Pitchfork: No More Anniversaries For The Anniversary

No More Anniversaries For The Anniversary
Happy Valentine's Day, bitch!

As a jaded and opinionated indie-rock journalist of sorts, I realize that it's my civic duty to dislike bands like The Anniversary. I mean, they're on the wrong label, they have awful haircuts, their second album far overreaches their talents, though they should be commended for trying-- but here's the thing: I liked them anyway. Their first album, Designing a Nervous Breakdown, was a beautiful blast of power pop, and if the second, Your Majesty, was a bit overwrought, it still had some great melodies. The reason for this introspection, and the use of the past tense, is that The Anniversary is no more.

Yes, according to Lawrence.com, the website of the band's Kansas hometown (and surely one of the strangest venues to announce a breakup), the main creative forces of The Anniversary, Josh Berwanger and Justin Roelofs, have decided to go their separate ways. Berwanger confirmed the details via e-mail, stating dramatically, "The Anniversary has broken up," and thoughtfully providing the details of his new project, Josh Berwanger and the Holy Ghosts.

Berwanger would seem to have been the Alpha male in the group, as bassist James David and drummer Christian Jankowski have come along for the ride. According to The Holy Ghosts' hideous new website, they plan on recording in March and releasing the resulting album in September, with a possible short tour in the summer. "This is just us getting together and going at it and playing music and not worrying about anything else," Berwanger told Lawrence.com. "We have nothing to prove to anyone or anything; it just feels good to be making music again."

The reasons for the breakup are anyone's guess, as neither party is yet commenting, though apparently both Berwanger and Roelofs alluded to different directions both musical and personal in their communiques with Lawrence.com. Roelofs in particular seems to be keeping the door to reconciliation open, as he used the more oblique term "definite hiatus" rather than confirming a full breakup.

In the meantime, Roelofs has been making music as well, with several MP3's available on the Lawrence.com homepage. His moniker of the moment seems to be Among Thieves, and he has been working with Boston's own Pink Nasty. "It's very dark music, actually," Roelofs told Lawrence.com. "I've written more songs the last month than I have in the last two years. I haven't even got any agenda or any fucking real ambition at the moment." That being said, it should be noted that the file name of one of his MP3s (seemingly not the real song name) is "I Need To Find A Record Label To Release My Music So Just Page Me Or Something." So read something into that, you cynics.