The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (348 page)

Saturday 22

MC Breed

(Eric Breed - Flint, Michigan, 12 June 1971)

(DFC)

Though the overriding majority of early rap performers tended to hail from the coasts, Eric Breed was widely respected as the first commercially successful rap act to emerge from America’s Midwest.

With the DFC (Da Flint Crew) – a Michigan collective that orbited mainly around the work of his cousin Alpha Al’ Breed and Bobby ‘T-Dub’ Thompson – the emerging MC released the split album
MC Breed and DFC
in 1991, which made both the Billboard 200 and the Hot Rap Top Forty. This collection included what was to be Breed’s biggest national hit, ‘Ain’t No Future in Yo Frontin’’; the track made a significant charge up the Billboard Hot 100 that spring. Bolstered by this, the rapper then issued his solo debut on Wrap Records,
20 Below
(1992), which spawned a pair of HR Top Twenty hits in ‘Ain’t to Be Fucked With’ and ‘Ain’t Too Much Worried’. In true hip-hop fashion, Breed collaborated with a number of artists, including Tupac Shakur, with whom he recorded ‘Gotta Get Mine’ (1993). Breed was nothing if not prolific: he issued at least one album a year into the new millennium and a number of singles (not all of which began with ‘Ain’t’). After this time, however, personal issues began to dominate Breed’s world and sent him into a downward spiral.

In 2006, MC Breed was sentenced to jail for a year for violating his probation following a charge of $200k unpaid child support. The artist was then re-arrested as he completed an in-store signing early in 2008. Breed was set to serve his time when an unexpected kidney shutdown while playing basketball hospitalised him. The problem was more serious than had first been realised, and Breed died shortly thereafter, asleep at a friend’s house in Ypsilanti.

See also
2Pac (
September 1996)

Sunday 23

John Spalding

(Seattle, Washington, 1975)

Raft of Dead Monkeys

(Ninety Pound Wuss)

(Loveland)

Outside of Violent Femmes, it’s hard to come up with many Christian punk or postpunk acts that have made any kind of impact, but Seattle’s Raft of Dead Monkeys might be the closest. They created the kind of God-fearing mayhem about which most southern evangelists could only dream.

Guitarist John Spalding – a former member of the engaging newwave act Ninety Pound Wuss – chose the band’s distinctive name coming back from a safari in Nigeria with his father. Suffice to say, his band mates – Jeff Suffering (bass), Davey B (drums) and Doug Lorig (guitar) – were enthusiastic about it. Raft of Dead Monkeys released their music via the largely Christian-orientated Tooth & Nail Records, though the group’s live appearance at the 2001 Tomfest sparked severe criticism from more traditional Christian fans who didn’t see a place for explicit lyrics and onstage strippers. Nevertheless, RODM – who dismissed it all as ‘parody’ – fast developed a reputation as one of the most popular bands of their genre.

For John Spalding, everything changed when he was diagnosed with terminal colorectal cancer in 2004. By this point, the band had wound down, and the guitarist was headed for a career in catering, but he ultimately decided to record as much material as possible in the short time he had left. Following his death at just thirty-three years of age, this remarkable ‘raft’ of material – which included contributions from local artists such as Andrea Zollo of Pretty Girls Make Graves and Dave Knudson of Minus the Bear – surfaced as
The Beautiful Truth,
under the band name Loveland (2009).

Monday 24

Michael Lee

(Michael Gary Pearson - Darlington, England, 19 November 1969)

Page & Plant

Echo & The Bunnymen

Little Angels

(The Cult)

(Thin Lizzy)

(Various acts)

Respected drummer Michael Lee played with a variety of British rock bands, though he is most likely to be recalled for his work behind the reunited Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. Lee had had his first foray into the spotlight when he joined Scarborough pop/metal band Little Angels in 1989. With this group, Lee enjoyed Top Forty success with the singles ‘Radical Your Lover’ and ‘She’s a Little Angel’ (both 1990) but made little secret of his wish to play harder styles. He received his marching orders a year later, when it was discovered that he’d been auditioning for The Cult behind his band mates’ backs.

After his time with The Cult, Lee experienced a change of pace with Echo & The Bunnymen, as the Ian McCulloch-fronted act found renewed UK chart success, most notably on the 1997 album
Evergreen
and its Top Ten single ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’. However, some critics felt that Lee’s work failed to live up to that of late Bunnymen drummer Pete de Freitas
(
June 1989).
After recording one more album with the Liverpool band, Lee played with a variety of other acts, including a touring version of Thin Lizzy.

Lee then joined legendary Led Zeppelin duo Page & Plant for their well-received
No Quarter
album (1994) and its subsequent world tour. (The line-up also included bassist Charlie Jones, Cure guitarist Porl Thompson, Nigel Eaton (later of Goldfrapp) and Scots mandolin player Jim Sutherland.) Lee remained in situ for the duo’s follow-up, the transatlantic Top Ten-selling
Walking into Clarksdale
(1998), for which he also earned writing credits.

Michael Lee had maintained a high profile right up until his untimely passing, recording with Canadian guitarist Jeff Martin and British metal hero Ian Gillan. The drummer was found dead in his Darlington apartment, having suffered an epileptic seizure.

See also
Jake Brockman (e September 2009)

DECEMBER

Friday 5

Runar Júlfússon

(Guflmundur Runar Julfusson - Keflavik, Iceland, 13 April 1945)

Thor’s Hammer

(Trubrot)

Proto-metallers Thor’s Hammer were notable in that they predated most hard-rock bands in Western Europe. Formed in 1963 as Hljomar (‘The Chords’), the group existed well before the term ‘heavy metal’ had been coined, and their early releases are now so rare that they are known to change hands for vast sums of money.

Singer and bassist Runar Julfusson was the group’s focal point (although his country at the time didn’t even have television). Thor’s Hammer nonetheless made some impact elsewhere (choosing to write and record in English was a help) – even recording a single with producer John Simon (of Big Brother & The Holding Company fame) along with some American session musicians. When the group finally broke up in 1969, Julfusson was one of three members who went on to form pop/psychedelic unit Trubrot. However, continued interest in Thor’s Hammer – who shouldn’t be confused with the US metal act of the same name – has seen their songs turn up on various compilations, such as Rhino Records’
Nuggets
series.

Runar Julfusson died aged sixty-three after going into cardiac arrest at his Keflavik home.