LD Beghtol remembered by Casey Burns

I first met LD when he wandered into my office at Cat’s Cradle in 1999 when the Magnetic Fields were playing Merge Records’ 10th anniversary music festival. Back then, I was the art director at that famous North Carolina music venue. He looked at what I was working on and gave me a nice compliment on the Billy Bragg flyer I was designing, handed me his card, and told me to look him up if I was ever in NYC and looking for a design job. 12 years later I found myself in NYC, and very randomly met LD for the second time, through our mutual friend Scott Sosebee. We all started playing music together soon after, in a new outfit called LD & Co. Over the past 7 years, we’ve played shows at some pretty outrageous events and even a highly regarded satanic metal club in Greenpoint. We’ve been in the recording studio countless times, and were on the cusp of finally releasing our first vinyl single (on a clear flexidisc no less) from what will hopefully surface some day as a posthumous LP. 

Over the years, LD and I have laughed a lot, butted heads on musical differences in the studio, and rambled over beers and the occasional Lime Rickey. He was hilariously full of himself but also always looking out for his friends, trying to move them forward or help them find new happiness in their lives. 

True to his word, LD got me in the door at two different agencies in the past 5 years. He was incredibly kind to me. I cannot believe he is just gone.