I'm not naming any names, but...

...it's not like I have to.

Once upon a time I put a lot of my heart and soul into a band. The angels sang and the heavens opened up and shone a beam of light down, the peasants rejoiced, and it was good.

Then it wasn't good.

Whether it was philosophical intimidation, stealing of the spotlight, or something much more mundane (and even more unexplainable), I was kicked from the band. Dodging lies and insults hurled in my direction, I found myself on the hurting end of what felt like a breakup where the last line spoken was, "It's not us, it's you."

Curiosity, though it did kill the cat, got the better of me recently. I decided to do some snooping to see how life is treating the band. Part of me wanted them to be doing well since one of my very good friends joined just as I was booted (so anything bad I could say about them would not be aimed at him in the least), but let's be honest, that was a very small part of me.

After looking around I had to laugh. Hard.

Here's a recap of what has happened since I left (as far as I can tell):

-The new bassist (who the band "leader" was already courting before my dismissal) is gone, thereby leaving the band a three-piece despite the intricacy of the songs requiring at least four.

-No new songs have been uploaded, which is funny since when I was in the band there was a new song up at least once a month.

-No dates to play any venues have been posted, which is funny since the only shows they boast of now (House of Blues, Hard Rock Cafe, etc) are from when I was in the band. "Oh poor me" blogs about being taken advantage of by the venues (as in not getting paid, which, if you know anything about small bands, is a given) is the only excuse.

-Fake news articles tout the band's amazing EP (an EP which, oddly enough, doesn't show off the real band since the songs are all (aside from crappy live recordings) the band "leader", by himself, in his room, recording into his computer with no accompaniment by the other band members) and attempt to garner publicity through deception.

-The biggest supporters of the band are still the fake MySpace friends that were created in attempt to start some sort of buzz about the band. Somehow ecstatic praise coming from "the girlfriend" or "the mom" doesn't seem to be quite as exciting.

-Their logo is still stolen from a sticker found in downtown Fullerton.

-The only seemingly new development is pictures from a photo shoot, which is exceedingly amusing considering that the fake news article espouses fake ideals about "the craft" being more important than "all these fake bands" who are all about "image." I'm not sure what the point of those comments are when the pictures are iconic, moody black and whites with costume sunglasses.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not, by any means, saying that *I* made the band, or that *I* was the only good thing in the band, or anything about *me*. What I'm saying is that it's always nice to look back at a situation in which you were horribly mistreated only to find that nothing good has come of it since you were no longer a part of it.

Sure, call me insensitive; call me anything you like, but it pretty much made my day.

-Freefalling