Drummer Dies Onstage, Band Keeps Playing

On Saturday night, Brad Parker, the drummer for an American band called Generation Esmeralda, was doing his usual thing during a gig in Uba, a city some four hours north of Rio.  Suddenly, he slumped and fell over.  Brad suffered a fatal heart attack onstage.

At first, the band didn't know what was going on, so they just kept playing.  It wasn't until they looked back and couldn't see Brad that they knew something was wrong.  Naturally, everything was caught on video.

 (Via New York Daily News)

So Is Billie Joe's Substance Abuse Issue Alcohol?

According to Celebuzz, Green Day's Bille Joe Armstrong had been sober for about a year before hitting the sauce pretty hard leading up to his outburst in Las Vegas.

This comes from Tre Cool and his wife.  Full article here.

NBC Working on a Drama About the Young Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison, the man who gave us recorded sound (among many other things), is reported to be the subject of a new crime drama at NBC.  Called Edison, it's coming from a company called Gran Via Productions, which is run by a dude named Mark Johnson.  He produces Breaking Bad.  That sound promising.

Edison will be set in New York in the 1880s.  Expect the main character to be some kind of crime-fighting Tony Stark.  In other words, Person of Interest set about 130 years in the past.

Details here.

Weekly Music Sales Report: 26 September 2012

The pre-Christmas rush has kicked in nicely.  It likes like the record industry won't have to call in NFL replacement referees to change the outcome of the fourth quarter.  

With four releases selling over 10,000 copies--a good number in these times--it was a decent week at retail in Canada.  Year-to-date sales remain steady at 2% ahead of last year and physical CD sales haven't dropped any lower than the current pace of -9%.  Digitally, individual songs are up 24% over 2011 and full albums are up 30%.

P!nk has her first #1 record in Canada with The Truth About Love, selling a solid 28,000 copies.  Miroir from Marie-Mai is at #2 (19,500) followed by Battle Born from the Killers (12,000) and Good Music Crue (a Kanye West production (11,800).

And there's no stopping PSY on the digital side.  "Gangnam Style" is the #1 download with 45,000 purchases, up 57% from last week.  That makes it the fifth-biggest one week download so far this year. He's now in the same company as Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Gotye.

Click to read more ...

The Most 50 Stylish Men in Music--Ever

According to Shortlist, anyway.  Start with Bowie and see the rest here.  And prepare to be surprised.