Live Review: Joyce Manor & Algernon Cadwallader, The Black Cat (8/19/12)

Punk rock is a genre of many feelings. It's one of intensity and forcefulness, of progress and change, and of sadness and despair. The combination of these traits fuels the energy behind the music and the emotions created by it. Joyce Manor's coheadliner with Algernon Cadwallader may very well be proof of this, as every second of the show was powered by all of these feelings, creating an atmosphere that wasn't simply just about the music, but the personal lives of the bands and crowd as well.

Artist Of The Day: Algernon Cadwallader

I'm writing up a show review of Algernon Cadwallader's final show with Joyce Manor, but this fantastic band deserves a memorial post of their own. The news of the band's dissolution has been rumored for weeks, but today was when they finally made the official announcement that they were ending Algernon Cadwallader due to drummer Tank's upcoming fatherhood. But that doesn't fill the void left by this awesome band. Latest album Parrot Flies was possibly the band's best release to date, highlighted by fantastic opening track "Springing Leaks." The nearly 6 minute track is twice the band's average song length of under three minutes, and it's highlighted by 3 minute long twinkly jam. The band's musicianship and intensity separated themselves from other "twinkle daddy" bands, and "Springing Leaks" is possibly their greatest accomplishment to date. It's sad to see them go when they were obviously still strengthening their craft, but at least we have a couple great releases by the band. Read the announcement here, and keep and eye on their Facebook page for possible details for the other two members' new project when it comes.

You know, if the Mayans are right, this is my last year-ending list, ever.

The original draft for this end-of-the-year synopsis saw a somewhat dissatisfied me attempting to relate the lack of late-December snow on the ground here in the Northeast to the seemingly incomplete feel of 2011 and its musical offerings. For this writer, 2011 ushered in quite a few much-anticipated releases that ended up falling far short of their predecessors (Battles, Lemuria, and Manchester Orchestra, to name just a few). It paid witness to the disbandments of Philadelphia's Snowing and Frank Turner's departure from Gallows, two longtime favorite bands of your ever-humble narrator. In writing this, I very nearly fell into an abyss of textual lamentation, centered around the simple fact that my 2011 top-ten list is but a sad skidmark in the wake of its beefy 2010 counterpart. But really, what good is it to whine and moan about what this year and music could have been? 2012 is already shaping up to be more promising, with scheduled releases from Every Time I Die, Joyce Manor, and Andrew Bird all dotting the early year forecast, not to mention my 21st birthday and yet another installment of summer Olympics (read: publicized females gymnastics) both looming on the horizon. And so, temporarily dropping the resentfulness of the year's more underwhelming moments, I present you with a handful of moments during which 2011 showed no signs of suck: Eric's Top Twelve Tracks of Twenty-Eleven.

Artist Spotlight: Algernon Cadwallader

The boys in Algernon Cadwallader have listened up and taken a lot of notes from every Kinsella brother endeavor. Cap'n Jazz, American Football, Make Believe; if the Kinsella brothers had a part in it, members of Algernon Cadwallader have almost undoubtedly heard it. I feel so confident in saying this solely on account of the heavy influence that these groups have had on AC's songwriting - the spastic, whiney vocals, the constant waltzing of twangy clean guitars, and an overall downtrodden demeanor, offset by the facade of twinkly and upbeat emo jams. And with two full-lengths, two EP's, and a killer demo already released, Algernon Cadwallader are in no way new to the game. Yet with every release, they manage to maintain a youthful freshness in their attitude, causing every bittersweet track to scintillate with a resentful but hopeful charm. It's hard not to relate such music to pretty much every one night stand of my college career thus far: it's sloppy, it's sporadic, and it's most likely too intoxicated to realize how awkward it should be. But in the tempestuous buzz of the moment, it feels like it might not be the worst idea in the world. So finish you beer, rubber-up and give Algernon Cadwallader a shot - you've got nothing to lose, apart from half an erection and perhaps your dignity.

RIYL: Snowing, 1984!, American Football, Cap'n Jazz, Hightide Hotel, etc.

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