Audio By Carbonatix
In the late ’90s, Lawrence, Kansas’ The Appleseed Cast played the kind of rock that would earn a band a spot on Emo Diaries compilations, the long-running and long-suffering series curated by Appleseed Cast’s label, Deep Elm Records. Yeah, emo, but not the tarted-up, eye-lined emo of today — the dense post-punk of genre stalwarts Sunny Day Real Estate, Braid, and Mineral. Yet with the 2001 release of Low Level Owl Vols. 1 & 2, the band established itself as something else entirely. Drawing from post-rock influences like Radiohead, Brian Eno, and Mogwai, the band indulged in punk no-no’s: atmospheric bridges, long-winded instrumental excursions, burying those once-strident vocals under layers of manipulated guitars on loan from My Bloody Valentine, and a double albums split into two releases. The band garnered the critical respect that had eluded it, and it turned out the kids thought it was all right, too. The Appleseed Cast’s embrace of adventurous — some might even say “prog-rock” — tendencies are a clear influence on bands like Coheed & Cambria, Portugal. The Man, and Minus the Bear. The band celebrates their breakthrough record on their current tour, which finds them exploring the vistas and valleys of Low Level Owl Vols. 1 & 2 in their entirety.
