Cursive Ume, VIRGIN ISLANDS February 25, 2012

Cursive

Cursive is the longtime trio of Tim Kasher (vocals, guitar), Matt Maginn (bass), and Ted Stevens (guitar, vocals), with Patrick Newbery (keys) and Cully Symington (drums). I Am Gemini (out February 21, 2012 via Saddle Creek), the band’s seventh LP, is the follow-up to 2009’s critically praised Mama, I’m Swollen, which caught the attention of publications including Alternative Press, Billboard, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and Time Out New York, among others, and earned the band their network television debut on The Late Show with David Letterman. Cursive has released six full-length albums – including the heralded Cursive’s Domestica (2000), The Ugly Organ (2003), and Happy Hollow (2006) – two EPs, a disc of rarities, and numerous singles since the band’s 1995 inception.
The band is also known for their vital, magnetic live show, earning rave reviews from outlets including the Cleveland Scene’s C-Note music blog (”[Tim Kasher’s] effect on the crowd was chilling last night…Cursive was focused and on-spot, composed and gripping”), Nuvo Weekly (“…the five-piece slashed through a near-perfect set of songs from their last nine years of albums”), and the Orlando Sentinel’s Soundboard blog (“…the band still knows how to rock on stage…[Cursive] thrashed away with an abandon that heightened the passion of Kasher’s dense, emotionally charged wordplay.”).
I Am Gemini is the surreal and powerful musical tale of Cassius and Pollock, twin brothers separated at birth. One good and one evil, their unexpected reunion in a house that is not a home ignites a classic struggle for the soul, played out with a cast of supporting characters that includes a chorus of angels and devils, and twin sisters conjoined at the head.
Recorded in the summer/fall of 2011 at Omaha, NE’s ARC Studios and mixed at Red Room in Seattle, WA with producer Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Minus The Bear, Isis), I Am Gemini marks the first time front man Tim Kasher, holding the completed story already in mind, wrote album lyrics in a linear fashion, in order, from song 1 to song 13. The result is thirteen singularly cohesive song chapters that blend effortlessly into one unique narrative. The moody and playfully sinister I Am Gemini is Cursive’s musically heaviest in years, with alternately muscular and angular guitars, pounding drums and driving bass. From the eerie introductory sounds of epic barnstormer “This House Alive” and the irresistibly catchy, insistent “The Sun and Moon”, to the searing “Double Dead” and the split personality prog-pop of “Twin Dragon/Hello Skeleton”, to the roaring, mournful closing track “Eulogy for No Name”, the album is a dynamic, mind-bending, and imaginative ride.

Ume

"Songs that balance sweet pop hooks with snarling heaviness, equal debts to punk, stoner, shoegaze and alt rock, insane guitar abuse/heroics and an audience awestruck and won over." – Chromewaves.com

"This band is fully ready to break out in a whole new way. Phantoms, which drops in August, is the perfect description of this group's sound, an unexpected mashup of eerie fragility and in-your-face rock... music that can morph from easy, chill listening to throbbing late-night anthems within the course of a song." - NYLON Magazine

"…dressed like they were going to dish out a collection of Dolly Parton hits. Well, looks can deceive. The sound that they made was as molten as hell. The seraph-like Ms. Larson and her band can produce music that is nothing short of an assault. They were loud. So loud, they could make Nirvana seem fit to play a GOP fundraising cocktail... This is rock done right." – Poptimes Magazine CMJ 2010

"How could I have not known about Ume? An Austin trio fronted by a whirling dervish of singer guitarist who in the standard PR band head shot looks like she wouldn't hurt a fly; yet give her a guitar, a Marshall stack and a mic and stand back, way back. She shreds. File under - Do Not Overlook and Go Tell Your Friends..." - Dave Allen, Gang of Four/Pampelmoose

"Front woman Lauren Larson's maniacal guitar work, blistering chops and arresting charisma give every leading lady from Joan Jett to Karen O a run for their money, while resuscitating an arguably hibernating genre within the indie music circuit: pure rock and roll." - Myspoonful.com

VIRGIN ISLANDS

Last wave punks Virgin Islands have been making waves in their home city of Seattle and beyond since their inception in the fall of 2009. The band releases their debut full-length "Ernie Chambers v. God" on May 10th, 2011 via The Control Group. ECvG is a politically provocative and musically bold rock album, yes – album, with 11 socially charged manifestos that could be the perfect house music for the last party on earth, or the fight songs for your next revolutionary meeting. Arguably post punk and definitely post modern, this record is an intense and sincere statement from a band who's not afraid to buck the status quo, much like the man Ernie Chambers himself. Virgin Islands usher in the last wave of rock music with conviction and soul.

The band, consisting of lead singer and guitarist Michael Jaworski (formerly of The Cops), drummer Aaron Ball, bassist Charles Keller and guitarist Christopher Meyer, have stumbled upon something rare in this world. They've found a channel to create rock music that is exciting, fun and completely relevant in modern times. Virgin Islands stand out in the sea of sameness and passionately carry the torch of politics and punk rock while delivering one sweaty rock show after the next. Ernie Chambers v. God could be party music for the apocalypse, or it may be what we need to lead us out of darkness. Either way, the last wave of rock n' roll never felt so good.

Ernie Chambers v. God was recorded to tape over 8 days in November of 2010 and was co-produced by the band and Johnny Sangster (Mudhoney, The Briefs, The Cute Lepers, Steve Turner). Virgin Islands will be on the road throughout 2011 in support of the new album.

Official Website: http://www.theglasshouse.us/event/77373/