this whole thing was written before the last two replies... so take it for what it's worth.
While this sucks, it's not all that surprising. The clues have been there for quite a while. It just sucks that they won't make an announcement (or maybe that's a good thing and it shows they are undecided, but I doubt it).
What he said. For a while now, everything I've heard from anyone in the band has been pretty pessimistic. I was pretty sure they were going to break up a while back, after their last national tour, but I waited and waited and the news never officially surfaced. Then they played a couple scattered shows and I thought maybe I was wrong, but then everyone started working on independent projects again. I would be a lot sadder to see them go if I didn't believe, as I do, that Ozma has probably done about all it can do without some kind of major change. That isn't to say I don't think Pasadena had some great songs. I think it did. I think it's more the case that they are all much older and much different people than they were as teenagers when they started this band. Presumably they've all grown in diverse directions, yet they get together and play the same kind of stuff they decided to play when they were 15 or 16 years old. I think that puts a lot of strain on the creative process, and I think that it started to show up even as early as Spending Time. Pasadena could have been their chance to reinvent themselves, but instead, it was a label's insane misguided attempt to repackage some old material and try to push it into a modern pop-radio landscape where it obviously wouldn't fit. I dunno. Jose's solo stuff sounds Samuel. Ryen seems to be keeping himself plenty busy. Dan always seems to have a few dozen irons on the fire, including the apparent resurrection of Monstro, which I personally find exciting. I'd say that if they can all go the directions they want to go in, it's probably for the best, so long as they keep working.
