So the music blogosphere is abuzz with the latest sad news: The Format, indie-pop darlings, have called it quits. A post made on their myspace blog reads:
“We have just put out word that we will not be making a new Format album. Please understand this was a tough decision and we’re both upset about it. While we accept there will be false speculation as to why, understand that Sam and I remain extremely close and in fact are still passing the twin peaks box set back and forth in an attempt to figure out who REALLY killed laura palmer.
We also want to thank everyone with and within the Format, particularly Mike, Don, and Marko, whom without, none of this would have ever even been fully realized. We both suggest you support their musical talents and whatever they decide to do. And lastly we want to thank the fans who made this the best 5 years of our lives.
– nate”
I can imagine quite more than a few scenesters shedding a tear after reading that post; but seriously, this really does suck. The Format always played to a slightly different tune, and that was needed in the seriously (and ironically) homogenised indie-pop scene.
The Format were the poster-child for fighting on against major record labels. After all, Sam Means and Nate Ruess, otherwise known as The Format, were dropped by their music label, not once, but twice. An interview with Nate after the event read:
“It sort of mockingly turned the whole major-label side of the music business into a dance,” explains Ruess about one of Dog Problems’ most telling songs, “The Compromise.” “There’s a line, ‘I can feel your feet touching mine,’ which pretty much explains it all in the sense of ‘if you’re not willing to play the game, we’ll just find someone else.’ And that’s quite alright with me.” Although the band was inundated with major-label offers after their split with Atlantic, they decided to release under their own Vanity Label imprint, distributed by Sony/BMGa move that allowed them to make the album they wanted to make.
It’s sad now to think that survivors like that are now calling it quits. I know that I, for one, will miss them.
So what song is appropriate to play, after all this, to commemorate this sad news? Well, if you know anything at all about The Format, there’s only one song it really could be, when you get right down to it.
Listen: The Format – On Your Porch
“whats left to lose,
you’ve done enough
and if you fail well then you fail,
but not to us
cause these last three years,
i know they’ve been hard
but now it’s time to get out of the desert and into the sun
even if it’s alone”
With lyrics like that, it’s certainly appropriate.
We’ll miss you boys.