Jared’s Podcast: Episode #13

3 comments // Apr 16th, 2009 // Posted in STRadio by Jared

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How does one act become your favourite band? Sometimes it’s immediate. You connect with a song or a performance and you just delve right into their entire catalog. Well, my journey with The Appleseed Cast is quite so sudden. Much like the band’s sound growing and evolving, my interest in their music took time to fully develop before I could say, “Yes, they are my favourite band.” Almost anyone that’s talked to me has heard me evangelize about the greatness that is contained within this band from Lawrence, KS. It all started with a mind-blowing 10 minute set at a festival. The band that was scheduled to play was so impressed with these guys that they brought them along and donated 1/6 of their time slot to them. Despite taking in many memorable performances that week, theirs stuck with me. It was a young band that had just recently released their first album and despite being an emo-core band, employed a sax player. Despite my rather favourable thoughts of their performance, I left without picking up their disc or thinking too much about them. A year later, my friend was headed back to the same festival and I asked him to pick up a disc for me when he went because I had heard that The Appleseed Cast had earned themselves a full performing slot. Not only did he come back with the album I requested but he brought back their new album Mare Vitalis. Maybe it was because I was still pretty young, but something about this album struck a chord with me. Then after each subsequent album, I became more and more enamored with their sound. After the release of their latest album in February, I can still say that yes, they are my favourite band. I have seen them four times, in three different states with the closest being only a 1.5 hour drive. Thankfully, I’ll get to see them finally in the city that I live.

I’ve given you a lot of biographical information on the band but I’ve left a lot out. There was a 7″, a split EP, a few appearances on compilations and a couple Japanese import tracks. What I hope I’ve left you with is a taste of the band’s journey, and partly my journey along with them. Oh yeah, here’s the setlist:

Marigold & Patchwork from “Marigold & Patchwork” EP (recorded as December’s Tragic Drive)
Moment #72 from “The End of The Ring Wars”
Fishing The Sky from “Mare Vitalis”
Forever Longing The Golden Sunsets from “Mare Vitalis”
Steps And Numbers from “Low Level Owl Vol. 1″
Rooms And Gardens from “Low Level Owl Vol. 2″
E To W from “Lost Songs”
Fight Song from “Two Conversations”
Sunlit And Ascending from “Peregrine”
Raise The Sails from “Sagarmatha”

Let me know what you think of the format. I’ve contemplated lining up a couple other artists for this type of show and I’m interested to hear if you felt this was good or if I should just return to my standard format of random songs. Until next week,

Jared

tyrone says:

This was cool, thanks Jared.

Apr 16, 2009, 11:38 am

Rob says:

hehe … what a great friend.

What happened there though? I brought back two CDs for you? ’cause I mail ordered Mare Vitalis earlier on that year. I do remember not liking it at first ’cause it was such a departure (read progression) from their first work.

One thing you can always count on from the cast is superb drumming. Just fabulous.

Finally, good choice of tracks. Some personal favourites from the early years:
Untitled (although I understand why you chose Moment 72 since it had vocals – but it shows off the sax!)
kilgore trout (probably not as strong musically as fishing the sky, but I prefer it since the lyrics are more interpretable).
(btw, if you were ever wondering about the artwork for that album, it comes from a sculpture in Reykjavik (http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~wiersma/personal/albums/2007/iceland2007/album/slides/Iceland%20064.jpg)

Apr 16, 2009, 5:04 am