[Dr. Eugene Felikson]

Originally Posted by Dead-Air

I was pretty good friends with Justin and Vern at the time (still consider them that, but can't really claim to be in touch, a little with Vern, but not really much) and worked at the same club Thekla (Vern was a bartender, Justin and I were both djs). So I guess I sort of know.

The "official" reason was that Vern's wife didn't want him to go on tour anymore and wanted him to spend more time with her and their daughter. Given that they divorced not too far after that, and the band stayed apart, I don't think it was really the reason.

The stuff about Justin being too big of a drunk is not bloodly likely. Vern could always drink him under the table, and they are both so fucntional when they're wasted that I don't think it could have hurt the band much at that point. I do think they were pretty sick of each other after all of that touring though, and I think they were more sick of touring period.

Justin I think was pretty tired of being in a band that everybody loves so much. He's a lot of fun in person, but he's really not into being a star at all and the introvert thing was never an act with him. Given that he has hardly made any music publicly at all since then, while Vern has wound up playing in the Fitz of Depression, it's pretty clear which of them was really more tired of it all.

They're both living in Oly again, and so is Brandt. Sarah's in Portland. It wouldn't surprise me if they did reunite at some point, but it also wouldn't surprise me if they didn't. They left with an album that the Wire compared to Zen Arcade and Double Nickles on the dime, I kind of think they wanted to stop at that high point. But those guys are way full of surprises.

Talk of strife between them is kind of silly because they never talked shit about each other or argued in public. That doesn't mean they didn't get tired of being two inches from each other for months at a time, but Vern spoke very publicly in Oly about Sarah and Justin being two of his best friends when he quit.

Wow, what a neat post.