Arturo Vega, who spent 22 years as artistic director and confidant to the Ramones, creating the punk legends’ iconic logo and many of their album covers, as well as running the RamonesWorld.com website, died today, according to Punk magazine co-founder and “Please Kill Me” author Legs McNeil.
Andreas Thein — who co-founded Propaganda and co-wrote and performed on the German synthpop group’s debut single, 1984′s “Dr. Mabuse,” before being asked to leave the band — lost his battle with cancer and died this past Thursday, according to ZTT Records.
Martin Lloyd — half of early ’80s minimal electronic duo Oppenheimer Analysis, famously known for its self-released New Mexico cassette — died this morning due to liver failure, according to a statement released by Lloyd’s record label, Minimal Wave.
Chrissy Amphlett — the sultry lead singer of Australian rockers Divinyls, who released four albums in the ’80s before hitting it big with their risque smash single “I Touch Myself” — died in New York on Sunday following a long battle with cancer, according to Australian media reports.
Scott Miller, who fronted ’80s college-rock act Game Theory and later The Loud Family, has died at the age of 53, according to a message posted on the latter band’s website. “He was a wonderful, loyal friend as well as a brilliant musician, and I will miss him for the rest of my life,” his webmaster wrote.
Gary Biddles, a onetime roadie for The Cure who sang in Fools Dance and Presence in the ’80s and ’90s, each of which featured members of that band, has died, according to former Cure keyboardist Lol Tolhurst. The details surrounding Biddles’ death are not yet known.
As one of our readers noted this morning, Morrissey finally got the answer to the question he posed of Margaret Thatcher in his controversial Viva Hate closer “Margaret on the Guillotine”: “When will you die?” The former British prime minister passed away today at age 87.
Mike Scaccia — who joined Ministry during the Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste tour and went on to play with various Al Jourgensen-led projects including Revolting Cocks, 1000 Homo DJs and Lard — died early this morning after collapsing on-stage in Fort Worth, Texas, during a performance with metal band Rigor Mortis.
There’s been no announcement about the fate of the 27-year-old magazine, but now it’s official: As The Daily Swarm points out, Spin subscribers are receiving the current issue of Car and Driver with letters advising them that Spin “ceased publication” after that September/October issue.
Dennis Flemion, who co-founded the cult indie-pop act The Frogs with his younger brother Jimmy in Milwaukee in 1980 and rose to minor alt-rock celebrity in the ’90s, is missing and presumed dead in a Wisconsin lake, Matador Records co-owner Gerard Cosloy announced on the label’s blog tonight.
Beastie Boys co-founder Adam Yauch — known by his on-stage and behind-the-lens alter egos MCA and Nathanial Hörnblowér, respectively — lost a nearly 3-year-old battle with this morning, passing away in a New York hospital and leaving a deep musical and activist legacy that spanned the 1980s, ’90s and 2000s.
R.E.M. — the iconic college-rock band that soared to major-label uperstardom in the late ’80s and early ’90s before suffering the loss of a key original member — announced today that it has ‘decided to call it a day as a band’ after 31 years together.
British record producer Martin Rushent — who helmed The Human League’s genre-defining 1981 album ‘Dare,’ as well as beloved post-punk/New Wave-era records and singles by The Stranglers, Buzzcocks, XTC, The Go-Go’s and more — died Saturday. He was 63.
Punk icon Poly Styrene — who fronted the late-’70s group X-Ray Spex, still best known for its anthem ‘Oh Bondage Up Yours!’ — succumbed to cancer Monday night on the eve of her new record’s U.S. release. She was 53.
Mick Karn — who played bass in the acclaimed art-rock act Japan from the mid-’70s through the early ’80s and teamed up with Peter Murphy for the singer’s post-Bauhaus project Dalis Car — died today following a six-month battle with cancer. He was 52.
British industrial/experimental music pioneer Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson — who co-founded the hugely influential acts Throbbing Gristle and Coil, was a member of Psychic TV and worked as an artist with famed album-cover design team Hipgnosis — died in his sleep on Wednesday at age 55.
German-born punk pioneer Ari Up — the frontwoman of The Slits who learned guitar from Joe Strummer and was John Lydon’s stepdaughter — died today at age 48 following ‘a serious illness,’ Lydon and her mother, Nora Foster, announced via Public Image Ltd.’s website.
Singer/bassist Michael Been of modern-rock trio The Call — best known for their ’80s radio hits ‘The Walls Came Down,’ ‘I Still Believe’ and ‘Let the Day Begin’ — suffered a heart attack and died tonight backstage at the Pukkelpop music festival in Belgium. He was 60.
News is spreading across the web this afternoon about the death of Malcolm McLaren, the legendary Sex Pistols manager/creator who famously claimed to have invented punk rock. To mark his death, we’ve posted the video for ‘Buffalo Gals,’ his highly influential hip-hop crossover single.
