The South Bay punk scene and its international fans and colleagues are mourning the untimely loss of Tony Sly, the frontman of No Use For a Name, who passed away on August 1, reports SF Weekly. Sly joined the band in 1989, prior to its national exposure on MTV and 12 years after it was formed in San Jose. He had also released two solo acoustic albums in the last two years. His record label Fat Wreck Chords has not disclosed his cause of death.
As Sly's life and music are remembered and appreciated in the Bay Area, so is the enduring legacy of one of punk's pioneering musicians. In San Francisco, promoter Mike Anguera announced the details of the 10th Anniversary Tribute to Joe Strummer, the late lead singer and guitarist of seminal British band the Clash who passed away from a congenital heart defect at age 50 in 2002.
This year's party, which doubles as a fundraiser for Strummerville - The Joe Strummer Foundation for New Music, takes place on August 25 at Bottom of the Hill with Strummer tributes from the Hooks, Chris von Sneidern, Eastern Span, and Interchords, with DJ Jesse Luscious spinning the original tunes. Anguera likes to call it a "Clashical soundtrack."
