Never News: Music

Cursive - The Difference Between Houses and Homes

Saddle Creek

Ah. B-sides, the much sought-after thorn in the sides of completists everywhere. I, myself, had got as many of these as possible, but a few stayed out of reach ('And The Bit Just Chokes Them' from 'Sucker and Dry' and 'A Disruption in Our Lines of Influence' from 'Disruption'), so, when this release was announced, I pre-ordered it right away. Along with all these classic, out-of-print 7” tracks we get two new tracks: 'Dispenser' and 'I Thought There'd Be More Than This' (a connector to 'Proposals', from 'The Storms of Early Summer: Semantics of Song'), both older songs from Cursive's early days.

Cursive has always been one of those bands that you can either love or hate—I know, I know, that's said about a lot of bands, but here it's true, I think: you can either like dissonance or not. And Cursive has plenty of dissonance. So, if you're a big fan, buy this. If not, get the hell out of here and start with something a little more whole: 'Domestica' is their finest album to date, followed very closely with 'The Ugly Organ'.

B-side compilations are never a good place to start with any band; they're too eclectic and hard to connect with—albums are put together for a reason; the songs go together (whether by content or sound), are meant to fit together, and need each other for air. That's why 'best of' records always suck so much—good songs need other songs like them to stay alive. Here, the songs are fantastic in themselves, but only when you're listening strait through them are you even sure of what's going on.

The most interesting thing about this collection is that all of the songs were recorded before their current roster—Stephen Pederson ('Criteria', 'The White Octave') was a member back then, forming a foil with frontman Tim Kasher. Their guitars battled and cut each other, then settled down at pivotal moments. Later, Steve would leave to go to college (and form 'The White Octave'), and Tim would leave to be married. After his divorce (which was, judging from 'Domestica', quite painful), Tim returned and picked up where he left off, sans Steve, who was replaced by 'Lullaby for the Working Class' mainstay Ted Stevens. With this dynamic, they recorded the most important album to date, 'Domestica', before picking up another stray: cellist Gretta Cohn, to record an e.p., a few splits, and another full-length album.

posted by Colin Reed Moon @ 2:42 PM