Really really unhappy

October 4, 2019 2:15 PM

Musician, songwriter and photographer Kim Shattuck (the Muffs [previously], Pandoras, et al) has passed away at age 56 from ALS. The Muffs' final album is scheduled to be released October 18th.
posted by queensissy (23 comments total)

I was so upset to hear this. The Muffs' Blonder and Blonder & Happy Birthday To Me were two of my favourite '90s albums.
posted by misteraitch at 2:37 PM on October 4, 2019 [2 favorites]

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posted by hydra77 at 2:46 PM on October 4, 2019

I saw the Muffs with Veruca Salt back in the '90's. I thought they were amazing. What an immense talent. This makes me very sad.

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posted by evilDoug at 3:01 PM on October 4, 2019

I used to see Kim around my old Silverlake neighborhood all the time. The funny thing is I would hear her voice first before noticing her. My favorite time was when I went to see David Cronnenberg's Crash and after the film ended, just as the end credits start to roll, an unmistakable nasally voice growled in the dark "I HATE this movie" for everyone to hear. The lights come on and sure enough there's Kim getting up from her seat.

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posted by cazoo at 4:08 PM on October 4, 2019 [17 favorites]

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posted by Rykey at 4:29 PM on October 4, 2019

Well that sucks. Never got to see them live, being half a world away and all, but "reading Sherlock Holmes while listening to The Muffs' catalogue on shuffle" has been my go-to public transport commute activity for a couple of decades.

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posted by Pinback at 4:41 PM on October 4, 2019 [3 favorites]

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posted by lapolla at 5:23 PM on October 4, 2019

A legend is lost.

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posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 6:13 PM on October 4, 2019

Waaaay too fucking young.

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posted by dbiedny at 6:17 PM on October 4, 2019

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“Oh Nina” is a dynamite track.
posted by porn in the woods at 6:19 PM on October 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

She possessed one of the greatest screams in rock history. I first saw the Muffs on a (not particularly great) Drew Carey special back in the late '90s and I was NOT prepared for her to unleash that unholy wail. It turns out, and I only realized this after she died, that I actually had heard her before, she was the other vocalist on the NOFX track "Lori Meyers" from the "Punk in Drublic" album that I had basically worn out during middle school.

If you can sum up Kim Shattuck in one story, and you really can't, it's that she was the woman kicked out of the Pixies for being too rock and roll for them.
posted by HunterFelt at 6:53 PM on October 4, 2019 [9 favorites]

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posted by gwint at 8:00 PM on October 4, 2019

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posted by Thorzdad at 8:39 PM on October 4, 2019

Completely shocked by this news two days ago, and have been listening to the Muffs pretty much constantly since. She was (was! dammit!) a complete force of nature. I got to see them play once in 1995 and then again in 2014. Here is what I wrote in a social media post after that 2014 show:

"Work was a bewildering, draining mess this week. At home, my desktop computer is falling apart and the laptop died a couple weeks ago (both far overdue for replacement, which I haven't had the time to deal with), so I haven't been able to keep up here on FB to find out what my friends are up to (if I even had the time to check). Today was supposed to be house chores catch-up day but then the sewer line clogged up and I got to don my tyvek suit and go do some joint cartilage damage in the horrible crawlspace, seeing where the sewer line cleanouts are in this old house. But none of it matters when you get to end the day watching Kim Shattuck tear it up with The Muffs at the EARL."

The Muffs "I need you" live @Bitte (Mi) 02-10-2010
posted by intermod at 9:21 PM on October 4, 2019 [2 favorites]

I didn't know her but it seems like everyone I knew did. I made this post kind of minimal because I was sifting through friends' tributes on Facebook and I just got too overwhelmed and sad. Video of her a couple of years ago performing at a friend's birthday but only singing because she had already lost the ability to play guitar. Stories about her producing tracks on the Muffs album using a visually-controlled voice simulator because there was no other way to communicate. Using the same to make rude comments about a friend's genitalia. Such a funny, stylish, smart creature. RIP, Big Bird.
posted by queensissy at 9:36 PM on October 4, 2019 [2 favorites]

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posted by frumiousb at 5:17 AM on October 5, 2019

Saw the Muffs at Pain in the grass in Seattle many a years back. It was really great. A loss of much sadness. Glad to see a celebration of her.
posted by PistachioRoux at 6:00 AM on October 5, 2019

At a gig a couple years back she talked about how much she was enjoying menopause. It felt good to grow old with her.

Given the way she went down swinging, I like to believe Lou Gehrig is shaking her hand right now saying "helluva job, kid."
posted by whuppy at 6:29 AM on October 5, 2019 [2 favorites]

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posted by filtergik at 8:44 AM on October 5, 2019

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posted by Token Meme at 9:05 AM on October 5, 2019

I didn't know she was sick. I just figured she had moved on to other things. The last time I saw the Muffs was back in the 90s, at the long gone Coney Island High on St. Marks - it was a great high energy show.

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posted by Calloused_Foot at 11:01 AM on October 5, 2019

The cassingle for Sad Tomorrow is still in my old car's tape deck, as far as I know.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 1:40 PM on October 5, 2019

I haven't cried as hard over a musician's death since Joey Ramone died. Kim is a huge inspiration to me, and I am super fucking heartbroken for her family, her bandmates, and for all of us.

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posted by bibliogrrl at 11:48 AM on October 18, 2019 [1 favorite]