Jay Reatard: 1980-2010

According to a banner sitting atop the Goner Records message board and a tweet from Memphis newspaper, The Commercial Appeal, garage rocker Jay Lindsey, better known by his stage name, Jay Reatard, died in his sleep last night.

Details are scant right now, but according to the Commercial Appeal’s story, Lindsey was found dead around 3:30 a.m. this morning in bed at his home in Midtown Memphis. No cause of death is known at this time and a police investigation is underway.

The Goner message board banner reads as follows:

R.I.P. JAY REATARD
It is with great sadness that
we report the passing of our good friend Jay Reatard.
Jay died in his sleep last night.
We will pass along information about funeral arrangements
when they are made public.

Lindsey was a prolific musician, playing in myriad bands over his 14-year recording career, but earned the most notoriety under the Jay Reatard moniker. Last year’s excellent Watch Me Fall, his Matador Records debut, was arguably his best work to date, showing serious artistic evolution to boot. Speaking to Paste about the album in August, Lindsey said, “This was a record I wanted to make and I needed to make, something I felt artistically driven to do. Now that I’ve made it, I’m on to the next idea.” It’s a damn shame we won’t get to find out what that next idea was.

Read Paste’s full interview with Lindsey here.

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