As one half of the creative force behind the Swell Maps, Nikki Sudden was an important figure in England's post-punk movement of the late '70s and early '80s. After the dissolution of the band, Sudden would go on to record as a solo artist and as the frontman of the Jacobites. Where the Swell Maps blended a jangly D.I.Y. primitivism with noisy gestures to the avant-garde, Sudden's solo work indulged his love of the Rolling Stones, T. Rex, and other swaggering rock icons. His music -- by turns tough and tender -- made fans out of Evan Dando, Sonic Youth, Jeff Tweedy, and R.E.M., among others. Sudden died in his sleep in 2006 at the age of 49, less than a decade after his brother, Epic Soundtracks, took his own life. ~ Nate Knaebel