Sudden departure

Play it: Nikki Sudden (1956-2006)

Cult British musician Nikki Sudden died Sunday after a show the night before at New York’s Knitting Factory. He was 49.

Sudden (born Adrian Nicholas Godfrey,) is best remembered as the driving force behind the legendary post-punk band Swell Maps, which he formed with his brother Kevin (Epic Soundtracks.) They took Punk music, added a smidgen of T.Rex and a dash of the German experimental kings Can, to create a sound that became influential to musicians like Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth,) Pavement, and C-86 bands (Primal Scream, The Wedding Present, The Mighty Mighty Lemondrops, etc.) Two landmark albums later, Swell Maps was no more, but Sudden soldiered on, both starting a solo career and channeling his Rolling Stones/The Faces infatuation with the band The Jacobites.

Sudden was just completing a flurry of activity that he's been in the middle of the past few years. First, much of his post-Swell Maps back catalogue went through the reissue process, lovingly by both Secretly Canadian and Sudden himself. Sudden also released an amazing solo album in 2004 (Treasure Island,) and just finished another release, The Truth Doesn't Matter, set to come out shortly. In addition to that, he was nearly complete with his autobiography, The Last Bandit.

Sudden also recently worked on the post-humous release of demos from his little brother, and Swell Maps bandmate Epic Soundtracks (Kevin Godfrey,) Good Things, which was released last year.

1997, Epic Soundtracks died under mysterious circumstances (still unknown) and I guess now the brothers are finally reunited. Both left us far too soon, but nonetheless here's a cheer to the Bros. Godfrey.

tags: playlist, post-punk, music, rhapsody, nikki sudden, swell maps, epic soundtracks, the jacobites, obituary, indie rock