Paramore line-up meltdown: emo-punk's Wikileaks moment?

Published Dec 22 2010, 05:44 PM by Daniel Brockman

File under "Misery Business": first came Paramore's official announcement on the departure of brothers Zac and Josh Farro, drummer and guitarist, respectively, of the multi-platinum Tennessee power-pop band, where the remaining band, probably through some kind of management, told the departing duo "we support them finding happiness elsewhere", before detailing the insane workload that awaits them in 2011, including a South American tour. The announcement is filled with the kind of go-get-'em pep that one expects from Hayley Williams and Co., and plays into the general myth the band propagates of being a young energetic troop of emotional misfits bringing healing through well-intentioned rock and roll, which is basically the story of last year's breakthrough smash Brand New Eyes.

But a band borne of the internet age should know that information can't be contained and massaged so easily. The Farro brothers released their side of the story on their Blogspot page days later, and it paints a different picture of the band's history and their disillusion with and departure from the band. For those of you who don't know who the fuck Paramore are and aren't inclined to read through a page or so of bitter invective, the Cliff Notes version is this: the band existed as a garage fun thing, until they got Hayley involved, at which point her and her parents and her managers took control of the whole thing. The word "band" appears in quotes numerous times, a reference to the way that Paramore is (allegedly) more of a solo project than a true collaboration among musicians. And in case you can't tell from the hurt tone of the post, Josh dated and broke up with Hayley, an awkwardness that is gloriously detailed here. Oh, and to top it off, the Farro brothers aren't shy about their religious beliefs, using several Biblical quotes to detail the slide into g-dlessness that the band took as is veered from the righteous path that the brothers intended the band to follow. Some of the choices quotes:

On the early days of the band:
Hayley’s manager would tell the band to be in the lobby of the hotel at a certain time, but he and Hayley wouldn’t show for hours. We found out that they had been meeting with record label executives all morning without us, which is totally weird given that this wasn’t simply a solo artist, but we were a band. The band was in the dark the whole time. After many meetings between Hayley, her manager and the labels they decided to sign her to Atlantic records. We didn’t understand why Hayley was the only one signing the contract since we were told this was a “band”, but we were too young to grasp all of this.

On the growing schism of faith within the band:
Once again we hit the road and toured on our biggest record as a band. As you all know Hayley and I dated and broke up during this album cycle. Things then started going downhill for our band. Hayley and Jeremy’s views started changing from what we all once believed in. The band almost split after cancelling a tour in Europe, but we managed to keep it together somehow. This is when Zac and I started to consider quitting the band.

Once we finished touring on Riot, we came home for a break and started writing for Brand New Eyes. Hayley presented lyrics to us that were really negative and we didn’t agree with. For example, “the truth never set me free”, which contradicts what the Bible says in John 8:32 (“and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall sat you free”). We fought her about how her lyrics misrepresented our band and what we stood for, but in the end she got her way. Instead of fighting her any longer, we decided to just roll over and let it go.

If only blogs existed in the 60s, 70s and 80s, right? Instead of writing Rumours, Fleetwood Mac would have treated us to endless coked-up contradicting he-said-she-said ravings, right? "The truth shall set you free" indeed...