We reported last week that longtime Guided By Voices drummer Kevin Fennell had put his drum kit up on eBay for the easy one time payment of fifty-five thousand dollars. Yesterday the band released a statement via their management, distancing themselves from Fennell:

“For the record, the band Guided By Voices has nothing to do with the sale of Kevin Fennell’s drums. He is acting on his own and is no longer in the band.”

It was unclear whether he had quit the band, or was fired (before or after the auction).

The auction for the drums, which were used in the recording of Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes (the two best albums they ever made) ended last night with no bids. And now things are getting ugly.

From the Facebook page for the auction:

So this project was supposed to be all easy breezy. Put a little money in Kevin’s pocket so he could do nice things like set up a college nest egg for his two daughters, give him a chance to take a nice road trip and hangout with the super cool person who might could love his drums as much as he does. It’s taken a bit of a turn…He has now resigned from the band. I hesitate to post the following email conversation between him and Pollard but Kevin feels that the truth of it is important. For the life of us, we cannot figure out why anyone would take exception to him selling something he owns. It is certainly a good example of how, often in our world, we can admire the art without admiring the artist. The content of the emails is in the comments below.

Here are those emails:

A new GBV album, Motivational Jumpsuit, is out next year.

[Photo by Erica Ott.]