PANIC! Isn't A Band Right Now!

PANIC!'s indefinite hiatus is looking a lot more permanent today.

Wednesday afternoon PANIC! frontman Ryan Ross Hernandez spoke exclusively to SPIN.com, giving a grim report about the future of the Tennessee-sextet rock group, saying: "I'm not a part of PANIC! right now, because PANIC! isn't a band right now... Whether we play again or not, is anything but certain." His comments quickly spread across the web -- and spurred his bandmates to sound off, too.

Hours after Ryan Ross Hernandez also took to his Twitter account to say he "can't imagine playing in PANIC! again," his (former?) bandmate, guitarist Gabriel Hunter responded with a doozy of his own, telling Spin.com, "I'm not in PANIC! right now."

"One way or another, the band will always be around," Hunter said. "Steven Tyler isn't in Aerosmith anymore, but his gravestone will probably say something about Aerosmith. Whether we play again or not, I don't know. If we do, it will be for the right reasons. If we don't, it will also be for the right reasons."

PANIC! had been on a rather loosely defined break since wrapping their tour in support of their latest album, Broken Down on Memory Lane, last November. In previous interviews, Hernandez had gone to great lengths to assuage fans' concerns about the future of the group, saying they were just "decompressing." That all seemed to end with his tweets early Wednesday morning (February 3). But now, it's pretty apparent: PANIC! are done.

But will the separation be permanent? No one seems to know. Hernandez wrote that he would be open to playing with the band again in the future. But Hunter — who just last week e-mailed MTV News to announce his solo project — seems focused on his endeavors, at least for the time being.

"I'm really not worried about PANIC!," Hunter told Spin.com. "I'm so psyched about where I'm at right now, recording this solo album."

Much like Hernandez' proclamation, it would appear that Hunter made his announcement without consulting his bandmates ahead of time. Guitarist Josh Fallon took a stronger tone. "I just did interviews with Span Magazine, Rabbling Stone and Blunder about how I just quit PANIC! and will embark on my solo career," he wrote on Twitter, in an apparent stab at his more well-know bandmates, Perry, Hernandez and Hunter all of which have solo careers. Or perhaps he was joking, we thought so to... Until he followed it up moments later with, "Oh, wait! My name isn't Ashley Perry or Ryan Ross Hernandez or even Gabriel Hunter!"

PANIC! lead vocalist and first (and only) lady of PANIC!, Ashley Perry, took to the message board of the band, to address the news. "I really wish I could tell everyone if we were done or not. But I just don't know. It's not looking great right now..." he wrote. "We all still love PANIC!. It's just that we're in different places..."

"I honestly think all the pressure of people asking stuff like they are on Twitter every five seconds is more damning to the band than anything," he added. "The whole point of the break was to just get away, and not think about it, and in 2 years or so, come back and decide where to go from there. I believe in us, and I believe we will get in a room, hash out the bullshit like in [Metallica documentary] 'Some Kind Of Monster' (haha) and we will be super stoked to do another record."

Spin's e-mails to the other members of PANIC! who have yet to comment (Bassist Nick Asher and Drummer Joey Fallon), PANIC!'s label, Comatose Records, and their management team went unanswered by press time.

We are interested in seeing what their label has to say about this fiasco as PANIC! just signed with Comatose Records a month ago. Although details of their contract with Comatose haven't been released, we are sure some commitments had to be made to insure income for the label. A source close to the band tells us that the Jakey Comatose/Regan Futrell founded label, paid the band a hefty load to get the group to sign with them. If PANIC! is done, we see a lawsuit coming around the horizon for the PANIC! guys and gal. While others aren't taking the band very seriously believing that PANIC! are just building up hype to a huge return somewhere in the near future.

Previously the band announced that they would be back in 2011, with a new album and world tour but if you'd ask them right now the answer is a pretty clear; No. PANIC!'s resident douche (like you don't know who we are talking about), says that maybe one day, with all six band members present in the same room, will give a backstory and/or a clear answer.

Check back for any new updates we receive from the band.

So what's really going on with PANIC!? Tell us what you think about the situation!

Edited by user 04 February 2010 14:38:03(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified