sonic slang

Quiet Riot Lead Singer Dead at 52

You might know them best as the lone metal entry on many an 80s compilation disc, but Quiet Riot (they of "Cum On Feel the Noise" fame) never stopped making music.  In fact, the band's last disc Rehab was release in late-2006.  And though it took lead singer Frankie Banali's passing to get them back on our radar, SS is still flying the flag at half-mast today and flashing our devil horns for metal heads everywhere.  RIP.

RIP Donda West

Taking a moment to be sincere - Kanye West's mom Donda passed away yesterday, and by all accounts she seemed to be a pretty sweet gal and a wonderful mother who, let's face it, raised a pretty damned talented son.  This 2005 clip of Kanye serenading Donda with "Hey Mama" would normally be a tad schmaltzy for SS, but today it feels right. 

Watch the clip after the jump, then go call your mother.  She misses you.

RIP Robert Goulet

SS is flying the flag at half-mast today.  Though many of you might know him best for his role in Beetlejuice or Will Ferrell's parodies, (and perhaps a few for his rendition of the Canadian National anthem at the beginning of Wrestlemania VI) Robert Goulet was a class act.  Our personal favorite quote: "I don't work out. I pay people to do that for me."

Pay your respects after the jump.

God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut

We're taking a time-out from the music this morning to recognize the passing of Kurt Vonnegut.  One of the greatest writers of the 20th (or any) century, his death at 84 is especially sad to us at SS.  Works like Breakfast of Champions and Slaughterhouse Five played a huge role in steering us away from that lucrative law or medical career, and into the oh-so glamorous world of shooting our mouths off for a living.  He inspired us to think, gave us the only high school summer reading we ever enjoyed, and perhaps most amazingly, managed to appear in Rodney Dangerfield's Back to School without losing any literary street cred.  (All those naughty drawings in his books were cool too.) 

Kurt, you will be missed. 

"When Hemingway killed himself he put a period at the end of his life; old age is more like a semicolon."

"If you want to disappoint your parents and don't have the nerve to be gay, go into the arts."

Kurt Vonnegut's 2005 address for alma mater Cornell: