A Rock and Roll Rocket
By Jenna Croyle

When you think of the Erie music scene, bands like the M-80’s, Diesel Houdini, Key West Express or Thirst 'n Howl may come to mind. Erie is somewhat of a melting pot for music, with mixtures and blends of many styles and genres.
 

band with Vocals, Kristen Schrum.

As a veteran musician, Shawn "Cosmo" Brosius brings years of experience to the stage having been a part of such well-known and popular Erie bands as Wildflower, The Shindig and of course, the phenomenal band Jam Baked.

In his own style and with dynamic presence on stage, Brosius shreds the licks of some of the greats such as Aretha Franklin and Dusty Springfield while never upstaging the rest of the band.

One of the most unforgettable things about this band is the mix of the Sax, Phil Anderson adds a unique twist with his masterful use of overtones. Many things factor into and shape the final sound of a Saxophone, as the recipient of the 2010 RockErie Horn Award, Anderson seems to have them all.

In addition, the band went on to sweep the 2010 awards, winning every category in which they were nominated including best cover/tribute band.

With a waling and powerful raspy sound, Kristen Schrum takes center stage as she leads this award-winning band through every show. While performing the songs you might expect from a female singer, Schrum also breaks the boundaries by tackling tunes usually sung by male artists such as the Guess Who and the Stones.

As somewhat of a newcomer to the Erie music scene, Schrum got her singing start co-starring opposite local radio personality Shannon Solo as June Carter in Theatre 145’s 2008 production of the Johnny Cash Tribute Show. The popularity of Schrum’s voice with the capacity crowds forced the show’s producer Steve Opsanic to add additional songs for Schrum to sing throughout the show.

Later that year, Schrum stared in the Remembering Janis show giving an astonishingly realistic performance as Janis Joplin. The show’s producer Steve Opsanic stated, “Kristen gave such an amazing portrayal of Joplin that we actually had a sold-out opening night audience that kept chanting Janis…Janis…Janis.” “That was a once in a lifetime reaction.” Opsanic added.

With amazing performances that shatter the Erie standard of female singers, it is no big surprise that Schrum was awarded the  Female Vocalist award at last year's RockErie Music Awards

With a collection of outrageously talented musicians, a set list of all the best songs we grew up loving and featuring perhaps the most energetic and pulsating female singer in Erie today, this band is a must see.

Kristen and the Cosmonauts are an Instrumental Rock and Roll Rocket that will blast you into an intransient musical odyssey of sound that will blow your mind.

For More information on Kristen and the Cosmonauts, please visit their Facebook Page.

Stephen Trohoske, The Man and his Bass
By Drew Chiodo

There are a plethora of talented musicians in the Erie area who display their work in venues across the city everyday. Acts ranging from jazz and blues to metal and hardcore.

With each musician, comes a unique and interesting story of how things came to be. Each journey is different for every person, but some journeys are so original and intriguing, that one cannot help but lend an ear for a listen. The story of local talent Stephen Trohoske is just such a tale.

Over the past 20 years of making, playing and listening to music, Trohoske has crafted the art of bass into something more. Trohoske gives playing bass not just a sound or a melody, but a soul as well.

With a massive wealth of talent and tight, precise finger work, Trohoske brings rapid-fire accuracy and musicality to the table with every note he plays.

Some musicians may play bass, but Trohoske has the talent, passion and commitment that allows the listener to really feel the music in their soul.

“I first started playing music when I was around 14 or 15, but there was always music in my home,” said Trohoske.

Trohoske grew up always surrounded by music. His grandfather was a classical violinist for the Erie Philharmonic and always kept the music alive. When Trohoske hit 15 years old, he started his first punk band called The Moronic Regime and the music hasn’t quit since that day.

But some would ask “What would lead this talented musician into the path of music?” Trohoske’s simple and blunt answer is “Chicks”.

“I was 15 and didn’t care about anything but my hair, my music and chicks,” Trohoske said. “Later on I started to feel it was the only place I felt like I was in my world. Not the real world with bills, time constraints and the mailbox.”

A little later on, jazz would enter his life in a big way. “I loved that walking bass-line just as much,” said Trohoske. “It really sang to me.”

At about 19, Trohoske met his two favorite local artists Frank Singer and Tony Stefanelli. These two talented musicians began to tutor and guide him under their wings.

Through his 20s, Trohoske took on many different musical endeavors. He was in bands such as Aziz, 3bop and Ahimsa Beat. Not to mention a countless number of other rock bands, swing bands and jazz quartets.

Trohoske’s newest project is known as Is What It Is. This band is packed to the brim with talented Erie musicians such as Kenny "Stix" Thompson and Ian Smith.

Trohoske and Is What It Is have recently been handpicked by the Mayor’s office to write and perform an original piece especially designed for both the Lake Erie Belly Dance and Santori Hoops dance troupes, which are slated to open for this year’s Celebrate Erie’s headlining act, Masters of Motown, Friday, August 19th.

“I was really happy and excited for the opportunity,” said Trohoske. “I really am working hard to do a good job for them. It's exciting.”

With many achievements and recognitions under his belt, Stephen Trohoske has proven himself to be a talented force here in Erie. His rich past consisting of many musical pilgrimages has given this talented bassist a soulful and passionate style all his own.

Trohoske knows he couldn’t have done any of this on his own and appreciates every person and little detail that has helped him along his way.

“I've paid a lot of dues to get here in my career, but I'm still here still standing and I am still a busy musician in my city. I feel we have done some good work and there is so much more to come.”

Among the vast array of talented bass players out there, from all genres of music, Trohoske is one of the most gifted, original and hard working bass players taking an Erie stage, who still has that real “passion” for his instrument and indeed life as well.

With his captivatingly innovative musical compositions, Trohoske continues to realize his musical dreams to this very day.

For more information on Stephen Trohoske, please visit his Facebook Page and his band Is What It Is Facebook Page.

Justin Bieber Urging Fans Not to Text and Drive in New Campaign

Justin Bieber is urging his young fans not to text and drive in a hard-hitting new campaign.

The singer is promoting responsible text messaging through a new app which disables a driver's ability to text, email and use all keyboard functions if driving over ten miles an hour.

When the driver's car has stopped for more than five seconds then all functionality is returned and missed texts and emails will be put through.

Justin is working with the Remember Alex Brown Foundation, which was set up after the teen tragically died in an accident while texting and driving.

'As a 17-year-old driver, I am aware of the countless distractions that we teenagers face on the road, and texting is one that is preventable,' Justin said about the campaign.

'There are too many young people, like Alex Brown, whom we've lost because of texting while driving, and it is my hope that through this partnership with PhoneGuard, we will raise awareness of this issue and create safer conditions for everyone on the road.'

Over 1,000 people die in accidents caused by texting while driving every year in the US.

Argentine Music Icon And Peace Activist Facundo Cabral Killed In Guatemala

A voice for peace in Latin America was silenced today in Guatemala.

Argentine singer, songwriter and novelist Facundo Cabral was shot and killed in Guatemala City early this morning. He had just finished a concert in the nation's capital and was headed to the airport by car. Eyewitnesses say he was ambushed en route by three vehicles and gunned down on the nearly empty highway. According to the witnesses, the attackers fled on a road leading to the Guatemalan border with El Salvador.

Cabral rose to fame in the early 1970s, when almost all of Latin America was in the grip of brutally repressive dictatorships. He belonged to a wave of singers who mixed political protest with music. Cabral became internationally known for the song "No Soy De Aquí Ni Allá" ("I Am Neither From Here Nor There"), which reflected the conflicted feelings of many Latin Americans at the time: an admiration for the free-spirit hippie ideology, even as they were being attacked in their own countries.

When Jorge Rafael Vidala's dictatorship rose to power in Argentina in 1976, Cabral was forced into exile in Mexico, where he continued composing music. In 1996, he was named an international messenger of peace by UNESCO.

The motives for this morning's shooting remain unclear. Guatemala has one of Latin America's highest murder rates. The Guatemalan government has stated that this was a planned attack, and that an investigation is already underway. Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom has personally reached out to President Cristina Kirchner of Argentina.

Artists across the Latin world and beyond have reacted to his death. Among them is the Puerto Rican rap group Calle 13, who took to Twitter to write: "Latinoamérica está de luto" ("Latin America is in mourning").

UPDATE:The Guatemalan government has announced that based on forensic analysis of the bullets, they believe the attack was not directed at Cabral, but rather at Henry Fariña, the Nicaraguan club owner who was travelling with him.

Ella Fitzgerald, 'First Lady of Song'

Her voice is instantly recognizable. Her youthful exuberance, pure sound and positive energy just make you feel good. Her incredible technical abilities were self-evident, but when she sang, she radiated a joy consistent with her own character both on and off the bandstand.

Ella was the undisputed queen of jazz singing and American popular song. She demonstrated extraordinary talent as a young teen, winning an amateur singing contest at the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem. Initially, she was going to dance, but a case of stage fright inspired her to sing, "Object of My Affection." Soon after her Apollo Theater stint, drummer and bandleader Chick Webb asked the shy 16 year-old Ella to join his orchestra. At first, Webb was hesitant to bring her in because she didn't have the standard good looks of a singing diva. Luckily, Ella had a voice that no one could match.

The Chick Webb Orchestra reigned supreme at New York City's Savoy Ballroom, also performing live on the city's numerous radio programs. He featured Ella on half of the selections, but after they hit it big in 1938 with the novelty smash, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," Ella was never absent from the bandstand.

Ella's rare combination of confidence and innocence reflected the spirit of mid-20th century America. Despite her popularity, she never deviated from her commitment to jazz as an art form. She could improvise right next to saxophonists like Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins or Lester Young, then turn around and perform a classic American ballad while infusing it with her natural swing.

One of the most important achievements in Ella's career was her Songbook series, produced by Norman Granz. These recordings confirmed her role as the premiere American female singer. The series included songs by Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, and others.

After the Songbook series of the mid-50s, Ella continued to perform throughout the world with top-notch musicians such as Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and Joe Pass. And she was a regular participant of Granz's famous Jazz at the Philharmonic.

While Ella kept a grueling touring schedule, performing in front of millions of fans, she managed to keep her personal life private. Instead of painting the town after a long tour, she was known to just go home, read a book, and watch her favorite television soap operas. After a career of over 60 years, she died quietly at home in Beverly Hills at 79. Ella Fitzgerald will always be remembered as "The First Lady of Song."

How the Internet Transformed the American Rave Scene

Rave was America's last great outlaw musical subculture: created by kids, for kids, designed to be impenetrable to adults. American rave formed its own mutant funhouse approach to existing looks, sounds and ideologies. In the early-to-mid-1990s, it was driven not by stars but a sudden collective sense that, as the Milwaukee rave zine Massive put it in every issue above the masthead, "The underground is massive."

What better place for such a subculture to flourish than on the Internet?

Rave's rise mirrors the Web's in many ways. Both mixed rhetorical utopianism with insider snobbery. Both were future-forward "free spaces" with special appeal to geeks and wonks. (It can't be a coincidence that dance music's instruments of choice are referred to by their model numbers: 303, 606, 808, 909.) Both took root through the '80s and emerged in fits and starts through the mid-'90s, at which point both became part of the social fabric. Indeed, one of electronic dance music's key genres, IDM, was named after an email list devoted to "intelligent dance music."

"Part of the explosion of the whole electronic music scene has been totally tied to the Internet, and the way we can communicate over vast distances," says Richie Hawtin, who as Plastikman was an early rave icon.

"The Midwest — and maybe national — scene wouldn't have become so interconnected without the rise of the Web circa 1994-95," agrees Matt Massive (born Matt Bonde, though we'll identify him here by his pen name), the publisher of Massive.

The British started raving before Americans did, but they got the idea in Ibiza. In the summer of 1987, a quartet of English DJs (Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, Johnny Walker and Nicky Holloway) vacationed on the Mediterranean island, absorbing both the expansive playing style of one DJ Alfredo — who spun everything from Cyndi Lauper to tracks made in underground electronic scenes in Chicago and Detroit to thousands, seven nights a week — and the readily available drug ecstasy (MDMA). They went back to England and — contra to the ultra-cool style long associated with London clubbing — began emulating the parties they'd witnessed on the island, pushing house and techno as the new sound of the future and ecstasy-fueled bonhomie as the new attitude, creating a communal sensibility that, by 1989, led to raves in fields with more than 10,000 revelers at a time.

In 1989, a popular Brooklyn DJ named Frankie Bones went to England and played a party called Energy, going on at 6 a.m. in front of 25,000 people. Inspired, Bones decided to start throwing parties of his own, bringing raves to the warehouses of Brooklyn. Soon after, scenes in L.A. and San Francisco began to sprout. Once the coasts adapted the new party style, things went inland, as loose regional congregations began to make themselves into a unified scene. Like drops in a pond, eventually their ripples began to touch.

At first, the connections were done the old-fashioned way. "By 1994, there was already kind of an established network of party-throwers and partygoers [in Detroit]," says Rob Theakston, a Detroit rave veteran. "At that point, the scene was maybe 200 kids max. Everything was very phone-based. [You'd] call the phone lines the day of to get directions, and even then, a lot of the direction lines would just give the vicinity because you would already know: 'Oh, Harper and Van Dyke — that's the old theater. We know where the party's going to be.' They wouldn't give you the exact address for the authorities to find out."

Many times, ravers had good reason for such secrecy. "I worked so much overtime trying to talk about how the rave scene wasn't all about drugs," says Ariel Meadow Stallings, who published and edited the rave zine Lotus in Seattle during the late '90s. "It was very noble of me, and I still do believe it wasn't all about drugs. But it is a drug culture. Even if you're not on drugs, the culture of the party is determined by the fact that there are people there who are."

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As a style whose digital nature was encoded into its very name, techno is the music of early adopters. Rather than the smoothly homogenous World Wide Web of today, cyberspace was fragmented, and whether you were on Compuserve or AOL, the codes differed. "When [I] first signed up for the Internet in the early '90s, [I was] assigned a username, by first and last name," says Richie Hawtin. "Mine was RH199." Whomever next signed on that shared his initials, then, would be RH200. Presuming that numbering system kept its pace, Hawtin says that today, "a number assigned anyone would be in the millions and billions. Having a two- or three-digit number dates you as early."

Many early technology adopters became acquainted with bulletin board services (BBS) and proto-instant-messenger services such as V-Rave (the "V" is for "virtual"). "I got involved with BBS back in 1992," says Stallings. "It wasn't even the Internet. You were calling someone's hard drive, essentially, and typing messages back and forth."

"There was no World Wide Web," says Cleveland-born techno DJ and producer Jeff Samuel, whose experience typifies a lot of the local-leaning early BBS culture. "I was hanging around on music boards with [early dialup service provider] Prodigy. There was this thing called Cleveland Freenet, by Case Western Reserve University, a private college. Cleveland, of all places, was one of the first places [where] you could do real-time chat. You couldn't have Joe Schmoe getting on the Internet at that point. It just didn't happen."

"I was working in a computer lab all through college," says Damian Higgins, a.k.a. Dieselboy, one of America's top drum & bass DJs, who went to school in Pittsburgh from 1990 to 1995. "[In] my spare time, I'd go to the lab. I was addicted to the Internet — like these Korean kids at the 24/7 Internet cafes playing World of Warcraft, that was me talking about music and raves on V-Rave."

During the mid-'90s, says incoming George Washington University media professor Nikki Usher, "The big shift was [to] smaller [forums]. You had AOL kind of in the background, where you have social networking happening on a big public forum. USENET groups allowed people to build groups around things that were of common interest. In this time, you start to see the smart communities of people who are really interested in tech, and really interested in identity politics. Those are kind of the first groups to come to social media."

A number of rave-centric mailing lists were a key ingredient in connecting dispersed partiers. In spring of 1992, M.I.T. student John Adams founded NE-Raves, covering the Northeast and/or New England, while at UC Berkeley, Brian Behlendorf began SFRaves through Hyperreal. Within a week of its launch, Behlendorf told Mike Brown in 2000, he "went to a party [he] found out about through the list." Soon came a succession of lists dedicated to specific cities (313, the Detroit list) and regions: MW-Raves for the Midwest, NW-Raves for the Pacific Northwest.

Early rave thrived on anonymity, from the multiple aliases of a producer like Hawtin — who went, variously, as F.U.S.E., Plastikman, Circuit Breaker, Concept 1 and Xenon — to the white-label 12-inch, a format whose lack of artist or track information gave it a cultish mythos. Information was scarce. "Other than at raves, there was no environment to talk about [the music]," says Samuel, who was active on MW-Raves and PB-CLE-Raves (Pittsburgh-Cleveland). "When someone put out a new mixtape, it was all over the lists."

"Part of the experience of contextualizing or processing what had happened at that party was sitting down on Monday and typing out my review," says Stallings. "It was sort of the digital water cooler for the ravers. I stalked people in classes whose name I'd seen on Hyperreal because I knew they were involved in the rave scene. There was definitely a lot of back and forth between the virtual world and the reality of rave."

"NE-Raves had these get-togethers," says Higgins. "There was no Facebook or anything nearly like that back then. We'd have getting-together picnics. We were always trying to interact with one another in the real world."

Of course, there couldn't be computer-facilitated discussion without some trolls hanging around. Brandon Ivers, who was a drum & bass DJ in the Minneapolis rave scene, recalls of one such list irritant, "It added this kind of anarchistic element," he says. But they didn't kick him out. "There was still enough of an ideal of, 'Why don't we make this all work?' and 'Let's not censor ourselves.' The Internet in general at that point [was] influenced by that WELL-style, '60s-hippie, let-information-be-free type of thing."

"These were not particularly moderated discussions," says Usher. "If you recall all the very early worries about AOL, you can have people posing like Internet predators in these chat rooms. These were not really regulated forums."

Or at least not completely regulated: "I remember talking to the guy who moderated MW-Rave, Chad Sponholz, about it," says Ivers. "He did take out messages that were blatant drug references. Everyone was convinced that the FBI or whatever was monitoring the mailing lists by '97. But even before that, [it] was all pretty codified."

The web had grown rapidly in the mid-'90s — it wasn't just the province of university students anymore — and raves started showing up on the mainstream's radar. The U.S. major labels began pushing "electronica" as music that could be consumed in album form by rock fans. It worked, sort of — Prodigy went to #1 with The Fat of the Land — and acts like The Chemical Brothers, Roni Size/Reprazent and Fatboy Slim did well.

Even Barbara Walters took notice. "They call it a rave, and it's the latest kid craze," she said on 20/20 in 1997. "Millions of youngsters, as young as age 10, flock to secret locations to party and dance through the night — that's all night long — often 'till eight or nine in the morning."

"I think a lot of [paranoia] went with increased media coverage," says Dan Labovitch, a Chicago teenager during rave's heyday and the founder of the website Rave Archive. "It wasn't so much of a feeling within the scene as external pressures. Your parents would [see] some scare news piece [and] be like, 'Oh, so that's the stuff you've been going to on weekends.'"

But the rave scene also used the Internet to circle the wagons and protect its members from those external pressures. Jeff Samuel recalls the stir caused by one early website. "These email lists were constantly talking about whatever new pill was there that week," he says. "And quickly there would become these copycat pills. Everybody was trying to figure out, 'Which one is the real peace-sign ecstasy pill that's really MDMA?' The first ecstasy-test website was a huge deal. You could suddenly see photos of the pills: 'This is the real one, and this is the bunk one that came two weeks later.' It was pretty beneath the public eye at that point — the Internet alone was beneath the public eye at that point."

The tone of MW-Raves, says Labovitch, "was very collegial. People were giving each other rides to parties and helping people out. You could be a 16-year-old kid and say, 'Hey, can somebody pick me up from my parents' house?' And somebody would drive out, pick you up from your parents' house, take you to a party, and return you. There were no thoughts like, 'Something bad's going to happen to me.'"

The mailing lists' emphasis on region — "It was NW-Raves, not Seattle-Raves," says Stallings — fueled rave's road-trip culture.

"There weren't always amazing shows in your city all the time," says Higgins. "If you were hardcore into hearing cool DJs and acts and music, you had to travel to hear that stuff."

"Any trip was an excuse to go to a rave," says Stallings. "Whatever city I was in, a rave was the best way of putting a dipstick into a community. 'Oh, the German ravers love whistles. They're breathing through whistles. Everyone has a whistle in their mouth. They won't stop whistling. Thank god there's no whistles on the West Coast.'"

It wasn't just fans who went road-tripping. "A lot of people really built their names and connections by being early adopters — Dieselboy most prominently," says Massive. "He got a lot of early bookings around the country from the connections he was building on the rave lists."

"I'd see the post on alt.rave about a party five, six, seven hours away," explains Higgins. "It'd say, 'Plus more DJs to be announced.'" That's when he'd make his move: "I'd call the info line and be like, 'Hi, I'm Dieselboy from Pittsburgh. I will play for gas money if you book me at your party.' I was so small-time at the time that no one was going to fly me. So I drove around all over the place. I remember I drove 11 hours to play in Rhode Island."

Established promoters found the lists useful in other ways. "We were using the Internet in 1994-95 to communicate to our fans in the Midwest about our events," says Hawtin. "We stopped doing flyers and were able to announce events in the mid and late '90s one day before — even hours before — and get hundreds [or] thousands of people."

Not all of those pop-up parties — in a sense, the first flash mobs — were smashing successes. Jeff Samuel recalls a Cleveland party announced the same day online: "They basically piled us into a U-Haul truck, closed the door — we had no idea where we were going. We ended up in some really not-safe warehouse in a really not-safe area. There was broken glass everywhere. There was no heat. It was the middle of winter. They had lined the stairs with candles so that we could see where we were going. I was miserable — it was just freezing. I think I was the only person not on drugs there. They had one kerosene heater. I actually burned a hole through my shoe, getting all the way to my foot, trying to warm my feet up."
 

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Another victim of questionable raver ethics was the Kinko's shop near University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where Matt Massive put his zine together.

"We were already figuring out how to rip off Kinko's," Massive recalls. "At that time they had those little counter packs, these blue rectangular things, and you could smack it on your knee and it would go back to zero."

By the end of 1993, Massive hatched a plan to advance his zine's nascent Internet capability by swiping a pair of then-brand-new Power PC hard drives from the copy chain.

"The computer Massive had was one of those portable SE30 Macs with a tiny monitor and a box," he says. The Power PC, on the other hand, cost around $8,000. "A lot of stuff back then, we did it because we could," says Massive. "I'm embarrassed to say it was probably [my idea]. When you've got a group of friends, schemes and heists get hatched rather quickly."

Among the co-schemers: a group of hard-drinking skinheads collectively nicknamed the Pukers. "They weren't SHARPS [Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice] and they weren't really racists anymore," Massive says. "They just really liked being thugs. They really brought a raucous element. We were afraid of them. They'd show up in combat boots. They'd get kicked out [of parties] every night for slam dancing."

To prepare for the robbery, the Pukers "watched Goodfellas for almost 24 hours straight," says Massive. "They didn't get any sleep. They just kept watching Goodfellas over and over and over again to get themselves psyched up for this heist."

With Massive acting as decoy by making copies — "I was the face, the one the Kinko's people were on a first-name basis [with]" — the Pukers went upstairs, where the computers were kept, with bolt cutters: "Rather than trying to unscrew the monitor, they just popped the wires, put the [hard drives] under their trench coats, walked out the door to a waiting car, put the computers in the trunk, and drove off." The monitors were left in place. Massive stayed put until the police were called: "I wasn't going to sit around and feed the police a story."

"They were hot," Massive says of the computers, "but we could use them as leverage for other things." Massive put his profits from selling the stolen merch into a T-shirt business that he says still thrives. "Massive T-Shirts to this day still makes me money," he says with an ironic laugh.

With their profits, the Pukers purchased Waterworks, the company that supplied area parties with smart drinks, vitamin- and amino acid-enhanced fruit drinks popular at early raves. Smart drinks may have been nonalcoholic, but not in the hands of a crew of drunk punks. "They had a DJ special," says Massive. "All the guys who were DJs knew about this — you'd get a smart drink that was 90% vodka."

The Kinko's shop shut down within a year of the theft. "You'd think a copy shop a block off of a university would stay open," says Massive. "Not that we took joy from it, but we felt that we probably had something to do with that. We'd so pilfered the joint that I think they just couldn't keep that location open."

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In 1995, two audio file-compression systems debuted. Though the MP3 would eventually change the music business (and the world) as we know it, the first format to gain favor — particularly among ravers — was RealAudio.

"RealAudio was the only plug-in that could broadcast live audio," says Richie Hawtin, who began using it to play audio from his parties live online in 1996. Even bigger, and more consistent, was Beta Lounge, a San Francisco website that streamed live DJ mixes.

It was manna for dance music lovers now hooked into the World Wide Web. "I thought I was in heaven when I found Beta Lounge," says Jeff Samuel. "I'd sit around listening to mixes. They had great taste. And they presented it pretty professionally."

DJ and journalist Philip Sherburne, who cut his DJ teeth at Beta Lounge, remembers the site's HQ in late-'90s tech-bubble San Francisco. "The space was basically a big warehouse," he says. "There was obviously a lot of processing power going on, and there was often someone in the back fiddling with some obscure black box. Someone from the crew would always get on the mike to announce the DJ, which reinforced the idea of broadcasting out to the world. They were really pioneers of the whole podcast revolution."

By the end of the' 90s, when Fatboy Slim's "Rockafeller Skank" featured in every third movie trailer and U2's arena-tour opening act was DJ Paul Oakenfold, electronic dance music wasn't nearly as scarce as it had once been. And the web helped get it up to speed. "It was communicating and reaching out to people who were into what we were doing," says Richie Hawtin. "The scene on a worldwide level is huge. [But] compared to other scenes, it's still such a small little microcosm in the world of music and entertainment. So we always, then and now, need to reach out and connect with like-minded individuals and bring them into electronic music."

Megadeth Reveal New Album Title

On Friday, thrash metal legends Megadeth announced that their new album, due to release in November of this year, will be titled "Th1rt3en". The album was recorded in frontman Dave Mustaine's studio in San Marcos, CA during a busy year of touring and recording that saw the band produce songs for two different video games in addition to the tracks that will appear on "Th1rt3en".

On Friday (July 8th), Mustaine talked about the album's title with Tom Russel of Rock Radio backstage at the Sonisphere Festival in Knebworth, UK. Asked about the origins of the title, Mustaine said: "I started playing guitar at 13 and this is our 13th record and I was born on the 13th. As soon as I said I was going to call it 'Th1rt3en', I started noticing 13 everywhere. They never used to have 13th floors in hotels but now they have them again."

The album will see the band moving in a new direction musically, according to Megadeth members. Bassist David Ellefson recently told Expressen TV what he thinks fans can expect from the new record: "Let's put it this way: It's funny that 20 years ago, we came off 'Rust In Peace' and we went in and made 'Countdown To Extinction'. So, to me, that's kind of what this album feels like. We did 'Sudden Death' [for 'Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock'] and then this new song, 'Never Dead', which is a very violent riff. That was the first song we did, and we finished it top to bottom because we had to get it into this video game called 'NeverDead'. So that's a pretty good indication of what the new record is gonna be. But it's a little wider than... That's why I liken it to probably a little more to 'Countdown To Extinction', 'cause there's a couple of songs that aren't just full-on, in-your-face thrashing. However, most of it is. So you guys are gonna be excited. You'll like it. You'll dig it. You'll have fun [listening to it]."

Mustaine describes the sound of "Th1rt3en" to be "different, a hundred percent different, unlike anything we've ever done before because the guitar sounds are different; it sounds really super-modern... If I was going to say it sounds like a particular band, I would say it sounds like really old classic Sabbath and with a little bit of a modern edge of Queens Of The Stone Age kind of thing. But then again, with the twists and turns of music that Megadeth has been famous for over the years, you never know how it'll turn out."

Megadeth is now on tour as a part of the Rockstar Mayhem Festival with Disturbed, Godsmack, Machine Head, and others. The tour runs through August 14th and will play in venues across the United States. Afterwards, they'll take a month off before playing the 2nd-ever Big Four show in the US at New York's Yankee Stadium on September 14th.

What's with All the Jazz Tribute Albums?

Well, it's complicated.

More than so many other kinds of music, jazz takes its tradition seriously. There's about 100 years' worth, and most of it has been passed down in sound: by playing with, listening to and studying with the masters. So it makes sense that jazz musicians feel such visceral connections to their ancestors, whether spiritual, intellectual, educational, inspirational, aspirational or even just marketable.

Hence, there are a lot of jazz albums and concerts where a younger musician plays the compositions of an older, or deceased titan. Plenty of them are already out in 2011 alone: I spoke with All Things Considered weekend host Guy Raz about some of the tribute albums I've been spinning lately. None of them require that you know anything about the original composers — but they all make you want to.

What's With All The Jazz Tribute Albums

Artist: Brian Carpenter's Ghost Train Orchestra
Album: Hothouse Stomp: The Music of 1920s Chicago and Harlem
Song: Voodoo

Ever heard of Tiny Parham? John Nesbitt? Fess Williams? Neither has anyone except the most specialized jazz historians. But Parham and his peers were some of the most interesting composer-arrangers of their time — when the '20s became the '30s, and New Orleans polyphony became big band swing. Brian Carpenter, who plays the trumpet here, took these old-old recordings, transcribed them for a ten-piece band and added his own touches. It's music with grit to it, with drive and raw energy. It's delightfully familiar, too — or is it? With quirky little arrangements, plus Carpenter's additions of strings and musical saw (responsible for the "voodoo" effect heard here) there are plenty of delights for the close listener.

Artist: Chris Byars Octet
Album: Lucky Strikes Again
Song: Fanfare

Saxophone aficionados may know Lucky Thompson as a talented bebop-and-beyond player who left too few of his own records behind. Chris Byars certainly does — he's a saxophonist himself, and he's noted that Thompson had some interesting ideas with both improvising and composing. So on Lucky Strikes Again, Byars focuses on arranging Thompson's music for a horn-heavy octet. It's a blast from the past — the '50s and '60s, largely — but it feels lived-in, played the way you imagine it should be. Byars has done a number of projects playing the music of other obscure post-bop musicians like Gigi Gryce, Teddy Charles and Jimmy Cleveland. And by studying these distinct musicians who time forgot, he can both honor his predecessors, and refine some of his own ideas as a saxophonist and composer.

Artist: Bobby Sanabria/The Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra
Album: Tito Puente Masterworks Live!!!
Song: Ran Kan Kan

Tito Puente's bands bulldozed you with Latin percussion — and so does this one, led by veteran percussionist, educator and occasional NPR commentator Bobby Sanabria. You might never guess that this is actually a student band, from the Manhattan School of Music. Far from using Tito Puente's name to sell records, this band is using El Rey's music to learn firecracker Afro-Latin jazz. And learning the music of the greats is the best or maybe the only way young jazz musicians come to appreciate the legacy of those who came before them. This is a live recording called Tito Puente Masterworks Live!!! — and with so much energy, you need all three exclamation points.

Artist: Klang
Album: Other Doors
Song: Breakfast Feud

The band KLANG is from Chicago — it's a quartet led by clarinetist James Falzone and featuring vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz. In the 1930s, the iconic clarinetist Benny Goodman had a quartet with vibraphonist Lionel Hampton — among other things, Hampton and pianist Teddy Wilson were black, and Goodman and drummer Gene Krupa were white. This was no small feat, especially for one of the most famous musicians in the country. KLANG's Goodman tribute album is called Other Doors; it's in part a nod to the segregation the Goodman quartet faced, and perhaps also a signal that this ain't music the way Benny Goodman would have played it. (Hello, free improvisation and electrified cello.) It's a sound of a band paying homage to the past by playing like the present.

The Alchemy of 'The Magic Flute'

There's a quite telling moment near the beginning of A Magic Flute, the new adaptation of Mozart's opera directed by theater legend Peter Brook that is now up in New York as part of the Lincoln Center Festival.

In the midst of Pappageno's introductory aria, "Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja," Prince Tamino starts singing along. "Oh, so you know this aria?" says Pappageno in an spoken aside. It's a knowing joke with the audience. Of course Tamino knows this little ditty; we all do.

Even — or especially — given such familiarity, few operas have proved as alluring to creative directors as The Magic Flute, especially those who usually work in theater or film. Perhaps that's because this opera — Mozart's last, which premiered only three months before his death at age 35 — is a singspiel, a "song-play" that intersperses speech with music, and is thus less forbidding to directors used to working with actors rather than singers.

In this deeply provocative Brook production, the Magic Flute is reshaped from the ground up. What we get in A Magic Flute is a show stripped of all frippery, from costuming to Masonic metaphysics. The only props are bamboo poles. The cast is whittled down to just seven characters. The three spirit boys and the three ladies are gone; instead, there are two unnamed actors — "magicians," Brook has called them in interviews — who function by turn as guiding spirits, consciences and slaves as well as stagehands.

Even the orchestra is gone, replaced by a single pianist faced with a herculean task. Brook and his team create a musical pastiche of sorts by mixing in other Mozart works, including the slow-movement theme to the Piano Concerto No. 27 and a song, "Die Alte," which they give to Pappagena disguised as an old hag.

But what is it about The Magic Flute in particular that creates such a draw for artists who normally dwell far from the opera house?

There's the Bollywood-esque overdrive of Kenneth Branaugh's 2006 film adaptation, set during World War I and complete with pouring rainstorms and flying nuns.

Or Ingmar Bergman's famous, atypically playful and cheery adaptation for Swedish television in 1975, with Håkan Hagegård as Papageno.

And William Kentridge's 2005 staging, which recasts the tale as a meditation on colonialism throug the director's multilayered mix of elements.

And Julie Taymor's (pre-Spiderman) charming puppetry extravaganza for the Metropolitan Opera that premiered in 2004.

The list goes on and on. But what is it about this work in particular that makes it such a draw? I think it's because it's a piece that — thanks to the essential genius of Mozart and his librettist, Emanuel Schikaneder — works on a whole host of levels. There's the childlike fairy tale of two couples finding true love with the aid of some good old-fashioned magic. This makes The Magic Flute so popular for children's and local-language adaptations; even Bergman made his production entirely in Swedish.

But there are other, weightier aspects as well. There's the metaphysically oriented narrative about the dualities of light vs. dark and good vs. evil with a bunch of Masonic references thrown in. One can also interpret the foundation as a lightly hooded exaltation of the triumph of rationalism, led by the benevolent ruler Sarastro. (The Magic Flute was written in 1791, just around the start of the French Revolution.)

Brook, who is now 86 years old, says that A Magic Flute is his final production for Paris' Bouffes du Nord theater, where he has been artistic head for the past 36 years and which co-produced this staging with the Lincoln Center Festival. According to Brook, he and his collaborators "listened to the music we knew, looked at the libretto we knew and tried to make one distinction between what has accumulated, not only by tradition and practice, but what were the sacrifices directly in the period that both Mozart and Schikaneder had to make, quite rightly, as practical people, to the taste of their time."

Former Motorhead Guitarist Dies

Former Motorhead guitarist Michael Burton has died.

The 61-year-old, nicknamed "Würzel", is believed to have dies of ventricular fibrillation caused by heart disease, according to NME. Motorhead frontman Lemmy's bass tech Tim Butcher posted the news on his Facebook profile.

Motorhead played at Sonisphere over the weekend, saying: "We'd like to dedicate this set and our lives to Würzel."

It was 1984 that Würzel first joined the band, contributing to albums such as "No Remorse" and "Orgasmatron" before his departure in 1995 after recording "Sacrifice".

This wasn't the end of Würzel's time with Motorhead. He joined the band onstafe at Download festival in 2008, and took part in their 2009 tour.

Over his career, Würzel released two solo albums - "Bess" in 1987, and the ambient "Chill Out Or Die" in 1998.

He was recently working with a new band "Leader Of Down".

All the best from UG to Würzel's family and friends. Enjoy this clip with the man on guitar for a performance of "Ace Of Spades".

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Shotgun Jubilee is in the market for a new logo! We'd like you the fans to show us what you've got! Draw something up, either by hand or with a graphic arts program and send us a .jpeg of your work. We'll choose the design we like the best. The winner will receive a free copy of our album! Please email all entries to ryan_bartosek@yahoo.com

Phantasm: Releasing A New Demo Every Week in July

July is demo month for Phantasm. We are recording our new album right now and we want you to be involved in the process. Every week in July we will be posting a NEW DEMO for songs that will appear on our upcoming album).

The songs will be posted in all your favorite places to hear Phantasm.

GET INVOLVED. Invite your friends to this event. Post links spread the word. Share. Share. Share.

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Demo #1 "Think Twice"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqL2guzBh5Y

Demo 2: "What Makes You Tick"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5No2O0qiUw