E2TG - Album Premiere - Cursive is Code - The State Enforced Renaissance

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So, I'm listening to the opening songs of The State Enforced Renaissance - the debut and brand new album by Cursive is Code - which features Jason P. Krug and Julie Kay, and even if musically it bears little resemblance - I can't help but to think back to 2012, when I first "discovered" Julie and Jason's old band The Grimm Generation. E2TG was brand new and that earlier band had only started about a year before this blog. For now, if you are interested in ancient history - you can still read the 2012 E2TG Interview with The Grimm Generation HERE. 

But, much has changed in the last seven and a half years - for Jason and Julie, for me, for the world, and that I guess is a perfect segue to talking about this new album. 

Between The Grimm Generation and Cursive is Code came Krug's solo album The Zen of Losing on which Julie Kay played (that album and his past work earned Jason P. Krug the highly coveted E2TG Artist of the Year designation). 

On The State Enforced Renaissance, the songs deal with making music at a precarious time, and I am not even talking about this post-Covid-19 world.  In the midst of making the album, a couple of things happened - first was the death of Krug's long-time friend and musical foil David Hogan - a loss that reverberated across the Connecticut music community and beyond. In the wake of that Cursive is Code felt a fire to complete the album, and then the pandemic and quarantine hit. 

A bit of a sidetrack. I  was initially drawn to The Grimm Generation because it sounded like the soundtrack for the end of the world - the end of the world has been a bit of a literary obsession of mine for many, many years. I don't know if what is happening now is the beginning of the end of the world.. but it is certainly a period of great upheaval.  What I have already seen is an emergence of incredible creativity from across the music world. A time when musicians who toured endlessly in pursuit of the rock and roll dream were forced to stay home, and when musicians who divided time between career and music - many essentially working two full-time jobs just to get by - got a bit of a breather.  Cursive is Code call it The State Enforced Renaissance. Stay at Home Orders provided  opportunities and necessity to think outside of the box - a box which - let's be honest - needed to be recycled a long time ago. 

All of this reverberates throughout this new album - which at its heart is good old fashioned rock and roll album with the usual themes of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. Krug and Kay made most of the sounds on the album, and they shaped and reshaped the album. What they came up with is a world away from The Grimm Generation - I mean we are all a world away right? - but whether it is Krug's vocals or something else- I hear echos of the older music, and I guess that is the takeaway. We have all been given an opportunity to help shape and reshape the next world, and inevitably, we will bring parts of the old world with us into the new. The choice and the challenge is knowing what parts to leave behind and what to carry forward.  

From my perspective, I think Cursive is  Code found an excellent mix of old and new.

But, now what?  As someone who has supported independent music for almost a decade (well much longer, I guess), I have always struggled with questions about what success and "making it" in music really mean. I have seen people and bands consumed with the weight of not reaching some expected or hoped for level, and I have seen people exhilarated at having reached some level of success that they never thought possible. But, I have found that the level is relative to each individual and band.  I have also seen people jump off the treadmill of pursuing the "big break" and find a satisfying life in music, and I have seen people give up on music altogether.  It is still too early to know what the post-COVID-19 world of music will be, and how it will all shake out - both on a global and individual level; however what I see and what I think Cursive is Code see are people not waiting around to see what the future holds, and that is what has me excited.  

A snippet from Krug's blog How to Diagram a Human Heart.  If you want to read the whole post about the creation of this new band and new album - it is HERE.    

My concept of how to make money making music was probably outdated before I picked up a guitar. The main thrust of it was ‘get out there!’ But that was never my …. desire. It all came back to the lifelong argument Dave and I would have.

He said that if you play everywhere, and are good, people will know you and you can build a following.

I said that you will burn out in the bars before you ever get heard and there has to be a better way. A better mousetrap.

The debate rages still, now more piquant as the venues are gone. As is D.H.

So, I am left with presenting The State Enforced Renaissance by Cursive is Code. Buy it, stream the heck of it, and get to know it; and then go out and make your own art.