Though a Blabbermouth.net story is the closest thing to confirmation I can find on the net, friends in the Northwest have vouched for the veracity of the sad news ; Tom Roberts, aka Pig Champion, crunchtastic guitarist for Portland’s mighty Poison Idea, has passed away.

Roberts (shown seated above in a publicity still for his side-project The Submissives) was an imposing figure in more ways than one ; while there are a few latter period Poison Idea songs that deserve a spot on the Jukebox-In-Your-Head forever (“Plastic Bomb”and “Just To Get Away” to name two), the band’s first two releases, 1983’s ‘Pick Your King’ 7″ and ’85’s subsequent ‘Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes’ (Fatal Errection) are amongst the finest American punk artifacts of that era or any other.