The rock n' roll death roll-call unfortunately continues: This afternoon, we received word that Memphis garage punk rocker Jay Reatard has passed away. According to police spokesman Jennifer Robinson, Reatard — born Jimmy Lee Lindsey — was found dead in the bed of his midtown Memphis home around 3:30 AM this morning; police are still investigating the cause of death. He was 29 years old.

A prolific and volatile musician, Reatard was known for both his manic work ethic — he put out dozens of singles, EPs and albums over the last fifteen years, under his own nom-du-punk as well as with the Reatards, the Lost Sounds, the Bad Times, the Final Solutions, Nervous Patterns, Angry Angles, Terror Visions and Destruction Unit — and his onstage temper tantrums. Brawls between Reatard and his audience members, if not a nightly occurence, were at least common enough that they ceased to be news-worthy. He also famously fired his band onstage late last year, and just days ago put a Twitter bounty on the van of New Jersey tour mates Liquor Store, after they'd allegedly slashed his tires. "I will give anyone a hundred bucks per tire that they pop on the band Liquor Store's van!" he tweeted. "Yes I'm serious.”

Reatard seemed poised to move closer to the mainstream in 2009, when he released the critically acclaimed Watch Me Fall. The album, which even received raves from the New York Times, showed Reatard trading in his usual lo-fi bluster for more of a '60s-influenced pop sound. "'It Ain’t Gonna Save Me,' the album's opener, is an upbeat, Nuggets-worthy rumination about bad luck, and is probably the most satisfying two minutes of power-pop you’ll hear all year," wrote ShockHound's Jonah Bayer.

Just like most of his songs, ShockHound's lone encounter with Reatard was brief and memorable. Having been booked in advance to tape a Shock Sessions performance, he showed up at our offices last August dressed in only a T-shirt and skivvies, drinking a beer and clearly feeling the effects of the extended binge he'd been on the night before. Though initially quite affable, he passed out on a nearby couch while his bandmates soundchecked; he awoke an hour later in an extremely foul mood, then stormed out before playing a single note, loudly complaining that the gig wasn't sufficiently "punk rock" enough for him.

But even if we weren't particularly sorry to say goodbye to him that day, we're still sorry to see him go, as are many other folks in the music world. "We are devastated by the death of Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr., aka Jay Reatard," read a post on the blog of Matador Records, Reatard's most recent label home. "Jay was as full of life as anyone we’ve ever met, and responsible for so many memorable moments as a person and artist. We’re honored to have known and worked with him, and we will miss him terribly."