So last post I introduce to you, my loyal following, to the band Dance Gavin Dance. I talked a little bit about ex-vocalist Jonny Craig. In my opinion, Dance Gavin Dance was a much better band when he was the lead singer. He was the original lead singer of the band, and was the reason for the name of the band. Jonny had wanted to name a previous band Dance Gavin Dance, and the name stuck. Though Jonny has an amazing voice, he's kind of an asshole. He left the band back in November 2007 not too long after the release of their second album Downtown Battle Mountain. He later on asked to come back and the band rejected him due to his extreme tensions with other band members. Tensions we so bad that in August 2007, guitarist Sean O'Sullivan quit the band due to conflict with Jonny as well as Matt Mingus. After that, Jonny went on to join the band Emarosa in 2010. After two more albums, Dance Gavin Dance was not doing well and it was rumored that the band was going to split. Kurt Travis (the new clean vocalist) had officially quit the band, and Jonny came back. Jonny Craig was the lead vocalist for both band until he was kicked out of Emarosa in 2011. It was later on announced the the band was going to release their album Downtown Battle Mountain II later that year. In October 2011 the band announced that they would be taking a hiatus due to issues with Jonny. Then, they announced that Kurt Travis and Matt Guise would be the vocalist for their upcoming tour.
On August 21, 2012, Dance Gavin Dance announced Craig's departure via Facebook saying "When Jonny rejoined DGD, we were about to call it quits. Tired of touring and being away from home for 8 months of the year, we wanted to shake things up. We thought it'd be fun to do a dbm sequel with Jonny and go out on that. We recorded dbm2 and felt it would be a disservice to our fans not to let them hear the new record live. We did a tour and felt rejuvenated but Jonny wasn't in a good place. After trying to convince him into getting help over warped tour, we canceled a headliner in November/December 2011 and told him we wouldn't tour until he sought out real help for his addiction. We got our good friend Matt Geise to fill in for a short run we did earlier this year while Jonny was in rehab. He was released and wanted to be out on the road immediately. We weren't sure how things would go so we only booked a small portion of the all stars tour to see if Jonny could still function as our lead singer. After a week and a half things were not going well. Everything came to a head when Jonny was publicly scolded by the owner of sumerian records for multiple offenses. It was then that we realized that our time with Jonny had reached its end. We wish Jonny the best In his future endeavors but he will no longer be a part of DGD. We however will continue playing and writing music because it's what we love doing."" (Wikipedia). Jonny Craig was also part of the superband Isles and Glaciers from 2008-2010. The vocalist included Craig Owens from Chiodos and Vic Fuentes from Pierce the Veil. They released one EP when tensions were stirring within the band. Jonny had been involved in a "Mac Book scandal" with several fans. Jonny had advertised that he would be selling a few Mac-Books, and a couple of fans sent him money but the computers never came. After that scandal Craig Owens tweeted "... and people wonder why we won't do another I & G record." Ever since Isles and Glaciers broke up in 2010, Jonny Craig has been producing numerous solo albums. Many fans believe that Jonny Craig is doing much better for himself and Dance Gavin Dance has agreed that Jonny is doing much better now that he is on his own.
Children of Divorce by Jonny Craig
http://a.tumblr.com/tumblr_lefaflsf3q1qbyv20o1.mp3
Viola Lion by Isles and Glaciers
http://awmusic.ca/1/mp3/Isles%20and%20Glaciers%20-%20Viola%20Lion.mp3
Cemetery Weather by Isles and Glaciers
http://dc249.4shared.com/img/968840961/ba99d999/dlink__2Fdownload_2FAcdwsKz2_3Ftsid_3D20131002-24428-1a0995f0/preview.mp3
Wow, sounds like this Jonny Craig guy likes to cause trouble! I'm glad to hear that he's doing better on his own though. It's too bad that he had so many problems with the other band members! It sounds like both DGD and Jonny are doing better on their own, so I guess its a happy ending all around! Do you still think that he should rejoin the band?
ReplyDeleteI don't really enjoy DGD without Jonny Craig in it, but his solo stuff is pretty sweet. Downtown Battle Mountain and Downtown Battle Mountain II are both the bands most popular albums, both of which were produced with Jonny. They have a new album coming out called Acceptance Speech, but it's not like their old stuff. It's somewhat similar to how I felt when PearlJam released their new album... their music was better left in the past.
ReplyDeleteI had a friend that was in a band and he always use to tell me how frustrating it was trying to work as a group when one person constantly caused problems. Since this is a more popular band I can just imagine how stressful this as for them. How did you feel when you heard that the band broke up? (If you were listening to them at the time)
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad Johnny Craig had to leave the band. But I would imagine it must be very stressful touring with a lead singer who has addiction problems. Is Johnny Craig sober now? How do you think his addiction influenced his music?
ReplyDeleteTina- No I wasn't listening to them at the time, but even just hearing about it shook me. I love this band to death. Though, they're pretty much non existent to me now. The music they make now isn't what it used to be, and kind of sucks. But none the less, I still deem them one of my favorite bands.
ReplyDeleteSam- Yeah he is actually and he is doing a lot better on his own. I mean most of their songs are about addictions and what not, so it was definitely an influence. Maybe this is just because Jonny's genre is soul (kinda) but I felt like his singing has more meaning to it, like he truly feels his music. I think that also came out his addictions. You can definitely tell the difference between his old music and his newer music.