In a terribly unfortunate coincidence, today is the release of the Deluxe Edition of Irish super group Thin Lizzy’s 1976 classic album, Jailbreak, while last weekend one of their guitarists, Gary Moore, passed away while vacationing in Spain.

The original album featured nine tracks, the most recognizable of which are the often-covered The Boys Are Back in Town and the title track, “Jailbreak.” The album was the sixth release from the band, which formed in 1969 in Dublin. Easily recognizable to the ear for their twin guitar sound, they’ve been emulated by bands as diverse as Ween and Def Leppard.

In fact, it was Def Leppard’s vocalist, Joe Elliott, who together with original Thin Lizzy member Scott Gorham helped to re-master Jailbreak:Deluxe Edition. In addition they also re-tooled Johnny the Fox and the soon to be released “Live and Dangerous.” Each release now contains along with the re-mastered version of the original a second disc of rare bonus tracks.

Though Moore left Thin Lizzy before Jailbreak’s release, again returning for a two year stint in the late 1970’s, he went on to enjoy a successful solo career and is credited with inspiring the musical styles of numerous rock guitarists. It is clear that Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarists Randy Rhoads or Zakk Wylde took a shine to Moore’s playing, as did Joe Bonamassa, Vivian Campbell and Metallica’s Kirk Hammett.

Yet Moore wasn’t pigeonholed in the rock genre, and in fact experimented with many genres including jazz and country, and released a blues album with The Beatles’ George Harrison in 1990.

-Court

We were going to wait until our weekly Stranger than Fiction Friday post to bring this story to you, but it is just too good to let it go until them.

Fred Durst is known for many things. Fronting the band Limp Bizkit, wearing a red hat, allegedly sleeping with some pop starlets in the early 2000’s, and now, if the people of Austin, Texas get their way, Fred Durst might be also known for s**t.

The City of Austin recently decided to rename their Solid Waste Services Department to better encapsulate the actual list of services they provide including, “recycling, garbage collection, yard trimmings pick-up, street sweeping, litter abatement, household hazardous waste disposal, storm debris clean-up, Zero Waste initiatives and community outreach & education.”

They challenged their constituents to come up with a new name for waste services and put it to a vote online. The suggestion with the overwhelming majority of votes right now (over 26,000 votes!)? “The Fred Durst Society of Humanities and the Arts.”

According to NPR.com, City of Austin public information specialist Jennifer Herber says that while the poll is intended to be for fun, the department plans to “go with what makes the most sense for Austin and for the department.”

Check out the other potential names for Austin’s s**t and cast your vote here.

-Erin O.

This coming Sunday night the Grammy Awards will be presented, so each day this week we’ll bring you Grammy related news.

They call it “Music’s Biggest Night,” and no doubt the Grammys are the biggest award in music; they are to musicians what the Oscars are to actors. But what sets apart The Grammys from the Billboard Awards, the Country Music Awards, The Teen Choice Awards, or any of the other music awards out there?

While all offer glitz and glamour, perhaps what gives the Grammys the most credibility and sense of elitism is that they are peer-voted, meaning that only voting members of The Recording Academy have a say in who wins. What’s a voting member, you ask? Well, it is someone who has at least six technical or creative credits in the course of their career; a songwriter or lyricist, a musician, a sound engineer or producer, conductors, the person who designs a release's cover art and more.

There are other types of membership in the Academy, but only voting members can cast ballots. The idea is that only folks who have been through the writing and recording process can accurately say in who has created the finest technical or artistic achievement in each of the 109 general categories.

The Grammys aren’t based on sales figures or chart positions (Billboard Awards), aren’t genre-specific (Country Music Awards), and aren’t open to anyone to vote (Teen Choice or MTV Awards).

The Grammys have several organizations to support the music community beneath them. MusicCares offers musicians critical assistance, advocacy, and community outreach while the Grammy Foundation promotes the importance of recorded music to American culture.

Check out this year’s nominees here, buy their music here, and check out the Awards this Sunday night on CBS.

-Court

Sonny Bono was half of Sonny & Cher before a Senator, wrestler Jesse Ventura was known as “The Body“ before he became Governor of Minnesota, and Ronald Regan was an actor before President, so why shouldn’t Luther Campbell, co-founder of raunchy rap group 2 Live Crew, run for Mayor of Miami?

Campbell is “mad frustrated” with the current administration, headed by Carlos Alvarez, and wants to “straighten the town out.” Alvarez is up for a recall vote on March 15. Campbell cites his dealings with politics as the owner of a nightclub and the years spent running his own record labels as preparation for handling the county budget.

And he’s no stranger to politics. In 1989, 2 Live Crew’s album, As Nasty as They Wanna Be, was labeled “obscene” by for sexual themes, and a U.S. District Court Judge in Florida ruled the album illegal to sell. The U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the obscenity ruling in 1992; the U.S. Supreme Court later refused to hear Broward County’s appeal. The album went on to sell over two million copies.

But Campbell, also known as concert promoter, adult film producer, columnist for the Miami New Times, knows how to make a persuasive argument, whether he’s standing up for free speech, bribing the Miami Hurricanes, or, as the Onion points out, “encouraging everyone to put their face down and asses up.” And the Cuban-American vote is a lock because he “discovered [rapper] Pitbull.”

Perhaps Campbell’s most controversial idea is the leveling of a “Stripper Tax,” a potential untapped source of revenue. Strippers “make all this money and don’t pay taxes,” he asserts. Of course, “My stripper friends are gonna be mad at me.” The man known as Luke Skyywalker also wants to reduce crime, direct more money to public parks, support youth athletics, and fix the public hospital which sounds reasonable.

-Court