Teenage Suicide: Don't do it

You might have mistaken My Chemical Romance's failure to respond to press coverage blaming them for the death of a teenage suicide as maintaining a dignified silence.

The belated spurting out of a bland press release, though, makes it clear that there's just been a stream of record company lawyers and management PR staff taking their time putting together a brand-defence position:

"We have recently learned of the suicide and tragic loss of Hannah Bond. We'd like to send our condolences to her family during this time of mourning. Our hearts and thoughts are with them."

"My Chemical Romance are and always have been vocally anti-violence and anti-suicide. As a band, we have always made it one of our missions through our actions to provide comfort, support, and solace to our fans."

"The message and theme of our album 'The Black Parade' is hope and courage. Our lyrics are about finding the strength to keep living through pain and hard times. If you or anyone that you know have feelings of depression or suicide, we urge you to find your way and your voice to deal with these feelings positively."

Suicidal? Find your way. Presumably they don't mean Gerard Way, though.

It would have been better if they'd either released this statement back on May 8th, when the earliest reports of the coroner's comments were hitting the web, and an empty 'hearts and thoughts/suicide is bad' message might have looked like a wisely cautious response. But to do nothing for three weeks and then do nothing, but with press, shows just how hollow the band are.