Assorted ramblings from the world of entertainment:

• Punk legends with local ties are at the forefront of what’s going to become a hotly debated issue in coming years.

On Wednesday The Dead Boys, whose lead singer was Girard native Stiv Bators (real name Steve Bator), and Cleopatra Records announced a 2025 Dead Boys’ album.

It will feature founding Dead Boy guitarist Cheetah Chrome joined by a rhythm section of Blondie drummer Clem Burke and original Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock (along with guest appearances from The Stooges’ James Williamson and Hanoi Rocks’ Michael Monroe) working with, “Never-before-heard demos and early recordings taken from producer Kirk Yano’s pioneering 8-track studio in Cleveland,” according to the press release.

Bators was killed in a car-pedestrian accident in France in 1990, but the release also says Chrome’s lead vocals on the new album will be “dusted” with Stiv’s presence.

A few hours later, according to Stereogum, Dead Boys’ current lead singer Jake Hout announced he was quitting because Cleopatra Records wanted to use AI technology to recreate Bators’ vocals for the album.

Chrome didn’t really deny it, posting on social media, “Jake was asked to stay many times while we got more info on AI to make an informed decision on it.”

Considering one of Bators’ greatest strengths as a frontman was his live-wire unpredictability, generating his vocals using AI tech sounds like a fool’s errand.

My initial reaction is, as long as they don’t try to pass it off as the real thing, consumers can make their own choice as to whether they want to pay for an AI simulation of a no longer living Dead Boy.

I know my answer. But I suspect it’s a question we’ll get plenty of opportunities to ponder as surviving bandmates, family members, record labels, publishing holders and anyone who has a financial stake in any act that ever had a hit record (or still has a following) looks for ways to monetize that asset.

And if “monetize that asset” sounds like a sterile, soulless way to describe something as powerful and personally connecting as music is … well, that’s the point.

• As far as I know, all of the new albums coming out today for Black Friday Record Store Day were recorded without the contributions of the HAL 9000 from “2001: A Space Odyssey” or another kind of other techno trickery (auto-tune not included).

Depending on what time you’re reading this, folks are already in line or making purchases at Record Connection in McKinley Heights and Fat Hippy in Brookfield, the two main Mahoning Valley participants in the promotion designed to encourage music listeners to buy physical media and support independent record stores. The Exchange locations in Niles and Boardman also stock some RSD product.

I’ll be out in search of some Morphine — the band, not the drug — for my vinyl addiction, and I hope no one ever tries to make a Morphine album with an AI version of frontman Mark Sandman.

Cycle Breakers Records & Tapes inside Youngstown’s Westside Bowl isn’t a fan or participant in RSD, so it will have its second Record People Day. Multiple vendors — both store owners and individual collectors looking to pare down their stash — will be selling music from 2 to 6 p.m.

• The Summit public radio station, based in Akron but simulcast on WKTL-FM (90.7), launched a new digital radio station last week called “Wavelength.”

The station, programmed by director of operations and midday host Andrew James, will focus on music that promotes calmness, creativity and introspection, according to the station. The sound will lean toward the “lighter side” of the adult album alternative station’s playlist, which Amos Lee, Tracy Chapman, Norah Jones, Enya, Jack Johnson, Keb’ Mo’, Indigo Girls and Trevor Hall listed as the type of artists it will play.

Wavelengths can be heard on the station’s website (thesummit.fm) and through its smartphone app.

The station was announced Nov. 21 at The Summit’s free Thankful Thanksgiving Concert featuring Southern Avenue and Fruition. I already liked Southern Ave., but Fruition definitely made me a fan, at least in the acoustic trio format that played The Kent Stage.

• Macaulay Culkin seems likely to share stories about Chris Columbus, who grew up in Champion and graduated from John F. Kennedy High School when he appears next month.

Culkin will share stories about “Home Alone” following a screening of the holiday comedy at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 10 at the Akron Civic Theatre.

The story of a young boy accidentally left behind by his family as they race to make their flight for a Christmas and his slapstick battles with a pair of inept burglars was the third film directed by Columbus, and it was a huge hit, earning $285 million domestically. At the time, it was the highest-grossing live action comedy in history.

Tickets start at $39 and range up to $250 for a VIP package that includes a photo with Culkin and are available through Ticketmaster.

• Playhouse Square in Cleveland normally doesn’t announce its next KeyBank Broadway Series season until spring, but theater fans got an early tidbit this week.

“Hell’s Kitchen,” the Alicia Keys-Kristoffer Diaz musical that received 13 Tony nominations this year, will open its North American tour in Cleveland next fall. Specific dates haven’t been announced.

The tour will hit more than 30 cities, and there’s no end in sight for its Broadway run either. Tickets in New York currently are on sale through May 2025. “Hell’s Kitchen” is a semi-autobiographical story about Keys’ growing up in New York and the neighbor who introduced her to the piano with Keys’ hits woven throughout the story.

Andy Gray is the entertainment editor of Ticket. Write to him at agray@tribtoday.com