Blistering roots rockers the Rockford Mules have a new EP on the way, and today they've announced that their EP-release show at Cause Spirits & Soundbar will double as their farewell show. After seven years of turning it up to 11 at clubs around town, the band will part ways and focus on other things.

"We’ve had times that none of us will ever forget… if only we could remember," guitarist and lap steel player Ryan Rud jokes. Rud plans to continue playing guitar in other bands and write a book, while frontman Erik Tasa will continue making music in his solo project.

Here's a statement from the band:

It is with an oddly satisfying sadness and an enormous amount of gratitude that we, The Rockford Mules, are calling it quits after 7 wonderful years.

We aren’t stopping because we don’t get along or even because we feel there aren’t any more songs in us.  No, we are stepping down for the simple reason that we feel this band, and its music, has run its course.  I wish it were more complex than that and I could point to viscous, knockdown, drag out fights.  Or that we were all sleeping with each other’s wives or significant others but I can’t.  The past 7 years have been great. This band has seen the birth of 5 children, helped get us through deaths, divorce, personal hardships, and at the end of it all we were, and still are, brothers that love and respect the hell out of each other.  My guess is we’ll remain that way long after people have forgotten about the music we’ve made.

The Rockford Mules have prided ourselves in making the most honest and heartfelt music we could.  If the song wasn’t perfect in our minds we kept writing until it was perfect or we scrapped the song all together.  A lot of bands will claim the same thing but we meant it with every ounce of our rag tag soul.  We put the music first and witnessed a lot of bands come and go who thought fashion and a gimmick would last.  We always wanted to give our best, whether that meant playing in front of ten people or ten thousand. (which never happened except for that one time at Bratfest….both the ten and the ten thousand part).   When all is said and done we feel we did things the right way.  We respected the music, the business, and were true to who we are as people and musicians.  There was, and still is, no other way to do it in our minds.

Anyway, we always said when it wasn’t fun anymore or if it started to feel like work then we would hang it up.  That’s where we stand today.  We could probably keep going just for the sake of keeping going but it goes against the very foundation this band was built on.  We love this band too much to keep it going without our full hearts in it.

The Rockford Mules dropped by The Local Show to chat with David Campbell further about their forthcoming EP and the news of their break-up. Listen to the segment below and hear it Sunday night, October 21, at 6 p.m.