Steve Kille obit

DEAD MEADOW Bassist STEVE KILLE Has Died

We wish Kille's friends and family all the best at this time. 

He was not on the list.

Steve Kille of the highly-influential stoner rock band Dead Meadow has passed away. Dead Meadow revealed the sad news on their Instagram, saying Kille passed away earlier this morning. We wish Kille's friends and family all the best at this time.

"It is with the absolutely heaviest of hearts that we have to announce our beloved brother, bandmate, amazing and utterly unique bass player, and gifted artist Steve Kille passed away at 12 am last night," wrote Dead Meadow.

"Writing, recording, performing music with Steve felt as fresh; inspiring, and as important as it did 27 years ago when we first started playing together. We don't know what words could express this level of loss."

Dead Meadow has eight albums under their belt alongside a handful of live recordings. Their most recent effort was Force Form Free on Blues Funeral Recordings.

Dead Meadow formed in 1998 from the remnants of two local D.C. bands, The Impossible Five and Colour. The band started as Jason Simon on vocals and guitar, Steve Kille on bass, and Mark Laughlin on drums. They combined 1970s heavy metal and 1960s psychedelic rock with themes from authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien and H. P. Lovecraft. The first album, Dead Meadow, was released in 2000 on Tolotta Records, a label run by Fugazi bassist Joe Lally. The vinyl LP version was released by Planaria Records. This was followed by 2001's Howls from the Hills, also released on Tolotta Records.

Having heard the band's first album, John Peel asked the band to record a Peel Session. Unable to afford to tour internationally, the band recorded their session in Fugazi's home studio using an 8-track recorder previously owned by Minor Threat, the first time a Peel Session was recorded outside the BBC studios. Primarily featuring energetic versions of songs from their first two albums, Dead Meadow's session was officially released in 2011 as Peel Sessions, and includes two additional tracks recorded during the same period.