Results tagged “jaybennett”

Champaign County Coroner Duane Northrup has released a statement attributing the cause of jay Bennett's death to an overdose of the pain killer Fentanyl. Bennett had blogged about suffering from chronic hip pain, so it's possible he was taking the medication to alleviate his symptoms. Northrup told The News-Gazette.com, "We're treating it as an accident. There's nothing we have that leads us to believe it's anything else."

We hope everyone enjoyed their long holiday weekend. While you were grilling, we were still working, so here are some of the things you might have missed.

We're still reeling a bit from last night's news of Jay Bennett's passing. We've been blasting Summerteeth all day and we'll move on to The Palace at 4 a.m. this evening. In the meantime, here are some excellent videos to remember Jay - and his excellent musical gift - by. You can also download his new record, Whatever Happened, I Apologized, for free here.

UPDATE: Jim DeRogatis spoke to Bennett friend and sometimes bandmate Ed Burch about Bennet's death. Burch confirms that Bennett passed away at 4 a.m. this morning and that an autopsy is being performed.

When he isn't suing former bandmates, Jay Bennett puts out records. Last November, the erstwhile Wilco guitarist issued Whatever Happened I Apologize, his fifth solo effort, through the online-only distributor Rock Proper, which offers free downloads of its releases. But for those who'd like to hold more than a jumble of ones and zeros in their hands, Bennett and Rock Proper have hooked up with a somewhat novel new service called Kickstarter: pledge some cash, and watch that download become a real live 12" record.

Below is the full text of the public filing of Jay Bennett vs. Jeff Tweedy sent in by reader ChgoDiver.

We've long defended Jay Bennett's importance to Wilco. We thought he was the foil frontman Jeff Tweedy needed. However, we find it distressing to see the Trib report that Bennett is launching a lawsuit against Tweedy, "claiming Tweedy owes him money from the band's 2002 documentary [I Am Trying To Break Your Heart] and royalties on songs written during Bennett's seven years with the group."

We've long maintained Wilco's Jeff Tweedy made a huuuuuge mistake when he unceremoniously booted Jay Bennett from the band, especially since it meant that after a brief flurry of solo activity, we haven't heard a lick of Bennett's delicious orch-pop. Well, that situation is about to change as Bennett prepares to release three albums in the next couple months: a solo disc, a collaboration with Ed Burch, and a Titanic Love Affair reunion. We bet any one song off each of those discs will have more hooks than in all of A Ghost Is Born. [S-T]

Lots to rock about over the next few days, from Modest Mouse at the Congress, to Bob Pollard at the Metro, to our beloved Hall & Oates at the UIC Pavilion, but DDaN's gonna keep it live and local this week.

Chicagoist had a debate with a friend a few months back about the deficiency of really influential musicians coming out of Chicago in the past several years. We argued about the semantics of “coming out of Chicago” – does that mean born and raised here? Still living here? Commonly associated with the Second City?

One of the most revealing things Wilco's leader Jeff Tweedy says on this week's Sound Opinions (airing on WBEZ 8 p.m. tonight, 11 a.m. tomorrow, and available as a podcast after that) is his answer to Greg Kot's question of what stood in the way of Wilco being truly collaborative in the past. Tweedy answers, "Well, I probably stood in the way of that a lot of times, to be completely honest." We've been following...

For this week’s edition of Empty Out Your Wallet we’ve decided to primarily point you to smaller shows whose tickets are already available for purchase, plus one surprise. We’re always on the side of the little guy (and / or gal) and believe that they are deserving of your pre-show guaranteed dollars as well. Decemberists Alasdair Roberts The Decemberists are this year’s Death Cab For Cutie with a better background in literature and seamanship. We...