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By Agence France-Presse CHICAGO -- Punk rock pioneer Ron Asheton, the guitarist for the Stooges, was found dead Tuesday in his Michigan home, police said. He was 60. Asheton was found on his living room couch after a friend who had not heard from him for several days asked police to check on him. It appeared as though he had been dead for several days and foul play is not suspected, said Ann Arbor police lieutenant Angella Abrams. "I am in shock. He was my best friend," Stooges lead singer Iggy Pop said in a statement on his website. Iggy Pop and his band members -- including Asheton's brother Scott -- remembered the guitarist as an "irreplaceable" friend, brother and musician. "For all that knew him behind the façade of Mr Cool & Quirky, he was a kind-hearted, genuine, warm person who always believed that people meant well even if they did not," they said in the statement. "As a musician Ron was The Guitar God, idol to follow and inspire others. That is how he will be remembered by people who had a great pleasure to work with him, learn from him and share good and bad times with him." Asheton was named number 29 among Rolling Stone's Top 100 Guitarists of All Time and the magazine credited him for writing "some of rock's most memorable riffs" including "No Fun," "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and "TV Eye." He formed the Stooges with Iggy Pop, bassist Dave Alexander and his brother Scott on drums in 1967 in Detroit. The band was known for its wild performances and helped kickstart the punk rock revolution of the late 1960s and early 1970s. They released two albums -- "The Stooges" and "Fun House" -- before Asheton took over on bass guitar in 1973 for "Raw Power." Asheton went on to play with a number of different bands after the Stooges split in 1974, including Destroy All Monsters, New Race, Dark Carnival and the Powertrane. The Stooges reformed in 2003, playing several shows together and releasing a new album "The Weirdness" in 2007.

GOOD old rock music served differently. Six years since last churning out an album (2001's Black Mantra), Basti Artadi and the boys find themselves waking up to a digital age. Hence, their sixth installment rocking its way into mobile phones. All ten songs in Villains (not at all related to the hit TV show Heroes, Basti says) will be available for download via Smart's Music Store. The album is released independently via Semenelin Music put up by the band itself, obviously referencing their 1996 major-label debut album. Three tracks off Villains have been released almost simultaneously: "Ibrahim," "John of the Cross," and "Novus Is Burning," the last one written for online game RF Online. Months before the official release, Basti has been dropping hints about the new album on Friendster and other social networking sites. In today' press launch, he was the most outspoken -- well relative to guitarist Manuel Legarda and bassist Mon Legaspi. All three admitted to jetlag, arriving in time for the album launch. By Basti's own account, the road to a new Wolfgang album started last year when the band reunited for the Alive 2007 concert. Their set then included a new song "Death Squad," now included in Villains. Since then, the boys have learned to embrace digital, swapping tracks off the Internet before recording a proper album. So by their own account, the album was recorded in three cities: Basti was holed up in San Francisco with his own band, Mon doing gigs in Hong Kong and Manuel staying behind, occasionally seen jamming with Razorback. The obvious question is: is Wolfgang ever the same without drummer Wolf Gemora? Wolf was last seen with California-based Lokomotiv but wasn't in the launch. So it looks like Francis Aquino is doing drumming duties from hereon.

By Clarence Yu APPARENTLY, gaming company Activision’s collaboration with rock legends Aerosmith has paid off handsomely for both parties. As reported on the Gamasutra website, the sales to date of the game Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, has netted the band more revenue than any one of its album releases. In my opinion, the success of the Guitar Hero franchise is dependent on two things: artist name association and the technology employed to make the game highly entertaining to gamers. I am a big Aerosmith fan, but not into gaming myself -- thus, I was never attracted that much to consider buying the game. Of course, there are many exceptions to my theory. I’m pretty sure that a lot of gamers who weren’t familiar with Aerosmith bought the game: some were probably intrigued, some had nothing better to do with their money and most were probably challenged by the game. Good for them. They get to enjoy themselves, while learning the music of one of the best rock bands of all time. How does this bode for the music industry in general? For one thing, I’m pretty sure that most big name bands will start to fall in line for their share of the revenue pie. Van Halen and Metallica are examples of the next bands to be featured on the franchise. Big money is in store for both the bands and Activision. But to boast of Guitar Hero's "music selling power" is a bit of a stretch; by reversing the logic, you can say that Aerosmith enabled Activision's "video game selling power." While it can be argued that the artists involved may not need the money and just want to pass on their musical legacy to a new generation of potential fans, CD/music sales are also a big factor. Reportedly, Aerosmith’s CD/music sales had a “several folds boost.” Now is that just a coincidence, or a result of a lot of focus group discussions? For the struggling garage band out there, I don’t think it will make any difference -- perhaps marginally, in terms of inspiration. But inspiration is a totally different animal from business. Many bands out there with talent have never made it and many more will never. It’s just a fact in the recording industry. You still have to make it the old fashioned way -- through gigging, recording, and touring -- before you can be featured on a game like Guitar Hero. And with games exactly like Guitar Hero in the market taking away the attention span of potential new fans of these struggling artists, what will become of them? It just gets harder and harder. So, while Activision may be on to something here for quite a long and profitable run, dare I say that without the big name artists, the Guitar Hero franchise is worthless? Imagine Guitar Hero: Anonymous, and see if the product sells.

By Marjorie Gorospe WHEN passion for music is entirely pure, it becomes your life: This statement describes Tal Kravitz’ dedication to music. He got into music when he was four years old. His passion and mastery of ethnic including Israeli music is enriched by his travels to different parts of the world. He has been to Africa, Papua New Guinea and other countries which have musical instruments and traditions that are in danger of extinction. They say a musician will never run out of inspiration. Kravitz can play and entertain you with almost anything he get his hands on. Kravitz plays piano, harp, guitar, a variety of bagpipes, African percussion instruments, among others. His favorite is the harp. Aside from collecting various instruments, Kravitz also studies the ethnic languages in countries where he goes. “It is connected with the soul of the music,” Kravitz says, as he plays “Sa Ugoy ng Duyan,” which he learned through the Internet. Years of traveling, Kravitz has learned more than music. “It is the stories of the people I encounter in my musical journey that inspires me,” he says. His exposure to different cultures has made him value life more. Kravitz says he won’t stop learning about music, despite his stature today. He says he will continue doing this until the end of his days. As I watched him perform before Israeli dignitaries, it was clear that this passion emanates from his music. If I were to define passion for music, it will be called “Tal Kravitz.”

By Clarence Yu The Rolling Stones guitarist rumored to release an album of jazz and easy listening standards. HELL has just frozen over. The World’s most elegantly wasted human being, Keith Richards, is rumored to release an album of “soft music” containing standards by Hoagy Carmicheal, Fats Domino, Andy Williams, Judy Garland and Elvis Presley. The never before released tracks, recorded during various phases of his storied 40-odd year career, can be found on this music blog. As a personal fan of Richards, I have various outtakes and bootlegs of the said recordings, and they would indeed make a nice collection for release. For people who will think that Richards is pulling a Rod Stewart on them, think again. The Rolling Stones guitarist is no stranger to soft music -- he’s been recording various easy listening tunes since the days of “You Got The Silver” off 1968’s Let It Bleed, continuing with songs such as “Coming Down Again,” “Memory Motel,” “Slipping Away,” and most recently, “This Place Is Empty,” off 2005’s A Bigger Bang. Moreover, on his two solo efforts, Talk Is Cheap (1988) and Main Offender (1992), Richards has shown his softer side with the ballads “Make No Mistake” and “Hate It When You Leave.” It would be fun however to see public attention to the rumored album. While many of the tracks as I have heard them would probably need polishing and re-mixing, there is ample time to do so, as the Rolling Stones have scheduled their next album release for autumn of 2009, with their next world tour scheduled for 2010. Between now and then, I’m hoping that Keith should be able to release something substantial enough. Michael Buble and Josh Groban have nothing to fear though, as Richards’ voice as a crooner is an acquired taste, only for the most discriminating.

Erwin Oliva INQUIRER.net ADMIT it. Your musical taste is largely influenced by friends or at least people close to you. And you often want to share it with everyone or at least to those who share your taste. That is essentially the idea behind Blip.fm. "Music discovery is social," says Jeff Yasuda, CEO and co-founder of Blip.fm, a tab service originally under the Fuzz.com website. (Actually, Yasuda’s card reads Founder and CEO of Fuzz Artists Inc.,' which is an independent music label). Calling himself a former "bean counter" (read Investment Banker) and a VC (venture capitalist), Yasuda and his co-founder Brian Venneman set up Blip.fm out of their love for music -- of course, they believe there’s business in the social aspect of music discovery now that you have the Internet as your platform. "I’ve been in a band since I was 13 years old," says Yasuda as we talked in his music-filled room that he calls his office. Everywhere you look, there is music. There’s an exclusive photo of Pearl Jam’s frontman Eddie Vedder wearing a wig and a rather funny and amusing photo of Yasuda and his funky band and a lone fan listening. Yasuda has a vast collection of music posters of various concerts and known musicians, which gives away his own musical taste. Of course, his first guitar was hanging on one wall, reminding him about his roots. He describes Blip.fm and Fuzz as his second baby -- the first is a cute child whose photos are also on his desk. Amid existing online social music services like Last.fm, Pandora, IMEEM, MySpace, Blip.fm launched sometime in July 2008, while Fuzz.com went live as early as March 2007, according to Yasuda. Blip.fm actually was an idea that emerged during a smoke break, Fuzz and Blip.fm software engineer Ian White reveals. As one of the co-founders was already into Twitter (now a popular micro-blogging service) and music, it hit them: why not mash all these ideas and come up with a new one. "It was initially launched as a tab in Fuzz.com. But now it’s totally independent," says Yasuda referring to Blip.fm. Inspired by the “What are you doing?” question on Twitter, Blip.fm asks people, “What are you listening to?” Just like Twitter, people can post up to 140 characters of text. But instead of the usual, sometimes cryptic, messages, Blip.fm includes streaming music attached to that message. The message could be anything from a shoutout to, er, cryptic messages from fellow music lovers. People have the choice to tune in to what you’re listening or create their own playlist and invite you and other people to listen. Like other online social music services, Blip.fm is powered by the people, the users, the music lovers – your "trusted sources" for musical nourishment, as Yasuda puts it. So it all points back to the human element that makes music discovery a social activity. But there’s more: Why can’t you and I be the DJ for once? Since Blip.fm was created as also an online streaming music service, the co-founders are giving everyone a chance to become the "tastemakers." For once, you and I can be the cool DJ, spinning the records online. Finally, there’s the element of immediacy. Simply put, Blip.fm is living in the "Now." "Why can’t I share my music now? And tell them why they should listen, now," Yasuda says. How does Blip.fm work? Well, it’s user-generated. It is powered mostly by third-party music that the service finds online (or music people search and find through Blip.fm). The service itself does not store music except those music Blip.fm or Fuzz owns copyright. So don’t be surprised that you will sometimes stumble upon music that sucks because they’re incomplete or just barely audible. But that's really rare. How many people are tuned in to Blip.fm? Yasuda declines to disclose this detail but says users spend an average of 30 minutes listening to music from Blip.fm, a big leap from an average of 20 minutes when it was unveiled. Why are people spending that much time on Blip.fm? Yasuda says they have devised a way to keep people from tuning out. They have created a badge system for top DJs, while they also have introduced a reward system called "props," which people can earn and give to other people whom they find interesting. It’s like a virtual pat on the back of people who share your taste. “That makes our service a lot of more interesting,” Yasuda admits. Blip.fm has also built a widget, an instant code which people can embed into their own blogs or whatnot to showcase their "blips." In a few weeks, Blip.fm will be on Facebook, according to Yasuda. Currently, Blip.fm works with social network services like AudioScrobble, Twitter, Pownce, Haiku, Last.fm, Friendfeed, among others. So you can spread your musical taste through this other social networks. Now, how does Blip.fm make money? Yasuda says they have "referral links" for MP3 music bought through their service. Blip.fm gets a cut from MP3 music sold through their service. They will also soon launch other revenue-generating services like "buy ticket" or "buy t-shirts" through the service. Of course, they also have the usual online advertising as another source of revenues. At this time, Yasuda says that Blip.fm has been a surprise to the co-founders since it was launched because it is gaining more listeners from different parts of the world. “We believe and play on the belief that music is social,” Yasuda adds. We hear you, Jeff.

MANILA, Philippines -- “We’re radical then…but we’ve changed. We never claimed this mantel of Emo,” Third Eye Blind’s (3eb) Stephan Jenkins (guitar and vocals) declared, as he explained how the band’s music has changed since their eponymous debut album in 1997. 3eb is definitely not an Emo band. It is an American alternative rock band that emerged in the 1990s with lyrical rock staples like “Semi-Charmed Life,” “Graduate,” and “How’s It’s Going To Be.” Their successful 1997 album Third Eye Blind remains their biggest, selling 6 million copies, according to Jenkins. However, a decade in the music business has made the band a lot more “integrated,” “louder” and “political,” according to Jenkins who seemed in the mood to give long answers to questions by local journalists during a press conference here.
3eb is scheduled to play a one-night concert in Manila on September 5, as part of the Oktoberfest festivities led by San Miguel Corp. What kept the band from coming out with a new album? Jenkins replied, “I came out of a lyrical slump.” The recent US political climate has somehow inspired Jenkins and the rest of the band to finally finish 3eb’s fourth album, reportedly dubbed Ursa Major. It will be under the Sony label and is expected to come out February 2009. “We now have a stronger sense of who we are as musicians,” said Jenkins who was with Brad Hargreaves (drums and percussions) and Tony Fredianelli (guitar and vocals). During the press conference, Jenkins kept coming back to the “US political consciousness” that has recently emerged – hinting probably on the upcoming elections – which he said has influenced the songs in the new album. The band agreed that writing the new album was “challenging.” In fact, Jenkins who answered most of the questions posed by journalists, explained that 3eb’s new music is "extroverted" now due to more interactivity happening within the band. Asked about the band's thoughts on how technology has changed the music industry, Jenkins said YouTube and MySpace have allowed bands to interact directly with their fans and vice versa, effectively removing the once-powerful music executives from the picture. “Power is now in the hands of the band,” Jenkins stressed, noting that today's bands “don’t need to dance on top of the table” to make it in this cutthroat industry. Asked about music piracy and emerging initiatives to let people decide how much are they willing to pay for music online – as exemplified by Radiohead's strategy to sell Rainbows – Hargreaves retorted, “it’s unstoppable,” referring to music piracy on the Internet. The Internet has, however, helped 3eb reached out to younger fans who are less familiar with their music. “More youngsters are now embracing our music,” Jenkins said, thanks to social networks like MySpace and Facebook.

JIM Paredes of the Apo Hiking Society talks about the present state of the Filipino music industry and the the music he grew up in. He says that the music industry then was much more exciting due to the various styles and genres Filipino artists came up with. In addition, Paredes says the web is now being used to carry music, drastically changing the music scene. Watch INQUIRER.net online videographer Janie Christine Octia's video interview with Paredes.

By Izah Morales INQUIRER.net SURREAL yet real. The misty atmosphere in the auditorium welcomed the audience to a seeming dreamland of entertainment. But when the strings, drums, keyboard, and voices began to mingle, it woke the audience to the reality of Pinoy music at its best. Sugarfree and Up Dharma Down rocked the house as lights danced with the music. Here's Sugarfree singing "Hari ng Sablay." And here's Up Dharma Down. It wasn't only rock music which made the audience sing and groove, but also the melodious music and symphony from the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra with international violinist Lucia Micarelli. Here's Micarelli with the MPO. And here's an interview I conducted with Micarelli. It was also amazing to hear the orchestra play rock music like "Alleluia," which was sung by Bamboo. When the legendary members of the Juan dela Cruz band -- Joey "Pepe" Smith, Mike Hanopol and Wally Gonzalez -- walked on stage, time seemed to warp back to the 70s. The audience was thrilled as strings were strummed and the microphones were held. But just as the time machine was about to bring back the rock revolution, technical problems cut the excitement for awhile. Nonetheless, the show went on as Joey "Pepe" Smith became an impromptu stand-up comedian. After a few minutes, the show went on as Juan dela Cruz played their legendary songs, some of which have been revived by today’s generation of musicians. The show ended with a spectacular finale as Juan dela Cruz band performed "Ang Himig Natin," with the MPO, Sugarfree’s vocalist Ebe Dancel, Up Dharma Down’s vocalist Armi Millare, and violinist Micarelli on stage. Here's a video of Millare talking about how it felt to perform with the Pinoy rock icons. And here's Joey "Pepe" Smith sharing how it felt to perform with today's generation of Pinoy bands. Indeed, Fiesta ng Musikang Filipino was a feast for the eyes and ears. Editor's note: Interviews conducted by INQUIRER.net multimedia reporter Izah Morales. Video of interviews taken by INQUIRER.net online videographer Janie Christine Octia. Photos and video of Joey "Pepe" Smith impromptu stand-up comedy act taken by Morales.

By Candice Montenegro, Contributor INQUIRER.net THE OTHER day, I had a really bad Last Song Syndrome (LSS) moment. I was just getting out of the car when I heard the ad for this year's radio ad awards (the chipmunk song about mixed nuts), and I was singing it the entire day. Usually, the cure for LSS is to listen to the song in full, but I never heard the ad again so I went to bed with the awful song still playing in my mind. LSS, if you still haven't figured out, is when you hear a song and it gets stuck in your head, usually without you meaning (or wanting) to. I think LSS is every advertisement jingle's mission; that way they can make you subconsciously want their product or something. Singers and songwriters probably think the same thing. If a song is LSS-worthy, then it's more likely that the person will enjoy the song and buy the album. So I guess a song's LSS-worthiness equates to its success somehow. There are songs that are just catchier than the others, and these songs are usually the ones that make it to the top of the charts. So what makes a song LSS-worthy? Songs with lyrics that are easy to memorize are usually easier to get LSS-ed to. It's easier to repeat the same chorus again and again than to rap three different stanzas in your head (unless you're into straight up gangsta rap, which is a different story altogether). It also helps if the last words of the lines have ridiculously rhyming words. At least you'd have a bit of help remembering the next word to "and it’s only for…" if you know that the last line is, "and my love is true." It"s easy to get LSS-ed to songs that repeat certain words, phrases or syllables. When you sing "Ella ella eh eh eh," the constant repetition kind of gets you hooked. The downside to these kinds of songs, however, is you forget the rest of the song and you"re stuck with just "to the left, to the left" (with matching hand gestures) until you completely annoy the person you're with. Dance songs are usually easy to get LSS-ed to, probably because of the bouncy, happy beat. One song that has great LSS potential is "Low" by Flo Rida. I can't say how many times I've walked in a crowded place and I"ve heard random, people singing, "boots with the fur, fur…" Maybe it also has something to do with the danceability of the song, which makes it easier to remember. The "Papaya" song only has "tus" and "dus" in it, but it gets stuck in your head faster than you can say Edu Manzano. Really good songs are usually easy to get LSS-ed to. I get LSS-ed easily to songs by John Mayer, Alicia Keys and Ne-Yo. Then again, the criteria of a "good song" would vary from person to person, and that's just my personal taste. At the far end of the spectrum, really crappy songs are also very easy to get LSS-ed to. Anything that asks me to "yugyog" or "giling" not only gets on my nerves but also gets into my very easily LSS-ed mind. Again, this is all a matter of taste, and some people might actually enjoy singing these songs over and over. A song's LSS potential all boils down to the right lyrics, the right groove, and the right time. I personally like it when I get LSS-ed before I meet up with friends and I pass on my LSS to them. The worst time I had LSS was right before a crucial oral exam and a really bad OPM song was on continuous loop in my head. Sometimes, an LSS can even be a conversation starter, when you're sitting beside a cute guy on the MRT and you unconsciously sing the song out loud. Just better hope you're not singing chipmunk-style about some brand of mixed nuts.