Doesn’t look like a Portland-related story on first look, does it? But longtime Portland resident Dave Allen, of Pampelmoose.com fame (pictured at left with Burnham above), is generally considered a local celebrity. He’s bowing out of Gang of Four (again!). No real reason was given by the press release folks, but this time around, the Moose (as he is known here on LocalCut when he comments) says that opting out of G04 will help him focus on the website. His side project, Tracker Faux-Hoax, remains (somewhat erratically) intact, and we look forward to hearing more from them in the future.

Alas, next time post-punk legends Gang of Four head into town, Allen will have to blog the show from the crowd just like everybody else. Best of luck to Allen in his post-post-punk endeavors and to the Gang of Two as well.

Allen posted a couple photos (including the borrowed one above) over at Pampelmoose.

Here’s the proper press release:

GANG OF FOUR MINUS TWO

ORIGINAL RHYTHM SECTION ALLEN AND BURNHAM DEPART

The original and best-loved line-up of famed post-punk icons Gang of Four reunited in 2005 to great acclaim, but are no longer. Bassist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham are moving on, although singer Jon King and guitar-player Andy Gill will continue, focusing on writing and recording new music as Gang of Four. Burnham last performed with the band at All Tomorrow’s Parties in the UK in December 2006, while Allen played a few shows alongside a session drummer in 2007, and recently worked on new material with King and Gill.

Allen says, “At the beginning of April, I decided that I could no longer continue to be a member of Gang of Four. My ability to give 100% to the band is limited and I feel that if I can’t do so, then I shouldn’t continue. As I expand my research and thinking about contemporary music distribution on Pampelmoose (Allen’s popular blog), and as I focus on online technology and social networking at Nemo Design here in Portland, I find myself conflicted about how the band’s new music should be released. To retain any credibility for Pampelmoose about what the future of music distribution will look like, I have to move on and not hold back Jon and Andy’s music plans. I have had a side project for a while now with John Askew of Tracker and Menomena drummer Danny Stein [it’s Seim -Ed.] called Faux-Hoax (pronounced Folks), and I look forward to fun times finding ways to get our music into peoples’ hands in unique ways.”

Burnham writes, “It was a great couple of years of intermittently reminding people old and new, far and wide just how powerful the original four of us were together. Age only increased our power and focus onstage, and it was a rare pleasure to work with the original band once again. Being in a band requires handling the business side of it too, and that became boring and the constant travel became debilitating. I am soon to start my Doctorate, as well as broadening my teaching at more than one college here