Died On This Date (August 28, 2000) Sean McCabe / Ink & Dagger
themusicsover Sean Patrick McCabe
DOB Unknown – August 28, 2000
Sean McCabe was the frontman for the vampire-themed hardcore punk band, Ink & Dagger. Hailing from Philadelphia, the group gained a bit of notoriaty during the mid ’90s, partly due to their outrageous stage antics. On many occasions donning face paint, the band would incorporate fake blood into their shows. Legend has it that McCabe and band once threw up all over a Christmas tree during a show. Shortly after recording what would be the band’s last album, Sean McCabe was found dead in a hotel room, having apparently choked on his own vomit. In 2006, the surviving members of the band sued Microsoft for using three of their songs without permission on their Amped snowboarding X-box game. The suit was settled with an apparent pay out to the band and McCabe’s estate.
Rich Cunningham was a respected union organizer and one-time head of his own label, Happy Days Records, which he founded in 1995 while still in college. The punk label, named after the popular ’70s television program whose lead character shared the same name as Cunningham, was the one-time home to such acts as Ink & Dagger and Hot Water Music. In later years, Cunningham formed New Labor, an organization that helped low-income and immigrant workers. He had suffered from colon cancer since 2005, but cause of death was not immediately released. He was 32.