In sad news, Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) have announced that the band is coming to an end. The band posted the following statement on their Facebook page:
“Today we announce our intentions to formally lay rest Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) to rest. We count ourselves lucky and privileged to have been able to do this for an entire decade.
We want to thank every band that toured with/ filled in for us, our friends, family, and puppy for support. Thanks to all the labels we conned into releasing our material, Mat Halliday of Minx Recording Studio for recording like 80% of our catalog, and anyone else that helped along the way. Thanks to all the people who let us play at their house, school/venue/ art space and let us sleep on their floor. Thanks for writing to American Airlines on our behalf when they destroyed Keith’s guitar or for donating to us to help get another van when a drunk driver plowed into it and our house. But most of all, thank you for listening, coming to shows, and being a part of our lives.
We weren’t the best record keepers, so we’re unsure of how many shows we played, but it was a pretty high number (easily over 500) including 30 tours, and playing in 18 countries, as well as the contiguous US (sorry Alaska/Hawaii). We released 66 songs, spanning 23 releases (2 LPs, 6 EPs, 12 splits, 2 discographies, a compilation, as well as a graphic novel).
In total, we had 6 bassists, 4 drummers, and even a third guitarist for a minute. In 2011, we (mostly) stopped looking for members, and just borrowed our friends to fill in the missing parts- usually the band we were on tour with. We borrowed members from at least 15 different bands. Every time you saw us, you got to guess who was going to be on stage!
We’re going on one last tour in April with some of our BFFs Warren Franklin & the Founding Fathers, and we’d love for you to come out and see us off. These are it, there will not be anymore. If you miss these, forever hold your peace. We’re sorry we can’t play everywhere.
Our last show will be at our favourite venue ever, in Flint, Michigan at the Flint Local 432 on May 7th with a bunch of friends.
Thanks again for everything. Really hope to see you one last time at one of these shows!
xoxo
Keith, Cathy, Gooey
2006-2016”
Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) were a big part of the “emo revival” that happened in the last few years, and released their last album ‘You Will Eventually Be Forgotten’ to critical acclaim in 2014. All of the bands material is available to download for free via Bandcamp, and you can see the dates for the the bands last shows below.
April
15 CLEVELAND, OH Mahalls
16 PITTSBURGH, PA Broken World Fest
17 PHILADELPHIA, PA The Fire
18 BOSTON, MA Great Scott
19 NEW HAVEN, CT Lyric Hall
20 NEW YORK, NY Shea Stadium
21 MONTCLAIR, NJ Old Mogule Theatre
22 WASHINGTON, D.C. Song Bryd
23 ATHENS, OH Lobster Fest
24 CHICAGO, IL The Beat Kitchen
May
05 FLINT, MI Local 432 (Final Show)