John Lever, the longmtime drummer for Manchester post-punk favorites The Chameleons and spin-off groups The Sun and the Moon and ChameleonsVox, died this morning following “a short period of illness,” his longtime musical collaborator Mark Burgess announced on Facebook.

Sad news today for fans of Bill Paxton, the actor known for iconic mid-’80s supporting roles in “Weird Science” and “Aliens” who went on to star in blockbusters like “Twister” and “Apollo 13.” The 61-year-old died Saturday due to complications from surgery, his family announced today.

On Feb. 20, 2009, Slicing Up Eyeballs launched onto the web not with a bang but a whimper, debuting with a simple 91-word declaration and a headline cribbed from an R.E.M. song that Google Analytics now tells me was not viewed by a single person that day.

Steve Strange, the Blitz Kid, frontman of synthpop group Visage — best known for its Top 10 hit “Fade to Grey” — and key figure in the New Romantic movement of the late ’70s and early ’80s died today of heart failure at a hospital in Egypt, the reunited Visage announced via Facebook. He was 55.

Ian Allen, a key member of Bay Area culture-jammers Negativland from 1981 to 1987, died on Saturday from what the band is calling “unexpected complications and infections” following a heart-valve replacement surgery at Stanford Hospital in California, according to an announcement this morning on the group’s Facebook page.

Peter Gutteridge, a man described as a hero of New Zealand music and a linchpin of that nation’s famed “Dunedin sound” through his roles in The Clean, The Chills, The Great Unwashed, Snapper and more, died earlier today, according to New Zealand music journalist Simon Sweetman and the Flying Nun Records.

Tommy Ramone, the last surviving original member of the Ramones, who played drums on and co-produced the band’s legendary first three albums (1976’s Ramones, 1977’s Leave Home and 1978’s Road to Ruin), passed away earlier today, according to the Ramones’ Facebook page. He was 65.