Dan Sartain Garage-rock outsider BORN 1981

Raised in impoverished steeltown Fairfield, Alabama, Daniel Frederick Sartain debuted in ferocious post-hardcore unit Plate Six. In 2001-02 he cut two self-released albums of hollow-bodied guitar rock and got lucky when he foisted those self-releases on Rocket From The Crypt mainman John ‘Speedo’ Reis at a local show. Reis signed him to his Swami label for three colourfully lyrical, rockabillycharged albums which duly collided with the early-’00s garage-rock revival. Tours with The White Stripes and The Hives ensued, plus the eighth 45 on Jack White’s Third Man Records. But ‘the Cadaver from Alabama’ (Reis’s affectionate nickname for his haunted protégé) simply wasn’t wired to capitalise: Sartain deviated into Ramones homage, Suicide-inspired coldwave and ultimately hairdressing, opening a barber’s shop in Woodlawn, AL. Last October he was ‘back’, busting out live takes from Sun Studios. The cause of death was unconfirmed as MOJO went to press.

Andrew Perry