Update: There will not be a farewell show. Let the lamenting begin.
In what seems to be a constant theme in DC these days, another band is saying goodbye. This time, it happens to be one of my personal favorites. Cedars just sent out this statement announcing their split:
“Cedars are no longer a functioning band. We’d like to give a special thanks to a few of the many people who were with us through these last 3+ years of Cedars/Cartel madness. Many thanks to Mark W. Hemingway who was an original member. A firm hand-shake to Rob Muller who managed us, booked gigs and tried getting our act together with great patience on a pro-bono basis!! Tons of respect and gratitude to www.woxy.com. Mike, Shivy, Barb (and by extension one Mr. Brad Freeman) exposed our music to people we would have otherwise never imagined reaching. For that we’ll be eternally grateful. Thanks to all our friends who consistently showed up at our gigs and got their friends to come out even when it was a tough sell, Mitch & Dezi come to mind. Thanks to all the club bookers in DC: Lisa@9:30, Viki@Black Cat, Stephen@IOTA, Bryan@DC9, Stephen@RnRHotel, etc etc etc. Thanks to Kyle G., Peter D. and Rebecca A. for championing us in the media via DCist, blogs, the Express, On Tap, etc. Thanks are also due to Bracken Records for the Fleets single in the UK, cheerio’.
A pint in the air goes to all the bands we shared a stage with. Army of Me, Soft Complex, Monopoli, Telograph, Middle Distance Runner, Vita Ruins, Shade and Airthieves shared the stage with us on multiple occasions, many of them on special nights such as cd release parties, residences or buzzed-about shows. In that sense, big thanks to Washington Social Club who gave us the chance to play the mainstage of the Black Cat for the first time…looking back it was a huge step for us. Cheers to the national/international acts who let us open their shows, here’s to the like of Editors, Stellastarr*, French Kicks, Lake Trout, Giant Drag, Augustana, SeaRay (flashback!), Cinematics, the Changes, Aloha, Voxtrot, Afterhours, Jeremy Enigk and any other band my forgetful memory could’ve missed.
We hope we find a way to pay back Nelson Poket, Miguel Cunillera and the Dominican Republic crew for making our trip & shows there one of the band’s best memories…if not the best memory. You were class acts all around and we didn’t take a thing for granted. MIL GRACIAS y PA’LANTE!!
We had grand ambitions; we wanted to settle for our dreams and no less. Some might chalk it up to plain naiveté, but it stemmed out of our own massive self-belief and a (healthy) lacking dose of cynicism. We’ll all personally look back at this time and make our own conclusions as to if we failed or succeeded, if it was a thing of luck, timing or else. Either way, it’s been pretty damn interesting and that’s more than what we could’ve said of our own lives had we not had Cedars in it. Ed and Luke are already dreaming it up again and working on some real cool stuff from what I hear, I’ll most likely be sitting in with them at some point. Brian is going off to tend to his personal life and best interests. We’ll most likely announce through here any new endeavours we may embark on for those who might care or be curious enough.
Our farewell show is being discussed about and will most likely take place within the next weeks, stay tuned.
With cache to spare and a heartfelt thanks, we bid you all farewell…
xx Cedars”
We wish the guys the best and we’ll let you know the details of their last show, as soon as they pass them on.
Arrivals/Departures
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