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Today’s Music News: Camera Obscura keyboardist Carey Lander dies at 33

by Staff

October 11, 2015

Keyboardist Carey Lander, a member of Camera Obscura since 2002, has died of bone cancer at age 33. In her final months, Lander was actively raising funds to fight osteosarcoma. "It’s probably too late to help me," she wrote on a JustGiving page, "but it would be great if we could find something in the future that means children don’t have to undergo such awful treatment and have a better chance of survival." (Stereogum)

The music world has also lost four other notables in recent days.

  • Koopsta Knicca, a rapper in Three 6 Mafia, has died of a stroke at age 40. (Rolling Stone)

  • Saxophonist Steve Mackay, best known for playing with the Stooges, has died at 66. (Rolling Stone)

  • Singer-songwriter Robbin Thompson has died at 66. Thompson is most remembered for his stint as lead vocalist of Bruce Springsteen's early 1970s band Steel Mill. (Billboard)

  • Jazz producer Larry Rosen has died at age 75. With Dave Grusin, Rosen was co-founder of GRP Records—home to the likes of Dr. JohnDiana Krall, and Chick Corea. (Billboard)

The estate of Jimi Hendrix has sued a Tucson music shop owner for $1 million, saying that a guitar formerly owned by Hendrix was stolen from the late musician's sister by her ex-husband, who later sold it. The estate is seeking damages and the return of the guitar; the music shop owner, Harvey Moltz, says that he purchased the guitar "in good faith from a private seller, without knowledge of competing claims of ownership." (NME)

The inaugural winners of Canada's Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize have been announced. The prize will annually recognize one classic album from each of four time periods; the first winners are Joni Mitchell (Blue, '60s and '70s), Cowboy Junkies (The Trinity Session, '80s), Sloan (Twice Removed, '90s), and Peaches (The Teaches of Peaches, '00s). (Billboard)

Yet another artist has asked Donald Trump to discontinue using their music in his presidential campaign. After using "Dream On" at rallies, Trump received a cease-and-desist letter from Aerosmith that he can now add to the pile already including similar requests from R.E.M. and Neil Young. (Rolling Stone)

In 1995, Michael Jackson sold half of the enormously valuable Sony ATV music publishing catalog—a catalog that most notably includes many songs by the Beatles—to Sony Corp. for hundreds of millions of dollars that Jackson was at that time sorely in need of. Now, Jackson's estate is in talks with Sony about the future of the catalog; Sony reportedly wants to own the entire catalog, or to sell its half back to the estate. Either way, it would be a big transaction: the catalog is now worth an estimated $2 billion. (Rolling Stone)

On Saturday, Kanye West performed for Barack Obama at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser. "Kanye is thinking about running for Speaker of the House," cracked Obama, joking about both West's announced presidential ambitions and about the current disarray among Congressional Republicans. Later, West seemingly headed over to the San Francisco auditions for American Idol. (Pitchfork)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=11&v=ab6OW9h237s

Janet Jackson's new album Unbreakable has debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. That makes her only the third act to achieve chart-topping albums in each of the last four decades; the other two are Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand. (Billboard) The Hamilton soundtrack also made album-chart history: its debut at number 12 was the highest debut for a cast album since the mono and stereo album charts were combined in 1963. (Billboard)

Ryan Adams's song-for-song cover of Taylor Swift's 1989, which was released online last month, is getting a physical release. "A CD version of the album will be available on Oct. 30 and vinyl will be released just in time for Christmas on Dec. 18," reports Billboard.

The rock star sister of the year award goes to St. Vincent, who's been working shifts as a server at a new Dallas taqueria run by her sister and brother-in-law. (Pitchfork)

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This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.