Michael Dahlquist, RIP

[baconfat]

just found out via a friend who found out via ILX:

http://ilx.wh3rd.net/thread.php?showall=true&msgid=6016021#6016021

michael from silkworm was a true joy to watch on the drums the handful of times i saw them open for pavement back in 97. i've always maintained since then he was one of the best drummers i've ever seen, and now i'm just terribly bummed i won't ever get to see him again.

[george]

so sad. he got me into a crust brothers show that i would have normally been too young to get into.

[tinobeat]

Oh jeez, that's horrible..

my condolences to his friends and family..

[johansen smith]

oh my god, that's horrible.

[johansen smith]

insane, they were killed by a former model who was trying to kill herself by ramming her car into them. she was fine, they all died, and she's being held without bail.

[Paul]

I posted the story over at donewaiting with an editorial at the end. Tell me if you think I'm being too kind:

http://www.donewaiting.com/archives/2005/07/rip_doug_meis_j.php

[johansen smith]

I am a kind and nice person, but hang the bitch.

[Paul]

Originally posted by johansen smith
I am a kind and nice person, but hang the bitch. Man, that's what she wants!

[johansen smith]

I wonder if any of the news stations reporting on this in the future will even bother to mention the Silkworm connection, given that they have no idea who they are. just makes me angrier at how small the number of people this will effect more than an generic anonymous "oh that's sad" response.

[Gerard]

It’s easy to sneer at the big rock conventions, but I’ll give one ‘em some credit. In 1994, I attended South By Southwest in Austin, TX — the city where I now live — and saw two bands for the first time that I’d end up working with over the course of the following 12 years — though a couple of record labels and continents. One of ‘em, Spoon, weren’t actually on the official SXSW bill and played a renegade gig at a renegade drag queen bar. The other, the Seattle-based / Montana-spawned Silkworm, had no such drag queen connections, and performed on the smaller of two stages at Emo’s, the 6th Street nightclub where I spent most of this past Friday night selling t-shirts and CD’s.

Mission Of Burma played there this past Friday and it was a great show, enhanced in no small part by the room’s CBGB-in-100-degree-heat ambience. But the occasion was far from celebratory for a few of us. Burma had shared a stage & dressing room with Silkworm on prior occasions and are a mere degree of seperation from the band on the Pete Frame rock family tree. Some had heard what happened the prior afternoon — that Silkworm’s Michael Dahlquist, along with two friends (workmates and fellow musicians, Doug Meis and John Glick) were killed in Skokie, IL, the victims of a automobile collision caused by a woman trying to kill herself.

Amidst everything else zipping through my brain on Thursday — while trying to answer questions from drunken oafs like “do these shirts come in sizes?” — I was momentarily transported back to the first time I saw Silkworm play in that very building. Laure Parsons had encouraged me to check them out (not so much out of record label scouting nonsense, but because she liked them and perhaps thought I would too) and I was skeptical. I knew next to nothing about Silkworm. I knew they were from Seattle (strike one!). I knew that a guy from a Seattle radio station had a hand in releasing their first EP (strike two!) and their first 7” featured Comsat Angels and Fleetwood Mac covers (in the words of Hawk Harrelson, “grab some bench”).

Oh yeah, I also knew they wore suits onstage. And the dry cleaning bill must’ve been a motherfucker.

To say that I’d previously missed the boat on this band would’ve been a huge understatement. I was only vaguely aware of their recorded output until that point, having failed to even open any of the packages they or numerous friends had sent me over the years. A cursory pre-gig spin of the current-at-the-time ‘In The West’, however, was no small indication that I’d goofed. The songs were fantastic. The playing, inventive, but never obtrusive. And there was something really intriguing about the three different songwriters/singers and the way their differing styles clashed and intersected.

I can count on one hand — maybe Antonio Alfonseca’s pitching paw — the number of times a band has so completely destroyed my preconceptions as Silkworm did that night playing to a 2/3’rds full club of biz creeps and longtime fans. Yeah, they wore suits. Guitarist/vocalist Joel Phelps — who would leave the band soon afterwards (and would go on to make some devastatingly haunting recordings with his Downer Trio in the years that followed), sat facing his amp for the songs he wasn’t playing. Bassist/vocalist Tim Midgett — playing a sternum-shattering Travis Bean — seemed to be a classic rock songwriter with a quick wit and keen insight on a multitude of subject matter. Guitarist/vocalist Andy Cohen was a soloist whose excursions — equal parts Verlaine, Hendrix and Coltrane —never came at the expense of the songs. As a lyricist, he seemed to have a frightening obsession with war (as the years went by, I learned he had frightening obsessions with all sorts of things).

In the middle of all this was Michael Dahlquist. I can’t remember if he was still in the suit or he’d already graduated to the shorts-and-black-gloves ensemble that was his longtime trademark. But surrounded by world-class players, Michael stood out, big time. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a louder drummer or one more capable of pushing what would’ve already been a very good band into the realm of greatness. I remembered seeing Chuck Biscuits duing his brief tenure in one of the later Circle Jerks lineups, and as wretched as that band was, Biscuits was so ridiculously good, I’d have paid just to see him play. Michael was just as hot, except there was more to his far more repitoire than mere pummeling.

In short, they tied-it-all-together like nobody I’d ever heard or seen. And they continued to do so, even after Joel’s departure (and later, with Matt Kadane’s arrival) and in the face of less and less public and media interest over the years.

I feel absolutely privileged to have known these guys, and the sort of friendship they’ve shown me is hardly exclusive to industry characters. Through considerable ups and downs, numerous relocations, bounces through as many record labels as Jimmy Jackson’s played for NBA teams, Silkworm stayed focused on making great records and playing terrific shows, but always treating their fans with all too-rare respect and courtesy.

Tim said in one of the Chicago papers that Silkworm will not continue without Michael, and I have no doubt that is the right decision. The guy wasn’t just a talented drummer — he was a key, creative force in a band chock full of ‘em. It should be stressed that as exceptional a player as Michael truly was, he was even more impressive as a person. I’ve known few individuals as funny or as thoughtful. Even amongst those who only met him a few times, Michael will be missed.

Our thoughts go out to his friends and family, along with those of John and Doug.

GC

[johansen smith]

this isn't even the top story over at PitchFork, Silkworm is just incapable of getting any sort of respect.

[tinobeat]

the guy from Broken Social Scene got beat up, which I guess is.. well, its something...

oh well.

[Paul]

The only people who still give a damn about Broken Social Scene anymore are Pitchfork, so I was sort of expecting it to take top billing.

[TheSadDebaser]

Fucked up.

I saw Silkworm open for Mission of Burma at the Experience Music Project about three years ago. I think they were set up on the floor. This was my first time ever seeing a band in an actual venue, before had only been a couple of festivals and outdoor shows. I'm short and I was in the back and they were on the floor, and the only one I could see was Dahlquist. I had never heard of them before but I thought they were pretty good, so when I ran across In the West by coincidence the next day in a used record shop I bought it hoping I'd like it. I fucking love that record. Whenever I listen to that record I think about how I want to make one like it.

I always wanted to see them live again, but I guess not. Fuck.