The Felix Culpa
Encyclopedia
The Felix Culpa is a four-piece band from the Illinois
/Wisconsin
border, best described as a Progressive Indie band with post-hardcore
elements. They have released two full-length albums ("Commitment" and "Sever Your Roots"), an EP/DVD combo ("Thought Control"), a digital EP ("SoSo Remission") and are currently signed to No Sleep Records.
The name "The Felix Culpa" loosely translates into "the fortunate fault," "the blessed fault," "the fortunate fall," or "the happy mistake," and It refers to Adam and Eve's fall through original sin; it was taken from John Milton
's Paradise Lost
.
Commitments release show took place at Mad Planet (Milwaukee, WI) with Engine Down
and These Arms Are Snakes
, September 18, 2004.
/DVD
combo that featured 4 new songs, a video for "A Murderer" (Commitment), a live set at the Knights of Columbus
, Arlington Heights
, IL
, and roughly 2 hours of random tour footage.
The release show for THOUGHTCONTROL was held at the very same Knights of Columbus
hall during the later half of 2005.
called SoSo Remission. The release consisted of two re-worked songs and a previously unheard track and was offered up for free; the band also had a link to donate to their paypal
if you felt so inclined; it was comparable to the model that Radiohead
used for the release of their 7th album, In Rainbows
. SoSo Remission was intended to tide fans over until a new full-length could be finished.
in Chicago
, IL
. The album was completely self-funded and self-released; the CD was wrapped in packaging cut from a custom die
and is now out of print.
The double LP
on vinyl, which was released the same day, is available in two colours - clear and black - and is still in print.
Sever Your Roots is being re-released on No Sleep Records in early 2011, which includes a 2nd, bonus disc with 3 previously unreleased songs.
The publication gave Commitment a 4/5 rating and hailed it as a "Post-Hardcore masterpiece" and "one of 2004's most underrated full-lengths," as well as stating that the follow-up EP, Thought Control, had "a better sense of melody, dissonance and all-around importance than whatever you're currently listening to."
The biggest surge of attention from the press for The Felix Culpa has come with the release of 2010's Sever Your Roots, however. The album has been making its way into numerous end-of-year lists 1 2 3, as well as receiving critical praise from a plethora of music magazines and blogs.
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
/Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
border, best described as a Progressive Indie band with post-hardcore
Post-hardcore
Post-hardcore is a genre of music that developed from hardcore punk, itself an offshoot of the broader punk rock movement. Like post-punk, post-hardcore is a term for a broad constellation of groups...
elements. They have released two full-length albums ("Commitment" and "Sever Your Roots"), an EP/DVD combo ("Thought Control"), a digital EP ("SoSo Remission") and are currently signed to No Sleep Records.
Formation
The band originally started life in the Spring of 1998 as "twostepsback," formed by Timothy Wisniewski, Mark Hladish, and Joel Coan as teens. They met at a series of Youth Groups in Walworth, and Beloit Wisconsin. Mark and Timothy had a love for "good" indie/punk music. Their goal was to write thought provoking lyrics matched by music with exceptional time signatures, and arrangments. After a short time of playing together and exchanging ideas, Mark introduced Timothy to Joel Coan. "He is one of the most talented musicians in this hemisphere" Twostepsback played together for just under two years. Timothy was asked to leave the band due to irreconcilable differences. Through a series of line-up changes (including the mutual departure of 2nd vocalist Jacob Clark and bassist Justin Uppenkamp), Mark and Joel eventually added Tristan Hammond as their bassist/backing vocalist in late 2003/early 2004; Tristan had, by this time, formed a friendship with both Mark and Joel due to their bands playing shows together.The name "The Felix Culpa" loosely translates into "the fortunate fault," "the blessed fault," "the fortunate fall," or "the happy mistake," and It refers to Adam and Eve's fall through original sin; it was taken from John Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
's Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...
.
Commitment
The Felix Culpa's debut full-length release, Commitment (2004, Common Cloud Records), rapidly evolved them into a band with near-national distribution and attention from a rabid fan base.Commitments release show took place at Mad Planet (Milwaukee, WI) with Engine Down
Engine Down
Engine Down was a four-piece rock band from Richmond, Virginia, active from 1996-2005. They were a part of the Washington, D.C. area post-hardcore movement, along with bands like The Dismemberment Plan, Q and Not U, and Faraquet...
and These Arms Are Snakes
These Arms Are Snakes
These Arms Are Snakes was an American post-hardcore band that formed in 2002 and featured former members of Botch and Kill Sadie. The band was known for their intense live shows, which often feature vocalist Steve Snere crowd surfing and spending a large portion of the live performance in the...
, September 18, 2004.
- "If there was some sort of midpoint between dreams and nightmares, this would be the soundtrack."
- - PunkNews.orgPunknews.orgPunknews.org is a website founded by Aubin Paul which launched in 1999. The website publishes music news and album reviews relating to punk rock, hardcore punk, ska, indie rock and heavy metal...
- - PunkNews.org
THOUGHTCONTROL
For their second release, The Felix Culpa released THOUGHTCONTROL (2005, Common Cloud Records) - an EPExtended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
/DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
combo that featured 4 new songs, a video for "A Murderer" (Commitment), a live set at the Knights of Columbus
Knights of Columbus
The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded in the United States in 1882, it is named in honor of Christopher Columbus....
, Arlington Heights
Arlington Heights, Illinois
Arlington Heights is a village in Cook and Lake counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. A suburb of Chicago, it lies about 25 miles northwest of the city's downtown. The population was 75,101 at the 2010 census....
, IL
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, and roughly 2 hours of random tour footage.
The release show for THOUGHTCONTROL was held at the very same Knights of Columbus
Knights of Columbus
The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded in the United States in 1882, it is named in honor of Christopher Columbus....
hall during the later half of 2005.
- "The songs on THOUGHTCONTROL have a better sense of melody, dissonance and all-around importance than whatever you're currently listening to."
- - Scott Hiesel, Alternative Press #210
SoSo Remission EP
After a long, quiet period, 2009 held the release of a digital EPExtended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
called SoSo Remission. The release consisted of two re-worked songs and a previously unheard track and was offered up for free; the band also had a link to donate to their paypal
PayPal
PayPal is an American-based global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders....
if you felt so inclined; it was comparable to the model that Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
used for the release of their 7th album, In Rainbows
In Rainbows
In Rainbows is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was first released on 10 October 2007 as a digital download self-released, that customers could order for whatever price they saw fit, followed by a standard CD release in most countries during the last week of 2007. The...
. SoSo Remission was intended to tide fans over until a new full-length could be finished.
- "This is what indie rock loves. This is what indie rock wants."
- - Stephen Carradini, Independent Clauses
Sever Your Roots (self-release)
On January 23, 2010, The Felix Culpa released their 2nd full-length album, Sever Your Roots, to a crowd of 800 people at the MetroMetro Chicago
This page is about the concert hall; for the metro region surrounding Chicago, see Chicago metropolitan area.Metro is a concert hall at 3730 N. Clark Street in Chicago, Illinois that plays host to a variety of local, regional and national emerging bands and musicians. The Metro was first opened in...
in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, IL
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. The album was completely self-funded and self-released; the CD was wrapped in packaging cut from a custom die
Die (manufacturing)
A die is a specialized tool used in manufacturing industries to cut or shape material using a press. Like molds, dies are generally customized to the item they are used to create...
and is now out of print.
The double LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
on vinyl, which was released the same day, is available in two colours - clear and black - and is still in print.
Sever Your Roots is being re-released on No Sleep Records in early 2011, which includes a 2nd, bonus disc with 3 previously unreleased songs.
- "Sever Your Roots has that "no one is making music like this anymore" impact.
- ...a bona fide post-hardcore epic... the album runs the gamut in terms of textures.
- Above all, there's this overarching aura of importance emanating from just about all of it, commanding your attention and demanding that you take heed... (Sever Your Roots) is an example of near perfect execution."
- - AbsolutePunk
Press
The band has been featured in Alternative Press Magazine more than half a dozen times, making appearances in sections such as "100 Bands to Know," and "Top 10 Songs Over 10 Minutes Long."The publication gave Commitment a 4/5 rating and hailed it as a "Post-Hardcore masterpiece" and "one of 2004's most underrated full-lengths," as well as stating that the follow-up EP, Thought Control, had "a better sense of melody, dissonance and all-around importance than whatever you're currently listening to."
The biggest surge of attention from the press for The Felix Culpa has come with the release of 2010's Sever Your Roots, however. The album has been making its way into numerous end-of-year lists 1 2 3, as well as receiving critical praise from a plethora of music magazines and blogs.
Albums
| Year | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Commitment | Common Cloud Records |
| 2010 | Sever Your Roots | self-released |
EPs
| Year | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | THOUGHTCONTROL EP/DVD | Common Cloud Records |
| 2009 | SoSo Remission EP | digital-only |
Tribute albums
| Year | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Songs of Farewell and Departure: A Tribute To HUM Songs of Farewell and Departure: A Tribute to Hum Songs of Farewell and Departure is a tribute album to Hum, released in September 6, 2011 via Pop Up Records. A promo video for the tribute was released on August 9, 2011... |
Pop Up Records |