R.I.P. Smugglers’ Founding Drummer Paul Preminger
11/6/2009 By Keith Carman

While he was only a member of Vancouver, BC-based garage punks the Smugglers for a short while, founding drummer Paul Preminger has passed away. He died on October 27, apparently of a heart attack.

For those unfamiliar with Preminger or the Smugglers, they formed in the late '80s and have released music on a variety of labels, including esteemed indies Mint Records and Lookout Records throughout their career. Their latest effort was 2004's Mutiny in Stereo. Preminger, however, was only featured on a few singles, compilations and one album before leaving the band and becoming a chef.

Smugglers vocalist and CBC Radio 3 host Grant Lawrence spoke with Vancouver's Georgia Straight about the skinsman, deeming him, “A guy that hit the drums hard, and who lived hard. He was a Joe Pesci, bulldog kind of a guy, but very smart, very funny, and very kind. He was one of those guys who’d sit on the couch and answer every single question on Jeopardy!, and you’d be like, ‘What the fuck? How does this Bukowski-esque character know all this?’

“He was much more experienced in every facet of life. He had a hundred stories. It was like touring with a merchant sailor. And he had a lot of strange quirks. He developed a quirk where he’d puke before every show, sometimes onstage.”
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