The end of a band is always a sad thing. Music plays a huge role in people’s lives, and for a band to call it quits may not seem like a big deal if you’re not a fan, but the hope that maybe there’ll be just one more record means a lot to some fans.
In an interview with The Guardian, Damon Albarn, of Blur and Gorillaz fame, said the two bands were most likely through. While I’ve never been a huge fan of Blur (“Song 2” was great, but I don’t really remember anything else they’ve done), Gorillaz has been a big part of my music collection for years. It’s not that I think that a band should continue beyond their prime into the pitfalls of state fair tours, but for those fans who ascribed a ton of meaning to their music it’s almost painful.
The alleged split comes from trouble with Plastic Beach, the band’s last full-length album. During the tour Albarn didn’t use the images that the band’s artist Jamie Hewlett had done.
“The music and the videos weren’t working as well together, but I felt we’d made a really good record, and I was into it. So we went and played it,” Albarn told The Guardian, hinting that it was the cause of the friction.
While it’s understandable for frictions to arise, from the fan end it just looks stupid most of the time, like another good band splitting up and citing “creative differences” (read: I just hate that douche).
Gorillaz isn’t the only band that has split up and left a sore spot for me. In fact, many of my favorite bands have split up for a number of reasons. Bands like Five Iron Frenzy and Operation Ivy had split up before I stumbled across them, and bands like the Suicide Machines and blink-182 splitting up only after I’d been listening to them for years.
Operation Ivy is responsible for a lot of the music I listen to today, being an inspirational East Bay ska/punk band. They were a precursor to bands like Green Day and Offspring, playing the now famous Gilman club between 1987 and 1989. The band only lasted two years, and their releases are kind of spotty, with only two records being officially released during the band’s heyday.
The Energy LP has gone on to be rereleased, containing the band’s debut EP and other tracks. The band, while prolific, imploded in 1989, before I was even born. And yet the band managed to influence the shape of both ska and punk after it.
The Suicide Machines released one of their better records in 2003, right around the time I started getting really into music, and A Match and Some Gasoline was a huge influence on my musical taste and my own playing style. The band’s back catalog is full of ska/punk fury and a couple of records that dabbled in pop (which were actually not terrible), but just three years after A Match and Some Gasoline, on the heels of 2005’s War Profiteering is Killing Us All, the band would split.
Dashed were my hopes for another amazing record; no more were my dreams of seeing them live. Members went on to perform in other bands, but nothing that ever matched the sheer brilliance of the Suicide Machines. But there is still some hope. 2009 saw the reunion of the band for a benefit show, as well as Riot Fest 2011 in Chicago.
Which brings me to the real point of this column: the reunion.
Sure, some bands get back together and fall into the state fair trap. Just look at hair metal. It’s not uncommon to see ’80s bands on the stage at your local state—or even occasionally county—fair.
But then there are bands like blink-182, which come out of retirement and release good material, material which captures the original band’s feel but still feels a little more mature. The live shows that are more polished but still fun for both the band and audience. Reunions like that give fans hope.
Five Iron Frenzy announced a reunion on Nov. 22, 2011. A band which came to my attention in 2003, right before they were planning to break up, unbeknownst to me. When I realized that I missed my chance to see them on their final tour I was pissed, and when no news came out of their camp for two years I wrote it up as a loss.
When FIF asked fans for money on Kickstarter so that they could finance a new record and tour, they reached their goal within the hour.
And while there may be no hope for Gorillaz (or Blur), I am holding out hope that Five Iron Frenzy’s reunion will blow me away as much as blink-182’s did last September.
Have a long-lost band love on your mind lately? Carrying on hope for their reunion tour or album? Commiserate with Jeremy at jgartzke@wisc.edu.
