DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN spoke with MTV recently about the departure of drummer Chris Penne. There were some not-so-kind words for the departing drummer, who was the only original member in the band along with guitarist Ben Weinman:
"We found out about him playing with Coheed on the Internet," explained guitarist Ben Weinman. "[Frontman] Greg [Puciato] forwarded me a link to an announcement, and I'm like, 'What?!?' At that point, though, he was just going to record with them — it wasn't like he wasn't going to play with us, but we were questioning keeping him in the band every day because it was embarrassing. But obviously, we felt that his talent was so needed for the band that we tried to make it work, and we let him go through this little midlife crisis or whatever it was, because we never thought he'd join that band over this band. It doesn't make sense. They're not Linkin Park. If you're going to sell out, sell out, you know?"It's unbelievable, and the funny thing is, before all of this started going down, he used to make fun of that band, left and right," Weinman continued. "He'd imitate [Coheed frontman Claudio Sanchez's] voice and would say, 'They f—ing suck' and all this sh–. It's funny, because everybody just looks at us like, 'Huh?' And we had the same reaction. The other day, we were hanging out with [(+44) kitman] Travis Barker, [and] the guy we have playing drums with us now [Stolen Babies' Gil Sharone] is good friends with him, and he's a big Dillinger fan, and he's like, 'What happened to your drummer?' We told him, 'He quit and joined Coheed,' and he just looked so confused."
"When Chris hears our record, he's going to feel like a real a–hole," Weinman said, with confidence. "He blew it. This guy Gil we have playing on this, his drumming is unbelievable on this record. Some of the best drumming we've ever had on any of our records. And now, Gil is going to be known as the guy for this kind of thing. This would have been the record that set Chris up as a drumming dude — as a session guy, a clinic guy — and now, Gil's already got all these companies doing ads based on him playing on this record."
Rock Sound magazine had tracked down former drummer Chris Penne and got his comments about this whole situation, and he seems a little calmer than his former band mate:
“It is a little disheartening to read what the guys have been saying about me,” admits Pennie. “I still love the band and I still love the music. But there was some internal strife there and things were happening that I did not agree with. It is what it is, if they want to handle it that way then fine, I don’t want a shit-shouting match or to be a posterboy for somebody else’s press campaign.”
Clearly, there is beef, and both sides are choosing to respond to it differently. Ben Weinman is notorious for calling out bands and people that he's not cool with so it should make for some interesting online banter.
In other DILLINGER news, the band confirmed that they are trying to bring over their European tour package with MESHUGGAH state-side in what would be the sickest tour of the fall!
