It's already been a tough year for local pop-rockers The Pink Spiders. Label, management and booking-agent issues, as well as a crippling bus fire, are, as of now, the least of their concerns.
Confirmed Thursday by a bulletin posted under the band's MySpace account, drummer Bob Ferrari and bassist Jon Decious have quit the band. The bulletin was penned by frontman Matt Friction and cited reasons for the departure being, "they simply don't want to do it anymore."
A subsequent blog post the following day by Ferrari gave quite a bit more detail. Here's an excerpt:
there is a thing called publishing, this is what people live off of when the are in a band. EVERY band splits publishing so that everyone ib the band is equal. i have lived off $30,000 for 3 years now since we signed that record deal. its hard to play in a band when you dont have a car and another member has a brand new convertible. its hard to go to band practice when you see all the great steaks, cookies, booze, a brand new hd big screen tv, about 100 dvds, new furniture, and all that shit. there would be days i was starving and i would go to practice at his house and i would see that even the dog was being taken care of.
The Pink Spiders are in the midst of their latest tour and Friction intends finishing it as well as the upcoming Warp Tour using Raf Cevallos on keys and Joe Reilly on drums—the two were touring with the band—as well as friend Ben Young on bass. Young flew in yesterday just in time to join the band at Cave 9 in Birmingham. Reports say the performance was shaky at best.
Friction goes on to say:
I've been torn on the idea of continuing the band without two of the guys that I started it with. I'm sure most of you will miss Jon and Bob, and I certainly will too. Having finally set a release date for our new album, Sweat It Out, for September 23rd, I just really wanted to see it through. It’s a record we spent a long time on and one that I'm really proud of.
No word yet on whether the two former members intend to start new bands or make their side project Dixie Whiskey a full-time endeavor. In the meantime, Ferrari is determined to make a living off playing the drums one way or another, and is now offering to give lessons to anyone interested.
