Section 25's Larry Cassidy Dead at 56

Larry Cassidy, founding member of post-punk group Section 25, passed away Feb. 27 at age 56 according to Pitchfork. A cause of death is unknown.

Cassidy formed the band with his brother Vincent in late 1977, and were coupled with the budding post-punk dance scene that burst out of England in the early '80s. Joy Division's Ian Curtis even produced their first 7", 'Girls Don't Count.' They would go on to become one of Factory Records' main acts and continued to work with New Order's' Bernard Sumner after Curtis' suicide.

While they didn't find the mainstream success that New Order enjoyed or the posthumous mythical status of Joy Division, Section 25 persevered throughout the last several decades. They were dormant for much of the '90s, but in the 2000s, Section 25 composed new material that led to two albums, 2007's 'Part-Primitiv' and 2009's 'Nature + Degree.'

Journalist and musician John Robb, also born out of the post-punk '70s scene that Section 25 was a part of, recalled Cassidy's group as "[capturing] the darkness of the period and were psychedelic renegades with freaky music that they somehow shoehorned into a tough disco punk of their own -- they were making this sound before Joy Division appeared and I know that because they were doing it on our local Blackpool circuit."

Funeral details have yet to be released, and the future of the band is unknown.