Spin magazine reports “Sonic Youth super-couple Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore have split up after 27 years of marriage — and the future of the band they’ve played in together since 1981 is unclear.”

Apparently the band is fulfilling its current obligations, which includes five dates in South America. After that fans of Sonic Youth’s noise rock is unclear.

The couple has asked for privacy and respect and will not comment any further at this time.

Erica Dunton on the set of her movie The 27 Club

Here’s a recent a 27 Club coincidence brought to our attention by NY Daily’s Joe Neumaier who as a movie critic notes that the “27 Club Goes From Reel to Real.”

“It doesn’t have the same scope, but next Friday, the indie comedy-drama “The Perfect Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll” will open in a few theaters in New York and L.A. The movie stars Kevin Zegers as a once-hot rocker recovering from a setback who goes back to his hometown to escape sleazy managers and record execs, assess life, get drugs out of his system and set off on a road trip with the former bandmate Jason Ritter he treated badly.
The movie’s title, and a theme in the movie, is how rock stars famously die at 27, from the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones to Hendrix to Joplin to Morrison. And, one week ago, sadly, Amy Winehouse joined the “27 Club.”

For the record, we’d like to remind both the flick’s producers and Joe Neumaier that our friend Erica Dunton’s movie The 27 Club (starring Joe Anderson) hit the indie circuit four years ago to much acclaim. You should check it out and let us know what you think.

Being a true artist is far from easy. The stretch limo quickly becomes a fishbowl. The press. The pressures. Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll, right? “Time to go on stage.” You’re sitting in the green room backstage in some city. Thousands of fans waiting in front of the stage. You might’ve had too much of something. You go out there because you have to. It’s your job. Perform. “My fans are there to see me. I love them. Where’s the stage?” You go out there and sing. You stumble up to the microphone. Your mind is mushy; it’s like a dream. You know the song, but somehow it’s lost in translation. Your fans boo. You try another verse and they keep on booing.

Read More…

At 3:54pm, singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London apartment at age 27. We are currently getting as much of the details together from leading media resources. We’ll keep you updated as we learn more…

(From Antimusic.com):

Blues At The Crossroads: The Robert Johnson Centennial Concerts, a very special tour is set to launch in San Francisco on Jan. 28, 2011 and the accompanying studio recording will be released in early 2011.

The projects commemorates the 100th Anniversary of legendary bluesman Robert Johnson’s birth with exhilarating collaborations between Big Head Todd & The Monsters, living Bluesman legend David “Honeyboy” Edwards, Hubert Sumlin, and Cedric Burnside & Lightnin’ Malcolm. With Edwards on board, Blues At The Crossroads has a direct connection back to the legend, as Edwards was in attendance for Johnson’s last live performance the night Johnson passed away.

“We both wanted to create a blues show that was not just another blues show, but a show that was truly unique,” said Blues at the Crossroads co-producer Ron Hausfeld, who is producing the tour with Ted Kurland Associates’ Jack Randall. “We want people to walk away saying, ‘Wow…that was cool…I’ve never seen anything like it.’”

Before the tour hits the road, Blues At The Crossroads musicians meet this fall at Ardent Recording Studios in Memphis to put this epic collaboration to tape. The studio recordings will be released in early 2011 in conjunction with the tour.

Blues At The Crossroads picks up the thread of Johnson’s legacy in Mississippi, at the junction of US Highways 61 & 49; the very crossroads where, as legend has it, Robert Johnson’s burning desire pushed him to make his deal with the devil – giving up his soul to write the baddest-ass blues the world had ever heard. One of the most famous Delta blues musicians, Johnson has influenced a broad range of musicians for generations with his songs, vocal phrasing and guitar style – in particular his landmark recordings from 1936-1937 that display a remarkable combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent. Eric Clapton has called Johnson “the most important blues singer that ever lived” and described Johnson’s emotive vocal delivery as “the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice.” Johnson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an “Early Influence” in their first induction ceremony in 1986. Johnson’s shadowy, poorly documented life and death at age 27 in 1938 have given rise to much legend.

Blues At The Crossroads: The Robert Johnson Centennial Concerts tour schedule is as follows:

Tour Dates (additional dates to be announced soon)

Date City, State Venue

Jan. 28 San Francisco, CA Regency Ballroom
Jan. 29 Costa Mesa, CA Orange County Performing Arts Center
Jan. 30 San Diego, CA (2 shows) Anthology
Jan. 31 Santa Barbara, CA Campbell Hall / UCSB
Feb. 01 TBA
Feb. 10 Ann Arbor, MI Hill Auditorium / U of M
Feb. 11 Chicago, IL Orchestra Hall
Feb. 12 Kansas City, MO Uptown Theatre
Feb. 13 Meridian, MS Riley Center / MSU
Feb. 16 Chapel Hill, NC Memorial Hall / UNC Chapel Hill
Feb. 17 Washington, DC Strathmore Performing Arts Center
Feb. 18 Boston, MA Berklee School of Music
Feb. 24 Ridgefield, CT The Playhouse
Feb. 25 Princeton, NJ McCarter Theatre
Feb. 26 Blue Bell, PA Montgomery County Community College
Feb. 27 New Bedford, MA Zeiterion Theater
March 4 Milwaukee, WI Potowatomi Casino
March 5 Omaha, NE Holland Performing Arts Center
March 6 Minneapolis, MN Orchestra Hall
March 7 TBA TBA
March 8 Urbana, IL Krannert Center – Tyrone Festival Theatre

Additional dates to be announced.

By Georgina Adam and Gareth Harris | From Art Basel daily edition, 16 Jun 10:

The profile of graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who died of a drug overdose in 1988 at the age of just 27, has never been higher. The Beyeler Foundation is devoting a large-scale retrospective of more than 100 works to the Brooklyn-born painter, whose output is limited to just eight years, but whose critical acclaim is mirrored by the market interest in his work, with over 30 works on show at Art Basel on six stands.

“Basquiat’s strength was in his ability to merge imagery from the streets, newspapers and TV with the spiritualism of his Haitian heritage, injecting both into an intuitive understanding of the language of painting,” Jeffrey Deitch, the new director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, says.

Deitch’s opinion is reflected in the wide base of collectors for Basquiat’s work. The list of lenders to the Beyeler show reads like a Who’s Who of contemporary collecting, including the Miami-based Rubells and the Bramans, hedge-funder Steve Cohen, London jeweller Laurence Graff and tennis champion John McEnroe. The Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Zurich-based Daros Foundation have also loaned works. Other collectors include star names from pop music and Hollywood, such as Madonna and Leonardo DiCaprio.

“Major collectors of modern art view [Basquiat’s] work as comparable to that of Picasso and Dubuffet,” explains Beyeler director Sam Keller. “He was prolific, and produced 900 to 1,000 paintings and 2,000 to 3,000 works on paper. This amount is a condition for an active and sustained market.”

At auction, the highest price ever paid for a Basquiat stands at $14.6m for an Untitled work from 1981. It was set at the height of the art market boom at Sotheby’s New York in 2007. In November 2008, at the depth of the financial recession, an Untitled, Boxer from 1982 still made $13.5m (in the late 1990s it had sold for about $800,000). At the fair there are two works priced at $12m, at Shafrazi (F7) and Bruno Bischofberger (C9): Gas Truck, 1984, at the former, and the 1982, eight-panel work The Dutch Sellers at the latter, who represented the artist worldwide.

These two dealers are among a small, powerful group of players in this market. But Edward Tyler Nahem (F15) feels that the market is so broad today that it is no longer possible for a few dealers to control it. He is showing two works, Catharsis, 1984, priced at $9m, and Untitled (Self-portrait: the King), 1981, at $2.8m, while L&M Arts (B18) has a large work on paper, Ribs, Ribs, 1982, priced at $2.6m. Yesterday, dealers reported interest but few confirmed sales.

“Like many markets, Basquiat’s is two-tiered,” says Brett Gorvy, deputy chairman of Christie’s, which sold the Untitled, Boxer. “The most coveted material is rare, generally dating from the best period, 1981-83. There are good later works but overall the quality is more inconsistent.” Collectors really want what Gorvy describes as “emblematic works, preferably with a single figure with strong colours and a desirable scale”. Many of the top works are now with a handful of collectors: Peter Brant, Eli Broad, Philippe Niarchos and Dennis Scholl, and the collector/dealer family of Mugrabis. They are a major presence in the market, and passionate about the artist: Alberto Mugrabi even has the signature Basquiat crown tattooed on his wrist.

Below the top level is what Gorvy calls “a level of good, B+ works that sell for $800,000-$3m. These works are often bought by dealers who sell them on. There’s a healthy trade here.”

The majority of the works in the Beyeler show come from private collections. “Museums missed the boat,” says Alberto Mugrabi. Now, he says, they will have to wait for donations. His rumoured inventory of hundreds of works “is not as good as it was because I sold works”.

Since Basquiat’s death in 1988, his market has developed steadily—in line with overall art market trends—with a dramatic peak in 2007 when, at the height of the art market boom, the global auction volume for his work was over $115m, according to Artnet. During the 2008-09 financial crisis, turnover dropped back to 2006 levels, also reflecting lower volumes at auction.

In May this year Untitled (Stardust), 1983, depicting a jazz saxophonist sold at auction for $7.3m, well over the $2.5m pre-sale estimate, a price that startled some art world specialists. It was consigned by the Basquiat estate, which also has an authentication committee including John Cheim of Cheim & Read (A9), collector Larry Warsh and Basquiat’s father, Gerard.

“The Basquiat market has matured in the last few years, there’s a lot of collectors, not the old timers, mainly new collectors,” says collector Adam Lindemann, who lent to the Beyeler show. “They want Basquiat, not De Kooning. The old guard may still wrinkle their noses but Basquiat is blue-chip.”

“Taking death seriously doesn’t mean you have to lose your sense of humor!”

It seems TermLifeInsurance.com is taking a new spin on the rather drab subject of life insurance. Besides listing the “Top-Earning Dead Celebrities”, “7 Unfortunate Ways to Die”, and “9 Hilarious Ironic Deaths” is the following 27 Club post:

Via: Term Life Insurance

And, for those not in the know: Erica Dunton’s film, “The 27 Club” is a modern gem. Her fresh take on the classic Road Movie (in the same vain as 2 Lane Blacktop) was much heralded on the 2008 film fest circuit and an official selection of the Tribeca Film Fest. Check the trailer below…then, add it to your Netflix que. Cheers and happy living ~

Lady Gaga’s recent accomplishments include having more “fans” on Facebook than any other living human. She crushed the 10,000,000 mark earlier this year, surpassing President Barack Obama. Not bad for a 24-year-old diva. Although far less exclusive, but obviously impressive, she can add the cover and interview with the venerable Vanity Fair magazine.

It’s not surprising that the majority of blogs and mainstream media focuses on re-reporting that she admits to using cocaine “occasionally.” By her own account, prior to her fame, Lady Gaga was an addicted mess that did “bags and bags of cocaine” until her father confronted her.

On a more interesting note, the Vanity Fair interview reveals that Lady Gaga admits to being “perpetually lonely” despite her global success. “I’m lonely when I’m in relationships,” she says. “It’s my condition as an artist.” That statement might be the truest one in there. Most of The 27s suffered creative burns that manifested themselves in loneliness and/or bad relationships.

Lady Gaga’s conversation with Vanity Fair continued. “I’m drawn to bad romances. And my song [Bad Romance] is about whether I go after those [sorts of relationships] or if they find me.

“I have this weird thing that if I sleep with someone they’re going to take my creativity from me.” Consequently, she says, “I’m quite celibate now; I don’t really get time to meet anyone.”

The read the whole thing, be sure to stop by a newsstand.

Kanye West protege Kid Cudi from Cleveland recently got himself into some trouble. He tore a door of its hinges during a domestic dispute. Scary shit–yea, we know. The cops came and he was arrested for criminal mischief. When they found some liquid cocaine in his pocket they slapped on a drug possession charge.

Kid Cudi is a well-known stoner, but speaking in Brooklyn at a recent appearance he made a point to say he was not headed the way of The 27s:

“I know you guys were hearing some sh*t about me in the news. I was wilding out and sh*t, but I’m good now. I just smoke weed. I know n*ggas die when they 27. I’m 26 now, but I promise I’ll live till I’m old as sh*t.”

The release of Kid Cudi’s second album, “G.O.O.D. Music Day” (featuring Kanye West, Consequence, and Big Sean) has now been pushed back till September 30, 2010.

Here’s an interesting interview with clips from the upcoming disc. Kid Cudi has some brains, so hopefully he won’t continue to waste ‘em.

At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, one of the most talked-about movies to debut was The Tillman Story.

“Pat Tillman gave up his professional football career to join the Army Rangers in 2002—and became an instant symbol of patriotic fervor and unflinching duty. But the truth about Pat Tillman is far more complex, and ultimately more heroic, than the caricature created by the media. And when the government tried to turn his death into war propaganda, they took on the wrong family. From her home in the Santa Cruz mountains, Pat’s mother, Dannie Tillman, led the family’s crusade to reveal the truth beneath the mythology of their son’s life and death.

Featuring candid and revelatory interviews with Pat’s fellow soldiers as well as his family, Amir Bar-Lev’s emotional and insightful film not only shines a light on the shady aftermath of Pat’s death and calls to task the entire chain of command but also examines themes as timeless as the notion of heroism itself.” –Sundance.com

Check out the trailer below…