As reported by the Calgary Herald, Chris Reimer, guitarist for Women, died Tuesday in his sleep. He was 26.
 
Calgary, Canada’s Women are as known for their guitar playing as anything else. At a time when guitar playing increasingly is eschewed in favor of electronics, or merely used as a filler instrument in a lot of indie rock, Women thrilled by putting guitar playing that was SKILLED, INNOVATIVE and most of all EXCITING at the forefront.
 
Along with bands such as Deerhoof, Deerhunter and Abe Vigoda, Women are a guitarists’ band. Like many indie rock fans, I fell hard for their first self-titled album and its standout track, the Beach Boys-ish “Black Rice,” when it came out in 2008. But it was 2010’s Public Strain that made it clear Women were a force with which to be reckoned. You could see it in the fire they put into songs like the spindly “Heat Distraction,” with its agitated time signature, or the washes of feedback they layered over songs which, at their core, were well-written guitar pop songs in the vein of the aforementioned Beach Boys, The Beatles and the Phil Spector bunch, such as the beautiful “Narrow With the Hall.”
 
Few bands are able to command as much power — and seem so head-spinningly new using familiar components — as Women. For a band such as theirs which has seemed to see its fair share of hardship and not as much due paid as less-deserving bands, they’ve given fans a lot already, and I hope they are able to continue on. In the time being, our thoughts go to the family and the band.

In more tragic news following this morning's announcement of the passing of Soul Train creator Don Cornelius, renowned artist and musician Mike Kelley has died at age 58 from an apparent suicide. (Update: Kelley was 57 when he died.)

Originally from Detroit, Kelley had been living in Los Angeles for many years. Kelley was a diverse artist known for his textiles, doll objects, performance videos, drawings, and multimedia installations. He has had one-artist exhibitions all over the world including the Gagosian Galleries in New York City and London, the musée du Louvre in Paris, and galleries in Japan, Germany, Italy, and Austria. He had public collections featured in the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim in New York City, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, among many others. His work is scheduled to appear in the upcoming Whitney biennial.

Kelley was also a musician. Though those two audiences didn't often co-mingle, music fans will recognize his art from the album cover for Sonic Youth's 1992 album, Dirty. Kelley was a founder of Destroy All Monsters, a noise/punk/experimental band from Detroit which began in 1973 and broke up in 1985. Although they never found mainstream success, they garnered new attention in 1977 with the addition of former members of The Stooges (Ron Asheton) and MC5 (Michael Davis). In 1994, Kelley and Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore compiled a 3-CD box set called Destroy All Monsters: 1974-1976 on Moore's record label, Ecstatic Peace!. The band reunited in 1995 and re-released past editions of the Destroy All Monsters magazine, recorded 5 new albums, exhibited their art, and performed at festivals around the world.

        

As reported a little earlier this morning by the LA Times' website Don Cornelius - the host and creator of the legendary black music TV show Soul Train - was found dead this morning in his Sherman Oaks home; the result of a gunshot wound to the head - an apparent suicide according to LAPD. The recently divorced Cornelius was 75 years of age. Man, that is some really sad news and - even worse - coming on this first day of Black History Month! Through Soul Train's 35 years of national syndication (it stopped production in 2006 but Cornelius had ceased hosting the show in 1993), Cornelius helped shape and define an entire culture through his positive presentation of black music, dance, and fashion. Rest in peace in Don Cornelius!


        

Wow. What a sad week it has been for blues, R&B, and funk fans with the passing of Jimmy Castor, Johnny Otis, and then yesterday morning (Jan. 20th) more sad news arrived with word that Etta James had died in Riverside, California following complications from leukemia, which she had been undergoing treatment for for some years. She was 73 years of age but was just about to celebrate her 74th birthday next week. 

Born in LA and raised in the Fillmore District of San Francisco, Etta James (who won four Grammys in her lifetime) was loved by music fans worldwide and was inducted into both the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Her music could be filed under blues, R&B, rock and roll, and even jazz sometimes (her album Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday won her a jazz Grammy). Even though James is best known for her soothing soulful rendition of "At Last," I personally always thought of the singer, who I saw in concert many times and was always blown away by her performances, as a gritty soulful blues singer since she always brought so much raw emotion and passion to her music. As anyone who has ever seen James in concert will attest, she brought sexy (or "raunchy" as some said) to her stage act in which she always gave it her all.

       

James was discovered by Johnny Otis, who in a tragic twist of coincidence passed just 3 days earlier this week, back when she was just a teen and recorded her first record when she was only 15. That record was “Roll With Me Henry,” which -- because of its sexual innuendo -- had its title changed to “The Wallflower" and as such became a 1954 hit on Billboard's Rhythm-and-Blues chart. A year later, a more whitewashed, toned-down version of the song retitled "Dance with me Henry" by white singer Georgia Gibbs became a mainstream number one Billboard pop charts hit. Understandably, that bummed out the black singer who had created the song.

"Uncle Frank" Potenza, a security guard and regular on Jimmy Kimmel Live (and most importantly Jimmy's uncle), passed away today at the age of 77.

Before joining the cast of Jimmy Kimmel Live, Uncle Frank spent twenty years as a New York City police officer, ten years as a private security officer in Las Vegas (including a stint as Frank Sinatra's personal security guard at Caesars Palace) and another seven as an usher in Manhattan's world-famous St. Patrick's Cathedral. 

We had the privilege of interviewing Uncle Frank for a What's In My Bag? episode back in 2008.

RIP Uncle Frank.