Cover Story CursiveMy 2 Planets, Serengeti, Summer at Shatter Creek

t’s 8:30 p.m. and we’re still waiting for our 7:00 interview with Although Cursive released two albums before Domestica (1997’s Such Cursive’s Tim Kasher. I have my questions, painstakingly composed Blinding Stars for Starving Eyes [Crank!] and The Storms of Early Summer: on the drive to Columbia and then rewritten (legibly) over a steam- Semantics of Song in 1998 [Saddle Creek]), it was really this 2000 release ing latte at the Cherry Street Artisan that solidified their sound and began the when we got into town. It rained most of the growth of their underground following. After drive up, a cold, chilling rain with even a bit of Storms, Kasher had moved to Portland, hail. It rained while we walked up and down 9th Oregon, effectively breaking up the band. Street, distributing Playback St.Louisto the fine Within a year, he was back in Omaha, a failed folk of Columbia. This is Jim’s first time in the marriage providing creative fodder. With origitown; he’s decided that he doesn’t like it nal guitarist Steve Pedersen away at law because it rains too much. school, Kasher recruited fellow songwriter and

We arrive at the Blue Note ten minutes longtime friend Ted Stevens for the group’s before 7:00 to find all of the night’s bands min- reincarnation. On Domestica, his songwriting gling in the club, post-soundcheck. Kasher turned personal; he had, after all, the eruption doesn’t seem to know anything about the of a love gone wrong—and all its inherent interview, or else he’s forgotten, claiming to swaths of destruction and still-simmering lava keep his schedule in his head. Not that it’s a CURSIVE: Kasher, Stevens, Cohn, Maginn, and Schnase flows—from which to mine. problem, but it will have to be later, as the band is off to dinner. So we are off, too, And now, we proudly present Songs perverse and songs of lament. A couple hymns of confession, Maybe it all happened exactly as Kasher wrote it; maybe he captured all the emotions to…well, drive around town aimlessly for an And songs that recognize our sick obsessions. but changed all the events...except one. I want hour, killing time. It rains some more; we get Sing along—I’m on the ugly organ, again. to believe, as Kasher sings on “The Casualty,” lost, but not too badly. Then we’re back at the Blue Note, a little before the allotted hour, as Sing along—I’m on the ugly organ, so let’s begin. There’s no use to keep a secret, Everything I hide ends up in lyrics, that the phone, thrown in anger, really did go through the wall. In any respect, just as you we don’t want to be late. We wait in the lobby, So read on—accuse me when you’re done— start to feel the pain and truly empathize with where we can watch the door and avoid some If it sounds like I did you wrong. Kasher, he throws in a line to remind that is he of the noise of the opening band. —“Some Red Handed Sleight of Hand,” wholly conscious of this act, this writing down

It is 8:45 when they return from dinner. The Ugly Organ of his life in order to sell albums: “I’ll try to Kasher is apologetic; they’d gone to make this perfectly clear, I’m so transparent I Shakespeare’s Pizza, found it crowded, and so went somewhere else. “It disappear/these words I lyrically defecate upon songs I boldly claim to creended up taking even longer than Shakespeare’s would have,” he says, ate/…/this is the latest from Saddle Creek” (“Sink to the Beat,” Burst and apologizing again. “Let’s do this.” By now, the second of four bands is Bloom). It’s commerce, baby; nothing more. ready to take the stage; the bar is too loud for a taped interview. We head Yet it is, much more. With Domestica, Kasher crossed a line into the realm next door to Coffee Zone II, noisy in its own right, but a better spot for an of the personal—a move, he admits, was frightening but necessary in his interview than backstage at a rock concert. We begin. growth as a writer. “For any writer, you need to build the courage to actually

Hot off the heels of their recent front-page article in The New York write personal; it’s the closest any that any of us can get to universal.” Times’ “Arts & Leisure” section, Cursive were completing the first leg of a Cursive has created some hard sounds at times, some very loud instrusix-week tour, with a week’s break in the middle. Columbia was the last mentation and vocals, but it’s all part of the emotive quality of the music. night of the first three weeks; as Kasher said during the show, “We had “We really don’t like to consider ourselves so much of a hard rock band, thought it might be one show too many, but we’re getting through it.” but more of just mining away at the field of aggression and frustration;

Cursive is one of those brilliant indie-emo bands out of Omaha, the cur- internally, I think, that is loud, and that’s kind of just where it ends up. But rent hotbed of indie rock and home of acclaimed Saddle Creek Records. it was a great way for me to stay interested, to stay excited about music.” Cursive is a quintet—in addition to Kasher on vocals, guitar, and organ, the For their next recording, an in-between-albums EP entitled Burst and band includes Matt Maginn on bass and vocals, Clint Schnase on drums, Bloom, they introduced yet another oddity: a cellist. Oh, but if that wasn’t Ted Stevens on guitar and vocals, and Gretta Cohn on cello—but, really, it the wisest addition I’ve yet to hear in a band; Gretta Cohn’s stringwork adds all boils down to frontman Kasher, the group’s primary lyricist and self- an achingly melancholy contrast to the shattering guitars and Kasher’s appointed teller of truths. Basically, he takes the most intimate, embarrass- wail. When I ask Kasher how he came up with the addition, he confessed ing aspects of his life—largely those involving matters of the heart (the it wasn’t initially his idea. “It was a suggestion I got from Todd [Baechle] of “ugly organ,” as he calls it)—and, painfully, peels them apart. One can the Faint. He said, you know, a four-piece rock band is such a format, such only hope the result is cathartic for him; for listeners, it’s both captivating a regular medium, and a new [instrument] would really help expand the and disturbing. sound.

See more photos of Cursive and read a review of The Ugly Organ at www.playbackstl.com

ON THE COVER

“Once we got the idea, we start- it’s like, ’Wow, great record; now we have to do a ed asking around. [Frequent Saddle record that’s as good as that.’” Creek producer/contributor and owner of Presto It also helps that much of the current Omaha Studios] Mike Mogis had kept [Gretta Cohn’s] scene is composed of friends who have grown up number, because he’s an engineer and producer together. “Ted [Stevens] and Conor [Oberst, of and he had remembered her as an excellent cel- Bright Eyes] and I hang out; we’re very close list that had opened up for Bright Eyes a couple friends, so we’re very comfortable talking about of times. So we got in touch with her and she absolutely anything and everything. It’s easy for us came out to a show, and then flew out and to have a really open dialogue about what we want worked on Burst and Bloom. That was kind of a songs to be like. [With] every release, we kind of trial period, and everything went great, so she open the conversation up to each other and try to moved to Omaha.” figure out which direction we should go.”

Burst and Bloom was mostly written by the In listening to the progression of Cursive’s time Cohn came on board, so she added cello sound and the disquieting beauty of their current parts where she thought they would fit. Creating offering, it’s obvious the process has worked thus The Ugly Organ was a different story, as Cohn far. It helps that Kasher’s a thoughtful songwriter, was an integral part of composing the instru- someone who gives equal weight to both lyrics mentation. The difference is clear, as her cello and music. To him, The Ugly Organ is a concept lends a haunting maturity to the album that in album, similar to a book of short stories or a colunmatched in most indie rock records today. ON OMAHA COMPARED TO SEATTLE: lection of poetry—pieces tied together by a com-

That said, to keep in line with the trend thus We definitely wouldn’t be Nirvana; that mon theme. “Having everything be relevant is a far, the next Cursive album should hold some would probably be Bright Eyes. Who else was conscious effort,” he says. “I think that the music changes, right? “Every time I’ve tried to foresee there? Soundgarden, Pearl Jam…no, none of industry has a bad name, rock ’n’ roll has a bad it, I’ve always been wrong,” Kasher said. “We’ve those would be us. Maybe we’ll take name; it’s not really taken seriously. To try to do just barely touched the surface on what we want Mudhoney, how about that? They’re kind of something literary in music is [seen as] kind of to do next, [but] the dialogue that Ted and I have like good luck underdogs. dumb. I’ve always seen it as a shout out to all the started…is that we would like to go further into other musicians: try to take your lyrics a little more something that people haven’t heard yet and that seriously.” would take a repeat listen. The best compliments Eventually, Kasher says, he’d like to take some I have gotten from The Ugly Organ is…that it’s time off from music to focus on his writing. “I’m discomforting, because discomfort is a very real trying to figure at what point I can slow down feeling. It’s like Requiem for a Dream; it’s nause- music so I could start writing a book of short stoating to watch, but I think it’s a masterpiece; it ries. It’s really hard, because it’s this snowball makes you so uncomfortable. The Ugly Organ is effect, and it’s sometimes hard to escape from. I a difficult subject matter that we don’t like to don’t want to escape too early, because you don’t deal with. So, musically, we were just kind of want to lose the momentum…and I might be makconsidering getting further into that discomfort.” ing a mistake if I don’t keep pursuing that.”

Any discussion with Cursive must, ultimately, If there’s any justice in this convoluted world of include a discussion of Saddle Creek and all the airplay, charts, and concert sales, Kasher will find wonder they’re promoting out of Omaha. But time for his fiction writing and Cursive will go on just what is it about Omaha? “There’s been a lot to enjoy even greater acclaim and recognition. Of of speculation,” Kasher admits. “I think it has a course, life doesn’t always work out the way it lot to do with [the fact that] when you’re raised should; musicians and writers with the most talent in Omaha, you don’t expect anything. I think aren’t always the ones that find the greatest sucthat you get to have that beautiful situation cess. In addition to tremendous talent, though where you are writing because you just want to write something really Cursive have two other points in their favor: they have a notable label good; you don’t really see a light at the end of the tunnel, you’re just try- behind them, and they are part of a larger scene. I can see it now: one day, ing to do it. I think kids that grow up in L.A. or Chicago can see how it can there will be a movie about Omaha and all the Saddle Creek musicians. And turn a profit; none of us could have seen that. We were our own fans, sup- who, I ask Tim Kasher, does he envision playing his role in the film? He porting each other. It’s really important that nothing was ever competitive; laughs, considers the question. “I think I’d like it to be a woman. I think instead, it was raising the bar. We’re often saying that to each other, where Maggie Gyllenhaal would be great.”