The year was 2015. The air was frigid with the last stubborn breaths of an Ohio winter refusing to yield to spring, and I was in 8th-period Spanish class. A gaggle of girls cried softly in the back of the room. "What happened?" I asked. "Zayn left 1D," they said, holding onto each other as if the world itself had cracked beneath their feet. The world would never be the same.
Jesus Piece has been dead for some time. A member quit abruptly for personal reasons and we felt wrong continuing without him. Anything you see associated with this name or similar, playing our music and using our art, is not related to anything we worked for over the last 10 years. We are proud of everything we did and it changed our lives forever. To try and continue that without us or in spite of us, is a mockery of what we've done
Formed in London, England in 2012, Shopping drew heavily from the classic post-punk of Mo-Dettes, Gang of Four, and Delta 5. The trio of guitarist Ray Aggs, bassist Billy Easter, and drummer Andrew Milk-all former members of the band Covergirl-first gained notoriety when their 2013 debut album, Consumer Complaints, was reissued by FatCat Records in 2015. Though they repeatedly insisted that they were more interested in making people dance than offering political commentary, Shopping became known for their portrayals of queer alienation under capitalism.