News has leaked out that Tim Mooney, former drummer for the Sleepers, American Music Club and Sun Kil Moon, has passed away at the age of 53.
Tim Mooney of American Music Club
His death was initially thought to have been from a heart attack but a posting on his Facebook page has updated that, saying “We have received the results of the autopsy and the official cause of death was a blood clot, but they also discovered that he suffered a SMALL heart attack recently, that we were oblivious to.”
The news was broken last Thursday on the blog of Mark Eitzel, lead singer of American Music Club:
I haven’t seen Tim for a few years now but that still didn’t lessen the impact of his passing. He was the drummer of AMC for many years. He was absolutely instrumental in whatever sound we had. His style was absolutely unique and as an artist no one could match what he did. He was a good friend to so many people and will be missed. What an absolute loss. I wish all the best to his wife Jude and his daughter Dixie. I have spent all day in a fog thinking about him.
Mark Kozelek of Sun Kil Moon also posted a remembrance on their website:
I knew Tim Mooney for over 20 years. As many Red House Painters’ fans may know, American Music Club was very helpful in giving us our start. Later on, Tim played drums on my first solo album, Rock’n’ Roll Singer, and then on Sun Kil Moon’s Ghosts Of The Great Highway. We shared many long days and hours together. Tim was a peaceful, patient, and incredibly talented person. The last time I saw Tim was in 2009, in Petaluma, he was having ice cream with his daughter. He was as happy and content as ever. This photo was taken during my work with him at Toast Recording Studios, in San Francisco. I’ve been overwhelmed with memories of Tim since learning of the news yesterday. My heart goes out to his family, his many friends, and to the members of AMC.
Mooney was one of the original members of the San Francisco punk band the Sleepers. They recorded an EP in 1978, Seventh World, and broke up for over a year. In 1980, they reformed for a short time to release one single, Mirror / Theory and one album, Painless Nights.
Mooney joined American Music Club in the early-90’s after the success of their album Everclear. He appeared on their albums Mercury (1993) and San Francisco (1994) before the band broke up. Tim would eventually return to the band when they reformed in 2003 for the album Love Songs For Patriots. He stayed with the band until 2007 when lead Mark Eitzel moved the group to Los Angeles while Mooney preferred to stay in San Francisco.
In between stints with AMC, Mooney was a member of Sun Kil Moon which was started in 2002 by former Red House Painters member Kozelek. He appeared on their first two albums, Ghosts of the Great Highway (2003) and Tiny Cities (2005).
