Algernon Cadwallader

Last updated
Algernon Cadwallader
ACEuro.jpg
From left to right: Peter Helmis, Joe Reinhart, Nick Tazza, and Colin Mahony
Background information
Origin Yardley, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Genres
Years active
  • 2005 (2005)–2012 (2012)
  • 2022 (2022)–present (present)
Labels
Members
  • Peter Helmis
  • Joe Reinhart
  • Colin Mahony
  • Nick Tazza
Past members
  • Tank Bergman
Website http://www.algernoncadwallader.com

Algernon Cadwallader is an American Midwest emo and math rock band from Yardley, Pennsylvania. [1] [2] [3] They were originally active from 2005 to 2012. In 2022, the band regrouped and began touring again. Stereogum referred to the band as the "heroes of the emo revival". [4]

Contents

History

Peter Helmis, Joe Reinhart, and Colin Mahony met in Pennsbury High School and formed the precursor to Algernon Cadwallader, Halfway to Holland, with their friend TJ DeBlois (drummer of metalcore band A Life Once Lost.) The lineup was Helmis and Reinhart on guitars with Mahony on bass and Helmis on vocals as well. Halfway to Holland differed from Algernon Cadwallader with a heavier, driving sound, more reverb on guitars and chords rounding out rhythm as opposed to the clean math rock riffs Algernon Cadwallader has become known for. While the band was short lived, it continues to have a cult following to this day. Helmis went on to various solo and duo acts, while Mahony and Reinhart formed another band, Like Lions, with fellow school mates. Reinhart and Mahony's collaboration with Like Lions was short lived due to musical differences, and subsequently reached out to Helmis and friend Nick Tazza (from Ape Up!) to form Algernon Cadwallader in 2005. [5]

The line up changed with Helmis still on vocals but switching bass with Mahony, now on rhythm guitar. A four song "Demo" was released in 2006, with more of a heavy influence from the math-rock/Midwest emo genre, than their previous project. Lyrical content however, was a more upbeat, happy musings of personal experiences or day to day life, than the darker, more somber tones the emo genre had been known for. They released their first full-length album in 2008 titled Some Kind Of Cadwallader. Up until this point, shows mainly consisted of Philadelphia basements and house shows, with small tours to neighboring cities. Tazza left the band in early 2008 and was replaced with Matt "Tank" Bergman from US Funk Team. Mahony left the band later in 2008 and Algernon became a trio, choosing not to replace Mahony.

The trio toured throughout America and a European leg. In 2009, they released the Fun EP through Protagonist Music, followed by their second full-length album in 2011 titled Parrot Flies. In 2012, the band had been "laid to rest." [6]

Post-Breakup (2012–2022)

In 2014, Reinhart, Helmis and Tazza, along with guitarist Nate Dionne of the band Snowing formed Dogs on Acid, who released one eponymous album in 2015.

In 2018, Algernon Cadwallader re-issued their albums to digital streaming services for the first time. [7] [8] The re-issue contained what the band referred to as their "third LP", a compilation of their 2006 demo, the 2009 Fun EP and several b-sides and covers of instrumental Beatles and Beach Boys songs, "some of it we decided to record and put vocals on it.”

Algernon Cadwallader has been herald for emo-revival in the mid 2000s and has consistently been praised for their math rock arrangements consisting of alternative tunings and off-time rhythm, earning spots on several "top lists" of emo bands. [9] [10]

Reinhart went on to join Philadelphia indie rock band Hop Along [11] and well as creating Philadelphia based recording studio, Headroom Studios. [12] Helmis continued with other feats such as Peter the Piano Eater, Yankee Bluff, andPeter & Craig.

Reunion (2022–present)

On June 1, 2022, the band – at the time consisting of all previous members – announced a North American reunion tour.

After the success of their North American tour, [13] [14] Algernon Cadwallader announced two New Years Eve shows at Philadelphia's Johnny Brenda's.

In 2023, the band now consisting of the four founding members, Helmis, Reinhart, Mahony and Tazza, announced several tours. On January 19, 2023, a headlining Japan tour was announced for April of 2023 followed by a Europe/UK in June 2023. On September 20, they announced an American Southwest tour for November of 2023, while also playing festivals in Seattle and Philadelphia.

On December 28, 2023, they released a cover of "Mad World" (Tears for Fears) in support of the ongoing Palestinian relief effort. The cover was in collaboration with Kinsella + Pulse, Theo Katsaounis and Bryce Pulaski with 100% of proceeds going to Palestinian Red Crescent Society. [15]

Musical style

Algernon Cadwallader's music has been described as emo and math rock. They cite Cap'n Jazz and The Beatles as influences. [16]

Members

Timeline

Algernon Cadwallader

Discography

Studio albums
EPs
Splits/Compilations/Live recordings

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cap'n Jazz</span> American emo band

Cap'n Jazz is an American emo band from Buffalo Grove, Illinois.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Football (band)</span> American emo band

American Football is an American indie rock band from Urbana, Illinois, originally active from 1997 until 2000. They reformed in 2014.

<i>Shmapn Shmazz</i> 1995 Midwest emo album by Capn Jazz

Burritos, Inspiration Point, Fork Balloon Sports, Cards in the Spokes, Automatic Biographies, Kites, Kung Fu, Trophies, Banana Peels We've Slipped On, and Egg Shells We've Tippy Toed Over, more commonly known as Shmap'n Shmazz, is the only full-length studio album by the American emo band Cap'n Jazz. It was released in 1995 on the record label Man With Gun. Cap'n Jazz's lineup at the time of recording comprised Tim Kinsella on lead vocals, Davey von Bohlen and Victor Villarreal on guitar, Sam Zurick on bass guitar, and Mike Kinsella on drums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toe (band)</span> Japanese rock band

Toe, stylized as toe, is a Japanese post-rock/math rock band from Tokyo. The group was founded in 2000, and consists of Kashikura Takashi (drums), Mino Takaaki (guitar), Yamane Satoshi, and Yamazaki Hirokazu (guitar).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tera Melos</span> American math rock band

Tera Melos is an American math rock band from Sacramento, California, formed in 2004. They incorporate many styles of rock, ambient electronics and unconventional song structures. They are currently a three-piece, consisting of founding members guitarist-keyboardist-vocalist Nick Reinhart and bassist Nathan Latona, and drummer John Clardy, who joined the group in 2008. Tera Melos play a brand of music characterized by quickly alternating rhythmic patterns, start-stop dynamics, improvisation, two-handed tapping on the guitar, extended open-ended bridges, and the use of effects pedals and samplers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joyce Manor</span> American indie rock band

Joyce Manor is an American punk rock band formed in Torrance, California in 2008. The band's current lineup consists of singer-songwriter and guitarist Barry Johnson, guitarist Chase Knobbe, and bassist/backing vocalist Matt Ebert. The band's musical style is rooted in punk rock but has diversified over its career. The band first gained momentum through word-of-mouth and social media sites. Kurt Walcher was the band's founding drummer; the group has switched drummers each album cycle since 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hop Along</span> American indie rock band

Hop Along is an American indie rock band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, formerly known as Hop Along, Queen Ansleis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modern Baseball</span> American Midwest emo band

Modern Baseball was an American emo band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania consisting of Bren Lukens, Jake Ewald, Sean Huber, and Ian Farmer. The band formed in 2012 at Drexel University and released their first album, Sports, on Lame-O Records that same year. Their following albums, You're Gonna Miss It All and Holy Ghost, were released on Run For Cover Records in 2014 and 2016 respectively. The group announced an indefinite hiatus in 2017.

The emo revival, or fourth wave emo, was an underground emo movement which began in the late 2000s and flourished until the mid-to-late 2010s. The movement began towards the end of the 2000s third-wave emo, with Pennsylvania-based groups such as Tigers Jaw, Algernon Cadwallader and Snowing eschewing that era's mainstream sensibilities in favor of influence from 1990s Midwest emo. Acts like Touché Amoré, La Dispute and Defeater drew from 1990s emo and especially its heavier counterparts, such as screamo and post-hardcore.

<i>Never Hungover Again</i> 2014 studio album by Joyce Manor

Never Hungover Again is the third studio album by American rock band Joyce Manor, released on July 22, 2014 through Epitaph Records. Never Hungover Again explores topics like love and summertime. It contains both bracingly fast and mid-tempo punk songs, recorded live across two weeks at a Hollywood studio with producer Joe Reinhart. The album's run time clocks in at only nineteen minutes long. The band aimed for brevity, and most of the songs on the album are under two minutes.

Free Throw is an American emo band from Nashville, Tennessee. They are currently signed to Wax Bodega.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Hotelier</span> American indie rock band

The Hotelier is an American indie rock band from Worcester, Massachusetts, currently signed with Dreams of Field Recordings. The band's second album, Home, Like Noplace Is There, has been featured on Spin's "The 101 Best Albums of the 2010s" list and is considered an "essential emo album" by AltPress. The group has performed at the Pirate Satellite Festival, the Pitchfork Music Festival, and the Primavera Sound festival.

Snowing is an American Midwest emo band from Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. Composed of bassist and vocalist John Galm, guitarists Nate Dionne and Willow Brazuk, and drummer Justin Renninger, the band formed in 2008 and dissolved in 2011. Despite their brief career, they played a key role in the Midwest emo-influenced emo revival movement that flourished during the early-to-late 2010s. Snowing have since reunited for a brief 2019 tour of Japan and three one-off shows: two in 2016 and one in 2022.

Midwest emo refers to the emo scene and/or subgenre that developed in the 1990s Midwestern United States. Employing unconventional vocal stylings, distinct guitar riffs and arpeggiated melodies, Midwest emo bands shifted away from the genre's hardcore punk roots and drew on indie rock and math rock approaches. According to the author and critic Andy Greenwald, "this was the period when emo earned many, if not all, of the stereotypes that have lasted to this day: boy-driven, glasses-wearing, overly sensitive, overly brainy, chiming-guitar-driven college music." Midwest emo is sometimes used interchangeably with second-wave emo. Although implied by the name, Midwest emo does not solely refer to bands and artists from the Midwestern United States, and the style is played by outfits across the United States and internationally.

<i>Get Disowned</i> 2012 album

Get Disowned is Hop Along's second full-length album. It was released in March 2012 on Hot Green Records in the US and Big Scary Monsters in the UK/Europe. In 2016 it was reissued by Saddle Creek.

<i>Holy Ghost</i> (Modern Baseball album) 2016 studio album by Modern Baseball

Holy Ghost is the third and final studio album by the American rock band Modern Baseball, released on May 13, 2016 on Run for Cover Records.[3] The album follows their third EP, The Perfect Cast, which was released on October 23, 2015, via Lame-O Records, as well as their sophomore studio album, You're Gonna Miss It All, released in 2014, and their compilation album, Techniques, also released in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vundabar</span> American indie rock band

Vundabar is an American indie rock band from Boston, Massachusetts. The band consists of Brandon Hagen, Drew McDonald, and Zack Abramo (bass).

<i>Bark Your Head Off, Dog</i> 2018 studio album by Hop Along

Bark Your Head Off, Dog is the fourth studio album by American indie rock band Hop Along. It was self-produced, written over the course of 2016 and 2017, recorded at The Headroom in Philadelphia during 2017, and released on April 6, 2018.

Headroom Studios is a music recording studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was originally started by Kyle Pulley and Joe Reinhart in 2008 in a room in a live/work artist warehouse collective, located in North Philadelphia, until it moved to its current location in a commercial building in the North Philadelphia neighborhood of Kensington.

References

  1. Janci, Jenelle (30 April 2012). "Algernon Cadwallader". The Temple News. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
  2. Delamotte, Nikki. "Band: Algernon Cadwallader". Weapons of Mass Creation Fest. Archived from the original on 2014-09-08. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
  3. "a quick chat with algernon cadwallader". eat a book records. Archived from the original on 2014-09-08. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
  4. "Emo Revival Heroes Algernon Cadwallader Are Back (In Print)". 13 November 2018.
  5. "Emo Revival Heroes Algernon Cadwallader Are Back (In Print)". Stereogum. 2018-11-13. Retrieved 2021-07-28.
  6. "Algernaan (Your Daily Bread)" . Retrieved 2021-07-28.
  7. "Algernon Cadwallader: Some Kind of Cadwallader / Parrot Flies / Algernon Cadwallader". Pitchfork. 29 December 2018.
  8. "Algernon Cadwallader - Catalogue Reissue". Ryan Schwabe. 5 December 2018.
  9. "30 Best Emo Revival Albums, Ranked". SPIN. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 2021-07-28.
  10. Bayer, Jonah; Burgess, Aaron; Exposito, Suzy; Galil, Leor; Montgomery, James; Spanos, Brittany (2019-09-04). "40 Greatest Emo Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2021-07-28.
  11. March 2018, Jackson Maxwell 14 (2018-03-14). "We Will Both Find Out, Just Not Together: A Conversation with Hop Along". guitarworld. Retrieved 2021-08-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. "Headroom Studios – A Philadelphia Recording Studio". headroom.studio. Retrieved 2021-08-06.
  13. "A reunited Algernon Cadwallader packs Union Transfer for two nights". WXPN | Vinyl At Heart. 2022-10-27. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
  14. "Concert Review: Algernon Cadwallader". Spectrum Culture. 2022-11-16. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
  15. "Mad World, by Kinsella + Pulse + Cadwallader". Algernon Cadwallader. Retrieved 2023-12-30.
  16. "Interviews: Peter Helmis (Algernon Cadwallader)". 24 September 2009.