{"id":26726,"date":"2025-03-17T07:06:21","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T07:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/?p=26726"},"modified":"2025-03-17T07:06:23","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T07:06:23","slug":"it-all-falls-apart-the-final-release-from-joe-whiteaker-r-i-p-and-the-funeral-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/2025\/03\/17\/it-all-falls-apart-the-final-release-from-joe-whiteaker-r-i-p-and-the-funeral-march\/","title":{"rendered":"It All Falls Apart – the Final Release from Joe Whiteaker (R.I.P.) and The Funeral March"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From Rockford, Illinois (USA), gothic rock \/ post-punk band\u00a0The Funeral March<\/a>\u00a0commemorate the life and legacy of their late founder and bandleader,\u00a0Joe Whiteaker\u00a0<\/strong>(b.21 October 1968, d. 17 May 2024), with their final release,\u00a0It All Falls Apart<\/em><\/a>: released today (Friday, 14 March 2025).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poignant\u00a0new video for the album\u2019s title track and lead single<\/a>, \u2018It All Falls Apart\u2019, meanwhile premiered via\u00a0Post-punk.com<\/a>\u00a0on Monday, 10 March 2025: the first of two video singles from the album. These music videos are the last time Joe Whiteaker would be captured on film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tragically, Joe lost his battle with pancreatic cancer in May of 2024, shortly after completing what would be the band\u2019s final studio recordings. Bassist and longtime friend, Darius McCaskey, who has since taken on the task of bringing Whiteaker and The Funeral March\u2019s final musical statement to release, says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019d like people to know how proud Joe was of this record. We had a great time recording what would become It All Falls Apart with William Faith in 2023, before Joe was diagnosed with cancer, and he was able to hear the final mixes before he passed away. Joe didn\u2019t have a specific theme in mind \u2013 each song was written independently, some even several years ago \u2013 but as tracks were selected and refined, this idea of things and people breaking down and falling apart emerged.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Funeral March of the Marionettes<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 more often simply \u2018The Funeral March<\/a>\u2019 \u2013 originated in Rockford, Illinois in 1987, drawing\u00a0inspiration from seminal English acts like Bowie, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, and Joy Division.\u00a0The band\u2019s name, meanwhile, was a nod to Charles Gounod\u2019s \u2018Funeral March of a Marionette\u2019; best known as the theme music for TV\u2019s\u00a0Alfred Hitchcock Presents<\/em>.\u00a0During this first phase of the band\u2019s career,\u00a0The Funeral March<\/a>\u00a0was active from their first gig in August 1987, until the mid-1990s, as Whiteaker later explained:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI looked up, and I was the only original member left, and after many years of fits and starts, when\u00a0it all fell apart\u00a0<\/em>again, I decided it was time to leave it to slumber in its crypt… dreaming the blood red dreams of madness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intermittently reactivated during the early 2000s, another long hiatus followed from 2007. Finally, in 2017, Joe felt that the band\u2019s thirtieth anniversary was the right time to resurrect the project in earnest, and released their long overdue debut,\u00a0The Raven\u00a0<\/em>EP: a remastered collection of unearthed recordings from the band\u2019s early years. Revitalized by a new cast of revolving members,\u00a0The Funeral March<\/a>\u00a0would go on to record and release a string of new EPs:\u00a0Resurgence\u00a0<\/em>(2018),\u00a0Solace<\/em>\u00a0(2020),\u00a0Flood<\/em>\u00a0(2021), and the widely praised\u00a0Persephone\u00a0<\/em>(2023) \u2013 with several standalone singles bridging the gaps between them \u2013 before entering the studio in 2023 to record what would become their final release,\u00a0It All Falls Apart<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday 15 March<\/strong>, surviving bandmembers Darius McCaskey, Jeff Goins, and Joel DeLuna come together with guest vocalists to celebrate the release at Rockford\u2019s RPL Nordlof Center, with support from special guests\u00a0TATV GRAL<\/strong>,\u00a0[melter]<\/a>,\u00a0BELLHEAD<\/a>, and\u00a0William Faith<\/a>. For those who cannot attend, the show will also be\u00a0streaming live from the group\u2019s Bandcamp<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It All Falls Apart<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is out now as a\u00a0download from Bandcamp<\/a>, and streaming from\u00a0Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0Apple Music<\/a>,\u00a0Amazon Music<\/a>, and all major digital music outlets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe Whiteaker is survived by a wife and two children. All proceeds from\u00a0It All Falls Apart<\/em><\/a>\u00a0go directly to the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find The Funeral March of the Marionettes on
Bandcamp<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Spotify<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Apple Music<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Rockford, Illinois (USA), gothic rock \/ post-punk band\u00a0The Funeral March\u00a0commemorate the life and legacy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,2],"tags":[4436],"class_list":["post-26726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-news","category-news","tag-joe-whiteaker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26728,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26726\/revisions\/26728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}