“All the smiles were prescription/And the laughter was canned/And nobody listened to my asteroid band” — “Asteroid Band,” Sin in Space
“All the smiles were prescription/And the laughter was canned/And nobody listened to my asteroid band” — “Asteroid Band,”Sin in Space
Little more than a decade later, the latter half of the ’90s stands out as a golden age of underground music in Santa Cruz. But it was a bubble, packed on the inside with great shows every week but nearly invisible to everyone on the outside. If a local band like Slow Gherkin could sell out the Catalyst 10 times in a row but fail to make any kind of impact on the rest of the world, could anyone from Santa Cruz make it big?
Yes, as Good Riddance.html proved, but there were so many other bands that local fans championed. And the one that almost everyone seemed to be able to get behind was Cassidy Meijer’s Sin in Space. As he developed the songs that would ultimately end up on the 2001 Sin in Space debut album Asteroid Band, Meijer showed a quirky talent that was impossible to deny.
But when he died last week, on Valentine’s Day, at the age of 33, Meijer had never again truly delivered on that talent. While it’s easy to once again blame the Santa Cruz curse, the real reason was the local scene’s dirtier secret: heroin.
As far back as his 1999 demo, Meijer’s unique voice was obvious. Comparisons to Black Francis and the Pixies were justified, but also too easy. While a song like “Break It” would have fit in just fine on Surfer Rosa, Meijer had a very un-Pixies-like vulnerability, an emotional nakedness even on his loudest songs and a worldview all his own. All of those things came together beautifully on Asteroid Band, but by his follow-up EP, 2005’s Space, they were barely audible. Space was for the most part meandering and bland, a bad sign that Meijer was losing his battle with addiction, and after that it eclipsed his music completely for several years. After some time in jail, and further struggles, Meijer briefly re-emerged in 2009 with the Cobwebs.
To lose him so soon afterward, at such a young age, is a tragedy. Not nearly enough people got the chance to listen to his asteroid band.
Editor's Note: According to people close to him, Meijer was in detox at the time of his death. He'd been off heroin and methodone for three days when he went into cardiac arrest, then succumbed to a coma. He leaves behind two brothers, a sister, his mother and numerous friends and acquaintances.
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