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Drummer Buddy Miles, who played with Jimi Hendrix in his short-lived group, Band of Gypsys, died at his home in Austin, Texas on Tuesday, his publicist said. Miles, who was 60, suffered from congestive heart failure, Duane Lee said on Wednesday. He did not know the official cause of death. With his bombastic style, the former teen prodigy helped develop such musical forms as funk metal and acid jazz thanks to his work with such guitarists as John McLaughlin, Mike Bloomfield and Carlos Santana. In 1967, he and Bloomfield co-founded Electric Flag, whose rock-brass sound influenced Chicago and Blood, Sweat… Read more »

They have lyrics such as “Tequila makes her clothes fall off” and “Breakin down the good weed, rollin’ the blunt/Ghetto pimp tight girls say I’m the man.” U.S. popular music is awash with lyrics about drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Medical researchers have reviewed the words of the 279 top songs of 2005 to estimate just how common they are. Their report on Monday showed a third of the songs had explicit references to substance abuse. And two-thirds of these references placed drugs, alcohol and tobacco in a positive light by associating them with sex, partying and humor, according to the… Read more »

In a rare open letter from CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday, Apple urged record companies to abandon digital rights management technologies. The letter, posted on Apple’s Web site and titled “Thoughts on Music,” is a long examination of Apple’s iTunes and what the future may hold for the online distribution of copy-protected music. In the letter, Jobs says Apple was forced to create a DRM system to get the world’s four largest record companies on board with the iTunes Store. But there are alternatives, Jobs wrote. Apple and the rest of the online music distributors could continue down a DRM… Read more »

Underoath drummer Aaron Gillespie will release the debut album from his side band, the Almost, April 3 via a joint venture with Tooth & Nail and Virgin Records. “Southern Weather” will be supported by a spring tour as well as a long stint on the Vans Warped Tour this summer. “I wrote all the songs last year when Underoath was in the studio doing ‘Define the Great Line,’” Gillespie tells Billboard.com. “I’d do all the drums, then have a three-week to a month lull between doing drums and singing. I got so bored, so I wrote these 11 songs.” Gillespie… Read more »

Struggling U.S. auto manufacturers are hoping music will do for them what it did for Apple after the introduction of the iPod — make them cool. And in so doing, they aim to attract a new generation of car buyers who expect digital entertainment at all times. Two-thirds of 2007-model cars will enable users to connect MP3 players to factory-installed stereos. Leading the charge is Ford Motor, which at the Detroit Auto Show January 9 introduced a new factory-installed, in-car communications and entertainment system called Sync, developed in partnership with Microsoft. While auto manufacturers have offered iPod-integration kits as a… Read more »

SYDNEY, Australia – The drummer from 1980s Australian rock band Crowded House hanged himself in a park in southern Australia, an emergency services spokeswoman said Monday. Paul Hester, 46, went missing on Friday. His body was found Saturday in a park near his home in the southern city of Melbourne, said Metropolitan Ambulance Service spokeswoman Liraje Memishi. Hester played in several small bands before joining the New Zealand group Split Enz in 1983. He and Split Enz singer Neil Finn formed Crowded House in 1985 with bass player Nick Seymour. Crowded House was one of Australia’s most successful bands in… Read more »

Death Cab for Cutie and “The O.C.” have had a symbiotic relationship almost since the teen beach drama began in August, 2003. Protagonist Seth Cohen (actor Adam Brody) named-dropped the Washington state indie-rockers liberally and sported posters of the group on his wall, giving them mainstream exposure they probably never expected. In turn, Seth, his refined taste, and the show itself have earned a stellar reputation in music-geek circles. Death Cab have had their music featured in key scenes before, but the group will finally perform on “The O.C.” on April 20. The group will play two songs from its… Read more »

After he joined the Smashing Pumpkins 17 years ago, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin’s career began to revolve around incidents of death and rebirth. In March of 1996, his father died when the Pumpkins were on tour. Then in July of that same year, road keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin died from a heroin overdose while shooting up with Chamberlin. The drummer was arrested for possession and booted from the band for his inability to kick smack, with which he had battled since 1991. Ironically, the seeming death of his career triggered his spiritual rebirth. With help from friends, he got clean and rejoined… Read more »

New York – When Casey Stratton was a struggling singer-songwriter a few years ago, he had idealistic notions about artistic integrity. High on his list of what would jeopardize it: licensing his music to television. “When I was younger, I used to be really weird about stuff like that, like, ‘I will not cheapen my work by putting it on TELEVISION!’” he recalls with a chuckle. That was before the producers of the teen-oriented drama “Tarzan” called and asked to use the bittersweet ballad “Hollow,” from his debut album, on the WB show. Stratton gave the go-ahead, and while the… Read more »

Kelly Osbourne, the 19-year-old daughter of heavy metal star Ozzy Osbourne, has checked into a drug rehabilitation center for an addiction to painkillers, her parents said. Ozzy, 55, and Sharon Osbourne, 51, talked about their daughter’s drug problem Friday night on CNN’s “Larry King Live.” Sharon Osbourne said that an English tabloid notified them Friday that they had a photograph of Kelly in an apparent drug deal. Kelly Osbourne was confronted and eventually acknowledged a drug problem “after a lot of twisting,” Sharon Osbourne said. Osbourne’s younger brother, Jack, 18, checked himself into a drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinic last… Read more »