Rhett Sutter
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Biography
Rhett Jason Sutter was born July 27, 1972 and died July 4, 2005. At the age of 7, he built his first drum set using ice cream pails, cardboard and tape to construct the toms and a metal lunch box filled with crayons to create a snare drum. Along with his brother Ryan and neighbor John Geibel he formed his first band "The Rockboys". A year later, he formed his second band "ROW" (aka Subra, aka Electronic Reflex) with Ryan and youngest brother Reed.
In 1985, at the age of 13, Rhett began drumming in the band Hubcaps and Hearts, a cover band playing mostly 1950's and 60's pop music. He would remain a member of H&H for 3 years.
His musicianship soon expanded beyond drums as be learned vocal harmonies, guitar and keyboards. His songwriting, which he had been doing as far back as The Rockboys, began to improve and in 1986 ROW recorded a collection of songs called Terror Again. Annoyed by working with Ryan and Reed, who played no musical instruments, Rhett suggested to Ryan that he buy a guitar, learn to play it, and the two of them form a new band which they named The Lavone.
The Lavone, consisting mainly of Rhett and Ryan (although other members came and went over the years), would remain active from 1986 through 2003, recording and independently releasing 17 albums of mostly original material over half of which was written and performed by Rhett. Some of the albums recorded by The Lavone are available at Archive.org under a Creative Commons license.
In 1988, Rhett recorded a solo album called Pink Static which he was so dissatisfied with that he recorded over all the tapes and no copies exist. Five years later, in 1993, he once again recorded a solo album entitled simply "Rhett Sutter". Later the album was renamed "Rhett!". It is available on Archive.org under a Creative Commons license.
In the space between his first two solo albums, Rhett not only produced, engineering and co-wrote several Lavone albums, he also co-founded the Nuclear Gopher Cheese Factory record label with his brother Ryan and began working with the bands The Frog (aka Vishnu Frog) and Purple Triangles. After Purple Triangles released their only album "Visor Minds", Rhett helped produced Sy Park's debut solo album "The Outlaw's In-laws" in 1993. In 1994 he produced Sy's second solo album "Suggested Retail Price: Free" and in 1995 he produced the first half of Sy's third solo album "Head Cleaner".
Following the 1993 release of The Lavone's "Some Enchanted Evening", Rhett continued to record sporadically for a Lavone album that was to be called Gorgeous. The recording process was delayed by Ryan's lack of availability but in 1999 Gorgeous was rechristened "The Hiatus" and was released on Nuclear Gopher.
In 2000, The Lavone released their final studio album "Isotope" and played several shows. Over the next few years Rhett contributed to work by various bands including Kloey, SP3!, and Steve the Band, as well as continuing working with Ryan on a never completed Lavone album. He also formed a new band called Beyond Thompson. As if that weren't enough, he also managed to record a follow-up to 1993's "Rhett!" entitled "Londa" which was released in 2003, the same year that The Lavone was put on a hold that would ultimately become permanent with Rhett's death in 2005 of complications caused by blood clots in his lungs.
His final documented live performance was on September 25th, 2004 at the October Ridge music festival in Faribault MN with his band Beyond Thompson where he played new music from the album he was working on as well as Lavone songs and a cover of Brian Wilson's "God Only Knows".
He left behind a massive body of work as both a performer, a writer, and a producer as well as a wife, Anna, and young son Ian, and a legion of adoring family and friends.
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