Band : Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate)
Album : Home After Three Months Away
Release Year : 2011
Genre : Emo | Indie
Tracklist :
01. The Loneliness Inside Me Is a Place
02. Water
03. Everything Rests on Your Small Shoulders
04. I Swim Like a Minnow
Empire! Empire! (I was a lonely estate) is an American emo band from Michigan. It was formed in 2006 originally as a solo project of band member Keith Latinen. The band's music is most often described as emotional indie rock reminiscent of 90's emo bands such as Mineral and American Football. The band's first release was in 2007 with a EP titled "When The Sea Became A Giant". The band released a full-length album, "What It Takes To Move Forward", in 2009. The band is currently signed to Count Your Lucky Stars Records.
Latinen originally thought of the band's long name when it was still his solo project. He wanted a name that sounded "elaborate and artistic" but admits that if he would have known that the project would form into a full band he would have chosen something easier to remember. As for the meaning behind the name, Keith had a lifetime of bands not working out, and so he chose a name to reflect my frustration. He tend to hides lyrics and names behind a lot of dense symbolism, so here’s the general break-down of the name. “Empire! Empire!” is that one evasive dream that you want so badly, and you will always chase it, but it never seems quite in reach. The “(I Was a Lonely Estate)” portion was where he felt he was incomplete and insignificant. It’s hard to get off the ground if you can’t find reliable people to share your dream. The exclamation points mark how important the dream is, and the parenthesis signify that he feels like he is unimportant and unnoticed.
It's been too long since Keith, Cathy, and company have had a proper release; they've only done two splits and a thing for SXSW since What It Takes To Move Forward in 2009. It seems kind of cliche to say that a band changed the way I look at music, but empire! empire! really did back in 2008 when I bought their Year of the Rabbit 7". A lot of bands suck as they progress, or at least disappoint coming off of an album as beloved by their fans as WITTMF was. This is simply not the case here. It's actually rather impressive how much the band gets accomplished in four songs right under eleven minutes. Eschewing long builds and loud bursts, this 7" created for their Japanese tour in July is like a distillation of everything empire! empire! and the 90s emo from which they take cues (Penfold, Mineral, early Death Cab) into little emotional morsels that ache like growing pains. It's a gnawing sadness that fills these songs: all the things you should've done, all the things you've tried to forget doing, all the pain you never felt like you could share. Listening to the lyrics will only enhance the experience, which isn't always the case with emo bands; here, they're as important as the tunes that they're being delivered over. You won't be disappointed. Seriously, thank Robert Lowell and the others that inform Keith's lyrics; you can tell the dude was an English major.
Much like Algernon Cadwallader has been doing twinkle and noodly emo longer and better than all of their peers, empire! empire! has been reviving all the emo bands from the 90s that you've never heard longer than mediafire, music sharing blogs, bigcartel & bandcamp have been around, and doing it better than anyone else. They're on another level; this release is only more proof.
