Some very sad news from over the weekend:

Jim DeRogatis/Chicago Sun-Times:

Jay Bennett, a rock musician with deep ties to Chicago best known as a former member of Wilco, died early Sunday morning in downstate Urbana, where he had been running a recording studio, according to a spokesman for his family.

The singer and multi-instrumentalist was 45 years old.

"Early this morning, Jay died in his sleep and an autopsy is being performed," said Edward Burch, a friend and musician who collaborated with Bennett on the 2005 2002 album "The Palace at 4 a.m." "The family is in mourning and is unavailable for comment at this time."

When great tunesmiths are backed by gifted instrumentalists and arrangers, it means the difference between moderate success and legendary status. Jeff Tweedy from Wilco is undoubtedly one of the most gifted songwriters putting pen to paper today, but Bennett's contributions, like Mike Campbell's to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers or Chris Walla's to Death Cab for Cutie, were the wings that made Tweedy's best songs truly soar. The band suffered a huge loss with Bennett's acrimonious exit in 2001; the world just suffered a larger one.

Bennett's keyboard work on this performance of 'Misunderstood' is absolutely explosive, especially around the 3:40-4:20 mark.

Fans are paying tribute in the comments on Jay's MySpace page. Rest in peace, Brother.

What ever happened to rock stars basking lazily in eternal singledom and promiscuity? Something must be in the air this week, because rock stars are all getting engaged.

We have Meg White and Trent Reznor (not to each other), as well as Death Cab for Cutie singer Ben Gibbard's engagement to Zooey Deschanel.

Rock star marriages are often known to be both brief and tumultuous, with this one seeming to hold the title for both. Here's wishing Trent, Meg and Ben better luck than their forebearers.

As Sinead O'Connor once said, "Fight the real enemy!"

That's what Death Cab For Cutie was doing when they showed up to the Grammy Awards wearing light-blue ribbons on their suits, to raise awareness of their new crusade against auto-tuned vocals popularized by people who actually won Grammys on Sunday, like Lil' Wayne.

Singer/songwriter Ben Gibbard:

Autotuning is a digital manipulation, a correction of a singer's voice that is affecting literally thousands of singers today and thousands of records that are coming out. So we just want to raise awareness while we're here and try to bring back the blue note... The note that's not so perfectly in pitch and just gives the recording some soul and some kind of real character.

Seems like time for a Death Cab for Cutie vs. Guns N' Roses vocal production battle royale!

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