Photo by Tom Ventura

The Appleseed Cast Still Going Strong

By Diane Miller
Music Editor

For those of you who were anything like me when it came to their music taste years back, you worshiped bands like the Appleseed Cast, Mineral, or Sunny Day Real Estate. Their edgy, alternative, emotional outpouring noises tweaked our senses and sent us following their distorted footsteps into a happy and satisfied state.

Fourteen years have gone by and the Appleseed Cast is still giving life to a genre that once was a “go to” for those with the hippest of tastes… Think of the Animal Collectives and Bon Ivers of the early 2000s. Bands that don’t have to try to be cool, they just are. Although bands like the Appleseed Cast are not as prominent in the world of indie music today, their love of making music and performing keeps them driven.

“This whole year has been a tour and this with be the last leg of it. We just broke it up throughout the year because of jobs and family and stuff like that,” says Chris Crisci (guitar/lead vocals), who is both a husband and a father. “I try to keep it down to two weeks legs. I love touring and being on the road playing music every night but I now I really know I have something home that I want to get back to.”

Looking back to the early days of the Appleseed Cast, when the term “emo” was used for cool indie bands (unlike today) their sound was pretty intense. “When we started our first record, it was all distortion… all feedback,” says Crisci. From there they went on to making some of early emo’s most successful instrumental guitar riffs from their albums such as “Mare Vitals” and “Low Level Owl”.

“I feel like our compositions have gone back in forth in this sort of winding combination of ideas we can find.” Crisci doesn’t write songs with a specific influence or direction in mind, but rather with openness to what fancies his taste. “I know I like intensity… I know I like ambiance… I like certain tones and types of guitar distortion; I know like certain ways of arpeggiating chords and certain types of drum beats.”

The Appleseed Cast is definitely a strong instrumentally based rock band, but the vocals play a large part in songs as well. Early Appleseed Cast vocals involved a lot of melodic yelling that was essential to the band’s ability to connect with their listeners. It displayed human emotion in the most appealing way that yelling could possibly come across. It is one of the most defining characteristics of an early emo band… a lead singer that sounded like he was yearning for something through dynamic grit.

The Appleseed Cast has not changed significantly as time has past, but the biggest characteristic I have found that is different about their newer music is that the songs are less “in your face”. Most recently the band released an EP called “Middle States,” which came about after demoing a couple of new songs they wrote while on tour. Crisci, who also works as an audio technician, says he made this album using some recording techniques he was curious about. The band recorded this album at their own home studio, adding even more of their own element to the music. The tracks off the album have the familiar indie rock base the band is known for, alongside delicate ambiance and intricate musical sound effects.

Coming this Saturday, November 5th, the Appleseed Cast will be making a return to Fargo after years have gone by from their last appearance. Crisci said he doesn’t remember exactly when it was, but he does remember the weather and used the word “insane” to describe our winter. This will be a nostalgic show for some as the band will be playing old tunes mixed in with new ones. Don’t miss your chance to experience some of the roots of indie rock music! No doubt, the men of the Appleseed Cast are emo legends!

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