Pitchfork

Photo by Jayne Duncan

After nearly 10 years together, Scottish rockers Aereogramme are finishing the last of their currently scheduled tour dates and disbanding.

In a statement on their MySpace blog, they explain that their reasons for breaking up "are multiple and complex. It is however fair to say that the never-ending financial struggle coupled with an almost superhuman ability to dodge the zeitgeist have taken their toll, ensuring that we just don't have any fight left in us. We are immensely proud of the four albums that we made over the past seven years [including 2007's My Heart Has a Wish That You Would Not Go]. We hope that they continue to grow in your hearts. We plan to honor and celebrate the beautiful friendships we have made along the way with these final shows over the summer."

The band's final club dates begin May 30 in Aberdeen, Scotland, and though they have four festival dates afterward (including one in Scotland), they wish for fans to consider their June 16 show in their hometown of Glasgow as their farewell UK show.

The quartet's statement ends with fond sentiments: "Finally, we want to thank you all for listening to our music and coming to our shows over the years. You have given us a glimpse of something truly special."

Thanks to reader Martin Allen for the tip.

A casual browse through Aereogramme's other MySpace blog entries uncovers evidence that the split is hardly the result of a spontaneous decision. In an April entry documenting the band's thwarted North American tour with the Twilight Sad and A Northern Chorus, bassist Campbell McNeil wrote the following in a rant about depressingly vulgar dressing room graffiti, raising a good question:

"If I was in that type of band [to write on dressing room walls] and I was the designated scribe, my repertoire would consist of just one phrase. And I would write it on every dressing room wall in every venue in text a foot high as one man's cry for sanity. It would simply read WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO YOURSELF? It's a basic enough question but one that I feel too few musicians ask themselves.

"You see, being in a band is like being in prison. You start to become institutionalized, you start to accept the unacceptable and you stop thinking about how and why you got there in the first place. We once toured with a German band called Kate Mosh. The Question was rearing its ugly head within me for the first time and I shared the thought with the band's drummer, a nice chap whose name now eludes me, he had no answer and looked confused and worried. He quit the band and music 2 months later. It is a wise man who knows his own mind and has the courage to act upon it.

"As you can probably guess things haven't been going too well on our first foray into the U.S. in almost 4 years. A string of bad luck so prolonged and so ugly that it would shake the conviction of even the most confirmed atheist. Surely someone up or down there has taken a personal interest in our endeavor, thereby ensuring that I find myself asking The Question on an almost hourly basis. Botched visa applications, a 7 hour visa interview hell, canceled shows, canceled flights, delayed flights, no backline, no vehicle, broken vehicle, broken promises and a level of financial uncertainty that has seen the tour dubbed Aereogramme: Live Without A Net 2007. Combine this with a market appeal that appears to have become shall we say, "selective" and you're probably starting to see where we're at."

Dates:

05-30 Aberdeen, Scotland - Music Hall *
05-31 Edinburgh, Scotland - Potterrow *
06-01 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowlands *
06-16 Glasgow, Scotland - QMU
06-23 Scheesel, Germany - Hurricane Festival
06-24 Neuhausen, Germany - Southside Festival
07-27 Grossefehn, Germany - Omas Teich Festival
08-31 Argyll, Scotland - Inveraray Castle (Connect Festival)

* with Biffy Clyro