Sudden Death

Nikki Sudden from the Swell Maps died at 49 a few days ago. His Brother Epic Soundtracks died in 1997 and that was from "unknown causes". So far they have not disclosed the cause of death for Sudden. This gets me thinking about the likes of Mark E. Smith, the leader of The Fall and others of their ilk, talented, relentless, users of substances and obsessive to the degree that they still perform though their renown or fame is probably an extremely heavy burden when faced with the challenge of aging. Music is young unless you're the Rolling Stones, and then it's a freak show. These artists that come from the era when I finally found music that mattered, some of them are still around the music scene, or pop up from time to time on a tribute or at a funeral, they really stuck to it. What I've realized through this 20+ years of musical mining, is that none of us have a choice. Commercial radio can be fun and poppy and entertaining, but it is so obviously a businessman's special that it's like eating marshmallow cream, or perhaps Peeps yum.