Buzz Blog

Before we jump into the news, just some quick thoughts off the top of my head in both a positive and a negative light this week.

--- Trax expanded it's Free Fair Zone to include the Library stop, as well as all the new ones to Front Runner, which is great news for us downtown folk. The bad news is that the stations still smell like a urinal. And speaking of bad smells (touching on the Summerstench post some weeks back), anyone traveling down 4th South might have noticed the Beto's between 4th and 5th East currently has a stench that literally has been compared to a sewage plant. City officials have been out there from what I saw Thursday, but the smell is still potent. I guess the bright side to that is it's warding off people from eating tacos filled with used band-aids and old cell phone antennas. Maybe Knuckleheads could light up something outside?

So the story of the week has been the Urban Lounge fallout. For those of you just joining the game, here's the score so far. On Monday at least ten bands said they got word that their shows had been canceled and/or the Urban Lounge was closing its doors, and took the opportunity to use MySpace for good and let the general public know. Shortly there after the rumor mill started churning out every possible excuse on several websites from a revoked liquor license to management not being able to pay its bills. Most of it without any backing or creditable info, and a lot of heated arguments filled up some blogs and messages boards. (Which incidentally, anyone who took part in picking fights with people online who were trying to get the word out... that's pathetic behavior and the scene doesn't need it.) All the while no one was officially speaking out to let people know what the deal was.

As of this morning, I got word on what has happened, from a source who wished to remain nameless but agreed to share what they could. The official word... Urban Lounge is NOT closing its doors. However, the place has officially been sold to new owners. According to the source, the people that have taken over "have more of an interest in the music scene and want to protect what Urban is and it's potential." Apparently the new owners are not new to Urban and have been involved for many years. But for the time being their identities are being kept a secret until they're ready to make an official announcement, hopefully to give details about the purchase and the venue's future. Here's hoping that announcement comes this Monday so we know what to expect for August. Outside of ownership, there will apparently be no staff changes, but there is a buzz of excitement for what is to come in the future for Urban's musical acts. Now that the news is out there, let the names fly out of the hat as to who bought the place.

I didn't have much else to add other than I'm now adding dates for The Paladium in SLC and Brewski's in Ogden on the calendar, as well as making more of an effort to get more gaming and comic book dates in. The week ahead looks to be pretty interesting interview wise. A couple of health issues sidelined me from getting to shows but I'm going to try to remedy that before the summer ends and get some more live shows and interviews on the blog again. As always, we'll see what happens.