The past year has been an era of change for many bands. In August, indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie lost a founding member when in- strumentalist and producer Chris Walla announced he would leave the band.

Despite the sadness that engulfed long-time Death Cab lovers, Walla was at least courteous on his way out.

The trend continues with one of the millennial generation’s most beloved pop-punk bands.

Since Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker of Blink-182 told Rolling Stone on Jan. 26 that long-time guitarist and co-vocalist Tom DeLonge had “indefinitely” left the band, his bandmates, diehard fans and even DeLonge himself have been up in arms.

Most fans expected a change when Blink announced that Matt Skiba, Alkaline Trio guitarist/vocalist, would be joining the band for its headlining set at this year’s eighth annual Musink Festival in March, but no one was expecting that DeLonge would ditch the trio “indefinitely.”

“We were all set to play this festival and record a new album, and Tom kept putting it off without reason,” Hoppus and Barker told Rolling Stone on Jan. 26. “A week before we were scheduled to go in to the studio, we got an email from his manager explaining that he didn’t want to participate in any Blink-182 projects indefinitely, but would rather work on his other, non-musical endeavors.”

Hoppus and Barker did not hesitate to air the band’s dirty laundry and agreed to divulge the details of their band’s dispute to Rolling Stone in the exclusive Q-and-A on Jan. 26.

“To be honest, I wasn’t that sur- prised [at DeLonge’s departure] because his attitude leading up to that had been not excited and not interested,” Hoppus told Rolling Stone. “Even though we’d been talkingaboutrecordinganddates, things kept getting pushed back.”

While the current members of Blink-182 vented to Rolling Stone and other outlets, DeLonge apparently tried to reel in the rumors through an open letter he posted to Facebook on Jan. 27.

In the letter, he refuted the claims Hoppus and Barker made against him, and went as far as to say that he told his bandmates he would always be involved with Blink as long as the members of the group were all on speaking terms and maintained their friendship.

DeLonge also stated in his Face- book post that it was his opinion that Hoppus and Barker tried to delay an album by Angels & Airwaves, another band DeLonge plays in, while he was trying to balance working with both the bands.

He closed his Facebook let- ter by expressing his sadness at the band’s apparent dissolution and the widespread confusion among Blink-182’s fanbase.

“I suppose they’re doing this as a way to protect themselves from being hurt,” DeLonge wrote. “Even as I watch them act so different to what I know of them to be, I still care deeply for them, like brothers and like old friends. But our rela- tionship got poisoned yesterday. Never planned on quitting, just find it hard as hell to commit.”