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Dave Riley, former bassist in Big Black with Steve Albini and Santiago Durango, died on Tuesday, Rolling Stone reports. He was 59 years old. Riley had been battling throat cancer, his friend and housemate Rachel Brown said in a Facebook note breaking the news. Find Brown’s full post below.
After leaving Savage Beliefs to join the group in 1984, Riley played bass on both Big Black studio albums: 1986’s Atomizer and 1987’s Songs About Fucking. The band also released a slew of singles—including “He’s a Whore”/“The Model,” Cheap Trick and Kraftwerk covers with satirical single art to match—and EPs between 1982 and 1989, as well as live albums including Pigpile, released in 1992 after their split. Riley also worked as an engineer in Chicago, with artists including Parliament-Funkadelic, and as a producer of bands such as End Result, Spongetunnel, and Rights of the Accused.
According to Brown’s Facebook post, Riley suffered a stroke in the early ’90s. He was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. “Dave never let his disabilities get in the way of what he wanted to do in life,” Brown wrote. “He created music, wrote, traveled, ran an online store and helped take care of the cats in our rescue-cat sanctuary. In 2015 we retired to a small ranch in the hills of southern Arizona where Dave enjoyed swimming in the pool and spending time outdoors in the sunshine with our dogs and donkeys.”
In a statement to RS, Albini wrote, “When I think about Dave, I think of him onstage, sweating, rolling on his heels, his bass making a rhythmic shrapnel cloud, the densest object in a very heavy construction. Then I think of him after the show, still sweaty but relaxed, easy with his humor and in possession of an impeccably sharp wit, comfortable with himself, comfortable being the hinge-pin of the evening. I miss playing with Dave, and I miss hanging out with him. He was a handful, but like most people we describe that way, he was worth it. Rest easy.”