The Dallas indie rock staple had been diagnosed with T-cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma in February
Benjamin Curtis, the Dallas-based indie rock guitarist and drummer who was a part of the Secret Machines during their 2004 breakout “Now Here is Nowhere,” has died after a yearlong battle with cancer. He was 35.
According to the Dallas Observer, Curtis died Sunday night in New York.
Curtis, a native Oklahoman, was a staple in the Dallas music scene, where he and brother Brandon played for local band UFOFU in the mid 1990s. Benjamin played drums for Tripping Daisy for a few years before the Curtis brothers re-teamed with Josh Garza to form Secret Machines, whose new take on space-rock was a critical darling in the mid to late Aughts.
Though it never sold gangbusters, the band’s 2004 album “Now Here is Nowhere” made Rolling Stone’s list of overlooked gems from that year. They opened for U2?s Vertigo Tour in Mexico in 2006; the Irish supergroup’s guitarist The Edge called “Now Here is Nowhere” “the last record he fell in love with” in an interview for the Uncut magazine.
Curtis cited guitarists such as Michael Rother, Yoshimi P-We, and The Edge of U2 as some of his primary influences on guitar. He plays a heavily effects-laden spacy style of guitar, reminiscent of late 1960s and early 1970s psychedelic rock.
Curtis left the band in 2007 to form School of Seven Bells with Alejandra Deheza.
REST IN PEACE, GOD BLESS YOU BEN!
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