Yellowcard news: Harper out, Mendez in(?)

Yellowcard have confirmed what has been speculated since August: Guitarist Ben Harper is out of the band. A statement released yesterday says that "Ben Harper, lead guitarist of Yellowcard, has announced that he’s moving on to focus on developing his indie label, Takeover Records, and related production projects."



Harper himself commented in the statement, saying, "Due to some ongoing tensions within the band… it seemed time to take my experiences with Yellowcard and apply them to the development of other new artists and new music-centric media projects that I'm planning." Violinist Sean Mackin also remarked via the statement, "We’ve simply grown apart, personally and creatively, which can happen in any relationship. This change is hard for all of us, but Ben will always be our brother.”



While the band have been performing sans Harper since August with guitarist Ryan Mendez (formerly of Staring Back), he has not been announced as Harper's permanent replacement yet, although he is in the band's new video for the title track off their new album, Lights And Sounds, viewable here.



The band are currently on tour with Acceptance; those dates were posted last week and can be found here.