a sign of age

[anatomy of a ghost -- r.i.p. van winkle]

I started bombing all of my myspace friends with a little ecard I made for Halloween this year while I was listening to this band called Anatomy of a Ghost. The band broke up two years ago and reformed as Portugal the Man -- with a near identical line-up, yet it drives towards the dance-influenced rock that's been the bee's knees for the past year. While listening to this band, I started to think of all the pop-punk, screamo, post-hardcore, or "insert idiotic sub-genre here" bands that have broken up. I used to think that breaking up a band was reserved for groups who were long-in-the-tooth. Blink 182, I can understand; those guys had a 13 or 14 year run before they called it quits. But recent break ups of bands like Kind of Like Spitting, Dexter Danger, Race the Sun, Waxwing and The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower have me feeling a little old when these groups hit their collective expiration dates.

For every Kill Your Idols that breaks up, there are 15 other hardcore bands waiting to take their place and that seems a little weird. Not to say that a power-pop band like Dexter Danger would've changed the world, but it certainly meant something to somebody, especially considering the band's inception and popularity preceded internet outlets like Myspace and Purevolume. I'm talking about mp3.com here, people.

Obviously some groups can't hold it together, but it's still a little uneasy when you're cruising punknews.org and their break ups posting has bands' timespans as 2000-2006 or 2002-2006. I mean, if MxPx can have a steady stream of releases for 12 or 13 years, why can't these new jacks do the same? [1]


[1] I understand that this is a bad example since MxPx hasn't put out a great record since "Life in General" or a listenable album since "Slowly Going the Way of the Buffalo." I guess I could cite "Let It Happen" but that was a rarities compilation released without the band's consent back in 1998. Interestingly enough, Tooth and Nail is rereleasing the comp with bonus tracks, just as the band has released their own b-sides collection, "Let it Rock," on rival pop-punk label, Sideonedummy. What a joke.