Atlanta Musician Josh Fauver Dead at 39

Crushing news broke on Nov. 2: longtime Atlanta musician and former Deerhunter bassist Josh Fauver died suddenly and unexpectedly at age 39.

After a day of emotional posts by his friends and local peers on social media, larger media outlets picked up the story. The former rightly paints Fauver as a funny, caring and intelligent cog in Atlanta’s underground music scene, while the latter reminds us that those talents got shared with the whole world during his eight-year stint (2004-2012) with Deerhunter.

As an on-stage showman and the mastermind behind live favorite “Nothing Ever Happened,” Fauver acted as a post-punk shaman, reining the spiritual energy of Deerhunter down to earth.

On the local front, he released great records by Hawks, Pleasure Cruise and Facehugger with his Army of Bad Luck imprint and participated in the controlled chaos that was S.I.D.S. and Electrosleep Int’l. That’s just a few snapshots of the bands he’d either nurtured or helped form since his teenage years.

Based on limited yet cherished personal interactions, he’d probably rather me write about how he named a cat after Viv Albertine than praise his musical output. That’s Josh for you – humble despite being well-read, socially-aware and immensely creative.

No public word yet on the cause of death, which may be an extension of Fauver being a quiet and private person. Whatever health concerns might’ve shut down his body just a few weeks shy of his 40th birthday weren’t reason to ask for attention.