Re: R.I.P. Michael Knott

Of Lifesavers/LSU. No word on cause of death. One of the handful of musicians from the 80s Christian underground who did anything worth hearing outside of that underground. He did one secular album under the terrible band name the Aunt Bettys which was a perennial in dollar bins in the late 90s.

I only vaguely remember his work, but when I saw Lars Gottrich of NPR post about the news last night, I immediately recalled him as one of the big figures in underground Christian alternative rock that one of my college friends played a lot on the radio station I used to manage. Proverbial big fish in a very small pond of Christian alternative from that era.

Bummer. Despite the quantity of his output, I've only heard the Cush band and album from 20 years ago or so, which I thought was pretty good.

He also ran the Blonde Vinyl label, which is mainly remembered for releasing the two albums by the Dance House Children, i.e. the Martin Brothers, who later became Joy Electric and Starflyer 59.

That's probably his biggest legacy outside the Christian alternative underground - Starflyer 59/Jason Martin has never been a huge band, but has been pretty universally respected in indie rock/shoegaze circles, and Knott gave Martin his first break.

Great piece by Lars, who is my trusted expert in anything related to Christian alternative music, a scene about which I otherwise know next to nothing:

[www.npr.org]