The confusing circumstances of Hockey Night's breakup

My boy Chuck Terhark (Can I say he's my boy? I think so.) over at City Pages reported this week that Hockey Night broke up. A long time ago, apparently, and that was news to some of the members as well, it seems. Here's Chuck's story:

The Hockey Night calls in the Zamboni

This just in: The Hockey Night split up. Two months ago.

News of the local indie-rock quintet's demise would have broken the hearts of fans, especially since the band was rumored to be on the brink of signing a major contract with DFA Records, an imprint partly run by LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy. Except that news never got out. Even the band members were sketchy on the details after it happened.

"We did a really bad job of communicating with each other," says drummer Alex Achen. "It was dudes talking. You know how dudes talk to each other. They're terrible at it."

Then, unbeknownst to the band, the music website Daytrotter.com issued a statement from Paul Sprangers, the group's founder and lead singer, making the breakup official.

"We were operating under that indie-rock idea where it was fun and everybody's buddies," the website quoted Sprangers as saying. "We just want to do it right and we couldn't get things done."

The post went on to say that Sprangers and Scott Wells, Hockey Night's other guitarist, were still signing with DFA. Almost immediately, the message board on Modernradio.com—frequented by Hockey Night members and fans—exploded with criticism, much of it accusing Sprangers and Wells of firing the other three members of the band in order to hog the glory of the major label. The separation was especially underhanded, posters sniffed, because Achen, Sprangers, and Wells had gone to high school together and were supposed to be best friends. As one poster, who calls himself Coach, wrote, "That's integrity my friends, spelled c-o-c-k-s-u-c-k-e-r-s."

Achen admits that the breakup was hard at first, but he looks at the situation with considerably less ire than those anonymous message-board posters. "It wouldn't be inaccurate to say I felt kind of betrayed," he says delicately. "But I don't begrudge Paul and Scott. I would have liked to remain in the band, but there were ills. We weren't being productive."

Neither Scott Wells nor Paul Sprangers responded to CP's requests for comment.

Achen, who says he loved playing in the band but couldn't stand its name, prefers to remain positive. "Hey, at least I'm not in a band called 'the Hockey Night' anymore."

It's too bad it had to end like that. Hockey Night put out one of my favorite albums of 2005, Keep Guessin', and contributed a great track to the one Twin Town High compilation I was involved in. I guess I learned recently the hard way that things usually end badly--if they weren't bad, they wouldn't end, right? So cheers to Hockey Night for a good run, and I hope everybody invovled keeps making great music, one way or another.