Algernon Cadwallader Aren’t Overthinking This

“How quickly we rot back into the earth and start over.” So go the final lines of Algernon Cadwallder’s 2008 debut album Some Kind Of Cadwallader. The Pennsylvania emo band would release just two studio albums before disbanding in 2012, a mere seven years after their formation. At least their initial run was longer than that of their primary influence, Cap’n Jazz, the Illinois punks who went uncelebrated until after their members earned later notoriety as members of American Football, the Promise Ring, and Joan Of Arc. Algernon’s members, too, would continue in various other projects, but internet word-of-mouth cemented their origin story. In 2018, Algernon Cadwallader reissued their catalog after years of it only being available on Bandcamp or niche corners of YouTube. Then, in 2022, the unimaginable happened: They went on a reunion tour. Call that aforementioned lyric a self-fulfilling prophecy or whatever, but judging by the way Peter Helmis speaks about his writing process now, he probably just thought those words sounded cool.