When Your Fav Band Breaks Up

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I used to be kind of obsessed with the band Orgy. I got back into listening to them over Christmas, now I'm listening to their interviews, reading about them, watching their videos on youtube – and sort of going back toward being obsessed, except I really can't...because they broke up!

I don't know how to describe it. It's a horrible feeling to know that they won't be making music together anymore, that I won't have access to them anymore and will have to be content with their existing work. The original members fit together so perfectly. Now the band is full of new members (the vocalist is the only original member left), and this is bittersweet...kind of gives hope, kind of feels like a drawn out death (the new Orgy apparently has a funding problem and has already lost a new member).

And my feelings are even more complicated by the fact that two of the original members have formed a new band (which has also recently lost its drummer...these bands are so freaking unstable!) which sort of continues the soundscape that made me love Orgy, but not really. The vocals are more ballad-like and storytelling-like (Orgy's vocals were bizarre/ambiguous/bitchin'), the synth is more something you can groove to than something that jumps out and slaps you in the face. Their music is ok, but boring. Something to zone out to instead of something to listen closely to and appreciate the musicality.

It's hard to come to grips with the fact the musicians are people with their own priorities and artistic interests, who change over time, rather than my own personal jukebox. The music changing, that's the hardest to deal with.

Ok, that's my obsessive rant.

I miss System of a Down to pieces...

_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos

Yeah, I still feel that way about The Beatles.

I've followed several recording artists obsessively over the years. Jethro Tull and Kate Bush were two of my favorites - but the truth is, any artist who keeps at it long enough, no matter how talented they may be, is going to disappoint you sooner or later. Even the ones you think are so in synch with your own soul that every word and chord progression resonates within you as if you'd written it yourself.

One day you delightedly grab the newest work they've released, put it on and...nuthin.' Oh, it may not suck, specifically, it just doesn't speak you the way everything that came before did. Sometimes you can't figure out what the hell happened. Did you outgrow the material? Did something change in the artist's life that altered their perspective - did a relationship with a bimbo groupie 'steal their mojo'? Did they finally 'sell out' to the record label suits and 'dumb the material down' to aim at a wider demographic of mindless consumer zombies? It could be so many things, it boils down to one: It just ain't doin' it for you anymore. Another hero has fallen.

Sometimes it's best if they go out at the top of their game. Nobody will ever hear the Jim Morrison or Jimi Hendrix album that sucked big ones. If they had kept on going back to their creative wells, sooner or later we would have. I, for one, don't even want to imagine that, much less hear it.

For me, its been more of the British bands. When Noel Gallagher separated from Oasis, and the rest of the group renamed themselves "Beady Eye", it really hasn't felt the same since. Noel released one album, and the rest released two albums, but nothing to really make me feel like I was listening to something great.

Like when Roger Waters left Pink Floyd, and the rest of Pink Floyd made two more albums. The first post Roger Waters album was ok. The second had some good songs, but just felt bland in the end.

The Kinks started out as a foursome. Ray & Dave Davies, Pete Quaife and Mick Avory. I find listening to their CDs and albums that I own, they were full of life until Pete left the band in 1968. They still had a lot of life in them though something was lacking until the Summer of 1984 when Mick Avory couldn't record or tour with the rest of The Kinks anymore. Ray and Dave became the "Two Headed Monster" as Ray put it. Who was left of The Kinks with a few parts thrown in broke up in 1996.

I miss Pantera.
They kinda exploded, rather than broke up.
Just listen to the lyrics in the Damageplan album, and you can tell there was some bad blood going on.
I don't think it was just an upset fan who shot Dimebag, I think his death could have been a "hit job" somehow related to the breakup.


...System of a Down Rocked too, shame to hear they aren't doing anything anymore.

When I found out that My Chemical Romance disbanded, I got sick of the whole dark phase completely. Back in 2007, I liked them. Now, I was over it.