FILMS CREW BAND’S NEWEST MEMBER ANNOUNCES HIMSELF

By Kurt Parker

Hot on the heels of Aaron providing two lengthy updates within a few days, the latest being a salacious expose of explanations within hours guitarist Andrew Self announced his new role in FilmsCrewBand with dive into politics taking a dig at anti-gay Trump supporters.  Andrew had been spotted with FilmsCrewBand members Shawn Zone and Kurt Vogl several times within the last year even appearing with Films Crew at pre-tour rehearsal shows to disappear from the NYC arts scene.  Andrew introduces himself as being temporary when there has rarely been temporary personnel in FilmsCrewBand with its revolving members.  This is hot on the heals of Cameron Reyher (Drawmer) (Christopher Reyher) announcing himself as a member of FilmsCrewBand via Periscope and his own part of the website. He’s a departure from the bands stunning good looks. Could it be that axe wielder Shawn Zone picked his own replacement. Shawn’s presence on his part of the site has all but disappeared.  Aaron’s updates indicated a certain frustration with social media, politics, and an extortion attempt made on him, making no mention of Andrew or any definitive departure of ShawnZone but Aaron outlining the reason. All of these details combined leaving the music community stunned over post metal’s best behaved golden boys.  Whether Films Crew can sustain itself creatively without Shawn Zone hangs in the balance with a looming question mark.

Andrew Self NYC FilmsCrewBand

SCANDAL FILMS CREW BAND MEMBER NUDE PHOTO LEAK ON RIGHT WING POLITICAL FORUM

By Kurt Parker

Fresh on the heels of announcement of the possible departure of Films Crew Band’s Shawn Zone scandal has arisen in the the form of a leaked photo trying to laughably suggest Films Crew Band drummer Aaron James was a straight male escort servicing left leaning political functions.  the photo appeared on the Daily Stormer forum by a poster named Ben Salt trying to identify the nude musician.  This comes hot on the heels of a flurry of a Tweet-storm between FilmsCrewBand’s Aaron and Levi Wall and unidentified others over the possible departure of guitar master Shawn Zone, suggesting far more was afoot than were mysterious circumstances surrounding the bereft announcement of departure.  As mysterious as the Tweet-storm was it could reference tension between Aaron and French Sludge Metallers AmenRa with whom FilmCrewBand appeared with during many tour dates.  This isn’t the first time the Films Crew double kick extraordinaire has appeared in the buff having been featured in photo spreads and the band’s now censored videos just the latest time and how he was featured on an extremist right wing political forum is as mysterious as it is humorous.  Details of shred master guitarist Shawn Zone’s possible departure are still unknown but may be darker than imagined.

Courtesy Village Voice

New Films Crew Band In The Works With ShawnZone’s Possible Departure

By Kurt Parker

After a success of a FilmsCrewBand European festival summer tour, bits and pieces of snippets of new material started showing up on the Films Crew website.  Today Shawn announced the possibility of his departure from his influential musical post and it’s personal.  This was accompanied by an announcement from Aaron in an unusually clear statement.  This year was the first time we saw Shawn write on the website with his own section and the articles garnered great interest since they weren’t promotional.  Films Crew and associated bands don’t promote themselves on social media.  At the CMJ Music Marathon with their last appearance one of the panels they attended was about Periscope discussing of what merits it could be useful with a producer package that they inquired about on the panel,  Shawn and Aaron have had a presence on the app. Although Aaron’s tweets have vanished from the FilmsCrewBand Twitter account and most of his own mysterious feed vanished too.  Films Crew bests Tool at being enigmatic.  Shawn’s possible departure would be coming at a strange time with upcoming releases. This morning saw much of his content removed from his part of the website, not like the website outage breach they suffered in November, when not to mince words their webmaster named names about that.  According to a Warner music rep, Films Crew has been re-recording their debut album Narcissus Echo to release again replacing the absence of the original which they had removed from the market in a nasty dispute over the final product, and newer recordings have been under way, the snippets premiering on their site have featured jaw dropping guitar work amidst a flurry of multiple time signatures.  And while not at all their first foray into video, the most straightforward and personal featuring clothing, everything else still steeped in Jungian imagery.  In early fall after CMJ ShawnZone was nowhere to be found in the usual haunts in the Manhattan Villages and Brooklyn accompanied and very cozy with a Naval officer, then the multi-instrumentalist PhD candidate fell off the map, the only sign of life was ShawnZone’s Twitter account then a burst of content on the band’s website.  Aaron as well, Levi had made an announcement he was spending time at Amherst, the three core members all have psychology and music degrees.  Kurt Vogl disappeared from Twitter after stating he would be spending time in Germany, Nik Turner and Logan Harris have haven’t had any presence since the tour.  Post tour wind down or so it was thought.  Shawn’s Twitter reflected a deep disappointment in the elections and in a coalition with Pelican to donate to the ACLU, later joined by Brian Cook of Russian Circles and Sumac and others that came on board, it was clear that Shawn had done the networking.  His end of year Top 10 list gave a moving but blistering editorial of the movement known as Gays for Trump, this was widely circulated and for the moment is still available on his section of the website.  These things aren’t a personal reason for a departure.

It seems we’ll be getting new Films Crew in some form or other in the next year that will feature the full band, Films Crew without ShawnZone won’t be FilmsCrewBand.  In his statement he said his possible departure had nothing to do with the band but a personal situation which was echoed by Aaron.  His statement is a brief and moving look at the human condition and relationships. He stated that he had been misled by some unnamed individuals not involved in the band as if he had been hurt badly, quickly creating a gasp in part of the music community. He leaves his decision up in the air as if wanting a resolution but has lost hope signing off with the title of a now unavailable Films Crew track, Denial is the betrayal with the broadest shoulders. Hopefully there’s a resolution.

Peyrony, Films Crew, ANNONXN Return For Tribute at NYU

By Kurt Parker

NYU Concert Hall, the venue, Peyrony, the project band of Films Crew, ANNONXN, Abandoned Halos, and Predator returns for a tribute to founding member Shawn Zone, who was the victim of some strange unbalanced outbursts by Nathan Nevitt after a family loss. That bombshell was dropped at CMJ Music Seminar, it got more bizarre when it was revealed that it was by the family of his want to be husband Nathan Nevitt.  This was after what we thought ShawnZone and Aaron Housos James were the solid as a rock NYC power couple who could endure anything began fragmenting due to some eratic behavior on Aaron’s part, but here were are.  The Hall has sold out, with all revenue going to the Purple Ribbon foundation to prevent gay bullying.  Films Crew and Peyrony drummer, Chris M has been active on the bands website, leaving some cryptic messages, not unusual for the creative genius crowd that are part of that collective, the exception being poet Riots Cytanovic.  Levi Wall’s Predator Band appeared at CMJ with a sonic assault of angst noir, with back drops of a disembodied redneck voice quite comically going on about a love of Glenn Beck, the Bible, while at the same time describing his murderous intentions towards homosexuals, the message wasn’t lost on the 4000 plus crowd that it wasn’t irony, it was someone real named Danny.  As for Peyrony’s tribute performance, no cameras, cell phone check, no Abercrombie.  That will be rewarded by a re-release of Films Crew’s Narcissus Echo CD.  It appeared as if Levi was not going to be part of the line up due to an misunderstanding.  ANNONXN is ShawnZone’s new math core project band.  A Tribute to one of the true musical geniuses seems fitting.

From FilmsCrewBand ShawnZone and Aaron’s Website

Courtesy Village Voice

Peyrony, ANNONXN, Films Crew, The Music Lives On

Posted by Kurt Parker
I’ve been closely following the elitist experimental post rock, of music genius Shawn Zone’s Projects for awhile, The Films Productions umbrella to Chappell is now a shared ownership with an unknown, Nathan Nevitt, so Nathan Nevitt is no longer an unknown).  We can only wonder what super drummer Aaron Housos James must be thinking, being the duo of the NYC power couple of Shawn and Aaron.  Being an outsider, their Official Website has only been updated by Ensign Tom Morris, (one of their spokespersons), and Levi Wall for his interesting side project Predator Band. who, Nevitt seems to have pushed out of the picture for his own interests.  Peyrony (Band), the latest from Shawn, Nevitt, Nik, and Chris, was a mysterious marketing ploy from Abercrombie which met with the project members turning the musical tables on Abercrombie, (who is distributing music without payment, as well as cutting their hair and dressing them at the Terminal and Tonic Shows in December, so they would look more natural (?), from Prada to Abercrombie (?) according to the only Official Wiki, this became an issue of previous contractual obligations, and in an e-mail to Kenneth Cole Productions has not been solved. Seeing Shawn as brunette in order to look natural and what I can only imagine was the destruction of a very pricey custom silver Dillon Firebird guitar due to an A&F logo emblazoned on it. The downtempo post-ambient dance music seemed quickly out of the picture for Peyrony, the performances were anything but, melding post-electronic, acoustic, and post-metal into blend of Meshuggah from the future meets up with Jesu, something a little to intellectualized for the Abercrombie Raver crowd, but the small percentage of them were in tranced, the larger percentage, (the NYC club and music elites) were completely swept up in the Peyrony sound.  Peyrony covered 3 reinterpretations of Meshuggah songs, 1 available for download on their site.  Tom (?) and Nik (Peyrony,former Isis live) announced that the post-electronic offerings of Peyrony were available for download free, since Abercrombie were playing it in store and distributing with no authority, bringing the future of Peyrony a huge question mark, Nik saying “That Hell” was brought about by Nevitt at the Terminal Show.  Absent was Levi Wall, the official word is at Nathan Nevitt’s request. Present, Howerdel, joining them on an encore, and Nik Turner’s brother Aaron, (there for Shawn and that was made clear).  Chris Sweeney (former ANNONXN) on drums, Nik Turner on bass and keyboards, and it was not announced if Nathan Nevitt was the second guitarist.  Levi posted the Predator video from the ANNONXN song, although no release date has been given for the DVD.  A WMG rep stated Films Crew had been given the green light for release early 2016, but thought that was too ambitious since the current line up was insisting on re-recording a large part of it, along with remixing and remastering, which would be difficult without Shawn’s presence, in fact the musical and artistic empire of all the Films Productions roster would collapse without his vision,  where that is, is a question no one wants to answer, not far from Nevitt obviously, where all fingers are pointing.  The innuendo of a Shawn suicide from other sources shouldn’t be encouraged, it is disrespectful, let the music live on.