Doug Meech, R.I.P.

The original drummer of the Chesterfield Kings, Doug Meech, has died in New York. He was 57. Meech's pagan skin-pounding is one reason the Kings were such an effective 60s-styled garage band when they burst out of Rochester, N.Y. in the early 1980s. He's in the upper left in this photo, the cover of the first album--1984's "Here are the Chesterfield Kings."

Attached is an example of the band's raw power, a version from that first album of the Turtles' "Outside Chance." (The song was actually written by White Whale staff songwriter Warren Zevon in 1965.) While Meech hadn't been in the band for many years, his playing left a mark; I still hold a CK show at Batteries Not Included in '87 or '88 as the best rock show I've ever seen.