Cymbals Eat Guitars Break up After 10 Years

After releasing four critically acclaimed albums, New York indie rockers Cymbals Eat Guitars indicated their breakup Thursday by cryptically changing their Twitter bio to read, like a tombstone, “2007-2017.”

There’s been no official statement from the band itself, but CEG frontman Joseph D’Agostino referenced the “dissolution of [his] band” in a statement to Pitchfork published Thursday, and a representative for the band confirms to Paste that “they are over for now.”

Cymbals Eat Guitars garnered attention right out of the gate with their 2009 self-released debut album Why There Are Mountains, which drew heavily on ‘90s indie-rock greats like Pixies and The Wrens. Though their subsequent albums still garnered praise from critics, CEG’s D’Agostino spoke with Paste in 2014 about feeling abandoned by “hype rubberneckers” and struggling to sell tickets for the tour in support of their second album, Lenses Alien. CEG’s last public appearance as a band was a Dec. 30, 2017, show at Debonair Music Hall in Teaneck, N.J.

D’Agostino announced his post-CEG project Empty Country on Wednesday afternoon with two new singles, “Ultrasound” and “Jets.” It appears that while he may be done with his former band’s moniker, D’Agostino isn’t entirely done with CEG’s signature sound: “Ultrasound” features The Wrens’ Charles Bissell.

Check out a Cymbals Eat Guitars performance from the Paste archives below. Further down, listen to Empty Country’s “Ultrasound.”