Empty Country II [CD] (ONLINE ORDER ONLY)

As the front person of celebrated indie band Cymbals Eat Guitars, guitarist and singer Joseph DAgostino spent over a decade setting autobiographical, emotionally vivid lyrics against a backdrop of soaring and compositionally ambitious rock. After four critically acclaimed LPs that solidified DAgostinos reputation as a gifted songwriter, he chose to break from his long-term band and debut a new project: Empty Country. On 2020s self-titled debut, DAgostinos storytelling lens shifted away from personal narrative and toward fiction; psychopaths, apparitions and deplorables populated a bleak and uncanny parallel version of American dystopia. Empty Countrys sprawling and sonically adventurous arrangementsfilled out by collaborating musicians including Rachel and ZoÎ Browne (Field Mouse), Kyle Gillbride (Swearin), Zena Kay (Angel Olsen), and former CEG drummer Charlotte Anne Doleranged from luminous jangle-pop to scorching emo-punk to narcotized Americana. Though the pandemic curtailed planned touring, a seven-piece iteration of the band played one packed Brooklyn show in May 2022, supported by Charles Bissell (The Wrens) and Field Mouse); Empty Country also backed Bissell on several classics from The Meadowlands. It was a wonderful return to live music for all of us, says DAgostino. So many folks reached out to me and told me how Empty Country offered them comfort during those first several months of being stuck inside. Im happy that it came out and connected with some people and that I was able to establish this universe I could continue to build on. Empty Country II, the projects second full-length for L.A.-based Get Better Records, is a thrilling expansion of that world. DAgostino pushed himself to new places as a songwriter, crafting a collection of short stories set to music that grapple with the biggest questions now hanging over Americagun violence, the addiction epidemic, and generational hopelessness among them.

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• Format Detail: CD Digipak, Full Color
• Format: CD
• Genre: Indie & Alternative