That depends on
who you ask. If you ask Jon Gray, Bill Gray, or Jacob Cooper, the Mae
Shi are playing. Jacob's Facebook update from yesterday says this:
Jacob Safari OK guys, tomorrow 1PM Union Park on aluminum stage
Pitchfork Fest. LAST MAE SHI SHOW W/ THIS LINEUP EVER. THIS IS IT.
This makes us sad, and requires some back story.
Back
in 2006, when Ezra and Corey quit the band, Tim and Jeff and Brad weren't sure
what to do next. We still had more songs in us, we still had more
people to meet, and we couldn't come to terms with the thought of no
longer being in a band. We met up at Palms Thai and decided to keep it
going.
We didn't want to "replace" Ezra. We didn't want a new "singer."
But we all agreed that we needed one more person -- one more voice, one
more opinion -- in the band.
We put the word out that we wanted
another member. We posted a ridiculous flyer at the Smell. We played
with a few people. The two people we thought of first were Jon and
Bill Gray, two cousins we met right when the band got started. The two
people that were the biggest supporters of the band; the two people
that cared as much as we did. Go back and watch footage of 2003 Mae
Shi shows at the Smell and you'll see Jon and Bill in the front in
every shot. They told us when we were good and told us when we were
bad.
And so, in August 2006, Jon ended up joining the band (Bill
would join later). At that point, we had the sketches of what would
become HLLLYH finished, and with Jon on board they quickly took shape.
We played with Jon for the first time in September 2006, and pretty
much finished the record by January 2007. Instead of having one
singer, we all sang, and having Jon as a multi-instrumentalist and
singer really tied things together. He wrote amazing lyrics for songs
like 7XX7 and Party Politics.
We had this awesome record done, but knew we wouldn't be able to
really promote it. Brad wasn't interested in touring anymore. Tim had
decided to go to law school in the fall. So we did SXSW and did one
little tour and laid low.
In November, Bill and Marcus joined the band, and Brad and Tim
stayed home and worked on other things. All of a sudden, there were
four people -- Jon, Jeff, Bill and Marcus -- committed to touring and
ready to hit the road.
In
January 2008, Jon asked Marcus to leave the band, and replaced him with
Jacob. Jacob, Jeff, Jon and Bill toured like crazy for the entire year
and made a lot of new friends. Meanwhile, Tim studied and Brad stayed
in LA and worked on new songs.
Who was in the band by January 2009? It's hard to tell. Our
myspace page still showed six members. A few months earlier we had
gotten our first real "manager," and we were being told that to be
successful, we should market ourselves as a four-piece. We were told
we needed to "focus," and the audience needed something to focus on.
We needed a "front man." We took that advice, and took aim at the
future as a quartet -- Jon, Jeff, Bill and Jacob. Jon was our front
man, and he did it well. Brad was fine was this, as he wasn't
interested in performing, only writing and producing, but Tim felt
weird and a little hurt about it.
Things were not all well. Jeff, at this point the only original
member, had been hiding a drug and alcohol abuse problem, and Jon and
Bill and Jacob witnessed him do bad things and make terrible decisions
and be dishonest about it all. Before their European tour, Jon and
Bill and Jacob announced to Jeff their intent to "step away from" the
Mae Shi when the tour ended.
In May 2009, midway through the European tour, Jeff realized how
bad his problem had gotten, and flew back to get help. The rest of the
band finished the tour without him as a three-piece.
When Jon and company returned from Europe, they did not check on Jeff.
Jeff, at that point three weeks sober, finally got in touch with Jon
and told him that he wasn't healthy enough to play any upcoming shows,
and suggested the band cancel the remaining booked shows, including
Pitchfork Festival, which was six weeks away.
Jon responded that he and Jacob and Bill were going to do Pitchfork
whether or not Jeff played it too, and so it would be best if Jeff just
gave them his blessing. Jon asked Tim, who had been on the sidelines
looking for a way to get involved, if he would play the festival and
take Jeff's place. Tim chose not to.
Meanwhile, Brad -- who had gotten extremely busy with his day job
making music for a TV show -- had gotten tired of all the drama and
stepped away from the band as well.
Both Tim and Jeff learned on Wednesday that Jon and company had issued a press
release that Pitchfork had spun into a news item: the Mae Shi was
turning into Signals. In the language of the release, three of the
four members of the band were quitting to form a new band called
Signals, and the Pitchfork show would be the last chance to see the
current lineup of the Mae Shi as well as the first chance to see the
new band.
Is that true? Not really. Jeff will not be there. Tim will not be
there. Brad will not be there. You will see 3/4ths of the most recent
touring band. What you will see will be Signals.
Jacob
Safari OK guys, tomorrow 1PM Union Park on aluminum stage Pitchfork
Fest. LAST MAE SHI SHOW W/ THIS LINEUP EVER. THIS IS IT.
This is all, in our view, a tremendous bummer. It makes us deeply
sad. The Mae Shi have had their share of tough times. We are a
dysfunctional bunch. But we've always been friends, and we've always
believed that we are generally good people. We've always been family
-- real family. Byrons and Grays, a Buchla, a Breeck, a Cooper. A Fogel
and a Savino. But this seems extremely opportunistic and
inconsiderate, and not how friends treat one another.
We feel very weird and sad about all of this. Because of Signals'
press release, we are getting tons of emails and calls from friends
asking if the band is over. We weren't prepared to discuss this; while
Signals were building Myspace pages and booking shows, we were trying
to get better. We've been told Signals is going to play Mae Shi songs,
which also makes us feel weird.
So here is the hastily written story: We are the Mae
Shi. We do not break up. Currently, we are Jeff and Tim Byron, and we
hope to be more people in the future. The future is uncertain, but
there is a future.
We wish Signals the best of luck.
- Tim and Jeff