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Au revoir to Joie de Vivre

Say good-bye to Joie de Vivre: the Rockford six-piece is breaking up at the end of the month, after four years of making epic, downcast ballads in the vein of beloved 90s emo band Mineral. "We just kind of decided that we all have different priorities," says guitarist Patrick Delehanty. They plan to finish up their sophomore full-length in June for a release on Count Your Lucky Stars this fall. Their final Chicago show is Thu 5/26; e-mail pd_booking@yahoo.com for details.

Chicago four-piece Dowsing made their live debut at a Joie de Vivre show in January, and earlier this month they dropped their first EP, a six-song collection of upbeat, straightforward emo-pop called All I Could Find Was You. It's available as a pay-what-you-want download from Bandcamp, and Dowsing is talking with labels about a physical release.

In February 2010 local emo troubadour Evan Thomas Weiss (aka Into It. Over It.) launched a series of split seven-inches called Twelve Towns, and on Tuesday the sixth and final installment—a split with pogo-punk act Such Gold—was coreleased by No Sleep and Mightier Than Sword. On Weiss's side, "Portland, OR" is introverted and almost minimalist, while "Washington, DC" is heavy pop punk. Most of the 500 vinyl copies sold out in preorders, so for now the songs are only available digitally; Weiss will have physical copies soon, but not in time for his Beat Kitchen set Thu 5/26. —Leor Galil