So I can fall asleep tonight

How's this for a cheery, upbeat, first-post-of-2008: I'm writing about the musicians who've recently dropped dead.

Quiet Riot singer Kevin Dubrow died. This happened a few months ago, but I haven't had a chance to address it. A while back I wrote about how I had his cell phone number and was going to prank call him. So much for that. Kevin was still out there on the road, playing small club shows for tiny audiences to earn a living. You have to respect that.

Other deaths in recent months that troubled me included Boston's Brad Delp, whose "More Than a Feeling" is my favorite classic rock song of all-time, and Dan Fogelberg, the adult contemporary snoozer from the '70s. I have a soft spot in my heart for Dan because he was one of my mom's favorite singers, and "Longer" used to be "our song." I once bought an ironic Dan Fogelberg t-shirt, but I didn't wear it much because it was too ironic - nobody had any idea who he was.

A more surprising recent death was that of Hawthorne Heights guitarist Casey Calvert. He was found unconscious on his tour bus last month. In addition to being their guitarist, Calvert served as the "designated screamer" for the band, and his screaming is what made "Ohio is for Lovers" the emo/screamo classic that it is.

When the story of post-2000 emo music is written, "Ohio is for Lovers" may end up being the song that most typifies the genre, with whiny vocals and lyrics about wrist-cutting and dying. It's absurd, but it's also one of my biggest guilty pleasures of this decade.

YouTube: Hawthorne Heights - Ohio is for Lovers