Philadelphia, PA · emo · math rock · midwest emo

Algernon Cadwallader

2 upcoming festivals ↓

Beloved and long-dormant Philly emo pioneers back from reunion — noodly twinkling guitars, yelped vocals, and pure basement-show joy that a whole generation of Midwest-emo revivalists learned from.

Algernon Cadwallader grew out of Halfway to Holland, a short-lived band that Peter Helmis, Joe Reinhart and Colin Mahony had formed with a schoolmate at Pennsbury High School. In 2005 the three regrouped with drummer Nick Tazza as Algernon Cadwallader, taking their name from the first mayor of Yardley, Pennsylvania, and built a following through Philadelphia basement and house shows.

Their two albums, Some Kind of Cadwallader (2008) and Parrot Flies (2011), became reference points for the revival of interest in 1990s Midwest emo. The band paired intricate, bright, tapped guitar lines with a loose rhythm section and Helmis's strained, half-shouted vocals, drawing openly on the example of Cap'n Jazz.

The lineup shifted along the way: Tazza left in 2008 and was replaced by Matt 'Tank' Bergman, and Mahony departed later that year, leaving the group to continue as a trio. They released the Fun EP in 2009 before Parrot Flies, then split in 2012 after touring the US and Europe on small independent labels.

The band reunited in 2022 with its previous members for a North American tour, playing the same catalogue to audiences far larger than those of their original run. Reinhart later joined the Philadelphia band Hop Along and opened the recording studio Headroom Studios.

Read more

emomath rockmidwest emo