Sorry for the short notice, but it’s time to hit …
Press
Kadman frontman, David Manchester, in studio
Live Review
Just Add Water: Kadman at the Velvet Lounge, June 8
by Al Shipley, Baltimore City PaperThe band Kadman has been kicking around Baltimore for the last couple years in a few different incarnations, usually as a trio with a rhythm section accompanying singer/guitarist David Manchester. But perhaps the most exciting lineup of Kadman to date is its current one, with Manchester being backed only by multi-instrumentalist Dan Cohan, one half of the awesome Baltimore instrumental duo the Water.
Interviews
WYPR On-air Interview and Performance
Beechfield’s Records founder Mike Nestor joins Kadman frontman David Manchester, to chat with Tom Hall about Kadman’s new music and the Beechfield’s goals of putting out good music and building a musical community. The two are also joined by A Cat Called Cricket’s Alex Champagne.
Kadman Interviewed by All Our Noise
by BrandonDavid Manchester of Baltimore’s Kadman is gearing up for an east coast tour of his new album, These Old Bones with shows at the Windup Space and Velvet Lounge. AON caught up with him to learn more about his inspiration for the album, his collaboration with Dan Cohen from The Water, and future projects.
Interview: David Manchester of Kadman
by Zach KaufmannI’ll just lay it all out up-front: Kadman is no doubt the best band around Baltimore you’ve never heard. A slowcore project fronted by David Manchester, Kadman sounds, well, like no one else who calls Charm City home—setting themselves far apart from the art rock weirdness of Wham City that tend to dominate these days.
Album Reviews
THESE OLD BONES
These Old Bones - 2010
FensePost.com
by Ron Trembath – FensePost.comTrue folk-pop minimalists are of a rare breed these days. Many folks have become perfectly fond of only accepting Nick Drake and a handful of other Drake ripoffs hanging around. My recommendation: let these conformists have a listen to Kadman’s sophomore release These Old Bones. Let thee be regretful and God forgive them for their ignorance when they hear the awesome sounds of this Baltimore-based threesome.
Smother Magazine
by J-SinKadman sounds like a mellow Pearl Jam album at times; often melodic and meandering (in a good way), extremely lonely and trying to find its feet. “These Old Bones” shakes off stereotypes with a vocally-led drive, sparse rhythm, coffeehouse centric guitars, and intriguing lyrics. An intricate and incredible album to say the very least. Another perfect notch on the belt for Baltimore’s best indie label, The Beechfields.
The Big Takeover
by Chip MidnightAll the earmarks of the slowcore movement can be found in Kadman’s grungy dirges-the deep vocals, the sparce guitar playing, the occasional intense buildups, and the light drumming. The songs lure the listener with their delicate intros and move along at a plodding pace that almost makes them perfect background music; that is, until the dormant pot starts to bubble and boil. “Mountain Song” epitomizes Kadman’s Red House Painters-meets-Codeine sound even though, at four minutes and 40 seconds, it’s one of the shortest songs on the LP. The most our of character song is the closer “Little Darling,” which sounds like a slowcore cover of Black Sabbath’s “Black Sabbath,” right down to David Manchester’s Ozzy-like vocal delivery.
iTunes Customer Reviews
The entire album is a rich and musty story unfolding in a sea of soundwaves
by Lee337
These Old Bones knocked me out of my chair. The entire album is a rich and musty story unfolding in a sea of sound waves and I would have never known it just by sampling the intro clips. The entire album starts with a morbidly minimalistic “Portraits” and builds up to leave the listener shipwrecked without a lifejacket in the final track “Little Darling.” IMO this album is proof that 30 seconds clips do not always say enough about a song or the arrangement of each song on an album. I hear hauntingly familiar elements in Kadman such as Arcade Fire, Simon and Garfunkel, Pearl Jam, Hum, and Sonic Youth. How do those elements come together? Buy this album and find out for yourself. Five Stars!
Gritty, grinding, layered deliciousness…
by SchmittyJ“These Old Bones” continues Kadman’s tradition of developing layered beauty set to crashing drum rhythms, and incorporating new and unexpectedly pleasant aural delights.
Building flawlessly from their first iTunes-released album “Sing To Me Slower,” Kadman continues to develop what is quickly becoming a hallmark knack for an intricately layered sound.
While the band introduced filtered toy piano in their last album, “These Old Bones” brings the listener in contact with the ubiquitous thermin in “Little Darling.” The eighth track, “Mountain Song” is perhaps the best example of the lyrical mastery of Kadman’s song writing skills, while the achingly sentimental duet on “An Army Rises” adds another weapon to Kadman’s already-prodigious musical arsenal. All in all, “These Old Bones” is Kadmans’ best album to date, in my humble opinion. Fans of Iron & Wine, Low, any Mark Kozelek project, and the more minimal, honest harkings of grunge rock should be hooked by the album’s first track, “Portraits,” and in love with the album by the opening chords of it’s final track, “Little Darling.” It represents much of the same overall feel of Kadman’s earlier efforts, while introducing a grittier, and at time, almost angry drive. If I could give it a sixth star, I would.
SING TO ME SLOWER
Sing To Me Slower - 2009
The Drowned-Up: Recent Releases that slipped under the radar
by Alexander Tudor“…Kadman sound somewhat like Codeine and the Kadane Brothers (i.e. Bedhead / New Years); reference “math”, “gasoline”, “misery”, and “fear”; a song’s called ‘New Year’s Day’; the artwork’s vintage 4AD / Red House Painters. Kadman are aiming high with their influences, and the best of their crescendoes…(7/10)”
Read the rest of the review HERE (partway down the page)
MoueMusic Review
by ShawnWith audibly noticeable influences like Low and Iron & Wine, Kadman’s debut album carves a comfortable niche in America’s neo-folk, sadcore sound.
A Special Peer Review
Sometimes the best reviews come from the people who don’t write for magazines or blogs, but just listen to the CD and let us know what they think. Here is the latest one of those reviews.
SO…I really liked your album! It’s thoughtful, moody music, the kind of stuff you lay around in and soak up. My brother (who listened to it in the car) said it was stoner music, but he said he really liked your drumming because it was “melodic.” He also said he liked how the lyrics were more stream-of-consciousness than anything. I don’t know, I think it’s the type of music that holds a lot of emotion and it can carry you someplace…good stuff.
–E. Baskin
Indie For Bunnies
by Giovanni “giov” Venditti”Drawn with heavy black shades, Kadman’s music paints a picture of landscapes that have been frozen in time, where the only things that move are dead leaves carried away by the wind. Epic. Myspace record of the week.
Mobtown Studios
Lazy Sunday afternoon recovery music. Minimalist shoegaze sleepytime music. It’s vulnerable. It’s not safe. I’m looking forward to giving this record some serious play.
SEN Baltimore
by Barrett KingKadman cathartically rains on my parade. Far from “just another indie record”, Kadman’s upcoming release, Sing To Me Slower (Slo.Bor Records), is patient, melancholic, and slightly subdued.