Poster artist Scott ''Speed'' Hall: 1970-2004

Scott "Speed" Hall, famous poster artist, has passed away in his sleep at the age of 33. His death has been preliminarily labelled as from natural causes.

Speed, originally from Gainesville, Florida, has done poster art for such groups as Less Than Jake, NOFX, Pennywise, Hot Water Music, Elvis Costello, Blink-182, and many more as well as organizations such as the NAACP and The Nation of Islam. Known for his intense graphics and political metaphors and overtones in his art, Speed also had an understated way of signing posters, letting his art speak for itself. To view his work, please click here.

There will be a memorial service on January 19th in his hometown.

Our condolences go out to the family and friends of Speed.

Goldenvoice co-president Rick Van Santen: 1962-2003

The LA Times is reporting that Rick Van Santen, co-president of Goldenvoice, a wildly successful punk-geared concert promotions company, passed away last Sunday of flu-related complications. He was 41.

Van Santen had been involved in the punk scene for over two decades, helping out bands from the Minutemen and Social Distortion to Nirvana and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He also helped found the now-annual Coachella Festival in 1999, as well as establishing alternative music venues in Hawaii and Alaska.

For the full article, click here or if you're not a member of latimes.com, click READ MORE.

Elliott Smith (1969-2003)

Academy-Award nominated singer/songwriter Elliott Smith has died at the age of 34 due to self-inflicted injuries sustained from a knife. Smith was found at his LA apartment near death yesterday, and was rushed to UCLA Medical Center where he was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

At the time of his death, Elliott was recording his sixth album, From A Basement on the Hill. There is no word on the album - first rumored to come out on an undisclosed indie, then rumored to be a double-disc release on Dreamworks - being released as of yet. To read more about the man's life and times, go to SweetAdeline.net.

Our condolences go out to the family, friends, and fans of Mr. Smith.

Kemuri trumpeter Ryosuke Morimura

and shares with us this story taken from the Mainichi Daily News:
"FUKUSHIMA -- A member of top Japanese ska-punk band, "Kemuri," died and another suffered serious injuries in a pileup on the Tohoku Expressway, it was learned Monday.

Trumpeter Ryosuke Morimura was killed instantly when he was thrown from the band's van when it flipped over at about 9:20 p.m. in Taishin, Fukushima Prefecture, on Sunday.

Three other people were injured, including Kemuri drummer Shoji Hiraya, who suffered a broken back, as three passenger vehicles and a large truck rammed into the overturned van.

Police said Morimura, who was at the wheel, suffered fatal head injuries when he was flung out of the vehicle and landed on the expressway. Hiraya was sitting in the front passenger seat. The Taishin area was hit by heavy rain due to Typhoon No. 15 and the speed limit was reduced to 80 kilometers per hour.

The six-man band was in the middle of their "Typhoon" tour of Japan and was heading to Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, to play a show on Monday night. The band has cancelled all future live schedules."

Our condolences go out to the family and friends of Mr. Morimura.

Johnny Cash: 1932-2003

The Man in Black, singer Johnny Cash has died at age 71. Cash's career in music spanned 6 decades. He died from complications arising from diabetes at 1 AM EST today at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, TN.

Our deepest condolences go out to his family and friends. Cash's legacy and influence is impossible to measure and touched all corners of the musical spectrum. Thanks to all of you who submitted this news, there sure were a lot of you.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he's a victim of the time

Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything's OK,
But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black

Warren Zevon: 1947-2003

"Warren Zevon, the iconoclastic singer-songwriter whose music often combined dark, mordant, absurdist wit with some of the more memorable melodies of the modern rock era, died Sunday in his Los Angeles-area home, his manager said Monday. Zevon, a mainstay of the Los Angeles music scene of the 1980s and of the national scene since then, announced in late August 2002 that he had mesothelioma, a rare, inoperable cancer that had ravaged his lungs and spread to his liver. He was 56. MSNBC has the full story."

Our condolences go out to his family and friends.

Wesley Willis: 1963-2003

Prolific singer/songwriter Wesley Willis has passed away at the age of 40. No cause of death has been announced yet, but it is assumed that it was from complications from the surgery Willis went through last year to supress internal bleeding. Click READ MORE for the full announcement [taken from the Alternative Tentacles News Page].

Our deepest condolences go out to all of Wesley's friends and anyone who was ever lucky enough to experience the man live. Rock over Heaven, rock on Chicago.

Jello wrote a personal piece about Wes, which I've added below the announcement. - Aubin

Ten Grand singer/guitarist Matt Davis: 1977-2003

Ten Grand singer/guitarist Matt Davis passed away today, August 10th in Bloomington/Normal, IL at the age of 26. Details are very sketchy at this time, with a brain aneurism, a seizure, or sudden heart stoppage being the leading causes mentioned by various sources. The band had recently released their Southern Records debut called This Is The Way To Rule, and Davis was also profiled in Afro Punk, a documentary on race identity in punk rock, currently playing in Chicago right now as a part of the Black Harvest Film Festival.

Ten Grand was to start a weeklong midwestern tour on Tuesday in their hometown of Iowa City with Sicbay and Giddy Motors; while nothing has been announced yet, one must assume the band is cancelling all upcoming shows.

Our deepest condolences go out to the family and friends of this promising young musician.

Sun Records founder Sam Phillips: 1923-2003

"While he was never associated with punk rock in any direct sense, rock 'n' roll would sound very different today without having had Sam Phillips as its guiding hand in the early years. The owner of Sun Records, a small Memphis recording studio and record company during the 1950s, Phillips discovered Elvis Presley in 1954, releasing five astonishing singles with Presley before selling his contract to RCA for $35,000 in 1956 (equivalent to a little more than $200,000 today). Phillips then went on to discover Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Billy Lee Riley, Charlie Rich, Sonny Burgess, and a host of other performers; all but cornering the market on rockabilly - a mixture of blues and country which was the punk rock of its day - and providing the template by which every indie record company has operated since. Sam Phillips passed away in Memphis on Wednesday at the age of 80, having been in declining health for the last year."
Our condolences go out to family and friends of the influential label owner.

Adam Cox, Matt Fitzgerald, and Jeremy Gage of the Exploding Hearts

A reader has written in and shared with us this story, breaking the news that three members of Portland punk band the Exploding Hearts have died in a van accident. Singer Adam Cox, bassist Matt Fitzgerald, and drummer Jeremy Gage all perished in the highway crash, with guitarist Terry Six being the only surviving member of the band. Band manager Rachelle Aronica also survived the rollover. Our deepest condolences go out to the family and friends of the Exploding Hearts.