R.I.P. Richard LaValliere, of The Haskels and Oil Tasters

Richard LaValliere, one of the great innovators of the early Milwaukee punk scene, passed away Sunday night. LaValliere was the bassist for The Haskels, one of the city's first punk bands, in the late-'70s, and then the frontman for Oil Tasters, the early '80s bass-sax-drums post-punk combo that drew heavily from experimental jazz, using LaValliere's off-kilter, surrealist songwriting as its foundation.

LaValliere moved to New York in the late '80s, looking for new musical outlets outside of the local scene. "It was a point where all the bands that had been around had broken up and reconfigured several times, with members recombining and recombining," LaValliere told Dave Luhrssen in 2009. "It seemed like hillbilly incestuousness. If I didn't want to keep repeating myself, I'd have to find new horizons."

But even in Brooklyn he kept Milwaukee's music traditions close to his heart. His final band was Polkafinger, which paid homage to the polka music he'd been surrounded by during his years in Milwaukee.