Just read this on the Galaxie 500 mailing list, guess some of you'd want to know. Apologies if some one has already posted something with similar content. ------------------------------------------------------------ Rock Experimentalist Epic Soundtracks Dead At 37 Former Swell Maps co-founder influenced Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr and others. Pictured on cover of a recent album. Epic Soundtracks -- the pioneering drummer and keyboardist of the band Swell Maps whose influence was palpable among American rockers such as Dinosaur Jr's J Mascis and Sonic Youth -- was found dead in his London apartment on Saturday (Nov. 22). A cause of death has yet to be determined; a coroner's report is expected later this week. Soundtracks was 37. "They're not quite sure how long he was dead," said Tom Prendergast, a spokesman for Bar/None Records, the label for which Soundtracks recorded. He said authorities have not ruled out suicide as the cause of death for the musician, who was presumed to be in good health. The spokesman said he had not known Soundtracks to be depressed of late. Prendergast said he had spoken with Soundtrack's brother and partner in Swell Maps, Nikki Sudden, but said only that, "(Sudden) was very sad -- he was his brother." Soundtracks, born Paul Godley, formed Swell Maps at the tender age of 12 with Sudden in Solihull, England. The pair, along with bassist Jowe Head and guitarist Richard Earl, developed a reputation as confident experimentalists who loved the German avant-garde rock band, Can. Although the group recorded only two albums (A Trip to Marineville and Jane From Occupied Europe) before disbanding in 1980, they later proved to be quite influential, especially among American artists on the vanguard of punk and indie rock, including R.E.M. and Pavement. In the late-'70s, Soundtracks played with Mayo Thompson's reformed Red Krayola before moving on to play with Sudden again in a band known as the Jacobites. He also logged time as a drummer for Australia's Crime and the City Solution. Eventually, Soundtracks and his partner in Crime Rowland Howard (ex-Birthday Party) left to form These Immortal Souls, who issued Get Lost (Don't Lie!) in 1987 and reunited for I'm Never Gonna Die Again in 1992. When Soundtracks surfaced as a solo artist that same year, he abandoned his drum kit to refashion himself as a singer and songwriter, and enlisted many of the stars who he'd influenced to lend a hand. His first disc, Rise Above, featured contributions from Howard, Mascis and Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo and Kim Gordon. After releasing Sleeping Star 1994, Soundtracks embarked on a tour with the Lemonheads' Evan Dando. His most recent record, 1996's Change My Life, was produced by Primal Scream's Henry Olsen. A funeral for Soundtracks will be held in his hometown of Leamington Spa, England, on Monday Dec. 1). Chris Nelson [Tues., Nov. 25, 1997, 9 a.m. PDT] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister@majordomo.net . We're all happy bunnies humming happy bunny tunes. Aren't we? -----------------------------------------------------------------------