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| Cursive > Albums & Lyrics |
Cursive formed in 1995 when Tim Kasher (vocals, guitar), Matt Maginn (bass, vocals), and Steve Pedersen (guitar, vocals), who had been playing together for years in other bands, asked Clint Schnase to join them on drums.
They released their first four songs on a 7" entitled "The Disruption" for Saddle Creek, and then spent the rest of their time that year preparing an album for what was supposed to be their debut full-length release on Zero Hour Records. Cursive and Zero Hour could not agree on a contract , so Zero Hour settled on releasing Cursive's second 7" entitled "Sucker and Dry", and then the band parted ways with the New York based label.
Shortly after that less than exhilirating experience, Cursive met up with California-based Crank! Records who agreed to release the debut full length from Omaha, NE's Cursive. "Such Blinding Stars for Starving Eyes" was an instant hit with its intense and exemplary songwriting, in addition to the hype surrounding each and every Crank! release (1997) and the extensive amount of touring that Cursive does.
Shortly after their astonishing debut full-length, Cursive released their third 7" entitled "The Icebreaker" on Saddle Creek as well as a Split 10" with Austin, TX's Silver Scooter for the now legendary Crank! Records Split 10" Series.
The next year was spent working on songs for what would become the sophomore full-length from Cursive, "The Storms of Early Summer: Semantics of Song", on Saddle Creek. "I am not an outwardly aggressive person by any stretch of the imagination, yet I've managed to release so much aggression into these songs I've written...it only made sense to theme an album with the pent up frustration of which they seemed to occur. The two halves of the album are presented as two short stories, both of which pattern an eager young man and how he becomes stripped of self-worth, decays mentally and spiritually, and resolves himself in rage. Of course, this is a very loose and generalizing interpretation," said Tim.
Unfortunately, shortly after the songs were recorded and before the album was released, Steve Pedersen (guitar, vocals) was accepted into law school at Duke University in North Carolina. Eager for that experience, Steve accepted the invitation and moved to North Carolina. Shortly after arriving in North Carolina, Steve formed a band called The White Octave. Tim Kasher (vocals, guitar) hastily decided that this was his opportunity to work on new projects and simultaneously move to Portland. Cursive, on the brink of releasing their second full-length, was disbanded. "Personally, I was cocky in breaking up Cursive: my life seemed to be going really well at the time...I assumed that I didn't need Cursive anymore", said Tim.
About a year went by before Tim re-evaluated his move and came back to Omaha in hopes of getting Cursive back in the swing of things. Without Steve on guitar, Cursive recruited longtime friend Ted Stevens (from Lullaby for the Working Class) to pick up the additional guitar and vocal duties.
Cursive buckled down and recorded nine songs for their third full-length release "Cursive's Domestica" on Saddle Creek. With the addition of Ted Stevens on guitar and vocals, and backed by one of the tightest rhythm sections in indie-rock, Cursive's anthemic explosions and technical tricks are "so dizzyingly intense that it's hard to make it through the whole album without taking a break to wipe the sweat from your brow or the tears from your eyes. It's exhausting, but extremely cathartic".
The critically acclaimed "Cursive's Domestica" has been their most well-received record to date. Tim notes, "I should say as a sidebar that what I see as a huge difference between "Domestica" and our other albums it that as a songwriter I made a difficult decision. We were making a third album and I had never done this before and (I) had to follow up two records. I wanted to go in a completely different direction than what we had done in the past. It started as singing about very small things and then it turned into very domestic things and then it became "sweetie" and "pretty baby". It became this whole play that we wanted to work out."
"Unfortunately, I've gotten a little bit of criticism in reviews about how this is your typical break up album and yeah, I suppose it is. I can't dispute that. But for us it was unique. This isn't what we usually do. I knew that there would be a lot of people who had not heard Cursive before and would go, "okay, this is a breakup record. All right." You know, I thought it would be refreshing for someone who had already followed us for two records to see it be very personal. So that's what I see as a really big difference."
"I personally felt the pressure of breaking up this band and then saying it was a bad idea, let's do it again. Not only was it releasing album's worth of material, it was also trying to justify this is why we got back together," he said. "I really felt it had to be changed up or refresh itself in some manner, but yet still be the same band."
Domestica finds the band twisting its sound into new wrinkles without abandoning the band's established style. With a trumped up sense of texture and dynamics, the album sees the band swinging between its most twinkly and its hardest moments to date.
Cursive will be touring extensively in the future, and will be playing a string of dates with At The Drive In throughout November. Look for a new EP in the Spring on Saddle Creek.
by - Tim McMahan
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