This Week In Music: The Muffs Final Album Is A Profile In Courage By Leader Kim Shattuck

Bruce Haring

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The courageous story of how Kim Shattack and The Muffs collaborated to produce their final album, No Holiday, is one of the great tales of perseverance in the face of overwhelming obstacles. Yahoo! Music’s Lyndsey Parker crafts the tale of how Shattuck, who suffered from ALS and couldn’t move or talk near the end, still managed to direct her band mates and some hired guns toward the album’s completion.

Elsewhere, possible new music from Coldplay after a long hiatus, the death of a prominent executive and resignation of another, and a story of bullying by a famed coach and broadcaster on a rock legend surfaced.

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This week in music:

THE MUFFS FINAL ALBUM: Kim Shattuck, the frontwoman for The Muffs was died earlier this month at age 56, was battling ALS (sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s disease) over her last two years. But she was determined to finish the band’s final album, even though she couldn’t move or sing. Yahoo! Music delivered a fascinating tale of how the album was completed, even as Shattuck communicated with a device using her eye movements.

BROADCASTER BULLIED JANIS JOPLIN: Ex-Dallas Cowboys coach and now Fox Sports NFL broadcaster Jimmy Johnson bullied singer Janis Joplin while they were students at a Texas high school, according to a new book. Janis: Her Life and Music by Holly George-Warren (Simon & Schuster) is out Tuesday, detailing how Johnson and his friends mocked Joplin for her “beatnik” attire and attitude. He and his jock crew allegedly groped Joplin and spread rumors that she’d slept with their friends because she “looked and acted weird,” the book claims. Johnson admitted as much in his own 1994 memoir, saying “Janis looked and acted so weird that when we were around her, mostly in the hallways at school, we would give her a hard time.”

BEN COOK RESIGNS FOR BAD COSTUME: Atlantic Records UK president Ben Cook, who brought Ed Sheeran to the label, resigned in the wake of renewed complaints over his decision to dress as a member of Run-DMC at a birthday party. Cook said it was a “terrible mistake” to adopt the look for the party, which asked guests to come as their favorite music icon. There was no word whether he adopted blackface as part of the costume.

NEW MUSIC FROM COLDPLAY? The band, dormant since 2015 (under its own name, at least) has issued a short clip of what could be a new song and short video that shows the date November 22, 1919. The photo that comes with the clip shows the band sitting next to German philosopher Nietzsche, who died in 1900. If a new album appears, it would be the first since an EP under the alias Los Unidades, which featured Chris Martin, Will Berryman, Guy Champion and Jonny Buckland.

JAY FRANK PASSES: Universal Senior VP Jay Frank, a digital music veteran, died this week at age 47 of cancer. UMG chief Lucian Grainge remembered him in a message sent to the company. “Dear Colleagues,” it reads. “I’m deeply saddened to tell you that our colleague and friend Jay Frank has passed after a recurrence of cancer. Professionally, Jay leaves an immense legacy. He was a creative and tireless leader who made significant contributions to the evolution of our global marketing efforts. Many of the ways we market our artists and their music in the streaming era stems from Jay’s innovative work. But more than anything else, Jay was a loving father and husband. We send our deepest condolences to all his family.”

 

 

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