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R.I.P. Rick Froberg: Singer/guitarist (Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes) and visual artist; dead at 55 [1]
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Date: 2023-07-04
I was at a music festival on Saturday. A guy I didn’t know struck up a conversation with me about my hoodie and after we talked for a while he mentioned a musician friend of his died the day before. I was like "Oh. I’m sorry to hear that” (not wanting to pry). Then he asked if I listened to Hot Snakes and I said “Hell yeah!”. He replied Rick died yesterday. It was a gut punch.
I’ve listened to Rick Froberg’s bands Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, Pitchfork, etc. and have been in awe of the power of his music for 30 years. Damn.
Rick Froberg — the leader of Drive By Jehu, Hot Snakes, Obits, and more — has died at 55. His longtime bandmate John Reis shared the news in an Instagram post, writing: “Rick passed away suddenly last night from natural causes. His art made life better. The only thing he loved more than art and rock n roll was his friends. He will forever be remembered for his creativity, vision and his ability to bring beauty into this world. I love you, Rick. I will miss you for the rest of my life.” — Stereogum
Hot Snakes :: 10th Planet
Drive Like Jehu :: Do You Compute
Born in Los Angeles and raised in Encinitas, Froberg first began playing music as a teenager in San Diego-area bands before forming the quartet Pitchfork with guitarist [John] Reis in 1986. That outfit released one album, 1990’s Eucalyptus, before Froberg and Reis splintered off into Drive Like Jehu, a post-hardcore band that infused the genre’s noisy template with complex time signatures and extended song lengths. With Froberg serving as singer and rhythm guitarist, Drive Like Jehu released two albums in the first half of the Nineties, their 1991 self-titled LP and 1994’s Yank Crime, with the acclaimed latter album gaining a cult following in both the math rock and emo communities. Drive Like Jehu broke up in 1995, at which point Reis focused on his punk act Rocket From the Crypt — which Froberg, also an illustrator and visual artist, contributed album art to — but the two once again reunited at the turn of the millennium to form Hot Snakes. That group released three studio albums in the first half of the Aughts, including the 2004 standout Audit in Progress. — Rolling Stone
Hot Snakes :: Let It Come
As an illustrator, Froberg created album art, promotional artwork, and merchandise designs for each of his bands, along with Rocket From the Crypt and Reis’ Swami Records. After moving to Brooklyn, New York, in the early aughts, he founded the band Obits in 2006 with former Edsel guitarist Sorab Habibion. Their most recent album, Die at the Zoo, was released in 2021. Froberg has also played with the Last of the Juanitas and Thingy. On June 14, a little more than two weeks before his death , he posted on Instagram that Hot Snakes were working on a new record and that it was “very near done.” — Pitchfork
Hot Snakes :: Braintrust
Lastly a casual interview with Rick that published just four short weeks ago. Kinda long but the parts I’ve watched capture what an all around cool dude he was.
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