Despite SXSW being in full swing this week, there was hardly a slowdown on the news front, with the music world delivering its fair share of ups, downs and a lot in between.
Marking the biggest down by far, Big Star's Alex Chilton died of an apparent heart attack on Wednesday (March 17). Word of his tragic passing quickly led to a mass of online tributes, including from Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie, Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake, Hot Chip and countless others. Big Star were to play SXSW this week, but instead the band's surviving members will play a tribute show to Chilton alongside several special guests in Austin, TX on Saturday (March 20).
In further bad news, Junkhouse guitarist Dan Achen passed away this week as well.
On the more up side of things, Wolf Parade gave us the scoop on their upcoming new album, which is due out this summer, John K. Samson shed some light on the Weakerthans' new live record, and a pair of filmmakers let us in on their new documentary No Fun City, which will explore Vancouver's struggling DIY underground and its various venue closure issues.
And for that in between, we have Slash doing some backpedalling over his "gay" Michael Jackson comment, NDP MP Charlie Angus introducing an iPod levy and "fair dealing" motion to Canadian Parliament, and news that outsider music legend Daniel Johnston may get a new biopic, which, believe it or not, could star Johnny Depp, Philip Seymour Hoffman and/or John C. Reilly.
Marking the biggest down by far, Big Star's Alex Chilton died of an apparent heart attack on Wednesday (March 17). Word of his tragic passing quickly led to a mass of online tributes, including from Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie, Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake, Hot Chip and countless others. Big Star were to play SXSW this week, but instead the band's surviving members will play a tribute show to Chilton alongside several special guests in Austin, TX on Saturday (March 20).
In further bad news, Junkhouse guitarist Dan Achen passed away this week as well.
On the more up side of things, Wolf Parade gave us the scoop on their upcoming new album, which is due out this summer, John K. Samson shed some light on the Weakerthans' new live record, and a pair of filmmakers let us in on their new documentary No Fun City, which will explore Vancouver's struggling DIY underground and its various venue closure issues.
And for that in between, we have Slash doing some backpedalling over his "gay" Michael Jackson comment, NDP MP Charlie Angus introducing an iPod levy and "fair dealing" motion to Canadian Parliament, and news that outsider music legend Daniel Johnston may get a new biopic, which, believe it or not, could star Johnny Depp, Philip Seymour Hoffman and/or John C. Reilly.
