Reel Time Canvas is lush, emo and shoe-gazey; on the forefront of the emo-scene that was somewhat centered in Milwaukee in the in early aughts. I missed out on that scene completely (I was listening to much harder stuff) but friends who were into it tell me it was particularly vibrant. I found a couple of  reviews of Reel Time Canvas on the Free Music Archive site which are wonderful but also hilarious especially if you know the band personally: “Camden’s first full-length album wins my (non-existant) award for the most gorgeous rock album ever, and I’m not talking album art. I raved about Camden’s previous EP for the most amazing emo-style rock it contained. But here, I have to feel Camden have gone beyond emo’s boundaries and into something that’s completely new and all their own. The first thing you’re going to notice about Camden is their singer. He must have been classically trained, and it’s almost opera-style, soaring to higher notes than you would have thought possible and always quite beautiful. The rest of the rock combines elements from the modern, post-hardcore rock with a sort of lofty, atmospheric rock reminiscent of 80′s Ride. It’s complex and changing throughout, slowing and speeding, changing up the times, at times soft and barely heard at others in your face and aggressive. But it’s never pretentious, and that’s what makes it so downright glorious.” And this from another reviewer: “…imagine you are stuck in an elevator with Morrissey, Braid’s Robert Nanna and Shudder To Think’s Craig Wedren. Say they had all showered and used deodorant and Morrissey was being a sissy for once in his life. And let’s say, for the sake of argument they decided to record a record capturing this experience of uncomfortable solitude. The result I am sure would be similar to Camden’s Reel Time Canvas.” My top two tracks are the opener “Mike, Who is Diary?” and the almost-grunge “Not Without Your Blessing.”

Here’s a photo of me and BJ from 2023 at his graduation from the yoga teacher training I co-direct.

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MC’d by WMSE’s Sid McCain and Milwaukee Record‘s Matt Wild, the band played tracks from their 2019 LP You Talk Loud plus some sneak peeks from their forthcoming EP, tentatively titled the Hiatus EP, set for a Fall 2023 release.

The Local/Live event is one of my favorite Milwaukee live music series: it’s early (6:00 pm!), only an hour long (done by 7:00 pm!) and free (FREE!). But more importantly it’s a chance to hear some of the band’s favorite songs to play live and also to learn a bit more about the band members and hear some entertaining stories. Now, because I know a couple of the Dramatic Lovers pretty well, I had previous insider info about the reason for the hiatus (BJ Seidel is heading off for a year-long travel adventure with his family) and also am well-versed in the band’s background and name (made up of members of past Milwaukee groups like Promise Ring, Decibully, Maritime and Camden and named after the WW1-era anarchist group that met at the Cactus Club), which were both discussed in the interview portion of the live radio program. But it was really fun hearing the story behind one of the tracks performed, “Blaze Orange” (to appear on the Hiatus EP): BJ went for a run in the woods of Door County during deer season and realized as he was hearing gun shots in the distance that he was missing the potentially life-saving blaze orange colors needed during a Wisconsin autumn. (A legit fear I know well, having grown up in rural Wisconsin, my parents basically forbade me from even going for a walk outside on our country roads during deer season.) Also fun was watching my good friend Anna hit the stage during the first song of the evening, “Throwing Halos,” to sing backup. (Anna is a fellow yoga teacher and we joked just before the show that she should do a handstand vault up onto the stage, like some crazed acrobatic fan since no one in the audience knew she’d be doing some singing. She did not end up doing that which was probably the best choice.)

Another highlight was the discussion of their April 2020 single release “Buried” b/w “Slow Down” that went Milwaukee-viral in the earliest days of the pandemic: they shot the video for “Slow Down” separately in their own homes in lockdown (BJ had nothing else to do but play guitar in his stairwell and Andy found his laundry room to be “super-inspiring”) and made it into what now feels like an historical marker about how it felt during those first few weeks

You can watch the Local/Live performance in its entirety to hear the sparkling indie-pop that is Dramatic Lovers here:

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