Music
G.L.O.S.S. break up after being offered a $50,000 record deal
by Jeremy Mersereau
September 26, 2016
"We are at a point where we need to be honest about the toll this band is taking on the mental and physical health of some of us".
Olympia, Washington hardcore outfit G.L.O.S.S. (aka Girls Living Outside Society’s Shit) take a lot more shit than the average punk band – sadly due to their status as the world’s preeminent group of trans/feminist punks. Each year, G.L.O.S.S. have gotten bigger and bigger and gained more of a profile, even gaining an opportunity other, less real bands would kill for: they were recently offered a $50,000 record deal with Epitaph. Perhaps wisely sensing the impossibility of a hardcore band recouping that kind of money, G.L.O.S.S. turned it down and have now gone a step further – they decided to break up.
The five-piece issued a statement on punk zine/bible Maximumrocknroll giving their reasons for the split: mainly, the mental and physical toll of being in a widely-known band. “We are not all high-functioning people, and operating at this level of visibility often feels like too much,” the statement reads, going on to say that “being in the mainstream media, where total strangers have a say in something we’ve created for other queer people, is exhausting.”
Read the statement in full here.
G.L.O.S.S. have announced they’ll be playing two final shows before calling it quits for good – one in the northwest at some unspecified date, and one at Toronto’s own Not Dead Yet fest in October. In addition, the band have announced that all proceeds from their Bandcamp after their breakup will go to benefit the Interfaith Works Emergency Overnight Shelter, a shelter in their hometown of Olympia. Even if this is the end of the band, punk doesn’t get any realer than G.L.O.S.S.