Exile In Marginalia Vol 4

Put early Built To Spill, Endless Summer-era The Ventures, and Foolish-era Superchunk in a blender during a Florida hurricane and you land somewhere near The Cadets. This retrospective gathers the work of the Gainesville, Florida band, who have been quietly carving their own path since the early 1990s.

Featuring a young Chad Matheny of Emperor X, The Cadets formed after a Man or Astroman? show in 1995 at Einstein A Go Go, one of the area’s few all-ages spaces. Bonded by college radio and underground surf, they built a frantic sound from thundering drums, sharp lead lines, and melodic hooks full of nervous energy.

This lineup toured Japan and the US east coast until 2007, then returned more than a decade later to trade new recordings and push beyond the ideas they first chased as teenagers. Peculiar, immediate, and full of sci-fi charge, these songs channel rock and roll urgency through tales of spies, chimera, refugees, and jilted lovers.