Nikki Sudden, former frontman for the Swell Maps, died Sunday (March 26) after a performance Saturday night at Manhattan's Knitting Factory that was billed as "Farewell To New York." He was 49. No cause of death has been announced. Sudden had just finished work on a new solo record, The Truth Doesn't Matter, according to Billboard, and was expected to perform a show at London's 12 Bar Club March 29 with his current band the Jacobites. According to a post on Sudden's MySpace page, where condolence comments have been pouring in since Sunday evening, the Jacobites intend to play the scheduled show as a memorial for him. Sudden and his brother Epic Soundtracks (who died of unknown causes himself in 1997) founded the Swell Maps in 1972, but didn't self-release their first single ("Read About Seymour") until 1978. The group released two longplayers, 1979's A Trip To Marineville and 1980's Jane From Occupied Europe, on Rough Trade before disbanding. Sudden then spent much of the successive, two decades releasing solo work. Much of that solo output, as well as the two Swell Maps records, were remastered and re-released by Secretly Canadian over the last few years. www.nikkisudden.com/ www.myspace.com/nikkisudden
