As leader of the early-'80s West Coast industrial group Minimal Man, Patrick Miller helped pave the way for other likeminded artists emerging from the art punk underground. Miller was an art-school graduate who began making music as an on-again, off-again collaborator with San Francisco's Tuxedomoon. Shortly thereafter he began Minimal Man, which by comparison was colder and darker in its approach. Minimal Man would continue through the '80s, but Miller's heavy drug use curtailed the output of the seminal group and by the 1990s the group was effectively defunct. Miller was eventually able to rein in his demons, but didn't return to music-making. His years of excess left him with hepatitis C, which eventually led to his death in December of 2003. ~ Wade Kergan