Cursive

by Peter J. D'Angelo
As early as 1995, the original members of Cursive -- Tim Kasher on guitar and vocals, Clint Schnase on drums, Matt Maginn on bass, and Stephen Pederson on guitar -- began work on their newly christened project. The Omaha, NE-based four-piece came out of existing friendships and some of the members' previous work together in Slowdown Virginia, making the musical partnership a logical idea from the start. They debuted with Disruption 7" on the local friend-run label Saddle Creek and shortly released a second 7", Sucker and Dry, on New York-based Zero Hour. Both recordings spotlighted Kasher's uniquely powerful voice along with the group's consistently thundering rhythm section and jagged guitars. Cursive went even further on their debut full-length, Such Blinding Stars for Starving Eyes. Split-released by Crank! A Record Company and New York's Interplanetary Truckers Union in 1997, the LP received high acclaim and put the band on the musical map.
Over the next year, Cursive released both a split 10" with Austin's Silver Scooter (also on Crank!) and yet another 7" entitled Disruption. The latter record began the band's extensive future with Saddle Creek, and in November of 1998, the label released the group's second full-length, The Storms of Early Summer: Semantics of Song. The LP saw the band's first real attempt at incorporating linked lyrical concepts, as Kasher's lyrics told the tale of a man's complete breakdown over the aggressive song structures. Unfortunately for their growing fan base, the record didn't even yield a tour and instead saw the members disband to work on other projects with no mention of re-forming at a later date.
After the split, the members of Cursive explored a number of different outlets, and in their careers they've played with groups as notable as Commander Venus and Bright Eyes, but after a failed marriage and some real introspection, the group decided to give things another shot, a fortunate conclusion that in June of 2000 resulted in the realization of Domestica. Full of fractured rhythms and examining the crumbling of a couple's relationship, the story carried an odd familiarity to the real life experiences of Kasher. Domestica also introduced a new Cursive member, vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter Ted Stevens, formerly of Lullaby for the Working Class. (Pederson bowed out of the group to continue his education at Duke University; he later formed White Octave.) 2001 also saw the issue of Novena on a Nocturn, the debut of Kasher's solo project, the Good Life.
Cursive returned in 2001 with the EP Burst and Bloom, which added cellist Gretta Cohn to the band's lineup. Cursive was also featured on the first 7" in Makato Recordings' year-long monthly 7" series. The quintet returned in 2003 with the Ugly Organ. Their most ambitious album, Ugly Organ was hailed for its challenging songwriting, obtuse conceptual scope, and serious lyrical turns. Then in August 2005, Saddle Creek issued Difference Between Houses and Homes, a compilation of Cursive's out-of-print 7"s that also included two unreleased songs. It was meant to bridge the gap until Kasher and co. could release their follow-up to Ugly Organ, 2006's Happy Hollow, which saw the departure of Cohn but the inclusion of a brass section as the band explored religious contradictions within the context of a fictional Western town. The following year founding drummer Clint Schnase left Cursive on good terms, and was replaced by touring drummer Cornbread Compton.