Deerhunter Guitarist Quits Band, Cites Blog Overexposure

To my ear, Deerhunter is the best new band I've heard in 2007. But at a recent New York show, I listened in disbelief as lead singer Bradford Cox held forth in a post-show monologue for over 20 minutes, covering his childhood and all sorts of other topics. The guitarist walked back onto the stage and whispered something to Cox, who then said something like "he says I should stop talking, and that I always do this, but I'm going to keep talking because..."

Most of the audience stood transfixed, listening, but I left. I thought the guitarist was right: it would have been a better idea to let the band's (excellent) music do the talking.

According to Pitchfork, a disagreement along those lines has lead to that guitarist, Colin Mee, leaving the band, citing media overexposure -- especially Cox's enthusiastic, confessional blogging style -- as a reason.

Update: Colin Mee rejoined Deerhunter.

"This sense of being overwhelmed was exacerbated by the fact that I
felt we were receiving (and creating) too much press that had nothingto do with any new music being created. I don't want to be overexposed.
I don't want the world to know what our excrement looks like or what weare selling on eBay or whether we got robbed. I think that it devaluesthe music and it is just a way to maintain attention when the musicshould just speak for itself.

"I understand that is not the way the media works but I found itdisgraceful and sensationalistic. I felt misrepresented and that theband was being portrayed as opportunists. I was willing to tolerate it,
however, but I am not going to put my life on hold for this."

I think my friend Craig said it best: "well, it was good while it lasted."

(on pitchfork; image from pitchfork)