Hey Everyone!
Everywhere you look these days, bands are taking "breaks" (otherwise known as a hiatus) from work in order to take time for other things... family, writing, whatever it may be. The hiatus is the new black. Many artists are well deserving of a vacation after the amount of work and touring they do, there is no question about that. But at the same time, some kind of red panic light seems to set in when fans hear that word... HIATUS. Its scary, because it seems that for every 10 bands who take one, only 7 come back.
It becomes a fan's worst nightmare, a waiting game that can last years without any news. I know that when Blink-182 announced their hiatus back in 2005, I was pretty distraught. They are one of my all time favorite bands, I grew up listening to them and to know that I would be left with the somewhat unsatisfying memories of the 2004 untitled release did little to settle my panic haha. Other bands I liked when I was younger, bands that had an important influence on what I listen to now and who I am today, many of them have been on an "indefinite hiatus" for years now. Hiatus, break, quitting... its all so confusing these days.
I guess its just the phrasing that makes us freak out... I mean, "indefinite hiatus"... why cant you just come out with it and say, "we quit"? Is it that hard? I'm intrigued by this resignification of everything. It used to be so simple... a band was active, they played, they recorded. When they had enough, they called it quits. And then they started taking breaks and coming back... and now its just all over the board. Sometimes I find I have a hard time knowing who's still around and who's on "hiatus".
As a music fan, I only ask one thing... be BLUNT. No matter how much it would hurt to hear it, I'd prefer a band just came right out with "you know what, we've done this for a while and we're tired of it, we want to try something different so we're done, thanks!" No more of this "indefinite hiatus stuff... we all know what that means, doesn't matter how you phrase it!
Some Bands Currently on Hiatus/Indefinite Hiatus:
Foo Fighters,
System of a Down,
Yellowcard,
Home Grown,
Starting Line,
The Hush Sound,
Something Corporate,
Fall Out Boy,
From Autumn To Ashes,
Velvet Revolver,
Autopilot Off,
Acceptance,
+44,
Garbage,
Phantom Planet,
Silverchair,
Dead Kennedys,
Mest.... and lots more!
Have you dealt with bands you like going on hiatus? Which bands?
Rock On!
- Girl At The Rock Show
Song of the Day:
Not Now by Blink-182... one of the last tracks released before the hiatus and though it is not classically funny/twisted Blink, it does a great job at summing up the position of the band at the point it was released through both the song itself and the video... "Please stay, until I'm gone I'm here hold on, to me I'm right here, waiting" It leaves you with that sense of uncertainty, that something is not right, but it isn't quite over.
