Sleeping – Not
It was a sleepless night in Columbus, Ohio. Reality shows ran rampant along with the infomercials on basic cable; so I turned to the Web for some lack of slumber crawling. I needed music and I turned to MySpace for a quick fix. A few keystrokes later, I surfed onto the page of A Cursive Memory. With close to almost 70,000 page views, their location listed them at “the beach, California”. Winters can be cold in Ohio; I can always use a little sunshine. What I found was turquoise laced electric pink/orange ear candy. That is my description of A Cursive Memory’s sound.

Now, MySpace pages are for snooping and snoop I did while I was listening to their tracks. A quick trip to the band's photo album produced only nine photos. Nothing brazen, just some pix of four dudes – chill'in. I found a video clip of an encounter with Perez Hilton, one of a dude driving around in a car, and another of Mark – playing two instruments at one time.

I was hooked. I started back at the beginning of the posted tracks.

A Cursive Memory
Abbreviated ACM – A Cursive Memory is Shaun Profeta, Colin Baylen, Mark Borst Smith and Dillan Wheeler. Once upon a time, they were simply a high school band writing the soundtrack for loves going good and loves going bad. Alas, love and life can change, so will ACM. In February 2008, their debut full length album, Changes, will be released on Vagrant.

A long way from homeroom and pesky prom dates, this band is no stranger to the stage. Their collection of jam mates includes Jimmy Eat World, HelloGoodbye, and Boys Like Girls. Their music is not total grunge, it’s not over-produced or bubble gummy; it’s just “their music” with “their words”. I was a DJ during the grunge daze; I would have loved to play this band. In their MySpace bio, they mention All American Rejects. Okay, I’ll go along with that, but there is still a unique and distinct style.

I will steal this one line from their bio, just because it’s that good.

"A bunch of friends wrote some songs once. Now they’re going to do it all. It’s time for some Changes."

I sampled four posted tracks from Changes:

South – This is often the direction many relationships head. However, you will find no lame ballad here. This song is harmony on lots of caffeine.

Perfect Company – Nice drum start with a melody that made me think lounge act, until the next lyric. This is where the turquoise comes in. The melody has a modern antiquated alternative sound. The vocals are clear, not produced, just simple good harmony.

Tonight Lites – I have to go back and say I hear some good Seattle type grunge in this song. Nice back and forth vocals, a catchy beat.

The Piano Song – Hello! Love this song! It has an awesome keyboard intro with a steel drum type of beat. The first lyric is killer. “Welcome to my dreamiest nightmare, when you’re so close, but you never get there.” You know how the writer in me can be – there’s a story somewhere in that lone lyric.

I really like this band. I would love to see them live. I can already see this debut album making it on my new Creative Zen Vision W.

Changes by A Cursive Memory
February 19, 2008
Vagrant

1. South
2. Everything
3. Changes
4. Perfect Company
5. Bank
6. Lions
7. The Piano Song
8. Tonight Lites
9. All The Weak
10. A Different Kind Of Love
11. Believe
12. Figure Out

Check out A Cursive Memory. I’ve listed their MySpace in the links below.
Have a great weekend!
Chel