If it turns out to be a funeral, let’s at least make it a good time.
and they’ve released a single called “What Makes You Grin”
Check it out here. It is good.
-Benjamin
Hey everyone, just a quick heads up. Our song “A Little Bit More” is going to be on Mtv’s Real World tonight at 10pm Est, vocals and all! So check it out huh?
Good afternoon everybody, i figure id take a moment from one of my as of late terribly unbusy days to let you all know that our new EP “Things Are Really Weird Right Now” is out today. You can pick it up a bunch of ways, check it out:
Here is a url for itunes - http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/things-are-really-weird-right/id433643173it’s just me now. time to let the dust settle. see you in a few weeks.
-Ben
A) I am not looking to “stir the pot” as many of you have said. I was vague out of disbelief (and a bit of laziness).
B) The post made from Ben’s account (CueJohnDenver) earlier was by Rico’s mom. She did not intend for it to be from his account. She tried posting without knowing you had to be a registered member to make posts. She was surprised and told Rico’s girlfriend that posting worked, and then they figured out it was from Ben’s account (that he left signed in on her computer, because she let him use it when she housed and fed him) and deleted the post.
C) When we left the band we all agreed on a set break-up statement. We (all six of us and our manager) agreed to not get into specifics about the situation because it would only result in exerting a whole lot of negative energy into the world, which is just worthless (although proved inevitable). Ben of course couldn’t handle this and posted a very long blog tonight. In this blog he continued to use drinking as a scapegoat. When we tried to reconcile after we dropped off the Glamour Kills tour, we made it very clear that since we lived in a van with him, we knew he was NOT an alcoholic and did NOT have a drinking problem (other than not being able to handle his alcohol on the sparse occasions that he did drink). We told him we wanted him to simply admit his wrongdoings and apologize. He did not. An exact quote from him on the phone was “i think…I feel like im sorry”. It was after this call we realized he DID in fact have issues to sort out, and none of them had to do with drinking.
D) Despite that pretty long “C”, I would rather not post a long overdone blog like Ben did. The long-short of it is that he is a pathological liar. Nothing he has said is wholly true. For example, in his blog, when he “came clean” in Denver….he meant to say that he stopped me IN PASSING and said “listen, I did spend that money” (which means that our hour and a half conversation the night before was nothing but lies to my face). Then says, “but every time I spent band money I was drunk or too hungover to care”.
This is clearly bullshit. I have printed bank statements from March 2009-April 2011. I went through them myself and highlighted every purchase that was not band related. I did NOT highlight any ATM withdrawals, even though I’m sure that money was blown on pointless things too. And I did NOT highlight any rent or utilities from his time spent living in Portland, Oregon.
The total came to roughly (just over) $9,300. As I said, that’s not including cash withdrawals, or any money we were paid in cash (merch, guarantees, etc.)
Now, what did he spend all this money on you are wondering?
Everything from food (whole foods, other supermarkets, fast food), plane tickets to visit girls and mind-fuck them by pretending to be in love with them (while on these trips he spent hundreds on sushi and other restaurants and dating activities) (also realize, the majority of the band has long term girlfriends who aren’t getting taken out on sushi dates haha), clothes which he lost (countless urban outfitters visits), haircuts, porn subscriptions (gods girls is his thing), a couple big best buy purchases (one for 150 dollars, one for 650 dollars). That’s all that comes to mind right now. The statements are at Rico’s place in Chicago and I may or may not post some of them for you all to see just to back my word up.
NOW, something tells me that all of that wasn’t done in a drunken stupor like he claims. Something else tells me he wasn’t (as he put) “sneaking what he owed back into the money bag”. This is all we wanted him to admit and apologize for so we could all MOVE ON AND CONTINUE BEING A BAND. He couldn’t do that, and still CAN’T do that, as proven by his deceiving blog post tonight.
Now, listen, I realize I failed at not making this very long, but that’s the deal.
This whole situation saddens me to no end. As I am spending my days at home in Baltimore recording new demos, I am borderline bipolar because of everything Ben has lied about and the great musical companionship he threw away. I truly, trulyyyy believed in our band’s music and was so proud of everything we accomplished since I joined the band in the spring of 2009. I would like to, one more time, apologize to and thank everyone who supported us in any manner.
I also want to apologize to our manager who I told we would not
play this petty and menial calling out game. Really am sorry, but it needed to be said after Ben’s post tonight.
