Michael Griffen, violinist for Noggin and Behead the Prophet No Lord Shall Live passed away on Monday, January 7th. We are greatly saddened by this loss of a truly wonderful human being and incredibly inspirational musician.

The Dead Air Fresheners are proud to have played several shows opening for Noggin through the years and consider them a significant influence on us as a group. We actually sampled a bit of Michael's shattering violin noise on our very first album I Try to Show My Love, which was released on Plastic Duck - a label we were excited to be on, in part because it also featured a Noggin cassette in it's catalog. Michael's style of titling Noggin songs with wordy abstractions that lend meaning to their instrumental tracks in a painterly manner was a direct influence on us as well.

Michael should be remembered as a musician who encouraged all to participate in an open dialog of reverberating sounds. His fan base literally crossed generations and he was equally inspiring to free jazz-heads and hardcore punk kids alike. His contribution to experimental music in the NW is in many ways unrivaled.