Algernon Cadwallader - Demo (2006)
I was never a huge Promise Ring fan and I missed Cap'n Jazz somehow. American Football had some good ideas that I felt werent as interesting in succession. In fact, that whole emo split that happened in the mid 90's left a huge rift in styles, with some bands remaining fast and chaotic, sprinkling pretty moments amidst tense dynamics. Some bands tended toward a twinklier, prettier, more twee sound. Lyrics tended towards the high school romance spectrum of emotion, and while this all has its merit, I still wonder sometimes how such a great stylistic difference occurred.
Nonetheless, I am not one to scoff at something that catches my attention, no matter how far out of the normal listening range it is for me. And while my first experience with Algernon Cadwallader was met with stiff opinions regarding how cheesy and unoriginal it was, somehow, through some convergence of nicer weather, a reflective mood and the need for some melodies to match, I found myself inextricably drawn to the ramshackle charm of this band that I didnt want to like.
Algernon Cadwallader, the band with the strangest name on the planet, has completely won me over like none of its predecessor has. Was it timing? Pure chance? Or some strange serendipity that led me to play this every day for the past few weeks. It reeks of cheese (Gouda maybe) and I feel so unashamed to listen to lyrics about liking girls and the most mundane of worldly details.
They have a full length album coming out this year, as well as a 7" re release of this demo (with an official cover, mine is swiped from their myspace page) and I think I may even have to go see them live. Hopefully sometime this spring so I can smile like an idiot and feel 16 all over again.
posted by blend77 at 7:12 PM
9 Comments:
ahahah oh man, this band is my obsession of the moment not even going to lie. their full length is soooo good. this band will be somewhat big by the end of the summer.
yeah, i found out about them at the end of last year and i resisted, yet kept the demo on my comp. then the full length started circulating and i remember grabbing it and checking it out and still not liking it, though i loved the guitar parts. i even left a comment on somebody's site agreeing that they were over hyped and nothing new.
then around a month or two ago i was listening to the song Horror, i guess, and i found myself humming it when i wasnt listening to it. i went back to check out the song, not knowing which song it was, and all of a sudden i found myself totally into this album. and then i listened to the demo again, and lo and behold! it was awesome!
its amazing how our ears can hear differently at different times.
This thing rules. You should go back and revisit the American Football LP at some point. There are so many good songs on that thing. Also, there was a good band from Chicago called Dakota/Dakota that was of this style. They put out a record 4-5 years ago and it's solid. One of the dudes is/was in Russian Circles now.
I definitely like some of the American Football songs a lot, and taking any one on its own generally is a good experience. But Ive always found listening to the album straight through to be a little bit boring to me. That is what I meant by that statement. Never Meant is the best by far though and a wonderful song at that.
Thanks for letting me know about Dakota/Dakota. I will check them out.
i've listened to this ep and their full length way too many times in the last few days. goddamn this shit is good.
Their full length is the best album to come out so far in 2008. Great band.
Love this album.
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