For nearly 30 years, Tim Kasher and co. have challenged genre conventions, keeping Cursive's sound fiercely unpredictable.
Words: Rob Mair.
A dog bar – a functioning pub with a space for hyperactive pups to run around – is probably one of the more unusual spots for an interview. But then we're at the Fest in Gainesville; the town is heaving, swelled by the influx of punks for the weekend, and finding a quiet location to chat with Cursive's Tim Kasher is like finding a duff song in the Nebraskan indie-rockers back catalogue. So here we are. The sun is shining, the dogs are barking, and the beer is flowing.
Yet, for such an off-kilter act, it also makes perfect sense. It's quirky and off-the-wall, and if that's not befitting the band that gave us the melodramatic and self-referential 'The Ugly Organ' or the twisted psychodrama of 'I Am Gemini', then what is?
Cursive are in town as one of the top-billed acts; an outlier of indie-rock in a sea of predominantly punk and hardcore. Later in the day, they'll take to a packed main stage before iconic indie-rockers Superchunk in a one-two for the ages – and they'll go down a storm, delivering a set packed with hits drawn from across their catalogue.
"We just don't fit into a genre that snugly," muses vocalist Tim Kasher as we discuss why Cursive always stand out on such bills. "We love the festivals that embrace us, and the ones that embrace us are generally the hard rock or the pop-punk ones – and they're things we're not – but they're also the ones that are willing to reach out across the genre lines or genre conventions and say 'well, you're kind of hard rock' or 'you're kind of pop-punk'.
"When you get to the other end of the spectrum – like the proper indie-rock, where I feel like we should fit in – we're seen as too obtuse or too prog or too heavy. Which is funny to me because we're none of those things necessarily."
Yet Cursive's latest record, 'Devourer', is all these things and more. At turns, it's the heaviest thing they've ever released – take single 'Botch Job' or the juddering 'What the Fuck’ – yet it also contains their most accessible songs to date, too, as well as some of their weirdest and most elegant. Some, like standouts 'Consumers' and 'The Age of Impotence', are every bit as genre-defying as Cursive would like. Mission accomplished then, so to speak.
Of course, Cursive – completed by a menagerie of personalities including bassist Matt Maginn, guitarist Ted Stevens, founding drummer Clint Schnase, cellist Megan Siebe, multi-instrumentalist Patrick Newbery and touring drummer Pat Oakes – wouldn't be Cursive if there wasn't some sort of theme. Now a scriptwriter and filmmaker, too, it's little surprise that Tim is a voracious and avid consumer of media. This idea of swallowing media – devouring it, so to speak – is the thematic starting point on an album that dips into imperialism, immediacy and disposability, artistry and commercialism. It's also another chance for Tim to once again turn the lens inwards and break the fourth wall.
On 'Art Is Hard', the group's breakout, he acerbically wrote of the trials and tribulations of being an artist, delivering a slew of self-aware lyrics which critiqued the songwriting process in the context of break-up breakout 'Domestica'. Highlights abound, including: "Well, here we go again, the art of acting weak, fall in love to fail, to boost your CD sales" and "If at first you don't succeed, you gotta recreate your misery." This time, on 'Imposturing', he's even more pointedly criticising the process, approaching the subject of songwriting from the perspective of someone with a lifetime's experience behind them. "No one wants to listen to sins regurgitated on coloured wax again. You played your best cards when you were young and insolent."
It's a remarkable inside joke that's been running for the best part of 20 years, and similar examples can be found scattered throughout their body of work.
