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The Appleseed Cast: Wisdom Comes With Age
by David Agee  The Appleseed Cast plays the Caledonia on April 24. For a little more than a decade, Aaron Pillar and Chris Crisci have been making music as the founding members of The Appleseed Cast. In those ten years, the band has survived the demise of a record label, lineup changes, and associations with the rise of the oft-despised "emo." Currently, The Appleseed Cast is bringing their latest tour to an end as they promote their newest album, Peregrine, on the record label The Militia Group. While Peregrine sounds very much like Appleseed Cast, it marks the return of the band to the top of their form after a three year hiatus during which they found a new drummer, Nathan Richardson. With the lineup changes that brought Richardson and bassist Marc Young into the band, The Appleseed Cast feels like all of their changes were for the best. Guitarist Aaron Pillar said, "Relationships are different when you are nearly 30 and in a band. When you start off playing music in high school, you are just playing with a group of friends. Now, our relationships are more adult and we make it work."  The Appleseed Cast's new record is called Peregrine. If it was the mid-90's all over again, this album would have been placed aside other releases by bands like Planes Mistaken for Stars or Sunny Day Real Estate and called "emo." At that time, Deep Elm Records was even releasing compilations called The Emo Diaries and The Appleseed Cast appeared on them. Pillar said that the band felt as though they had been ripped off a little by those Deep Elm compilations. Pillar also said, "I have no idea how those things really work out, and all I have to show for doing them is a copy or two lying around somewhere."  The Appleseed Cast plays the Caledonia on April 24. On the main site for The Appleseed Cast, a little browsing will lead to a news section where the band posts articles about politics and other current events. I asked Pillar how important he felt it was for bands to be socially conscious. Pillar said, "We have a soapbox. But whenever people listen to you, you have to use that soapbox responsibly. We have grown apathetic to issues as a nation, but when the band promotes activism in a show, it's usually nothing more than ‘hey, there's an election, go and vote tomorrow.' We try to keep our own political views separate from our music, and we don't put anything on the site that has not been fact checked." Pillar also said, "It is ok for musicians to have a point of view, but if you just run around saying ‘Bush sucks,' then it just makes you look bad." Even though The Appleseed cast is a socially conscious band, they are still normal guys. Pillar said, "People always seem to approach us like we are super intense. But we're really goofy, normal guys that like to make bathroom jokes." I asked Pillar who The Appleseed Cast is currently listening to. He told me they are digging the latest from Mogwai, Mr. Beast, and also Wilco's Live From Chicago. The Appleseed Cast play in Athens on April 24 at the Caledonia Lounge. Comments [post a comment]Comments are closed |
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Saturday, February 04, 2012
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