Vic Chesnutt Has Died

Sad news today from Athens Georgia today…

Vic Chesnutt's record label, Constellation Records, has released a statement confirming that the 45-year-old singer-songwriter has died. "Surrounded by family and friends, Vic Chesnutt died in Athens Georgia this afternoon, Friday December 25 at 14:59," the statement reads. "In the few short years that we knew him personally, Vic transformed our sense of what true character, grace and determination are all about. Our grief is inexpressible and Vic's absence unfathomable. We will make more information available according to the wishes of Vic's family and friends."

There's widespread speculation on the Web, but no confirmation, that Chesnutt committed suicide. "We have no comment right now on the specifics other than that his doctors are continuing to assess his condition," Constellation Records co-owner Don Wilkie wrote Thursday, while Chesnutt was in a coma. "We will issue a full statement at an appropriate time. In the interim, we request that everybody respect Vic's privacy and that of his family."

Chesnutt waged a very long and public battle with inner demons since before the release his first solo album Little (produced by Michael Stipe) in 1990. After becoming confined to a wheelchair at age 18 following a car accident, he publicly struggled with depression, anxiety and substance abuse.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the musician faced nearly $70,000 in hospital bills, a subject he brought up in an interview earlier this month. From the interview:

I was making payments, but I can't anymore and I really have no idea what I'm going to do. It seems absurd they can charge this much. When I think about all this, it gets me so furious. I could die tomorrow because of other operations I need that I can't afford. I could die any day now, but I don't want to pay them another nickel.

Despite these huge adversities Chesnutt did maintain an extraordinarily prolific career, releasing more than a dozen albums as a solo artist and many more while collaborating with other musicians, including Widespread Panic and Lambchop. Chesnutt released two albums in 2009, At the Cut and Skitter on Take Off.

Friends of the musician have set up a tribute page to Chesnutt, where fans are encouraged to donate money to his family to help them fulfill the singer-songwriter's medical debt.

There Is a Time of Reckoning in All Our Lives

Today, Universal Music will release the Deluxe Edition of R.E.M.’s seminal album Reckoning. The now two-CD set, features the original album remastered, plus a bonus disc of a previously unreleased concert recorded during the band’s "Little America" tour at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom on July 7, 1984 (broadcast on WXRT). In addition, Reckoning and R.E.M’s 1983 debut album Murmur will be simultaneously reissued on audiophile quality 180 gram vinyl in their complete original packaging.

It was just that original packaging that drew me to this band over twenty five years ago. The Howard Finster/ Michael Stipe artwork was almost hypnotic to me and I spent countless hours trying to extract meaning from its outsider art themes. The record itself was produced by Mitch Easter and Don Dixon, and was recorded at Reflection Sound Studio in Charlotte, North Carolina over 16 days in December 1983 and January 1984. The results were groundbreaking and it remains one of my favourites of R.E.M.’s extensive canon.

According to the press release for the reissue, "Inclusion of the live concert is particularly appropriate for the Reckoning - Deluxe Edition. Whereas Murmur had been complex and painstakingly deliberate, the band’s Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe, along with producers Mitch Easter and Don Dixon, saw Reckoning as a "chance to turn up the volume, tear up the rule book, and capture instead R.E.M.’s on-stage mojo." Their use of binaural mics in the recording process went a long way in establishing that aesthetic.

On the Deluxe Edition’s bonus disc, the band performs eight of Reckoning’s ten songs at the Aragon as well as “Gardening At Night” from 1982’s Chronic Town EP and “Radio Free Europe,” “9-9” and “Sitting Still” from Murmur. The band also plays two new songs that had yet to make it onto tape: “Driver 8” which would later appear on Fables of the Reconstruction and “Hyena," later on 1986's Lifes Rich Pageant.

Reckoning peaked on the charts at #27, nine spots higher than Murmur (Rolling Stone’s 1983 "Album of the Year") and was certified gold in 1991.

R.E.M. – Reckoning Deluxe Edition: DISC ONE

1. Harborcoat
2. 7 Chinese Bros.
3. So. Central Rain
4. Pretty Persuasion
5. Time After Time (Annelise)
6. Second Guessing
7. Letter Never Sent
8. Camera
9. (Don't Go Back To) Rockville
10. Little America

DISC TWO – Live at the Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, IL, July 7, 1984 / WXRT broadcast: Previously Unreleased
11. Femme Fatale
12. Radio Free Europe
13. Gardening at Night
14. 9-9
15. Windout
16. Letter Never Sent
17. Sitting Still
18. Driver 8
19. So. Central Rain
20. 7 Chinese Bros.
21. Harborcoat
22. Cushy Tush
23. Hyena
24. Pretty Persuasion
25. Little America
26. Second Guessing
27. (Don't Go Back To) Rockville

“Where Your Treasure is, There Will Your Heart Be Also”

We all have our small treasures… Those things that make our hearts swell and evoke knowing smiles with only a mere glance. Ah those trinkets, baubles, reminders, mementos, souvenirs, and collectibles that fill our desk drawers and line our bookshelves. They are the physical reminders of our lives lived. They symbolize our very experiences, our reminiscences and special occasions. Oh what vivid stories these ornaments can and do evoke. That is their magic.

It is specifically those stories that I am compelled to tell and hopefully so will some of you that read this- Now, considering the numbers of personal treasures I have currently lining my bookshelves et al, I might just turn this into a semi-regular feature. A brief preface is in order though. This whole concept came about after a recent “blipping” session on Blip.FM. (That being the social networking DJ/ VJ phenom that is currently ‘a sweepin’ the nations. (I posted about it earlier.)) One of the curious outcomes about said site is the users desire to share the music that they love; sometimes very obscure music. This is precisely what I did. I blipped a John Oswald (Plunderphonics) song, “O’Hell” and a short confession to fellow ‘Blipeur’ Barb the Bad Tempered Zombie spoke of my love for the avant garde musician/ artist. And thus the kernel for this post was born. His music is one of my treasures.

John Oswald is one of those artist/ musicians that truly speaks to the music lover in me. For the uninitiated John Oswald is a Canadian composer, saxophonist and media artist. His best known project is Plunderphonics, the practice of making new music out of previously existing recordings using “electroquotes”; (not unlike sound collage and musical montage). Inspired by William S. Burroughs' cut-up technique, Oswald had been devising plunderphonic-style compositions since the late '60s.

As a result of using music on these terms you can imagine this music is not without controversy The greatest of which was the 1988 release of the Plunderphonics EP, which he distributed to the press and to radio stations. It contained four plundered tracks: "Don't" by Elvis Presley, "Pocket" by Count Basie, "Pretender" featured Dolly Parton singing "The Great Pretender" but progressively slowed down so that she sounds like a man by the end, and "Spring", a version of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. In 1989, Oswald released an expanded version of the Plunderphonics album containing twenty-five tracks, each using material from a different artist. In 1990, notice was given to Oswald by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) on behalf of several of their clients (notably Michael Jackson, whose song "Bad" had been cut up, layered, and rearranged as "Dab") that all undistributed copies of Plunderphonics be destroyed under threat of legal action. An excerpt from a press release on the plunderphonics website is repeated below:

"I wasn't selling the disc in the stores, so I let listeners tape it off the radio for free," explains Oswald, who paid for the production and manufacture of the CD out of his own pocket. He receives no royalties or financial compensation for airplay. Brian Robertson, president of CRIA says, ``What this demonstrates is the vulnerability of the recording industry to new technology...All we see is just another example of theft." Oswald received notice from CRIA's lawyers demanding that he cease distributing Plunderphonic as of Xmas eve '89. "They insisted I quit playing Santa Claus," Oswald observes.

His body of work is one of the jewels of my music collection and I have gone to great lengths to track down his recorded output. To say that his CD’s and LP’s are rare is a huge understatement. He is not a traditional artist in any sense whatsoever and therefore distribution methods are often unorthodox. As a result, all of his CD’s have come to me from diverse areas of the world. (And yes, I have a copy of the famous aforementioned disc.) I have acquired most by luck, by fortuitousness and by sheer determination. From Paris, Vancouver, Seattle, London, San Francisco, Tokyo to Toronto these discs have seen more of the world than I have. All have a back story and each made me love music a little more. It is the stuff that enthralls me and totally captures my imagination. Consequently they constitute some of my greatest treasures.

I have also had the great fortune to have corresponded with Mr. Oswald on a couple of occasions although I have never met him in person. He has patiently answered my fanboy questions and even signed a number of my favourite discs. Admittedly, the art of John Oswald may not be for everyone but it is for me. Indeed my heart does swell when I see that section in my collection dedicated to him.

So that’s Volume I of this little segment. I’ll definitely do this again but I know that you have your own treasures to write about. Allison, Barbara, Amity and Matthew, tell us about your bookshelf treasures sometime. No deadlines though, when inspiration strikes...

Beastie Boys Reissue Paul's Boutique

(Insert Dream Weaver sound affects here.) Why I remember it clearly; it’s almost like it was yesterday… Standing in line at the record shop, (young un’s ask your parents) with the brand new Beastie Boys CD in my sweaty little palms. Sure the first record was okay, (Muchmusic rendered so much of it annoying at that point.) But this one just looked promising, and boy oh beastie boy did it deliver. It really didn’t leave my Sony CD Walkman much for a good two months. I loved that record and in many ways I still do, even twenty years after the fact. So news today that to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their sophomore album, Paul's Boutique, Beastie Boys have announced plans to reissue the classic disc gave me a much needed new year’s boost. The new disc will be digitally remastered for the first time with the hands-on beastie trio in the studio overseeing the entire process.

The original vinyl artwork will be restored in an eco-friendly, eight-panel digipak which features a panoramic view of NYC. Fans will also receive a foldout poster and a free download of a track-by-track commentary by the MCs. All this can be yours starting January 27th.

Get funky. No more standing in line for this dorky hip hop lovin’ Dad!