GERHARDT FUCHS (Maserati ) 34 PASSES

Drummer Dies After Fall in Elevator Shaft

ITP is sad to report the untimely death of GERHARDT "Jerry" FUCHS of Maserati and !!! as he fell through an staled elevator shaft in Willamsburg, Brooklyn.
(EDITORS NOTE: The elevator shaft in said building is probably owned by an awful landlord whom had tons of building code violations.) FROM WPIX.COM: BROOKLYN, N.Y. (WPIX) - A man fell to his death early Sunday trying to get out of a stalled elevator.

Police say Gerard Fuchs, 34, was in a lift at 338 Berry Street in the Williamsburg section, when it got stuck around 12:45 a.m. He tried to jump from the elevator onto an adjacent floor. That's when the hood of his sweatshirt got caught, causing him to plunge five stories down the shaft.

Doctors pronounced Fuchs dead at Bellevue Hospital Center.

Police say another person managed to escape; there is no information on if that person was was hurt.

This particular elevator has an active record of violations going back to April of this year, records from the City Department of Buildings show. It has managed to rack up seven violations, between 2001 and 2008.
RIP JERRY.
FROM THE NY TIMES:

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By COLIN MOYNIHAN

Published: November 8, 2009

Gerhardt Fuchs grew up playing the drums in Georgia and went on to perform with bands that toured across the country, but it was in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that he forged his reputation as a dynamic, driving drummer widely esteemed by his peers.

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Jerry Fuchs

And it was in that same neighborhood, in the shadow of the Williamsburg Bridge, that Mr. Fuchs, known as Jerry, fell to his death on Sunday morning in the elevator shaft of an industrial building on Berry Street.

“His passing puts an enormous hold on the Brooklyn music scene,” said Jon Fine, a friend of Mr. Fuchs’s and a columnist for Business Week. “The world of independent music has sustained a really significant loss.”

At about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, Mr. Fuchs, 34, who had attended a benefit party on the building’s seventh floor, was stuck on a freight elevator between the fourth and fifth floors, friends and the police said. He had been trying to jump out of the stalled car when his jacket got caught on something, causing him to fall to the bottom of the shaft. Another man, who was not identified by the police, was riding with Mr. Fuchs in the elevator but safely jumped to a fourth floor hallway.

Alex Frankel, Mr. Fuchs’s roommate in Bushwick, who sings with the band Holy Ghost!, said he arrived at the party just before 1 a.m. and heard that somebody had fallen. He peered into the shaft and saw a figure lying face down.

“We flipped him over and it was Jerry,” Mr. Frankel said. “When we found him he was not able to talk.”

Mr. Fuchs was pronounced dead at Bellevue Medical Center.

There is no suspected criminality, the police said. The medical examiner and the Buildings Department are investigating.

Mr. Fuchs grew up in Marietta, Ga., and attended the University of Georgia, in Athens. He moved to New York in 1995 to join Mr. Fine’s band, Vineland. Eventually he played hundreds of shows with other bands, including the Juan MacLean, Turing Machine, Holy Ghost! and Maserati.

Mr. Fuchs was known for his adaptability: His signature style could carry a band and inspire imitation.

“He could play metal,” Mr. Fine said. “Prog rock with multiple time signatures, aggressive indie disco.”

Recently, he performed with an electronic band from Toronto, MSTRKRFT, on the “Late Show With David Letterman.” Friends said that Mr. Fuchs had been preparing for a trip to France.

He earned the admiration of other accomplished musicians, who cited Mr. Fuchs’s combination of skill and humility.

James Murphy, of the musical project LCD Soundsystem, said that Mr. Fuchs was one of the best drummers he had ever heard.

“He was one of the only people we all knew who was literally great at what he did,” Mr. Murphy said. “And he was incredibly generous with his talent.”

On Sunday night, friends, many of them musicians with roots in Williamsburg, gathered in a Brooklyn apartment to exchange memories of Mr. Fuchs and honor his achievements.

“At the root of it,” said Scott DeSimon of Turing Machine during a telephone call from the gathering, “he was always that sweet 20-year-old who moved here from Athens.”

FROM METROUS.COM:

Fuchs

Musician killed in elevator shaft fall

A 34 year-old drummer, admired for work in dance-punk and psychedelic bands, plunged five floors to his death in an elevator shaft at a converted warehouse in Williamsburg, yesterday.

Gerard Fuchs was a talented musician who was active in the indie music scene, said Alex Frankel his Lorimer Street roommate. The Village Voice profiled Fuchs in 2007 noting his work with bands !!! and Maserati.

“It’s rare that there’s a drummer so important,” said Frankel, 27. As Frankel arrived for a fundraiser at 338 Berry St. just before 1 a.m., he was told someone had just fallen down the elevator shaft. He saw a man lying on the floor inside the shaft and ran over.

“We flipped him over and it was Jerry,” said Frankel. “We didn’t know it would be him.”

Fuchs was in a manual freight elevator that stalled above the fifth floor. The elevator is not usually accessible unless the operator is present, tenants said. When Fuchs tried to jump from the elevator to the fifth floor, his clothing caught, pulling him backwards into the shaft, police said.

Thanks-Stay Metal, Stay Brutal-\m/ -l-