Kim Shattuck, the singer and guitarist who co-founded and led the SoCal punk band the Muffs alongside contributions for the Pixies and NOFX, died Wednesday at the age of 56. A rep for Shattuck’s band the Coolies confirmed her death to Rolling Stone. The cause was Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
“This morning, the love of my life passed peacefully in her sleep after a two-year struggle with ALS,” Shattuck’s husband, Kevin Sutherland, wrote. “I am the man I am today because of her. She will live with all of us through her music, our shared memories and in her fierce, creative spirit.”‘
A punk at heart, Shattuck cut her teeth playing bass in California hard rock band the Pandoras. Following their dissolution in 1990, she went on to form the SoCal punk band the Muffs. As lead singer-guitarist, Shattuck permeated the college radio waves with her inimitable, bratty snarl. The band’s polished pop-punk melodies suddenly became ubiquitous in the mid-Nineties, after they refashioned Kim Wilde’s 1981 hit “Kids in America” for the 1995 film Clueless, and released their breakout album Blonder and Blonder that same year.
Shattuck moonlighted as a guest vocalist for many other punk acts: she joined NOFX in their Punk in Drublic cut, “Lori Meyers,” the Dollyrots in their track “Some Girls,” and Bowling For Soup’s 2009 song, “I’ll Always Remember You (That Way).” In 2013, Shattuck would later replace Kim Deal as bassist in the Pixies but would depart from the group later that year. In an interview with NME, Shattuck speculated that the band dismissed her for taking a stage dive at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles. “I know they weren’t thrilled about that,” she said. “When I got offstage, the manager told me not to do that again. I said, ‘Really, for my own safety?’ And he said, ‘No, because the Pixies don’t do that.’”
The Muffs reunited in 2014 to produce their first album in 10 years, titled Whoop Dee Doo. The band was slated to release their upcoming album, No Holiday, on October 18th.
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The Muffs – “Kids in America”
The Muffs – “Lucky Guy”
NOFX – “Lori Meyers”
Bowling for Soup – “I’ll Always Remember You (That Way)”