**Atom Willard parting ways with SxDx**

[shriner13]

You Pick Angels& Airways over Social D! WTF! I guess money talks! If thats the case, we dont want you anyway!

[kustom55]

I hear Chris R. is looking for a job...

[Nash13]

I hear Chris R. is looking for a job...

haha nice

[Alex101]

I hear Chris R. is looking for a job...

I thought he works at The Pike Bar & Grill in Long Beach.

[psychocandy65]

Atom was a half of fag anyway

Really?...how fascinating...... which half???

[Ouroboros]

Really?...how fascinating...... which half???

I wish Atom the best. He's got to do what's right for him and he'll probably make more money. Leaving SxDx doesn't make him "a half of fag. "

[misfit666]

I wonder what Bret Reed, formerly of Rancid is up to. Not that he was a great drummer or anything (nor does he need to be), but he might fit in nicely.

[golden]

How about Chuck Biscuits? Or is he dead again?

[sac0sac]

I dont even understand how he got the gig in the first place. Nothing personal, never met him...just didnt seem to have the street cred to play in one of the best punk/rock bands of all time.

Two Bags was a natural fit.

Fingers crossed that somehow they can get Charlie Quintana to come back - he was the best of the SD drummers IMO. If not, let's hope that Mike and crew can find a guy that really fits the part (in all ways).

Finish the album and bring on the tour. SoCal needs more Social D shows!

[psychocandy65]

I dont even understand how he got the gig in the first place. Nothing personal, never met him...just didnt seem to have the street cred to play in one of the best punk/rock bands of all time.

Hmmm, interesting.... how exactly are you defining "street cred", and what does it matter? I think that's the key question there. The other key point is the "nothing personal, never met him" statement. Are you saying that because he is a member of a more commercially acceptable band than SxDx he doesn't have the required cred? I think that's a dangerous avenue to go down, personally. I mean Social D themselves are a very different beatsie these days to the desperate grubby punk band of way-back-when. They're a good time rock n roll band themselves, with a sense of what makes a killer tune, with belters like "Nickels And Dimes" to prove it, and in my humble opinion, they're actually a way better band for it. I dare say there are Social D fans from the original scene years ago who don't like the Social D of today, and consider them to have surrendered their "street cred" in order to become the sort of band who can sell out weeks at the House Of Blues! No doubt there are those purists who would be happier if Mike Ness was still a sad old junkie living in his car, going in and out of the slammer, and the band were playing two-bit dives to a couple of hundred people. To them, that might be the very definition of "street cred"... It's all relative isn't it? I don't know Atom Willard either, maybe he's an annoying dork who just joins the highest paying combo that offers him a gig, or maybe he's a really nice guy with a vast and knowing appreciation of punk/rock/whatever and he got the job coz he's a competent musician who fitted right in with the other guys in the band. There were people who weren't happy when Clem Burke of Blondie did a short stint in the Ramones due to misguided reasons that Blondie were a multi-million selling pop act and the Ramones were... well, they were the Ramones, what more can you say? But they didn't consider he had enough "cred" for the job either... very odd...

Anyhow, it's all immaterial if Mr Willard is vacating his place, see who steps into the breach next...

[Gamblin With Souls]

I think it's a shame that Atom has left. I thought at the London show last summer he added a new level of energy to the band's live performance. An energy that I thought had been missing the last few times I saw them.

Now don't get me wrong, I like Charlie and he is a great drummer who did a fantastic job on S,L&RnR but live he was almost too technically perfect and didn't have that "edge" I like when a band plays..Ok, I only saw Charlie play 4 times with the band but, other than the D.D. Benefit in 2000 (where I guess emotions were running high), I got the feeling at each show they were almost going through the paces, set by Charlie' steady drumming.

Atom kinda had that youthful exuberance and pounded away on the drums last summer sending good energy through the rest of the band.....very similar to the 1996/97 shows with Chuck Biscuits.

I'm not calling for Chuck to come back (I get the feeling too many bridges were burnt there), but more I'm hoping that Atom's replacement has that same level of energy to inject into the guys for when they come back and tour Europe next time.

[psychocandy65]

when they come back and tour Europe next time.

That's the spirit! .... think positive!

[Ouroboros]

I think it's a shame that Atom has left. I thought at the London show last summer he added a new level of energy to the band's live performance. An energy that I thought had been missing the last few times I saw them.

Now don't get me wrong, I like Charlie and he is a great drummer who did a fantastic job on S,L&RnR but live he was almost too technically perfect and didn't have that "edge" I like when a band plays..Ok, I only saw Charlie play 4 times with the band but, other than the D.D. Benefit in 2000 (where I guess emotions were running high), I got the feeling at each show they were almost going through the paces, set by Charlie' steady drumming.

Atom kinda had that youthful exuberance and pounded away on the drums last summer sending good energy through the rest of the band.....very similar to the 1996/97 shows with Chuck Biscuits.

I'm not calling for Chuck to come back (I get the feeling too many bridges were burnt there), but more I'm hoping that Atom's replacement has that same level of energy to inject into the guys for when they come back and tour Europe next time.

I feel the same. Atom 's youthful exuberance kind of shook up the rest of the band in a good way. That half-caveman style of his added a spark. It was polished enough to be professional, but raw enough to be energizing. Hopefully, whoever replaces him will have the same attributes.

[BigMike68]

Bring back Chuck Biscuits!, If anyone can bring him out of retirement, Mike can. Best SD lineup IMO= Ness, Danell, Mauer, Biscuits. However, if Biscuits played with the current lineup of Ness, Harding, and Wickersham, that would be fricking awesome. Just my two cents.

[orchidkid]

What a bummer. I really liked the videos and follow them on twitter which I believe Atom was posting. Hopefully someone will continue to give us this different side of the band we haven't seen before.

On the upside I don't think it will take too long for Mike to get someone else. I'm sure the line is long although I also would like to see Charlie back in the fold!