Wilson's Last Days of Disco
With Panic! At the Disco's debut album entrenched in the Top 25 of Billboard's album chart and the band's first North American headlining tour under way, bassist Brent Wilson expected this to be the best summer of his young life.
Instead, the 18-year-old will spend Las Vegas' hottest months living at home, working at his father's veterinary practice and wondering what prompted his three "best friends from forever ago" to fire him from the band he loved.
"The band was going so well. Everything was working out perfectly fine. What was so wrong that they had to do this?" Wilson asks when reached by phone. "I grew up with [guitarist] Ryan [Ross] and [drummer] Spencer [Smith]. I was 12 years old when we first started hanging out and making music together. Now they've turned their backs on me."
Remaining Panic! members Ross, Smith and vocalist Brendon Urie posted a message on the band's website announcing Wilson's departure last month, characterizing it as an amicable, group determination. "It was a decision we all came to as a band ... We felt like we left it in a good place," Ross later told MTV News via e-mail.
Since then, however, the two sides have traded public barbs. Wilson told MTV that he was fired over the phone without apology and offered his opinion that greed played a role in his ouster, while Spencer countered that Wilson "wasn't progressing musically with the band" and that the bassist didn't write or record any of his parts on debut disc A Fever You Can't Sweat Out.
Sounding stunned and disgusted, Wilson responds to Spencer's second claim first. "I did not write every bass part on that record, but I did write some of them. Spencer didn't write every single one of his drum parts, and Ryan didn't write every single one of his guitar parts, either. We all, the four of us, went to every single practice, and it was all four of us there for seven hours straight getting ideas and doing it."
As for his musical competence, Wilson insists the band never came to him with any criticisms. "It wasn't like I was incapable of playing the parts. I played the parts every night live, all the way through, without any mistakes," he says. "It would have been a lot different if they sat me down and said, 'We want you to do something else.' But they didn't tell me anything. It was just, 'You're out of the band.'"
Above all, Wilson marvels at the way his former friends gave him the boot, over a speakerphone, the night before the quartet was set to travel to California for a show. "Supposedly, Spencer, Ryan and Brendon were all on the phone, but Spencer was the only one who even said anything. The other two didn't say anything. They didn't say 'I'm sorry.' They didn't say a word."
Wilson says he still hasn't heard from Ross or Urie, and saw Smith only when the drummer stopped by his house to drop off a check and a gold plaque certifying sales of more than 500,000 units for Fever.
That "unprofessional, disrespectful" treatment has Wilson questioning whether he'd ever join another band. "I love playing bass, playing music more than anything," says Wilson, who hopes to begin college soon, toward a degree in business. "But it's hard because I went into the music business with my best friends, and if I can't trust them, who am I gonna be able to trust?"
Through a publicist, Ross, Urie and Smith declined to comment beyond their previously e-mailed statements to MTV News.
A Triumph for the Kids
When Kid Deposit Triumph appeared on the Vegas music scene, it still carried much of the post-hard-core, emo-inflected baggage of its antecedents, Sorry About Tomorrow and Sad Machine.
Two years later, KDT's popular screamo sound has evolved into something more akin to metalcore, and that heavier style has helped position the quintet for success. Late last year, the band released Our Peace Will Destroy Many, a CD that reflects the band's songwriting talents and musical dexterity, but not its best feature: live performance.
Friday night, KDT joined other screaming, metal/punk hybrids at Downtown's Celebrity showroom. Metal barricades divided the venue into two halves—one for the under-21 set, the other for the drinking-age folk.
Though KDT followed a similar-sounding band, Seconds to Spare (another Sad Machine splinter group), it demonstrated that music is only as powerful as its presentation. Thanks to singer Mike Otto's melodramatic climbs and falls, the choreographed stomp-and-sways of the guitarists and the dynamic backing vocals, kids pushed up against the metal grate separating them from the stage, fists pumping and mouths shouting along. Only the evening's headliner, Henderson-based touring monster Hemlock, had more command over the crowd (and its bloody mosh pit), not counting the attention paid to the short skirt of DreamScar singer Danielle Schrudder.
The energy KDT emits in concert has been at least somewhat wrangled in the band's video for the song "Contrary to Popular Belief." Directed by Erik Jacobsen, the video is a slick, $19,000, FX-laden production essentially donated by M Factor Inc. for use as a demo-video project. The band, in matching black suits, performs in what appears to be a dilapidated warehouse, Otto seemingly possessed by demons as he rages against a version of himself in a mirror; CGI effects include tattoos that grow around his forearm and skin-whipping wind blasts.
Earlier this month, the band headed to Worcester, Massachusetts, to perform at a pre-party for the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival, but at the last minute learned it would be an opening act on the main stage the second day.
"We were freaking out," Otto exclaims. "I think I almost fainted. We had the honor of playing with 75 of the most talented signed metal and hard-core musicians from across the world. Believe me when I say it was humbling."
KDT performs with Seconds to Spare and Last Novina at the Emergency Room Lounge on Friday.
THE DAY AFTER'S DAY AFTER
The Day After ... is one of Las Vegas' longest-surviving rock bands. So why do members keep leaving? Last month, longtime drummer Luis Cano unexpectedly quit to spend more time with his family. And now, mere days before a short Southwestern tour that included an appearance at Albuquerque's Hyperactive music festival, lead guitarist Shaun Dougherty has parted ways with the band.
According to Dougherty, who was with the band for two years, he had grown frustrated with The Day After's lack of progress and approached his bandmates about taking a different route, including cancelling some smaller gigs in order to prepare for and promote larger concerts, such as a late August show at Empire Ballroom.
He says that the band did not cancel the dates he suggested, and when he arrived shortly before showtime at a Cheyenne Saloon performance on June 3 (where new drummer Brad Gallimore debuted), he received a cold shoulder from bassist KC Wells and singer/guitarist Jenine Cali. The next day, according to Dougherty, he called Wells and made the decision to leave.
Wells says things went a little differently. "Shaun came to us one day out of the clear blue sky saying we needed to do something different," Wells says. "He didn't have any suggestions."
Wells insists Dougherty was frustrated because "he's not a rock star yet. We've accomplished a lot since he's been in the band," Wells says. "Jenine and I are comfortable with the progression of the band."
The band's sponsorship agreement with Sam Ash requires it to perform four shows a month when possible. Even with that, Wells says, he and Cali made concessions to work with Dougherty.
"We canceled one show and didn't book anything in July whatsoever," Wells says.
According to Wells, Dougherty arrived almost an hour after the rest of the band at the Cheyenne, with no phone call and no explanation. "So I was a little pissed off and so was Jenine," Wells says
It was during a subsequent phone conversation with Dougherty that Wells says he finally became tired of his complaints.
"I told him, 'Since you hate touring and hate playing shows, your services are no longer needed,'" Wells says. "He said if I didn't say that, he was going to quit anyway."
The Day After played Hyperactive as a three-piece band, and according to Wells, the performance was a success. Wells and Cali will perform an acoustic set Thursday (June 22) at 10 p.m. in the House of Blues' courtyard for Unplugged Thursdays.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DRUMMER MAKES
Didn't you get the memo? It's official—the Big Friendly Corporation has restructured its Department of Percussion and Rhythmic Resources after the permanent replacement of drummer Ryan Miller. Colby Hulsey has been hired on to boost their bpm with his supertight timing and technical expertise.
Inspired by just a few months jamming with their new bandmate, The Big Friendly Corporation is starting over, rerecording its tried-and-true tracks with the addition of a few new songs, such as the sardonic "Wisdom of an Age." Jeff Ford, BFC's bassist, assures that everyone is "enjoying the experience." Instead of the previous top-down creative style, these days the band is taking the time to talk it out together.
If you can't make BFC's next stage show, July 1 at The Bunkhouse, stalk them at your convenience at
myspace.com/thebigfriendlycorporation.