G.L.O.S.S Break Up

I don't like their statement very much, but it's their prerogative.

Not belittling the health toll this may be having, but some of this just sounds like giving up when they had a real chance to be a positive voice in the hardcore community. Also not saying they owe anyone anything, but I'm just really not happy with this choice to break up the band. Also, they just broke up all of their other bands to do this full time and said they were figuring out how to put out a full length. Sounds like a mess behind the scenes. Too bad!

 

Well that seems quick and out of nowhere.

 

Wonder if that means Dyke Drama will be more active now

 

Having lived in Olympia, WA for several years, I can tell you that messes like that are endemic to the region.

 

Haha, I live in Bellingham and used to live in Issaquah/Renton so while I'm not 100% familiar with Olympia I know enough to know you're telling the truth.

 

I get it but personally my brand of punk has nothing to do with how famous someone is. I find that sort of thing arbitrary to what someone actually stands for. That said, it essentially sounds like this band just wasn't something they wanted for themselves.

 

Feel like this band tries awfully hard to be punk

 

The music sucked and thats about all that really matters.

 

There are a lot of people that would disagree with that one.

My problem with this whole thing is how unnecessary their statement two weeks ago was in hindsight. Like why publicize something like that if your band is on the verge of imploding... Just seems nonsensical to stick it to Epitaph and make grandiose statements about "creating a new world" right before calling it quits. Too bad because I think they had a strong message that will be completely drowned out by all this noise.

 

I get that vibe, too.

Very strange statement. They wanted to be in a band, but didn't want to tour? They wanted to impact people's lives without leaving their house to spread their message?

 

i think the absurd reaction they received from that post is probably what catalyzed this break up.

 

Well, that post was ridiculous. I agree with @SkyGrowsBigger. I also don't understand the whole "we're getting to the point where we can be big enough to use our art to sustain our lifestyle / use it as a primary source of income" and then just quit solely because of that. I understand not wanting to be in the public eye and be scrutinized in that way, but when forming a band, regardless of the circumstances, don't you realize you could potentially garner a lot of publicity? Like, I'm not knocking them - just from my own viewpoint, I don't really understand it.

 

there are people who don't view that kind of success as necessary or even desirable but still want the creative outlet for themselves or to provide one for their community

 

The problem with this whole scenario to me is they HAD that chance to build the community they want and had that chance to build a platform, took a moral high ground over rejecting the opportunity, and then broke up over (what this statement says) not being capable of doing what they wanted.


I'm not really familiar with the band or any of their members, but to me, this seems like a scenario where (especially given that the initial statement was posted on a personal/private instagram account) the band disagreed over taking the Epitaph deal, and if there was other internal drama BTS, this was a straw the broke the camel's back. Of course, this is all baseless speculation, so I could be completely far fromt he truth.

 

In response to your first paragraph, that's exactly why it makes no sense. They were making strides to have the ability to do what they wanted, and then decided to back out. Maybe it was too much pressure (sorta seems like that based on their statement), but all in all, a weird couple of weeks for this band.

 

What a weird time to call it quits

 

Exactly. It's so counterintuitive it's frustrating. Again, I can understand it being taxing on their mental health but if they can't even stand up for their beliefs and have to call it quits when people give them shit about the Epitaph thing then that's just disappointing. Especially from a band that seemed to be the next big thing in punk/rock.

 

Of course, the funny thing about this is that all the criticism they'll get now will be used to reinforce their own narrative that they just wanted to stay out of the public eye because they'll just get victimized the more public they become. I mean, creating art that is so progressive, visceral, and personal invites criticism, that's just part of the deal. I don't know what they didn't understand about that when they started out. I get wanting to stay a local act and create change locally, but they could have fought that much earlier on and nipped it in the bud if that was truly their intent. For one - don't put your music on the internet if you're afraid of spreading too fast.

 

We don't know how much all this attention has affected their personal lives, though. I'm sure their inboxes get filled with negative comments every day, and although it's easy to tell them to brush it off, it builds up after a while.

They got more attention in less than two years than most punk/hardcore bands get over long careers, and despite rejecting interviews with mainstream media outlets, they became a priority for them to cover.

 

Again, I think that is something that is very specific to the music and youth culture in Olympia.

To me, the people who thrived in Olympia are the people who like that it's a small community and want it to stay that way. Anything bigger than that is typically perceived as 1.) overwhelming, and 2.) inauthentic. I had a friend who was in a band that was actually pretty good, but the other members were reluctant to even record any of their songs because of the possibility that it might draw 'corporate' attention. Also, depression and acute social anxiety is pretty ubiquitous among the residents (myself included.)

I think G.L.O.S.S. expected to be a small band in a small town and would have been perfectly content to contribute to their community in that way. I don't think they ever anticipated getting this kind of attention (especially with the militantly queer content of their songs) and were not prepared for it. I think it's a shame that they didn't take the opportunity to spread their message on a wider platform, but again, that's not good or bad. It just is.

Honestly, what I'm most disappointed about is that them gaining popularity might actually have heralded the return of an actual punk scene in Olympia, instead of the folksy/prog-rock bullshit that was the de riguer the entire time I lived there.

 

As a musician who is both trans and also enjoys a plethora of mental health issues (like extreme social anxiety, for one), I can relate as much to this statement as I can to their incredible music. My lifelong dream is to play music for a living, but I could never, ever go out on tour, and playing shows, while fun, is extremely hard for me. Why don't we give them the benefit of the doubt here?

It's sad that whatever is going on behind the scenes has quieted such a strong voice, but on the other hand, going out on top, Minor Threat-style, isn't the worst way to end things.

I do wonder if they've considered going the Cloudkicker route...

 

Well this sucks and is unexpected, i just recently got into their 2015 demo ep