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  • Keith Urban Checks Into Rehab, Will Miss CMAs

    In a year when all seemed to be going well for country superstar Keith Urban, things have fallen apart again.

    Urban, who is married to Oscar winner Nicole Kidman, checked himself into rehab for what will be a long stint. Nominated for four Country Music Awards to be made on November 3, Urban will miss the entire show and has canceled plans to support his latest release, due out early next month.

    Spinning In The CD Today:
    Ben Folds’ supersunnyspeedgraphic, a collection of his EPs plus some rare cuts. Making the grade — one of Folds’ best ballads, Learn To Live With Who You Are.

  • CBGBs Goes Bye-Bye, But Is Vegas Next?

    Legendary club CBGBs, the acknowledged home of American new wave and punk, has received massive media coverage this week as the famous nightspot closed its doors.

    The kids grooving to Blondie or The Ramones 30 years ago are now AARP-eligible and the energy and magic bestowed by the club seems somewhat tame.

    That’s why the big surprise that the club might move – intact, no less – to Las Vegas to become part of the tourist kitsch that makes up the excess of America’s wasteland.

    Some things are better left as memories. While closing the club was a shame, do we really need someone tromping through the insides where a musical genre was honed and treating it like some tourist attraction? No. Here in America, we save that for government buildings and churches.

    You know what The Ramones would say, right? That’s right. “Fuck it. When do we go on?”

    Spinning In The CD:
    Today seemed like the perfect day for Green Day’s Bullet In A Bible, mostly the American Idiot live portions. Nothing like good ole’ Billy Joe hollerin’ at England like the massive stadium was CBGBs itself. England, that’s Tre Cool!

  • Freddy Fender’s Next Teardrop Falls

    Freddy Fender, 69, is dead of what media reports are calling lung cancer.

    Fender offered a unique mix of Mexican-American and country-western music, and began recording at the age of 20. His early career was marred by arrest and imprisonment while his later carer was hampered by various medical ailments. Despite those, Fender won the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Performance.

    His most famous song was Before The Next Teardrop Falls, which became a crossover #1 Billboard hit in 1975. Fender had another top 10 hit that year with Wasted Days and Wasted Nights and a #20 single with Secret Love the same year. Truly, 1975 was a good year for the portly Texan.

    Fender’s official webpage has been turned into an online memorial and has hundreds of entries as of this writing.

    Spinning In The CD Today:
    Are You Ready For Freddy – Fender’s breakthrough hit album 31 years ago.

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