Michael Knott

    Michael Knott

    Also credited as Mike Knott

    Huntington Beach, California14 reviews across 9 releases

    acousticalternative rockfolk rockindie rock
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    Michael Knott was an American singer-songwriter from Southern California who emerged from the Christian punk scene in the early 1980s. His work with Lifesavers Underground, usually shortened to LSU, brought gothic and post-punk darkness into Christian rock, with lyrics about spiritual conflict and failures within church life. He became equally associated with stark storytelling. Rocket And A Bomb, released in 1994, drew on Dylan and Tom Petty while naming people Knott had encountered among the homeless and mentally ill on Hollywood Boulevard; its acoustic guitars and restrained arrangements replaced LSU's heavier attack with songs that treated those lives as personal stories. Strip Cycle shifted the acoustic setting toward the Violent Femmes, with distorted humor and odd instrumentation. Fluid turned the same interest in damaged lives into a rock narrative about Jenny May's coma and conversion.

    When Blonde Vinyl's distributor went bankrupt in 1993, Knott's Christian recording network collapsed, and LSU became the Aunt Bettys as he pursued a general-market audience. The Aunt Bettys signed with Elektra in 1995, but Knott later secured a release from the contract when changes at the label threatened the band's prospects. The 1996 review of Fluid treated it as his farewell to Christian recording, while the Definitive Collection in 1999 gathered material from his earlier bands and solo work. After the Aunt Bettys ended late in the decade, Knott formed Strung Gurus with Dennis Danell of Social Distortion; Danell's death in 2000 led Knott toward self-released records and acoustic touring. The Aunt Bettys reunited for a 2010 show. Michael Knott died on March 12, 2024, aged 61.

    9 releases reviewed