Pop Empire

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Pop Empire to Release Third Album Future BluesSeptember 13

Pop Empire is a psychedelic, electronic-infused rock & roll band from Cincinnati, Ohio. The band is releasing its third album, Future Blues, on September 13, 2014. In celebration, the band will be performing that night at MOTR Pub in Cincinnati with special guests Little Lights. A limited, hand-numbered edition of CDs will be produced, featuring large-format artwork and hand-printed sleeves [to be the inaugural physical release by Cincinnati Recording Service]. Future Blues is Pop Empire's third release, following upon Rainy Child [2010] and The Devil's Party[2011], and the first to feature guitarist Ryan Back.

Following upon the release of the album, the band will be distributing the CD online and through local independent record stores. The band will be performing in Cincinnati and throughout the Midwest during the Fall, releasing additional music videos and artwork in collaboration with local and out-of-town visual artists, and is to be featured in a live video session by Cincinnati Recording Service. More details are forthcoming and will be announced through the band's website and social media outlets.

Pop Empire is comprised by Henry Wilson, primary vocalist and producer, and Ryan Back, guitarist. Henry and Ryan create their unique sound by bringing to bear seemingly disparate influences, drawing on Americana, early blues, old school country and folk as well as noise rock, avant-garde turntablism, and metal. In this way, Pop Empire carries on a tradition of Rock & Roll in the vein of Chicago bluesmen and bands such as the Velvet Underground and The Jesus and Mary Chain, while approaching their music in a self-possessedly 21st century manner, looking as much towards the future as towards the past. Sonically and lyrically their music seeks to find a common ground between the familiar and the novel, the delicate and the monstrous, the beautiful and the ugly—and it celebrates the tension of this meeting ground.

This album, like previous Pop Empire releases, is built on a foundation of tightly crafted songs and reflective, literate lyrics, interpreted through layers of electric and electronic instrumentation. However, Future Blues is unambiguously an evolutionary step for the band's sound. It is darker and heavier than the band's earlier material. Ryan Back's guitar brings its distinctive edge to the album, deftly navigating between jangly, racous exuberance and hauntingly spacious melancholia.

Pop Empire's earlier work garnered them two CEAs [Cincinnati Entertainment Awards], for Best New Artist in 2010 and Best Electronic artist in 2011. They have also been played on local and national radio, performing shows throughout the Midwest with artists such as J Roddy Walston and the Business, Cold Cave and We Are Hex.

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