Those of you out there that appreciate good pop music will be saddened to hear that Grant McLennan of Australian band the Go-Betweens died Saturday at the age of 48. The Go-Betweens are often cited by music critics as one of those “should have been household names” bands of the 1980s: they had minimal chart success, yet they created some of the smartest, most perfectly-crafted pop music of the decade. REM, Roddy Frame, and Belle & Sebastian amongst others have all named them as a major influence. Grant wrote some fantastic songs, such as “Cattle & Cane”, “Bachelor Kisses”, and “The Wrong Way Round” with the Go-Betweens and also had four very good solo albums to his credit.
I’m bummed…