Jerry Fuchs, the drummer for a pile of indie-rock and dance-punk outfits died tragically in a fall down an elevator shaft early Sunday morning. He was 34.

According to the New York Times, Fuchs had attended a benefit party in an industrial building in Brooklyn when he got stuck on a freight elevator between the building's fourth and fifth floors. While attempting to jump out of the car, his jacket got caught and he fell to the bottom of the shaft.

Over the years, Fuchs has played for a wide range of bands, including the instrumental rock band Turing Machine, the dance-punk outfit The Juan MacLean and most recently with Maserati, but I'll always know his work best from his time with !!! (pronounced "chk, chk, chk") on their album Myth Takes.

Fuchs was one of those drummers that was like a human metronome, and on Myth Takes (and indeed with his other work) he laid down beats that were sometimes huge, sometimes funky and always very tight. Even when he was playing big monster drum fills it was never sloppy, and his rhythms were always as tight as if they'd been performed by a drum machine, without the fakeness of one.

On his Web site, The Juan MacLean frontman John Maclean had this to say:

Jerry was one of my best and most loyal friends. He was hands-down the best drummer I have ever played with or seen for that matter. Jerry was with me from the start of The Juan MacLean, and we had countless adventures together all over the world. He was utterly sincere and fiercely loyal. During a particularly difficult time, while backstage in a club in Chicago, Jerry told me "Juan, I will follow you to the end of the earth and I will always be there for you." That was Jerry, the greatest drummer in the world, the greatest friend you could ever have.

We'd like to extend our condolences to his friends, family and bandmates over this tragic event.

Photo © Mike White, Courtesy of Maserati

I love punk covers. There's nothing like when a band takes a well-known song and subjects it to their whims, forcing it to be something other than the original writer intended it. Whether it's better, worse, funny or thought provoking, I really am a sucker for them.

Rarely, it goes in the other direction, as in the case of this list compiled by Boyhowdy at Cover Lay Down. The music blogger has assembled a list of Music MP3s by folk artists, doing covers of punk classics.

You're sure to find immediate favorites in this list of revised classics. I know I did with Frank Turner's cover of Bad Brains' "Pay to Come," The Indigo Girls' take on the Clash's "Clampdown" and Allo, Darlin's cover of "I Wanna Be Sedated."

But don't take my word for it, go here and download them yourselves.

A few weeks ago, clothing Store PacSun announced the lineup and dates for the 2009 PacTour, with Saosin, P.O.S., Innerpartysystem, and Eye Alaska.

As part of the tour, PacSun stores near each tour stop will play host to PacTour bands each day of the tour for free in-store acoustic and meet and greet sessions. They've now released the schedule for these in-store performances, as well as who'll be playing in each town.

The performances are scheduled to start at 3:30pm on each date. Check with your local PacSun store for more details.

Dates are listed below. Read more...

It really feels like the year is flying by; Halloween is barely over and everybody's already talking about the holidays! As much as I'd like to slow things down a bit, I'd be remiss not to mention St. Patrick's Day 2010, at least as it regards the Green 17 Tour.

Flogging Molly's Green 17 Tour has become a yearly tradition, where the Celtic Punk band stretches out the St. Patrick Day's celebration for weeks, ultimately ending up with a big St. Patrick's Day blowout in Arizona on March 17.

Tour dates are listed below, and presale tickets are available here. Read more...

It's a good day for the music world, but a bad day for journalism. Evidently, rumors of legendary hardcore drummer Chuck Biscuit's death have been greatly exaggerated.

Yesterday we reported that the drummer, who had played for D.O.A., Danzig, the Circle Jerks and Black Flag, among others, had passed away on Saturday after losing a battle with throat cancer. This is apparently not true, as Vancouver's The Straight contacted Joey Keithley, singer-guitarist of D.O.A. who confirmed that Biscuits is very much alive. Read more...

UPDATE: Evidently, this is not true. See this post for more details.

It's been reported that legendary hardcore drummer Chuck Biscuits passed away on Saturday, October 24 after a losing his battle with throat cancer. He was 44 years old.

Biscuits, like a lot of drummers, was a guy who has always been on the scene, even if people didn't realize it. While he was best known for being one of the original members of Danzig, where he played from 1987-1994, his drumming resume was much deeper than that.

As a member of the legendary Vancouver punk band D.O.A., Biscuits was on the forefront of the North American Hardcore scene. In fact, his hardcore pedigree is more impressive than that of many of his contemporaries, boasting time with Black Flag, the Circle Jerks and even most recently Social Distortion.

In addition to the powerhouse of rhythm that Chuck provided to such classic punk songs like "Coup D'Etat" with the Circle Jerks and, well everything he did with D.O.A., he was also a character. Even though his drum kit sat to the back of the stage, offstage he had a pleasant, humorous personality. A classic Biscuits moment was his discussion of cereal on the Danzig Lucifuge video (click here to view).

It's amazing, and sad, that Biscuits accomplished so much, playing with so many legendary bands, on so many legendary recordings, and he was only 44. He was taken from music, and from the world, way too early.

We'd like to extend our condolences to his friends, family and his long, long list of former bandmates.

It may not have been the best of years for influential L.A. punk band X, with this year's announcement that vocalist Exene Cervenka had been diagnosed with MS, but that's not preventing the band from celebrating the holidays and closing out the year with a bang.

It will start with the release of two holiday tracks by the four original members of X, "Santa Claus is coming to Town" and "Jingle Bells." These songs will be released as their X-mas digital 45 collection this Thanksgiving, just in time for the start of the holiday season.

To wrap up the year, the band has a run of holiday shows scheduled for their California fans with a run of four dates at the end of December.

The X 2009 Holiday Tour

December 19 - The Wiltern, Los Angeles, CA
December 29 - Harlow's, Sacramento, CA
December 30 - Slims, San Francisco, CA
December 31 - Slims, San Francisco, CA

Keep an eye out for the tracks when they're released, as they're sure to become an essential part of everyone's punk rock holiday playlist.

More tour dates for punk bands are listed here.

Photo - Scott Gries/Getty Images

Hank Williams III is hitting the road with Assjack next month, in support of a long-anticipated Assjack release.

If you're unfamiliar with his story, Hank Williams III is the grandson of country legend Hank Williams, Sr. and the son of Hank Williams, Jr. He also puts on a hell of an amazing show.

The last time I saw Hank III, he played for three hours, and it consisted of three sets. The first set was a set of straight up old school honky tonk music. His second was a power-charged, cowpunk/psychobilly set. Then, for his third and final set, he returned to the stage with Assjack, and a played a brutal set of blistering metal.

And all three sets were amazing. Seriously. Go see him.

Tour dates are listed below. Read more...

I just received word from the Riverboat Gamblers camp that guitarist Ian Mcdougall was hit by a car while riding his bike on Saturday October 17th. He sustained a broken hip, a broken wrist and hemorrhaging under the skull along with many lacerations, torn ligaments, bruises and scrapes.

Fortunately, Mcdougall will be all right. Unfortunately, he is going to have endure a long recovery, a lot of pain and a giant pile of hospital bills related to his stay in the ICU, ongoing treatment and physical therapy.

The band has set up a Paypal account for anyone who'd like to help Ian out, even with a small donation. More info is here.

From the "Because they've avoided the headlines for a month dept.":

The Sex Pistols are threatening to sue a British ice cream company over it's use of the tagline "God Save the Cream," and imagery that bears a resemblance of the band's cover art, according to a story in the Guardian today. (link)

Icecreamists, the ice cream maker also features among its products an ice-cream drink called the Sex Pistol, which is essentially a shake with a shot of absinthe in it.

Part of the band's claim of infringement also includes the company's use of part of a guitar-based version of the British national anthem.

Matt O'Connor, founder of the Icecreamists, issued this statement:

We are a bit dumbfounded that a group that made its reputation for being banned is trying to ban one of our ice creams and claim copyright over the national anthem and the Queen.

Personally, I think that nothing the company is doing is blatant enough to fall outside of fair use, but one really has to wonder if the real reason behind the proposed legal action is that John Lydon is most concerned that this competition will loosen his stranglehold of Britain's dairy industry.

Photo by Stephen Chernin/Getty Images