Sometimes the venue makes all the difference. When Cursive toured through Milwaukee in 2006, they played an ill-fitting Pabst Theater, where the pristine sound and red-velvet seats that serve so many quieter acts so well set expectations of polish th...

After beginnings playing fairly traditional, albeit unusually cerebral hard-edged emo in the ’90s, Omaha’s Cursive began moving in more ambitious directions, recording elaborate song-cycles like 2003’s Ugly Organ, and 2006’s Happy Hollow, an indictment of small-town values and organized religion. After a long hiatus that threatened to become permanent, the band returned reinvigorated for this year’s Mama, I’m Swollen, a more soulful...

It seemed like the perfect set list at the time. Since they were booked at a South by Southwest day party dominated by their peers from the turn of the century, including Frodus, a D.C. post-hardcore group that reunited this year after a decade hiatus, for old time's sake Cursive dedicated most of the set to their 2000 album Domestica, a crushing song cycle far removed from the band's current, less turbulent rock...

If Conor Oberst must dedicate himself to a band that isn't Bright Eyes, couldn't he at least reunite Desaparecidos? This Mystic Valley Band that he's spent the last couple years with just isn't cutting it, yet Oberst doesn't seem to be getting the message, since he's doubled down on the project with his upcoming album, Outer South. This time Oberst leased out valuable album real e...

Critics were divided on Mama, I'm Swollen, the sixth album by Omaha's curve ball-throwing indie-rock band Cursive, but we're not. Though it tones down the foam-mouthed punk of their earlier, more overtly emo releases, it replaces it with richly orchestrated indie-pop with ample nods to The Cure and singer Tim Kasher's other band, The Good Life. This clip of the band's performance on David Le...

Another quick self-servicing plug: Set your dials to FM 102.1 this Sunday at 11 p.m., when I'll be on Ryan Miller's Indie Soundcheck again, chatting with the friendliest man in radio about that new Cursive album I've been beaming about all week. ...

Cursive has laid out a novel pricing plan for its latest album, Mama, I'm Swollen. On Sunday, the band began selling 320 Kbps mp3s of the album for $1, raising the price a buck each day until it tops off at $9 on the album's release date. It's a clever incentive to get people to buy the album sooner than later, and maybe create a little buzz around the record. Here's hoping it works; this one de...