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CURSIVE
February 29 - Great American Music Hall
The group Cursive doesn't play indie rock – they reconfigure it, tearing melodies to pieces with sharp cello parts and stitching them back together with swelling guitar riffs. The Omaha-born quartet has spent the better part of eight years crafting a turbulent, orchestral rock that blooms, rumbles, and lurches to multiple pregnant pauses. But lest you peg them for precious artistes, Cursive's lyrics have a depth and directness that steer you straight. As lead singer Tim Kasher warns in their song "Art is Hard," "the art of acting weak" is part of an indie mythos that serves "to boost your CD sales." With their acerbically twisted morality tales and chaotically scored tunes, Cursive have become a cornerstone of rarified pop.In the normal scheme of things, getting to open for the Cure -- a band Cursive have been favorably compared to more than once -- could arguably be called a career highlight. Acclaim from national magazines for their 2003 album The Ugly Organ (Saddle Creek) wouldn't be too shabby either. But back in 2004, after four albums and relentless touring, the members of Cursive were fried. "It was kind of like, 'maybe this is a good time to stop' because we'd been doing it for so long," remembers bassist Matt Maginn. "Ugly Organ's success was a surprise for us. We had to get our heads clear."
After close to a year of down time, they regrouped and began to record what would become the intricately expansive Happy Hollow (Saddle Creek, 2006). With songs like "Dorothy at 40," a post-millennial answer to the Police's "Synchronicity II" that recounts a housewife's agitated march through her day. "We're not the kids that we once were/ We can't be the adults we want to be," laments Kasher, echoing Dorothy's angst. Throughout, the lyrics weave in and out of layers of dense, bobbing melodies. "We work really hard at that part of it," Maginn admits. "Especially songs like "Dorothy at 40" that just have fairly bizarre breaks and signature changes."
Even though they're dispersed across the country -- Kasher and drummer Cornbread Compton are in LA, and Maginn's in Missouri, while only guitarist Ted Stevens remains in Omaha -- the group is currently in the process of creating a new album. Maginn explains that the foursome's new aim is "to play stuff that's fairly difficult but doesn't sound hard -- something where it's so hard that it sounds normal." Like many musicians caught between the realities of budget and the urge to create, he also lauds the continued emergence of recording equipment that allows the musicians to work on songs despite their vast geographical distances. They will reconvene in Omaha soon, though, since, according to Maginn, "nothing can replace being in a room and bashing it out." By Kate Izquierdo
