Sure, it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood NOW, but don’t get too used to all of those good vibes and happy tunes, kids. Because even as we speak, the top handpuppet himself is packing his bags, hugging Lady Elaine goodbye, and taking the last red-eye trolley the fuck out of that whimsical, little fantasy land.
That’s right, boys and girls. King Frida... er, uh... I mean, Tim Kinsella himself has recently announced that he is not long for the world of Make Believe.
Kinsella, fastidious frontman/screwball singer of longtime love-‘em-or-hate-‘em anti-band Joan of Arc, has been handling singing duties in the slightly more straightforward (“straightforward” of course for the Kinsella Clan being a relative term) noisy math-rock project Make Believe since 2003. The supergroup of sorts contained members of the same seemingly revolving-door music club that produced great fan-polarizers like Cap’n Jazz, Owls, Joan of Arc, etc. and had just completed the writing for their whopping third full-length record in as many years when T-Kin dropped the bomb via the, shall-we-say “minimalist” Joan of Arc website that he’d be resigning his duties after the new record is finished.
“The new record is written and it sounds great to me; I have been very excited about the songs and have put a lot of work into getting my contributions for them together,” Kinsella posted last week. “But I know once the record is recorded I would be miserable if I had to go on tour and continue the rock band lifestyle which I have felt less and less connection to for a long while now.” Well, if nothing else, it’s good to see that, like any neighborhood of Make Believe resident worth his button-nose, Kinsella is in bigtime touch with his feelings.
The frazzled frontman continued: “I really like my wife a lot. And puttering about the house making weird stuff all day means everything to me. And I feel a strong sense of community at home that means a lot to me, and though I know I have been very lucky to have had the opportunities to travel, I really enjoy leaving Chicago less and less all the time.
“Being a sort of bizzaro David Lee Roth or whatever is kind of fun and fulfilling in some sort of way, but not something I have in me to prioritize enough to commit the time to that the band would require of me. And I don't want to let my friends down and hold them back from doing what they want to be doing. By leaving the group now, while the songs for the new record are still in pliable forms, they can finish the record without me and then be able to tour in support of it and continue onward in whatever new form they come up with.”
Wait. Soooo... is he saying that he doesn’t want to be “just a gigolo” anymore? Either way, for those concerned about Diamond Dave Jr.’s place in his day-job band Joan of Arc, have no fear. You haven’t heard the last of them.
“I have a pile of new songs to pull from for a new Joan of Arc record and am looking forward to having time to develop them in the fall, but I am also looking forward to taking my time and going into hermit-mode for awhile.”
Well, Tim, what can we say? The neighborhood will never be quite so beautiful without your brightly-colored tunics. Maybe we’ll see you around down by the Museum-Go-Round sometime? Oh, and best of luck “puttering about the house making weird stuff” and all of that. God bless that wife of yours. She must be a real saint...
Hummala bebhuhla zeebuhla boobuhla
Hummala bebhuhla zeebuhla bop!
