Farewell to From Monument to Masses
April 9, 2010
03-Beyond-God-Elvis.mp3
From Monument to Masses – “Beyond God & Elvis”
With much sadness and nostalgia we share the news that beloved local band From Monument to Masses are calling it quits, as announced in lengthy statement made by guitarist/co-founder Matthew Solberg on Golden Antenna Records‘ website:
“…There is too much to say here about our experience. We’ll be blogging about it later, I’m sure. Suffice it to say, that I’m incredibly grateful for my time spent with FMTM and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. From the responses we heard in talking to people about our music, I’m convinced that the music worked; it did it’s job. It reached people on a different level than most music… and that’s exactly why I committed myself to the band in the first place…I loved every minute of it – even the minutes that I hated. FMTM was a very frustrating band, mired in frustrating business relationships, frustrating personal relationships, and frustrating contradictions between what we wanted to be and what we were; where we wanted to go and where we were headed. Given these obstacles, FMTM fell prey to a sort of “band entropy” wherein everything that we tried to control slipped even further out of our control. Eventually, the net losses outweighed the net gains and no one was happy. That’s when you know your band needs to break up, regardless of whether it breaks your heart or not…”
From Monument to Masses released four albums, and were equally appreciated for their commitment to DIY as much as their melodious, technical and politically passionate post-rock. According to Solberg, the band will play a final three-day tour in Japan, with hometown (NYC/SF) farewell shows possibly to follow.
The Bay Bridged can proudly say we covered FMTM throughout their reign as one of SF’s best bands. We invited them into the studio for Podcast #156 around the release of On Little Known Frequencies (Dim Mak) came out last year, and covered their show at Noise Pop 2009. Farewell, guys.
I’m sad to hear it and i think many people from Lyon too, due to the magnificent show they gave us on October 2008.
During this song i became breathless since the middle of the song till the end, the audience felt the tension of the music too and screamed when a pause arrived . It was difficult for me to work the camcorder, completely subjugated, i said to myself Wow, while expiring and rejoicing !!
They will miss us.
Tell them they have to sleep a good night of sleep. Then they wake up and all their problems si solved, this way I can keep listening to them.
Apparently the concert they planned in my hometown (Lyon, France) is cancelled and it kills me since they became my favourite band and I was so happy to go see them live for the first time.
Anyways best to all of them, they were a great band, really.
Fantastic show in Osaka last night! I was pretty much overwhelmed by how good it was. Couldn’t stop smiling. The guys were nice enough to hang out and chat after the show. Thank you, FMTM! Such beauty! It was almost tangible.
i’ve loved this band for a long time. sorry to see them go …