Artist: Obituary

Soul pioneer Isaac Hayes was found dead at his Memphis home this morning. Hayes' decades-spanning career began with a gig writing, arranging, and producing music at Stax Records, where he collaborated with David Porter on tracks for Sam & Dave and Carla Thomas, among others. His own recording career began in 1967, then really took off with 1969's landmark Hot Buttered Soul ; later, his work on the Shaft soundtrack would go on to garner worldwide acclaim and high sales, with both the album and its title track reaching No. 1 on the US charts and Hayes [...]

From the New York Times : Isaac Hayes, the pioneering singer, songwriter and musician whose relentless ''Theme From Shaft'' won Academy and Grammy awards, has been found dead at home. He was 65. The Shelby County Sheriff's Office says a family member found Hayes unresponsive near a treadmill on Sunday. He was pronounced dead about an hour later at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis. The cause of death was not immediately known. Read more here . Isaac Hayes Wikipedia Page [...]

Robert Hazard, songwriter, has died . Born Robert Rimato, Hazard's greatest gift to pop was as songwriter of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, but he was also a performer in his own right. His band The Heroes had one of those fairytale strokes of luck in building a national profile - Rolling Stone had sent Kurt Loder to cover a gig in Philadelphia; he stumbled across Hazard's band playing in a bar and wrote a feature on them. Loder's predictions of "limousine life" never quite were fulfilled, but they did tolerably well - a self-produced ep was [...]

You are probably asking yourself right now: "Who is Robert Hazard"?. Before I read the headline today on metafilter I had no idea either so we are basically learning together. He wrote the song "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" and had a couple other hits including a song called "Change Reaction" and also "Escalator of [...]

• Robert Hazard - Escalator Of Life

Philadelphia-bred New Waver Robert Hazard, who performed the early-'80s hit "Escalator Of Life" (above) and wrote "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," which went to No. 2 on the U.S. pop charts after Cyndi Lauper covered it on her 1983 album She's So Unusual , has passed away. Hazard died from issues related to pancreatic cancer, which had caused him to postpone some recent tour dates. He was 59. [ Philly.com ; HT MTS / YouTube ]

Sorry to hear of the cruel, untimely death of Alex McCulloch , lead guitarist with Preston's Me Vs Hero. The band are asking for people to respect Alex's family and their privacy; the comments on their blog entry is offered as a space for online tributes.

Festival die-hards who were waiting to traipse down to south Jersey for the Vineland Festival, the multi-day, multi-band fest that was "postponed" from this year to a summer 2009 launch date , are going to be disappointed: The festival's plug has been pulled by C3 Presents, the Texas-based company that also puts on Lollapalooza, thanks to the immediate area being too saturated with multi-day affairs. Late last year, C3 announced they were going to stage a three-day music festival on a 550-acre farm in Vineland, N.J., on Aug. 8-10. A few months later, the festival was [...]

Joe Beck, session jazz guitarist, has died . Splitting his career between farming and music, Beck worked with an impressive line-up of artists, including Gloria Gaynor, Miles Davis, James Brown and Frank Sinatra. He told George Cole in an interview for The Last Miles how he'd got into playing: I was around five or six I found a banjo in the attic in my house and I started fiddling around with that and I was able to figure out to play a chord or two and have fun. Then I heard [Spanish classical [...]

The death has been announced of Michael Berniker , who won nine Grammy Awards during a long career. Berniker's greatest work was as a producer of Broadway Cast albums, achieving the difficult task of moving the atmosphere of a crowded theatre to a recording studio. His first Grammy came as a producer for Barbra Streisand. After leaving his first label, CBS, in 1968, Berniker enjoyed some success as an executive at a number of other companies. It was he who brought Darryl Hall and John Oates to RCA. Berniker, who was 73, died [...]

It's hard to talk about the great saxophonist Johnny Griffin without focusing on his speed. He played as fast as any free jazz saxophonist I've ever heard, but he never lost touch with soul of song. And that's what I treasure most about Griffin, who died today at age 80. For example, he blazes through "The Way You Look Tonight" on his classic "A Blowing Session" album, but his play is incredibly nuanced, sweet even. That's quite a trick. My favorite recordings by Griffin, though, are the ones he made with fellow saxophonist Eddie [...]

I was more of a Betty White kind of kid, but Estelle Getty and the feisty character of Sophia always made me laugh. Of course she made Stop or My Mom Will Shoot um, well, not even she couldn't make that movie bearable. Still, though, she'll be missed. Thank goodness for reruns. And though I can't quite eulogize everyone's television grandma the guy below I think captured what we're all feeling. "I've played mothers to heroes and mothers to zeroes. I've played Irish mothers, Jewish mothers, [...]

Khia Edgerton, better known as the "Club Queen K-Swift", Baltimore DJ and radio personality, died yesterday at the age of 29 after a swimming pool accident at her home. As someone from way outside Baltimore's city limits, it's nearly impossible for me to try to capture the impact K-Swift's death has had on the community there—there have been candlelight vigils at 92Q (where she worked) and front-page stories on the local papers, as well as tributes all over the Internet. Besides being a well-known club DJ outside the Baltimore area, K-Swift worked [...]

Artie Traum, a key player in the New York Folk scene of the 1960s, has died . Traum formed a Woodstock-based duo with his brother, the spectacularly named Happy Traum. Represented by Albert Grossman, whose stable also included Peter Paul And Mary. A trio of successful albums followed, before the brothers went their separate musical ways in 1977. They continued to work together, however, presenting a radio show together before reuniting on record in 1994. During the 1970s and 80s, Artie was a key member and producer for the Woodstock Mountains Revue, a loose grouping [...]

Comedian George Carlin has died from heart failure at the age of 71. Carlin has more than 20 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, numerous TV and movie roles, and three best-selling books to his credit. Last year, he celebrated his 50th year in show business. He is survived by his wife, Sally Wade; daughter, Kelly Carlin McCall; and older brother, Patrick Carlin. [...]

Comedian George Carlin has died from heart failure at the age of 71. Carlin has more than 20 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, numerous TV and movie roles, and three best-selling books to his credit. Last year, he celebrated his 50th year in show business. He is survived by his wife, Sally Wade; daughter, Kelly Carlin [...]

At 3:26 P.M. est, Heath ledger was found dead in an apparent overdose. Police statement as follows: "ON TUESDAY, 01/22/08, AT APPROXIMATELY 1530 HOURS, IN THE CONFINES OF THE 5 PRECINCT, POLICE RESPONDED TO 421 BROOME STREET AND FOUND A M/W/28 UNCONSCIOUS. THE VICTIM WAS PRONOUNCED DOA AT THE SCENE. M.E.'S OFFICE TO DETERMINE THE CAUSE OF DEATH. INVESTIGATION CONTINUES." There was a rumor that the apartment was owned by one of the Olsen Twins. But the Olsen camp says it was not. Our hearts go [...]

> OBITUARY has had a 30 second audio sample from their upcoming album, "Xecutioner's Return" posted at Plastichead.com. The album is due out in North America August 28th via Candlelight Records. > ANIMOSITY will have guest vocals contributed from Travis Ryan of CATTLE DECAPITATION, Guy Kozowyk from THE RED CHORD, and Bob Meadows of A LIFE [...]

• Obituary - Evil Ways

Unchained Melody is one of the most iconic songs of all time. The writer of this song, Lyricist Hy Zaret, passed away yesterday at the ripe old age of 99. In his memory, I found some of the more well known renditions (and there are a lot to choose from): Elvis Presley, Righteous Brothers , U2, The Scene from the movie Ghost , Tom Jones, and Engelbert Humperdinck. There are two other songs which I had always attributed to others were in fact [...]

Calvin DeForest, better known as Larry "Bud" Melman, died after a long illness. Some of my favorite memories of television in the 80's involve Melman's appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman . When he was found by producers of the show, he was working as a file clerk at a drug rehabilitation center. Next thing you know he's interviewing and delivering hot towels to bus patrons for Letterman . As far as music goes, [...]

Florida blackened death metal band INFERNAEON frontman Brian Werner has been interviewed by About.com and covered details surrounding the band's debut release, " A Symphony of Suffering ," the band's ranks which include ex- MONSTROSITY members and the album's concept and guest appearances. A few excerpts from the full interview: "Briefly describe the concept behind " A Symphony Of Suffering ." Well the first two tunes are separate from the last three. The first tune is about the Marquis De Sade, one of my favorite authors. The word sadist [...]