MC Guru from the hip-hop duo Gang Starr died Monday. Gang Starr mixed elements of jazz and hip hop. Their biggest hit likely being "Jazz Thing" featured in Spike Lee's "Mo' Better Blues."
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RIP
One of my favorite songs, "Night of the Vampires," is sung Roky Erickson, possibly one of the coolest people alive.
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Aside from being a founder of psychedelic rock in the mid to late '60's, Roky was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1968 after speaking nonsense on stage at HemisFair. He was sent to Houston Psychiatric Hospital, where he received electro-shock therapy.
The following year, facing a ten year prison sentence for possession of a joint, Roky claimed innocence by reason of insanity and sent to Austin State Hospital. He tried to escape a few times and was thus sent to Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. There, he was subjected to more electro-shock therapy and thorazine, until his release in 1972.
Many albums, stints in jail, various obsessions and hallucinations (including an obsession with mail that lasted many years), working with and being cared for by all kinds of musicians, Roky has, yet again, released another album, "True Love Cast Out All Evil," with indie rock band Okkervil River.
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More interesting stuff about Roky:
-He attended school in Austin and dropped out of Travis High School in 1966, one month before graduating, rather than cut his hair to conform to the school dress code.
-In 1982, Erickson asserted that a Martian had inhabited his body. He later reported to friends that aliens were coming to Earth to harm him, and asked a Notary Public to witness an official declaration that he was himself an alien, hoping that this would convince the aliens to leave him alone.
-In an unmedicated state, Erickson began a years-long obsession with the mail, often spending hours poring over random junk mail, writing to solicitors and celebrities (dead or living). He was arrested in 1989 on charges of mail theft. Erickson picked up mail from neighbors who had moved and taped it to the walls of his room. He insisted that he never opened any of the mail, and the charges were ultimately dropped.
-On April 20, 2010, Erickson released True Love Cast Out All Evil, his first album of new material in 14 years. Austin-based Okkervil River serves as Erickson's backing band on the album.
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RIP
One of my favorite songs, "Night of the Vampires," is sung Roky Erickson, possibly one of the coolest people alive.
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Aside from being a founder of psychedelic rock in the mid to late '60's, Roky was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1968 after speaking nonsense on stage at HemisFair. He was sent to Houston Psychiatric Hospital, where he received electro-shock therapy.
The following year, facing a ten year prison sentence for possession of a joint, Roky claimed innocence by reason of insanity and sent to Austin State Hospital. He tried to escape a few times and was thus sent to Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. There, he was subjected to more electro-shock therapy and thorazine, until his release in 1972.
Many albums, stints in jail, various obsessions and hallucinations (including an obsession with mail that lasted many years), working with and being cared for by all kinds of musicians, Roky has, yet again, released another album, "True Love Cast Out All Evil," with indie rock band Okkervil River.
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More interesting stuff about Roky:
-He attended school in Austin and dropped out of Travis High School in 1966, one month before graduating, rather than cut his hair to conform to the school dress code.
-In 1982, Erickson asserted that a Martian had inhabited his body. He later reported to friends that aliens were coming to Earth to harm him, and asked a Notary Public to witness an official declaration that he was himself an alien, hoping that this would convince the aliens to leave him alone.
-In an unmedicated state, Erickson began a years-long obsession with the mail, often spending hours poring over random junk mail, writing to solicitors and celebrities (dead or living). He was arrested in 1989 on charges of mail theft. Erickson picked up mail from neighbors who had moved and taped it to the walls of his room. He insisted that he never opened any of the mail, and the charges were ultimately dropped.
-On April 20, 2010, Erickson released True Love Cast Out All Evil, his first album of new material in 14 years. Austin-based Okkervil River serves as Erickson's backing band on the album.
