Former Posies bassist Matt Harris has died. A cause of death has not been revealed at this time. The Posies confirmed the news via a Facebook post today:
“It is with a very heavy heart we acknowledge that the news circulating today is true. Matt Harris, the bassist for the Posies from 2001 til 2014, has passed away. Matt lent his incredible skills, mischievous humor and abject sweetness to many Posies tours and his brilliant bass lines are captured on our albums "Every Kind of Light" (2005) and "Blood Candy" (2010). Rest well, Matt. You will be missed.”
Prior to joining the Posies, Harris was deeply embedded in the San Francisco underground scene. Some of his earliest work came with Stick Figures and the pop-punk Overwhelming Colorfast. Harris would play on Overwhelming Colorfast’s much-lauded final album Moonlight and Castanets in 1996. The band would break up shortly after the records release and Harris’ departure.
In 1997, Harris became a founding member and lead guitarist of indie-psych rock group Oranger. The band recorded and self-released their debut album Doorway to Norway in 1998. The record caught the ear of Pavement’s Scott Kannberg who helped the band re-release the LP the subsequent year on the newly formed Amazing Grease Records.
After releasing Oranger’s sophomore album The Quiet Vibration Land in 2000, Harris was invited by the Posies in the summer of 2001 to replace Joe Skyward on bass, swiftly learning the band’s material in time for their summer tour. In 2004, he would make his recorded debut with the band on their sixth studio album Every Kind of Light. He would later appear on their next record, Blood/Candy, before departing the band in 2014. Throughout his time in the Posies, Harris continued his work with Oranger, up until the band’s break-up in 2006. The band had planned a reunion show at San Francisco’s Bottom of the Hill in 2020, but the show was canceled due to the COVID-19 virus.
Please join us in remembering Harris' life and work by revisiting some of our favorite of his musical moments below.
