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Van Conner, co-founding bassist of alternative rock band Screaming Trees, has died at 55. Conner’s brother and bandmate, Gary Lee Conner, shared the news in a social media statement. “Van Conner, bassist and songwriter of Screaming Trees, died last night of an extended illness at 55,” he wrote. “It was pneumonia that got him in the end. He was one of the closest friends I ever had, and I loved him immensely. I will miss him forever and ever and ever.” Born in 1967 in Apple Valley, Calif., and raised in Ellensburg, Wash., Conner formed the band Explosive Generation in...

Grunge pioneer Mark Lanegan has died at the age of 57, according to a tweet from his personal Twitter account. Lanegan, whose 1985-formed Screaming Trees – along with The Melvins, Mudhoney, Soundgarden and others – laid the foundation for Seattle’s grunge movement of the 1990s, died at his home in Killarney, Ireland, KIRO-TV reported. The Screaming Trees released seven albums, five EPs and three compilation albums throughout their career, growing in prominence alongside Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and Nirvana, the TV station reported. According to Variety, Lanegan followed his stint as the Screaming Trees lead vocalist with a prolific...

Kurt Cobain’s guitar from Nirvana’s iconic MTV Unplugged performance sold at auction Saturday for a record $6 million. The previous record was $3.95 million for a Black Stratocaster owned by Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour. Pre-auction bids on the 1959 Martin D-18E, purchased by the Nirvana singer at Los Angeles’ Voltage Guitars and modified for the left-handed Cobain, reached $1 million even bidding officially opened Saturday. The guitar received seven bids total, including the winning bid of $6,010,00, the Julien’s Auctions website stated. The guitar also came with its original hard-shell case that Cobain had adorned with a flyer for the...

NOT a photoshop. That is Beto on the left as part of the Punk Rock Band Foss. You can also see the pic in this Rolling Stone ARTICLE.

.... and the question remains: Did he ruin Rock, or was he a musical genius?

The guitars blare a familiar tune and Kurt Cobain approaches the microphone, moppish hair covering his haunted eyes. But when the lyrics kick in, it's not the words to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" that come out, it's "You Give Love a Bad Name." Cobain, or at least his computer-generated likeness, can be made to sing the Bon Jovi anthem (and many other non-Nirvana songs) in "Guitar Hero 5." And that has his estate threatening legal action. The game features two Nirvana tunes among the 85 songs that come with the game. Once players successfully complete one of those songs, Cobain's...

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Sub Pop Records, the indie label that gave the world Nirvana, will celebrate its 20th birthday with a weekend of concerts in a Seattle park in July. Among the groups reuniting or breaking long hiatuses for the July 12-13 event at Marymoor Park are Green River, Red Red Meat, the Fluid, Beachwood Sparks and Seaweed. Current label acts confirmed to appear include Mudhoney, comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, Fleet Foxes, Foals, Grand Archives, the Helio Sequence, Iron & Wine, Kinski, Low, No Age, Wolf Parade, Pissed Jeans and the Ruby Suns. Additional bands will be...

We had an extended debate at the office today....what was the best "MTv Unplugged" performance? Me? Hands down....Alice in Chains! Before any reasons are discussed ..... I was curious as to anyone else's opinions or preferences on the topic?

A biography of late Alice In Chains frontman Layne Staley might be turned into a movie, reports Blabbermouth.net. A press release from Arts Publications indicated that Argentinean journalist Adriana Rubio has been contacted by Philadelphia-based filmmaker Eric Moyer about making a film version of her book, Layne Staley: Get Born Again. Moyer said in a statement, "I am determined to make this film about Layne Staley, not only to celebrate his life and talent, but to warn others through his compelling story that heroin will kill you...no matter who you are." Staley died in April of 2002 after struggling with...

Some people have a favorite poem. Not me. I have a least favorite — and I remember precisely the moment when I knew that it was utter rubbish. It happened while I was reading The New Criterion, whose 25th anniversary is now upon us — about which more in a moment. The poem is “Howl,” by Allen Ginsberg — and oh, gentle reader, how it reeks to high heaven. Although it’s vulgar and verseless — or perhaps because it’s vulgar and verseless — “Howl” is routinely hailed as one of the finest accomplishments of the so-called Beat Generation. Earlier this...

Soul Asylum Bassist Dies By Charlie Amter Soul Asylum cofounder Karl Mueller is, in the words of one of his songs, "Closer to the Stars." The bassist for the hit-making alt-rock band died Friday in Minneapolis after a long battle with throat cancer. He was 41. According to Mueller's longtime friend (and former Jayhawks manager) Maggie Macpherson, Mueller was due to have surgery Monday. Mueller had been fighting the cancer since the spring of 2004, prompting Soul Asylum, with Mueller, and fellow Minneapolis rock legends Hüsker Dü to regroup for a special October benefit concert. Mueller, along with frontman Dave...

Win or lose, Sen. John F. Kerry [related, bio] has pulled off something people have tried to do for more than a decade: reuniting the surviving members of Nirvana. Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, who made rock history in Seattle with the late Kurt Cobain, will appear today at a Kerry rally at the Stardust Casino in Las Vegas. Grohl will perform with his band, Foo Fighters. Novoselic, an activist who authored ``Of Grunge and Government,'' will speak. Also expected are Kerry's daughter, Alexandra, stepson, Chris Heinz, and Tom DeLonge of punk band Blink 182.

The boy looked just like Kurt Cobain. He was no more than 19. Same yellow hanging hair, fallow blue eyes, the sad square jaw, innocent and adult. We were in a Brooklyn basement full of artists and sound-poets gathered to watch musicians throw down extreme noise improvisation. One performer played records with two customized tone arms on his turntable; the discs broke and scratched, creating shards of hyperfractured beat play. He was followed by a quartet of young women scraping metal files across amplified coils mixed through junk electronics. I was to perform a spontaneous guitar/amp feedback piece with a...

SEATTLE - Grunge-rock pioneer Krist Novoselic says he may run for lieutenant governor of Washington state in what would be the next step of a transition from rock star to politician. Novoselic, a founder and bass player of the seminal band Nirvana and more recently an activist Democrat, is enough of a politician already to be wary about facing off against fellow Democrat Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, a two-term incumbent. But he's thinking seriously about the intra-party challenge, is talking to party leaders and says he does not want to go through 2004 as a spectator. "I've been really contemplating...

Incensed fans walked out of Pearl Jam's concert Tuesday after lead singer Eddie Vedder impaled a mask of President Bush on a microphone stand, then slammed it to the stage. Most of Vedder's antiwar remarks earlier in the Pepsi Center show were greeted with mixed cheers and scattered boos. But dozens of angry fans walked out during the encore because of the macabre display with the Bush mask, which he wore for the song Bushleaguer, a Bush- taunting song from the band's latest album, Riot Act. "When he was sharing his political views in a fairly benign manner - supporting...

Incensed fans walked out of Pearl Jam's concert Tuesday after lead singer Eddie Vedder impaled a mask of President Bush on a microphone stand, then slammed it to the stage. Most of Vedder's antiwar remarks earlier in the Pepsi Center show were greeted with mixed cheers and scattered boos. But dozens of angry fans walked out during the encore because of the macabre display with the Bush mask, which he wore for the song Bushleaguer, a Bush- taunting song from the band's latest album, Riot Act. "When he was sharing his political views in a fairly benign manner - supporting...

Concert-goers jam exits after anti-Bush display By Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News April 3, 2003 Incensed fans walked out of Pearl Jam's concert Tuesday after lead singer Eddie Vedder impaled a mask of President Bush on a microphone stand, then slammed it to the stage. Most of Vedder's antiwar remarks earlier in the Pepsi Center show were greeted with mixed cheers and scattered boos. But dozens of angry fans walked out during the encore because of the macabre display with the Bush mask, which he wore for the song Bushleaguer, a Bush- taunting song from the band's latest album, Riot...

The Badger Herald received a letter from pipe bomb suspect and UW-Stout junior Luke John Helder postmarked Omaha, Neb., Friday, May 3, 2002. The Herald turned the letter over to the FBI Tuesday afternoon. Click here to see text of letter. Click here to see the actual letter. The FBI took Helder into custody at 6:55 p.m. CST about 90 miles northeast of Reno for his connection with recent pipe bombings in mailboxes throughout the rural Midwest. Police surrounded him in Nevada at 6 p.m. Tuesday before arresting him after he dropped a gun out of his car window. At...

A body was found Friday at the University District home of Layne Staley, the lead singer of the seminal Seattle grunge band Alice in Chains. Law enforcement sources said the body was Staley's, but would not give specifics and referred all questions to police spokesmen -- who did not return repeated calls for comment. According to the Seattle Fire Department's dispatch log, an aid response was called to Staley's last known address in the 4500 block of Eighth Avenue Northeast in the University District, a section of the city where many boarding homes are located. The Medical Examiner's office said...