Love You Gone
Sadly, you have probably heard by now about the disbanding of Hey Mercedes. It is an unfortunate event to witness when a favorite band breaks up. Gabe and I have had to experience it several times over the last few years. The Great Casket Lottery scare back in the day nearly tipped the scales, but I think the harshest we have had to cope with recently has been Small Brown Bike’s dismantling. But this…this is a blow without recourse.
Hey Mercedes was a band like no other. They did not boast the popularity of The Get Up Kids, or the fame of Saves the Day, and they most certainly did not rake in the money like numerous other Vagrant bands. But, if I have noticed one singular assessment among their loyal fan base over the course of their breakup, it has been the respectful
acknowledgement that they had class. Hey Mercedes belonged in the pages of The New Yorker. Their dialogue seemed to fit right in step with the picturesque pentameter of famous authors such as Schickler and Salinger. Groups like Saves the Day waxed pre-pubescent anguish over girls they had met in High School. Hey Mercedes was the band that spent its evenings in the smoky parlor over a few lamented tales of bitterness and revenge. They were easily one of the best groups of musicians to grace my collection from the moment of their conception, and they will be missed.
5 comments:
Sad indeed. Though never officially announced, The Casket Lottery is no more. Another, unofficially announced break-up - Jets to Brazil. I just found that out a couple weeks ago.
Aww man, Jets to Brazil?
A year or so ago that was like my 'untouchable bloc' of music: The Casket Lottery, Hey Mercedes and Jets to Brazil. I loved those bands. That's kind of like watching your heroes die.
Yeah, there was a group of bands I loved so much that I'd soak up every drop of news on them. Anxiously awaiting new material. Sadly, I don't have any of those feelings for any new bands I listen to. I have a lot of new bands I like a lot, but not LOVE. It depresses me.
Yeah, it is depressing.
I got to see Hey Mercedes a couple of times when they were on tour with Jimmy Eat World on the East Coast in 2001. They looked like they were having fun. It was good times.
All the bands you love will break up, I have found. Nowadays I try not to love them too much, lest they disolve the band. If they're good, they're gone. It's hard to number even the bands out of Phoenix that I loved: Chula, The Slowdown, Half Visconte, Sea of Cortez, Fightshy, Angel Falls, Pinewood Derby, and many more.
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