In Memoriam: Dave Riley of Big Black has passed away

Unfortunately, Dave Riley, bassist for Big Black, has passed away. Riley passed away after a short battle with cancer. He was 59. Rachel Brown, his housemate, issued a statement: "In late August, [Riley] developed a persistent sore throat that wasn’t responsive to antibiotics. Initially dismissed as acid reflux, further testing showed that he had a large squamous cell carcinoma in his throat that had already spread to several places in his lungs. Since treatment wouldn’t have made any difference, Dave chose to come home to die. His doctor predicted that he had about six months left, but sadly the cancer was so aggressive that he didn’t even make it an additional two.” Previously, Riley suffered a stroke in 1993, which left him confined to a wheelchair. In 2006, Riley published a book, Blurry and Disconnected: Tales of Sink-or-Swim Nihilism, which included six short stories.