before midnight Friday when air traffic controllers reporting seeing sparks. She says the plane went off the runway and crashed on a nearby road. Hospital spokeswoman Beth Frits says Barker and DJ AM, whose real name is Adam Goldstein, were transported to a burn center in Augusta, Ga. Federal officials say two crew members and two passengers have been killed."