!!! vocalist and percussionist John Pugh has left the band to focus more on his other side project, Free Blood.
Pugh has been noticeably absent from !!! shows throughout the summer.
He confirmed to the Alternative Press that was to make "manic background music for ensuing debauchery" with Free Blood.
Pugh spoke to Pitchfork more specifically and recently saying: "I officially quit at the end of July. We had pretty much been on tour since February and I had reached my limit. And it wasn't any surprise to anyone I think; I think everyone understood my reasons for leaving."
"It was a long tour of duty for me, like eight years. And they're still going at it. I don't think it really broke their stride much, so I'm happy about that, that they kept going and doing their thing."
With Free Blood Pugh plans to find a musical balance between the Manhattan and Brooklyn dance scenes.
"A Manhattan party was usually at a really fancy club with bottle service," Pugh told Pitchfork but the music was always pretty amazing. They'd just have top-notch DJs, and you would go there and kind of get an education in the history of New York dance music."
"But then you go to a Brooklyn party and it was at the other end of the spectrum; you would have this anything-goes attitude, and everyone would be sweaty and hadn't bathed in weeks. It was really fun, except the sound system was always busted and the music was kind of on fire-- people would just be playing 'Another One Bites the Dust' over and over again and getting totally shit-faced."
"So, when we started throwing parties at our place, we wanted to be kind of a marriage of the two ideas. And when I first started writing songs for Free Blood, I was thinking of this marriage."
Courtesy of: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/46348-john-pugh-talks-departure-free-blood
