After more than three decades of hellfire sermons set to banjo and pedal steel, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club is breaking up. Slim Cessna himself broke the news on his personal social media, though no further statements from other band members have surfaced at time of publication.
The news lands especially hard coming on the heels of another gut punch for the genre. Murder By Death — the Bloomington, Indiana band who have been together since 2000 — also announced a farewell tour, releasing a final album and hitting the road one last time with support from Laura Jane Grace, William Elliott Whitmore, and AJJ. Guitarist Adam Turla offered a candid farewell statement, acknowledging a long career built not on mainstream success but on a fiercely loyal, grassroots following, calling it “the honor of my life.”
Formed in Denver, Colorado in 1992, SCAC rose from the ashes of The Denver Gentlemen — a band that also spawned David Eugene Edwards and Jeffery-Paul Norlander of 16 Horsepower — making it a genuine cornerstone of the Denver Gothic Americana scene. The sole constant throughout the band’s entire run was Slim Cessna himself, who built the group into one of the most singular acts in American roots music. Jello Biafra once described them as “the country band that plays the bar at the end of the world,” a tag that stuck because it was simply true. Co-frontman Jay Munly joined as banjo player and co-vocalist in the early 2000s, and Slim’s own son, George Cessna, formally joined the band in 2018, making it a family affair right up to the end.
Two bands. Combined, nearly fifty years of spooky, anguished, beautiful music. The Gothic Americana world just got a lot quieter.
