Yesterday afternoon, someone left a bicycle chained outside Terminal C of the Memphis International Airport. No biggie, except whoever found the bike was unfamiliar with a Pensacola, Florida hardcore band called “This Bike is a Pipe Bomb” — and, seeing a sticker for the group on the 2-wheeler, they panicked, and the airport was closed.

As CA staffer Jody Callahan reported, “bomb-sniffing dogs ruled out any explosives, and the airport was reopened. The owner of the bike was taken into custody, but later released.”

Less than 3 years ago, a similar misunderstanding occurred, when another bike with the same sticker was discovered on the campus of St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.

Fox News contacted This Bike is a Pipe Bomb’s lead singer Ryan Modee.

Modee said he heard about the confusion over the sticker affixed to a bike at Memphis International Airport just before speaking to FOX13 News Tuesday.

“I was at work and just kind of freaked out,” he said. “I was like ‘Oh God, not again. How could this be happening?’”

The incident happened when officials say an airport police officer found a bike chained outside Terminal C with the sticker on it. Police detained and searched the bike’s owner before releasing him.

“It’s just really sad,” said Modee. “It seems like it’s costing a lot of money and making them more scared.”

But Modee said this wasn’t the first time the name of his band has caused an alarm. In 2001 and 2006, similar incidents occurred in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.

“They ripped this guy’s bike to shreds with the jaws of life,” he said. “The fire department, SWAT team came from 40 miles away, shut the school down for a while. It was a big mess.”

The folk-punk band came together 13 years ago and the band name came about because of their passion for riding bikes together.

But Modee said while he thinks the commotion is a big waste of money for tax payers, he advises people to think about where the sticker is before they go show their support in some public places.

“This is a weird society we live in,” he said. “It’s not like it was 12 years ago. If you’re going to…go to the court room or if you’re going to go to the airport, just cover it up. Take it off and we’ll send you a new one.”

While no charges have been filed against the man involved in Monday night’s incident at the airport, Modee said since the problems with the stickers have started they have not been contacted by either local state or federal authorities. But he did say the band played a show in Ohio after the incident at Ohio University.

Just before the Midtown-based metal trio, led by brothers Rob Evil and Michael Murder, was due to leave town for a coast-to-coast U.S. tour headlined by Down, a supergroup of southern hard rock icons including Phil Anselmo (Pantera, Superjoint Ritual, Arson Anthem, etc), Kirk Windstein (Crowbar, Kingdom of Sorrow), Rex Brown (Pantera), Pepper Keenan (Corrosion Of Conformity), and Jimmy Bower (eyehategod), the entire tour was canceled, according to this Brooklyn Vegan blog post.

And today, it was posted on the Goner Records message board that Evil Army bassist Matt “Bones” Brown (pictured above) has died of an overdose. The funeral will be held in Brown’s hometown of Oakland, TN on Saturday. R.I.P., Matt. You will be missed.

Last week, several of Memphis’ finest garage rockers loaded up their van and headed for points west — Portland, Oregon, to be exact, where they performed at the Slabtown Bender.

According to this article, published in the Portland Mercury daily newspaper, the festival marked the 3rd anniversary of Slabtown, a local bar, and featured more than 36 bands, including a reunion from NW rockers Mudhoney.

Portland musician Matto Howe told Mecury reporter Ned Lannamann that the festival was modeled on Memphis’ own Gonerfest. Said Howe: “I went two years ago and had a fantastic time, and saw a lot of great bands, so at the pre-planning meetings for last year’s Bender, we kind of used the Gonerfest template as far as program design, general structure, and such.”

Lannamann described Bobo as “a man shrouded in mystery, often quite literally.”

“His recent Christmas show in Memphis is already the stuff of legend, complete with costumes, props, outrageous sets, and a script that was apparently dictated to Bobo by Martians. Bobo’s plainspoken songs are entirely more down to earth, and his everyman croon is equal parts Ray Davies, Beck, and Leonard Cohen.”

Yesterday afternoon, I hoped the folks on the Goner Records message board were wrong. Unfortunately, it’s true — Lux Interior, frontman for the Cramps, died in a Glendale, CA hospital due to complications from a pre-existing heart condition. He was in his early 60s.

Lux and his romantic/musical partner Poison Ivy (born Kristy Wallace) formed the Cramps in the early 1970s, based on a love of horror films, surf rock, and rockabilly music. According to this timeline, they met Alex Chilton in Sept. 1977, less than a year after they debuted onstage at CBGBs. By Oct., they were walking the streets of Memphis, recording sessions at Ardent and Sam Phillips Recording Studio. The Cramps returned here the next summer, to record their first full-length album, Songs the Lord Taught Us, with Chilton at the helm, and, in ‘84, they teamed up with Jim Dickinson to cut a version of Sonny Burgess’ “Red Headed Woman.” According to my friend Bobby, however, Lux came to Memphis much earlier than that — as U.S. Navy enlistee Erick Lee Purkhiser, he lived and worked on the base in Millington back in the 1960s.

Okay, enough background info — the way the Cramps made me feel when I was a bored-out-of-my-skull kid looking for, as Lux put it, “some new kind of kick,” and I dropped the needle on one of their records, was nearly indescribable. Fortunately, I got to see the Cramps perform live several times, most notably at the New Daisy in the early ’90s. I also got to meet Lux and Ivy in person, when they came into Shangri-la Records that day. The store was packed with Cramps fans in town for the concert, but Lux and Ivy graciously signed autographs as they made their way through the bins, picking up a few hundred dollars worth of records. Of course, I totally geeked out when the CD player stopped, and inadvertently played a Cramps tribute disc that just happened to be laying on the top of the stack…

Back on the Goner Board, Cheater Slicks guitarist Tom Shannon said it best: “Back in the early 80’s when there wasn’t much rock n roll, those records (Gravest Hits, Songs the Lord Taught Us, Psychedelic Jungle, Peppermint Lounge, Date with Elvis) were beacons to a hidden future. I tried to analyse them: what were the secret codes? What did Lux Mean? What am I supposed to know? It was strange how much that band affected me. I would have fought someone to the death if they had badmouthed the Cramps. I certainly could not respect someone’s taste if they did not worship the Cramps. They were the glue that bound us together. The truest element. The electricity.”

Tonight: Start the weekend off with Girls of the Gravitron’s free show at Shangri-la Records. Also: AC/DC’s “Black Ice” tour at the FedEx Forum; Colourmusic and Good Luck Dark Star at the Hi-Tone Cafe; Van Duren at Central BBQ East; the Heartless Bastards at the Young Ave Deli (go herefor CA music critic Bob Mehr’s interview with frontwoman Erika Wennerstrom); Memphis rapper RI’m Skeem at the Crystal Palace (go here for my interview with the rising star); Thrush, Silent Haze, Distilled Blood, and more, at the New Daisy; Will Graves at Cafe Soul; Or, head down to Tunica for a country music two-fer — the legendary George Jones is at Sam’s Town, while Gary Allan is at Horseshoe.

Saturday: Get your indie rock fix from Snowglobe at the Hi-Tone Cafe, with the Bulletproof Vests opening. Also: 34-year old composer Jonathan Leshnoff will debut a composition with the IRIS Orchestra at GPAC. Violinist Augustin Hadelich, winner of the 2006 International Violin Competition, is also on the bill, performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Brahms’ Serenade No. 1. Classical pianist Terry McRoberts is at the University of Memphis’ Harris Concert Hall; Uncle Jungle is at the New Daisy; Down in Tunica, George Jones and Gary Allan wrap up their respective 2-night stands.

Sunday: At 3 p.m., the Germantown Symphony Orchestra makes its 2009 debut at Hutchison School’s Wiener Theater, at the same time that the Ceruti String Quartet and pianist Marsha Evans perform “Conversations Among Friends,” at the Memphis Chamber Music Society. Later, Rob Jungklas and Deering & Down (who have been laying down tracks at Poppa Willie Mitchell’s Royal Recording Studio this month) are at Otherlands. RI’m Skeem is back at the Crystal Palace, with Atlanta MC Yung LA.

The lovable Girls of the Gravitron, fresh off their first tour, will be playing a free happy hour set at Shangri-la Records, 1916 Madison Ave., beginning at 6 p.m.

If you’re broke, like me, this is a great way to get out and have some fun! See you there…

This just in: Monsieur Jeffrey Evans will be spinning the wheels of steel over the airwaves tonight, filling in on community station WEVL 89.9 during the Rock House slot, from 7-9 p.m. Pompadour optional!

Photo, above, by Don Perry.

Got a job, a hobby, a skill? Help out Anna Ives, the 4-year old daughter of Final Solutions frontman and Goner Records co-owner Zac Ives.

As CA writer Bob Mehr reported yesterday, the Ives family — Zac, his wife, Amy, and baby son, Aron — decamped to Boston to allow Anna to get a specialized radiation treatment at the Francis H. Burr Proton Therapy Center at Massachusetts General Hospital last weekend.

Writes Mehr: “It’s just the latest chapter in a two-year roller-coaster fight Anna has waged against cancer. In February 2007, then-2-year-old Anna was diagnosed with a brain tumor on her frontal lobe, close to a major vein. The tumor, 3 centimeters in diameter, was a meningioma, which is generally a benign tumor found in women ages 40 to 70.”

The situation isn’t just emotionally draining — it’s a huge financial burden for a small business owner with 2 kids who will miss 8 weeks of work.

So, on Jan. 29, Harlan T. Bobo, the Tearjerkers, and the One, Four, Fives will hold a benefit concert for the Ives family at the Hi-Tone Cafe.

And beginning this Monday, Goner Records will host a special online charity auction to help defray some of the costs of the family’s Boston stay and medical expenses.

“They have enough to worry about with just the physical well-being of Anna, so if we can help out financially so that’s less of a concern, we wanted to,” Eric Friedl, the concert’s organizer and Ives’ Goner Records partner, told Mehr.

How can you help?

First off, don’t miss the show at the Hi-Tone.

Second, contact Friedl at 722-0095 or go to this website if you have goods or services to donate to the auction. And be sure to bid on other folks’ items once the auction goes live on Monday.

Third, if you’ve got cash to spare, go here to make a direct donation.

Fourth, help spread the word via Facebook.

Tonight: Kick off the weekend with a free performance from Good Luck Dark Star at Shangri-la Records at 6 p.m. Afterwards, have dinner with Bobby Rush at the Center for Southern Folklore. Later, head to the Hi-Tone Cafe for some fabulous local power pop, served up by the Everyday Parade and Van Duren. Also: Free Sol and Haymaker Project are at Quetzal, Will Graves is at Cafe Soul, and Shortwave Dahlia is at the Full Moon Club.

Saturday:Get up early and take the kids to the “Peanut Butter and Jam Session” at GPAC, with Wild Willy and the Memphis Jam Band. Shows are at 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. My pick of the night is a triple bill — J.D. Reager and the Cold-Blooded Three, plus Billy Worley and the Candy Company and Dragoon — at Nocturnal. There’s also Pavement Band and Tyler Keith at the Hi-Tone; the Elvis Birthday Pops Concert at the Cannon Center; the Grascals at the Lucy Opry at BPACC (go here for Mark Jordan’s profile in this week’s CA); Facedive, Painbreak, Dark Embrace, and more at the New Daisy; a Mozart concert at St. Benedict; a performance of the Eroica Ensemble at First Congregational Church in Midtown; Reba Russell at Neil’s; a MAMA concert with Dan Montgomery at Otherlands; and Duke Hex and the Firm Foundation Riddim Squad at the P+H Cafe.

Sunday:Chris Chew’s last free Sunday afternoon show starts at the Hi-Tone at 4 p.m., and later, blues guitarist Scott Holt plays at the East Memphis Huey’s.

Iggy and the Stooges performing “TV Eye” in Cincinnati, circa 1970. R.I.P. Ron Asheton, one of the greatest guitarists ever.