It is with great sadness that Earpollution marks the passing of punk icon Joey Ramone at the age of 49. Born Jeffrey Hyman on May 19, 1951, Joey passed away on Sunday, April 15, at the New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center, after quietly battling lymphatic cancer for the past six years, which he was, at the time of diagnosis, only given three-to-six months to live. As the lanky, homely frontman of the Ramones, Joey, along with Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy, defined the articles of confederacy that became the basis for punk music as we know it. And while they didn't invent the genre, their "one, chew, tree, faw!" blitzkrieg bop was the shot heard 'round the world and the call to revolution that bands like The Clash, the Sex Pistols, Hüsker Dü, Minutemen, Nirvana, Rancid, Green Day, and a thousand others would all rally around before starting their own charges.

Preferring to call their music nothing more than honest rock 'n' roll, the Ramones married the sugar-sweet infectious melodies of '60s bubblegum pop to a ferociously loud and fast four-chord attack. Reflecting their dissatisfaction with mainstream music as a whole, and emblematic of their status as geeky outsiders, their music and their lyrics were often referred to as simplistic, but as anyone who's ever given their songs time to grow, the Ramones were as dumb as they were brilliant. With their trademark leather jackets, ripped jeans, mop top hair and Converse sneakers, the Ramones stayed steady-on to their sound and their belief, never wavering in their conviction. Now, 25 years after the release of their debut album--25 years after the birth of punk--they're finally being universally recognized for the impact they had, and are being given the widespread respect they deserve. Which is what makes Joey's passing, on the eve of his 50th birthday, even more sad.

Always known for his friendliness and approachability, Joey stayed involved in the scene and passionate about music long after the Ramones--after 22 years, 18 albums, and 2,263 shows--finally called it a day in 1996. Having co-produced an EP by Ronnie Specter, Joey had spent the last three years working on his own solo album--music that will hopefully see the light of day later this year.

As reported by Patti Smith's longtime guitarist, Lenny Kaye, in New York's Village Voice, Joey broke his hip late last year after slipping in the snow. Following painful hip replacement surgery, his body, weakened from lymphatic cancer, was unable to fight off the infections, unable to keep up a fight on two fronts, and he passed away at 2:40pm on Easter Sunday with his mother, Charlotte Lesher, and his brother, Mickey Leigh at his bedside as the sound of U2's "In a Little While" bade him farewell. "In a little while / This hurt will hurt no more / I'll be home, love." Joey was laid to rest the following Tuesday at Hillside Cemetery in Woodhurst, New Jersey.

Following up on previous plans to celebrate his 50th birthday, on May 19th Joey's mother and brother have announced plans to hold "Life's A Gas - Joey Ramone's Birthday Bash" at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom. Entertainment is scheduled from 8pm to midnight, with a party following. Tickets are $15 and more information can be found at: www.joeys50thbirthday.com. At the request of Joey's mother Charlotte, anyone wishing to make donations should, "Earmark them 'In Memory of Jeff Hyman,'" and mail them to: New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center, 525 East 68th Street, Box 123, New York, NY 10021.

As someone whose music has had a lasting effect on our life, if you haven't already, we suggest you light a candle in Joey's honor and play the Ramones' entire catalog from front to back, without pause and at ear-splitting volume, repeating to yourself: "Gabba gabba / we accept you, we accept you / one of us / Gabba gabba / we accept you, we accept you / one of us." If you don't own any Ramones, now's a good time to start listening.

To quote the Minutemen's D. Boon (R.I.P.) from "History Lesson - Part II": "Mr. Narrator, this is Bob Dylan to me / My story could be his songs / I'm his solder child." Or, as former Minutemen bassist Mike Watt so eloquently put it upon hearing the sad news: "'Sheena is a punk rocker.' So am I. Miss you, Joey."

Me, too. Take care of yourself, Joey.

Henley, Morissette Speak to Congress on Artists Rights

During a Senate Judiciary hearing in early April entitled "Online Entertainment and Copyright Law: Coming Soon to a Digital Device Near You," Don Henley Alanis Morissette, both members of the Recording Artists Coalition, urged members of Congress to listen to the needs of artists, not just labels, when making decisions regarding legislation related to online entertainment. Both Morissette and Henley pointed out that while artists should be paid royalties for online distribution of their music, oftentimes it's the labels who stand to make a profit while the artists makes none. Said Henley: "We believe recording artists should always be paid for the exploitation of their sound recordings on the Internet, unless the recording artist makes the decision to provide the recordings free of charge." Morissette testified, "Although these intermediaries claim to represent the creators, and while there certainly has been some alignment of goals, our interests are not always the same. There are an increasing number of ways in which those interests conflict, particularly in the digital age." The hearing was intended to look at the present state of online music to determine whether legislation should be considered to better develop the market.

Open Letter from Courtney Love to All Recording Artists

The following is an open letter from Courtney Love to all fellow recording artists. And while it's Courtney Love, damn if she isn't trying to do something good!

"Dear Fellow Recording Artists..."

Charlie Pride on Bleeding Edge of Copy-Protection

Country recording legend Charlie Pride is set to release the first copy-protected CD, A Tribute to Jim Reeves, whose technology in theory will prevent users from "ripping" tracks off the CD to create MP3 and other digital song files. Pride, who was upset to discover so much of his music being traded on file swapping sites such as Napster, convinced his label, Music City Records, to use protection software designed by Phoenix, Arizona's SunComm. The concerns about the software, which has passed initial tests earlier this year and is currently patent-pending, is that CDs encoded by it may not be playable on all players. However, that hasn't stopped Pride, who adamantly supports technology that protects the income of songwriters, whose income is usually based solely on album sales. Said Music City head Bob Heatherly: "[Charley] was especially concerned about the songwriters. I've seen songwriters myself who have been close to homeless before they finally got the two or three hits that let them survive. And so when I realized how important this was to Charley."

Princeton Professor Breaks Digital Music Security

Princeton University associate professor Edward Felten decided not to present a paper at the International Information Hiding Workshop in Pittsburgh on how he and the research team he led were able to break watermarks that encrypt digital music files. Bowing to the pressure of the SDMI (Secure Digital Music Initiative Foundation), who threatened in a letter to sue Felton if he released proprietary information on digital watermarking, he released a statement saying, "Litigation is costly, time-consuming and uncertain, regardless of the merits of the other side's case. Ultimately, we, the authors, reached a collective decision not to expose ourselves, our employers and the conference organizers to litigation." Strangely, the SDMI sent out an open challenge some months ago asking people to try to break their encryption methods. Felton said he and the those involved with the paper will continue to seek for the right to have the paper published. "We believe that people benefit from learning the truth about the products they are asked to buy."

Universal Music Group Acquires Emusic

For a cool $23 million, last month the Universal Music Group agreed to acquire Emusic.com, Inc. and all its web sites, which includes Emusic, RollingStone.com and DownBeat.com. The online world just got that much smaller.

Guided by Voices Singer Turns Down Lifetime Achievement Award

Robert Pollard, singer for that loveable Ohio band, Guided by Voices, turned down a "Lifetime Achievement Award" offered to him by the Dayton Music Hall of Fame. Pollard, 43, who quit his job as an elementary school teacher at 36 to focus on being a musician said he was flattered to be considered, but "feels it's premature to receive the 'Lifetime Achievement Award' as [I'm] still growing as an artist and [my] best work is still ahead of [me]." As Earpollution has steadily been listening to the new GBV album, Isolation Drills, for the past month and enjoying the hell out of it, we say, "Damn straight drunk Uncle Bob! Good for you. "

Cadaver Advertises Norwegian Parliament Murder Clean-up Service

Those loveable boys from Cadaver, Inc., a Norwegian death metal band, recently received the ire of the Norwegian parliament for "jokingly" advertising a murder clean-up service on their website. The gist was, you commit the murder and "they" will clean up the evidence. However, the contact information for the clean-up service was the Norwegian Parliament, who promptly investigated the site. "I went to the site myself," said Gerrit Loberg, Norwegian Parliament Head of Security, "and found it so ugly and scary that we had to go to the police with it." Whether or not the Norwegian police "went to the site" in full clean-up gear was unknown as of press time.

Thieves are Scum (Something Against You Remix)

On Friday, April 13th, word went out that Frank Black and the Catholics had had their equipment trailer, which contained over $80,000 worth of gear, stolen from the parking lot of an EconoLodge Motel in Lester, Pennsylvania. The loss of equipment, which included numerous guitars from the '50s and '60s, forced Black and his band cancel numerous shows.

Anyone with information is requested to contact Bethany: (303) 440-0666, bethany@war.com.

Click here for a complete list of equipment.

Quote(s) of the month:

Several of Joey's old friends and colleagues referred to his health problems, but most of them sounded optimistic, as if the worst were behind him. In our telephone conversations, Joey himself displayed an infectious, boyish enthusiasm for rock 'n' roll and still seemed somewhat awestruck about how long and far the Ramones' influence had reached. If a life could indeed be saved by rock 'n' roll, then, by the sound of it, Joey should have been with us forever.

"The thing that I find really great these days," he said, "is that the band, it's like a continual hand-me-down, like a staple." [...] Joey reacted to all these homages in his funny, self-deprecating, just-this-side-of-deadpan way: "It's cool. The band's, like, timeless."

I hope that was a comfort to Joey in the end: how much he mattered, how much he still matters, how improbable, amazing, and, ultimately, inspiring his career was--and will continue to be. He just wanted to have something to do, and somehow he managed to change the world. It all seems so simple now.

"We wanted to be ourselves," he told me. "So that's what we did."

--Michael Hill, journalist.

From his home in Queens last week, Monte Melnick remembered a time the Ramones stopped for gas in rural Texas. It was the early days of punk rock, and the woman at the gas station gave the band the once-over: matching leather bomber jackets and ripped jeans, dopey mops of hair, four guys taking the surname Ramone. Mr. Melnick, who was the tour manager, feared there might be trouble. Instead, the woman smiled at him indulgently. As Mr. Melnick, 51, recalled, "She said, 'It's really nice, you taking care of these retarded boys.'"

--John Leland, New York Times.

-Craig Young
Editor, Earpollution