In rock and roll, rumors of band breakups are as common as they are unfounded. Yet for some reason, Geoff Rickly's been having trouble convincing the rest of the world that all's well in paradise, and he's done everything short of financing his own late-night infomercial.

Just to reiterate, "we're not broken up," the Thursday singer said recently (see [article id="1493556"]"Despite Everything They Said, Thursday Aren't Breaking Up"[/article]). "I think we kind of were headed that way for a while, and I was sure it was going to happen for a while."

Thursday are so tight, they've even moved in together, holing up in a loft apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey, in early December to write a follow-up to 2003's War All the Time. So far, Rickly said, they've managed to write parts of at least a dozen songs.

To be fair, Rickly shoulders a lot of the blame for all the breakup talk: He told more than one publication he was "sure" Thursday were done following the band's stint on the Cure's summer tour. He's been on the defensive ever since, even writing an open letter in Alternative Press in which he emphatically wrote, "Thursday will never break up, because we're not a band: we're a family."

But despite his best efforts, the rumor mill continues to churn out speculation that's been fueled, in part, by Rickly's own side interests, as well as his candor.

The frontman for the pride of New Jersey's screamo scene recently announced he'd be teaming up with Glassjaw's Daryl Palumbo -- his band, too, the subject of breakup whisperings recently -- to launch a new, yet-to-be-named grind band with Eyeball Records founder Alex Saavedra and members of Made Out of Babies and the Number 12 Looks Like You. He's also lending his talents to Bolt Thrower, providing vocals for the band's new record following the recent departure of Dave Ingram.

But for the last time -- Thursday are just fine. "It's funny because once we sort of decided that it was done, we still had one tour left, and we were determined to honor that commitment," he explained. "Over the course of that tour," 2004's Warped Tour, "all of the problems that were sort of pushing us toward breaking up started getting worked on. Right now, it feels like when we first started the band, and it's nice."

Thursday are even testing out some new instruments: "We've all been trying to learn some different instruments so that we can change around a little bit more and play around with stuff a little more." Perhaps because of that, they've decided to take their time with this next record.

"I feel like for a while, people really wanted us to be the leaders of the clique screamo thing, and that's something we never wanted to be," Rickly said. "The fact that other bands had come along and gotten so much bigger than us, and that people think we've broken up and disappeared, it's sort of a blessing because we can go back to sort of where we were comfortable; we want to give ourselves some room to get back to what we were really going for in the first place."

In related news, Palumbo's disco-meets-hardcore hybrid Head Automatica have been forced to cancel all the dates of their U.K. tour with the Used due to a Crohn's Disease relapse. Palumbo has been living with the condition for most of his life, and this is not the first time he's had to nix shows because of it.

Rickly confirmed that Palumbo's being treated in a London hospital and is expected to return to New York in the coming weeks to continue his recovery. Head Automatica's upcoming North American tour with Sugarcult and Hopesfall is not expected to be affected.