CHRISTOPHER OWENS LEAVES GIRLS, WE SPECULATE ABOUT PAPA
If one guy leaves a two-man band, is that a “member-leaving” story or a “band-breakup” story?
Kinda hard to say.
But that is today’s question with the announcement of Christopher Owens' departure from the San Francisco indie-rock jewel known as Girls.
With their debut twin releases ‘Album’ and ‘Father, Son, Holy Ghost,’ Girls enjoyed a solid three years of do-no-wrong-ness among critics and fans. And before today, it looked pretty certain that they’d keep it up for #3.
But that’s not the case, as clarified this morning in a three-part tweet by Owens (@chri55ybaby):
“Dear all, This may come as a surprise to many & has been an issue of much thought for me. My decision was not easy to make. I am leaving Girls. My reasons at this time are personal. I need to do this in order to progress. I will continue to write & record music. More will be announced soon. I thank you all for everything. Sincerely–Christopher”As of now, that’s what we know. No word from lone Girl Chet "JR" White, band management or True Panther on the details but it’s probably safe to say, sadly, this is legit.
But there’s a vague glass-half-full aspect to the story too: PAPA.
PAPA is a band from California with a singing drummer, a spicy debut EP and two touring members from Girls (brothers Darren and Evan Weiss). They opened for Girls on their latest (last?) tour, which meant double-shifts for the brothers Weiss on any given night. That’s pretty impressive.
Earlier this year, the AltarTV crew shot PAPA (strange wording I guess) at SXSW for Live At The Show and returned home full-fledged fans. It’s weird, catchy but it doesn’t sound like Girls, nor should it. Listen to PAPA’s ‘A Good Woman Is Hard To Find’ and find out yourself.
Silver lining attempt: with Owens’ departure and Girls’ future uncertain, Darren and Evan might have the schedule space to go PAPA full-time. It’s one of those closing-one-door-opening-another situations. And on cue, June 29 from PAPA’s Twitter:
“Lauren hill going to jail for 3 years for not paying taxes and Tom cruise is getting divorced well at least we start mixing our record today”A big day in news for everybody and one probably not remembered for the “mixing our record” comment, but we’re gonna go ahead and focus on that.
Tagged Girls, Christopher Owens, Leaving Band, Breakup, PAPA, News, Darren Weiss, and Evan Weiss