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Rock Mourns Soul Asylum bassist and former Gong drummer

Two notable rock musicians have died within the last month.

Soul Asylum's bass player and co-founder Karl Mueller died last Friday of throat cancer, one year after being diagnosed with the disease.

Pierre Moerlen, the French drummer extraordinaire best known for his work with the legendary prog-rock band Gong, suddenly died last month. His death is believed to be drug related.

Billboard.com reported that Karl Mueller, 41, died at his Minneapolis home. He spent the months before his death in and out of the hospital, undergoing radiation treatment. He was in remission last October, well enough to perform with Soul Asylum at a benefit gig that month to raise money for his spiraling medical costs. Minneapolis musicians Paul Westerberg of The Replacements and Husker Du's Bob Mould also performed at the show.

Soul Asylum began as a teenage garage band in the '80s and were popular in the underground scene for years. The band achieved mainstream success with their 1992 record Grave Dancers Union, peaking at #11 on The Billboard 200. The album contained their defining song "Runaway Train," which featured a video about missing children in the style of a public service announcement.

Their latest studio album, Candy From A Stranger, was released in 1998 and was followed by a live concert recording last year. A new Soul Asylum record was completed earlier this year and the band said they are negotiating with a major label to have it released.

Gong's Pierre Moerlen had established strong links to St. Petersburg in the past few years. He performed at the local SKIF Festival with a group of Russian musicians in 2001 as Pierre Moerlen's Gong and recorded an album in a St. Petersburg studio the following year. After a series of delays the album, Pentanine, was released last year. Moerlen was considering a Russian tour when he suddenly died last month.

"Moerlen sent music by e-mail, notes and midi files which you could listen to, and we actually met Moerlen in a rehearsal studio," said Mikhail Ogorodov, the keyboard player who played with Moerlen at the festival and produced his Russian album. His death at 52 was probably drugs-related, Ogorodov said.

"His main problem was that he liked drugs very much, which was in a way pushing him to his untimely demise," Ogorodov said. "When he returned [in 2002] he would tell very many interesting stories about himself and his work. He could give detailed accounts about the things that were happening in the mid-1970s and totally forget what was yesterday."