Arturo Vega, who spent 22 years as artistic director and confidant to the Ramones, creating the punk legends’ iconic logo and many of their album covers, as well as running the RamonesWorld.com website, died today, according to Punk magazine co-founder and “Please Kill Me” author Legs McNeil.
The Ramones’ 1976 self-titled debut album was inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry today alongside 25 other songs and records — including Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack — as examples of the “richness and variety of our audio heritage
As we wait for the release of the delayed “US Generation” documentary — not to mention next week’s English Beat CD/DVD combo Live at the US Festival — it’s worth marking today’s 30th anniversary of the first of two giant multi-day US Festivals, envisioned by their organizer, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, as “Woodstock West.”
For this week’s ‘120 Minutes Rewind,’ we offer up a clip of unusually good video quality, a nine-minute reel from summer 1990 that saw Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore and drummer Steve Shelley sitting down to talk about the band’s just-released ‘Goo’ album with host Dave Kendall.
Hellcat Records on Tuesday marked what would have been Joe Strummer’s 60th birthday by announcing and immediately releasing a digital box set compiling the late Clash frontman’s recorded output with late-’90s, early-2000s band The Mescaleros — including an unreleased 2002 live set.
The Cure’s Robert Smith is again teaming up with director Tim Burton, following up his contribution to the companion album to Burton’s 2010 version of “Alice in Wonderland” with a song on the upcoming Frankenweenie Unleashed!, a 14-track collection of songs “inspired by” the filmmaker’s new stop-motion creation.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is helping make a feature-length documentary about the so-called ‘Woodstock of the ’80s’ — the 1982 US Festival, which featured Talking Heads, Oingo Boingo, The B-52s, The Cars, Ramones, Gang of Four and more — to be released this Labor Day weekend on the event’s 30th anniversary.
Q&A: Daniel Ash on Love and Rockets’ reunion, his new band — and figuring out how to play “So Alive” 
Q&A: Chris Frantz talks Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club and new book ‘Remain in Love’ 
Q&A: Steve Wynn on The Dream Syndicate’s first new album in nearly 30 years 
Q&A: Bauhaus’ David J on his ‘accidental’ concept album ‘Not Long For This World’ 
Q&A: Peter Murphy on ‘Ninth,’ Bauhaus’ break-up, reuniting Dalis Car 
Q&A: Joey Santiago on Pixies’ ‘Doolittle’ tour, possible ‘Surfer Rosa’ shows, new album talk 
Q&A: Prefab Sprout’s Paddy McAloon on new album, changing the world with music 
Q&A: Peter Hook talks ‘Unknown Pleasures’ tour, re-recording Joy Division 