LATE ARRIVAL
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26 illinoisentertainer.com october 2014
t’s understandable that Sean Van Vleet
from Empires would have expected that
his band's performance on The Late Show
With David Letterman wouldn't end up happening. After all, the group is used to aiming high, and then having the rug pulled out
from under them.
In 2011, Empires were finalists in Rolling
Stone's "Choose The Cover" contest, where
artists competed for fan votes to become the
magazine's first unsigned cover act. Though
they made it to the final four with a strong
hometown showing of support, the coveted
cover spot would ultimately go to The
Sheepdogs. The following summer, Empires
landed on the bill for Lollapalooza 2012,
only to have their set cancelled due to rain.
And though their slot was ultimately
rescheduled during the festival, the story of
Empires so far seems to be one of coming
close and almost making it.
"We got offered to play it, and then a
week later, he announced his retirement,"
the frontman recalls about the group's
appearance on Letterman. "And, just the
way things have gone with us, I'm like, ‘Oh,
well, I bet that we get booted.' But no. They
stuck to it and we played, and it was rad."
It's an accomplishment that it's indicative of where Empires is right now as a
band. Early on in 2014, the group posted an
update at their official site that informed, in
part, "Early on in the year we struck a rich
vein of creativity that poured out the "stuff"
that would ultimately forge together into a
new record we're calling Orphan." Just
released, Orphan is a culmination of all of
Empires' experiences to date, with the band
sounding more effortlessly self-assured than
they ever have before. It's also a hell of a
record.
On "Lifers," Van Vleet's distinct warble is
front and center, distorted over a midtempo
slow burner, while "Glow" finds Empires at
once both hypnotic and harmonious. The
record's title track, meanwhile, is a crooning
love song lit up by warm tones, while the
driving, building "Hostage" finds the singer
admitting "There's a heaven in the chemicals, an angel in the alcohols, burned alive."
And "How Good Does It Feel" is the group
at their polished garage rock catchiest. An
irresistible summer anthem that just exudes
sonic victory.
Even before the album dropped, it was
evident that the material was catching on
with listeners. When I arrived at the The
Hideout Block Party to interview Van Vleet
in September, I found myself patiently waiting behind a steady stream of fans both new
and old who had approached the frontman
to chat, take pictures, and gush about the
group's energy onstage just moments prior.
The positive reception surrounding
Empires' new material isn't lost on Van
Photo by Jacob Gravbrot
Vleet, who notes that the group is in a particularly strong place right now. "As a band,
we get along better than we ever have
before," he informs me when we moved the
conversation backstage. "Maybe it's just
because we're older, we know how we
work. And, creatively, I was actually looking
at this today, we're twenty demos into
what's next. So, it's an inspiring time, and I
think it'd be a mistake, to sort of not be
working right now, off the fuel of the inspiration of where we've been and what's
going on."
For every milestone that almost happened or got delayed or repurposed, for all
their time invested and performances
logged, it feels like Empires' moment has
finally arrived. With the best album of their
career out and a cool new sense of confidence in the group, it seems safe to say the
band's best days might just be ahead of
them.